The Application of Redemption, Book 10 (2 of 13)

The Application of Redemption · Book 10 (2 of 13)

p. 62It brings a Curse upon all our Comforts, blasts all our blessings, the best of all our endeavors, the use of all the choycest of all Gods Ordinances: it's so evil and vile, that it makes the use of all good things, and all the p. 63most glorious, both Ordinances and Improvements evil to us. Hag. 2. 13. 14. When the Question was made to the Priest; If one that is unclean by a dead Body touch any of the holy things, shall it be unclean? And he answered, Yea. So is this People, and so is this Nation before me, saith the Lord; and so is every work of their hands, and that which they offer is unclean: If any good thing a wicked man had, or any action he did, might be good, or bring good to him, in reason it was the Services and Sacrifices wherein he did approach unto God, and perform Service to him, and yet the Sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, Prov. 28. 9. and Tit. 1. 15. To the pure all things are pure; but to the unbeleeving there is nothing pure, but their very Consciences are …. It is a desperate Malignity in the temper of the Stomach, that should turn our Meat and diet into Diseases, the best Cordials and Preservatives into Poysons, so that what in reason is … to nourish a man should kill him. Such is the venom and malignity of sin, makes the use of the best things become evil, nay, the greatest evil to us many times; Psal. 10. 9. 7. Let his prayer be turned into sin. That which is appointed by God to be the choycest … to prevent sin, is turned into sin out of the corrupt distemper of these carnal hearts of ours.

Hence then it follows; That sin is the greatest evil in the world, or indeed that can be. For, That which separates the soul from God, that which brings all evils of punishment, and makes all evils truly evil, and spoils all good things to us, that must needs be the greatest evil, but this is the nature of sin, as hath already appeared.

But that which I will mainly press, is, Sin is only opposite to God, and cross as much as can be to that infinite goodness and … which is in his blessed Majesty; it's not the … … distresses that men undergo, that the Lord distasts them for, or estrangeth himself from p. 64them, he is with Joseph in the Prison, with the three Children in the …, with Lazarus when he lies among the Dogs, and gathers the … from the rich Mans Table, yea with Joh upon the dung-hil, but he is not able to bear the presence of sin: yea, of this temper are his dearest servants, the more of. God is in them, the more opposite they are to sin where ever they find it. It was that he commended in the Church of Ephesus, That she could not bear those that were wicked, Rev. 2. 3. As when the Stomach is of a pure temper and … strength, the least surfet or distemper that befals, it presently distasts and disburdens it self with speed. So David noted to be a man after Gods own heart. He professeth, 101. Psal. 3. 7. I hate the work of them that turn aside, he that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house, he that telleth lyes, shall not tarry in my sight. But when the heart becomes like the Stomach, … weak it cannot help it self, nor be helped by Physick, desperate diseases and dissolution of the whol follows, and in reason must be expected. Hence see how God looks at the least connivance, or a faint and seeble kind of opposition against sin, as that in which he is most highly dishonored, and he follows it with most hideous plagues, as that indulgent carriage of Ely towards the vile behavior of his Sons for their grosser evils, 1 Sam. 2. 23. Why do you such things, It's not well my Sons that I hear such things: It is not well, and is that all? why, had they either out of ignorance not known their duty or out of some sudden surprisal of a temptation neglected it, it had not been well, but for them so purposedly to proceed on in the practice of such gross evils, and for him so faintly to reprove: The Lord looks at it as a great sin thus feebly to oppose sin, and therefore verse 29. he tells him, That he honored his Sons above God, and therefore he professeth, Far be it from me to maintain thy house and comfort, for he that honors me I wil honor, and he that despiseth me shall be lightly esteemed, p. 65verse 30. Hence it is the Lord himself is called the holy one of Israel, 1. Hab. 12. Who is of … eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity, no not in such as profess themselves Saints, though most deer unto …, no, nor in his Son the Lord Jesus, not in his Saints, Amos, 8. 7. The Lord hath sworn by himself, I abhor the excellency of Jacob; what ever their excellencies, their priviledges are, if they do not abhor sin, God will abhor them, Jer. 22. 24. Though Coniah was as the Signet of my right hand, thence would I pluck him. Nay, he could not endure the appearance of it in the Lord Christ, for when but the reflection of sin (as I may so say) fell upon our Savior, even the imputation of our transgressions to him, though none iniquity was ever committed by him, the Father withdrew his comforting presence from him, and let loose his infinite displeasure against him, forcing him to cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken …?

Yea, Sin is so evil, (that though it be in Nature, which is the good Creature of God) that there is no good in it, nothing that God will own; but in the evil of punishment it is otherwise, for the torments of the Devils, and punishments of the damned in Hell, and all the plagues inflicted upon the wicked upon Earth, issue from the righteous and revenging Justice of the Lord, and he doth own such execution as his proper work, Isa. 45. 7. Is there any evil in the City, viz. of punishment, and the Lord hath not … it? I make peace, I create evil, I the Lord do all these things: It issues from the Justice of God that he cannot but reward every one according to his own waies and works; those are a mans own, the holy one of Israel hath no hand in them; but he is the just Executioner of the plagues that are inflicted and suffered for these; and hence our blessed Savior becoming our Surety, and standing in our room, he endured the pains of the Second death, even the fiercenes of the fury of an offended God; and yet it was impossible p. 66he could commit the least sin, or be tainted with the least corrupt distemper. And it's certain it's better to … all … without any one sin, than to commit the least sin, and to be freed from all plagues. Suppose that all miseries and sorrows that ever befel all the wicked in Earth and Hell, should meet together in one soul, as all waters gathered together in one Sea: Suppose thou heardest the Devils roaring, and sawest Hell gaping, and the flames of everlasting burnings … before thine eyes; it's certain it were better for thee to be cast into those inconceivable … than to commit the least sin against the Lord: Thou dost not think so now, but thou wilt find it so one day.

But if sin be thus vile in its own nature, why do not Quest.men so discern it, so judg it?

That I may give a full Answer to this Question, IAnsiv. shall first shew the Causes of mistake: and secondly, the Cure. For the first, There's a five-fold Cause why though sin be so vile, and so great an evil, yet naturally 1men do not see it so.

First, The delusion of Satan dazles the eyes of our 1minds, and puts false colors upon Courses, paints over the foul face of vice and corruption with the appearance of vertues, and so the deluded sinner like Jacob in the darkness of … …, takes Leah for Rachel, bad for good. So the Disciples took their passion for zeal, Shall we call for fire from Heaven to destroy the …, because of their … dealing, as Elias did? Our Savior returns, You know not what Spirit you are of, Luke, 9. 55. q. d. it's your rash anger that transports you, not the Spirit of zeal that guides you; Judas pretends Providence and compassionate care for the poor, when it was to promote his own profit, John 12. 6. Lukewarmness goes masked under the name of …; licentious wantonness in the abuse of the priviledges of the Gospel, goes vailed with the Profession of the Liberty of the Gospel, and while they profess, p. 67they must not be servants to men, they serve their own distempered affections.

Men judg their sins according to the present sence and feeling of the flesh, and the verdict of their sensual appetites pass thereupon, and sit down under the sentence of their corrupt heaats, and they report of things according as they relish them. It is … a sinful soul as with a sick body; the sick man that is distempered in his … mach, and his mouth out of tast, and his pallat out of temper, he reports of his … and diet he takes as his pallat relisheth it: So that in issue he tels you not what in truth it is, but how and what he tasts; bitter things he calls sweet, because they are so to his Tast; sweet things bitter, because they are so to his sence, though far otherwise in themselves. So it is with a distempered heart, though otherwise gracious, if yet it judgeth of them according to the relish of carnal Reason, or the present apprehensions, their inordinate passions would put upon them; Jonah in a feaverish fit of a passionate distemper, he strikes he cares not whom, falls out with God, his Providence, nay, his Counsel though most seasonably, sweetly dispensed to him, Dost thou well to be angry Jonah? Yea (saies he) I do well to be angry, and that unto death, Jonah, 4. 9. his passion like the pallat of his sick soul, relisheth it so, to his own inordinate distemper, and so he judgeth it. 1 Kings, 22. 8. 18. The heart of Ahab was inordinately transported with a venemous hatred against Michaiah, and his message, though it was no other counsel than the Lord had revealed, and he charged him to speak as in his Name; yet it is no wise pleasing to his pallat, and so he speaks of it, Did not I tell thee he would not speak good to me? So it was with Asah, when the Prophet seasonably and sadly condemned his distrustful carriage, 2. Chron. 16. out of an unbeleeving wrathful disposition he cannot relish it, but it carries the tast of an insolent contempt and therefore he imprisons him, and very likely all those p. 68that came to speak for him, and plead in his behalf, for so the words follow, He put many of the … into prison, 10. verse. while he was in the this distemper his spirit could savour nothing nor yet perceive the bitterness of … hainous and high handed provocations of his against the truth of the Lord and his Servants.

