The Application of Redemption, Book 10 (1 of 13)

The Application of Redemption · Book 10 (1 of 13)

p. 15The Tenth Book.

ACTS, 2. 37.

And when they heard this, they were pricked in their Hearts, and said unto them, Men and Brethren, what shall we do?

THere be two Things especially observable in that disposition of Heart, which the Lord requires and works in those he will draw to Christ, …, and Humiliation. The necessity of both these, we declared the last day, as that they were not only to be looked at for complement and conveniency, but such as are of necessity required, that the heart may be fitted for the impression of Faith, and by it for the entertainment of the Lord Christ; for if the sinner be so settled in secure Contentment of his own condition as that he thinks he need not change; or if he must, he is so confident of his own ability, that he can change himself, and out of himself, and out of his own strength relieve himself, he wil never go out to another for succor and supply. Contrition loosens a man from his sin, makes him see an absolute necessity to be another man, or else he is a damned man. Humiliation loosens a man from himself, makes him see an utter insufficiency in what he hath or doth, for to procure the least spiritual relief unto his soul; now the Coast is cleer, that Faith may come to us, and we by that be enabled to come to Christ.

p. 16We are now to pursue these two according to the order propounded. And first of the former, the Sum of which Work may thus be described:

Contrition is that Preparative Disposition of Heart, when by the sight of sin, and the punishment due to the same, the soul is brought to sound sorrow for it, and so brought to detest it, and to sequester it self from it.

The Description stands upon two Passages mainly.

I. The Causes which bring in this Contrition.

1. Sight of Sin.

2. Sorrow for Sin.

II. The Effects which nextly discover this, and whereby it comes to be known.

1. Detestation of Sin.

2. Sequestration from sin.

And here I desire that still may be remembred which I mentioned and discovered before, That all these are things rather wrought upon us by the impression and motion of the Spirit, than performed by any inward principle, and habitual power of Grace received, and this the manner of the expressions in the words of the description plainly intimates; the soul brought to see his sins, brought to forrow for them, brought to detest them, and sequester it self from them: For the sinner would not look upon the loathsomness of his soul, and the filth of his sinful distempers, but the Lord laies it before him, and holds his apprehension to it, follows him with the remembrance of it, and forceth his thoughts to give attendance thereunto. Psal. 51. 3. My sin is ever before me; which way soever he turns his thoughts, his sins stared him in the face, and were full in his view; they dwelt with him, and were dayly in his presence, that where ever he was, they were, he could not look off from them, look which way he would.

p. 172. The sinner would shake off the sorrow that now seizeth upon him, and seems to overbear him like a mighty stream, he labors to beat back the blow, and to make an escape from under the stroke of the Truth that stabs and wounds his heart, with the direful expression of Gods displeasure, and dreadfulness of the evil that doth attend him; but he can neither avoid it, nor remove it, neither keep himself from the wound, nor cure it, Psal. 40. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, that I cannot look up: a similitude taken from the Prey that flies from the Pursuer, though he would have fled from the terrors of the Almighty, wrested and rescued himself from under the attachment, yet they overtake him, and take such hold of him that he cannot escape: Psal. 38. 2. Thine Arrows stick fast in me, and thine hand presseth me sore; he would have plucked out the Arrows of Gods indignation, but his skil and strength failed him, he could not be eased, they could not be removed from him: until at length, the soul feeling the wrath of the Almighty, and seeing no way to avoid an everlasting separation from the Lord, if yet his sins be entertained by him, being thus pressed by the power of that undeniable Truth, which laies open the loathsomness of his sin, and makes him feel the bitterness thereof, he is carried with detestation against it, and driven to make a sequestration from it. Of the fuller meaning of both these, when we shal come to the particular scanning of them, in their proper place.

For the ground of my following discourse I have taken the words of the Text, in which you have the grounds and hints of all the former Truths, not implyed only by way of collection, but expresly … down, and professedly aimed at as evidently discovering the manner of Gods dealing herein.

The knowledg of their sins set down with the Causesr. thereof, when they heard these things. Hearing] not that every hearing, or bare hearing would serve the …, p. 18for it's beyond question, that thousands do, and many there did hear those savory Truths seasonably dispensed by Peter, which were never either throughly convinced, nor had their hearts in any manner affected therewith; the meaning therefore must needs be this, When by their hearing they rightly discerned, and cleerly conceived those things, i. e. the nature of those sins, which Peter had discovered and charged so punctually upon them; Let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. When they so heard that they yielded and assented fully to that which was … peremptorily … by the Apostle, then they were pricked to the heart.

We have then here the fight and knowledg of their sin, together with the Causes by which they came to attain it, and those were here intimated in the words.

Their Conviction, in that they stood here indited and 1accused by Peter, and condemned in their own Consciences that they were the guilty persons, guilty of no less than the blood of the Lord Jesus the Son of God, and Savior of the World, who is now advanced at Gods right hand as Lord and King, and shall come in flaming fire as a Judg to condemn them for their bloody sins; who came in the flesh as a Redeemer to save them from their sins: But they rejected him and their own mercy and safety; and this saies the Apostle admits no opposition, no disputation at all, Let the House of Israel know assuredly, foreign, It's a Truth that stands as Mount Zion, that cannot be stirred: it is beyond all cavelling, questioning, doubting, … all probability or … to be other, a Truth not subject to any slipping or uncertainty; so the word signifies.

The particular application that the Apostle here useth 2of their special sins, he doth not hover in generals, shoot at rovers, but lets fly point blank in the faces of them; This Jesus whom ye have crucified. He names p. 19not any other, blames not any other now, saies not … was a wretch that betraied Christ, the Soldiers cruel and injurious that took him and bound him; Pilate … fearful and unjust that condemned him, he will not now speak to men absent; but you are they that crucified him, you that cried, let his … … … us, you shall have blood enough, plagues enough: this particular application sets hard, … deep, they heard these their sins thus ripped up, and themselves arrested for them.

There is a serious … and attention here also 3implyed. The word is in the Participle Hearing, noting a continued act; Hearing, bearing these sadly attending and pondering of them in their thoughts, they came then to be pierced. Thus we have the sight of their sins here laid open to us, together with the Causes thereof.

The second thing in this contrition, is sound and through 2sorrow, and that is expressed in the next Phrase, they were pierced not in their eyes only, which made them weep, but in their hearts, which made them bleed inwardly with Godly sorrow.

Their detestation and sequestration appears in the last 3words, Men and Brethren, what shall we do? we will do any thing, suffer any thing, command what you wil, enjoyn what you please, be it never so hard, we will endeavor it; never so cross to our hearts or comforts, we will bear it; better be any thing than be thus …, let's be in any condition, that once we might be freed from this sinful and accursed condition, in which we be.

We have taken liberty to lay out our Work with as much plainness and openness of order as we may; because we shall have occasion to mind you of the particulars in our future proceeding, and how the several … serve each others turn, in their place and order.

Before we come to the Particulars, one Point … in the very entrance, which will be very serviceable to p. 20make way for all the Truths following, and therefore we shall take in that at this time, that it may be as an. Harbenger to make room for all the rest. And it ariseth from a right consideration of the parties to whom … here speaks, and with whom his word so prevailed, and took place. … … 36. verse he tels them, that same … whom ye have crucisied. They were therefore such as had rejected, blasphemed, … the Lord of Glory; those who in a bloody manner … away the life of …, who came to take away their sins. Is it possible, is it credible, that ever mercy should be extended unto such? that ever good should be wrought in such? Yes, Lo here, When they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts. They whose hands were imbrewed in the blood of Jesus, their hearts are now … with Godly sorrow, and so made fit to receive Grace and Mercy.

Hence the Doctrine is,

Stubborn and bloody sinners; may be made brokenhearted Doct.sinners: Bloody, hellish, abominable … may yet obtain broken hearts; worse than these could hardly be conceived or imagined, and yet God makes work of these knotty way ward Spirits; It was said of him that betrayed Christ, it had been good for him that be had never been born. What shall we say of them that murdered our Savior? they are in the highest rank of the most wicked men that ever were born, yet even such as …, who also opposed the Word and Gospel of Grace, the Disciples and Apostles, the Preachers and Publishers of Grace, the Author and God of Grace; yet such as these have now their hearts broken, and in some measure prepared to be partakers thereof.

The Apostle speaks of the Gentiles, Rom. 1. 29. That they were full of all unrighteousness; there can hardly be added any thing to the largeness of the expression: No sin worse for the kind, more for the number, greater for the measure, for they had all unrighteousness, all p. 21the kinds of evil, and all degrees in the largest extent they were full, and yet of such the Apostle professeth 1 Cor. 6. 9. when he had mentioned a heap of most loathsom and hideous abominations; Know ye not that no unrighteous person shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven? Be not deceived, neither Fornicators, nor Idolaters, nor Adulterers, nor Effeminate, self-Polluters, Extortioners, Covetous persons, shall ever enter into the Kingdom of God: then verse 11. And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. Some such as these were savingly brought home to God. Yea, when corruption becomes like an old cankered sore of long continuance, and the sinner incorrigible under all the choycest means that have been used, yet then the Lord works the Cure, Isay, 57. 18. I was angry with him for his evil lustings, and he went on in the frowardness of his own heart, ther is no help if the Disease grow worse for the dressing, the Prophet adds, I have seen his waies, I will heal him, and lead him, and restore comforts to him, and to those that mourn with him; as if he should say, Ah poor Creature, he cannot see himself nor me, yet I see him, and his way, he wounds himself, but I will heal him; he deludes himself, but I wil heal him; sink he must in his own sorrow, but I will succor him, and supply to him, Isay, 48. 4. I know thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an Iron sinew, and thy brow is Brass; and yet Verse 17. I am the Lord thy Redeemer that teach thee to profit, and leadest thee by the way thou shouldest go. The Lord bows an Iron sinew, and makes it bendable unto his will: The Lord makes snowy Saints of scarlet sinners ; scarlet we know is twice dyed in the Wool, and in the Web and Cloth, and therefore it is beyond all the skil and art of man to alter it. Yet though our Sins be such, bred in our Natures, committed in our Lives, and therefore beyond our reach …, and the power of p. 22all means and performances we can take up to remove them, yet the Lord hath undertaken it, and he will do it. Isa. 1. 18.

