God as Baalam did whose eyes were opened you tast of the powers of the World to come you are made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have found a sweetness in the good Word of God for you now to stop here or go back again it must needs bee a contemning of the Kingdom you say as that young man did There is not so much worth in the same to countervail the losse of all other things Christ wil put that interpretation upon your motions which he did upon the Jews John 15.24 For you have seen and hated both me and my Father The sins of ignorant persons are accounted but neglect but the sins of such as are convinc'd will be judged hating of God because such do knowingly cast away the offers of the Gospel and refuse the kingdom of God and their refusing is not a bare neglecting to receive it but a despising of it Consid 11. Such men have the least pleasure of any They stand betwixt the pleasures of the World and the pleasures of the Saints and enjoy neither Such a man cannot share with the Epicure in the pleasures of the flesh because of his convictions these give a check to his lusts so that hee cannot take that liberty that his heart doth desire his unhappiness is that his heart is not mortified to the love of sin yet he is dead to the pleasure of sin that which is sweet to others is bitter to him not because he loves it not but because he finds some gnawing of the worm of Conscience which will not let him bee quiet in his lusts If he go to the Ale-house he sits uneasily there because Conscience accuses him if he goes not thither he is not quiet because his heart is there In the midst of his laughter there is heaviness in his heart in his sinfull pleasures he is sad and enjoys not what others do or what he has done in former times Time was he could hearken to his carnal appetite in any thing and it was pleasant to him but it is not so now conscience either restrains him from the sin he loves and this cannot please him or else it withholds from him the pleasure of the sin he commits and this must needs be sad Beside this he loseth the pleasure of duty if Conscience puts him upon any duty he loses also the pleasure of that because it is not performed with an upright heart he wants a new nature to make the duty pleasant unto him he wants holy and spiritual affections in it to make him delight in his work and although in some Ordinances he may have some flashes of joy yet he wants that constant spiritual comfort and refreshing which Gods people have in the service and worship of God he cannot say that his chiefest joy lies in his duties he cannot say as David that God puts more this way into his heart then when Corn and Wine increaseth Psa 4.7 Nay we find that this may be and is the frame of such as find no comfort in following God that they are burthened with duty the people of Israel who delighted to approach unto God as we find Isa 58.2 they seek me daily and delight to know my ways yet said When will the Sabbath be over Am. 8.5 And such as these do often upon this account Apostatize from the wayes of God and then they do reproach them most of any persons as those hypocrites did Mal. 3.14 who said It is in vain to serve God Now lay these things together and see in what a sad case these men are they have neither the pleasures of the wicked nor of the godly Wicked men have their good things here the godly have their good things hereafter The wicked seem to have one Heaven the godly hath sometimes two a Heaven of peace and joy in the Holy ghost here and a Heaven hereafter also but the half Christian hath no Heaven neither here nor hereafter The open prophane have one heaven the godly two the hypoerite none so that it may be said of them truly that they are of all men most miserable because their hope and comfort is onely in this life and yet it is nothing considerable to other mens Consid 12. Such men as these do lose themselves to all parties They are esteemed of by none though they designe to be honored of all First of all they lose their credit and repute with their old companions by their profession That reformation which they have made already may perhaps make the profaner and looser sort cast them off as not fitt for them And although they dispise them for their profession yet the godly will not heartly embrace them they are as much dis-satisfyed with their profession that it is no more as the other are troubled that it is so much Thus they are cast off by their old friends before they are received of the new and by this meanes they are destitute of both The prophane sort think they are too strict for them and the godly suspect they are too large for them they are too hot for the one and too cold for the other one thinks he looks too like a Puritan and the other doubts he is too much a formalist and upon this account he is deserted of both like the Bat which is in the body like a Mouse and yet winged like a bird is excluded from the society both of Birds and Beasts They are plac'd betwixt the godly and the wicked as some Divines have drawn Solomons Picture betwixt Heaven and Hell not knowing in which to place him If they should be placed among the prophane they would be offended having escaped the corruptions of the World through Lust and if you place them among the Godly you should wrong the generation of the just I knew in my time in the University three Doctors heads of houses One was an Innovator The second accounted a Puritan The third was reckon'd a Neuter A witty Scholler presented them thus The first in a Coach driving to Rome The second driving to Genevah The third running on foot begging sometimes the one sometimes the other to receive him yet both refusing Such are these Neuters in Religion lest out by all All those which are but almost christians are but Neuters at the best They are not what they were and they are not what they would seem to be and so being of neither kind they are refused of both It is hard for any man to make any profession of a change without troubling the prophaner part of men and it is as hard for any man that is not truly changed to make such a profession as to please the godly The people of God will find out their cold formal spirits under the most zealous profession that may be that profession must be very handsomly put on that must cover the old unregenerate heart for a time but if it should do so it is not like to hide it long from the eys of Gods people and
