not think of him until he first think ofâ—hee nor work towards him until his heart hath been working towards thee and is not that demonstrate that he is willing to receive thee to make a match with thee though we be worms and no men have cause to cry out if we were never so holy Lord what is man that thou art so mindful of him as to visit him with such salvation make him so near thy self in thy son Yea surely he is willing he would not have moved towards thee else he doth not use to mock poor Creatures to make them believe his heart is towards them and when their heart echo again and say thy face Lord will we seek then to shut up his bowels and shut out their desires Brethren take heed of too much being alive to the Law for that seemeth to be the savour of our spirit while unworthiness is the obstruction to our coming to Jesus Christ we must be dead brethren to the Law and the righteousness thereof all our performances and best duties else we cannot live to Jesus Christ The Lord Jesus never matched with a Creature because it was worthy of him of so near an union with him for alas what creature being but a creature can be wotthy of such an union with the Lord of life and glory No no he â—akes an Ethiopian and washeth her clean from her filthiness before he hath done with her nothing but that fullers sope will fetch out the spots Yea I will say one thing more that the Lord Jesus never Matched with any that thought themselves worthy of him there is an encouragement to such poor drooping soâ—lâ— did Paul think himself worthy of Christ nothing less nor any of the Saints He that will not have Christ freely is never like to have him I will love them freely saith he No saith many a proud sinner thou shalt not love us freely we hope to approve our selves worthy of thy love I tell you brethren such a soul hath not known what the meaning of grace is to this day Well then remember be you as unworthy as you can in your own apprehension all the mercies of God purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ they are freely offered and tendered to you this day to thee man to thee woman that art viler then the earth in thine own eyes yea to hard hearted sinners that see not themselves they are tendered to melt them down and if this will not do it nothing will do it O that I could speak of these bowels with such bowels as some of your hearts might be stirred and moved this day but so much for this second 3. Motive the Lord Jesus is not only willing thus to communicate himself to poor sinners but it is his delight so to do It is the satisfaction of the soul of Jesus Christ when he beholdeth the precious mercies purchased by his blood accepted of by poor sinners and to work mightily in them and to them He shall see his Seed and shall be satisfied the father is satisfied and the son is satisfied when they behold this this is all that they expect the father for his love such a love as the world cannot paralel a Sic without a Siout God so loved the world It is all he expecteth that those mercies which he hath purchased should be freely be bestowed upon and freely accepted of by poor sinners and it is the satisfaction of Jesus Christ also it is all he expecteth of us I say the continual streaming of that fountain opened for sin and for uncleaness they are as if he had said I have enough for all my pains my sweat my agony my eclipsing for the pangs of hell in my soul for my death and blood and burial all the contempts powred out upon me and the sorrow â—endured though there was never grief like mine yet this is enough saith he he shall be satisfied if he do but see poor sinners to receive him and so become his Seed close with him and so become his spouse for it is the same thing though clothed with a diverse Metaphor Brethren iâ— may be you would satisfie Christ another way you would do this and that for him Labour as abundantly as you can be as holy as you can perform your duties in as lively a manner as you can but when you have done all if you hang your peace and comfort upon this and not in your free acceptance of Christ and with Christ you seem yet to be marryed to the Law and not to Christ or at least you turn aside to your former Husband a Covenant of works this is a dissatisfactiou to Jesus Christ as if there were not riches of grace in him to swallow up all your unworthiness O Brethren that the Lord would perswade your hearts this day what a delight and satisfaction it is to him to see poor sinners come and lye at his foot and willing to receive him to match with him notwithstanding their unworthiness 4. Consider but how little a thing will do the deed and espouse thee to the Lord Jesus Alas you will say you find it a hard thing to believe as hard a thing as to keep the Law It is so in respect of our strength but many they mistake and think except they have such and such a strength of faith they have none at all nor do not close with him nor he with them If they could say with Thomas my Lord and my God or with the spouse my beloved is mine and I am his then there were some encouragement indeed Brethren if it be but as a grain of Mustardseed it will do the deed look upon me all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved A look upon a woman to lust after her is Adultery in heart it is a heart union of two to one flesh for it is yet the heart the mind that seeth more then the eye the eye may look upon many things and discern nothing distinctly if the mind be upon another thing so here why should not a look after Jesus Christ to desire him when the soul hath a sight of him passing by in his Glory O that he were my Husband O that I were Marryed to him that he would accept of me O happy souls that enjoy seeking communion with him This Brethren at the first is enough to make a Match between us As the Lord Jesus is willing to have thee art thou willing poor trembling soul to have him have him thou shalt yea thou hast him already though this saith must grow up to a greater measure happily before thou cast discern it or have the comfort of it Only lest any should be mistaken I will here give a word or Direction or Caution First take heed of thinking thou art willing when thou art not for as there are many poor drooping souls who think they are not willing to have Christ when it is that their souls do ever break for
But now this strait Gate is shut against them and therefore they cannot enter But so much for the proof of this Doctrine I shall not stay long upon it nor indeed is it needful having spoken before to their surprizal Only a word or two brethren for the opening of the Point and then to confirm it and then some short application of it to our selves For the opening of it What is meant by the unreadiness here supposed for it is against them that the door is shut And then the shutting of the door what is meant by that First then What is meant by this unreadiness I hope you have not altogether forgotten what was spoken lately to the readiness of a poor creature to enter in with Christ to heaven which if you remember you may easily conceive what it is to be unready we will not speak to the readiness for an abundant entrance but only for an entrance into heaven and you remember they were such things as these 1. There must be a pardon of a mans sins a righteousness of faith in the blood of Jesus Christ else a man is never ready Every unbeliever therefore is unready let him be as specious in his shews and pretences as he may yet he is unready he is in his sins condemned c. Joh. 3. And though the Gate of mercy and the kingdom of Grace â—â—and open for sinners to come to Jesus Christ yet the Gate of Heaven whereby an entrance is made into Glory stands not open to any but such as are pardoned have the robes of their elder Brother the Lord Jesus upon them Ah how sad a word is that of the Jews ye shall die in your sins then surely brethren they are not ready for heaven the door will be shut against them 2. There must be a dying to sin as well as a pardon of sin before we can be ready as you heard the roots must be withered before the wall be tumbled down therefore every unmortified man or woman is unready Hear this word of the Lord ye whose Lusts are yet in their full strength your pride and hardness of heart and sensoriousness your looseness and wantonness you that walk with a froward mouth and perverse lips whose hearts devise mischief whose feet make haste to do evil it is an ill sign that the old man is mortified you are an abomination to God as the wise man speaks and will he not clap the door against all such workers of iniquity no evil can dwell with God Ah brethren you that cherish that old man of sin as I may say rub him and chafe him and pour wine and strong drink into him aqua vitae and spirits into him by your meditations of sin vain thoughts lustful proud passionate thoughts nourish your sins ordinarily and so blow up the coal into a flame you are far from mortifying your lusts instead of bringing water and the blood of Jesus Christ to kill your sins you bring to the flame well all unmortified persons are unready let our profession be what it will the door will be clapt upon such I mean such as are altogether unmortified have done nothing in the work I know a child of God may not be so mortified as he should and sometimes for some acts may cherish sin use the bellows to the fire within but it costs him bitterness afterward he liveth not in such a course If he do it is good for him to be jealous of himself how the case stands with him Thirdly He is unready that hath no real holiness put upon him without it none shall see God he knoweth his prima facie as I may say he can see the image and comeliness upon a soul if it be there If not he will not own any bastards any supposititious children changelings that Satan laies in the lap of the Church as I may say and rocks in the Cradle of security but the Lord will shut the door against them This real holiness you know what it is a conformity to the will of God in our understandings light as he is light and no darkness in him In our wills and affections conformity to his will revealed to us A holy disposition of heart to do his will suffer his will and delight in it which occasioneth our grief when we cannot well this is holiness Hear this then ye that never mind the will of God purblind ignorant creatures stubborn rebellious creatures you that have iron sinnews and brazen faces which refuse to return or to be ashamed though the Lord do blazen your iniquities before you continually by his Heralds which cry aloud and teach Jacob their transgressions and Israel their sins and spare you not nor spare themselves yet you refuse to return and to be ashamed to conform to the will of Christ you never were brought to that sweet submissive frame of Paul Lord what wouldst thou have me to do Well believe it thou art unready the gate will be clapt against thee Fourthly Then others are unready And who are those Such as have received work to do and they have not done it men of no action for Christ then the Apostle was ready and our Saviour when they had done their work he gave them to do Christ had wrought out a perfect righteousness for his people and therefore he went up to heaven and the world seeth him no more and this the Spirit convinceth the world of if he had not done that work perfectly heaven would not have held him Remember this then Brethren they are unready that have not done their work whether Magistrates Ministers or private people He giveth to his servants some five talents some ten some two some one mind you he that had but one haply out of envy at others who had more or dejection and discouragement or thinking he had little and therefore could do little good with it hid it in a Napkin and did not trade with it and therefore was the gate open to him No thou wicked and sloathful servant saith the Master to him c. and so he is cast off the merchandise os wisdom is better then the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof then fine gold that is to say the great gain and improvement that cometh by using the wisdom and knowledge the gifts and graces which God giveth us O the tongue of the just is as choice silver and the lips of the righteous feed many Do we do our work Brethren or have we never set stroke in it God hath given some charge of souls how little have they done in it Masters of Families have the charge of children of servants their souls you have done nothing you have gifts and parts enough for every thing else Well Brethren such shall be shut out also Now to shew you two or three sorts of persons who will likely be unready in some or all these respects First then all such as trisle
of so great weight 7. But negligent in preparation to holy duties publike and private 8. How empty and vain in discourses and unprofitable 9. How distempered in hearing publikely and in conferences with the Church 10. Vile thoughts even in the time of reading and meditation which are deep hypocrisie 11. Yet back-slidden even since the last Lords Supper 12. Yet little pure love to the Saints as Saints 13. Yet not a sensible heart of the dishonour of Christ in these times 14. Yet not a tender nor believing heart in holding out the word of reconciliation 20. In preparation for the Supper-Ordinance he would bring himsels unto the Test and to say the truth was very clear in the discovering and making out of his own condition being well acquainted with the way of Gods dealing with the soul and with the way of the souls closing with Christ Instance April 3. 1653. upon search I find 1. My self an undone creature 2. That the Lord Jesus sufficiently satisfied as Mediator the Law for sin 3. That he is freely offered in the Gospel 4. So far as I know my own heart I do through mercy heartily consent that he only shall be my Saviour not my works or duties which I do only in obedience to him 5. If I know my heart I would be ruled by his word Spirit Behold in a few words the summe and substance of the Gospel 21. The Lord blessed his enquiries with gracious returns when he set himself seriously to clear up his interest in him Instance October 30. 1652. As I was questioning and searching whether I were a child of God or no me thought this was suddenly spoken in me or to me If I be not thy Father what am I then to thee Am I an enemy to thee which did much affect and melt my heart through much mercy In preparation for the Lords Supper Jan. 1. 1652. as I was upon the same Question within my self whether I was a child of God yea or no me thought this was suggested within me If I be not thy â—ather why dost thou follow me so hard and breath after me which also did much affect my heart at that time 22. He got ground on his corruptions and his grave-cloaths fell off apace while he was yet alive Several daies I find good recorded and no evil Instance Good Evil. In morning read a long Hebrew Chapter in closet-duty not altogether without his presence studied for my Sermons and the afternoon spent much what in preparation of my self for the Lords Supper and not altogether without his presence for blessed be his name he humbled me and melted me in the â—ight of my own vileness  About 7. weeks before his translation returning from London he found his Family in a languishing condition by reason of a feavourish distemper which had crept in among them It being the Lords wont to send some forerunning waves to dash against and wet us before he send that mountainous one with which he will overwhelm us His youngest child save one departs this life on Friday night being the 11. of Nov. 1654. How often are the little Lambs taken from the sides of their dams from whom they received life and carried to the place where they met with their deaths An hopeful branch must be lopt off before the Root it self dry up and wither Saturday morning that Chapter came to be read in course which contains Davids Fasting and mourning for his child whilst it lived c. Comparing his own condition with that of David he said Davids mourning went before but mine must follow after The duties of the Family being over he retires again into his study keeps the day as a Fast and being awakened by this affliction is put upon serious self-reflexions and searching endeavours to find out the cause of this smart-stroke of Gods hand an account whereof taken out of his Diary you have as follows God taking away my little babe Job November 11. 1654. Searching my waies c. 1. Not returning according to his multiplyed mercies to us not thankful enough the heart not endeared to him 2. More lax in watching over my thoughts 3. A foolish stupidity and security before this blow from the the Lord far from waiting for changes Jonah-like fast asleep 4. An unnatural heart to him and the rest insensible of his pains 5. Grown very slight in the Lords service though wofully distracted and dead in every duty almost yet not sensible of it nor humbled under it had lost of that spiritualness and heavenly-mindedness once I had through grace 6. Partial affection to the sons more then to the daughters therefore God took this away and smote the other His wife would have had the Funerals deferr'd till Munday but he would not give way saying I have other work to do tomorrow At even the people being come together he accompanied the Corps unto the grave into which he was observed to look very wishly as if he had been curiosly looking for a resting place for himself shortly to lye down in and had thus bespoken his dead child I shall shortly come to thee but thou shalt not return to me Coming home he was very raised and chearful and comforted his wife with this saying among many others Come love he has but got the start of us It being my work to track him and tread upon the print of his heels I must follow him even through the valley of the shadow of death which was not so frightful to him in its approach as to me uncomfortable in its description The time of his departure is at hand and no wonder He was ripe betimes and therefore gathered and taken into Gods Granary He had done his work and must therefore go to receive his wages and this I may be bold to say that he did God more service in a little time then many others whose line of life was twice as long as his He cannot be far off from his center because of the swiftness of his motion He was alwaies much upon the wing but towards his latter end he was wont to soar very high and took many a turn in Paradise every day and would be often hovering about the Casements of the Star-chamber which having delightfully peept and pryed into he came down again though not without much regret and grief yet solacing himself with this consideration that he should shortly meet the Lord in the air and then be ever with the Lord. During the time of his pilgrimage and abode in the Lords Vineyard he served his God and his Generation with all his might He ran faster then others and was therefore sooner out of breath He screwed up the peggs so high that the strings of his several faculties crack and can hold out no longer He did with so much vehemency and contention of spirit continually stir up himself to take hold on God and followed so hard after him that he sunk under the burden of his own
away their time in the world spending their strength for that which profiteth not labouring for the meat which perisheth which will not endure to eternal life you see the world was that which kept them from coming to the Feast in the Gospel one could not have while another could not have while a man cannot have two treasures except he had two hearts two contrary treasures earth and heaven both and where the treasure is there will the heart be also therefore Brethren while men are so altogether taken up with the world they cannot but neglect the main thing and so are found unready â—et worldlings hear this word and tremble if any others be likely to be found unready you are the men Even the people of God themselves if they be unready in part it is the world likely will put them out of order off the hinges take heed saith our Saviour your hearts be not at any time overcharged with the cares of this world because there is no time but that day may overtake you and then you will be taken unawares therefore much more a man that is drowned and buried in the world he will be sure to be unready Secondly Such as do but dally with God and Religion and the things of eternity they spend themselves and their strength to feed a formality to put forth broad and pleasant leaves and there is all but for faith and repentance and the great works of a Christian they scarse ever meddle with them at all they go to the creature here with the foolish Virgins go to the opinions of others to the graces of others to their flattering parasite Preachers to be seared and daubed up such as these are likely to be found unready none in more danger then a formal professor Thirdly Such as fail in the midst of their Christian course as you see these Virgins did usually such are hardly recovered again for you see how they wandered up and down from mountain to hill from creature to creature and come not to Jesus Christ So in the Gospel when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man c. Such are like to the Laodiceans spised out of the mouth of God which none returneth to again the Dog returneth to the vomit but not a man our time is fruitful in experiences of this kind you see the door is here shut against those Virgins which failed I mean it of a total Apostacy not partial declinings such the Saints themselves had the wise Virgins but the other lost all true saving grace they had none their form their profession it went out and then they were in darkness could not expect the coming of their Lord with their Lamps burning So much for the opening of it The door is shut the meaning of this is no more but that an entrance into heaven is denyed unto them that are not ready there is no mansion made ready for them that are not made ready for these mansions the Lord Jesus he is the door into the Church the Kingdom of grace and into the Kingdom of glory as you have beard they that enter must enter in by Jesus Christ have access by him now he will shut the door that is to say shut up his bowels and tender mercies for ever though they have been opened to poor sinners here upon earth then they shall be shut up he will have no more compassion on them but when they cry and call shut out their prayers they have clapt the door of their hearts and lockt them against him and now will he shut up his heart and lock it against them for ever Time was when the Jews might have found Jesus Christ but now saith he ye shall seek me and shall not find me but shall dye in your sins Indeed Brethren the door may be shut against a man here on earth after Gods waiting upon a people to be gracious to them he sware in his wrath they should never enter into his rest which was a type of heaven And so those that were invited to the feast they shall not taste of my dainties saith the King for they are not worthy If men refuse and reject the Gospel either professedly or in practise no marvel if the Lord turn the key of heaven gates upon them and they be shut out without any more hope for ever For the Arguments to confirm this a little First Because this feast in heaven admitteth no Guests without a wedding garment without holiness no entrance into heaven no man shall see the Lord except the Lord Jesus have known them and they have known him which is life eternal for so the Apostle puts them together we know that we know him or rather are known of him else Brethren there is no entrance he knoweth no man will acknowledge none then but with a wedding-garment here in the administrations of the Kingdom of grace a person may creep into the feast withont the wedding-garment indeed for the word preached it is for all but the distinguishing Ordinances men may be admitted to haply though they have no wedding-garment as you have it in that place of Matthew but he shall not abide there but shall be cast out he will bind him hand and foot and cast him out though he â—eaveth the admittance of them into the visible Church and visible communion in his ordinances to us who can judge but according to appearance and by the rules of charity yet himself cometh and vieweth the guests and who are fit to be owned as the guests of heaven that shall have entrance there he whose eyes are a flame of fire or like it piercing into the inwards of our souls to see what our spirits are cloathed with And if he takes it so ill of them that creep into the Communion of his Saints and Ordinances here below without a wedding-garment Surely then he will never admit any to this feast of new wine to eternity without such a wedding-garment Secondly Another Argument or Consideration to make this out may be this they that are unready shall not enter the door shall be shut upon them because they have neglected despised the Lord Jesus who is the door and hath the key of David and openeth and shutteth therefore now they shall be rejected the door hath stood open all the day long all the day long hath he stretched out his hands to a rebellious and gain-saying people he would have gathered them and they would not therefore now he will not now he will despise them as they have despised him and there is all the reason that can be that they that would have none of Christ by whom alone there is access to the Father and to this glory that he should have none of them neither they have resisted the motions of his Spirit the Holy-Ghost offering to convince them and now he will resist them clap the door against them Thirdly Because
Servants or to deliver all such relations no but it is meant here surely of a spiritual Liberty a freedom of the soul from its thraldom nay himself cometh to be a servant did he not rather sanctifie such a condition and relation then abolish it Secondly Then taking it for spiritual Liberty that is to say a freedom from Spiritual evils the subjection whereunto is a bondage to the poor creature we must know yet further that we may take it either in a larger or in a more restrained sense in a more restrained only for that liberty and freedom which the Saints have ever had through the Lord Jesus since the Covenant of Grace was preached to them and they closed with it for we must know that ever before Christ came in the flesh Believers believed in him to come they had a liberty through him as to the main parts of it and necessarily to salvation though haply not in that degree that now ordinarily Believers indeed have that freedom but there were some yoaks upon them then which now we are delivered from they are broken from off the necks of the Saints yea and such as were pinching yoaks indeed but yet less considerable by far then those from which they were delivered and set free so that now we see there is a larger liberty and more glorious which the sons of God have which will better appear when we come to speak to the parts of it only this I thought good to premiâ—e lost any should think that liberty began only when Christ was revealed in the flesh for it was the smallest part that then was added though I say the other liberty from the sore condemning destroying bondage of the soul they had before haply is now heightned to believers and so much by way of premise For the opening of this spiritual Liberty we shall consider 1. It s Subject 2. Its Causes 3. Its Parts extensive and intensive if we may so speak that is to say the degrees of it First then for the subject of this Liberty they are all Christians that are so indeed therefore it is called Christian Liberty not only from Christ the Author but from the Subjects they are Christians Believers both Jews and Gentiles Bond or Free Male or Female Jerusalem saith the Apostle which is above is free which is the Mother of us all all such then as receive the Gospel as the poor are said to do all those upon whom the Sun of righteousness doth arise they are set free they do go forth for the partial subject of this liberty that will better appear when we come to speak of the parts of this liberty some are for the freeing the minde some the will some the conscience some the whole man but of this afterward Secondly Then for the causes of this liberty which is here promised we shall speak to some of them First then The principal efficient cause is the Father Son and Spirit the work of the Trinity ad extra are individed the Father it is that cals us to liberty Ye are called to liberty saith the Apostle use it not as a cloke to the flesh I marvel saith the Apostle that you are so soon removed from him who hath called you into the Grace of Christ unto another Gospel The Apostle meaneth the calling to liberty which he cals the Grace of Christ and that Doctrine of the false teachers that would subject them again to the Law and Ceremonies and to that bondage subvert their liberty he cals it another Gospel And for the Son we have it If the Son make you free you shall be free indeed and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free false Brethren came to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus that they might bring us into bondage And for the Spirit it is as clear The Law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death the mighty powerful working of the Spirit is called the Law of the Spirit as the powerful operation of Sin is called the Law of Sin and so in that place where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and so the Spirit of Adoption it is that succedeth the Spirit of Bondage and setteth us free from that Bondage Secondly The impulsive cause is meerly his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his good pleasure yea his tender mercy his bowels So it is in the Original The bowels of our God whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us there is the arising of the Sun of rightousness upon us and the effect of it you have before That we being delivered from the hands of all our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness c. It is not misery is the motive only else he would do it for all as well as some for we are all of us in the same bondage naturally one as well as another Thirdly The meritorious cause is the blood of Jesus Christ no less then the blood of the Kings son is the price of the liberty of poor Slaves in bondage this must needs be tender mercy indeed rich love indeed so saith the Apostle That through death he might destroy him that hath the power of death that is the Devil no less then a Kings ransom is paid for the liberty of every poor creature that is made free and therefore he took upon him flesh and blood because the children were partakers of the same that he might die for them and to deliver them that for fear of death were in bondage all their life-time of which more afterward we are now speaking to the meritorious cause the price of his pretious mercy even the blood of Jesus Christ Fourthly The means of conferring or conveiging this liberty to poor Sinners is the Gospel of liberty the Covenant of Grace held out in the Gospel is the means and this is plain in many places As in that of Isaiah The Spirit of the Lord is upon me therefore he hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives if ever any preaching was the Gospel Christs preaching was and the Covenant who himself was given to be the Covenant to the people sure he would preach nothing but that or in subordination to that as he doth preach the Law too as would easily appear but we may not digress and so in thaâ— other place of Luke where either that or some of the fore-cited places in Isaiah are quoted Ye shall know the truth saith our Saviour and the truth shall make you free by truth there I take it is not meant indefinitely any truth whatever no nor a scriptural truth but the Gospel of truth which is called the truth Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ it is such a truth so pure and precious For his word is like