Though the mind be enlightened and the judgment also convinced of the sinfulness of the course, and his Conscience is privy … and gives him many a pluck yet he doth not perceive the plague and venome in it, because he judgeth it by the present profit he sees or pleasure he receives from it, and so in truth sees the profit and the pleasure and contentment but sees not the sin; As it is with the bitterest pills when they are sugred or covered over with some pleasing Conserve, they are swallowed readily without the least appearance of distast or …, and the reason is easie to conceave … tasted nothing but the Sugar, though he took the pill down in it. So it is with many base and wretched lusts, which are the very gal of bitterness, and cary deadly poyson with them, they are so Sugared, and covered over with applause and credit in the world, pleasing contents or earthly conveniences, that the mind is so taken up with the sweet and suitablness he eyes in them, that it attends not the right judgment of the sin but lets it down without any consideration; Sathan playes here the cunning Apothecary and therefore orders his Physick so, as he would have it retayned or kept in the Stomach (like a potion) not cast & vomited up again; Hence in all his enticements to evil there is nothing but pleasing contents presented, that the sin may not be perceived or scant thought upon, he shewes the bait but hides the hooke, In all his discouragements whereby he would skare and keep off the heart from duty, he casts in nothing but difficulties impossibilities hazards and …, and … expectation of unsufferable calamities, That the dreadfulness of the danger may p. 69take off the heart from affecting or the mind from attending the duty, thus the sinner sees not the good of the duty, but the ghastly visage of desperate inconveniencies, that seem to attend it. The extorting cozening Chapman, the idling laboring man look only to the gaine they get, not the wrong they do, The Adulterer hath the dilight in his eye that may suit and satisfy the flesh, not the stain he leaves upon his soul and the guilt upon his Conscience, and the wrath he treasures up until the day of reckoning. Thus … Theeves entice their Companion to side with them in their course Prov. 1. 13. we shal find al precious substance, we shall fil our … with …, so the Harlot inveigles the young man, and presents nothing before him, but promises of pleasing content Prov. 7. 18. 22. 23. I have decked my bed with coverings of Tapestry perfumed it with Mirrh Aloes and Cinamon, come let us take our sil of love. Thus she forceth him with her fayre words, and he followes … like an Ox to the slaughter, and a Fool to the stocks, till a dart strike through his Liver and he knoweth not that it is for his Life. So the enimy with the first Adam, ye shal be as Gods Gen. 3. and … the second Adam Al these Kingdoms with al the Glory of them wil I give thee. Math. 4.

On the … he … off from holy services by shewing nothing but the … of the evil that attend them, that so the soul attends not the good of the duty that follwes it. Thus he prevayled with Peter he layd before him the fearfulness of the danger now eminent & such as in … might draw on death, and his thoughts were so taken up with attendance to that, that he had no leisure to consider the loathsomeness of his Lying, Cursing, Blasphemy and unfaithfulness in denying his Master untill at last Christ looked, and he remembred and he went out and wept bitterly, 'Math. 26. Last. so they looked upon the stature of the Giants, the height of their walled Cities, and their Iron Chariots p. 70and therefore did not expel them, and so they became thorns in their eyes and pricks in their sides, Bribes blind the eyes of the wise, because the understanding looks not upon the Cause, but them, and the Cause in them. So the pleasures of sin Bribes the heart and blind the eye.

A fourth ground of mistake is because men judg of the evil of their sins by the patience and long suffering of God, which he extends towards them in the midst of their deservings; that because they are not now troubled they think they shal never be plagued, because that judgment is not presently executed it wil never be inflicted. Out of a secret kind of Atheism and desperate slighting of the truth of God, in the vileness of their sins which it discovers, and the judgments it denounceth. This was their guise in Psal. 50. 21. I held my tongue and sayed nothing, and thou thoughtest wickedly that I was such a one as thy self; but I wil reprove thee and set thy sins in order before thee. Its so at this day, men judge Gods connivance and forbearance a kind of allowance, and because he forbears to reprove them, that therefore he wil never come into judgment against them; when men see the way of the wicked prosper, and them exalted that rebelliously transgresse, they conclude sin is not so dangerous as Ministers would bear men in hand, nor God so severe against it or them. And therfore they look at the threatnings of scripture as words of Course used as in way of policy that God only would awe and scare men but doth not purpose to Condemn men. Why do ye not see (say they) that the most base on earth have commonly the best portion and largest allowance of the most pleasing Contents? do not their Brests run ful of Milk, and their Bones ful of Marrow? do not their Eyes stand out with fatness, and have they not more than their hearts desire? Psal 73. when such as walk with most exactness are fed with bread of sorrow and water of affliction as their p. 71constant diet. We see no such danger in sin, nor no such indignation the Lord bears against it. Upon this ground it was that the prophane, in Mal. 3. 15. make open protestation against the practice of Godliness, We count the proud happy (say they) The strength of this Temptation took Asaph aside, and almost turned him out of the way, Psal. 73. 2. when he saw the prosperity of the wicked, and the Lords bounty and forbearance, he thought he had clensed his heart, and washed his hands in vain. And it was too hard for all the art he had to help himself. The wise man makes it a conclusion, which is setled in the hearts of all the sons of men beyond all doubt, Eccles. 8. 11. Because sentence is not speedily executed, therefore the hearts of the sons of man are wholly set to do evil: because the Lord out of his long-suffering abates them the present feeling of the plagues and dreadfulness of their sins, therefore they determine it, there is no such poyson in them.

The Fifth and last cause of mistake, is want of that 5morning light, that Spiritual knowledg of God, and his Soveraign good pleasure over his Creatures, whereby he hath right to rule in the hearts of men, and they are bound to conform themselves thereunto. When the Lord Christ would discover the error and falseness of that self conceited presumption the Church of Laodicea had of her own worth, Rev. 3. 17. Thou sayest thou art rich and encreased in goods, and wantest nothing: the reason he gives whence this erroneous apprehension came, was her ignorance, She knew not that she was poor and miserable, and blind, and naked; she wanted eyesalve to anoint … eyes that shemight see. The last resolution of these … in a sinful carriage, our Savior refers hither, John, 15. 21. All these things they will do unto you, because they have not known him that sent me. They wanted a spiritual understanding, and right conceiving of, God, and that was the reason they rushed into the croud of all evils in a heedless and careless p. 70duplicate page p. 71duplicate page p. 72way without any consideration.

The Cure of these mistakes is by a double means.

Look upon thy sins as they will look upon thee at the day of death, and the day of judgment, for there they 1will look with a ghastly visage when all the profit thou hast gained, the pleasure thou hast taken, the content thou hast promised to thy self, will take their leaves of thy sins, and of thy soul also, and nothing will be left but the … and guilt of them. It's said of Moses, Heb. 11. 25. That he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin; which were but for a season; q. d. Sin remains alwaies with the wicked, but the pleasure doth not, that is but for a season, and that is but the time of Gods forbearance, that he is pleased to abate the sinner of his dipleasure and vengeance, at the utmost it is but for the term of this life; at the day of death and judgment the pleasures of sin will be out of season. There is no pleasure the Adulterer can take in his lusts then, the Drunkard in his cup, the covetous worldling in in his wealth, they are out of date, the season is gone, the applause of the proud, and the pomp of the great ones is out of season, only the guilt and filth of sin remains, stares them in the face, and gnaws their Conscience, and eats their flesh, as James speaks, as it were with fire, cries day and night in the ears of the Lord of Hosts against them: It is said of the Whore of Babylon at her fall, Rev. 18. 14. That the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, all things which are dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. Let thy sins now appear as they will then appear, when all the pleasing, and dainty, and goodly contentments that thou promisedst to thy self are departed, when all the paint, and colors, and covers are removed, all the sweetness whereby they were sawced are taken away, and thy distempers are stripped naked of them, and thou canst find them no more. The p. 73proud, malitious, …, peevish, that have pleased themselves in their sinful distempers, and continued in them, they will find their sins indeed, and they will find them … down with them in the Grave, where they will rot and rise with them to Judgment, and go with them to Hell: but the thought and remembrance of their delights, the looking upon the Harlots, and sight of their fellow drunkards, shall encrease their torments, and they shall curse themselves, and the day that ever they saw one another. Upon this Consideration it was that … gave the awaking …, 2. Pet. 3. 10. The time will come when the Heavens shall melt with fire, and the Earth, and all the works thereof shall be burnt up. All the ryot of the Epicure, the rage of the Oppressor, the greedy pursuit of the Worldling, all the works on Earth shall be consumed, no more matchings and quaffings with Drunkards, only that that touched the Lord as an eternal God that shall continue, and that is the Holiness of that Obedience that was sincere, that was performed to God; and the guilt of the sin that was committed against him, all the carnal contents that accompany a sinful course, they are but works of the Earth, they will be consumed. But that which was against Heaven, and against God, that will never be consumed, neither wild-fire, nor Hel-fire will consume that; but it will live there to work thine everlasting ruine. Labor therefore to make these things present with thy heart, and real to thy own apprehension, be not deluded by Gods long …, the longer the blow is coming, the heavier it will be; the greater …, the greater vengeance; and thou that … had the Treasury of Gods Bounty and Goodness … out unto thee, Thou treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of Gods … Judgments.