now he hears John gladly and he greedily catches at all the sweet promises which John dropt at any time to such as did obey the truth saying in his heart These are mine and this made him hear with delight Thus the stony ground received the word with joy which must needs arise from some promises misapplyed and some good laid hold on which did not belong to them whereby they apprehended that their condition vvas much advanced they rejoyced in the Heaven and happinesse which the promises held forth to the Saints which they could not do unlesse they had believed them but they were unwilling to go thorow a believers hell to his Heaven therefore in time of persecution they fell away hence it is that some are said to have tasted of the powers of the world to come Heb. 6.5 that is they are convinc'd of the excellent priviledges of the Saints both in this life and especially in that to come as that they shall have communion with God the Father Son and Spirit with Angels and all the Saints They may be perswaded of the excellent state of the Saints then in respect of the glory which shall be put upon their souls and bodies their freedome fâ—om evil and the accession of all good things Now though they have not a true taste of these priviledges and they know not what grace is and the pleasure of communion with God is yet they being perswaded that such things are having found a joy in their false hopes and counterfeit graces which they have judged to be soretastes of Heaven they have been sorc'd to acknowledge that this false joy was yet better then all the pleasures of their sins and hence they have been strongly perswaded of the truth of Gods promises made to his people though they do not belong to them this is the case of many men who by the perswasions of the truth of the threats and promises do not learn to escape the one and to enjoy the other and they say under these perswasions as he did Luke 14.15 Blessed is he that shal eat bread in the kingdom of God yet themselves never come there VI. They may be perswaded of the sweetnesse of Gods ways and that those who follow him have their pleasure yea more pleasure then men can have in sin it is said therefore they received the word with joy Luke 8.13 and Isaiah 58.2 They delighted in approaching unto God hence it is said Heb. 6.5 That they tasted of the good word of God they tasted of the goodnesse of the word and having tasted it they accounted it good Now we know that the taste counts nothing good but that vvhich is sweet though other senses do count bitter things good for they may be beautiful and so good to the eye and fragrant so good to the smelling but the palate commends sweetness The carnal man may esteem the ways of God as pleasant First because the bare performance of some duties and reforming of some sins bath given much ease to conscience and hath procured much rest from the troubles with which they were before overwhelmed so that comparing their lives w th what they wâ—re before they do account the much more pleasant then when they lived in the height of sin because they had then many gripings of conscience which spoiled all their mirth now though they have but a false peace yet it is sweeter then their former life Secondly he accounts the ways of God sweet because he hath not only a cessation from his former troubles but he hath also many times a great presumption of Gods love and of the pardon of sin and of eternal life so that he is as it were wrapt up out of the body and perhaps in a fit out of the world that he can set a low esteem upon these also for a time Thirdly he esteems the ways of God sweet because he finds now an increase of knowledge and of gifts by exercising himself in them so that the knowledge that he gets under the word makes the word seem sweet unto him and he rejoyces in it Joh. 5.35 Knowledge is pleasant even of that which we do not love so that while this increaseth the soul is delighted Isa 58.2 they delighted in knowing but not in doing and as the word may feem sweet for the knowledge which is gotten by it so may prayer because of gifts and parts increased by it Thus he may be convinced of the sweetness of Gods ways so far that he is carried forth sometimes to prefer the ways of God before the ways of men and the people of God before the men of the world as Balaam was Numb 24.5 How goodly are thy tents O Jacob and thy tabernacles O Israel The Lord is pleased to shew carnal men that which they never enjoy yea they feel sometimes that which they soon forget They have some glances of the happiness which the Saints enjoy in communion with God though they have none with him yet some such workings there are sometimes upon hypocrites that they finde something which seems like it and brings them in much comfort which although it be not true and lasting yet it serves to convince them that there is a sweetnesse in the ways of God and they can say Blessed is he that is in such a case yea blessed is he whose God is the Lord upon all these accounts they are in the main perswaded there is a sweetness in the ways of the Saints though they do all the while mistake it and are strangers to that comfort which the Saints find in duties when they think they do enjoy them The ways of God themselves are not sweet but there is a sweetness squeezed out of them which refreshes them so that upon the whole they are satisfied in this that it is a more comfortable life all things considered to live in the strict performances of the godly then in the loose practises of the wicked yet these men that come thus far may not be altogether Christians 7ly They may be perswaded of things that are excellent and may be able to judg betwixt things that differ yea so far skill'd in the nature of things that they may be able to instruct others in spiritual matters they may have some insight into all the ways of God in which his people walk so that they may be able to direct the weak and quicken the dull yea and to set things out with some eminency Rom. 2.18 Knowing and approving the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the Law He may not onely see or shew what is a duty but the excellency of it by which he has the advantage of exciting others to it yea he â—â—ay not only shew how much more excellent grace and the exercise of it is then sin but if any grace more excellent or duty then other he may discern the respective and comparative excellency that is in one more then in another and yet have no true