There is a Threefold Argument to settle this Truth.

Taken from the largeness of his Mercy, which is asReas. himself, Infinite; and therefore infinitely exceeds all 1our wants, and can supply them, all our weaknesses and infirmities, and therefore can forgive them, and remove them as he will, as though they had never been. Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return unto the Lord, for he will abundantly pardon, and to our God, for he will have mercy. But the discouraged sinner might happily reply, It is Mercy that I have abused, and his pardons he hath tendered, yet I in the time of my folly have trampled under my feet, and therefore with what face could I beg mercy, or upon what ground could I think ever to receive it? He answers, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your waies my waies; for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth, so are my thoughts than your thoughts: there is no proportion, no comparison, the Earth is not of a valuable consideration to the Heavens, but like a Centre in the Circumference, it is as though it was not. So here, the thoughts of Gods Mercy to pardon thee, is so far beyond the evil of thy waies, and thoughts to condemn, that they are as though they were not: nay, though thou couldest not beleeve it, or think it, yet the Lord could and would do it. This is one of his names, He keeps mercy for thousands, Exod. 34. 7. he hath it in store for thousands, and FORGIVES Iniquity, Transgression, and Sin, that is, all kinds and degrees of sin; and he must be thus, or else he were not God: For did our sins exceed his mercies, our weakness his strength; were Satan more malicious to tempt …, and powerful to overcome …, than he was gracious to defend, and Almighty p. 23to deliver, then were he not God if any thing were impossible to him, or had power above him; And hence the Lord delights to set forth the praise of his Mercy, and therefore when sin is most vile, and hainous, and hellish, then doth he express his compassion in a most glorious manner; it's the glory of the Physitian when the Disease is most deadly, then to do the Cure, Isa. 43. 24, 25. You have wearied … with your iniquities, and made me to serve with your sins, behold I, even I am be that blotteth out thy transgressions for my name sake; q. d. None but a God of endless Mercy could do it, therefore behold it, acknowledg it, I will blot out your iniquities, and remember your sins no more. This is the dispute of the Apostle, Rom. 5. last, having said that our Justification, Reconciliation, and Life comes by Grace, he ads, why then serves the Law? he answers, That sin might abound, that sin might be encreased, and become more and more hainous, because against an express Law, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more; the Lord gave (as it were) sin all advantages to do its utmost, and yet then Grace would abound so much the more in conquering and raigning over sin: And therefore it's certain, if all sins in the world (that against the Holy Ghost excepted) should meet in one Soul as Waters in the Sea, the Mercy of the Lord would abound much more, … those sins did abound.

The Merits of our Savior Christ are of an … satisfyingReas. vertue, and exceed the venom of the guilt of all 2sins, Rom, 5. 18. So Paul constantly disputes, If by the offence of one sin entred unto …, much more by the death and obedience of our Savior Righteousness entred unto eternal Life. And therefore it was that our Savior was pleased to receive our Nature even from the vilest of sinners, that he might shew himself a Savior from all sins, Matth. 1. Hence also his blood is called a fountain set open for Judah and Israel, to wash in, for sin, and for uncleanness, Zach. 13. 1. i. e. For p. 24all kind of sinners, and all sorts of sins. So that were thy heart a Sink, a Sodom, a Hell of wickedness, if the water of this Fountain might pass through and be applied, it would clense all. For our Savior … the infinite wrath of his Father, which was due for our sins, more he needed not, nay should not. nay could not have suffered, if he died for a thousand worlds of his Elect, if they had come from the Loyns of our first Parents. And I do beleeve there is vertue enough there to pardon the sin against the Holy Ghost if it were applied, but because it was committed against the work of the Spirit so directly, it is not just he should, and there is no other that will; for the Spirit works from the Father to the Son, and therefore last of all, so that they both have put forth their works before, and if therefore his be wronged, he will not apply, and there is none else that can; if the Work of the Father be wronged, Christ may intercede; if he be blasphemed, the Spirit may apply; but if he be despighted, there is none left that will or can.

Because the power of the … is such that he canReas. conquer and overcome all, which with his own Honor 3he can attempt to remove (as all, but that which is committed immediately against his Operation) he wil and doth: this is the ground of overcoming which the Apostle gives, 1 John, 4. 4. You have over come the world, because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. That also which Paul propounds for the clensing of the most loathsom puddles, 1 Cor. 6. 11. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified in the Name of Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God; for that Spirit is above all unclean Spirits, and therefore when he will come and work upon the soul, and clense it from all its corruptions, Sin, and the World, and the Devil, and all give way, they cannot hinder his work.

So that if the Mercy of God be infinite, able to forgive all; the Merits of Christ of infinite Vertue, able to satisfie for all; and the Spirit of infinite power to conquer p. 25all, then the worst of sinners may become broken hearted sinners, when the Lord will please to look upon them.

We have here matter of Admiration to see and standUse, amazed at the riches of Gods mercy and grace, which 1succors the most desperate sinners, relieves at the hardest streights, saves even from the nethermost Hell. It's the Collection the Prophet makes from the ground formerly mentioned, Mich. 7. 18. Who is a God like unto thee, that par donest iniquity, and passest by the transgression of the remnant of thine heritage, because mercy pleaseth him. He intends pardon to such who have nothing that can purchase it, do nothing that can deserve it; nay practice nothing which is in any manner pleasing, which might perswade him to it; yea when he is displeased with all things but his own mercy, and indeed can be pleased with nothing else, when they dishonor his Name, wrong his Justice, reject his Commands, and grieve his Spirit, every thing provoketh him, yet because his mercy pleaseth him, therefore he doth good against evil, therefore he overcomes all their evil in goodness. Yea, When sinners out of their impenitency, and malignant enmity of their Spirits, would destroy themselves and his mercy also, and cast away his compassions; his mercy is pleased to honor it self, and to save them, who is a God like this God? and what mercy like this mercy? He is not like the Idols of the Heathens, even themselvs being witnesses, for the followers & favorites of Idol Gods, who … upon them in time of prosperity, and devote themselves to their Worship, yet in the day of distresse, their Idols leave them in the lirch, and they are forced to look to the Lord for relief. Jer. 2. 27. In the time of their trouble they will say, Arise and save us. But the hope of Israel is not like them, when the Disease is most deadly, he then cures, the condition of the sinner most desperate, he then delivers, out of the jaws of Satan and botom of Hell, he then rescues.

p. 26Its the Prerogative he takes to himself. Thy destruction O Israel is of thy self, but in me is thy help. Hos. 13. 9. It's that praise which the Saints give as the proper due of the Lord, Psal. 103. Praise the Lord O my soul, who forgiveth all thy sins, and healeth all thy diseases; and Jonah leaves this Cure upon Record after he was landed by the …, Jonah 2. 6. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption O Lord my God; and verse 9. Salvation is of the Lord.

Here is a ground of Encouragement to sustain theUse hearts of such forlorn Creatures as are sunk down in desperate 2discouragement, as past help and hope; to provoke them yet to seek out for help and recovery, and to expect to receive it from the hand of the Lord. That Disease is not past Remedy which hath been cured: nor the Condition past hope that hath been recovered. As bad and vile as thou have been humbled and brokenhearted, and why not thou saved? Turn but thy thoughts aside, and attend the Text, and trust thine own eyes; behold, look here upon the most loathsom Hellhounds that … the Sun saw; or the Earth bore, listen and hear these hideous blasphemies, they belch out againstMatt. 27. 21.Matt 27:21 the Son of God, they cried, away with him, away with him; not him, but Barrabas; they chuse a Murderer rather than a Savior: behold their butcherly hands imbrued in the blood of Jesus, some goaring his side, others nailing his feet, piercing his pure and holy hands; and that they might be bloody Creatures indeed, they do not only shed his blood, but they keep his blood upon Record for their Condemnation, say they, His Blood be upon us, and upon our Seed. Thatv. 25. which they have done, and desired for their own ruine, is it not just but they should have it? dost not thou wonder that the Earth did not open and swallow them? that the Lord did not thunder from Heaven, and immediately destroy them? or that he sent not Legions of Devils to drag those wretches souls out of their Bodies p. 27to send them packing to the pit? And yet stay but a little, and see what God hath done, in the midst of all this hellish wickedness, look a little further; they who took away the life of Christ, he is now taking away their …, and guilt from them; they crucified him, and he is now crucifying their cursed corruptions; they pierced his tender body to put an end to his daies, he is now piercing their souls with Godly sorrow to put an end to their sins and …. Come hither therefore all you poor desolate undone Creatures, You whose sins are written Jer. 17. 1.Jer 17:1with a pen of Iron, and graven with the point of a Diamond; they stand upon record in every coast and corner; you stout-hearted rebellious sinners, the Seats of the Place where you sit, the Stones in the Street where you walk, the Walls of the Houses where you dwel, the Decks of the Ships where you have sailed, and the Shoars where you have Landed, and the Wildernesses where you have travelled, they can bear witness against you of the contempt of Gods Truth, the neglect of his Ordinances, unprofitableness under all, you slight all Counsels and Admonitions, you are amongst the number of them that are laden with lusts, ever learning, 2 Tim. 3. 7.2 Tim 3:7but never coming to the knowledg of the Truth. So that the floods of iniquity seem to compass and overwhelm, and might force you to sink down in irrevocable discouragement. I confess your condition is extreamly desolate and dangerous; yet it's possible, it may be; there is a peep-hole of hope it may be otherwise; and happy it is for you that there is yet a may be left, that God hath not sealed you up to condemnation, and turned the Tombstone upon you. Look up a little, thou art yet alive, Oh therefore lay about thee while yet opportunity and possibility lasteth. Say, Lord, these sinful wretches that opposed thy Grace, so long resisted thy Ordinances, thy Servants, yea, crucified the Lord of Life, and yet their hearts are now wounded for their sins; Oh break my heart also, humble my soul also.

p. 28Yea, but I cannot think it; truly I dare not, I cannot, I am ashamed to beg mercy who have so long abused it. Why mark what the Apostle saies, Ephes. 3. 20. God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all thou canst think or ask. All this while the presumptuous secure sinner, he stands by and hears all this, and he blesseth himself in his lazy course, contents himself with this possibility, and here takes up his stand, but neglects to do any thing that may attain it.

