The Application of Redemption, Book 10 (8 of 13)

The Application of Redemption · Book 10 (8 of 13)

p. 340There is a Three-fold Ground; from whence the Reasons of this Point may be fetched; which will Evidence, That this manner of proceeding best suits with the insinite Wisdom of God, look we at God, at others, at the sinner himself, with whom the Lord is now trading.

The Holiness of Gods Nature, and exactness of his Reas. 1.Truth, not only commends, but even seems with some kind of comely necessity, to call for such a manner of Dispensation. The Lord stiles himself, the holy One of Israel, a God of purer eyes than can endure to behold iniquity, not able to pass by sin in the least appearance of it; and therefore leaves so strict a charge, beware lest there be an evil thought in thy heart, and abstain from all appearance of evil, 1 Thes. 5. When the Lord is to convince the sinner of sin, to express his mind and displeasure against him, because of those his evils, so scandalous and detestable to al that have but the least spark of saving knowledg and Grace; yea loathsom to the very light of Conscience in corrupt Nature. Should the Lord casily and overly … them by, with some smal … of some little dislike, it could not but impeach his Purity, and make himself accessary to the dishonor of his own Holiness. When Eli proceeded not with that zeal against … evil of his Sons, as the … thereof might justly have provoke … him unto, but after a slight manner manifested a heart-less dislike of it; the Lord …, 1 Sam. 2. 39. That he honored p. 341his sons before him, rather respected their carnal content, that they might not be so … ashamed, and justly … as they did deserve than the honor of his name and the excellency of his ordinances and worship, that they might be preserved in that purity and attended with that awfulness and holiness of heart as was meet. Now that which God abhors and punisheth so severely in another, its not possible that the least appearance of any so great an evil should be justly charged upon the holy one of Israel, for he should deny himself to be God if he should deny the exactness of his own infinite holiness, and he should not be just, should he not manifest the glory of his holiness, according to the excellency and … thereof. True it is that out … meer grace and mercy the Lord Christ brings the soul of a sinner from his sin, but the same mercy that would save the sinner, cannot but destroy the sin and express its detestation … it, otherwise may … say, and the rebellious sinner think, that either the word requires more than it needs and the Saints do more than they ought, or else the Lord is not holy as men imagin, when the … … so great detestation against so gross and scandalous evil which the Lord looks at with so little dislike.

In regard of others, the sharpness of this dispensation of Reas. 2.the Lord against such scandalous and notorious offenders, seems to be very necessarie, Least the hearts of the wicked should be encouraged and their hands strengthened to adventure to commit, and careless … reforme the greatest evils when they shal observe some of their crew and company, who were as bad or worle than themselves, yet … acceptance and forgiveness at the hands … the Lord upon such easy terms and with so little trouble, It's that of … wise man Eccles. 8. 11. When … … a Malefactor is but delayed, it's in the … … … sons of men to take encouragement to … evil, If the delay of the punishment which is p. 342not long, do so encourage them when that is but little and slight, how wil that imbolden in a fearless kind of impudency to proceed to any out-rage, when they can promise themselves pardon upon the same terms which others have found before them, in the like case and condition with themselves? Therefore the Lord in his infinite wisdom, doth so temper the sweetness of his mercy, and the severity of his wrath, in the recovery of a lost and forlorn wretch; riches of mercy to the soul to save that, rigor of severity against the loathsomness of sin to destroy that; so that none should be discouraged to seek for pardon of the greatest wickedness, and yet none encouraged to continue the shortest time in the least sin, since Gods displeasure is so dreadful against al. It was the course that the Lord prescribes to his Vice-gerents here on Earth in their proceedings against sin, that it should be such, that all Israel may hear and fear, and do no more so, Deut. 17. 13. he wil not be wanting to do that against sin which he would have to be done by others, he wil hamper al such Rebels, that the rest of the company shal have little cause to bless themselves in any of their sinful waies.

In regard of the sinner himself, it's safest for him that Reas. 3.he may be throughly recovered from his corruption for the present, and preserved against it for the time to come. Recovered for the present, he needs heavy blows, or else he is like never to have any good by them. As with Trees that are rooted deep, and of long time & continuance, ordinary winds have setled them, it must be a Herricano that must pluck & tear them up from their roots. So when the sinner is rooted in … wretched distempers: the wood that is knotty, there must be sharper wedges, & the heaviest beetle, and the hardest blows to break it: So it is with the hard, and stupid, and knotty heart of a scandalous sinner. As with the stomach filled with stiff and noysom humors, easie Physick, and gentle Receipts may happily stir the humors, but it must be strong p. 343Ingredients, and a great quantity that must remove it. So with a corrupt heart.

This is a means also to preserve him from it afterward; if once he have throughly smarted for his sin, he will fear to meddle with it; … he have felt the danger of the Surfet, he wil tast the Sweet-meat no ….

TRYAL. We have here Ground of DiscoveryVse. how to pass a safe Sentence touching the Spiritual Estate of some persons, namely, The easie and sudden conversion of such who have been grosly wicked, or scandalously vile: By grossly wicked, I mean such who have been taken aside with some loathsom abominations, though they carry it never so covertly, as your clofe …, fornications, thefts, murders, continued forgeries of fals-hood and injustice: By scandalously vile, I mean such who have continued in an open tract of profossed opposition against the power of Godliness: I say, the easie and sudden conversion of such, gives just ground of suspicion why they may question the truth of the Work, and others justly suspect it, … their judgments be setled by sad proof, long experience, and that upon serious observation. It's not Gods ordinary way, and therefore men should take more than ordinary tryal before they trust, or in truth thou trust … self. The proceeding of God in his Word and Providence, are according to the Rules of Wisdom, and the right order of causes and means, by which he hath appointed to bring about his own will, and the Work of his Grace in the hearts of his. To save men per saltum is not Gods usual way, that works of greatest weight and difficulty, should be done in so little time, and with so little labor and trouble, in other cases thou would'st think it …; why should'st thou judg the contrary reasonable in this, which is hardest, and the weightiest work of all other, unless thou hast more than ordinary warrant for it? When men grow rich of a sudden, and to a great p. 344Estate, and those who observe their course, see neither waies nor means in reason how to raise it, each man concludes, it's not his own Estate, but other mens Stock that he braves it withal, for he is worse than nothing, or else he never truly came by it, so that a State somtime questions such. So here, when a man grows up to a great Estate of Grace, and no man can tel how; … so many quarters or yeers, he was as base a wretch as the Earth bore, not fit to sit with the Dogs of a mans flock, his carriage so reffuse and vile, as that he was not fit for the Society of moral men, that no man could tel how to beleeve his words, or to trust his dealing; and is he now of a sudden come to the top of Religion? a sweet, godly, gracious man, fit to be made a Member of a Congregation; how came he to such a large measure of Grace and Godliness? Surely not as other men use to do, and therefore it's a great suspicion he came not truly by his Grace, nor is he truly that he seems to be; great sins cost other men great sorrows; grievous scandals cost great grief of heart, great heart-breakings, humiliations and satisfactions: great Grace and power against sin, great pains, and the highest strain of exactness in speeches and practices; they that knew and see the Conversations of such, never saw nor knew any such matter; it's certain he, and al the Christians in the world, may justly question his uprightness, … yet he be not worse than nothing, if there were a true inventory taken of his Estate in Grace; out of the depth of prophaneness to come to the height of holiness at unawares it's a work of delusion, not of true conversion to God. Trees that are planted in Gods Orchard, they take root downward, and then bring forth fruit upward: Upstart Christians are like Jonah his Guord, grow … and … presently, flourish and fade, and al in a day. Untimely births are never true, nor yet of continuance; when an old sore is healed too hastily, it never proves sound, it's … over, … cured, festers inwardly, proves p. 345more grievous and dangerous than at the first: The skilful Chyrurgeon wil tel you it must be searched, lanced, tented, before it attain its ful and perfect Cure. So it is with that cankered corrupt … of thine, who hast lived and continued in those loathsom abominations which thou hast hugged in thy bosom, it must be lanced by the cutting knife of the Law, and the dreadful curse thereof, searched by the soul-saving preaching of the Gospel, and dayly tented with constant contritions and breakings of heart, otherwise know assuredly, that those hellish lusts of thine wil imposthume within thy soul, and in issue break out more loathsomly, and thy latter end wil be worse than thy beginning. To find little or no hardness in that which in thy reason thou conceivest and concludest to be the hardest work of all, how canst thou but suspect thou art cozened and mistaken? Make it thine own case in another thing, and be thine own Judg; … thou enjoyned to drain a Quagmire, or a dirty rotten Swamp, to fit it for the Plough, and should any man seem to perswade it would cost but litte time or labor, might easily be dispatched, thou would'st scarsly with patience hear such an expression, as that which is expressly contrary to common sense, why should men speak of impossibilities, or think that men should conceive that reasonable that is against Reason; not only Trees felled, stubbed, removed, but the ground gained which is not arable, and al this in a short space with ease? Look now into thy condition with this resemblance, and be thine own Judg; thou hast a dunghil heart, a soul like a dirty swamp, those hellish abominations which have taken up thy mind, and will, and affections, in which thou hast continued, and unto which thou hast been accustomed, so that thy heart is like a standing puddle of prophaneness, which have weakened and wasted the very faculties of thy soul; so that thy heart is not fallow ground, as the Prophet speaks Plow up the fallow ground, Jer. 4. it's not … p. 346ground, even abilities so wasted and disordered with thy wretched and unreasonable lusts, and dost thou think that these abilities can be … easily, and thy Spirit made good soyl, even a good and honest heart, without extraordinary power on Gods part, and more than ordinary labor on thine. When the covetous yong man that was glewed to the world, and had his heart riveted in restless and immoderate desires after these Earthly things; so that all the directions which our Savior gave, and the great offers he made of Heaven and Salvation, could not take off his affections, but he went away sorrowful; saies our Savior, How hard is it for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; it's easier for a Cable rope to enter in at the eye of a Needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Grace here, and Glory hereafter. Matth. …. 22, 23, 24. He spake of one, it's true of all by the like proportion; how hard is it for a rich man, it's as true to say, how hard is it for a riotous, unclean, malitious, voluptuous, self-conceited, rebellious wretch; he that hath scandalously continued in these, accustomed himself to these, how hard is it for such saies the Text. And doest thou find it easie? a Holy-day task, and a trifling labor, that which may suddenly be done without such trouble; either Christ is deceived, or thou art mistaken; either the Word fails, or thy apprehension fails: Whether the Scriptures or thy Conceit is to be beleeved, let thine heart judg, unless thou wilt be an Atheist. The Word in reason never wrought that work, nor wil it give in Evidence and approbation thereof. The Prophet Isai. 46. last, describing a rebellious sinner, he thus speaks of him; Hearken ye stout-hearted, who are far from righteousness. A man that hath gone many yeers, and that with much speed and labor one way, which is down-hil, to return to the same place when the way is more difficult, with a little time, and less labor, there is little probability, if possibility in reason. So here, thou hast p. 347hurried headlong in the waies of wickedness, hast had ful wind and tide, Satans temptation, thine own corruption, to carry thee with mighty violence many yeers together in thy … course, dost thou think suddenly and easily to … back? No beleeve it, thou must take many a weary step, send out many a heavy sigh, tug at it with continual prayers and tears, and the utmost improvement of al thine …, nay it will cost thee hot water, the setting on before thou seest that day.

