And is this excuse to pass for currant hath not God dealt Answered with thee often didst not thou more often harden thine own heart willingly withdraw thy self and all out of a love to sin 2. Though thou couldst not convert thine own heart yet this thou mightest have done in the times of afflictions c. considered what might move the Lord thus to deal with thee all or some of the causes which thy own conscience did freely suggest and the ends which God pointed thee to to reform them And then to have gone to him by vehement prayer to convert thy heart from thy sins to teach it righteousness to submit to his instructions Thou mightst thus have gone to him who can convert and have waited on him in the means of conversion but thou didst nor desire after him nor delightedst to seek him c. 2. But What may we do to prevent this shuffling and assaying of means to support us in sinning when the Lord deals with us and Means to prevent this shuffling calls upon us for the leaving of sin Sol. I would commend these five Directions 1. Strive to be convinced of this That as long as the Course is a sinfull Course it Be convinced of this That a sinfull course cannot be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 safe course can never be a safe Course We may weary our selves in the multitude of our imaginations and ways but run what course you please and pursue your own devices yet this ye shall reap of the Lord you shall lie down in your shame and sorrow you may run to new experiments but misery will follow your sins the next time as well as this and in every way as well as one way Your sins will find you out and as long as you carry your sins with you you cannot keep off calamities from you 2. Of necessity you must return or perish Your sinfull course is You must return or perish a by-path and leads to death It is sinfull and you know it and being sinfull it must be miserable To what end doth the Patient excuse the taking of the Receipt the wholsome Balm he must die if he doth not receive it So consider To what end do I thus vary my paths and shuffle and seek supports there is nothing strong enough to secure a sinner and let me sadly consider that I must one time or other leave these sinnings or else farewel my Soul and Salvation 3. It cannot but be best the sooner it is I must return or perish too soon I cannot return and the sooner the better A Our Return is best the sooner it is Best For Safety Souldier of a middle age a Counsellor of a grave age and a Penitent of a young age are still the best The work which must be done is best done when soonest Best for Safety for thy life is very uncertain and if thou doest not leave thy sins to day thou mayest be in Hell for ought thou knowest for thy sins to morrow For Acceptance the Lord likes it best when For Acceptance one word of Mercy can cause us to trust and one shaking of the Rod can cause us to tremble and when one command sufficeth to turn us when upon the first Arrest we give up our Weapons it pleaseth Soveraignty best For Quietness for we do hereby deliver not onely our Souls but Bodies also from many troubles For Quietness the sooner we do repent and plainly yield why Conscience speaks peace the sooner and God commands mercies the faster strong Sins breed long afflictions but give up the Sins and God gives up the Quarrel throw over Bichri's head to Joab and he will presently remove the siege If a man had health he might take sleep the better but as long as the body is diseased it is unquiet 4. Strive against those diverting Principles which do draw thee from the right and onely way and put thee on by-thoughts and Strive against diverting Principles as Presumption of Mercy Or of thy own Power by-paths and a vain assayment of means to support us As 1. Presumption either of Mercy though thou doest add drunkenness to thirst and still findest out thine own inventions or thine own Power Thou mayest be hindred of the time which thou doest project and mayest want strength to execute thy purposes For sinfull practises do altogether weaken our power whilest they delude us with a conceit of strength hereafter 2. Stoutness and pride of spirit Do not in a bravery of villany dispute with the Almighty Stoutness and pride of spirir God it may prove a sad Victory to thee that thou art able to reject good counsel and to quench all good motions 3. Delight Delight in sin in sin which drowns the errand of all afflictions c. 5. Beseech the Lord at the very first to circumcise the stubbornness Beseech the Lord to câ—rcumcise the stubbornness of your hearts of your hearts and to give you the understanding ear and the obedient spirit that when in the Word he calls upon you to turn from your sins your hearts may fall down and cry out O Lord turn me and when by afflictions he calls upon you to turn you may presently humble your hearts and cry out O Lord pardon me O Lord heal me O Lord turn and save me Let us all think of this You know that the Lord is displeased with us and we have hitherto hardened our hearts against the Lord God hath dealt with us once twice often in publick in private ways and still we seek our own ways delude the work of Repentance set nothing to heart nor repent of our evil doings I I. Now I proceed to the Second thing which is The final The final disappointment of all the Prodigals designs Doct. 2. Nothing shall avail the shuffling sinner till he return but God will disappoint all his pâ—ojects Some things premised This is meantâ— of a sinner whom God intends to convert disappointment of the Prodigals assays and designs in these words And no man gave unto him Whence I observe That nothing shall avail the shuffling sinner until he doth turn from his sins but God will disappoint all his projects batter down all his confidences frustrate all his expectations drive him out of all his harbours and overthrow all the means and ways which he flies unto Before I confirm this Assertion let me premise a few particulars that so you may rightly conceive the scope of it Thus then 1. I intend the Assertion of a sinner whom God doth intend to convert others he may leave to prosper in their imaginations For you see it raised from the disappointment of a Prodigal one whose conversion at length attended his manifold afflictions and as manifold contrivances to keep up his sinfull conversation though such a person knows not it nor thinks on it yet God is secretly against him and thrusts him off from all the Cities of Refuge
succeed one the other there being no predominant impediment to the instantaneous execution of that penitential purpose Another is seasonable vvhere though twixt the purpose and the acting there may be some distance of time yet the apprehension of the next occasion may truly make the execution or practise to be present As in the case of penitential restitution it may so fall out either through the inability of the estate or the subjection of the person that he cannot immediately restore yet because the penitent person in such a case layes hold on the next opportunity and occasion his resolution may be said to be acted presently i. upon the next present time when God enables hâ—m to act his purpose of restoring So that penitential Resolution produceth present Execution either for immediateness as in most cases or for seasonableness as in some cases 4. That there is again a double penitential Execution of penitential And in execution in endeavour or in victory Resolution One consists in endeavour and application when the person without delays addresseth or applieth himself to the ways by which sins may be subdued and forsaken Another consists in victory and assecution wherein the Penitent doth in some more eminent degree lead captivity captive That penitential Execution whereof I speak properly and naturally consists in the former though it must aim and strive after the latter also i. when a person doth indeed resolve to leave his sins and to serve the Lord in newness of life this Resolution doth actively excite him to be much in Prayer unto the Lord and diligently to hearken to and observe his Word and to decline the occasions which may give strength to his corruptions It causeth him to resist evil motions and to bewail them it sets him upon all sorts of Duties and Ordinances so that the person is now really working against sin and throughly working for God he is in the ways of God and according to the measure of grace received working the works of God But why should penitential Intentions be accompanied with present Executions or performances Sol. Reasons for it are many 1. That God who commands Reasons for 〈◊〉 God commands us to repent presently us to repent commands us presently to repent The Time is under Precept as well as the Work Some Precepts bind us semper but not ad semper other Precepts bind us semper ad semper too When the Lord commands any man to repent this is a Duty which concerns the whole course of his life it takes hold of him as soon as ever he lives and is become a sinner and concerns him not onely in his latter days but all his days 2. It is very dangerous to defer our penitential Executions or actings Whether we consider 1. The Resolutions themselves It is dangerous to delay they are but accidental and not natural things not such qualities or rather motions which arise from an in-bred principle but are forensical to our natures and being not presently cherished by acting like little sparks of fire may easily vanish languish and extinguish We read of the Israelites that they were an unstedfast people in Covenant and like a deceitfull Bow Naked Resolutions will never ripen and abide if you will not go beyond your Resolutions you will quickly fall from your Resolutions 2. Our own hearts ah how deceitfull are they how full of rebellion how averse to all good Like the cold hearth to a little fire how cunning to keep up Sin in the Throne how willing to break asunder all the bands of Obedience with much adoe resolving with little adoe dissolving those resolves again Volebam saith St. Austin nolebam I would and yet I would not one while I would and by and by I wouldnot It is the Genius of cur sinfull hearts to apprehend the present time for sin and to crave the future time for repentance Our worst work we would do instantly our best work we would do negligently Good motions are like a Bird falling into our hands which if we presently catch not she instantly flees away Gracious purposes in our hearts are like warmth in the water the impression requires some degrees and some blowing but the recession is easie the natural coldness in the water will instantly rise up and expel that heat if you be not watchfull c. 3. Extinguishing occasions Repentance in all the parts of it hath many enemies and hinderances some within us some without us the Resolutions are weak but the Occasions are strong Let the ship alone and if the Pilot hath onely a resolution to sail with the next tide or the next wind may carry the ship away How ordinary is the experience That the strength of occasions have beaten back and put to flight many and many a resolution like a cross wind which hath carried back the ship unto the very harbour whence it came forth Meer resolutions are but unarmed Souldiers or as unwalled Cities You shall find much of this truth That meet resolutions are too weak for proper and sudden occasions 4. Or the assistance of Grace To resolve and not to act is one way whereby we quench the Spirit The Spirit you know may be quenched many ways Positively as when we will walk in paths expresly contrary to his motions this is to throw water upon the fire Negatively when we do not follow nor cherish his motions as you quench the fire if you do not stir it or blow it or add more unto it So when the Spirit of God shall deal thus far with us as to convince us that our course is evil and yet further to excite a purpose in our hearts to desist but then we let the work lie still we do not st against that evil way this may cause the Spirit of God to withdraw to desert the sinner who doth desert his counsel who will be a Counsell our to him who will walk in no counsel but his own 3. Penitential Executions if present will be more easie and Present execution will be More easie more comfortable 1. They will be more easie St. Austin had almost wasted his spirits with resolutions and conflicts Quamdiu cras cras c. and he thought it many times impossible for him ever to be rid of such an inmate as sin But when his resolution brake out into practise then Facile suave the work grew easie and sweet When we come to the acting part then the Lord will exert and put forth his power in our weakness the acting and doing Christian partakes of most assistance Do we not find it thus in Prayer and in many other Duties which perhaps we look upon with much fear and suspition But when we are acting of them how singularly doth the Lord enlarge our thoughts and affections Why this holds in the very Duty of Repentance seta against thy sins in good earnest set upon a holy course in good earnest thou shalt expermentally find that it was
and having thus abased him he wrought upon him to acknowledg and praise the true God Dan. 4. 33 34. Quest How may it appear that c. Sol. There are four How this may appear Afflictions sanctifyed are the souls Looking Glasses things attending upon sanctifyed afflictions and all of them contribute to Conversion 1. Afflictions sanctifyed are the souls Looking-Glass wherein a man may see his sins which are the causes of afflictions there are divers Glasses in which we may see the face of our sins 1. The Glass of the Word 2. The Glass of Reproof 3. The Glass of Conscience 4. The Glass of Afflictions Affliction is a Glass wherein a person first sees his own sins Ocules quam culpa claudit pena aperit We were verily guilty of the blood of our brother said Joseph's Brethren and as I have served others so the Lord hath served me said Adonibezeck 2. Sees them as sinners In prosperity we see the pleasures of sin but in adversity the bitterness of sin in the one we see them as our friends in the other as our enemies An evil and bitter thing that we have forsaken the Lord so Jeremiah speaketh 3. Sees them with a serious look sees them and thinks of them sees them and layes them to heart Thy wickedness hath procured these things unto thee Now when a person is brought to a right sight of sin to see his own sins and as sins and seriously considers of them this is a way tending to his Conversion I considered my wayes said David and turned my feet unto thy testimonies 2. Afflictions sanctifyed work much upon the Conscience they are the rods of God upon the Soul they are the Waters of They work much upon the conscience Marah bitter Waters and they stir up conscience to speak bitter words unto us These were thy wayes and these were thy doings thou wouldst not be warned thou wouldst not hearken and now see whither thy sins do tend now see into what straits they have brought thee now thou wilt believe that God is displeased with thee When conscience is stirred when the burden of afflictions turn into the burden of conscience two things ordinarily ensue thereupon 1. A mans carnal security is broken The man thought himself safe and secure before but now he sees his condition to be very sad unsound unsafe and miserable not only my goods are gone but my God also is gone 2. The heart comes to be humbled O A working conscience a smiting conscience is the Hammer of God by which he breaks and bows the soul Afflictions now stir up the Gall and the Wormwood and the soul is humbled by them and when the soul is brought to see sin and to consider of sin and to be humbled for sin it is now in a fair way of Conversion 3. Afflictions if sanctifyed are gales to Prayer Lord in trouble have they visited thee they powred out a Prayer when They are gales to Prayer thy chastening was upon them Isai 26. 10. In their afflictions they will seek me early Hosea 5. It is almost natural for an afflicted man to pray and afflictions put an edge of zeal on Prayer we are seldome more frequent and more fervent in that duty then in the times of our distress But then observe that as afflictions are apt to quicken prayer so if they have occasioned a sense and trouble in the heart for sin Then 1. Vsually they stir up Prayer for pardon of sin and for conversion from sin Blot out my transgressions praies afflicted David Turn thou me and I shall be turned praies distressed Ephraim Jer. 31. 18 These are the two great desires of a distressed soul 2. Usually God hears these Prayers The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Ps 51. 17. A poor sinner cannot put up a more acceptable request unto God then this Lord I beseech thee change and turn my heart subdue mine iniquities let not sin have dominion over me I beseech thee suffer me not to dishonour thee any more So that now you see that afflictions have brought the Soul and God together the afflicted Person sees a need of Mercy and Grace and unto God he applies himself who is the only Author of a sinners Conversion the only Physician of a sinful soul 4. Afflictions if sanctifyed incline us unto converting Ordinances They incline us to conveâ—ting ordinances You shall observe that men under their afflictions are 1. More willing to hear 2. More attentive in hearing 3. More tractable and pliable .i. more easie to be wrought upon in hearing When a man is chastned with pain and his flesh consumed away and his soul draws near to the Grave then he will make use of a Messenger of an Interpreter of one among a thousand to shew unto him his uprightness Job 33. 19. to 23. Oh what a Divine influence and authority hath the Word over such a man he can be content to have his sins ript open and he can hear and weep Oh a sinner and he longs to hear of some word of hope and when he hears it Oh how good is God! and he catcheth greedily at the word of direction and when he hears it Oh when shall I be this when shall I do this Lord give grace give strength unto thy poor servant the man in his prosperity would not know the Lord nor hearken to him he was above counsel and instruction but now his ear is opened to discipline and instruction is sealed unto him Job 33. 16. Now it is Lord that which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more Job 34. 32. The first Use shall be for Trial of our selves what the fruit of Vse Trial what the fruit of our affliction is all our afflictions is I think there is no man almost in all the Kingdome but God hath of late some way or other afflicted him Many have lost all their estates not an House is left to them nor Land nor a Rag to their backs many have lost their Husbands or their Children in the War many have lost some of their Family with the Plague lately who hath not been some way or other afflicted Now consider 1. It is the saddest affliction It is the saddest afflâ—ction not to be bittered by affliction to be no way bettered by afflictions No misery like that to love the sins and continue still in the sins which brought our misery Oh to be as far from our friends as before and as far from our God as before to be thrust out of an earthly possession and not yet to get an heavenly inheritance to lose our Lands and not yet to get Christ to have no home to go to here nor any home to go unto hereafter to lose our estates and keep our sins to lose the world and to lose the soul too to lose all our comforts and yet
changed into another love into hatred and hatred into love joy into grief boldness into fear Lately the desires were who will shew us any good now the desires are what shall we do to be saved Lately the delights were iâ— sin in sensualities in vain societies now they are in the favour of God in Jesus Christ in pardon of sin in heavenly communion Lately the love was set on that which was most unlovely now it is set on the most lovely object indeed Christ is the center c. Lately the grief was a turbulent Sea for worldly losses but now it is a running River for sinning against God Lately the affections were wings for iniquity but now they are springs for duty I may not inlarge by what you have heard it may plainly appear Dâ—monstrations of a notable change in Conversion From the person converted From the work of Conversion that true Conversion works an universal change in the sinner Demonstrations that there is a notable change in Conversion 1. The person converted he is made pertaker of the Divine Nature 1 Pet. 1. 4. He is a new Creature 2 Cor. 5. 7. He is quickned from the dead Eph. 2. 1. He is born again Jo. 3. 3. 2. The work of Conversion It is the effect of the great and good will of Election and in it God displayes the glory of his great Love and Grace and Mercy And Christ sees of the travel of his soul some special fruit of his wonderful sufferings and purchases And the holy Ghost doth manifest his almighty Poâ—er and the noblest act thereof and converting grace is a new contrary nature a new man 3. The end of Conversion Conversion is the first From the end of Conversion inward work for heavenly glory It is wrought to make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Naturally we are opposite to God and to all Communion with him Without holiness no man shall see the Lord no unclean thing can enter there sinning Angels were cast out of Heaven God qualifies those whom he will dignifie he qualifyed Saul for an earthly Kingdome much more the sinner for an heavenly Kingdome Heavenly glory is absolutely inconsistent with a graceless heart the promise of it is so and the nature of it is so and the work of it is so and the reward of it is so 4. Converted persons are to live other lives and to do other works therefore there must be a change of their Converted persons must live oâ—her lives Vse 1. This convinceâ—h many to be yet unconverted Such in whom appears no change at all Forms and Principles and Powers Is true Conversion a change a great change an internal and cordial change an universal change Why then this one truth palpably convinceth multitudes of people to be as yet not converted 1. There are some men in whom there appears no change at all neither inward nor outward the Leopards spots remain and the Blackmores skin is unchanged they were ignorant and so are still they were drunkards swearers railers scoffers mockers of godliness and godly men Sabbath-breakers unclean proud and so are still The Prophet speaks of some whose scum departed not from them Ezek. 24. 12. And the Apostle of some who cannot cease to do evil 2 Pet. 2. 14. And David of some who hate to be reformed Psal 50. 16. And Steven of some who alwayes resist the holy Ghost Acts 7. 51. And Paul of some who wax worse and worse 2 Tim. 3. 13. Although changes go over their age they were young and now are old yet no change goes over their hearts and lives although changes go over their bodies their strength is changed into weakness and their health is changed into sickness although changes go over their estates their wealth is changed into poverty and their abundance is changed into want although changes go over the times peace is changed into war and safety is changed into danger nay although sometimes changes goe over their consciences Stupidity is changed into horrour and pleasure into terrour yet their hearts are not changed they approve love and delight in their sins as much as ever and their Conversations are not changed they drive the same trade run on to the same excess of Riotousness wallow in the same mire of Ungodliness despise converting Ordinances converted Persons converting Graces Now what shall I say to these Persons They are unchanged sinners and so is God an unchangeable God who hath threatned them and swore his Wrath against them Thou wilt not repent of thy sins nor will God repeâ—t of his Wrath thou wilt not turn to him and therefore will he turn away his mercy from thee and will overturn overturn overturn thee as the Prophet phraseth it 2. There are some whose change is only outward but it is Such whose Change is only outward not inward not inward and cordial they stand off from many sins and come on to many duties and yet their hearts are not changed There are six things which may convince a man that his heart is not changed 1. When a man seems to be tender least he should Six things convince a man his Heart is not changed commit a sin but yet his heart was never tender and humbled for all the sins which he hath committed Jer. 31. 19. I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth If Repentance begins not in tears it will end in tears When I look forward and see sin with a trembling eye O I dare not offend my God and when I look backward and see sin with a mournful eye O I have sinned I have sinned these indeed do shew a converted and changed heart But I fear it is rather a policy then a change and a regard more to my credit then my conscience when I expostulate with a sin in Temptation and never mourn for many sins in Commission 2. When a man leaves many sins but yet he doth not loath any sin Many a man sometimes abstains from meat yet loves it but a good heart abstains from sin as from a serpent which he hates He turnes his face from them but he turnes not his heart from them he doth not act the sin nor doth hate the sin he doth not let 〈◊〉 out of door nor yet crucify it within door he seems not to be a friend and yet is not an enemy to sin this mans heart is not changed 3. When a man acts from an awing Conscience and not from a renewing Spirit flies from sin only when conscience flies upon him for sinning and doth good only when conscience is unquiet when not Grace which works uniformly but terour which works accidentally is his Principle though a while there be some diversity and diversion too in this man yet there is no change of heart in him even Pharaoh under a Judgment yielded who yet upon a respite hardned his heart again and Iron whiles hot
as great plagues as he did on Pharaoh and should they come as thick on thee as on him or any that ever thou didst read of yet if the Lord did not give thee a sanctified heart or if the Lord did not co-operate with the afflictions in a sanctifying way thou wilt be so far from desisting that thy heart after a while will grow as wicked as before It is not absolutely the punished soul nor is it absolutely the troubled conscience nor is it absolutely all that we can see or say which will divert our future course of sinning but it is the sanctified heart the new heart which will make us to leave old sins and live new lives Therefore to the Lord must we go under our afflictions and beseech him to open our ear to discipline and to purge away our iniquities and to make us partakers of his holiness and so to cause us to bring forth the more peaceable fruits of righteousness and note this That all this must be done not in a fit for a little time but habitually we must not cease confessing until we can heartilâ— mourn we must not cease confessing mourning praying until we find the Lord reconciled unto us and our hearts changed and renewed Now those sanctified Qualities which more specially a punished sinner should beg to divert him from progress in sin and to turn him Sanctified Qualities to be begged Hearty Contrition for sins past off from sin I conjecture are these 1. Hearty contrition for sins past He who is a merry Penitent proves an easie Delinquent if former sinnings be no Grief future sinnings will be no Fear he will never with stedfastness learn a good Course who can without mournfulness come off from a bad Way Beg of God for ever to make thee sensible and mournful 2. Real Conversion That the very frame of the Mind Will and Affections be Real Conversion changed the Frame more then the Form that thou become a new Creature get a new heart and Spirit 3. A sincere love of A sincere Love to God God If thy heart knows not yet how to love God it never forgat how to go on in Sin there is nothing which heals the Soul of Sin so as the Love of God this sets the heart on him and makes it to cleave unto him and tender to please him 4. Solid fear of God A reverent awe both of his goodness Solid Fear of God and of his greatness this will strike off security and hardness and presumption and set us in Gods presence and keep the conscience tender and increase humbleness c. 5. Watchfulness over our special corruptions which if any will make us to Watchfulness over our speciall Corruptions halt soonest Do not forget how much they did provoke God already and how assuredly bitter they will prove if thou dost resume them And he fain would have filled his belly with the busks that the Swine did eat and no man gave unto him Vers 16. These words comprehend in them two things First The utmost design of the sinful Prodigal He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the Swine did eat Secondly The utmost disappointment of that utmost design And no man gave unto him According to either of these there are two Propositions observable by us viz. That a sinner will go through and try the utmost extremities and wayes ere he will return from his sins 2. That nothing shall avail the shuffling and trying sinner untill he doth return from his sins When the Lord forsakes a man nothing avails to help a man That a sinner will try all wayes and go through the utmost extremities ere he will return from his sins The Prodigal here Doct. 1. A sinner will try all wayâ—s to the utmâ—st extremities ere he will return from his sins spends all yet he returns not he is pinched with famine yet he returns not he joyns himself with a Citizen and he sends him to feed Swine yet doth he not return if he could have got but the husks which the Swine did eat husks are but poor empty light things miserable nourishment but if he could have made any shift any way to have supported himself he would not have returned unto his Father Thus you read of Pharaoh that though there were a Climax of plagues upon him and wonders of ruine upon his Land and Cattel and Servants rising like a Tide and Flood yet till it came to his first-born and the next stroke was to reach his own life he would not obey the Voice of the Lord in letting of Israel go like obstinate defendants in a City which will lose one Outwork after another and suffer the Undermining of their Walls ere they will come to terms of Capitulation So we read of the Israelites before the Captivity how extremely they did endure a very succession of Judgments and variety of strange punishments before they would return Amos 4. 6. Cleanness of teeth and want of bread yet have they not returned to me saith the Lord. Ver. 7. Rain was withheld and great scarcity was there of water yet Ver. 8. Have ye not returned to me Ver. 9. Smiting with blasting and mildew and the Palmer worm yet c. Ver. 10. Pestilence after the manner of Egypt and the Sword yet have ye not returned Ver. 11. Overthrowing some of them as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha and pulling some of them as a firebrand out of the burning yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. And thus was it with them after the Captivity all the famine and miseries which they suffered in the Siege where the mothers were forced to eat their children of a span long Lam. 2. And all the merciless devourings of the sword and all the kinds of destroying sicknesses did not turn them to the Lord against whom they had sinned but after all they spend the utmost of their pollicies for safety running into Egypt flying unto Ashur they tryed all sorts of fruitless confidences before they would return unto the Lord therefore doth the Lord threaten to hedge their ways with thorns and to make a wall that they shall not find their paths Hos 2. 6. i. he would cast them upon such a condition that they should not go any further or if they did they should have little ease they should walk as upon thorns upon continual prickings and woundings and all this must be done before they will return to their first husband vers 7. Now for the clearer opening of this Assertion consider of these particulars 1. That it is to be understood of the natural temper of the sinner The sinner may be considered two wayes under extremities As This is to be understood of the natural temper of the sinner effectually assisted by the preventing grace of God which is of surpassing vertue to renew the soul and to conquer its stubbornness and aversness and effectually to perswade and draw in the
flying Fowl but this they cannot do without air to spread and bear up those wings I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Philip. 4. There must be some strength in us to advance a Resolution but then there must be another Strength upon wâ—ich both that Resolution and that Strength must depend And therefore as a Warrant is of no force if it goes not out in the Kings name so a Resolution is too recoiling which begins not in Christs power As David encountred Goliah not with his own Sword but in Gods Name so we must resolve against our sins with Gods strength assisting of us otherwise our sins may rerly to us as the Devils to the sons of Sceva â—esus I know and Paul I know but who are ye A ship though well built must have wind to drive it and set it forward and a Christian needs more strength than his own to forsake a bad or to follow a good course It is a wise course in lendiâ—g of Money to joyn another party in the Bond who is more able and sure than the borrower Doest thou resolve against such a sinfull way or for a holy life tâ—ke not single Bond thy own heart though to thy thinking well furnisht and stockâ— with resolution is yet but a creature and may deceive thee and mâ—ke thee to break but take double Bond beseech the Lord to be bound for thee to give thee his strength which is indeed sufficient to preserve and to perpetuate thy resolutions 2. You must be sure that you get a mournfull heart for what Get a mournfull heart for what is past is past or else you will never get a resolute heart for the future if the heart be not broken for sin sin will quickly break the resolution of the heart He who will without any more adoe be joyously good I fear least after a while you see him earnestly bad We seldome observe that an unbroken heart is stedfast that his foot stands sure whose eyes remains dry i. who can leap into a good way yet never was truly grieved for a bad Peter's Resolution to confess his Master held out better after his tears than after his confidence The mournfull remembrance of a bad life wherein God hath been so much dishonoured and his spirit so often grieved it excites and quickens and doubles our hatred and fears and cares and resolves Should I any longer continue thus should I thus offend again Paul doth frequently remember his sinfull persecutions of Christ and then is inflamed with a more zealous resolution and industry to preach and advance him Nothing daunts him in the righting of that good Lord and Christ whom before he had so much wronged 3. Be active against sin and that is the way to keep up your Be active against sin Resolutions against it My meaning is this you must endeavour to mortifie an evil heart if you would hold up your resolutions against an evil course The heart is all in all for Life or Death for a good or for a bad way kill the root and the branches will soon wither diminish the Spring and the Streams will fail weaken the Spirits and the Limbs will be useless It is a foolish thing to say I will not have the fit of the Ague again unless you receive something to alter the evil humour which causeth it I will never sin thus again thus how often do we resolve and yet break out again why because we would restrain effects without surprizing their causes Be more earnest with God for a sober heart and for a chast heart and for an humble heart and a heavenly heart and a meek and quiet heart Thou shouldest not onely resolve but prevail against evil acts if thou didst vehemently strive with God to season the Springs to alter the nature to better and strengthen the heart that fountain whence these arise and flow for all things are strongest in their causes and the strength of the cause is the strength of the effect An occasion may be vigorous to produce a resolve but alteration is required to make it firm and effectual it is health which breeds strength 4. Let it be watchfull and not careless They are not the many Souldiers which keep the City but the watchfull Souldiers Be watchfull and not careless the City which is got by strength may be lost by carelesness To be active and inquisitive how to make resolutions against sin and afâ—erwards to be negligent of our hearts this is to make a strong door but not to mind whether it be lockt or no. Our hearts take them at the best are very untrusty and deceitfull at least in part and are quickly weary of spiritual bonds and as an untoward Servant after all warnings and threatnings is hankering to whisk out after his old companions so our hearts after all resolutions are yet inclining to evil Therefore let us not onely enjoyn our spirit to take heed of sinfull courses but guard them set a guard upon them as David Psal 39. 1. A man may quickly stumble who hath an able foot if yet he hath a careless eye the eye and the foot must go together to keep us upright 5. If you would still keep up your Resolutions then often review and renew them Our resolutions come to be strengthened Often review and renew resolutions by frequent enquiry how they are performed Daily accountings with the servant may be the means to keep him faithfull If we did daily sequester our selves and commune with our spirits and take an account of them O my soul thou hast seen the vileness of such sinfull courses and hast felt the bitterness of them and hast solemnly protested against them before the Lord and resolved to prosecute them no more thou hast given thy Word and Bond for this unto the great God Well! how hast thou performed this purpose art thou still willing hast thou been faithfull to thy self and to thy God wa st thou no way surprized this day though thou didst not break yet didst not thou bow to day though thou didst not fall didst not thou trip did nothing come from thee to undo or else to weaken thy resolution Such evil motions sprang from thy heart to sin again didst thou abhor them and cry unto God against them such temptations presented themselves unto thee didst thou reject and stoutly resist them or hast thou not found an heart somewhat hearkning somewhat yielding somewhat venturing If so then humble thy self and as David to Joab 2 Sam. 11. 25. Make thy battel more strong against the City so do thou bewail thy failings and renew thy resolution again more strongly and carefully 6. If your Resolutions be any thing impaired let them be presently repaired It is possible notwithstanding our Resolutions When resolutions are impaired let them be presently repaired against evil courses to be surprized with evil acts and now we are apt to give up the Resolutions themselves but
occulta even your secret sins que sunt contra duo ultima decalogi praecepta Nay those which are committed against the two last commandments circumstancias yea and all the circumstances of your sins this is the confession which the Church of Rome in the Trent Council doth injoin upon pain of Anathema to be made unto the Priest Sess 14. Can. 7. but without any warrant from the Scripture or averment from true Antiquity for Scripture assures us that confession of sin made to God alone obtained remission of sins and favour Psal 32. 5. I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Lo here confession to God alone not to a Priest and upon it remission of sins by God himself dares any Popish Priest reverse this absolution or confession because not made to man which yet is accepted with God Saint Chrysostome speaks strange words Let Tom. 5. Hom. de paenit confess Lat. â—d Bas an 1 558. God onely see thee confessing And again upon Hob. 12. Hom. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reveal thy way unto the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confess them before God and again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confess thy sins before thy Judge and Saint Austins tongue needs to be clipped Quid mihi cum hominibus ut audiant confessiones nostras Conf. lib 10. cap. 13. quasi ipsi sanaturi sint omnes languores meas What have I to do with men that they should hear my confessions as though they could heal all my diseases Saint Basil saith that the groans of his In Psal 37. heart did suffice for a Confession Surely here was no absolute necessity to confess all to the Priest but yet again observe there is a use of Confession in case of 1. Injury 2. Anxiety 3. Scandal to the Church as in the next particular 2. Christian and prudential Confession and this is the acknowledging Christian and prudential of sins to men either in case of notorious scandal which the primitive Churches much urged and used or else in case of trouble and thus we deny not but any person may lawfully and warrantably go unto a faithful godly skilful compassionate Minister and confess his sins either to obtain counsel out of the Word of God for the remedy of sins to recover or prevent them or to be imformed aright concerning his present estate or to have his conscience quieted and settled 3. Penitential which is made onely to God this the Scripture Penitential to God doth command and this wee hold as absolutely necessary when wee do repent then to make confession of our sins to God Penitential confession considered In respect of the material part onely or Secondly This penitential confession may be considered either in respect of the material part onely and so it consists of words whereby we acknowledge wherein we have transgressed Hos 4. ver 1 2. Or of the formal part also and thus it conteins these Of the formal also ingredients which specifie and distâ—nguish it from all superstitious or hypocritical or false confessions 1. It is an hearty acknowledgment noâ— nuda confessio feigned And so it is or meerly verbal confession It is affectionate the lips do uâ—ter An hearty acknowledgment the mind of the heart in it cum sensu peccati miseriae as a sick man opens his disease here I feel it c. The publican smote upon his breast and confessed True confession is the language of the very soul being very sensible of sin 2. It is voluntary not coacta confessio the Thief may confess upon the rack though And voluntary there were no wrath in God no rack in conscience no flames in hell yet the true penitent will confess When there is no other cause of confession of sin but that which is penal it is not then truly penitential Pharaoh confessed under the plagues and Judas under the stings of conscience it was an extorted confession but penitential confession is voluntary it is an act that ariseth from an inward displicence with and detestation of sin though there be no apprehension of hell no sense of wrath yet the penitent confesseth even to a Father I have sinned Many of the Saints did I shut up in prison and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them I punished them oft in every Synagogue Acts 26. 10 11. 3. It is distinct and not confused the penitent hath special bills of inditement he knows his sins and And distinct wherein he hath exceeded and failed such sins as he hath most delighted in such as he hath most walked in such as he hath most dishonoured God by such as cleave most unto his nature such as conscience may be most clogged with these he doth more especially confess unto God and indite and condemn himself for small sins as well as great Sauls lap as well as Vriahs murther antient sins as well as present secret sins as well as open But must our confession of sins be particular Sol. Either explicitly so or virtually so the heart hath a particular intention or affection the more particular the better to humble our hearts to obtein mercies to make us fervent As David though hee did give a touch at all his sins in the beginning of the 51 Psalm yet at length brancheth his confession into particulars into that of Adultery and the other of Blood So doth Paul often uncover his special sins of Persecuting the Church and Blaspheming and of Injuriousness Judas cryed out of Blood but not of Covetousâ—ess and Hypocrisie 4. It is Humble and not And Humble proud as Benhadads servants with ropes c. done with Contrition of Heart not with Ostentation of Spirit Like a flash of Lightning breaks out of a cloud rented and Josephs garment was shewed to his father rent and dipt in blood Anciently when they did confess their sins to God they did it with Sackâ—loth and Ashes and the opening of their sins is termed The pouring out of water before the Lord I am vile Job 40. 4. Not worthy c. Luke 15. because when they pâ—ured out their sins in confession of Tongue they likewise poured out contrition of Heart their tears of Grief spake as much as the words of their Lips I will declare mine Iniquities and be sorry for my sin Psal 38. The Papists indeed have as course a Garment and as severe a Garb in penitential confession as any but underneath they have dainty Linnen there lies great pride under all this pretended Humiliation as if all this did merit at the hands of God the Voice is humble Jacob's but the pride upon the act is proud Esau's If they saw the wrong which they did by sinning how could they so proudly challenge God upon their confessing what doth the murtherer deserve because he confesseth But truly Penitential Confession is accompanied with grief in the heart and with
