The Application of Redemption

as the Lord complaynes, Isa. 48. 4. My heart harder than the nether millstone Job. 41. 28. If life and Salvation were laid before me and that I might have heaven and grace for taking or entertainment of it, yet I would neither have word, nor Christ nor heaven itself unless I might have my will in heaven, such is the invincible stiffness and desperate perverseness of my spirit; unless I may have what I will when it comes upon the narrow, God must not have his glory, nor service nor subjection nor allegiance nor duty in the least 〈◊〉 discharged. I must burn, for I can neither break nor yield: nor mercies persuade me, nor judgments awe me, I can receive no good, nay I can see no reason why God should do any good to me that would not have it.

Here is the dead lift, and the wonder of all wonders, the overpowering of the sovereignty of a stubborn selfwilly heart, 〈◊〉 the throne where Satan dwells; which 〈◊〉 the doctrine of free-will to be a doctrine of Devils and that which drives the soul to everlasting discouragement, pretend what such deceivers can to the contrary.

But the former doctrine affords support, and that which will bear up thy heart even in this particular also thy Salvation depends not upon thine own will, for then neither thou nor any flesh should be saved. But God shows mercy to whom he will show mercy, Rom. 9. 19. As nothing can deserve his mercy so nothing can resist his good pleasure, when he will show it, he will make thee find it and others see it. James, 1. 18. of his own good will begot he us by the word of truth; It's not according to the will of Satan, for then no man should be saved, its not according to the will of man fallen, for then no man could be saved. But he dispenseth the work of his grace according to his own will And his counsel shall stand, and he will do what he will. Isai. 46. 11. let the will of men and Devils oppose it to the utmost of their power. Quiet thou thy heart, I cannot do anything that might purchas, not yet in truth would I have grace if God would give it, only it is with God to do good to this miserable soul of mine as he will, who doth what he will in heaven and in earth, his will be done and blessed be his holy name forever and ever: and there stay thyself. It was the expression of a man in heavy perplexity of Conscience finding the crossness of his will to snarl at the Lord's dispensation, his heart sunk within him, with unsupportable horror, that he had 〈◊〉 the sin against the Holy Ghost; and with many prayers and tears he sought to heaven to bring his heart to an under subjection to the good pleasure of the Lord, but the Lord left him to his own perverseness, nothing he could do, could prevail with his own spirit. and proffessed against that cursed cavil of the Arminians, that reproach of the doctrine of God's free grace which leads to despayr and discouragement, openly acknowledging that if his own salvation depended upon his own will, he should perish irrecoverably: but that only held his heart in some hope that his happiness was in God's hand, and that it merely depended upon the will of the Lord, to give him a heart to fear and serve him or else his heart would fail. And it was a savory speech of a gracious woman that had a great deal of Do with her own heart, when she could not find her heart to come off so willingly to give way as she ought to what her judgment allowed, she besought the Lord to give her such a disposition of heart whether she would or no.

Thou yet repliest, that which ads to the heinousness of my evil is this, these loathsome distempers have not been harboured in mine own breast only, confined in mine own bosom, which yet had been too much, but they have broken out into the most sierce and professed rebellion and that in the highest degree. I have been a professed opposer of the gospel and the power thereof, an open Rabshakeh, a Ringleader and Encourager, to such that would revile and reproach the righteous and good ways of God's grace, a jeering Ishmaelite, of such as with 〈◊〉 of Conscience had care to walk therein, and have resolved and attempted also even with an impudent face and a brazen forehead to outbrave the authority of the truth, and made it matter of scorn to drop and give in to the most dreadful threatenings, that could be denounced out of the word, I have trampled all the entreaties of the Lord and tender offers of mercy under feet, that when I have called over my course, and viewed my carriage in cold blood I have wondered that the Lord hath not made me a spectacle of his displeasure, before I departed out of the place, that the very earth did not open and swallow me quick as Corah 〈◊〉 and Abiram. So that God cannot be God unless he do avenge himself and pluck the praise of his justice 〈◊〉 the heart blood of such a wretch, nay he should be accessory to the dishonor of his own name if he should show mercy to such who openly, impudently in a hellish haughtiness of heart have trampled his mercy under their feet.

True flesh and blood could not do it, nay the heart 〈◊〉 man cannot think it how this should be, did we measure God's compassions according to our narrowscantling, but God's thoughts are not ours nor his ways ours, so far as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his mercy unto them that fear him. Isai. 55. Psal. 103. 11. infinitely above and beyond our own desires and thoughts, our imaginations and expectations; They are I confess amazing expressions of miraculous compassions of the Lord, yet such they are as he is pleased to manifest to sinful dust and ashes. He can tell how to have the honor of his justice and to save thy soul, thou sinful rebel. Nay he can tell how best to provide most for his own glory, when he pardons most sins: I beseech thee pardon my sins for they are many Psal. 25. 11. He lets the power of darkness proceed to its full strength, that the power of his exceeding mercy might show itself in delivering from the nethermost hell. He gives sin advantage that it might do its worst, and reign unto death, that so his grace might reign over sin & death unto eternal life. According to the sovereignty of his will whereby he subdues all things to himself Eph. 3. last and here thou mayest yet feel firm bottom to bear up thy fainting heart from sinking down into everlasting discouragement.

Thus you see the compass of this encouragement which issues from God's free grace. But least some proud flesh should arise by this healing preservative if it should heal too fast to keep thee under this encouragement and yet to keep thee from presumption take these Cautions.

It's possible God may do thee good, notwithstanding all indispositions and oppositions. But know 〈◊〉 for certain he never will do it but in his own way. If he save thee he will humble thee, if he pardon that guilty soul and Conscience of thine, he will pierce both to the quick; there is not a possibility he should save thy soul 〈◊〉 thy sin also, set it down for an undeniable conclusion I cannot have my stubborn and rebellious heart and have any hope that ever I shall have either Grace or Mercy. If thou wilt sin that mercy may abound (as the Apostle brings in the sons of Belial, speaking, Rom. 6. 1.) thou mayest have thy sin, but upon these terms thou shalt never have mercy. Either expect that God should take away thy sin, or else never expect he should prevent thy ruin.

When the Lord lets in some light to discover the [ 2] loathsomeness of thy corrupt Nature, and begins to grapple with thy Conscience, so that thou stand'st convinced of the vileness of thine own ways, the worth and excellency of his Grace; when God hath thee upon the Anvil, and under the Hammer to break thee, in the fire to melt thee, 〈◊〉 fear, fear, lest thou shouldest make an escape from under the hand of the Lord, and fall back again to the old base course; it's a dreadful suspicion of God's direful displeasure, lest either the Lord will cease to do thee any further good; or give thee up to those hellish departures, that thou shouldest make thyself everlastingly uncapable of mercy.

1. It's a sore suspicion that the Lord purposeth to [ 1] leave striving, and to meddle with thee no more, when the Lord suffers thee to wind away from under the power of the means which formerly thou wert subject to. It's God's usual manner to make such inexcusable, and never make them good, that they might go self-condemned, and so go to Hell. It's that of the Prophet 〈◊〉 which he makes a Symptom of the outcast condition of the Jews that they were dross, Jer. 〈◊〉 . 30. Reprobate Silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them: How proves he that? Verse 29. The Bellows are burnt, the Lead is consumed in the fire, the Founder melteth in vain, for the wicked are not plucked away. To this purpose is that of our Savior, when he had long striven with the rebellious Jews, clocked to them as a Hen to her Chickens, and would have gathered them under the wing of his saving Providence, by the preaching of the Gospel and ye nothing would prevail, they would drive Christ out of their sight, and he smites them with a plague answerable, Math 23. 2 last. ver. ye shall see me no more, until ye shall say blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And this his word hath taken hold upon them unto 〈◊〉 day, the poor forlorn Jews have not had a sight of Christ this sixteen hundred years, scriptures they have, prophecies, promises, yea they have the Gospel while they 〈◊〉 the Gospel, for so the Apostle Gal. 3. The Gospel was preached to Abriaham saying in thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed, they see all this but the vayl is over their eyes, they see no Christ in promises, ordinances and therefore no salvation, leaving secret things to God. So it befalls many falshearted Apostates when God hath had them in the fire and they come out too hastily from horror and humiliations, before half melted, Its a great adventure they never come to Christ, but wanse away in a powerless kind of formality and content 〈◊〉 with the enjoyment of some outward privileges and ordinances and names of profession, they have the scriptures and ordinances but never see a Christ, in any of them, nor will the Lord look upon them, nor once speak to them, when he passeth by, but let them live and perish as heartless, Christless men. Thus our savior dealt with his people in former times when he had sent the spies into the Land of Canaan, Heb. 3. 18. Numb. 14. 23. and they returned convinced by their own experience of the goodness of the land as flowing with milk and honey, and out of a slothful cowardice because there were iron Charrets and walled cities, and mighty Giants, they withdrew the duty and God's charge, and disheartened also the people, the text says the Lord sware in his wrath they should not enter into his rest. When God swears, it shows his purpose is unchangeable and his execution will not be altered. Canaan is a type of the Kingdom of grace and so of Glory when the Lord let in some evidence of the excellency thereof and the heart cannot but acknowledge it, 〈◊〉 leaves off rather than it will take the pains to grapple with those Giant-like corruptions, that iron and 〈◊〉 hardness of heart, why shouldest not thou fear least God should swear thou shalt never enter into his rest, thou shouldest never find the power of the death of Jesus in killing the body of death, so that thou shouldest cease from thine own works, and from the sinful distempers of thy corrupt heart.

Fear again, lest the Lord give thee up to thy old distempers, that thou shouldest make thyself everlastingly uncapable of any good, and sin that unpardonable sin against the holy Ghost. When thou goest against those Convictions of thy Conscience, those tastes of approbation which sometimes thy heart took in the good Word and ways of God; for by this backsliding thou art in the ready way to run upon that rock. This was that which helped Paul the possibility of mercy, 1 Tim. 1. 14. But I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, it was his zeal that he persecuted the Church, i. e. his blind zeal; but should he have done so against the Dictates of his Conscience, and the evidence of Truth in his own heart, he could hardly have seen a way for mercy. So the Apostle to the Hebrews, 6. 8. The Earth that often drinketh in the rain, and yet brings forth thorns and 〈◊〉 is nigh, is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. The rain is the Word, heard, understood, embraced, acknowledged, and yet have their malicious venomous conspiracies against the Gospel of God, and Saints of Christ, and that in 〈◊〉 like thorns under the leaves, like briars under pretence of moderation and humility, can scratch bitterly, it's a heavy suspicion their end will be burning. Take heed thou content not thyself in thy rebellious condition; for upon this supposition that thou wilt have this, thou puttest thyself out of any possibility of good, goest against God's Order, Course, and Covenant, and the whole Work of Redemption, Christ comes to bless his by turning them away from their sins, Acts, 3. last; and therefore when the Lord comes to hale thee out of thy sins, take heed thou dost not go from under God's strivings, lest he strive with thee no more.

EXHORTATION. We have hence special motives to quicken the desires, and provoke the endeavors of the most carnal minded men in the world, to attend with all the care and diligence they may upon the means of Grace.

But you will tell us, It is not in our Preparations, Performances, and Improvements, that our Spiritual good depends, there is nothing we can do can procure it, it depends wholly upon the good pleasure of the Lord; Why then should we trouble ourselves to endeavor anything?

I Answer, The Inference is the quite contrary way: All is in God and his good pleasure, attend therefore upon him in his own means, that thou mayest receive all from him. If a man should reason thus: I can do nothing for myself, therefore I will take a course that no man shall do anything for me; it were not a weakness, but a kind of madness; but rather in common sense a man would be provoked to press his own heart thus; I can do nothing of myself, therefore I must attend upon God in those means which he useth to do for all those he useth to do good unto. So the Disciples to our Savior when he would arm them against his departure, Will ye also go away? John, 6. 68. They answer, Lord, whither should we go? thou only hast the words of eternal life. Christ only can humble and convert, Christ only hath peace and pardon, therefore only go to him. We are so wise for our bodies, where one is most like to speed, every man is most willing to go, especially considering as nothing can purchase his favor, 〈◊〉 nothing can 〈◊〉 the expression of his good pleasure when he will, go therefore what ever thy condition is. When thou art at the weakest, here is supply: As he said, Why stand you gazing, fainting, and famishing? get ye into Egypt for Corn, that we may live, and not die: though thou livest in the height of the perverseness of thy heart, in the out-rage of thy rebellion, though thou carriest a scornful contemptuous spirit with thee, yet go; who knows when is God's time, what he may do? bring your own souls, your rebellious Servants, and disobedient Children, fall down at the foot of Christ in his Ordinances, and say, Here are a company of Hellish, Traitrous hearts, which bring proud, stubborn, scornful, rebellious distempers, like so many bloody weapons, even to wound thy good Majesty withal; Oh pluck these weapons out of our hands, these treasons out of our hearts, that would pluck us to thee, and so to destruction. As we cannot deserve anything, so our wretchedness cannot hinder thy Work.

And because thou knowest not the season of mercy, [ 1] take all seasons, thou knowest not what time God may or will work; because it is in his own pleasure, therefore attend upon him at all times, 2. Tim. 2. 25. Proving if at any time God will give thee Repentance.

Attend upon him in all Ordinances; because it is in [ 2] his pleasure to breath in which he will, and to bless which he will for thy Spiritual Comfort. Sow thy Seed in the morning, and in the evening, because thou knowest not which may prosper, this or that, Eccles. 11. 6. Thou knowest not whether Prayer, or Meditation, or Reading will prosper, and which of these, or any other Ordinance God will bless for the saving good of thy soul.

When thou findest the Lord stirring, moving, enabling, [ 3] and working in thee, move thou, and work thou also: As the Mariner when he finds the gale coming any way, he tacks about 〈◊〉 way to take the advantage. God was tampering with the heart of Agrippa, it was at a ha, now a ha, Thou hast almost persuaded me to become a Christian, says he to Paul, Acts, 26. 28. Ah what a pity was it he should fall back again.

It's matter os wonderment able to swallow up the: heart of a sinner with the everlasting admiration of this 〈◊〉 , unmatchable kindness of the Lord. Micah, 7. 18. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardonest iniquity, and passest by the transgression of the remnant of his Heritage: He retaineth not his anger forever, because he 〈◊〉 in mercy; he will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea. You that have tasted how good the Lord is, and found this Truth made good in your own hearts by your own experience; as Paul was wont to recount his course, I was a persecutor, blasphemous and, injurious, but I obtained mercy. I doubt not but many of you may say, if ever there was a Fiend in Hell, or a Rebel upon Earth, I was one; an opposer of the Gospel, a despiser of the means of Grace, a hater of the holy ways of the Lord, and his servants that walk therein: yet then God did me good, when I desired and 〈◊〉 my own hurt. Get ye homeye blessed Saints, and in the secret of your Closets cal Heaven and Earth together, and leave these compassions upon Record. Say, the time was this carnal mind of mine plotted my wretched 〈◊〉 , and mine own ruin, but then the Lord prevented both; I opposed 〈◊〉 entreaties, and he yet pursued me, and would take no 〈◊〉 ; he called after me, wept over me, Turn ye, turn ye, why will you die? I provoked him, he pitied me; I resisted him, he embraced me; I said I would have none of him nor his Grace, he said he would have no denial; I resolved to walk on in the frowardness of mine own 〈◊〉 , and to perish in the despite of all means, and he would and did show me mercy in the despite of the pride and rebellion of this heart, or else I had never seen this day, nor never had hope to see his face in glory. Be astonished and confounded at this, O ye Devils, and come down ye blessed Angels from Heaven, and magnify this mercy. Leave this in your last will and testament to your little ones, O ye Fathers; leave this as a pattern of compassions to all ensuing Ages, that they may love this God, and fear this God, &c.

The persons have been considered in those respects which were material and suitable to the aim of the Text: We are now come to inquire of the Work itself, that is termed here piercing. 2. The place or subject in which this was, it was in their hearts. Pierced ] The word in the Original is a compound, and implies more than bare pricking; nor have we any English word fit to express it. A shivering and pulling all asunder; for it is so to prick as to pierce and enter, dig on every side, to pierce not overly, but quite through the soul, as some of the Ancients render it. It's found only in this place in the New Testament, though the Seventy, Interpreters used it often in the Old, in the 〈◊〉 of several words in several places, according to the intendment thereof. But that is remarkable, that the Hebrew Root which they sometimes expressed by the word in this place, it signifies such a kind of piercing as when the body of a travelling woman is wounded with the sorrow of Child-birth, when the Child is severed from the Womb, and brought into the world. And it usually implies as here, a work of sound sorrow laid upon the soul, whereby sin and the soul come to be parted each from other. And this resemblance and similitude between this Spiritual Sorrow and piercing; stands in three Particulars.

• 1. Piercing and digging, is ever grievous and tedious to the part that feels it.
• 2. There is a loosning and parting of those things which were united and closed before, there is dissolutio continui, as the Physician speaks; the parts that were firm and continued, become now to be parted and severed more or less one from another.
• 3. By this severing and sundring the parts, there is a way and a passage made, that corruption, or any other humor which was in the part may be drawn out. So in sound sorrow, there be three things answerably.

The soul comes to be wounded and pained extremely [ 1] with the pressure of corruption, stung with those distempers which stab and torment the heart.

Hence the cursed union betwixt sin and the soul [ 2] comes to be loosened, when the sinner cannot find that sweetness in his lusts which have suited with him so exceedingly in former times. When this sweetness like the solder by which the heart and corruption lay couched so near, and so incorporate as it were, that they became one continued thing, is as I may say, by this prevailing sorrow, melted and removed; the knot and combination between our hearts and our lusts, come to be broken.

Hence there is way made for the letting out of those [ 3] corruptions unto which the soul was endeared formerly, and the sinner brought from under the supreme and sovereign commanding power of his distempers. Thus the Church converted in Hos. 2. 8. when they had sought their Lovers, and could not find them, followed them, and could not overtake them, they begin to take up other thoughts, I will go to my first Husband, for it was better with me then, than now.

Heart. ] It properly signifies that chief part in a man's Body, wherein the Fountain of the Vital Spirits lies; that which lives first (as they say) and dies last; that's the Natural signification. But here it's Spiritually understood, and it's put for the Will and Affections, which have their proper place of abode there, and express their special Operations in a principal manner, according as Objects are presented, and occasion offered: And thus it's taken in this place (not to trouble you with other variety of apprehensions) thus you shall find it frequently in the Scripture; The heart shall fear, Deut. 28. 67. Joy of heart, Isa. 65. 14. Sorrow of heart, Levite. 26. 16. &c. And out of the heart comes murders and adulteries, Matth. 15. 19. All which carry undeniably the work of the Will and Affections, according as they put forth several Operations as they meet with several Objects. So that this was not a slight and overly ripling of the skin, but a piercing to the quick, reached unto the very heart-root, that which cut asunder the Sovereignty of the choice of the Will, and made that stand back, and go off from those loathsome corruptions, which were as near as the soul to the soul; and they were all pricked as one man in the one and the same manner in the heart; they were all wounded, as though there had been but one heart in them all. Hence we shall propound divers Points, and pursue that which is the main.

I say, unrepented, and continued in, make way for terror. They do not always immediately let in Gall and Wormwood into the Soul, presently after the acting of them; plagues are then in preparation, and only those over-bearing and dreadful Judgments which the Lord is devising against the ungodly, are then in the birth, and the Lord will not bring them forth until they be come to their full growth, as the fittest time for the execution of his vengeance. It fares with sinners, as it doth sometimes, and for the most part with Malefactors; they make an escape from the hand of Justice, and they please themselves in the practice of their wickedness, and contenting their own lusts, until their destruction surprise them so, as they cannot avoid it, nor bear it. Had you but seen these scorners and despisers of our Savior formerly, when they run riot in their out-rage and opposition, carried all before them, as if they had the world at will, Away with him, away with him; not Christ, but Barrabbas. You would have conceived, nay, if thou hadst asked themselves, they would have concluded, they had been beyond all gun-shot, terrors and perplexities could not have touched, much less seized upon them. Yet see them here, and see how their condition is altered; they who scorned the Apostles, now come trembling to them; they who cared not what they did before, now are at their wits ends which way to turn themselves; and it's certain, the fire was then making, which now scorched; the sins were then committed, which now sunk their hearts with unsupportable horrors. There be pleasures of sin, but they are but for seasons, Heb. 11. 25. and those are but the Seed times of Sorrows and Judgments. Joy is sown for the Righteous, and sometimes in deep sorrows; the longer it is growing and ripening, the larger is the Harvest of Comforts. So troubles and horrors, hellish and heartbreaking amazements, are sown for the wicked, and that in their greatest delights; and the longer these are in growing and ripening, their Harvest of Horrors of Conscience will be out of measure dreadful. As the Prophet to those who carried all before them in their sinful contrivement, Jer. 5. last, The Prophets prophesy falsely, the Priests bear Rule by their means, and the People love to have it so; all well met: But what will you do in the end thereof? They might have answered, We do what we list: Yes, for the while; but what will be the end? So Job, 20. 12, 13, 14. Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, and though he hide it under his tongue, though he spare it and forsake it not, yet his meat is turned in his bowels it's the gal of asps within him. Revel. 18. 7. how much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her. James, 1. 12. When lust hath conceived it brings forth death; when lust is conceiving then terror is hatching.

