other businesse it is not good to trust fits of devotion 't is a base kind of praying when men gallop over their praiers that so they may come to an end quickly Should I accept this at your hands saith God by his Prophet when they brought a sheep it wanted a lim they were loth to give God a whole offering Mal. 1. 13. Many pray a peece of a praier in the morning and then they go after the world he down's on his knees and gives God a rag of a praier a companie of ragged ends And God counts it an indignitie shall I accept this saith he What a lame praier No no the Lord looks for a prayer that hath its full growth it is a shame to speak in the congregation what men do in secret before God which many have confessed after they have been converted how they have gone into Gods presence and have shuffled over their praiers thinking every houre seven untill they had done Fourthly Silent praiers are never importunate I mean by silent praier when a man is silent in that which God looks he should most insist upon David made a praier Psal 32. and the Lord looked that he should stand much upon his adulterie and murther which he had committed to see what shame he took on him for it but he shuffled it over and what saith the text When I kept silence what did the Prophet roare and yet keep silence these are contradictions Yea the Prophet roared and kept silence as if he should say the Lord counted his praier but roaring so long as he laid not open that sinne which the Lord lookt he should have stood on the Lord let him roare and roare he might long enough but saith he I brake my silence I said I will confesse my transgressions and then thou forgavest the wickednes of my sin So many go to God and tell God they must needs have mercie and fain they would have mercie and yet they are silent in confessing the sinne they should I say the Lord will never hear that man he may pray to God all his life and yet go to hel in the end Hast thou been a drunkard and dost thou think that the Lord will forgive thee for crying Lord forgive me c No no thou must insist on it and say Against thy word I have been a drunkard my conscience told me so but I would not heare I haue felt the motions of thy holy spirit stirring against me and I regarded not Now if thou shouldest turn me into hell I were well requited so many Sermons have I neglected I have wronged others in this kind and I have been the cause why many are now in hell if they repented not I have praied for mercie yet with the dog to his vomit have I returned and therefore for all my praiers thou maiest cast me into hell for ever and now I haue praid yet it is a hundred to one but I shall run into my old sin again yet as I expect forgivenesse so I desire to make a covenant to give over all my sinful courses and I am justly damned if I go to them again Such a kind of praier the Lord loves Fifthly Seldome praier is no importunate praier when the soul contents it self with seldome comming before the throne of grace an importunate soul is ever frequenting the way of mercie and the gate of Christ he is often at the threshold before God in all praier and humiliation The reeling'st Drunkard in the world sometimes can do so too the basest Adulterer in the world sometimes can be chaste the Devil is quiet so long as he is pleased and the wicked may sometime have a fit in praier But this is the condition of an importunate heart he is frequent at the throne of grace The Propher David praied seven times in a day and Hannah continued in praier night and day Sixthly Lukewarm praier is not an importunate praier when a man praies but is not fervent when a man labours not to winde up his soul to God in praier That man that praies outwardly only that man teaches God how to denie his praier Though you make many praiers saith God yet I will not hear you why Your hands are full of blood Qui frigidè orat docet negare They are like luke-warme water that never boils out the blood So they have been guiltie of murder and abundance of other sinnes and they did indeed pray against them but they were never but luke-warme they never boiled away the blood of their sins Thou must pray fervently with a seething-hot heart if thou meanest to get pardon for all thy sinnes as securitie and deadnesse of heart c. And as it is Jonah 3. let every man crie mightily unto the Lord. Seventhly and lastly Bie-thoughts in praier keep praier from being importunate as when a man praies and let his heart go a wooll-gathering I remember a storie of an unworthy Oratour who being to make an acclamation O earth O heaven when he said O heaven he looked down to the earth and when he said O earth he looked up to heaven So many when they pray to God in heaven their thoughts are on the earth these praiers can never be importunate When a man praies the Lord looks that his heart should be fixed on his praier for our hearts will leake and the best child of God do what he can shall have bie-thoughts in praier And that First from corrupt nature Secondly from nature curbed Thirdly from Sathan 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 performe 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 behaviour the more rustling it keeps Even as a Bird being at libertie keeps 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 sinne then nature rebels Thirdly from Satan as in Job Satan stands at his right hand as a Plaintiffe 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 Araham did when he was sacrificing when the birds came he drave them away so must thou do by they bie-thoughts if thou wilt have fruit of thy supplications before God Fourthly they come from spiritual sluggishnesse that creeps on the best if they take not heed And this was
