For where bowels are mentioned there an eminent degree is suggested either of commiseration as in that of God to Ephraim Jer. 31. 20. or of singular love and affection as of the mother to the child or of most sorrowfull affliction as here Nay so great was this sorrow and bewaylment that ver 6. her sould failed when he spake My soule failed i. my soule went forth it was gone it departed because of the departure of Christs loving favour For as the heart is said to goe forth when men are astonished with feare so the soule is said to goe away when men are surcharged with griefe and sorrow Whence it is evident that the Church was almost dead for her folly and negligence whereby she had caused her Christ to withdraw himselfe And surely if negligent and regardlesse entertainments of God or Christ or his Word which cause the cessation of favour are thus abundantly bewayled with bowels and faintings how much more should the bowels be doubled and the measures of griefe and repentance be swelled when the suspension of Gods love and favour is caused by our injurious handling of his blessed Spirit by fighting against his motions and presuming against the directing and convincing light to dishonour and grieve him with the most foule iniquities Yet if we can humbly and throughly bemoane our losse and repent of our sins we shall behold the Lord in mercy and love againe David could not but yeeld out the countenance of his favour to Absolom though an untoward sonne If the clouds did break the sunne would shine againe for God will not onely give but restore comforts to his mourners 2. Revive thy uprightnesse and then God will renew his favour A good man saith Solomon Prov. 12. 2. obtaineth favour of the Lord i. An upright man a man whose heart is single for he is opposed to the man of many devices whose heart is single and plain with God in his walkings such a man shall obtaine favour from the Lord. David assures us of it Ps 5. 12 Thou Lord wilt blesse the righteous and with favour wilt thou compasse him as with a shield It was a good speech of Davids Psal 36. 9. With thee is the fountaine of life and in thy light shall we see light q. d. Lord thou hast comfort and favour enough thy favour indeed is life the very fountaine of it and in the light of thy paths shall the sons of men see the light of thy favour For brethren we cannot see light by darknesse light must be seene by light and whatsoever Psal 17. 15 I will behold thy face in uprightnesse is contrary to light is an impediment of seeing Gods favour cannot be seene by any thing which is contrary to Gods nature Crooked Note hearts and crooked wayes an heart and an heart a tongue and a tongue a life and a lise i. a doubling heart and a doubling tongue and a doubled conversation which hath a veine of sinfulnesse and approbation this the Lord hates and abhors for God is ever single in all his dealings with men They shall have mercy or they shall not have it and so he exceedingly delights in the simplicity of Christians Let them deale ingenuously with him give him all the might they have and him onely though they have not a present sight yet they have a sure promise of his favour The Lord will meet them Esa 64. 5. Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousnesse those that remember thee in thy wayes Walk thou towards God in uprightnesse and God will walk towards thee in comfortablenesse Be thou a son and he will be a Father Give him thy heart and hee will shew to thee his face Therefore let us cast about not onely for our generall but also for the services of our particular callings and relations in which if the Lord sees us upright in walking wee shall assuredly find him to be gracious in distributing the beams of his favour unto our soules 3. Earnestly seeke Gods favour 1. Seek it by enquiries in the ordinances of his favour Saw ye him whom my soule loveth said the Church in her losse Cant. 3. 3. unto the watchmen And as Mary Joh. 20. 13. weeping They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him And ver 15. Sir if thou hast borne him hence tell me where thou hast laid him and I will take him away What came of this See ver 16. Jesus saith unto her Mary It was one onely word but enough to make her turne her selfe and say Rabboni So may it and so doth it oft times fall out with us in our seekings of Gods favour The Lord doth meet us shew himself with his loving countenance in his Ordinances For these Ordinances of God they are the Exchange the heavenly Exchange twixt God and his people wherein they present unto him their duty and he confers on them his grace and favour So that they who have come hither with sighs O that God would be my God! have returned with Psalms of joy The Lord is my God and my Father I will praise thee O Lord my God 2. Seek it by prayers How abundant is David in this kind Psal 106. 4. Remember me O Lord with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people O visit me with thy salvation 5. That I may see the good of thy chosen So Psal 31. 16. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant So Psal 4. 6. Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us For God hath promised his favour and therefore his people may seek his favour Nay he hath commanded his people to seek his favour and therefore they should seek it See Psal 27. 8. Thou saidst Seeke ye my face My heart said unto me Thy face Lord will I seeke It is an unadvised folly in the suspension of Gods favour to unsonne our selves and unpeople our selves i. to deny that grace and spirituall relation twixt us and God This is not the way to gaine favour for when we have undone our relations of children we exclude our selves from the expectations of favour No the wisest and surest way is to seek the renewing of Gods loving countenance and say as David Lord thou hast hid thy face and I am troubled yet thou biddest me to seek thy face and Thy face Lord will I seeke Nay I doe seeke it for Thy favour is life nay Thy favour is better then life so I esteeme it so I acknowledge it and as my life as that which is a life unto my life doe I earnestly desire it Therefore Lord Make thy face to shine and behold mee againe as thou beholdest thy people with thy ancient favour O visit me with thy salvation and let me see the good of thy countenance Now here take in two helpfull advices more viz. 1. When you seek the light Two things to be remembred in our seeking of Gods favour of Gods countenance doe not blind
is ready to break and like a full vessell it must have vent Many a time he must and doth consider this vile sin and hies him alone to poure out his grieved heart before the Lord and shames himselfe before him and confesseth with confusion of face his treacherous and unworthy dealing against his God There is you know a naturall Three sorts of sorrows sorrow as for the losse of children and a politicall sorrow as was that for the good King Josiah and there is a spirituall sorrow which is for our sins This must now be exceedingly renewed and you may raise it by consideration of mercy O Lord what have I How to raise our sorrow done Why have I done this Thou shewedst me mercy in opening my eyes in changing my heart in calling me to holinesse in pardoning of former sins yet after all this I have sinned against thee I have wounded my heart dishonoured thy Name turned thy grace into wantonnesse lost thy favour broke my peace injured my Christ grieved thy Spirit turned away thine eare given advantage to Satan and deserved for ever to sit in darknesse c. Beloved if you find your hearts unhumbled you shall finde your hearts still to be unbeleeving For besides that great sins are great provocations to our Note gracious God they are also til we are humbled for them great impediments to faith faith cannot do service for us it cannot uphold us it cannot bring a comforting Promise unto our hearts untill our hearts are humbled for our sins God comforts none but mourners and faith cannot fall in with him untill our hearts fall out with our selves And here take heed you be not sleight and too quick if you be you shall have your doubtings againe God doth seldome or never speak easie peace after a great sin If you skin up a sore it will break out againe If your sorrows be not deep and sound your fears will be fresh and multiplyed but let them be pious and serious and then the soule will after a while recover it selfe and plead and find mercy with God and be able to answer and silence all the doubtfull reasonings which will rise against faith in its wonted communions and applications But you will say If wee Ob. should sorrow thus yet wee should still doubt of mercy and Gods favour I answer Sol. 1. Thou hast now to answer A great current wil bear down the dam and true sorrow will carry away our doubtings thy doubtings True I did sin thus but I have truely grieved for this sinne and though I might not apply mercy because I sinned yet now I may because I am grieved 2. See Gods disposition to Ephraim Ier. 31. 18. I have surely Jer. 31. 18. heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe c. ver 19. I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did beare the reproach of my youth But then ver 20. Is Ephraim my dear son Is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I doe earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. Though God be offended with our sins yet he is delighted in our sorrows and nothing melts him more then to see us come melting before him The mournfull behaviour of Iosephs brethren moved him and the returning Prodigals The father likes the sons submissions though not his rebellions falling downe to his Father and cryings out went to the heart of him And it is not without cause that David prayes Regard my teares that fall And Are not my tears registred And Put thou my teares into thy bottle Melting teares doe melt a tender God and Father 2. To renew our repentance in which I would comprehend both detestations and forsakings These sins must be made very hatefull to the soul you must imbitter them you must purge out all the sweetnesse of them all the liking of them Nay you must set upon them as on things most abominable Hence that phrase of loathing your abominanations Ezek. 36. Ezek. 36. S. Iohn Rev. 2. 