durable is not from a spirit of fear but of love power and a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 You must be a new creature Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works that you may walk in them The life of the new creature stands in love to God as its way and course afterwards is a course of walking with God If your heart be not brought to love God and delight in him you are still but dead towards God and you still remain alive unto sin as before Whereas if you ever come to be a Christian indeed you must be able truly to reckon your self dead to sin and alive to God thorough Jesus Christ. Rom. 6.11 Whereupon in your making the mentioned Covenant you must yield your self to God as one that is alive from the dead as 't is vers 13. of the same chapter A new nature and life in you will make all that you do in a way of duty whether immediately towards God or man the whole course of godlines righteousnes and sobriety easie and delightful to you And because it is evident both from many plain Scriptures and your own and all mens experience that you cannot be your selves the authours of this holy new life and nature you must therefore further in entring into this Covenant 4. Most earnestly cry to God and plead with him for his Spirit by whom the vital unitive bond must be contracted between God in Christ and your souls So this will be the Covenant of life and peace Lord how generally do the Christians of our age deceive themselves with a self-sprung Religion Divine indeed in the institution but meerly humane in respect of the radication and exercise In which respects also it must be divine or nothing What are we yet to learn that a divine power must work and form our Religion in us as well as divine authority direct and enjoyn it Do all such scriptures go for nothing that tell us it is God that must create the new heart and renew the right spirit in us that he must turn us if ever we be turned that we can never come to Christ except the father draw us c. Nor is there any cause of discouragement in this if you consider what hath before been said in this discourse Ask and you shall receive seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened to you Your heavenly father will give his Spirit to them that ask more readily than parents do bread to their children and not a stone But what if you be put to ask often and wait long this doth but the more endear the gift and shew the high value of it You are to remember how often you have griev'd resisted and vexed this Spirit and that you have made God wait long upon you What if the absolute sovereign Lord of all expect your attendance upon him He waits to be gracious and blessed are they that wait for him Renew your applications to him Lay from time to time that Covenant before you which your selves must be wrought up unto a full entire closure with And if it be not done at one time try yet if it will another and try again and again Remember it is for your life for your soul for your all But do not satisfie your self with only such faint motions within thee as may only be the effects of thy own spirit of thy dark dull listles sluggish dead hard heart at least not of the efficacious regenerating influence of the divine Spirit Didst thou never hear what mighty woâ—â—â—ngs there have been in others when God hath been transforming and renewing them and drawing them into living union with his Son and himself thorough him what an amazing penetrating light hath struck into their hearts as 2 Cor. 4.6 Such as when he was making the world enlightned the Chaos Such as hath made them see things that concerned them as they truly were and with their own proper face God and Christ and themselves sin and duty heaven and hell in their own true appearances How effectually they have been awakened how the terrours of the Almighty have beset and seized their souls what agonies and pangs they have felt in themselves when the voice of God hath said to them awake thou that sleepest and arise from dead and Christ shall give thee life Ephes. 5.14 How he hath brought them down at his feet thrown them into the dust broken them melted them made them abase themselves loath and abhor themselves fill'd them with sorrow shame confusion and with indignation towards their own guilty souls habituated them to a severity aâ—â—inst themselves unto the most sharp and yet most unforced self-accusations self-judging and self condemnation so as even to make them lay claim to hell and confesse the portion of devils belonged to them as their own most deserved portion And if now their eyes have been directed towards a Redeemer and any glimmering of hope hath appeared to them If now they are taught to understand God saying to them Sinner art thou yet willing to be reconciled and accept a Saviour O the transport into which it puts them this is life from the dead what is there hope for such a lost wretch as I How tastful now is that melting invitation how pleasant an intimation doth it carry with it Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest c. If the Lord of heaven and earth do now look down from the throne of glory and say what Sinner wilt thou despise my favour and pardon my Son thy mighty merciful Redeemer my grace and Spirit still What can be the return of the poor abashed wretch overawed by the glory of the divine Majesty stung with compunction overcome with the intimation of kindnes and love I have heard of thee O God by the hearing of the ear now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes So inwardly is the truth of that word now felt that thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God Ezek. 16.63 But sinner wilt thou make a Covenant with me and my Christ wilt thou take me for thy God and him for thy Redeemer and Lord And may I Lord yet may I O admirable grace wonderful sparing mercy that I was not thrown into hell at my first refusal Yea Lord with all my heart and soul. I renounce the vanities of an empty cheating world and all the pleasures of sin in thy favour stands my life Whom have I in heaven but thee whom on earth do I desire besides thee And O thou blessed Jesus thou Prince of the Kings of the earth who hast loved me and washed me from my sins in thy blood and whom the eternal God hath exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins
I fall before thee my Lord and my God I here willingly tender my homage at the footstool of thy throne I take thee for the Lord of my life I absolutely surrender and resign my self to thee Thy love constrains me henceforth no more to live to my self but to thee who dyedst for me and didst rise again And I subject and yeild my self to thy blessed light and power O holy Spirit of grace to be more and more illuminated sanctify'd and prepared for every good word and work in this world and for an inheritance among them that are sanctify'd in the other Sinner never give thy soul leave to be at rest 'till thou find it brought to some such transaction with God the Father Son and Spirit as this So as that thou canst truly say and dost feel thy heart is in it Be not weary or impatient of waiting and striving till thou canst say this is now the very sense of thy soul. Such things have been done in the world but O how seldom of latter daies So God hath wrought with men to save them from going down to the pit having found a ransom for them And why may he not yet be expected to do so He hath smitten rocks ere now and made the waters gush out nor is his hand shortned or his ear heavy Thy danger is not Sinner that he will be inexorable but lest thou shouldst He will be intreated if thou wouldst be prevailed with to intreat his favour with thy whole heart And that thou may'st and not throw away thy soul and so great an hope thorough meer sloth and loathnes to be at some pains for thy life Let the Text which hath been thy directory about the things that belong to thy peace be also thy motive as it gives thee to behold the Son of God weeping over such as would not know those things Shall not the Redeemers tears move thee O hard heart Consider what these tears import to this purpose 1. They signifie the real depth and greatnes of the misery into which thou art falling They drop from an intellectual and most comprehensive eye that sees far and pierces deep into things hath a wide and large prospect takes the compas of that forlorn state into which unreconcileable sinners are hastening in all the horrour of it The Son of God did not weep vain and causeles tears or for a light matter nor did he for himself either spend his own or desire the profusion of others tears Weep not for me O daughters of Jerusalem c. He knows the value of Souls the weight of guilt and how low it will press and sink them the severity of Gods justice and the power of his anger and what the fearful effects of them will be when they finally fall If