that are meanest in their own apprehensions Such shall understand this secret and partake in it to sit on Thrones as crowned Kings and Queens for evermore Vse 3. Lastly What transcending Comfort doth this Truth and Text afford to all troubled Minds Such I mean as have been stayed by Divine Power when they were running towards Hell in all sorts of Vanity and Prodigality and had been there ere this had not God in Christ been more merciful to them than they were careful about their own safety If the King should vouchsafe to speak to a mean Person before many what an honour would it be what ravishing thoughts would arise and what applause would it procure How much more should it be so here when the King of Kings speaks and that unto the Heart of a forlorn Creature comfortably I have heard thy Prayer I have seen thy Tears behold I will heal thee c. so the Lord spake unto the Heart of Hezekiah 2 Kings 20.5 Thy Prayers and thine Alms are come up for a memorial before God c. so the Lord spake unto the Heart of Cornelius Acts 10.4 And how often did our blessed Lord and compassionate Saviour Jesus Christ raise up disconsolate Souls with such words as these Son be of good chear thy Sins be forgiven thee Daughter great is thy Faith go in peace thy Faith hath made thee whole Yea all the precious Promises are such Cordials See Prov. 28.13 Who so confesseth and forsaketh his Sins shall find Mercy Job 33.27 28. He looketh upon Man and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profiteth me not he will deliver his Soul from going into the Pit c. Isa 1.18 Come now let us reason together saith the Lord though your Sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow c. Chap. 55. ver 7. Let the Wicked forsake his way and the Righteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have Mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Mich. 7.19 He will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our Iniquities and cast all their Sins into the bottom of the Sea Hos 14.4 5. I will heal their Back-slidings I will love them freely Mal. 4.2 To them that fear my Name shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his Wings Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest Rom. 8.1 Now therefore there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ c. 1 John 1.9 Rev. 21.6 So almost in every Book of that holy Volume may be found such Stars of Light such pieces of Treasure such Bezar-stones to keep sick Souls from fainting under their Sins and Sorrows Promises wherein the Lord speaks something to the Hearts of believing Penitents to this effect The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpent's Head Whatsoever Christ did or suffered was for you by his satisfaction God is reconciled to you all your Sins are pardoned and your Souls shall be saved This is to speak to the Heart of a poor Sinner Now as some Artificers after long poring upon a piece of Black Work and finding a dimness in their Eyes are wont to refresh themselves with the beholding the Verdure of Meadows or lustre of Emeralds so let poor Penitents wearied and heavy laden with the consideration of their Sins for their refreshment make use of those Gospel-Cordials the Promises they will be chearing to the Eye of Faith But 't is sufficiently known that those to whom this Comfort belongs are most ready to put it from them as none of their Portion The troubled Spirit makes Darts of every thing it can to fight against Reason and kill it self not suspecting its own Poyson The conclusion therefore of this subject shall endeavour to prevent that mischief by proposing and answering some Cases which may contain the complaints of such troubled Spirits Object 1. My Sins have been so many and great that I fear to apply any Promise Answ Nay therefore you should be the more ready and willing to apply this Lord come unto me for I am a sinful Man and have most need of help Save me Lord or I perish Greater Sins should hasten all to the Mercy Seat the greater Wounds to the Physician No Man flies his Counsel because his Cause is great and intricate but plies him the more Especially while you consider the extent of his Power and Love who speaketh His Power passeth the nature and number of your Sins whatever they be Christ is a great Saviour He is called a Mighty Saviour and the Salvation in him is called Great Salvation and the Redemption in him Great Redemption 1 John 2.1 If any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous And for his Love that extends to all sorts of Penitents to Manasses Mary Magdalen to the Romans and Corinthians to foul Sinners griping Oppressors sharp Persecutors Sinners in the highest form 1 John 2.2 And he is the Propitiation for our Sins c. In the Levitical Law there were Sacrifices for all sorts of Sins and what did they prefigure but the ample efficacy in Christ's Death which was an Atonement for Sins of all kinds and was as the daily Sacrifice for the Expiation of the continued and augmented number of Transgressions Even where Sin hath abounded there Grace hath after much more abounded So if you consider the nature of those Promises made unto distressed Souls both for Constitution and Condition For Constitution they are absolutely free no Foreign Power to enforce them from him that made them nor any Natural Abilities in Man to reserve them And for Condition they are Evangelical bringing with them what they require of you Be of good comfort when he calleth you fear not refuse not to receive what he offereth Say rather Speak Lord and speak home for thy Servant desireth to hear Object 2. But alas it is pleaded my Corâ—â—ptions have been and are strong and abominaâ—â—â—â— that I know not what to do Answ The sense of Sin 's strength is no â— hopeful symptom nor prejudice to Faith â—f all tempers the hardned is most dangeâ—â—us and Sin hath the greatest strength â—here there is the least sense When a Patiâ—â—t is deadly sick he saith and thinks he is â—ell and feels no pain but when he is reâ—â—vering he is full of sense and complains â—s Head is weak his Stomach sick his Bones â—me all is amiss every thing is too hard â—â— him There is more hope of one sensible â—â—nner than of a thousand presumptuous â—â—rdned Wretches Sense of Sin doth ever â—â— before sense of Christ Besides the powâ—â— of God's Voice will weaken them and â—â—e Efficacy of his Spirit mortifie and subâ—â—e them Here it may be said as it was of â—â—thage a little before it was taken Moriâ—â—ium bestiarum violentiores esse morsus dying â—asts
Gentle Expostulations frequently and movingly here and there as unto Adam and Gehazi Gen. 3.9 2 Kin. 5.26 Tell me poor Soul was it not â—ven so hast not thou done thus and thus went not my Spirit with thee and was not mine Eye over thee Confess thy Sin ease thy self and give glory to God O how loving is the Lord even in his Terrors and Enditements In the midst of Judgment he remembreth Mercy Tho his Robes be red they are not without some streamings of white and if he be compelled to pronounce Judgment as it was said of Augustus he doth it even with Tears in his Eyes 2. Instances very pertinent and those either direct as Psal 50.18 c. or Parabolical As Nathan dealt with David so the Lord deals with those whom he intends to restrain and renew You are the Men saith he that have been so much addicted to and delighted with Idleness Wantonness Luxury Pride Covetousness Slandring Drunkenness Swearing Lying and the like 3. Threatnings are added where the former avail not Cursed is every one that doth not all which is written in the Law He shall be pursued with Judgments of divers Natures to one end sometimes with prosperity on the right and anon with adversity on the left hand and last of all which is the worst of all dying impenitently he must needs be damned Thus the Lord thundereth in his Law against some whom nevertheless he intends to sanctify and save as a Father may threaten and terrify that Child whom he intends to make his Heir But withal you must know that he doth inwardly and secretly support them that they dash not upon Presumption nor sink under final Despair So that at length being driven from all their hiding Places they are brought into this Wilderness and forced freely to take upon themselves all those Sins discovered by the Law to fall down before God and to acknowledg their Guilt and Desert before the Throne of his Majesty resolving there to lie prostrate till he raise them in Mercy Now say they we see we feel we know how true the Word of God is how faithfully such Ministers dealt with us while we slighted and laughed them to scorn and how deceitful Sin is that appears at first small sweet and clean when as it is weighty bitter and filthy They cry who will take this Dagger out of my Heart this Mill-stone off my Back this Fire out of my Loins this Sting out of my Conscience Now the seeming sweetnesâ— of Sin is turned to Gall. O Sin how grievous is thy remembrance Away ye wicked we will henceforth endeavour to keep thâ— Commandments of our God No morâ— Swearing much less Perjury no Drunkenness no more Uncleanness When thesâ— knock at the door the answer is O thesâ— are they that cost us dear at such a time wâ— yet feel the sad Impressions of our former Afflictions for them we find a Pardon no easy Enterprize nor Repentance so pleasing a Potion we would not for all the World bâ— under that Anger of God nor feel one drop of his scalding Indignation which we have perceived for those Offences Thus the biâ—â—â—â— Child dreads the Fire And this with submission is the Course that Ministers musâ— take in opening and pressing the Law firsâ— which is God's Instrument effectually to charge the Conscience with Sin and to bring a Person into this Wilderness 2dly The People may learn to join with