Oh is it not pitty to cast such Dainties before Dogs, and Pearls before Swine? Did I say, it was possible? True, I said so indeed; but it's pity thou … in the hearing of it, it's pity to speak such precious encouragements to such poysonful and malignant spirits, that will pervert all to their own ruine. The word is past, and cannot be recalled, but take these Preservatives or Corrosives rather to eat out that impudent corruption.

Know, though it be possible, yet it is not possible to 1thee, nor any power thou hast, nor any means thou canst use, Matth. 19. 36. With man this is impossible.

Nay, know, That so long as thou continuest in that 2careless, presumptuous, self-confidence, it is not possible that God should save thee, Heb. 3. 18. He hath said it, and sworn it, that they who rest in their carnal confidence, they shall never enter into his rest: and God will not, nay, cannot deny himself, and his Oath.

As it's possible God may, so it's possible he may not 3break thy heart, and it's a great suspicion he will not, if thou so impudently abuse his Mercy, Patience, and long suffering, wherby he calls thee to repentance, and would melt thy rebellious heart, Rom. 2. 4. Thou after the hardness of thy heart which cannot repent, treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath. It's a shrewd suspicion if thou strivest long against his Spirit, and slightest the season, he will cease to strive with thee and take away the season, Luke, 19. 42. If thou hadst p. 29known at least in this thy day the things belonging to thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes.

It will cost much labor and long time, before it be 4done in an ordinary way: and therefore if thou art wise for thy soul omit no time, be faithful to do what thou canst, and yet fearful, because it's in Gods hand to do what He will. Therefore seek seasonably, tremblingly, and uncessantly unto the Lord to do this work for thee. It's not the dipping, but rubbing and soaking an old stayn that will fetch it out; thou must soak and steep thy soul with godly sorrow. It's not Salving, but long tenting an old sore that will do the Cure. It may be it will make you go crying to your grave, and well if you get to heaven so at last.

This shews the … nature and the inconceivableUse haynousness of the sin of dispaire, which rusheth the 3sinner upon irrecoverable ruine, and would seem to overcome the mercy of God, wherein he overcomes himself, laies a mans present comforts and future hopes wast at once, beyond the reach of any relief or recovery, puts the soul beyond the sight and expectation of any succour and supply that might support it in the least measure. That look as when the Ship runs a ground, or splits upon a Rock neer shore, or within the sight of land, there is yet a possibility, that some help may come from the Coast to them, or they at least may be wafted to land, and so swim out; but when the Vessel is now carried into the main Ocean, that it should then founder in the waves, or be overwhelmed in the midst of the Sea, they are wholly without sight of land, or least hope of any relief, there is no eye to … them in their misery, and therefore none to pitty them, nor any hand to help them, or any means within the ken of Providence for them to conceive they might expect deliverance; So it is with this in Comparison of al other sins (the unpardoable one excepted) what ever other … surprise the soul, what ever the nature, or number, or haynousness p. 30be, hightened with all circumstances that may attend, as long as the soul can look out to the infinitness of Gods Mercy and free Grace, the invaluable efficacy and vertue of the Merits of the Lord Christ, his death and obedience, a man is within sight of Land, when the Ship is split he may swim to shore. Look unto me all ye ends of the Earth, and be ye saved, saies the Lord, Isa. 45. 22. there is yet hope in Israel touching this thing; for it is a true saying, and worthy of all acceptation, That Christ came to save sinners, whereof I am chief, saies Paul, 1 Tim. 1. 16. And as the Heaven is high above the Earth, so are the thoughts of God above our thoughts, Isa. 55. But this sin of despair sinks a mans heart and comforts as a stone flung into the midst of the Sea, carries a man beyond the ken and compass of the boundless favor and compassions of the Lord. To go no further than the Doctrine delivered, the malignity of this evil herein discovers it self, as that which brings the greatest dishonor to God, and irrecoverable danger to the soul.

It's deeply injurious and dishonorable to the Almighty, 1it sins against more of God, and tramples the riches of his Graces and tender Mercies under the feet of contempt, and counts the Covenant of life and Salvation in the Gospel, not only a common thing, but a vain thing; it … Gods Truth and Faithfulness, and his enlarged Favors into his face with scorn, as unable to help, and unworthy to be attended. And when all the glorious Attributes and Excellencies of God have met together in contriving and accomplishing the Salvation of a sinner, in despight of all the power of Hell and darkness; this dasheth and blurreth all with the highest disdain, and contumelious indignity that may be. There was an infinite power, wisdom, and goodness put forth in making a World of nothing, adorned and enriched with such beauty and goodness, which each man may see in the frame thereof: but in the plotting and performing the p. 31great Work of Redemption, there was wisdom beyond all the wisdom in the Work of the Creation; power beyond and above all that power; God said, let there be a World, and it was so: but saying will not serve the turn here, it must be the sending of his own Son, the death and suffering of Jesus Christ, it must cost him his life before lost man could be restored to life again; here was Mercy above all the former Bounty and Goodness; that goodness then vouchsafed continued not with man, nor he in it; but this is everlasting mercy, which doth not only put us into the possession of Grace and Glory, but keeps us there in despight of all the power and policy of Devils, all the treachery and weakness of our own hearts; despair casts the Crown of all his Power, and Wisdom, Truth, and Faithfulness down unto the dust, and proclaims to all the world, in our apprehension, our weakness is beyond his power, it cannot support us, our folly too hard for his wisdom, it cannot lead and enlighten our minds, our misery and sins surpasseth the vertue of his mercy, it cannot help and relieve us.

This is the reason why the Lord cannot endure the least appearance of these desperate pangs, as deeply injurious to the Honor of his Name, and that in the greatest Excellency, Isa. 40. 27. Why saiest thou O Jacob, and speakest thou O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my Judgment is passed over of my God? Let no more such words be heard, the Lord cannot endure to hear you speak so, or to have you think so; you cast the most vile unsufferable indignity upon the Lord that may be. You drooping discouraged hearts, you think it is the loathsomness of your own sins, the vileness and unworthiness of your own persons that you look at in all those dreadful complaints you make. Is there water enough in the Sea to clense this sink of hellish rebellions in this wretched Nature? Can such loathsom abominations of so deep a dye, of so long continuance, committed against so much Light, Grace, committed against knowledg p. 32and Conscience, against patience and goodness, and that multiplied from day to day, Can these be pardones? Mercy should be accessary to its own dishonor if it should shew mercy to such a wretch which hath so abused it. Know assuredly, you speak against the Lord al this while, while you would seem to speak against your own wretched distempers; so the Psalmist Psal. 78. 19. Yea (they not only sinned more, and provoked God, as in the former verses, but) they spake against God, saying, Can God prepare a Table in the Wilderness? You blaspheme and speak against his Power, which is not able to work it; against his Wisdom, which cannot contrive it; against his Mercy, which is not willing, or not able to succor you: It was the greatest sin that ever Cain committed, when he said his sin was greater than could be forgiven, Gen. 4. Then thy heart is more sinful than God can be merciful, Satan more able to damn thee than God is able to save thee; then God is no God, and Christ is no Christ, and the Spirit no Comforter; yea, this is to make the Devil, which is the worst of all Creatures, and Sin which is no Creature, but weakness, and worse than the Devil himself, to be above God, and the Lord Jesus, and the blessed Spirit of Grace; worse than which blasphemy, Hell it self can hardly afford any. Hear therefore and fear, and for ever abhor that such thoughts should once come into your minds, such words proceed out of your mouths.

