but loose all these in the Lord Christ And see that mercy and compassion and that boundlesse goodnesse that is in the Lord Iesus and that mercy that will pardon all sinnes and forgive all sorts of sinners if they be humbled before him There is no pardon in grace nor in means in Word nor in Sacraments there is none but in Christ see none but that and when thou art there hold thy heart to it drench and drowne thy Soule there and fling thy Soule into the Sea of that plenteous Redemption in Christ and though thy prayers and all faile yet that mercy in Christ will never faile Away with these rivers these are all fresh water comforts that will faile but that Sea of mercy in Christ will hold for ever See a Sea of misery and confusion in thy soule and a Sea of mercy in Christ and say none but that Lord Here sit and here fall and for ever establish thy soule that it may goe well with thee for ever Thus you ought to goe beyond all meanes and he that doth thus doth truly despaire of all saving succour in them Therefore goe home and say thus the Lord hath given mee some comfort and some grace and a heart enlarged to walke with God and to performe dutie to him but I trust not in this comfort nor in my enlargement all my comfort is in Christ that Sea of mercy is still full and I rest there go from all these to that and rest there and let that content thee for ever Thus you see how farre the Prodigall hath gone Text. What doth he now he comes to himselfe and saith I will arise and goe to my Father and say to him Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy sonne make mee as one of thy hired servants Now his stout stomacke is come downe and he comes home by weeping crosse and he that had formerly slighted the kindnesse of a father and said Hee would not alwayes be holden within his fathers house he would have his portion and he hath it and is gone and at last when his heart and all failes him he comes to himselfe said here I may starve and die too the hogges fare better then I do therefore home I will go to my father c. This is the third passage that I told you of in the description of this worke of humiliation In these words there are these two things cleare First he submits himselfe to his father Secondly he is content to be at his fathers disposing he doth not seeke to be his owne carver and say if I may be my fathers steward and have some eminent place in the house then I will go home no but he saith father I am not worthy to be a Sonne make mee as a hired servant if I can but get into my fathers house againe I will die rather then go away any more he is content to be any thing so his father will but receive him into his family though it were but to be a drudge in the kitchen here 's a heart worth gold oh saith he let all the weight lye upon me I care not what I be only let mee be a servant So then from the former of these two the Doctrine is this The third Doctrine The distressed sinner that despaires of all supply and succour in himselfe is driven to submit himselfe to the Lord God for succour and reliefe It is no thankes to the Prodigall that hee comes home now neither is it any thanks to a poore sinner that hee returnes after all his wandring away from God yet better late then never For the opening of this point I will shew two things First What is the behaviour of the heart in this worke of submission and the manner of it Secondly The reasons why the Lord drives the heart to this stand and makes it fall downe at the footestoole of mercy What is subjection The first how the Soule behaves it selfe in this subjection The sinner having a sight of his owne sin and being troubled and overwhelmed with the unsupportable sorrow that attends there unto and yet he is not able to get power over his sinne nor assurance of pardon from the Lord for you must conceive the sinner to bee in the worke of preparation and hee yet conceives God to bee an enemy against him though he is in a good way to mercy yet God comes as an angry God against him and hee takes what course he can and seekes far and wide and improves all meanes and takes up all dutyes that if it were possible he might heale his wounded Soule and get ground against his corruptions but the truth is hee finds no succour and receives no comfort in what he hath nor in what he doth and therefore being in this despairing condition he seeth he cannot avoyd Gods anger neither can he beare it therefore he is forced though loath to make triall of the kindnesse of a father and of the Lord though for the present he apprehends God to be just to be incensed against him and though hee hath no experience of Gods favour for the while and no certainty how he shall speed if hee come to God yet because he sees that he cannot be worse then hee is but hee may be better if God please and this he knowes that none but God can helpe him therefore he fals at the footestoole of mercy and lyes grovelling at the gate of grace and submits himselfe to God that he may do what he will with him When Ionah had denounced that heavy judgement and as it were throwne wild-fire about the streets saying Ionah 3.9 within fortie dayes Nineveh shall be destroyed See what they resolve upon they fasted and prayed and put on sack cloath and ashes the Lord in mercy grant that we may take the like courses who can tell said they but God may turne and repent him of his feirce wrath that we perish not As if they had said we know not what God will do but this wee know that we cannot oppose Gods judgements nor prevent them nor succour our selves yet who can tell but the Lord may bee gratious and bountifull and yet continue peace and goodnesse to us in this kind thus it is with a sinner despairing of all succour in himselfe when he seeth hell fire flashing in his face and that he cannot succour himselfe then he saith this I know that all the meanes in the world cannot save mee yet who can tell but the Lord may have mercy upon mee and cure this distressed conscience and heale all these wounds that sinne hath made in my Soule when Paule went breathing out threatnings against the Church of God and he came furnished with letters from the high Priests with all his tricks and implements to persecute the Saints the Lord met him and there was a single combat fought between them the glory of the Lord amazed
that mercy shall deny him any thing and take any thing from him so it is content that mercy enjoyne what it will and make what Edicts and Law it will So that the Commands and Precepts of the mercy of God in Christ may take place in his heart When Iohn Baptist came to prepare them for Christ and the hearts of the people were humbled the Publicans came to him saying Master What shall we doe Luk. 3.13 14 and so the souldiers said Master what shall we doe and he said Doe no man wrong but bee content with your wages The question is not now covetousnesse and crueltie what shall wee doe No the souldiers came now and said Thou art our Master the Spirit of God and the Spirit of wisedome is revealed to thee in the Word command and enjoyne thou what thou wilt and they are content with whatsoever hee commands them The humbled heart is content that mercy doe what it will with him not onely that mercy shall save him for so farre a reprobate and a carnall hypocrite may be content The hypocrite is marveilous willing that mercy shall save him but his lusts and corruptions must rule him still You are content that mercy should save you from your peevish heart and yet your peevish heart must rule you still and you are content that Christ should save you from your drunkennesse and prophaning of the Lords Day but these lusts must rule you still A drunkard that hath gotten some dangerous surfeit is content that the Physician should cure him not because he would leave his drunkennesse but because he would have his health and therefore being up hee returnes to his drunkennesse againe And the thiefe that is condemned to die cryes for a pardon not because he would live to be an honest man but to be free from the halter and therefore when he is freed he goes to the hie way and robs againe it is not for honesty that he desires a pardon but for libertie Deceive not your selves mercy will never save you except mercy may rule you too Here is a heart worth gold and the Lord delights in such a Soule that falls into the armes of mercie and is content to take all from mercy and to be at mercies disposing and to have mercie sanctifie him and correct him and teach him and to rule in him in all things This the heart of a truly abased sinner will have and it will say Good Lord do what thou wilt with me rule this Soule and take possession of me onely doe good to the Soule of a poore sinner If the Lord give any thing he is content and if the Lord take away any thing or command any thing he is content You that are ruled by your lusts think of this When the Lord hath awakened and arrested your Soules and you are going downe to hell Oh then you will crie Lord forgive this and that sinne it is true I have hated and loathed the Saints of God good Lord forgive this sinne oh that mercie would save mee then mercy will answer and say When you are out of your beds you will returne to your old courses againe no he that ruled in you let him save and succour you I will save none saith mercy except I may rule them too Thirdly The last degree of contentednesse is this The Soule is willing that the Lord should make it able to take what mercy will give This is a lower pegge that the Soule is brought unto The sinner before had nothing of his owne in possession nay he can challenge nothing of the other but meerely to doe what hee will and hee is not able to take what mercy will give and bestow And therefore hee is not onely content that mercy provide what it thinks good but also to give him strength to take what mercy gives The beggar that comes to the dole though he have no meanes to help himselfe withall and though he can challenge nothing of the man yet hee hath a hand and can receive the dole that is given him but a poore sinner is brought to this low ebbe and this shewes the emptinesse of it that as hee hath no spirituall good at all and can challenge no good neither is hee able to take that good which mercy provides The hand of the Soule whereby it must receive mercy is faith and the humbled Soule seeth that he is as able to satisfie for his sinne as to beleive in a Saviour that must satisfie And hee is as able to keepe the Law as to beleeve in him that hath fulfill'd the Law for him In Saint Iohn beleeving is call'd receiving Ioh. 1.16 and therefore the poore sinner seeth that it is not onely mercy and salvation that must do him good but hee seeth that if mercy and salvation were laid downe upon the naile for beleeving and receiving of it hee could not doe it of himselfe and therefore the Lord must give him a hand to receive it with You know the Apostle Paul saith Phil. 1.29 The naturall man cannot receive the things that be of God And the same Apostle is plaine to you it is given to beleeve So that faith is a gift and a poore sinner is as able to create a world as to receive mercy of himselfe The want of this is the cause why many a man that hath made a good progresse in the way of happinesse hee falls short of his hopes Many a sinner hath beene awakened and his heart humbled and the Soule comes to heare of Christ and thinks to lay hold of mercy and Christ out of his owne proper power and thus he deceives himselfe and the faith that he dreamed to have was nothing else but a fancie a faith of his owne framing it was never framed by the Almighty Spirit of the Lord in heaven hee never saw need of the power of God to make him able to beleeve as well as to save him and therefore his faith and all came to just nothing Now the broken hearted sinner saith All that I expect it must be from another and I am content to take what mercy will give and that mercy shall deny me what it will and give me what it will and I am content that mercy rule in me nay that mercy must give me a heart to beleeve and to take mercy or else I shall never beleeve Now you see what it is that the Soule must be contented withall The manner of Gods dealing Now I come to shew the maner of Gods dealing with the Soule for the Soule must be content with this too as I told you before The manner of Gods dealing may appeare in three particulars First the Soule stoopes to the condition that the Lord will appoint be it never so hard it is content to come to Gods termes be they never so harsh and wearisome As sometimes when the soule finds that the heaviest hand of the Lord hath laid long upon him that the sharpest
our works will not therefore we must goe to Christ and if we goe to Christ for all and expect all from him then we must be content to be guided by him in all Now let me propound this question Either thou must be content to be at the dispose of God and mercy or at whose dispose wilt thou be If thou wilt have any thing else besides mercy to dispose of thee thou makest that to be a Mediator to thee But haply thou wouldst dispose of thy selfe and dispose of mercy after thy owne minde Yes so I thought It may be thou sayest I will have grace if I may dispose of it Thus a proud heart would faine have it in his owne hands but upon these termes thou never hadst nay thou never shalt have grace Here is the winding of the Soule Therefore many dare not venture their salvation upon Gods free favour But they would have it in their owne power that they may receive it when they will that they may be drunke and take grace and be proud and prophane and take grace when they will It is a sottish delusion of men that are deluded and blinded by the divell But that the Soule which would have it thus cannot have it upon these termes I thus reason He that will have grace from his owne dispose shall never have grace Sillogisme because he hath none in his owne power to dispose of But he that is not content to be at the dispose of grace and to be at the dispensation of Gods good pleasure for mercy and grace he would have it to be at his owne disposing And therefore hee shall nay he never can have grace In a word Who must dispose of you Your selves then you must have that grace which you can dispose of and that 's just none at all Grace is meerely in Gods hands to dispose of Thus wee have brought the Soule to bee fitly prepared for Christ and mercy and grace Now let us doe as travellers doe The summe of all this worke of preparation they sometimes sit downe to reckon how many miles they have gone So let us enquire what we have spoken You know I mentioned two things necessary in this worke of preparation for Christ First Contrition And secondly Humiliation First God brings the sinner to a sight of himselfe and his sin makes him to be insupportably burthened with the vilenesse of it so that now the heart of a poore sinner seeth an absolute necessitie of a change and therefore thinks thus with himselfe if I rest thus I shall never see God with comfort That 's for Contrition Now he seeth that hee must change and hee is content to change and therefore though he will no more be drunke nor follow his old base practices yet he begins to sherke for his owne comfort and he useth all the ordinances of God to see what they can doe for him and he goes to himselfe and his selfe-sufficiencies and finding no succour there he falles downe before the Lord and begs mercy and yet he seeth himselfe unworthy of mercy without which hee must perish He hath nothing and hee can doe nothing to merit it yet he is content that God should dispose of him as hee thinks good onely if it bee possible he prayes that the Lord would shew mercy to a poore forlorne creature Now the sinner is pared and fitted for Christ as a graft for the stocke He is come to the very quicke and is as little as may be All his swelling sufficiency is pared away For he is not onely brought to renounce his sinne but even his sufficiency and all his parts and abilities which Adam needed not have done if he had stood in his innocency In a word hee is wholly pluckt from the first Adam for here is the maine lift So that now the second Adam Christ Iesus may take possession of him and be all in all in him as the Apostle saith Now the Soule is a fit matter for Christ to worke upon namely to make him a vessell fit to receive mercy and grace and when hee hath fitted him for mercy hee will give it to him and when he hath given him grace he will maintaine it and increase it and then quicken it and crowne it and perfect it in the Day of the Lord Iesus Christ And lastly he will glorifie himselfe in all these Here is a right Christian indeed that expresseth Christ in all Christ preparing Christ giving Christ maintaining and increasing and Christ quickening and Christ crowning Thus you see that it is not left as a matter of libertie but it is of necessitie required that the heart bee thus contented every humble heart hath this in some measure though not all so sensibly The uses are double First to the people Vses to shew them what to doe Secondly to the Ministers The uses for the people are First for Instruction Secondly for Examination Thirdly for Terror Fourthly for Exhortation The first use is for instruction and that is double The first use to the people First Is it so that the humble Soule is content to be thus at the Lords disposing then from hence we collect this use that they which have greatest parts and gifts and meanes and places abilities and honors for the most part they are most hardly brought home to the Lord Iesus Christ They that are most harly humbled they are most hardly converted how hard a thing is it for such men as have gifts and learning and wisedome or any bignesse that makes them swell naturally how hard is it I say for such men to be saved I wish their courses did not testifie the same they that are most high and greatest in gifts and place they must come in at the strait gate and what a hard and difficult worke that is judge you and therefore it is hard for them to come home to the Lord Iesus Christ Humiliation is the emptying of the Soule from whatsoever it hath that makes it swell The heart must not joy in any thing nor rest upon any thing but onely yeild to the Lord Iesus Christ to be at his disposing and carving now these parts and gifts and abilities and meanes both for Iudgement and place they are great props and pillars for the heart of a carnall man to rest upon and to quiet it selfe withall and to looke for some good there from and when the heart is setled upon such pillars as these are it is hard for the word of God to prevaile with that heart The Prophet Ieremy knew it well enough and therefore he said I will go to the rich and honorable â—eremy 5.5 and they burst all bonds asunder and brake the yoke The poore were naught but the rich were exceedingly vile and our Saviour proves it for when the rich young man came to Christ said Master what shall I do to have everlasting life Math. 19.24 Christ answered thus go sell all that thou hast
satisfie for the sinne that thou hadst committed before conversion and if thou canst not maintaine thy owne grace then there is an absolute necessitie of going to Christ for all Nay aske your owne hearts and services and say thus prayer wilt not thou save mee and hearing wilt not thou save me they will all professe plainly and say salvation is not in mee saith prayer and salvation is not in me saith hearing and salvation is not in me saith repentance and amendment Indeed wee have heard of a Christ that hee hath dyed and satisfied and suffered and risen and delivered his poore servants and pluckt poore Soules from hell and we need a Saviour to pardon us alas we cannot save our selves All thy duties will say to thee as the King said to the woman when the famine was great in Samaria And the King was going upon the wall there cryed a woman to him 2 King 6.26 27. saying Helpe oh King And the King made this answer If the Lord God succour not how can I helpe So mee thinkes the Soule saith When it is besieged with the wrath of God Oh helpe prayer and hearing and Sacrament and the like Mee thinks I heare them reply in this manner Alas how can we helpe you have prayed sinfully and heard the Word untowardly and received the Sacraments unworthily Oh let us all goe to heaven for a Mediator good Lord pardon the sinne of these prayers and these hearings and the unworthinesse of these Sacraments and all this frothinesse and deadnesse in hearing Thus they will all send you to heaven for a Christ and say alas I cannot save you how many commands have I disobeyed how many duties have I slighted and therefore send to Christ for pardon we are weake and feeble and onely come to the eare and to the eye but the Lord Iesus must come downe from heaven and be powerfull every way to doe good to your Soules You must goe to a Christ to batter the proud flesh and to pardon all that is amisse and to performe all duties that you would have done When Elisha tooke up the cloake of Eliah he said where is the God of Eliah he did not say 2 King 2.14 Where is the the cloake but where is the God of Eliah All the ordinances of God are but as the barke of the tree but Christ and the Promise are the pith The heart and life and power of all is in Christ onely therefore looke higher then these for they doe all proclaime that there is no succour but in Christ The third meanes to drive our hearts from resting upon our duties is this The third meanes We must consider the unconceivable hazzard and danger and the inconvenience that will come if we put any affiance in any of those priviledges that we have or any duties that we performe The very consideration hereof is able to withdraw our hearts from resting upon them The danger appeares in two particulars First This carnall confidence in what we have and doe shut a man out from having any part in Christ He that is guiltie of this sinne withdrawes himselfe from the favour of the Lord and he becomes uncapable of that mercy and good which God hath revealed and Christ hath purchased for poore distressed sinners For this is all that the Lord lookes for at our hands that we should deny our selves and wholy cast our selves upon his goodnes and mercy nay that man which relyes upon what he doth puts himselfe without the reach of all that mercy and great salvation that is in Iesus Christ Christ came not to call the righteous to repentance nor them that trust in themselves nor them that thinke they can save themselves but he came to call sinners to repentance and those that see an utter insufficiency in themselves to save or succour themselves in the day of trouble there is great salvation in Christ and plenteous redemption purchassed by Christ and you heare of all this and it is all true but this I must tell you all that Christ hath done and deserved shall never doe you good if you rest upon your selves You doe thinke that it is such a great sin as indeed it is sometimes you make conscience of drunkennes and other sinnes if you make conscience of any thing then know that this is the greatest sinne in the world Gal. 5.2 See how the Apostle sets himselfe against this carnall confidence where speaking to the Galathians that trusted in their owne circumcision that answers to our Baptisme Behold saith he I Paul say I not a bare man but I Paul enspired with the Spirit in an extraordinary manner and I an Apostle that doe not nay that cannot erre I that have received a commission from the Lord I say that if you be Circumcised that is if you trust in your Circumcision Christ shall profit you nothing nay saith he Iesus Christ is made of none effect to you if you seeke to bee justified by the workes of the Law Verse 4. If you rest in the merit of your prayer Christ is made of none effect to you and you shall never receive any power from the death of Christ the bloud of Christ will never purge those filthy hearts of yours and his resurrection shall never quicken you Whatsoever your case and condition is or can be if your sinnes were never so haynous for greatnes continuance and for number if you wil but renounce your selves and goe to Christ nothing shall condemne you but if your sinnes were never soe well reformed and amended and reformation nay Christ himselfe shall never doe you any good It is with the Soule of a poore sinner as it is with the body of a man If it had some slightie disease or sicknes and that may haply be cured but if his throate begin to swell and the vitall passages be stopped up that he can receive no meat nor phisicke every neighbour will say he is but a dead man all the meanes and men in the world can doe him no good he can receive nothing downe So it is with the Soule it is annoyed with many base corruptions and sinfull distempers and if it be wounded with many rebellions there is meanes enough in Christ to cure all If thou were a filthy besotted drunkard or an adulterer the blood of Christ can purge thy drunken adulterous heart one touch of Christ can cure all thy bloody issue If thou wert dead in trespasses and sinnes the Lord Iesus could quicken thee and raise thee from death to life but if thy proud heart swell with thy owne sufficiency and thou wilt rest upon thy selfe all the merits and grace in Christ can doe thee no good This is the maine conclusion Ioh. 5.40 into which all the rest is resolved You will not come to mee saith our Saviour that you might be saved He doth not say you have many sinnes and shall not be saved but you will not come to me c.