I read of a double expression, 1. Of the Devils going out. 2. Of his casting out, …. 12. 43, When the unclean spirit goes out, &c. which is done by … outward and serious reformation, and some sudden resolution wrought out of terror, to forsake such and such courses; this smoaks Satan out of his house, &c.

COMFORT. This is ground of great support, …, 2.and in Truth of strong consolation, to shore up the hearts of forlorn and scandalous Creatures, when they lie under the most direful strokes of Gods heaviest displeasure. When the loath somness of their lives, and hellish abominations of their hearts are presented to their view, their Consciences now accuse, and the Lord from Heaven by his infinite indignation encamps against them with Armies of terrors, so that to their sight and sence there is nothing appearing but present ruin and confusion: Yet out of the strong, comes sweet; greatest safetyJudges. 14. 14.Judg 14:14 issues out of the heaviest searchings and breakings of heart. Here is now ground of strong support to bear thy … above all these devouring horrors, which like so many waves would overwhelm thy soul. The more miserable thou findest thy condition, … more comfortable it is. It seems a riddle, carries the appearance of contrariety and impossibility, and yet upon proof and tryal, wil prove an infallible Truth. The heavier the blows be, which come from Gods hand for those gross p. 348evils of thine, there is more probability of … serious intendment of good unto thy soul: The greater thy strokes are at present, the greater thy hopes are of some spiritual relief and refreshing in future times. And there is no greater plague upon earth, hardly such another in hell, … a wretch should prosper in his wickedness and go suddenly down to the bottomless pit before he see where he is. It was the carriage of a great Commander in his time, yet mervailous sharp in the execution of military discipline, when a Souldier had deserved death by martial law, if he seemed to smile upon him it was a messenger of death, and therefore his old Soldiers that saw … manner of his proceeding, when ever he appeared to laugh they looked then for a doom, insomuch that an antient follower of his coming before him for some miscarriage, his General carrying himself in a silent manner; he breaks forth in this manner. Good my Lord do not smile on me, for he then knew the … execution would be the next he should hear of. It is here most certain and so judg of it. If thy carriage and thy Conscience likewise give in testimony of the loathsomness and vileness of thy corrupt conversation, that thy behaviour is detestable to any who have any spiritual discerning, yea to moral persons; if the Lord seem to smile upon thee, not so much as check thee in thy scandalous way, know that the sentence of destruction is the next that is like to ensue, Math 23. 34. 35. I wil send you Prophets and Apostles and some ye shall kill and stone &c. that the blood of al the Prophets may come upon you, fulfil the measure of your fins and so receive the fulness of the measure of plagues. … can yee escape the damnation of bell. ver. 32. 33. I Thes. 2. 15. The Jewes both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own Prophets, and have persecuted us, they please not God and are contrary to al men, to fill up their fins alwayes, for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost When … have elbow room in their wretched wayes, p. 349and are not crossed in their hellish corruptions, the wrath is come upon them to the utmost. This is the dregs of God vengeance, the utmost of Gods indignation, thou canst hardly be worse if not in hell. Whereas great heart-breakings for sin give in more than a little hope, and probability of good intended, see this in the several degrees of it, and al follow from the doctrine delivered.

It shewes, poor forlorn wretch that thou art in the 1way of mercy. God deals so with thee as he usually doth with those with whom he wil deal welin the issue, he hath … left thee to thy self and sins, and ceased striving with thee to stop thee and recal thee from thy sinful course, as commonly he doth when he delivers up a soul to the power of his corruption, with whom he intends no more to meddle, Isai. 1. 5. So he proceeds with the perverse and obstinate Jewes, why should yee be smitten any more, yee fal away more and more; As the Father with the prodigal, my counsels cannot move thee, my blessings allure thee, al my corrections I have layed upon thee do not reclame thee, take thy course therefore, and so casts him out of his family, and takes no … care of him. But he whom he corrects most sharply for his faults, it's yet a pregnant evidence for the while that he purposeth to keep him. This is the day of Gods visitation, may be the last time of asking yet it is the time of … and grace and the date of mercy. God is yet wrastling with thee as loath to leave thee to the malice of Satan, and the power of thy distempers, as he doth with them that he purposeth to do good unto Isai. 6. 9. when God would … … people for …, and devote and set them apart to destruction this is the way he takes Go make the hearts of this people fat, fatness implys … brawny kind of stupidity, and sencelesness of spirit. Then such persons are ripe and ready for destruction; when God plucks up the stake and gives a forlorn wretch the round rope, let him have his p. 350wil; Ephraim is joyned to-Idols, let him alone, Hos. 4. 17. He that is unjust let him be unjust stil; he that is filthy let him be silthy stil. Yea this is that which casts a … beyond the compass of the compassions of the Almighty, when the Lord … he wil not meddle nor make, he wil have nothing to do with such vile creatures, Hos. 4. 14. I wil not punish your daughters when they commit whordome, nor your spouses when they … adultery, therefore the people that doth not understand shal fal. But when God wil take pains and trouble himself with such a Rebel, hath thee upon the anvil, & bestows so much fire and so much melting, yet … is hope that he may make thee a vessel of grace, and for the Lords use.