5. adviseth decayed Rev. 2. 5. Ephesus to remember from whence she was falne and to repent Beloved this is not a condition to stay in This water is deep and drowning is possible if we lie in it But if wee rise out of our sinnes then our doubtings will fall It is with our consciences as it is with water in a pot if you put no Simile fire under it it is quiet but if you kindle a fire the water will boyle and bubble it hath no quiet So though conscience be quiet and kind and molests us not if yet fire come under if any notable sin come in and kindle in the heart now the boylings now the feares and doubts of the soule And in these tumblings the way to cease them is to remove the fire and then you shall see how the water grows to a stilnesse again and by degrees The sea will be calme if the winds cease leaves fuming So will our soules come to a pacified temper to a setlednesse if once our sins be removed leave the Esay 1. 16 17. Cease to doe evill learne to doe well 18. Come now and let us reason together c. sins and ordinarily the doubts will leave the sinner For as sinne is our unquiet sea so Repentance is our secure harbour Any knowne sinne unrepented still puts in and inlivens doubts in us but Repentance plucks out the venome and the rage An amended child comes againe before his Father and a reformed Christian and penitent may * Loc. cit yet be confident 3. Sue out a speciall assurance You may see by Davids disposition after his speciall sins that a generall acquitance would not serve the turne for speciall sins you must sue out speciall assurance of pardon Your consciences will never be quiet else Nay this will not satisfie thee that yet they are pardonable that they are such as doe not exclude thee out of the Proclamation thou wilt never be quiet untill God speaks peace untill he doth put his seale to acquit thee of particular sins Sin will rise it will lie uppermost thou shalt feele it so it will fly in thy face it will come up in serious times untill thou repent of it and sue out thy discharge therefore be earnest with the Lord for pardon of it for a speciall acquitance If the Lord Jesus did seale his blood upon thy heart thy doubtings would cease But you will say There is Ob. now no hope though wee should grieve though we should repent though wee should sue for pardoning mercy there is now no hope for these are sins after conversion and they are great ones too and besides we find no particular promise to ease our souls upon Let me answer this doubt Sol. fully for it is a folded one there are many in it Consider therefore 1. The promise of pardon Three things The pardoning promise
is exclusive in respect of sinners but inclusive in respect of penitents not all sinners but all repenting sinners shall be pardoned is indefinite to repentance and I beseech you mark this point God doth not say I will pardon sins simply but if men repent and forsake sins they shall have mercy So againe in promising pardon to Repentance he doth not promise it respectively and conditionally but absolutely and fully What is that That is God doth not say If you repent of such or such sinnes then you shall have pardon but hee saith simply and absolutely If you repent So that let the sins be never so great never so many yet if they be sinnes of which thou now truely repentest they are assuredly pardoned Esa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake Esa 55. 7. his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him returne unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Here you see a promise of abundant pardon to be made unto the penitent though he hath had thoughts though he hath had wayes yet if he forsakes them the Lord will pardon and shew mercy Againe because that pardon is promised to actuall repentance indefinitely therefore let the sinner be what he will let him be a person who was not converted before or let him be a person already converted yet if he begins true repentance or the other renews his true repentance they shall be pardoned And the reason is because it is not sinne simply in such an estate which God pardons but it is sinne repented of which God doth promise to pardon And therefore if an evill man whose life hath been a course of sins repents and leaves his sins he shall have mercy Or if a good man fall accidentally into sin upon his repentance he may confidently plead out Gods promises of pardon for he shall have mercy upon his repentance as you may see Prov. 28. 14. He that forsakes his sinnes shall find mercy Ezek. Pro. 28. 14 18. 32. Turne your selves and Eze. 18. 32 live See ver 21 22. If the wicked will turne from all his sinnes ver 21 22. they shall not be mentioned unto him Whence we may infer that if God will forgive his enemies he will then upon the same repentance forgive his children If a King will pardon a returning Traitor wil he not Simile receive then a returning son It was a pious speech of S. Chrysostome Si Deus promittat gratiam nobis offendentibus quid faciet nobis poenitentibus If he promiseth grace unto us when we are sinning what then will he confer on us if we be repenting 2. Christ is of great vertue stil and as able to put away the sins after conversion as well as before therefore is he called the same yesterday to day and Heb. 13. 8. for ever And the Apostle reasons it in the Romans If when Rom. 5. 10 we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son how much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life We must think of the pacification by Christ of the atonement of the propitiation of the satisfaction not as confined to any one sinne or to any one estate but in respect of its sufficiency reaching over both estates and all the sins in both What is that That is the death of the Lord JESUS was not onely to reach the sins thou didst commit in thy unconverted estate and the rest afterward in thy converted estate thou art to satisfie for by thine owne power some other way What is this but that Popish leaven that self-justification those humane satisfactions What is this but to divide our salvation twixt Christ and our selves What is this but to restraine either the sufficiencie or the efficacie of his death No Christ is unto us in respect of sins before and sins after conversion as the Lord was to the Israelites a pillar of a cloud and a pillar of fire Jesus Christ is a cloud in the Christ a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire day in the time of conversion to cover our sins upon our repentance and a pillar of fire by night for the times of former darknesse upon our repentance to consume away our sins c. The difference of our estates doth no way adde or diminish to the strength and efficacie of his death His bloud can cry as loud now as heretofore and is not lesse effectuall to get pardon for our falls in the way then for our sinnings when we were not in the way as is evident in the sins of Paul before his conversion and in sins of David and Peter after their conversion for Christ is our continuall Mediator and everliving Intercessor But you will reply These Ob. sins cut off all our interest in Christ and all relations and therefore no hope now I answer though the comfortable Sol. No sinne that thou cāst grieve for cuts off our communion interest interest be cut off untill the time of sound repentance yet the radicall interest is not As the leprous person was debarred the use of his house untill he was cleansed yet he was not debarred the title and right of his house and therefore thou mayest upon thy repentance sue unto the Lord by the bloud of thy Saviour the pardon of these sinnes 3. The Lord is mercifull still unto repentants You shall read in Psal 136. that his Psal 136. mercy is set downe 26 times with the adjunct of everlastingnesse His mercy endureth for ever And Psal 86. 5. Thou Psal 86. 5. Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee So ver 13. Great is thy mercy towards me And ver 15. Thou O Lord art a God full of compassion and gracious long-suffering and plenteous in mercy and truth So Micah 7. 18. Who is a God Mica 7. 18 like unto thee that pardoneth iniquitie and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage He retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy 19. He will turne againe he will have compassion on us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea Mercy is not strange unto God it is his nature it is his delight and repentance will not be hid from his eyes if it be not hid from our hearts He calls us to repent and causeth us to repent that he might shew us his mercy and everlastingnesse of his mercy 6. A sixt spring of doubtings was indisposition unto or about spirituall duties Whence we feare the truth of grace which is active and lively and doubt our acceptance with God by reason of our dulnesse and deadnesse For the curing of this consider 1. That dulnesse in holy duties is possibly incident to men truly sanctified Beloved there is a great difference betwixt a dead heart