The reason is in a word. The heart comes to be more estranged from God the God of peace and comfort, and therefore terror and astonishment is now in the mint and preparation for them. The heart grows more hard as it grows more secure in the continuance of evil, so more unfit and uncapable either of mercy offered, or of the benefit and saving good of any means that are provided by the Lord. And therefore the 〈◊〉 is more dreadful when it comes 〈◊〉 to be discovered, and the plagues more unsufferable when they come indeed to be executed upon them or threatened against them A rankling sore is hardly cured, and with much heart smart when it is. Surfeit of long continuance is recovered with much difficulty 1 Sam 12. 19. that which they would not acknowledge and reform before is now most dreadful, pray for us to the Lord that we die not for we have added to all our sins this evil of as king a King. Gen. 42. 21. The 〈◊〉 of Joseph when their cruel dealing came but into their remembrance how did it cut their hearts? we are verily guilty concerning our Brother, his blood is required at our hands.

Learn we therefore not to judge the condition of a sinner, or the content of a sinful course, according to the present delights which they seem to take or the pleasing sweetness they pretend they sinned, in the ways of wickedness. With which they are so far deceived and their carnal and deluded hearts are so far taken aside and ravished as it were, that they think it, nay conclude it, there is neither heaven nor happiness to be compared thereunto and such a sudden glitter dazzles the eyes many times times of the Lord's dear ones, when they look upon the painted appearance of things, as at the present push they come presented and beautified with the trappings of pleasure and profit & ease, and honorable hearts contents Psal. 73. 2. This made Asaphs foot almost slip and turn aside from the righteous and good ways of God's grace, while he was deceived with the present pomp of the proceedings of the wicked men. Yea he professed that not only he stumbled but many were wholly taken aside with this delusion, Psal. 73. 10. Many come hither i. e. side with the society of the wicked because full cups of water are administered to them and a confluence of outward and present comsorts are cast in upon them. The cure he himself found when he went into the Sanctuary and also prescribes it unto others; namely when he beheld the end of those men, verse. 17. and those their ways what will be the end of cozening and reproaching, lying and dissembling, that is the way to judge aright of sinful proceedings, and the certain way not to be deceived by them. Look not upon the rich man as he fares deliciously every day, but look at him as he is frying and scorching in flames and herein crying Oh Father Abraham, let Lazarus dip but the tip of his finger to cool my scorching tongue, when he obtaynes not a drop of water, whereas poor Lazarus is at a feast in Abraham's bosom. Look not at Judas as plotting with the scribes and pharisees and prospering in his purpose, as pleasing himself in his project and pocketting his thirty pieces. This is but for a season but stay a while, and turn aside a little, and see how he is forced to vomit out his morsel, and in hellish horror to roar out his wretchedness, I have sinned in betraying innocent blood. and follow yet further and see his end, he ends his days and his comforts together, his covetousness continued in so long before, prepared a halter for his ruin. Look not upon Corab Dathan and Abiram, when they ruffle it out in the pride of their hearts, and out-brave Moses, and the authority of his place, ye take too much upon you, ye sons of 〈◊〉 but see the Earth open and swallow him and his company of rebels and all the people flying and crying least we perish also.

It is one (and not the least) part of the power of the redemption of our Savior that he gave himself for us, that he might deliver us from this present evil world. Gal. 1. 4. not because world only, or evil alone, but from the presentness of it, to deliver and free our hearts & apprehensions, from the two much attending and false conceiveings of those present appearances of these false lying vanities; we cannot judge amiss if we look at the end of Godly men, and a Godly life, not at the present inconveniences that are light and momentary which do attend them. Psal. 37. 37. Consider the upright and mark, the end of that man is peace. Perplexed he may be but his end is, he will be pardoned, full of doubts and distractions but his end is to be settled and quieted forever, you have heard of the patience of Job, and of the end that the Lord made with him, judge that well, and you will not miss to judge aright, James. 5. 11. see what end sin and a sinful course make and then you will not pass sentence amiss.

It will be our greatest comfort and should be our greatest care to rise presently from our falls and recover our souls without delay, from such failings with which we are many times overtaken. our first care should be not to sin, our next care, not to continue in it if we be surprised therewith. A green wound is easily and successfully cured in an ordinary course, when your old rankled sores hardly admit of any recovery. When the member is sprayned or out of joint, to delay or neglect to set it, and that with most speed, its likely never to grow strong, 〈◊〉 almost impossible it should be made straight, deal so with thy heart in the work of seasonable and sound repentance, for there is the like danger. better we judge our sin, than that we should be judged yea condemned for them, better we begin with speed to see our evils, and lie in the way to seek for mercy, than that our careless security should make way and preparation to hasten piercing and overbearing plagues. It were to be wished we should never be taken aside or plucked away with false fears, to speak hastly and by unbeliof basely to deny the Lord Jesus, and his righteousness, but if we have failed and that shamefully as Peter, go out immediately, and weep with him bitterly for our base departures. Math. 26. last the Lord bears not a fearless continuance in any distemper, if David bed it securely in base lusts, the Lord will break his bones for it. David therefore takes himself here, no sooner sees God withdrawing, but he seeks him with instancy and importunity, Psal. 30. 7. 8. 9. 10.

It's a word of TERROR and astonishment to such who adventure to continue in their sinful distempers, because they never found so much as a touch of any 〈◊〉 in their souls for any of those distempers, they have continued in. know such must assuredly, that sin is of the same poisonful nature as ever, and the word as true, and God as just as ever; and therefore their sins they have continued in have all this while made way for overbearing perplexities, which they will certainly bring upon your souls; the less you have felt therefore the more you may expect, and without doubt you shall find and receive. There is wrath to come; tribulation and wrath and anguish will be and must be upon the soul of every man that sins; if you had none as yet, there is the more behind; when those noisesome abominations that have so long nestled in thy bosom, and there lies as it were in ambush, will march in upon thee like armed men, and sink your 〈◊〉 in everlasting discouragements; cozen not therefore yourselves with the present content you seem to find in your corruptions that you can trample upon Christ his ordinances and Servants, go away with it, without any trouble or control. See these poor creatures and consider their condition what it was and now is, they stuck not to profess open rebellion against our Savior, Away with him, crucify him, and they carried all before them, with a high hand and so continued, from the Passover to Pentecost many weeks together, the poison of their sins that pleased their spirits so much in the practice of them now beginns to work trembling and astonishing confusion unto their souls the pleasure of sin is but for a season, and when that is gone look for the like gall and wormwood. As it is in the body while the impostume and gross humors are gathering, the party finds no matter of grief, until at last when it comes to a full growth and breaks suddenly, and proves present death that cannot be prevented, and then all the filth and impostumate matter issues out of the ears and mouth and each man can see it, when no man can help it. It is so with a canckered Conscience and a côrrupt heart who hath hugged and harbored his distempers with pleasure and content & so continued. Until the Lord break open the 〈◊〉 and then those hideous abominations let in the dreadful terrors of the Almighty, which overwhelm the soul of a sinner with unsupportable horrors; the Apostle thus concludes it 〈◊〉 . Gal. 6. 7. 8. be not deceived, God is not mocked, as ye sow, so you must reap, if you sow to the flesh, of the flesh you shall reap corruption it may be your ruin is growing but not ripe, the harvest of horror is not yet come, but be not deceived God is not mocked you shall reap and your crop will be confusion and perdition, the Lord himself hath so revealed it.

Deuter. 32. 35. in due time their foot shall slide. Stay but the time, yea he determines it fully as that which he will not fail to accomplish, Deutr. 29. 20. 21. 〈◊〉 men bless themselves, and bear up their heads bravely against all the peal of plagues that were rung in their ears, the Lord resolves upon it, his anger shall smoke against that man to cut him off from the land of the living &c.

As their sins made way for this terror, so the word set it on. hence,

It's a hammer that breaks, a fire that scorcheth, an axe sharp and keen that cutts and wounds the soul of a wicked, unrepentant sinner. Acts. 7. 54. When they heard these things they were cut to the heart.

Because it is a witness to accuse, a judge to condemn, an executioner to torment such poor creatures, as I might make all these good in particulars, it's said Rev. 11. 10. That when the two witnesses were slain, the inhabitants of the earth, solaced themselves and sent gifts one to another, because those that tormented them that dwelt upon the earth were taken away.

Matter of trial, those who are careful hearers may without fail discover their condition, by the word that is dispensed. Art thou sick of the saving dispensations of the holy and righteous will and law of God, thou sits and shakest under it as that which passeth the doom and sentence upon thee, which thou art not able to endure nor avoid, do not cozen thyself with any vain conceivings of thy estate, or please and delude thy heart with the mistaken apprehensions and approbations of other men, it's certain thy heart is naught and condition also. If thou best sick of the truth, 〈◊〉 not side with it, nor receive approbation from it, when it comes in the strength and terror of it. As we say of men that are sick at Sea, the cause is not in the tempest but in the stomach, because there be corrupt and noisesome humors there, it's those that raise stir and trouble in the stomach and not the 〈◊〉 , when the stomach is purged and clear, the passenger can sleep in the most tempestuous Seas, So it is where the heart is truly emptied and the Consoience purged from dead works, the sharpest truths would find most welcome and entertainment.

But doth not the truth carry terror with it and that even the best tremble at it?

It's true they do so but with a double difference.

The word though it ever speaks against the corruptions of those that are sincere hearted, yet it ever 〈◊〉 sentence on their 〈◊〉 both for the acceptation of their persons and the happiness of that condition they are in through grace, and if it appear other to them, it is because their judgments are darkened through temptations, misguided through some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Micah. 7 Are not my words good to them that walk uprightly. Isai. 3. 10. Say to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall go well with them. The Lord and his word says no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 man ought to say any other, there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. Rom. 8. 1. but it's otherwise with the wicked. The word not 〈◊〉 condemns their sins but their persons also. Because they are one with their sins and incorporate into them, and carried with the power of them. Isai. 3. 12. Say to the wicked, woe unto them, for the reward of their evil works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them.

The Saints of God ever find 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 [ 2] and most keen threatenings, and their hearts tremble at them because the 〈◊〉 of God is there, 〈◊〉 submit to them & close with God in them, they take them as 〈◊〉 to cure the 〈◊〉 in them, not 〈◊〉 kill them, and therefore take 〈◊〉 in them, and they will still say; the word of the Lord is Good, and hence are desirous to hear all, to know the worst, and the whole mind of God so Eli. 1 Sam. 3. 17. hide nothing from me, that which wounds most deep and works most kindly he welcomes it with a glad heart, because he knows his welfare is there. Whereas a falls 〈◊〉 flies from the terror of the truth, Math. 19. 22. He went a way sorrowful, they say to the seers see not, and to the prophets, prophecy not right things but smooth things. Isai. 30. 10. He is loath to hear what his heart doth not like, and willing to put by the power and darken the evidence of the truth, that appears dreadful to him by reason of his sins.

Cme we now to the main Observation, wherein the pith of this spiritual truth consists and thats in two things.

• 1. Gross and scandalous sinners God usually exerciseth with heavy breakings of heart before he bring them effectually to himself.
• 2. Sorrow for sin when it's rightly set on, pierceth the heart of the sinner through, that is rightly affected therewith.

To the First.

These desperate wretches who had embrewed their hands in the blood of the Lord Jesus, and now in an impudent manner set themselves, to out-brave the servants of Christ, and his Word and Ordinances also: the Lord he handles them roughly, suitable to their rebellious carriages towards him; they had pierced the Body of our Savior, and exercised his soul with unsupportable sorrows; he pierced their hearts, they openly and impudently professed their cruel and accursed rage, not him, but 〈◊〉 ; Cruc. fie him, crucify him. He forceth them to proclaim the loathsomeness of this their way, in the view of the world: they before the multitude, scorned the Apostles; he forceth them now in the face of the people, to reverence and ackn̄owledg them as the dear Servants of God. The Lord knows how to deal with men, answerable to their sinful dealings with him, and the 〈◊〉 of their hearts, and doth thus with scandalous ones, and not only those whose lewdness and wickedness lies open to the view of the world, but with such also who are many times more retired, and carry it more cunningly and closely from the eyes of men, if yet their evils be gross, in which they live and lie; as such which oppose the light of Reason, the Dictates of Conscience, the remainder of those common Principles which are left in the corrupt Nature of men; as murder, theft, forgeries, adulteries, though molewarplike they carry it never so secretly, dig deep to hide their counsel, and contrivement from God and man, yet commonly God breaks open their Conscience, breaks in with dreadful terror upon such, plucks those sweet morsels out of their maws, and constrains them to vomit out those bosom abominations by open confession after one manner or other, to someone or many. I say, it's God's usual manner so to deal, with such, which implies he may deal so with others, but usually so with these.

Not that he may not, nay sometimes deals not so with others, whom by the strokes of his restraining Grace, he hath preserved and kept untainted from such loathsome abominations, and refined by a civil and comely fashion and carriage.

If either he purpose to use them as choice Instruments in his 〈◊〉 , and improve them in some special Service to set 〈◊〉 and promote his own praise, as men use to season their Timber more than ordinary, if they intend to use it in some more than ordinary Service; and when they mind to raise the building marvelous high, they commonly, according to a course of prudence, lay the Foundation exceeding low.

Or if the Lord intends to manifest himself to the soul [ 2] of a sinner with some ravishing sweetness, with enlarged and amazed communications of the assurance of his Love, Joyes unspeakable and glorious: It's ordinary with the Lord to abase the heart exceedingly under the dreadful apprehensions of it's own vileness, that it may be the more fitted to receive such special comforts, not to surfeit with them by security and pride: Great Revelalations have great Humiliations go before them; the Eb is very low before the Tide come with greatest strength and height; otherwise the soul would never be able to bear such over-bearing expressions of God's Love, and communications of himself, but would certainly abuse them. If the Keel of the Boat were little and narrow, a large Sail would over-turn it, not convey it to the Haven. Great Assurances and glorious Joyes, are too great a Sail for a heart that is not widened with enlarged contritions and humiliations. God would make Job a pattern of Patience, to all posterities, therefore he exerciseth him with all extremities in all kind of sharp and piercing sorrows, and heavy desertions.

The Lord shakes the heart of Isaiah in the sense of his own unworthiness, Woe is me (says he) I am undone, I am a man of polluted lips; before he would reveal unto him those hid Prophesies concerning the Dispensation of his displeasure amongst the Nations, and those mysterious depths of the glad tidings of the Gospel, which were kept secret from the beginning of the world. Paul is buffeted with fierce assaults by the splinter in the flesh, that he might not be too much lifted up by Revelations, that he might know he was not yet in the third Heavens, but in the midst of a burry of distempers, and a Hell of Devils. These are but some exempt cases, and that in some persons for some special ends. But with gross and scandalous persons it's God's usual way so to deal, not that he is tied, or hath tied himself to this manner of dealing upon necessity, but that he hath expressed it to be his good pleasure so to dispense himself to such notorious rebels, as that way which best suits the Counsel of his own will, and the attaining his own end, his glory, and their best good; and if ever he make an exemption for causes best known to his own blessed Majesty in bringing such unto himself that he deals tenderly with them at the first, it will hardly ever be found, but they taste most 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afterwards, when happily they least 〈◊〉 them, and yet are made better able to bear them. When the Delivery hath been speedy, the after-throws have been many and hazardful many times: If such men get somewhat an easy bargain at first, there be hard penny-worths, heavy after-claps they meet withal beyond their expectation, and it commonly never fails. The Rule is general the Prophet delivers touching God's Dispensation, and I know not but it may hold here, Psal. 18. 27. With the froward thou wilt deal frowardly, the place is hard for the apprehension of it in the fair and full sense of it. The words that go before will give in some light; With the bountiful thou wilt show thyself bountiful; with the perfect thou wilt be perfect; with the pure, thou wilt show thyself pure; and with 〈◊〉 perverse or froward, thou 〈◊〉 show thyself froward; thou wilt make thyself deal frowardly. To speak to the pinch of the Point but in two words. I conceive 〈◊〉 to be the meaning 〈◊〉 the place, and the mind of God in it. He that walks with God in the exercise of the Rule in a 〈◊〉 manner, God 〈◊〉 meet with him in it, and give him the 〈◊〉 and comfort that follows and flows from it: he that conscientiously keeps the Rule, shall be more fitted for to keep it, and to share in the blessing and 〈◊〉 of it: he that deals bountifully in virtue of the Rule, he shall be more apt to that Duty, and shall find bountiful dealings from the hands of others, God and men: he that is upright, thorough, and simple in Spirit and practice, he shall be more exact every way, and find peace and praise as the fruit of that: he that is pure, that is, not only contents himself to be simple and sincere hearted in his whole course, but is daily purging himself, and cleansing his own heart, 〈◊〉 severing himself from such taints and remainders of distempers that appear, and 〈◊〉 to clear up the Rule in the beauty and excellency thereof to himself, that he may see more of it, submit more freely and fully to it; the Lord will make himself pure to him. So the word. God will let in pure instructions, that no darkness or dimness may stumble him, or cause him to mistake; pure evidence of pardon, and acceptance, no guilt may unsettle him; pure comforts and peace that no doubts or fears may discourage him; pure holiness and power of 〈◊〉 , that no strength of corruption may blur the Image of God in him, or darken the Evidence of the Work of Grace received. But 〈◊〉 a man will be froward, crook the Rule, go cross to the Command, and will walk in the vanity of his own 〈◊〉 , and stubbornness of his own Spirit, oppose the power of the Truth, not willing to look upon, or abide to hear of the purity of it. God will show himself froward towards such a one, he will 〈◊〉 you, and cross you in your whole course, and in all your comforts; you crook and wind away from the Rule to content your sins, God by his Righteous Law, by virtue of the provoking power thereof, will deliver you up to the power of your sins, and to all the terros, and plagues, and expressions of his 〈◊〉 , that attend thereupon: and in the days of thy distress, when nothing will help thee but the holy Word of God, God will then deal with you, and follow you with the 〈◊〉 of your own 〈◊〉 , thou wouldest not see the holiness and purity of God's Precepts, thou 〈◊〉 have a mind not able to attend, or receive, or remember anything that may be for thy direction, support, or comfort, but only live upon thine own guilt, and the terrors that attend thereupon, and the perverseness of thine own heart will be thine own plague: In your froward pangs you flinch and fling, care not what you say or do; God can be as 〈◊〉 as you, nor hear prayers, nor regard your complaints, nor pity your necessities, but pursue you with his plagues, let fly on every hand the fierceness of his displeasure; God can and will hamper thee if thou hadst a heart as sierce as a 〈◊〉 of Hell, make thee weary of thy part, be as perverse as thou wilt or canst be. And therefore the word in the place is marvelous pregnant, it signifies to contend with another, as one that wrastles will do, wreath and 〈◊〉 , and turn his body every way, that he may meet with his adversary with whom he is to grapple. So the Lord will meet with thee at every turn; the greater thy opposition hath been against him, the greater expression of his displeasure shalt thou be sure to 〈◊〉 , and that in the most dreadful manner. The sins of Manasseh were high handed, and hellish abominations, mighty provocations, out of measure sinful. 2 Chron. 33. 11. Therefore God abased him mightily, fettered, and 〈◊〉 , and humbled him mightily, and made him cry mightily before he could 〈◊〉 audience and acceptance with him: the cruel and harsh carriage of the Jailor, Acts, 16. exceeded his Commission, and so the bounds of common Humanity, to deal worse with the distressed than either their Fact deserved, or the Law permitted, or Authority allowed him in that behalf, a 〈◊〉 transported with deadly indignation against the ways of God and his People, and as it appears by the circumstances of the story, a man that pleased 〈◊〉 in such unreasonable practices; the Lord therefore handles him answerably to the harshness of his spirit, makes the Earth quake and the Prison totter, the bolts break, and the door fly open, and at last his heart begins to shake and die within him, notwithstanding the fierceness of his Spirit. So Paul, Acts, 9. he comes trembling to crave the Counsel of those whose presence formerly he loathed.

The Holiness of God's Nature, and exactness of his Truth, not only commends, but even seems with some kind of comely necessity, to call for such a manner of Dispensation. The Lord stiles himself, the holy One of Israel, a God of purer eyes than can endure to behold iniquity, not able to pass by sin in the least appearance of it; and therefore leaves so strict a charge, beware lest there be an evil thought in thy heart, and abstain from all appearance of evil, 1 Thes. 5. When the Lord is to convince the sinner of sin, to express his mind and displeasure against him, because of those his evils, so scandalous and detestable to all that have but the least spark of saving knowledge and Grace; yea loathsome to the very light of Conscience in corrupt Nature. Should the Lord casily and overly 〈◊〉 them by, with some small 〈◊〉 of some little dislike, it could not but impeach his Purity, and make himself accessory to the dishonor of his own Holiness. When Eli proceeded not with that zeal against 〈◊〉 evil of his Sons, as the 〈◊〉 thereof might justly have provoke 〈◊〉 him unto, but after a slight manner manifested a heart-less dislike of it; the Lord 〈◊〉 , 1 Sam. 2. 39. That he honored his sons before him, rather respected their carnal content, that they might not be so 〈◊〉 ashamed, and justly 〈◊〉 as they did deserve than the honor of his name and the excellency of his ordinances and worship, that they might be preserved in that purity and attended with that awfulness and holiness of heart as was meet. Now that which God abhors and punisheth so severely in another, its not possible that the least appearance of any so great an evil should be justly charged upon the holy one of Israel, for he should deny himself to be God if he should deny the exactness of his own infinite holiness, and he should not be just, should he not manifest the glory of his holiness, according to the excellency and 〈◊〉 thereof. True it is that out 〈◊〉 mere grace and mercy the Lord Christ brings the soul of a sinner from his sin, but the same mercy that would save the sinner, cannot but destroy the sin and express its detestation 〈◊〉 it, otherwise may 〈◊〉 say, and the rebellious sinner think, that either the word requires more than it needs and the Saints do more than they ought, or else the Lord is not holy as men imagine, when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so great detestation against so gross and scandalous evil which the Lord looks at with so little dislike.

