seven or eight years last past This being so you must look that your perseverance should be by being preserved from Temptation and must rather examine Whether you have that Grace which will enable you to avoyd Temptations then whether you have Grace enough to overcome them if you rush into them But if God unavoydably cast you upon them keep up your Watch and Prayer and you have no Cause to trouble your self with distrustful fears DOUBT XIII I Am afraid lest I have committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost and then there is no hope of my salvation ANSWER IT seems you know not what the sin against the Holy Ghost is It is this When a man is convinced that Christ and his Disciples did really work those glorious Miracles which are recorded in the Gospel and yet will not Believe that Christ is the Son of God and his Doctrine true though sealed with all those Miracles and other holy and wonderful works of the Spirit but do Blasphemously maintain that they were done by the Power of the Devil This is the sin against the Holy Ghost And dare you say that you are guilty of this If you be then you do not Believe that Christ is the Son of God and the Messiah and his Gospel true And then you will sure oppose him and maintain that he was a Deceiver and that the Devil was the Author of all the Miraculous and Gracious workings of his Spirit Then you will never fear his displeasure nor call him seriously either Lord or Saviour nor tender him any service any more then you do to Mahomet None but Infidels do commit the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Nor but few of them Unbelief is eminently called Sin in the Gospel and that Vnbelief which is maintained by Blaspheming the Glorious Works of the Holy Ghost which Christ and his Disciples through many years time did perform for a Testimony to his Truth that is called singularly The sin against the Holy Ghost You may meet with other Descriptions of this sin which may occasion your terrour but I am fully perswaded that this is the plain Truth DOUBT XIV BVT I greatly fear lest the time of Grace be past and lest I have out sit the day of mercy and now mercy hath wholly forsaken me For I have oft heard Ministers tell me from the Word Now is the Accepted time Now is the day of your visitation To day while it is called to day harden not your hearts lest God swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his Rest But I have stood out long after I have resisted and quenched the Spirit and now it is I fear departed from me ANSWER HEre is sufficient matter for Humiliation but the Doubting ariseth meerly from Ignorance The day of Grace may in two respects be said to be over The first and most properly so called is When God will not Accept of a sinner though he should Repent and Return This is never in this life for certain And he that imagineth any such thing as that it is too late while his soul is in his body to Repent and Accept of Christ and Mercy is meerly ignorant of the Tenour and sense of the Gospel For the New Law of Grace doth limit no time on earth for Gods Accepting of a Returning sinner True Faith and Repentance do as surely save at the last hour of the day as at the first God hath said that whosoever Believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life He hath no where excepted late Believers or Repenters Shew any such Exception if you can 2. The second sense in which it may be said that the day of Grace is over is this When a man hath so long resisted the Spirit that God hath given him over to wilful obstinate Refusals of Mercy and of Christs Government resolving that he will never give him the prevailing Grace of his Spirit Where note 1. That this same man might still have Grace as soon as any other if he were but Willing to Accept Christ and Grace in him 2. That no man can know of himself or any other that God hath thus finally forsaken him For God hath given us no sign to know it by at least who sin not against the Holy Ghost God hath not told us his secret intents concerning such 4. Yet some men have far greater cause to fear it then others especially those men who under the most searching lively Sermons do continue secure and wilful in known wickedness either hating godliness and godly persons and all that do Reprove them or at least being â—â—â—â—pified that they feel no more then a Post the force of Gods terrours or the sweetness of his promises but make a jest of sinning and think the life of godliness a needless thing Especially if they grow old in this course I confess such have great Cause to fear lest they are quite forsaken of God For very few such are ever recovered 5. And therefore it may well be said to all men To day if you will hear his voyce harden not your hearts c. and This is the Acceptable time this is the day of salvation both as this life is called The day of salvation and because no man is certain to live another day that he may Repent nor yet to have Grace to Repent if he Live 6. But what 's all this to you that do Repent Can you have Cause to fear that your day of Grace is over that have Received Grace Why that is as foolish a thing as if a man should come to the Market and buy Corn and when he hath done go home lamenting that the Market was past before he came Or as a man should come and hear the Sermon and when he hath done lament that the Sermon was done before he came If your day of Grace be past tell me and do not wrong God Where had you the Grace of Repentance How came you by that Grace of holy Desâ—res Who made you Willing to have Christ for your Lord and Saviour So that you had rather have him and Gods favour and a Holy heart and life then all the glory of the World How came you to desire that you were such a one as God would have you to be and to desire that all your sins were dead and might never live in you more and that you were able to Love God and Delight in him and please him even in perfection and that you are so troubled that you cannot do it Are these signs that your day of Grace is over Doth Gods Spirit breath out Groans after Christ and Grace within you and yet is the day of Grace over Nay what if you had no Grace Do you not hear God daily offering you Christ and Grace doth he not intreat and Beseech you to be Reconciled unto him 2 Cor. 5.19 20. and would he not compel you to come in Mat. 22. Do you not feel some unquietness in your