Strive mightily to … a … sight of God himself, as he is pleased to dispense himself in his Holiness and Goodness to the soul to be enjoyed as … all-sufficient p. 74good, beyond all created Excellencies in the Creature. It was the advice of our Savior, Rev. 3. 18. I counsel thee to buy of me eye-Salve that thou mayest annoint thine Eyes, that so thou mayest see. For darkness is not seen but only by the help of light, Crookedness by the Rule of Straightness, He that knows not the Rule of true Latin will never be able to know what is false, and and so it is in any Art, he that knows not the Rule of building, planting, he will never discover an error in either. The like we may say and conceive touching the discovery of sin, because it is a swerving from the righteous and holy wil of God in his government & communication of himself to the Creature, it is a professed jusling with that, and his wisdom and goodness therein. unless … Eyes be anointed with Eye Salve to see him and the purity and spiritualness of his pleasure, as that which only should rule us, and only can satisfie us. We shall never see … in its own nakedness and Nature. And hence it is, when the wicked in the trouble and terror of their Consciences feel the fierceness of the fury of the Almighty … upon their Souls, they know now the smart of sin, and God also as a … Judg, whose anger they can neither avoid nor bear: This is only a Consequent and a fruit of sin, and comes after it. But to see a right the Soveraign … of his Wisdom to guide them, and the all-sufficiency of his Goodness far exceeding all created excellencies, and their … as a going from both these, if they be misguided in the one, they cannot but mistake the other. Job, 42. 4. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye sees thee, therefore, I … my self, when … saw God cleerly, he saw his …: So the Convert in 1 Cor. 14. 24. When he had the thoughts of his heart … ed and made manifest, … … God is in you of a truth, because he neither saw God … himself before, and when he sees the one, he sees …, 1. John 3. 7. He that … sin, hath neither seen p. 75him, nor known him, and these be the terms of true conversion so set by the Apostle, turned from the power of Satan unto God, Acts 26. 18. q. d. they fell short of the Soveraign Power and Holiness of God before.

We have … with the First, What it is to see SinThe second Particular wherein the true sight of sin consists. …: We are now to enquire of the Second, Wherein this true sight of Sin …, that is, we must see it also convictingly; what it is to us in the work of it, as wel as what it is in it self, in the Nature of it. This appears in a double act, or in two Things:

1 We must apply sin particularly to our selves.

2 It must be setled with an over-powring strength, upon a mans own soul.

We shall open both these in the order propounded.

He that sees his Sins convictingly, must … content himself with the … and speculation of Sin, to speak freely of it, to … out the … of his corruption, or to lay … the … thereof in a judicious and pregnant …. This a wicked man may learn, this a right godly man may somtimes do, and yet do himself … … by it. Therefore it is required he must see it with a particular application of it to himself and his ownestate … … … same sentence upon those he … in his own …, which he did upon any when they … presented to his own … in the … without …. There are two things …, we shall open both.

He must … … eye inward, follow his own … home … his own …, and cause his own judgment … … upon his own … and corruptions. This is called in …. … … into a mans … … 1 … … …, … If the people of Israel … … …, and … … … … them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they … them …, … p. 76if they shall bethink themselves: the Original thus; if they shall bring it back to their own heart. They had common apprehensions of sins as they saw them committed by others, or as the word revealed them in the evil of their own nature; but they did not look inward to the loathsom vileness of … evils which lay in their own bosoms, until they came into Captivity. Thus the Prodigal is said to come to himself, Luk. 15. 17. he had lived without any search and consideration of his own waies, lost himself in letting loose his thoughts in the eager pursuit of his own lusts; now he began to take an account of his own course, to see how the case stands with him, in regard of his own corruption and condition in particular. The want of this the Prophet Jeremy makes to be the principal … why men rush into the commission of sin, and continue therein; without any …, Jer. 8. 56. Why is this People of Jerusalem slidden back with a perpetual back-sliding? they hold fast deceit, and refuse to return: they … themselves with some false imaginations, quiet themselves by some self-deceiving mistakes, and so think they need not, and therefore do not return; the reason is rendred in the next words; I hearkned and heard, and no man repented; and why that? No man said, what have I done? they bring not their own carriages to the scanning, each man will be ready to be Eagle-eyed into other mens occasions; and can easily enquire, and question; and determine, and say, others have done thus, and so, here such have fallen, therein such and such have failed, but no man saies, What have I done? and therefore become fearless of what they have done, and careless of what they do: but each man rusheth into his own wretched course as the horse into the battel; because he carries not the light of the Truth into each … and … of his conscience, to pry into the secret … of his own spirit, and judg aright of that, else be his knowledg never so large, he will get little good by it. The … that p. 77hath his full charge, if it carry but level, give fire to it, it hits and kils the live mark at which it is shot, but … hurts the shooter unless it recoyl in the full power, then the man that dischargeth it hardly escapes with life. It is so with the understanding that stands charged, that is, fully informed with a cleer discovery of the nature of sin, it's able to dart in that light into the minds of others, that may dazle their eyes, daunt and wound their consciences with the dreadful apprehensions of the … of their evils, and work their hearts through the blessing of the Lord to a godly remorse for it: but unless their own thoughts recoyl back again upon their own miscarriages, and the falseness of their own hearts, they will never be awed, or humbled, or helped against their own sins thereby. Here is then the rule we must arrest our own souls in …. Achan was never troubled all the while he heard there was an … thing in the Camp in general, but when the lot had found him, and all Israel had charged the evil upon him, then his heart failed. So we should not content our selves to know and confess that sin is an execrable thing in general, which causes Gods gracious presence to be estranged from …, … leave not before we see the lot fall upon Achan; … thou … attach thine own heart, take it in the very fact, and as men deal with mutinous Traitors, drag thy wretched and rebellious heart before the Tribunal of the Lord, and deal faithfully, and give in … against it; say, Lord, there be many Traitors and Rebels abroad in the world which dishonor thy Name, grieve thy …, … thy Kingdom, … thy Law, loe … they be; … … heart that hath been stubborn and proud, it is my mind that is vain, my affections loose; my life barren and unprofitable; here are those … …, unclean …, … desires, no … … … …, …, … here they be, Lord … they ….

p. 78We must also pass sentence impartially without any 2respect to any private end, or ease or quiet, which our own carnal hearts would happily … into the consideration; These and these sinns are as bad and as base and as dangerous in this vile heart of mine as in any heart I know under the cope of Heaven if not worse, nay what ever abomination is in the bottom of Hell, and in the heart of Beelzebub, the spawn of the like sins and of the same hellish nature, are in my soul, they are the seed of the Serpent and that they break not out into the like hideous practises its no thank to my corrupt nature that hinders me, but thy Grace and providence restraynes me from such evils: Its our desperate weakness, and a great part of our misery, that we are apt to be favourable to our own follies, that sin should be of annother appearance & apprehension when we see it in our selves then when we pass sentence upon it as it is presented in the word and in its own nature. Impannel a jury of the most wicked nay the worst of men that have been trained up under the Preaching of the word and confess the Scriptures to be the word of God which cannot deceive, and let the text be propounded and their opinions be asked in that case, 2. …. 1. 9. The Lord wil come in Flaming Fire rendring Vengeance to them that know him not, and obey not the Gospell, they wil all give in their verdict as one man with one mind, such as be guilty of such disobedience, must certainly have this … Vengeance from the hand of the Almighty, but infer, therfore this is … lot and allowance from the Lord, because they have not, they do not obey the Gospel … …, their … do testify so much. Now the case is altered, when its once come to their …, Its another kind of ignorance and …, and … another … acted then … … they.