In regard of others, the sharpness of this dispensation of the Lord against such scandalous and notorious offenders, seems to be very necessary, Least the hearts of the wicked should be encouraged and their hands strengthened to adventure to commit, and careless 〈◊〉 reform the greatest evils when they shall observe some of their crew and company, who were as bad or worle than themselves, yet 〈◊〉 acceptance and forgiveness at the hands 〈◊〉 the Lord upon such easy terms and with so little trouble, It's that of 〈◊〉 wise man Eccles. 8. 11. When 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Malefactor is but delayed, it's in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sons of men to take encouragement to 〈◊〉 evil, If the delay of the punishment which is not long, do so encourage them when that is but little and slight, how will that embolden in a fearless kind of impudency to proceed to any out-rage, when they can promise themselves pardon upon the same terms which others have found before them, in the like case and condition with themselves? Therefore the Lord in his infinite wisdom, doth so temper the sweetness of his mercy, and the severity of his wrath, in the recovery of a lost and forlorn wretch; riches of mercy to the soul to save that, rigor of severity against the loathsomeness of sin to destroy that; so that none should be discouraged to seek for pardon of the greatest wickedness, and yet none encouraged to continue the shortest time in the least sin, since God's displeasure is so dreadful against all. It was the course that the Lord prescribes to his Vice-gerents here on Earth in their proceedings against sin, that it should be such, that all Israel may hear and fear, and do no more so, Deut. 17. 13. he will not be wanting to do that against sin which he would have to be done by others, he will hamper all such Rebels, that the rest of the company shall have little cause to bless themselves in any of their sinful ways.

In regard of the sinner himself, it's safest for him that he may be thoroughly recovered from his corruption for the present, and preserved against it for the time to come. Recovered for the present, he needs heavy blows, or else he is like never to have any good by them. As with Trees that are rooted deep, and of long time & continuance, ordinary winds have settled them, it must be a Herricano that must pluck & tear them up from their roots. So when the sinner is rooted in 〈◊〉 wretched distempers: the wood that is knotty, there must be sharper wedges, & the heaviest beetle, and the hardest blows to break it: So it is with the hard, and stupid, and knotty heart of a scandalous sinner. As with the stomach filled with stiff and noisesome humors, easy Physic, and gentle Receipts may happily stir the humors, but it must be strong Ingredients, and a great quantity that must remove it. So with a corrupt heart.

This is a means also to preserve him from it afterward; if once he have thoroughly smarted for his sin, he will fear to meddle with it; 〈◊〉 he have felt the danger of the Surfet, he will taste the Sweet-meat no 〈◊〉 .

TRYAL. We have here Ground of Discovery how to pass a safe Sentence touching the Spiritual Estate of some persons, namely, The easy and sudden conversion of such who have been grossly wicked, or scandalously vile: By grossly wicked, I mean such who have been taken aside with some loathsome abominations, though they carry it never so covertly, as your clofe 〈◊〉 , fornications, thefts, murders, continued forgeries of falls-hood and injustice: By scandalously vile, I mean such who have continued in an open tract of profossed opposition against the power of Godliness: I say, the easy and sudden conversion of such, gives just ground of suspicion why they may question the truth of the Work, and others justly suspect it, 〈◊〉 their judgments be settled by sad proof, long experience, and that upon serious observation. It's not God's ordinary way, and therefore men should take more than ordinary trial before they trust, or in truth thou trust 〈◊〉 self. The proceeding of God in his Word and Providence, are according to the Rules of Wisdom, and the right order of causes and means, by which he hath appointed to bring about his own will, and the Work of his Grace in the hearts of his. To save men per saltum is not God's usual way, that works of greatest weight and difficulty, should be done in so little time, and with so little labor and trouble, in other cases thou wouldest think it 〈◊〉 ; why shouldest thou judge the contrary reasonable in this, which is hardest, and the weightiest work of all other, unless thou hast more than ordinary warrant for it? When men grow rich of a sudden, and to a great Estate, and those who observe their course, see neither ways nor means in reason how to raise it, each man concludes, it's not his own Estate, but other men's Stock that he braves it withal, for he is worse than nothing, or else he never truly came by it, so that a State sometime questions such. So here, when a man grows up to a great Estate of Grace, and no man can tell how; 〈◊〉 so many quarters or years, he was as base a wretch as the Earth bore, not fit to sit with the Dogs of a man's flock, his carriage so reffuse and vile, as that he was not fit for the Society of moral men, that no man could tell how to believe his words, or to trust his dealing; and is he now of a sudden come to the top of Religion? a sweet, godly, gracious man, fit to be made a Member of a Congregation; how came he to such a large measure of Grace and Godliness? Surely not as other men use to do, and therefore it's a great suspicion he came not truly by his Grace, nor is he truly that he seems to be; great sins cost other men great sorrows; grievous scandals cost great grief of heart, great heart-breakings, humiliations and satisfactions: great Grace and power against sin, great pains, and the highest strain of exactness in speeches and practices; they that knew and see the Conversations of such, never saw nor knew any such matter; it's certain he, and all the Christians in the world, may justly question his uprightness, 〈◊〉 yet he be not worse than nothing, if there were a true inventory taken of his Estate in Grace; out of the depth of profaneness to come to the height of holiness at unawares it's a work of delusion, not of true conversion to God. Trees that are planted in God's Orchard, they take root downward, and then bring forth fruit upward: Upstart Christians are like Jonah his Guord, grow 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 presently, flourish and fade, and all in a day. Untimely births are never true, nor yet of continuance; when an old sore is healed too hastily, it never proves sound, it's 〈◊〉 over, 〈◊〉 cured, festers inwardly, proves more grievous and dangerous than at the first: The skillful Surgeon will tell you it must be searched, lanced, tented, before it attain its full and perfect Cure. So it is with that cankered corrupt 〈◊〉 of thine, who hast lived and continued in those loathsome abominations which thou hast hugged in thy bosom, it must be lanced by the cutting knife of the Law, and the dreadful curse thereof, searched by the soul-saving preaching of the Gospel, and daily tented with constant contritions and breakings of heart, otherwise know assuredly, that those hellish lusts of thine will imposthume within thy soul, and in issue break out more loathsomly, and thy latter end will be worse than thy beginning. To find little or no hardness in that which in thy reason thou conceivest and concludest to be the hardest work of all, how canst thou but suspect thou art cozened and mistaken? Make it thine own case in another thing, and be thine own Judge; 〈◊〉 thou enjoined to drain a Quagmire, or a dirty rotten Swamp, to fit it for the Plough, and should any man seem to persuade it would cost but litte time or labor, might easily be dispatched, thou wouldest scarcely with patience hear such an expression, as that which is expressly contrary to common sense, why should men speak of impossibilities, or think that men should conceive that reasonable that is against Reason; not only Trees felled, stubbed, removed, but the ground gained which is not arable, and all this in a short space with ease? Look now into thy condition with this resemblance, and be thine own Judge; thou hast a dunghill heart, a soul like a dirty swamp, those hellish abominations which have taken up thy mind, and will, and affections, in which thou hast continued, and unto which thou hast been accustomed, so that thy heart is like a standing puddle of profaneness, which have weakened and wasted the very faculties of thy soul; so that thy heart is not fallow ground, as the Prophet speaks Plow up the fallow ground, Jer. 4. it's not 〈◊〉 ground, even abilities so wasted and disordered with thy wretched and unreasonable lusts, and dost thou think that these abilities can be 〈◊〉 easily, and thy Spirit made good soil, even a good and honest heart, without extraordinary power on God's part, and more than ordinary labor on thine. When the covetous young man that was glued to the world, and had his heart riveted in restless and immoderate desires after these Earthly things; so that all the directions which our Savior gave, and the great offers he made of Heaven and Salvation, could not take off his affections, but he went away sorrowful; says our Savior, How hard is it for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; it's easier for a Cable rope to enter in at the eye of a Needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Grace here, and Glory hereafter. Matth. 〈◊〉 . 22, 23, 24. He spake of one, it's true of all by the like proportion; how hard is it for a rich man, it's as true to say, how hard is it for a riotous, unclean, malicious, voluptuous, self-conceited, rebellious wretch; he that hath scandalously continued in these, accustomed himself to these, how hard is it for such says the Text. And doest thou find it easy? a Holy-day task, and a trifling labor, that which may suddenly be done without such trouble; either Christ is deceived, or thou art mistaken; either the Word fails, or thy apprehension fails: Whether the Scriptures or thy Conceit is to be believed, let thine heart judge, unless thou wilt be an Atheist. The Word in reason never wrought that work, nor will it give in Evidence and approbation thereof. The Prophet Isai. 46. last, describing a rebellious sinner, he thus speaks of him; Hearken ye stout-hearted, who are far from righteousness. A man that hath gone many years, and that with much speed and labor one way, which is down-hill, to return to the same place when the way is more difficult, with a little time, and less labor, there is little probability, if possibility in reason. So here, thou hast hurried headlong in the ways of wickedness, hast had full wind and tide, Satan's temptation, thine own corruption, to carry thee with mighty violence many years together in thy 〈◊〉 course, dost thou think suddenly and easily to 〈◊〉 back? No believe it, thou must take many a weary step, send out many a heavy sigh, tug at it with continual prayers and tears, and the utmost improvement of all thine 〈◊〉 , nay it will cost thee hot water, the setting on before thou seest that day.

I read of a double expression, 1. Of the Devils going out. 2. Of his casting out, 〈◊〉 . 12. 43, When the unclean spirit goes out, &c. which is done by 〈◊〉 outward and serious reformation, and some sudden resolution wrought out of terror, to forsake such and such courses; this smokes Satan out of his house, &c.

COMFORT. This is ground of great support, and in Truth of strong consolation, to shore up the hearts of forlorn and scandalous Creatures, when they lie under the most direful strokes of God's heaviest displeasure. When the loath somness of their lives, and hellish abominations of their hearts are presented to their view, their Consciences now accuse, and the Lord from Heaven by his infinite indignation encamps against them with Armies of terrors, so that to their sight and sense there is nothing appearing but present ruin and confusion: Yet out of the strong, comes sweet; greatest safety issues out of the heaviest searchings and breakings of heart. Here is now ground of strong support to bear thy 〈◊〉 above all these devouring horrors, which like so many waves would overwhelm thy soul. The more miserable thou findest thy condition, 〈◊〉 more comfortable it is. It seems a riddle, carries the appearance of contrariety and impossibility, and yet upon proof and trial, will prove an infallible Truth. The heavier the blows be, which come from God's hand for those gross evils of thine, there is more probability of 〈◊〉 serious intendment of good unto thy soul: The greater thy strokes are at present, the greater thy hopes are of some spiritual relief and refreshing in future times. And there is no greater plague upon earth, hardly such another in hell, 〈◊〉 a wretch should prosper in his wickedness and go suddenly down to the bottomless pit before he see where he is. It was the carriage of a great Commander in his time, yet marvelous sharp in the execution of military discipline, when a Soldier had deserved death by martial law, if he seemed to smile upon him it was a messenger of death, and therefore his old Soldiers that saw 〈◊〉 manner of his proceeding, when ever he appeared to laugh they looked then for a doom, insomuch that an ancient follower of his coming before him for some miscarriage, his General carrying himself in a silent manner; he breaks forth in this manner. Good my Lord do not smile on me, for he then knew the 〈◊〉 execution would be the next he should hear of. It is here most certain and so judge of it. If thy carriage and thy Conscience likewise give in testimony of the loathsomeness and vileness of thy corrupt conversation, that thy behavior is detestable to any who have any spiritual discerning, yea to moral persons; if the Lord seem to smile upon thee, not so much as check thee in thy scandalous way, know that the sentence of destruction is the next that is like to ensue, Math 23. 34. 35. I will send you Prophets and Apostles and some ye shall kill and stone &c. that the blood of all the Prophets may come upon you, fulfil the measure of your fins and so receive the fullness of the measure of plagues. 〈◊〉 can ye escape the damnation of bell. ver. 32. 33. I Thes. 2. 15. The Jews both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own Prophets, and have persecuted us, they please not God and are contrary to all men, to fill up their fins always, for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost When 〈◊〉 have elbow room in their wretched ways, and are not crossed in their hellish corruptions, the wrath is come upon them to the utmost. This is the dregs of God vengeance, the utmost of God's indignation, thou canst hardly be worse if not in hell. Whereas great heart-breakings for sin give in more than a little hope, and probability of good intended, see this in the several degrees of it, and all follow from the doctrine delivered.

It shows, poor forlorn wretch that thou art in the [ 1] way of mercy. God deals so with thee as he usually doth with those with whom he will deal welin the issue, he hath 〈◊〉 left thee to thyself and sins, and ceased striving with thee to stop thee and recall thee from thy sinful course, as commonly he doth when he delivers up a soul to the power of his corruption, with whom he intends no more to meddle, Isai. 1. 5. So he proceeds with the perverse and obstinate Jews, why should ye be smitten anymore, ye fall away more and more; As the Father with the prodigal, my counsels cannot move thee, my blessings allure thee, all my corrections I have laid upon thee do not reclame thee, take thy course therefore, and so casts him out of his family, and takes no 〈◊〉 care of him. But he whom he corrects most sharply for his faults, it's yet a pregnant evidence for the while that he purposeth to keep him. This is the day of God's visitation, may be the last time of asking yet it is the time of 〈◊〉 and grace and the date of mercy. God is yet wrestling with thee as loath to leave thee to the malice of Satan, and the power of thy distempers, as he doth with them that he purposeth to do good unto Isai. 6. 9. when God would 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 people for 〈◊〉 , and devote and set them apart to destruction this is the way he takes Go make the hearts of this people fat, fatness implies 〈◊〉 brawny kind of stupidity, and sencelesness of spirit. Then such persons are ripe and ready for destruction; when God plucks up the stake and gives a forlorn wretch the round rope, let him have his will; Ephraim is joined to-Idols, let him alone, Hos. 4. 17. He that is unjust let him be unjust still; he that is filthy let him be filthy still. Yea this is that which casts a 〈◊〉 beyond the compass of the compassions of the Almighty, when the Lord 〈◊〉 he will not meddle nor make, he will have nothing to do with such vile creatures, Hos. 4. 14. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they 〈◊〉 adultery, therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall. But when God will take pains and trouble himself with such a Rebel, hath thee upon the anvil, & bestows so much fire and so much melting, yet 〈◊〉 is hope that he may make thee a vessel of grace, and for the Lord's use.

There is some expectation that the work may prove [ 2] more speedy and successful, as it is in the body, in old festered sores, he that ripples the skin, and lays easy salves, he will be long in doing a little, and yet fail at last, when he hath done all, he that lanceth to the bottom, in reason is like to bring out the core, and to hasten the cure, both with speed and success; the stronger the physic stirs and works upon the humor, the sooner the patient recovers, and health returns with some stability and continuance. It is so in the soul, those old cankered lusts which have been of long continuance in a corrupt heart, some slight terrors or sudden flashes of God's displeasure, which may a little trouble the Conscience and ripple the skin as it were, they pass away presently and leave the root of the distemper untouched, at the least not removed, so that the corruptions grow more fierce and violent, and so break out in a more loathsome manner than ever formerly. Whereas those direful & overbearing horrors, in a way of rational providence are of a more prevailing nature, to astonish the heart, shake the Conscience of the wicked, and ransack the very core of those hideous corruptions, which have been long harboured and lodged within. Thus the Lord dealt with the revolting & Apostatizing Israelites. Hos. 2. 6. 7. He bedged their ways with Thorns and built a wall before them, and they shall seek their lovers and shall not find them, and then shall she say I will 〈◊〉 to my first husband &c. Had the hedge been so 〈◊〉 and easy and the wall so low that they might have broken through the one or leaped over the other, she would have made a hard shift but she would have followed and sound her lovers; but the hedge was made of thorns 〈◊〉 and unsufferable sorrows, and necessities unavoidable, not to be endured, not to be removed, and those wearied her out of all pretended delights she had formerly taken. This is the method that God 〈◊〉 Hos. 5. 12. 14. Hos. 6. 1. First I will be a Moath, 2 if that will not do I will be a Lion, 3 If that will not do I will leave them and go to my place, withdraw his comforting and protecting presence; and then we hear 〈◊〉 . Come let 〈◊〉 return unto the Lord for he hath torn and be will heal us; this did it.

This 〈◊〉 way for our spiritual comfort in a special [ 3] blessing if he be pleased to follow the 〈◊〉 with his blessing. For its a special means to bring in clearer evidence and 〈◊〉 assurance both of the soundness of the work and the certainty of a man's good estate, all the days 〈◊〉 his life, if the Lord be pleased to second these heavy breakings of heart with his blessing. For it is the nature of 〈◊〉 , when they are set in opposition to make each other appear more 〈◊〉 . For a conscientious 〈◊〉 to be made of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 especially when the dreadful expressions of God's displeasure have been so amazing in the eyes of all that have been the spectators and in a peculiar manner astonishing to the soul of the profane creature that hath selt the arrows of the Almighty sticking fast in him, 〈◊〉 he cannot be but restless before he get relief and help, so he cannot but know it when he hath gained it, the change is great and open, God's dispensation so glorious. This man is able to say, at such a time in such a place, by such a man, out of such a 〈◊〉 , the Lord was pleased to speak home to my heart to make known himself, myself and sin to myself, which caused my soul tody within me, in the sense of my vileness and misery, and from that time forward, followed me daily with fears and horrors, the venom of vengeance drinking up my spirits until in such and such a manner and by such means he was pleased to work my heart to his own terms, made me glad to seek him importunately yea restlessly, and more glad to find him sealing up the truth of his free love by his own spirit in the word of truth; This man can tell how he came by his grace, and can tell what to say and show for heaven, and happily unless it be through his own careless neglect may carry the assurance with him to his grave. Whereas such as the Lord doth sweetly but secretly draw unto himself, in an insensible and undiscernable manner, restrains them from common evils, trains them up under Godly Parents, religious government, good company and spiritual means of Instruction, and so implants by little and little into the Lord Jesus, without their privity or apprehension however their estate is good, and their condition safe in its self, yet they gain littl evidence or maintain little assurance thereof in their own hearts, but upon every turn are questioning and quarrelling, doubting and staggering, touching their condition, whereas they that come to their grace by many and great troubles retain it commonly with great evidence, Thus Paul when the Lord Christ had made a glorious conquest over his proud rebellious and malicious heart, against the holy ways of his truth and 〈◊〉 . He could tell and did upon all occasions when the field was fought, how the Lord Christ got the day over his hellish distempered heart. Thus he relates God's dealing. Acts. 26. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Acts. 22. 1. to the 14. And so issues having obtained help of God I continue until this day thus it was, so it is; thus it was wrought, so maintain d.

And though it be true I confess that no man should or will break his arm, that he may have it the stronger for the setting, or know how it is set; or therefore be careless to become scandalously vile, that God may be gloriously merciful: yet through the riches of mercy which makes our losses gains. The certainty of the assurance we find, doth countervail and exceed the terrors and horror we felt. Give me the man who can say, I was blind but now I see; I know I was in prison but am now delivered; its not delusion but a vision and real accomplishment of the work by the Almighty hand of God.

Lastly its honorable for a poor scandalous wretch to be under such heavy breakings of heart, and therefore [ 4] it should be comfortable to him. I rather mention this to stop the mouths of the reffuse rabble of the world, and to show the desperate mistakes unto which carnal reason carries us, out of the pride of our own spirits; we know that sin is 〈◊〉 and shame loathsome, even to nature especially corrupt and proud, to be forced to acknowledge the one, to take the other. It appears very direful to the apprehension of all the sons of Adam. And therefore when the Lord is pleased to hold a scandalous wretch upon the wrack and to make him roar out his wretchedness, vomit out his sin and take the shame he hath deserved. His companions that have conversed with him, and his friends that have honored him, they are driven to their dumps in discouragment and discontentment, and cry out the man is undone, and curse the day that ever the Minister came into the country, and blames his folly and silliness that he would attend to what he said and be troubled with anything he heard, to bring an everlasting blemish upon himself. No: I say there's no such matter. This is the greatest honor that yet ever befell him in this world, and will be a means of blessing to him in another. It is a shame to commit sin but not to have the heart breaking under the apprehension of it. Nay it is an expression of God's favor and as it may prove, a sign of God's special love, if it be rightly emproved. God thus far honors a poor wretch that he will speak to him as he passeth by. Should a Prince that was provoked by the conspiracies and rebellions of many Traitors, as he passed by, should he vouchsafe to send unto, and cal upon someone to reclaim him from his crew, and company and courses, and that upon very equal terms he might find acceptance and pardon and peace: when he will not so much as look after others, or change a word with them, would not this be accounted matter of marvelous respect from the King, and honor to the man? So here. As David, begs favor from the Lord. 〈◊〉 . 119. 132. be merciful to me, and lookupon me as thou usest to do upon them that desire to fear thy name, he takes it to be the highest pitch of his happiness to be so dealt withal. If God deal with thee as with these, as he dealt with the Jailor, as he dealt with Paul whom he made a choice vessel for himself, art thou not highly honored? why should God knock at thy door and cal in upon thy Conscience &c.

