The Application of Redemption, Book 10 (4 of 13)

The Application of Redemption · Book 10 (4 of 13)

p. 152The evil of the tongue is a kind of restless unweariable 3untameable wickedness, the practice of sin … such that somtimes a mans years permit not the pursuit ofit, or the time suits not, or the place fits not, or a mans ability and strength makes unapt and wholly unable to take it up, so nature desires … and rest, and the commission of sin is at an end, the Thief must leave his trade of robbing, the Drunkard his company, the Adulterer his lusts, when age and sickness comes in upon him and their able strength is now spent. But the evil of the tongue begins with a man in his tender years, when the child knowes not the mistery of sin nor yet hath ability to practice it, yet he can prate and talk of it. this p. 153grows up with him to his riper years, and when his strength and nature decayes and a man grows towards his grave yet the evil of his tongue grows lively and active; and when a wretch is able to do nothing yet then is he able to read lectures of villany, and wickedness which he hath learned in his life and practiced in the leudness of his carriage from his youth. As it is with old Huntsmen when their legs fail that they cannot follow the game, yet they wil sit and hear the cry and lewr after the hounds, when they can do little else. So here, This I take to be the meaning of that of James which exerciseth the apprehensions of interpreters, and its mervailous hard to find the sul mind of God therin, James. 3. 6. It sets on fire the whol course of nature and it self is set on fire of Hel. i. e. by the hellish delusions and temptations of Satan.

Two things I suppose are ospecially implied in the text.

1. The violence and untameableness of this evil cannot be stopped, it carries al before it; not onelyonly propounds a temptation unto evil, but counsels, yea commands; if not that, entreats; if that take not place, pursues al these, perseveres to importune, til the importunity kindles in the heart like a mighty flame which cannot be quenched. So when Demetrius had pressed his companions with such prevailing arguments of profit …, you know that by this trade we have our liveing presently they were al upon a flame, and the voyce prevayled by the space of two hours, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Acts. 19. 28. when they heard those sayings so they were kindled and carried away with Herods speech, the voyce of God, and not of man Acts. 12. 22.

2. This untameable evil of the tongue hath not his dates and periods, his spring and fal as it were, but sets on fire the whol course of nature, i. e. grows up with us from our beginnings, and goes along with us in our daily p. 154course until we ly down in our graves. When children can know nothing nor learn to do nothing, yet they wil easily take in naughty words and tattle them when they know not what they talk. In a word this is the ful meaning, so near as I can guess, whereas the feebleness of our childhood unfits us for the knowing and practicing of some evil, our … years frees us from some, as childish sports and vanities, decrepit age utterly … us to most, the … evil of our tongues, sends in a veyn and currant of wickedness, through our whol course, the folly and … of our child-hood unfits us not for this, or our riper years frees us not, but such count it as suitable to their condition, our decrepit age hinders us not, but the vanity of the tongue casts a venom through al, nor is a man wearied with such … as that he craves end or ease, but is as fresh at night as he was in the morning, in his youth as he was in his childhood, in his decaying age as he was in his riper yeers. This hellish fire … few el and matter to nourish it in a mans whol course, therefore it's sayd it's set on fire of Hell. Because our natures are easily tainted with this poyson and takes it in almost unawares, you cannot keep children from learning the language especially thats nought which they hear, nor can you force them to leave it or forget it, they grow up to ripenes and readiness in it without either care or pains, Joseph swears, the Court oath, and the children speak half Ashdod and half Hebrew.

That thou mayest see how far thou art deceived in 4slighting the evil of thy words, know if there be any evil in the world it is in-manner and measure in them James 3. 6. the tongue is a world of evil, an University, an Universality of al wickedness in it, and its an Ornament of al evil besides, (the word wil carry both, and I would include both) what ever evil is on earth amongst men, in Hell amongst Devils and the damned, what ever, wickedness the manners of al Countries have invented p. 155the Condition of al men have practised, or the hearts and … of men contrived the tongue shares in al these. It's the chief secretary to al estates of sin and sinners, the Interpreter of mens minds & Translator of these evils betwixt man and man. In a word, what ever evil is in the heart or mind of a mans self, the tongue hath vented it, whatsoever hath been done by others, seen or observed, the tongue hath related, reported it. It's that which wil cover al the foulness, excuse or lessen the loathsomness of the most vile evils, hath varnished and decked over the most detestable practices with some pretences of liberty or indifferency hath been the Lawyer which hath undertook to plead the cases of the vilest waies of evil that ever were.

Having seen the vileness of sinful words; Now let us 2proceed to consider of our THOUGHTS, the first stirrings of the distempers of our hearts that suddenly and presently vanish away, men imagine there cannot be such evil in them, nor are they to charge themselves so deeply for them as Ministers would bear them in hand. No man say they can see or know the thoughts of our hearts, & therfore they cannot be offensive or scandalous to any and therefore its not possible they should be discouraged from doing any good they desire or intend, or provoked to the practice of any evil that may be dangerous to themselves or dishonourable to the Lord. besides they appear not só soon to our apprehensions but they pass away in an instant, and are as though they had never been, and what great evil is in the, and why should the soul be so deeply … with them and the sinner be forced to feel so great sorrow for them? this is to make them worse than they are, and our selves more miserable than we should be.

The evil of thy thoughts and stirrings of the distempers Answ.of thy heart are hidden and spiritual, and they pass away before thou canst perceive them, much less judg of them aright, but didst thou but see them as they p. 156are, and upon thorough search couldst truly find out the bottom of that baseness and filth that is there, they would appear exceeding loathsom and hainous to thine own apprehension, as he said, the sin of the soul, is the soul of sin. The sin of the body, is the body and carkass of corruption; that is, in the sinful motions of the soul, of the mind and heart, there is the life, poyson, and power of corruption, putting forth it self in the utmost activity of the venom and malignity of it. The Actions of the Body are tainted with the pollution of sin by consent, as the distempers of the mind and heart appear in them, and are acted by them; the body is as it were an accessary in the evil and wickedness; the mind is the principal, that contrives all, useth only the body as an Instrument to vent its own venom and wickedness by.

More especially see the hainousness of the evil of thy Thoughts and Heart, in the Particulars following.

First, In regard of God. The sinful poyson of thy 1thoughts, doth estrange thee from God, carry thee in professed opposition against him; so that the sinner comes by this means to resist the Almighty, as it were to his very face.

Let me open both these in a few words.

Thy inordinate thoughts takes thee off from yielding 1attendance to the Lord, that thou fallest off from him, and the guidance of his wisdom in the Rule, before thou fallest into any sin: Here came in the first breach between God and the soul, and by this the breach is continued and encreased dayly in our departings from him. This I know (saith the wise man) that God made man right, but he sought out many inventions, or findings, Eccles. 7. last. He was made for God, and should have eyed him directly, and kept himself under the operative dispensation of his spiritual Government, in which he would not have been awanting to him, but he p. 157would have carried him to his end, and kept him so in happiness, that is, carried him to himself, and kept him with himself for ever. But he found out findings; so the words. When he should have looked to the wil of God as the Compass only appointed to stere his course by, he should have looked to the Law which the Lord had found out as the line and level of his life, which would not have failed to have led him to his Duty, and quickened him in it. He was not content with the Rule and way that God had found out, but he finds out an Invention out of the vanity of his mutable mind, looks to that, and is wholly led aside by that from the Lord. So that when he should go from Rule to Rule, for the guidance of … dayly course, he goes from one vanity to another, from one vain thought to another, from one device to another; as they said, let us devise Devices. As in a wel ordered Army, break the Rank in one place, and ye bring ruin and confusion upon the whol: Here was the right order in which we were made, and we should have kept Rank and File; the mind and judgment should only have attended God; the Will attend our Judgment, the Affections wait on the Will, the Actions issue as the execution of al. Here Satan routed Adam, brake this Rank upon the first …, takes off the Mind from attending the Covenant, Command, and Direction of the Lord, The day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die, and listens to the … and forgery of Satan, Ye shall not die at all; and so fals into the commission of the sin, which brought condemnation upon him and his whol posterity; and … the … came in thus between God and the soul, so it's dayly made greater by this means. As a man once having missed his way, the further he …, the further he goes from the right way. Such is the ravelling of our own imaginations, we … our selves the longer we continue in them. After we are overborn with the hurry of our thoughts, we are … a … with our …, … God, p. 158his Promises, out Directions and Comforts, cannot tel where to find our hearts. This the Apostle gives as the fountain and first cause of those overflowing evils, and fearful back-slidings from God, Ephes. 4. 17. The Gentiles … the vanity of their minds, and so become strangers from the life of God. Thus David by the sinful devices of his own mind departs so far from God, that he cannot find any evidence of his Love, or sence and feeling of his favor; he plots the commission of the sin, then the covering of it, therefore sends for Uriah, would have sent him to his house; when that took not, but resolves the contrary, then he plots his drunkenness that he might forget his resolution; when that succeeds not, he sends him back to the Army, and delivered him up to the hand of the Enemy in the issue. So by inordinate attendance to unruly thoughts, the sinner is taken aside so strangely from the Lord, and so overwhelmed with the guilt and pollution of sin, that partly he dare not, and many times is so bewildred and …, that he knows not how to recover himself, and come home to God.

