The Application of Redemption, Book 6
BOOK VI.
REVEL. 3. 17.
Because thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
THE General Nature of Preparation hath been opened …, and those common Circumstances, that were of special consideration have been … …, … … the freeness of the Work, and the fitness of the Time that the Lord is pleased to take, to bring the … of his … … in that Spiritual good that was provided and stored up for them in the Lord Jesus. We are now to enquire about the Main and Substantial Parts of this so great a Work.
And these are Two:
1 The Dispensation of this Work as it comes from God.
2 The Frame and Disposition which is wrought in the Soul thereby.
For this Work of Preparation being a Transient Work as it proceeds from God, i. e. a work which so passeth from God unto the Creature as the proper subject about which it is exercised, as that it leaves some real impression, some alteration and change in the Creature, and therefore it implies necessarily as the … who … prepare, and who are prepared, so also the manner of the working of the one who doth it, and the disposition of the other who doth … the impression thereof: And hence in these Two the whol Nature of Preparation is taken up, as the Nature of the whol is fully comprehended in the Parts. The manner of Gods Dispensation in this, may thus be conceived and described.
It's that whereby the soul setled in the security of its sinful condition; and wholly unwilling to be severed from it, is by … holy kind of violence driven there …, and drawn unto Christ by God the ….
Where we may attend these Particulars:
1 The Soul Naturally is setled in a sinful security, or is dead asleep in the security of a sinful condition.
2 It's unwilling to be severed therefrom, it's death to part with its distemper; it's against the … and the heart, to have its corruption plucked away from it, to be awakened out of this sleep.
3 That with a holy kind of violence it's driven out of this condition, and drawn unto Christ by the hand of the Father.
We shall pursue these Particulars in the order propounded, and briefly handle the two first only to make way to a cleer discovery, and right understanding of the last Point.
For the two first being apprehended in the full breadth of them, the necessity and mysterious depth of Gods Dispensation in the last will appear with greater Evidence, and be more easily conceived, and assented unto with greater readiness.
For the ground of the first Point we have chosen the words of this Text, Rev. 3. 17. where we have the divers, nay, the contrary judgment of the Lord, and the Church of Laodicea touching their spiritual estate and condition; They fate down well apayed in the apprehension, nay the admiration of their own happiness, and professed they had as much as they needed, and were as good as they desired to be: When as the Lord who knew better, and could judg better of their condition, passeth a peremptory sentence to the contrary, that they were wretched, poor, and blind, and naked; they wanted not either wretchedness or misery, but wanted sence of either, and that was the reason they were secure under both.
Here then we see the guise of a graceless heart, of one … his Natural estate before the Lord set upon the soul: They need nothing in their own apprehension though indeed they have nothing; they see no evil nor danger towards them, though they be compassed and beset on every side with sins and plagues: Men naturally are most secure in their sins, when they are most under the power and plague of them; see how well apaid they sit down in the present frame of their hearts (for it's spiritually meant as appears by the opposition, in the counsel which is administred in the following verse, I counsel thee to buy of … Eyesalve, that thou mayest see, white Rayment and be zealous and repent) but I say, see how they please themselves in this present condition; if all men were as well contented with them as they are with themselves, they would be no better, and they conceive they should be no other; they neither need, … should alter their condition, nor yet be disquieted with what it is, it's as good as they would have it. This is the meaning of the Parable, When the strong man keeps the house, all is in peace, Luke, 11. …. As long as Satan hath the world at will, doth all, and disposeth of all according to his own mind, there is no opposition, and so no distraction, nor trouble; wicked men go as they are led; so the Apostles speaking of the Corinths in …, Natural condition 1 Cor. 12. 2. all go one way, and all is at … they conceit their estates as safe as any other … therfore it's needless … disquiet themselves; so they who lifted themselves against Moses and Aaron, and concluded their penny as good silver as theirs, … 16. 3. Are not all the … of the Lord …? you take too much upon you: They imagine it's the pride and singularity of some men, who require more strictness and a higher strain of Holiness … is needful, that they may be … more than ordinary, and so draw the eyes of men toward them, … so raise a greater account of them than they do …; or else it is the simplicity and feebleness of … who having some mens persons in admiration … easie to beleeve more than they should, or … a greater excellency than there is. As for their … parts, they question it not, but their estates are good, and themselves happy: Thus Paul professed of himself, and speaks it in the stead of all men Naturally, as that which is incident to all, Rom. 7. 9. was alive without the Law. When he wanted the … knowledge of himself, and of the Law of God, … then imagined his condition was such, as those who had and led the life of Grace: But when the Law came, that the Lord by the Law discovered … to himself, then indeed he did discern where he was, that sin was yet alive in him, that he was in a deadly and damnable condition: See the Point … good in Five Particulars, wherein this security is expressed in the several degrees thereof.