that are found in the natural conscience Prov. 20.27 The understanding of a man is the candle of the Lord. The Lord set up a light that shined gloriously in the soul at first and cast her beams far and near so that it was able to see a far off and all the off-springs of his reason even down to a thousand Generations were yet pure and ful of light so that although man had made a thousand inferences from one principle the last had been as ful of light and clearness as the first The soul has now lost that vigour and strength to discern things remote yet she is not wholly without light but as a candle shews those things which are neer it very plainly though such as are remote it discovers weakly or not at all so that light which was once in man and did like the sun send forth his beams to the remotest parts of the horizon now being weak and languishing discovers onely some few things The soul dos stil retain some of its first-born notions wch do shine forth in pure and unspotted beams ful of convincing light and of undoubted truth in which all agree Jew and Gentile Barbarian and Scythian bond and free these are the common principles vvhich boil up in every man and do rise with that strength and clearness that none can fully stop them who have industriously endeavoured it Such as these First that there is a God Secondly that the soul is immortal Thirdly that there is a Law by which man ought to stear all his actions and as they do agree or disagree with this so they are to be accounted good or evil Fourthly that this God who gives Laws to all creatures especially to man is just and wil in Justice punish those who wilfully break his Laws These are truths which we may find in the consciences of all men that have no light but that of nature Rom. 1.32 Who knowing the judgement of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not onely do the same but have pleasure in them that do them Rom. 2.14 15. When the Gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves which shew the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witnesse and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Nay if the Scripture said nothing of the complyance of the Heathen with them they themselves would abundantly testifie their agreement with the Scriptures in these things I might raise all the Philosophers out of their graves to hiss the Atheists of this Age out of the world who would deny those to be men that denyed a God and would reckon those as beasts and worse that would question the immortality of the soul or question whether the creature should receive a law from his Creator or that should claim to themselves a liberty to do what they list as if there were no standard to measure good and evil by The Heathen would make many practical Atheists to blush at last who could say Non solum jus injuria a natura dijudicantur sed omnia omnino honest a turpia nam communis intelligentia nobis res notas efficit ea quaein animis nostris inchoavit ut honesta in virtute ponantur in vitiis turpia We are not only able says he to judg of right and wrong betwixt man and man but we are able to discern what is good and what is evil and all this by the light of nature God has made such indelible stamps and impressions of these first principles upon mans reason that til he be extreamly corrupted or Judicarily hardened he discovers a transcending excellency in goodness and an infamous blot upon wickedness yea they who for the love of sin that they might enjoy it quietly have laboured to silence these first whisperings of nature and to blot out what the finger of God hath written upon their hearts have but laboured to wash the Blackamore white when the Atheist in practise has laboured to be so in opinion he has been but a Sceptick at last these truths like nature under forcé return upon them again and they are sometimes constrained to fear the Deity that they flout at and to dread him that they have oft denied Now seeing it is thus that such seeds of the knowledg of good and evil are left in every mans heart naturally it may wel be and does very oft fall out that when men come under the word before they have sinned away this light and are brought to a deadly Palsie by that oil which the ordinances do add to this lamp and by accession of more light from the same men see these things more clearly and many things more which were too remote to be discovered by their first light hence it comes to pass that he that by the light of nature saw that there was a God now sees something of the nature of God of his worship and is instructed in this he that saw that the soul was immortal and that there vvas a blessedness or misery fitted to it sees vvhere what it is He that saw sin confusedly novv sees it more distinctly yea he sees not only these things but deduceth many things from these and may have a general insight into all the ways of God so that men meerly inlightned and having their naturals polished and varnished over by the often rubbing over of the Word may come to great convictions of the truths of God yea and these convictions may have some conâ—derable influence upon their wils without the help of grace by the help of this one thing which is the nature of every being it loves and seeks his own good this is the language of every being Psal 4.6 Who will shew us any good No man seeks evil formally as such but as it is disguized by Satan or drest up by his own wanton and corrupt fancy and made to appear in the habit of goodness as the Witch of Endor raised up the devil in Samumuels garments Thus as men are convinc'd of the good that is in God and his service so they may from those common convictions set themselves to seek him and apply themselves to his ways and ordinances And though no man sees the chief good in God and his ways but he that is graciously inlightened yet common light may discover a kind of good in God and in the seeking of him and proportionable to the good they discover in spiritual things are their perswasions to embrace and endeavours to attain them Hence many without grace go far but none far enough to reach the kingdom of God we have an example of this in the young man Matthew 19.20 who without special grace upon the stock of his natural abilities with the additional light of the means under which he lived went very far in observation of the Law
