I do not know any Soul that is more exposed to Temptations to Sin nor oftner falleth into them nor that is more exposed to Temptations for Sin than the Proud Soul Pride is a corruption that swelleth a man in the opinion of a mans own merit worth and excellency and consequently breedeth in him an impatience of any thing that should lessen his estimation in the sight of others Ahithophel was a proud Man and not able to bear his disgrace at Court but chuseth rather to hang himself Whensoever any present shame or fear of future shame any degradation or loss of honour and repute in the World gives a rise to such motions as these in our hearts to destroy our selves or gives the Devil any advantage to enforce such impressions upon us Pride is the bottom of it It is therefore highly advisable for Christians To be cloathed with Humility to put on Humbleness of Mind as the Apostle exhorteth An humble Soul is hardly taken in this Snare of the Devil Two or three things will much contribute to this humbleness of Mind 1 The consideration of what we are what we brought with us into the World and from whom we had it 2. The Consideration of what we deserve 3. The Consideration how little a thing it is to be great in the World I say 1. The Consideration of what we are what we brought with us into the world and from whom we had our all that we have Lord what is Man that he should be lifted up He is made up of two essential parts The Soul and the Body Our Philosophy teacheth us That all reasonable Souls are equal nor indeed is there any pretence in reason for any inequality originally in them And are not our Bodies so also are they not all Dust and such as must return to Dust Are they not all made of Clay Have some Bodies a more beautiful colour more symmetrical and proportionable parts than others Do some Souls discover more excellent Parts and Endowments through the better Constitution and Complexion of Bodies Have some of us more Credit and Reputation in the World more Riches and a greater portion of this Worlds Goods than others Is any thing of this from our selves Have we then built our own Bodies Have we given them their Beauty or Symmetry Have we so much as made one Hair of our Heads White or Black Or added so much as one Cubit to our Stature in the World in respect of Honour Riches and Reputation Did we bring any of these things into the World with us Can we carry them out of the World with us If we have received them why do we glory why are we proud of them as if we had not received them Let others honour and admire us for them we have no reason to admire our selves nor to think highly of our selves let us look to the Rock from which we were hewen and to the hole of the Pit out of which we were digged 2. But then Secondly let us consider what we have deserved The things upon which we value our selves as thinking they make us to stand upon the higher ground were neither hereditary to us nor have they been purchased by us by any Merit of him who hath been our Benefactor as to them The Apostle putteth them together Proud knowing nothing 1 Tim. 6. 4. and truly so it is the Man or Woman that is proud is one that knoweth nothing Knoweth nothing How can that be when ordinarily a Mans Knowledge is that which puffeth him up it being indeed of any common and indistinguishing mercy the noblest thing wherein a Man or Woman can differ from another the Apostle in another place expoundeth this when he telleth us That he who thinketh that he knoweth any thing knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know it 1 Cor. 8. 2. But this is certainly true that the Proud Man or Woman knoweth nothing in things that are Spiritual Or if he or she have some Notions of Spiritual Things they know nothing of them as they ought to know them they have not digested that knowledge by any serious Meditations they do not believe it Is it possible that any one should be lifted up in an Opinion of himself above others who looks to the Rock from which he is hewed and to the hole of the pit out of which he is digged that he is the same Clay the same Dust with another though it hath pleased the Potter to order him to be a Vessel of more External Honour and his Neighbour a Vessel of more Dishonour in the World Or that any one should exalt himself above what is the Will of God concerning him thinking that God doth not deal by him as he hath deserved who knoweth That he was a Child of wrath by Nature That he hath made himself much more so by his actual Disobediences That he is punished seven times less than he hath deserved 3. Then consider How little a thing it is to be great in the World It signifieth nothing as to our better part but mischief for the most part The Soul of Man is not bettered by Riches or Honour or any of those good things which affect us as to our outward Man It signifieth nothing as to the Eternal State either of Soul or Body and as to the outward Man in this Life which alone hath any concern in these things They are so incertain we are set in such slippery places while we stand upon these Mountains of Ice and Glass that no considerate Soul can justly value himself upon them but pray O pray for an humble low Spirit There is indeed a natural lowness and demission of Mind and that is a great happiness where God doth give it unto any A naturally high and haughty Spirit is exposed to greater Temptations than another that is naturally of a low and mean Spirit as the tall Cedar and Oak is more exposed to boisterous Winds than the poor Shrub There is also a Moral Humility a lowness of Mind and Spirit caused from Education and the due Digestion of Moral Principles and this also doth something But there is also an Habit of Humility into which the Soul is wrought by the Holy Spirit of God making the Word of God to take hold of the Heart when the Will of God is that which maketh the Heart to stoop and brings it to a submission to its portion This is of all other the more excellent the most Divine the most Effectual Now there is nothing more effectual to arm a Soul against this Temptation than this lowliness of Mind nothing more exposing the Soul to this Temptation than that habit which is contrary to it Pride and height of Spirit is the great Mother of Discontent when it ceaseth to be with us as it formerly was Hence it is that Men and Women conclude they had better not be than be poor and in misery it is better for them to put an end to their own days than
any Incouragement to a departure from God in any thing much more in this Unbelief signifies a not agreement to the Propositions of the Word Revealing the Will of God Or a Distrust in God for the fulfilling of his Promises whether relating to special Providence or special Grace or Eternal Life Study therfore to be Rooted and Grounded in the Faith that you may firmly Believe these things 1. That there is a God whose Right it is to Rule and Govern us to Order us and our Affairs and Conditions and to dispose of us and who will one day Judg us and deal with us according to what we have done Whosoever it is that liveth not under this Conviction must needs think himself in his own Power and that he may do with himself what he pleaseth his Tongue is his own and he may speak his Hands are his own and he may do what he list and his Life is his own and he may deny himself in it and throw it away as he pleaseth for to whom should he be accountable for it O therefore set God always before your Eyes possess your selves that you are not your own but Persons under Authority and upon whom a Superiour Being hath a Superintendancy you will fay Are we dead Doggs that we should think any thing contrary to this Thus we think But the Truth is we profess an assent and agreement to many Propositions which are not so fastned upon our Hearts so rivetted in our Souls as they ought to be For it must be a mighty inordinate Act and contrary to the Dictate of all Reason for a Man to undertake the disposal of that over which he hath no Dominion and for the disposal of which he must be accountable unto a Superiour Indeed there is something of Atheism in every Sin but there must be abundance of Atheism in this Sin It is impossible that while a Man entertaineth Thoughts to destroy himself he should fixedly believe that he is not at his own disposal as to this Life but at the disposal of God and he such a God as is to be his Judge and whom will one day call him to Account as well for what he hath done with the Life which he gave him as with the Estate Parts c. which he gave him I would therefore never have a man think that he sufficiently believeth this first Principle of all Duty and Religion but be ever whetting it upon his Heart That God is and what a God he is 2. That every Man and Woman hath a Spiritual Part an Immortal Soul that can no more be extinguished with the Body then Eat or Drink or Sleep with it but goeth to an Eternal Existence when it is seperated from the Body Where the Body raised up from the dust shall one day meet it and be united to it and with it either suffer Eternal Torment or enjoy Eternal Happiness according to what it hath done in this Life Certainly no Rational Being no Man could possibly entertain a Thought to Kill himself if he were firmly perswaded That it is a thing impossible for him to determine his own Being We cannot desire nor attempt to go about what we are fully perswaded is an impossible atchievement A thing impossible to be obtained our Reason will not suffer our Mind to run upon or our Hearts to run out after things which we clearly apprehend are not possible in Nature Now admitting these Principles That Man is something more then Flesh and Blood animated That he hath a Spiritual Part that this it is Immortal and cannot Perish with the Body but when it parteth from the Body goeth into Eternal Mansions either in Happiness or in Misery That the Body after Death shall revive again in the Resurrection and there both the Soul and Body of every Man and Woman shall be again united and make one Person and shall both together enter an happy or miserable Eternity I say admitting this it is impossible for a Man to determine his Being all he can possibly do is to determine his Being in this World He can neither by such Act determine his Being nor yet his Misery he may determine indeed his Misery as to this Life but his Soul will then but enter into a state of Ten thousand times more Misery in another World and there will be a time after the revolution of a few years when his Body shall return to Ten thousand times more Misery than it ever felt in this World Now certainly no Person under any command or conduct of Reason can possibly be induced to attempt a thing impossible to deliver himself from any Evil Nor yet throw himself into an infinitly worse state to deliver himself from a present bad estate All the Entertainment therefore which such Temptations have in our Hearts must be advantaged from Unbelief of these great Principles which indeed are the Foundations and Principles of all Religion Labour therefore for as much as in you lies to Root your selves in the belief of these things that you may not have the least doubt or haesitation of in your Hearts with relation to them Live in the daily Meditation of them suffer not your Souls to call them in Question be acquainted with those Portions of Holy Writ where the Revelation of these things is clearest to you Take heed of Unbelief as to these things 3. A Third thing as to which the Soul should be fully perswaded that will avoid the dint of this Temptation is as to the Truth of the Holy Scriptures in the general so of those Portions of them in particular which reveals the Will of God as to the preservation of our own Lives and the Lives of others and the Wrath of God against such as commit Sins of this Nature Such as those Gen. 9. 6. Num. 35. 32. Thou shalt not Kill No Murtherer hath Eternal Life and all such as express the greatness of the Sin of Murther for it is but an easie Conclusion of Reason from these Principles If I ought not to Kill another I ought much less to Kill my self If I ought to preserve the Life of my Neighbour surely I ought to preserve my own Life If I ought to preserve my Chastity to preserve my Vessel in Honour surely I ought not to dash it in pieces If I ought not to maime or dismember my self surely I ought not to destroy my self The truth is no Soul can possibly be guilty of this Sin who either doth not in whole disbelieve the Scriptures or in whose Heart the disbelief of them doth not prevail to a very high degree at that time when he is prevailed with by any Temptation to do such a thing But there is also another Unbelief which must be predominant in the Soul at that time when it is prevailed upon by this Temptation and that is a Distrust in God for the fulfilling of his Promises either with relation to special Providence or special Grace or Eternal Life Those who