the Lord in his Ambassadors so to furtheâ— this Work of the Law when and where iâ— is once begun and to follow the Lord undeâ— his Cloud and after this Fire into this Wiâ—derness And that 1. By a serious Meditation of these many Impediments which keep Men out of it oâ— hinder them much in the way towards it when the Lord is about to bring them into it Eye them that you may avoid them For instance to esteem of the Law as a strange thing as not appertaining to them or wherein they are little or nothing concerned to interpose some beloved Sin between these two Lights of the Law and Conscience that they cannot join This alone hindered Herod's Conversion under John's piercing Ministry the interposition of his Herodias caused a fearful and final Eclipse So likewise to go away unthankfully and carelesly from a good Discourse doth hinder the Work and quench the Sparks which might have bred a Flame 2. By frequent Meditation on divers good Subjects moving this way as 1. Upon the Mercies of God bestowed upon you in particular from time to time This Course the Lord took to humble David 2 Sam. 12.7 8 9. And whosoever hath tried will say It is a very piercing way to bring the Heart into a through and kindly grief I have read of one who reading a Pardon sent him from the King fell a weeping and burst out into these Words A Pardon hath done that which Death could not do it hath made my Heart to relent As the Sugar-Loaf is dissolved and weeps it self away when it is dipp'd in Wine so will Penitents dissolve and melt themselves away in the sweet sence of Divine Love and their neglect or abuse of it Without doubt the very Behaviour of the Prodigal's Father brake his Heart with more thawings and kindly mourning than ever his former Hardship and Misery did O this that ever he should run to meet him that he should fall upon his Neck and kiss him This kindness of his Lips wounded his Heart with the deeper sence and judging of his own unkindness When the Surface of the Water is glazed with Ice the Sun-beams dissolve it such operation hath the Grace of Christ upon frozen Hearts which are never truly melted into Contrition but by Evangelical Beams Surely when a Sinner shall consider the great Love the sweetest Kindness the freest Pardons offered the choicest Mercies bestowed his Heart cannot but melt into a River What all these to and for me Lord yea for thee What after such deep Rebellions and Refusals yea after all and that most freely and willingly Good Lord how can the Soul but weep and mourn now 2. Meditate for that purpose upon the Justice and Power of God able to revenge the Quarrel of his Covenant and to bruise all his proud and stout Enemies with a Rod of Iron He is not only a Rock of Refuge to the Godly but also a Rock of Destruction to dash the Impenitent in pieces The strength of the Rock is seen as in upholding the House that is built upon it so in breaking the Ships that dash against it The force of Fire is manifested as in refining the Gold so in consuming the Dross There is none like unto thee O Lord thou art great and thy Name is great who would not fear thee thou King of Nations Jer. 10.6 And It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God Heb. 10.31 As a Lion he tears in pieces the Adversaries Psal 50.22 There is no standing before him if his Wrath
be kindled though but a little 3. Meditate upon sinful Nature there is both Guilt and Filth such a Nature which Sighs and Tears may better express than Words We were in Adam as in a common Root and he sinning we became guilty Rom. 5.12 In whom all have sinned By his Treason our Blood is tainted and this Guilt brings Shame with it as its Twin Rom. 6.21 And not only is the Guilt of Adam's Sin imputed but the Poison of his Nature is disseminated to us our Virgin-Nature is defiled the Heart is spotted 1 Kin. 8.38 How then can the Actions be pure If the Water be foul in the Well it cannot be clean in the Bucket We are all as an unclean thing Hell it self which is the sole Receptacle of Sin and Sinners is not in some respect more filthy than Mans Nature Poor Man is like a Patient under the Physician 's hands that hath no sound part his Head bruised his Liver swelled his Lungs perished his Blood enflamed his Feet gangren'd Thus it is before Grace comes Isa 1.6 Yea though your Nature be changed there are Remainders of this Corruption The best Saint alive who is taken out of the Grave of Sin yet smells of the Grave-clothes still upon him As Basil said of the Rose that it was a fair Flower but it wanted not its Prickles that might put him in mind of the Curse the Earth was subject unto so in the best there are those Remainders and Relicks of Sin which might cause them to mourn and weep before the Lord. 4. Meditate on the Lord Jesus Christ his Suffering Agony how sharp and bitter it was if your Heart be as hard as an Adamant the Blood of this Scape-goat will soften it It affected his Head for upon the fore-sight he began to be amazed Mark 14.33 It affected his Heart for he began to droop to faint Math. 26.37 See how he was affected in his Soul the innocent for the nocent it was overcast with an heaviness to death yea in his Body he sweat drops of Blood Luke 22.44 Meditate on his Sufferings see if they will not move you to sorrow The sight of Caesar's bloody Robes greatly affected the People of Rome and edged them to revenge When St. Augustin read the Story of Dido he could not but weep And when Julius Caesar saw Pompey's Head tho his Enemy he wept and refused at his return to Rome to ride in Triumph for his Victory The like did Charles the 5th upon his great Victory over the French King at the Siege of Paris How much more may the Meditation of Christ's Sufferings who was our Friend suffering for our Sins melt our Hearts See him in the Wilderness of Suffering it may bring you into the Wilderness of Sorrow 5. Meditate upon the dangerous Consequence if you have not Sin charged upon you here in this Life If you follow not God into this Wilderness of Trouble for Sin now but still cleave to Aegypt preferring the momentany Pleasures of Sin to this Manna be assured one of these two Evils will follow either the Lord will break this League and Union between Sin and your Hearts or else he will permit and order that Disorder till you attain the fulness of Hardness and Blindness When Conscience shall be awakened and Sin charged upon the Soul suddenly and fully both for number and weight your jovial Meetings excessive Drinkings and Heathenish Quaffings will have weeping and howling here or hereafter when it will not be the whole World on Fire nor the terrible presence of the Judg coming with shrill-sounding Trumpets and Troops of Angels only nor Hell and all the Devils there shall be so fearfully heavy and unsupportable but Sin so deceitfully pleasing now appearing then more ugly than Hell or the foulest Fiend there committed now by degrees one after another some this Day more next now an Oath than a Lye but presented and pressed and imputed altogether even to the sinking of a Soul O think of this often all you in whom the custom of Sinning hath taken away the sence of Sinning if any thing this will help to awaken and bring you into this Wilderness 3. You may help the Work forward by special application of what you hear when the Law is personally applied the legal work upon the matter is ended and when the Gospel is believed the whole is perfected As it was in the Creation of the World and in the Conception of Christ so soon as ever his blessed Virgin-Mother did close by her understanding and will with the Word and Message of the Angel the Hypostatical Union was begun in her Womb as Zanchy following Gregory and Damascene is of opinion so it is in the Regeneration and Sacramental nutrition of the new Man he said it was done no sooner is the Word applied but the Work is wrought Put it not off therefore to others but say Certainly this is my case I am the Man that have done so and so that have such an Heart so hard so unclean and deceitful c. Then hear what threatnings are denounced against such Offâ—nces then see what judgments have been inflicted upon the like Offenders this will pluck the Plumes and allay the Jollity of any Person This is the way to draw proud Minions and roaring Gallants out of their Fools Paradise into a World of saving trouble to see and bewail their monstrous Vanities and youthful Folly And here let all such be advised to stay till the Lord be pleased to speak unto them and to bring them as by a Hand of Comfort into Canaan O pluck not off the Plaster because it smarts refuse not the Potion because it is bitter confine your selves to his Rules of Physick break not those Bonds and cast not off these Cords from you haste not out of this Wilderness too soon because it is Solitary the end and issue will support Patience he that believes will not make haste to apply unseasonable Comforts The Lord will be seen in the Mount and heard in the cool of the Day The Corrosive must eat out Corruption to the bottom before any healing Salve can well be applied that so there may be a perfect Cure The Law is that Corrosive promises that healing Oyl both must have their time and place for Working O let not let not preposterous haste prevent good speed be more desirous to be ready for Comfort than to have it and then doubt not but it will be enjoyed time enough Vse 3. Thirdly The use may serve for Consolation This Doctrine like the Carcass of the Lion which Sampson found and therein a swarm of Bees with sweet Hony-combs yieldeth sweet Consolation to such as have been or at present are exercised in this uncomfortable condition No Affliction is for the present joyous but rather greivous Especially a wounded Conscience who can bear To be alone in a vast Wilderness encompassed with Sins with divers and horrid Fears and which is heaviest of all to have the
