The Application of Redemption

The Ninth Book.

THe Work of Preparation having Two Parts:

First, The Lord's manner of Dispensation as he is pleased to deal with the Soul, for the setting up the praise of his Rich and Glorious Grace: and therefore with a holy kind of Violence he plucks the 〈◊〉 from his sins unto himself, and his Christ. This hath been dispatched already in the former Discourse.

The Second now follows: And that is the Frame and Disposition which is wrought in the Hearts of such as the Lord hath purposed to save, and to whom he hath dispensed himself in that gracious Work of his.

• Contrition,
• Humiliation.

This Disposition consists especially in Two Things

That so I may follow the Phrase of Scripture, and retain the Lord's own Words in the Text, where the Lord saith, that he dwells with him that is of an humble and contrite Heart.

To omit all manner of Coherence, and other Circumstances, we will pass all the other Specials in the Verse, and point at that Particular which will suit our proceeding, and may afford ground to the following Discourse, that we may go no further than we see the Pillar of Fire, the Lord in his Truth to go before us. We shall fasten then upon the last words only, as those that fit our Intendment.

To make way for ourselves in short, there is one word alone to be opened, that so the Point may be better fitted for our Application; we must know what it is to dwell, or how God is said 〈◊〉 dwell in a contrite and humble heart?

I Answer, To Dwell implies Three Things. [ 1]

First, That the Lord owns such as those in whom he hath an especial interest, and claims a special propriety, as though he left all the rest of man-kind to lie wast as a Common, that the World, and the Devil, and Sin may 〈◊〉 , and use at their pleasure, reserving the Honor of his Justice, which by a strong hand he will exact as a Tribute due to himself out of all things in Heaven and Earth, and Hell and all; but persons whom he thus fits, he reserves for his own special Improvement. As Princes and Persons of place and quality, do lease out, and let some Forrests and Commons to the Inhabitants bordering thereabout, reserving some acknowledgment of Fealty and Royalty to themselves, but the choice and best Palaces or Granges of greatest worth, and profit, they reserve for their own peculiar to inhabit in. So here, the Lord leaseth out the World, and the wicked in it to the Devil and his Angels, and Instruments, reserving a Royalty and Prerogative to himself, as that he will have his Homage and Acknowledgment of dependence upon himself; but his broken-hearted ones are his own for his own Improvement, Deut. 32. 8, 9. When the most High divided to the Nations their Inheritance. and separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of his People according to the number of the Children of Israel, for the Lord's Portion is his People Israel, the Lot of his Inheritance: Ye are the Temple of the Living God; 2 Cor. 6. 16. Yea, to them the Lord himself says, Ye are my People, and they shall say, thou art my God, Zach. 13. last. Therefore he professeth, that though in the course of his Providence he goes on progress over all the world, yet he takes up his dwelling and abode amongst his own People. For,

Secondly, Where a man dwells, as he owns the house, [ 2] so he takes up his abode there, it is the place of his residence; we say any may know where to seek men, or where to find them, at home, at their own house: That's the difference between Inning and Dwelling; we Inn at a place in our passing by, when we take repast only, and bait, but depart presently, intending not to stay; but where we dwell, we settle our abode, we take up our stand there, and stir no further. So the Lord is said then to dwell in the Soul, when he vouchsafes the constant expression of his peculiar presence and assistance to the soul. True it is that the Lord fills Heaven and Earth with his presence, yea, the Heaven of Heavens is not able to contain him, Jer. 23. 24. His infinite Being is everywhere, and one and the same everywhere in regard of himself; because his being is most simple, and not subject to any shadow of change, being all one with himself. Yet he is said to take up his abode in a special manner, when he doth put forth the peculiar expression of his Work; as in Heaven he dwells, because he puts forth the constant expression of his Glory, and that in the full brightness of it without any alteration and change. Here in this Spiritual Temple, the Souls of his Saints, he puts forth the peculiar expression of the constant assistance of his blessed Spirit. I will pray the Father, and he shall send you another Comforter, who shall abide with you forever, John 14. 16. 1 Joh. 2. 23. Ye have received an anointing which abideth in you.

Dwelling, if it be attributed to the chiefest Inhabitant [ 3] and Owner of the House, it implies also the ruling and ordering of the occasions that come under hand there, the exercising of the Government of the house and family where the Owner is, and dwells. He that lodgeth at a House as a stranger, comes to an Inn as a Passenger, he takes what he finds, hath what he can receive of kindness and courtesy; but the Owner is the Commander of the House where he dwells, and the orderer of all the Affairs that appertain thereunto. So doth the Lord with a broken Heart. Thus we are said to live in the Spirit, and to walk in the Spirit, Gal. 5. 25. And it's that which follows by Inference upon this ground, John 15. 4. 5. If I abide in you, and you abide in me, you shall bring forth much fruit; and therefore its added also in this place, that the Lord dwells in the contrite and humble heart to receive the Spirit of the contrite ones, they yield themselves to be acted by him, and they shall be acted and quickened by him to Eternal Life.