ADVISE unto Ministers, whose place and calling it is, under the Lord, to deal with such persons undersuch diseases. Hence we may see a right way in holy prudence how to proceed with them, in the times of temptations and their saddest distresses of spirit. See what God doth, and that we may do. As God's deals so we may deal as the safest way and most likely to find 〈◊〉 .

When therefore we have fortified the heart with hope, in regard of the sufficiency of God free grace, and possibility of relief from him: As that he is able to do excessive exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, As in desperate cures men use cordials to fortify against faintings of heart, that they may better bear the hardness of the cure: this being supposed then the rule is. The sharpest receipts are most seasonable in a right manner of proceeding and that in three things.

• 1 Be not slight in the searching.
• 2 Be not too hasty to heal;
• 3 Be not too suddeenly confident of the cure.

Not slight in the search for that is most dangerous, and an error here can hardly ever be recovered, go therefore to the quick, see the bottom, if ever you hope to make work of it, or to lend help indeed. He that cleaves knotty logs must have the sharpest wedges and hardest blows. Here pity is unseasonable and greatest cruelty. When out of 〈◊〉 we are afraid to put men to pain, we increase their pains and hasten their destruction, Jer. 6. 14. they have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly. The Apostle teacheth another way. Titus. 1. 13. reprove them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. Sharp reproofs make sound Christians. He shows greatest love and mercy which follows the Lord in love and mercy. Yea it is a course that procures most ease to the party, the corrosive that eats away the proud flesh brings soonest ease because that proud flesh and humors bring all the pain. So these dreadful overbearing threatenings abate the pride of the heart, and a man's perverseness and so brings ease, for the waywardness of our own wills work our own woe, and here, not to trouble men's sins and Consciences is indeed to trouble their peace and comfort in issue. Thus Samuel. 1 Sam. 12. 20. He lesseneth nothing of their sin, only sendeth them forth to mercy for relief. Ye have indeed done all this wickedness yet do not forsake the Lord.

Be not too hasty to heal the wound. More hast than [ 2] good speed draws here desperate in conveniences with it and may be hazards their comforts while they live. Old and deep sores as they have been long in gathering corrupt humors, so they must have a time to wast and wear them away, which will not be done in a moment; old stayns must lie long in soak, and have many fresh lavers before in reason they can be cleansed. So old distempers which have taken strong possession, and are of long continuance, happily if the cure be too hasty, it will hazard our comforts: The Israelites left War too suddenly with the Canaanites, they tribured them, and not destroyed them; and they proved goads in their sides, which they could not get rid of all their days.

Be not suddenly confident of the Cure. Let men be [ 3] Probationers in our apprehensions, let them proceed in a fearful and painful way to make proof of the inward disposition of their hearts, by their outward practices in a constancy of an holy conversation. As Solomon said of Adonijah, 1 King. 1. 52. Let him show himself a worthy man. This creating of Professors, making men Christians by our applause and approbation, because they have attained the under strokes of horror, skil & ability to holy Services, proves the bane of their souls, the blemish of their Profession, and a breach of their Peace; either they have turned wretches again, or else have been overtaken with their carelessness, so that they have been foiled by gross falls, and hardly ever recovered their peace and comfort though they have taken off the scandal. Therefore as John Baptist told them, if indeed you purpose to 〈◊〉 from the wrath to come, bring forth fruits worthy of amendment, Matth. 3. 8. such as will carry weight, and fetch up the scales as it were, and undoubtedly evidence the work of Grace.

Matter of Caution and Direction unto such whom God hath exercised with such heavy breakings of heart for their scandalous courses; beware ye be not weary, and labor to make an escape from under the Dispensation of the Lord, but give welcome thereunto; help forward the work, do not resist it, make way for the Dispensation of the Lord, do not oppose it, and therefore possess thy heart with a necessity of subjection thereunto. Why shouldest thou think to have an exception? be rather fearful thou shouldst not find the Truth of the work of these terrors, than that thou shouldest be fearful to endure these; if he will land thee in Christ, he will toss thee in this manner. As a Patient having a 〈◊〉 wound, he enquires what the 〈◊〉 did to others, and how the Salve did work upon others in his case, and if he find the Salve and working be the same, he hopes that he also shall be cured. So here.

EXHORTATION. Improve the utmost of our endeavor to keep ourselves, and all ours from scandalous sins. Restraining Grace is but common Grace, yet is it a great favor of the Lord that he will curb and restrain a man; by this means the work of Conversion is more easy, and such persons freed from dreadful terrors that seize upon others, Mark, 12. 34. Thou ant not far from the Kingdom of God. 〈◊〉 's bring our Children as near to Heaven as we can, it is in our power to restrain them, and reform them, and that we ought to do: As it was the speech of a godly woman, she 〈◊〉 that all means might be used to restrain her Children, that if it were possible their reckoning might not be so heavy as mine, 〈◊〉 .

A Profane course cannot hinder the unresistible work of God's Grace.

It's true, But though God may save thy soul, yet he may scorch thy soul in the flames of Hell fire, and make thee weary of thy part, and of thy lusts and all. Are there no terrors dreadful, but those of the torments of the damned in Hell? Yes, you will find it, you may pay deer for all your pleasures in sin, for all your fleshly lusts, before your hearts be brought off from them: therefore you that are Parents, join your helping hands to this great and good Work, beat down the stubbornness, do what you can to restrain the looseness and profaneness of the spirits of your children, though it's not in your power to bring them in, yet bring them as near to the Kingdom of God as you can, &c.

The last Doctrine which is considered touching the Work itself.

They were pricked, not in their eyes to weep for their sins, so Esau could; not in their tongues only to confess their sin, so Judas did, I have sinned in betraying innocent blood; nor in their hands alone to reform it outwardly, so those Apostates did, 2 Pet. 2. 20. They escaped the pollutions of the world through the acknowledgment of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: but it reached their hearts, their souls bled inwardly: their souls were most guilty, and had the greatest hand in the commission of those bloody and execrable cruelties; the fountain of their sorrow, did rise as high as the beginning of their sin; soul sins, and soul sorrows.

Nor was the stroke slight, not the ripling of the skin, a lighter touch, a sudden pang, a sigh and away; nay, not only lanced and gashed, the rotten imposthumes of the corruptions of their hearts in a great measure, but ransacked the very root of the corruption, pierced the heart quite through; through and through again as it were, let out the core of the most inward, and most retired corruptions, that were lodged in their bosom and bottom of their hearts. And this work proceeded not from any power of their own, nor from the liberty and freedom of their wills, as that which they made choice of, and out of their own ability did readily put forth, but it was set on by the hand of the Almighty, in the entrance whereof they were Patients, went against the heart and hair, and wholly beyond their purposes and expectations: So the words are in the passive form; they were pricked, they did not prick themselves. Nay certainly could they have told how to prevent it, how to remove it, or to procure any ease and relief unto themselves, they would never have cried out as men in a maze, and astonishing straights of Spirit, What shall we do? Thus God proceeds when he purposeth to make a through work. When God was purposed to set upon the revolting people of the Jews, and to bring them savingly home to himself, Hos. 13. 4. so 〈◊〉 carry it, according to the foregoing and following words, I am the Lord thy God from the Land of Egypt, and there is no Savior besides me, ver. 4. and blames also the frowardness and folly of their Spirits, not yielding so readily, and taking the advantage of God's dealing for their good, ver. 13. The sorrows of a travelling woman shall come upon him, he is an unwise son, for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of Children, q. d. The Lord in mercy offers himself to the Israelites under their terrors as a Midwife, that would make way for them out of their sins and sorrows: Now in this 〈◊〉 of his towards the people to be converted, he professeth, that he will meet with them 〈◊〉 a Bear bereaved of her whelps, he will rend the caul of their hearts, ver. 8. the words are, the closure and shutting up of their hearts; sinners are shut up under the power of their distempers, as the Apostle saith, all men by Nature are shut up under unbelief, Rom. 11. 32. especially there be some closets and secret corners and conveyances of soul, wherein the most sweet and delightful abominations are hugged and harbored: the Lord leaves not a poor wretch, if indeed he intend his good, before he breaks open those great depths, rests not before he come home to the root, and let out the heartblood of thy lusts, and then their death will undoubtedly follow.

And hence it is this sorrow is compared to such as enter into the very inwards of Nature, and sinks the soul with unsupportable pressures: when that great conversion and return of the Jews to the entertainment of the Gospel shall be brought about by the Lord. The Prophet sets forth the greatness of that sorrow of theirs, under a double similitude. First, Zach. 12. 10. They shall mourn for him, as the mother mourns for her only son, and for her first born: the mourning of a tender hearted mother for her son, her first born, and for her only son, he adds all degrees of grief: if she had possessed many, she might more easily have wanted one, or at least parted with it; or had it been any but her first born which had the first of her strength, and the first of her love, yet she might have born it with more quietness: but when all these meet together, her life and comfort is wrapped up in the life of the Child, the mourning becomes unmeasurable, fills the heart as it were. Secondly, It shall be like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon, when all Israel lamented the death of their good Josiah, the light of their eyes, the breath of their Nostrils, the comfort of their souls, 2 Chron. 35. 25. Therefore the original words which lay open this work, are of marvelous weight, and discover the overpowering virtue thereof, Isai. 57. 18. The Lord dwells with him that is of a contrite spirit. Isai. 61. 6. The Lord binds up the broken heart. The first whereof signifies to pun to powder, and to bring to small dust; it is so used, Psal. 90. 3. Thou bringest man to the dust of death, again thou sayest, return ye children of men. That as the hardest stone when it's broken all to small mammocks, and powder as it were, it's easy and yielding under the touch of the hand, what ever ruggedness and resistance was in it before. So it is with the soul that is punned to powder, so that there is not any unbroken, or any whole part to be found there, no sodering in any secret manner with any retired distemper; but the weight of godly sorrow hath shattered all asunder, distress of Conscience hath brought it to dust, parted all the privy closures with any particular of any distemper, all that knotty stiffness and perverseness of spirit in siding with any corruption is now taken off. The soul comes easily to give way to the Authority of the Truth, that would take any sinful lust away. To the like purpose is that of Job, Job, 23. 16. when the Armies of God's indignation had encamped against him, and the terrors of the Lord had drunk up his spirit; says he, God makes my heart soft, or hath melted my soul; the word signifies a severing and separation of one thing from another, and is opposite to settling and fastening, making firm, stiff, and hard, as that of Pharaoh, Exod. 9. last, Pharaoh hardened his heart, his soul fastened by an invincible resolution to the sinful purpose of his malicious detaining and oppression of the Jews. When the fierceness of God's dupleasure brought home by the breathings of the Spirit of God upon the soul, it makes it melt like Wax before the fire, makes it easy to give way to the impression of the pleasure of the Lord, that his Spirit may take away any of those lusts that have been of 〈◊〉 league with the heart. Hence lastly it is, that in the Phrase of Scripture, the sinner is said to be in 〈◊〉 , or the soul to be imbittered by God, when he is brought and held under the sense of the loathsomeness of his ins, and himself by reason thereof; so that all the sweet that his liquorish heart takes in any pleasing lust, is wholly taken away. The Physician observes, and reason teacheth, that sweet things only nourish, but bitter things cleanse, the Nature of the stomach abhors the presence of them, expels them, takes no pleasure therein, receives no nourishment therefrom. So with the sinner in his condition, when the Lord 〈◊〉 out the bitterness of sin upon him, he can find no food relish, no delight in his former distempers, which he followed with that violence, and fed so eagerly upon, even unto surfeiting in former times, they will not down with him now. It's a dreadful thing now to him, to take the least taste of them by any serious consideration or remembrance, when formerly he could have made a meal of them by daily meditation, When wickedness was sweet in his mouth, and he hid it under his tongue, but now it's turned to the gall of Asps, and he is not able to endure the poison and bitterness of it, but it makes him heart-sick, in the sight and sense of it.

For the opening of the Point, it will be needful to inquire after Five Particulars.

• 1. The Manner how this sound sorrow seizeth upon, or is brought in upon the soul.
• 2. How God sets it on, and makes the soul truly affected with it.
• 3. How far the sinner is, or may be said to be active in it.
• 4. What is the behavior of the heart under this stroke, being truly affected.
• 5. The Reason, and then the Use.

To the Former of these:

It is Three-fold in God's ordinary Dispensation, (reserving exceptions, as he sees fit in his own infinite Wisdom.)

It is either

• Successively, and by degrees.
• Suddenly, and at once.
• Unsensibly to the heart of the sinner who receives it.

Successively, when the Lord would leave the track [ 1] and footsteps of his Faithfulness and Truth upon record to the observation of the wise hearted, he then leaves plain impressions of the Power of his Grace and Spirit, 〈◊〉 his proceedings with such as he 〈◊〉 to bring effectually home unto himself; that the goings of our God and King may be seen in the Sanctuary, and in the souls of his Servants, and it may be attended in these several Degrees.

First, The Lord lets in some unexpected flashes of [ 1] spiritual Truth, discovering the evil of sin in the general, and the dangerous conditions of such as stand guilty thereof, and continue therein, which were never considered, nor before that time conceived of, by him that hath been an ignorant and careless hearer of the Word: who came to the means either by constraint, or custom, or complement in a way of course for company sake, never set price upon the means, nor attended to the Truth and goodness thereof, and therefore the Ordinances were as the Waters that pass by, left neither power nor profit upon the soul. But now there is some evidence of Truth which God so directs and darts in, that it flashes like lightning into his face, leaves a kind of amazement upon his mind, and like a sudden blow gasters the 〈◊〉 of the sinner, so that he begins to stagger, and is driven to give some attendance to that of which he never took notice before, not knowing well 〈◊〉 to make of himself, nor yet of that which he heard, only he is forced to observe something he never formerly regarded. Hence therefore 〈◊〉 a confused kind of tumult and lumber of thoughts within himself, he begins to be in a muse what such things mean, whither they tend, is at a loss with himself, and knows not which way to take; I never heard so much as now, if all be true that I have heard, and the Minister hath preached; there is more in sin than ever I imagined, and my condition more miserable than ever I did conceive. This maskering of spirit drives him to make enquiry, the things seem strange, he begins to search 〈◊〉 they be true or no. So they to Paul, disputing concerning false Worship, and their Idolatrous practices, Acts, 17. 19, 20. Thou bringest strange things to our ears, we would know therefore what these things mean. So it was with Paul at his first bringing home to God, Acts, 22. 6. There shone a great light from Heaven about him, and he heard a voice, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? The thing was strange, but what it was he could not tell, and therefore he makes yet further enquiry, Who art thou Lord? As the poor woman having heard the Minister preach out of that Text, Isai. 27. 11. They are a People of no understanding, therefore he that made them, will not 〈◊〉 them: he that created them, will not show mercy to them. It came so directly cross to her own conceivings, that she repaired to one of her neighbors, to know whether those words were in the Scripture yea or no, and what those Scriptures were: for saith she, If he that made us will not save us, Lord be merciful to us, who will? who can? So these sudden dazlings and dartings in of the Truth, forceth men to fall on questioning; inquire they do, come they will, resolve to hear more of those strange Novelties; and the greater search they make, the greater certain Truth they perceive, the Law peremptory, the Word plain, threatenings certain, and the Lord just, his sin most heinous, and his condemnation certain and approaching, so that he cannot tell how to avoid it, or how to bear it.

Hence fear surpriseth him forthwith, pursues him [ 2] 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 expectation and 〈◊〉 of what 〈◊〉 befall him; I know what I have deserved, and I hear what the Word hath threatened against such, and I know God is true, and cannot deny his Word nor himself, and he is just, and cannot but execute in his time what hath gone out, of his mouth, hath not all Ages manifested this? the Experience of all men proved it undeniable? Did ever any provoke the Lord and prosper? Job, 9. 4. and can I in reason expect it should be other and better with me, than it was with any that was ever before me? Can I be so sottish to think that God should send another Christ, devise other Scriptures, make a new Causey way, or a back door to bring such a wretched rebel as I am to Heaven, contrary to his own Word and Will? God hath said, Woe to the wicked, it shall go ill with him; who can say the contrary, and who can expect but he will accomplish what he hath said? the Word excepts no man; what folly is it then that I should except myself? 2 Thess. 2. 12. That all they might be damned that have pleasure in unrighteousness; If I take the same pleasure, I must look for the same plagues, Luke, 13. 5. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish: If I be in that condition, I must expect the same condemnation, and be likewise accursed and confounded, and cast out from the presence of the Lord. It's certain it will be so, and it's uncertain how soon it may be: What if God do? Who knows but God will? What if God should pluck me out of the Land of the Living? I may truly, justly suspect it may be so, and fear it will? When I lie down, I shall never rise more; when I go forth, I shall never return more; when I depart from the house, I should take my leave and never see Sabbath more, nor the Assembly of the Saints more: why may not my meat be my poison? my table my ruin? my bed my grave? all Creatures instruments of death to me, who have been an enemy to God: So that their hearts begin to fail them for fear, 〈◊〉 . 21. 26. Thus the 〈◊〉 under the 〈◊〉 of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts. 19. 27. Adam at the coming of the Lord into the garden feared and fled. Gen. 3. 10. this is the fruit of the spirit of bondage. Rom. 8. 15. and the distressed sinner becomes as Pashur a terror to himself, Jer. 20. 3. 4. the sling of a 〈◊〉 , the 〈◊〉 of a leaf, the shadow of darkness and approach of the night like the shadow of death; he knows not but the devils may have received a commission this night shall they 〈◊〉 away thy soul 〈◊〉 thee, and drag it down to hell.

While the sinner is 〈◊〉 fearing the evil that is deserved, [ 3] behold the feet of the officer now approaching to see present excution 〈◊〉 , and therefore the Lord in the third place puts a commission into the hand of Conscience, really to attach and arrest the soul of a sinner, to fasten all those curses upon the soul, and to force it to feel the vennome of those punishments, which were formerly threatened and feared. That as it was said to Belshazzar when he was quassing in his cups, and bowls of the Sanctuary, and the hand writing came out against him: the appearance of it affrighted him with the expectation of some direful evil; but the present execution of it ushered in ruin upon him and his Kingdom. Dan. 5. 28. 30. So the Prophet, to thee be it spoken, thou art weighed in the balance and found too light, thy Kingdom is departed from thee. So Conscience as God's officer comes to see 〈◊〉 execution done, and therefore comes authorised as a serjeant to arrest, as a witness to accuse, as a judge to condemn; tells the soul thou art weighed in the scales of the Sanctuary, and 〈◊〉 too light, thy doom is past, thy destiny is determined thy sentence set down, and thy salvation is departed from thee, that which thou didst fear is now befallen thee, and thou must feel it to thy woe, Psal. 140. 11. wickedness hunts the wicked man, but it overtakes them also If Conscience condemns God is greater than our Conscience and he condemns much more. His iniquities lay hold upon him that he is not able to look up. Psal. 40. 14. thou hast feared the punishment of sin before man, and hast not 〈◊〉 to commit sin before God, and thus thou hast sealed up thy condemnation casting away the goodness of the Lord. If thou doest evil, sin lies at the door. Gen. 4.

Hence flows in the fearful expression of the displeasure of the Almighty, the dreadful wrath of the Eternal, like the mighty waves of the Sea, overwhelm and sink the soul of the sinner in desperate discouragement.

