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 SELECT K 
 
 CHRISTIAN AUTHORS, 
 
 INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS. 
 
THE 
 
 REDEEMER'S TEARS 
 
 WEPT OVER 
 
 LOST SOULS: 
 
 TWO DISCOURSES 
 
 ON SELF-DEDICATION, AND ON YIELDING 
 OURSELVES TO GOD. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. JOHN HOWE, M. A. 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. ROBERT GORDON, 
 
 EDINBURGH. 
 
 GLASGOW: 
 PRINTED FOR CHALMERS AND COLLINS; 
 
 WAUGH & INNES, EDINBURGH ; R. M. TIMS, DUBLIN ; 
 AND G. & W. B. WHITTAKER, LONDON. 
 
 1822. 
 
 ,--■ 
 
Printed by W. Collins & Co. 
 Glasgow. 
 
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 
 
 It can hardly have escaped the observation of any- 
 one who has read the Bible with attention, that 
 in all the communications which the Almighty has 
 been pleased to make to his rebellious subjects, he 
 has employed language the best calculated to make 
 its way to the heart and affections of mankind — that 
 while his remonstrances with the impenitent present 
 a lamentable picture of the most unreasonable hos- 
 tility, and unprovoked aggression on their part, they 
 bear testimony, at the same time, to the most com- 
 passionate forbearance on his — and that as often as 
 he directly addresses the penitent and believing, 
 whether it be in the way of reproof or of consola- 
 tion, it is still in terms that breathe all the affection- 
 ate tenderness of a father's love. That such is the 
 language of Scripture nobody can for a moment dis- 
 pute, and that the design of such language is to 
 remove those unworthy suspicions of the divine cha- 
 racter, which go to array the feelings and affections 
 of the human heart in hostility to its Maker, and 
 perpetuate the enmity of the carnal mind against 
 God, is equally obvious and incontrovertible. It 
 
VI 
 
 will readily be admitted too, that if any thing ap- 
 proaching to such generosity and unmerited forbear- 
 ance, could be manifested by one human being to- 
 wards another, it could not fail to extort a universal 
 tribute of admiration and respect, and that the com- 
 mon consent of mankind would pronounce that man 
 to have reached the very last stage of moral insensi- 
 bility, who could remain unaffected by such treat- 
 ment on the part of one whom he had injured, or 
 whose hostility that treatment would fail to disarm. 
 And yet, is not such, in point of fact, the reception 
 that the compassion of God has met with on the part 
 of not a few of his offending creatures? Are there 
 not multitudes who are conscious that they have 
 never been deeply or permanently affected by all the 
 tenderness of that commiseration which God has min- 
 gled with the very severest of his denunciations against 
 the workers of iniquity — that if, at any time, their 
 conscience is alarmed on contemplating the rigorous 
 requirements, and inviolable sanctions of his law, as 
 necessarily demanding a full and perfect satisfaction, 
 they receive at such a moment, with suspicion and 
 distrust, the solemn declarations of his word, that he 
 lias no pleasure in the death of the sinner — and that 
 even when they succeed in suppressing that anxiety, 
 and take refuge in those views of the divine mercy? 
 which represent him as looking on sin with too in- 
 dulgent an eye, ever to carry into effect against it 
 the award of a righteous retribution, instead of feel- 
 ing their heart captivated by such an idea of the 
 divine goodness, they acknowledge it, (if indeed 
 they acknowledge it at all) with a heartlcssness and 
 
Vll 
 
 an indifference which they would be ashamed to offer 
 in return for the slightest expressions of kindness 
 and goodwill on the part of a fellow-creature? And 
 what is the necessary inference that we are compelled 
 to draw from such a fact? Is it not just virtually 
 saying, that they attach no credit at all to any part 
 of the divine testimony— that they are obstinately 
 and systematically labouring to exclude any thing 
 like a sober and serious conviction of its reality and 
 truth — that the solemn declarations of Scripture, 
 regarding the inevitable ruin which awaits an im- 
 penitent rebel against the holy and righteous govern- 
 ment of God, have never produced any more per- 
 manent or salutary impressions on their minds, than 
 if they were so many idle threats that are never 
 seriously intended to be carried into execution — and 
 that all the expressions of pity and compassion which 
 the Almighty has condescended to employ, in urging 
 upon them their infatuation and guiltj have affected 
 their hearts just as little, as if there were no sincerity^ 
 and no meaning in such expressions ? They must 
 be conscious in fact, though they might not be very 
 willing to acknowledge it, that they would be better 
 pleased to be let altogether alone, and permitted to 
 enjoy a state of undisturbed indifference regarding 
 spiritual things, than to be assailed by any entreaty, 
 however earnest, or any remonstrance however ten- 
 der — and that they feel towards the effusions of 
 divine pity and commiseration, which the Scriptures 
 pour out over the impenitence and unbelief of an 
 ungodly world, very much as an alienated and disobe- 
 dient child would feel towards the tears and entreaties 
 of an affectionate but virtuous father, who should 
 
