EXTRACTS FROM THE WORKS OF ROBERT BOLTON, B. D.

Some time Fellow of Brazen Nose College, in Oxford; and Rector of Broughton, in Northamptonshire.

 

INSTRUCTIONS

FOR RIGHTLY COMORTING AFFLICTED CONSCIENCES.

 

PROVERBS 28:14.

The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear.

 

 MY text lies, as you see, in a sacred cabinet of jewels; I mean the most select and wise aphorisms, or Proverbs of Solomon: every one of them, from the tenth chapter, independent, entire, and absolute in themselves; clear and manifest by their own native brightness. Whence it is, that this book of Proverbs is compared to a great heap of gold rings, every one shining with a distinct sense by itself; but other parts of Holy Writ to gold chains, so linked together, that they must, for the rendering unto us their several senses, receive illustration one from another.

 

 This present proverb does represent unto us the extremest hell upon earth, the greatest misery, and most unsupportable that can befit] a man in this life; I mean the horror of a guilty and enraged conscience. "A wounded spirit who can bear" This is indeed intolerable: and that for several reasons.

 

 I. In all other afflictions only the arm of flesh is our adversary; we contend but with creatures at most; we have to do but with man, or at worst with devils: but in this we conflict immediately with God himself; frail man with Almighty God; sinful man with that most holy GOD, " Whose eyes are purer than to behold evil, and who cannot look upon iniquity. Who then can stand before his indignation Who can abide in the fierceness of his anger When his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him When he comes against a man as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, to rend the caul of his heart" No more than the driest stubble can resist the fiercest flame; nay, infinitely less can any power of man or angel withstand the mighty Lord of heaven and earth, when he is angry for sin. Alas! when a poor, polluted wretch, upon some special illumination by the word, or extraordinary stroke from the rod, does once begin to behold God's frowning face against him; and to feel justice, by an invisible hand, taking secret vengeance upon his conscience; his heavy heart immediately melts away in his breast, and becomes as water. He faints and fails, both in the strength of his body, and stoutness of his mind. His bones, the pillars, and master-timber of his earthly tabernacle, are presently broken in pieces, and turned into rottenness. His spirit, the eye, and excellency of his soul, which should make lightsome the whole man, is quite put out, with excess of horror, and flashes of despair. O, this is it, which would not only crush the courage of the stoutest son of Adam, that ever breathed upon earth; but even of the most glorious angel that ever shone in heaven, should he lift up but one rebellious thought against his Creator! This alone is able to make the tallest cedar in Lebanon, the strongest oak in Basan, (I mean the highest look and the proudest heart,) to bow and bend, to stoop and tremble, " as the leaves of the forest, that are shaken. with the wind."

 

 2. In all other adversities, a man is still a friend unto himself, and reaches out his best considerations to bring in comfort to his heavy heart. But in this, he is a scourge to himself; at war with himself; an enemy to himself. He does greedily and industriously fetch in as much matter as he can, both imaginary and true, to aggravate his horror. He gazes willingly in that false glass, which SATAN sets before him; wherein, by his hellish malice, he makes an infinite addition both to the already unnumbered multitude, and to the true heinousness of his sins. Nay, in this amazedness of spirit, and disposition to despair, he is apt, even of his own accord, and with great eagerness, to arm every several sin, as it comes into his mind, with a particular bloody sting, that it may strike deep and stick fast enough in his already grieved soul. He employs and improves the excellency, and utmost of his learning, understanding, wit, memory, to argue with all subtilty, with much sophistry, against the pardonableness of his sins, and possibility of salvation. He wounds even his wounds, with a conceit they are incurable, and vexes his very vexations, with refusing to be comforted. Not only crosses, afflictions, temptations, and all matter of discontent; but even the most desirable things in this life, and those which minister most outward comfort; wife, children, friends, goods, great men's favors, preferments, offices, even pleasures themselves, every thing; whatsoever is within him, or without him, or about him; whatsoever he thinks upon, remembers, hears, sees, turns all to his torment. No marvel then, if the terror of a wounded conscience be so intolerable.

 

 3. As spiritual refreshments do incomparably surpass all bodily delights; so afflictions of the soul infinitely exceed the most exquisite tortures, that can possibly be inflicted upon the body. For the soul is a spirit, very subtle, quick, active, stirring, all life, motion, sense, feeling; and therefore far more capable of all kinds of impressions, whether of pleasure, or of pain.

 

 4. A wounded spirit is tempered with such strong and strange ingredients of extraordinary fears, that it makes a man " a terror to himself, and to all his friends: to flee when none pursues, at the sound of a shaking leaf;" to tremble at his own shadow; " to be in great fear, where no fear is:" besides the insupportable burden of too many real terrors, it fills his dark and dreadful fancy with a world of feigned terrors, ghastly apparitions, and imaginary hells; which notwithstanding have real stings, and impress true tortures upon his trembling heart.

 

 5. Not only the desperate cries of many miserable men of forlorn hope, but also the complaints even of God's own children, discover the terrors and intolerableness of a wounded conscience. Hear how three ancient worthies in their times, wrestled with the wrath of God in this kind: " I reckoned till morning," says Hezekiah, " that as a lion, so will he break all my bones." Even as the weak and trembling limbs of some lesser beast are crushed and torn in pieces by the irresistible paw of an unconquerable lion; so was his troubled soul terrified and broken with the anger of- the Almighty. He could not speak for bitterness of grief, and anguish of heart; " but chattered like a crane or a swallow, and mourned like a dove." "You writest bitter things against me," says Job, " and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth. The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison thereof (kinked' up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. O that I might have my request' And that God would grant me the thing that I long for! Even that it would please God to destroy me, that be would let loose his hand, and cut me off." Nay, yet worse: " You scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions: so that my soul chooseth strangling and death, rather than life." Though God in mercy preserves his servants from the monstrous act of self-murder; yet, in some horror of mind, they are not free from sudden suggestions there-unto. " My bones waxed old," says David, " through my roaring all the day long. Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger: neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over my head: as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.-I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.-I am feeble, and sore broken, I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart."

 

 Hear also, into what a depth of spiritual distress three worthy servants of GOD, in these latter times, were plunged and pressed down under the sense of God's anger for sin. Blessed Mrs. Brettergh, upon her last bed, was horribly hemmed in with the sorrows of death. The very grief of hell laid hold upon her soul. " A roaring wilderness of woe was within her," as she confessed of herself. She said, "My sins have made me a prey to SATAN. I wish that I had never been born, or that I had been made any other creature, rather than a woman." She cried out many times, " Woe, woe, woe, be unto me, a weak, a woeful, a wretched, a forsaken woman:" the tears continually trickling from her eyes. Mr. Peacock, that man of GOD, in that dreadful visitation upon his death-bed, recounting some smaller sins, burst out into these words, " And for these; I feel now an hell in my conscience." Upon other occasions, he cried out, with piteous groans, "Oh, me, wretch! Oh, mine heart is miserable! Oh, oh, miserable and woeful! The burden of my sin lieth so heavy upon me, I doubt it will break my heart. Oh! how woeful and miserable is my state, that thus must converse with hell-hounds!" When by-standers asked, if he would pray; he answered, " I cannot." Suffer us, say they, to pray for you. "Take not," replied he, " the name of God in vain, by praying for a reprobate." What grievous pangs, what sorrowful torments, what boiling heats of the fire of hell that blessed saint of GOD, John Glover, felt inwardly irr his spirit, (says Fox,) no speech outwardly is able to ex-press. In which intolerable griefs of mind, although he neither had, nor could have any joy of his meat, yet was he compelled to eat against his appetite, to defer, (as he said,) the time of his damnation; thinking with himself, that he must needs be thrown into hell, the breath being once out of his body.

 

 I dare not pass out of this point, lest some child of God should be here discouraged, before I tell you, thab every one of these three last named was at length blessedly recovered, and did rise most gloriously out of the depth of spiritual misery, before their end. Hear Mrs. Brettergh's triumphant songs, after the return of her Well-beloved; "O Lord Jesu, dost you pray for me O blessed and sweet Savior, how wonderful! how wonderful! how wonderful are thy mercies! Oh, thy love is unspeakable, you have dealt so graciously with me! O my Lord and my GOD, blessed be thy name for evermore, who have spewed me the path of life! You didst, O Lord, hide thy face from me for a little season, but with everlasting mercy you have had compassion on me. And now, blessed Lord, thy comfortable presence is come; yea, Lord, you have had respect unto thine hand-maid, and art come withfulness of joy, and abundance of consolations. O blessed be thy name, my Lord and my God! O the joys! the joys! the joys that I feel in my soul! Oh, they are wonderful! they are wonderful! they are wonderful! O Father, how merciful, and marvelously gracious art you unto me! yea, Lord, I feel thy mercy, and I am assured of thy love; and so certain as I am, you art the God of truth, even so sure do I know myself to be thine, O Lord, my God! This my soul knows right well. This my soul knows right well. O blessed be the Lord! O blessed be the Lord, that has thus comforted me, and has brought me now to a place more sweet unto me, than the garden of Eden! Oh, the joy, the joy, the delightsome joy that I feel!-O praise the Lord for his mercies, and for this joy which my soul feeleth full well! Praise his name for evermore!" Hear with what heavenly comforts Mr. Peacock's heart was refreshed, " Truly, my heart and soul," (says he, when the tempest was something allayed,) " have been deeply troubled with temptations, and stings of conscience, but I thank GOD, they are eased in good measure." After-ward, by little and little, more light did arise in his heart, and he brake out into such speeches as these: " I do, God be praised, feel such comfort, from that, what shall I call it" " Agony," said one that stood by; " Nay," quoth he, " that is too little. Oh! the sea is not more full of water, nor the sun of light, than the Lord of mercy! yea, his mercies are ten thousand times more. What great cause have I to magnify the great goodness of GOD, that has humbled, nay, rather exalted, such a wretched miscreant to a state so glorious! The Lord has honored me with his goodness! I am sure he has provided a glorious kingdom for me. The joy that I feel in mine heart is incredible." And as for Mr. Glover, though he suffered the most sharp temptations and strongest buffetings many years; yet the Lord graciously preserved him all the while, and at last did rid him out of all discomfort; and he lived a kind of life of heaven upon earth.

 

 6. But to return to my purpose: no art of man, no earthly comfort, or created power, can heal or help in this case. Heaven and earth, men and angels, friends and physic, gold and silver, pleasure and preferments, favor of princes; nay, the utmost possibility of the whole creation, must let this alone for ever. An almighty hand, an infinite skill, must take this in hand, or else no cure can be effected in this world or the world to come. Bodily diseases may be eased and mollified by medicines; poverty may be repaired and relieved by friends: there is no imprisonment without some hope of enlargement innocency and neglect may wear out disgrace: grief for loss of a wife, a child, or other dearest friend, at last is lessened, and utterly lost by length of time: but not the most exquisite concurrence of all these can help at all in this case. In such an agony, hadst you the utmost aid from angels and men; couldst you reach the top of the most aspiring ambition; were thy possessions as large as east and west; were thy meat manna from heaven; were thy body clothed with the body of the sun, and crowned with stars; yet for all this, thy heart within thee would be as cold as a stone, and tremble infinitely above the heart of a woman entering into travail. For, alas! who can stand before the mighty Lord God Who dare plead with him, when he is angry What spirit of man has might to wrestle with his Maker!! Who is able to make an agreement with the hells of conscience or to put to silence the voice of desperation Oh! in this conflict, no electuary of pearl or precious balm, nor the most exquisite extract art itself can create, is able, any whit, to revive, ease, or assuage. It is only the hand of the Holy Ghost, by the blood of that blessed Lamb, "Jesus CHRIST the righteous," which can bind up such a bruise. Let those who are already washed from their sins, learn hence, that they defile their souls no more; that they "turn not again to folly." Let them lay to heart the ensuing considerations, when they are first tempted again to any sin: which, methinks, should be of power, not only to keep God's blessed ones from putting their hands to iniquity; but also to restrain even the devil's slaves in the most furious enticement to their best-beloved sin.

 

 1. Sin is most hateful. It is the only object of God's infinite hatred. His love is carried upon variety of objects. He loves, in the first place, infinitely, his own blessed self; his own Son, who is called the " Son of his love;" his angels; his saints; his servants; his creatures; all things he made. " You loves all things that are, and abhorrest nothing which you have made. For never wouldst you have made any thing, if you hadst hated it." But he hates nothing at all, properly, but sin. The whole infiniteness of all his hatred is spent upon sin alone; which makes it infinitely and extremely hateful. Now, what a thing is this, that an infinite, Divine hatred, like a mighty, undivided torrent, should, with all its united forces, run headlong, and rest upon every sin; be it but an officious lie, foolish talking, jesting, revelling, a wanton glance, a vain thought, an idle word, and such like lighter sins in the world's account; which to reprove in some company, nay, almost any where, would be esteemed unsufferable preciseness: so desperately impudent are the times, both in disgracing of sincerity, and daubing of sin! And what a wretch is every impenitent sinner, who has such a world of unpardoned sins lying upon his soul, and such an immeasurable weight of hatred lying upon every several sin! And what a mad-man is he, who will wittingly and willingly put his hand to any sin, which, once committed, is inseparably attended with the infinite hatred of so great a God!

 

 2. It is most foul: even fouler than the foulest fiend in hell, than the devil himself. Let none stumble at this truth. It appears unanswerably thus: sin made him a devil, and sunk him into hell; and therefore, sin is more rank than the devil, and horrible than hell itself. The sun that lightens all other bodies, is much more light; the fire which heats all other things, is much more hot: so that which defiles another thing is much more filthy. Sin alone brought all hellish misery upon SATAN, and made him so foul; therefore it is far fouler. If any could strip him of his sins, he would re-invest him with the robes of all his angelical perfection; and restore hint into heighth of favor again with the Most High: for God hates the devil for nothing else in the world but for sin.

