ãâã World or another World of Men. The ground ãâã is this Because our Saviour being the head the second Covenant as Adam of the first a ãâã Person in the room of al such whose persons he ãâã His merits the very same individual ãâã death and obedience are apylyed and do ãâã appertain unto al as Paul had al so Adam ãâã Noah had al and the same death and ãâã belongs to any other Beleever as wel as to ãâã For as Adams actual sin was equally imputed ãâã al his original equally convayed So Christs ãâã and righteousness to al His. Adam must ãâã sin before he can condemne one and if ãâã it condemnes many thousands as wel as one Christ dies to save one and no more to save ãâã thousands For the sufficiencie of our ãâã ãâã must be ãâã as we do the sufficiencie of ãâã cause which is ever considered according to ãâã end at which it looks and for which it ãâã ãâã that it doth not exceed it is not to be attended ãâã to the thing in which it doth appear ãâã end of our Saviours sufferings and merits was save his seed and such for which he had ãâã and should beleeve whether never so many never so few but for al that come within that ãâã As a ful tide or stream is sufficient ãâã ãâã al Vessels that come upon it yet not ãâã to carry one Vessel that is not ãâã So here The Ocean of Gods love and Sea of Redemption ãâã Christ is sufficient to carry and convay al that ãâã unto eternal Salvation but not sufficient ãâã save one that doth not Beleeve And therefore ãâã any Orthodox Divine the meaning of this ãâã Sufficient for all Is the sufficiencie of Christs ãâã in the room of al Is the sufficiencie of ãâã death intended and performed for the spiritual ãâã of al they wil al renounce both the sences ãâã what reason they wil put upon these words ãâã than that I have now expressed I cannot tel ãâã only looking at the internal virtue of Christs ãâã with this condition there is value enough in it ãâã save al that come within this condition of ãâã ving As the sin of the first Adam was sufficient ãâã infect Milions of Worlds if they should ãâã of him by natural generation and yet not ãâã to infect one if he did not so proceed But why then are Reprobates commanded ãâã ãâã leeve and punished for not Beleeving ãâã which any is bound to Beleeve that is a truth ãâã each Reprobate that hears the Gospel ãâã ãâã to Beleeve that Christ dyed for him ãâã ãâã that is a truth This is an old deceit which hath much ãâã the World and wherein the enemies of Gods ãâã have seemed to triumph and yet in truth it ãâã fallacie a false form of reasoning But to let ãâã pass we shal examin whether the ãâã of it ãâã true The first part That which any is bound to ãâã is true may admit many sences A man is bound to Beleeve upon a ãâã ground Either 1. Of Charitie Or 2. Of ãâã taintie I am bound sometimes to Beleeve that ãâã Charity which in it self is not and in the issue ãâã ãâã true But upon Certainty things revealed and ãâã here I am bound to Beleeve nothing but ãâã is a truth Again another sence is this The object upon ãâã my faith is placed is a truth or true ãâã But to the second part That Christ dyed for me ãâã the Pronoune is in place of a Noune for me ãâã Reprobate And then it is a falshood It s not ãâã in any Gospel that I know nor required in ãâã Scripture of God that I should beleeve this for ãâã truth that Christ dyed for Reprobates If it be replyed that therefore a Reprobate is ãâã bound to Beleeve I Answer the consequence hath no colour of ãâã I am not bound to beleeve this falshood ãâã I am not bound to Beleeve The command to ãâã carries two things with it First that I must ãâã al means appointed by God to get faith ãâã when I have got it I must put forth the act ãâã in resting upon and receiving from the Lord what ãâã need The sum is Because a Reprobate is bound ãâã use al means appointed by God to get Faith and ãâã he hath got it he is bound also to exercise ãâã faith by resting upon Christ therfore he is ãâã also to Beleeve this proposition that Christ ãâã for Reprobates this consequence is cross to ãâã and in truth to common sence What ever therefore can be said to the contrary ãâã it is that unbeleif makes a man uncapable of ãâã of the spiritual good which Christ hath ãâã and is willing to communicate unto His. So the ãâã determins this cause Jer. 17. 5 6. Cursed ãâã the Man that trusteth in the arm of flesh and ãâã heart ãâã from the living God he shall be ãâã the heath in the Wilderness he shal never see when good comes Art thou such a one set thy heart at ãâã then There is mercie enough saving good ãâã in Christ and its comming to this and that ãâã thy Neighbour thy Child thy Servant who ãâã they shal have it they shal partake in it ãâã thou shalt never see it never share in it Rom. ãâã 32. It s that which the Apostle describes the condition of such Men by They are shut up under ãâã so that there 's no way for any means to ãâã upon them to come at them or to do good ãâã them al the passages are not only stopped but ãâã tercepted by the power of Satan and infidelity ãâã the Soul the soul being shut up under that ãâã shuts out the power of the Word it works not ãâã motions of the spirit they perswade not al ãâã al judgments al ordinances al means they ãâã not come at the Soul and therfore it s not ãâã that any spiritual good either Pardon or Peace ãâã or Comfort should ever come in Exhortation 1 To provoke our hearts to ãâã Faith 2 How to carry our selves when we ãâã it First this should whet our desires and provoke ãâã endeavours since there is al good Purchased ãâã Christ and al for those that ãâã Beleeve ãâã would not now be a Beleever above al our ãâã get Faith since we are sure to gain so much by ãâã be the time trouble or prayers pains what ãâã wil be its worth our labour though it cost ãâã so much in the getting it wil quit cost when ãâã we have it first or last you wil find it It was said when the Jews prospered and ãâã led in the time of Mordecai they had joy and ãâã ness and a good day and many became Jewes ãâã would undergo the same condition that ãâã might have the same comforts And it s an ãâã ãâã which nature hath left upon the minds and hearts ãâã all Men the places which have Priviledges Profits ãâã Endowments annexed to them carry the
give entertainment to him but unless the heart be broken and humbled we cannot receive Faith that we may receive Christ. And while the soul is thus breaking and humbling Faith also is coming in a right sense rightly understood whereof we shal speak somwhat largely if the Lord give us leave to come to that place The Words thus opened the Point is the very letter of the Text which looks full upon every Hearer or Reader that will look upon the Text. The Heart must be broken and humbled before the Lord will own it as His take up his abode with it and rule in it There must be Contrition and Humiliation before the Lord comes to take possession the House must be aired and fitted before it comes to be inhabited swept by brokenness and emptiness of Spirit before the Lord will come to set up his abode in it This was typified in the passage of the Children of Israel towards the promised Land they must come into and go through a vast and a roaring Wilderness where they must be bruised with many pressures humbled under many over-bearing difficulties they were to meet withal before they could possess that good Land which abounded with all prosperity flowed with Milk and Honey The Truth of this Type the Prophet Hosea explains and expresseth at large in the Lords dealing with his People in regard of their Spiritual Condition Hos. 2. 14 15. I will lead ãâã into the wilderness and break her heart with many bruising Miseries and then I will speak kindly to her heart and will give her the Valley of Achor for a door of hope the story you may recal out of Jos. 7. 28. when Achan had offended in the execrable thing and the hearts of the Israelites were discomfited and failed like water spilt upon the ground because they had caused the Lord to depart away from them the Text saies they having found out the offender by lot they stoned him and they said thou hast troubled Israel we will trouble thee and they called it the Valley of Achor and after that God supported their hearts with hope and encouraged them with success both in prevailing over their Enemies and in possessing the Land So it shall be Spiritually the Valley of Consternation perplexity of Spirit and brokenness of heart is the very gale and entrance of any sound hope and assured expectation of good This I take to be the true meaning and intendment of the place and part of the description of a good Hearer Luke 8. 15. Who with an honest and good heart receives the Word and keeps it by strong hand and brings forth fruit with patience the fruit is Obedience Patience is part of Sanctification and the holy disposition of heart that must be in the heart that brings and bears such fruit that which makes the heart good is Faith in Vocation which enables the soul to lay hold upon Christ in the Word and from him to receive that lively vertue of Patience and readiness to every holy word and work And an honest heart is a contrite and humble heart so rightly prepared that Faith is infused and the soul thereby carried unto Christ and quickened with patience to persevere in good Duties As we say of Grounds before we cast in Seed there is two things to be attended there It must be a fit ground and a fat ground the ground is fit when the weeds and green sword are plowed up and the soyl there and made mould And this is done in ãâã and Humiliation then it must be a fat ground the soyl must have heart we say the ground is plowed well and lies well but it 's worn out it 's out of heart Now Faith fats the soyl furnisheth the soul with ability to fasten upon Christ and so to receive the Seed of the Word and the Graces of Sanctification and thence it produceth good ãâã in Obedience Upon this condition Gods favor is promised Psal. 34. 18. The Lord is nigh to them that be of a contrite spirit and saveth them that be of a broken heart Isay 61. 3. He gives the Garment of praise to those that have had the spirit of heaviness it will suit none fit none it 's prepared for none but such it 's their Livery only Upon this condition it is obtained Mat. 18. 3. Unless ye be converted and become as little Children ye can in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 2 Chron. 33. 12. It 's said of Mannasseh he humbled himself greatly and made supplication and the Lord was intreated of him such persons and services are highly accepted Psal. 51. 17. A broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise nay he wil undoubtedly accept of it The Reasons of the Point are taken partly in regard of the heart which without these will neither be fitted nor enabled to act upon God in Christ for any good partly in regard of God all his Ordinances and Dispensations will be unprofitable and unable to do that good which he intends and we need To the first in regard of our Hearts those Lets and impediments which put a kind of incapability yea and impossibility upon the soul whereby the coming of Faith into the Heart and so the entrance and residence of the Spirit are hindred are by this disposition wrought and removed These Impediments are two The ãâã which stops the way and work of Faith is a setled kind of contentedness in our corrupt condition and the blind yet bold and presumptuous confidence that a natural man hath and would maintain of his good condition Each man sits down willingly well apaid with his own estate and portion sees no need of any change and therefore not willing to hear of it Each man is so full of self-love that he is loth to pass a sentence against his own soul to become a judg and self-condemner and consequently an executioner of all his hopes and comforts at once and so put his happiness and help out of his own hand Besides we are Naturally afraid out of the privy yet direful guilt of our own Consciences to profess the wretchedness of our own miserable and damnable Condition as to put it upon a peremptory conclusion and that beyond question I am undone I am a damned man in the Gall of bitterness in the bonds of iniquity lest they should stir such horrors which they are neither able to quiet nor yet able to bear And therefore out of the presumption of their own hearts they would easily perswade and delude themselves they have no cause to alter their condition and therfore they should not endeavor it Hence the carnal heart is said to bear up himself against all the assaults of the Word Deut. 29. 19. When all the Curses of the Law were denounced with never so much evidence yet the presumptuous sinner blesseth himself promiseth all good to himself and secretly feeds himself with vain hopes that he shal attain it therfore he wil
prayed in vain and no man ever attained ãâã thereby if they would and as they may and mought according to this Doctrine of Devils resist the ãâã of the blood of Christ and his Spirit and their ãâã Salvation purchased for them by Christ. So that the Seed of the Woman did not break the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. It was not certain that ãâã Savior should see his Seed Isa. 53. 10. Our Savior Christ was mistaken when he said I have other ãâã those also I must bring they shall ãâã my voice they might reply But we may chuse and Christ must ãâã us leave It hence follows That our Savior Christ is not so able to save as Adam to destroy It s not in the Will of Adams Posterity to stop the guilt and filth of his ãâã to seiz upon them to their condemnation but the first Adam will undoubtedly pollute and condemn all those that he Covenanted for and ãâã the second Adam cannot save ánd sanctifie all that he ãâã for contrary to the triumph of the Apostle Rom. 5. 15. If through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many It hence follows Christ hath purchased a right to all Spiritual good but not the Communication and Possession thereof undoubtedly to be bestowed contrary ãâã Job 17. 19. For their sakes I sanctifie my self that ãâã also may be sanctified Eph. 1. 3. Lastly How deeply injurious and dishonorable is ãâã this to our blessed Saviour How derogatory to ãâã Wisdom to purpose that he can never accomplish How cross to his power that he should aim at that by ãâã Death which either Satan or mans corruption ãâã be more able to cross than he to effect Nay How senseless and unreasonable is it that Gods justice ãâã hinder this work and yet sin should when all ãâã strength that sin hath is indeed from the Law the ãâã of sin is the Law 1 Cor. 15. 56. from that Commission which Divine Justice puts into its ãâã If Christ Merited and Purchased Redemption for All then he Wills and intends seriously that all should ãâã saved then he will afford the means to attain it for ãâã end and the means the end in intention and the ãâã in execution go both together and none in ãâã sever them much less will the Lord who is ãâã Author of all wisdom Rom. 10. 17. Faith comes ãâã Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God But Sense and Experience of all men of all ages makes it beyond question That God gives not the means of Salvation to All Psal. 147. 