by which we come to be filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 3. 19. See but Luke 7. 38. You shall find that much was there forgiven the woman though a great sinner was graciously reconciled what followes on this she loved much she wept much she humbled her self much her affections to Christ her tears for her sins her humility of spirit all of them are set down as exemplary copies this is it which will make the light of our Moon to be as the light of the Sun and our light of the Sun as the light of seven dayes You may perhaps reply unto me this evidence that God is reconciled to us which is so excellent in it self and produces such effects were a very heaven upon earth if we could attain unto it But what means should we use that we may at length enjoy it Means to attain it I conâ—ecture thus that the means of obtaining it are twofold Internal External The Internal means are three viz. Conscience the Spirit of God and Faith for all these have in them a reflexive and an evidencing virtue or power 1. Then you must get your consciences renewed Conscience Get your Consciences renewed absolutely considered hath a reflexing power it can look on our natural acts and conditions but it must be conscience renewed which must testifie of the spiritual estate and that God is reconciled to you The testimony or evidence of conscience renewed is you know syllogistical and nothing else but the eccho of the word v. g. whosoever truly repents of sin the Lord is reconciled to him this is the proposition of the word as you may read in Hos 14. 1 2 3. They are described as acting the parts of true penitents and then v. 4. I will love them freely So Jer. 31. 19. Ephraim is turned and repents and then v. 20. Ephraim is a dear child and a pleasant Son he is earnestly remembred and sure mercy is his .i. Ephraim is reconciled and dearly loved of God Here renewed conscience assumes But I do unfainedly repent I do truly mourn and forsake sin and now with assurance it concludes by way of evidence and testimony Therefore the Lord is reconciled unto me he doth freely and surely love me Obj. But it is objected Conscience may be deceived it may assume without ground and so deludingly conclude the matter Sol. I grant that conscience may be erronious in its grounds but conscience as renewed and concluding as a renewed conscience will not delude you nor err for conscience renewed concludes not upon an empty imagination but upon a solid examination of the heart and life It finds that integrity in the heart and that uprightness in ordering the life which doth answer the word of God And reading that the Lord loves the upright and that he will shew his salvation to him that orders his conversation aright Now upon search finding this habitual and actual uprightness it concludes Surely I am the person whom the Lord loves and to whom he is reconciled 2. You must get the spirit of God The Apostle in Rom. 5. 5. Get the spirit of God saith that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost so that if ever you would know the love of God unto you you must have the spirit of God the spirit of God hath many operations given unto him as that he inlightens the mind humbles the heart sanctifies it and then that he sealeth and comforteth it and as these effects so the order of them is observable he doth not first of all seal or assure and then inlighten and then sanctifie and then humble but he first inlightens humbles sanctifies and converts the soul and then assures and comforts it Peruse Rom. 8. you shall find that the witness of the spirit that we are the children of God v. 16. followes the spirit of bondage and of adoption and of supplication v. 15. and the quickning of the spirit v. 11. and a leading of the spirit v. 14. So that if ever you would be assured that the Lord is reconciled to you you must get his spirit convincing humbling renewing and leading you so much evidence as you have of holiness so much assurance you may build on of Gods reconciled favour unto you Obj. But here also it is objected we may thus be cozened with Enthusiasms taking a fond dream and delusion for a witnessing or testimony of Gods spirit Sol. I answer this is a fond and ridiculous exception for the spirit of God as S. Ambrose speaks can neither deceive nor be deceived The sealing or assuring testimony of Gods Spirit is never Nudum nor Nudatum testimonium but as it is a seal to a deed drawn I mean an heart first written over with renewing graces so in the sealing it alwayes produceth more tender and lively operations of holiness in all good works 3. Lastly If you would get assurance of Gods love reconciled unto your souls you must get Faith Faith is the eye by which we Get Faith look on God and it is that light by which we see God looking on us How did Simeon see Christ to be his Saviour Or Paul know that Christ loved him but by Faith There are two wayes by which Faith can and will bring the soul to see or know God reconciled unto it One is by and in Christ there is no seeing of a reconciled God but in a Mediator and therefore Christ is called so often our Peace our Atonement our Reconciler The other is by and through the Promises which is therefore called the Covenant of Grace q. d. sets forth and presents God unto us as graciously reconciled If you have so much faith as will bring you to Christ to know him to embrace and accept of him to rely on him you may with safest confidence conclude and be perswaded that God is your reconciled God For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2. The external means of obtaining assurance are 1. Conscionable External means Diligent Application of our selves to the Word and diligent application of our selves to the Word The word of God is both the instrument of our Regeneration and of our Consolation and is not only productive of faith as it is an adherence but able also to produce it as it is an evidence and therefore as you read that faith in acceptance depends on the word Rom. 10. 17. so we read that faith in assurance flowes likewise from it 1 Joh. 5. 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life And as the Word is oftentimes called a Word of Faith so it is sometimes called a Lip of Peace Isa 57. 19. q. it produceth an assurance from which that peace doth flow 2. And to the Sacrament The Sacrament hath I confess many To the Sacrament ends and it is as the Word of God is an Organ
is Knowledge of Christ as revealed in the Word which a man may have and utter too and yet not have Faith there is Profession of Faith for the truth against errours and yet the Grace of Faith is another thing A man may have so much faith as to believe that there is a Christ and to confess his excellencies and in some sort to see his own necessities of Christ yea he may begin to article and capitulate as the Young-man and yet break off and be far enough from a Faith which doth indeed espouse and marry his soul unto Christ 4. Lastly The misery and danger Suppose The misery and danger you do deceive your selves and in the event it appears that you are not espoused to Jesus Christ by Faith that you never gave your hearts unto him that there never was any conjugal Union and Bond twixt you if thou indeed shouldst live Christless and die Christless what helpless hopeless happyless person art thou But you will reply We trust that we are truly penitent persons and that God hath given unto us such a Faith whereby we are really married unto Christ Sol. Well if that be so you have great cause to bless the Lord And that you may not be deceived therein I will deliver unto you some proper effects which that Faith produceth in every soul that is indeed married unto Qualities produced by an espousing faith Christ There are four Qualities produced by an espousing Faith 1. Estimation Let the Wife see that she reverence her Husband saith the Apostle Ephes 5. She must both acknowledg Estimation him as a Head and honour him as a Lord juâ—â—e and esteem of him in a relative consideration above all other The like effect doth Faith produce if it espouseth us to Christ it sets up Christ above all accounts of him as most excellent judgeth of all other things but as dross and dung in comparison of him will part with all for to get Christ The beauties of Christ are glorious in the eyes of every believer Christ doth not seem a mean thing an ordinary or common thing but he is the Pearl the Sun of Righteousness My Lord and my God saith Thomas In a word Faith if right exalts the Excellency of Christ and the Authority of Christ the Excellencies of his Person and the Authority of his Will and Laws 2. Election Election We make choice of Christ before all other Though sins though the pleasures and profits of the world proffer themselves yet as the Martyr at the stake None but Christ Or as Paul I desire to know nothing but Christ crucisied So the true believer Give me Christ I have enough I have that which is best of all he is the the Optimum and the Vnicum to Faith 3. Affection Conjugal Affection Faith ever produceth conjugal Love It were a monstrous evil for a woman to marry a man and noâ— love him and it were an adulterous thing for her to love any more then her own Husband Marriage doth by way of Duty infer and draw with it two qualities of Love one is exclusive and it is an unity of Love the other is intensive and it is a redundancy of Love Thus is it with us if Faith hath espoused us unto Christ it doâ—h kindle in us a love unto Christ not a divided love a love to Christ and a love to sin a love to Christ and a love to the world but an united love none is by us esteemed and loved as our Lord but Christ Nor doth it satisfie it self with a remiss and diminutive love which may serve any inferiour object but as Christ is in himself the most excellent object so Faith produceth such a degree of love which bears some proportion with that object viz. a superlative love a love of Christ above all and more then all more set on Christ than on any other object which yet may lawfully be loved more than our father or mother or wife or children Do we find this love in our hearts to Christ against all and above all Nay again True conjugal love infers with it a Love 1. of Complacency to delight in the thing loved 2. of Society to be with the person loved Is it so with us what delght have we in Christ in his person in his excellencies in his works in his ordâ—â—ances Is it our best joy to hear him to see him to speak with him 4. Subjection I confess that marriage doth not make the Subjection woman a slave yet by vertue thereof she is bound to submission or subjection she doth in a sort give away her self unto the disposal of another in the Lord Thy desire saith God Gen. 3. 16. shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee If thou hast a Faith which doth espouse thee unto Christ that Faith brings thy heart into the obedience and subjection of Christ It subjects thy will to Christs will and thy judgment to his truths and thy desire to his rule and thy works to his laws If Christ would have thee be and do one thing and thou wilt be and do another that thy will is still contradicting of Christs will and thy way is still contrary to his way Though a man may be married to such a stubborn and perverse piece yet Christ is not for all that are married unto him by Faith have in some measure wrought in them an obediential spirit desirous to know the mind of the Lord and willing to live godly in Christ Jesus Now this subjection which is the effect of an espousing Faith hath these properties in it viz. 1. Vniversality the wife is subject in all things 2. Diligence we must take care to please him 3. Delightfulneâ—â— it must be no burthen 4. Constancy as long as we live we must be subject to the will of our Lord. The last Use shall be for Exhortatiou That in case you find Vse 2. Exhortation this Ring of Faith by which you are espoused unto Christ given unto you then be very carefull to wear it and to bring it along with you to this next Sacrament We usually put on our Robes and our Rings when we come to any solemn Feasts The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is a Feast of good things there is Christ and mercy and redemption and sanctification and what not for the soul but bring your Ring with you Christ looks that you should come with it and you can do no good at the Sacrament if you have not the Ring on your hand Though you put forth your hand yet if the Ring be not on it the hand may take the bread but the Ring is it which onely can take Christ therefore bring Faith with you to the Sacrament Josephs Brethren must bring Benjamin with them or else they must not see his face nor should get food And let your faith work upon Christ all along on the love of Christ on the sufferings of Christ of the
thus and thus and thus have I dishonoured my God Another while he hears and reads and weeps I am that man O Lord I am he of whom thou speakest I am that sinner Iam he who hath out-faced thy Law out-stood thy offers of grace and resisted Oh how often thy good Spirit 5. He is now for the life of God to be wrought in him This he now prizeth as the most excellent life and for this he praies Lord another heart a new spirit 2. The second contrariety respects the time present And As to the time present there are four things for the time present in a truely changed and converted person which never were in him before 1. A present hatred of sin 2. A present flying unto Christ 3. A present love of God 4. A present course of new obedience 1. When the Lord hath converted and changed the heart of a sinner there is wrought in him a present hatred of sin the man loved his sins before and took pleasure in unrighteousness held it fast and defended it sin is now seen as the greatest evil and the more he sees it the more he hates it As soon as ever the heart is changed immediately it is a sin-hating heart I do not say there is no sin but I say the heart hates sin The evil that I hate said Paul Rom. 7. 15. and in Ezek. 36. where God promiseth to give them a new heart he saith Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Quest But here now is a great Scruple how a person may know that he hates sin Many think they do so and are deceived How a man may know that he hates sin it proves only a passion Sol. In true hatred there are six things 1. An extream detestation Every dislike is not hatred but true hatred is an extream loathing Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloath thou shalt say unto it Get thee hence Isai 30. 22. 2. An earnest separation He that hated his wife did sue out a Bill of divorce from her in the Law 3. An irreconcileable alienation Two angry men may be made friends but if two men hate each other friendship is everlastingly broken betwixt them 4. A constant and perpetual colluctation If they cannot be severed one from the other they still oppose and conflict one with the other 5. A deadly intention and destruction for nothing satisfies hatred but death and ruine Saul hated David and sought his life Absalom hated Amnon and killed him 6. An impartial aversation hatred is of the whole kind I hate every false way Wilt thou now know whether God hath changed thy heart then ask thy heart What is it that thou abhorrest as the superlative evil what is that which thou wouldst have separated as far from thee as heaven is from hell what is that thy heart will never renew league or friendship with any more what is that against which thy soul doth rise and with which as Israel with Amalek thou hast war for ever what is that which thou wilt be avenged of and daily dost endeavour the mortifying and crucifying of what is that which thou sets thy heart against in the comprehensive latitude thereof whether great or little open or secret If it be sin if it be thy sins assuredly here is true hatred of sin and assuredly here is a most distinguishing Character of a sound Conversion and change It was not wont to be thus with thee nor is this findeable in any unconverted person whosoever Sin was once to thee as Dalilah to Samson and now is it to thee as Tamar to Amnon It was a sweet morsel once which thou heldst fast but now it is the menstruous cloath which thou dost cast away and say get thee hence what have I to do any more with Idols If it be thus with thee bless thy God who hath shewed grace to thy soul 2. When the Lord hath changed and converted the heart of a sinner the sinner presently flies unto Jesus Christ The first stroke of Grace is on the heart and the first breathing of Grace is for Christ as the new born babe flies unto the brests or as any creature doth to its center and place of rest For when the heart is changed by converting grace 1. It breeds the most exquisite discovery and sense of sin and consequently of the souls need of Christ 2. It is most impatient of distance or difference with God and prizeth his reconciled favour superlatively cannot live without it 3. It seeth nothing more valuable in it self or more sutable to its condition then Christ Christus amor meus pondus meum And therefore if you take notice of it you may experimentally find upon the first impressions of Grace that the soul is mostly taken up with Christ and with Faith Oh that I might be found in him Oh that I could believe on him It sees excellency in Christ and Peace in Christ and Redemption in Christ and Righteousness in Christ and Grace in Christ and Kindness in Christ and Help and Life and Heaven and all in Christ In Conversion Christ secretly draws the Soul to himself and being converted the soul strives to draw Christ to it self It would have Christ it must have Christ it is never well it is never satisfied until it hath Christ 3. When the Lord hath converted and changed the heart of a sinner there is wrought in him a present love of God It is wonderful to see how the Tide turns upon Conversion There was once one found weeping very bitterly and being demanded why O said he all other things are loved but Amorum amatur Love it self is not loved So before Conversion a man could find love for his Parents and love for his Relations and love for his Recreations and love for his Profits and love for his Sins but no love for God But after Conversion the man can scarce find any love for any unless it be for his God and in his God A graciously changed Heart is enabled to see 1. The glories in God those most Pure and Amiable Excellencies in God 2. The Transcendent Love of God to it in the Eternity of it in the Freeness of it in the Sweetness and Goodness of it 3. The Unspeakable Communications and Bounties of God towards it in Jesus Christ for the present and for the future It is Grace which makes us to see what a gracious God he is It is Grace which makes us to see what a Royal gift Jesus Christ is It is Grace which makes us apprehensive of all the Love in God and from God and therefore no marvel that the changed heart fals presently in love with God O Love the Lord all ye his Saints into a Love of Friendship and into a Love of Complacence as they speake that it admires God and prizeth Communion with him and takes its full and highest
as great plagues as he did on Pharaoh and should they come as thick on thee as on him or any that ever thou didst read of yet if the Lord did not give thee a sanctified heart or if the Lord did not co-operate with the afflictions in a sanctifying way thou wilt be so far from desisting that thy heart after a while will grow as wicked as before It is not absolutely the punished soul nor is it absolutely the troubled conscience nor is it absolutely all that we can see or say which will divert our future course of sinning but it is the sanctified heart the new heart which will make us to leave old sins and live new lives Therefore to the Lord must we go under our afflictions and beseech him to open our ear to discipline and to purge away our iniquities and to make us partakers of his holiness and so to cause us to bring forth the more peaceable fruits of righteousness and note this That all this must be done not in a fit for a little time but habitually we must not cease confessing until we can heartilâ— mourn we must not cease confessing mourning praying until we find the Lord reconciled unto us and our hearts changed and renewed Now those sanctified Qualities which more specially a punished sinner should beg to divert him from progress in sin and to turn him Sanctified Qualities to be begged Hearty Contrition for sins past off from sin I conjecture are these 1. Hearty contrition for sins past He who is a merry Penitent proves an easie Delinquent if former sinnings be no Grief future sinnings will be no Fear he will never with stedfastness learn a good Course who can without mournfulness come off from a bad Way Beg of God for ever to make thee sensible and mournful 2. Real Conversion That the very frame of the Mind Will and Affections be Real Conversion changed the Frame more then the Form that thou become a new Creature get a new heart and Spirit 3. A sincere love of A sincere Love to God God If thy heart knows not yet how to love God it never forgat how to go on in Sin there is nothing which heals the Soul of Sin so as the Love of God this sets the heart on him and makes it to cleave unto him and tender to please him 4. Solid fear of God A reverent awe both of his goodness Solid Fear of God and of his greatness this will strike off security and hardness and presumption and set us in Gods presence and keep the conscience tender and increase humbleness c. 5. Watchfulness over our special corruptions which if any will make us to Watchfulness over our speciall Corruptions halt soonest Do not forget how much they did provoke God already and how assuredly bitter they will prove if thou dost resume them And he fain would have filled his belly with the busks that the Swine did eat and no man gave unto him Vers 16. These words comprehend in them two things First The utmost design of the sinful Prodigal He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the Swine did eat Secondly The utmost disappointment of that utmost design And no man gave unto him According to either of these there are two Propositions observable by us viz. That a sinner will go through and try the utmost extremities and wayes ere he will return from his sins 2. That nothing shall avail the shuffling and trying sinner untill he doth return from his sins When the Lord forsakes a man nothing avails to help a man That a sinner will try all wayes and go through the utmost extremities ere he will return from his sins The Prodigal here Doct. 1. A sinner will try all wayâ—s to the utmâ—st extremities ere he will return from his sins spends all yet he returns not he is pinched with famine yet he returns not he joyns himself with a Citizen and he sends him to feed Swine yet doth he not return if he could have got but the husks which the Swine did eat husks are but poor empty light things miserable nourishment but if he could have made any shift any way to have supported himself he would not have returned unto his Father Thus you read of Pharaoh that though there were a Climax of plagues upon him and wonders of ruine upon his Land and Cattel and Servants rising like a Tide and Flood yet till it came to his first-born and the next stroke was to reach his own life he would not obey the Voice of the Lord in letting of Israel go like obstinate defendants in a City which will lose one Outwork after another and suffer the Undermining of their Walls ere they will come to terms of Capitulation So we read of the Israelites before the Captivity how extremely they did endure a very succession of Judgments and variety of strange punishments before they would return Amos 4. 6. Cleanness of teeth and want of bread yet have they not returned to me saith the Lord. Ver. 7. Rain was withheld and great scarcity was there of water yet Ver. 8. Have ye not returned to me Ver. 9. Smiting with blasting and mildew and the Palmer worm yet c. Ver. 10. Pestilence after the manner of Egypt and the Sword yet have ye not returned Ver. 11. Overthrowing some of them as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha and pulling some of them as a firebrand out of the burning yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. And thus was it with them after the Captivity all the famine and miseries which they suffered in the Siege where the mothers were forced to eat their children of a span long Lam. 2. And all the merciless devourings of the sword and all the kinds of destroying sicknesses did not turn them to the Lord against whom they had sinned but after all they spend the utmost of their pollicies for safety running into Egypt flying unto Ashur they tryed all sorts of fruitless confidences before they would return unto the Lord therefore doth the Lord threaten to hedge their ways with thorns and to make a wall that they shall not find their paths Hos 2. 6. i. he would cast them upon such a condition that they should not go any further or if they did they should have little ease they should walk as upon thorns upon continual prickings and woundings and all this must be done before they will return to their first husband vers 7. Now for the clearer opening of this Assertion consider of these particulars 1. That it is to be understood of the natural temper of the sinner The sinner may be considered two wayes under extremities As This is to be understood of the natural temper of the sinner effectually assisted by the preventing grace of God which is of surpassing vertue to renew the soul and to conquer its stubbornness and aversness and effectually to perswade and draw in the