beyond all that you can doe and labour so to approve your hearts to God that you may see greater mercy in God then in all that you can doe Now there are two Cavils which carnall persons slander this truth of God withall and these must be answered before I can come to the trials The first Cavill The first cavill with which wretches are content upon this truth it is this Oh say they What is it so that all our prayers and hearings all our care and desires and all our improvement of meanes are nothing worth will not all these justifie us nor make us acceptable to God then let us cast care away let us sweare and ryot and drinke and live as wee list wee heare that all the duties that wee can doe will not save us the Minister tells us so Thus a company of carnall wretches runne headlong downe to eternall destruction one sweares and another casts all the commandements of God behind his back Answ To this I answer Doth the Minister say so nay the Word the Scripture the Spirit of God saith so and the Lord Iesus himselfe speakes it In the meane time wilt thou gain-say that which the Lord Christ hath spoken Doth not the Apostle say You are saved not of works c. And in another place It is not in him that wills nor in him that runnes but in the Lord that shewes mercy Rom. 9.16 It is the spirit of God that saith it and doest thou stand to out-face the Lord Iesus Christ in it But stay a while and take a full answer with thee and know these three things thou that doest abuse this doctrine of Gods free favour First howsoever thy good workes are not sufficient to save thee yet thy evill workes are enough to damne thee As the Apostle saith 2 Thess 2.12 that all they might bee damned which beleeved not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse You that take pleasure in your drunkennes and prophanesse and in your jibing and jesting at the meanes of grace there is roome enough in hell for you all that all you might be damned Yea thou that delightest in thy drunkennes thou maist drinke downe thy last and thy damnation too and thou that blasphemest against the truth of Christ take heed that God poure not downe his wrath upon thee It is true though thy good workes are not perfectly good and cannot save thee yet thy bad workes are perfectly naught and and will condemne thee nay thy prayers are an abhomination to the Lord and will the Lord save thee for that which is abhominable to him thou thinkest hell is broke loose because mercy is come into the world this thy wickednes will condemne thee for evermore Secondly they that thus stand it out against Gods free grace in Iesus Christ the Lord in mercy open their eyes my soule mournes for them and for that strange punishment that shall befall them except the Lord breake their hearts in time as any sinne is enough to condemne them so their sinne is of an unconceiveable hainousnesse and their judgement will be answerable Their sinne is become out of measure sinfull because mercy is revealed and they have made a mock of it The very height of all that wrath that is in God shall be their portion Good Lord is it possible that ever any man should dare to despise the mercy of God and to trample the blood of Christ under his feete and not onely to commit wantonnesse but to turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and to make the Lord Christ the Patron of all their filthinesse How will the Lord Iesus take it at at their hands that whereas the Lord Iesus came into the world to destroy the works of the devill they should make Christ a meanes to uphold the works of the devill Oh that ever any man should dare to sinne because mercy abounds and because they heare that Christ will one day save them therefore they in the meane time will do all they can against him that must save them See what S. Paul saith against such Despisest thou the riches of his goodnesse Rom. 2.4 5. long sufferance and forbearance not knowing that the goodnesse of God leadeth to repentance but after thy hardnesse of heart thou treasurest up to thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath Thou that livest in the bosome of the Church where the Angels come downe from heaven and rejoyce in this free grace of God in Christ and hast thou the offer of this mercy and doest thou despise it then thy drunkennesse is not bare drunkennesse but there is a treasure of vengeance in it And thou sayest thou wilt be drunke and prophane because thy sobriety and thy good works cannot save thee I tell thee it is not bare scorning and bare prophanes but there is a masse of vengeance in all these And when thou shalt stand before the judgement seat of Christ and shall be indited for a drunkard and a scorner and a prophane person and such a one as hast tossed the people of God with scornes upon thy Ale-bench when the Law hath thus proceeded against thee then will mercy come in against thee and say Lord execute vengeance upon him for mee and for me saith another for I have beene dishonoured and because mercy did abound he would have his sinne abound also And then comes in the blood of Christ and cries aloud saying Vengeance against that drunkard indeed Lord there 's a poore wretch that knew no other but vengeance Lord against that drunkard and that scorner because my blood was shed and mercy was offered and hee despised it You that know your drunken neighbours and servants and see their ryoting and scorning tell them that there is a treasure of vengeance in those sinnes and you that are guilty of it goe your wayes home and mourne and the Lord give us hearts to mourne for you You that know what this sinne is when you goe to the Lord in Prayer put up one petition for them and say Good Lord take away that treasure of vengeance Oh pray that if it be possible this great sinne may be pardoned Thirdly all such persons must know that it is carnall confidence in the meanes that withdrawes a blessing from them in the use of the meanes What things were gaine to mee saith Saint Paul I accounted losse for Christ Phil. 3.7 that is when he put any confidence in them hee lost the benefit of the meanes The second cavill Secondly Some will say you doe nothing but reproove us for duties and labour to plucke us from them then why should we pray and heare and what good shall we have by all that we doe if we cannot be saved by these meanes then what use is there of them Answ To this I answer Yes there is great use of them and much good to be had by them As the Apostle saith Titus 3.14 Let us also learne to maintaine good works
him and threw him flat on the ground and when Paul saw that the Lord Iesus had the advantage against him hee yeilded himselfe and said Act. 9.6 Lord what wilt thou have mee to do This is the lively picture of the Soule in this case this subjection discovers it selfe in foure particulars First take the Soule despairing of mercy and succour in himselfe hee seeth and confesseth that the Lord may and for ought he knowes will proceed in justice against him and execute upon him those plagues that God hath threatned and his sinne deserved and he seeth that Iustice is not yet satisfied and all those reckonings betweene God and him are not made up and therefore he cannot apprehend but that God may and will take vengeance of him he seeth that when he hath done all that he can he is unprofitable and Iustice remaines unsatisfied and saith thou hast sinned and I am wronged and therefore thou shalt dye See what the text saith can a man be profitable to the Lord as he that is wise may be profitable to himselfe Iob 22.2 3. is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous or is it any gaine to him that thou makest thy way perfect So the Soule saith Is all that I can doe any thing to the Lord is the Lords Iustice any gainer by it Nay Iustice is yet unsatisfied because there is sinne in all that I doe and therefore Iustice may proceed against me therefore the soule resolves that the Lord may and will Nay why should he not come in vengeance and Iudgement against him Secondly he conceives that what God will doe he can doe and he cannot avoyd it The anger of the Lord cannot be resisted If the Lord will come and require the glory of his Iustice against him there is no way to avoyd it nor to beare it and this crusheth the heart and makes the soule to be beyond all shifts and evasions and all those tricks whereby it may seeme to avoyd the dint of the Lords blow As Iob saith Hee is one minde and who can turne him Iob 23.13 14 15 16. and what his soule desireth that doth he It is admirable to consider it for this is it that makes the heart melt and come under When the Soule saith If God come who can turne him hee will have his honour from this wretched proud heart of mine hee will have his glory from mee either here in my humiliation or else hereafter in my damnation And in the next verse Iob saith Many such things are with him As if he had said hee hath many wayes to crush a carnall confident heart and to make it lye low He wants not meanes to pull downe even the most rebellious sinner under heaven And now marke what followes He can crush them all what became of Nimrod Cain Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar They are all brought downe therefore saith he I am troubled at his presence when I consider it I am afraid for God maketh my heart soft and the Almightie troubleth mee Thirdly As the sinner apprehends that God may doe what he will and he cannot resist him So the soule flings away all shifts and tricks that he had and he resignes up the power of all his priviledges that he hath to defend himselfe withall he casts away his weapons and falles downe before the Lord and resignes himselfe into the Soveraigne power and command of God This was in the Spirit of the Prophet David 2 Sam. 15.25.26 When the Lord had cast him out of his Kingdome hee said to Zadock Carry backe the Arke of God into the Citie if I shall finde favour in the eyes of the Lord hee will bring mee backe againe and shew mee both it and his habitation But if he thus say to mee I have no delight in thee Behold here I am let him doe with mee as seemeth good in his eyes Or as it was with those people 2 King 10.2.3 4. 2 Kings 10.2 3 4. Where when Iehu sent this message to the people of Israel saying Now as assoone as this letter commeth to you seeing your masters sonnes are with you and there are with you chariots and armour and a fenced Citie looke out even the best and fittest of your masters sonnes and set him on his fathers throne and fight for your fathers house But the text saith they were all exceedingly afraid and therefore they sent word to Iehu and said two Kings could not stand out against thee and then how can we stand We are thy servants and will doe all that thou shalt bid us wee will make no King doe thou that which is good in thine eyes This is the frame of a poore Soule When a poore sinner will stand upon his own priviledges the Lord saith beare my Iustice and defend thy selfe by all that thou hast if thou canst and the Soule saith I am thy servant Lord doe what is good in thine eyes I cannot succour my self therefore the heart gives up it selfe to be at the command of God Fourthly The Soule thus yielding up the weapons and comming in as to an enemy and as conquered then in the last place the soule freely acknowledgeth that it is in Gods power to doe with him and to dispose of him as he will and therefore he lyes and lickes the dust and cryes mercy mercy Lord. He doth not thinke to purchase mercy at the Lords hands but onely saith it is onely in Gods good pleasure to doe with him as he will but hee lookes at his favour and cryes mercy Lord to this poore distressed soule of mine And when the Lord heares a sinner come from wandring up and downe in his priviledges the Lord replyes to the soule in this manner and saith Doest thou need mercy I had thought thy hearing and praying and fasting would have carried thee to heaven without all hazard therefore gird up thy loynes and make thy ferventest prayers and let them meet my Iustice and see if they can beare my wrath and purchase mercy Nay saith the sinner I know it by lamentable experience I have prooved that all my prayers and performances will never procure peace to my soule nor give any satisfaction to thy Iustice I onely pray for mercy and I desire onely to heare some newes of mercy to relieve this miserable and wretched soule of mine it is onely mercy that must helpe me Oh mercy if it may be possible the issue is thus much The sinner seeth that all he hath and can do can never succour him and therefore he throwes away his carnall confidence and he submits himselfe to the Lord and now he seeth that the Lord may justly come against him and that his justice is not satisfied and that he cannot beare Gods wrath nor avoyd it and he casts away all his shifts and lyes downe at the gate of mercy As it is with a debtor that stands bound for some farre greater summes then ever he is able to pay to
Nay the Soule finds no end in pleading and therefore he reasons thus with himselfe and saith that God cannot doe more against him then he hath deserved but be sure he thinkes that God will not lay more upon him then hee is worthy of Nay it is sure the Soule cannot beare nor suffer so much as he hath deserved and pluckt upon himselfe if God should proceed in rigour with him For the sinner that will deale plainely and discernes his evill exactly it is easie for him to number up all his abhominations and the Soule thus reasons with it selfe and saith I onely deserve eternall condemnation for the wages of all sinne is death being committed against an infinite Majestie and against a Divine Iustice and then what doe all these my sinnes deserve committed and continued in and maintained against the light of Gods Word against all corrections and all checks of conscience and all the Commandements of God hell is too good and ten thousand hels is to little to torment such a wretch as I am In truth I begged mercy but what I mercy I am ashamed to expect it and with what heart can I beg this mercy which I have troden under my feet Shall that blood of Christ purge my heart that blood that I have trampled under my feet and accounted it as an unholy thing and when the Lord hath woed mee and his wounds were bleeding and his sides goared and his hideous cryes comming into mine eares My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee yet this Christ have I slighted and made nothing of his blood and can the blood of Christ doe mee any service indeed I doe crave grace but how doe I thinke to receive any All the pillars of the Church can testifie how often grace and mercy hath beene offered to me but I have refused it therefore how can I begge any grace And as the text saith They shall see their sinne and acknowledge their wayes and Iudge themselves worthy to be condemned So the Soule confesseth that it is worthy of nothing that is good it is not worthy of Gods love nor of Gods preservation nor any other priviledge only he confesseth that he doth loath himselfe and saith Oh this stubbornnesse and villany and this wretchednesse of mine what I mercy no I am not worthy of any it is more then I can expect I am onely worthy to be cast out for ever As the Prophet Ezechiel saith That thou mayest remember Ezech. 16.63 and be confounded and never open thy mouth more because of thy shame that is they shall remember the evill that they have committed and the Lords kindnesse and mercie that they have opposed and they shall be confounded and not open their mouthes any more So now his tongue cleaves to the roofe of his mouth and he saith I remember my evill and am ashamed to expect any mercy I sought for mercy before but now I see I am unworthy of any and worthy of all the judgements that God can poure upon me The Soule confesseth clearely that hee hath deserved more then God will lay upon him for if God should poure all his wrath upon him he must make him infinite to beare his infinite wrath and therefore the Lord onely layes so much upon him as hee is capable of Secondly the Soule acknowledgeth the equalnesse of Gods dealings be they never so harsh in this kind He confesseth that hee is as clay in the hands of the Potter and the Lord may deale with him as he will Yea the Soule is driven to an amazement at the Lords patience that hee hath beene pleased to reprive him so long and that God hath not cast him out of his presence and sent him downe to hell long agoe It is the frame of Spirit that the poore lamenting Church had Lament 3.22 It is the Lords mercy that wee are not confounded because his compassions faile not When a poore drunkard seeth how hee hath roared in the Alehouse against God and his truth and how he hath plotted against the Saints hee wonders that ever God could beare with such a wretch and that the earth hath not swallowed him up quick And when the Lord hath humbled the heart of an adulterer or adulteresse hee begins to think thus with himselfe the Lord saw all the evils that I have committed and all my plottings and all my inveighings and allurings to this sinne and my delight in it then the Soule admires that ever Gods Iustice was able to beare with such a monster and that God did not confound him in his burning lusts and cast him downe to hell Oh saith hee it is because his mercies faile not that my life and all hath not failed long agoe Nay the Soule concludes that the Lord should not save him As Nehemiah saith Howbeit Nehem. 9.33 thou art just in all that is brought upon us for thou hast done right but wee have done wickedly as if hee had said It is righteous that every man should lye under his owne load and therefore thou mayest justly condemne us Nay the Soule saith That God cannot but plague him for ought that hee perceives in Iustice as Daniel saith Dan. 9.14 Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evill and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doth because we obeyed not his voyce Hee speakes there of the 70. yeares captivity So the Soule saith Because the Lord is just and righteous and doth not onely punish but he cannot but punish and therefore he justifies the Lord in all the plagues that ever can be inflicted upon him And hence it is that the Soule will not maintaine any kinde of murmuring or heart rising against the Lords dealings much lesse doth he hide it in the Lord. But though nature and corruption will be stirring and sometimes the heart will be grudging against the Lord and say Why doth the Lord thus and why are not my prayers answered such a Soule is humbled and such a Soule is comforted and why not I as well as hee yet when any such matter riseth in the heart hee stifles crusheth and chokes these wretched distempers and doth abase it selfe before the Lord saying What if God will not as the Apostle saith speaking of the rejection of some and the receiving of others so the Soule saith What if God will not heare thy prayers and what if God will not pacifie thy conscience nor shew any mercy to thee thou hast thy owne and doth the Lord doe me any wrong vile hell-hound that I am I have my sinne and my shame wrath is my portion and hell is my place I may goe thither when I will it is mercy that God deales thus with me Now the Soule comes to cleare God in all his providence and saith It is just with God that all the prayers which come from this filthy heart of mine should be abhorred and that all my labours in holy duties should