hearts Or else they are such as in heart thinketh so though in words they profess otherwise Such as the Apostle speaketh of Tit. 1. 16. Who profess that they know God but do in works deny him being abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate I shall very little concern my self as to either of these only consider what may be said as to those who have such impressions but they are their intollerable burthen and affliction Indeed they are rather to be called impressions than thoughts and let us first inquire into this bitter stream from what source and fountain it floweth CHAP. II. From whence Atheistical and Blasphemous Thoughts may proceed sometimes from Lust sometimes from the World but these are usually imbraced and nursed up in the Soul Those that are the Subject of the present Discourse ordinarily proceed from the Devil as a Tempter and a Blasphemous Spirit THE Adversaries of a Christian with whom the good fight is to be managed are usually reckoned to be The Flesh the World and the Devil their Opposition to us is by moving inticing and perswading us to sin to the ruin of our Souls Hence Divines distinguishing Temptations from their Efficient Cause or Causes say There is Tentatio a Carne a Temptation from the Flesh which agreeth with St. James Every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own LUST and inticed but that must be understood of such Temptations by which a man is conquered 2. There is Tentatio ab hoste a Temptation from the Enemy without and this is either from the World that is the Things or Men of the World Or from the Devil Any of these may be Tempters in this Case 1. Lust may be a Tempter to Atheistical and Blasphemous Thoughts though I must confess I cannot understand how that should be a tempter to such Thoughts as these not by us chosen studied or delighted in by them Debaucht Wretches that give up themselves to Drunkenness Whoredom Lying Cursing Swearing Neglect of all Duty to God and Man are concern'd if they can to perswade themselves That there is no God that seeth them or dâ—â—approveth them or that hath a superiour power to them or will judge or condemn them for did they believe this their Consciences would never let them be quiet Now that lust that Sinful desire which is in them to keep their lusts without regrets of Conscience or any sowre Reflections after their Debaucheries may be a Tempter to them to say in their hearts yea and to imbrace a perswasion in their hearts That there is no God but this doth not properly concern our present Case 2. The World also the men of the world may be Tempters to such thoughts as these The discourses of others you know offer matter for our thoughts to run upon and as in other causes so in this there may be some who may argue Atheism and Blasphemy with us and who may endeavour to perswade us to such Sentiments Atheistical and Blasphemous Books may set our thoughts on work but these can have no great causation in such thoughts as are permanent afflictive and troublesome to us It is in the power of Christians to avoid Atheistical and Blasphemous company and to abstain from reading of such Books Though therefore men of the world may be Tempters to Atheism yet they can hardly be charged as Tempters in this Case 3. The Devil whom you know the Scriptures call the Tempter the Enemy the Envious one is doubtless the principal Efficient cause He goeth about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour and he hath many Arts and Wiles and Depths and Methods which he useth to destroy Souls with amongst which this is one to make impressions of Atheism and Blasphemy upon persons by some they are imbraced as Notions that are suited to their Sensual Appetite and which will very well fit their Carnal Desires By others they are disgusted as contrary to those Impressions which the Holy Spirit of God hath made upon their Souls and their former Notions Apprehensions and Belief in God Yea so far disgusted that their Souls are frighted at the sight of these Strangers comming to their House and are amazed which way they should ever come in having to their knowledg never opened the least Window or Door to them nor any way invited them so much as for an hour or a moment their Souls loath and abhorthem and yet they revive upon them Temptations of this nature thus circumstanced can be from no other Tempter than the Devil CHAP. III. No seeming good propounded to such Souls as are thus Tempted to whom the Temptations are Afflictive Nor doth the Tempter always use Arguments not so much hoping to prevail with such souls as to trouble them to that degree as to put them upon destroying themselves To others he useth Arguments From the No Evidence of the Divine Being to our Sense The Incomprehensibleness of it and the Perfections of it by our Reason The many Disorders which the Divine Wisdom thinketh fit to permit in the World These are the usual Topicks of Tempters that tempt souls unto Atheisme EVery Man when he is tempted is drawn away by his own Lust and enticed saith St. James 1 Jam. He is enticed by some glimmerings of good and so he is drawn away but it is vain for us to enquire what seeming good enticeth a Soul who looketh upon his motions and solicitations and the things to which the Soul is so solicited as the greatest Evils in the world St. James therefore is there speaking not of Temptations in the general but of such Temptations as flow and proceed from our innate Lust There must in all Temptations of that nature be a Bait upon which the Lust in our hearts may feed and tho it be not necessary that that Bait be a real Good yet it must have some appearance of good in it for the principles of Humane Nature will not allow it to move into the Embraceâ— of any thing which it apprehendeth Evil but this is not necessary in Temptations which flow solely from the Devil the eternal ruin of the Soul is the Design of that Envious One and it is all one whether he can affright or intice the Soul into Hell whether he can destroy it by Poison or by a more certain Stabb It may be more worthy our Enquiry what Arguments the Devil can possibly use with a Soul so far prejudiced against imprâ—ssions of this nature that he can hope should prevail with it to receive any such impressions For the Soul of Man being a rational being is not like without something of Reason or a shew of it to be brought over to agree to any such impression 1. What if we should say that possibly the Tempter promiseth himself no such success what if his design be not to proselyte a Religious Soul to the Proposition which is contrived in his Suggestion but meerly to weary the Christian out of his life by
the constant trouble of his importunity and indeed I believe that generally so it is and that these are but preparative Temptations to Self-murther and Despair if he cannot by these Suggestions perswade the Soul to blaspheme God or to deny Gods Infinite Beng and Perfections yet if he can but stir up in the Soul such a degree of Impatience under this sore affliction as will put the man upon determining his own life deliberately he hath done his work Hence it is that in all the Course of my Ministry I never observed Man or Woman long under these Temptations but they fell into Temptations of the later Nature which I the rather hint to you that you may watch upon and pray for persons who are brought under these most sad and dismal circumstances They are ordinary Praeludiums and Prologues to such Tragedies and in this case he is not much concerned to bring Arguments before the Soul it is to be destroyed another way 2. But indeed as to other Souls to whom these Temptations are not Afflictions but meer Diversions and Recreations he must use Arguments and he may offer them even to Pious and Religious Souls how little soever they avail The Arguments cannot be many which can be brought in such a Cause They are usually brought from one of these three Heads 1. From the want of the Evidence of Sense to prove a Divine Being Spiritual Beings are in this distinguished from those that are bodily that having no Accidents no Qualities such as Colour or the like they are not evident to our External Senses God is called the Invisible and who saith the Holy Ghost hath seen God at any time Indeed no Spiritual being can be seen who ever saw the Soul of a Man or an Angel unless in an assumed Shape and I look upon the questioning of any such beings as Spirits in our age a fair Argument of the Atheisme that is in those Philosophers Hearts Yet are we Creatures so much made up of Flesh and Blood that we are hard to believe any thing but what we see that is indeed to believe any thing at all for seeing and believing are two things very diverse one from another Who ever saw God faith the Devil or who at any time hath heard his Voice c But this is an Argument fit only for Sensual Brutes and not for any deliberate Soul to be catched by 2. He will therefore Secondly argue from Reason which is not able by searching to find out God unto perfection It is usually said Animal nihil plus Animali sapit That a living creature knows nothing beyond a living creature of its own size and perfection Upon this account it is reasonably said That if a brute Creature could describe a Man it would describe him as a Brute not being able to conceive of a Creature beyond its degree of Perfection It is easie for a man if he will but make use of his own reason to conclude that there must be a God a First Being and a First Cause for that nothing can give a being to or be the first cause of it self is a principle so connatural unto us as we cannot out-face it nor by our highest debauchery is extinguisht but however the First Being should give a being to it self or the First Cause be its own cause this is very hard to conceive until the Soul be assisted by a Divine Light And the Divine Being being so far transcendent in its perfections to all the perfections that are found in the greatest and wisest of the Sons of Men it is yet harder to conceive of it aright and not to blaspheme it in our thoughts We are Creatures that are Limited by Time Circumscribed by Air and Certain Measures and it is very hard to us to conceive that there should be a Being without these boundaries The Immensity Omnipotence Omniscience Infiniteness of any Being are things transcending the reach of our Conceptions and tho we can by Reason argue our selves sometimes into an appearing necessity of these Assertions yet we can hardly give credit to the Eyes of our Minds they are perfections beyond our grasp Hence the Great Wits of the World are generally Atheistical and it seems almost necessary that men should be fools that they might be wise Hence is the Socinians denial of the Trinity and others denial of Gods Omniscience c. This gives the Devil a great advantage putting the Soul upon reflections How can these things be Luther saith Non amo hos Curistas Quaeristas he might have said Quomodistas too Audi Verbum Dei tace I do not love these Inquirers in Divine things Why so or Wherefore or How are those things Hear the Word of God and hold thy peace 3. A Third Argument that Satan ordinarily useth in these Temptations is from the seeming disorders and confusions which the Wisdom of Divine Providence permits in the World Were there a God saith the Devil and were he such a God as thou fanciest would he suffer his Enemies so to prosper and his Servants to be so trampled upon This is an Argument which our own feeble Reason in compliance with our Lusts doth often trouble us with even David Jeremy and Habakkuk were molested with it As we are naturally prone to measure the Almighty's Power by the strength of our created Arms and his Omniscience by the Fathom of our pitiful Comprehensions and his Eternity by the Span of our own Duration so we are as prone to determine concerning his Wisdom by our Policies We cannot see to the bottom of his depths nor look up to the top of his heights but judge of the Infinite Wise God as if we were to determine concerning a shallow Politician amongst men so that whether the Argument be conclusive or no which doubtless it is not yet it is good enough for the Devil to trouble us with to tell us That if indeed there were a God and such a God as we have heard of Abel should not have perished by the hands of a bloody Cain nor the Israelites been oppressed by such a one as Pharaoh nor Job put to scrape himself with a pot-sheard The wicked should not walk on every side nor the vilest men be exalted It should not happen to the righteous after the manner of the wicked nor yet to the wicked according to the desert of the righteous nothing but blind Fortune could shut its Eyes and wink at such disorders These now are the greatest advantages which I can fancy the Devil to have upon any Soul to induce it to think there is no God or at least no such God as the Scripture speaks of and we ordinarily preach to you and persons solicited to such a belief will find some such thoughts as these ordinarily either praevious to or concomitant with the other But as I said before in such cases as I am speaking to he seldom useth much argument little hopeing to work over the Soul into such a belief onely