thus have I sinned and whatsoever punishment thou hast inflicted or mayest inflict I must quit thy Justice in all thy proceedings thou canst not but be Righteous for I confess my self to be sinful Nay his Justice only is not glorified but his Wisdom that he knows all our sins and wayes and his Power that he is able to Judge and condemn us yea and his Mercy too that we hope yet he will pardon and forgive the sins which we confess unto him If true Repentance brings forth true Confession then by this it will appear That there are very few true penitents because Use 1. Then there are very few true Penitents very few who do truly and aright confess their sins 1. Some may say of sin what Pilate did of truth What 's Truth So they What 's Sin They are so ignorant that they know not what is evil or when they do evil Now how can any confess or acknowledg that sin to God which is not known at all to himself 2. Others are so far from confessing themselves to be sinful that they like the proud Pharisee justifie themselves to be righteous talk of their good meanings purposes â—ust dealings c. Sana membra ostendebat saith S. Austin of that Pharisee vulnera tegebat I am no Extortioner no Adulterer c. Ask some persons Do you acknowledg One only God who is most Merciful Just Holy Omnipotent Faithful Long-suffering 〈◊〉 of Goodness and Truth c. Yes that do they God forbid else c. Ask them again Are you Idolaters make you no Idols or did you ever worship them Who they nay they defie them and all such trumpery But do you not use to swear and take the Name of God in vain Nay for swearing of all sins they cannot away with that a man gets no good by swearing But do you remember to keep holy the Sabbath Yea all their neighbours can bear witness that they keep to the Church constantly Ask them again Did you never injure your Parents O they were always dutifull Children But did you never play the whore or the adulterer or the thief Nay now they will talk no longer with you if you be so uncharitable as to imagine such guilt Why O thou ignorant sinner why doest thou deceive thy soul if thou art thus righteous thou needest not to repent and if thou art free from all sin how canst thou confess thy sins as a true penitent ought to do to God 3. But some others there are who do both know and acknowledge their sin but how onely in a formal cold indifferent manner True we are all sinners God help us and there is no man but he sins yea the best of them all Never considering That great Justice of God which is provoked by their sins nor that vile and abominable nature in their sins nor that infinite wrath unto which their guilt doth oblige them nor the excellency and necessity of pardoning mercy which we should earnestly sue out when we confess our sins 4. There is another sort who do more distinctly and perhaps somewhat feelingly and freely confess their sins but then they keep Benjamin back And as Rachel hid the images under her so they reserve some one special lust they do not bring all the Prisoners forth unto the Bar There is a sin which they hide close because it is sweet as Zophar speaks Job 20. 12. Now this argues 1. Hypocrisie and guile of heart a secret love to sin it is made in Job 20. 12. the guise of an Hypocrite to hide his sin 2. Extreme folly and vanity of spirit for canst thou conceal any sin from that God who is acquainted with all thy paths and knows thy thoughts afar off and to whose eyes all things are naked will not the Lord discover the sin which thou doest cover before Men and Angels to thy eternal infamy and condemnation assuredly though thou wilt not set thy sins in order before him yet he will set thy sins in order before thee and will reprove thee for them Psal 50. i. he will publish them and he will everlastingly punish thee for them 5. Others do confess all their sins but this onely in times of wrath and judgment and death not like Penitents but as Malefactors as men make their Wills upon a death-bed not out of an hatred of sin but out of meer sense or fear of punishment it is not filial ingenuous free but onely extorted involuntary and servile and therefore not truly penitential They do not go and confess their sins as they to John the Baptist but cry out and confess their sins it is that not which they would do but which they cannot avoid Conscience like an over-charged stomack doth so over-press and pain them that they cannot hold but out it comes what oppression injustice usurious injurious beastly filthy swinish sins they have lived in 6. Others seem to be more ingenuous and voluntary or ready to confess their sins but then this is with such pretences colours shiftings shuffling as if they were like Lawyers to mitigate and colour a bad cause S. Austin complains of some who would impute their sins to Fate to Fortune to the Devil nay to God himself The complaint may well suit with us generally we have some device or other either to deny or to extenuate our sinfull facts rather to plead for our selves than to plead against our iniquities It was company and we are but flesh and bloud and it is not usual or which is contrary it is my nature and the Devil was strong with me others do worse c. 7. But of all men they are most contrary to penitential Confession who â—all evil good and darkness light and that make a a mock and a sport of sin whereas they should with grief of heart and shame of face mournfully penitently humble themselves before the Lord and acknowledge their iniquities instead thereof They boast themselves of their iniquites and make but a jest of that which cost the bloud of Christ It is but a trick of Youth and good Fellowship and Handsomness and Complement and discreet Thrift thus do they phrase their Uncleanness their Drunkenness their Pride their Lying their Covetousness 8. Lastly to mention no more They are defective too about the true penitential confession who are assiduous to confess but desiduous to forsake frequent to acknowledge and declare their sins but negligent in forsaking and leaving of them Discovery sufficeth but Recovery they mind not This is most ordinary with us that we make our confession of sins to God rather an act of our Memory than a work of our Conscience it sufficeth us to deliver in the tale to number our transgressions but then we wrestle not with the Lord in prayer for his Spirit of Grace to heal our hearts and to turn us from the sinfull ways unto which we find our hearts so apt and forward But I will no longer insist upon the Convicting part I proceed
halting to our dying day either we want minds to good or wills or power not able of our selves to haâ—ch one good thought and when the will is present yet we find not power to perform and though sometimes we do good yet evil is present with us like Beer which runs low with the liquor there runs out much muddy grounds or like Abrahams Sacrifice many Birds lighting on it or like Solomons Ointment in which is some dead Flie or like a Candle which burns with a Snuff or like the fire which ascends with much smoke Our actions are like the Arrows which are shot one is too far another is too short another is too wide not one of an hundred that hits the mark so is it with us many Duties and Services are performed by us but which amongst them all is performed with that reverence of Spirit faith on Christ integrity of Affection unitedness of Soul and sole fidelity of intention to Divine Glory Our excellencies are weak and the Lord be merciful unto us how often do we weaken them our work is but little that we do very little take aside the aversness the indispositions the formalities the coldness the distractions the unbelief the weariness the inconstancy the infinite infirmities which accompany them what poor things will they then appear may we not fall down and say having done our best We are but unprofitable servants Nay and that which being known may likewise abase us is this we may justly say of all our poor excellencies as the Widow of her Vessels They are but borrowed ware What have we which we have not received Every Gift and Grace which we have is but a Beam born of the Sun a drop coming from another Fountain then our Natures all our good is but free Gift take the borrowed feathers from the Crow it is then a most black creature alone So that consider our good aright either in the initial cause of it viz. Divine and free Grace or in the upholding cause of it Divine assistance or in the qualities of it how weak and imperfect or in the acts of it how rare and uneven all these are the springs as it were which feed humbleness of heart in the true Penitent Quest 2. Now I proceed to the next inquiry Why true Penitents Why true penitents are humble persons are such humble and lowly persons I am not worthy to be called thy Son Sol. The reasons are most of them insinuated already I will either express them again or add more to them thus then 1. Conversion necessarily infers an alteration in the whole man Though it doth not destroy Substances yet it changeth Qualities of unholy Conversion infers an Alteration in the whole man it makes us holy of ignorant knowing of filthy clean of obstinate flexible of unquiet meek of proud and lofty humble and lowly therefore penitent persons who are converted persons must needs be lowly ex natura rei this is forcible 2. They never did experimentally know themselves till they began to repent Sin was but a delight or a mock or a meer discourse They now experimentally know themselves unto them before the vileness of it the contagious pollution of it the stinging guilt of it the terrible effects of it both in respect of God and themselves they never savv it till novv they see that of sin vvhich they savv not before both for the filth and the guilt of it and they see it with other eyes then they savv it before no marvel then that they become low in their own eyes Should they not be very vile in their own eyes who perceive themselves guilty of that vvhich is most and only vile in Gods I have sinned what shall I say unto thee O thou preserver of men 3. They never saw till now how short they came in that good of duty Job 7. 20. which they owe to God and how unanswerable they are to the many bonds of obedience I have done nothing for They now see how short they come in duty God all my dayes nor to him in any Service and Honour They never knew till now how injurious they have been unto God to the kindness of his Love to the counsel of his Spirit And how injurious they have been to God to the righteousness of his Will how unworthily and stubbornly they have resisted despised him abused all his mercies Thus for the Explication of the point Now for the Application of it to our selves Doth true Repentance produce humble lowliness of Spirit then let us reflect on our own hearts and judge what solidity Vse Let us judge of our Repentance by our lowliness of Repentance is wrought in us by that lowliness and sense of unworthiness which is to be found in true penitents Consider Pride and loftiness and self-worthiness are very natural to us though we be born wholly naked not any external ornament is upon us no inward excellency yet our natures are puft with Pride and self-worthiness are very natural to us wind and a haughtiness and could we be rifled and stript of every sin we should find this of pride so opposite to lowliness most intimately cleaving to us Paradise was not free of it What do I speak of it nay Heaven it self was troubled with it the Divels who are cast into the lowest darkness fell thither by reason of their proud loftinesâ— Look over all sorts of persons it 's a wonder almost to find one truly humble-hearted sinner If a man hath parts the Apostle tells us that knowledge puffeth up the the wind gets into the bladder as it was with Diotrephes c. Who is the Lord said Pharaoh if a man have dignities how rare is it to see greatness stooping and lowliness of heart with highness of honor If a man have riches he needs an Apostles charge Not to be high-minded If a man be poor he is like Diogenes trampling upon the Philosophers chair with greater pride Generally the scum is most light and vuâ—gar spirits most censorious and insolent If a man be ignorant yet Laodicea thinks her self rich and increased and to have need of nothing though indeed she be poor and blind and miserable and naked 2. If habitually and predominantly proud thou art as yet impenitent 't is true that Conversion doth not give an absolute cessation If Habitually Proud thou art impenitent to sin yet it doâ—h take off dominion and causeth diminution It cannot be that a man should have an heart rightly sensible of sin and set against it and yet be high in the opinion of his own excellencies and worth The mountains are cast down into a valley and the high imaginations brought into captivity the swellings of our corrupt spirits are in great measure abated and let out when once Grace enters our hearts and Repentance hath opened our eies Though you may be free from many other actual and gross exorbitancies if yet the spirit of pride
death what rewards after death it shall procure to persons upon the one and the other he is stirred up to the sense of his sins to the admiration of Holiness to a condemnation of his evil course to a resolution for a better But then it is with him as with some ship sometimes as soon as it is putting out of the Harbor it strikes upon a rock or falls into the sands and loseth all the precious lading Or as with Corn sown and let fall in an open and solid place where the Birds come down and instantly pick it up so is it here with this man the world meets him again at the Church door or at his own door and all these impressions and resolutions are spilt and gone Worldly engagements take present possession of his thoughts and all the service of his affections so that he hath no time to consider what God did speak or work in him no time secretly to beg of God to write those truths in his heart to keep all this in the purpose of his heart to give him the Spirit of Grace and strength to walk in the wayes of God revealed now unto him When you turn the course of the water another way the Mill cannot stir so when men turn the course of their thoughts and affections to secular and vain imployments all resolutions stand still they have nothing now to elicit or draw them on and out into any holy or careful diligence of obedience and performance The Oxen and the Farm c. took them quite off and they made excuses .i. for the present they had other engagements therefore take heed of worldly cares It is impossible that you should be much in the actings of any Grace if you be very much in the service of worldly cares 6. Lastly Presumptuous Confidence is also an Impediment to the Presumptuous confidence present executions of good resolutions whether it be of future time hereafter shall serve the turn it is not wisdom to be so forward soft and fair will go far we have day enough yet before us a year two or ten hence after such a business is effected or which is worse after the pleasures of such a sin is a little more tasted Or of Future ability This is a work which we will do at pleasure and at leisure when we see the scouts the forerunners of the army then we will buckle on our armor when we espy the harbingers of death approaching old age sickness weakness diseases then we will think of heaven and forsake hell what need we be troubling our selves to be doing of that a long time which we can dispatch at any time if we have but time to say Lord have mercy upon me what would ye more Or of Future Mercy Wherefore hath God Mercy but for sinners and he hath said That if at any time a sinner convert he will have mercy We have found him kind unto us all our dayes and doubt not of his fatherly compassion at the last Thus do men post of all penitential executions and for ever endanger their souls Alas for future time whose is it Seneca the Heathen could see more truth then this Solum tempus presens nostrum No time is ours but the present Thou carriest thy life in thy hands thy breath in thy nostrils and seest more Graves made for the young then for the aged And as for thy future ability why dost thou so grosly befool thy self knowest thou not that present Neglects cause stronger Indispositions Qui non est hodie cras minus aptus erit the School-boy will teach thee Every man by more sinning grows more sinful and therefore most unapt and averse to good And then Future Mercy it is of all things the most uncertain to pardon sin where present mercy leaves us not to repentance from sin it is all one as if thou shouldst thus argue God will hereafter pardon me and therefore for the present I will sin against him disobey dishonour vex and grieve and abuse him These are the principal impediments to a present expectation of penitential resolutions and are to be declined by us I now proceed to the helps and furtherances to a present Helps execution of penitentialâ— resolutions which are these amongst many 1. Solid Conviction of a sinful estate This will put us upon a present Execution When the Soul is brought to an experimental Solid conviction of a sinful state sense of the vileness and bitterness of sin it will not then lye hovering Were I best to give up this course or shall I go on in it still No but when the Soul is indeed wounded the wayes shall without delay be reformed take a person in some judicial and close conviction of sin upon a sick and dying bed how forward is a person then to change and better his courses much more do solid and evangelical convictions sweetly dispose and incline the heart to the forsaking of an evil and walking in a good way They in Acts 2. 37. were pricked in their hearts and what did this work in them they cry out presently Men and brethren what shall we do So Saul was struck to the ground and was astonished and trembled and then presently cries out Lord what wilt thou have me to do Act. 9. 4 6. Outward afflictions you see many times do put on men to alter and reform their wayes of much greater force are inward afflictions of spirit Go on yet in sin God forbid shall I continue in sin any longer who if I make not haste may lose all mercy and drop into Hell it self what I feel is much what I deserve I cannot bear 2. Holy Wisdome To know times and seasons is an high Holy wisdome part of Wisdome Walk not as fools but as wise redeeming the time saith the Apostle Eph. 5. 15 16. There are four things which solid Wisdome teacheth a man One is to look to the best part Another to make choice of the best good A third to walk in the best wayes A fourth is to do all this in the first place and surest time Have I any thing more near to me then my soul more concerning my soul then God more concerning God then walking before him Where am I if I lose my Soul what am I if I enjoy not God whether run I if I continue in sin if my soul be nearest and God choicest and his wayes safest why do I demur what should I take time or put off the doing of that which is ever best done when it is done If I will live yet in sin for ought I know I may then dye in sin and if I dye in sin I must for ever perish for sin Why should I not Do I not admit the present loss of that which else may be the eternal loss of my Soul But if I set into an holy life this is the very path of God the image of Glory the Ark of safety and the pledg of an happy eternity
In the expression of it and this is when so much Grace appears as to enter into a new path and do new works 3. In the progression of it And this is when a greater Victory is obtained over our sins and appears in our course of new obedience Now the Initials of true Repentance I conjecture to consists partly in the Conversion of the heart when the mind and will and affections are healed and turned and partly in the reformation of the life when the person out of an hatred of sin and love of God sets upon another course of obedience and service It is just like a Ship that is going out or like a Shop that is newly set up things are very raw there is much dross with the little Silver a little health and much lameness a great journey and but a few steps the work is rather in desire and much in complaints and though perhaps little be done yet all is heartily endeavoured to be done this I call the Initials of Repentance There are six things shew that Repentance is begun in truth Six things shew Repentance is begun in truth Condemnation 1. One is Condemnation When the judgement looks upon all sin after another manner then formerly sentencing it as the most vile and accursed of all evils and no sin knowingly finds favour 2. Another is Aversation When the will flies Aversation and shuns it as that which is most contrary to all goodness and happiness 3. A third is Weariness When the Soul is as Weariness weary of Sin as any Porter can be of his Burthen or as a sick-man is of his Bed Psal 51. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise 4. A fourth is Lamentation That the Soul cannot yet be rid of Lamentation the unruly motions and insolencies of sin It is grieved that Life and Death Hell and Heaven Grace and Sin should thus be together 5. A fifth is Resistance or conflict The Soul doth Resistance use the best means it can to separate more from sin and all sinfull wayes and to walk only in all holy pathes in the pathes of righteousness And the sixth is an active Inctination to obey God in all things a thirsting and striving an aiming a writing after the Copy An active Inclination And there are four things which do shew that Repentance is Four things shew that Repentance is but begun Impotency but begun it is only initial 1. One is Impotency or weakness of operation When the penitential parts do move and stir yet like a child who begins to go very feebly There is as much appears in the course as declares another spring or principle and rule by which the Soul strives to walk but the performance is very tender and feeble like a young Tree that hath but tender branches and small fruit The person doth mourn and confess and pray and live and obey but with weakness 2. A second is efficacy of Temptation When Temptations do easily Efficacy of Temptation beset and discourage the Soul as when the Tree is but a young plant the Winds to toss it and make it reel so when Temptations do as it were drive the Soul and are apt to raise quick fears and discouragements Oh! I shall be overcome again I shall hardly hold on I cannot well see how I shall be able to perform and preserve in these wayes which I have chosen A third is the Validity of present Corruption which though it be truly hated and bewailed yet it is very apt upon occasions to assault and Validity of present Corruption prevail when every little stone is apt to make one stumble it argues that the strength is weak 4. Necessary presence of many helps When a Man cannot go but with two Crutches and a Child must lean upon many props and a penitent upon many sensible encouragements Now that these Initials of Repentance are graciously accepted The Doctrine proved God respects the truth as well as the degrees of Grace of God may be thus manifested 1. The Lord doth respect the truth of Grace as well as the degrees of it every quality as well as the quantity Are not thine eyes upon the truth The Goldsmith hath his eye on the very thin raies of Godl as well as on the great knobs and pieces Grace is excellent and amiable at the lowest though then admirable when at highest 2. The main thing that God looks upon is to the heart My Son give me thy God looks most at the Heart heart All that is done if the heart be not in it it is of little or no estimation with God but if the heart be right this the Lord prizeth exceedingly and so much that for its sake he passeth by many infirmities The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart c. 2 Chro. 30. 19. Now in the Initials of Repentance the heart is set right it is set on God and towards God in truth 3. Even the Initials of Repentance are his own Gifts special gifts of his blessed Spirit it is he that worketh The Initials of Repentance are his Cist in us to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. The spirituall will and the spiritual deed though both be imperfect yet are they the genuine effect of Gods own spirit sparks out of his fire works of his own hands Now as in the Creation God looked upon all that he made and saw that it was good he liked it well So is it in our Renovation all that good which God works in us he doth accept and approve he doth not despise his own image which though it shine more fairly in progressive Repentance yet is it truly stampt in our initial Conversion 4. Tâ—at which comes This Springs â—â—om faith not only from a person having faith but from faith it self that the Lord will graciously accept For as our actions do not please him without faith it is impossible without faith to please God So on the contrary when the actions do come from faith they do please the Lord. Abels Sacrifice presented in Faith did please him when Cains presented without faith was not regarded faith puts a value and acceptance on our actions But even initial Repentance comes from faith the person is by faith united to Jesus Christ from whom he hath received strength and grace to forsake his sins and to become a servant of righteousness 5. The Lord hath said that he will not despise the day of small things nor quench the smoaking flax nor break the God will not deâ—pâ—se â—he Day 〈◊〉 â—mall things bruised reed What Husbandman doth despise the little plant which he hath set Or what father doth despise the little child he hath begoten Why that God who hath appointed all the meanes and ordinances to cherish and prop and comfort and nourish and perfect the initials of Repentance doth not he
of the City if the arm or foot slip out of joynt then indeed there is ache and pain instead of ease and quiet so if a penitent person do what is sinful he must not think that God will appear in that amiableness for as God will frown on no man which is in a good way so will he smile Distinguish of Gods expressions of himself and Satans representations of him on no man if found in an evil path 4. Lastly You must distinguish of Gods expression of himself and either Satans or our own unbelieving hearts representations of God Before we repent our own hearts and Satan represent God all in mercy to us and when we do repent so far as our hearts are sinful they are still guileful and conjoyn with Satan to represent God unto us all in Justice and terror But a natural and proper representation is one thing and a preternatural and corrupt representation is another thing How the dispositions and actions of men may present me in their due and real Entity to a man is one thing and how the cunning lies and artificial devices of an envious enemy may report me this is another thing This then is the sense of the assertion That when any person doth truly repent God will not only not upbraid and object unto him his sins but will graciously pass them over and for his part the penitent behaving himself like a penitent and judging of him aright according to his nature and promises shall find all in love graciousness and kindness to him and for him Reasons whereof are these 1. Vpon true repentance sin is Reasons of it Upon true Repentance sin is pardoned pardoned Repent saith S. Peter that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3. And he that forsakes his sin shall find mercy Prov. 28. And Isa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and I will abundantly pardon Whence I infer If sin be pardoned then there is no voice from heaven to be heard but that of Love and kindness Indeed while we continue in sin like Adam we hear the voice of God and are afraid for then it is the voice of his wrath and threatnings but sin being pardoned wrath is removed God is reconciled and his voice now is only the sweet voice of the Gospâ—l not the thunders of Sinai but the glad tydings of Sion Therefore 2. God hath said That he will not God will not break the bruised Reed break the bruised reed and takes it ill from any to add afflictions to the afflicted Now there is no expression more observed by a penitent then Gods Gods expressions are bruising or raising all is for comfort or discomfort as it comes from God the least harshness from him would set back the penitent into an overwhelming multitude of terrors fears and distractions and discouragements the which the Lord likes not having made the soul â—it for his mercies 3. Comfort is the proper expression for the penitent As threatnings are the most proper for an impenitent person Comfort is the proper expression for the Penitent so comfort for a penitent It were a dangerous mistake to give a Vomit when a Cordial is proper binding up is proper for the broken in heart and comfort for mourners and reviving for the contrite Gracioâ—s expressions from God are the very thing which the penitent needs his spirit cannot else live and uphold it self There are two things under which the spirit of man cannot well bear up and sustain it self One is near and strong afflictions without Divine strength Another is the quick sense of sin without the gracious sight of mercies As they are needful so are they seasonable for as much as 1. Satan is most ready to fall fâ—ul upon the Soul upon its Repentance with strongest accusations falsest suggestions and oppressions to overwhelm it with despair as on him in the Corinthians 2. The Heart at such a time is most apt to fear the worst to suspect its own soundness and Gods kindness 3. Nothing would settle and quiet the Spirit of the penitent person more then Gods gracious expressions This is light in darkness life in death the only Restorative to a sensible sinner and a languishing soul Therefore The first Use of this Point shall be to imitate God in this Vse Imitate God in this kindness and goodness kindness of expression and goodness of oblivion When we see persons truly penitential for former sins as we must not call Evil Good so neither must we call Good Evil if God will not mention former sins to a penitent how dare we to do it It is an usual way of a sly and malicious person in his detractations Yea he is so and so now indeed but what was he heretofore And thus he digs up those old rotten corruptions with his malicious tongue which the penitent hath long buryed with many tears and God hath covered with much mercy It is an argument that thou art of a beastly nature who art still in the wounds and not on the sound parts Speak against sin and condemn it as well in thy self as in others with all â—it zeal but spare at least the converted and penitent sinner Never open a wound which God hath healed nor shamefully blaze the sin which God hath mercifully pardoned 2. You see the way to have your sins covered and You see the way to have our sins covered and hid hid Men upon sinful commissions devise many shifts and colours and arts to keep their sins close and hid as if the Sun could be muffled or the Fire stiâ—led or the Wound not cured would not break out No truly repent of sins and that is the best way for to get sins concealed as well as pardoned Now the Lord will not mention them but if we continue impenitent the Lord will set our sins in order they shall break out to our shame as they have broken out to his dishonour But the Father said to his servants Bring forth the best Robe and put it on him and put a Ring on his hand and Shoes on his feet These words are a List of the special favours which were conferred The special favours conferred upon the Penitential Prodigal upon the penitential Prodigal where you have 1. The Number of them 1. The Râ—be 2. The Ring 3. The Shoes a suit large enough from top to toe We need a compleate furniture and God here bestows it 2. The Quality of them 1. The Robe is the best and 2. The Ring is precious and 3. The Shoes are proper and fit and the best God gives unto his people what is most excellent and what is most useful 3. The Order of them first the Robe and then the Ring because if the Allusion be to a Marriage the Wedding Garment is ever put on before the Wedding Ring Or else because the Garment which is the Robe is alwayes more necessary then the Ornament which is the Ring Or which is choicest
becomes malleable nevertheless it is not changed in its Intrinsecal disposition 4. When a man is Formal in duties but not Spiritual in duties he holds a customary course but not a conscientious course this mans heart is not changed Judas was as busie about Christ as the other Disciples yet he was not changed Some unconverted man may be as frequent in religious duties as converted persons are yet their hearts unchanged There are four things which prove a formal Christian to have an unchanged Four things prove a formal Christian to have an unchanged Heart Heart for though he doth good duties yet he doth them 1. From carnal Principles of Custome Education Example not from Faith Love and Spiritual Principles 2. For Carnal Ends with a respect to his Estimation with men not with God or he doth some good to blind and cover more evil 3. As a Carnal or Natural work not as a Communion with God or Christ if he doth them it is sufficient but whether he meets with God in them or God with him in them whether he pleaseth God and God accepts of him and them or what heavenly revenues come into his soul upon them he regards not 4. Without any Delight A good mâ—n hates the sin which he doth an evil man hates the good which he doth he delights not in the Law of God after the Inward man he is glad when the work is done but not to do the work It is his Task it is not his Pleasure It is a Heaviness but not an Heaven to him his Spirit is weary as much as his Body he cannot take hold of God be importunate in prayer for any Grace he doth not put out a Might a Power a Zeal in holy Services but acts them with a sleepy faint wearisome undelightful Spirit 5. When a man hath been and still is a stranger to Inward Conflicts certainly that mans heart was never changed there may be two conditions wherein all may be quiet One is in anothere life where grace stands alone in heaven there is no sin but holiness is grown unto its utmost perfection and therefore it is above contrariety and conflict Another is in this life where sin stands alone it hath the dominion and blinds the mind sears the conscience and hardens the heart there is neither a contrary light nor a contrary grace to raise any stirs and conflicts But then there is a third condition which hath medium participationis in it in which the soul is partly flesh and partly spirit sin is there and grace is there there are two contrary Natures two contrary Lawes two contrary Inclinations and workings two Adamants as it were one drawing the soul to evil the other drawing the soul to good one willing the other unwilling one yielding the other resisting one putting on to â—aith to love to mourning to praying to repenting the other putting off the soul from all these when I would do good evil is present with me saith Paul And verily it is thus with every converted and changed man The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit lusteth against the flesh and these two are contrary one to another so that they cannot do the good that they would Gal. 5. 17. And if no such thing be in thee thy heart was never changed That man who never finds an unbelieving nature opposing and conflicting with a believing nature hardness conflicting with softness c. his heart was never changed for converting grace is in us but in part and if but in part then some sinfulness still remains and believe it there are not two more active more contrary more conflicting principles then grace and sin in the same subject 6. When a man is constantly formal in the same rode and posture all his dayes like a Pioâ—ture never better nor worse Such who seem to be changed without and within but it is not total Two things manifest a partial change When they do not come up fully to the commanding Will of God 3. There are many men who seem to be changed without and within yet the change is not a total or universal change and there are two things which do manifest a partial change only to be in many men 1. When they do not come up fully to God in respect of his commanding will they cannot come up to the Will of God when his Will is most spiritual when his will is most strict as self-denial when his will is most difficult Oh to sacrifice Isaâ—c that beloved Child to part with Benâ—amin this is against them to pluck out the right eye and cut off the right hand this is an hard saying when his will is most suffering For the young man to forsake all his riches this is a sorrowful Injuction to renounce all our honours with Moses and to suffer reproaches with the people of God to leave Friends and Father and Mother and Brethren and Sisters and Children and Lands and Life too as the Apostles did When a man is converted he is now so changed that his will and Gods Will are not sutable but also coextensive It is pliable and it is parallel Gods Will is my will and what he wills I will the Law of God is written in his heart every command of God is ingraven upon it there may you read the Masters Copy and the Scholar writing after it This is to be done saith God this I desire to do saith the Godly heart this I would have thee to believe Lord I believe help my unbelief Thus much I would have thee to suffer Lord strengthen me and give me not only to believe but to suffer for thy sake But in a partial change it is otherwise 2. When they do not fully come up to God in respect of his forbidding Nor to the forbidding Will of God will You know that God forbids all sin he forbids spiritual sins pride ambition c. as well as fleshly sins 2 Cor. 7. 1. little sins faith and troth vain thoughts as well as great sins secret sins alone as well as open sins heart sins heart-adultery revenge malice as well as life sins Gospel sins unbelief and grieving of the Spirit of God as well as Law sins sins of Omission as well as sins of Commission breeding or original sin as well as actual Quest But some may say unto me If the case be so How How a man may know that God hath indeed changed his heart Some things premised There are many aboâ—â—ive changes may one know that God hath indeed converted and changed his very heart so that he may confidently say that although I was once dead yet I am now alive This Question deserves a serious Resolution For 1. There are many abortive changes deluding changes rising from false and insufficient Principles from a terrifyed conscience or from politick parts or from the power of restraint or from denial of occasions or from prevalent passions or from the contrariety of one sin
to another or from a present and sudden apprehension of matters or from the defect of strength or from judicial impressions by the appearing of death or from education or from respect to our superiours and friends and hopes which we have from them c. 2. If the heart should never graciously be changed If the heart be never changed the man is damned as sure as God lives the man will be damned though the man may have parts abilities honours be civil ingenuous candid and punctual with men and in-offensive in his dealings O friends the Heart or Soul is that which God looks on and every man is as his heart is as that is so the man is he is so for the present and he is so for eternity Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God said Christ to Nicodemus Joh. 3. 3. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 17. Old things are past away all things are become new Christ you know is the way the truth and the life Can the Christless man ever be a heavenly man assuredly no Christ no Heaven But then if a man be in Christ he is a new Creature .i. Christ doth change him and forms him a new he strips him of his old heart and puts into him a new heart These things being premised I now come to answer the Case The case answered propounded Only I must crave favour to acquaint you with two things One that I speak not of such a change as implies perfection but only of that which although it be true and saving is nevertheless imperfect for so is all the work of grace in this life Another is that I intend not to give you Characters of a progressive change which may be found in Christians whom God hath called and converted and changed for many years in whom the work of Conversion is come to much maturity and strength but only of an initial change as it stands in truth and sincerity although newly wrought and perhaps it be very feeble and weak yet it is to be found in every man whom Divine Grace doth convert Now this Initial change may be evidenced by the several contrary habitudes and fixed carriages in the converted The initial change evidenced by the several contraricties person as to time past and time present and time future in respect of all which you shall clearly discern a singular alteration if the Conversion be true 1. The first contrariety or alteration respects the time past As to the time past Before the sinner was converted there were four unhappy qualities possessing of him as touching his sinfulness 1. A marvellous blindness and reflexive unsensibleness of his sinful condition dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2. Past feeling Eph. 4. 19. 2. A wonderful erroneousness and false judgment of his estate thinking highly and proudly of himself as once Laâ—dicea did and the Jews and Pharisees did We are Abrahams seed and never in bondage Joh. 8. 33. 3. A miserable security of spirit extreamly careless and negligent about the internal and eternal concernments of his soul alive once without the Law Rom. 7. 9. Soul take thine ease c. They say peace and safety 1 Thes 5. 3. 4. A remorseless pursuing of his sinful lusts without any heart-smiting troubles for his sinning and provoking of God No man repented saying What have I done every one turned to his course Jer. 8. 6. 5. Alienation from the life of God Eph. 4. 18. Thus it was with the man before God converted him and changed him but now behold the alteration and contrariety 1. There is a graciously quick and active quickning light fallen into him which opens his eyes and affects his conscience to a clear and right sight of his sinful heart and life Rom. 7. 9. But when the Commandment came sin revived c. As if the light of the Sun brake into a darkroom and represented all the nastiness in it Acts 26. 18. To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God His sins are set before him and conscience acquaints him with his forepast evils so that he is convinced and can make no defence but cries out with the Leper I am unclean unclean 2. All his erroneous and proud conceits of himself are tumbled down the Mountains are laid low and the man judgeth of himself as if he were the greatest and vilest sinner that ever lived he abhors himself Oh how wicked Oh how vain Oh how vile Oh how mad Oh how foolish Oh how beastly I have been a transgressor from the womb I have lived without God against God none so ignorant none so proud none so filthy none so froward and rebellious against the Will of God against the goodness of God as I In me there dwelleth no good thing I am without strength No man living hath such proper thoughts such humble thoughts of himself as he Oh unfit to dye unworthy to live undone if mercy be not free mercy and abundant mercy 3. His Castle of security is demolished and the secure negligent man becomes now a most anxious and solicitous and careful man about the condition of his soul 2 Cor. 7. 11. What carefulness it wrought in you this now takes him up What shall we do say they to John the Baptist And what shall we do say they to Peter And what shall I do to be saved Acts 16. 30. O my Soul my poor lost wandring sinful undone Soul what shall I do what will become of me and what will become of thee for all these sins And now the man inquires and hears and confers and prayes as for his life Oh saith he I need mercy and mercy I must have I need Christ and Christ I must have I need grace and grace I must have and as that impotent person lay at the Pool for cure so doth this converted sinner he lyes at the pool of the word and at the gates of heaven day and night and there he cries out God be merciful to me a sinner and there he wrestles with God as Jacob once I will not let thee go unless thou bless me until thou be reconciled until I have Christ until my heart be sanctifyed 4. His hardned remorselesness is now turned into a singular brokenness and grief of spirit the Rock is smitten and the waters gush out a Fountain is opened within him He who made but a sport of sinning before he who could grasp the nettles and tread on hell and vex mercy and shoot through the heart of Christ and not be moved or troubled at all Oh now how is the man altered I see him trembling and quaking with Paul I see him bitterly weeping with Peter I see him washing his Couch with David I see him in heaviness and bitterness for his sinnings as one for his first born One while he meditates and then weeps