19. He hath given his word unto Israel he hath not dealt so with ãâã Nation Paul makes it the priviledge of ãâã Jew to them was committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. They alone Called they alone in ãâã they alone honored with all the Priviledges of all Gods Ordinances Yea the Lord neglected the ãâã condition of the Gentiles in former ages he ãâã not after them cared not for them nay they ãâã without God without Christ without Hope a far off not within the ken and call of Salvation ãâã such is the condition of many Nations of the ãâã at this day who have not so much as any means of ãâã granted unto them nor any sound of the Gospel of Christ amongst them Now do any in ãâã prepare Physick for the good of another and yet ãâã Patient never have it never hear of it The Answer which is here made by Papists and ãâã is this That though God doth not afford equal external means of Calling yet he calls all ãâã therefore they make a double kind of Calling 1 ãâã diately by the Law 2 Immediately by the ãâã Not that the Law can cause Faith in Christ ãâã but only in way of preparation by these degrees ãâã Lord hath left the work of the Law and the ãâã of his Image in the nature of man and withal hath ãâã forded him so much and so many helps out of ãâã creatures to manifest his goodness and majesty to ãâã that if he use this stock well he out of his bounty ãâã afford him the Gospel and other saving means to ãâã him to Faith and so to Happiness and to this ãâã that place is usually alleadged Rom. 1. 19 20. ãâã which may be known of God is manifest in them ãâã If they use this light of Nature well God will ãâã them the light of Grace when they abuse that ãâã have its just with God to with-hold what they ãâã and to take away that he gave To this I Reply The Ground of the ãâã 1 False 2 Vain False Because it crosseth that Liberty which ãâã Lord challengeth and useth in the dispensation of ãâã means of Salvation without any respect to the ãâã use of the gifts of Nature The Lord chose a ãâã to himself of the weakest and the worst Deut. 7. Deut. 9. 5. 6. The Lord set his love upon thee ãâã ãâã ãâã for thou art a stiff necked ãâã he set up a partition wall between them and ãâã meerly out of his own good pleasure whereas ãâã to this Opinion had the Gentiles used their ãâã well they might have pulled down the partition ãâã 2 It s contrary to that experience we have of Gods ãâã in the sending of the means that many times ãâã who abuse them most they enjoy them those who ãâã have used them ãâã they want them Matt. 1. 21. ãâã to thee Corazin Wo to thee ãâã ãâã the great works been done in Sodom à nd ãâã which have been done in thee they would ãâã repented in sackcloth and ashes As its a false so it s a vain Conceit Because no man ãâã ever have the means of grace vouchsafed upon ãâã condition in that no man ever did or in truth will ãâã the Condition for then are these Gifts used ãâã when they attain their end they then attain their ãâã when they are used in a right order and ãâã to God and his Glory Rom. 1. 21. so as to ãâã God as God but no natural man did or ever will ãâã this Instruction From the Doctrine delivered we may ãâã to Answer some Cases of Conscience which ãâã our Spiritual Estates and Comforts First Case of Conscience Whether a man can challenge any interest in any Spiritual Good in Christ or can bring in any proof ãâã himself of any Spiritual Good received or ãâã to him from Christ before he beleeve By no means It is a conceit cross to the Covenant of God the Scriptures of Truth the grace of God in Christ and unto the ãâã of that plentiful and great Redemption which our Savior Christ hath wrought for his For God never decreed any good ãâã ver intended any good but for beleeving Sinners ãâã suffered and performed all that he did only for ãâã sinners as be the seed of the
any saving Work If there were no Doubt moved no Question Controverted by way of any seeming Collection from the place the very Mysterious depths of the ãâã herein delivered drives all Interpreters to a stand and puts the most Judicious beyond their thoughts so that there is more ãâã to ãâã the mind of God in the words then to make Answer to the Objection hence collected We will ãâã Shortly open the meaning of the Words 2 Then ãâã what may be truly Collected from them and ãâã it will appear that the Objection fetched from ãâã will find no footing in this place The scope of the Apostle in vers 4 5. is That ãâã Christ is the Son of God and that Faith which ãâã the world must look to him and rest ãâã him This he ãâã to me to prove and explicate in both the parts of it in vers 6. And secondly amplyfieth it in the following 7. and 8. verses His proof is taken from ãâã type of his Priestly-Office the truth whereof he accomplished in the great Work of Redemption He that comes by water and blood he is the son of God But Jesus Christ came by water and blood His comming implys 1 His Fathers Sending 2 ãâã Own Undertaking that great Work of our Recovery not only by Water as the Levites who were washed Numb 8. 6. 7. but by Blood also as the Priests Levit. 8. 6. 22 23 24. By Water I conceive is meant The Holiness of his Nature in which he was Conceived and for which end he was overshad owed by the Spirit By Blood is meant that Expiation and Satisfaction he made to the Law of God by shedding his Blood So that He that had all that and ãâã all that which was shadowed by the Priests He is that Jesus the son of God for ãâã And the Spirit bears witness because the Spirit is Truth This seems to me to be the fairest sense and to be preferred before all that I can see brought By Spirit in the First place is meant Gods ãâã the Holy Ghost By Spirit in the Second place I do think ãâã is meant For so you shall find the word used 2 Cor. 4. 13. Having the same Spirit of Faith So that the Spirit of God comming from the Father and the Son would testifie by the aspertion of this Water and Blood that my Faith is true when it assures my heart that this Jesus is the Son of God 2 He amplifies this proof by bringing in the number of witnesses and the manner of their witnessing For their number they are Six The Father sending The Son coming The Spirit certifying in this ãâã manner of working they are distinct and herein appear to be distinct witnesses and this their witness is from Heaven signifying where they are and from whence they express their witness The Father speaks from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Mat. 3. last The Son professeth so often of himself That he came out of the bosom of the Father John 1. 18. John 3. 13. No man can ascend to Heaven but the Son of man who came down from Heaven John 6. 38. I came down from Heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent ãâã Lastly in Mat. 3. last The Spirit of God descended down upon him in the likeness of a Dove these speak from Heaven and their expressions are ãâã in the word without us whether we beleeve or no. Three again speak and witness from Earth for Christ dwels in us here on Earth the Spirit Water and Blood There is no doubt but by Water is meant Sanctification by Blood Justification all the Question lies upon the third What is meant by Spirit Under correction I take it It 's meant of Faith for besides that 2 Tim. 1. 7. all graces are called the Spirit we have received the Spirit of Power of Love and of a sound mind this is expresly so named 2 Cor. 4. 13. we having the same Spirit of Faith this is most safe and most sutable to the analogy of Faith and the intendment of the Text. There are but Three great Works unto which all the rest may be referred Vocation Justification Sanctification all these in us give in witness and evîdence That Jesus the Savior of the World must be the Son of God sent of him who sends also his Spirit into our hearts to work thus in us and by these works to evidence to us Himself and his Office The Truths then which according to the right meaning of the words may hence be collected are these There be six Witnesses Three of these witness from Heaven and their Testimony is left in the word without us The other three from Earth from the operation of the work of Grace and these are within us Al these agree in this as the thing winessed ãâã Jesus the Saviour of his People is the Son of God The witness of those from Heaven is greater than that which is on Earth But touching the witnessing of my good ãâã without respect to a gracius disposition or qualification there is not a syllable in the Text that sounds that way or carries any appearance to that purpose If every Work of Grace or the truth of a gracious qualification be witnessed by the Spirit and is lastly resolved therinto So that I Beleeve the work of Grace in me to be true because the Spirit witnesseth it then I must have an absolute ground to Beleeve the Spirit I wil open this Phrase the witness of the Spirit on an absolute ground Either it s meant ãâã the witness of the Spirit is attended without any respect to a work that is witnessed then its false and absurd that I should discern the witness of the Spirit without any respect to the thing witnessed ãâã made known to me by it for as hath been ãâã before witness and the thing witnessed go both together Or it s meant thus That when I have received the witness of the Spirit to my self then I ãâã prove it upon an absolute ground Hath Christ purchased al spiritual good for His for Beleevers Hence then we may see the ãâã of the faithful and the priviledg of those that ãâã above all people upon earth To you the Father intended al the treasuries of grace and glory in your stead Christ suffered performed all that the Law required and Justice exacted for you it is he hath purchased al that good that you need doth not that please you al you can desire doth not that quiet you nay all that you can receive through al eternitie doth not that satisfie There is none like unto you never the like was done for any as for you It was Moses Collection and caused his wonderment in the Consideration thereof Deut. 33. 29. When he had recounted the wonderful Preservations the Lord had wrought Priviledges he honoured them with and bestowed upon them he breaks forth into these expressions Blessed art thou
work it out throughly and then you shall have according to your hearts desire 3. The Causes of Application Having done with the Manner how this Application is wrought we are now to enquire the Causes of it which are wholly without our Selves being that we are not only unable to receive any Spiritual ãâã but professedly ãâã therunto and to any thing that might take away that ãâã If then the question be what be the Causes of Application I will Sum up the Answer in this ãâã God himself by his allmightie power is the Principal Cause and only those means so far as he is Pleased to appoint them and use them are the instrumental Causes of this work There are Three particulars to be Distinctly observed and considered in this Conclusion 1 God himself is the Principal Cause of this work of Application 2 That power by which he works in Application is an Allmightie Power 3 Those means that the Lord appoints and uses are the Instrumental Causes of it I begin with the First of these God himself is the Principal Cause of ãâã That is It is God the Father in Christ by the Holy Ghost who doth bring us into the Possession of all Spiritual Good For the old Rule is here to be attended all the ãâã of the Trinity which are without upon the Creature are common to all the Persons yet that the manner of working of each of them may more easily appear we will ãâã ãâã God the Father who is First in Order of Woking and who was directly offended yet ãâã now appeased and having received a ful ãâã for Satisfaction unto his Justice He because he ãâã ãâã must make them Partakers of ãâã good things and put them into ãâã thereof which were Purchased in their behalf And hence it is that all the Works of Application are attributed unto the Father As 1 The Work of Vocation 1 ãâã 5. 10. The God of all grace who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus which is meant of God the Father as appears by the Opposition 2 ãâã Justifie ãâã 8. 33. It is God that justifies Who shall condemn It ãâã Christ that died which is also meant of God the Father ãâã God is there distinguished from ãâã 3 To Reconcile 2 Cor. ãâã 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself by not ãâã their trespasses unto them 4 To Adopt Ephes. 1. 5. Having ãâã us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself 5 To Sanctifie 1 Cor. 1. 30. He hath made Christ to be Sanctification unto us And 1 Thess. 5. 23. ãâã he that ãâã us throughout in soul body and ãâã And this is the cause why Grace Mercy and Peace ãâã very ãâã of Pauls Salutation is sousually wished from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ partly because God the Father is the fountain in the ãâã and first in this Work and partly because the ãâã of a ãâã is never quieted until God the Father being the Party directly offended ãâã the Assurance of his Favor under the Acquittance of his Spirit The Lord Jesus hath also a special hand in this Application and that in a double respect 1 As he is the second Person of the Trinity the Wisdom of the Father to whom the dispensation of the great work of our Salvation was committed But 2 and especially which most concerns our purpose our Savior Christ is said to make al Spiritual Good ours As Mediator God and Man the Head of the Second Covenant from whom the influence of ãâã and special Virtue is derived unto al the Members as the Root from whom the Sap of ãâã Grace issues unto all his Branches He was ãâã Typed out by Zerubabel in the building of the ãâã Temple He layes both thefirst the last stone More particularly the immediate dispensation of this Work as it comes from our Savior proceeds from his Exaltation or Resurrection because that is the first step wherin that Exaltation is expressed and discovered to us When I say the immediate dispensation of this Work the meaning is That though the Lord Jesus is the Author yet that of Christ or that in Christ that in Christ whence the ãâã nextly issues is his ãâã The Lord Christ in the vertue of his Death and Merits Purchaseth al Good in the vertue of his Resurrection he ãâã and actually conveys all this Spiritual Good to His This Work of Application falls off from thence nextly and immediately As the Whole man is said to See but by his Eye to Affect or Desire by his Heart to Go by his Foot and to Speak by his Tongue So we say of the Actions of our Savior He takes away the guilt of our Sins but that is by his Death or ãâã Obedience in vertue whereof our Offences committed are satisfied for It is through him that we are Conformable to the Holy Law of God but that is by the Holiness of his Nature and his active Obedience In the One we Answer the Image of God in the Other the Will of God So from Christ it is we die to sin but that is by ãâã Death of Christ Rom. 6. 6. So here by the same Christ it is that the Application of all Spiritual good is made to us but it s done by ãâã of his ãâã I take that to be the sense of the Spirit ãâã that known place a little to be weighed Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered to death for our offences ãâã was raised again for our Justification that is ãâã was delivered to Death as a Sacrifice to ãâã ãâã our Sin so the word sin is taken Isa. 53. last and Levit. 7. 7. we read of a sin offering that is A Sacrisice Expiatory to take away the guilt of our Sin And he was raised again for our Justification ãâã is To apply this Purchase for our Justification ãâã that the perfect Righteousness of Christ might ãâã imputed to us And because this Consideration is of more ãâã ordinary Consequence and fits the discovery of ãâã truth The next Cause being the Conduit to ãâã vey all knowledge we shall a little clear it out ãâã the place ãâã and the full Sense will ãâã ãâã up in this Order 1 Christs Resurrection is not our Justification 2 Nor yet doth it only serve to declar it 3 Therefore it remains ãâã it must ãâã to apply Christs Merits to us First Christs Resurrection is not our ãâã that is It is no part of that Payment by ãâã whereof we are pronounced Just It Answers for nothing on our part to Divine Justice The Law required it not it was no part of the Command nor any ãâã of God to enjoyn any man to ãâã again neither did our sin call for it at our hand ãâã point of Satisfaction for the terms of the Curse ãâã thus The day thou eatest there of thou shalt die ãâã death Gen. 2. 19. That only ãâã Answers the Law and divine Justice for that only