thou understandest not these things thy self believe him that did at least believe his tears 2. They signifie the sincerity of his love and pity the truth and tendernes of his compassion Canst thou think his deceitful tears his who never knew guile was this like the rest of his course And remember that he who shed tears did from the same fountain of love and mercy shed blood too Was that also done to deceive Thou makest thy self some very considerable thing indeed if thou thinkest the son of God counted it worth his while to weep and bleed and dye to deceive thee into a false esteem of him and his love But if it be the greatest madnes imaginable to entertain any such thought but that his tears were sincere and inartificial the natural genuine expressions of undissembled benignity and pity thou art then to consider what love and compassion thou art now sinning against what bowels thou spurnest and that if thou perishest 't is under such guilt as the devils themselves are not liable to who never had a Redeemer bleeding for them nor that we ever find weeping over them 3. They shew the remedilesnes of thy case if thou persist in impenitency and unbelief till the things of thy peace be quite hid from thine eyes These tears will then be the last issues of even defeated love of love that is frustrated of it's kind design Thou mayest perceive in these tears the steady unalterable laws of heaven the inflexiblenes of the divine justice that holds thee in adamantine bonds and hath sealed thee up if thou prove incurably obstinate and impenitent unto perdition so that even the Redeemer himself he that is mighty to save cannot at length save thee but only weep over thee drop tears into thy flame which asswage it not but thô they have another design even to express true compassion do yet unavoidably heighten and increase the fervour of it and will do so to all eternity He even tells thee Sinner thou hast despised my blood thou shalt yet have my tears That would have saved thee these do only lament thee lost But the tears wept over others as lost and past hope why should they not yet melt thee while as yet there is hope in thy case If thou be effectually melted in thy very soul and looking to him whom thou hast pierced dost truly mourn over him thou mayest assure thy self the prospect his weeping eye had of lost souls did not include thee His weeping over thee would argue thy case forelorn and hopeles Thy mourning over him will make it safe and happy That it may be so consider further that 4. They signify how very intent he is to save souls and how gladly he would save thine if yet thou wilt accept of mercy while it may be had For if he weep over them that will not be saved from the same love that is the spring of these tears would saving mercies proceed to those that are become willing to receive them And that love that wept over them that were lost how will it glory in them that are saved There his love is disappointed and vext crost in its gracious intendment but here having compast it how will he joy over thee with singing and rest in his love And thou also instead of being involv'd in a like ruine with the unreconciled Sinners of the Old Jerusalem shalt be enrolled among the glorious Citizens of the New and triumph together with them in eternal glory APPENDIX BEcause some things not fit to be wholly omitted were as little fit to come into the body of a practical discourse 't was thought requisite to subjoyn here the following additions that will severally have reference to distinct parts of the foregoing discourse As to what was said p. 81. of the unreasonablenes and ill consequence of admitting it to be any mans duty to believe himself utterly rejected and forsaken of God inasmuch as it would make that his duty which were repugnant to his felicity This is to be evinced by a consideration which also even apart by it self were not without its own great weight viz. that such a belief were inconsistent with his former stated and known
not what am I the better when perhaps it is far more likely that I shall perish notwithstanding than be saved In answer to this it must be acknowledg'd that all that live under the Gospel do not obtain life and saving grace by it For then there had been no occasion for this lamentation of our blessed Lord over the perishing inhabitants of Jerusalem as having lost their day and that the things of their peace were now hid from their eyes and by that instance it appears too possible that even the generality of a people living under the Gospel may fall at length into the like forlorn and hopeles condition But art thou a man that thus objectest a reasonable understanding creature or dost thou use the reason and understanding of a man in objecting thus Didst thou expect that when thine own wilful transgression had made thee liable to eternal death and wrath peace and life and salvation should be impos'd upon thee whether thou would'st or no or notwithstanding thy most wilful neglect and contempt of them and all the means of them Could it enter into thy mind that a reasonable soul should be wrought and framed for that high and blessed end whereof it is radically capable as a stock or a stone is for any use it is designed for without designing its own end or way to it Couldst thou think the Gospel was to bring thee to faith and repentance whether thou didst hear it or no or ever apply thy mind to consider the meaning of it and what it did propose and offer to thee or when thou mightest so easily understand that the grace of God was necessary to make it effectual to thee and that it might become his power or the instrument of his power to thy salvation couldst thou think it concern'd thee not to sue and supplicate to him for that grace when thy life lay upon it and thy eternal hope Hast thou lain weltring at the foot-stool of the throne of grace in thine own tears as thou hast been formerly weltring in thy sins and impurities crying for grace to help thee in this time of thy need And if thou thinkest this was above thee and without out thy compas hast thou done all that was within thy compas in order to the obtaining of grace at Gods hands But here perhaps thou wilt enquire Is there any thing then to be done by us whereupon the grace of God may be expected certainly to follow To which I answer 1. That it is out of question nothing can be done by us to deserve it or for which we may expect it to follow It were not grace if we had obliged or brought it by our desert under former preventive bonds to us And 2. What if nothing can be done by us upon which it may be certainly expected to follow Is a certainty of perishing better than an high probability of being saved 3. Such as live under the Gospel have reason to apprehend it highly probable they may obtain that grace which is necessary to their salvation if they be not wanting to themselves For 4. There is generally afforded to such that which is wont to be call'd common grace I speak not of any further extent of it 't is enough to our present purpose that it extends so far as to them that live under the Gospel and have thereby a day allow'd them wherein to provide for their peace Now thô this grace is not yet certainly saving yet it tends to that which is so And none have cause to despair but that being duly improv'd and comply'd with it may end in it And this is that which requires to be insisted on and more fully evinced In order whereto let it be considered That it is expresly said to such they are to work out their salvation with fear and trembling for this reason that God works or is working 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them i. e. is statedly and continually at work or is alwaies ready to work in them to will and to do of his own good pleasure Phil. 2.12 13. The matter fails not on his part He will work on in order to their salvation if they work in that way of subordinate cooperation which his command and the necessity of their own case oblige them unto And it is further to be considered that where God had formerly afforded the symbols of his gracious presence given his oracles and setled his Church thô yet in it's Hoâ—â—ge and much more imperfect state there he however communicated those influences of his Spirit that it was to be imputed to themselves if they came short of the saving operations of it Of such it was said Thou gavest thy good spirit to instruct them Nehem. 