There be 2 things in sin, 1 The 〈◊〉 of it. 2 the punishment that comes from it, the stayn in it and the sting and tartness of it, cross to me, and cross to God; cross to my honor and shames me, cross to my quiet and peace and troubles me, cross to my safety and destroys me; And this second, the sinner is firstly most sensible of; the plague of sin first stings and stabs the heart. Because nature seeks its own preservation, and self love carries all men readily and easily to provide for their own safety; And here sorrow begins usually when the Lord by the Ministry of Conscience awakened, encamps about the sinner with all the curses of his righteous law broken; besigeth him with the armies of his indignation and his fierce wrath follows him at every turn. So that now 〈◊〉 ever he is, which way so ever he turns himself his sins and plagues compass him about, on every side; If he look to heaven, he sees a just God there ready to destroy him, before him are his sins ready to accuse him, within him nothing but guilt to condemn him, below him hell opening her mouth prepared to receive him, and the Devils at 〈◊〉 to torment his wretched 〈◊〉 as soon as it 〈◊〉 depart out of his body. And 〈◊〉 behold 〈◊〉 pale 〈◊〉 , those weak hands, and feeble knees that the poor creature becomes not worth the ground he goes on a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself and weary of his life; The Lord dishes out 〈◊〉 sins and plagues to him on the table where he 〈◊〉 , writes them upon the tester of the bed 〈◊〉 he lies his pressures and miseries become unsupportable and unsufferable: and were it not that God sustains with one hand as he beats him with the other; A wounded Conscience no man can bear; Hence it is in such horror men betake themselves to the pit, to the knife, to the halter, rather choose not to be, then to be so miserable; In these perplexities the sinner as a man under his burden would shift shoulder, try all conclusions, turn every stone, wind every way, if any way he could get ease or relief. And if the counsel of carnal friends can lessen the trouble, company allay it, false reasonings of his own vain mind abate it, time and continuance wear out the terror, his confessions and reformations put in bayl upon his Conscience, and quiet it, or some false mistakes of pardon, and mercy heal the wound, (he walks in a wily way how to serve sin and yet God too, how to keep in with the truth upon some fayr terms and yet attend his own ends) the man is where he was, returns to his old sinful distempers, and the latter end proves worse than the beginning, he dies in the birth. Thus millions of men perish, go within the view of Canaan, and never possess it, cast away in the very haven, within the sight of land, and never arrive.

But he whom God loves he will not leave here; & though [ 4] his hand be upon the sore, and his eye upon the sting and terror, the plagues and judgments that are daily before his eye, the Lord will force him to look further, to see and feel something more, and worse than ever yet he found, before he have done with him; therefore he makes the wound deeper, rests not before he be at the root of the heart quite through, comes to the very quick and sees the bottom; Hence the Lord leads the soul from the terror and sting of sin, to view the stayn and filth of it, which was more deer to the soul than its own 〈◊〉 , and yet worse to the soul than all the misery and vexation that could befall it. Open here a little; There is something in the will above the natural or physical being of it, look at its being merely as it ariseth from the power of those natural principles, whereof its made; there is something above these and so better then these, unto which theseare subject and subordinate; namely those divine principles of grace which were at the first imprinted upon it, and by which those natural abilities should be carried beyond their physical being to close with God and so attayn an eternal, and in that 〈◊〉 a supernatural happiness, I say in that sense supernatural though it was Naturae debitum, because Adam should not, nay could not please God, put forth such a divine act out of the faculties of understanding and will for, then the 〈◊〉 in Hel now might please him, for their natural faculties still remain but it was as they were acted and carried by the image of God, wisdom, holiness and righteousness that were bestowed upon them. So that these principles of grace in the will, were above the will, and better than the natural being of it.

Since the fall of Adam original corruption is come into the place and room of that original righteousness, and by a Sovereignty of power takes possession of the heart and will so (and so the whole man) rules it, carries it, captivates it, in subjection and subordination to itself So that to a son of Adam now in the state of sin, corruption exerciseth a sovereign power and command over the will, and is better to the sinner than his natural being, corrupt self is of more power, and more near and intimate to the soul then natural self; Hence the soldier will rather loose his life than take the lie, he will fight for it, and die for it, his honor is nearer to his heart than his being; thus the Ambitious among the heathen; the desire of vain glory amongst the Jesuits that they may be-canonized for Saints, makes them put their necks into the halter; And a corrupt heart will loose Christ, and ordinances and safety and life and all rather than not satisfy his own humer. So Saul, kill me that it may not be said the uncircumcised Slew me after he had been dead he would never have felt the disgrace, but his ambitious humor was more dear than his blood.

When the blow reacheth hither then ye are come to the root of the heart, and the heart is pierced quite through when the heart and the power of corruption are parted. Therefore when the Lord intends to make through work with a poor wretch whom he hath upon the rack, in his horror and perplexities there he holds him; he shall not go or get from hence before he go further and forceth the sinner to further consideration; If it be so why am I thus, thou lookest upon hell and the torments thereof as loathsome and fearsul, what are thy sins then that deserve these, thou viewest thy plagues which are diresul and unsufferable, what are thy sins then that procure these, Says the Lord. Psal. 107. 17. Foolish men are plagued because of their transgressions. Psal. 38. 8. there is no quietness in my bones by reason of my sin, Jer. 4. 18. thy sins and iniquities have brought these, therefore thy wickedness is bitter, because it reacheth unto the heart Hither the Lord brings and here keeps the soul; my sins are before me. Psal. 51. 3. he leaves the thoughts of his punishment and turns his eye to the power of his distemper, and the distance that they work between God and his soul. Here Satan bestirs him that he may darken the way of the distressed sinner and deceive him by some wily fetch; And therefore he deviseth how he may shift shoulder, and change his habitation, and not be thrust wholly out, And therefore he is well content to gratify the sinner here, that he should look upon some sin that is attended with shame, and loathsome to the light of nature to the dictates of the common principles of natural conscience, and there he will suffer him to lay on load and to follow it with great fierceness and indignation that so when the heart is come to a calm, and the storm is over he may take aside with some lesser evils that he may but color them over with the pretence of religion thus many men have changed their special corruptions, not truly parted with them, and for the while have fallen short of this through sorrow. The Devil doth with sin as great men with their houses, they have their winter houses and their summer houses, and they remain there where they have most conveniency and suitableness; so when a man's speicial sin of his constitution hath fallen, and the parties have conceived the day is theirs, their hearts have been truly broken; when the Devil only alters his habitation, they grow to be disobedient servants and sharp wives and that under pretence of Religion; the servant must go pray when he should go to work, his Master is a carnal man: the wise froward and perverse, her husband wants the power of Religion, why should she look at him? and this upon mine own knowledge, hath discovered the 〈◊〉 and hath been a means to many to begin again, and to make through work, therefore the Lord follows the soul afresh, that it must feel sin as sin and therefore every sin and else none truly. Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things written in the law. Gal. 3. 10. there must not be great breaches, but no breaches, not gross sins but no sin, that God will bear or we should keep; knowest thou not says Saul to Jonathan that as long as the son of Jsha remains alive, thou wilt never be established. 1 Sam. 20. 31. So Conscience to the soul that as long as the league & life of any of these distempers concontinu, doest thou not know, thou wilt never, thou canst never be established in the kingdom of grace; Nay the sinner beginns now to reason with himself why was I born, why came I into the world? wherein consists my good or what is my hapiness? is it not to please God, to be one with him, and happy in so being; should I carry this proud stubborn, rebellious heart to heaven with me, heaven would be a hell to me, and I a devil in it. Now however this work be thus punctually in the several parts of it discovered, and however it is even in special distances many times thus also enstamped upon that soul. Yet the Lord doth bind himself to leave such plain tracks and footsteps of proceedings with a poor 〈◊〉 at all times, and therefore we must not limit the holy one of Israel to be at our allowance and liking, or confine him to the compass of our conceits and desires. Therefore it pleaseth the Lord to dispense himself in a divers manner in dealing with divers sinners, and those we shall ad in a word.

Somtimes then in the second place, the Lord suddenly [ 2] sets on the blow, and leaves mighty and prevailing impressions at the very present, speedily and unexpectedly goes through stich with the work, pierceth the soul through at one thrust. Sometimes at one sermon, may be in the handling of one point, nay someone sentence, or some special truth, the Lord is pleased to arm it and discharge it, with mighty power and uncontrollable evidence, that it astonisheth and shivereth the heart of the sinner all in pieces; As it is in the 〈◊〉 of a piece it may be one scattered shot or splinter hitts and kills when all the rest miss; so with the splinter of a truth when directed aright, God lets in so much of the amazing beauty of his own holiness and purity, the dreadfulness of his displeasure, and the infinite crossness in himself to the least corruption, and consequently that abhorred 〈◊〉 in the nature of sin even the smallest, that look as it is with terrible thunder and lightning, it melts all before it, and that most where there is opposition against it even the league that is between the heart and the lust, soaks into the very root of the soul; and hence under such a sudden thunderclap, such mauling blows now and then, the sinner dies and faints away under it in the very place where he sits, sometimes roars out as one that hath received his deaths wound in his bosom, and that he hath heard his doom, and was delivered up into the hands of the Devil ready to drop into the dungeon, and to be carried post to the bottomless pit; and such soul sinking and confounding terrors, which takes off a serious and judicious consideration of the 〈◊〉 assaulting, they vanish away for the most part and come to little or nothing when the tartness of the horrot is once allayed; But sometimes lastly the sinner takes in the truth kindly and contains himself, hath his load as much as his heart can bear, for the while as much as 〈◊〉 and soul can hold together, goes away, droops and buckles under his burden, steps into a solitary place and hangs the wing as a foul that is shot; the saving truth thus set on lies gnawing and eating at the heart blood of a sinner, (as aqua-fortis doth in iron) leaves it not until it eat asunder the league betwixt the lust and the heart. Thus this lively truth in the soul like strong physic in the bowels walks up and down the world with a man, is working night and day, he cannot avoid the evidence and light of it, he cannot lessen nor hinder the operation of it. Now he questions with this or that Christian, then resolves to speak to such a Minister and to reveal his whole condition and to crave his counsel; he is often going and turns back again, almost at the door and yet goes away again, sometimes enters into speech and his heart misgives him, he pretends another 〈◊〉 and departs again; Al this while the soul bleeds inwardly, the truth is stirring, and the physic working, til at last it over-bids the darling distemper, then the coast is clear, the heart grows to more liberty and his speech more free; Thus Paul expresseth God's manner of proceeding with the Corinthian Convert, 1 Cor. 14. 29. when the word is dispensed in plainness there comes in one unlearned and unbelieving, he is convinced of all and judged of all, i. e. the evidence of the word convinceth him and judgeth him & his 〈◊〉 and it follows the secrets of his heart are made manifest, those retired and privy haunts of sin in the soul are discovered, so he will fall down and say God is in you of a truth, He saw more of God, and his Majesty and purity, more of his own sin and the filthy puddle of his own distempers; it was the Wisdom of God to discover those hid things of darkness, and brought the loathsomeness of them to light; it was the Holiness 〈◊〉 God that shows the heinous and hellish Poison thereof; it was the power of God that did conquer the prevailing Dominion of these distempers unto which the heart was subject. And this was the Lord's dealing with Paul, he assaults the main hold and strength of his rebellion, and drives him at the first dash as it were to look where the loathsomeness of his evil lay. Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me? I am Jesus: thou persecutest that Jesus that came to redeem thee, opposest that Grace that would sanctify and bring thee to Glory, tramplest upon that blood that would free thee from the guilt and curse which thou hast brought upon thyself; thus lastly it was with Job in that new Conversion (as I may say) that the Lord wrought in him, Job, 42. 4, 5. I have oft heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes see thee, I abhor myself in dust and ashes; when God lets in a sight of himself, and a sight of 〈◊〉 , from thence the soul begins not to abhor his plagues and punishments which the other feels or fears, he abhors not Hell and the torments thereof, but abhors himself, the pollutions, and impurity of his own soul, which are worse than all the everlasting burnings of the bottomless pit; and hence is that Phrase, Ezek. 36. 32. They shall loath themselves, not their miseries, though they were more than they could bear; not their Judgments, though heavier than they could endure, but they loath their own souls, the hellish exorbitations, swervings and departings of heart from God, that they had held any connivence or correspondence with their lusts.

Lastly, God's manner of 〈◊〉 , is sweet and [ 3] secret, and works insensibly 〈◊〉 spirits of such who do receive it, when and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 infinite Wisdom, whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Rom. 11. 33.

He can and doth sometimes, 〈◊〉 the soul in the [ 1] 〈◊〉 , as it's commonly conceived he did John the Baptist, Luke. 1. 44.

Many times he begins to tamper and trade with the [ 2] spirits of his, when they are young and tender, and their years few, drops in some grain of the immortal Seed of the Word, which takes root by the powerful operation of the Spirit, and grows up with them as they grow in years, 2 Chron. 34. 3. While Josiah was yet young, 〈◊〉 eight years old he began to seek after the God of his Fathers, and declined not to the right hand, or to the left; So the Lord seemed to deal with Joseph, and to reveal himself to him, and to Samuel very young, at about fourteen years.

Somtimes God keeps his by the strokes of his common [ 3] Graces, restraining from scandalous evils, and constraining by means appointed and blessed to that end, the holy 〈◊〉 , the counsels and examples of Godly Parents, the society of such who are 〈◊〉 , the power of the Ordinances under which they are bred and brought up, toling and tilling of their 〈◊〉 and affections by many moral persuasions, to the love and liking of the excellency of a holy course, which he knows how to present, and by which to 〈◊〉 out the exercise of all those moral abilities they are endued withal, and at the last insensibly, and yet truly 〈◊〉 them off from the root of old Adam, and implants into the 〈◊〉 Vine Christ Jesus; Ladia and Zachaeus are Presidents of God's proceeding in this case; whence it is that many a godly man and true Convert, never knew the time of his Conversion, only he knows he was blind, and God hath brought him to see the wonders of his way and Truth.

Though the manner of God's dealing be divers, and [ 1] degrees of this work of Contrition differ in most, 〈◊〉 the Nature and substance of the work is really and truly wrought in all that are effectually called out of the world, themselves, and sins to the Lord Jesus; as shall after appear when we come to give in the Evidences of the Point in hand; only now it shall suffice to propound these two places, 〈◊〉 . 3. 1. Behold I will send my Messenger, and he shall prepare the way 〈◊〉 me, and the Lord whom ye 〈◊〉 shall suddenly come into his Temple; and this preparation his Harbenger John Baptist discovers, Luke, 3. 5. Every mountain shall be brought low, and the valleys filled, crooked things made straight, and rough things plain, and then all 〈◊〉 shall see the salvation of the Lord. And the evidence 〈◊〉 this appears in the question they made, What shall we do? &c. It's God's way of entertainment which himself prescribes, Rev. 3. 2. Behold I stand at thee door and knock; if any man will open the door, I and my Father will come in to him, and sup with him. Unless the door be opened, there is no expectation of Christ's coming, and supping: now all men are shut up under unbelief, and so the power of their sins; the opening of the heart, is the loosening of the soul from the league of these lusts, which is done by Contrition; true, a man may pick the lock, or break the lock, open the door and lift up the latch gently, or else unhinge it with violence, and noise, that all the house, and all the town may hear, but it's opened both ways.

Though a man truly called, happily cannot tell the [ 2] time of his Conversion, yet everyone should, and if gracious, he can give such proper and special evidence, such never failing and infallible fruits of this work, that they may undoubtedly discover to others, and ascertain to his own soul, that the stroke is struck indeed, that he hath been called out of the world, and from darkness to his marvelous light, that the Lord hath broken his heart kindly, or else he cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he will ever bind him up with his saving and healing compassions.

It's a safe way to view over these primitive and first impressions of the Lord upon the soul, and a principle of Grace received to renew and act over daily these first Editions, and Spiritual Dispositions imprinted upon the heart: they were first 〈◊〉 upon us but after Grace received, they may & should be 〈◊〉 by us, we should act them over again: This is the Advice and Direction which our Savior so seasonably and so sadly leaves upon record upon the Conscience of his Disciples: When Peter was 〈◊〉 of his fall and denial of his Master, he also leaves this Receipt with him, 〈◊〉 his recovery after the wound taken, When thou art converted, strengthen thy Brethren, Luke, 22, 32. Peter was converted 〈◊〉 before, and called effectually unto Christ, and by faith made one with him; and this faith he did not, nay could not lose, for Christ prayed his faith should not fail: but in our falls, there is a weakening and blemishing of this work of Conversion, and an aversion in some measure left upon the soul, therefore we should labor a new Conversion, i. e. renew and act over the work of Conversion, be broken hearted, humbled, drawn to Christ afresh; and as necessary as the renewal of the act of faith, is the repairing and renewing of these acts also, for there is no going to Christ, if we go not out of sin and self. Hence again our Savior, when he would take off, and reform that ambitious humor which had vented itself among the Disciples, when each man strove to be highest, one at the right hand, another at the left, the rest they disdained this 〈◊〉 pang; our Savior applies this Receipt to 〈◊〉 this corruption, 〈◊〉 . 18. 2. 3. Jesus called a little Child, and set him: in the midst of them, and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, unless ye be converted, and become as little Children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: The Disciples were called, and so converted, truly, savingly humbled, and yet they must renew and act over again these first impressions of the powerful operations of the Spirit of God, be broken hearted, loosened from thy lusts as at the first, be abased and brought to nothing in thine own sense and apprehension as at the first, be drawn to Christ as at the first; and there is more reason and greater necessity of this, than men are readily aware of. For,

A wound here is never recovered in any following work [ 1] upon the soul, unless we go back, and begin again; miss here, and we miss all, spoil all our proceedings in progress of the Work of Grace: He that enters not at the right gate, the faster he goes, the further out of his way: Never loosened and divorced from the league with some darling lust, thou canst not be Espoused to Christ, therefore not called, therefore not justified, 〈◊〉 sanctified, nor glorified; thy reformations are false, thy peace counterfeit, and all thy comforts thou conceit'st thou hast, they are mere forgeries and delusions; thou art fast in the Devils clutches as long as thou hast thy sins, he hath thee at command. The Mettal that is not melted, there is no making, polishing, perfecting any Vessel for any use with it.

Cleer this, clear all, i. e. we make way for the Evidences [ 2] that appertain to our comfort and spiritual condition in our whole course: mark all the recoylings of our Consciences, the misgiving of our hearts, the staggering and doubting of the Truth of God's Work, or the assurance of God's Love, they turn still upon this hinge, here they fortify; Oh the lusts I brought with me from my Cradle, the old haunt of heart, the old sin, therefore I am the old man still. Here the main knot, and the great Question remains still.

The looking over, and skillful discerning of these first [ 3] impressions left upon us, may, nay in truth will stand by us, and relieve us in the darkest days of our greatest distresses; & we may find some foot-hold here, when all the rest seem to be gone from us, to our own sense & apprehension. It's God's usual way many times to put his Servant to it, as he tried Abraham, to make them sacrifice their Isaac's, even to burn the 〈◊〉 and pledges he hath given them for the 〈◊〉 of the Covenant, and established their hearts therein. For Isaac was all the pledge that the Lord had given, That in his Seed, all the Nations of the Earth should be blesfed: now he commands him to cast his Evidence into the fire, brings him to his beginnings, Gen. 22. 1, 2. So the Lord doth often with his: Enlargements fail, the heart is dead, their Graces bed-rid, their peace disturbed, their assurance gone; so that they find nothing, feel nothing in their own sense and apprehension, all is in the ashes; God begins with them upon the bare board, as we say, they sit down with a heart yielding and melting, a heart burdened with sin, though it cannot disburden itself, a heart loosened from his lusts, willing that God should remove them, though he cannot subdue them.

The Second thing to be opened is,

OR,

How it's possible that the soul 〈◊〉 wholly possessed with sin, can be made to feel the weight of sin as to be severed from it, where there is no room for a habit in the subject, there can be no work of a habit; for habits of Grace and sin work so far as they be in their subject, and have 〈◊〉 from the subjects in which they be: Corruption must be in the heart, before it carry and command the heart; Grace must be in the soul, before it can act and quicken the soul to its work. Now how the soul should come to feel, and be loosened from it's corruption, when there is nothing in it but corruption, when God comes to work upon it, how doth God bring this about?

If by Sorrow a man be 〈◊〉 from sin, then it must have this 〈◊〉 before it be loosened, because it is an effect of it. If so, then it must have a gracious frame, and be possessed with the presence of Grace, when it's wholly possessed with sin, which cannot be.

I Answer: In these Secrets and depths of God's Spiritual Dispensations with the souls of men, we must learn to be wise to sobriety, and adore the ways of God which are too wonderful for us; and if any paths of his Providence in an ordinary course are beyond our ken, and past finding out, I suppose his complyings with the consciences and hearts of men in their Conversion, are some of the chief. It's of our Natural Birth David speaks, Psal. 139. I am fearfully and wonderfully made, much more may it be said of our new birth: The wise man, Eccles. 11. 5. says, 〈◊〉 thou knowest not the way of the Spirit, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do grow in the womb of her that is with Child, so thou knowest not the 〈◊〉 of God, nor of his Spirit, how he fashions the frame of the mind and heart of him he will bring home to himself; curious we should not be, careless we must not be. I shall leave therefore some such 〈◊〉 Expressions, so far as my light goes, and occasion the judicious to consider further, for the further clearing of God's Work.

That which I shall say here for the Answer and Explication of the Second thing, I shall east into 〈◊〉 conclusions, 〈◊〉 I conceive that is 〈◊〉 easiest and openest way to help the weak.