The evil of our thoughts carries the soul in professed 2opposition against God; for it is by the Spiritual Operations and Actions of our minds that we meet with the Lord, and have a kind of intercourse with the Almighty, who is a Spirit. For al outward things are for the body, the body for the soul, the soul is nextly for God, and therefore meets as really with him in the Actions of Understanding, as the Eye meets with the Light in Seeing; which no other Creature can do, nor no action of a bodily Creature doth. Our Sences in their sinful and inordinate sweryings, when they become means and in-lets of evil from their objects, they meet with the Creature firstly, and there make the jar: It's the beauty of the Object that … up to lust by the Eye, the daintiness of the Diet that provokes to … by the tast, the harsh and unkind language that provokes p. 159to wrath and impatience by the Ear: But the Mind and Understanding toucheth the Lord directly, meets with his Rule, and with God acting in the way of his Government there, and when it goes off from the Rule as before, and attends its own vanity and folly, it justles with the Almighty, stands in open defyance and resistance against him. This also appeared in Adams sin our of the folly of his own deluded thoughts, he would have unthroned the Almighty, and hoped by Satans Counsels to set himself in the room of God: Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil, Gen. 3. and he saw it to be good to get knowledg, and so purchase a Deity to himself, and so put it to tryal: thus the wicked openly profess, They say to the Almighty, depart from us, we desire not the knowledg of thy waies, Job, 21. when they desire not to have the wisdom of God rule in their minds, but set up their own foolish imaginations, they say then to God, depart from us; they shake off the Authority of the Truth, and with that the Soveraignty of the Lord himself and his Government: Hence the Apostle, Collos. 1. 21. They were Enemies, and where lay that enmity? in their minds, in their foreign, in their Discourse, in the exercise of the largest act of their Understandings, wherein the use of the whol faculty appears, and this enmity appears in the fruit of it, which wil undoubtedly follow, namely, evil works. Hence Rom. 8. 7. the wisdom of the flesh is said to be enmity against God; not an enemy to him that would somtimes cross and oppose him, but Enmity, the whol being and working of it is carried in constant opposition against the Law. And upon … ground it is when the Apostle Peter would shew Simon Magus the hainousness of his sin, he staies not in the outward expression, but cals him directly to consider the thoughts of his heart, where that … language was minted, and from whence it proceeded. When … … that by laying on of the hands of the Apostles, the holy p. 160Ghost was …, he perceived how he might get a booty, and therefore he fel to bargain, tries the Market, what shal I give? &c. The Apostle carried with a zealous indignation against so vile a demand, which cast so much contempt and contumely upon the holy Spirit, and the gift thereof, answers with a holy disdain, and denounceth a Curse. Thy money perish with thee, q. d. thou art in a perishing condition, and this money of thine which thou conceivest wil further thy proceedings, wil perish also; yet he ads a caution for his recovery: Oh pray, if it be possible, that the thought of thy heart may be forgiven, Acts, 8. 22, 23. q. d. Thy sin is so hainous, so execrable, so detestable, it's almost past al possibility of pardon, it's not in the tongue which uttered the word, nor in the hand which offered the money, nor yet so much in thine eye that saw the work done, for all these met not so directly, so immediately with the Lord. The words were propounded to the Apostles, the money should have been payed to them; but Oh, it was the hellish villany of his mind and apprehension which did so basely esteem of the gifts of Gods Spirit, as if they might be valued or purchased with money. He did so conceive, as if the holy Spirit of Grace should Lackey after his lusts, and be at the beck and command of such a proud rebellious wretch, as that it should be disposed and dispensed according to his will and humor. This was in his mind and thought, and this made it so hainous an evil, that the Apostle put it to a may be, if it be possible; so that the hellish evil of our imaginations, and cursed contrivements of our thoughts, may put a man almost beyond possibility of pardon: So in the sin against the holy Ghost, it's said, our Savior saw their thoughts, Mat. 12. ver. 25. those gave in evidence of the direfulness and inconceivable hainousness of those contumelious speeches against our Savior, when they said, He casteth out Devils by Belzebub the Prince of Devils; It is not said he heard their words, though blasphemous, but p. 161he saw their thoughts, they issued out of their apprehensions, their thoughts being calm and quiet, it was not some base pang or passion; but when they had no provocation, their own thoughts carried them against the evidence of all Truth, meerly out of the venom of their own hearts. This was unpardonable blasphemy; and in truth there is no Creature but a reasonable Creature that can close not with the Creature only, but with God in his Rule, that can sin, nor is there any sin properly but where the mind and heart is an Ingredient in it. So the ravished Maid, though her body was abused, yet her person was not charged as guilty of sin, nor she polluted therewith, because her judgment was not there assenting, nor her heart yielding thereunto.

Look at thoughts in regard of al the other evils of our 2lives which are acted, and appear in our dayly course, we may thence come to take a guess at the greatness of the evil of our thoughts, for it will appear they are the causes of all other evils, and therefore it cannot but be concluded there is more and worse evil in them than in all the rest. A mans imaginations are the forge of villany, where it's al framed, the Ware-house of wickedness, the Magazine of al mischief and iniquity, whence the sinner is furnished to the commission of al evil, in his ordinary course; the Sea of abominations, which overflows into al the Sences, and they are polluted into all the parts of the body, and they are defiled and carried aside with many noysom corruptions, Matth. 15. 19. Out of the heart comes murders, adulteries, thefts; there is the nest where al these noysom vermine are bred, Matth. 12. 34. Out of the abundance of the heart the tongue speaks, and the hand works: If there be pride and snappishness in a mans speech, stubbornness in a course, … in a mans Conversation, there is abundance of al these, and more than these within. The Imagination of our mind is the great Wheel that carries al with it; That loathsom and execrable wickedness, p. 162worse than which the Sun never saw, the Earth never bore (that unpardonable siu excepted) the killing of the Lord Jesus the Lord of Life, the seed of it was, a thought cast by … into the heart of Judas, John, 13. 3. it was warmed with a covetous disposition, and so brought forth that hideous treachery, the … of the Lord Jesus.

If … be evil in the tongue that … it, is it not worse in the heart that indites it? Wickedness in our actions and speeches, are but the brats and brood of our minds and hearts, there they were conceived and fashioned in al the parts and proportions of wickedness as in … womb, a mans practice doth but like the Midwife, bring them into the world, into open view, it makes the evil appear, but evil in the very hainousness was there before: Nay, the Mind hath not a hand in the plotting only of al these evils, but it puts forth a special power in the execution of the works, which otherwise would be at a stand. The mind doth not only conceive, but it travels for deliverance, and brings it forth into action; that is the meaning of the place which carries both depth of difficulty and excellency in it, Isai. 5. 18. There is a Generation which draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with Cart-ropes. We wil open two things here.

1. What these Cords and Cart-ropes are.

2. How they draw.

First, Cords are, Counsels, false pleas, forged and plausible pretences, which are ordered and contrived as though they were twisted together as a Cord, strongly to perswade and prevail, and they are Cords of vanity, which the vanity and misguided apprehension of carnal … hath twisted. Cart-ropes have the same sence, only with this aggravation, it implies more strength and subtilty; the most sedulous contrivements, the most subtil and restless underminings of colorable excuses that may take off al the strength of argument that oppose the p. 163way, … inconvenience that might hinder the work, so that they carry al before them; Thus God is said to … the Cords of the wicked, Psal. 129. 4. when they drew their Plow over the backs of the righteous.

To draw iniquity, is by the strength of cunning contrivements, the greatest subtilty of the most fained pretences that carnal Reason can coin; by these I say prevailingly to perswade, and carry even without fear or opposition to the practice of sin, that is to draw, &c. that look when the Load is at a stand, and the Cart at a stall, they set more force to it, and draw it out notwi hstanding al … and resistance to the contrary: So here. Thus the unjust Steward, Luke, 16. 3, 4. he said within himself, I am resolved what to do: Thus the Harlot when the yong man seemed not willing to listen to her first Allurements, but came on heavily, she put to her Cart-rope, and plucked him by force, Prov. 7. 14. 21. See the contrivings of her carnal reasonings as the twistings of so many Cords to make even a Cartrope, to hale him with a kind of violence to this villany: Arguments she … to perswade him, impediments she removes that may hinder him: Her Arguments are subtil, and secretly contrived, she pretends (which is not common amongst Harlots) her Profession, yea, serious practice of Relsgion, she had Peace-offerings with her, that is, the remainders of them, and so provision, and that in a plentiful manner for her support; and that which was more, then she had offered her free-will Offerings, that of purpose she came to meet him, that God in providence had put the opportunity into her hands, Lo, I have found thee, and that al conveniences and contents are fitted at home: As touching any inconveniency that might be suspected or feared, that coast is cleer, the good man is not at home; and thus she … him with false pretences. So the Prophet declares the prevailing power of carnal Reasonings, that they carry a man uncontroulably in his course that he cannot be p. 164stopped, Isai. 50. last. Hence it is the wise man passeth Sentence of a mans estate by the common rode of his thoughts. As the mind is, the man is; as the frame and constant stirring of the heart, so is his estate and condition; Prov. 12. 2. A good man obtaineth favor of the Lord, but a man of wicked devices will he condemn, because such a man is an ungodly man, who must not look to find favor with him, or acceptance from him.