set the greatest Price and account upon those things which were of greatest worth the Truth of God his Will and Wayes warily to observe the seasons ãâã these are Dispensed and Revealed And so with readiness to attend thereupon and to entertain those opportunities and means of Grace and Good whence follows a mutual agreement between the ãâã ãâã and these their converted Posterity They long before expected a Savior ãâã now fitted ãâã Receive the Lord Christ their Saviour now ãâã In the Words there be Three divine Truths which ãâã will take notice of in which the Pith of the foregoing Description is expressed 1 All men by Nature are unfit to Receive Christ. 2 There must be a Preparation therefore made for that end 3 The Ministery of Elias is the means to do this The First of these though proper enough for this ãâã yet we shall reserve the ãâã thereof ãâã we come to discover the manner of Gods ãâã in drawing of a sinner to himself where the ãâã fastening to his Corruption and the Lords ãâã him from it being handled together will ãâã way the one for the other and give light the ãâã to the other we shall therefore defer the further ãâã of that till we come to that place Proceed we now to open the Second Point That is The Soul must be sitted for Christ before it can receive Him or Salvation by Him This is the Scope of the Place the Way and Order of the Lords approach where there is no Preparation made there is no Expectation of a Savior to come Thus it was Prophesied Mal. 3. 1. ãâã I will send my Messenger and he shall Prepare the way before me and the Lord whom yee seek will suddenly come into his Temple Thus was it accomplished by the Baptist to whom the Word of the Lord came and he came ãâã in the ãâã about Jordan saying The voyce of one crying in the Wilderness Prepare yee the way of the Lord and make his paths streight Luke 3. 4. A similitude taken from Earthly ãâã our Savior he is the King and he was now to come in his own Person and in the Ministery of the ãâã and thereby into the Souls of his People And ãâã the Baptist makes Proclamation Not for their ãâã so much as for their Hearts that the ãâã ãâã thereof might be dislodged And the ãâã fit to entertain the Lord Jesus And that this was a Spiritual Preparation the nature of Christs Kingdom ãâã being ãâã ãâã world Joh. 18. 36. And the ãâã of his Proceeding being professedly ãâã to the pompe of Earthly Potentates will evidence ãâã For ãâã shall hear his voyce in ãâã ãâã Matth. 12. 19. But the Baptists Sermon who ãâã knew the ãâã of his own ãâã puts it out of doubt For so he ads ãâã 3. 1 2. Repent ãâã ãâã kingdom of Heaven is at hand As the ãâã ãâã sayes Prepare yee the way of the Lord ãâã ãâã he had said Repenting is Preparing And ãâã 3. 5. Every ' Mountain shall be made low and ãâã ãâã thing streight The sense of which words that it could not be literal but Spiritual the accomplishment of them in Experience is proof most pregnantly undeniable The Sum is The Heart is the high way while the Gospel is Preaching Christ is coming the Heart must by Repentance be fitted for Christ offering himself in that and then Christ will come by that means thereunto In this Preparation for the Explication of it we are to attend Three Things 1 Wherein it Consists 2 The manner of the Work 3 The Reasons of it For the First of these What this Preparation is or wherein it ãâã Generally It is a renouncing of whatsoever might cross the coming and entertaining of our Savior Christ into the Heart And it is the fitting of the Soul ãâã Faith and for being in Christ by Faith Particularly it shewes it self in Four Things The First is the Renouncing the Authority of those bosom Corruptions which have Lorded it over the Soul and kept out the Power of the Gospel from prevailing and taking place in the Heart That accursed Union and Combination that hath been long between the Heart and its secret Lusts which for their naturalness are said to be The old man Eph. 4. 22. And for their néarness our earthly members Col. 3. 5. born and bred with us which make and ãâã the Corrupt disposition of our Hearts This Combination must be broken this League ãâã else there is no place for the Presence of a ãâã True These noysom Distempers will be as Tyrants still Usurpiug Authority over the Soul but they are not acknowledged as Lawful ãâã by the Soul rightly prepared for the Lord But the sinner rightly fitted shakes off the yoak and ãâã from under the ãâã of these Distempers ãâã though he be not able to wage War and to mortifie them by any power received ãâã he withdraws his ãâã from his Lust and stands ready to entertain a deliver This ãâã Work the ãâã here ãâã by the Evangelist implyes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã non ãâã perfect onem sonat ãâã concinnitatem ãâã ad ãâã aptantur saith Calvin in Locum And the Original in the Prophet Isa ah 40. 3. imports no more both shewing the same thing even an utter Emptiness that ought to be in the heart Thus also is this Work ãâã and set out in the ãâã thereof Every mountain shall ãâã ãâã low It is not paving but levelling not a bringing in of some ãâã ability so much which this Preparative stroak ãâã stamp looks at take it strictly in hoc signo ãâã as they say but a removing of all that out ãâã the way which might stop or stay our Saviors coming for ãâã he Professeth Matth. 10. 37. He ãâã loveth Father or Mother more than me is not ãâã of me Not ãâã that is Not fit to ãâã him or Mercy by him As we use to say A fusty Vessel is not worthy of precious Liquor A dusty Cabinet not worthy to have a Diamond put into it That is They are not fit to Receive these ãâã the Things will be spoyled not ãâã ãâã them The Soul is brought to Renounce ãâã might serve to share in the Work and Glory of Free Grace and so cast some blemish ãâã or at ãâã diminish the due worth thereof which the ãâã Christ who doth all to the praise of the Glory ãâã his Grace will not suffer and therefore he will have this Coast cleared also before his coming And the Soul must be emptied not only of those things which out of the intr ãâã Evil of their nature do cross the Nature of Grace as Sins and Corruptions but also of all that confidence in any spiritual sufficiency ãâã ãâã by which while we would seem to share with him in the Work of our Conversion and ease ãâã of some part of the Labor we do indeed take some part of the Honor from him concerning which ãâã hath said That he will
reason Where there is nothing but opposition and resistance between two there can be no union for all union implies ãâã and agreement there must be a mutual accord ãâã things on both hands before they can be made one Amos 3. 3. Can two walk together except they be agreed love tends to unity and ãâã the cause of it and that ever presupposeth some I keneis But ãâã man remaining in the state of Unbeleef and Corruption is wholly opposite to Christ and the work of his Spirit he is wholly Flesh John 3. 6. And the flesh lusts against the spirit and these are ãâã Gal. 4. 17. the wisdom of the flesh is ãâã against God it is not subject nor can be subject to the Law so far from closing with the work of the Spirit as it is not able to bear it The Scribes and ãâã rejected the counsel against themselues i. e. to their own ãâã Acts 7. 51. Ye stifnecked and ãâã hearted ye have ever resisted the Spirit of the Lord. Paul did no more than every Natural man would do Being mad saies he I persecuted that way The way of Christ and so Christ himself In a word It 's said of all and it 's true of all the best of the Saints take them in their Naturals ye were darkness Eph. 5. 10. darkness cannot but oppose light He that is acted wholly by the power of Infidelity he must resist the work of Faith and so the receiving of Christ by it There are but Two Covenants that ever God made with man touching his everlasting Estate The Covenant of Works or of the Law the Covenan of the Gospel and so of Grace and these two Covenants are so opposite that the one ãâã the other If it be of Works it is no more of Grace else Works were not Works If it be of Grace it is no more of ãâã else Grace were no more Grace Rom. 11. 6. Hence they are severed as far as blessing and cursing Gal. 3. 9 10. So then they which be of Faith are blessed with faithful Abraham For as many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse Now all men by Nature are Members and Heirs of the first Adam and therefore under his Covenant and under his Curse Rom. 7. 5. 8. Whilst we were in the ãâã the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our Members to bring forth fruit unto death Those who are in Christ are under the Covenant of Grace and Life for he that hath the Son hath Life Hence I ãâã To be under two contrary Covenants of Law and Grace is impossible because so a man should be accursed and blessed at once But he that is in his corrupt Condition and state of Infidelity he is under the Covenant of Works he that is in Christ under the Covenant of Grace Hence followeth a Fifth Reason Who ever is under Grace over them sin shall not have Dominion Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace ãâã they who are in their natural condition and in the state of Unbeleef they are under the power and dominion of ãâã therefore they are not under Grace nor yet in Christ. This discovers the folly and dasheth the fond conceit of many carnal men who have framed a speedy way to Heaven in their own fancies through which yet never any had passage thither to wit they fondly imagine they have Christ and Mercy at command and that they can make a step to Heaven in the turning of a hand they ãâã not make such large provision or preparation before to tire out themselves with tedious and heart breaking sorrows and dayly remorse ãâã their dayly failings smal warning will serve ãâã mens turns Be it they love their lusts and practise them they harbor continually their noysom distempers in their souls express ãâã also in their lives they crave but the ãâã of ãâã few hours before their ãâã to fit themselves for their departure and happiness a few forced sighs faigned and formal confessions of their evils and howling for pardon out of the horror of their spirits now and then customarily adding a Lord have mercy on me they suppose they have made all even with God but if they can but get the Sacrament they conclude all is sure they must needs go post hast to Heaven if they can but say they beleeve Christ must comfort them cannot but save them No no Brethren the Word reveals none our Savior accepts of no such agreement he comes upon no such terms to bring any comfort with him unless any man should be so far forsaken of reason and sense as to imagine the Lord Jesus would carry the Drunkard and his Cups the Adulterer and his Harlots also the riotous Gamester his Cards and Dice Hawks and Hounds and all to Heaven together which is ãâã and incredible Oh! these men will one day find and that to their wo they cozened their own souls by their own folly whereas sound ãâã cost more the way must be prepared thy heart loosened rent and plucked away from thy corruptions before the Lord Jesus will vouchsafe once to look in upon thee No Harbenger before no King follows after where the heart is not ãâã for a Savior there is no hope to ãâã the presence of a Savior It 's the condition upon which his coming is promised and can be expected upon any sure ground It 's the order and connexion of things ãâã ãâã hath set in the work of Grace Luke 3. 8. And all flesh shall see the ãâã of the Lord. The Copulative Particle And tells us the sight of Salvation depends upon that which went before when we see the mountains of Pride high and lofty imaginations levelled crooked perversness of our own spirits taken off and we made meek and tractable then there is some hope that Salvation will appear unto us but if any man will yet rear up mighty Bulwarks and strong holds of rebellion and hardness of heart and maintain those high imaginations sturdy distempers of pride security and carnal confidence he must know whoever he be that as yet he is not within the ken of mercy and though he look until his eyes ãâã in his head and his heart ãâã in his body he ãâã never come within a true sight of Salvation much less may he think ever to be made partaker of it why confer with thy own conscience Dost thou think it fit the King should lie in the Truckle-bed under a company of Traitors Is it reasonable the Lord ãâã should be an ãâã to thy lusts No certainly the gods that thou hast obeyed by those thou must be saved thou would have thy lusts but reject Christ thou shalt perish with them but the presence of the Lord Jesus thou canst not enjoy Let the ãâã man forsake his way and the unrighteous man ãâã ãâã and return unto the Lord for he will
even the very plagues ãâã hell I have had many Exhortations Instructions Admonitions and Reproofs and as powerful means as may be which ãâã never did me any good The Lord be merciful to such a poor soul and turn his heart that he may lay hold of Mercy in due time Exhortation Is it so That a plain and powerful Ministery is the means of Preparing the soul of a poor ãâã for the Lord Jesus Why then when you hear the Word plainly and powerfully preached to you labor that the Word may be so unto you as it is in it self It is a preparing Word labor you that it may prepare your hearts to receive Christ And you that be Hearers every one labor to save the Soul of another let the Father speak concerning his Children and the Husband concerning his Wife and his Family and the Wife concerning her Husband Oh when will it once be when will the time come that my Child may be fitted for the Lord when will it be that my poor Family my poor Wife my poor Husband shall be prepared for the Lord the Lord grant that it may be if not this Sabbath yet on another if not this Sermon then at the next Labour therefore to give way unto the VVord of God and suffer your Souls to be wrought upon by it for the word is powerful to prepare your hearts but the Minister must hew and square your hearts before they can be prepared for the Lord Jesus and you must suffer the words of Exhortation as the Apostle sayes Heb. 13. 22. So likewise suffer the words of Conviction of Reproof of Admonition and hold and keep your hearts under the Word that you may be wrought upon thereby And as when men have set Carpenters a work to build an House then they come every day and ask them How doth the work go on How doth the building go forward When you are gone home do you so reason with your selves and ask your own hearts how the work of the Lord goes forward in you Is my heart yet humbled Am I yet fitted and prepared for Christ I thank God I find some work and power of the Word and therefore I hope the Building will go forward BOOK IV. 2 COR. 6. 2. As he saith in an acceptable time have I heard thee in the day of Salvation have I succoured thee THe general Doctrine of Preparation being dispatched Proeced we to a further enquiry of the Particulars under it And there we have to enquire The 1 Quality 2 Parts of this Work The Quality of this ãâã wherein are Comprehended those Common Affections which firstly and properly appertain to this Place and as the ãâã and Spirits pass through the whole Body of a man So these general Considerations convey over a savor and virtue of such truths as they do contain to all the Particulars which follow and ãâã in reason are to be handled before the rest The quality of this Preparation is to be attended in Two things 1. The Freeness of the Work wrought 2. The Fitness of the time wherein it is Effected For the Discovery of both which I have made Choice of this Text as affording susficient ground for this Discourse ãâã he saith in an accept able time c. In the handling of which words we shall endeavor Three Things 1 What the Scope of the Text is that so it may appear it naturally fits our purpose and the Point in hand which comes to be ãâã 2 The Sense and Meaning of the words is to be ãâã into and such Truths to be Collected which serve-our turn and intendment 3 We shall pursue the Explication of each of them in their Order The Scope of the Text which I conceive worth the while a ãâã to be attended will appear by the Connexion ãâã it hath with the foregoing ãâã and the dependance of it is to be fetched ãâã the 17 th ãâã of the former Chapter ãâã from the Consideration of the priviledge and ãâã they were advanced unto in Christ the Apostle infers and calls sor that newness of life and obedience answerable to that kindness of the Lord and the condition unto which ãâã were advanced ãâã any man be in Christ he must be a new ãâã bebold old things are past all things are made new 2 Cor. 5. 