Salvation do question whether we may go to the Physician and follow his advice for Health and Life Why then do you that are Believers so much forget the End of your Faith and that for which it is that you Believe Believing in Christ for present Mercies onely be they temporal or spiritual is not the true Believing They are dangerously mistaken that think the thoughts of Heaven to be so accidental to the nature and work of Faith as that they tend onely to our Comfort and are not necessary to Salvation it self It is upon your apprehensions and expectations of that unseen felicity that both your Peace and Safety do depend How contrary therefore is it to the nature of a Believer to forget the Place of his Rest and Consolation and to Look for so much of these from Creatures in this our present Pilgrimage and Prison as alas too commonly we do Thus do we kill our Comforts and then complain for want of them How should you have any Life or Constancy of Consolations that are so seldom so slight so unbelieving and so heartless in your thoughts of Heaven You know what a folly it is to expect any Peace which shall not come from Christ as the Fountain And you must learn as well to understand what a folly it is to expect any solid Joys or stable Peace which is not fetcht from Heaven as from the End O that Christians were careful to live with one eye still on Christ Crucified and with the other on Christ coming in Glory If the Everlasting Joys were more in your believing thoughts Spiritual Joys would more abound at present in your hearts It 's no more wonder that you are Comfortless when Heaven is forgotten or doubtingly remembred then that you are faint when you eat not or cold when you stir not or when you have not fire or clothes But when Christians do not onely let fall their expectations of the things Unseen but also heighten their expectations from the Creature then do they most infallibly prepare for their fears and troubles and estrangedness from God and with both hands draw calamities on their souls Who ever meets with a distressed complaining soul where one or both of these is not apparent their Low expectations from God hereafter or their high expectations from the Creature now What doth keep us under such trouble and disquietness but that we will not Expect what God hath Promised or we will needs Expect what he Promised not And then we complain when we miss of those Expectations which we foolishly and ungroundedly raised to our selves We are grieved for Crosses for Losses for wrongs from our Enemies for unkind or unfaithful dealings of our Friends for sickness for contempt and dis-esteem in the World But who bid you look for any better Was it Prosperity and Riches and Credit and Friends that God called you to Believe for or that you became Christians for or that you had an absolute promise of in the Word If you will make Promises to your self and then your own Promises deceive you whom should you blame for that Nay do we not as it were necessitate God hereby to embitter all our Comforts below and to make every Creature as a Scorpion to us because we will needs make them our petty Deities We have less Comfort in them then else we might have because we must needs have more then we should have You might have more faithfulness from your Friends more Reputation in the World more sweetness in all your present enjoyments if you lookt for Less Why is it that you can scarce name a Creature near you that is not a scourge to you but because you can scarce name one that is not your Idol or at least which you do not expect more from then you ought Nay which is one of the saddest Considerations of this kind that can be imagined God is fain to scourge us most even by the highest Professors of Religion because we have most Idolized them and had such excessiveâ—â—â—pectations from them One woâ—◠〈…〉 thought it next to an impossibiliâ—◠〈…〉 such men and so many of they 〈…〉 ever have been drawn to do that against the Church against that Gospel-Ministry and Ordinances of God which once seemed dearer to them then their lives which hath since been done and which yet we fear But a believing eye can discern the reason of this sad providence in part Never men were more Idolized and therefore no wonder if we were never so afflicted by any Alas when will we learn by Scripture and Providence so to know God and the Creature as to look for More from him and less from them We have looked for Wonders from Scotland and what is come of it We looked that War should have even satisfied our desires and when it had removed all visible Impediments we thought we should have had such a glorious Reformation as the World never knew And now behold a Babel and a mangled Deformation What high Expectations had we from an Assembly what Expectations from a Parliament and where are they now O hear the Word of the Lord ye low-spirited People Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Isa 2.22 Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord For he shall be like the Heath in the Desart and shall not see when Good cometh Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose Hope the Lord is For he shall be as a Tree planted by the Waters c. Jer. 17.5 6 7 8. Surely men of Low degree are Vanity and men of High degree are a Lye to be laid in the ballance they are altogether lighter then Vanity Psal 62.9 Let me warn you all Christians for the time to come Take the Creature as a Creature remember its frailty look for no more from it then its part If you have the nearest dearest godly friends expect to feel the sting of their Corruptions as well as to tast the sweetness of their Grace And they must expect the like from you If you ask me why I speak so much of these things here It is 1. Because I find that much of the trouble of ordinary Christians comes from their Crosses in the Creature and the frustration of these their sinful Expectations 2. And because I have said so little of it in the following Directions they being intended for the cure of another kind of Trouble therefore I have said this much here of this Having premised this advice I take my self bound to adde one thing more that is An Apologie for the Publication of this Imperfect Piece whether just or insufficient other men must judge I confess I am so apprehensive of the Luxuriant Fertility or Licenciousness of the Press of late as being a design of the Enemy to bury and overwhelm in a croud those Judicious Pious Excellent Writings that before were