Again, Look we at the large extent of this spiritual 3wickedness of the mind, which cannot be bounded; the unavoidableness of it, it cannot be prevented; and in both we shall see, and be forced to confess the aggravation of this evil: There is a compass wherein a mans words and actions may be confined, a man cannot vent the venom of his words, or express his poysonous and wretched practices amongst all men, not amongst many, many times; but there are no limits nor bounds to be set to the thoughts of a mans mind, or the lusts and desires of the heart. Were a man never so ful of malice and hatred, he cannot murder many; happily he dare not adventure upon one, but yet his mind can plot, and his heart desire, and both privily assent and approve the the destruction of many millions, yea, most of the world at one clap: as the Tyrant that wished that al in Rome had but one neck, that he might cut it off at a blow. Herein is the extent of the murder of the mind; this may be multiplied and acted every hour of the day, and each minute of an hour. The Adulterous mate hath not liberty, and it may be not possibility to satisfie his lust by commission of it with one whom his heart is … after, yet he can lust after her, and many thousands more, and the thoughts of the mind can inwardly conceit the villany, … give assent to it; and this is the Adultery of the heart, this may be acted and continued each moment of the day. So that there is an endless, boundless kind of infinitness in this evil of the mind, it p. 165meets with an infinite God, and so swerves in an infinite manner from him.

Again in an ordinary course, and look at the power of the Creature, it cannot be stopped nor hindred, we may gag the tongue, manacle the hands, fetter the feet, and so prevent their actions, yet in al places, at al times upon al occasions in al companies, let all men do what they can, the thoughts will be working, and the affections of the heart stirring after such evils as they be addicted to.

As the evils of our whol course have their rise and 4cause from our thoughts, so are they nourished also hereby: Our imaginations are the womb where wickedness is conceived; So are they also the breasts and dugs where they are maintained and nursed up, the sinews of the strength of our distempers lie in the lustings of our mind and heart; when the soul sucks the sweet of a distemper by dayly meditation, lies at the dug as it were, draws out the Spirits and Quintessence of any noysom lusts and temptations, by dayly attendance, bestowing his mind and thoughts thereupon; whence the soul comes to be incorporated into a lust, and wholly under the strength and power of it, So that though the evil is not outward and scandalous, yet it becomes more hainous in the sight of God: as it is in distillations, the spirits of Wine, and some drops of Chymical Oyl, are of more force than a great part of the substance taken in the grossness of its Nature, and do more cheer and quicken, and comfort in a cordial manner: So it is in the soul, by the dayly musing and acting of our thoughts, upon the occasion of any corruption presented; our Meditation is the distillation which draws out the Spirits of pride or passion, or lusts, and becomes marvelously confirmed in these, and transported by these to our spiritual prejudice, they grow strong in us, and we under the power of them, thus Jonah while he sits down in a muddy distemper and attends the vanity of his own p. 166thoughts, he rows drunk with his passion, so that he neither knows God nor himself; not only doing that which is naught, but he wil … that which he doth, I do well to be angry unto the death, saies he. Hence it is the Apostle suggests that Caution, Rom. 13. last, Make no provision for the flesh; the Meditation and musing of our minds, is the plentiful provision we make for the welcoming and maintaining of any distemper: when we let our thoughts loose to view the compass … any harsh carriage, and injurious dealing, we make provision for anger and revenge, and the heart comes to be carried with violence of wrath and rage; Thus and thus he dealt with me, so unkindly, so injuriously, and that to my disparagement in the presence of such; and this sets him al on a flame: when we pore upon our infirmities and weaknesses we provide for discouragements, and we sit and sink down under them, and so strengthen those corruptions, that otherwise have received their deaths wounds, and would be weakened and wast away. As it is with old decayed Bodies which are subject to fainting fits, and are ever and anon swooning away, the powring in of some Cordial Water wil fetch them up again, and ad new strength and cheer. The Flesh here, is original corruption; the old Man, which in the Saints is dying away, and decaying dayly, but our Meditation puts as it were Aqua vitae into the old mans mouth, adds vigor afresh, and somtimes makes it with violence to prevail.

Lastly, while the swarmes of vain imaginations keep 5through-fare in our minds and the noysom steems of sinful affections are rising, boyling, and bubling in our bosomes, there is little expectation that the power of any meanes should come in upon the soul or prevayl with it for good, the croud of imaginations stop the passage so that there is no comming to speech with the soul, the hurries of … to transport it and take up the whol strength of it, that it can neither attend nor stay upon p. 167any thing besides, 2 Cor. 10. 4. therefore called the strong hould, where Satan intrencheth, and fortifyeth himself against al the means of Grace … may cast him out, for while the stream of the thoughts are turned another way, the ear hears nothing, the understanding minds nothing, the heart embraceth nothing, there is no place or room there, and thence it is, as our Saviour speaks, the word cannot take place in them, John. 8. 37. therefore the prophets advice to Jerusalem when he would have her clensed and saved, he directs her to dislodge her vain thoughts, wash thy heart O thou Jerusalem that mayest be saved, how … shal vain thoughts lodg within thee Jer. 4. 14. those vain thoughts are those carnal reasonings whereby the sinner would put bye the authority of the truth, that so the sinner might neither see the loathsomness of his sin; nor the danger of his estate, or the necessity to recover himself out of it, and if these thoughts lodg in him there wil be no entertainment for the power of any ordinance or counsel that wil take place with him, nor reproof awe, nor exhortation perswade, he casts out and keeps off any thoughts of any necessity to be washed, and so to be saved. If then by those vain thoughts thy heart is estranged from God, and carryed in …, against him, If they be the cause of al sins committed and continued in, if the hindrance of al means that might procure our God, then is their evil exceeding … and therefore we should so judg it and so be effected with it.

Wee come now to speak of a third … alleadged 3to excuse sin and to shew the slight … the soul … of it, viz. suppose the failing was in practice, yet because the matter or thing wherin the offence was committed was but SMALL, men look at it as a petty business, a very trifle, not worthy … taking notice of, and therefore account it as an … of folly and childish weakness to be troubled with so … a thing, or to p. 168have the heart deeply affected with it more than the matter deserves, and a man in reason should. It was but taking of a penny or shilling too much, putting off a cracked Commodity without suspicion by slight of hand; lazying out a mans time, ever seem to be doing and yet do little; out-bid a man in a bargain by a wile, and he never the wiser; these are but tricks of wit matters of no consequence, and what needs Conscience be troubled for these? a man is … the worse for them why should he judg the worse of himself or his condition? such … in a mans coat make it never a whit the more unseemly, such poore petty things in a mans carriage, makes it never a whit the more uncomfortable, As the eye of man happily discerns not these things, the Law cannot reach them nor the magistrate punish them, why should any man punish himself or … a torment and rack to his Conscience for them? The things are little and petty.

The less the things are more hainous thy fault is, and Answ.the greater thy guilt as it thus appears. The less LOVE thou shewest to the Lord if thou wilt BREAK with him for a trifle, Sets the honour of his great name, Obedience to his holy Law, contentment to his good spirit at so low a rate, as that thou wilt dare to justle injuriously against al these for a very shadow, which in thine own account is as much as just nothing, where there is truth and strength of Love the hardest things seem light and things of the greatest worth little; As Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and it seemed short and time little because he loved her, Gen. 29. 20. Ask me what thou wilt for dowry sayd Shecher, Hamors son and I will give it, only give me the mayd Gen. 34. 12.

Amongst men in ordinary converse which lyes within the compass of humanity he never prizeth a mans friendship or fayor who fayles him in common curtesies, and deny their desires, or refuse to gratify them in things p. 169of no great worth. I thought I might have commanded a greater matter at your hands than so; but when I see you stick with me for such a trifle, there is little love when so little a matter can hinder the work of it. A gracious heart wil part with all for Christ, and thou wilt part with Christ and his mercy rather than part with a little prosit or pleasure, nay, with a beggerly lust that thy heart takes delight in: The Apostle cals it, The labor of Love, 1 Thes. 1. 3. Love is laborious, laies out it self to give content to that which is beloved. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you, John, 15. Thou dost nothing for the Lord, and thy love is very little, or else that which is, is nothing worth in Gods account: Look at the practice of Judas so helluh and detestable as not to be named nor remembred amongst men; and the loathsomness that lay in the bottom was this, That he sold the Lord Jesus for thirty pieces of silver; a goodly price, saies the Prophet, Zach. 11. 12. Turn but the Tables, judg thy practice by this pattern, thou sets the Gospel of Christ, and the Government of the Spirit of Christ at a far lower rate, even the thirtieth part of the price that he set, yea, sel him to satisfie a base lust or humor of thine own heart. It was a just reproach whereby Absalon checked the falsness of Hushas, who forsook David as he conceived in his distress, and followed his Enemy into the Camp: Is this thy love to thy friend? to leave him thus in the lurch, and do nothing for him in the day of distress. The reproof was sharp and just, so far as reason could reach: but it fals far more justly, far more heavily upon thee; Is this thy love to the Name of the Lord Jesus that thou should'st slight it? to his Law, that thou shouldst despise it, … it? is this thy love to his Spirit, that thou shouldst grieve it? and that for a trifle, for a twopence, for a booty, for a bargain, which wil make thee a beggar when thou hast got al thou canst gain by it; and that when there is no allurement worth the looking after p. 170that might entice thee, no danger or difficulty that might hinder thee in thy duty and receiving a blessing and comfort therefrom.