some theife that is taken for a robbery and the sentence of death hath past against him he should not neglect the using of meanes for to save his life and to get a pardon and yet if he cannot get a pardon he must not murmure against the Iudge for condemning of him because he hath done nothing but Law This theefe should use means for a pardon but if he cannot get one he should be contented though the sentence passe against him So wee should not be carelesse in using all meanes for our good but still seeke to God for mercy yet thus we must be and thus we ought to be contented with whatsoever mercy shall deny because wee are not worthy of any favour and the humble Soule reasons thus with it selfe and saith my owne sinne and my abhominations have brought mee into this damnable condition wherein I am and I have neglected that mercy which might have brought mee from it therfore why should I murmure against mercy though it deny me mercy and if mercy leave me in that miserable estate which I have brought my selfe into A Sillogisme I have but the reward of my owne workes Marke this well He that is not willing to acknowledge the freenesse of the course of mercy is not worthy nay it is not fit to receive any mercy but that Soule which is not content that mercy deny him what it will hee doth not give way to the freenesse of the Lords grace and mercy therfore that Soule is not fit for mercy I conclude all thus Iudge with your selves whether this bee not a marvellous hideous pride of heart or no that the sinner doth murmure because the Lord will not dispence of mercy as hee will himselfe either the sinner thinkes that he hath deserved mercy and therefore he is angry with God because he gives it not or els he thinkes himselfe wiser to dispose of mercy then God both which are most devilish pride of heart and arguments of a haughty heart that is not yet fit for mercy nay if this be in the heart and if the heart allow of this and continue in this distemper the Soule cannot receive mercy Object 2 But some may object Can a man feele this frame of heart to be content that mercy should have him in hell doe the Saints of God finde this and can any man know this in his heart Answ To this I answer Many of Gods servants have beene driven to this and have attained to it and have laid open the simplicitie of their Soules in being content with this But the secret passage of the Soule is most subtle here and hard it is to finde this and clearely to discerne this frame of spirit this way but the best way to guesse it and to be able to discern it is this For this end you must know these three things First that the Soule out of the nature of it and in nature cannot but desire the preservation of it selfe and it is a rule that God hath stamped in the creature and therefore we must not thinke that nature must or should or can goe further then nature and it is not the fault of nature that it is carried in this kinde But secondly the Soule being humbled cannot but yield it selfe to be disposed of by the Lord as he will yea if the Lord will bring destruction upon it Thirdly though the Soule sometimes finde a secret rebelling against God and a grudging against the Lords dealings and the sinner begins to say these are my corruptions and still my sinnes prevaile against mee and I shall one day perish and the Lord seemes not to looke at mee and with that the Soule sometimes grudgeth and repines at the providence of God yet the heart that is truly humbled grudgeth at himselfe because he hath such a quarrelling heart against the Lords dealing with him in this kinde Nay I have knowne many in the anguish of heart when they have thus quarrelled with the Almightie they have falne into a desperate extremity and thought they had committed that sinne against the holy Ghost Insomuch that it hath made them to walke more humbly before God all their dayes but I say when the Soule finds these distempers it labours to undermine them and it dares not quarrell against God it dare not but yield and this is an argument that the Soule is content Secondly The Soule that is contented comes to be well apaid with this that mercy shall take away from him what it will friends and meanes and ease and liberty and credit and whatsoever it is that the heart hath loved most It is content that God should strip him naked of all And hence it is that we shall observe it in experience and in practice A broken battered Soule that hath beene long overwhelmed with the weight of his corruptions the Lord brings him to a marveilous desperate low ebbe You may see a man sometimes in the torment of Conscience that nature and naturall parts begin to decay his understanding growes weake and his memory failes him and he growes to be marveilously distracted and besides himselfe so that the partie which was before a man of great reach and of able parts and was admired and wondred at for his wisedome and government he is now accounted a silly sot and a mad man in regard of the horror of heart that hath possessed him in so much that the husband saith Oh my wife is undone and the father saith my childe is undone he was a fine witty childe before but now hee is a very sot Yea the mercy of God will not leave a man before he be content to be a despised man that hee may finde mercy and be saved and mercy will plucke away all those parts and gifts from him and make him glad to have salvation and all in another And in conclusion when God cheeres up his heart againe hee is more wise than ever and more able than ever both for temporall and spirituall affaires Ioh. 5.44 How can you beleeve saith our Saviour that seeke honour one of another Without this dealing of God no man would ever come to heaven though the Lord sometimes abates some measure of it It may be before this worke the Soule saith if I may have honours and ease and libertie and credit so it is I care not whether ever I have drop of mercy or no But the text saith How can you beleeve which seeke honour one of another and not that honour that comes from God onely Mercy will bring you downe upon your knees and you shall not be content with the honours of the world No no mercy will make you content to be fooles and to take that honour onely which is from God though you be abased and hated and persecuted in the world It is against reason that the Soule can beleeve except this be in the heart An humble Soule is content that mercy shall rule him As the humbled soule is content
This is our nature We would faine have something to trade withall but the Lord will keepe the staffe in his owne hand and the Soule is content to have it so He comes sometimes and God will not heare and he goes away and comes againe and then goes away fasting and well contented too See how the poore Woman of Canaan did Shee comes to beg mercy of our Saviour Matth. 15.26 and he said It is not lawfull to cast the children bread to dogs truth Lord saith she I am as bad as thou canst call mee I yeild all I am as vile a sinfull poore creature as ever any was Yet Lord the dogs may eate the crums that fall from their Masters table vers 27. You know the Dog must stay till his Master comes in and when hee is come hee must stay till he sit downe and then till he cut his meate and hee must not have the meate from his trencher neither when he hath stayed all this while he hath nothing but the crums So it is with a poore sinner you must not thinke that God will be at your becke No you must be content with the crums of mercy and pitty and lye under the table till the Lord let the crums fall The humbled soule saith Lord let my condition be never so hard doe what thou wilt with mee let the fire of thy wrath consume mee here onely recover mee hereafter and let me finde mercy and if the time be never so long if at last gaspe I may finde mercy I am content and whatsoever thou givest I blesse thy name for it The Soule doth not quarrell with the Almighty and say Why are not my graces increased and why am not I thus and thus comforted and refreshed Nay it lyes and lookes for mercy and if it have but a crum of mercy it is comforted and quieted for ever Thus the heart is brought very low Why doth the Lord thus bring the heart under Reason is this necessary and requisite Yes it is without all question not onely convenient but very necessary that it should be so And the reason is taken from the nature of the covenant of grace which requires this and without which the covenant of grace could not be fitted for us For the covenant of grace is this Beleeve and live The condition on our part is faith and beleeving Now faith is nothing else but a going out of the Soule to fetch all from another as having nothing of it selfe and therefore this resting in our selves will not stand with the nature of this covenant Now were it so that wee were not resolved to yeild to and to be guided by another it is certaine we could not have our hearts enlarged to goe to that other by whose wisedome and providence we would not be guided and disposed To be in our selves and out of our selves to have power in our selves to dispose of any thing belonging to our spirituall estate and to fetch all from another these are two contraries and therefore cannot stand together To have the dispensation of life and grace in our owne hands to dispose of it as we will it utterly overthrowes the nature of this second Covenant of mercy and grace in Christ For I pray you observe it this I take to be the maine difference betweene the second maine Covenant of grace whereof the Apostle disputes so often And the first Covenant of works which he so often confutes The first Covenant is to Doe and Live This Adam had and if he had stood still he should not have needed any Saviour The second Covenant is Beleeve and Live that is to live by another These two cannot stand together in one and the same Soule at one and the same time The same Soule that is saved by the Covenant of Grace cannot be saved also by the Covenant of Works The Lord in the beginning put the stuffe into Adams hand and he had libertie to dispose of Life and Salvation by reason of that abilitie and that principle of Grace that God had given him for he had perfect knowledge and perfect holinesse and righteousnesse and by the power of these he had libertie freely to please God and to keepe the Law and to be blessed in so doing and if he had done that which hee had power to doe hee might have beene blessed for ever and we all in him but he lost it and so overthrew himselfe and all his posteritie Now we being thus falne in Adam and being deprived of all that holinesse and righteousnesse which Adam had Now the sinner is neither able to fulfill the Law and so to purchase mercy for himselfe nor to satisfie for that which is done amisse A sinner must die and yet he cannot satisfie in dying he is dead in sinnes and trespasses and having lost all that abilitie which Adam had therefore the Soule must goe out of it selfe and since it is so that nothing which he hath or doth can save him he must goe to another that whatsoever is amisse that other may satisfie for it and whatsoever mercy is needfull he may purchase it and whatsoever is to be done he may doe it Now what we have done amisse Christ hath satisfied for it and what we cannot doe Christ hath done it hee hath fulfilled all righteousnesse And hence it is that these two are so professedly opposite the one to the other the Law and Faith The first Adam and the second Adam Consider a passage or two The Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace cannot stand together in the point of Life and Grace As the Apostle saith If it bee of grace Rom. 11.4 then it is no more of works and if it be of works then it is no more of grace As if he had said If a man be saved by grace then he cannot be saved by works and if he be saved by works then be cannot be saved by grace And in another place the same Apostle saith Rom. 4.14 If they which are of the Law be heires faith is made voyd and the promise is of none effect If a man that thinks to merit life by the Law be an heire what needed faith or the promise For it is the nature of faith to goe out to Christ and to receive all from him now if I had enough in my selfe I had no need of Christ and faith were made of none effect You are saved by grace through faith Ephes 2.8 saith the Apostle and that not of your selves There S. Paul brings in a deniall not onely of sinne but of works and saith You are not saved of your selves He doth not say of your sinne but your selves you and your works and all must be renounced and all that you are and doe as any way meritorious and not to bee found in your selves but in Christ before ever you can receive mercy from Christ So I dispute thus There is none that will save us Man nor Angel and
the Lord hath said unto thee An humble Soule comes to this passe and saith If there be any sinne or any wickednesse in my heart good Lord discover it and if there be any duty to be done Lord let me know it And as Cornelius said Acts 10.33 Wee are all here present before the Lord to heare whatsoever thou art commanded us of God So the humble Soule saith Whatsoever trouble it brings I yield to the truth and desire to heare it Thirdly As the carnall reason shuts his eye and will not looke upon the truth so in the second place if it be so that it must heare that which it would not what is the next shift that it hath hee will not suffer himselfe to be convinced by the truth but when the truth comes in with plainenesse and power he labours what hee can to gather up objections and cavills against the truth that he may oppose the power of Gods word that sith it is so that he must heare it he labours to make it false This is considerable Rom. 2.8 Vnto them that are contentious and doe not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnesse shall be indignation and wrath Who are they that are contentious not onely they that contend with their neighbours but they that contend against the truth for so the words following doe import so much Which obey not the truth One man heares a close point and then hee goes away and saith I will not beleeve it I know reason and I will be bound to confute it and all this is nothing but a smoake and he deales by the truth as men doe with an enemie in this case First they labour to keepe him out from their confines and if they cannot doe that then they leavie forces to drive him out from their land So it is with a company of carnall men they would not looke upon the truth to be enformed by it Well Heare they must and heare they shall if they live under the power of the Gospell but if they must heare it they are contentious and advise with this carnall friend and that carnall Minister and if they can get any man to plead for their lusts that they may arme themselves against the blessed truth of God they think themselves happy men If a Minister come home to the heart of a carnall wretch that will buy and sell upon the Lords Day and say to him Remember that thou keepe holy the Sabbath then hee goes to some carnall man that buyes and sels as well as himselfe and then he will have an army of forces against the truth of God As the Apostle saith 2 Tim. 3.8 As Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses so doe these men resist the truth men of corrupt minds and reprobates concerning the faith how is that When Moses came to Pharaoh to deliver the people of Israel and when Moses shewed some signes and wonders Pharaoh would not yeild to the Miracles and therefore he called for Iannes and Iambres and they made some appearances of Serpents as Moses had done and so Pharaohs heart was hardened even so When the Word of God is plaine and the evidences of it are uncontrolable then a carnall minde sends for carnall quarrels and pleas and objections and this hee doth to oppose the truth of Christ and to make an army against the blessed ordinances of God They count it a matter of favour if any man will deliver and rescue them from the truth As when this truth comes You must not buy and sell upon the Sabbath but you must be holy as God is holy c. If this truth bee troublesome oh they cannot beare it and they would faine be rescued they account this truth an enemy to them and if any man will deliver them from the truth they thinke him a God and they admire at his judgement and say such a man is wise and a deepe Scholler and hee saith thus and thus hee will defend this as well as I thus a man is fortified against the truth But an humble Soule will not doe thus After the Word and Truth of God is revealed in this kinde and all reasons answered The understanding of this humble Soule gives way and opposeth not the truth Give an humble Soule Scripture for that you say and hee hath done and lets all carnall counsels passe and all matters objected and he saith I am fully perswaded of it the truth is plaine God forbid that I should quarrell with it This is for the understanding Thirdly If the truth be so cleare and plaine that he cannot gaine-say it then he turnes aside from the authoritie of the truth and will not suffer it to take place in his minde This is the last shift which a carnall heart hath As when a debtor is arrested at first hee grapples with the Serjeant but when hee seeth the Bailiffe or Serjeant is too good for him he labours to make an escape and trusts to his feet rather then to his hands So it is with a carnall wretched heart When hee cannot but confesse and yeild that the truth is plaine and that hee cannot grapple with the truth then hee falles flat against it when his Serpent is eaten up by Moses Serpent and all carnall pleas are eaten up by the truth then he is faine to withdraw himselfe from the authoritie of it From hence comes all those shifts we tell people they are miserable and in a naturall and damnable condition Oh say they God is mercifull oh but say we the mercy of God is such that as he pardons men so hee purgeth them and if mercy will save you mercy will purge you too and make you forsake your sinnes doe you thinke that mercy will carry you and your peevish proud lustfull hearts to heaven No he will not then say they we will repent hereafter and then we tell them againe harden not your hearts to day if you will heare his voyce take mercy now while it is cal'd to day God requires repentance now and now you must humble your selves and repent Yet the Soule goes on and saith we blesse God we doe repent and when wee sweare we cry God mercy and though wee have beene and are sometimes drunke yet we are sorry for it then we make them answer and say you say you are sorrowfull but sound sorrow is ever accompanied with sound reformation As the Apostle saith This same thing that you have beene sorrowfull what carefulnesse hath it wrought in you 2 Cor. 7.11 what clearing of your selves what indignation and the like And as the wise man saith He that confesseth and forsaketh his sinne shall finde mercy Pro. 28.13 Then the sinner replyes no man can doe thus What would you have us without sinne we must be content to doe as we may Thus you see they yeild to the truth and cannot but confesse that it is plaine but they take away the power of the truth and the command of it You may