In a right sense it 〈◊〉 be truly said, that sin is truly cross and opposite to the Nature of the soul, and the greatest evil that doth or can 〈◊〉 : I say, opposite [ 1] to the Nature of the foul 〈◊〉 a right 〈◊〉 ; Look at the soul in respect of the end for which it was created, and that impression which is 〈◊〉 and left upon it unto this day, whereby it's restlessly carried in the search, and for the procurement of that good for which it was made, though it 〈◊〉 the right 〈◊〉 of what it is, and falls short in the 〈◊〉 of it. The soul was made for 〈◊〉 end, and good, and therefore for a better than itself, therefore for God, therefore to enjoy union with him, and communion with those blessed excellencies of his, so far as they are communicable, and it were capable; this impression remains still upon the soul, though the work thereof is wholly prejudiced, and itself disappointed wholly of that good which would satisfy the desires thereof, and it misseth. 〈◊〉 being possessed with sin, the Judgment is blinded and deluded that it mistakes utterly, and perceives not this good, and so pursues other things in the room of it, yet restless and unsatisfied in what it-hath, and attains, but it hath not that for which it was made; thus Paul speaks of the Romans, Rom. 2. 14. Being without the Law, they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their Conscience excusing or accusing; this ever appears in the heart corrupt, I was for a 〈◊〉 ; the ambitious man he seeks his 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 man the World, 〈◊〉 gots the booty, and yet is not 〈◊〉 in that which he gets; I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , and 〈◊〉 which should 〈◊〉 , and yet 〈◊〉 doth not satisfy. And 〈◊〉 they know no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these, and are not satisfied with these, therefore they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carried after more of these vain 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 Honor, more Wealth, more 〈◊〉 ; the 〈◊〉 blinded 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 with them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by what light, 〈◊〉 is carried to no other by the power and principles it hath. This is the reason the Apostle Peter gives, why carnal hearts 〈◊〉 see spiritual 〈◊〉 , 2 Pet. 1. 9. Because they are blind; and cannot see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things are far 〈◊〉 , and blind men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reach 〈◊〉 , 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 the light, help, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 .

Hence the reason follows.

That which crosseth the end and good of the soul for which it was made; that is so far contrary to the nature of the soul and the greatest evil that can befall it.

But sin as such, and such, and that only crosseth the end and greatest good of the soul.

If sin in the venom and pollution of it were discovered, and brought home effectually to the nature of the [ 2] soul, it might be made sensible thereof and deeply affected and burdened therewith; this follows undeniably from the former. That which carries the crossness of the greatest evil to the nature of the soul were it but so seen did it but so act upon the soul, it would affect it with the greatest grief and burden; for sorrow in all the proportions of it issues from these two grounds. A crossness of an evil truly apprehended by the judgment: & the venom acting really upon us; where these are in a greater or lesser measure; there sorrow is greater or less; upon this ground the Apostle evidenceth the grief and burden of the creature Rom. 8. 22. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and that because it was made subject to vanity, and this is their vanity because their end is crossed, and so their good is hindered: for whereas it is their desire to serve such as may serve God, when they serve the humors, and corruptions of carnal men, they become vain and miss their end, and so their good, and this is, as it were a grief to them. Were the venom of sin but discovered and acted upon the nature of the soul it could not but groan under the evil and vanity thereof as that which wholly deprives it of its end and good.

While the soul stands fully under the power of corruptions possessed with it and acted by it, it's not possible [ 3] it should apprebend the evil of sin, nor the nature of the soul taste the venom thereof. Sin carries no crossness of opposition of evil to itself, and therefore 〈◊〉 disquiet to itself, 〈◊〉 so no separation from itself. But sin wholly possessing and wholly acting the soul it makes the mind and heart apprehend, not according to the nature of the soul and impression left upon it when created but according to the distemper by which it is possessed, and carried. So did they to Samuel, 1 Sam. 8. 19. they said, nay but we will have a King Jer. 18. 12. So they to Jeremiah; we will walk everyone in the imagination of his own heart. Give the sick man the most pleasant potion though the Physician profess it, and give reasons, and others by experience find it so, he no sooner tastes it but he puts it away, as that which is exceeding bitter, because his taste is corrupted, and tongue furred with the foulness of his stomach he relisheth the drink not according to what they say and what it is, or what the natural constitution of the palate would persuade, but what his distemper which now possesseth and disordreth his taste, tell him. So it was with Judas, though he was told before, that it were better he had never been born, that would not do the deed, his covetous heart found another relish, nay when he flung away his money out of vexation, yet he relished hismurther still, and therefore hanged himself. And this is the reason why they who sin against the holy Ghost even against the evidence of reason, the corruption of their heart relisheth other than reason tells.

Hence the Lord Christ by the irresistible power of his spirit doth countermand the authority of sin; makes it [ 4] appear that its commission is come to an end, the date of it is expired. Namely sin after Adam withdrawing himself received a commission from divine justice, that 〈◊〉 the soul would not be ruled by him and his law. It should be possessed and acted by corruption; the date of the commission lasts until the Lord Jesus the second Adam who 〈◊〉 for the sinner comes by covenant to take the soul to himself; and then he appearing in this behalf, sin is forced back, and not to exercise her power, and then the evil of sin is brought home to the soul and set on with the full venom of it, and the nature of the soul is made sensible of it, I say made sensible and deeply affected therewith; This me thinks is the binding of the strong man, Math. 12. 29. Whereby the Devils armor that is his commission by virtue of which 〈◊〉 holds the soul is taken away from him stop the sluice and stream that drives the mil, and then you turn the wheel another way, which otherwise while under the source of the stream cannot be stirred. Thus God commands the soul to return from iniquity Job. 36. 10. And if he do but stop the commission for a sudden turn, then there may follow a taste which such as sin against the holy Ghost may have of whom the Apostle speaks Hebr. 6. 4, 5, 6.

The Lord Jesus by the virtu of his death puts an end to the commission that divine justice gave, & disanuls [ 5] the right and power that sin challenged and by which it acted the soul of a sinner, whereby it kept the soul under its command that no means could work upon it or be made effectual to it. 1. Pet. 3. 18. Christ died for us that he might bring us to God. For when Adam (and so we in him) willfully departed from God & would not be guided by his rightous law and just will; divine justice gave a commission to sin to take vengeance of the soul, and keep it under, that no good may come to it or it receive any; now Christ by his death having satisfied justice, the commission is cancelled, there is nothing on God's part which hinders; And there is nothing on our parts can hinder, the authority of sin is disannulled, his claim made void; that soul is mine says Christ, hands off 〈◊〉 , hands off sin; the claim answered, authority disannulled, power stopped, now there is way for light to come to the mind; and for the nature of sin as discovered to be set on upon the soul, and it made to seel the venom thereof, as upon those terms it may, utsupra. So our Savior 〈◊〉 . 1. 18. I was dead but am alive, and I have the keys of hell and death. i. e. hath supreme authority to shoot back all boults to open all doors. As the first Adam by natural generation 〈◊〉 power and commission from divine justice to turn the souls of his children from God to sin, so the second Adam having satisfied and answered divine justice, hath power to turn the soul from Satan and sin to God; Satan and sin are at his devotion, the soul at his command

The third particular to be opened.

The Answer may be conceived in the following particulars.

There is no power in man to remove that resistance that is in his heart against God & the work of his grace; that which out of its own corrupt principles doth wholly [ 1] resist and cannot but resist, the operation and dispensation of all spiritual means, that would prevail with it for good, that cannot take away the resistance; for resistance cannot take away resistance; it implies a palpable contradiction, as that which is professedly cross to common sense; but the corrupt heart of a natural man while he is in the state of nature, and corruption, doth and cannot but wholly resist, the work of God's spirit and grace and all the saveing operations of all the means thereof. The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these two are contrary Gal. 5. 17. And what is born of the flesh is flesh John, 3. 7. that is the temper and inward constitution of a soul in its natural condition, its wholly born of the flesh, and therefore nothing but flesh, and therefore can do nothing but resist the spirit; yea it cannot but oppose what ever would take that resistance away; for it's a received rule of reason and confessed of all hands, everything desires the preservation of itself, and its being, otherwise the being and the causes that made up the being should be cross to the thing, if it should endeavor its own destruction, nay a thing should be opposite to itself; Hence it is that the corruption of the heart will put forth all the skil & strength it hath or by the contrivements of carnal reason, can compass to fortify & preserve itself against the spiritual and saving dispensation of the work of God's spirit in his own ordinances, because wicked men look at the power thereof as that which works the ruin of their lusts; therefore they labor to avoid the light if they can, if not that, to oppose it, and overbear it by their delusions, if not that, to destroy it; they will not hear the truth, or gainsay, what they hear, or abhor and loath what they cannot many times gainsay, nay endeavor to destroy what they so hate and are tormented withal, The wisdom of the flesh cannot be subject to the law. Rom. 8. 7. the heart riseth up in arms, and indignation against the soul-saving and uncontrollable evidences of the truth, they will not be ruled by the holiness of it, and they cannot endure the terror and Majesty of it. 〈◊〉 sometimes the Philystians dealt with the Ark when it came into the field, they thus spake one to another there was never such a thing heard of as this, these are the God's that destroyed the Egyptians in the red. Sea, quit yourselves like men, Oh ye Philystins, that ye be not servants to the Hebrews, They say of the word as sometimes of our Savior. Math. 21. this is the Heyr come let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours, they cannot have their lusts so long as the power of the word would, overtop and cross them, therefore Herodias prefers John Baptists head before half the Kingdom, that she might be quiet in her sins.

Before the soul can act against the evil of sin or for [ 2] the removal of this resistance wherein the destroying venom of sin lies, and that which stops the passage of the power of the ordinance & the work of Grace, It's necessary that the Lord should not only concur with the 〈◊〉 of the will of a sinner to lead or draw forth the act thereof which he hath ability to express, but he must let in an influence of the 〈◊〉 power & virtue into the faculty of the will, whereby it may be enabled to put forth an act unto which it formerly it had no power of itself; It's a subtle pang of Pelagianism and the Arminians some of their successors have licked up that loathsome heresy of theirs at this day: & 〈◊〉 this delusion & cunning pretence of theirs they would color over those rotten and poisonful conceits; & hence it is they labor to bear men in hand, that they labor to set forth and exalt the honor of God's free grace, they profess that without the preventing grace of God, man's free will and all that ability he hath left in nature since the fall is able to do no spiritual good. The words are fayr but the intent is falls and 〈◊〉 , and indeed they do privily and cunningly undermine the work of God's grace while they pretend indeed to advance it. For the meaning is this. God must enlighten men's minds and reveal the things of life and happiness to men's wills, excite, stir up and cal forth their hearts to the embracing of that which is good, and concur with him in their endeavors to the performance of the work or else they can do nothing, so that upon this grant, God's free grace in the work of conversion, calls forth and concurs with that act which man's free will hath sufficiency to put forth, which is to make man share with God in his work, and to part stakes with him.

But the truth is this, The Lord must let in an influence of some special motion and operation and leave some impression of spiritual power upon the will to enable it to act, not only to concur with the act thereof. God gives a man ability whereby he may will, doth not 〈◊〉 with him by assistance and providence when he wills as one in whom we live and move.

Of the first of these it's true which many of the Ancients speak, God works without us, many things in us, i. e. unto which we being in no causal ability at all, God gives us ability to do that which is pleasing and spiritual, to the obtaining whereof, we had no causal ability of our own; when the Lord Christ raised Lazarus now dead and smelling in the Grave, he did not concur with the action and motion of his Soul in rising out of the Grave, but without any causal concurrence or help of Lazarus, he put a soul into his body, whereby he was enabled to stir and move. So it is with a soul dead in sins and trespasses, when the mind and will have no ability for any spiritual act, not able to take off that deadness and indisposition that is there, the Lord without the will, without any causal concurrence of it, lets in ability into it for the work, and concurs with it in the work. So Paul expresseth this manner of God's Work, 2 Cor. 4. 6. He causeth light to shine out of darkness, he gives light and being out of darkness, without the help of light, and then concurs with the light in the shining of it, God lets in an Influence to the will, not only lends a concurrence to the work.

The Influence of this spiritual Power whereby the [ 3] Lord takes away this sinful resistance, is not by any gracious habit of sanctification, but by an irresistable motion of the work of his spirit upon the soul: By a gracious habit of Sanctification, I mean those spiritual Graces of Wisdom, Holiness, Righteousness, in which Adam at first was created, and according unto which, all the Elect and called are renewed according to the Image of him that created them, Eph. 4. 24. Col. 3. 10. these gracious habits are so many Spiritual and Supernatural Principles as it were left in the soul, whereby it is in a state of Life and Grace, and liberty and free will to any good; and therefore as those that are Agents by Counsel, they are 〈◊〉 of their own work, can act or not act, can act more or less according to their own choice: And I follow the Apprehension of those Authors who conceive that the removal of this resistance is not by any gracious habit of Sanctification, but by the irresistible motion of the work of the Spirit; and therefore they cal it Actual Grace, the other Habitual: A work of the Spirit assisting, the other a work of the Spirit inhabiting, or dwelling in the heart; the one a Principle of Grace in us which we have from communion with Christ; the other the work of the Spirit upon us, to bring us from our sins to union with the Lord Jesus; and that upon these grounds:

All Habits (as it is in the Nature of all qualities) [ 1] have their being in their Subjects, before they work in their Subject: Reason and Nature teacheth and presupposeth he must have skil before he can use it, gain the knowledge of an Art before he 〈◊〉 work by it; I cannot do the work of the Trade, alas I have no skil, nor ever was brought up to it; for take the heart according to the condition in which we now look at a sinner, it's wholly under the power of resistance, carried in total opposition against God, and all the works of his Grace; and therefore consider him in this time and turn, and go no further, there is no room, or next capability of a gracious habit or spiritual Principle to be there, therefore it cannot work there, The Natural man doth not receive the things of the Spirit of God, nay he cannot do it, 1 Cor. 2. 14. The World cannot receive the Comforter, John, 14. 21.

Where there is a capability to receive, there is some kind of consent and agreement, but so as yet it cannot be here in a heart fastened to its lusts; where there is a total opposition, there is no fit disposition to receive, but while the soul is under the power of this resistance, there is a total opposition, and therefore there can be no consension.

Again Secondly, All gracious Habits of Sanctification [ 2] are part of the Image which we receive from the Second Adam, 1 Cor. 15. 49. As we have born the Image of the first Adam, so shall we also bear the Image of the second Adam, and so also part of our Spiritual communion with Christ, of whose fullness we receive Grace for Grace, John, 1. 16. and are transformed from one degree of glorious Grace to another, 2 Cor. 3. last.

All Communion presupposeth Union; no sap in [ 1] the Branches, unless growing to the Tree; no life in the Member, unless united to the Head, John, 15. 4. Unless ye abide in me, ye can have nothing, do nothing: Eph. 4. 15, 16. Grows up in him in all things, who is our Head, by whom the Body aptly compacted together, according to the effectual working, &c. First In-being then working.

No Union but by an Act, for no qualities close [ 2] with their Object but by an Act. But now look at the soul in this present condition, as it comes to consideration in this place, as to have the resistance removed, and itself turned from sin, and in way to be turned to God. Should this be done by a gracious Habit? then there should be communion with Christ, before any union to him, or acting upon him; all which imply so many impossibilities, and cross the whole course of God's Dispensation.

Those gracious Habits, when and wheresoever they [ 3] be in any Subject, it becomes free (sometimes the actions thereof are suspended and cease, as in sleep) and then the act and order of things, is according to their own liberty in an indifferency; so that were either the resistance against the work of Grace to be removed, or the heart carried to God from hence, it were in our choice to be converted, or not converted, whenas it hath been proved, our Conversion is wrought irresistibly, and determined to one side, not issuing from the liberty of our choice, and therefore it is brought about by the irresistible impression of the work of the Spirit: In a word, to issue this Point, Look as it is in the will of every Son of Adam, when he comes to be averted, and turned 〈◊〉 God to sin in the course of Natural Generation; so it is in a right proportion in the 〈◊〉 of every man begotten of the Second Adam, when he comes to be turned from sin to God in Spiritual Conversion. Look at the will of a Child in the course of Natural Generation, as it is created by God, and comes holy and undefiled out of his hand; as the question, How comes the will of the Child to be turned from God to sin? it cannot be by any actual sin of its own, it hath committed none; it cannot be by any corrupt quality first put into it, before it was turned from God, and by which, that turning aside is wrought, for then it should be under the power of sin, while yet it is under the power of God. But by virtue of Adams sin, and the Curse that attends the breach of the Covenant, and by means of the next Parent in the work of Generation; the Body made wonderfully, and the Soul created holy by God, he as an unskillful workman, by the virtue of the Curse, acting the work of Generation under the power of the Curse, and power of a perverted will, turns the set of the Soul from God, joins body and soul in a wrong and exorbitant manner; hence they 〈◊〉 to be in a disorderly frame, the wheels run wrong, under the power of original corruption, and struck wrong by actual transgression; so that there is the strength of the Curse, the push of Divine Justice, and the perverting stroke of the next Parent turns the soul from God to sin, whence it comes to be wholly possessed and acted by corruption.

So it is by proportion in a contrary manner in the work of Conversion, when the Lord Jesus comes to bring the sinner home, he doth not put sanctifying Grace into the heart, to bring the heart from the power and rebellion of fin, for then it should be under the power of Grace and sin together; but by the mighty impression and motion of his Spirit takes off the resistance, and turns the soul from sin to himself in Christ, in whom accepting of it as adopted in his Son, he leaves the impression of his Image, and all gracious abilities whereby the heart may be carried towards him, and act for him in all things.

In the removal of this resistance, for the conquering [ 4] and overpowering this opposition, that a carnal heart naturally carries against God and his Grace, the will of the sinner itself is a mere Patient, and the soul is only a sufferer and acts not, but is acted upon; for the heart and will of a sinner being possessed and overpowered with corruption, that which is the subject of his corrupt quality, and acted by it, hath no power to expel it, that which is wholly carried by resistance, cannot will to remove that resistance out of it, but in truth resists all that resists or opposeth that; only the Lord by the mighty impression of the powerful operation of Spirit over-bears that opposition in the soul, and forceth the soul to feel the stab and venom of sin, though it use all means and ways it can to avoid the stroke of it, but all in vain, for the Arrows of the Almighty stick fast in him: And all this is done, and may be without any prejudice to any Liberty that the Lord hath put into the will, for the will may be forced to suffer even against it's will, without any wrong to the liberty thereof, as the damned do in Hell at this day, and shall through all eternity, and shall never be able to get from under the terrors of the Almighty.

For the meaning of that received expression, the Will cannot be compelled, is this, In all the acts the Will puts forth, she is a cause by counsel, and acts from the inward power and ability that is implanted in her; to be compelled, is to act by constraining force from without: now for the will to act from her own power inwardly, and yet to be acted by a contrary power from without, are Contradictions. The will then (in a word) cannot be constrained to do, but it may be constrained to suffer without any the least prejudice to liberty; and so it is here in this work I now mention, a mere sufferer.

Thus Job, 36, 10. The Lord said to command men from iniquity; he not only directs, but by a sovereign power carries the soul from iniquity: thus lamenting Ephraim intreats, Jer. 31. 18. Turn me and I shall be turned, thou art the Lord my God: And Paul was sent, Acts, 20. 18. To turn men from darkness to light; and so the whole frame of Scripture runs: they are said to be wounded, burdened, 〈◊〉 , when they should avoid the blow, and remove the burden, were in their choice, but they are pressed under the hand of the Lord, which they are not able to escape, though not able to undergo it: Hence it is that though by reason of the presence of the body of death that yet remains, there will be some stirrings of distemper, which will raise up some mutinies and conspiracies against the work and preventing Grace of God, yet there will never be power nor possibility, so far to resist as to hinder the work of Conversion, and effectual bringing of the soul to God: As in an Army wholly defeated, and routed, and scattered, their Commanders slain, and strong Holds taken, and their Country possessed; though some roving Troops may happily pilfer and forage up and down here and there in secret, when they are not observed; yet they are never able to make head, or come into the Field. So here.

Lastly, When this resistance is removed, and the [ 5] right, power and challenge which sin made, disanulled, the soul comes yet further to yield consent that there should be an everlasting divorce made between it and her former lusts and lovers, and is in earnest content they should forever be estranged from her, and she from them. And in this consent which the soul yields for this separation, which is the great knot, it moves only as under the power, and in the virtue of the motion of the Spirit. So that Divines thus speak, This consent is not of ourselves, though not without ourselves. There is no power in the soul, by which as a principle and beginning of the work it's carried to the work, but acts as prevented by the impression of the power and motion of the Spirit, in virtue whereof it's acted and enabled to this consent; so that the act of God's exciting and working Grace, doth not concur with the power that is in the will, to put forth this consent, but as a principle leaves an impression of power upon the will, by the virtue whereof it's moved, and so moves in and to this consent. As the will of a child of Adam, in generation it turns from God to sin, not by any first power of its own, but by the perverting work of the next Parent, who under the virtue of the Curse and God's Divine Justice, turned it from the Lord, and the Authority of the Law, and put it under the Authority of fin: So the will of him that comes to be begotten of the Second Adam, doth turn from sin unto God, not by any power or principle it hath of its own, but by the impression of the operation of his Spirit by which it is turned, and in virtue of that it turns. Take an instance: Suppose the first Grace offered, or the voice of God's Call tendered unto the will that now hath the resistance taken off; the Question now grows, How the will comes to give her consent to this Act or first Grace; this consent must come either from the will only; or partly from the will, and partly from Grace; or from Grace only. To say from the will only, is Heretical, and perfect Pelagianism in the highest degree, which exalts Nature above Grace, nay, to make it perfect without it. If from Grace and the will both, as divers principles, then there is a concurrence of our will by a power of its own with the power of Grace at the same instant to this work of consent, then there is an ability in the will to begin its work, and to meet and concur with Grace, without Grace so far in a Spiritual Act: As for instance, The Father and the child both draw a Boat; the Father puts more strength to the work, the Son also from a principle of its own puts forth some strength, and both these concur and meet in the motion; the beginning is several from each as several causes, though both meet in the act: So that Grace concurs with the power of the will to this motion, doth not give power and principle whereby it moves: And this also is Heretical and Pelagianism; for thus far, and in that beginning, the will closeth with Grace without the power of Grace, which is cross to the Apostle, and to all the former conclusions. Whereas it is in this consent, The first call of Grace prevents, and wholly moves the will, and the will in the 〈◊〉 of that motion, moves to the call, and consents: As it in the Echo, the Voice stirs the Air, the Air in virtue of that stir, returns the Voice again.