The less the thing is, the less care and conscience thou 2expressest for the good of thine own soul. When thou wilt run the hazard of … happiness for the gaining of a little profit, so many pence in the shilling, so many shillings in the pound; nay, but the giving satisfaction to a lazy, sinful, sensual humor. Alas poor Creature, hadst thou no more for thy soul but pence and shillings, a little laziness for thy life and happiness, and Salvation, dost thou value thy soul of no greater worth? Our Savior in the Gospel sets a higher price upon it, Matth. 16. 25. 26. What will it profit a man, if he should win the whol world, and lose his own soul, … what shall he give in exchange for his soul? q. d. A. man should be a loser by the gain, and a begger by the bargain if he had all. And yet deluded Creature thou wilt sel thy comfort, the peace of thy conscience, the salvation of thy soul for a thing of naught. The whol world is vanity, nothing, and less than nothing, and thou wilt part with thy happiness for that which is far less than that which is less than nothing. When Naaman came to the Prophet to be cured of the Leprosie of his body, and so to save his Natural life, and he was directed and enjoyned by the Prophet to wash seven times in Jordan; he began to take it in distast as a course that was too mean and base for his comfort and Cure, Are not (saies he) the Waters of Pharpar and Damascus better than the Waters of Jordan? His Servants seasonably and wisely check the carelessness of his own safety and recovery; Had the Prophet commanded thee some great thing, would'st thou not have done it? How much more when he saith, wash and be clean? 2 Kings, 5. 12, 13. The greatest labor should have been undertaken to preserve thy life, what carelessness is this to neglect the least that may procure thy safety? It's so p. 171here, our sick, sinful, leprous and polluted souls, lies now at hazard ready to perish; had the Lord enjoyned us to the heaviest task, things of greatest danger and difficulty to be done and suffered for the safeguard of … souls, would we not, should we not have done them? parted with a limb for our lives, our lives for our souls? and shal we not be willing to part with the paring of our nails, these poor, empty, lying vanities, for our everlasting happiness? what Athiestical carelessness is this? that men should live as if they had no souls to be saved, nor sins to be pardoned, not care to do the least thing that might procure their everlasting good, and greatest welfare.

The less the things … in which thou givest thy self liberty 3to transgress without any touch or trouble, the greater the wickedness of thy heart. For such a kind of course argues undeniably that thy soul is fully possessed with the sourse of corruption, when it runs out at every chink, runs over upon every occasion, and is … to the commission of evil. And a man is put beyond al color of reason that may excuse, or any pretence that might lessen it before God or men: It argues the Veins are full of blood when the body bleeds in several parts without provocation; It's certain the channel is full, and the stream strong, when it fils each creek, and goes speedily and swiftly when there is no gale stirring. So it's certain, it argues strength of distemper, and sourse of sinful corruption in the soul, when the heart is carried to the commission of evil upon each trifling occasion that is …. The less the thing is that might draw thee, the greater the corruption of thy heart, that like a mighty stream transports thee to the practice; so that there is no reason to be rendred, but only the wretchedness of thy own Spirit, why thou fallest into such an evil. When the Lord charged the Israelites with the consideration of his kindnesses, and their departings from him, Judg. 2. 2. he thus presseth them, Why have ye p. 172done this? So when this question shal be put to thee, Why art thou lazy in thy place? careless of a command, so easie to be done, so dayly before thine eye that thou canst not but attend it? Why dost thou outreach in thy dealings, cheat in thy sellings? Why there is nothing to be alleadged but the poysonous impostumes of corruption that break out of thy heart, when there is no temptation without to provoke a man, no bait to entice him, no fear of evil on the one side to force him to sin, to avoid danger; there is no weight of worth in any profit or pleasure by thine own confession, that might justly stir thee, or take thee aside to go against Justice, Command, Conscience, thy own Comforts and …: There is nothing but the power of thine own lusts, the perversness of thine own will, the strength and distemper of thine own affections, that … and hurries thee to the Commission of such sins. It was the evidence of the leudness of Israels whoredom that did prostitute her self to al Lovers without gift, Ezek. 16. 30. How weak is thine heart? The strength of her sinful inclinations was such, that she did not stay til temptation came and surprized her, but she sought temptations before they came, and did prostitute her self to every occasion with eagerness. This also was the guise of them who transgressed for a morsel of bread. As it is in the ballance, when a dram or a grain wil fetch up the scales, it … it fully loaded with the weight that carries it strongly that way. When thine own mouth confesseth the things are of no consequence, nor worthy consideration, no sweet of … that might delight, there is no price of any commodity that might carry any weight with thy wil and affections to cast them that way. It's an argument undeniable, and beyond gainsaying, thy heart is loaded with lufts and corruptions, that so easily cast the ballance that way, even the least dram, the least inkling of any occasion that comes in that scale. The less the occasion, the more and p. 173stronger thy corruption, and such as cannot be excused, therfore it's usually most severely plagued by the Lord, because there is more sinfulness in an action where there is less provocation, and more heart and affection to it. As it was in the Offerings of those that cast into the Corban; the Widdow that cast in two mites, the Text saies by our Saviors Verdict, she cast in more than they all, Luk. 21. 3. because there was more heart there, more unfained bounty and liberality, though the money and gift was less: So it is here; There are most noysom corruptions in thy heart, vented upon the least occasion; the thing thou covetest it may be is but two mites, a penny or twopence in the shilling more than is just, when mens necessities force them to seek supply. But there's a sink of immoderate covetousness in thy heart, that against command and conscience, knowledg and comfort, thou wilt transgress for a trifle. The less the thing is, the easier the command of a Governor; the more hellish thy carelessness and perversness that wil not attend it, when it is before thy face, and may be performed without any trouble at all. And this is the cause why the Lord most commonly doth most severely punish such a practice, because there was more heart, and so more poyson in the sin, when there was less occasion to commit it. So it was in Lots wise, Gen. 19. 26. She looked back from behind him, and she became a Pillar of Salt. It was but a cast of her countenance, a look of her eye, one would have thought it had been but a little matter; the thing was little and easie, and therefore more easily it might have been discharged, therefore the … desire was exceeding strong, and the provocation exceeding great, and the … sharp and remarkable when the Command is plain and express, the Duty so open before us that it cannot but be discerned, easie and familiar to be …. It's a … current of corruption and … impudencie, to sin in the face of a command, and under the p. 174eye and check of Conscience, therefore our saviour leaves a starre as it were, a memorandum upon that part of the storie Remember Lotts Wife, beware how you go against an express charge in services which may easily be accomplished, Luke. 7. 32. … like you may see Numb. 15. 31. 32. in the man that gathered sticks upon the Sabboth, look we at the thing it self, what can any man imagine of less moment, and smaller consequence, to gather a few sticks, he was alone, he entised no man to the like evil, and it should seem not in so open a place, for they found him, but if you look into the foregoing verse its a special instance of one that should sin presumptuously, there is most of the venom and poyson of a mans heart in such a practice.

Wee have now done with the first sort of those pretences wherby our carnal reason would beat back the evidence of the truth, and cast in some foggs and mists some forged cavills, which might cloud and eclipse the the ful discovery of the authority of the truth, that so the filth of sin might never be discerned, nor the heart consequently affected therewith as it should and here Satan useth al the subtilty and policy that lyes within the compass of his power. For he knows ful wel if he dash the work of the truth in the very entrance and beginning of it, he wil then keep it from ever coming to perfection. If the strong man can keep his dore shut, he must needs keep all his substance and his house safe also, and herein answerable lyes the primitive and chief work of the Holy Ghost he is sent of purpose to convince the world of fin, to silence al flesh and to captivate every thought; and therefore we have labored to chase away those …, to … those clouds and fogges, which darkned the shining of the truth of the Gospel; when the sinner cannot but see the evil and danger of sin, which is now so evident it cannot be denied.

The second sort of cavils is here. He cannot but the second sort of Cavilsconfess the danger, yet he vainly hopes he can prevent it p. 175and that further quiets him and encourageth him in his sinful course, the hope of escape; The … of carnal reason in this kind are four: Either God will not regard it; or if he do, … he will not require it, and call to an account; or if that, He can satisfy for it; or if none of these, The Lord wil not be rigorous but he wil abate it.

Al these pleas issue from the Atheism, of the heart of the sons of men, wherby they neither know God nor themselves; we shal persue them in, their places and order, but briefly.