So that the full meaning is, The contrite and humble heart is such to whom the Lord vouchsafes acceptance, special presence and abode, and peculiar guidance; he owns him, abides with him, and rules in him forever.

True, it is said Christ dwells in our Hearts by Faith, Eph. 3. 17. and as many as believe in him, they receive him, John 1. 12. That is done as by the next and immediate hand, by which we say hold on Christ, and give entertainment to him; but unless the heart be broken and humbled, we cannot receive Faith, that we may receive Christ. And while the soul is thus breaking and humbling, Faith also is coming in a right sense, rightly understood; whereof we shall speak somewhat largely, if the Lord give us leave to come to that place.

The Words thus opened, the Point is the very letter of the Text, which looks full upon every Hearer or Reader that will look upon the Text.

There must be Contrition and Humiliation before the Lord comes to take possession; the House must be aired and fitted before it comes to be inhabited, swept by brokenness and emptiness of Spirit, before the Lord will come to set up his abode in it. This was typified in the passage of the Children of Israel towards the promised Land; they must come into, and go through a vast and a roaring Wilderness, where they must be bruised with many pressures, humbled under many overbearing difficulties, they were to meet withal before they could possess that good Land which abounded with all prosperity, flowed with Milk and Honey. The Truth of this Type, the Prophet Hosea explains, and expresseth at large in the Lord's dealing with his People in regard of their Spiritual Condition, Hos. 2. 14, 15. I will lead 〈◊〉 into the wilderness, and break her heart with many bruising Miseries, and then I will speak kindly to her heart, and will give her the Valley of Achor for a door of hope; the story you may recall out of Jos. 7. 28. when Achan had offended in the execrable thing, and the hearts of the Israelites were discomfited and failed, like water spilled upon the ground, because they had caused the Lord to depart away from them, the Text says, they having found out the offender by lot, they stoned him, and they said thou hast troubled Israel, we will trouble thee, and they called it the Valley of Achor, and after that God supported their hearts with hope, and encouraged them with success, both in prevailing over their Enemies, and in possessing the Land. So it shall be Spiritually, the Valley of Consternation, perplexity of Spirit, and brokenness of heart, is the very gale and entrance of any sound hope, and assured expectation of good. This I take to be the true meaning and intendment of the place, and part of the description of a good Hearer, Luke 8. 15. Who with an honest and good heart receives the Word, and keeps it, by strong hand, and brings forth fruit with patience; the fruit is Obedience, Patience is part of Sanctification, and the holy disposition of heart, that must be in the heart, that brings and bears such fruit, that which makes the heart good is Faith in Vocation, which enables the soul to lay hold upon Christ in the Word, and from him to receive that lively virtue of Patience, and readiness to every holy word and work. And an honest heart is a contrite and humble heart, so rightly prepared that Faith is infused, and the soul thereby carried unto Christ, and quickened with patience to persevere in good Duties. As we say of Grounds before we cast in Seed; there is two things to be attended there, It must be a fit ground, and a fat ground; the ground is fit when the weeds and green sword are plowed up, and the soil there, and made mould: And this is done in 〈◊〉 and Humiliation; then it must be a fat ground, the soil must have heart, we say the ground is plowed well, and lies well, but it's worn out, it's out of heart: Now Faith fats the soil, furnisheth the soul with ability to fasten upon Christ, and so to receive the Seed of the Word, and the Graces of Sanctification, and thence it produceth good 〈◊〉 in Obedience: Upon this condition God's favor is promised, Psal. 34. 18. The Lord is nigh to them that be of a contrite spirit, and saveth them that be of a broken heart. Isaiah 61. 3. He gives the Garment of praise to those that have had the spirit of heaviness; it will suit none, fit none, it's prepared for none but such, it's their Livery only. Upon this condition it is obtained, Mat. 18. 3. Unless ye be converted, and become as little Children, ye can in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. 2 Chron. 33. 12. It's said of Mannasseh, he humbled himself greatly, and made supplication, and the Lord was entreated of him; such persons and services are highly accepted, Psal. 51. 17. A broken and contrite heart O God, thou wilt not despise, nay, he will undoubtedly accept of it.

The Reasons of the Point are taken, partly in regard of the heart, which without these will neither be fitted nor enabled to act upon God in Christ for any good; partly in regard of God, all his Ordinances and Dispensations will be unprofitable, and unable to do that good which he intends, and we need.

