glad of it c. and it is said there that Jesus rejoyced c. I rather rejoyce that thou hast sent me to poor souls such as are the off-scouring of the world c. but he that is selfe-conceited is wiser forsooth then so Christ tels thee that thou must take up his crosse but thou thinkest that thou hast more wit thou canst go a wiser way to work thou hast an easier way to heaven thou wilt none of the Crosse and I tell thee then that Christ wil none of thee but he will be glad to see thee damned Fourthly and lastly he is in the broad way to hell that is selfe-conceited there be many wayes to hell the covetous goes one way the Drunkard goes another there are a thousand wayes to hell though there be sundry wayes to hell yet they all meet in selfe-conceit there is the broad high way where all meet selfe-conceit is not only the way to hell but it is the brood way where all wayes meet There is a way saith the wise man that seems right c. Prov. 14. 12. but the end of it is death there is the wages there all the wayes meet Oh then examine your selves I should give you signes and tokens to make it appeare unto you but the time will not give me leave I will only name one or two That man that selfe-swears is conceited of himself that is one sign As I am an honest man As God shal help me by my faith and troth As I look that the Lord should save my soul c. these men are highly conceited of themselvs they think that their salvation is sure yea so sure that they may swear by it but these are devillish and damnable self conceits it is Gods prerogative only to sweare by himself Heb. 6. 13. 14. I speak this because I know it is a common practise among men and a hellish brand of a cursed self-conceited man THE EFFICACIE Of Importunate PRAYER In tvvo SERMONS By that laborious and faithful Messenger of CHRIST WILLIAM FENNER Sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Minister of Rochford in Essex London Printed by E. T. for John Stafford THE EFFICACY OF Importunate Prayer LUKE 11. 9. Ask and it shall be given unto you Seeke and you shall finde Knock and it shall be opened unto you OUr Saviour CHRIST being demanded by one of his Disciples how they should pray He here teaches them these two things First a Platform of prayer in the 2 3 4. verses Say Our Father c. Secondly he teaches them the Importunity of Prayer which he sets forth by the similitude of a man who having a guest come to him at midnight and had nothing to set before him he went to his friend to intreat him to lend him three loaves and at the first he nakedly intreats Lend me three loaves The door is shut sayes his friend and I cannot open it now Secondly he falls to intreat and to beseech him to do him this favour He had a guest come to him and he knew not what to do Why 't is midnight saies he is there no other time to come but now Thirdly he begins to knock he must needs have them though it be at an unreasonable hour Why I tell you I am in bed Then he intreats him as a friend Friend me no friends sayes he again Yet the man would not leave knocking at last with much adoe the man rises saying Will you never be answered and he lends him three loaves because of his importunity Now saith our Saviour I say unto you though he would not give him as a friend yet because of his importunity he will The similitude is this Thou art that man oh Christian soul this guest is thy self Now then come home to thy self with the Prodigall who when he was come to himself goes to his father and friend This friend is Christ that thou art to pray unto these three loaves are grace mercy and peace These thou art to pray for it may be Christ answereth thee in thy conscience It is midnight thou commest too late there is no mercy for thee The soul prayes still Oh Lord awaken and help me it may be the Lord will answer thee by terror in thy soul The door of mercy is shut thou shouldest have come rather Yet Lord open unto me sayes the soul Nay saith the Lord all my children have mercy already now mercy is asleep I have converted them already they came in due season thou commest at midnight there is no mercy for such a hell-hound as thou art Up Lord have mercy on me sayes the poor soul and look on me c. Look me no looks saith the Lord I came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel there was a time when I would have converted thee when I called unto thee early and late But now I am asleep and my mercy is asleep it hath been awake as long as it could well hold open its eyes and comest thou now Oh the soul cries still and will never give over if mercy be to be had at the throne of grace he will have it Even as a begger being at a gentlemans door they bidding him be gone there is nothing to be had nay sayes the begger I will not be gone here is something to be had and I will have something or else I will die at the door The gentleman hearing him say so thinks it would be a shame for him if he should die at his door and gives him somewhat So when the soul is thus importunate because of importunity it shall be granted Verily I say unto you if you thus ask it shall be given unto you These words contain in them the main duty of importunate prayer Ask if asking wil not serve turn seek if seeking will not serve turn then knock try all meanes Another parable our Saviour put forth Luke 18. 1 2. that men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint There was a poor woman wronged by her adversary and there was no Judge to right her but a wicked one so that she had but poor hopes yet she resolves to go or else she shall be undone therefore if she perish she will perish at his feet He cals her all to naught Oh for Gods sake help me sayes she I care not for God nor man sayes the Judge Nay good my Lord saith the woman The Judge seeing her thus importunate said I shall be troubled with her if I do her not justice How much more saith the text shall not God avenge his elect that cry day and night Obj. But some man may demand what is importunate prayer Ans I answer it is a relstess praier which will take no nay nor contumelious repulse but is in a holy manner impudent until it speed and there are in it four things First it is restlesse he that is importunate cannot rest till he speed in his suit before God as the poor woman of
crying and screeching as if she meant to pierce the heavens the Juge and those on the bench bid her hold her peace O my Lord said she it is for my life I beg I beseech you it is for my life So when a soul comes before God and begs for mercy he must consider that it is for his life O Lord it is for my life Now though the Lord will not answer and though he call the soul all to naught letting it go up and down with a heavy heart yet the soul crying out 'T is for my life If I must go to hell I will go to hell from the throne of grace weeping and waâ—ling for my sins and catching hold on the horns of the altar this soul shall finde mercy I have wondered at the story in the 5. chapter of Luke it is a strange passage where this godly kind of impudencie was seen Our Saviour Christ was preaching in the house to the people and there was a poor man that could not tell how to come to Christ so the poor man got some to lift him up to the top of the house and to untile it and so to let him down now the rubbish could not choose but fall either on Christs head or on the heads of some of his hearers Was not this an impudent action could not this man have staied until the sermon had been ended But importunity hath no manners And although he did interrupt Christ yet Christ ask'd him not why he did so but says Man be of good comfort thy sins be forgiven thee Let us therfore come with boldness unto the Throne of grace Heb. 4. 16. with freedom to talk any thing Not as if God had given us leave to be irreverent but as to a loving generous man of whom we use to say He is so kinde you may say any thing unto him come to him at dinner he will rise up and hear you or what businesse soever he be about yet he will hear you Even so it is with God he is such a God that all poor souls may be bold before him to speak what they will they may lay open their cases and shew their estates Now when souls come boldly and give the Lord no rest till he establish them Esai 62. 7. then saith God How now cannot I be at rest for you c. This holy kinde of impudencie is in prayer and it will give the Lord no rest Reasons why we must seek importunately are three First in regard of Gods majesty he loves to be sought unto and it is fit he should be sought unto Among men we account it a matter of too much statelinesse to be much intreated and we use to say he loves to be intreated this is a fault among men yet for all this Quis vestrum c as Seneca speaks what man of us can be content to be but once or slightly intreated when a man comes to intreat a kindnesse of a man there is I sing and Anding and shall I c. nothing but importunity can get a kindnesse of a man and this is a sin among men because men are bound to do good but the Lord is not bound to us If we sin he is not bound to pardon us therefore the Lord being a God of majesty lookes to be sought unto of us for his mercy and he lookes that we should be importunate and hence it is that God saith I will give you a new heart Ezech. 36. I will vouchsafe you all these favours yet I will look to be inquired for of you verse 76. I will look that they shall send to me for these things Suppose a man should need a 1000 pound What saith the gentleman doth he think a thousand pound is nothing I will have good security for it So when we come for such high mercies as these for such infinite compassions these are somewhat and God looks to be sought unto for them and Christ the Son of God is a great heir and those that are faulters to him must be importunate with him if they mean to be at peace with him If one will marry a rich heir who hath all the preferment and dignity that the country can afford he looks to be well sued unto So the Lord Jesus is a great heir heir of the whole world if thou goest to be married unto him thou must sue unto him and he looks for prayer he loves to heare his children crie this is one of his titles though he be a God yet he is the hearer of prayer Psal 65. 2. Again we have wronged his Majestie Suppose thy servant wrong thee thou wilt say thou wilt pardon him but first thou wilt make him humble himself unto thee he shall and must know that he hath wronged a good master So God is willing to pardon thee but yet he will make thy bowels know that thou hast sinned against a good God he will make it appear by thy prayer he will make thy spirit melt he will fill thy face with shame and confusion he will make thee know what a patient God thou hast rebelled against or else the Lord will never pardon thee Doest thou think to pacifie God with a lazie prayer with coming to Church and saying Have mercy upon me most mercifull Father Doest thou think that the Lord will have mercy upon thee for this No no he may send thee quick to hell for all this he will make thee cry and cry again with groans he will make thee cry out and pray on another gates fashion and he will make the soveraignty of his mercy to be seen in thy salvation therefore in regard of Gods majesty he loves men should be importunate Secondly in regard of Gods mercy it is a disgrace for Mercy to be begged frigidly 't is a disgrace to Gods bounty for a man to beg it with lukewarm importunity What makest thou of the mercy of God dost thou think that it is not worth a groan with the running over of a Pater-noster dost thou make Gods mercy of such base reckoning this is a disgrace to Gods goodnesse to be so cold or frigid in prayer Thou hast offered many offerings yet I scorn them saith God Isaiah 43. 23. Thou hast not honoured me with them thou hast not called on me thou hast been weary of calling on me thou hast too short a breath in thy prayers thou carest not how soon thou comest to an end Do you come and lay lazie prayers upon my altar Thou hast not honoured me It was a custom among the Romans when any was condemned to die if he looked for mercy he was to bring father mother and all his kinsmen and acquaintance and they should all come with tears in their faces and with tattered garments and kneel down and beg before the Judge and cry mightily and then they thought Justice was honoured Thus they honoured justice in man for a man condemned to die and so the Lord loves his mercy
should be honoured c and therefore he will have prayer to be importunate that it may appear by groans how highly we esteem of grace our soules must pant and gasp after grace the breath of the Lord being the soul of our souls our hearts will die without it This is to the honour of mercy therefore the Lord will have us Importunate Thirdly as importunity must be in regard of Gods mercy so it must be in regard of our selves else we cannot tell how to esteem it Soon come soon gone lightly gotten suddenly forgotten I have it come let us be jovial and spend it when this is gone I know where to have more But if he had wrought for it and also must work for more if he mean to have more he would better esteem it The world little esteems Mercy what 's the reason The greatest covetous men are they that once were poor when a poor man hath gotten store of riches he is more coverous than he that was born to hundreds or thousands they are carelesse of it and spend lavishly whilst a covetous mans teeth water at it and the reason is because they come lightly by it Therefore the Lord loves that we should come hardly by our mercy not as if he sold mercy for our pains but for our good yet we are not capable of it See Jer. 31. 9. where the Lord speaks thus to his people They come with weeping and with supplication will I lead them This is a fine phrase God leads a soul up and down with supplication before he grants his request just as a begger on the high-way a gentleman coming by he begs of him the gentleman goes on his way as if he took no notice but the begger goes on crying For Gods sake sir bestow something on me yet he goes on still till at last the gentleman comes to his house and then he gives him his desire Even so God leads a soul up and down from one good duty to another till he have brought the soul to that passe that he would have it to be and then he hears it and sayes What is thy suit I will pardon thee What then is the reason may some man say why so few are importunate in prayer I answer first because men count Prayer a penance there is a naturall kind of Popery in mens breasts the Papists when men sin their Priests enjoyn them penance as pilgrimages and scourgings so many Pater noster's and so many Ave-Marie's where they reckon Prayer to be a pennance This naturall Popery is in mens breasts they count Prayer laborious unto them and they are weary of it they are not eager upon prayer they look not on Prayer as a blessing but as a yoak behold what a wearisome thing it is Mal. 1. 13. They were weary of the service of God Oh saâ— they that the Minister would once had done they had rather be in an Ale-house or about their busines all good duties are as penance unto carnal men If a man be to do penance he care not how little he does of it a Rogue cares not for to much whipping Secondly men content themselvs with formality Many men pray as Haman spake the Kings words before Mordecai for he had rather have led him to the gallows than to have said Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the King wil honour but he thought it would be the worse for him if he spake them not and therefore he only spake them for forme And so men for the most part go to Church to hear the Word to Pray to receive the Sacraments c. even for forme or because it is the fashion and they think if they do not thus and thus they shall not be saved You shal have the Drunkard say I am sorry for my drunkenesse but he lies for the next day he will be at the Alâ—house again so the Whoremaster sayes Lord I am sorry that I have sinned against thee but he lies for the next Quean that he meets with having opportunity he falls to whoreing again So the Covetous man will say I am sorry I am sorry I am so full of earthly thoughts yet he lies he is not sorry for you shall have him carking and caring all the day long and he hath a thousand proclamations in his head He only prayes for forme with the rest they only say prayer they pray not I deny not saying of prayer if they pray Our Saviour Christ saith When you pray say Our father The proud man dishonours Gods name saying Thy will be done whereas he should be humble for that is Gods will it is Gods will he should be zealous yet he prayes not He sayes Forgive us our trespasses c. but he prayes not so for he wrongs his neighbour and his neighbour wrongs him and he does not forgive those that trespasse against him He sayes Lead us not into temptation but he prayes it not for he runs presently into temptations and hath no care to avoyd them And this is the reason why men are not importunate viz. because they do make formality of it Thirdly because they are gentlemen-beggers Of all the beggers in the world I would be loth to meet with a gentleman begger for he is proudest of them all if a man tell him that he hath been an ill husband and hath abused himself presently he sets his hands to his side saying I am not as every begger I am thus and thus descended am as good a man by birth as your selfe a gentlemen-beggers heart will not stoop So men â— gentlemen beggers to God they were say they borne of Christian parents and they have been baptized the children of God already What are none the children of God but a company of Puritans We are descended as well as the best of you all These are proud and not as yet brought to a sense of their own miserie When John did preach to and baptize the Scribes and Pharisees he calls them all to nought O ye vipers and full of poison who hath forewarned you to flee from the anger to come Vipers saie they Viper in thy teeth we are the children of Abraham we are better descended then so we are Believers and do you call us vipers then indeed we might crie out Oh we are damned then we had need crie for mercie And in this sense men are Gentlemen-beggars Another reason why men are not importunate is because they have wrong conceits of Prayer I will tell you the sundrie conceits of men First they have high conceits of their own prayers they cannot pray in a morning between the pillow and the blankets halfe asleep and halfe awake but they think that they have done God good service so that he cannot afford to damne them At night he saies Lord have mercy upon me and so goes to sleep and then he thinks God must keep him untill the morning So when he goes to dinner he sais Lord bless these creatures unto
me A man must have a pure conscience 2 Tim. 1. 3. else let him not look God in the face beg he may but he shall never speed as long as he goes on with a conscience that can tell him he regards iniquitie There be many pray for indeed their conscience wil make them pray but they may pray till they come to hell yet they shal never be delivered if there be but one sin unrepented of I remember a story of a poor woman being troubled in conscience and many Ministers using to visit her at last came one which after much talking and praying hit upon one sin which she was guilty of and loth to part with Then the woman cried out till now you have spoken to the post but now you have hit the mark my conscience tels me I have been loth to part with this sin but I must leave it or else I cannot be saved Mala conscientia bene sperare non potest The Pagans had so much divinitie as to say The gods must be honoured with purity therefore they wrote on the doors of their temples Let none having a guilty conscience enter this place Thirdly Importunate prayer is evermore a prayer that is full of strong arguments And hence it is that Job saith I will fill my mouth with arguments Job 23. 4. like an importunate man who will bring all reasons and arguments to effect his cause even so an importunate man at the throne of grace will bring all argu ents to perswade God If a man be to pray for any particular grace he will bring all the arguments he can devise to get it as Lord it is a grace of the Covenant for the want whereof I endure many temptations thou hast made me a Minister I cannot worke on mens consciences untill I have it he presseth all arguments he can devise A good orator before God must be a good logician It was noted of the High-Priests that were to pray before God they were to have Urim and Thummim and that was two parts of Logick viz. knowledge and perfection such an one should a Minister be he must be a good Logitian at the throne of groce Fourthly importunate prayer is a stout prayer Continue in praier saith the Apostle Col. 4. 2. a weak-hearted praier is a cold prayer a prayer without a spirit yet these men that have weak spirits to pray have strong enough to sin and wit enough to sin and knowledge enough to sin but bring them to grace then they have no strength Thou canst not strive to prevail with God unlesse thou stand to it How came Jacob to prevail with God but by wrestling Prayer is called fighting it is a holy kind of violence Thou canst not obtain a mercie at Gods hand unlesse thou lay all thy force on it Even as a Father who hath an apple in his hand and his child would fain have it he first opens one finger then another till the aple drop out So is it with a poor soul at the throne of grace the Lord opens his hands and fills all things living with plenteousnesse What is the means that is used why the praiers of his children they by their prayers open Gods hand and so make the blessings to descend Go for grace why the Lord will say unto thee Thou art proud thou must be humble and so open that finger Thou art carelesse thou must go quicken thy self and so open that finger God saies thou wilt not make much of this grace when thou hast it but thou wilt turn it into wantonnesse then thy soul must learn to mortifie its members and so open that finger thou canst not get grace at Gods hand unlesse thou do open all his fingers and then it will fall down There is a severall power in all Gods children some have more some have lesse yet all must be powerfull else none can prevail with God Fifthly if thou pray importunately thou prayest wakefully he must be deeply awake that praies his soul his heart his understanding must be awake that man that praies drowsily praies not powerfully Watch therefore saith Christ and pray Luke 21. 36. Watch to pray q. d. for as there is a sleepy head so there is a sleepy heart As a Begger who is begging is all awake head feet hands c. all is awake to beg so must that soul be that means to speed in praier Sixthly importunate prayer is an assurance getting prayer a prayer that will not be quiet till it have got assurance that God hath heard it Wicked men pray and presume that God hears them but God hears them not nay many of Gods dear children pray many times and are not heard How long wilt thou be angry with thy people that praieth Ps 80. 4. Not only with their persons but with their prayers also How then think you is the prayer of such as live in their sins taken who pray but their praiers vanish away in the air like clouds these may pray and pray but they get nothing Behold he praies saith the voice to Saul Acts 9. 22. What did he not pray before Yes he had made many a long praier else he could not have been a Pharisee but now he did not only pray but he praied unto God as David did who did lift up his heart to God Psal 25. 1. or else his heart could not have praied and then in the next verse David begins his praier Our hearts are just like a bell which so long as it lies on the ground will make no musick till it be lifted up Our hearts are not like the bell of Rochea which they say will ring of its own accord but our hearts must be lifted up else they will make no delightfull musick in the eares of God Wherefore if you pray and labour not to bring your hearts home to God that so he may hear them in mercy he will it may be hear them but it will be to your condemnation as he hears the praiers of wicked men therefore if thou praiest pray fervently There be six or seven marks of Prayer that is not importunate and he that praies so may go to hell for ought I know The first is a lazy prayer An importunate man works hard to bring up hiâ— suit his understanding his counsell and all his poâ—icie works so if the soul he importunate then it is a working prayer Prayer is a labour 2 Cor. 1. Labour with me in prayer That man that plowes his field and digâ— his vineyard that man praies for a good harvest if a man pray to God never so much yet if he do not use the means he cannot obtain the thing he prayes for Even so it is with grace A man may pray for all the graces of Gods spirit and yet never get any unless he labour for them in the use of the means God cannot abide lazy beggers that cannot abide to follow their calling but if they can get any thing by begging they