17. And this he shews from the author of this Grace who disposeth of it God 2 From the Mediator who hath purchased it Christ 3 From the Means appointed to Convey and Communicate it to such for whom it was ordained to ãâã The Ministery of the Apostles All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself through Christ Vers. 18. And whereas the Corinthians being heathens might object True he hath reconciled you Jews but what is that to us He addes in ãâã 19. That God was in Christ reconciling the world ãâã Beleevers both of Jews and Gentiles to himself and for this cause and to this end hath ãâã the word of Reconciliation to his Apostles for their good that while they as Ambassadors entreated God by them did beseech them to be reconciled unto him And this was done upon susficient warrant and in a way of righteous proceeding for Christ who knew no sin was made sin even for them ãâã who should beleeve that they might be made the righteousness of God in him vers last Having thus shewed a full and ãâã ground for their reconciliation and also of his own Commission for that end He further presseth it in the first Verse of ãâã ãâã If God be thus Gracious Christs ãâã ãâã our Commission so Large We ãâã as ãâã together with God ãâã you ãâã you receive not the Grace of God i. e. the ãâã that word of Grace that bringeth Salvation to ãâã in vain ãâã receiving benefit by it and comfort from it to your own Conversion and Salvation And whereas they might Reply It is not in our power to receive the spiritual good of this word nor ãâã in you that are Apostles to work it or if both were granted it s not yet the Season fitter opportunity will be afforded hereafter To all these the Apostle Answers in the words of the text True the Blessing is the Lords but the Endeavor ãâã be Ours We must Plant and Water it s in Gods Prerogative and depends upon his good Pleasure to give Encrease however the Time now fits the ãâã are now afforded and though we cannot Do what we should and ought yet let us do what we can and though we have no Power of our selves to Compass our everlasting Comforts yet we have Gods own VVord and most gracious Promise That in an acceptable time he will hear us And that presumes then that we must pray In the day of Salvation he will help and by that it s taken for granted we must take pains and behold now is the day of Salvation now is the acceptable time let us therefore now call earnestly upon him for a Blessing walk
painfully in doing our Duty and let the Lord do what is Good in his own eyes Evident therefore it is That the Aim of the words carries us directly unto the first work of God upon the Soul ãâã the Prophet Isaiah expresseth in Isaiah 49. 5. 6. 8. That is the acceptable time wherein Jacob must be brought back again to God Undeniable also it is That this work of Preparation as the out-Porch and Entrance which makes way to all the rest is here pointed out Particularly by the Apostle when he entreats them to ãâã ãâã VVord ãâã ãâã signifying the entrance and admittance ãâã the Lord when in the power of his Ordinances he stands and knocks at the door of the heart which is then done when the Lord begins to lay hold upon the soul and to grapple witn the sinner in awakening and wounding his ãâã for his ãâã And lastly beyond all Question ãâã 49 9. ãâã thou maiest ãâã ãâã Go forth The Scope then of the ãâã ãâã ãâã our intended ãâã Search we then in the Second Place the Sense of the ãâã ãâã so those divine Truths which are there contained may be Collected by us Time The word in the Original imports Season or Opportunity which is not so much the continuance of days or months or yeers as the Concurrence and meeting together of ãâã conveniences which may be ãâã to any work whereof more anon when we handle the Point hence Collected ãâã Some Difference there is between the Apostle and the Prophet Isaiah from whom this Testimony ãâã taken but all return to one Sense The ãâã in the Old Testament refers it to the VVork ãâã God the time of his acceptation or good VVill The Apostle in the New Testament applys it to the Time A Time accepted Yet so as the work of God is ãâã and comprehended under it In the ãâã then it intimates Three Things 1 The time that is appointed 2 The VVork of Grace put ãâã ãâã ãâã for the Conversion of any soul 3 The ãâã of all it depends upon Gods pleasure when he sees fit to accomplish the Decree of his Election to Convert a sinner effectually to himself and out of his free good will to take him into his ãâã by calling him out of the world to the knowledge of ãâã and his saving Grace in Christ. Day of Salvation For the more full understanding of the Reason of the first word Day we may enquire the nature and rise of it In the beginning when the Lord made All and amongst the rest the living Creatures he furnished them with powers and abilities for the performance of their work he seated and set every one of them in his proper place as upon a stage for the acting of his part He set also bounds and laid forth several periods and distances of time for each purpose Now the Distinctions of time i. e. the separation of Light and Darkness made so many stops as it were in some or which there must be stayed Thus in Creating every Particular that is added The Evening and the Morning were the first and second Day c. They had their Day of Creation and their Day of Operation so long as they continue that is their Day for the Day and Night are the Distinction of all this Time here below and serve as so many stops and stayes in which each thing is stinted for its being and VVorking And hence it may be it is There is no Day nor Night in Heaven Rev. 10. 6. neither shall there be any more Time there that is Distinction or Measure of Time by Day or Night after the last Judgement for that must needs be the meaning of the Text because in Heaven and Hell the state of things and so their times are unchangable Hence to man His day is his life ãâã long as he breaths in the ãâã and ãâã this Sun that 's the Time allotted to him to act his part in to trade for his everlasting State and Condition Hence again to descend yet lower there is a special period a stinted time for every part of this life and so many courses as I may term them and srames of occasions which belong to any so many seasons and several limits of time hath he allotted to each particular Thus the wise man There is a time to gather and a time to scatter a time to plant and a time to pluck up Eccles. 3. 1. And these ãâã are called Days in Scripture Thus there are Troubles and Tryals Visitation and Grace which the Lord in the dispensation of his Providence allots to men and there is a day for each of these A day of trouble Psal. 50. 15. A day of Tryal Heb. 3. 8. A day of Visitation Luke 19. 42. and a day of Salvation in this sense as here in the Text. Salvation Presumes alwayes danger and evil and according to the quality and nature of the one the other is to be considered and conceived here it is spiritually to be understood in the sul sense of it to wit from the danger of sin here begun in Preparation perfected in Glorification after this life And that Speech by way of Similitude seems well to interpret this manner of Speech Heb. 3. 9. The day of temptation when your Fathers tempted me i. e. that moment of time when that rebellion was expressed so here That moment or instant wherein the Lord begins to put forth the work of his special Grace about the Salvation of a sinner by the means he hath in mercy appointed And thus the Apostle expounds the word in the Verse following Behold now is the day of Salvation he saw it they could not but perceive it and all might acknowledg ãâã much because the Word of Salvation Acts 36. 26. viz. The Grace of God that is The Gospel given by grace ãâã bringeth salvation did now appear tit 2. ãâã So that it may be truly affirmed in a savory sense This day is Salvation coming to such to whom the word of the Gospel is come in the Ministery therof The Words thus Opened The Collections which are of special weight and Consideration are Four Faithful Ministers ought to be earnest in calling upon God and faithful ãâã the improvement of means for the spiritual good of such to whom they are sent This is taken ãâã ãâã in the Text How shall God ãâã unless they Call How shall God Help unless they Endeavor They who are thus ãâã according to Gods Command they may expect a ãâã success according to Gods Promise He ãâã I will Hear I will Help Therefore their Prayers shall be Answered their Labors Blessed for God will not falsifie his Word nor ãâã of his ãâã It s in the meer good pleasure of the Lord to work upon the heart in the Ministery of the Word when he sees fit It 's in the day of Gods acceptation and good Will that the Prayers of Faithful Ministers are heard and their Pains made ãâã for the Spiritual
of their daies not long ãâã their death not long before their souls depart out of their bodies and they depart from the Land of the Living I am not ignorant that some Interpreters run another way and conceive by Laborers ãâã only to be understood whether they be good or bad and their ãâã their calling unto that ãâã in the Church He that is a Demas and seeks ãâã World his penny his praise and applause if ãâã his profit and wealth if Covetous and for that he makes his agreement with the Lord when first he makes entrance upon the work of the Ministry When he that is sincere hearted and seeks the things of Christ the penny for which he indents and the hire he would have is the hearts of poor ãâã the conversion of souls and ãâã of the body of Christ are instead of all the Tythes and ãâã Livings and Benesices he desires to look after though the sence is pleasant and spiritual yet I do not think it suits with the Scope ãâã this place nor here intended by the Spirit For of those ãâã Parable must be understood of whom that conclusion in the last verse of the 19. chapter was spoken Many that be first shall be last and many that be last shall be first This Parable being inferred for the opening and proving of that as the first words of the first ãâã of this 20. chapter do plainly evidence For the Kingdom c. But they are without question the ãâã only who are there meant such who have left all for Christs sake such who shall inherit ãâã life vers 29. alwaies with this proviso Many that are first called if they bear up themselves somwhat too much upon their own worth shall be last rewarded they who are last called if yet they do renounce all confidence in their own excellency and sufficiency and depend upon the free mercy of God they shal be amongst the chiefest that shal be recompenced Following then the sense which the Scope of the Text and the best Interpreters give the Point which fits our purpose and offers it self to consideration without any forcing from the Words is this God calls his Elect at any age but the most of his he converts before old age He comes at any hour but once only at the Eleventh hour and that somwhat unexpectedly There be two Parts in the Doctrine we wil handle them severally that they may be more easily and distinctly conceived 1 The Lord can and somtimes doth call at any Age. 2 But the most of his and that most usually he converts in their riper years God calls several of his Servants at sundry times some yong some old some in their tender some in their riper years there is no season excepted he that is the God of all times can and will do his own work at any time Timothy knew the Scriptures from a child 2 Tim. 3. 15. and drew in the sincere ãâã of the Word as Milk from the Breasts of his Mother and therefore is said to be nourished up in the wholsom words of Truth 2 Tim. 1. 5. Obadiah feared God from his youth 1 Kings 18. 12 Lydia and the Jaylor in Acts 16. Paul in Acts 9. 7. and Zacheus Luke 19. 9. it's most propable they were in their middle age as their places and imployments together with their accustomed experience and practice therein do ãâã Paul indeed is called a yong man Acts 7. 58. yet his bringing up at the feet of Gamaliel the largeness and depth of his Learning and Knowledg in Arts and Tongues 1 Cor. 14. 18. together with the Commission he was betrusted by the High-Priest for the persecuting of the Saints evince undeniably that he must be of ripe years Abraham was upon his seventy fifth year when God called him Gen. 12. 5. compared with Josh. 24. 2. Manasseth was converted near upon his death about sixty yeers of age 2 Chron. 33. 19. But in the case of old Age the matter is so difficult and so unusual that there are very few examples of old men converted recorded in Scripture as though the Lord had reserved it in his own hand as a special exception that the Sons of men should not ordinarily expect it That which is usually observed with some probability besides the pregnant testimony of the Text in hand is Amongst the many thousands who were pricked in their hearts at Peters Sermon Acts 2. 36. Amongst all those who came to hear with Cornelius Acts 10. 44. It 's said the Holy ãâã fell upon all that ãâã it 's probable some among such numbers were stricken in years As for the Thief upon the ãâã it 's most agreeable to good reason by all the leading circumstances in the Text that he was in his best strength The Lord takes these times in the dispensation of his Mercy for a double End To shew the freeness of his Grace that there is nothing that he respects either in person or place no excellency that at any time any man hath no work that at any time any man can do why he should fit and prepare any for Grace and Christ or bestow them upon the ãâã Sons of Adam and therefore takes every season that it may appear it is in his good pleasure to take what season he will If the work of Grace had been ãâã to any time of Life either Youth ãâã hood or Old Age alone it would ãâã been concluded ãâã carnal grounds that there was somthing in the Creature upon condition ãâã it had been given either the tenderness of the yong ones had moved the Lord to ãâã them or the excellency of the parts and abilities of men of riper years could have procured it or the policy and experience of the aged could alone have contrived this great work of preparation and conversion unto God but when the Lord chuseth some out of all ãâã and pass by others it 's ãâã evident it 's not any thing in the persons years or condition but meerly in the compassion of the Lord that doth all This is the ãâã which the Lord himself renders of his dealing in this kind when he would suppress the murmuring of some of the Laborers ãâã 20. 14. who ãâã that they had no more than others because they had been longer in the Vinyard and had born more of the burden and heat of the day than others The Lord answers May I not do what I will with mine own Again This God doth to shew his Power even the Omnipotent and All-sufficient work of his ãâã to whom nothing is hard or impossible who hath hardness at command and therefore as he doth ãâã he will both in Heaven and Earth Psal. 1 15. 3. ãâã also in the hearts of his people when the ãâã and ãâã of the little ãâã ãâã deprive them of this favor when the boisterous head-strong distempers of yong men cannot hinder ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of the aged in their cankered corruptions cannot ãâã ãâã ãâã