are but stolen waters and at the best but for a season they will end bitterly and on the contrary That Repentance from sin makes way for the most precious fountains of the most living comforts that it enables a man for a nearer conjunction with the truest happiness and fulness of most infinite goodness and lets in to such pleasures and joyes which pass all understanding c. Now the soul is reduced to a right judgment and begins to contemn those false vain deluding temptations by sin and is carried off to another course or way which will afford the real solid superlative advantages in happiness and comfort c. 2. This Comparison will win our love and affection to a Converted and penitent condition It is true that as long as the heart loves This wins our love to a converted condition sin it will never leave it for love is an iron clasp a strengthning quality a strong and tenacious quality but if a mans love be changed then his sinfull wayes will quickly be changed for that way doth the heart and life go that love doâ—h go they are not out who say that Amor is Radix actionum as well as Passionum Now by a right comparison of estates there will appear in a converted and penitent condition the sole and sufficient causes of Love viz. Good and the best good and only good and most proper and sutable good all which is apt to draw love and consequently Repentance for as much as Conversion from sin begins in love to God 3. This comparing of estates in the wofulness of the one and This occasionally stirs up the beat to fly to God by Prayer and in the use of meanes in the happiness of the other that the one is death and the other is life as Moses propounds it to the Israelites occasionally stirs up the heart to fly unto God by prayer and in the use of other means for grace and ability to leave the paths of death and to walk in the wayes of life for naturally men do affect life and happiness and are afraid of death and misery The first Use which I would make of this shall be for Information Use For information Of the cause why many are yet in their sins You here see the Cause why many are yet in their sins that they repent not though we preach though God punisheth though man counsels Surely they never yet did search their hearts and wayes they never did consider of what they have done they are like the Laodiceans who thought themselves to be rich and increased and to stand in need of nothing but they never yet saw their blindness nakedness and extreme poverty and misery There are many duties unto which men will be perswaded as to hear the Word receive the Sacrament give some Almes say some Prayers and now and then to confer of some good but of all the duties which do so nearly concern them they are hardly perswaded to this viz. to consider of their sins 't is true they will confess That all men are sinners and themselves too but as some do with their debts they care not to see and view them so many with their spiritual estates they have no mind to search into them to look them over to meditate of the Vileness of them Consider these things 1. That this inconsideration leaves many a sin already committed upon a sad account God doth consider Considerations to such as doe not Consider their wayes them though we will not they are in his book and before his eye though we will not think and look on them 2. That it ripens sin exceedingly The heart which will not consider of past will break out into sin future it will be high in sinning if negligent in considering he will venture deeply who knows not the nature nor the merit of sinning 3. All the work of Repentance will lye flat and dead Why where can be that brokenness of heart that filial lamentation for sinning that remorse of spirit that indignation that detestation of it that resolution against it that watchfulness and fear until by a sound consideration we come to see the vileness and miserableness of sinning c. He who thinks his way right will not turn aside and that man who knows no better will never leave or change a bad course 4. You advantage Temptations exceedingly You are under the edge and power of them all for you see nothing to hinder you the motions to sin will pass without any contradiction for you know not the evil nor misery of being impenitent Great sins will seem but little little will seem none how easie is he to sin who considers not the great evil in sin 5. All the edge of the Ordinances is blunted and dulled by inconsideration they are but water on the Tiles which passe away For what are Threatnings against sin what operation have they on us to make us tremble and humble our hearts whiles we hear them as Pieces discharged at others not at our selves And so what force have the Precepts for new Obedience or the Promises for much mercy to the Penitent until we see that we are the men as Nathan said to David whom all this concerns 6. You will never prize Christ aright nor the love of God in giving of Christ nor will you ever seek him to purpose with hungrings and thirstings until you do seriously consider of your sinful estates A man if whole will not seek to the Physician and if he hath but a scratch will not send to the Chyrurgion No sense or slight sense of sin hath no influence on ouâ— affections but let a man sadly view and find out that he is bad indeed out with God ready for Hell must perish for sin this man will cry out Is there no Balm in Gilead is there no hope for us sinners He will enquire for a Saviour and when he knows him he will with tears beseech him O the hope of Israel and the Saviour thereof in the time of Trouble Master have mercy on me or else I perish if thou canst do any thing save me 7. You will never come to any true setledness nor grounded assurance of peace with God nor in your own Consciences until you do throughly consider of your sinful conditions and estates For how know you whether you be good or bad in Covenant or out of Covenant with God that he will save you or condemn you what shall become of you when you die Untill you by solid Consideration find out the vileness and miserableness of your sinful condition out of which you must indeed be translated if ever you would be saved or know assuredly that you shall be saved 8. You will not know how to make special requests unto God For you know not the nature nor danger of that pride of that hypocrisie of that uncleanness of that envy and malice c. which are in you When we do not know what our selves
of hypocrisie or a sink of impiety he loves sin or would not yet leâ—ve it the greatest part of our integâ—ity lies in the hearts frame and purpose that man who is resoled to part with all sin hath an heart who loves all good it is only sound grace which breeds sound resolution 2. It will be a It will be an Apology in case of falling great apology in case of falling that yet it is not presumptuous but of Inâ—irmity The evil that I would not do that do I c. Rom. 7. and rather an affect of a strong temptation then of any secret affection of the heart to sin for where the purpose and resolution of the heart is set against a sin and makes its resistence though the sinning may be great yet it is not presumptuous Four effects this firm Resolution worketh about sin either it doth 1. Cease the motions of it or 2. Abates and lessens them or 3. Disappoints and frustrates them as Joseph about his mistress or else 4. It mitigates and corrects them in the degree of guilt either it keeps me sound or else causeth that the wound is less 3. Such a man may confidently go to God for help and Such a one may confidently go to God for help assistance If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayer said David but verily God hath heard me he hath attended to the voice of my Prayer Psal 69. 18 19. Thou shalt not struggle with sin in vain nor cry unto God in vain if once thou couldst be firmly resolved against sin thou shouldst more confidently repair to Christ and shouldst assuredly find more Victory over it as Paul Rom. 7. 24 25. What have I to do any more with idols I have heard him and observed him I am like a green Fir-Tree from me is thy fruit found Hos 14. 8. 4. And more confidently expect the remission of sins past with what face can a mâ—n embolden himself before the And Confidently expect Remission of sins past Lord O Lord I beseech thee to pardon such or such a sin and I trust thou wilt do it but I am not yet resolved to leave it And when a person can come before the Lord and say Search and tell me O Lord if there be any way of wickedness which I know and allow against which I am not resolved and strive Now O Lord thou art a gracious God I beseech thee for thy mercies sake forgive my sins blot them out I hate them with an unfeigned hatred do thou for thine own sake pardon and subdue them 5. You shall much free your selves from the ancient suggestions of Satan about particular Sins It will free us from the Suggestions of Satan about particular sins Resist the Divel and he will flee from you Jam. 4. 7. Where there is no hope of Victory there will be little encouragement to fight firm resolutions are like rocks against which the waves may beat and strike but cannot move nor alter Satan may indeed somewhat molest but the heart is in a sort impregnable which is stedfastly resolved Christiana sum said she I am a Christian who was much assaulted to deny the Faith and Luther in Gen. so silenced all threats and allurements for the abnegation of Christ When they saw Paul's resolution fixed for Jerusalem they gave off their importunity so Temptations will slack when our Resolutions are settled It is in vain I will not hearken thou mayest molest me Satan but I will never yield unto thee 6. You will be less interrupted in your holy services Whilest the heart is any thing indifferent and flexible sinfull motions We shall be less interrupted in our holy services like the Birds will return and flock about the Corn if the Watchman be now there and anon removed When the Minister is speaking to your ear Sin will be speaking to your heart and when your tongues are speaking to God your thoughts will be busied in giving Sin an answer or the World But if the heart were more resolved against sin it would be more united in duty the thoughts and mind and affections would be more collected and center'd upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work in hand it would not scatter so much it would not follow that which it cares not for but peremptorily abhors The next Use shall be for Direction and that in two particulars Vse 2. Direction 1. How to raise a solid Resolution 2. How to keep and maintain it First The Means to raise it There are some things of How to raise a solid Resolution which you must take heed and strive against as being vigorous impediments to the rearing of this frame and twisting of this firm cord Take heed of 1. A secret favouring of sin As long as your hearts cunningly connive at and harbour your lusts those evil Inmates A secret faâ—ouring of sin you will never throughly come to a Resolution to cast them off For love will untwist many arguments and prevail against strong Motives it will let down your mind as fast as reasons do raise it up It is the best Friend and strongest Advocate that sin hath You see a Parent perhaps David against Absalom resolved to exile his Child from his presence but natural affection turned him and wrought so after a while that David longs for Absalom again As a Spring will work out that which is cast in so will a secret affection to sin work off the impression of all Arguments and any such preposterous Resolves against sin 2. A tenderness or delicacy of spirit I mean an inordinate Delicacy of spirit self-love Love of sin and so also the love of our selves both of them are adversaries to a penitential Resolution If a man will go to Heaven asleep have his ease and his friends and his liberty and his safeties and his quiet and his pleasures and great matters he will never come to a through Resolution God likes no such bargain no condition as I am willing to serve thee but I am resolved never to suffer for thee I will be good if I may be safe I will go to sea but on condition I shall meet with no storms I will enter into the war but on condition that I will have no blows We must be at a point for all things except what is good if we be resolved to be good indeed no not Life it self must be dearer to us than that which is far better than Life 3. A perversness of spirit on self-wilfulness if you do resolve A perversness of spirit to be your own Master you can never resolve to be Gods Servant if your hearts be not disposable to his will they will never be flexible and fixed on his work You must in many things be contented to deny your own thoughts and to captivate your own judgments and reasonings and to submit both your judgment and will to a Divine Rule and
changed into another love into hatred and hatred into love joy into grief boldness into fear Lately the desires were who will shew us any good now the desires are what shall we do to be saved Lately the delights were iâ— sin in sensualities in vain societies now they are in the favour of God in Jesus Christ in pardon of sin in heavenly communion Lately the love was set on that which was most unlovely now it is set on the most lovely object indeed Christ is the center c. Lately the grief was a turbulent Sea for worldly losses but now it is a running River for sinning against God Lately the affections were wings for iniquity but now they are springs for duty I may not inlarge by what you have heard it may plainly appear Dâ—monstrations of a notable change in Conversion From the person converted From the work of Conversion that true Conversion works an universal change in the sinner Demonstrations that there is a notable change in Conversion 1. The person converted he is made pertaker of the Divine Nature 1 Pet. 1. 4. He is a new Creature 2 Cor. 5. 7. He is quickned from the dead Eph. 2. 1. He is born again Jo. 3. 3. 2. The work of Conversion It is the effect of the great and good will of Election and in it God displayes the glory of his great Love and Grace and Mercy And Christ sees of the travel of his soul some special fruit of his wonderful sufferings and purchases And the holy Ghost doth manifest his almighty Poâ—er and the noblest act thereof and converting grace is a new contrary nature a new man 3. The end of Conversion Conversion is the first From the end of Conversion inward work for heavenly glory It is wrought to make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Naturally we are opposite to God and to all Communion with him Without holiness no man shall see the Lord no unclean thing can enter there sinning Angels were cast out of Heaven God qualifies those whom he will dignifie he qualifyed Saul for an earthly Kingdome much more the sinner for an heavenly Kingdome Heavenly glory is absolutely inconsistent with a graceless heart the promise of it is so and the nature of it is so and the work of it is so and the reward of it is so 4. Converted persons are to live other lives and to do other works therefore there must be a change of their Converted persons must live oâ—her lives Vse 1. This convinceâ—h many to be yet unconverted Such in whom appears no change at all Forms and Principles and Powers Is true Conversion a change a great change an internal and cordial change an universal change Why then this one truth palpably convinceth multitudes of people to be as yet not converted 1. There are some men in whom there appears no change at all neither inward nor outward the Leopards spots remain and the Blackmores skin is unchanged they were ignorant and so are still they were drunkards swearers railers scoffers mockers of godliness and godly men Sabbath-breakers unclean proud and so are still The Prophet speaks of some whose scum departed not from them Ezek. 24. 12. And the Apostle of some who cannot cease to do evil 2 Pet. 2. 14. And David of some who hate to be reformed Psal 50. 16. And Steven of some who alwayes resist the holy Ghost Acts 7. 51. And Paul of some who wax worse and worse 2 Tim. 3. 13. Although changes go over their age they were young and now are old yet no change goes over their hearts and lives although changes go over their bodies their strength is changed into weakness and their health is changed into sickness although changes go over their estates their wealth is changed into poverty and their abundance is changed into want although changes go over the times peace is changed into war and safety is changed into danger nay although sometimes changes goe over their consciences Stupidity is changed into horrour and pleasure into terrour yet their hearts are not changed they approve love and delight in their sins as much as ever and their Conversations are not changed they drive the same trade run on to the same excess of Riotousness wallow in the same mire of Ungodliness despise converting Ordinances converted Persons converting Graces Now what shall I say to these Persons They are unchanged sinners and so is God an unchangeable God who hath threatned them and swore his Wrath against them Thou wilt not repent of thy sins nor will God repeâ—t of his Wrath thou wilt not turn to him and therefore will he turn away his mercy from thee and will overturn overturn overturn thee as the Prophet phraseth it 2. There are some whose change is only outward but it is Such whose Change is only outward not inward not inward and cordial they stand off from many sins and come on to many duties and yet their hearts are not changed There are six things which may convince a man that his heart is not changed 1. When a man seems to be tender least he should Six things convince a man his Heart is not changed commit a sin but yet his heart was never tender and humbled for all the sins which he hath committed Jer. 31. 19. I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth If Repentance begins not in tears it will end in tears When I look forward and see sin with a trembling eye O I dare not offend my God and when I look backward and see sin with a mournful eye O I have sinned I have sinned these indeed do shew a converted and changed heart But I fear it is rather a policy then a change and a regard more to my credit then my conscience when I expostulate with a sin in Temptation and never mourn for many sins in Commission 2. When a man leaves many sins but yet he doth not loath any sin Many a man sometimes abstains from meat yet loves it but a good heart abstains from sin as from a serpent which he hates He turnes his face from them but he turnes not his heart from them he doth not act the sin nor doth hate the sin he doth not let 〈◊〉 out of door nor yet crucify it within door he seems not to be a friend and yet is not an enemy to sin this mans heart is not changed 3. When a man acts from an awing Conscience and not from a renewing Spirit flies from sin only when conscience flies upon him for sinning and doth good only when conscience is unquiet when not Grace which works uniformly but terour which works accidentally is his Principle though a while there be some diversity and diversion too in this man yet there is no change of heart in him even Pharaoh under a Judgment yielded who yet upon a respite hardned his heart again and Iron whiles hot
joy and comfort It doth onely two things 1. It absolutely condemns and abridgeth the soul of man of all sinfull joys of joys and delights which arise from his sinfull lusts and ways and is it not the great goodness of God to deny us leave to drink cups of poison and glasses of hell Or is it possible that any Christian should to thee that sin should be thy delight which is a departing of the poor soul from God which is an incensing of the wrath of God which was such a dreadfull burthen to Jesus Christ which puts the soul under the wrath and curse of God one act whereof must cost more then all the world is worth to pardon it 2. It doth onely order our outward lawfull joys and delights for the seasons for the measures for other circumstances so that they may be our sauce not our food our helps to Godliness not damps thereto It is but the Bridle on the Horse the Pale for the Garden the Finger on the Dial. Conversion abridgeth us of no delight but of that which to want is a true delight and so orders the rest that you may not lose delight Conversion makes us mournful for sin and how can it be so joyfull Answered True grace makes the heart more mournfâ—ll Object 3. Conversion breeds the quickest sense of sin and the deepest mourning for sin yea a continual mourning for sin makes the clouds to drop never mournfull till converted and can that condition be so joyfull which makes the heart so mournfull To this I answer 1. It is certain that true grace 1. doth make the clearest discovery of sin 2. It yields the tenderest sense of sin for it takes away the heart of stone and gives an heart of flesh and nothing makes the heart more mournfull then true grace 2. But then know that mourning for sin and joy in the heart are no way inconsistent Isai 12. 3. With joy shall ye draw water But this is not inconsistent with joy out of the wells of salvation Three things I would grant 1. That love of sin and true joy are inconsistent 2. Worldly sorrow and spiritual joy are inconsistent 3. That terrour for sin and joy of heart are inconsistent Legal terrour and Evangelical joy are so but Evangelical sorrow and Evangelical joy are not so for as one grace is consistent with another grace so one heavenly affection is consistent with another heavenly affection And there are three things which to me fully convince That Evangelical mourning is consistent with Spiritual joy One is That such a mourning is but a drop out of the eye of faith They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and mourn Zach. 12. 10. and certainly nothing comes from faith but what is comfortable all is Gospel that Faith trades in Another is That the mourning heart is a renewed heart and verily the gracious heart is a joyous heart The third is That the mourning sinner is a pardoned sinner Cum intueor flentem sentis ignoscibilem if the fountain of sorrow be set open in the heart the fountain of mercy is set open in heaven Zach. 12. 10. compared with chap. 13. 1. Yea let me add to this also three experiences 1. One is this That the Christian is never more sad and mournfull then when he feels his heart least mournfull He is then cast down O saith he into what a condition am I brought I was wont to find a tender sensible mourning spirit but me thinks now my heart is grown hard again O Lord why am I now hardened from thy fear And the man never gives over with God and himself until tenderness be renewed in his heart again 2. That the Christian is never more joyfull then when he is most mournfull Blessed are they that sow besides all Waters saith the Prophet Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted saith Christ They that sow in tears shall reap in joy saith David Godly sorrow is the Water that is turned into Wine One drop of a guilty Conscience is able to turn all our Joyes into Bitterness and one drop of godly sorrow is able to turn all our bitterness into joy I rejoyce saith Paul that I made you sorry what cause then had they to rejoyce who were sorry sorry after a godly sort sorry with a sorrow that bred repentance unto salvation never to be repented of 3. That the Christian is never more mournful then when he is most joyful The time of a Christians highest joy is the time of his greatest assurance Sealing and assuring times are the soul-raising and reviving times And the times of greatest assurance are the times of our greatest mournings The more manifestation of Gods Love and the more assurance of Gods Mercy do ever cause in the heart more Humility and more sorrow here is now the greatest joy for mercy and here is now the greatest mourning for sinning against mercy Object 4. We see no persons to walk more sadly and more uncomfortably I but no persons walk more sadly then converted persons Answered It is a False Charge then at least many do who are converted persons Ergo. To this give me favour to answer more fully 1. This is a False Charge and a very unjust Calâ—mny take the divisions of the sons of men according to the diversity of their spiritual conditions compare men with men according unto them and I dare confidently affirm That no condition is more dreadfully sad then the condition of men Unconverted and no condition is more comfortably cheerful then the condition of men truly Converted let 's a while peruse the phrases and instances of such Me thinks the terrible passages in Scripture may abundantly convince us of the dreadfulness of an Unconverted and wicked person Isa 57. 20. The wicked are like the raging sea that cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt ver 21. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Job 20. 16 17 23 24 25. there Zophar sets him out He shall suck the gall of Asps and the Vipers tongue shall slay him He shall not see the Rivers nor the floods and streams of Honey and Butter When he is about to fill his belly God shall send upon him the fierceness of his wrath and shall cause it to rain upon him The bow of Steel shall strike him through the glistring sword cometh out of his gall terrors are upon him Psal 11. 6. Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shalt be the portion of their cup. Again did you ever read of any one godly and converted person who fell into that horrible despair as Cain or Judas did But take the hardest agonies incident to true converts they are 1. rather fears then horrours 2. rather doubts then despairs 3. effects of a mistaking Conscience then a rightly condemning Conscience 4. They can look towards the Promises as Jonah did in the deeps towards God 5.