not that sinners are blind-folded do you think they would be led by Satan into so many horrid things O if they had known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory Father forgive them they know not what they do Alas the Panther hideth his head when he allureth the beasts the sweetness of his smell or beauty of his skin only the Drag is said to flie from him Isid li. 12. 2. See Mead upon Revel p. 2. p. 52. Alas they see not the head which is ready to affright them and devour them and not only is it the ground of this bondage but of all the rest how cometh it to pass that poor souls are plunged into such desperate gulfs of despairing and such breaking bondage in that kind but because they are held in ignorance they do not come to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent he keepeth them in ignorance of the promises the sweet and precious promises of Jesus Christ O dear friends it is impossible were it not for our ignorance of that love of God in Jesus Christ and that riches exceeding riches of grace that is in him and his thoughts that are above our thoughts that there should be so many cloudings such fearful plunges as many poor souls are put unto yea many times even after they are once delivered from them why now I say when the Lord Jesus cometh ariseth upon a soul as the Sun of righteousness he dispels this ignorance discovers sin in its own colours and indeed worse it cannot be set forth in therefore the Apostle saith that sin might appear to be sin and then he opens the treasuries of the Promises of the Covenant of Grace to let a poor sinner see there is enough for him there though his sins be great yet mercy is transcendantly greater if he have mountains to be covered the Lord hath a sea to swallow them up if multitudes of sin there is multitude of mercies there is love which will cover a multitude and so by discovering himself thus and our selves to our selves he by degrees setteth the creature at Liberty from those fearfull apprehensions of God and from that delight in sin which formerly he had taken so that now no longer will he serve it But a little more plainly take a Scripture or two for it in that of Isaiah To proclaim liberty to the captives the opening of the prison to them that are bound the opening of the prison some read it so and so do our Translators though it is acknowledged by the learned among us that the latter is no where else used in this sense for the prison nor for the prey as some others use it and therefore some do take the word to be but one and render it omâ—imâ—do apertionem so that the doubling of the Letters here are Emphatical and by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though then Manaph here remaineth as a difficulty for words so doubled use not to be so joyned together so that some would have it here nothing else but a very large opening of their eyes and say that it is used most properly if not constantly of the opening of the eyes and surely this is the way of Gods delivering his Captives and agreeable to the text here the Sun arising in the morning opens the eyes setteth the senses at liberty from that prison of darkness they were in in the night and elsewhere it is manifest in that of Luke 4. 18. To preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blinde and again the Psalmist The Lord looseth the Prisoners he openeth the eyes of the blinde therefore Paul was sent to open the eyes of the blinde and turn them from the power of Satan to God and from darkness to light for we must know that this bondage is of the soul the faculties thereof and chiefly the will Now the Lord when he cometh to deliver us dealeth with us as with men and therefore first opens the eyes of the mind and draweth us with the cords of a man with arguments over-powring our reason and then with the cords of love sweetly thereby inclining our hearts and bowing our wills and then the poor creature comeeth forth out of this bondage before we see we are in prison or see the loathsomness of it the darkness of it we are in love with it and will not go forth But Secondly This darkness comprehendeth another and that is Error or rather this ariseth from the other and therefore we shall speak to it apart Ye err not knowing the Scripture nor the power of God he saith not ye err not knowing immediate Revelations but not knowing the Scripture for there the light is in the Lanthorn if we will behold it now this error of what kind it will be it is a snare of the Devil and therefore it is a bondage The Apostle there speaks of Heretical Doctrine held by such as do perversly oppose themselves against the Ministers of Jesus Christ who hold out the truth as it is in Jesus He sheweth how Timothy is to carry himself to them in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth Repentance is a turning from sin to God and to the contrary Grace or Vertue and that is the acknowledgement of the truth therefore their sin was some corruption of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will out of the snare of the devil a sad snare it is if the devil can but get so far within a man as to dazle his eyes to blinde them he may lead them whither he will if he can but corrupt their judgement especially in fundamentals or practicals then they are his own they are fast enough he carryeth them captive takes them alive even at his pleasure Now our liberty from this part of bondage also is by the arising of the Sun of righteousness upon us the Spirit maketh us free as he is a spirit leading his people into the truth not only the notion but the practise of it also we have an anointing whereby we know all things saith the Apostle speaking of Antichrist it is needleâ—s for me to speak to you of him you have an anointing will teach you to avoid thâ—se his errors O happy is that soul that hath such a Guide such a Leader to lead him forth out of prison even as the Angel went before Peter else between sleep and wake hope and fear he might haply have mist his way So the Lord Jesus cometh and giveth his Spirit and bids the soul go forth alas whether should they go they know not the way as Thomas said why saith he â—ollow me I will lead you as he in his word hath therein revealed himself and maketh it out by his Spirit to his
are we to believe Satan and the world when they shuffle us off from this work of casting up the accounts of our souls I think we may all of us or the most of us plead guilty here have we our times Brethren we set apart for this work of self-searching and tryal not an hour in a moneth or many moneths when we come to the Lords Supper an hour in a quarter or a day in a year yea do you ever perform this duty at all truly it is an ill sign when we are so backward to search the Lord perswade you to the duty you heard before how sad a thing it is to be at a stand not to grow and beside how canst thou be thankful if thou take not notice of it he loseth his glory and that will neither be for our advantage nor comfort And here I hope it may not be beside the Text to speak of growth under that other ordinary Simile of growing like trees or plants in Scripture nothing more ordinary then that where Believers are compared to trees of righteousness and branches in Christ the Vine and what is included in this comparison here as to the growth in quantity increase in quality and goodness and swiftness of it I hope I shall meet with in the other First then look whether you grow more into the root you grow downward for if a tree grow not in the root proportionably you know it will be top-heavy and every blast is ready to over-turn it that soul groweth to purpose that groweth then in the root more now what is this root but the Covenant of grace as you have heard when God would cut a people down by the root he would dis-covenant them now the Lord Jesus is the main of the Covenant and therefore called the Covenant he and his Spirit are the great promises of the Covenant Chrisâ— as he is tendered for righteousness for holiness for redemption and all Now there are three graces specially which respect the root Jesus Christ whereby we may be said to grow in the root and therefore let us labour to search and try our selves by them The first is Faith Brethren whereby indeed we are planted into him and as that grows so we are said to grow in the root time was when our faith was but as a grain of Mustard-seed but now hath it deeper rooting faster hold of Christ do we now embrace him more closely then we did time hath been it may be when we have understood little of the Covenant of grace and so consequently could give but an assent to what we understood of it and an answerable consent but dost thou now understand it more to give a firmer assent to the truth of the thing wherein the Lord hath promised to give his Son and with him remission of sins that he will remember them no more and blot out their iniquities thou assentest to this truth now more then thou didst before O the bloodiness of thy guilt was that which dismayed thee the horridness the filthyness the multitude the aggravations of thy sins now thou seest and consentest to the truth of it that God will swallow up all they shall be though scarlet as white as snow though the time was the sight of thy sins did as much amaze thee as the sight of the Egyptians did the Israelites O thou knowest not what to do now thou canst look upon them as swallowed up in the red Sea of the blood of Jesus Christ O a Sea of mercy a red Sea of precious redeeming blood what will it not swallow up dost thou find it O observe Brethren how you grow in your assent to it and so for mortification subduing iniquities because thou hast been prest and pestered with thy lusts thou hast been ready to â—ay all men are lyars in thy haste O notwithstanding this Covenant of grace I find my corruptions strong and lively but now thou dost not upon this account question the Covenant but assentest to it and closest with it consent as well as assent and so waitest upon God for the fulfilling of it until his time he that believeth maketh not haste though he make it not to grow yet this is all thy salvation here thou hangest thy hopes and off this thou wilt not be beaten though heretofore thou hast found alas thou couldst hardly fasten upon it at all do you find this Bretheen see in what degrees if we grow not here we grow not at all to any purpose Secondly And that which is indeed included in the former is that of self-denyal if any man will be my Disciple he must deny himself and take up his Cross Deny himself all that is desirable in himself all that he lookt upon as conducible to salvation whether his works or gifts or duties his priviledges or whatever It is true we had a root of our own in Adam but that worm of sin hath smitten the root and it is withered and it is but rottenness and therefore there is no growth to be expected from it but what will be rotten Now Christ alone in the Covenant of grace is the root and the more we grow off our own root the more we grow into him as the root Now consider this Brethren it may be the time hath been thou hast builded much of thy hopes and comforts upon what thou hast had in thy self O if thou couldst but do this and that thou couldst be quiet and take comfort in thy condition now though thou do more or do less whatever thou art enabled to do through him dost thou find that thou canst bless him for it and yet go out of all and be as though we had never done any thing counting all but as menstruous cloaths and yet not the less but the more encouraged that our own righteousness is not the bottom because then it could not be sure but we have such a root as never withers even Jesus Christ Alas how far short are we in this though we have seen it many times when we would be standing upon our own bottom that we cannot stand upon a thing that stands not under us but sinketh only upon the Rock Jesus Christ yet we have not learned this many of us I doubt this hinders our growth much as if a vessel be indeed afloat yet so shallow keepeth so near the side of the shore as that it ever and anon strikes upon the ground it can make no considerable progress and is in danger of smiting beside so it is in this case well consider then this hath been our case we could not launch out into the deep perfectly trust to that grace revealed in Christ we must have one foot upon the ground we must feel something of our own under us or else we could not be quiet is it thus with thee now that thou arâ— more come off this thou canst now though thou see nothing in thy self yea when there is most appearing in
grow in this Grace may he not say to us O ye of little Faith why do ye doubt why do you walk so pensively and hang the head to the dishonour of my Grace may he not say O ye of little Faith why do you perplex your selves and rack your selves with cares of the World what ye shall eat and drink and how ye shall be prvoided for doth not your heavenly Father take care of you O ye of little Faith why do ye in every perplexity and trouble as men at a loss run to this creature and that creature and not to the Lord wherein your help doth lie O ye of little Faith why do you when means fail then cast away your hope as if there were no help in God as if because the streams were dried up therefore the fountain must needs be dry also therefore Brethren labour to grow in this Grace if ever you would do any eminent service for Christ or honour him set the crown on him in any condition labour to be strong in Faith Thirdly In that Grace of Love labour to grow therein First to the Lord himself to Jesus Christ It may be thou dost love him and according to the measure of Faith and Knowledge of him the soul will love him usually but we must labour to love him much more love we take it kindly if it be from the meanest person and so doth the Lord Jesus O love the Lord ye his Saints you cannot love him too much do you alway err in his love the more you love him the more you may for there is no end of his perfections his love his mercy his bowels towards you there is no searching of them you may go yet deeper and deeper and find a ground for the increase of your love still you love Relations Husband Wife Children and more for relation then for any excellency in them many times fond we are O that we could be so fond of Jesus Christ how sick of love was Rachel yea sick to the death for children and so is many a fond mother O we cannot live without them Ah how few are thus sick of love to Jesus Christ well lobour to love him and to this end First Labour to present the Lord and Jesus Christas most lovely to thee while thou entertainest hard thoughts of Jesus Christ thou canst not love him if thou thinkest thus with thy self I would fain have him but he is not willing to have me if thou look upon him as rigorous and cruel and one that delights in your blood it is impossible that you should love him O no labour to present him to your selves as one whose bowels are continually yearning over poor souls poor sinners one full of compassions full of mercy and tenderness he desires not the death of a sinner the Lord Jesus Brethren is altogether lovely it is true for his holiness his purity as well as his grace and mercy but this is that which most moveth to love at least while we are under weakness it is an high pitch to love him for the beauty of Holiness that is in him Think often then seriously upon it what dear thoughts the Lord Jesus had to poor sinners that rather then they should perish he would interpose between them and the everlasting burnings though be were sorely scorched for it O will not this draw love look upon him with his precious blood trickling down and one drop overtaking another O what haste did love make O how lavish was his love he would not spare any pains any travel of soul that sinners might live and can you but love him then O what an heart must that creature have that can look upon the Lord Jesus wrestling with strongest wrath of his Father so that he needed the Ministry of Angels at that time and yet not love him try see whether such considerations as these will not heighten your love to him we complain of want of love Brethren we cannot love a thing we know not or that we consider not see then if you do not find still some new beauty in him for which you should love him yet the more Secondly Let it be much upon your hearts how much he hath forgiven thee Alas saith the poor soul if I knew that that my sins were forgiven I should love him indeed abundantly It may be thou hast not a full perswasion of it but hast thou not a good hope through Grace and such a lively hope as setteth a working out the scum the pollution of thy heart more and more Is not this cause of great love to him why he hath not left thee to sink in despair and perish O how much did that sinner love him because he had forgiven her much therefore she loved much Dear friends could this be think you without her heart dwelt upon this consideration it was fresh upon her spirit O the more she considered it the more apparent were the riches of Grace towards her O so many Devils cast out of me would the Lord Jesus have such precious thoughts toward such a wretch as I what an Harlot a filthy unclean wretch and would he think upon me and pitch his love upon me and pass by many others that had it may be but one devil and make love to me that had seven O she could not hold her bowels within her were ready to break she must love him she must hang upon him even upon his feet she must wash him with her tears and wipe them with the hairs of her head though before as harlots use to do she had been much in tricking and trimming her head yet now they shall be dishrifled and now they shall be a Towel to wipe the feet of Jesus Christ O here is love kiss his feet if she may not kiss his lips and blessed soul that had such an heart given her Now Brethren consider this have not some of us had seven devils have there not been seven abominations in our hearts O it may be we have been fornicators adulterers filthy unclean wretches as vile wretches as ever breathed now consider this often is it so indeed hath the Lord looked upon such as we have been pitched his love upon the vilest of us and to make us so nigh to himself and shall we not love him O where are such workings of love towards the Lord Jesus as that poor woman manifested our hearts are dead and dry So the Apostle Paul His love of Christ constrained him O he was the chief of Sinners and the Lord did so eminently save him and call him out of darkness when he was in the very height of his wickedness that then mercy should â—eet with him that then a pardon should descend from heaven when he was fighting and rebelling against heaven and he should be conquered by the love of Christ whose heart was full of blood against him O this lying upon his spirit did indear his soul to
did Paul and doubtless Stephen would have hug'd them in his bosom if any of them had then had their hearts changed and what then can and will the Lord Jesus do when such as have been guilty of his blood trampled it under feet turned their backs upon him crucified him when they come to him So in Acts 2. Thou thinkest if thou wert but such a sinner if thou hadst not sinned against such love and mercy he would have pardoned he would have accepted when thy thoughts are at an end and lost then is infinite Grace beginning to be Glorious Secondly Consider this that he hath left thee altogether without excuse he hath cut off all pretences that sinners might make for their keeping off from Christ both here and in other places O saith one He hath waited so long upon me stretched out his hands all the day long to me While I have been rebelling the Lord Jesus hath been intreating me to be reconciled he hath stood so long at the door knocking that now sure he is gone he will not come to my soul nor take my soul into fellowship with himself I am an old sinner as long as ever I could arm my heart and boy up my self with any thing carnal reasonings moral services vain delights and creature-comforts I would never come to him what though the Lord Jesus is ready to receive when ever thou come to him Had not the poor Woman in the Gospel spent all upon the Physitians before she came to Christ if she could have had balm any where else she would never have gone to Gilead for it nor for that Physitian and doth he cast her out notwithstanding surely no He giveth liberally and upbraideth not he hits her not in the teeth with her unworthiness to come to him but when she cometh he healeth her distemper Was not this the Prodigals case would he ever have gone to his Father if he could have gotten husks or any thing and what doth his father upbraid him with it what thou be received now that hast stood out as long as ever thou couldst it is necessity and not love that hath driven thee home therefore take thy course I have no bread for thee O this would have broken the heart quite and for ever discouraged him for coming no he meeteth him by the way notwithstanding and how ready he is to receive him and embrace him that Parable setteth forth O but saith another I am so poor miserable have nothing at all in me but sin and misery suppose so thou hast the more need of Jesus Christ and he is most ready to reveal himself to them that need him most yea thou art the more fit to come to Christ for while thou hast any thing to subsist upon thou wilt not come off thy self clearly and fully as thou oughtest besides remember this that the Lord Jesus is able to bestow his riches upon nothing as he did at the first make a world of nothing so in the new Creation in the soul he can he will bestow the riches of his Grace upon nothing it is like thou hast as much as the Prodigal had in his returning O but he cannot but abhorr me my sins are not slight scars and races but deep wounds and festering wounds running sores bloody issues loathsom in his sight did the woman with the bloody issue in the Gospel find a repulse because of the loathsomness of her distemper or the Lepers because of theirs or Lazarus because of his surely no therein is the great commendation of his love to poor sinners that though in their blood yet he loveth them yet he receiveth them In one word for all to stop the mouths of these clamours the Lord Jesus hath said it and will he not be as good as his word he hath said That if any man come to him he will in no wise cast him out be his distemper what it will be his uuworthiness what it will he will in no wise cast him out therefore never make that an obstruction but rather an argument to put thee on to go to Christ because thy want of him is so great more then is found in others Thirdly Consider that these hard thoughts of Jesus Christ before thou hast tryed and had experience of a repulse from him are but a prejudice against the Lord Jesus how glad is the enemy of our peace if any way he can keep poor souls off from Christ will you judge a man to be so hard-hearted and unkind to you before you have tried him and shall we judge so of Jesus Christ O this is to add sin to sin and much worsens our condition daily Fourthly Consider this poor soul and add to thy own experience the experience of all the Saints ask of them and they will tell thee O never was there viler wretches then they themselves were they had as vile and base thoughts of themselves as thou and were as much discouraged as thou art and yet when they came to Jesus Christ they did obtain mercy they found Grace in his sight the Scepter was held out to them Ask of Paul who though dead yet speaketh and he will tell thee thou never wast such a wretch as he imbrewing his hands in the blood of the Saints a persecutor blasphemer injurious Ask but Magdalen and she will tell thee that she had seven Devils for one haply that thou hast And so will Peter and David O thou never hadst thy hand in blood in adultery in denying the Lord Jesus these found mercy And is not Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever Fifthly Thou canst have no good evidence that thou art one given of the Father to Christ before the world began until thou comest to Jesus Christ All that the Father hath given me shall come What then shall sinners abuse this doctrine to set light by it cast off all care of their condition because if they be given of the Father they shall come no But sadly consider this if thou be not yet come to Jesus Christ thou art not as yet declared to be one that is given to Christ and if not given to the Son thou art a son of perdition and wo is thee that thou wast ever born and as yet thou art not come to Christ and how knowest thou thou shalt ever have an opportunity or an heart to believe or come to him Faith is not at your command nor Christ at your command for poor sinners O consider this ye that forget God and forget your own welfare As many as were ordained to eternal life believed the rest were hardened Sixthly A rational Motive shall be this In other distractions a possibility of relief will make poor Creatures put themselves upon extream hazards when it is not possible they should escape without such a hazard running how much more then in the business of our souls should we be willing to run an hazard if there were any
it much growth to be gotten 637 Converted ones though suddenly dying yet can grow in grace 579 Covenant of works from this there is freedom 504 D Day of the Lord what is meant by it 412 Darkness is a part of bondage 494 Darkness what is meant by it 495 Denyal of self as that grows so we grow 594 Duties holy labour to be more spiritual in them 615 E End look unto it 571 Enemies they are who would pluck away Christ from us 426 Enemies cannot be withstood unless there be growing 619 Errour all the ground of it 597 Experiences particular of love and tenderness of mind 611 F Faculties of the soul see whether we grow in them 595 Faith as it grows so do we grow 593 Faith in this grace labour to grow 607 Faith what is it ibid. And wherein the nature of it lies 622 Family where they are all in Egyptian darkness is a sad one 422 Fear all is not banished out of the soul 553 Fear is a part of bondage 499 Fear distractive fear ought not to be in us 554 Feared the Lord. See Them Fellowship with Jesus Christ is sweet 422 Free-set many think they are by Jesus Christ and yet deceived 517 Free-going in the acceptable year three things did hinder 530 Free-set that we might be what is to be done 533 Freedom there is 1. Invisible Both by grace 518 2. Visible Fruitfulness what growth is there in this 600 G God himself is to be much dwelled upon 635 Going forth what is meant by it 478 Gospel is an incomparable benefit 526 Grace the riches of it to poor sinners 457 Graee is either 1. Relative 562 Or 2. Inherent 564 Grace will grow by the opposition it meets withal either from 1. Without 601. Or 2. Within 602 Grace relative labour to grow more and more in the assurance of it 616 Graces three which respect the root Jesus Christ 593 Grow as Calves of the Stall the comparison wherein it stands 559 Grow when is any thing said so properly 565 Grow up in Christ before this be there must be implantation into him 567 Grow in Grace they do though no sooner converted but they die 579 See Children Grow if you do not conclude one of two things 558 Grow many do worse and worse 589 Grow how to know it 591 Grow the Motives to it 617 The Helps to it 621 Grow we must according to our measure 638. And herein help each other 641 Grow many may though they perceive it not 627 Growing up into Christ what is there in the expression 570 Growing to such as think they are not Comfort 643 Growth spiritual the nature of it 562 and the Arguments to prove it 577 Growth the greater it is the more honour and service God hath 583 Growth compared to Trees or Plants 592 Growth is placed 1. In the Uuderstanding 596 2. In the Will 598 Growth wherein to look to it 604 H Head the Glory of it wherein it lies 571 Heal if we could our selves yet our wound is incurable 449 Healing what is meant by it 438 Healing what it brings 440 Healing is not in us 448 Healing concerns two sorts of Persons 470 Heart-softness in this labour to grow 614 c. wherein it lies ibid. Humility as it grows so do we grow 595 Humility in this Grace labour to grow 613 Hypocrites may grow in some things 620 I Inlargement promised to a soul what is it 481 K Knowledge In this Grace labour to grow 604 L Liberty spiritual 1. It s subject 482 2. Its causes 483 3. Its parts 485 4. Its degrees 508 Light our from whence comes it 422 Love to Christ works the soul to a kindly hatred of sin 465 Love to Jesus Christ herein labour to grow 608. And that for several ends 609 Love towards one another herein labour to grow 612 M Malachy what it signifieth 411 Members grow not alike in the same measure 573 Mercy in this Grace labour to grow 613 Ministry all for what end 620 Ministers are to labour to grow 639 O Obedience slavish is a bondage 498 Ordinances wait diligently on the Lord in them 427 Ordinances being used conscientiously and diligently tend to growth 629 P People under the influences of the Sun of Righteousness are in a growing condition 560 Planted in Christ such as never were grow worse and worse 590 Prayer is a great means to increase Grace 624 Prayer what is it 625 Professed the Name of Christ many have and yet are fallen 589 Profession of Christ such as make and grow not are in a sad condition 587 S Saints Communion is to build up each other 637 Sin is a comprehensive evil 442 Sin hath ill qualities and consequences 444 Sin is the first general part of bondage 490 Sin the guilt of it is a part of bondage 494 Sin is a grievous bondage 512 Sin though it lie hard â—pon any soul yet shall it be overcome 555 Sâ—ns yoak to such as are strugling under it comfort ibid. Soul-distempers hinder growth 632 Spirit how he is grieved 545. And therefore cautions not to grieve him 546 Spirit properly is not grieved ibid. Sun Christ is to his people 414 Sun wherein doth the resemblance between Christ and it hold 416 Sun they that have it risen upon them are the children of the day 421 Sun of Righteousness against its shinings shut not the windows 424 Sun that God would give such is cause of admiration 427 Sun of Righteousness why is Christ so called 431 T Them that feared the Lord what is meant by that 429 Things best in them labour to grow 617 Truth will set a man free 533 V Vnderstanding in this let us try our growth 596 W Walking holy with God herein labour to grow 615 Wings of the Sun of Righteousness what is meant by that 435 Wings of the Sun of Righteousness what are they 436 Wings why so called 437 Word of God to such as tremble at it comfort 475 Wounded them that are so Christ pittyeth 463 The last Table containing the general and particular Heads as they follow in their order in the foregoing Subject Christ his Willingness to accept humbled Sinners THe Text opened 651 Out of which this Point of Doctrine issues That the Lord Jesus will not cast out any poor soul that cometh to him 652 Here is observed First That coming unto Christ presupposeth 1. Hearing 2. Learning ibid. By Hearing is understood 1. The usual means of Salvation 654 2. Some whisperings motions and secret workings of the Spirit ibid. By Learning is understood first the opening of the understanding 655 and thus a poor soul is taught 1. That he is lost in himself 2. That he must not lie securely in this condition ibid. 3. That there is no help in the Creature 656 4. That nothing can skreen him from the wrath of God but Jesus Christ 657 5. That Christ is willing to let out of his oyntments to heal ibid. Now for the Acts wherein