your eyes Remember still that a man who will shut his eye shall hardly find Now nothing can see Gods favour but the eye of faith for in Christ Jesus onely we see and discerne him our gracious God and Father Therefore keep open that eye The direct workings of faith can alwayes see God and the reflexive will at length see God to be my God When thou commest unto him thus Lord I doe need I doe prize I doe desire thy favour and countenance and thou hast promised it but thou wilt not keep thy promise thou wilt never shew the light of thy countenance to my soul more now though wee seek much no marvaile we find not the heavens to open You must Simile use the key as well as the hands if you will come in and see the roomes Our hands of Prayer must use the key of Faith if we would open the countenance of God towards us for faith is that which gives us our sights of God and Christ 2. Judge not of the issue by what thou feelest but by what God promiseth And in case therefore that God doth not shew thee his ancient love presently or easily yet knock againe and provoke thy heart to out-beleeve all reasonings offeare and corruption As David Psal 42. 11. Why art thou cast downe O my soule and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the help of my countenance and my God O my God saith he in ver 6. of that Psalme my soule is cast downe within me no question but for the absence of Gods favour ver 7. My rocke Why hast thou forgotten meâ—â— therefore saith he will I remember thee Remember him O David What incouragements so to doe Thy Rock seemeth to forget thee and all his waves and billowes are gone over thee thou art in a tossed and forgotten condition and yet thou sayest I will remember thee Now see ver 8. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindnesse in the day time and in the night his song shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my life q. d. It is true these afflictions and sorrows are upon me and God seems to forget me for present yet I will remember him I know he thinks on me he hath loving kindnesse and he will command it he can shew it when he pleaseth I shall assuredly have it perhaps in the day time perhaps in the night time and therefore day and night will I seek him for his loving kindnesse I will remember him But how may one support Ob. himselfe in the interims of this suspension of divine favour How to support our selves in the interim Can one be good who is thus Or will God doe good or doth hee thinke any good of such a one I answer you may support Sol. your selves thus 1. By remembring the dayes of old Psa 77. 7. Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more 9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious This is mine infirmity q. d. For me thus to conclnde that God will not be favourable and gracious unto me because I feele him not so this is my weaknesse and sinfull error But how then will you support your selfe See ver 10. I will remember the yeeres of the right hand of the most High 11. I will I had his favour once and am in it still and shall have it againe remember thy wonders of old And assuredly the remembrance of what God hath done is able to support us with a confident expectation of what God will yet doe for us If we remember the dayes of old the method of Gods former proceedings and behaviours towards us we shall acknowledge and so comfort our selves that when he withdrew it was an withdrawment either of necessity or expediency and his loving countenance hath risen again without a cloud after a night of sorrow after a day of seeking For the suspensions of his favour are temporary though his truths be eternall I will come againe saith Christ And It was but a little said the Church Cant. 3. 4. that I passed from them but I found him whom my soule loveth 2. Thou art in favour though thou feelest none And though thy comfort be in the feeling of it yet thy happiness is in the being of it Thou art saved because God loves not because thou perceivest that love 2 Tim. 2. 19. The foundation of God standeth sure the Lord knoweth who are his He knoweth them in respect of the freenesse of his election and in respect of the immobility of his affection He knowes them still but they know not him still Is Ephraim my deare sonne Jer. 31. 20. q. d. He is so but he thinks I think not so Sometimes the walking child holds the parent and sometimes the parent holds the child there is safety in both respects for whiles either I hold or am held I am safe So is it with us and God sometimes we lay hold on him by faith sometimes nay all times he layes hold on us by his love our salvation is in this that we are Gods and God is ours that he hath our hearts and we his love though alwayes we see it not 3. Thou shalt have favour though now it be drawn up He will behold thy upright heart and thou shalt see his face with joy Esay 54. 8. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer Therefore the Church elegantly Micah 7. 8. Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall arise when I sit in darknesse the Lord shall be a light unto me 9. He will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousnesse Remember this one thing Upright and beleeving persons have alwayes a favourable God though they have not alwayes the sense of Gods favour yea though Satan doe testifie the contrary which is the next spring of doubtings and comes in now fitly to be handled 12. A twelfth spring of doubtings was the crediting of Satans testimony about our spirituall condition and interests in God and Christ to which if any distressed Christian doth hearken and attend he shal never be freed from inquietations and rowlings of mind because Satans testimony is ever directly or obliquely against the truth and comfort of our spirituall estate For the remedy and cure of which spring be pleased seriously to consider of these subsequent conclusions 1. The finall tryall of our eternall estate doth immediately and solely appertaine to the Court of heaven Indeed the disquisitive part belongs to A twofold tryall of a mans estate us but the decisive part belongs to God We ought to search and prove our selves but no man hath immediate power to decide his estate by acquitting or condemning himselfe This must be done by the voice of God in his revealed Word which commands and
lest And that we might bestow our tears not our tongues on others sinning he should be over-exalted so to many Christians the Lord doth returne unto them the sensible sting of some notable guilt to abase their hearts to put them in mind of themselves For this reduction of former gilt it gives up unto us our base and treacherous natures and the births of our owne hearts Ah! faith such a person this heart this nature of mine what was it what is it if the Lord leaves it See here the grapes the sowre grapes of this wild-vine little reason have I to be so highly conceited of my self as long as I perceive such loath some accounts and issues from my selfe And veriâ—y it makes us oft-times to despise our selves to abhorre our selves in dust and ashes And this is one great Our present graces make us good and the sense of former sins keeps us humble end and use which the Lord makes of former sins To keep the heart in a very humble frame We must have something or other still put unto us of our owne which will let us see how foolish we are by nature that is Davids phrase and how brutish we were that is Solomons phrase 3. To make us more carefull For the sharp remembrance of sinne doth in a godly heart work stronger detestation and stronger watchfulnesse God doth make their Remembring the gall the wormwood Lam. 3. new considerations to be our present preventiâ—â—s Future commissions of sinâ—â—e are many times prevented by new impressions of former sins What should I sinne thus again saith the humble heart have I not reason to crush these births to crucifie that bitter root to pray against it to watch against it to resist it to deny it which hath beene and is now a sword in my conscience But now consider that there is a double carefulnesse wrought by the new rising of sinne 1. One respects the guilt of it and here our care is to get our acquitance renewed and inlarged O how doth the Lord by these risings of sin soone cause the soule to rise up in suing out his grace and favour It causeth many a teare many a prayer many a wrestling with God many pressings upon the promises many an earnest beseeching to have our pardon and discharge more fully sealed unto our consciences by the bloud of Jesus Christ and testimony of the Spirit 2. Another respects the sins themselves in their corrupt qualities and inclinations and motions and this is a greater study against them firmer resolutions strengthning of covenants confirmations of grace of circumspection of detestation of resistance of any thing or way by which the powers of sin may be more subdued and cast downe 4. To make us more thankfull Perhaps the Lord hath pardoned those sins which rise anew in thy heart they doe not alwayes rise because God hath not discharged their guilt but because thou hast not discharged thy new debt they arise as a debt for the discharge of a debt as we use to put men in mind of their former miseries not that thereby they are made miserable but because thereby they should be made thankfull Beloved to have former sins discharged it is mercy I say mercy yea and a rich mercy greater then to give a condemned person life or to give an imprisoned person liberty far greater No such mercy as that which blots out our sins which saves a soule from hell and gives it pardon and life Now great mercies should be answered with great thankfulnesse Thou didst in the sense and sting of thy guilt go with an heavy heart with bitter sighes with deep oppressions O that I had mercy O this burden O this wound O this sinne Yea and with deep protestations If the Lord will but pardon it If he will shew me mercy If he would receive me graciously he should have the