As it's dishonorable to God, so it's dangerous, yea, 2deadly to the soul: It not only crosseth a mans present comfort, darkens our evidence, sence, and assurance of Gods Favor; but utterly cuts off all possibility from the soul for ever expecting the least drop of refreshing, or smile of Gods Face. For hope in the Heart is the last sprong or sucker in the root of the Tree, whereby it lives and stands. Though the soul see nothing, feel nothing, have nothing, yet Hope saies … may be otherwise, this proud heart may be abased, this sturdy heart may he p. 33forced to stoop, this unbeleeving heart though it hath had, and abused, and slighted, and been unprofitable under so many means, and after so many prayers, promises, resolutions, continues still, yet it may be otherwise saies Hope; this holds up the head from sinking, the heart from failing: But despair takes away this, you have tried, used the means, expected help, but you see it comes to nothing, nay, there is no hope it will ever be, set your heart at rest, it will never be. This stops all the 1passages, that there is no hope for any good or comfort to accrue to the soul. This is the Instrument of death, whereby the Enemy at once makes an end of the very life of our comfort: The hope of Salvation is made the Helmet of a Christian; so the Apostle, 1 Thes. 5. 8. Put on the Breast-plate of Faith and Love, and for an Helmet the Hope of Salvation. Well-grounded evidence and assurance of Gods Love in Christ, is as it were the head, and the highest top of a Christians comfort, hope is the Helmet; for when our sence and feeling, experiences and performances, yea our hearts fail, in regard of any present sweet, or refreshing we have, yet hope saies, it may be it will be better hereafter, and this holds the aking head of a Christian: The Devil who ever fights at the head, labors to shake our assurance and comfort, and if he can dash a mans hopes by despair, he kils him dead in the head, there is no help nor recovery to be looked for; know this, and be wary and wise for after times.

2. As it dams up the way, and stops the passage, that 2there is no possibility of any good to come, so it deads all a mans endeavors, takes off the edg of a mans abilities, puts all out of joynt and off the hooks, that there is no striving after a good when there is no hope to attain it. All men that are carried by counsel (if not fools or mad-men) they ever have an end in their eye, at which they look, and for which they labor; this is the white they shoot at, the price they run for, for this they devise p. 34and contrive means, and use what they have attained, improve what they take in hand, in hope the end they have attended, may be brought about. Now where there is no hope (which … casts off) there is no good to be expected, therefore no possibility to attain our end, therefore no reason to attend our labor in that behalf. Why should I se k (saies the despairing man) when I have no hope to find? Why should I spend my labor in praying, hearing, reading, improving any Ordinance, when there is no possibility I should speed, that ever God should help, or hear, or bless? as good sit still, as rise and fall. So Cain when he had laid that desperate conclusion, My sin is greater than can be forgiven, he flies into the Land of Nod, drowns himself in sensual delights, but forsakes the Lord. The Hope of Good is the Load-stone of a mans labor, it carries on our course with speed and resolution: So they in Jonah, 3. 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? Therefore do these two things:

Let not Satan make conclusions from our weaknesses, 1nor do thou listen to them, nor beleeve them if he should make them. We should be wary not to suffer our selves to be deluded by his false collections. Thy Conscience saies thy corruptions are strong and many, and of long continuance; therefore there is no hopes saies Satan; Temptations are violent and subtil saies thy experience, thou feelest them so, therefore there is no expectation of relief or abatement, saies Satan; the inference is unreasonable, and grosly false, the sins of Manassah, Paul; these Converts in the Text were such, and yet such received the work of Grace and Mercy also, therefore listen not to him who is the father of lyes.

Look not to the power of means we do enjoy, the 2abilities we have, the performances we take up, for we shall find them all broken staves, and bruised …, they will not only break under us, but pierce us …; p. 35they will fail us and our hearts also, there is no sufficiency for our succors, and therefore no sound ground of Hope. But we should keep our eye constantly and continually upon the sufficiency of Gods saving health, and incomprehensible power, Who is able to do abundantly above all that we can ask or think, Eph. 3. 20.

Do you not see saies the Enemy, the means do not work, your prayers do not profit, the abilities you have, and the endeavors you take up, serve rather to encrease your sin than to help you, they nor you are able to subdue the least sin, to gain the least assurance, not able to procure the least peace: True, be it so, Yet God is able. Thus our Savior to his Disciples dismayed with the difficulty of the work, Lord say they, who then can be saved? he answers, With man it is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible, Matth. 19. 26. It's not possible saies Satan, so many waies have been tryed, so many means used, and yet all is in vain; Ay but saies Christ, though with man and means it is impossible, yet with God it is possible. Psal. 73. 26. My … fails, and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. So much for that Point.

We are come now to enquire the Particulars expressed in the Description, and here also presented to our view. And first touching the sight of sin, whereby the sinner is made rightly apprehensive of his own corruption, and his condition by reason thereof. The Point thence is this:

There must be a true sight of sin, before the heart can Doct.be truly broken for it. A right apprehension goes before through Contrition; The Judgment must be rightly enlightened to see the nature of our sins before the heart can be pierced with that sence and sorrow that is meet. This is Gods way which he takes, in whose hand it is only to do this work, Job, 36. 8. to 11. When sinners come to be bound in fetters, and holden in cords of affliction, p. 36then he sheweth them their work, and their transgressions wherein they have exceeded; and then bows their ear to Discipline, and commands them to turn from iniquity. So repenting Ephraim prosesseth it was the course the Lord took with him; After I was instructed I repented, Jer. 31. 19. That which the eye sees not the heart rues not, that which is not apprehended by the understanding, is not affected by the will; so in 1 Cor. 14. 24, 25. when … word comes home in power and plainness, so that the thoughts of his heart come to be discovered, he falls down, and saies, God is in you of a Truth. The want of this was the reason why the Woman of Samaria manifested such sawcy impudency, and peremptory boldness, in her conference with our Savior, though she could not be ignorant that those abominable loose haunts of hers would call to Heaven for revenge; but when our Savior laid his hand upon the sore, and let the light shine in her face, and points at the vileness of her practice, Thou hast had five Husbands, but he whom thou now hast, is not thy Husband; she then becomes sensible of his soveraign wisdom, and her own wretchedness, John, 4. 18, 19, 20. So it was with Paul, when the Lord met him going to Damascus persecuting the Saints; he saw not the sinfulness of his course, and therefore was senceless of it. Saul, Saul (saies Christ) why persecutest thou me? Then he answers, Who art thou Lord? Jesus said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest, it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks: when he understood the evil of his way, then he stood trembling and astonished, saying, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Acts, 9. 5, 6. Before the Corinthians were made conscious of their own carelesness, neither pitying the soul of the incestuous Corinthian, nor yet seeking to reform his sin, they gloried over him, and prided themselves in their own conceited excellency; but when the Apostle had discovered their miscarriage and failings, what sorrow and care p. 37did it work in them, and what serious endeavor to reform the guilty party. The Doctrine is true, we shall endeavor to make it plain, and therefore we shall open several particulars, the right conceiving whereof will be as a key to unlock the Treasury of this Truth, that each man may take what will serve his turn.

Enquire therefore we will

By what means, and after what manner God works 1this sight of Sin.

How far the sinner may be said to be active in it.

Wherein this true sight and apprehension properly 3consists, and so discovers it self.

The Reason of this Truth, and the Lords Order in 4this proceeding.

And then we shall make Application of it.

By what means, or after what manner the Lord Quaereworks this sight of Sin.

To which I shall Answer in four Conclusions: Or 1the Answer unto which Inquiry, will be expressed in four Particulars.

The Righteous Law of God, as it is the Rule of ourConclus. Lives, so it is the Discoverer of our Sins, and swervings 1therefrom; and by the light thereof, together with that little light of common Principles, of Piety and Love left upon our Consciences, we come to have our corruption made known to us, Rom. 3. 20. By the Law is the knowledg of sin; insomuch that Paul, a learned Pharisee, one that profited in the Jews Religion more than his equals; he was yet at a loss in discerning and judging of the turnings and distempers of his heart, before he takes the light and lamp of the Law. So himself professeth, Rom. 7. 7. I had not known that lust had been a sin, those first stirrings of the Body of death, and secret lingrings and inclinations to that which is cross to the wil of God, though there be no consent given to them, no delight taken in them, but that the Law said, thou shalt not lust, the Sentence of the Law set down his Judgment, p. 38and therefore the Apostle James compares it to a perfect and curious Looking-glass, wherein each man may see the least blemishes or motes, if he will present himself before it, James 1. 25. But whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty, and continueth therein, will lay his mind, and heart, and life level to the Law of God, and hold his heart and apprehensions to the righteous Judgment, and Sentence thereof, it will plainly discover the smallest imperfections, the least stirrings of the most hidden distempers that arise; so Rom. 2. 14. the Heathens with the twi-light or Star-light of the remainders of the Law written in their heart past Sentence against themselves, touching the sinfulness of their course.