over-rule the The heart of a sinner may be above his miseries heart or to mend it As it was with Gallio when the Jews did beat Softhenes and kept a stir the Text saith He cared not for any of those things i. they made no prevailing impression on him so as to divert his purpose In like manner may it be with the miseries which personally befal a man his heart notwithstanding may not regard them neither may he lay things to heart they may be thrown off in respect of any beneficial impression as water from a rock as is evident in Pharaoh and in the Jews see Isa 42. 25. He hath powred upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battel and it hath set him on fire round about yet he knew it not and it burned him yet he laid it not to heart Here was anger and fury of anger and poured out and so as to set him on fire and to burn him yet he laid it not to heart If you should take dross and corrupt stuff and put it into the fire you shall never refine it it is to no purpose the founder in such a case would melt but in vain Jer. 6. 29. so in this case For the proper operation of all miseries is onely moral and rather reâ—resentative then effective i. they can of themselves do nothing perhaps they may point a man to his sins but his heart may effectually resist that evidence of sin by the rod of God as well as by the word of God Look as it is with the Light of the Sun though great and gentle yet it never opened a blind mans eyes nor yet the Lightning which runs swiftly in the time of Thunder For that natural privation exceeds the strength of such Agents So it is with a sinner his heart may so cleave to sin that neither the Light of the Sun I mean the blessed Word of God nor yet the Lightnings and Thunders of afflictions may divorce him so great may the power of sinfull love be that not the kindest mercies nor the sharpest miseries alone shall ever be able to melt him or turn him The love of sin may increase even an incorrigible and desperate perversness in the Will such perversness that the afflicted sinâ—er possibly may be so far from leaving his sins that therefore he will cleave to his sins the more and in a proud despite will forsake God as that prophane person This evil is of the Lord why should he wait for him any longer 2 Kin. 6. 33. 4. Lastly Miseries do not always bring men off from their sins Mâ—n hate holiness more then miseries because Men hate holiness and a godly life more then miseries i. There is a greater contrariety twixt their sinfull natures and holiness then twixt them and miseries it is confessed that misery in some respect is contrary to nature at least to the peace and ease of nature yet misery is not so distastfully contrary to a wicked nature as holiness and godliness Sin can live and rule whiles the sinner is under misery but it never can do so when he is under grace You know that a man never can turn from sin but when he loves holiness now holiness is that which many a sinfull heart like Paul before his conversion persecutes to the death Why if some sinfull hearts will venure the loss of heaven rather then they will be holy will they not rather then endure the loss of friends and estate c. and if they will adventure the pains of hell rather then they will come off unto an holy life will they not rather endure some temporal distresses c. and doth not this shew that some had rather be passive in misery then active in holiness Now I proceed to the usefull Applications of all this to our selves Where 1. for Information Do not straits and miseries always Vse 1. Information bring men off from their sins then 1. An afflicted condition is no infallible testimony of a safe condition Some people are of an opinion that if God doth punish An afflâ—cted condition no infallible testimony of a safe condition them in this life in crosses losses sicknesses penuries c. they have all their portion of misery already and undoubtedly shall besaved To which I reply 1. Though as the Israelites came at length to Canaan through the Red Sea and through the wilderness so a person may after many afflictions and miseries come to heaven Heaven can admit of a poor Lazarus and of a distressed Job and of a pursued David 2. Yet it is not always so A person may be under many miseries and notwithstanding them he may never be happy the meer presence of miseries is of common providence and not a distinguishing priviledge by what is before us whether outward good or outward evil we can know neither love nor hatred but as it is with the Ships at sea whether of the Kings Loyal subjects or of hostile pirats either of them are exposed to winds and storms to leaks and rocks and sands so is it with good men and bad men each of them are exposed to outward calamities as each of them are capable of outward mercies there may be a change in their outward condition when yet there is no change in their inward dispositions Job may hold fast his uprightness under all his miseries and Pharaoh may retain his hardness under all his Judgments And where the sinful affection and practice is still retained he shall not be free because of his present miseries but for ever rejected because of his continued iniquity 2. That the Conjunction twixt Sin and the sinful soul is very The Conjunction betwixt sin and the soul is very strong strong For as much as very great straits and miseries effect nothing many times You see here that though the Prodigal had spent all and a famine yea a great famine arose over the Land in which he was yet he is so far from returning and giving over his sinful course that he does not so much as think of it or mind it assuredly the Covenant of affection is very firm which cannot be untied with the fairest promises nor with the severest indurances When the Lord shall come to a sinner meet him in his course and way and because of his contempts and rebellions distrein his estate and goods and then lay an Attachment of sickness on his body and more then this indite him for his life by the summons of death And yet neither the loss of all the Mercies which once he had nor the presence of all the Evils which now he feels neither the poverty of his Table nor the rags on his Back nor shivering in his Bones nor anguish in his Conscience no nor appearance of Death nor yet the roâ—râ—sentations of Hell do turn him from his sinful affections and courses judge whether the tree be not tough which no Wedge can cleave and the disease be not
heart to yield unto God and to give up its weapons of lusts The which grace if God infuseth at any time whether before or under or after afflictions then the sinner doth not wander in the paths of perversness nor doth he hold out so long but in stead of trying all ways to continue in his sins he will speedily assay all the ways to be freed from them As left unto his own corrupt spirit and the projects contrivances and ways thereof And thus it is with him like a besieged enemy which will retreat from hold to hold and dispute every inch of ground before he will give up the City So is it with the sinner his heart will devise one defence after another and he hath yet another shift though he be many times hardly beset in his name or in his estate or in his body yea or in his conscience And God doth narrowly watch over him and doth spoil him of his many false confidences and deals more smartingly with him to yield and return yet he hath not onely much subtilty of spirit behind to delude all but also he hath exceeding stubbornness of spirit to oppose all the means which are used for his conversion 2. We must distinguish of the ways whereby God doth deal with a sinner which are of two sorts Some are Victorious ways Distinguish of the wayes whereby God doth deal with a sinner wherein the Lord undertakes the conquest of the heart himself by the immediate power of his own grace to pluck down strong holds and to cast down high imaginations upon which as the conversion of a sinner doth infallibly ensue so likewise presently and speedily for this way exceeds the strength of rebellion in sin and in despite of it overcomes the heart It is the stronger man dispossessing and the stronger hand pulling us out of the powers of darkness Others are Moral wayes which consist onely in external means not in the infusing of grace but rather in the proposal of it and invitations thereto by counsel reproof threats rewards and seconding this proposal with some or many miseries the Proposition That a sinner will use all the wayes and methods ere he will return from his sins is to be understood onely when God deals with him in a moral way by the presence of means onely not otherwise for which his corrupt heart may be too strong 3. We must distinguish of turning from sin It is two-fold either Distinguish of turning from sin Hypocritical and feigned and thus many times at the first upon the very denunciation of a Judgement as Ahab or upon the perception of it as Jeroboam when his hand was struck evil men may seem to confess and to grieve and to forsake sin and to seek unto the Lord and pretend to serve him Real and solid when the heart is truly affected with a sound detestation of sin and the occasions thereof and with a sincere affection of love to God and endeavour of new obedience Though the former may be acted by the sinner without the applying of himself to the utmost extremities yet the latter is not 4. There are two sorts of sins in a person Some which are more useless either for the profit or for the pleasure of the sinner There are two sorts of sins in a person they are not the favourites Others are more special which are wrought into singular affection the custome of practise and the much experience of their damnable delights and revenues have exceedingly indeared the soul unto them Though a sinner might more easily be upon parting terms with an unprofitable servant an unserviceable sin yet when the divorce is to be made twixt him and his special lust the sin of his love and affection the sin which lies in his bosome this he will not easily part with A man will endure much pain ere he will part with his right hand or suffer his right eye to be pluckt out he will stir much and rage much and project much and adventure much ere he will be perswaded to let this Benjamin go from him 5. There are two kinds of subsistence One is comfortable wherein There are two kinds of subsistence a person hath many supports even of a chearfull and a plentifull living his cup runs over and his head is anointed with oil Another is ubsolute when there is no more then to keep soul and body together The proposition is true even in this latter sense That a sinner though God doth shave off and suspend all the comforts of his life and doth reduce him so short that there remains no more then upon what he can live if there remains but any one sprig on which he can take hold if he can devise any one method of safety so that he may imagin I shall yet live and be safe though I go on in sin he will not turn in unto God now and leave his sins but will live the basest of lives rather then he will relinquish the worst of lives a sinful life he will walk in rags and beg his bread and leave all his friends and become an out-cast and a comparison of the most ignoble and infamous wretches rather then c. 6. This proposition holds true of all sorts of extremities Inward This true of all sorts of Extremities in those of conscience a sinner oft-times will rather endure the sharp edge of the Word which speaks nothing but wrath and bitterness yea he will live under the galling Items severe frowns bitter accusations intolerable scourgings and terrours and condemnations of his conscience though his conscience many times upbraids him in society amazeth him asleep terrifies him in the dark condemns him for a wretch and claps on him the apprehensions of Hell which makes the foundation of his soul to quake yet it falls out frequently that he will not turn from his sinful course Outward in all the kinds of misery A mans sinful wayes may be like the putrifyings of the hody which beget the worms that eat it out and consume it so the sinnings of a person many times do rot and consume his name yea all his estate yea all his amity yea all his strength and yet through the affectionate combination of his heart with sin he may rather indure infamy scorns poverty desertion of friends famine and nakedness any thing rather then he will leave his sin the wicked know no shame Pharaoh did not set his heart for all this c. 7. Lastly This is true not only in a transcient and passionate This true not only in a transient and passionate sense But in a more permanent and deliberate sens sense when through the rage of some present distemper and fury a person will hear no counsel this is true of Nations as well as Persons nor regard any dealing but is violently on a sudden carried away with the strong tide or storm rather of his foolish mind and passions But it holds true likewise
moved to endure much in his body for the preservation and defence of it for sin is an evil thing and therefore worthless Or 2. Because any sin is less evil then misery and therefore this shall be endured rather Noâ— because any sin is less evil then misery But because The sinner doth exceedingly love his sin then that shall be forsaken But 1. The sinner doth exceedingly love his sin The heart of a sinner is set on his sin he hath made a Covenant with death and an agreement with hell He loves darkness and is held fast with the bonds and cords of his sinful affections A person doth many times suffer pains sharper then death because he doth exceedingly love life Why a sinner loves his sin as he loves his life nay more then his life the which he doth often hazard for ever to preserve his sin 2. The sinner is a Fool Put a fool never so oft in the Stocks it doth The sinner is a Fool. him no good he understands not the cause nor end of it Evil men are chastized and punished by God but they know not nor understand they know not that their sins are the cause thereof and that Conversion from sin is the end thereof 3. There is a marvellous stout Spirit of pride in the sinner who is therefore said to There is a stout spirit of pride in a sinner fight against God and to resist him and though he be smitten yet to refuse to return and wilfully to transgress and that they will not hearken Stifnecked are they called and foreheads have they which cannot be ashamed and faces that cannot blush 4. A vain presumption From a vaine presumption that yet their sinful wayes shall be well at last From the Contrariety betwixt the wayes of God and the Sinners heart that yet their sinful wayes shall be well at last It is but bearing a while and at length their calamities will off He who goes on in a sinful way is never without some sinful project and chimeraes silly fancies of some good and some support and wearing out of his troubles c. 5. There is a bitter contrariety twixt the wayes of God and the sinners heart Light and darkness are not more opposite hence is it that in Job they say unto God Depart from us we desire not the knowledg of the Almighty And in Psal 2. They break the cords in sunder And Heb. 10. They are said to offer despight unto the Spirit of Grace Holiness and holy walking ah it is that which their hearts hate more then hell they will adventure their damnation before they will affect and practice holiness no greater burden and torment to them then it 6. And sometimes Unbelief may be a special cause why a sinner doth thus shift and From unbeliefe try The guilt of his sins under his afflictions may lie heavy upon his conscience and he may be so wholly taken up with the apprehension of wrath and judgment and an implacability in God towards him that God will never shew him mercy who hath been so much and so long provoked that it is in vain to return now there is no hope 7. The Vanity of a corrupt Judgment which deludes From the Vanity of a Corrupt Judgment the sinner as if he could be sinful and safe or that he could subsist well enough without returning to God Now I proceed to the Application of this point the Uses are many 1. For Conviction of Error in Judgment Use 1. Conviction It is no easie work to Repent 1. That it is an easie work to Repent and to leave sin When I am sick or come to dy then I will think of that work No brethren if the heart of man be of so subtil a temper and so perverse a frame can afflictions do it of themselves if the love of sin be so strongly in grain that many waters of afflictions cannot wash it out nor many beams of mercy melt and turn it you must then imagine it not to be an easie work to turn the heart from sin if it will adventure the loss of heaven and the endurance of hell and the actual presence of many sore calamities confess then That the descents into sin are easie but the returns from it are not ordinary or facile Faciles aditus Dificiles oxitus saith St. Austin More is required to Convert then External and Congruous Grace Where all the means tending to the Conversion of a sinner are opposed and as it were wholly defeated and frustrated there the heart is not so easily wrought upon to retâ—rn 2. That no more is required to Convert a sinner but External and Congruous Grace as if the heart were like a Fish upon the hook which might be drawn at pleasure to the shore or like Wax prepared and it were no more but to put on the Seal or as if to Convert a sinne were no more then to report a History or to offer a man a Purchase Nay but there must be likewise Impressions as well as Invitations not only Means but Grace it self not only the Rod and Word but likewise the Spirit of God and his mighty Operation not only a Voice saying This is the way but also the Spirit of God which must cause us to walk in that way there must be healing Medicines put within the Soul by the hand of God himself or else all the means in the world the Word the Sacraments the afflictions and miseries and examples may say and complain with the Prophet Isa 49. 4. I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought 2. For Information 1. Of that excessive stubbornness and madness in the hearts of us sinners Good Lord what an hand hath sin Information Of the excessive stubbornness of the hearts of sinners over us That terrors should arise like an horrible tempest within the conscience for sinning and drive a man to his feet yea to the dust yea almost as low as hell That his sinning should pull down one calamity after another take away the dayes of peace of plenty of safety of health and darken them with war and tumults with scarcity and indigence with danger and trouble with losses and diseases cloath a mans body with rags fill a mans body with rottenness obscure a mans name with infamy and yet yet after all and under all that a person should hold fast his wickedness which is the cause of all and will not let it go he will not be weaned from it nor charmed No Mercy nor Justice nothing can dissolve the Covenant twixt his heart and sin but llke that Athenian Commander if I forget not the story who when he was threatned to let go the Ship held it when one hand was cut off he held it with the other when both were cut off he held it with his teeth The Lord be merciful to us thus is it with us though God threatens yet we sin though he
will not become obedient he can quickly destroy us for our disobedience There is a day wherein God offers himself to be ours in grace and peace how long or how short that day is I cannot justly determine onely of this we may bee sure that God may in justice refuse us for ever if we refuse him once Note these Scriptures and they may perhaps awaken and recall us Ezek. 24. 12. She hath wearied her self with lies and her great sâ—um went not forth out of her her scum shall be in the fire v. 13. In thy filthiness is lewdness because I have purged thee by afflictions and thou wast not purged by repentance thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee Ver. 14. I the Lord have spoken it it shall come to pass and I will do it I will not go back neither will I spare neither will I repent aocording to thy waies and according to thy doings shall they judge thee saith the Lord God Luke 19. ver 42. Oh! if thou hadst known even thou at the least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eies Hebr. 3. ver 10. I was grieved with that generation and said they do alwaies err in their hears and they have not known my waies Vers 11. So I sware in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest Psal 81. ver 11. But my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me v. 12. So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels These four places do afford us four sad things which may befal persons refusing to return from their sins and deluding that work 1. That the Lord will not still be usiâ—g of means 2. That he will draw off the means 3. He will leave such sinners and give them up to themselves 4. They shall never enter into his rest and this the Lord binds with an Oath Every one of these is a Judgment sufficiently fearfull for what shall become of the sinner when the Lord shall judicially draw off the means of his Conversion or if the means be continued in common to others yet he will not work any more upon that person through them but he shall despise the counsels of the Word and slight the message of all Afflictions and that a person should run so far and so high in a way of wickedness that the Lord gives him over as a desperate hopeless and forlorn wretch to walk in his own counsels and after the lusts of his own heart and when the Lord seals him up by his Oath that this is a person who shall never see my face though many a sinner shall be pardoned and saved yet this sinfull Transgressor shall never enter into my rest Now what doth the sinner know who seeks new ways to secure his sinning and opposeth thereby all the ways which God useth for his converting I say how doth he know but that the Lord will deal thus with him God hath dealt so with some for dealing thus with him he closed up the day upon Jerusalem and left the Israelites to their own hearts lusts and never answered Saul any more neither by Prophets nor by Dreams and threatens to remove the Candlestick Revel 2. 3. Consider That if the Lord should shew almost the Miracle of his Goodness towards such a shuffling sinner his Conversion The conversion of such a one will be will be 1. the Harder 2. the more Bitter It will be the Harder for as much as all further degrees and steps The Harder in sinning do engage the heart more to the love of sin and naturally infers more hardness of heart and resistance against the motions of Grace When a Skaine of Thread is more and more clotted and entangled it will be the harder to clear it and a Cord may be so knotted that you cannot undo it but by cutting it asunder Though the work of Conversion be not difficult to God yet the far running sinner shall find it for his part a more intricate and hitching thing to wind his heart from those acts and paths of iniquity into which it hath been so long accustomed However it will be the Harsher the child which sticks so often in the birth causeth the birth to be Or the harsher more sharp and dolorous Usually the more sinfull a man hath been and the longer he hath held off God his soul is more cut partly with Fears for now he hath many doors to unlock ere he can fasten on grounds of comfort not onely that he hath held on a course of sin so long but also that he hath so subtilly and frequently withstood the tenders of grace and Gods manifold dealings with him already Though the person may have grace truly wrought in him to make him see all this vileness yet it may be long ere his faith shall be able comfortably to apprehend Gods mercy to forgive it He may have doubts not onely of mercy but of the truth of his conversion as if it seemed rather to be compulsive God may long withhold from him the testimony of his love who hath a long time perversly withheld the consent of his heart from returning unto him Partly with Shame It will be an exceeding reproach and confusion of face unto this person when ever the Lord converts him that he should deal with the Lord thus resist his Spirit so much and withstand that great kindness of God intended to him by the many means which he hath used Surely after that I was turned I repented saith Ephraim and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth Jer. 31. 19. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Ezek. 36. 31. Ah! how it will rent and press the soul Such a fool such a beast was I to pursue my own ruine to reject my own mercies to slight so great salvation to vex so good a God and to be so infinitely unthankfully base that if I could have found any means of support I would never have submitted unto him and left my sinfull course Ah! how doth the Lord take this at my hands how unacceptable may my returning now be which may seem rather to be forced through extremity than to spring out of any ingenuity So that you see by our sinfull shiftings either God may deny us converting grace or else we shall make our Conversion much less easie and comfortable Object But some may say What can we help it can we turn our own hearts it must be the Lord who must do that and he We cannot convert our selves might do it at the first as well at at the last if he would Sol.