vm 
 
 seek to detach him from his profligate associates, 
 and win him over from the paths of folly and of 
 shame. 
 
 There is no difficulty then in accounting for the 
 indifference with which one class of men peruse the 
 the language of compassion and pity, in which God 
 has vouchsafed to address sinners in the Bible. That 
 indifference is the consequence of their having no 
 serious conviction of the reality of any such compas- 
 sion on the part of God, as that language would 
 seem to imply — -and they doubt or question it, be- 
 cause they are unwilling to believe that the Gospel 
 method of extending mercy to sinners, is the only 
 one that is consistent with the unalterable principles 
 of the divine government. But there is reason to 
 believe, even with respect to such as have felt the 
 winning influence of the love of Christ, and who 
 can testify, from what they have experienced, that 
 nothing but this influence could ever have dislodged 
 the spirit of aversion to God and holiness, which they 
 once cherished, and which, in the days of their un- 
 belief, gathered strength from the very representations 
 of the divine character, which were intended to over- 
 throw it, there is reason, we say, to believe, even 
 with regard to such persons, that they do not al- 
 ways surrender themselves so unreservedly as they 
 are both warranted and required to do, to those feel- 
 ings of love, and gratitude, and confidence, which 
 the affectionate tenderness of Scripture language, as 
 addressed to them, is we conceive both fitted and 
 intended to awaken. To the condescension of that 
 language, they cannot indeed be insensible, nor can 
 they fail to draw consolation and encouragement from 
 
IX 
 
 it, as often as they peruse it in the simplicity of 
 faith, and with the firm persuasion that it promises 
 nothing that will not be fulfilled far beyond what it 
 is possible for them to conceive. But there are 
 many, we are persuaded, who will be ready to ac- 
 knowledge, that they have sometimes attached to 
 such expressions of Scripture as we now allude to, a 
 vagueness of meaning which has marred not a little 
 the comfort that they might otherwise have derived 
 from them — that they have felt as if it were an en- 
 croachment on the majesty and dignity of the divine 
 character, to understand that language in any sense 
 approaching to a literal interpretation — and that 
 though they are persuaded it is the only language 
 that could convey to the understanding a distinct 
 idea of the compassion and mercy of God toward 
 sinners, yet they have often regarded it as referring 
 rather to the effects of the divine procedure, than 
 to any thing corresponding to it as actually existing 
 in the divine mind. Now it is certainly true, that 
 it never was the design of revelation to lower the 
 character of God in the conceptions of his intelli- 
 gent creatures, and it would be a most impious per- 
 version of the language of Scripture, to understand 
 it in such a sense, as to invest the divine nature 
 with any of the weaknesses of created and imperfect 
 beings, or to ascribe to him those emotions and 
 feelings that are inconsistent with unchangeable ex- k 
 cellence and felicity, and which necessarily imply 
 something painful and imperfect on the part of those 
 in whom they exist. But is it not equally true, 
 that when God himself, vouchsafes to address his 
 A3 
 
people in language of affection and tenderness, and 
 does so without one -qualifying clause to forbid them, 
 understanding him in the plain and obvious sense of 
 the expressions which he employs, it is not for them 
 to weigh that language with the hesitancy, and to 
 put upon it the cautious and measured interpretation, 
 that would go to divest it of almost all its meaning, 
 and rob it of not a little of its practical energy and 
 force ; for when he is pleased to call himself their 
 father, and to clothe his communications to them in 
 all the attractions of a father's love, is it not for the 
 plain and the obvious purpose of calling forth on their 
 part, the affectionate submission, and the unsuspect- 
 ing confidence of children. The Christian, indeed, 
 can never cease to contemplate the majesty and per- 
 fections of God, with holy and reverential awe, and 
 in every approach that he makes to the throne of 
 grace, he cannot but feel and acknowledge his un- 
 worthiness to appear there. But such sentiments 
 were never designed to interfere with that confidence 
 towards God, as his reconciled father, which it is 
 the design of the spirit of adoption to impart to the 
 believer, nor can they furnish any grounds to doubt, 
 that there is, in the divine mind towards him, all 
 that complacency and kindness which the simple and 
 impressive language of Scripture appears obviously 
 to imply; and as often, therefore, as he indulges 
 in metaphysical speculations on the precise sense in 
 which that language is to be understood, when ap- 
 plied to the divine nature, he withdraws himself from 
 the salutary influence which it is designed to exer- 
 cise over him, and relinquishes not a little of the 
 comfort which it is fitted to impart. 
 