are in any Measure acquainted with the Holy Scriptures know that they are full of many great and precious Promises as to Eternal Life and also as to this Life As to Eternal Life made under such Conditions and upon such Terms as his infinite Wisdom thought fit to Prescribe and Limit Those as to this Life are of various sorts many of them relating to an afflicted state That he will put Strength into us That he will lay no more upon us then he will inable us to bear That he together with the Temptation will also give an happy issue and many more of like import as to which the Soul that Trusteth God and in which the Exercises of such Trust and Confidence in God are lively and vigorous can never be Guilty of this Sin for how shall that Soul go about to deliver it out of a Misery which believeth that God will in his own time deliver it and in the mean time Support Uphold and Comfort it and make its Affliction issue in Good and for its advantage working for it a far more Eternal and exceeding Weight of Glory Or how shall that Soul Trust in God for Pardon of Sin and Eternal Life which knoweth that Repentance and Faith are the ordinary means prescribed by God for obtaining these things and do the last Act of his Life of such a Nature as leaveth no room to be renewed by Repentance and is such as God hath said None that doth it hath Eternal Life So that as it is apparent that this Temptation is advantaged by nothing so much as Atheism and Unbelief so there is no such Antidote against it as vigorous Habits and Acts of Faith Nor is it possible that a believing Soul should be under the Power and Prevailings of it while it keepeth under the Conduct and Command of Reason CHAP. IX An Holy Life and Conversation an excellent Preparative to this Spiritual Combate This opened Terrours of Conscience for Sin oft times one great cause of such Thoughts These not ordinary but for great Sinnings some more notorious Acts of Vngodliness or of Vnrighteousness great Sinnings against Light c. 5. FIfthly There is no better Preparative for this Spiritual Combate then an Holy Life and Conversation Although the Holiest Men alive are not exempted from this Fiery Dart even Christ himself heard the Devil say Cast thy self down yet you shall observe these Temptations mostly fall upon Men of loose Lives and Conversation at least do most ordinarily prevail against such The ordinary Motive that prevaileth with Souls to do this thing is the avoiding of some great Evil which either they have in prospect or feel the burden of Now this Evil is either more External such as Slavery and falling into the hands of Enemies This made Saul fall upon his own Sword and Cato kill himself Or horrible bodily Pains and Tortures being exposed to some shameful Death c. Or else they are more Internal such as Horrours and Pangs of Conscience They are rare Instances that either Holy or Civil History gives us of Persons putting an end to their own Lives to avoid Imprisonment Shame or Tortures from Men and not many that we have of Persons who in Terrible Bodily Pains have exposed to the Prevailings of this Temptation Now these Terrours and Pangs of Conscience arise from the Souls Reflections upon its Guilt in respect of Sin Thus the Scripture tells us Judas hang'd himself crying out he had betrayed Innocent Blood Thus History tells us Pontius Pilate killed himself and thus we Read of many others in History And although there be no Sin so little but if God setteth it home upon the Conscience and supporteth not the Soul with his Grace it is able to drive the Soul to this desperate issue yet it is not ordinary for Sins of a more minute Nature and such as the best of Men commit to be followed with such horrours as seize the Spirit of a Man or for Satan to take such an advantage from them The reflections which produce this effect are usually upon some Sins of a more then ordinary Tincture and that have had some more eminent circumstances of Aggravation From whence it followeth that a Godly and Righteous Conversation Religious towards God Just and Righteous towards Men is one of the best Preservatives from the violence of this Temptation A Prâ—fane Atheistical Blasphemous Person is highly exposed to the Impetus of it so is any who hath bin guilty of more notorious Acts of Unrighteousness such as Murther Persecution high degrees of Violence and Oppression For though it be true that God is able to pardon many Sins as well as few great as well as small and the Promise extendeth to all Sin and Blasphemy to Scarlet and Crimson Sins yet we shall find it an harder thing to be beleeve in Christ for the Remission of Sins of so high a Tincture Besides that Courses of Sin of this Nature have a very ill influence upon the Heart to blind and to harden it so that poor Creatures under the Guilt of them are often more sensible of the Wrath of God due to those who commit such things then of the Evil and Filthiness of them O therefore flee such things as these are you know not how far God for them may leave you to Satans Buffetings of this Nature you know not what it is to Repent of them nor how hardly the Soul that is under the Guilt of them is brought to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or to hope in him for the free Pardon and Remission of them or to arrive at any sense of the Pardon of them In short take heed of all bold sinnings against Light and Checks or Reverberations of Conscience If we will not hearken to the lighter Checks and Dictates of Conscience we are often and but justly repaid with the severer Terrours and Affrightments of it for our doing of such things contrary to its Dictates and lighter Admonitions But the holy Man that walketh closely with God that liveth up to his Light and Revelations of the Will of God is very much out of this danger and though he may have some impressions of this Nature yet they rarely are advantaged from an aking Conscience in the sense of Guilt CHAP. X. Directions for them who are already fallen under this Temptation Melancholy to be evacuated by Natural Means 2. The Motive is to be considered which usually is a freedome from some present or imminent Evil. Two things to be considered 1. Whether it will free us to destroy our selves 2. Whether there be not a more safe and certain way to be free I Have thus far onely prepared you against a wrestling with this Temptation and given you preventing Physick which indeed they say is best and it is better indeed to keep such an Enemy as Satan is Armed with this Dart at a distance then to trust to our own Strength in the hour of Combate But possibly as to some poor Souls
I do not think any Books opening the Scriptures or any portions of Scriptures fitter to be read or any Sermons fitter to be heard by persons under these circumstances then such Books such Sermons such Portions of Holy Writ as most express the Wrath of God against Sinners most livelily express the miserable estate of Souls in another World under the Wrath of God Together with such as contain or explain the Promises of God for Support and Strength and Help under and Deliverance from the greatest Pressures of Affliction and Misery By the reading and hearing of the one the Grace of God concurring which is always requisite to make the Soul believe what it reads and hears a Soul shall be deterred from such an undertaking from the rational consideration That there is no way for it to get out of its Misery and by the other it shall be perswaded that there is a far nearer and more certain way of Relief for it if it can but exercise a little Patience from the good hand of God who is able to relieve it and who hath promised and is faithful Which two points are of very great import for a Soul to be perswaded of that it may stand against this fiery Dart and of that Nature that it is impossible that any Soul in the full possession and belief of them should ever listen to this Temptation so long as it pleaseth God to keep it in the exercise of its Reason Let therefore every Soul under this Temptation make it its business to give it self the fullest possession of these Truths for it is the Unbelief or faint Belief of these things that gives the least advantage to the roaring Lion thus seeking about to devour Souls The more rooted a Soul is in the Doctrine of Eternity both that which relateth to damned Souls and that which relateth to such as shall be saved the more remote and difficult it will be as to listning to any Temptation of this nature CHAP. XI Further Directions for Souls thus tempted The avoiding of Solitude The Study and Meditation of the Nature of the Covenant of Grace in the Matter of it the freeness of it the sureness of it the well ordering of it in all things 3. Dir. AVoid Solitudes and Solitary Places I mentioned this before as a means to prevent prevailings of Melancholy but let me a little farther inlarge upon that Argument Indeed excesses of Solitude are by no means to be affected by Christians under the greatest freedom of Body and Mind tho nothing more conduceth to a Souls Health and Freedom in communion with God then some just Measures and Proportions of it yet nothing is more dangerous in this hour of Temptation I observe Elijah was alone when he prayed God in a fit of Discontent to take away his Life and Jonah ch 4. 5 8. was in a Booth alone out of the City when he said It is better for me to die than to live And our blessed Lord was alone when Matth. 4. 6. the Tempter said unto him set upon the Pinacle of the Temple If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down Of Souls under these circumstances it is eminently true that Solomon saith Ecc. 4. 