preaching he was pilfering where do you read that ever he heard any of the Apostles or Seventy or John the Baptist or any Sermon in all his life No no he went roving up and down we have not one title to imply that he had the means of salvation and therefore this is nothing to thee that hast the preaching of the Word which reproves thee of thy sins and therefore if thou wilt go on thou shalt dye Ezech. 3. 19. Secondly this story belongs not unto thee for where dost thou read that ever this thief did build upon this hope do you think that this thief said I will steal as long as I can I know I shall be imprisoned and I shall be crucified with Christ but while I lie in prison I will repent and then he will have mercie on me did this poor thief ever dreame of these hopes did he presume of mercie and so sin against mercies and therefore thou that buildest on this example whosoever thou art it belongs not unto thee Tush tush sayes the Drunkard shall I be damned the thief was saved Thou cursed caitiffe what though thou shouldst repent and cry for mercie art thou sure the Lord will heare and pardon thee when I spake to you said Moses you would not heare but rebelled and were presumptuous Deut. 1. 43. Dost thou presume on Gods mercie that hee will convert thee at the last I tell thee that Gods mercy is good mercie it is not like the mercie of a wicked Iudge that is wickedly mercifull and suffers Rogues to be pardoned No no Gods mercie is good psal 109. 21. mercie and justice are all one with God and they have all one name in scripture There is a crown laid up for me saith Paul which the Lord the just Judge shall give me viz which God the mercifull Judge shall give unto me God is just in his mercie and therefore thinkest thou to live in thy sins to sweare to lie to be drunk c. and yet hope to have mercy thou art deceived the Lords mercy is just mercy and he will damne thee for evermore if thou repent not in sincerity You never read in the Scripture that there is mercy in the wayes of the devil But Psal 25. 10. all the wayes of the Lord are mercy and iudgement c. So long as thou walkest in the wayes of the Lord there is mercy to thee in every step mercy in Prayer mercy in hearing the Word and in receiving the Sacraments but in the wayes of the devil there is no mercy for as long as thou walkest in darknesse security and all sinfull and vain courses which are the wayes of the devil there is no mercy for thee for the Spirit of God saith those that follow their vanities forsake their own mercies you must turn from your own wayes for the way of mercy lies in another road in the road of holinesse humiliation and repentance in the road of forsaking all your vain imaginations and thoughts If thou follow thy own wayes God will have no mercy on thee Jonas 2. 8. He will not tell a lye to have mercy on thee Gods mercy is true and mercy and truth go together Psal 98. 3. Now if thou be a Drunkard and dost live and die in that sin God hath said that he will damn thee Gal. 5. 21. Now he should be a liar if he should not do it and thou knowest that mercy and truth go together in him Therefore in time repent Pish pish sayes the Drunkard c. I hope the Lord will be more merciful these Preachers preach nothing but damnation I hope the Lord will pardon me Pardon thee saith God how shall I pardon thee for this Thy children have forsaken me and sworne by them that are no gods and though I fed them to the full yet they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troopes in the harlots houses Jer. 5. 7. As if God should have said I cannot pardon thee No why Thou wilt not come at me thou hast forsaken me in mine ordinances c. Will a Physitian cure a man that will not come at him why they have forsaken me saith God and they will not come at me as if he should say I am willing to pardon I send out my commandements but they will not bend their mindes to keep them they forsake these wayes of mercy Have mercy on them nay shall I not rather visit for these things saith the Lord Jer. 5. 9. If those that disobeyed Moses law dyed without mercy Heb. 10. how then lookest thou for mercy that despisest the Lord Jesus even the gospel of his kingdome Nay the crosse of Christ cals thee he wooes thee by his death and passion and now it thou wilt not obey thou shalt die without mercy Oh what a cursed conclusion is this I have a mercifull and a good Father and therefore I will lift up my head against him I know he will forgive me I will break my head I know where to have a plaister to heal it I will offer such a man a wrong I know he will nnot sue me Thou cursed wretch though the Lord pardon ten thousand yet he will not pardon thee no no thou sinnest with a high hand But keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ Jude 21. Keep your selves there if you be wise for if Gods patience be abused it will be turned into wrath and wormwood and it will burn like fire unto the nethermost hell to a man that sins against mercy there is no redemption this story belongs not unto such Thirdly this story is nothing to thee because at that time God was in a way of working miracles but now he is not in that way then he rent the rocks opened the sepulchres and raised the dead c. Now unlesse thou take God in this way again never look to have thy sinnes pardoned if thou goest on in thy sinnes with a high hand It may be God will not be in the way of working of miracles when thou art a dying No the Lord will shew salvation to no man but unto him that orders his conversation aright Psal 50. 23. thy life must be right and all thy wayes must be upright if thou mean to find mercie But the Thief was converted without ordering his wayes aright I answer one Swallow cannot make Spring nor one fair day a harvest One example cannot make a rule one instance concludes nothing This example breakes no square but it is onely hee that lives uprightly that shall see the salvation of God and none else And if thou dost mean to go to heaven thou must go in the way that leads thither and thou must do those things that are between thee and heaven there is but one way to heaven and all that go to heaven must walk that way there is one faith one newnesse of life one kinde of regeneration and God will have thee go all these
