The Application of Redemption, Title page 2 – Illustration
THE Application OF Redemption By the Effectual Work of the Word, and Spirt of Christ, for the bringing home of lost Sinners to God. The Ninth and Tenth Books. Beside many other seasonable, and Soul-searching Truths, there is also largely shewed,
…The heart must be humble and contrite before the Lord will dwell in it.
…Stubborn, and bloody Sinners may be made broken-hearted.
…There must be true sight of sin, before the heart can be broken for it.
…Application of special sins by the Ministry, is a means to bring men to sight of, and sorrow for them.
…Meditation of sin, a special means to break the heart.
…The same word is profitable to some, not to others.
…The Lord somtimes makes the word prevail most, when its most opposed.
…Sins unrepented of, makes way for piercing Terrors.
…The Truth terrible to a guilty conscience.
…Gross and scandalous sinners, God usually exerciseth with heavy breakings of heart, before they be brought to Christ.
11. Sorrow for sin rightly set on, pierceth the heart of the sinner throughly
12. They whose hearts are pierced by the word, are carried with love and respect to the Ministers of it: And are busie to enquire, and ready to submit to the mind of God.
13. Sinners in distress of conscience, are ignorant what they should do.
14. A contrite sinner sees a necessity of coming out of his sinful condition.
15. There is a secret hope wherewith the Lord supports the hearts of contrite sinners.
16. They who are truly pierced for their sins, do prize and covet deliverance from their sins.
17. True contrition is accompanied with confession of sin, when God calls thereunto.
18. The Soul that is pierced for sin, is carried with a restless dislike against it.
By that Faithful, and known Servant of Christ, Mr. THOMAS HOOKER, late Pastor of the Church at Hartford in NewEngland; somtimes Preacher of the Word at Chelmsford in Essex, and Fellow of Emmanuel Colledg in Cambridg.
Printed from the Authors Papers, written with his own Hand. And attested to be such, in an Epistle, By Thomas Goodwin, And Philip Nye.
London: Printed by Peter Cole, at the sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil, neer the Royal Exchange. 1657.
READER.
IT hath been one of the Glories of the Protestant Religion, that it revived the Doctrine of Saving Conversion, And of the new creature brought forth thereby. Concerning which, and the necessity thereof, we find so much indigitated by Christ and the Apostles (in their Epistles) in those times: But in a more eminent manner, God hath cast the honor hereof upon the Ministers and Preachers of this Nation, who are renowned abroad for their more accurate search into, and discoveries hereof.
First, For the Popish Religion, that much pretend to Piety and Devotion, and doth dress forth a Religion, to a great outward Gaudiness, and shew of … and wil-worship, which (we confess) is entermingled with many spiritual strains of self-denial, Submission to Gods wil, Love to God and Christ, especially in the writings of those that are called Mistical …. But that first great and saving Work of Conversion; which is the foundation of al true piety, the great and numerous volumns of their most devout writers are usually silent therein. Yea they eminently appropriate the word Conversion and thing it self, unto … man that renounceth a Secular life, and entereth into Religious orders (as they cal them) and that Doctrine they have in their discourses of Grace and free wil about it, is of no higher elevation, thanThe …, and … of late and his followers. what (as worthy Mr. Perkins long since) may be common to a Reprobate; though we judg not al amongst them. God having continued in the midst of Popish Darkness many to this day, and at this day with more Contention than ever, that plead for the Prerogative of Gods Grace in mans Conversion.
And for the Arminian Doctrine, how low doth that run in this great Article? this we may without breach of Charity say of it; That if they or their followers have no further or deeper work upon their hearts, than what their Doctrine in that point calls for; they would fal short of Heaven: though those other great truths they together therewith teach, God may and doth savingly bless unto true Conversion, he breaking through those Errors into some of their hearts.
