will take no privative nay of silence Secondly no positive nay of denial First no positive nay of silence A man that is importunate in prayer must and will have some answer he is not like Baals Priests that could get no answer 1 King 18. 26. nor like wicked men that pray in their pewes they know not what nor whether God hears them or no but an importunate prayer will have an answer like the woman of Canaan Have mercy on me O Lord said she but Christ answered not a word Hath she done then No she cries so much the more Have mercy on me ô Lord yea she was so importunate that his Disciples were ashamed to heare her yet she cryed Have mercy on my daughter the devil hath my daughter and misery will have me unlesse thou with have mercy on us Christ answered her never a word It was much trouble to her to have her daughter vext with a devil but this troubled her much more that Christ in whom all her hopes was would not hear her nor lend her one look What might she think Is this the mercifull Saviour that is so full of pitty and compassion Is this he that hath made proclamation to all the world saying Come unto me all ye that are weary c and I am tyred and wearied by reason of the devil that possesses my daughter c. yet he regards me not Thus she might have said yet these discouragements could not put her off but she cried so much the more yea so that the Apostles were ashamed that Christ should let her stand on that fashion yet she stood it out and prevailed Secondly it will taken no 〈◊〉 of denial For when she had an 〈◊〉 and that flat against her it was like bellowes to the fire she was to much the more inflamed she doubles her forces Have mercy on me ô Lord c. Christ put her off with a denial I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel I come for sheep not for goats you are of the Canaanites on whom I have set a brand of damnation a servant of servants a slave of hell and darknesse These are all of your blood but I come to save them of the house of Israel But the denial of an importunate soul is like the stop in a passage of water the more it is stopt the more violent it is so this poor woman is so much the more eager with Christ she did but crie before now she worships him vers 24. 25. as if she should have said Lord help me now I am one of thy lost sheep I confesse I am a Canaanite I am of that damned blood yet Lord help me I am perswaded that thou canst take a course whereby to help me Thou canst cast some mercy on a Canaanite Thus you see an importunate soul will toke no denial but will renew its forces at the Throne of grace Thirdly an importunate prayer will take no contumelious repulse suppose God should answere never a syllable of thy prayer yet thou wilt pray suppose he doe answer and that against thee yet still thou wilt pray Nay suppose he call thee all to nought making thy conscience tell thee of all thy sins and abominations making thee think that heaven is shut up against thee and God hath shut his eares calling thee Dog hell-hound and wretch c. yet nothing can breake thee off if thou be importunate indeed So this woman was not beaten off with Christ sending the Devill into her Daughter nor with Christ hiding himselfe when she sought him nor with Christs answering never a word nor with the Apostles frumps nor with his denyall nor contumelious repulse for he called her dog vers 26. Hence dog I had as lieve fling my mercy on a dog as on thee What creature but an importunate one could have gone so far But see here the nature of importunity it gets within Christ and takes advantage she confest the cause saying Truth Lord thou hast hit me right I am a dog or a wicked woman let me then have the priviledges that dogs have though dogs may not be equal with children at the table yet they may wait under the table I acknowledge that thy children are so plentifully fed that some crummes fall from the table therefore let me have the priviledge of a dog Naaman the Syrian was a dog as well as I Rahab the harlot was a dog as well as I Ruth a dog as well as I yet these got crummes truth Lord I am a dog yet thy mercy can metamorphise a dog Of these stones thou canst raise children to Abraham Thus it is with an importunate soul though God call it all to naught and cast all ignominious terms upon it as I had as lief thou shouldest offer me swines blood as to speak in my hearing yet if thou be importunate thou wilt beare any contumelious repulse Fourthly an importunate prayer is in an holy manner And as an impudent begger that is needy counts it no manners to hold his peace from begging although he be bidden Or as a poor petitioner to the King the King bids him hold his peace yet he will not but still he goes on The officers say Thou filthy fellow wilt thou never have done dost thou not see that the King is angry Yet he still cries Help me Lord ô King So the Canaanitish woman or an Importunate prayer is an impudent prayer yet in a holy manner I remember a story of a poor woman in Essex condemned to die she falls to crying and screeching as if she meant to pierce the heavens the Judge and those on the bench bid her hold her peace O my Lord said she it is for my life I beg I beseech you it is for my life So when a soul comes before God and begs for mercy he must consider that it is for his life O Lord it is for my life Now though the Lord will not answer and though he call the soul all to nought letting it go up and down with a heavy heart yet the soul crying out 'T is for my life if I must go to hell I will go to hell from the throne of grace weeping and wailing for my sinnes and catching hold on the horns of the altar this soul shall find mercy I have wondered at the story in the 5. chapter of Luke it is a strange passage where this godly kind of impudencie was seen Our Saviour Christ was preaching in the house to the people and there was a poor man that could not tell how to come to Christ so the poor man got some to lift him up to the top of the house and to untile it and so to let him down now the rubbish could not choose but fall either on Christs head or on the heads of some of his hearers Was not this impudent action could not this man have stayed untill the sermon had been ended But importunity hath no manners And although he
did interrupt Christ yet Christ asked him not why he did so but sayes Man be of good comfort thy sins be forgiven thee Let us therefore come with boldnesse unto the Throne of grace Heb. 4. 16. with freedom to talk any thing Not as if God had given us leave to be irreverent but as to a loving generous man of whom we use to say He is so kinde you may say any thing unto him come to him at dinner he will rise up and hear you or what businesse soever he be about yet he will hear you Even so it is with God he is such a God that all poor souls may be bold before him to speak what they will they may lay open their cases and shew their estates Now when soules come boldly and give the Lord no rest till he establish them Esai 62. 7. then saith God How now cannot I be at rest for you c. This holy kind of impudencie is in prayer and it will give the Lord no rest Reasons why wee must seek importunately are three First in regard of Gods majesty he loves to be sought unto and it is fit he should be sought unto Among men we account it a matter of too much statelinesse to be much intreated and we use to say he loves to bee intreated this is a fault among men yet for all this Quis vestrum c. as Seneca speaks what man of us can be content to be but once or sleightly entreated when a man comes to intreat a kindnesse of a man there is Ifing and Anding and shall I c. nothing but importunitie can get a kindnesse of a man and this is a sinne among men because men are bound to doe good but the Lord is not bound to us If we sinne he is not bound to pardon us therefore the Lord being a God of majesty lookes to be sought unto of us for his mercie and he lookes that wee should be importunate and hence it is that God saith I will give you a new heart Ezechiel 36. I will vouchsafe you all these favours yet I will look to be inquired for of you verse 76. I will look that they shall send to me for these things Suppose a man should need a 1000 pound What saith the gentleman doth he think a Thousand pound is nothing I will have good security for it So when we come for such high mercies as these for such infinite compassions these are somewhat and God looks to be sought unto for them and Christ the son of God is a great heire and those that are faulters to him must be importunate with him if they mean to be at peace with him If one will marry a rich heir who hath all the preferment dignity that the country can afford he looks to be well sued unto So the Lord Jesus is a great heire heire of the whole world if thou goest to be married unto him thou must sue unto him and he looks for prayer he loves to heare his children crie this is one of his titles though he be a God yet he is the hearer of prayer Psal 65. 2. Again we have wronged his Majestie Suppose thy servant wrong thee thou wilt say thou wilt pardon him but first thou wilt make him humble himself unto thee he shall must know that be hath wronged a good master So God is willing to pardon thee but yet he will make thy bowels know that thou hast sinned against a good God he will make it appeare by thy prayer he will make thy spirit melt he will fill thy face with shame and confusion he will make thee know what a patient God thou hast rebelled against or else the Lord will never pardon thee Doest thou think to pacifie God with a lazie prayer with comming to Church and saying Have mercy upon me most merciful Father Doest thou think that the Lord will have mercy upon thee for this No no he may send thee quick to hell for all this he will make thee cry and cry again with groans he will make thee cry out and pray on another gates fashion and he will make the soveraignty of his mercy to be seen in thy salvation therefore in regard of Gods majesty he loves men should be importunate Secondly in regard of Gods mercy it is a disgrace for Mercy to be begged frigidly 't is a disgrace to Gods bounty for a man to beg it with lukewarm importunity What makest thou of the mercy of God dost thou think that it is not worth a groan with the running over of a Pater-noster doest thou make Gods mercy of such base reckoning this is a disgrace to Gods goodnesse to be so cold or frigid in prayer Thou hast offered many offerings yet I scorn them saith God Esa 43. 23. Thou hast not honoured me with them thou hast not called on me thou hast been weary of calling on me thou hast too short a breath in thy prayers thou carest not how soon thou commest to an end Do you come and lay lazie prayers upon my altar Thou hast not honoured me It was a custome among the Romans when any was condemned to die if he looked for mercy he was to bring father and mother and all his kinsmen and acquaintance and they should all come with teares in their faces and with tattered garments and kneel down and beg before the Judge and cry mightily and then they thought Justice was honoured Thus they honoured justice in man for a man condemned to die and so the Lord loves his mercy should be honoured c. and therefore he will have prayer to be importunate that it may appear by groans how highly we esteem of grace our soules must pant and gasp after grace the breath of the Lord being the soul of our souls our hearts will die without it This is to the honour of mercy therefore the Lord will have us importunate Thirdly as importunity must be in regard of Gods mercy so it must be in regard of our selves else we cannot tell how to esteem it Soon come soon gone lightly gotten suddenly forgotten I have it come let us be jovial and spend it when this is gone I know where to have more But if he had wrought for it and also must work for more if he meant to have more he would better esteem it The world little esteems Mercy what 's the reason The greatest covetous men are they that once were poor when a poor man hath gotten store of riches he is more covetous then he that was borne to hundreds or thousands they are carelesse of it and spend lavishly whilst a covetous mans teeth water at it and the reason is because they come lightly by it Therefore the Lord loves that we should come hardly by our mercy not as if he sold mercy for our pains but for our good yet we are not capable of it See Jer. 31. 9. where the Lord speaks thus to his people They shall come with weeping and