XI 
 
 But clearly and emphatically as the Scriptures 
 every where express the compassion of God, towards 
 sinners, it is not in this way alone that he has gra- 
 ciously accommodated his procedure to the weak- 
 nesses of our nature. The reality of that compas- 
 sion has been demonstrated by the manner in which 
 he has vouchsafed his communications to the chil- 
 dren of men, as well as by the language in which 
 these communications are clothed — and among ma- 
 ny other passages to which we might appeal in proof 
 of this remark, we would refer to that in which our 
 Lord is represented as weeping over the approaching 
 ruin of Jerusalem, and which has been so clearly 
 illustrated, and powerfully enforced, by the Author 
 of the following Treatise. Not only has the Al- 
 mighty declared and repeated that declaration in 
 every possible variety of expression, "as I live I 
 have no pleasure in the death of the wicked;" but 
 as if to remove all that indistinctness of conception 
 which might cleave to our limited understanding, 
 and all that faithless distrust which aguilty conscience 
 is so ready to awaken, he has furnished, in the pas- 
 sage to which we allude, as distinct and unequivocal 
 proofs of his pity, even for those who obstinately 
 rejected all his counsel, and would none of his re- 
 proof, as one human being could give in token of 
 his compassion, for the misfortunes or the miseries 
 of another. This indeed is the tendency of the 
 whole scheme of the Gospel, for we cannot doubt 
 that one of the purposes for which God was mani- 
 fested in the flesh, was to exhibit to sinners, by 
 addressing them through the medium of the sympa- 
 
Xll 
 
 thies and feelings of our common nature, a more 
 palpable and impressive demonstration of divine mer- 
 cy, than could have been given by the statement of any 
 abstract truth or doctrine which inspired men might 
 have been commissioned to reveal. But the obser- 
 vation is especially applicable, we conceive, to the 
 fact stated in the verses referred to; and were we 
 required to single out any one passage of Scripture, 
 in confirmation of the remarks that have now been 
 offered, we know not any to which we should sooner 
 appeal, than that which presents to us the Son of 
 God weeping over the coming desolation of that in- 
 fatuated city, on which the day of grace had for ever 
 closed — -whose hour of retribution could no longer, 
 in consistency with the rectitude and wisdom of the 
 divine administration, be delayed — and the measure 
 of whose iniquity was to be filled up by consigning 
 the compassionate Redeemer of the world to all the 
 tortures of a cruel and ignominious death. For a 
 full exposition of the passage itself, we would re- 
 fer to the following able and eloquent Treatise, but 
 we^may be permitted to offer a few remarks on it as 
 strikingly illustrative of the subject to which we have 
 been adverting. And in doing so, it will not be 
 necessary to enter at great length on the considera- 
 tion of the fact stated by the evangelist, as referring 
 to the persons who were the immediate subjects of 
 our Lord's interesting and impressive lamentation. 
 To those who are disposed to peruse the passage 
 with that simplicity of view, and docility of mind, 
 with which it becomes a fallen creature to receive a 
 message from the God whom he has offended, and a 
 
Xlll 
 
 message, too, which conveys to him a tender of par- 
 don and reconciliation, the narrative of the inspired 
 writer will scarcely require any explanation : and 
 with regard to such as may be inclined to make it a 
 subject of idle speculation, and to draw from it ma- 
 terials on which to exercise a perverted ingenuity, 
 we would observe, that it is not consistent with our 
 present purpose, and would minister but little to 
 their profit, to attempt meeting and combating every 
 cavil that they might advance, or allow such cavils to 
 divert our attention from the practical lesson, which, 
 the subject so obviously and powerfully inculcates. 
 