Such is the deluded folly of mens minds, that they 1confine the Almighty to their compass, and therefore Sottishly conceive that the Lord is so attent to the great affayres of heaven and the place of his holiness, and the Glory of his own name, that he looks not after the things here below nor regards the carriages of the sons of men, that creep up and down like so many poor Ants upon the face of the Earth. So that either the Lord hath covered himself in thick clouds, and retired himself to the … of his Glory that he cannot see or else he attends matters of greater moment and Consequence to order in his infinit wisdom, and therefore layes these aside without any regard. And if once this forgery finds entertainment it sets open a gap to any kind of prophaneness, makes men careless and fearless what they do because God regards not what is don, 2 Pet. 3. 1. 2. So those scorners which walk after their own lusts, saying where is the promise of his coming, for since the Fathers fell a sleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation, … yee not see how men provoke God and prosper? and hath it not been so in all ages, … wicked & ungodly continue in sinful courses & yet succeed according to their own content. It was so in the former ages, it went best with the worst men, it is so in this, and wil be so to the end. the Lord lookes not after the mean occasions of men upon earth p. 176finds himself employment in the affayres of Heaven; it matters not what the desert of our sins be, we shal never feel what they do deserve; so those rulers, Amos 7. they put away the evil day far from them, and then they cause the seat of violence to come near, …. 73. 10. 11. those blasphemers who set their mouths against Heaven and their tongue walks through the midst of the Earth, & they say how doth God know this? and is there knowledg in the most high? Upon this ground it is that they let loose themselves in the fearless pursuit of … loathsom abominations, then said he unto me (the Angel of the Lord of Hosts) the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, the land is ful of blood, and the city ful of perversness; For they say the Lord hath forsaken the earth the Lord seeth not Ezek. 9. 9. For since here we must learn to chase out and keep out such imaginations, by setting up the light of the truth in our minds and listening wholly thereunto. So the psalmist shewes the cause, and applyes the cure, Psal. 94. 8. Understand ye brutish among the people and ye fools when wil ye be wise. He that plantd the ear shal not he hear; he that formed the eye shal not he see? Yea the Lord professeth to take notice of these mens wayes in an especial manner, & to make privie search after them, Zeph. 1. 12. he wil search Jerusalem with candles and visit such as sit upon their lees and say who sees us, you shal find he knows both good and evil and he wil work both as a reward to such as deserve. This Job felt by experience Job, 14 16. For now thou numbrest my steps, dost thou not watch our my sins, my transgression … sealed up in a bag. and thou shalt find it so, the Lord wil follow thee step by step; and track and trace thee in all thy wandrings and keeps an account of al thy sins sealed up as it were in bags.

But if the Lord doth see and observe al our evils yet 2he is patient and wil pass them by, and put up those p. 177many …, being pitiful and compassionate to poor creatures, knowing they be but dust.

True it is the Lord out of his long sufferance, wilAnsw. bear long with the base dealings of the sons of men, yet out of the purity and holiness of his nature he cannot but bring them to account and trial for al the swervings of their lives, Psal, 50. 18. Thus the secure sinner counted the Lords patience a kind of connivence, and allowance of him in ungodly wayes I held my tongue and thou thoughtest wickedly that I was such a one as thy self, that God could wink at wickedness, look aside at the slips and swervings of the ungodly, and suffer them to go away with it; but al in vain, For I wil reprove thee, and set thy sins in order before thee, consider this yee that forget God: so likewise in Eccles. 11. 9. rejoyce O yong man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the wayes of thy youth, & walk in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these … thou shalt come to judgment, the Lord wil arrest thee for the wrong done to his holiness, and follow the suit against thy soul for al thy injurious dealings, and he himself wil come in against thee as a swift witness; If thy Conscience condemn thee God himself is greater than thy Conscience and he knowes al things, and wil bring to light the hidden things of darkness & will make manifest the counsels of the heart. When al those dunghil stains of Adulterous lusts, and malicious, envious and covetous desires, shal be layd open to the view of the sun, al those swarmes of foolish and wicked imaginations, shal be then discovered, its better therefore that thou shouldst see them now, in the day of Grace: better thou shouldst have them now discovered to thy Conscience for thy humiliation, then at the day of judgment for thy confusion.

But if the Lord will require all, then I hope I may 3use means to satisfy for al, when my day beginns to decline, and my Sun to set, and my glass is run, when p. 178I am dropping down to the grave, and groaning upon my sick bed. I wil then betake my self to my prayers & tears and repentance for my sins, I wil sorrow for my sins, seek unto God for mercy, I wil repent and reform the evil of my wayes, and the Lord wil remove the Plague of them.

In thy declining daies wilt thou do this? Oh deludedAnsw. creature, who knows but this day or before thou hast read over this book the Lord may take away thy soul, who knows whether thou shalt have time to seek, or a heart to seek, or God wil accept of thee when thou seekest.

Whether a time or no. Whether the date of Gods 1bounty, the day of Grace and period of Gods patience, be come to an end. When thou hast abused … many opportunities, whether ever he wil give thee leave or time once to look out for …, when thy tongue shal be faultring in thy mouth & thy eyes fallen in thy head, … heart sink and dy within thy bosom, not able to sigh out one desire, and the Lord snatch thee out of the land of the living before thou canst see or consider whithere thou art going Luke. 19. 41. 42. If thou hadst known at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hidden from thine eyes, the things of their peace were before their eyes, and yet were hid from their eyes Rev. 2. 21. 23. I gave her day to repent, but shee repented not, therefore I wil cast her in to a bed and … her children with death. shee had no more dayes of repentance but of ruine, shee was cast into a bed of sorrow and had not time to pour out her prayers.

If thou hast time, who knows that God will give thee 2a heart, to seek for mercy or sue for Grace; It's true God may help thee, but it's as true God may harden thee, he may humble thee and he may … thee, and it's most likely he wil, thou which hast refused to hear, he wil refuse to help, Ezek. 24. 13. I would have purged … and thou wouldest not be purged thou shalt never p. 179be purged more, Jer. 51. 9. we would have cured Babilon but she would not be cured, leave her then, leave them to the blindness of their … that would not be enlightened, leave them to the hardness of their hearts that would not be converted; He wil not alwaies strive who hath stood so long and knocked so often, thou shalt see him no more quickening, awing, affecting of thee.

Or if thou hast a heart to seek in thy manner, who knows 3whether God will accept it or no? Thou wouldest not regard his … and …, and he wil not respect thy prayers and …, Prov. 1. 28. Then shall they call but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me; Hebr. 12. 17. Esau found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears; nay he may send thee as he did the Israelits to the Idols of thy heart, Jer. 2. 28. But where are thy gods that thou hast made? let them arise and save …

But Lastly if I cannot satisfy for my evills, yet out 4of his bounty and mercy he may abate me of the Plagues the mercies of God are great, and his compassions large, and thus the mercies of God who were provided to bring men from their corruptions to …, through the abuse of carnal hearts become means to make them secure in their dregs, Deuter. 29. 19. when al the plagues were threatned, yet they bless themselves and say, I shal have peace though I walk in the imaginations of my evil heart. So they in Isaiah. made a Covenant with death and Hell.

The sin against mercy is one of the greatest sins that everAnsw. thou committest. Thou turnest the grace of God into …, Jude 4. and such are ordained of ould unto condemnation; thou despisest mercy and abusest it, thou shalt therefore be condemned by mercy not saved by it. God must not be just and so not God, if he save thee without satisfaction to his justice, The Lord cannot wrong himself to relieve thee, dishonor himself p. 180to deliver thee, Exod. 34. 7. He will by no means Celar the guilty, Its one of his names and himself, and he cannot deny himself, and if his justice be not satisfyed thy plagues cannot be abated.

If a carnal man sees he cannot prevent the danger of The third sort of Cavsl.sin, then he sayes I will bear it, if I be damned I will suffer it as I may if it come to the …. Let me have my sins though the Devil have my soul, let me have the sweet of the pleasures of sin in this world though I never see the face of God in Glory, this is a most forlorn and divellish resolution.

But dost thou know what thou sayest? true thouAnsw. shalt bear thy damnation, but thou art never able to bear it without breaking under it, being helpless and hopeless forever. O woe to thee that ever thou wert born! O poor creature! If I should cease speaking and al of us joyn together in weeping and lamenting thy condition it were the best course; It is impossible thou shouldest ever bear Gods wrath. Let these three things be considered.

Judg the Lion by the Paw, judg the torments of Hel by 1some little beginnings of it, and the dregs of Gods vengeance by some little sips of it, and judg how unable thou art to bear the whol, by thy inability to bear a little of it in this life, In terror of Conscience as the wise man saies, A wounded spirit who can bear? When God layes the flashes of hell fire upon thy soul thou canst not endure it. Whatsoever a man can inflict upon a poor wretch may be born, but when the Almighty comes in battel array against a poor soul how can he undergo it? Wittness the Saints that felt it, as also the wicked themselves who have had some beginnings of hell in their …; when the Lord hath let in horror into the soul of a poor sinner, how is he transported with an insupportable burthen, When it is day he wisheth it were night, and when it is night, he wisheth it were day, all the freinds in the world cannot comfort him, nay many p. 181have sought to hang themselves, to do any thing rather than to suffer a little of the vengeance of the Almighty, and one man is roaring and yelling, as if he were now in Hell already and admits of no comfort; if the drops be so heavy, what wil the whol Sea of Gods. Vengeance be? If he cannot bear the one, how can he bear the other?