A Natural … before the Lord come to seize upon him, he sees no danger in his estate, and therefore will not suffer himself to be perswaded to any such …, what can be said to evict it by the most … Arguments to win his assent thereunto; so it was with them in the old world. Mat. 24. 38. they … and gave in marriage, they did eat and drink, and took up themselves in the eager pursuit … these present pleasing contentments, which … with our Natural hearts, but knew nothing either of the … of their own sins, or the heaviness of the plagues decreed and threatned: Hence this Security is in Scripture compared to a dead sleep, Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life, Eph. 5. 14. In a sleep, we know if it fall heavy upon any, he sees no dangers nor enemies though he was in the midst of them; if any evil be plotted or practised against him he perceives it not, and therefore it is said, They that sleep, they sleep in the night: So it is here, though the sinner be compassed about with his own sins, and the judgments of God ready to be inflicted on him, and the Devils of Hell ready to devour him, yet being in a dead sleep he discerns not the danger he is in.
As they see none; so while the Lord is pleased to abate them, the expressions of his heavy displeasure, nor yet proceeds to take them to task for their great and grievous offences, they feel no evil: they see other men as vile as themselves, fare like themselves, and therefore they conclude there is no danger, Psal. 73. 7. Their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than heart can wish, they are not in bonds like other men, and therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain, &c. Upon this ground it is, the fals-hearted resolve to joyn sides with the proud, because they saw their proceedings prosperous, We count the proud happy, say they, Mal. 3. 15. For Naturally, further than the Lord is pleased to grapple with the sinner) there is a benummed kind of stupidness of spirit takes possession of them, they become senceless wholly or their sins, and so of the plagues that are threatned, and treasured up for them against the day of wrath; When the disease hath mastered Nature so that it hath lost its lively strength, when it's now dying it feels not death because sence was gone before. The Soul that is slain by sin it becomes senceless of it. As it … the drunkard, Prov. 23. 35. They have stricken me, and I was not sick, they have beaten me, and I felt it not.
They fear no evil for the time to come: senseless before, fearless now: they feel no evil for the present, and they fear none for the future; they reason from sense and experience, it hath not been, therefore it will not be. Thus those made a League with Hell and Death, Isa. 28. 15. They intrenched and fortified themselves in this fearless presumption against the approach of any future evil. And therfore in all the threatnings they reade and hear, though such as express the direful displeasure of the Lord, yet they take off the edge of all, they imagine its nothing but a kind of policy in men who Preach these threatnings, that so they might aw others by a prudent way of proceeding, and partly its folly in those who beleive them and entertain them as real, when there is no such thing to be feared. This was the Conclusion of those who sate upon the Lees and Dregs of this Security, Zeph. 1. 12. They profess, the Lord will neither do good, nor evil.
Hence the sinner in a blind kind of deluded Confidence, puts the safety of his Condition beyond all question and dispute, to doubt of Gods love or the work of Gods Grace in his heart, or his own everlasting happiness; he cannot talk of it but with detestation, looks at that as a thing that is past, That Dale is mowen, and the danger over and gone: give any good proof or sound evidence of his spiritual Welfare he cannot, yet dispute it he will not; takes it for granted, and therefore will not trouble himself with it any more. Whatever searching truths are expressed for the narrowest search and saving tryal of the soundness of the work of Gods Grace, and so a sure title for eternal life, he catcheth at those and takes them for his own, without any enquiry or consideration, Whether they do belong to him, or no: Whether his heart be right and sound in Gods statutes he will not dispute, but that he shall be happy he will certainly conclude; and that conclusion he will hold: He doubts not but to dye …, … go to Heaven as well as the most precise Professor of them all. Thus they in Deut. 29. 19, 20. When they heard all the Curses of the Law, yet they blessed themselves, saying, I shall have peace.