with Men that would destroy the brood of some Beasts and Birds they pull down their Nests and destroy their Dens So it is with the true Penitent in respect of Sin down with all now that they would uphold before Fourthly There followeth a great Love to a sound-searching Ministry that will fully search and try the deceitful Heart and batter the deceitful holds of Sin Threatnings are welcome that shake the proud stony Heart and dash Babels Brats against the Wall I mean the crawling Vermin of noisome Lusts O strike thou Man of God strike in Christ's Name and spare not burn and cut here O here is an impure hard Heart as ever was harboured in any Breast And then goeth most chearfully most thankfully and best contented when he is struck to the quick What a blessed opportunity was this happy that I lived to see this day to hear such a Sermon If we hate an Enemy nothing will satisfie but his death Fifthly There remains still many fears and an holy jealousie that every Sin he reades or hears of is his Master is it I As it is reported of Socrates that when he walked in the Streets and saw any Person disorder'd would say to himself Am I such a one And as Master Bradford did when he looked into the lewd Lives of others And so do all humble Christians Nay commonly in this case he takes all to himself I have been this and I am thus and deserve that He needs neither Accuser nor Judg but is ready to cast the first stone at himself Thus the intented Convert is brought into the Wilderness of Spiritual Trouble where he yet remains a miserable Spectacle in Chains under Bondage tossing to and fro sighing and looking about now upon himself where he seeth his Chains but no power to loose them then abroad to see if there be any near but there is none to hear or help Finally he raiseth up his Eyes towards Heaven in such an earnest humble fixed manner as if he would never leave till he heard some word of comfort for which here is a Promise which comes in the next place to be handled III. I will speak unto her Heart Containing the third General of the Text viz. The first infusion for Apprehension or actual excitation of Sanctifying Grace In which Promise is presented to your view 1. The subject of this Evangelical Work and that is the Heart Instruments work directly upon the outward Man only he hath his seat in Heaven that works upon the Heart This is as Fire among the Elements that doth assimulate every thing to it self or as the Primum Mobile to the inferiour World which carries all the inferiour Orbs with it the first Mover or great Wheel in a Clock once moved moves with it all the rest the Tongue Eyes Hands Feet all move to the motion of the Heart and when God hath once fram'd the Soul to his Discipline by the ministry of the Law then he takes the Heart to be a fit hearer and speaks unto it 2. The manner of Exccution I will speak unto or above Two things may be conceived as promised herein First To speak comfortably to a solitary disconsolate Soul So much doth the Hebraism every-where import Comfort ye my People speak comfortably to Jerusalem Isa 40.1 The words are originally as here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Speak to the Heart of Jerusalem i. e. speak things grateful to her comfort raise up chear as both the Syriack and Chaldee Paraphrase do take it As it was with the Jews when God gave the Law to Israel by Moses they heard the Thunder and saw the Lightning but neither heard nor saw God so it is in this preparative work of Faith Men see the bright purity of the Law they hear many Woes and Curses denounced but God in Christ they neither hear nor see till he further enlighten them and raise them up by speaking to their Hearts Secondly To speak Victoriously above all the strength of that natural resistability which is in every untamed and unsanctified Heart In few words it is thus much I will chear and change her Whence Ministers are fitly called Comforters 1 Thess 2.11 and the Gospel a Peace-offering a word of Comfort and Reconciliation How the Lord works this whether as a Moral Persuader only by proposing Objects or as a Physical Agent determining the Intellect changing the Will and ordering the whole Business both for efficacy and event How the Will of Man hath it self towards the Grace of God in the act of Conversion hath been and is the great question of the Christian World Divines of all sorts are beating about it some to defend others to bolt out the Truth Pelagians with the Jesuits on one hand are for the strength of Nature and liberty of the Will to accept or refuse the Voice of God The Primitive Fathers from Augustine downwards with most Protestants and the Dominican Friars on the other hand are more for the Glory of God's Free-grace Who worketh both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure Here will be nothing interposed in order to any determination of this Controversie only the studious whom it may concern are referr'd to what is extant * Chamier Tom. 3. operum lib. 3. Cameron respons ad Epist docti viri alibi Zanch lib. 5. de Nat. Dei D. Rivet comment in Hos in disput 13. D. Twiss in defens Perk. Vind. gra and may yield better satisfaction For others who are willing to rest in plain Truths and fear to offend by curious enquiries they may take what follows for answer viz. First God speaketh and worketh after a secret if not an unexpressible manner Divine Graces curiously and mysteriously insinuate themselves and the impressions of the Will are extremely nice Therefore Men should not be rash in determining nor over-bold in presenting to the Eye what God hath vailed endeavouring to make Windows in God's Closet and to unclasp his secret Books St. Augustine's Rule is surely safe Praestat dubitare de occultis quam de incertis litigare And his Counsel is very prudent viz. Compescenda est humana temeritas id quod non est non quaerat nè quod est inveniat Contra. Manich. l. 8. c. 1. i. e. We must bridle our Temerity and check our Curiosity lest we pursue what is not revealed and find that which is Let all take heed of soaring too high lest they be scorched and wading too deep lest they be drowned There are some things we may nescire sine crimine not know without blame but cannot know them sine discrimine without danger And in respect of these a learned Ignorance is to be preferr'd to an ignorant Learning Stobaeus reports of Thales that he gazing on the Stars fell into a Pit so may all pryers into God's Secrets be suffered to fall into the Pit of Error Secondly Man hath certainly lost his freedom to Good by his first choice of Evil. Seipsum
thing to sin against the Lord. He fasteth and prayeth weepeth and sigheth saying often or to this effect O Lord rebuke me not in thine Anger neither chasten me in thy hot Displeasure have Mercy upon me O Lord for I am weak O Lord heal me for my Bones are vexed My Soul is sore troubled but thou O Lord how long Return O Lord deliver my Soul O save me for thy Mercy-sake I am weary with groaning all the Night make I my Bed to swim I water my Couch with my Tears mine Eye is consumed because of grief How long wilt thou forget me O Lord for ever How long wilt thou hide thy Face from me My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my Roaring O my God I cry in the Day-time but thou hearest not and in the Night-season and am not silent I am poured out like Water and all my Bones are out of joynt my Heart is like Wax it is melted in the midst of my Bowels my strength is dried up like a Pot sheard my Tongue cleaves to the roof of my Jaws Have Mercy upon me O Lord for I am in trouble my Eye is consumed with grief yea my Soul and my Belly My Life is spent with grief and my Years with sighing my strength faileth because of my Iniquities and my Bones are consumed Make thy Face to shine upon thy Servant save me for thy Mercy-sake Day and Night thy Hand is heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer Blessed is he whose Sin is covered and whose Transgression is forgiven O Lord rebuke me not in thy Wrath neither chasten me in thine hot Displeasure For thine Arrows stick fast in me and thy Hand presseth me sore There is no soundness in my Flesh because of thine Anger neither is there any rest in my Bones because of my Sin for mine Iniquities are gone over my Head as a heavy Burden they are too heavy for me I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the Day long My Loins are filled with a loathsome Disease there is no soundness in my Flesh I am feeble and sore broken My Heart panteth my Strength faileth me my groaning is not hid from thee Yea Lord all my desire is before thee Have mercy upon me O my God according to thy loving Kindness according to the multitude of thy tender Mercies blot out my Transgression wash me throughly from mine Iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledg my Transgressions and my Sin is ever before me Purge me with Hssyop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than Snow Make me to hear the voice of Joy and Gladness that the Bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce Hide thy Face from my Sins and blot out all mine Iniquities create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Cast me not away from thy Presence take not thy Holy Spirit from me Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit Then will I teach Transgressors thy Ways and Sinners shall be converted unto thee I remembred God and was troubled I complain'd and my Spirit was overwhelmed Thou holdest mine Eyes waking I am sore troubled that I cannot speak Will the Lord cast me off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his Mercy clan gone for ever Doth his Promise fail for evermore And will he be favourable