 In the course of our Lord's personal ministry he 
 had exhibited in Jerusalem, as well as in every other 
 quarter of Judea, manifold and indisputable evidences 
 of his Messiahship — he had proved, that in his per- 
 son were fulfilled the predictions of ancient prophecy 
 concerning the frequently promised, and long ex- 
 pected deliverer — he had urged the Jews to believe 
 on him, by all the motives that could be supposed to 
 influence immortal creatures, and warned them, at 
 the same time, of the fatal and inevitable conse- 
 quences of rejecting him — and he had given, in a 
 series of miracles, as beneficent in their tendency as 
 they were striking in their nature, every conceivable 
 attestation to his divine authority, by which a com- 
 munication from God to the children of men can be 
 authenticated. This work of mercy and grace he 
 continued for years to prosecute, in the face of in- 
 gratitude and unbelief — -he patiently endured the 
 calumnies and contradiction of sinners, against him- 
 self — he manifested, on all occasions^ a heart feel- 
 
XIV 
 
 ingly alive to the bodily sufferings, and spiritual des- 
 titution of mankind — his beneficence suffered no re- 
 laxation, and his compassion refused to be wearied 
 out, with all the indignities and insults with which 
 he had been loaded; and when he found that no- 
 thing would avail to remove the blindness of their 
 understandings, or soften the obduracy of their hearts 
 — when he contemplated the fearful extremity to 
 which they were about to carry their enmity and un- 
 belief, and foresaw their obstinate resistance to the 
 testimony that was yet to be borne to his divinity, 
 by his resurrection from the dead, and the effusion 
 of the Holy Ghost on his disciples; even then, he 
 shed tears of compassion over the subjects of his own 
 holy and righteous retribution. That, in the la- 
 mentation which our Lord uttered over Jerusalem, 
 he contemplated the spiritual desolation that was 
 coming on the finally impenitent, as well as the de- 
 struction of the city itself, cannot, we apprehend, 
 admit of a moment's dispute. The very ground of 
 that lamentation was obviously their rejection of him, 
 as the promised Messiah— a rejection so obstinate 
 and invincible that the Spirit of God had ceased to 
 strive with them, and had already abandoned them to 
 all the blindness and obduracy of a reprobate mind: 
 and we cannot doubt, therefore, that the terrible 
 consequences of this necessary abandonment were 
 full in our Saviour's view when he lamented that 
 the things belonging to their peace were for ever 
 hid from their eyes. We are aware that these re- 
 marks have, brought us to the very threshold of a 
 profound and inscrutable mystery, and are reminded 
 
XV 
 
 of the solemn awe with which it becomes us to ap- 
 proach a subject which involves the hidden counsels 
 of unsearchable wisdom, and before which our un- 
 derstanding is summoned, to prostrate its every fa- 
 culty in holy and humble acquiescence in truths, which 
 God has been pleased to reveal, but which no streteh 
 of created intelligence is adequate fully to compre- 
 hend. But may we not be permitted to observe, 
 without travelling beyond the limits of legitimate in- 
 vestigation, or entering the forbidden ground of in- 
 quiry, into the secret things of the Most High, that 
 while the compassion of God would prompt him to 
 extend mercy to every apostate child of Adam, there 
 are infinitely wise and righteous reasons that forbid 
 such an indiscriminate exercise of that mercy — that 
 though, in one sense, he wills the repentance and 
 salvation of every sinner, inasmuch as the returning 
 allegiance of a rebel subject must be regarded by 
 him with complacency, as accordant with the holiness 
 and unbounded beneficence of his nature; yet there 
 is to him who comprehends at once all the purposes 
 of his holy administration, a limit beyond which his 
 spirit must cease to strive with the obstinacy and 
 perverseness of the carnal mind; and that, in every 
 case, therefore, where his grace is withheld, or where 
 his Spirit is withdrawn, it is because the holy, but, 
 to us, unsearchable purposes of his moral govern- 
 ment lay a restraint, as it were, on the exercise of 
 his compassion, and fix a point, beyond which his 
 forbearance cannot extend. All this, we conceive, 
 is obviously intimated to us in the passage referred 
 to; and is it not sufficient to silence every such pre- 
 
XVI 
 
 sumptuous question as that which has sometimes 
 been proposed on the subject, Why our Lord should 
 have lamented an evil, which it was not beyond his 
 power, as God, to have averted ? May we not ask, 
 in reply, Whether it is befitting arraigned and con- 
 demned criminals to meet with a question like this, 
 the most affecting manifestation that can be con- 
 ceived, of the unmerited compassion of our righteous 
 Judge? — whether the tears, which the Redeemer 
 shed over the infatuation of Jerusalem, merit such a 
 reception as to be made the subject of inquiry by a 
 daring curiosity ?i — whether the impenitent, and the 
 unbelieving, whose ruin he lamented, will hereafter 
 venture to charge upon him, the misery which they 
 deliberately and wilfully brought upon themselves? 
 and whether, that very lamentation will not fearfully 
 aggravate their guilt, and impart unspeakable bitter- 
 ness to the anguish of their remorse ? 
 