calves of my lips I would love him indeed I would serve him I would praise and thank him I would speak good of his name I would say Who is a God like him that forgiveth iniquities transgressions and sins and passeth by the sins of his people Well the Lord hath shewed himselfe like himselfe a God very gracious and mercifull but we perhaps have shewed our selves like our selves in distresses earnest and full of promises but in our exemptions flat and full of forgetfulnesse Now the Lord doth exceedingly dislike this vanity and doubting of heart he loves that mercy should be still acknowledged to be mercy he would have us to look back as well as to look up and to give him thanks for that mercy for which not long since wee would have given all the world and our soules too And therefore doth he cast unto us our accounts he lets us thereby see what they were and what he hath done that wee may confesse our error for not answering great mercy with great thankfulnesse But perhaps you will inquire Ob. What if we our selves for our part be the cause of reviving of former guilt and sting of former sins I answer If it be by way of Sol. humiliation to seek the pardon and to make confession to the God of mercy and to get victory over them this should no way discourage us for this is no more hurt or prejudice to the soule then the after laying open of the wound to the Chirurgion to dresse and cure it is prejudiciall to the safety and welfare of the body But if it be by way of commission either by relapsing into the same sins or multiplying of sinne in another kinde both which will dig up again our buried and fore-past guilts then I know no way of peace and safety no way to allay these renewed accusations and stings but by renewed sorrow and repentance And verily what I delivered unto you heretofore about recovery from relapsing that is the course presently to be taken here O let us haste in before the Lord with hearts trickling down with tears of bloud for old and present wounds the very abundance of sorrow the bitternesse of griefe the art of self-affliction I cannot say that sorrow of sorrow that hatred of hatred that indignation of indignation that revenge of revenge that repentance of repentance which are here necessarily required and that too with longest continuance Doe what thou wilt shuffle off cut to thy selfe a peace thou shalt never have it thy sinnes shall ever and anon gall and vexe and wound thee untill thou hast renewed thy bitternesse of most humbled sorrow for renewing thy filthinesse and basenesse of thy audacious sinning But then suppose that Satan Ob. through his malicious art doth revive our former guilt by his accusations for our greater interruption and disquietment what is now to be done I will shew you here briefly Sol. two things 1. One is how you may know that the reviving of former guilt be from Satan or no. 2. Another is what is then to be done by us 1. You may know that
How to know whether Satan revives former sins your sins are revived by Satan from two effects 1. One is from the desperate issues of their reviving you may know whether a man be a friend or a malicious enemy who doth revive the errors and failings amongst men a friend hee revives them that you may be bettered either to reforme if the thing be evill or to be circumspect whether the thing be true or false but the malicious enemy he revives them onely to make you odious and loathsome Now Satans reviving of former sins is ever odious it is of evill for evill his end is desperate What is that That is that we might give up all possible interests in mercy all hope of pardon and acceptance Whence it is where he revives sins former sins hee bends the heart to some present mischiefe to renounce all hope of mercy and to selfe-murder and such desperate issues both which are against the ends of God and the desires of an holy heart which upon their reviving of sinne doe ever propose mercy and betterment unto the soule 2. Another is from the filthy issues which is this Hee revives the sting of sinne that he may make us more bold and mad in sinning He revives sin unto sin there is no hope of mercy of recovery therefore as good to goe on as not Whence he inclines the heart to a leaping into the water to a wallowing in the mire to a greedinesse in the course of sinning which hee doth the more easily win from the evill hearts of evill men by those temporary allayments and cessations of stinging guilt which they observe in themselves by their furiousnesse constant and hardning revolutions or exercise of the same sins So that if you whose hearts are tender have been humbled for former sins and are so upright as still to hate them if former gâ—â—ilts be revived with an inclination either to give up all mercy or to give over your selves now with licentiousnesse to the same or other sins here is Satan in this Satan now revives thy guilt and now another course is to be taken 2. The course then is this and I beseech you mark it 1. Strengthen thy heart with more detestations of the sins The more he revives the guilty accusation the more doe thou revive thy upright detestations And as he poures out malice to disturb thy conscience so doe thou poure out revenge to sub due the grounds of it And if he vexeth thee doe thou goe and vexe thy sinnes 2. Beleeve not a malicious Thy case is not wicked because a wicked devill saith so accuser Satan doth oft times serve a Writ in the Kings name without the Kings seale he forgives where God doth not and he binds where God hath released And this know It is God that justifieth who then shall condemne If the King himselfe hath pardoned thee how unjust is it for the under-officer to arrest and challenge 3. But in case of frequent inquietations when Satan will not be answered but still chargeth now make thine appeale The Christian must appeale from him to God and if he charge thee in the Court of Conscience remove it wisely to the higher court of heaven let God once more have the hearing and the deciding And now Satan what hast thou to say unto me Thou hast sinned heretofore saith Satan and thy Judge doth know the truth of this indictment I have Satan I confesse it and my God doth know the truth of my sorrow and repentance Lord dost thou not know my teares my returnings my judgings of my self my feeling of mercy grace Lord thou hast knowne it and hast knowne my soule with thy pardoning and accepting mercy 4. Rest the soule and fasten it unto the bloud of Christ which will alwayes cry downe the testimonies and clamours of guilt Nothing but that wil satisfie God and vanquish Satan and then by faith not onely lay hand on mercy but hold out the stability of mercy The Kings pardon will serve twenty years hence in case of suit Satan may often trouble question but Gods accepting of thee into mercy will I am sure it may quiet and uphold thee 14. The last spring of doubtings was silence in the conscience long silence there For the closing of this spring and with it this subject of doubtings observe these particulars in a word 1. The speech of conscience what that is 2. The speechlesnesse of conscience what and how 3. To make conscience speak againe what required 4. To support our selves in the times of its silence what can and may 1. The speech of conscience The speech of conscience what This is no more then its testimony for us or against us for conscience is intimate with our secret frames and intentions and motives and actions By its naturall light it can tell much by implanted light more by renewed and sanctified light most of all Now the speech of conscience for us is nothing else but an approbation of our estate answerable to the Word acquiting us against all feares and objections that we are the sons of God that we are truly changed that we sincerely love him beleeve in Christ and walk before him for really the voice of Conscience is but the eccho of the voice of the Word and saith that unto us touching our particular what the Word delivers in the generall It s voice is but the Assumption and the voice of the Word is but the Proposition The Word saith that should be and Conscience saith here it is The Word requires such and such things in a man to be saved and who is in favour with God and Conscience brings them out and answers for the person 2. The speechlesnesse or silence The speechlesnesse of conscience what it is of conscience is the suspension of its determining and acquiting acts touching our estate in generall or touching some particular doubts Sometimes conscience calls upon us and sometimes we call upon conscience In matters of direction to practise or forbearance we usually heare a reall and inward word Do it not or Thou mayst do it In after doubts we call upon conscience for its testimony In the uprightnesse of my heart did I it and my conscience doth beare me witnesse Now of all the silences of conscience that is heaviest which befalls us in our spirituall combats and tryals wherein our gracious condition is questioned but cannot be issued because conscience holds up and doth not testifie for us by any sensible approbation and acquitance which is caused diversly 1. Sometimes through particular Silence in conscience diversly caused mis-behaviours against the directing voice of conscience these hold in the acquiting voice of conscience for conscience will not speak for us if we presume to sinne against it 2. Sometimes through disregard to the voice of God in the Ministery for Conscience takes not that well which the Word takes ill and therefore God doth usually make us know our