no more Hath God forgotten to be gracious Hath he in anger shut up his tender Mercies c. Stay now and look back and say Is not this a great Mourning Was not David in deep distress How many ways doth he take What words doth he use Do not you see a Penitent exceedingly humbled a Heart bleeding a sad and disfigured Face a Body made thin Sighings redoubled one upon another Here are Joints pined away with sadness here is a fixed love of Tears the joyous Harp hangs up and knows no more what Songs of Triumph mean he is wholly employed in expressing Griefs He dies to all Mortal things of the Earth and being cast upon the Sea of Repentance he makes it to eccho with Groanings and continually swell with his Weepings And all to describe his condition by the presence of his Sins and excite the Divine Compassion towards him And if David penitent David was thus pursued with the thoughts and sight of Sin if he were sent and kept such a strong Beggar for Mercy all his days for the matter of Vriah Oh what will become of most of us who sin more and desire less who are more cunning to Transgress and more careless in Praying Where is our Rhetorick our Fervour our Sighs our Tears Oh how faint are our Desires How cold our Prayers As if our many Sins were never before us or not fearful to us as if Mercy and Grace were as easie to get as to lose or as if Heaven and God's Favour would fall upon us at last without any labour which cost David so much Fasting so many Prayers so many Tears in secret And yet his Fasting his Prayers and Tears could not do it without satisfying-Blood applied and pleaded If it be so as we have proved from the Text then do you your selves set Sin before you be desirous of it and patient while others do it Yea kiss that Hand and praise God for that Means whereby it is done Attend to your Pastours look your selves in the Glass of the Law and pray with David search and try me O Lord set my Sins in order before me now that I may be wail them and thou mayest forgive them Never leave this endeavour till you be enabled to see and say Wo and alas wretched Man that I am thus to dishonour God what shall I say or do Mine Iniquities have separated between me and my God My Sins have hid his Face from me so that I cannot see him The Glory is departed and thâ—t bright Sun fearfully eclipsed towards me Can I rejoyce with the joy of other People Can I laugh and be merry while my Sins are always before me Can I sing the Lord's Song in a strange Land Call me not Naomi but call me Marah the Lord deals bitterly with me yet deservedly Sin hath been my Delight now it is my Torment I have followed Sin and now Sin followeth me See do you not see my Drunkenness here my Whoredoms there my Pride my Hypocrisie my Covetousness and Vain-glory a bundle of blasphemous Thoughts in one place and a flying roll of Lyes and Oaths in another place save me from them sweet Jesus A wounded Israelite was healed by looking upon the Brasen Serpent Wounded I am the stings of Death all of my own making for other Death hath none do stick in me and compass me about to the Lord Jesus I look unto his Arms I flie and there resolve to rest Yet me thinks
to smart whereby the Lord awakeneth Conscience indeed and striketh terror into the Hearts of his Chosen casting them down very low to Self-denial he breaks their stony Hearts in pieces convincing Men as Transgressors telling them that they are the Men even Men of Death this they have done and that they deserve discovering millions of Sins more than they ever dreamed of quickning Sin in the Conscience and putting a Weapon into its hand to kill the Sinner under his Guilt For this is properly the Office of the Law to detect and convince Men of such and such Sins to pass sentence against them for those Sins and to follow them so convicted with a thundring noise from place to place hedging and hemming them in on every side that they can neither get out nor be quiet any where till they humble themselves and fall down before the Lord's Mercy-Seat Fourthly We may not exclude from this Preparative Work a branch of the Gospel which the Lord makes use of for the completing this Preparation by it as by beams and heat from a Fire far off to soften and melt those broken pieces that so the Heart being ready to fall asunder and grieving more kindly than it can do under mere Legal Terrors may readily and delightfully admit of Spiritual Infusions and be the more speedily brought into a new Mould And this the Gospel doth First By unvailing unto such distressed Minds the holy and pure Nature of God himself which the Law discovereth only as he is a Creature the Gospel further as he is a Father his patience and loving kindness in Christ his rich Mercy great Love Free-Grace those Spiritual Beams by which the Divine Nature shines forth upon us Saul Saul why persecutest thou me One that is so holy and harmless one that hath done so much for thee one that doth so entirely love thee and desire thy good Hast thou none to sin against but thy Saviour None to abuse but thy Friend None to kick against but the Bowels of Love Did not I suffer enough upon the Cross Must I needs suffer more This struck the Nail on the Head this made his Eyes to water his Heart to melt with this kind salutation Saul's hard Heart was softned and made pliable to a further work Secondly By discovering the sinfulness of Sin that it is not only fearful as the Law saith but filthy also not only evil but the greatest evil whence once disrobed of that pleasing and deceitful shining Skin patcht up of the shreds of Pleasure Profit and Carnal Content it is apprehended as opposit to the greatest Good and consequently more to be hated and avoided than Hell There is no Hell without Sin nor any Heaven with Sin Hell is Penal but Sin is a Criminal evil The evil of pain is contrary to the good of a finite being only while the evil of fault is opposite to an infinite purity Both these namely the Law and the Gospel being thus amplified prest and applied to the sinners Soul so that he can find no starting hole to evade no corner to run into no gap open to get out of this Wilderness by this time it comes to pass that he finds a combustion in his Brest a fire kindled in his Bones such new trouble as he never felt now Hope appears anon Despair at one time Fear another time Love cometh into the Soul like flashes of Lightning both followed with Tears and Complaints he may be often heard to sigh and sometime to beat the Brest and say O Lord that I could repent O that I could believe O that I had a soft tender Heart That my Head were Waters and mine Eyes a fountain of Tears that I might weep Day and Night Help me O my Friends for the terrours of the Almighty oppress me he makes me inherit the sins of my youth so that I am ready to sink Help me O my God to do what thou commandest command what thou wilt and thou shalt not command in vain Make me a Man after thy own Heart give me O give if not a Fountain yet a Stream if not a Stream yet some few drops of penitent Tears to ease a burdned Heart and to prepare a loathsom Soul for the more precious streams of Christ's Blood And yet as if all this were not enough behold and see there steppeth up another Witness more against this terrified Creature And that is a reflecting power of the Soul called Conscience which joyneth with the Law and Gospel in their Sentence and meeting him alone as flying from both the former and hoping somewhere to escape assaults the poor Soul and concludes to this effect Nay whither now Think not to shift off all hope not to carry all away as Sampson did the Gates go not about to hide it do not deny or extenuate it for all this is true which thou hast heard from the Law and Gospel O wretched Creature thus and thus hath God walked towards thee in Justice in Mercy in Power in Patience and Bounty he sent Christ with healing in his Wings to heal and do thee good and yet thus and thus rebelliously and ungratefully hast thou walked towards him thou hast put away Salvation bolted out thy Physician What wilt thou say Whither wilt thou go Nay nay think not of pleading dream not of flying much less of any hiding except thou wilt contract farther guilt and a greater burden on thy self which is heavy enough already Down proud Heart down with it lower than thy Knees cloath thy self in Sack-cloth and Ashes put a Rope about thy Neck as Benhadads Servants did confess thy faults humbly aggravate thy folly ingenuously and then thou mayst hope to hear the voice of Mercy there is no way to flie from him but by falling down before him Blood-letting is a cure of Bleeding To close and get in is the only way to avoid the blow Thirdly Why the Lord thus brings his Children into the Wilderness Answ All God's Actions are ordered by infinite Wisdom therefore some reason may always be rendred of his Will In case we apprehend it not we must acknowledg the weakness of our own Capacities and subscribe it without enquiring after any Reason because we know it is his Will Yet in this business something may be said as probable and with due reverence He doth it First To divorce the Heart from Sin and to break that Love-knot between the Heart and Sin in every Natural Man which ordinarily is not done without some throws of this Spiritual Trouble While Men run up and down in the seeming pleasant fields of Liberty sin is sweet and fair unto them so far from fear that they are in love with it Who ever saw a covetous Vsurer troubled in mind when he is telling his Money and reckoning up his Bonds and Bills An Adulterer mourning with his Mistress in his Arms Belshazzar indeed was taken and troubled among his Cups and so are some Drunkards but that was an extraordinary