Among some searching Disputes, I meet with such an expression, which I shall propound and explicate, because it makes way for the understanding of the thing in hand; The Will doth consent or will, but doth not make itself to consent, but is made so by another. Their meaning is this:

• 1. The Will doth put forth the Act of Consent, and so far it's the cause of it.
• 2. But it was not the cause of that power by which it was enabled to consent, but that it received, and by that it was enabled to it. So that this seems to be the order in which God proceeds.

God takes away that resistance by the irresistable operation [ 1] of his Spirit, when the soul, having that impediment removed, it comes to be in the next passive power, and immediately disposed to a Spiritual Work, vult moveri.

God leaves a powerful impression upon the will, acts [ 2] this capability to carry it from sin in a right order to God; at the entrance of which, the soul is moved, and takes the impression; having taken the impression or motion, it moves again, and in virtue of that is said to act and consent, so that this consent is not from ourselves, though not without ourselves.

And thus we are put beyond any principle of our own, or to be the beginners of our own work, by anything we have in ourselves, which cuts the sinews of the Covenant of Works; and hither many times God will bring us to our beginnings, to the bare board, even to leave our souls with him, that he may carry us from sin to himself, and act us upon himself, and keep us with himself forever. Thus David, Psal. 119. 29. Take from me the way of lying, 〈◊〉 could not take it away himself: Hos. 14. 2. Take away all iniquity; they leave themselves in God's hand, that the Lord would cause them to turn from iniquity.

So that in this Condition, it's true to say a man hath not a principle of concurrence with God, as by sanctified habits we have; but the Spirit puts in us a power whereby we are carried to God.

The Fourth Particular for opening of the Point.

When this Sorrow is rightly set on, and the soul rightly [ 1] affected therewith, the sinner hath the loath somness of corruption ever in his sight, keeps it ever within his ken: he could not be brought before to take to heart, the heinousness of 〈◊〉 evil; Ministers pressed him with it in public, others minded him of it in private, forewarned him of the direful venom and 〈◊〉 that lay in those distempers of his, that one day he was like to feel to the hazard of his everlasting happiness, it would be bitterness in the latter end. but he turned the deaf ear to all, would not so much as take it into consideration, not once look back into the danger of his rebellions, nor listen to anything that may force the same upon his soul; but now the case is altered; he that could not be brought to see sin before, now he will see nothing but sin, cannot be brought to look off from it, he feels now the plague of those provocations of his, and finds by woeful proof and experience the truth of all that formerly hath been told him, and hath time enough now to recount the savory counsels, those seasonable reproofs, directions & entreaties which would have kept him from the commssion of those evils, the heinousness whereof he is not able to conceive; the bitterness and poison whereof he is not able to bear, now he is constrained to feel the sting thereof. He hath now leisure to survey the folly and perverseness of his spirit in former times and to sit down in silence and shame; now he can seal to that as an eternal truth of God which before he east behind his back as slight and vain; Oh I now see the Ministers were faithful watch-men which foresaw the danger, and foretold me how dreadful the evils would be which did attend my distempers, If I would not leave my sin, mercy and blessing would leave me, and my heart feels it so. The Christians were loving and compassionate which labored by earnest and affectionate entreaties to with draw me from the ways of wickedness, which with drew me from God, & by woeful experience I sinned it so. Though it were a sharp, yet it was a sure & safe word that I have often heard, but would never receive, It were better to cut off my hand & to pluck out mine eye and to enter lame and maimed into the Kingdom of Heaven, lame and maimed in comforts and credit, and carnal and sensual delights, than to have 〈◊〉 these and go to hell, where the worm never dies and the fire never goes out, and now my Conscience confesseth it is so, Lord where was my mind that could not see this? how hard and senseless my heart that could not be affected with this? the sinner thus wounded, his hand is ever upon the sore, his eye upon his distemper, as the extreme danger that hangs over his head, and the deadliest enemy that is in pursuit of his soul; he sleeps & wakes & eats, and drinks with this, as his daily diet, & a standing dish; carries it up and down as his daily companion, Psal. 51. 3. My sin is ever before me; listen to him when he sighs out his prayers in secret, ye shall observe his complaints run upon this, confer with him, inquire of his condition, his speech ever returns to this point, and all his questions lead still to the discovery of the loathsomeness of his rebellions. As it is with a commander or General of the field when he sees the enemy come on furiously, his numbers many, his power great, his soldiers skillful and courageous so that he sees all lie at stake, the shock is like to be sudden & fierce, either conquer all or loose all; A prudent commander seeing where the stress of the battle and the strength of the enemy lies, and the safety or ruin of the whole consists; he leaves the thoughts of comforts, conveniencies, wife and family, the profits and privileges which he hath formerly enjoyed and prized; bends all his thoughts, exerciseth the utmost of all his 〈◊〉 now to defeat the enemy how to encounter him, how to overcome him, and this takes up the whole mind and the whole man, its vain to attend other things when the neglect of the enemies approach is the loss and overthrow of all. So it is with a broken hearted Christian when the numberless company of those hellish abominations of heart and life, lay siedg against and threaten his everlasting ruin, either he must destroy them or they will undoubtedly destroy his comforts; he leaves the consideration of other things and looks to the main chance. If my sin live I die for it either I must be separated from them or they from me; and therefore bends all his forces, bestows all his thoughts how the heinousness of this may be forever discovered, & the heart forever freed from the power and authority thereof. The Apostle Paul hath his sin ever in his eye, he keeps it in fresh remembrance and consideration never hath occasion to mention anything of himself but still he strikes upon that string, to me the least of all Saints and then the chiefest of all sinners, I was a persecutor and blasphemer, the main evil was there, and his eye and thoughts were most upon that. So the lamenting church Lam 5. 16. woe to us because we have sinned, the plague famine and sword though they were beyond measure grievous, yet the plague-sore of their sins was heaviest upon their hearts and most in their thoughts, so it is with a contrite sinner, his complaints and thoughts return hither as to their center, publish the comforts, promises and privileges of the Gospel, the sinner acknowledgeth the promises are precious, the comforts are sweet the privileges great, and happy they that ever they were born that have a title thereunto; But alas what have I to do with these, my heart is yet hard, and my sins yet unsubdued. Those keep good things from me; Lay open all the threatenings of the word, the plagues the Lord hath prepared, the curses, judgments and punishments that are recorded in the scripture and ever were inflicted by the justice of the Lord, the contrite sinner looks presently beyond these plagues to his sins, which is the cause of all these and worse than all these, and that gives the sting and evil unto all these evils what shall I do I have sinned, deliver me from blood guiltiness O God, not from the sword, though that was threatened, but from his sin.

The sinner that hath his heart thus truly affected and [ 2] pierced through with his sins, is marvelous tender, easily to be convinced, of a yielding disposition, i. e. freely and readily enlarged in the open acknowledgment of an evil that is discovered & he stands guilty of; As it is with the body when it is pierced or pricked with a stiletto. He bleeds inwardly it may be but so as the blood hath no vent, nor the party relief; hence the life is in hazard, but when its thrust quite through, though the wound be greater and wider yet the danger is less, because the party bleeds kindly and naturally, the wound is more 〈◊〉 to be cleansed and healed, there is no fear of festering and rankling inwardly, but the Chirurgeon may readily come at it for the cure. So it is when the soul is wounded aright with Godly sorrow for its sin, it bleeds kindly and naturally, ready to see the evil, the core, the root of that corruption from whence it comes, and willing and open hearted that the saving word of the truth, either of instruction, reproof, comfort or exhortation may be applied for cure and recovery. A broken hearted sinner falls immediately before the power of the word, takes the sin presently home to himself, when ever or what ever is presented with evidence to him, without cavilling or gainsaying, shifting or winding away from under the authority thereof. That resistance and gainsaying opposition is now removed, which formerly took possession: and the irresistible power of the spirit hath flung down those strong holds of Satan and sin, hath conquered and captivated the high thoughts of the mind and sturdy rebellions of the heart unto the obedience of the Lord Jesus, and therefore there is an entrance and easy passage made for the truth to take place and the heart to take the impression thereof with some pleasing content; parts of the body which are wounded, broken and sore, and very sensible of the least stir or touch of anything that comes nigh them, they feel presently and are affected with some trouble, Oh say we, its my broken Arm, my sore Hand, the least touch it goes to my heart; It's so with broken spirits they are presently sensible of the least touch of any truth, the least intimation or discovery of any sin that comes by the by, if from a work that falls occasionally, it feels it forthwith, yields it, and owns it, without anymore ado. That's the deceit of my heart which I never saw before, thats my distemper unto which I have been addicted: the law is holy and good, but my heart naught, and sold under sin Rom. 7. this was the temper of good 〈◊〉 at the reading of the law which the Lord observes and so much 〈◊〉 2 Chron. 34. 27. because thy heart was tender, & melted when thou heardest the words of this law, he took the impression of the truth at the first, without the least appearance of any opposition, in any particular or rising of spirit against them, though the severity and sharpness of the threatenings were marvelous cross not only to a corrupt heart but to the outward comforts, & eminent privileges of his place, pomp and prosperity of his Crown, and Kingdom; the heart is melted and broken is conquered by the truth, and therefore can do nothing against it. But can do anything against its own lusts, and the pleasing corruption of his own nature; this is part of that preparation which the Baptist, the Harbenger of our Savior made, to make this plain, for his coming into the hearts of his as into his temple. Luk 3. The rough things shall be made plain, and crooked things straight, the rugged and sturdy gainsayings of a rebellious heart, are taken away and it's made easy and readily yielding to the evidence of any part of God's will, it finds a plain passage into the soul, no rub in the way, no rising against the righteous and good will of God. If anything be doubtful he is easy to be informed; amiss, to be reproved and amended thereby. Those crooked aims and by ends also whereby falshearted hypocrites serve their turn of the Lord Jesus, seek for grace and mercy either to quiet the horror of their 〈◊〉 , promote their own credit, or under a profession against sin to get more liberty to commit sin, to sin without suspicion or distraction; these rugged distempers must be levelled, and the spirit of a man made pliable, simple and sincere, and then all flesh shall see the salvation of the Lord. And unless this de done set thy heart at rest, thou canst never see God's Salvation; True indeed I confess the truth many times may be secret and such as at the present exceeds the reach and apprehension of weaker judgments. And here will be, and in some 〈◊〉 may, a long inquisition and painful and tedious search for the right discovery where the narrow way lies. But there is great ods betwixt an inquisition and serious enquiry that we may see the truth. And a quarrelling against the evidence thereof that we may not see it. Inquisition is one thing, contention against the truth is another; that all the Saints should endeavor, this none but the ungodly will practice, for it's given as a never failing note of a graceless person who is appointed to destruction, to them who are contentious and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness. Rom. 2. 8. for where the one is not the other will be; contentious persons join sides with their sinful distempers against the truth, & authority of the righteous law of God; openly to maintain a professed opposition against the truth is so loathsome to common sense and 〈◊〉 even to the remainders of light left in the 〈◊〉 of a natural man, that hardly any man is come to the height of wickedness that he dare openly own a course so hellish, and absurdly unreasonable, and therefore your cunning hypocrite he colors over his treachery under another pretence; and therefore his conspiracy comes under the name of enquiry, but in the issue if the will of God suit not with his will, and his 〈◊〉 commands cross the corruptions of his heart, which he is resolved to maintayn, he casts all away in 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 . So they to the prophet 〈◊〉 , Jer. 42. 3. they said to the prophet 〈◊〉 , let our supplycations be accepted before thee, and 〈◊〉 thou 〈◊〉 the Lord thy God that be may show us the way 〈◊〉 we may walk and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may do; and 〈◊〉 5. The 〈◊〉 be a true and faithful witness 〈◊〉 us, if we do 〈◊〉 even according to all things for which the Lord 〈◊〉 God shall end 〈◊〉 to us, whether it be good 〈◊〉 evil we will obey. But when he had consulted with the Lord and returned his mind that they should not go down to Egypt, which no way suited their privy resolutions which they had taken up within themselves. They oppose him to his very face and give him the lie, Jer. 43. 2. Thou speakest falsely the Lord thy God hath not sent thee to say go not into Egypt to sojourn there: when he did not speak that which they would have him. Thus your false hearted hypocrites deal with the truth of God, as the Jews dealt with Paul who banded themselves together and bound themselves under a curse, that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. and they carried it thus, they came to the Priests Acts, 23. 14. 15. we have bound ourselves &c. Now go ye with the counsel, signify to the chief Captain that he bring him down unto you tomorrow as though you would inquire something more fully; and we, ere-ever he come near will be ready to kill him. So treacherous hypocrites deal with the truth, their enquiries are indeed conspiracies against the wisdom and counsel of the Lord, they say they would inquire more perfectly, and see more and more fully what the mind of God is; But if things please not their palate, suit not their conceit, answer not their corrupt desire, and carnal ends they are resolved what to do, only ask God leave to do what they list and therefore they make no bones to cross the truth when it crosseth their expectation, when that which is answered they cannot remove it, that which is alleged they cannot gainsay, yet hold their own apprehensions and so cast the commands of God behind their back, and refuse utterly to follow them. Whenas a broken-hearted sinner who hath this resistance taken away, he in earnest is content to part with his corruption, and therefore readily gives way to what ever truth is revealed in the evidence thereof. Both these dispositions the Apostle expresseth as contrary one to another answerable to the contrary conditions of nature and Grace, Rom. 6. 17. But God be thanked that ye were the Servants of sin, that is an evidence of their Natural condition, But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of Doctrine unto which ye were delivered; that is, they were ready and easy to take the impression of every Truth that was published and dispensed to them. Certain it is, he that is not willing to be convinced, and to give way to the Authority of the Truth made known, and to submit thereunto, is led with his own lusts, and is a Servant of sin to this very day.

He that hath his 〈◊〉 pierced through, and is truly [ 3] affected with his sins, he loathes himself and his soul for it, sees that shame is his due, and that which his sin hath, deserved, and therefore is willing to take that which is his due and desert, desirous to shame and dishonor that which hath been the greatest shame and blot to his person and profession, and the greatest dishonor to God; this is made the guise and behavior of all those whom God doth kindly and really break off from their sins, and bring them to himself, Ezek. 36. 31. Then shall ye remember your evil ways and doings that were not good, and shall loath yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities, and for your abominations: Ezek. 6. 9. And they that escape of you, shall remember me, because, I am broken with your whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with your eyes which go a whoring, and they shall loath themselves for the evils they have committed in all their abominations: Ezek. 16. last, Then shalt thou remember, be ashamed and confounded, and never open thy mouth more. The soul in this condition, sees and feels now the 〈◊〉 , and the greatness of the evil of sin, that rebellion and opposition by which it hath been carried against God, and the separation it hath made from him; and therefore it loathes that most, wherein most of this evil is harbored, and by which it hath been practiced, and that is his soul which hath been the sink of these sinful distempers, the root from whence all these bitter fruits arise and grows, the fountain, or dunghill rather, whence all those 〈◊〉 steams of loathsome abominations have been sent, in speeches, practices, and behavior, in our daily course; the filth of sin is most loathsome, and there is most of that in the heart, therefore he loathes that most of all. It's true, there be some sins so detestable to the light of Nature, and the common principles left in a corrupt Conscience, that they are not fit to be named, Murders, Adulteries, 〈◊〉 , and Sodomy, brutish Drunkenness, and excessive Riots, which abase a man below the very brute Creatures, and make the Earth spew out such Inhabitants, as fitter for the company of Devils, than the communion of men, It's a shame to speak of those things which were done of them in secret, Eph. 5. 12. And therefore Reprobates do, and Hypocrites can, and all, even the worst of men, may when they come to themselves in cold blood, and take things in a right consideration, loath these practices because shameful and scandalous, fling filth in their faces, disparagement upon their persons, and cast them out of the society and communion of reasonable men, and make them abhorred of humanity, even a terror to themselves; but alas when this is over, they look not to the nest of these noisesome abominations which lodgeth in their bosoms, where they have their being and breeding in their hearts, the Cage of these unclean Birds, the Den of these brutish Lusts; but if they can wipe the mouth with the Harlot, and wash their hands as Pilate did, and keep themselves from the contempt of men, and the stroke of Authority; they can maintain a privy communion between these lusts and their souls, and suck out the sweet of these by speculation, and never be troubled nor affected therewith. Judas flings away his money, he fingers that no more, looks at his treasonable practices as detestable to the very Scribes, but he still keeps his murder in his heart. But when a sinner is indeed pierced quite through the heart, and feels inwardly the 〈◊〉 and evil of sin, he loathes that most, and his heart most of all, that is most guilty and tainted with it. In the soul, there is 〈◊〉 it were the soul of sin, the 〈◊〉 and poison of it, and he opposeth that most, that hath opposed the Lord, 〈◊〉 Spirit, and the Word and Work of his Grace, the 〈◊〉 of this mind, the preversness of this will, the distempers of these corrupt and carnal affections; he is at 〈◊〉 with his own heart, that ever it hath held any kind of connivence and correspondence with any corruption, ever been acted by it, carried with it, that ever it hath combined and conspired with sin and Satan in 〈◊〉 against the righteous and holy One of Israel, the great God of Heaven and Earth; and here he finds work enough, even matter of abasement all his days, he 〈◊〉 down in shame, and is covered with confusion as with a cloak, and never lifts up his head more, because he 〈◊〉 that about him, that will daily mind him of his own baseness. 〈◊〉 It's now his daily task to oppose that which opposed the Lord, resist that which hath resisted the work of Grace, conspire against the Treacheries and plottings of his own heart, where all the conspiracies against God and his holy Law have been hatched. Job was vile before, but he saw not the vileness of his heart.

He fears all sin, and all provocations to sin, because [ 4] he hath felt the evil of all, and knows the danger of all; any inclination from within, any temptation from without, any appearance in the least measure that might provoke thereunto. Therefore these two are put in way of opposition; Blessed is the man that fears always, but he that hardens his heart, shall fall into mischief, Prov. 28. 14. q. d. A hard heart feels 〈◊〉 , knows not the evil of 〈◊〉 , and therefore 〈◊〉 like the horso into the battle to his ruin; but if the heart be truly wounded and contrite, truly affected with sin, as having experience of the danger of it, it will come no more there; he that hath been scorched with those flames will come no more into that fire: As men who have wounded parts, broken an Arm or a Leg, how careful are they where they sit, where they go, they will come near nothing that may hurt, cannot endure anything near, lest it should so much as touch or trouble. So the Apostle adviseth, Heb. 12. 13. ' Make straight steps to your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way: Lame men observe every step they take, every stone upon which they tread, see and view the place where they set their feet, search and set all right, come there no more: So here, a broken Spirit 〈◊〉 every thought, weighs every word, takes notice of the least 〈◊〉 of his heart, the first appearance of any occasion or temptation: Thus they fear all sin above all other evil, nay, the least sin above the greatest plague, because he hath felt them by proof and experience to be such; fears rather he shall not be sound, than not quiet: He that fears one sin, and yet is careless to fall into another, he never seared nor sorrowed aright; sorrow for sin will not make a man commit sin by sorrowing: if he fear, or take notice it is a sin, it is enough: And hence it makes watchful to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prevent the evil. So Joseph, Gen. 39. 10, 11. He would not lie by her, nor be with her, avoided her company that would withdraw his communion from the Lord. It makes a man speedy to avoid the 〈◊〉 , he 〈◊〉 the place, left his garment rather than his 〈◊〉 he that would not fall into the pit, will not come near the bank: As after a 〈◊〉 , the party cannot endure the sight, the 〈◊〉 of it, and are careful to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the appearance 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of such evils, 〈◊〉 . 19. 11. I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy 〈◊〉 in my heart, that I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin against thee.