11. Two are better than one and woe to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath none other to help him up These Acts are committed usually by Persons that are alone It is therefore highly advisable to Persons under these Impressions to avoid giving this advantage to the Adversary and to those who are nearly concerned in and about Persons under these Temptations to be watchful as to this thing especially when they discern the Impressions are most strong upon them But having touched upon this before I shall add no more to it now 4. Dir. Fourthly There is nothing more proper for Souls under these circumstances Than to be much in the Study and Meditation of the Nature of the Covenant of Grace I told you before that supposing a Man or Woman under the conduct and government of Reason it is very hard to imagine what Motive should possibly prevail upon them to put an end unto their Lives but the freeing of themselves from so eminent Evils which they suffer to that degree that they conclude it is better for them to die than to live Now these Evils I told you were either External Afflictions and Crosses or such as are Internals Horrors of Mind Terrors of Conscience If the Motive be a freedom from Evils of the first sort I advised before what I judged proper viz. The Consideration whether the determination of our Lives in that manner would indeed free us or rather make our Condition much worse And Secondly Whether there be not an easier and safer way to procure our selves such an Immunity But now Suppose the Evils be of the second sort viz. The Horrors and Terrors of Conscience from the guilt of sin If this be the Motive the force of it lieth in our Ignorance or Mistake about the Covenant of Grace and look as under a Temptation to which External Misery is the great Motive There is nothing more proper than a just understanding of the state of the Damned and the misery of Impenitent and Unpardoned Souls in the World to come So supposing the Motive to be Horrors and Terrors of Conscience upon our Reflections upon Sin there is nothing more proper for a Soul than rightly to understand the Covenant of Grace and the reading of such Books and whetting upon our Hearts such Portions of Gods revealed Will in his Word as are most fully expressive of it Truly to understand this That there is no Sinner run into such an arrear with Gods Justice no Soul so guilty but by vertue of a gracious Covenant of Redemption and Grace which God the Father hath from Eternity contracted with the Son of his Love the Redeemers part in which Covenant is also fulfilled by Jesus Christ may find Mercy with God repenting of his Sin and casting it self upon the free Mercy and Grace of God in and through the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ Such is this Covenant of Grace that the most guilty Soul fulfilling his part in it and accepting of it may be assured that although its past sins cannot be made never to have been yet they shall be as if they never had been That is they shall no more condemn the Soul then if they never had been they shall not be mentioned they shall be sought for and not found the Righteousness of Christ shall be reckoned unto the Soul as if it were its Righteousness It is impossible that a Soul knowing and believing this and living in the view of this gracious Covenant should ever be frighted out of its Life from the Horrors of Conscience by its Reflections upon its guilt of Sin Though an ignorant Person that knoweth not this or an unbelieving Soul which though it may have received the Notion of it yet cannot believe it may from this Motive
died fâ—r all a sad Doctrine which gives Judas as much comfort as Peter Others think he purchased a certainty of Salvation for the Elect but a possibility for all Others believe he died onely for the Elect. But admitting the last to be true which some think to make Redemption conform to the Decree of Election and not understand how Christ should purchase an impossible possibility which must be as to some if there were any that were passed over in the Eternal Purpose or any to whom God resolved not to give those effectual Aids of his special Grace necessary in order to those Exercises of Faith and Holiness by which Salvation must be obtained But what Market can the Devil make of this He can tell them they are not Elected and so Christ died not fâ—r them But the Soul can reply He was a Lier from the Beginning and none of Gods Privy Counsellors and that its Non-election can onely appear from its prodigious sinnings continued in to the end without Repentance and Faith in Christ And the others telling them Christ died for all will not relieve them for Judas notwithstanding that proved a Son of Perdition and went to his own place when he had hang'd himself It is also true that many great Divines do think none can be saved without the special Grace of God working together with the Word in their Hearts and effectually renewing turning changing and sanctifying and that this is not in a Man 's own Power but the work of God What advantage now can the Devil make of this Doctrine to perswâ—â—e the Soul to cast away all hopes of the Mercy of God through Christ for the pardon of its Sins and for the obtaining of Eternal Life and Salvation He can suggest to the Soul That God never bestowed upon it this effectual Grace nor ever will If he doth not add the later he saith nothing for what Ground have I to cast away all hope if yet there be hope that although I have not yet repented and believed yet God will give me his Grace though at the Eleventh hour that I shall repent believe and be saved Now suppose him to suggest so How shall he evidence this to me but from the guilt of my sin or my abiding in it It is therefore that whatever bluster some Sciclists make in the World to load the Opinions of some great and eminent Divines with Envy and Obloquy yet in very deed the Devil can urge Despair of the Pardon of Sin and obtaining Eternal Life with any colourable reason upon no Soul but from Sin nor indeed do we in our Experience find any thing else stick with Souls in an hour of Temptation Now here he must either say Thy Sins are so many they cannot be forgiven or Thou hast sinned so long a time that thou canst not be forgiven Thy hour is over thy time is past or Thou hast sinned some particular sins which are of so hainous a nature or so deep a dy that God will never forgive them What the Soul may answer to all these we shall God willing by and by consider CHAP. III. Means to prevent Despair Clear and distinct Knowledge Taking heed of inveterate Sinnings Prodigious Sinnings All Sinnings against Light Such Sins especially as come nearest the unpardonable Sin YOu have heard the Nature of this Temptation you have also heard from whence Temptations of this nature come what seeming good enticeth the Soul to listen to them and also what Arguments the Tempters have alone to use to inforce them Let me now come to shew you what is to be done by Christians in order to the repelling and resisting of them And because as I told you in my Discourse referring to the former Prevention is the best way let me first advise what is proper to all of us upon whom this hour of Temptation is not come that we may never fall into this snare of the Devil 1. And here let me first commend to you all a sound and distinct Knowledge of the Truths of God The Devil in an hour of Temptation hath a great advantage upon an ignorant Person above what he hath upon a knowing Christian Solomon tells us true That a Soul should be without Knowledge is not good He that hath a sound and distinct Knowledge of the Nature of God the Doctrine of Faith the Covenant of Grace and the Promises of the Word of God seldom falls into or lieth long under this Temptation How easie a thing it is for the Devil to fright ignorant Souls with telling them They are not Elected that Christ did not die for them that their Sins are too many or too great or have been too long continued in to be pardoned or that they have not truly repented or believed or that they have sinned the unpardonable Sin or an hundred such things O do not slight Knowledge no not a notional Knowledge of the things of God You are not able to prophecy of what use it will be to your Souls in an hour of Temptation A knowing Christian may be tempted and it may be some time before he can get his Hand upon the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God to draw it out for his purpose but if he hath it by his side if he be mighty in the Scriptures he will have no long work with an Enemy of this kind I pity such as cannot read or if they can yet have lost their time and not improved it to learn the Scriptures be acquainted with Catechisms which should ground them in the Doctrine of Faith Thou that despisest Knowledge neglectest yea despisest thy own Soul and all its Peace and Comfort and seemest to presume upon a Miracle to be shewed for thee in an hour of Temptation 2. Secondly Take heed of going on in a course of Sinning especially against thy Light and Checks of Conscience Inveterate Sinning and prodigious Sinnings and Sinnings against Light and Checks of Conscience and particularly some Sins and such especially as come nearest to the Sin unto Death give the Devil very high and great advantages as to this Temptation 1. I say first Inveterate Sinning When Sin hath grown up with a Man from his youth he hath lived and walked and wallowed in it many years it makes the Devil a great Market We find it hard to believe that God who can have from us but the homage of a few days or hours will forgive us the Sins of so many years It is rare that old Sinners are brought to Repentance and Converted you shall most generally observe that if God changeth a Man or Womans Heart it is either in their Youth or middle Age seldom in Child-hood and seldom in Old Age and if in Old Age they are ordinarily infested with great Temptations Take heed of Sin growing Old in thy Soul An old habit is hardly put off How can you that are accustomed to do Evil do Well An old Ulcer is hardly Cured beware of growing
not accuse those of acting by the Devil but from the Power of God from hence he concludeth That he did not cast out Devils as they malitiously charged him by the help of the Devil and that they were themselves otherwise convinced in their own Consciences therefore he did it by the Spirit of God and by that they could not but know that the Kingdom of God was come amongst them and so they spake Evil of God and the Spirit of God and that out of Malice contrary to the Conviction of their own Consciences Now saith he Take heed what you do this is a kind of Sin which God will never forgive though all other Sin and Blasphemy shall be forgiven yet for you knowing that what I do I do as God and by the Power and Spirit of God to Persecute me and to Repraoch me and that you may the better do it to ascribe that to the Devil which is the Work of God done by me this is a Sin which shall never be forgiven So that according to our Saviours Words this seemeth to be the Sin That the Pharises knowing well enough that Christ was God Eternal God and having sufficient means to convince them of it and that from his Casting out of Devils and several other Miraculous Operations which it was in the Power of God onely to do Notwithstanding yea against this Conviction Maliciously Persecuted the Lord Jesus Christ and denied these mighty Operations to be from the Spirit of God but said they were from Beelzebub the Master Devil From hence will appear though not distinctly what the Specifical Sin against the Holy Ghost is yea what Sins border upon it and come nearest to it 1. All Sinning against Light and Convictions 2. Apostacy from a former Profession and owning of the Gospel and the Holy Ways of God 3. A Malicious Pursuing and Persecuting of such as our Consciences tells us are Righteous Persons 4. An Ascribing to the Devil what we are Convinced of to be the Works of God and so reproaching the Operations of the Spirit of God whatsoever the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost be These things or the most of them must be ingredients into it and truly if Persons have been enlightened with the Knowledge of the Truths and Ways of God and have made some Profession of them and have had some Savour of them if they fall away from that Profession and that to such a degree as not onely to disown what themselves formerly owned but to hate those Truths and Ways of God and to Persecute such as still Profess them and adhere to them and charge those Impressions and Operations which are from the Holy Spirit of God to be from the Devil so Blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God if there be such an unpardonable Sin to be commited surely these are under the guilt of it nor can I see any thing can possibly free them from the dreadful Consequence of it but a timely Repentance remembring their first professed Love and turning unto God which whosoever can do or shall obtain Grace from God to do undoubtedly hath not sinned beyond Pardon for he that confesseth his Sins and forsaketh them shall have Mercy But as I said before these Sins comes nearest this Guilt and where any Soul hath been or shall be in this kind