To the first in regard of our Hearts; those Lets and impediments which put a kind of incapability, yea, and impossibility upon the soul, whereby the coming of [ 1] Faith into the Heart, and so the entrance and residence of the Spirit are hindered, are by this disposition wrought, and removed. These Impediments are two:

The 〈◊〉 which stops the way and work of Faith is, a settled kind of contentedness in our corrupt condition, [ 1] and the blind, yet bold and presumptuous confidence that a natural man hath, and would maintain of his good condition. Each man sits down willingly, well apaid with his own estate and portion, sees no need of any change, and therefore not willing to hear of it. Each man is so full of self-love that he is loath to pass a sentence against his own soul, to become a judge and selfcondemner, and consequently an executioner of all his hopes and comforts at once, and so put his happiness and help out of his own hand. Besides, we are Naturally afraid (out of the privy, yet direful guilt of our own Consciences) to profess the wretchedness of our own miserable and damnable Condition, as to put it upon a peremptory conclusion, and that beyond question, I am undone, I am a damned man, in the Gall of bitterness, in the bonds of iniquity, lest they should stir such horrors, which they are neither able to quiet, nor yet able to bear. And therefore out of the presumption of their own hearts, they would easily persuade and delude themselves, they have no cause to alter their condition, and therefore they should not endeavor it. Hence the carnal heart is said to bear up himself against all the assaults of the Word, Deut. 29. 19. When all the Curses of the Law were denounced with never so much evidence, yet the presumptuous sinner blesseth himself, promiseth all good to himself, and secretly feeds himself with vain hopes that he shall attain it, therefore he will not stir to seek for a better estate, nor yet receive it if offered, Job, 22. 17. They say unto the Almighty, depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of his ways: do Ministers press them, do others persuade them to a more serious and narrow search, to get more grounded assurance of their estate in Grace, they profess they bid them to their loss, they think they need not be better, nor do they desire to be other. It is impossible upon these terms that ever the soul should be carried by Faith unto God.

For to be contented and quieted with our condition, as that which best pleaseth, and yet to seek out for another, are things contradictory. And yet this Faith doth, For he that is in Christ, is a new Creature, behold all things are become new, 2 Cor. 5. 17. he must have new comforts, new desires, new hopes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heart must be broken to pieces under the weight of the evil of sin, and the Curses due to the old condition, before this will part; for that the word here used with great elegancy and pregnancy implies, viz. by an oppressing weight to be pashed to powder and dust. 〈◊〉 the Psalmist useth it, Psal. 90. 3. Thou turnest man to powder, to the dust of death: when a 〈◊〉 composition is dissolved, and the body returned again into its first principle; so the word here by way of resemblance, implies that the soul should find his corruption his greatest oppression, so that the composition betwixt sin and his soul should be dissolved and taken down, and the nature of man return to his first principles, and primitive disposition, that he sees an absolute necessity to change, and then he will seek and be willing to receive a change: The 〈◊〉 need no Physician, and therefore will not seek; but the sick that need, will be content to receive; The issue is, If the soul be contented with its sinful condition, and would not have a change, then it cannot be under the power of Faith, or receive that which will bring a change; but before the soul be broken under the pressure of sin, it would not have a change, therefore so long it cannot be under the power of Faith. [ 2]

Be it granted that the soul finds sin as a plague, and therefore would be preserved from the evil of it: the second impediment which wholly keeps out Faith is this, When the sinner expects supply and 〈◊〉 from its own sufficiency, either outward excellencies, abilities of Nature, or common Graces, or the beauty of some performances which issue from any of these: For this is Natural to all men ever since Innocency, That since the staff was put into his own hand, and then needed not, nay should not deny their own strength, 〈◊〉 to this day this practice of old Adam remain still in all his posterity, they will scramble for their own Comforts and try the utmost of their own strength, to help themselves rather than be 〈◊〉 to another to help them: Hence in cases of Conscience and trouble, men are so ready to resolve, so apt and free to promise and profess amendment, what they will do, and others shall see it as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it, and so alas it comes to nothing in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , either they fall back unto their base courses, when horror and fear is over, or else wasting 〈◊〉 into a 〈◊〉 formality, and so perish in their Hypocrisy. This is an apparent bar to faith, which is the going out of the soul to fetch all life and power from 〈◊〉 . Now wholly to be in ourselves, and to stay upon our own ability, and yet to go out of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and receive all from his sufficiency, are things which 〈◊〉 stand together, I came not to call the 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 . 9. 13. While they sought to establish 〈◊〉 own 〈◊〉 , they did not submit to the Righteousness of God.