thus and thus and thus have I dishonoured my God Another while he hears and reads and weeps I am that man O Lord I am he of whom thou speakest I am that sinner Iam he who hath out-faced thy Law out-stood thy offers of grace and resisted Oh how often thy good Spirit 5. He is now for the life of God to be wrought in him This he now prizeth as the most excellent life and for this he praies Lord another heart a new spirit 2. The second contrariety respects the time present And As to the time present there are four things for the time present in a truely changed and converted person which never were in him before 1. A present hatred of sin 2. A present flying unto Christ 3. A present love of God 4. A present course of new obedience 1. When the Lord hath converted and changed the heart of a sinner there is wrought in him a present hatred of sin the man loved his sins before and took pleasure in unrighteousness held it fast and defended it sin is now seen as the greatest evil and the more he sees it the more he hates it As soon as ever the heart is changed immediately it is a sin-hating heart I do not say there is no sin but I say the heart hates sin The evil that I hate said Paul Rom. 7. 15. and in Ezek. 36. where God promiseth to give them a new heart he saith Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Quest But here now is a great Scruple how a person may know that he hates sin Many think they do so and are deceived How a man may know that he hates sin it proves only a passion Sol. In true hatred there are six things 1. An extream detestation Every dislike is not hatred but true hatred is an extream loathing Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloath thou shalt say unto it Get thee hence Isai 30. 22. 2. An earnest separation He that hated his wife did sue out a Bill of divorce from her in the Law 3. An irreconcileable alienation Two angry men may be made friends but if two men hate each other friendship is everlastingly broken betwixt them 4. A constant and perpetual colluctation If they cannot be severed one from the other they still oppose and conflict one with the other 5. A deadly intention and destruction for nothing satisfies hatred but death and ruine Saul hated David and sought his life Absalom hated Amnon and killed him 6. An impartial aversation hatred is of the whole kind I hate every false way Wilt thou now know whether God hath changed thy heart then ask thy heart What is it that thou abhorrest as the superlative evil what is that which thou wouldst have separated as far from thee as heaven is from hell what is that thy heart will never renew league or friendship with any more what is that against which thy soul doth rise and with which as Israel with Amalek thou hast war for ever what is that which thou wilt be avenged of and daily dost endeavour the mortifying and crucifying of what is that which thou sets thy heart against in the comprehensive latitude thereof whether great or little open or secret If it be sin if it be thy sins assuredly here is true hatred of sin and assuredly here is a most distinguishing Character of a sound Conversion and change It was not wont to be thus with thee nor is this findeable in any unconverted person whosoever Sin was once to thee as Dalilah to Samson and now is it to thee as Tamar to Amnon It was a sweet morsel once which thou heldst fast but now it is the menstruous cloath which thou dost cast away and say get thee hence what have I to do any more with Idols If it be thus with thee bless thy God who hath shewed grace to thy soul 2. When the Lord hath changed and converted the heart of a sinner the sinner presently flies unto Jesus Christ The first stroke of Grace is on the heart and the first breathing of Grace is for Christ as the new born babe flies unto the brests or as any creature doth to its center and place of rest For when the heart is changed by converting grace 1. It breeds the most exquisite discovery and sense of sin and consequently of the souls need of Christ 2. It is most impatient of distance or difference with God and prizeth his reconciled favour superlatively cannot live without it 3. It seeth nothing more valuable in it self or more sutable to its condition then Christ Christus amor meus pondus meum And therefore if you take notice of it you may experimentally find upon the first impressions of Grace that the soul is mostly taken up with Christ and with Faith Oh that I might be found in him Oh that I could believe on him It sees excellency in Christ and Peace in Christ and Redemption in Christ and Righteousness in Christ and Grace in Christ and Kindness in Christ and Help and Life and Heaven and all in Christ In Conversion Christ secretly draws the Soul to himself and being converted the soul strives to draw Christ to it self It would have Christ it must have Christ it is never well it is never satisfied until it hath Christ 3. When the Lord hath converted and changed the heart of a sinner there is wrought in him a present love of God It is wonderful to see how the Tide turns upon Conversion There was once one found weeping very bitterly and being demanded why O said he all other things are loved but Amorum amatur Love it self is not loved So before Conversion a man could find love for his Parents and love for his Relations and love for his Recreations and love for his Profits and love for his Sins but no love for God But after Conversion the man can scarce find any love for any unless it be for his God and in his God A graciously changed Heart is enabled to see 1. The glories in God those most Pure and Amiable Excellencies in God 2. The Transcendent Love of God to it in the Eternity of it in the Freeness of it in the Sweetness and Goodness of it 3. The Unspeakable Communications and Bounties of God towards it in Jesus Christ for the present and for the future It is Grace which makes us to see what a gracious God he is It is Grace which makes us to see what a Royal gift Jesus Christ is It is Grace which makes us apprehensive of all the Love in God and from God and therefore no marvel that the changed heart fals presently in love with God O Love the Lord all ye his Saints into a Love of Friendship and into a Love of Complacence as they speake that it admires God and prizeth Communion with him and takes its full and highest
upon the spirit of a man which There may be many changes not inconsistent with the saving change yet are not inconsistent with the saving change of his Spirit Sometimes he may be lively and quick sometimes he may be flat and dull sometimes he may be confident and cheerful and at some other times he may be afraid and mournful sometimes he may be full and enlarged and at some other time he may be aukard and streightned sometimes he may have more sense of Gods Love and sometimes more sense of his own sins None of these things are essential to the converted estate a mans heart may be truly changed by converting grace notwithstanding many crosses and afflictions on his outward estate many eclipses in his comforts many varieties in his spiritual actings many contrarieties twixt his sence and his faith many temptations upon his spirit to many doubts and fears in his heart 4. Sinful corruptions never work with a more sensible strength Sinful corruptions work with more sensible strength when the heart is truely changed then when the heart is truly converted and changed Before Conversion our sins do work more mightily but we do not then perceive the workings because your delight was then in sinning and nothing is burthensome to delight and nothing was in us contrary to our sinnings the strong man kept all the house and every faculty was a friend and servant to sin the river ran all one way But when the heart is converted there is now laid into it 1. The quickest principle of feeling 2. The contrariest principle of resisting 3. The properest principle of destruction to sin and therefore no marvel that we feel our sinful natures more than formerly for all qualities are most active and most felt in cases of resistance and destruction nevertheless none of these must conclude against our Conversion but rather for it because 1. The greatest work of grace is inward 2. The sense of sinful workings joyned with an hatred of them and humbling of the heart under them and with addresses to God for subduing power is certainly a sign of converting grace Therefore hearken unto me thou distressed soul 1. Though the Glory of Grace consists in Victory yet the Truth of Grace appears in Combats the fighting Souldier is as right to the cause as the conquering Souldier there is fire in the smoking flax as well as in the flaming furnace 2. That great corruptions still remaining in temptation are the burdens of a weak Christian but are not the Characters of a false Christian 3. Jesus Christ can by a little grace weaken strongest corruptions The least true grace will help thy soul to Christ through whose strength thou who art now in conflict shalt ere long be made more than a Conqueror 4. True grace begins in weakness goes on with combat but ends in victory There is but little light at the first and more darkness for quantity but the light of the Sun is rising and dissipating and at length remains alone Conquering grace hath comfort conflicting grace hath strength and even mourning grace hath truth Peter's tears shewed truth of Grace as well as Paul's Triumph But how may I descern my change to arise from the power of converting How it may be discerned that this change is from converting grace and â—ot from the power of a troubling coâ—science Answered grace and not from the power only of a troubling conscience Sol. I conceive thus in four particulars 1. When the change is made only from the sting of conscience that change goes off and vanisheth when the trouble of conscience goes off and continues only while that doth continue whiles the trouble of conscience is on the man the man will hear and the man will pray and the man will consult and profess and resolve yea and now too to become a new man yea and he will cry out against his sins and will not come near his sins But when that trouble is off all is off again the Water which was heated grows cold again Saul is pursuing David again and Foelix is covetous again But if the change be from grace though trouble be off yet the heart is against sin and is for good for grace sets us against sin as it makes us unholy and evil and not only or principally as it makes us uncomfortable and miserable 2. When the change ariseth only from a troubling conscience not from a contrariety to God but to us It doth not arise from a hatred of sin and a love of good but only from a hatred of torment a self-love and a love of ease the man loves that sin that he dares not now commit and hates the good which now he doth he doth the good only as a means to take off his trouble he doth it not as a work in which he delights nor doth he flie sin as an evil which he hates he flies sin as it is malum sensibile not as it is malum spirituale But in a gracious change trouble doth not cause hatred but hatred causeth trouble of sin 3. When the change is only from a troubling conscience then when the trouble is gone the mans heart is more hardned and he growes more wicked then ever before and in after sinnings less sensible and less troubled as Iron growes more hardned after it hath been in the fire or water that is stopped more violent If they be again intangled and overcome the latter end is worse with them then the beginning 2 Pet. 2. 20. But where the heart is changed by grace the more grace still the more sense of sin and still the more fear to sin and still the more love of God 4. When the change comes only from the trouble of conscience the change extends no further then to that or those particular sins for which the conscience doth trouble the man if the other sins trouble not they are not left But when the change is wrought by grace this change extends to all sins I hate every evil way saith David they do no iniquity Psal 119. Let us â—leanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7. 1. Quest How may a man know that his change is not the fruit of Hypocrisie but of Converting grace Sol. This may be discerned How it appears this change is not the fruit of Hypocrisie thus 1 The change by Hypocrisie 1. Is not Cordial no Hypocrites heart is changed In heart ye work wickedness The Hypocrite dares to give way to heart sins Judah turned Answered not with her heart but feignedly 2. Is not Vniversal The Prophet tells the hypocritical Israelites that they were as a Cake half baked and not turned an hypocrite though he forsake many sins yet he loves some sin Jehu cannot part with the golden Calves though he did destroy Baal 3. Is not lasting but changeable sutable occasions are too strong for an heart felsely changed 4. Is not able to abide three Trials of
the Peny as well as the Shilling bears the Superscription 4. That the least degree of true Grace denominates the condition to be converted I would believe is Faith I would love thee is Love I desire to do thy will is Obedience Not Strength but Truth denominates 5. True Grace and many Conflicts go together Let the motions of sin be never so vile but I hate them never so many but I resist them here Grace is the Lord which rules me though sin be the Enemy which molests me Why am I thus Alas there are contraries in thee Light and Darkness Flesh and Spirit 6. True Grace and some Failings may lodge together I may at the same time be a Captive to Sin and yet a Servant to Grace sin may sometimes be too strong even for him who hates sin 7. All services to God are interpreted and accepted by God according to the will of a converted person Although thou canst not pray so freely so fully so uniformly yet if God see a will in thee desirous so to do it shall pass for currant groans and sighs and chatterings and desires and tears c. 8. Thou never doest any Duty but Jesus Christ gives acceptance unto it by his Intercession his sweet Incense takes off the ill savour The greatest work done by thee if it comes in thy own name is rejected the weakest if presented in his Name a sigh or groan is graciously accepted as the Sacrifices by the Priest 9. God never expects thou shouldest buy out thy own pardon or bring from thy self any satisfaction for any of thy sins he hath designed that work onely to Jesus Christ in whom he hath accepted thee and for whose sake alone he doth and will discharge thee You trade in Heaven upon gracious terms when you come for any grace and help thy Reasons and Motives are in God who gives and freely gives 10. As soon as ever converting Grace prevails upon thy heart Salvation is come to thy soul Thou art now a Believet and if a Believer a Son and if a Son an Heir of all the comfortable Promises now and a Co-heir with Christ hereafter 11. The Lord will bless thy buds and increase thy stock of Grace He will water as well as plant it 12. That little Grace shall never fail thee never leave thee till it brings thee to Heaven The greatest Grace is imperfect and the least Grace is invincible the greatest Grace is weak and the weakest Grace is immortal Now if Christians did believe all these Truths and would consider of them would not their condition be more joyfull Here 's a Weakness I but it is Grace that Grace is little I but it comes from Graciousness and makes me gracious O how many conflicts I but 't is 'twixt Grace and Sin yea and many sinnings I but not love of sin no voluntary service But how poor in Duties I but God regards the Will But what will become of me for my former sins Why Christ hath satisfied and God hath pardoned But if I had strength of Grace I might take comfort Why the weakest Convert is a Believer and the weakest Believer hath Christ Ergò Secondly to Persons long since converted What should they To persons long since converted Often examine and review your Speritual condition Be upright do to walk with joyful hearts I answer 1. Often examine and review your Spiritual condition this will keep you and God friends often look upon the evidences of Gods favour to your Souls and maintaine and cleare them if blotted Such experiences are bathes of Comfort Remember the days of old 2. Be upright maintain the Oyl and you maintain the light The work of Righteousness shall be peace and the effect of Righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Isai 32. 17 A stable Spirit will further a stable Joy one â—â—y step puts the bone out of joynt That man loseth his Spiritual pleasure who steps out for sinful pleasure remember Davids swarving and Peters and Jacobs 3. Live by faith We never meet wiâ—h more troubles Live by faith then when we shift for our selves That man who can trust God most him doth God trust with most Grace and peace see Habak 3. 17 18. 4. Hold up close communion with God Hold up close communion with God and his people he who rrades most at heaven gets the greatest stock of Grace and comfort even the neglect of one prayer may lose a man much comfort be satisfied with God alone and let not out your minds to earthly things And that one sermon which thou didst overslip brought in exceeding Joy to thy fellow Christian 5. Walk in the fear of God all the day long Walk in the fear of God all the day long Self-confidence makes the person to lye down in tears but he who feares to sin fortifies his Graces and comforts expose not your selves to Temptations 6. Renew a solemn and speedy Peace Renew peace upon every fall upon every fall Light may quickly be restored to a candle newly blown out and the bone displaced may presently be set again Let not a disease settle 7. Engage not thy mind to vain and new Engage not to new opinions Opinions Mind the maine things of Life and Salvation and not profitable strifes He who hath not more Grace to get hath assuredly much comfort to lose an Unsetled Judgment will quickly raise an uncomfortable heart 8. Preserve an humble and contented Spirit Pride is the father of discontentment Preserve an humble and contentâ—d Spirit and Discontentment is a prison to our Graces and a Sea to our comforts Thy Graces will not be pleasant to thee if thy outward condition please thee not 9. Be active and thriving That Be active and thriving man who doth most for God doth also most for his own comfort Barrenness is no good sign of Life and therefore no good way for comfort the travelling Bee is laden with hony Thriving Grace is a clear evidence of truth and adds to our excellency and our joy FINIS
holy men Glory and Salvation is their end some end by way of corruption as when the beauty of a thing is marred or a goodly body is turned and ends in a loathsome carkass or sweet Wine turns to sharp Vineger After this manner doth sin end or a sinful course end as it was with the day in which Sodom was destroied it began with the pleasant light of the Sun but it ended in fire and brimstone Thus was it with those sinners their delightful flames of lust ended in horrid flames of Vengeance There are two sorts of sorrow and trouble one Penitential and the other Judicial one of these sin must end in Achans wedge pleased his eie but it lost his life Ahabs desire was satisfied to get Naboths Vineyard but his blood paid for it in the portion of Jezreel Gehazi obteined the garments and talents and at the end a Leprosie to his dying day Judas gets favour with the chief Priests and money to betray his Master but he got horrour of conscience final despair and damnation for his treachery The young man in the Proverbs is inticed with the filthy flattery of the Prov. 7. 17. Whore her bed was perfumed with Myrrhe but her house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death those chambers 17. of delight prove chambers of death But to open this in some particulars Quest 1. To what extreme miseries and streits may sin bring the sinner Sol. 1. To those of Body sin may be rottenness of his bones and may infect him with the most nasty irking painful diseases Miseries of body that he shall have no rest in his flesh it may so poison his marrow inflame his spirits corrupt his humors that many times the body which was the instrument of sin proves to be the great torment of the sinner 2. To those of Estate sinning may eat out a goodly estate as the worm which is gnawing at the root of Oâ— estate a tree disrobes it disflourishes it pines and shrivels it though a man hath quick parts ample dealings yet if he has secret waies of sinning his sins will blast him they will be as the Moth which eats out the garment or as the canker to the brass or iron How many by such such sinnings are quickly stript laid low brought to a morsel of bread and are cloathed in rags as the Prodigal here in the tex wasted himself out of all 3. To those of Name Of name which is one of the three precious and tender things viz. a mans Eye a mans Conscience and a mans Name This is a precious Fama Fides Oculus ointment a mans life is as his name is yet sinning casts a flie into that ointment a blur upon that copie it procures reproach and shame an hissing a Proverb a by-word an odious name a name that shall perish 4. To those of Conscience which are Of conscience streits indeed so that a man is almost distracted knows not which way to turn himself either to God or man day nor night is weary of life and yet afraid to die he fears God he fears man he fears himself he fears the shadows of things 5. To those of the imagining and thinking part of man a mans heart shall do nothing Of the imagiâ—ing and thinking part of man but meditate terrour apprehend guilt see the formâ— of bitter sinnings and the Idea's of infinite wrath kindling from God against him so that he shall be still amazed at the representation of his former sinnings or at the expectation of future judgments 6. To those of the affecting part all his aâ—fections shall rise up as a tumult Of the affecting part within him burthens of cruel fear tremblings of a fainting grief and thick throws of hopeless despair Quest 2. But why is it that sins or sinful courses end in such extreme miseries and streits Sol. Reasons thereof are many Reasons of it 1. Because though the beginning of sin be from a deceived heart yet The ending of sin is from a just God the ending of sin is from a just God The corrupt heart begins sin deluded thereto by sinful pleasure but God puts a period to the sin in just judgment in wrath and tribulation upon every soul that does evil What we conceive about sin is one thing and what God will do to the sinner is another thing we make it sweet but God will make it bitter at the latter end The intentional way of theft is with delight but the judicial end of theft is death so Finis 1. â—peris 2. operantis is it in all sinnings the intention of the sinner is to please his own corrupt heart but the judicial end of it which belongs to God he being the righteous Judg offended is misery 2. The true effects of sin must be made manifest Men would not The â—rue 〈◊〉 of sin must be made manifâ—st onely question the Righteousness of God but the unlawfulness of sin if sinning should end peaceably Well might they say with him I have cleansed my heart in vain if sin should end in peace and blessing but God by this dolefull Catastrophe of sin doth convince man that sin deceives them while it pretends so much pleasure delight contentment and at length repays them with shame loss horrour and despair 3. Hereby men should learn To put a difference betwixt them that fear God and that fear him not that there is a difference twixt them who fear God and such as fear him not For indeed in this among many other things do godly ways and the ungodly differ The Godly begin oft times in sorrow in trouble but the end of them is peace at the last we see and meet with the worst of our journey at the first as the Israelites did with the Wilderness and Sea but they came to Canaan at length but the Ungodly ways yield their best at first their vanity delights like painted colours fall off and their worst is hidden and appears at last Alas thou doest not imagine that hell which thy sinnings are kindlings or that sword which it is unsheathing or that death which it is breeding or that horrour which it is maing within thee against thee these are now hid from thy eyes but yet they are the end of thy sinnings I now come to the application of this point Is the entrance of sin pleasant and is that pleasure but short and ends that pleasure Vse in miserable extremity then 1. for 1. Information We may hence be informed That all things are not right and safe which yet are pleasant The ways of a man Information All things are not safe which yet are pleasant seem right in his own eyes said Solomon and the motives of sin seem pleasant to our corrupt hearts yet sinfull ways are false and sinfull pleasures are nought and short The first demand of any in point of opinion should be how
to take heed of sinning though mixt with pleasures and delights Consider these motives Motives 1. What thing that is wherein thou doest take pleasure Why What is that wherein thoâ— doest take pleasure what is it O man that hath enticed thee and what is it O man which in thee is so enticed It is sin that hath enticed thee and it is thy soul which is thus enticed by sin Sin enticeth thee then which no evil is worse thy soul is enticed then which no part in thee is so precious And wilt thou adventure that precious soul that immortal soul which must live for ever wilt thou adventure it for a sin for one draught of sinfull pleasure Wouldest thou adventure all thy earthly estate for one draught of Beer as Esau did his for one mess of pottage Thou wouldest not Yet wilt thou adventure the eternal being of thy soul for one minutes pleasure of sin Though thy sins be pleasant in thine eyes yet they are odious in Gods sight though thy sins do delight thee yet they do grieve him they do incense and provoke him Hast thou nothing to take pleasure in but that which provokes thy God and will damn thy soâ—l 2. Thou mayest enjoy thy pleasures without sin Hast thou not Thou mayest enjoy thy pleasures without sin a Wife to delight thee an Husband Children many outward comforts not a God not a Promise not a Christ that thou longest onely for forbidden fruit 3. Is sin a thing to take pleasure in did it not shed the bloud of Is sin a thing to take pleasure in Christ doth it not break a righteous Law transgress an holy Will grieve the Spirit of God cast the clouds of threatnings over our heads bring down all our Judgements on body kindle our terrours in Conscience heap up all our wrath against the day of wrath is this the thing of thy pleasure call you this a delight If one should say unto thee Be drunk commit filthiness and within an hour after thy whole body shall be roasted in a fire or thy skin shall be flead off thee or every bone in thy body should be distinctly broken in pieces wouldst thou now sin And what are these punishments to sins themselves and what are these punishments to those of Conscience or to that of Hell 4. God can easily shorten thy pleasures of sin and he hath many God can easily shorten thy pleasures of siâ— waies to do it First Is not his Word of mighty power is it not a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart can it not divide twixt the marrow and the joint Is it not a light and a fire Is it not the sword of God a two-edged sword able to pierce and that with quickness and that with sharpness Or Secondly if yet thou be able to maintein thy sins and by the strength of sensual pleasures to beat off the purest convictions and revelations and pursuits of the Word cannot the Spirit of God drive home the sharp displeasure of God cannot he break through the midst of all thy resolutions and delights and so enter into thy conscience can he not in a moment awaken that drouzie conscience can he not inliven that seared conscience can he not injoin it to stand up and act its accusing power when he hath irresistably inlightned it and set the great sins of thy delight before thee and when conscience is deeply wounded where then are all thy pleasures O it will be as bitter then unto thee as hell the wrath of God felt and the guilt of sin felt and the terrors of Conscience felt O how will they drown thy pleasures sink thy spirits and if God be not the more merciful confound thy soul Yet this God can do and he can easily do it if he saith but the word My wrath be upon him Conâ—cieâ—ce arise and accuse him it is done and then where are thy dâ—lights Those sins of thine unto which thou hast been enâ—iced by a little false pleasures even they alone shall rise up and be the sufficient punishment for all their pleasures Or Thirdly He can shorten thy pleasures by many Judgements he can lay such a disease upon thy body or such a loss on thy estate or such a rottenness on thy name or such a vexation upon thy spirit or such a madness in thy mind or such a cross in thy delight that thou shalt find no more pleasure in any thing Or Fourthly Can he not send forth the King of Fears that which thou least thinkest of and which will make thy joynts to tremble Death it self upon thee Hath not He the Keys of Life and Death and when life is gone where then are the pleasures of thy sin Sin makes way for death and death to a wicked man though it makes not an end of his sinning yet it makes a full end of the pleasures of sinning thou shalt never rejoyce in the way of thy wickedness more thou shalt never taste delight more neither lawfull delight nor unlawfull delight And cannot God do this suddenly and art thou able to withstand him art thou greater then he 5. Thy pleasures of sin will end in bitterness Read the Scripture Thy pleasures of sin will end in bitterness see whether it be not so and I beseech thee tell me hast thou not found it so already canst thou not say That thy sin hath been an evil thing and bitter Canst thou not say What fruit have I in those things whereof I am now ashamed Two things remember There is a certainty of bitterness for former sinnings Eccl. 11. 9. Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment 2. Thou knowest not the manner of that bitterness The sinning that is thy work but the punishing of thy sins that is Gods work thou hast taken the pleasures which sin delivered unto thee and thou must now take the bitterness which God will inflict on thee And canst thou tell 1. When the Lord will begin to account with How sudden thee either to night or to morrow thou art not secure a moment Secondly How the Lord will begin with thee whether How great in thy body or in thy soul or in both in conscience or estate Thirdly How far the Lord will extend the cup unto thee perhaps How endless it shall be in thy hand a cup of fury and trembling and amazing horrour and whether he will have thee to drink to the lowest dregs of his wrath how knowest thou This bitterness after thy pleasures may be purely judicial which shall not be tempered with any comfort nor yet at all with the hope of any mercy it may be an endless displeasure from God Object Yea but we mean to repent hereafter and so we
often an eye-salve than an heart-salve they may be a qualm to bring sin to sence when yet they are not a potion to bring off the sinner from wandring 3. Again twixt impediment to sin and twixt amendment of sin Impediment to sin and amendment of sin Miseries and straits may be a Dam to stop the Current when yet they are not like the Prophets salt effectual to heal the waters A Lock may stop a Thief but not alter him When the the Prophet Eliah met Ahab with a sharp message about Naboth's bloâ—d and Vineyard it made him go softly it cooled his spirit but did not change it Miseries more ordinarily for the present make men less forward and bold in sin as Jupiter's Log did quash the noise of the Frogs when yet they make them not so good as to turn them from sin They do like a shower of rain and hail make the Traveller to stand a while under the Tree who yet intends to hold on his journey again 4. Again twixt Declamation and Declination A sinner under misery may play the Oratour and yet never prove the Penitentiary Declamation ' and Declination he may both indite and accuse the sin which yet by no means he intends to condemn and execute It is one thing to confess that my sins do now hold me in bonds of affliction and thereupon to profess a discharge of such inmates and it is another thing really to repent and to forsake those sins yea the very those which a man more then suspects as patrons of his misery So that straits may bring sin to sight and the sinner to a stand and to a confession yet not always to repentance and to conversion which is true This is true 1. Of inward straits those manacling and severe fetters of conscience to which no distresses are comparable The boylings of Of Inward straits conscience may be but like the boylings of the Sea a person may have many guilts fretting there like a Leprosie and gnawing there like death and flaming there like hell it self and yet not be brought off from sin As Judas who betrayed his Master O think of that sin and fell into quick horrours of conscience and these cured him not but he proceeded to despair and then to self-murther 2. Of outward straits which do never come without cause but many times go off without remedy they may in all the sorts of Of Outwardâ— straits them say oft times as they did of Babylon We would have healed Babylon and she would not be healed They find us evil and they leave us worse as we do our friends upon their dying-beds Ye revolt more and more why should ye be smitten any more Isa 1. 5. This is evident in Pharaoh whose hardnings increased like the iron with the stroaks Or like the Snake which Salvian spake did multiply by occision It was no better with Saul and Ahab nor with that King Ahaz who is blackt and fingred out amongst all the Kings of Judah because he sought not to the Lord in his distress but trespassed yet more against the Lord This is that King Ahaz 2 Chron. 28. 22. Thus it was with the Israelites many a time who felt the scourage but mended not their work but with bleeding shoulders oft times went away to sin and no sooner were the Assizes past but they adventured the way to the prison again If you now demand the Reasons why straits or miseries do not Reasons of it always bring men off from sins I answer 1. Because that onely true Grace is it which brings men off from sins Afflictions may be considered two ways either immediately Onely true grace brings men off from sin and solitarily so they are not forcible to bring any man oâ—f from his sinfull course no punishment whatsoever is an immediate Agent and sufficient to turn a sinner Mediately and concomitantly as they are sanctified i. either as they light upon an heart sanctified or as sanctifying Grace with them or by them is wrought in the soul and so they may bring off the heart from sin not the naked afflictions but grace in the heart afflicted turns the heart for nothing turns the heart from sin buâ— that which is contrary unto sin now though miseries are contrary to the sinner yet not to the sin they are contrary to the sinners ease and way but not to the affection and delight of sin which may and oft times doth live and remain even under extreme miseries Now then many men are in miseries by reason of sin yet they turn not from sin because they want true grace by the strength of which alone men come off from sin for that it is which changeth the sinfull heart You know that Physick ordinarily works as the body is into which it is received there must be some strength of nature to help it else it will not work the Philosophers rule being true Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis The heat which melts the wax hardens the clay and the juice which goes into the Rose makes it sweet but that which goes into the Nettle makes it stink so it is with miseries they work as he is on whom they fall if true grace be not in the heart what good use can an evil heart make of them 2. Secondly Because straits and miseries are sometimes meerly judicial onely the strokes of revenging Justice You know that Straits are somtimes meerly judicial there is a great deal of difference 'twixt a whip which causeth smart and a plaister which causeth healing All miseries which befall us are not healing plaisters sometimes they are judicial lashes they are not the wounds of a friend but of an enemy God is said in Job to distribute sorrows in wrath and then they are not remedial effects but exitial they come not then with their teaching and recovering assistance but are the beginnings of a greater judgment yet to come You know that God plagued Pharaoh in a judicial way the miseries which befel him were as sharp and great and many and came as thick as most that ever befel any man of whom we ever read nevertheless they were so far from reclaiming of him from his sins that still he hardned his heart and exalted himself If you should demand why it should be thus with him that no not quick nor great nor many plagues did him any good I answer One cause amongst many is this Because they came onely in a judicial way they did not come out of the hand of a mercifull Father but of a provoked and revenging Judge If there be not grace in the heart to joyn with and to improve the affliction and if there be not mercy to send out and bless the affliction it will then never do us good it will not turn us from our Sins 3. Thirdly The Heart of a Sinner may be above his miseries There is not such a power in miseries alone as to
will not become obedient he can quickly destroy us for our disobedience There is a day wherein God offers himself to be ours in grace and peace how long or how short that day is I cannot justly determine onely of this we may bee sure that God may in justice refuse us for ever if we refuse him once Note these Scriptures and they may perhaps awaken and recall us Ezek. 24. 12. She hath wearied her self with lies and her great sâ—um went not forth out of her her scum shall be in the fire v. 13. In thy filthiness is lewdness because I have purged thee by afflictions and thou wast not purged by repentance thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee Ver. 14. I the Lord have spoken it it shall come to pass and I will do it I will not go back neither will I spare neither will I repent aocording to thy waies and according to thy doings shall they judge thee saith the Lord God Luke 19. ver 42. Oh! if thou hadst known even thou at the least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eies Hebr. 3. ver 10. I was grieved with that generation and said they do alwaies err in their hears and they have not known my waies Vers 11. So I sware in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest Psal 81. ver 11. But my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me v. 12. So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels These four places do afford us four sad things which may befal persons refusing to return from their sins and deluding that work 1. That the Lord will not still be usiâ—g of means 2. That he will draw off the means 3. He will leave such sinners and give them up to themselves 4. They shall never enter into his rest and this the Lord binds with an Oath Every one of these is a Judgment sufficiently fearfull for what shall become of the sinner when the Lord shall judicially draw off the means of his Conversion or if the means be continued in common to others yet he will not work any more upon that person through them but he shall despise the counsels of the Word and slight the message of all Afflictions and that a person should run so far and so high in a way of wickedness that the Lord gives him over as a desperate hopeless and forlorn wretch to walk in his own counsels and after the lusts of his own heart and when the Lord seals him up by his Oath that this is a person who shall never see my face though many a sinner shall be pardoned and saved yet this sinfull Transgressor shall never enter into my rest Now what doth the sinner know who seeks new ways to secure his sinning and opposeth thereby all the ways which God useth for his converting I say how doth he know but that the Lord will deal thus with him God hath dealt so with some for dealing thus with him he closed up the day upon Jerusalem and left the Israelites to their own hearts lusts and never answered Saul any more neither by Prophets nor by Dreams and threatens to remove the Candlestick Revel 2. 3. Consider That if the Lord should shew almost the Miracle of his Goodness towards such a shuffling sinner his Conversion The conversion of such a one will be will be 1. the Harder 2. the more Bitter It will be the Harder for as much as all further degrees and steps The Harder in sinning do engage the heart more to the love of sin and naturally infers more hardness of heart and resistance against the motions of Grace When a Skaine of Thread is more and more clotted and entangled it will be the harder to clear it and a Cord may be so knotted that you cannot undo it but by cutting it asunder Though the work of Conversion be not difficult to God yet the far running sinner shall find it for his part a more intricate and hitching thing to wind his heart from those acts and paths of iniquity into which it hath been so long accustomed However it will be the Harsher the child which sticks so often in the birth causeth the birth to be Or the harsher more sharp and dolorous Usually the more sinfull a man hath been and the longer he hath held off God his soul is more cut partly with Fears for now he hath many doors to unlock ere he can fasten on grounds of comfort not onely that he hath held on a course of sin so long but also that he hath so subtilly and frequently withstood the tenders of grace and Gods manifold dealings with him already Though the person may have grace truly wrought in him to make him see all this vileness yet it may be long ere his faith shall be able comfortably to apprehend Gods mercy to forgive it He may have doubts not onely of mercy but of the truth of his conversion as if it seemed rather to be compulsive God may long withhold from him the testimony of his love who hath a long time perversly withheld the consent of his heart from returning unto him Partly with Shame It will be an exceeding reproach and confusion of face unto this person when ever the Lord converts him that he should deal with the Lord thus resist his Spirit so much and withstand that great kindness of God intended to him by the many means which he hath used Surely after that I was turned I repented saith Ephraim and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth Jer. 31. 19. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Ezek. 36. 31. Ah! how it will rent and press the soul Such a fool such a beast was I to pursue my own ruine to reject my own mercies to slight so great salvation to vex so good a God and to be so infinitely unthankfully base that if I could have found any means of support I would never have submitted unto him and left my sinfull course Ah! how doth the Lord take this at my hands how unacceptable may my returning now be which may seem rather to be forced through extremity than to spring out of any ingenuity So that you see by our sinfull shiftings either God may deny us converting grace or else we shall make our Conversion much less easie and comfortable Object But some may say What can we help it can we turn our own hearts it must be the Lord who must do that and he We cannot convert our selves might do it at the first as well at at the last if he would Sol.