what mens thoughts are and therefore the best way for a man to judge himself is to judge himself that way which God doth even by his thoughts The Lord knowes the thoughts of man Psal 94. 11. Examine your selves in this then concerning your thoughts whether they be metamorphosed or no A man may say he hath good thonghts of God but let him examine himself whether it be so or no. 7. Thoughts are the conscional acts of the heart they are the greatest accusers or excusers of the heart they are Consciences Nose as we may so speak True it is the words of the tongue and the actions of the hands are all in the light and sight of the conscience but the nearer a thing is unto the conscience the more able it is to judge of the conscience And therefore Saint Paul puts the accusing or excusing especially on the thoughts Rom. 2. 15. We grant a wicked man may have good thoughts but they are thoughts descending not ascending they are cast into the heart by God not raised out of the heart Moses thought in his heart to visit his brethren Acts 7. ver 23. Good thoughts grow out of the heart of the godly they come from the bottome of it a wicked man may have good thoughts cast into his minde but he will fling them out again Secondly we grant wicked men may have good thoughts but examine whether they be close with the heart or no all the proper thoughts of a man are the possessions of the heart Job 17. 11. They take hold of the heart and they are at home in the heart Here then examine thy heart whether the thoughts of God close with thy heart Doth repentance close with thy heart dost thou think of death and do the thoughts thereof make thee die daily Or dost thou think of death dost thou not love to be holden with that thought Dost thou think of hell and wilt thou not be holden with that thought of hell but thy thoughts are on thy pleasures So then if thy thoughts close not with thy heart it is nothing to the purpose Thirdly there may be good thoughts in thy heart but t is questionable whether good thoughts or no if they come out of due season it is nothing to the purpose If a Printer print never so well and make never so good letters yet if he place one word where another should stand he marrs all So good thoughts if they be seasonable and in their proper place they are the effects of the Spirit but if out of season they may be the thoughts of Reprobates As if thou be at Prayer and then to be thinking of a Sermon is nothing to the purpose They must be seasonable and bring forth fruit in due season Psal 1. 3. When thou art at prayer thou must have thy thoughts suteable to prayer for it thy thoughts be never so good yet if they be not seasonable and suteable to the action thou hast in hand they are not actions of grace grace cannot away with them Fourthly thou hast good thoughts in thy heart but the question is whether they be counselled thoughts such as thou hast determined to think on Thoughts are called the counsels of a mans heart 1 Cor. 4. 5. it may be thou maiest stumble on a good thought now and then it may be when thou art swearing thou wilt say God forgive me when thou hast been drinking all the day it may be a good thought steps in and cries God mercy but thou goest not to schoole to learne the arte of meditation or the science of holy thinking or to say with David O God my heart is fixed Vse 1 Now if that sin in thought be so great a sin this should teach us what a horrible sin it is to sin in deed therfore thoghts are the smallest sins and the Psalmist makes it an argument of Gods quick-sighted power to see thoughts thou seest my thoughts afarre off you will say that man is quick sighted that can see a pins head a 100 myles off even so God sees thoughts if a pins point can stab a man then a sword can much more Now if thoughts be so haynous and capitall a sin how fearfull a sin is it to commit sinne in deed for thee to sweare to lye to commit adultery to keepe wicked company to mocke at Gods people to live in coveteousnesse c. this is to commit in deed if small sins be so damnable what then are the greatest If the cockatrice in the egge be such poyson what will it be when it is hatcht sins in thought are imperfect but outward actions are perfect T is a wicked distinction to say that some sing are Contra legem or Praeter legem for all sins are against the Law as Saint Iames saith when lust is conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished it bringeth forth death thou that art a drunkard thy sin is finished thou art a true sinner in deed if thou livest in the execution of any outward sin Againe sins in thought are simple sins but sins in deed are compounded sin in thought is part of sin but when it is indeed it may be the cause of a 1000 sins for a man to think too much of his bellie is a sin but for a man to be drunken this is abundance of sins for it is an abuse of Gods creatures a spending of his substance a weakning of his parts a scandall to others c. Sin in deed is a sin with an addition sin in deed is an impudent sin see Esay 65. 