And is this excuse to pass for currant hath not God dealt Answered with thee often didst not thou more often harden thine own heart willingly withdraw thy self and all out of a love to sin 2. Though thou couldst not convert thine own heart yet this thou mightest have done in the times of afflictions c. considered what might move the Lord thus to deal with thee all or some of the causes which thy own conscience did freely suggest and the ends which God pointed thee to to reform them And then to have gone to him by vehement prayer to convert thy heart from thy sins to teach it righteousness to submit to his instructions Thou mightst thus have gone to him who can convert and have waited on him in the means of conversion but thou didst nor desire after him nor delightedst to seek him c. 2. But What may we do to prevent this shuffling and assaying of means to support us in sinning when the Lord deals with us and Means to prevent this shuffling calls upon us for the leaving of sin Sol. I would commend these five Directions 1. Strive to be convinced of this That as long as the Course is a sinfull Course it Be convinced of this That a sinfull course cannot be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 safe course can never be a safe Course We may weary our selves in the multitude of our imaginations and ways but run what course you please and pursue your own devices yet this ye shall reap of the Lord you shall lie down in your shame and sorrow you may run to new experiments but misery will follow your sins the next time as well as this and in every way as well as one way Your sins will find you out and as long as you carry your sins with you you cannot keep off calamities from you 2. Of necessity you must return or perish Your sinfull course is You must return or perish a by-path and leads to death It is sinfull and you know it and being sinfull it must be miserable To what end doth the Patient excuse the taking of the Receipt the wholsome Balm he must die if he doth not receive it So consider To what end do I thus vary my paths and shuffle and seek supports there is nothing strong enough to secure a sinner and let me sadly consider that I must one time or other leave these sinnings or else farewel my Soul and Salvation 3. It cannot but be best the sooner it is I must return or perish too soon I cannot return and the sooner the better A Our Return is best the sooner it is Best For Safety Souldier of a middle age a Counsellor of a grave age and a Penitent of a young age are still the best The work which must be done is best done when soonest Best for Safety for thy life is very uncertain and if thou doest not leave thy sins to day thou mayest be in Hell for ought thou knowest for thy sins to morrow For Acceptance the Lord likes it best when For Acceptance one word of Mercy can cause us to trust and one shaking of the Rod can cause us to tremble and when one command sufficeth to turn us when upon the first Arrest we give up our Weapons it pleaseth Soveraignty best For Quietness for we do hereby deliver not onely our Souls but Bodies also from many troubles For Quietness the sooner we do repent and plainly yield why Conscience speaks peace the sooner and God commands mercies the faster strong Sins breed long afflictions but give up the Sins and God gives up the Quarrel throw over Bichri's head to Joab and he will presently remove the siege If a man had health he might take sleep the better but as long as the body is diseased it is unquiet 4. Strive against those diverting Principles which do draw thee from the right and onely way and put thee on by-thoughts and Strive against diverting Principles as Presumption of Mercy Or of thy own Power by-paths and a vain assayment of means to support us As 1. Presumption either of Mercy though thou doest add drunkenness to thirst and still findest out thine own inventions or thine own Power Thou mayest be hindred of the time which thou doest project and mayest want strength to execute thy purposes For sinfull practises do altogether weaken our power whilest they delude us with a conceit of strength hereafter 2. Stoutness and pride of spirit Do not in a bravery of villany dispute with the Almighty Stoutness and pride of spirir God it may prove a sad Victory to thee that thou art able to reject good counsel and to quench all good motions 3. Delight Delight in sin in sin which drowns the errand of all afflictions c. 5. Beseech the Lord at the very first to circumcise the stubbornness Beseech the Lord to câ—rcumcise the stubbornness of your hearts of your hearts and to give you the understanding ear and the obedient spirit that when in the Word he calls upon you to turn from your sins your hearts may fall down and cry out O Lord turn me and when by afflictions he calls upon you to turn you may presently humble your hearts and cry out O Lord pardon me O Lord heal me O Lord turn and save me Let us all think of this You know that the Lord is displeased with us and we have hitherto hardened our hearts against the Lord God hath dealt with us once twice often in publick in private ways and still we seek our own ways delude the work of Repentance set nothing to heart nor repent of our evil doings I I. Now I proceed to the Second thing which is The final The final disappointment of all the Prodigals designs Doct. 2. Nothing shall avail the shuffling sinner till he return but God will disappoint all his pâ—ojects Some things premised This is meantâ— of a sinner whom God intends to convert disappointment of the Prodigals assays and designs in these words And no man gave unto him Whence I observe That nothing shall avail the shuffling sinner until he doth turn from his sins but God will disappoint all his projects batter down all his confidences frustrate all his expectations drive him out of all his harbours and overthrow all the means and ways which he flies unto Before I confirm this Assertion let me premise a few particulars that so you may rightly conceive the scope of it Thus then 1. I intend the Assertion of a sinner whom God doth intend to convert others he may leave to prosper in their imaginations For you see it raised from the disappointment of a Prodigal one whose conversion at length attended his manifold afflictions and as manifold contrivances to keep up his sinfull conversation though such a person knows not it nor thinks on it yet God is secretly against him and thrusts him off from all the Cities of Refuge
means on which thou trustedst forsake and fail thee O then return unto the Lord all this befalls thee purposely to bring thee home to thy father It is because the Lord would have thy heart thy love thy joy thy fear thy hope thy confidence thy obedience c. Luke 15. 17. And when hee came to himself he said How many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger ver 18. I will arise and go to my father c. These words contain in them the happy fruits of sharp afflictions the dawning of the day after a stormy night the quicknings of a dead man the penitential recovery of a sinful Prodigal We must not despair of men though they be great sinners a prodigal riotous luxurious person begins here to return nor must we be quick and peremptory in our final censures of them though like a ship in many storms they hold on their sinful courses after many dealings for the power which converts is mighty and the season to convert is different God doth as it were nurse up some from their youth in grace others he leaves to conquer in battel when their deseases are grown to age and strength yet he can over-master and heal them as here the Prodigal Concerning whose penitent estate which was the second General you may he pleased to consider a double 11. The division of the Text. act 1. One of his Judgment described in this vers 17. 2. Another of his Will described in vers 18. the former is an act of inspection in the viewing of his bad life the other is an act of resolution to change and leave it that is if I may so call it the fundamental work of Repentance and this is the formal work of it the one is the framing the other is the launching of the ship I must treat next on the first work which is the judgment of the The judgment of the Prodigal expressed in Prodigal Some call it an act of Consideration which is such an effect of right reason whereby we rightly understand and judge of things Others conjecture it an act of Consultation wherein he did deliberate and debate his way and condition throughly in his mind in comparing it with another opposite condition so then in this judicious working of his you have First A serious consideration he came to himself i. now he began to bethink where he was and what he had done like a A serious consideration mad man before he still raged and ran on never minded any thing but his sins but now his reason comes into joint again hee soberly and in good earnest considers of his course and estate Secondly A wise consultation Ah! thinks he I have brought my self into a miserable condition I am even ready to perish A wise consultation with hunger I have gone on so far in sin that if I return not I am lost for ever I have tried all the waies that I can imagin but they prosper not die and perish I would not is life to be had no where Where might such a poor famisht creature find a bit of bread to save his life Now I think on it I have a father living and he hath bread enough even his meanest servants have enough and to spare he hath bread for servants will he have none for a child they have enough I have none at all they have to spare and I hunger I perish with hunger my condition is most miserable their condition is most plentiful Well! thus I will not rest I will arise and go to him c. Before I handle that Assertion which the text will immediately afford there may be many not unuseful observations which occasionally and collaterally fall in I will but mention them unto you and then sit down upon the principal intention of the Verse 1. That great afflictions may end in a sweet conversion or the sharpest miseries may prove a means to bring us to the sweetest Great Afflictions may end in a sweet Conversion mercies Storms though they be to some shipwracks yet they landsome the prodigal met with famine and that brought him back to his fathers house for bread I had perished said one unless I had perished so may many a man say Had I not been afflicted I had been damned my great losses have proved my greatest gain I never fell into the love of God untill I came under the scourge of God 2. That even a great sinner is not uncapable of mercy or grace a luxurious prodigal who spent all among Harlots is A Great Sinner is not uncapable of mercy now returning home to his father a penitent and grieved child and the reason is this Though the sins of a man be great yet the mercies of a God be free and mercy advanceth its own glory when it shines on the greatest sinners Sin is great but grace is stronger it can quicken dead men As the knottiest wood when it is squared proves of strongest service so the vilest sinner once converted proves the faithfullest and activest instrument of glory to God and lastly God doth extend grace to great sinners that no sinners might despair 3. That God doth many times permit the sinner to try to the utmost and then converts him A long season ere some return God sometimes permits the Sinner to try the utmost and then converts him as Paul to breath out persecutions and to get authority to bind all c. and then he is struck down hereby he magnifies his patience and more demonstrates his mercies and goodness that after all hee will yet accept of such a sinner and pardon him 4. That an Vnconverted man is a mad man he is besides himself Sin bereavs the sinner of the right use of reason and he An Unconverted man is a mad-man never comes to be sober to be himself until he doth repent whatsoever fury of spirit wildness of fancies rendings of cloaths tearings of bonds untameableness ragings inconsiderations are extant in madness the same are to be found in a meer sinful heart and life all these propositions are observable and useful but that which I intend to insist on is this That a serious Consideration and the right Comparison of the miserable Doct. A serious Consideration and right Comparison of the miserable state of a sinful Condition and happy state of a Converted Condition are steps to true and speedy Repentance What this Serious Consideration is estate of a sinful Condition with the happy estate of a Converted condition are the prime steps and occasions of a true and speedy Repentance For the Explication of this point I must open some particulars 1. Concerning a Serious Consideration of a Sinful Condition It is an Intentive work of the Judgment wherein it doth narrowly and diligently meditate on the whole estate of sin It is called in Scripture a remembring of our wayes and sometimes a bethinking of our selves
life and maintain the bent and inclination of the will It doth arise from and depend upon mature consideration and upon deep conviction The sinner doth first look into and seriously peruse and weigh an impenitent and sinful course and seeth the strongest and forciblest and justest causes to renounce it for ever and also upon due trial and searching and weighing in the ballance of the Sanctuary he doth find the wayes of new obedience to be the 〈◊〉 and only wayes of life to which if he doth not turn he cannot please God nor be saved and unto which if he doth turn then he is under the best God and in the most excellent and saving condition and hereupon begs of God for grace and strength and so resolves c. In a Word the Resolution is well grounded when it followes serious deliberation and is raised upon divine assistance and entred into with earnest supplication for our strength cannot bring forth nor maintain so great a work as reformation 2. It is a strong purpose of the will The operations of the will are reputed strong when either they are not divided A strong purpose of the will but united or when they are rooted in an habit or principle and not only in an occasion and accident or when they are absolute and not conditional If the operations be divided they are weak as Rivers c. so when a man partly wills this and partly that he is inclined somewhat to leave his sin and yet he is inclined to keep it this division hinders right resolution which is not so indifferent so indeterminate so divided but centers the inclination of the will only one way viz. to a peremptory rejection of evil and a peremptory election of good the soule goes down and it is not a grain which will turn it Again if the operations of the will arise only from occasions which is busied in alterable circumstances they can never be strong as the colour in the face which ariseth from violent exercise only goes off presently so that resolution if it may be so called which ariseth from changeable impressions is alwayes weak and fading a deceitful bow unstedfast In their afflictions they will seek me early but c. Hos 6. 4. But to the production of a penitential resolution which makes a strong purpose in the will there must be an habit which will set the heart and incline it so that it will not be taken off as in Ruth to Naomi Intreat me not c. there was a strong principle of love which made up this strong purpose to cleave unto her Again if the operations of the will be conditional they can never be so strong as when they are absolute for a supposition and case where the will may put off and dispence with it self cannot make the act of the will so firm as where the case is absolute for now the whole bent of the will is carried without any check or diminution If a man saith I will leave such a sinful course in case I may have the countenance of such friends or the benefit of such an estate and I will lead a godly life in case I may hold correspondence and esteem in the world c. purposes upon variable conditions are variable These conditions do diminish the strength of Resolution but when a person is carryed in an absolute way come what will come friendship or enmity greatness or poverty life or death I will change my course this is a strong purpose of will and a right Resolution 3. It is a constant purpose or continued The â—hylosophers do It is a constant purpose well distinguish twixt Passions which are but the soul in a mood and a fit and twixt Qualities which are setled tempers and Constitutions as it were Resolution is not a transient passion but it is a fixed quality Not that it is not interrupted but that it is not renounced and given over but is still maintained Nor that it is not assaulted but that it is not changed A twisted Cord Propositi tenax that is a resolute man sibi constans but a double minded man an unstable spirit a will though strong as Passion yet if unstable as water hot in the first assault as if we would be stronger then Men and flat in the succeeding assaults as if we were weaker then Women these humours are rather some complements which still shrink at the acting then resolutions for change of Life Passions are violent but not constant as the Galathians to Paul 4. Lastly It is an active purpose for as it is a vain thing to It is an active Purpose deliberate much and to resolve on little at length so it is a vain Resolution which purposeth great things but doth nothing If I resolve to take Physick for my health and never take any what avails that Resolution Like Antigones I will give but never gave So if a man resolve to leave his sins but the day is still to morrow he sets not upon it indeed but yet a little slumber yet a little sleep as S. Austin spake of himself cras cras this is vain But true resolution is stirring and striving it puts a man upon the work as the Prodigal I will arise and goe to my Father who indeed did thereupon arise and go I am resolved to confess my sins to judge my self to seek unto God by prayer and I do indeed do so I do confess judge pray use the means c. Quest 2. Why this Resolution is requisite to a sound Reformation Why Resolution is Requisite 1. Because Reformation of our wayes cannot be performed without much Opposition As when Nehemiah began to repair the walls There can be no Reformation without much opposiâ—ion was wiâ—h much opposition If you will not serve sin as a Lord you must expect to hear of sin as an Enemy if you will not serve its Lusts you shall be hindred and molested with its Lusts Stronger rowing is requisite against a strong Tide So for Satan he will not easily be dispossest if you will not follow his Counsels you shall feel his Darâ—s and the world will wonder at you and reproach you and vilifie you temptations on the right hand and on the left Now all these shocks and brunts will not be sustained without a firm Resolution It must be an house strongly built upon an unmoveable Rock which will stand against all winds and waves 2. Because sin hath been very dear unto us and is beyond measure Sin is very subtle to Intice us subtile to perswade and entice us It is not an easie thing though death otherwise be threatned to make a man willing to have his Arm or Leg cut off Sin is as our members ot us it is called our self born and bred with us The separation is not easie where the Conjunction is Natural and hath been more familiar It will not be done by reasoning or intreaty but Resolution is
there take forth directions for your lives how contrary soever to your own conceits and delights 4. A faintness of spirit If you make the work absolutely impossible A faintness of spirit you do but cool and quash resolutions There is a need of bellows not waters for tender sparks for no man will attempt a hopeless work or that which he knows will certainly prove fruitless Do not side with such thoughts as these I shall never be able to get victory over such strong sins and long corruptions Or I shall never be able to do what the Lord requires so much and with such affections nor shall I ever bear such reproaches losses disgraces indignities Never consult with flesh and bloud in a case of holy Resolution nor credit Satan about the leaving of sin but if thou wilt consult with what may fear and dishearten thee consult also with what may encourage and quicken thee Though thy sins be strong yet they are conquerable onely true Grace is invincible It is possible for a sinfull nature to be altered and renewed and therefore it is not impossible for any sin to be subdued Though thy own strength be insufficient yet Christ's is not He who hath commanded thee to combat with Sin hath likewise promised to conquer sin if thy duty be active he is able to work in thee both to will and to do if thy duty be passive he can give thee not onely to do but to suffer for his sake if thou must not be less then a Sufferer he can make thee more than a Conqueror Thy helps are far greater than thy discouragements there are more with thee than against thee Therefore fear not to resolve 't is a vanity to talk of another or fitter season you will be more unwilling to leave sin the more time you take to commit sin II. There are some things which you must in some measure Labour for possess if ever you would be brought to a penitential Resolution 1. Get as distinct a knowledge of sin as clear conviction as Clear Conviction you can It is our blindness which keeps us in service and the Will is usually perverse because the Judgment is greatly dark Did we know sin aright truly fully experimentally you have attained to Reasons enough why you should resolve against it Sin carries its own condemnation with it Sometimes the particular effects of sin do half perswade us to be Christians to leave the service of sin a stroke or two upon the Conscience do thus far prevail as to pause and stop If then we knew sin in the latitude of its bitter effects and in the intensiveness of them beyond all thoughts for bitterness and perpetuity as also that extreme vileness in the formal nature of it which is the vast womb and Ocean out of which these bitter waters do flow if we did know sin as the darkest blot and loathsome blur opposite to the truest Glory of purest Holiness and as the most deformed and highest Rebellion to the most equal Laws and Rules of Divine Soveraignty and as the very Eclipse and utter Inconsistence with all real Happiness and as the infallible and unavoidable Precipice of our intollerable and eternal Damnation At least this would be an occasional excitation if not a strong foundation upon which to raise a Resolution to quit and forsake it Sure I am the defect of this that men know not sin makes them bold and venturous obstinate and tenacious they will not desist from the practice of sin because they know not the evil of sin 2. You must get an hatred of sin else you will never truly and Cordial detestation effectually resolve against it All the actions of our lives are fed by the affections of the will these are in morals principia immediate vincentia and of all the affections as the Anatomists observe in the body two master-Veins Vena cava vena aorta so in the soul there are two which are Soveraign and bear sway one is Love and the other is Hatred that bears sway in matters elegible and practicable this in matters sinfull and declinable Resolutions against sin not rooted in hatred will slack like a deceitfull Bow and Resolutions to a better course not raised from love will be but as the morning dew It is hatred which makes us bent and peremptory againct evil and it is love which makâ—s us resolute and stedfast for good Hatred hath three properties in it against an evil Object Enmity Flight and Irreconcileableness And Love hath two properties in it Union and Adhaesion Ruth clave in love to Naomi and was seâ—ed in it never to leave her And Ephraim was strong in detestation and therefore peremptorily in resolution What have I to do any more with Idols 3. There must be Faith and then there will be Resolution Faith Faith 1. To believe the Word of God discovering and threatning an evil condition and course 2. To believe the excellency of a good Condition and Life and Rewards If thou didst indeed believe that sin would damn thee wouldst not thou resolve against it if thou didst indeed believe that the holy life were the happy life couldst thou by Faith see him that is invisible and the beauties of holiness which are hid from the World and those great consolations and rewards reserved for a pious heart and conversation thou wouldst quickly turn the Scale mâ—ke the choâ—ce and resolve 'T is true I must leave my sins but I shall gain my God their pleasures but I shall gain his delights I may forfeit the love of Friends but I shall find kindness of God I quit Earth but I shall get Heaven I leave but filthiness but guilt but misery but Hell I shall get holiness and peace and Christ and Comfort and Heaven I am insufficient but God is sufficient 4. Vehement Prayer that the Lord would give a heart willing Vehement prayer to forsake sin and willing to choose him and his ways For the purposes of our hearts are from him Resolution should be a Posâ—e of Prayers steept in prayer blown up by the breath of Heaven Psal 119. 5. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes v. 8. I will keep thy statutes O forsake me not utterly What you undertake without prayer you will forsake without câ—mfort All resolutions are best made which are made upon the knee of prayer Secondly The means to maintain and keep up this Resolution The means to maintain this resolution Let it not be presumpâ—uous but humble If you would attain to a solid and permanent Resolution then 1. Let your Resolution not be presumptuous but humble If you raise your Resolutions upon your own strength you will shortly quit them by your own weakness No spiritual frame or work is safe or strong which is reared upon it self alone it must not be less than a rock higher than our selves upon which we must build The wings bear the body of the
