the text let the wicked for sake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him returne unto the Lord and hee will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon The word in the original is this the Lord multiplyeth pardons the Lord hath not uttered all his pardons the Popes pardons indeed may bee all sold but Gods pardons are not at the bottome no no hee hath a multitude of pardons The Lord is ready to give thee pardon for all thy transgressions what ever thy corruptions bee whatsoever thy abominations be the Lord standeth to multiply mercy and pardon and forgivenesse that so thou mayest have mercy for all and forgivenesse to all thy sinnes and distempers hast thou multiplyed rebellion why the Lord doth also multiply pardons the bowels of compassion are still open and the armes of mercy are still spread abroad and when the soule seeth the attributes of God in Scripture that hee pardons all poore sinners that come unto him stubborne Manasses he was humbled and resolute Paul hee was converted when the soule seeth this then the soule thinketh why not I Lord why not I pardoned also why yes thou mayst bee received to mercy and pardoned also for the Lord doth still multiply pardons Manasses had some mercy and Paul had some and yet there is mercy for thee also and for a thousand thousand more the Lord is ready to pardon poore sinners and willing to entertaine them Secondly Second Cord. the Lord is not onely ready to forgive when men will come unto him but hee doth also call and command them for to come for the poore sinner when he heares this that God is mercifull and ready to forgive he may bee amazed and at a stand and thinkes with himselfe oh but may I shall I dare I goe unto the Lord for mercy may I be so bold to presse in for favour at the hands of the Lord it is the Lord indeed that sheweth mercy but may I come unto the Lord I have beene a gievous sinner and have heaped abomination upon abomination and therefore I am affraid to approach neere unto the presence of the Lord why I â—â—ll thee thou mayest come and the Lord willeth and commandeth thee to come upon the penalty of his everlasting wrath hee chargeth thee to come unto him and entertayne that favour hee hath provided for thee in the 3. of Ier. 22. there sayth the Lord come unto me yee rebellious people and I will heale your rebellions you that never prayed nor never came to heare all rebells come unto me and I will heale your rebellions and then the people answer behold we come unto thee for thou art our God be not to full of nicenesse in this case do not stagger and say I have dispised Gods goodnesse and slighted Gods mercies and therefore may I bee bold to come why I tell you you may goe to God for mercy come to me yea rebellious people and I will heale your rebellions mercy will answer all your sinnes they shall bee no impediment unto you in the 3. of Ier. 1. it is a fine passage there saith the text They say that if a man put away his wife and shee goe from him and shee become another mans will he receive her againe but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers yet returne againe to me saith the Lord if a man should put away his wife for an adultresse would hee take her againe no certainely all the world will say an adultresse whore away with her after so many injuries wrongs done unto her husband there is no expectation of mercy or kindnesse from him but the Lord saith thou hast played the harlot with many lovers yet returne unto me whatsoever we delight in more or love more than God they are our lovers now the Lord saith though thou hast had pride and covetousnesse and malice drunkennesse and adultery for thy lovers yet returne unto me notwithstanding all thy base doings and wicked practises yet come unto me saith the Lord this is great incouragement to a poore sinner that all his sinfull abominations should not hinder him from receiving mercy this workes wonderfully upon the soule of a sinner and he begings to wonder and say Lord shall all my sinnes bee pardoned shall all those oathes and all that prophanenesse of mine be forgiven after so many mercies slighted and so many abominations committed yet forgiven why aye saith the Lord come unto me and you shall be forgiven thou hast played the harlot yet come unto me thou proud heart and bee humbled come unto me thou stout stubborne sturdy heart and be softened come unto me yet for all this thou covetous heart and be sanctified and this is the second cord of this cable of mercy the Lord doth not only reveale unto the soule of a sinfull creature that if he doth come unto him he shall be accepted but hee commands him to come and receive mercy from him Thirdly Third Cord. the Lord doth not only command a poore sinner to come unto him but to go further it is marvellous strange to consider when a sinner in the sight of his unworthinesse is hardly brought to goe to the Lord for mercy but sayes it is true there is a great deale of mercy with God but not for me when a sinner thus goeth away from God and flyeth from mercy the Lord followeth him still and fendeth another cord after him and pursueth him with mercy and kindnesse that so if it were possible he might winne him and wooe him to receive mercy and forgivenesse It is almost impossible to conceive the wonderfull goodnesse of the Lord in this kind he doth not only command poore sinners to come unto him but hee entreates and beseeches them to come and receive mercy and this one would think should move the heardest heart under heaven 2 Cor. 5.20 there saith the Apostle Now then we are ambassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be you reconciled unto God the matter here wee see is past all question the Lord doth not only command you to come but rather then you shall goe away hee will beseech you to come and take the mercy that the Lord offereth to you and you have so much need of mercy will come and kneele down before you and beseech you and intreat you for the Lord Iesus sake to pittie your poore soules and receive pardon for your sinnes to receive sanctification and justification here that you may be blessed and glorified for ever hereafter this is that which a sinner is not able to comprehend but he begins to be at a stand and at amazement It is a great matter that God should command a sinner for to come unto him and that he should be accepted when he doth come but that God should beseech and intreat a poore sinner to receive mercy herein is discovered the incomprehensible depth of
Gods love that the Lord should beseech us oh that you would receive pardon for your sinnes and bee blessed for ever why this is wonderfull mercy and admirable goodnesse if this Cord will not draw a man what will do it this makes a poore soule to stand agast and amazed and say good Lord is this possible that the great King of Heaven should come and beseech such a traytor such a rebell as I am to take pardon if the King of England should proclaime a pardon to some notorious Traytor that had plotted some dangerous treason against his person this were much but that the King should lay downe his Crowne and come creeping to him and beseech him upon his knees to take mercy and not to be punished why this is a thing beyond all expectation no man will do this no man should doe this but when the soule shall thinke what a King intreat a Traytor a Rebell a Conquerer intreat a slave to take mercy what shall heaven stoop to earth shall majesty stoope to misery shall the great God of heaven and earth that might have condemned my soule that is a God holy and just and if I had perished and beene damned might have tooke glory by my destruction is it possible is it credible that this God should not only entertayne me when I come and command me for to come but intreat and beseech me to come and receive mercy from him oh the depth of the incomprehensible love of God! imagine you saw God the Father intreating you and God the Sunne beseeching you as he doth this day come now and forsake your sinnes and take mercy which is prepared for you and shall bee bestowed upon you would not this make a soule think thus with it selfe what for a rebell not only to have mercy offered but to bee intreated to receive mercy and pardon why then if I will not take it it were pitty but I should goe to hell and be damned for ever nay I tell you this mercy one day if you refuse it will plunge you into the bottomlesse pit of hell I tell you you were better heare ten Sermons of judgement than one of mercy if you do not take the same when it is offered The Lord hee complaineth why will ye die as I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a sinner the Lord takes an oath upon it that he desires not the death of a sinner and calls after sinners turne ye turne ye why will ye die ye sinfull sonnes of men Mercy is offered you the Lord Iesus reacheth out his hand to you to pluck the drunkard out of the alehouse and the adulterer out of the company of his whore I tell you you had beene better have beene at the East-Indies where you might never have heard of mercy than slight it when it is offered if you do break this cord I know not what to say unto you this is able to breake a mountaine in peeces shake O mountaines saith the Psalmist why because God hath redeemed Iacob the redemption of Iacob was enough to shake a mountaine when thou hast been a great sinner and heaped up transgression upon transgression and drunk in iniquity like water why yet after all this the Lord offereth mercy unto thee and beseecheth thee to receive it I tell thee if thou wilt not have mercy now it is pitty but thou shouldest goe to the Devill and if thou dost goe to hell then thank thy selfe it was thy owne fault thou mightest have had mercy and wouldest not and this is the third cord of Gods mercy he intreats a poore sinner to come unto him and receive mercy from him but if the soule bee yet awke and untoward and will not come but say if mercy be so free then we will let it alone a while and take it hereafter if God bee so carefull of us then wee will bee a little carelesse our selves why then there remaines but one cord more and if thou breakest this thou art in a miserable condition and that is this The Lord doth wait and stay in long patience suffering Fourth Cord. to see if at any time a sinner will turne unto him our Saviour followes poore sinners from Alehouse to Alehouse and sayes I beseech you you drunkards take mercy and have your sinnes pardoned the Lord tyres himselfe so and wearieth himselfe with waiting one day after another and one weeke after another it may bee this day this weeke this Sabbath this Sermon a sinner will turne unto me what will it never be why are you not ashamed that the Lord Iesus should thus wayt your leisure and follow you from house to house and into the field nay that Christ should every morning appeare unto your understanding and every night come to your bed-side and say let this bee the last night of sinning and the next day the first day of your repenting oh when will you be humbled when will you receive mercy that it may goe well with you and yours for ever why for shame if none of all the other will move you yet let this cord draw you unto the Lord this is the last cord of Gods mercy he stayeth our leisure the Lord will not wait alwaies but hee waiteth a long time for our amendment hee stayed above a hundred yeares for the old world Ier. 13.27 there God taketh upon him the person of a travelling woman oh Ierusalem wilt thou not bee made cleane oh when will it once bee a woman that is in travell and oppressed with paine oh how she expects and longs for her delivery when the throâ— comes then she cryes when will deliverance come and then the throb comes the second time and then she cryes would death would come so deliverance would come and thus her heart breaks almost with waiting in this kind for the birth of the child which is to be delivered God the father doth take upon him the person of a travelling woman he is travelling even unto death untill he can bring forth his first borne untill some soule be converted and brought home unto him oh Ierusalem wilt thou not be cleane oh when will it once be I have wayted one yeare ten yeare twenty yeare forty yeare why when will it once be if a woman should be in travell forty yeares she would be accounted the wonder of the world nay it were impossible she should endure so long but the Lord hath travelled twenty yeares yea forty for the birth of poore sinners and how many throbs think wee hath the Lord endured in this time saying oh yee men of England will you never be cleane when will it once be the Lord thus travels in patience looking when we will receive mercy oh when will it once be will it never be that those proud hearts will be humbled will it never be that those stubborne hearts will be softned will it never be that those unregenerate hearts will be sanctified will it never be that
hath over those sins is much more forcible though thy sturdy heart will not come off though thou hast no desire to leave thy corruptions though thou hast not put off the will of sinning yet God can take it away and make way for the power of his spirit to take place in thy heart Acts 16.24 we shall observe this in the Iaylor he was a proud sturdy dogged cruell hearted man when the Magistrates commanded him to put Paul and Silas into prison hee went further than his commission and put them into the inner Prison and made their feet fast in the stocks oh thought hee now I have gotten these nice factions fellowes into my hands I will punish them soundly Now at midnight Paul and Silas sang praises unto God and then suddenly there was an exceeding great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doores were opened and every ones bands were loosed the doores flew open the prison shooke and the earth shooke God exercised his power upon the creatures and made them shake and yet the Iaylor stood still all this while and stirred not though he were a Iaylor now to the Apostles yet the Devill was a Iaylor to him also he was under the jayle of his sinnes his sturdy heart would not awaken all this while but at last the Iaylor hee shooke also and seeing the prison doores open pulled out his sword and would have killed himselfe supposing that the prisoners had fled but Paul cryed with a loud voyce saying doe thy selfe no harme for wee are all here and then hee called for a light and sprang in sayth the text and came trembling and fell downe before Paul and Silas he now saw all that pride and stubbornnesse of his whereby he handled the Apostles so basely and now he brought them out and sayd Sirs what must I doe to bee saved hee now bathed their wounds and set bread before them and dealt kindly with them and thus we see when the Lord commeth for a sinner he maketh the prison shake and the earth shake the doores shake the yron bolts shake and at last he makes the heart shake also it is not the doore that I care for nor the prison that I care for nor the earth only that I will make to shake but it is the jaylor that I will shake also it is the Iaylor that I come for the Iaylor I will have and so hee had indeed in conclusion thy corruptions are not so powerfull but the Lord will bee more powerfull to pluck thy heart from them unto himselfe The third thing that hinders a poore sinner in this case is in respect of disgrace other opposition that hee shall meet withall in a Christian course I could be content saith he to take a better course and leade a new life and become a Christian but I see how disgrace will be cast upon me and opposition be made against me and this knocks me off I am not able to suffer it and to beare it are you not so the Lord will make you able to beare it before he hath done with you you feare wild-fire do you God will make you feele hell fire before he hath done you will goe against conscience you will displease God before you will displease man wil you wel you feare man now the face of man this is but wildfire but God will send hell fire into your hearts one day he will send the horrour of conscience into your soules then you will say rather disgrace here than damnation for ever hereafter I will rather goe to hell than to sinne I will rather offend all the world then God gather up your selves therefore if God at any time hath opened your eyes though Satan pursue you and though corruptions presse upon you yet cheere your selves God in mercy will looke upon you Esa 43.6 there when the Lord commeth to gather his people together hee saith that hee will bring them from the East and gather them from the West he will call to the North give up and to the South keepe not back bring my sonnes from farre and my daughters from the end of the earth hee sayth the earth shall give account and yeeld up her dead the sea that also shall yeeld up her dead why God can make the divell yeeld up a wretched man as well as the earth give up a dead man God will say I must have a sinner divell and therefore deliver up thy prisoner God will draw thy heart out of the power of sinne and dominion of Satan though thou canst not tell how yet God is able to give thee a will of yeelding unto him and so much for the comfort of those that are unconverted there is hope that God will do you good bee your sinnes what they will bee now those that are converted and those that are in the state of grace this is a ground of strong comfort unto them that they shall prevaile against all sinnes for after times by the power of that God that hath given them victory over their sinnes in former times they may say did the Lord give me power over my sinnes when I loved them and will hee not give me power to resist them now when I have desire to forsake them it cannot bee hee that offered favour to thee when thou didst refuse it hee cannot but give favour to thee when thou beggest it at his hands and this shall suffice for that matter Vse 5 The fifth use is an use of exhortation to all Gods people is this the cord that God taketh to pluck a soule from corruption to himselfe namely by a holy kind of violence why what will you do then you that professe your selves to feare God and that say you are the children of God must not children imitate their father doth God deale thus with poore sinners then do you so likewise this is the course that God takes and this ought to be a coppy and pattern to you in the meane time as you are the Elect people of God to put on the bowels of mercy and compassion towards your brethren if ever mercy here it ought to be expressed and discovered if ever God shewed mercy to thy soule shew thou the like mercy to thy brethren did the Lord ever shew compassion unto thee shew thou the like compassion unto them did the Lord ever awaken thy eyes or humble thy heart did the Lord offer his favours to thee still calling still exhorting and perswading of you you that are the Elect people of God if ever God shewed any goodnesse unto you shew the same goodnesse mercy and compassion to your fellow brethren and therefore as God hath dealt with you and as hee doth deale with sinners let it bee your honours and your resolutions to deale answerably to God so saith the Prophet David I will reveale thy way to the wicked and sinners shall be converted unto thee oh blessed