 

 3. It is full of most fearful effects. For, 1st. It deprives every impenitent: 1. Of the favor and love of GOD, the only fountain of all comfort, peace, and happiness; which is the most invaluable loss that can be imagined. 2. Of his portion in CHRIST's blood; of which though the drops, weight, and quantity be finite, and measurable, yet the person that shed it has stamped upon it such excellency of merit, that any one had in-finitely better have his portion in that Well-Spring of life and immortality, than enjoy the riches, pleasures, and glory of the whole world everlastingly. 3. Of the most blissful presence and communion of the Holy Ghost; and all those Divine illuminations and rays of heavenly light, wherewith that good Spirit is wont to visit and refresh the humbled hearts of holy men. 4. Of the fatherly providence and protection of the blessed Trinity, the glorious guard of angels, comfortable communion with the people of GOD, and all the safety, deliverance, and delight that flow thence. 5. Of the unknown pleasures of an appeased conscience, to which all human glory is but dust in the balance. Not the most exquisite music can convey so delicious a touch to the outward ear of a man, as the sound of a certificate brought from the, throne of mercy by the blessed Spirit, sealed with CHRIST's blood, to the ear of the soul, even amidst the most desperate confusions, in the evil day; when comfort will be worth a world, and a good conscience, ten thousand earthly crowns. 6. Of all true contentment in this life; of all Christian right to, and religious interest in, any of the creatures. For never was any sound joy, or sanctified enjoyment of any thing in the world, found in that man's heart, which gives allowance to any lust, or lies delight-fully in any sin. 7. Of an immortal crown, the unspeakable joys of heaven; that immeasurable, and endless comfort, which there shall be fully and for ever enjoyed, with all the children of GOD, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, Christian friends; yea, with the Lord himself, and all his holy angels, with CHRIST our Savior, that Lamb slain for us, the Prince of glory, the glory of heaven and earth, the brightness of the everlasting light.

 

 Secndly. It does every hour expose the sinner to all those evils, which a man destitute of grace may commit; and unprotected from above endure. It brings all plagues. 1. Internal; blindness of mind, hardness of heart, deadness of affection, searedness of conscience, a reprobate sense, strong delusions, the spirit of slumber, slavery to lust, estrangedness from GOD, bondage under the devil, desperate thoughts, horror of heart, confusion of spirit: and spiritual mischiefs in this kind are more dreadful than either tongue can tell, or heart can think. 2. External. And 3. Eternal.

 

 Thirdly. By its pestilent damning poison, it turns heaven into hell, angels into devils, life into death, light into darkness, hope into despair, love into hate, mercy into cruelty, liberty into bondage, health into sickness, a garden of Eden into a desolate wilderness, a fruitful land into barrenness, peace into war, order into confusion, blessings into curses; in a word, all kinds of temporal and eternal bliss, into all kinds of miseries and woe.

 

 Fourthly. What heart, except it be all adamant, but, possessing itself with a sensible apprehension of the incomprehensible greatness, excellency, and dreadfulness of the mighty Lord of heaven and earth, would tremble to transgress any one branch of his blessed laws, or to sin against him willingly, even in the least ungodly thought For alas! who art You, that liftest up thy proud heart, or whettest thy profane tongue, or bendest thy rebellious course against such a majesty You art the vilest wretch that ever God made, next unto the devil and his damned angels; a base and unworthy worm of the earth, not worthy to lick the dust, that lieth under thy feet; the dream of a shadow, the very picture of change, worse than vanity, less than nothing. When thy breath is gone, which may fall out many times in a moment, you art turned into dust, nay, rottenness and filth, much more loathsome than the dung of the earth; and all thy thoughts perish. But on the other side, if you cast thine eye seriously upon that thrice glorious Majesty, the eyes of whose glory you so provokest, you may justly upon the commission of every sin, cry out, " O heavens be astonished at this!" Nay, you mightcst marvel that the whole frame of heaven and earth is not for one sill, fearfully and finally dissolved: for He, against whom you sinnest, "inhabiteth eternity, and unapproachable light. The heaven is his throne, and the' earth his foot-stool." He is the " everlasting GOD, mighty, and terrible, the Creator of the ends of the earth." The infinite splendor of his glory and majesty so dazzles the eyes of the most glorious seraphim, that they are glad to adore him with covered faces. The devil, all the damned spirits and fiends tremble at the terror of his countenance. " All the nations before him are but as the drop of a bucket, but as the small dust of the balance. He sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the in-habitants thereof are as grasshoppers. At his rebuke the pillars of heaven shake; the earth trembleth, and the foundations of the hills are moved. His presence melts the mountains; his voice tears the rocks in pieces, the blast of the breath of his nostrils discovers the channels of waters, and foundations of the world. His garments are light, his pavilion darkness; his way is in the whirl-wind, and in the storm; and the clouds are the dust of his feet." "The Lord of Hosts is his name;" whose power and punishments are so perfectly irresistible, that he is able, with one word, to turn all the creatures in the world into hell; nay, even with the breath of his mouth, to turn heaven and hell, and earth, and all things into nothing. How darest you then, so base and vile a wretch, provoke so great a God

 

 Fifthly. Let the consideration of the immortality of that precious soul, that lies in thy bosons, curb thy corruptions at the very first sight of sin, and make thee step back as though you well ready to tread upon a serpent. Not all the men upon earth, or devils in hell, can possibly kill the soul of any elan. It must needs live as long as God himself, and run parallel with the longest line of eternity. Only sin wounds mortally that immortal spirit, and brings it into that cursed case, that it had infinitely better never have been, (hail be for ever. Forby this meads, going on impenitently to that last tribunal, it is ever in the pangs of death, and never dead; not able to die, nor endure the pain; pain exceeding not only all patience, but all resistance: there being no strength to sustain, nor ability to bear, that which, whilst God is GOD, for ever must be borne. What a prodigious cruelty is it then for a man, by listening to the Syren songs of this false world, or the devil's desperate counsel, to imbrue his hands in the blood of his own everlasting soul, and to make it die eternally For some fleeting vanity, to bring upon it in the other world, torments without end, and beyond all compass of conception And his madness is the more, because, (besides its.immortality,) his soul is incomparably more worth than the whole world. " The very sensitive soul of a little fly," says Austin truly, " is more excellent than the sun!" How ought we then to prize, and preserve from sin, our reasonable souls, which make us in that respect, like unto the angels of God

 

 Sixthly. The inestimableness of the price that was paid for the expiation of it, does clearly manifest the execrable misery of sin. I mean, the blood of JESUS CHRIST, blessed for ever; which was of such preciousness and power, that being let out by a spear, it amazed the whole frame of nature, darkened the sun, shook the earth, opened the graves, slave the stones, rent the veil of the temple from the bottom to the top. Now, it was this alone, and nothing but this, could possibly cleanse away the filth of sin. Had all the dust of the earth been turned into silver, and the stones into pearls; should the whole world, and all the creatures in heaven and earth have offered themselves to be annihilated before his angry face: had all the blessed angels prostrated themselves at the foot of their Creator; yet, in the point of the redemption of mankind, and purgation of sin, not any, nor all of these, could have done any good at all. Nay, if the Son of God himself, which lay in his bosom, should have supplicated and solicited, (1 mean, without suffering and shedding his blood,) the Father of all Mercies, he could not have been heard in this case. Either the Son of God must die, or all mankind be eternally damned.

 

 7thly. When you art stepping over the threshold towards any vile act, or to do the devil service, in any kind; suppose you seest JESUS CHRIST coming towards thee, as he lay in the arms of Joseph of Arimathea, newly taken down from the cross, wounded, wan, and pale; his body all gore-blood; the beauty. of his blessed and heavenly face darkened and disfigured by the stroke of death, and speaking thus unto thee: " Oh! go not forward upon any terms; commit not this sin by any means. It was this and the like that drew me down out of the arms of my Father, from the fullness of joy, and fountain of bliss, to put on this corruptible and miserable flesh; to hunger and thirst; to watch and pray; to groan and sigh; to offer up strong cries and tears to the Father, in the days of my flesh; to drink the dregs of the bitter cup of his fierce wrath; to wrestle with all the infernal powers; to lay down my life in the gates of hell, with intolerable pain; and thus now to he in the arms of this mortal man, all torn and rent in pieces, as you seest." What an heart has You, that darest go on, against this dear intreaty of JESUS CHRIST.

 

 Thus I have tendered many reasons to restrain from sin; which, by the help. of GOD, may serve to take off the edge of the most eager temptation; to embitter the sweetest bait that draws to any sensual delight. Now, my earnest intreaty is, that every one into whose hands, by God's Providence, this book shall fall, after the perusal of them, would pause awhile, on purpose that he may more solemnly vow, that ever hereafter, when he shall be assaulted by allurements to any sin, he will first have recourse unto these considerations; and let them sink into his heart, before he proceed and pollute himself. I could be content, if it were pleasing unto GOD, that these lines, which you now readest, were writ with the warmest blood in mine heart, to representunto thine eye, the dear affection of my soul, for thy spiritual and eternal good; so that you should be thoroughly persuaded, and now, before you pass any further, sincerely promise so to do.

 

 Learn hence, that high and heavenly art of comforting afflicted consciences; which, were it well known and practiced, what a world of torture in troubled minds ' would it prevent So many thousands of poor, deluded souls, would not perish, by the damning flatteries and cruel mercies of unskilful daubers.

 

 In this essay of mine, on this important subject, I first desire to discover and rectify some ordinary errors about spiritual cures. Which fall out, when the physician of the soul,

 

 1. Applies unseasonably the cordials of the gospel. Were it not absurd in surgery, to pour a most sovereign balsam upon a sound part It is far more senseless, to proffer the blood of CHRIST, and promises of life to an unwounded conscience. It is the only right method, (and all the men of GOD, and master-builders, who have ever set themselves sincerely to serve God in their ministry, have followed the same course,) First, to wound by the law, and then to heal by the gospel. We must be " humbled in the sight of the Lord, before he will lift us up," Jam. 4: 1O. We must be sensible of our spiritual blindness, captivity, and poverty, before we can heartily- seek to be savingly enlightened, enlarged from the devil's slavery, and enriched with grace. There must be a sense of misery, before showing of mercy: Crying, " I am unclean, I am unclean," before opening the fountain for uncleanness; stinging before curing by the brazen serpent; smart for sin, before a plaster of CHRIST's blood; brokenness of heart, before binding up. God himself opened the eyes of our first parents, to make them see their sin and misery, nakedness and shame, Gen. 3: 7, before he promised CHRIST, ver. 15. CHRIST JESUS tells us, that he was anointed by the Lord, " to preach good tidings." But to Whom To the poor; to the broken-hearted, Isa. lxi. 1, Luke 4: 18. That the " whole need not a physician, but they that are sick;" and that " he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance," Matt. 9: 12, 13, (that is, poor souls, sinners in their own apprehension, and not self-conceited pharisees.) That " he will give rest;" but to whom To those " that labor and are heavy laden," Matt. 11: 28. That the Spirit which he would send, should convince the world; first, of sin, and then, of righteousness.

 

 It is ordinary with the prophets, first, to discover the' sins of the people, and to denounce judgments; and then to promise CHRIST. Isaiah, in his first chapter, from the mouth of GOD, in the first place, acts like a son of thunder, pressing upon the consciences of those to whom he was sent, many heinous sins, horrible ingratitude, fearful falling away, formality in God's worship, cruelty, and the like. Afterward, ver. 16, 17, he invites to repentance: and then follows ver. 18, " Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Nathan, to recover David, convinceth him first, soundly of his sin, with much aggravation and terror; and then, upon his remorse, assures him of pardon, 2 Sam. 12: 13.

 

 Consider further for this purpose, 1. the sermons of pur blessed Savior himself; who " taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes." With what power and piercing did our Lord and Master labor to open the eyes, search the hearts, and wound the consciences of his hearers, to fit them for the gospel 2. Of Peter, Acts 2: who being now freshly inspired and illuminated rom above, bends himself to break the hearts of his hearers. Amongst other piercing passages of his searching sermon, he tells them to their faces, That they had crucified and slain that just and holy One, the Lord of life, JESUS of Nazareth, ver. 23. And again, at the close, ver. 36, leaves the same bloody sting in their consciences; which restlessly wrought and boiled within them, until it begot a great deal of compunction, terror, and tearing of their hearts with extreme amazement and anguish. " Now, when they heard this, they were pricked to the heart," ver. 37. Whereupon they came crying unto Peter, and the rest of the apostles, " Men and brethren, what shall we do" And so being seasonably led by the counsel of the apostles, " to believe 6n the name of JESUS CHRIST;" to lay hold on the promise, to repent evangelically, they had the remission of sins sealed unto them by baptism, and were happily received into the number of the saints of God. 3. Of Paul, who, though he stood as a prisoner at the bar, and might, perhaps, by a general, plausible discourse, without piercing or particularizing, have insinuated himself into the affections, and won the favors of his hearers, who were to be his judges; yet, for all this, he preaches a right searching, terrifying sermon, of "righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come," Acts 24: 24, 25; and severely galls the conscience of that great man, Felix, by opposing righteousness to his bribing cruelties; temperance to his adulterous impurities; the dreadfulness of judgment to come, to his lawless out-rages and desperate security.

 

 Orthodox antiquity was of the same mind, and for the same method. So St. Austin: " The conscience is not to be healed; if it be not wounded. You preachest and professest the law, comminations, the judgment to come, and that with much earnestness and importunity. He which hears, if he be not terrified, if he be not troubled, is not to be comforted. Another hears, is stirred, is stung, is distressed extremely: cure his contritions, be-cause he is cast down and confounded." " After that John the Baptist," says Chrysostom, "had throughly frightened his hearers with the terror of judgment, and expectation of torment; when he had thus tamed their stubbornness, and from fear of so many evils, stirred them up to a desire of deliverance; then, at length, he makes mention of CHRIST."