do not so Though the winds drive back the Mariner yet he holds fast his resolution still for such a Cape and if a man falls in his journey yet he will rise and be going again So let us do if we have not answered our Resolutions let us not end them but mend them Above all search the causes of impairing thy Resolutions and then thou mayest see thy reparations Say seriously 1. Didst not thou relie too much upon thy Resolution as if therefore thou wert safe because resolved 2. Didst not thou grow weaker in Prayer when thou grewest strong in Resolution or 3. Hast thou not been more venturous upon occasions hast thou not been tampering with sinfull occasions such acts ways objects as thou knowest have powder to irritate and inflame Lust Consider seriously how thou camest to violate thy purpose and intention and penitently confess it before the Lord and take up thy Resolution again upon right grounds 7. Let your Resolutions be accompanied with the use of all holy means which will strengthen and perfect them Doth not the Let resolutions be accompanied with the use of holy means strong man grow weak by fasting as well as by sickness How is it possible but that thy Bow should slack i. thy Resolution should start aside when thou art a negligent Hearer and an inconstant Petitioner why where lies thy strength to perform why doest thou put off thy helps what art thou alone He who hath not strength to fight how shall he have power to conquer wouldst thou stand wouldst thou resolve wouldst thou resolve so as to reform Be much in Prayer Keep thy servant O Lord uphold me by thy Word preserve me by thy Spirit work in me the will and the deed work thine own works in me finish what thou hast wrought shew thy power in my weakness let thy Grace be sufficient for me leave me not nor forsake me incline my heart to thy testimonies turn away mine eyes from vanity And so for the Ordinances attend them they are the Strength of God for thee they work holy qualities holy motions holy convictions holy excitations holy affections desires a fear lest we depart and fall from our stedfastness and they kindle more and more our purposes to walk with God and to shun iniquity Oh how admirably the heart under them is caused to burn with ardent love of God! with desires and resolutions to keep closer to him how is it stirr'd up with more detestation of sin how often do they melt the heart recover the heart restore the heart and send it away with this resolution Well! by the grace of God I will never go on in such a sinful course c. The last Use shall be for Exhortation unto us though we have taken ill courses formerly yet now to resolve against them to 3. Vse For Exâ—ortation to resolve against sin arise and go home to our Father What shall I say to move and persuade us here to consider 1. Either you must resolve to leave your sins or be damned for them why wilâ— thou lose thy pretious soul for ever 2. Whether is better to come back and find God a Motives Father or to depart still from him and feel him a Judge If mercy be better then wrath if heaven be better then hell resolve to arise and leave thy sinful waies and return unto a God and Father 3. Hast thou not found thy sinful courses to be evil and bitter unto thee already why wilt thou serve an evil master for evil wages the which also will still be more fearful and heavie by how much the longer thou continues sinful and wicked thy terrours will not shorten while thou dost lengthen thy sins nor maiest thou expect that thy latter daies will be peace when all thy daies have been wickedness if thou livest in sin thou must lie down in sorrow 4. Sin is an hateful object and a conquerable enemy therefore resolve against it It onely hath the most absolute reasons of the strongest hatred as being completely evil and vile it is the basest of all objects and is thine highest enemy there is nothing which can undo thee but sin and yet i is a conquerable enemy it is very possible that a sinner may be changed 5. If thou once couldst but get an heart to resolve against sin thou shouldst find the work more easie Saint Austin professeth that though the thoughts of leaving his sins were once a great burthen to him yet at length being peremptorily resolved he found it a most easie and delightful thing to live without them 6. A new course of obedience O this is lise indeed Now arâ— thou alive from the dead if thy heart be truly resolved I may say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Christ to Zacheus This day is salvation come to thine house 〈◊〉 holy life and course is the most excellent is the most easie is the most peaceable is the most gainful it is the best it is the sweetest it is the happiest life it begins in Grace it will end in Glory LUKE 15. v. 18 19. And will say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired servants You have heard of the Prodigals penitential consideration of his sinful estate and of his penitential resolution to forsake that condition and course I will arise and go to my father now you are to hear his penitential confession And will say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven c. In which words you have considerable 1. Who doth confess I. 2. What he doth confess I have sinned 3. To whom he doth confess Father I have sinned 4. How he doth confess Against Heaven and before thee In to coramte There is no difficulty in the word and therefore I will proceed to the intent of it which is this That true Repentance for sin against God will bring forth true Confession of Sin unto God This is evident almost in all persons whether single True Repentance for sin will bring forth true confession of sin to God or conjoyned who are set out for penitents in Scripture David his heart bleeds and his tongue acknowledgeth I have sinned 2 Sam. 12. upon Nathans conviction The Publican Lord be merciful to me a sinner he stood afar off smiting his brest and inditing himself for his sins A whole Church in Ezra in Nehemiah in Daniel all at once confessing We have sinned we have done wickedly our sins are gone over our heads For the better explication of the assertion know That there is a threefold confession of sin 1. Auricular or Sacramental which the Church of Rome A threefold confession of sin Auricular doth injoyn but not the Scripture Confiteriâ—ora singula peccata mortalia to confess all and every mortal Sin quorum memoria cum debita diligenti premeditatione habeatur which a diligent and industrious memory can recal etiam
thus have I sinned and whatsoever punishment thou hast inflicted or mayest inflict I must quit thy Justice in all thy proceedings thou canst not but be Righteous for I confess my self to be sinful Nay his Justice only is not glorified but his Wisdom that he knows all our sins and wayes and his Power that he is able to Judge and condemn us yea and his Mercy too that we hope yet he will pardon and forgive the sins which we confess unto him If true Repentance brings forth true Confession then by this it will appear That there are very few true penitents because Use 1. Then there are very few true Penitents very few who do truly and aright confess their sins 1. Some may say of sin what Pilate did of truth What 's Truth So they What 's Sin They are so ignorant that they know not what is evil or when they do evil Now how can any confess or acknowledg that sin to God which is not known at all to himself 2. Others are so far from confessing themselves to be sinful that they like the proud Pharisee justifie themselves to be righteous talk of their good meanings purposes â—ust dealings c. Sana membra ostendebat saith S. Austin of that Pharisee vulnera tegebat I am no Extortioner no Adulterer c. Ask some persons Do you acknowledg One only God who is most Merciful Just Holy Omnipotent Faithful Long-suffering 〈◊〉 of Goodness and Truth c. Yes that do they God forbid else c. Ask them again Are you Idolaters make you no Idols or did you ever worship them Who they nay they defie them and all such trumpery But do you not use to swear and take the Name of God in vain Nay for swearing of all sins they cannot away with that a man gets no good by swearing But do you remember to keep holy the Sabbath Yea all their neighbours can bear witness that they keep to the Church constantly Ask them again Did you never injure your Parents O they were always dutifull Children But did you never play the whore or the adulterer or the thief Nay now they will talk no longer with you if you be so uncharitable as to imagine such guilt Why O thou ignorant sinner why doest thou deceive thy soul if thou art thus righteous thou needest not to repent and if thou art free from all sin how canst thou confess thy sins as a true penitent ought to do to God 3. But some others there are who do both know and acknowledge their sin but how onely in a formal cold indifferent manner True we are all sinners God help us and there is no man but he sins yea the best of them all Never considering That great Justice of God which is provoked by their sins nor that vile and abominable nature in their sins nor that infinite wrath unto which their guilt doth oblige them nor the excellency and necessity of pardoning mercy which we should earnestly sue out when we confess our sins 4. There is another sort who do more distinctly and perhaps somewhat feelingly and freely confess their sins but then they keep Benjamin back And as Rachel hid the images under her so they reserve some one special lust they do not bring all the Prisoners forth unto the Bar There is a sin which they hide close because it is sweet as Zophar speaks Job 20. 12. Now this argues 1. Hypocrisie and guile of heart a secret love to sin it is made in Job 20. 12. the guise of an Hypocrite to hide his sin 2. Extreme folly and vanity of spirit for canst thou conceal any sin from that God who is acquainted with all thy paths and knows thy thoughts afar off and to whose eyes all things are naked will not the Lord discover the sin which thou doest cover before Men and Angels to thy eternal infamy and condemnation assuredly though thou wilt not set thy sins in order before him yet he will set thy sins in order before thee and will reprove thee for them Psal 50. i. he will publish them and he will everlastingly punish thee for them 5. Others do confess all their sins but this onely in times of wrath and judgment and death not like Penitents but as Malefactors as men make their Wills upon a death-bed not out of an hatred of sin but out of meer sense or fear of punishment it is not filial ingenuous free but onely extorted involuntary and servile and therefore not truly penitential They do not go and confess their sins as they to John the Baptist but cry out and confess their sins it is that not which they would do but which they cannot avoid Conscience like an over-charged stomack doth so over-press and pain them that they cannot hold but out it comes what oppression injustice usurious injurious beastly filthy swinish sins they have lived in 6. Others seem to be more ingenuous and voluntary or ready to confess their sins but then this is with such pretences colours shiftings shuffling as if they were like Lawyers to mitigate and colour a bad cause S. Austin complains of some who would impute their sins to Fate to Fortune to the Devil nay to God himself The complaint may well suit with us generally we have some device or other either to deny or to extenuate our sinfull facts rather to plead for our selves than to plead against our iniquities It was company and we are but flesh and bloud and it is not usual or which is contrary it is my nature and the Devil was strong with me others do worse c. 7. But of all men they are most contrary to penitential Confession who â—all evil good and darkness light and that make a a mock and a sport of sin whereas they should with grief of heart and shame of face mournfully penitently humble themselves before the Lord and acknowledge their iniquities instead thereof They boast themselves of their iniquites and make but a jest of that which cost the bloud of Christ It is but a trick of Youth and good Fellowship and Handsomness and Complement and discreet Thrift thus do they phrase their Uncleanness their Drunkenness their Pride their Lying their Covetousness 8. Lastly to mention no more They are defective too about the true penitential confession who are assiduous to confess but desiduous to forsake frequent to acknowledge and declare their sins but negligent in forsaking and leaving of them Discovery sufficeth but Recovery they mind not This is most ordinary with us that we make our confession of sins to God rather an act of our Memory than a work of our Conscience it sufficeth us to deliver in the tale to number our transgressions but then we wrestle not with the Lord in prayer for his Spirit of Grace to heal our hearts and to turn us from the sinfull ways unto which we find our hearts so apt and forward But I will no longer insist upon the Convicting part I proceed
In the expression of it and this is when so much Grace appears as to enter into a new path and do new works 3. In the progression of it And this is when a greater Victory is obtained over our sins and appears in our course of new obedience Now the Initials of true Repentance I conjecture to consists partly in the Conversion of the heart when the mind and will and affections are healed and turned and partly in the reformation of the life when the person out of an hatred of sin and love of God sets upon another course of obedience and service It is just like a Ship that is going out or like a Shop that is newly set up things are very raw there is much dross with the little Silver a little health and much lameness a great journey and but a few steps the work is rather in desire and much in complaints and though perhaps little be done yet all is heartily endeavoured to be done this I call the Initials of Repentance There are six things shew that Repentance is begun in truth Six things shew Repentance is begun in truth Condemnation 1. One is Condemnation When the judgement looks upon all sin after another manner then formerly sentencing it as the most vile and accursed of all evils and no sin knowingly finds favour 2. Another is Aversation When the will flies Aversation and shuns it as that which is most contrary to all goodness and happiness 3. A third is Weariness When the Soul is as Weariness weary of Sin as any Porter can be of his Burthen or as a sick-man is of his Bed Psal 51. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise 4. A fourth is Lamentation That the Soul cannot yet be rid of Lamentation the unruly motions and insolencies of sin It is grieved that Life and Death Hell and Heaven Grace and Sin should thus be together 5. A fifth is Resistance or conflict The Soul doth Resistance use the best means it can to separate more from sin and all sinfull wayes and to walk only in all holy pathes in the pathes of righteousness And the sixth is an active Inctination to obey God in all things a thirsting and striving an aiming a writing after the Copy An active Inclination And there are four things which do shew that Repentance is Four things shew that Repentance is but begun Impotency but begun it is only initial 1. One is Impotency or weakness of operation When the penitential parts do move and stir yet like a child who begins to go very feebly There is as much appears in the course as declares another spring or principle and rule by which the Soul strives to walk but the performance is very tender and feeble like a young Tree that hath but tender branches and small fruit The person doth mourn and confess and pray and live and obey but with weakness 2. A second is efficacy of Temptation When Temptations do easily Efficacy of Temptation beset and discourage the Soul as when the Tree is but a young plant the Winds to toss it and make it reel so when Temptations do as it were drive the Soul and are apt to raise quick fears and discouragements Oh! I shall be overcome again I shall hardly hold on I cannot well see how I shall be able to perform and preserve in these wayes which I have chosen A third is the Validity of present Corruption which though it be truly hated and bewailed yet it is very apt upon occasions to assault and Validity of present Corruption prevail when every little stone is apt to make one stumble it argues that the strength is weak 4. Necessary presence of many helps When a Man cannot go but with two Crutches and a Child must lean upon many props and a penitent upon many sensible encouragements Now that these Initials of Repentance are graciously accepted The Doctrine proved God respects the truth as well as the degrees of Grace of God may be thus manifested 1. The Lord doth respect the truth of Grace as well as the degrees of it every quality as well as the quantity Are not thine eyes upon the truth The Goldsmith hath his eye on the very thin raies of Godl as well as on the great knobs and pieces Grace is excellent and amiable at the lowest though then admirable when at highest 2. The main thing that God looks upon is to the heart My Son give me thy God looks most at the Heart heart All that is done if the heart be not in it it is of little or no estimation with God but if the heart be right this the Lord prizeth exceedingly and so much that for its sake he passeth by many infirmities The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart c. 2 Chro. 30. 19. Now in the Initials of Repentance the heart is set right it is set on God and towards God in truth 3. Even the Initials of Repentance are his own Gifts special gifts of his blessed Spirit it is he that worketh The Initials of Repentance are his Cist in us to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. The spirituall will and the spiritual deed though both be imperfect yet are they the genuine effect of Gods own spirit sparks out of his fire works of his own hands Now as in the Creation God looked upon all that he made and saw that it was good he liked it well So is it in our Renovation all that good which God works in us he doth accept and approve he doth not despise his own image which though it shine more fairly in progressive Repentance yet is it truly stampt in our initial Conversion 4. Tâ—at which comes This Springs â—â—om faith not only from a person having faith but from faith it self that the Lord will graciously accept For as our actions do not please him without faith it is impossible without faith to please God So on the contrary when the actions do come from faith they do please the Lord. Abels Sacrifice presented in Faith did please him when Cains presented without faith was not regarded faith puts a value and acceptance on our actions But even initial Repentance comes from faith the person is by faith united to Jesus Christ from whom he hath received strength and grace to forsake his sins and to become a servant of righteousness 5. The Lord hath said that he will not despise the day of small things nor quench the smoaking flax nor break the God will not deâ—pâ—se â—he Day 〈◊〉 â—mall things bruised reed What Husbandman doth despise the little plant which he hath set Or what father doth despise the little child he hath begoten Why that God who hath appointed all the meanes and ordinances to cherish and prop and comfort and nourish and perfect the initials of Repentance doth not he
be his very enemies and vessels of wrath Partly because it frees you from the sorest fears and sharpest torments You know that there are no troubles like those in Conscience nor fears like those concerning our eternal Conditions Whatâ— if I be one whom the Lord hates what if I should dye and then be damned what if I be not in favour with the Lord what if such or such a sin be not yet pardoned Now the evidence that God is reconciled to you doth silence these fears and eases the conscience of these tormenting suspicions The Lord is my light said David Psal 27. 1. whom shall I fear And I will lay me down in peace Psa 4. 8. 3. It is one of the most admirable comforters of the soul in any condition It comforts the soul in any condition If your condition be prosperous why the assurance that God is reconciled unto you makes all your outward comforts the more comfortable unto you It is like health to a good complexion which sprinkles it over and inamels the face with a fair beauty or like the light to colour which unveils and discloseth all their art or like the dew to the herbs which makes them the more fragrant when a man can say I have all things and God is reconciled to me too I have such a Lordship and the King is my friend too such honours friends estate and the Lord hath accepted of me too and I know that all is pardoned is not this a comfort when all is pleasant on earth and all is right in heaven whereas if the Lord be not reconciled to a man what avails all the world If your conditions be calamitous yet the assurance that God is reconciâ—ed to you is an admirable cordial You read in Mat. 9. 2. Of a man sick with a dead Palsey a disease which exceedingly dejects the spirits Christ comes unto him and gives him a Cordial what was it think you why this Son be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee You will think this an improper comfort to a man in such a disease but it was not the assurance that our sins are pardoned and that God is reconciled revives and cheers up the heart nothing more So S. Paul speaks of Tribulation Diâ—ress Persecution Famine Nakedness Peril Sword Yea of Death it self Rom. 8. 35 36. and addeth v. 37. In all these things we are more then conquerours he made light of them all they were as nothing How so whence came this why from assurance of Gods love for saith he v. 38 39. I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor any Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lard If your condition be pious this evidence is the main thing which makes it most comfortable all the habits of graces are no actual comforts unless they become evident and so far do they comfort you as they are true and real evidences of Gods reconciled love and favour unto you 4. It will be an unspeakable stay unto you in death you know It will be a stay in Death the day of death will shortly overtake every one of us Here is no abiding City and what temptations may befall us then we cannot assure our selves we know not what Satan or conscience may raise up against us When our souls are ready to depart then either to be determinate God is not yet reconciled to me that just God before whom I must immediately appear to answer and make accounts or to be indeterminate It may be I am reconciled it may be I am not I never had any solid evidence of it how distracting a thing is this that the soul one minute hopes the best and presently it doubts the worst Now I think I shall go to Heaven and by and by I fear lest I shall be cast into Hell But if you had obtained to an evidence of Gods reconciled favour unto you that the Lord had pardoned all the sins of your life and had graciously accepted of you in Christ though death it self appears you would not much be moved I know that my redeemer lives said Job c. 19. And we know that if our earthly house be dissolved we have a building of God an house eternal in the heavens saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 1. 5. It is of all the most quickning and forwarding thing to the It is the most Quickning in duty heart for the performance of all sorts of holy duties We oftentimes complain what dull and slow hearts we have to Prayer were we more assured that God is reconciled to us we should quickly find hearts more affected and more enlarged for Prayer though we be afraid and flye from an angry and just God yet we would â—hye in and speed unto a reconciled and gracious God Psal 63. 1. Thou art my God here he discerns that whereof we speak sc God reconciled and then it followes early will I seek unto thee Again we wonder at our listnesses of our spirits to the word that we do not mind it long after it affect it more were you more assured of Gods love being more affected with him we should certainly grow more affected with his word They in 1 Pet. 2. 2. must desire the sincere Milk of the Word as new born Babes .i. with much eagerness and delightfulness but how might this apprehension be wrought in them Why v. 3. If so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious q. d. a tast an experience an assurance that God is your gracious God that is it which will whet an edge and appetite after the word I say no more but this you will serve the Lord with more willing hearts and cheerful then ever you did in all your lives if so be you could get assurance that God is reconciled 6. It makes your hearts most confident on God in evil times It makes us Confident in evill times when afflictions are upon you when dangers arise when distractions are in the world when any near calamity breaks in these are like Land-floods which carry away all or like the deluge in Noah's time which exceeded all the mountains so do these drown all the vain hopes and confidences of evil men that are not reconciled to God they know not in the world what to do they have no heart to go in unot God for their consciences now tell them plainly that they are in the estate of enmity and wrath But even now though the foundations of the earth be shaken the assured person who knows God is reconciled to him knows also that his foundation of love stands sure and firm and through all does he make his address unto the God of his mercies and shall find acceptance with him 7. Lastly It is that which will wonderfully inlarge your graces It will wonderfully inlarge our Graces the Apostle delivers it in the general that the knowledg of the love of Christ is a means