This … of our … … … self … hearts, the Philosopher in the practise of men even by p. 79the twilight of the common Principles of reason remaining in the decayes of nature observed. For taking it for granted that no man doth wil evil under the name of evil but as it comes under the appearance of som good and that all men easily grant and freely confess that Drunkenness, Injustice, Intemperance are evil, the question then growes how these men judging these carriages to be evil, are daily taken aside with the Commission of them. Ask the Drunkard whether … be unlawful, he consesseth it Loathsom and yet commits it, Ask the Blasphemer whether … be a sin, He wil profess it detestable at one breath, and practice it at the next. Theeves themselves count it unjust that any by cunning should deceive them, cry out of falshood and yet by force … … others; the ground is here. When the question is put and propounded in the general, they wil grant it.; when it comes to their particular for such a man at this time upon this occasion in this company for such an end, to be loose or tipple in this manner this is not unlawful. For in these the Devil casts in … … … or …, Credit, Friendship, Familiarity (as the Lawyers alter the Case by circumstances) and by these he would put another … upon … carriages and … make them … …: … … hearts they give in evidence of … … …, … …, … …, … our …, and … would have the sentence … … them, that in case they may be …, and not utterly …. So David saw sin in the … … … … own …: So … … … … … … … … her … …, when he himself … … of the … … Gen. …. 24. Therfore thou … … thy … with … Application, that they are in thee as in others, and … … in thee … thou … … … in ….

… The … … … … … … them apply … … … … … … … p. 80upon our Consciences: otherwise such a particular apprehension may and will suddenly pass away, and the steams of our distempers wil easily alter and corrupt our understandings, and bring the cause quite about. This particular application wil be as a sudden flash of Lightning sliding through our minds, which leaves all as dark as ever when once over, therefore there must be a settling of this with an overpowring strength, leaving it there enrolled that it may stand upon record in a mans Conscience. The former arrests the sinner, this latter layes hold upon him, pinions him, and imprisons him as it were, until he have answered what the truth hath against him, herein lyes the life and power of a conviction and if it be of the right stamp and carry indeed an overpowring virtu in it, it will appear in three things.

It must be,

1. Undeniable,

2. Immoveable,

3. Victorious and invincible.

Conviction must carry an undeniable evidence with 1it that as the truth hath layd and pleaded an action against the soul, so the understanding may be forced to confess it, and sits down satisfied under the uncontroulable authority thereof and of the truth therein. The Scriptures are so pregnant, reasons so plain, arguments so strong, that though before they did not see, they could not think it, or be brought to beleeve, that their sins were so heinous or their condition so miserable, yet they now know not how to gainsay it. Thus …, when he stood upon the terms of his … at several times when God had terrified him by the discovery of himself, he then yeilds the day, Job. 7. 20. I have sinned what shal I do unto thee Oh thou preserver of men q. d. I have no reasons to alledge, no excuses to make, no arguments to plead, I … the action, I have sinned. Thus the Lord took down the height of p. 81page missing p. 82of the Word, that as it is said of Stephen, they could not … the Spirit by … he …; … …, … though the … would gain say, yet … … and … … … … … 18. 15. Nay, but … … …. So the Spirit follows the soul, and …, and removes these Cavils and Objections that the sinner makes, and still shews and saies, nay, but this is thy sin, and … will be thy damnation; that the sinner is … to yield, and say, this is the Truth, I cannot … it; it is my condition, I cannot deny it; this is my sin, and will be my …, I cannot but expect it.

It must be Immovable, of such …, That as it … … understanding to sit down under the evidence of the Truth as confessing of it; so it keeps it under the sting and … of it. That as it is with the Bird in the Net, the more she stirs to get out, the faster she is taken: So with the sinner, the more he desires to fly from the …, to … it, the more strongly the Truth takes hold of him in the terror of it. So … … where he will, do what he will, go whether he will, the Truth will go with him as a Jaylor with the Malefactor; for the Truth is so … when … brings in the discovery of our sins at the first, that it … a man weary of each …, each condition, …, and of his life, that … could wish not to be; that he may not be under the terror of it. And therefore though he cannot … the Evidence of it, yet he would … some … and shifts that may be to take off the … of the dreadfulness of it, or make an escape from under the stroak and strength of it: but all in vain; for the Conviction is immovable, no man can take it off if God set it …: All the Carnal Reasonings, corrupt Pleas, sinful Cavils, whereby men would put by the blow, they do all vanish before this Light, … … before the Sun. The more he opposeth it, the more he is under guilt, and so the strength of the convicting p. 83Truth; his sins way-lay him in every place; he sees his sins dished out before him on the Table where he eats, lie down with him in the Bed where he rests, when he dreams they terrifie him, when he awakes they are as so many Sergeants to arrest him, & summon him to Judgment they are imprinted in the paths where he walks, and where ever he goes, he sees his sins going before him, and he going to Hell with them.

Such an immovable discovery the Lord set upon the heart of Job when he let in the light of himself, that he sits down in silence, and hath not one word to say, no way to wave it or to slip aside from under the evidence of it, Job. 40. 4, 5. Once have I spoken, but I will say no more; yea twice, but I will go no further. While his friends were talking with him, their Arguments were so feeble that he could find a way out, and could free himself from the stroak, and deliver himself from the dint of the blow: but now the conviction besieged him with such evidence that no carnal reason could relieve him, stops all passages that there is not a muse or crevis for him to creep out, therefore he sits down in silence, sees he cannot ease himself, nor wind away by any pretences and wiles he can devise: It is so with a corrupt heart beleaguer'd with the light, so that if his carnal friends, or ignorant neighbors, his loose companions would strive to take off his thoughts, alter his apprehensions, and abate the edg of the blow, and … to put in bail for him; his state is not so miserable and helpless, nor his sins so vile, quiet your heart, there is mercy with God, and satisfaction in the merits of Christ. He replies, I have often cozened my self with such devices, miserable comforters are ye all. I have thought as you do, and said that which you speak in former times; but alas, these shifts will not serve the turn. Christ came not to comfort sinners, but to convert them also; to humble sinners as well as redeem them; he came to save p. 84sinners but to destroy their sins first; I never found … …. I must not expect the other, nor you neither, This is to … the thoughts, to bring them under … …, under the Authority of the Truth that they may not once hush or …, 2 Cor. 10. 5. And this is that spirit of … the Apostle speaks of, Rom. 8. 15. It makes us … of our slavery, and binds a man hand and foot as it were, fenceth his way with fears, besets his passage on every side with expectation of evil, which he cannot tell how to bear, or how to avoid; he sees he can procure no … nor … to himself, and fears he shall never obtain none from the Lord, dares not commit sin as formerly, yet cannot tell how to be freed from it. So that as Reuben somtimes in another case, so the sinner in this, and I, whither shall I go? Gen. 37. 30. evils appear from every quarter which way soever he looks; if to Heaven, there is Justice to punish; if to Hell, there are Devils to torment; into himself, there is Conscience to accuse; on Earth in his dayly course, there is nothing but his dayly rebellions, and his confusion dayly before his face, and the truth is the more terrible because he hath withstood … so long: That as it fares with the prisoner that had the freedom of the prison while he carried himself fairly, but because he hath been taken in some false pranks, and plotting an escape, he is now laid in the … and … with …, now never like to … … day, or look for any breathing. So here, my estate is more miserable because I have opposed the means that might have procured my help, the checks of Conscience, I have smothered or slighted; many warnings I have had, but willingly forgot them; many sad reproofs that laid hold … me, but I studied how to wrest away my thoughts; it's just with God to load me with Curses, which would never look for comfort from God in a right way. … ever there was a …, I am he … … ever God … a Rebel, he wil … ….

p. 85Lastly, This Conviction is victorious and invincible, It doth not only stop the mouth of carnal Reason, and the cavils thereof, but also displaceth it. It not only stills the … and pretences of the sinner, but makes the mind and heart give attendance to the Truth, to be subject thereunto, and to take the impression thereof. For otherwise the sinner thus tyred and dauled by the dayly laying at of the Truth, may either happily lie still, though not cavil with it; yet not give attendance to it. But in a stupid kind of fortish sencelesness, wear out the blow, and so wast away to nothing, as many out of sorrow have become like senceless blocks. Though their practice hath not been evil, yet they have had no heart to good; or else they fall to desperate prophaneness or professed opposition; when they cannot escape the prison, they'l break the prison, and lay violent hands upon the Keeper, Rom. 1. 18. They hold down the Truth in unrighteouness, they imprison the Truth while the Truth should imprison them, therefore when the Lord will settle an over-powring Conviction, he makes it victorious: Therefore he is said, Job, 36. 9, 10. When he shews them their transgressions, he commands that they return from iniquity. … … break out, and over bear and force the mind and heart to give attendance and take the impression of it, as when the Conqueror and he that … got the Victory, comes in place, all give attendance unto his …. The want of the maintaining this … power of a Conviction, I take to be the cause why many even of Gods own are so … taken aside after althe helps they do enjoy, and the resolutions they take up. I have often wondred when a man hath be … with much bitterness in daies of humiliation such and such evils, begged for grace and help, and resolved against them; they know and … it's in … to cavil, or think to make an escape, … they reject such a …, and … they … … aside, and that strangely and … they fall … … … p. 84duplicate page p. 85duplicate page p. 86with their old corruptions. They do not put this Conviction into commission, they do not make it victorious, or maintain it so, or the Authority thereof, so as to force attendance. When the … is good, and … Mill tight, why goes it not? There is not so much Water kept as to drive it, because they have let out the stream and strength another way; therefore there is not so much power in a conviction as to force attendance, and to drive the heart to obedience. Therefore as Paul said to Timothy, 1. Tim. 4. 15, 16. Meditate upon these things, and continue in them, or be in these things. So you must be in a Conviction, and continue under it if you would find it victorious, and then it wil be so first or last, and wil eat out al opposition, though with much ado. As it is with Aqua fortis if laid upon Iron, though it do not at once, and suddenly, yet secretly and insensibly it wil eat the Iron in pieces. So it is with a Truth which God wil make victorious, it will lie upon the Spirit of a man, and eat there, and work there, and break out effectually, it may be many yeers after, Job, 33. 16. this is called the sealing of … Instruction; which is to add Authority and Soveraignty to it, as when the Edict was sealed by the intreaty of Haman, there was no opposing, no gainsaying of it.