die c. and yet they think inwardly that they shall live for ever Now according to these inward thoughts men act and hence it is that men neglect repentance and other holy duties as if God would never call them to an account they have not these thoughts above-board but they are inward and these spoile the heart and these are the causes why men cannot forsake their own thoughts Epiphanius speaks of a fig-tree which grew in a wall c. Bad thoughts will be alwayes seizing on a man till he dies and then all his thoughts perish But so long as a man is alive in old Adam these thoughts are rooted in the bottom of the soul which hinder good duties and this is the cause why vanity of mind sprouts up Vse Examine your selves then for it is one of the best wayes for a man to try his estate by even to examine his thoughts If a man would see whether the sea be salt he need not drink all the water that is in it one drop will serve his turn So a man may see whether he be a child of God or of the Devil even by his thoughts I will make it appear by these Reasons First because mens thoughts are the free acts of their hearts Many times you speak not as you would you do not as you would but a man thinks always as he will Favour of Great men and desire to please them makes men doe many times what they would not but thoughts are free I may say so and so but I will think what Ilist Ergo if thou wilt judge a man judge him by that he does freely and not by that which he does by compulsion But now thy thoughts are free they are thine own act nothing can force thy thoughts but thy self ergo in them thy heart shews it self whether it be carnal or spiritual When Peter denied his Master could a man have judged him by that then he might have judged him an Apostata but that was his passion he discovered what his fear was not what his heart was For if a man might have but looked into Peters heart though it was a fearfull sin and without Gods mercy might have damned him Yet there you might have heard him say Oh it is my Master Oh that I had never come hither It is my Master and Saviour I have none but he It was for feare of his life that he denied him For Prov. 23. 7. As a man thinketh in his heart so is he A covetous Usurer may make a rich feast and say with his tongue Sir you are welcome he must give good words the shame of the world and speech of people will make him do it yet his thoughts it may be are not towards thee Sory thy self how go thy thoughts at home or abroad Are thy thoughts on heaven or heavenly things or are they below Sure I am if a mans thoughts were on heavenly things then his heart would be there also for as a man thinks so is he Prov. 23. 7. 2. As they are the freest acts so they are the immediate acts of the heart Can a man judge of the fountain by the water that runs seven miles off as well as by that which runs immediately from it The water seven miles off may have tincture from the soyle and so it may be bad there though good at the fountains head ergo judge of the fountain by the water which comes immediately from it Now thoughts come immediately from the heart nothing is between them and the heart and out of the heart saith our Saviour proceed evil thoughts c. Mark 7. 21. Other sinnes come from the heart too but it is at the second third or fourth hand abundance of circumstances come between them and the act as in the act of murder it may be there were base words offered yea and blows too c. but thoughts come immediately from the heart Ergo if thy thoughts be proud carnal c. so art thou if thy thoughts carry thee away in the cares of this life so is thy heart c. 3. Thoughts they are the continued acts of the heart a man is always doing them Can a man judge of an Usurer and say he is liberal because he makes one great feast unto his neighbours No but he may say it is a Vsurerve feast a great feast By what a man doth alwayes by that judge him Thou art not alwayes praying c. or in good company but thou art alwayes thinking good or evil thoughts thy thoughts are continued acts of thy heart Can a man judge a horse for stumbling once in a long journey At such a place he went well and at such a time and alwayes yet perhaps once in a year he may stumble Can you or will you judge him by that No rather judge him by that which he is alwayes doing Thou art alwayes thinking now that is thy God which thou art alwayes thinking on If on riches then that is thy god or whatsoever it be then that is thy god Examine then thy heart by thy thoughts for out of the abundance of thy heart thy mouth speaketh yea for one word there is abundance of thoughts for one good duty there is abundance of thoughts ergo if thou wilt examine thy heart examine thy thoughts 4. Thoughts are the Vnivocal acts of the heart such as wherein the heart shews its own nature As for example the Univocal act of Light is to lighten the room but now you cannot judge of the Light by the heat so well as you may by the shining So an ill savour must be judged of by the stinking which is the univocal act of it It causeth abundance of other effects but this is the proper act whereby it shews it self So the thoughts of men are the univocal acts of their hearts therefore in Scripture called the way of the heart just as the heart is so are the thoughts if the heart be proud so are the thoughts just according to the nature of the heart so are the thoughts 5. They are the swiftest acts of the heart If I judge of a Scholar I will judge him by that which he doth ex tempore if a fool study he may speak to purpose but look what a man doth by his own inclination that a man discovers himself to be Thoughts are the extempore acts of the heart if thy heart be heavenly it will scatter out heavenly meditations if carnal then thy thoughts are carnal thoughts are as the visions in the night ergo we use this proverb his thoughts are gone a sutering If then they be the swiftest acts of mens hearts then are they most fit to expresse the nature of the heart 6. Thoughts are the peculiar acts of the heart peculiar to God only the world may see what thy outward life is but thy thoughts God only sees neither Angel Devil nor Man can see them and as they are peculiar to Gods eye so he most regards
that the Lord should save my soule c. these men are highly conceited of themselves they think that their salvation is sure yea so sure that that they may sweare by it but these are devillish and damnable selfe-conceits it is Gods prerogative only tr sweare by himself Heb. 6. l3 14. I speak this because I know it is a common practise among men and a hellish brand of a cursed self-conceited man THE EFFICACIE Of Importunate PRAYER In two SERMONS BY That laborious and faithfull Messenger of CHRIST WILLIAM FENNER Sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Minister of Rochford in Essex Printed at London by T. R. and E. M. for John Stafford and are to be sold at his house in Brides Church-yard 1647. THE EFFICACIE OF Importunate Prayer LUKE 11. 9. Ask and it shall be given unto you Seek and you shall find Knock and it shall be opened unto you OUr Saviour CHRIST being demanded by one of his Disciples how they should pray He here teaches them these two things First a Platform of prayer in the 2. 3. 4. verses Say Our father c. Secondly he teaches them the importunity of Prayer which he sets forth by the similitude of a man who having a guest come to him at midnight and had nothing to set before him he went to his friend to intreat him to lend him three loaves and at the first he nakedly intreâ—ts Lend me three loaves The door is shut sayes his friend and I cannot open it now Secondly he falls to intreat and to beseech him to do him this favour He had a guest come to him and he knew not what to do Why 't is midnight sayes he is there no other time to come but now Thirdly he begins to knock he must needs have them though it beat an unreasonable hour Why I tell you I am in bed Then he intreats him as a friend Friend me no friends sayes he again Yet the man would not leave knocking at last with much adoe the man rises saying Will you never be answered and he lends him three loaves because of his importunity Now saith our Saviour I say unto you though he would not give him as a friend yet because of his importunity he will The similitude is this Thou art that man oh Christian soul this guest is thy self Now then come home to thy self with the Prodigall who when he was come to himself goes to his father and friend This friend is Christ that thou art to pray unto these three loaves are grace mercy and peace These thou art to pray for it may be Christ answereth thee in thy conscience It is midnight thou commest too late there is no mercy for thee The soul prayes still Oh Lord awaken and help me it may be the Lord will answer thee by terror in thy soul The door of mercy is shut thou shouldest have come rather Yet Lord open unto me sayes the soul Nay saith the Lord all my children have mercy already now mercy is asleep I have converted them already they came in due season thou commest at midnight there is no mercy for such a hell-hound as thou art Up Lord have mercy on me sayes the poor soule and look on me c. Look me no looks saith the Lord I came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel there was a time when I would have converted thee when I called unto thee early and late But now I am asleep and my mercy is asleep it hath been awake as long as it could well hold open its eyes and commest thou now Oh the soul cries still and will never give over if mercy be to be had at the throne of grace he will have it Even as a begger being at a gentlemans door they bidding him be gone there is nothing to be had nay sayes the begger I will not be gone here is something to be had and I will have something or else I will die at the door The gentleman hearing him say so thinks it would be a shame for if him if he should die at his door and gives him somewhat So when the soul is thus importunate because of importunity it shall be granted Verily I say unto you if you thus aske it shall be given unto you These words contain in them the main duty of importunate prayer Ask if asking will not serve turn seek if seeking will not serve turn then knock try all meanes Another parable our Saviour put forth Luke 18. 1 2. that men ought alwaies to pray and not to faint There was a poor woman wronged by her adversary and there was no Judge to right her but a wicked one so that she had but poor hopes yet she resolves to go or else she shall be undone therefore if she perish she will perish at his feet He cals her all to nought Oh for Gods sake help me sayes she I care not for God nor man says the Judge Nay good my Lord saith the woman The Judge seeing her thus importunate said I shall be troubled with her if I do her not justice How much more saith the text shall not God avenge his elect that cry day and night obj But some man may demand what is importunate prayer Ans I answer it is a restlesse prayer which will take no nay nor contumelious repulse but is in a holy manner impudent untill it speed and there are in it foure things First it is restlesse he that is importunate cannot rest till he speed in his suit before God as the poor woman of Canaan she sought the Lord God of heaven and earth she was of the cursed stock of Cham whom the Lord commanded to destroy yet she repented and became of the faith of Abraham to see if the Lord would own her but the Lord seemed to reject her and suffer'd the devil to possesse her daughter Now what might not this poor woman think she had made a sorry change of religion seeing that God the author of of it would not own her but suffered the devil to possesse her daughter But see the importunity of this woman she would not be quiet untill she had found Christ Mark 7. 24 25. Christ could not be hid No What could he not hide himself in some corner No no thinks she there is a Christ and if he be to be had under the cope of heaven I will have him Even so it is with the soul that is importunate in prayer it is restlesse What if Christ do hide himself in the Word c. and will not owne a poor soule yet the poor soule knowes there is a Christ and if he be to be found in the whole world he will have him I will saith he turn over all duties I will go to all the Ministers that are neer I will use all the means Now Christ cannot be hid from such a soule that is thus importunate Now as it is a Prayer that will take no nay so first it
with supplication will I lead them This is a fine phrase God leads a soul up and down with supplication before he grants his request just as a begger on the high-way a gentleman comming by he begs of him the gentleman goes on his way as if he took no notice but the begger goes on crying For Gods sake sir bestow something on me yet he goes on still till at last the gentleman comes to his house and then he gives him his desire Even so God leads a soul up and down from one good duty to another till he have brought the soul to that passe that he would have it to be and then he hears it and sayes What is thy suit I will pardon thee What then is the reason may some man say why so few are importunate in prayer I answer first because men count Prayer a penance there is a naturall kind of Popery in mens breasts the Papists when men sin their Priests enjoyn them penance as pilgrimages and scourgings so many Pater-noster's and so many Ave-Marie's where they reckon Prayer to be a penance This naturall Popery is in mens breasts they count Prayer laborious unto them and they are weary of it they are not eager upon prayer they look not on Prayer as a blessing but as a yoak behold what a wearisome thing it is Mal. 1. 13. They were weary of the service of God Oh say they that the Minister would once have done they had rather be in an Ale-house or about their busines all good duties are as penance unto carnal men If a man be to do penance he cares not how litle he does of it a Rogue cares not for too much whipping Secondly Men content themselves with formality Many men pray as Haman spake the Kings words before Mordecai for he had rather have led him to the gallows than to have said Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the King will honour but he thought it would be the worse for him if he spake them not and therefore he only spake them for forme And so men for the most part go to church to hear the Word to Pray to receive the Sacraments c. even for forme or because it is the fashion and they think if they do not thus and thus they shall not be saved You shall have the Drunkard say I am sorry for my drunkennesse but he lies for the next day he will be at the Alehouse again so the Whoremaster sayes Lord I am sorry that I have sinned against thee but he lies for the next Quean that he meets with having opportunity he falls to whoreing again So the Covetous man will say I am sorry I am so full of earthly thoughts yet he lies he is not sorry for you shall have him carking and caring all the day long and he hath a thousand proclamations in his head He only prayes for form with the rest they only say prayer they pray not I deny not saying of prayer if they pray Our Saviour Christ saith When you pray say Our father The proud man dishonours Gods name saying Thy will be done whereas he should be humble for that is Gods will it is Gods will he should be zealous yet he prayes not He sayes Forgive us our trespasses c. but he prayes not so for he wrongs his neighbour and his neighbour wrongs him and he does not forgive those that trespasse against him He sayes Lead us not into temptation but he prayes it not for he runs presently into temptations and hath no care to avoyd them And this is the reason why men are not importunate viz. because they do make formality of it Thirdly because they are Gentlemen-beggers Of all the beggers in the world I would be loth to meet with a gentleman-begger for he is the proudest of them all if a man tell him that he hath been an ill husband and hath abused himself presently he