2 3. c. that man is impudent with a witnes that will commit sin in deed for he is neither ashamed of Gods nor mans presence if any man be a desperate siner this is he Object But it may be objected how then can thoughts be said to be such sins even sins of the highest part of a man Sol. I answer a Theife or Rogue hath burnt a mans dwelling house yet he may proceed further and burn his stable too a 1000 pound and a shilling are more then a 1000 pound Sins in thought are included within sins in deed The souls part of sin is the greatest part of sin Now thonghts are the souls part of sin yet sins in deed must needs be worse in regard of the progresse of sin and also because thoughts are included in them thoughts and deeds are more then thoughts alone Vse 2 I exhort and desire you therefore to consider First what great reason you have to set your thought on God God himself merited this dutie at your hands God hath taken a number of thoughts for us Innumerable are thy thoughts O God to us ward Ps 40. 5. the Lord thinks on us from the Cradle to the Crosse If the Lord should have intermitted his thoughts of thee thou couldst not subsist when thou wast up the Lord thought how to feede thee when thou wast in bed he thought how to preserve thee he
it that man shall never speed well before God Thirdly as men have mean thoughts of their sinnes so they have base thoughts of God They cannot think that God should damne 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 a one as themselves they think God will pardon them 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 be importunate with them and therefore they are loth to be importunate with God Examine your selves then in this duty for importunate prayer is ever more the prayer of an importunate man THE EFFICACIE Of Importunate PRAYER The second Sermon BY That laborious and faithfull Messenger of CHRIST WILLIAM FENNER Sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Minister of Rochford in Essex THE EFFICACIE OF Importunate Prayer LUKE 11. 9. Ask and it shall be given unto you Seek and you shall find 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 soule 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 labored to work in holines Therefore when thou goest to God in praier consider whether thou canst say Lord hear me for I am holy and I would fain be holy but if the saying of these words choak thee then thy prayer condemns 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 prayes 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 bee of good chear Luk. 8. 48. So when a man prayes 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 then 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 laws 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 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 betrer then the barking of dogs or the grunting of swine therefore you whose consciences tell you that you live in sin your praiers never speed at the throne of grace for eternal mercie 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 praier never prevails with God If I regard wickednesse in my heart the Lord will not hear my praier 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 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 tel him he regards iniquitie There be many pray for indeed their conscience will make them pray but they may pray till they come to hell yet they shall never be delivered if there be but one sin unrepented of I remember a storie of a poor woman being troubled in conscience and many Ministers using to visit her at last came one which after much talk 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 puritie 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
Heart his way also else a man is a wicked man Prov. 13. 26. He is wicked whose thoughts are not sanctified But what will men say shal we be condemned for a thought words are small sins and thoughts are lesse Must a man then so strictly look to his thoughts I will make it plain that for a man to be vain-thoughted is a grievous sin 1. Because if the sin of vain thoughts be pardoned it will ask abundance of mercy Mark the Text Abundantly pardon No repentance no mercy without abundance ergo it is not so small as the world takes it to be 2. Thoughts are the sins of the highest part of a man for they are the sins of the heart and surely the sins of the chiefest part are greater then any other A King counts it not much for a Rogue to steale by the wayes side but for a Knight or a Nobleman it is a foul matter So the Lord would not have the lordly part to sin against him He would not have the longue much lesse the heart that is the Kingly part of a man to transgresse And this is the reason why Deborah calls them great thoughts of heart Judg. 5. 15. Sins in thought are great sins the Heart is the lady the mistresse or highest part of a man and He that hath made us looks that we should serve him with the the Master-part That must be afforded him 3. Because thoughts are breaches or every Commandement Other sins are but against one but all the Commandements condemn vain thoughts The first Commandement saith Thou shalt have no other Gods but me But thou settest an Image up in thy heart when thou thinkest of thy pleasures c. So Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day Now if thou think thine own thoughts that day thou breakest this commandement and so of all the rest The sin of thought is therefore a heinous sin 4. Because they are the strength of a mans heart and soule the first-born of original corruption A man by nature is a child of wrath a soul and a body of death Now what doth the heart first break out in It first shews it selfe in its thoughts and if it be the first-borne it must needs be the strength as Jacob said to Ruben his first-born he was his strength and therefore all Lordship lies in the heart A man may more easily part with all other sins then with this because the bent of the heart runs this way the heart will part with any sin rather then with his pernicious thoughts 5. Because they are the dearest acts of men We count a man preferred when he is preferred to the thoughts of a man Gen 40. 