run in their mindes that they cannot lay them by If it go any thing farre they are almost alwayes assaulted with Temptations to Blasphemy to doubt whether there be a God or a Christ or the Scriptures be true or whether there be a Heaven or a Hell and oft tempted to speak some blasphemous words against God and this with such importunity that they can hardly forbear and oft times they are tempted to make away themselves When it goes so farre they are next to the loss of the use of reason if it be not prevented Now to those that finde that Melancholy is the Cause of their Troubles I would give this advice 1. Expect not that Rational Spiritual Remedies should suffice for this Cure For you may as well expect that a good Sermon or comfortable words should cure the falling Sickness or Palsie or a broken head as to be a sufficient Cure to your Melancholy fears For this is as reall a bodily disease as the other Only because it works on the spirits and phantasie on which words of advice do also work therefore such words and Scripture and Reason may somewhat resist it and may palliate or allay some of the effects at the present but as soon as time hath worn off the force and effects of these Reasons the distemper presently returns For the Humour hath the advantage 1. Of continuall presence 2. Of a more necessary naturall and sensible way of working As if a man be in an easie Lethargy you may awake him so long as you are calling on him aloud but as soon as you cease he is asleep again Such is the case of the Melancholy in their sorrows For it is as natural for Melancholy to cause fears and disquietness of minde as for Phlegme in a Lethargy to cause sleep Do not therefore lay the blame on your Books Friends Counsels Instructions no nor all on your Soul if these Troubles be not cured by words But labour to discern truly how much of your Trouble comes this way and then fix it in your minde in all your Enquiries Reading and Hearing that it is the other part of your Trouble which is truly Rational and not this part of it which is from Melancholy that these means were ordained to remove though God may also bless them extraordinarily to do both Only constant importunate Prayer is a fit and special means for the Curing of all 2. When you have truly found out how much of your Disquietness proceeds from Melancholy acquit your soul from that part of it Still remember in all your self-examinations self-judgings and reflections on your heart that it is not directly to be charged with those sorrowes that come from your Spleen save only remotely as all other Diseases are the fruits of sin as a Lethargick dullness is the deserved fruit of sin but he that should charge it immediatly on his soul should wrong himself and he that would attempt the Cure must do it on the Body 3. If you would have these fears and troubles removed apply your self to the proper Cure of Melancholy 1. Avoid all passions of sorrow fear and anger as much as you can and all occasions of discontent and grief 2. Avoid much solitariness and be most commonly in some cheerfull company Not that I would have you do as the foolish sinners of the world do to drink away Melancholy and keep company with sensual vain and unprofitable persons that will draw you deeper into sin and so make your wound greater instead of healing it and multiply your Troubles when you are forced to look back on your sinfull loss of time But keep company with the more cheerfull sort of the Godly There 's no mirth like the mirth of Believers which faith doth fetch from the bloud of Christ and from the Promises of the Word and from experiences of Mercy and from the serious fore-apprehensions of our everlasting Blessedness Converse with men of strongest faith that have this heavenly mirth and can speak experimentally of the Joy of the holy Ghost and these will be a great help to the reviving of your spirit and changing your Melancholy habit so far as without out a Physitian it may be expected Yet sometimes it may not be amiss to confer with some that are in your own Case that you may see that your Condition is not singular For Melancholy people in such distresses are ready to think that never any was in the Case as they are in or at least never any that were truly godly when you hear people of the most upright lives and that truly fear God to have the very same complaints as you have your self it may give you some hopes that it is not so bad as you before did imagin However be sure that you avoid solitariness as much as you well can 3. Also take heed of too deep fixed musing thoughts studying and serious meditating be not duties for the deeply-Melancholy as I shall shew more in the following Directions You must let those alone till you are better able to perform them lest by attempting those duties which you cannot perform you shall utterly disable your self from all Therefore I would advise you by all means to shake and rowse your self out of such musings and suddenly to turn your thoughts away to something else 4. To this end be sure that you avoid Idleness and want of imployment which as it is a life not pleasing to God so is it the opportunity for Melancholy thoughts to be working and the chiefest season for Satan to tempt you Never let the Devil finde you unimployed but see that you go cheerfully about the works of your Calling and follow it with diligence and that time which you redeem for spiritual exercises let it be most spent in Thanksgiving and Prayses and heavenly Conference These things may do much for prevention and abating your disease if it be not gone too far but if it be you were best have recourse to the Physitian and expect Gods blessing in the use of means and you will finde when your Body is once cured the disquietness of your Minde will vanish of it self 2. The second part of this Direction was That you take notice how much of your disquietness may proceed from outward Crosses for it is ordinary for these to lye at the root and bring the heart into a disquiet and discontent and then trouble for sin doth follow after Alas how oft have I seen that verified of the Apostle 2 Cor. 7.10 The sorrow of the world worketh death How many even godly people have I known that through crosses in children or friends or losses in their estates or wrongs from men or perplexities that through some unadvisedness they were cast into or the like have fallen into mortall Diseases or into such a fixed Melancholy that some of them have gone besides themselves and others have lived in fears and doubting ever after by the removall of the disquietness to their consciences How