There is some expectation that the work may prove 2more speedy and successful, as it is in the body, in old festred sores, he that ripples the skin, and layes easy salves, he wil be long in doing a little, and yet fail at last, when he hath done al, he that lanceth to the bottom, in reason is like to bring out the core, and to hasten the cure, both with speed and success; the stronger the physick stirs and works upon the humor, the sooner the patient recovers, and health returns with some stability and continuance. It is so in the soul, those old cankered lusts which have been of long continuance in a corrupt heart, some slight terrors or sudden flashes of Gods displeasure, which may a little trouble the Conscience and ripple the skin as it were, they pass away presently and leave the root of the distemper untouched, at the least not removed, so that the corruptions grow more fierce and violent, and so break out in a more loathsome manner than ever formerly. Whereas those direful & overbearing horrors, in a way of rational providence are of a more prevayling nature, to astonish the heart, shake the Conscience of the wicked, and ransack the very core of those hideous corruptions, which have been long harboured and lodged within. Thus the Lord p. 351dealt with the revolting & Apostatizing Israelites. Hos. 2. 6. 7. He bedged their wayes with Thorns and built a wal before them, and they shal seek their lovers and shal not find them, and then shal she say I wil … to my first husband &c. Had the hedg been so … and easy and the wal so low that they might have broken through the one or leaped over the other, she would have made a hard shift but she would have followed and sound her lovers; but the hedg was made of thorns … and unsufferable sorrows, and necessities unavoydable, not to be indured, not to be removed, and those wearied her out of al pretended delights she had formerly taken. This is the method that God … Hos. 5. 12. 14. Hos. 6. 1. First I wil be a Moath, 2 if that wil not do I wil be a Lion, 3 If that wil not do I wil leave them and go to my place, withdraw his comforting and protecting presence; and then we hear …. Come let … return unto the Lord for he hath torn and be wil heal us; this did it.

This … way for our spiritual comfort in a special 3blessing if he be pleased to follow the … with his blessing. For its a special means to bring in clearer evidence and … assurance both of the soundness of the work and the certainty of a mans good estate, al the dayes … his life, if the Lord be pleased to second these heavy breakings of heart with his blessing. For it is the nature of …, when they are set in opposition to make each other appear more …. For a conscientious … to be made of a … …, … … is so … a … especially when the dreadful expressions of Gods displeasure have been so amazing in the eyes of al that have been the spectators and in a peculiar manner astonishing to the soul of the prophane creature that hath selt the arrows of the Almighty sticking fast in him, … he cannot be but restless before he get relief and help, so he cannot but know it when he hath gained it, the change is great and open, Gods p. 352dispensation so glorious. This man is able to say, at such a time in such a place, by such a man, out of such a …, the Lord was pleased to speak home to my heart to make known himself, my self and sin to my self, which caused my soul tody within me, in the sence of my vileness and misery, and from that time forward, followed me daily with fears and horrors, the venom of vengeance drinking up my spirits until in such and such a manner and by such means he was pleased to work my heart to his own tearms, made me glad to seek him importunately yea restlesly, and more glad to find him sealing up the truth of his free love by his own spirit in the word of truth; This man can tel how he came by his grace, and can tel what to say and shew for heaven, and happily unless it be through his own careless neglect may carry the assurance with him to his grave. Whereas such as the Lord doth sweetly but secretly draw unto himself, in an insensible and undiscernable manner, restrains them from common evils, traynes them up under Godly Parents, religious government, good company and spiritual means of Instruction, and so implants by little and little into the Lord Jesus, without their privity or apprehension however their estate is good, and their condition safe in its self, yet they gaine littl evidence or maintain little assurance thereof in their own hearts, but upon every turn are questioning and quarrelling, doubting and staggering, touching their condition, whereas they that come to their grace by many and great troubles retain it commonly with great evidence, Thus Paul when the Lord Christ had made a glorious conquest over his proud rebellious and malicious heart, against the holy wayes of his truth and …. He could tel and did upon al occasions when the field was fought, how the Lord Christ got the day over his hellish distempered heart. Thus he relates Gods dealing. Acts. 26. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Acts. 22. 1. to the 14. And so issues p. 353having obtained help of God I continue until this day thus it was, so it is; thus it was wrought, so maintain d.

And though it be true I confess that no man should or wil break his arme, that he may have it the stronger for the setting, or know how it is set; or therefore be careless to become scandalously vile, that God may be gloriously merciful: yet through the riches of mercy which makes our losses gaines. The certainty of the assurance we find, doth countervail and exceed the terrors and horror we felt. Give me the man who can say, I was blind but now I see; I know I was in prison but am now delivered; its not delusion but a vision and real accomplishment of the work by the Allmighty hand of God.

Lastly its honourable for a poor scandalous wretch to be under such heavy breakings of heart, and therefore 4it should be comfortable to him. I rather mention this to stop the mouths of the reffuse rabble of the world, and to shew the desperate mistakes unto which carnal reason carryes us, out of the pride of our own spirits; wee know that sin is … and shame loathsom, even to nature especially corrupt and proud, to be forced to acknowledg the one, to take the other. It appears very direful to the apprehension of al the sons of Adam. And therefore when the Lord is pleased to hold a scandalous wretch upon the wrack and to make him roar out his wretchedness, vomit out his sin and take the shame he hath deserved. His companions that have conversed with him, and his freinds that have honored him, they are driven to their dumps in discouragment and discontentment, and cry out the man is undone, and curse the day that ever the Minister came into the countrey, and blames his folly and silliness that he would attend to what he saied and be troubled with any thing he heard, to bring an everlasting blemish upon himself. No: I say ther's no such matter. This is the greatest honor that yet ever befel him in this world, and wil be a means of blessing to him in another. It is a p. 354shame to commit sin but not to have the heart breaking under the apprehension of it. Nay it is an expression of Gods favour and as it may prove, a sign of Gods special love, if it be rightly emproved. God thus far honors a poor wretch that he wil speak to him as he passeth by. Should a Prince that was provoked by the conspiracies and rebellions of many Traitors, as he passed by, should he vouchsafe to send unto, and cal upon some one to reclaime him from his crew, and company and courses, and that upon very equal terms he might find acceptance and pardon and peace: when he wil not so much as look after others, or change a word with them, would not this be accounted matter of marvelous respect from the King, and honor to the man? So here. As David, begs favour from the Lord. …. 119. 132. be merciful to me, and lookupon me as thou usest to do upon them that desire to fear thy name, he takes it to be the highest pitch of his happiness to be so dealt withal. If God deal with thee as with these, as he dealt with the Jaylour, as he dealt with Paul whom he made a choyce vessel for himself, art thou not highly honored? why should God knock at thy dore and cal in upon thy Conscience &c.

ADVISE unto Ministers, whose place and calling Use 4.it is, under the Lord, to deal with such persons undersuch diseases. Hence we may see a right way in holy prudence how to proceed with them, in the times of temptations and their saddest distresses of spirit. See what God doth, and that we may do. As Gods deals so we may deal as the safest way and most likely to find ….

When therefore we have fortifyed the heart with hope, in regard of the sufficiency of God free grace, and possibility of relief from him: As that he is able to do Eph. 3. 20.Eph 3:20excessive exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, As in desperate cures men use cordials to fortify against faintings of heart, that they may better bear the hardness of the cure: this being supposed then the rule is. The sharpest receits are most seasonable in a right p. 355manner of proceeding and that in three things.

1 Be not slight in the searching.

2 Be not too hasty to heal;

3 Be not too suddeenly confident of the cure.

Not slight in the search for that is most dangerous, and an error here can hardly ever be recovered, go therefore to the quick, see the bottome, if ever you hope to make work of it, or to lend help indeed. He that cleaves knotty logs must have the sharpest wedges and hardest blowes. Here pity is unseasonable and greatest cruelty. When out of … we are afraid to put men to pain, we encrease their pains and hasten their destruction, Jer. 6. 14. they have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly. The Apostle teacheth another way. Titus. 1. 13. reprove them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. Sharp reproofes make sound Christians. He shewes greatest love and mercy which followes the Lord in love and mercy. Yea it is a course that procures most ease to the party, the corrosive that eats away the proud flesh brings soonest ease because that proud flesh and humors bring al the pain. So these dreadful overbearing threatnings abate the pride of the heart, and a mans perversness and so brings ease, for the waywardness of our own wils work our own woe, and here, not to trouble mens sins and Consciences is indeed to trouble their peace and comfort in issue. Thus Samuel. 1 Sam. 12. 20. He lesseneth nothing of their sin, onelyonly sendeth them forth to mercy for relief. Ye have indeed done al this wickedness yet do not forsake the Lord.

Be not too hasty to heal the wound. More hast than 2good speed draws here desperate in conveniences with it and may be hazards their comforts while they live. Old and deep sores as they have been long in gathering corrupt humors, so they must have a time to wast and wear them away, which wil not be done in a moment; old stayns must lye long in soak, and have many fresh p. 356lavers before in reason they can be clensed. So old distempers which have taken strong possession, and are of long continuance, happily if the cure be too hasty, it wil hazard our comforts: The Israelites left War too suddenly with the Canaanites, they tribured them, and not destroyed them; and they proved goads in their Judges, 2. 3.sides, which they could not get rid of all their daies.