or Instrument of the Divine spirit for much good unto believing souls Among the rest it hath a singular virtue to breed assurance of Gods love and therefore it is called a Seal in Ro. 4. 11. In it Christ Jesus in whom God is reconciled is most distinctly represented in his Passion as making peace by his blood for our souls In it the same Christ Jesus is particularly offered and applyed unto us with all the benefits and efficacies of his person Take eat this is my body which was given for you 1 Cor. 11. 24. As if God should say As surely as I give thee this bread and wine so I give thee my Son and the purchase of his death even reconciliation and pardon and mercy A believing celebration of the Sacrament is a most admirable means to remove our doubts and to establish our hearts with an Fervent and patient Prayer assurance that God is reconciled unto us 3. Fervent and patient Prayer prizing the favour of God as David did Psal 63. 3. Hungring and thirsting after it as he hid Psal 106. 4 5. And thus continuing to seek with diligence being withall tenderly careful in our hearts and wayes to please the Lord we shall have the desires of our Souls crowned with the testimonies of his love here and with the full glory of his face and favour hereafter Luke 15. 21 22 23. 21. And the Son said unto him Father I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy Son 22. But the Father said to his servants Bring forth the best Robe and put it on him and put a Ring on his hand and Shoes on his feet 23. And bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry These words contain in them 1. The real acting of a penitential intention The matter whereof in his humble and sad confession I have insisted on already when I touched on v. 18 19. Now I shall observe a little more from the circumstance and manner of it 2. The strange alteration of his condition The heart of man never alters from sin to its prejudice the best courses ever draw after them the best comforts While he was a prodigal he had neither bread to eat nor Rags to cloath him nor house to lodg him much less Jewels to adorn him and feasts to entertain him But now he becomes a penitent here is a Father to admit him into a house to put the best Robe on his back and the Ring on his finger and Shoes on his feet and likewise to provide meat even the choicest for his belly Before I touch on these distinctly and particularly there are some Propositions which I will briefly touch on v. g. Doct. That no not the kindest expressions of mercy do silence a The kindest expressions of mercy do not hinder an humble confession of sin truly penitential heart from an humble confession of sin Kindest mercies draw out humblest confessions The Father pities meets embraces kisseth this penitential Prodigal What doth he rise up and slight all that hath been evil Oh no! mercy melts him down and he confesseth with tears Father I have sinned c. q. d. What is this that thou shouldst so easily so freely so mâ—rcifully behold so sinful so unworthy a wretch as I have been As David when God declared unto him the intentions of his further mercies for him and his posterity He sate before the Lord and said Who am I O Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto So is it with the true penitent upon the Declaration of pardoning and accepting mercy Now O Lord God who am I I who have done so wickedly yet to be remembred so graciously The same you find in Paul who though he received a testimony of his pardon and acceptance by a messenger graciously dispatched from Jesus Christ himself Acts 9. 17. Yet he doth most frequently and humbly acknowledg and confess the kinds and greatness of his former transgressions There is for the time a twofold Confession 1. Antecedent There is a twofold Confession Antecedent Consequent which is that humbling way which God designs for the assecution of mercy See Prov. 28. 13. 1 Jo. 1. 9. To make us indite and condemn our selves that he may acquit and pardon us 2. Consequent which is that judging and self-condemning way after mercy is obtained The sight of mercy breeds four notable effects in a true penitent 1. Much Admiration Oh that God should look on me 2. Much Detestation Oh that God should ever pardon me 3. More contrition Oh that I should sin against such a God 4. More Confession I have sinned and done very foolishly to sin against a God much in mercy 2. This consequent confession which followes the expressions or Consequent confession hath these qualities It is an ac-â— knowledgment of sin with more compunction testimonies of pardoning mercy hath these qualities 1. It is an acknowledging of sin with more compunction of spirit Sight of pardon doth not only open our lips but our eyes and fetcheth forth not only words but tears the heart doth break out when mercy breaks forth The heart never confesseth sin with more filial grief then when it apprehends sin much sin discharged with a paternal love the wind breaks the clouds but the Sun melts them most into showers so c. 2. It is an acknowledging of sin with more indignation The greaâ—er mercy makes a penitent With more indignation to be the sharper Judg the more God is now pleased with him the more is he displeased with himself for sinning against him When God remembred his Covenant Ezek. 16. 60. then did the penitential Israelites remember their wayes with shame v. 61. And when he made it known to them that he was pacifyed towards them then were they confounded and never opened their mouths more v. 63. 3. It is an acknowledging of sin with more With more aggravation aggravation Servile confessions are usually more deceitful and partial as Adam did acknowledg his sin but puts it on Eve no coâ—fessions are so free and full as such which arise from the apprehension of mercies David got his pardon for a great transgression but then hoâ— exact is he in the distinct accusation of himself and humble acknowledgment of his sin in all the articles and circumstances of it Psal 51. 4. It is an acknowledgment of sin with more detestation Evidence of pardon produceth two With more detestation effects One is more ardent affection of love to God Another is which necessarily followes a deeper hatred of sin which opposed so gracious a goodness All that good which God mentions in the Covenant Ezek. 36. 25. to the end of v. 30. produced a better remembrance of former evils and also a deeper loathing of themselves for their iniquities v. 31. As Job upon Gods appearing to him and conferring with him now abhors
confession he is the man who abounds most with the thankful Lip the watchful Heart the fruitful Hand and tender Conscience Two things make us hardned and careless Forgetfulness of Mercies from God and of Sins against God But no more of this Assertion There is another implicit Observation from the carriage of the Father to this penitential Prodigal upon his Confession It is this As there is nothing in the Sons thoughts and expressions but his Sins so there is nothing in the Fathers Intentions and expressions but Kindness The Son he thinks of his sins intends to leave his sins and to confess them and so he doth The Father he thinks of mercies and compassions intends to accept and pardon him and when he comes he doth not speak a word of his sins but every expression is mercy and peace and kindness Fetch the best Robe put on the Ring c. Whence I conjecture this Proposition is observable That God takes no notice of our sins upon our true Repentance Doct. 2. God takes no notice of our sins upon Repentance but expresseth himself wholly in love and kindness God takes no notice of former sins There is Notitia Intuitiva Notitia Charitativa but wholly expresseth himself in love and kindness There are two Branches of this Assertion 1. One that God takes no notice of former sins upon our true Repentance There is a threefold notice of sin in respect of God 1. Notitia Intuitiva which is his all observing eye of Omniscience from which nothing can be hid but every Creature and operation of the Creature whether open or secret is visible and manifest unto God that distinction of known and unknown secret and open hath no place in God to whose eye all things are naked In this respect the former sins of a penitent fall within Gods notice for the goodness of Divine Mercy doth not blind-fold the eye of Divine Omniscience 2. Notitia Charitativa which is a notice of sins as a kind Creditor takes notice of Debts owing unto him and set down in his book his eye is on them and his Pen also to cross and dash them out And in this respect also God takes notice of former sins namely so as out of rich love and gracious favour to cross and forgive them unless we will fondly imagine that God forgives sins by hap-chance at an adventure never seeing and considering what he doth 3. Notitia Vindictiva which is a Judiciary notice as a Judge takes notice Notitia Vindictiva of the evil facts of a Malefactor to Condemn him or to trouble and vex him In this respect upon true Repentance God takes no notice of former sins .i. either to condemn the penitent person for them or to upbraid him and dishearten him by casting them into his dish or hitting of him in the teeth as we speak Proverbially Hence those phrases in the Scripture upon supposition of Repentance Jer. 31. 34. I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more Not that Repentance makes God forgetful for he is no capable of such a defect as Oblivion but that when men cease to sin God will cease to argue and speak with them after a Judicial manner for their sins So Ezek. 18. 21. If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed ver 22. All his transgressions which he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him he means in any harsh judicial and cutting way More such phrases there are as that he will cover our sins cast them into the depths of the sea and cast them behind his back and though they be sought for yet they shall not be found The second Branch is that he expresseth himself wholly in He expresseth himself wholly in love and kindness love and kindness the which is most evident in Jer. 31. 19. when Ephraim repented and confessed his sin all the expressions now from God are full of tender Love Is Ephraim my dear son is he a pleasant child I do earnestly remember him still Ephraim thinks that I have forgotten him that I regard him not but there is no such matter my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy on him Hos 14. 2 3. Israel is repenting and confessing and praying and how doth God answer him See v. 4. I will heal their back-slidings I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him Ver. 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel Yet here we must distinguish 1. Twixt Gods expressions which Distinguish Twixâ— Gods expressions And the Penitents Apprehensions are alwayes very gracious gentle closing up comforting and reviving of the penitent And the penitents apprehensions which by reason of several principles in him are sometimes misplaced and mistaken God is just and he is a sinner he is a penitent sinner and God is merciful Now whiles the penitent apprehends his Sins only and not his Repentance or Gods Justice only and not his Mercy that tender graciousness and loving kindness is not so acquitted by him in his apprehensions Not that God is not really tender to him but that he through mistake and error apprehends it not so 2. Again you must distinguish Gods tender love and kindness as it is considerable in Divine promise and in Humane sense and Distinguish of Gods love as it is considerable 〈◊〉 Divâ—ne Proâ—â—â—es and Humane sense feeling You can no sooner repent but God is wholly in termes of tender love if you will behold his behaviour towards you in his Promises In them indeed you have the Idea as it were of his mind and affection they are the right glasse to behold the face of his mercifulness in through which if you look you shall not find any one harsh word or look or intention towards a penitent but all his thoughts in them are thoughts of peace and all his words in them are lips of peace Though the Samamaritan poured both Oile and Vinegar into the wound yet God through his promises pours out only the Oile of gladness But if you consult with his sense and feeling which is out of the roade of Faith then indeed this gracious tenderness is not so evident but we are apt through incredulous hastiness and ungrounded mis-judgings to exclaime with Zion But my God hath forgotten me or with David He hides away his face from me or with Job it was in the fits of impatience He writes bitter things against me 3. Thirdly You must distinguish of the penitent behaving himself Distinguish of the behaviour as a Penitent or as a Delinquent either ad modum penitentis as a penitent ad modum peccantis as a delinquent Let him repent and keep on in the wayes of repentance he shall meet with nothing from God but sweetness of love and mercy every step of righteousness is a path of peace and joy but if he step aside if he goes to a by-Lane he may quickly lose the sight
is to be diffusive as the nature of fire is to heat and of the Sun is to give light The love of Christ constraineth me saith Paul Doth he adorn his holy profession with an answerable conversation Why how can it be otherwise but that gracious habits should breed gracious acts and glorious qualities should breed glorious effects It is the nature of a Star to shine as it is the nature of dirt to defile and it is the nature of a Diamond to sparkle as it is of the earth to be bâ—ack c. 2. The peculiar disposition of Repentance Repentance in From the peculiar disposition of Repentance the proper nature produceth two effects 1. One in newness of life It is against the truth of Repentance for a man to live the same life to keep on the same course for this is impenitency not conversion but continuation not a regress but a progress not a change of life but a course of the same life But when Repentance comes change comes for what is repentance but the new purpose for a new life A man must be what he was not and do that which he never did and run an other course quite contrary to what he did put off the old conversation and put on a new Cease to do evil and learn to do well put off the service of unrighteousness and become the servant of holiness this is to be a penitent 2. Another is revenge you know the Apostle makes this one of the fruits of godly sorrow and repentance yea what revenge 2. Cor. 7. Now this revenge as it consists in many other things so in this especially that as we have imployed our soules and bodies in wicked acts to serve against the Lord to his dishonor so now we imploy and improve them in holy services to the proper glory of God now we busy them to know him to love him to obey him to honour him The penitent person is so sensible of the infinite dishonour which God hath had by his sinful life that if he had now a thousand souls and bodies and ten thousand lives all were little enough in all holiness of Conversation to redeem those dishonours and repair them 3. The peculiar intentions which God hath towards penitent persons The peculiar Intentions of God towards Penitent sinners He intends much Glory by them 1 He doth intend much glory to himself by them for these are the people whom he doth form for his glory and raise up to declare his praise as is evident in Paul and all other singular penitents they have been the great instruments of his glory but they cannot bring him glory unless they be enabled to live better lives then before If they be alienated from the life of God they necessarily are alienated from the glory of God Right believing and right living these are our methods to display the glory of God 2. He doth intend much peace and joy And much peaâ—e and joy unto them unto their Consciences a peace which passeth all understanding and a joy which passeth all expression even that which springs from his gracious favour and reconciliation with them in Christ which both pacifies the conscience and also quickens and revives it But this could not be unless he enabled them to new and better lives the life of holiness is the only path of peace that of wickedness is a way which knows not peace there is no peace unto wicked men nor unto wicked wayes And for Joy that only breeds joy in conscience which makes the conscience not to accuse but excuse not to torment but comfort only the new life is the properly joyful and comfortable life there are no spirits in the life which is not spiritual 3. He doth intend much outward mercy to them See how full the field of blessings is to the penitent but it And much outward mercy to them is upon this condition If his life be obedient as it were upon his good behaviour If ye consent and obey ye shall eat the good of the Land 4. He doth intend them Glory before men and Glory And Glory before men and with himself in Heaven with himself in heaven For the penitent he makes to be the excellent on earth his refined pieces of gold a choice people whom Nations shall honour and the people shall call blessed When a man leaves a sordid and ignominious course of sinning he then becomes honourable in the eyes of God and reputable in the eyes of men Now the spots of Leprosie fall off from Naoman and his flesh grows clear and fair but how should this Sun break out if the clouds still remaine Of necessity the life must alter if we would have the opinions of men to alter yea and to what purpose is it to imagine an eternal life hereafter unless we here first live an holy life without which no man shall see God Doth God inable the true penitent to a new and better life or Vse 1 walking then let us reflect on our wayes and lives How do we live What kind of life doâ—st thou live Dâ—ceive not thy self with the goodness of thy heart if thy life be bad What kind of life is that which we do now live Is it the life of a penitent or no Never talk that thy heart is as good to God-ward as any mans though thy life be vile thou deludest thy self if thy life be evil assuredly thy heart is not good The Tree sayes our Saviour is known by his fruits for a person to talk of a penitent heart and what terror he hath had for sin and in some particulars to makâ— a little semblance of godliness when yet all this while he goes on in a course of drunkenness or of uncleanness of riotousness or of lying or of pride or of covetousness or of injustice or of scoffing c. What a monstrous and wilful deceit is this of a mans soul Thou a penitent who art still a servant of Lust Thou a penitent who still walkest in darkness Thou a penitent whose very course of life is nothing but a confutation of repentance a trade in sin Knowest thou not O sinner that where the heart is changed the life will change If thou hast once put off thy corrupt nature thou wilt easily put off thy corrupt conversation Who doth as he did if he be not as he was No real repentance turns us and that is from the love of sin in the heart and from the course of sin in the life as it suffers thee not to be an hypocrite so it abhors that thou shouldst be profane if thy life be bad question it not thy heart is bad that filthy speech comes from thy filthy Nature that haughty look from thy proud Nature that griping hand from thy cruel Nature that fraudulent tongue from thy cousening Nature 2. As much are they deceived who go on gently and gravely in their old Nor with a cold formal negative
power to come forth to come back to God Rom. 5. Without strength It knows not by its own light one foot of the way and when it is made known alas it finds no power to stir nay if I might have mercy and heaven upon the freest terms but for coming home I am not able to do it O how a found lost soul complains It complains as much of an impotent heart as of a wandring heart I cannot come I cannot turn this wandring heart into the right way come back to my God I should but come I cannot go to Christ I should but go I cannot if Christ doth not come to me I shall never be able to come to him if he doth not seek me I shall never seek him iâ— he finds not me with strength I shall never find him with comfort and safety 3. If God hath indeed found thee Thou wilt above all He will above all thiâ—gs desire to be found in Christ things desire to be found in Christ The found soul presently finds a need of Christ Paul as soon as mercy found him would by no means be found in himself but by all means be found in Christ That I may be found in him saith Paul Phil. 3. 9. There was a Nobleman one Elyearius who was supposed to be lost and his Lady sent up and down to find him One at length meets with him and tels him how sollicitous his Wife was to find him out O answered he commend me to my Wife and tell her That if she desires to find me she must look for me in the heart of Jesus Christ for there onely am I to be found And verily there is no poor soul whom God is finding and bringing home to himself on whom he hath imprinted a true sense of his lostness but presently the soul cries out What shall I do what shall I do to be saved O that I might have Christ and O that I might be found in Jesus Christ Remember two things 1. That the Lord will bring back to himself no soul but by Jesus Christ Christ is the sinners way to the Father he is the door by which you are admitted If ever the Lord casts an eye on thee or take thee by the hand it is for his Christ's sake 2. A lost soul which is found finds an absolute need of Jesus Christ Nothing out of Christ can make peace can justifie can reconcile can set us straight can make us accepted Had I all other things and had not Christ I were still a lost person Had I the righteousness of Angels yet if I had not Christ I were lost could I mourn could I repent could I pray could I live holily could I walk exactly yet I am lost I am still lost until I get into Christ I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord. God will look on me as my Judge he will look on me as his enemy he will not own me as a Father as a reconciled Father but in Christ 4. If thy lost soul be truly found then Jesus Christ may be Jesus Christ may be found in that lost soul found in that lost soul of thine They report of Ignatius that the Letters of Jesus were found written in his heart This I dare affirm That the Picture of Christ the Graces of Christ the Life of Christ is to be found in every found man Paul Lydia the Jailor Christ was sought by them and found in them It cannot be that a sinner should be found if Christ be not to be found in him Why if thou be a Christless man who doubts it but that thou art a lost man Now do not deceive thy soul thou canst say that Christ once was to be found in the Temple and Christ once was to be found on the Cross and Christ is still to be found at the right hand of his Father but is there not one place more where thou canst find him hast thou not a heart Is Christ to be found there I say there in thy heart I find him in thy Ear when thou hearest and I find him in thy mouth when thou speakest and thou findest him in thy mind when thou thinkest but still I ask Dost thou find him in thy heart which loves which fears which joys which delights which embraceth O is Christ in thy heart what a found man and nothing of Christ to be found in thee I know not perhaps wilt thou reply Why this is strange that Christ should be in thee and thou never know it Christ dwels in the broken heart in the believing heart Christ lives in him who onely lives upon Christ Christ was a crucified Christ doth he cruâ—ifie thy heart He was a holy Christ doth he purifie thy heart He was an humble Christ doth he abase thy heart He was a tender Christ doth he mollifie thy heart He was a satisfying Christ doth he pacifie thy heart He was an obedient Christ doth he command doth he lead doth he rule thy heart He did for thee canst thou do for him He died for thee canst thou suffer for him He loved thee canst thou delight in him 5. If the Lord hath graciously found thy lost soul and indeed Then thou wilt find sufficiency in thy Fathers house brought it home unto himself Then thou wilt â—ind sufficiency an enough at least in thy Fathers house There is enough in God to allure and draw a sinner home to keep a sinner at home that he needs not wander abroad mercy and pleasures for evermore This the Prodigal discover'd afar off even in the birth of his finding There is bread enough and to spare God seems a poor thing a mean thing an insufficient thing to a lost man and therefore he wanders up and down and serves his lusts and begs from the Creatures to make him out some delight some pleasure some profit some subsistence some contentment But God is a rich thing a Fulness He alone is enough One God is enough for my one soul if my soul indeed be found of him O he hath Mercy enough for me to save me Love enough for me to delight me Pleasure enough for me to comfort me Dignity enough for me to advance me Help enough for me to preserve me Happiness enough for me to save me If I want Grace he is the God of Grace if I want Peace he is the God of Peace if I want Mercies he is the Father of Mercies if I want for Earth the Earth is the Lords if I would have Heaven he is the God of my Salvation Now friend what say you hath God found your lost soul and what hath your soul found in your God What canst thou say of this God of his Mercy Love Entertainment Communion With thee the fatherless findeth mercy Thy favour is better than life It is good for me to draw near unto God canst thou say thus is there bread enough for thee in thy Fathers
Without saith it is impossible to please God Hebr. 11. 6. 2. But let us proceed further and search what Reasons may be produced to demonstrate the Assertion That the natural or Reasons of it unconverted man is spiritually dead and as to spirituals altogether dead Thus then 1. He who hath no Communion at all with Hâ—â—ath no communion with the principles of spiritual life the principles of spiritual life is in a spiritual sense altogether dead for where there is no principle of life there cannot be any thing but death Tolle animam tolle vitam but the impenitent and unconverted sinner hath no communion with any one principle of spiritual life Therefore c. There is a twofold principle of this life 1. A primitive conjunction with God in the estate of Innocency but this is lost 2. Arenewed Conjunction with God by Christ but yet this is not attained to by an unconverted sinner It is a confessed truth that Jesus Christ is the Author of spiritual life to the sinner He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Joh. 5. 17. And the sinner hath it partly by Faith which taking Christ takes life from him by the Spirit of Regeneration which renews and makes him alive but the unconverted sinner hath neither the one nor the other had he either he were then converted 2. Original sin whilst reigning is a compleat cause of spiritual Original sin is a compleat cause of spiritual death death But original sin reigns in the impenitent and unconverted sinner therefore he is dead The Fathers have diversly Phrased Original sin some call it Venenum Syerpentis so Cprian others Plagam serpentis so Ireneus others Vitium parentum so Pauâ—inius in Austin the Apostle Paul calls it sometimes the body of sin sometimes the body of death sometimes the Law of sin and death sometimes the Vncircumcision of the heart Our Divines generally conceive two things in it viz. In Original sin there is 1. A total deprivation of original righteousness The Faculties remain but the Rectitude is gone It is reported of an excellent Philosopher that he fell into a Disease which dashed out all the Learning that ever he acquired so that he forgat even his own Name Original sin is like the extinguishing of a Candle the Candle remains still but the Light is gone Or like the quenching of red Iron the Iron remains but the fiery redness is all gone Or like a Tree the Limbs remain but the Life is gone It is an Universal spoil it hath robbed us of all our supernaturals worse to us than the Devil to Job who took away all that he had yet spared his Life But Original Sin not onely took away Paradise and Righteousness but all self-power so much as to desire to be good 2. A total depravation of all the man Seges ubi Troia The Soul of Man was once like a Garden fully set with the sweetest Flowers of Righteousness but now it is become like a Wilderness run over and filled with Briars and Thorns Or it is like a Face which once was the most curious of features every part expressing most amiable sweetness now it is like the same Face most deformed with the clusters of the Pox and the very shame and reproach of it self There is not a Faculty in the Soul but it is like the Bough of a fruitfull Tree thickly laden with Iniquity It is a Spring bubling out nothing but aversation enmity resistance to spiritual good and readiness inclination eagerness unsatiableness to all that is evil God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man was onely evil continually Gen. 6. 5. The best of men complain of blindness of dulness of deadness Alas then what or how is it with the worst of men Paul could not do good a wicked man would not do good Paul complains for want of power what then may an unconverted man do By all this I think it manifectly appears That the unconverted man is spiritually dead because Original Sin reigns in him if in any then in him and where Original Sin reigns there is a total privation or absence of all spiritual Life and total corruption or presence of spiritual Death in the Soul The terms used in Scripture to express conversion 3. The Terms used in Scripture to express a sinners conversion do seem sufficiently weighty to prove That before his conversion he was spiritually dead For it is set forth sometimes By the Resurrection of the dead Ephes 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead By the Generation of a person Of his own good will begat he us with the word of truth Jam. 1. 18. By Creation 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Now observe if Conversion be a Resurrection a spiritual Resurrection then the soul before Conversion was spiritually dead if Conversion be a Regeneration then a new life is brought into the soul which it totally wanted before If Conversion be a Creation and the converted man qua talis be a new creature then he had no spiritual being before If spiritual Life be a creature onely of Christ's making then c. 4. To me those spiritual Promises which God makes of giving The promises of giving a spiritual being and life a spiritual being and life do abundantly clear that man is dead As of pouring forth the Spirit of Grace giving his Spirit taking away the heart of Stone and giving the heart of Flesh of giving Knowledge Love Fear c. Such kinds of Promises imply three things 1. Our total want and need 2. Gods undertaking to bestow them 3. A free and total donation of them to us on Gods part 5. S. Austin useth the Duty of Prayer to prove this Assertion The duty of Prayer against the Pelagians Petenda à Deo bona omnia ergo nihil boni ex nobis possumus And in an Epistle to Vitalis he saith Prorsus non oramus Deum sed orare nos singimus si nos ipsos non illum credimus facere quod oramus 6. I will add but one Argument more viz. That man is totally dead quantum ad spiritualia who cannot so much as Man cannot prepare himself to life prepare himself no not remotely no not in any degree unto the life of Grace But the Unconverted man cannot virtute propria and without supernatural aid in the least degree prepare himself c. for without that aid he cannot desire deliverance out of his sinfull estate nor mourn over it nay not feel it nay not spiritually know it The Use which I desire to make of this Point I shall reduce unto 1. Information 2. Trial 3. Instruction 1. For Information Is every natural and unconverted man a Information spiritually dead man Hence we may be informed of several The unconverted man is in the saddest condition Truths 1. That the