But this is not all, nor yet enough, to make us to attain 2a right sight of our Sins, unless the Lord put a new Light into our minds, within, as we have the Light of the Law, and Counsel of God shining without unto us; otherwise the Law may be, and wil be a clasped Book, and a dead Letter; we shall see little in it, or receive little from it. So Paul, Rom. 7. 9. I was alive without the Law once, but when the Commandement came, sin revived. Without the Law, how could that be, since he was an Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the Tribe of Benjamin, trained up at the feet of Gamaliel? a Doctor of the Law, prosessed it, and practised it, according to the most exact Sect of the Pharisees, as he speaks? But the meaning is, that he was without the power of it, and the spiritual life, and lively efficacy of the Law. It was a dead and a killing Letter. Look what the sence of the words, or some evidence of Reason or Arguments could hold out to a Natural Understanding; the bark, and shell, and outside of such directions, he took and entertained. But the Spiritualness of the Law, For the Law is Spiritual, saies Paul, and that spiritual and lively power of Conviction and Direction, it puts forth upon the souls of the Saints, who are subject to it, and p. 39therefore indeed receive the work of it. This Paul once in the time of his unregeneracy was destitute of, and then he was alive; that is, in his own overweening, and self-deluded conceit, he concluded himself to be a living Christian, to have the power and truth of Grace, and to live the life of it. So that it's possible, nay it's ordinary, and nothing more usual, than for men to be without the Law, when they have the Law; to be without the Life of it, while they have the Letter of it; to be without the Law as a Soveraign Rule to their Lives, while they take upon them the profession of it; to be without the Spiritualness of the Law, and so to miss the end of it that is closing with God, as our last end, and chief good, which is the sap, the pith and substance of the Law, though they have the appearance of the practice of it, (And if they miss the end of the Law at which it aims, and unto which it tends, they must needs fall short of the Wisdom and Counsel, and Spiritual efficacy of the Law, which should direct them) So in 2 Chron. 19. 3. Now for a long time, Israel had been without the true God; that is, his true Worship that would bring them to him; and that is the meaning of that Phrase, Ephes. 2. 12. Without God in the World; that is, without the true Worship of God: so that they who want the true Worship of God, are without God. So they who have the manner of the true Worship, and want both Spirit and Truth, in which God will be worshiped, they have the Appearance, but want the Spirit and Truth of the true manner they have. So of the rest. Thus it is with thousands in the Church, which hear, and know, and have the Letter of the Law, and yet are indeed without the Power and Spirit; and therefore they neither see the evil of their sins by it, nor yet receive any spiritual Direction from it, nor indeed know any such thing; and therefore though their carriages are somwhat reformed, yet their inward corruptions are not p. 40observed, at least not reformed, or they made sensible of them: As it is with a pur-blind man, he may see things of a greater bulk, as a great Print, or the like; but the smallest Print, or the least pricks, he perceives not: So it is with a pur-blind Christian who cannot see afar off, 2 Pet. 1. 9. If there be some loathsom and gross sins discovered, he can see them; but to see the stirrings of sin in his Nature, and the secret inclinations of his soul to sin, and the base aims and ends that are up and down in his heart in the performance of holy Duties, to see the smallest Print of the Law discovering secret and spiritual wickedness in the Heart, that a man that hath no more than Nature cannot see. And therefore (for we come to the Point) the Spirit of Bondage is required which may let in the light of the Law into the mind, and set on the power of it mightily upon the consciences of sinners, and so dazle their Eyes, and daunt their hearts with the dreadfulness of their sins, Rom. 8. 15. You have not received the spirit of Bondage again to fear: as who should say, it's a gift, and it must be received, or else we shall not by all that we can do, attain the bondage and thraldom of that base condition in which we are (whereof more afterward in Conviction.) The Law is a Hammer, but it will not break the Flint unless the hand óf the Spirit take it and use it; a Hammer in the hand of a Child will not move the stones; so the Law in the hand of a man or Minister, it is as a Rod to whip us unto Christ; but unless the Spirit take it into his hand, we shall never feel the blow or smart, and so be forced to go: Hence that Phrase, John, 16. 8, 9. I will send the Spirit, and he shall convince, it's his Prerogative; he is appointed, by him it's only performed.

The two former may agree to a false-hearted Hypocrite, 3he may have a lighter stroke of the Spirit of Bondage, and the Law may convince him, and his own heart condemn him, and he may go away in dreadful horror for his sins, and yet it doth not remove the Rule of Ignorance, p. 41and darkness out of the mind, but the Saints of God have the two former and they have this further, viz. such a through stroak of the spirit of bondage as takes away the rule of darkness and removes the Soveraignity and Authority of it from the mind this I take to be the meaning of that phrase, Acts. 26. 18. to turn them from darkness to Light. When the Lord wil work throughly, he wil not onelyonly scatter the sogs and disperse the grossest of the dimness and darkness of a mans mind, and leave the soul under the power of it for all that. The hypocrite may be dazled and astonished by the light of the truth breaking upon him, but yet his understanding is under the power of darkness, but the Saints of God are turned from it, that is their understandings are delivered from under the power of that darkness that was in them before. Conceive it thus, when the night comes darkness overspreads the face of the Earth, and though there be Moon-light, or some flash of Lightning sometimes, that may something take off the grossness and blackness of darkness but yet it is dark stil, the Moon-light or Starre-light doth not remove the rule of darkness: but when the Sun ariseth in the East we say it is day break, and you shal see apparently when light comes with a Command of the Sun, it scatters the darkness that was in the ayr, it removes the rule of it, and it rules there it self; So it is with the spirit of bondage, when he comes to an hypocrite he enlightens him with Star-light or Moon-light as it were, so that the grossness of darkness and blindness is scattered, that now a terrified hypocrit sees his sins, and is able to Discourse of sin and of the Law of God and to Discover it to others, and yet it is but Moonshine it makes not day, the root and rule of Darkness is there stil, which stops and hinders the entercourse of the dispensations of God unto the soul. But now in a Godly man whose understanding is turned from darkness to light, when the truth and light of it hath by the spirit of bondage p. 22been … on upon the mind and Conscience, you shal see day breaking as it were, he then sees himself and his sin and he sees God and Christ, as the sun of righteousness shining gloriously in his Eyes dazling of him with such a light as he never saw nor knew before, so in Acts. 9. the scales of ignorance and blindness fell from the Eyes of his mind and he was turned from the power of darkness, and that light which was let in to his understanding could never be overcomē again by al the darkness inthe world.

4 When the spirit of God hath let in this light of the law in the specification of it, as it belongs unto the Saints, and so hath turned the understanding from darkness, he leaves a sett upon the understanding Godward, that its ready, its that way-ward, to receive any truth that comes in the impression of it; and this is the turn of the understanding to light, it was before turned from God, and sett hell-ward, sin-ward under the … of darkness and acted therby, wholly to bestow it self upon the creature in the room of God; As when Adam sinned the whol man was turned from God to the creature and sin, so now in Conversion, the whol man is turned from sin and the creature to God again, and therfore the understanding from darkness to light. And Hence it is that a poor ignorant creature that hath come many years to the Congregation, and hath learned nothing he understands nothing, remembers nothing, or if out, of the strength of memory he remember something yet he knows no more the thing than a Parrat. But when God hath once turned him, and left this sett upon his understanding, and the day is broken as it were and the rule of darkness removed, & a new light set up there now he never comes but he takes somthing, he can understand it, and remember it, there is no subject but he will get somthing of it, because his understanding is heaven-ward. I have known some by experience, that though they have been wise and wittie enough for p. 43outward things, yet so senceless and sottish in the things of God, that they could sit and hear a Sermon of an hour long, of those very sins they have been guilty, and yet it hath been to them as though it had never been, yet afterward they have professed it, that at such a time, the light of the word broke in upon my soul, and after that I never heard the Minister preach but I received somthing, and my heart did close with more than I could bear away, but I could understand then, and remember also, ever after that time, This is palpably true in cases of Conscience; I wil issue this point thus 2 Pet. 2. 9. who hath called you out of darkness to his mervailous light, the soul now begins to wonder and to be amazed, at the vileness of sin, at the frame of his heart, at the patience of God that hath suffered him so long, and he marvails with himself where he hath been, and what he hath been doing all his dayes he is in another world (as it were) and if ever you have had this work of the spirit calling and turning of you from darkness to light it wil … you a wondering, you will see, sin and your self and grace and Christ and the Ordinances and all after another fashion than ever you saw them before.

How far the sinner may be said to be active in this The second Partic. in explication of the Point.sight of sin.

The answer to this may be expressed in severall particulars that that way of God and the work of his spirit may more distinctly be discovered.

There is a weakness, impotencie and insufficiencie in the understanding to reach this right discovery of sin, for 1however there remaynes so much glimmering in the twilight of Natural reason, and so much sensibleness in the stupid benummedness of the corrupt conscience of acarnal man, that it can both see and sensibly check for some grosser evil, or some such sins, or venom of sin, as crosseth his own peace and Comfort, or those ends which he sets up as the chiefest good at which he aymes p. 44but to search into the entrales of sin, and discern the spiritual composition of the accursed nature therof, he can in no wise attayn this by all the labor and light he hath, 2. Pet. 1. 9. He that lacketh these things (that is these heavenly graces whereof the chief were faith and heavenly knowledg mentioned before) he is blind and cannot see afarr of, he may (like a purblind-man) give guess, or have a confused conceiving of things, after a dym and dazling fashion, if the things be neer, as the man in the gospel saw men walking like Trees, but there be secrets in sin, depths in the disstempers of mens hearts, which are far removed from outward appearance and ordinary apprehension, these he cannot perceive.

As it is in natural things and the several actions which issue from them, each man is able to hear the sound of a mans words, to discern the sence and reason of them, and wil easily grant from the received principles of reason that they come from a man, and evidence undeniably that there is a reasonable soul there, which is and must needs be the cause thereof, because they are properties that appertain to creatures of that kind alone, and argue a life of the highest excellency, nor Trees nor beasts can do so, Its beyond their kind and the bounds of their ability; But what this reasonable soul is in the constitution and composition therof, this is further removed from our sence, and so from our apprehension, and it wil excercise the most sharp and ablest understanding, and that furnished with Learning and reading to apprehend or discover, so it is in sin; when we hear the falsness of mens language, when they speak thay care not how, to cover their own shame or deny that which might bring danger to them, when we see the cruelty and fiercness of their carriage in stealing or killing, each man out of ordinary principles will condemn those, these be as it were the words and hands of sin; Ah but the spirituall pride and soveraignty of p. 45will, which lifts up it self above the law and will of God justles his holiness and holy command to the wall, this is the inward soul of sin; thousands which condemn the former have and harbour and maintayn these to their dying day; they never saw the evil of them. How the sound of their actions strik outwardly they hear and observe but how the wheels of their mind and wil go inwardly and swerve al the day long and all their lives long in the whol inward frame of the whol man, they be as far to seek as though there were no such thing. The Conscience checks and the worst of men see the loathsomness of the evil, if he should stab and take away the Life of a man, but every Blasphemer stabs the Lord and yet his Conscience doth not so check him there, because he sees the grossness of the one its near but the spiritualness of the other he doth not see, it is a far off.