One day instanced in as a taste Good Evil. In morning Closet duty not altogether without his presence studied my Sermons not altogether without him blessed be his Name My heart but in a listless frame this day In evening Closet duty by way of preparation very sweet meltings and outgoings of my soul after the Lord blessed be the Lord. Yet some distractions 1. He was very observant not only of the Out-breaches of sin but of its internal stirrings and more spiritual actings The very thoughts of his heart if irregular he carefully recorded and bitterly bewaited Instance O my proud thoughts rising and bubbling up this day 2. He set a watch not only before the door of his lips but before the door of his heart also with which he took unwearied pains being indeed the Fort-Royal either of Christ or Satan Instance 1. This day I could not get my heart in tune though I took an hour or two hours pains with it 2. Endeavouring some hours with my heart and yet alas it remained very untoward I could do little or nothing 3. Through mercy I desire a clean heart 3. Time he accounted precious and improved it to spiritual purposes and the best advantage Instance This day up early or This day lay long sluggishly Read 4. Hebrew Chapters with notes profitably Read 60. pages in Dr. Preston Studied my Sermons 4. The sight of sin did exceedingly sadden Instance 1. In examination of my self March 9. 1652. Through mercy I have a sight and sense of my sins and am affected and pained under the burthen of my daily wants 2. In closet-duty much humbled for the sins of the day before and melted 3. Many wandrings to the burthen of my soul 5. The sinful adherences of the best duties he recorded with regret and sadness of spirit Instance 1. Not altogether without him in duty though but dry and some wandrings of heart in duty At Supper-Ordinance ah my wandrings In prayer poor and in preaching 2. In morning closet-duty I could do nothing my heart very untoward full of vain thoughts in the evening meditation which put me out of order 3. In afternoon prayer before Sermon but little affected and though my self had little enlargement this day yet I perceive it was profitable to others God would hide pride from mine eyes 4. Distracted and formal in singing 6. Powerful assistance in holy services he gratefully recorded Instance In Baptizing of my son Job my heart much drawn out in prayer 7. Yea the least income and assistance was not passed by in silence Instance Not altogether left in evening closet-duty 8. The ebbings and flowings of the Spirit he distinctly considered Instance In the morning closet-duty not so much of his presence as in the evening closet-duty though indeed much melted after some pains taken with my heart 9. Diabolical injections he detested with highest indignation against which he was a reverberating wall of brass Instance This day pestred with blasphemous and horrid thoughts to my loathing to my wounding O horrid O abominable 10. To the distressed he gave friendly visits Instance Spent this day in visiting a condemned man and divers widows in sickness and sorrow 11. He made God the ultimate end of all his actings Instance Though much mixtures of self yet I desire to make God the great end of all my duties preachings prayers 12. He was wholly at the dispose of God contented to follow the conduct of Providence even through thorny waies Instance I hope I am made willing to come to him through any condition any tribulation taking up the Cross 13. When any spiritual distemper was upon him he would presently inquire into its causes Instance What may be the cause of my streightness and deadness now 1. Haply not being so thankful for enlargements when I had them 2. Haply because I cannot bear such enlargements I have not humility enough 3. Haply because I satisfie my self with them and not follow that which I preach 4. Haply a spirit of envy against others 5. Haply I more affect to have the hearts of the people ther the heart of God 6. Because I want love to poor souls and may mind more the setting forth my self then edification 7. Haply because I mind more enlargements and gifts then grace 8. Haply because I do not take the fittest time when my heart is in the best frame for study 9. Haply because more troubled at the want of enlargement then at all the sins which have caused it 10. Haply for want of searching Scriptures diligently constantly 14. Success of labours O how sweet and solacing Instance The 14. day His presence with me in preaching and prayer very much blessed be his name Several touched by that Sermon as the Nurse and my maid and Mrs. Taylor and my sister Hastings her maid who came to me afterwards A sweet pledge of his presence and since I hear divers others were stirred through much mercy at that Sermon 15. He was much inlarged in a way of thankfulness for mercies received Instance 1. In my journey from Cork to Dublin neer the passage to the Long Iland not looking to my horse he was ready to step down a deep precipice near the Sea Watchless over my thoughts that day 2. Afterwards at Clemell I had like to have run up into an infected house but the Lord prevented me I had much sweetness in Communion with God before 3. Delivered from fire in my study which lay smothering under the harth three daies undiscovered 4. The maid Elisabeth set fire on the bed with the child in it which if the Lord had not prevented all had been consumed 5. My wife and children wonderfully preserved two Bricks falling down the chimney they sitting by the fires side 16. The Lord God he made the object of his ardent desire and delight Instance Before the Supper upon examination I could find none in heaven or earth I did desire in comparison of God 17. He sought not happiness in himself or any other creature Instance Through mercy I renounce my own merit and all things in the world as an happiness and therefore resolve to seek the chief Good in Gods favour in Jesus Christ 18. Christ was high in his esteem and the dearly beloved of his soul Instance Through mercy I desire to prize the Lord Jesus above all that he may be precious to me 1 Pet. 2. 6. 19. In preparation for Fast-daies he would unbosom and unbowel himself before the Lord He did not only skim off the uppermost froth of his heart but would search every nook and crany and fetch up mud from the very bottom Instance 1. O how proud and apt to be lifted up upon all occasions 2. How envious against others 3. Of late I have been very dead and formal in all services publike and private 4. Very backward to any service of God not constrained by love 5. Very trifling away my precious time 6. Very sluggish not up early about things
pressing that we are capable of indeed For he setteth before us Life and Death life if we close with him death if we refuse him reject him It is not a thing wherein we may choose or refuse and no wrong to our souls no brethren but he tells us let our condition be what it will be we as dead as we may if we close with him we shall be quickned there is warmth enough in his bosom to revive us there are spirits enough in his love to fetch us again O we shall live condemnation shall be taken away for there is no condemnation to them that are in Jesus Christ our bolts and shakles shall be removed the obligations of our souls to the Justice of God it shall cease O brethren here is the case now a poor condemned woman ready to perish the Prince hath so much compassion on her that he intreats her but to accept of him to be espoused to him promise him marriage if so he will pardon all that is past she shall have her life Is not this a pressing Argument 〈…〉 doubtless it is to such a one as this when death is even present to her before her face is ready to be turned off the Ladder and now an offer cometh O if you will but Marry the Prince you shall be saved though before she refused and the Argument had not such force in it because the thing was at a distance yet now you would think her desperate indeed that should refuse it So brethren the Lord Jesus he doth at other times yea and when the soul is as it were on the wrack upon the Ladder under strong convictions the Sentence is received and it is even going forth to execution O now here is life and death before thee wilt thou now marry me be a spouse to me saith the Prince the Lord Jesus the King of Kings Are not these pressing Arguments 2. Again another he useth is his precious blood that he hath not thought too dear for us O brethren when he beseecheth us by such an Argument as this is by the Mercies of God as the Apostle hath it will it not turn all that is within us to him If a man though but inferior to a woman should shew so much love as to expose his life to hazard for her would it not be strong a Argument when he cometh to wooe her O remember my life my blood is not dear to me that it may go well with you will not this move her there 's a heart of stone it must needs be so Why truly brother this is the Argument every time that you have Jesus Christ held out Crucified before your faces O do you not hear how every wound speaks to you as well as for you to the Father O sinners why are your hearts no more towards me have I not dyed for you my blood my life was not dear to me for your sakes If you will not believe me Behold my hands and my feet yea my sides and my heart look upon me in the Garden trace me there where it trickled down my weary body and see how I have loved you and will you still refuse me will you still think that my heart is not towards you or shall your hearts not yet be towards me Yea have I not been willing to lose the light of my fathers countenance to be under a defection to be eclipsed for you which was so much the purer though nothing so dear to me as his love and it were upon me in the greatest heat and glory and my heart most affected with it yet to suffer an eclipse for you and will you not close with me will you not be perswaded 3. Again once more in the most pressing manner and powerful he followeth us up and down with these Arguments O with what bowels how do they yâ—rn over us every step he followeth us O why will you dye why will you endure the everlasting chains to pay the uttermost further when I offer you my merits my satisfaction for all your debts Look upon him weeping over Jerusalem O Jerusalem Jerusalem O with what affection that is the edge indeed of an invitation O if he were now Preaching to you I believe brethren he would do it with bowels And so did Paul that Saint in whom grace did so abound and to him O he warned them day and night with tears O why will ye dye will ye not believe will you not close with me can you find in your hearts to slight me set light by my love that is so drawn out towards you O what love is here brethren And then with what diligence and patience often he would have done this and wayts long How many years have some of us been thus besought to close with a Crucified Christ Again secondly This may serve for ever to keep us low if love work kindly so it works it melteth down the heart the very mountains high and towring thoughts and imaginations flow at his presence you see how it humbled Abigail when David sent to woo her she bowed her self with her face to the earth and said behold let thine hand mayd be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. A Spouse to David Gods Anointed I am not worthy let me be a servant not worthy to wash his feet yea the meanest servant a servant to his servants to do the meanest offices for them to wash their feet So Ruth when Boaz took but notice of her and spake kindly of her Whence is it saith she that my Lord should take knowledge of me who am but a stranger yea thou hast spoke comfortably to me or to my heart though I be not like one of thy hand-mayds It is true the Lord would not upbraid his people with what they have been nor doth he ever do it yet they should keep it before them continually to keep them low So he saith he will betroth his people after their going a whering from him there is much in that expression and one thing among the rest is conceived to be this by Mr. Burroughs upon Hos That he would forget her former unkindness and unfaithfulness and she should be now not onely as an unfaithful wife received again but Marryed as a virgin as if she never had departed But though the Lord will not upbraid us as James saith yet we should keep upon our hearts the sense of our former vileness when the Lord first met with us in the way of his love so Paul doth I am sure God never tells them after the first time Why persecutest thou me he never told him afterward he had been a persecuter and what a blasphemous wretch he had lived But Paul by the spirit of grace and power in him he often looks upon his feet upon what he had been and that kept him in so sweet an humble frame O I am less then the least Saint Shall the thoughts of love from David
them to one Husband now to watch over them to take such care of them and pains with them that having escaped the pollutions of the world they may not return any more to them but be kept pure and holy to the Lord and therefore saith the Apostle I am jealous over you with a godly jealousie jealousie is a kinde of fear sorrow and anger It is the rage of a man saith Salem indeed it doth as it were raise a man above himself carry him out of himself therefore saith the Apostle bear with me if by reason of my earnestness I seem to be out of my self it is for your sakes I am jealous for you saith the Apostle And what was the matter they were in danger to be seduced by false Apostles to be corrupted from the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and this was that the Apostle was jealous over them for and surely brethren it is commendable and imitable I plead not for passion and wild-fire but a holy zeal for the glory of Christ the well-fare of souls we ought not to be cold but zealous jealous for you brethren if in danger of seducing at any time this is a large duty indeed we are apt to sleep especially if sang asleep by the delusions of weakness and mildness and love falsly so called and then the mischief is done but enough of this I hope you see there is cause enough to pray for us 5. Another Vse then shall be tending to the wooing of some poor souls this day to accept of the Son of God the Lord Jesus and of his love and to make up the match with him this is our work indeed And O that it might prosper in the hand of a poor unworthy servant and friend of the Bridegroom this day you have heard Who he is and What he is you have heard already the glorious priviledges which arise from a closure with him yea how often have you heard these things and yet you are coy and hang back I am come this day brethren to tell you the sum of the message is that the Lord Jesus is willing to have you if you be willing to have him How long shall the Lord Jesus follow you with these mercies the price of his most precious blood and yet you slight him What can you desire that is not to be had in Jesus Christ If you would have beauty he is the chief of ten thousand If you would have riches you shall have all things with Christ how shall he not with him give us all things Would you be honourable those are truely honourable that God honours now he will honour them that will honour him and honour his Son And wherein is he and his Son honoured but in this if we believe in his name give him the glory of his mercy and faithfulness 〈…〉 at I were able to speak of him so as that you might some of you fall in love with him this day Shall I a little stir you up to this First If you have him not you are like to live and dye under that cruel husband the Law and Sin the Law as it is the strength of sin which is the cruellest bondage in the world the Law 1. It commands a most absolute obedience and conformity to it self there must not be the least turning aside to the right hand or to the left not a lota be missed all things obeyed and continued in and that upon pain of an eternal curse cursed is every one that continueth not in every thing which is written to do it it is a most rigorous exacter of obedience to its cominands there is no pitying no sparing as there is now in Jesus Christ he pityeth and spaâ—eth as a father his son as a husband his spouse If a man could from his youth up keep all and but miss it in a word in a vain thought all his life time there is no pity no sparing it condemneth to the lowermost â—ell O what a condition are you in sinners upon whom all your breaches of this Law doth lye 2. It is a cruel bondage because it giveth no strength if it did impose never so much if it did give any strength it were something It is true we had strength which God gave us at the first until we wantonly fell and broke our bones so brought weakness upon our selves but now in this condition yet we are under the Law as a husband which will command peremptorily but giveth us no power like the the Egyptians task-masters they would have them make bricks and yet give them no straw and yet the Law is holy just and good Now the Lord Jesus what he commandeth he giveth strength to perform 3. It admitteth of nosurety we must do it our selves obey to the utmost our selves or else be ruined to the utmost perish to the utmost cursed is every one that continueth not in every thing one man cannot be accepted for another the soul that sinneth it shall dye And 4. Yea more then all this It provokes us as we are corrupt to break it as a bank against a strong stream it maketh it swell and rage the motions of sin which were by the Law this is by the Law but not from the Law but from our corrupt hearts but sin takes occasion by the commandment nitimur in vetitum cupimusque negata like wild Asses Colts when the law cometh to yoak us and hamper us we break the yâ—ak and the bands as the Prophet speaks will not endure to be held Now is not this a sad condition to be under such a hus 〈…〉 d as this and yet how many of us are in this case and contented so to be Well remember brethren the end of these things will be bitterness and death that is the wages 2. Another Motive may be this he is ready to close with you if ye be ready to close with him be you what you will never so vile in your own eyes for it may be this is the discouragement of many they would rather then their lives have the Lord Jesus for a husband but alas there is no beauty in them he is the chief of ten thousand and they are the vilest of ten thousand the chief of sinners he altogether lovely they altogether loathsom He is white and ruddy they are black and bloody lying in their blood and filthiness cast out to the loathing of their persons and what hope can they have that he will accept of them very great hopes brethren for this is the tenour of the Gospel to be preached to every Creature without exception or Limitation and every one that believeth in him cometh to him he will in no wise cast out if he would what had become of Paul or Manasseh say not then Alas I am poor and miserable and naked yea Leprous and filthy and therefore it is not for for such a one as I to think on Christ indeed thou canst
proceedings with me Though he did well to retain his integrity and justifie that before men yet it was too much boldness to offer to enter into judgement with God and so earnestly to desire that day Alas brethren when he shall bring to light the depths of our hearts that we never saw who shall stand before him at his coming thus to lay us open if he enter into judgement with us indeed 5. It reproveth another sort and those are they that when their Consciences are a little galled happily by the Word or some other way they are ready to cry out for the day of the Lord they think mans judgement and mans day is very hard and harsh and hope to be relieved by this day of Jesus Christ doth the Lord make his Ministers sometimes sons of thunder and is not he the Father the God of thunders then is your day brethren so dreadful that you cannot bear it if while he sitteth to purge as a refiners fire you be scorched with that so that you cannot abide the day of his coming do you think to help your selves by putting yourselves upon the everlasting burnings It is true the word of God is a fire and if it get into a sinners Conscience it will scorch and burn and make the soul even fâ—y again but what is this to the flaming vengeance wherewith the Lord Jesus shall be clothed when he appeareth and his coming is you think we handle you roughly sometimes and you shall find more tender usage from the Lord Jesus O he is more merciful full of bowels indeed he is so infinitely more merciful but you will find him to be infinitely just as well as merciful Sinners he hath a Go ye Cursed as well as Come ye blessed to pronounce he will handle you more weightily then Creatures can if you be not ready for his appearing If you cannot bear the smoke of the bottomless pit over which you are held it may be sometimes will it be a mending your condition to leap out of the smoke into the fire It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God therefore it may serve to reprove such as would hasten this day of the Lord and yet can have no hope the Lord knoweth in the Evil day The next Vse shall be then to stir us up every one to wait for this day this coming of Jesus Christ specially the people of God You that hope for mercy in that day as he prayeth for the house of Onesiphorus what should we do but wait for it Yet indeed it may reach the Condition of all whether good or bad If he delay his coming then wait for his coming Onely the waiting of the people of God is somewhat of a different nature And therefore let me speak a little distinctly to the waiting of the Saints of God for that day wrerein there are two or three things included as several branches of this duty 1. There must be a love and desire to this coming of Jesus Christ and this presupposeth that that day and the coming of it will be good to the people of God for we cannot love or desire or will any thing evil under the formality of evil be a good day a day of transcendent gladness of heart when the Bride shall be taken by the Bridegroom presented to his father without spot or wrinkle or any such thing when there shall never be any estrangement between the Lord Jesus and the soul any more never any withdrawing any clouding any disturbance of peace any more will not this be a good day when our grace shall be all glory then shall we appear with him in glory And therefore Job speaks after this manner I know that my redeemer liveth c. in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another therefore it is the same body by the which and not a new one which never had union with the soul before though my reins be consumed within me so we read it that is to say though inwards as well as outwards are consumed in the grave yet I shall see him but though is not in the Original and therefore it may be read without my reins are consum'd within me the reins are the s 〈…〉 of the desires therefore I have such desires after that day that even my reins are spent in them and consumed by them this is going forth to meet him indeed It is not every Christian that can desire this but such as are ready for his appearing whereof afterwards But then Secondly 2. In this waiting there is an Act of faith also to be put forth cast not away your confidence that believe there will be such a day it is certain though it be future though we see it not yet because he hath said it therefore believe it and if we so believe we shall not make hast that is to say more hast then is meet press hard forward toward the Mark Phil. 3. 13. 14. we ought to do but we should not take any indirect course to bring our selves to it so much the sooner as some by a dispatching themselves under a temptation when faith is overwhelmed or else by such cruel macerating of the body to beat it down that the frame of it should be quickly be dissolved though we should be weary of the body of sin and we cannot well be weary of it yet faith now should eye that glorious liberty of the sons of God and it maketh it present It is the substance of things hoped for it giveth it a being already and therefore this also is implied in this waiting And then 3. In this waiting brethren for his appearing which is proper to the Saints there is a patient continuance in the waiting a patient continuance in well-doing the Apostle mentioneth there should be desires not a fit and start but a Continuance in them and so a drawing out the acting of faith believing that day will come which shall put an end to all our fightings without and terrors within when we have need of patience when we have done all that we might receive the recompence the promise of temptation whether inward or outward our patience is put to it very sore yea and in a fit of ravishment with Christ then we would have no delay but in heaven we would be even that very moment and those holy flames are sweet but yet if the Lord see it good for Paul to continue in the Body and he must yet undergo more for Christ before he come to raign with him why he is satisfied and so ought we to wait patiently for this his appearing The Virgins waited it should seem and were forward and ready but their patience held not out as it should therefore labour for this But then Secondly For the waiting of Sinners Wait for this day for it will it come
prick and beat her yong ones out of the Nest else they would be lazy and sleep there Well surely brethren If love and sweetness will not do it gall and vinegar must awakened we must be for sure we cannot go to heaven in a sleep and how terrible will it be if we put him to it thus to teach us by terrible things in righteousness and mercy It is faithfulness and mercy to us he will be at the pains with us And then brethren let me but add this only When the Lord Jesus shall deal thus with us we that now are so fast asleep we may sleep then if we could there will come such a day upon us surely if the Lord do not in tender compassions awaken us before hand It is a bitter ironical reproof the Disciples had need of such sharpness in the reproof for milder words would not do sleep on now saith our Saviour it is enough what did our Saviour allow them to sleep surely nothing less specially all this time for that his next words are arise let us go hence behold they are at hand who betray me why then they could have little list or leasure to sleep but our Saviour doth with a holy mocking of them as I may say Well you have been sleeping all this while now take your rest now sleep if you can now you shall have your hearts so full of cares and fears and be sobeset with temptations you shall have little list to sleep A righteous hand upon them for their sluggishness as the young man rejoyce O young man in thy youth c. and let thine heart chear thee but remember for all this God will bring thee to judgement Well brethren as light as you may make of this you that love sleep and give your selves to security when this day cometh upon you it will make your hearts ach The Lord perswade us of it I desire not the woful day to any of you but rather that you may escape Again Another Vse of the Point may be then for such as are kept through the Almighty grace from this sleeping it may be when others are sleeping about thee one in this corner another in that thou art lively thy graces are kept in vigor thy sweet communion with Christ maintained O how much how infinitly art thou engaged to the Lord Jesus magnifie his grace How many considerations here might be heaped up to heigthen your prayses that the high prayses of God might be in your hearts and mouths As 1. To consider It s meerly free mercy that maketh this difference between thee and the most sluggish Professor most slothful sleepy Professor For it is not surely brethren because they have improved the grace which thou hast received better then others have done it may be others have received more grace and walked as diligently as thy self and yet notwithstanding left to some fearful fall to stupifie or deaden them asleep O magnifie his grace that thou art thus far kept again 2. To consider How much misery and sin thou dost hereby avoid the loss of Jesus Christ and his presence c. O it is unspeakable for what sin what temptation will not take with a poor soul when he is in this drousie condition As Lot in his sleep what would he not do the soul asleep and in security what would he not do the things that now the soul abhors the thought of them if thou hadst been left to such a sleep as this is thou wouldst have made nothing of as wel as others as you see in the fearful example of many apostatizing Professors in these days that have walked very strictly before which surely as it should minister matter of holy fear and trembling to us so of great prayses to the Lord. And then the misery to awaken us to put us to those distractions which have been already spoken to Besides 3. To consider What great advantage thou hast now above many others Thou hast the presence of God which others want thou hast the light of his countenance thou hast many a sweet communion with him which others want being left to this sleepy condition they have slept away their harvest thou art kept awake to gather in the Summer O how rich in grace may such a soul grow if he do but know his season and opportunity and are not these great matters of praise Again in the next place then brethren if we be so apt to sleep Let us consider one another to provoke to stir up suffer not one another to sleep Indeed brethren so far as we are defective in this duty of love one to another so far we our selves are asleep O be ye followers of Jesus Christ and be full of love as he was he cometh to his Disciples and findeth them fast asleep what doth he do let them alone or refuse Communion with them no he stirreth them up giveth them a reproof to provoke them and he doth it again and again and again And so in the case of Peter he did you know look upon him otherwise what had become of him so he would not let Jonas or David go in their Conditions but sendeth a Prophet to one and sendeth a storm after the other to awake him and afterward cometh himself And so the Church in the Canticles see how he cals upon her there and afterward cometh nearer O Brethren that I might be counted worthy this day to speak one word home to some poor sleeping soul to awaken you either a word of love or a word of terror I have spoken both but will you remember this as a duty Doubtless we have occasions before us every where do we not know many lazy sleepy Christians do we not judge them to be so where are our bowels towards them why do we not shake them do our endeavour would we not be sorry to see them forsaken of Christ altogether as to their sense and sadly lamenting after him would we not be sorry to see them battered and bruised with the temptations of Satan in this sleepy condition are they not in danger shall we see them lie as a prey just ready for the Devils mouth and not endeavour to stir them up to remove that drowfie frame from them the Lord help us brethren such as are more wakeful among us for I believe some there are that the Lord hath magnified his grace towards exceedingly in this respect O how can you improve your mercy better then thus by stirring up others that they may enjoy the same sweetness in Communion and close fellowship with the Lord as your selves do But thus much for this Use also Vse 7. Then Let us be tender in judging one anothers Condition judge not a mans state by the present frame that is upon him Come into a Garden in Winter and there is no appearance of any flowers the roots are within the ground shall we conclude therefore there are none no so in this case