change and now the soule seeth an utter impossibilitie in himselfe to change or alter himselfe then he is content to goe to Christ for grace and power Thus Humiliation pares away all a mans priviledges and all his hearing and praying c. not that a man must use these noe more but he must not rest upon them for strength to help and succour himselfe withall as it is with the graft 1. it must be cut of from the old stocke 2. it must be pared and made fit for the implantation into an other Soe the Soule being cut of from sinne then humiliation pares it and makes it for the ingrafting into Christ What humiliation is thus you see this worke is absolutely necessary But what is this humiliation of heart It is thus much When the soule upon search made despaires of all helpe from it selfe he doth not despaire of Gods mercy but of all helpe from himselfe and submits himselfe wholy to God the soule strikes sale and fals under the power of Iesus Christ and is content to be at his disposing In this description let me discover these three particular passages First the sinner that is now wounded and apprehensive of his owne misery makes out for some succour and remedy els where but he doth not goe to Christ Secondly when he used all meanes that he can he seeth noe helpe at all nay he utterly despaires of finding any succour from himselfe or from the creature Then the soule despairing of all succour in himselfe it fals downe at the throne of grace and saith if the Lord will damne him he may and if he will save him he may which as yet he cannot see but he resolves to waite upon God for mercy he submits himselfe to the Lord and is content to bee at his disposing For the first part of the description that the soule seeketh for remedy els where and not from Christ this is exprest here in the 15 verse of this Chapter The Prodigall would needs have his portion and hee would not ever bee a slave in his fathers family well he had his portion and gone he is and he hath spent all and when all was gone there fell a great famine in the Lande and what did he then hee would not now ryot any more as he had done because poverty pinched him in this kind but he turnes good husband and is content to use any meanes for his maintenance and hee would make hard shift before he would goe home to his father and therfore he joynes himselfe to a Cittizen of the Countrie c. This prodigall is a true picture of every poore distressed sinner that hath ryotted away his time yet at last when the venome of sinne beginnes to scorch and pearce his soule and he is famished for want of Gods favour and the wrath of God pursues him and a desperate sorrow seaseth upon his heart and he is wearied and burthened and tired with his sinne and sees that hee hath noe helpe hee sets all his wits to worke to see if hee can tell which way to succour himselfe in these his grievances and though he will not take up any base courses as hee had done but prooves a good husband and useth all meanes to succour himselfe soe the doctrine from hence is this Doctrine A sinner naturally in his trouble and distresse seekes for succour not from God nor from Christ but from himselfe and from his owne abilities Soe that the soule being in this great extremity of heart by reason of his sinne he dares not nay hee will not meddle with sinne any more but it betakes it self to hearing and praying and to other duties ordinary and extraordinary and by these he thinkes to be absolutely succoured I confes the best of Gods Saints must use these meanes they must heare and pray and fast but they must not rest upon these it was very fit that the Prodigall should labour for his living but not that he should not withall seeke home to his father for reliefe Soe it is requisite that wee should heare and pray and fast but these should not keepe us from a father It is the nature of man naturally to make of meanes a Saviour to himselfe he scrapes for some succour and and rests upon some rotten endeavours and because he can heare and pray and fast he thinks this is enough to save him he uses not these to bring him to Christ but rests on them It is a naturall thing ingrafted into all mankind since the fall of Adam as you may see by the Apostle Rom. 9.31.32 because the Iewes were scrambling for life and happinesse from the workes of the Law therefore they could not attaine it but the Gentiles which did not seeke it from the workes of the Law they got it as if he had said when they saw their anguish and trouble then they fell upon these duties of hearing and praying and fasting and they thought that was enough in Conscience and here they tooke up their stand this is to cleave to a man of the Country Rom. 10.3 and the same Apostle saith they being ignorant of the rightousnes of God sought to establish themselves in their owne righteousnesse c this they would have here they would rest and here they would die In common experience wee may see it take a poore sinner that hath been soundly awakened in the sence of his owne vilenesse what is the ground of his hope Oh saith hee now the world is well amended with mee and I have not beene drunke so many yeeres and I have performed these and these duties as if that would serve the turne this is to looke for happinesse from a mans owne duties It is with a poore sinner as it was with Ephraim when Ephraim saw his wound and his sicknesse Hosea 5.13 then hee went to Ashur and to king Iaribbe that is to the king of contention or advocate but hee did not heale their wound Therefore the lamenting Church saith Ashur shall not save us Hosea 14.1 we will not ride upon horses neither will wee say any more to the worke of our hands yow are our gods as if they had said wee made king Ashur and the King of Aegypt our gods and wee thought wee might have hired helpe from them but now wee see there is no helpe in them as it was in that temporall distresse so it is in this spirituall affliction of the soule When the soule seeth his wound and his sinne before him to condemne him and misery prepared to plague him and he hath as it were a little peepe-hole into hell the soule in this distresse sends over to prayer and hearing and holy services and thinkes by his wits and duties or some such like matters to succour it selfe and it begins to say my hearing and my prayer c. will not these save me thus the soule in conclusion rests in their duties Though these duties be all good honourable and comfortable yet
they are no gods at all able of themselves to save us but they are the ordinances of God that leade us to God yet they cannot give salvation to any that rests upon them It is the nature of a sinfull heart to make the meanes as meritorious to salvation yet mistake me not these duties must be had and used but still a man must not stay here a man will use his bucket but he expects water from the well these meanes are the buckets but all our comfort and all our life and grace is onely in Christ if you say your bucket shall helpe you you may starve for thirst if you let it not downe into the well for water so though you brag of your praying and hearing and fasting and of your almes and building of hospitals and your good deeds if none of these bring you to a Christ and if these are not meanes to settle you on a Christ you shall die for thirst though your works were as the works of an Angel But why doth the soule seeke for succour from it selfe and will not goe out to Christ Reason 1 The first reason is because the sinner being conceived not yet to be in Christ out of the guilt of sin dares not be so proud as to thinke that he shall have any favour at Gods hands for the sinner being now overwhelmed with the body of death and the guilt of his abominations galling of him and being starved by reason of his sinnes and still his sinnes being before his eyes and to this day having gotten no assurance of the pardon of them and God being angry against him his heart shrinkes in consideration of the eternall wrath of the Almighty against him and he saith because I have despised justice and abused mercy how dare I appeare before Gods justice for feare justice consume me and execute vengeance upon me and therefore the soule dares not yet venture to come before God and hence it is that the soule saith can I not take some course of my selfe and doe it without Christ must I needs goe and heare certainly the word will condemne and must I needs goe and confesse my sinnes what shall I a rebell goe before a Prince to come before him it is the next way to be executed and have some plague throwne upon me As a malefactor will devise some shift that hee may not come before the judge so while the soul may have some succour from himself and the staffe is in his owne hand there is some hope and he would willingly doe any thing for himselfe but for the soule to have salvation out of his owne reach and to put the staffe out of his owne hand and to hang his salvation upon Gods good pleasure whose love and mercy as yet he was never perswaded of Oh this is very hard and the heart is marvellous shie and carefull in this and it is with the heart in this kinde as Rabshecah said to the people of Israel If you say to mee Esa 36.7 is not that hee whose altars you have broken downe c. Thus hee laboured to plucke away the hearts of this people from trusting in the Lord The soule in this kinde sometimes shakes and shrinkes in the apprehension of his owne vilenes and saith as this wretch did have you offended him and doe you looke for any succour from him this argument was very peevish and keene and yet false for they were the altars of Idols but the soule saith against it selfe and marvellous truly when a Minister would perswade a man to goe to heaven for mercy the soule begins to reason thus with it selfe and saith shall I repaire to God Oh that 's my trouble is not he that great God whose justice and mercy and patience I have abused and is not he the great God of heaven and earth that hath beene incensed against mee oh with what face can I appeare before him and with what heart can I looke for any mercy from him I have wronged his justice and can his justice pardon mee I have abused his mercy and can his mercy pitie mee what such a wretch as I am If I had never enjoyed the meanes of mercy I might have had some plea for my selfe but oh I have refused that mercy and have trampled the blood of Christ under my feet and can I looke for any mercy no no I see the wrath of the Lord incensed against mee and that 's all that I looke for the soule rather desires the mountaines to fall upon him that he may never appeare before God Nay I have observed this in experience In the horror of heart the soule dare scarce reade the Word of God for feare he should reade his owne necke verse and he dare not pray for feare his prayers be turned into sinne and so increase his Iudgement thus the soule out of the guilt of sinne dare not seeke out to the Lord and therefore it will use any shift to helpe it selfe without going to God Reason 2 The second Reason why the soule dare not seeke out to Christ for succour it is this because the mysteries of life and salvation through Christ are not yet made knowne to the soule the soule being yet considered as barely broken and wearied with the burthen of sinne Let me say as the Apostle doth the new and living way in Christ is not yet revealed to the soule and it is not yet set open before his eyes though it shall be revealed taking it as in this precise consideration only prepared for Christ Nay those supernaturall truthes namely that the soule must live by another mans life and be made holy by anothers holinesse and be sanctified by anothers spirit these are not yet revealed these doe exceed our corrupt nature Adam after his fall could not have found out this way if the Lord had not revealed it Had not the Lord Iesus Christ that came from the bosome of his Father made this bosome truth knowne we had never beene acquainted with it therefore the soule cannot come to Christ upon these termes As our Saviour saith Ioh. 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven but hee that came downe from heaven Now this poore distressed sinner as yet guiltie of his sinne and yet not seeing a way revealed and not able to ascend into this heavenly mystery because it seeth no better way it will betake it selfe to these duties that may be done by his owne strength without seeking to Christ Reason 3 Because for a man to be able and to have a power and principle of life to performe duties of himselfe and to please God of himselfe it was once possible in the time of mans innocency Adam had it and he might have procured Gods favour and have kept the Law and have beene blessed by the Law because the Lord had given him a stocke in himselfe and made him able to doe it of himselfe and we retaine thus much of Adams nature we are loath
to live of another but we would faine be as able to doe duties as Adam was And it is with every naturall man as it was with Sampson he had once Sacramentall haire and therefore when any temptation came hee did shake himselfe and was able to breake strong cords and to overcome his enemies and when his haire was gone hee went out as at other times and thought to doe as he had done but the Spirit of God was gone from him So because Adam had power of himselfe to yield exact obedience and to please God a naturall man makes an offer of this still and would be doing and he goes out and shakes himselfe and saith cannot my wit and my prayers and my good meanings and my priviledges save mee and satisfie divine Iustice must the guilt of sinne still lye upon mee Thus the soule would give content to God by his owne strength as it is with a man that hath beene a rich Chapman and hath had a faire stocke but is now decayed it is hard to bring downe the pride of this mans heart he is loath to be a Iourney-man againe he will be trading though it be but for pinnes So the Lord put a stocke into Adams hand and hee turned bankrupt and yet wee will be trading here for a company of poore beggerly duties dead prayers and cold hearings and we thinke this will be sufficient This is the disposition of the soule naturally So the issue of the point is thus much if the soule through the guilt of sinne dare not appeare before God and it knowes not yet how to come to God in and through a Mediator and in regard of Adams innocency it needed not to goe out to another for any power and strength hence it is that the soule will invent any way and take up any course rather then come to Christ but all the former truthes are true and therefore still this turnes the heart to deale with God in this manner Vse 1 Here you see the reason why that opinion of some men prevailes so much and why they rest upon their owne good works because their hearts give such entertainment to it it is old Adams nature and every man seekes it but if ever God draw you home to the second Adam Christ Iesus hee will draw you from the first Adam You wonder to see a company of poore wretches build all their comfort upon what they can doe and they will patter over a few prayers it may be in their beds too it is easie to consider it Nature makes a man thus give way to himselfe in it and no wonder though his heart is prepared for this way when it comes But for instruction for our selves An use of instruction Doth the soule seeke out every where before it come to the Lord God and to the Lord Iesus Christ and will the Lord Iesus spare and succour a poore sinner when he comes then heare and see and admire at the goodnesse of the Lord that ever the Lord should vouchsafe to give entertainment to a poore sinner when hee hath made so many outs If hee come home never so late the Lord receives him when he comes Is not this mercy that when we have beene roving and ranging here and there and wee have coasted this way and that way and never thought of Christ nor mercy nor of his blood I say is not this admirable mercy that the Lord Christ should receive us when we come yea though we come to him last of all He may deale with us justly as he did with the people in Ieremy Where are thy Gods saith the Lord that thou hast made thee Ier. 2.22 let them arise if they can helpe thee in the time of thy trouble for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods oh Iudah The people made Idols and served them and when the time of trouble came and all their gods failed them then they come for succour to the Lord and would faine shelter themselves under his wings Nay saith the Lord goe to your gods that you have loved and let them helpe you as if hee had said unto them doe you come to mee in the day of your distresse have you honoured and worshipped your Idols must they have all the honour and I have all the burthen get you home to your Idols and let them succour you Oh thinke of it and wonder So the Lord may justly deale with us we that rested here upon our good prayers and our hearings and fastings and yet when all these prevaile not but the guilt of sinne remaines and wounds the conscience still and at last we are forced to looke up to the Lord Iesus Christ and to say except the Lord Iesus Christs blood purge these filthy hearts of ours we shall never have helpe and good Lord be mercifull to us Did you rest in these because there was no God in Israel and no mercy in the Almightie that you have rested upon your priviledges Goe then may the Lord say doe you come to mee to be saved and succoured goe to your meritorious works now let them cheere your hearts and pardon your sinnes and comfort you for I will not succour you at all It were just with the Lord to deale thus with us because we give him the leavings and come last to him But here is the wonder of mercies that whensoever we come hee casts us not of yet if we would but come to him and leave these broken reeds Ier. 3.1 he would receive us Yet returne to mee saith the Lord as if the Lord had said you say that all that you can doe will not succour you you have plaid the adulterers with many lovers yet at last come home to mee and beleeve in mee and settle your hearts upon my mercy and whatsoever your weakenesse and rebellions have beene I will save and succour you Vse 2 The second use is for Exhortation seeing it is so that wee are ready to seeke for succour and reliefe from our selves then let this make us watchfull against this deceit of our hearts Yet I doe not dishonour these ordinances but I curse all carnall confidence in these You cleave to these poore beggerly duties and alas you will perish for hunger the divell knowes this full well and therefore he will sinke your hearts for ever Iudas did so and hell is full of hearers and dissemblers and carnall wretches that never had hearts to seeke unto Christ in these duties and to see the value of a Saviour in them The divell slides into the heart this way unsuspected and unseene because he comes under a colour of duties exactly performed but now in that the divell labours to cheat us of heaven and salvation we should be so much more watchfull This is the stone that thousands have stumbled at yea many that have gone a great way in the way of life and salvation For howsoever the soule that is truly broken cannot be satisfied