sets his hands to his side saying I am not as every begger I am thus and thus descended I am as good a man by birth as your self a gentleman-beggers heart will not stoop So men are gentlemen-beggers to God they were say they borne of Christian parents and they have been baptized the children of God already What are none the children of God but a company of Puritans We are descended as well as the best of you all These are proud and not as yet brought to a sense of their own misery When John did preach to and baptize the Scribes and Pharisees he calls them all to nought O ye vipers and full of poison who hath forewarned you to flee from the anger to come Viper say they Viper in thy teeth we are the children of Abraham we are better descended then so we are Believers and do you call us Vipers then indeed we might crie out Oh we are damned then we had need to crie for mercie And in this sense men are Gentlemen-beggers Another reason why men are not importunate is because they have wrong conceits of Prayer I will tell you the sundry conceits of men First they have high conceits of their own prayers they cannot pray in a morning between the pillow and the blankets half asleep and half awake but they think that they have done God good service so that he cannot afford to damne them At night he saies Lord have mercie on me and so goes to sleep and then he thinks God must keep him untill the morning So when he goes to dinner he saies Lord blesse these creatures unto us and so falls aboard and he thinks that God must needs sanctifie them unto him and after supper he goes to prayer and so to bed and thinks that he shall be heard for his much babling sake Mat. 6. they think God will have mercy on them But poor soules if they knew how unseemingly they prayed how unfitly and what want there is in seeing their own estate they would say is this to pray for my soul for such infinite mercie Lord how do I abuse the throne of grace how do I abuse thy sabbaths thy house thy name and all the holy ordinances which I go about A man that is importunate in prayer is ashamed but when they think highly of their prayers they are insolent their prayers are damned and they too Secondly as men have high conceits of their prayers so they have mean conceits of their sinnes they think not their sinnes so bad as they are These men are like Abner who said Let the young men arise and play before us 2 Sam. 2. 14. They account murder a sport and dancing and musicking little worse then Davids playing on the harp Amos 6. 5. And if they commit adulterie they say that 's but a trick of youth if they tell a lie it is only at a dead lift when they have no other shift That man that doth not think of every sinne he commits as David did of his even to make his heart to ake for
it that man shall never speed well before God Thirdly as men have mean thoughts of their sinnes so they have base thoughts of God They cannot think that God should damne a man for drinking a pot with his friend I cannot think God will be so strict No no I love God with all my heart say they and they think that God is of their mind and if they were as God they would not be so strict So Psal 50. They thought I was such a one as themselves they think God will pardon them and therefore because of this men are not importunate with God God hath sent me a crosse saith one but I hope to rub it off well enough Why God will not keep his anger for ever Jer. 3. 5. Suppose a man be absent from Church or break out into some unsavoury speech will God be angry for this Suppose a man be negligent in a good duty will God require every dayes work Tush tush God will not Psal 10. 13. A company of Puritans say he will but I know he will not and hence it is that men will not be importunate Lastly because they have wrong conceits of importunity If a man knock once or twice or thrice and none answer presently he will be gone this is for want of manners thou wilt knock seven times if thou be importunate with them They within may say Hold thy peace be gone c. but thou wilt not so be answered Beloved men are close-handed they are loth to give and they are close-hearted too they are loth to take the pains to ask of God they are loth others should be be importunate with them and therefore they are loth to be importunate with God Examine your selves then in this duty for importunate prayer is ever more the prayer of an importunate man THE EFFICACIE Of Importunate PRAYER The second Sermon BY That laborious and faithfull Messenger of CHRIST WILLIAM FENNER Sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Minister of Rochford in Essex THE EFFICACIE OF Importunate Prayer LUKE 11. 9. Ask and it shall be given unto you Seek and you shall find Knock and it shall be opened unto you TO proceed then There be six signes to know whether our Prayers be importunate or no. First importunate prayer is evermore the prayer of an importunate man and the man is importunate if his praier be importunate But how can a man importune God for mercy when his person importunes God for vengeance It must be the prayer of a godly heart Preserve my soule for I am holy Psal 86. 1 2. David makes a prayer and he was holy when he made it his prayer could tell him that he was one that labored to work in holines Therefore when thou goest to God in praier consider whether thou canst say Lord hear me for I am holy and I would fain be holy but if the saying of these words choak thee then thy prayer condemns thee Of all begging it is a great matter who it is that begs at the door Who is that saith the indweller and when he opens the door and sees it is a thief c. Oh is it you saies he you may stand long enough you shall never have alms of me So in praier it is all in all who it is that prayes The woman in the Gospel having an issue touched our Saviour he looking about asked who touched him and when he saw the woman Oh is it you saies he bee of good chear Luk. 8. 48. So when a man prayes to God Who is that saies God that would have these mercies And when the Lord sees it a Drunkard or a covetous man c. is it you saies the Lord you may stay till Dooms-day and yet never find mercie The spirit of supplication and the spirit of prayer is called the spirit of grace Zach. 12. 10. If then thou hast not the spirit of grace thou canst not pray The text saith not Whosoever asketh the Father in my name but whatsoever you ask the Father in my name there is many a man may use the name of Christ at the throne of grace but certain it is none but those that are in Christ can pray and with them every thing operates A man that will walk with God in obedience to his laws must be a holy man hence is that saying of our Saviour John 15. 7. a place fit for the purpose If you abide in me and my word abide in you c. as if he should have said You may ask what you please intreat God all the daies of your life yet unlesse you abide in me you cannot speed That man that walks not in holinesse of life can never be an importunate orator as was Moses the man of God but a wicked mans prayer as Augustine speaks is tanquam latratus canum c. no betrer then the barking of dogs or the grunting of swine therefore you whose consciences tell you that you live in sin your praiers never speed at the throne of grace for eternal mercie Secondly an importunate praier is the praier of a pure conscience Suppose a man doth not see that he lives in sin yet if his conscience crie guilty if he have a foul conscience his praier never prevails with God If I regard wickednesse in my heart the Lord will not hear my praier saith David Psal 66. 18. that is if I can say or my conscience can tell me that I regard iniquitie in my heart the Lord will not hear me A man must have a pure conscience 2 Tim. 1. 3. else let him not look God in the face beg he may but he shall never speed as long as he goes on with a conscience that can tel him he regards iniquitie There be many pray for indeed their conscience will make them pray but they may pray till they come to hell yet they shall never be delivered if there be but one sin unrepented of I remember a storie of a poor woman being troubled in conscience and many Ministers using to visit her at last came one which after much talk and praying hit upon one sin which she was guilty of and loth to part with Then the woman cried out Till now you have spoken to the post but now you have hit the mark my conscience tels me I have been loth to part with this sin but I must leave it or else I cannot be saved Mala conscientia bene sperare non potest The Pagans had so much divinitie as to say The gods must be honoured with puritie therefore they wrote on the doors of their temples Let none having a guilty conscience enter this place Thirdly Importunate prayer is evermore a prayer that is full of strong arguments And hence it is that Job saith I will fill my mouth with arguments Job 23. 4. like an importunate man who will bring all reasons and arguments to effect his cause even so an importunate man at the throne of grace will bring
all arguments to perswade God If a man be to pray for any particular grace he will bring all the arguments he can devise to get it as Lord it is a grace of the Covenant for the want whereof I endure many temptations thou hast made me a Minister I cannot work on mens consciences untill I have it he presseth all arguments he can devise A good orator before God must be a good logician It was noted of the High-Priests that were to pray before God they were to have Vrim and Thummim and that was two parts of Logick viz. knowledge and perfection such a one should a Minister be he must be a good Logitian at the throne of grace Fourthly importunate prayer is a stout prayer Continue in praier saith the Apostle Col. 4. 2. a weak-hearted praier is a cold praier a praier without a spirit yet these men that have weak spirits to pray have strong enough to sin and wit enough to sin and knowledge enough to sin but bring them to grace then they have no strength Thou canst not strive to prevail with God unlesse thou stand to it How came Jacob to prevail with God but by wrestling Prayer is called fighting it is a holy kind of violence Thou canst not obtain a mercie at Gods hand unlesse thou lay all thy force on it Even as a Father who hath an apple in his hand and his child would fain have it he first opens one finger then another till the apple drop out So is it with a poor soul at the throne of grace the Lord opens his hands and fills all things living with plenteousnesse What is the meanes that is used why the praiers of his children they by their praiers open Gods hand and so make the blessings to descend Go for grace why the Lord will say unto thee Thou art proud thou must be humble and so open that finger Thou art carelesse thou must go quicken thy self and so open that finger God saies thou wilt not make much of this grace when thou hast it but thou wilt turn it into a wantonnesse then thy soul must learn to mortifie its members and so open that finger thou canst not get grace at Gods hand unlesse thou do open all his fingers and then it will fall down There is a severall power in all Gods children some have more some have lesse yet all must be powerful else none can prevaile with God Fifthly if thou pray importunately thou praiest wakefully he must be deeply awake that praies his soul his heart his understanding must be awake that man that praies drowsilie praies not powerfullie Watch therefore saith Christ and pray Luk. 21. 36. Watch to pray q. d. for as there is a sleepie head so there is a sleepie heart As a Begger who is begging is all awake head feet hands c. all is awake to beg so must that soul be that means to speed in praier Sixthly importunate praier is an assureance-getting praier a praier that will not be quiet till it have got assurance that God hath heard it Wicked men pray and presume that God hears them but God hears them not nay many of Gods dear children pray many times and are not heard How long wilt thou be angry with thy people that praieth Ps 80. 4. Not only with their persons but with their praiers also How then think you is the praier of such as live in their sins taken who pray but their praiers vanish away in the aire like clouds these may pray and pray but they get nothing Behold he praies saith the voice to Saul Act. 9. 22. What did he not pray before Yes he had made many a long praier else he could not have been a Pharisee but now he did not onlie pray but he praied unto God as David did who did lift up his heart to God Psal 25. 1. or else his heart could not have praied and then in the next verse David begins his praier Our hearts are just like a bell which so long as it lies on the ground will make no musick till it be lifted up Our hearts are not like the bell of Rochea which they say will ring of its own accord but our hearts must be lifted up else they will make no delightful musick in the eares of God Wherefore if you pray and labour not to bring your hearts home to God that so he may hear them in mercie he will it may be heare them but it will be to your condemnation as he hears the praiers of wicked men therefore if thou praiest pray ferventlie There be six or seven marks of Praier that is not importunate and he that praies so may go to hell for ought I know The first is a lazie praier An importunate man works hard to bring up his suit his understanding his counsel and all his policie works so if the soul be importunate then it is a working praier Praier is a labour 2 Cor. 1. Labour with me in praier That man that plowes his field and digs his vineyard that man praies for a good harvest if a man pray to God never so much yet if he do not use the meanes he cannot obtain the thing he praies for Even so it is with grace A man may pray for all the graces of Gods spirit and yet never get any unlesse he labour for them in the use of the means God cannot abide lazie beggers that cannot abide to follow their calling but if they can get any thing by begging they will never set themselves to work So many there be that if they can get pardon of sin for begging then they will have it but let such know that the Lord will not give it for such lazie kind of praying but if thou wilt have pardon of sin thou must labour for it thou must get it with thy fingers ends God gives not men Repentance Faith c. by miracles but by means Thou must then use the means and keep watch and ward over thine own soul that so thou maiest get the grace thou praiest for Secondly a praier that is not a full praier never speeds with God but an importunate praier is a full praier it is a pouring out of the heart yea of the whole heart Psal 62. 8. the Psalmist saith poure out your hearts before him trust in him at all times poure out your hearts the addition is made in the Lamentations of Jeremie like water It may be thou pourest out thy praier like tar out of a tar-box half sticking by the sides but when thou praiest thou must out with all before God When thou givest thanks dost thou labour to remember all the blessings of God when thou dost petition to God dost thou poure out all thy heart before him dost thou cast all thy care on God Thirdly Snatch-prayer is no importunate prayer when men pray by snatches or peecemeals by breaking off a limme of their praier because of sluggishnesse or because their hearts are eager about