hee could not help himselfe but must needs perish if he should glory in this case and say I am here in this pitt and if I get not out I shall perish yet this is my comfort no body lookes after me no body will vouchsafe to helpe me this is thy condition thou art funke downe into thy sinnes and let downe into the bottom of hell thou stickest there and art like to perish there and yet for all this thou gloriest and boastest and sayst the Lord will not open my eyes the Lord will not draw the Lord will not perswade me and work upon me and therefore thou art like to continue there and bee confounded there is this thy glory it is the greatest curse that ever befell any man and therefore if there bee any whose eyes God hath opened hath the Lord let in the cord of conscience into thy soule and let in the flashes of hell fire and brought thee almost to dispaire then blessed be the name of God thou art drawing goe home be comforted thou goest in the right way be not disquieted in this condition the Lord is now drawing of thee hee will anon bring thee to himselfe Second Vse Secondly it is a word of direction if there must bee drawing before there can bee comming then what are we to be advised of but this to blesse God for his worke when wee see it in our selves or others wheresoever your see this worke wrought in your selves or those that belong unto you blesse God for that mercy it is a good ground that God intendeth good to a man when hee beginneth the right way and observe this to check that conceit and overthrow that cursed opinion it is the ordinary practise of carnâ—ll men in the world if any that belong to them bee awakened and humbled they count it the heaviest curse that ever befell them the greatest crosse that ever came to their houses the wife the childe is undone they complaine the wife is so holy and the servants so devout that if there be any spare time they then goe to reading and praying I wonder whither they will go next I trow I tell thee whither they will goe next they are going now to Christ and the next journey they take they will goe to heaven this is the worst newes and art not thou ashamed to complaine of this if there be any soule present that is guilty of this crime take notice of it art thou content thy wife should take up her loose adulterous courses and go to the devill and not take up a good course and goe to the Lord Iesus Christ when God is working upon men hee is drawing of them to himselfe that they may go to the Lord Iesus and receive mercy from the Lord Iesus and therefore I beseech the Lord to shew men this sottish conceit and reforme the same when thou seest God worke upon a poore soule then blesse God for the same is thy wife that was an Adulteresse before now humbled doth she now see her sinnes then goe into a corner and blesse God for the same and say I have had an untoward wife but now the Lord blessed bee his Name hath humbled her I had a loose servant that was given to drunkennesse prophannesse but now the Lord hath opened his eyes and awakened his conscience and humbled his soule and is drawing of him to himselfe why blesse God for this his glorious comfort bee comforted herein and incouraged hereby and blesse God for the same FINIS The Table IOHN 6.44 No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him Doctrine I. THat every man in his naturall condition is fastened and setled in the state of sinne and corruption Page 3. This appeareth in the dominion that sinne and Sathan hath over the soule p. 4. And secondly in the amity that the soule hath to sinne p. 6 Vse I. Instruction to inâ—orme our mindes of the woefull servitude and daily slavery that all men are in by nature p. 7 Vse II. It is a word of Exhortation to all the Saints of God to pittie poore naturall creatures p. 11 Doctrine II. The Lord by a holy kinde of violence doth plucke the hearts of sinners from sinne unto himselfe p. 18 What is meant here by drawing vid. p. 20 The meanes whereby God drawes the heart of a poore sinner unto himselfe are foure Meanes I. The Lord letteth in a light into the minde of a poore sinner and discovereth unto him that he is in a wrong way p. 26 Meanes II. The Lord doth draw poore sinners unto himselfe with the cord of his mercy p. 30 This cable rope of Gods mercy is made up of foure Cords The first Cord is this The Lord reveales himselfe to be ready to receive poore sinners p. 31 The second Cord is this The Lord doth call and command sinners for to come p. 32 The third Cord is this The Lord intreates and beseecheth poore sinners to come to receive mercy p. 34 The fourth Cord is this The Lord doth wait and stay in long patience and suffring to see if at any time a sinner will turne unto him p. 38 Meanes III. The Lord draweth poore sinners unto himselfe by the iron cords of conscience p. 40 These iron cords of conscience have three maine hâ—â—kes to pull sinners to the Lord that is there are three great workes of conscience which God useth to worke upon men to draw them from sinne to himselfe p. 41. The first Hooke of conscience is this Conscience is a warner to the soule and admonisheth it of sinne and to come from sinne upon paine of damnation p. 41 The second Hooke is this Conscience accuseth the creature before God and witnesseth against him p. 47 The third Hooke is this Conscience at the last condemnes the soule p. 13 Meanes IV. The Lord draweth poore sinners unto himselfe by the Cord of his Spirit p. 61 The Reasons why the Lord doth thus draw a sinner from sinne to himselfe are three p. 62. Reason I. Because the strong man must first be cast out p. 63 Reason II. Because of that naturall union betweene the soule and corruption p. 64 Reason III. Becaus of that soveraigne kinde of power that sinne hath over the soule and prevaileth within the soule p. 67. Vse I. It is a ground of Instruction to teach all people to admire the inconceiveable goodnesse of the Lord to poore miserable damned creatures p. 70 Vse II. It is a word of terrour to discover the woefull estate of all those that doe set themselves against the worke of preparation p. 74 Vse III. It is a use of comfort and consâ—lation to all poore soules that are oppressed with their sinnes p. 95 Vse IV. It is a use of Exhortation to all Gods people to endeavour to pluche others from sinne this is the course God takes p. 103 Vse V. Of Examination to trie your selves how you have beene drawne to God p. 114 FINIS
in mans heart and resolve with David to waite for the Salvation of the Lord with God is the gate of mercy the fountaine of mercy and this mercy is free therefore use the meanes still though God heare not pray still though he accept not resolve though thy heart fails and thy eyes faile yet to roule in the dust and call for mercy and say Lord thy mercy is free therefore blesse me Lord even me also The 2 conclusion in the text is that not withstanding this mercy of God is free yet a man must have a will to receive grace and mercy before he can have it for saith the text whosoever Will let him take of the water of life freely and heere we have the reasonablenesse of the condition together with the universality of it it is not a great thing that God calleth for but if a man will have mercy and grace and Salvation he shall have it First a man must will mercy before hee can have mercy and whosoever doth will it shall have it and herein is the universality of the condition so that the doctrine which ariseth naturally out of the text and which is the second generall circumstance of preparation is this viz. that the soule must bee willing to receive Christ and grace before it shall have Christ and grace God will not save a man against his will Rev. 3.20 there saith the text Behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voyce and open the doore I will come in to him c. the doore is the heart the knocking is the striving of the Lord in the use of the means God stands this day knocks at this and all other the like opportunities the Lord knockes this day and will come and knocke againe the next Sabbath and the next the next Lecture and the next opportunity when the minister comes God comes when he perswades God perswades when hee threatens God threatens when he reprooves God reprooves sometimes the Lord knocketh at the doore sometimes hee pickes the locke thus every way striving to come in stands thus knocking and intreating exhorting perswading he knocks with much patience and long suffering if any man will but open here is all the Lord requires all that he expects and lookes for the opening of the doore that is all the doore is the heart the opening of the doore is the enlarging of the heart to entertaine Christ if any man will but open now here is all the Lord desires hee will come and suppe with that man and he with him and in the 16. Mat. 16.24 of Mat. 24. there saith our Saviour If any man will come after me let him deny himselfe and follow me what a strange phrase is this If he will follow me let him it is a pretty collection of Divines out of that place that a man must will to follow Christ before he can follow him the truth is the will never commeth after the following of God but if a man hath a heart that way a will to the businesse then hee may follow him then all goes forward cheerefully this will is the great wheele that turnes all and the power of the soule that workes all in this case and we may observe when the Lord is pleased to prepare a people for ruine hee then shutts up the doore of their hearts Acts 28.27 in the Acts 28.27 there saith the text The heart of this people is waâ—â—ed gross e and their eares are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed least they should see with their eyes and heare with their eâ—â—es and understand with their hearts and should be converted and I should heale them in the 24. verse saith the text some beleeved and some beleeved not how comes this to passe now that some beleeved not the reason is â—endred in the 27 verse the heart of this people is waxen fat or gros s e least they should be converted and I should hedle them if a soule will be converted then God will heale it but if the heart of the people be stopped up if the heart be fatted up with sinne and corruption then the Lord will never heale he will never have mercy upon that soule eating and sleeping makes a man naturally to be fat and grosse so it is with the soule when a mans heart feedes upon his corruptions when a man lyes securely in his sinnes this fat 's the soule and this is the fore-runner of confusion some beleeved and some beleeved not why their hearts were fatted up they had no will to receive Christ and Salvation by him and therefore looke as it was with the cure of the Lame man Iohn 5.6 our Saviour saith unto him Iohn 5.6 wilt thou bee made whole so it is in spirituall things the Lord will have a man to will mercy and Salvation by Christ before he will bestow it upon him and therefore in the 5 of Iohn the 40. the text saith Ye will not come to me that you may have life and this is the reason that they had not life and that they were not saved You would not come that you might have life as who should say You must will to come before you can come to have life and when you have once got this will then there is hope that there is life coming but a man must first will life before he can have life so that then the point is cleere and evident namely that a man must will to receive the Lord Iesus and grace before he shall have the Lord Iesus and grace and Salvation by him for the further opening of the point we must observe two passages first what is meant by the will secondly wherein this will discovers it selfe and by that time we shall have somewhat to hold our selves unto And first for the former what is meant by will in this place we must understand that this word will it carryeth a double signification with it And first it discovers that naturall power and faculty wherewith every man is endued to will but this is not meant here viz. the very faculty and power wherby a reasonable man is enabled to will for then every man should have life and salvation for every man hath this naturall will for it is with the soule as with a clocke that runneth the wrong way and striketh false it hath the same wheeles like other clocks but it doth not strike true as other clockes doe and herein lies the difference so it is with the nature of man fallen from God the wheele of his will that is the power of his understanding remaineth still the nature of the soule still existeth but the quality of it is altered this naturall faculty of the will is not meant here for then the devils should be saved for they have a naturall will and therefore in the second place by will in Scripture we must understand the actions and operations which proceed from the
to inâ—â—rict many judgements upon the people of Israel because they had not walked in his statutes after the Lord had done this yet 〈◊〉 tells them in the 16. Verse if they would walke in his wayes he would be a Sanctuary unto them he would make them better than ever they were and hee would doe better for them than ever hee did but how will hee doe this Why saith he I will take away that stony sturdy heart which is in them and will give them a frameable heart and a teachable heart which shall yeeld to whatsoever I cammand and then they will be able to cast away all those evills which they have embraced and performe all those holy duties which they have neglected the heart which God takes away from them cannot be meant the heart it selfe the naturall facultie of willing and the heart which hee gives them cannot be meant the bare faculty it selfe but the rebellious disposition that was in the faculty the Lord removeth and that same teachable frameable disposition he putteth into the facultie whereby their hearts should be carried to that which was pleasing to God comfortable to themselves I intend to speake of two things concerning Gods taking away of this same stony heart and giving a heart of flesh unto his people first that God doth this that hee is the Author of it secondly I will speake of the circumstance of time when God doth this when he thus workes upon the hearts of his chosen sometimes sooner sometimes later and this same circumstance of time when the Lord doth this is double first in regard of the meanes the Lord doth thus worke upon the hearts of those which belong to the election of grace when hee gives them the meanes of salvation when they have the Sunne-shine of the Gospell shining in their faces The second circumstance of this time is in regard of the men whom the Lord will thus worke upon some sooner some later some in all ages some in their young and tenderage some in their middle age and some though very few in their old age First I will speake of the Authour of this and that is God hee takes away the stony heart and gives a heart of flesh to his servants The Doctrine out of the words is The taking away of the indisposition of the soule to any good dutie and the fitting framing and disposing of a soule to performe any spirituall service is the alone worke of God hee removes the indisposition of the soule and hee puts the disposition to any good into the soules of his the case is cleare if we reason after this manner what is a stony heart A stony heart is a sturdy unteachable heart uncapeable and indisposed to any good what is a heart of flesh it is a lowly teachable pliable heart wiling to receive any impression that God stampes upon it who takes away the one The Lord who gives the other The Lord. So that both the remooving of the stony heart is the Lords worke and the giving of the fleshy heart is the Lords worke also I will take away their stony heart and I will give them a heart of flesh Nay the Lord doth make it his chiefest prerogative to doe this worke for a poore sinner Ezek. 36.25 Ezeck 36.25 I will powre cleane water upon you saith the Lord and yee shall be cleane from all your â—ilâ—hinesse and your Idols I will cleanse you A new heart also will I give you and put a new spirit within you I will take away the stony heart and I will give you a heart of flesh and therefore wee shall take notice of it this great worke of conversion is compared with the worke of creation God onely created man and God onely converteth a man how was it when darkenesse was over the face of the earth Let there bee light said the Lord and there was light the same God that created light the same God doth shine in our hearts nay this worke of conversion is sayd to be one of the greatest workes of God as if God did the best he could doe for a poore sinner when hee converts him To whom is the arme of the Lord revealed saith the Prophet Esay that is to whom is the utmost power of the Almighty God revealed the Lord putteth forth his whole strength upon poore sinners when he converts them unto himselfe The power of Gods strength the depth of Gods wisedome and the riches of Gods mercy is discovered in this worke of conversion here is power against all power and strength above all strength for the Lord doth not meete with the soule of a sinner in the worke of conversion as hee did in the worke of creation with the world for when he made the world hee met with nothing to resist him but he onely spoke the word hee commanded and it was made but when the Lord commeth to meete with the soule of a poore sinner to open his eyes and convert him unto himselfe and bring him home hee meeteth with the whole frame of all creatures opposing and resisting him the divell and the world without and sinne and corruption within when the Lord comes to convert a firmer hee meetes with all these with sinne Sathan and the world resisting him and therefore here must needs be power against all strength that opposeth him here must needs bee wisedome against all pollicie that resists him and here must needes be wonderfull mercy against all weakenesse and miserie 1 Cor. 14.24 and therefore 1 Cor. 14.24 there saith the Text If all prophesie and there come in 〈◊〉 that beleeveth not or unlearned he is rebuked of all and judged of all and so are the secrets of his heart made manifest and so he will fall downe on his face and worship God and say plainely God is in you indeede here the Text faith when the Lord commeth to speake home to a poore sinner a poore soule he comes into the Congregation though he be simple the word is wise and powerfull and that discovereth what is in his heart man is not able to doe this but God can doe this and then the soule will say God is in you in deede as who should say Here is God or else I had never beene humbled or else my sinnes had never beene subdued or else my soule had never beene wrought upon the sinner that is strucken with this worke he professeth plainely that here is the stroake of God and power of God and wisedome of God which was able to discover all things that were in my heart and take 〈◊〉 this stubborne heart of mine Oh this is 〈◊〉 â—orle of God indeede The grounds of the point why it is necessary that God should be the Author both of taking away the stony heart and giving the heart of flesh are these if we doe but consider the nature of the stoninesse and the fleshinesse of the heart it will appeare that God onely can take away