To stick in the medium and fall short of the object is feebleness; That is the proper intendment of the Apostle when he layes open the seebleness of the wisdom of the most Eminent heathen Rom. 1. 21. they knew God but did not glorify him as God but became vayn in their discourse i. e. they fell short of their end, of God whom they pretended to worship, they missed of him; that was their vanitie, and they worshipped the creature in the room of God. And hence the Prophet expresseth the practice of such as those who be wholly misguided in their course by reason of their mistakes Isay. 5. 20. They call evil good and good evil, they put darkness for light and bitter for sweet, and therfore it is they are so easily cousened by Satan and do so easily cousen themselves; And upon this ground it is, though they in Acts. 17. 23. worshipped an unknown God and Paul would have taught them the true God whom they ignorantly worshipped, they would follow their own fancies and worship Gods of their own making; but the true God blessed for ever they might have heard of him and been instructed concerning him, his being and p. 46Worship; they would not own nor entertain the Apostles Counsel in that behalf, nay, verse 32. they mocked him when he spake to them of … things.

There is an incapability in our minds to receive this 2spiritual light by which we might be enabled to come to the right discovery of our Corruptions, John 1. 5. The Light shined in darkness and the darkness Comprehended it not. This is the Condition of every man by Nature, So the Apostle, ye were darkness, Eph. 5. 8. Now one opposite will oppose and resist another, but will not, nay cannot entertain another, and hence the Apostle gives that to be the ground of that resistance against the truth 2 Tim. 3. 8. They are men of corrupt minds, therefore they resist the truth as Jannes & Jambres did. As it is in Nature when any sense hath lost his right temper and wholsome Constitution, it is not possible to put forth its operation, with any right discerning or discovery of that which comes to it, the tast is corrupt, the tongue tainted and over-grown with some Canker, it cannot tast nor relish things aright, when the right constitution of the Eye is altered by a blow or any putrefying Wen that Breeds there, … will perceive nothing, nay it cannot; So here. When the Eye of the understanding hath lost his primitive …, and becomes stayned and polluted with putrefying sensual delusions it comes to be Reprobate touching the Doctrin of faith, or that which ought to be beleeved, not able to relish the truth in a right manner; And this their practice gives evidence of beyond all doubt, the revelation of the truth, which is in way of discovery of corruption, and that which would touch them to the quick, they are not able nor willing in truth without offence to hear. But the power of it to be pressed and persued they are not able to bear, but there is present mutiny in their thoughts and apprehensions, I say, not able to hear with quietness the truths which be of a discovering Nature; when our Saviour told them there must be more than an outward p. 47formal Communicating with him, as the Fathers did eat Manna and are dead, but they that would live by him must eat his flesh and drink his Blood, they returned, this is a hard saying, who can bear it? John 6. 60. and John, 3. 20. He that doth evil cometh not … the light, lest his deeds should be reproved; yea, this is the reason they … darkness rather than light, because it suits best with the darkness of their minds; and as the very manifestation is tedious to hear, so the power of it, if pressed and set on, they are not able to bear; that's the scope of the Parable, Matth. 21. 34. when the Messengers were sent to require fruit, that is, Holiness, they beat some, and stoned others, and others they abused, Acts 7. 51. when … brought the Candle home to their Bed-side, and would discover the roots of their corrupt carriages to the Consciences of them all, Ye stiff-necked and hard-hearted, ye have ever resisted the spirit of the Lord; their hearts burst with anger, they cast him out and stoned him. And indeed hither the Apostle calls us to look as to the Magazine of all mischief, the Armory and Ammunition House, whence all the distempers and affections of the heart are furnished out to their sinful practices, as so many enterprizes they take in hand, Eph. 4. 18. they are strangers to the life of God, it is because they walk in the vanity of their minds. So again in Collos. 1. 21. They were alienated from God, and bent upon evil practices; and he ads the root and reason of all, they were Enemies to God in their minds, in their apprehensions, or the largest reach of the best reason they had. and in this the Apostle makes the Fort-royal in which Satan places and plants all the choycest of his Artillery, 2 Cor. 10. 4. there are in the mind of a Natural man, strong holds of imaginations, which exalt themselves against the knowledg of God.

The Lord Christ … the understanding to bear 3that Almighty stroak of his Spirit, whereby he destroies the soveraign power of carnal reason, and … it to receive p. 48the prevailing impression of his spiritual light, which searcheth the secrets of sin in the soul. The Conclusion intimates a double work of the Spirit. 1. It destroies the soveraignty of carnal Reason. 2. It leaves in the room of that an impression of spiritual light; and in both these the understanding is meerly passive, for so it's added, it's forced to bear the one, it's fitted to receive the other.

It destroyes the over swaying Authority of Carnal 1Reason; It was Satans Policy to turn the Understanding from the Lord, and attendance to the truth; …. 3. Hath God said ye shall not eat? Oh question it not, fear it not, Ye shall be as Gods; and so she turning aside, and perverting the eye of reason to listen to the delusion suggested, her light was dimmed, and she justly over-born with the force of the falshood presented, because she took off her mind from eyeing of the command, and turned it to attend the strength of that delusion, and was so acted by it, she conceived, though falsly, that it was good to get knowledg, when the tasting that fruit was the only means to lose all the knowledg she had; and from the abuse of her own mutability, her mind becomes perverted from light to darkness, from the way of truth which God had found out, unto the by-path found out of her own finding. Now the Lord Christ who comes to destroy and undo the works of the Devil, he begins where Satan ended, he turns from darkness, he takes down the Supremacy of that carnal Reason, by the which all the Sons of Adam in their natural and corrupt condition are constantly both ruled and carried in their whol course; and that's the Reason of the Apostles coupling those two together, Eph. 2. 3. speaking of the Conversation of the ungodly, he saies, they did the wils of … flesh, and of their Discourses; their carnal reasonings had ever one Oar in the Boat; and it's ever found true, there is no man upon knowledg commits a sin, but ever he … some pretence of carnal self-deceiving reason p. 49why he doth so, and therefore it is called the strong hold of Satan, and the Lord Christ, he first forceth this Fort, demolisheth and casteth down the frame of it; so that though there be some remainders continue still in the mind, while that remains in the body, and we in the world, yet it's never made a place of retreat to a … Convert, wherein he can … himself, and stand it out against any Truth; 2 Cor. 10. 4. he puls down strong holds, such as are highest and hardest to win; and that which is added, Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts it self against God, foreign. Reasonings of the flesh; and nothing but the Power of God can do this, the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God. For though Adam being in a mutable condition, might slide away from the Government of God as well as submit, yet after he had withdrawn himself from under the Covenant and Wisdom of God in the Law given him, it was just with God to deliver him up to the authority of his inventions, and there to stake him down, that nothing but the Soveraignty of Christ who had satisfied for this his folly and carnal reasoning should be able to restore him from the power of them. This makes me construe the meaning of those words of Paul so, as that which best gives in evidence of the dependance, …. 4. 21, 22. If ye have heard, and been taught, as the Truth is in Jesus, then put off the old man, &c. The Truth as it is in the Bible only, or dispensed in any Ordinance, or as it was in the Covenant of the First Adam, will never do it; but as it is in the hand of Jesus, the Head of the Second Covenant when he comes to … a holy seed, and call home his Sons to himself, he will then make the old man fall. And this the Lord Jesus forceth the Understanding to submit unto, and this is easily yielded on all hands; for it's commonly confessed by Phylosophers and Divines that there is a constraining force in the undeniable evidence of Argument … on by the Spirit, that the Judgment is necessitated p. 50to fall under, and yet hereby no liberty is prejudiced, for that is in the will. Thus Pauls Commission runs Acts, 26. 18. To open their Eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. What is the opening of the eyes distinct from that which follows? it may be … that common enlightening in the History, Matter, and Truth of the Scripture wherein the understanding must in reason be informed, and themselves also yield a full assenr, and so far be perswaded of the Truth and Goodness of the Doctrine of the Gospel; for it's opposite to all the Rules of Reason and Providence, that persons should step from prophaness in the depth of it, unto the height of Christian Piety and Holiness, but there must be a passing through the common Truths that are in the way and rode to come to that end. First, a man must know there was a Christ, and who he was, and what he did, and wherein that Redemption of his is recorded in the Scriptures, and of what value and infallibility they be. Then we come to see our former follies and delusions in w^ch we were drown'd, and so to be turned from darkness, that we cast away the former forgeries of our carnal reasonings; where note, that Paul turns them, not they themselves, that it's from darkness, they were nothing but darkness, and darkness could not, nor would not turn from it self, therefore from a more Soveraign light in Christ that darkness must be removed. In all which the soul behaves it self meerly passively, and is wrought upon, and that by an over-ruling power.