Be not suddenly confident of the Cure. Let men be 3Probationers in our apprehensions, let them proceed in a fearful and painful way to make proof of the inward disposition of their hearts, by their outward practices in a constancy of an holy conversation. As Solomon said of Adonijah, 1 King. 1. 52. Let him shew himself a worthy man. This creating of Professors, making men Christians by our applause and approbation, because they have attained the under strokes of horror, skil & ability to holy Services, proves the bane of their souls, the blemish of their Profession, and a breach of their Peace; either they have turned wretches again, or else have been overtaken with their carelessness, so that they have been foyled by gross falls, and hardly ever recovered their peace and comfort though they have taken off the scandal. Therefore as John Baptist told them, if indeed you purpose to … from the wrath to come, bring forth fruits worthy of amendment, Matth. 3. 8. such as wil carry weight, and fetch up the scales as it were, and undoubtedly evidence the work of Grace.

Matter of Caution and Direction unto such whom Use 4.God hath exercised with such heavy breakings of heart for their scandalous courses; beware ye be not weary, and labor to make an escape from under the Dispensation of the Lord, but give welcom thereunto; help forward the work, do not resist it, make way for the Dispensation of the Lord, do not oppose it, and therefore possess thy heart with a necessity of subjection thereunto. Why should'st thou think to have an exception? be rather fearful thou shouldst not find the Truth of the p. 357work of these terrors, than that thou should'st be fearful to endure these; if he wil land thee in Christ, he wil toss thee in this manner. As a Patient having a … wound, he enquires what the … did to others, and how the Salve did work upon others in his case, and if he find the Salve and working be the same, he hopes that he also shal be cured. So here.

EXHORTATION. Improve the utmost of our endeavor Use 5.to keep our selves, and all ours from scandalous sins. Restraining Grace is but common Grace, yet is it a great favor of the Lord that he wil curb and restrain a man; by this means the work of Conversion is more easie, and such persons freed from dreadful terrors that seize upon others, Mark, 12. 34. Thou ant not far from the Kingdom of God. …'s bring our Children as neer to Heaven as we can, it is in our power to restrain them, and reform them, and that we ought to do: As it was the speech of a godly woman, she … that al means might be used to restrain her Children, that if it were possible their reckoning might not be so heavy as mine, ….

A Prophane course cannot hinder the unresistibleObject. work of Gods Grace.

It's true, But though God may save thy soul, yet heAnsw. may scorch thy soul in the flames of Hell fire, and make thee weary of thy part, and of thy lusts and all. Are there no terrors dreadful, but those of the torments of the damned in Hell? Yes, you wil find it, you may pay deer for al your pleasures in sin, for al your fleshly lusts, before your hearts be brought off from them: therefore you that are Parents, joyn your helping hands to this great and good Work, beat down the stubbornness, do what you can to restrain the loosness and prophaneness of the spirits of your children, though it's not in your power to bring them in, yet bring them as neer to the Kingdom of God as you can, &c.

p. 358They were pricked in their hearts.

The last Doctrine which is considered touching the Work it self.

Sorrow for sin … set on, pierceth theDoct. heart of the sinner through, that is truly 2affected therewith.

They were pricked, not in their eyes to weep for their sins, so Esau could; not in their tongues only to confess their sin, so Judas did, I have sinned in betraying innocent blood; nor in their hands alone to reform it outwardly, so those Apostats did, 2 Pet. 2. 20. They escaped the pollutions of the world through the acknowledgment of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: but it reached their hearts, their souls bled inwardly: their souls were most guilty, and had the greatest hand in the commission of those bloody and execrable cruelties; the fountain of their sorrow, did rise as high as the beginning of their sin; soul sins, and soul sorrows.

Nor was the stroke slight, not the ripling of the skin, a lighter touch, a sudden pang, a sigh and away; nay, not only lanced and gashed, the rotten imposthumes of the corruptions of their hearts in a great measure, but ransacked the very root of the corruption, pierced the heart quite through; through and through again as it were, let out the core of the most inward, and most retired corruptions, that were lodged in their bosom and bottom of their hearts. And this work proceeded not from any power of their own, nor from the liberty and freedom of their wils, as that which they made choyce of, and out of their own ability did readily put forth, but it was set on by the hand of the Almighty, in the entrance p. 359whereof they were Patients, went against the heart and hair, and wholly beyond their purposes and expectations: So the words are in the passive form; they were pricked, they did not prick themselves. Nay certainly could they have told how to prevent it, how to remove it, or to procure any ease and relief unto themselves, they would never have cryed out as men in a maze, and astonishing straights of Spirit, What shall we do? Thus God proceeds when he purposeth to make a through work. When God was purposed to set upon the revolting people of the Jews, and to bring them savingly home to himself, Hos. 13. 4. so … carry it, according to the foregoing and following words, I am the Lord thy God from the Land of Egypt, and there is no Savior besides me, ver. 4. and blames also the frowardness and folly of their Spirits, not yielding so readily, and taking the advantage of Gods dealing for their good, ver. 13. The sorrows of a travelling woman shall come upon him, he is an unwise son, for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of Children, q. d. The Lord in mercy offers himself to the Israelites under their terrors as a Midwife, that would make way for them out of their sins and sorrows: Now in this … of his towards the people to be converted, he professeth, that he will meet with them … a Bear bereaved of her whelps, he wil rend the caul of their hearts, ver. 8. the words are, the closure and shutting up of their hearts; sinners are shut up under the power of their distempers, as the Apostle saith, all men by Nature are shut up under unbelief, Rom. 11. 32. especially there be some closets and secret corners and conveyances of soul, wherein the most sweet and delightful abominations are hugged and harbored: the Lord leaves not a poor wretch, if indeed he intend his good, before he breaks open those great depths, rests not before he come home to the root, and let out the heartblood p. 360of thy lusts, and then their death wil undoubtedly follow.

And hence it is this sorrow is compared to such as enter into the very inwards of Nature, and sinks the soul with unsupportable pressures: when that great conversion and return of the Jews to the entertainment of the Gospel shal be brought about by the Lord. The Prophet sets forth the greatness of that sorrow of theirs, under a double similitude. First, Zach. 12. 10. They shall mourn for him, as the mother mourns for her only son, and for her first born: the mourning of a tender hearted mother for her son, her first born, and for her only son, he adds al degrees of grief: if she had possessed many, she might more easily have wanted one, or at least parted with it; or had it been any but her first born which had the first of her strength, and the first of her love, yet she might have born it with more quietness: but when al these meet together, her life and comfort is wrapped up in the life of the Child, the mourning becomes unmeasurable, fils the heart as it were. Secondly, It shall be like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon, when al Israel lamented the death of their good Josiah, the light of their eyes, the breath of their Nostrils, the comfort of their souls, 2 Chron. 35. 25. Therfore the original words which lay open this work, are of marvelous weight, and discover the overpowring vertue thereof, Isai. 57. 18. The Lord dwels with him that is of a contrite spirit. Isai. 61. 6. The Lord binds up the broken heart. The first whereof signifies to pun to pouder, and to bring to smal dust; it is so used, Psal. 90. 3. Thou bringest man to the dust of death, again thou sayest, return ye children of men. That as the hardest stone when it's broken al to smal mammocks, and pouder as it were, it's easie and yielding under the touch of the hand, what ever ruggedness and resistance was in it before. So it is with the soul that is punned to pouder, so that there is not any unbroken, or any p. 361whol part to be found there, no sodering in any secret manner with any retired distemper; but the weight of godly sorrow hath shatter'd all asunder, distress of Conscience hath brought it to dust, parted all the privy closures with any particular of any distemper, all that knotty stiffness and perversness of spirit in siding with any corruption is now taken off. The soul comes easily to give way to the Authority of the Truth, that would take any sinful lust away. To the like purpose is that of Job, Job, 23. 16. when the Armies of Gods indignation had encamped against him, and the terrors of the Lord had drunk up his spirit; saies he, God makes my heart soft, or hath melted my soul; the word signifies a severing and separation of one thing from another, and is opposite to setling and fastening, making firm, stiff, and hard, as that of Pharaoh, Exod. 9. last, Pharaoh hardened his heart, his soul fastened by an invincible resolution to the sinful purpose of his malicious detaining and oppression of the Jews. When the fierceness of Gods dupleasure brought home by the breathings of the Spirit of God upon the soul, it makes it melt like Wax before the fire, makes it easie to give way to the impression of the pleasure of the Lord, that his Spirit may take away any of those lusts that have been of … league with the heart. Hence lastly it is, that in the Phrase of Scripture, the sinner is said to be in …, Zach. 12. 10.Zech 12:10or the soul to be imbittered by God, when he is brought and held under the sence of the loathsomness of his ins, and himself by reason thereof; so that al the sweet that his liquorish heart takes in any pleasing lust, is wholly taken away. The Physitian observes, and reason teacheth, that sweet things only nourish, but bitter things clense, the Nature of the stomach abhors the presence of them, expels them, takes no pleasure therein, receives no nourishment therefrom. So with the sinner in his condition, when the Lord … out the bitterness of sin upon him, he can find no food rellish, no delight in his former distempers, p. 362which he followed with that violence, and fed so eagerly upon, even unto surfetting in former times, they wil not down with him now. It's a dreadful thing now to him, to take the least tast of them by any serious consideration or remembrance, when formerly he could have made a meal of them by dayly meditation, When Job. 20. 12. 13. 14.Job 20:12Job 20:13Job 20:14wickedness was sweet in his mouth, and he hid it under his tongue, but now it's turned to the gall of Asps, and he is not able to endure the poyson and bitterness of it, but it makes him heart-sick, in the sight and sence of it.