14. Think on me saith Joseph to Pharaohs Butler I count it thanks enough if thou preferred me to thy thoughts We prize that most which we think most on That which a man scorns he scorns to bestow his thoughts on but that which a man sets his heart on that is his dearling Now that any thing should be dear to a man save God this is a horrible sin when a man makes his Dogs his dearling his Whore his dearling c. For look what thou most thinkest on that is thy dearling Why Because thou dandlest it in thy heart therefore it is a horrible sin for a man not to set his heart upon God Obj. But can a man live without thoughts doth Grace call us to leave thinking then a man must cease to be Ans Non tollit sed attollit naturam it takes them not away but it takes them up He doth not say Let the wicked forsake thoughts but his thoughts let him set them on other matters When God cals men unto him he is so far from taking away mens thoughts as that he will rather increase them If thou be a new creature thou must have more thoughts Thou art full of thoughts now but then thou wilt be fuller Psal 119. 59. When David turned to God his heart thought upon his wayes the word in the original is He thought on his wayes on both sides The curious work of the Sanctuary was wrought on both sides Common works are wrought only on one side but on the other side are full of ends and shreds So the Prophet looks on his way on both sides he strives to walk curiously precisely and accurately to turn himself to Gods testimonies Ergo God cals not to forsake thoughts but our thoughts it is a hard duty for men to forsake their own thoughts I will make it appear thus First Because it is a hard thing to reform ones self one thing may reform another but here is the difficulty for a thing to reform it self it is an easie matter for a mans heart to reform his tongue but it is hard for the heart to reform it self in correcting its own thoughts it is hard for a man to deny himself A hell-hound may reform his tongue but here is the difficulty for his heart to reform it self for thoughts are are the heart Phil. 3. 19. who mind earthly things thoughts of earthly things are called the mind a mans thoughts and his mind are all one so that if it reform thoughts it must reform it self 2. It is hard to reform thoughts because they are partial acts if they were full acts a man might reform them rather then being partial acts my reason is because they are in every action he doth thoughts run on all mens actions if thoughts were alone men might mend them but they busie themselves about all actions if a man pray thoughts run along with him in prayer nay men pray with twisted thoughts so that before he comes to an end of his prayer he shall have abundance of glanceings on other things See it in old Eli 1 Sam. 1. Hanna was praying Old Eli saith the Text thought she had been drunken Either he was or should have been praying also yet you see he had wandring thoughts to mark the lips of his neighbours So as John was preaching Mat. 3. there came a thought into his hearers hearts that they were the seed of Abraham What did make them think so John spake of no such matter but he said Every tree that brings not forth good fruit c. They had it seems by-thoughts in the duty of hearing therefore seeing thoughts do thus twist them selves about mens actions hence it is that they are so hard to be rooted out 3. It is hard for men to forsake their own thought because they are in mens hearts Their inward thoughts Psal 49. 11. Every man hath two kinde of thoughts inward and outward explicite and implicite implicite thoughts are those that never shew themselves in the heart but at some desperate attempt Explicite are those which are in the heart every day as in Psal 49 11. They think their Houses shall continue for ever Would you think that men should have such thoughts 〈◊〉 their ourtward thoughts were they were mortal We see saith the Text that men
gospel of Christ is called into question by the men of this world even for your sakes that walk not worthy of God nay by reason of this God cannot hire servants to do his work Beloved God hath sent us out to hire servants now many would come in willingly but because they see think that those that professe the name of Christ be dissemblers Puritans and hypocrites and therefore they say as sometimes the Indians did of the Spaniards If these men be the servants of Christ I will never be his servant So if these men be the servants of God Lord blesse me from them What a damned thing is this Sixthly If we walk not worthy of God we put great indignity upon him A worthy man cannot abide to meddle with unworthy things and shall a Christian serve God after an unworthy fashion Note No master either in heaven earth or hell will have a servant unworthy of him and this is the reason why men sweare and lie and live like devils incarnate because the Devil will have them worthy of hell So the world lets men cozen and dissemble for no other cause but because the world will have them worthy of the world So that all masters whether the world the flesh or the devil look that their servants should be worthy of them and do you then think that the Lord will not have his servants walk worthy of him Be not deceived God is not mocked Gal. 6. 7. Dost thou come into his house heare his Word and wilt thou not obey it Comest thou to a Sacrament and hast thou drinking carding and dicing at home Thou goest under the name of a good Christian yet thou livest in thy sins having a secret lust either to sweare or lie or to commit adulterie Take heed I say God will not be mocked For men to go in the name of Gods children and yet not to serve obey him this is to make a mockery of God but God will not be mocked Oh saith one my Father will never like it if I be so strict and precise and as for my Mother she cannot abide a Puritan Another saith I cannot keep my children unlesse I put my money to use c. But what saith Christ He that loveth father or mother c. more then me is not worthy of me Mat. 10. 