The Reasons of the Point (which was the fourth Particular attended in the Explication) come now to be considered: And these are two:

The first is taken from … order which the Lord in theReas. 1. way of his providence and work of nature hath placed betwixt the mind and the …, the understanding and wil of man. these two faculties have a near kind of correspondencie, the one to help forward the work of the other. Knowledg and understanding is the inlet into the soul nothing comes to the heart nor … work upon it but so far as knowledg makes way, &c ushers it in p. 87(as it were) into the presence of the wil and leaves an impression thereof upon it. … use to say that which the eye sees not … heart rues not; that which the understanding conceives not, the wil is not, nay cannot be affected with, if Good to embrace it, if evil to be … and troubled therewith. Its the method … observed in Gods dispensation towards him, when his heart was brought to a hatred against the evil of his waies, Psal. 119. 107. By thy Commandements have I got understanding therefore I hate every false way. Unless a right understanding go before, a through hatred wil not follow after. As it is in the body unless the stomach receive and hold and convey also the purgation either to the spleen or lower parts of the body be the receit never so strong yet wil it never stir the humor, or trouble nature though the distemper were abundant & dangerous. Because in an ordinary course of providence, there is no way … come to the humor but by this means. Its so in the soul, be the truths delivered attended with never so much terror and power, able to sink the heart of a sinful Creature as not able to endure the dread of it, if yet the understanding conceives not the nature of such truths, nor convey and settle them sadly and Convictingly upon the heart, its not at all stirred in the least measure therewith much less troubled with the danger discovered therein, because they cannot reach the heart, therefore can never work upon it. As through ignorance we commit sin because we see not the evil in it, so after commission we sorrow not because we apprehend not the … and danger Acts. 3. 17. I know that through ignorance you did it, as did also your Fathers, 1. Cor. 2. 8. For had they known it they would never have crucified the Lord of life, It fares with a fals-harted … as it did with the wife of Jeroboam, when she came to enquire of her sick Child, all the while she had received no certain evidence, whether it would … or live her heart was … and comforted p. 88in her present hopes. But when Abijah the Prophet related the message of the Lord; Come in thou wife of Jeroboam why fainest thou thy self to be another? behold I am sent to thee with heavy …. the Lord … bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam and wil cut off him that is left, get thee home to thy house, and assoon as thy feet enter into thy house the Child shal dy, this sunk her hopes, so fares it with a fals-harted ignorant sinner he may be quieted with the persent appresion, of his good condition when he hath no evidence to the contrary. But when the Lord sets up an overpouring conviction in the mind w^ch may give in … and infallible witness of its … and … estate … thou fals-hearted hypocrite why … thou thy self to be another? and befoolest thy self with vayn hopes behold here is heavy tidings sent unto thee from the Lord of hosts. thou art yet in the gal of bitterness in the bond of iniquity and if thou diest so, thou … certainly … from the presence of the Lord for ever. This fastening the truth upon the conscience comes home and forceth the heart to feel and to be affected therewith.

Ignorance frustrates wholly the end of all the means we use, and the endeavours we take up for reformation Reas. 2.of the evills of our hearts and lives. For.

1. First it misleads all our endeavors that they succeed not; it misleads our whol course and our proceedings against our sins, and out of mistakes presents our corruption as appearing sweet through our misguided apprehension, and causes us to oppose our Saviour Christ and his truth that would subdue them. This Paul professed to be the ground of his … carriage, when he should have persecuted the enemies of the Church he … the Church and that out of …, Phil. 3. 6, concerning zeal I persecuted the Church, so far from finding his sin bitter to him … having his heart broken from it, as that … … the p. 89practice of it with the greatest expression of zeal, as that which deserved the best of his endeavour and wherein he might spend the best of his pains and that you may see how ready we are in the dark to put up Snakes in our bosoms instead of sweet …. He nakedly and ingeniously confessed whither his … led. I did verily think in my self I should do many things against the Name of Jesus. Acts. 26. He that conceived it as a matter of duty to do such things, his heart upon such grounds under such delusions would never be carryed against these, Ignorance wil make a man swallow the worst … any change, 1 John 16. 2. the time will come that they who shall kill you, will think they do God good service, that which keeps the soul insensible of the bitterness of sin, and from feeling of the weight of sin, that will also keep it from being weary of it, and willing to part with it It's a popish practice and a principle of the power of darkness. Ignorance is the Mother of devotion; when men cannot tell how to lead themselves or see their own way you may lead them … way you wil, and if once Satan can keep a man from the sight of his sin he wil keep him sure under the command of sin, and drive him to do his drudgery and that with delight and resolution, when the Phylistians had put out Sampsons eyes, they led him whither they would and made him do what they would. Paul in his ignorance strikes a Friend instead of an Enemy, and strikes he neither knowes nor … who. Acts. 9, who art thou Lrod?

2 As thus ignorance misleads a mans whol course that it succeds not, so it perverts the power of all means that they profit not, misapplies al the means he hath, and so spoyles them and his own peace and comfort also insomuch that his corruptions grow more strong and incorporated into him and he more unwilling to part with them, and thats the fruit of ignorance; the promises and comforts of the Gospel which do not appertain p. 90to him, he catcheth greedily at them, as a portion provided for … and goes away with that dream, and swels unmeasurably … presumption and selfconfidence; Are not al the Congregation holy? what needs this severing and differencing of men? what are … who would be the only Saints? are not we al sinners, and Christ dyed for such and for us as wel as for them? the threatnings and curses which the Lord denounceth against the ungodly … cast them away with a fearless contempt, as such as do in no wise touch them or concern … particulars, and therefore should not trouble them; tush say they we have made a league with death and a covenant with Hell, and when the destroying scourge passeth over, it shal not come near to them, Isay. 28. 15. yea they do commit evil, and yet say they are delivered by the Lord, Jer. 7. Thus they grow … and hard hearted, the wholsom counsels and directions of the word, which should be light unto their feet, and a discovery of al their failings, they slight the exact attendance thereunto as that which God wil not exact at their hands, because in many things we sin al, and so become careless or negligent as though they should not answer, and the Lord would not exact what they cannot do. Its with an ignorant sinner in the midst of all means as with a sick man remaining in an Apothecaries shop, ful of choycest … in the darkest night: though there be the choycest af all receipts at hand, and he may take what he needs, yet because he cannot see what he takes, and how to use them, he may kill himself or encrease his distempers, but never cure any disease: so here with an ignorant person, he enjoyes al means, and yet abuses them, he may encrease his corruptions, but not reform them, his heart grows more hard, and his corruptions more strong, but he cannot in reason expect any help.