 We do not think it necessary to dwell at greater 
 length on the examination of the subject, as imme- 
 diately referring to the character and condition of 
 the Jews; and we are not very willing, we confess, 
 to enter more minutely on the inquiry to which it 
 has sometimes given rise, and from which one may 
 gather more to gratify a propensity for idle specula- 
 tion, than of what will minister to practical and pro- 
 fitable instruction. However mysterious the subject 
 may appear to the humble and anxious inquirer, he 
 will see nothing but what is perfectly intelligible in 
 the simple fact, that the Son of God wept over the 
 ruin of the finally impenitent; the very mystery, with 
 which this fact stands connected, will serve to ren- 
 
XV11 
 
 der it, in his estimation, more impressive and affect- 
 ing; and he will have no difficulty in perceiving the 
 solemn and important lesson which it is fitted, and 
 obviously designed, to inculcate. Though no direct 
 reference is made, in the language of our Saviour, to 
 any but the unbelieving Jews of that time, we can- 
 not doubt that what is here written, was written for 
 our admonition; and, indeed, various considerations 
 forbid us to limit the application of this subject to 
 unbelievers of that or any other age. In the last 
 intercessory supplication which our Lord offered up 
 on behalf of his disciples, before he suffered, we find 
 him praying, not for them alone, but for those also 
 which should believe on him through their word; 
 and if, in recommending his followers to the holy 
 keeping of his heavenly Father, he contemplated the 
 successive generations of his people through every 
 subsequent age, may we not infer that his lamenta- 
 tion over the miseries of his irreconcilable enemies 
 was equally extended and comprehensive? But, in- 
 dependent of this consideration, there is another 
 view of the subject which brings it directly to bear 
 on men of every age, and renders it universally ap- 
 plicable to the condition of the impenitent and un- 
 believing. When our Lord lamented the approach- 
 ing desolation of the guiltiest, because the most 
 highly favoured community on earth, and shed tears 
 of commiseration over the irremediable wretchedness 
 of men whom he had so often laboured to convert 
 and reclaim, and with whose perverse obstinacy he 
 had so long and so patiently borne, it was because 
 he contemplated, in their final destruction, an evil 
 
XV111 
 
 which, considered in itself, was most abhorrent to 
 his holy nature. It presented to him the melan- 
 choly spectacle of guilty creatures rejecting every 
 proposal of mercy, and repelling every approach to 
 reconciliation, on the part of their offended Creator; 
 he beheld in their final impenitency immortal spirits, 
 on whom he had sought to impress the divine image, 
 and whom he would have quickened with the prin- 
 ciples of a divine life, consigned to all the debase- 
 ment and degradation of spiritual death; and he saw 
 perpetuated in them, beyond the possibility of 
 change, or the hope of mitigation, that enmity 
 against God, which must necessarily bring upon re- 
 probate spirits an eternal accumulation of guilt, and 
 an endless aggravation of suffering. Such were, 
 without doubt, the evils which our Lord contem- 
 plated when he uttered his compassionate lamenta- 
 tion over Jerusalem; and though they are evils of 
 which we can form but a very inadequate conception, 
 does not the simple fact that the Son of God wept, 
 as they presented themselves to the eye of his omni- 
 science, convey an overwhelming idea of their incon- 
 ceivable magnitude? But do not the same evils 
 accompany the final ruin of every impenitent sinner? 
 Are not these evils just as abhorrent as ever they 
 were to the principles of holiness, and purity, and 
 peace, which characterize the government of an in- 
 finitely wise and righteous sovereign? And must 
 they not still present the same aspect of malignity to 
 the eye of him who is the same yesterday, to-day, 
 and for ever? We must not indeed imagine that 
 our exalted and glorified Redeemer looks upon these 
 