all thy contempt and pride and all thy Stubbournes of Spirit at last God opens thine eyes and breakes thy heart and gives thee a fight of and sorrow for these sinnes wilt thou come before the Lord and say Lord I haue repented of my sinnes past and soe I hope thy Iustice is satisfied and all accounts made euen betweene thee and mee the Lord would answere it is true thou dost repent and reforme thy selfe the gospell requires it but who payes the od thousands and who satisfies for thy old drunkennes and for thy thousands of pride and Stubbornesse and all thy carelesnes and all thy contempt of God and his grace and who satisfies for all thy blasphemies and omissions of holy duties and the like the Lord may justly take the forfeit of thy Soule and proceede in Iudgement against thee to thy destruction for ever our repentance and amendment is a new dutie which the Lord requires of us from the gospell but it is not the paying of the old debt for if we do not repent we stand guiltie of the breach of the gospell and soe must satisfie for that sinne The breach of the Law is sinne and the wages of sin is death the wages of sinne is not repentance nor amendment but it is death then repentance will not satisfie for sinne noe noe the wages that must bee laid downe for a mans sinne is death As the Lord said In the day that thou eatest of the forbidden fruite Gen. 2.17 thou shalt dye the death And therefore the Apostle saith Gal. 3.10 cursed is every one that continues not in all things written in the Law to doe them Repentance is onely a worke of the gospell to bring our hearts in frame againe but the breach of the Law must be satisfied for soe that having sinned against the Lord and wronged his Iustice we must either dye our selves or have one to dye for us then there is noe laying downe of any satisfaction to God by any thing that we can doe in this case but we must have recourse to our Saviour who onely can satisfie gods wrath for our sinnes Fifthly As a sinner is utterly unable to bring himselfe into a good estate by all the meanes that he can use so he is unable to maintaine his lot and to keepe himselfe aforehand in a Christian course when he is brought unto it Therefore as it necessary to have a Saviour to pardon us So it is necessary to have a Saviour to continue that estate of grace to us for our good When the Lord in mercy had given to Adam in his innocency perfect holinesse and righteousnesse insomuch that hee was able to keepe the Law and to purchase favour for himselfe Adam then fell and spent all that stock of grace and if we had our stocke in our owne hands we should spend all and be ruinated for ever if God did leave us to our selves If Adam having no sinne could not keepe himselfe in that happy estate much lesse are we able that have much corruption in us therefore it is not onely required to goe to Christ for grace to pardon us but we must goe to Christ to maintaine our grace and to keepe our hearts in frame here and to bring us to a Kingdome for ever hereafter When Adam had spent all the stocke of grace and proved a bankrupt the Lord would raise him up againe but he would not put the stocke into his owne hands againe but he puts it into the hands of Christ As a man that gives his childe a portion and he spends it all now his father will raise him againe but will not put it into his owne hands but into the hands of some friend and will have his Sonne goe to that man for his allowance every day and for every meale So it is with the Lord our heavenly Father because we have mispent all that wisedome and holinesse and righteousnesse which God gave Adam and in him to all of us therefore the Lord would not put the stock of grace into our owne hands againe but he hath put it into the hands of Christ and will have us depend upon Christ for every crum of grace yea even for the will to doe any good and we must goe to him that he may preserve and maintaine the worke of grace in us and wonderfull happy are we that it is so For should the Lord set the divell and us together all were gone The Lord Iesus gives grace and continues it and helps us to persevere in grace and so makes us come to the end of our hopes even the salvation of our Soules Oh therefore looke up to the Lord Iesus Christ and say Oh it is a blessed mercy that when my heart is proud vaine loose and foolish that then I may goe to the Fountaine of grace 1 Peter 1 5. for humilitie and for grace We are kept saith Saint Peter By the power of God through faith unto salvation As if he had said all the powers of hell and darknesse are come about us and a world of wickednesse besets us and all the powers of the world and the corruptions of our owne hearts allure us Now we cannot stand by our own strength therefore we have need of a Christ that we may be kept by his power and be able to suffer and to doe any thing for his names sake and that hee may preserve us in that great day of accounts 1 John 4.4 And the Apostle Iohn saith Little children you are of God and have overcome the world for greater is hee that is in you then hee that is in the world Hee doth not say greater are you then he that is in the world but greater is he that is in you c. Hee doth not say greater is your humilitie then your pride greater is your patience then your impatience and greater is your love then your hatred but he saith The Lord Iesus is greater in us to succour and to helpe us then all the temptations of the divell and the corruptions of our hearts that can presse in upon us to doe us any hurt or to hinder us in a Christian course Doest thou thinke thy owne hearing and praying and duties will serve the turne and save thy Soule No no thou art an undone man if thou rest upon thy owne crazie bottomes Amend thou mayest and pray thou oughtest but these will not save thee these will not cause the acceptation of thy person with God nor justifie thy Soule before his Tribunall All these are poore weake and crazie meanes For if thou canst not doe what God requires and if thou doest not what thou art able and if in the best of thy services there is pride and stubbornnesse enough to condemne thee and when thou risest up from prayer thou hadst need pray againe for pardon of thy prayer Nay couldst thou doe all that thou shouldest after conversion in the most strictest and exactest manner yet that doth not
that is you will not goe out from your selves to the Lord Christ and therefore cannot receive mercy and grace from his Majesties hands though thou art never so base and vile if thou couldst goe to the Lord Iesus and rest upon him for mercy nothing should stand betweene thee and heaven but if thou stickest in thy selfe all the grace in Christ can doe thee no good Secondly This carnall confidence makes a man unprofitable under all the meanes that God bestowes Ier. 17.5 6. As the Prophet Ieremy saith Cursed is he that trusts in the arme of flesh and departs from the Lord Why What shall become of him the text saith he shall be like an heath in the wildernesse and shall never see good The nature of the heath is this though all the dew of heaven and all the showers in the world fall upon it and though the Sunne shine never so hotly it will never grow fruitfull it will never yield any fruit of increase but it is unfruitfull still Such a Soule thou wilt be thou that restest upon thy own services sayest because thou hearest and prayest and doest sanctifie the Lords Day therefore thou must needs goe to heaven I say thou shalt never see good by all the meanes of grace if thou makest them independent causes of salvation all the promises in the Gospel shall never establish thee and all the judgements in the world will never terrifie thee thou shalt never have any saving grace wrought in thee by them The truth is hee that hath all meanes and hath not a Christ in all hee shall never see good by all Therefore thou that restest upon thy parts and gifts and upon thy duties thou wilt have a heart so besotted that grace will never come into thy heart and God will never quiet thy conscience It may be a poore drunkard is converted and humbled but thou standest still and canst get no good by all the means in the world Therefore say thus to thy selfe doth this carnall confidence cut mee off from all the grace and mercy that is in Christ and without mercy and pardon from Christ I am undone for ever and without grace I am a poore defiled wretch here and shall be damned for ever after if I rest here I may bid adue to all mercy Nay all the meanes that I have never doe mee good Is this the fruit of my carnall confidence Oh Lord withdraw my heart from it Lastly When all the meanes of grace will not plucke away the Soule from resting upon it selfe The fourth meanes when reason will not rule him nor meanes will not prevaile with a poore sinner as commonly a great while they will not then the Lord tires a poore Soule with his owne distempers And the Lord deales with the Soule as an enemy deales with a Castle that he hath besieged When the Citizens will not yield up the Castle he famisheth them and cuts off all provision and makes them consume within and so at last they are forced to resigne it up upon any termes So When the Lord hath laid siege to a carnall heart and hath shewed him his woefull condition and yet the heart will not of nor will not take up any termes of peace but still hee will shift for himselfe Now what doth the Lord doe hee takes away the comfort of all the meanes that he hath till hee is famished with the want of Gods favour and then hee is content to yield up all to the God of heaven and earth It was just so with this Prodigall all the world could not perswade him but he might live better of his portion and so away hee goes and when hee had tried the world and could get no succour at last he confest it was better to be at a fathers finding and now he saw that a fathers house was admirably good and that the servants and children in their fathers house are happy for they have bread enough and enough againe and to spare too and so hee is forced to returne So it is with many poore distressed soules all the arguments under heaven cannot quiet them and all the meanes in the world cannot plucke them from themselves and we tell them daily that they must not expect grace nor power nor pardon from themselves 2 Ioh. 3. It is mercy and peace saith the Apostle You would have peace of conscience and pardon of sinne and assurance of Gods love and whence would you have it you would have it from your duties it is not prayer and peace nor hearing and peace but it is mercy and peace and therefore away to the Lord Iesus that you may receive mercy from him Yet we cannot get poore creatures from themselves but they would faine shuffle for themselves and have a little comfort of their owne and they say Lord cannot my prayers my care and fasting merit salvation Now what doth God then he saith to such a Soule goe try then put to the best of thy strength and use all the meanes that thou canst and see what thou canst doe See if thou canst cure thy conscience and heale those wounds of thine and subdue the corruptions of thy heart with thy prayers and abilities but when the Soule hath made triall and weltred and wearied it selfe at last he finds that all the meanes he can use cannot quiet him nor comfort his conscience and the poore sinner is pinched and wearied and the Lord will not answer his prayers nor sweeten the desires of his Soule and the Lord will not blesse the Word to him for his comfort and at last the Soule saith Such a poore Christian even a man of meane parts and weake gifts how is he comforted and such a profane drunkard is puld home and hath gotten the assurance of Gods love The Lord hath puld downe the proud hearts of such and such and they live comfortably and sweetly and I have no peace nor assurance of Gods love You may thanke your selves for it they saw nothing and they looked for nothing from themselves and therefore they went home to the gate of mercy to the Lord Iesus Christ and they have bread enough if you would come home to Christ you might have beene comforted also Now therefore goe to the Lord Iesus Christ and as certainly as God is in heaven refreshing and comfort will come into your hearts and mercy which is better then marrow shall satisfie those feeble fainting spirits of yours You see what the way is and what the helps be to pluck off our hearts from resting upon these duties and therefore thinke thus with thy selfe and say is my misery so great and are my duties so weake and is my carnall confidence so dangerous that I may be troubled for ever for any thing that I can doe of my selfe and is comfort no where else to be had but in the Lord Iesus Christ Oh then Lord worke my heart to this duty Sticke not in your selves doe all this but goe
for necessary uses When he had spoken of free Iustification through his grace then the Text saith teach a man to maintaine good works for necessary uses and in the 4. and 5. verses Verses 4. 5. hee saith After that the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared not by works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration Now least any man should say if God doe not save a man for his works then why shall we doe good works and the like See what he addes Let us learne to maintaine good works c. There are many necessary uses of the meanes though they be not meritorious and of absolute sufficiency Were not he a mad man that should say what shall I doe with my money if I cannot eate it and what shall I doe with my boate if I may not dwell in it A man may buy meate with his money and row with his boat So you must use all meanes and improve all importunities and if ever pray and fast pray and fast now in these dayes of trouble but thinke not to bee saved nor justified by the worth and merit of them yet use them for some necessary uses and the uses are three Vse 1 First We must use all the meanes that gives us as guides Of the means to leade us by the hand to the Lord Iesus Christ and as lights to shew us where life is to be had Iohn Baptist professed plainly that hee was not the Messiah but he pointed at him and said Behold the Lambe of God that takes away the sinnes of the world So I say all the ordinances of God which are honourable and commendable and comfortable they all professe that they are not our Saviours onely they point us to a Saviour even the Lord Iesus Christ the Word reveales Christ and Prayer goes to a Christ and the Sacrament presents Christ to us and therefore they all say with one accord let us goe to the Lord Iesus and looke up to him When your hearts are troubled and disquieted all your duties knocke at your hearts and say would you not have mercy and power against corruption and some evidence of Gods favour Oh say you it is that which we want and it is all that we desire in this world Come then saith Prayer and the Word we will goe to Christ with you there is all fulnesse in him this is the end of all the holy ordinances of God not to make them Saviours but to lead us to a Saviour Vse 2 Secondly as they are guides to lead us to a Christ soe they are meanes to convey grace Of the means mercy and comfort from Christ to our soules Though they are not meate yet they are as dishes that bring the meate They are the meanes whereby salvation hath beene revealed and is conveyed to you There is a fountaine of grace in Christ but the word and prayer and Sacraments and fasting these are the conduites to convey this water of life and to communicate this grace to us You doe not use to drinke the conduite but the water that the conduite bringes Aske that your joy may be full saith our Saviour and so the Lord speakes by the Prophet Esay Esay 55.3 incline your eare and come unto mee heare and your soules shall live As if he had said waite upon God in his word and ordinances and your soules shall live Though the meanes are not life it selfe yet life is conveyed by them In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge Colloss 2.3 If you would have any grace and holinesse the treasure of it is in Christ The word is as the Indenture or great will of God whereby the treasure of Gods favour is made knowne to your Soules The bond or will is not the treasure but conveyes the treasure to us and makes us have a right and title to it our Saviour saith my peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you and all the promises in Christ are yea and Amen yea that is truth it selfe and Amen that is confimed now you must receive the tenure of all these in Christ And the holy Sacraments are as the broad seales whereby the Covenant of grace is confirmed made authenticall and ratified to your Soules When a man hath much goods and lands and would make an other his heire he passeth his lands or goods over to him by will and if the will is not onely drawne but also sealed then though this will is not the treasure it selfe yet it is a speciall meanes to convey this treasure to the heire that must have it So the Word is the will of God and the Sacraments are the Seales of it and all that mercy and goodnesse in Christ is made knowne to you by the Word and made sure to you by the Sacrament the Word and Sacraments are not this treasure but they are blessed meanes to convey this treasure to your Soules Therefore when your hearts are dead weake and heavy and you begin to breath for some consolation saying who will tell mee how I may have my dead heart quickned and my heavy heart refreshed as David once breathed for the water of Bethlem then mee thinkes the word and prayer and Sacraments doe all say we will goe to the Lord Iesus Christ for all these for you and then Christ will sanctifie you in his word and if you have strong devils hanging upon you fasting and prayer will fetch power and grace from Christ and cast all these devils out So then you see their good use of all these Thirdly the last use of the meanes is this Vse 3 that by the exercise of our selves in them Of the means and by the improvement of our times and meanes we may glorifie the God of grace that hath given us all these meanes and that we may waite upon him with feare and reverence and honor God in his word and come to his table and there partake of the dainties of life and salvation and expresse the virtues of him that hath cald us to this marvellous light that we may see Gods grace in prayer and in professing and delight in the duties of his worship These are all very good uses so then the conclusion is this you must not thinke that your duties can pardon one sinne yet they must be used and blesse God for them and if ever now is a time to improve all these for they are a meanes to leade us to Christ and to convey grace and life from Christ into our soules and thereby we may glorifie the God of grace that hath beene so mercifull to us When we doe despaire of all help in the meanes The second thing that I mentioned is this When shall wee know that our hearts are brought to this passe that the meanes of grace do worke so kindly that our hearts may bee brought to this holy
despaire I would not have you go away and say the minister saith we must despaire It s true you must despaire of all saving succour in your selves but you must not despaire of all mercy in Christ Answer For the answer to this question you must know that there are three particular trialls of our owne hearts whereby wee shall know when the Lord is pleased to deale so kindly and sweetly with us as to drive us from our selves to Christ The first triall First the Soule of a poore sinner that seeth all meanes helplesse and hopelesse in themselves will freely confesse and acknowledge and that openly that the worke of salvation is of an unconceiveable difficulty and he seeth an utter insufficiencie and impossibility in himselfe and in any meanes in the world to be saved of himselfe He seeth that it is beyond his power and the staffe is out of his owne hand and the Soule almost sinks under it and conceives it almost impossible to come out of it in regard of that which it apprehends Hee seeth now that all those broken reedes and rotten props and all that boldnesse whereby the heart did beare up it selfe they are all broken in peeces and all those Castles which he hath built in the ayre wherein hee comforted himselfe with dreames of consolation they are all throwne downe to the ground and battered about his eares and now the Soule wonders how he was so deluded to trust to such lying vanities and to such deceitfull shadowes This is the difference that the Soule will finde in it selfe before this worke of conversion and after it is wrought Before a man thinks it an easie matter to come to heaven and judgeth it a foolishnesse in people to be cast downe and discouraged in the hardnesse and difficultie of the worke of salvation and hee conceives it to be a foolish conceit in the frantick braine of some precise Ministers Oh saith he God blesse us if none be saved but such as these whatsoever he saith a man may goe to heaven and repent and get the pardon of his sinnes it is nothing but confessing his sinnes before God and craving mercy in the pardon of them and is this such a hard matter this man in the dayes of his vanitie thinks he hath heaven in a string and mercy at command and he can come to heaven and breake his heart at halfe an houres warning but take this man when the Lord hath awakened his conscience and put him to the triall when he seeth that after all his prayers and teares yet his conscience is not quieted and his sinnes are not pardoned and the guilt still remaines now he is of another minde now he wonders at himselfe that he was so deluded and now he saith where is the deluded heart that did thinke it and the mouth that did speake it Nay he thinks it a great mercy of God that he is not in hell long agoe and he stands and wonders that ever any man comes to heaven and he saith certainly their hearts are not like mine and their sinnes are not so great as mine good Lord who can ever be saved such a divell to tempt and such a world to allure and such corruptions boyling within He wonders how Abraham got to heaven beyond the Starres and Moses but above all Manasses yet he saith blessed be God that ever he did this for them but for my selfe all things considered I thinke it a matter impossible how I nay how can I ever be wrought upon shall ever any mercy comfort mee and shall ever any meanes doe mee good Why have not all those meanes that I