Hence we learn by way of Instruction: An ignorant Use. 1.… is a naughty heart, whether out of blindness they p. 91do not, or out of prophaness they wil not understand, and look into their estates. He that never saw his sin aright, he never yet saw good day, nor the least appearance of any saving work of Gods grace in his soul, yea he is so far from attaining such a condition, that in truth he is not in the way to it. We wil go no further than the consideration of the former truth, and then let thy Conscience be judg in the case propounded. Suppose then thou shouldest hear a distressed creature under the terror of his Conscience freely and ingeniously lay open his condition unto thee. The day is yet to dawn and the hour yet to come, that ever he was touched with any sence of sinful rebellions, never yet Godly sorrow came into my soul, nor remorse into my Conscience for al my many … before God and men, wounds of Conscience, burdens of spirit, and brokenness of heart for our daily departures and provocations they are wonders and riddles. I have heard of such dispositions, but am a stranger to the having of the least work that way. I appeal to thy own Conscience, what wouldest thou think of such a party, who thus confesseth, and is as he confesseth? me thinks I hear thee answering, and thy heart shaking before thou givest it, What! senceless of his sin! how fearful is his estate! Where there is no sence, there can be no sorrow, no repentance, therefore no Christ, nor pardon, nor Salvation, for unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Never broken, God will never bind, so far from being good that he is not yet in the way to receive any good. Wo unto him that hath thus sinned, and thus continues. Oh poor ignorant Creature thine own mouth hath condemned thee, thou hast past … against thine own soul, thou never hadst a true sight of thy sins, therefore thou couldest never have a true sence of them, or sorrow for them; thou never hadest a sound apprehension, thou canst not have a through contrition for them. It came not near thy heart to break it, when it never touched it in p. 92Truth, nay, it never was within thy ken to see it in aright manner: See yet thy misery further in enlarged these several Degrees following:

There is no evil thou canst prevent, no good thoucanst receive, no mercy thou canst expect: and when thou hast looked sadly upon these, thou wilt have thy load.

Liable thou art to all the hazards that Devils can 1devise or intend, men endeavor, or thy self deserve. A blind man is subject to all kind of injurious dealings from the feeblest persons, yea, from Children; plot they may, he cannot perceive; do they may, he cannot avoid. It is so with an ignorant person in his Spiritual condition, he is a prey to his sins, and a spoyl in the hands of Satan that catcheth him at his pleasure; and carrieth him headlong and hood-winked to everlasting destruction, every snare entraps him, allurement intangles him, temptation foils him; he can see nothing, prevent nothing, but goes like an Ox to the slaughter, and a Fool to the stocks, and knows nothing: Nay, were there no Devils to tempt thee, thou wouldest run into all evils of thine own accord. An ignorant heart like a blind man, stumbles at every block, fals into every ditch, yea, rusheth with greediness to the practice of the most hellish evils: It was the Jews case, out of ignorance they chose Barabbas a Murderer, and rejected the Lord of Life; they were violent to take away his blood, that came to take away their sins, and this out of ignorance; for so our Savior in his prayer, Father forgive them, they know not what they do, Luke 23. 34. He that walks in darkness, knows not whither be goes, though he go to Hell; 1 John, 2. 11.

There is no good he can receive from any means remaining 2in this blindness. Counsels do not take place; … cannot perswade, Judgments, Threatnings do no awaken, Admonitions, Exhortation are of no force, they are beyond the reach of all these, they cannot come p. 93at them, therefore cannot work upon them, But as in some desperate diseases when they are come to the greatest extremity, as in a Quinsie, when it hath swelled beyond measure, that speaking and swallowing are wholly hindred, each man that sees will easily conceive, and conclude, Alas, he is but a dead man, he can take nothing, therefore it's not possible he can continue. The Disease indeed is curable, but how should his Physick cure him, or his Diet nourish him, if he can take neither, there is no good to be expected, to be done, when he can take nothing that can do him good. So it is in the soul, ignorance stops the passage of the power and work of al Gods Ordinances: There is no corruption, but the means are mighty through God to relieve, if they could be taken; were the heart proud, if the Word were received and welcomed, it would humble it; if stubborn, it would meeken and calm it; if unclean, it would purge it. But ignorance stops al the passages, intercepts the work of the Word, the understanding conceives it not, and the heart cannot profit by it, nor be bettered therewith.

There is no Mercy thou canst expect: And this is able 3to … a mans heart and hopes in irrecoverable discouragements; for though our endeavors prevail not, means prosper not, yet mercy can outbid both, and relieve beyond both; but if mercy suffer thee to be blinded, mercy wil suffer thee to be damned. It's Gods own resolution expressed, Isai. 27. 11. They are a people that have no understanding, therefore he that made them, will not save them, nay, he will shew no mercy to them. It's the determination, he hath … as a conclusion beyond controul, Hos. 4. 14. The people that do not understand, shall perish; It's the last execution he will put forth, 2 Thes. 1. 8. He will come in flaming fire; rendring vengeance to them that know him not. They are the mark in the first place, against which the fiercest of his fury expresseth it self. They that wil not p. 94now see their sins by the word, they shall be forced to see them, and to look them over by the flames of … at the day of Judgment.

Hence again it follows: To be hard to be convicted is Use, 2.a dangerous sin, and a dreadful curse to the party that is tainted with such a disposition of spirit. We wil go no further than the Doctrine delivered, and that will give in undeniable evidence to both parts of the collection:

1 To be hard to be convinced, is a dangerous sin; 1and that more waies than one.

He sins against his own soul; the happiness and 1peace of it as being accessary, and that in a special manner, to his own everlasting ruine, and imbrewed his hands in his own blood as it were; when the helps that God hath appointed, provided, and now also presents before him, and puts into his hands, he willingly, yea wilfully rejects, refuseth the use of them, and opposeth the work of them, and so consequently his spiritual good that might come thereby. When the Patient out of sullenness, and waywardness of spirit, refuseth the Physick or Diet provided for his good; at last Nature becomes so low, that he is utterly disenabled to take it, and so is starved and …, each man concludes, he was accessary to his own death. So when God hath sent his faithful Servants to admonish thee, his Ministers to convince that gainsaying Spirit of thine, to ransack the corruption of thy cankered Conscience, so that the core might have been searched, and thy distempers …. Who knows what good might have been wrought, what benefit thou mightest have received, hadst thou but suffered and received the helps provided for that end; which when thou diddest oppose, and not suffer thy self to be convinced, thou didst oppose thine own everlasting welfare, and therefore art guilty of thine own blood, Luke, 7. 30. The Publicans and sinners justified God, and were baptized; but the Scribes and Pharisees rejected p. 95the Counsel of God against themselves, i. e. against their own good and happiness. Yea, so the Apostle to the gainsaying Corinthians, when he had disputed long, and manifested the Truth in the cleer evidence of it, Acts, 18. 14. and they gainsayed still, and blasphemed, he shook his rayment in sign of distast and indignation, and said, your blood be upon your own heads, I am clean, he was innocent. And so one day thou wilt be forced to confess, and to cleer the innocency and faithfulness of Gods Servants, I was the cause of my confusion, my own wayward gainsaying Spirit, else I might have been recovered; they did their duty with much painfulness, but my perverse spirit would not receive that counsel, which would have directed and comforted me, but now condemns me. So Paul to the contradicting Jews, Acts, 13. 46. Because ye put away the Word, and judg your self unworthy of eternal life: thou wilt then be forced to yield it, I am unworthy that ever the Promises of the Gospel should establish my heart who would not be convinced of the goodness of them, unworthy that ever the Gospel should be the savor of life to me, who have cast it behind my back as unsavory Salt.

He sins against the Ordinances, the Faithfulness, Truth, and free Grace of God therein revealed and dispensed 2for his everlasting good; he casts all these behind his back, and out of a slight neglect wil not give the least entertainment thereunto. This quarrelling disposition, like a squeazy stomach, spils the Physick when he cannot endure to take it, flings away the dainties provided when he is not willing, nor hath not a heart or appetite to feed on them; and how hainous this contempt is, the Apostle intimates, Hebrews, 2. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?

It sins against Gods Spirit in a more than ordinary manner; he would seem in his gainsaying frame to try 3masteries with the Lord, and in the highest strain of rebellion, p. 96to contest with the Almighty Spirit of Christ in the utmost defyance, as refusing to yield in the least appearance, I call it the highest strain of … to try Masteries with the Almighty, and that may be thus observed.

When our Savior was to leave the world, and to go to Heaven to possess the glory he had with the Father before all worlds, he comforts the hearts of his Disciples touching his departure with the Consideration of the incomparable benefit that would accrew therefrom, John, 16. 7. It is expedient for you that I go away, so if I go not away, the comsorter will not come, but if I depart I will send him, that is, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus would not dispense the powerful work of his Grace in such an abundant measure, unless he ascended unto the Throne of his Grace; for the largeness of the dispensation thereof, and that in reason until that time, The Spirit was not yet given, because Christ was not yet glorified, John, 7. 39. When he ascended up on high he then gave gifts unto men even for the Rebellious, Eph. 4. 8. And herein appears the powerful dispensation of his Grace, and operation of his Spirit, then when the Comforter is come, he shal convince the world of sin, he shal set down the Consciences of the Sons of men in the sight of their vileness and guilt: This is as it were … Master-piece of the work of the Spirit, when he is sent from Heaven, from the Father and the Son with full Commission and Power, from our Savior, advanced to the highest pitch of supreamest excellency of his Kingly, Prophetical, and Priestly Offices, and that for this end in the first place as the prime and hardest work to convince the world of sin: Now to gainsay and contradict this Spirit in this Work, for which he hath received this Commission, is to contest for Masteries with the Almighty, Heb. 12. 25. If they escaped not who refused Moses who spake on Earth, how shall we escape if we refuse him that speaks from Heaven? And this is the p. 97highest strayn of rebellion, when a … wil not give way nor yield in the least but … out this authority of the spirit from having any entertainment, even in the suburbs, … our apprehensions and understandings, while we continue in this gainsaying frame; there wants nothing but light and malice to make it … sin against the Holy Ghost. Here is the hainousness of the sin;

See the Curse of it that is dreadful.