And how much our reformed Writers abroad, living in continual wranglings and Disputes with the Adversaries of Grace, have omitted in a Practical and Experimental way, to lay open and anatomize the inwards of this great work, for the Comfort and settlement, of poor souls, many of themselves do greatly bewayl: And to find them work, and divert them from this, it hath been the Devils great Policy (who is at the head of all those Controversies) as also ever since Pelagius time, to this very day) to make that dry and barren plot of Ground (namely the naked dispute of the freedom of mans wil) to be the great seat of this War (as the Pope did the Conquest of the Holy Land, in the darker times, to find al Christian Princes work) and thither to draw al the forces and intentions of mens minds jejunely & in a great part Phylosophically to debate what power mans wil (for-sooth) hath in the Summity and Apex of Conversion to resist or to accept the Grace of God: and so whether Moral perswasions only be not Sufficient? or that Physical Pre-determinations be not also requisite to Conversion? whilest in the mean time, al those intimate actings of a soul in turning to God; The secret particular passages, both on Gods part, and on the souls part (which are many and various) by which the soul is won over unto God and Christ; those treaties the souls of men hold with God and Christ for justifying and Sanctifying Grace, and for union with him: these have been forgotten, or but overly and slightly touched upon, which if our reformed Divines would have made it their work distinctly to have insisted on, out of the scripture and their own experience: that Glory would have appear'd therein, which would have put a period unto al those janglings about Free-Wil.
And further to take a serious survey of the present times in this Nation; the temper of Professors is such, that it cannot enough be Lamented: Ordinarily men enter into and take up a profession of Religion and that with difference from others, upon very cheap Rates. And do give and receive Honor of being such to and from one another upon so slender grounds; that we with grief say, there hath been more of Profession in these changes, when less of Regeneration.
The Causes whereof are more than of one sort, or than which we are able to enumerate. Yet for instance; Either because God hath in the Course of his providence involved the Cause of Religion, and the Vindication of the liberties of the sincere Professors of it, (formerly so much oppressed) with so high an hand, and out-streched Arm; so apparently, that therefore Carnal men have fallen in, and mingled themselves (as that mixt multitude of Egyptians who came forth of Egyptian bondage with the Israelites) and joyned issu therewith, and Learning a little to speak the … Language, and give Religion, and good men good words; and being for the Common Cause, (as they cal it) they have thereby put themselves and been received into the Common Roll of men wel affected in Religion, as wel as to the publique.
Or else (which we cannot but judge and mention as another Cause hereof) it hath been professedly held forth (by men holy and spiritual) that all that … not scandalous in their lives, having in … Knowledg, the Form of Truth, by …; adding thereunto some outward … Duties. Such Persons we mean, as … were in our Pulpits, plainly …, but Civil, Moral … (and … really but such kind of Professors of …, as Mutatis mutandis, are found … Turks of Mahumotanism; who … the Principles of that …, and are devout in Duties to God, … thereby, through the meer … of Natural Devotion, and Education, … Laws and Customs of that Religion; … also through Moral Honesty, are not … in their Lives.) Such like … amongst us, have been, and that … a New … of Religion, with … also from others (the Ignorant … Prophane) professedly received … the Communion of Saints, as visible Saints. … Principle, and Practice, hath (as it … needs) weakened and embased the … purer stamp of the Doctrine of … (as then held forth with such evidence of difference from these … Profession) not only by encouraging such boldly to take on them to be … (as it were) by Authority; but also by having checked, and flatted the spirits … themselves that would teach it, seeing that this Real Application in Practice, and Principle, to such Moral Christians as Saints, is a manifest Contradiction unto al … can be Doctrinally said in the Pulpit to the contrary, concerning the power … this great work in true Saints. And … the Profession of Religion hath been levelled, and diffused into that bulk and commonness, that the true marks of saving Graces, are (as to the open discerning) much worn out, and wil be more and more, if this should obtain.