are but stolen waters and at the best but for a season they will end bitterly and on the contrary That Repentance from sin makes way for the most precious fountains of the most living comforts that it enables a man for a nearer conjunction with the truest happiness and fulness of most infinite goodness and lets in to such pleasures and joyes which pass all understanding c. Now the soul is reduced to a right judgment and begins to contemn those false vain deluding temptations by sin and is carried off to another course or way which will afford the real solid superlative advantages in happiness and comfort c. 2. This Comparison will win our love and affection to a Converted and penitent condition It is true that as long as the heart loves This wins our love to a converted condition sin it will never leave it for love is an iron clasp a strengthning quality a strong and tenacious quality but if a mans love be changed then his sinfull wayes will quickly be changed for that way doth the heart and life go that love doâ—h go they are not out who say that Amor is Radix actionum as well as Passionum Now by a right comparison of estates there will appear in a converted and penitent condition the sole and sufficient causes of Love viz. Good and the best good and only good and most proper and sutable good all which is apt to draw love and consequently Repentance for as much as Conversion from sin begins in love to God 3. This comparing of estates in the wofulness of the one and This occasionally stirs up the beat to fly to God by Prayer and in the use of meanes in the happiness of the other that the one is death and the other is life as Moses propounds it to the Israelites occasionally stirs up the heart to fly unto God by prayer and in the use of other means for grace and ability to leave the paths of death and to walk in the wayes of life for naturally men do affect life and happiness and are afraid of death and misery The first Use which I would make of this shall be for Information Use For information Of the cause why many are yet in their sins You here see the Cause why many are yet in their sins that they repent not though we preach though God punisheth though man counsels Surely they never yet did search their hearts and wayes they never did consider of what they have done they are like the Laodiceans who thought themselves to be rich and increased and to stand in need of nothing but they never yet saw their blindness nakedness and extreme poverty and misery There are many duties unto which men will be perswaded as to hear the Word receive the Sacrament give some Almes say some Prayers and now and then to confer of some good but of all the duties which do so nearly concern them they are hardly perswaded to this viz. to consider of their sins 't is true they will confess That all men are sinners and themselves too but as some do with their debts they care not to see and view them so many with their spiritual estates they have no mind to search into them to look them over to meditate of the Vileness of them Consider these things 1. That this inconsideration leaves many a sin already committed upon a sad account God doth consider Considerations to such as doe not Consider their wayes them though we will not they are in his book and before his eye though we will not think and look on them 2. That it ripens sin exceedingly The heart which will not consider of past will break out into sin future it will be high in sinning if negligent in considering he will venture deeply who knows not the nature nor the merit of sinning 3. All the work of Repentance will lye flat and dead Why where can be that brokenness of heart that filial lamentation for sinning that remorse of spirit that indignation that detestation of it that resolution against it that watchfulness and fear until by a sound consideration we come to see the vileness and miserableness of sinning c. He who thinks his way right will not turn aside and that man who knows no better will never leave or change a bad course 4. You advantage Temptations exceedingly You are under the edge and power of them all for you see nothing to hinder you the motions to sin will pass without any contradiction for you know not the evil nor misery of being impenitent Great sins will seem but little little will seem none how easie is he to sin who considers not the great evil in sin 5. All the edge of the Ordinances is blunted and dulled by inconsideration they are but water on the Tiles which passe away For what are Threatnings against sin what operation have they on us to make us tremble and humble our hearts whiles we hear them as Pieces discharged at others not at our selves And so what force have the Precepts for new Obedience or the Promises for much mercy to the Penitent until we see that we are the men as Nathan said to David whom all this concerns 6. You will never prize Christ aright nor the love of God in giving of Christ nor will you ever seek him to purpose with hungrings and thirstings until you do seriously consider of your sinful estates A man if whole will not seek to the Physician and if he hath but a scratch will not send to the Chyrurgion No sense or slight sense of sin hath no influence on ouâ— affections but let a man sadly view and find out that he is bad indeed out with God ready for Hell must perish for sin this man will cry out Is there no Balm in Gilead is there no hope for us sinners He will enquire for a Saviour and when he knows him he will with tears beseech him O the hope of Israel and the Saviour thereof in the time of Trouble Master have mercy on me or else I perish if thou canst do any thing save me 7. You will never come to any true setledness nor grounded assurance of peace with God nor in your own Consciences until you do throughly consider of your sinful conditions and estates For how know you whether you be good or bad in Covenant or out of Covenant with God that he will save you or condemn you what shall become of you when you die Untill you by solid Consideration find out the vileness and miserableness of your sinful condition out of which you must indeed be translated if ever you would be saved or know assuredly that you shall be saved 8. You will not know how to make special requests unto God For you know not the nature nor danger of that pride of that hypocrisie of that uncleanness of that envy and malice c. which are in you When we do not know what our selves
are what our estates are we can never make special requests for the supply of special wants either we make no prayers at all or only general and faint and flat Petitions 9. Lastly If you will not think on your wayes with a Penitential Consideration you must one day think on them with a Judicial Consideration T is better to consider of them now and Repent then to feel them and find them in Hell and be Damned Object But you 'l say We are Ignorant and it belongs to This belongs to such as have learning such as have Learning to consider throughly of their sinful estates Sol. 1. It doth indeed belong to the Learned but not only to them A learned conscience is necessary for every sinner though not a Answered learned head the Subject who should consider is not the learned man but the lamed sinner art not thou one 2. God hath given thee a Reflexive Faculty a conscience a memory inabling thee to review what hath been done thou hast these still in thee and thou canst make use of them for other businesses why not in this 3. But then study the Word more that thou mayest thence be inlightned to conceive of sin aright c. get knowledg get understanding c. Obj. But we are not at Leisure we have so much business to do c. We are not at leisure Sol. 1. This is a most necessary work it deserves thy pains and time What not at leisure to save thy soul at leisure Answered to eate to drink to play to be idle to sin and not at leisure to consider of sin to repent of sin to save thy self from sin Have you leisure to go to Hell and none to goe to Heaven 2. It is a most Beneficial work it will deliver thee from Hell and make way for Heaven 3. It is the mâ—st excellent work that thou canst spend time upon the change of thee from Sin to Grace from a sinful to an holy condition it is a glorious change even into the Image of God in Christ Object But it will make me nothing but mourn and sigh and Object It will make me morne despair and fear Answered despair and fear Sol. 1. So Satan tells thee so doth not God nor his Word tell thee 2. If consideration of Sin breeds godly sorrow for Sin and Godly sorrow Repentance unto Salvation thou hast little cause to grieve to be thus grieved 3. Nay the neglect of timely consideration that is the cause indeed of such fear and despair O say men had we thought of this course known this heretofore we had never run on so we had never come into this extremity of horror c. It is with sin as it is with diseases if taken or not taken in time Another Use which I would make of this Point shall be of Use 2. To Settle and Relieve Troubled Souls Satisfaction to settle and relieve troubled Souls who fear much whether they have ever throughly and rightly considered thus of sin or no and consequently fear the truth of their Repentance For the fuller satisfying of them I will propound some Cases the Resolution of which may afford more clear Some Cases Resolved for Satisfaction Case 1. How a man may know his Consideration is Right If it work in him a Condemnation of Sin light 1. How a Christian may know that his consideration of sin is right and penitential I conjecture thus 1. If it work in him a Condemnation of sin Before a man consider aright of sin he is ready to call the proud happy he knows how to commit sin and to approve it and defend it and plead for it Sin seems his daintiest bit and choicest bait as if nothing else bore delight and contentment but sin but when the heart is brought rightly to ponder and to consider of sin he is enabled not only to condemn sin in the general thus sin is an evil thing but also in particular these my sins are vile and evil things I have done exceeding foolishly said David O that I should ever open my mouth for them that ever I should love them follow them as I have done I now behold them as the only dishonour of God grief of his Spirit Violations of his Righteousness Injuries of his patience abuses of his goodness and mercies the speares in the heart of Christ the spots in my soul the wounds in my conscience c. It is one thing to look upon sin as a meer Object and it is another thing to look upon sin as a vile Object to look on sin as a meer Object this is but the natural act of the understanding which like the eye is ready to see all colours but to look on sin as a vile Object this is the work of a penitential understanding wherein a person sees so much intolerable and excessive foulness in his sinful wayes that he now condemns and judgeth those wickednesses and abominations and himself too for highest folly and madness for love service and obedience to them 2. If it work in him humiliation for sin we read of Peter If it work in him Humiliation for sin that he considered or thought on the words of Jesus and through them of his great sin in the denial of master but how did he consider of them What only by his simple reflection that Christ had forewarned him and that he had done evil in denying him Surely thus he thought but the matter went further then his thoughts he considered it in an affecting or rather in an afflicting way for the Text saith That when he had thought thereon he went out and wept bitterly There is a fourfold consideration of sin One is only a consideration of sin when a man thinks of sin as he hears a Sermon hear it only so think of it only and that 's all this is an empty consideration Another is a sinful consideration only when a man considers of sin in a sinful way either to boast of it or to excite his heart to more delight and propension to sin this is a guilty consideration A third is a Judicial consideration which ariseth from the promptings and suggestions of a conscience awakened now accusing and condemning and pursuing the sinner both with the remembrance of former sins and with the evidence of Gods present and future indignation A fourth is a Penitential consideration wherein upon the evidence of sinning the soul is sensible not to despair which breeds hopeless terror yet to repentance wherein it is exceedingly grieved and troubled and displeased for the sins committed If the consideration of sin be a dry act such an act as sets where it riseth only in the mind and hath no influence upon the affections if it be not a sympathizing act .i. such an act as works grief in the soul as well as discovery of evil in the mind it is but a vain thing and never conduceth to repentance for as it is with mercies
Repentance never to be repented of Hast thou rightly considered of sin why what art thou now doing where mayest thou now be found what course doest thou take to leave sin what helps doest thou apply thy self unto what occasions of sin doest thou decline what furtherances of a new life dost thou regard and use If there be no watchfulness over thy spirit no restraint to thy flesh no stoutness of resolution no separation from the occasions of sin no humble study and respect to the Word no fruitfull converse with holy society how is it that thou sayest thou hast considered thy sins Whether the consideration of sin may be right and available to Repentance when yet there are some sins which a man thinks not II. Case Whether Consideration of sin may be right when there are some sins that a man thinks not of Particular inconsideration if it be voluntary doth prejudice Repentance on To this I conjecture it may be thus answered 1. That actual or particular inconsideration if it be voluntary and affected doth prejudice Repentance For it is to be supposed that he who will not take the pains to think of his sins hath 〈◊〉 yet found an heart or a will to leave his sins Therefore consider that actual inconsideration may arise either From want of light or evidence the eyes of the mind are not yet so fully opened they are not so perfectly acquainted with the Law which discovers sin much sin they see but not all not that they would not but because they cannot so a weak eye hath not such clear and full sight Or From hypocrisie of will when means of evidence are present and commands of consideration are urged but either from a secret love of sin or from a laziness of spirit the person will not take pains to consider throughly of his manifold sins this kind of inconsideration being wilfull and affected will be interpreted for Impenitency because the person will not endeavour faithfully the wayes of Repentance 2. That the latitude of the Object considered doth not so immediately discover and decide as the efficacy and influence flowing from consideration it self Though I am not able to find out every particular wherein I do offend yet if by the consideration of those sins which I do consider of my heart doth melt and mourn and strives to loath and forsake them because they are sinfull If these drive me out of my self unto Christ if these occasion me earnestly to acquaint my self with God to beg for Reconciliation for Grace for Mercy for Strength c. though there be many sins which I have not actually thought on yet this may be a right and penitential consideration III. Case Whether a single Consideration of sin be sufficient to repentance Another Case may be this Whether the Consideration of sin tending to Repentance must be frequent or Whether a single Consideration may be sufficient For the resolution of this Case thus 1. Divines distinguish of Repentance that Distinctions premised Repentance is either Initial or Gradual it is either Initial or Gradual The Initial Repentance is the first turning from sin nay the very first will and desire so to do with a purpose and endeavour to effect it The Gradual Repentance is the ripening and perfecting of Repentance in the degrees of all the parts of it 2. Again There is a two-fold consideration of sin One is solemn wherein the There is a twofold consideration of sin Solemn soul sequesters it self earnestly searcheth into the Law of God and into its own spirit and into the ways of Life perusing and reviewing the sinfull condition all over in the parts and kinds in the hainous circumstances and agravations and hereupon solemnly indites it self before the Lord by confessing judging c. Another is ordinary which is a daily looking Ordinary over the Book and perusing of the sinfull Accounts from time to time 3. You must distinguish twixt the Distinguish twixt the Grace of Repentance and the Act of it Grace or quality of Repentance and twixt the Act or exercise of Repentance the Grace is wrought onely by Gods Spirit the Exercise or operation is wrought and occasioned by consideration These things being premised I conjecture thus much 1. That solemn Consideration is necessary to initial Repentance Solemn consideration necessary to Initial Repentance The Heart is not effectually excited to the actual leaving of sin until it doth first seriously examine and try it self find out and ponder the vileness of its sinning and transgression slight thoughts work no more then slight confessions That we are all sinners and there 's an end but the heart must look on sin in the kinds circumstances hellish vileness of its thoughts if ever it will repent indeed 2. That ordinary consideration is necessary to gradual Repentance If ever you would perfect your Ordinary consideration necessary to Gradual Repentance Repentance you must ever think of your sins those that are past those that are present By ordinary consideration I do not mean a slight and perfunctory view of them but a daily view though not in length of time yet having the same disposition of heart to condemn and abhor them and quickning us more fervently to seek God for strength and to decline the occasions of sin and to grow more watchfull and tender c. If you do not ordinarily consider of the vileness of sin you will be ordinarily insnared by the deceitfulness of sin if you would enjoy constant victory and deliverance you must admit of frequent consideration As for the solemn Consideration that I conjecture is not necessary at all times but upon special occasions Either 1. Before we Solemn consideration not necessary at all times The times when it is necessary enter into some weighty business 2. When we lie under some weighty afflictions 3. When we are to die and make straight our weighty accounts 4. When we are more solemnly to meet the Lord and renew our Covenanâ—s with him as in the day of Humiliation or when we are to come unto the Sacrament Now are we more solemnly and seriously to consider of our sins partly 1. Because now the Lord Reasons of it considers them who come into his special presence how you come 2. Because you are seriously to renew your Repentance which you cannot seriously do without serious consideration 3. Because you are to renew your Covenants with God to keep a more serious watch c. Therefore now let us search our hearts try and consider of our ways renew our Repentance turn with all our strength unto the Lord put away iniquity far from us humble our selves low before the Lord confess our sins judge our selves thus if we do we shall find more strength in our Repentance more peace in our Consciences more sweetness in the Sacrament more confidence towards Christ and may comfortably expect the pardon of our sins and salvation by his bloud The third
and last Use shall be for Exhortation to set upon Vse 3. Exhortation to consideration and comparison What is required to enable us thereto Knowledge these two works of Consideration and Comparison Here let me propound two things unto you respecting the practical exercise of them Qu. 1. What is required to enable a person rightly to consider and to compare c. I conceive thus 1. There must be knowledge Right Consideration and Comparison are works of an illightened mind to understand the proper nature and distinction of things necessarily requires knwoledge For Ignorance can neither consider nor distinguish therefore study the Word and other Books to understand what objects are of which you are to consider 2. There must be some Wisdome For every Understanding cannot find out things Wisdome nor is able to make their differences of vileness or excellency as David said of the Works of God that a brutish man understands them not c. Psal 92. 5 6. that we say of persons onely enlightened That if they have not spiritual Wisdome to compare things or to consider of them they will never by the evidence of the vileness of Sin or excellency of Grace be drawn to Repentance 3. There must be Retiredness or Sequestration You must separate your selves as Solomon Retiredness speaks Tumults of business or violence of noise distract the thoughts and alienate them utterly disabling to consider 4. You must gather your selves together You must strive against division in mind be carefull to unite and to center your thoughts Gathering our thoughts together not suffering your selves to be scattered or blown away from your self 5. You must pray unto God to open your eyes Prayer to see and to give a judgment to discern and to unite your hearts and enable them to go through the work for verily you shall find much reluctancy and opposition of spirit to such a work Quest 2. In what manner we are to consider and to compare c. I Answer 1. The Rules for a right consideration so In what manner we must consider and compare The Rules for right consideration Do it in a free time Do it with a full time as to occasion Repentance are these 1. Do it in a free time there are times wherein a man is most unapt for such a work as this as when very sick in body or under some passion of grief or fear or loss Now the soul is in a Tumult it cannot see things aright nor judge aright Take a calm time for all works of moment either to know or to judge thy Estate 2. Do it with a full time The matter is weighty not the work of a day as they spake concerning the separation in Ezra it was not a work to be done in one day Nor is this of sound Consideration a business which can be hastily done and well done you must do it deliberately and seriously for there are many sins and many circumstances to be considered of and to be weighed and judged c. 3. Do it throughly Do not begin a little and then give over leave not till you come to the bottome see the worst Do it throughly of it and the utmost of it if ever you will see the good of it You are never a jot the worse by seeing how bad you are but you may be the better all the dayes of your life for it You must be faithfull to your own soul not to pass over any sin that you can well conceive your self guilty of 4. You must do it orderly Consider not of all sins in a Lump but break your Do it orderly thoughts And as they in Judgment consider of one Cause and then of another so do you of your sins what are your chief sins in affection or practice or inclination and so go to other c. in their order time place c. 5. You must do it so long Do it till your heart begin to Relent until your heart begin to relent and grows tender and soft Ah! how vile and abominable and wretched c. and then strike in with God by Prayer and Confession c. And this is a way to bring you to Repentance Secondly the Rules for Comparison If you would so compare Rules for comparison of the sinful and converted state Compare them in their proper nature and effects the miserableness of the sinfull with the happiness of a converted condition so as to be brought to Repentance then 1. You must compare them in their proper natures and effects not by that which is accidental but by that which is natural there may be some trouble to a converted estate and some delight upon an unconverted estate these then are preternatural they arise not from the things themselves but are contingent accidents But compare the real natures and fruits of the one with the other and then you shall see reason to leave the one and to choose the other 2. You must compare them by a proper Compare them by a proper Rule Rule not standing in point of definitive sentence what your own heart or what the World approves but onely what God in his Word doth sentence to be most vile and miserable and what he pronounceth to be most good and comfortable The Rule of Comparison must ever be pure impartial and perfect 3. You must have so much faith also as to believe what God saith Believe what God saith of either state of either estate For though you should refer the decision unto him yet if upon his resolving you are resolved to quarrel against it and dispute the truth and validity and say yet It is otherwise we will not believe that our sinfull course is so bad and so dangerous alas you will never repent while you live But you must resolve of this that the Word shall captivate your thoughts and shall discover and set the differences of estates and so you may be occasioned to repent 4. You must take an humble and firm resolution to take and follow that way which God discovers Resolve to follow that way Gâ—d discovers to be best unto you for the best and to decline that way which God discovers to be bad and damnable i. You will betake your selves industriously and stedfastly unto all the ways and means by which you may be strengthened to leave your sins and to walk with God in newness of obedience LUKE 15. 18. I will arise and go to my Father These words contain in them the other fundamental part of Repentance appearing in the Prodigal viz. The Resolution of his Will To apprehend evil is somthing but to leave it is the The Resolution of the Prodigal safest thing to see a better condition shews that the eye is opened but to go to our Father this shews that the heart is changed This Resolution of the Prodigal is set forth partly by the 1. Matter of it which is very compleat it contains
necessary Again Sin is most subtile to alure us to entice us to put out our thoughts of Reformation How often doth it untwist the Cord and propound delights and pleasures some sweet baits or other which take us quite away from our private intentions How extremely doth it fill the heart with Unbelief that the Reformation of such a sin can never be and if we set upon it how strangely doth it amaze us that there is no hope of mercy and therefore we were better enjoy some pleasure a while then bitterness and anguish for ever 3. The heart is naturally deceitful and apt to turn or be turned The heart is naturally Dâ—ceiâ—ful A small thing will make the eye to shut and the very imagination of danger is enough to discourage many a man and to make him to recoyl A cunning man must be tyed in firm bonds We think that we will do much and suffer any thing but this we find that if the way be good we do not easily like it if it be long we are quickly weary of it if it be harsh we are ready to forsake it Now occurrents and accidents do ordinarily put on us new Intentions and Byasses 4. If you consider the frame and disposition of that new course of The frame of the new course of Godly walking Godly walking you will confess that a resolution is necessary for 1. It is spiritual and wholly heavenly 2. It is strict and must It is spiritual Strict be ordered by rule no room for any one sinful lust or way strait is the gate 3. It is opposite and contrary to that nature and will which is corrupt in us it is supra contra 4. It is difficult Opposite to corrupt nature Difficult and very high grace and supernatural works are hard to deny our selves our own righteousness c. 5. It is capable of such dangers which will not easily be digested even loss of life it Capable of great dangers Very laborious self 6. It is very laborious it must cost a man much study and search much care and watchfulness much prayers and many tears much self-denial and mortification much going out of himself and adventuring upon pure promises 7. Of necessity the soul must undergoe much if it will lead a godly life many The Soul must undergoe much for iâ— violent temptations from Satan inward conflicts with the love of sin outward persecutions from the world They that will live godly must suffer persecution Now tell me whether a firm resolution be not necessary when a man changeth to a course which is very spiritual and holy whereas before he lived in a course that was sensual and impure again into a course very strict and contrary to him in great part and very difficult and very dangerous and wherein he must be very industrious and go through many a sharp trial and brunt All the use which I shall make of this assertion shall be reduced Vse unto two heads 1. Of Exhortation 2. Direction 1. The Exâ—ortation is that as we do desire a real reformation of our sinful wayes so we strive to bring our hearts to a solid resolution Exhortation to bring our hearts to this Solid Resolutition Motives Six dangers of Irresolution You will not be free from strong temptation against them Two things I will propound as motives to edge this exhortation 1. The folly and inconvenience of an irresolute and tottering and hovering spirit viz. 1. Till you attain to a firm resolution you will never be free from strong temptations Faint denials are interpretative Encouragements as it is with the ill humours of the body they flock and resort to a crazy part So it is with Satans temptations they will ever be frequent where the heart is ready to embrace or not resolved to resist why shouldest thou expect that Satan should fall off when thou art yet irresolved to resist him that he should not be backward to tempt when thou art not resolved not to yield 2. Till you attain to a firm resolution you will never come to a firm peace Conscience cannot be clear in its testimony when we are indifferent in our You will never come to a firm â—eace purpose against sin Paul could say the evil that I would not doe thou canst not say so The decision of that estate will be under a cloud and you will be struck with more suspicions of hypocrisie and wrath while you come to be plain-hearted and resolute I will serve no sin any longer 3. Till you attain to a firm resolution you will be subject to the frequent intanglings of sin weak You will be subject to the enâ—anglings of Sin resolutions are like a weak child or a feather or like weak walls through which any bullet will flye Thou hast no armour on till thou be resolved any sinful occasion or opportunity is too hard for him whose heart is not clad with a peremptory denial How can he be stedfast who is not â—ound a â—ame Legg is apt to â—â—ll or what shock can a weak body sustein it cannot be but thou shouldest be under the guilt of much corruption who art not determinately fixed in thy resolves against all sinful suggestions Thou wondredst at it that perhaps after many Prayers and much hearing yet some sin or other still prevails but can it well be expected that Sin should not be thy Conqueror when as yet thou art not resolved to be its enemy 4. Till you attain to a firm resolution you will but shuffle in a good course off and on sometimes You will but shuffle in a Good Course much sometimes little sometimes nothing A double-minded man is unstable in all his wayes saith St. James 1. 8. every business will withdraw you and any occasion will excuse you from Gods service while you are indifferent unto it every wind drives through thy Boat and every frost will nip thy Bud. 5. Nay Irresolution will prove a bitter root of apostacy if dangers surprize thee on the left hand or temptations on the right It will prove a bitter Root of Apostacy hand it is a thousand to one but thou wilt deny the faith and make Shipwrack of conscience There lies much of our hopeful constancy in Religion as we set forth if we begin with faint and irresolved hearts we shall fall back with wounded and broken Souls he cannot be long good who is not resolvedly good 6. Flat and poor communion with God You will make no prayer or but cold indifferent Prayer Austin was affraid that God There will be flat and poor Communion with God The Benefits of a full Resolution It will be a testimony our hearts are upright would hear him 2. The benefits and comforts oâ— a firm Resolution which are many 1. It will be a great Testimony unto you that your hearts are upright He who will not resolve against a sinful course either his heart hath a flaw
of hypocrisie or a sink of impiety he loves sin or would not yet leâ—ve it the greatest part of our integâ—ity lies in the hearts frame and purpose that man who is resoled to part with all sin hath an heart who loves all good it is only sound grace which breeds sound resolution 2. It will be a It will be an Apology in case of falling great apology in case of falling that yet it is not presumptuous but of Inâ—irmity The evil that I would not do that do I c. Rom. 7. and rather an affect of a strong temptation then of any secret affection of the heart to sin for where the purpose and resolution of the heart is set against a sin and makes its resistence though the sinning may be great yet it is not presumptuous Four effects this firm Resolution worketh about sin either it doth 1. Cease the motions of it or 2. Abates and lessens them or 3. Disappoints and frustrates them as Joseph about his mistress or else 4. It mitigates and corrects them in the degree of guilt either it keeps me sound or else causeth that the wound is less 3. Such a man may confidently go to God for help and Such a one may confidently go to God for help assistance If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayer said David but verily God hath heard me he hath attended to the voice of my Prayer Psal 69. 18 19. Thou shalt not struggle with sin in vain nor cry unto God in vain if once thou couldst be firmly resolved against sin thou shouldst more confidently repair to Christ and shouldst assuredly find more Victory over it as Paul Rom. 7. 24 25. What have I to do any more with idols I have heard him and observed him I am like a green Fir-Tree from me is thy fruit found Hos 14. 8. 4. And more confidently expect the remission of sins past with what face can a mâ—n embolden himself before the And Confidently expect Remission of sins past Lord O Lord I beseech thee to pardon such or such a sin and I trust thou wilt do it but I am not yet resolved to leave it And when a person can come before the Lord and say Search and tell me O Lord if there be any way of wickedness which I know and allow against which I am not resolved and strive Now O Lord thou art a gracious God I beseech thee for thy mercies sake forgive my sins blot them out I hate them with an unfeigned hatred do thou for thine own sake pardon and subdue them 5. You shall much free your selves from the ancient suggestions of Satan about particular Sins It will free us from the Suggestions of Satan about particular sins Resist the Divel and he will flee from you Jam. 4. 7. Where there is no hope of Victory there will be little encouragement to fight firm resolutions are like rocks against which the waves may beat and strike but cannot move nor alter Satan may indeed somewhat molest but the heart is in a sort impregnable which is stedfastly resolved Christiana sum said she I am a Christian who was much assaulted to deny the Faith and Luther in Gen. so silenced all threats and allurements for the abnegation of Christ When they saw Paul's resolution fixed for Jerusalem they gave off their importunity so Temptations will slack when our Resolutions are settled It is in vain I will not hearken thou mayest molest me Satan but I will never yield unto thee 6. You will be less interrupted in your holy services Whilest the heart is any thing indifferent and flexible sinfull motions We shall be less interrupted in our holy services like the Birds will return and flock about the Corn if the Watchman be now there and anon removed When the Minister is speaking to your ear Sin will be speaking to your heart and when your tongues are speaking to God your thoughts will be busied in giving Sin an answer or the World But if the heart were more resolved against sin it would be more united in duty the thoughts and mind and affections would be more collected and center'd upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work in hand it would not scatter so much it would not follow that which it cares not for but peremptorily abhors The next Use shall be for Direction and that in two particulars Vse 2. Direction 1. How to raise a solid Resolution 2. How to keep and maintain it First The Means to raise it There are some things of How to raise a solid Resolution which you must take heed and strive against as being vigorous impediments to the rearing of this frame and twisting of this firm cord Take heed of 1. A secret favouring of sin As long as your hearts cunningly connive at and harbour your lusts those evil Inmates A secret faâ—ouring of sin you will never throughly come to a Resolution to cast them off For love will untwist many arguments and prevail against strong Motives it will let down your mind as fast as reasons do raise it up It is the best Friend and strongest Advocate that sin hath You see a Parent perhaps David against Absalom resolved to exile his Child from his presence but natural affection turned him and wrought so after a while that David longs for Absalom again As a Spring will work out that which is cast in so will a secret affection to sin work off the impression of all Arguments and any such preposterous Resolves against sin 2. A tenderness or delicacy of spirit I mean an inordinate Delicacy of spirit self-love Love of sin and so also the love of our selves both of them are adversaries to a penitential Resolution If a man will go to Heaven asleep have his ease and his friends and his liberty and his safeties and his quiet and his pleasures and great matters he will never come to a through Resolution God likes no such bargain no condition as I am willing to serve thee but I am resolved never to suffer for thee I will be good if I may be safe I will go to sea but on condition I shall meet with no storms I will enter into the war but on condition that I will have no blows We must be at a point for all things except what is good if we be resolved to be good indeed no not Life it self must be dearer to us than that which is far better than Life 3. A perversness of spirit on self-wilfulness if you do resolve A perversness of spirit to be your own Master you can never resolve to be Gods Servant if your hearts be not disposable to his will they will never be flexible and fixed on his work You must in many things be contented to deny your own thoughts and to captivate your own judgments and reasonings and to submit both your judgment and will to a Divine Rule and
shame in the face and with acknowledgment That by reason of our sins there belongs nothing to us but â—hame and confusion Daniel 9. 5. It is mixt with some Faith not overcome with Despair If the And mixt with some Faith confession of sin be not mixed with some hope of pardon it is not penitential but desperate Cain in some measure confessed but fled into the Land of Nod and reputes his offence Unpardonable beyond the power or intention of Mercy to pardon him Judas likewise utters his sin in particular I have sinned in betraying innocent Blood But then he goos out and hangs himself But if the confession be truly penitential it acknowledgeth sin fully yet believingly not to a meer Judge who out of the mouth of the Confessor condemneth but to a father Father I have sinned saith our Prodigal who knows how to absolve and forgive him that knows how to accuse and condemn himself As you must in Confessions acknowledg O Lord my sins are very great so likewise must you relieve your selves O Lord thy mercies are exceeding many thus have I sinned but thou canst pardon I deserve wrath but thou canst freely shew me mercy I am a sinner yet Lord be merciful to me a sinner 6. It is Sincere and not fraudulent then is the Confession sincere not And Sincere only when the heart acts in it but when also it acts plainly and plenarily in it We are but Flesh and Blood it is my nature I cannot help it I am not the first that did so it was company that drew me I did eat said Adam but the woman gave it me to eat I did eat said the woman but the Devil tempted me I did offer Sacrifice said Saul but I was afraid of the Philistims These are fraudulent Confessions when either a part is knowingly and willingly kept back or if all comes forth it is extenuated as much as may be Not that any person is to accuse himself of more then he is guilty but that he is not to extenuate and mince any thing wherein he is faulty but therein to set out himself to the full Of whom I am chief said Paul And the Prodigal here I have sinned against heaven and before thee 7. It must be joyned with desire and endeavour of Reformation Therefore forsaking of sin at least in Voto conatu And joyned with desire and endeavour of Reformation is annext to confession Prov. 28. 13. Saul confessed his sinful injuries to David his Son in Law 2 Sam. 24. 16. Ch. 26. 2. and wept but then he pursued him again So did Pharaoh Exod. 9. 27 34. but then he hardned his heart and sinned yet more They loved ease but not cure but David desires medicine as much as quiet Grace to heal as well as Mercy to quiet he did not open his wounds and then make more but desires those which are made that they might be bound up and healed So did Shecaniah not only confess their trespasse in taking of strange wives Ezra 10. 2 3. but intends reformation Now therefore let us make a Covenant with God to put them all away These ingredients I do conjecture that they make up the very form and vitals of a penitential Confession But why should true penitents make confession of their sins to God Reasons of it There is a necessity so to do Ex patre Dei 1. There is a necessity so to do Necessitas ex parte Dei ex parte rei 1. Ex parte Dei God requireth you so to do Acknowledge thine Iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God and hast scattered thy wayes to the Strangers under every green tree Jer. 3. 13. So Hos 14. 1. Return to the Lord thy God Ver. 2. Take with you words and turn to the Lord and say unto him Take away all Iniquity and receive us graciously 2. Ex parte Rei When the heart is penitentially Ex parte Reiâ— changed it cannot but confess sin will lye so heavy as when health comes in pain is felt There is such an abundant sense of sin that the heart cannot contain it self If the affection be full it must vent it self Joseph could not refrain So is the heart of a penitent overcharged with the iniquities of his Life and Indignity by him cast on God a gracious God 2. There is Vtility in so doing Though true confession of sin doth not at all merit yet it is a way or means to obtain three There is a Utility in so doing It is a means to obtaine Remission of sin singular things viz. 1. Remission of Sins This is a most sweet and surpassing mercy David accounts him Blessed whose iniquities are covered but Confession is the means for Remission which may evidently appear 1. By Gods direction of his people to take this course that so they might be pardoned Jer. 3. 12 13. 2. By his special Promise upon their true confession for to pardon them their sins Prov. 28. 13. He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy 1 Joh. 1. 9. If we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 3. By frequent experience David said I will confess my Transgressions and thou for gavest the Iniquity of my sin Psal 32. 5. The Publican penitentially confessed and went home Justified Luk. 18. 13 14. 2. Power against sins By hearty confession to uncover Power against sin sins is a way not only to get God to cover them by Justification but also to cure them by Sanctification You must take off Vulnerati tegumentum if you will obtain Medici Emplastrum Austin as S. Austin alludes upon the Psa 32. When you open the wound then you make way for the healing Plaister and therefore S. John doth not only say If we confess our sins God is faithful to forgive us our sins but also addeth and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 3. Peace of Conscience You may Peace of Conscience see this manifestly in David who being distressed in spirit for sin is much disquieted and roars and his moisture is turned into the drought in Summer Psal 32. 3 4. His silence raised his Impatience and Trouble but as soon as he confessed his sins he recovered his peace ver 5. I acknowledg my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Selah So Job 33. 27. If any say I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profited me not Ver. 28. His life shall see the light It is one of the Windows to let in the beams of heavenly comfort 3. Lastly God is much Glorified when the penitent doth humbly and truly confess his sins David acknowledgeth his sins God is much Glorified by it That thou mightst be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest so Psal 51. 4. q. d. Lord