37. Dost thou argue on this fashion and yet hopest to be a Christian Dost thou plead self-respect and dost thou hope to go for a Christian what a mockerie is this nature abhorrs it I remember a storie of a Boy who being at Lyons and saw two men one tall and he had a short cloak the other short and he had a long cloak and thought it very unseemly so he took the long cloak and put it on the tall mans back and the cloak on the short mans back and then it liked him So is it seemly that any of us should weare the long robes of Christianitie and yet be short in Obedience that we should go for the people of God and not behave our selves sutably In this place there is no room for Papists to establish merit for themselves the Apostle intends no such matter in this place for we are not our own men and therefore cannot merit We are taught to pray Give us this day our daily bread we have not one bit of bread but we must beg it and when we have done all we can as who doth yet we are but unprofitable servants But suppose we could merit all righteousnesse yet all our ability is from God Again suppose we be righteous what is that to him if we be holy what is that to him If we be damned he is never the worse if we be saved he is not the better if we keep all his commandements yet it is his mercy to save us He shews mercy to thousands to whom not to them that sin but to them that love me and keep my commandements Exod. 20. 6. To one that keeps Gods commandements it is his love to save him it is his love that he hath mercy on him The Church of Rome do talk much of their well-doing but in the mean while what becomes of their sins they should go and suffer for their sins and then come and talk of merit Do they talk of merit before they have satisfied for their sinnes the Law will be satisfied first and when they have endured hell-fire world without end then let them talk of merit The Lord doth not mean that we must walk worthy so as to merit any thing for suppose that al1 the sufferings of this life and all the torments of the world that all the Saints of God have suffered were put on one man and he to endure them all yet they are not worthy the glory that shal be revealed Rom. 8. 18 Here then is no room for Papists merits Yet we must walk worthy of God with sutablenesse and if we do not so the Lord will not owne us You know the story of the guests in the Gospel and how they were invited to the supper one pretended one thing another another thing one had married a wife he could not come yet sure I am he might have brought her with him another had bought oxen c. But what followes in the text Mat. 22. Those that were bidden were not worthy therefore they shall not taste of my supper So some say for their sinnes it is their nature or one occasion or other puts them off they could not come None that are unworthy of God shall taste of the mercy of God neither in the pardon of their sins nor salvation no you get not so much as a taste of Christ if you walk not worthy of the gospel of Christ The truth of this will appeare in the Use if we consider what this worthy walking is Vse First We must be as it were even the very nature of God we should as Peter speaks shew forth the vertue of him that hath called us that we may shew what a glorious God what a blessed Redeemer and righteous Judge we have and admire his goodnesse that hath called us out of darknesse into this glorious light and we must be holy as he is holy 1 Pet. 1. 15. How doth this sute with the nature of God when we walk not worthy of God God is just 2 Cor. 1. 3. how unworthy then are we that are cruel unmerciful and unjust God is a God of peace 1 Cor. 14. 22. how unworthy then are we of him that live in heart-burning one with another We are the image of God if we please him 1 Cor. 11. 7. What a shame dishonour and wrong then is it to God that we should have his image and yet be nothing like him Should a glorious King see a deformed picture of himself surely he would make that man smoke that pictured him so And shall we go for the image of God the God of all glory and shall we be vile and unclean negligent
the like again 3. Tell me where was this thief pardoned Was it not in Golgotha where Christ was crucified the place where Christ did triumph where he was crowned where he forgave transgressions and sins there it was where Christpardoned him Now as it is with a Captain when he hath gotten the victory he will set up some monument at the place that it may be a token thereof so Christ having wrought the salvation of the world set up a monument there where he wrought it whereof none greater then this could be not the rending of the rocks nor the earthquake nor any of the wonders besides did so honour the death of Christ as the conversion of this Thief who like a Physitian having made an excellent medicine and desirous to try it will do that for nothing which he will not do again for much so Christ having made an admirable soveraign plaister for the salvation of mankinde so soon as ever he had made it he makes an experiment thereof on this Thief as if he should have said Now you shall see what my death can do So then you see that the conversion of this Thief was no ordinary but an extraordinary wonder Fourthly tell me how he cures by forgivenesse not by bare repentance only but by repentance with Martyrdome he did not only nakedly repent of his sin but he died also a Martyr for Christ hee was a Martyr on the crosse for although he was