 

 " God pours not the oil of his mercy," says Bernard, " save into a broken vessel." So also are all our modern divines, who are instructed unto the kingdom of heaven. " CHRIST is promised to them alone," says Calvin, " who are humbled, and confounded with the sense of their sins." "Then is CHRIST seasonably revealed," says Musculus, " when the hearts of men being soundly pierced by preaching repentance, are possest with a desire of his gracious righteousness." " The way to faith," says Beza, " is penitence, legal compunction; because sickness enforceth men to fly unto the physician." " Men are ever to be prepared for the gospel, by the preaching of the law." " A sermon of the law," said Tilenus, " must go before the doctrine of the gospel, that the oil of mercy may be poured into a contrite vessel." " In our exhortations to follow CHRIST," says Rolloc, " the minds of men are ever to be prepared with a sense of misery; and afterward with a desire of enlargement"

 

 " It is the care of those ministers, which divide God's Word aright," say our great divines of Great Britain, " first fitly and wisely to wound the consciences of their hearers with the terrors of the law, and afterwards to heal them by the promises of the gospel." " The Spirit first terrifies those who are to be justified, with the law; breaking and humbling them with threats, scourges, and lashes of conscience, that thereby, despairing of them-selves, they may flee unto CHRIST." " The doctrine of the law," says Davenant, " is to be propounded to the impious and impenitent, to strike terror into their hearts, and to demonstrate their just damnation, except they repent, and fly to JESUS CHRIST."

 

 " The course warranted unto us by the Scriptures," says Hieron, " is this: First, To endeavor the softening of our hearers' hearts, by bringing them to the sight and sense of their own wretchedness, before we adventure toapply the riches of God's mercy in CHRIST JESUS. The preaching of the gospel is compared, by our Savior himself, unto the sowing of seed: as therefore the ground is first torn up with the plough, before the seed be committed unto it: co the fallow ground of our hearts must be broken up with the sharpness of the law, and the terrors of the Lord, before we can be fit to entertain the sweet seed of the gospel.--I would have a preacher to preach peace, and to aim at nothing more than the comfort of the souls of God's people; yet I would have him frame his course to the manner of God's appearing to Elijah. The text says, That first a mighty strong wind rent the mountains, and brake the rocks. Then, after that came an earthquake, and after the earthquake came fire. And after all these, then came a still and soft voice. After the same manner, I would not have the still and mild voice of the gospel come, till the strong tempest of the law has rent the stony hearts of men, and have made their bellies to tremble, and rottenness to enter into their bones. Or, at least, because our auditories are mixed, consisting of men of divers humors, it will be good for him to deliver his doctrine with that caution, that neither the humbled souls might be affrighted with the severity of God's judgments, nor the profane and impenitent grow presumptuous by the abundance of God's mercy. The person that is full, despises the honey-comb, says Solomon: and what does a proud pharisee, or a churlish Nabal, or a politic Gallio, or a scoffing Ishmael, care to hear of the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the love of God in his Son JESUS Except it be to settle them faster upon their lees. Doctrine of that nature is as unfitting to such uncircumcised ears, as the snow to the summer, and the rain to the harvest. Unto the horse belongs a whip, to the ass a bridle, and a rod to the fool's back.--He that intends to do any good in this frozen generation, had need rather to be Boanerges, one of the soles of thunder, than Bar-Jonah, the son of a dove."

 

 " The Word of GOD," says Forbes, " has three degrees of operation in the hearts of men. For, first it falleth to men's ears as the sound of many waters, a mighty great and confused sound, and which commonly bringeth neither terror nor joy, but yet a wondering, and acknowledgment of a strange force. This is that effect which many felt, hearing CHRIST, when they were ` astonished at his doctrine, `as teaching with an authority;' and said, `What manner of doctrine is this Never man spoke like this man.' The next effect is, the voice of thunder; which, bringeth not only wonder, but fear also, not only filleth the ears with sound; but moreover shaketh and terrifieth the conscience. The third effect is, the sound of harping, while the Word not only ravisheth with admiration, and striketh the conscience with terror; but also, lastly, `filleth it with sweet peace and joy.' Now, albeit the first two degrees may be without the last; yet none feel the last, who have not, in some degree, felt the first two."

 

 " God healeth none," says Gouge, " but such as are first wounded. ` The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.' CHRIST was anointed ` to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted.' But it may be objected, many have believed, who never grieved for their misery, as Lydia. I answer: Who can tell that these grieved not It followeth not that they had no grief, because none is recorded. All particular actions and circumstances of actions are not recorded. It is enough that the grief of some, as of the Jews, of the jailor, of the woman that washed CHRIST's feet with her tears, and of others, is recorded. Lydia might be pre-pared before she heard Paul. For she accompanied them which went out to pray, and she worshipped God: or else her heart might be then touched, when she heard Paul preach. The like may be said of those which heard Peter, when he preached to Cornelius; and of others. Certain it is, that a man must both see and feel his wretchedness, and be wounded in soul for it, before faith eau he wrought in him. Yet, I deny it not, that theremay be great difference in the manner and measure of grieving."

 

" The heart is prepared for faith," says another, " and not by faith. Justification, being the work of GOD, is perfect in itself: but our hearts are not fit to apply it, until God have humbled us, brought us to despair in our-selves. The whole preparation being legal, wrought by the spirit of bondage, to bring us to the spirit of adoption, leaves us in despair of all help, either of ourselves, or the whole world; that so, being in this woeful plight, we might now submit ourselves to GOD, who, infusing a lively faith into our hearts, gives us his Son and our justification with him."

 

" The law," says Throgmorton, " first breaks us, and kills us with the sight and guilt of sin, before CHRIST cures us, and binds us up. The Holy Ghost worketh by three acts: 1. First, it puts an efficacy into the law, and makes that powerful to work on the heart; to make a man poor in spirit; so that he may be fit to receive the gospel. The spirit of bondage must make the law effectual; as the spirit of adoption does the gospel. 2. The second work is, to reveal CHRIST, when the heart is pre-pared by the Spirit in the first work; then, in the next place, he shows the unsearchable riches of CHRIST, what is the hope of his calling, and the glorious inheritance prepared for the saints; what is the exceeding greatness of his power in them that believe. I say, we need the Spirit to show these things. 3. The third act of the Spirit is, the testimony which the gives to our spirit, in telling us that these things are ours. When the heart is prepared by the law; and when these things are so showed unto us, that we prize them, and long after them, yet there must be a third thing: to take them to our-selves, to believe they are ours: and there needs a work of the Spirit for this. For though the promises be never so clear, yet having nothing but the promises, you will never be able to apply them to yourselves. But when the Holy Ghost shall say, CHRIST is thine, all these things belong to thee, and God is thy Father; when that witnesses to our spirit by a work of his own, then shall we believe."

 

 By this time it most clearly appears, what a foul and fearful fault it is, for men, either in the managing their public ministry, or more private conferences, visitations of the sick, consultations about a good estate to God-ward, and other occasions of like nature; to apply JESUS CHRIST and the promises to souls, as yet, not soundly afflicted with a sight of sin, and sense of God's wrath; to consciences never truly wounded and awaked. I have insisted the longer upon this point, because I know it full well to be a most universal and prevailing policy of the devil, whereby he keeps many thousands in his cursed slavery; to confirm as many pastors as he can possibly, willing enough to drive their flocks before them to dam-nation, in an ignorant, or affected prejudice, and forbearance of that saving method of bringing souls out of hell; and to nourish also in the hearts of natural men, a strong and sturdy distaste, opposition, and raging against upright dealing, and those men of GOD, (able as they say, by their terrible teaching to drive their hearers to distraction,) who take the only right course to bring them to JESUS CHRIST as he himself invites them, to wit, laboring, and heavy laden with their sins. Daubers then, who serve SATAN in this kind, are a generation of dangerous men; excellent in an accursed art of conducting poor, blinded souls merrily towards everlasting misery; and setting them down in the very midst of hell, before they are sensible of any danger.

 

 To remedy this, mine advice is, that all those who deal with others about their spiritual states, and undertake to direct in that high and weighty affair of men's salvation, either publicly or privately, should follow that course taken by God himself, his prophets, his Son, the apostles, and all those men of God in all ages, who have set them-selves, with sincerity and all good conscience, to seek Cod's glory in the salvation of men's souls; to wit, That they should labor in the first place, by the application of the law, to convince and terrify those that they have to do with, with a sensible, particular apprehension of their wretchedness and miserable state, by reason of their sinfulness: to break their hearts, bruise their spirits, humble their souls, wound and awake their consciences; to bring them by all means to that legal astonishment, trouble of mind, and melting temper, which the ministry of Paul and Peter wrought upon the hearts of their hearers; that they may come to those mere of God who fastened those arrows of compunction in the sides of their consciences, crying from the heart, " Men and brethren, what shall we do Sirs, what must we do to be saved" As if they had said, " Alas! we see now, we have been in hell all this while; and if we had gone on a little longer, we had most certainly lain for ever in the fiery lake. The devil and our own lusts were carrying us headlong towards endless perdition. Who would have thought we had been such abominable beasts, and abhorred creatures as your ministry has made us. Now help us out of this gulf, or we are lost everlastingly. We will with our hearts,' pluck out our right eyes, cut off our right hands;' part with our beloved lusts, and dearest sinful pleasures; abominate, and abandon them all for ever, from the heart to the pit of hell. If we can be rid of the devil's fetters, with which we have been so long bound, CHRIST's yoke shall be welcome. In a word, we will sell all, even our sins, so that we may enjoy our blessed JESUS, whom, you have told us, and we now believe, God has made both Lord and CHRIST."

 

 When we find the hearts of our hearers and spiritual patients thus prepared, both in legal dejections and terrors from the spirit of bondage; and also possessed with such melting and eager affections, wrought by the light of the gospel, and offer of CHRIST: when their souls once begin to feel all sins, even their best beloved one, heavy and burdensome; to prize JESUS CHRIST far before all the world; to thirst for him infinitely more than for any earthly thing; to resolve to take him as their husband, and to obey him as their Lord for ever: then we may minister comfort. Then, upon good ground, we may go about our Master's command, Isa. xl. 1O, comfort ye my people; speak ye comfortably "Comfort ye, and cry unto her, that her war is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned." We may tell then, with what compassion God himself labors to refresh them; Isa. liv. 11, " Oh, you afflicted, and tossed with tempest, you have no comfort; behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires."

 

 We may assure them in the Word of life and truth, that Jesus CHRIST is theirs, and they are his; and compel them, as it were, by an holy violence, to take his person, his merit, his blood, all his spiritual riches, privileges, excellencies: and with him possession of all things, even of the most glorious Deity itself, blessed for ever. But until a sense of spiritual misery and poverty raise an hunger and thirst after JESUS CHRIST; before such affections, as have been spoken of, be wrought in the hearts of men, by pressing the law, and that in sincerity the degree and measure, we leave it to GOD, in some they may be stronger, in some weaker,) the preaching or promising of mercy, as already belonging

 

unto more unseasonable than honor for a fool. Itis then very sealing them up with the spirit of delusion, that they may never so much as think of taking the right course to be converted. What sottish and sacrilegious audaciousness then is it in any dauber to thrust his profane hand into the treasury of God's mercy, and there, hand over head, without any allowance from his highest Lord, to scatter his dearest pearls amongst swine!

 

 Yet we must by no means conceive of the forenamed preparative humiliations by the law, as of any meritorious qualifications to draw on CHRIST, (for he is given most freely,) but as of needful predispositions, to drive us unto CHRIST. For a man must feel himself in misery, before he will go about to find a remedy; be sick, before he will seek the physician; be in prison before he will sue for a pardon; be wounded before he will prize a plaster. A sinner must be weary of his former ways, and tired of his legal terror, before he will have recourse to JESUS CHRIST for refreshing, and lay his bleeding soul in his blessed bosom. He must be sensible of his spiritual poverty, beggary, and slavery under the devil, before he thirst kindly for heavenly righteousness, and willingly take up CHRIST's sweet and easy yoke. He must be cast down, confounded, condemned, and lost in himself, before he will look about for a Savior. He must cry heartily, " I am unclean, I am unclean," before he will long and labor to wash in that "fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness." He must sell all, before he will be willing and eager to " buy the treasure hid in the field."

 

 In pressing the law, besides other directions, let them take notice of this particular, which may prove very available to begin this, legal work; pressing upon men's consciences with a zealous, discreet powerfulness, their special, principal, fresh-bleeding sins, is a notable means to break their hearts, and bring them to remorse. That most heinous sin of killing JESUS CHRIST, in which they had newly imbrued their hands, pressed upon the con-sciences of Peter's hearers, broke their hearts in pieces, Acts 2: 23, 36, 37. So adultery, secretly intimated by CHRIST's words, unto the woman of Samaria, John 4: 18, seems to have struck her to the heart, ver. 19. So the Jews, having idolatry pressed upon their consciences by Samuel, 1 Sam. 7: 3-6, strange wives by Ezra, chap. 10: 9, were mightily moved.

 

 A man's principal sin, is SATAN's strong hold.'When he is in danger to be dislodged, and driven by the power of the Word out of the other parts of the soul, and from possession of a man by all other sins, he retires hither, as to his castle. And therefore if this be battered about his ears, be will be quickly forced to quit the place. It may be good counsel then, to say unto those men of GOD, who desire to drive the devil out of others, in some sort, as the king of Syria said to his captains, " Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel." My meaning is; let them address the sharpest edge of their spiritual sword, yet as well with an holy discretion, as with resolute dealing, against those sins, which bear greatest sway in them they have to deal with: be it their covetousness, ambition, lust, drunkenness, lukewarmness, or what other sin soever. No sin must be spared, but let the reigning sin be paid home especially.