For the opening of the Point, it wil be needful to enquire after Five Particulars.

1. The Manner how this sound sorrow seizeth upon, or is brought in upon the soul.

2. How God sets it on, and makes the soul truly affected with it.

3. How far the sinner is, or may be said to be active in it.

4. What is the behavior of the heart under this stroke, being truly affected.

5. The Reason, and then the Use.

To the Former of these:

The Manner how this Sorrow is brought inThe first particular opening the point. upon the soul.

It is Three-fold in Gods ordinary Dispensation, (reserving exceptions, as he sees fit in his own infinite Wisdom.)

p. 363It is either

Successively, and by degrees.

Suddenly, and at once.

Unsensibly to the heart of the sinner who receives it.

Successively, when the Lord would leave the track 1and footsteps of his Faithfulness and Truth upon record to the observation of the wise hearted, he then leaves plain impressions of the Power of his Grace and Spirit, … his proceedings with such as he … to bring effectually home unto himself; that the goings of our God Psal. 68.Ps 68and King may be seen in the Sanctuary, and in the souls24. of his Servants, and it may be attended in these several Degrees.

First, The Lord lets in some unexpected flashes of 1spiritual Truth, discovering the evil of sin in the general, and the dangerous conditions of such as stand guilty thereof, and continue therein, which were never considered, nor before that time conceived of, by him that hath been an ignorant and careless hearer of the Word: who came to the means either by constraint, or custom, or complement in a way of course for company sake, never set price upon the means, nor attended to the Truth and goodness thereof, and therefore the Ordinances were as the Waters that pass by, left neither power nor profit upon the soul. But now there is some evidence of Truth which God so directs and darts in, that it flashes like lightning into his face, leaves a kind of amazement upon his mind, and like a sudden blow gasters the … of the sinner, so that he begins to stagger, and is driven to give some attendance to that of which he never took notice before, not knowing wel … to make of himself, nor yet of that which he heard, only he is forced to observe somthing he never formerly regarded. Hence therefore … a confused kind of tumult and lumber of thoughts within himself, he begins to be in a p. 364muse what such things mean, whither they tend, is at a loss with himself, and knows not which way to take; I never heard so much as now, if all be true that I have heard, and the Minister hath preached; there is more in sin than ever I imagined, and my condition more miserable than ever I did conceive. This maskering of spirit drives him to make enquiry, the things seem strange, he begins to search … they be true or no. So they to Paul, disputing concerning false Worship, and their Idolatrous practices, Acts, 17. 19, 20. Thou bringest strange things to our ears, we would know therefore what these things mean. So it was with Paul at his first bringing home to God, Acts, 22. 6. There shone a great light from Heaven about him, and he heard a voyce, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? The thing was strange, but what it was he could not tel, and therefore he makes yet further enquiry, Who art thou Lord? As the poor woman having heard the Minister preach out of that Text, Isai. 27. 11. They are a People of no understanding, therefore he that made them, will not … them: he that created them, wil not shew mercy to them. It came so directly cross to her own conceivings, that she repaired to one of her neighbors, to know whether those words were in the Scripture yea or no, and what those Scriptures were: for saith she, If he that made us wil not save us, Lord be merciful to us, who wil? who can? So these sudden dazlings and dartings in of the Truth, forceth men to fall on questioning; enquire they do, come they wil, resolve to hear more of those strange Novelties; and the greater search they make, the greater certain Truth they perceive, the Law peremptory, the Word plain, threatnings certain, and the Lord just, his sin most hainous, and his condemnation certain and approaching, so that he cannot tel how to avoid it, or how to bear it.

Hence fear surprizeth him forthwith, pursues him 2… a … expectation and … of what … p. 356befal him; I know what I have deserved, and I hear what the Word hath threatned against such, and I know God is true, and cannot deny his Word nor himself, and he is just, and cannot but execute in his time what hath gone out, of his mouth, hath not all Ages manifested this? the Experience of al men proved it undeniable? Did ever any provoke the Lord and prosper? Job, 9. 4. and can I in reason expect it should be other and better with me, than it was with any that was ever before me? Can I be so sottish to think that God should send another Christ, devise other Scriptures, make a new Causey way, or a back door to bring such a wretched rebel as I am to Heaven, contrary to his own Word and Will? God hath said, Wo to the wicked, it shall go ill with Isai. 3.Isa 3him; who can say the contrary, and who can expect but he wil accomplish what he hath said? the Word excepts11. no man; what folly is it then that I should except my self? 2 Thess. 2. 12. That all they might be damned that have pleasure in unrighteousness; If I take the same pleasure, I must look for the same plagues, Luke, 13. 5. Except ye repent, ye shal all likewise perish: If I be in that condition, I must expect the same condemnation, and be likewise accursed and confounded, and cast out from the presence of the Lord. It's certain it will be so, and it's uncertain how soon it may be: What if God do? Who knows but God will? What if God should pluck me out of the Land of the Living? I may truly, justly suspect it may be so, and fear it will? When I lie down, I shal never rise more; when I go forth, I shal never return more; when I depart from the house, I should take my leave and never see Sabbath more, nor the Assembly of the Saints more: why may not my meat be my poyson? my table my ruin? my bed my grave? all Creatures instruments of death to me, who have been an enemy to God: So that their hearts begin to fail them for fear, …. 21. 26. Thus the … under the … of his … … p. 366Acts. 19. 27. Adam at the coming of the Lord into the garden feared and fled. Gen. 3. 10. this is the fruit of the spirit of bondage. Rom. 8. 15. and the distressed sinner becomes as Pashur a terror to himself, Jer. 20. 3. 4. the slying of a …, the … of a leaf, the shadow of darkness and approach of the night like the shadow of death; he knowes not but the devilsLuke 12.Luke 12 may have received a commission this night shall they … away thy soul … thee, and drag it down to hell.

While the sinner is … fearing the evil that is deserved, 3behold the feet of the officer now approaching to see present excution …, and therefore the Lord in the third place puts a commission into the hand of Conscience, really to attach and arrest the soul of a sinner, to fasten all those curses upon the soul, and to force it to feel the vennome of those punishments, which were formerly threatned and feared. That as it was said to Belshazzar when he was quassing in his cups, and bowls of the Sanctuary, and the hand writing came out against him: the appearance of it affrighted him with the expectation of some direful evil; but the present execution of it ushered in ruin upon him and his Kingdom. Dan. 5. 28. 30. So the Prophet, to thee be it spoken, thou art weighed in the ballance and found too light, thy Kingdom is departed from thee. So Conscience as Gods officer comes to see … execution done, and therefore comes authorised as a serjeant to arrest, as a witness to accuse, as a judg to condemn; tells the soul thou art weighed in the scales of the Sanctuary, and … too light, thy doom is past, thy destiny is determined thy sentence set down, and thy salvation is departed from thee, that which thou didst fear is now befallen thee, and thou must feel it to thy wo, Psal. 140. 11. wickedness hunts the wicked man, but it overtakes them also If Conscience condemnes God is greater than our Conscience and he condemnes much more. His iniquities lay hold upon him that he is not able to look up. Psal. p. 36740. 14. thou hast feared the punishment of sin before man, and hast not … to commit sin before God, and thus thou hast sealed up thy condemnation casting away the goodness of the Lord. If thou doest evil, sin lyes at the dore. Gen. 4.

Hence flowes in the fearful expression of the displeasure of the Almighty, the dreadful wrath of the Eternal, like the mighty waves of the Sea, overwhelm and sink the soul of the sinner in desperate discouragement.