Thou makest way for Satan in the means which are 1appointed by God to oppose him John 13. 27. The Devilentred into Judas with a sopp, so he enters with an admonition and counsel while thou doest oppose that truth which should help thee against his power and subtilty, but yieldest thy self fully to be possessed by both, Thou wilt not be guided by the counsel of God, therfore thou shalt be cousened by the delusions of the Devil.

Christ in his righteous dealings and according to thy 2just deservings delivers thee up to the power of Satan, whenas thou wast willing to yeild up thy self to his possession, So Paul. 1. Tim. 3. 20. delivers Hymenoeus and Philetus unto Satan, and in Church discipline obstinacy in the least evil, is answerable to the greatest offence, because by that means the soul shakes off the authority of the Lord Jesus, and so is to be cast out.

Because thou hast gainsayed his dispensations, he wil 3have no more dealing with thee Math. 23. last. you shal see me no more. He wil pass by and not speak with thee, He wil instruct …, admonish others, but he wil … thee no more, reprove thee no more. He wil not change a word with thee in the …, 'My … shal not alwayes …, Gen. 6. 3. That spirit which thou hast resisted and opposed shal stir in thee and strive with thee no more, thou wouldest … see, thou shalt not see therefore; thou wouldest not have thy conscience stirred it shal be seared therefore.

p. 98Thou art every day ripening for …, and reserved 4in the chayns of darkness til the judgment of the great … and therefore thy condition is like that of the Devil himself, thou hast only the liberty of thy chain, that is, liberty to encrease thy sins and thy plagues. when the Lord would prepare a people for destruction he saves. … a. 6. 10. he seals them up under the curse of a … mind and a hard heart. Hear ye indeed but understand not, and see yee indeed but perceiv: not; … the heart of this people fat, and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and convert and be healed.

… Instruction, why men of the greatest ability for Use, 3.depth of brain and strength of understanding are most hardly brought to brokennes of heart and to be wounded with Godly sorrow for their sins; the ground is from the point in hand, because they are hardest brought to see their sins; the power of carnal reason doth so mightily prevayl in them being now in their natural condition, the strength of their abilities becomes wholly perverted to their own hurt, and the maintaining of their own distempers, their subtilty deceives themselves & they abuse the sharpness of their wit to beat back the authority of the … and to wind away from the evidence of argument that is … to their view. They shut out the light of the truth from coming into their hearts. and therefore its not … it should work upon them … or effectually prevail with them for God. Hence that peremptory … of the Apostle not many wise men after the flesh 1. …. 1. 26. because the wisdom of the … is enmity against God. Rom. 8. 7. … it is as a weapon in the hand and under the command of our fleshly hearts, It fortifies most strongly against the evidence and essicacy of the truth, wil not suffer a conviction to fasten upon the Conscience, and therefore no Godly sorrow to affect the soul of a sinner. As it is in war when the trenches and outworks are slight, p. 99and the wal of the City low, and the Castle weak, its no matter of danger or … for a wise Commander with compitent forces to surprise it, to carry the place, and Conquer the people their defence was but feeble, but were their out-works strong, their walls high, the Citadel and Castle impregnable, it wil abide many assaults and stand out long, even against the … power that shal … them, and happily be forced to raise the … and … … place as not able to prevail. It is so in our spiritual condition, when the Lord coms to lay siege to the soul of a sinful creature who is now under the power of darkness, and the soveraign command of his corruptions which rule as supream Lords over him: There is no Conversion without Conviction (as hath been shew'd in … the point) Its not possible the heart should be content to leave sin unless the understanding clearly see the loathsomness of it, the out-works and walls of the soul are our apprehensions and understanding, now where there is wiliness, depth and subtilty of …, large reaches of carnal reason, these the Apostle calls strong holds. 2. Cor. 10. 4. and they wil abide the battery and force of the most plain evidences, strongest arguments that can be devised and alleadged with the best skil, and yet hold it out against all. where the opposition is not so strong the entrance is more easy, and subjection is sooner yielded to the evidence of the truth. This is the ground the prophet gives of that invincible stiffness, pride, and contempt of Babilon, as being unteachable under al dispensations, Thy wisdom and thy knowledg they have perverted thee, or caused thee to rebell, Isa. 47. 10. It was the reason of that stubbornness of which the Lord complains in the Scribes and … the great Rabbies of the world. Luke. 7. 30. 31. the Publicans and sinners … God because of John Baptists doctrine, and so yielded themselves and were overcome of the evidence of the truth. but the Scribes and Pharisees p. 100rejected the counsel of God. They put it by and would not suffer the counsel of God to take place or to prevail with them. Paul never found worse entertainment and greater opposition than at Corinth, and Athens, the … of sciences and Store-house of learning and learned men, the excellency of whose parts and the conceit of … and wisdom did so transport them, and puffe up their earthly minds, that they slighted the simplicity that was in Christ and trampled upon the meaness of the Gospel, Acts. 17. 18. Phylosophers of the Epicure and Stoicks they encountred Paul and said what will this babler say? and v. … some mocked; As though the … of the meaner sort, though they had no heart to receive the Gospel yet they had no skil to resist, or were able, and … durst not grapple with his arguments. These only who had more learning, they gave the encounter, and openly contemned both his purpose and doctrine, As it is with men who are but weak and unskilful at the weapon, not able to … a blow or put by a thrust, it's no hard matter to get within them, but those who are … of defence are dextrous, and handy at their weapons, there is little hope to hit them or to come within them. So here, men of meaner capacities and of shallow reach, they yield more easily and are forced to let fal their weapons, but such who are skilful are masters of defence, can devise devices, the subtilty of their own reason is … by … suggestions, they wil latch allmost any blow, and put by the plainest truth for the present push, that there is no hope to come in to them. And this also is the ground why your painted Formalists, and subtil hypocrites who are grown cunning in the craft of profession, (for so they make it) they are so hardly brought on to beleeve. Publicans and sinners and Harlots shal goe before them. And for this cause it is our Lord so marvailously distasts this condition, Rev. 3. 17. I would thou wert either cold or p. 101hot, Lukewarmnes is worse than prophanness, not that fals shewes are worse than grosser evils when heart and life, outside and inside are both ill, but intruth because such are more difficult to be convinced of their evils, and therefore not likely to be amended or brought out of them q. d. As though the Lord had sayed if thou wert openly naught, thou mightest be brought to see & acknowledg thy naught iness; Here Paul issues the strength of that resistance against the Lord and his Gospel 1. Coloss. 21. Enemies in your minds by wicked works. but in the original, Enemies by reason of your discourses, set or attent to evil works. It's the first step to wisdom to become a fool, and thats hard to him that is highly in love with his own wit.

Examination: we may hence gain certain evidence Use, 4.whether ever the Lord … made any entrance upon this great work of preparation and so any expression of his purpose … to call us to himself to this day or no. happily the Lord Christ hath been knocking oft at thy dore as he passeth by in the dispensation of his Ordinances in the wayes of his providence in which he hath walked towards thee, hath called in upon thy Conscience, presented the guilt of thy sins and layd heavy things to thy charge, and knocked hard at thy dore, awake thou that sleepest, so that thou hast heard a confused noyse as it were that made thee a little to look about, but hath the Lord ever lifted up the latch as though he were resolved to come in? hath he layd hold upon and begun to grapple with that Graceless heart of thine and held this … of discovery of sin to thy mind as to constrayn thee to look wishly upon it indeed to see it clearly and convictingly according to that which hath formerly been spoken? Know and conclude thou maiest, thou art in the right way, and the Lord begins to deal with thee as he doth with those that he intends good unto. But art thou a stranger to these dispensations of the Lord and tradings with thy mind p. 102and heart? Thou mayest indeed have notice and hear a rumor of Christ passing by and the excellency of his Grace, but of any purpose of making his abode with thee, thou never couldst have the least … thereof unto this day.

How then shall we know whether we fall short of this Quest.true sight of sin or no?