to him as long as you strip him of his Divine Nature Remember the holy Ghost's description of God 1 Joh 4.16 God is Love Write these words deep in your Understanding 2. Hereby you will have this Advantage also that your thoughts of God will be more sweet and delightfull to you For as Glorious and beautifull sights to your eyes and melodious sounds to your ears and sweet smels tastes c. are all delightfull when things deformed stinking c. are all loathsome and we turn away from one with abhorrency but for the other we would often see taste c. and enjoy them So is it with the objects of our minde God hath given no command for Duty but what most perfectly agreeth with the nature of the object He hath therefore bid us Love God and Delight in him above all because he is above all in Goodness even infinitely and unconceivably Good else we could not Love him above all nor would he ever command us so to do The object is ever as exactly fitted to its part as to draw out the Love and Delight of our hearts as the Precept is on its part to oblige us to it And indeed the Nature of things is a precept to Duty and it which we call The Law of Nature 3. Hereupon will follow this further Advantage that your Thoughts will be both easilyer drawn toward God and more frequent and constant on him For delightfull objects draw the heart to them as the Loadstone doth the Iron How gladly and freely and frequently do you think of your deerest friends And if you did firmly conceive of God as one that is ten thousand times more Gracious Loving and Amiable then any friend that you have in the world it would make you not only to Love him above all friends but also more freely delightfully and unweariedly to think of him 4. And then you would hence have this further Advantage that you would have lesse backwardness to any Duty and lesse weariness in Duty you would finde more delight in Prayer Meditation and speech of God when once God himself were more Lovely and delightfull in your eyes 5. All these Advantages would produce a further that is The growth of all your Graces For its impossible but this growth of Love and frequent delightfull thoughts of God and addresses to him should cause an increase of all the rest 6. Hereupon your Evidences would be more clear and discernable For Grace in strength and action would be easily found and would not this resolve all your doubts at once 7. Yea the very exercise of these severall Graces would be comfortable 8. And hereupon you would have more humble familiarity and communion with God For Love Delight and frequent addresses would overcome strangeness and disacquaintance which make us fly from God as a Fish or Bird or wild beast will from the face of a man and would give us access with boldness and confidence And this would banish sadness and terrour as the Sun dispelleth darkness and cold 9. At least you would hence have this advantage That the fixed apprehension of Gods Goodness and mercifull nature would cause a fixed apprehension of the Probability of your Happiness as long as you are willing to be Happy in Gods way For reason will tell you that he who is Love it self and whose Goodness is equal to his Almightiness and who hath sworn that he hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner but rather that he repent and live will not destroy a poor soul that lyeth in submission at his feet and is so far from resolved rebellion against him that it grieveth that it is no better and can please him no more 10. However these right apprehensions of God would overcome those terrours which are raised only by false apprehensions of him And doubtless a very great part of mens causeless troubles are raised from such misapprehensions of God For Satan knows that if he can Bring you to think of God as a cruel Tyrant and bloudthirsty man-hater then he can drive you from him in terrour and turn all your Love and cheerfull obedience into hatred and slavish fear I say therefore again Do not only get but also fix deep in your understanding the highest thoughts of Gods natural Goodness and Graciousness that possibly you can raise for when they are at the highest they come short ten thousand fold Object But Gods Goodness lyeth not in Mercy to men as I have read in great Divines he may be perfectly Good though he should for ever torment the most innocent creatures Answ These are ignorant presumptuous intrusions into that which is unsearchable Where doth Scripture say as you say Judge of God as he revealeth himself or you will but delude your self and abuse him All his works represent him mercifull for his Mercy is over all his works and legible in them all His word saith He is Good and doth Good Psal 119.68 and 145.9 How himself doth proclaim his own Name Exod. 34.6 7. I told you before The most mercifull men are his liveliest Image and therefore he plants Mercy in them in their conversion as a principal part of their new nature and commands of mercifulness are a great part of his Law and he bids us Be mercifull as our heavenly Father is mercifull Luk. 6.36 Now if this were none of his Nature how could he be the pattern of our new nature herein and if he were not infinitely Mercifull himself how could we be required to be Mercifull as he is Who dare say I am more Mercifull then God Object But God is Just as well as Mercifull and for all his Mercifull nature he will damn most of the world for ever in hell Answ 1. But James saith Mercy rejoiceth against Judgement Jam. 2.13 2. God is necessarily the Governour of the world while there is a world and therefore must govern it in Justice and so must not suffer his Mercy to be perpetually abused by wicked wilfull contemptuous sinners But then consider two things 1. That he destroyeth not humble souls that lye at his feet and are willing to have Mercy on his easie termes but only the stubborn despisers of his Mercy He damneth none but those that will not be saved in his way that is that will not accept of Christ and salvation freely given them I speak of those that hear the Gospel for others their case is more unknown to us And is it any diminution to his infinite Mercy that he will not save those that will not be intreated to accept of salvation 2. And consider how long he useth to wait on sinners and even beseech them to be reconciled to him before he destroyeth them and that he heapeth multitudes of Mercies on them even in their rebellion to draw them to Repentance and so to Life and is it unmercifulness yet if such men perish Object But if God were so infinite in Mercy as you say Why doth he not make all these