the Will of God in the Gospell maketh this season Know therefore thus much that to make up the season for any thing there is not onely required a continuance of time but also a supply of all those helpes that may be usefull and needefull for the accomplishment of any worke in that season As for example imagine the dayes and the nights were of an equal longth so many houres in the one so many houres in the other yet this continuance of time doth not make an opportunitie barely for a man to walke in the night though there be as many houres in the night as in the day because the houres doe not make on opportunitie for a man to walke in but the meanes that are needefull for this action for when the Sunne shines so that a man may see his way and avoid dangers and inconveniences this is the time wherein a man hath a fit opportunitie to walke in so saith our Saviour If a man walkes in the night he stumbleth but if he walke in the day then he stumblâ—s not because hee seeth where he goeth so that the continuance of time doth no make up an opportunitie but a supply also of all helpes and sufficiencie needefull for the performance of any action in this time Looke as it is with men when they goe to faile when there is winde and tide for their purpose this is the fittest opportunitie for them to take shippe in now in a calme day there may be as many houres as much continuance of time as in a day when there is winde and tide serving for their turne but this cannot be said to be a season for them to goe to sea in but when they have winde and weather to carry them and tide to convey them this is a sit opportunitie for them to take ship in so when the Gospell is revealed when the meanes of grace is offered to any people then there is a powerfull concurrence of all sufficiencie and helpe every way to procure that good which is wanting to the soule and which is necessary for the soule for the attaining of happinesse here and hereafter and therefore this is the season wherein men shall be converted and receive salvation if ever they shall be made partakers of it and therefore it is said of the Word that it is able to save the soules of men though a man were never so weak yet this Word of the Gospell is able to make him strong though he were never so proud never so sturdie yet this word is able to humble him though he were never so full of unbeliefe yet this Word is able to worke faith in him though hee were a damned man yet thus is the onely meanes to bring him to salvation Now then this I reason out of the former arguments they that enjoy that continuance of time wherein they have all meanes necessary to procure life and salvation they have the 〈◊〉 wherein life and salvation is to be obtained 〈◊〉 they that have life continued and the meanes of the Gospell revealed and vouch safed unto them 〈◊〉 have all meanes and helpes whereby grace and â—â—â—vation may be procured unto them and 〈◊〉 they enjoy the fittest season wherein God doth meane tâ— do good unto their soules The life of the Doctrine is behind that lieth in the application of the Point The uses of the Point are three If it be so that while life is continued and the Gospell preached this is the time wherein God meanes if ever to shew mercy to the soule of a poore sinner then in the first place it is a ground of instruction to every soule here present to teach us how thankefull wee ought to be unto the Lord that enjoy yet these liberties in the land of the living to acknowledge Gods goodnesse towards us and take notice of his mercifull dealing with us that yet we live thorough him and that yet wee may receive grace and mercie from him by the meanes of salvation that hee hath appointed it is a mervellous high and happy priviledge that wee may enjoy the light of the Gospell that a man was borne in such a time in the last age of the world in such a place in this kingdome wherein the way of life and salvation is so fully so plainely nay so powerfully made knowne to the soules of men as the whole world enjoyes not the like that we have the day of salvation to trade in for the good and comfort of our soules that wee have the day before us wherein wee may walke in those wayes whereby comfort may be derived unto us that the Sunne of the Gospell shines full in our faces and is not yet set and that as wee live in the earth so we injoy the meanes of a better life that so wee may be with God when wee shall goe hence and be no more seene The antient people of God did observe Gods goodnesse herein the Scripture saith that Abraham saw this day a farre of and rejoyced he saw the day wherein Christ should come into the world and when the meanes of salvation should be offered and revealed those things were laced up in types figures in Abrahams time but when God revealed the day of Christ Iesus unto Abraham hee by faith beleeved it hee saw it afarre of and rejoyced nay good old Simeon when hee saw this accomplished when he saw Christ was borne and had him in his armes then he desired to live no longer but blessed God and said Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy Word for mine eyes have seene thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people to be a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel when he saw the meanes of salvation discovered and declared his heart was so ravished with the delight he tooke therein that he did desire to depart out of this life that he might be with Christ in a better life it is true that while we live in this world we shall have many troubles while we continue in this vale of misery wee shall have many vexations but this is the comfort of a man that hee hath the voice of the Gospell sounding in the eares of him and the Spirit behind him crying after him This is the good and ancient way walke in it if a man that were to travell by night had but the Moone or the light of the Starres to direct him in his journey this would be very comfortable unto him but if hee had a lampe or a torch carried before him hee would thinke this a marvellous comfort but if a man that hath a journey to take hath the Sunne shining cleare above him this will greatly cheare the heart of a poore travellour though his journey be tedious and the way be foule why yet hee will say it is faire above head and I have day enough before mee and therefore I care not So it ought to be with
hearing while we are all living now is the time 2 Cor. 6.2 now is the season it is in 2 Cor. 6.2 the Text saith I have heard thee in a time accepted and in a day of salvation have I succoured thee behold now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation Whilst Ministers are calling upon you and you are living though they cannot give you grace nor you of your selves receive grace yet wee have the promise in the accepted time God will heare us even now while I am speaking and you are hearing this the very day of salvation and therefore let us not turne the deafe eare upon the Lord but while opportunity is affoorded let us make use of it while the Lord is pleased to continue opportunities unto us let us embrace them hee that never heard let him heare now hee that never prayed let him pray now it is now high time to awake out of that cursed securitie wherein wee have a long time lien the Lord is come neare unto us even to the very next doore Christ Iesus is calling and mercie is intreating and wisedome is even hoarse with crying after us there is nothing but a heart wanting mercy is offered we ought therefore to entertaine it the meanes of salvation are revealed therefore we ought for to embrace them Cant. 2.10 Cant. 2.10 there saith the Text My beloved spake and said unto me Rise up my love my faire one and come away for the winter is past and the raine is over and gone the flowers appeare on the earth and the time of the singing of birds is come and the voyce of the turtle is heard in our Land thus God speaketh to you this day those words are made good to every soule that heareth me this day God calleth to every poore sinner the Church was then in misery and so the Lord speaketh to every poore soule thou art in the grave of thy sinnes arise my love my dove the time of persecution is past and the voyce of the turtle is yet heard the Ministers of God are preaching to us and wooing of us and saying the Spring time of grace is now present The Lord saith unto us as to the Church there rise and come out of those sinnefull courses wherein you are he pluckes the adulterer out of his leud practises and hee calls the proud man out of his wicked courses and the covetous man out of his counting house and from the things here below and bids them come unto the house of the Lord that he may speake comfort and consolation to their soules the Lord doth even strive with us and labours every way to plucke us out of our base and sinnefull courses the Lord dealeth with us Ezeck 12.3 as he did with Israel Ezeck 12.3 there saith the Text Prepare thou sonne of man thee stuffe for removing and remove by day in their sight and thou shalt remove from thy place to another place it may be they will consider though they be a rebellious people as if hee had said it may be when all these meanes are used it may be at last they will be perswaded and performe that which I require of them it is a lively patterne of Gods speciall providence over us in this Land God hath not dealt thus with other Nations hee hath passed by other people and hath let the Gospell abide among us the sound of the Gospell an inkeling of it hath beene in other countries but hee hath commanded the Gospell to abide with us twentie thirtie fortie sixtie yeares wee have yet the Gospell among us we are yet in peace and prosperitie we enjoy those liberties that thousands of our poore brethren want and would attaine unto many have had some meanes but wee have had all meanes we have had famine for to affright us the Plague to awaken us and peace to cheere us nay the Gospell and meanes of salvation are still continued to us the Lord saith preach still continue still calling and still crying to the people of England that so if it be possible their proud hearts may be humbled their sturdy hearts may be softned their unregenerate hearts may be converted and their soules may be saved The second cavill is this the soule may say though the opportunity be now present yet there is time enough the day is long enough for the answer hereof I will goe no further then the Text saith O that thou hadst knowne the things belonging to thy peace in this thy day but now they are hidden from thine eyes The day of a mans life is very uncertaine no man knoweth how long he shall live who knoweth not what our lives are bubbles and vapours and flowers how soone are the bubbles downe how soone are the vapours vanisht how soone doe the flowers fade nay many of us are in our middle age nay some of us are in our old age wee have one foote already in the grave and how soone may these flowers wither how soone may these men returne unto the earth and then what will become of all their expectations It is good saith the wise man to injoy the present time while life and strength continue young men will bee ready to say I will take my owne content now and hereafter I will returne unto the Lord I will gather the flower while it is greene and while I am young I will not spend my dayes in mourning I will not breake my heart with sighing and sorrowing for my sinnes but when I grow crooked and aged and sit at home then I will repent and 〈◊〉 unto the Lord and become a new man those young men say unto repentance as Felix did to Paul go thy wayes now I will heare thee another time so say they to repentance hereafter when there comes a convenient time I will repeâ—t I will be holy and obedient and turne over a new leafe and become a new man but now let me make use of the treasurie of my youth and because I am in the strength of my yeares therefore I will follow my pleasures O foole O foole I say unto thee as Christ did to the rich man in the Gospell this night thy soule may be taken from thee and then what will become of thy thoughts plots and plojects thy bed may become thy grave and then what will become of thy poore soule the divells may drag it into hell It was the word of the rich man when he had filled his barnes full of goods and his purse full of money then he saith unto his soule Soule take thy rest thou hast goods layd up for many yeares take thy cups saith the drunkard take thy whore saith the adulterer Oh foole this night the divell may hale thy soule into everlasting confusion how knowest thou but that sentence may bee given upon thee which was given upon him and then there will be no repentance in the grave But bee it so that thy life may continue which is
refused Pro. 1.24 because I stretched out my hand and none would regard but ye have despised all my counselle and yee would none of my correction I will also laugh at your destruction and mocke when your feare commeth when your feare commeth like sudden desolation and your destruction as a whirlewind There was a time when the Lord called to all despisers of grace and refusers of mercie how long and how often but they that would not heare the time will come when the Lord will say I will laugh at your destruction when a poore sinnefull creature at the day of judgement shall come before the Lord of glory the devill drawing him and then the Lord shall laugh at him and say how often have I sent unto you and called upon you and you would not heare nor regard me Behold men and Angels this is the man this is hee that contemned my Word and slighted the meanes of salvation and therefore laugh at him mocke at his destruction Oh what will become of that man then when the Lord of mercy shall not onely take mercy from him when the God of goodnesse shall not onely take goodnesse from him but shall laugh at his confusion and shall rejoyce when hee executes his judgements upon this man to his everlasting destruction and therefore I beseech you take heede of this dangerous conceit The fourth shift is this if all will not work upon the soule then it falls upon this is it so that grace and mercie being neglected they shall never be obtained why then it takes up this conclusion if I never have grace and mercy then I can live without it oh foole if there were any creature of this distemper in this congregation I may speake terrible things unto that soule when a man is brought to this passe that he cares not what becomes of his soule when hee sayes what matter is it if I have not grace is this such a losse When a soule is come to this oh then he is in a miserable cōdition in a woefull lamentable estate is it no matter to be saved is it no matter to be comforted is it no matter to be glorified eternally what matter is it to lose grace Nay what availeth it to live frolickely here and miserably hereafter What matter is it to neglect grace here and to be deprived of glory hereafter is this no matter Let me say to you as the man of God did to his servant 2 Kings 5.26 2 King 5.26 Is this a time to take money and receive garments and olives and vineyards and sheepe and oxen So say I is this a time to live frolickely and merrily Is this a time for a man to follow cursed companions and embrace sinnefull corruptions is this a time for a man to follow the world and the vanities thereof and in the meane time neglect the meanes of life and salvation No no know it is the day of God the day of grace our soules lie at pawne if these opportunities be omitted woe and griefe and paine and wormewood will be upon that man by whom they be neglected he that despiseth these meanes here shall live miserably hereafter everlasting happinesse and glory depends upon this opportunitie tell not me it is a day of marchandise and you must provide for your families I tell you it is a day of salvation hast thou time to provide for thy house and familie and not for thy soule and for thy ever lasting happinesse So then gather up all briefely and the scope will be this it is now the most opportune time and therefore the fittest it is the day of salvation therefore the shortest it is the day of visitation and therefore the greatest commoditie the opportunity is the fittest the day is the shortest the commoditie the greatest and what remaineth now but that the Lord will worke this upon your soules that he which spake this to Ierusalem whilst he lived on earth may speake the same to you though now in glory and perswade your hearts to entertaine this opportunitie to make use of this day and embrace this commoditie But if all meanes will not perswade men hereunto then the last use is an use of exhortation unto us all to pitty the case of such men and to shew remorse for the desolation of those that neglect the meanes of their salvation If wee cannot perswade you yet give us leave to mourne for you if our perswasions will not take place in your soules yet I hope you will give us leave to goe in secret and let our eyes droppe downe teares for the miserable desolation that will fall upon those that neglect the meanes of life and happinesse you must not thinke to passe thorough Purgatory you must not thinke to goe to heaven whither you will or no me thinks I see a poore creature that slighted mercy salvation when it was offered unto him me thinkes I see that soule lying upon his death bed light is departing from his eyes his soule is departing from his body his body is a burthen to him in regard of his disease and his conscience a hell unto him in regard of his sinnes oh the name of a Minister of a Church they are all as bills of inditements comming against the soule of this man me thinkes I heare such a man say at his last gaspe the day is gone the gate is shut and now it is too late to enter and thus the soule departs from the body the body to the grave and the soule to hell Oh what bitter and wofull lamentations will that soule make when it comes in hell Oh the golden time that I have seene and not regarded oh the gracious opportunities of salvation that my eyes have beheld and yet I neglected Oh the mercy and grace and goodnesse of God that have been offered unto me and I have contemned and trampled under my feet and therfore now must be tormented with the devil his angels from ever lasting to everlasting on the Lord give us hearts to take notice of these things If we cannot doe what good we would to men yet let us lament their miserable conditions wives mourne for your husbands parents mourne for your children and say the Lord hath offered the meanes of salvation both profitable and comfortable yet my husband heares not my child receives not these meanes why then mourne and lament oh my poore husband oh my child thou mightest have had grace but now it is taken from thee thou hadst the offer of salvation and now perhaps it shall never again be tendered to thee but if mercy cannot prevaile with you nor the voyce of the Ministers take place in you yet let the saftie and comfort of your owne soules move you to make much of the opportunities and meanes of grace and salvation Let every master of a family goe home and resolve and say this is my day Lord this very day may be my day and thy day the