There be 2 things in sin, 1 The … of it. 2 the punishment that comes from it, the stayn in it and the sting and tartness of it, cross to me, and cross to God; cross to my honor and shames me, cross to my quiet and peace and troubles me, cross to my safety and destroyes me; And this second, the sinner is firstly most sensible of; the plague of sin first stings and stabs the heart. Because nature seeks its own preservation, and self love carryes al men readily and easily to provide for their own safety; And here sorrow begins usually when the Lord by the Ministry of Conscience awakened, encamps about the sinner with al the curses of his righteous law broken; besigeth him with the armies of his indignation and his fierce wrath followes him at every turn. So that now … ever he is, which way so ever he turns himself his sins and plagues compass him about, on every side; If he look to heaven, he sees a just God there ready to destroy him, before him are his sins ready to accuse him, within him nothing but guilt to condemn him, below him hell opening her mouth prepared to receive him, and the Devils at … to torment his wretched … as soon as it … depart out of his body. And … behold … pale …, those weak hands, and feeble knees that the poor creature becomes not worth the ground he goes on a … … himself and weary of his life; The Lord dishes out … sins and plagues to him on the table where he …, writes them upon the tester of the bed … he p. 368lyes his pressures and miseries become unsupportable and unsufferable: and were it not that God sustaines with one hand as he beats him with the other; A wounded Prov. 18. 14.Prov 18:14Conscience no man can bear; Hence it is in such horror men betake themselves to the pit, to the knife, to the halter, rather choose not to be, then to be so miserable; In these perplexities the sinner as a man under his burden would shift shoulder, try al conclusions, turn every stone, wind every way, if any way he could get ease or relief. And if the counsel of carnal friends can lessen the trouble, company allay it, false reasonings of his own vain mind abate it, time and continuance wear out the terror, his confessions and reformations put in bayl upon his Conscience, and quiet it, or some false mistakes of pardon, and mercy heal the wound, (he walks in a wily way how to serve sin and yet God too, how to keep in with the truth upon some fayr tearms and yet attend his own ends) the man is where he was, returnes to his ould sinful distempers, and the latter Math. 12. 45.Matt 12:45end proves worse than the beginning, he dyes in the birth. Thus millions of men perish, go within the view of Canaan, and never possess it, cast away in the very haven, within the sight of land, and never arrive.

But he whom God loves he wil not leave here; & though 4his hand be upon the sore, and his eye upon the sting and terror, the plagues and judgments that are daily before his eye, the Lord wil force him to look further, to see and feel something more, and worse than ever yet he found, before he have done with him; therefore he makes the wound deeper, rests not before he be at the root of the heart quite through, comes to the very quick and sees the bottom; Hence the Lord leads the soul from the terror and sting of sin, to view the stayn and filth of it, which was more deer to the soul than its own …, and yet worse to the soul than al the misery and vexation that could befal it. Open here a little; There p. 369is something in the wil above the natural or physical being of it, look at its being meerly as it ariseth from the power of those natural principles, whereof its made; there is something above these and so better then these, unto which theseare subject and subordinate; namely those divine principles of grace which were at the first imprinted upon it, and by which those natural abilities should be carried beyond their physical being to close with God and so attayn an eternal, and in that … a supernatural happiness, I say in that sence supernatural though it was Naturae debitum, because Adam should not, nay could not please God, put forth such a divine act out of the faculties of understanding and wil for, then the … in Hel now might please him, for their natural faculties stil remain but it was as they were acted and carryed by the image of God, wisdom, holiness and righteousness that were bestowed upon them. So that these principles of grace in the wil, were above the wil, and better than the natural being of it.

Since the fal of Adam original corruption is come into the place and room of that original righteousness, and by a Soveraignty of power takes possession of the heart and wil so (and so the whol man) rules it, carryes it, captivates it, in subjection and subordination to it self So that to a son of Adam now in the state of sin, corruption exerciseth a soveraign power and command over the wil, and is better to the sinner than his natural being, corrupt self is of more power, and more neer and intimate to the soul then natural self; Hence the souldier wil rather loose his life than take the lye, he wil fight for it, and dye for it, his honor is nearer to his heart than his being; thus the Ambitious among the heathen; the desire of vain glory amongst the Jesuites that they may be-canonized for Saints, makes them put their necks into the halter; And a corrupt heart wil loose Christ, and ordinances and safety and life and al rather than not satisfy his own humer. So Saul, kill me that p. 370it may not be sayd the uncircumcised Slew me after he1 Sam. 31. 4.1 Sam 31:4 had been dead he would never have felt the disgrace, but his ambitious humor was more dear than his blood.

When the blow reacheth hither then ye are come to the root of the heart, and the heart is pierced quite through when the heart and the power of corruption are parted. Therefore when the Lord intends to make through work with a poor wretch whom he hath upon the rack, in his horror and perplexities there he holds him; he shal not go or get from hence before he go further and forceth the sinner to further consideration; If it be so why am I thus, thou lookest upon hel and the torments thereof as loathsom and fearsul, what are thy sins then that deserve these, thou viewest thy plagues which are diresul and unsufferable, what are thy sins then that procure these, Sayes the Lord. Psal. 107. 17. Foolish men are plagued because of their transgressions. Psal. 38. 8. there is no quietness in my bones by reason of my sin, Jer. 4. 18. thy sins and iniquities have brought these, therefore thy wickedness is bitter, because it reacheth unto the heart Hither the Lord brings and here keeps the soul; my sins are before me. Psal. 51. 3. he leaves the thoughts of his punishment and turns his eye to the power of his distemper, and the distance that they work between God and his soul. Here Satan bestirs him that he may darken the way of the distressed sinner and deceive him by some wily fetch; And therefore he deviseth how he may shift shoulder, and change his habitation, and not be thrust wholly out, And therefore he is wel content to gratify the sinner here, that he should look upon some sin that is attended with shame, and loathsom to the light of nature to the dictates of the common principles of natural conscience, and there he wil suffer him to lay on load and to follow it with great fierceness and indignation that so when the heart is come to a calm, and the storm is over he may take aside with some lesser evils that he may but color them over with the pretence of religion p. 371thus many men have changed their special corruptions, not truly parted with them, and for the while have fallen short of this through sorrow. The Devil doth with sin as great men with their houses, they have their winter houses and their summer houses, and they remain there where they have most conveniency and suitableness; so when a mans speicial sin of his constitution hath fallen, and the parties have conceived the day is theirs, their hearts have been truly broken; when the Devil onelyonly alters his habitation, they grow to be disobedient servants and sharp wives and that under pretence of Religion; the servant must go pray when he should go to work, his Master is a carnal man: the wise froward and perverse, her husband wants the power of Religion, why should she look at him? and this upon mine own knowledg, hath discovered the … and hath been a means to many to begin again, and to make through work, therefore the Lord follows the soul afresh, that it must feel sin as sin and therefore every sin and else none truly. Cursed is every one that continues not in al things written in the law. Gal. 3. 10. there must not be great breaches, but no breaches, not gross sins but no sin, that God wil bear or we should keep; knowest thou not sayes Saul to Jonathan that as long as the son of Jsha remaines alive, thou wilt never be established. 1 Sam. 20. 31. So Conscience to the soul that as long as the league & life of any of these distempers concontinu, doest thou not know, thou wilt never, thou canst never be established in the kingdom of grace; Nay the sinner beginns now to reason with himself why was I born, why came I into the world? wherein consists my good or what is my hapiness? is it not to please God, to be one with him, and happy in so being; should I carry this proud stubborn, rebellious heart to heaven with me, heaven would be a hell to me, and I a devil in it. Now however this work be thus punctually in the several parts of it discovered, and however it is even in p. 372special distances many times thus also enstamped upon that soul. Yet the Lord doth bind himself to leave such plain tracks and footsteps of proceedings with a poor … at al times, and therefore we must not limit the holy one of Israel to be at our allowance and liking, or confine him to the compass of our conceits and desires. Therefore it pleaseth the Lord to dispense himself in a divers manner in dealing with divers sinners, and those we shal ad in a word.