discovered he cannot easily engage the godly because they wil discover him the first he uses not because they are not so fit for his work the second he cannot engage because they do not like his work but when he cannot speed any where else then he comes to you the formalist and luke-warm professor who never fails him but amongst these he finds instruments enough and those he most uses for his transactions therefore the devil made use of Judas and of the false brethren in the Churches and of the Scribes and Pharises against Christ and the devout women against Paul Gal. 2.4 Acts 13.15 he uses these rather then any other First because these are most able to hurt the people of God knowing their ways and counsels as the false brethren did 2 Cor. 11.26 Secondly because their opposition to religion seems to carry in it some weight and reason and men judge there is some great evil in it which these men see or they would never oppose The Scribes and Pharisees would not so oppose as they do if they did not see more evil in these things then we do John 7.48 Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees beleeved on him Thirdly it is greater reproach to religion and to the professors of it when the devil can ingage some against it that have profest it as the Lord wounds the kingdome of Sathan by conversion so doth Satan wound the kingdom of Christ by tempting men to Apostasy 7. You are the greatest hinderers of the salvation of other men for many have their eyes upon you and they reason thus with themselves these men are wise men and civil men they are good men and wil be wary they know what they do and we wil follow them we wil go no farther then they go Many more that wil not take a Drunkard or prophane Swearer for example in Religion wil take one of you for a president whom he sees to walk civilly and morally in your conversations and perhaps he wil give more heed to you because of your wisdom and wariness in the world then to those who walk more close with God as we see the people looked more to the Scribes and Pharisees then to Christ and it was not the Publican that kept off so many from Christ but the Pharisee so I say that wo may fall upon you which was pronounc'd against them and it is a fearful one Mat. 23.11 because they neither enterd into the kingdom of heaven themselves nor yet suffered those who were entring in to go in Cons 8. You are a people of whom the Lord speaks no good God is so tender that he will not pass by any good where ever he finds it if it be never so small he will not pass it over without observation yet when he speaks of such as you are he cannot afford them one good word we find the Lord who will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax would take notice of some good that was in Abijah who was of Jeroboams house 1. King 14.13 when he comes to speak of the Church of Laodicea who was of this lukewarme temper he speaks never a word in commendation of her Rev. 3.17 She had high thoughts of herself but God thought not so of her He reproves the rest of the Churches for their sins and threatens sore but he commends some good in every one except Laodicea thus I say the Lord wil speak no good of you you may perhaps think as highly of your selves as she did but at the last day are like to hear the worst of your selves of any generation of men whatsoever Cons 9. God doth not only speak no good of them but they are of all sorts of men most despised of him We use to say he is poor that God hates surely then the half Christian is a poor man if ther be any one poor under heaven for no man carries such a brand of infamy and reproach upon him as he doth God does abominate such a man more then he does the prophane Esau or the scoffing Ismael or the unclean Sodomites men that are down right Atheists or plain Idalators or that have no pretences to the fear or service of God are not such an abhorring to God as these men are I will convince you by two or three instances of this that you may see and fear to rest in such a state as this is see such a temper compared with him who has no religion at all Rev. 3.15 I know thy works that thou are neither cold nor hot I would thou wert cold or hot God wishes they were rather stark cold God had rather men had no pretence to religion at all that they were stupid and had no life nor motion at all then to move thus better be without sense then not to have a true sense better have no convictions nor stirrings under the Word nor pretence to love or fear God then not to be in good earnest better to do nothing then to stick at any thing Now this must needs be a sad profession which God dislikes rather then no profession Secondly see it compared with idolatry which of all sins which do openly shew themselves does most affront God to his face and therefore the Lord threatens the setting up of Idols in his jealousie in the second Commandement the Drunkard the Swearer the unclean person do not so openly oppose God as the Idolater because he does manifestly ungod him But he that is a down-right idolater is not so bad as he that is a halter in the worship of God the Prophet complains of the present temper of the children of Israel that they did halt betwixt two opinions they would not cleave to Baal nor yet to God 1 King 18.21 And Elijah said unto all the people How long halt ye between two opinions If the LORD be God follow him but if Baal then follow him so it may be said to the half Christian why do you halt betwixt a Baal and God to have a heart divided betwixt God and corruption is worse then to serve sin with all the heart Thirdly see it compared with open prophaness we find the servant who did but comply with the wicked and prophane in eating and drinking with them that were drunken yet threatned more then all the rest Mat. 24.49 50 51. The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not ware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites there shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth He did not cast off his subjection to his master altogether he said not that he had no master neither did he cast off the thoughts of his masters coming but he removed them a little from him and when he had done this we do not find that he was a drunkard but he began to associate with them he began to neglect his duty and to