The second Operation mentioned, follows without 2fail, and by force of constraining Reason; the Soveraignty of darkness being removed, there is room made for the ready Spirit of light, of the guidance of the Spirit of Christ, as the Head of the Covenant, who begins to set up his Throne, where Satan had his hold; and this is like the Sun-rising, whose beams spread themselves from one end of the Heavens to the other, and nothing p. 51is hid from the light thereof. So there is not the most secret corner or crevis of our corrupt hearts and consciences, but the beauty and shine of the … of this light will discover it; and this seems to me to be called the Spirit of the 'Mind, as that which best … … the intendment of the Spirit in the place; for it is the meer impression of the Spirit falling upon the … now turned from darkness, Eph. 4. 23. where the Apostle describing the two parts of Sanctification; Mortification, verse 22. Put off the old man, in reason it should have followed immediately, and put on the new man, he inserts this by the way, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, in the passive form; and then, put on the new man, q d. This renewing is another work, and is to be referred to another place, and it answers none so fitly and fully as this place; and the word also suits it beyond imagination, foreign, a comparison taken from Earth turned a new and another way: So should the act of the understanding be turned afresh, and lie constantly under the light and guidance of the Spirit; and here we are passive meerly. That which is meerly the act and impression of the … to the entertainment of the mind, is meerly passive; but this is the meer act and impression of the Spirit, as the beams of the Sun dispersing themselves into the Air. Again, that which is wholly darkness, that cannot be active or causal of any Spiritual light; but the mind naturally is meer darkness, Eph. 5. 8.

This light so received the vnderstanding being overpowred 4with it and acted by it acts also in the vertue thereof, and so the sinner may be sayd … to see and understand, for he doth so, but in a right order and after a right manner conceived. In a right order, for (as before) of himself he had an Impotency unto this yea an incapability of this spiritual light, before he was forced from the holds of his carnal reason and made sit to receive it. In a right manner: The vnderstanding being acted p. 52and moved by the power of this light doth move again so that the action … not so much from any habitual principle of grace, whereof a man hath the free use and command at his own pleasure, and so doth act or not act by it as he will: for so experience tells us it is not, The sinner at first would not see his sinnes were it in his power and might he have his own mind, he would have the ghastly visage of them gone out of his sight. Nay he useth al the wayes and contrives all the means he can, that he might put them out of his thoughts, that they might not come into his consideration or remembrance, It's against the heart and hair, utterly against his will, that he cannot get off it; which argues that he acts not so much here, as a cause by Counsel, out of his own choyce and habitual disposition whereof he hath the command, but meerly as he is acted; and after when the spirit withdraws, he cannot so see them though he would, as that phrase Gal. 4. 9. After ye have known God or rather are known of God. It's not so much from our own ability we have from within that we do it, but because he looked upon us we look back again upon him. As a looking Glass reflects the light not from any light it hath of it's own, but because the light of the Sun fals upon it, so that it's true to say, the light is reflected by it rather than it reflects the light. For because the light … reflect … it comes to be reflected. So Job Complayned. Job. 13. 26. Thou makest me to possess the sins of my Youth. So David, Psal. 77. 4. Thou keepest mine eyes waking.

Wherein this true sight, and apprehension of sin properlyThe third Particular in opening the Point. discovers it self.

I Answer, A true sight of sin hath two Conditions attending upon it; or it appears in two things: We must see sin, 1. Cleerly. 2. Convictingly, what it is in it self, and what it is to us, not in the appearance p. 53and paint of it, but in the power of it; not to fadam it in the notion and conceit only, but to see it with Application.

We must see it cleerly in its own Nature, its Native 1color and proper hue: It's not every slight conceit, not every general and cursorie, consused thought or careless consideration that will serve the turn, or do the work …, we are all sinners; it is my infirmity, I cannot help it; my weakness, I cannot be rid of it; no man lives without faults and follies, the best have their failings, In many things we offend all. But alas all this wind shakes no Corn, it costs more to see sin aright than a few words of course; It's one thing to say sin is thus and thus, another thing to see it to be such; we must look wishly and steddily upon our distempers, look sin in the face, and discern it to the full; the want whereof is the cause of our mistaking our estates, and not redressing of our hearts and waies, Gal. 6. 4. Let a man prove his own work. Before the Goldsmith can sever and see the Dross asunder from the Gold, he must search the very bowels of … …, and try it by touch, by cast, by hammer, and by fire; and then he will be able to speak by proof what it is; So here. We perceive sin in the crowd and by hearsay, when we … some common … customary expressions taken up by persons in their common converse, and so report what others speak, and yet never knew the Truth, what either others or we say, but we do not single out our corruptions and survey the loathsomness of them, as they come naked in their own Natures; this we ought to do: There is great ods betwixt the knowledg of a Traveller, that in his own person hath taken a view of many Coasts, past through many Countries, and hath there taken up his abode some time, and by Experience hath been an Eye-witness of the extream cold, and scorching heats, hath surveyed the glory and beauty of the one, the barrenness and meanness of the other; he hath been in the Wars, and p. 54seen the ruin and desolation wrought there; and another that sits by his fire side, and happily reads the story of these in a Book, or views the proportion of these in a Map, the ods is great, and the difference of their knowledg more than a little: the one saw the Country really, the other only in the story; the one hath seen the very place, the other only in the paint of the Map drawn. The like difference is there in the right discerning of sin; the one hath surveyed the compass of his whol course, searched the … of his own heart, and examined the windings and turnings of his own waies, he hath seen what sin is, and what it hath done, how it hath made havock of his peace and comfort, ruinated and laid wast the very Principles of Reason and Nature, and Morality, and made … a terror to himself, when he hath looked over the loathsom abominations that lie in his bosom, that he is afraid to approach the presence of the Lord to bewail his sins, and to crave pardon, lest he should be … … them, while he is but confessing of them; afraid and ashamed … any man living should know but the least part of that which he knows by himself, and could count it happy that … was not, that the remembrance of those hideous evils of his might be no more; Another happily hears the like preached or repeated, reads them writ or recorded in some Authors, and is able to remember and … them. The ods is marvelous great. The one sees the History of sin, the other the Nature of it; the one knows the relation of sin as it is mapped …, and recorded; the other the poyson, as by experience he hath found and proved it. It's one thing to see a disease in the Book, or in a mans body, another thing to find and feel it in a mans self. There is the report of it, here the malignity and venom of it.

But how shall we see cleerly the Nature of sin in hisQuest. naked hue?

This will be discovered, and may be conceived in theAnsw. Particulars following. Look we at it: First, As it respects p. 551God. Secondly, As it concerns our selves. As it hath reference to God, the vileness of the nature of sin may thus appear.

It would dispossess God of that absolute Supremacy 1… is indeed his Prerogative Royal, and … in a peculiar manner appertayn to him, as the Diamond of his Crown, and … of his Deity, so the Apostle, He is God over all blessed for ever, Rom. 9. 5. All from him and all for him, he is the absolute first being, the absolute last end, and herein is the … … his Glory. Al those attributes of …, …, Holiness, Power, Justice, Mercy, the shine and Concurrency of all these meeting together is to set out the unconceivable excellency of his Glorious name, which exceeds all praise, Thyne is the kingdom, the power and the glory, the right of all and so the rule of all and the Glory of all belo … to him.

Now herein … the unconceavable hainousness of the hellish nature of sin, it would justle the Almighty out of the Throne of his Glorious Soveraignty, and indeed be above him. For the will of man being the … of all his workmanship, all for his body, the body of the soul, the mind to attend upon the will, the will to attend upon God, and to make choyce of him, and his wil, that is next to him, and he onelyonly above that: and that should have been his Throne and Temple or Chair of State; in which he would have Set his Soveraignty for ever. He did in an Especial manner intend to meet with man, and to communicate himself to man in his righteous Law, as the rule of his Holy and righteous will, by which the will of Adam should have been ruled and guided to him, and made happie in him; and all Creatures should have served God in man, and been happy by or through him, serving of God being happy in him; But when the will went from under the government of his rule, by sin, it would be above God, and be happy without him, for the rule of p. 56the law in each command of it, holds forth a threefold expression of … from the Lord, and therein the Soveraignty of all the rest of his Attributes.

1. The Powerful Supremacy of his just will, as that he hath right to dispose of all and authority to command all at his pleasure; What if God will? Rom. 9. 22 My Counsel shall stand and I wil do all my pleasure, Isa. 46. 10. And as its true of what shal be done upon us, so his wil hath Soveraignty of Command in what should be done by us we are … say the will of the Lord be done; Davids warrant was to do all Gods wils Acts. 13. 22. and our Saviour himself professeth, John. 6. 38. that he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him, and therfore his wrath and jealousie and judgment will break out in … that be disobeyed.

2. There is also a fulness of wisdom in the law of God revealed to guide & direct us in the way we should walk, Psal. 19. 7. the law of God makes wise the simple, 2. Tim. 3. 15. it's able to make us wise unto Salvation.