unconverted man is of all men on the earth in the saddest vilest miserablest condition Why Because he is spiritually dead dead spiritually dead A wounded man is in a tedious condition and a diseased man is in a languishing condition but what is a wound to death what is a disease to death Me morienti mori Death is the Sun-set of all comfort Death is the drowning of a little world Death is the very Hermitage of forgetfulness and loathsome corruption Death is the lowest and vilest condition what then is a spiritual Death No Death like the spiritual Death O my friends consider spiritual Death either in comparison in its proper complexion Consider this death or in the consequents of it surely no Death no condition is so dismal as it 1. In comparison with any other In comparison with other death Death This is the worst this is the heaviest There is the Death of our Goods and Estate into which Job fell of our Name and Reputation into which David fell of our Bodies and natural Life into which Lazarus fell of the Soul the immortal soul of man into which every unconverted sinner is fallen Now what is a dead Estate to a dead Soul Or what is a dead Name to a dead Soul Or what is a dead Body to a dead Soul It is not so much as the death of a Dog to the death of a Man Every unconverted man hath a dead soul a converted man may have a troubled soul but the unconverted man hath a dead soul sin hath slain his precious soul If the soul be dead what is alive What is that man whose soul is dead In all other deaths something is alive if Goods be gone the Name lives if the Name be gone the Body lives if the Body be gone the Soul lives But if the Soul also be gone what lives 2. In it self Why spiritual Death is a total privation of God In iâ— self of Christ of Grace no life of God no life of Christ no life of Grace is there in any unconverted person none at all Ah poor wretch what art thou and what is thy condition who art thus dead A total corruption diffusion possession with sin S. Austin affirms That the very Vertues of the Heathens were but splendida peccata meer flowers on a dead man And Solomon The sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. What a gastly sâ—ght would it be to open a grave and see the dead body run over with crawling worms and a general putrefaction over all the parts And truly so it is with the soul of an unconverted person it is the filthiest nastiest corruptedst may I say Câ—â—â—on Luther said once So many sins so many hells surely I may then say So many Sins so many Deaths The unconverted man is full of sin his heart is full of evil so Soloman He is filled with all unrighteousness so Paul affirmeth Job was filled with botches yea but he was not filled with sins and Lazarus was filled with sores yea but he was not filled with sins and Davids soul was filled with complaints and Christs soul was filled wich sorrow yea but it was not filled with sin Every unconverted mans dead soul is filled with living sins as a good mans soul is filled with dying and dead sins and a soul full of living sins is much like a soul filled up with Hel-fire There is no evil so evil as sin and no sin so evil as living sin and no living sin so evil as a fulness and an onliness of living sin 3. In the consequents of it I will name but three of them In the consequents of it 1. All the guilt of all those sins lie on him alone 2. All the wrath of God looks on him the sentence of curse 3. An eternal death may soon befal him 2. Then no marvel that publick and private admonitions counsels No marvel that admonitions reproofs counsels prevail not with most men reproofs prevail not with the most of men We Ministers preach and we think we preach Religion and with evidence enough of Reason and deliver things fairly and plainly and convincingly and now we wonder at it that men should hear such clear and undeniable truths and not be moved and perswaded And Parents give admirable counsels and instructions to their Children and no good comes of them c. Why Sirs are not unconverted men dead men And what can all our undertakings alone considered do unto dead men Assuredly unless the Lord of Life himself will speak these counsels and these admonitions unto sinfull men they will never hear them so as to be stirred so as to be moved so as to be converted by them they will remain in their sinfull condition and obstinate wayes to eternity 3. Then it is of Gods meer mercy and pity and power if ever It is Gods mercy that any soul is converted thy poor soul be converted Never ascribe it to thy excellency what excellency is there in a dead man to thy power what power is there where there is no life to thy self preparations what active disposing or preparation can a dead man afford The dead sinner is the meer object of purest mercy and the dead sinner is without all strength if ever his souls lives then to Christ must that life own it self and to Divine Mercy and Power c. The next Use shall be for Trial or Examination Since every unconverted man is spiritually dead let 's therefore search our Vse 2. Trial Whether we be spiritually dead Four Tokens of it hearts in what a condition they are Are not many of us yet dead in sins and trespasses spiritually dead men There are four Tokens of a man spiritually dead 1. Vnsensibleness Where there is no life there is no sense of all sinners the unsensible sinner is in the most deadly condition Tanto pejor quanto insensibiliter saith Austin Do what you will to a dead man he is Unsensibleness unsensible of it call to him he hears not put the sweetest perfumes to him he smels not kick him cut him burn him he feels not although he be full of loathsomness he perceives it not Now I beseech you mind this Trial for verily if spiritual unsensibleness prevail upon you you are spiritually dead If spiritual sense be the first evidence of Life then è contra spiritual unsensibleness is a sure evidence of Death And what spiritual sensation is yet wrought in you There are sins upon sins mountains upon mountains in your hearts the least of them hath been an heavy burthen to a living soul but what hast thou ever felt of thy sinfull heart and life There is in the Ministry of the Gospel no less than riches of Mercy freeness of Love glories of Heaven tendred to you but what do you perceive in it Didst thou never yet feel and cry out of a body of Death O here here is a dead heart an ignorant heart a
to Grace and Christ 3. There is the highest contrariety in actions and courses that ever was to see a man pull down what he built up and There is the highest contrariety of courses and actions to build up what he pulled down to be mad against Christ and then presently even besides himself for Christ to scourge and revile Paul and Silas and presently after honour and embrace and almost adore them To reproach the Saints and their wayes and suddenly to admire them and value them and their paths as worthiest of our dearest love and society 4. And a little And a little grace to produce all this very little Grace to produce all this That one drop should sweeten the great bitter Ocean that one little spark should cause all this flame A very little Engine should move all the World and level the Mountains a little Grace to enter the Throne and to turn all the soul round about That Moses little Rod should divide the Sea and melt the Rock a little Ant tumble down a Mountain that the Grain of Mustard-seed which is the least of seeds should grow into a Tree That a very little Grace should transform the most rebellious heart humble the most proud heart quicken the dead purisie the most vile affections conquer the Gates of Hell overthrow sin dispossess Satan should beget such a River of Grief kindle such a flame of love such a zeal for God tenderness in Conscience such a strength to do and suffer to believe life in death joy in sorrows hopes in despair raise so high as to love them that hate us bless them that curse us pray for them that despightfully use us and do good for evil 3. True Conversion is an inward change When It is an inward change a dead man is made alive this is done by the infusion of an inward principle of life the cloathing of a dead man is one thing and the quickning of a dead man is another thing it is one thing to plaister an old house and it is another thing to build a new house Conversion may be considered two wayes either 1. Extensively So it is a change even of the life and outward actions of men it is a cleansing of the flesh as well as of the spirit it is a sanctifying of the body as well as of the soul It is a putting off the former Conversation Eph. 4. 22. 2. Denominatively So it is an inward change the Prophet calls it a washing of the heart Wash thine heart O Jerusalem Jer. 44. 4. The Apostle calls it a transformation by the renewing of the mind Rom. 2. 29. and a Circumcision of the heart Rom. 2. 29. St. John calls it a laying the Ax to the root of the Tree Mat. 3. 10. Ezekiel calls it the giving of a new heart and of a new spirit Ezek. 36. 26. Every converted man hath a changed heart we say in nature that Cor est primum vivens It is true also in Grace the first work of quickning and converting Grace begins in the heart of a sinner The heart first fell from God and it is the first that turns unto God The heart is the first Seat of Sin and it is the first Throne of Grace Sin is the wound and disease of the heart and Grace must bring the Plaister thither sin is first in the heart and most in the heart dominion is there the poyson is there bring in the heart prevail with it and you bring in all the man An outward change without an inward change is 1. But Hypocrisie The Hypocritical Pharisees made clean the outside of the Cup bùt not the inside a golden profession and a rotten heart this is but Hypocrisie 2. But Vanity it is to lap the Boughs and leave the Roots which can send out more it is to empty the Cistern and to leave the Fountain running which fills it again 3. But self and soul-deceit What a foolish fancy is it to think my self a converted man because my Tongue is quiet and yet my heart doth curse Whether every internalchange be an evidence of true conversion Four internal changes may be in man unconverted A change from ignorance to knowledg God because my body is honest when yet my heart burns and boils with lust because my hands strike not and yet my heart is full of malice and revenge and murder Quest But here a single scruple may be propounded viz. Whether every internal change be an evidence of true Conversion To which I answer it is not there are four Internal changes which may be in a man unconverted 1. A change from ignorance to knowledg The man who was an ignorant sinner may become a knowing sinner and yet remain still an unconverted sinner for a man may hate the good which he knows and love the evil which he knows neither of which can consist with true Conversion 2. A change from error to truth Many Fâ—om error to truth a man forsakes the Popish Religion and embraceth the Protestant Religion his opinion and judgment of things may be altered and yet his sinful heart may not be altered he may hold justification by faith only and yet his heart be utterly void of saving faith he may deny merit unto the works of Repentance and yet his heart never truly repent he may hold the true and right Government of Christ in his Church and yet that Government of Christ may never be set up in his own heart 3. A change from security to trouble and perplexity It is possible that a great From security to trouble sinner who was as senseless as the Rock may now be as trembling as the Leaf and his conscience troubled as the Sea and yet his heart not converted Cain was troubled so was Pharaoh so was Saul so was Judas yet none of them converted There is a trouble which riseth from a quick conscience and there is a trouble which riseth from quickning grace this latter is an evidence of true Conversion the other is not 4. A temporary change or A temporary change rather a transient diversity in the affections It is possible for some scornful person to hear the Gospel preached by some John Baptist as Herod did with joy and to hear some Paul as Felix did with trembling who formerly scorned all preaching yea this man may be in a great changeableness yet never be truly changed divine truths may fall upon him with that evidence and efficacy as to shake his heart stir his affections excite his resolutions and yet after a little while as the cold doth on Water that is heated all these workings expire into nothing his old incorporated familiar lusts prevail over them and work them wholly out till the inward change be a change of the heart it is not a truly converting change 4. Lastly true Conversion is an universal change When It is a universal change a dead man is quickned the soul is not only
becomes malleable nevertheless it is not changed in its Intrinsecal disposition 4. When a man is Formal in duties but not Spiritual in duties he holds a customary course but not a conscientious course this mans heart is not changed Judas was as busie about Christ as the other Disciples yet he was not changed Some unconverted man may be as frequent in religious duties as converted persons are yet their hearts unchanged There are four things which prove a formal Christian to have an unchanged Four things prove a formal Christian to have an unchanged Heart Heart for though he doth good duties yet he doth them 1. From carnal Principles of Custome Education Example not from Faith Love and Spiritual Principles 2. For Carnal Ends with a respect to his Estimation with men not with God or he doth some good to blind and cover more evil 3. As a Carnal or Natural work not as a Communion with God or Christ if he doth them it is sufficient but whether he meets with God in them or God with him in them whether he pleaseth God and God accepts of him and them or what heavenly revenues come into his soul upon them he regards not 4. Without any Delight A good mâ—n hates the sin which he doth an evil man hates the good which he doth he delights not in the Law of God after the Inward man he is glad when the work is done but not to do the work It is his Task it is not his Pleasure It is a Heaviness but not an Heaven to him his Spirit is weary as much as his Body he cannot take hold of God be importunate in prayer for any Grace he doth not put out a Might a Power a Zeal in holy Services but acts them with a sleepy faint wearisome undelightful Spirit 5. When a man hath been and still is a stranger to Inward Conflicts certainly that mans heart was never changed there may be two conditions wherein all may be quiet One is in anothere life where grace stands alone in heaven there is no sin but holiness is grown unto its utmost perfection and therefore it is above contrariety and conflict Another is in this life where sin stands alone it hath the dominion and blinds the mind sears the conscience and hardens the heart there is neither a contrary light nor a contrary grace to raise any stirs and conflicts But then there is a third condition which hath medium participationis in it in which the soul is partly flesh and partly spirit sin is there and grace is there there are two contrary Natures two contrary Lawes two contrary Inclinations and workings two Adamants as it were one drawing the soul to evil the other drawing the soul to good one willing the other unwilling one yielding the other resisting one putting on to â—aith to love to mourning to praying to repenting the other putting off the soul from all these when I would do good evil is present with me saith Paul And verily it is thus with every converted and changed man The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit lusteth against the flesh and these two are contrary one to another so that they cannot do the good that they would Gal. 5. 17. And if no such thing be in thee thy heart was never changed That man who never finds an unbelieving nature opposing and conflicting with a believing nature hardness conflicting with softness c. his heart was never changed for converting grace is in us but in part and if but in part then some sinfulness still remains and believe it there are not two more active more contrary more conflicting principles then grace and sin in the same subject 6. When a man is constantly formal in the same rode and posture all his dayes like a Pioâ—ture never better nor worse Such who seem to be changed without and within but it is not total Two things manifest a partial change When they do not come up fully to the commanding Will of God 3. There are many men who seem to be changed without and within yet the change is not a total or universal change and there are two things which do manifest a partial change only to be in many men 1. When they do not come up fully to God in respect of his commanding will they cannot come up to the Will of God when his Will is most spiritual when his will is most strict as self-denial when his will is most difficult Oh to sacrifice Isaâ—c that beloved Child to part with Benâ—amin this is against them to pluck out the right eye and cut off the right hand this is an hard saying when his will is most suffering For the young man to forsake all his riches this is a sorrowful Injuction to renounce all our honours with Moses and to suffer reproaches with the people of God to leave Friends and Father and Mother and Brethren and Sisters and Children and Lands and Life too as the Apostles did When a man is converted he is now so changed that his will and Gods Will are not sutable but also coextensive It is pliable and it is parallel Gods Will is my will and what he wills I will the Law of God is written in his heart every command of God is ingraven upon it there may you read the Masters Copy and the Scholar writing after it This is to be done saith God this I desire to do saith the Godly heart this I would have thee to believe Lord I believe help my unbelief Thus much I would have thee to suffer Lord strengthen me and give me not only to believe but to suffer for thy sake But in a partial change it is otherwise 2. When they do not fully come up to God in respect of his forbidding Nor to the forbidding Will of God will You know that God forbids all sin he forbids spiritual sins pride ambition c. as well as fleshly sins 2 Cor. 7. 1. little sins faith and troth vain thoughts as well as great sins secret sins alone as well as open sins heart sins heart-adultery revenge malice as well as life sins Gospel sins unbelief and grieving of the Spirit of God as well as Law sins sins of Omission as well as sins of Commission breeding or original sin as well as actual Quest But some may say unto me If the case be so How How a man may know that God hath indeed changed his heart Some things premised There are many aboâ—â—ive changes may one know that God hath indeed converted and changed his very heart so that he may confidently say that although I was once dead yet I am now alive This Question deserves a serious Resolution For 1. There are many abortive changes deluding changes rising from false and insufficient Principles from a terrifyed conscience or from politick parts or from the power of restraint or from denial of occasions or from prevalent passions or from the contrariety of one sin
upon the spirit of a man which There may be many changes not inconsistent with the saving change yet are not inconsistent with the saving change of his Spirit Sometimes he may be lively and quick sometimes he may be flat and dull sometimes he may be confident and cheerful and at some other times he may be afraid and mournful sometimes he may be full and enlarged and at some other time he may be aukard and streightned sometimes he may have more sense of Gods Love and sometimes more sense of his own sins None of these things are essential to the converted estate a mans heart may be truly changed by converting grace notwithstanding many crosses and afflictions on his outward estate many eclipses in his comforts many varieties in his spiritual actings many contrarieties twixt his sence and his faith many temptations upon his spirit to many doubts and fears in his heart 4. Sinful corruptions never work with a more sensible strength Sinful corruptions work with more sensible strength when the heart is truely changed then when the heart is truly converted and changed Before Conversion our sins do work more mightily but we do not then perceive the workings because your delight was then in sinning and nothing is burthensome to delight and nothing was in us contrary to our sinnings the strong man kept all the house and every faculty was a friend and servant to sin the river ran all one way But when the heart is converted there is now laid into it 1. The quickest principle of feeling 2. The contrariest principle of resisting 3. The properest principle of destruction to sin and therefore no marvel that we feel our sinful natures more than formerly for all qualities are most active and most felt in cases of resistance and destruction nevertheless none of these must conclude against our Conversion but rather for it because 1. The greatest work of grace is inward 2. The sense of sinful workings joyned with an hatred of them and humbling of the heart under them and with addresses to God for subduing power is certainly a sign of converting grace Therefore hearken unto me thou distressed soul 1. Though the Glory of Grace consists in Victory yet the Truth of Grace appears in Combats the fighting Souldier is as right to the cause as the conquering Souldier there is fire in the smoking flax as well as in the flaming furnace 2. That great corruptions still remaining in temptation are the burdens of a weak Christian but are not the Characters of a false Christian 3. Jesus Christ can by a little grace weaken strongest corruptions The least true grace will help thy soul to Christ through whose strength thou who art now in conflict shalt ere long be made more than a Conqueror 4. True grace begins in weakness goes on with combat but ends in victory There is but little light at the first and more darkness for quantity but the light of the Sun is rising and dissipating and at length remains alone Conquering grace hath comfort conflicting grace hath strength and even mourning grace hath truth Peter's tears shewed truth of Grace as well as Paul's Triumph But how may I descern my change to arise from the power of converting How it may be discerned that this change is from converting grace and â—ot from the power of a troubling coâ—science Answered grace and not from the power only of a troubling conscience Sol. I conceive thus in four particulars 1. When the change is made only from the sting of conscience that change goes off and vanisheth when the trouble of conscience goes off and continues only while that doth continue whiles the trouble of conscience is on the man the man will hear and the man will pray and the man will consult and profess and resolve yea and now too to become a new man yea and he will cry out against his sins and will not come near his sins But when that trouble is off all is off again the Water which was heated grows cold again Saul is pursuing David again and Foelix is covetous again But if the change be from grace though trouble be off yet the heart is against sin and is for good for grace sets us against sin as it makes us unholy and evil and not only or principally as it makes us uncomfortable and miserable 2. When the change ariseth only from a troubling conscience not from a contrariety to God but to us It doth not arise from a hatred of sin and a love of good but only from a hatred of torment a self-love and a love of ease the man loves that sin that he dares not now commit and hates the good which now he doth he doth the good only as a means to take off his trouble he doth it not as a work in which he delights nor doth he flie sin as an evil which he hates he flies sin as it is malum sensibile not as it is malum spirituale But in a gracious change trouble doth not cause hatred but hatred causeth trouble of sin 3. When the change is only from a troubling conscience then when the trouble is gone the mans heart is more hardned and he growes more wicked then ever before and in after sinnings less sensible and less troubled as Iron growes more hardned after it hath been in the fire or water that is stopped more violent If they be again intangled and overcome the latter end is worse with them then the beginning 2 Pet. 2. 20. But where the heart is changed by grace the more grace still the more sense of sin and still the more fear to sin and still the more love of God 4. When the change comes only from the trouble of conscience the change extends no further then to that or those particular sins for which the conscience doth trouble the man if the other sins trouble not they are not left But when the change is wrought by grace this change extends to all sins I hate every evil way saith David they do no iniquity Psal 119. Let us â—leanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7. 1. Quest How may a man know that his change is not the fruit of Hypocrisie but of Converting grace Sol. This may be discerned How it appears this change is not the fruit of Hypocrisie thus 1 The change by Hypocrisie 1. Is not Cordial no Hypocrites heart is changed In heart ye work wickedness The Hypocrite dares to give way to heart sins Judah turned Answered not with her heart but feignedly 2. Is not Vniversal The Prophet tells the hypocritical Israelites that they were as a Cake half baked and not turned an hypocrite though he forsake many sins yet he loves some sin Jehu cannot part with the golden Calves though he did destroy Baal 3. Is not lasting but changeable sutable occasions are too strong for an heart felsely changed 4. Is not able to abide three Trials of