9.20 And to such Turn ye at my reproof I will pour out my spirit to you I will make known my words unto you Because I called and you refused I stretched out my hand and no man regarded but ye set at nought my counsel and despised all my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity c. Prov. 1.23 24. We see whence their destruction came not from Gods first restraint of his Spirit but their refusing despising and setting at nought his counsels and reproofs And when it is said they rebelled and vexed his spirit and he therefore turn'd and fought against them and became their enemy Isa. 63.10 It appears that before his Spirit was not withheld but did variously and often make essayes and attempts upon them And when Stephen immediately before his Martyrdom thus bespeaks the descendents of these Jewes Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised ye do alwayes resist the holy Ghost as your Fathers did so do ye Act. 7. 'T is imply'd the holy Ghost had been alwayes striving from age to age with that stubborn people for where there is no counter-striving there can be no resistence no more than there can be a war on one side only Which also appears to have been the course of Gods dealing with the old world before their so general lapse into Idolatry and sensual wickednes from that passage Gen. 6.3 according to the more common reading and sense of those words Now whereas the Gospel is eminently said to be the ministration of the spirit in contradistinction not only to the natural Religion of other nations but the divinely instituted Religion of the Jewes also as is largely discoursed 2 Cor. 3. and more largely through the Epistle to the Galatians especially chap. 4. and whereas we find that in the Jewish Church the holy Ghost did generally diffuse its influences and not otherwise withhold them than penally and upon great provocation how much more may it be concluded that under the Gospel the same blessed Spirit is very generally at work upon the souls of men till by their resisting grieving and quenching of it they provoke it to retire and withdraw from them And let the Consciences of men living under the Gospel testify in the case Appeal sinner to thine
and eternity Dost thou not know thy day of grace may end before thy life end that thou may'st be cast far enough out of the sound of the Gospel and if thou shouldst carry any notices of it with thee thou who hast been so unapt to consider them while they were daily prest upon thee will most probably be less apt when thou hearest of no such thing that thou may'st live still under the Gospel and the Spirit of grace retire from thee and never attempt thee more for thy former despiting of it For what obligation hast thou upon that blessed Spirit Or why should'st thou think a Deity bound to attend upon thy triflings And 9. If yet all this move not Consider what it will be to dye unreconciled to God! Thou hast been his enemy he hath made thee gracious offers of peace waited long upon thee thou hast made light of all The matter must at length end either in reconciliation or vengeance The former is not acceptable to thee art thou prepared for the latter Can'st thou sustain it Is it not a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Thou wilt not do him right he must then right himself upon thee Dost thou think he cannot do it Canst thou doubt his power Cast thine eyes about thee behold the greatnes as far as thou canst of this creation of his whereof thou art but a very little part He that hath made that Sun over thine head and stretch't out those spacious heavens that hath furnisht them with those innumerable bright stars that governs all their motions that hath hung this earth upon nothing that made and sustains that great variety of creatures that inhabit it can he not deal with thee a worm Can thine heart endure or thine hands be strong if he plead with thee if he surround thee with his terrours and set them in battel array against thee Hell and destruction are open before him and without covering how soon art thou cast in and ingulpht Sit down and consider whether thou be able with thy impotency to stand before him that comes against thee with Almighty power Is it not better to sue in time for peace But perhaps thou may'st say I begin now to fear it is too late I have so long slighted the Gospel resisted the holy Spirit of God abus'd and baffled my own light and conscience that I am afraid God will quite abandon me and cast me off for ever It is well if thou do indeed begin to fear That fear gives hope Thou art then capable of coming into their rank who are next to be spoken to viz. 2. Such as feel themselves afflicted with the apprehension and dread of their having out-liv'd their day and that the things of their peace are now irrecoverably hid from their eyes I desire to counsel such faithfully according to that light and guidance which the Gospel of our Lord affords us in reference to any such case 1. Take heed of stifling that fear suddenly but labour to improve it to some advantage and then to cure and remove it by rational-evangelical means and methods Do not as thou lovest the life of thy soul go about suddenly or by undue means to smother or extinguish it 'T is too possible when any such apprehension strikes into a mans mind because 't is a sharp or piercing thought disturbs his quiet gives him molestation and some torture to pluck out the dart too soon and cast it away Perhaps such a course is taken as doth him unspeakably more mischief than a thousand such thoughts would ever do He diverts it may be to vain company or to sensuality talks or drinks away his trouble makes death his cure of pain and to avoid the fear of hell leaps into it Is this indeed the wisest course Either thy apprehension is reasonable or unreasonable If it should prove a reasonable apprehension as it is a terrible one would the neglect of it become a reasonable creature or mend thy case if it shall be found unreasonable it may require time and some debate to discover it to be so whereby when it is manifestly detected witn how much greater satisfaction is it laid aside Labour then to enquire rightly concerning this matter 2. In this enquiry consider diligently what the kind of that fear is that you find your selves afflicted with The fear that perplexes your heart must some way correspond to the apprehension you have in your mind touching your case Consider what that is and in what form it shews it self there Doth it appear in the form of a peremptory judgment a definitive sentence which you have past within your self concerning your case that your day is over and you are a lost creature or only of a meer doubt lest it should prove so The fear that corresponds to the former of these makes you quite desperate and obstinately resolute against any means for the bettering of your condition The fear that answers to the latter apprehension hath a mixture of hope in it which admits of somewhat to be done for your relief and will prompt thereunto Labour to discern which of these is the present temper and posture of your spirit 3. If you find it be the former let no thought any longer dwell in your mind under that form viz. as a definitive sentence concerning your state You have nothing to do to pass such a judgment the tendency of it is dismal and horrid as you may your self perceive And your ground for it is none at all Your conscience within you is to do the office of a Judge but only of an under-Judge that is to proceed strictly by rule prescribed and set by the sovereign Lord and arbiter of life and death there is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy Nor is your Conscience as an under-Judge to meddle at all but in cases within your cognisance This about your final state is a reserv'd excepted case belonging only to the supream tribunal which you must take heed how you usurp As such a judgment tends to make you desperate so there will be high presumption in this despair Dare you take upon you to cancell and nullify to your self the obligation of the Evangelical law and whereas that makes it your duty to repent and believe the Gospel to absolve your self from this bond and say it is none of your duty or make it impossible to you to do it you have matter and cases enough within the cognisance of your conscience not only the particular actions of your life but your present state also whether you be as yet in a state of acceptance with God thorough Christ yea or no And here you have rules set you to judge by But concerning your final state or that you shall never be brought into a state of acceptance you have no rule by which you can make such a judgment and therefore this judgment belongs not to you Look then upon the matter