 

 After this, is the time for opening the most rich mines of all those sweetest mercies, folded up within the bowels of God's dearest compassions, and of the mystery of his love through the Son of his love; to allure those that arc without, to come in, and to stir up our hearers to bring broken hearts, bruised spirits, bleeding souls unto the throne of grace. The most desperate rebels heretofore, upon true remorse for their former sins, resolving sincerely to stand on God's side for ever hereafter, may safely thus reason within themselves, " Alas! we have done very villanously; we have served Satan a long time; we walked up and down as condemned men, ripe for destruction long ago; hell itself even groans for us; and yet we will try; we will go and throw down ourselves before the throne of grace in dust and ashes, and cry as the publican did unto the great God of heaven: for he is a `merciful GOD, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, for-giving iniquity, transgression, and sin.' And then, not only peradventure, but most certainly, they shall be received to mercy, and he will save the life of their souls. And after plentifully magnifying the mercy of GOD, by its infiniteness, freeness, and incomparable excellency, on purpose to assure the greatest sinners of most certain pardon, if they will immediately turn from SATAN to the living God; we must take heed, as much as in us lies, that no impenitent wretch, none that goes on in his trespasses, or lies willingly in any one sin, receive any comfort by any such discourse; but only thence conceive, that if he will presently lay down his arms, and come in with a truly penitent humbled soul, there is no number nor notoriousness of sins, that can hinder his gracious entertainment at God's mercy-scat.

 

 In proposing of CHRIST, let the man of God set out, as much as he can possibly, the excellency of his person, the preciousness of his blood, the riches of his heavenly purchases, the gracious sweetness of his invitations, the generality, and freeness of his offers, the glorious privileges he brings with him; reconciliation to GOD, justification, righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, redemption, possession of all things; " for all things are yours," said St. Paul to believers, " whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas; or the world, or life, or death; or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye arc CHRIST's, and CHRIST is God's," 1 Con 3: 22, 23. Let him tell his hearers, that the blood of CHRIST is called the blood of GOD, Acts 20: 2S, and therefore of infinite merit, and invaluable price. It sprang out of his human nature; but the person that shed it, being the Son of GOD, did set upon it such an excellency of virtue and value, that the infiniteness of its merit, and inestimableness of its worth,'lasts everlastingly. It will be as fresh and effectual, to wash away the sins of the last man that shall be called,upon earth, as it was. those of the penitent thief, who saw it with his bodily eyes, gushing out of his blessed side upon the cross; or the first man who savingly apprehended that promise, " The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's bead." Let him assure them it is so sovereign, that in a truly broken, humbled, and thirsty soul, it turneth the most scarlet and crimson sins into snow: that, upon compunction, it washed away that horrible and bloody guilt, from the souls of them that spilt it, Acts 2: Let them know also, in how high a degree, and heinously they offend from time to time, who refuse to take JESUS CHRIST offered most freely, and with-out exception of any person, every sabbath, every sermon. Oh! little do people think, who sit under our ministry, unaffected by the word, what a grievous and fearful sin they commit, and carry home from the house of GOD, day after day; in neglecting so great salvation, in forsaking their own mercy, and in judging themselves unworthy of everlasting life; I mean, by choosing, upon a free offer of his soul-saving blood, to cleave rather to sin, (horrible indignity!) than to JESUS CHRIST, blessed for ever. This not believing, this refusing CHRIST, this not taking him in the manner and sense I have described, is a most transcendant sin, the greatest sin, the sin of sins. It is, indeed, the main, and the master sin: this remaining, the guilt of all other sins abides upon the soul; this removed, all other sins are remitted.

 

Now what can you say for yourselves, that you stand out Why come you not in If the devil would give you leave to speak out; one would say, " I had rather be damned than leave my drunkenness." Another, " I love the world better than JESUS CHRIST." A third, " I will not part with my gainful trade of usury, for the treasure hid in the field;" and so on. So that upon the matter, you must needs all confess, that you " judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life;" that you commit such a wickedness, that all the creatures in heaven and earth, cry shame upon you for it. Nay, and if you go on without repentance, you may expect that the hellish gnawing of conscience for this one sin of refusing CHRIST, may perhaps hold scale with the united horrors of all the rest.

 

 What is the matter I marvel, that you will not entertain the match If we stand upon honor, and noble family; he that makes love and suit unto our souls, "hath on his vesture, and on his thigh, a name written, King of kings, and Lord of Lords." If upon beauty; hear how he is described, Cant. 5: 1O, " My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand. His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars; he is altogether lovely." The Spirit of God by these outward beauties, labors, in in some measure, to shadow out the incomparable excellency of inward graces; the dignity, the glory, the spiritual fairness of JESUS CHRIST, that we may know, that he is wholly and altogether lovely. If upon ease, and contentment, he can lead us to "fulness of joy, and pleasures at God's right hand for evermore." If we desire honorable alliance, he will bring us to "an innumerable company of angels to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven; and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." If we stand upon wealth, we shall have all things with him. If we respect love; " Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

 

 The blessed JESUS, "being the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person," came down from his bosom, the fullness of joy, and that unapproachable light, into an house of flesh. He passed through a life full of all manner of vexations, miseries, persecutions, indignities, and slanders. He was hunted long, and at last violently hailed by a pack of hell-hounds, to a cruel and bloody death, which for the extremity and variety of pains, for the enraged spite of the executioners, for the innocency and excellency of the person suffering, the like never was, shall, or can be endured. His passions were such, so bitter, and unsupportable, that they would have made any mere creature to have sunk down under the burden of them to the bottom of hell. He was tortured extremely, and suffered grievous things both in body and soul, from heaven, earth and hell. His blessed body was given up as an anvil to be beaten upon, by the violent, and villanous hands of wretched miscreants, without all measure of mercy; until they had left no one part free from some particular and special torment. His skin and flesh were rent with scourges; His hands and feet were pierced with nails. His head with thorns; his very heart with the spear. All his senses; all his parts, indeed his whole sacred body was made a spectacle to angels and to men, of all the most base and barbarous usage, which malice could devise, and cruelty execute. And all this was but a shadow of his suffering. The substance of his suffering, was the agony of his soul. Give me any affliction save the affliction of the mind. His soul, though he was the Prince of Glory, and Lord of heaven and earth, upon the cross was even as a scorched heath, without so much, as any drop of comfort either from heaven or earth. The grievous weight of all the sins of all his children, the least of which had been enough to have pressed them down into the bottom of -hell, lay now heavy upon him. The powers of darkness were let loose to afflict him. He wrestled with the fierce wrath of his Father, and all the forces of the infernal kingdom, with such anguish of heart, that in the garden it wrung out of his precious body, a "sweat, as it were great drops of blood, falling down to the ground;" with such agony of spirit, that upon the cross, he cried, "My GOD, my GOD, why has you forsaken me!"

 

 And the measure of all these sufferings and sorrows were such, that all the creatures, save sinful men only, both in heaven and earth, seemed to be amazed and moved with them. The sun in the heavens drew in his beams, unwilling, as it were, to see the spotless blood of the Son of God spilt as the water upon the ground. The earth itself shrunk, and trembled under it. The very rocks were rent asunder, as if they had had sense and feeling of his intolerable pains. The whole frame of nature seemed astonished at the mournful complaint of the Lord of the whole world. These, and far more than these, or than can be expressed, our blessed Savior, being Son of the most high GOD, endured for no other end, but to ransom us from the bondage of SATAN, and of hell, in a thirsting desire of saving all penitent sinners; and to offer himself freely, a most glorious and everlasting husband to all those, who with broken and believing hearts, cast themselves into his bosom. Such unutterable perfections, beauties, endowments, sufferings, and inflamed affections, as these, in the heavenly suiter unto our sinful souls, doth, mightily aggravate the horrible sin of refusing him.

 

 In this manner, would I have the men of God to magnify, enlarge, and represent to the hearts of their hearers, all the excellencies of JESUS CHRIST, with the worth, merit, and efficacy of his blood; to set out to the utmost, the glory of the Gospel, with all the riches of mercy and free grace, revealed and offered therein; so that they tell them withal, that JESUS CHRIST takes none, but such as are willing to take upon them his yoke; that he gives himself to none, but such as are ready to sell all, that they may enjoy his blessed self: that the glorious grace of the gospel shines savingly to none, but such as deny ungodliness, and worldly lusts; and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; that those whose souls are cleansed by the blood of JESUS CHRIST from all sin, are only such as walk in the light, as God is in the light; who make conscience of shunning all sins, and works of darkness, discovered to them by the light of God's holy book, and sincerely set their hearts and hands, with love, and careful endeavor, to every duty enjoined therein. In a word, that, as that fountain, the blood of that immaculate Lamb, does turn all the sins, even the very scarlet and crimson of a truly broken heart, and every true mourner in Zion, into snow and wool; so it will never wash away the least sinful stain from the proud heart of any unhumbled pharisee; that hereby no strangers unto the love and life of godliness, may be deceived by appropriating unto themselves any of these glorious things, which are only proper to the sealed Fountain; but only conceive of them as excellent motives to cause them to come in. I would have the preaching of CHRIST fill the soul of every true-hearted Nathanael every time with unspeakable and glorious joy, with all those evangelical pleasures, "which neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man." But I would have it only make every unregenerate man sensible what infinite blessedness he bereaves himself of by continuing a rebel that thereupon he may be moved to make haste out of his present hell, into this heaven so freely offered unto him.

 

 Such points as these, are wont to make attentive natural men to startle in their seats, to look about them, to divide the precious from the vile; to distinguish that one happy state of grace, from all states of unregenerateness; to tell them out of the book of GOD, how far a man may go, and yet come short of heaven; to deliver marks of sincere professors, of a saving faith, of true repentance, of a sound conversion. But I would have this done with a great deal of spiritual wisdom, with much godly discretion, and caution; lest thereby, either the formal - professor be encouraged, or the weakest Christian disheartened.

 

 II. I come now to another error, about comforting afflicted consciences; which is, when the spiritual physician applies the promises, assures of mercy and pardon.

 

 1. When the ground of grief is not in truth trouble for sin, but some outward trouble. Some, in such a case, cast out by the way some faint complaints of their sins, and seem to seek direction about the state of their souls; when the principal spring of their heaviness is some secret earthly discontentment, the bitterness of some worldly sting. It may be the loss, or desperate course, of a child; going backward in their estate; disappointment of marriage; some great disgrace; long and tedious sickness, or the like. In this case, after the man of God has discovered the impostures, let his endeavor be to turn the torrent of worldly tears upon sin. When a vein is broken, and bleeds inwardly, the physician is wont to open a vein in the arm, so to divert the current of the blood, that it may be carried the right way, for the preservation of the party. Act in a similar manner in this point. Let such know: first, that "the sorrow of the world worketh death;" that it dries the bones, consumes the marrow, chills the blood, wastes the spirits, bats up the heart, shorteneth life, and cutteth off from the day of gracious visitation. Secondly, that the sorrow which, when misplaced upon earthly things, fills a man with swarms of carking confusions, being turned upon former sinful courses, which is the only right, proper, profitable use thereof, may procure a great deal of ease and enlargement to the heavy spirit, and help to "bring forth fruits meet for repentance." Thirdly, that the tythe, perhaps, of that sadness, about wordly things, if sincere, and set upon the right object, might serve to drive us unto CHRIST for saving repentance.

 

 2.'When it is not any kindly touch of conscience for sin produced by the ministry; but terrors arising from the dark mists of melancholy, which cause a man to complain; SATAN has great advantage to raise, and represent to the imagination many fearful things and temptations to despair, or self-destruction. Whereupon the' party so afflicted, is wont out of impatience, to address himself to some man of GOD, some noted physician of the soul; not from any resolution to become a new man, but only through hope of ease; not aiming at all, at any other change, but from present melancholy to former mirth. In this case, let the aid of physic be employed; and then let the party be advised to spend the sadness of that uncomfortable constitution, in sorrowing for sin, in trembling at the threats of God's judgments, in fearing to offend, and fleeing under the wings of CHRIST for sanctuary; that so he may bring supernatural lightsomness into his soul, by pardon from GOD, and evangelical pleasures. It is incredible to consider, what advantage a gracious man has, by his sweet communion with JESUS CHRIST, and those refreshing beams of comfort which shine from his face, to conquer this wild humor. If the very darkness of the hellish dungeon were in the heart; yet reaching out the hand of faith, and receiving CHRIST, that blessed Sun of Righteousness, would dispel and disperse it to nothing. Much more the light of grace and heavenly wisdom, may, in some good measure, dissolve the mists of this earthly humor. Religion then, does not make melancholy men mad; as the wise men of this world would persuade us; who, when they hear, or see any such disorder to have seized upon any, that desires to be saved, cry, " You see now, what becomes of so much reading the Scriptures, and prayer!" Now the Lord rebuke thee, SATAN, and return as dung upon thine own face, this villanous, base, and wicked slander, which by thy grace-less instruments you laborest to cast upon the glorious face of Christianity."

 

 I have known, when the only wise God has suffered, for ends seen good by his heavenly wisdom, the raging humor of melancholy to darken the native clearness of the animal spirits in the brain, and to disorder the imagination in his dearest child, even to distraction. But is this owing to prayer, or reading or hearing the Holy Scripture Is it possible for the most sovereign antidote sent from heaven by God himself against the sting and venom of all heart-grief and horror; the sacred sun of saving truth, which is only able to ennoble and glorify our understandings with wisdom from the breast of the everlasting counsel of JESUS CHRIST, to become the cause of discomfort, and dissettlement of the soul No, no. There is such a quickening, healing, and mighty efficacy and vigor shed into it from the Father of Lights, and shining in it from the face of CHRIST, that by the help of the blessed Spirit, it can turn darkness into light, death into life, hell into heaven, the deepest horror into the heighth of joy. I say all this, lest melancholick men should be misled, or disheartened by the cursed counsel of carnal friends, and wicked clamors of the world, from turning their sadness into sorrow for sin; and from applying to God's blessed Book, and the powerful ministry thereof; the only well-spring of all true light and joy; and able, as I said before, if they will be counseled, to dispel the very darkness of hell out of their hearts. Methinks, they rather above others, should be encouraged thereto:

 

 I. Because they have an advantage, when it pleases God to sanctify for that purpose, and set on work the spirit of bondage, by reason of their sad dispositions, and fearful spirits; more feelingly to take to heart the miseries and dangers of their natural state; more easily to tremble and stoop under the mighty hand of God. They are wont to taste deeper of -legal contrition and remorse, and so proportionably to feel a greater necessity of JESUS CHRIST; to thirst after him more greedily, to prize him more highly, and, at length, to throw their trembling souls into his blessed bosom with more eagerness and importunity. And having once entered into the holy path, their native fearfulness being rectified, and turned the right way, they many times walk forward, with more fear of offending, (and " happy is the man that feareth always") more watchfulness over their ways, tenderness of conscience, impatience of losing spiritual peace, and sensibility of infirmities.