Saviour and can easily be convinced of their willingness 3. Besides Affiance is not the Adequate act of faith suited to the object in that fullness as it must be Received but Willingness or Acceptance is Christ is Rested on only for our selves as our Deliverer but he is Accepted also for Himself as our Lord and Master The full proof of these I have performed in other Writings and oft in your hearing in publike and therefore omit them now Be sure then to fix this truth deep in your minde That Justifying faith is not an Assurance of our Justification no nor a perswasion or belief that we are Justified or pardoned or that Christ died more for us then for others nor yet is Affiance or Resting on Christ the vital principal certain constant full act but it is the Understandings belief of the truth of the Gospel and the Will 's Acceptance of Christ and Life offered to us therein which Acceptance is but the hearty Consent or Willingness that he be yours and you his This is the Faith which must Justifie and save you Object But 1. May not wicked men be Willing to have Christ 2. And do not you oft tell us that Justifying faith comprehendeth Love to Christ and Thankfulness and that it receiveth him as a Lord to be obeyed as well as a Deliverer and that Repentance and sincere Obedience are parts of the Condition of the new Covenant Answ I will give as brief a touch now on these as may be because I have handled them in sitter places 1. Wicked men are willing to have Remission Justification and freedom from hell for no man can be willing to be unpardoned or to be damned But they are not willing to have Christ himself in that nature and office which he must be Accepted that is As a holy Head and Husband to save them both from the Guilt and Power and all defilement and abode of sin and to Rule them by his Law and Guide them by his Spirit and to make them happy by bringing them to God that being without sin they may be perfectly Pleasing and Amiable in his sight and enjoy him forever Thus is Christ offered and thus to be accepted of all that will be saved and thus no wicked man will accept him but when he ceaseth to be wicked 2. To cut all the rest short in a word I say That in this fore-described Willingness or Acceptance Repentance Love Thankfulness Resolution to obey are all contained or neerly implyed as I have elsewhere manifested so that the Heart of saving faith is this Acceptance of Christ or Willingness to have him to Justifie Sanctifie Guide and Govern you Finde but this Willingness and you finde all the rest whether you expresly see them or not So much for that Direction DIRECTION IX 9. Having thus far proceeded in discovering and improving the General Grounds of Comfort and then in discovering the Nature of Faith which gives you Right to the special Mercies of the Covenant following it Your next work must be To perform this Condition by actual Believing YOur soul stands in extreme need of a Saviour God offereth you a Saviour in the Gospel what then have you next to do but Accept him Believe that this offer is general and therefore to you and that Christ is not set to sale nor doth God require you to bring a Price in your hand but only heartily and thankfully to Accept of what he freely giveth you This must be done before you fall on trying your Graces to get Assurance for you must have Grace before you can discover it and this is the first proper special saving Grace as it comprizeth that knowledge and Assent which necessarily go before it This is not only the method for those that yet never believed but also for them that have lost the sense of their faith and so the sight of their evidence Believe again that you may know you do believe or at least may possesse an Accepted Saviour When God in the Gospel bids you Take Jesus Christ and beseecheth you to be reconciled to him what will you say to him If your heart answer Lord I am willing I will Accept of Christ and be thankfull why then the match is made between Christ and you and the marriage Covenant is truly entered which none can dissolve If Christ were not first willing he would not be the suitor and make the motion and if he be willing and you be willing what can break the match If you will say I cannot believe if you understand what you say either you mean that you cannot believe the Gospel is true or else that you cannot be willing that Christ should be yours If it be the former and you speak truly then you are a flat Infidel yet many temptations to doubt of the truth of Scripture a true believer may have yea and actual doubtings but his faith prevaileth and is victorious over them But if you really doubt whether the Gospel be true use Gods means for the discovery of its truth Read what I have written in the second part of my book of Rest I will undertake now more confidently then ever I did to prove the truth of Scripture by plain full undeniable force of Reason But I suppose this is none of your case If therefore when you say that you cannot believe you mean that you cannot Accept an offered Christ or be willing to have him then I demand 1. What is your reason the Will is lead by the Reason of the Understanding If you be not willing there is something that perswades you to be unwilling This Reason must be from something reall or else upon a mistake upon supposal of something that is not in being If it be upon mistake either it is that you be not convinced of Christs willingness to be yours and if you thought he did consent you would consent willingly If this be it you do truly believe while you think you do not for you do consent and that 's all on your part to make the match and Christ doth certainly consent though you do not understand it In this case it concerneth you to understand better the extent of the new Covenant and then you will be past doubt of the willingness of Christ and see that wherever the match breaks it is only for want of consent in men for Christ is the first suitor and hath long ago in the Covenant proclaimed his consent to be the Head and Husband of every sinner on condition they will but consent to be his If your mistake be from any false apprehension of the Nature of Christ as if he were not a sufficient Saviour or were such an enemy to your comfort that he would do you more hurt then good if these mistakes are prevalent then you do not know Christ and therefore must presently better study him in the Gospel till you have prevailed over such ignorant and blasphemous conceits but none of this I suppose is