XIX 
 
 evils with any thing of the painful emotions which 
 his language and his tears indicated in the days of his 
 flesh; or that, when the high and inscrutable purposes 
 of his wisdom require him to withdraw divine influences 
 from those who have resisted and grieved the Holy 
 Spirit, beyond what it is befitting his rectitude and 
 truth to endure, his doing so can ever disturb that 
 infinite complacency with which he can never cease 
 to contemplate the execution of his sovereign decrees. 
 But neither are we to imagine, that the ruin of im- 
 mortal spirits presents to his all-seeing eye any thing 
 different from what it has always done, and, from 
 the very immutability of his nature, must necessarily 
 do: or that there is nothing in his mind towards 
 those who perish now, corresponding to what there 
 was towards those who rejected him in the days of 
 his flesh. He has expressly assured his followers 
 that he has carried with him, even into the abodes 
 of ineffable glory and blessedness, all the tenderness 
 of which he gave so many unequivocal proofs during 
 his ministry on earth — that he is not a high priest 
 who cannot be touched with the feeling of their in- 
 firmities, or who can remain an insensible spectator 
 of the temptations which he himself endured: and 
 this assurance is in perfect accordance with the whole 
 tenor of his communications to the Old Testament 
 church. And can we suppose then, that he has for- 
 gotten the compassion with which he once looked 
 on the infatuation of sinners? or that any change 
 has taken place in his mind towards those who still 
 continue deliberately to reject the counsel of God 
 against themselves? The careless and the unbeliev- 
 
XX 
 
 ing may, indeed, make their escape from such re- 
 flections, and plead the mysteriousness of this com- 
 passion, in excuse for their remaining unmoved and 
 unaffected by it. But, mysterious as it may be, if it 
 were competent for us to single out one hopeless and 
 impenitent sinner, should we not be warranted to 
 tell him, that he is pitied at the very moment that 
 he is forsaken — that he perishes, not because God 
 was unwilling to be reconciled unto him, but because 
 he would not be reconciled unto God- — that his 
 turning, by penitence and faith, from his rebellious 
 courses, would have been regarded with infinite com- 
 placency by that Almighty Sovereign whom he has 
 compelled to arm against him all the terrors of his 
 displeasure — and that the ruin which he has wil- 
 fully and deliberately chosen, is the very evil over 
 which the Son of God did, in the days of his flesh, 
 shed tears of commiseration and pity. 
 
 The object of these remarks, as we have already 
 observed, is to remove, if possible, from the plain 
 and impressive language of Scripture, that indis- 
 tinctness in which we are so apt to envelop it, and 
 which so frequently prevents it from making its way 
 to the heart — to place distinctly before the sinner's 
 eye the fact recorded in the gospel history, that the 
 Saviour wept over the ruin of those who lived and 
 died in a state of unbelief — to show that, in as far 
 as the divine compassion is concerned, it is still the 
 same as that which dictated the pathetic lamentation 
 over Jerusalem — and to bring the persuasive influ- 
 ence of this simple fact to bear on the affections of 
 all; of those who have, as well as those who have 
 
XXI 
 
 not yet yielded to the constraining power of trie love 
 of Christ. It is to the latter indeed, that the 
 solemn admonition, suggested by our Saviour's lan- 
 guage, is more immediately applicable, and it is on 
 them, therefore, that we would more especially urge 
 it — nor do we know, within the whole range of 
 Scripture argument and motive, any one considera- 
 tion so well fitted, through the agency of the Holy 
 Spirit, to vanquish the hostility of the natural man; 
 or should it fail to accomplish this, any one that so 
 fully elicits, in all its deformity, the desperate wick- 
 edness of the human heart. The sinner may at 
 times be arrested by the solemn declaration, that 
 there is an appointed day in which God will judge 
 the world in righteousness, and be compelled, by 
 his apprehension of the procedure of that day, to 
 pause before he enters on what, his conscience tells 
 him, is in direct opposition to the revealed will of his 
 Judge. But however powerful such a restraint may 
 be, and whatever struggle it may cost him again to 
 throw it off, the principle of enmity within him, will 
 have lost nothing of its malignant energy — nay the 
 very restraint, which fear imposes, will arm it with 
 a power before unfelt — and melancholy as the fact 
 unquestionably is, yet it accords with all that we 
 know of the constitution of our nature to believe, 
 that such will be the effect of apprehensions like 
 these, so long as sinners regard God as their enemy, 
 and as prescribing limits to gratifications which they 
 are determined at all hazards to indulge. But when 
 that very God, whose commandments they are thus 
 transgressing, appeals to them in the language of 
 