THE Redeemer's Tears WEPT OVER Lost Souls A TREATISE ON LUKE XIX 41 42. WITH AN APPENDIX WHEREIN Somewhat is occasionally discoursed CONCERNING The Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost AND How God is said to Will the Salvation of them that perish By J. H. Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed by J. Astwood for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside 1684. PREFACE WHEN Spiritual Judgments do more eminently befall a people great outward Calamities do often ensue We know it was so in the instance which the Text here insisted on refers to But it is not alwaies so The connection between these two sorts of Judgments is not absolutely certain and necessary yea and is more frequent with the contraries of each For this Reason therefore and because Judgments of the former kind are so unexpressibly greater and more tremendous this Discourse insists only upon them about which serious monitions both have a clearer ground and are of greater importance and wholly waves the latter Too many are apt first to fancy similitudes between the state of things with one people and another and then to draw inferences being perhaps imposed upon by a strong imagination in both which yet must pass with them for a Spirit of Prophecy and perhaps they take it not well if it do not so with others too It were indeed the work of another Prophet certainly to accommodate and make application of what was spoken by a former to a distinct time and people 'T is enough for us to learn from such sayings as this of our Saviour those rules of life and practice such instructions and cautions as are common to all times without arrogating to our selves his Prerogative of foretelling events that shall happen in this or that The affectation of venturing upon futurity and of foreboding direful things to Kingdoms and Nations may besides its being without sufficient ground proceed from some or other very bad Principle Dislike of the present methods of Providence weariness and impatiency of our present condition too great proneness to wish what we take upon us to predict the Prediction importing more heat of anger than certainty of foresight a wrathful Spirit that would presently fetch down fire from heaven upon such as favour not our inclinations and desires so that as the Poet speaks whole Cities should be overturned at our request if the heavenly Powers would be so easy as to comply with such furious imprecations A temper that ill agrees with Humanity it self not to care at what rate of common calamity and misery a purchase be made of our own immunity from sufferings Nay to be willing to run the most desperate hazard in the case and even covet a general-ruine to others upon a meer apprehended possibility that our case may be mended by it when it may be more probable to become much worse But O how disagreeable is it to the Spirit of our merciful Lord and Saviour whose name we bear upon any terms to delight in humane miseries The greatest honour men of that complexion are capable of doing the Christian Name were to disclaim it Can such angry heats have place in Christian breasts as shall render them the well pleased spectators yea authors of one anothers calamities and ruine Can the tears that issued from these compassionate blessed eyes upon the foresight of Jerusalem's woful Catastrophe do nothing towards the quenching of these flames But I adde that the too-intent fixing of our thoughts upon any supposeable events in this World argues at least a narrow carnal mind that draws and gathers all things into time as despairing of Eternity and reckons no better state of things considerable that is not to be brought about under their own present view in this world as if it were uncertain or insignificant that there shall be unexceptionable eternal order and rectitude in another 'T is again as groundless and may argue as ill a mind to prophesy smooth and pleasant things in a time of abounding wickedness The safer middle course is without Gods express warrant not to prophesy at all but as we have opportunity to warn and instruct men with all meekness and long suffering for which the Lords ordinary Messengers can never want his warrant And after our blessed Saviour's most imitable Example to scatter our tears over the impenitent even upon the too probable apprehension of the temporal Judgments which hang over their heads but most of all upon the account of their liablenes to the more dreadful ones of the other state which in the following discourse I hope it is made competently evident this Lamentation of our Saviour hath ultimate reference unto For the other though we know them to be due and most highly deserved yet concerning the actual infliction of them even upon obstinate and persevering sinners we cannot pronounce We have no settled constitution or rule by which we can conclude it any more than that outward felicity or prosperity shall be the constant portion of good men in this World The great God hath reserved to himself a latitude of acting more arbitrarily both as to Promises and Threatnings of this nature If the accomplishment of either could be certainly expected it should be of the Promises rather because as to promised Rewards God is pleased to make himself Debtor and a right accrues to them to whom the Promise is made if either the Promise be absolute or made with any certain condition that is actually performed But God is alwayes the Creditor poenae the right to punish remains wholly in himself the exacting whereof he may therefore suspend without any appearance of wrong as seemeth good unto him If therefore he may withhold temporal blessings from good and pious men to which they have a remote and fundamental right as having reserved to himself the judgment of the fit time and season of bestowing them Much more doth it belong to his Wisdom to fix the bounds of his Patience and Long-suffering and determine the season of animadverting upon more open and insolent offenders by temporal Punishments according as shall make most for the ends of his Government and finally prove more advantageous to the dignity and glory 〈◊〉 it The practice therefore of our Saviour in speaking so positively concerning the approaching fail and ruine of Jerusalem is no patern unto us He spake not only with the Knowledge of a Prophet but with the Authority of a Judge and his words may be considered both as a Prediction and a Sentence We can pretend to speak in neither capacity touching things of this nature But for the everlasting Punishments in another World that belong to unreconciled sinners who refuse to know the things of their peace the Gospel-constitution hath made the connection firm and unalterable between their continuing unrepented wickedness and those punishments When therefore we behold the impudent provoking sins of the age wherein we live against the natural eternal law of our Creator
disaffected implacable heart For couldst thou be so void of all understanding as not to apprehend what the Gospel was sent to thee for or why it was necessary to be preached to thee or that thou should'st hear it who was to be reconciled by a Gospel preacht to thee but thy self who was to be perswaded by a Gospel sent to thee God or thou who is to be perswaded but the unwilling The Gospel as thou hast been told reveals God willing to be reconciled and thereupon beseeches thee to be reconcil'd to him Or could it seem likely to thee thou couldst ever be reconcil'd to God and continue unreconcil'd to thy reconciler To what purpose is there a dayes-man a middle person between God and thee if thou wilt not meet him in that middle person Dost thou not know that Christ avails thee nothing if thou still stand at a distance with him if thou dost not unite and adjoyn thy self to him or art not in him And dost thou not again know that divine power and grace must unite thee to him and that a work must be wrought and done upon thy Soul by an almighty hand by God himself a mighty transforming work to make thee capable of that union that whosoever is in Christ is a new creature that thou must be of God in Christ Jesus who then is made unto thee of God also wisdom righteousnes sanctification and redemption every way answering the exigency of thy case as thou art a foolish guilty impure and enslav'd or lost creature Didst thou never hear that none can come to Christ but whom the Father drawes and that he drawes the reasonable souls of men not violently or against their wills he drawes yet drags them not but makes them willing in the day of power by giving a new nature and new inclinations to them 'T is sure with thee not dark night not a dubious twilight but broad day as to all this Yes perhaps thou may'st say but this makes my case the worse not the better For it gives me at length to understand that what is necessary to my peace and welfare is impossible to me And so the light of my day doth but serve to let me see my self miserable and undone and that I have nothing to do to relieve and help my self I therefore adde 6. That by being under the Gospel men have not only light to understand whatsoever is any way necessary to their peace but opportunity to obtain that communication of divine power and grace whereby to comply with the terms of it Whereupon if this be made good you have not a pretence left you to say your case is the worse or that you receive any prejudice by what the Gospel reveals of your own impotency to relieve and help