Thirdly from Satan Fourthly from a mans own sluggishnesse For the first The best children of God have corrupt natures and when they have done what they can distractions will fasten on them They would perform good duties better if they were able saying with Paul The good which I would I do not c. Secondly from nature as it is curbed The more grace binds nature to its good behaviovr the more rustling it keeps Even a Bird being at liberty keps no stir but being in a cage it flutters about because it is abridged of its libertie so when thou hast curbed thy corrupt flesh it will be skittish in every good dutie thou goest about and hence it is that the Apostle useth this phrase viz. I find another law in my members rebelling against the law of my mind c. When grace curbs the law of sin then nature rebels Thirdly from Satan as in Job Satan stands at his right hand as a Plantiffe as Aegidius compares it which puts in all Cases to hinder the Defendant Even so the Devil puts in all bie-thoughts that he can devise to hinder a mans suit for going on before the throne of grace But thou must do as Abraham did when he was sacrificing when the birds came he drave them away so must thou do by thy bie-thoughts if thou wilt have fruit of thy supplications before God Fourthly they come from spiritual sluggishness that creeps on the best if they take not heed And this was the reason the Apostle cryed O wretched man that I am c. I speak not now to the children of God who are troubled with bie-thoughts in their praiers For they the more bie-thoughts they have the more earnest they are in prayer they mourn with David in their prayer Consider O Lord saith he how I mourn Psal 55. There was something in the Prophets prayer that did vex him and that made him so much the more to mourn before God But as for you that can have bie-thoughts in prayer and let them abide with you your praiers are not importunate the Heathen shall rise up against you and condemn you I remember a storie of a certain Youth who being in the temple with Alexander when he was to offer incense to his god and the Youth holding the golden Censer with the fire in it a coal fell on the Youths hand and burnt his wrist but the Youth considering what a sacred thing he was about for all he felt his wrist to be burnt yet he would not stir but continued still to the end This I speak to shame those that can let any thing though never so small to disturb them yea if it were possible lesser things then nothing for if nothing come to draw their hearts away they themselves will employ their hearts Baals Priests shall condemn these who did cut themselves with knives and all to make them pray so much the more stronglie What a shame is it then that we should come on life and death to pray for our souls and yet come with such loose and lazie praiers Think you that a male factor when he is crying at the Bar for his life will be thinking on his Pots and Whores c Was it ever heard of that a man at deaths-door should be thinking on his Dogs can he then think on them Do you think that Jonah prayed on this fashion when he was in the Whales belly or the Thief on the crosse or Daniel in the Lions den or the three Children in the fierie furnace or Paul in Prison Do ye think that these prayed thus What shall I be at praier and my mind in the fields No no if I will pray I must melt before God and bewail my sins and be heartily affected in prayer But as long as I pray thus I pray not at all And as God said to Adam where art thou so may he say to thee Man where art thou art thou at prayer and thy mind at mill is thy mind on thy Oxen and art thou at prayer before me what an indignitie is this Should a man come to sue to the King and not mind his suit will not the King say Do you mock me know you to whom ye speak The Lord takes this as a haynous sin when men come into his presence with such loose hearts Now seeing these things are thus take a word of exhortation to labour for importunate Prayer Prayer is the art of all arts it enables a man to all other duties it is the art of Repentance c. Samuel confessed if he had not had the 〈…〉 Prayer he could not have had the art of preaching 2 San. 12. 2â— See the antithesis between these two words God forbid as if he should say God forbid that I should cease to pray for you for then I should not teach you the right way A Minister can never preach to his people that prayes not for his people It is the art of Thanksgiving a man cannot be thankful if he cannot pray Psal 116. 12. It was the means whereby the Prophet David would be thankful to God he would take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. A man hath not a good servant unlesse he can pray for his master see the story of Abrahams servant Gen 24. Prayer helps to perform all other good duties How dost thou think to have benefit by the Word unlâ—sse thou be fervent in prayer with God to get a blessing upon it We can do nothing but by begging Secondly as Prayer is the art of all arts so it is the Compendium of all divinitie Therefore to call zealously on the name of the Lord is to be a Christian Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord c. It includes repentance humiliation sorrow for sin joy in Gods goodnesse thanksgiving for mercies obedience to his commandements yea the whole dutie man therefore we must labour to be importunate in prayer A Reasonable soul is eminently all souls so Prayer is eminently all good duties Psal 72. The prayer of David the son Jesse that is all his repentance in all passages he did humble himself before God all Davids duties are included by the name of the prayer of David the son of Jesse And therefore thou hadst need to make much of Prayer for thou canst never repent unlesse thou pray well Thirdly Prayer is a mans utmost refuge a man cannot have Christ but only by Prayer 'T is bad enough for a man to be a Drunkard or to live in any other sin but yet after all this if a man have the spirit of prayer there is hope of this man if after all his sinnes committed he can pray to God there is hope But for a man to sinne and not to be importunate in prayer is dangerous What saith the Psalmist They are corrupt and become abominable they have not called on the name of the Lord Psalm 14. 4. Oh fearfull condition Fourthly Prayer is that which Gods
the Almighty p. 20. And let thy complaint be 1. Full of sorrow 21. 2. A full complaint of all thy sins ibid. 3. A complaint aggravating all thy sins by all their circumstances ibid. 4. A self condemning complaint wherein the complaint of Ezra is illustrated in eight particulars 22. 4. Let meditation when it hath searched out thy case and made it appear how wofull it is cast thee down before God 23. Four Motives to stir up the soul to Meditation Consider it is the part of a fool not to meditate It is madnesse for a man to walk on in a course and not to consider whither it will tend 24. 2. Consider not to meditate is the brand of a Reprobate ibid. 3. He that meditates not robs God of his honour 25. 4. All the service that a man performeth unto the Lord will be abominable if he meditate not before it and after it ibid. The reason why we have so many vain thoughts in our holy exercises is because we prepare not our hearts thereunto by meditation The Contents of the third SERMON Proverbs 1. 28. 1. THe opening of the context in five particulars 29. 2. The opening of the words of the Text in four particulars 30. 1. Doctrine Those that will not hear the Lord when he calleth upon them by the ministry of his word and voyce of his Spirit the Lord will not heart them when in their misery they call upon him 21. Three Reasons of the point 1. The law of Retaliation of rendring like for like requires it ibid. 2. Because Gods two Attributes of Mercy and Justice have their season in this life and when Mercy hath acted her part then cometh Justice upon the stage for to act her part 32. 3. Because it is Gods manner for to do so in temporall things and therefore much more in matters of grace and salvation 33. God giveth to men a day and no Man nor Angel knoweth how long this day lasteth or when this season of grace shall have an end 35. And as there is a personall day so there is a Nationall day 36. Objection 1. A man may be called at the eleventh or twelfth hour of the day 37. Answer Those that were called at the first hour came in at first hour those that came in at the twelfth hour were not the same that were called at the first hour ibid. Objection 2. The day of grace lasteth as long as the day of life ibid. The Objection is cleared under three particulars Answer And it is answered that the day of grace may end to a particular man long before his death 1. Because God may harden a mans heart 38. 2. Because God may sear mens consciences ibid. Objection 3. Suppose I go on in my sin and repent upon my death bead will God hear me Answer The answer is negative 39. Objection 4. Suppose I humble my self by fasting and prayer will not God hear that The answer is negative if thou neglect the day of grace ibid. Object 5. At what time soever a sinner repents he shall find mercy Ans It is true if he repent from the bottom of his heart but a man may have many a degree of repentance and yet never repent from his heart ibid. Self love may make a man do much ibid. 2. Doctrine It may be this very day even this particular Sermon this instant hour may be thy day that art now in thâ— sins that if thou repent not at this very one Sermon thou neglectest eternal life for ever 40. Four Reasons of the point 1. Because Gods patience is in his own breast and who can tell how long it will last ibid. Wherein Joel 2. 12. is opened in five particulars ibid. 2. God usually giveth some signes of death beforehand 41. But the day of grace may end and a man never have any warning of it Because Gods patience giveth no marks or inkling of its ending before it ends ibid. 3. Because God keepeth a strict account how many opportunities he hath vouchsafed 42. 4. Consider it is a wonder that the day of grace is not ended already and that thou art not now in hell 43. The Contents of the fourth SERMON upon upon Philip. 3. 18 19. 1 AN Explaination of the severall parts of the Text in five particulars 43. Doctrine That those whose minds and thoughts run habitually on earth and earthly things their end must needs be destruction 44. 6. Reasons 1. The curse of God is the desert of vain thoughts ibid. 2. The curse of God is the event of vaine thoughts ibid. 3. The man whose thoughts are habitually on the things of the world can never truly repent 47. 4. Because that man whose thoughts run habitually on earthly things hath no part in Jesus Christ 48. 5. Because so long as a mans thoughts run habitually on things of the world that man hath no true love of God in him ibid. 6. Because so long as a mans thoughts run after the world he can never depart from his sins 49. 2. Uses 1. For humiliation because these vain thoughts bearing sway in the heart they make that mans end to be destruction 50. 2. For the terrour of those men who suffer their hearts to be taken up with vain thoughts 51. Objection But I think of God and of Christ of faith and repentance 52. Answ 1. Consider whether thy good thoughts be meerly cast into thy heart or whether they be raised by thy heart ibid. A wicked man may have a thousand good thoughts and yet goe to hell in the midst of them 53. 2. Thou hast good thoughts but consider whether they be fleeting or abiding thoughts 54. There are two kinds of vaine thoughts 1. vaine because the matter and substance of them is vaine 2. vaine for want of durance and lasting though not vaine for the matter of them ibid. 3. Thou thinkest of God but consider whether thy thoughts be studied or accidentall thoughts 55. A godly man not only thinketh of God but he studieth how to think of God ibid. 4. Thou thinkest of God but consider whether thy thoughts of God be profitable or unprofitable thoughts ibid. Thoughts how free and not free Free from mens knowledge and mens Courts Not free 1. From Gods knowledge ibid. 2. They are not free from Gods word ibid. 3. They are not free from the wrath of God 57. Three meanes in the use whereof we may rid our selves of vain thoughts 1. Love the word of God ibid. 2. Go unto God by prayer ibid. 3. Consider thou hast not so learned Christ 58. All vaine thoughts arise from these three Heads 1. From the variety and abundance of the thoughts of the world ibid. 2. From the Fountain of corruption that is in mens hearts ibid. 3 From the damned malice of Satan and his temptations both within and without ibid. Thoughts become vain four manner of wayes In respect of the Matter In respect of the Forme In respect of the Efficient In respect of the
scales he puts the word of his Gospel in the one and thy goings and obedience in the other Thou art weighed and art found too light thy kingdom is departed from thee saith God to Belshazzer Dan. 5. 27. So if thou be light thou shalt be weighed and so found thou shalt lose the Kingdom of heaven for ever Secondly strip sin and look upon it stark naked sin covers and disguiseth it self with pleasure profit ease and many a whorish garment and so inticeth the heart Even a toad if she were covered over with gold those that saw only the gold would pocket it up if it were naked they would fling it in the kennel Why doe men love covetousnesse Why its hooded with profit Why carding dicing hunting hawking tabring piping and more than the word alloweth Why they are cloathed with pleasure and delight It s the duty of Ministers to unmask and uncase sin and pluck off he vail that covers it from appearing unto men The not doing of this is the cause that men do not meditate on the vilenesse of their sin never are humbled never escape Gods wrath even because they 〈◊〉 discover 〈◊〉 iniquities Lam. 2. 14. Alas the profit of thy sins shall cease the pleasure cease the ease cease and all these goodly suits shall vanish away when the soul comes to dye or to stand before the judgement seat of Christ sin will remain but thy silver and thy gold where will that be then thy laughter and thy merâ—iment what will become of that then thy delight will be gone Meditate therefore with thy self my sin is now gainful and easie and pleasant but what will my sin become when I come to lye on my deathbod what good will it do me when I have most need of succour I will never acknowledge him my friend that will turn against me when I have most need of him Alas I must dye I must come to judgement I I must go either to heaven or to hell the profit that I get now by my sins will it bestead me then the pleasure the ease that I now find in sin will it help me there Alas no it will then be my break neck it will be a Devil unto me the more I have been delighted with it the more it will gall â—e the more I have gotten by it the more it will damne me the sin which I most of all loved will most of all torment me Eccles 11. 9. look thus upon sin The third means Dive into thy own soul and heart There is a tough brain over thy heart that it feels not its sins Now Meditation must look through and come to the heart at the quick and cause the truth to dive into the deep places of the soul When the timber is hard the workman cannot thrust in the nail with the weight of his hand no he must hammer it in Meditation is the hammering of the heart It 's a pertinent phrase Jer. 23 24. Is not my word like a fire saith the Lord and like a hammer that breaketh the rocks in pieces There be two similitudes first of a hammer the Word of God is the hammer meditation is the hand that taketh this hammer and knocks the nail into the rocky heart and makes it enter Wilt thou not feel I 'le make thee feel saith Meditation wilt thou not take notice of thy wretched estate Meditation comes with blow after blow and makes us take notice Secondly of fire the word is like fire Meditation kindles it about the heart A man benummed with cold is senselesse the water frozen with cold though the least pebble would have sunk in it before now a great milstone is able to lye upon it and not sink the water is able to bear it so is the heart be it's sins never so heavy as the hill of Basan yet it bears it and feels no weight but Meditation thawes the heart and then every sin pincheth and oppresseth Is not my word like fire as if he should say think of it and muse of it and meditate of it and thou shall feel it as a fire Meditation is the often smiting of the heart with this hammer so did Ephraim smite upon his thigh Jer. 31. 19. like a man in a miserable agony he thumps his own breast and in a vexation strikes his hand on his thigh Oh miserable wretch that I am So did Ephraim Oh what an unruly Oxe am I how unwilling am I to bear the yoke of the Lord Oh and oh the hardness of my heart oh that I could tell how to beat thee black and blue Many men smite their hearts but they smite them not often enough When Elishah bad Joash smite upon the ground he smote thrice and stayed The man of God said to him in anger Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times for then thou hadst smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed them whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice 2. King 13. 19. So men smite their hearts twice or thrice or so but they will not smite their sins dead it may be they break the head of their sins but they recover again and grow strong upon them as at first Thou must smite five or six times yea fifty times five times till thou hast quite broken the impostume of thy heart Meditate on the mercies of God and with them smite it often and often Meditate on the justice of God and with it smite it again and again Meditate on the wrath of God which is as a consuming fire and with it smite it soundly Meditate on the truth of the Lord this threatning and that threatning this commandement and that commandment this promise and that promise and with all these smite it to powder The fourth means Anticipate and pâ—â—ventthine own heart meditate what thy heart will one day wish if it be not humbled and tell thy Soul as much thou wilt one day wish Oh that I had been humbled under the reproofs of the Lord Oh that I had been wise to have understood my own mercy Cursed be the day that ever I neglected the means of grace so the Lord brings in a foolish obstinate sinner cursing and banning his own soul sobbing and howling at the last O how have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof and have not observed the voyce of my Teachers nor inclined mine care to them that instruct me Prov. 5. 12 13. I had Ministers to preach to me but I would not come at them or if I did I cared not for their doctrine I had friends that advised me well but woe is me damned wretch I heeded them not Thus thou wilt cast the fool into thine own teeth and fling a thousand curses into thine own face because of thy madness I might have learned but I would not I might have been humbled but I would not I was almost in an evill in the midst of the assembly of the congregation verse 14. I lived where the Saints of God were
then they shall be glad to be converted then they shall be glad to come out of their sins then they shall be glad to get grace and seek reconciliation with God but alas they saw not this then but God foresaw it well enough then shall they call but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me Lastly here is the frustration of their hope which hath two things in it First in regard of themselves in regard of the flaw in their seeking it being not aright Secondly in regard of the Justice of God who rewards every man according to their works But I will not hear them Whence observe this point of Doctrine Those that will not hear when he calleth them God will not hear them when they call unto him Those that will not hear the Lord when he calleth upon them by the ministery of his Word and voyce of his Spirit the Lord will not hear them when in their misery they call upon him Thus the Lord dealt with the people in Ezekiels dayes the Lord called them to repentance and obedience but when they stood out and neglected the opportunity of grace and seasons of conversion see how God deals with them though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice yet I will not hear them saith the Lord. When men have gone beyond the time of Gods mercy and out rowed the tyde of Gods forbearance and will not returne the Lord sets it down with himselfe that his wrath shall return upon them he will no longer forbear they had a time wherein the Lord did pity them and offered grace and mercy unto them but they neglecting this season and withstanding this proffer of grace God resolves with himselfe they shall never have it again There was a time wherein God did pity them but now he will not pity them any more twenty five years he called unto them and sought to bring them home but because they stood out and refused the Lord saith I will love Ephraim no more Beloved there is a double day a white day and a black day there is a day of salvation Isa 49. 9. this is the day in the which the Lord said to the prisoners Come forth and to those that lye in their sins repent and beleeve Now if any man will come forth and humble his soul before the Lord let him come and welcome for it is a day of salvation But there is another day of damnation which is a dark day a black and a duskie day wherein the Lord will visit the sinnes of the world and revenge the quarrell of his Covenant Hos 9. 7. The day of visitation is come yea the day of recompence the people shall know it the Prophet is a fool and the spirituall man is mad Beloved we are fools and all the spirituall men under heaven are mad that lay not this day to heart For the day of the Lord is a day of visitation and all the world shall rue it though now men sleep in securitie If once mercie be rejected and God turn away his ear from a man then grace shall be no more the door of life shall for ever be shut up against him and when once this day comes he hath lost his own place and deprived himselfe of eternall happinesse Now there are three reasons of this point the first is the law of retaliation of rendring like for like which is the justest law that can be made with man for to give unto every man according to his works to make him take such as he brings as the Heathen calls it to give a man quid for quâ— Now if God call upon thee and thou wilt not hear it is righteousnesse with God yea equity with God that is more that when thou callest on him he should not hear thee For thus runs the tenor of Gods Word Prov. 28. 9. He that turns away his ear from hearing the Law euen his prayers shall be abominable He that turns away his ear from Gods Law God will turn away his eare from his prayer He that turns it is spoken in the present tense that is he that now turns away his ear his prayer shall be abominable in the future tense that is the Lord marks what master or servant what father or mother what husband or wife what man or woman it is that turns away the ear of his head or the ear of his heart from hearing his will and obeying of his Commandements the Lord takes speciall notice of it and sets it down in his Calendar and records it in his Memoriall keeping a strict account thereof as if God should say Well is it so I now call and will not this man or that woman answer Do I now stretch out my hands and will not they take care to obey me Well let them alone saith God there is a day coming that I shall be a hearing of them times of sorrow and misery will take hold of them and then they in their affliction will cry unto me but I will not hear they will beg for mercy but I will not regard they will seek me early but they shall not finde me It was one of the Articles of high Treason brought in against Cardinall Woolsey that he had the pox and a stinking breath and yet durst come into the Kings presence So it shall be an Article against thee of high treason before the King of heaven if thou come into his presence with the stinking breath of thy sins living in thy lusts and wallowing in thy filthinesse all thy prayers are but as so many stinking breaths in the nostrils of the Lord and every dutie that thou performest unto the Lord shall be as so many Articles of high treason against thee to condemne thee because thou livest in rebellion and a Traitor against God His prayer shall be abominable he doth not say I will turn away mine ear from hearing his prayer which turns away his ear from hearing my law that is the true exposition of the words no but like for like is sometimes injustice for if a man should strike a Magistrate a box on the ear it were not justice for him to give him another for it is a greater sin to strike a Magistrate than any other common person and therefore a greater punishment the Law requireth So God doth not say he will turn away his ear from hearing his prayer but will serve him in a worse kind he will count it abominable yea abomination in the abstract it shall be loathsome yea lothsomnesse it selfe in the worst manner Galat. As a man soweth so shall he reap if thou sow sparingly thou shalt sparingly if thou sow a dull ear to Gods Word thou shalt reapaâ—dull ear from God to thy praier for God will reward every man according to his works Secondly because of the time of Gods Attributes both mercy and justice VAIN THOUGHTS ARRAIGNED At the Barre of Gods JUSTICE SET FORTH In a
and it becomes sinfull not regarded and abominable in Gods eyes For hearing of the Word of God the godly manâ— hears and the wicked man hears the matter in both is the same the godly man he casteth the Word into a godly mould he hears the Word and he trembles at it he hears the Word and beleeves it he hears the Word and his heart bowes to it and resolves to practise it a wicked man he hears the Word too but he casteth it into a dishonouraâ—le mould he hears it with deadnesse and dulnesse without trembling without faith and obedience So a godly man may think thoughts of God and so may a wicked man think thoughts of God the matter of both is good yet the thoughts of the wicked are vain though he thinks of God yet because he casteth it into his dishonourable frame he fears not God his heart trembles not at God but his heart is as full of dead earthly affections as before he thinks of hearing the Word but it is after this own fashion he thinks of praying but he prayes with his own spirit and not with the spirit of Adoption The Psalmist tells us that the whoremaster the drunkard and the thief thinks of God it is after his own fashion Psal 50. 21. These things hast thou done saith God and I held my tongue and then thoughtest that I was even such a one as thy self A wicked man goes on in his sins and thinks that they are not so devillish and abominable as some say they are and he thinks that God thinks so too he is earthly carnall luke-warm and dead-hearted and if he repent at the last he thinks all will be well and he thinks God is of the same mind too he goes on in his drunkennesse swearing pride and hypocrisie and he thinks if he do but remember to ask God mercy and to cry Lord receive my soul when he is going out of the world he thinks he shall not go to hell but be carried to the joyes of heaven and he thinks God is of his mind that God thinks so too But mark what the Lord saith I will reprove thee and set thy sins in order before thee O consider this you that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you Thirdly mens thoughts are vain when the heart that thinks upon them is earthly and vain wherefore if all the wicked men in the world should lay their heads together to think a good thought yet they cannot for their hearts are vain hearts sinfull hearts they may think of excellent propofitions concerning God his worship his word and service but so long as the heart that thinks upon them is carnall and vain they cannot speak that which is good as saith our Saviour Maithew 12. 34. How can you speak good things Why may some men say â— may not a wicked man read a Chapter in a Bible are the words so hard to be understood and pronounced cannot a wicked man take a Sermon and read it and hear a Sermon and repeat it What are Letters and syllables so hard to be pronounced I answer beloved that is not the meaning of our Saviour How can ye that are evill speak good things no no a wicked man may read Gods word and propound good questions as well as a true Christian but he cannot speak good words that is he cannot speak them from a good heart and therefore his heart being carnall and vain good words in his mouth are as a Jewell in a swines snout it is a word indeed but not a speech when he reads or pronounceth Gods word Aristotle saith that speech is nothing but the expression of that that is within the heart Now then if the word and truth of God be not ingraffed in thy heart if thy heart be not heavenly when thou speakest of heavenly things thou dost pronounce them but not speak them But when thou speakest of earthly things then thou speakest to the purpose because thy heart is set upon them and thy mind and thy tongue go together there is no jarre not discord betwixt them but if thy heart be not pure though thou speakest good things or holy things yet in Christs sense thou speakest them not For say I how can a vain evill corrupt heart think good thoughts An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit saith our Saviour he doth not say that an evill tree cannot be made good for it may be grafted into another stock divers ways there are to make it good but so long as it is a corrupt tree it cannot bring forth good fruit Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles Dost thou go to a drunkard and thinkest there to find any religion in him or to a whore-master to find grace in him Dost thou go to a swearer or a prophane person and thinkest thou to finde any fear of God in them Indeed sometimes there may be some morall good found in them but they are as a pearl in a dunghill out of its place Fourthly all mens thoughts come to be vain when the drift and end of the heart and soul in thinking of them is vain But thou wilt say unto me The end of my thoughts is Gods glory What is it not to Gods glory that we go to the Word and Sacrament that we pray and give almes I Answer The end of every good work in it selfe is Gods glory but is it the end of the worker speaker or thinker I make no question but the end of a good action in it selfe is the glory of God so the end of prayer is the glory of God the end of all preaching and Sermons is the glory of God the end of giving of almes and of all good thoughts is the glory of God but the end of the man that prayes and preaches what is that the end of the hearer and giver of almes what is that the end of him that speaks well what is that Beloved most men have false and corrupt ends which we will branch out into these three heads For the first men will be thinking and plodding from morning till night of their wordly businesses Now because they know they must think on God to make God amends perhaps they will think on him at night when they have dishonoured him all the day So men will swear and swagger drink and be drunk and when they have done say Lord have mercy upon me and so they think to make God amends What beloved will yee swear swagger drink be drunk and lye be secure and worldy and and then ask God forgivenesse to make him amends This is to break Priscians head that you may give him a plaister Will you trespasse your neighbour that you may ask him forgivenesse This is a damned and devillish religion yet this is the religion of many men in the world you shall have them keep daies and weeks and years in the observation of the times of Gods