Or else (as great a Cause as any other) a special Profession of Religion being … Mode, and under Countenance: Hence many have been easily moved to see what might be in Religion, and so attend to what is said about it; and upon listening thereto, their spirits have been awakened, and surprized with some light, and then with that Light they have grown inquisitive into what this or that Party of Religion holds; what the other, or what a fourth. And thinking themselves at liberty (as the Principle of the times is) to chuse (as men in a Market) what that Light wil lead them to; they accordingly fal in, either with this, or that particular perswasion: and this is al of many mens Conversion. And yet because such become zealously addicted to such, or such a … (some of the Professors of each of which, others that differ, own as truly Godly) therfore they are presently adopted, & owned as Saints, by the several Followers of such Opinions: And each sort thinks much, that those who embrace their Opinion, should not be accounted, and esteemed Religious … all others, that do sincerely … the power of it. Thus men Tythe … and Cummin, and leap over the great … … Regeneration, namely, … for sin, the … sence of their Natural Condition, the Difficult work of Faith, to … them, Union and Closing with Christ, Mortification of lusts, &c. which works where they are found, and visibly held forth, none are to be disowned for other Opinions consisting with the …; yet so, as without these, no Opinion, of what Elevation soever, can, or doth constitute a man Religious.
Now look, as when among the Jews, Religion had run into Factions, and Parties, and the power of it thereby, was … lost; God then set down John … amongst them, a sowr and severe Preacher, & Urger of the Doctrine of …, and preparative Humiliation for sin (which he comparatively to what was brought in by Christ, termeth the Baptism of Water) though withal 'tis said, that in the Close of his Doctrine, … pointed unto Christ; Saying unto the people, that they should beleeve on him that should come after him; that is, on Jesus Christ. Yet this he did but … at: for the ful … of his Dispensation ran in that other Channel. Of whose Ministry … is also said Luk. 1. 16. 17. That … of the Children of Israel should he turn to … Lord, their God. And shal go before him (namely Christ) in the spirit and power of … to turn the hearts of the Fathers to their Children, and the Disobedient to the … of the just to make ready a people … for the Lord. The meaning whereof is, he came to restore the Doctrine of … Conversion, and in that point … bring and reduce the Children of the … back again unto the same … and wayes (necessary to Salvation) … which the Fathers, and all the … Saints of the old Testament … been brought in unto God. And … by that means to become of the same Religion (saving Conversion being the … practick Foundation and Centre … all Religion) that the Godly Jews … old were of. So what know we, but … God (in some lesser, proportionate …, both in respect of duplicate page duplicate page persons and times) may have had this in the eye of all wisely designing Providence to set out this great Authors works and writings (amongst the labors of others also) upon this very Argument, to bring back, and correct the Errors of the spirits of Professors of these times (and perhaps by urging too far, and insisting too much upon that as Preparatory, which includes indeed the beginnings of true Faith, (And a man may be held too long under John Baptists water) To rectify those that have slipt into Profession, and Leapt over all both true and deep Humiliation for sin, and sence of their natural Condition; yea and many over Christ himself too, professing to go to God without him. However, this we may say (without diminution to any other or detraction from the Author himself, in respect of his … raysed knowledg of Christ and … free Grace) That if any of our late Preachers and Divines came in the … and power of John Baptist this man did.
This deeply humbled man, and as … raised, both in Faith and … with Christ, the Author of … Treatises. He had been trained up … his Youth, in the Experience and … of Gods Dispensations and … this way; and vers'd in digging … the Mines and Veins of Holy …, to find how they agreed with his … …. His Soul had … the intricate Meanders, and the … (through temptations) … of this narrow passage and … into Life (and few there be that … it.) And by deep reflections upon … step of Gods Procedure with …, hath descried those false and … by-waies, which at every step, … man (who errs in his heart, not … the knowledg of Gods waies) is apt to … astray when they have but inferior … of the Spirit on them, from … way of Life, which only those do … that are un-erringly guided by the … Spirit (peculiar to the Elect) into … waies of Peace.