first hung on the crosse for his evill deeds yet afterwards when he repented and confessed the Lord Jesus Christ and maintained him to be the Messias and condemned Pilate Herod and the Jewes by publishing that he was unjustly crucified and that he was the son of God I say though at the first he was hung on the crosse for his sin yet now they let him hang for his religion as by their own law it was manifest for they had a law that whosoever confessed Christ should be punished so that now he confessing Christ they let him hang for his religion to Christ so that he died a Martyr and verse 20. what a witnesse he gave unto Christ The other answering he rebuked him saying Dost not thou feare God c. As if he should say thou seest the Scribes and Pharisees feare not God they have conspired against the Son of God The Jewes that should have beleeved on him cryed crucifiy him Herod hath mocked him Pilate condemned him dost thou not yet feare God what not thou that art in the state of condemnation thou that art to be damned within this houre is it not enough for them to crucifie Christ but dost not thou feare God neither Oh what a witnesse was this unto Christ no wonder if he found mercy when it pleased the Lord to enlarge himselfe so in bringing his soule unto him Obj. But it may be objected why is this Scripture recorded if I may not make this use of it to repent as this thief did seeing all Scripture is for our learning Sol. You know the common answer it is once recorded that none might despaire and but once that none might presume Christ saved him at the last cast that when a man is at that pinch hee might not despaire if he repent and become a new creature and but one was saved that none might presume There are many reasons why this Scripture is recorded First to shew the soveraignty of Christs death and as Christ healed all manner of sicknesse in his life so his death is able to heale all manner of sins it is the leaves of that tree only that can heale the Nations Rev. 22. 2. and therefore the Scripture sets downe a desperate example of a thief for a man must be a desperate man if he be a thief and Christ did this to shew that he can shew mercy even to a thief that so all the world may take notice of the vertue of Christs death Secondly it is recorded that no poor soul should cry out of his sinnes saying I am damned I am accursed I am more sinfull and gracelesse then any man more wicked then any man I say do not thus reason for here is an example set down of the thief and you know what Christ said to the multitude of a Thief Do you come unto me as to a thief with swords and staves as if he should have said You deal basely with me as if I were as bad as a thief implying that a thief is the worst of all men nay as bad as the devil Joh. 12. 6. And it is reckoned as one of their damnable usages against Christ that they hung him between two thieves two of the vilest creatures of all so that a thiefe is an example of a desperate man and yet you see Christ hath mercy and gives it to a thief Therefore if the LORD have enlarged thy heart to repent be not discouraged but lay hold on CHRIST Thirdly this Scripture is recorded that we may not cast off all men that come to the last cast all men though great sinners must not desperately be cast off For suppose a man have been a Drunkard yet prayer and supplication may be made to God for him and God may open his eyes and there is some possibility that he may be saved though it be a thousand to one yet I say there is some possibilitie for there was one thief saved at the last cast and therefore a Drunkard c. is not to be given over for quite gone It may be there are a wonderfull company of improbabilities in it yet we cannot tell but that this may be the second to whom the Lord will give repentance and therefore the Lord converted this thief Lastly this story is recorded that by it we may be encouraged to believe and to be converted betimes for if the Lord were so willing to receive the thief that sought him but at the last houre how willing will he be then to receive thee that seekest him betimes But as for thee that livest in thy sins and bearest on the example of this Thief let me tell thee this story was never penned for thy comfort The Lord knew how men would abuse this story therefore S. Matthew S. Mark and S. John omit it and if we had none to testifie it all the world would say both the theeves were damned nay S. Matthew saith the thieves both the thieves cast the same thing in his teeth only S. Luke he pens it for the comfort of the godly he was loth as it seems to me to leave it out quite because some poor soule might stand in need of it Therefore let me here rap off the fingers of all those that would lay hold on this example of the thief to deferre their repentance this story belong not unto such First because this thief had not the means of life and grace before for where do you read in all the gospel that ever this Thiefe had the meanes of life perhaps when Christ was