your selves or determines touching the terms of your peace and salvation making such things necessary thereto as are to you impossible and out of your own present power unless it be a prejudice to you not to have your pride gratify'd and that God hath pitch't upon such a method for your Salvation as shall wholly turn to the praise of the glory of his grace or that you are to be of him in Christ Jesus that whosoever glories might glory in the Lord. Is it for a sinner that hath deserved and is ready to perish to insist upon being saved with reputation or to envy the great God upon whose pleasure it wholly depends whether he shall be saved or not saved the entire glory of saving him For otherwise excepting the meer busines of glory and reputation is it not all one to you whether you have the power in your own hands of changing your hearts of being the authours to your selves of that holy new nature out of which actual faith and repentance are to spring or whether you may have it from the God of all grace flowing to you from its own proper divine fountain Your case is not sure really the worse that your salvation from first to last is to be all of grace and that it is impossible to you to repent and believe while it is not simply impossible but that he can effectually enable you thereto unto whom all things are possible supposing that he will whereof by and by Nay and it is more glorious and honourable even to you if you understand your selves that your case is so stated as it is The Gospel indeed plainly tells you that your repentance must be given you Christ is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins And so must your faith and that frame of spirit which is the principle of all good works By grace ye are saved through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto goods works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Ephes. 2.8 9 10. Is it more glorious to have nothing in you but what is self-sprung than to have your souls the seat and receptacle of divine communications of so excellent things as could have no other than an heavenly original If it were not absurd and impossible you should be self-begotten is it not much more glorious to be born of God As they are said to be that receive Christ. Joh. 1.12 13. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God And now that by being under the Gospel you have the opportunity of getting that grace which is necessary to your peace and salvation you may see if you consider what the Gospel is and was designed for It is the ministration of the Spirit that Spirit by which you are to be born again Joh. 3.3 5 6. The work of regeneration consists in the impregnating and making lively and efficacious in you the holy truths contained in the Gospel Of his own good will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures Jam. 1.18 And again being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God 1 Pet. 1.23 So our Saviour prayes Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is truth Joh. 17.17 The Gospel is upon this account called the word of life Phil. 2.16 as by which the principles of that divine and holy life are implanted in the soul whereby we live to God do what his Gospel requires and hath made our duty and that ends at length in eternal life But you will say shall all then that live under the Gospel obtain this grace and holy life or if they shall not or if so far as can be collected multitudes do not or perhaps in some places that enjoy the Gospel very few do in comparison of them that do
it would be vain and insignificant for any man to take upon him to say in it what God hath not said or given him plain ground for What I conceive to be plain and useful in this matter I shall lay down in the following propositions insisting more largely where the matter requires it and contenting my self but to mention what is obvious and clear at the first sight 1. That there is a great difference between the ends and limits of the day or season of grace as to particular persons and in reference to the collective body of a people inhabiting this or that place It may be over with such or such a place so as that they that dwell there shall no longer have the Gospel among them when as yet it may not be over with every particular person belonging to it who may be providentially cast elsewhere or may have the ingrafted word in them which they lose not And again it may be over with some particular persons in such a place when it is not yet over with that people or place generally considered 2. As to both there is a difference between the ending of such a day and intermissions or dark intervals that may be in it The Gospel may be withdrawn from such a people and be restored And God often no doubt as to particular persons either deprives them of the outward means of grace for a time by sicknes or many other waies or may for a time forbear moving upon them by his Spirit and again try them with both 3. As to particular persons there may be much difference between such as while they liv'd under the Gospel gained the knowledge of the principal doctrines or of the summe and substance of Christianity thô without any sanctifying effect or impression upon their hearts and such as through their own negligence liv'd under it in total ignorance hereof The day of grace may not be over with the former thô they should never live under the ministry of the Gospel more For it is possible while they have the seeds and principles of holy truth laid up in their minds God may graciously administer to them many occasions of recollecting and considering them wherewith he may so please to cooperate as to enliven them and make them vital and effectual to their final salvation Whereas with the other sort when they no more enjoy the external means the day of grace is like to be quite over so as that there may be no more hope in their case than in that of Pagans in the darkest parts of the world and perhaps much less as their guilt hath been much greater by their neglect of so great and important things It may be better with Tyre and Sidon c. 4. That yet it is a terrible judgment to the most knowing to lose the external dispensation of the Gospel while they have yet no sanctifying impression upon their hearts by it and they are cast upon a fearful hazard of being lost for ever being left by the departed Gospel in an unconverted state For they need the most urgent inculcations of Gospel-truths and the most powerful enforcing means to ingage them to consider the things which they know It is the design of the Gospel to beget not only light in the mind but grace in the heart And if that was not done while they enjoyed such means it is less likely to be done without them And if any slighter and more superficial impressions were made upon them thereby short of true and thorough conversion how great is the danger that all will vanish when they cease to be prest and urged and called upon by the publick voice of the Gospel Ministry any more How naturally desident is the spirit of man and apt to sink into deadnes worldlines and carnality even under the most lively and quickning means and even where a saving work hath been wrought how much more when those means fail and there is no vital principle within capable of self-excitation and improvement O that they would consider this who have got nothing by the Gospel all this while but a little cold spiritles notional knowledge and are in a possibility of losing it before they get any thing more 5. That as it is certain death ends the day of grace with every unconverted person so it is very possible it may end with divers before they dye by their total loss of all external means or by the departure of the blessed Spirit of God from them so as to return and visit them no more How the day of grace may end with a person is to be understood by considering what it is that makes up and constitutes such a day There must be some measure and proportion of time to make up this or any day which is as the substratum and ground forelaid Then there must be light superadded otherwise it differs not from night which may have the same measure of meer time The Gospel revelation some way or other must be had as being the light of such a day And again there must be some degree of livelines and vital influence the more usual concomitant of light the night doth more dispose men to drowsines The same Sun that enlightens the world disseminates also an invigorating influence If the Spirit of the living God do no way animate the Gospel revelation and breath in it we have no day of grace It is not only a day of light but a day of power wherein souls can be wrought upon and a people made willing to become the Lords Psal. 110. As the Redeemer revealed in the Gospel is the light of the world so he is life to it too thô neither are planted or do take root every where In him was life and that life was the light of men That light that raies from him is vital light in it self and in its tendency and design thô it be disliked and not entertained by the most Whereas therefore these things must concur to make up such a day if either a mans time his life on earth expire or if light quite fail him or if all gracious influence be withheld so as to be communicated no more his day is done the season of grace is over with him Now it is plain that many a one may lose the Gospel before his life end and possible that all gracious influence may be restrained while as yet the external dispensation of the Gospel remains A sinner may have hardned his heart to that degree that God will attempt him no more in any kind with any design of kindnes to him not in that more inward immediate way at all i. e. by the motions of his Spirit which peculiarly can import nothing but friendly inclination as whereby men are personally apply'd unto so that another cannot be meant nor by the voice of the Gospel which may either be continued for the sake of others or they continued under it but for their heavier doom at length