have had done mee good I shall never have power to pray better then I have done and I shall never be able to wrestle with God more earnestly then I have done and yet I see all meanes profit not therefore I am but a gone man I am but lost and I know not which way my soule should be saved When our Saviour Christ was discovering the difficultie of the way to Salvation His Disciples said Good Lord who then shall be saved So the poore Soule saith Oh the meanes that I have had and the prayers that I have made So that I have thought the heavens did even shake againe and yet Good Lord my heart did never stirre at all and therefore how can I be saved And as the Prophet Ieremy saith Shame hath eaten up the labours of our fathers and we lye downe in our shame c. They had the meanes of grace and the ordinances of God and shame hath eaten up all and where are their Temples and Priviledges now Shame hath consumed them to nothing So it is with a poore feeble fainting Soule he saith shame hath eaten up all my labours I have laboured in prayer in hearing and in fasting yet I have no pardon sealed nor no mercy granted I am as much troubled as ever I see as much evill as ever I did hell is gaping for mee and so soone as life is gone from my body the divell will have my Soule This is the nature of despaire to put an impossibilitie in the thing that it despaires of and to say can it be and will it be and will it ever be Nay it is impossible for ought I know Where is the man now that thought it an easie matter to goe to heaven he is in an other minde and his heart is of an other frame now he hath found by woefull experience that there is no hope nor helpe in himselfe nor in the creature Secondly The second Triall this followes from the former disposition of spirit the Soule is restlesse and remaines unsatisfied in what he hath and what he doth The heart cannot be supported and therefore it growes to be marveilously troubled and it is not able to stay it selfe There is nothing that can satisfie the Soule of a man but it must be some good No man is satisfied with evill but rather more troubled with it It must be some good either in hand and in present possession or else in expectation of some good that he may have and he saith it may be and it will be But when he seeth the emptinesse of all his priviledges and the weakenesse of all his duties when these failes his heart and all must needs sinke because he seeth no other good but them for the while As it is with the building of a house if the bottome and foundation be brittle and rotten and begin to shake all the whole building must needs shake So the Soule that sought for comfort mercy and salvation from his outward priviledges and duties when all these begin to shake under him and to breake in sunder and he seeth no helpe thereby and that it can receive no ease therein hence it is that Soule thus troubled and despairing is in such an estate that if all the Ministers under heaven should come to flatter him and to daube him up with untempered mortar
and perswade him of Gods mercy towards him Take this man upon his death-bed when all the Ministers come to give him comfort upon any termes and they say unto him your course hath beene good and commendable and you have lived thus and thus and taken much paines in praying and hearing and fasting therefore undoubtedly you cannot but receive mercy from the Lord. See what the poore Soule will reply It is true saith he I have done and may doe all these but I have not done them in a right manner I have not had an eye to Christs mercy but have accounted these duties as satisfactory to Gods justice so that they savour not so much of dutie as arrogancy whilest presuming upon their worth I have not depended upon Gods mercy but even challenged his justice in the reward of my labours Thus the Soule argueth with it selfe I have depended too long upon these outward works and thought to purchase heaven by them but now I finde it necessary that I get them dyed and sanctified in the blood of Christ Thus it was with Saint Paul when he said 1 Cor. 4.4 I know nothing by my selfe What might some say Paul You are a reverend learned man and have had a great name in the Church and who can say blacke is your eye It is true saith he I know nothing by my selfe but what then yet I am not thereby justified Nay it is the difference that he makes betweene himselfe a Pharisee and himself a poore contrite sinner When he was a Pharisee he counted his priviledges gaine to him but now hee thought them losse in regard of Christ They are good mercies Phil 3.7 where God gives them in regard of themselves but in the way of Iustification and Salvation they are as dung and drosse in respect of any merit in them This is one difference betweene a dead hypocrite and a living Christian A dead hypocrite will be content with dead hearing and dead praying and with the bare shell of duties but a living Christian that seeth his owne evill and sinne cannot be fild nor contented without a Christ That which will maintaine a Camelion will starve a man for a Camelion will live upon the ayre but put a Man into the best ayre that is and it will starve him if hee have no other food So if thou canst feed upon the ayre of hearing and the picture and shadow of praying it is a signe thou art a dead man whereas if thou be a true man in Christ Iesus thou must have bread or else all the world cannot content thee Bread for the Lords sake saith the hunger-starved man therefore let mee give thee an Item this way goe thy way home and take notice of thine heart thou that canst licke thy Soule whole and cure all thy sinnes with a few prayers and teares and fastings and in the meane time seest not a necessity of a Saviour know that it is a notorious signe of a cunning hypocrite as there are many in these dayes It is with an hypocrite as it is with some men written of in Stories they have such an antidote and preservative that they can eate poyson and it shall never hurt them So it is with some hypocrites that have their reservations of some sins and they retaine some base distempers and they will tipple in a corner and lye in some secret sinnes and yet they trust so much to their antidote and to their duties that it will cure all and it is but praying and fasting so much the more often The God of heaven open the eyes and awaken the consciences of all such if there be any such here this day If it be so that thou canst pray and keepe a close hollow heart and thou canst licke thy selfe whole and then sinne and a little prayer will serve againe and then goe and be unjust and uncleane and keepe false ballances still know then it is certaine thou never haddest a part in Christ and didst see a need of Christ And as it was with the Prodigall if hee had beene a Hogge the huskes might have served him but hee was a Man and therefore must have bread Therefore thou hypocrite to thy Stye if these huskes will save thee and serve thy turne and if the mill of a prayer will serve I doe not discommend these duties No cursed be he that doth it but if thou content thy selfe with a mill of praying and yet there is as much power of Christ and sap of grace in thy heart as in a chip then I say thou art a Hogge and no Man whom these huskes will content The third Triall Thirdly he that seeth himselfe helples and hopeles in the meanes hee will constantly labour to goe beyond all the meanes Because hee is in neede and finds no helpe here he will seeke it els where that his heart may be refreshed when the Lord hath awakened the heart and shewed him the emptinesse of all meanes it makes the soule go further then the means this is the heavenly skill It is with the Soule in this case as it is with a marriner though his hand be upon the oare yet he ever lookes homeward to the haven where he would be And it is in professing as it is in trading You know when a man sets up for himselfe and would live of his calling hee will buy and sell but his eye is ever upon the gaine that 's it which must keepe the Cart on the wheeles or els hee may die a begger and shall never be able to keep him and his it is not enough to trade and to buy and sell but he goes beyond all these and labours to get something Iust so it is in professing it is like thy trading thou hearest and praiest and professest but the gaine is to haue Christ made to thee in life and death gaine soe that all the gaine a man gets is Christ Thou art a professor and hast beene baptized and hast received the Sacrament but what hast thou gotten by all thy praying and preaching and other services unlesse thou hast gotten Christ thou hast gotten just nothing at all It is with thee as it is with a man that hath a great shop and much wares and quicke returne and yet he is not able to pay his debts so thou performest many faire duties and hast many rich priviledges and yet thou art not able to satisfie Gods Iustice nor to recompence the Church for the wrong done to it and when thou art going the way of all flesh but specially in the day of judgement then shall people say of thee such a man was buying and selling and professing all his life and yet got nothing and when a poore Soule is breathing out his last then comes justice and saith give me my own thou hast sinned and therfore thou must die for it Lord saith hee take some prayers and readings and fastings in stead of payment and if these will not serve then he
that you may chat and parlee a little with Christ Our Saviour saith Matth. 24.28 Where the carkasse or the dead body is there will the Eagles be This is the nature of an Eagle shee will not goe to catch flies that 's the nature of the hedge Sparrow but shee will prey upon the carkasse So this is a good heart that will not prey upon dead duties but upon the Lord Christ who is the life of the Soule If thou art of a right brood thou wilt not fill and glut thy Soule with a few duties like a hedge Sparrow still mistake me not I doe not dispraise these duties but I say they are nothing in the way of justification if faith in Christs merits be not joyned with them Therefore if thou hast a dunghill heart of thine owne thou may'st goe and content thy selfe with profession and with a few cold dead duties but if thou art an Eagle and a sound hearted Christian and one that God hath beene pleased to doe good unto thou wilt never be but where the Lord Iesus is and where his grace and mercy is As we doe at a Feast the dish is greater then the meat yet wee reach the dish not for the dishes sake but that we may cut some meat So the ordinances of God are as so many dishes wherein the Lord Iesus Christ is dished out to us Sometimes Christ in his merits is dished out in the Sacrament to all the sences and sometimes he is dished out in the Word therefore as you take the dish to cut some meate So take the Word that Communicates Christ to the eare and Prayer Communicates with Christ and the Sacrament Communicates Christ to all the sences cut the meate and let not the Lord Christ goe whole from the Table and no man looke after him fill your hungry Soules with Christ When a poore travelling man comes to the Ferry he cryes to the other side Have over have over his meaning is he would goe to the other side by a Boat he onely desires the use of the Ferry-man to convey him over So Christ is in heaven but we are here on earth as it were on the other side of the river the ordinances of God are but as so many Boats to carry us and to land us at Heaven where our hopes are and our hearts should be Therefore you would be landed Have over have over saith the Soule The Soule desires to bee landed at the Staires of Mercy and saith Oh bring me to speake with my Saviour Mary came to the Sepulchre to seeke for Christ and therefore when the Angel said to her Woman why weepest thou shee made this answer Oh they have taken away my Lord. Ioh. 20.13 So it is with you if you be not hypocrites Is there ever a Mary here is there ever a man or woman that prizeth a Christ and seeth need of a Christ and that comes weeping and mourning to the holy ordinances of God whom seekest thou saith the Word and Prayer and the Sacrament Oh saith the broken hearted sinner they have taken away my Lord Christ Oh this sinfull heart of mine oh these cursed corruptions of mine if it had not beene for these Christ would have comforted my conscience and pardoned my sinne if thou seest my Christ and my Saviour reveale him to my Soule that I may receive comfort and consolation by him This is the frame of a Christian Soule when the Ferry-man hath carried the traveller over hee stayes not there but goes to the house of his friend and saith is such a man within he desires to speake with him and to receive some good from him We heare and pray and reade till we are weary we doe not cry Have over let mee come to enjoy a neerer Communion with my Saviour that I may dwell with him and have a neerer cut to the Lord Christ I would have way that I may receive grace and mercy from Christ according to my necessities When a man hath gotten so many hundreth pounds he not onely tels that he hath met with the Ferry-man but he shewes the money that he hath gotten So you come to Church and goe from Church and you have your hearing for your hearing and your professing for your professing and the like but you should labour to say I have gotten the pardon of all my sinnes and the assurance of Gods love to my Soule I have beene with my Saviour and thus graciously and mercifully hee hath dealt with mee All that I have said is but a speech of a little time but it is a taske for all a mans life Oh thinke of it and say what have I gotten by all that I have done and what would I get when I goe to prayer I would have a Christ and mercy from him This is not in our minds I tell thee what thou must ayme at and labour for heare and pray for a Saviour See a need of Christ in all and see greater beauty in Christ then in all and be lead neerer to Christ by all or else you get nothing by all that you doe If there were no gold in the West-Indies the King of Spaine would not care for his Ships nor for that place Schoole-boyes care not for the Carrier but for Letters from a Father So now raise up your hearts higher towards heaven All holy duties are but as Ships and Carriers but the golden Mines of mercy are all in the Lord Iesus Christ It was a sweet speech of a man whether he was good or bad I know not that a man should loose the creatures in God So I would have you doe loose your selves and all ordinances and creatures and all that you have and doe in the Lord Christ How is that Let all be swallowed up and let nothing be seene but a Christ and let thy heart be set upon nothing but a Christ As it is with the Moone and Starres when the Sunne comes they loose all their light though they are there in the heavens still and as it is with rivers they all goe into the Sea and are all swallowed up of the Sea and yet there is nothing seene but the Sea So all the ordinances and creatures are as so many rivers from that Ocean of mercy and goodnesse in Christ and they all returne thither therefore onely see a Fountaine of grace goodnesse wisedome and power in Christ When a man is upon the Sea he can see no fresh water it is all swallowed up So let it be with thy Soule when thou wouldest finde mercy and grace The ordinances of God are good in themselves yet loose them all in Christ That wisedome in Christ is able to direct and that grace and mercy in Christ is able to save when all other helps faile and that power of Christ must support the Soule in the time of trouble There is some comfort and sweet and some refreshing in the Word and in the Sacrament and in the company of Gods people
satisfie of himselfe he cannot and his friends will not and he knowes that the bonds are still in force and his creditor will sue him avoyd the suit he cannot and to beare it he is not able and therefore he comes in freely and offers himselfe and his person and gives up himselfe into his creditors hands onely he beseecheth him to remit that which he can never pay Iust so it is with the soule of a poore sinner The Soule is the Debtor and Divine Iustice is the Creditor When the poore sinner hath used all meanes to save and succour himselfe and to make payment and he hath as it were made a gathering of prayers all the Countrey over and yet he seeth that there is a controversie betweene God and him and yet his sinne is not pardoned and God is Iust and will have his honour and he is not able to avoyd the suite nor to beare it Psal 139.7 8. and the Soule saith as David did Whither shall I goe from thy spirit and whither shall I flye from thy presence if I ascend up into heaven thou art there c. So the Soule saith God will have his payment from this heart blood of mine if I goe into the East the Lord will follow mee and bid his Serjeant Conscience to arrest mee and I shall lye and rot in the Prison of hell for ever Now the Soule offers himselfe before the Lord and saith Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee Oh shew mercy if it be possible to this poore distressed Soule of mine thus the Prodigall did An other Similitude is this Me thinks the picture of those foure famished Lepers may fitly resemble this poore sinner When the famine was great in Samaria 2 King 7.3.8 9 c. There were foure leprous men sate in the gate of the Citie and they said Why sit we here untill we die If wee enter into the Citie the famine is there and if we sit here wee dye also Now let us therefore fall into the hands of our enemies if they save us alive we shall live and if they kill us we shall but die They had but one meanes to succour themselves withall and that was to goe into the Campe of their enemies come said they we will put it to the venture and so they did and were relieved This is the lively picture of a poore sinner in this despairing condition When the Soule of a poore Leprous sinner is famished for want of comfort and hee seeth the wrath of God pursuing of him and the Lord besets him on every side at last he resolves thus with himselfe I say when he hath used all meanes and finds succour in none hee resolves thus with himselfe and saith if I goe and rest upon my priviledges there is nothing but emptinesse and weakenesse if I trust in them and if I rest in my naturall condition I perish there also Let mee therefore fall into the hands of the Lord of Hosts who I confesse hath beene provoked by mee and for ought I see is mine enemy I am now a damned man and if the Lord cast me out of his presence I can but be damned that way and then hee comes to the Lord and falls downe before the footstoole of a consuming God and saith as Iob did What shall I say unto thee oh thou preserver of men I have no reason to plead for my self withall and I have no power to succour my selfe my accusations are my best excuse all the priviledges in the world cannot justifie me and all my duties cannot save me if there be any mercy left Oh succour a poore distressed sinner in the very gall of bitternesse This is the behaviour of the Soule in this work of subjection The reason why the Lord deales thus with the Soule and why hee plucks a sinner upon his knees there is great reason why he should doe it The reason is two-fold First That the Lord may herein expresse and glorifie the greatnesse of his power And secondly To shew forth the glory of his mercy Reason 1 First the glory of his power is mervailously magnified in that the Lord shewes that hee is able to pull downe the proudest heart and to lay low the haughtiest spirit under heaven and those that have out-braved the God of heaven and beene opposite to him and despised the glory of his name For herein is the glory of his name greatly exalted that hee makes a poore wretch to come and creepe and crawle before him and begge for mercy at his hands and to be at his dispose Exod. 9.27 It is a fine passage You know how Pharaoh would out-face the Lord saying Who is the Lord that I should obey him And as the Master sometimes saith to his servant You shall And you shall doe this saith the husband to his wife This is the sturdy fiercenesse of a company of wretches Well the Lord let him alone for the while but in the 27. verse when the Lord had freed and delivered his servants and had plagued the Aegyptians with the haile then Pharaoh said Now I know that the Lord is greater then all Gods and that he is righteous but I and my people are wicked Where is Pharaoh and Nimrod and all the rest of those mighty ones of the world they are all gone downe to hell and God hath destroyed them for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly hee was above them Herein is the glory of Gods power So it is here As we use to say Doe you know such a man Yes What was he A profest drunkard and a desperate despiser of God and his grace and one that did hate the very face of an honest man Oh the Lord hath brought him upon his knees Oh admirable saith he what is he humbled and is his heart broken Oh yes the Lord hath dejected him in that wherein he was proud As it is amongst men If two men be in controversie and the one enters into suit with the other and before a man will submit and yeeld himselfe hee will dye and rather spend all that he hath then to want his will and he will make that tongue denie what it hath spoken He thinks this his excellencie So it is with our God Herein is the power of the Almighty magnified that he hath brought downe those great Leviathans and all those Nimrods and great Kings which said Who is the Lord hee hath made such as these are to come in and to submit unto him Secondly The second Meanes by this meanes the Lord doth mervailously promote the praise of his mercy First Partly for the greatnesse of it And secondly partly for the freedome of it First in that the Lord helps a poore sinner at a dead lift and when all prayers and hearings prevailed not and when all priviledges were not able to purchase mercy and favour then the Lord shewes mercy Doth not this argue the excellencie of that Balme that will cure