Consider thine own strength, and compare it with 2all the strength of the Creatures; and so if all the Creatures be not able to bear the wrath of the Almighty, as Job saies, Job, 6. 12. Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh as brass, that must bear thy wrath? as if he had said, it must be a stone or brass that must bear thy wrath. Though thou wert as strong as brass or stones, thou could'st not bear it: when the mountains tremble at the wrath of the Lord, shal a poor worm or bubble and shadow endure it?

Conceive thus much, If al the Diseases in the world did seize upon one man, and if all the torments that all the Tyrants in the world could devise, were cast upon him; and if all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth did conspire the destruction of this man, and if all the Devils in Hell did labor to inflict punishment upon him, you would think this man to be in a miserable case, and yet al this is but a beam of Gods Indignation. If the beams of his wrath be so hot, what is the full Sun of his Wrath, when it shal seize upon the soul of a sinful creature in ful measure?

Nay, If yet thou thinkest to lift up thy self above all 3Creatures, and to bear more than they all, Then set before thine eyes the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, he that creates the Heavens, and upholds the whol frame thereof; when the wrath of God came upon him only as a Surety, he cries out with his Eyes ful of tears, and his heart ful of sorrow, and the Heavens ful of lamentation, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matth. 27. 46. Oh thou poor creature, if thou hast p. 182the heart of a man, gird up the loyns of thy mind, and see what thou canst do: Dost thou think to bear that which the Lord Jesus could not bear without so much sorrow? yet he did endure it without any sin or weakness. He had three sips of the Cup, and every one of them did sink his soul; and art thou, a poor sinful wretch, able to bear the wrath of God for ever?

Yield unto the Evidence of the Truth thus …, Means 4.beyond all opposition and gainsaying, and sit down in silence under the Authority of it, and let it settle upon thy soul; neither question it any more, nor hear any thing against it, when it hath been heard formerly so fully scanned and determined upon such undeniable grounds. Shut the door against the appearance of any sinful shifts, admit no conference with carnal reason any further; Say, that coast is cleer, that case is concluded; my corrupt heart hath had a ful hearing.

All the Cavils and devices that ever the policy of Hel could coyn, or the falsness and deceitfulness of my own heart could … or frame, have been alleadged, followed, and pressed to the utmost, they have been answered and confuted, and the definitive sentence is past against mine own soul, by the ful consent of my own apprehension; I yield the day, I confess the case, I hold up my hand and plead guilty: These are my sins, they are so hainous, so dangerous, I could never have conceived, I could never beleeve it before, but now I yield and confess it freely; these are the abominations that I have committed, it's Hel that I have deserved; I am an undone man, a poor forlorn damned creature; this is my …, I cannot prevent it, nor can I bear it, I do not now question it: Awake with this in the morning, sit down with this at the Table, walk with this al the day long, and let this Truth rest with thee, when thou betakest thy self to rest, and it wil over-power and affect thy heart: So Job when his heart came off kindly in a p. 183godly remorse for his transgressions, he suffers the … of his condition to lodg and stay with him, he lies under it, and looks at nothing else, Job, 7. 20. What shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men, I have sinned; q. d. I have no Arguments to alleadge, no excuses to make, I can say nothing, nor do nothing in mine own defence; only I must say I have sinned, thou art the preserver of men, and unless thou succor me, I must perish, I cannot preserve my self: If the Corrosive be never so keen, the Salve never so searching and operative, yea, though it were applied to the rawness of the Sore, the very proper place for it's work, if ye stirr it continually, now take it off, then lay it on; it wil never work effectually, … throughly, or kindly heal the wound; but you must bind it on, let it stay upon the place by the space of so many hours, then you shal find the proper and powerful operation thereof. So it is with the Soveraign and convicting Truths of Christ, when all Cavils have been answered, and all the pleas which a mans self-deceiving heart hath put in, have been removed; so that the Truth finds passage to the Conscience, and is applied aright unto the soul; unless it settle there by a silent subjection unto the strength of it, and admit no further questioning nor debating when the cause is determined by undeniable evidence, it never works kindly, nor prevails … effectually as otherwise it would. It's … policy and practice he dayly attends; When Scriptures are so pregnant, and Arguments come in with such strength that no carnal pretences can stand before them, though he retires for the present, and seems to leave the cause; yet upon the next occasion, when any advantage is presented, he brings about the business again, and follows the temptation afresh, and puts in some pretence, while he questions the Truth he hinders the operation of it for the while, while we are parlying and disputing what we should do, we omit so long to do what we ought, and unfit our selves to do p. 184what we intend and are resolved of formerly. Therefore when al cavils have been silenced, let not these brablers appear again, nor suffer them to renew their suits and … any more, but cast them out of consideration (as we do use to cast bils and barreters out of the Court when the causes have been heard) settle the heart under the sentence of the Truth, and let it sit down there; Hear nothing against the determination of the Word, but out of the Word; and then it's certain that determination wil never alter before thy condition alter. Give thy soul for gone really according to the righteous Judgment of the Truth, and stop al passages that no carnal reason may come to the speech of thy soul, or pretend any way of rescue, and you wil presently perceive, it wil break kindly under the blow, or else look out for relief elswhere. Go aside then and parley with thy Spirit, and say, The Word upon serious search and examination hath determined it, my Conscience confesseth it, and I now see the loathsomness of my sin, and wretchedness of my self and condition, I go up and down the world as a condemned creature whose doom is past, and look dayly for the day and hour of execution, that death consume my daies, my body drop down to the dust, and my sinful, proud, polluted soul be dragged down into Hel amongst the Devils; to avoid it, is impossible; to bear it, is intollerable; wo to my soul that thus I have sinned, and who shal, who can deliver from this sin, and this death? Talk not, trouble not me with dispute what my sin and my condition is, but Oh, help me out of it, if it may be. And it's certain, if thy soul abide here, it wil sink under unsupportable sorrow, and soak it self in it, for this wil take away the sight and sweetness of any thing that may refresh and support the wounded soul, because he wil see his sins in the bitterness and venom of them, where ever he is, and what ever he doth, and as that which poysons al the best of the comforts of this life. He sees his sin in his prosperity, which is but p. 185the fatting of him for the slaughter. He sees his sin in his honor, he is advanced the higher that his downfall may be the more miserable. God fils his belly with his hid Treasures of this world, that he may treasure up wrath against the day of wrath. As it is with …, if it pass through the fire only, it hardly warms it; but if it lie under the blowing of the sire, it wil melt it. When we take away carnal shifts, and bring the soul to the sight of sin, we put it into the fire, but that only warms it a little; but when it sits down under the Sentence, it's then under the Furnace, and that wil melt it. Thus our iniquities are said to lay hold of a man, Psal. 40. 12. When we are under the Sentence which the Word passeth upon our sin, we are then under the reach of our sins, and they then lay hold of us, and that wil cau e that we shal not be able to lookup.

All those Truths that we shal hear publickly dispensedMeans 5. out of the word, or we shal privately read in it, which concerns our corruption of which we stand guilty, or that condition into which we are brought by reason of our sin; We must take them home to our selves, as the special portion the Lord hath appointed unto us in particular, and we must make particular application of them in a peculiar manner unto our selves; for by this means there is more light without, whereby our sins and estates are more fully discovered, more Eye-salve and Spiritual sight conveyed to our minds, whereby the eye of our understanding is more cleerly enlightened to see our sins, and our misery in them. He that joyns many fires together, they wil not only warm him, but scorch him if he stand neer them. So it is with the Word which is a fire, the joynt Testimony of so many Scriptures, or so many … Admonitions taken and applied neer, as those which attend our Particular, they wil not only warm and affect the heart a little slightly, but scorch a mans Conscience with the terror, as wel as p. 186cleer a mans apprehension with the light; that is one thing in the 1 Cor. 14. 24. The simple Ideot when he comes before God in the Assembly, and the Word is published and seconded; the Text …, he is judged of all, and condemned of all, and so the thoughts of his heart are made man fest, and … falls down, and saies, these sins are mine, I have committed them; all these plagues, and threatnings, and judgments are mine, I have deserved the Lord should lay them upon me; all this guilt belongs to me, how shal I answer it, or be able to undergo it? All these thus taken home by Spiritual application, become as so many weights added to the burden, which makes it unsupportable. Look as it is in Chyrurgery, it's not enough to have the Salve, and apply it, yea, and bind it also; but it must be … renewed, and so quickened, and then it wil work …, and marvelous forcibly. So it is when by our own conviction, and the dispensation of the Ministry, the light of our apprehension is made more cleer by the instruction of the Word, the strength of our own conviction established by the conviction of the Word, we apply afresh, follow them, and fasten them afresh upon our souls, and that makes them prevail more effectually than before, like a fresh gale, it makes us go faster on the way we intended.

