The Cry of a Stone, Section 6
It is beſt for wicked men to be kept from the comforts of ſalvation, untill they repent.
IF wicked men be offered no meanes whereby to apply comfort or SECT. 6.the favour of God to themſelves, then they are driven preſently into conſideration with themſelves, what the reaſon ſhould be that they may not enter into the Sanctuary, and touch the holy things; and why they may not feaſt with Chriſt at his Table as well as others? Luke 22. 30.and why their fellowſhip is ſhunned in ſuch exerciſes wherein wee draw neereſt unto God, and converſe familiarly with him? Why their ſeed may not bee baptiſed, nor themſelves accepted as the Lords gueſts, but are excluded from all ſuch things as may encourage and comfort them, being, as it were, bound hand and foot, and may Mat. 22. 12. 13. 1 Tim. 1. 7. 10.heare of nothing but of the Law, judgement and threatening againſt them: and in this, every mans heart ſhall anſwer him, and hee ſhall ſay; it is, becauſe I walke in fleſhly libertie, and give my ſelfe to vaine and evill courſes; I am a common ſwearer, a lyer, a diſſembler, a wanton, a drunkard, a griper after the world, or ſome ſuch evill, for which, as God hath ſaid, I ſhall not enter into his Kingdome; 1 C…. 6 9.ſo his people ſhun mee, and get them from mee, and had rather have my room than my company, I muſt know nothing of the Lords ſecrets, Pſal. 25. 14.becauſe I feare him not, they will tel me nothing of their ſweet comforts, but I languiſh about temporarie toyes, and fleet up and downe as the world favours and frownes, and the height of all my comfort is, but to have my cattell, my corne, my trade and my wealth increaſe; or if theſe faile, to cheere up my heart with a cup of ſtrong Pſal. 4. 7.liquor, or to heare or ſee ſome Tragedie or merry conceit, and if theſe things helpe not mee. I am left remedileſſe; but I ſee there are others that can comfort themſelves in God, when the world failes them, and can rejoyce in tribulation, and mocke the world, as ſcorning to 1 Sam. 30. 6. Rom. 5. 3. Iob 1. 21.have their hearts moved much with any ſuch tranſitory things.
Now ſurely theſe men have found ſome extraordinary matter to reſt and ſtay themſelves in and if I were reformed, & reſtrained from my evill life, and did become a new man▪ I ſhould know what it is, and they would be right glad of my fellowſ… … embrace me and honour me as the Diſciples … I muſt even Gal. 1. 22, 23.goe onelyonly with a few … idle dreames, and walke up and downe as a thiefe with a halter condemned of God and his people, and if death ſeize on me in this eſtate, before I amend, as I am excluded from all fellowſhip of Chriſtians here, ſo ſhall I for ever be ſhut from them in the kingdome of glory, and if there be a hell, ſurely I ſhall fall into it.
And this will worke repentance in many, and in others a reſtraint, and as for Atheiſts and Hypocrites, which are in league with hell, and Iob 21. 14.have ſought againſt the light of reaſon and conſcience, till they are paſt feeling they will hereat the more diſcover themſelves, and foame out Epheſ. 4. 19. Iude. 1. 13.their owne ſhame, that the faith, patience and ſincerity of the godly may the better appeare, and be approved, and the condemnation of the other the more juſt.
Whereas contrariwiſe, when all manner of graceleſſe men are fed with the ſeales and pledges of Gods fauour, and inveſted into the full It hinders wicked mens converſion to give the Sacraments.privilege and higheſt prerogative with the moſt godly in the Church, and that it is daily told him, there is the body and blood of Chriſt given for him, how preſumptuous doe they grow? and how confident of their owne excellency? how audacious in evill? and how ſcornefull againſt Pſal. 14. 6. Pſal. 123. 4.men of a ſtrict and ſober life? no reproofes nor counſell, nor exhortation can take effect with them, nor ſcarce have an eare lent it. Tell them of wicked men and damnation, they'll ſend you to Rome, or Turkie or India, amongſt the Heathens or Papiſts, for why? they are Proteſtants, and have a ſound Religion, and are borne, baptized, and brought up in a Chriſtian common-wealth and Church, and eate the Iohn: 6. 53.fleſh, and drinke the blood of Chriſt, in whom they ſay, they truſt to be ſaved; though they never imitate his examples, but notwithſtanding all 1 Iohn 1. 6. Hebr. 12. 2. Acts 8. 23.their preſumption, they have not ſtroke one true ſtroke at ſinne, nor begun the worke of mortification, nor crauled one foot from their corruptioins, much leſſe are they entered into the ſtate of Regeneration, or begun the life of grace, but doe make the Goſpel, and the ſeales thereof in the abuſe thereof, a cloake for their ſin and as a charter to beare them out in all their evills, like thoſe rebellious Iewes, who brought oblations and cryed, The Temple, The Temple, when their hands Ier. 7. 4. 8, 9. Iſay 1. 13.were full of blood, and their wayes fraught with all wickedneſſe.