a point of subjection and the want of this horrible pride This is marveilous divellish pride that a man should set up the lusts of his owne righteousnesse and duties and thinke to finde acceptance and reconciliation with and pardon from the Lord because of these So that now the Soule is nothing and the Lord saith unto him thou shalt goe in ragges all thy dayes that Christ may be thy righteousnesse Thou shalt be a foole that Christ may be thy wisedome and thou shalt be weake that Christ may be all thy strength and I will make the submit to that righteousnesse of Christ Nay the Lord saith further if you thinke to finde acceptance and to purchase mercy by what you can doe then come your way and bring all those prayers and duties and see if they can all answer my exact Law of righteousnesse and satisfie my Iustice Thus the Lord is faine to emptie a man of himselfe this is an admirable worke of the Spirit when the heart is thus content to be at Gods carving and to have nothing of its owne to be ignorant weake and meane and to have all from a Christ This is considerable every man would faine bring something with him even where God hath wrought grace and then we are all dead in the nest and all amort when we find it not and we are ready to say if I had these and these enlargements then God would accept mee but because I have not the Lord will reject mee What is this but to set up the merits of a mans parts and duties therefore it is that the Lord will bring the Soule to this to be content to be justified not for what he hath but for something in another besides what hee can doe to entitle himselfe to heaven and happinesse Therefore the Apostle saith Rom. 4.5 To him that worketh not but beleeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly is faith accounted for righteousnesse This is our nature We would faine be Ioynt-purchasers with Christ and have something of our owne of merit to make us finde acceptance with God as well as Iesus Christ in the point of Iustification But the Lord will bring the heart to this it shall come as an ungodly wretched traitor that the Lord may Iustifie him in Christ Why dare not a poore sinner sometimes come to Christ and looke to him for mercy Oh he is not worthy But art thou not content to see thy unworthinesse Yes saith he but I see such pride such lithernesse in holy duties and such corruption that I dare not goe to Christ for mercy If this be a burthen to thee and if thou art content to be rid of this then Christ hath prepared mercy for thee and thou maist take it the Lord will make thee know that thou art not accepted because thou art worthy but through Christ The Lord justifies the ungodly The second thing that the Soule must be content with The second part of the Lords dispose that hee brings the Soule unto it is this As the Soule must looke for what it hath from another so in the second place it must be content to take what mercy and what that other will give Not what the Soule thinkes fitting but what mercy accounts the best for him Now see this blessed frame of heart in these three particulars First The Soule is content that mercy shall deny what it will to the Soule and the Soule is content and calmed with whatsoever mercy denyes If the Lord will not heare his prayers and if the Lord will cast him away because hee hath cast away the Lords kindnesse and if the Lord will leave him in that miserable and damnable condition which hee hath brought himselfe into by the stubbornesse of his heart the Soule is quiet Though I confesse it is harsh and tedious and long it is ere the Soule be thus framed yet the heart truly abased is content to beare the estate of damnation because hee hath brought this misery and damnation upon himselfe In a word the Soule seeth that it deserves nothing at Gods hands and therefore he is content if God deny him any thing 2 Sam. 15.25.26 and it befals the Soule in this case as it did David See how willingly hee takes whatsoever the Lord shall allow him Where hee saith Carry backe the Arke of God into the Citie if I shall finde favour in the eyes of the Lord hee will bring mee againe and shew mee both it and his habitation but if he shall say I have no delight in David Behold here I am let him doe whatsoever is good in his eyes As it was with David for a Temporall Kingdome So it is with the Soule for a Spiritual Mercy The Soule saith if there be any mercy for a poore rebellious creature the Lord may looke graciously upon mee but if the Lord shall say thou hast brought damnation to thy selfe therefore I will leave thee in it Behold here I am let the Lord doe with mee what hee will Object But some may here object and say Must the Soule can the Soule or ought it to be thus content to be left in this damnable condition Answ For the answer hereof Know that this contentednesse implies two things and it may be taken in a double sense First Contentednesse sometimes implies nothing else but a carnall securitie and a regardlesnesse of a mans estate he regards not his owne Soule what he is nor what he hath nor what shall become of him This is a most cursed sinne and this contentednesse is nothing else but a marveilous negligence either of Gods glory or his owne good and it is a sinne to give way to it and it is a fore-runner of damnation to that man which entertaines it The Soule that is truly humbled and abased cannot nay it dare not say so in cold blood setting aside passions and temptations Nay this contentednesse argues damnation for ever This is not meant in this place neither is it lawfull to give way to it and it is certaine upon these termes the Soule shall never be saved God will make him prize mercy and care for it too before he have it But then Secondly it implyes a calmenesse of Soule not murmuring against the Lords dispensation towards him and this contentednesse is ever accompanied with the sight of a mans sinne and the following of God for mercy The Soule that is thus contented to bee at Gods disposing it is ever improving all meanes and helpes that may bring him nearer to God but if mercy shal deny it the Soule is satisfied and rests well apaid this every Soule that is truly humbled may have and hath in some measure Yet you must not throw all at sixe and seavens no it is a cursed distemper of Spirit that you must hate as hell it self But this contentednesse is opposed against quarrelling with the Almighty and this every humbled Soule doth attaine unto though it bee not soe plainly seene As it is with
and they had humbled themselves and the Lord had turned from his wrath see how this man fals out with God! Oh saith he Ionah 4.1 2. I thought so much when I was in my owne countrey that thou wouldest save this people and I should be accounted a false Prophet and thus my glory lyes in the dust You thinke God is beholden to you for your prayers and fastings and you say how is it that after all our prayers yet we have not comfort such a man is cheared and such a poore creature is refreshed and yet they have not the parts that we have and they have not prayed as we have done thou hast shewed mercy to them and therefore why not to us too This is horrible pride See how a proud soule justles God out of the place of of his providence and brings the Almightie to his barre and to his judgement and the heart begins to reason inwardly and sometimes vents it outwardly and saith had the Lord given mee that grace and fitted a place for mee I could have done much for God and some good to his Church and I could have ministred much comfort to others this is the English of it As if hee had said had the Lord beene so wise to devise a meanes to effect this glory as I am then great matters might have bene done This is to make a mans wisedome above God and his mercy grace wisedome and all Oh! this is devillish pride Secondly It slights all mercyes received and all that God bestowes from day to day because he cannot have what he would therefore he cares not for it and he regards not what hee hath As Haman said Hester 5.13 all this honor and these riches availe mee nothing so long as I see the Iew Mordecai sitting in the gate This one thing denyed him made him no to regard whatsoever hee had and it was not onely so with Haman but even with good Ionah When God had prepared a goard because he tooke it away againe suddainely Ionah tooke on exceedingly and forgetting all Gods mercyes in the depth he quarrels with heaven Ionah 4.9 and when the Lord said dost thou well to bee angry yes saith he even to the death thus he commends himself The reason is the Soule is like a sullen child who because his coate is not garded as he would have it therefore he is discontented and will havs none at all Therefore the Soule saith as they did of the two litle fishes Iohn 6.9 heere are five barly loaves and two fishes but what are these amongst so many people So the Soule saith oh he hath nothing and he can doe nothing and God frownes upon him c. but hath not God given you a care and conscience to reforme your lives and hath not he done this and that for you oh yes but what 's this to that I might have had and that I would have oh downe with that proud heart Thirdly The discontented Soule will quarrell with his owne condition whatsoever it is though he had a condition of waxe as the Proverb is hee is never pleased nor quietted but hee hath strange Imaginations in his mind and strange liftings up of his owne conceiptes and he saith If God had set mee in such a place answerable to my gifts and parts then such a thing might have beene done but God hath put him as it were under a clod and therefore hee hath no care of himselfe as God hath had no care of him nay let him have that condition which he desires and he falls out with that too Gen. 25.22 Rebecca could not be contented without children and yet when shee had conceived and the children began to strive in her wombe shee said if it be so why am I thus So it is with a proud discontented heart Hee must have this and hee will have that and if there be any weaknesse hee sinks downe in his sorrow Iosh 7.7 It is a strange passage of good Iosuah when the Lord had discomfited the hoast of Israel by the men of Ai see how he complaines saying Alas oh Lord God wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Iordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites would God we had beene content to dwell on the other side Iordan As if hee had not begged Gods blessing and had not seene Gods hand in succouring of him before and yet now because hee had not what he would hee takes all in the worst sence And as Moses said when the Lord had call'd him to goe before Pharaoh send by whom thou should'st send Exod. 4.13 As if God must not dispose of him because he had not that eloquence which hee desired Fourthly as he quarrells with his condition so hee becomes weary of his life and will needs dye in a pet because God answers not and his humour is not fitted therefore hee will away from the world no man shall see him any more neither will he see any man Thus it was with good Eliah when he said 1 King 19.4 Lord take away my life for I am no better then my Fathers So it was with Ionah and with Iob. Iob 3.10 11 12. You women thinke of this It may be your husbands will not speake to you as you would have them and then you wish Oh that you had dyed in such a sicknesse c. Downe with those proud hearts The Lord hath given you life and continues it that you may seeke to God and yet you will needs dye in a sullen fit its mercy that you may live to seeke mercy Fifthly in conclusion when the Soule hath thus quarrelled with God and slighted all mercies and quarrelled with his condition and is grown weary of his life all then the Soul comes to a desperate distraction in himselfe and a wonderfull thought seazeth upon the Soule of a discontented man that his heart is almost driven beyond himselfe and out of this comes a great deale of madnesse in the wicked and it doth much hurt to the good too His thoughts run in a marvellous hurry one upon another and makes the Soule unfit to doe any good to others or to receive any good from others Here is the cause when God hath opened your eyes and the wrath of God first began to pursue you then you could have been content to fall into a river and to make away your selves Now what if God will have you beare his hand and will not give you grace yet why doe you quarrell against God Oh sit downe and humble your selves with meekenesse and calmnesse and wonder that you are not in hell what if you had beene damned long agoe Thus it was with Rachel shee would not be comforted because her children were not So it is with thy Soule thou must have what thou wilt or else thou wilt not be comforted Now there are two objections against the former truth which I must remoove and answer
mee all you stout hearted ones of the world which are farre from righteousnesse Esay 26.12 Let mee speake to all you stout hearted men and women that are heere this day you that swell against the truth of Christ and will not come under the power of Gods ordinances you are farre from righteousnesse The further you are gone in this sinne the further you are from the righteousnesse of God A stout hearted man is a thousand miles from righteousnesse Drunkards and adulterers are far enough from it but a proud man is as it were 20. hundreth thousand miles from it hee is far from the covenant of faith Faith goes out for all that it hath to an other it reacheth up to heaven for all it wants meate and nourishment and therefore it goes to Christ for all and pride onely rests upon it selfe for all faith gives the glory of all that it hath to another but pride takes all the glory to its selfe Faith goes to another for strength in what he doth but pride rests upon it selfe for strength So that though all sinnes hinder the worke of faith yet pride hinders it more then any thing You that thinke it a brave matter to be proud and you must not buckle to the Minister and you must doe what you list you are stout-hearted men but you are farre from beleeving men The more faith the lesse pride and the more pride the lesse faith 3. A proud soule is farre from mercy Thirdly As pride opposeth God himselfe and as it opposeth the covenant of grace so it followes from the two former that the proud Soule upon these conditions that it is in shall never receive any grace from the Lord. Set your hearts at rest for that You may swell and lift up your selves but if ever you receive the worke of grace and mercy upon these termes I will bee your bond-man for ever For he that is professely contrary to the grace of God that gives all and he that is contrary to the covenant of grace by which all is conveyed let him set his heart at rest for ever receiving any mercy The Lord himselfe is not able to endure the sight of a haughty spirit he cannot looke upon him much lesse will he live with him He beholds the proud man a farre off hee drives a proud man farre from heaven Psal 138.6 The Lord deales by a proud man as a man doth that is carried with indignation against his enemy he will not looke upon him So it is with the Lord hee will not be within the ken of a proud man and if the Lord doe come neere a proud man woe to him that he doth so The Lord resists the proud Hee whets all the sharpest arrowes of his vengeance and shuts them all against a proud man You broken hearts consider this The Lord gives grace to the humble but the proud man must be content with his portion he shall be resisted not received he shall be resisted not converted nor saued nor sanctified Hee may bid farewell to all grace hee shall never have it upon those termes and as God intends no good to him so a proud man comes not within the scope of mercy nor of that redemption which Iesus Christ hath wrought and purchased Christ came not to call the righteous that is them that looke loftily in regard of what they do You stout hearted people thinke of it The Lord Christ came not to call you The devill calls and you may goe to him but Christ came to call and save the poore broken hearted sinners It is said of Christ That hee was annointed of the Lord Esa 61.1 2 3. to preach the glad tidings of the Gospell to whom to the meeke c. You meekened Soules shall heare good newes from heaven But there is not any one sillable of one promise in all the Gospel that any proud spirit can conceive to belong unto him If I could seperate all the good from the bad I would have the good to stand by and heare these good newes that I have for them and if you proud hearts will come in and yeild they may be yours too You that tremble at Gods Word and are willing to doe what God shall command if there be any such here this day as I doubt not but there are many then know that the Sonne of man came to seeke and save you it is good tidings Nay in the Lord Iesus Christ are all the Treasures of wisedome and knowledge and out of this fulnesse of holinesse and happinesse he fills all your meeke hearts and hee will give all grace according to your necessities here is newes of salvation life and comfort from heaven But to whom is it Christ came to seeke and save them that are lost that is them that are lost in their owne apprehension but the proud man was never lost in himselfe A lost man in the Wildernesse is content to be guided into his right way but the proud man saith hee will be filthy and fashionable still therefore hee was never lost and Christ never came to seeke nor save him All meanes doe a proud man no good All the meanes of Grace that God gives will never benefit a proud man So that now it is as possible nay more possible for heaven and earth to meete together then for a proud man to come to heaven except God give him a heart to stoope No man can receive benefit by the word except he be under the power of it if the wax be not under the Seale how can it receive any impression As the Apostle saith Rom 6.17 They were delivered into the forme of that doctrine propounded The forme of the Gospell tooke place in their hearts There is no Soule can get any benefit by the Gospell but hee must receive what it reveales and what it commands hee must doe and what it forbids he must labour to avoyd but a proud heart is above all meanes and therefore the word will not nay it cannot worke savingly on him As those wicked ones said Our tongues are our owne we ought to speake Psal 11.4 who is Lord over us What reproofe shall awe me saith a proud heart I will be led by my owne lusts Your owne reason leades you and your owne wills rules you your owne mindes and your lusts and what your hearts will have they must have You stout hearted ones that are resolved not to yield nor to come under the grace of God you will not have your affections framed nor made more teachable then seeing you will not bee taught be for ever deluded goe your way and be for ever hardned and for ever cast off from the presence of God and goe downe to the bottomlesse pit you will have your owne wills therefore goe to your owne places for that 's all you can have You that are the faithfull of God and know any such mourne for them Fourthly Againe 4. A proud