Which thô it may seem severe is not to be thought strange much less unrighteous It is not to be thought strange to them that read the Bible which so often speaks this sense as when it warns and threatens men with so much terror as Heb. 10.26 27 28 29. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace And when it tells us after many overtures made to men in vain of his having given them up c. Psal. 81.11 12. But my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up unto their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels and pronounces Let him that is unjust be unjust still and let him which is filthy be filthy still Rev. 22.11 and sayes In thy filthines is lewdnes because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthines any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee Ezek. 24.13 Which passages seem to imply a total desertion of them and retraction of all gracious influence And when it speaks of letting them be under the Gospel and the ordinary means of salvation for the most direful purposes As that This Child Jesus was set for the fall as well as for the rising of many in Israel Luk. 2.34 As to which Text the very learned Grotius glossing upon the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Accedo iis qui non necdum eventum sed confilium that he is of their opinion who think that not the naked event but the counsel or purpose of God is signify'd by it the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and alledges several Texts where the active of that verb must have the same sense as to appoint or ordain and mentions divers other places of the same import with this so understood and which therefore to recite will equally serve our present purpose as that Rom. 9.33 Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offence And 1 Pet. 2.8 The stone which the builders refused is made a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed With that of our Saviour himself Joh. 9.39 For judgment I am come into this world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind And most agreeable to those former places is that of the Prophet Isai. 28.13 But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept precept upon precept line upon line line upon line here a little and there a little that they might go and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken And we may adde that our Lord hath put us out of doubt that there is such a sin as that which is eminently called The sin against the Holy Ghost that a man may in such circumstances and to such a degree sin against that blessed Spirit that he will never move or breathe upon them more but leave them to an hopeless ruin Thô I shall not in this discourse determine or discusse the nature of it But I doubt not it is somewhat else than final impenitency and infidelity and that every one that dies not having sincerely repented and believed is not guilty of it thô every one that is guilty of it dies impenitent and unbelieving but was guilty of it before so as it is not the meer want of time that makes him guilty Whereupon therefore that such may outlive their day of grace is out of question But let not such as upon the descriptions the Gospel gives us of that sin may be justly confident they have not perhaps committed it therefore think themselves out of all danger of losing their season of making their peace with God before they dy Many a one may no doubt that never committed the unpardonable blasphemy against the Holy Ghost as he is the witness by his wonderful works of Christs being the Messiah As one may dy by neglecting himself that doth not poyson himself or cut his own throat You will say but if the Spirit retire from men so as never to return where is the difference I answer the difference lies in the Specific nature and greater hainousnes of that sin and consequently in the deeper degrees of its punishment For thô the reason of its unpardonablenes lies not principally in its greater hainousnes but in its direct repugnancy to the way of obtaining pardon yet there is no doubt of its being much more hainous than many other sins for which men perish And therefore 't is in proportion more severely punish't But is it not misery enough to dwell in darknes and wo for ever as every one that dies unreconconcil'd to God must do unles the most intense flames and horror of Hell be your portion As his case is sufficiently bad that must dy as an ordinary Felon thô he is not to be hang'd drawn and quartered Nor is there any place or pretence for so prophane a thought as if there were any colour of unrighteousnes in this course of procedure with such men Is it unjust severity to let the Gospel become deadly to them whose own malignity perverts it against its nature and genuine tendency into a savour of death as 2 Cor. 2.16 which it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to them as the mentioned Authour speaks who may be truly said to seek their own destruction or that God should intend their more aggravated condemnation even from the despised Gospel it self who when such light is come into the world hate it shew themselves lucifugae tenebriones as he also phrases it speaking further upon that first mentioned Text such as fly from the light chuse and love to lurk in darkness He must have very low thoughts of divine favour and acceptance of Christ and grace and glory that can have hard thoughts of God for his vindicating with greatest severity the contempt of such things What could better become his glorious majesty and excellent greatnes than as all things work together for good towards them that love him so to let all things work for the hurt of them that so irreconcileably hate him and bear a disaffected and implacable mind towards him Nor doth the addition of his designing the matter so make it hard For if it be just to punish such wickednes is it unjust to intend to punish it and to
it is a thing much less unlikely to be certain to one self than another for they that have sin'd unto death are no doubt so blinded and stupify'd by it that they are not more apt or competent to observe themselves and consider their case than others may be 8. But thô none ought to conclude that their day or season of grace is quite expired yet they ought deeply to apprehend the danger lest it should expire before their necessary work be done and their peace made For thô it can be of no use to them to know the former and therefore they have no means appointed them by which to know it 't is of great use to apprehend the latter and they have sufficient ground for the apprehension All the cautions and warnings wherewith the holy Scripture abounds of the kind with those already mentioned have that manifest design And nothing can be more important or apposite to this purpose than that solemn charge of the great Apostle Phil. 2.12 Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling considered together with the subjoyned ground of it vers 13. For it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure How correspondent is the one with the other work for he works there were no working at all to any purpose or with any hope if he did not work And work with fear and trembling for he works of his own good pleasure q. d. 