Canaan she sought the Lord God of Heaven and earth she was of the cursed stock of Cham whom the Lord commanded to destroy yet she repented and became of the faith of Abraham to see if the Lord would own her but the Lord seemed to reject her and suffered the devil to possess her daughter Now what might not this poor woman think she had made a sorry change of religion seeing that God the author of it would not own her but suffered the devil to possesse her daughter But see the importunity of this woman she would not be quiet untill she had found Christ Mark 7. 24 25. Christ could not be hid No What could he not hide himself in some corner No. no thinks she there is a Christ and if he be to be had under the cope of heaven I wil have him Even so it is with the soul that is importunate in prayer it is restlesse What if Christ do hide himself in the Word c. and will not own a poor soul yet the poor soul knowes there is a Christ and if he be to be found in the whole world he wil have him I wil saith he turn over all duties I will go to all the Ministers that are neer I will use all the means Now Christ cannot be hid from such a soul that is thus importunate Now as it is a prayer that will take no nay so first it will take no privative nay of silence Secondly no possitive nay of denial First no privative nay of silence A man that is importunate in prayer must and will have some answer he is not like Baals Priests that could get no answer 1 King 18. 26. nor like wicked men that pray in their pewes they know not what nor whether God hears them or no but an importunate prayer will have an answer like the woman of Canaan Have mercy on me O Lord saith she but Christ answered her not a word Hath she done then No she cries so much the more Have mercy on me O Lord yea she was so importunate that his Disciples were ashamed to hear her yet she cried Have mercy on my daughter the devil hath my daughter and misery will have me unlesse thou wilt have mercy on us Christ answered her never a word It was much trouble to her to have her daughter vext with a devil but this troubled her much more that Christ in whom all her hope was would not hear her nor lend her one look What might she think Is this the merciful Saviour that is so ful of pitty compassion Is this he that hath made proclamation to all the world saying Come unto me all ye that are weary c and I am tyred and wearied by reason of the devil that possesses my daughter c. yet he regards me not Thus she might have said yet these discouragements could not put her off but she cried so much the more yea so that the Apostles were ashamed that Christ should let her stand on that fashion yet she stood it out and prevailed Secondly it will take no positive nay of deniall For when she had an answer and that flat against her it was like bellowes to the fire she was so much the more inflamed she doubles her forces Have mercy on me O Lord c. Chist put her off with a deniall I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel I come for sheep not for goats you are of the Canaanites on whom I have set a brand of damnation a servant of servants a slave of hell and darknesse These are all of your blood but I come to save them of the house of Israel But the deniall of an importunate soul is like the stop in a passage of water the more it is stopt the more violent it is so this poor woman is so much the more eager with Christ she did but cry before now she worships him verse 24. 25. as if she should have said Lord help me now I am one of thy lost sheep I confesse I am a Canaanite I am of that damned blood yet Lord help me I am perswaded that thou canst take a course whereby to help me Thou canst cast some mercy on a Canaanite Thus you see an importunate soul will take no deniall but will renew its forces at the Throne of grace Thirdly an importunate Prayer will take no contumelious repulse suppose God should answer never a syllable of thy prayer yet thou wilt pray suppose he do answer and that against thee yet still thou wilt pray Nay suppose he call thee all to naught making thy conscience tell thee of all thy sins and abominations making thee think that heaven is shut up against thee and God hath shut his ears calling thee Dog hell-hound and wretch c. yet nothing can break thee off if thou be importunate indeed So this woman was not beaten off with Christs sending the Devill into her Daughter nor with Christs hiding himselfe when she sought him nor with Christs answering never a word nor with the Apostles frumps nor with his deniall nor contumelious repulse for he called her dog vers 26 Hence dog I had as lieve â—ling my mercy on a dog as on thâ—e What creature but an importunate one could have gone so far But see here the nature of importunity it gets within Christ and takes advantage she confest the cause saying Truth Lord thou hast hit me right I am a dog or a wicked woman let me then have the priviledges that dogs have though dogs may not be equal with children at the cable yet they may wait under the table I acknowledge that thy children are so plentifully fed that some crummes fall from the table therefore let me have the priviledge of a dog Naaman the Syrian was a dog as well as I Rahab the harlot was a dog as well as I Ruth a dog as well as I yet these got câ—ums truth Lord I am a dog yet thy mercy can metamorphose a dog Of these stones thou canst raise children to Abraham Thus it is with an importunate soul though God call it all to naught and cast all ignominious terms upon it as I had as lieve thou shouldest offer me swines blood as to speak in my hearing yet if thou be importunate thou wilt bear any contumelious repulse Fourthly an importunate prayer is impudent in an holy manner And as an impudent begger that is needy counts it no manners to hold his peace from begging although he be bidden Or as a poor petitioner to the King the King bids him hold his peace yet he will not but still he goes on The officers say Thou filthy fellow wilt thou never have done dost thou not see that the King is angry Yet he still cries Help me Lord ô King So the Canaanitish woman or an Importunate prayer is an impudent prayer yet in a holy manner I remember a story of a poor woman in Essex condemned to die she falls to
us and so falls aboard and he thinks that God must needs sanctifie them unto him and after supper he goes to prayer and so to bed and thinks that he shall be heard for his much babling sake Mat. 6. they think God will have mercy on them But poor souls if they knew how unseemingly they prayed how unfitly and what want there is in seeing their own estate they would say is this to pray for my soul for such infinite mercy Lord how do I abuse the throne of grace how do I abuse thy sabbaths thy house thy name and all the holy ordinances which I go about A man that is importunate in prayer is ashamed but when they think highly of their prayers they are insolent their prayers are damned and they too Secondly as men have high conceits of their prayers so they have mean conceits of their sinnes they think not their sins so bad as they are These men are like Abner who said Let the young men arise and play before us 2 Sam. 2. 15. They account murder a sport and dancing and musiking little worse then Davids playing on the harp Amos 6. 5. And if they commit adultery they say that's but a trick of youth if they tell a lie it is only at a dead lift when they have no other shift That man that doth not think of every sin he commits as David did of his even to make his heart to ake for it that man shall never speed well before God Thirdly as men have mean thoughts of their sins so they have base thoughts of God They cannot think that God should damn a man for drinking a pot with his friend I cannot think God will be so strict No no I love God with all my heart say they and they think that God is of their mind and if they were as God they would not be so strict So Psal 50. They thought I was such an one as themselves they think God will pardon â—â—em and therefore because of this men are not importunate with God God hath sent me a crosse saith one but I hope to rub it off well enough Why God will not keep his anger for ever Jer. 3. 5. Suppose a man be absent from Church or break out into some unsavoury speech will God be angry for this Suppose a man be negligent in a good duty will God require every dayes work Tush tush God will not Psal 10. 13. A company of Puritans say he will but I know he will not and hence it is that men will not be importunate Lastly because they have wrong conceits of importunity If a man knock once or twice or thrice and none answer presently he will be gone this is for want of manners thou wilt knock seven times if thou be importunate with them They within may say Hold thy peace be gone c. but thou wilt not so be answered Beloved men are close-handed they are loth to give and they are close-hearted too they are loth to take the pains to ask of God they are loth others should be importunate with them and therefore they are loth to be importuate with God Examine your selves then in this duty for importunate prayer is evermore the prayer of an importunate man THE EFFICACIE Of Importunate PRAYER The Second SERMON By that laborious and faithful Messenger of CHRIST WILLIAM FENNER Sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Ministers of Rochford in Essex London Printed by E. T. for John Stafford THE EFFICACY OF Importunate Prayer LUKE 11. 9. Ask and it shall be given unto you Seeke and you shall finde Knock and it shall be opened unto you TO proceed then There be six signes to know whether our Prayers be importunate or no. First importunate prayer is evermore the prayer of an importunate man and the man is importunate if his praier be importunate but how can a man importune God for mercy when his person importunes God for vengeance It must be the prayer of a godly heart Preserve my soul for I am holy Psal 86. 1 2. David makes a prayer and he was holy when he made it his prayer could tell him that he was one that laboured to work in holinesse Therefore when thou goest to God in praier consider whether thou canst say Lord hear me foâ— I am holy and I would fain be holy but if the saying of these words châ—ak thee tâ—en thy prayer condems thee Of all begging it is a great matter who it is that begs at the door Who is that saith the indweller and when he opens the door and sees it is a thief c. Oh is it you saies he you may stand long enough you shall never have alms of me So in praier it is all in all who it is that prays The woman in the Gospel having an issue touched our Saviour he looking about asked who touched him and when he saw the woman Oh is it you saies he be of good chear Luke 8. 48. So when a man praies to God Who is that saies God that would have these mercies And when the Lord sees it a Drunkard or a covetous man c. is it you saies the Lord you may stay till Dooms day and yet never find mercie The spirit of supplication and the spirit of prayer is called the spirit of grace Zach. 12. 10. If them thou hast not the spirit of grace thou canst not pray The text saith not Whosoever asketh the Father in my name but whatsoever you ask the Father in my name there is many a man may use the name of Christ at the throne of grace but certain it is none but those that are in Christ can pray and with them every thing operates A man that will walk with God in obedience to his lawes must be a holy man hence is that saying of our Saviour John 15. 7. a place fit for the purpose If you abide in me and my word abide in you c. as if he should have said You may ask what you please and intreat God all the daies of your life yet unlesse you abide in me you cannot speed That man that walks not in holinesse of life can never be an importunate orator as was Moses the man of God but a wicked mans prayer as Augustine speaks is tanquam latratus canum c. no better then the barking of dogs or the grunting of swine therefore you whose consciences tell you that you live in sin your prayers never speed at the throne of grace for eternall mercy Secondly an importunate praier is the praier of a pure conscience Suppose a man doth not see that he lives in sin yet if his conscience crie guilty if he have a foul conscience his prayer never prevails with God If I regard wickednesse in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayer saith David Psal 66. 18. that is If I can say or my conscience can tell me that I regard iniquitie in my heart the Lord will not hear
Isaiah 27. 11. He that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will not pitty them It is commonly beleeved if men come to Church heare the Word and call upon God that then presently they are good Christians Beloved it is not so Mat. 7. 21. Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Men are ready when they can but call Lord have mercy on me O sweet Saviour pitty me most mercifull Lord Jesus have compassion on me if they can pray in their families and pray at Church c. to think now all is well with them and Christ cannot but save them and give them the Kingdome of Heaven but our Saviour puts a not upon it and saith not every one that saith Lord Lord it is noâ— a Lord a Lording of Christ with the tongue onely it is not a taking up of an outward profession of Christ only that is sufficient for a man that shall inherit the Kingdome of Heaven no saith Christ but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven But of this by the by Secondly there are needlesse discouragements which doe much hurt in prayer Nee lesse discouragements do much hurt to many a poor soule that hath forcible wouldings and wracked desires after grace and holinesse and yet is held by discouragements yea many a Christian heart lieth a long time under it wrestling and striving under its wants and yet kept out from grace and from growing in grace because of discouragements yea the best and strongest of God Saints have been kept off and have hung much on discouragements Fear not saith God to Abraham Gen. 15. 1. So fear not Joshua saith God to Joshua Josh 1. 9. Intimating that both Abraham and Joshua were afraid of discouragements they were afraid that many evils would befall them that they should meet with many rubs and difficulties that would be too hard for them therefore the Lord calls to them fear not be not djsmayed nor discouraged I â—ou saidst fear not Hence observe That God would not have any Christian soul to be discouraged in prayer Thou saidst fear not For our clearer prooceeding herein first let me shew you what discouragement is and secondly how it comes to be dangerous and hurtfull in prayer What is discouragement It is a base dismayment of spirit below or beneath the strength that is in a man under the apprehension of some evill as if it were too hard for him to grapple with it There be foure things in this diffinition First I say it is a base dismayment of spirit and so I call it to distinguish it for there is an humble dismayment which a Christian is commanded A man is bound to be dismayed for his sinnes I say 32. 11. Tremble ye carelesse women that are at ease be troubled ye carelesse ones these carelesse ones went on in their sinnes and feared not God calls to them and bids them to be dismayed But the dismayment and the discouragement I speak of it is a base dismayment of spirit which is either when he is dismayed that ought not or he is dismayed at that whereat he ought not to fear where no cause of fear is As he that riding along upon the high way spying a mans shape thought it was some Spirit and thereupon he sickened and died So many a poor soul looking in the perfect Law of God and seeing his own uglinesse and filthinesse he is discouraged and thinks himself undone his heart waxeth cold within him and he begins to fear that he is but a dead and damned man Secondly it is down beneath the strength that is in a man that man is properly said to be discouraged not that he hath no strength at all in him nor no courage at all for such a one is an infeebled man not a man discouraged but a discouraged man is a man put besides the courage that is in him when a man hath strength enough to grapple with the evill before him but through dismayment of spirit he cannot put it forth Have not I commanded thee saith God to Joshua Be strong and of a good courage be not afraid neither be thou dismaied Iosh 1 9. God had given Joshua strength enough whereby he was inabled to observe and do according to all that Law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded him God had now doubled his Spirit upon him yet he commands him be not afraid neither dismayed as if he had said Joshua if thou beest dismayed and discouraged though thou hast strength and power to go through the businesse that I have called thee unto yet thou wilt not be able to use it nor to put it forth if thou beest discouraged Thirdly it is at the apprehension of some evill I say not at the sight of some evill for a man may be dismayed at the apparition of good as Mary when she saw nothing but a good Angell Luke 1. 29. she saw nothing but a glorious Angel neverthelesse she was afraid and discouraged Why because she had a secret apprehension of some evill either of some evill proceeded in the salutation or some unworthinesse in her selfe to receive such a gracious salutation it cannot be the apprehension of any good that discourageth a man but the apprehension of some evill Fourthly not of every evill neither for if the evill be but small courage will stand it out but it is of such an evill as he fears he is not able to grapple withall If the evill before him be inferiour to him he scornes it as the barking of a toothlesse Dog If it be but an evill equall to his strength then he makes a tush at it because he knowes or thinkes himselfe able to encounter with it But if it be an evill above his strength then his spirit melts and droops before him See this in Saul 1 Sam. 17. 11. and his people When they saw the Champion of the Philistims coming against them when they saw him so hugely and marvelously armed and heard him speake such bigge words they thought they were not able to stand and to encounter with him and therefore saith the Text when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistim they were dismayed and greatly afraid Thus you see what discouragement is Now we come to the second question to shew how discouragements come to be hurtfull in prayer such discouragements the Lord would not have our hearts to be in when we pray unto him For first God cannot give ear to that man that is out of heart in his prayers Thou canst never pray if thou beest dismaied in prayer When the soul begins to feare and reason O I am so unworthy that God will not looke at me I am so sinfull so blockish so dead and dull to all good that God will never regard me Thou canst never pray Rom. 10. 14. How shall they call on him in whom they have not beleeved If
have they besought you to be zealous and meek and holy and you will not thou art techie and revengefull in speeches how often hast thou been sought to leave it thou art proude and stout-hearted how oft hast thou been fought for to be humble thou art carnall and worldly how often hast thou been besought to be spirituall and heavenly Thou hast no assurance of Christ in thy soule how oft hast thou been besought for to get him Ministers beseech thee every Sabbath Ministers intreate thee every week They breake their braines and breake their sleepe and spend their lung and all to invent and speake acceptable words to prevaile with your â—oules with heart-cutting intreaties they beseech you if not withstanding all this you will not be intreated to part with your sinnes then it is evident you hate reformation If we did not hate a thing we would doe it though we were never besought to doe it if thou didst not hate a reformation of thy sinnes thou wouldest have been reformed without these beseeches but if beseeches and intreaties cannot wooe thee thou hatest it indeed which beseeches cannot reconcile The Lord Jesus sent his Ministers in his Name we are Gods Embassadours in Christ his stead we pray you to be reconciled to God We have besought you by the bloud of Christ we have intreated you by the Bowel of Gods mercies to become new men we beseech you in the Bowels of the Lord Jesus Christ to give over your sins We beseech you as you love your soules give over your sins we beseech you as you are men as you know what is what give over your sinnes we beseech you let the drunkard give over his drunkennesse the swearer his oathes and blasphemies the Idolater his Idolatry and wilworship let the idle talker give over his fruitlesse communication the covetous person give over his covetousnesse the secure Christian and luke warme professor and deadharted server of God come out of his security and dead-heartednesse c. I beseech you by the mercies of God saith Saint Paul present your bodies a living sacrifice holy c. Rom. 12. 1. Sacrifice your tongues unto God we beseech you and speake holy conference sacrifice your hearts we beseech you and use holy meditations sacrifice your eares unto God and suffer not idle language to be spoken in your hearing we beseech you doe this yea by all the mercies of Christ we beseech as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ his stead and will you not yet Certainly you hate the light if all these beseeches cannot reconcile you we have besought you that there be no disorders in any of your families and yet there are we have besought you that there be no losse of time in your meetings that there be no root of bitternesse in your hearts and yet there is we have besought you to mend your repentance and to better your obedience and to repent of your rotten formality and to come out of your sandy and quagmire bottoms and not to consent your selves with this beggerly form of religion onely but as ever you love your soules and would be loved to get the power of grace and a thousand more things have we besought you Is it done no God knows all the beseeches and intreaties under heaven have not yet done it Now therefore you must needs stand convinced in your consciences that you hate the light if all these beseeches cannot bring you to it They must needs be saide to hate one another when neither money nor price nor any thing can make friends That is inveterate cankerous hatred which can never be out-bought which can never be hired to â—ease I make no question but that the Dâ—mosels Master at the first did hate that his Maide should be possessed with a divell but when he saw that it brought him in great gaine he took off his hatred he could then be content that the divell might have stayed in his house so he might have gained by it and therefore we read that he was angry at the Apostle for dispossessing the devill out of her Act. 16. 19. It must be a grievous haâ—red that profit cannot mollifie Brethren you know that God offereth you pardon of your sins he offers you mercy he offers you a Kingdom if you wil come out of your sins If thou wouldst rather lose father mother wife and children houses and lands goods and livings rather then shake hands with such a one as thou art fallen out with I am sure thou hatest him with a witnesse and if thou wouldest rather hazard thy owne mercy hazard the love and favour of God hazard the Kingdom of heaven let Christ goe and mercy goe and heaven go rather then let thy sinnes goe surely thou hatest to be reformed I will give you a kingdome saith God if you will be new men I will give thee a Kingdome if thou wilt take up Christ his Cross and be pure I will give thee a kingdome If thou wilt walk precisely and circumspectly But you will not though you might have a kingdome for it Repent saith Christ for the Kingdome of heaven is at hand Matth. 3. 2. Repent and here is a Kingdome at hand for thee Down with thine old lust thou knowest what I mean and here is a Kingdome at hand for thee Repent of your formall repentance repent of your fashionary prayers repent of your overly performances of holy duties and behold here is a Kingdome for you Wilt thou hazard the very Kingdome of grace and of glory rather then thou wilt steppe out of thy old wont thou hatest repentance if a Kingdome cannot hire thee to love it They must be said to hate one another whom all the dearest love in the world can never unite and soder together Love is able to burst all the hatred in the world if the divell be not in it love is more forcible then hatred and therefore that hatred is most cankerous that love cannot overcome What is so pleasing or delightfull to the flesh of a man but love may command it the love of God hath given thee the bloud of his own Sonne if thou wilt part with thy corrpptions thou mayest have it That is hatred indeed which the bloud of thy owne Sauiour cannot disswade thee from The Apostle Peter thought he had used an excellent argument to perswade men to holinesse when he setteth forth the love of God to us 1. Pet. 1. 18. 19. For asmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb undefiled and without spotte What doth Christ give his bloud to thee to redeem thee from thy vain conversation hath he given his bloud for thee that thou shouldest part with thy sinnes with thy drunkkennesse with thy oathes thy pride security luke warmnesse earthlinese prophanenesse from thy vain