Somtimes then in the second place, the Lord suddenly 2sets on the blow, and leaves mighty and prevailing impressions at the very present, speedily and unexpectedly goes through stich with the work, pierceth the soul through at one thrust. Sometimes at one sermon, may be in the handling of one point, nay some one sentence, or some special truth, the Lord is pleased to arme it and discharge it, with mighty power and uncontroulable evidence, that it astonisheth and shivereth the heart of the sinner al in pieces; As it is in the … of a piece it may be one scattred shot or splinter hitts and kils when al the rest miss; so with the splinter of a truth when directed aright, God lets in so much of the amazing beauty of his own holiness and purity, the dreadfulness of his displeasure, and the infinite crossness in himself to the least corruption, and consequently that abhorred … in the nature of sin even the smallest, that look as it is with terrible thunder and lightning, it melts al before it, and that most where there is opposition against it even the league that is between the heart and the lust, soakes into the very root of the soul; and hence under such a sudden thunderclap, such mauling blowes now and then, the sinner dyes and faints away under it in the very place where he sits, sometimes roars out as one that hath received his deaths wound in his bosom, and that he hath heard his doom, and was delivered up into the hands of the Devil ready to drop into the dungeon, and to be carried post to the bottomless pit; p. 373and such soul sinking and confounding terrors, which takes off a serious and iudicious consideration of the … assaulting, they vanish away for the most part and come to little or nothing when the tartness of the horrot is once allayed; But sometimes lastly the sinner takes in the truth kindly and contains himself, hath his load as much as his heart can bear, for the while as much as … and soul can hold together, goes away, droops and buckles under his burden, steps into a solitary place and hangs the wing as a foul that is shot; the saving truth thus set on lyes gnawing and eating at the heart blood of a sinner, (as aqua-fortis doth in iron) leaves it not until it eat asunder the league betwixt the lust and the heart. Thus this lively truth in the soul like strong physick in the bowels walks up and down the world with a man, is working night and day, he cannot avoyd the evidence and light of it, he cannot lessen nor hinder the operation of it. Now he questions with this or that Christian, then resolves to speak to such a Minister and to reveal his whol condition and to crave his counsel; he is often going and turns back again, almost at the dore and yet goes away again, sometimes enters into speech and his heart misgives him, he pretends another … and departs again; Al this while the soul bleeds inwardly, the truth is stirring, and the physick working, til at last it over-bids the darling distemper, then the coast is clear, the heart growes to more liberty and his speech more free; Thus Paul expresseth Gods manner of proceeding with the Corinthian Convert, 1 Cor. 14. 29. when the word is dispensed in plainness there comes in one unlearned and unbeleeving, he is convinced of al and judged of al, i. e. the evidence of the word convinceth him and judgeth him & his … and it followes the secrets of his heart are made manifest, those retired and privy haunts of sin in the soul are discovered, so he wil fal down and say God is in you of a truth, He saw more of God, and his Majesty and purity, more of his own sin p. 374and the filthy puddle of his own distempers; it was the Wisdom of God to discover those hid things of darkness, and brought the loathsomness of them to light; it was the Holiness … God that shews the hainous and hellish Poyson thereof; it was the power of God that did conquer the prevailing Dominion of these distempers unto which the heart was subject. And this was the Lords dealing with Paul, he assaults the main hold and strength of his rebellion, and drives him at the first dash as it were to look where the loathsomness of his evil lay. Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me? I am Jesus: thou persecutest that Jesus that came to redeem thee, opposest that Grace that would sanctifie and bring thee to Glory, tramplest upon that blood that would free thee from the guilt and curse which thou hast brought upon thy self; thus lastly it was with Job in that new Conversion (as I may say) that the Lord wrought in him, Job, 42. 4, 5. I have oft heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes see thee, I abhor my self in dust and ashes; when God lets in a sight of himself, and a sight of …, from thence the soul begins not to abhor his plagues and punishments which the other feels or fears, he abhors not Hell and the torments thereof, but abhors himself, the pollutions, and impurity of his own soul, which are worse than al the everlasting burnings of the bottomless pit; and hence is that Phrase, Ezek. 36. 32. They shall loath themselves, not their miseries, though they were more than they could bear; not their Judgments, though heavier than they could endure, but they loath their own souls, the hellish exorbitations, swervings and departings of heart from God, that they had held any connivence or correspondence with their lusts.

Lastly, Gods manner of …, is sweet and 3secret, and works insensibly … spirits of such who do receive it, when and … … … to … infinite Wisdom, whose … … … … …. Rom. 11. 33.

p. 375He can and doth somtimes, … the soul in the 1…, as it's commonly conceived he did John Baptist, Luke. 1. 44.

Many times he begins to tamper and trade with the 2spirits of his, when they are yong and tender, and their yeers few, drops in some grain of the immortal Seed of the Word, which takes root by the powerful operation of the Spirit, and grows up with them as they grow in yeers, 2 Chron. 34. 3. While Josiah was yet yong, … eight yeers old he began to seek after the God of his Fathers, and declined not to the right hand, or to the left; So the Lord seemed to deal with Joseph, and to reveal himself to him, and to Samuel very yong, at about fourteen yeers.

Somtimes God keeps his by the strokes of his common 3Graces, restraining from scandalous evils, and constraining by means appointed and blessed to that end, the holy …, the counsels and examples of Godly Parents, the society of such who are …, the power of the Ordinances under which they are bred and brought up, toling and tilling of their … and affections by many moral perswasions, to the love and liking of the excellency of a holy course, which he knows how to present, and by which to … out the exercise of all those moral abilities they are endued withal, and at the last insensibly, and yet truly … them off from the root of old Adam, and implants into the … Vine Christ Jesus; Ladia and Zachaeus are Presidents of Gods proceeding in this case; whence it is that many a godly man and true Convert, never knew the time of his Conversion, only he knows he was blind, and God hath brought him to see the wonders of his way and Truth.

Only a Three-fold Caution is … to be attended.

Though the manner of Gods dealing be divers, and 1degrees of this work of Contrition differ in most, … p. 360the Nature and substance of the work is really and truly wrought in all that are effectually called out of the world, themselves, and sins to the Lord Jesus; as shall after appear when we come to give in the Evidences of the Point in hand; only now it shal suffice to propound these two places, …. 3. 1. Behold I will send my Messenger, and he shal prepare the way … me, and the Lord whom ye … shall suddenly come into his Temple; and this preparation his Harbenger John Baptist discovers, Luke, 3. 5. Every mountain shal be brought low, and the valleyes filled, crooked things made straight, and rough things plain, and then all … shal see the salvation of the Lord. And the evidence … this appears in the question they made, What shal we do? &c. It's Gods way of entertainment which himself prescribes, Rev. 3. 2. Behold I stand at thee door and knock; if any man will open the door, I and my Father will come in to him, and sup with him. Unless the door be opened, there is no expectation of Christs coming, and supping: now all men are shut up under unbelief, and so the power of their sins; the opening of the heart, is the loosening of the soul from the league of these lusts, which is done by Contrition; true, a man may pick the lock, or break the lock, open the door and lift up the latch gently, or else unhinge it with violence, and noise, that al the house, and al the town may hear, but it's opened both waies.

Though a man truly called, happily cannot tell the 2time of his Conversion, yet every one should, and if gracious, he can give such proper and special evidence, such never failing and infallible fruits of this work, that they may undoubtedly discover to others, and ascertain to his own soul, that the stroke is struck indeed, that he hath been called out of the world, and from darkness to his marvelous light, that the Lord hath broken his heart kindly, or else he cannot … … he wil ever bind him up with his saving and healing compassions.

p. 377It's a safe way to view over these primitive and first impressions of the Lord upon the soul, and a principle of Grace received to renew and act over dayly these first Editions, and Spiritual Dispositions imprinted upon the heart: they were first … upon us but after Grace received, they may & should be … by us, we should act them over again: This is the Advice and Direction which our Savior so seasonably and so sadly leaves upon record upon the Conscience of his Disciples: When Peter was … of his fall and denyal of his Master,Math. 18. 3.Matt 18:3 he also leaves this Receipt with him, … his recovery after the wound taken, When thou art converted, strengthen thy Brethren, Luke, 22, 32. Peter was converted … before, and called effectually unto Christ, and by faith made one with him; and this faith he did not, nay could not lose, for Christ prayed his faith should not fail: but in our fals, there is a weakening and blemishing of this work of Conversion, and an aversion in some measure left upon the soul, therefore we should labor a new Conversion, i. e. renew and act over the work of Conversion, be broken hearted, humbled, drawn to Christ afresh; and as necessary as the renewal of the act of faith, is the repairing and renewing of these acts also, for there is no going to Christ, if we go not out of sin and self. Hence again our Savior, when he would take off, and reform that ambitious humor which had vented it self among the Disciples, when each man strove to be highest, one at the right hand, another at the left, the rest they disdained this … pang; our Savior applies this Receipt to … this corruption, …. 18. 2. 3. Jesus called a little Child, and set him: in the midst of them, and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, unless ye be converted, and become as little Children, ye shal not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: The Disciples were called, and so converted, truly, savingly humbled, and yet they must renew and act over again these first impressions of the powerful operations of the p. 378Spirit of God, be broken hearted, loosened from thy lusts as at the sirst, be abased and brought to nothing in thine own sence and apprehension as at the first, be drawn to Christ as at the first; and there is more reason and greater necessity of this, than men are readily aware of. For,

A wound here is never recovered in any following work 1upon the soul, unless we go back, and begin again; miss here, and we miss all, spoil all our proceedings in progress of the Work of Grace: He that enters not at the right gate, the faster he goes, the further out of his way: Never loosened and divorced from the league with some darling lust, thou canst not be Espoused to Christ, therefore not called, therefore not justified, … sanctified, nor glorified; thy reformations are false, thy peace counterfeit, and al thy comforts thou conceit'st thou hast, they are meer forgeries and delusions; thou art fast in the Devils clutches as long as thou hast thy sins, he hath thee at command. The Mettal that is not melted, there is no making, polishing, perfecting any Vessel for any use with it.