And whereas there hath been published long since, many Parts and Pieces of this Author, upon this Argument, Sermon-wise preach'd by him here in England (which in the preaching of them did enlighten all those Parts) Yet having been taken by an unskilful hand, which upon his recess into those remoter parts of the World, was bold without his privity or consent to print and publish them (one of the greatest injuries which can be done to any man) it-came to pass his genuine meaning, and this in points of so high a Nature, and in some things differing from the Common Opinion, was diverted in those printed Sermons from the fair and cleer draught of his own Notions and Intentions, because so utterly deformed and mis-represented in multitudes of passages; And in the rest but imperfectly and crudely set forth.
Here, in these Treatises, thou hast his Heart from his own Hand, his own Thoughts drawn by his own Pensil. This is all truly and purely his own, not as preached only, but as written by himself in order to the Press; which may be a great satisfaction to all that honored … loved him (as who that was good, and knew him, did not?) especially … that received benefit by those … imperfect Editions. And we cannot but look at it as a blessed Providence of God, that the publishing of the same by others (in that manner that hath been mentioned) should have provoked him, and that by the excitation of the Church (whereof he was the Pastor in New-England) to go over again the same Materials in the Course of his Ministry amongst them, in order to the perfecting of it by his own hand for publick Light, thereby to vindicate both himself and it from that wrong which otherwise had remained for ever irrecompensible.
And hereby it came to pass (that so far as he hath proceeded) this Subject came to have a third Concoction in the Heart and Head of him that was one of the most experienced Christians, and of acutest Abilities that have been living in our Age. He Preach'd more briefly of this Subject first, whilst he was … and Chatechist in Emanuel Colledg in Cambridg. The Notes of which, were then so esteemed, that many Copies thereof were by many that heard not the Sermons, written out, and are yet extant by them. And then again, a Second time, many yeers after, more largely … Great Chelmsford in Essex; the … of which, was those Books of … that have gone under his Name. And Last of all; now in New-England, and … in, and to a setled Church of Saints, to which the Promise is made of being The Seat and Pillar of Truth; and … which all Ordinances set as the Load stone in the Steel, have the greater power and energie: In which the Presence of Christ breaks forth, and all … Springs are found therein.
And truly we need not wonder … God set his heart and thoughts a work … much, and so repeatedly about this Subject. VVe see that the Holy Ghost himself, the Author of this Work of Conversion, doth somtimes, and that in an … manner, go over the whol of that Work again and again in the hearts of Christians, whom God means to make great in his Church: as in Peter, when … art converted, &c. who was yet … already. And to the Disciples, Except ye be converted, &c. And the … of the Holy Ghost upon them, at, and … Pentecost, was as a New Conversion … them, making them to differ … much from themselvès, in what they were afore, as wel-nigh they themselves … afore truly wrought on) did … differ from other men. The … of God himself goes over this work … in al the parts of it: As to … anew, to draw to Christ, to change and … the heart to higher strains of …. And when so, then his Second … excels the First, that it comes not into mind; and his Third the Second, … it ceaseth (as it were) to be remembred (as the Prophet in other works of wonder speaks) for thereby he every … Spirituallizeth the heart stil more, … it from Hypocrisie, and makes it … refined; causeth the heart to come forth from each new Cast and moulding with a deeper and fairer Impression … his Image and Glory. If then the Holy Ghost (the Writer of his Law in the Heart) set that high value upon that Work … his, that he vouchsafeth to take … pains to write it over and over again in the same Tablet; Let it be no Diminution to this great Author, but let us bless God rather for the Providence, that the same Divine Hand and Spirit should set him this Task, to take the Doctrine of … VVork into a second, yea, a third Review; and thereby make it as it were, the foreign the VVork of his Life.
Only thus it is, That the other Great Points, as Union with Christ, Justification, Adoption, Sanctification, and Glory (which Subjects, as he was able for, so his heart was most in them) he hath left unfinished: And so thereby (as is most likely) multitndes of precious, yea glorious thoughts, which he might have reserved (as often fals out to Preachers and Writers) for those higher Subjects, as the Close, and Centre, and Crown of what forewent, as preparative thereto, are now perished, and laid in the dust with him. None but Christ was ever yet able to finish all that Work which was in his Heart to do. Farewel.
Thomas Goodwin, Philip Nye.
COLE. 1216.