of the seventh SERMON on 2 Cor. 11. 28. The words of the Text explained Doct. 1. WE must not rush upon the Sacrament 102. There are none of the Ordinances of God that a man may rush upon without examination ibid. Three Reasons hereof 1. Naturally we are not invited guests to the Sacrament ibid. 2. Though we are invited yet it may be we are not disposed for naturally we are strangers to God and the covenant of God all this indisposition must be wrought off before we can come comfortably to the Sacrament 103. 3. This is a solemn Ordinance and therefore an Ordinary disposition will will not serve the turn ibid. Many a reprobate may eat and drink in Christs presence ibid. Use To forewarne men lest they unpreparedly rush upon any of Gods Ordinances especially upon the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ. 104. The text divided into four parts The matter of the duty ibid. The manner how to be performed ibid. The rule of direction concerning it ibid. The benefit of following that rule ibid. Doct. 2. There is a necessity that we should receive the Lords Supper and receive it often 105. Doct. 3. The manner of performance of duties is to be regarded ibid. Five Reasons hereof 1. The Lord commands the manner as well as the matter 106. 2. Circumstances overthrow actions if they be not rightly and duly observed ibid. Its instanced 1. In grayer ibid. 2. In preaching ibid. 3. In receiving the Sacrament 107. 4. In brotherly reproof ibid. 5. In eating drinking and marrying ibid. 3. Because only the manner of doing duties gets the blessing 108. 4. Because Christ himself is an example unto us in this he did not only obey his Father in the matter of his commands but in the manner of them ibid. 5. Because otherwise we cannot glorifie God ibid. Use 1. First to condemn that natural Popery that is in the hearts of men c. 109. Use 2. For discovering why people are so willing to doe duties for the matter and not for the manner 110. The Reasons of it are these 1. Because the matter of duties is easie but the manner is difficult ibid. 2. Dutres for the matter of them may be done with a proud heart 111. 3. They may be done with an unholy life 112. 4. The matter of duty bringeth not the crosse and may zealous for the matter and persecutors of goodnesâ—e ibid. Use 3. To exhort men to labour and perform duties aright 113. Three Motives to perswade people to perform duties after a right manner 1. Because no Ordinance at all else can be effectuall unto us ibid. 2. All is but hypocrisie if the manner be not regarded ibid. 3. It is only the right manner of duing duties that pleaseth God 114. Doctrine 4. Every man mast prepare himself before he come to the Lords Table 115. Four Reasons hereof 1. Because the Sacrament is Gods ordinance ibid. 2. Because the Lord Christ hath made great preparation in providing it 116. 3. Because Christ in this ordinance offers to come into the soule and he looks for good entertainment ibid. 4. Because the Sacrament is a part of Christs last will and Testament therefore when we know our Lords will we must prepare for the doing of it 117. The Contents of the eighth SERMON upon Proverbs 29. 1. 1. A double exposition of the Text. Doctrine FRom the first exposition viz He that reproveth another and is guilty himself in the same kind or in any other kind and hardeneth his own heart in it that man shall be destroyed without remedy 122. Seven Reasons hereof 1. Because the office of a reprover bindeth him to be blamelesse ibid. 2. Because such a reprover as is guilty himself can never reprove to a right end ibid. 3. Neither can he doe it in a right manner 123. 4. Such a reprover is an hypocrite ibid. 5. Such a reproving of another mans sin makes him inexcusable in his own 124. 6. It is an absurd thing for a person to reprove another for that whereof he is guilty himself ibid. 7. Such a reproving is a sign of impudency ibid. Objection Shall not a wicked Magistrate or Minister reprove others c 125 Answ He is bound to reprove in regard of his office but it bound in conscience to amend himself first ibid. Use 1. For instruction first Let every reprover take heed lest he make himself inexcusable ibid. 2. Let him endeavour to walk unblameable and inoffensive ibid. Two Doctrines from the second Exposition of the Words viz. Doctrine 1. The Lord doth not not destroy man willingly but for sinne 127. Doctrine 2. It is a great mercy for man to be reproved for his sinne 128. Three Reasons of second Doctrine 1. Because reproofs primarily come from love ibid. 2. They tend to the good of a mans soule 129. 3. It s brutish not to take reproofs in good part 130. Use 1. First for information that God is bringing destruction upon a Kingdome when he takes away reprovers from them ibid. Use 2. For the reproof of those that despise the reproof of the wise they despise not men but God 131 The grievousnesse of their sin who stand out against reproof is aggravated under severall heads 132. Doctrine 3. The Lord proportions punishments to mens sins ibid. Three Reasons of the third Doctrine 1. Because hereby a mans punishment appears to be so much more equal and worthy ibid. 2. This stops mens mouths and convinceth their consciences ibid. 3. All the standers by may see the equity of it when the punishment is according to the sin 133. Use 3. For instruction 1. To teach men notto complaine of Gods dealing with them if their punishment be for the the kind of it according to their sin but rather let them learn to see Gods immediate hand in it 134. 2. To teach men to consider how God many times proportions punishments to sin 1. For Kind ibid. 2. For Quantity ibid. 3. For Quality 135. 4. For Time ibid. 5. For Place ibid. The Contents of the ninth SERMON Isaiah 55. 7 Doct. 1. THose whose minds or thoughts run habitually on earthly things are yet in the state of misery 139. Four Reasons 1. Because a man is in the state of misery till he hath repented and untill a man hath forsaken his vaine thoughts he hath not repented ibid. 2. Because a man is in a state of misery untill he is in Christ and a man is not in Christ till his thoughts be sanctified ibid. 3. Because a man is in the state of misery that doth not love God and a man can never love God untill he forsake his vaine thoughts 140. 4. Because that man is in a state of misery that doth not forsake sin and a man can never forsake sin till he leave his vaine thoughts ibid. 1. Because vaine thoughts are great sins ibid. 2. They are sins of the highest part of man ibid. 3. They are the breach of every Commandement ibid. 4.
conversion there Christ and his Spirit in one closet there all his Jewels in that and that box all is manifest within doors Fourthly it labours to affect the heart it doth not only labour to know more and more of the truth but also it labours to bring it home to the heart The good woman considers a field and buys it Prov. 31. 16. This is saith Ambrose the good Christian soul if in civility then much more in Divinity he considers the truth and buyes it he taketh it as his own and appropriates it unto himself Lo this saith Eliphaz we have searched out so it is hear it and know it for thy self Iob 5. 27. When thou canst say of the truth lo this is it we have searched it out I have dived into it perused it so it is even so indeed all this is that thou mayest apply it unto thy self and know it for thy good The first Reason is because meditation musters up all weapons and gathers all forces of arguments for 〈◊〉 presse our sins and lay them heavy upon the heart This usury is 〈…〉 good when meditation like usurers who grind and suck 〈…〉 of the needy and are not content with their Principal bu◠〈…〉 have consideration for every pound they lay out yea for every shilling and that for every week and every moneth and every quarter and every yeer the poor man could be content to pay the principall but to exact use upon use this kills him so meditation exacteth upon the soul and holdeth it to use upon use You have committed evil in a corner but you shall â—â—t carry it away so Item it was against the knowledge of God revealed Item against many mercies received Item against many Judgements threatned against many checks of conscience against many Vows and Promises remember that O my soul Item for that and Item for this Item for every lust and every circumstance thus oft and in this place and at that time in that manner So meditated the prodigal Look as it is in warrs were there but many scores come against an Army they might be conquered or many hundreds they might be resisted but if many thousands should come against a smal Army it would be in danger indeed Meditation leadeth a whole Army of arguments a whole Army of curses miseries judgements commandments against the soul how ever one misery or plague will not knock it down but the soul may brook it and goe away with it but meditation brings a great Armado of arguments and tels the soul God is against thee and against thy wayes God is against thee where ever thou art or what ever thou doest Then the heart begins to cry out as Elisha his servant did Master what shall we do 2 Kings 6. 15. So many horses against us so many charets and so many men against us Master what shall we do so many sins and so heinous so many judgements and so heavy and so many evils and spiritual maladies Oh what shal I do to be saved that I should commit sin against a God that hath damned innumerable Angels millions of Kings Princes and Nobles that I should commit it against this God so mercifull to me so gracious so patient so good to my soul that I wretched rebel should for a cup of drink refuse heaven for a lust not worth a straw under my foot cast off Christ and grace and all how shal I do Then the soul stands in a maze The second Reason is because meditation having hundled up all Items against the soul and brought it in all bils of account it fastens sâ—â— upon the soul I mean it makes the soul feel it so that it must needs be convinced without any evasion Meditation deals with a man as Elisha dealt with the messengers of the King Joram the murderer he was coming to do mischief to the Prophet and the prophet did shut the door and held him fast at the door 2 Kings 6. 32. and then he made him know that the evill was from the Lord before he could stirr so meditation when the soul would fain out of doors into its old course again it shuts the door upon it and holds it fast Meditation tels the soul this evil is from the Lord upon thee O my soul if thou stirr in or out upon this or that lust any more this evill that course that vengeance and damnation if ever thou stir forth thou losest thy mercy thou losest Christ thou losest all possibility of comfort Stir not out if thou dost thou wilt rue it Sometimes when men hear the Word they go away touched they resolve not to commit sin again as they have done yet when they are gone it works not but the heart recoyls again and turns to its old passe The reason is because they meditate not upon the Word they fasten it not upon their consciences It is with the word as it is with a salve if a man that hath never so good a salve that will heal any thing in four and twenty hours if a man should do nothing but lay it to the wound take it off lay it on and take it off it will not heal the wound and no marvel Why he will not let it lye on the best salve will not heal the soare nor eat out the corruption unlesse it be bound on and let lye so it is with the Word many a soul hears it heart conscience affections all toucht but when he is gone out of the Church all is gone his affections dye his heart dyes and his conscience becomes unfruitful Why he is still removing of the salve and will not let it lye on and therefore the Word over-powers not his corruptions the Word is like the salve conviction of conscience is like the laying on of the salve meditation the binding of it to the soare St. James compares a slight hearer to a man that looks into a glasse who soon forgets his visage but a good hearer doth two things First he stoops down and looks into it to take a perfect view of his estate Secondly he continues looking into it Iames 1. 25. he doth not leave the glasse behind him but he carrieth away the glasse with him This man shall be blessed in his deed If the pills be never so bitter yet let a man swallow them speedily there is no great distaste but if a man chew a pill it will make him deadly sick Thy sins are like those pills they go down very pleasingly because thou swallowest them thou swallowest down thine oaths lies ignorance pride thou swallowest down the threats of the Lord but if thou wouldest chew these bitter pills and meditate and ruminate and chew the cud drunkennesse would be as bitter as hell swearing and security and Saboath breaking would be as bitter as wormwood thou durst not go on in them they would make thee look sourely upon them for ever like a man that hath chewed a pill he can hardly ever
as Theophylact expounds it as if we would say Martha Martha thou art cumbred about many dishes but one thing is needfull only only one dish though indeed so it be yet he here speaks not only of one dish but of many cares which hinder that one necessary duty of hearing and meditating of the word of God Thirdly ignorance A man cannot meditate of a thing he knows not nor thou of thy sins if thou be not skilful in Gods Catalogue of thy sins nor of mercies and promises if thou beest not verst in them nor of his Precepts if thou be not expert in them the Psalmist proveth that he had more knowledge than all his teachers Why because he used to meditate I have more understanding then all my Tutors for thy testimonies are my meditation Psal 119. 99. Fourthly aversnesse of the heart The heart is like the swine meditation is like the yoke the Hogge would fain get into forbidden fields for to grub them the yoke that hinders him but he cannot abide it every step he takes he lifts up his foot to strike it off if he could so the heart would fain break through hedges and get into forbidden wayes and if thou wouldest meditate it would every moment lift up it's heel to put thee besides it If it cannot put thee besides it it wil mar it if it can and therefore David praid to God to settle his heart upon the right and put his yoke upon him or it would never be stedfast else upon meditation Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be ever acceptable in thy sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer Psal 19. 14. This aversnesse of the heart consists in three things First in the carelesnesse of the heart the heart prizeth not meditation nor the things of grace that are to be meditated on it will not be at the cost and charge nor at the pains for them To what end is a price in the hands of a fool seeing there is no heart to get wisdom Prov. 17. 16. The heart will not be brought to Gods price it would fain have the wares at a cheap rate Secondly in runnings of it the heart is like a vagrant rogue he would rather be hanged than tied to his parish Thou canst not bring it to prayer but it will be a gadding on by thoughts thou canst not bring it to a Sermon but it will be roving after wandering imaginations thou canst not bring it to a meditation but it will be a gossipping forth When Christ came to bind men with his blessed cords and bind their hearts to him Psal 2. they fall a meditating afterwards but it was meditating and imagining vain things verse 1. and when they saw they were to be tyed up Tush say they let us break their bonds asunder and cast their cords from us verse 3. What do Ministers call us to such strictnesse thinking to imprison our hearts in their stocks away with their bonds no we will have none of it Thirdly in the wearisomness of the heart It is as weary of meditation as a Cur is of the whip and the chain Oh how it barks and maunders till it be loose yea though it be never so eager upon it at the first it 's jaded presently When God called the Jews to sanctifie his Name they thought in their hearts O what a wearinesse is this I and ye have snuffed at it saith the Lord ye brought which was lame and torn and sick Malac. 1. 13. What a wearinesse is it to meditate saith the heart it snuffs it is untoward it is lumpish it would fain tear off a piece of the duty or bring it wanting a leg or without soundnesse and sincerity yet some of them saith Calvin were so humbled that they thought on the name of the Lord Malac. 3. 16. they thought and meditated and forced their hearts to consider throughly This may serve for terror unto all those who for all this that hath been spoken dare sit down without it yea the world will not beleeve these things nor meditate therein yea they blame Gods messengers that call so sore upon them Habakkuk was so served he preached the mercies of God to the humble and the judgements of God to the wicked they ask him why he was so mad well sayes the Prophet I will stand upon my watch and see what the Lord sayes unto me that I may answer to them that reprove me Hab. 2. 1. What did the Lord tell him Write the vision and make it plain upon Tables that he may run that reads it verse 2. Will they not beleeve Will they rove Will they not meditate steadily upon these things Will they not let their hearts stay and meditate and consider The vision shall be so plain that he that runs may read it If thou wilt not stay and meditate herein the word is so plain to thy condemnation that if thou didst not but think of it with a running thought thou maist read thine own vengeance thine own woes in regard of the multitude of them He that runnes by a way full of holes and pits though he stand not meditating where are the pits yet he may run and see them The book of God is full leaves and cover and all of woes against thee Lam. 2. 10. It is written without there thou maist read thy sins written it is written likewise within there thou maist read thy plagues Secondly in regard of the greatnesse of them he that runnes along and loe a great town on fire though he stay not to meditate on it what or where it is yet he may run and read it so is the curse of sinners a great curse Zeph. 1. 10. he that runs may read it Thirdly in regard of the proximitie and neernesse of them He that runnes if a sword come out at his throat though he doth not stop to meditate what is this at my throat yet he cannot but see it Behold the Judge standeth before the door James 5. 9. Take heed how thou grudgest or sinnest in any particular behold the Judge standeth before the door behold it and meditate on it with thy heart if not he is nigh enough thou canst not step out of doors unto any sin but though thou runnest thou must needs see the Judge that will Judge thee Iâ—eming thy sins noting thy wayes observing thy courses ready to unhasp the door on thee to hale thee unto hell in thy sins Whose end is destruction Why Even those that mind earthly things Phil. 3. 19. If thy mind and meditation run more on thy ground cattel goods kitchen house businesse earthly talk discourses thoughts more than of heaven thy end is destruction If thy thoughts will not stay here do but runne and thou maist read it Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am come to fulfill them Matthew 5. 17. Some saith Chrisostome might think now Christ is come it is no
matter though we not be so strict Christ is enough Think not thus saith Christ but rather think and meditate that I am come to fulfill it may self and to see it fulfilled in those I mean to save so as to make it a rule of their lives Themistocles said he could not sleep in his bed for continual thinking and meditating on Miltiades his Tryumphs And how canst thou sleep in thy bed if thou wouldest but meditate on these places of Scripture Retire thy self apart there is no casting up of mans account in a croud Let me alone I am busie so we use to say when we would be private Thou must do with thy soul as Ehud did to Eglon who said I have a secret errant to thee O King and so all went out and he said I have a message from God to thee and so stabd him at his heart Judges 3. 19. So for Ehud was a type of Christ saith Lavator I have a secret errant to thee O my soul and so let all go forth I have a message from God to thee a message of wrath for thy Pride a message of wrath for thy vain hopes Thus saith the Lord Cursed art thou O my soul stab it to the heart with this spirituall Dagger wound it with the blade and haft and all till thou have let out the fat and the dirt the filth and iniquity all out The Prophet speaking of mens looking on Christ whom they have pierced this meditating and laying to heart that they have crucified the Lord Jesus saith that they shall mourn every one in private the house of David apart and their wives apart the house of Nathan apart and their wives apart the house of Shimei apart and their wives apart every family apart and their wives apart Zach. 12. 2. The second meanes if thou wouldest meditate aright observe the times of privacy First the morniug that is the best time for study David chose the morning for meditation Psal 5. 1. 3. Let them hear this saith Chrisostome that arise betimes in the morning to serve their Hoggs and their Doggs their bellies and their backs before they serve God in meditation or prayer unlesse it be the mumbling and roaring a few Lord have mercy upon us that pray not till after many other businesses it may may be not then neither David prayed and meditated in the morning In the morning thou washest thy face and thy hands but thy soul hath more need which thou washest not in the morning thou puttest thy cloathes on thy body but thou puttest not on afresh the new man upon thy soul in the morning thou shakest off sleepinesse from thine eyes but thou shakest not off drousinesse from thy soul Thou lookest into the glasse in the morning to see if thy face be as it should be but thy soul is not composedly looking into the glasse of Gods word In the morning loook up in prayer look up in thansgiving look up in meditation Secondly the night too O Lord I meditate on thee in the night watches Psal 93. not as carnall ones doe when they cannot sleep then their mind runs on their Cow and their Calf their markets and vanities this neighbour and that neighbour like Petronius his dogge that was hunting while he lay asleep in his kennel Thirdly In the evening I prevent the night watches that I might meditate Psal 119. 148. he did not as wicked men doe sleep like a horse in the stable on his litter with his neck tyed to the manger they did go to bed with their hearts roped to the world worldly thoughts this thought and that thought and God knows what Fourthly when the heart is touched at a Sermon or Sacrament or observing of any judgement or mercy or act of Gods providence it is best striking when the Iron is hot David when his heart was touched at the reproches of the wicked then he meditated Psall 119. 23. When the Instrument is in tune then it is good playing upon it when a Churl is in a good mood then it is fittest to deal with him Oft will thy heart be out of tune oft churlish and in an ill mood if thou lettest the good opportunity goe thou knowest not when thou shalt have such another When the fish is nibling at the bait then it is good twiching at the angle-rod when the heart is a nibling at grace then gave a pluck at it by meditation See Acts 17. 11. now while the time lusts see thou maist get into heaven Thirdly Rub up thy self and thy memory call as much to mind as thou canst what evill thou hast done ever since thou wast born what in the womb what in the cradle childhood youth age what a servant what a Master what as a servant what as a son what as a neighbour what as an inferiour what as a superiour either in thought or word or deed how often thou hast omitted good duties or done them by halvs Item for this and Item for that They shall remember themselves and turn unto the Lord Psal 22. 27. First they shall remember themselves and say what have I done O wretch how carelessely have I lived Secondly so meditating they shall turn unto the Lord. Many say Oh! they cannot remember their sins They lye in a thousand particulars for they can remember to commit them well enough See Lam. 3. 19. 20. 21. our Greek translation turns it I spake to my self and meditated as if they should say O what a rebell have I been how unthankfull how unprofitable under all the means of grace I may thank my sins for all the plagues of the Almighty that are upon me if he had damned me I had been well served What follows The heart bowed and was humbled as it is in the text The fourth means Rouze up thy heart As it is with the eye of the body so it is with the eye of the Soul when a man would look wistly upon a thing as if he would look thorow it he sets his eye on it as Paul set his eyes on Elymas Ah thou child of the Devill thou c. Acts 13. 9. Meditation is the setting of the eye of the soul upon a thing set thine eye upon thy selfe and say Ah thou childe of the wicked why hath Satan filled thy heart O wretched heart whence hadst thou thy selfe-love hadst thou not it from the Devill God might do well to send thee to the Devill if thou lovest so to be his Broker Set thine eyes stedfastly upon thine own wayes and thou shalt see infinite hellish evils in thy sins The third Use is for Reprehension What is more usual than this that men make slight account of their sins Nay when God tels them in their hearts Thou shalt not do this thou shalt not doe that yet they meditate and think Why may I not Samuel bid Saul stay for directions from him before he sacrificed unto God It seems that God spoke to his