Sometimes the Lord sendeth a long and a loud cry a grievous and heavy visitation upon many of us yea upon his own dear children as I have known some the Cry hath been he is coming go forth to meet him make ready Or if it be a stroke that he removeth again before we go hence and we recover strength again yet the Cry of it is Behold he cometh go forth to meet him for we know not whether death be not in the cup of affliction we drink at any time Thirdly Then for the relative consideration of the Cry with respect to his coming whereof it is a warning It is to be considered whether it be so immediate yea or no as there can be no time of preparation after it which seemeth not to suit with the parable here It seemeth by the parable if I may insist so much upon these particulars 1. That there was some time between the cry and his coming as there is some time between the Harbinger and the coming of his Lord whose way he prepareth because the Virgins here seem to have some time to trim their Lamps even the wise virgins and for the foolish it should seem by the parable they had some time to trifle away in buying or going to assay it but this I will not press or urge too much onely sure it is that the wise virgins being found asleep after the warning had time and a heart given them to prepare to trim them And therefore If we understand it of them which shall be found alive at the last day remember this Some it may be will not be so asleep and yet need some preparation too Some may be asleep and therefore will need some preparation Now it is said that at the voice of Christ then coming with his Trumpet those that are alive shall not prevent them that are asleep go to heaven before them But the dead in Christ shall rise first and what time there will be for it or whether in a moment I am not able to determine Or whether they shall in a moment be changed soul and body that are alive and so made ready to enter with him into glory Or whether there shall be time for the working of it I cannot say but if their Lamps want trimming their graces want furbishing they shall have it But if by the cry then you understand the Gospel preached then they may have time enough 2. If there be time between the cry and his coming to take his own to himself it seemeth not to be much but how much or how little we cannot say If the cry be the sickness or messenger of death which is sent to them there is usually some time and not very much given sometimes more sometimes less And so were the word importunately prest an awakening word to rouze the poor secure people of God there may be more or less time between this cry and Christ his taking them to himself but some time it seems there is for their trimming of their Lamps But so much for Explication The Arguments now wherefore there is such a cry before the coming of Jesus Christ The great reason is clear here in the Text It is because men are asleep many of them both real Saints and formalists they are asleep and deep asleep and therefore there cometh a cry to awake them it is not an ordinary voyce will do it but a Cry Some Boanerges a son of thunder to raise poor sleepy sinners that he may not take them in a sleep Let not men think though now they have a stil voyce of the word and they can make a shift to sleep notwithstanding they are Sermon-proof If this will not awaken he vvill have another cry that shall avvaken them he will roar upon them out of heaven thunder upon them but he vvill vvaken them While men are asleep they are not fit to meet the Lord Jesus in his coming to judgement whether it be to acquit them or to condemn them If it be in mercy to take them to himself while they are in a sleep they are not fit to meet him their Ornaments are laid aside their Lamps want trimming as the Text hath it there and therefore they must be awaked Besides they are not fit to take notice of the infinite and unsearchable riches of his grace manifested therein to them in gathering them to himself if we should be called for in some fâ—ame that we are in sometimes truly we should not be able to take comfort in our meeting with him nor would he have any glory in our departure and therefore usually he doth awake his people stir up their graces that they may shine and be active when he cometh to gather them and then if he come in judgement as against these foolish virgins to blow out their Lamps in obscure darkness except they be awake in some measure and their Consciences opened they will not be sensible of it but when the Conscience of an hypocrite is a little rouzed O what fearful pre-apprehensions there will be of the displeasure of Christ they are not fit to receive the sentence of condemnation except their Consciences were rouzed and therefore the Lord doth oftentimes if not alway awaken the Conscience the heart was never awake but alway asleep but the Conscience hath been asleep and now it must be awaked ut sentiat se mori It never troubled the foolish virgins though their Lamps were gone out all the while they slept and if they had dyed in that sleep they had as certainly perished but not so sensibly nor so severely as knowing the terrors of God which belong to them before and the Lord will have them to lie down in the confusion of their souls for their folly in resting themselves contented with a profession without the possession of Jesus Christ without this oyl in their vessels Another ground may be for the Majesty of the coming of Christ that there may be the more reverence and awe of his Majesty therefore he hath a Messenger going before his face as Princes use to do and happily in their Marriages of great persons there might be some such thing surely this is one reason wherefore he cometh at the last day one piece of the glory of his appearing the voice of the Arch-Angel the Trumpet of God so the cry that goeth before it is much for his honour and Majesty that all the Messengers he sends Either Afflictions or Ministers all their Message almost to his people is to prepare for his coming to fit them for that appearing To render hypocrites inexcusable since they have a cry going before them to awaken them out of their sleep to set them awork to get their grace this oyl in their vessels they might have said if they had been taken asleep why if they had had any warning they would have done as others did but now they are awaked rouzed by this cry and yet alas they cannot
reserve to sinners against the fear of the other though God be not at our beck yet he hath promised if we return and repent he will accept be it when it will I but what comfort is this except men believe thatthey can return when they please they can receive Christ and close with him at any time Can you so Surely brethren if this were so no man would hardly go to hell that is convinced there is a Christ to be had and salvation through him and him alone O be not mistaken you know not your selves how many resolutions of reformation have many of you broken you see you cannot command your hearts Epâ—r im was sensible of it O turn thou me and I shal be turned can you think a good thought of your selves what solly is it then for men presuming upon their own strength which is none to neglect the season when the Lord offers his Spirit and grace yea and striveth with us by his Spirit many times and yet we will not but put it off Then it may serve to stir us up every one to cut off all delaies whatsoever and now brethren while it is called to day to get this oyl in your Vessels that you may not have it to do when you should in the greatest extremity use it Alas brethren I am a child and cannot speak and O that the Lord would perswade by his Spirit this day now since he hath given you another Sabbath and another opportunity to be called upon what doth the Lord yet say unto thee Seek his face will you not be clean will you not close with Iesus Christ O when shall it once be O answer the Lord and say to day Lord Jesus to day will we close with thee we will put it off no longer blessed be the Lord that hath not taken the advantage against us and put an end to our day of grace long since O admire that mercy and now improve it lay hold upon the opportunity Shall I a little stir you up to this 1. Consider I pray you and believe that it is the greatest design of Satan to fool us out of our salvation to draw away from us day after day untill we have not one day more to live when God cries to day to day to day If you will hear his voyce harden not your hearts who is it think you that crieth to morrow to morrow that Corvina vox as Augustine calls it Cras cras Surely it is Satan that Lier that will not stick to contradict the Lord and what is the devills intent in this think you doth he mean you shall repent to morrow as he saith no I warrant you but when to morrow is come it will be to morrow still and the next day it will be to morrow still and O how this pleaseth him to steal away our precious time and rob us of our lives our day of grace and our souls at once If you be ignorant of this device of Satan know it this day for a truth The devil careth not if all the world were such Christians in the future tense Semper vic 〈…〉 as Seneca saith but never live indeed they will and they will but never do it the Lord make you wise to discern this cunning craftiness of the wicked one 2. Do but consider How long a day of grace you have had many of you already you have even grown old under the means of grace and yet are to begin to get grace me thinketh this should shame us and warn young ones for it is likely many that are older thought they would repent and believe and close with Christ long enough before this but that to Morrow never came if we had any shame in us it might wound us and shame us that Jesus Christ should waite so long upon us and we never had a heart to give him any entertainment yet to this day If many a poor soul had had but half the patient waiting upon them what would they have been long before this 3. Though you delay the getting your grace remember that your Judgement lingers not nor Condemnation slumbreth not it cometh on apace whether you go towards heaven or no there is a set time to every poor soul wherein he shall get grace or else not for ever and how doth this hasten upon you do you know how near it is and there is a set time for â—udgement to seize upon you if you be found without grace O therefore be exhorted now while it is called to day there will be no Manna found upon the seventh day if you get it not before you are undone they found it so by experience 4. Do not expect brethren to have a second day of grace if you trifle away one if once the Apostles shaked the dust off their feet against a people sad was their condition when the Apostles turned away to the Gentiles and the Sun set among the Jews did it ever rise again surely no. Though we have a day yet remember it is but a day and one day and no more if we let it slip we are und one because we shall never have a second day Foelix put off Paul when he was so far wrought upon as to tremble he put him off untill a fitter opportunity but it never came for ought we read well if the Spirit do move and stir and strive with thee take the opportunity strike while the Iron is hot thou dost not know but this may be the last hour of the day with thee and that thou shalt never feel any such breathings more but thy heart shall ever be like a dead Sea and seared and past feeling any more 5. Untill then all our services are abomination to God let our professions be what they will and let us think as well of our conditions as we can believe it breth en our Prayers our Hearings our Receivings are abomination what do we do here to receive the Supper if we have no grace no faith no love no repentance can we be prepared do we not imbrew our hands in the blood of Jesus Christ and is not this an abomination were not the Sacrifices of the Jews abomination as if they slew a man as if they cut off a dogs neck was or could this be acceptable did not his soul hate these things and what are our sacrifices but the slaying and crucifying Jesus Christ Ah while we come with ungratious hearts to those Ordinances O how often hath many an hypocrite had his hand in the blood of Jesus Christ every such service and duty he performeth to God and is not this sad is it not high time to look about us 6. Lastly If at last you do come to get Christ and God will waite upon you so to the last as to overcome you at the last and you shall not mifcarry Suppose it be so though this is not ordinary that men should so desperately presume upon it yet it cannot
people that they did wander from mountain to hill expecting help here and there but forgot God their resting place The Raven would not return to the Ark if she could get a place to rest any where upon the earth though the Dove had no rest any where else but in the Ark. Ah what woful natures have we brethren so contrary to the God of love and fulness of bowels and compassions surely we can see nothing in him wherefore we should be so averse but the pride and rebellion of our own desperately wicked hearts how should this exceedingly humble us 2. Not only nature but it should seem they were accustomed to it also and that increased the natural inclination to it at first their sparks were of their own kindling they would have fire out of their own flint and oyl from within well this failed you so they went to the wise Virgins and were habituated in it it was a rooted evil and well watered and therefore no marvel if at the very last they thus go to them that sell Can the Ethyopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots no more can ye that are accustomed to do evil learn to do well here is a first nature and a second nature nature upon nature and what is harder to carnality then nature while it remaineth unchanged naturam expellas c. You may keep a Woolftame and train him up like a Dog to follow you but he will retain his woolfish nature still and if he have occasion will manifest it where a Creature hath been used to betake it self for refuge thither will it go in time of need the Chicken to the wing the Conies to the rocks the Fox to her holes and the Child of God to the rock what time I am afraid I will trust in thee as before and poor Hypocrite to the Creature this or that somewhat in himself or somewhat in some other as you see for this he is accustomed to to go to his prayers to the opinion of flattering persons c. 3. Another reason may be this in Professors that have long rested in a formality and now at last come to see their nakedness God plucks off their plumes letteth them see they are naked and yet they go not to Christ it may be because he holds their eyes hideth this wisdom from their eyes alas if the Lord shew us not the path of life brethren we can never find it out our selves we shall grope at noon-day though we have never so much glorious light about us and Christ be held out never so plainly to us we shall grope and wander and never have a heart to come to him as it is said of the Israelites God did not give you to this day a heart to understand O saith the Psalmist Teach me thy way and I will walk in thy truth Now God and Christ in a just displeasure against us in such a case may hide himself from us aâ—d will not be found either we shall not have an heart to seek him at all or else not an upright heart to seek him and therefore though we seek him he will not be found As this should teach us all to be humbled before the Lord for wickedness and averseness of our hearts to Christ that we will not come to him so long as we can get a drop out of our dry Bottle we will not come to the Fountain but wander up and down and weary our selves to seek rest anywhere then in Jesus Christ Hast thou been a Prodigal and hast thou known this by experience hast thou shifted and shuffled and lickâ— thy self whole as often as thou couldst and born it out by head and shoulders the Convictions thou hast had sometimes when thy Lamp hath been dying O how should this teach thee now if the Lord have notwithstanding this shewed thee the path of life shewed thee the Fountain the Olive whence the oyl is to be had indeed this should teach us I say to loath our selves Ah wretch wretch that I am that should carry such a heart toward Jesus Christ 2. It may serve to advance and magnifie the justice and mercy of the Lord on Hypocrites justice and severity that since they have loved to wander from Creature to Creature and would never come to Jesus Christ Now at the last when they must come to close with him or never he should be hidden from their eyes Is not this a righteous a severe hand are they not paid in their own coin the Lord grant we fall not any of us under this stroke of Divine justice to be left and given up to a wandring heart because we love to wander O methinks this severe hand of God upon them lying upon them to the very last should affright poor Formalists that have nothing else but a few broad leaves to be their refuge when these wither what will you do what must shadow you from everlasting burnings you will say Jesus Christ but do your hearts say so indeed and why do you not now make sure to close with him for if you wander thus up and down from Creature to Creature who knoweth whether he may not make you examples of his displeasure and suffer you yea give you up to wander as those foolish Virgins that you shall never be able to look after him because he will never look after you again And then it serveth to magnifie the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ that notwithstanding this be the natures all of us and we practise accordingly and have made many a poor shift likely to quiet a guilty accusing galled Conscience sometimes with one sometimes with another shift sometimes with a duty a prayer or tears O if we could but weep for our sins all would be well this would make a calm and we are at peace sometimes the opinion of others or sometimes our own opinion of holiness and our selves to which we have done all that we have done it may be Well that after all this now the Lord Iesus after so long being slighted and such forms and duties and fig-leaves and any broken Cisterns empty Bottles and husky vanities preferred before him that yet he should manifest himself to such to any of us and give us that true oyl of Grace in the heart whereby the sinfulness and emptiness of all our former shifts have been discovered to us O what shall we render to the Lord for his love behold what manner of love is this that will overcome all our slighting of him that will not let us alone under our fading gourds until he bring us under his own shadow and never suffer us to wander up and down from him any more have our souls tasted of this his love O bless him magnifie him make your boast in God let the humble hear thereof and be glad live his praises what can you do too much for him who hath thus loved you but so much for
of what you have heard in a great part while I have been upon this parable already and all of it doubtless at other times you have heard again and again but I would put you in remembrance as is necessary and then 2. The arguments to confirm this point and so to the Application First then a man is ready or this is a part of it when he hath gotten this oyl in his vessel without this no readiness though the foolish Virgins be awaked after their long profession and falling asleep yet you see they are unready and are all in a hurry as people unready use to be when the Bridegrom cometh they are going to them that sell that they might buy oyl therefore they were unready my meaning is Brethren untill a man hath received from the Lord the spirit of holiness to dwell in him to be a living Cruse of oyl that never fails to be a spring of grace in his soul to water and refresh and supply him in all his conditions a man is not ready to enter Paul was a chosen Vessel but though he was a strict man I pray you mind it Brethren I doubt stricter then most of us the strictest sect of the Pharisees and touching the Law blameless at least in the Pharisees sense in the outward observance of the Law which is more then many can say Well now when the Lord meeteth him going to Damascus If he had called for him out of the world had he been ready for him surely no woful had been his condition there must then be a holiness without which there is no seeing God This is one thing then he that hath the root of the matter in him the seed of God in him he is ready in part so far he is prepared 2. There must be also the brightness shining the activity of the graces they must be in act or stirred up and bettered before we can be ready for the wise Virgins were not ready though they had oyl in their vessels because their Lamps were not trimmed their oyl grew low must be supplyed therefore they go about that work in the first place If Christ had come and given them no warning but taken them sleeping they had been all unready therefore you shall find still in Scripture the graces of the Saints smell sweetest and be most lively usually toward their latter end When was Paul or David or any of them more sweet they must stand with their loins girded and Lamps burning else they are not ready altogether 3. There must be mortifying of corruption a subduing of iniquity in a good part in how great a measure is hard to say It is true at the first when we believe sin hath its deadly wound but it many times recovers in a great measure and strugleth hard for life it must have many a thrust a blow by the sword of the Spirit wielded by the hand of faith before it will die When our Saviour saw how lively that pride and ambition was in his Disciples he telleth them they must be converted and become like little children in respect of that emulation before they could enter into the Kingdom of God When sin had gotten such a hand over David had he been fit to have dyed then to have entred into glory then though I believe it cast him not out of the state of grace yet it laid him in a swoon and prevailed much against him now was he ready to enter while sin was so strong surely no We must first overcome before we sit down with him in his Throne we must fight the good fight of which this is a great part and how low the Lord will have our corruptions brought and how much deadned he will have the root of sin before he tumble down the walls of these Tabernacles of clay we are not able to say 4. A man is never ready until he can go out of all this and the main thing with him is to be found in Jesus Christ c. This is indeed the first and last upon the matter of all for Christ is all we are ready then to go in to our heavenly Father when we have our elder Brothers garments upon us when we have put on Christ which is for holiness as you have heard for redemption from our sins our vain conversations our foolish and hurtful lusts But withall if we have him not on and girded close to us for righteousness we are not ready if we have him on but he sitteth loose upon us therefore you shall find this was the main thing the Apostle Paul minded and strove after that he might be found in Jesus not having his own righteousness upon him he speaks of the day of death and appearing before him the resurrection that he may be found then in Jesus When we have done all if we deny not all we undo all again this only will terminate the sight of the Father he will see through all other coverings whatsoever therefore the Apostle prayeth that One siphorus may find mercy in that day It is mercy then that must stand us in stead even when we have done all Remember this brethren as a fourth part of this readiness 5. A finishing our work so our Saviour I have finished my work c. Joh. 17. 4 5. and thus Paul I have finished my course c. 2 Tim. 4. 7. And thus David Acts 13. 36. served his generation c. Now these are the readinesses for an entrance But we must know that some of the Saints have not only an entrance but an entrance is ministred to them abundantly into glory they go with a full sail not only make a shift though it is true they have no oyl to spare from themselves for they can spare none of their abundant entrance it is that wherein God is most glorified in them and this they cannot part with and themselves have greates comfort in Now this is not common indeed to all Believers I pray you mind that lest any poor soul should be causelesly discouraged because he findeth not that readiness for it to which afterwards we shall speak First then to this abundant entrance into glory as a readiness or preparation there is required besides a faith in Jesus Christ for righteousness holiness redemption a knowledge reflecting whereby they know that it is thus with them many a poor soul hath the salvation of God near him and Jesus Christ in their arms and knoweth it not and is weeping after Christ when he stands by him as he did Mary and it may be if they should now die they would think themselves undone the terrours of God are ready to cut them off the fear of what would become of them and yet they shall have an entrance into glory too they would not miscarry but they pass as through a narrow pinching wicket But now a man that hath a perswasion he hath an abundant entrance into glory there must be then
the evil savour of their sins upon them such as have their prison cloaths their rags by the exactest righteousness that ever creature performed upon them no no you must first come to Jesus Christ have these bolts knockt off He it is that looseth the prisoners you must first have your â—ilthy garments taken away from you and be robed with the royal apparrel such as is put upon them whom the King of Heaven delights to honour with so near an aporoach to himself for ever you must have the savour of his Oyntments anointing â—our head his Spirit poured out upon you first brethren as they used to annoint their heads with sweet oyl at their seasts before you can come to that feast sinners do not think you shall croud into heaven in the condition you are in but be perswaded in the Name of Jesus Christ first to come to him to get your hands and hearts and all washed in innocency it self in the blood of the spotless Lamb else believe it there will be no entrance for you 2. There is an external communion also which men that have no more but a profession may have eating the spiritual bread and drinking the Sacramental feast brethren which the Saints ought to come to have communion with the Lord Jesus and his people will until he come again it is not an indifferent thing Do this in remembrance of me and as often as you do it ye keep in remembrance the Lord his death until he come Now brethren we do immediatly invite you to come to Jesus Christ to close with him that you may be washed and cleansed through faith in his blood and have your hearts purified by faith in him and then to this Sacramental Communion with Jesus Christ which is a sign and pledge of this Marriage-feast in heaven as plainly our Saviour tels his Disciples I wâ—ll henceâ—oâ—th drink no more of this fruit of the Vine until I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom Well this is but the first Secondly brethren that by your now coming in to Jesus Christ you do as I may say take up your room in your places before hand at his Table in his heavenly Kingdom In which respect the Saints now are said to sit together in heavenly places and hereby you will come to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus in his Resurrection and Ascention and his Work in heaven which is to prepare a place for his people and as I may say to keep it for them and as one sweetly expresseth it wriâ—ing as I may say every ones name over his Mansion over his Place even with his own blood that none shall take it from them over their heads If Jesus Christ prepared not a place for you in heaven now brethren you will find no room at his Table Therefore now brethren Let me press this Exhortation upon you that you would come to him now even now while it â—s called to day it is his voyce brethren that speaks to you O that your ears were bored to hear the fatted Calf is killed the Lord Jesus is Crucified for sinners the Wine is mingled all is ready there wants nothing now but your coming to Dine and Sup with Jesus Christ yea indeed but your opening to him he knocks he will come to you to feast with you bring his royal dainties with him and his wine of the Kingdom his Royal Wine with him O his love which is better then wine if you will but open to him O do not nectere moras now can the Lord Jesus brethren find in his heart to have his blood poured out to become royal Wine indeed full of spirits sweet and cordial to a poor fainting soul to give his own flesh to eat which is bread indeed it is virtually all dainties therefore the Scripture setteth it forth by Wine and Milk and Honey and Bread and Marrow and Fatness the fat of the Kidniâ—s of the Wheat by Apples and Flagons Is he willing brethren to be the Feast to be fed upon and shall we not come O therefore come where the Carkass is follow not your Carrion any more the stirâ—king loathsome delights and pleasures of sin for a season Be ye no more drunk with wine but be ye filled with the Spirit of Christ saith the Apostle be Inebriated as some read it abundantly satisfied with the goodness of his House and with the flowings of his heart towards you poor sinners But me thinketh now I hear the returns that sinners make to Jesus Christ to this invitation say some I have a feast already Stoln waters are sweet and bread eaten in secret is pleasant and shall we forsake these delights we have in the world for we know not what Ah poor souls you know not what you say if this be the language of your hearts If you mouths were not much out of taste you would never judge sin a sweet thing a poor child of God that hath his taste healed though but in part he drinketh nothing in the world so bitter to him as sin that which goeth down so merrâ—ly with many Were not the Israelites mouths much out of taste when they preferred their Onions and Garlick stinking things of Egypt before their sweet their heavenly Manna their Angels bread fit for them to eat or which came by their Ministry 2. Remember this brethren though it be sweet to the taste it turns to bitterest gall as the Wise man speaks of wine that moveth it self aright it sparkles is lovely sweet to the taste at last it biteth like a Serpent and stingeth like an Adâ—er Behold such are all the delights of sin and whether you believe it or no now you shall be sure to feel it after a little season for your pleasures are but for a season So that you know not what you say if any thus excuse himself for coming Again Shall you change for you know not what Indeed you do not know for eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither can it enter into the heart of man to conceive before he hath had experience of it himself O that I might but perswade you brethren to make a tryal and if you do not find one days communion of Jesus Christ be not worth a thousand with your companions in sin then believe not this Gospel any more there is much sweetness indeed in the breasts of the world to a wordly Pallate O what drink golden drink do poor Earth-worms drink and this is their Nectar Believe it brethren if the Lord do but bring you and set your mouths to the wounds of Jesus Christ set your mouths to the sweet promises of pardoning grace and purging mercy to draw from them strong consolation you will find the other but Gall and Wormwood to you O let them perish saith Galeac and his money with him that preferreth all the world before an hours communion with Jesus Christ I pray you therefore do not