Gods mercy that he deales thus with the soules of poore sinners it is the reason of that passage in the 15. verse of this Chapter there the Master of the vineyard called the labourers together and they received every man a penny now they that came first and had borne the heate of the day when they saw that they which came last had as much as they they murmured against the master of the vineyard saying These last have wrought but one houre and thou hast made them equall unto us which have borne the heate of the day but then the master answered saying Friend I doe thee no wrong is it not lawfull for me to doe what I will with mine owne as if he had sayd I called thee at the third houre and him at the sixth houre and this man at the eleventh houre it was out of my mercy that I called thee and out of my mercy that I called him is it not lawfull to doe what I will with mine owne mercy is mine and love is mine and reward is mine it is my mercy that I will call any at any time and therefore I may dispose of it as I please Secondly as the Lord doth expresse hereby the freenesse of his grace so the Lord also hereby doth mervelously magnifie his great power and All-sufficiency in saving the soules of poore people that is able to doe what hee will in heaven and in earth and so likewise in the hearts of his servants there are many little ones that are fooles and have no knowledge and yet the Lord is able to convert them and make them understand the mysteries of salvation there are many strong men that snuffle up the wind like the Asse in the Wildernesse they will not stoope they will not be humbled but they will doe what they list and yet the Lord is able to over power this sturdy heart of a young and strong man and he is able to support the weake nature of a young one And so men that are weatherbeaten in their sinnes and screwed into their corruptions God is able to overpower these and convert these also and bring them home unto himselfe if hee be a weake silly child yet God is able to inlighten him if hee have a sturdy heart yet God can bring him downe and if he be a weatherbeaten and an old sinner yet God is able to call him and convert him also and hereby the wonderfull power of the Lord is seene in that hee is able to worke how hee will when hee will and upon whom he will in this kind looke as it is with a Physitian when a man hath a disease which lies low in his body and breedes rottennesse in his bones insomuch that it is almost past cure then the Physitian that can recover this man sheweth admirable skill and he sheweth admirable power in regard that he is able to provide such meanes and apply such meanes as thereby the party may bee cured by this meanes the skill of the Physitian and the power of him is magnified so it is with this great God when all sorts of sinners are called and all corruptions subdued your little ones that know nothing yet God inlightens them and supports them Timothy did sucke the sincere milke of the Gospel on one side as he did sucke the milke of his mothers brests on the other side and then there is a stubborne heart on another side which breakes all bonds and snappes all cords apeeces hâ—e cares for nothing he will be ruled by no man and then there is your old forlorne sinner his sinnes are become a rottennesse in his bones old incanlâ—â—ed pride and incancred covetousnesse and malice God now to conquer all these and helpe these doth not this shew admirable power in the Lord 〈◊〉 to worke and thus to order things for the good of his people so that wee see that God doth and can call in all ages We come now to the next passage and that is this however the Lord doth at severall times convert severall of his servants and there is no time alotted to him yet most and most usually God doth call them before their old age and that some interpreters wittily observe out of the Text it is sayd that the master of the Vineyard went out at the third sixt and ninth houre and saw some standing idle and he sent them into his Vineyard he went then on purpose to see and hire and send in Labourers to work in his Vineyard but the Text saith he went out at the eleventh houre not to hire any for he did not expect to see any then idle but hee went out upon some other occasion and seeing some then standing idle hee wondred at it and sayd Why stand yee all the day idle as if he should say no man will hire you now it is but one houre to night it is time for men to leave working and not to beginne to worke he went out occasionally and meeting with these unexpected hee wondered at these and therefore they observe that if there had not beene great mercy in the master of the Vineyard this was no time to hire Labourers in so that the case is cleare some are called in their youth some in their middle age some in their old age some in their tender yeares some in their riper age some old some young but this is most true than those whom God doth call it is most commonly in their middle age before they come to their old age this is the generall course of God he call many before some after but most then Eccles 3.1 there the wise man observes that there is a time appointed for every purpose and it appeareth that the middle age is the fittest time for this purpose it is true indeede that all things depend upon Gods will but yet there is wisedome in this God and he ordereth things according to wise dome and this seemes to bee the fittest season wherein the Lord should deale thus graciously in converting of a sinner if wee consider either the nature of man or the end of Gods giving grace in both these respects first if wee looke to man and regard either the constitution of his body or the gifts qualities of his minde we shall see that it is most fit for God to worke upon him in his middle age he can doe it and may doe it at another time but that is the fittest time and that first in regard of the constitution of his body for it is observed by Philosophers that a man in his tender infancie lives the life of a tree onely he onely eates and growes and so it is with little children in their swadling cloathes afterwards when he comes into further yeares when he comes to be ten or twelve yeares old then hee lives the life of a beast he is taken away with those objects that are then most sutable to him for a child to consider of the mysteries of life salvation is
ever he meane to come to heaven and this is the first meanes when the soule of a sinner is inlightned and his mind informed that he is in a wrong course and that he must take a better course or else he shall never come at heaven and this the Lord doth suddenly the sinner not perceiving of it the Lord setteth a sudden flash upon his soule and telleth him that he is going unto hell the soule presently wonders at this and marvels how it came to passe Esay 66.1 there saith the text I am sought of them that asked not for mee and I am found of them that sought mee not the Lord putteth a sudden light into soules of men which they never dreamed of Hypocrites if they can but goe to Church and sit in the Church as Gods servants do and leane on their elbowes and heare as Gods people do then all is well with them but as many of them as belong to God God will discover unto them that they are in a wrong way and he will shew and reveale another way unto them which they never dreamed of and therefore this is that we shall observe haply we shall see a man come riding into a town on a Sabboth day and when he comes there hee seeth the people going to Church well perhaps then he sets up his horse at the Inne and goes into the Church for a custome and for company sake and when he is in the Church he goes into a seat and sets down his staffe and sits down and attends the Minister and never thinks of any thing well at last the Lord sends a light into his soule and telleth him thou art now riding about thy own worldly businesse when thoushouldst be in sanctifying of my Sabboth I tell thee my friend thou art in a wrong way thou takest a naughty course thou dost wickedly and if thou continuest and goest on in this course thou wilt never come at heaven And this the Lord doth on a sudden when a man never so much as thought of any such matter And after a man is thus enlightned he will be ready to say the truth is heretofore I went to heare the word but for customes sake but when I least dreamed of any such thing it pleased the Lord blessed be his name to reveale such things unto mee as I before never knew he told mee that which sticketh upon mee to this present houre he discovered that unto mee which I hope I shall carry with me unto my grave this is that we may observe in the 9. of the Acts Paul there was running on in a resolute-course he had gotten letters at Damascus and purposed to make havock of all poore Christians where he came now while he was in his journey the Lord met him from heaven and cryed unto him Saul Saul why persecutest thou mee as he if had said this is not the way to heaven you think to persecute my poore Saints but Saul Saul I tell thee this is not the way thou takest a wrong course he called unto him as a man would call after one that is running out of his right way into some wildernesse or dangerous place And when Saul heard this he presently fell off his horse and humbled himselfe and said Lord what wilt thou that I do and so Luke 15.4 the text saith that the shepherd that had lost his sheep left his ninty and nine and went into the wildernesse to seek that which was lost and if he had not gone to seek the sheep the sheep would never have sought him alas the poore sheep was gone astray and bewilderd and if the shepheard had not followed it and sought after it that would never have found the sheepheard nay to go further many a man goeth to the word and heareth it for nothing else but to carp at the Minister and yet the Lord hath caught many such men also and hath put such a light into their hearts that he hath made them know that they were in a wrong way and mark when the Lord hath let in this light then the soule begins to be at a stand and thinks with himselfe surely if this be the right way I am in the wrong if the Minister saith true then I am not right but then sometimes the heart would put out this light it would not be informed and perswaded if the Minister tels a man that he must sanctifie Gods Sabboths here or else he shall never sanctifie a Sabboth unto him in heaven hereafter when the Minister saith that unlesse God humble us here he will break us in peeces in hell hereafter loath a man is to know this and be informed of this because hee would not be offended by this and provoked to performe this but though a sinner would shift off this yet the Lord will not leave him but will still pursue him and lay reasons upon him unanswerable the soule would fain play tricks with the Lord in this case and put out this light but God will reveale to the soule of a sinner that these things are certainly true God will lay hold upon the understanding of a poore sinner and follow him with reasons that are undeniable untill his reason shall yeeld and his understanding give verdit to that which the Lord reveales untill hee sayes I confesse Lord it is true I yeeld full assent thereto Thus the Lord knocketh at the doore or heart of a poore sinner and not only so but lifts up the latch and opens the doore of a mans heart and letteth in the light and this is the first course that God useth 2 2. The second is this after that the Lord hath thus enlightened the minde and let in the light of his spirit into the heart of a sinner and though a man would defeat the power of it yet God still followeth him with forceable arguments untill the understanding is setled and reason answered after the Lord hath done this then the second cord wherewith God draweth sinners unto himselfe is a cord of mercy whereby the Lord doth compasse a poore sinner about with kindnesse goodnesse and compassion Hos 11.4 there saith the Lord I taught Ephraim to goe taking them by the armes I drew them with the cords of love and with the bonds of a man This same cord of Gods mercy is a cable rope the abundant riches of Gods mercy is a great thick cable and we will tell you of what it is twisted it makes known it selfe in foure particulars if the illumination that God sends into the heart will not bee able to perswade the heart though it answers all objections pursueth it with arguments undeniable why then the Lord will draw us with the cord of his mercy and this great cable of Gods goodnesse is made up of foure cords First First Cord. the Lord revealed himselfe to be ready to receive and willing and easie to entertayne poore sinners when they come unto him Esay 55.7 there saith
those prophane hearts will be pure and holy why when will it once be thus Christ wayteth still and expecteth still if not this day then the next week if not the next week then the next moneth if not the next moneth then the next quarter if not the next quarter then the next yeare if not the next yeare then the next score of yeares you old sinners that are grayheaded in wickednesse how long hath the Lord waited upon you for shame let him wayt no longer but turn unto him that you may receive mercy from him and have your sinnes pardoned by him This is the last cord of Gods mercy first the Lord will entertaine poore sinners if they come secondly he doth command them to come thirdly he doth intreat and beseech them to come and lastly if all this will not do then he wayts in parience for their amendment and thus the Lord makes up his great cable roap of mercy and this one would think should melt the hardest heart under the Sunne but if this will not do if God by these cords of mercy cannot draw a sinner then he takes himselfe unto another course and as he justly may he lets in other cords in the heart you will not come with mercy will you very well I tell you the Lord will lay hooks upon you that shall bring you with a witnesse if these bonds of love will not prevayle with you the Lord hath iron cords that will pluck you in peeces and therefore the third meanes whereby God draweth a sinner from corruption to himselfe is the cord of conscience which God lets down into the soule and this same yron cord this yron chayne of conscience hath three hookes at the end of it which are able to rend the heart of a sinner and pluck it in peeces and draw the soule unto God if the cords of Gods mercy will not draw you then these yron hookes of conscience will pull you to the Lord for this same cord of conscience hath three maine hookes that is there are three great works of conscience which God useth to work upon men to draw them from sinne to himselfe First conscience is a warner of the soule and admonisheth the sinner of his waies this conscience gives a sinner an uncontrouleable command to come from sinne conscience gives him a peremptory charge upon paine of the heaviest judgement that can bee inflicted upon him not to meddle with corruption it is conscience that doth this the Lord stirreth up conscience and armes him with authority as a Vicegerent under him that he may stifle those sinfull lusts and over-power those sinfull distempers that harbour in the soule and overcome the soule it is true that wicked men by reason that they live in sinne have their consciences either blinded or asleep their consciences oftentimes come to be seared and hardened wicked men have their consciences some times under them they stifle their conscience and stop the mouth of conscience if conscience offer to reproove them they presently take him on the mouth and make him quiet they bind the hands of conscience in this kind but if a wicked man belong to God then hee will awaken conscience in this life but if they do not belong unto him then they may be sure when they are in hell to have their consciences awakened they carry a black dogge in their bosome that will teare them with a witnesse but if God purpose good unto a man then he will awaken his conscience in this life hee will arme conscience with authority and put a new commission into the hand of conscience insomuch that now conscience stands