other businesse it is not good to trust fits of devotion 't is a base kind of praying when men gallop over their praiers that so they may come to an end quickly Should I accept this at your hands saith God by his Prophet when they brought a sheep it wanted a lim they were loth to give God a whole offering Mal. 1. 13. Many pray a peece of a praier in the morning and then they go after the world he down's on his knees and gives God a rag of a praier a companie of ragged ends And God counts it an indignitie shall I accept this saith he What a lame praier No no the Lord looks for a prayer that hath its full growth it is a shame to speak in the congregation what men do in secret before God which many have confessed after they have been converted how they have gone into Gods presence and have shuffled over their praiers thinking every houre seven untill they had done Fourthly Silent praiers are never importunate I mean by silent praier when a man is silent in that which God looks he should most insist upon David made a praier Psal 32. and the Lord looked that he should stand much upon his adulterie and murther which he had committed to see what shame he took on him for it but he shuffled it over and what saith the text When I kept silence what did the Prophet roare and yet keep silence these are contradictions Yea the Prophet roared and kept silence as if he should say the Lord counted his praier but roaring so long as he laid not open that sinne which the Lord lookt he should have stood on the Lord let him roare and roare he might long enough but saith he I brake my silence I said I will confesse my transgressions and then thou forgavest the wickednes of my sin So many go to God and tell God they must needs have mercie and fain they would have mercie and yet they are silent in confessing the sinne they should I say the Lord will never hear that man he may pray to God all his life and yet go to hel in the end Hast thou been a drunkard and dost thou think that the Lord will forgive thee for crying Lord forgive me c No no thou must insist on it and say Against thy word I have been a drunkard my conscience told me so but I would not heare I haue felt the motions of thy holy spirit stirring against me and I regarded not Now if thou shouldest turn me into hell I were well requited so many Sermons have I neglected I have wronged others in this kind and I have been the cause why many are now in hell if they repented not I have praied for mercie yet with the dog to his vomit have I returned and therefore for all my praiers thou maiest cast me into hell for ever and now I haue praid yet it is a hundred to one but I shall run into my old sin again yet as I expect forgivenesse so I desire to make a covenant to give over all my sinful courses and I am justly damned if I go to them again Such a kind of praier the Lord loves Fifthly Seldome praier is no importunate praier when the soul contents it self with seldome comming before the throne of grace an importunate soul is ever frequenting the way of mercie and the gate of Christ he is often at the threshold before God in all praier and humiliation The reeling'st Drunkard in the world sometimes can do so too the basest Adulterer in the world sometimes can be chaste the Devil is quiet so long as he is pleased and the wicked may sometime have a fit in praier But this is the condition of an importunate heart he is frequent at the throne of grace The Propher David praied seven times in a day and Hannah continued in praier night and day Sixthly Lukewarm praier is not an importunate praier when a man praies but is not fervent when a man labours not to winde up his soul to God in praier That man that praies outwardly only that man teaches God how to denie his praier Though you make many praiers saith God yet I will not hear you why Your hands are full of blood Qui frigidè orat docet negare They are like luke-warme water that never boils out the blood So they have been guiltie of murder and abundance of other sinnes and they did indeed pray against them but they were never but luke-warme they never boiled away the blood of their sins Thou must pray fervently with a seething-hot heart if thou meanest to get pardon for all thy sinnes as securitie and deadnesse of heart c. And as it is Jonah 3. let every man crie mightily unto the Lord. Seventhly and lastly Bie-thoughts in praier keep praier from being importunate as when a man praies and let his heart go a wooll-gathering I remember a storie of an unworthy Oratour who being to make an acclamation O earth O heaven when he said O heaven he looked down to the earth and when he said O earth he looked up to heaven So many when they pray to God in heaven their thoughts are on the earth these praiers can never be importunate When a man praies the Lord looks that his heart should be fixed on his praier for our hearts will leake and the best child of God do what he can shall have bie-thoughts in praier And that First from corrupt nature Secondly from nature curbed Thirdly from Sathan Fourthly from a mans own sluggishnesse For the first The best children of God have corrupt natures and when they have done what they can distractions will fasten on them They would performe good duties better if they were able saying with Paul The good which I would I do not c. Secondly from Nature as it is curbed The more grace binds nature to its good behaviour the more rustling it keeps Even as a Bird being at libertie keeps no stir but being in a cage it flutters about because it is abridged of its libertie so when thou hast curbed thy corrupt flesh it will be skittish in every good dutie thou goest about and hence it is that the Apostle useth this phrase viz. I find another law in my members rebelling against the law of my mind c. When grace curbs the law of sinne then nature rebels Thirdly from Satan as in Job Satan stands at his right hand as a Plaintiffe as Aegidius compares it which puts in all Cases to hinder the Defendant Even so the Devil puts in all bie-thoughts that he can devise to hinder a mans suit for going on before the throne of grace But thou must do as Araham did when he was sacrificing when the birds came he drave them away so must thou do by they bie-thoughts if thou wilt have fruit of thy supplications before God Fourthly they come from spiritual sluggishnesse that creeps on the best if they take not heed And this was
how he labours to convert his fellow thiefe and to make him give all the glory to God he was so wounded to the soule that his fellow thief should dishonour God as that he laboured to turn him before he prayed for his own soule dost thou not fear God c. this he said before he said Lord remember mee he lets his owne soule lie at the stake while he labours to glorifie God so that it is plaine he loves God more then his owne soule 5. Here you may see his penitential faith he beleeves not with a generall faith but with a saving and particular faith with faith and assurance he lookes on Christ as his Jesus he said unto Jesus there is not one idle word in this text the holy Ghost sayes he said unto Jesus he said not that he thought to say so but the Spirit of God witnesseth that he said so indeed he spake to Christ as to a Jesus 6. Here is his penitential resolution of newnes of life new obedience for time to come Lord remember mee he acknowledgeth Christ to bee his Lord q. d. I have followed the imaginations of my owne will hitherto all my stealing and other sins have been to fulfill my owne will but now I confesse thee to be my Lord and were I to live againe or any longer I would for ever serve thee Lastly here is his penitential prayer Lord remember me he acknowledges Christ to be his Lord nay he did not only pray thus but saith Basil he offered much prayer unto God even as much as his short time could permit these words are but the summe of what he spake Lord remember mee c. thus you see he was no more a thief but a convert and confessour as Augustine observes a wicked thief to steal earthly things but a good thief as we call him to this day to break through into the Kingdom of heaven he steals Paradise thus you see what a wonderfull repentance he had in regard of the perfection of it faith was in it humiliation was in it turning to God was in it felfe-denyall was in it satisfaction was in it and glorifying of God in the face of the world was in it nay he was the only professor of Christ to the Nations at that time he had never a servant but this never a word at this time spoken for Christ but that which this Thief spake none to back Christ but this Thief he was the only professor and confessor of Christ at this time the only man on the earth that glorified GOD. Therefore unlesse thou expect such a death to bring such glory to God as this Thief did never beare thy self upon his example Fifthly This repentance was extraordinary in regard of the incomparablenesse of it Never was there such a repentance since the world began nor shall be while the world stands for when all the world Jews and Gentiles stood in their obstinacie Priests and Rulers great and small all cryed Crucifie him and when the Disciples doubted this Thief believed and when Peter denied Christ this Thief repented and confessed Christ nay when all the Apostles shewed their heeles this Thief stood to his tacklings this Thief maintains Christ against them all nay when Mary Magdalen out of whom Christ had cast seven devils when she was afraid to come neer to the Crosse Mat. 27. 55. and the mother of Zebedees children who should have come neer yet they stood a far off only this Thief published the gospel of Jesus Christ and makes open acknowledgement of him to be the Saviour of the world when all his Disciples and the world forsook him in their obstinacie and as the Papists observe God then had no visible Church upon the earth so that this Thief on the crosse put down all the world for repentance yea the Apostles of Christ Now shew me such a repentance whereby thou maiest put down Peter and all the Apostles of Christ either shew me such a repentance extraordinary incomparable and wonderfull to make them all ashamed I say either shew me such a repentance or never trust on the Thieves example on the crosse If a man have a hundred miles to go for his life and but a short time allotted unto him he had need make haste Now the way to heaven is a long way and he that can begin and end that journy when he lies a dying is the quickest man of foot that ever yet was heard this Thief only excepted If thou run to obtain thou hadst need to have the art of prayer and repentance or else thou canst not overtake them for they are before thee much Vse This may serve to condemns those that rely upon this example Oh saith one did not the Thief on the crosse repent at the last houre and God is the same God still and if he repented at thee last why may not I How many wrest this Scripture to their own damnation that live in sin with this Thief that went to heaven yet die and are damned with the other Thief that went to hell I will demonstrate this and make it plain because I desire to convince all that hear me First then tell me when this Thief was converted was it not when Christ hung on the crosse Mat. 27. 33. Christ hung then on the crosse and was to be inaugurated King over all Now when Kings are inaugurated into their kingdoms they shew that bounty then which they will not do again all the time of their raigne We have of this a sufficient story in the Chronicles of England of King Henry the fourth who when he was inaugurated King he created 55 Knights he hung all the streets and lanes in London with cloth of gold he made all the Conduits in London to run with Sack Claret and White wine this he did when he was inaugurated King which he never did all his life time afterwards Even so Christ was pleased to shew mercy and grace unto this Thief unto life eternall when he was inaugurated King over principalities and powers over hell and darknesse Now as K. Henry never created so many Knights againâ— never hung London streets so again never made the Conduits run so with wine again even so the Lord shewed such a bounty then as for ought we know he never did before nor will do the like again Secondly Kings when they are inaugurated they pardon such offences forgive such taxations wrongs injuries treasons and fellonies as they will never pardon again as long as they live in the kingdome So we read of Charles the 3. King of France that day that he was crowned he pardoned all those that had sinned against the Crown in what kinde soever they had offended Why because he was crowned King and so he would make that day a day of rejoycing And thus it was when Christ triumphed over hell he forgave the sins of this Thief the like whereof we never read of and for ought we know will never do