and to this degree guilty the Devil hath a very fair Advantage against him to move him to Despair upon a Suggestion that he hath committed that Sin which according to the Revealed Will of God in Holy Writ shall never be forgiven nor will he find any way to get out of this Snare nor any thing to answer the Tempter pressing hard upon him with a Temptation of this Nature until he can say I have indeed done this but God hath given me an Heart to Repent of it to remember from whence I fell and to do my first Works and he will find it as hard for him to recover any just hopes of Pardon and Eternal Life and Salvation as he will find it to be renewed by Repentance if the latter be found impossible to a Soul under these Circumstances so will the former also be found O therefore to prevent Temptations of this nature take heed of all sinning of any continuance and going on in a course of Sin especially of any sinnings against Light and Convictions or against former Professions and especially of any Malice and Hatred to the ways of God which you either have formerly owned and acknowledged or which your Consciences tell you are the right ways of the Lord. 3. Thirdly Let me again commend to you an Acquaintance a through Acquaintance with the Covenant of Grace and the Dispensation of Salvation revealed to us in the Gospel The Despairing Soul hath ordinarily a Legal Spirit and sticks in the Covenant of Works Remember that we are not under the Law bâ—t under Grace in some sense not onely true Believers but even the whole World or at least that part of it to which the glad Tidings of Salvation through the Gospel is published is not under the Law but under Grace not under a Legal Dispensation So as none can be saved without a personal perfect Obedience to the Law of God but under a gracious Dispensation wherein as the Apostle saith Rom. 1. 17. The Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith that is wherein it is revealed that the Righteousness wherein a Man must stand Just and Righteous before God is not his own Righteousness made up of his Obedience to the Commandements contained in the Divine Law but the perfect Righteousness of Christ by God reckoned unto every Soul that repenteth and believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ who walketh not after the Flesh but after the Spirit minding and savouring the things of the Spirit which Righteousness of Christ is reckoned to the Soul as soon as it comes to own receive and lay hold upon Christ in the Gospel exhibited and tendered unto it The Soul well possessed of the Doctrine of Free Grace and Gospel Justification though it may see frequent Causes for Heart-sorrow and Humiliation as well for its former as for its renewing Sins yet cannot easily see the umbrage of any ground to Despair and cast away its hope as to Divine Mercy and Forgiveness or Eternal Life and Salvation But I have elsewhere enlarged upon this Argument 4. Fourthly If you would avoid Temptations to Despair take heed of presuming You shall observe in the Tempers of those with whom you converse in the World That those whose hopes are most quickly up find them also soonest down The reason is because they are persons that usually have no great depth of judgement and do not build their hopes upon good and sufficient bottoms So that as it is with some little Rivolets whose Channel is but a small continent and which want depth every good showr of Rain raiseth them and causeth them to overflow the Banks but then the same degree of Rain
not continuing they are as quickly down So it is with these Men a little thing raiseth their hopes and a little thing again sinketh them Thus it is in the great business of Hope as to the Pardon of Sin and obtaining Eternal Salvation Some Persons build up Hopes upon very light and unjustifiable Grounds their Hope is indeed but a Presumption like the Grass that groweth upon the House Tops which a little Heat of the Sun killeth But other Souls build up their Hopes upon more sure and wary Foundations which are not so soon shaked We use to say that we are certain of nothing more than what we have sometimes been uncertain of We are commanded to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling and to rejoyce with trembling Those Souls that have gained their Hope by the Conquest of many Doubts and Fears and Jealousies do not easily lose it whereas those who have hatched it up with more ease seldom keep it in an hour of Temptation 5. I know not what more to advise besides Frequent Self-Examination closâ— walking with God and diligent and constant Prayer Let me inlarge a little upon these I say First Frequent Self-Examination It is the Apostles Precepts Examine your selves prove your selves whether you be in the Faith or no 2 Cor. 13. 5. Whether we live by Hope or Sight I mean Assurance this is highly necessary for that Soul that would maintain the one or the other Two things I would have Christians much Examine themselves upon 1. The Grounds and Reasons of their Hope 2. The Abatements and Discouragements of them 1. As to the Grounds of their Hope which if good must always be bottomed in some Piece of Divine Revelation for Pardon of Sin and Eternal Life being both of them the free Gift of God it is unreasonable to hope for either but upon the Revelation of the will of him in whose Gift they are In examining therefore the Truth and Ground of your Hope trust to nothing but some portions of the Word of God which though it doth not tell you by name whose Sins are pardoned and whose are not who shall be saved and who shall perish it doth tell you what must be wrought in the Hearts of those whose Sins are Pardoned and how they must live that shall ever see the Face of God in Heaven there 's no trusting to your Interest in God as he that made you nor yet to Christ dying for all Men no nor yet to any Merits or Works of your own God hath no where said that he will save all those whom he hath Created nor all those who believe Christ died for all Men no nor yet all those that do some things that are as to the Matter of them good and such as if Men do not they cannot see God I shall not here run into particulars but in the general I shall tell you that there is nothing but the Revelation of the Will of God in his Word and the experimental finding that God hath wrought those things in your Souls which he in his Word hath made necessary in order to obtaining Pardon and Eternal Salvation that is in this Case to be trusted to Often therefore examine your selves upon these Points 1. What God in his Word hath made necessary to the obtaining of Pardon and Salvation 2. The Work of God upon your Hearts Creating and Working and Maintaining these Habits and Exercises in your Souls Nay do not onely this but examine your selves also about the holding or abating of your Hopes the Increase or Decrease and Discouragements of them in your Souls A faint decaying weakening Hope if not lookt to will grow more and more faint and weak every day than other till it putrisieth into Despair Now the force of this lies here The decays and abatements of our Hope are caused either from some Relapses into Sin or from some eminent with-drawings of the Holy Spirit of God which uphold and maintaineth it in a Soul And a daily examination or frequent examination of our selves how it is with us as to our Spiritual hope will put the Soul both upon frequent Acts of Repentance as it discerneth that its hope is abated by the prevailings of its Lusts and also upon frequent Prayers begging the revivings and upholdings of it from the Spirit of God 2. Live in close Communion with God I propounded to you before the avoiding of Sin all Sin but some especially to prevent Temptations to Despair But this is something more we are at first begotten to a lively Hope by the Word upon fervent Prayer c. and this Hope is maintained in the Soul by the same means by which it is first begotten and bred in the Soul I told you before that we must find the ground and bottom of our Hope in the Word of God Now Preaching where it is done sincerely and faithfully is nothing else but an Explication and Application of the Word of God an Interpretation of the Word to our Souls and a whetting of it upon our Souls and therefore in reason a consciencious Attendance upon it must necessarily be a means to confirm and strengthen our Hopes and to antidote Despair Nor certainly can often Communion in the Lords Supper be useless but contrariwise of very great use for the Lord in that Ordinance having added a Sign to his Word for the confirmation of our Faith it must needs be a proper means to strengthen and increase our Hope In short All Communion with God whether it be more Internal by Meditation and the secret Exercises of the Power of our Souls upon God or more External in such Duties as God hath prescribed us to perform an Homage to him by must be of great use to our Souls in this case For the more Freedom and Acquaintance we have with God the more we be with him the truer and more just Apprehensions we shall have of him and the more we shall understand the loving Kindness of God Now all Despair floweth from unjust and unkind Apprehensions and Impressions of God and from a too great an estrangement from him It is true those that know the Lords Name will trust in him and hope in his Mercy But above all be much in Prayer that obtaineth all Grace all Mercy from God the beginnings of it the growth and encrease of it c. But I shall add no more upon this Subject directing you to what I judge most proper to prevent in the Soul Fits or more settled Habits of Despair and certainly it is most advisable to keep Satan at a distance and more easie to oppose the first Assaults or avoid giving him advantages to it than to grapple with it CHAP. IV. What Despairing Souls should do They ought to consult the Physician if no Bodily Distemper gives a rise to such dark Thoughts What Business they have with God No Argument sufficient to warrant Despair Sometimes none pleaded The usual Arguments pleaded From our many Sins The greatness
Ministers or knowing and experienced Christians who are able to speak a word in season for the Relief of Souls that are weary and heavy laden with the sense of their Sins 3. A third Work to be done for the Relief of Souls under this fore Temptation is with the Persons themselves that are Tempted and that is to perswade them or for such poor Souls to perswade themselves of the unreasonableness of those conclusions which they make against themselves Now upon this suffer me to inlarge a little in an endeavour to demonstrate the little force that can be in any Argument that such a Soul can bring against it self in this Case and in shew-you the exceeding sinfulness of this Sining of Despair in the first place let me desire such a Soul to Consider 1. That there is no Argument sufficient to warrant it to cast away all Hope in God as to the pardon of its Sin and the obtaining Eternal Life and Salvation through Christ The one of these dependeth upon the other For if there be no Argument sufficient to convince such a Soul that its Sins shall never be forgiven there can be no Argument sufficient to convince it that it shall certainly be Damned or that it is a Reprobate for Psal 32. 1. Blessed is he whose Iniquities are forgiven and whose Sins are covered and to whom the Lord imputeth not Transgression A Pardoned Sinner cannot Perish that is certain If therefore no Reason can be brought sufficient to prove that God will never Pardon me none can be brought sufficient for me to conclude from it That God will not Save me 1. Sometimes Souls under these Circumstances will plead no Argument at all onely they have such a fixed Impression and Perswasion upon their Hearts they know it they are sure of it c. and this is all you can get from it But as the Apostle saith in another Case Gal 5. 