Cleer this, cleer all, i. e. we make way for the Evidences 2that appertain to our comfort and spiritual condition in our whol course: mark al the recoylings of our Consciences, the misgiving of our hearts, the staggering and doubting of the Truth of Gods Work, or the assurance of Gods Love, they turn still upon this hinge, here they fortifie; Oh the lusts I brought with me from my Cradle, the old haunt of heart, the old sin, therefore I am the old man stil. Here the main knot, and the great Question remains still.

The looking over, and skilful discerning of these first 3impressions left upon us, may, nay in truth will stand by us, and relieve us in the darkest daies of our greatest distresses; & we may find some foot-hold here, when al the rest seem to be gone from us, to our own sence & apprehension. It's Gods usual way many times to put his Servant p. 379to it, as he tried Abraham, to make them sacrifice their Isaacs, even to burn the … and pledges he hath given them for the … of the Covenant, and established their hearts therein. For Isaac was all the pledg that the Lord had given, That in his Seed, all the Nations of the Earth should be blesfed: now he commands him to cast his Evidence into the fire, brings him to his beginnings, Gen. 22. 1, 2. So the Lord doth often with his: Enlargements fail, the heart is dead, their Graces bed-rid, their peace disturbed, their assurance gone; so that they find nothing, feel nothing in their own sence and apprehension, all is in the ashes; God begins with them upon the bare board, as we say, they sit down with a heart yielding and melting, a heart burdened with sin, though it cannot disburden it self, a heart loosened from his lusts, willing that God should remove them, though he cannot subdue them.

The Second thing to be opened is,The Second thing to be opened.

How God sets on this Sorrow, and makes the soul to feel sin its greatest evil, when Naturally it finds greatest content in it.

OR,

How it's possible that the soul … wholly possessed with sin, can be made to feel the weight of sin as to be severed from it, where there is no room for a habit in the subject, there can be no work of a habit; for habits of Grace and sin work so far as they be in their subject, and have … from the subjects in which they be: Corruption must be in the heart, before it carry and command the heart; Grace must be in the soul, before it can act and quicken the soul to its work. Now how the soul should come to feel, and be loosened from it's corruption, when there is nothing in it but corruption, p. 380when God comes to work upon it, how doth God bring this about?

If by Sorrow a man be … from sin, then it must have this … before it be loosened, because it is an effect of it. If so, then it must have a gracious frame, and be possessed with the presence of Grace, when it's wholly possessed with sin, which cannot be.

I Answer: In these Secrets and depths of Gods SpiritualAnsw. Dispensations with the souls of men, we must learn to be wise to sobriety, and adore the waies of God which are too wonderful for us; and if any paths of his Providence in an ordinary course are beyond our ken, and past finding out, I suppose his complyings with the consciences and hearts of men in their Conversion, are some of the chief. It's of our Natural Birth David speaks, Psal. 139. I am fearfully and wonderfully made, much more may it be said of our new birth: The wise man, Eccles. 11. 5. saies, … thou knowest not the way of the Spirit, … … … … do grow in the womb of her that is with Child, so thou knowest not the … of God, nor of his Spirit, how he fashions the frame of the mind and heart of him he wil bring home to himself; curious we should not be, careless we must not be. I shal leave therefore some such … Expressions, so far as my light goes, and occasion the judicious to consider further, for the further cleering of Gods Work.

That which I shal say here for the Answer and Explication of the Second thing, I shal east into … conclusions, … I conceive that is … easiest and openest way to help the weak.

In a right sence it … be truly said, that sin is truly Conclus.cross and opposite to the Nature of the soul, and the greatest evil that doth or can …: I say, opposite 1to the Nature of the foul … a right …; Look at the soul in respect of the end for which it was created, and that impression which is … and left upon it unto p. 381this day, whereby it's restlesly carried in the search, and for the procurement of that good for which it was made, though it … the right … of what it is, and falls short in the … of it. The soul was made for … end, and good, and therefore for a better than it self, therfore for God, therfore to enjoy union with him, and communion with those blessed excellencies of his, so far as they are communicable, and it were capable; this impression remains still upon the soul, though the work thereof is wholly prejudiced, and it self disappointed wholly of that good which would satisfie the desires thereof, and it misseth. … being possessed with sin, the Judgment is blinded and deluded that it mistakes utterly, and perceives not this good, and so pursues other things in the room of it, yet restless and unsatisfied in what it-hath, and attains, but it hath not that for which it was made; thus Paul speaks of the Romans, Rom. 2. 14. Being without the Law, they shew the work of the Law written in their hearts, their Conscience excusing or accusing; this ever appears in the heart corrupt, I was for a …; the ambitious man he seeks his …, … man the World, … gots the booty, and yet is not … in that which he gets; I … … …, and … which should …, and yet … doth not satisfie. And … they know no … … these, and are not satisfied with these, therefore they … … carried after more of these vain …, … Honor, more Wealth, more …; the … blinded … the … … and … with them, … … … by what light, … is carried to no other by the power and principles it hath. This is the reason the Apostle Peter gives, why carnal hearts … see spiritual …, 2 Pet. 1. 9. Because they are blind; and cannot see … …. … … … things are far …, and blind men … … reach …, … they … the light, help, and … … the …, and the … … ….

p. 382Hence the reason follows.

That which crosseth the end and good of the soul for which it was made; that is so far contrary to the nature of the soul and the greatest evil that can befal it.

But sin as such, and such, and that onelyonly crosseth the end and greatest good of the soul.

If sin in the venome and pollution of it were discovered, Conclus.and brought home effectually to the nature of the 2soul, it might be made sensible thereof and deeply affected and burdened therewith; this followes undeniably from the former. That which carryes the crossness of the greatest evil to the nature of the soul were it but so seen did it but so act upon the soul, it would affect it with the greatest grief and burden; for sorrow in al the proportions of it issues from these two grounds. A crossness of an evil truly apprehended by the judgment: & the venome acting really upon us; where these are in a greater or lesser measure; there sorrow is greater or less; upon this ground the Apostle evidenceth the grief and burden of the creature Rom. 8. 22. For we know that the whol creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and that because it was made subject to vanity, and this is their vanity because their end is crossed, and so their good is hindred: for wheras it is their desire to serve such as may serve God, when they serve the humors, and corruptions of carnal men, they become vain and miss their end, and so their good, and this is, as it were a grief to them. Were the venome of sin but discovered and acted upon the nature of the soul it could not but groan under the evil and vanity thereof as that which wholy deprives it of its end and good.

While the soul stands fully under the power of corruptions Conclus.possessed with it and acted by it, it's not possible 3it should apprebend the evil of sin, nor the nature of the soul tast the venome thereof. Sin carryes no crossness of opposition of evil to it self, and therefore … disquiet to it self, … so no separation from it self. But sin p. 383wholly possessing and wholly acting the soul it makes the mind and heart apprehend, not according to the nature of the soul and impression left upon it when created but according to the distemper by which it is possessed, and carried. So did they to Samuel, 1 Sam. 8. 19. they said, nay but we wil have a King Jer. 18. 12. So they to Jeremiah; we wil walk every one in the imagination of his own heart. Give the sick man the most pleasant potion though the Physitian profess it, and give reasons, and others by experience find it so, he no sooner tasts it but he puts it away, as that which is exceeding bitter, because his tast is corrupted, and tongue furred with the foulness of his stomack he rellisheth the drink not according to what they say and what it is, or what the natural constitution of the palate would perswade, but what his distemper which now possesseth and disordreth his tast, tel him. So it was with Judas, though he was told before, that it were better he had never been born, that would not do the deed, his covetous heart found another rellish, nay when he flung away his money out of vexation, yet he rellished hismurther stil, and therefore hanged himself. And this is the reason why they who sin against the holy Ghost even against the evidence of reason, the corruption of their heart rellisheth other than reason tells.