in whole assemblies but I mockt them I hated them I misliked them for being too precise I was not ashamed of my security no not in thy sight Thus thou wilt cry out one day if thou wilt not yeeld unto meditation which must make this as present with thee Know thou O my soul the time of thy visitation is at hand thou wilt curse thy selfe hereafter if thou dost not now be moved by Gods mercies thou shalt never see mercy more Now be awaked by Gods judgments or else thou shalt feel them for evermore now or for ever thou shalt â—oar for them Then thou shalt curse thy gains and thy profits that bewitched thee thou shalt curse thy pleasures and delights that besorted thee curse thine one heart and thine own soul and thine own conscience that have damned thee Meditation may tell thee thus it will be with thee unlesse thou obeyest now Hear ye me now Oh yee Children and depart not from the words of my mouth verse 7. hear the word now and obey it let it not depart out thy meditation Now be humbled with grace or then thou shalt be humbled with horrour then thou shalt wish Oh that I had been ruled When thou art in hell then thou shalt meditate Oh it was good counsel that such and such a Minister gave me good counsel that such a friend and such a brother gave me but wretch that I was I had not grace to follow it I had more mind of my pleasures more mind of my vanities than of grace Oh if it were to do again I would not do so for a thousand worlds but alas it is now too late Therefore let Meditation presse this upon thee before-hand Now follows the third thing how to put life to Meditation Four duties are to be done to this purpose 1. Let Meditation haunt the heart let meditation dog thee with the hellish looks of thy sinnes and follow it with the dreadful vengeance of God haunt it with promises haunt it with threatnings haunt it with mercies and haunt it with judgements and haunt it with Commandments The heart is like the Beaver when it perceiveth it cannot possibly escape from the Huntsman it cuts off the Member for which it is hunted and flings it down and so escapes saith Aesop So pursue thy heart with its sins with the hue and cry of Gods mercies pursue it with the bubbub of Gods judgements let meditation haunt it and let thy soul see it shall never be rid of the haunt at last it will be content to part with its lusts Let Meditation say Wilt thou forsake thine own mercies If thou livest thus and thus If thou prayest thus and thus dead-heartedly thou kickest against thine own mercy wilt thou rush upon the prickâ— This mercy thou mayst have if thou wouldst amend that vengeance thou shalt have if thou do not amend Either cut off thy sins or else God will cut off thy soul Return O Shulamite return return it s the voice of Christ to thee Let Meditation say Return O my soul return return and thou mayst be saved return or else thou shalt be condemned Now what was the effect of this haunting meditation Or ere I was aware my soul made me like the Chariots of Aminadab verse 12. That is my soul musing and meditating on these and these commandments it so humbled my soul that it made me yeeld yea and made me run as fast as the Chariots of Aminadab freely and willingly to Christ Deal with thy heart as Iunius his father dealt with him he seeing his Son was Atheistical he laid a Bible in every room that his son could look in no room but behold a Bible haunted him upbraiding him Wilt thou not read me Atheist Wilt thou not read me And so at last he read it and was converted from his Atheisme So let meditation haunt thy heart hold forth the commandements promises threatnings of the Lord that thy heart may see them let meditation haunt thee in thy luke-warmnesse prayest thou thus luke-warm This prayer will break thy neck one day Repentest thou This luke warm repentance will cause God to spue thee out of his mouth Hearest thou speakest thou thinkest thou These lukewarm duties wil confound thee ere long if thou lookest not to it Let meditations haunt thee as they haunted Nehemiah with warnings ten times saith the Text they sent to Nehemiah they will be upon thee Nehem. 4. 12. Beware of the danger the enemy will be upon thee ten times they warned him never giving over till Nehemiah looked about him verse 13. So do thou haunt thine own heart they will be upon thee this curse this wrath that hardnesse of heart this security wil be upon thee Ten times yea a thousand times ten times never give over thine own soul untill thou hast made it to submit Indeed there be some let God send Meditations to haunt them and follow them saying Repent leave this or that sin why wilt thou be damn'd with this sin Oh forsake it presently they will gagge the mouth of meditation and of conscience and strike them stark dead as Abner when Azahel would haunt him and follow him and turn neither to the right hand nor to the left but follow him at the heels Turn aside saith Abner but he would not turn aside from following him Turn aside from me sayes Abner again or I will kill thee but he would not turn aside he would follow him close Then he up with his Spear and slew him 2. Sam. 2. 19. 20 21 22 23. So many deal with the Meditation of conscience when conscience would dogg them and weary them out of their sins they will not when conscience would haunt them they will not be haunted therewith when conscience would follow them up with their desperate wilfulnesse they gall and wound and murder conscience to be quiet But David haunted his heart and would have it haunted The second duty Let Meditation trace thy heart as it should haunt thee so also let it trace thee in the same steps So would the Church Let us search and try our wayes and turn again unto the Lord Lam. 3. 40. The word in the originall sayes Buxtorf signifies track her steps step by step this step was in the ditch that in the mire that step awry track them all that we may undergo them all again and turn unto the Lord. Never pray but let Meditation track thy prayer this passage was right that passage was amis Never keep a Sabbath but let Meditation track thy keeping of it this duty was sincere that was rotten Never do any thing but let Meditation track it This thought this word this action was warrantable that was out of the way track thy heart as the Lord tracked Eliah he trackt him in the wildernesse he trackt him under the juniper tree he trackt him in the cave What dost thou here Eliah go forth 1. Kings 19. What dost thou here Eliah go return He tract him in
the Mount Go return what dost thou here Eliah this is not a place for thee So let Meditation wait thee what dost thou here O sinner what dost thou here drunkard in thy Cupps or in thy prophanenesse what dost thou here this is not a place for thee unlesse thou mean to perish It may be thou art now scar'd out of these sins and art run into civil honesty let Meditation still track thee What dost thou do here O sinner Civilitie is not a case fit for thee unlesse thou wert better thou shalt be torn in pieces It may be thou art driven out of thy civility and art gone further to the profession of Religion though it be without the power of it let meditation still wait thee What dost thou do here O sinner this sorry kind of profession is not a race fit for thee unlesse thou be godlier than so thou shalt be devoured with everlasting fire Meditation is like the coursing of a Hare in the snow the Hare fearing to be taken by the dogs Here she stops there she leaps here she interleaps there she goes backward and forward upward and downward and all to deceive the dogs that they may not find her but they goe smelling winding and turning and track her step by step till they find her so meditation is the coursing of the soul the heart hath a thousand fetches a thousand Meanders and labyrinths a thousand crosse windings and compassings and deceits and all to puzle Meditation But Meditation must track the heart as God dealt with Job he counted his steps step by step Iob 14. 16. Meditation is the souls bloud-hound it will never leave howling the wrath of God till he hath taken the hearts sin for a prey Meditation haunts it out of one sin and it runs into another Meditation haunts it out of that and it runnes into a third Meditation is a good pursevant it prosecutes the sinner and attaches him Now because the heart is most cunning and hardest to be trackt by its sent when the heart hath taken up abundance of good duties and attained unto sundry graces these good duties and common graces drown the sent of the hearts wickednesse As Huntsmen observe that the hounds cannot well hunt in the Spring as Theophrastus and Pollux and others observe the sweet odors of the flowers and herbs sayes Oppian hinder the hounds from smelling the hare so it is with Meditation it is hard for it to track the heart in the green Spring-time of civill honesty and formality And therefore let Meditation make deligent search saith he The third duty hale thy heart before God and let Meditation bring it before his throne and there powre out thy complaint against it before God out with all thy villany there and article against thy self and bring as many complaints against thy self before heaven as there be drops in a bucket full of water So doe the godly I powred out all my complaints before him Psal 102. in the preface I powred out my complaints as a man powreth out water out of a vessel generally men are willing to call for mercy but they are not so willing to bring complaints unto God against themselves ye shall have them whisper after the Minister as he is begging for pardon and mercy but they will not do so whiles he is complaining of their sins the hellish and develish abominations of their heart These are men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith and shall never have mercy till they be as forward to complain of their sins as to be plaintiffs for mercy When a man in Meditation meets with a hard matter that he cannot sufficiently dive into he breaks it to another so do thou to God break all thy heart to God tell him of thy hardnesse of heart of the pride of thy heart of the desperate prophanenesse of thy heart but take these rules with thee First thy complaint must be full of sorrow Psal 55. Secondly it must be a full complaint of all thy sins and of all thy lusts Lam. 2. 18 19. Poure aut thy heart like water before the face of the Lord. Water runs all out of a vessel when you turn the mouth downward never a spoonfull will stay behind The wicked will not complain of their sins fully they make hypocriticall professions If it be a sin I am sorry for it says one if it be naught I cry God mercy saith another when their own consciences tell them it is is a sin yet they will not complain of it absolutely Thirdly thy complaint must be with aggravation thou must aggravate thy sins by all the circumstances that may shew it to be odious as Peter did When he thought thereon he wept Mark 14. 72. the Originall hath it he cast all these things one upon another Wretch that I was Christ was my master and yet I denyed him such a good master that he called me before any of my fellow-Apostles and yet I denyed him I was ready to sink once he denyed not me I was to be damned once he denyed not my soul and yet I denyed him he told me of this sin before-hand that I might take heed of it and yet I denyed him I said I will not commit it nor forfake him and yet I denyed him yea this very night no longer ago did I say and say again I would not deny him and yet I denyed him yea I said though all others denyed him yet would not I and yet worse than all others I denyed him with a witness before a maid before a damsel nay more filthy beast that I am I said I did not know the man nay more I sware I did not know him nay more than all this I did even curse my selfe with an oath that I did not know him nay more all this evill did I not above five or six strides from my Lord and Saviour nay more even then when if ever I should have stood for him I should have done it then when all the world did forsake him O wretch that I was I denyed him he cast up all these circumstances together and meditating on them he went out land wept bitterly Fourthly thy complaint must be a selfe-condemning complaint thou must condemn thy self and lay thy selfe at Hell gates and set the naked point of Gods vengeance at thy throat Thus and thus have I lived damned cast-away as I have deserved to be So did Ezra in the behalfe of the Jews Ezra 9. For 1. He fell on his face he did not bow down on his knees but like a man astonished he fell on his knees ready to fall on the ground in amazement 2. He spread out his hand unto the Lord verse 5. as if he should say here is my heart-blood Lord here is my breast Lord we deserve thou shouldst stab us with thy wrath 3. He blushes to looke Heaven in the face verse 6. so vexed to think on the sins of his people that he is even confounded
to beg mercy 4. He is as it were dumb and speechlesse before God And now our God what shall we say after all this for we haue forsaken thy commandements verse 10. Shall I excuse the matter alas it is inexcusable What shall we say after all this Shall we call for thy patience Wee had it and yet were little the better Shall we call for mercy Why we had it and yet our stubborn hearts would not come down I know not what to say for our selves for we have sinned against thee 5. He declares Gods truth that he had warned them by his Prophets vers 11 12. but no warning can better us 6. He shews how God had punished them yet they would not be humbled for all that God had brought upon them lesse evils than they deserved and wrought deliverance for them wich they could not have expected What shall we say should we for all this break thy commandements verse 13 14. What can we expect but hell and confusion 7. He is sensible of Gods Judgements and righteousnesse O Lord thou art righteous as if he should say How canst thou spare us for this sinne How can it stand with thy righteousnesse How is it that such hell-hounds as we are should live above ground when thou art so righteous a God It is a wonder that the earth opens not her mouth for to swallow us up quick for O Lord thou art righteous 8. He layes down his soul and all the peoples souls at Gods feet as if he should say here we be thou maist damn us if thou wilt Behold we are all here before thee in our trespasses for we cannot stand before thee because of this verse 15. Behold here are we rebels we are here are our heads and our throats before thee if now thou shouldst take us from our knees unto hell and from our prayers unto damnation we cannot ask thee why thou doest so Oh it 's mercy it 's mercy indeed that we have been spared Thus Meditation must bring our hearts before God and there complain against them before heaven Meditation should deal with the heart as the Father did with his possessed child who carried him to Christ saying Master my child is possessed THE DANGER Of Deferring REPENTANCE DISCOVERED In a SERMON preached at Maidstone in Kent By that Reverend and Faithfull Minister of the Word WILLIAM FENNER B. D. Sometimes Fellow of ` Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Pastor of Rochford in Essex London Printed by E. T. for John Stafford A SERMON OF M. WILLIAM FENNERS at Maidstone PROVERBS 1. 28. Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me THere is a good English Proverb among us that he that neglects the occasion the occasion will neglect him Solomon wisely begins his Proverbs with it for he bringeth in the wisdome of his Father in these five particulars First making a generall Proclamation in the 20. verse Wisdome crieth without she uttereth her voice in the streets He compareth God unto a Cryer going up and down the City from street to street and from door to door crying his commodity even the richest that ever was which is a Christ a Christ for redemption a Christ for sanctification a Christ to enlighten those that walk in darknesse and in the shadow of death Ho every one that thirsteth here is a Christ for you Secondly here is a mercifull reprehension in the 22 verse O ye foolish how long will ye love foolishnesse and ye scorners take pleasure in scorning Foolish indeed to be without Christ foolish to be without grace foolish to chafer away our souls for sin How long ye scorners will ye take pleasure in scorning will you still persist in your wickednesse and never have done with your sins will you never turn back again but damn your souls for ever O ye foolish how long will ye love foolishnesse Thirdly here is a gracious exhortation in the 23. verse turn you at my correction lo I will pour out my mind unto you and make you to understand my words As if he should say Do you not see how you are going a pace to confusion and that the way you take leadeth unto destruction turn ye therefore turn ye back again for there is a Christ behind you O turn ye for if ye go on in your sins you perish for ever Fourthly here is a yearning promise made unto the world in the end of the 23. verse Lo I will pour out my spirit unto you and cause you to understand my words As if he should say Return back again with me and you shall have better welcome than you can possibly have if you go on in your sins the Devil will never let you gain so much by your living in your lusts as you shall do by repentance for them and forsaking of them For behold I will prour out my spirit upon you whereby you shall be farr greater gainers than you shall be by your sins Fifthly here is a gratious threatning against the world even all those that have loytered out the day of grace As time and tyde will stay for no man no more doth the day of grace Because I have called and you refused I have exhorted but you have not regarded I have denounced judgements against you for your sins but you have hardened your hearts now a day of woe and misery shall come upon you a time of vengeance and desolation shall over take you there will a day come wherein there will be weeping and crying Mercy Lord mercy but I tell you beforehand what you shall trust to let this be your lesson now I call and you will not hear now I stretch out my hands but you will not regard you shall seek me early but you shall not find me and shall cry but you shall not be heard The words are underclapt against all those that procrastinate their repentance and returning home unto God wherein note first the parties them selves that do prolong this day of grace they that is they who when God cals on them will not hear when God invites them by his mercies patience and forbearance by his Ministers and servants by his corrections and judgement by all fair means and foul means yet withstand the means of grace they are the men they shall call but God will not answer Secondly here is their seeking after God they shall call upon me Thirdly here is their earnest and diligent seeking after God they shall not only call but seek too and not only seek but seek as to labour to find nay they shall seek me early even strive to go about it with all haste and flye to repentance but they shall not find me Fourthly here is the unseasonablenesse of the time of their seeking then that is a demonstrative then even a time which the Lord appoints at as if he should say you shall see then these men will be of another mind
nothing therefore that mans end must needs be destruction that loves not God Fourthly that mans end must needs be destruction that never gives over his sinne and so long as thy thoughts run after the world thou canst never forsake sin thou maist resolve and think on the contrary yet so long as thy thoughts run habitually on the things of the world thou dost not forsake sin Wicked and carnall men may have the eyes of their consciences opened and their hearts awakened whereby they may see their sins and the hellish evill and danger of them whereupon they may resolve and purpose to forsake them and then they will make a covenant with God that they will not do thus and thus I have been touchy and cholerick but I will be so no more I have been a prophane swearer and blasphemer of the name of God but I will be so no more I have been a drunkard and an unclean person but Lord thou shalt see a reformation in me Nay it may be he will tell his minister of it and his father and his mother his wife his children and all his friends too of it but when he comes to his cold blood again and these cold graces which flattered so come to be cold in him so that his heart comes to it selfe again then vain thoughts rest in his heart and he returns to his old sins again as the dog to his vomit and the sow being washed to the wallowing in the mire The Apostle excellently describes a man that can never depart from his sins They have eyes full of adultery which cannot cease from sin 2. Pet. 2. 14. where the Apostle speaks not only of that adultery which is a breach of the seventh Commandement but of such an adultery which is a perfect breach of every commandement when the heart runneth a whoring after every sin and vanitie when the eye of the soul is full of adultery the heart cannot cease from sin when the eye cannot see an object of gain or profit but the mind is presently engaged and runs after it when it cannot see an object of delight and pleasure but it is straightway caught by it when he cannot see any wrong or injury done unto him but presently he is inflamed with revenge and his heart runs after it I say that if thy eye be thus full of adulterie that thou canst not see the occasions and hints of sin but presently thou art insnared and thy soul is taken by it thou art the man that canst not cease to sin therefore untill thou turn the eye of thy soul which is the thoughts and affections of thy heart another way thou wilt never cease to sin For wheresoever thou lookest thou wilt be insnared so long as thy thoughts are evil and vitious either upon pride or covetousnesse or ambition or envy or delights thy soul will look asquint on God and untill these vain thoughts of thine be crucified thou wilt only look upon the satisfying of these vain lusts of thine Prov. 3. 6. In all thy way wayes acknowledge God and he shall direct thy paths In all thy waies think on God or else thou maiest go to many duties in Religion but never be direct in thy going thou maiest pray a thousand times but never be established in thy prayer thou mayest go from Lecture to Lecture and yet never be established in thy service thou mayest go about many things and never be established in any thing unlesse God be in all thy thoughts a man may go on in a course of Religion but it is a hap hazard he is inconstant and unsteady in his his course unlesse in his heart he think upon God and therefore his end must needs be destruction This then may serve first for humiliation to the godly secondly for matter of condemnation to the wicked First for humiliation Are vain thoughts thus damnable that when they bear sway in the heart they make that mans end to be destruction How then ought this to fill the faces of them that have the Spirit of Christ with shame and confusion and to make them in a holy manner to be confounded in themselves and to think of the emptinesse naughtinesse and vanities of their hearts Beloved thou canst not go to prayers but abundance of vain thoughts will be about thee like wasps to assault thee thou canst not go to the Word but these vain thoughts will be a humming in thy ears thou canst not go about the works of thy calling but vain thoughts will haunt thee and creep into thy meditations and take away the main burthen of the work all the day long Beloved this should make a godly man ashamed and confounded in himself in the consideration hereof The Prophet David was so confounded and ashamed hereat that had not God poured in mercy and comfort into his soul he had been distracted and should have despaired considering the company of vain thoughts that lodged within him Psal 94. 19. where he shews what abundance of distracting thoughts he had that if God had not sustained him with comfort after comfort he had been overwhelmed in despair by them Augustine saith a mans thoughts are not in his own power the heart of man is like tinder and if the Devill cast a spark into it thou canst not hinder it from taking fire but thou mayest hinder it from burning further A ship may have leakes in her and thou canst not hinder the coming in of water into her but by thy pumping and industry thon mayest save her from drowning in the water even so evill thoughts though they be rooted out yet they will come in again a mans heart is like to to the fig-tree that grew out of the stone wall which Epiphanius speaketh of the branches were lopt off and it grew again the boughs were lopt off and it grew again they cut down the body of it yet it grew again they pluckt up the roots of it yet it grew again till at last the stone wall and all was fain to be pulled down Even so it is with vain thoughts in the heart a man may lop them off by godly sorrow he may cut them down and root them up by mortification and yet they will be sprouting up and rising up again till the whole body of sin be pulled down and destroyed in a man Gregory speaks of them and saith man may pluck them up but yet not so but that they will rise again The consideration hereof should humble us and make us low in our own eyes Oh then think with thy self and say Oh that my thoughts should be so base eartlâ—y and vain what have I not a God a Christ a heaven to think upon have I not excellent Commandements of God and thousands of sweet and precious promises in Scripture to think upon and must I be thinking on every bable of every straw not worth the thinking on Take the Apostles exhortation Whatsoever things be true whatsoever things are honest