heart therefore it is that the Lord heares me not Psalm Psal 66. 18 66. 18. Beloved you who deale with observation and experience can acknowledge 1. That there are spaces Observe 3. things twixt our prayers and Gods answers God hearkens what David speaks and David must hearken what God will speak Prayer is our angle our feed our dove our messenger it doth not alwayes take at first it doth not returne us alwayes a present harvest it comes in sooner and sometimes later it waits the time of the master 2. God is wise in causing these spaces hee hath ends singular ends both for his owne glory and for the good of our Graces But thirdly corruption takes occasion hereby and Satan vents his envious malice hereupon As the back-biters and Simile slanderers and contentious spirits who love to set variance twixt faithfull friends let the least occasion happen a wry look a misplaced word a mis-intended neglect a forbearing of present dispatch in some desired service let these fall out presently the back-biter envious malicious contentious spirit catcheth Loe you see his love his backwardnesse his sleighting of you c. Thus doe our corrupt hearts and Satan Looke you now you see how needlesse how Hence Davids Why is the Lord so far from hearing c. Is his mercy clean gone c. fruitlesse all the care and service of God is Alas he thinks not on you he regards not your prayers If he had loved you if he intended to do you good could this be would he have held up after so many prayers so many tears so many importunities so many pressings by his mercies by his Christ by his promises No no Thou art not in favour with God his mercies his promises belong not to thee c. Thus they 8. An eighth spring may The eighth cause of doubtings be imbecillity of judgement about the essentials of salvation And assuredly here lies the great spring of doubtings An erroneous mind is the forge which hammers all our suspitions it is the wombe which beares and breeds all our feares If it doth not find yet it makes all our knots for us What one speaks of a plain place of Scripture This verse said he had been easie had not Commentators made it so knotty That we say of a Christians condition It is gracious happy cleare sure did not erroneous judgements disturbe and vexe and unsettle them This is true that a weake judgement and a tender conscience are seldome without feare and doubting You see it in the Romans about practicall matters whereupon the Apostle presseth the stronger not to receive the weak to doubtfull Rom. 14. 1 22. disputations and if they had a particular faith to keepe it unto themselves knowing well how weak judgements like weak plants are easily stirred and shaken You may see it also in the Ephesians about doctrinall matters for Paul giving an Item unto them to overthrow their childishnesse Eph. 4. 14. he Eph. 4. 14. doth paraphrase it to be such an estate wherein men are tossed to and fro and carried Two things incident to this about with every wind c. Two things are incident unto shallow judgements by vertue of which they are objected with ease unto doubtings 1. One is They have not been conversant in the compasse of Truths there be some Truths which yet they know not they have not all their holds and strength 2. New Doctrines contrary to old Truths are not so easily over-mastered by their understandings A man must have good eyes to find out cunning glosses but doe either win misbelief or else disturb their true beliefe You shall scarce heare any new things started but withall we heare of many personsstartled as if their faith had hitherto been in vaine for tender consciences are apt to beleeve the most and therefore sometimes doe beleeve those points which are false Shall I give you instances Instances amongst our selves 1. One is an equality of humiliation before conversion as if no man were truely converted who hath not equalled the greatest penitent in the highest degrees of contrition and terror And hence it is that many distressed bowed broken soules doe exceedingly labour to grinde themselves and to fall into the flames of horrible fears thereby to assure themselves of a good estate Whereas 1. All Christians are not equall in their preparations 2. No man can judge his estate at all simply by legall humiliation 2. A full assurance at first or else no faith As if Jacobs ladder had no degrees and the Simile Sun at his first peeping were in the height of heaven Or that a Scholar must be placed in the upper forme as soone as he enters the Schoole Such inconsiderate deliveries as these they trouble the faith of many as the Apostle speaks of those in 2 Tim. 2. 18. If faith cannot be without full assurance then I am no Beleever saith David for I had my faintings Nor I saith Peter for Christ himselfe tels you I had my doubtings It is a most vaine and dangerous way for any Divine or ordinary Christian to impose Rules and to deliver a thing as a dogmaticall and common truth which he or he have in a speciall way onely observed in themselves The Spirit of God bestows upon all the Elect of God the same substantiall frame of grace but the making up and the making out of these is different As No man must say he hath Simile no soule because he feels not those particular workings of reason and desire which another doth So No man must conclude another to be out of the estate of Grace if haply there be not a plenary answerablenesse in them both for every method and measure of working grace Therefore let me caveat a An Item to the stronger Christians little here to you who are growne Christians Remember that there are some who are weak yet true members of the same body and doe not you indiscreetly insist upon your onely personall experiences those only in some particulars in all companies because you have perhaps risen high therefore none are right who are below you Consult the Scriptures and deliver us what it directs and wherein it supports You know not yet the aptnesses in tender consciences to throw downe themselves and to catch at matters and arguments of trouble Thou sendest perhaps from thy company a poore a laden and troubled heart with a bitter and amazed opinion that it hath now no faith which yet came unto thee with some weak and strong desires of firmer faith Weak judgements as I said before cannot bear all things but like some mens stomacks are presently oppressed with meats unusuall And when we have mistaken an error for truth it may prove to the soule as the mistaking of poison for medicine a businesse of troublesome and dangerous consequence 9. Ignorance of the Doctrine A ninth cause of doubtings of Justification This is another cause of
be heires of the Promises The good of them shall be setled upon us See also Esay 25. 9. and Esay 49. 23. None shall be ashamed Esa 49. 23 who wait on me From all which we infer If God hath made sure Promises If hee hath hitherto performed those Promises unto such as wait upon him Then if we wait we shall surely speed c. 2. The things you desire are great and worth the waiting You would thinke him Simile a strange man who would not wait the sealing of the pardon which the King hath promised him It is a wonderfull thing that when God promiseth us pardon of sinnes wee cannot have patience to seek and wait the sealing of it Yet pardon of sinnes is such a thing as our very life lies in it So againe Is not grace a singular thing Is not mortifying of sin an excellent thing And is it much that the Lord puts us to more frequent seekings to iterated prayers and duties for those gifts and grants which are so high in their nature so admirable in their use so saving in their end can you be better imployed 3. The answers will sweeten and easily recompence all the times and labours of seeking When the man-child is borne all the labour in travail is forgotten the joy of it drownes the sense of that Let As the Wisemen when they saw the star rejoyced God but lift up the light of his countenance on thee it will answer and quit to all the prayers that ever thou madest in thy life I found him whom Cant. 3. 4. And David doth forget the aking of his bones c. when God did answer him my soule loveth I held him c. 4. Doubled services have usually doubled mercies for when God prepares the heart he will incline the eare and when he intends a great mercy he first enlargeth the heart to a greatnesse of desire and seeking Every true seeking of God opens the heart wider and secretly addes to the stock The more prayers we have put Prayers are our money at use up to use in the hands of God the larger will the returne of them prove When we have been long suiters God doth ordinarily at length dismisse us with more then what wee aske So that he will answer us not onely for our prayers but also for our time 4. We shall have the best things in the fittest times therefore we should not accufe our services as lost for God will answer them but then it shall be in the best things at the best times O will you say Is it not Ob. more then time that I had more grace and sin more subdued I answer Perhaps not God Sol. doth know that thou hast a proud temper and thou growest big and art apt to swell upon enlargements Thou art apt to despise others and to make glorious conceits of thy selfe and therefore he doth answer thee not by victory but by combat That is he doth not presently subdue thy sinne that it shall not trouble thee but lets it alone that it shall exercise thee thou shalt find matter to keep thee low and humble when still thou feelest such remnants and workings of corruption To the resistance of which God doth yet enable and after thy heart growes more emptied thou shalt have victory Againe though thou prayest against thy sins yet thou dost venture upon the provocations and occasions of sinne and therefore the Lord may justly hold up because thou holdst not in Now the Lord by his silence will teach thee in these times forbearance on thy part as well as forbearance