 

 2. And because of all others, such men have most need of refreshing; which, when carnal counselors, and flattering mountebanks of the ministry, labor to intro-duce into their dark heads and heavy hearts, by outward mirth, and such other means, they only palliate and daub; and are so far from doing any true good, that thereby they sink them deeper. So that a melancholy man, let him turn him which way he will, is likely, without the light of grace, to live a very miserable life. But let them address themselves to the Book of Life; let them lean their sorrowful souls upon the promises there; and each will shine upon them with an heavenly, healing light, with sound and lasting joy. All those then are infatuated either with ignorant or learned malice, who encourage the world to suppose that reading the Scriptures, attending a powerful ministry, taking sin to heart, will make melancholy men mad.

 

 3. When complaint of sin is confused only and in general. Many deal with God and his ministers in confession of their sins, says a good divine, " as Nebuchadxezzar with his enchanters about his dream. That he had dreamed, he told them, and desired an interpretation, but what his dream was he could not tell. So many confess themselves sinners; but wherein they have sinned, they cannot or will not tell. And how is it possible the physician should help him, who only says, he is not well, but will not tell him how I have sometimes visited those, who, being pressed to a sight and sense of their sinfulness, on purpose to fit them for CHRIST, have acknowledged in general, that they were sinners; but descending to the particulars of the law, justified them-selves throughout. Nay, many in this case, are so destitute of matter of humiliation for sin, that they can scarce tell you what sin is. At the most, they have not learned, or think that there is any other breach of the seventh commandment, but the gross act of uncleanness; that there is any sin against the ninth, but giving in false witness against their neighbor in open court. And so in the other commandments. Likewise, although they have heard of JESUS CHRIST, yet, to the knowledge of his person, offices, excellency, sweetness, effectual ministry, and of his whole mystery, they are mere strangers. And so, when they should be brought by knowledge and application of the law and gospel, through the pangs of the new birth, into the holy path, they have to learn the very first principles of religion; in which they have not so much skill as I could teach a child of five or six years old in a few days.

 

 By reason of this affected ignorance in the law of GOD, it comes to pass, that many, in trouble of mind, complain of sin confusedly, and in general only. And thereupon they expect comfort, and perhaps many draw it from some daubers. Whereas, particularizing of our sins is a necessary precedent, and preparative to a sound humiliation. And therefore in this case we must deal with such, as surgeons are wont to do with a tumour, or swelling in the body; who first apply to the affected place, drawing and ripening plasters, to bring the sore to an head, that the corruption may have issue, and thenheal; so a general complaint of sin, and confused grief must be reduced to particulars. It is a principle in the mystery of CHRIST, resolved upon by the best divines, rightly instructed to the kingdom of heaven, " That a con-fused acknowledgment, and general repentance only, for known sins, is never sound and saving; but only common, formal; perfunctory, and that of counterfeit converts, not truly touched with the sense of their sins, nor heartily resolved to forsake them." If they can be brought to the sight, sense, and acknowledgement of some one special notorious sin, which has most reigned in their heart, or life; and be in some good measure convinced, and terrified about the heinousness and horrible guilt of it, it may be a good means, by God's blessing, to bring in the rest. For ordinarily true repentance is first occasioned by some one special sin laid to heart. To further the work of a more particular setting their sins in order before their eyes; it. were an happy thing, if all the troubled souls we meet with, were furnished before hand with a competent speculative knowledge, at least of the particulars in God's law, exorbitant passages of their life, and gross corruptions of their hearts. We might so, by God's help, more easily bring then to particular remorse, and fit them sooner for comfort. But we find it a most hard task, to encounter the devil's devices, A, des, and depths, in a poor, distressed, tempted, ignorant person.

 

 4. When the party is dejected for some notorious sin only. It is sometimes seen in mere civil men, that, having a long time preserved their reputations unstained from gross enormities; after shaming themselves by some infamous fall, they seem to be much concerned, as though they were truly troubled with remorse; where-as, perhaps, the present grief arises rather from loss of credit, than any wound of conscience, (though to favor their credit; they cunningly father it upon conscience.) Or, let them be indeed affrighted grievously for a time with the horror of that one sin; yet stay the cry, and abate the rage of that one with sonic superficial comfort, and they are healed, and put into an happy case in their own conceit, and in the opinion also of their unskilful physician; though they search no further into the loath-some dunghill of those many abominable corruptions in their hearts and lives, of which they are as full as the skin will hold. Now, it is a foul and fearful oversight in a minister,-nay, it may prove an error stained with spiritual bloodshed, to promise pardon to such partial penitents. Suppose a man, sick of a pleurisy, should send to a physician, and tell him he is sore troubled with a cough, and entreat his help, concealing other signs and symptoms, which ordinarily accompany that disease,-as his short and difficult breathing, and the stinging stitch in his side;-the physician may address himself to cure the cough, and yet the patient die of an inflammation. It is in some respects, so in the present point. A man may complain, and be concerned extremely for some one sin, and that may be well; but except he proceed to a further discovery, and sorrow proportionable for his other known sins, they will be the destruction of his soul. If a dozen thieves be entered into thy house, it is not enough for thee to lay hold of the captain only, and thrust him out. If you suffer but one of them to lurk in any corner, he will serve the turn to cut thy throat. Crying out of one capital sin only is not sufficient; we must confess and forsake all, if we look to find mercy, Prov. 28: 13.

 

 And yet, here I would have no true penitent mistake. The bare omission of some particular sins, in this case, is not damnable. For we must know, that if a man deal truly with his own heart, in a sincere acknowledgment and repentance-for known sins, (and he ought to labor, by industrious inspection into God's pure law, to know as many as may be,) and for all those that come into his mind, when he sets himself apart solemnly to humble his soul before God; (and he ought to remember as many as he can possibly;) I say, if so, then, for secret and unknown sins, which are committed in weakness and ignoral,ee, the Lord accepteth a general confession, as we see in David's practice, Psal. xix. 12, " Who can under-stand his errors Cleanse you me from my secret faults." Sins there are which are not only unnoticed by others, but even unknown to a man's own self, which, notwithstanding, are clearly subject to the search of God's all-seeing eye. Sins there are also, which, even in the zealous exercise of repentance, may not be remembered by the true penitent; which, if he would recover into his memory, he would heartily bewail and detest; so unnumbered are the cursed by-paths of men. But I must say thus much for the comfort of the true convert; if he truly repent for all his unknown sins, and labor for further illumination of conscience, and fuller revelation of every corrupt disposition and practice in heart and life-and those sins of knowledge also, which came into his mind; if with diligence, and without dissimulation, with hearty prayer, and best intention of spirit, he endeavor to recover them into his memory, that he might also mourn for, and mortify them with the rest; carrying ever in his heart this resolution, that as any sin shall be discovered to his conscience, he will abominate and abandon it:-I say, both these kinds of sins (it is a pearl for the true penitent, let no stranger meddle with it,) to such an one, upon such conditions, are most certainly washed away by CHRIST's blood, and God's free mercy, upon his general confession and repentance.

 

 Besides these two cases,-first, want of knowledge, and, secondly, want of remembrance in the sense I have said. There is also a third, and that is, want of time; which does also sometimes excuse the omission of some particular sins; as we may see in the thief upon the cross. For want of leisure, he could not possibly punctually revise his vile, abominable life, nor peruse with remorse all the particulars of his former courses. But he had infused into his soul by JESUS CHRIST an habitual grace of true repentance; which, if he had lived, would, no doubt, have carried him faithfully over all the notorious passages of his life with a truly contrite, broken, and bleeding soul. So that if he had had space, I doubt not but he would have proved a very eminent and exemplary penitent. And therefore the Lord, in mercy, did graciously accept the desire and purpose of his heart.

 

 But to return to the point, and give my advice in the case proposed; let the party, who is so distressed for some notorious sin only, and there takes up his rest, be told, that though he dwell with deepest sighs upon some of his greatest sins, yet the rest must by no means be neglected. That which is most crimson must serve as a crier, if I may so speak, to summon the rest into the court of conscience, and as a reme zhrancer to bring them to mind. But when you beginnest to reckon with thy conscience for some extraordinary rebellion, never cease until you have searched thoroughly, and ransacked it to the bottom, that it may smart soundlybefore you have done, with true remorse for all thy other sinful corruptions also. When horror for one sin has seized upon thy heart, follow God's blessed hand leading thee to con-version, through the pangs of the new birth, by giving way to all the rest, to bring in their several indictments against thy soul. And be not afraid thus to arraign and condemn thyself, as guilty of innumerable sins, before God's just tribunal. For then shall you find a gracious Advocate at his right hand; whom, if you seek in truth, he will, by the plea of his most precious blood, sue out a pardon for thine everlasting peace.

 

 I confess that, commonly, true converts at first, and afterwards too, cry out most of some one, capital sin, and that which in their days of darkness and vanity wasted their consciences most; but yet, should they be distressed never so much for that one,-if, besides, they did not, by the conduct of the blessed Spirit, descend also to a more particular confession and repentance of all other known sins, all were nothing. If we favor any one sin in our heart, or life, or calling, we cannot enjoy God's favor. If there he any secret corruption, which a man labors toconceal, what hope can he have that it is covered with the blood of CHRIST from the wrath to come In a true penitent, there ought to be an utter cessation from all gross sins, and at least disaffection from, and all possible opposition to, even unavoidable infirmities, and inseparable frailties of the flesh.

 

 5. Fifthly, when the physician of the soul promises mercy and pardon, hand over head, without that spiritual discretion which is important in a matter of so great con-sequence, to a man upon his bed of death, who has formerly been a mere stranger to the power of godliness, because now in the evil day he is concerned extremely, and thus bemoans himself: "Oh! I am an horrible and grievous sinner! If I were to live again, what would I not do A world for comfort now, and to "die the death of the righteous." Because he "howls upon his bed," as the prophet speaketh, and breaks out oftentimes into a roaring complaint of sin, and cry for pardon, by reason he now begins to fear and feel the avenging hand of God ready to seize upon him for his former rebellions: or, when he assures him, having been a formal Christian only, of bliss and glory, because out of self-deceit, he cries, "Lord! Lord!!" seems to by-standers very confident that he shall presently receive a crown of life; thanks God that nothing troubles him; professes to every one that comes to visit him that he believes and repents with all his heart, forgives all the world, and makes no doubt of heaven.

 

 Here, by the way, we must take notice, that many, having "neglected so great salvation," and " judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life," all their life long, and now at length being overtaken, after a short gleam of prosperity, with the darkness of the evil day, may keep a stir upon their dying beds, or in some great extremity, with grievous complaints of their former sinful courses, with incessant cries for ease, being now caught, "like wild bulls, in a net full of the wrath of God;" and yet be not truly penitent, not soundly and savingly humbled, not rightly fitted for CHRIST and comfort. Their earnestness in such a case is ordinarily like the tears, prayers, and cries of a condemned malefactor. He is very earnest with the judge to spare him. He seems to relent, and to be touched with remorse, but it is only because he is like to be hanged. Again, many there are who, satisfying themselves and others with a goodly show of a " form of godliness," may, upon their last bed, discover a great deal of fearfulness about their spiritual state, and behave themselves as though they were most certainly going to everlasting bliss, when, as God knows, their answer at his just tribunal must be, "I know you not." They are so confident, not because they have escaped, but because they never saw their danger. And hence it is that many of them die with as much confidence as the best Christians. Now, concerning the present case, I must tell you, that, for my part, I would not much alter my judgment of a man's spiritual state, whom I have thoroughly known, for the manner of his death. The end of God's dearest servants, after an holy life and unblamable conversation, may not appear in the eye of man so comfortable as was expected, by reason of much tenderness of conscience, some strong temptation, spiritual desertion, violent distemper of body; or for some other secret and sacred end, seen good to Divine wisdom. On the other side, a notorious wretch, who has swam down the current of the times, may seem to die penitently; and yet his sorrow be but such as the terrors of a guilty conscience produce; and his resolution to cast away his sins only such as a man has in a storm to cast away his goods; not because he does not love them; but because he feareth to lose his life if he part not with them. Or, a mere moral, or formal man, may upon his bed of death be very confident, and yet that confidence be no other than a strange imaginary conceit of a covetous man grasping a great deal of gold in his dream, but when he awaketh, behold his hands are empty. For a more full and clear apprehension of the point, let us take a survey of the different kinds of death which ordinarily befal the godly and the wicked. And first, of the death of God's children, which arc divers: for,

 

 1. Some of their holy and zealous lives determine and expire gloriously, even like a clear sun in a summer's evening. The painful pangs of death are sweetened with the beams of God's glorious presence, and their fast embracing of JESUS CHRIST in the arms of their faith. So that to them, the very joys of heaven mingle themselves with those last agonies. Their heads are, as it were, crowned with immortality, and endless peace'upon their beds of death. Luther, that blessed man of GOD, died thus: " My heavenly Father," (said he at his death,) eternal and merciful God! you have manifested unto me thy dear Son, our Lord JESUS CHRIST. I have taught him, I have known him, I love him as my life, my health, and my redemption;-whom the wicked have persecuted, maligned, and with injury afflicted. Draw my soul to thee." After this, he said, thrice, " I commend my spirit into thine hands, you have redeemed me, O God of truth! God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that all that believe in him should have life ever-lasting." Hear how that blessed saint of GOD, Mr. John Holland, ended his days. Having, the day before he died, continued his meditation and exposition upon Rom. 8: for the space of two hours, or more, on a sudden he said, "O stay your reading! What brightness is this I see Have you lit up any candles" To which it was answered, "No; it is the sun-shine;" for it was about five o'clock, in a clear summer's evening. " Sun-shine! (said he,) nay, my Savior's-shine. Now, farewel world, welcome heaven! the Day-Star from on high has visited my heart. O speak it when I am gone, and preach it at my funeral, God dealeth familiarly with man. I feel his mercy, I see his Majesty, whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knows; but I see things that are unutterable!" So, ravished in spirit, he roamed towards heaven with a cheerful look and soft, sweet voice; but what he said could not be conceived. With the sun, in the morning following, raising himself, as Jacob did upon his staff, he shut up his blessed life with these words: " O what a happy change shall I make, from night to day! from darkness to light! from death to life! from sorrow to solace! from a factious world to an heavenly being! O my dear brethren, sisters, and friends! it pitieth me to leave you behind. Yet remember my death when I am gone, and what I now feel. I hope you shall find, ere you die, that God doth, and will deal familiarly with men. And now, you fiery chariot, that earnest down to fetch up Elijah, carry me to my happy hold. And all ye blessed angels, who attended the soul of Lazarus, to bring it up to heaven, bear me, oh! bear me into the bosom of my best-beloved! Amen, Amen. Come, Lord JESUS, come quickly!" And so he fell asleep.