8. This perswasion cometh not from him that calleth you Impressions upon our Spirits are no Oracles nor must be taken for Arguments Impressions or Perswasions are either from the Holy Spirit of God or Perswasions hatcht up in our Souls by their own Powers or they are from the Evil Spirit Impressions indeed from the Spirit of God cannot deceive they are infallible but so are not these Can think you this Perswasion be from him that every where in his Word calleth upon Men to Sinners to all sorts and degrees of Sinners to Repent and Beleeve to wash themselves and make themselves Clean telling them that if their Sins were as Scarlet they shall be as Snow if as Crimson they shall be as white as Wooll that he will have Mercy upon them and abundantly Pardon them Jsaiah 55. 6 7. Can he that calleth Sinners all Sinners that are weary and heavy laden to come unto him Promising them Rest for their Souls I say can they possibly think that he hath perswaded them that they shall never obtain Pardon It must therefore remain that these Perswasions in whatsoever Souls they are found must either be bred in the Soul from its own Corruption or brought into the Soul by Satan Let them be from which of these two Causes they will they are very far from being certain and infallible The Heart of Man is deceitful above all things and the Devil was a Liar from the Beginning Time was it is possible when the Devil drove a quite contrary Design and sang a quite other Song to incourage the Soul in a course of Sin suggesting to it that Pardon was an easie thing and might be obtained without difficulty however he hath changed his Note now he is pursuing but the same Design that is the Ruin of the Soul though it be by a quite contrary Method But it is not always that a Soul under this Temptation talketh at this irrational rate ordinarily it hath something to say though nothing sufficient to build such a Conclusion upon and as I hinted to you before all that the Devil or a Man 's own Heart can say in the case is either 1. That our Sins are too many to be forgiven Or 2. That they have been aggravated with some circumstances to that degree that they cannot be forgiven Or 3. That the time is past we have gone on in them too long to be forgiven Or 4. That we have committed some particular Sins of too deep a dy to be washed out If we can but drive out the Devil from these Refuges we shall leave him nothing to say to a Soul to advantage this Temptation 1. As to the First That our Sins are too many to be forgiven This Suggestion either hath no bottom at all or if it hath any it must be this That the Promises of Grace and the Forgiveness of Sins are limited to a certain number of Sins for if they be not upon what colourable pretence doth the Devil endeavour to baffle the Hope of any Soul by whispering to it That its Sins are too many to be forgiven if God hath no where said he will not pardon a multitude of Sins to what purpose or upon what pretence shall a Soul Despair because of the multitude of its Iniquities But where in the whole Book of God shall a troubled Soul find any line to this purpose A Souls hope for Pardon dependeth upon the Word of God and in reason must not the Limitations if any be of that hope be found in the Word of God too or are they not in all reason to be rejected as the Fictions of our own Hearts or Figments of our grand Adversary the Devil Where the Word of God limiteth not the Will of God upon what grounds do we limit it Methinks in this case the whole Trinity speaketh unto us in the Language that St. Paul spake to the Corinthians in another Cause 2 Cor. 6. 11 12. Oye Corinthians saith he our Mouth is opened unto you our Heart is inlarged You are not straitned in us you are straitned in your own Bowels Some thinks the Holy Trinity speaketh to us in the whole tenor of the Sacred Writing O you troubled Sinners you Despairing Souls our Mouth is opened to you to call those that have abundantly sinned to our abounding Mercies Our Heart is enlarged you are not straitned in me saith the Father of Mercies I have infinite Mercies Mercies as the Sands which is on the Sea-shore You are not straitned in me saith the Son I have an infinite Value and Vertue in my Blood it is sufficient in it self for the Expiation of the Sins of the whole World and every individual Man and Woman in the World You are not straitned in me saith the Holy Spirit I after a multitude of Sinnings stand yet at the door of your Hearts and knock and cry if any Man will open he shall come in and sâ—p with me yea let them do what in them lieth I am ready to add my Efficacy to give Faith and to give Repentance and this after a multitude
of Sins You are not straitned in me where then are Sinners straitned Oh they are straitned in their own Bowels They cannot find in their Hearts to consider their ways to humble their Soul for their sins to leave them and to turn unto God Thus are they straitned in their own Bowels and they will not come to Christ that they might have Life 2. Secondly To this Suggestion doubtless we are to oppose what the Scripture speaketh of the multitude and abundance of Divine Mercies Psal 134. 18. If I should count them saith Holy David they are more in number than the Sand. So Isaiah 55. v. 6 7. Let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him unto his God for he will abundantly pardon Thus you often read in Scripture of a multitude of Mercies tender Mercies in God Psal 5. 7. I will come into thy House in the multitude of thy Mercies So Psal 51. 1. Have Mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out my Transgressions So Psal 69. 13. Mercy in God is but one thing it is the Goodness of God looking upon one in Misery and helping and relieving him what do we read of a multitude of Mercies certainly it either signifies Gods multiplied Acts of Goodness which are several Branches springing out of the same Root of Goodness and Mercy or else the term is used to signifie unto us that there is a Goodness in God proportionated to the multitudes of Sin and Misery that are in us To what end do we read of multitudes of Mercies in God if it were not to relieve us groaning under multitudes of Sins 3. Again consider It is the same thing with God to pardon multitudes of Sins as few yea he never pardoneth the Sins of any one Soul but he pardons a multitude God must vail his Justice and deny himself in his Vindicative Justice to pardon one Sin There is no one Sin but hath a kind of infiniteness in it or rather contracts an infinite Guilt for every Sin which we commit is against an infinite God against infinite Justice and Goodness and nothing but infinite Goodness can remit it and pass it by And an infinite Remission as easily extendeth to a multitude of Sins as to a few so that as that good Prince said unto God in the recognition of his Power It is easie with thee to save by many as by few So we may say in the case before us It is as easie with God to save from many from the guilt of many many thousands of Sins as from the guilt of a few especially which I should have put in considering there is also an infiniteness in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Redemption Price that is paid if indeed that had been scant something might have been colourably objected but that is commensurate to the Goodness that is in God The Person that died for our Sins was God-man an infinite Person his Blood was of infinite Vertue as to Satisfaction Indeed the Papists strain a great deal too far to say That the least Drop of Christs Blood was sufficient to ransome a World That is an idle Monkish Hyberbole for there must be a powring out of his Life so much of his Blood shed as should have determined his Life But that there is a Nuda Sufficientia we are not speaking now of the Sufficientia Ordinata how far Christ ordained it to be sufficient but that I say there was a bare and naked Sufficiency in the Death of Christ for more than it shall ever be applied to This must be granted by all who will acknowledge an infiniteness in Christs Person Nor yet shall the Papists from hence augment their Churches Treasury to the value of a Farthing Christ never left the Redundancy of the Vertue of his Death to humane Disposal the Vertue of his Blood as to all those who shall by it have any Benefit was ordered and disposed of from before the Foundation of the World even from the time that the Lâ—mb was first slain in Gods Eternal Counsels Let them look to answer the Papists in this Point who maintain Universal Redemption in the latitude of it But I add farther under this Head That God never pardoneth Sin to any Soul but he pardoneth a multitude It is true there is not a parity in Men and Womens Sins either as to the quality or quantity but I say God never pardons any but multitudes of Sins The Righteous falleth seven times in a day Sin is in every Soul and it may say Our Name is Lâ—gion for we are many If multitudes of Sins could not be pardoned no Sinner could be pardoned 2. Temptation But then saith the Tempter or the tempted Soul if you will Ah but my Sins have received very high and great Aggravations I have sinned against Light against Love I knew I ought not to do what I did I was warned by Ministers checkt by my own Conscience otherwise moved by the Spirit of God I had Mercies above thousands of others I sinned against all c. To which I answer 1. This is indeed a very sad circumstance a load of this nature doth often lie very heavy upon the Conscience and a guilt of this nature requireth a further and deeper Humiliation Confession Contrition but the Question is Whether such Sins be capable of a Pardon yea or no If they be capable of Forgiveness from a gracious God all this is no ground for thee to Despair and cast away Hope refusing to be comforted 2. If they be not capable of Pardon it must be so determined in Scripture Now the Revelation of God in his Holy Word hath no where determined that no Person that hath sinned against his Light shall be forgiven and we ought not to conclude to our own Prejudice and Discouragement as to an Act of God what he hath no where in his Word revealed 3. Thirdly There is no Sinner pardoned but hath sinned against his Light and against Love so that the Question seemeth not to be about the Thing but about the Degree not whether one who hath sinned against Light and Love can be Pardoned but whether one who hath sinned against so much Light and so much Love can be forgiven and it will be very hard for thee to asâ—ign Sinnings against such Degrees of Light and Love as none ever sinned against and were saved There are in Scripture great instances of Pardoned Sinners who yet sinned against great Degrees of Light and Love too Take but the instances of David and Peter David was a Man of much Light he was you know one of the Pen-men of Holy Writ he was a Man much beloved of God he is stiled The Man according to Gods own Heart God mindeth him of how much he had done for him taking him from the Sheep-folds and making him King over Israel and Judah giving his Masters Crowns Houses and Wives yea and