But when he saith Be grieved for what thou hast done do so no more onely acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God Jer. 3. 13. 4. It shall surely find mercy O pardoning mercy how necessary how sweet for a sinner But who shall have it He that It shall surely find mercy confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy Prov. 28. I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Selah Psal 32. 5. Nondum pronuntiat sed promittit se pronuntiaturum ille dimittit saith Saint Austin ibid. And again Vox nondum in ore erat sed auris Dei in corde erat So was it with the Prodigal he purposeth to confess and his Father seeth him a far off LUKE 15. 19. And am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired Servants These words contain in them a continuation of the Prodigals humble Confession he had in the former Verse acknowledged his sinfulness and in this he confesseth his unworthiness And am He confesseth his unworthiness no more worthy to be called thy Son 2. A modest supplication Make me as one of thy hired Servants There are three Propositions which these two parts do afford us viz. 1. That penitent persons are humble and lowly persons I am no more worthy 2. That unworthiness is no just prejudice to supplication I am not worthy yet make me c. 3. That penitent persons earnestly desire some relation to God Make me as one of thy hired Servants That penitent persons are humble and lowly persons I am no Doct. 1. Penitent persons are humble persons more worthy Look on every word almost in the Text and you shall see in it the blush of humility I am not worthy The language of Pride is I am not as other men the voice of Humility is I am not worthy what I have is of meer mercy what I crave is not of my merit God may give what he pleaseth and I may receive what he giveth but I am unworthy of both I dare not expostulate nor challenge I have sinned and what mercy can I then deserve No more worthy Was he ever worthy No. Why then no more worthy q. d. O Lord I deserve nothing no nothing at all so vile a wretch have I been that it 's singular mercy if thou look at all upon me To be thy Son A Son thy Son O it is a high Relation an high Digniâ—y for a Vassal of Wrath to be made a Vessel of Glory for a Slave to Sin to be translated to a Son of God! Who am I it is that which I want it is that though which is too great for me to ask I am not worthy to be thy Son nay not worthy to be called thy son the very title and name is too good for me that so debauched and luxurious a sinner as I should have that honour from thee to be mentioned or spoken of to be in any sort reputed among those of so singular Relation unto thee I who have sinned so much against thee that I should in any kind be owned as a Son by thee this is an eminency I am not worthy to be called thy Son Thus you see his humbleness in confession Not worthy utterly unworthy to be a Son nay to be called thy Son See some steps of it in his Petition Make me as one of thy hired servants A low request but it is the modest breath of a lowly spirit If I may be thy servant I shall be glad of that not thy onely servant but one of thy servants not the chiefest of thy servants but any one of thy servants thy hired servant And perhaps even that is too good for me to be a servant to be an hired servant to be one of them I shall count my self happy if I may be as one of the meanest servants if I may be but a servant to the meanest of thy servants that serve thee And Father I beg for this too make me as one of thy hired servants I am not worthy of the least place nor of the meanest Relation I challenge it not onely be thou pleased to bestow it upon me He is not worthy to desire the greatest and he doth modestly intreat for the lowest Relation both which shew the humbleness of his penitential spirit Thus was it with Paul after his conversion how he sinks his thoughts and estimation Paul of himself When he is to speak of his sins 1 Tim. 1. 15. then Primus peccatorum I am the chief of sinners Nemo prior none exceeded me nemo pejor I was worse then any And when he spake of Gods mercy to him then minimus Apostolorum I am the least of the Apostles 1 Cor. 15. 8. indignissimus not worthy to be called an Apostle Nay he falls lower than this Ephes 3. 8. Minimus sanctorum minor minimo less than the least of all Saints is this grace given c Do you not see this also in the penitential Publican He stood afar off and would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven but smote upon his Publican brest saying God be mercifull to me a sinner He judges those feet unworthy to carry him unto God which so often carried him from God and those eyes unworthy to look on his holiness which had been so frequently cast upon sinfulness and whereas the Pharisee spreads his hands abroad he turns them upon his brest his contrite brest and doth not boast of his righteousness but cries out of his sins and justifies not himself but humbly begs Lord be mercifull to me a sinner Thus was it with Mary Magdalene upon her repentance Luc. 7. 38. She stood at the feet of Jesus behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment Mark it all her service is lowly she stood she did not sit sitting was a posture of familarity standing of humility and she stood behind to look after Christ was enough to look upon him she was unworthy And then she stood at his feet the humblest posture and there all her work is acted Stood at his feet wept at his feet washed his feet wiped his feet kissed his feet anointed his feet But now for the opening of this Proposition I will briefly discuss 1. What this lowly humbleness is which accompanies true Repentance 2. The Causes why true Penitents are so humbly lowly 3. Some usefull Application of this Quest 1. What that humble lowliness is which is to be found in the true penitnnt What this lowly humbleness is Sol. It is not a promiscuous familiarity with every body such an humbleness becomes Solomon's fool nor is it an affected garb of complemental dissimulation that was Absalom's treacherous stirrup to mount up himself into the Throne nor is it a slavingly abasing
God hath rejected the Prayers of such who have râ—sted on â—hâ—ir own woâ—thiness their own worthiness The Pharisee was rejected upon this account Jam. 4. 6. God resisteth the proud .i. he regards them not he rewards them not the humble he doth but the proud he doth not He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away so Mary Luk. 1. 53. A confidence of our Worthiness makes us uncapable therefore a sense of our Unworthiness makes us not uncapable An empty Stomack will receive but a full Vessel will admit of nothing you shall never find a rich God if you come to him with rich Spirits The Pharisee he goes up to pray and what doth he discover in his prayers I am not as other men I am no Extortioner I am no Adulterer I fast twice in the week He conceales his sins and displayes his perfections he stands upon his worthiness but he loseth his acceptance he justified himself but God did not justifie him accept him acquit him 5. None ever found more mercy then such who have come None have found more mercy then they who have been mâ—st sensible of unworthiness unto God in the sense of their own Vnworthiness I will give you some instances for this out of Scripture Matth. 8. The Centurion was so sensible of his unworthiness that he durst not himself presume to invite Christ to the help of his servant and when he had intreated him he did not think his house worthy of Christs presence I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under the roofe of mine house ver 8. yet he prayes Speak the word only and my servunt shall be healed and he speeds his Faith is applauded and his prayer fully granted ver 13. His servant was healed the same hour Mar. 5. 25. The poor woman who was so sensible of her unworthiness ver 33. she came fearing and trembling and fell down she durst not either immediately or mediately speak to Christ only her Faith spake at her fingers ends for she said If I may but touch his cloaths I shall be whole ver 28. How doth this speed ver 29. Straightway the fountain of her blood was dryed up What should I speak of the woman of Canaan who confessing her self to be as a Dog and thereupon craving for crumbs was presently fed and answered with a great mercy Or what should I speak of the Publican a penitent all in sighs all in tears altogether unworthy and he knew it and therefore Stands afar off dares not lift up his eyes to heaven smâ—tes on his brest and cryes out Lord be merciful to me a sinner Here was a deep sense of Unworthiness here was nevertheless a fervent prayer and upon it a most gracious answer He went home justified 6. Lastly Sense of our unworthiness it is a strong principle Sense of unworthiness is a strong principle and furtherance of prayer and furtherance of prayer We are most barren and idle in prayer when we are least sensible of our sins and we are more diligent to prayer more spurred on and are more zealously fervent and importunate when we are most sensible of our own vileness and unworthiness For indeed the true sense of our unworthiness is a special part of our spiritual poverty and poverty of spirit breeds the strongest desires even hungring and thirsting after righteousness and both of them have promises of a most full and exceeding great reward as you may see in Mat. 5. 3 6. And thus briefly for the Explication and Comfirmation of the Doctrine Now I proceed to the useful Application of it The Uses which I will make of this point shall be 1. To try our selves whether we be sensible of our unworthiness in our Vse 1. Addresses unto God 2. Then to encourage our hearts notwithstanding our unworthiness to draw near to the Throne of Grace 1. For Examination Are we sensible of our unworthiness in our approaches unto God that we deserve nothing at For Examination all that we come not to buy but to beg not to deserve but to receive There be many reasons why I put you upon this Reasons of our Trial. search 1. Because many pervert this Doctrine of personal unworthiness they utterly mistake it they do profess that nothing Many pervert the Doctrine of personal unworthiness that is in them can deserve any thing with God and therefore trample upon all holiness of heart and godliness of life as if there were no use of Grace but to merit or Gold were of no use but in a Crown But these are a loathsome people who would link great mercies and a wicked life together To be sensible of our unworthiness is not to rest in an evil condition nor is it to run on in an evil conversation nor is it to slight holy duties for thy performances nor is it to disregard habitual or actual Grace this argues an unsensible and seared conscience But this it is to strive against sin to strive after all holiness to be careful and watchful to pious performances yet with all and after all to cast those Crowns to the ground not in their names but in the name of Christ and free mercy to expect answer and help Though imperfect holiness in the habits or acts cannot justifie men yet they may glorifie God and though they put not dignity into the hand yet they put a capacity into the hand a fitness to receive though not a worthiness to claim 2. Because many tender Christians are not yet rightly sensible of their unworthiness they are very apt to insist and adhear unto Many â—ender Christians are not yet rightly sensible of their unworthiness themselvs Two things do evidently shew that like Jacob's Sons who went down with money in their Sacks and would not go without Benjamin so these Christians would bring something to buy out their requests with God One is this that all the promises of free Grace and mercy do not satisfie them though God hath said he will love freely and pardon sin for his own sake yet they are not contented to accept to receive they are most hardly perswaded that the Sun will shine so freely that God will accept such a vile sinner upon such easie terms and without any more adoe pass by all transgressions Another is that they are frequent in digging after reasons and causes of good in themselves If they could bring Hearts more broken Graces more strong Affections more melting Conversations less tainted then they could be perswaded that God would hear and grant them the mercy or good which they do desire I confess that we must strive after perfection in all Grace enlarged desires an humble complaint a fervent endeavour in the use of all sacred means all of these are commendable practices yet herein we fail and exceedingly to if we pluck back the hand from receiving because we are not full that we will not suck the
think of me Servile fear how will they nick-name and disgrace me what may befall me who can tell what mischief they may do unto me These are the Frosts which nip the buds and the Winds which bind the Ship and the Remora's which hold the Children still in the birth We love the opinions of men to be well thought on and the Tongues of men to be well spoken of and the respects of men to be countenanced and encouraged A cross way makes us start Zedekiah would not obey the Lord least the Princes should laugh at him and many of the Jews durst not confess Christ for fear of the Scribes and Phaâ—isees For a man who enjoyes friends and ease and estate and abundance in all sorts to thrust out into a Sea to enter into a holy and strict course of Life wherein he shall be sure to be scorned as the off-scouring of the world be trampled upon as the more in the streets be torne in his name by the teeth of wild beasts suffer ship-wrack in his liberty in his plenty in his body Why these apprehensions are eâ—ough to quell and to keep in all forwardness all action as Spira confesseth That they wrought on him when he denyed the profession of the Truth of Christ Therefore if you would descend into the present execution of penitential purposes you must not be slavishly affected unto man you must not fear the power of man nor be aâ—hamed of the Cross of Christ you must put your shoulder under the Cross and the contempts of men under your feet I am ready saith Paul Acts 21. 13 not to be bound only but also to dye at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 4. 14. I will not fear what man can do unto me said David Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die and of the son of man who shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy Maker and hast feared continually because of the fury of the oppressor as if he were ready to destroy and where is the fury of the oppressor Isa 51. 12 13. 3. Despair of performance Why say we as good never a Dispair of performance whit as never the better It is not possible that ever we should get hands to conquer all these sins or feet to walk in all these wayes which are so holy so many so strict so difficult We cannot find words to pray nay God knows sometimes not hearts the motions of sin are thick and strong and ableevery moment to lead us captive we have made some assay but alas the work proves so harsh so uncomfortable so unprosperous we are without all strength we shall never break all these bonds of sin nor tread through all these pathes of holy duties Thus as death closeth up our eyes so doth despair shut up all our actions where there is no hope to finish there will be no heart to begin But let us reject such despairing delusions what hath been done may be done what God commands to do he can enable to do and what he promiseth that we shall do that he will make and cause us do But God hath commanded us to leave all our sinful courses and to lead a life of holiness God hath promised grace sufficient to forsake an evill way and to walk in a good way I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them Ezek. 36. 27. If God gives strength to work why should we with-hold hearts to work Da Domine quod jubes jube quod vis said S. Austin Lord give what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt Seriously consider any one penitential work for which God hath not promised grace and strength to perform Many have travelled in this penitential Work and have found it very feisable and passable How many are this day in heaven and how many are walking towards heaven all of them prove that it is not impossible to execute penitential resolutions 4. Hypocrisie and guile of heart Where the heart is false Hypocrisie there the performance is faint if the work be not done in the heart it will never be done in the life the work is best done in the life which is first done in the heart They in Jeremiah had rotten hearts they did not cordially intend to leave their own wayes and therefore when they were put to it indeed they would not yield to walk in the wayes which God prescribed Where an holy way is not throughly approved and where an evil way is not throughly hated there may be many flashes but there will never be solid performances or courses Yet a little sleep yet a little slumber yet a little folding of the hands said the Sluggard who loved sleep and idleness Prov. 6. 10. So where our affections are hankâ—ing about a sin there is ever at the least a slowness to leave that sin Modo modo said S. Austin when motions came into him to forsake his â—nclean Lusts they answered Shortly shortly Hereafter hereafter and this modo modo vvas sine modo this putting off from day to day would have continued so all the dayes of his life Therefore if you vvould execute your penitential resolutions take heed of corrupt affections if they again prevail upon you they vvill assuredly intangle and hinder you they mar the judgment and close vvith temptations and hinder actions Oh how suddenly vvill they quench your spirits alter your judgments put aside your duties extenuate your purposes bring you into further bondage confirm your unwillingness excite your fears raise up discouragements and all to frustrate the present executions of your former resolutions Corrupt affections are the very gates of sin the Bane of holiness the Quenchers of resolutions and the Impediments of all good performances 5. Worldly cares Our Saviout saith That the seed which fell among thornes was chaoked Luke 8. 7. And what was it which Worldly cares did choaâ— it see vers 14. The cares and riches and pleasures of this Life There are two things which worldly cares do choak viz. Heavenly directions of the word and Heavenly resolutions of the heart so that neither the one nor the other do come unto perfection Holy performance or action it is the end or perfection of all knowledg and resolution and worldly cares stifle both You have many a man who comes to the word and hears the terrours of God and his wrath revealed against his unrighteounsness insomuch that his soul with Felix trembles under the strokes of divine justice Or he hears how happy and blessed the condition and life of holiness is what heavens of mercies what rivers of comforts what excusations and peace of Conscience what blessings in life what supports in
Hos 14. 4. and that he forgives them for his own sake Esa 43. 2. There is Abundant mercy God is Abundant mercy said to be rich in mercy to be plentifull in compassion to have manifold mercies even multitudes of mercy and to pardon abundantly Though the penitent hath many sins to be pardoned and many necessities to be supplied yet the Lord is very ready to multiply pardons unto him not to forgive some sins onely but all the sins committed It is not the quantity of sins for number nor the quality of sins for kind nor the aggravations of sins by circumstances which hinders mercy if a a man be penitent but though the sins were as red as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow and though they have been like Crimson they shall be as Wool Esa 1. 18. 3. There is Tender Tender mercy mercy Tenderness consists in an easiness of Compassion and forward willingness to help The tender Mother easily draws out the brests Such a tenderness of mercy is there in God to the Penitent he is most willing to forgive he rejoyceth to shew mercy and doth it with his whole heart Nor doth he upbraid and grieve the sinner when he sheweth mercy but in the shewing of mercy onely shews mercy he will forgive sins and never mention them any more to the forgiven Penitent 4. There is Sure mercy A penitent person may be Sure mercy unsure of many things of his earthly comforts of his worldly friends of his own life but of two things he may be sure of Heaven hereafter and of Mercy presently as soon as ever his heart is taken off from sin his faith may look on mercy Though he hath reason to be grieved for sins yet he hath no reason to doubt the pardon of his sins for that God who hath promised to pardon abundantly hath also said I will surely have mercy on him Jer. 31. 20. 5. There is Loving and Reviving mercy reviving mercy such as takes off the turbulency of the Conscience settles and composeth and speaks peace unto it and admirably refresheth it by the impression of Divine consolations even such mercy is God ready also to give to the penitent even to bind up their bruised spirits and to give them beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness Isa 61. 1 2. He will create lips of peace and words of comfort Speak comfortable to Jerusalem say unto her that her sins are pardoned Isa 40. 〈◊〉 But why is God so ready to shew mercy to the penitent person Sol. There are reasons partly respecting God and the penitent Reasons of it 1. In respect of God 1. It is his nature to be the Lord the Lord God gracious merciful abundant in goodness and truth forgiving iniquity In respect of God It is his nature transgression and sin therefore called a Father and the Father of mercies a Husband Friend Physician Every nature is apt to produce or send out such acts as lye within it and are suitable unto it The Fire is apt to heat and the Sun to shine and the Water to moisten The liberal man it is his nature to be apt to give and the courteous man to speak kindly the nature of the Lord is merciful and therefore no wonder that he is ready to shew mercy 2. It It is his Promise is his promise to shew mercy to the penitent his nature is ready to pity any man in misery and to offer him mercy and help but besides this he is ready to make good his promises he hath passed his holy word of truth that he will have mercy on the penitent the promises are so many that I cannot mention them See Isai 55. Ezek. 18. c. 3. It is his delight to shew them It is his Delight mercy he delighteth in mercy Mic. 7. 18. What any delights in that he is ready to do there is nothing more facile to action or more abundant in action or more unweariable in action then delight delight is no burden when God shews mercy he is doing that wherein he delights Two things God delights in One is a penitent soul there is joy in heaven for his conversion and another is to shew mercy to that Soul Jer. 33. 8. I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me v. 9. And it shall be to me a name of joy 4. It is his glory is it the glory It is his glory of a man to pass by an offence and is it not the glory of a God mercifully to pass over transgressions you get by it and God gets by it Isai 30. 18. Therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you there be many things which do exalt God set his glory on high our humility doth it our faith doth it and his own mercies do it Jer. 33. 9. This shall be to me a name of joy and praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth who shall hear all the good that I do unto you When he pardons a sinner and shews him mercy why now he gets him a Name Who is a God like unto thee forgiving iniquity transgression and sin God gets him a name three wayes sometimes by Omnipotent acts as when he works wonders never was the like seen in Israel Sometimes by Vindictive acts as when he over rules and confounds the great enemies of his people so he got him a name upon Pharaoh Sometimes by his Gracious acts as when he pardons a sinner Paul sets it down for all posterity to look on that mercy which was shewed unto him The Lord gives the Penitent mercy and hereby he gets unto himself much Glory 5. His love is great to Penitents and therefore his mercy is ready His love is great to Penitents for penitents his general Love his Philanthropie inclines him thus far as to reveale mercy and to offer mercy and to beseech by mercy even the unkindest Impenitents Why will ye dy turn and live When shall it once be O then what must his special love produce if he be ready to shew mercy to enemies is he not ready to shew it to sons If to Rebels surely then to friends if to them that disobey him how much to them who do humble themselves at his footstool who repent for whose souls he gave the blood of his Son Secondly in respect of the penitent themselves God is very ready In respect of the Penitent to shew them mercy 1. There is nothing in the World that they need like mercy It is the only Plaister for their wound and They need nothing like mercy Anchor for their Ship if they have not mercy they are undone Usually there is in every condition some one thing which the heart of man doth most need if he be sick then health if poor then sufficiency if dejected then comfort Christ tells Martha of
one thing that was necessary and David he hath one thing to desire of the Lord and the penitent person he hath one needful request too O that God would be merciful to me a sinner so the Publicane 2. If God were not ready to shew mercy Else he might be swallowed up with Despaire to the penitent he might be swallowed up with despaire Isa 57. 16. I will not contend for ever neither will I be alwaies wroth lest the spirit should fail before me Do your know what belongs to a wounded Conscience to the sence of sin and the wrath of God how great how sharp how bitter Is it a small thing think you to dwell with everlasting burnings to see nothing but sin and Hell No No the Lord knows what the severity of his wrath is and he knows what the Impotency of the soul is and he knows what the terrour of a troubled conscience is how it sinks and cracks if no hope of mercy appears and therefore he is very ready to shew mercy to the penitent lest despair should overwhelm them despair is ready to rise in two cases One is when there is exceeding tenderness and sensibleness of sin Another is when there is a long absence and improbability of mercy for what hath the soul now to rest on and to support it Now off all persons living there are none so sensible of sin as true penitents we may say of other people as the Apostle did the rest are hardned and of all penitent people they are most tender in conscience and apprehensive of sin and fearfull about mercy who are newly converted from a sinful way O how hard is it to keep them above water to perswade them that any mercy belongs to them and therefore the Lord is ready to shew them mercy that their spirits might not fail before him nor be overwhelmed with despair Is the Lord so ready to shew all kind of mercy to the penitent Vse 1. Instruction Thence may we be instructed unto two things 1. To the approbation 2. To the application of our selves to a penitentiall Course 1. To the Approbation of a penitential Course Why are ye so To approve of a penitential course averse and accuse and condemn it They have a saying that Finis dat amabilitatem Mediis the end doth make the means lovely it doth give spirit and encouragement to the use of means Repentance is in it self a most excellent and peculiar grace a singular gift of God and therefore desirable But besides that Behold thy son liveth c. it brings the soul to partake of mercy of the choicest mercy in God pardoning mercy which is of most immediate concernment and influence to the everlasting salvation of man nay it brings mercy and salvation presently This day is salvation come unto thy house 'T is granted many persons do accuse a penitential course of much vexation and sadness and grief as if it were the grave of all delight whereas indeed it is only the sepulchre of our Lusts and of lustful pleasures And others cry out upon the difficulty of it as if it were an heavy yoke and an intolerable burden But judge not of duties by the opinion of ignorant and graceless men nor by the folly and error of your own sinful and inexperienced hearts No but judge of them by what the Word pronounceth of them in themselves and by their ends Is Salvation a desireable thing is mercy an excellent thing Why then Repentance must be an excellent thing which brings us unto mercy and unto Salvation Object But there must be brokenness of heart for sin and there must be a diligent endeavour to leave all sin and there must be strict care to walk with God Sol. And what of all this It is as if thou shouldest say O but I must not be wicked I must become a new man I must leave that which will damn me I must hink well of such a course as will bring me to find saving mercy with God there cannot be a worse estate and more fearful end then Impenitency and there cannot be a better and more soul-saving estate then Repentance 2. To the quick application of our selves to a Penitential course Apply your selves to a nitential course I beseech you at length if there be any understanding in you any sense in you any credence of a hell and heaven any belief of a God or happiness seriously consider with me that 1. You must perish for ever if you have not mercy If Mercy does not save you Justice must damn thee what shall become of thy soul if thy sins be not pardoned they cannot but be condemnation unto thee without gracious and merciful Remission Therefore new saith the Lord turn unto me c. Joel 3. 12. Heb. 3. 15. Whiles it is said to day harden not your hearts Repentance is a present duty Now God commands every one to repent Act. 17. 30. 2. Are you sinners or are you not if you be not sinners then I confess you need no pardoning mercy but if you be sinners then mercy must be your plea and anchor Save me for thy mercies sake and blot out my transgressions according to the multitude of thy mercies saith David Psal 6. 51. Ah wretches that we are we are sinners by Nature and sinners by Life who can say My heart is câ—eâ—n We lie down in our sins every moment so that we need mercy much mercy all mercy 3. Vnless you do practically repent .i. indeed for sake your sinful wayes and walk in newness of obedience you shall never have mercy Except you repent ye shall all likewise perish said Jesus Christ It is the unchangeable Decree of God and the revealed pleasure of God that no man shall have his mercy but the Penitent It were an unreasonable thing that he should have mercy to pardon sin who will not have an heart to leave sin I know very well that the Lord is very rich in measure and delights in mercy and is ready to shew mercy and is able to pardon abundantly God forbid that any should straighten the Mercy Seat at all But O thou vainly presumptious soul look over all the Bible read it often and tell me where doest thou find that God will be thus merciful to any one sinner but him who is truly penitent It is not to him who is civil but penitent it is not to him that saith he is a sinner but who doth forsake his sins this is he that shall find mercy 4. Yea and consider one thing more how utterly inexcusable you Thou art Inexcusable if thou do not Repent and before God and men if you doe not repent ah what a sad and shameful appearance wilt thou make before the Lord when he shall at the last day judg thee for all thy sinfulness when thou shalt be set in the presence of Christ and Angels and men and devils And the Lord shall say This is the person to
whom I have offered the saving blood of my son and all my pardoning mercies if that he would but have left his sinful wayes Thy own conscience will condemn thee for ever that ever thou shouldst exalt the lust of thy sin before the mercy of God yea the very Devils will cry shame of thee they may say If we had had such mercy offered we could not have been worse then have refused it thou hadst mercy offered to pardon thee and yet thou wouldest go on in thy sins Know O man thouart inexcusable before God thou canst make no apology at all Two things let them be for every ingraven in your brests One is that if mercy will not bring in your souls to repentance nothing will do it I affirm it that if you were in hell it self the toâ—ments of it woâ—ld not incline you to repent if the mercies of God now upon earth will not prevail with you Another if mercy do not lead you to repentance there remains nothing but a fearfull expectation of the fiery indignation of God thou art as sure to be damâ—ed as thou now livest if thou doest not repent thee of thy sins A second Use shall be of Caution Since the Lord is so ready to Vse 2 Cauâ—â—â— Kâ—â—p not 〈◊〉 from Repentance by despairing oâ— Mercy shew all mercy to the penitent therefore take heed that you keep not off from repentance by despairing of mercy There are three sorts of sinners Some whose hearts are hardâ—ed as the Adamant through an habitual itera ion by sin and 〈◊〉 inflâ—med affection unto sin who like that unjust Judg fearing neither God nor man so they are sensâ—ble neither of the vileness of sion nor of the goodness of mercy Some whose hearts are mollifyed graciously altered have seen the evil of their wayes and forsaken them and are turned unto the Lord seeking him with mourning and with supplication to whom the Scepter of Mercy hath been graciously stretched forth and they have effectually touched that Scepter with believing hearts and are returned with much peace and joy unspeakable Others there are twixt both these they are not so low as the first for their consciences are awaked and troubled nor yet so high as the last for they cannot believe any mercy will reach unto them their souls cannot discern any intention of mercy towards them and all the promises of mercy seem to them as restrictive nay as exclusive proclamations denying unto them though grantting unto others the priviledg of their Books and the Pâ—alm of mercy and so are apt to despair mercy seems to them a far off and slow and long a coming Therefore now to such persons who are awakned in their consciences to see the vileness of their sinful ways and their lost condition my advice is by no means to despair of mercy Reasons against despair Despair is a very heinous Sin Reasons why I thus advise are these 1. Despair is a very heinous sin It is one of the highest impeachments of Gods greatest glory and delight there is nothing wherein God doth more magnifie himself in the eyes of the world or more glory in then to sit upon his mercy-seat Now despair is not every diminution and eclipse of mercy but it is in its kind a very extinction of all the love and kindness and mercifulness in God it gives 1. The lye to the promises 2. Reproach to Gods nature and particularly to the attribute of mercy that it is not 1. Kind enough 2. Willing enough 3. Full enough 4. Free enough 2. It is a sore enemy to Repentance of no hope of mercy then no care to repent I can but be damned 2. And The most uncomfortable sin then it is the most uncomfortable sin Other sins afford some though ungrounded and poor contentment either in profit or pleasure But despair being the grave of mercy it is also the very night and funeral of all comfort and as S. Austin spake of an evil conscience that is true of despair It is its own torment for taking the soul off from all remedy it must necessarily afflict it with the most exquisite sense of fear and horrour 3. Satan is very apt to fall in with an awakened conscience and there to aggravate Satan is very apt to draw us to despair sin above all measure thereby to incline it to despair of mercy if he cannot make us dye in a senseless Caâ—m his next aim is to make us perish in an unquiet and despairing storm either to undervalue our sins and so to slay us with security or else to undervalue mercy and so sink us with distrust 4. Yea and no A newly awakned conscience is apt to it conscience is more propense to suspect divine â—avour and to credit false suggestions then a newly awakened conscience Indeed while our hearts are totally seared and past feeling much sin being not at all felt here is an easie ground to delude our selves that mercy will quickly bend unto us who do take our selves to be good enough and not much to need it but when many sins shall be laid to our charge and great ones too with that wrath which a just and holy God hath threatned and we feel the burnings of the wrath begun with us I assure you it will be most difficult to withhold that Soul from despairing of mercy which at once sees much guilt and feels much wrath 5. There is infinite There is infinite mercy in God mercy is God It is his nature and he can forgive iniquity transgression and sin Est in misericordia divina divina Omnipotentia Therefore this I say unto you any of you whose consciences God has awakned to the sight and sense of your sins whether by the Ministry of his Word or of his rod as you desire not utterly to cast dishonour extreemest dishonour to God and to draw the saddest and yet most fruitless anguish on your own spirits and yet again as you tender the welfare of your Souls your everlasting safety by repentance and faith do not despair of finding mercy with God but come in unto him by solid repentance and you shall find him even unto you a God ready to forgive iniquity transgression and sin Ob. Yea but though the Lord be merciful yet is he just he I but God will not clear the guilty will by no means clear the guilty Exod. 34. 7. I have refused mercy I cannot pray I cannot be heard or answered How then can I I who have sinned so much now expect any mercy Sol. To this I answer briefly There are two kinds of sinners whom God will not clear One is Who do not see their sins yet love them Another Who do not see their sins and yet go on in them Answered Psal 11. 5. The wicked and him that loveth violence his soul doth hate And Psal 68. 21. He will wound the head of such as still go on in their wickedness If you be such