 

 2. Others may end their days more uncomfortably, through the violence of their distemper. And yet, says one, " As a man may die like a lamb, and go to hell; so one dying in exceeding torments of the body may go to heaven."

 

 3. The death of some others is mixed with tempestuous storms, in the beginning of their last sickness, and a fair, refreshing, glorious calm towards the conclusion of their life. For some secret end and holy purpose, seeming good to his heavenly wisdom, God suffers sometimes even his dearest servants to taste, as it were, of the fire of hell, as a preparative to drink more sweetly of the well of life.

 

 4. Some of God's worthiest champions, and most zealous servants, do not answer the irreprovable sanctity of their life with those proportionable extraordinary comforts upon their beds of death which might be expected. So infinitely unfathomable, by all created understandings, are the depths of God's most'holy ways, and his inscrutable counsels; quite contrary, many times, to the conclusions of man's best wisdom. But every one of his, since he passes through those pangs into joys endlessand unspeakable, must be content to glorify GOD, and to be serviceable to his secret ends, with what kind of death he pleases; whether it be glorious and free from temptation, or uncomfortable, because of bodily distempers; or mingled with temptations and triumphs; or ordinary, and without any great show, after extraordinary singularities of an holy life, which promised an end of special note and admiration.

 

 Let us now take a survey of the death of the wicked, and those who were always strangers to the mystery of godliness, which are various also for,

 

 1, some die desperately. Though thousands perish by presumption, to one of these who despair; yet some there are to whom, Upon their beds of death, all their sins are set in order before them, and represented to the eye of their awakened consciences so terribly, that, at the very first sight, they are struck stark dead in soul and spirit, utterly overwhelmed and quite swallowed up with guilty and desperate horror.

 

 2. Others die senselessly. They demean themselves upon their dying beds as though there were no immortality of the soul; no tribunal above; no account to be given for all things done in the flesh; no everlasting estate in tte world to come, wherein every one must either he in unspeakable pains, or live in unutterable pleaslares. They are neither afflicted with any fear of hell, nor affected with any hope of heaven. They are unapprehensive of their danger, and fearless of the fiery lake into which they are ready to fall. In these regards they are utterly untouched, die most quietly, and without any trouble at all. And it is their ordinary answer, when they are questioned about their spiritual state, " I thank GOD, nothing troubles me." Thus these men, as one speaks, "live like stocks, and die like blocks. And yet the ignorant people (says Mr. Greenham,) commend such fearful deaths, saying, He departed as meekly as a lamb; when they might as well say, He died like a beast, and perished like an ox."

 

 3. Others die formally; I mean, they make goodly chews of much confidence and comfort. The spirit of delusion and self-cozenage continuing their groundless presumption in its heighth and strength unto the end. Of all the four kinds of death, which ordinarily befall such as are not saved, this is the fairest in show; but yet of greatest imposture to those about them, and of most pestilent consequence to harden all of the same humor.

 

 4. Some die penitently; I mean in outward appearance. Many, having served their appetites all their lives, now, when the sun of all their sensual delights begins to set, would very gladly be saved. Because " distress and anguish is come upon them," they inquire after GOD, and would now be gladly acquainted with him. They promise very fair what mended men they will be, if the Lord restore them. But all these goodly promises are but "as a morning cloud," and "as the early dew." It is true, that true repentance is never too late, but late repentance is seldom true. For here our sins rather leave us than we them, (as Ambrose says,) and as he adds, " Woe be unto them whose sin and life end together."

 

Now since upon this perusal of the different deaths incident to the godly and the wicked, it appears, that some men, never soundly converted, may, in respect of all out-ward representations, die as confidently and comfortably, in the opinion of most men, as God's dearest children; and that CHRIST's servants sometimes may depart this life uncomfortably to the eye; I spry, these things being so, I hold my conclusion still,-not much to alter my judgment of a man's spiritual state for the manner of his death. I except the thief upon the cross. My meaning is, that there may be some (I know not how few,) who may at last, being very extraordinarily humbled under God's mighty hand, and cleaving to the Lord JESUS with truly broken hearts, follow by a miracle, the thief upon the cross to an everlasting crown. And here now I require the care, the conscience, heavenly wisdom, experimental skill, and all his ministerial dexterity, in the physician of the soul, to discern aright between these and seeming penitents; and then to apply himself proportionably with all holy discretion to their several different estates.

 

 III. A third error is, when the spiritual physician pours the oil of comfort into a wounded conscience too soon. The surgeon that heals up a dangerous sore, and draws a skin over it, before his corrosives have consumed the dead flesh, before he has opened it, ransacked it to the root, and rent out the core, is so far from profiting, that he procures a deal of misery to his patient. For the rotten matter that remains behind will in the mean time fester underneath, and at length break out again, perhaps, both with more extremity of anguish, and difficulty of cure. They are but mountebanks, smatterers in physic and surgery. Upon the whole of the matter, but plain cheats and cozeners, who are so ready for extemporary cures. Sudden recoveries from old distempers are very seldom sound. If it be thus in bodily cures, what a deal of extraordinary discretion, heavenly wisdom, punctual weighing of circumstances, both speculative and experimental skill, heartiest ejaculations, wrestlings with God by prayer for. blessing, is very needful, for a true and right method in healing a wounded conscience which does pass immeasurably all other. maladies, both in exquisiteness of pain, tenderness of touch, deceitfulness of depth, and in highest and greatest consequence, either for the everlasting health, or endless horror of an immortal soul.

 

 Hence it was that that learned doctor in this heavenly mystery, Mr. Greenham, did so far differ from all daubers with untempered mortar. Treating of matters of this sort, he says, "I shall seem very strange in my cure; and so much the more be wondered at, by how much, in manner of proceeding, I differ from the most sort of met. herein. I am not ignorant that many visiting afflicted consciences, cry still, `O comfort them! O speak joyful things unto them!' Yea, there be some, and those of the most learned, who in such cases are full of these and such like speeches,' Why are you so heavy, my brother Be of good cheer. What is there that you should fear God is merciful, CHRIST is a Savior.' These be speeches of love indeed; but they often do the poor souls as much good herein as if they should pour cold water into their bosoms; when, as without further searching of their sores, they may as well minister a malady as a medicine. For as cordial medicines are not good for every sick person, especially when the body needeth. rather a strong purgation than restorative, so the comfortable applying God's promises are not so profitable for every one that is humbled; especially when their souls are rather further to be east down, than as yet to be raised up. Comfort seems to cure for a while; but, for want of wisdom in the right discerning of the cause, men minister one medicine for another; and so, for want of skill, the latter fit grindeth sorer than the former."

 

 So Calvin: "Let this be the first degree of repentance, when men feel that they have been grievous offenders and then the grief is not to be immediately cured; as impostors deal flatteringly and nicely with men's con-sciences, that they may favor themselves as much as may be, and are notably deceived with superficial daubing. The physician will not forthwith assuage the pain, but will consider what may be more expedient. Perhaps he will increase it, because a sharper purge will be necessary. Even so the prophets of GOD, when they see trembling consciences, -do not presently apply sweet consolations; but rather tell them that they must not dally with God; and stir up those who are so forward of their own accord,. that they would propose unto themselves the terrible judgment of GOD, that they may yet be more and more humbled."

 

Mr. Rogers, another excellent and skilful workman in the great mystery of saving souls, tells us truly, " that the promise of salvation is not straight belonging to one terrified in conscience; but to one that is not only terrified for his punishment, but contrite for sin. Let not these be weary of the yoke of God and the law, and make over-much haste out of this state, for so may they undo them-selves. For some, notwithstanding their terror, have withstood their salvation; even as an impatient patient gets the surgeon to pull off the corrosive, or pulls it off himself, as soon as it begins to smart a little, and so thinks it is searched enough, and now lays on healing plasters; but afterwards it breaks out again worse than ever. Whereas, if the corrosive had been let he on till it had eaten out the corruption indeed, then it might have been whole long ago."

 

 If daubers in this kind, had ever had any experimental feeling in their own souls of CHRIST's rule and the Holy Ghost's method, which is, first, to convince of sin; to deject and humble in the sight of the Lord, with apprehension and sense of a most abominable and cursed state, before there follow a conviction of the righteousness of CHRIST to raise up; or of the necessity of the work of the spirit of bondage to prepare for CHRIST and comfort; they would not deal so ignorantly in a matter of so dear and everlasting importance. They would not so hastily, without all warrant and wisdom, without any further search,' discovery, or dejection, offer mercy, pardon, and all the promises to a man formerly wicked, only for some faint and enforced confession of sins; but would labor to let the spirit of bondage have its full work, and lay him open more at large in the true colours of his scarlet sins; and not only produce a bare confession of them, but such a conviction, which may stop his mouth, that he path not a word to speak. Oh! how often have I heard many a poor ignorant soul, in the day of sorrow, being moved to " humble himself in the sight of the Lord," that he might lift him up; first, to get his heart broken with the abhorred burden of all his sins, and then to bring it thus bleeding to the throne of grace, that CHRIST might bind it up; I say, being thus intreated, how oft have I heard them answer, " Yes, yes, with all my heart: I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. I truss in JESUS CHRIST with all my heart." And thus whatsoever you can advise, he does it with all his heart. Whereas, alas! as yet, his understanding is as dark as darkness itself, in respect of any, (I say, not only,) saving know-ledge, but almost of any knowledge at all; and his heart, in respect of any true remorse, as hard as a rock of stone.

 

 But hence it may be, some troubled soul may say, " Alas, if it be thus, what shall I think of myself L do not remember, that ever I tasted so deeply of such terrors. I have not had such experience of the spirit of bondage, and therefore I am in doubt about the truth and soundness of my conversion." I answer: in this case of legal terrors and humiliations, we do not prescribe just such a measure. We do not determine upon such and such a degree; we leave that to the wisdom of the only wise God. But sure we are, a man must have so much as to bring him to CHRIST. It must make him mealy of all his sins; willing to " pluck out his right eye," and " cut off his right hand;" I mean, to part with his bosom sins; to sell all, and not leave so much as an hoof behind. It must necessarily be so much, as to make him sec his danger, and so haste to the city of refuge; to be sensible of his spiritual misery, that he may heartily thirst for mercy; to find himself lost and cast away in himself, that CHRIST may be all in all unto him. And after must follow an hatred of all evil ways; a thorough change of former courses, company, conversation;. and setting himself in the way and practice of sobriety, honesty, and holiness. If you have had experience of these effects in thy soul, whatsoever measure of the spirit of bondage has been in thee, you art safe enough, and maycst go on comfortably in the holy path, without any discouragement.

 

 These things premised, I come to tell you, that for the rectifying of that fore-mentioned error, and prevention of the danger of daubing and undoing for ever, I would advise the spiritual physician, to labor with the utmost of his skill, best experience, heartiest prayers, and most piercing persuasions, watchfully to observe the season, when he may, upon good ground, apply unto the wounded soul assured comfort in the promises of life, and that sovereign blood, which was spilt for broken hearts; and assure him, that all those rich compassions, which he within the compass of that great covenant of everlasting mercy, sealed with the painful sufferings of the Son of GOD, belong unto him. Which is then, when his heart is soundly humbled under God's mighty hand, and brought at length to, First, A truly penitent sight, sense, and hatred of all sin: Secondly, A sincere and insatiable thirst after JESUS CHRIST, and his righteousness, both imputed and inherent: Thirdly, An unfeigned and unreserved resolution of an universal new obedience.

 

 In the mean time, before such fitness be fully effected, I would have the man of God address his patient with his best persuasions and proofs, (seasonably mingled with motives to humiliation,) on the pardonableness of his sins, possibility of pardon, damnableness of despair, Clanger of, ease by outward mirth; and to hold out, as a prize and lure, as it were, the freeness of God's immeasurable mercy, the general offer of JESUS CHRIST, without any exception of persons, times, or sins; the preciousness and infallibility of the promises, in as fair and lovely a fashion as he can possibly. But it is one thing to say, "If these things be so, I can assure you of the promises of life, and your real interest in all the riches of God's grace, and glorious purchase of CHRIST's meritorious blood;" and another thing to say, " If you will suffer your understandings to be enlightened, your consciences to be convinced, your hearts to be wounded with the sight, sense, and horror of sin; if you will come in, and take JESUS CHRIST, his person, his passion, his yoke; if you will entertain these and these affections, longings, and resolutions, then most certainly our merciful Lord will crown your souls with his dearest compassions and freest love."