as ever Though he pull down the Shop-window reform outward Sins yet doth he not follow his Trade within door Doth he not sit brooding upon his Sin It is hypocritical repentance when Men leave some Sins only and not others also They can part with some kind of Corruptions it may be they are angry with them but then there are others of which it may be said as was of Goliah's Sword none like to that For as Repentance takes revenge upon every Sin so more especially upon that the Sinner took most delight in As Cranmer who subscribed with his right Hand what was against his Conscience afterward with revenge put that first into the Flame so doth the truly humbled Soul take revenge on that Sin by which he hath most dishonoured God In a word such actions of the Soul which admit of private reservations and indulgences and are not general as to this matter will be found a Meteor of the Brain not an affection of the Heart 2. Whether the injoyments of the World are not more precious in his esteem than the Love and Favour of God For this is certain the Man that hath been under this Preparative Work cannot but prefer the apprehensions of God's Love to all the World Therefore David prayed that God would remember him with the Favour which he beareth to his People Psal 16.4 5. this he accounted his chiefest good And Luther protested he would not be put off with the things of this Life Left-hand Blessings To whom may be added that Noble Italian Marquess who accounted not that Man worthy the name of a Christian who preferred not one Day 's communion with God to all the splendour of the whole Earth Now answer to this demand How stand your affections to Christ and other things below him Are they to Christ as a Spark to other things as a Flame The Unregenerate Man's joy is diffused to Earthly things but limited to Spiritual things Say are you not more chearful in Sinning than in the performance of holy Duties As it is with those Fishes that breed your Orient Pearls those Pearls are the torment of the Fish but when they are put upon a Man they are an Ornament to him so those Sins which are the Disease the Burden the Sorrow of a good Man are they not a matter of delight to you 3. Whether he doth not rest upon somewhat Creature or Action more than upon Christ or doth not prize something above him or equal with him As Augustine said That Marcellina hung Christ's Picture and the Picture of Pythagoras together Dost not thou O Man set Christ and the World or Christ and thy Duties together A Man may magnifie Christ as willing to have him in the end but part with nothing for him in the mean while he may prize his Blood but not his Grace his Promises but not his Precepts Jesus but not Christ If thine own Conscience answer Affirmatively it is an evident sign thou hast never been in this Wilderness Quest But how are they kept out seeing there is so much means to drive them into it many Sons of Thunder who heartily long after their Peoples safety how are they hindred Answ I conceive it is from these and the like Reasons First By the Multitude who run so merrily in the broad-way of Carnal Pleasures and draw multitudes after them How ordinary is it for Men to follow a multitude to do evil Few consider that the way to Heaven is a narrow Way and that they should be wise with a few Few are of the mind of Liberius an Othodox Bishop of the Second Primitive Times who when he was prest by the Emperour Constantius to forsake the Truth and vote for Arrianism by this Argument Art thou wiser than all the World Very honestly replied The Truth is no whit prejudiced by my aloneness in standing out for of old there were but three that withstood the wicked Edict of the King of Babel Most are of this Principle It is safe to do as the most do Like dead Fish they swim down the Stream whithersoever it runs or like Water that takes the figure of the Vessel into which it is cast They set their Dyal by the Town-Clock not by the Sun The Voice of the People is with them the Voice of God They infer that way to be truest which is the largest Secondly By delay and putting off serious thoughts about Death and their Account being afraid to hear of much more to dive into their Estate lest they should find that which would trouble them The Cup is in the Sack Thus the story goes of Galba who having received a very great sum of Money from the state of Rome and not being able to give account for it took more care to avoid giving account than to do it Thus Men keep their Consciences from considering their Conditions because it is so bad with them Like bad Debtors who are loth to come to account lest they should find their Estates low Or as Hereticks that are Lucifugae Scripturarum such Owls that cannot abide the Day they are afraid of discovering their Conditions and so content themselves in generals deceiving their own Souls Thirdly By fair promises of future amendment the thing they will do but in their own time as if the Clock of Mercy would strike at their beck Like those spoken of Hag. 1.2 The time is not yet come 1. The time of rebuilding the Second Temple it might be done hereafter Such is the guife of graceless Men to future and fool away their Salvation hereafter may be time enough and what need of such haste to build the Spiritual Temple In space comes Grace say they God is more merciful than so At what time soever a sinner repents God will put away all his Wickedness and thus they stand trifling with God and their own Souls being always about to do that which if not done they are undone for ever Fools and blind Men As our Saviour calls the Pharisees Mat. 23.17 Hence it is when they are prest to a speedy meeting of God by Repentance they answer as Antipater King of Macedon did when one presented him a Book treating of Happiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am not at leasure Or as Archias the Theban when warn'd of a Conspiracy against him cast the Letters by saying In crastinum seria and was slain ere the Morrow came So these Men will amend hereafter when they have neither Time nor Grace to command They promise a time of Healing but a time of Terrour and Torment may come Jer. 14.19 Et jam ex Jesu factus est damnator salutem consequi non possum as Father John said when exhorted to believe in Christ Jesus and to lay hold on his Merits Cham. Epist Jesuit pag. 124. Fourthly Others are kept off from a consideration of the troublesomness of the Way and lothness to leave their Sins Luther said while he was leaven'd with Popish Principles of Contritions and their
and Power unto it for this end To know how the Law doth this may give some Light to Ministers in the use thereof And that may be 1. By way of Illumination of the Understanding to see Sin as it is sin which no word nor means in the World can do beside because God hath imparted to it the brightness of his own Purity so much as he pleased and thought to be needful for this end with a searching faculty undeniably to charge Conscience with all and every Sin this supernatural splendor closing with the innate light of Conscience proceeding in this manner viz. First to discover Actual Sins beginning often with some of the most hainous and going on by degrees to the rest for number and nature how many how foul and to that end the Law presenteth to the Soul First With her Soveraignty for Constitution and Commission being made and ordained by him who is infinite in every Attribute and hath an absolute dominion over our Bodies and Spirits and sent abroad with a large Commission to show all Sins unto all sorts impartially whether they be high or low rich or poor prophane or holy the Law hath a soveraign power and exerciseth it after a regal manner sparing none Secondly With her Integrity and Extent In this Wilderness the Law sheweth Conscience her Spiritual Authority her Aggravating Faculties her exact Purity and that mutual Dependency one Law and one Member of the Law hath upon another Her Spiritual Authority to go into the inward Rooms yea into every corner of those Rooms and every crevice of those Corners where Sin lieth hid and to search and bring out all Sins great and small of Omission and Commission Like a two-edged Sword it pierceth to the very Marrow to the very intents of the Hearts Her Aggravating Faculty to set forth particular Sins to the Eye as the Glass doth the spots of the Face in the most odious Colours that so Sin may appear exceeding sinful Her Exact Purity to discover such practices of our Life to be sinful which we never dreamt of nor before took notice of so much as to suspect I had not known Sin i. e. some Sins to be Sins but by the Law this discovers that to be a Mountain which before the Sinner judged to be a Mote and that to be Sin which before he esteemed Righteousness and like a Light exposed to view those Corruptions which lay hid and unseen in their due proportion Her Mutual Dependency one Branch doth so hang upon another that whosoever breaketh one is guilty of all James 2.10 The whole Law is but one Copulative and this dependance of one Precept with another and all upon the Law-Maker whose Authority is violated and contemned in the breach of one as well as of all occasioneth even one Sin to be so infinitly weighty Secondly The Law proceeds to discover Original Sin in the Root and Branches how we participate in the first sinful Act of Adam how that Guilt is imputed and how Habitual Corruption is propagated from immediate Parents to all their Posterity proceeding from them by an ordinary way of Generation as Poyson is carried from the Fountain to the Cistern all herent in the Nature or redounding on the Person by virtue of the Covenant and this the Law doth either by way of Comparison or else by way of positive Description comparing and preferring it for the evil thereof to Actual Sin as the Root or Cause thereof Et quod efficit tale est magis tale is said in