shalt be found out and the Lord will keep thee out by his spirituall plagues and thy sin shall never be done away but be required at thy hands and stand in everlasting record against thee O my brethren that you would but seriously consider it and look about you it being so weighty a thing that so nearly concerns every one of you But I would not have any poor broken heart and humble Soul to mistake me and so thereby be discouraged but give me leave I pray you to use the words of the Prophet though spoken in another sense Psal 115. Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the glory So let me apply this doctrine unto the comfort of all poor broken-hearted sinners and beate off all carnal prophane wretches that live in their sins not unto you O drunkards swaggerers not unto you whoremasters and unclean persons that wallow in ungodlinesse I say not unto you but unto the poor afflicted soul and contrite spirit that lieth bleeding and gasping under the weight of his sin and that trembles and fears being opprest with the sense of its own unworthiness panting and breathing after Christ Jesus and suing earnestly unto the Throne of grace for mercy and forgivenesse unto thee only belongs this comfort and therefore take it home to thee and know it for thy self Art thou troubled with a hard heart and an unbeleeving soul and art even wearyed and tyred out with thy many sins and infirmities Come thou with comfort unto this holy Communion for thou shalt be sure to find saving good by it to thee it shall be a spirituall medicine to heal all thy diseases and to cure all thy strong and prevailing corruptions and if thou come unto this holy Table of the Lord it shall make thee as it is recorded of Saint Laurence able to suffer Martyrdom and to get victory over all thy unruly affections yea at last thou shalt tread Satan thy arch-enemy under thy feet Thefore be not dismayed for the Lord Jesus invites thee to come What if thy infirmities be many yet the mercies of God which he tenders to thee in this Communion are many more Samson who was the strongest Souldier and Companion in his time that was in Israel to overcome the Philistims he yet began his strength in weaknesse being at the first overcome by a woman So though the Lord intend to make thee a strong Christian he will make thee to begin in weaknesse to perfect thy power to begin in sin and misery that he may make thee to end in glory I know Gods children here may receive temporal punishments and bring temporal scourges upon themselves as we may see amongst the Corinthians here but it shall be for their good and amendment namely for their correction and not for their ruine and destruction that so being chastened by the Lord they might not be condemned with the world Therefore if thou comest carelesly and unprofitably God will chastise thee with the rods of men as he did Peter who receiving the Sacrament with his Master over night yet the next day thrice denyed him but God whipt his soul and scourged his conscience for it and beat him black and blew so that he went out and wept bitterly Nay he could scarce with off that sin and recover himself again whilst he lived Wherefore let us take heed of unprepared coming to the Sacrament for God will not hold such guiltlesse Yea if his own sonnes or daughters transgresse thereby he will make them to feel the smart of it But now to come to all such as come moneth by moneth hand over head without any examination and repentance in their uncleannesse and abomination making no conscience of their reformation let me tell them that it shall be one of Christs demands of them in the day of judgement How oft hast thou been at my Table How oft hast thou been partaker of that holy Communion which I gave unto thee Hast thou come preparedly or received worthily or no Hast thou eat bread at my Table with me and lift up thy heel against me Did I command and thou wouldest not obey Did I send my Ministers to thee to reform but thou wouldest not be reformed Did I check and reprove thee for thy pride blasphemies drunkennesse covetousnesse anger wrath malice fornication hypocrisie and prophanenesse in the matter of my worship and yet wouldest thou still live in these sins Where are all the Sacraments that thou hast received How hast behaved thy self Where are the sins that thou hast forsaken and pleasing corruptions that thou hast abhorred What grace and holinesse hast thou received by the means thou hast enjoyed and how hast thou manifested the same through thy whole conversation Oh! woe woe unto thee yea and a world of woes unto thee and unto all such as shall be silent and speechlesse to those or the like demands of Christ for they cannot say they have come out of their sins and have been reformed by the means of grace and have received spirituall nourishment and refreshing from the heavenly banquet of the Communion of the body and bloud of the Lord Jesus Christ A man will especially regard the last words of a dear friend who is as a mans Soul when he is to speak upon his death-bed and will be carefull to remember them and dost thou not more regard the last Will and Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ we count it a horrible sin to alter the last Will of a man that is dead Beloved the Lord Jesus before he left this world instituted this blessed Sacrament as his last Will and Testament and hath given us a charge that as we would not eat and drink our own damnation by bringing the guilt of his body and bloud upon our Souls so that we should discern the Lords body and not come unpreparedly in our sins and abominations without reverence and respect of such holy and high mysteries as if there were nothing more to be received and looked for after then the bare and naked element of bread and wine or as if we did come to communicate with unclean Devils O my brethren if you had but faith you would be able to discern Christ in the Sacrament and therefore when thou comest unto it thou must prepare and sanctifie thy selfe to communicate with him in those holy Ordinances and heavenly mysteries of his most pretious body and bloud for if so be that thou retainest thy sins and so come unworthily unto this holy Table of the Lord thou art a great Covenant-breaker with God For thou never comest unto the Communion but thou makest and renewest thy covenant with God wherein thou promisest thus much or the like in effect Lord I have been formerly a drunkard but now I promise to give it over and never to be a drunkard more I have been a scoffer at Religion and a mocker and derider of thy children but now I faithfully promise Lord that I
against his reproof The greatnesse of the ill is set down two wayes First by the great sinfulnesse of the thing it is called the hardening of a mans own neck Secondly by the greatnesse of the punishment that God inflicts upon this sin and that is he will destroy him and that without remedy For the first namely what a great mercy it is for God to let a man be reproved for his sins It may be proved by many places of Scripture only I find Scripture is to be brought as an aggravation of sin when they sinned against reproof Hosea 5. 1. saith he they are profound to commit sin though I have been a rebuker of them all As if he should say Though I have been so mercifull as to shew them the danger of sin to tell them what would become of their wretched courses though I have called them to repentance and have given them warning what would be the issue of these things yet for all this for all my mercy they have gone on in their sinnes though I have reproved them This Though is a word of aggravation as we see in the speech of Daniel to Belshazzar Thou O King hast not humbled thy self though thou knewest this as if he had said though the Lord let thee know the punishment upon thy father and the plagues of Nebuchadnezzar thy grandfather though the Lord have let thee understand what it is for thee to exalt thy self against him yet thou art not humbled he aggravates his sin So this aggravates a mans sin when he goes on notwithstanding he is reproved The Reasons are First because when God reproves a man of sinne the reproof primarily comes out of love therefore when he reproved Laodicea and told her she was luke-warm and said I would thou wert either hot or cold and since she was neither he would spue her out of his mouth he tells her whence the reproof flowed because I love I reprove As many as I love I rebuke Revel 3. 19. It is not out of ill will that I tell thee of thy lukewarmnesse and threaten to spue thee out of my mouth I tell thee these things that thou mayst avoid that ill I say Gods reproofs flow primarily from love to men whereby he would have them lay aside their wretched courses and avoyd the judgements Nay it is an argument of hatred when a man doth not reprove his brother of sin If God let a man go on in sin and never tell him of his drunkennesse nor never find fault with his pride and security never convince him or wound or touch him nor deal with him about his unsetled estate and his rotten conditions It is a sign God hates the man But when God reproves a man from day to day Man thou art a proud creature thou shalt to hell for thy pride and hypocrisie and security and hardnesse of heart When the Lord reproves a man from day to day this is an argument of love the other is an effect of hatred not to reprove Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart saith Moses but shalt in any wise reprove him and not suffer sin to be upon him Levit 19. 17. Thou hatest thy brother when thou seest him sin and doest not warn him and knowest he is guilty of sinfull courses and doest not reprove him and when thou hast time and place and opportunity and fit circumstances to reprove and yet thou wilt not do it it is a sign thou hatest thy brother it is the greatest degree of hatred on them If a man deny food for the body and let a man rather dye of hunger than he will give him meat or let a man fall into a pit rather than he will prevent the mischief a man is guilty of bodily murder but thou art guilty of the soul of thy brother if thou let him fall into sin Thou thinkest thy brother is harsh he will not bear with thee he is hasty and testy no thou art in an error That man that hates reproof erreth saith Solomon Indeed a man should not be too sharp but first tell his brother in private that he is in an error for reproof is a means of grace it flows from great love it is the providence of God that hath cast it about that thou shouldest have reproof given thee if thou have a heart to take it It is an argument of love Another reason is taken from the primary end of reproof which is to bring a man to good to reduce him into a right way to convert a man to save his soul that is the primary end of reproof aud admonition therefore to go in sinnes contrary to it must needs be a great evill As Solomon brings in the wisdome of the Father Jesus Christ calling upon people O yee fools how long will ye love folly turn at my reproof Mark what follows to what end I will pour my spirit on you There is the end he tells them O ye fools wretched people without understanding that go on in sinne and harden your own hearts that repent not nor turn not to God that will not submit to his wisdom nor imbrace his word yee fools that wrong your own souls Oh turn at my reproof Why This is the reason that God reproves a man on this fashion it is that a man may have the Spirit of God granted him If thou have an ear to hear reproof and a heart to drink it in and to wear it as a crown of gold on thy head and as a chain about thy neck thou shouldest have the Spirit of God for thy labour the Lord reproves thee that thou mightest return back and have the Spirit and have mercy and forgivenesse This is all the ill-will that Gods Ministers bear thee and all the hatred that reprovers shew when they tell thee of thy sinnes whatsoever they be that they may stop thy steps from going down to Hell When the Lord sends thee Sermon upon Sermon Preacher after Preacher thou art called on day by day as you hear in this place This is the infinite goodnesse of God towards your souls therefore your sin is infinite great if you do not amend as the wise man saith He that hates reproof shall surely dye Prov. 15. 10. there is no remedy for that man That man that puts off repentance God reproves him from day to day on the Sabbath day and on the week dayes he goes to this man and here he is reproved and to another and there he is reproved and yet he goes on in his deadnesse and formality in the ordinances of God that man shall surely dye there is no remedy he sins against the infinite mercy of God Thirdly there is no reason in the world why reproof should be taken otherwise than with all willingnesse and thankfulnesse and chearfulnesse If a man have but the reason of a man in him he must needs take reproof in good part he must be a beast that doth
shall be destroyed The word signifies to shatter all in pieces Thirdly the irrecoverablenesse of it without remedy Fourthly the suitablenesse of it his punishment is according to his sin Mark as he hardened his own heart against God so God will harden his heart against him as no remedy would turn him from his sin so no remedy shall turn God from his wrath As his sin was in hardening his heart like a stone so God shall deal with him as a stone is dealt with he shall destroy him The word in the originall signifies broken to peeces as a stone is broken that is the Lord will deal with him just in his own kind Hence I might observe this doctrine that The Lord proportions punishments to mens sins Just as a mans sin is so is the punishment David sinned in numbering the people 2 Sam 24. 15. and God punished him in that Pharaoh sinned in destroying and drowning the males of the Israelites God smote his first born He drowned their babes and he himselfe was drowned in the sea I might bring abundance of examples Now the Reasons of this are First because hereby a mans punishment appears to be so much the more equall and worthy Retaliation is a most equall punishment to the sinne there is no inequality in it but this that it is too mercifull An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth burn for burn wound for wound You know an eye is equall for an eye so when God punisheth a man just in his own kind quid for quo that as there was no remedy would turn him from his sin so there shall be no remedy shall turn God from his wrath Herein Gods punishment appears the most equall Revelations 16. 5. 6. Thou art righteous O Lord in that thou judgest thus for she hath shed the bloud of thy Saints therefore thou hast given them bloud to drink for they are worthy Thou thirstedst after blood there it is for thee so this is most equall when men have dealt thus and thus with God when God shall deal so and so with them they cannot find fault When a man drinks as he brews and reaps as he sows and finds as he brings what inequality is here It shall come to passe that as when I called they would not hear so when they call I will not answer Zach. 7. When God calls upon thee and thou wilt not hear afterwards when thou callest for mercy if he do not hear thee it is just Secondly another reason is because this stops a mans mouth it convinceth a mans conscience when a mans conscience finds that he is served in his own kind that he is paid in his own coin it stops his mouth Adonibezck he had cut off the thumbs and toes of 70 Kings afterwards he was served just so as he had dealt with others he had cut off their thumbs and toes made them gather orts under his table so afterwards his thumbs and toes were cut off Now mark what his conscience saith Judg. 1. 7. As I have dealt so God hath dealt with me As if he had said God knows wherefore the children of Judah have done this they know not why they cut off my thumbs and the reason why they cut off my toes God knows what they looked at in punishing me thus but Gods just providence hath dealt thus with me in this kind I served others This is so palpable a punishment so equall and just that though the sin were committed twenty years agoe yet a mans conscience will find out his sin twenty years after As Josephs brethren sold him and after cast him into a pit two and twenty years after when Joseph was harsh with them see what their conscience saith Doubtlesse we are guilty of our brothers blood when we saw the anguish of his soul and he besought us and we would not hear As if they had said What is the matter why the man is thus harsh He never saw us before why should he be so harsh and we be strangers Nay saith conscience you are well served remember you were harsh to your brother if you dealt so with him marvell not if you be dealt so with And after when they came to their Inne and found their money they wondred What is this that God hath done Their conscience I warrant you hit them in the teeth without doubt they thought the money that they took for selling of their brother had haunted them as a Ghost did not we pay the man money for his corne that we bought Nay saith conscience you are rightly served here is the money you sold your brother for though it were not so without doubt conscience upbraided them Naturally we are apt to find fault with Gods judgements and quarrell but when conscience sees the equity of them we have nothing to say Thirdly all the standers by may see the equity of it when the punishment is according to the sin Nay Divinity makes this Argument that there is a God to judge the earth because men are punished in their own kind I will shew you one example of Abimelech that wretch that slew seventy of his brethren upon one stone Judg. 9. 7. afterward when he came to stand under the Tower of Abel a woman flung a piece of a milstone upon his head and killed him This was strange all the standers by might say that Abimelech should be killed with a stone no question the woman thought nothing she flung the stone because she had nothing else to fling it was strange that it should hit him so pat it might have hit another as well as him the stone might have fallen to the ground as well as on him and that it should be by a woman and a milstone too Milstones are not used on the top of a Tower and a milstone broken that a woman could lift it and that he should be killed by a milstone and not with a sword nay might all the standers by say This God hath done he was the son of a strange woman and a woman hath killed him he killed his brethren upon one stone and now a stone hath killed him all the world might be able to say This God hath done The Use of this is First let no creature in the world complain of Gods dealing if he punish us according to our kind he that kils with the sword shall be killed with the sword He that stops his ears from hearing the poor what shall his punishment be He shall cry and not be heard He that shews no mercy how shall he be punished He shall receive no mercy James 2. 13. Wo to thee that spoyledst and wast not spoyled when thou ceasest spoyling others shall spoyl thee Isa 33. 2. Judge not saith Christ what if I do Then thou shalt be judged Thus God recompenceth the fruit of a mans doing Here is no Momus can complain no Aristarchus that can find fault with the justice and judgement of God Secondly
people have though they have nothing else it is the beggers dish as I may so call it A begger hath no way to live but by begging therefore he had need beg hard so we have nothing to live on but praying I mean nothing that is to be done on our side all the promises of God are to be gotten by prayer Suppose a man have nothing to live on but his fingers ends no house nor land nothing left to maintain his wife and children but his fingers ends will he not be toyling all the day he is a day-labourer as we use to say So to pray earnestly is a Christians fingers ends When a house stands but upon 〈…〉 will not a man be fearful and carefull of that pillar why 〈…〉 falls all the hope of salvatio◠〈…〉 unprofitable servants that Mercie will not meddle with us unlesse it be commanded Patience is loth to bear we have so provoked God that Mercie is loth to make or meddle with us for unlesse it have command from God it will not admit of any soul When David begged for loving kindnesse he was importunate else mercie and loving kindness would not look on David Psal 42. 8. Sixthly Prayer is Gods delight The supplication of the wicked is abomâ—ation to God but the prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15. 8. The Lord must have something to please him Kings you know must bâ—â—leased so the King of heaven would be pleased by all that come unto â—im Now nothing is more pleasing unto him than prayer Seventhly Importunate prayer is a willing praier There be many that pâ—â—y to God for mercy and yet they are loth to have it why because tâ—y are not importunate When a mans lust runs on the world and worldlâ— pleasures c he speeds not When the woman of Canaan was importunâ—â—e Christ saith unto her Woman be it unto thee as thou wilt she had a â—â—l to grace Matth. 15. 28. Eighthly Importunate prayer is the only faithfull prayer A begger never â—es away from a gentlemans door so long as he believes he shall have â—alms so as long as a soul is importunate with God it is a signe that it 〈…〉 a believing soul O woman saith Christ great is thy faith Why Because her importunity was great therefore Christ concludes her faith was â—â—eat The means to get importunity in prayer are these First Labour to know thine own misery See Ephes 6. 18 19 20. They â—ould not have praied importunately unlesse they had known how it had stood with Paul so unlesse thou know thy misery thou canst not be â—mportunate If a Drunkard or Whoremaster or Sabbath-breaker or Swearer c. knew that they should be damned they would get out of their sins Secondly You must be sensible of your misery Simon Magus knew his miserie yet because he was not sensible of it he sayes Pray ye to the Lord for me Acts 8. 24. If he had been sensible he would himselfe have fallen down before the congregation and he would have confessed how he had committed that sin in a more apprehensive manner Thirdly Observe the praiers of Gods people as here the disciples of Christ did they hearing Christ pray say unto him Master teach us to pray they were so affected with Christs prayer that they said Oh that we could pray thus Oh that we had such a spirit Master teach us to pray So I say consider Gods people how they pray they can pray as if they would soâ—re up to God in supplication they pray as if they world read the heavens If men did but consider this it would quicken them Fourthly Get a stock of prayer That man must needs be rich that hath a rock in every market So if a man have a stock of prayer it is a signe he is â—ke to speed as 1. Cor. 4. 2. If God did lend his ears to the Corinthian when they were crying for Paul then certainly Pauls prayers were importunate Fifthly If thou wilt be importunate labour to be full of good works Qui benè operatur benè erat as Acts 10. Cornelius his alms and prayers were come up to God now if he had committed drunkennesse that had ome up to God with his prayer therefore was it happy for Cornelius tâ—at he was full of good works so thou canst not be importunate unlesse thâ—u be full of good works take heed that swearing and lying c. crie no louder in Gods ears then thy prayers Sixthly If thou wilt be importunate in prayer labour to reform thy â—oushold When Jacob was to call on God he said to his houshold Put away your strange gods Gen. 35. THE SOVERAIGNE VERTUE OF THE GOSPEL In a SERMON By that laborious and faithful Messenger of CHRIST WILLIAM FENNER Sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Minister of Rochford in Essex London Printed by E. T. for John Stafford THE SOVERAIGNE VERTUE OF THE GOSPEL PSAL. 147. 3. He healeth them that are broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds HEre are two things contained in this Text the Patients and the Physitian First the Patients the broken in heart Secondly the Physitian Christ it is he that healeth and bindeth up their wounds The Patients here are felt and discerned to have two wounds or maladies First brokenness in heart Secondly woundednesse He binds up such Brokennesse of heart presupposeth wholenesse of heart Wholenesse of heart is twofold either wholeness of heart in sin or wholenesse of heart from sin First wholenesse of heart from sin is when the heart it without sin and so the blessed Angels have whole hearts and so Adam and Eve and we in them before the fall had whole hearts Secondly wholenesse of heart in sin so the devils have whole hearts and all men since the fall from their conception til their conversion have whole hearts and these are they that our Saviour intends The whole need not a physitian but they that are sick The hearts that are whole need not the physitian but they that are broken and sick Sinne is in the godly and they are sick of it even as when poyson is in a man it makes him sick why because the poyson is contrary unto him But sinne is in the wicked and they are not sick of it as poyson is in a toad and the toad is not sick because a toad is of that nature which the poyson is and therefore he needs not a Physitian Will a Physitian go to cure a Toad surely no he will rather kill it he will not cure it So as long as a man is not sick at the heart of his sin Christ will rather kill him than cure him When a man sayes he is sick and yet can sleep eat drink and work and look as well as ever he did feels no pain nor any thing to trouble him what need hath this man of a Physitian So when a man lives in sin yet never breaks his sleep for it but minds his pleasures his
profits hath never the more pain nor anguish in his soul he is soule-whole and heart-whole what need hath he of a Physitian This is a man whole in his sins The wholenesse of the heart is called fallow ground Jerem. 4. 4. for it is like an unbroken field not tilled nor manured there can be no harvest because the ground doth lie fallow so there can be no harvest of grace in that man whose heart is fallow and unbroken and therefore to repent and to break the heart in Scripture is called the putting of ones hand to the plough Luke 9. 62. to plough up the fallow ground of the heart Brokennesse of heart may be considered two wayes First in relation to wholenesse of heart in sin so brokennesse of heart is not a maladie but an inchoative cure of a desperate maladie Secondly in relation to wholenesse of heart from sinne and so it is a maladie or sicknesse and yet peculiar to one blood alone namely Gods elect for though the heart be whole yet it is broken for its sinnes as a man that hath a barbed arrow shot into his side and the arrow is pluckt out of the flesh yet the wound is not presently healed so sinne may be pluckt out of the heart but the scar that was made with plucking it out is not yet cured The wounds that are yet under cure are the plaugues and troubles of conscience the sighs and groanes of a hungring soule after grace the stinging poyson that the blow hath left behind it these are the wounds Now the heart is broken three wayes First By the Law as it breakes the heart of a Thief to heare the sentence of the Law that he must be hanged for his robbery so it breakes the heart of the soule sensible to understand the sentence of the Law Thou shalt not sin if thou do thou shalt be damned If ever the heart come to be sensible of this sentence Thou art a damned man it is impossible to stand out under it but it must break Is not my word a hammer that breaks the rocks in pieces Jer. 23. 29. that is Is not my word my Law a hammer Can any rock heart hold out and not be broken with the blowes of it Indeed thus far a man may be broken and yet be a reprobate for they shall be all thus broken in hell and therefore this breaking is not enough Secondly by the Gospel for if ever the heart come to be sensible of its blow it will break all to shatters Rent your hearts for the Lord is gracious c. Joel 2. 12. When all the shakes of Gods mercy come they all cry rent Indeed the heart cannot stand out aginst them if it once feel them Beat thy soul upon the Gospel if any way under heaven can break it this is the way Aristotle observes that a hammer may easily break a hard stone against a soft bed but if it be laid on an anvil which will not give way underneath strike it as hard as you will with the hammer on the top the anvil underneath props it from breaking or if it do break it will not break into shatters for the anvil below helps the stone to hang fast together but if you smite it against a soft bed it breaks it all to shatters So smite thy soul upon the Gospel preach the law as much as as you will preach hell and damnation as much as you will let that be the hammer but then be sure lay thy soul on the Gospel drive it to the Gospel smite against this soft bed and then if ever it will break If you strike a stone against a hard anvil though the parts thereof would fall asunder yet how can they flie off when as the hard anvil will not give way the hard anvil on the one side and the hard hammer on the other side stop up its way from falling asunder So strike the soul with the blows of Gods wrath as much as you will and let it be upon the Law alas whither should the Law open it self that it might break the Law doth but fear it on the one side and the wrath of God doth terrifie it on the other yet all this while it is not broken the soule all this while knows not what it shall doe but smite it on the Gospel and this with the Law rents it and breaks it indeed So Joel he preached hell and damnation to the people of the Jews and laid their hearts upon mercie and then the hammer crie rent for he is merciful c. he laid them on the soft bed of the Gospel and then he smites them Thirdly the heart is broken by the skill of the Minister in the handling of these two the Law and the Gospel God furnisheth him with skill to presse the Law home and gives him understanding how to put to the Gospel and by this means doth God break up the heart For alas though the Law be never so good a hammer and although the Gospel be never so soft a bed yet if the Minister lay not the soul upon it the heart will not break he must fetch a full stroke with the Law and he must set the full power of the Gospel at the back of the soul or else the heart will not break It is a pretty observation of Aristotle Lay saith he an axe upon a block and a great and mighty weight upon it yet it will not enter into the block to cleave it but if you lift up the axe and fetch a full blow at the block then it enters presently So if the Minister have not skil to fetch a dead blow at the heart alas he may be long enough ere he break it but let him fetch a full blow at the soule then doth he break it if ever I took unto me two staves saith the Prophet the one I called beauty the other I called bands and with these I â—ed the flock Zach. 11. 7. There is the course of a true feeder of the flock he feeds them with the Law and the Gospel he takes his two staves and he layes about him till the hearts of his hearers feel him and this is the way to feed them and to breake them off from their sins Thus you see the meanes that God useth to breâ—k your hearts He healeth the broken in heart Hence observe That Christ justifies and sanctifies For that is the meaning First because God hath given Christ grace to practise for the sakes of the broken in heart and therefore if this be his grace to heal the broken-hearted certainly he will heal them The spirit of the Lord is upon me c. He hath sent me to heal the broken in heart c. Luke 4. 18. If he be created master of this art even for this purpose to heal the broken in heart he will verily heal them and none but them He is not like Hosander and Hippocrates whose father appointed them both to be Physitians he