Hence t 〈◊〉 the second work of Humiliation is required, 〈◊〉 God plucks away all his props, and 〈◊〉 him wholly of what he hath or seemeth to have. For pride (unto which Humiliation is opposite) is but the rankness of praise, and praise is a fruit of a cause by counsel, that hath power to do or not to do this or that, as he sees 〈◊〉 Humiliation is the utter nothingness of the soul, that we have no power, it's not in our choice to dispose of ourselves, not yet to dispose of that which another gives, nor yet safe to repine at his dispose: In a word, as in a Scion before it be engrafted into another stock, it must be cut osf srom the old, and pared, and then implanted. In Contrition we are cut off; in Humiliation pared, and so sit to be implanted into Christ by Faith.

In regard of God, without this disposition his Word will not, nay cannot take any place in us, or prevail with [ 2] us for our good: Counsels, and Commands, and Comforts, or whatever Dispensations, they fall as water upon a Rock, when administered to a hard heart, they enter not, prevail not, profit not at all. As Christ told the Jews, John, 8. 37. 'My Word takes no place in you, and Zach. 7. 11, 12. They hardened their hearts as an Adamant, &c.

A word of terror to dash the hopes, and sink the hearts of all haughty and hard hearted sinners, God owns not such, will never vouchsafe his gracious presence with them, or his Blessing upon them for good; be where they will, dwell where they will, the Lord is not with them, nor will dwell in them, by his comforting, quickening, saving presence: Hear and fear then all you stouthearted, stubborn, and rebellious Creatures, whose consciences can evidence that the day is yet to dawn, the hour yet to come, that ever you found your sins a pressure to you, they have been your past-time and delight in which you have pleased yourselves, so far from being troubled for your evils that it is your only trouble you may not commit them with content, and without control, you are troubled with Admonitions, and Counsels, and Commands, and Threatenings that cross you in your sins. You were never broken-hearted here for your abominations, know assuredly that you will burn for them one day; your proud hearts were never abased, and laid in the dust, the Lord will ruinate both you and them. Never expect a good look from God, set your heart at rest for that, you may draw the Eyes of others after you, make many of your deluded followers and Favorites to look upon you, but the Lord will not come near, nor once cast a loving look towards you, Psal. 138. 6. Though the Lord be high, he hath respect to the lowly, but he knows the proud afar off. Nay, the great God of Heaven and Earth is up in Arms against thee, he is upon the March to work thy destruction, James, 4. 6. The Lord resists the proud, but he gives Grace to the humble; all Grace is in his gift, and he doles it only to the bruised and abased; but there is no thought nor expectation that thou shalt receive any Grace, nay, that Grace that thy rebellious and proud heart hath opposed and resisted, will work thy own ruin. Thou art the mark of God's direful indignation and vengeance, he plants all his Forces against thee; If all the Wisdom in Heaven can contrive thy confusion, all the Power in Heaven work it, all the Justice there determine it, it shall be done. God is nigh to them that are of a contrite heart, he saveth such as be of a broken spirit, Psal. 34. 18. true, and mark it, Of such, but such thou 〈◊〉 not, such thou deridest, scornest, whose hearts fail them under the weight of their abominations, thou lookest at them as mopish, silly, despicable men, well, such you shall see saved forever, when such untamed, 〈◊〉 , proud wretches as thou art shall be turned into Hell.

But we do see our 〈◊〉 , and have had many girds and galls of Conscience for them.

True, It may be there hath 〈◊〉 some blows upon thine heart, Conscience it hath 〈◊〉 thee, the 〈◊〉 of the Word, it hath laid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , but it 〈◊〉 not broken thy heart to this day; 〈◊〉 that is thus 〈◊〉 (to go no further now than the very expression of the Text.)

If thy soul be beaten to 〈◊〉 with this oppression of thy distempers (for so this brokenness of heart was opened before) then as it is with the hardest flints, when they are broken to dust, they are easily 〈◊〉 , and give way to take the impression of the hand, or whatever is laid upon them: The stone which out of its hardness before, opposed and started aside from the strongest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was laid; now its turned into dust the least and easiest touch leaves a print and impression upon it; so it is expounded, as appears in this opposition, 2 Chron: 30. 8. Be not stiff-necked, but yield yourselves. Observe then, is it so? when the power of the Word comes, the Scriptures are pregnant, Arguments 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 sweet, 〈◊〉 sharp and 〈◊〉 , yet 〈◊〉 heart shifts and starts aside, and hits back the Authority of the truth, which thou canst not gain-say. The heart may be battered, but it was never broken, it may be over poured and awed; but it was never humbled to this day. Its that of Prov. 3. 32. The froward in heart is an abomination to the Lord, but the upright, he that lies level, and bows to the Truth, are his delight. A froward man, that is, he that turns off from the Authority of the Truth: Is this thy temper? thy heart was never broken to dust to this day, but frampful and froward, know thou art an abomination to the Lord. If thou shouldst go to Heaven to dwell there, truly God would go out of Heaven, he would not dwell with thee.