as he tells him was ready to have done greater things for him against all this he sinned in the matter of Bathsheba and in the matter of Uriah It is true this cost him many Tears many Prayers yet he obtained Mercy Peter was a Man of great Light and had been made the Object of great Love Christ had said to him Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church yet this Peter cursed and sware and denied his Master and after this when he had gone out and wept betterly Christ remembred him and I doubt not but you believe Peter is in Heaven Thou canst not say that thou hast sinned against greater Light or greater Love than these two eminent Saints in Glory sinned against To have sinned out our Light indeed that is to such a degree as we have no more Checks no more Rebukes of Conscience this is very sad and the Interpretations of it be to the Enemies of God To be past Feeling that is sad but by thy Trouble and Complaining it appeareth that is not thy Case but it is plain that many have sinned against Light much Light and against much Love too whom God hath from the infiniteness of his Mercy forgiven and rereceived up to Glory 3. Temptation But will such a Soul say It is true had I in time turned unto God there might have been hope but alas time is past time is past with me had I turned to God in my Youth but I am in the declining part of my Life God hath said His Spirit shall not always strive with Man The Fig-tree was Cursed after Three years in vain expecting Fruit. God hath a long time been looking for Fruit of my Soul and hath found none I have sinned wilfully after I had received the Knowledge of the Truth there remaineth now I fear no more Sacrifice of Sin but a certain fearful looking for of Judgement and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversaries Heb. 10. 26 27. To which I say 1. This is indeed a very sad and bitter Reflection and I desire that such Complaints as these when we hear them may be sanctified to all that have time before them to take heed how they mispend it and trifle it away but where this Counsel is too late the Question that we have in hand is Whether there be a sufficient Warrant for a Souls Despair 2. The sadness Secondly of this Case is aggravated from the appearances of Scripture for this Temptation It is generally held by Divines That as Countries and Nations have their Periods of Grace so particular Persons have their Days of Grace too and Periods beyond which Gods Spirit shall not strive with them and it appeareth by that Text Heb. 10. That there is a wilful Sinning after the Knowledge of the Truth after which there will remain no Sacrifice for Sin But what that degree of wilful Sinning is and how it must be circumstanced that is another Question But to speak more directly to the Temptation 1. In the first place I would have thee scriously consider Whether the Freeness of Divine Grace in the Remission of Sins be duly thought of by thee who objectest thus against thy self Take heed thou hast not some Thoughts within thee that thou shouldest recompence God by thy future Holiness for thy past Provocations and whether that which discourageth thy hoping in God and looking up unto him for Mercy be not a prospect that thou art not like to have time enough to make this Recompence If thou hast any such Thoughts as these thou dost not well attend to the Promise of Pardon which runs thus I will blot out thy Transgressions for mine own Name sake and we have Redemption even Forgiveness of Sins through his Blood The end which God aimeth at in the Forgiveness of any Souls Sin is his own Glory the glorifying of the riches of his Grace not receiving the Homage of an Holy Life though that be thy Duty and what God requireth of thee yet I say that is not Gods great and ultimate end He will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and extend Compassion to whom he will extend Compassion The Consideration upon which God doth it is the Price paid and Satisfaction given by the Blood of his Son It is not for our sake nor for our future Works sake but for his own Name sake and for his dear Sâ—n's sake that he granteth unto any Pardon and Forgiveness of Sin Now although the time of thy Life yet to come in probability will not be commensurate to the time of Life which is past and spent in Sinning and Dishonouring God yet why may not the great God glorifie the Riches of his Grace in the free Forgiveness of thee Why may he not exalt the Blood of his Son in washing thy Soul 2. Secondly It is not for us to know times and seasons which are in Gods Power onely It is true God seemeth to have revealed that every Soul hath a set time beyond which be will shew it no favour and that this is not onely the end of our Life but may be sometime before our dying day but we know not what time that is and therefore it is rashness for any Soul to conclude my time is past Where have we any Directions from the Word of God to fix any such time or to conclude it as to any period of time We know the Master of the Vineyard called to some to come and Work in his Vineyard at the 11th hour and we know also that the Thief upon the Cross was told in the last hour of his Life that he should that Night be with Christ in Paradise Secret things belong unto God Revealed things onely to us and to our Children Unless we had some certain Rule to determine the Time to us we have no Reason to determine it our selves to discourage us from what his Word commandeth us as our certain Duty 3. Thirdly Supposing there be an heart found in us to be sorry for our Sins humbled for them and to turn from them to God and to accept of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Salvation tendred unto us in the Gospel it is certain our time is not yet past The Reason is because the promise of Pardon and Salvation is made unto such So that no Soul hath reason to conclude there is no hope for him in God but that Soul that laboureth under impenitency and hardness of heart and findeth in it self a resolution yet to go on in its sinful courses And therefore you shall observe in that dreadful Text Heb. 6. the Apostle saith of them that have been once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly Gift and the Powers of the World to come and have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost c. if they fall away it is impossible they should be renewed again by Repentance if they could Repent it were not impossible they should be Pardoned or obtain Eternal Life and Salvation but
born again of Water and the Spirit he can never enter into the Kingdom of God they are the indisputable words of our Saviour John 3. 3. And St. Paul plainly saith that Neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature Our Saviour saith He that believeth not is condemned already he shall never see Life c. The Apostle saith without Faith and Holiness no Man shall see the Lord No considering Man therefore can possibly raise up to himself any hopes of the Pardon of Sin or Eternal Life but he must satisfy himself that he is Regenerated that he doth Believe and that he doth so far Obey as God will accept it To this purpose nothing can serve the Devils turn so effectually as for the Soul to be deceived in the Notions of Faith and Holiness Nothing can be more the concernment of the Soul than to take care it be not deceived There have been several Notions of Faith that have striven for Mastery in the World 1. The first is the Popish Notion who make Faith to be the Souls Assent to the Proposition of the Word which may be without any Practical Obedience for many a Man assenteth to the truth of the Proposition which yet he alloweth not an influence upon his Life and indeed this is such a Faith as the Apostle tells us the Devils are possessed of They Believe and Tremble 2. The Second is their Notion who make Justifying Faith to be what our Saviour tells us it is John 1. 12. A Receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ a closing an hearty closing with him as offered in the Gospel hoping trusting in him and him alone for Salvation No Soul can possibly do this that doth not first Assent to the Proposition of the Gospel and agree to what that Revealeth concerning Christ both as to his Person and as to his willingness to Save But it is possible that a Soul may Assent to those Propositions and yet not Receive Christ upon the Terms he propoundeth This Receiving Christ and Trusting in him as their Saviour they say necessarily draws on Holiness and Obedience though Faith and Love are two things for the rational Nature of Man will not suffer him to hope or trust in another for any kindness which he hath promised upon Terms without the fulfilling of those Terms upon which it is promised but this they say may be without any certain Assurance of the Souls Acceptation which a man cannot have until he be Justified 3. A Third is the Notion of them who make it a full Assurance of the Love of God but yet such a one as obligeth the Soul to all manner of Duty and this seems to have been the Notion of some Eminent Divines upon our first Reformation but is rejected by latter Divines as it being not possible that that should be an Instrument in our Justification which it is not possible that any Soul should have till it be Justified besides that many a Pious Devout Soul hath not arrived at this 4. Others make it to be a confident Perswasion that Christ died for them whether they find themselves obliged to Live to him yea or no. 5. Others make it to be a Practical Assent to the Gospel The danger of a Souls Presuming is from the first and the fourth of these principally If Men and Women think they do Believe because they do agree to the Proposition of the Gospel they may easily run away with a vain Imagination that all the Promises of the Gospel are their Portion when indeed not one of them belongs to them because this Believing is not that Believing which the Scriptures make necessary to Salvation for the evidence of which suffer me to offer these few things to your Consideration 1. Because this Assent may be without any Holiness or Conformity to the Will of God Murtherers Traytors Thieves do agree to the Proposition of Humane Laws though they prodigiously violate them There may be an Assent of the Understanding to a Proposition to which Mens Lusts and Passions suffer them not to live up to but we know that without Holiness none can see God and therefore this cannot be that Believing to which the Promises of seeing God and living with him are annexed 2. Because as I said before the Devils thus Believe yea I believe better than the most of Men do For our Assent to a Doctrine according to the workings of our Reasonable Natures is more or less according to our Evidence of it Now the Devils have seen the Propositions of the Gospel That Christ is the Eternal Son of God That he was made Man and died for our Sins These are Propositions which the Devils having been in the World ever since the Creation must needs see in a better Light than any Man can do who onely seeth the truth of them by the light of Reason or the Revelation of Scripture not imprinted upon his Soul by the Demonstration of the Spirit Revealing perticularly to the Soul what is generally Revealed in the Word 3. Thirdly Consider That every where in Scripture A Person the Person of Christ is made the object of that Faith to which the Promises of Life are made It is made a believing in Christ on his Name a Receiving of him a comeing to him Now a Proposition not a Person is the object of Assent We indeed sometimes say We Assent to such or such a Person But the meaning is we agree to such a Proposition which he hath delivered by word of Mouth or by Writing The Object of Justifying Faith the Scripture makes to be the Person of the Mediator I therefore begg of you to take heed that you deceive not your Souls by this Notion of Faith And take as much heed of their wild Notion who make Faith to be nothing else but an assumed confidence that Christ died for them let them live as they list This separateth Faith and Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord and is indeed nothing better in it self than a most bold and unwarrantable presumption exclusive of that fear and trembling with which we are commanded to work out our Salvation Their Notion is far better who make Faith to be a practical Assent but still I pray observe the Act of the Soul is made to be Assent and the Object of Assent can be no other than a Proposition and for my own part I cannot think this the Act of that Faith that Justifieth for the Object of that Act as I said before is in Scripture constantly made the Mediator himself not a meer Proposition I am afraid of this Notion as calculated to justle Christ out of the place of a Mediator wherein God hath set him which was not onely to treat with his Father about the Terms of Mans Salvation but to stand as the middle Person between God and Man to merit Salvation for us by his Active and Passive Obedience by a gracious Act of God to be reckoned to us upon