Make and keep the evil of sin really present in thine Means. 6.apprehension; and that's the last way to see the vileness of it, and find the venom of it in its greatest efficacy. It was the Observation of the Natural Phylosophers, and Experience and Reason gives in approbation of the course; the neerer we bring an Object of evil to our view, the more it affects and stirs the heart of him that beholds, when they would terrifie a Malefactor, and wrest out a confession of Truth, they … the gibbets and instruments of Death that be prepared, set him upon the Rack, make him ascend the Ladder, that the neerness of the evil now approaching may strike terror, p. 187and fasten fear and dread upon his Soul; deal thou so with thine own heart for thy spiritual good. See the evil of sin in the execution of it upon others, and set them before thine eyes, and act it also upon thy self by a through consideration of thine own course.

Set the evil of sin before thine Eyes in the execution 1of it upon others. This was the advice the Lord gives to the rebellious and unbeleeving Jews … he would have them sensible of the danger of their own …, he sends them to see the ruine that sin hath …, the havock it hath wrought in the places of greatest renown, persons of greatest respect for their … and account before God and men, Jer. 7. 12. Go now unto my place, which was in Shiloh, where I set my Name at the first, and see what I have done to it, for the wickedness of my people Israel. Though that was the place of my Worship, where in my Name and Honor was great, and therefore might in reason be preserved; they the people of my choyce and … ones, and therefore might expect pity and commiseration, yet were destroyed and laid wast without remedy, and recovery. So will I do to this house which is called by my Name, in which you trust, and unto the place which I gave unto you and your Fathers, as I have done unto Shiloh. So also when he would make them see the loathsomness of their unnatural departing away from him to other gods, he sends them to other Nations, that they may convince and condemn them for their course, so contrary to reason, and the very carriage of the Heathen, Jer. 2. 10. Pass over to the … of Kittim, and send unto Kedar, &c. Not that they should make a Journey thither by their bodily presence, but send their thoughts afar off, and in serious consideration present those evils really to their own view, see what sin hath done to others, and be perswaded it wil bring the like evil upon their own souls. Let me so speak to thee, and do thou so practice. Go thou hard-hearted sinner to the red Sea, and hear there p. 188Pharaoh belching out his blasphemy against the Lord, Who is Jehovah? I know not Jehovah, nor will I let … go: See there the Wheels of his Chariots taken off, and he and his Egyptians crying and flying, Let us fly from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them. See them drowning and dying, and their dead Carkasses cast upon the shore. This is the hideous and direful destruction that hardness of heart hath wrought. Go thou rebellious sinner into the Wilderness into the Tents of Corah, Dathan, and Abiram: See them rising up against the Lord and his Officers, and reproaching their persons and proceedings, Ye take too much upon you ye sons of Levi, seeing all the Congregation are holy, Numb. 16. 4. Stay but a while, and see them standing in their Tent doors, they and theirs, and see presently the Earth opening and swallowing up them, and all that appertained unto them; they went down alive to the pit, … to Hel: And hear al Israel flying at the cry of them, lest the Earth swallow us up also. See the others that offered Incense burning in the …; and see what rebellion against God his Officers and Ordinances works. Go thou proud hearted wretch to Babylon, see Nebuchadnezzar walking and vaunting himself upon the top of the Turret; … wildering amongst the Beasts of the field; and from thence pass on to the Pallace of Herod: See him set upon his Throne venting his venom against the dear Servants of the Lord, and the people crying, The voyce of God, and not of man, Acts, 12. 22. he taking the Honor to himself in his heart, and not giving it to God: Follow him thence into his Chamber, and see him breathing out his heart upon the bed of sorrow, the Lice eating out his …. Go thou covetous Earthly-minded … to Jerusalem unto Judas; hear him there plotting and bargaining with the Scribes and Pharisees, … the Lord Jesus, the Lord of … for thirty pieces of Silver; see him … and … … Money, and so betraying his p. 189Master: follow him thence into the High-Priests Hall, see his pale face, his ghastly looks, and shaking hands; hear him yelling out of the horror of his heart, I have sinned, Matth. 27. 3, 4. See him flinging his money away; and follow him thence, and behold him putting the … about his neck, sighing out, the blood of Jesus, the innocent blood, the blood of Jesus; let me not be, rather than be thus miserable and with that he … himself head-long, and his bowels gush out, and his soul departs out of his body, and the Devils they lay hold upon it: Send thy thoughts post to Hell after him; hear him there cursing the day that ever he was born, the head that plotted it, the heart that desired it, the Scribes and … that consented, and gave it, and the tongue that said; Hail Master. Behold what desperate evils … wil drive a man unto, and what unfferable desolation it draws with it.

As thou seest the execution of the evil upon others 2So act upon thy self by present consideration; danger and death when they are at hand and in present expectation they put men upon real expressions, when they see … must dy, and they must come to answer, sins wil appear as they are, and they must suffer what they do deserve, there is no shift then, their hearts and hopes shake and sink; act therefore thine own death and thine own judgment, and bring in a real account of thy Condition by daily and real consideration, dye daily, and drag thy heart to the tryal of Gods tribunal, see what thou canst make of it now, that thou mayest know what to expect then; Go apart, and keep Assises or at least Sessions with thy self I see my sins and my condition, let me see how I can give an account for them and how I can answer to the Lord and his Law, or how I can bear that which follows; First or last I must come to trial, let me … up my self before-hand to it. Suppose …, I heard the last … blow, Arise ye dead and come to judgment, … I saw Christ coming in p. 190the clouds with thousands, suppose I beheld the thrones set and the Lord Jesus summoning al flesh; when the bookes shal be opened, and al hidden things brought to light, when the wicked shal not be able to lift up their … but cal to the Mountains to cover them, they are not able to abide the tryal, and therefore cannot endure the terror of the lamb; thou canst not but say those are thy sins of which thou never yet repentedst, that thy curse and condemnation is such as thou art not able to avoid, thou canst not answer for the one, nor bear the other; Therefore bring it up to this conclusion let me not rest in this condition now that the word and my Conscience tells me I shal never find comfort therein at that day.

Let me now draw towards a conclusion by setting on the exhortation with two or three Motives.

And first consider the danger of the mistake herein, toMotive I. misse here is to miscarry forever in the great work of our conversion, without any possibility of recovery or redress; If God never let a man see his evil its certain he never recovers him out of it. When he will prepare a people for destruction and cut out a people on purpose for confusion, and make them ripe for plagues he takes this course, Isa. 6. go thy waies and make the eyes of this people dim and their ears heavie that in seeing they may see and not perceive, hearing they may hear and not understand, least they should be converted and I should heal …, keep them there and they be safe enough from ever receiving any saving good. So our Saviour Math. 6. 21. 22. The light of the Body is the eye if the light within thee be darkness how great is that … the whol … is so; a wound here is never … there is no hope of any good coming to a soul … up in … It's made a character, a brand that … … upon such as be reprobates Math. 13. 13. to you … … … … the mysteries of the kingdom, but to … in … that seeing they might see and not understand. p. 191If there be but one gate to come into the way miss that & you miss the way so here, therefore when men are but one step betewen them and destruction they are thus discovered Math. 24. 37. they eat, they drank, they married and knew nothing untill the flood … and destroyed them al, As in a town where there is but one entrance or passage, block up that, there … … coming in, no going out, and … no … of relief. They go not out to seek any, none come in to bring any …, so here when the mind is blinded, there is no … of the coming in of any good or for … … receive …, the passage of Grace and of mercy is wholy blocked up, therfore our Saviour is said to come to … … one … ou by turning of you from your …, therefore you must see them before you turn from them, no seeing, no turning, no blessing. Acts. 3. 26.

It is the easiest way of al other; It easeth a man of 2that last reckoning, and arrerages to come; a seasenable and timely discovery of sin makes a man … occasions of evil and prevent them, it sets up a fear in the heart and stops a man that he dare not adventure to commit them. He that walks in darkness knowes not whither he goes and therefore must needs go to ruin, he lyes open to al evil that comes, he discerns it not, he wil do any evil be it never so loathsom, he perceives no such evil, he takes sour for sweet, poyson for … and preservatiues, & swallowes down any thing though death be in it, John 16. 2. they shal think they do God good service when they … you; and sayes Paul I was a persecuter blasphemous and injurious and through ignorance I did all this 1. Tim. 1. 13. The kingdom of Satan is the kingdom of darkness; while he keeps men in ignorance & hoodwinked he can carry them whither he wil; when the light of the Gospel is once … up his juridiction fals to the ground, nor can he prevail as before; It was a good womans speech … desireing that her children might be instructed … catechised that p. 192their reckoning might be less and their account more easy than hers, having lived in ignorance, children under Parents, and Servants trayned up under good masters that shew them the evils of their wayes and keeps them & affrights from them, they come on so easily to Christ, & are carryed so gently that they know not what terror means, timely conviction keeps them from the pollutions of the world.

Lastly it is the safest and surest way. See our sins 3we must first or last either here to our humiliation or herafter to our confusion; and we had better see them by the light of the Gospel while we are within sight of … that we may be relieved, than to see them by the … of Hell when there is no remedy. If the eye be … the whol body is ful of light Math. 6. 22. If we would judg our selves we shal not be judged of the Lord 1. Cor 11. 31. Who would not now be convinced that he may then be acquitted see his sins now for his humiliation, that he may never have them then laid to his charge, Jer. 50. 20. In those dayes and at that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shal be none, and the sins of Judah, and they shal not be found, for I wil pardon their iniquities and wil remember their sins no more. How should this encourage thee to seek out for thy sins now, to search thy heart and to look into thy life, when as indeed if thou dost so see thy sins as to sorrow for them and by this sight and sorrow thou be driven to a saviour, thy sins may be sought for but they shal be found no more.