the like again 3. Tell me where was this thief pardoned Was it not in Golgotha where Christ was crucified the place where Christ did triumph where he was crowned where he forgave transgressions and sins there it was where Christpardoned him Now as it is with a Captain when he hath gotten the victory he will set up some monument at the place that it may be a token thereof so Christ having wrought the salvation of the world set up a monument there where he wrought it whereof none greater then this could be not the rending of the rocks nor the earthquake nor any of the wonders besides did so honour the death of Christ as the conversion of this Thief who like a Physitian having made an excellent medicine and desirous to try it will do that for nothing which he will not do again for much so Christ having made an admirable soveraign plaister for the salvation of mankinde so soon as ever he had made it he makes an experiment thereof on this Thief as if he should have said Now you shall see what my death can do So then you see that the conversion of this Thief was no ordinary but an extraordinary wonder Fourthly tell me how he cures by forgivenesse not by bare repentance only but by repentance with Martyrdome he did not only nakedly repent of his sin but he died also a Martyr for Christ hee was a Martyr on the crosse for although he was first hung on the crosse for his evill deeds yet afterwards when he repented and confessed the Lord Jesus Christ and maintained him to be the Messias and condemned Pilate Herod and the Jewes by publishing that he was unjustly crucified and that he was the son of God I say though at the first he was hung on the crosse for his sin yet now they let him hang for his religion as by their own law it was manifest for they had a law that whosoever confessed Christ should be punished so that now he confessing Christ they let him hang for his religion to Christ so that he died a Martyr and verse 20. what a witnesse he gave unto Christ The other answering he rebuked him saying Dost not thou feare God c. As if he should say thou seest the Scribes and Pharisees feare not God they have conspired against the Son of God The Jewes that should have beleeved on him cryed crucifiy him Herod hath mocked him Pilate condemned him dost thou not yet feare God what not thou that art in the state of condemnation thou that art to be damned within this houre is it not enough for them to crucifie Christ but dost not thou feare God neither Oh what a witnesse was this unto Christ no wonder if he found mercy when it pleased the Lord to enlarge himselfe so in bringing his soule unto him Obj. But it may be objected why is this Scripture recorded if I may not make this use of it to repent as this thief did seeing all Scripture is for our learning Sol. You know the common answer it is once recorded that none might despaire and but once that none might presume Christ saved him at the last cast that when a man is at that pinch hee might not despaire if he repent and become a new creature and but one was saved that none might presume There are many reasons why this Scripture is recorded First to shew the soveraignty of Christs death and as Christ healed all manner of sicknesse in his life so his death is able to heale all manner of sins it is the leaves of that tree only that can heale the Nations Rev. 22. 2. and therefore the Scripture sets downe a desperate example of a thief for a man must be a desperate man if he be a thief and Christ did this to shew that he can shew mercy even to a thief that so all the world may take notice of the vertue of Christs death Secondly it is recorded that no poor soul should cry out of his sinnes saying I am damned I am accursed I am more sinfull and gracelesse then any man more wicked then any man I say do not thus reason for here is an example set down of the thief and you know what Christ said to the multitude of a Thief Do you come unto me as to a thief with swords and staves as if he should have said You deal basely with me as if I were as bad as a thief implying that a thief is the worst of all men nay as bad as the devil Joh. 12. 6. And it is reckoned as one of their damnable usages against Christ that they hung him between two thieves two of the vilest creatures of all so that a thiefe is an example of a desperate man and yet you see Christ hath mercy and gives it to a thief Therefore if the LORD have enlarged thy heart to repent be not discouraged but lay hold on CHRIST Thirdly this Scripture is recorded that we may not cast off all men that come to the last cast all men though great sinners must not desperately be cast off For suppose a man have been a Drunkard yet prayer and supplication may be made to God for him and God may open his eyes and there is some possibility that he may be saved though it be a thousand to one yet I say there is some possibilitie for there was one thief saved at the last cast and therefore a Drunkard c. is not to be given over for quite gone It may be there are a wonderfull company of improbabilities in it yet we cannot tell but that this may be the second to whom the Lord will give repentance and therefore the Lord converted this thief Lastly this story is recorded that by it we may be encouraged to believe and to be converted betimes for if the Lord were so willing to receive the thief that sought him but at the last houre how willing will he be then to receive thee that seekest him betimes But as for thee that livest in thy sins and bearest on the example of this Thief let me tell thee this story was never penned for thy comfort The Lord knew how men would abuse this story therefore S. Matthew S. Mark and S. John omit it and if we had none to testifie it all the world would say both the theeves were damned nay S. Matthew saith the thieves both the thieves cast the same thing in his teeth only S. Luke he pens it for the comfort of the godly he was loth as it seems to me to leave it out quite because some poor soule might stand in need of it Therefore let me here rap off the fingers of all those that would lay hold on this example of the thief to deferre their repentance this story belong not unto such First because this thief had not the means of life and grace before for where do you read in all the gospel that ever this Thiefe had the meanes of life perhaps when Christ was
preaching he was pilfering where do you read that ever he heard any of the Apostles or Seventy or John the Baptist or any Sermon in all his life No no he went roving up and down we have not one title to imply that he had the means of salvation and therefore this is nothing to thee that hast the preaching of the Word which reproves thee of thy sins and therefore if thou wilt go on thou shalt dye Ezech. 3. 19. Secondly this story belongs not unto thee for where dost thou read that ever this thief did build upon this hope do you think that this thief said I will steal as long as I can I know I shall be imprisoned and I shall be crucified with Christ but while I lie in prison I will repent and then he will have mercie on me did this poor thief ever dreame of these hopes did he presume of mercie and so sin against mercies and therefore thou that buildest on this example whosoever thou art it belongs not unto thee Tush tush sayes the Drunkard shall I be damned the thief was saved Thou cursed caitiffe what though thou shouldst repent and cry for mercie art thou sure the Lord will heare and pardon thee when I spake to you said Moses you would not heare but rebelled and were presumptuous Deut. 1. 43. Dost thou presume on Gods mercie that hee will convert thee at the last I tell thee that Gods mercy is good mercie it is not like the mercie of a wicked Iudge that is wickedly mercifull and suffers Rogues to be pardoned No no Gods mercie is good psal 109. 21. mercie and justice are all one with God and they have all one name in scripture There is a crown laid up for me saith Paul which the Lord the just Judge shall give me viz which God the mercifull Judge shall give unto me God is just in his mercie and therefore thinkest thou to live in thy sins to sweare to lie to be drunk c. and yet hope to have mercy thou art deceived the Lords mercy is just mercy and he will damne thee for evermore if thou repent not in sincerity You never read in the Scripture that there is mercy in the wayes of the devil But Psal 25. 10. all the wayes of the Lord are mercy and iudgement c. So long as thou walkest in the wayes of the Lord there is mercy to thee in every step mercy in Prayer mercy in hearing the Word and in receiving the Sacraments but in the wayes of the devil there is no mercy for as long as thou walkest in darknesse security and all sinfull and vain courses which are the wayes of the devil there is no mercy for thee for the Spirit of God saith those that follow their vanities forsake their own mercies you must turn from your own wayes for the way of mercy lies in another road in the road of holinesse humiliation and repentance in the road of forsaking all your vain imaginations and thoughts If thou follow thy own wayes God will have no mercy on thee Jonas 2. 8. He will not tell a lye to have mercy on thee Gods mercy is true and mercy and truth go together Psal 98. 3. Now if thou be a Drunkard and dost live and die in that sin God hath said that he will damn thee Gal. 5. 21. Now he should be a liar if he should not do it and thou knowest that mercy and truth go together in him Therefore in time repent Pish pish sayes the Drunkard c. I hope the Lord will be more merciful these Preachers preach nothing but damnation I hope the Lord will pardon me Pardon thee saith God how shall I pardon thee for this Thy children have forsaken me and sworne by them that are no gods and though I fed them to the full yet they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troopes in the harlots houses Jer. 5. 7. As if God should have said I cannot pardon thee No why Thou wilt not come at me thou hast forsaken me in mine ordinances c. Will a Physitian cure a man that will not come at him why they have forsaken me saith God and they will not come at me as if he should say I am willing to pardon I send out my commandements but they will not bend their mindes to keep them they forsake these wayes of mercy Have mercy on them nay shall I not rather visit for these things saith the Lord Jer. 5. 9. If those that disobeyed Moses law dyed without mercy Heb. 10. how then lookest thou for mercy that despisest the Lord Jesus even the gospel of his kingdome Nay the crosse of Christ cals thee he wooes thee by his death and passion and now it thou wilt not obey thou shalt die without mercy Oh what a cursed conclusion is this I have a mercifull and a good Father and therefore I will lift up my head against him I know he will forgive me I will break my head I know where to have a plaister to heal it I will offer such a man a wrong I know he will nnot sue me Thou cursed wretch though the Lord pardon ten thousand yet he will not pardon thee no no thou sinnest with a high hand But keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ Jude 21. Keep your selves there if you be wise for if Gods patience be abused it will be turned into wrath and wormwood and it will burn like fire unto the nethermost hell to a man that sins against mercy there is no redemption this story belongs not unto such Thirdly this story is nothing to thee because at that time God was in a way of working miracles but now he is not in that way then he rent the rocks opened the sepulchres and raised the dead c. Now unlesse thou take God in this way again never look to have thy sinnes pardoned if thou goest on in thy sinnes with a high hand It may be God will not be in the way of working of miracles when thou art a dying No the Lord will shew salvation to no man but unto him that orders his conversation aright Psal 50. 23. thy life must be right and all thy wayes must be upright if thou mean to find mercie But the Thief was converted without ordering his wayes aright I answer one Swallow cannot make Spring nor one fair day a harvest One example cannot make a rule one instance concludes nothing This example breakes no square but it is onely hee that lives uprightly that shall see the salvation of God and none else And if thou dost mean to go to heaven thou must go in the way that leads thither and thou must do those things that are between thee and heaven there is but one way to heaven and all that go to heaven must walk that way there is one faith one newnesse of life one kinde of regeneration and God will have thee go all these