and yet not eying the Command of God be carried out to it from other Motives Now this is no Obedience no keeping of the Commandements of God 4. That no Obedience is true but what is Universal I do not say perfect for who liveth and sinneth not but Universal There is an equal respect to the whole Law of God Psal 119. 6. Then shall I not be ashamed saith David when I have respect to all thy Commandements The Reason is plain because who so doth or avoideth an Action purely upon this Reason because God hath commanded or God hath forbidden it will find himself under the same Obligation to do whatever God hath commanded and to avoid whatsoever God hath forbidden yet is not a Christian to measure his Obedience from his performance but from the regard which he hath in his Heart to the whole Law of God conjoyned with a proportionable endeavour tho our Corruption will sometimes be too hard for us 5. If a Man or Woman hath built up his Hopes as to the remission of Sins of which he as yet hath no Assurance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternal Life upon this that God having in the Gospel made a Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ as he upon whom he hath laid the Salvation of Men and having wrought in his Heart a firm and steady Assent to what God hath there revealed and inabled him to accept of this Salvation and to close with Gods way of Salvation casting all the Concerns of his Soul for Pardon and Salvation upon Jesus Christ and that he hath by his Spirit made a change in his Heart that he now hateth all Sin and loveth God and the Commandments of God and hath a regard to them all desiring to do whatsoever God hath commanded and to avoid whatsoover he hath forbidden and that because he hath commanded the one and forbidden the other and accordingly endeavoureth in his whole Conversation though he be many times over born with Temptations and finds a Law in his Members rebelling against and prevailing against the Law of his Mind and bringing him into Captivity to the Law of Sin This Man now builds his Hopes not presumptuously but upon the clear Revelation of the Will of God in his Word But less than this is no better than Presumption from false Notions taken up of Regeneration Conversion Repentance Saving Faith and True Holiness Yet further In order to the avoiding of this Temptation take heed of taking up scanty and narrow Notions of the Law of God It is indeed a snare unto a Soul so to interpret the Divine Law so as to doubt and fear Actions that are lawful as if they were forbidden But it is a more dangerous Rock for a Man to dash upon so to interpret Gods Law as to make those things lawful which God hath forbidden or to undeestand those things as unlawful or at least indifferent which God hath commandeded but I hinted it before to you and I now tell it you again There is none that is but moderately acquainted with the Srriptnres and with the Writings of the Popish Casuists but will plainly see that it hath been the great Design of their Divines for a long time to interterpret the Law of God so as Men might keep their Lusts and yet keep the Commandments of God according to the sense they have put upon them In short Obedience to the Church is almost with them The whole Duty of Man There are some others that came too near them making strange loose Interpretations of the Law of God The precept for not taking Gods Name in vain they say is onely to be understood against Perjury The 4th Commandement onely commandeth the keeping such days holy as the Church appoints These and such like Interpretations serve for nothing but to help a Soul to presume And indeed this loose Interpretation of the Law of God is necessary to all such as maintain the Justification of the Soul not by the Righteousness of Christ but by a Righteousness of our own And that Man hath a Power in himself to do all that God requireth of him I say it is necessary for those Men to interpret Gods Law into a consistancy with Mans Power But let all good Christians that value their Souls take heed of those Interpretations Let them but Interpret the Commandements so as by them shall be commanded and forbidden whatsoever is commanded and forbidden in the Word of God and then they will easily discern these fallacies and so they must interpret them or they cannot conclude that the Ten Commandements contain the sum of all that God hath commanded us to do and avoid for it is most certain that the whole Scripture is as much the Revealed Will of God as the Ten Commandments and hath equal Authority with us Be acquainted therefore with the Scriptures and call that Obedience and Holiness which that calleth so and be assured that let Men tell you what they will without that Holiness that Obedience no Man shall see God I have dwelt a little the longer upon this head because indeed the great mistakes of Men are upon these points that Men fancy that their case is good that they believe enough and are holy enough to go to Heaven nay to plead their Holiness as a Righteousness in which they shall adventure to appear before God 6. A Sixth Notion which I instanced in of this mischievous tendency Is the Power of a Priest or Minister to give Absolution So as if while they live the Minister hath absolved them or if when they come to die they can but Receive the Sacrement be absolved they conclude their Case is good enough The Opinion is in its Original perfectly Popish but founded on that Text Whose Sins soever you remit they are remitted and whose Sins soever you retain they are retained John 20. 23. The words are spoken to Christs Disciples upon whom he breathed v. 22. and said Receive you the Holy Ghost then he adds Whose Sins soever you remit they are remitted and whose Sins soever you retain they are retained And this Power saith the Papist every Priest hath he deriveth from the Apostles and hath the same Power given to him which Christ gave them And there is a Tincture of this Doctrine upon the Spirits of some that are no professed Papists and I perswade my self that many less knowing People peniciously rest upon it I shall therefore a little inlarge upon it 1. In the first place That God onely can forgive Sins is a Principle so consonant to Reason and so abundantly Confirmed in Holy Writ that certainly none can make the least doubt of it Sin is a debt a debt to the Justice of God Christ hath taught us to pray with Reference to it Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors Now Reason tells us that none can discharge a debt but he onely to whom it is owing it is an injury done to God and who can forgive it but
and yet blesseth himself in his heart and saith I shall have peace though I walk in the Imagination of my Heart and add drunkenness to thirst Now what shall the Righteous God do to such a Man v. 20. The Lord will not spare him but then the Anger of the Lord and his Jealousy shall smoke against that Man and all the Curses that are written in this Book shall be upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven v. 21. And the Lord shall seperate him to Evil out of all the Tribes of Israel according to all the Curses of the Covenant that are written in this Book of the Law What is possible to be added to that Commination What can be more severely spoken So as if we may judge of the greatness of a Sin by the greatness of the Curses that are annexed to him that committeth it we have all the reason imaginable to judge Presumption one of the greatest degrees of sinning by which it is possible that a Sinner should provoke God 2. A Second thing which I offered to your consideration was the danger of Presumption as to these things Presumptions as your reason will tell you in other things are very dangerous in three Cases and such all wise Men will take heed of 1. Where the Good expected or the Evil we expect an immunity from are of a very high and important Nature A Man may venture to Presume of a Victory in a Case at Law where if he be overthrown he may lose 40 50 100 l. in such Cases he will say he knows the worst of it if he be mistaken it is but a money matter it is but the loss of such and such a sum of money but a man will not do so where his life is in danger he will there look for sufficient grounds to hope he shall escape his Enemies charge Christian the concern we are speaking of is not the concern of thy Estate 't is not the concern of thy Life it is the concern of thy Body and Soul to all Eternity it becomes thee as thou art a Reasonable Creature here to beware of presuming or building upon the sand of insufficient grounds Thy Soul thy Eternal well or ill Being is the concern of thy hopes here if they be wâ—ll bottomed thou art happy for ever if they be ill bottomed thou art undone for ever It is not triffling nor flattering thy self here Eternity depends upon it thou art a Creature ordained to an Eternity of Bliss or Misery it is about this thy hopes is exercised O Consider of what import this good or evil is 2. Presumptions are very pernicious when a due care might in time be taken to prevent the Evil or obtain the Good Only Presumption of the needlessness of care hindreth In Law Presumptions are never admitted for proof if more positive proof can be had a man in pleading might speak for a Sinner building upon Presumptuous Hopes if he could come to no other but this is not the Case of any Soul We indeed cannot come to one Soul in our Congregations and say to him or to her Thou art Elected and shalt certainly be saved but neither can we come to any one Soul and say Thou art a Reprobate and shalt certainly be damned Any Soul for ought we know lies fair for Heaven especially such I mean as are within the bosome of the Church and in whose streets Christ is Preached We indeed considering the courses of Sin in which many live can come to them and tell them In this state wherein you live at present and according to that course of life which you at present follow you can have no good hope that God hath forgiven your Sins or that you shall ever come into the Kingdom of God But what you may do what change may be made in your hearts what alteration or reformation in your life that we cannot tell Now Men and Womens Presumptions hinder the use of those means by which they might make their Calling and Election sure they say They have their life in their hands therefore they are not grieved as the Prophet speaketh though in another case Isaiah 57. 10. They say with the Church of Laodicea Rev. 3. 17. That they have need of nothing when in the mean time they are Wretched and Miserable and Poor and Blind and Naked and therefore it is they look no further after the Eternal Concerns of their Souls they do not buy of Christ Gold tryed in the fire that they may be rich and white Rayment that they may be Cloathed and that the shame of their Nakedness may not appear 3. Thirdly those presumptions are dangerous which lead into a destructive error which cannot be amended when discovered If a man hopes without ground that he may get an Estate by some way by which it is not to be got he may by his presumption be a loser of time and a loser in some part of his Estate but yet when he seeth his error he may correct it he may redeem his time he may recover his Estate But to presume for a good as to which if our expectations fail they fail for ever and of a deliverance or immunity from some evil wherein if our expectations fail we shall be irrecoverably immerced in that evil This no Wise Man will do It is true in our present case it is not so While there is life there is hope That man or Woman that hath hatched up presumptuous hopes that he is in favour with God that his Sins are pardoned and he Eternally saved may examine the grounds of his hopes if he finds them insufficient he may acquit them and use means to obtain a good hope through Grace But dying presumptions they are desperate for saith Solomon Eccles 9. 10. There is no device no work no knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither we are going Psal 49. 8. For the Redemption of the Soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever As the Soul leaves the Body so it shall be with it as to Eternity It was a desperate presumption of the foolish Virgins to come knocking and crying Lord open to us when the door was shut Matth. 25. and for those mentioned Matth. 7. 12. that will in the Great Day say unto him Lord Lord have we not prophecyed in thy Name and in thy Name have cast our Devil and in thy Name done many wonderful workâ— To whom he will say v. 13. I never knâ—w you depart from me you workers of Iniquity Take heed of carrying on presumptuous hopes to a dying hour 3. The Third Thing which I under this Head offered to your Consideration was the multitude of those Souls that so far as we can judge split upon this Rock It is a great piece of Wisdom to take warning by the harms of others The Scripture tells us that Without Faith and Holiness none shall see God Heb. 12. 14. It telleth us 21. Rev. 8. That the fearful and