We will take both Particulars mentioned, into Consideration,…. that so we may take a true scantling of our own estate, and track the Footsteps and Impressions of the work of the Spirit upon our souls. I will touch the first in a word, and entreat more largely upon the Second, to wit, Touching the convicting sight of sin, because there lies the life and stress of this Doctrine.

If then we see sin cleerly, naked, and in it's own Nature, 1namely, this resistance and opposition against God as the greatest evil of al other: It wil thus be discerned, This sight will keep the heart in cold blood from careless adventuring upon the commission of sin. You must stil remember my purpose is not to dispute of sanctifying knowledg, or to give in evidence of that, for we are in this place to look at that light that is let in in this preparative work, and this first Branch of it, which how far it may go, or whether it can agree to an Hypocrite, I will not now dispute, that only I wil infer from it, is beyond exception; That in cold blood, i. e. Take such a man out of the hurry of a Temptation, when he is himself not drunk with some overbearing distemper, for then he knows not where he is, or what he doth, and therefore may adventure to do any thing, but when a sinner is come to himself, and the sight of his sin as before disputed, it wil suffer him carelesly to adventure upon the Commission of that which appears such in his own apprehension, even the greatest evil of all. The dreadfulness then of this duty apprehended, wil drive the soul to a stand, and stop the sinner in his proceeding, that he dare as well eat his p. 103flesh, and take a Lyon by the claw, and a Bear by the tooth, as to have his hand in that which is the heaviest plague of all in his own Judgment. There is no man living, but as he hath somthing which he prizeth as the chief good, in which his soul takes content, so the loss of that, or that which is contrary to that, he looks at as the most unsupportable evil that can betide him. That the Soldier should take the lye or challenge, and have the contempt of cowardice put upon him, and sit stil, and not seek to revenge the wrong as he conceives it, he cannot bear it. That the … yong man should sel his possessions, and part with all to the poor, it is such an unsufferable loss, he will rather part with Heaven, the very hearing of it makes his heart heavy, and himself to go away sorrowful, Mat. 19. 22. Yea, that which Nature hath made dear to all, to see death before a man, and danger such as wil undoubtedly hazard the loss of life; how do we fear the thought of it fly the sight, avoid the occasion of it? didst thou see thy sins and the hellish resistance of thy heart against God to be a greater evil than al these? didst thou really judg them such, beleeve them (as the men of Niniveh did Jonahs threatning, Jonah, 3. 5.) to be such? It's certain it would amaze thy heart, that thou wouldest be as loth to rush into evil, as thou wouldest be to run upon a Spears point, or cast thy self into the mouth of the Lyon to be torn in pieces. Take a rebellious sinner beset with the horror of his Conscience, so that he sees Hell gaping for him, and the Devils ready to seize upon that hellish heart of his, how loaths he then the least appearance of those corruptions, the evil of which he sees in the punishment only? how tender is he to avoid the occasion of them? When the evil of thy punishment is now over and out of mind, didst thou but know that resistance and rebellion of thy heart against God, his Grace, his Spirit, his Truth aright, as greater than all those evils, and is now present with thee, thou wouldst be so far fearful not heedlesly to adventure p. 104upon the practice of it. When Judas saw whether his Covetousness had brought him, be flung away his thirty pieces, Matth. 27. 3. And it's certain, all the Scribes and Pharisees in the Synagogue, and all the money in the Country of Judea, could not have prevailed with him had they been then tendred to him; much more had he seen the … had been a greater evil than the vengeance that did …, Acts, 19. 16. 19. When the evil spirits prevailed against the seven Sons of Sceva, fear fell on them …, and many of them had used curious Arts, brought their books together, and burnt them before them all. When the hearts of these Converts were pricked, and they craved Counsel what they should do, Peter amidst many other Counsels which he suggested, ads this, verse 40. Save your selves from this crooked generation; You that are in Parthia, Mesopotamia, Phrigia, Galatia, you … amongst many professed Enemies to the Lord Christ & his Truth, therefore save your selves from their Society, and verse 44. They came and abode together, and sold their goods and parted them as every one had need.

… to this you disobedient Children and rebellious Servants, who have the Commands of Parents and Masters, Counsels of Servants and Neighbors dayly suggested and pressed upon you; listen to this you heedless Professors, who have the Word and Precepts of God dayly published in your Ears, and proclaimed in your hearing, and you go away informed, convinced, and the heart cannot gainsay but it ought to stoop, your carriages should not be wayward, your words sharpish, your behaviors uncomely: and yet you dare, you do …, carelesly adventure at the next time and … upon the same sins; you may talk what others say by …, … profess in words that sin is the greatest evil of al, but in truth you never saw sin to this day, much … saw it to be the greatest evil of al. A little evil, were is but the … of so much of thy blood by stripes, or the p. 105loss of so much money, wert thou punished in thy purse for such wretchlessness, they would cause thee to set thy mind, and heart, and hand to thy work, the loss of thy life, and soul, and Heaven, and God, and al would prevail more with thee; but in truth thou never yet knewest what the loss of these meant, and therefore not what thy sin is that brings the loss of all.

Thus much for the sight of sin …; come we now to enquire of the second, AND HERE MAKE WE 1PRVIY SEARCH WHO THEY BE THAT SEE SIN CONVICTINGLY, by the Evidence of the former Doctrine, and that will be an Inditement against four sorts of Persons, whose Practices give in undeniable proof, that they fal short of this Dispensation of God aright, they never found this Work upon their minds.

The first are such, Who are unwilling to come within 1the Rule and discovery of the Truth, that will lay open a mans loathsom corruptions, which are yet beloved, and lodg too neer the heart. If he might have his wil, he would not meet with that Truth that would meet with his Courses, whereby he gives his sensual Spirit exceeding great content; unwilling to hear that to be an evil, which he is unwilling to reform; loth that such and such either dispositions or carriages should be condemned as wicked, which he is loth to part withal; he loves not to have this or that to be a Rule, or a Duty, and yet he fears it wil prove so, and therefore desires not to hear of it, lest he should be forced to practice it; and therefore he is most at case when he is least within the sight, and cal, and command of such Truths which he knows do so narrowly and deeply concern him: and therefore he deals in this case with the Dispensations of the Word, as men use to do that are in debt and danger of Law and Creditors; they fly the Country when they know the under Sheriff hath any Writ out against them, or else betake themselves to some Priviledg places, where p. 106they may be freed from the Arrest of the Officer. So these labor to be there where the Truth in reason is not likely to exercise any jurisdiction, they willingly desire to be without the reach of it, and therefore willing to live in such places under such Ministries where their Consciences may not be troubled, their hearts and waies searched, and they brought to yield subjection by an over powering hand. And here somtimes it comes to this, and that by the confession of their own mouths, when God hath broke in upon their hearts, that they have been afraid to be in the company of such men that they suspected would either convince and cal to such practices, or yet to come to the Congregations while such Truths were in scanning and consideration: Or as a Formal Knight once professed (in the Country from whence we came) he would not come to the Assembly until the Minister had made an end of such a Text. Thus … Spirit was carried towards Micaiah, when al his Trencher Chaplains, the false Prophets, had dressed a Dish on purpose to fit his tooth and turn, had brought in a Verdict that they knew would please his humor, and content his carnal desire; Jehosaphat in simplicity of heart, that he might indeed in sincerity seek after the mind and counsel of God, enquires, Is there here any Prophet of the Lord that we might enquire of him? He answered, There is none but one Micaiah, and I hate him, for he never prophesieth good, but evil to me, 1 Kings, 22. 8. He did not suit his humor, nor please his pallat, therefore he was not willing to hear that from him, that happily he should be unwilling to do. So they in Isaiahs time, they would give the Prophet his Text, and tel him what Points he should handle also; They said to the Seers, see not; and to the Prophets, … not right things; prophesie smooth things: Isai. …. 10. And so dealt those …-hearted … with our Savior, when he pressed Spiritual and searching Truths upon them, they were not able to digest p. 107them; this is a hard saying, who can hear it, and from that time saies the Text many of his Visciples went back, and walked no more with him, John, 6. 66. and hence it is persons of this temper are most pleased when their sins or duties are discovered in some general discourses, because they then suppose they may creep away in the croud, and their particular either conditions or corruptions will not be attached, and they and them brought to the tryal; but when it comes to meet with him in the narrow, and touch him in his particular, these persons begin to storm, Acts, 7. 51. 52. they heard Stephen quietly rip up the rebellious carriages os the Jews; but when he came home to their doors, and held the Candle to their Eyes, and gave in special Evidence to convince them also, they were not able to endure it: Yestiff-necked and hard-hearted as your Fathers, so do ye; they were Slayers of the Prophets, and you the betrayers and murderers of the just one; when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and gnashed upon him with their Teeth, &c.