xxu 
 
 earnest entreaty — when he addresses them as he 
 addressed the backsliding Jews of old, " O do not 
 this abominable thing which I hate;" and when he 
 employs every possible expression that can intimate 
 his merciful forbearance, and his willingness to re- 
 ceive them into his favour, to heal their backslidings 
 and love them freely — then the opposition that is 
 not disarmed by treatment like this, assumes a char- 
 acter of more hopeless and hardened impiety than 
 even the desperate defiance of the divine displeasure; 
 and the man who has so resisted, and who is con- 
 scious that he still continues so to resist, has travelled 
 to an alarming length on the way towards that point, 
 where others have become the subjects of the 
 Saviour's compassionate lamentation. But often as 
 such men may have evaded the force of that appeal, 
 we would still continue to make it; for if ever they 
 are to relinquish the unequal contest — if ever they 
 are to be convinced of the unreasonableness of that 
 suspicious dislike with which they eye every sub- 
 ject of a spiritual nature — and brought to see that 
 they have been all along resisting the advances of a 
 gracious Father towards reconciliation, it must be 
 by the persuasive eloquence of such arguments as 
 that in the passage to which we refer. Every be- 
 liever can bear witness that thus it has been with 
 him—- that the love of God in Christ Jesus has 
 melted and subdued the obstinacy which no dread 
 of punishment ever could have vanquished — and 
 that the small still voice of the gospel, is the only 
 melody that can expel from the human soul, the evil 
 spirit of distrust and of unbelief. And where is this 
 
xxm 
 
 melody to be heard, if it is not in the simple, and 
 unadorned narrative of the inspired writer, when he 
 tells us, that on our Lord's approach to Jerusalem, 
 the place where, above all others, he had been 
 calumniated and reviled — where his doctrines had 
 been misrepresented, and his miracles ascribed to 
 the power of devils — and where he was so soon to 
 suffer the ignominious death, by which he was to 
 expiate the sins of a guilty world — even with all 
 these recollections of the past, and with the most 
 perfect foreknowledge of the future, he beheld the 
 city, and he wept over it? Could sinners be but 
 persuaded of the reality of the compassion that was 
 then manifested — could they be made to see, that 
 there was a depth and an intenseness in that com- 
 passion, which the most complicated affliction never 
 awakened in the bosom even of the most benevolent 
 and humane of the children of men — and could they 
 be convinced that this very pity is flowing forth to- 
 wards themselves, in the midst of all the folly and 
 infatuation by which they are permitting themselves 
 to be duped and deceived— is it possible to suppose 
 that they could summon up hardihood enough to 
 treat such forbearance with contempt or with uncon- 
 cern? And if they did venture so to treat it, could 
 they arraign either the rectitude or the beneficence 
 of God, if he should for ever withdraw from them 
 his Holy Spirit — would they not be compelled to 
 acknowledge, that indulgence to ingratitude like this, 
 would be a departure from the unchangeable principles 
 of justice and truth — and whatever plea they might 
 be disposed to urge in their own defence, when sis- 
 
XXIV 
 
 ted at the tribunal of God, could it require any thing 
 more, than merely reminding them of the long-suffer- 
 ing patience which they had experienced and abused, 
 to awe them at once into silence and shame? 
 
 But we are aware it may be urged by many who, 
 though they are in reality still in a state of alienation 
 from God, have, nevertheless, the credit and. re- 
 spectability of a Christian profession to plead, that 
 there is no sort of parallel between their condition 
 and that of the unbelieving Jews — that they have 
 never shown any such enmity to Christ, as the latter 
 often manifested — and that they have no reason, 
 therefore, to dread their ever arriving at that state 
 of hardened impenitency, in which the persons, 
 whose ruin our Lord lamented, were given up to 
 the blindness of a reprobate mind. They may allege 
 too, that they have never questioned, as the Jews 
 did, the testimony which the Spirit of God bears to 
 the truth of the gospel; either by a miraculous 
 agency without, or the operation of his influence 
 within them — that they have given their assent to 
 the truth which he formerly attested, and are en- 
 deavouring, in some measure, to regulate the or- 
 dinary tenor of their life, by the laws and precepts 
 which he has sanctioned- — and that they cannot 
 therefore in justice, or in fairness, be ranked among 
 those, who have resisted and grieved the Holy 
 Spirit, whereby the believer is sealed unto the day 
 of redemption. Now, in reply to all this, we would 
 observe, that we are not seeking to establish any 
 parallel between those who avowedly believe the 
 gospel, and such as openly rejected it; nor does the 
 