get it if he can by doubling he is not willing to yield therefore is resolved to quarrel and wind away from under the force of the Argument and to make an escape Acts 17. 18. They encountred Paul they came into the field with Cavils against his Doctrine observe how careful an unwilling heart is to invent a shift and how content to take it and if yet he fail of his hopes and is not able to make his party good with the ãâã he unlocks all the Devils Chests and ãâã his Skul for devices and though the Reasons be of no weight nor worth nor strength yet he is well ãâã to be cozened with them though there be scant any appearance of a pretence when the yong man had professed all readiness to follow the Command of the Lord and saw nothing would serve turn unless he sold all overpowered with the Authority of the Truth he left it in the plain field and went away sorrowful If yet the ãâã that 's rivetted in his resolution to hold his own cannot ãâã the Truth then he falls to flat opposing of it Jer. 44. 16. As for the word which ãâã hast spoken to us in the Name of the Lord we will not hearken to it that is the short and the long they then begun to be plain and peremptory Jer. 18. 12. They said there is no ãâã but we will do after our devices and we will walk every man after the imagination of his own heart If they cannot undo the Bonds they will break the Bonds of Gods Commands Come say they ãâã 2. 2. let us break ãâã Bonds and ãâã ãâã their cords from us Thus the Jews when they saw the Word of the Lord to prosper in the ãâã of Paul and ãâã they were filled ãâã envy and ãâã against those things that were spoken by Paul contradicting and ãâã in so much that Paul professed they put away the ãâã that would have plucked away their sins ãâã them Acts 13. 46. John must ãâã his ãâã rather than Herod will part with his Harlot When ãâã cannot get leave of God to do what he desired he goes without leave Numb 24. 1. he ãâã his ãâã to the ãâã as if he would prevent Gods ãâã and curse ãâã before God ãâã be aware of it To have their ãâã ãâã tormented and kept upon the ãâã and themselves crossed in their corrupt courses so that either they dare not keep their lusts or else have no quiet if they do they fly in the face of the Truth it 's a hard saying who can hear it who can ãâã it Acts 19. 28. see what an uproar and what a dust Demetrius raiseth against Pauls Doctrine Masters you know that by this craft we get our living therefore what they wanted in Argument they would carry it in clamors There was an ãâã for the space of two hours Great is Diana of the Ephesians So they dealt with the two ãâã Revel 11. 10. they were never content before they were removed they could not have their ãâã in quiet as long as they had their lives for they tormented them with their witness the Truth is dreadful and torments carnal men that cannot bear the light and power of it If yet the Conscience be not seared with a hot Iron but there remain any sence of common Principles in it they will be dayly quickened and awakened by the Power of the Word and that will be daily vexing provoking and pressing the heart you know saies Conscience this is the Command your Duty and will be your Comfort to yield obedience thereunto you may oppose but you will perish for it you may do what you please but it will be your destruction God wil require it at your hands when you will not be able to answer for what you have done nor bear what God will inflict The ãâã then endeavors to still the clamors and to stop the mouth of Conscience and to weary it out ãâã impudency in wickedness and stifling the ãâã of it and not suffer it to take place and so by custom in sinning he takes away the sence of sin and so it befals them as those the Apostle speaks of they become past feeling Eph. 4. 19. This is to hold ãâã the Truth in unrighteousness Rom. 1. 18. Truth is pressing this ought this should this must be done or else you die for it you see the Word pregnant the way plain the Duty undeniable say nothing saies unrighteousness in the heart I do love it I must follow it therefore speak not a word more I cannot hear it nor bear it as they said Judg. 18. 25. when ãâã ãâã after them for his gods Let not thy voyce be heard amongst us left angry fellows fall upon thee Thus you see how this unwillingness to be subject to the Truth shews it self They seek it not receive it not stop the passage of it defeat the Power and Evidence of it they professedly oppose it and privily stifle the ãâã of the Truth which may trouble them in sinning until their ãâã be without sence and they without care or purpose to reform their evil waies But are not the wicked many times willing to part with their corruptions see how far they speak how freely they profess Deut. 5. 27. All that thou hast spoken we will do Jer. 42. 5. The Lord be Judg ãâã thee and us enquire at the mouth of the Lord for us and whatever it be whether good or evil we will do it what more can be desired what more could be expressed I Answer in Three Things The Text denies not nor doth the Doctrine that Natural men are willing to profess subjection to the Law of God but that they neither do nor can nor will do what they say therefore it is added in Deut. 5. 28 29. This People have said well but O that there were such a heart in them there was good words but they wanted good hearts they said wel but their wils and endeavors were not answerable they professed fair with their lips but dissembled with their hearts so the Prophet Jeremiah told them to their faces Ye dissembled in your hearts when ye said enquire of the Lord for us Jer. 42. 20. It 's possible nay ordinary for a corrupt heart when it doth most reform sin outwardly then most of all to love and to give himself to the practice of some sin secretly because then all the streams are turned into one Channel he neglects all other that he may wholly bestow and lay out his heart upon that one and when he professeth against sin he conceives he may sin without suspition and distraction without suspition from others and without distraction in himself when by confessions and reformations he will put in Bail upon his Conscience and agree with it as Bankrupts use to do with their Creditors When it co nes to a streight and a justle that the Word meets him as the Angel met Balaam he cannot pass unless
words which out of the very Scope of the place and intendment of our Savior present to our view the former Point and ãâã in ful sense thereof from the very letter of the word I shal omit al other particulars in the verse ãâã only single out that which directly concerns my purpose in hand And that 's this God the Father by a Holy kind of violence as it were plucks his out of their Corruptions and Draws them to Beleeve in Christ. Before I come to handle this Point this I would Premise by way of Preface That I purpose to handle both these together both plucking from Corruption and Drawing to Beleeve for they are both performed by the same Action or Motion and therefore its most fit as they be in Nature together so we should discover them together For as it is in Bodily things that are obvious to our eye and ãâã he that plucks two things asunder which were glued by the same motion at the same instant ãâã he plucks the one from the other he plucks ãâã brings the one neerer to himself So here by ãâã same stroak and at the same time the Lord is ãâã to pluck the soul from sin unto which it was ãâã he brings it neerer to himself and it is made ãâã for himself that so it may be united unto his ãâã And these Two are required before a man can receive that Grace that he stands in need of As in part out of joynt that is possessed of many ãâã humors or broken splinters of bones which ãâã the temper and hinder the joynt from his right work and returning to his right place for a through Cure the noysomness of the former is to be removed ãâã would hinder the part from joynting and ãâã to its right place and this cannot be done but with ãâã kind of Violence which is now our Point to be Opened and Confirmed For our more orderly proceeding because the path is not beaten by any pregnant and plain ãâã we shal desire to ãâã things with as much Evidence as we can and therefore we shal enquire 1 How many sorts of Drawings there are and so which ãâã meant in this place 2 What is the proper Nature of that which ãâã here understood in the kind of it 3 How God doth put forth this and by ãâã means 4 Wherein this Holy violence is best ãâã and rightly apprehended in this work 5 How this pulling of the soul from sin and Drawing of it to Beleeve is accomplished by this violence 6 Why this work of Attraction is given to the Father These things being considered and cleared the frame in so mysterious a Dispensation wil be discerned in some measure as may satisfie a judicious hearer To the First There is a Double Drawing or Constraint Improperly so ãâã and it s called a Moral Swasion to wit When by outward presenting and offering or by some vehement pressing and applying an object to the mind or heart the affections come to be ãâã and the will comes to be prevailingly moved and strongly perswaded to the work The Properties of this kind of Constraint are Two 1 The Objects or Arguments offered and propounded infuse no power in to the will which it had not but only stirs up and cals out that which was there before implanted to put forth it self into action 2 When these perswasions are offered there is still left an indifferency there remains a freedom in the Will to Refuse or Receive as she sees ãâã Thus the wedge of Gold and the Babilonish garment it perswaded and prevailed with Achans heart to covet and to hide and then by falshood to defend it Josh. 7. 21. This occasion or beautiful bait drew out that wretched Covetousness that ãâã there before Thus Lydia Acts 16. 15. by her importunity she is said to constrain Paul who happily otherwise intended it not may be he had weighty occasions which would have carried him another way Thus in Luke 24. 29. It is said by pressing importunity they compelled our Savior to stay with them who otherwise would have gone further Luke 14. 23. Compel them to come in This the Jesuits and Papists and many of the School conceive and conclude Marvelous peremptorily and stifly maintain it even to the death That this is the only way of Gods drawing Namely God opens the Eye and stirs up the Will by propounding Objects of worth and greatest excellency and this is al they would have ãâã words require But this gloss ãâã the text nor can it stand with the Scope of the context or intendment of our Savior for ãâã words are added by way of correction when the Pharisees in the foregoing Verses murmured at the Doctrine of our Savior with which they were willing to quarrel because they could not understand and at his means which they were willing to despise Our Savior to prevent the scandal which weak ones might happily take because people of such place quality rejected his person Doctrine he ads these words None can come to Me except My Father Draw him which is Murmur not be not offended that the ãâã entertain not me nor the Gospel it s a greater work to Beleeve than either the power or skil of the ãâã let them admire at their excellency as they please But it issues out of the purpose and good pleasure of my Father none have power to come unless he be pleased to Draw ãâã that they may come Where Two things are ãâã 1 There must be Drawing before Coming 2 They who be Drawn wil certainly Come As the force of the Argument evinceth otherwise ãâã reason of our Savior was of no force for it had ãâã easie to reply The Father may draw many ãâã yet those never come therefore that is not a ãâã Reason why they did not come whence its ãâã the aime of the text disanuls and ãâã ãâã that ãâã They who are drawn wil come and fail not But many have these outward swasions The Scribes and Pharisees who blasphemed the Lord Jesus had ãâã and therefore these swasions and ãâã offers are not the Drawing here meant There is as Divines cal it A Physical or Natural Drawing and Constraint I would rather cal it A drawing of Internal Operation whereby not only the Eye is opened and Objects propounded but there is a power and prevailing impression put upon the will which gives ability whereby it may be carried and determined upon its Object So that Two Things are here 1 There is a Spiritual and Divine Power a Divine inspiration fals powerfully upon the will 2 By this the will is determined and undoubtedly carried to its Object To speak familiarly Plucking implyes a Breach of the Union between Sin and the Soul and ãâã from yeilding Subjection ãâã 2 There is the turning of the heart the right way or a right set of Soul being formerly perverted put upon it In which to speak properly the ãâã puts not forth a deliberate act
and the venom of the Serpent in the other Why Have they not nay continue they not to do the lusts of the Devil to this day They have the Spirit of sin and Satan within them and therefore they are their Children and therefore sin and Satan ãâã a right and title to them Is it not again writ Rom. 6. 16. Know ye not that to whom you yeild your selves servants to obey his servants you are As who should say It is a ruled case common and confessed by the verdict of al. If ye yeild your selves to obey sin you are the servants of sin therefore saies sin and Satan since we have such law on our side for our right we crave our right for these have yeilded themselves servants to my temptations saies Satan and to my allurements saies the World and to my instigation saies Sin therefore they are our Servants therefore let us have them still To which the Lord Answers and Justice also Replyes While they did remain the seed of the Serpent and in the state of the Children of wrath so long you have reason to have them and right to challenge them and therefore it is you have detained them as Prisoners to your pleasure to this day Yea but saies the Father The Lord Jesus whom I have sent he hath undertaken to pacifie my wrath and purchase their deliverance and so hath done for he hath bought them of Divine Justice and therefore hath right now to make them the seed of the Covenant of Grace and to bring them to himself and life as they are and have been the seed of the Serpent and estranged from me and happiness and therefore he hath not only done for them what was required on their behalf but he wil work in them what may be answerable to the Covenant and the Condition of it therfore your claim is nothing This under correction I take to be the meaning of that place Rom. 8 2 3 4. which is mysterious and dark and dazels the eyes of Judicious Interpreters that several senses appear to the several apprehensions of men we wil open it briefly as we pass by and apply it to our ãâã And that which I suppose wil give some light to the true intent of the place and wil be as a Key to the Scripture and set open the sense that an easie apprehension may give a sad guess at the purpose of the Spirit is this I suppose the words must be understood of the work ãâã the Spirit wrought in us and the impressions of Grace left upon the Soul not of the work of Justification which is wholly without us in the Lord Jesus our Surety and only counted ours And this that Phrase in the 4 th vers seems to me of necessity to imply Where it is evident that the end of the former work of Christ is made this That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Whereas in the work of Justification the truth of the work the meaning of the Lord and expression of Scripture is other 2 Cor. 5. last Christ was made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him not in our selves That Righteousness for which we are Justified is fulfilled for us by Christ and is in him it s not fulfilled in us For it is the Doctrine of the Popish Sect who are adversaries to Gods Grace that we are justified for any thing wrought in us and for which we are for ever to renounce them And hence it is Phil. 3. 