upon termes and conscience will not put it up as he hath done howsoever it hath heretofore beene stifled yet now it gives men a peremptory command upon paine of their everlasting torment as they love their own soules to take heed that they meddle not with sin for if they do it will cost them everlasting life now when conscience hath such a commanding power then the command is marvellous awfull terrible and fearefull and it maks a sinner start aside and withdraw himselfe from his former courses it makes him hang downe his head and he dares not looke out of doores he dares not runne with that courage into wicked practises as he did before it is with conscience in this case as it is with a Lievetenant or a Shreife of a countrey happily in the Kings absence a company of rebels joyne together in a conspiracy and rend the commission out of the Lievetenants hand and beset the Shreifes house the officers because the rebels are more in number dare doe little or nothing unto them they may say as David did to the sonnes of Serviah ye are too strong for me ye sonnes of Serviah and therefore he would not meddle with them and so in some unruly towne wee shall see a company of ryotous fellowes because they are more in number than the officers they set the Constable in stockes when as they are more worthy to goe to the gallowes than he to the stocks just so it is with conscience haply wicked men in former times have stifled conscience and tooke the comission out of the hands of conscience but when the King comes into the countrey and the officers shall complaine unto the King of this conspiracy then he gives them a larger command and gives them more power hee puts a new commission into their hands and furnisheth them with greater ayd and commandeth upon paine of death that there be no more such uproares made and when this is proclaymed upon the Market-post then this makes those resolute fellowes to pull in their heads and they dare not shew themselves So it is with conscience sometimes the Lord letts wicked men blind conscience and feare it wicked men oftentimes make a mock at conscience if a man reprooves them for some sin and admonisheth them for conscience sake not to cōmit wicked practises then they flout at the person that speakes unto them and say what your conscience will not suffer you to do as we do you will not drink will you why oh your conscience will not suffer you you will not commit adultery will you your conscience will not suffer you what you are a man of conscience are you and you will suffer your conscience to make a foole of you what care we for your conscience or you either thus many sinners keep conscience under but howsoever conscience be thus slighted and dispised the time will come when God will awaken conscience and put a new commission into his hands and sends him help from heaven and sayes goe to such a man and tell him you have blasphemed and you have spoken against Gods Saints you have broken Gods Sabbaths and slighted Gods word and contemned Gods ordinances and neglected the meanes of salvation be it known therefore unto thee that I have a command from heaven and from God I charge you as you will
greater eagernesse than ever he did all his life time before For mark that alwayes if after God hath inlightned a mans mind and awakned his conscience he falls into his old wayes again then he is a divell he is twice as bad as he was before he followes his corruptions with such outragiousnesse as if hell were broken loose Very well he hath now broken two hooks the third hook is that which will rend him in peeces before it will let him passe when conscience seeth that the other two hooks are broken when he seeth that commands prevaile not that accusations terrifie not then the Lord exerciseth another work of conscience upon the heart of a poore sinner and that is this As conscience did before command him and peremptorily charge him upon the hazzard of everlasting life not commit sinne and secondly as it before did accuse him before God for the commission of that sinne whereby God was dishonourted and his soule polluted so in the third place conscience becomes his executioner it takes the office of an executioner upon him conscience will beare with him no longer but now draggs him down to the very place of execution he was convicted before conscience sayes unto him thy sinnes were discovered and I charged thee not to meddle with sinne any more upon paine of Gods displeasure and as thou wouldst answer it before God afterward I became an accuser of thee before God and then thou didst confesse thy sinnes and didst purpose amendment but now since thou hast slighted my commands and not regarded my accusations there is therefore no remedy but thou must go to the place of execution now there is no way but one with thee now conscience begins to condemne the soule as Divines expresse these three works of conscience by a practicall kind of reasoning and conscience reasons thus with the soule He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck he shall perish there is no remedic there is the command of conscience but thou hast often been reproved and admonished and yet hast hardoned thy heart and hast not been bettered by it there is the work of accusation and therefore thou shalt perish there is no remedy and this is the condemning work Suppose conscience should come thus unto the heart of a man he that being often reproved hardeneth his heart he shall perish saith the Lord there is no remedy but now let conscience go into every mans bosome and reason thus with him thou art the man woman or child whom counsells in private and reproofes exhortations and admonitions in publque would do no good nothing would convince thee nothing would informe thee therefore thou shalt perish man woman or child there is no remedic These are the three works of conscience and when conscience hath done this last work and performed his office of execution when he hath condemned a soule and delivered a sinner into the hand of the executioner then it is thus with this sinner after all mercies and cords of love will do no good after the commands and accusations will not prevaile then conscience sayes come damned ghosts take away this drunkard this blasphemer this adulterer this contemner of my word and throw him headlong into the pit of everlasting destruction he would not be amended let him be condemned he would not be humbled let him therefore be damned Thus conscience delivers a sinner into the hands of the jaylor into the hands of the divell and then he is amazed and thinks himselfe past hope past help past cure This is that we shall observe in conscience look as it with a debter that liveth in prison he was haply put in at first for some trifle when he is once there then all his creditors come in and one layeth a hundred pound to him and another a thousand pound and then his case is irrecoverable he is never like to come out againe so when conscience hath arrested a man and cast him into prison for his pride or for his covetousnesse or for his drunkennesse or for his adulterie and the like then mark Mercy and Goodnesse and Patience and Long-suffering come all in and arrest him and Mercy saith at my sute soe many hundreds Grace that saith at my sute soe many thousands then Patience and Long-suffering comes and sayes at my sute soe many millions and this is the wofullest plight of all When conscience is thus tormenting a sinner then patience comes and pleads against him and mercy that sueth a bond against him Mercy saith Lord I have beene wronged then commeth grace and saith Lord I have beene refused then commeth patience and saith Lord I have beene contemned I have besought him saith mercy to be reconciled but I was slighted I have waited for his amendment sayth patience but I have not beene regarded I have beene offered saith grace but yet have beene neglected Lord all thy cost and care hath beene despised they all come before the Lord and plead against the soule of a sinner justice Lord saith mercy justice Lord saith grace justice Lord saith patience wee have all beene slighted neglected and contemned and then the Lord he condemnes him and saith take him divell and execute vengeance upon him mercy was offered but he refused he would none of it and therefore mercy shall never be shewed unto him let him for ever be damned And by this time the soule perceives it selfe to be in the divells hands as it were and in the divells possession and that Satan may torment him as he please and then the soule being thus perplexed he cryeth out the divell is there do you not see him he is come for mee and I shall go and must go with him why since I must go to the divell why let mee go then nay if the soule that is thus in the jawes of the divell lie upon his death bed as soone as ever he takes a little rest the Lord terrifieth and affrighteth him in his dreames and then he riseth out of his bed and the first word hee speaks is this I must go and I will go then his friends that attend about him ask him whither he will go they tell him he is among his friends then he saith I am damned and I am going to hell and therefore let mee go the divell is comming to fetch mee and therefore I must be gone I beseech you consider this you that make nothing of conscience if it once lay hold on you with this hook it will hold you sure enough and reare your very hearts in peeces Now when the Minister in sent for to come unto apoore soule in this miserable condition when he comes haply he tells him there is a great deale of mercy and comfort with the Lord there is a great deale of grace and salvation with Christ but then the sinner when he heares of mercy is distracted and besides himselfe and sayes that is my plague that is my bane and that in the end will be my damnation if
spirit when the Lord had shewed mercy to him then saith he I will teach thy way to the wicked and sinners shall be converted as if he should say I will have no nay at the hands of sinners in this kind the proud heart shall bee humbled and the sturdy heart shall be softned I will exhort all sinners to come unto thee that art a God hearing sinners and shewing mercy unto sinners if God bee urgent so be you also labour you with a holy kind of violence to draw sinners unto heaven and to help on this exhortation for your help herein labour to draw them these two wayes labour your selves to do whatsoever in your power lyeth secondly labour to help them by the supply of others that may doe that which you cannot first in regard of your selves foure things are remarkable first set upon the sinner with a holy kind of heavenly resolution of soule and labour every way to expresse your love towards him for the good and benefit of him by sweet counsell loving exhortations gentle admonitions and sharp reproofes do to your utmost power worke upon poore sinners Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another saith the Text daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sinne but above all that place is remarkable for this purpose that we should advise and comfort and quicken and every way do that which may be most advantagious for our brethren 1. Thess 5.14 Wee exhort you brethren saith the Apostle warne them that are unruly comfort the feeble minded support the weake be patient toward all men see that none render evill for evill unto any man but ever follow that which is good both among your selves and to all men the Apostle doth not say that it is in one mans power to do this but all ought to do it men brethren and fathers ought to do it every sonne and daughter of Adam if there bee any weak strengthen them if there bee any down raise them deale patiently and lovingly with all deale answerably to the necessities of all sinners whom you have to do withall but you will say am I my brothers keeper aye that you are your brethrens keepers or else you are their murtherers wouldst thou not defend thy brother from murthering if thou shouldst see a cōpany of theeves set upon him go about to slay him wouldst thou not labour by all meanes possibly to succour him and hath God care of Oxen and Asses wilt thou preserve thy brother from a bodily death and wilt thou not doe much more for the soule of thy brother for the saving of him from eternall death and damnation dost thou set a sinner whurried and teared by Satan dost thou see the divell robbing him of all his graces and hearest him crying murther murther and wilt thou not help him and relieve him if you should lie in your beds and heare one cry murther murther would you not rise rescue him why every sinner every proud man every covetous man every malicious man every drunkard adulterer blasphemer the divell and those sins do prey upon them and worry their soules oh help them mercifully and perswade them lovingly rescue your child or your husband or your friend out of the jawes of Satan and work every way for their good in the 17. of Inde remember that build up one another saith the Text on your most holy faith labour to save some and pluck them out of the fire and though they doe not call to thee for help yet offer thy helping hand unto them if thy neighbours house be on a fire thou wilt not stay till thou beest called but if they that be within be dead in sleep then thou wilt break open the doore upon them and awake them and rouse them up so deale with the soules of poore sinners there is one man his soule is set on fire with hell it is all on a flame with devilish lust dost thou see the soule of thy neighbour all on a flame in this kind why then breake in upon him haply hee will not intreat thy help but that 's no matter stand not upon complements but with a holy kind of violence pluck him out of the fire you that are wise pluck the drunkard off the Ale-bench hale poore creatures out of hell and corruption did the Lord deale so with you why then deale you so with your fellow brethren and if you be not able to prevaile your selves if your owne counsell bee too weak then take two or three with thee it is Christs counsell Mat. 18.16 If thy brother shall trespasse against thee goe and tell him his fault betweene thee and him alone if hee shall heare thee thou hast gained thy brother but if hee will not heare thee then secondly take to thee two or three more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may bee established that is take severall neighbours wise and holy and so double reproofes admonitions doe not onely perswade him but overpower him not only reprove him but convince him let thy neighbour exhort and thou also let thy neighbour admonish and thou too let thy neighbour reprove and thou too double your exhortations and admonitions and reproofes that at last you may prevaile with him But you will say if the soule still staieth in his distempers what must wee then do why if he returne to sinne againe then thirdly returne you to reproofes and exhortations againe and never leave him when thou goest to his house and meetest him in the way and seest him in the fields then still in all places upon all occasions reprove and exhort him and hale him from his ungodly courses and if the sinner yet will not hearken to thy exhortations but scorneth thee then the Lord doth free thee from thy counselling of him doe not cast pearles before swines but yet though thou needst not counsell him publickly yet go into thy chamber and mourne for him secretly as Ieremy did for the people of Ierusalem Lam. 1.17 for these things saith he I weepe mine eye mine eye runneth downe with water because the comforter that should relieve my soule is farre from me and my children are desolate doe thou so for the soule of a poore sinner and pluck hard to get help from heaven for him and intreat God never to give quiet to his soule untill his eyes be opened and his heart humbled lastly when your selves have done what you can and when you have used the help of others if after this he returnes to his former course and then when thou fallest to reprove him and exhort him againe he then becomes a scorner then labour to bring him to receive what succour hee may from others and that two wayes first by what meanes you may bring him to the publick meanes it was so with Cornelius after that by Gods Commandement he had sent for Peter and Peter was to come he drew all his friends and