 

 Lastly, That when all, is done, when the men of God have their desire; that the patient, in their persuasion, is soundly wrought upon, and professeth, as they verily think, from his heart; 1. That he is heavy laden with the grievous burden of all his sins; That he is come to that resolution, to do any thing; which we find in the hearers of John and. Peter, Luke 3: Acts 2: 3. That he prizeth CHRIST far above the riches, pleasures, and glory of the whole earth; thirsts and longs for him infinitely. 4. That he is most willing to sell all; to part with all sin, with his right eye and right hand. 5. That he is content with all his heart to take CHRIST, as well for a Lord and Husband, to serve, love, and obey him, as for a Savior to deliver him from the miseries of sin; to associate himself to that sect, which is so "'spoken against every where:" I say, when it is thus with the afflicted party, (and most happy is he, when it is thus with him,) yet, notwithstanding, because God alone is the " Searcher of the heart;" and " the heart of man is deceitful above all things;" we can assure mercy and pardon only conditionally. We must ever add, either expressedly, or impliedly, " If all this which you profess be in truth; if you be thus resolved indeed; then you may sweetly repose your soul upon JESUS CHRIST, as your " Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption;" upon all the promises of life, and God's free grace, as truly belonging unto you."

 

 But even then there are counsels and caveats, which the faithful physician of the soul, according to occasions, circumstances, and present exigents, may think fit to be mingled with administration of mercy, and wisely pro-pounded to the afflicted party. It may not prove unseasonable to speak thus, or in some such manner, to thy spiritual patient. 1. If these things be truly so; if you feel indeed such a melting spirit, such broken andbleeding affections, you art blessed. If that sorrowful soul of thine does renounce from the very heart, with utter detestation, all manner of sin; insatiably thirst after righteousness; unfeignedly resolve, for the time to come, to bend itself towards heaven in all new obedience; I say, if this be sincerely the disposition of thine heart, you art truly happy. Only take notice, (lest my ministering of mercy be mistaken,) that the " heart of man is deceitful above all things." A bottomless depth it is of falsehoods, dissemblings, hypocrisies. An endless maze of windings, turnings, and hidden passages. No eye can search and see its centre, but that all-seeing one alone, which is ten thousand times brighter than the sun; and therefore, not I, nor any man alive, can promise pardon, but upon supposition; " If these things be so." And the sincerity of thy heart, and truth of these protestations, will appear, when this dismal tempest, which has overcast and shaken thy spirit with fear and astonishment, is over-blown. Thy course of life to come will prove a true touch-stone, to try, whether this be the kindly travail of the new birth. If, when thy soul shall recover calmness and quiet, you turn unto thine old company and conversation; it will then be manifest, that this furnace of terror and temptation was so far from working thine heart to heavenly-mindedness, that it has hammered it to more hardness; so far from purging and refining, that it has occasioned more earthliness and sensuality therein. But if, when you art raised by God's merciful hand, out of the depth of this spiritual distress, you express thy hatred against sin, by an earnest opposition, watchfulness, and striving against all, especially that, which before stuck closest to thy bosom; by thine hunger and thirst after a comfortable fruition of God; by a constant pursuit, and exercise of all means and opportunities of all his blessed ordinances, appointed for growth in grace, and bringing us nearer unto him; and by attending, with thy best endeavors, and utmost ability, to those three glorious works of Christianity;

 

1. Preservation of purity in thine own soul and body:

 

2. Righteous dealing with all you have to do with:

 

3. Holy carriage towards God in all religious duties;-I say, if upon thy recovery, this be thy course, such behavior will infallibly evidence thy happy translation from death to life, from the vanity and folly of sin, into the light and liberty of God's children.

 

 2. Say unto him, " When once that blessed fountain of saving blood is opened upon thy soul, in the side of the Son of GOD, by the hand of faith, then also must a counter-spring of repentant tears be opened in thine humbled heart, which must not be dried up until thy dying day." This is my. meaning; (for every Christian has not tears at command: the heart sometimes may bleed, when the eyes are dry.) You must be content to continue the current of thy godly sorrow upon those infirmities, defects, relapses, backslidings, which may accompany thy regenerate state, even until that body of sin be dissolved. As concerning thine old sins, it is not enough that now the horror of them has wrought upon thy heart some softness and remorse: but you must many a time hereafter, in the extraordinary exercises of renewed repentance, press thy penitent spirit to bleed afresh within thee, and draw water again out of the bottom of thy broken heart, with those Israelites, " and pour it out before the Lord," for thy never sufficiently sorrowed-for abominations, against so blessed and bountiful a God.

 

 Now, the solemn times and occasions, when we are called to this renewed repentance, are such as these: 1. When we are to perform some special services unto God; because then out of a godly jealousy we may fear, lest the light of his countenance may not he so open unto us, by reason of the interposition of our former sins. 2. When we seek for any special blessing at God's hand;; because then out of a gracious fear we may suspect that our old sins may intercept the sweet and comfortable influences of the throne of grace. 3. In the time of some great affliction, when upon a new search,and strict examination of our hearts and lives, we humble ourselves again in the sight of the Lord, and mourn afresh over him, whom we have pierced with our youthful pollutions. 4. After a relapse into some old secret lust, or fall into some new sin. 5. Above all, upon those mighty days of humiliation by prayer and fasting, public or private, wherein God's people wrestle with God by the omnipotence of prayer, and work so many wonders from time to time. 6. Some there are also, who, setting apart some special times to confer with God in secret, lay together before him, the glorious catalogue of the 6ches of his mercy, all his favors, preservations, deliverances, from their first being, to that time; and the abhorred catalogue of all their sins from Adam to that very hour, original, both imputed and inherent; actual, both before and since their calling: a serious comparing of which two together, makes sin more loathsome, and the mercies of God more illustrious; and so proves effectual many times to soften men's hearts, and fills their souls with much joyful sorrow, and humble thankfulness. Upon such occasions as these, when you art called to a more solemn and severe review of thy old sins, you must renew this present repentance of thy new birth, and make thine heart break again. And so often also, as you lookest back upon them, you must labor to aborninate them, with more resolute aversion. Though it may - be, by the mercies of GOD, they shall never be able to sting thee again with guilty horror; yet you must still endeavor to strangle utterly thy former delight in them, with more hearty additions of deadly hatred; and to be more humbled for them until thy ending hour. It is a very high happiness to be able to look back upon the choicest youthful pleasures and pollutions, without either sensual delight, or slavish horror; with sincere hatred, holy indignation, and hearty mourning.

 

 Also, for those sins, which thy fallen nature imperfectly renewed, and the violence of temptation may possibly hereafter cause thee to connnit; if thy heart be now touched, you shall find much necessity of continuing thy repentance, so long as thy life lasts. A ruinous house must be still in repairing. These bodies of death arc naturally liable to so many breaches, by the assaults of original sin, and other implacable enemies, that there is need of perpetual watch and ward, repenting and re-pairing. When you art in company, solitary, busied about thy particular calling, there may suddenly arise in thine heart, some vain, unclean, revengeful thought; in such a case, ejaculate presently a penitent sigh, and fervent prayer for pardon. In thy family, perhaps amongst thy children and servants, by reason of some cross accident, you may break out into some unadvised speech; not without danger of hurting those about thee; get thee presently into thy closet, throw thyself down with a truly grieved and humbled soul, before the throne of grace, and rise not until you he reconciled unto thy God. If at any time, (which God forbid,) you be over-taken with some more public sin, or dangerously haunted with some secret lust; appoint for thyself a solemn day of humiliation; and then cry unto the Lord, " like a woman in travail;" and give him no rest until he return unto thee with the wonted favor of his countenance. If Christians would constantly attend to this blessed business of immediately rising by repentance, after every relapse, they would soon find a further pleasure in the ways of GOD, than they ever yet tasted. This course continued, would help excellently, by the blessing of GOD, to keep in their bosoms that, which they much desire, and often bewail, the want of a cheerful, bold, and heavenly spirit.

 

 Neither let any be troubled, because I press the exercise both of renewed and continued repentance all our life; as though thereupon the Christian's life might seem uncomfortable. For sorrow according to GOD, evangelical mourning, is mingled with abundance of spiritual joy, which does infinitely surpass in sweetness, all worldly pleasures and delights of sense. Nay, where as the mirth of carnal men is but a flash of hellish folly; this is a very glimpse of heavenly glory. Let me tell you again, how sweetly and truly an excellent divine speaks of it, "There is," says he, " more lightness of heart, and true delight in the sorrow of the saints, than in the world's loudest laughter: for unspeakable joy is mingled with unutterable groans." The ancient fathers are of the same mind: " Godly sorrow," says Chrysostom, " is better than the joy of the world. Even as the joy of the world is ever accompanied with sorrow; so tears, ac-cording to GOD, beget continual delight." Again, "such a man as this now," (meaning him whose heart is in-flamed with heavenly love,) " despising all things here below, does persevere in continual compunction, pouring out abundance of tears every day, and taking thence a great deal of pleasure." " Let the repentant," saint Austin, " be always sorrowful for sin, and always rejoice for that sorrow."

 

 But here you must. beware of two dangerous errors, 1. Either to conceive that a man may not admit of any comfort, because he still finds in himself more matter of mourning and humiliation. 2. Or to think, when he has once laid hold on CHRIST, that then he must mourn no more. 1. For the first, know, that were our heads seas, and our eyes fountains of tears; should our hearts fall asunder into drops of blood, through indignation against ourselves for our transgressions; yet should we come infinitely short of the sorrow, which our many and heinous sins require. Therefore we cannot expect any such sorrow, or weeping for our sins, as thereby to win God's favor. Such a conceit were most absurd, senseless, and sinful, and would rather discover pride, than true humility. Had we a thousand eyes, it' were too little to weep them all out, for the very vanity of that one sinful thought. Had we a thousand hearts, and they should all burst with penitent grief, it were immeasurably, inconceivably insufficient. For were all this so,, yet it would not be this, but the heart's blood of JESUS CHRIST, that could make the Father's heart to' yearn over us. Whoever, therefore, has to deal with a poor troubled soul, sorely crushed, under the burden of his sins, endlessly pleading against himself, out of a strong apprehension of his own vileness and unworthiness, putting off all comfort by his misconceit, that no seas of sorrow will serve the turn to come comfortably unto JESUS CHRIST; let him press upon such a one this true principle: " So soon as a man is heartily humbled for all his sins, and weary of their weight, though the degree of his sorrow be not answerable to his desires, yet he shall most certainly be welcome unto JESUS CHRIST." It is not so much the measure of our sorrow, as the truth thereof, which fits us for the promises of mercy. Though I must say this also, "He that thinks he has sorrowed enough for his sins, never sorrowed savingly."

 

 2. For the second, take notice, that the blood of CHRIST, savingly applied to thine humbled soul, must, by no means dry up thy well-spring of weeping, but only assuage and heal thy fear. That precious balm has this heavenly property and power, that it rather melts, softeneth, and makes the heart a great deal more ripe for weeping. If these he truly the pangs of the new birth, you shall find, that thy cleaving with assurance unto the Lord JESUS, will not so much cause thy sorrow to cease, as season and sweeten it. If you cast thine eye, with a believing heart upon him, whom you have pierced with thy sins, (and those sins are said properly to have pierced CHRIST, which at length are pardoned by his blood,) you can not possibly contain, but love unto thy crucified Lord, and a sense of God's mercy, will make thee weep again, and force thine heart to burst out abundantly into fresh and filial tears. As David's heart bled afresh with repentant sorrow, upon his assurance by Nathan of the pardon of his sin, Psalm li.; so you can not choose, but mourn more heartily and evangelically, in such a manner, as shall sweetly perpetuate the spring of thy godly sorrow.

 

 Take, therefore, special heed of these two depths of the devil, that I have now disclosed unto thee; and with regard to thy soul, pursue the following method. First, on the one hand; when you art truly wrought upon by the ministry of the word, believe the prophets; those ones of a thousand, learned in the right handling of afflicted consciences, and thou. shall prosper. As soon as thy soul is soundly humbled for sin, open it joyfully like the thirsty ground, that the refreshing dew of the gospel may drop and distil upon it, as the small rain upon the parched grass. Otherwise, 1. You offerest dishonor to the tenderness of God's mercy; who is ever infinitely ready to bind up a broken heart. Consider the parable of the prodigal son, Luke 15: He is said to go, but the father to run. 2. You may, by thy heavy heart, unnecessarily disable thyself for the duties of thy calling. 3. You art extremely cruel to thine own soul. For whereas it might now be filled with unspeakable joy; with " peace that passes all understanding;" with cbangelical pleasures, such as " neither eye has seen, nor car heard, neither have entered into the heart of man;" by taking CHRIST; vet for all this, you standcst out, forsakest thine own comfort, and liest still upon the rack of doubt and fear.

 

 Secondly, on the other hand: when the anguish of thy guilty conscience is allayed and supplied with the oil of comfort; you must not either shut up thine eyes from further search into thy sins, or dry them up from any more mourning. But comfort of remission must serve as a precious eye-salve, both to clear their sight, that they may see more, and with more detestation; and to enlarge their sluices, as it were, to pour out repentant tears more plentifully. You must still dive into that body of death you bearest about thee, for the finding out as much matter of sound humiliation as may be; that you may still grow viler and viler in thine own eyes, and be more and more humbled until thy dying day. But yet so, that, as you boldest out in the one hand the clear crystal of God's pure law to discover the vileness and variety of thy sins; so you hold out in the other hand, the Lord JESUS, hanging, bleeding, and dying upon the cross for thy sake. The one is sovereign, to save from slavish stings of conscience; the other mingled with faith, will serve as a quickening preparative to keep in thy bosom a soft, and lowly spirit; which does ever excellently fit, to live by faith more cheerfully, to enjoy God more nearly, to apply JESUS CHRIST more feelingly, and to long for his coming more earnestly. In a word, to climb up those stairs of joy, which are pressed upon us by the holy prophet, Psalm xxxii. " Be glad-Rejoice-and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart."