over he will have thee run through every Commandement all that come to heaven must travell thither therefore never beare thy self on this or that example for 't is a wonder of wonders one of the miracles of Christs passion I remember the story of an ancient Confessor which proved a worthy Christian 300 years after the Apostles time this man was an old man and had been a Pagan all his dayes and in his old age he hearkened after Christ and said he would be a Christian Simplinus hearing him say so would not believe him but when the Church saw him to be a Christian indeed there was shouting and dancing for gladnesse and Psalmes were sung in every Church Caius Marius Victorius is become a Christian this was written for a wonder that he in his old age and in his gray haires should become a good Christian so this is a great wonder and an extraordinary example that this Thiefe was converted Do you not think that there were a thousand thieves that at that time lived and dyed in their sins and so were damned Were there not many widows in the dayes of Eliah and yet to none of them was he sent but to the widow of Sarepha Were there not many Lepers in the dayes of Elisha yet none of them were cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian So there were many thousands at that time and yet for all that we know they were all damned only this one is excepted Now shall a man rush into a den of Lyons because Daniel did escape or will a man cast himself into a fiery furnace because the three Children were cast in and had no hurt Shall a man venture to cast avvay his juels or his purse because one among a thousand did so and found it again No no these are wonders and therefore beare not thy self on this or the like example The common rule is this Live in sinne and die in sinne you that live in sinne now shall then be damned in sinne for ever if you repent not St. Paul knew well that this thief was converted and yet he saith Be not deceived neither Drunkards nor Fornicators nor Theeves c. shall inherit the kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. St. Peter also knew that this thief was converted yet saith he If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the sinners and ungodly appeare 2 Pet. 2. 9. St. Iames also knew this story Jam. 5. 12. yet if we sweare we may fall into condemnation This is a most sweet example if by it we return unto God but thou makest a damned use of it if by it thou makest thy self secure in thy sinfull courses hoping to be saved at the last as this thief was Consider with your selves wherefore are the commandments of God are they think you to be disobeyed while men live and then when men are dying to cry God mercy Again why hath God given you Ministers to preach the Word of eternal life Never to preach it to men till they are a dying No no deceive not thy self thou must hear Gods Ministers preach whilst thou art well What hath God given you dayes that you should spend your lives in sin No no saith God I gave her time to repent but she repented not Rev. 2. 21. And this is the leason that God gives thee time That thou mightest repent The Lord could have sent thee to hell as soon as thou wast borne but that in mercy he gives thee life and time to repent that so thou mayest find forgivenesse with God and chat thou mayest become a new creature before thou go hence and be no more seen You that think to repent resting on the example of this thief take heed lest the Lord put you off therefore labour to obey whilst it is called to day and make use of the Word whilst it is sounded in your eares before these things be hid from your eyes THE SOVERAIGNE VERTUE OF THE GOSPEL In a SERMON BY That laborious and faithfull Messenger of CHRIST WILLIAM FENNER Sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Minister of Rochford in Essex THE Soveraigne Vertue OF THE GOSPEL PSAL. 147. 3. He healeth them that are broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds HEre are two things contained in this Text the Patients and the Physitian First the Patients the broken in heart Secondly the Physitian Christ it is he that healeth and bindeth up their wounds The Patients here are felt and discerned to have two wounds or maladies First brokennesse in heart Secondly woundednesse He binds up such Brokennesse of heart presupposeth wholenesse of heart Wholenesse of heart is twofold either wholenesse of heart in sinne or wholenesse of heart from sinne First wholenesse of heart from sinne is when the heart is without sinne and so the blessed Angels have whole hearts and so Adam and Eve and we in them before the fall had whole hearts Secondly wholenesse of heart in sinne so the Devils have whole hearts and all men since the fall from their conception till their conversion have whole hearts and these are they that our Saviour intends The whole need not the physitian but they that are sick The hearts that are whole need not the physitian but they that are broken and sick Sinne is in the godly and they are sick of it even as when poyson is in a man it makes him sick why because the poyson is contrary unto him But sinne is in the wicked and they are not sick of it as poyson is in a toad and the toad is not sick because a toad is of that nature which the poyson is and therefore he needs not a physitian Will a Physitian go to cure a Toad surely no he will rather kill it he wilt not cure it So as long as a man is not sick at the heart of his sin Christ will rather kill him than cure him When a man sayes he is sick and yet can sleep eat drink and work and look as well as ever he did feels no pain nor any thing to trouble him what need hath this man of a physitian So when a man lives in sinne yet never breaks his sleep for it but mindes his pleasures his profits hath never the more pain nor anguish in his soule he is soule-whole and heart-whole what need hath he of a Physitian This is a man whole in his sins The wholenesse of the heart is called fallow-ground Jer. 4. 4. for it is like an unbroken field not tilled nor manured there can be no harvest because the ground doth lie fallow so there can be no harvest of grace in that man whose heart is fallow and unbroken and therefore to repent and to break the heart in Scripture is called the putting of ones hand to the plough Luke 9. 62. to plough up the fallow ground of the heart Brokennesse of heart may be considered two wayes First in relation to wholenesse of heart in sinne so brokennesse of heart is not a maladie but
an inchoative cure of a desperate maladie Secondly in relation to wholenesse of heart from sinne and so it is a maladie or sicknesse and yet peculiar to one blood alone namely Gods elect for though the heart be whole yet it is broken for its sins as a man that hath a barbed arrow shot into his side and the arrow is pluckt out of the flesh yet the wound is not presently healed so sinne may be pluckt out of the heart but the scar that was made with plucking it out is not yet cured The wounds that are yet under cure are the plagues and troubles of conscience the sighs and groanes of a hungering soule after grace the stinging poyson that the blow hath left behind it these are the wounds Now the heart is broken three wayes First by the Law as it breaks the heart of a thief to heare the sentence of the Law that he must be hanged for his robbery so it breaks the heart of the soule sensible to understand the sentence of the Law Thou shalt not sin if thou do thou shalt be damned If ever the heart come to be sensible of this sentence Thou art a damned man it is impossible to stand out under it but it must break Is not my word a hammer that breaks the rocks in peeces Jer. 23. 29. that is Is not my word my Law a hammer Can any rock-heart hold out and not be broken with the blowes of it Indeed thus far a man may be broken and yet be a reprobate for they shall be all thus broken in hell and therefore this breaking is not enough Secondly by the Gospel for if ever the heart come to be sensible of its blow it will break ail to shatters Rent your hearts for the Lord is gracious c. Joel 2. 12. When all the shakes of Gods mercy come they all cry rent Indeed the heart cannot stand out against them if it once feel them Beat thy soule upon the Gospel if any way under heaven can break it this is the way Aristotle observes that a hammer may easily break a hard stone against a soft bed but if it be laid on an anvil which will not give way underneath strike it as hard as you will with the hammer on the top the anvil underneath props it from breaking or if it do break it will not break into shatters for the anvil below helps the stone to hang fast together but if you smite it against a soft bed it breaks it all to shatters So smite thy soule upon the Gospel preach the Law as much as you will preach hell and damnation as much as you will let that be the hammer but then be sure lay thy soule on the Gospel drive it to the Gospel smite against this soft bed and then if ever it will break If you strike a stone against a hard anvil though the parts thereof would fall asunder yet how can they flie off when as the hard anvil will not give way the hard anvil on the one side and the hard hammer on the other side stop up its way from falling asunder So strike the soule with the blowes of Gods wrath as much as you will and let it be upon the Law alas whither should the Law open it self that it might break the Law doth but fear it on the one side and the wrath of God doth terrifie it on the other yet all this while it is not broken the soule all this while knowes not what it shall doe but smite it on the Gospel and this with the Law rents it and breaks it indeed So Ioel he preached hell and damnation to the people of the Jews and laid their hearts upon mercie and then the hammer cries rent for he is mercifull c. he laid them on the soft bed of the Gospel and then he smites them Thirdly the heart is broken by the skill of the Minister in the handling of these two the Law and the Gospel God furnisheth him with skill to presse the Law home and gives him understanding how to put to the Gospel and by this means doth God break up the heart For alas though the Law be never so good a hammer and although the Gospel be never so soft a bed yet if the Minister lay not the soul upon it the heart will not break he must fetch a full stroke with the Law and he must set the full power of the Gospel at the back of the soul or else the heart will not break It is a pretty observation of Aristotle Lay saith he an axe upon a block and a great and mighty weight upon it yet it will not enter into the block to cleave it but if you lift up the axe and fetch a full blow at the block then it enters presently So if the Minister have not skill to fetch a dead blow at the heart alas he may be long enough ere he break it but let him fetch a full blow at the soule then doth he break it if ever I took unto me two staves saith the Prophet the one I called beauty the other I called bands and with these I fed the flock Zach. 11. 7. There is the course of a true feeder of the flock he feeds them with the Law and the Gospel he takes his two staves and he layes about him till the hearts of his hearers feel him and this is the way to feed them and to break them off from their sins Thus you see the means that God useth to break your hearts He healeth the broken in heart Hence observe That Christ justifies and sanctifies For that is the meaning First because God hath given Christ grace to practice for the sakes of the broken in heart and therefore if this be his grace to heal the broken-hearted certainly he will heal them The spirit of the lord is upon me c. He hath sent me to heal the broken in heart c. Luk. 4. 18. If he be created master of this art even for this purpose to heale the broken in heart he will verily heale them and none but them He is not like Hosander and Hippocrates whose father appointed them both to be Physitians he appointed his sonne Hippocrates to be a physitian of horses yet he proved a physitian for men he appointed Hosander to be a physitian for men and he proved a physitian for horses He is not like these no no he will heale those whom he was appointed to heale now God appointed him to heale thee that art broken in heart and therefore without doubt he will do it 2. Because Christ hath undertaken to do it When a skilful Physitian hath undertaken a cure he will surely do it indeed sometimes a good physitian may fail as Trajans physitian did for he died under his hands on whose tomb this was written Here lies Trajan the Emperour that may thank his Physitian that he died But if Christ undertake it thou maiest be sure of it for he tels thee
Ark in the middest of the Campe 1 Sam. 4. 6. As if they should say he lives in the midst ofus and will hee not save us Fourthly we are called by thy name and therefore wee have interest in thee to whom should wives go but to their husbands to whom should children go but to their fathers to whom should servants go but to their Masters to whom then should we go but to thee our God and Saviour leave us not therefore and wee will meddle with none but thee Secondly though God might leave them yet they beg that he would not that is the A men to their prayers though thou stand and wilt not help us yet let us die in thy presence and this is the great request of the Saints they desire not to be left of God although God might leave them whence learne that God might cast off a people Israel did feare it and it is that which they prayed against God might leav them I doe not say that God will cast off his elect ones eternally but those in outward covenant see Esay 1. verse 2. c. Heare O Heavens Hearken O Earth I have nourished and brought up children but they have rebelled against mee The Oxe knoweth his Owner and the Asse his Masters Crib but Israel hath not knowen my People have not understood c. and verse the seventh see the judgement your cities are burnt with fire strangers devoure your land in your presence and it is desolate like the overthrow of strangers There is an outward Calling as well as an effectuall Calling God may reject for many are called but few chosen saith our Saviour My brethren cast your thoughts afarre off and see what is become of those famous Churches of Pergamus and Thyatira and the rest mentioned Rev. 1. verse 11. And who would have thought that Jerusalem should have been made an heap of stones and a vagabond people and yet we see God hath forsaken them shewing us thereby that although God will never forsake his own elect ones yet hee may forsake such as are in outward covenant with him The Lord is said to dis-church or discharge a people Hosea 1. 9. there God saith call his name Loammi for yee are not my people and therefore I will not bee your God And as I may so say he sues out a bill of divorcement as it was in the old Law they that had any thing against their wives they sued out a bill of divorcement against them and so doth God see Hosea 2. 2. Plead with thy Mother tell her shee is not my Spouse nor my beloved but let her cast away her fornications out of her sight and her adulteries from between her breasts lest I make her as at the first that is as shee was in Egypt poore and miserable As if God should now say to England plead plead with England all yee that are my Ministers in the way of my truth and say unto her let her cast away her rebellions least I leave her as I found her in the day of Captivity and bondage under the blindnesse of popery and superstition Ob. But how doth God cast off a people Sol. I answer first when he takes away his love and respect from a people and as his love so the token of his love which is his Word and Sacraments the meanes of salvation Secondly when he takes away his providence I meane when he takes downe his walls that is his Magistracy and Ministry Thirdly when in stead of Councelling there comes in Bribing and in stead of true teaching there comes in daubing with untempered morter when God takes away the hedge thereof Esay 5. 