'T were the greatest folly imaginable to trifle with one that works at so perfect liberty under no obligation that may desist when he will to impose upon so absolutely Sovereign and arbitrary an agent that owes you nothing and from whose former gracious operations not comply'd with you can draw no argument unto any following ones that because he doth therefore he will As there is no certain connection between present time and future but all time is made up of undepending not-strictly-coherent moments so as no man can be sure because one now exists another shall There is also no more certain connection between the arbitrary acts of a free Agent within such time so that I cannot be sure because he now darts in light upon me is now convincing me now awakening me therefore he will still do so again and again Upon this ground then what exhortation could be more proper than this work out your salvation with fear and trembling What could be more awfully monitory and enforcing of it than that he works only of meer good will and pleasure How should I tremble to think if I should be negligent or undutiful he may give out the next moment and let the work fall and me perish And there is more especial cause for such an apprehension upon the concurrence of such things as these 1. If the workings of Gods Spirit upon the soul of a man have been more than ordinarily strong and urgent and do now cease If there have been more powerful convictions deeper humiliations more awakened fears more formed purposes of a new life more fervent desires that are now all vanished and fled and the sinner is returned to his old dead and dull temper 2. If there be no disposition to reflect and consider the difference no sense of his loss but he apprehends such workings of spirit in him unnecessary troubles to him and thinks it well he is delivered and eased of them 3. If in the time when he was under such workings of spirit he had made known his case to his Minister or any godly friend whose company he now shuns as not willing to be put in mind or hear any more of such matters 4. If hereupon he hath more indulged sensual inclination taken more liberty gone against the checks of his own conscience broken former good resolutions involv'd himself in the guilt of any grosser sins 5. If conscience so baffled be now silent lets him alone growes more sluggish and weaker which it must as his lusts grow stronger 6. If the same lively powerful ministry which before affected him much now moves him not 7. If especially he is grown into a dislike of such preaching if serious godlines and what tends to it are become distastfull to him if discourses of God and Christ of death and judgment and of an holy life are reckon'd superfluous and needles are unsavoury and disrelisht if he have learned to put disgraceful names upon things of this import and the persons that most value them and live accordingly If he hath taken the seat of the scorner and makes it his busines to deride what he had once a reverence for or took some complacency in 8. If upon all this God withdraw such a Ministry so that he is now warn'd and admonisht exhorted and striven with as formerly no more O the fearful danger of that mans case Hath he no cause to fear lest the things of his peace should be for ever hid from his eyes Surely he hath much cause of fear but not of despair Fear would in this case be his great duty and might yet prove the means of saving him Despair would be his very hainous and destroying sin If yet he would be stirr'd up to consider his case whence he is fal'n and whither he is falling and set himself to serious seeking of God cast down himself before him abase himself cry for mercy as for his life there is yet hope in his case God may make here an instance what he can obtain of himself to do for a perishing wretch But IV. If with any that have liv'd under the Gospel their day is quite expired and the things of their peace now for ever hid from their eyes this is in it self a most deplorable case and much lamented by our Lord Jesus himself That the case is in it self most deplorable who sees not A soul lost a creature capable of God! upon its way to him near to the Kingdom of God! shipwrack't in the Port O sinner from how high an hope art thou faln into what depths of misery and wo And that it was lamented by our Lord is in the Text. He beheld the City very generally we have reason to apprehend inhabited by such wretched creatures and wept over it This was very affectionate lamentation we lament often very heartily many a sad case for which we do not shed tears But tears such tears falling from such eyes the issues of the purest and best govern'd passion that ever was shew'd the true greatnes of the Cause Here could be no exorbitancy or unjust excesse nothing more than was proportionable to the occasion There needs no other proof that this is a sad case than that our Lord lamented it with tears which that he did we are plainly told so that touching that there is no place for doubt All that is liable to question is whether we are to conceive in him any like resentments of such cases in his present glorify'd state Indeed we cannot think Heaven a place or state
of your final condition as an exempt case reserv'd to the future judgment and the present determination whereof against your self is without your compass and line and most unsutable to the state of probation wherein you are to reckon God continues you here with the rest of men in this world and therefore any such judgment you should tear and reverse and as such not permit to have any place with you 4. Yet since as hath been said yoâ— are not quite to reject or obliterate any apprehension or thought touching this subject make it your busines to correct and reduce it to that other form i. e. let it only for the present remain with you as a doubt how your case now stands and what issue it may at length have And see that your fear thereupon be answerable to your apprehension so rectify'd While as yet it is not evident you have made your peace with God upon his known terms you are to consider God hath left your case a doubtful case and you are to conceive of it accordingly And are to entertain a fear concerning it not as certainly hopeles but as uncertain And as yours is really a doubtful case 't is a most important one It concerns your Souls and your eternal well-being and is not therefore to be neglected or trifled with You do not know how God will deal with you Whether he will again afford you such help as he hath done or whether ever he will effectually move your heart unto conversion and salvation You therefore are to work out your salvation with fear and trembling because as was told you he works but of his own good pleasure Your fear should not exceed this state of your case so as to exclude hope It is of unspeakable concernment to you that hope do intermingle with your fear That will do much to mollify and soften your hearts that after all the abuse of mercy and imposing upon the patience of God your neglects and slights of a bleeding Saviour your resisting and grieving the Spirit of grace he may yet once for all visit your forlorn Soul with his vital influence and save you from going down to perdition How can your hearts but melt and break upon this apprehension And it is not a groundless one He that came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance will not fail to treat them well whom he sees beginning to listen to his call and entertaining the thoughts that most directly tend to bring them to a compliance with it Your hope insinuating it self and mingling with your fear is highly grateful to the God of all grace He takes pleasure in them that fear him and in them that hope in his mercy Psal. 147.11 5. But see to it also that your fear be not slight and momentary and that it vanish not while as yet it hath so great a work to do in you viz. to engage you to accept Gods own terms of peace and reconciliation with all your heart and soul. It is of continual use even not only in order to conversion but to the converted also Can you think those mentioned words were spoken to none such Phil. 2.12 13 Or those Heb. 4.1 Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short c. And do we not find an holy fear is to contribute all along to the whole of progressive sanctification 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthines of the flesh and spirit perfecting holines in the fear of God And that by it he preserves his own that they never depart from him Jer. 32.40 Much more do you need it in your present case while matters are yet in treaty between God and you And as it should not exceed the true apprehension of your case so nor should it come short of it 6. You should therefore in order hereto aggravate to your selves the just causes of your fear Why are you afraid your day should be over and the things of your peace be for ever hid from your eyes Is it not that you have sinn'd against much light against many checks of your own consciences against many very serious warnings and exhortations many earnest importunate beseechings and intreaties you have had in the Ministry of the Gospel many motions and strivings of the Spirit of God thereby Let your thoughts dwell upon these things Think what it is for the great God the Lord of glory to have been slighted by a