mistakes of many sad Christians hereabouts The cure lieth in breaking off sinne to the utmost of your power This is the Achan that disquieteth all It is Gods great mercy that he disquieteth you in sinning and gives you not over to so deep a slumber and peace in sinne as might hinder your repentance and reformation The dangerous mistakes here are these two 1. Some do as the Lapwing cry loudest when they are furthest from the nest and complain of an aking tooth when the disease is in the head or heart They cry out O I have such wandring thoughts in prayer and such a bad memory and so hard a heart that I cannot weep for sinne or such doubts and fears and so little sense of the Love of God that I doubt I have no true Grace When they should rather say I have so proud a heart that God is fain by these sad means to humble me I am so high in my own eyes so wise in my own conceit and so tender of my own esteem and credit that God is fain to make me base in my own eyes and to abhorre my self I am so worldly and in love with earth that it draws away my thoughts from God duls my love and spoils all my duties I am so sensual that I venture sooner to displease my God then my flesh I have so little compassion on the infirmities of neighbours and servants and other brethren and deal so censoriously churlishly and unmercifully with them that God is fain to hide his mercy from me and speak to me as in anger and vex me as in sore displeasure I am so froward peevish quarrelsome unpeaceable and hard to be pleased that it is no wonder if I have no peace with God or in my own conscience and if I have so little quietness who love and seek it no more Many have more reason I say to turn their complaints into this tune 2. Another most common unhappy miscarriage of sad Christians lieth here that They will rather continue complaining and self-tormenting then give over sinning so farre as they might give it over if they would I beseech you in the Name of God to know and consider what it is that God requireth of you He doth not desire your vexation but your reformation No further doth he desire the trouble of your minde then as it tendeth to the avoiding of that sinne which is the cause of it God would have you less in your fears and troubles and more in your obedience Obey more and disquiet your minde less Will you take this counsel presently and see whether it will not do you more good then all the complaints and doubtings of your whole life have done Set your self with all your might against your pride worldliness and sensuality your unpeaceableness and want of love and tenderness to your brethren and whatever other sin your conscience is acquainted with I pray you tell me If you had gravell in your shoe in your travel would it not be more wisdom to sit down and take off your shoe and cast it out then to stand still or go complaining and tell every one you meet of your soreness If you have a thorn in your foot will you go on halting and lamenting or will you pull it out Truly sinne is the thorn in your conscience and those that would not have such troubled consciences told of their sinnes for fear of increasing their distress are unskilfull comforters and will continue the trouble while the thorn is in As ever you would have peace then resolve against sinne to the utmost of your power Never excuse it or cherish it or favour it more Confess it freely Thank those that reprove you for it Desire those about you to watch over you and to tell you of it yea to tell you of all suspitious signes that they see of it though it be not evident And if you do not see so much Pride Worldliness Unpeaceableness or other sinnes in your self as your friends think they see in you yet let their judgement make you jealous of your heart seeing self-love doth oft so blinde us that we cannot see that evil in our selves which others see in us nay which all the Town may take notice of And be sure to engage your friends that they shall not smooth over your faults or mince them and tell you of them in extenuating language which may hinder Conviction and Repentance much less silence them for fear of displeasing you but that they will deal freely and faithfully with you And see that you distast them not and discountenance not their plain dealing lest you discourage them and deprive your soul of so great a benefit Think best of those as your greatest friends who are least friends to your sinne and do most for your recovery very from it If you say Alas I am not able to mortifie my sinnes It is not in my power I answer 1. I speak not of a perfect conquest nor of a freedom from every passion or infirmity 2. Take heed of pretending disability when it is unwillingness If you were heartily willing you would be able to do much and God would strengthen you Cannot you resist Pride Worldliness and Sensuality if you be willing Cannot you forbear most of the actual sinnes you commit and perform the duties that you omit if you be Willing though not so well as you would perform them Yea let me say this much lest I endanger you by sparing you Many a miserable hypocrite doth live in trouble of minde and complaining and after all perish for their wilfull disobedience Did not the rich young man go farre before he would break off with Christ and when he did leave him he went away sorrowfull And what was the cause of his sorrow Why the matter was that he could not be saved without selling all and giving it to the poor when he had great Possessions It was not that he could not be rid of his sinne but that he could not have Christ and Heaven without forsaking the world This is the case of unsanctified persons that are enlightened to see the need of Christ but are not weaned from worldly profits honours and pleasures they are perhaps troubled in minde and I cannot blame them but it is not that they cannot leave sinning but that they cannot have Heaven without leaving their delights and contentments on earth Sin as sin they would willingly leave For no man can love evil as evil But their fleshly profits honours and pleasures they will not leave and there is the stop and this is the cause of their sorrows and fears For their own judgement cries out against them He that loveth the world the love of the Father is not in him If ye live after the flesh ye shall die God resisteth the proud This is the voice of their informed understandings And conscience seconds it and saith Thou art the man But the flesh cries louder then both these Wilt thou leave