He is 〈◊〉 to attend all 〈◊〉 , but accounts most [ 5] of those 〈◊〉 work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of corruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heart, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 from it. Though the Truths which are delivered, carry dread with them to the Conscience, rack the heart of the sinner in restless horror and perplexity; are like the bitterest Pils, and the sharpest Corrosives, cross to the sinful security, and that Natural quiet the soul doth covet, yea, to his Credit and outward Comforts and conveniences in which he pleased himself, yet he is content his hand should be cut off, and his eye plucked out; that is, that the 〈◊〉 Truth of God, and powerful and plain Dispensation thereof should pluck away those darling distempers, be they as profitable as a hand, as dear as an eye, rather than they should once pluck his heart from the Lord; quarrels with the loathsome abominations of his Nature which now are discovered, but gladly welcoms those soul-saving Truths that would slay and subdue those sins, and not quarrel with them: The Word of the Lord is a good Word, though a convicting, terrifying, yea, a condemning Word to his own apprehension; he that is sensible of his burden as unsupportable and passing strength, he is best pleased with that ease: A wise Patient, when by his trial he hath found it, and the consent of learned Physicians and Surgeons have concluded that his Gangrened part must be cut off and cauterized, cannot be healed; though his Nature shrink at it, yet Reason and his own preservation makes him desire and choose the sharpest Instrument, because by that his life and safety is best procured. The sinner that finds the burden of his sin the heaviest of all other, and a disease most deadly to his soul, the sharpest Truths he accounts the safest, and therefore takes most content therein, there shall no course that can be prescribed, be it never so tedious to flesh and blood, no means that shall be appointed to him, be they attended with never so much danger and difficulty, but he readily addresseth himself to the use thereof, and easily submits himself to the Counsel, and Authority, and Command of God therein; willing that God should do anything with him, that he might do good to his soul, and remove that which he feels to be the greatest evil of it. As Eli to Samuel 1. Sam. 3. 17. Hide nothing from me, though the heaviest and hardest of the message that he was to report; A broken hearted sinner will 〈◊〉 capitulate with the Almighty, stick with God unless he may have his own 〈◊〉 , or look for some abatement from the Lord, if the corruption be more than ordinary strong, and the means which are to be used be mervailously cross, not only to a man's corruption, but to ones outward comforts, yea to nature itself; yea the heart under this disposition yields quietly that the Lord should take his. own course, any course with it, if he will but take away his corruption with which he is plagued most of all, and of which he desires most of all to be freed and delivered, if it were the good pleasure of the Almighty: Zach. 14. 6. These are the wounds wherewith I was wounded in the house of my friends. In case of resolution of it, come to the highest sum and to the hazard of a man's whole estate even to his open beggary, if God appoints it, he will bear it, if that be a means to remove his distemper, he will not baulk it, he can part with his estate, if he may part with his covetous disposition by that means. If the heart be loosened from the world its not hard to leave the things of the world. But if the stroke be but overly that hath taken off, and abated only the edge of inordinate desire after these things, but there lies a root of bitterness and base covetousness within, though a man may take the receipt in some degrees of it to restore to some shillings and crowns and pounds, but when it comes to hundreds, the heart is not loosened from all, and therefore leaves God and his ordinance rather than his own lusts. So the covetous young man when it came so that he must sel all and give to the poor, He went away sorrowful, Math. 19. 20. &c. He would rather go away from Christ than suffer him to take away his covetous disposition.

Again: In Confession there is also a stress which a proud and perverse heart is wholly unable to undergo, unless the Spirit be deeply affected with unfeigned sorrow, and so fitted for to apply and bear so keen a Corrosive to eat away his corruption; especially if it be the confession of some secret, and some shameful distemper, as in case all other means be improved, the Lord refuseth to give pardon, or power, or peace, he then calls for attendance upon this Ordinance: And the contrite sinner when he understands God's mind herein, he freely, fully powrs out his acknowledgment into the bosom of such, whose help he craves in that case; and as his heart is loosened from his corruption, so his confession issues Naturally from him, improving of it as a means appointed by the Almighty that he may ashame his sinful course, and himself for it, and be forever separated from both; therefore confessing and forsaking are joined together, Prov. 18. 13. and 1 Joh. 7. he that indeed confesseth; God is faithful to forgive, this is to judge ourselves, 1 Cor. 11. Whereas the sinner that is yet riveted in the wretched distempers of his own soul, the Lord when he hath him upon the rack of Conscience, may happily wrest a concession from him; but it's by a constraining hand, and against the hair wholly, he would be eased of his plagues, not of his sin: So God sound out Achan, pursued Judas, and laid hold on both, and pulled the acknowledgment by force out of their mouths, which they did to ease them of their sorrows, not as a means to help against their sin. Lastly, it easily falls under the evidence of an Admonition administered so far as it reacheth the evil of his sin, though happily unseasonably or disorderly administered, neither out of that love it should, nor in that prudent manner it ought to be: If yet he perceives that it helps him to remove his corruption, he is glad of it, and takes advantage thereby to get the heart more convinced, and estranged from its distemper. When Joab so rudely reproved the unseasonable and excessive sorrow of David for the death of Absalom, 2 Sam. 19. 6, 7. expressions not beseeming a Subject 〈◊〉 to a Prince, when Shimei cast 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 reproaches upon him, 2 Sam. 16. 7. 10. Come out thou bloody man, thou man of Belial, the Lord hath returned all the blood of Saul upon thee; he retired into his own bosom, takes notice of the guilt of his own sin in the death of Uriah he puts up all these provocations because he perceived' God's displeasure in them, let him alone, God hath commanded him to curse, 〈◊〉 he will do good unto me. Though the Physic was il mingled, and given in a worse manner, yet he takes both, and hoping to receive help against his corruption by both; whereas the painted Hypocrite who never had his heart touched with any true remorse for his many rebellions; observe how perversely 〈◊〉 he will be under a stinging reproof, quarrel with the man, the manner of the delivery of it, &c.

A broken-hearted sinner feels his covetousness worse than beggary, and therefore restores all readily; his sin worse than shame, and therefore freely confesseth it; than scorn or contempt, and therefore bears the sharpest reproofs after the most unsavory and disorderly manner dispensed: he is weary of his distemper, and therefore willing to bear the sharpest means that shall be tried upon him by 〈◊〉 to remove it,; use any, even the most difficult and tedious that may subdue those distempers in his 〈◊〉 .

He is restlessly importunate in seeking relief from God [ 6] against his sin, and not satisfied in having anything but deliverance from sin by Jesus Christ. He is RESTLESS and SEEKING: So that should the Lord reprieve him srom his presentplagues, abate him of the 〈◊〉 he hath found, and those pressures and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath felt, should the Lord 〈◊〉 him of all his horrors, 〈◊〉 him, and take present 〈◊〉 from the troubles and occasions of his Conscience; his sorrows would seize upon him afresh, and his fears pursue him without intermission; and the reason is, because the same cause continues, and therefore there must be the same effect, as long as his sin continues unsubdued, he will continue to sigh out his sorrows, & his prayers; for they were not the crosses of the world, poverty in his Estate, disparagements which were cast upon his person, pressures & persecutions from the rage of unreasonable men, nor yet the torments of Hell prepared or suffered, that did sink the soul of a contrite sinner: No, it was the crossness of his corrupt heart to the holiness of the Almighty, his opposition against him, and separation from him, that was the burden unsufferable and unsupportable; and as long as this remains unsubdued, there is no end of his sorrows, nor end of his prayers in suing to the Almighty for succor and relief. So David, Psal. 38. 3. There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger, nor is there any rest in my bones, because of my sin, for mine iniquities are gone over mine head, as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me, and he goes mourning all the day long. Remove therefore all miseries, troubles, 〈◊〉 , punishments, let the man free. As long as the bitterness of sin rightly set on by the hand of God remains, he will 〈◊〉 no rest in himself, and it's certain he will give God no rest, Lam. 3. 49. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission till the Lord look down and behold from Heaven: For it is an everlasting Truth; Sorrow for sin, if right, ever drives a man from sin to God, never from God to sin; that which is appointed in way of Providence, to take off the resistance of the corrupt heart against God, and our crossness to him, that in reason cannot make way for any resistance, or crossness against him, to convince the soul. He that truly sorrows for his departure from God, as contrite sinners do, he is driven nearer to God, but never departs away from him, by his sorrow; And therefore he that by reason of the horror of his heart is hurried and carried to the commission of sin in his ordinary course, he never truly found the burden of sin, for common sense will teach men that hath any consideration about him; he that is truly sensible of his burden, and in earnest willing to be freed from it will not purposely and willingly ad to his burden. He that is 〈◊〉 God should take away his distemper he will not go away from God, that so he may keep his distemper; he went away sorrowful says the text, therefore his sorrow was worldly, causing death, he went away to his own ruin; Achitophel to the rope, Judas to the gallows, Cain to the Land of Nod, the knife, the pit, being hideous sins, comes from a sorrow that chooseth sin before misery, not from a sorrow that burdens with sin more than misery; and therefore he never puts an end to his cries before he sees an end of his sins, As a man oppressed and crushed under his burden and hath no power to help himself, and none by to succor him, hark how he cries help, help, and never ceaseth to cry help till he dies.

Again he is not satisfied in having anything but deliverance from sin by Christ; If nothing but a Christ can ease and deliver him, nothing but he can satisfy him, it's certain if anything cured thee besides a Savior, something wounded thee and troubled thee besides sin, thou hast been in horror of heart, anguish and perplexity of spirit in the very flames of hell, and under the fiercness of the fury of the Almighty, and now the terror is 〈◊〉 and trouble is over, quieted and eased, healed and comforted; but how comest thou by quiet and comfort, how healed how recovered? did time and continuance were it away? thy pleasures and delights remove it? did thy prayers, perfourmances put in bale upon thy Conscience, and thou stoppest the mouth of it with this, thou hast seen, confessed, resolved? or doft thou lick thyself whole by thy reformations? thou hast not been put beyond thy shifts by the Almighty, thou hast made a shift to pray it out, weep it out, fast it out, when those fail, shifted it off by thy promises and vows and resolutions, and so 〈◊〉 sa west an absolute need of a Christ, nor what it was to be brought to him, but hast made a shift to scramble it out; It's certain as the Lord lives, and thy soul lives, thou never knewest what sorrow for sin meant, or conversion meant or Christ, or Salvation meant to this very day: It was that which Paul speaks of himself, 3. Phil. 8. 9. That I may win Christ and be found in him &c. his brokenness of heart and sorrow for sin did in a restless way drive him thither, he could not be satisfied without Christ.

Because this sorrow is only true, God accounts it, and the Saints & Sinners shall so find it. Al other sorrows, what ever pretences or appearances are put upon them, they are in truth but counterfeit and false, and men will fail in their hopes and fall short of their ends, and expectations that trust thereunto they are not of the right make, nor have they the right stamp of the spirit of contrition upon them, sorrow for the shame that befalls the punishment that pincheth and lies heavy, wrath and vengeance that scorcheth the Conscience, though this is good in his place as it makes way for another, yet if it go no further men fall short of this work, and in the end of their comforts also. This is in the way but he that sits down here will never come to his end, untimely travels 〈◊〉 untimely births; this we must do but this is not all, and if we find no more, our sorrow is no true sorrow. Truth ever carries conformity to the nature of the thing; the palate that rasts a thing truly it 〈◊〉 it as it is, bitter things as bitter, he sees a thing truly that sees it as it is. But he that shall taste 〈◊〉 things sweet, he that shall cal black blew, we say it, and sense 〈◊〉 it, he is deceived. So here, he that finds the burden of the punishment and feels his plagues heavier than his sins, he doth not feel things as they are, nor passeth a righteous judgment upon them according to their 〈◊〉 , for it hath appeared & hath been proved that the least sin weigheth down the heaviest plague. The heart tastes evils as the stomach tastes meat, if thy sin be less than thy miseries, thy mouth is out of taste; It was that which he charged upon Job. Job. 36. 21. thou hast chosen sin rather than affliction.

Because without this sorrow the heart can never be separated from his darling corruption, the league betwixt the soul and sin cannot be broken and dissolved. Happily there may arise some brabbles and slighty quarrels, betwixt the heart of a sinner and his distempers, but that there should be a real divorce without this sorrow rightly set on, it is impossible, for its open to every man's experience that which is sweet & pleasant to the soul, that wherein it finds content, it will never cast away; love and delight are affections of union, where things appear pleasant there is no cause of parting; sorrow and 〈◊〉 are affections of separation; unless the Lord therefore take off these pleasing contents and embitter the baseness and filth of his lusts unto the soul and force him to feel them as such to be the bane of the soul he will 〈◊〉 part company; therefore it is these go together, when wickedness 〈◊〉 sweet, he 〈◊〉 it, spares it and forsakes it not; things that are sweet the stomach holds them, they must be bitter and then it vomits them happily a sinner may wrangle for a turn and fall out with his distempers because they do him some unkindnesses, 〈◊〉 his commodity or ease &c. but they will fall in hand pat if there be no further ground of 〈◊〉 and forget all those unkindnesses, Luk. 23. 34. the wicked will rather loose his life than his railing distemper; The Dog returns to his 〈◊〉 , because he loved not the pain of his 〈◊〉 , he casts out the vomit, yet because he loved the 〈◊〉 , he returns to his vomit again; yea 〈◊〉 is not restrained by his terror from his sin, but is acted by the power of it, while he was under the terror of it. So that there is nothing in the world that will sever betwixt the heart and its lust. Prov. 27. 22. Bray a fool in a mortar yet will not his folly depart from him.

By this the great bar and hindrance of the coming of our Savior is removed, even the hellish resistance whereby the soul was carried against him. For it's a peremptory Truth, Gal. 4. 17. The flesh lusts against the Spirit; and the conclusion is express, Joh. 3. 9. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh: but every Son of Adam being wholly born of the flesh, doth wholly resist the Spirit. They who are wholly flesh, do wholly resist; they who do wholly resist, cannot receive; for receiving, and wholly resisting, cannot stand together: therefore this resistance of a fleshly heart must be removed, and that is done by this 〈◊〉 . That Sorrow whereby the bar and hindrance which stops the coming of our Savior is removed, that sorrow is of necessity required; but by this sorrow that hindrance is removed.

In regard of ourselves; Either the heart must thus be pierced, or else a man without this in his Natural condition, is capable and disposed to receive Faith and Christ; either necessary thus to be disposed, or Nature without this, is fit to entertain him; but that is professedly contrary to the Truth, 2 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind is not subject to the Law, neither can it be; It's not possible there should be two Suns in the Firmament, two Kings in one Throne, two God's in one heart, to be in Heaven and Hell at once, to serve God and Mammon. So that as God must give Grace before we have it, so he must give us power to receive it, or else we are not capable of it. A Subject cannot be capable of contrary habits at the same time, John. 5. 45. How can ye believe who seek honor from man?

Hence therefore its plain, that the substance and truth of this preparative work, it must be and is enstamped upon all that belong to God, though it is in a diverse manner wrought in the most. If this sorrow be only true and of the right stamp, If by this, sin is severed from the soul, the hindrance of our Saviors coming removed, and the soul made capable of faith and Christ, then this of necessity is required of all, and it's certainly wrought in all whom the Lord brings effectually home unto himself.

Here is matter of complaint we may justly take up against this secure age in which we live, and it shows, how little, very little saving sorrow there is in the world, and therefore how little saving grace; If no preparation, no Implantation, certainly, never fitted for a Christ, never made partakers of him; never hewed or squared to the building, and therefore never put as spiritual stones into the building. Had we but Jeremiah's fountain of tears we might mourn day and night, that there is no true mourning; and if the Lord should send an 〈◊〉 to see and mark such as mourn in secret, how few should he find; the former doctrine is a bill of inditement and falls very heavy upon five sorts of people.

Your heedless and fearless professors, who notwithstanding [ 1] lift up their head full high, and would bear the world in hand that they desire unfeignedly to fear the Lord, nay pretend a Conscientious care to God's Command; and conceive they have been affected with their sin and that not in a small measure, but have had both sight of, and sorrow for their failings and they hope to good purpose, and would be loath (prejudice being laid aside) it should appear to be other. You say well and if you prove what you say happy it is for you, which I 〈◊〉 desire. But are you willing to put your case to the trial? let us a little parly about the business and because we will deal plainly, your own practices and your own consciences shall bring in evidence and those I hope are beyond exception, you careless servants in the family; you careless hearers in the Assemblies, and you careless professors in the plantations, you are here indicted that the practice of this heart-breaking sorrow for sin is a stranger to you, and you a stranger to it in your daily course, we shall then agree upon the grounds on which we shall proceed.

You will not, you cannot deny, but you have wholesome and savory counsel daily suggested, the commands of God are line after line, precept after precept here a little and there a little, and your duties daily laid before you in public, in private, your failings bewailed, grace and help begged from the Lord for you; the truth, your judgments do not gainsay and your hearts cannot but approve, as lawful and suitable to your places and according to God's mind, yet no sooner out of the assembly where you hear, out of the presence of your master who commads, from your knees where you have prayed and confessed, but the commands are laid by, that is not attended, this not discharged, that is neglected, you return again to the old distempers; and you say you did not remember it, you have 〈◊〉 it, you did not think of it. What need we more evidence? 〈◊〉 own words shall be thine own 〈◊〉 , and appeal to thine own Conscience, let that be 〈◊〉 own judge; didst thou ever hear any man that 〈◊〉 under the load that was two heavy for him, wearied with the burden that is beyond his strength, as not able to bear, nor to ease himself, say he did not remember the burden that 〈◊〉 him. he did not think of the weight of the load that clogges and tires him; would you not 〈◊〉 such expressions as cross to common sense, or would you not conclude either the man had no burden or else his words had no truth?

Ah but thou sayest; If they had been gross evils it had been something, but they are petty things and therefore need no great care; what need we anymore evidence, thine own words will be thine own wittness, therefore thou carest only for great sins, fearest only gross and scandalous evils, then thy care and fear is naught, and thy course so, and thy Conscience so, and thy condition also, he that feels all sin as such, he fears all sin, yea the least sin more than the greatest evil, if thou fearest only loathsome and scandalous practices, thy fear is falls and thy heart falls thy sorrow was never found nor yet thy condition; that I must confess when I 〈◊〉 men's infinite heedlessness, if they did know what God were, or what sin was, what Conscience, what a command, what the reckoning to come were, did not most men live without God in the world they could not live so.

The second sort who are hence shut out from having [ 2] any share in this Godly sorrow, or the through impression of the work of the spirit is the treacherous formalist. Formalist I term him because he carries the face of religion, the garb and guise of Godliness in outward appearance and would be counted a friend to the truth, so far as he may serve his own turn of it, and he is content to be at league with the Gospel, provided he may make his own terms, and attain his own ends; namely that he may have allowance in some lusts and yet 〈◊〉 honored also among the people, with the title of an honest Godly and good man. But when his carnal ends are not answered, and the word requires more than he hath, and commands more than he would do, and would pluck away his beloved lust that he is loath to part withal; he then begins to set up secret conspiracies in his heart against the evidence of the doctrine, and therefore I cal him a treacherous hypocrite, because he may happily bite the lip and go away for the while, and says little but he bears a privy grudge against the strictness of such truths that are beyond his pitch and strain, and when time comes he will be revenged of them, in the mean time his heart is inwardly tired with them and goes off from them, this the 〈◊〉 calls the counsel of the wicked, when wicked hearts cal a counsel and sit in counsel against the commands of God: and Job prays earnestly that God would keep him, and free him from it. Job 21. 16. Let the counsel of the wicked be far from me, namely a reserved resolution to have his distemper, rather than to have and welcome that word that would remove it. Whereas we have heard a broken-hearted sinner is willing to attend all means, but those especially that would help him most and free him from his corruptions: this treacherous wretch notwithstanding his pretended love to the word, yet when it comes to, he is willing to be rid of the word, not rid of his corruption, so far from being weary of his sin, that he is weary of the Minister, or Christian brother that would remove it, of the word that would subdue it. This was the temper of those formalists that followed our savior for the loaves, that is the Gospel for their own ends, when our savior pressed a spiritual and convicting truth upon them which might carry them beyond their own falls aims or else would condemn them utterly as such as had no life of Grace in them, unless 〈◊〉 eat the flesh and drink the blood of the son of man, ye have no life in you, John. 6. 53. nor were it possible they should attain the life of Glory, they answer, This is a hard saying, who can bear it? it pinched them to the quick, and searched the very core of their corruption, and they were resolved to bear their sin, but could not bear the saying of our Savior; the presence of their sins was pleasant, they could welcome them, but the power of the Truth was hard, they could not endure that; nay, they speak as though it were a matter impossible, who hath power to submit to it? truly none but a heart truly pierced with Godly sorrow: and therefore it's added, verse 66. From that time, many of his Disciples went back, and walked no more with him, because they would walk in their own ways, and wicked practices, therefore they chose rather to forsake the company and Ministry of a Savior, than to forsake their own distempers. Thus it hath been often seen in the Country whence we came, many a formal wretch hath been at great cost and charges, laid out himself and estate to bring a faithful preacher to a place; and when the soul-saving dispensation of the Word hath either discovered his falseness, and laid open the cursed haunts of a carnal heart, shook his hopes, and beat all the holds he had of the goodness of his estate, and batterred them before his eyes: He that had the greatest hand to bring the means and Ministry unto the place, ifhe cannot cunningly undermine the man, he would rather leave the place, than live under the Ministry that would take away his lusts: This was the wound of the young man, because he wanted this brokenness of heart, not being rightly burdened with his corruption, nor loosened from it, Matth. 19. he went away from that Counsel of our Savior that would have plucked away his Earthly, covetous humor which did take place in him,