Thus you see that the Saints of God are marvellous importunate to keepe God in his ordinances Quest But may not a man be saved without preaching Answ I answer the argument is clear the Saints maintain God in his ordinances the want of which is under the penalty of death and damnation because we have more need of God in his ordinances than of all the gold in the world for all the gold in the world will not satisfy a hungry man It is bread that he must have because he hath need of it so the Saints have most need of God and of Christ for though they have but ragged coats and their bodies pincht with hunger yet God is he that they stand most in need of In Psalme the 73. and the 25. verse David fretted at the prosperity of the wicked but at the last he breaks off kindly saying whom have I Heaven but thee As if he should have said let them have what they will I will have nothing but thâ—e And why so why thou art my strength and my portion for ever mark he saith that God is his strength yea the strength of his heart hereby shewing that all the helps in the word cannot help the heart of man if God and Christ bee wanting you were as good offer a journey to refresh a weary man or the ayre to feed a hungry man as to offer riches honours and ease to help a distressed soul These will never help a man he may well dote upon them but his soule and conscience will be galled and troubled still it must be the God of peace that must speak peace to troubled soules It must be the God of peace that must speak peace to a distressed soul to a soule that is damned in it selfe it is he that must say I will be the strength of their hearts and their portion for ever no marvel then if a poor soul cryes to God when happily the heart is full when the soul gnaws and cries within it selfe I am damned I am damned happily the palate is pleased with delicates when the poor soul for ought it knows must goe down to hell oh then beloved if you will have safety goe where God is for every good gift comes in with him if once a man hath got God into his company he hath all good things with him God blessed Obed Edoms house for the Arks sake now the Arke was a type of Christ and where it came many blessings came with it even so when God comes unto a people they are married unto him in righteousnesse in judgement in loving kindnesse and in mercies for ever Hosea 2. 9. When a man is married to a wife all is his so get Christ and all is thine and then what wouldst thou have more God speaks to the raine and it heares God speaks to the corne and it heares but if thou be in Christ hell and death are thy servants but they that have outward things only as profits pleasures or the like they have their ruine unlesse they have Christ with them get Christ therefore for if he be wanting all outward and inward dangers befall that man or that Nation woe be unto him or them that are without God For though they bring up their children yet will I bereave them that there shall not be a man left yea woe also to them when I do depart from them Ephraim as Tyrus is planted in a pleasant place but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer Hosea 9. 12. 13. True indeed woe be unto that heart County or Kingdome that God is departed from when God who is the God of mercies and all consolation is departed away who can but pitty that soule County or Kingdome who will not submit to Gods peace consolation and salvation When God parts all miseries follow for that man that makes no conscience in outfacing God in the congregation mark what the text saith Deut. 28. 15. I will forsake them and many miseries shall overtake them and when the floud-gates are once up then come in all evils And then they shal say are not these things come upon us because God is not with us If therefore we would avoid woe and sorrow slaying and killing one another if the wife would not see her husband killed before her tender eyes and the man see his wife snatcht out of the world by the hands of wicked men then leave not God but hold him fast and then evil dayes will depart from us It is our holding of God that keeps miseries from us oh then what shall we think of them that are weary of God and that say to the Almighty Depart from us Job 22. 17. Ob. But are there any amongst us that are weary of God I hope there are none such amongst us I answer Thou art a servant and rejectest the Command of thy Master in it thou doest reject God and all such as have a mean conceit of the worship of God and the word of God and think that prayer or preaching is continued too long I say these men know not what they think or say but certainly it is because they would be freed from the Ordinances of God well God will free thee from them one day I will warrant thee and then thou wilt be in a miserable condition oh that thou wouldest pitty thy poor condition but thou art weary of Gods ordinances and of his mercies his presence and patience know thou that thou shalt be deprived of Gods goodnesse and thy portion shall be with those that hate God in this life here and after this life if thou repent not thy portion shall be with them in Tophet where the worm dyeth not and where the fire goeth not out and then crying will not availe God will be God over thee in destruction yea when he hath spurned thousands and ten thousands into hell such as thou art then shalt thou be the everlasting object of his never dying wrath then notwithstanding all thy shrill cries though thou couldest be heard out of that dungeon yet were thy help never the near for God is God still I advise thee therefore what to do whilst thou art here in this life make thy peace with God in Christ and lay thy self low before him and beare patiently his hand in his wrath which thou hast deserved And mark what I say thou hast deserved to be in hell an hundred times that is the least and therefore be contented with thy condition for thou hast chosen death rather than life and God should wrong himself and thee also if he should not let thee have thy choosing Will not these things move you my brethren Me thinks I see your colours rise I am glad of it I hope it is to a good end you may be wise and happily so wise as to choose life rather than death Now the Lord grant it for he delights not in your destruction I wâ—â—â—dde one word more to leave the more impression in your
thou dost every day draw neerer to God than other is it more and more a back'd praier a fervent and frequent praier hast thou taken from thy recreations from thy calling to give to it yea from thy belly and back and used all meanes for a prevailing with God then are thy praiers effectuall and unsatiable This then condemnes the praiers of most men in the world they pray and pray for grace and their praiers come to an end and cease before they have it the angry fretful man praies for patience and meekness and yet sits down without it the covetous worldling praies to be weaned from the world and his praiers are done before he is so so the luke-warmling deadhearted and vain thoughted professor praye for better thoughts for more zeale and yet comes to his so be it before he have it and so every wicked man prayes and he is come to his Amen before the grace is given let all suchmen know that such prayers first they are endlesse secondly they are fruitlesse First they are endlesse The Philosopher said that for which a thing is that is the end of the thing now prayer is for the speeding with God and therefore he whose prayers speed not with God his prayers are endlesse thou hast prayed against thy pride but aâ—t as proud still thou hast prayed against thy choler and art as teachy still thou hast prayed against earthlinesse and worldlinesse and art earthly and worldly still thou hast prayed against security and deadnesse of heart and lukewarmnesse in Gods service and art luke warm deadhearted and secure still to what end are all thy prayers when thou enjoyest not the end of thy prayers to what end is the worke of thy servant if thy businesse be not done and dispatched when all is done As good never pray as pray to no end a good that thou never hadst begun to pray as to cease and to giue over thy prayers before thou hast obtained the grace thou prayest for The prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15. 8. that is the prayers of a wicked man that continues in his wickednesse when his prayers are done hi prayers are an abomination to the Lord but the prayers of the upright though he were before he prayed never so wicked yet if it be the prayer of an upright and godly man when his prayers are done that his prayers rid him of his sin and make him an upright man his prayers are Gods delight Beloved many pray against distrust in Gods providence Infidelity in Gods promises Impatiency under Gods corrections c. and yet have never the more trust and affiance in God never the more patience under the hand of God all these praiers are endlesse Secondly thy praiers are fruitlesse to what purpose is a beggers begging of an alms if he be gone before the alms be bestowed his begging is fruitlesse so all thy praiers are lost if thou art gone from the Throne of grace before grace is given thee for if such a praier be endlesse then is it also fruitlesse it will never do thee any good what is a fruitlesse tree good for but to be cut down what is a fruitlesse Vine good for but to be burned So all thy praiers are lost all thy beginnings of grace are lost we know saith the man that was borne blind John 9. that God heareth not sinners we know it Why may some say how do you know that God heares not sinners why we know it by experience by examples A drunkard prayeth to God to cure him of his drunkennesse and yet he doth not leave his ill company all the world may see that God hears not the drunkards praier because he cures him not but lets him go on in his sinne and so for all other sinnes seest thou a man go on in his sins thou mayest see that God heareth not his praiers If a man should be sick on his death bed and send for the Physirians and Apothecaries in the Country and send for his father Mother and for all his friends to come to him to minister unto him yet I know he is not cured by them so long as I see his deadly disease remaines upon him so if I see a mans pride hypocrisie security deadnesse of heart his lust anger c. lie upon him notwithstanding all his prayers I know God heares not his prayers he prayes to be cleansed from his sins and to be purged from his lusts and to be redeemed from his vaine conversation if now God let his sins continue in him and lets him go on in them we see plainly God hears not him O what a pittiful and miserable case are such men in that pray and pray and yet all their prayers are endlesse and fruitless is not that man in a pittiful case and all physick all cost and charges is lost upon him when his eating and drinking his sleeping and winding and turning from this side to that side do him no good do we not say of him that he is a dead man so if a mans prayers and supplications to God be endlesse and fruitlesse that man must needs be a dead and a damned man so long as he goeth on in that case Now we come to the second part of the text the sensiblenesse of the godly soul whether it speed or no the soule that prayes aright that prays unsatiably it is able to say the Lord doth hear me the Lord doth grant me the thing that I prayed to him for Thus saith Jonah I cried unto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of Hell cryed I and thou heardst my voice Jonah 2. 2. How could Jonah say God heard his voice if he had not known it therefore he knew it But against this some may object How can this be how can the soule know that God hears it we have no Angels nor voices from Heaven now to tell men as the Angel told Cornelius that his prayers were accepted and come up before God or to say as Christ to the woman in the Gospel Be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee I know God heares me with his All-hearing eare and therefore I have a good belief in God but how shall I know that God heares my prayers in mercy so as to grant that I pray for There be six wayes to know whether the soule shall speed in prayer yea or no. The first is the having of a Spirit of further and further praying When God gives the soul a further and further ability to pray when God opens a way for the soule to the Throne of grace and gives him a free accesse to the gate of mercy and a spirit to hold out in prayer It is a signe that God meanes to hear it When a Petitioner hath accesse to the King and presents his Petition If the King imbolden him in his speech and let him speak
all that he would speak it is a signe that the King means to grant that man his petition because otherwise the King would never have endured to have heard him so long but would have commanded him to be gone So it is with the soule at the Throne of grace if it come with a petition and prayer to God if God dispatch the soul out of his presence so that the soul hath no heart to pray nor to continue its suit but prayes deadly and dully and is glad when he hath said his prayers and hath done it is a fearful sign that God never means to heare that mans prayers but if thou prayest and prayest and haâ—t not done in thy prayers but God by casting in a spirit of praier and zeal and fervency in prayer imboldens thy heart in its petition it is a sign that God will hear thee and grant thee thy prayers Blessed be God saith the Prophet that hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me Psal 66. 20. How could the Prophet say that the Lord did not turne away his mercy from him How because he turned not away his prayer from him Many Expositors expound it of not turning away his prayer from his heart as if he should say Lord thou continuest my heart to pray thou hast not taken away my prayer from my heart therefore I know that thou continuest thy mercy unto me Secondly the preparednesse of the heart to pray is a sign that God means to hear When the Merchant stretcheth his bagge wider and wider it is a signe that he means to put something in it so when God opens the heart of a poor soul it is a signe that he means to fill it when God prepares the soule with more hunger and thirst after grace with more longings and breathings it is a sign that God hath already prepared his eare to hear that prayer it is a signe that heart shall speed with God in prayer Psal 10. 17. Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble thou wilt prepare their heart thou wilt cause thine eare to heare First God prepares the heart to pray and then he bows his eare to hear Examine thy soul then art thou more and more prepared to pray hath God spoken with a powerfull voice to thy soul to open it selfe wide it is a signe that God meanes to fill thy soul with his graces But if thou canst rush into Gods presence and leave thy preparednesse behind thee leavest thy soul and thy thoughts and thy affections behind thee and comest with a straightned heart in thy deadnesse and luke warmnesse this is a fearefull signe that God will not heare thee Thirdly Gods gracious looke is a signe that he will hear thee for sometimes beloved God answers his people by a cast of his countenance with a gratious smile of his face Psal 22. 24. He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted neither hath he hid his face from him but when he cryed unto him he heard Hereby was the Prophet able to know that God did hear his prayer because he did not hide his face from him when his poor soule saw God smile on him and set a favourable eye upon him this made him say that God heard his cry This is a riddle to the world If you should ask the men of the world what the meaning of Gods gratious countenance is or what they see of it alas they can say nothing of it they know not what it means onely the godly man understandeth Psal 34. 15. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his eares are open unto their cry These two go together their prayers enter in Gods eares and they know it why because they see it in his countenance upon them as a Petitioner may read his speeding with the King by his countenance towards him so a poor soul may see how prayers prevaile by Gods countenance and look upon him If thou then art a stranger to Gods countenance if God never admitted thee into his presence to see his face and countenance it is a signe that God little regards thy prayers and hath no mind to hear thee A wicked man is like a varlet that stands without dores and begges an almes but is not suffered to go into the Gentlemans presence and therefore knowes not how he speeds whether the Gentleman will give him an almes or whether he be providing a cudgell to beat him away so a wicked man prayes and puts up his petitions to God but he is not able to come before God he cannot see whether God look as if he meant to hear his prayers yea or no he knows not but that God may be providing a curse and plague for him in stead of a blessing But a child of God comes within the list of Gods countenance he can tell when God smiles on him and when he takes another looke he is able to come into Gods presence Job 13. 16. He also saith Job shall be my salvation for an hypocrite shall not come before him A strange verse Job saith God is his salvation and he gives this reason why he was able to say so for an hypocrite shall not come before him One would think that this were no reason but yet it is an undeniable reason as if Job had said I come into his presence and he lookes like a Saviour a Redeemer upon me but an hypocrite shall not come before him he stands like a rogue and begs without the gate Indeed a wicked man comes into Gods presence in regard of Gods Omnipresence but this is not enough thy Oxe and thine Asse stands in Gods presence yea so the very Devils themselves are in Gods presence But if thou come not into Gods presence of grace if God do not admit thy soule into the list of his Throne it is a sign that God hears thee not Men should therefore examine their consciences what face or presence of God they come into or see when they pray in their prayers whether they come before God yea or no. Beloved no wicked man under heaven can come before God this is made the marke of a godly man onely Psal 140. 13. The upright shall dwell in thy presence mark here dwelling in Gods presence is onely determined to the righteous the upright shall dwell in thy presence And here I appeale againe to the hearts and consciences of wicked men what presence of God doe they find in their prayers they see their Pews and the walls or hangings c. before them they see the heavens and the clouds above them they know nothing within dores Do they see Gods presence and countenance no it is the upright man onely that dwells in Gods presence He sees how God lookes on him how his face smiles on him and therefore it is not a wicked mans coming to Church and falling on his knees and uttering the words of prayer that is a coming into Gods presence then this
thou dost not beleeve that God will hear thee if thou dost not believe that thou shalt prevaile that God will deliver thee out of these corruptions and that lust that thou praiest against that God will give thee this grace oâ— that grace if thou dost not beleeve that God will own thee if thou hast these doubtfull discouragements O he will not grant me I shall never get this or that how canst thou call on him thou mayest call so and so but never canst thou call to any purpose if thou dost not beleeve in him A begger though he be never so well able to begge yet if when he comes to the House-keepers dore he be perswaded that he shall not speed that let him beg as long as he will he shall get nothing this blunts his begging and makes him give over his suit without any great importunity So it is impossible that ever a soul should hold out and pray that is discouraged in prayer Secondly thou canst not pray unlesse thou use all thy strength in prayer If thou bee discouraged thou canst not use thy strength A discouraged man his strength melts into feare and whatsoever strength he hath he cannot put it forth How came Jacob to prevaile and to have power with God Why he used all his strength with God and so prevailed Hosea 12. 3. Thou canst never prevaile with God by thy prayers unlesse thou putrest forth all thy strength in prayer If Jacob had reasoned I am but dust and ashes how can I strive with God I am sinfull and evill how can I contend with my Maker and so have been discouraged in his wrastling he could not have used all his strength with God and so had never prevailed with God No Jacob he gathers all the arguments that he could make he gathers together all the promises he could finde in Gods Book or that he could heare of he displaies all the wants that he could shew he petitions all the graces that he could name he used all his strength and by his strength he had power with God If thy confession of thy sins be strengthlesse if thy petitions and thankesgiving for grace be strengthlesse if thou use not all thy strength in prayer thou canst never prevaile nor have any power with God For how can that man prevail and have power with God that hath no power with himselfe Thirdly thou canst never pray and have a fearfull apprehension of evill in prayer thou canst not It is good to have a deep apprehension of thy sinnes apprehend them to be as many hells as thou eanst thou canst never apprehend them deeply enough but if thou hast a fearfull apprehension of them thou canst never pray When the Apostle would exhort the Philippians to continue in one Spirit and in one minde fighting together through the faith of the Gospell he exhorts them that in nothing they fear Phil. 1. 27 28. For if a man be terrified with his adversary with the power of his adversay and fears he shall never be able to withstand him but must fall before him through his subtilty that he can never be wary enough for him Alas he can never strive with hope and courage against him So beloved if we have a fearfull and discouraged kind of apprehension of evill we can never pray so as to prevail Apprehend thy sinnes to be as hellish and as damnable as thou canst Feele even the fire of hell in every one of them but take heed of a fearfull apprehension of them so to apprehend the evill of them as to thinke with thy selfe that because thou art guilty of these and these sinnes that thou shalt never get in with God again God will never be reconciled to thee these will eate out thine heart in prayer Fourthly we can never pray if we have any secret despair that there is any difficulty too hard for us to grapple withall or to get through in our prayers Howsoever a man praies yet if he have any spice of these fears in him to think now I have taken a great deale of paines but am never the better I have prayed and prayed but have got no good I may goe on and doe thus and thus but shall never prevail or speed all my labours all my prayers and indeavours will be lost this takes away the very spirit and life of a mans prayers Judas after he had betrayed the Lord Jesus he was discouraged from ever praying for mercy Why because he thought it was impossible for him to get it I have betrayed innocent blood saith he Matth. 27 3. as if he should say I shal never outwrastle this sin this sin is my death I have brought the blood of the Son of God on me I shall never claw off this sin now Judas thus despayring we never read one letter of any prayer that he made to God to get out of it no he thought it too hard for him to get mercy Despaire drives a man from that he did hope for because now he thinks there is an impossibility in getting of it Beloved mistake me not there is a double desperation First there is a desperation of infidelity and that deads and drawes the soule from God Secondly there is a desperation of extremity And if ever you mean to come to God and to get any grace from God you must come with desperation of extremity this desperation puts life into a mans prayers and indeavours As a Souldier when he seeth nothing but to kill or be killed that he sees his state desperate why this will compell a very coward to fight this will make a coward fight as if he would kill the Devil saith the Proverb it will make him fight like a spirit he will be afraid of nothing Take a Souldier that fights desperately for his life with a kill or be killed he feares nothing neither Pike nor Sword nor Gun why he fights for his life Therefore one notes that sometimes it is the nearest way to victory to be desperate in attempts and in fight Therefore when William the Conquerour came first into England at Hastings he sent back his Ships again that so the Souldiers might have no hope of saving themselves by flying back And so at Battle at one encounter a little Army of the English slew a great Army of the French Why they grew desperate So could men pray desperately could they pray with a pray or be damned begge with a begge or be damned seek to God for grace that you want with a speed or be damned then would their prayers be more earnest and powerfull to get grace O did men pray thus they would pray otherwise then they doe Men pray but they pray deadly coldly and lazily as if they had no need of prayer or as if they had no need of the grace they pray for they pray for grace but get it not they pray for zeale but have it not for repentance and holinesse but obtaine it not Beloved either