comes out of the hand of love and kindness O Sirs even the ordinary mercies to a converted man have a sweet distinction in them they are so perfumed they are so distilled they are so carved they are all of them the kisses of a father the gifts of a gracious God Every bit of Bread thou eatest and every draught of Beer thou drinkest and every piece of Cloath thou wearest it is the special provision of thy most gracious God and thy loving Father If some one royal mercy in the Covenant be able sometimes to sweeten an Ocean to turn hell into heaven to wipe off all tears and put the soul almost into an extasie of joy what rivers of joy then can the whole Covenant afford If the lifting up of the light of Gods countenance upon the soul which is but one beam of the Covenant if his saving to a man Soul I am thy Salvation if one word Son be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee imprints a superlative comfort a joy unspeakable and full of glory if one drop be so sweet how sweet is the Fountain if one Grape what is the cluster of Grapes Now not only this or that mercy in the Covenant belongs to a converted man but every mercy the God of all mercies and all the mercies of God the God of all comforts and all the comforts of God 5. True Conversion It is the infallible fore-runner the It is the infallible forerunner of glory earnest the pawn of Glory the pledg which God leaves in hand the first fruits of thy eternal Glory in the highest heavens and is not this a cause of great joy if I look back and see a love from all eternity if forward and see a glory to all eternity Truly if I should never taste Honey on earth if all the Wells of a present comfort were stopped up if my Father should never smile on me in the way if all my Life were a sayling on brinish tears and my Ship were still to be tossed with troublesome waves yet if I were sure at length to put in at this Port to come safe to Heaven at length to appear before the God of Gods at the last to see him in Glory and enjoy his face and the pleasures at his right hand for evermore even this confidence and assurance were enough to make me to rejoyce in the hope of the Glory of God Oh Christian besides all that joy which ariseth from converting grace which is it self a sweet Rose and besides all those Honey dewes which fall upon the soul in the exercise of grace in the way to Heaven Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness those that remember thee in thy wayes Isai 64. 5. There is also reserved in the highest heavens that most perfect happiness that most perfect tranquillity that most perfect joy Oh I cannot express it I cannot comprehend it 1 Pet. 1. 3. He hath begotten us again unto a lively hope v. 4. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you Ponder the words an inheritance the best of possessions incorruptible the best of inheritances undefiled the best of incorruptibles unfading the best of undefileds and reserved in heaven the best of unfadings Nothing is so surely kept as that which is kept in heaven for us and born unto all this and a lively hope of all this Oh what comfort Oh what joy comes out of all this If I had all the world and lookt up towards heaven but my heart should tell me that goodly Canaan will never fall to thy portion it would be now with me as once with Ahab who though he enjoyed a Kingdome yet was very sad because the heavens were as Brass to him But in the midst of all distresses to look up to Heaven to think of God and the future Beatifical Vision and upon infallible grounds to say that God is my Father that Heaven is my inheritance that place of Glory is my home there shall I be shortly there shall I be to eternity I have the earnest of it the pawn of it in my heart the first fruits c. 2. Secondly As to Christ The converted condition cannot As to Christ but be joyful because the converted person hath 1. A neer relation to Christ Bone of his Bone 2. A singular propriety in Christ my beloved is mine c. 3. An admirable revenue by Christ wonderful riches of and by Christ all are yours for ye are Christs 4. He is bought by Christ and reconciled by Christ and loved by Christ and discharged by Christ and owned by Christ and defended by Christ and kept by Christ and shall one day be saved by Christ 3. As to Conscience As a mans conscience is so is his comfort As to Conscience or discomfort so is his joy or sorrow One drop of an evil conscience saith Luther doth imbitter the whole Sea of worldly joy an evil conscience is an hell in the brest and in hell said Latimer there is no mirth and on the contrary a good conscience it is a kind of heaven one good word from it will sweeten all our miseries and cause us to rejoyce under all sorrows Solomon saith it is a continual feast it is the year of Jubilee conscience speaks the truest joy and the strongest joy and the highest joy and no man hath a good conscience but a good man Conscience cannot speak peace till a man be converted and when he is converted conscience hath then a commission and authority to look on the man and speak to the man as God doth When thou hearest of pardon of sins Oh saith conscience hearken and be of good cheer that 's thy portion when thou hearest of Jesus Christ and of his sufferings and of his satisfactions and merits hearken saith conscience and take hold for all this also is thy portion when thou hearest the Covenant of Grace graciously explained and all the glories in heaven Oh saith conscience all this also is thy portion when thou art about to pray and fears are intruding themselves do not fear â—aith conscience thou art speaking to thy Father when thou art about to dye and tremblings are upon thee do not doubt or tremble saith conscience thou art going to thy God when Satan suggests thou hast nothing to do with the mercy-seat what such a sinner thou hast saith conscience when unbelief suggests Christ will have nothing to do with thee he will saith conscience Now against all that hath been said it is objected That the assertion of joy for a converted person cannot be true Because 1. No persons are so exposed to afflictions and persecutions and infamies as converted persons They are appointed to them 1 Thes 3. And they that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecutions how can that condition be so very joyful which may and oftentimes doth deprive a man of all his comforts 2. Conversion brings the person into
in Adversity as in Prosperity Hab. 3. 17. Although the Fig-tree shall not blossome c. yet I will rejoyce in the Lord c. Rom. 5. 3. And not only so but we glory in tribulation c. 1 Sam. 29. 6 the people spake of stoning him but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God Rom. 8. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ c. If even in afflictions I can go unto the same armes of Christ and unto the same brests of divine Love and into the same chamber of Presence if I can look upon God as my God and see him to be my Father that I can make known my heart to him and he can make known his favour to me what should hinder me now to be joyful who still do enjoy him who alone makes all my joy Another is the Testimony of Conscience This is the Friend in adversity This is our rejoycing even the testimony of our Conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. Conscience is a mans night or day his Hell or Heaven his Palace of delight or Jail of bitterness If Conscience be sanctified or pacified it can speak a peace or joy that none can crush none can hinder but under the greatest afflictions and persecutions a converted man may and doth enjoy the testimony of a good Conscience Thou art upright saith Conscience to Hezekiah on his sick-bed Thou fearest God saith Conscience to Job under the loss of all Thou lovest Christ saith Conscience to Paul even in the Prison Object 2. Now to the second Objection That converting But conversion brings us into a narrow path it is an enemy to many delights Grace brings the person into a narrow path and under the strictest rules even such as condemn a multitude of joys and delights how can that condition be so joyfull which denies and abridgeth c Sol. To this I answer 1. It is granted That converting Grace brings the person into Answered There is a strictness required a very narrow path and under very strict rules A converted man must not walk as other men he must not allow himself to think and desire and love and speak and act as formerly He must fear to sin he must love the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might he must order his steps by the Word of God he must deny himself and crucifie his dearest lusts and not shun the hardest duty nor delight in the least iniquity 2. But then This strictness is no adversary to his true joy In This strictness is no adversary to true joy keeping of thy commandments there is great reward saith David Psal 19. 11. Great peace have they who love thy law Psal 119. 165. As many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy upon the Israel of God Gal. 6. 16. I beseech you to consider four things 1. Let thine own Conscience judge whether it be not a more comfortable course to obey God then to disobey God to have grace to serve God acceptably then to have an heart still free and ready to dishonour and provoke God Who hath most true comfort the bones sound and in place or broken to walk on the Land or to be troubled at Sea the Child who runs away from his Father or the Child who waits upon his Father the Child that desires to please or the Child that continues to grieve and vex the wandring and famished Prodigal or the returning and embraced Son Hos 2. 7. I will return to my first Husband for then it was better with me then now 2. Rightly understand what it is strictly to walk with God It is an endeavour in your affections and duties to draw near to God in all well-pleasing and to answer the will of God The Christians course of obedience it is his daily communion with his God in this life When thou prayest what is Praying but a divine conference of the soul with God and when thou hearest what is this but a divine conference of God with the soul and when thou repentest what is that but a recovery and return of the soul to God and when thou believest what is that but the recumbency of the soul on the goodness of God and when thou receivest the Sacrament what is it but a communion a feasting with Jesus Christ If a strict walking be nothing but a divine and heavenly communion with God why doest thou how darest thou to judge of it as the onely Bar to shut out all joy and comfort Was there ever any affectionate Wife that thought it an injury to her Joy to speak with her Husband or to enjoy the society of her Husband Was there ever any faithfull Friend who thought it a misery a burthen to enjoy the society of his Friends to open his heart unto his Friend How then can it be a prejudice to any mans joy to enjoy communion with his God 3. Consult with experience which hath travelled in the strict ways of God either thine own experience if any which day of thy life hath been closed up with heartiest joy whether the day of licentiousness or the day of strictness That day which thou hast let out to thy lusts hath made the night a trembling to thee that day which thou hast redeemed for walking with God hath always given unto thee the sweetest rest and repose at night The experience of godly people have any of them ever found more soul rejoycing then when they have abounded in strictest obedience This is thy burthen but it is their delight the purest walking hath distilled the sweetest joy and their looser walking hath been the cause of their greatest sorrows It is with a strict Christian as with the Sun which still keeps to the Ecliptique Line and is of all the Stars the most glorious and comfortable when it is at the highest and the higher Sun the purer and warmer light And it is with the loose Christian as with the uneven foot the wry stepping is the cause of unjoynting or pinching and paining 4. The strict walking what is it but a path to everlasting life every step of it is a step to heaven Strait is the gate which leads unto life saith Christ There is an easie way for men to walk in but that 's the way to hell and what comfort is it after all to go to hell to go to hell with ease There is a strict way for men to walk in but it is the way to life to eternal life Now even that alone is sufficient to create joy that these steps after a while will bring me to appear before the God of Gods in Sion and truly there is no end whatsoever the which if it be in it self amiable and comfortable but it darts also an amiableness and comfortableness upon all the steps and paths which tend unto it 3. Lastly Converting Grace doth not condemn or deny any lawfull Converting grace denies not any lawfull joy
before true Grace but follows it Do you use to gather fruit before you plant or reap before ye sow 4. Then if ever you would have joy and live joyfull If you would have joy get converted hearts lives get converted hearts Every man desires joy and as the Bee hunts for honey so do men naturally hunt for delight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aut jucunde aut non omninò Let the thing or condition be what it will if we take no delight in it it is a burthen to us Heaven would not be Heaven to him who cannot find delight in it Now Conversion is the true path to true joy If God would be pleased once to convert thy soul his converting Grace would lick thy sores and pull out the stings in Conscience and sweeten the bitter Springs and clear the Heavens to thee it would make thy bed to be easie and thy bread to be sweet and thy condition to be a Paradise even the Wilderness should drop honey to thee and thy heart should sing for joy It is a witty passage of Bernards de bonis deferendis Be willing to sacrifice thy Isaac and thy Isaac shall live Isaac you know signifies laughter do but sacrifice thy sinfull pleasure and then thy true pleasure shall not die but live Caius gave unto Agrippa a Chain of Gold which was as heavy as the Chain of Iron that he endured in the Prison Sins do â—ut upon us a Chain of Iron which if we would forsake Conversion would put upon as a Chain of Gold thou shalt not lose but better thy pleasures by forsaking of thy sins and the pleasures of them O! that all the joys which you have heard attending a converted condition might allure all our hearts to become converted persons I observe five things about the converted condition in Scripture 1. The invitation unto it and there joy presents it self Turn and live turn and live hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatness Isa 55. 2. 2. The entrance into it and there joy embraceth the person As soon as the Prodigal Son returned his Father saw him a far off O how quick is Mercy to espy a Convert and had compassion O how tender is Mercy to yern over a Convert and ran O how swift is Mercy to receive a Convert and fell on his neck O how how out-stretching is Mercy to embrace a Convert and kissed him O how kind is Mercy to entertain a Convert 3. The motion or course of it and there joy attends the person I have rejoyced saith David Psal 119. 14. in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches When a converted man doth Mediate his meditation is stiled sweet Hear he hears With joy When they heard this they were glad Pray this is a sweet incense to David And I will make them joyfull in my house of prayer Isa 56. 7. Believe he doth believe and rejoice Mourn there is appointed the oyâ— of joy for mourning Isa 61. 3. Do the will of God it is his delight to do the will of God Suffer Rejoyce saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 4 13. in as much as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings 4. The conclusion or end of it why there also doth joy accompany him Psal 37. Mark the perfect man and behold the just for the end of that man is peace 5. The reward and recompence of it and there also joy doth clasp the converted person Enter into thy Masters joy saith Christ to the good servant Gaudium supra omne gaudium At thy right hand are pleasures for evermore said David Oâ— that all these things might so affect our hearts this day as to forsake our sins and turn back to God Pleasure is the great â—â—it which is laid forth to catch the soul of man Satan draws us to sin by pleasure and God draws us to grace by pleasure shall pleasure move thee to damn thy soul and shall not true pleasure move thee to save thy soul Our Aversion from God depends much upon pleasure and our Conversion unto God depends much upon pleasure me thinks that Gods promise should be more accounted then the Divels temptation is it not more probable to buy a better penniworth from heaven then from hell and is it not more reasonable to traffick at the gates of life for joy then to trade at the gates of death for comfort Return return O sinner yet yet come back to thy God and do not for lying vanities any longer forsake thine own mercies But God must perswade Japhet Try whether you are in a converted condition or no. There Vse 2. Try whether converted or no. Nine things shew a man is unconverted are two sorts of persons 1. Some plainly unconverted 2. Some deceiving themselves about it Nine things do shew that a man is as yet absolutely in an unconverted condition 1. Vnsensibleness God promiseth to take away the stony heart quanto insensibilior tanto pe jor This is the Stone upon the Grave 2. Love of sin Wicked men are described by this in ScriptuÌ„re 3. Walking in the path of sin It is his work his trade when a man chuseâ—h an evil way and sits in the Chair is a servant of unrighteousness walks in the way fo wicked men 4. Hating to be reformed It is an abomination to him to be good that will rather be damned then reformed breaks the Cords will not have Christ to reign 5. Despising of the means of Conversion The word of the Lord is a reproach to him his heart rageth when the word finds out his sins and would separate him and his lusts 6. Loathing of converted persons cannot endure the sight of grace his special dislikes are of the godly and disgraces and discountenancings of them he is exceedingly displeased and grieved at the estimations of godliness and rejoyceth in the cloudings and setting of it 7. In communion with God It is a note of a wicked man that God is not in all his thoughts and that he call not upon God but is a stranger to him the stil-born child is a dead child 8. Disvaluations of Jesus Christ and of all the precious seasons of grace and opportunities of mercy the Swine tramples upon the Pearl the dayes of the Son of man are of no account with him 9. An earthly rest and satisfaction When he is a man only for this life and for this present world sets up his staff on this side Jordan all his hopes are in this life Secondly Five things which do shew that a man flatters and Five things shew a man deceived about his conversion deceives himself about his condition that it is converted when yet it falls short thereof 1. Meer knowledg though a man knows never so much yet if he be but a knowing man he may be a learned man but he is not a converted man It is one thing to know controversies another thing to know
Conversion If the knowledg be without 1. Experience know what sin is but feel it not know what Christ is but never feel the virtues and powers of his death and resurrection 2. Propriety know Christ as a purchase but not as an inheritance what he is and hath done but not what he is to me or hath done for me 3. Power as a candle that lightens but not as fire to burn as an Ornament on a Tomb not as a Soul to the Body as a Star which shines in the night not as the Sun which makes day new knowledg but still an old heart 4. Affections know sin but hate it not nor mouâ—n for it know Christ but love and desire him not 5. Practise like a Scholler who knows Countries but never travels to them reads the Copy but writes not after it know the way to heaven but never walks the way to heaven 2. Meer trouble of conscience A troubled condition is one thing a converted condition is another Cain and Judas were troubled yet not converted many things may suffice to trouble us which yet are not sufficient to convert us the Law the Wrath of God the quickness of conscience fear of death and hell and shame may suffice to trouble us yet not to convert us The Sea may be troubled and yet remains brinish the Iron may be broken and yet it is hard the Water boils and yet it is Water There is a difference twixt passive trouble and active trouble twixt a trouble that I would get off and godly sorrow which I would get up twixt trouble in ratione pâ—nae and in ratione gratiae twixt being troubled for sin as it is malum sensible and as malum spirituale twixt malum as causa mali and malum as affectus mali The Land-flood is high but it leaves the mud and dirt behind the Wells water is less but it cleanseth 3. Limited Reformation When only external if internal yet partial will stick with Christ for some one thing True Conversion is an invisible work it is seed under ground t is a child formed in the womb it is the hidden man of the heart t is Christ formed and living in us it is a new Creation of the heart the new heart a law written there The Pharâ—sees were good at Outworks all far to the eyes of men Outward abstinence from sin may consist with an inward love of it and a man may do much good who yet is not good Self-grounds and ends of profit of esteem of hopes of compliance with others besides those workings of conscience c. may lead us out to visible conformities when yet c. 4. Accidental resolutions When a person will on a sudden grow good altogether only upon mutable occasions 1. As in an exigence of Conscience 2. In a fit of Sickness 3. Some present conviction of the Word 4. Some imminent judgements 5. present hopes not upon solid Conviction consideration fervent prayer to God to work the change c. 5. Passionate Joyes If taken by the Word upon the discoveries of Grace and Mercy and Love of Christ and of future glory like one who is taken with the Ware yet will not come up to the Price The young man would have heaven but will not sell all take up the Cross and follow Christ But when a man is truly converted he is like the Wise Merchant who found the Pearl and rejoiced and sold all and bought it He will part with all his Lusts and Friends and Pleasures and World to enjoy Christ Doth Conversion bring the soul into a joyful condition Then Vse 3. Let every converted person take his portion of joy let every converted person take his due portion and live as becomes himself joyfully Psal 32. 11. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice ye righteous Phil. 4. 4. Rejoice in the Lord alway and again I say rejoice I wish that converted persons would consider 1. That God doth not reserve all their joyes unto another life God doth not reserve all their joy to another life O no spiritual joy is an allowance also for this life a good bit and bait by the way Nay it is not a meer Toleration or Permission but it is an express Command and Injunction and as a man doth sin who refuseth Grace so some man may sin who refuseth Joy 2. God would have the life of Grace to God would have the life of Grace a shadow of the life of Glory be a primordial shadow at least of the life of Glory and indeed our estate of Grace is an Epitome of that in Glory only that is a fuller and larger Volume We have the same God the same Christ the same Spirit the same Communion in this as in that only here it is more Mediate there more Immediate here Imperfect there Perfect here Mixt and there Pure And doest thou so poorly conceive of God that He who is able to make an heaven full of joy to Eternity hereafter is not able or willing to let fall a few drops of joy upon thy soul on earth Or that there can or should be any Communion with such a God which should not be joyful and delightful The Emperor would have none to go away sad 3. God would God would have the Christians life to be the credit of Grace have the Christians life as to be the fruit so to be the credit of Grace Grace is an ornament to the soul and spiritual joy is an Ornament to grace It testifies to the world that conversion quits all costs What! shal madness be found in the habitations of the wicked and shall not joy be found in the tabernacles of the just Shall the worldly man rejoice in a Creature and shall not the godly man rejoyce in his God Shall the condemned malefactor take delight and shall not the acquitted person take comfort Shall wicked men suck pleasure out of bitter waters and shall not good men draw joy out of the wells of salvation Joy is not comely for a fool saith Solomon but it becomes the upright to rejoice saith David 4. As spiritual joy is an ornament so it is an improvement to grace It is a certain truth that grace Joy is an Improvement to Grace is the Mother of joy and true joy is the Nurse of grace Spiritual comforts are inlargements to spiritual graces look as it is with sinful pleasures they do add to our sinful principles the more delight that any man finds in sinful wayes this adds the more love and the more desire and the more earnestness for to sin so is it in spiritual wayes the more joy and delight any man takes in them this adds a new quickning to his graces a fresher edge unto them nothing makes either a communion or an action more frequent or more fervent then delight didst thou ever find thy heart more apt to pray or more fixed in prayer then when thou foundest most delight and comfort in or upon praying