these earthly things here below that they have no roome for any spirituall grace but you that are Saints of God that have received any grace thinke of this let your soules blesse God even extraordinarily and say I thanke thee Father that that thou hast hid these things from the wise and from the rich and from the noble and hast revealed them unto babes that thou hast taught me a poore silly creature that thou hast wrought upon my heart and shewed me Christ Iesus when as most in the world have not seene him nor salvation many great ones and mighty ones thou hast sent packing to hell but me a blind creature out of a poore cottage out of a corner of hell thou hast plucked and given me salvation Father I blesse thee for this for it was of thy free mercy I beseech thee to give me a free hearâ— to blesse thee for this thy wonderfull mercy vouchsafed unto me and to walke worthy of thee What shalt thou give thy selfe freely for my poore souleâ— and shall not I give thee a good action freely thus stirre up your owne hearts to blesse God for this his great mercy the greater the grace is which he vouchsafeth unto you the greater your thankfulnesse ought to be and so much for this use it should stirre up every poore soule that hath received any grace to go into a comer and looke up to heaven and be amazed at Gods great mercy and say Father I have received grace and why Iâ— there is no reason Lord for it but because thy mercy pleased thee The second use is to the wicked themselves those that yet want this mercy to those that are yet in the gall of bitternesse is it so that Gods grace and mercy is altogether free then this may bee a ground of incouragement unto them to seeke after this mercy they may thinke with themselves thus why the offer of grace is free and therefore why may not I come to have some of this mercy as well as another though they are yet in the snare of Satan under the power of sinne and in the bond of iniquitie yet the freenesse of Gods mercy may incourage them to seeke to God for this grace and to sustaine their hearts in some hope that they may obtaine it Why it is a free mercy and therefore why mayst not thou have it as well as another it is freely given and why mayst not thou receive it as well as another it is worth the while to seeke after grace and mercy for there is some hope and expectation to attaine it This was the ground why the Prophet Esay did perswade all people to come unto the Lord Iesus Esay 55.1 Why saith he Every one that thirsteth come yee to the waters and he that hath no money come yee buy and eate yea come buy wine and milke without money and without price Come you that have no money saith the text the people might make a cavill and say Why wee want money to buy to what end therefore should we come the text answers this and saith Come you that have no money and buy without money What is the meaning of this that is you that have no sufficiency to procure grace and salvation though you have no ability of your selves to purchase this yet come and come freely and buy without money as if he should say If you will but come and take grace this is all God lookes for all that the Lord expects and desires you may have it for the taking you may receive grace for the carrying of it away though your weaknesse be great and your infirmities many yet if you have but ability to take grace and carry it away this is enough this is all that God requires at your hands and this is that which makes the Saints of God in the 14. of Hos 3. to goe unto God and renounce all others there saith the text A shur shall not save us wee will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the workes of our hands Ye are our gods and what is the ground of all this for with thee the fatherlesse findeth mercy so that hast thou a desolate soule why bee of good comfort and be incouraged to go to God for helpe for hee doth not succour men because they have strength but hee helpeth those that are succourlesse Art thou fatherlesse and cast off of the world hast thou a fatherlesse soule a motherlesse soule that is a hopelesse and a helpelesse soule that hath no ability to procure mercy or to purchase grace why with God the fatherlesse findeth mercy and therefore say Lord with thee the fatherlesse findeth mercy I am such a one therefore Lord I expect mercy from thee If a great rich man should proclaime that at such a time every one that will come may receive dole from him if this dole now were to bee purchased with money none but the rich could receive it but when he saith he will give to every one that comes a dole freely then the poore may have it as well as the rich when the dole commeth not to be purchased but onely to be received then the begger may have it as well as he that hath money for the dole is not to bee bought but to bee received and therefore every one that hath but a bagge to put it in and ability to carry it away may have it consider this ye that God hath not called home there is a dole of mercy to be given you from God and God doth not intend to sell his mercy to you but to bestow it freely upon you and therefore if you will but come receive it and carry it away you may have it God requirs nothing else of you and therefore comfort your selves and say Why this mercy of God is free others have it and why not I Lord. Come therefore and waite upon God in his ordinances thinke with thy selfe that the dole of mercy is to be given at such a place at such a sermon and therefore resolve to goe thither and say If wisedome or goodnesse or understanding would purchase any thing at Gods hand then miserable creature that I were for I have none of those but the mercy of God is free there is a dole of mercy freely to be given and such and such have had it bestowed upon them and therefore why may not I have it as well as others And therefore naturall men that are burthened with abhominations and full of sinne and corruptions let them reason with their soules and say Why did God convert Saul call Abraham and humble Manasses why God did this freely of his free mercy and goodnesse did hee and why then may not I receive this mercy from the hand of the Lord also and when your owne weakenesses trouble you and your sinnes and infirmities lye sore upon you why then helpe your owne soules in this kinde and say I can doe nothing that can procure grace no
more could David I have nothing that can purchase favour and mercy at Gods hands no more had Saul and yet God was mercifull to them why hee is as mercifull now as he was then his goodnesse is not diminished nor his mercy abated Lord thou that shewedst mercy to these shew mercy to mee also thou that didst blesse these Lord blesse mee even me also Lord thou bestowest thy mercy freely I beseech thee therefore bestow one drop upon my poore soule Aye but some may cavill now and say Gods mercy is free and therefore hee may as well deny it mee as bestow it upon mee I answer this is true hee may deny it thee as well as give it thee and he may also as well give it thee as deny it thee it is as possible that thou mayest receive mercy and therefore try all meanes possible to obtaine it In the 3. of Ionah the 9. vers there the people of Niniveh say Who can tell if God will turne and repent The Lord there had sent the Prophet Ionah to prophecy against Niniveh That within forty dayes it should be destroyed When the people heard this there was a fast proclaimed and every man was commanded to put on sackcloth and cry mightily to the Lord for who can tell if God will turne and repent and turne away from his feirce anger that we perish not as if they should say We have deserved that this judgement should come upon us and our sinnes have procured it but yet who can tell whither God will turne away from his feirce anger for the Lord is mercifull and freely mercifull and thus doe thou and say I confesse God may confound me for my sinnes but who can tell whither God will have mercy upon me I confesse that God may harden me but who can tell whither he will humble mee I will therefore waite upon him in his ordinances and try if hee will bee mercifull to my poore soule The third use is an use of Exhortation to all poore creatures that are burthened with the burthen of their sinnes and are under the power of them as to bee incouraged to seeke for mercy and to have some hope to obtaine it so also with patience to waite and stay the time of the Lord this should exhort them to come continually into the Congregation of Gods Saints and waite patiently when and what God will bestow upon them according to his good will and pleasure The mercy and grace which God bestoweth upon any is a free gift and therefore if you come into the Assemblies of Gods people to heare Gods word if thou waite upon God in his ordinances one day and have not grace granted unto you nor mercy vouchsafed towards you if you come the next day and yet have it not you must still waite and expect because it is a free gift and therefore as God may give it to whom he will so also when he will and therefore murmure not nor say what shall I come so often and waite so long and pray so much and yet nothing why aye it is a free gift in the 3 of Lament 25.26 the text saith The Lord is good unto them that waite for him it is good that a man should both quietly hope and waite for the salvation of the Lord as it is with the sea when it ebbes the water goeth backe when it flowes and is at the maine it commeth againe now a man that is to take a journey by sea if the comming of the tide be not for his turne and is gone backe hee must waite untill it commeth againe so it is with God in this kinde there is a flow of grace and mercy with him now sometimes God withdraweth his grace from his poore creatures but yet let them cry still and pray still and resolve so to doe still doe not say If God will not succour me and bestow mercy and grace upon me now seeing I have waited so long I will pray no more I will expect no longer will you not so why alas who shal have the worst you will be sure to have the worst of it you that will be so sturdy that because God heares not and helpes not when you will and when you call therefore you will pray no more nor expect no longer you that say you have waited thus long and have not had grace nor mercy vouchsafed unto you and therefore to what end to what purpose should we waite any longer or attend any more why if it be thus with you you may depart if you please who thinke you shall have the worst of itâ— beggers must not be choosers this is not begging of mercy but commanding of mercy at Gods hands this is not to desire that God would give you mercy but that he would follow you with mercy Some man may say What shall I use the meanes so long pray so often and heare Sermons so often and still waite aye and blesse God that thou mayst waite blesse God that thou hast not beene long since confounded that God hath not long before this time sent thee packing to hell but that thou hast still opportunities that thou still hast peace and the meanes of Salvation afforded thee shalt thou waite aye and blesse God that thou mayst waite before thou goest hence and hee no more seene Psal 69.3 Psal 69.3 there saith the Prophet David I am weary of my crying my throat is dryed mine eyes faile while I waite for my God as if he had sayd I have looked this day and heard thy Word this day I have looked up to heaven in prayer and have not â—ound thee I wept this day and mourned this day I have used all meanes my eyes even faile with waiting for my God did David waite thus that was a King and why mayst not thou waite why mayst not thou stay looking for the salvation of the Lord shut downe those proud hearts and lofty spirits of yours which think themselves too good to waite the Lords leisure and reason with your own soules say why is not my heart humbled why are not my corruptions subdued and abated as well as others checke and subdue all those bublings of Spirit in the beginning see what Paul did when his heart began to grapple with God why who art thou O man saith he that thou liftest up thy selfe against God as if hee had sayd Art not thou a damned creature sinfull dust and ashes why who art thou O man that thou shouldest doe thus so when thy heart beginnes to rise against God suppresse those distempers and say who art thou damned sinnefull soule that darst thus stand against God what if I had gone to hell long before this why I had had my portion if I had beene confounded long since and sent roaring to hell my sinnes had merited it and therefore well may I waite for mercy and thanke God that I may waite downe with those proud imaginations and lofty thoughts that arise
otherwise you never shall you never can receive grace and yet notwithstanding what is that which carryeth away men in the world they are naught and wicked reprove them for it they heale all and make up all presently they beleeve in Christ and they repent them of their sinnes and shall not they bee saved They say indeede that they doe beleeve and they doe repent but the text saith they doe not so and the Lord in his word saith it is not talke it is not wishes but it is the willing of Christ and grace that will obtaine grace In the 15 of Mathew Mat. 15.8 9. and the 8 and 9 verses there saith the text In vaine doe these men worshippe mee for they draw nigh unto mee with their mouth and honour mee with their lippes but their heart is farre from me they draw neere Christ with their lippes that is they speake as good words as can bee they say they are sinners and that the Lord came to save sinners and they are humbled for their sinnes and attend their Church diligently and hurt no body But their hearts are from me saith the text why because that hearts are still upon their sinnes they are as proud as ever as ignorant as ever as vaine as ever their hearts still runne after sinfull courses and wicked practises and therefore away with this talke and such vaine pretences as men make in this case unlesse your hearts goe together with your words all is worth nothing what a fond imagination is this that a man should thinke his words should doe him good when his heart goeth against them when their mouthes professe Christ and their hearts oppose Christ Thou sayest thou prizest Christ above all things and yet thou wilt not lose a base sinne for Christ thou wilt not forsake any wicked lust or corruption for Christ you will say you prize Christ above all and yet many of your prophane drunkards will not lose a cup for Christ nay you will not lose any base custome for Christ you were prophane and you will be so still you were proud and you will bee so still thy heart and thy words doe not goe together and therefore never thinke that thy words will save thee Thou sayest thou beleevest but thy heart saith the contrary thou professest thou hast grace but thy heart denieth it and therefore it is a very sottish conceit to thinke thy words will doe thee any good when thy 〈◊〉 denieth what thy tongue professeth goe home therefore and examine your owne hearts and thinke thus with your selves I have talked much and I have said that I had faith and grace but oh wretch that I am my heart saith the contrary What a wretch am I doe I thinke that God will have mercy on mee because I say and professe that I am a sinner and because I say that I pray unto God for the forgivenesse of my sinnes no no those very words will condemne me because my heart goes not with my words it had beene farre better for these men that they never had spoke these things for these very words will rise up in judgement against them nay these words will keep them from the true willing of grace for they thinke they have it already because they say they have it this is a very dangerous conceit and therefore know that words will not carry all away to say we repent and beleeve and have grace these doe us no good at all wee must will grace before wee shall have grace but this is not a willing but onely a talking of grace The second use is a word of terror to shake the hearts of all wretched sinfull creatures under heaven those whom wee may condemne out of their owne mouthes they professe they will not have grace and therefore wee may conclude they never shall have grace their owne words will witnesse against them for when the Ministers list up their voyces like a Trumpet and cry night and day and cal upon them this is the good and ancient way walke in this way in the way of faith and repentance what answer doe men give they openly professe they will not doe this they will not walke in this way The Lord tendereth grace happinesse and salvation unto us and yet many do professe they will not come they will not attend upon God in his ordinances they will not embrace nor they will not entertaine Christ and grace and salvation they will not come to the meanes of grace and therefore they shall never have grace they never shall bee made partakers of it A man must will grace before he can have grace but you will it not you desire it not and therefore as sure as the Lord liveth you cannot have it Another generation there is that come to the house of God and sit as Gods people do and heare as Gods people doe but their hearts runneth after their covetousnesse when in your soules you can say our bodies are here indeed but our hearts are after our lusts and corruptions after our profits and pleasures if it be thus with you then still you resolve that your hearts shall not will the grace of God and therefore it is cleare and evident that you have not yet received grace Men resolve to doe as they did in the 18 of the Prophecy of Ieremie verse Ier. 18.12 12. They said there is no hope but wee will walke every one after our owne devices and doe the imaginations of our evill heart When the Lord called upon them to walke in the good way oh they would none of that but they would walke after the imaginations of their hearts And did these spirits thinke yee dye in those times are not some such now among us in these times wherein men say wee will not reforme our families nor wee will not pray with them wee will not keepe the Sabbaths nor wee will not leave our swearing and our swaggering our pride and our covetousnesse no all the Ministers under heaven shall not perswade us wee will take up our owne lewd and wicked courses we will bee prophane still and wee will sweare still wee will not amend our lives nor reforme our families in what a miserable accursed damnable estate are those men they will not leave and forsake their lewd practises and therefore they cannot will grace and if they cannot will it then we may certainely conclude they shall never obtaine it But you will say you would leave your wicked courses and reforme your families if you could doe it but you cannot I answer is it nor in your power to plucke your children and your servants into the Lords house on the Sabbath day is it not in your power to use the meanes whereby you may reforme your lives you can doe it but you will not doe it you will take up your owne wayes and your owne practises and therefore the case is plaine you will not take Christ and therefore you shall never have him