when they see the very gate of mercy shut against them O say sinners here we shall have peace though we walk after the imaginations of our own hearts to add drunkenness to thirst thoâ—gh God have told such men His anger shall smoke against that man yet they are confident nothing will drive them to seek a Christ to make their peace with him to accept of deliverance and no marvel for when they see the mouth of hell opened for them and the belly of hell moved for them and the gates of heaven shut against them and they have no Christ to appear in yet they have the face and boldness as to cry Lord Lord open to us Secondly It may teach us to have an holy jealousie and an holy pitty over poor creatures that can be and are upon their death-beds so confident so presumptuous they can come to God without a Christ having all their life long trampled his precious blood under their feet rested in their formalities and yet can cry out then to God to open to them as if thy were the only Saints upon earth and were the only men of faith Ah brethren so they may do and yet be but foolish Virgins how have they carried it in their lives they would never be perswaded to call upon God morning and evening to pray in closet in family to make sure of Christ and yet now they will not stick to appear and cry for heaven without him O this presumption will not prosper though believing alway prosper you may have the Gate of heaven shut upon you your souls shut out for ever and yet in your extremity have a Lord Lord in your mouths therefore look to it betimes before hand but enough of this The third Note of Doctrine is this Though men will not come to Christ for Grace yet they will come to him for Glory While Jesus Christ is dispensing the Grace of the Kingdom they neglect him and his Grace they are busied about somewhat else but when he is to dispense the Glory of his Kingdom then every one will come to him Luke 14. 18. They cannot come but now they will come This is clear in the present case These foolish Virgins they would not come to Christ for Grace for you see how many times they were beaten off from the Creature and yet they fastned again when their Lamps failed which were sparks of their own kindling or else some common work at most then they went to the wise Virgins not to Christ when they repulsed them sent them away empty they went to them that sold they would by no means come to Jesus Christ not a word of that and yet now the Glory of the Kingdom is to be dispensed you see n ow they cry Lord Lord open to us if they had taken this course before and cryed Lord Lord when their Lamps were gone out O Lord now we see our own sparks dye before they reach heaven O pardon this our Hypocrisie and O give us of thine oyl thou art the Olive-tree pour out of thy oyl into our vessels as they went to the wise Virgins and this in truth of heart they had had oyl they had been ready and entred with Christ no but they would not and see now when the Gate was shut upon them now they cry Lord Lord open to us they would not come to him for the wedding Garment but they would be beholding to him to let them in to the Feast without one though heaven would have held them but a little while if they had entred in that condition So the Jews They would not come to Christ that they might have life that they might have the life of Grace and then the life of Glory but they would come to him to have the life of Glory Ye shall seek me and ye shall not find me but shall die in your sins This is Esau's case prophane Esau he would not keep his birth-right when he had it nor seek it again when he had lost it but the blessing he would have without the birth-right he could part with the birth-right for a mess of pottage for his lust rather then extreme hunger as some think but the blessing he could seek it with tears The grounds of this are such as these First Because it is a principle indelebly written in nature to will happiness the end in general that is to say happiness is not that which cometh under deliberation and matter of choice at all but only the means that tend to that end no man living can possibly prevail with himself to be willing to be miserable it is as natural as for the fire to fly upward or the stone to decline downward A Balaam would die the death of the rigteous he would go to heaven when all is done notwithstanding his Sorceries and Enchantments against Jacob and Divinations against Israel A man would think such a wretch as he that would have cursed Israel fain if God would have hearkened to him a deadly enemy he was to them that he should scarce have desired to come where they should be As I have heard of some whose spleen hath been so great against the people of God that if they came to heaven they would never come thither such are worse then Balaam yet he would die the death of the righteous Secondly Because of the woful ataxie and disorder that is in all our souls whereby we are in all things preposterous in all things that are supernatural in things purely natural and civil we do not expect the end without the means none but fools and mad men do it A man would live and have his health this he desireth therefore he will eat you cannot perswade him to starve himself with hunger he will take physick though never so loathsom never so bitter to him what ever it cost him skin for skin and all he hath he will give for his life this is the highest end he hath in these things but now in spirituals there is nothing but confusion the end we do confusedly aim at we would have it doubtless there is not the veriest unbeliever that heareth this this day but would have heaven and you cannot with all the arguments you can bring make him willing to perish in an everlasting separation from God if he understand any thing what he saith yet he would have this without the means without this union and fellowship with the Lord Jesus whereby he may be made meet for it 3. Because of mens unbelief and unacquaintance with the mysterie of salvation the mysterie of free Grace in Jesus Christ they do not believe that a man must come to Christ for Grace or else they can have no Glory from him That he is the way the truth and the life they think he will save them upon any terms he came to be a Saviour of sinners and sinners they are and a Saviour he is and therefore let Ministers say what
of the inner rooms of the Text so full of sweetness and comfort Therefore first we shall speak to that promise of Christ unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings and yet before we speak to the promise it self something we must say to the notion under which he is represented in this promise and that is a Sun of righteousness from whence we will observe this Note That the Lord Jesus is a Sun of righteousness There are two things Brethren here to be cleared First that he is a Sun to his people And secondly a Sun of righteousness and what is meant by that First then for that he is a Sun if it be granted that it s he who is here meant there need not much more to be said to make it good And that its a particular promise of Christ-God manifested in the flesh surely none will question for who else is it that 's that good Physitian that can give healing but he I am the Lord that healeth thee but that will appear better afterward Let me add for the present a Scripture or two more to back this with That Christ is held forth to us in Scripture under the Metaphor of a Sun arise and shine saith the Lord to his people in their low and afflicted state he commands Babylon to come down so he would have his people to lift up their hearts arise out of the dust wherein they had wallowed Why what is the matter thy light is come the glory of the Lord is risen on thee and who is this but the Lord Jesus is it not he that was given to be a light to lighten the Gentiles to be the glory of his people Israel the Sun is the glory of the heavens and earth when it breaks out it maketh a glorious day and every thing glorious whose beauty before did not appear yea puts glory on things that had none before its strange to see Brethren things how glorious even over-dazling the eyes they appear when the Sun shines on them which have little or no glory at another time And here in the second verse darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people But the Lord shall arise on thee Well it s he that is that light that is that glory of the Lord. Add but that place in Luke where he is said to be the day-spring from on high visiting us through the tender mercies of our God its true the word there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth either the rising of the Sun most ordinarily or else the place of the Suns rising the East or else some render it a branch that did arise out of the root of Jess But me thinks that is not so agreeable to the scope of the place for the next words are to give light to them that sit in darkness therefore we may here note that the day-spring or rising of the Sun is put for the Sun it self by a Metonymie and the Sun by a Metaphor put for Christ he is the Sun which rising maketh it day yea some there are that would have it understood of the Sun at noon-day of the rising of the Sun to the meridian where it shineth most gloriously and most hot according to that in Matthew where the Sun riseth they wither that spring up quickly and have no root that is the Sun arising to its height then it scorcheth and withereth And this I will not altogether reject here because this seemeth to be spoken then comparatively because the promise is made here to the comfort of such as did then fear the Lord and may afterward fear him which could not be except the Lord Jesus this Sun of righteousness had had some influence on them therefore this may seem to be meant of his rising to the height of the increase of his glory when manifested in the flesh I mean the glory of light manifested to us though it were his own diminution but haply more of this afterward Now I will consider it only absolutely that he is this Sun The Lord is a Sun and a shield and how can he so be except it be in Christ as God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself So of a consuming fire he becometh a refreshing Sun to his people in his influences on them But wherein is Christ said to be a Sun We might follow the Metaphor very far yet not too far neither We abhor that dotage of the Manichees who said Christ's body went no further then the Sun but there it was incorporated on which account they worship the Sun But we will a little instance in two or three particulars wherein the resemblance holdeth between Christ and the Sun First the Sun is one and therefore called Sol from Solus he only hath the ruling of the day ascribed to him And so Brethren the Lord Christ is one though he be two natures yet he is but one Christ one person though he be God and man truly yet he is but one Jesus one Mediator between God and man the Lord Jesus Christ he speaks of him as man not excluding the God-head but to suit to the weakness of poor unbelieving creatures we may go the more boldly to him the distance between us now being not so great he having taken part of flesh and blood whereof the children his poor people are partakers It s true many false Christs there have been and some there are now in our daies but these alas they are but blazing Comets make a little streaming light for a while and fall into a filthy slime at last There are also some Parelii as they call them images of the Sun made in a cloud fitly disposed for such a reflexion of his beams But alas how soon do these images and appearances vanish as soon as by any disturbance the clouds cease to be so disposed the Image of a beauty in a glass in water is far from the beauty it self So do all false Christs and false Saviours whoever vanish He is but one Secondly the Sun is the glory of the heavens Moon and stars have their glory but one star differs from another in glory but there is none like to the glory of the Sun O! the Lord hath put the excellence of glory on the Lord Jesus he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shining forth of his Fathers glory he speaks here of Christ as incarnate as the glory of God did shine in the face of Moses so that the people could not behold so now the glory of the Lord shineth in the face of Jesus Christ as the Apostle hath it so that we cannot behold it it dazles our eyes stedfastly to behold this his glory as it doth to behold the Sun in his glory Here is the glory of his grace the glory of his wisdom of his mercy his power and all in Christ he is the
the heart of a sinner that was little worth before becometh a golden Vial full of odours it s concocted then the spices flow forth in the garden inclosed Seventhly the Sun dispels the mists and fogs which are unwholsom would poison the air yea and thick clouds which would muffle up the Sun from us we know this by daily experience So doth the Lord Jesus Brethren all the mists fogs and clouds of sin he dispels them for his name sake he blots out the transgressions of his people as a cloud It s the very heat Brethren of the love of Jesus Christ that consumeth as I may say melts away those clouds that they intercept not our communion and fellowship with him O! there is not a day but the streamings of our filthy hearts would gather into a thick cloud and cover his face from us were it not that the warm beams of his love did continually dispell them and scatter them we should never enjoy the light of his countenance an hour together if it were not for this and for his names sake he doth it And so the cloud of sorrow let the diseases of the people of God be what they will never so great and black clouds they are compassed about with their day is a day of gloominess and thick darkness how come these to be dispelled is it not the Sun of righteousness breaking forth on poor sinners that doth it one sight of Christ as reconciled to him puts an end unto all Eighthly the Sun is the cause of the sweet intercourse between the earth and the clouds and the clouds and the earth for its the Sun that exhales the vapours from the earth and draweth them up into the middle region of the air and there with the cold of the air its condensed into a cloud and hangs until it be dissolved and render it self to the earth again to make it fruitful and so the dew is in like manner begotten only is not far lifted up above the earth and with the cold of the night is congealed into little drops and so sweetly distills So the Lord Jesus he draweth out the hearts the affections of his people in prayers sweet breathings after himself and these prayers come down again sometimes on the same soul sometimes on another place they fall but abundance of sweetness and blessing and mercy is poured out by this means on poor creatures whereby they become fruitful Ninthly The Lord Jesus may be compared to the Sun for that the Sun Giant-like rejoyceth to run his race and who can turn him back alas all the clouds that gather about the Sun that to our apprehensions might haply seem to threaten a blotting of it out a clogging of it they are all below it It s true prayer once did hold him in his course and it looks like a word of command Sun stand thou still and so prayer may do much with Jesus Christ but not hinder him in his course riding on in his triumphant charriot conquering and to conquer enlightning poor dark places and people Before we come to the other we will a little apply this to our selves First then Brethren if the Lord Jesus be a Sun then they that have this Sun risen on them they are children of the day if the Sun be up it must needs be day and is not the Sun up Brethren among us is not the Lord Jesus gone forth as a Gyant to run his race among us we now have a day of Grace among us and how long or how short it may be I know not Brethren it seemeth to be declining in some respects and the shadows of the evening growing low O that we would be perswaded and stirred up to do the work of our day in this our day our great work which is to work out our salvation with fear and trembling I doubt if the Sun should set and the night come on you wherein no man can work you should have this work yet to do many of you especially brethren you into whose hearts the Lord Jesus this Sun of righteousness hath shone O how should you walk as children of the day not in surfetting and drunkenness I mean not with meat and fire only but with any creature-comforts and delights on this side Christ away then with all the works of darkness all practices which did suit better with the times of ignorance and blindness and now walk as becometh the light and the day that the Sun may not be ashamed to behold you Secondly Such as the Lord Jesus then hath not risen on they are yet in darkness children of the night and walk at uncertainties know not whither they go Alas many a poor soul thinketh he is as sure to go to heaven as he is to die when he is in the very rode to hell only some go in the broad trodden path open prophane impudent sinners some steal thither behind the hedge they are going to hell but in a closure walk hidden from others and from themselves Many night-Birds there are among us children of the night indeed though in one respect many of us may be said to be children of the day because Jesus Christ in the dispensation of the Gospel is held forth unto us as they are said to be the children of the Kingdom yet in respect of the inward revealing of Christ in the heart I doubt many of us are strangers to it though we fly about in the light yet we are but Owls and Bats darkness agreeth better with us our souls are full of darkness our works are nothing else but works of darkness How sad a consideration is this Brethren that in the midst of light we should be children of darkness 〈◊〉 noon-day when the Gospel is at the heighth and Christ the Sun as it were at the meridian we should be stumbling and groping as at midnight not knowing whither we go Then thirdly As there is this difference of persons where Christ cometh from them where he cometh not so it is in families and people Brethren what a sad people and family is that where they are all in Egyptian darkness Jesus Christ is not risen unto any soul among them they know him not experimentally but they are all in blindness Alas none can help another the Israelites and Egyptians though they dealed among one another in one family there was light in the other there was nothing but gross darkness that might be felt O who would live in such a family who would not haste out of such a condition you would think that a sad conditioned house that the light of the Sun and warmth of the Sun never entreth into of all places you would not live in it this is is nothing brethren to the total absence of Christ where neither Husband nor Wife nor Fellow-servant nor Children none of them have had the Lord Jesus shining into their hearts Gross darkness shall cover the earth saith the
be stirred because that maketh him sensible of his condition O! such a mans condition is very dangerous and is not this the case of our souls Brethren O! what malignity is in sin the poyson and filthyness and hurt of all diseases and wounds are little enough to set it forth by and how sensible are we of a wound of a disease of the body how insensible of the diseases of the soul Well in order to a healing the Lord give us a feeling But this is but the first But a little further to open the nature of sin on this occasion which our Doctrine administers to us that which is to be healed you have heard is sin and that which needeth healing is either a disease or wound they are correlatives that you have heard already it is therefore compared to many sorts of diseases wounds and putrifying sores and bruises But now I will speak a little Brethren to the ill qualities and consequences of sin considered as such which may tend to turn our hearts against it for the time to come First then there is pain and anguish in most diseases and in every wound and bruise and especially in cankerings festered sores this is a proper passion of a disease to have pain and truly Brethren so hath every sin a pain with it first or last it is true the cup of pleasures goeth down merily with Sinners but when it s down it is a cup of trembling to them do but look on Gain when he had sinned in pouring out his Brothers blood he quenched his bloody thirst but kindled a fire in his bowels which did consume him Oh every one that meeteth me will kill me fear hath torment as John saith and see how full of fears a poor sinner is The wicked flee when none pursueth the very stones and beasts being at enmity with them they fear they shall be murthered by each of them And how did Foelix tremble when Paul disputed of righteousness temperance and judgement to come as long as they can keep out the sight of God as they think they are well But bring a Sinner and set him as it were in the face of God let him but look on him as a righteous Judge of all the world and most mighty to execute his pleasure on Sinners and then tell me whether the stoutest hearted-sinner do not quail as usually at the hour of death for truly for the most part men seldom seriously eye their condition before then How did the Jaylour spring in trembling in the Acts Ah the Sinners in Sion are afraid Fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who shall dwell with everlasting burnings Alas the stubble will not endure before the fire no more can sinners endure to look on God as a consuming fire it maketh the very heart ach except altogether hardened from his fear to behold him because they know themselves guilty and lyable to those burnings There is saith the Apostle a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries Can a poor condemned Prisoner look on the Iudge think on the Tree on which he must be hanged on the fire but with fear and trembling Can Belshazzar read his sentence on the wall the hand-writing but with terrour his knees knocking one against another Ah Brethren methinks Sinners that are yet in their sins should not read a leaf in the Bible each leaf concerneth him is 〈◊〉 doom but he should even smite his thighs together there is so much terrour and fear accompanying sin Memoria testis ratio index timor carnifex saith Bern. As the Saints have some antipasts of Heaven a bunch of Grapes before they come to Cannan an earnest of that joy unspeakable and full of Glory so doubtless Sinners they have some hours of darkness coming on them some wrings and gripes of a guilty conscience that sometimes made some of them run to an halter to a sword for ease none knoweth the hell of a guilty conscience but such as have felt it Oh the wrackings the distortions of the Soul The pulling of the very heart in pieces and the rending of the very Bowels in pieces with these imprisoned passions in the Soul But secondly Even in sinners that repent Brethren though the wound be then healing there is pain also you know Now the Lord Jesus cometh in mercy to rouze the soul to shame it out of its evil courses and is shame nothing a man cannot hold up his head he is confounded ye are now ashamed saith the Apostle of the things which ye have done before can you look back on your former vain and filthy conversation and your hearts not be ashamed your consciences not be ashamed there is inward shame and confusion though it appear not outwardly So in that place of Ezekiel Thou shalt remember thy ways and be ashamed that thou mayst remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified toward thee There will be a godly sorrow which works repentance and never was there any repentance without sorrow there 's a pricking of the heart and pricking in the reins Acts 2. 37. There is no rest in the flesh by reason of the sin and broken bones That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Is it not sin that turns away the face of God and what then can arise to the soul but trouble Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled This is the first thing there is pain in sin and trouble it troubles our hearts and troubles our houses as it did Cains troubles the City and Country troubleth Israel Secondly In sin Brethren or accompanying it there is weakness and indisposedness when it s but growing on us it seizeth on the spirits the vigour first So how lazie and listless are we for divers days befâ—â—e it do appear and much more afterward Morbus is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How wonderfully doth sin unbefit us for duty we even move to it as an arm or foot out of joynt when a man endeavours to bow it one way it falls quite another way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lust where they are in prevalency they are like to wens in a mans body which suck up the strength nourishment that which should supply the rest of the members it turns to its own swelling So doth pride turn that which should humble us that which would inflame our hearts and melt us to it self and so weakens us keepeth our love at an under that we cannot so livelily vigorously serve the Lord. We complain of our weak hands and feeble knees our indisposedness to the service of God believe it this is the reason of it sin unmortified this makes men reprobate to every good work men of no judgement no dexterity at all to
it When we were without strength Christ died for the ungodly and while we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us they are convertible terms a sick man a lame man a wounded man we cannot expect they should walk or work or run in a race it utterly unbefits us for any thing that is good this is a sad evil that is in sin as a disease or wound Thirdly There is filthiness and deformity in sin also O what a sight it were to see a poor creature full of running sores from head to foot all running and rotting what filthiness is here and and deformity So when a poor soul hath a lust a sore running and never ceasing how sad a condition is this Brethren how strangely will a fit of sickness change a person that the rarest piece of beauty in the world quickly becometh a gastly sight every part contracting its deformity from the sickness all withered and shrivelled joynts loosed the eye dead and dull the face thin the knees feeble the hand trembling and what not Brethren if the Lord open our eyes to behold in the glass of the word the deformities of sin and filthiness as we may see the lothsomness and ugliness of a disease we should for ever be haters of it but I will say no more to this head That sin is a disease a wound Vse 2. May be then to put us on to be more serious in viewing our selves in the glass of the Word the Law of God that we may see what creatures we are and loth our selves our wounds are so many that we are all one wound and all one disease there is no sound part in us how pale and lean do our souls sometimes look with envy at others how are we swelled with pride how great and unweildy are our bellies with this O how do some of our bellies cleave to the very dust we are bowed down as the woman in the Gospel O how lamely do we walk in the ways of God halting between two have a double object and one foot in the wayes of God and another in the way of sin alas how many wounds have many of us that we never searched to this day if we did but know them it would pluck down our feathers the proudest of us and for some of us we have great need of this admonition because alas until we see our selves wounded see our deformities we shall never care for healing for having his comeliness put upon us no nor can the people of God put a rate upon the mercy nor the rich exceeding rich Grace of God in Christ whereby they are healed except they have before their eyes the many wounds and running sores they are healed of When Paul saw that he was the chief of the Sinners then he advanceth the free Grace of God that it had abounded yea superabounded which a soul cannot admire the Lord for except he see and behold how sin hath abounded O then let us be all perswaded to this duty to eye our selves more often more seriously in the glass of the Law of liberty the Law of Christ and therein see how often how grievously we offend him see what deformities are upon us that it may be admired how the Lord can love such as we are and Sinners that are yet in sin that they may be willing to accept of pardon and deliverance in and through Christ for truly we are not any of us willing until we be reduced to extremity then the Marriner or Merchant will cast out his goods when there is necessity for it but not before Therefore let all of us be perswaded to this duty in the second place Thirdly Let us be instructed in this truth that healing is not in us I am the Lord that healeth thee saith God to Israel and therefore the Lord promiseth the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings which were needless if healing were in our selves some creatures if wounded healing is in themselves as some fish are said if wounded to heal themselves with their own slime a Dog licks himself with his tongue Brethren sins are not such wounds as will heal themselves of their own accord neither as if a man have a slight cut it may be he heedeth it not it heals of it self believe it the least sin the least wound thou makest in thy conscience in thy soul it will not heal it self nor will a lust heal it self and wear away of its own accord as some diseases will though no physick be administred It is a deadly disease it seizeth upon the vitals and then you know it is a matter of great difficulty and skill to cure it no nor can a man cure himself if he could to what end did the Lord Jesus undergo all why he was smitten for our transgressâ—â—ns if we could have been healed by any strength of our own no we were without strength when Christ dyed for us as the Apostle bath it and as to other things so to this great work did the Lord do any thing in vain much less then would he do the greatest thing that ever be wrought in vain alas who can pardon sins but he who can bind up the broken in spirit but he who was sent into the world for this very end who can pour wine and oyl into the wounds but the good Samaritan who can give rest for the anguish of the wounds but he we cannot heal our selves if the very marrow of our bones were distilled into continual tears and all our moysture it would not make a balm to cure a wound of sin nor a cordial to support in one swooning fit there are many considerations wherefore we cannot do it and therefore the Lord in pity and bowels toward us sent us his Son to be our Physitian because we poor sick creatures need the Physitian which we should not if we could heal our selves our wound is incurable and refuseth to be healed by us First alas We know not our diseases our distempers you know a disease is half cured if curable when it is known in the cause if a Physitian mistake the disease and mis-applications according to his mistake quite contrary to the disease this is the ruin of the Patient such Physitians are of no value and such should we all be and are For we cannot know our sins nor the plague of the heart who knows his errors if we discover one lust that it breaks out in such a manner that it cannot be hid yet there is ten for one that we never saw and how can we then heal them now the Lord Jesus seeth our hearts through and through and knoweth all the malig 〈…〉 y and poysonous humours that lye there and therefore knoweth how to purge them out we know them not Secondly We have no desire to have them healed at all we 〈…〉 w not what healing means being not sensible naturally of our distempers and sores that are