on his part and then upon thy next prayers accompanied with this watchfulnesse and avoidance of occasions he will let fall more strength and power to mortifie thy sinfull dispositions Wherefore let us not faint in case of suspensions for God doth suspend his grants to the times when thou art fitted to receive them and when it is fit for him to open them Is it sin that thou wouldst have subdued Doe thou seek his subduing power and withall decline inviting occasions either from thy selfe or others and then God will heare thee Now thou art fitted and now is it fit for God to help thee but if thou wilt pray against the disposition and runne still upon the occasion God will not answer thee Is it grace and eavennesse in duty which thou wouldest have Then thou must use former grace and stick close with humblenesse and diligence and reverence to the meanes and now God will supply all thy wants Untill thou hast a more humble and doing heart thou art not fitted for more grace God giveth more grace to the humble saith James James 4. I say he will give thee more grace Thou shalt have enough for thy condition and enough for thy salvation although thou hast not such an equall measure with others whom God intends for more publique use and service then he doth thee 5. Gods forbearings should not occasion cessation but earnestnesse He is not silent that we thereby should become speechlesse but that our desires should grow more fervent You know that the skilfull Simile Angler doth not draw back his bait that the fish should not bite but that by this meanes he should the more greedily leap after the bait And the tender mother steps aside not that she would not have the child seek her but that it may even dote after her So doth God many times draw back and step aside and as the Prophet Jeremie speaks Jer. 11. 8. He becomes as a stranger and as a way-faring man who turneth aside c. And as David speaketh He is as one that sleeps Why What Is it that hee He knowes our thoughts long before doth not know us No. Is it that he doth not hear us No. Is it that he will not speed us No. His eare is open and before they call I will answer Esa Why then Surely because 1. He delights in this musick he smels a sweet odour and savour in all our humble sacrifices he delights in the broken Whiles they are speaking I will answer Loc. cit Ro. 15. 30. Hos 12. 3 4 heart 2. He loves that we should strive with him for his grants that is the phrase Rom. 15. 30 and wrastle with him as Jacob and so prevaile upon him And that we should give him no rest Esay 62. 7. untill he hath satisfied Esa 62. 7. our soules with mercy and established them with his grace 3. He would inhance the goodnesse of the things desired and make us to weare the answers with more thankfulnesse to himselfe with more comfort to our selves and with more benefit to others 8. An eighth cause of doubtings was weaknesse of judgmēt about the essentials of salvation which necessarily doth cause doubtings both in respect of those suspicions and errors mistakings to which it is subject as also in respect of that scrupulosity which ever adheres to the conscience
his old age that by faith he gave Rom 4. 20 glory to God But how came he so to doe The Text saith that He considered not his owne body now dead when he was about an hundred yeares old nor the ver 19. deadnesse of Sarahs wombe but he considered him who had promised and was perswaded that what he had promised hee ver 21. was able also to performe Why This is the right course to elicite or draw out our beleeving We must not consider our selves but we must consider him who promiseth Our reasons of beleeving must be found in him alone on whom we are to beleeve Therefore I beseech you to remember that the Promises of God are not onely objects of faith but they are also grounds of beleeving They doe not onely containe excellent good for us but likewise the motives to beleeve that good Besides the goodnesse in them which respectively answers our conditions and the presenting of that goodnesse unto us by way of gift there is all reason conjoyned with these to affect our hearts to lay hold on them namely 1. A graciousnesse that the Lord will freely and for his owne sake doe us all that good 2. A fidelity that the Lord who hath graciously promised will also faithfully performe And 3. sufficiencie of power in God to make good unto us whatsoever word of goodnesse is gone out of his lips So that from all these a Christian against all his doubtings may yet see ground to beleeve the Promises of God because 1. The Promises are the Declarations of God for good unto us 2. They are willing Declarations arising onely from the good will of our God 3. He dispenseth the good in them to sinners freely without any worthinesse or desert on their parts 4. There is not any good promised which God is not willing or able to make good Lastly let any person beleeve on them and he shall confesse that faithfull is that God who promised and that that God who hath promised cannot lye But now on the contrary If you look for grounds of beleeving in and from your selves it cannot be that ever your hearts should be free from doubtings If either you make your owne worthinesse the cause of beleeving you shall never come to beleeve This were not to receive good from God but to buy and purchase it and is absolutely against the nature of free promises as also against the disposition of true faith which empties us of our selves and seeth the cause of all our good to be only in him who is All-goodnesse Or if you think that you must first finde the good in your selves which ye are to fetch from the Promises you cannot then beleeve you must unavoidably doubt still because it is impossible for a sinner or a needy Christian ever to draw his helps out of himselfe or to prevent the promises of God As he cannot deserve any good from God promising so he cannot bring any good to Gods promises Ho Esa 55. 1. every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters saith the Prophet and he that hath no money Come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without money and without price If thou be a thirsty person here is all provision freely for thee 4. Another thing which I would commend also to doubting Christians in this case shall be this Take some solid paines to cleare your entrance into Covenant with God thereby you shall cleare your interest in all particular promises upon your occasions There is a gracious Covenant Jer. 31. 33 32. 38 Eze. 36. 28 Hos 2. 23. Heb. 8. 10. spoken of in the Scripture twixt God and his people He makes us to be his people and we take him to be our God And when that Covenant is passed twixt God and a person that there is a mutuall acceptation then the Lord estates this person into all the particular promises As when the woman and man enter into the covenant of mariage now all is setled on her and she hath title sufficient So when the Lord God and a sinner are married to each other when they are entred into a Covenant Thou art my God and none else my heart is thine my life shall be thine c. The Lord saith unto such a one And I am thine all my mercy is thine my Christ is thine my Promises thine If thou needest any good for soul or body all good is thine I assure thee O Christian if If this door were unlocked all the roomes would easily be seene this were once out of doubt that thou and God were entred into Covenant thou wouldst not so much doubt thy title or question thy right to apply any particular promise to any condition of exigence wherein thou lyest All are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. 5. Lastly consider well whether there be nothing in a Christ which may not be able to over-argue thy disputes against thy applying of the Promises I remember that Luther in his Commentary on Genesis prescribes unto tempted persons one very compendious way to withstand all temptations whatsoever Let Satan Luthers speech come any way or the world any way or sinne move any way doe thou answer all with this onely Christianus sum I am a Christian I may not yeeld to any sin for I am a Christian And surely me thinks this also might be a compendious way to resolve the doubtings of a Christian Christum habeo I have a Christ O Christian if thou didst look more on thy Christ thou mightst look more on the Promises When wilt thou remember No looking on the Promises without a Christ that as there is no comfortable looking on God without a Christ so there will be no confident looking on the Promises of God without a Christ Christ Jesus is thy Jacobs ladder thy prayers get up by him and Gods Promises come down by him All the promises of God are Yea and Amen in him 2 Cor. 〈◊〉 20. There was a Book in the Revelation which none of the Elders and Worthies could open but yet the Lambe could open it The Promises are a precious Book every leafe drops myrrhe and mercy yet the weak Christian cannot open it nay he is afraid to open it and to reade his portion there Neverthelesse thy Christ can open the Promises for thee and by thy Christ as thou mayst find a way for heaven hereafter so mayst thou espie a way for thy comfort now And why may Christ reply to the doubting Christian art thou afraid to beleeve to beleeve my Fathers word and thy Fathers word Did he ever faile any who trusted on him Is hee not willing to give who was willing to promise Should he lose of his glory if thou receivedst of his grace Or shouldst thou lose of thy comfort if thou shouldst beleeve in his promise Dost thou not care for his good Why then art thou troubled Or in good earnest