7. Not having mine own Righteousness but that which is of God in Christ Therefore not in us properly This being granted I shal shortly give you the meaning of this 3 d. Vers. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh The Apostle had evidenced the state of a man in Christ by the fruits of it He walks not after the flesh but after the spirit Vers. 1. The Question might be How comes that about He Answers Vers. 2. The Law of the spirit of life which is in Christ as the Head hath freed me and so al his Body and each Member from the Law of Sin that is The Soveraign Rule of Sin and Death But why was the Spirit of Christ necessarily required to do this since the mind of God is in the Law revealed and my Obedience required therein Is it not enough that I understand this and thereby be enabled to follow it The Apostle answers No It was impossible for the Law to enable a man to walk after the Spirit and to be free from the Law of sin for so the Causal For knits this Verse as a proof of the former not because the Law was faulty but because our Flesh our natures were corrupt and thence it is not enough the Lord should tell and teach unless there be some other Spirit and Power to enable But how then comes this other Spirit He Answers ãâã 3. God ãâã his Son to take our Nature upon him who was like unto us in all but sin and he sent him to take our Nature ãâã i. e. For the Removal of sin And these words are to be referred to those going before he sent not to those after he condemned sin As thus He sent his Son in the similitude of sinful Flesh for sin for the removal of sin and he condemned sin in the Flesh i. e. In the Vertue of the Sufferings of his Flesh he did abolish and destroy the ãâã and Jurisdiction of sin so that sin as we may say hath lost his Cause and is as we ãâã to speak non suited fails wholly in al the Pleas it can or doth make for any right it hath to the Soul of a sinner As we say of a man that is Cast in Law that the Cause went against him His Cause is Condemned or his Cause is Damned his Claim is false and feeble and hath no force to carry the thing he would So here Sin fails of its Claim is wholly Cast in the Suit that it makes for the Challenge of the Soul Divine Justice delivered it into its power because it was wronged but must now deliver it out of the Claim and Authority of sin being satisfied And from hence this will be attained That the Righteousness which the Law requires may by the Spirit of Christ be wrought in me ãâã by way of ãâã hereafter in perfection To the like purpose is the meaning of that place also 1 ãâã 4. 6. For for this end was the Gospel preached to them that are dead that they might be judged according to men in the flesh but live according to God in the spirit In the sirst Verse from the Death and Sufferings of our Savior he perswaded those to whom he wrote That they should ãâã that Application by way of proportion That
his Heart to do Farewel Thomas Goodwin Philip Nye COLE 1216. The Application of Redemption by the effectual work of the Word and Spirit of Christ for the bringing home of lost Sinners to God The Ninth Book ISAIAH 57. 15. Thus saith He that is the High and the Lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the High and the Holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit THe Work of Preparation having Two Parts First The Lords manner of Dispensation as he is pleased to deal with the Soul for the setting up the praise of his Rich and Glorious Grace and therefore with a holy kind of Violence he plucks the ãâã from his sins unto himself and his Christ. This hath been dispatched already in the former Discourse The Second now follows And that is the Frame and Disposition which is wrought in the Hearts of such as the Lord hath purposed to save and to whom he hath dispensed himself in that gracious Work of his Contrition Humiliation This Disposition consists especially in Two Things That so I may follow the Phrase of Scripture and retain the Lords own Words in the Text where the Lord saith that he dwels with him that is of an humble and contrite Heart To omit al manner of Coherence and other Circumstances we will pass all the other Specials in the Verse and point at that Particular which will suit our proceeding and may afford ground to the following Discourse that we may go no further than we see the Pillar of Fire the Lord in his Truth to go before us We shal fasten then upon the last words only as those that fit our Intendment To make way for our selves in short there is one word alone to be opened that so the Point may be better fitted for our Application we must know what it is to dwel or how God is said ãâã dwell in a contrite and humble heart I Answer To Dwell implies Three Things First That the Lord owns such as those in whom he hath an especial interest and claims a special propriety as though he left all the rest of man-kind to lie wast as a Common that the World and the Devil and Sin may ãâã and use at their pleasure reserving the Honor of his Justice which by a strong hand he will exact as a Tribute due to himself out of all things in Heaven and Earth and Hell and all but persons whom he thus fits he reserves for his own special Improvement As Princes and Persons of place and quality do lease out and let some Forrests and Commons to the Inhabitants bordering thereabout reserving some acknowledgment of Fealty and Royalty to themselves but the choyce and best Pallaces or Granges of greatest worth and profit they reserve for their own peculiar to inhabit in So here the Lord leaseth out the World and the wicked in it to the Devil and his Angels and Instruments reserving a Royalty and Prerogative to himself as that he will have his Homage and Acknowledgment of dependance upon himself but his broken-hearted ones are his own for his own Improvement Deut. 32. 8 9. When the most High divided to the Nations their Inheritance and separated the sons of Adam he set the bounds of his People according to the number of the Children of Israel for the Lords Portion is his People Israel the Lot of his Inheritance Ye are the Temple of the Living God 2 Cor. 6. 16. Yea to them the Lord himself saies Ye are my People and they shall say thou art my God Zach. 13. last Therefore he professeth that though in the course of his Providence he goes on progress over all the world yet he takes up his dwelling and abode amongst his own People For Secondly Where a man dwels as he owns the house so he takes up his abode there it is the place of his residence we say any may know where to seek men or where to find them at home at their own house That 's the difference between Inning and Dwelling we Inn at a place in our passing by when we take repast only and bait but depart presently intending not to stay but where we dwel we settle our abode we take up our stand there and stir no further So the Lord is said then to dwel in the Soul when he vouchsafes the constant expression of his peculiar presence and assistance to the soul. True it is that the Lord fills Heaven and Earth with his presence yea the Heaven of Heavens is not able to contain him Jer. 23. 24. His infinite Being is every where and one and the same every where in regard of himself because his being is most simple and not subject to any shadow of change being all one with himself Yet he is said to take up his abode in a special manner when he doth put forth the peculiar expression of his Work as in Heaven he dwels because he puts forth the constant expression of his Glory and that in the full brightness of it without any alteration and change Here in this Spiritual Temple the Souls of his Saints he puts forth the peculiar expression of the constant assistance of his blessed Spirit I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter who shall abide with you for ever John 14. 16. 1 Joh. 2. 23. Ye have received an anointing which abideth in you Dwelling if it be attributed to the chiefest Inhabitant and Owner of the House it implies also the ruling and ordering of the occasions that come under hand there the exercising of the Government of the house and family where the Owner is and dwels He that lodgeth at a House as a stranger comes to an Inn as a Passenger he takes what he finds hath what he can receive of kindness and courtesie but the Owner is the Commander of the House where he dwels and the orderer of all the Affairs that appertain thereunto So doth the Lord with a broken Heart Thus we are said to live in the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit Gal. 5. 25. And it 's that which follows by Inference upon this ground John 15. 4. 5. If I abide in you and you abide in me you shal bring forth much fruit and therefore it s added also in this place that the Lord dwels in the contrite and humble heart to receive the Spirit of the contrite ones they yeeld themselves to be acted by him and they shall be acted and quickened by him to Eternal Life So that the full meaning is The contrite and humble heart is such to whom the Lord vouchsafes acceptance special presence and abode and peculiar guidance he owns him abides with him and rules in him for ever True it is said Christ dwels in our Hearts by Faith Eph. 3. 17. and as many as beleeve in him they receive him John 1. 12. That is done as by the next and immediate hand by which we say hold on Christ and
Heaven for revenge but when our Savior laid his hand upon the sore and let the light shine in her face and points at the vileness of her practice Thou hast had five Husbands but he whom thou now hast is not thy Husband she then becomes sensible of his soveraign wisdom and her own wretchedness John 4. 18 19 20. So it was with Paul when the Lord met him going to Damascus persecuting the Saints he saw not the sinfulness of his course and therefore was senceless of it Saul Saul saies Christ why persecutest thou me Then he answers Who art thou Lord Jesus said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks when he understood the evil of his way then he stood trembling and astonished saying Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9. 5 6. Before the Corinthians were made conscious of their own carelesness neither pitying the soul of the incestuous Corinthian nor yet seeking to reform his sin they gloried over him and prided themselves in their own conceited excellency but when the Apostle had discovered their miscarriage and failings what sorrow and care did it work in them and what serious endeavor to reform the guilty party The Doctrine is true we shall endeavor to make it plain and therefore we shall open several particulars the right conceiving whereof will be as a key to unlock the Treasury of this Truth that each man may take what will serve his turn Enquire therefore we will By what means and after what manner God works this sight of Sin How far the sinner may be said to be active in it Wherein this true sight and apprehension properly consists and so discovers it self The Reason of this Truth and the Lords Order in this proceeding And then we shall make Application of it By what means or after what manner the Lord works this sight of Sin To which I shall Answer in four Conclusions Or the Answer unto which Inquiry will be expressed in four Particulars The Righteous Law of God as it is the Rule of our Lives so it is the Discoverer of our Sins and swervings therefrom and by the light thereof together with that little light of common Principles of Piety and Love left upon our Consciences we come to have our corruption made known to us Rom. 3. 20. By the Law is the knowledg of sin insomuch that Paul a learned Pharisee one that profited in the Jews Religion more than his equals he was yet at a loss in discerning and judging of the turnings and distempers of his heart before he takes the light and lamp of the Law So himself professeth Rom. 7. 7. I had not known that lust had been a sin those first stirrings of the Body of death and secret lingrings and inclinations to that which is cross to the wil of God though there be no consent given to them no delight taken in them but that the Law said thou shalt not lust the Sentence of the Law set down his Judgment and therefore the Apostle James compares it to a perfect and curious Looking-glass wherein each man may see the least blemishes or motes if he will present himself before it James 1. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein will lay his mind and heart and life level to the Law of God and hold his heart and apprehensions to the righteous Judgment and Sentence thereof it will plainly discover the smallest imperfections the least stirrings of the most hidden distempers that arise so Rom. 2. 14. the Heathens with the twi-light or Star-light of the remainders of the Law written in their heart past Sentence against themselves touching the sinfulness of their course But this is not all nor yet enough to make us to attain a right sight of our Sins unless the Lord put a new Light into our minds within as we have the Light of the Law and Counsel of God shining without unto us otherwise the Law may be and wil be a clasped Book and a dead Letter we shall see little in it or receive little from it So Paul Rom. 7. 9. I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came sin revived Without the Law how could that be since he was an Hebrew of the Hebrews of the Tribe of Benjamin trained up at the feet of Gamaliel a Doctor of the Law prosessed it and practised it according to the most exact Sect of the Pharisees as he speaks But the meaning is that he was without the power of it and the spiritual life and lively efficacy of the Law It was a dead and a killing Letter Look what the sence of the words or some evidence of Reason or Arguments could hold out to a Natural Understanding the bark and shell and outside of such directions he took and entertained But the Spiritualness of the Law For the Law is Spiritual saies Paul and that spiritual and lively power of Conviction and Direction it puts forth upon the souls of the Saints who are subject to it and therefore indeed receive the work of it This Paul once in the time of his unregeneracy was destitute of and then he was alive that is in his own overweening and self-deluded conceit he concluded himself to be a living Christian to have the power and truth of Grace and to live the life of it So that it 's possible nay it 's ordinary and nothing more usual than for men to be without the Law when they have the Law to be without the Life of it while they have the Letter of it to be without the Law as a Soveraign Rule to their Lives while they take upon them the profession of it to be without the Spiritualness of the Law and so to miss the end of it that is closing with God as our last end and chief good which is the sap the pith and substance of the Law though they have the appearance of the practice of it And if they miss the end of the Law at which it aims and unto which it tends they must needs fall short of the Wisdom and Counsel and Spiritual efficacy of the Law which should direct them So in 2 Chron. 19. 3. Now for a long time Israel had been without the true God that is his true Worship that would bring them to him and that is the meaning of that Phrase Ephes. 2. 12. Without God in the World that is without the true Worship of God so that they who want the true Worship of God are without God So they who have the manner of the true Worship and want both Spirit and Truth in which God will be worshiped they have the Appearance but want the Spirit and Truth of the true manner they have So of the rest Thus it is with thousands in the Church which hear and know and have the Letter of the Law and yet are indeed without the Power and Spirit and therefore