worm Doth not this deserve as ill things at the hands of God as you can â—ear 'T is fit you should Apprehend what your desert is thâ— perhaps mercy may interpose and avert the deserved dreadful event And if he have signify'd his displeasure towards you hereupon by desisting for the present and ceasing to strive with you as he hath formerly done if your heart be grown more cold and dead and hard than sometime it was if you have been left so as to fall into grosser sin 't is highly reasonable you should fear being finally forsaken of the blessed Spirit of God and greatly fear it but with an â—â—ful fear that may awaken you most earnestly to endeavour his return to you not with a despairing fear that will bind you up from any further endeavour for your soul at all And if upon all this by death or otherwise such a Ministry be withdrawn from you as God did work by in some degree upon you and you find not in that kind what is so sutable to your state and case take heed lest your be stupid under such a stroke Think what it imports unto you if God have as it were said concerning any servant of his as Ezek. 2.26 I will make his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth that he shall not be a reprover to you any more Consider that God may by this be making way that wrath may come upon you to the uttermost and never let you have opportunity to know more the things of your peace Perhaps you may never meet with the man more that shall speak so accommodately to your condition that shall so closely pursue you thorough all the haunts and subterfuges and lurking holes wherein your guilty convinced soul hath wont to hide it self and falsly seek to heal its own wounds One of more value may be less apt possibly to profit you As a more polish't Key doth not therefore alike fit every lock And thy case may be such that thou shalt never hear a sermon or the voice of a preacher more 7. And now in this case recollect your selves what sins you have been formerly convinc'd of under such a Ministry and which you have persisted in notwithstanding Were you never convinc't of your neglecting God and living as without him in the world of your low esteem and disregard of Christ of your worldlines your minding only the things of this earth of
it so blinded and stupified their own souls as to have made themselves very little capable of apprehending that they have committed it or of considering whether they have or no. But they are sunk into a deep abysse of darknes and death so as that such knowledge may be as little possible as it would be useful to them All their faculties of intellection consideration and self-reflection being as to any such exercise bound up in a stupifying dead sleep And to what purpose should they have a rule by which to determine a case who 1. Can receive no benefit by the determination and 2. Who are supposed when they are to use it to have no faculty sufficiently apt to make this sad but true judgment of their case by it But for them who have not committed it and who are consequently yet capable of benefit by what should be made known about it there is therefore enough made known for their real use and benefit It will 1. Be of real use to many such to know their danger of running into it And it is sufficient to that purpose that they are plainly told wherein the general nature of it consists or whereabouts it lies without shewing them the very point that hath certain death in it or letting them know just how near they may approach it without being sure to perish when there is danger enough in every step they take towards it As if there were some horrid desart into any part whereof no man hath any busines to come but in some part whereof there is a dreadful gulf whence arises a contagious halitus which if he come within the verge of it will be certainly poysonous and mortal to him What need is there that any man should know just how near he may come without being sure to die for it He is concerned to keep himself at a cautious awful distance 2. It may be of great use to others that are afflicted with very torturing fears lest they have committed it to know that they have not And they have enough also to satisfie them in the case For their very fear it self with its usual concomitants in such afflicted minds is an argument to them that they have not While they find in themselves any value of divine favour any dread of his wrath any disposition to consider the state of their souls with any thought or design of turning to God and making their peace they have reason to conclude God hath hitherto kept them out of that fearful gulf and is yet in the way and in treaty with them For since we are not sufficient to think any thing that good is of our selves it is much more reasonable to ascribe any such thoughts or agitations of spirit that have this design to him than to our selves and to account that he is yet at work with us at least in the way of common grace thô when our thoughts drive towards a conclusion against our selves that we have committed that sin and towards despair thereupon we are to apprehend a mixture of temptation in them which we are concerned earnestly to watch and pray against And yet even such temptation is an argument of such a one 's not having committed that sin For such as the devil may apprehend more likely to have committed it and 't is not to be thought he can be sure who have he will be less apt to trouble with such thoughts not knowing what the issue of that unquietnes may prove and apprehending it may occasion their escaping quite out of his snare And I do conceive this to be a safer method of satisfying such as are perplext with this fear in our dayes than to be positive in stating that sin so or limiting it to such circumstances as shall make it impossible to be committed in this age of the World For let it be seriously considered whether it be altogether an unsupposeable thing that with some in our dayes there may be an equivalency in point of light and evidence of the truth of Christianity unto what those Jews had whom our Saviour warns of the danger of this sin at that time when he so warned them his warning and cautioning them about it implies that he judged them at least in a possibility at that time of incurring the guilt of it If the text Mat. 12. do not also imply that he reckoned them then actually to have committed it For it is said ver 25. he knew their thoughts i. e. considered the temper of their minds and thereupon said to them that which follows concerning it Let us consider wherein their advantage towards their being ascertained of the truth of the Christian Religion was greater than we now can have It was chiefly in this respect greater that they had a nearer and more immediate knowledge of the matter of fact wherein that evidence which our Saviour refers to did consist A more immediate way of knowing it they had the most immediate the persons whom he warns or charges seem not to have had For those Pharisees it is said heard of the cure of the Daemoniac not that they saw it They took it upon the no doubt sufficiently credible report of others Now let it be further considered what we have to ballance this one single advantage We have to intelligent considering persons rationally-sufficient evidence of the same matter of fact But how great things that have since followed have we the sufficiently certain knowledge of besides beyond what they had in view at that time As the wonderful death of our Lord exactly according to prediction in many respects together with all the unforetold amazing circumstances that attended it His more wonderful resurrection upon which so great a stresse is laid for demonstrating the truth of the Religion he taught The destruction of Jerusalem as he foretold and the shattered condition of the Jewish nation as was also foretold ever since The strange successe of the Gospel in the first and some following ages by so unlikely means against the greatest opposition imaginable both of Jews and Pagans Not to insist on the apostacy foretold in the Christian Church with many more things that might be mentioned Let be considered whether the want of a so immediate way of knowing some of these things be not abundantly compensated by the greatnes of the other things that are however sufficiently known And if such as have wit and leisure to consider these things in our dayes are often prest to consider them have them frequently represented and laid before their eyes if such I say have in view as great evidence upon the whole of the truth of Christianity as these Pharisees had it is then further to be considered whether it be not possible that some such may equal the Jewish malice against the holy design of our Religion To which I only say the Lord grant that none may But if there be really cause to apprehend such a danger some other way should be thought of