5. or the stakes growe rotten and are not renewed then is God going away Fourthly when God takes away the benefit of both these helps they are signes of Gods departure Vse May God un-church or discharge a People and cast a Nation off Oh then let this teach us to cast off all security for miseries are nigh at hand in all probability when wee observe what God hath done for us all things are ripe to destruction and yet we feare it not but wee promise to our selves safety and consider not that England is ready to be harrowed and yet wee cannot entertaine a thought of Englands desolation when there are so many htophesies in it of its destruction yet wee cannot be perswaded of it but in our Iudgements it must not be it must not be as yet as if it were unpossible that God should leave England as if God were a cockering Father over lewd children God may leave a Nation and his elect may suffer and why may not England Englands sins are very great and the greater because the meanes are great and our warnings are and have been great but yet our mercies are farre greater England hath been a mirrour of mercies yet now God may leave it and make it the mirrour of his justice Look how God spake to the people that did brag of their temple Jer. 7. 4. saith God Trust not in lying words saying the Temple of the Lord this is the Temple of the Lord but what saith the Lord by the Prophet in the twelfth and fourteenth verses Goe now to my place which was in Shiloh where I set my name at the beginning and behold what I did unto it for the wickednesse of my people Israel c. Even so England thou hast the Temple and the Priests and yet may not God that destroyed Shiloh destroy thee Goe to Bohemia and from thence to the Palatinate and from thence to other parts of Germany Doe but imagine that you were there or doe but mark what travellers say Gods Churches are made heapes of stones and those Bethels wherein Gods name was called upon are now defiled Temples For Satan and superstition to raigne in you cannot goe three steps but you shall see the head of a dead man And goe a little further and you shall see the heart pickt out by the fowles of the ayre or some other sad spectacle and then surely you will say Tylly hath been here or there now are these Churches become desolate and may not England Doe but goe into their Cities and Townes and there you may see many compassed about with chaines of Captivity and every man bemoaning himself Doe but look under a tree and there you may see a poor fatherlesse child sending out his breath and crying unto his helplesse Mother step but a little further and you shall see the helplesse Wife the sad Wife bemoaning her Husband and this is her misery she cannot die time enough but shee shall see greater misery for either she shall as she thinks see her little ones dasht against the stones or tossed upon the Pikes or if they live that then they shall be brought up in Popery and then shee weeps again and thinks that if her Husband be dead it is well But it may be he is upon the rack or put to some other torment
soule and conscience will be galled and troubled still it must bee the God of peace that must speak peace to troubled soules It must bee the God of peace that must speak peace to a distressed soule to a soule that is damned in it selfe it is hee that must say I will bee the strength of their hearts and their portion for ever no marvell then if a poor soule cryes to God when happily the heart is full when the soul gnaws and cries within it selfe I am damned I am damned happily the palate is pleased with delicates when the poor soule for ought it knowes must goe down to hell oh then beloved if you will have safety goe where God is for every good gift comes in with him if once a man hath got God into his company hee hath all good things with him God blessed Obed Edoms house for the Arkes sake now the Arke was a type of Christ and where it came many blessings came with it even so when God comes unto a people they are married unto him in righteousnesse in judgement in loving kindnesse and in mercies for ever Hosea 2. 9. When a man is married to a wife all is his so get Christ and all is thine and then what wouldst thou have more God speaks to the raine and it heares to the corne and it heares but if thou be in Christ hell and death are thy servants but they that have outward things only as profits pleasures or the like they have their ruine unlesse they have Christ with them get Christ therefore for if hee be wanting all outward and inward dangers befall that man or that Nation woe be unto him or them that are without God For though they bring up their children yet will I bereave them that there shall not bee man left yea woe also to them when I doe depart from them Ephraim as Tyrus is planted in a plesant place but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer Hosea the 9. 12 13. verses True indeed woe bee unto that heart County or Kingdome that God is departed from when God who is the God of mercies and all consolation is departed away who can but pitty that soule County or Kingdome who will not submit to Gods peace consolation and salvation when God parts all miseries follow for that man that makes no conscience in out-faceing God in the Congregation mark what the text saith Dent. 28. 15. I will forsake them and many miseries shall overtake them and when the floud gates are once up then comes in all evils And then they shall say are not these things come upon us because God is not with us If therfore we would avoid woe and sorrow slaying and killing one another if the wife would not see her husband killed before her tender eyes and the man see his wife snatcht out of the world by the hands of wicked men then leave not God but hold him fast and then evill dayes will depart from us It is our holding of God that keepes miseries from us oh then what shall wee think of them that are weary of God and that say to the Almighty depart from us Job 22. 17. Ob. But are there any amongst us that are weary of God I hope there are none such amongst us I answer thou that art a servant and rejectest the Command of thy Master in it thou doest reject God and all such as have a mean conceit of the worship of God and the word of God and thinke that prayer or preaching is continued too long I say these men know not what they thinke or say but certainly it is because they would be freed from the Ordinance of God well God will free thee from them one day I will warrant thee and then thou wilt bee in a miserable condition oh that thou wouldest pitty thy poor condition but thou that art weary of Gods ordinances and of his mercies his presence and patience know thou that thou shalt bee deprived of Gods goodnesse and thy portion shall bee with those that hate God in this life here and after this life if thou repent not thy portion shall bee with them in Tophet where the worme dyeth not and where the fire goeth not out and then thy crying will not availe God will bee God over thee in destruction yea when he hath spurned thousauds and ten thousands into hell such as thou art then shalt thou bee the everlasting object of his never dying wrath then notwithstanding all thy shrill cryes though thou couldest be heard out of that dungeon yet were thy help never the near for God is God still I advise thee therefore what to do whilst thou art here in this life make thy peace with God in Christ and lay thy selfe low before him and bear patiently his hand in his wrath which thou hast deserved And marke what I say thou hast deserved to bee in hell an hundred times that is the least and therefore bee contented with thy condition for thou hast chosen death rather than life and God should wrong himselfe and thee also if he should not let thee have thy choosing Will not these things move you my brethren Me thinks I see your colours rise I am glad of it I hope it is to a good end you may be wise and happily so wise as to choose life rather then death Now the Lord grant it for see delights not in your destruction I will adde one word more to leave the more impression in your hearts my desire is the health of your soules though my meat seem sowre yet my minde is the will of God Thou man or woman that canst not abide so much Preaching but standest upon thorns whilst it is preaching Too much of one thing you say is good for nothing You do as much as say you will not have God with you you will have a little of God but you will have more of your pleasures is this your desire your delights Know then whosoever thou art that hast an ill will to God and his Ordinances and wilt not have the gospel in the purity of it thou shalt have thy desires Thou sayest depart Preachings and so it shall thou shalt have thy desires When thou shalt hear the trumpets sound and when thine eares shall tingle with the sound of war then depart for ever you that are weary of God get you down to hell for ever Fulfill your base lusts then will God say for I have fed you on earth this twenty thirty forty fifty nay sixty yeares and upwards and my milde Word could not rule you nor prevail with you and therefore now get you to hell and there remain for ever Think thus with your selves will God serve me thus yea that he will for he hath prepared a place for the proudest Kings Princes Monarchs Captains c. that are or ever were in the world if they will not be ruled nor guided by God and his word See Isa 30. 33. the
found God then let us bring him home to our houses and there retaine him that so he may be our God and the God of our posterity in all our and their afflictions and this will make you to rejoyce exceedingly Oh my beloved carry God whom with you and let him be a Father to you and to your posterity Quest But now may wee keep the Lord it would he worth our labour for at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore Ans First wee must be sure to prepare a room for him for he is a King and a King you know sends his harbinger before him to prepare a roome for him saying come out of her my people and touch no unclean thing and then I will be thy God and thou shalt be my people 2. Cor. 6. 17. so my beloved brethren come out of all sinfull courses pleasures and practises and you may expect Gods comming unto your houses And when you sit downe by your fires or lie downe in your beds think thus with your selves what an equall condition doth God propound it is but only to part with a sin a lust a Dalilah which I may very well spare as well as I may spare water out of my shooes or a coale out of my bosome I say thinke thus with thy selfe and say in thy heart will God keep Company with mee if I will not keep Company with sin are the termes no harder this is a good offer I will at once then bid sin adue for now I am upon another bargaine here is an offer that I was nor aware of I will quickly dispatch this bargaine and make my peace with my God and thus if you would have God to bee yours then let your soules and bodies be his by forsaking all sins and when you shall call God will come and say here am I Esay 58. 9. Secondly as you must prepare a room for God so you must give him content too let God have his will crosse him not Where the King is he will have all things to his minde even so it is with God If he may have his own worship you please him wonderous well you must dresse his dishes according to his tooth but if you put poyson into his meat if you mingle the traditions of men with Gods worship then you discontent him Lay aside therefore all your superstitions and erronious opinions of God and his worship and do it according to his will in his word reuealed and then yon please him indeed when a Nation or a soule submits to God and to his truth in all things To bow at the name Jesus is not meant at the word Jesus for so to give him the bow is to commit syllabicall Idolatrie but the meaning is wee should worship him in spirit and in truth humbly subjecting our selves unto Christ Thirdly as we must give him his mind so wee must give him welcome if you displease God and look loweringly or sowerly upon him and grudge at God or at his truth no wonder then if God goe away land surely this is the sinne of England we bear an ill will unto God and his word and God hath done well for this Land and what could hee have done more then hee hath done for this Land as hee saith of his vineyard Esay 5. 4 5. but it brought forth contrary fruit even so wee doe all contrary to Gods expectation mark therefore what God saith hee will take away the hedge and it shall be trodden down and for ought that may be collected so it is like to bee with us if his mercy prevent it not for are wee better than the old world the same sins that were found in the old world are found in us Sodom's and Gomorahs sinnes were but strawes in respect of ours and yet God rained down fire and brimstone upon them tell me are there not as great sinnes amongst us as were in Jerusolem who were carried captives their city destroyed and they a vagabond people untill this day Are we better then other Brethren and neighbour Nations that have drunk so deeply of Gods wrath I tell you truly we area burden to God he cannot long beare us and he will think his burthen well over when he hath destroyed us You know all men are glad when their pain is over even so it is with God we are a pain and a trouble unto him and why should God go continually pained with us which are worthy to be destroyed Then shall England seek peace but shall not find it God shall not pity us Oh my beloved brethren what a pitifull thing it is when a mercifull God shall shew himself unmercifull when his patience shall be turned into impatience There is a hard time ere long befalling England if God in mercy prevent it not but we do not consider it lamentable is our time Christ wept over Jerusalem Oh saith he that thou hadst known in this thy day of visitation the things that do concern thy peace but now thy are hid from thine eyes Beloved what do you think we shall do when Gods mercies are turned into justice Look to it England the Lord hath wept over thee in mercy many years What shall we do when we have leisure to consider what once we did enjoy for Gods patience is never truly prized till we want it and then the poor soul will thus say There was a time when we might have been at peace with this patient God but now he is hid from our eyes now the gate is shut barred and locked up thus when a people doth abuse Gods mercy hee sends the contrary judgements and then it will grieve and wound our soules to think what once wee did enjoy but that soule that will bid God welcome to his heart may goe singing to his grave Fourthly You must be importunate with God to tarry and account it a great favour if he will stay For God hath roome enough in heaven and therefore you need not lodge him for want of lodging but you must be beholding to him to tarry with you yet in these dayes men doe not love to be beholding Jacob wrestled with God and by that meanes he held him till he blessed him you live under the meanes and know the way and will you not doe it what greater condemnation can there be and how great will your judgement be unto you more then unto them that have no meanes and as it was said of Capernaum so say I to England Thou England that was lifted up to heaven with meanes shalt be brought down to hel thou shalt be abused for it for if the mighty works which hath been done in thee had been done in India or Turkie they would have repented ere this time And therefore Capernums place is Englands place which is the most scaldings tormenting place of all if it repent not And marke what I say the poore native Turks and Infidels shall have a more coole summer Parlour in hell then England shall have for we stand upon high rates therefore thy torment shall be the more intollerable to bear Now the Lord write these things in our hearts by the finger of his holy spirit for his Christs sake under whom I would we were all covered Amen FINIS a John 5. 35