get zeale and holinesse or else there is no mercy either get grace and repentance or else there is no mercy for thee Pray then when thou prayest for grace with a speed or be damned say unto thy soul either we must speed and get grace Soule or else we must goe to hell If men would pray thus with a speed or be damned we should never see nor God should never heare so many cold and dead prayers as now we pray Despaire makes a man a Munke saith the Papist but this despaire makes a man a good Christian I say never doth a man pray indeed till he feels himself in extremity hopelesse and desperate in regard of himselfe so that he seeth no remedie at all but get Christ get grace or be damned for ever Get power and strength over these corruptions otherwise they will destroy and damne thee this would make a man pray for life Men pray coldly and faintly why because though they see they have no grace no zeale no holinesse no repentance no evidence of Christ yet they hope to be saved notwithstanding O beloved the divell hath blinded these men to the intent they may be damned But if men would pray desperate prayers with a pray or be damned seek with a find or be damned men would then pray other prayers than they doe Such prayers did David pray Psal 130. 1. Out of the deep places have I called unto thee O Lord Lord heare my prayer as if he should say Lord I am even in the depth of misery plunged over head and eares so that now I sinke and perish if thou help net Lord hear my prayer This desperation a Christian must have this quickens up his Spirits and puts life into him but take heed of the desperation of Infidelity Saint Austin saith it is the murtherer of the soule the spice of it will eate out the heart of a man and kill the strength of all his endeavours I should now come to apply this Doctrine but I feare me there be many amongst us that never come so farre towards Heaven as to know what these discouragements meane This is lamentable It is true discouragements are hideous cases in prayer and a man may perish and goe to hell that hath them but yet they are somewhat profitable signes that a man doth at the least look a little towards God or else he could not know what they are But there are abundance that never have attained so farre in religion as to understand what they meane but goe on in drinking whoring carding and dicing hating and malicing fretting and chafing mocking and coveting swearing and blaspheming in security in heardnesse of heart and impenitency they are more carefull for their doggs for their potts and for their tables and for their shops than they are of their souls And which is enough to astonish any that is godly these men scarce find any discouragements in prayer O they have a good courage to pray at all tims O say they God forbid that any man should be discouraged in praier I thank God I have a good hope in God God hath given me a good heart of grace to call upon him and I make no question but that God heares me God would never bid us to pray if he did not mean to hear us Beloved these men that are so bold in the goodness of their hearts to call upon God they never as yet prayed in all their lives all the prayers of the wicked are indeed no prayers Daniel confessing the sinnes of wicked Judah saith Though all this evill be come upon us yet made we not our prayer to turne from our wicked ways Dan. 9. 13. all the time of those seventy yeares Daniel saith they never made prayer to God yet they fasted every year and prayed every day twise every day at the least which would amount in that time to 50000 and 100 prayers how then could Daniel say they never made one prayer I answer and pray mark it because they never did quite turn from their evill wayes Though thou makest never so many prayers though thou boastest of the goodnesse of thy condition and snatchest at the Promises of God yet if thou turnest not from thine iniquities thou never as yet mad'st any prayer by the Judgement of God himself Paul made many thousand prayers before his conversion he could not have been a Pharisee else but they were never accounted prayers to him therefore as soon as ever he was converted behold saith God he prayeth Acts 9. A wicked man a carnall Christian though he have the righteousness of Saint Paul before his conversion of living blamelesse unreproveable in respect of the outward righteousnesse of the Law yet he can never make an acceptable prayer till he be truely converted his prayers are no better than howling of dogs or lowing of Oxen yea the Lord abhorrs them O what poor incouragements canst thou have seeing the Lord never tallies down any of thy prayers wicked men are like Ulysses who wept more for the death of his dogge than of his wife so wicked men weep and mourne for the losse of their corn and their cattle hawkes and hounds cardes and dice but never for the losse of their praiers So long as thou continuest in thy prophanenesse and impenitency thou losest all thy praiers there is not one of them that God tallies down or reckons for a praier Here we minht have a great deale of matter if time would suffer me But it will not onely let me tell you I speak onely to those whose hearts God hath awakened out of their sins but who are oft discouraged take heed of these discouragements For first they will drive thee to melancholy Beloved there are a great many melancholy men in the world and this is the cause of it men are contented to be converted by halves because they are discouraged in the worke If thou suffer thy selfe to be discouraged it will eaâ—e up thy spirit and thou wilt be like a silly dove without a heart Hosea 7. 11. A dove is a melancholy creature that hath no heart to any thing so Epharaim hath no heart to call upon God no heart to returne unto God and this is the cause that men and women goe whineing and mourning under the burden of sin and are not able to come out because of discouragements all the policy of hell is lesse than this policy of the divell in driving men to despair or discouragements this doth more hurt than all the rest of hell besides Secondly if you do not take heed of them they will bring you to speake against God I have prayed but the Lord will not heare me I have called and the Lord will not answer but hath turned away his eares from me Now thou speakest against God Num. 21. 4. 5. The soule of the people was much discouraged and the people spake against God and against Moses saying Wherefore have you brought us out of Egypt to die in
were but now you cannot help it these things and times are gone and cannot be recalled such a one hath been a drunkard a swearer a worldling c. but he cannot help it now True he might have helped it and because he did not his heart shall bleed for it if he belong to God but doe not stand poaring too much upon it but consider now what you have to doe now you are to humble your selves now you are to strive with God in all manner of prayer for more grace and more power of obedience and assurance and be not discouraged Fourthly If the soule be discouraged it will breed nothing but sorrow What is the reason that many Christians are alwayes weeping and mourning and sighing and sobbing from day to day all their life time and will not be comforted because of these discouragements 1 Thes 4. 13. Sorrow not saith the Apostle as those that have no hope as if he had said sorrow if you will but do not sorrow as they that have â—o hope How is that it is a sorrow with nothing but sorrow from which they have no hope of inlargement or freedome O then my brethren suppose you have dead hearts suppose you want zeale you want assurance suppose it be so yet labour to attain these grace sorrow and spare not weepe and mourne and powre out whole buckets of teares for your sinnes if you can but sorrow not with nothing but sorrow be not discouraged suppose that thou hast a dead heart that thou art an hypocrite that thou hast a rotten heart it is a heavy thing and a fearful case indeed for which thou hast great cause of humiliation and sorrow but yet sorrow not desperately as men without hope be not wholly discouraged but as you sorrow for your sinnes so also labour with incouragement to get cut and be rid of your sinnes Fifthly Discouragements breed and procure a totall perplexity They leave the soul in a maze that it knows not whither to turne it self When men come to be discouraged O what shall I do saith one I am utterly undone saith another I know not what will become of me saith a third Oh I am utterly lost I shall perish one day one day God will discover me and be avenged on me for this and that sin I were as good go to he lat the first as at the last for that will be the end of me I have gone to prayer but that doth not helpe me I have gone to Sacraments but I find no help still my soule lies under the power of sinne still my sinnes are as strong in me as ever Thus the soule is discouraged and cries out Oh what shall I doe I know not what to doe What shall I doe sayest thou Alas thou hast things enough to doe if thou wert not discouraged Utterly undone No man thou mightest see that thou art not utterly undone but that thou art discouraged Dost thou not know what will be come of thee yea poore soule there is mercy grace and peace for thee if thou wilt not be discouraged Sixthly Discouragements whisper within a man a sentence of death and an impossibility of escaping As far as the discouragement of life goeth so far goeth the sentence of death We despaired of life and had the sentence of death in our selves saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 1. 8. 9. he despaired of life in himselfe and therfore had the sentence of death in himself this was good but he did not despaire of life in God for then he should have had likewise the sentence of death from God in his conscience If you despaire in the Lord you have the sentence of death and damnation from God in your conscience take heed of this my beloved be not discouraged in God do not despaire in the Lord that will work a miserable effect in your souls it will secretly whisper a sentence of damnation in your soules It is strange to consider how many poore soules rub on with these whispering sentences in their bosomes suffering their consciences day by day to tell them that they are rotten to tell them that they were never yet converted to tell them that they are yet in the state of damnation and yet they will not root out these discouragements O goe to the Throne of grace begge for grace and for mercie and for power against sinne and bee not discouraged What wilt thou carry thine owne sentence of death in thy breast if thou wilt not rouze up thy soule and pray with more affection and confidence and shake off discouragements take heed least thou carry the sentence of thine owne death and damnation in thy bowels Oh therefore once more let mee beseech you to take heede of these discouragements and now hearken unto the voice of God which calleth upon you Feare not Thou drewest nigh in the day that I called upon thee Thou saidest Feare not THE MISERY OF THE CREATURES BY The Sinne of Man In a SERMON By WILLIAM FENNER Minister of the Gospel sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Lecturer of Rochford in Essex London Printed by E. T. for John Stafford They are accusing groanes They are judging and condemning groanes First they are upbraiding groanes Give ears Oh ye heavens and I will speak and hear Oh earth the words of my lips Deut. 32. 1. as if God had said mark O ye heavens and let all the whole world hear what I testify against this people as if the heavens and the earth did upbraid them of their unthankfulnesse God commands the Sun to shine and it shineth the earth to fructify and it obeyeth But this wicked people he commands to repent and forsake their sins and they will not Chrysostome saith wicked men although they have naturall reason in them are more senceless than sencelesse creatures the rocks and the flints the flye and the gnats may upbraid them the rocks rent in sunder but this people will not rent their hearts swarmes of flies were hiss'd for to come and they yielded obedience and the livelesse creatures groan under the slavery of sin but they will not obey they will not be brought to groan for their sins How do all the creatures upbraid man Do ye thus requite the Lord O ye foolish people and unwise Beloved how do the heavens and the earth upbraide thee for unthankfulnesse wert thou ever in sickness and God did not deliver thee wert thou ever in misery and God did not comfort thee wert thou ever in any straight and God did not direct thee in sickness who was life unto thee in poverty who supplyed thee in danger who delivered thee was it noâ— God that hath done all for thee And shall the Lord command thee obedience and wilt thou not grant it him doth he command thee to part with thy lust and crucify all thy corruptions and wilt thou not obey him doth the Lord command thee to be meek humble patient and dost thou refuse then hear O heavens
contented that God should doe with thee what he will and submit thy selfe to God in the hardest blows and say Good Lord if thou seest no remedy to purge this land and Church but by desolation and the removing of the Gospell good Lord doe what thou wilt if thou wilt have my liberty take it if thou wilt have my children spoiled by the enemy and pitched upon speares points doe it Lord if there be no remedy to purge a sinfull land but by taking the Gospell out of it even I Lord submit my selfe unto it good Lord sacrifice us or burne our Cities doe what thou wilt with us onely save our soules at the last I have knowne some could have no quietnesse at all till they came to this pitch and then they had peace in their minds When Isaac saw that he was to be bound then he yeelded to it and our Lord Christ did this in the garden when he did bear the wrath of God then he said if it be possible let this cuppe passe from me and this he did three times yet not my will but thy will be done if thou wilt have me to drinke of the cuppe I will suck off the dregges and all Also come and lay thy head upon the block and let God doe what he will with thee Ezek. 20. 43. They shall loath themselves for all their abominations and this is the practise of an humble soule and this will bear through all Thirdly pray and cry mightily to God before thou dyest even all the time thou hast to live for mercie and for the peace of the Church of God and for the poor people and posterity Esay 62. 16. I have set watchmen upon the walles of Hirusālem that never hold their peace day nor night You that make profession of the Lord keep not silence let not God rest till he helpe and shew mercy unto our poore land wives and children I am perswaded if dumbe Zachary were here he would open his mouth to pray and crie for this miserable land But alas poor soules many of you are so bound in the chaines of your sinnes that you cannot finde any leisure to pray you save your prayers and teares till you come to hell and then they will doe you no good Oh thy Mother lies a dying and wilt thou not mourne for her O dead and drie-hearted wretches me thinkes the poor Church of England is like the shippe of Jonas and he fast asleep in it the Gospell and all are drawing into a sea of troubles and thou poor wretch art asleepe and canst not pray The Church is like a sick man upon his bed and the Parliament is like a Colledge full of Physitians they cast the state of the Kingdome and then give it over for lost The Lord knows how soon the bell may ring out and yet thou canst not pray nor weep Ah the Lord be mercifull to the hardnesse of our hearts Hast thou but one rear in thine eyes but one prayer in thy heart then spend them now for the poore Church of God Make all sound within and get sound faith in the bloud of Jesus Christ that may support and hold you up as the Ark did Noah in the floud O my dear people of this Parish a fearefull floud is come upon this land therefore make you an Arke of Gopher and pitch it within and without get in it hang not about it but get into your Lord Christ and shut up your selves in him as Noah did in the Arke and never come out This is your safegard if you be in him you shall be supported against all troubles and so shall the case go well with you For as the Prophet said to Ahab High thee hence for here is a sound of much rain and there came a shour indeed So say I high you away to Christ for it may be you shall not hear many Sermons more there is a sound of many punishments and stormes falling downe upon us O thrice happy are we that have Christ upon good termes and good grounds if a floud come it doth me good to see how safe I am for the higher troubles arise the higher the Arke will arise and the higher your faith and comfort will arise and you shall sit like Noah in the Cabin Isai 26. 20. Come my people and enter into the chamber and shut the doores about thee and hide your selves as it were for a little moment untill the indignation be overpast What would Noah have been hired to come out of the Arke no by no meanes nothing would have got him out I may even pitty you my people that have no Faith What will you doe and whither will you flie all you that have not gotten into the Arke and have not made sure worke if the floud should come to morrow you must certainly be drowned If you look to God he is your Enemy if you look within there your consciences dogge you and if thou lookest for comfort to the Minister there is none for thee in all Gods word if thou hang on a Minister he must say as Samuel said to Saul since the Lord hath forsaken thee I can doe thee no good Oh thinke on this and get all thy friends into the Arke with thee as Noah did Let me begge this at your hands get a poor husband into the Ark with thee with thy poor children and shut them all up into the Arke with thee Would it not grieve thee when thou sittest in the Arke to see a poore husband or a child drowning in the floud and going to Hell For the Lords sake O my deere Brethren spare no paines to doe them good Fifthly and lastly get a more strong faith then ordinary deep dangers must have a stronger Faith a man cannot row upon the maine ocean in a paire of scullers but he must have a good ship well ballasted and a good Pilot so doe you think to row upon the maine ocean of Gods wrath in a paire of scullers therefore labour to strengthen your Faith and to get a good ship wel pitcht and ballasted and substantia'l Faith for the wind will trie it whether it be so or not a Summers dublet will not serve the turne in a winters srost so a little strength and comfort will not serve the turne in the storms that are coming on us but we must get winter garments the East wind will try a mans clothes Though a weak Faith may carry thee to Heaven yet not with so much comfort as a stronger especially if it be but a little before the downfall of the Pope for then there will be the greatest combustions that ever was or ever shall be and by all likelihoods the time is now at hand Then thy Faith had need to be greater then ever it was As the Angell said to the Prophet up and eat for thou hast a great journey to goe so say I to thee thou fainting soule make a good meale of Faith strengthen thy Faith upon the
benefit of this duty I have known a man that hath bought a ship fraughted it for a great voyage laid out all his stock upon it gone out to Sea dasht it against a Rock and lost all and come home a begger daies of fasting and praier are as ships that we put all our stock and treasure in mark this if they come home empty again if they bring noe mercies nor blessings with them you are undon you had need to get a breif to be gathered for in the parish and all wil be too little to get you up again when you come to enter into covenant with God will you deal deceitfully what ship-wrack do you hereby make of your consciences have ye abused many heavenly opertunities and will you doe this also all the congregations under heaven will not be able to raise your wants be not deceived saith the Apostle What a man sowes that he shall reape so what you sowe in these duties that and no other fruit you shall reape The second thing is this a word of information to informe us how to fast aright First I will informe you of the reasons of it consider this if your soul be not bettered your family not amended the Countrey not reformed superstition not abated the persecuted Church of Christ not releived I will give you the reason I am afraid the hearts of men are not fitted for this great work I doubt that many of the great men of the Nation doe not sightly understand it Ministers are not rightly qualified for it Congregations are not throughly humbled If you heare that things doe miscarry in the Palatinate that things grow worse and worse that the plague encreaseth then remember there was hypocricy in the duties and so you loose the benefit of this day therefore if hypocrisy takes away the life and benfit of the duty then look well to your selves and look well what you doe this day look well what you goe about that so you may enter upon the duty as you should Consider of it for the Lords sake be true to God and your own hearts you know not the danger of a day of fasting ill spent which that you may avoide I will give you some motives and rules Take this for a motive consider your selves upon your death beds It is a sad thing that I shall tell you is it not fearfull to consider that when you are in great distractions full of various thoughts those things that are brought for Cordialls and comforts to your deserted soules should prove troublesome and heart-breakings unto you A man upon his death-bed sends for a Minister he comes unto him and finds him in sad dist empers crying No God no Christ no mercy no comfort what will become of me I know not what to doe why man what is the matter you that have fasted and prayed and been frequent in these duties you that have kept the sabbath regarded Gods people releived the poor there is no man in the Town can pray like you you can make a praier of two houers long what do you think there is no mercy in God no pitty in Christ Oh saith he this is my bane my fasting and praying is the cause of my woe for I have but mocked God in all this I have seen sad experience upon a poor soules heart of this prayer and fasting rightly observed is a flame of all other duties all other are but one duty but a flame of all duties are in this fire Now when a man shall see the grave open the wife stand weeping the child sighing when his eyes grow dimme his lips pale now for him to say I have had a by-respect in all my duties that I have performed I have been a deceitfull man in my trade c. what tell you me of fasting and duties I have fasted my soule to hell and there I shall feele the sad consequence of my hypocrisie Consider of this ye that will pray and cheat pray and be drunk ye that to morrow will goe to a stage play Is this your fasting and praying when you are in hell then it will come to your minde how you have fasted away your God your Christ how you have sleighted these this will make a man teare his flesh from his bones his should move us to be serious in this duty we are now about Take an other Motive and it is this Bring what ever you will to God and bring not this all is nothing and all the services you can performe without this are nothing if you doe not bring a heart sprinkled with the bloud of Christ a sincere honest heart all else will be but dung bring all parts and duties you cannot so much as pray aright without sincerity doe you remember what Simeon said to his father Jacob pray you let Benjamin goe down no I will not take money and Cammels and what else you will but Benjamin shall not goe but saith he unlesse Benjamin goe I will not because else I shall be taken for a spie Soe when ever thou goest to pray to God be sure thou take Bemjamin with thee thou maist carrie all thy parts and duties unlesse Benjamin goe it will not doe Now by Benjamin I meane sincerity you may spend teares about the duty in hand varnish over the duty as much as you can all the eloquent tongues of greatest Orators will not be heard nay if all the Angels in heaven should bring teares and bloud for our deliverance all this will be nothing unlesse we have an honest sincere heart a faithfull heart in which there is no guile a man that hath an honest heart when he confesseth sin it is with a purpose to leave it he doth not confesse and sin sin and confesse but he is in good earnest which that you may doe take a rule or two First Ye that are come to seek God this day study whether the work of this dayspring from living principles or no. There be painted Flowers doe not smell but take Flowers out of a garden and they smell by reason of their sweet principles so there be painted duties which smell not sweet in the nostrels of God therefore consider are your duties sincere doe they smell have ye not only an artificiall weeping like those women in Jeremy that could weep when they would But doe ye weep from your hearts you know painted food it satisfies not study to find out that your duties come from a living principle and not by art labour to have it spring from the blood of the Covenant and thereupon thou goest to duty I could tell you of many deceits one is in the affections what is Christ come to town miracles wrought well I will goe see it and all this while he hath only a little oyle in the Lamp none in the Vessel Oyle in the Lamp I understand to be some smaller work of Gods spirit some outward principle Oyle in the Vessel I understand to be some inward principle that