Philosophy and is true in Divinity Then describing it either by Names or Properties By Names first calling it the Old Man the Body of Death as if Death were nothing without this Sin a Weight that presseth down c. By Properties next and they are especially four viz. Eminency Predominancy Insensibility and Perpetuity For Eminency the Law saith it is a Transcendent Evil and the worst of all Evils Predominancy strangely to rule and oversway like a second Nature which Men often confess while they say It is their Nature to do this or that is to be furious to swear and curse a little now and then they cannot help it 't is their Nature when indeed it is the corruption of Nature reigning Insensibility to keep all the parts in a sleepy peace that Men are not aware of their danger till they be awakened and brought into this Wilderness Perpetuity to cleave fast unto our Nature even to the end of our Life While Blood is in our Veins Sin is in our Nature like the Jebusites this remains as a Thorn in the side in the Flesh even when Victory is obtained by Grace over all Actual Sin in a competent measure that is still living and stirring gathering new Forces and breaking into Rebellion ever and anon Thus the Law bringeth Men into the Wilderness by the work of Illumination 2. By the work of Conviction whereby the Conscience is brought to this Spiritual assent that the former Testimony of the Law is true both for Crime Object and Curse denounced and the Person to a particular application both of the Sins to be personal and of the sentence against such Sins and Sinners to be Legal The sum of which Work may be comprised in this practical Syllogism viz. Whosoever is thus Sinful and Cursed according to the Law is fully miserable but I saith the assuming Conscience am thus sinful and cursed therefore I am fully miserable What shall I do miserable Man that I am who shall deliver me in this vast Wilderness O help help me for the Lord's sake I am ready to faint to sink to die with fear and grief The Spirit by the Ministry of the Law worketh this distinct and sound Conviction divers ways 1. By removing all Impediments which are usually observed to hinder this Conviction One is natural Deadness and penal Hardness caused by Love and Custom in some one or many Sins which while it is interposed between the Law and Conscience will not suffer them to close and so nothing is done till that be in part removed Another is Spiritual Sloth which is a prevailing Backwardness and a precipitating Carelesness to consider what the Law discovereth and concludeth against Sin Men naturally love their ease and quiet they would not be disturbed A third is carnal Craft to pretend Religion and to perform all outward Duties and yet all the while to keep Sin in the Heart untouch'd to remain as habitually and delightfully unclean as ever This Soul-destroying Subtilty appears 1. In a readiness to shift off Sin and Reproofs from our selves to others The Minister met with such an one to day there was a Lesson for him indeed c. 2. In loathing a sound plain-searching Ministry as sore Eyes do the Sun which goes about to answer all the Objections of a natural Heart against the Goodness of Divine Truth Thus the Law removes Impediments 2. It worketh Conviction by applying unto the Soul and Conscience 1.
earnest longing after them as the only good to be desired with which they may be happy and without them they must be everlastingly miserable The wise Spiritual Merchant having once found this Treasure hideth it and makes haste for joy that there is some possibility of enjoying it he selleth all that he hath and resolveth to purchase it whatever he pay whatever the conditions be As the hunted Hart longs after the running Stream so these Men do now cry out Give us Christ or else we die They Hear Reade Fast and Confer O they will part with all they will do any thing for Christ A Sight a Touch a Taste of him is more worth than the World 3. After many Conflicts Doubts and Fears the Heart is wrought upon not only willing to receive Christ for so it was before but actually to cast it self upon Christ to rest on him and to resign it self wholly to his dispose O the sweet Repose which a fainting Soul finds in a Promise rightly applied after a storm of Spiritual Trouble The Heart is ever with him the Eye is alway upon him and the Tongue is delighted often to mention him Sweet Jesus hast thou done and suffered so much for me Was thy Heart pierced was thy Head bowed was thy Body nailed to the Cross for my Redemption How unworthy am I such a wretched Creature such a rebellious Prodigal such an impure lump of Sin to hear of such Mercy much more to taste thereof But seeing it was thy great Love to do it and thy Bounty to prevent me by offering it 't is my duty to receive it with all readiness of Mind and thankfulness of Heart Tho thou should'st kill me yet will I trust in thee tho thou should'st after cast me into Hell by me merited yet would I come unto thee Lo Lord Jesus lo a dumb deaf and lame Leper before thee if thou wilt thou canst make me clean and whole and if thou wilt not none else can do it I resolve to sink at thy Feet and if it were possible to perish in thine Arms. Thirdly The Lord speaks again to this same Heart thus far wrought upon three times he spake unto Samuel before he knew what and to whom to answer and the end and effect of it is three-fold 1. By the power of his Word he turneth out the old Inhabitant for intus existens probibet alienum Satan who did reign there by Sin and brings another into possession even Christ by his Spirit and Graces 2. He changeth the natural Disposition of the Heart truly for Parts though not perfectly for Degrees There is no part but is bespangled with Grace As Air in respect of Light so is the Heart in respect of Grace of a double he makes one single a hard and stony Heart he softeneth Understand not this of any Natural Moral or Legal yielding all which are presupposed but of an Evangelical softness a tenderness following upon serious deliberation and consideration of God's infinite Love Christ's bitter Sufferings and the odious nature of Sin And lastly Of an impure deceitful hypocritical Heart he makes an honest clean sincere Heart Ego non sum ego It is not what it was Such power and healing Vertue there is in the Word of God 3. By his Divine Breath and Power this Marriage between Christ and the Soul is consummate the Spiritual Bond apprehended and the Mystical Union manifested as it followeth in this very Chapter I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in Righteousness Judgment Loving-kindness and in Mercies i. e. In him in whom Mercy and Justice meet and are reconciled I will do it truly and firmly so that all his Benefits shall be made over by way of Joynture or Dower thy Poverty and Deformity shall be accounted his his Riches and Beauty thine This is that the Lord speaks to the Heart finally for this he allured her into the Wilderness that he might win her to himself and thus is this Work finished The manner of Conversion as for the present we apprehend it to be ordinary thus far concluded and briefly in the Heads only unfolded we may for further satisfaction light and benefit require Quest First When is the Lord said to speak unto the Heart Answ I answer 1. When he overcomes the natural hardness of the Heart and begins to let out that Spiritual Impostume or mass of Impurity which lieth hid in every one by Nature This is a Work to which neither Men or Angels are able to set their Hands The Heart-maker is the only Heart-breaker and he alone that knows the Heart can purifie or purge it When Rocks are turn'd into streams of Water and the Mountains melt like Wax and clods of Earth are made like Stars of Heaven surely then God putteth forth his Power then he speaketh to the Heart 2. When he raiseth any comfort in distressed Minds by closing with them in some promises of Pardon or power over Sin This is the Voice of God for he only can prepare a Door of Hope in every Valley of Trouble provide Manna in the Wilderness Water in every dry Rock and Light in every Dungeon There is no precious Electuary for sick Souls but by his Prescription and Administration 3. When he answereth the desire of the Heart against such and such a Sin or in a timely supply of such a Grace either in truth where it is not or for degrees where it was in a little measure before All Grace is originally from Heaven it comes from above James 3.17 i. e. from God the first and second preventing and assisting God bids the Soul to mortifie such a Lust and the Soul complains as Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20.12 I have no might against this great Army then the Lord comes in with Auxiliary Forces and his Grace hath been sufficient God bids him to pray for such a Mercy and he finds himself very unfit his Heart at first was dead and flat but on a sudden he is carried above his own strength his Tears drop his Love flames God hath then spoken then he came in with assisting Grace If the Heart burn in Prayer God hath struck the Fire the Spirit hath been tuning the Heart therefore it maketh sweet melody 4. When there is a close concurrence and an orderly subordination between God's Word and the Heart When the Word is not only delivered to the Heart but the Heart also is deliver'd up unto the Word By the closing of these two our Wills are wholly taken up in God's Will So that the Heart ever saith after as Christ did not my Will in any thing but thy Will be done in all O Lord This is one reason alledged by St. Augustin why he would have all sorts to reade the Scriptures and frequently to hear them Quia in illis loquitur Deus ad Cor indoctorum atque doctorum Because therein God speaks unto the Heart of the Learned and Unlearned Aug. Epist 3.