 

 Observe here, that hypocrisy may lurk in very goodly outward forms, and fair protestations of earnest humiliation. I mean not only gross hypocrisy, whereby men deceive others; but formal hypocrisy, whereby men deceive themselves. For I make no question, but the p omises of amendment, which many make, when they are panting under some heavy cross, or grievous sickness, proceed from their hearts; I mean, they speak as they think; and, for the present, purpose performance; who, notwithstanding, upon their recovery, "return with the dog unto the vomit." I mention this point, not to trouble any true converts about the truth of their hearts in their troubles of conscience; for their prizing and cleaving to the Lord JESUS, heartily and steadily; and _ their present new obedience make it evident, that they have been savingly melted in the furnace of their spiritual afflictions. But to terrify those miserable men, who, having tasted the torture of a wounded conscience, dare upon any terms look back, and again commit those sins, which have already stung their hearts with the very terrors of hell: or rather, at this time, to teach the afflicted in conscience, that, when the rich treasures of God's free mercy, and " the unsearchable riches of CHRIST" are opened, he may not drink indiscreetly, as to fall into a surfeit of security. But to prevent miscarriage, in a matter of so invaluable moment, let him rather mingle motives to humiliation with his medicine of mercy. Let him fear and attend his own deceitful heart, with a narrow watch, and a very jealous eye. Otherwise that false heart may prove a depth, to drown his soul in the pit of endless perdition. For in time of extremity, especially of conscience, it may seem pliable, and promise fair; and yet when it comes to perform, either impudently wallows again in open wickedness, or rests only in a form of godliness.

 

 Since you art now turning unto GOD, and giving up thy name unto CHRIST, consider seriously what you undertakest, and think deliberately beforehand, what it is like to cost thee. You must lay thy account with becoming the drunkard's song, and having those that sit in the gate to speak against thee; the vilest of men railing upon thee, and the wisest of the world laughing at thee. You must be content to live a despised man, to be scoffed at, to " be hated of all men;" to " crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts;" to look upon the world, set out in the gaudiest manner, with all her baits of riches, honors, pleasures, as upon an unsavoury, rotten carrion. You and the world must be as two dead carcasses upon one bier, without any mutual commerce, or intercourse; strangers and stark dead one unto another. For keeping a good conscience you must deny thyself, thy worldly wisdom, carnal reason, corrupt affections; thy acceptation with the world, credit and applause; thy passions, profit, pleasures, possibility of growing great; thy nearest friends, ease, liberty, life itself. You must resolve upon this, or you wilt never be able to hold out in thy spiritual building, or conquer in the Christian warfare.

 

 Many professors have been affrighted with this counsel of leaving all for CHRIST, and, proving cowards, have turned back; but be not you disheartened: for thou shall be no loser, but a great gainer thereby. Beside's " eternal life in the world to come," you shall " receive an hundred fold now in this time," as CHRIST himself tells thee, Mark 10: 3O. If you part with worldly joys, you shall have quiet in the Holy Ghost, spiritual joy, unspeakable and glorious, nearer familiarity with GOD, dearer communion with JESUS CHRIST. To which the pleasures of ten thousand worlds were but pain. If you lose thine husband; he that made thee will be in his stead. "Thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name." If you lose thy father; the all-sufficient Jehovah, blessed for ever, will pity thee, " as a father pitieth his children." If you lose thy friends, you shall have the excellent upon earth to love thee dearly, and pray heartily for thee. In a word, if you lose all for CHRIST's sake, he will be unto thee all in all. And in him all things shall be thine- in a far more sweet and eminent manner. "All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are CHRIST's, and CHRIST is God's."

 

Now, when the spiritual physician shall see the soil of his patient's heart well softened with sorrow for sin, comfortably warmed with refreshing beams of favor from the face of CHRIST, and so seasonably fitted to enter a Christian course, and to "bring forth fruits meet for repentance;" let him throw in timely seeds of zeal, undaunted courage, and unshaken resolution about the affairs of heaven; that it may be preserved free from the rank and flourishing, but fruitless, weed of formality and lukewarmness. Which pestilent canker, if it once take root in the heart, will never suffer the flowers of saving grace to grow by it. For as a loathsome vomit is to the stomach of him that casts it out; so are lukewarm professors to the Lord JESUS, Rev. 3: 16. I marvel many times what such men mean, thus to use the mighty Lord of heaven and earth. He offers to us' in the ministry his own blessed Son, to be our dear and everlasting husband; his person, with all the royal endowments thereof, to be enjoyed through all eternity. Do you think it then likely, that he will accept at'our hands an heart-less, formal, outward service; a cold, rotten carcase of religion That we should serve ourselves in the first place, and him in the second That we should spend the flower of our loves, joys, and services, upon some abominable bosom sin, and give the everlasting God only some outward religious forms And those also so far only, as they hurt not our temporal happiness, but may consist with the entire enjoyment of some inordinate lust, pleasure, profit, or preferment My counsel there-fore is, when the spiritual patient has passed the tempestuous sea of a troubled conscience, and is now taking a new course, that by all means he take heed not to split upon this rock.

 

 IV. Though it be an ordinary, yet it is a dangerous error to conceive, that all is ended, when the afflicted party is mended; and has received ease and enlargement from the terrible pressures of his troubled conscience. If upon recovery out of trouble, there follow not a continued exercise of repentance; an universal change in every faculty of soul, and in every disposition, word, and action; an hatred and opposition to all sin; a delight in the Word, ways, sabbaths, and saints of God; a constant endeavor to make good the promises made in time of distress; in a word, if there follow not a new life; if all things do not become new, all is to no purpose in the point of salvation. They are then miserable comforters, physicians of no value, who think if they can any ways still the cries of a guilty conscience, they have done a worthy work; though after their daubing, there be nothing left behind, but a senseless scar. I fear many poor souls are fearfully deluded, who being recoverd out of terrors of conscience too suddenly, unseasonably, or one way or other unsoundly, conceive presently, they are truly converted; though afterward they are the very same men they were before; or at best, bless themselves in the seeming happiness of an half conversion.

 

 For a more full discovery of this mischief, let me ac-quaint you with four or five passages out of pangs of con-science, which still lead a man amiss; and for all the smart of a wounded spirit, drown him in the works of darkness, and ways of death. 1. Some, when by the piercing power of the law, their consciences are pressed with the intolerable weight of their sins, with unspeakable rage and horror, fall into the most abhorred, and irrecoverable dungeon of despair. The flames of eternal fire seize upon them, even in this life; they are in hell upon earth, and damned, as it were, above ground. 2. Others there are, who finding their sins discovered, and their consciences wounded by the Word; and now feeling sadness, terrors, perplexity, and anxiety of spirit coming upon them, have speedy recourse, to outward mirth, carnal contentments, and such other miserable comforters. They suppose, that these pangs that are now upon them, are nothing but fits of melancholy, or unseasonable effects of some puritanical ministry, and dangerous temptations to despair. And therefore they get out of them as fast as they can, by posting after worldly pleasures, company, visits, and entertainments. Thus I know not, whether with more sin or folly, they endeavor to come to themselves again by means, wherein they are not unlike the bloody Israelites; who, while they burnt their children in sacrifice to Moloch, filled their ears with the noise of instruments, lest by the cries of their babes, they should be moved to pity. So these men of pleasure and perdition, seek to stop the guilty clamors of their vexed consciences with the comforts of this life and sensual joy, while their souls are sacrificing to SATAN, lest by listening to their cries, they should be stirred up to take compassion on their own immortal souls. But alas! though earthly pleasures may give ease for the present, assuredly they will afterwards kindle such a' fire in the bowels of these miserable men, that will burn even to the bottom of hell. He that goes about to cure the wound of his conscience with sensual delight, is as if, to help the tooth-ache, he should knock out his brains; as if in extremity of thirst, he should drink rank poison to quench it; or prop up his falling roof with burning fire-brands.

 

I know full well, SATAN does much applaud this pestilent course of theirs; and therefore he helps forward this accursed business all he can, of banishing trouble for sin with worldly toys. And ordinarily he proceeds thus: 1. In the first place, he labors to detain men in such a degree of hard-heartedness, that they shall not be moved at all with the ministry, or suffer the sword of the Spirit to pierce. And then, like a strong man armed, he possesseth their bodies and souls, which are his palace, with much peace; and employs them wholly in any hellish service at his pleasure. Thus he prevails with a world of men amongst us. They hear sermon after sermon, and yet are no more stirred, than the very scats whereon they sit, or the pillars whereon they lean.

 

 2. But if it fall out so by God's blessing, that the Word once begins to enter within a man, and to work terror and trouble of mind for sin; so that he sees him grow sensible of his slavery, and like enough to break the prison, and escape, then does he seriously observe which way the party inclines, and how he may be most easily diverted. First, if he find him to have been an horrible sinner, of a sad disposition, or much afflicted with out-ward crosses; he then lays a load of dejection and distress upon his affrighted soul, that, if it be possible, he may drive him to despair. But if, secondly, he perceive him not to have been guilty of any notorious sins, and to be of a cheerful constitution, and that he is striving to disentangle himself out of these terrors, and to enjoy his former delights and companions, then he is ready to follow and feed his humor this way; that so he may stifle the work of the spirit of bondage in the very beginning. And to this end he blunts, with all the cunning he can, the sting of a man's conscience, and quite removes his own. He procures and offers all occasions of outward satisfaction. He furnishes his fellows in iniquity with pernicious eloquence, and store of enticements, to bring him back to their courses. He ministers his own delicious potions of carnal pleasure, to cast his conscience asleep again. In brief, he leaves no practice unessayed, to make the power of the law unprofitable unto him. And thus the wretched man, flying to human helps, to worldly wisdom, to mirth, good-fellowship, company, riches, pastimes; nay, even to drinking, dancing, masking, revelling, roaring, and other such raging fooleries, gets rid of those pangs of conscience, which began to interrupt his quiet.

 

 3. Some there are, who pass out of trouble of mind for sin, into a kind of artificial and counterfeit peace of conscience. I mean thus; when a man, wounded by the power of the Word, but weary of the wound, impatient of spiritual heaviness, obstinately set against the holy severities of repentance, mortification, and walking with God; and withal meeting with some wretched dauber with untempered mortar, who is very ready to heal his heart with sweet words, " saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace;" snatches hold of comfort, and applies the promises of mercy and salvation, before they belong unto him; before he be searched to the quick, sounded to the bottom, and throughly humbled; before the spirit of bondage has had its perfect work, and he is truly fitted for JESUS CHRIST.

 

 These usually lay hold on some such text as this: " Come unto me all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," Matt. 11: 28. Yea, but they are not weary of their sins, but only troubled with the present terror; nor willing to take upon them the yoke of CHRIST. Well enough content they are to take him as a Savior to preserve them from hell, but not as a Lord,a king, and an husband, to serve, obey, and love him. Again, they make this Scripture their strong hold: " Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," Rom. 10: 13. Yea, but they do not consider, that many also shall cry, Lord! Lord! and yet be excluded from eternal bliss; and therefore all that call savingly upon the name of CHRIST, must depart from iniquity; but they upon recovery, will by no means depart from their darling delight. Sometimes they soothe themselves with this word, " He that believeth on the Son, has everlasting life," John 3: 36. Yea, but justifying faith purifies the heart, Acts 15: 9, fills it with dear affections unto heavenly things, deadens. it to the world, and divorces it from all former carnal pleasures. Or this: " I will give to him that is athirst, of the water of life freely," Rev. 21: 6. Yea, but they thirst only for salvation, not for sanctification; for mercy, not for grace; for happiness, not for holiness.

 

 These men, as well as the second sort, will by no means go through the pangs of the new birth into the holy path. They wickedly misconceive, (out of the principles of their own wisdom, prejudice against the power of godliness, and pestilent persuasions of pillow-sewers under their elbows, that in so doing, they shall be utterly undone, and never have a good day afterward; but, (to speak in their own language,). fall presently into the hands of the Puritans, into preciseness, sourness, unsociableness, and melancholy. Therefore, upon the first fright, and feeling the smart of a confused remorse and horror for sin, with-out any thorough search into their hearts or lives; without suffering the spirit of bondage to drive them to CHRIST, and a resolution to sell all; they presently and inconsiderately apply all the gracious promises to their unhumbled souls; and think they are justified by an heartless notion, which they call faith. And so resting in a persuasion, that they are true converts, ordinarily turn carnal professors.

 

 Now, these carnal professors are a kind of people, who have no more spiritual life than a dead faith can infuse into them; no more comfort in the communion of saints than an outward correspondence in profession; no more right to heaven, than a bold presumptuous confidence, built upon their own fancy, and SATAN's lying suggestions, can give them. Their sorrow for sin, at the most, is no more than afflicting their souls for a day, and bowing down their heads like a bulrush, without loosing the bands of wickedness,_ or departing from iniquity. Their conversion is nothing but a passage from a confused apprehension of sin, to a general application of CHRIST. Their new obedience consists only in a formal conformity to outward exercises of religion, without all true zeal, life, heartiness, holiness, or indeed honest dealing with their brethren. But let these men know, that CHRIST never pardoned any man whose spirit he did not purge from guile. He never saves any one from hell, whom he does not first season with holiness and heavenly life. In vain do they build comfort upon his passion, who do not conform to his Word.

 

 Many unfaithful men in the ministry, both in their public teaching, and private visitations of the sick, have much to answer for in this point: who, for want of skill in that highest art of saving souls, of familiarity with GOD, and the secret workings of his Spirit, many times concur with such miserable men, in stifling the very first stirrings of remorse, by healing the wounds of their consciences with sweet words, before they be searched and sounded to the bottom; and an unseasonable heaping of comfort there, where, as yet, a good ground-work of true humiliation is not soundly laid.

 

 Amongst the many important parts of our ministerial employments, I fear this weighty affair of visiting the sick, is passed over also with much ignorance, slightness, and neglect. It is incredible to consider, how fear-fully many offend, and what a deal of hurt they do, by observing one plodding general form, and that a poor one too, towards all patients promiscuously; without any judicious discretion in distinguishing the variety of spiritual states, the different degrees of unregenerateness, or former courses of life. Commonly their carriage in such cases is the same to the notorious sinner, and the mere civil man; the formal professor and backslider; the weak and strong; the tempted and untempted Christian. If they but hear from the sick man a general acknowledgment of his sins, formal cries for mercy and pardon, de-sires to die the death of the righteous, they will presently tell him, All is well. Many a time such fellows as these discharge their common-place-books of all the places of mercy and comfort upon those men, who were never acquainted with the ways of God in their life-time, nor with the truth of their humiliation, or truly with the great work of repentance upon their beds of death.