When they heard this.

The description of contrition stood of two parts wherby the nature of the work was especially discoverd.

p. 193Partly in the Causes of it,

Sight of sin,

Sorrow for sin.

Effects of it,

… of sin.

Sequestration from sin.

Concerning the sight of sin so far as it serves our turn in a true conviction of it, in that they stood here as accused by Peter and condemned in their own Consciences as guilty of no less than the blood of Jesus, we have already spoken.

The second thing in the text to be considered is the means how this was wrought. And these are two.

The first, is a particular Application of their special corruption, the Apostle doth not hover in the general and shoot at rovers, but comes close to them, chargeth them expresly in a special manner, and lets fly in the very faces of them, this Jesus whom yee have …, he names not, he blames not any other, he sayes not Judas was a wretch that betrayed him, the souldiers cruel that took him, Pilate base and fearful and … that condemned him, no this is the Jesus and you are the men that have committed this villany, A person could not be more innocent, a practice more bloody, you are men that stand guilty of this horrible abomination of Crucifying the Lord of Glory. The Doctrine from hence is this.

A plain and particular Application of special Doct.sins by the Ministry of the word is a special means to bring the soul to a sight of, and sorrow for them.

Plain Application and powerful conviction … together. p. 194Let the house of Israel know that God hath made him Lord and Christ whom ye have crucifyed; you are the men I mean, this is your sin I mention. Thus our saviour the great Prophet of His Church, who spake as never man spake and best knew how to deal with deceitful hearts, he layeth his finger upon the sore, and mark how he pincheth with particulars, as his ordinary manner of dispensation was to the Churches; Rev. 3. 2. I know thy works, thou hast a name to be alive but thou art dead. I say thou art hypocritical, and I know what I say, and I tell thee openly what I know, thou hast a form of profession but thou hast no heart nor life nor power of religion in thy course; He that could not erre in what he did teach, he teacheth what Ministers should do in their dispēnsation; And there was nothing more usual with our Saviour, then to point out particular sins and sinners; Woe be to you Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites. Math. 23. and therefore he doth not closly and covertly as it were give a kind of intimation, afar off what he would, and leaves … to pick and search out his meaning; but tells them their own in English as we say: plucks them out by the pole goes not behind the dore to tel men their faults, but gives in testimony against their sin and that to their teeth; Luke. 16. 15. when the Pharisees in an impudent manner, began to mock at him, he lets fly poynt blanck, You are they that justefy your selves but the Lord knows your hearts; Yea it was the charge he gives to al his prophets, when they were to deal with the Jewes and to dispense his counsels unto them, Hos. 2. 1. 2. Plead with your Mother plead, tell her she is not my Wife. [Plead] is a Law term, cal her by name, summon her into the court of Conscience, follow the suit against her Lay the charge and plead the Acton against her particular sins. Thus Stephen Acts. 7. 51. Yee stiff-necked and hard hearted, yee have alwayes resisted the holy Ghost, as your Fathers did so do yee. So p. 195the Apostle frequently Acts, 4. 10. 11. be it known to you and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus &c. whom ye have crucifyed, This is the stone refused by you builders, you are the men, and this is your evil.

The Reasons shall be touched in a word.

The place and duty of a Minister requires this, whoReason, 1. hath a special charge, and therefore should have a particular care to foresee, and so to prevent the particular and special evils, which he perceives to blemish the Christian course, and endanger the spiritual comforts of the people under his guidance and of whose safety he must give an account; and this wil not be done unless a man single out the persons and set home their sins in special. The steward is not only to know … several conditions of the persons in the family but to provide a portion suitable for each, if ever the safety of the whol be provided for; and the cordials for the weak, milk for the little ones, and stronger meat for those who are of able strength; the Skil of the Physitian & the onelyonly way to cure a settled and inward distemper as the dropsy or falling sickness, is not to give the patient an ordinary purge, a common receit; that every Quack-salver wil do and do no good at al; But he must have that wisdom to hit the humor, and to provide ingredients that wil suit the temper of the party and the … nature of the disease; So it is the part of a skilful Minnister to hit the humor of the heart of a sinner, to make a receipt on purpose to meet … the particular distemper such as wil worke upon, or sluggishness pride hypocrisie, perversness and as the medicine doth upon the spleen or choller, and so the Lord to the Prophet Ezek. 16. 2. Cause the house of Israel to know their abominations; The Sedulous shepheard who indeed would provide for the wellfare of his sheep, its not enough that by common survey he casts his eye upon them, but he must pen them, and handle them, search them and … p. 196them, … to their several ayls, and such Maladies unto which they are subject. So a faithful Minister must … with poor sinners, as with the Sheep commended to … care and custody; he must find them in their particular evils, and follow them with application of special helps.

The necessity of sinners requires this: For this mannerReas. 2. of the delivery of the Truth, it awakens and stirs up the mind and heart of the Hearer to a more serious attention to that which is spoken, and settles the heart upon a more through consideration of himself and his waies; unto both which the soul of a sinner rocked as it were asleep in the security of a sinful course, is loth to come; not willing to hear any thing that would trouble him in his sins, and very ready to lay aside the consideration of that he hears in that behalf. Whereas particular application provokes to the practice of both, cals a man by name as it were, that he must come to his Answer; he cannot avoid it, it wil not suffer him to make an escape before he give in his Answer: This flings in the light so ful into mens faces that it forceth them to look about them. General Truths generally do little good. That which is spoken to all, is spoken to none at al. No man heeds more than needs he must to such things he hath little heart unto, or takes little delight in. An Inditement or Attachment without a name, read, published, and proclaimed in the face of the World, no man is either troubled at it, or reclaimed by it; but when the name is recorded, and the man challenged, it makes him bethink himself how to get a Surety, or pay the debt, or prevent the danger. So is it with a general reproof, no man will own it, and therefore no man reforms by it, or is forced to seek out. Thus Nicodemus never left cavilling before the Lord came home to his own person, and touched him to the quick, John, 3. 10. Art thou a Master in Israel, and knowest thou not these things? See and be ashamed; a Master not to know that which a p. 197Scholler might and should. It's not enough that we be stirring in the house, and people be up, but we must knock at mens doors, bring a Candle to their bed-sides, and pinch the sluggard, and then if he have any life he wil stir. While the Ministers of the Lord are preaching and publishing the Mind and Counsel of God in the Assemblies, there is some stirring in Gods house, but yet the secure person sits and sleeps on the stool as the sluggard in his bed, unless some special Application pinch him … the quick: then he begins to look up, and ask who is there? So it was with David, thou art the man did prevail more with him than al the …, 2 Sam. 12. As the noise of a piece a far off makes the Fowl listen, but one scattered shot that fals upon the wing or leg makes them cry and stir. All the common discourse came not neer David, but thou art the man; three words like three smal shot awakened him with a witness.

The Nature of the Word calls for this manner of dispensation Reas. 3.as that which suits and serves best for the end and work of it. It makes it hit sooner, and pierce more deeply and prevailingly into the heart: The speech of the Minister and his words are like darts and arrows, the right and particular applying them is the level carriage of them to the heart, and so they hit unavoidably, and fasten strongly thereupon. General discourses are like arrows shot a cock-height at al adventures without aim, and so without success or special profit, or powerful work upon the hearer; men come and go away not touched, not troubled, not affected with any thing. The word is compared to a Sword, the Explication is like the drawing of it. So the Truth in the naked Nature and vertue of it comes to be …; but the florishing of the Sword wil never do the deed. But he that handles it suitable to the end and work of it, he must follow the blow if he purpose to force his Enemy either to … or yield. So it is with the Truth: down-right p. 198blows puts somtimes the most cunning Fencer past his Sence; so … cunning Hypocrites beyond all their Shifts. See how the Woman of Samaria, John, 4. 18, 19. Put off our Savior with fond Cavils, sawcy and contemptuous Speeches, until our Savior met with her in particular, Go call … Husband, she answers, I have no Husband; our Savior comes within her, Thou hast had five Husbands, and he whom now thou hast is not thine Husband, in that thou sayest right, thou poor sinful Adulteress; then she fel before our Savior. It is in a mans Spiritual as it is with a mans outward estate. The Bond lies forfeited, and the careless Debtor or Bankerupt he looks not out to pay. He hears the news of a Writ out for him, but sees none to arrest, and therefore he grows fearless. But when the Sergeant arrests him, and drags him to prison, you wil not provide for your debt to pay, provide then to go to prison, that makes him begin to send to friends, to gather up his …, sel his Commodities, crave Baile and Surety. So it is with careless prodigal sinners which suffer their souls and salvations to lie forfeir, and yet look not out, until some particular word meet and make an arrest upon the soul, and the Minister by his Commission like the Sergeant seizeth upon him, you wil not forsake your sins, you must therefore perish in your sins. He then begins to bethink himself what to do.