strongly and sensibly that its usual for later motions which are more deeply affecting to make us overlook all the former or take them for nothing 10. God dealeth very variously with his Chosen in their Conversion as to the accidentals and circumstances of the work Some he calleth not home till they have run a long race in the way of Rebellion in open drunkenness swearing worldliness and derision of holiness These he usually humbleth more deeply and they can better observe the several steps of the Spirit in the work and yet not always neither Others he so restraineth in their youth that though they have not saving Grace yet they are not guilty of any Gross sins but have a liking to the people and ways of God and yet he doth not savingly convert them till long after It is much harder for these to discern the time or manner of their Conversion yet usually some conjectures they may make And usually their humiliation is not so deep Others as is said have the saving workings of the Spirit in their very Childhood and these can least of all discern the certain time or order The ordinary way of Gods dealing with those that are Children of Godly Parents and have good Education is by giving them some liking of Godly persons and ways some Conscience of sin some Repentance and recourse by prayer to God in Christ for mercy yet youthful lusts and folly and ill company do usually much stifle it till at last by some Affliction or Sermon or Book or good Company God setteth home the work and maketh them more Resolute and victorious Christians These persons now can remember that they had convictions and stirrings of Conscience when they were young and the other fore-mentioned works perhaps they can remember some more notable rowsings and awakenings long after and perhaps they have had many such fits and steps and the work hath stood at this pass for a long time even many years together But at which of all these Changes it was that the Soul began to be savingly sincere I think is next to an impossibility to discern According to that experience which I have had of the state of Christians I am forced to Judge that most of the Children of the Godly that ever are Renewed are Renewed in their Childhood or much towards it then done and that among forty Christians there is not one that can certainly name the month in which his soul first began to be sincere and among a thousand Christians I think not one can name the hour The Sermon which awakened them they may name but not the hour when they first arrived at a saving sincerity My advice therefore to all Christians is this Find Christ by his Spirit dwelling in your hearts and then never trouble your selves though you know not the time or manner of his entrance Do you value Christ above the world and Resolve to choose him before the world and perform these Resolutions Then need you not doubt but the Spirit of Jesus is victorious in you DOUBT II. BVT I have oft read and heard thâ—t a man cannot come to Christ till he feel the heavy burthen of sin It is the weary and heavy-laden that Christ calleth to him He bindeth up onely the broken-hearted he is a Physician onely to those that feel themselves sick he brings men to Heaven by the gates 〈◊〉 Hell They must be able to say I am in a loâ—â— Condition and in a state of damnation and â—f I should dye this hour I must perish for ever before Christ will deliver them God wiâ—l not throw away the blood of his Son on those that feel not their absolute necessity of it and that they are undone without it But it was never thus with me to this day ANSWER YOU must distinguish carefully between Repentance as it is in the Mind and Will and as it shews it self in the Passion of Sorrow All that have saving interest in Christ have their Judgements and Wils so far changed that they know they are great sinners and that there is no way to the obtaining of pardon and salvation but by Christ and the free mercy of God in him and thereupon they are convinced that if they remain without the Grace of Christ they are undone for ever Whereupon they understanding that Christ and Mercy is offered to them in the Gospel do heartily and thankfully accept the offer and would not be without Christ or change their Hopes of his Grace for all the world and do resolve to wait upon him for the further discovery of his Mercy and the workings of his Spirit in a Constant and Conscionable use of his Meaâ—s and to be Ruled by him to their power Is it not thus with you If it be here is the Life and Substance of Repentance which consisteth in this change of the mind and heart and you have no Cause to Doubt of the truth of it for want of more deep and passionate humiliation 2. I have told you before how uncertain and unconstant the Passionate effects of Grace are and how unfit to Judge by and given you several Reasons of it Yet I doubt not but some work upon the Affections there is as well as on the Will and Understanding but with so great diversity of manner and degrees that it is not safe judging by it onely or chiefly Is there no degree of Sorrow or Trouble that hath touched your heart for your sin or Misery If your Affections were no whâ—â— stir'd you would hardly be moved to Actâ—on to use means or avoyd iniquity much less would you so oft complain as you do 3. If God prevented those hainous sins in the time of your unregeneracy which those usually are guilty of who are called to so deep a degree of sorrow you should rather be thankful that your wound was not deeper then troubled that the Cure cost you not dearer Look well whether the Cure be wrought in the change of your heart and life from the world to God by Christ and then you need not be troubled that it was wrought so easily 4. Were you not acquainted with the evil of sin and danger and misery of sinners in your very Childhood and also of the necessity of a Saviour and that Christ dyed to save all sinners that will believe and Repent and hath not this fastned on your heart and been working in you by Degrees ever since If it be so then you cannot expect that you should have such deep terrours as those that never hear of sin and Christ till the news come upon them suddenly in the ripeness of their sin There is a great deal of difference betwixt the Conversion of a Jew or any other Infidel who is brought on the sudden to know the doctrine of Sin Misery and Salvation by Christ and the Convertion of a Professour of the Christian Religiâ—â— who hath known this doctrine in some sort from his Childhood and who hath a sound Religion though