very uncertaine though thy day continue yet the day of grace happily will not continue that is but a minute of the particular time of thy day if God take away the light of the Gospell thou mayst die so hunger and thirst and never come to the like mercies never receive the like incouragements thou that heretofore hast despised a faithfull Minister it may bee thou shalt never see the face of a good Minister more hereafter and then what shall become of all thy faire hopes and goodly expectations Oh then when the market is done thou wilt come too late to buy salvation thou shalt never receive those benefits and meanes of grace and salvation againe which thou hast neglected Nay consider that this which I have spoken may be the case of any one in this congregation every man hath his day I gave her a time to repent saith the Lord of wicked Iesabel but shee would not the Lord would have plucked her out of her bed of downe and from the armes of her lovers into a bed of sorrow shee hath now paine for her pleasure and sorrow for her jollitie who knoweth but this may be my day and thy day and every particular mans day When the word of God comes home to the soule of a man and the Lord is pleased to knocke at the conscience of a poore sinner he may then breake out into admiration and say is it thus is the Lord so compassionate that notwithstanding all my rebellions hee is still pleased to strive with mee nay to mourne over me as hee did over Ierusalem O that thou hadst knowne at least in this thy day the things belonging to thy peace many mercies hath the Lord let into my soule to allute me many judgements to terrifie me many promises to perswade me and hath used all meanes possible to bring mee to a better life no mercy equalls this no goodnesse is to be compared with this thus take notice of the mercies of God towards you and go aside and make good use of those good motions that God by his Spirit shall suggest into your soules and if the Lord hath almost perswaded thee to be a Christian oh then make much of those blessed motions and beginne to be a new man presently oh goe home and say if God doe thus strive and struggle with me in particular then resolve and say this is my day if there be any soule here present that it hath pleased God thus to move oh know and consider that this is thy particular time thy particular season say and remember that such a time thou hadst a faire offer it may be he that now moves and perswades thee and intreats thee to come to everlasting life and happinesse it may be hee will never looke after thee more And now what remaineth more when a man resolves that this is his day and that now the Lord comes neare unto him but even then presently to breake off all impediments and leape over all blockes that lie in his way and resolve thenceforward to bid adue to all his corruptions hee should consider with himselfe and say seeing the Lord doth even mourningly strive with me for my good then I will never attend more to those lusts I will never yeeld more to those occasions that have gotten the mastery over me I would wish every poore soule to take up this resolution to give a bill of divorcement to his sinnes and never to see the face of his corruptions any more to doe this now will be a very hard thing I know it and experience proves it your lusts will cleave to you and hang about you you would be loath to part with your old corruptions old friends that have beene of old acquaintance for these to be shaken off on a sudden this will be very grievous S. Austin speaking of his conversion confesseth this his sinnes did hang about him and he was loath to leave them and forsake them he was often perswaded by the motions of Gods Spirit to returne from his wicked courses and become a new man but hee was loath to part with his beloved lusts and therefore thought hee might have time enough to repent afterwards but at length hee tooke up this resolution to breake through all impediments and brake out into those words Why not to day Lord why not to day hee had dallied too often and deferred too long and therefore now hee resolved to goe thorough stitch in this case he resolved to doe so and kept his resolution Why do you as he did and say why not to day Lord why not to day you could be content on your death beds to be drunke no more why cannot you as well to day resolve to be sober the adulterer when he lies upon his death bed wil not endure so much as to look upon his Quene why should hee not as well abstaine from this base sinne to day wee know not whether the meanes may be taken from us or wee from the meanes and therefore when the Lord saith My face seeke you answer againe and say thy face Lord will we seeke But there are yet some shifts still behind which must be answered the heart will yet be ready further to reply suppose God call and I refuse may I not heare this call againe hereafter I answer take heede of that for the text saith here they are now hidden from thine eyes yee are not Authours and Patrons of this grace yee are not givers of this mercy it is of Gods free love to offer mercy and salvation unto you and therefore especially take heed of this conceit he that offereth grace unto thee now if thou refusest it may chance never to give it thee hereafter though thou greatly desirest it and earnestly seekest after it he that now holdeth out a golden Scepter to entertaine thee may afterwards have an iron rod to breake thee in pieces if thou dost not accept his kinde offer and come in unto him he that now doth perswade thee to receive mercy at his hands while hee offers it that God hereafter may seale up thy heart in stupidnesse and benummednesse for ever if thou dost not embrace it that Spirit which now strives with thee may never strive more that Spirit may never worke upon thee more and then when the gate is shut you may knocke till your heart ake as the foolish Virgins did and yet never get in you may then howle and crie and call and knocke and yet with Esaâ— you shall not obtaine a blessing though you seeke it even with teares but the Lord will answer Depart from mee yee workers of iniquitie I know you not it will be just with God to take away those holy motions of his blessed Spirit which you have slighted to take away that mercy which you have despised take heede that doe not befall you which shall befall all despisers of grace and salvation Pro. 1.24 there saith the text Because I have called and yee have
Text saith in the 29. verse of the former Chapter Every one that have forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name sake shall receive an hundred fold but many that are last shall be first and many that be first shall be last that is they that are first called if they trust unto themselves shall be last rewarded and they that are last called if they renounce themselves and goe out of themselves shall be first rewarded then presently followes this parable as a manifestation of that truth and this is the interpretation of the words So that now wee see the meaning of the Parable The Doctrine is That God can and doth call in all ages some in their yonger age some in their riper yeares and some in their old age God calls some in all ages but most and most usually before their old age this is that wee shall observe here in the Parable the Lord calleth at the third sixe and ninth houre but at the eleventh houre he went out occasionally not thinking to see any standing idle at that time of the day it was strange and unexpected to see any then idle no man would hire any man to worke in his vineyard for one houre and therefore the text saith he asked them Why stand you here idle As who should say hee did not once expect to see any idle at that time For the explaning of the Doctrine there are two parts of it wee will handle them severally that we may perceive our proceeding the better The first part is this That God doth and can call severall of his servants at severall times Secondly That God doth call most and most usually before their old age First to beginne with the former That God can doth and hath called severall of his servants at severall times some in their younger age some in their older some in their tender yeares some in their riper age he calls them when hee seeth it most agreeable to his good pleasure we shall observe that of Timothy that he was called in his tender yeares 2 Tim. 3.15 2 Tim. 3.15 There saith S. Paul Thou hast knowne the Scriptures from a child which are able to make thee wise unto salvationâ— and therefore the Apostle tells us in the same Epistle that he was nourished up in the Word that is he was made strong with the milke of the wholesome Scripture So 1 King 18.12 1 King 18.12 It is said that Obadiah feared God from his youth and 1 Sam. 12. 1 Sam. 12. It is said of Samuel that he carried himselfe so blamelesse from his youth that hee was without all exception So much to prove that some are called in their younger age now we have examples of many also that were converted in their middle age as that of the Iaylor Acts 16.37 and that of Lydia Acts 16.14 Acts 16.37 and the conversion of Paul Acts 9. and of Zacheus Acts 16.14 Acts 19. It is very probable that all these were converted in their middle age for it is said of Lydia that she was a seller of purple and that shee got her living thereby and the Iaylor it is like he was in his middle age for he had a great charge of prisoners committed unto him and Paul was in his prime when he was converted for a long time after hee was converted hee continued a great instrument to set forth Gods glory and Zacheus hee was a tole gatherer and had gotten a good estate by that meanes By this it appeareth that God did call these about their middle age Now for old age I must confesse it is true that there is not any pregnant example in Scripture of Gods hand this way Gen 12.4 we know Gen. 12.4 compared with Ioshua 24.2 Ioshua 24.2 that Abraham the father of the faithfull was an idolater and that God called him at 75. yeares old but Abraham lived 175 yeares to that Abraham was but in his middle age when he was called but for any pregnant example the Scripture is marvellous sparing this way onely that which may be observed by probabilitie and may be gathered depends upon those two places Acts 2.41 Acts 2.41 there were 3000 soules added to the Church by the preaching of Peter and Acts 10. It is said that Cornelius had got all his kindred and acquaintance together against Peter came Acts 10. whom by the commandement of God he was sent for and the text saith when Peter came they were all gathered together to heare the Doctrine of life salvation that while Peter was inspeaking the holy Ghost fell upon them all now Divines reason thus it is marvellous probable that among those 3000 which were converted by Peter some of them were aged men and when Cornelius had gotten all his kindred and acquaintance together and the holy Ghost fell upon them all there were it is very likely some aged men among them whom God was pleased to shew mercy unto we know these things may be and there is good probabilitie of it and wee see it out of the Text plainely that God may call some in their old age for he called some at the eleventh houre when it was almost night but he hath reserved this power in his owne hands he hath left no pregnant example thereof in the Scripture that we may not rely upon it so then we see that God doth and can and hath called severall of his servants at severall times some at the third houre some at the sixt some at nine and some though few at the eleventh houre and the reason of the Point is double why the Lord doth deale thus in this case hee doth not alwayes chuse young men that are strong nor old men that are grave and wise the ground of it is that he might expresse the freenesse of his favour in Iesus Christ as if he should proclaime to the world that we could doe nothing of our selves this way that we have nothing in us that can move God to shew mercy unto us but that it is out of the freenesse of his love in Iesus Christ for should God call onely children middle aged men or old men onely then men would conceive that there were something in the persons that moved him to this either the weakenesse of the child or else the innocencie thereof did move God to shew mercy thereunto or else that God did delight in the strength or in the gifts and parts of a young man or if he should call men in their old age onely then men might thinke that their experience and gravitie did move God to call them onely but when God calleth some in all ages and at all times some young ones chosen and some refused some old men called and others cast aside then all men may conceive that there is nothing in the persons or parts of men but that it proceedes all from the freenesse of
hee will bee made fit for mercy Vse 2 The next use is a word of terrour it discovers the fearefull estate and wofull condition that those men are in which purpose to set themselves against that work of preparation which God meaneth for to work upon the soules of men Is this the work of the Lord that hee doth by an holy kind of violence draw a sinner from corruption to himselfe out of the bowells of his compassion what then shall we think and judge of those men that use all meanes and all slights that employ their wits to draw sinners from God to sinne is it Gods great work his Master-piece the greatest good that hee intends for his people to pluck them from their corruptions and draw them to himselfe what then wil become of those men that go professedly against God and oppose the work of God in this kind if there be any such persons here as I doubt there are many such in the congregation I tell you if God be an holy God then thou art an unholy man if God bee mercifull to poore sinners to save them then thou art cruell to damne them if God bee a gracious God and would draw poore sinners from sinne unto himselfe then thou art a gracelesse man and in a miserable condition that wouldst draw poore soules from God to hell and yet do no our townes swarme with such wretches and are not our villages pestered with such ungracious miscreants such as the wise man in the Proverbs speaketh of that eat the bread of wickednesse and drink the bloud of violence and they cannot sleep unlesse they cause some to fall the God of heaven open these mens eyes and awaken their consciences that they may see their wretched estate such as eat the bread of wickednesse and drink the wine of violence unlesse they can get such a man to bee drunk with them and such a woman to play the whore with them and such a fellow to couzen and cheat their hearts cannot be at quiet they are not at rest in this case their sleep departeth from their eyes unlesse they cause some to fall if the Lord let in a light into the soule of a sinner and discover unto him that he is in a wrong way and that hee must take up a better course if the Lord by the cords of mercy seeke to prevaile with a sinner nay if he lay the hooks of conscience upon a sinner to pluck him from sinne to himselfe there are a company that are mad the contrary way and they labour to cut the cords of mercy and breaketh the hookes of conscience and labour to hale a poore sinner downe to hell and destruction nay wicked men have invented cord against cord and hook against hook in this kind the devill hath his factors and his brokers under him which lay cords upon poore sinners to withdraw them from the Lord to sinne as God plucks heaven-ward so they pluck to hell-ward nay they have a cord for a cord God hath not so many cords to pluck from sinne to himselfe but they have as many to pluck men from God to sinne and into the paths of ungodlinesse that they may perish for ever the Lord hath mercies to allure and they have profits and pleasures to perswade and entice the Lord hath the hooks of conscience to awaken and they have base shifts this way also I will therefore discover these two things first the cunning of men in this course secondly the miserable condition that they are in which continue in this course I take it they are in the most wofull and wretched estate of any men under heaven First to see the cunning of sinners in this kind they will work upon the heart and draw the soule and cut Gods cords and break Gods bonds that God may not draw a poore sinner from sinne to himselfe they have a cord for a cord and a hook for a hook in this kind First if God let in the light of knowledge into the understanding of a poore sinner a young man perhaps receiveth direction by the word that hee is not in the right way the spirit that calls after him and tells him he is wrong and saies this is the good ancient way walk in it when the Lord lets in the light thus into the soule of a sinner and reveales the good way to him when the Lord thus turneth a man out of the mouth of the Lyon and paw of the Beare then happily he goes into a corner and mournes for his sinnes and resolves to forsake them hee will not keep company with his old companions but seeks God alwayes and prayes to God continually Now mark what hooks they apply to pull him off from this good course they use a company of carnall reasons to perswade him to the contrary when the master father or husband seeth that God is drawing his wife or his servant or his child unto himselfe why then the towne is in an uproare as if there were some fire in the towne mark what the husband saies my wife was wont to be carefull to go about her businesse but now shee leaves all at six and seven and is so precise that she is alwayes praying or poring upon a booke The child hee thinks his father distracted his father perhaps gives him a strict charge not to prophane the Sabbath any more no more gaming now sirra no more sporting now the child wonders at this and stands amazed he admires what is become of his father hee was wont to suffer him to do these things without any controulment and because now he commands him the contrary he thinks his father is out of the right way And as the child is to the father so is the father to the child if the understanding of the child be enlightned and he be creeping to salvation if hee will not do as he did in former times if hee will not runne on in those wicked practises which hee did before then the father thinks his sonne is undone his sonne was wont to yeeld obedience to him and hee was wont to have service from him but now hee is growne so curious and exact that he expects no goodnesse from him hee can look for nothing to be done by him I now give him over for lost and as their hearts are thus troubled so they pluck with a kind of violence from God as God plucks to himselfe so they labour to pluck a poore soule from God and they begin to chide taunt and chafe and brawle what say they will you alwayes be reading and will you alwayes be praying I warrant you think your mother and I are not in the right way because we doe not as you doe you thought heretofore such a man to be an honest man and your friend also and yet hee doth not do thus as you do nor you your selfe were not wont to do thus in former times neither Thus mark what cords they lay upon a man that hath