be his very enemies and vessels of wrath Partly because it frees you from the sorest fears and sharpest torments You know that there are no troubles like those in Conscience nor fears like those concerning our eternal Conditions Whatâ— if I be one whom the Lord hates what if I should dye and then be damned what if I be not in favour with the Lord what if such or such a sin be not yet pardoned Now the evidence that God is reconciled to you doth silence these fears and eases the conscience of these tormenting suspicions The Lord is my light said David Psal 27. 1. whom shall I fear And I will lay me down in peace Psa 4. 8. 3. It is one of the most admirable comforters of the soul in any condition It comforts the soul in any condition If your condition be prosperous why the assurance that God is reconciled unto you makes all your outward comforts the more comfortable unto you It is like health to a good complexion which sprinkles it over and inamels the face with a fair beauty or like the light to colour which unveils and discloseth all their art or like the dew to the herbs which makes them the more fragrant when a man can say I have all things and God is reconciled to me too I have such a Lordship and the King is my friend too such honours friends estate and the Lord hath accepted of me too and I know that all is pardoned is not this a comfort when all is pleasant on earth and all is right in heaven whereas if the Lord be not reconciled to a man what avails all the world If your conditions be calamitous yet the assurance that God is reconciâ—ed to you is an admirable cordial You read in Mat. 9. 2. Of a man sick with a dead Palsey a disease which exceedingly dejects the spirits Christ comes unto him and gives him a Cordial what was it think you why this Son be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee You will think this an improper comfort to a man in such a disease but it was not the assurance that our sins are pardoned and that God is reconciled revives and cheers up the heart nothing more So S. Paul speaks of Tribulation Diâ—ress Persecution Famine Nakedness Peril Sword Yea of Death it self Rom. 8. 35 36. and addeth v. 37. In all these things we are more then conquerours he made light of them all they were as nothing How so whence came this why from assurance of Gods love for saith he v. 38 39. I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor any Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lard If your condition be pious this evidence is the main thing which makes it most comfortable all the habits of graces are no actual comforts unless they become evident and so far do they comfort you as they are true and real evidences of Gods reconciled love and favour unto you 4. It will be an unspeakable stay unto you in death you know It will be a stay in Death the day of death will shortly overtake every one of us Here is no abiding City and what temptations may befall us then we cannot assure our selves we know not what Satan or conscience may raise up against us When our souls are ready to depart then either to be determinate God is not yet reconciled to me that just God before whom I must immediately appear to answer and make accounts or to be indeterminate It may be I am reconciled it may be I am not I never had any solid evidence of it how distracting a thing is this that the soul one minute hopes the best and presently it doubts the worst Now I think I shall go to Heaven and by and by I fear lest I shall be cast into Hell But if you had obtained to an evidence of Gods reconciled favour unto you that the Lord had pardoned all the sins of your life and had graciously accepted of you in Christ though death it self appears you would not much be moved I know that my redeemer lives said Job c. 19. And we know that if our earthly house be dissolved we have a building of God an house eternal in the heavens saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 1. 5. It is of all the most quickning and forwarding thing to the It is the most Quickning in duty heart for the performance of all sorts of holy duties We oftentimes complain what dull and slow hearts we have to Prayer were we more assured that God is reconciled to us we should quickly find hearts more affected and more enlarged for Prayer though we be afraid and flye from an angry and just God yet we would â—hye in and speed unto a reconciled and gracious God Psal 63. 1. Thou art my God here he discerns that whereof we speak sc God reconciled and then it followes early will I seek unto thee Again we wonder at our listnesses of our spirits to the word that we do not mind it long after it affect it more were you more assured of Gods love being more affected with him we should certainly grow more affected with his word They in 1 Pet. 2. 2. must desire the sincere Milk of the Word as new born Babes .i. with much eagerness and delightfulness but how might this apprehension be wrought in them Why v. 3. If so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious q. d. a tast an experience an assurance that God is your gracious God that is it which will whet an edge and appetite after the word I say no more but this you will serve the Lord with more willing hearts and cheerful then ever you did in all your lives if so be you could get assurance that God is reconciled 6. It makes your hearts most confident on God in evil times It makes us Confident in evill times when afflictions are upon you when dangers arise when distractions are in the world when any near calamity breaks in these are like Land-floods which carry away all or like the deluge in Noah's time which exceeded all the mountains so do these drown all the vain hopes and confidences of evil men that are not reconciled to God they know not in the world what to do they have no heart to go in unot God for their consciences now tell them plainly that they are in the estate of enmity and wrath But even now though the foundations of the earth be shaken the assured person who knows God is reconciled to him knows also that his foundation of love stands sure and firm and through all does he make his address unto the God of his mercies and shall find acceptance with him 7. Lastly It is that which will wonderfully inlarge your graces It will wonderfully inlarge our Graces the Apostle delivers it in the general that the knowledg of the love of Christ is a means
by which we come to be filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 3. 19. See but Luke 7. 38. You shall find that much was there forgiven the woman though a great sinner was graciously reconciled what followes on this she loved much she wept much she humbled her self much her affections to Christ her tears for her sins her humility of spirit all of them are set down as exemplary copies this is it which will make the light of our Moon to be as the light of the Sun and our light of the Sun as the light of seven dayes You may perhaps reply unto me this evidence that God is reconciled to us which is so excellent in it self and produces such effects were a very heaven upon earth if we could attain unto it But what means should we use that we may at length enjoy it Means to attain it I conâ—ecture thus that the means of obtaining it are twofold Internal External The Internal means are three viz. Conscience the Spirit of God and Faith for all these have in them a reflexive and an evidencing virtue or power 1. Then you must get your consciences renewed Conscience Get your Consciences renewed absolutely considered hath a reflexing power it can look on our natural acts and conditions but it must be conscience renewed which must testifie of the spiritual estate and that God is reconciled to you The testimony or evidence of conscience renewed is you know syllogistical and nothing else but the eccho of the word v. g. whosoever truly repents of sin the Lord is reconciled to him this is the proposition of the word as you may read in Hos 14. 1 2 3. They are described as acting the parts of true penitents and then v. 4. I will love them freely So Jer. 31. 19. Ephraim is turned and repents and then v. 20. Ephraim is a dear child and a pleasant Son he is earnestly remembred and sure mercy is his .i. Ephraim is reconciled and dearly loved of God Here renewed conscience assumes But I do unfainedly repent I do truly mourn and forsake sin and now with assurance it concludes by way of evidence and testimony Therefore the Lord is reconciled unto me he doth freely and surely love me Obj. But it is objected Conscience may be deceived it may assume without ground and so deludingly conclude the matter Sol. I grant that conscience may be erronious in its grounds but conscience as renewed and concluding as a renewed conscience will not delude you nor err for conscience renewed concludes not upon an empty imagination but upon a solid examination of the heart and life It finds that integrity in the heart and that uprightness in ordering the life which doth answer the word of God And reading that the Lord loves the upright and that he will shew his salvation to him that orders his conversation aright Now upon search finding this habitual and actual uprightness it concludes Surely I am the person whom the Lord loves and to whom he is reconciled 2. You must get the spirit of God The Apostle in Rom. 5. 5. Get the spirit of God saith that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost so that if ever you would know the love of God unto you you must have the spirit of God the spirit of God hath many operations given unto him as that he inlightens the mind humbles the heart sanctifies it and then that he sealeth and comforteth it and as these effects so the order of them is observable he doth not first of all seal or assure and then inlighten and then sanctifie and then humble but he first inlightens humbles sanctifies and converts the soul and then assures and comforts it Peruse Rom. 8. you shall find that the witness of the spirit that we are the children of God v. 16. followes the spirit of bondage and of adoption and of supplication v. 15. and the quickning of the spirit v. 11. and a leading of the spirit v. 14. So that if ever you would be assured that the Lord is reconciled to you you must get his spirit convincing humbling renewing and leading you so much evidence as you have of holiness so much assurance you may build on of Gods reconciled favour unto you Obj. But here also it is objected we may thus be cozened with Enthusiasms taking a fond dream and delusion for a witnessing or testimony of Gods spirit Sol. I answer this is a fond and ridiculous exception for the spirit of God as S. Ambrose speaks can neither deceive nor be deceived The sealing or assuring testimony of Gods Spirit is never Nudum nor Nudatum testimonium but as it is a seal to a deed drawn I mean an heart first written over with renewing graces so in the sealing it alwayes produceth more tender and lively operations of holiness in all good works 3. Lastly If you would get assurance of Gods love reconciled unto your souls you must get Faith Faith is the eye by which we Get Faith look on God and it is that light by which we see God looking on us How did Simeon see Christ to be his Saviour Or Paul know that Christ loved him but by Faith There are two wayes by which Faith can and will bring the soul to see or know God reconciled unto it One is by and in Christ there is no seeing of a reconciled God but in a Mediator and therefore Christ is called so often our Peace our Atonement our Reconciler The other is by and through the Promises which is therefore called the Covenant of Grace q. d. sets forth and presents God unto us as graciously reconciled If you have so much faith as will bring you to Christ to know him to embrace and accept of him to rely on him you may with safest confidence conclude and be perswaded that God is your reconciled God For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2. The external means of obtaining assurance are 1. Conscionable External means Diligent Application of our selves to the Word and diligent application of our selves to the Word The word of God is both the instrument of our Regeneration and of our Consolation and is not only productive of faith as it is an adherence but able also to produce it as it is an evidence and therefore as you read that faith in acceptance depends on the word Rom. 10. 17. so we read that faith in assurance flowes likewise from it 1 Joh. 5. 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life And as the Word is oftentimes called a Word of Faith so it is sometimes called a Lip of Peace Isa 57. 19. q. it produceth an assurance from which that peace doth flow 2. And to the Sacrament The Sacrament hath I confess many To the Sacrament ends and it is as the Word of God is an Organ
or Instrument of the Divine spirit for much good unto believing souls Among the rest it hath a singular virtue to breed assurance of Gods love and therefore it is called a Seal in Ro. 4. 11. In it Christ Jesus in whom God is reconciled is most distinctly represented in his Passion as making peace by his blood for our souls In it the same Christ Jesus is particularly offered and applyed unto us with all the benefits and efficacies of his person Take eat this is my body which was given for you 1 Cor. 11. 24. As if God should say As surely as I give thee this bread and wine so I give thee my Son and the purchase of his death even reconciliation and pardon and mercy A believing celebration of the Sacrament is a most admirable means to remove our doubts and to establish our hearts with an Fervent and patient Prayer assurance that God is reconciled unto us 3. Fervent and patient Prayer prizing the favour of God as David did Psal 63. 3. Hungring and thirsting after it as he hid Psal 106. 4 5. And thus continuing to seek with diligence being withall tenderly careful in our hearts and wayes to please the Lord we shall have the desires of our Souls crowned with the testimonies of his love here and with the full glory of his face and favour hereafter Luke 15. 21 22 23. 21. And the Son said unto him Father I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy Son 22. But the Father said to his servants Bring forth the best Robe and put it on him and put a Ring on his hand and Shoes on his feet 23. And bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry These words contain in them 1. The real acting of a penitential intention The matter whereof in his humble and sad confession I have insisted on already when I touched on v. 18 19. Now I shall observe a little more from the circumstance and manner of it 2. The strange alteration of his condition The heart of man never alters from sin to its prejudice the best courses ever draw after them the best comforts While he was a prodigal he had neither bread to eat nor Rags to cloath him nor house to lodg him much less Jewels to adorn him and feasts to entertain him But now he becomes a penitent here is a Father to admit him into a house to put the best Robe on his back and the Ring on his finger and Shoes on his feet and likewise to provide meat even the choicest for his belly Before I touch on these distinctly and particularly there are some Propositions which I will briefly touch on v. g. Doct. That no not the kindest expressions of mercy do silence a The kindest expressions of mercy do not hinder an humble confession of sin truly penitential heart from an humble confession of sin Kindest mercies draw out humblest confessions The Father pities meets embraces kisseth this penitential Prodigal What doth he rise up and slight all that hath been evil Oh no! mercy melts him down and he confesseth with tears Father I have sinned c. q. d. What is this that thou shouldst so easily so freely so mâ—rcifully behold so sinful so unworthy a wretch as I have been As David when God declared unto him the intentions of his further mercies for him and his posterity He sate before the Lord and said Who am I O Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto So is it with the true penitent upon the Declaration of pardoning and accepting mercy Now O Lord God who am I I who have done so wickedly yet to be remembred so graciously The same you find in Paul who though he received a testimony of his pardon and acceptance by a messenger graciously dispatched from Jesus Christ himself Acts 9. 17. Yet he doth most frequently and humbly acknowledg and confess the kinds and greatness of his former transgressions There is for the time a twofold Confession 1. Antecedent There is a twofold Confession Antecedent Consequent which is that humbling way which God designs for the assecution of mercy See Prov. 28. 13. 1 Jo. 1. 9. To make us indite and condemn our selves that he may acquit and pardon us 2. Consequent which is that judging and self-condemning way after mercy is obtained The sight of mercy breeds four notable effects in a true penitent 1. Much Admiration Oh that God should look on me 2. Much Detestation Oh that God should ever pardon me 3. More contrition Oh that I should sin against such a God 4. More Confession I have sinned and done very foolishly to sin against a God much in mercy 2. This consequent confession which followes the expressions or Consequent confession hath these qualities It is an ac-â— knowledgment of sin with more compunction testimonies of pardoning mercy hath these qualities 1. It is an acknowledging of sin with more compunction of spirit Sight of pardon doth not only open our lips but our eyes and fetcheth forth not only words but tears the heart doth break out when mercy breaks forth The heart never confesseth sin with more filial grief then when it apprehends sin much sin discharged with a paternal love the wind breaks the clouds but the Sun melts them most into showers so c. 2. It is an acknowledging of sin with more indignation The greaâ—er mercy makes a penitent With more indignation to be the sharper Judg the more God is now pleased with him the more is he displeased with himself for sinning against him When God remembred his Covenant Ezek. 16. 60. then did the penitential Israelites remember their wayes with shame v. 61. And when he made it known to them that he was pacifyed towards them then were they confounded and never opened their mouths more v. 63. 3. It is an acknowledging of sin with more With more aggravation aggravation Servile confessions are usually more deceitful and partial as Adam did acknowledg his sin but puts it on Eve no coâ—fessions are so free and full as such which arise from the apprehension of mercies David got his pardon for a great transgression but then hoâ— exact is he in the distinct accusation of himself and humble acknowledgment of his sin in all the articles and circumstances of it Psal 51. 4. It is an acknowledgment of sin with more detestation Evidence of pardon produceth two With more detestation effects One is more ardent affection of love to God Another is which necessarily followes a deeper hatred of sin which opposed so gracious a goodness All that good which God mentions in the Covenant Ezek. 36. 25. to the end of v. 30. produced a better remembrance of former evils and also a deeper loathing of themselves for their iniquities v. 31. As Job upon Gods appearing to him and conferring with him now abhors
Christ have you put it on yea or no Consider 1. It is such a Garment that of all other thou needest most Our It is a Garment that of all others we need most best Garments are many times superfluous we need them not we can attire our selves well enough without them but this best Robe is the most needful thou canst not live without it nor mayst thou dye without it How naked art thou with thy filthiness before the eyes of a pure God And how at once may his wrath pour out it self like fire and consume thee having no covering at all to shelter thee Friend said he to that intruder in the Gospel How camest thou in here without thy Wedding Garment When thou goest to Prayer or steps to the Sacrament or art giving up thy Soul into the hands of God and hast no covering for any of thy sins may not God in the same way of judgment say unto thee and bespeak thee How dost thou present thy self before me with all this sinfulness thou knowest that I am a God of purer eyes then to behold sin and there is no communion twixt light and darkness I tell thee that there is No acceptance of thy person without this Robe the Lord cannot abide the sight of thee without it for thou canst not but provoke him as oft as thou appears before him in thy nakedness and vileness No respect unto thy services not that the Lord doâ—h dislike any duty but that the person must be first covered with the righteousness of Christ if he would have his offering to be accepted 2. By nature we are born naked utterly destitute of this By nature we are born naked precious Robe As for the nativity said God to Jerusalem in the day that thou wast born thy Navel was not cut neither wast thou washed in Water to supple thee neither wast thou salted at all nor swadled at all Ezek. 16. 4. Or as Christ to the Church of Laodica Thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked So we by nature cloathed only with raggs of corruption with filthy raggs Isa 64. 6. and as Joshua in Zach. 3. 3. Cloathed with filthy Garments destitute of God of Christ of all righteousness as if you should see a naked child born with Sores and Boils and Plagues and Leprosies running and spreading from top to toe 3. You are of We are of no excellency without this Robe no excellency without this Robe Then only we come to excellent Ornaments when this is put on All the Robes you get on you are but the shrouds of dead men or like Velvet cast over an Herse As Solomon said of beauty in a foolish woman it is but as a Jewel in a swines snout So we say of all other Garments they are Ornaments put on a base dead and loathsomesoul 4. The Robe of There is none like it Christs righteousness there is none like it for thy good and benefit For 1. It is an Ornament as well as a Garment All our acceptance It is an Ornament as well as a Garment before God is as we are cloathed with it then are we cloathed with the Sun now are we precious in his eyes it makes us beautiful and lovely and accepted in the eyes of God 2. It is armour as An Armor as well as an Ornament well as Ornament For the preciousness of it it is a vesture of pure Gold and for the strength of it it is as a Coat of Mail Let us put on the Armor of Light Rom. 13. 12. We may by it keep off the strongest accusations of Satan and stand even before the judgment-seat I am black but comely saith the Church Cant. 1. 5. though in her self black yet in this righteousness comely It can answer all our own imperfections and all that Satan can object against us or the Law or our own fearful hearts Sins and imperfections and defects cannot answer God but a perfect righteousness can 3. It is a Garment for warmth as well as for sight When we look on our selves and our own righteousness our spirits may dye within It is a Garment for warmth as welâ— as for sight us but peace and comfort â—low from the righteousness of Christ it was perfect and meritorious and accepted and this will chear the heart above all if we be found in Christ having his righteousness There goes wonderful virtue from the hem of this Garment both to satisfie God and to pacifie the conscience as Jacob got the blessing with the elder Sons Garment so do we get all our mercies and comforts and blessings by being cloathed with the Robe of Christs righteousness But how may we know that we have put on this best Robe How may we know that we have put it on Have we put off our own Rags Sol. I will instance but in three particulars to discover this 1. If we have put on Christs Robe we have put off our own Rags we have put them off 1. Affectu 2. Conatu As it was with Joshua Zach. 3. 4. His filthy Rags were taken away and then he was cloathed with change of Raiment So here no man can assure himself that he is cloathed with Christs righteousness unless he doth dismantle himself of his own unrighteousness Eph. 4. 21. If ye have been taught as the truth is in Jesus v. 22. Put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts v. 23. And put on that new man c. Rom. 13. 12. Cast off the Works of Darkness and put on the Armor of light For a man to imagine that he hath the Robe of Christs righteousness and yet to walk in the paths of unrighteousness in chambering and wantâ—nness in strife and envying in all voluptuousness and beastliness c. No man saith Christ soweth a piece of new Clâ—ath to an old Garment Mark 2. 21. 'T is true that none but sinners are cloathed with this Robe but then it is as true that no sinners are cloathed with it but strive with all their might to put off their sinful rags by hearty contrition and confession and conversion 2. Only â—aith puts on this Robe Only faith puts on this Robe And therefore as this Robe is called the righteousness of God both for designation imputation and acceptation So it is also called the righteousness of Faith Not that Faith in a formal sense is our righteousness For Faith did not dye for us noâ— can Faith of it self merit for us nor is Faith of it self compleat but imperfect but because it is the instrument which apprehends Christ and his righteousness and by which we put on Christ with his righteousness Have you Faith or have you not Nay but deceive not your selves The Faith which puts on this righteousness must be able 1. To deny our own righteousness to take of all confidence in the flesh Faith cannot put on Christs righteousness until
that finds a lost sinner Sol. The Answer Who finds the lost sinner God onely is easie It is God onely I will seek that which was lost Ezek. 34. 16. It was he who found Abraham in Caldea amongst the Idolaters and David among the sheep-folds and Manasses among the thorns and bushes and Paul in the way to Damascus and Matthew at the receit of Custome and the Israelites in their bloud and Mary Magdalene in her uncleanness The sinner cannot find himself he can lose himself but he cannot find himself he can wander but he cannot return of himself Avertere a Deâ— man can do that but convertere ad Deum man cannot do this Man loves to wander but to come back man hath neither will nor power No man can â—ind a lost sinner He may find a lost sinner by way of discovery but he cannot find him by way of recovery I may discover but not recover 2. Bewail but not prevail 3. give Counsel but not give Grace I may see one running from God but I cannot bring him back to God I may see him wandring to Hell but I cannot set his heart to turn back to Heaven and I may bewail a lost sinner yet I cannot prevail upon a lost sinner and I can give him counsel to come home but I cannot give him grace to come home It is God God onely who can find a lost sinner Quis ovem perdicam requirere debeat nonne qui perdidit quis perdidit nonne qui habuit Quis habuit nonne qui â—ecit So Tertullian appositely He onely that made man he onely it is who can find the sinner Quest 2. How God finds a lost sinner Sol. There are How God â—inds a lost sinner seven Acts of God which are conversant about the finding of a lost sinner 1. He is moved with compassion towards him the He is moved with compassion towards him Lord pities such a sinner Alas saith God this poor ignorant foolish man is gone from me the fountain of his life lo how his lusts deceive him how Satan rules him how he wanders up and down in vanity he is quite out of the way of his happiness he is running towards hell but perceives it not he is undoing and destroying his immortal soul but observes it not he knows not whether he goes he is undone for ever if I stay him not if I turn him not 2. He intends good to this particular lost sinner I will surely have mercy on him I have seen his ways He intends good to this lost sinner and will heal him I know the thoughts that I think towards him thoughts of good and not of evil I will glorifie all my mercy and goodness in this very sinner I will not suffer him to run on thus I will look after him I will bring him home to my self and save him 3. He sends out after him one servant and another He sends out after him servant one Minister and another Minister Go saith God to such a Parish and to such a Family and preach and make enquiry Is there not such a miserable sinner here is there not such a lost man there one that is gone from his Fathers house one that hath spent all in riotous living Is there never a man here who hath departed from God lived without God run all his life in sinfull loose base courses of disobedience and would now be glad of mercy This is the general seeking of a lost sinner 4. He makes a privy search after him for perhaps He makes a privy search after him the general Hue and Cry will not find the sinner and therefore the Lord makes a privy search As to find out Achan there was Tribe searched by Tribe and Family by Family and Person by Person and thus doth the Lord in finding of a lost sinner He comes more distinctly and his Word or Afflictions draw after this sinner more personally they light at his door upon his person and knock and enquire Art not thou the man doth not the lost sinner abide here Art not thou he who hast lived ignorantly or proâ—anely and gone astray from thy God 5. He He lights on hâ—m at length lights on him at length And then the Lord lights on a lost sinner when he actuates and quickens Conscience in him which now can be silent no longer but cries out Lord here he is Here is the Swearer Drunkard Whoremonger Sabbath-breaker c. And now out comes the lost sinner with a trembling heart and a guilt-smiting spirit Lord who is it that you look for do you look after a sinner a lost sinner I am the man you look for Oh I have sinned I have wandred I have been lost all my Oh I have sinned I have wandred I have been lost all my days What shall I say unto thee O thou preserver of men or what shall I do Oh! if thou takest not pity on me if thou shewest not mercy unto me I perish I die I am lost for ever 6. He deals with this sinner to return and come back unto him Hos 14. 1. O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou He deals with him to return hast fallen by thine iniquity And there are four ways which the Lord useth to prevail upon a lost sinner to turn back unto him Four ways 1. By Expostulation What have I been unto thee or what have I done unto thee or what iniquity hast thou found in me By Expostulation that thou hast all this while departed from me Was not I the God that formed thee the Father that brought thee forth the Master that fed thee and took care of thee Was there not goodness and kindness and fulness enough in me why hast thou dealt thus unkindly with me 2. By Conviction of his By Conviction wandring condition with the baseness and miserableness thereof These are thy ways and these have been thy doings and what profit hast thou by those things whereof thou art or mayest be now ashamed Why what hast thou got by all thy sinfull wandrings See how naked thou art of all spiritual good how shamefull thy course hath been Is the Wilderness a place for a Child How poor and undone thou art Thou hast spent all and if thou continuest in thy sinfull ways thou wilt certainly perish with hunger Sin hath been thy loss and if thou return not it wâ—ll certainly be thy ruine Return O lost Sinner return return why wilt thou die and perish for ever 3. By By Propositions of Mercy Propositions of Mercy As S. John ran after that young lost man of Jerusalem crying unto him Return my son return Christ will yet accept of thee Christ will yet shew thee mercy So doth the Lord God when he would bring back a lost sinner Return saith he and live return and live Ezek. 18. 32. Though thou hast forgot the Duty of a Child yet I have not put off the Affection
Without saith it is impossible to please God Hebr. 11. 6. 2. But let us proceed further and search what Reasons may be produced to demonstrate the Assertion That the natural or Reasons of it unconverted man is spiritually dead and as to spirituals altogether dead Thus then 1. He who hath no Communion at all with Hâ—â—ath no communion with the principles of spiritual life the principles of spiritual life is in a spiritual sense altogether dead for where there is no principle of life there cannot be any thing but death Tolle animam tolle vitam but the impenitent and unconverted sinner hath no communion with any one principle of spiritual life Therefore c. There is a twofold principle of this life 1. A primitive conjunction with God in the estate of Innocency but this is lost 2. Arenewed Conjunction with God by Christ but yet this is not attained to by an unconverted sinner It is a confessed truth that Jesus Christ is the Author of spiritual life to the sinner He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Joh. 5. 17. And the sinner hath it partly by Faith which taking Christ takes life from him by the Spirit of Regeneration which renews and makes him alive but the unconverted sinner hath neither the one nor the other had he either he were then converted 2. Original sin whilst reigning is a compleat cause of spiritual Original sin is a compleat cause of spiritual death death But original sin reigns in the impenitent and unconverted sinner therefore he is dead The Fathers have diversly Phrased Original sin some call it Venenum Syerpentis so Cprian others Plagam serpentis so Ireneus others Vitium parentum so Pauâ—inius in Austin the Apostle Paul calls it sometimes the body of sin sometimes the body of death sometimes the Law of sin and death sometimes the Vncircumcision of the heart Our Divines generally conceive two things in it viz. In Original sin there is 1. A total deprivation of original righteousness The Faculties remain but the Rectitude is gone It is reported of an excellent Philosopher that he fell into a Disease which dashed out all the Learning that ever he acquired so that he forgat even his own Name Original sin is like the extinguishing of a Candle the Candle remains still but the Light is gone Or like the quenching of red Iron the Iron remains but the fiery redness is all gone Or like a Tree the Limbs remain but the Life is gone It is an Universal spoil it hath robbed us of all our supernaturals worse to us than the Devil to Job who took away all that he had yet spared his Life But Original Sin not onely took away Paradise and Righteousness but all self-power so much as to desire to be good 2. A total depravation of all the man Seges ubi Troia The Soul of Man was once like a Garden fully set with the sweetest Flowers of Righteousness but now it is become like a Wilderness run over and filled with Briars and Thorns Or it is like a Face which once was the most curious of features every part expressing most amiable sweetness now it is like the same Face most deformed with the clusters of the Pox and the very shame and reproach of it self There is not a Faculty in the Soul but it is like the Bough of a fruitfull Tree thickly laden with Iniquity It is a Spring bubling out nothing but aversation enmity resistance to spiritual good and readiness inclination eagerness unsatiableness to all that is evil God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart of man was onely evil continually Gen. 6. 5. The best of men complain of blindness of dulness of deadness Alas then what or how is it with the worst of men Paul could not do good a wicked man would not do good Paul complains for want of power what then may an unconverted man do By all this I think it manifectly appears That the unconverted man is spiritually dead because Original Sin reigns in him if in any then in him and where Original Sin reigns there is a total privation or absence of all spiritual Life and total corruption or presence of spiritual Death in the Soul The terms used in Scripture to express conversion 3. The Terms used in Scripture to express a sinners conversion do seem sufficiently weighty to prove That before his conversion he was spiritually dead For it is set forth sometimes By the Resurrection of the dead Ephes 5. 14. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead By the Generation of a person Of his own good will begat he us with the word of truth Jam. 1. 18. By Creation 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Now observe if Conversion be a Resurrection a spiritual Resurrection then the soul before Conversion was spiritually dead if Conversion be a Regeneration then a new life is brought into the soul which it totally wanted before If Conversion be a Creation and the converted man qua talis be a new creature then he had no spiritual being before If spiritual Life be a creature onely of Christ's making then c. 4. To me those spiritual Promises which God makes of giving The promises of giving a spiritual being and life a spiritual being and life do abundantly clear that man is dead As of pouring forth the Spirit of Grace giving his Spirit taking away the heart of Stone and giving the heart of Flesh of giving Knowledge Love Fear c. Such kinds of Promises imply three things 1. Our total want and need 2. Gods undertaking to bestow them 3. A free and total donation of them to us on Gods part 5. S. Austin useth the Duty of Prayer to prove this Assertion The duty of Prayer against the Pelagians Petenda à Deo bona omnia ergo nihil boni ex nobis possumus And in an Epistle to Vitalis he saith Prorsus non oramus Deum sed orare nos singimus si nos ipsos non illum credimus facere quod oramus 6. I will add but one Argument more viz. That man is totally dead quantum ad spiritualia who cannot so much as Man cannot prepare himself to life prepare himself no not remotely no not in any degree unto the life of Grace But the Unconverted man cannot virtute propria and without supernatural aid in the least degree prepare himself c. for without that aid he cannot desire deliverance out of his sinfull estate nor mourn over it nay not feel it nay not spiritually know it The Use which I desire to make of this Point I shall reduce unto 1. Information 2. Trial 3. Instruction 1. For Information Is every natural and unconverted man a Information spiritually dead man Hence we may be informed of several The unconverted man is in the saddest condition Truths 1. That the
c. At a Funeral Feast there is no mirth because the Master of the house is dead Ah weep over thy Father over thy Son the Master of the house is dead his precious soul is dead Thy pity can do a dead body no good but it may do a dead soul some good especially if you take in the next Duty which is 3. Pray for the dead I mean not in the Popish sense they Pray for the Dead you know pray for souls departed supposing them to be in Purgatory where the pains as they say are intollerable equal to them in Hell and the souls are deprived of the vision of God and therefore their Priests and others often pray for them and upon the Graves they inscribe Pray for the soul of such a one and on his soul Jesu have mercy But this is a wicked superstition We acknowledge no Purgatory and no need of Prayers for souls departed yet we hold Prayers requisite for one another whiles we are upon the earth And because some are dead whiles they live O pray to the Lord for them Lord Jesu have mercy upon the soul of my Husband Child Wife O convert them quicken them from the dead suffer them not their poor souls to die for ever When Steven was to die he prayed for those that were spiritually dead When Christ was dying he also prayed for them And Monica the Mother of Austin prayed for him and all of them were heard Object But I have prayed but yet no good comes of it Sol. Pray still as long as there is life and as long as there is prayer there is hope It will be an excellent comfort to thee and eternal happiness to thy friend if thou canst at length by thy prayers prevail with God to deliver that one soul from death Use the means by wâ—ich you may be quickned 4. If the Lord hath opened any of your eyes but to see what your spiritual condition is that you are yet in your graves yet dead in treâ—passes and sâ—â—s my advice unto you is this Go use the means by which your dead souls may be quickned Object Why but this is ridiculous to bid a dead man do work go stir do any thing Sol. I answer 1. There is a difference twixt a man corporally dead and a man spiritually dead The former can do no action whatsoever neither spiritual nor civil nor natural the latter though he can do nothing in spirituals yet for the other he may and can 2. You must distinguish twixt a spiritual action and an action which brings to a spiritual means He cannot convert his own heart yet he hath power to hear the Word which can 'T is true that a wicked unconverted man cannot exert any one spiritual action nevertheless he hath liberty and power to go to Church and hear a Sermon Why use this power and this liberty to come to the Pool where the Angel stirs to come to the Ordinances where God is pleased to quicken and raise the dead 3. When thou art under a spiritual Ordinance thou art under the voice of Christ himself who hath said That the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and live And truly let me tell thee That the Voice of Jesus Christ in his Word hath not only a power to find a lost man but also to quicken a dead man I have finished the first Proposition out of these words viz. Luk. 15. 24. That the unconverted man is a dead man I now proceed to the second which is this That every converted man is a living man When the sinner Doct. 2. Every converted man is a living man is converted he is then made alive Conversion is a Sinners Life So the Text This my son is alive again It is reported of Similis Captain of the Guard to the Emperour Adrian that he retired from the Court into the Countrey seven years before his death and caused this to be written on his Tomb Hiâ— jacet Similis cuâ—us aet as multoruâ— annorum â—uit ipse septem duntaxat annos vixit For so many years only was he converted We count the length of our lives from the time of our birth and we must count the life of our souls from the time of our new birth said Hierom. It is frequent in Scripture to stile converted persons living persons or persons made alive Rom. 6. 13. Yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead Chap. 8. v. 10. If Christ be in you the spirit is life because of righteousness Gal. 2. 20. I live saith Paul Col. 2. 13. You who were dead in your sins hath he quickned For the advantagious discussion of this Point I shall briefly open unto you 1. What Life that is which the converted sinner attains unto 2. How it may appear that he is invested with such a Life and why 3. Then the useful Application of all this unto our selves 1. What Life that is wherewith the converted man is invested What is the life of a converted sinner A four-fold life Natural Sol. I speak only of that Life incident unto man which is four-fold 1. Life natural which is a power to move and act I count not my life dear unto me said Paul Act. 20. 24. All that a man hath he will give for his life Job 1. This is the Life of Nature and every man good or bad enjoys it 2. Life connatural which is a prosperous fruition of our Lives Life connatural with peace contentment and comfortable successes in the external matters and affairs of our life This also is possibly incident to all sorts of men 3. Preternatural which is a death Preternatural rather than a life A sinfull life a life acted under the power and motion of sinfull lusts I was alive once said Paul Rom. 7. In this respect wicked and ungodly men only are alive 4. Supernatural Supernatural a divine life a new life a life in Christ and from Christ and to Christ Of which there are two parts and they are proper only to converted persons 1. There is the Life of Grace which they enjoy in this world 2. There is the Life of Glory which they enjoy in the world to come called often in Scripture eternal life The Text speaks of the first of these The The life of Grace is The life of Justification converted sinner is invested with the Life of Grace And this again is branched into the life of 1. Justification for when a sinner is justified he is then in the condition of life The unjustified man is a dead man for he lies under the sentence of death and the justified man is a living man he is passed from death to life the Lord takes off the sentence of eternal death from him He shall not die for the sins which he hath committed for I have pardoned all his sins and now he shall live and not die saith the Lord. 2. Sanctification