Pharaoh is the pattern of all proud Hearts, he hardened himself in his wickedness against the Word of the Lord. But a broken and humble heart, either lies right, or will come right, it will come to that bent of the 〈◊〉 that is revealed: Hard things makes that which is 〈◊〉 soft to assimilate to them; easy and yielding things assimilate to whatever they close: so Water in a round Vessel 〈◊〉 that form, in a three square Vessel, takes that. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 .

〈◊〉 , To teach us to delight in such, to desire the 〈◊〉 of such as are 〈◊〉 and humble men', to [ 2] dwell there where God dwells; seem their persons never so mean, their conditions never so base, their estates never so low, themselves never so despitable, yet if they be men of broken Spirits, God is with them. Go into their Societies as men that resolve to go to the Court; for where the King is, the Court is; and where God is, Heaven is: the Lord hath two Thrones; the one of Glory in Heaven, where he is all in all to his; another here on Earth, an humble heart, where he doth all only of himself, and for himself. Therefore as they in Zacharias, 8. last, Ten men shall lay hold on the skirt of a Jew, and they shall say, we will go with you, for we have 〈◊〉 God is with you. Much more here, for the Lord is not only with humble hearts, but he dwells in them; we should therefore entertain such Servants into our Families, such Inhabitants into Plantations, and such Members into Congregations, for so you entertain God himself; Resolve as Ruth to Naomi, Entreat me not to forsake thee, for where thou 〈◊〉 , I will live, thy people shall be my people, thy God my God, where thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried, and nothing but death shall part thee and me. Nay go further, ye blessed Spirits (say) death shall not part us, I will be broken-hearted with you, and humble with you, and God shall dwell in us, and we shall dwell with him in Heaven forever. Oh now ye are right, keep here, and be happy here forever.

Exhortation, To persuade us all, and to prevail with us to take the right way to enjoy God's presence, not only to seek for mercy, but seek it in God's Order, not only to covet God's presence, but in God's 〈◊〉 ; labor to be humble and broken-hearted Christians: then expect we may that the Lord will manifest the presence of his Grace and Spirit with us, and in us, but not else: Every man catcheth at Christ, and Mercy, and Comfort, but not in a right Method, and therefore they lose him, and their labor also. This is God's order: First be humble and broken, and then he will revive your Spirits with his presence, 2. Cor. 6. 19. Come out from among them, and touch no unclean thing; then I will receive you, and be a Father to you. In a word, strive to enter in at the straight Gate of Contrition and Humiliation, and then you will hit the right way to Christ and eternal Life.

The Tenth Book.

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

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

The Description stands upon two Passages mainly.

• I. The Causes which bring in this Contrition.
• • 1. Sight of Sin.
  • 2. Sorrow for Sin.
• II. The Effects which nextly discover this, and whereby it comes to be known.
• • 1. Detestation of Sin.
  • 2. Sequestration from sin.

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

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

For the ground of my following discourse I have taken the words of the Text, in which you have the grounds and hints of all the former Truths, not implied only by way of collection, but expressly 〈◊〉 down, and professedly aimed at as evidently discovering the manner of God's dealing herein.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hence the Doctrine is,

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

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

There is a Threefold Argument to settle this Truth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enquire therefore we will

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

How far the sinner may be said to be active in it. [ 2]

Wherein this true sight and apprehension properly [ 3] consists, and so discovers itself.

The Reason of this Truth, and the Lord's Order in [ 4] this proceeding.

And then we shall make Application of it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

How far the sinner may be said to be active in this sight of sin.

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

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

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

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

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

The Lord Christ 〈◊〉 the understanding to bear [ 3] that Almighty stroke of his Spirit, whereby he destroys the sovereign power of carnal reason, and 〈◊〉 it to receive the prevailing impression of his spiritual light, which searcheth the secrets of sin in the soul. The Conclusion intimates a double work of the Spirit. 1. It destroys the sovereignty of carnal Reason. 2. It leaves in the room of that an impression of spiritual light; and in both these the understanding is merely passive, for so it's added, it's forced to bear the one, it's fitted to receive the other.

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

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

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

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

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

But how shall we see clearly the Nature of sin in his naked hue?

This will be discovered, and may be conceived in the Particulars following. Look we at it: First, As it respects [ 1] God. Secondly, As it concerns ourselves. As it hath reference to God, the vileness of the nature of sin may thus appear.