the reason the Apostle cryed O wretched man that I am c. I speak not now to the children of God who are troubled w th bie-thoughts in their praiers For they the more bie-thoughts they have the more earnest they are in praier they mourn with David in their praier Consider ô Lord saith he how I mourn Psal 55. There was something in the Peophets praier that did vex him and that made him so much the more to mourn before God But as for you that can have bie-thoughts in praier and let them abide with you your praiers are not importunate the Heathen shall rise up against you and condemn you I remember a storie of a certain Youth who being in the temple with Alexander when he was to offer incense to his god and the Youth holding the golden Censer with the fire in it a coal fell on the Youths hand and burnt his wrist but the Youth considering what a sacred thing he was about for all he felt his wrist to be burnt yet he would not stir but continued still to the end This I speak to shame those that can let any thing though never so small to disturb them yea if it were possible lesser things then nothing for if nothing come to draw their hearts away they themselves will employ their hearts Baâ—ls Priests shall condemn these who did cut themselves with knives and all to make them pray so much the more stronglie What a shame is it then that we should come on life and death to pray for our souls and yet come with such loose and lazie praiers Think you that a malefactor when he is crying at the Bar for his life will be thinking on his Pots and Whores c Was it ever heard of that a man at deaths-doore should be thinking on his Dogs can he then think on them Do you think that Jonah prayed on this fashion when he was in the Whales belly or the Thief on the crosse or Daniel in the Lions den or the three Children in the fierie furnace or Paul in prison Do ye think that these prayed thus What shall I be at prayer and my minde in the fields No no if I will pray I must melt before God and bewail my sins and be heartilie affected in prayer But as long as I pray thus I pray not at all And as God said to Adam where art thou so may he say to thee Man where art thou art thou at prayer and thy mind at mill is thy mind on thy Oxen and art thou at prayer before me what an indignity is this Should a man come to sue to the King and not minde his suit will not the King say Do you mock me know you to whom you speak The Lord takes this as a hainous sin when men come into his presence with such loose hearts Now seeing these things are thus take a word of exhortation to labour for importunate Prayer Prayer is the art of all arts it enables a man to all other duties it is the art of Repentance c. Samuel confessed if he had not had the art of Prayer he could not have had the art of Preaching 2 Sam. 12. 23. See the antithesis between these two words God forbid as if he should say God forbid that I should cease to pray for you for then I should not teach you the right way A Minister can never preach to his people that prayes not for his people It is the art of Thanksgiving a man cannot be thankfull if he cannot pray Psal 116. 12. It was the meanes whereby the Prophet David would be thankfull to God he would take up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. A man hath not a good servant unlesse he can pray for his master see the storie of Abrahams servant Gen. 24. Prayer helps to perform all other good duties How dost thou thinke to have benefit by the Word unlesse thou be fervent in prayer with God to get a blessing upon it We can do nothing but by begging Secondly as Prayer is the art of all arts so it is the Compendium of all divinitie Therefore to call zealouslie on the name of the Lord is to be a Christian Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord c. It includes repentance humiliation sorrow for sin joy in Gods goodnes thanksgiving for mercies obedience to his commandements yea the whole dutie of man therefore we must labour to be importunate in prayer A Reasonable soul is eminently all souls so Prayer is eminently all good duties Psal 72. The prayer of David the son of Jesse that is all his repentance in all passages he did humble himself before God all Davids duties are included by the name of the prayer of David the son of Jesse And therefore thou hadst need to make much of Prayer for thou canst never repent unlesse thou pray well Thirdly Prayer is a mans utmost reference a man cannot have Christ but only by Prayer 'T is bad enough for a man to be a Drunkard or to live in any other sin but yet after all this if a man have the spirit of prayer there is hope of this man if after all his sinnes committed he can pray to God there is hope But for a man to sinne and not to be importunate in prayer is dangerous What saith the Psalmist They are corrupt and become abominable they have not called on the name of the Lord Psalm 14. 4. Oh fearfull condition Fourthly Prayer is that which Gods people have though they have nothing else it is the beggers dish as I may so call it A begger hath no way to live but by beging thererefore he had need beg hard so we have nothing to live on but praying I mean nothing that is to be done on our side all the promises of God are to be gotten by prayer Suppose a man have nothing to live on but his fingers ends no house nor land nothing left to maintain his wife and children but his fingers ends will he not be toyling all the day he is a day-labourer as we use to say So to pray earnestly is a Christians fingers ends When a house stands but upon one pillar will not a man be fearfull and carefull of that pillar why Prayer is a mans pillar is this be gone down falls all the hope of salvation Fifthly Prayer is that which hath the command of Mercie we are such unprofitable servants that Mercie will not meddle with us unlesse it be commanded Patience is loth to beare we have so provoked God that Mercie is loth to make or meddle with us for unlesse it have command from God it will not admit of any soul When David begged for loving kindnesse he was importunate else mercie and loving kindnesse would not look on David Psal 42. 8. Sixthly Prayer is Gods delight The supplication of the wicked is abomination to God but the prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15. 8. The
Lord must have something to please Kings you know must be pleased so the King of heaven would be pleased by all that come unto him Now nothing is more pleasing unto him then prayer Seventhly Importunate praier is a willing prayer There be many that pray to God for mercie and yet they are loth to have it why because they are not importunate When a mans lust runs on the world and worldly pleasures c. he speeds not When the woman of Canaan was importunate Christ saith unto her Woman be it unto thee as thou wilt she had a will to grace Mat. 15. 28. Eightly Importunate prayer is the only faithfully prayer A begger never goes away from a gentlemans door so long as he believes he shall have an alms so as long as a soul is importunate with God it is a signe that it is a believing soul O woman saith Christ great is thy faith Why Because her importunitie was great therefore Christ concludes her faith was great The means to get importunitie in prayer are these First Labour to know thine own misery See Ephes 6. 18 19 20. They could not have prayed importunately unlesse they had known how it had stood with Paul so unlesse thou know thy miserie thou canst not be importunate If a Drunkard or Whoremaster or Sabbath-breaker or Swearer c. knew that they should be damned they would get out of their sins Secondly You must be sensible of your miserie Simon Magus knew his miserie yet because he was not sensible of it he sayes Pray ye to the Lord for me Act. 8. 24. If he had been sensible he would himself have fallen down before the congregation and he would have confessed how he had committed that sinne in a more apprehensive manner Thirdly Observe the prayers of Gods people as here the disciples of Christ did they hearing Christ pray say unto him Master teach us to pray they were so affected with Christs prayer that they said Oh that we could pray thus Oh that we had such a spirit Master teach us to pray So I say consider Gods people how they pray they can pray as if they would soare up to God in supplication they pray as if they would rend the heavens If men did but consider this it would quicken them Fourthly Get a stock of prayer That man must needs be rich that hath a stock in every market So if a man have a stock of prayer it is a signe he is like to speed as I Cor. 4. 2. If God did lend his ears to the Corinthians when they were crying for Paul then certainly Pauls prayers were importunate Fifthly If thou wilt be importunate labour to be full of good works Qui benè operatur bene orat as Act. 10. Cornelius his alms and prayers were come up to God now if he had committed drunkennesse that had come up to God with his prayer therefore was it happy for Cornelius that he was full of good works so thou canst not be importunate unlesse thou be full of good works take heed that swearing and lying c. crie not louder in Gods eares then thy prayers Sixthly If thou wilt be importunate in prayer labour to reform thy houshold VVhen Jacob was to call on God he said to his houshold Put away your strange gods Gen. 35. THE NECESSITIE OF GOSPEL OBEDIENCE In two Sermons BY That laborious and faithfull Messenger of CHRIST WILLIAM FENNER Sometimes Fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge and late Minister of Rochford in Essex THE NECESSITIE OF Gospel-Obedience COLOSS. I. 10. That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitfull unto every good work THere is a double sense in these words First wherein we may not not cannot walk worthy of GOD. And secondly there is a sense wherein we may and must walk worthy of Him The first sense wherein we cannot walk worthy of God is twofold First We cannot walk worthy of God with an absolute worth of exact proportion for in this sense the Angels of heaven cannot walk worthy of God they blesse God and praise him uncessantly but God is above all blessing and praise Nehem. 9. 5. Their holinesse c. had a beginning but God is infinite Oh then how much lesse can we walk worthy of God! Secondly We cannot walk worthy of God with a sinlesse worth of a mortified condignitie so worthily as we might have done if we had not had sinne for we are compassed with the flesh and sinne which leads us on to all impieties And in this respect John saith I am not worthy c. Luk. 3. 16. It was no idle complement in that good man That he was not worthy to untie Christs shoo-tyers or to carry his books after him as we use to speak but it is certain in regard of sinne which makes us unfit to do any dutie to God God is worthy of better service then the best of us can performe and to have better attendance then we can give him Neverthelesse there is a sense wherein we may and must walk worthy of God And this is also twofold First quoad dignitatem non repugnantiae As a niggard or a sparing servant is an unworthy servant to a bountiful master or a drunkard to a servant of God there is a repugnancie between a master and such a servant He that will not take up his crosse and follow me is unworthy of me Mat. 10. 37. And in this sense we must walk worthy of God that is not contrary to God Secondly This worthy includes dignitatem condecentiae Walk worthy of God i. e. sutable unto him A correspondencie there must be between Christ and those that are his between the children of God and God we must walk answerable to him God is holy gracious mercifull c. now we must walk worthy viz sutable to those attributes and not to deal basely wish God who hath dealt bountifully with us and hath delivered us from hell and helps us to heaven Let us not then put unworthy tricks on God but let us walk as men renewed So much for the sense This speech is directed to the professors of the gospel of Christ in Colosse for first Epaphras had given out that there were godly soules in that city Secondly as it was reported so this report came to Paul he heard that there were a company of men that went for Gods saints We have heard saith he c. vers 4. I Paul heard so and hence it is that Paul directs his speech As if he should say for so it is in the ninth verse I hear that there are professors among you Now I pray God that you walk worthy of God You professe Christ and his word I pray God you may walk worthy of the master you serve Hence observe That those that professe Christ must walk worthy of christ worthy of Christ whom you say you serve or they serve This is further commanded and that expresly in I Thess 2. 12. That you