When a sinner is sanctified Of Sanctification Which may be considered In the cause of it he is then made alive At this I suppose the Text doth principally aim This Life is considerable 1. In the Cause of it which is no other but the Spirit of Jesus Christ who unites Christ and the Soul together and upon this union the Soul is quickned with the life of Christ I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. 2. In the Nature of it it is a novum spirituale esse which doth regenerate the man and as it were create him In the nature of it again The Scripture stiles this quality a new creature and the new man It is an holy living principle In a word this life is nothing else but the Grace of the Spirit regenerating and renewing the whole soul of a sinner It is saving light set up in the Mind and saving wisdome set up in the Judgment and saving grace set up in the Will and Affections which alter the old sinfull nature in man and are a new spiritual inclination to matters that are spiritual yea and a new spiritual ability or power in the whole soul of man to work that is spiritual Whereas the Understanding could not know the things of God now it is enabled to know them and to admire them and to study them whereas the Will was both unable to good and unwilling to good and only set on what was evil now being quickned by Grace it is drawn off from that affectionate inclination to evil and it is bent and inclined and in some measure enabled to desire Christ to love Jesus Christ to fear God to obey God and to walk with God And when this comes into the heart of a sinner he is said to be alive again Shall I draw out my thoughts of this Subject more clearly unto When a sinner is made alive Jesus Christ applies himself unto the soul and breaths into it the breath of life you Take me then thus When any sinner is made spiritually alive 1. Jesus Christ applies himself to the Soul and he breaths into it the Spirit of Life He doth with a poor dead soul much like as Eliah did with the Shunamites dead child who lay upon the child and put his mouth upon the childs mouth and his eyes upon the childs eyes and his hands upon the childs hands and he stretched himself upon the child and the flesh of the child waxed warm So the Lord Jesus applies himself by his Spirit to the soul of a sinner to all the soul of a sinner and works mightily in it producing knowledge in a blind mind and feeling in an hard heart and faith in an unbelieving spirit and all his Graces in the whole Soul 2. Which gracious principles He puts in living principles are all of them living principles and alter all the soul and incline it spiritually So that the man who cared not for God nor Christ nor Grace nor holy Duties heretofore now his soul bends to these and he minds these and he is never better than when he is thinking of God and mourning for his sins and thirsting for Christ and praying to God and hearing of the Word of God this is his desire and this is his delight 3. There is a power in these principles of spiritual life A power There is power of spiritual life in these principles against his sins so that now he can hate them and say What have I to do any more with Idols Get ye hence And a power in his affections so that now he is able to love God above all and able to fear God and not displease him willingly And a power in his will so that now he is able to come to Christ and cleave to Christ as his onely happiness And a power to spiritual actions so that he is now able to hear and understand to pray and wrestle to pray and believe to believe and repent Quest 2. How it may be evidenced that the converted man is How this may be evidenced thus made spiritually alive Sol. Thus 1. Every converted man hath a living union with Jesus Christ he is brought into He hath a living union with Christ fellowship with Christ Now Jesus Christ is a living Head and all his members are living Members 1 Joh. 5. 12. He that hath the Son hath life And Joh. 6. 51. I am the living bread if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever 〈◊〉 2. All true grace is of a living nature False grace is a dead thing it True grace is of a living nature hath no life and can give no life but true grace is living True â—aith is a living faith I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. And true hope is a living hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. God hath begotten us to a lively hope 3. Every converted man is the child of the living God he is born of the Spirit who is the Spirit of life He is a child of the living God God is not the God of the dead but of the living and God as a Father never begets any dead Children All his children are begot after his own image they are partakers of the Divine nature and that is a living nature 〈◊〉 4. The converted man lives the rest He lives the rest of his life to God of his life unto God 1. Pet. 3. 2. None of us liveth to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord Rom. 14. 8. Can he possibly live unto the Lord until he be made alive by the Lord What glory can God get by the life of a dead sinner The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day said Hezâ—kiah Isa 38. 19. God must have much glory from the converted man not only passive glory on him this he hath on wicked men but active glory from him glory from his believing and glory from his obedience which cannot be unless he be made alive spiritually alive The Use of this Doctrine shall be to draw you into a searching acquaintance with your spiritual condition There is not Vse Trial of our selves about our spiritual life a business which can possibly concern you more nearly than this Whether you be children of Death or of Life Whether yet dead in sins or quickned by the life of grace Can it be said of us as here of the Prodigal This my Son was dead but is alive So we were sometimes disobedient ignorant proud vile serving divers lusts but after that the grace of God hath appeared we are alive we have put off those lusts and have other Principles other Natures other Lives Let me offer unto you four Motives to try your souls about their spiritual Motives to this Trial. Life 1. You have enjoyed the means of Life The Gospel is often You have enjoied the means of life called the Word of Life
a quickning and regenerating Word it carries Christ in it the Author of Life and the Apostle calls it the Ministration of Life And perhaps it hath been so to some poor man and woman and to some of thy children But O how long hast thou heard it how often hast thou come to this Bread of Life to these Waters of Life What! and yet dead in thy sins not yet quickned and made alive Why thou art a reproach to the Gospel and thy sins have not only given death to thy soul but death to the Gospel of Christ the Gospel is made by them a dead Letter it is not so in it self but thou hast made it so And how wilt thou answer God for killing thy soul and killing his Christ and killing his Gospel 2. Many have a name that they live but like the Angel of Many have a name to live and yet are dead the Church of Sardis they are dead Revel 3. 1. Oh Sirs Spiritual life the life of grace is a rare thing and a difficult thing Every man loves his life but few love this life No man hates his own life almost but most men hate this life of grace because it is destructive to this life of sin And many think they have it and others think so too and yet they have it not You know it is one thing to put Flowers upon a dead body and another thing to put life into a dead man It is one thing for the Sun to convey light another thing for the Sun to convey life I might shew you that mâ—n mistake spiritual life exceedingly Education in a person may lead him far and so may an enlightned and generous Conscience and so may restraining Grace and so may Art and so may the common gifts of the Spirit they may enable a man to strange conceptions and strange affections and strange actions and yet the man may be spiritually dead Not any of these flow from a gracious principle of spiritual life Why common Gifts may lead up the soul far and Education may lead to Duties much and Conscience may awe sin exceedingly and Art or Hypocrisie may counterfeit the very life of Grace as a Stage-player doth a King wonderfully O therefore look to it that you have more than a name of life that you live indeed 3. If you should deceive your selves and when you come to It would be very sad to be deceived in this die you find that you have been dead all your lives and never were spiritually made alive Oh! in what a condition will thy poor trembling soul be To die and see nothing but death I thought there was life in my heart and life in my strong faith and life in my troubles of spirit and life in my obedience but alas I never lived I never enjoyed Christ never enjoyed grace c. 4. If the Lord hath made thee alive from the dead I do not To be alive is cause of great joy know any man living on the earth that hath such cause of joy unspeakable and glorious I will mention but three particulars unto thee 1. Hereby thou mayest be assured of thy interest in the richest mercy and greatest love of God to thy poor soul Read but the Apostle in Ephes 2. 4. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us v. 5. even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us 2. Thou mayest palpably discover the tokens and vertues of Jesus Christ upon thy soul the very Effigies of the saving works of Christ that which Paul so longed to know even the power of the death and of the resurrection of Christ Philip. 3. 10. In thy death to Sin and in thy life of Grace doth the power of Christs death and of Christs resurrection appear 3. Thou mayest certainly know that Heaven shall be the place of thy rest hereafter Spiritual life comes from Heaven and bends to Heaven and shall bring to Heaven It prepares for Heaven and it is a part of Heaven and it shall be perfected and filled up in Heaven O what things are these who would miss of these For Christs sake search throughly whether you be made alive Now me thinks I hear some soul secretly longing to know how it may be cleared unâ—o it That God hath quickned it from the Signs of spiritual life dead That as it was once dead yet it is now alive Sol. There are many things which may clearly declare it for indeed life is such an active thing especially spiritual life that it may easily appear sometimes or other to him who hath it 1. If sin be alive then thou art still dead and if sin be dead thou art certainly alive I will open both these parâ—s 1. If sin be alive then the man is dead for it is impossible that the If sin be alive the man is dead same man should be alive and dead under the same consideration Spiritual Life and spiritual Death are incompatible at the same time in the same subject And therefore if sin be alive questionless you are spiritually dead Now there are four things which manifest sin to be alive in any mans soul 1. The flaming bents and inâ—atiable desires of the heart after things forbidden in the Word Ephes 4. 19. we read of sin with greediness 2. The universal and easie authority law or command that it hath over the soul and body that it can use them in the service of lusts when and as it pleaseth Ephes 2. 2 3. 3. The joyfull contentation and satisfaction which the heart takes in evil things as we do in meat and drink 4. The customary trade and course of our life in sinfull ways a walking in them a living in them O if these be yet found in thee sin is alive still and thou art dead still 2. But if sin be dead thou art certainly alive If sin be dead thou art alive I confess sin may be restrained and a man not alive and sin may be troublesome in some respects and a man not yet alive But if it be dead the man is spiritually alive for sin in thee can never come to be dead but by spiritual life Now sin is dead in thee if thou canst find two things 1. If it hath lost thy affections If love to sin be gone and hatred of sin be come if delight in sin be quenched and sorrow for sin be implanted Oh Sirs the love of sin is the life of sin and if the hatred of sin doth live then the love of sin is dead 2. If it hath lost its Authority its free and uncontrolled power although it molests still and tempts still yet it rules not thou art not a slave to it and subject to it thou wilt not serve it obey it any longer If thou hast Christ for thy Lord the Law of Christ for thy Rule and Sin for thy Enemy thou art alive 2. A second sign of spiritual life is a spiritual sense
to Grace and Christ 3. There is the highest contrariety in actions and courses that ever was to see a man pull down what he built up and There is the highest contrariety of courses and actions to build up what he pulled down to be mad against Christ and then presently even besides himself for Christ to scourge and revile Paul and Silas and presently after honour and embrace and almost adore them To reproach the Saints and their wayes and suddenly to admire them and value them and their paths as worthiest of our dearest love and society 4. And a little And a little grace to produce all this very little Grace to produce all this That one drop should sweeten the great bitter Ocean that one little spark should cause all this flame A very little Engine should move all the World and level the Mountains a little Grace to enter the Throne and to turn all the soul round about That Moses little Rod should divide the Sea and melt the Rock a little Ant tumble down a Mountain that the Grain of Mustard-seed which is the least of seeds should grow into a Tree That a very little Grace should transform the most rebellious heart humble the most proud heart quicken the dead purisie the most vile affections conquer the Gates of Hell overthrow sin dispossess Satan should beget such a River of Grief kindle such a flame of love such a zeal for God tenderness in Conscience such a strength to do and suffer to believe life in death joy in sorrows hopes in despair raise so high as to love them that hate us bless them that curse us pray for them that despightfully use us and do good for evil 3. True Conversion is an inward change When It is an inward change a dead man is made alive this is done by the infusion of an inward principle of life the cloathing of a dead man is one thing and the quickning of a dead man is another thing it is one thing to plaister an old house and it is another thing to build a new house Conversion may be considered two wayes either 1. Extensively So it is a change even of the life and outward actions of men it is a cleansing of the flesh as well as of the spirit it is a sanctifying of the body as well as of the soul It is a putting off the former Conversation Eph. 4. 22. 2. Denominatively So it is an inward change the Prophet calls it a washing of the heart Wash thine heart O Jerusalem Jer. 44. 4. The Apostle calls it a transformation by the renewing of the mind Rom. 2. 29. and a Circumcision of the heart Rom. 2. 29. St. John calls it a laying the Ax to the root of the Tree Mat. 3. 10. Ezekiel calls it the giving of a new heart and of a new spirit Ezek. 36. 26. Every converted man hath a changed heart we say in nature that Cor est primum vivens It is true also in Grace the first work of quickning and converting Grace begins in the heart of a sinner The heart first fell from God and it is the first that turns unto God The heart is the first Seat of Sin and it is the first Throne of Grace Sin is the wound and disease of the heart and Grace must bring the Plaister thither sin is first in the heart and most in the heart dominion is there the poyson is there bring in the heart prevail with it and you bring in all the man An outward change without an inward change is 1. But Hypocrisie The Hypocritical Pharisees made clean the outside of the Cup bùt not the inside a golden profession and a rotten heart this is but Hypocrisie 2. But Vanity it is to lap the Boughs and leave the Roots which can send out more it is to empty the Cistern and to leave the Fountain running which fills it again 3. But self and soul-deceit What a foolish fancy is it to think my self a converted man because my Tongue is quiet and yet my heart doth curse Whether every internalchange be an evidence of true conversion Four internal changes may be in man unconverted A change from ignorance to knowledg God because my body is honest when yet my heart burns and boils with lust because my hands strike not and yet my heart is full of malice and revenge and murder Quest But here a single scruple may be propounded viz. Whether every internal change be an evidence of true Conversion To which I answer it is not there are four Internal changes which may be in a man unconverted 1. A change from ignorance to knowledg The man who was an ignorant sinner may become a knowing sinner and yet remain still an unconverted sinner for a man may hate the good which he knows and love the evil which he knows neither of which can consist with true Conversion 2. A change from error to truth Many Fâ—om error to truth a man forsakes the Popish Religion and embraceth the Protestant Religion his opinion and judgment of things may be altered and yet his sinful heart may not be altered he may hold justification by faith only and yet his heart be utterly void of saving faith he may deny merit unto the works of Repentance and yet his heart never truly repent he may hold the true and right Government of Christ in his Church and yet that Government of Christ may never be set up in his own heart 3. A change from security to trouble and perplexity It is possible that a great From security to trouble sinner who was as senseless as the Rock may now be as trembling as the Leaf and his conscience troubled as the Sea and yet his heart not converted Cain was troubled so was Pharaoh so was Saul so was Judas yet none of them converted There is a trouble which riseth from a quick conscience and there is a trouble which riseth from quickning grace this latter is an evidence of true Conversion the other is not 4. A temporary change or A temporary change rather a transient diversity in the affections It is possible for some scornful person to hear the Gospel preached by some John Baptist as Herod did with joy and to hear some Paul as Felix did with trembling who formerly scorned all preaching yea this man may be in a great changeableness yet never be truly changed divine truths may fall upon him with that evidence and efficacy as to shake his heart stir his affections excite his resolutions and yet after a little while as the cold doth on Water that is heated all these workings expire into nothing his old incorporated familiar lusts prevail over them and work them wholly out till the inward change be a change of the heart it is not a truly converting change 4. Lastly true Conversion is an universal change When It is a universal change a dead man is quickned the soul is not only
a change of all without and within you The converted souls are glad Acts 2. 47. the converted Jailor rejoyced Acts 16. 34. the Eunuch rejoyced Acts 8. 6 8. The first work of the Spirit is grace the next is joy Heaven now stands open for you to see all c. Threatnings are turned into promises curses into blessings enemies unto friends aliens into sons accusing into an excusing conscience voice of terror into a voice of peace hell into heaven It is the only unprejudicial change on earth 6. It is the only unprejudicial change on earth In all other changes there is either diminution or danger If a rich man becomes poor there is a diminution of his Condition if a poor man becomes rich there is a danger to his spirit lest he becomes covetous or proud If a man be lifted up to greatness and authority there is a danger lest he forgets God and be injurious if an healthy man becomes sick and weak here is an impairing a loss and danger of life Only when a wicked man is converted and becomes holy there is neither diminution nor danger converting grace is no thief in the Candle It is no preternatural heat which sucks away that which is vital thou losest nothing at all by it no spot to thy credit no burden to thy conscience no eclipse to thy honour no gall in thy Cup nor wast to thy Lands It doth not darken thy name nor weaken thy strength nor diminish thy coffers nor imbitter thy comforts No loss but the losing of sin which we cannot keep but to our loss all that it doth is this that it decreaseth and destroyeth thy sinful lusts it roots out those weeds it pulls out hell it heals thy wounds and is the deadly enemy to thy deadliest enemies 7. The converting change is an unchangeable change The next change is into Heaven A wicked man may be changed It is an unchangeable change into a Godly man and a Godly man may be changed into Heaven but the Godly man shall never be changed again into a wicked man the state of grace is an unchangeable state a better condition them Adams in Paradise his was perfect but mutable this is imperfect but not changeable Once a Son and ever a Son the Son abides in the house for ever sayes Christ once converted and for ever blessed Gods converting Grace is an abiding seed and it is immortal seed and it is a gift which God never repents of although much of the strength of it may be abated by our falls as fire is raked up under the ashes although the sense of it doth sometime fail us and the comfort and the liveliness of operation appears not yet as there is life in the root though there be not leaves on the Tree and as there is a soul in the man though sickness be in his body so the truth and state of grace continues under all a Christians eclipses weaknesses failings for converting grace comes from an unchangeable will in God the will of his love whom he loves once he loves to the end 2. It depends upon an everlasting Communion with Christ who marries the soul to himself for ever 3. And it is given as a pledg and pawn of eternal glory 4. And it is assisted with an everlasting arm and power of God 8. No other change shall hurt you but further you Afflictions No other change shall hurt us but further us Death it is gain unto you it is the last stile and then you are at home for ever Object But now some distressed person may reply These are comforts indeed but not to me for I fear that my heart is not changed nor yet truly changed I am not indeed altogether what once I was but this I fear is but a stop of conscience or but the fruit of hypocrisie Oh I feel such changes on my spirit I fear I am not truly changed it is not alwayes alike and so much sinfulness so much unbelief so much hardness so much difficulty to good so much weakness under temptations surely my change is not true a great an inward a total change and therefore none of these comforts appertain unto me Sol. Shall I speak a few words to such a person surely some such there may be 1. The change by Conversion is but imperfect in this life it is a total change although it changeth us not totally A converted This change is but imperfect in this life man is sanctifyed throughout but not perfectly throughout when the day breaks there is a change that one may truly say the night is past and yet many degrees of darkness stick in the air as soon as ever God infuseth grace into the soul there is immediately a change as to the denomination of the estate though not as to the consummation of the estate Paul's estate was a converted and changed estate and yet there was a Law in his Members as well as a Law in his Mind Rom. 7. Conversion is a change from the dominion of what was contrary not from the absolute being of a contrary Though a Tyrant dwell and stirs in a Kingdome yet if a lawful Monarch rules the Kingdome is changed Many sins are in a converted man still but if grace doth rule the heart now which formerly was ruled by sin that man is a changed man 2. Converting grace although it be wrought at once yet it is Converting grace though wrought at once yet is brought on by degrees brought on by degrees The truth of it begins in an instant but the strength of it comes in time It is a very curious question why God gives Grace by degrees or successively in this life and not all at once but still leaves some sinful corruption behind Divines conjecture three reasons of it 1. Our present incapacity of a present fulness The Bottle cannot be filled but by degrees though the Ocean be full there is as much grace given at first as to make a new creature but not a strong creature 2. Our estate on earth must be a combating estate to difference the estate of grace and glory that in heaven only is the crowning and triumphing 3. And it is an estate of faith which is a continual dependance and a continual drawing of help and a continual recourse to the fountain In Creation Perfection of being was at once and in Glorification at once but not so in Sanctification this rises like Ezekiels Water or like the light of the Sun This may yet satisfie thee though grace be imperfect and not full at once 1. Justification is perfect 2. Though you find but little yet you cannot be fatisfyed without more 3. You have perfecting means of holiness though you have not perfect holiness a word to build you up 4. That God who hath begun has promised to finish and your little is a pledg of more 5. Truth of grace may lye in a little compass 3. There may be many changes
the Word of Conscience of Death The third Use shall be to exhort and entreat us to stir up all our hearts to beg of God to work in them this admirable change by Vse 3. Exhortation to beg of God to work this change Conversion I read in Scripture that the blind man cryed out Jesuâ— thou Son of David have mercy on me and again Thou Son of David c. and all this was for a change in his eyes and I read that Naoman took a great journey into the Land of Israel and all was to be cleansed of the Leprosie of his body And why will we not take a little pains to have our hearts and souls changed by grace Consider seriously 1. That a man is not excluded No other want excludes from heaven This want certainly excludes us from heaven for any other want not for want of wisdome or parts or riches or dignities 2. Thou art certainly excluded from heaven the door is shut up against thee if thou be not converted and changed the holy God will never look upon thee and thou shalt never look upon that holy God in his holy place The unclean person was shut out of the Camp and no unclean thing shall ever enter into heaven 3. It is thy duty thou art It is thy duty to be changed bound to be a converted and changed person every man is bound to hate and forsake his sins and to come back and love and serve his God did God make thee to serve thy lusts hath he preserved thee all this while to sin against him Is this the fruit of thy dreadful Covenant which thou hast made with him 4. What wilt thou get by keeping thy sins or any one of them What wilt thou get by keeping thy sins Be perswaded To beseech the Lord to change thy heart Be perswaded therefore at least unto two things 1. To beseech the Lord to change and convert thy heart even thine also remember well 1. None can change a sinner but God The Musician must tune the Instrument 2. It is no sin to beg of God a Conversion from sin No no thou canst not put up a more acceptable request Lord I am weary of my sins I would dishonour thee no more I would be good I would serve thee thou only canst change me and enable me for thy Mercies sake do so and heal and turn me so shall I be healed and turned 3. God hath changed and converted great sinners was not Manasses so M. Magdalen so Paul so the Corinthians so Why venture toward his mercy seat who can tell but he may do so to thee 4. He hath changed sinners who have not sought him and will he refuse it for them who do seek it of him if he many times be found of them that seek him not will he deny to them who seek 5. You have his promise to do this very converting work for you He will give his holy Spirit to them that ask him Luk. 11. 13. I will give a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. 36. 26. Behold he calls thee he tells thee that he is willing to convert thee why then art thou not willing to receive it to have it done do not say thou art a sinner God never did convert any but a sinner nor does he promise to convert any who is not a sinner 6. Did ever any beg this and failed of it Lord said one to Christ If thou wilt thou canst make me clean what saith Christ to him doth he not answer him at all Doth he say I cannot Or doth he say I will not O no his answer is and it is a present answer I will be thou clean 2. To come to the Word and come for this end that God may convert and change many came Come to the word for this end to the Pool of Bethesda to look on it and an impotent man came thither to be cured in it and there he was cured many come to hear the Word to mock at it and many come to get some notions from it and many come to catch the Minister at it but he who comes for this very end to be converted and changed by it I believe he shall first or last attain his end the word shall convert and change him The word is sometimes compared to a Glass which discovers Jam. 1. 29. and sometimes to a Laver which washeth and cleanseth Psal 119. 9. even the young man who of all other is most unruly and wild is converted by it The Power of God goes with the Word of God and the Grace of God comes by the Word of God it is Vehiculum Spiritus canalis Gratiae Thousands have been converted by it and so maist thou Hath God converted and changed thy heart hearken then to Vse 4. Counsels to the converted a few counsels 1. Take heed of sinning after Conversion Do not sin against grace received if thou dost thou wilt weaken and lame thy strength wilt darken thy heaven wilt perplex thy conscience wilt shew thy self more ungrateful then any man no wicked man can have such an aggravation of sin upon him as thou hast 2. Honour God with that Grace which thou hast received Conversion fits and enables a man for Gods Service and Glory And they began to be merry Luke 15. 24. These words are as the Banquet after the Feast they are the close and the reckoning that is brought in upon the lost Son being brought home The case is wonderfully altered with him all is altered when the sinner is altered when he was wandring from his Father he ran up and down the Country and wasted all his estate among Harlots he shifted himself to his very skin and out he is turned amongst the Swine and no man regarded him the poor wretch wanted Father and House and Cloaths and all Comforts and was upon his last Leggs at the very point of starving and famishing But now being found and returned home all mercies come in unto him there 's a Father to embrace him and an House to entertain him and Raiment to cloath him and Friends to welcome him and a feast to rejoyce him And they began to be merry As formerly you have had the nature of Conversion so in these you have the fruit of Conversion When Jesus Christ was born there was great joy and when a sinner is born again hereupon also ariseth great joy The Proposition on which I intend to insist is this That Conversion brings the Soul into a joyful a very joyful condition They began to be merry Mirth is the accent of joy Doct. 7. Conversion brings the soul into a very joiful condition it is an emphatical joy but when did they begin to be merry why as soon as it was said This my Son is alive and this my Son is found now they begin to be merry Conversion may be considered three wayes 1. Antecedenter For the precious qualities and works which
immediately go before and ordinarily usher in Conversion so it is sad and bitter and sharp for there the law imprints a sense of sin and of wrath and a spirit of bondage to fear the Needle pricks and the Sword cuts and wounds and the Hammer bruiseth and the Plough rents and tears 2. Formaliter as it is a perfective change and alteration even from hell to heaven from basest lusts to sweetest holiness and thus it is at the least a fundamental radical and virtual joy 3. Consequenter For the Crop and present harvest which results out of Conversion thus it is the Musick after the tuning of the strings the fruit of righteousness is peace so the fruit of conversion is joy and delight There are three things unto which I desire to speak about this point 1. That upon Conversion the condition becomes very joyful and pleasant quod sit 2. What kind of joy and pleasure Conversion doth bring quale sit 3. Reasons why so cur sit and then the useful Application Quest 1. For the first of these that Conversion doth bring the soul into a very joyful condition Sol. There are four things which demonstrate the quod sit of The quod sit demonstrated this 1. Many pregnant places of Scripture Psal 52. 11. Shout for joy all ye that arâ— upright in heart Psal 132. 9. By Scripture Let thy Saints shout for joy Isai 35. 10. The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Isai 65. 13. Behold my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed v. 14. Behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart Isai 61. 10. I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God Rom. 14. 17. The Kingdome of God consists in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Prov. 3. 17. Her wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace 2. Many pregnant testimonies and instances By Instances When Zacheus was converted he came down joyfully and received Christ Luke 19. 6 9. When the three thousand were converted there ensued singular gladness and joy Acts 2. 41. When the Eunuch was converted he went home rejoycing Act. 8. 39. When those in Samaria were converted the Text saith There was great joy in that City Acts 8. 5 6. When the Jailor was converted He rejoyced believing in God with all his house Acts 16. 34. When they to whom Peter wrote were converted they did rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. 3. The many Comparisons by which converting grace is expressed By Comparisons doth confirm it that it makes the souls condition very joyful and delightful The estate of grace is set forth by all the things which are esteemed pleasant and delightful and joyful Men take Delight and Joy in Honour Beauty Strength Youth Riches Pearls and Jewels in Birth in Wisdome and Knowledg in Springs Orchards Spices Perfumes Buildings Victories Life Duration Friends Why when converting grace is conveyed into the heart the man now is honourable and of high dignity now the beauties of Christ are on his soul all his graces are more precious then Pearls and Gold and Silver he is rich in spiritual treasures he is one born of the Spirit of God never truly knowing and wise till now c. Nay grace is phrased by such things which yield a general and universal contentment and delight to the whole man It is sometimes called Light which is pleasant to the eye Oyntment which is pleasant to the smell Wine which is pleasant to the tast Musick or the joyful sound which is pleasant to the ear Nay yet again it is sometimes called Truth and that is pleasant to the understanding Goodness and that is pleasant to the will a Kingdome and that is pleasant to desire an Inheritance and that is pleasant to hope Communion and that is pleasant to love a Possession and and that is pleasant to joy a Victory and that is pleasant to hatred a Security and that is pleasant to fear Heaven the Kingdome of Heaven and that is pleasantness itself and all this even under fears and combates when at the first and weakest and lowest Nay yet once more it is set out by all the occasions and by all the times of joy to the birth of a man-child for joy that a man-child is born said Christ A converted man is a new-born To the day of Marriage which some call the only day of joy a converted man is marryed to Christ To a Feast Isai 25. 6. Every dish is filled with mercy To a Coronation day which was a day of gladness of heart to Solomon Cant. 3. 11. There is a crown of life for every converted soul To the time of Harvest when the Husbandman reaps with joy Isai 9. 3. To the returns of Merchants upon the increase of Wine and Oyle Psal 4. To a ransome and release from bondage and captivity a converted man is set at liberty he is a freeman in Christ 4. Consider Conversion in the Causes of it or in the very By the Causes of it Nature of it or in the Acts flowing from it certainly by all of them you may be induced to believe that it makes the Condition joyful and pleasant 1. The Causes of it which are four 1. The Radical cause Why Conversion drops out of the Eternal Love of God to a mans soul Behold what manner of Love 1 Jo. 3. 1. as many as were ordained to eternal life believed Acts. 13. 2. The Meritorious cause Who loved us and gave himself for us Gal. 2. It is one part of Christs purchase he merited Grace and Glory for his 3. The Efficient cause immediately efficient it is the first breath of Gods sanctifying Spirit the Spirit of true Comfort and Joy 4. The Instrumental cause the word which is called sweet and sweeter then the Hony and the breasts of Consolation is the instrument of Conversion Jam. 1. 2. It s owne Nature Converting Grace hath three things intrinsecal unto it 1. Goodness it is By the Nature of it good and it only makes us good Now Goodness is the foundation of Delight Nothing is truly pleasant but what is truly good 2. Suteableness There is nothing so suteable either to the nature of the soul or end of the soul as true Grace 3. Perfection it is the Glory of the Soul 3. The acts flowing from it If the acts flowing from Conversion be such as God himself takes delight in He takes delight By the acts flowâ—ng from it in the prayer of his servants in the broken hearts of his servants in the Faith and in the Fear and in the Hope of his servants all their services are a sweet savour unto him as Noahs sacrifice was Surely then Conversion is able to make the converted