Let men speak what they will, Preach as they please, he promiseth himself comfort and success in his way; men (saies he) must have their …, and will vent their passions and humors, but concludes what he conceives is the right, all the world shall not perswade if there were a hundred, and a hundred Ministers to that, they shall never make him believe but his Condition is safe, … his way and person such as God will accept. So they to Jeremy, Jer. 43. 2 Thou speakest falsly, the Lord … not sent thee to say, Go not into ….
The things of Christ, and waies of his Grace which he hath revealed in his Gospel, and enjoyns all to follow, because they put them beyond their pace, and exceed either their cannal and formal course, and the frame of happiness which they have fancied in their own minds and thoughts, they look at them with disdain, and casts the name of giddiness and folly upon them, and follows them with all the reproaches and contempt that may be, 1 Cor. 2. 14. … he natural man perceives not the things of God for they are foolishness unto him; Thus the Gospel, the glad tydings of salvation, and the only way of life in Christ, It was foolishness to the Greeks, and to the Jews a stumbling block: 1 Cor. 1. 23. To become fools that we may be wise, to cast away the robes of our own conceaved Righteousness, worth, and sufficiency, and to go a begging to Christ to … our nakedness: it is a thing … cross to carnal reason as nothing more, Rom. 10. 3. The Jews that … establish their own Righteousness, they would not submit to the Righteousness of Christ.
Therefore if the wayes of … be pressed and … with zeal, as matters absolutly necessary, … that their commodities seem to be cryed down, and their comforts dashed, and their persons …, and … under … as that they are … men, even your most civil naturallist, a man … is most … in his carriage, will count, it a matter of … to proceed to … … against such, and you shal … these men, most … and restless in persecution, because they do it upon a misconceit, as a duty of …. They conclude they are as good as men should be, and do as much as any ought. Acts 26. 9. So … …, I … … with my self … to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus: and … Savior Christ … it, …. 16. 2. That they … think they do God good service in … … opposing the waies and Servants of Christ, and … in the highest degree. So that if the Lord let in any light to such a one, to reveal either more or better to him, he stands amazed as a man new come out of a dream, he knows not where he is, or what he hath done all his life long. If this be true, I never knew either my sin, or my self; I am of all men most miserable: As Paul, when the Lord met him and stopt him in his way, and broke in upon him with his Converting Grace, he falls down trembling and astonished, Lord, … thou? And, What wilt thou have me to do? Acts 9. 5, 6, 7. He neither … Christ, nor himself, nor his own estate, he was as far to seek as if he had never heard of these things; therefore the Apostle Peter expresses it thus, 1 Pet. 2. 9. Who hath called you … darkness to his marvelous, light: That a man begins to wonder and marvel to see themselves so wonderfully cozened and deluded all their days, they have often heard of sin, but never saw it before now, they have heard of humiliation, and faith, and sanctisication, but never understood what they were; but now they begin to see an absolute need of them, and there never was any man whom God called effectually to himself, but he stands wondering at his sins that they should be so loathsom, and yet that he should love them so much; at the beauty and excellency of Christ, that he hath neglected so much, marveling at his own pride and security in that miserable estate that now he finds himself in.
Gather up the Point then: If he neither see … feel any evil in his Condition, and therefore fears no danger in it, and therefore blesseth himself in his present estate; accounting whatsoever is more required, to be foolishness, and persecutes whatsoever seems to blemish it, then he is (and can be no other than) abundantly satisfied and settled immovably in the security of his carnal estate.
The Reasons of it are chiefly Three.