of their course their distempers are such that they stink above ground and yet they poor creatures feel nothing but bless themselves in their present condition Rom. 2. 5. They have hearts that cannot repent heaping up ãâã against the day of wrath The daily and ordinary commission of any one sin delivers up the sinner to become a prey to the power of al corruptions even the most detestable sin lays wast the soul that it becomes a through-fair and lyes open to the most hellish provocations or distempers that can be presented before it and nothing comes amiss that 's the inference when the heathen had no delight to have God in their knowledg had notliking to such and such righteous and good wayes of God he delivered them up to a reprobate sence Rom. 1. 28. they had no delight to be ruled by the truth and the wisdom and holiness thereof no delight ãâã know or rellish any good God takes them at their word and leaves them in the hands of their sins they should have minds that should never know the truth hearts that should never approve of it See presently when the soul is thus layed wast what a drove and inroad of hideous abominations come in and take possession and make a prey and spoyl of the poor wretched creature as they wil then ver 29. 30. they are ful of all Unrighteousness Covetousness Fornication Envy proud Boasters beady high minded ãâã breakers False Unfaithful Disobedient Unnatural nothing is a miss what ever the heart of Belzebub or the bottom of Hel can harbour It 's the ground of the cohaerence of that place also Eph. 4. 19. Who being past feeling they have given up themselves to work al uncleanness with greediness the poor creature is at the ãâã and beck of any base abomination no temptation presseth in but prevayles no allurement is presented but it surpriseth and taketh aside no corruption ãâã but it carryes and acts him without gainsaying the Devil and his distempers take him alive and take him at their pleasures lead him as they ãâã and he knows not where he is before he be in the bottomless pit This is the quintessence of vengeance an unseen evil ãâã in truth unconceavable the terrors of death and the torments ãâã hell are nothing in comparison of this When the glorious and blessed God through the just desert of sin leaves the creature at the lust of Satan and his diftemper Loe he is in your ãâã do what you wil with him I wil have nothing to do with him more this is the sentence passed upon the backslider Prov. 14. 14. the backslider in heart shal be ãâã with his own wayes he shal have his belly ãâã Thus as the saints are sealed up in the day of Redemption the wicked are ãâã ãâã up under the soverainty of their sins ãâã the day of destruction thou ãâã have thy pride and stubbornness ãâã be thou for ever proud and for ever ãâã and for ever ãâã hearted continu so and perish ãâã There is no judgment like to this and this is the ãâã of sin and that which the Lord reserves as the choycest of al his plagues the last and worst 1 Prov. 26. 28. 31. Yee shall call but I wil not hear yee shall seek me and shall not ãâã me one would think this is heavy and harder measure could hardly be found yes the Lord hath worse because ye despised my counsel and set at naught al my reproof ãâã they shall eat the fruit of their own wayes and be ful of their own devices they who srame and devise devises to contrive Contentments to their own carnal and corrupt ãâã carry a forge of falshood and ãâã about them to succeed in these one would have thought is the ãâã content such a person could take true it is so and that is the greatest and most dreadful plague that could befal them When the Lord Christ takes away ãâã of himself and his spirit from the ãâã and leaves him wholly to himself and the power of Satan his own ãâã ãâã distempers nothing of Gods wisdom ãâã their own folly shal mislead them nothing of Gods ãâã but the perverse rebellion of their own hearts shal rule them and so destroy them this is to be in hell before he come there and so be a Devil before he come among them They come to be helpless in regard of all means that the Lord hath provided or the mercies that the Lord hath offered unto them and doth yet strive with them in Its sin that stops the entercourse between God and the soul his ordinances and our Consciences takes and ãâã the passage that the power of the means never work upon us the sweetness of his mercies never affect us the virtue of his ordinances find no place leave no impression upon the soul This is the fruit which the prophet layes forth of the rebellions and ãâã of the Jewes which made them ripe for everlasting ruine Isa. 6. 9. 10. Make the heart of this people ãâã and their ears heavy and by that time they are sure enough for ever seeing the face of God or receiving ãâã by any means seeing they may see and not perceive hearing they may hear and ãâã understand least they be converted They are far enough from conversion and so from salvation It s that also which is of necessity implyed in the former expression they shal be filled with their own devises so there is no entrance no acceptance of any direction from the wil and word of God As it is in vessels that are brim ful of liquor ready to run over there is no room for a spoonful of the most precious liquor to be put into them So through the just desert of their sin they are so fully possessed with the power of their corruptions which have had commission to rule them that as our saviour said John 8. 37. There is no place for the word Their minds so ful of pride of their own carnal reason that thereÌ is no room for instruction to direct or inform them their hearts so ful of stifness and perveriness that there is no place for reproof that may prevail with them and reform them the spirit so ful of falsness and ready to take hold upon ãâã that there is no place for the ãâã of the truth to frame them to the ãâã and singleness of carriage as suits with Gods mind so that all means of grace and ordinances take their leave of the sinner work no more upon that heart that hath ãâã long and so often opposed the work thereof ãâã 51. 9. We would have healed Babilon ãâã she would not be healed leave her then leave instructions and leave exhorting c. so it is with the ordinances the Lord passeth by and wil not so much as speak a word to a rebellious heart the threatnings that troubled before now stir not the instructions that convinced before now awe not at al the reproofs
delivers touching Gods Dispensation and I know not but it may hold here Psal. 18. 27. With the froward thou wilt deal frowardly the place is hard for the apprehension of it in the fair and full sence of it The words that go before will give in some light With the bountiful thou wilt shew thy self bountiful with the perfect thou wilt be perfect with the pure thou wilt shew thy self pure and with ãâã perverse or froward thou ãâã shew thy self froward thou wilt make thy self deal frowardly To speak to the pinch of the Point but in two words I conceive ãâã to be the meaning ãâã the place and the mind of God in it He that walks with God in the exercise of the Rule in a ãâã manner God ãâã meet with him in it and give him the ãâã and comfort that follows and flows from it he that conscienciously keeps the Rule shal be more fitted for to keep it and to share in the blessing and ãâã of it he that deals bountifully in vertue of the Rule he shal be more apt to that Duty and shal find bountiful dealings from the hands of others God and men he that is upright thorough and simple in Spirit and practice he shal be more exact every way and find peace and praise as the fruit of that he that is pure that is not only contents himself to be simple and sincere hearted in his whol course but is dayly purging himself and clensing his own heart ãâã severing himself from such taints and remainders of distempers that appear and ãâã to cleer up the Rule in the beauty and excellency thereof to himself that he may see more of it submit more freely and fully to it the Lord will make himself pure to him So the word God wil let in pure instructions that no darkness or dimness may stumble him or cause him to mistake pure evidence of pardon and acceptance no guilt may unsettle him pure comforts and peace that no doubts or fears may discourage him pure holiness and power of ãâã that no strength of corruption may blur the Image of God in him or darken the Evidence of the Work of Grace received But ãâã a man will be froward crook the Rule go cross to the Command and wil walk in the vanity of his own ãâã and stubbornness of his own Spirit oppose the power of the Truth not willing to look upon or abide to hear of the purity of it God will shew himself froward towards such a one he wil ãâã you and cross you in your whol course and in al your comforts you crook and wind away from the Rule to content your sins God by his Righteous Law by vertue of the provoking power therof wil deliver you up to the power of your sins and to al the terros and plagues and expressions of his ãâã that attend thereupon and in the daies of thy distress when nothing wil help thee but the holy Word of God God wil then deal with you and follow you with the ãâã of your own ãâã thou would'st not see the holiness and purity of Gods Precepts thou ãâã have a mind not able to attend or receive or remember any thing that may be for thy direction support or comfort but only live upon thine own guilt and the terrors that attend thereupon and the perversness of thine own heart wil be thine own plague In your froward pangs you flinch and fling care not what you say or do God can be as ãâã as you nor hear prayers nor regard your complaints nor pity your necessities but pursue you with his plagues let fly on every hand the fierceness of his displeasure God can and wil hamper thee if thou had'st a heart as sierce as a ãâã of Hell make thee weary of thy part be as perverse as thou wilt or canst be And therefore the word in the place is marvelous pregnant it signifies to contend with another as one that wrastles wil do wreath and ãâã and turn his body every way that he may meet with his adversary with whom he is to grapple So the Lord will meet with thee at every turn the greater thy opposition hath been against him the greater expression of his displeasure shalt thou be sure to ãâã and that in the most dreadful manner The sins of Manasseh were high handed and hellish abominations mighty provocations out of measure sinful 2 Chron. 33. 11. Therefore God abased him mightily fettered and ãâã and humbled him mightily and made him cry mightily before he could ãâã audience and acceptance with him the cruel and harsh carriage of the Jaylor Acts 16. exceeded his Commission and so the bounds of common Humanity to deal worse with the distressed than either their Fact deserved or the Law permitted or Authority allowed him in that behalf a ãâã transported with deadly indignation against the waies of God and his People and as it appears by the circumstances of the story a man that pleased ãâã in such unreasonable practices the Lord therefore handles him answerably to the harshness of his spirit makes the Earth quake and the Prison totter the bolts break and the door fly open and at last his heart begins to shake and die within him notwithstanding the fierceness of his Spirit So Paul Acts 9. he comes trembling to crave the Counsel of those whose presence formerly he loathed There is a Three-fold Ground from whence the Reasons of this Point may be fetched which will Evidence That this manner of proceeding best suits with the insinite Wisdom of God look we at God at others at the sinner himself with whom the Lord is now trading The Holiness of Gods Nature and exactness of his Truth not only commends but even seems with some kind of comely necessity to call for such a manner of Dispensation The Lord stiles himself the holy One of Israel a God of purer eyes than can endure to behold iniquity not able to pass by sin in the least appearance of it and therefore leaves so strict a charge beware lest there be an evil thought in thy heart and abstain from all appearance of evil 1 Thes. 5. When the Lord is to convince the sinner of sin to express his mind and displeasure against him because of those his evils so scandalous and detestable to al that have but the least spark of saving knowledg and Grace yea loathsom to the very light of Conscience in corrupt Nature Should the Lord casily and overly ãâã them by with some smal ãâã of some little dislike it could not but impeach his Purity and make himself accessary to the dishonor of his own Holiness When Eli proceeded not with that zeal against ãâã evil of his Sons as the ãâã thereof might justly have provoke ãâã him unto but after a slight manner manifested a heart-less dislike of it the Lord ãâã 1 Sam. 2. 39. That he honored his sons before him rather respected their carnal content that they might not be
the power of it while he was under the terror of it So that there is nothing in the world that wil sever betwixt the heart and its lust Prov. 27. 22. Bray a fool in a morter yet wil not his folly depart from him By this the great bar and hinderance of the coming of our Savior is removed even the hellish resistance whereby the soul was carried against him For it 's a peremptory Truth Gal. 4. 17. The flesh lusts against the Spirit and the conclusion is express Joh. 3. 9. That which is born of the flesh is flesh but every Son of Adam being wholly born of the flesh doth wholly resist the Spirit They who are wholly flesh do wholly resist they who do wholly resist cannot receive for receiving and wholly resisting cannot stand together therefore this resistance of a fleshly heart must be removed and that is done by this ãâã That Sorrow whereby the bar and hindrance which stops the coming of our Savior is removed that sorrow is of necessity required but by this sorrow that hindrance is removed In regard of our selves Either the heart must thus be pierced or else a man without this in his Natural condition is capable and disposed to receive Faith and Christ either necessary thus to be disposed or Nature without this is fit to entertain him but that is professedly contrary to the Truth 2 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is not subject to the Law neither can it be It 's not possible there should be two Suns in the Firmament two Kings in one Throne two Gods in one heart to be in Heaven and Hell at once to serve God and Mammon So that as God must give Grace before we have it so he must give us power to receive it or else we are not capable of it A Subject cannot be capable of contrary habits at the same time John 5. 