mans end is exceeding fearfull The destruction of a proud man is both certaine exceeding heavie and it is like to be mervailous fearfull There is nothing to be expected and hoped for but totall ruine and that suddainly and unconceiveably to every proud spirit that beares up himselfe against the blessed God of heaven Let mee open it thus A proud man is marked out for Gods Iudgements and is made as it were the white against whom all the arrowes of his vengeance are fully bent When Amaziah would needs out bid the Prophet in his advice 2 Chron. 25.15 16. and said forbeare Why shouldst thou bee smitten I will forbeare saith the Prophet but know what shall befall thee I know the Lord hath purposed to destroy thee because thou wilt not hearken to my counsell You that are acquainted with your stout-hearted husbands and wives and friends and know how your children bandy themselves against the blessed truth of Christ goe in secret and bemoane their estates and pray for them that if it be possible destruction may be prevented goe in secret and say it is my husband or my wife or my childe that yeilds not to the direction of the Word and therefore howsoever we may live a while together yet I know God hath decreed to destroy him and her Thinke of this with your selves you that are proud and say If I will not be exhorted then I shall be destroyed I cannot avoyd it Oh me thinks if every proud spirit would write this upon the palmes of his hands and upon the tester of his bed that he might see it wheresoever he goes how would his heart sinke within him When thou goest abroad say for ought I know I shal never returne home God hath decreed to destroy me And when thou lyest down think thus for ought I know I shal never rise more It is not the word of man but of the Almightie When the Lord would as it were frame a path for destruction hee sends a proud heart If once the Lord intend to destroy a People or Nation he gives them over to pride of heart The sonnes of Ely did not hearken to the voyce of their father because the Lord meant to destroy them 1 Sam. 2.25 hee gave them over to proud hearts Nay the proud Soule is not onely the ayme of Gods wrath but as the Lord determines destruction for him so he brings destruction first upon him When the Citizens said We will not have this man to rule over us then the King was wroth and said Luk. 19.4.27 bring hither those mine enemies and slay them before mee c. There was no delay nor no mitigation of the punishment to be granted Oh thinke of this all you proud spirits Indeed the Lord will confound all the wicked in the Day of Iudgement but he will execute even the fiercest of the Vials of his vengeance against a proud man and when the Lord shall say where are those wretches mine enemies then the Ministers of God shall come in and say this man was a drunkard and this man an adulterer Yes saith the Lord I will plague them anone but where are those mine enemies those stout-hearted men and women that hated to be reformed let mee see those damned and destroyed for ever And for ought I know God hath a strange indignation in store for them Nay it shall bee so executed upon a proud man that there shall be no reclaiming of it and God will not be perswaded to pitty him Prov. 1.26 27 28. They shall call upon mee saith the Text but I will not answer they shall seeke mee early but they shall not finde mee So that it is no wonder though a company of rebellious wretches have no comfort upon their death beds and though a thousand divels seaze upon them and hurry them downe to hell it s no wonder I say cry and call they may but God will not heare them Nay the Lord will laugh at their destruction and mocke when their feare commeth It is a griefe for a man to be in misery but to be laughed at that 's a plague of all plagues But to have mercy rejoyce in the destruction of a man this makes the plague out of measure miserable If any man say this is false doctrine and this is too sharpe and too keene Brethren we dare doe no other and wee can doe no lesse and you had better heare of it now while you may prevent it then to heare of it and feele it hereafter when there is no remedy But here is the maine wound of our Ministery you will not stoope nor yield to our Ministery Wee speake not in wrath and anger as you imagine but in mercy wee now preach against a proud heart that you may be humbled and finde mercy and so be comforted and saved for ever Therefore take your owne shame and the Lord prevaile with those hearts which word and counsell cannot worke upon And the Lord now fit you for mercy that you may receive mercie from the Lord. That 's all the hurt wee wish you Oh that you would so heare of these plagues that you might never feele them The Lord hath an old grudge against a proud heart Goe away you proud hearts feare and tremble When you are gone from the congregation do not say What if he say so we fare well enough yet and wee see none of all these judgements and all this winde shakes no corne no no once stoope and come in and take the yoake of Christ and the Lord make it easie Goe in secret and reason thus good Lord have not I onely lifted up my selfe against man like my selfe but against God and against his ordinances and hath God yet shewed mee mercy in sparing of me and it is yet mercy that I may bow my body though I cannot bow my proud heart oh what mercy is this You wives thanke God that yet hee hath spared your husbands and that yet they have breath and being here pray to God that they may lay about them for humble hearts that so they may finde mercy against the evill day Our God is very mercifull but it is no contending with him Did ever any man provoke the Lord and prosper Come in therefore shame your selves that the Lord may humble you now and shew mercy to you hereafter Vse 4 The last Vse is for exhortation You see the woe and misery of a proud spirit What remaines then onely this Be exhorted as you desire to finde favour with God and to receive mercy from him now be content to be at his disposing Walke in this way and ayme at this marke strive hard for it and put forth the best of your abilities that you may get humble hearts You must not thinke that every lazy wish and every desire will serve the turne and that it will be enough to say is it so that a proud heart is so farre from heaven I would I had an humble heart and
in at the straite gate c. This gate or this entrance into life is Humiliation of heart When the Soule is loosened from and bids farewell to sinne and himselfe then the gate is opened And as it is in other wayes If there be but one way or gate into an house and the traveller misseth that gate he looseth all his labour and must goe backe againe but if he once get in at this gate he is safe enough then So it is here There is a most narrow way of Gods Commandements and there is but one way or gate into this happinesse it is narrow and a little gate and a man must be nothing in his owne eyes and if you misse this gate you loose all your labour and shall never come to Salvation If a man could heare and pray all his dayes yet if his heart be not humbled he and his profession shall goe to hell together In Saint Matthew the conclusion is very peremptory when the Disciples were contending who should be highest Christ set a childe in the middest of them and said Except you become as little children Math. 18.3 you cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven You may doe any thing with Infants and all that they have to doe is to cry Vnlesse you have humble hearts you cannot enter into heaven Hee doth not say You cannot be great men or you cannot goe farre into heaven but he saith You cannot enter So then the danger being so great and the mistaking so full of hazard and seeing it is possible to have it therefore let us use all diligence to make this worke sure Thirdly 3. Motive consider the mervailous good that God hath promised and which hee will bestow upon all that are truly humbled And let all these be as so many cords to draw us to looke for this blessed frame of heart Wee have need of all the motives in the world I know it is a hard matter for a man to lay downe himselfe and his parts and all his priviledges in the dust I say it is mervailous irksome and tedious to the nature of a carnall man but it will quit all his cost in the end When wee shall tast of those sweet benefits that come by a humble heart and have gotten Iesus Christ and mercy from him then it will never repent us that wee have spent so many teares and made so many prayers and used so many meanes to pull downe the pride of our hearts Oh brethren thinke of it See and consider the admirable benefits and the exceeding great good that will come to you thereby The good things that come by a heart that is truly humbled they are specially foure and with those the truth and substance of whatsoever the heart can crave and desire The first benefit of an humble heart is this by this meanes wee come to be made capable of all those riches of the treasure of wisedome and grace and mercy that are in Christ and not onely of the blessings for a better life but of all things in this life so farre as they are good for us First wee are made capable of all those treasures of wisedome grace and mercy that are in Christ and for this cause was Christ sent to preach glad tidings to the meeke as you heard before all the Gospell and all the glad tidings of it doe belong to an humble soule And the Prophet Malachy saith Malac. 3.1 Behold I will send my messenger to prepare the way before mee and the Lord whom you seeke shall suddainly come into his Temple Iohn Baptist was Christs harbenger and hee made way for Christ and when the way was prepared Christ came immediatly Wee are the Temple of the holy Ghost saith the Apostle Now if the heart bee once prepared and humbled looke then immediatly for Christ Are you not content to have Christ dwell in your hearts If you will be humbled and so prepared there is neither want of love nor speed on his part This should mervailously lift up the heart of every man to seeke for this blessed grace If thou art truly humbled care not for the love of men the love of Christ will satisfie thee And though thy father and mother cast thee out of doores and thy husband tumble thee out of his bed yet if thou be truly humbled Christ will be in stead of father and husband and all comforts to thee God hath but two thrones the humble heart is one So the Text saith Esa 57.15 I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit c. If the Lord Iesus come to dwell in thy heart and that hee will doe if thou be truly humbled then certainly hee will provide for thee all needfull comforts for this life See what Zephany saith Zeph. 2.3 Seeke yee the Lord all yee meeke of the earth which have wrought his judgement seeke righteousnesse seeke meekenesse it may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger When all things threatned desolation and destruction see who they were that had safety promised onely the meeke Object But some will say Is it not better for a man to be proud with the proud and to play the Beare amongst Beares and the Lyon amongst Lyons and to shift for one Answ No saith the text seeke meekenesse The humble Soule may take this to himselfe as his part and portion If there should be desolation amongst us as there is in Bohemia in the Palatinate and in other Countries the humble Soule shall be hid When the mightie tall trees are blowne downe by strong winds the little shrubs may be shaken a little but they stand still they are safe and sure when the mighty Oakes are either horribly shaken or puld up by the roots So if ever you will seeke safetie and deliverance seeke meekenesse and then you shall be hidden When the proud heart shall be weltering in his blood the Lord will provide a shadow to succour and to comfort you If Christ dwell in your hearts he is bound to all reparations 2. Benefit Secondly as Humiliation of heart doth estate a man into Christ and his merits and all provision in this kinde so it gives him the comfort of all that good which hee hath in Christ There are many that have a right to Christ and are deare to God and yet they want much sweet refreshing that they might have and as the Proverbe is They never see their owne because they want this Humiliation of heart in some measure To be truly humbled is the next way to be truly comforted The Lord will looke to him that hath an humble contrite heart Esay 62.8 and trembles at his word that is an humble Soule a poore Soule a very beggar at the gate of mercy the Lord will not onely know him for he knowes the wicked too in a generall manner but hee will give him such a gracious looke
when all other meanes cannot doe the deede that the Lord should then I say looke upon a poore sinner and refresh him with one drop of mercy Oh this is unspeakable mercy As the Prophet David saith All my bones can say Lord who is like unto thee as if hee had said This eye that hath wept for my sinnes this tongue that hath confest my sinnes and this heart that hath grieved for sinne all these have beene refreshed by thee This prayer is not like to thee this fasting and these priviledges are not like to thee for these could not succour mee but thou art the Lord that didst deliver and succour thy poore servant And secondly herein is also admirable freenesse of mercy that when the Lords mercy was but lightly looked after that then the Lord should give mercy and that to an enemie For the Soule can say if any thing in the world would have saved mee I should not have gone to the Lord for mercy and yet when all would not doe and when I did not thinke of any such matter then the Lord saved mee This is free mercy The hope of Israel is not like others and the God of Iacob is not like other Gods You distressed Soules did not you know the time when God terrified you and then offered mercy and you would none but you would scramble for mercy and shift for your owne comfort and yet the Lord brought downe those proud hearts of yours and when you were at a dead lift and could find comfort no where else then did the Lord shew mercy to your Soules Was not this free mercy wonder at it and give God glory for it even for ever Vse 1 This being so that the Soule that is throughly humbled yields to submit it self to the Lord Then this is like a Bill of inditement against all the stout ones of the world This shewes how unworthy they are of any mercy Nay how unfit they are for mercy They are so farre from partaking of Gods mercy that they will not be humbled and therefore they cannot be exalted Nay they have a base esteeme of it and so they hate their everlasting salvation For looke how farre they are from submission so farre they are from the comfort and happinesse of the Lord. He that will enter in at this strait gate of subjection is so farre from ever going in the way to life that he never set one foot yet in this way Let me speake as once the Prophet did Heare and tremble all you stout ones of the earth you that account it a matter of credit to cast off the Commandements of God and that you can lift up your selves against the Almightie Good Lord is it possible you know what I say there is many one here and if they be not here as commonly they are not let them heare of it How is it that men slight all corrections and snap all Gods Commandements in sunder as Samson did the Cords and they say their tongues are their owne and their lusts are the commands that carry them Nay is it not come to this passe now adayes for the Lords sake thinke of it that men account it a matter of basenesse of spirit to be such childish babes and to be so womannish as to stoope at every command Oh you must not be drunke saith one it is a hot argument and are you such a childe as to yield to it No let us follow our owne wayes is it not thus I appeale to your owne Soules there are too many guiltie in this place Doe you thinke to out-brave the Almightie in this manner doe you provoke the Lord to wrath and doe you not provoke your Soules to your owne confusion Doest thou thinke to goe to heaven thus bolt upright the Lord cannot endure thee here and will Hee suffer thee to dwell with himselfe for ever in heaven What thou to heaven upon these termes Nay thou must not thinke to out-brave the Lord in this manner and to goe to heaven too How did the Lord deale with Lucifer and all those glorious spirits He sent them all downe to hell for their pride Let all such spirits heare and know their misery I doe not trouble my selfe with any matter of indignation it is no trouble to me but onely because of your sinnes for you are the greatest objects of pitty under heaven You that know such and have such husbands oh mourne for them exceedingly The Lord doth detest their persons As the Wise man saith Prov. 11.20 The froward in heart are an abhomination to the Lord. The Lord doth abhorre that heart of thine And shall God abhominate that proud heart of thine and yet blesse it and save it and will He dwell with such a heart in heaven No he hath some body else to give heaven to Secondly thy estate is desperate here and marvellous unrecoverable As the same Wise man saith He that being often reprooved hardneth his necke and will not stoope to any counsels nor reproofes but saith Who meddles with you and I know what I have to doe and let every Tub stand uppon his owne bottome How many of you here have beene reprooved for your swearing but you leave it not How many of you have beene reprooved for your prophaning of the Lords Day doe you withdraw your selves from it Oh no such matter Goe your wayes then and mourne over those hard hearts of yours and in private say thus This is my sentence right The Lord be mercifull to my father saith the child and the Lord be mercifull to my proud husband saith the wife and to my wife saith the husband are not we they that have beene often reprooved have not we had such exhortations as have made the Church to shake the divels would have gotten more good if they had had them and yet we have cast of all and we would not come in we doe not yet pray in our Families but we throw away all the Lord hath said it hee that being often reprooved hardeneth his necke and will not come in shall perish hee is gone then and therefore thou may say Oh my husband is but a dead man and my childe is a dead childe he shall perish but is there no remedy may some say No the text saith so he shall suddainly be destroyed and that without remedy The truth is I need say no more but you that know your owne hearts bewaile those hard hearts of yours that as the water by continuall dropping at last melts the flint so if it be possible those proud hearts of yours may be brought downe If a drunkard or an adulterer will submit to the Word there is remedy for them but there is no remedy for him that will not yield to the Spirit of God The Lord bee mercifull to the Soules of them Will you see your sturdy hearted husbands and children perish the Lord in mercy set this home to your hearts at last and prevaile with them Will you perish