From the Deceitfulness and Subtilty of sin whichReas. 1 pretends nothing, promiseth nothing but that which is full of content to the sinner, and therefore he pleaseth himself in it for the present. As the … hides his sting that may poyson, and shews only his speckled skin that may please the eye, so it is with …, it presents nothing to the view but that which may please the flesh, either profits to enrich, or honors to advance, or pleasures to delight, either … of the flesh, or the … of the eyes, or the pride of life, 1 Joh. 2. 16. As the wise man speaks of the yong man led aside with the harlot, that with her oyled words she … …, and he followes her as an Ox … to the slaughter, and a fool to the stocks, and knows nothing till a dart strikes through his liver, Prov. 7. 22. As the Fisher that shews … to the Fish but the Bait to allure, but hides the Hook that will catch: So the Fowl sees nothing but the Grain to feed her, not the Net that takes her. So it is with the Deceitfulness of sin, it promiseth nothing but all the Content that we have, and would have; but the Hook that should catch us, and the … that should … us, that is kept back for the present.
If taken from the sensuallity of the Soul of every…. 3 man naturally, which is so suitable to the nature of …, that it tasts nothing but that which … their …, and therefore they will not beleeve there is any thing there to distaste. A sinful heart meets with temptations, they do fit and suit one with …, and because the soul takes content in sin, it cannot beleeve that there is any thing else there, but what it now finds: nay, somtimes though the judgment is informed, and Conscience convinced these … your sins, and these will be your ruine; the … heart saies, It is false; I taste no such matter: As it is in a distempered body when the stomach is … with noysom humors, because the bitterest … seem sweet to the raste so distempered; the Physitian cannot perswade, they cannot beleeve that … are bitter. So it is with a distempered heart which tasts nothing but its own lusts and humors, which are so incorporated into it, and … with it, that let all Ministers, and Reasons, say what … can to the contrary; say they, I beleeve it not; … taste it not; Its the best life in the world to follow … own mind, to have my own will, and to satisfie … own lusts: Prov. 10. 23. It is a sport to a fool … do …: No pastime is so pleasing to him, as to suit the carnal disposition of his heart in his sinful wayes: but he's a fool for it, that is, A … man.
Self-love, and Self-ease will not suffer the … Reas. 3to hear of any thing that may disquiet or distemper and therefore … the mind and heart with the daily fears and suspitions of terrors and discouragements that attend a good Course, that it dare not listen in the least measure to any thing that tends … way. Hence it is there is such a noyse and … raised against the good ways of Gods Grace, and Gods …, that if ever he gives way to the power of them to have his sins revealed and … by them, he thinks he shall never have quiet more … and therefore in a carnal Family, if one man … … and careful in his course, and have got … knocks from the Word, they cry out, Their Children are undone, and they fear to come under … stroak of the truth, lest they should be troubled. … the meaning of that, Psal. 36. 2. The wicked … … himself in his own eyes: As who should say, This is the only way you are in, you may … quietly and comfortably, and go to heaven … all this ado: Ay, do so, and be so, saies the heart And as 2 Pet. 3. 2. They are willingly ignorant A man that is loth to rise, shuts his eyes from … light, and stops his ears, that he may not hear … knocks at the door; so a man that would sleep … in the security of his natural state, he would … suffer the certainty of Gods Judgments and the terribleness of them, to come home to his soul to awaken him out of his dead sleep.
Thus the Deceitfulness of Sin promiseth nothing but Good; the … of a mans heart is such, … … nothing but Good, mens Self-love and … is such, it will not suffer any thing but Good to be presented to the view of the soul.
These are the Grounds why a sinful Heart settles it self in security, and blesseth it self, though nothing belongs to him but misery.
Hence we may see the Reason why sharp andUse 1. soul-saving Preaching, seems so greivous and tedious to the carnal hearts of wicked and natural men; they hardly vouchsafe audience, but not acceptance: Whats the cause? It would awaken them out of their sleepy security in which they lye: To bring a Candle to a sleepy man is unpleasing but to pluck off the Clothes, he will hardly bear it, but will let flie at you: Why will you not suffer a man to be quiet in his bed? &c. All men are naturally in a dead sleep of sin, therefore to bring the Candle of the Law to them, to shew them their condition, to pluck away all their coverings and hidings that they may see their sins and themselves as they are, it is death to a man in this case: Plain dealing and rough dealing evermore finds harsh entertainment here: still Musick is pliasing and rocks men asleep; but sound blows will awaken men, and not suffer them to sleep in their sins, and therefore they cannot bear them; they have itching ears (saith the Apostle) heaping up Teachers to themselves after their own lusts, and therefore they cannot endure sound doctrine, 2 Tim. 4. 3. Such Ministers, and such Preaching as answer their desires and please their pallats, that they and their sins and all may go to Heaven together, this they like very well of: Itching ears must be scratched, not buffeted. You know what he said to Elias, Art thou he that troubles Israel? And hast thou found me O my Enemy? 1 King. 18. 17. … had 400 false Prophets, he could endure them well enough, because they never disquieted him in his sins; but Elias was a troubler of Israel, because he troubled his sin; therefore he was not able to bear with him.