45. How can yee believe who seek honour from man Hence therefore its plain that the substance and truth of this preparative work it must be and is enstamped upon all that belong to God though it is in a diverse manner wrought in the most If this sorrow be onely true and of the right stamp If by this sin is severed from the soul the hinderance of our Saviors coming removed and the soul made capable of faith and Christ then this of necessity is required of al and it 's certainly wrought in al whom the Lord brings effectually home unto himself Here is matter of complaint we may justly take up against this secure age in which we live and it shewes how little very little saving sorrow there is in the world and therefore how little saving grace If no preparation no Implantation certainly never fitted for a Christ never made partakers of him never hewed or squared to the building and therfore never put as spiritual stones into the building Had we but Jeremiahs fountain of tears we might mourn day and night that there is no true mourning and if the Lord should send an ãâã to see and mark such as mourn in secret how few should he find the former doctrin is a bil of inditement and fals very heavy upon five sorts of people Your heedless and fearless professors who notwithstanding lift up their head ful high and would bear the world in hand that they desire unfeinedly to fear the Lord nay pretend a Conscientious care to Gods Command and conceive they have been affected with their sin and that not in a smal measure but have had both sight of and sorrow for their failings and they hope to good purpose and would be loath prejudice being laid aside it should appear to be other You say wel and if you prove what you say happy it is for you which I ãâã desire But are you willing to put your case to the tryal let us a little parly about the buisiness and because we wil deal plainly your own practices and your own consciences shal bring in evidence and those I hope are beyond exception you careless servants in the family you careless hearers in the Assemblies and you careless professors in the plantations you are here indited that the practice of this heart-breaking sorrow for sin is a stranger to you and you a stranger to it in your daily course we shal then agree upon the grounds on which we shal proceed You wil not you cannot deny but you have wholsom and savory counsel daily suggested the commands of God are line after line precept after precept here a little and there a little and your duties daily layd before you in publick in private your failings bewailed grace and help begged from the Lord for you the truth your judgments do not gainsay and your hearts cannot but approve as lawful and suitable to your places and according to Gods mind yet no sooner out of the assembly where you hear out of the presence of your master who commads from your knees where you have prayed and confessed but the commands are layd by that is not attended this not discharged that is neglected you return again to the old distempers and you say you did not remember it you have ãâã it you did not think of it What need we more evidence ãâã own words shal be thine own ãâã and appeal to thine own Conscience let that be ãâã own judg didst thou ever hear any man that ãâã under the load that was two heavy for him wearied with the burden that is beyond his strength as not able to bear nor to ease himself say he did not remember the burden that ãâã him he did not think of the weight of the load that clogges and tires him would you not ãâã such expressions as cross to common sence or would you not conclude either the man had no burden or else his words had no truth Ah but thou saiest If they had been gross evills it had been somthing but they are petty things and therefore need no great care what need we any more evidence thine own words wil be thine own wittness therefore thou carest onely for great sins fearest onely gross and scandalous evils then thy care and fear is naught and thy course so and thy Conscience so and thy condition also he that feels al sin as such he fears al sin yea the least sin more than the greatest evil if thou fearest only loathsom and scandalous practices thy fear is fals and thy heart fals thy sorrow was never found nor yet thy condition that I must confess when I ãâã mens infinite heedlesness if they did know what God were or what sin was what Conscience what a command what the reckoning to come were did not most men live without God in the world they could not live so The second sort who are hence shut out from having any share in this Godly sorrow or the through impression of the
Water of Life John 4. 10. Thou knowest not that thou art poor and wretched and ãâã and ãâã Rev. 3. 17. Those that are ignorant of the way wil ãâã ãâã any man ask of any child So a soul under ãâã ãâã and ignorances wil enquire of any Christian ask of any Minister that may direct him in the way he should take This Doctrine is a Bill of Inditement against a world of ungodly men who live in the Church who may here read their doom and the dreadfulness of their own condition discovered beyond all denial namely to be such who as yet were never troubled never so much as touched with a through sight and sence of their own baseness and cursed corruptions of their Natures and lives they are so far from being broken by the Truth and batterred al to pouder by the power of an Ordinance that indeed the day is yet to come that they ãâã any ãâã blow from the ãâã Word of the Lord ãâã on upon their Consciences by the hand and good Spirit of the Almighty and that is evidenced out of the ãâã had they received the like impression with these Converts they would have been ãâã upon the like practice with them had their spirits been broken as theirs they would have been as ãâã to seek out for succor and relief as ãâã do but alas this duty appears not scant in the lives of men therefore this ãâã is far enough ãâã their hearts If thou had'st been sick as they thou would'st have enquired of the Physitian as they but where is the man almost that hath put the Quare to his own Conscience propounded the Question seriously to others out of the sence of his own want for to make narrow search of his own estate ' Men and Brethren what shall I do He never saw need to do any thing nor had heart to do any thing men therefore had never desire nor endeavor to seek direction when he hath been loth that men should put him to pains and press him to diligence and doing in this behalf They make it a matter superfluous and needless trouble thus to be taken up what needs all this ado say they and therefore they are willing to sit down with ease but do nothing they are setled upon their dregs and endure not stirring it 's a kind of Hell and like the appearance of Death to be pressed to diligent inquiry to make their Calling sure 2 Pet. 1. 11. The state of the World is somwhat like that which the Angels express upon the proof they had when they went to survey the frame of things Zach. ãâã 11. We have walked to and fro through the Earth and behold all the Earth sits still and in at rest Walk we from one Plantation to another from one Society to another nay which is yet a further misery from one Assembly to another all the Earth sits still and is at rest there is no stirring no trading in Christianity men cheapen not enquire not after the purchase of the precious things of the Gospel what shall I do to be quit of my self what shall I do to be severed from my sins which have pestered me so long prejudiced my peace so much and if it continue wil be my ruin As though Christ were taking the Charter of the Gospel from the present Generation and were removing the Markes there is no stirring Trade is dead men come dead and sit so and return so unto their Habitations there is deep silence ãâã shal not hear a word What spiritual good they get what they need or what they desire men are willing to do nothing and therefore they wil not enquire what they should do certain it is the Word never wrought kindly upon thee nor prevailed with that carnal and hard heart of thine to this day in any saving ãâã for thy spiritual good thou never knewest what it was to be loft ãâã thou never had'st a stir of heart to enquire the way to Sion it 's made an Argument of a man in the bonds of ãâã in the depth of his ãâã distemper ãâã 3. 11. They have no ãâã ãâã do they seek after God and it 's made an evidence of Satans Rule Luke 11. 21. When ãâã strong ãâã keeps the Pallace all his goods are at peace but when a stronger comes and ãâã him he takes from him all his Armor wherein be trusts and divides the spoil The House and Pallace is the Heart and Spirit of a sinner his ãâã and Furniture are all those noysom lusts by which he ãâã ãâã and exerciseth ãâã power in the sinner and as the Apostle saith fighteth against the soul as despair is the Head-piece unrighteous and careless and unconscionable walking is the ãâã carnal Reason the Sword Unbelief the Shield and an indisposition of heart to yield to the terms ãâã the ãâã is that whereby the sinner is prepared to walk in the way of ãâã his feet shod sit for every evil work While Satan is ãâã furnished with the Armor of Darkness all his goods are at peace he doth without any trouble act the soul and wrong the Comfort and happiness of the soul and so the Honor of the Lord ãâã ãâã his goods it 's all he desires endeavors takes as the gain of his Labor and Diligence in his Temptations Doth Satan act thee by his Temptations and so encrease both thy guilt and ruin thereby ãâã are ãâã his goods in peace ãâã ãâã thy wo thy ãâã is Satans wealth and substance he hath what he ãâã and doth what he will and thou art not troubled with any thing nor wilt trouble him by seeking out for relief and deliverance enquirest ãâã what thou mayest do to be rescued and ãâã know Satan hath his Armor on and he seeks thy heart as his Pallace under his Soveraign Power and Command to this day nor is there any preparation nor the ãâã inkling or intimation of ãâã of that wretched ãâã of thine thou ãâã in this secure condition as one that meddles not hast nothing to do with the things of Grace and Life As it was said Judges 17. 7. of the men of ãâã who dwelt careless quiet and secure far from the Zidonians and had no business with man It 's a Picture of this ãâã temper and secure condition of thine thou ãâã far from the state and grace of Glory thou hast no business with Christians with Ordinances Officers thou hast nothing to say or to demand touching eternal Life thou knowest nothing yet enquirest not what thou should'st do hast nothing yet ãâã not for help and succor thou hast no business that appertains to Heaven with any man living thy business lies not with the Word and the Lord and his Word have as little to do with thee that shews thy heart is not there nor thy portion there As each mans affection and expression of himself is where his imployment lies as ãâã as a Bee they carry their businesses in
weare away the ãâã that stuck in his heart and therefore fondly conceited he could make a ãâã to beare the weight that should befal that he might possess and injoy the pleasures and content his ãâã courses did promise to his carnall heart But he finds it otherwise his heart say les him under pressure of one sin Psal. 130 3. If thou shouldest mark what is done amis Lord who should ãâã it An ignorant soul settled in his secure condition out of self deluding pride of his own spirit would ãâã that he could abide the misery and so the danger that might accrew to him by his distemper and so is fearless to maintain it But now he findes he is not able to abide that which his sin doth bring let him put the best of al his abilities together to emprovement ãâã 14. can thy heart endure c. the time was they thought their hearts could endure the frollick Epicure and flinty hearted sinner he wonders at he feebleness of the distressed and broken-hearted that they should be such children persons of such feeble and milksop dispositions to sink at a Sermon and be troubled at the words of a Preacher tush his Conscience is cannon proof he can heare and bear al and yet pleal ãâã and bless himself in the pursuit of his lusts as before times Oh thou ãâã do so while men deal with thee thou mayest avoyd their blow or make an escape out of their hands but when God shal deal with thee in that day when thou fallest into the hands of the living God Hebr. 10. who lives to torment the to eternity what wilt thoudo The shadow and appearance of the hand-writing shook Belshazzars heart when he was quaffing in his cups in the ruff of his riot what would the stroke of that hand have done and this hand now the ãâã finds and finds himself absolutely unable to ãâã the evil of ãâã sin and therefore concludes it absolutely ãâã to be ãâã of it whatever it cost him He knowes now by proof this evil to be such as that no other can equal it the evil such as no contrary good in this world can countervail it And therefore he sees reason and chooseth never to have any good in this world rather than to have his sin to part withal rather than not part with this or be plagued with it Rather undergo al evils and suffer the utmost extremity ãâã suffer his sin to remain with him Math 16. 26. What wil it profit a man to gain the whol world and to Ioose his soul or what shal a man give in exchange for his soul. The broken in heart he sees now by proof also the cursed combination that is amongst corruptions a league ãâã lusts if any corruption rule in the heart it makes a man a slave to what ever distemper presents it self unto the soul In a word He that wil keep ãâã sin he keeps himself under the power of al corruptions he keeps off the power of al the means of grace and good for working upon or prevailing with the soul for its ãâã wolfare The keeping of one sin keeps possession for Satan and his right unto the soul and under the Allegiance of all the accursed lusts that either can come from without or arise from within one ãâã the Soveraignty but he is a slave to al as special occasion may be offered he wil serve any ãâã that he may suit the beloved distemper of his heart ãâã Tim. 2. last the ãâã rakes them captive according to his wil. and therefore its ãâã of the thorny ãâã in that the nick of ãâã they fel away ãâã 8. 15. Whither sel it Nathely it gave ãâã to whatover either error in opinion or ãâã in practice ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or satisfyed the ãâã desire of the soul. He that misseth the right way be is for any by way that comes next in view a City that is under the command of the chief Captain they must be subject to the out rage of any or al of his ãâã or underlings that wil but execute his wil and attend his tyrannous commands so it is in the soul if one lust rule it it s a salve unto what ever distemper may be serviceable and seem to give content to that they went as they were led 1 Cor. 12. 1. 2. The heart pierced with this through sorrow perceives also by woful experience that the keeping of one corruption keeps off the power of any ordinance that it cannot work kindly or ãâã effectually for any spiritual good it way ãâã the work of an ordinance The heady and ãâã ãâã would have a King and they would hear no counsel nor yet take the savorest argument into Consideration that did concern their peace and prosperous proceeding in their way 1 Sam. 8. 18. the ãâã Idolaters run madding after their Idols they cast off al the advice of the Prophet with scorn contempt Jer. 44. 16. As for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we wil not hearken to thee Nay when they are set upon is they profess plainly there is no hope but we wil walk every one after the vanity of his own imaginations Jer. 18. 12. so that the sinner now ãâã and resolves either he must part withal or els for ever be deprived of al good and be a slave to al sin TRYAL We may hence gain undoubted evidence whether ever our hearts were soundly soaked in this Godly sorrow for sin ãâã or no. Contrition if it be of the right stamp it hath a constraining power with it to force the heart against corruption It silenceth al shifts puts by and puts off al false pleas scatters al sluggish pretences that are made in behalf of our distempers ãâã a word it casts the ballance against al carnal reasons that are ãâã and stirring and usually cast in by Satan and our sensual disposition to keep us in our former estate and to procure some if not toleration yet mitigation in our ãâã against our ãâã It layes and leaves a pressing ãâã upon the soul that overbears what ever may come on the contrary part to plead for any connivence for any sin in any kind As we say in the Proverb there is no reasoning against sence a man hath no patience to hear words ãâã or appearances which are against a mans feeling experience If any stander by should perswade a man the potion is pleasant when a man ãâã it ãâã and his stomach ãâã it or that the fire is cold when he finds it ãâã and burn he can hardly give him the hearing but disdains him an answer say what you wil I regard not what you say shal not I trust mine eyes or so far befool my self as to go against mine own feeling I pass not that you speak in that behalf So it is with a broken hearted sinner what ever Satan shal suggest his carnal friends and companions counsel his deceitful