it is above the creatures power therefore we see what poor helpless creature we are there is need of the Sun of rightcousness to arise with healing all our influences upon our own hearts will not heal the least distemper The third Use shall be then to shew us the great necessity that we all of us have of Jesus Christ The whole need not the Physitian but they that are sick but the sick need it now alas what is the world but a great Hospital full of diseased creatures here lies one sick of the Stone another of the Palsie a third of a Dropsie some Lunatick out of their senses some of the Gangrene of Error which is dangerous for in a few hours it creepeth to the heart men sleight the Physitian while they are in health but once sick and wounded then how welcome is he what need had the poor Traveller that fell among theeves that left him wounded and half dead of the Samaritan that came and poured in wine and oyl alas what had become of him if God had not so ordered it for him when a poor Israelite was wounded with the fiery Serpent though he might not so much heed the Brazen Serpent before yet now he seeth his necessity oâ— looking to him that he might be healed his necesâ—â—y would promp him to it if the poor blind man do but hear of Christ passing O how sensible he is of his necessity and cryeth out to him Jesus thou son of David have mercy upon me but here is the misery of it the diseases and sicknesses of the soul are stupifying they seize upon the vitals and spirits in such a violent manner that if not at first yet after a little while they are past feeling and therefore our great work is to bring poor creatures to aâ—sence of their condition until then they will not accept of the glad tidings of life and salvation by Jesus Christ how ever this argues our necessity of Christ to be so much the greater thou feelest not that thy hearti stony and hard and therefore thinkest that when the sad condition of such a sinner is displayed it belongs not to thee at all alas thou art so much the harder tell such stony creatures they have need of the blood of Jesus Christ to dissolve this Adamant he being the â—oat slain for us as well as the Lamb for the Passover might be either a Goat or a Lamb and the Lord Jesus is our Passover thou thinkest this concerneth thee not alas poor sinner thou hast so much the more need of the blood of Jesus Christ How doth a tender-hearted Physitian pitty his patient that he seeth desperately sick and yet so stupified as that he will not be perswaded of his condition and O that we could look upon you and speak to you sinners with such hearts when we tell you of the plague of the heart a most deadly disease you know when the infection getteth to the heart in that disease there is scarce any remedy for it so it is with sinners and yet alas how hard is it to perswade them of this they are in as good condition as any they have no more plague sore upon them then another dear friends remember it the plague is in all our families these diseases are in all our families and in many of our own souls and whether we see it or see it not there it is and our necessity of Christ is so much the greater by how much the less sensible we are of it he that saith he seeth when he is blind had the most need of a care of all others he had first need of a cure of his e 〈…〉 or his mis-judging of his condition and then a cure of his disease what sad moan would Parents make if they had all their children lying of the sickness what out-cries would there be as in Egypt when one in a house was dead and yet alas poor sinners see not that their children are born leprous all over leprous filthy and yet they see it not O brethren what need there is of Christ to come to all our houses for Salvation to come to all our families to heal and cure our souls our children our servants that are all desperately sic of some disease or another Fourthly â—hen such as to this day have never been healed the Sun of Righteousness hath never arisen with healing in his wings there is no healing to be had from under the wings of Christ know men will be apt either to play the Empericks upon themselves or else to go to some Mountebank or another but alas they are Physitians of no value healing is not in them the poor creature may spend all upon such Physicians and yet be never the near when he hath done the poor woman in the Gospel since her bloody issue continued so long it argued she never came to Christ all this while if she had she had been healed long ago thy sores run as violently as ever and that continually polluting all thy ways truly â—his is an argument that â—hrist hath not arisen upon thee for when he ariseth upon a sâ—ul he doth it with healing in his wings brethren it may be you have lain at the waters a great while but you have never been put into them you maâ— have lived where Christ hath been preached but it is the Spirit that is the main thing that carrieth the healing vertue from the Lord Jesus and until he come and breathe in the Ordinances they are nothing brethren what shall I say to you is it not the condition of the most of us are not our lusts as strong and lively as ever they were are we not as blind wretches groping at noon day some of us as ever we were are not our hearts as hard as ever yea harder for the stone increaseth and groweth day by day are we not as licentious as loose as proud as ever why should this be ifyou had any thing to do with Christ it is a sign that such a sinner hath never touched Christ to this day for no sooner did the woman touch him but vertue came from him the least touch of faith doth it O what a faithless generation are we then O how many of us are in this condition what a sad thing is it that we should thus throng upon Christ and so few touch him but one poor woman in a whole throng come and steal a touch of Christ O if she might but touch him she should be healed and so haply now in a Congregation there cometh in one poor trembling sinner with his affections stirred his desires are up O if I may but touch him I shall be well when for the most part that is not our error Now dear friends what have you been doing all this while have you eat and drank in the presence of Christ have you heard his Word and Gospel wherein he is lifted up as the healing Serpent
so many years and yet not healed have you so often received the Lord his Supper the outward part of it and yet are not healed what have you been praying and reading and coming to hear until you have one foot in the grave and yet not healed what have you been doing all this while that you have never got a sight of Christ a touch of him to this day that you might be healed Ah sure you have spent your time your money upon the Physitians that cannot heal you you have gone to the Disciples in stead of Christ you have expected healing from the Ordinances themselves and expected it haply from us in whom healing is not as they lookt upon the Apostles Why look ye upon us as if we had done this by our own power O no it is Jesus Christ alone can heal and therefore if you are not yet healed he did never arise upon you to this day It may be sinners will be ready to say what if Jesus Christ hath never risen upon us is that such a great matter Indeed I doubt we make a light matter of it but I will tell you what a great matter it is you are yet in your sins and it is a very great hazard but you may die in your sins if he never rise upon thee thou shalt undoubtedly die in them and is this nothing O but you will say God is merciful it is his nature to be merciful he triumpheth in exalting that perfection and making it glorious It is true brethren but it is in Christ all light and healing is from the Father but he hath filled the Son now with inlightning and healing influence so that they who will have it must have it from the Son he hath all power committed to him all the medecines are his now and the power of applying them is so that he heals whom he pleaseth therefore dream not of it you that are wicked transgressors that have not your sins healed that God will be merciful to any but in Christ O but we may have our sins healed though it be not yet It is true thou maist be healed and this is somewhat but consider what a cold comfort this would be to a man that had the plague seised upon him in a violent manner why faith he it may be healled and yet alas be never looks after the Physitian nor â—â—e Physitian after him but groweth worse and worse and yet he may be healed It is true if the Lord do not cut thee off before thou maist be healed or if God swear not in his wrath thou shalt never enter into his rest or say to thee thou shalt never be healed O these secret things belong not to us the Father hath put them in his own power and we presume upon our courses of sinning as if we knew them were privy to them and knew certainly that we should have a day of grace an hour of mercy this is desperate if thou die in this condition with all thy running sores upon thee from head to foot no sound part but loathsome wretches what do you think the Lord Jesus will put such into his bosome Well consider this for the fourth Application of the Doctrine Such as are not healed of their lusts they have never had Jesus Christ arising upon them as yet they never knew Christ to this day let our knowledge be what it will our parts be what it will our seeming following Christ be what it will and thronging upon him never so much we never yet touched him he never yet shined upon our souls O how many such poor Christless souls hear this Word this day 5. Then let us labour to raise our spirits in admiration of the riches of grace in Jesus Christ given to poor sinners to provide a healing for us that when we had faln from the height of mercy or rather grace and goodness and so had all to be broken and bruised our selves broken our bâ—nes that he should provide a healing for us when we could never think of such a mercy what were we more to him then Angels if he had let us all lye under our broken bones under the wounds we had made in our selves and diseases we had contracted who could have had any thing to say against him for it this the Apostle maketh an argument of his love and it is doubtless a heightening of it to consider how free it is that their wounds should not be cured and ours healed when both alike curable to him and considering that they might have been much more serviceable to him then we being creatures of a more glorious active nature then we are yet he took not hold of the nature of Angels But consider we first the infinite disproportion between the Physitian and the Patients were it not wonderful condescention for a K 〈…〉 o come off his Throne to buckle himself about the business 〈…〉 eal a worm that hath been trodden upon O it pittieth him to see them bleeding and therefore he maketh it his business to cure them brethren you would think this strange but this is the case yea this is but a shadow Iacob is but a worm and that the Lord of Lords the King of Kings should descend from his Throne from heaven disrobe himself as I may say put on rags and all to have to do with the wounds and diseases of poor sinful dust and ashes worms and no me 〈…〉 Brethren my tongue is not able to express it we would thin 〈…〉 a great matter such of us as live in the highest honour wear soft raiment are delicate in all things to take up a poor creature in the streets that is full of sores cast out to the loathing of his person to search the wounds have to do with those loathsome sores O what love were this it may be we could be content in pitty to give money for others to do it but to do it with our own hands there is the trial and yet this creature is of our own kind but what are we to the Lord or to his Christ who would do this for a Dog for a Viper a Serpent a Toad if wounded if sick and diseased can we conceive what tenderness it must be above what we have it may be we would not kill or destroy such a creature but if otherwise hurt would we heal them O herein is the love of God to poor sinners high above our thoughts as heaven is high above the earth alas we are more ready to tread upon Serpents and Dogs we would cast them out put them away from us it is but a dog Ah dear friends what are we that are strangers from the Covenant of Promise as we are all until he entereth into a Covenant with us we are as dogs as he speaks to the Syraphinitian woman all such unclean creatures yea we are a generation of Vipers as full of venom of sin as a Toad is full of poyson and
by poor Sinners that he cometh to heal and yet he doth endure it and for all this healeth them Is not all this unkindness what can move him to give us over surely many of us are able to say it that if his bowels had not been unsearchable we have so often grieved him and kicked against him even since he had to do with our souls in a way of healing mercy that we had been undone for ever Oh here is unsearchable mercy we wound him and grieve him and yet he heals us we sleightly esteem of him of his blood of his mercy of his love even while he is pouring it out upon us and he so dearly loveth us that his blood is not too dear for us no nor his Spirit nor his bowels nor any thing O here is rich Grace indeed to poor froward-hearted Sinners 5. Herein the riches of Grace doth appear to poor Sinners that it is not the multitude nor the depth nor the loathsomness of our wounds or deadliness of our diseases that discourageth him to make him turn his back upon the work and let us alone O saith the Physitian when he cometh to such a Patient he hath the plague it is seized upon his heart upon his vitals it is past my ski 〈…〉 it is but labour in vain if the spots appear there is no hope no healing but now the Lord Jesus he never mâ—dleth with a Sinner but he hath the plague in his very heart not only the sores running upon their tongues and upon their hands but in their very hearts and all the blood and spirits poysoned and yet he is not discouraged he takes it in hand truly some of us if we consider how deeply rooted our â—nsts were in our very hearts it is matter of admiration that ever we were healed and though for the present there are it may be grudgings of the old disease whereby we are a grief to him and a grief to our selves yet that the plague is cured at the heart or curing rather alas do you think the Lord Jesus did not know what a weary hand he should have with us before he began with us he knew what ulcerations would be continually breaking out that must be lanced and searched and yet never turned his back upon his work upon this account when the Chyrurgion meeteth with a poor creature that is full of wounds and bruises and putrifying sores that have never been opened nor mollified but a long time have festered and rotted O saith he I am not able to endure to have to do with such a Patient the very stench of his wounds and â—ores is such I am not able to bear it Brethren this is nothing to sin the most loathsom running sores are nothing to the rottenness of sin O it is the superfluity of naughtiness it is the very scum of scums the very excrement of the Devil now how can we think that Jesus Christ should endure the stench of our loathsom souls full of running sores and yet he doth it when he cometh to heal us he never yet gave over any that he undertook to heal because of the greatness the multitude the loathsomness of his diseases I know poor misgiving hearts will be ready to sit down and mourn as poor creatures without hope when they consider how many their sores are their diseases are O what loathsom running sores bloody issues and they are loathsom to our selves that see little or nothing of them and that have a stinking nostril their minds whereby they conceive of things are impure themselves and so cannot apprehend them as so loathsom but the Lord Jesus that seeth them to the bottom knoweth the venom of them the loathsomness of them to the full O sure they are much more to him sure he will never have to do with such a rotten soul as mine saith one such a rotten heart such a wretch so besotted with the world as I have been so unclean a wretch as I have been this is a mistake the riches of Grace in Jesus Christ would never be so made manifest the exceeding abundance of Grace if he had not to do with such sinners as thou art in thine own apprehension with a Paul a Manasses a Magdalen with the chief of Sinners O say not your cases are desperate there is no healing for your wounds nothing maketh a Sinners case desperate but his own despairing his final unbelief his despair of the mercy of Christ the faithfulness of Christ in this great undertaking of poor Sinners Sixthly O what tenderness is manifested in the manner of the cure and it must needs be so when bowels themselves are the constitution of the Physitian where love it self and compassion it â—elf setteth the Physitian awork Brethren can you imagine when a Father is a Physitian and hath a poor diseased child or wounded cryeth out for healing can you imagine with what an heart he goeth about it if it would do the cure he could be content to endure all the lancings take down all bitter potions O every grone and out-cry of his Patient goes to his heart he is so tender by these affections the Lord is pleased darkly to shadow out to us his heart toward us Even as a Father pittieth his children so the Lord Jesus pittieth them that fear him that are wonnded in any kind either in their peace or in their holiness But this will appear if we consider but a few particulars First In that he himself hath taken the bitterest part of the physick O the wormwood and the gall they went into his bowels the Lord Jesus doth not delight to cure by lancings by searings and canterizings no but he took down himself the purge that set him upon such a sweat as you know alas it would have drunk up every drop of our blood and moysture and marrow that we should never have seen through it this he takes himself himself is lanced you know by the Soldiers and from thence came water and blood the ingredients of the healing medicine for poor Sinners for ever being rightly tempered like a tender Mother if the child be sick it must be purged she her self takes the purge endures the wrings of it in its working that the effect may be suckt by the child who lies at the breast this is but a resemblance of this rich Grace in Jesus Christ Brethren we see if men were our Physitians what they would prescribe us their purgations and pilgrims whippings macerating our flesh until they bleed and die but the Lord Jesus doth not so if either the Physitian or the Patient must die in this case rather then the poor diseased wounded Patient shall die the Physit 〈…〉 himself dieth that we might live that his blood might be our cordial his flesh our dyet and his blood our dyet-drink that continually by little and little might heal us O what manner of love is this Brethren who would do so let a Father but examine his
healed what if the Lord then say to you your iniquities shall never be healed you shall dye in your sins what will become of your presumption then Secondly it concerneth the people of God that have had it may be some experience of this healing vertue of Jesus Christ that have a long time been groaning under the loathsomness and anguish of their wounds and now at the last are healed through abundant grace O take heed of returning to folly any more will you make bold with sin that have known what it cost our blessed Saviour and what it cost your selves what it cost him when as he would himself purge our iniquities he took the Physick and thou enjoyâ—st the cure but is it no more to us Brethren the heaviness of his soul to the death must he bleed to death that we might not bleed to death that our bloody issues might be stopt did it cost him an ecclipse of the light of the countenance of his Father and wilt thou make so light a matter of it walk so watchlesly as we do to go on to grieve him as we do some of us O it is the want of keeping that fresh upon our hearts what the cure of it cost that is the great cause of our so often relapsing And so we forget what it cost our selves it is strange that the burnt child doth not dread the fire dost thou not remember when the Lord came to search thy wounds what it cost thee when he went to the bottom of them O dost thou not remember the stench of them when he came to pluck off the hard crust grown upon them and let thee see and be sensible of the filthiness in them is this forgotten that thou makest no more of sin O dost thou not remember the time when thou wast even weary of thy self a burthen to thy self thou couldst not rest many a weary day and night it cost thee many an aking heart and yet now so soon art making wounds again making work again for Christ Surely this is very ill requital of all that riches of grace Or what can we heal the breaches we make upon our peace by our recidivations when we please It is true if a man had his panacea in his pocket that whatever disease he fell into whatever wound he should make upon himself he could cure it again when he pleased it were somewhat like there were some colour but have you the treasuries of grace in your own keeping have you or hath any man a pardon in a box as the poor deceived Papists are grievously mocked Surely no Alas we can make wounds but we cannot heal them we can make a shift to break our faces and bones but we cannot heal them again it is in his hand and will it be for our comfort then to grieve him by such careless walking what if he resolve to grieve thee and give thee enough of thy back-slidings Will it not be bitterness in the latter end though he may heal it it may cost thee many a throb and much smart for this wantonness Brethren take heed of this O sickness is chargeable it may cost thee mourning all thy daies Seventhly Then let it be for Exhortation to us all that we get under the influence of this Sun of righteousness Sinners we have all of us need of the Physitian for there is never a whole soul among us though to our own apprehension some of us think it is well with us yet it is not we are full of wounds the whole head is sick the whole heart is faint the Lord Jesus hath sent me to tell you where you-may have healing and to perswade you to come to him but alas I am a child and cannot speak Where is there healing to be had you will say you know that as well as you can be told why then how cometh it to pass that you come not to Jesus Christ he hath set open the Store-house the Treasuries of pardoning-pardoning-mercy and healing-mercy inviteth all that will to come and yet you come not Surely either you do not believe this report or else you do not believe your need of Jesus Christ O consider what hath been said to that part and the Lord help you to believe and perswade you to come to him for indeed it is he that must draw and make poor sinners willing to come or else they will never come to him only he doth draw one way is by proposing the object by holding out a crucified Christ for them And therefore let me a little propose something to you to perswade you to come to Jesus Christ 1. Your need of Christ you have seen for we are all wounded yea even to the death bitten with fiery Serpents the venom whereof inflames our souls and therefore a Physitian we must have or else dye Now there is no healing in any other but through his stripes if you know of any other Saviour that can deliver can heal you take him follow after him but I must tell you when you have spent all you must be fain to come to Jesus Christ for healing and is it not better to come before you have spent all upon other Physitians that cannot cure when all is done O that sinners could but believe this I tell you truth Brethren a Plaister of any thing else made of our own sorrow or tears or righteousness or good works or whatsoever it is so far from being a healing that it will venom the wound more and maketh yet further work for Jesus Christ if rested in as a cure I say you may make a shift to stop the Orifice of the wound with a balm of your own procuring but all the while the sore eats into the soul so much the deeper wrankles within O now the Lord Jesus he beginneth at the bottom and so heals it up say not then Are not Abana and Pharpar Rivers of Damascus better then all the waters of Israel when we must go and wash in Jordan if we be healed 2. Consider this the longer you conceal your wounds and hold off the worse will it go with you for either the Lord will let you go on and never heal you but let you languish away in these waies of sin you please your selves so much in or else if he do the longer the wound is wrankling the worse it will be the harder it will go when it cometh to be searched when David had turned his back upon Christ for so long in the matter of Vriah it cost him somewhat it made him roar when the Physick came to work the Lord withdrawing from him haply as long O that while you are called to day sinners now while healing is tendered you would accept of it the Lord make you willing 3. Do but consider what thronging there was to Christ for healing of their bodily distempers they brought them from all parts to him such as could not come themselves and would there not be the
Take heed of returning to that Covenant of works or Covenant of life which was a yoak of our own making if our blessed Saviour hath been pleased to break it set us free shall we retâ—rn to that bondage again I doubt this is a great cause of much sorrow and heavy walking before the Lord of many a poor creature O he cannot do this and he cannot do that and therefore he doubts all is not well with him whether he have any thing to do with Christ It is true if he had made our doing our perfect obedience the condition of his Covenant it had been somewhat but he hath not but faith in him take from him for all ends and purposes not only for pardon but for strength for food for victory over our sin Now we go off this and therefore we move so heavily and cannot stir but are like a door off its hinges a Chariot off its wheels bring much bondage and trouble upon our selves and much of our time and pains is spent in poring upon this and getting healing again for this which might be spent in glorifying him Therefore beg of God to this end that he would establish you with his Princely Royal Spirit where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty the Son maketh us free by his Spirit and therefore David maketh that prayer as being sensible of this O beg this Spirit for establishment the Lord will be intreated he puts arguments into our mouths and giveth us the greatest encouragements to beg the Spirit of any other mercy that I know of as being the greatest mercy and the principal of all Gospel-grace and therefore being so great a gift poor sinners might be affraid to ask but saith he you are Fathers whose affections are finite and mixed you are not pure love yea you are evil and yet will give good gifts to your children much more will God give the Spirit this the Apostle is earnest with the Lord for that he would stablish and strengthen his people to every good Word and Work for grace is but a creature and so is weak cannot consist of it self without him therefore be earnest here Thirdly Since we are delivered from outward pressures the yoak that did gall the necks of the people of God as before hath the Lord set us above our enemies hath he before our eyes brought our Egyptians down in the red Sea of blood and shall we return thither again I speak not of the same bondage I hope the Lord will keep his people from that but I speak of a worse to be delivered from a tyrannie of man to return to a tyrannie and dominion of sin it is sad the heathens could say Servitus gravissima est sibi ipsi servire it is the heaviest yoak for a man to be yoaked with his own ends and interests to seek himself serve himself specially his sinful self to make provision for his lusts It was a sad character of Rome that Angustine giveth her Victrix gentium captiva vitiorum What are we the better for being delivered from that bondage if such as were humble then and low and meek and self-denying now are high and fierce and self-seeking proud and wanton and luxurious their whoreing hawking and hounding and spending their time in such sports which should have been laid out in publike service was lookt upon as a great evil God caused their houses and lands to spue them out I wish we be not beginning to come under that worse yoak now we are delivered from that of oppression was it not better for Israel to work in the Iron-furnace in the brick-kill then to be enslaved to their lusts in the wilderness and there to perish and was not Babylon better for them then to be at liberty and yet to become slaves to their lusts to their Idols Brethren I pray you let us look well about us every one it is true the day of the Lord it hath burned like an oven among us and many have been as stubble fully dryed put into it the bryers and brambles that did scratch and tear the people of God they are consumed God hath gone through them and consumed them and are we any thing the better are we not worse If we now melt away with the sweetness of our liberty grow luxurious and wanton wanton in opinions that men know not well what they would be but any thing so it be new and the thriving way and wanton in apparel are there not as many slaves to pride to vanity to self as there were then to the lusts of other men I beseech you which is the worse to be at the mercy of another mans lusts which can but reach the body and effect our sorrow for a time or the mercy of our own merciless lusts which will work our woe and ruine O therefore look to this then if set at liberty slie sin as he said to Lot flie for thy life c. slie fornication and youthful lusts c. said the Apostle The third part of the Exhortation then shall be to take heed how we abuse this our liberty as saith the Apostle not using our liberty as a cloak of malitiousness haply alluding to the manner of persons The Apostles scope in that place leadeth us to one part of the sense of this abusing of our liberty and that is to think they are so free now that they need not have their necks under the yoak of men at all for that goeth before exhorting them to submit themselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake to be subject to the higher powers and subordinate powers is very consistent with this spiritual freedom was there ever any so free as our Saviour who is the Son that maketh us free and yet did not he submit submit to his parents was subject to them and subject to the powers under which he lived because his Kingdom was not of this world and would it suite with the head and will it not suite with the members But I hope I need not speak much to this But there is much more wherein we may abuse our liberty as children by a carrying it frowardly and rebelliously against their parents upon pretence of liberty and servants that are under the yoak it may be think they may do much in this case more then they have warrant to do because they are free it may be and their Masters haply in bondage under sin therefore shall they despise them No but count them worthy of all honour serving them in singleness of heart as unto Christ not for by-respects and ends for fear of their displeasure but for Christs sake to do it this is freedom indeed But to speak a little more generally many men think when once they have gotten their necks out of the yoak from under that bondage and those fears that they have been under they think now they are at liberty they are past