Hence again, We should be perswaded and informedUse 2. its the heaviest plague that can befal a man, That God should suffer him to sleep in his sins and prosper in a wicked Course: Because it argues (for ought any man knows) that God intends no good to him, nor will work no good for him; but as if the Lord hath left such a one to be a prey to sin and Satan; he is in the hands of his lusts, and become a spoil unto them; Jesus Christ passeth by him (as it …) pitties him not, meddles not with him, to rescue him out of that Condition; as if the Lord should say, I have nothing to do with him, he is none of mine.
Therefore know this to your terror, all you that never knew what it was to be in distress of Conscience for sin, nay when the Word hath come home to you, to convince you of your miserable estate, for you have not been able to bear it, bate of your sleep nor rest you cannot, lose any thing of your … and … you will not, nay, you bless your selves in this condition, thinking your case is good enough: Mark now, The Lord Jesus sees sin and Satan have thee in their power, hurrying thee down to Hell with them, and he passeth by, and saith, Let them alone, they belong not to me, I will not rescue them nor save them, my Word and Spirit shall not convince … nor work upon them; this is the heaviest … … can befal thee in this world, Acts 17. 30. The … of this ignorance God regarded not: they lived in their sins without God, and Christ, and …, and the Lord never regarded them so as to look after them to recover them out of this estate: Acts 14. 16. He suffered the Nations to walk in their own wayes: It was the heavie displeasure of God towards them, he saw they followed their own wayes, and he suffered them so to do, to go on still in the broad and the road way that leads to eternal Death: All sinners are sick persons, and we know … a sad thing, for those that are sick unto death not to be seen, not to be helped and succoured, when the Physitian will not so much as look in upon them: Luke 19. 44. Jerusalem had her day of …; she was sick at the heart, and God came to … her, but she would not take his advice, therefore the Lord left her and let her alone; this is a woful case, when the Lord leaves a sinner to himself and doth not visit him with his saving health, its a sign that he hath no love unto, nor care to do good to such a soul.
Of Tryal. Hence we way get undoubted EvidenceUse …. to our selves, whether we are yet in our natural condition, or brought out of it, I shall press it only negatively now: Is the day yet to dawn, the hour yet to come, that ever thou didst endeavor to come out of thy natural condition, nay, happily thou never sawest cause why thou shouldest? But thou … and conceivest that all things remain alike with thee from the first beginning unto this day: as thou wast, thou art: thou hast lived quietly, and walked comfortably all thy life long. Truly know it if thou art not another man than when thou camest into the world, thou art but a natural man, thou art but a damned man. Thou camest flesh and blood into the world; thou camest a Child of wrath, and thou art so still; and if so be thou doest live so, and die so, thou art sure to be damned for ever, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 15. 50. We know saies the Apostle that we are born of God, and the world lies in wickedness, 1 Joh. 5. 19. Brought to bed in … as the Original saies, thou art one that livest in some base wicked courses, and liest in the bed of security, and thou shalt perish with the world. Its observable in the Parable, when all things were at peace, the strong man kept the house, that's certain! As its said of the City of Laish, Judg. 18. 7. They were quiet and secure and had no business with any man: Is it so with thee? Thou art quiet and secure, and hast no business with the Word of God, thou dost come, and sit, and return again as if thou hadst no business with the Lord, thy Conscience not convinced, thy affections not stirred, thy heart not affected with saving remorse for thy sinful condition, truly know, The strong man keeps house there unto this day.