beene enlightned the child happily replyeth alas father when I knew no other I must confesse I did no better but when the Lord hath once given us the truth let us walke in it I must follow the example of no man in this kind the Minister told me that there was no expectation of mercy unlesse I turned from my sinnes the text was plaine and the Minister said that we must walk in Gods Commandements here if ever we meane to reigne with him in glory hereafter Oh then saith the father I would the Minister had beene farre enough off when hee put this into your head and if hee see that this will not prevaile with the child then hee sets another upon him hee sends his carnall friends after him he sets a carnall gospeller one that hath beene twice dead and pluckt up by the roots as Saint Iude speakes upon him Iude 12. and he bids him see what he can do in this case and then he comes and closeth with him with all the carnall counsell and wicked devices that can bee invented and marke how he sets upon him Friend saith he I heare you attend upon the Ministery of the Gospell I am very glad to heare it but yet be wary and wise though too much is too much in this case your head is not yet gray if you had had the experience that I have you would then perhaps know as much as I know be wise I say in this kind but I pray understand me aright I do not speak against holinesse all this while I beseech you do not mistake me so for I am glad with all my heart that there is such a change wrought in you and that you take up such a good course but this is that I say Be religious and wise both together blessed be God my friend we have a glorious Church many wise men and yet they require not so much and they performe not so much they will drink and bee merry and why should you exact more than these wise men aye but replyeth the child I cannot tell what wise men say and what they do I must not do as they do but as God commands the Text saith Be yee holy as I am holy and bee yee pure as Christ is pure 1. Ioh. 3.3 can a man be more holy than Christ can a man be more pure than Christ in this case I know not what men do but I am sure the word gives no such allowance and now they think the matter is past hope when carnall counsell cannot prevaile nor cursed devices take place then they think the matter is past cure and therefore they pursue him with deadly indignation they put such taunts upon him and follow him with such scoffes that the heart of the poore creature is even wearied and tyred and so departs from his God and all good courses and so hee falls into wicked courses againe and runnes downe headlong into hell And this is one cord which the wicked the devills factors lay upon a poore sinner to pluck him from God you that are guilty of this you must see into these things and be humbled for this or else you must look to suffer that judgement which is due to the commission of this sinne you must know you go professely against the Lord and therefore you must needs bee in a miserable condition Secondly if this cord be broken then the Lord hath another cord the Lord makes a sinner apprehend the mercy of God hee heares the Minister how he speaks of Gods wonderfull love and goodnesse in that he will not only accept poore sinners and entertaine them when they come but command them to come and not only so but intreates and beseeches them to come and receive mercy from him nay hee waites for our amendment and cryes out oh when will it once bee and when a poore sinner heares this this even melts his heart and he resolves never to follow his sinnes more and then he comes home and tells his father or his master what wonderfull goodnesse God hath beene pleased to make knowne unto him I saith hee could not have thought so much I could not have conceived so much what that God should stoope to man and majesty to misery that God should not only offer grace and give a sinner leave to take grace but that God should follow such a wretch as I am with mercy and intreat mee to bee saved what admirable and wonderfull goodnesse is this Father or master shall I be so unnaturall as to neglect this mercy and kindnesse oh let it never bee for the Lord Iesus sake Thus the father or the master seeth his child or his servant going away from his evill courses which he had formerly taken up the father feeles which way the child is going and he followes after him amaine and labours to pluck away this cord with another and therefore thus he answereth It is true indeed there is a great deale of mercy endlesse boundlesse mercy with the Lord therefore let us make use of this mercy sonne and let us take this goodnesse servant in this case the Lord will not onely provide for the good of our soules but for the good of our bodies also as the Lord requireth that wee should performe service to him so hee requireth also that we should have a care of our owne estates and therefore take heed of growing into too nice a course bee not too extreame this way for the Lord doth not require such exactnesse of you that thereby you should impoverish your estate beware therefore of too much precisenesse I say lest you bring thereby disgrace to your selfe and dammage to your estate and hazzard to your life the Lord promiseth to prosper whatsoever wee take in hand and therefore this nice course is not that which God requireth and by this means the poore child or servant is daunted and deluded and so falls off from his good purposes and resolutions Thus those two cords are broken the Lord hath yet a third cord and that is the cord of conscience which hee layes upon a man and that commands him to take heed of his corruptions and tells him he was wont to be gibing at Gods servants but take heed of these things all at the last day must bee brought to light now this makes the soule at a stand and then the man saith the word of God came home to my conscience for I have beene a drunkard and an adulterer and a swearer oh I saw the fearefull estate of those men the Minister came effectually home to my conscience and told mee what a miserable wretched condition I should be in if I continued in my former wicked courses Now marke the cord that they lay to draw this away they lay a disgrace and contempt upon conscience when say they did you take notice of your conscience will you be one of our tender conscienced people what your conscience troubled you did it what will you be
hereafter then it will go marvellous heavily with you you have hindred the worke of conversion for being wrought in them and you have drawne them into wicked courses they shall go to hell they shall perish poore soules but I tell you their blood will God require at your hands at that day they will appeare before the Lord of glory and call for vengeance against you when the heavens shall melt with fire and when the Lord shall have tenne thousand thousand of Angels ministring unto him when all flesh at the dreadfull day of judgement shall appeare before the judgement seat of God and render an account of that they have done here upon earth then here you shall see a cursed drunkard there a wretched adulterer and there a prophane swearer and they shall come and accuse those that have drawne them into the commission of these sinnes and they shall say I confesse Lord I was inlightned my eyes were opened and my heart was touched and my conscience was awakened and I was resolved to walke in a good course but Lord here is the man behold here is the woman that by wicked devises and cursed perswasions never left untill I fell off from this good resolution and turned to my former wicked wayes this is the man Lord that did this and therfore I beseech thee though I perish yet let not my bloud go unrevenged at this mans hands that hath beene the cause of my destruction and then this will lie heavy upon your score at the day of death or the day of judgement when these poore soules shall appeare before God I will tell you what complaints they will make to his Majesty they will say Lord I was in a good way my eyes were opened and my heart was humbled my heart did earne towards Gods truth and holy men I would have turned over a new leafe and led a new life but it was this Land-lord of mine that feared bernard and terrified mee and pluckt mee aside from this good course good Lord revenge my bloud at my Land-lords hand the servant he will say Lord there was a gracious fellow servant lived in the house with me and did me much good I loved to heare thy word and pray and read and performe good duties but good Lord it was the sharp reproofes and bitter taunts of my master that discouraged me and made me forsake my former course and therfore now I must go to hell but Lord though I perish yet I beseech thee revenge my bloud at my masters hands Many of you have wives that lie in your bosomes in whose hearts the word of God hath begun to take place and they have resolved to walk uprightly before God they have gone and mourned in secret and sighed to heaven but it is you that are their husbands which have hindered this gracious disposition and you thought your selves undone because your wives took this course and therefore you never left brawling and bayting and rayling untill your poore wives left all left praying and left reading and left all goodnesse I tell you those wives that now lie in your bosomes though they love you now the time will come when they will curse the day that ever they saw or knew you what a wofull case will it be at the day of judgement when the wife shall come before the Lord and say I confesse Lord I enjoyed thy word and it was brought home to my soule and it wrought upon my conscience and I had a full purpose to become a new creature and take a new course I was comming Lord I was comming but it was this husband of mine that drew mee from my selfe and thy service from a good course and from a good way and therefore require my bloud at his hands though I perish yet good Lord let not my damnation be unrevenged at my husbands hands and many of you wives if your husbands have beene inlightned and wrought upon by the word insomuch that they come home and say wife wee must reforme our families and we must pray with them and wee must bee carefull that both wee and they keep Gods Commandements then you wives are untoward and unreasonable and the house is not able to hold you and your husbands live in a miserable condition untill they have altered their former purpose why these husbands of yours will go downe to hell but their bloud will lie heavie upon your heads and will bee required at your hands they will say Lord I was once in the right way I was comming I was almost perswaded to be a Christian I do think verily if I had had another wife I should have led a good life upon the earth and have beene saved hereafter but this wife of mine Lord never left bayting and hayning at me untill I turned out of the right way they will curse the day that ever they saw you or that ever you met together and they will entreat God not to suffer them to goe to hell without revenging of their bloud upon your heads you that are such I beseech you think of these things you that have heard these things the Lord of heaven perswade your hearts to take heed of drawing away poore sinners from God if it were in my power I would not only perswade you but overcome you in this kind if it were in my power to save you I would give salvation unto you but alas it is not in my power and indeed it is pitty it should it is the Lord that must do it you that have heard this word I beseech you let it not fall to the ground but all you scorners and mockers at Gods Saints you that have drawne men out of the right way and out of a good course for the Lords sake and for mercies sake and for your owne poore soules sake be resolved never againe to draw away poore sinners from that course wherein they walke but when you see them going on well why then goe you along with them and if you see any lay cords upon them to draw them away helpe them you in this kind and labour to draw them backe againe The fourth use is an use of comfort and consolation to all poore soules marke it for the Lord Iesus sake it is a ground of unspeakable comfort to all poore creatures partly unconverted and partly converted all from the former truth they may observe marvellous refreshment of heart if they will but attend thereunto and be ruled thereby you that are in the gall of bitternesse and in a carnall condition you that live in base grosse courses you who are knowne to all the world that you live in common ordinarie sinnes you that are locked up under infidelity under a proud stubborne heart here is a ground of admirable joy and consolation to sustaine the hearts of all such poore creatures in the expectation of mercy and comfort when the flouds of iniquity beset a man on every side when the weight of his
acquaintance together saith the Text and then he saith to Peter we are all here present-before thee to heare all things that are commanded thee of God and it was that passage Ezech. 33.3 there the people speake one to another saying Come let us goe up to the house of the Lord and heare what is the word that commeth from the Lord mark how they call one another together and rap at one anothers doore thus do you counsell men to come unto the Lord and heare his word they will never come under the power of the hammer else that they may bee stricken hale them and draw them to the ministery of the word that so what you cannot do privately that the word may do in publick Ioh. 5.4 there was an Angell went downe at a cortaine time into the poole of Bethesda and troubled the waters then whosoever first stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had now there lay a poore lame man at the brinke of the waters and because he was not able to step in every one stepped in before him and no man would help him mark how hee complaineth in the seventh verse I have no man saith he when the water is troubled to put me into the poole but while I am comming another steppeth downe before me he would faine have got in bâ— could not the word of God is like this poole of Bethesda when the word of God is opened and plainly and familiarly discovered when the spirit moveth upon the waters why put a poore soule into the water fling the soule of your child or your servant or your friend into the poole perswade what you may and compell those that are under you to come unto the word of God wheÌ„ the word of God is soundly revealed delivered why put a poore soule into the waters such a man hath a lame heart hee is lame in his practise and lame in his praying and lame in the performance of holy duties he is a cripple from his cradle why bring such of your neighbours and put them into the water and intreat the Lord to work upon them that the Angell may move from heaven and work conversion and salvation to the soules of them secondly as you must labour to bring them under the power of the word so secondly when God hath made knowne his word to the hearts of them follow you the blow as much as in you lyeth if there bee any exhortation settle it if there be any admonition presse it if there be any reproofe apply it home unto their soules strike thou while the iron is hot if thy child were touched and inlightned by the word when the Lord hath strucken his heart follow thou the blow when the Lord is pleased to smite his soule bring thou the blow home unto the heart of him remember that Deut. 6.7 there saith the Text these words which I command thee shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children the word in the originall is thou shalt sharpen them thou shalt teach them that is thou shalt sharpen them upon the soules of thy children and upon the soules of thy servants the Ministers do what they can and you heare reproofes and exhortations and when you go out of the Church leave them in your stooles behind you but you should sharpen them and bring them home to the hearts of your wives and your children and servants and they that belong unto you you should follow the blow home when the Lord is pleased to exhort exhort you when the Lord is pleased to reprove reprove you it is no great matter haply to bring your children or servants under the word but when they are here they play and sport and talk and runne about as though there were no God here and therefore you should tell your children and servants it is the word of the Lord child and it is the word of the Lord servant it is not the word of man as you may think but it is the word of the Lord by which you shall one day be judged the Minister told you that God hateth a proud man and and a drunkard and an adulterer and a swearer why this was the word of the Lord thus bring the word home unto their soules and this is the way to bring them home unto God here that they may receive salvation hereafter we should use all the cords of mercy and love and anger and indignatioÌ„n that so if it were possible we might hale the soules of poore sinners to God oh blessed spirit of Saint Paul in this kind I wonder what is become of that love zeale that was in him as we may see in the 19. of the Acts he travells from place to place froÌ„ countrey to countrey he goes from house to house and rappes at every mans doore perswading men with all patience to be reconciled to God he dealeth as the nurse doth with her child the child cries and shrâ—ikes and wrawles and yet the nurse beares all so doth the Apostle Paul he met with much opposition here mocked there imprisoned there set in the stocks and scourged and yet he beares all with patience and perswades and beseeches men to be reconciled I say this power this zeale this love is gone if wee had hearts and hands and endeavours much more might be done in this case and God might work more mercifully with us powerfully by us for the conversion of poore sinners and this doth not lie only in the Ministers hands but Masters in yours and Officers in yours and so much shall serve for this poynt The next thing considerable in the Text is from the order first drawing then comming you cannot come unto me except my father draweth you the point is that God must first pluck us froÌ„ sin before we will fasten our soules upon the Lord Iesus it is evident Mat. 12.29 no man commeth into a strong mans house saith the Text unlesse he first bind the strong man first there must be binding and casting out before there can be taking of possession the house is the heart and the strong man is Satan the Lord must bind the one before he can take possession of the other the soule must be drawne before it will come to God however for the manner of this drawing it be divers God dealeth with some one way and some another some hee drawes with the cords of his mercy and some with the hookes of conscience yet this is certaine there must be a drawing before there can or will be a comming Gal. 3.22 it is said that all men are shut up under sinne c. Ioh. 1.12 As many as received him to them he gave power to become the sonnes of God now before the Lord Iesus can be received the bonds of sinne must be removed and the lock must bee opened before the Lord Iesus can come in and bee entertained but God doth loose these locks divers wayes as sometimes