the meaning of it note in the first place that growth is a motion or mutation from a less to a greater quantity as you see a babe though it be a man in a smaller letter and have part for part yet they are small and grow to a greater bigness the child grew in stature saith the text and in favour with God as well as with men And so a plant or a seed is little at first but it groweth to a tree to a blade and the sâ—alâ— to the ear and the full corn in the ear here is a motion from a less to a greater quantity So a Calf of the stall must needs also shoot forth Now for grace you know it is either Relative or Inherent and accordingly we must understand the growth Relative grace as that of remission of sins and justification in the sight of God and adoption to be sons and daughter this if lookt upon as the act of God it will be hard to say that it is intended or remitted that there is a growth or motion from a lesser to a greater quantity for remission of sins being the act of God we cannot say that one mans sins are more pardoned then anothers that believeth as well as he So we cannot say that one believer is more a Son then another they are all the children of the most high though a child grow in stature yet his relation groweth not he is a Son the first day he was born as well as when he is at the perfect stature this is plain though every Son be not a Joseph or a Benjamin yet he is a Son as well as any which by the way ministers much refreshing to a poor weak soul that eyeth his stature and growth O he is so weak such a babe a child in comparison of some of the people of God which are strong in faith and can give glory to God when they are doubting and scrupling every step they go yet I say though this be a burthen yet the main whereupon the comfort of a poor creature hangs is alike to all there is no growth there the weakest poor sickly froward-hearted child is a chiâ—d as well as he that is strongest healthiest most serviceable and though faith be weak yet the relation of one is alike the purchase the price paid the ransom is alike to all that believe though it be but in some more weakly Only here mistake not neither though this relative grace grow not as of justification or adoption yet the knowledge of this grace arising from the reflexion of the soul upon its self and the shining of the Spirit upon the works of grace he hath wrought in the soul this is capable of a growth it may be that a man may be a child of God and yet not know it alas how long are our children children and we look upon them so and hearts and bowels yearn and tender them and yet they know not that they are children we need go no further then common experience for this do we not see many a precious soul that lies at the feet of Jesus Christ for mercy whose souls are sick of love for him who prize him above all O they are willing with all their souls to close with him for all ends and purposes if he be but willing to close with them they think they are not children nor that they do not believe when they do believe for this very willingness of Christ in sincerity is believing and therefore they think they are not children when they are dear in Gods â—ight what think you of him that walks in darkness and seeth no light do you think he can see his relation to God in Christ without that light Surely no. Again another he hath some probability which begetteth an opinion in him concerning his condition and that he hath received this special grace from the Lord and been partaker of this love to become a Son of God others they rise higher then this and have a strong confidence and some a full assurance and know that they are the Sons of God that their persons are justified they can triumph with the Apostle who shall lay any thing to their charge can say my beloved is mine and I am his and my Lord and my God with Thomas they know the things freely given them of God even by the Spirit of Christ yea the same person Brethren may grow from such a doubting of his condition to such a probability such a perswasion such an assurance of his condition this therefore admitteth of a growth but not the relative grace it self but only our sense feeling or knowledge of it and so much for that Secondly There is a grace inherent which is indeed as the root and the acts and issues of it are as I may say the fruit but this grace within we shall speak to as most nearly concerning this purpose the fruits I have spoken to you know at large upon another Scripture and I would not in this discourse interfere with what I then delivered or if we speak any thing to the fruits that grow upon these internal inherent graces of the Spirit as likely enough we shall yet we shall not consider them as fruits rising from such a root but as growing fruits being bettered improved according to the growing of the principles from whence they flow But for the grace inherent by that I mean all those habits or gracious dispositions of the heart godly as that of faith that of love and humility and sincerity and spirituality and self-denyal these things and all the rest in the habit or disposition of the soul is the subject of this consideration and these Brethren you know they are but qualities though divine qualities and therefore though growth or augmentation according to terms of Art or Logick be not properly ascribed to them yet according to Rhetorick it is proper enough to speak it of any thing under a Simile that it groweth if it any way increase as if a quality Now the light for instance or heat in the fire or Sun that is intended or waxeth more clear and more hot this may be called a growing-light or growing-heat because that as in things that properly grow there is an addition of one quantity to another whereby it increaseth so here there is an addition of one degree of the quality to what was before whereby it is more intense then it was before therefore when we speak of grace growing the speech is figurative taken either from plants or sensitive creatures that all their beginnings are small but afterwards grow up to their pitch Secondly A thing is said to grow properly you know when the increase is made not by opposition as they call it but by an inward receiving that is to say it is a nutrition as the means it was a custom to cast every one a stone and make a great heap as upon Achan and Absolom Why
worse as the Apostle saith evil men and seducers grow worse and indeed we must know this Brethren we do grow either better or worse as haply afterward we shall have occasion to speak to at large either the house of David groweth stronger or the house of Saul either the flesh or the spirit prevails in the hearts of the people of God there are two sorts of persons whose condition is under this consideration First Such as have profest the name of Jesus Christ and yet alas though they were green for a while now their leaf is fallen their light is gone out they are fallen from their place of standing among the Saints in appearance never was there an age more fruitful in such barrenness then this is alas like a Fir-tree shaken with the wind they lose their fruit yea are turned up by the roots and now are become as a dry stick fit for nothing but to burn the latter end of such men is worse then their beginning they are trees twice dead not only dead by nature but have lost their profession which was a visible life whereby they did appear to men to be alive and is there any hope of such a tree living again truly Brethren very little I have oberved it and I wish I could look upon it with a more trembling heart that such men as these grow worse fall off and decline they are the saddest hard-hearted desperate prophane wretches afterward or the most besotted worldlings and seldom are they recovered I know not whether I may speak to any such at this time I hope the best things of you if there be any such let me tell thee thou art in a more dangerous condition then those that never knew God to this day Secondly Such as never yet had appearance of being planted into Jesus Christ and so no growth in them but are yet in their naturals know this day you are growing worse and worse the Gospel doth not return in vain you are worse every day then other every Sermon then other the Gospel is a savour of death to death to you as there is nothing doth condemn sinners like to the Gospel rejected so nothing doth harden sinners more then the Gospel and those precious promises which men give the hearing to day by day but alas that is all Isaiah the most Evangelical Prophet he cometh with a make you the ears of this people heavy that hearing they might hear and not perceive If the Son be not kissed when he is offered to sinners but they turn their backs upon him he will be angry if the more worthy person be suitor and be denyed and slighted and the heel lift up against him will not this provoke him think you surely it will therefore God doth usually give up such to a reprobate mind yea even for despising the light of nature much more the Gospel and giveth them up to hardness of heart you shall ordinarily see where the Gospel cometh at the first among a people it works more mightily then afterward at first though men are prophane yet they have not had the Sun-shine to harden the Clay into a Brick the Word of God this Gospel and means of growth it is as fire the coals of love and either they do melt or else burn sinners into stones and bricks and sear their consciences that they are even past feeling hence it is we have so many desperately wicked persons among us O how sad a condition is this Brethren to be growing worse and worse under the greatest mercy and love that the Lord manifesteth to any Sinners in good earnest do you think it is the way to heaven to grow worse and worse or the way to the Chambers of death Thou knowest thy self to be a more desperate prophane wretch then formerly making no conscience of that which heretofore thy soul it may be hath trembled at now it goeth down without regret or else if not in open prophaneness if thou meltest away in secret wickedness that no eye takes notice of and art worse and worse what will the end of these things be the Saints that grow they grow up into the likeness and image and glory of Christ they grow up into him and thou growest up into the likeness of the Devil up in t 〈…〉 im What will become of you O that sinners would but lay these things to heart if heretofore thou wast overtaken with a sin it may be it was some trouble to thee now thou wilt work the works of the Devil thy will is ingaged and so much the more haynous the sin is what can you expect Brethren O that God would open sinners eyes that they might but see whether they are going what they are doing and they could but consider what bitterness this will be in the latter end to grow worse and worse The next Vse shall be then Brethren to take an account of our selves whether we grow or go backward yea or no this is not the work of every day Brethren for it will hardly be discernable if we daily should put our selves to the tryal we should do nothing else it would eat up that time and those endeavours to grow which ought to be laid out upon it that so it may afterward appear a man that should spend every day in casting up his whole Books to see how he groweth in his estate would hâ—nder himself of those endeavours to thrive that must be used else he cannot thrive besides this growth is not the work of a day usually though sometimes it may be so but of moneths or a year or so if a man should sit by his tree or set his eye upon his child to behold his motion or growth he would lose his labour it is better seen afterward as in another place afterward shall be spoken besides if we should daily judge of our growth and try it alas what inconstant judgements should we make of our condition for some daies we are up and some daies down it may be some daies under the power of a temptation and other daies set at liberty from them sometimes the Merchant maketh a losing bargain sometimes a winning sometimes his cash cometh in and sometimes he is all in disbursments therefore he must not he cannot judge of his estate whether he prosper or thrive by this or that day but after a while he should look to it cast up his Books see how it standeth Brethren it is impossible to perswade a Merchant except he be Bankrupt and knoweth it is so and therefore hath no mind to look upon his misery else I say you cannot perswade a Merchant but he will take his set times for perusing his Books casting up his accounts and not let it run too long neither for fear of the worst and if any should advise him to the contrary he would take him to be his enemy suspect him for one that would undo him and yet alas how easie
Jesus Christ Ah dear Friends I beseech you consider this some of us sure that hear this this day our hearts do tell us we have been the chief of sinners never viler then we and hath the Lord met with us not as an enemy but poured out upon us such a stream of love as we could no longer withstand it and yet do we not love him accordingly O labour to grow in love to Jesus Christ Thirdly Mind the particular experiences thou hast had of his love and tenderness to thee So the Psalmist I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice when he was in distress then he cryed to the Lord and he heard him therefore he would love him how many deliverances hath the Lord wrought particularly for us specially he hath kept us from sinning such a time and such a time so that thou didst not go on to the wounding of thy conscience the dishonour of his name and wilt thou not therefore love him O dear friends how often hath he shaken the rod over thee and yet hath spared and canst thou not love him yea though a child thinks the rod cannot stand with love yet when he cometh to lay away childish thoughts and to understand as a man he loveth his father so much the more that he hath chastened him and not suffered him to take the way of his own heart so should it be in this case But consider how many sweet experiences hast thou had of his love which it may be many a poor creature would have given a world for one of them many a kiss of his lips thou scarce ever appearest before him but thou hast a smile from him some refreshing some melting doth not this indear thy heart consider these things there is many a poor child of God that scarce ever findeth such sensible refreshings and yet hang upon him and loveth him and O it is pure love indeed when we hang upon him though he frown upon us though he seem to shake us off not to heed us nor regard us yet our souls it may be are sick of love for him we must follow him still But thou that hast such fore-draughts of his love sometimes yea many times O the remembrance of these me thinks should much increase love to him Now this is of very great moment for it will make us more abundant in the work of the Lord and with much more ease it will come off Paul laboured more abundantly then they all and it was nothing to him O he loved much and so it will be with us if we could get our hearts to it What was it think you that carried our Saviour so chearfully through all his travels and griefs and slightings of men O it was his love nothing is hard to love therefore labour to be like-minded to grow in love to the Lord Jesus But secondly To grow in love one towards another this is matter of rejoycing to the saithful over-seers of the Church of Christ we are bound to thank God alway for you Brethren as it is meet because that your faith groweth exceedingly and the charity or love of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth So again as touching brotherly love you have no need that I write unto you for ye are taught of God to love one another and ye do the same thing to all the Brethren which are in all Maâ—edonia but we beseech you Brethren to abound more and more you have it in that place of the Apostle to the Corinthians that to be full of contention and dividing zeal is a sign not of growth but childishness I am of Paul and I am of Apollo and I am of Cephas and I am of Christ are you not carnal that is to say I could not write to you as spiritual as grown men but as carnal as unto babes in Christ such in whom the flesh did much prevail surely Brethren the way of love is the edifying-way and therefore the body is said to edifie it self in love knowledge puffeth up and from that pride cometh contention as the wise man speaks but love edifies O how would the Church grow and the Saints grow if all the heat and zeal and pains which is laid out in maintaining breaches factions separations one from another did all run in one stream to build up one another in our most holy faith to make that our business It is sweet when the members have that care one of another that out of a pure spirit of love to consider one another to provoke to love and to good works Now if there be rents and schisms in the body there will not be that â—are one of another and therefore no marvel if the Apostle note such nigro carbone mark them that caused divisions contrary to the Doctrine that you have received and avoid them set a cross upon their doors have no fellowship with them You know in the body if there be a breach a dismembering of the body or some members out of joint or fearful wounds there is a grief of the spirit and the growth is hindered So it is in this case when the Churches walked together with singleness of heart then were they multiplyed then they prospered and increased indeed the Holy-Ghost is grieved with bitterness and wrath and anger when the Sea was divided for Israel to pass through it was weakened but when the waters were united again they are said to return to their strength so when the waters run in one Channel which is love O how strong is the Church of Christ it groweth mightily then then the Egyptians the enemies of Israel are drowned in it but so many fractions so many streams it being divided into each of them is easily passable by the enemies the Lord give a Spirit of love O if there were but more love in Ministers to people how would they do more then they do or at least in another manner then they do And so in people if they would be more earnest for their Ministers then they are therefore if we would grow indeed labour to grow in love to all the Saints wherever indeed the image of Christ is and to love them with a pure heart unfeignedly as the Apostle saith Fourthly To grow in humility to grow downward to be willing to decrease so the Lord Jesus may increase Ah Brethren if we were put to it it may be we should find it very hard to be laid aside as I may say as David was to the building of the Temple because he was such a man of blood or as Moses was for his unbelief at the waters of strife O the daily working this upon our hearts what we were and what we are through grace in Jesus Christ what infinite riches of grace is manifested to the vilest of sinners this will make us lie low before him but enough of this before Fifthly In mercy in bowels and compassions to persons in
alas they are but bottles themselves if Christ be not in them and there found to a soul and sought by a soul they are dry and sapless when many a rich man in hearing a Sermon hath a qualm cometh over his heart and he beginneth to be a little sick of sin which the Word hath lanced and it strikes to the heart what doth he do alas he chears himself with this Surely if I were such a sinner God would not regard me God would never have blessed me as he hath done therefore this is but a foolish melancholly fit The drunkard and the wanton can eat and drink and sing and dance down twenty such pills as these though they troubled them a little at the first they make a shift to claw it off The civil good-natured man though he see and know himself to be a sinner yet he is none of the worst he doth much good in the place where he is yea he prayeth and heareth and keepeth Sabbaths and thinks this shall make amends for all and so walks in the sparks of his own kindling but alas the end of these things will not be rest for they shall lie down in sorrow and shall have it from the hand of God too then who can resist it when lifted up or heal his blow when it is given I tell you Brethren I doubt this is the grand imposture of most of our hearts for it can hardly be but we must sometime or another be convinced our condition by nature is very sad and forlorn and men are not men if they be not carried forth to seek some course-for their escaping and how few alas reach the Lord Jesus therefore we mnst needs stick somewhere short of him Ah the Lord grant that none of us who think upon more probable grounds then others and others think so of us too that we are such as come to Jesus Christ that we sit not down in any thing on this side him for if we do we perish Therefore I say the soul that cometh to Jesus Christ goeth out of all alas if he have never so much of the world profits pleasures at will he is as rich as another and hath as much content in relations suitable to his hearts as another and it may be as much in praying fasting hearing using of the Ordinances as another and yet all this is nothing to him satisfieth him not he cannot take up with it they are but husks they will not satisfie however they may fill Thirdly There is a coming unto Jesus Christ it is not a going towards him but a coming to him this is builded much what upon the willingness of Jesus Christ to receive them this desire after him haply more fitly may be annexed to the power of Christ to save to the utmost O when the soul knoweth this O then that I had him that I were in him but now when the soul cometh to understand is perswaded he is willing to receive all that come Well then the Spirit quickning perswading the soul resolves I will venter upon him I will go and cast my self upon him and bear my self upon him hang all my weight upon him and this also he is taught of God this is imprest upon his Spirit by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus this is the drawing nigh yea not nigh to him but coming unto him this is the touch of faith if it be never so secret a touch of faith that others take no notice of yea that a poor soul through the fears and troubles that are upon him and earnestness of Spirit to have all quieted and cleansed and done away forthwith thinketh he doth not he hath not touched the Lord Jesus yet he may have touched him and be come unto him if he be carried out in his affections indeed and in truth beyond all count all as nothing as dung and dross as an hungry man would prefer a piece of bread before much riches he cannot eat nor drink gold nor silver and so it is here he is resolved upon it that he will lie at the pool of Bethesda his eyes shall be up and are up to him he will hang on him not let him go except he shake him offâ— into hell O this is a soul indeed that cometh to Jesus Christ Fourthly He cometh to him with words too at least heart-words if not words of confession I will wrap up these things as fast as I can I doubt I stay too long in the first part words of confession and words of petition of confession so the poor Prodigal I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son O I have sinned from the womb conceived in sin born in iniquity I have sinned before thee not regarding thy all-seeing eye desperately against light against knowledge against mercy against the blood of the Lord Jesus against all that grace whereby thou hast waited upon me to be gracious O I am no more worthby to be called thy sun O I am not worthy to lift up mine eye toward heaven saith the poor Publican I am not worthy to come near to the Temple to come among the company of the people of God but stands afar off and there acknowledgeth his vileness Ah so it is with many a poor soul he deserveth not to be owned by the Lord nor by any of his if he fall upon me as a mill-stone to grind me to power he doth me no wrong Secondly With words of petition to him that he would have mercy upon us that he would pardon and heal and give himself to us indeed that he would be our God a soul that is throughly sensible of his want of Christ cryeth our after him not with a still listless desire but the heart maketh a noise unto the Lord O give me Christ or else I dye Lord Jesus save my poor soul else I perish O sin is ready to swallow me up O the grave and hell are ready to shut their mouths upon me save me or else I perish as they to Christ the waves and billows of thy displeasure are the shaking and breaking of many poor souls O what mone many times will a poor soul that wants the Lord Jesus make to him lead me to the rock that is higher then I O how he sucks the promises and every argument he can fetch out of them he cometh with it and laies it before the Lord yea every letter of his name the Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful c. he pleadeth to the Lord O thy name is great to the ends of the earth therefore pardon me O mine iniquity is great therefore pardon thy faithfulness thy mercy thy promise thy dear Son the highest pledge of thy love that came to save sinners the price is paid the greatest part is done already all that a poor soul can find he will then make use of before the Lord and
indeed these are the sweet breathings of faith these are the near approaches of the soul to Christ this is to lay hold upon him though the soul feel little comfort for the present yet this is a coming to Christ So the Prodigal O make me but as one of thine hyred servants Fifthly and lastly it is a closing with Jesus Christ as he is offered not by the halves Christ is not divided as the Apostle saith his righteousness from his holiness nor his holiness from his righteousness therefore saith the Apostle as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him O here many are deceived they would have Christ but they will not be his what a strange unreasonable thing is this they would have the benefit of having him to be their Father and be heirs but they will not be subject as children they would have all the immunities and priviledges peace and prosperity of soul under him as a King but they will not submit themselves to him as King and Lord they would have him for an husband and yet will not obey O this is not a coming to Jesus Christ this is to serve our selves upon him but the Lord Jesus will search this out keep it as close as we can from others that they may think well of us yea from our selves also through the juglings of our hearts we cannot keep it from him he knoweth where there is a soul that takes the Lord Jesus without any reserve and equivocation Aug. Is non modo durus was no good sign of his condition at that time though afterward it was otherwise for we find he acknowledgeth it bewails it the Lord grant that the doom of Ananias and Saphira reach not to many of our souls for pretending to give up the whole to Jesus Christ and yet reserve part to our selves yea pretend to come to Jesus Christ and yet divide him Well you see Brethren what this coming to Jesus Christ is it is not then every one that saith Lord Lord nor cryeth out the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord that come to Christ it is not the having a few faint wishings and wouldings which like the untimely birth of a woman like a bable perish and never appear more that is a coming to Christ it is not your sucking sweetness from your own duties performances Ordinances priviledges any thing short of Christ that is coming to him Dear Lord Jesus how many of us loyter and take up our rest short of thee It is not a bare acknowledgement of our being sinners in the general and a Lord have mercy from the mouth without any sense of our condition upon our hearts that is a coming to Jesus Christ It is not a desire to be pardoned alone for then none of us should miscarry and O that it were so if the Lord see it good But it is the earnest breathings of a poor broken lost soul the moan of a poor wounded creature the pantings of a poor languishing heart after Jesus Christ a making him alone our stay a resigning our selves to him that is the coming to him here spoken of and such a soul he will not cast out Pardon me I know I am too slow for the acute and I wish I be not as much too swift for many of us that are dull of understanding slow of heart to understand and believe these things the condition of people now a daies I take it doth call upon us to speak oftner and more fully to beat it upon poor creatures the nature of this coming to Jesus Christ then any other thing as I find still in all the preachings of the Apostles they did endeavour to make good that truth most necessarily that Jesus was the Christ because that was most opposed in those daies so now this being granted by all and already that we are sinners the main work lies herein to undeceive poor creatures who think all is well enough with them and therefore I am the more large in this part and indeed much more large then I thought to be The second thing then is what is meant by this not casting out wherein lies the marrow and fatness and sweetness of this Scripture and indeed I think the whole Book of God doth not afford a more refreshing word a more establishing word to a poor weak creature then this is O then let us see what it is First he will not cast him out he will not cast him out of his heart that is the first not out of his love for we must know this all of us this day which may be a comfort to many a doubting trembling misgiving-heart that if the Lord Jesus have done this in us and for us hath given us thus to come to him in truth for degrees of the things formerly spoken of I intend not them as to make up the nature of our duty it may be in a weaker and a stronger measure but if in truth it can be found that so we come know for thine everlasting comf 〈…〉 t as base thoughts as thou hast of thy self and of thy vileness and of thy unworthiness thy dear Saviour hath precious thoughts of thee thou art written in his heart thou wast in his heart when he wrought this work in thee and for thee yea long before this for the truth is were not he first as well as last in the work the Alpha as well as the Omega in that work of salvation we should never come to him nor should we abide with him O thy Law is in my heart saith he in Psal 44. 8. thy command I delight to do thy will and what was that that all that the Father hath given to him he should redeem and deliver and save and therefore if it be thus with us we were in his heart before as it was said of that Queen when she dyed That if her heart were opened they should find Calice there Ah Brethren surely the names of the choice of God which now appears and breaks out by this that is given to us to come to Jesus Christ all that the Father hath given shall come to me I say our names were then upon his heart and now are upon his heart as the Priest did bear the names of Israel before the Lord and therefore the Lord will not cast out such a poor soul out of his heart out of his love O my loving kindness I will never take from thee however he may chastise however he may with-hold comfort for a time yet believe it O that every poor weak creature might this day have it given from on high to believe that the Lord will not cast them out of his heart this is thy greatest fear poor soul lest thou shouldest lose him lest he should disown thee and say I will not have mercy on thee Alas it is as impossible as white to be black or black white hath he once owned thee and made manifest his