Nay, Let me tell you this, That all may hear and fear, and be awakened; if Christ never awaken thee, he will never give thee light; and if ever he give thee light, he will awaken thee first. Nay, the truth is, So long as thou livest so senseless and careless, know it, Christ never came into the world to do thee any good. Luke 19. 10. The Son of man came to seek, and to save that which is lost: They that are sensible of their lost and undone condition, by reason of their sins against the Lord, they see Hell gaping, God plaguing, and Conscience accusing, being every day ready to drop into Hell, Christ came to save such: But thou that never yet in any measure wast troubled about thy condition, and humbled for thy sins, Christ will never seek thee, nor save thee; nay, he was not sent to seek, or save that miserable soul of thine: God will make thee sensible of thy evils before ever thou canst have any hope that he intends good to thee.
I will not now Dispute how far God may awaken a man, and yet not communicate saving grace, that belongs to another place. That I Urge now, is this, That its certain, He that never yet was awakened, or brought out of his carnal Security, never was nor can be made partaker of Jesus Christ.
Exhortation. To all you secure dead heartedUse 4. sinners, that have been carried on in a Calm all your days: Oh! know it, and consider of it, a man becalmed, is drowned; … stir up thy self, and think of the time of awakening, it will come; and as Marriners becalmed seek for winds, so should you for the Gales and Breathings of the Spirit of Christ. Many of you have been … up in good Families, and many of you are civil, honest, quiet people, all things remain with you as they were from the first, until now; you know not what Sin means, nor what Faith and Repentance means in the power and practice of them; you have a quiet life, but a miserable life: Its easie for a Marriner to be in a Calm at Sea, he hath quiet there, but he dies there: Women in Child-birth longs for Throws, if their Throws leaves them, their life leaves them and all; but if they have many and strong Throws, then they hope well: so go your wayes and call … the Throws of Conversation: For a Child to be born into the world, and the Mother asleep, its against Nature, and Reason, and Sense, and Experience and all; so before ever you be born again, before ever Christ be formed in you, it will cost you many Prayers, and Tears, and much Sorrow; but if … Throws come thick, then there is hope: Oh! therefore call for the sight of sin, and sorrow for sin, for conviction, and humiliation, as you love your Lives and Souls call for these. You know what they said to …, Chap. 1. 6. when the Sea was fierce, and the Winds high, and the Storm great, every man fell to his Prayers, and they came to Jonab, … thou sluggard, arise and call upon thy God: So if God raise a storm in your Consciences, be sure you call upon Jonab, those sluggish hearts of yours, Awake and call upon your God.
I would advise those men that could never yet say they have any grace in their hearts, they cannot say they have any thing more than they brought with them into the world: they come to sit and hear, but for Humiliation, Conversion, for the saving work of God upon their souls they know no such thing. Let me advise you thus much: Be suspicious of your estates, certainly all is not well, all is not right; unless I be born again, and repent, and be another man, and have another heart and life, I cannot enter into Heaven; thus suspect your self: And when you have done so, do not leave it there, but betake your self to some faithful Minister or Christian, and debate your condition with them, and be sure you quiet not your self till you come to see what you are; it may be they may help you, and shew you the state of things with you.
If it shall appear upon good ground by sound Reasons from the Word, that your estate is naught, then go away convictedly … it is so: Attend not those carnal Reasons that may take off the edg of that conviction, and hinder the working of it, but sit down without any cavil against it; but say, the truth is, I never saw my estate before, but now I do, I hope I shall never deny it; Excuses and carnal Reasons have taken me aside, but now I'le hear nothing against it; the truth is, I am a miserable sinful damned Creature: Arise with this in the morning, …, lie down with this at night, and walk with these thoughts all the day long, I am a Christless graceless man; and if the Devil say, hereafter time enough, hereafter loon enough; Ay, but say, I may die suddenly, and … I am damn'd eternally; and if your own heart say, Am not I as good as such an one? and shall not I hope to do as well as such an one? Away with that too, I am a miserable damned man, give your self for gone, and hold it here; … hear nothing the Devil saies that my heart saies, that the world or my friends say, I am in a miserable damned condition; think so, and sleep so, and … so, if you can: And when it's come to this, you may happily be prepared for the glad Tidings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.