3 There's a Sufficiency of God to content and satisfy us. Blessed are they who walk in his wayes, and blessed are they that keep his Testimonies. Psal. 119. 1. 2. Great prosperity have they that love the law, and nothing shal offend them, ver. 16. and in truth there can be no greater reward for doing wel, than to be enabled to do well, he that hath attayned his last end he cannot go further. he cannot be better;

Now by sin we justle the law out of its place, and the Lord out of his Glorious Soveraignty, pluck the Crown from his head, and the Seepter out of his hand, and we say and profess by our practice, there is not authority and power there to govern, nor wisdom to guide, nor good to content me, but I wil be swayed by mine own wil and led by mine own deluded reason and satisfied with my own lusts. This is the guise of every p. 57graceless heart in the commission of sin; so Pharaoh who is the Lord? I know not the Lord, nor will I lett Israel go. Exod. 5. 2. in the time of their prosperity see how the Jews turn their backs and shake off the authority of the Lord, we are Lords (say …) we will come no more at thee. Jer. 2. 31. and our tongues are our own who shal be Lords … us? Psal. 12. 4. So for the wisdom of the world, see how they set light by it as not worth the looking after it Jer. 18. 12. we wil walk after our own devices & we wil every one do the imagination of his own evil heart, yea they sett up their own traditions, their own Idols and delusions, and Lord it over the law, making the command of God of none effect Math. 15. 8. 9. So for the goodness of the word; Job. 22. 17. Mal. 3. 14. It is in vayn to serve God and what profit is there that we have kept his ordinances, yea his Commandemnts are ever grievous, Its a grievous thing to the loose person he cannot have his pleasures but he must have his guilt and gall with them; Its grievous to the worlding that he cannot lay hold on the world by unjust means, but Conscience layes hold upon him as breaking the law. Thou that knowest and keepest thy pride and stubbornness and thy distempers, know assuredly thou dost justle God out of the Throne of his glorious Soveraignty and thou dost profess, Not Gods wil but thine own (which is above his) shall rule thee, thy … reason and the folly of thy mind, is above the wisdome of the Lord and that shal guide thee; to please thine own stubborn crooked pervers spirit, is a greater good than to please God and enjoy happines, for this more Contents, thee; That when thou considerest but thy Course, dost thou not wonder that the great and Terrible God doth not pash such a poor insolent worm to pouder, and send thee packing to the pitt every moment.

2 It smites at the Essence of the Almighty and the desire of the sinner, is not only that God should not be p. 58supream but that indeed he should not be at all, and therefore it would destroy the being of Jehovah. Psal. 81. 15. sinners are called the haters of the Lord. John. 15. 24. they hated both me and my Father. Now he that hates endeavours if it be possible the annihilation of the thing hated, and its most certain were it in their power, they would pluck God out of Heaven the light of his truth out of their Consciences, and the law out of the Societies and Assemblies where they live, that they might have elbow room to live as they list. Nay what ever they hate most and intend, and plott more evil against in al the world, they hate God most of all, and intend more evil against him than against all their … besides, because they hate all for his sake, therefore wicked men are said to destroy the law Psal. 126. 119. the Adulterer loaths that law that condemns, uncleaness; the Earthworm would destrow that law that forbids Covetousness, they are sayd to hate the light John 3. 21. to hate the Saints and Servants of the Lord John 15. 18. the world hates you, he that hates the Lanthorn for the lights sake, he hates the light much more, he that hates the faithful because of the Image of God, and the Grace that appears there, he hates the God of all, Grace and Holiness, most of all, so God to Zenacharib, Isa. 37. 28. I know thy going out and thy Comming in, and thy rage against me, Oh it would be their content, if there was no God in the world to govern them, no law to curbe them, no justice to punish, no truth to trouble them, Learn therfore to see how far your rebellions reach, It is not arguments you gainsay, not … Counsel of a Minister you reject, the command of a … ye oppose, evidence of rule or reason ye …; but be it known to you, you fly in the very face of the Almighty, and it is not the Gospel of Grace ye would have destroyed, but the spirit of Grace, the author of Grace the Lord Jesus, the God of all Grace that ye hate,

p. 59It crosseth the whol course of Providence, perverts the 3work of the Creature and defaceth the beautiful frame, and that sweet correspondence and orderly usefulness the Lord first implanted in the order of things; The Heavens deny their influence, the Earth her strength, the Corn her nourishment, thank sin for that. Weeds come instead of herbs, Cockle and Darnel instead of Wheat, thank sin for that, Rom. 8. 22. The whol Creature (or Creation) grones under vanity, either cannot do what it would or else misseth of that good and end it intended, breeds nothing but vanity, brings forth nothing but vexation, It crooks all things so as that none can straiten them, makes so many wants that none can supply them, Eccles. 1. 15. This makes crooked Servants in a family no … can rule them, … inhabitants in towns, crooked members in Congregations, ther's no ordering nor joynting of them in that comly accord, and mutual subjection; know they said, the adversary sin hath done all this. Man was the mean betwixt God and the Creature to convey all good with all the constancy of it, and therefore when Man breaks, Heaven and Earth breaks all asunder, the Conduit being cracked and displaced there can be no conveyance from the Fountain.

In regard of our selves, see we and consider nakedly 2the nature of sin, in Four particulars.

Its that which makes a separation between God and 1the soul, breaks that Union and Communion with God for … we were made, and in the enjoyment of which we should be blessed and happie, Isai. 59. 1. 2. Gods ear is not heavy that it cannot hear nor his hand that it cannot help, but your iniquities have separated betwixt God and you & your sins have hid his face that he wil not hear for he professeth, Psal. 5. 4. that he is a God that wills not wickedness neither shal iniquity dwell with him. Into the new Jerusalem shal no unclean thing enter, but without shal be doggs Rev. 21. p. 6027. The Dogs to their Kennel, and Hogs to their Sty and Mire: but if an impenitent wretch should come into Heaven, the Lord would go out of Heaven; Iniquity shall not dwell with sin. That then that deprives me of my greatest good for which I came into the world, and for which I live and labor in the world, and without which I had better never to have been born; nay that which deprives me of an universal good, a good that hath all good in it, that must needs be an evil, but have all evil in it: but so doth sin deprive me of God as the Object of my will, and that wills all good, and therefore it must bring in Truth all evil with it. Shame takes away my Honor, Poverty my Wealth, Persecution my Peace, Prison my Liberty, Death my Life, yet a man may still be a happy man, lose his Life, and live eternally: But sin takes away my God, and with him all good goes; Prosperity without God will be my poyson, Honor without him my bane; nay, the word without God hardens me, my endeavor without him profits nothing at all for my good. A Natural man hath no God in any thing, and therefore hath no good.

It brings an incapability in regard of my self to receive 2good, and an impossibility in regard of God himself to work my spiritual good, while my sin Continues, and I Continue impenitent in it. An incapability of a spiritual blessing, Why trangress ye the Commandement of the Lord that ye cannot prosper do what ye can, 2 Chron. 24. 20. And He that being often reproved hardens his heart, shal be consumed suddenly and there is no remedy, He that spils the Physick that should cure him, the meat that should nourish him, there is no remedy but he must needs dye, so that the Commission of sin makes not only a separation from God, but obstinate resistance and continuance in it, maintains an infinit and everlasting distance between God and the soul: So that so long as the sinful resistance of thy soul continues; God cannot vouchsafe the Comforting and guiding presence of his p. 61grace; because it's cross to the Covenant of Grace he hath made, which he will not deny, and his Oath which he will not alter. So that should the Lord save thee and thy Corruption, carry thee and thy proud vnbeleeving heart to heaven he must nullify the Gospel, (Heb. 5. 9. He's the Author of Salvation to them that … him) and forswear himself, (Heb. 3. 18. He hath sworn unbeleevers shall not enter into his rest) he must cease to be just and holy, and so to be God. As Saul said to Jonathan concerning David, 1 Sam. 20. 30, 31. So long as the Son of Jesse lives, thou shalt not be established, nor thy Kingdom: So do thou plead against thy self, and with thy own soul; So long as these rebellious distempers continue, Grace and Peace, and the Kingdom of Christ can never be established in thy heart For this obstinate resistance differs nothing from the plagues of the state of the damned, when they come to the highest measure, but that it is not yet total and final, there being some kind of abatement of the measure of it, and stoppage of the power of it. Imagine thou sawest the Lord Jesus coming in the clouds, and heardest the last trump blow, Arise ye dead, and come to judgment. Imagine thou sawest the Judg of all the World sitting upon the Throne, thousands of Angels before him, and ten thousands ministring unto him, the Sheep standing on his right hand, and the Goats at the left: Suppose thou heardest that dreadful Sentence, and final Doom pass from the Lord of Life (whose Word made Heaven and Earth, and will shake both) Depart from me ye cursed; How would thy heart shake and sink, and die within thee in the thought thereof, wert thou really perswaded it was thy portion? Know, that by thy dayly continuance in sin, thou dost to the utmost of thy power execute that Sentence upon thy soul: It's thy life, thy labor, the desire of thy heart, and thy dayly practice to depart away from the God of all Grace and Peace, and turn the Tomb-stone of everlasting destruction upon p. 62thine own soul.

It's the Cause which brings all other evils of punishment 3into the World, and without this they are not evil, but so far as sin is in them. The sting of a trouble, the poyson and malignity of a punishment and affliction, the evil of the evil of any judgment, it is the sin that brings it, or attends it, Jer. 2. 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy back slidings shall réprove thee, know therefore that it is an evil, and bitter thing that … hast forsaken the Lord. Jer. 4. 18. Thy waies and doings have procured these things unto thee, … it is bitter, and reacheth unto the heart. Take miseries and crosses without sin, they are like to be without a sting, the Serpent without poyson, ye may take them, and make Medicines of them. So Paul 1 Cor. 15. 55. he plaies with death it self, sports with the …. Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh Grave where is thy Victory? the sting of death is sin. All the harmful annoyance in sorrows and punishments, further than either they come from sin, or else tend to it, they are rather improvements of what we have than parting with any thing we do enjoy, we rather lay out our conveniences than seem to lose them, yea, they encrease our. Crown, and do not diminish our Comfort. Blessed … ye when men revile you, and persecute you, and speak all manner of evil of you for my sake, for great is your reward in Heaven: Matth. 5. 11. There is a blessing in persecutions and reproaches when they be not mingled with the deserts of our sins; yea, our momentary short affliction for a good cause, and a good Conscience, works an excessive exceeding weight of Glory. If then sin brings all evils, and makes all evils indeed to us, then is it worse than all those evils.