their Joy and Happiness encreased thereby were this remembred it would prove a comfort to those whose Religious Friends do often end their Days in such distress For by coming so immediately from the sight of such an ugly Objâ—ct to the Intuition and Fruition of such Beauty as is in Christ the Vision is more beatifical To pass from the presence of Sin into the presence of God doth more ravish the Soul with Coelestial Joy God in Christ will excel in Beauty and Glory to that Man's Eye and Apprehension who hath lately seen the sinfulness of Sin As the Sin is never more glorious than when it breaks out of a black Cloud so the Glory of Heaven will certainly be more admirable and lovely to those unto whom Sin hath appeared exceeding sinful Now if it pass unseen these two Days and if it be not presented to be seen and loathed in one of those Hours then it will be presented at the Great-Day which is emphatically called the Day of Discovery 1 Cor. 3.13 in fulness of Horror and inevitable Fury When the Curtain shall be drawn aside and all the secrets of the World discovered and every Man see the actions of his Life as upon a piece of Tapestry spread before his Eyes appearing as so many Thorns and Venemous Beasts and no Mercy to be shewed no Grace to be offer'd when no Petitions will be received nor any Voice heard but Go ye Cursed into everlasting Fire As may be gather'd from divers passages of sacred Scripture viz. Psal 50.21 Matth. 7.22 23 25 41. Hodie hodie poenitentiae locus saith St. Augustin To day there is room for Repentance you must repent now or perish then If the Tap be not now thaw'd it may be frozen for ever Hell vomiteth up our highest desires and will afford no felicities Happy is he whose Sins are ever before him here in a grieved memory they shall never be set before him there if they vex thee now as a loathed burden they shall not torment thee then The Sins which ye have seen to Day ye shall see them again no more for ever Secondly The Grounds whereupon this truth resteth are such as follow viz. 1. That inviolable dependency which all effects and conclusions have upon their own Causes and Principles whence they flow Acts Powers and Habits are unseparable from the Person as they are one from another Every Agent is and shall be attended with its own Works the Dead in the Lord are blessed and their Works follow them The Ox knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib Sin lieth at the Sinner's door and will acknowledg no other Master What is once done cannot be undone No Power can recal it from being Only a penitent sight of Sin may hide it from the sight of Justice and Mercy can recal it from being imputed An act contracting Guilt may pass from a Person and yet not redound upon the Person by a supernatural interposition of satisfying Merit Christ must come between and stay his Course or else Sin would not only be set before us but even upon us in full Guilt and Weight and that for ever 2. The nature of the Soul in her retaining Faculties is another Ground whereby she is necessarily enabled by reflexion to recal to see and judg all her own past Actions This is essential and therefore it is that such Power and Impressions do remain inseparated either to punish or chear them by the remembrance of things past To which you may adjoyn the office of Conscience which is to bear witness and accuse or excuse according to Demerit A guilty Conscience we use to say and more say than some are aware of what they say is as a thousand Witnesses It will tell us all that we have done for many Years ago and present us with all the Follies of our Youth This is the Book wherein Men may read their own History and Doom both what they have done and what they have deserved There are two Rules the one is God's Word which pointeth out both Estates and the other is every Man's Conscience which is privy to the frame and standing of his Heart and which of these Estates is his As long then as there is such a Soul with us endowed with such admirable Faculties viz. Understanding Memory and Conscience so long will Sin be before us if we once do evil we shall hear of it ever after till Sanctification be perfect and Grace be crowned with Glory 3. The Order of Divine Justice requiring some proportion between the pleasure taken in Sin and the vexation for it after Beautiful it appeared in coming but ugly and deformed in going sweet it was in the offer and act but bitter in the close like Hony which is very sweet but begets most bitter Choller Or as Claudius his Mushrom which was pleasant but poysonful How much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her Rev. 18.7 As it shall appear hereafter with the Impenitents in Hell suffering by way of Satisfaction so it is here on Earth with Penitents suffering by way of Correction Intention of delight in the act of sinning is justly recompensed with extension of continued Grief It will vex you long because it did affect you much Sin was before you when it should not and now it must be before you when you would not Justice being refused in the first will be heard in the latter Thirdly The Ends of all this wherefore a single Commission is followed with frequent Presentations we may conceive to be such as these 1. To keep the Heart of God's People in a spiritual frame of Self-denial and Humility and that the habitual grace of Repentance may be upheld and more lively in exercise Hereupon I am apt to think that Mr. Fox that industrious preserver of the Honour of many of God's Servants was observed to say That nothing did him more hurt than his Graces nothing more good than his Sins being ever before him His Graces through the prevailing power of Corruption remaining were ready to puff him up and to set him in God's room by self-seeking whilst his Sins kept him down and kept him humble and meek Few know the benefit of this Combat It is one of the best remedies against spiritual Pride and Security to keep the Mind upon Sin and Sin in the Mind Hence that confident speech of renowned Austin I dare be bold to say that it is good for proud Persons to fall into some Sin Vnde sibi displiceant qui jam sibi placendo ceciderunt Salubrius enim Petrus displicuit quando flevit quà m sibi placuit quando presumpsit Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 14. That they may be humbled as Peter was and so saved 2. To terrifie his Adversaries and so to leave them inexcusable when the full weight of Sin falls upon them If the memory of Sin do so follow them which have repented and are pardoned how will it be
it hasteneth when you shall see them all presented at once and shall no way avoid that sight when you will think you see nothing but Fire that you hear nothing but a sudden noise passing the greatest clap of horrid Thunder and shall choose Death rather if it were possible to annihilation than Life with such an object before you As it fell out to that usurping Richard after the horrible Murther committed upon his innocent Nephews he could rest no where he could be no where free a tumultuous army of Thoughts struck an Alarm to his Repose at Bed and Board Day and Night alone and in company he thought he saw and heard them when as in truth it was his Sin that was ever legally before him and his own guilty Conscience that did pursue him And to that Judg Morgan who gave Sentence upon that vertuous and innocent Lady Jane in so much that he grew Mad shortly after and still cried out Take away the Lady Jane from me and in that Horror ended his Days and wretched Life As Mr. Speed relates in the Life of Q. Mary and Mr. Clark in his Life of the Lady Jane And so it will be with you here or hereafter Tell me then is it not better to see them apart now when you may repent and be freed than to put them off unto another Day when you must see them altogether and sink under them without any hope of recovery O consider this all ye that forget God lest he tear you iâ— pieces and there be none to deliver Thirdly The use of this Point may be to instruct the Person in matter of Duty and so like a well drawn Picture looks upon all that look upon it If this be so that Sin once committed will be often presented it prompts all 1. To think thus of Sin When you are tempted remember this Text set before you here or else you will think of it after to your pain It is momentany and frothy that delighteth you in Sin but it is eternal that will vex and torment you To repent is to take a bitter though wholesome Potion and Impenitency is followed with Damnation Say you purpose and do repent yet your Sin will ever be before you either to grieve and terrifie you as it did David or to allure you to the same again as it did Augustin often Especially the sins of Blood corporal Vncleanness Apostacy after knowledg and profession of the Truth These sink Men either under sensless Sottishness or unsupportable Horror Witness Cain for the first David for the second and Francis Spira for the third because they are not only Sins but Scandals David thought he might have cover'd one Sin with another Adultery with Murther but hereby they were both augmented and seen further Not only he himself but all Posterity must know it David did that which was right in the Eyes of the Lord save only in the matter of Uriah That stuck in Memory and shall in History Not because he had never committed other Sins but because none of the rest were so scandalous none so accented none so burdensome to the Conscience as these being against so much Light of Nature of Scripture and of Humane Laws few Repenting none without difficulty and many falling into presumption or despair by them Under the guilt of any of these for the most part Men feel either too much or too little either they keep themselves out of sight always when the Conscience is seared the Heart