be disclosed and Gods righteous judgement shall be evident to the hearts of all the world Whence it is that in this day of meeting they shall cry unto the mountaines to fall on them and the rocks to hide them but in vaine from the wrath of him who sits upon the throne 2. There are severall causes of the rising of sin Some are Divers causes of sins rising afresh on Gods part some on our part some on Satans 1. For Gods part God doth many times cause our former sins to rise by the power of his mighty spirit in the ministery of his Word For whereas the sinner would hush his fears and griefs and conscience asleep yet the Lord will not have it so He doth rub the sore and gall the conscience makes it sensible of the guilt and wounds Hee doth pierce by the two-edged sword of his Word even to the dividing asunder of soule and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and discernes the very thoughts and intents of the heart He meets the person oft times many years after the commission of the sinnes and most expresly revives and remembers them in all the acting circumstances which the sinning person either had or would have buried in silence and forgetfulnesse 2. For our part Thus there is double cause of new rising of old sins One whereof is good and the other is bad 1. A new commission of the old sins which brings back upon us the sting of the old guilt for relapses into the disease occasion a relapse of the burden and ache Cut thy finger againe and it will smart againe fall into thy ague againe it will make thee shake againe Relapses have ever this judgement with them that they make a fresh wound and the old also to bleed againe You know in some Wells there are two buckets put downe the one and you bring up the other so the falling into the same sin againe brings up the old burden againe Though we may not revive sinne to practise it yet we may to mourn for it 2. Renewed humiliations for then we doe voluntarily look back upon our former accounts that thereby we may more humbly sue out a totall discharge Though wee may sin the sin over no more yet we may weep it over and over and though the acting of it may be no more yet the bewailing of it should last us ever 3. On Satans part who like an envious and malicious wretch never gives over to throw unto us our errors and failings though corrected with truest reformation So Satan who is the great cause and incentive to sin will not cease after our truest repentance to vexe and sad and if he could to despaire our hearts with the fresh memory of former and forsaken sins so that we seldome or never lay hand on a blessed promise or gaine our selves into the comfortable favour of God or delight our selves in the sweet peace of conscience but he falls in and checks and troubles us with the representations of former sins and perchance makes us let goe our gracious hold with the feares and suspicions and chargements of former guilts 3. Now according to the variety of the causes fetching up upon us our former guilts must we deliver unto you severall helps and remedies Consider therefore on Gods The ends of reviving of sin part there are severall ends in respect of severall persons why he brings on the sinnes againe 1. To make the ground-work more deep and sure We make our tents too short for our wounds Wee sinne much and defile our selves much and we think that a little washing will serve the turne O! this businesse of self-tryall of laying the axe to the root of the tree of diving into the secrets of sin of applying the corrasives unto the core heart of our natures this goes against us wee are quickly weary of it Indeed some trouble and some bitternesse we grant to be convenient but to be still accusing our selves before God still to be lashing and wounding our hearts for wounding of God Ah this this goes against us You shall see people sometimes very sensible of their diseased bodies O now some physick were good they find such aches such distempers surely some physick were good and some they take which makes them excessively sick but then away with it no more physick yet at length the disease comes upon them againe and the Physitian prescribes more physick even that which must goe to the root of the disease which though it makes them more sick yet it procures their safety and better health Beloved God would have men perhaps a longer space to sit upon their sinnes they stint themselves after great sins and make themselves friends with God prefently Now the Lord knowes that this skinning of the sore will spoile all and therefore after a short time he returnes them their sins againe makes Conscience to startle at the guilt againe and deales with us as the skilfull Chirurgion with a man whose leg is broken and ill set he breaks it againe that it may be well set So doth the Lord he breaks our soules againe with the guilt of sins He will make us know that wee must bring him more broken hearts we shall know what it is to sinne against him and shall not make a reall and lasting peace without a sound and solid humiliation And truly this is the great mercy of his wisdome to work thus for hereby he makes our foundation low and sure and hereby he prevents subsequent stirs and makes way for our surer and more comfortable apprehensions and applications of his love in Christ You know that a wise Schoolmaster when a boy skips from a hard lesson to that which is more easie he puts him back againe and makes him say it over and over ere he takes it forth Men think to be catching at Christ however they love to lay load on him and throw their vile burdens upon him though perhaps they never yet weighed their vile sinings and dishonourings of God But the Lord will turne them back againe he will take off these pragmaticall presumers and set them to learne their first lesson better He will make them more sensible of their vile hearts and waies and actions they shall not so easily come off from their accursed transgressions the Lord will hold up the comfortable answers of his favours and the sweet tasts of the Lord Jesus Christ and make them againe to sit downe in bitter sorrow for piercing the Lord Christ and shedding his bloud and grieving of his Spirit and all that men might be more humbled and more really fitted for Christ 2. To make us more humble I assure you oft times our very victories make us proud and that very grace which should be a cause to abase us occasionally and accidentally is a means to puffe us we rise too often above our selves beyond measure And therefore as to Paul there was given a sting to abase him
groane under it cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me And surely neither the sense of this nor the resistance of this nor second desires of deliverance from this can be any evill signs of thy condition 5. Lastly in the sense of inward rebellions and workings thy way is not to nourish doubting but thy duty it is to stir up beleeving When Paul felt that agony twixt the law of his members and the law of his minde indeed he was much troubled at it but yet he did not conclude against his condition in grace No but he acquits that Rom. 7. 25. So then with the mind I my self serve the Law of God though with the flesh the law of sinne and sets his faith to worke ver 24. Who shall deliver mee ver 25. I thanke God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Mark his practise This is my condition I feele rebellious lusts yea I feele them sometimes captivating of me what course shall I now take to be delivered of them to vanquish them I conflict with them but I cannot conquer them I cannot conquer them yea but Jesus Christ can conquer them and deliver me from them and to him will I goe by faith Thus must thou doe in the sense of that native rebellion and vile operation of thy flesh Thou must by faith goe unto Christ thou must acknowledge thy vilenesse and thy insufficiency and also his sufficiency Thou must exalt Jesus Christ by faith in his Mediatorship and trust on him that he will by his Almighty Spirit crucifie thy sinfull flesh more and which was one end of his comming into the world destroy those works of sin and Satan 2. Another cause of doubting in a Christian may be the sense of wrath O! saith such a one would you have me to beleeve or imagine you that I can doe so I who feele the very wrath of God in my soule and the terrors of the Almighty wounding me for my transgressions What can or 〈◊〉 I beleeve mercy for me who now feele wrath upon me can I beleeve that God will be mercifull whom I sensibly apprehend to be wrathfull This is a notable case and Sol. needs a wary and circumspect resolution Neverthelesse I shall at least endeavour to ungirt this burden for a troubled soule 1. There are two sorts of persons who in this life may feele the wrath of God First such as are unquestionably wicked of whom some of them feele the wrath of God as the beginning of their everlasting perdition That wrath inflicted on them is but the beginning of a just hell due unto them Thus Judas felt the wrath of God And some of them feele the wrath of God as a meanes for their humiliation and conversion 〈◊〉 they in Acts 2. 