found God then let us bring him home to our houses and there retaine him that so he may be our God and the God of our posterity in all our and their afflictions and this will make you to rejoyce exceedingly Oh my beloved carry God whom with you and let him be a Father to you and to your posterity Quest But now may wee keep the Lord it would he worth our labour for at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore Ans First wee must be sure to prepare a room for him for he is a King and a King you know sends his harbinger before him to prepare a roome for him saying come out of her my people and touch no unclean thing and then I will be thy God and thou shalt be my people 2. Cor. 6. 17. so my beloved brethren come out of all sinfull courses pleasures and practises and you may expect Gods comming unto your houses And when you sit downe by your fires or lie downe in your beds think thus with your selves what an equall condition doth God propound it is but only to part with a sin a lust a Dalilah which I may very well spare as well as I may spare water out of my shooes or a coale out of my bosome I say thinke thus with thy selfe and say in thy heart will God keep Company with mee if I will not keep Company with sin are the termes no harder this is a good offer I will at once then bid sin adue for now I am upon another bargaine here is an offer that I was nor aware of I will quickly dispatch this bargaine and make my peace with my God and thus if you would have God to bee yours then let your soules and bodies be his by forsaking all sins and when you shall call God will come and say here am I Esay 58. 9. Secondly as you must prepare a room for God so you must give him content too let God have his will crosse him not Where the King is he will have all things to his minde even so it is with God If he may have his own worship you please him wonderous well you must dresse his dishes according to his tooth but if you put poyson into his meat if you mingle the traditions of men with Gods worship then you discontent him Lay aside therefore all your superstitions and erronious opinions of God and his worship and do it according to his will in his word reuealed and then yon please him indeed when a Nation or a soule submits to God and to his truth in all things To bow at the name Jesus is not meant at the word Jesus for so to give him the bow is to commit syllabicall Idolatrie but the meaning is wee should worship him in spirit and in truth humbly subjecting our selves unto Christ Thirdly as we must give him his mind so wee must give him welcome if you displease God and look loweringly or sowerly upon him and grudge at God or at his truth no wonder then if God goe away land surely this is the sinne of England we bear an ill will unto God and his word and God hath done well for this Land and what could hee have done more then hee hath done for this Land as hee saith of his vineyard Esay 5. 4 5. but it brought forth contrary fruit even so wee doe all contrary to Gods expectation mark therefore what God saith hee will take away the hedge and it shall be trodden down and for ought that may be collected so it is like to bee with us if his mercy prevent it not for are wee better than the old world the same sins that were found in the old world are found in us Sodom's and Gomorahs sinnes were but strawes in respect of ours and yet God rained down fire and brimstone upon them tell me are there not as great sinnes amongst us as were in Jerusolem who were carried captives their city destroyed and they a vagabond people untill this day Are we better then other Brethren and neighbour Nations that have drunk so deeply of Gods wrath I tell you truly we area burden to God he cannot long beare us and he will think his burthen well over when he hath destroyed us You know all men are glad when their pain is over even so it is with God we are a pain and a trouble unto him and why should God go continually pained with us which are worthy to be destroyed Then shall England seek peace but shall not find it God shall not pity us Oh my beloved brethren what a pitifull thing it is when a mercifull God shall shew himself unmercifull when his patience shall be turned into impatience There is a hard time ere long befalling England if God in mercy prevent it not but we do not consider it lamentable is our time Christ wept over Jerusalem Oh saith he that thou hadst known in this thy day of visitation the things that do concern thy peace but now thy are hid from thine eyes Beloved what do you think we shall do when Gods mercies are turned into justice Look to it England the Lord hath wept over thee in mercy many years What shall we do when we have leisure to consider what once we did enjoy for Gods patience is never truly prized till we want it and then the poor soul will thus say There was a time when we might have been at peace with this patient God but now he is hid from our eyes now the gate is shut barred and locked up thus when a people doth abuse Gods mercy hee sends the contrary judgements and then it will grieve and wound our soules to think what once wee did enjoy but that soule that will bid God welcome to his heart may goe singing to his grave Fourthly You must be importunate with God to tarry and account it a great favour if he will stay For God hath roome enough in heaven and therefore you need not lodge him for want of lodging but you must be beholding to him to tarry with you yet in these dayes men doe not love to be beholding Jacob wrestled with God and by that meanes he held him till he blessed him you live under the meanes and know the way and will you not doe it what greater condemnation can there be and how great will your judgement be unto you more then unto them that have no meanes and as it was said of Capernaum so say I to England Thou England that was lifted up to heaven with meanes shalt be brought down to hel thou shalt be abused for it for if the mighty works which hath been done in thee had been done in India or Turkie they would have repented ere this time And therefore Capernums place is Englands place which is the most scaldings tormenting place of all if it repent not And marke what I say the poore native Turks and Infidels shall have a more coole summer Parlour in hell then England shall have for we stand upon high rates therefore thy torment shall be the more intollerable to bear Now the Lord write these things in our hearts by the finger of his holy spirit for his Christs sake under whom I would we were all covered Amen FINIS a John 5. 35