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

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

• 1. The Powerful Supremacy of his just will, as that he hath right to dispose of all and authority to command all at his pleasure; What if God will? Rom. 9. 22 My Counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure, Isa. 46. 10. And as its true of what shall be done upon us, so his will hath Sovereignty of Command in what should be done by us we are 〈◊〉 say the will of the Lord be done; David's warrant was to do all God's wills Acts. 13. 22. and our Savior himself professeth, John. 6. 38. that he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him, and therefore his wrath and jealousy and judgment will break out in 〈◊〉 that be disobeyed.
• 2. There is also a fullness of wisdom in the law of God revealed to guide & direct us in the way we should walk, Psal. 19. 7. the law of God makes wise the simple, 2. Tim. 3. 15. it's able to make us wise unto Salvation.
• 3 There's a Sufficiency of God to content and satisfy us. Blessed are they who walk in his ways, and blessed are they that keep his Testimonies. Psal. 119. 1. 2. Great prosperity have they that love the law, and nothing shall offend them, ver. 16. and in truth there can be no greater reward for doing well, than to be enabled to do well, he that hath attained his last end he cannot go further. he cannot be better;

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

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

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

In regard of ourselves, see we and consider nakedly [ 2] the nature of sin, in Four particulars.

Its that which makes a separation between God and [ 1] the soul, breaks that Union and Communion with God for 〈◊〉 we were made, and in the enjoyment of which we should be blessed and happy, Isai. 59. 1. 2. God's ear is not heavy that it cannot hear nor his hand that it cannot help, but your iniquities have separated betwixt God and you & your sins have hid his face that he will not hear for he professeth, Psal. 5. 4. that he is a God that wills not wickedness neither shall iniquity dwell with him. Into the new Jerusalem shall no unclean thing enter, but without shall be dogs Rev. 21. 27. The Dogs to their Kennel, and Hogs to their Sty and Mire: but if an impenitent wretch should come into Heaven, the Lord would go out of Heaven; Iniquity shall not dwell with sin. That then that deprives me of my greatest good for which I came into the world, and for which I live and labor in the world, and without which I had better never to have been born; nay that which deprives me of an universal good, a good that hath all good in it, that must needs be an evil, but have all evil in it: but so doth sin deprive me of God as the Object of my will, and that wills all good, and therefore it must bring in Truth all evil with it. Shame takes away my Honor, Poverty my Wealth, Persecution my Peace, Prison my Liberty, Death my Life, yet a man may still be a happy man, lose his Life, and live eternally: But sin takes away my God, and with him all good goes; Prosperity without God will be my poison, Honor without him my bane; nay, the word without God hardens me, my endeavor without him profits nothing at all for my good. A Natural man hath no God in anything, and therefore hath no good.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Men judge their sins according to the present sense and feeling of the flesh, and the verdict of their sensual appetites pass thereupon, and sit down under the sentence of their corrupt heaats, and they report of things according as they relish them. It is 〈◊〉 a sinful soul as with a sick body; the sick man that is distempered in his 〈◊〉 mach, and his mouth out of taste, and his palate out of temper, he reports of his 〈◊〉 and diet he takes as his palate relisheth it: So that in issue he tells you not what in truth it is, but how and what he tastes; bitter things he calls sweet, because they are so to his Taste; sweet things bitter, because they are so to his sense, though far otherwise in themselves. So it is with a distempered heart, though otherwise gracious, if yet it judgeth of them according to the relish of carnal Reason, or the present apprehensions, their inordinate passions would put upon them; Jonah in a feverish fit of a passionate distemper, he strikes he cares not whom, falls out with God, his Providence, nay, his Counsel though most seasonably, sweetly dispensed to him, Dost thou well to be angry Jonah? Yea (says he) I do well to be angry, and that unto death, Jonah, 4. 9. his passion like the palate of his sick soul, relisheth it so, to his own inordinate distemper, and so he judgeth it. 1 Kings, 22. 8. 18. The heart of Ahab was inordinately transported with a venomous hatred against Michaiah, and his message, though it was no other counsel than the Lord had revealed, and he charged him to speak as in his Name; yet it is no wise pleasing to his palate, and so he speaks of it, Did not I tell thee he would not speak good to me? So it was with Asah, when the Prophet seasonably and sadly condemned his distrustful carriage, 2. Chron. 16. out of an unbelieving wrathful disposition he cannot relish it, but it carries the taste of an insolent contempt and therefore he imprisons him, and very likely all those that came to speak for him, and plead in his behalf, for so the words follow, He put many of the 〈◊〉 into prison, 10. verse. while he was in the this distemper his spirit could savor nothing nor yet perceive the bitterness of 〈◊〉 heinous and high handed provocations of his against the truth of the Lord and his Servants. [ 3]