love in drawing thee bringing thee to come to him and will he now change his mind It is true if he were as man he might repent but the Lord is not as man O what comfort is here what encouragement is this Secondly He will not cast them out of his Church that is his Kingdom his Family his School his Vineyard he will not cast them out for if there be this coming to Jesus Christ there is faith and by that faith as we are made one with Jesus Christ so also with all his members so saith the Apostle we are members one of another ye are come saith the Apostle to Mount-Sion and to the assembly of the first-born that is to say you are gathered into the flock of Christ and out of this ye shall not be cast it may come to pass that through the ignorance of men they may be cast out of the visible Church or Churches of Christ and have little fellowship and communion with them and it cannot but be a burthen to a gracious spirit and oh that the Lord would so clear up his mind that we might not thus by mis-apprehension be a burden each to other but here is the comfort if we thus come to Jesus we are of the invisible Church and he that knoweth the heart knoweth his own image there his own hand-writing there every spark of his own kindling there and cannot be deceived and therefore there is no fear he will not cast away out of this Church the assembly of the first-born not out of this his family will a Parent cast out his child that he hath begotten in his own image because of some deformity it may be and imperfection that it doth not resemble the father in or because of its weakness in those parts which it hath even grace for grace we have from the Lord Jesus though weak and imperfect and will he cast out surely no. Thirdly He will not cast out that is to say he will not send away empty cast them out of his presence when they come to him neither at our first coming no nor our after-coming unto him Not at our first coming where is the soul that can say that he did thus come to Jesus Christ and was refused was sent away it may be thou camest full full of thy self not with such an empty hand to take him it may be thou camest with a false heart and then well might he cast thee cut for he knoweth how the heart stands towards him it may be thou wast troubled only with the smart of sin and not the filthiness the putrifaction of the wound and loathsom nature of it and wouldst have Christ only to have served thy turn and then wouldst have turned thy back upon him alas he knoweth this and therefore he resisteth the proud a man of a Pharisaical spirit a man of a Laodicean temper that is rich and needeth nothing cometh to Christ for a complement thou comest to him whole not sick nor wounded if thou didst and with such a heart as we have said I cannot believe that the Lord Jesus would have cast thee out no more then I can believe that be can lie who is truth it self O who would not venture upon this Jesus Christ be his condition never so sad he will not refuse if we come to him we perish for our not coming Secondly Even in our after-comings to him he will not cast out tell me when didst thou ever come before the Lord with a heart sensible of thy want of him with a renewing of the acts of self-denyal being nothing in thy self that thou weâ—test away empty did ever any hungering soul come to this Ordinance where we have the most royal dainties that ever it self affords in some degree even the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus the strong wines of consolation and didst thou go away empty surely no he that cometh full goeth away empty but he that cometh empty goeth away filled with some refreshing Haply thou mayst be put to it to wait a little while for it but have it thou shalt If either the Lord Jesus wanted a fulness of mercy there were not room enough in his heart for us all it were something or if he wanted propensity and bowels it were something if he were not a merciful pittiful high-Priest or if he did not know our meanings by our very looks or if he did not know our hearts where they are upright it were something indeed there were some ground to be discouraged but who can suppose any of these O that we could more strongly close with these with what confidence should we then come to him and how full a recompence of reward should we find even in the first fruits here â—f there were no more Fourthly He will not cast them out of heaven for every child of God as I may say hath one foot in heaven already as an unbeliever hath one foot in hell already where our hope is there our hearts are O that I could â—ay they are there they should be there there is our Anchor in heaven there the Lord Jesus is our head is who hath taken possession for us and went to prepare a place for us and therefore the works of grace in the soul are called things that have salvation he will not cast them out no by no means two negatives do deny more veâ—emently some shall be cast out at the last day yea the Kingdoms children Members of the Church and such as have lived under the Ordinances as the Jews did strangers others any that hear and believe and obey the Lord Jesus shall be received in Now Brethren our hearts are so vain we can scarce settle upon it to think of the woful condition that will be to be cast out from the Lord Jesus but no man that cometh to Christ shall be cast out O then it is not greatness shall enter in nor riches nor beauty nor learning nor gifts nor any of all these but meerly the coming unto Jesus Christ he will never cast out such a soul You have seen already what it is to come to Jesus Christ in many particulars and what is necessarily presupposed and such he will not cast out no in no wise or sort whatsoever but alas the difficulty is to perswade poor creatures of this that are upon the turning pin many can say Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean but the willingness of Christ to accept of poor sinners is that we many times doubt very much of and it is not the tongue of men nor Angels that can perswade a man to this and well it is for us that it is so for then the Faith of poor creatures would consist in the wisdom of men and not in the power of God only let me lay before your hearts and my own a few considerations from Scripture which if the Lord be pleased to breath in them may be a support
when we are sinking and drowning we will not so much as put out the hand to lay hold upon a twig upon something held out to us is not this unreasonable and unnatural it raceth out the principle of self-preservation that is in every man by nature so that I will be bold to say the greatest reason in the world improved to keep off a poor soul from Jesus Christ is unreasonable it is the depravation of our carnal reason had it not been unreasonable if Hagar having a fountain opened her before her eyes and she languishing for thirst and must perish without it and yet would sit still is not this unreasonable Again If we look upon the Lord Jesus who seeks to us beseecheth us to accept of him of mercy of pardon in his blood the Creator cometh down to the creature poor worms who have our being by his Word and might be dissolved with his Word and yet we stand it out and will not accept of him who would bestow himself and his infinite all-sufficiency upon us and we will not is not this unreasonable that a Prince should seek to a worthless rebel to be reconciled and he will not hear of it If he had any need of us and upon that account would have poor sinners to come to him to make a supply of his wants it were something but all the want the indigency is on our part and therefore unbelief is the more unreasonable thing O how might we here break out and say hear ye heavens and give ear O earth for the Lord Jesus the Lord of both heir of all things the offended Majesty seeks to poor rebelling worms to be reconciled but they will not hear of it they come not in they close not with him Secondly As the unreasonableness of the thing so also we may take notice of the injuriousness of this sin of unbelief I would a little insist upon this sin the more because that though I find many a poor heart seemeth to be weary of sin and afraid of sinning against God in other kinds yet seeth not in the mean time how exceedingly he sins against him by his unbelief not closing with Christ and coming to him therefore see in the second place the injuriousness of this sin of unbelief how injurious it is to Jesus Christ Brethren for if the truth were known what is the reason wherefore we need so much ado why we come not in to him We either think he cannot save us our sins are so great O saith one there was never such a wretch as I though he have accepted of great sinners such as Paul and Manasses and Magdalen yet there was never such a wretch as I O surely my wounds are such there is no healing for them What is this but to make Jesus Christ weak and a Physitian of no value Is there any sin higher then the imbrewing their hands in the blood of Jesus Christ himself and suppose thou be such an one and this is that thou cryest out of thou hast come so often to the Lords Supper with a common heart which is to be guilty of his blood accessary to his death and cannot his blood cleanse even from the guilt of them that shed it were not many of the Jews sensible os this how dishonourable is this to Jesus Christ when we will be measuring of him by our selves we are apt to think of pardon and mercy as far as a mans a creatures bowels and thoughts will reach mind there is an end not minding that he is God as well as man this is an high wrong unto our Saviour O he will not saith the poor soul if he can yet he will not sure receive such an one as I O I am so laden and so loathsom a wretch what should he do with such an one as I What is it possible thou shouldest remember how many promises how many invitations how many expostulations he hath made what intreaties to poor creatures to be reconciled to him and yet call in question his willingness why what do you make of Jesus Christ O how doth unbelief in effect dethrone Jesus Christ disgracing the Throne of his Glory robbeth him of his mercy of his power his love his bowels of that which he most glorieth in and is not this injurious then to thy dear Saviour Would not you think it a wrong to you from one of your children that had offended you as highly as you can imagine suppose he had sought your life as Absolom did Davids and now the Father seeks thou suest to thy son O how many promises thou heapest up one upon another backest them with oaths wooest him intreatest him to be reconciled to accept of a pardon No he believeth you not notwithstanding all you can do or say that you are real in the thing is not this injurious doth he not wrong exceedingly in this as well as in the former and is not this the very case Thirdly See how much unkindness there is in this sin of unbelief as it is directly against the love the bowels of Jesus Christ which sound toward poor creatures in the Gospel in every intreaty to be reconciled to him Brethren what could the Lord Jesus do more for us then he did was not his life dear to him even to the death sor poor sinners that there might be a pardon for us and do we thus requite him even to slight it never to mind it or if we do sometimes a little yet to stand out and not to close with him What unkindness was it in the Jews it is so recorded of them he came to his own and his own received him not that is to say his own flesh and blood and so he is ours as well as others but he came of them according to the flesh in a nearer manner and sent to them in the first place they received him not But to come to Us poor Gentiles out-casts that were strangers afar off with a desire to make us near in his blood near to his Father and to himself is this love nothing to be thus slighted for how few among us do believe in the Lord Jesus notwithstanding all this nothing breaks the heart of a creature more then unkindness and surely Brethren me thinks the thoughts of this if our hearts were not stony should be a breaking of our hearts that we have hitherto so many of us dealt so unkindly with Christ as we have done But fourthly see the dangerousness of this sin of unbelief that we may be set a trembling by reason of this sin as well as any other and be weary of this as well as any other 1. Other sins have but their own particular guilt each of them particularly binding over a poor soul to wrath and entayling the curse of the Law upon a poor sinner so every sin doth every oath every lie every unclean thought wanton look adultery fornication of the body the heart or eye but unbelief
is that which binds the guilt of all other sins upon the soul besides its own proper guilt which is not the least as you have heard before I say it binds all upon the soul if Paul had not believed all the guilt of his persecution had yet lain upon his head O saith our Saviour if ye believe not ye shall dye in your sins not only in your unbelief but in all your sins so that this unbelief it is the very edge as I may say of all other guilt whatsoever and therefore how dangerous a sin it is judge ye you are terrified and affrighted with your grievous abominations rebellions filthiness of your waies you never think of it haply but your heart sinketh within you why know this this day that unbelief is that which keepeth all this upon the soul if that thou wouldst but aceept of deliverance in Jesus Christ take him close with him come to him he would not cast you out he would not turn you away without a pardon but the reason of your burthens upon you is because of unbelief Secondly It is dangerous because above other sins it brings a mans blood upon his own head that is a sad word me thinks that of the Apostle I take God to witness that I am pure from the blood of all men if you perish your blood will be upon your head that is to say you are guilty of your own death your own murther your own damnation and everlasting separation from God much more may our blessed Saviour say I am free from the blood of you all sinners I have dyed for you made an All-sufficient satisfaction to the Justice of my Father for all sins laid down a price enough to ransom you and yet you would none of me you cared not for it I have made this known to you else you had had some excuse some cloak but you have no cloak for your sins for your unbelief If I had not wooed you intreated you to be reconciled by my Messengers then it had been something to extâ—nuate at least but alas he hath done all this and more Brethren infinitely then I am able to speak for poor sinners and yet they will not close with him why then Jesus Christ is clear from your blood he hath done what he undertook to do of his Father spared not himself to the least drop of wrath and of his own blood and yet we will not come to him O this must needs bring poor sinners blood upon their own heads Thirdly This unbelief brings the blood of Jesus Christ upon our heads for if after all this that he hath done and said to perswade us to make us willing to close with him we stand it out are we not guilty of his blood as well as of our own If an unworthy receiving of the Lords Supper bring a man under this guilt will not an unbelieving heart in hearing of this Gospel bring a man under the same guilt for is it not the same Jesus that is held forth broken for sinners and the same blood shed for sinners that is held forth in the Lords Supper to the eye and in the Gospel Preached to the ear even so plain as if it were before their faces as the Apostle saith to the Galathians O me thinks this should make us afraid of resting any longer in this condition of unbelief and make us look about us the Jews as hard-hearted as they were could not endure their consciences prickt them I believe and did flie in their faces and therefore would not endure the Apostles to Preach Christ say they ye would bring upon us the blood of this man O me thinks this stirs the stoutest sinners among us I delight not to bring to you Brethren such sad things as these are nor to bring the blood of Jesus upon your heads but let us take heed we do it not our selves for we shall find that this will be the dregs of the cup of wrath if we will not be reclaimed that ever we have so much under-valued the Lord Jesus as to cast his love behind us by our unbelief The third Vse shall be then of Exhortation to every poor soul to come to Jesus Christ for you that are yet in your hardened condition never made sensible of your need of Christ I have the less hopes to prevail with you for this Doctrine is foolishness to such it is foolishness to speak much of the soveraignty of a medicine the readiness of a Physitian to heal to a man that feels not that he is wounded and such is the Doctrine of Christ and of faith to many a poor soul but there are some poor souls that haply are convinced of their lost condition by nature and see that all the water in the bottle is spent and yet cannot see the fountain near them opened haply for grief for weeping they are over-charged with sorrow and yet come not to Jesus Christ O that the Lord Jesus who hath received the tongue of the Learned for this end to speak a word in due season would speak by the mouth of his poor unworthy Messenger to such hearts What is the reason that thou wilt not come to Jesus Christ art thou resolved to sit languishing over an empty bottle and perish when there is refreshing to be had in Jesus Christ O no saith the poor soul I would not sit still and perish if there be healing and mercy to be had why dost thou not believe that he is able to save to the utmost where sin hath most abounded there Grace can superabound yea it is the glory of his Grace so to do If I thought there were any stuck at this I would spend a few words upon it but consider those Scriptures fore-mentioned but the main thing is whether Jesus Christ will accept of such a wretch as I have been saith one O you know not the vileness of my heart the horrid pollutions of my ways else you would have harder thoughts of me therefore thou art ready to conclude that he will not look at thee sure Let me here propound a few Considerations to thee First Consider how injurious it is to Grace to measure it by our thoughts limit not the holy one of Israel it is the Glory of God The Lord the Lord God gracious and merciful and that whereby he infinitely transcendeth all other gods and men Who is like unto thee pardoning iniquity transgression and sin and canst thou comprehend the Glory of God in thy poor narrow thoughts thou it may be thinkest O if any man had so offended me I could not have born it I could never have been reconciled to him again but if thou canst not it may be another can it is much that the Lord enables his people to love to pray for to be ready to embrace those that in the most bloody manner seek their lives if they come and close with Christ as the Disciples
See Coming Deliverance whence doth it come 156 Discouragements of the world are to be armed against 251 252 Dividing upon every occasion take heed of it 98 To Do what a man knows he is slow 23 Door of heaven will be shut against all such as are not ready to enter in with Christ 363 Door is twofold ibid. Door that it is not shut against us what have we to bless the Lord for 371 Dulness we are to be humbled for it 26 E Entrance abundant into glory as a preparation unto it what is required 328 Espousals the manner of it between Christ and his people 46 Espousals of Christ The difference between this and those espousals between men and women 86 F Faithful the soul must be unto Christ 8 Fall away from grace is to be reproved 254 Favourites of heaven that we are made so let us admire it 351 Feast what is it taken for 339 Feast may be looked upon two waies 340 Feast in it the Communion of the Saints shall be heightened in heaven p. 343. and it must needs be so 345 Feast how Christ brings the Saints in unto it 347 Feast into it none else can bring but Christ 348 Feast to it sinners are invited 353 With two cautions ib d. Feast the sinners that say they have it already answered 355 Feast to come to it laies a necessity upon you 357 Feast as many as are admitted to the beginning of it labour to prepare for it in heaven 358 Feast to those that enter in with Christ to it comfort 360 Fellowships See Admissions Folly of formal professors wherein it appears 111 Folly as many as are guilty of it reproved 290 Folly wherein it doth consist 299 See Wisdom Formality if no more doth fail a man 263 Formalists to all them a terrible word 402 G God for his own glory comes in a time unknown 210 God the Father giveth his people to his Son and giveth his Son to them 41 God and the world are of two minds 114 Gods goodness to his people is to be taken notice of in awakening them 204 Gospel its preaching to all the world understood to be a cry 199 Gospel if men refuse and reject it no wonder if they be shut out of heaven 369 Grace distinguished 99 Grace its largeness to sinners 97 Grace its act Saints may loose but not its habit 172 Grace its throne what need there is to ply it 194 Grace is not to be abused 255 Grace if once in the heart it is never lost ibid. Grace for it what shall be rendered to the Lord 256 Grace its getting being put off till the last day is very great folly 286 Grace the going to the creature for it is a note of great folly 298 Grace they that go to the Saints for it are like to be denyed 302 Grace there are none that have any surplusage of it or more then will serve their turn 309 Grace to as many as think they have enough of it a reproving word 311 Grace to such as think they have but little a word of Comfort 313 Grace its day such as do trifle away the time will come when pity shall arise from none 315 Graces must be had gotten and kept in a lively frame 218 Graces how they must be acted 219 Grow how to do it 249 H Heart of man is unconstant 23 Heart must not be trusted in the highest frame 194 Heaven men may come very neer it and yet be shut out 379 Heaven what will become of them who never set foot towards it 380 Heaven in it the Saints Communion will be heightned 343 Holiness real what is it 366 Honoured wherein Father and Son are 69 Hypocrisie deep may lie in the hearts of men 95 Hypocrites Christ coming to judge at midnight is like an evil snare 212 Hypocrites when Christ comes upon them unawares it will be a Terror 215 Hypocrites may go very far towards heaven and Salvation from 122 to 231 Hypoctites how many men know whether they be such or no 234 Hypocrites never have respect to all Gods Commandments 236 Hypocrites profession will not carry them through all conditions 262 Hypocrites lean upon two Pillars that will fail them 266 Hypocrites may long lie hid from themselves 268 Hypocrites ordinarily are not diligent or laborious in searching within 272 I James King what once he said 173 Jealousie what is it 68 Jeroms resolution 297 Jerusalem had her day of grace 279 Jesus is to be magnified we to be humbled and convinced of folly from 389 to 391 Infants of Believers are external Saints 94 Justice satisfied See Christ Justice and Mercy upon what account they are to be magnified 322 K Kingdom of heaven what is it taken for 87 Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a Feast 339 Know such as Christ doth not shall never enter into his Marriage-feast 396 Know them not Christ will declare this at the day of Judgment unto Hypocrites 399 Knowledge of God in Christ what is to be said of those that have none 231 Knowing of a soul by Christ what is 〈◊〉 understood 393 Known of Jesus Christ many never are that profess him and profess to know him 392 L Lamps what is meant by it 11 103 Lamps of the wise Virgins though they burn low yet are they not put out 244 Lamps must be trimmed every day 254 Lamps what is it to trim them 257 Lamps their Motives to stir us up to trim them 258 Lamps our own what we should do to trim them 260 Law requires absolute obedience 69 Long-sufferance of God what they treasure up that despise it 134 Look unto two things 383 Love transcendent of Jesus Christ 54 Love of Christ to us should ever keep us low 59 Love of Christ the souls objections against it answered 78 M Magistrates who are the keepers of the Lords vineyard have slept 155 Man in him Christ sees nothing desirable 47 Man in him a double principle 146 Man or Men though they will not come to Christ for Grace yet will they come to him for Glory 385 Marriage what is meant by it 338 Marriages used to be made with feasting 53 Measures that are false take heed of being deceived by them 251 Members of Christs visible Church to be one of them is a great priviledge 98 Members unregenerated in a visible Church is a sad condition 99 Memory in man is a leaking vessel 21 Metaphor what is it 2 Midnight what is meant by it 208 See coming of Christ Ministers plea for putting the People in remembrance 24 Ministers wisdom in pressing truths 25 Ministers what they do 44 Ministers duty 67 Ministers have slept 156 N Novelties take heed of affecting them 28 Number our days labour so to do 117 Ordinances of Christ must neither be neglected nor slighted 253 Ordinances many that think they can get grace from them reproved 300 Ornaments look unto them and get them ready 81 Oyl what is meant by it 14 104 Oyl there is need
it formally consists are 1. In a desire of the soul after Christ 658 2. In passing all other stands and rests on this side Christ 659 3. In coming to him 660 4. In coming with heart-words 661 1. Words of Confession 2. Words of Petition ibid. 5. In closing with Christ 662 The Second thing in the Doctrine What is meant by not casting out 663 1. Not out of his heart 664 2. Not out of his Church ibid. 3. Not sending away empty either at the first or after-coming 665 666 4. Not out of heaven ibid. The Doctrine proved 1. From the promise of Christ 66 71 If otherwise Then 2. from Christs being argued unchangeable 668 3. From Christs slighting of his Fathers gift ibid. 4. From Christs failing in his trust 669 5. From Christs undervaluing of his blood ibid. 6. From undoing what the Father had done 670 7. From Christs bringing upon himself the imputation of delusion 671 1. Because of the many invitations made hy him to poor creatures ibid. 2. Because of his being contradicted of imposture 672 3. Because inconsistent with Christs bowels and tenderness ibid. The first Use is to lament the backwardness of our hearts in coming to Christ 673 The second Use shews the grievous nature of the sin of unbelief By considering 1. The unreasonableness of this sin 675 1. In respect of our selves 675 2. In respect of Christ 676 2. The injuriousness of this sin ibid. 3. The unkindness of this sin 678 4. The danger of this sin ibid. 1. Binding the guilt of all other sins upon the soul ibid. 2. Bringing blood upon a mans own head 679 3. Bringing the blood of Christ upon a mans head ibid. The third Use serves for Exhortation to every poor soul to come to Christ 680 From whence several considerations against the many hard thoughts of coming to Jesus Christ As 1. How injurious it is to grace 681 2. Christ leaves the soul altogether without excuse ibid. 3. How prejudicial to Jesus Christ 683 4. The experiences of all the Saints ibid. 5. The soul can have no evidence of being given to Christ until it come ibid. 6. How willing to run at hazard seeing there is so much certainty of speeding 684 7. It s a grief to Christ that the soul will not be perswaded of his good will ibid. The fourth Use exalts the riches of the grace of Christ to poor sinners 685 The fift Use declares that there is no falling away from Christ either from Justifying or Sanctifying grace once received 686 The sixth Use puts in a double caution 1. That impenitent sinners encourage not themselves in an evil way upon the account of Christs tenderness and mercy to poor sinners 687 2. That they that are in Christ take heed they abuse not this grace to wantonness 689 The seventh Use serves for a comfort to Gods people in all their fears and doubts that Christ will never cast them out 690 The first Objection That the soul thought it came to Christ c. but saies he is cast off and therefore concludes it was never truly in Christ is answered 691 The second Objection that the soul knows not whether ever yet it came to Christ and therefore is cast off is answered 692 1. Though Christ seems not for a time to own the soul yet he doth support it 693 2. When the heart is unsatisfiedly drawn after Jesus Christ ibid. 3. When the soul is willing to receive him as King and Saviour ibid. 4. When the soul is content to wait a while 694 5. When the soul is frequent in acting of faith to receive Christ ibid. FINIS Non loqu 〈…〉 nur magâ—a sed vivimus 2 Tim. 2. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est substantivum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 1. 12. Iob 5. 26. Iohn 15. 16. Eph. 2. 10. 1 Cor. 3. 9. * How sparkling is knowledge when set off with the â—oll of a modest self depression Ignorance checkered with Impudence is all the stock that many confident Predicants set up withall * O the stupendious stupidity and dismal blockishness of those who having contracted the guilt of most monstrous and abhorred villanies are yet as sensâ—â—ss as stocks as hard as rocks and complain not of any stirrings and gripes of con science Esa 57. 16. So sparks fly over from Dublin Zeal Ex. 32. 19. Mat. 5. 9. * Cap. Johnson W. Fisher Iohn 21. 17. * Though the Ocean bubble and boyl like a pot yet the falling tears of conâ—â—ite self-condemning Christians do suddenly asswage the Seas rising roughness and check its mutinous and menacing motions * Oritic S. 5. Courage Exâ— 4 13 14. Heb. 2. 13. 2 Car. 11. 23. Luke 9. 61. 1 Tim. 3. 5. * They are great enemies to their own comfort who live in the neglect of this Ordinance and whilst the Congregation is trumpeting out Gods praises sit like mopish mutes with a discontented eye and cloudy countenance as if the musick which they hear were howling rather than Singing †He was far from the opinion and temper of those whom the very thoughts much more debates of having their poor Babes Baptized do strangely transport with rage and an high indignation 〈…〉 inst any that shall attempt it Phil. 3. 19. 3 Tim. 6. 8. Phil. 3. â—o 2 Cor. 9. 2. Prov 3. 28. Eccles 11. 1. Prov. 19. 11. Prev 24. 29. Rom. 12. 20 21. 1 Pet. 5. 6. Prevented by his coming out of his closet at 11 clock in the night * Awake O sleepy slâ—ggard and let not the rising Sun find thee flâ—t on thy back and when the great eye of the world is up and open let not thine be shut me thinks its bright and penetrating raies should scatter that cloud of sleep and security that hangs upon thy dull and depressed brow Knowest thou not O drowsie drone that thou hast a great deal of work to do and but a little time to dispatch it in 2 Sam. 2. 23. Nov. 19. 1654. * 1. It produceth a calm a quietness in the soul against all distracting fears O he is come saith a Martyr and death was nothing to him 2. It is the most real good in heaven or in earth other goods are vain and empty this is â—ound and solid this is bread indeed and no delusion as the world and Satan would perswade 3. It brings-with it all manner of good which way soever God turns all the creatures that depend on him turn 4. It seasons prosperity to us it melâ—eth out the sweet and giveth us the marrow and fatneâ—s of it 5. It will season the bitterest cup of affliction the valley of the shadow of death will be but as another place Hab 3. 6. It will work effectually deliverance out of affliction 7. It will make us more then Conquerors Triumphers Rom. 8. 31. 8. It is of a teaching nature Psal 119. 125. When the Lord shines on our Readings Studyings Meditating then we are taught indeed 9. It melteth the heart kindly in a