Soul joyful and delightful Againe there cannot be a greater delight and joy then when an Active and Actual intercourse is maintained twixt an immortal Soul and perfect Blessedness when my Soul hath a free converss with Blessedness it self and Blessedness it self hath a Gracious converse with my soul this is as if two deeply in Love conversed with each other this is as if Jonathan and David met together this is as if Jacob and Joseph met together and infinitely more But upon Conversion the soul and God have mutual communications And is not God the blessedness of mans soul and is not blessedness a joyful and pleasant sight God speaks to that soul and that soul speaks with God the soul opens its self to God and God opens himself to that soul Ergò 5. It were a mighty dishonour to God that his Wayes his Image By the dishonour that otherwise would redound to God What kind of Joy Conversion brings A Lawful Joy Quaedam 1. Nec bona nec Jucunda 2. Bona sed non jucunda 3. Jucunda sed non bonâ— 4. Jucunda et Bonâ— â—o Bernard should be barren of Joy and yet the Divels wayes and sin pleasant 6. A Great motive to draw in a soul were lost 7. Grace doth spiritualize our joyes it doth not nullify true joy Quest 2. What kind of Joy and Pleasure doth Conversion bring unto the Soul Sol. There are five properties in the joy which Conversion lets into the Soul 1. It is a lawful Joy and Pleasure There are many things which are pleasent but they are not Lawful Stollen waters are sweet saith Solomon but God allowes them not the Tree in the garden was Pleasant but it was not Lawful for Adam and Eve to taste of Sinful wayes afford some kind of joy but that joy is forbidden fruit God hath cursed sin and all that comes out of sin Agrippina poysoned her husband with the meat he most delighted in Wicked men delight and rejoyce in sinful things but this is only sweet Poyson God allowes it not nor is it safe But conversion yeilds a Joy which the soul may safely feed on It is lawful to rejoyce in the Lord and to rejoyce in Christ and to reioyce in the pardon of our sins and to rejoyce that our names are written in the book of Life 2. It is a Spiritual Joy A Joy that reacheth to the spirit of Man and that becomes the spirit of man and that raiseth the A Spiritual joy spirit of man 1. Many men have joy in their faces and yet not joy in their hearts A man in a feaver hath a lively colour when yet he hath a dying heart and many have joy in their tongues and mouthes and yet no joy in their consciences As he said to one that commended his fine shoe But you doe not know where it pincheth me a wicked man hath an hell in his conscience who yet hath a smile in his countenance But a Converted mans joy is an heart joy My servants shall sing for joy of heart Isa 65. 14. My Spirit rejoiceth in God my Savior said Mary Luk. 2. 2. And it is a spirit becoming joy Laughter is not seemly for a fool said Solomon There are joyes which are not seemly nor becoming an Immortal soul Agesilaus said of some pleasures that they were fit for salves not for Freemen a wicked man takes joy either in Vile things which fight against the Soul or in vain things which are below a Soul his joyes are fetcht out of hell or out of the Creature either such joyes as delight the Devil or delight the beasts or delight the basest and vainest of men in Whoring and Drinking and Cursing and Dicing and Dancing and Gaming and Mumming and Masking c. But Conversion feeds the Soul with the joyes of the Holy Ghost with Divine joy joy drawn out of the wells of Salvation Isa 12. 2. And it is a Spirit-raising joy when the soul is cast down and all the comforts on Earth cannot lift it up and chear it yet Conversion can let in a fetching Cordial It can open a window to see the light of Gods countenance and favour which can turn night into day and troubles into peace and heaviness into an exceeding joy even Davids Why art thou cast down O my Soul into Praise the Lord O my Soul 3. It is a wonderfull Joy There are two cases wherein men do wonder how a man can possibly be joyful A wonderful Joy 1. One is when all the comforts of the Creature fail him not a Candle but is without light not a Well but is stopt not a Spring but is dry No friend to look on and pity no maintenance no subsistance Yet in such a case which is wont to be a time Sighs and Tears can a converted man rejoyce Hab. 3. 17. Although the Fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the Vine The labor of the Olive shall faile and the field shall yeild no meat the â—lock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no Herd in the stals Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation 2. Another is when all outward miseries are upon him as when all his outward estate is taken away yet then converted persons have taken joyfully the spoyling of their Goods Heb. 10. 34. When Afflictions Derisions Reproaches Bonds Imprisonments Scourgings cruel Torments are laid on him Yet saith Paul Wee rejoyce in Tribulations also Rom. 5. 3. Yet saith Christ when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake Reâ—oyce and be exceeding glad Mat. 5. 11 12. And the Apostles when they were imprisoned and beaâ—en rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name Act. 5. 41. My Brethren count it all Joy when ye fall into diverse Temptations Jam. 1. 2. When he is going to endure a cruel death as burning in the Fire devouring by wild Beasts roasting on the Gridiron boyling in Oil breaking of the Bones tearing out the Bowels All these have converted persons susteined with unspeakeable Courage clapping of the Hands kissing of the Stake and Glorious Rejoicings Why the truth is that though all the Candles on Earth be put out yet he hath Light and Comfort still â—un shâ—nes nothing can dissolve nor yet interrupt the souls sweet â—ommunion with God 4. It is a Firme and Pure and Vnclogged Joy an unconverted man A firm and pure Joy hath his joy and his delights and his mirth and pleasure but there are three doleful burdens under which all this while he lies 1. Notwithstanding all his joyes he lies under the hatred of God 2. Notwithstanding all his joyes he lies under the dominion of his sinful Lusts 3. Notwithstanding all his joyes he lies under the power of a Guilty and Accusing and Condemning Conscience but now the Converted mans joy is a Perfect joy a Wel-grounded joy God
loves him Christ hath satisfyed for him his heart is sanctifyed and his conscience pacified 5. It is a well ending joy A joy which ends A well ending Joy in joy an unconverted man hath his joyes and pleasures but they end in Griefe and horror O my poor Soul said Adrian when he was dying whither art thou now going all thy Mirth and Joy are at an end nec ut soles dabis jocos thou art going away and all thy joyes are going away Luk. 16. 15. But Abraham said to Dives Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and Lazarus evill things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Dives fared sumptuously every day he had pleasure on earth but after them his soul went into hell torments he never had pleasure more Babylon it is said of her Rev. 18. 7. how much she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her Job speaking of the Wicked chap. 21. 7. saith That they take the Timbrel and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ v. 12. they spend their dayes in wealth and in a moment go down to the Grave Solomon speaks ironically to the Voluptuous Youthes Eccles 11. 9. Rejoyce O young man in thy Youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the dayes of thy Youth and walk in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment So then the converted man's joy is a short joy and a joy that ends in bitterest sorrow But a converted man's joy is a lasting joy and it ends in perfect joy when he dies yet his grace dies not yet his joy dies not Well done good and faithful Servant enter into thy Master's joy the end of life is the beginning of all joy 6. It is a transcendent joy it exceeds all worldly joyes A transcendent joy Psal 4. 7. Thou hast put gladness in my heart more then in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased Psal 60. 3. Thy loving kindness is better then life Quest 3. Why doth Conversion make the souls condition so Reasons of it joyful Sol. â—t cannot but be so if you consider Conversion either as to God or as to Christ or as to Conscience 1. As to God As to God Conversion is the certain effect of Gods election 1. True Conversion is the certain effect of Gods gracious election Although Conversion be not the cause of election yet it is the fruit of election it is the counterpane of election Act. 13. 48. As many as were ordinaed to eternal life believed 1. Thes 1. 4. Knowing Brethren Beloved the election of God v. 5. For our Gospel came not to you in word only but in power also and in the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure When the word comes to the person in the Letter only this is no sign of his election but when it comes in power and in the Holy Ghost it is for to come in power and in the Holy Ghost is mightily and effectually to change and convert a person and this the Apostle makes an evidence of election and questionless a copy of a man's election cannot but be a cause of great joy Rejoyce saith Christ to his Disciples that your names are written in heaven Oh what a comfort is it to know that God from all eternity hath written and recorded it down This is the man whom I will have mercy on and will glorifie to all eternity 2. True Conversion It is the singular fruit of God's great It is a singular fruit of Gods Love Love and of his rich mercy to a mans soul the sure token of great love God hath a common love and mercy and God hath a choice love and mercy there are some to whom he hath a great love and unto whom he shews rich mercy Now Conversion is a drop out of that great Ocean the man is greatly beloved of God who is converted by God 1 Joh. 3. 1. Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the Sons of God Eph. 2. 4 5. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us v. 5. Even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us 3. True Conversion brings a soul under all the good and kind It brings a soul under all the smiles of God Language of God under the smiles of God All the Ordinances are as Milk and Honey and Wine and Oyle to a converted man The Word is a good Word to him and the Sacrament is a good Sacrament to him Why when an unconverted man hearts of all the mercy and kindness and happiness which God portions out for a converted sinner I say when he hears of all this and gets but a lick or a taste of it upon the top of his Tongue it effects him and makes him glad Herod heard John Baptist gladly and the stony ground received the seed with joy and shall not the converted man whose due portion all this is shall not his heart have joy and gladness shall a stranger who peeps over into the Garden and is a spectator only at the Feast shall he find a relish and shall not he who hath the Posie at his Nose smell the sweetnesse shall not he who câ—tes at the Table be filled with the goodnesse and fat and marrow and rejoyce and blesse God 4. True Conversion It is a Claspe the Golden Claspe of It is the clasp of the Covenant of Grace that everlasting Covenant of Gods Grace Note here two things 1. All the desireable delicacies of the soul are treasured up in the Covenant of Gods Grace in it are contained all the gracious attributes in God all the gracious affections of God all the gracious relations of God all the gracious promises and engagements of God There you find the reconciled God the merciful God the pardoning God the sin-subduing God the strengthning and helping God the guiding and upholding God the blessing and comforting God you cannot think of a mercy for the soul of a mercy for the body of a mercy for this life of an happiness after this life but there it is but there it is for you but there it is assuredly for you 2. Every converted person is in this Covenant Why the new heart and the new spirit is not this Conversion are a very part of it Ezek. 36. 26. I will give them a new heart and a new spirit If this be so then certainly Conversion brings a person into a very joyful condition Mark a little If the mercies which many receive only from Providence do delight and please them shall not the mercies which men receive from Gods Covenant please and rejoyce them Bread is sweet to an hungry man out of whatsoever hand it comes and is it not more sweet when it
joy and comfort It doth onely two things 1. It absolutely condemns and abridgeth the soul of man of all sinfull joys of joys and delights which arise from his sinfull lusts and ways and is it not the great goodness of God to deny us leave to drink cups of poison and glasses of hell Or is it possible that any Christian should to thee that sin should be thy delight which is a departing of the poor soul from God which is an incensing of the wrath of God which was such a dreadfull burthen to Jesus Christ which puts the soul under the wrath and curse of God one act whereof must cost more then all the world is worth to pardon it 2. It doth onely order our outward lawfull joys and delights for the seasons for the measures for other circumstances so that they may be our sauce not our food our helps to Godliness not damps thereto It is but the Bridle on the Horse the Pale for the Garden the Finger on the Dial. Conversion abridgeth us of no delight but of that which to want is a true delight and so orders the rest that you may not lose delight Conversion makes us mournful for sin and how can it be so joyfull Answered True grace makes the heart more mournfâ—ll Object 3. Conversion breeds the quickest sense of sin and the deepest mourning for sin yea a continual mourning for sin makes the clouds to drop never mournfull till converted and can that condition be so joyfull which makes the heart so mournfull To this I answer 1. It is certain that true grace 1. doth make the clearest discovery of sin 2. It yields the tenderest sense of sin for it takes away the heart of stone and gives an heart of flesh and nothing makes the heart more mournfull then true grace 2. But then know that mourning for sin and joy in the heart are no way inconsistent Isai 12. 3. With joy shall ye draw water But this is not inconsistent with joy out of the wells of salvation Three things I would grant 1. That love of sin and true joy are inconsistent 2. Worldly sorrow and spiritual joy are inconsistent 3. That terrour for sin and joy of heart are inconsistent Legal terrour and Evangelical joy are so but Evangelical sorrow and Evangelical joy are not so for as one grace is consistent with another grace so one heavenly affection is consistent with another heavenly affection And there are three things which to me fully convince That Evangelical mourning is consistent with Spiritual joy One is That such a mourning is but a drop out of the eye of faith They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and mourn Zach. 12. 10. and certainly nothing comes from faith but what is comfortable all is Gospel that Faith trades in Another is That the mourning heart is a renewed heart and verily the gracious heart is a joyous heart The third is That the mourning sinner is a pardoned sinner Cum intueor flentem sentis ignoscibilem if the fountain of sorrow be set open in the heart the fountain of mercy is set open in heaven Zach. 12. 10. compared with chap. 13. 1. Yea let me add to this also three experiences 1. One is this That the Christian is never more sad and mournfull then when he feels his heart least mournfull He is then cast down O saith he into what a condition am I brought I was wont to find a tender sensible mourning spirit but me thinks now my heart is grown hard again O Lord why am I now hardened from thy fear And the man never gives over with God and himself until tenderness be renewed in his heart again 2. That the Christian is never more joyfull then when he is most mournfull Blessed are they that sow besides all Waters saith the Prophet Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted saith Christ They that sow in tears shall reap in joy saith David Godly sorrow is the Water that is turned into Wine One drop of a guilty Conscience is able to turn all our Joyes into Bitterness and one drop of godly sorrow is able to turn all our bitterness into joy I rejoyce saith Paul that I made you sorry what cause then had they to rejoyce who were sorry sorry after a godly sort sorry with a sorrow that bred repentance unto salvation never to be repented of 3. That the Christian is never more mournful then when he is most joyful The time of a Christians highest joy is the time of his greatest assurance Sealing and assuring times are the soul-raising and reviving times And the times of greatest assurance are the times of our greatest mournings The more manifestation of Gods Love and the more assurance of Gods Mercy do ever cause in the heart more Humility and more sorrow here is now the greatest joy for mercy and here is now the greatest mourning for sinning against mercy Object 4. We see no persons to walk more sadly and more uncomfortably I but no persons walk more sadly then converted persons Answered It is a False Charge then at least many do who are converted persons Ergo. To this give me favour to answer more fully 1. This is a False Charge and a very unjust Calâ—mny take the divisions of the sons of men according to the diversity of their spiritual conditions compare men with men according unto them and I dare confidently affirm That no condition is more dreadfully sad then the condition of men Unconverted and no condition is more comfortably cheerful then the condition of men truly Converted let 's a while peruse the phrases and instances of such Me thinks the terrible passages in Scripture may abundantly convince us of the dreadfulness of an Unconverted and wicked person Isa 57. 20. The wicked are like the raging sea that cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt ver 21. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Job 20. 16 17 23 24 25. there Zophar sets him out He shall suck the gall of Asps and the Vipers tongue shall slay him He shall not see the Rivers nor the floods and streams of Honey and Butter When he is about to fill his belly God shall send upon him the fierceness of his wrath and shall cause it to rain upon him The bow of Steel shall strike him through the glistring sword cometh out of his gall terrors are upon him Psal 11. 6. Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shalt be the portion of their cup. Again did you ever read of any one godly and converted person who fell into that horrible despair as Cain or Judas did But take the hardest agonies incident to true converts they are 1. rather fears then horrours 2. rather doubts then despairs 3. effects of a mistaking Conscience then a rightly condemning Conscience 4. They can look towards the Promises as Jonah did in the deeps towards God 5.
Faith doth doth act for relief and will hold some communion with God 6. They are abated by the Ordinances 7. They are but for a time 8. They end in fullest setling and glorious comforts and likewise with advantage to their gracious condition And truly it is impossible that wicked and ungodly men should ever enjoy that serenity and peace as the godly do for as much as all the principles and causes of uncomfortableness abide on the wicked 1. Sin is in them in all its strength They have a thousand hells and arrows of guilt sticking in their hearts they have souls full of plague sores the deadly strokes of death the restless motions of evil spirits 2. They carry a roaring Lion in their brests I mean an evil accusing smiting wounding racking condemning Conscience which if it once awake it will tear the caul of their hearts and crush them with the flames of unavoidable unsupportable and continual wrath 3. They have no City of Refuge open to their succour no land or shore no place to cast anchor no portion in Christ and therefore the Law of God stands in full force against their souls and under its curse they lie and at that Bar of Justice must they be tried 4. They end in an éternal and perfect Hell 5. Take them at their best God is their Enemy they never yet made peace with him and all their outward blessings are steeped in gall and drenched in Wormwood as their sorrows so their blessings are distributed in wrath 2. Many converted persons are not really sad and uncomfortable Many converted persons are not really sad they onely seem so but onely seem so to the mean and childish opinions of vain men 2 Cor. 6. 10. As sorrowfull yet always rejoycing The joy of Christians is an hidden joy Hidden Manna Revel 2. 20. it is a spiritual joy to which thou art a stranger meat to eat which thou knowest not of Suppose that thou rejoycest not in a fine Baby and a Toy which is a Childs great delight art thou therefore sad All objects yield not contentment to an high mind nor joy to a good man he cannot take pleasure in an Alehouse and Tavern in swaggering and masking in dicing and carding and swearing and whoring but yet he can take delight in a reconciled God in a Christ in the Word of God in praying to God in gracious returnes from God in expectation of the Glory of God A swine delights in mire but a man doth not The Moon is oft times dark to the world when yet that part which faceth to the Sun is beautiful and lightsome The countenance and carriage of a Christian as to the world seems dull and uncomfortable but if you could look into the heart of him which faceth towards heaven O there is Righteousness there is Peace there is Joy in the Holy Ghost 3. If any converted persons be sad and want actual joy and comfort If they be sad Conversion is not the cause of it yet their Conversion is not the cause thereof Can the Sun be any cause of darkness But amongst others these are the Causes of it Either 1. Thy unconversion It is the unconverted husband child master which makes sadness in the heart of the converted wife father c. It is thy drunkenness thy cursing and swearing thy scorning and scoâ—â—ing thy resisting and shifting the offers of Grace thy lying and slandering thy pride and loosness which makes the hearts of Ministers ready to break and the hearts of thy godly friends ready to sink in them O they tremble at thy condition and they grieve to see God so extremely dishonoured Psal 119. 136. Rivers of tears run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law ver 158. I beheld the transgressors and was grieved because they kept not thy Word 2 Pet. 2. 7 8. The wicked deeds of the ungodly Sodomites vexed the soul of righteous Lot Luke 19. 41. It was Jerusalems proud obstinacy that would not know in her day the things which concerned her peace that made Jesus Christ to weep 2. Their Captivities to sin Pauls conversion did never trouble him but this did trouble him that he did the evil which he would not his Corruption not Conversion That the Law of his members led him captive against the Law of his mind It was not Peters Conversion but Peters transgression that made him go forth and weep bitterly It was not Davids Conversion but Davids great sinning which made him go so heavily and roâ—r so greatly Psal 32. 3. The Fears and Suspitions that they are not yet truly converted O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death O they feel so many working Corruptions still and so little of the strength of Christ still and so much unbelief still and so many indispositions still and so many failings still and so many doubts about these This â—race is not right the saving Work is not begun and these things make them â—o sigh and weep and go heavily all the day long 4. They are but newly crept out of the shell The Spirit of Bondage is yet hardly worn off some legal Dints stick on them they are either still in travel or but newly delivered Or if they be got out of the state of Bondage yet they are for the present under spiritual conflicts and as spiritual Bondage before Conversion so spiritual conflicts after conversion suspends the taste of a present and actual joy Or if that be not the damp then perhaps it is some ignorance or unexperience they are not yet come to read their Fathers Will and Christs Testament what portion is left and laid out for the Children of God Or if that be not it then perhaps it is a present fit of unbelief they cannot yet be perswaded that God means so much mercy and so much love and so many great things for them Is it so That â—onversion brings the person into a very joyful Vse 1. condition Hence then 1. We may be Informed of four Information things 1. That they are enemies to their joy and comfort who are adversaries They are enemies to their joy who are enemies to Conversion to their Conversion Prov. 1. 22. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and ye Scorners delight in scorning and fools hate knowledg Six things shew one to be in an unconverted condition Unsensibleness Love of sin Path of evil hatred of Reformation despising the Means of Conversion loathing of Converted-Persons There are some persons who hate to be reformed who hold fast their â—â—ns and will not let them go they are like those stiff-necked Jewes who alwayes resisted the Holy Ghost a disobedient people to the Call of God they refuse to put their necks into the yoak of Jesus Christ and will not be bound with his cords They love their sinful wayes and will not return to the Almighty Why Write that man childless said God of Coniah So I
say of these men Write them comfortless Will the Lord lye for you Or will he misplace his hands for you Peace is the effect of righteousness and Joy is the fruit of Conversion And shalt thou have pleasure who takest pleasure in unrighteousness Shalt thou know the wayes of Peace who wilt not know the path of Holiness Did ever God smile on him who hated God Or clasp him with joy who despised his grace with hatred Go enquire and search all the Springs of joy and knock at all the Gates of pleasure diligâ—ntly ask What of delight they contain for thee Knock at the mercy-seat which is the Gate of God and ask Lord hast thou not joy for one who will go on in his sins and will not return unto thee No saith God not any but he who â—orsakes his sins shall have mercy and he who hardens his heart shall fall into mischief Prov. 28. 13 14. Knock at the Gospel which is the gate of Christ and ask Blessed Jesu hast thou no word of comfort for him who resists thy spirit and will not come in unto thee No not I saith Christ not any thou despisest the goodness of God and by thy impenitency and hardness treasurest unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath Knock at conscience which is the gate of thine own soul and ask O conscience hâ—st thou not a word of peace to speak to one who loves his sins and is an enemy to God and godliness Who I saith conscience not I thou art an enemy of righteousness and in the gall of bitterness and except thou repent thou shalt certainly perish Knock at the Scriptures which are the Gate of truth and ask May not the wicked and unconverted person suck at the brests of your consolation are not thâ—se wells of salvation open for me to draw joy and comfort out of Oh no say the promises we are childrens bread and legacies for sons if thou be a believer we are a Fountain opened for thee if thou be an unbeliever we are a Fountain sealed against thee Knock at the Creatures which are the Gate of Providence and ask Have ye no Commission of Comfort for one who cares not to remember his Creator O no say all the Creatures Sin long ago hath cast thee out of Paradise and turned the earth into a curse and thy blessings are cursed and thy sinnings do poison all the flowers in our Garden unto thee Nay Knock at thy very Sins which are the Gate of Hell and ask them Ye of all other are my dearest friends and choicest masters and have ye no Joyes and Comforts for me O yes say they we have but they are forbidden fruit but they are pleasures of sin for a season but they will end in everlasting torments and sorrow Thus is every wicked and unconverted man in Cains condition who cryed out Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face shall I be hid and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth Gen. 4. 14. 2. That they are enemies and slanderers of the goodness and They are slanderers of the sweetness of Gods ways who thus reproach the state of Conversion sweetness of the wayes of God who load the estate of Conversion with all the ignominious reproaches of sadness and heaviness and mopishness and melancholy and bitterness and grave of all joy and pleasure As the Spies of old traduced the good and pleasant land of Caâ—aan which abounded with milk and hony O it was a land that did eat up the Inhabitants thereof But as God spake once to Aaron and Miriam How were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses so I to these How are ye not afraid to reproach the wayes of the living God Is not God the God of comfort Is not Christ the consolation of Israel Is not the Holy Ghost the comforter are not the Scriptures written for our consolation are not the Promises the breasts of Consolation are not all the pathes of Wisdome pathes of pleasantness are not the Graces of God the very beds of Spices Is not the peace of Conscience a peace that passeth all understanding Doth David find the Word sweeter then the hony comb Doth Job find it better then his appointed food Doth Jeremiah find it the Rejoycing of his heart Doest thou read of so many Converted persons in Scripture full of joy and gladness rejoycing in Christ rejoycing in the hope of the Glory of God reâ—oycing in Troubles in Persecutions yea in Death it self and yet darest thou to revile and scandalize the converted mans condition as the only sea of Bitterness and darkest night eclipsing all joy and comfort I pray thee to consider 1. This doth arise from the gall of thy wicked and imbittered Spirit hating and despising the goodly excellencies of holiness and holy persons 2. It doth shew a cursed heart to call good evil as it doth to call evil good and as he that justifies the Wicked so he that condemns the just is an abomination to the Lord How much more then he who condemns Righteousnes it self 3. This doth shew an Universal rage against Gods glory and mans happiness So heavily dost thou load the pathes of Conversion that so much as in thee lies thou disswadest and discouragest all the men on earth from leaving off their sins so that God shall have no Glory from them nor they any true happiness from God 4. And lastly Take heed least God deal with thee as once he did with the lying spies shut them out of Canaan and destroyed them with a remarkable Judgment 3. That they have hitherto deluded and deceived themselves with false joy in stead of true joy who as yet never saw a converted They who never were converted delude themselves with false joy condition All thy mirth and joy hath been but false fire a madness not a joyfulness sparkles of thy own kindling thou hast fed on the husks all this while on a fancy on a Dream thou hast never in all thy life took in one draught of true â—oy nor ever shalt thou till God convert thy soul Take heed of setling your souls or resting your souls on any works or any affections which are antecedent to conversion even the sorrows and troubles before conversion are no matter of joy and comfort if any joy depends on them it is rather because conversion hath followed them and the joys which many men take before their conversion certainly they are false joys poor joys they are not pleasures of Gods right hand There are three properties of true Joy 1. It is not the Vsher which goes before but the Handmaid that follows after Grace 2. It is not a Surfet to dead but a Cordial to strengthen and it is not a Feast to satisfie but a Sawce to quicken communion with God 3. It is not a temptation to sin but upholds against the new temptations of sin True Joy never goes
to another Use Which shall be Not to hide our sins but to declare and acknowledge them in a right penitential manner before the Lord that Vse 2. Exhortation To confess our sins in a penttential manner Not to cover our sins so we may declare our selves true Penitents This exhortation you see consists of two parts Not to Cover To Discover I. Not to hide and cover our sins There is a two-fold Covering of our sin One is natural which is that Vail of Ignorance and blindness drawn over the soul by Original sin keeping the mind in spiritual darkness not able to see it self nor acts nor wayes aright This is such a Cover wherein we our selves are hid from our selves There is another Covering which is voluntary and artificial wherein we dig deep to hide our counsels intentions delights actions from the Lord cunningly contriving and feigning a secrecy as if we could put a curtain or a cloud twixt Gods eyes and our actions doing evil and saying None shall see it And when it is done never bringing that forth by a penitential confession which we did bring out by a sinfull commission Oh take heed of this though we be forward to sin beware lest we be artificial to conceal it If we cannot have eyes to foresee and strength to prevent evil yet let us have hearts to bewail and tongues to confess it Consider seriously 1. This hiding quality is a very ill quality it is an embleme This is a very ill quality of an heart that will not yet be rid of sin As Beggars that will not be cured of their sores for if thou wouldst be cleansed why concealest thou thy disease 2. It adds much to your sin To commit a sin may be an act of It adds much to your sin infirmity but to hide and conceal it argues either strong Atheism that the sinner thinks God regards it not though it be vile or else perverse wilfulness he will not humble he will not turn unto the Lord. 3. It adds nothing to our safety Adam hid himself in the thicket what got he by it what if you keep the fire close in the thatch It adds nothing to our safety You may put gold in a secret place and perhaps it may be under a safer custody but he who will hide his sin doth but put a fair cloth upon a dangerous wound which now rankles gangrenes kills Of all sins those do most endanger the soul for which we are not truly humbled or do not seriously confess them unto God Why should God shew thee mercy who wilt not acknowledge thy self guilty and how can sin but be fiercely reigning where it is most willingly harboured and concealed 4. Nor doth it add to our secrecy For all things are naked and Nor doth it add to our secrecy bare before God c. God can easily discover thy sin 1. He sees it he has an all-seeing eye 2. He can make thy conscience the rack of torment at confession 3. And will at the last day Nothing is hid that shall not be made manifest In two things doth the inconfitent sinner much prejudice himself by hiding of his sins One that he contrives himself for a sore punishment another that he reprieves himself for an open shame It is Gods disposition this that when we discover our sin and condemn our selves then will he cover those sins and not judge our persons 1 Cor. 11. 31. If we would judge our selves we should not be judged But when we with wile and guile contrive to keep them close God then will publish and manifest them for there is nothing in this kind secret which shall not be made manifest Nay simply manifestation is not all judiciary is it he will so discover them as to question as to arraign as to convict as to sentence as to condemn your sins Object But sinners are ready to object Who is able to confess his sins Doth not David say Who knoweth how oft he offendeth Psal 19. Sol. It is true every particular numerical thought and act of sin is not possible to be cited and confessed but who urgeth that This belongs to thee 1. To study thy heart and life 2. To observe what the Lord forbids and commands 3. To hear what thy Conscience will speak for kinds and acts 4. To give diligence to find out as many of thy sins as thou canst and by no means to omit thy special sins and so to spread all of them with humble hearty and mournfull acknowledgment before the Lord. Object This is the way to breed despair to see an Army of sins on a sudden raised up in the soul Sol. 1. See them you must first or last either now to your humiliation or hereafter to your confusion better see them now when you have time to get God to pardon them then after life when it is Gods time onely to condemn you for them And 2. He who bids thee to see thy sins bids thee to confess them and he who bids thee to confess them hath promised also to pardon them Object But I shall be ashamed to confess them so many so foul transgressions Sol. 1. If it were to Man then thou mightst blush and fear he might wonder at thee and perhaps incompassionately censure and blab 2. But it is to a God onely One who is very mercifull and will keep counsel he is very ready to pity and to spare thee 3. The commission of sin should be a shame but the confession of it is an honour it is an honourable thing that a sinner will glorifie God and confess and forsake his sins Let the disease be what it will thou wilt discover it to the Physitian why then this sinfull modesty to reveal thy sins to God And 4. especially if thou considerest thus much that thy confession is not to give him knowledge of any fact with which he is not acquainted but to yield a testimony of thy obedience and repentance and grief and to get thy acquittance and discharge II. But discover and confess them and to move you to this consider 1. Though it be a shame to commit sin yet it is an honour But discover and confess them Motives to confess it My son give glory to the God of Israel and confess unto him said Joshua cap. 7. 19. to Achan 2. Though the commission of sin brings heavy guilt yet the confession of it brings peace and ease It is the letting out of corrupt ulcerous matter which rages and swelleth and boils in the conscience 3. Is it so great a matter being greatly guilty freely and humbly to confess If the Prophet had bid thee to have done some Is it so great a matter for the guilty person freely to confess great thing c. so if the Lord had required of thee some great matter proper and high satisfaction for the wrongs thou hast done unto him thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oyl c.
be it in Spirituals or Naturals or Civils or Morals dwell within you and rule over you it may be said of you what the Prophet spake of the stout-hearted They were far from righteousness 3. Few men use the means to make them humble they seldom are at home they are so studious of other mens sins that they Few men use the means to make them humble neglect their own This is a most ordinary truth that they who are so prying after the faults of others seldom search themselvs and hereby onely enable their own pride but disable themselvs for humbleness It is not forreign but experimental knowledge which makes us lowly But you may reply How may it bee known that our hearts are not lofty but lowly that so we may How it may be known that our hearts are not lofty but lowly judge our repentance not to be be formal but sound Sol. Premise a word or two and then I have done that I speak onely of Lowliness as it is to be found in Christians in this life which is not a state of perfection but imperfection Secondly as it in conflict and combate not as absolute and free Now then 1. If you be truly lowly then you live altogether upon free and meer mercy You then live upon meer mercy Every mercy is an alms unto you and is sued out not upon desert but upon promise you can find no mony to buy corn but all must be free gift you will be content to buy without mony and to receive without price 2. You will then be more patient under delays it is but a proud beggar who will be served at first knock or else will be gone It is a very ill sign when we are so You will be patient under delayes quick with God that he shall lose our service if he doth not presently send out his answers Were we indeed sensible of our own unworthiness we would hold it no disparagement to wait at heaven gates he will patiently wait for some mercy who humbly knows that he deservs none Even an humble heart may urge God to make haste but it is our proud heart which accuseth and quarrels with him for delay 3. You will be silent in denials and withdrawments Doth not God answer me Why I deserv no look nor answer Doth he You will be silent in denials not give what I ask but take away what he hath given Why it is the Lord let him do with his own what he pleaseth It is mercy that I have yet any mercy I am unworthy to enjoy any good who am most worthy to enjoy all evil When we are our selves this will be our temper if we be humble God shall use his own authority and pleasure to dispose of the mercies which we crave and of the mercies also which we have we will be more patient in denials and silent in losses What can we say who are unworthy of all 4. You will be very thankful for any answer or the least mercy If nothing will content us but great mercies assuredly we are not You will be very thankful for the least mercy humble but have too great spirits He who indeed judgeth himself not worthy of the least of all the mercies and truth which God shews unto him will take up a great misery with quietness and a little mercy with thankfulness The body of man if it bee sound can stoop for a pin as well as for a piece and the heart if it be humble can bless for little mercies as well as for great The touch of the little finger as well as of the great will make a well-tuned stringed instrument speak and even the whisperings of the voice are ecchoed back in an exact concave The least drops of mercy affect the lowly heart which can awake upon the least noise The proud heart like the mountain yields a poor crop after a shower of mercies but the humble heart like the Gardens yields plenty of sweet smelling sacrifices after the least dews or drops of merciful blessings and answers from God Now say How do you plead with God when you approach unto him what can you shew for the mercies that you ask onely his own mercie no worth in you to move him And how are you when God delaies or denies or removes his mercies can you then be in dust and ashes and not in fire and flames can you yet quietly serve him wait on him depend on him submit to him upon this ground Ah! I am a sinner I have wronged the Father of mercies abused all his mercies am not worthy of the least of mercies It is mercy that ever I had mercy that now I have any that which is lost and denied I am not worthy of them that which I have I am not worthy of And when God answers you either in spirituals to your souls or in temporals to your outward man How do you look upon his answers Do you look a squint on them as he upon Solomons Cities Are you able to abuse great mercies and slight the least 5. If you bee The more meâ—cies from God will make you more humble truly humble then the more mercies and answers from God will still add and make you more humble and lowly Not onely the sense of your iniquities but the experience of Gods mercies will make you low in your eies Mercies have two effects upon humble hearts they make them more humble and more fruitful David in 2 Sam. 7. when God gave him the advouzon and as it were confirmed and added to his former Charter an intention of greater mercy to his posterity Why this casts David down ver 18. Then went King David in and saâ—e before the Lord and he said Who am I O Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto The more corn is in the ear the more it hangs down the head and the tree bends most when laden with fruit But if mercies make us forget God as afflictions make us forget our selves if it be with us as with the Arrow which when the Bow is most bent and drawn it flies farthest from us Or as with the Dial which casts the shortest shadow when the Sun is highest or as with some grounds which yields the rankest corn after the fullest tillage we grow careless of God of his Ordinances in publick of his worship in private scornful of heavenly reproof admonition obedience alas this shews we are not humble If upon due search we find our hearts lifted up with an opinion 2. Vse We should be humbled for the want of this humbleness of our own worth and excellencies and far from penitential humblings We should be humbled for want of this humbleness as Hezekiah though his heart was lifted up yet the text saith He humbled himself for the pride of his heart 2 Chron. 32. 25 26 27. And use the means by which we may become humbly sensible of our own