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

On the 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 off from holy services by showing nothing but the 〈◊〉 of the evil that attend them, that so the soul attends not the good of the duty that follwes it. Thus he prevailed with Peter he laid before him the fearfulness of the danger now eminent & such as in 〈◊〉 might draw on death, and his thoughts were so taken up with attendance to that, that he had no leisure to consider the loathsomeness of his Lying, Cursing, Blasphemy and unfaithfulness in denying his Master until at last Christ looked, and he remembered and he went out and wept bitterly, 'Math. 26. Last. so they looked upon the stature of the Giants, the height of their walled Cities, and their Iron Chariots and therefore did not expel them, and so they became thorns in their eyes and pricks in their sides, Bribes blind the eyes of the wise, because the understanding looks not upon the Cause, but them, and the Cause in them. So the pleasures of sin Bribes the heart and blind the eye. [ 4]

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

The Fifth and last cause of mistake, is want of that [ 5] morning light, that Spiritual knowledge of God, and his Sovereign good pleasure over his Creatures, whereby he hath right to rule in the hearts of men, and they are bound to conform themselves thereunto. When the Lord Christ would discover the error and falseness of that self conceited presumption the Church of Laodicea had of her own worth, Rev. 3. 17. Thou sayest thou art rich and increased in goods, and wantest nothing: the reason he gives whence this erroneous apprehension came, was her ignorance, She knew not that she was poor and miserable, and blind, and naked; she wanted eyesalve to anoint 〈◊〉 eyes that shemight see. The last resolution of these 〈◊〉 in a sinful carriage, our Savior refers hither, John, 15. 21. All these things they will do unto you, because they have not known him that sent me. They wanted a spiritual understanding, and right conceiving of, God, and that was the reason they rushed into the crowd of all evils in a heedless and careless 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 way without any consideration.

The Cure of these mistakes is by a double means. [ 11]

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

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

We have 〈◊〉 with the First, What it is to see Sin 〈◊〉 : We are now to inquire of the Second, Wherein this true sight of Sin 〈◊〉 , that is, we must see it also convictingly; what it is to us in the work of it, as well as what it is in itself, in the Nature of it. This appears in a double act, or in two Things:

• 1 We must apply sin particularly to ourselves.
• 2 It must be settled with an over-pouring strength, upon a man's own soul.

We shall open both these in the order propounded. [ 1]

He that sees his Sins convictingly, must 〈◊〉 content himself with the 〈◊〉 and speculation of Sin, to speak freely of it, to 〈◊〉 out the 〈◊〉 of his corruption, or to lay 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 thereof in a judicious and pregnant 〈◊〉 . This a wicked man may learn, this a right godly man may sometimes do, and yet do himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by it. Therefore it is required he must see it with a particular application of it to himself and his ownestate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 same sentence upon those he 〈◊〉 in his own 〈◊〉 , which he did upon any when they 〈◊〉 presented to his own 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 without 〈◊〉 . There are two things 〈◊〉 , we shall open both. [ 1]

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

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

This 〈◊〉 of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self 〈◊〉 hearts, the Philosopher in the practice of men even by the twilight of the common Principles of reason remaining in the decays of nature observed. For taking it for granted that no man doth will evil under the name of evil but as it comes under the appearance of some good and that all men easily grant and freely confess that Drunkenness, Injustice, Intemperance are evil, the question then grows how these men judging these carriages to be evil, are daily taken aside with the Commission of them. Ask the Drunkard whether 〈◊〉 be unlawful, he consesseth it Loathsom and yet commits it, Ask the Blasphemer whether 〈◊〉 be a sin, He will profess it detestable at one breath, and practice it at the next. Thieves themselves count it unjust that any by cunning should deceive them, cry out of falsehood and yet by force 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others; the ground is here. When the question is put and propounded in the general, they will grant it.; when it comes to their particular for such a man at this time upon this occasion in this company for such an end, to be loose or tipple in this manner this is not unlawful. For in these the Devil casts in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 , Credit, Friendship, Familiarity (as the Lawyers alter the Case by circumstances) and by these he would put another 〈◊〉 upon 〈◊〉 carriages and 〈◊〉 make them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hearts they give in evidence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 would have the sentence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them, that in case they may be 〈◊〉 , and not utterly 〈◊〉 . So David saw sin in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 own 〈◊〉 : So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , when he himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 〈◊〉 . 24. Therefore thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 Application, that they are in thee as in others, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in thee 〈◊〉 thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 . [ 2]

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

It must be,

• 1. Undeniable,
• 2. Immoveable,
• 3. Victorious and invincible.