37. who were pricked in their hearts and thereupon cryed out What shall we doe felt the wrath of God Secondly such as are unquestionably good of whom some have felt Gods wrath in case of desertion as Heman Ezra Job and others and some in case of notorious corruption or sinning as David whose bones were broken for it and Gods face hid from him for it and his moisture turned into the drought of summer 2. Againe you must distinguish of those effects which appeare in persons under the sense of divine wrath for they are twofold 1. Some feele the wrath of God and are either onely inraged against God with blasphemies or inraging their hearts the more to goe on in sinning against God thinking at least by the pleasure of sinne to drowne the sense of wrath or running into absolute despaire of Gods mercy and therefore never attempting any course of repentance because they give up all hope of mercy Where there is such a sense of wrath as this in all respects and for ever the condition is very fearfull 2. Some feele the wrath of God and are hereupon occasionally induced either to the study and care of an holy reformation of their sinful hearts and wayes or to a particular restauration of themselves from grosse sins into which they are falne and for which now they feele the sore displeasures of an angry Father If thy condition be either of these that thou feelest wrath and that hath driven thee to a search of thy naturall estate and to the discovery of it and to an humbling for it and to all the meanes by which thou mayst be delivered as well and rather from thy sinfulnesse as from Gods wrath or if this wrath felt awakens thy conscience and hath been a meanes to scourge thee out of some particular sinning to thy former and better walkings with God thou mayst now safely beleeve on mercy yea though thou as yet feelest wrath yet mayst thou beleeve mercy And my reason is this because now mercy is thy portion thy condition now is right under many promises of mercy to pardon thee for it is a truly penitentiall condition See Esay 55. 7. Ezek. 18. 21 22 Hos 14. 1 2 4. 3. Though mercy be thy portion yet know thou that the sense of wrath will not off untill thou dost beleeve actually on that mercy It is not mercy in the Promise which alone can remove the sense of wrath but it must be mercy applyed by faith for till faith works in the soule of a man till the poore soule looks on God through the Perspective of faith God appeares not as a mercifull but as a wrath full God to it And therefore thou being in such a condition as I have delivered thou mayst safely venture on mercy though thou feelest wrath the forenamed Saints did so and upon beleeving thou shalt in due time feele the sense of mercy to take off the sense of wrath Thy faith will see a reconciled God and then thou shalt enjoy a pacified conscience 3. A third cause of doubting may be a condemning conscience But saith the trembling Christian My conscience tels me of my sinnings and of wonderfull sinfulnesse within me and God is greater then my conscience who will assuredly condemne me O I may not beleeve This seemes to be a knotty Sol. case Whether a person may beleeve Gods absolving of him though Conscience in him be condemning I will deliver my opinion thus 1. First you must distinguish of a condemning conscience Conscience may either condemne 1. A mans action Or 2. His person 1. A mans actions are condemned by Conscience when Conscience being rightly inlightned and informed by the Word of God pronounceth of them that they are evill and damnable that they are contrary to Gods holinesse and glory and therefore are to be abhorred and crucified and forsaken 2. A mans person is condemned by conscience not onely when conscience findes sins in the person but likewise the person in sins i. not onely such corruptions in the heart but also the heart approving and loving of them and resolved to keep them and goe on in them Now observe me in two Conclusions answerable to these two Propositions 1. If
Conscience condemns thy person I confesse thou hast no reason to beleeve mercy for thy selfe If thy conscience tels thee to the face of God thou art in a foule sinfull course and hast been called upon by the voice of the Word and its voice to come out of it and thou dost not leave it nay art resolved to pursue it and to insist on it now God is greater then thy conscience and will assuredly condemne thee 2. If conscience condemns thy actions onely then thou mayest notwithstanding that condemnation beleeve on mercy My meaning is this Though the conscience by its discerming light represents unto thee much sinfulnesse in thy nature and former course and though it doth condemne these to be vile and most fit to be crucified abhorred and forsaken this condemnation hinders not the right of beleeving Nay no man indeed should beleeve unlesse his conscience doth condemne sin in him not onely shew him his sinnes but assure him that they are evill and unworthy his love nay most worthy of his detestation and mortification 2. Secondly you must distinguish of times when conscience doth condemne a man there are two times of a Christian 1. Some are open and free He is himselfe and besides that he heares both parties as well what is for himselfe as what is against himselfe yea and weighs matters in controversie in the right ballance of Gods Sanctuary not in Satans ballance of cunning suggestions Will conscience condemne thy person at such a time and under such circumstances Nay will not the Word of God acquit thee at such a time against all feares for the substance and reality of a pious condition 2. Some are clouded darkned either with melancholy or afflictions or temptations wherein the Christian seeth his face through a false glasse just as a Title is made by a deceitfull cunning Lawyer not according to truth not all of it but some of it What is past heretofore for action and affection or what hath falne out not in the course of life since a mans conversion but onely in case of surprisall and captivity Now perhaps conscience may condemne thee but this is an illegall sentence it is a corrupted judgement and is reversible God will not judge of thee as Conscience in such a case doth Nay he will repeale it and disanull it 4. A fourth cause of doubtings is a feare lest a man hath sinned that great sin against the holy Ghost And the main inducement to credit this is a sinning against cleare knowledge which is one ingredient in that sinne Now this is my condition saith a troubled soul I have not onely sinned but sinned against light shining in the Ministery and working on my conscience therefore I may rather conclude then question it Mercy belongs not to me To help a conscience thus Sol. inthralled I would wish that such a person would 1. Be informed 2. Be directed 1. The Information which I would commend in this case is fourefold First that the sinne against the holy Ghost is not any sin which a man commits through ignorance Whatsoever the sinne or sinnes have beene whereof the party stands guilty whether against the Law or against the Gospel suppose it be one or many hainous sinnes yet if the person be in a state of blindnesse and ignorance if there is a nescience of the fact if hee knowes not what he doth this ignorance priviledgeth the sinnings thus far that therefore they are not the sin against the holy Ghost Secondly the sin against the holy Ghost is not any sinne against the Gospel which is elicited and acted through a mis-beliefe or mis-perswasion If the sinne be a sleighting of Euangelicall doctrines nay a persecuting of them and of the professors of them yet if these acts of opposition depend totally on error in the judgment on a judgement mis-perswaded i. rather beleeving them not to be truths rather thinking those wayes to be false wayes I say this mis-beliefe preserves such sinnings yet from being sins against the holy 1 Tim. 1. 13. Ghost because the sinne against the holy Ghost supposeth light even to conviction and approbation See Heb. 6. 4. 5. Thirdly the sin against the holy Ghost is not every sinning against knowledge These are not reciprocall propositions every sin against the holy Ghost is against knowledg and every sinne against knowledge is the sin against the holy Ghost The former is true but the latter is not for many a converted man sinneth against knowledge who yet never sinneth the sin against the holy Ghost In two cases a man sinning against knowledge doth not yet sin that sin against the holy Ghost One is the case of a strong and violent temptation Another is the case of a sudden and turbulent passion It is the same with Peters case against his knowledg denying and forswearing his Master If Paul before his conversion had had Peters knowledge he had sinned this sin against the holy Ghost And if Peter in his denyall had had Pauls malice joyned with his knowledge he had also sinned that sinne but the mis-beliefe of the one before his conversion and the infirmity of the other after it preserved from this sinne Error mis-led the one and sudden feare surprised the other Fourthly there are three horrible sinnings which doe attend that sinne against the holy Ghost and the Scripture which wee were best exceeding warily to follow in resolving this case expresly delivers them 1. One is totall Apostasie from the truths of Jesus Christ knowne and tasted The truths of Christ must 1. be knowne and apprehended 2. knowne and tasted they must be approved 3. And then the person falls from these 4. Nay his fal is not particular which is incident to the best it is a totall fall not a falling in the way but a falling from the way of truth Heb. 6. 4. If they were once inlightned and tasted c. If ver 6. they shall fall away 2. A second is a malicious oppugnation of that truth which was once knowne and tasted and from which now the person is falne called Heb. 6. 6. A crueifying of the Sonne of God afresh And Heb. 10. 26. A And despiting the spirit of Grace wilfull sinning after that we have received the knowledge of the truth And it was evident in the Pharisees who saw and knew the light but hated and persecuted it unto the death 3. A third is finall impenitencie Whosoever sinnes the sin against the holy Ghost he neither doth repent nor can repent He is so justly and for ever forsaken of God and given up to a reprobate sense and a seared conscience that he cannot repent though perhaps he may see his course to be evill yet it is impossible saith the Apostle in Heb. 6. 6. to renew him to repentance FINIS