Policy of the Devil to make People Believe that their Ministers are too stout and will not stoop to a compassionate hearing of their case especially if Ministers carry themselves strangely at too great a distance from their People I would earnestly intreat all Ministers therefore to be as familiar and as much with their People as they can Papists and other Seducers will insinuate themselves into their familiarity if we be strange If you teach them not in their Houses these will Creep into their Houses and lead them Captive I perswade others of my Brethren to that which my self am disabled from performing being by constant weakness besides unavoydable business confined to my Chamber But those that can perform it will find this a most necessary and profitable work And let not poor People believe the Devil who tels them that Ministers are so proud onely to discourage them from seeking their advice Go try them once before you believe it Lastly Remember this that it is not enough that you once opened your case to your Pastour but do it as often as Necessity urgeth you to call for his advice though not on every light occasion Live in such a Dependance on the advice and guidance of your Pastour under Christ for your soul as you do on the advice of the Physician for your body Read Mal. 2.7 and let Ministers read 6 8 9. DIRECTION XXXII 32. As ever you would live in Peace and Comfort and well-pleasing unto God be sure that you understand and deeply consider wherein the height of a Christian life and the greatest part of our Duty doth consist To wit In a loving Delight in God and a Thankful and Chearful Obedience to his Will And then make this your Constant aim and be still aspiring after it and let all other affections and endeavours be subservient unto this THis one Rule well practised would do wonders on the souls of poor Christians in dispelling all their fears and troubles and helping not onely to a setled Peace but to live in the most comfortable state that can be expected upon earth Write therefore these two or three words deep in your understandings and Memory that the life which God is best pleased with and we should be always endeavouring is A Loving Delight in God through Christ and a thankful and chearful obedience to him I do not say that godly sorrows and fears and jealousies are no Duties but these are the great Duties to which the rest should all subserve Misapprehending the state of Duty and the very Nature of a Christian life must needs make sad distempers in mens hearts and conversations Many Christians look upon Broken-heartedness and much grieving and weeping for sin as if it were the great thing that God Delighteth in and requireth of them and therefore they bend all their endeavours this way and are still striving with their hearts to break them more and wringing their Consciences to squeez out some tears and they think no Sermon no Prayer no Meditation speeds so well with them as that which can help them to grieve or weep I am far from perswading men against Humiliation Godly sorrow and tenderness of heart But yet I must tell you that this is a sore errour that you lay so much upon it and so much overlook that great and noble work and state to which it tendeth Do you think that God hath any Pleasure in your sorrows as such Doth it do him Good to see you dejected afflicted and tormented Alas it is onely as your sorrows do kill your sins and mortifie your fleshly lusts and prepare for your Peace and Joys that God regards them Because God doth speak comfortably to troubled drooping spirits and tels them that he delighteth in the contrite and loveth the humble and bindeth up the broken-hearted therefore men mis-understanding him do think they should do nothing but be still breaking their own hearts Whereas God speaks it but partly to shew his hatred to the proud and partly to shew his tender compassions to the humbled that they might not be overwhelmed or despair But O Christians understand and consider that all your sorrows are but preparatives to your joys and that it is a higher and sweeter work that God cals you to and would have you spend your time and strength in 1. The first part of it is Love A work that is wages to it self He that knows what it is to live in the Love of God doth know that Christianity is no tormenting and discontented life 2. The next part is Delight in God and in the Hopes and fore-thoughts of everlasting Glory Psal 37.4 Delight thy self in the Lord and he shall give thee the Desires of thy heart This is it that you should be bending your studies and endeavours for that your soul might be able to Delight it self in God 3. The third part is Thankfulness and Praise Though I say not as some that we should be moved by no fears or desires of the Reward that is of God but act only from Thankfulness as though we had all that we expect already yet let me desire you to take speciall notice of this Truth that Thankfulness must be the main principle of all Gospel-Obedience And this is not onely true of the Regenerate after faith but even the wicked themselves who are called to Repent and Believe are called to do it in a glad and Thankful sense of the mercy offered them in Christ All the world being fallen under Gods wrath and deserved condemnation and the Lord Jesus having become a Sacrifice and Ransom for all and so brought all from that Legal Necessity of perishing which they were under the Gospel which brings them the News of this is glad tidings of great Joy to them and the very justifying Act which they are called to is Thankfully to Accept Christ as one that hath already satisfied for their sins and will save them if they Accept him and will follow his saving Counsel and use his saving means and the saving work which they must proceed in is Thankfulness to obey that Redeemer whom they Believe in So that as General Redemption is the very Foundation of the new world and its Government so Thankfulness for this Redemption is the very life of Justifying faith and Gospel obedience And therefore the denyal of this universal Redemption as to the Price and Satisfaction doth both disable wicked men if they receive it from coming to Christ by true Justifying Faith which is The Thankful Acceptance of Christ as he is offered with his benefits and this Thankfulness must be for what he hath done in Dying for us as well as for what he will do in pardoning and saving us and it doth disable all true Believers from Gospel Grateful Obedience when ever they lose the sight of their Evidences of special Grace which alas how ordinary is it with them For when they cannot have special Grace in their eye to be Thankful for according to