Conviction must carry an undeniable evidence with [ 1] it that as the truth hath laid and pleaded an action against the soul, so the understanding may be forced to confess it, and sits down satisfied under the uncontrollable authority thereof and of the truth therein. The Scriptures are so pregnant, reasons so plain, arguments so strong, that though before they did not see, they could not think it, or be brought to believe, that their sins were so heinous or their condition so miserable, yet they now know not how to gainsay it. Thus 〈◊〉 , when he stood upon the terms of his 〈◊〉 at several times when God had terrified him by the discovery of himself, he then yields the day, Job. 7. 20. I have sinned what shall I do unto thee Oh thou preserver of men q. d. I have no reasons to allege, no excuses to make, no arguments to plead, I 〈◊〉 the action, I have sinned. Thus the Lord took down the height of 〈1 page〉 of the Word, that as it is said of Stephen, they could not 〈◊〉 the Spirit by 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 ; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 though the 〈◊〉 would gain say, yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 18. 15. Nay, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . So the Spirit follows the soul, and 〈◊〉 , and removes these Cavils and Objections that the sinner makes, and still shows and says, nay, but this is thy sin, and 〈◊〉 will be thy damnation; that the sinner is 〈◊〉 to yield, and say, this is the Truth, I cannot 〈◊〉 it; it is my condition, I cannot deny it; this is my sin, and will be my 〈◊〉 , I cannot but expect it. [ 2]

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

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

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

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

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

Ignorance frustrates wholly the end of all the means we use, and the endeavors we take up for reformation of the evils of our hearts and lives. For.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See the Curse of it that is dreadful. [ 2]

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

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

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

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

〈◊〉 Instruction, why men of the greatest ability for depth of brain and strength of understanding are most hardly brought to brokennes of heart and to be wounded with Godly sorrow for their sins; the ground is from the point in hand, because they are hardest brought to see their sins; the power of carnal reason doth so mightily prevail in them being now in their natural condition, the strength of their abilities becomes wholly perverted to their own hurt, and the maintaining of their own distempers, their subtlety deceives themselves & they abuse the sharpness of their wit to beat back the authority of the 〈◊〉 and to wind away from the evidence of argument that is 〈◊〉 to their view. They shut out the light of the truth from coming into their hearts. and therefore its not 〈◊〉 it should work upon them 〈◊〉 or effectually prevail with them for God. Hence that peremptory 〈◊〉 of the Apostle not many wise men after the flesh 1. 〈◊〉 . 1. 26. because the wisdom of the 〈◊〉 is enmity against God. Rom. 8. 7. 〈◊〉 it is as a weapon in the hand and under the command of our fleshly hearts, It fortifies most strongly against the evidence and essicacy of the truth, will not suffer a conviction to fasten upon the Conscience, and therefore no Godly sorrow to affect the soul of a sinner. As it is in war when the trenches and outworks are slight, and the wall of the City low, and the Castle weak, its no matter of danger or 〈◊〉 for a wise Commander with compitent forces to surprise it, to carry the place, and Conquer the people their defense was but feeble, but were their out-works strong, their walls high, the Citadel and Castle impregnable, it will abide many assaults and stand out long, even against the 〈◊〉 power that shall 〈◊〉 them, and happily be forced to raise the 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 place as not able to prevail. It is so in our spiritual condition, when the Lord coms to lay siege to the soul of a sinful creature who is now under the power of darkness, and the sovereign command of his corruptions which rule as supreme Lord's over him: There is no Conversion without Conviction (as hath been showed in 〈◊〉 the point) Its not possible the heart should be content to leave sin unless the understanding clearly see the loathsomeness of it, the out-works and walls of the soul are our apprehensions and understanding, now where there is wiliness, depth and subtlety of 〈◊〉 , large reaches of carnal reason, these the Apostle calls strong holds. 2. Cor. 10. 4. and they will abide the battery and force of the most plain evidences, strongest arguments that can be devised and alleged with the best skil, and yet hold it out against all. where the opposition is not so strong the entrance is more easy, and subjection is sooner yielded to the evidence of the truth. This is the ground the prophet gives of that invincible stiffness, pride, and contempt of Babylon, as being unteachable under all dispensations, Thy wisdom and thy knowledge they have perverted thee, or caused thee to rebel, Isa. 47. 10. It was the reason of that stubbornness of which the Lord complains in the Scribes and 〈◊〉 the great Rabbies of the world. Luke. 7. 30. 31. the Publicans and sinners 〈◊〉 God because of John Baptists doctrine, and so yielded themselves and were overcome of the evidence of the truth. but the Scribes and Pharisees rejected the counsel of God. They put it by and would not suffer the counsel of God to take place or to prevail with them. Paul never found worse entertainment and greater opposition than at Corinth,