hardened and Men are past feeling or else they are still present and staring in the face of Conscience as it were with the eyes of many Devils Think of this aforehand and beware 1. Of Apostacy in whole or in part because it is better never to know the way of Righteousness than to sin against Knowledg 2. Of Murther because Men are made after God's Image and such Blood crieth from the Earth till it have hearing So many drops of Blood so many Tongues and every drop a Voice to cry for Vengeance Give them Blood to drink for they are worthy Rev. 16.6 And it is threatned He that sheddeth Man's Blood by Man his Blood shall be shed Gen. 9.6 3. Of Adultery because it brings with it much guilt and great stain upon the Soul Hoc grande flagitium est saith Job 31.11 This is an hainous Crime a Wickedness with a witness a Fire that consumeth to destruction God will judg it who ever be slack to punish it Hear what the Scripture saith of this Sin the hainousness and danger thereof as a motive to avoid it Prov. 22.14 A Whore is a deep Ditch and he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein David moiled himself in this deep Pit and there might have stuck in the Mire had not God drawn him out by a merciful Violence and purged him with Hysop from that abhorred filth Prov. 6.32 33. Who so committeth Adultery with a Woman lacketh understanding he that doth it destroyeth his own Soul A Wound and Dishonour shall he get and his Reproach shall not be wiped away It is not therefore leve peccatum a small Sin as the Pope's Canonists call it Divine Justice doth not use to kill Flies with Beetles Briefly it is a Sin that hurts both Body and Soul it hurts Men in Goods in Name Posterity and will be ever before them to make them mourn and say How have we hated Instruction and our Hearts despised Reproof And have not obeyed the Voice of our Teachers O what length and depth of Comfort doth a Man lose for a little Folly not worth the name of Pleasure because it is brutish and brings many and heavy burdens indeed a stain upon the Soul rottenness into the Bones and a blemish indelible on the Name Who would purchase that at so dear a rate which he may have for nothing Or use Violence where he may have leave and a blessing too Run the way of Hell for that Pleasure which they may enjoy more fully in the right Path and Way of Heaven This Men consider not Had David thought of the end he would never have adventured on the beginning had he thought of ever seeing Sin he would have wished he had never seen Bathsheba or that his Eyes had gone alone and left his Heart at home then they could never have brought their Lord into such a straight Remember David and all his troubles His sweet never countervailed his bitter Sawce Bathsheba was a pleasing Object for a time but Sin is fearful and grievous for ever Lust wrestleth till it bring forth Sin but Sin groweth and laboureth till it bring forth Death And although the Combat be healed and the Wound healed yet some Scars remain A great deal of preventing Sorrow and wholsome Suffering must be undergone reade it in David The Child that was born unto him must die Thamar was defiled Ammon murdred and he himself turned out of House and Kingdom by his own Son It is a bitter
or less it continueth during Life and rather increaseth than decayeth as Love doth It is not sufficient to see Sin once a Year and yet it would be better for some then it is did they go so far as our Adversaries require Confession nor once in our Life only at Death to cast an eye upon it and bid it adieu with an O Lord Lord be merciful and open unto me which good words and seasonable too are not blamed but the delaying of so main a Duty till then Heaven is not to be had usually at so cheap a rate Satan ordinarily is not so soon vanquished nor Sin so easily put off Whosoever thinks it so easie a matter to repent and believe as that he hath seen and sorrowed enough for Sin now he may desist from both did never see nor sorrow for it at all What David here said of himself is true of every renewed Heart more or less during Life My Sin is ever before me Vse 1. The use hereof may be 1. To discover to you a two-fold Error to be carefully avoided because common and dangerous First Of the Romanists who in their Doctrine and Practice do place Sin rather before the Ear of the Confessor than before the Eye of the Committer That the one must hear it is absolutely necessary without which there is no Salvation that the other should see it is not so at least not so much prest by them Auricular Confession is more insisted on than inward Contrition And Penance is too far sever'd by them from Repentance We hear much and often of the one but of the other there is too deep a silence Confession and Satisfaction are strictly lookt unto by such as profess their Religion in earnest to give them their due that nothing may be blamed in them but what is blame-worthy But Contrition and Sanctification this personal sight of Sin and Evangelical sorrow for it are not so much urged neither in their Writings nor Practice for ought I can learn However I dislike not Confession it is a Duty very comfortable and useful the abuse set aside I could wish it more frequent among us but never used in publick or private without Contrition Let the Heart accompany the Tongue else it is the most unsavoury piece of Formality that can be Secondly Of our common People who deem the worst of such as are thus troubled condemning rash judgment in others do yet pass the bounds of Charity towards them As if poor Souls they only were curst of God and hated of others because they are thus pursued by Sin and baited by Satan especially if it be on their Sick-bed Strange it is to hear them cry out upon profession of Religion as if Religion were the worse for it because her followers are thus affrighted for their good They will not profess Religion no not they nor be tied to frequent the Church to perform Duties in private because such and such are distracted by it Sure they are out of their Wits this Book-learning hath made them Mad else they would never complain and cry out so that their Sins are ever before them Why say they are not we all Sinners as well as they and yet our Sins never trouble us More is the pity and greater is their Misery Poor Souls you cannot distinguish between trouble for Sin and senslessness under Sin between the desperate pangs of Despair and the genuine thâ—ows of a troubled Mind Miâ—ht you not as truly have said the same of David St. Paul and all the rest of God's Saints in every Age who have passed through this Wilderness to Canaan But in so doing know you dishonour God lay a blemish on his Work and often condemn the Generation of the Righteous This trouble of Mind being one of the most infallible marks of true Penitency the Road-way to Heaven for adult Persons and one of the best signs of this Nature that any one can see in himself or desire in his Friend Let my Sins good Lord be always before me as David 's were Let all thine be so disquieted here that so all our Sins may never come in sight at that Day but be buried in everlasting forgetfulness True it is some Men may superstitiously endeavour to make the Way to Heave narrower than indeed it is but far more there are who voluptuously endeavour to enlarge it and make it more broad and easie than God hath made it without any such sight of Sin or trouble about it crying out To what end serveth this waste What needeth all this ado Cannot Men be saved without this sight of Sin and sorrow for it Whether they can or no I will not stand to determine sure I am ordinarily they will not Till they be brought into the Wilderness they are intractable indocible therefore the Lord troubleth them that they may be willing to be saved To all such as think otherwise I should commend these following passages of holy Scripture to be considered in their most retired Thoughts Numb 32.23 Gen. 4.7 Psal 50.21 22. Mat. 7.13 14. Phil. 3.11 1 Pet. 4.18 The Righteous shall scarcely be saved ad praesentis Vitae difficultates debet referri c. saith a judicious Interpreter on that place Our Race or Warfare here in this World is like a Voyage by Sea beset and encountred with many Difficulties Rocks Tempests Pirats open Enemies and false Brethren Ardua prima via est which made St. Paul say If by any means I may attain unto the Resurrection of the Dead A phrase importing difficulty without doubtting he was perswaded he should attain it but not without the use of such means and after much strugling What else is meant by the Wrestling of Jacob the Praying and Fasting of David the Running of Paul the Scruples and Cases of Conscience proposed by the Saints of God frequently and in great variety when once they begin to benefit by the Word Men and Brethren what shall we do Sirs What must I do to be saved And the like Complaints are very frequent where the Word hath awakened them The Pains and bitter Sufferings of all our renowned Martyrs both of the Primitive Times and in the late Marian-Days do preach unto us the Straight-way The difficulty of obtaining and keeping a grounded persuasion of God's Favour in the free pardon of all our Sins through the Satisfaction and Intercession of Christ The Church Militant is a Lilly among Thorns having Enemies ever about her and her Sins always before her Non est ad astra mollis è terris via We may not expect to be carried to Heaven on Beds of Down but through many Tribulations not to go to Paradise through Paradise a Way â—â—rowed with Roses The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth Violence few arrive in this Harbour without danger and difficulty It is not so easie a thing to work out Salvation as most deem and yet through Christ it is easie to all them that receive him Thirdly Hereunto may be added another