XXV 
 
 force of the remarks that have been offered depend 
 on any similarity, with regard to external condition 
 and character, between the one class and the other. 
 But we would remind those, who may be most for- 
 ward to repel any such charge, that it is not enough 
 that they have never openly denied the truth, nor 
 publicly renounced the faith of the gospel — and that 
 it proves but little with regard to their spiritual safe- 
 ty, that they have never been placed in circumstances, 
 where they could be guilty of such complicated of- 
 fences, as those that stand recorded in the Gospel 
 History against the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The 
 question is not in what way, or to what extent they 
 have rejected Christ, but whether they have received 
 him — whether they have surrendered their hearts 
 to the influence of his love, and devoted, by a willing 
 obedience, their lives to his glory — and if they are 
 conscious that they have not done, and have no desire 
 to do so — that they would gladly live with as little 
 reflection on the subject as they possibly can — and 
 that their aversion to the spirituality of the serviee 
 which he requires, is still unsubdued and unabated — 
 then they must be held as having turned a deaf ear 
 to all the affectionate earnestness of his remon- 
 strances with sinners, and opposed a callous heart 
 to all the tenderness with which he has assailed 
 them. Nor can they, without belying their own 
 experience, allege that they have never resisted the 
 direct operation of the Spirit's influence on their 
 hearts^ — for where is the individual among professing 
 Christians, who has not had his seasons of suspicion 
 and fear regarding his ; eternal interests — whose 
 B 
 
XXVI 
 
 heart lias not at times misgiven him, in spite of all 
 the arguments by which he may have laboured to 
 set himself at ease, on the subject of his spiritual 
 concerns — who has not, occasionally at least, felt 
 the depressing weight of doubts, from which he 
 could with difficulty make his escape — and who has 
 not been, at one period or another, under something 
 approaching to a conviction, that all was not right 
 with regard to the state of his soul? And can they, 
 who are conscious of having suppressed such awaken- 
 ings, or rid themselves of such fears, in any other 
 way than that which the gospel has provided, still 
 maintain that they have never quenched or resisted 
 the Spirit's influence — or can they still venture to 
 calculate on his renewing his operation upon them, 
 with more power and efficiency at some future pe- 
 riod? This may, perhaps, be the condition and 
 the sentiments of some— and they may be ready 
 with what they conceive to be a satisfactory reply to 
 all that has now been urged. They may oppose to 
 the danger which these remarks would represent, as 
 awaiting them, the unbounded mercy of God— they 
 may flatter themselves that he will never institute so 
 rigorous an inquiry into their character, as the 
 statement now made would seem to insinuate— and 
 they may even gather encouragement to their indif- 
 ference, from the view that has just been exhibited 
 of the Redeemer's compassion. But can they re- 
 quire to be again reminded, that the very persons 
 whose condition called forth the Saviour's lamenta- 
 tion, had shut themselves out from all share in the 
 blessed effects of that compassion which their wretch- 
 
xxvn 
 
 edness had awakened — and will they venture to rely 
 on this compassion, while they deliberately keep out 
 of view, the principles of holiness, and justice, and 
 truth, according to which it must ever be exercised? 
 Is it not saying, that they will take encouragement 
 to sin from the very mercy that is seeking to deliver 
 them from the pollution and misery which sin has 
 entailed upon them — is it not to calculate on their 
 experiencing the pity, which the Saviour manifested 
 for sinners, while they are deliberately resisting the 
 very influence with which that pity is designed to 
 operate — is it not to degrade this principle from its 
 lofty pre-eminence, as an attribute of the Godhead, 
 to a level with the weakness and imperfection of 
 humanity. O let not sinners so trifle with the so- 
 lemn declarations of Scripture, as at one time to 
 treat the divine compassion with indifference, on the 
 ground of its being too far removed from their or- 
 dinary conceptions, either to influence their under- 
 standing, or impress their heart— and at another 
 time to presume on its being exercised towards 
 them, without any reference to the essential perfec- 
 tions of the divine nature, and the honour and dig- 
 nity of the divine government. While they seek 
 to be persuaded of its reality, let them not wilfully 
 misunderstand its nature, or mistake its design— 
 and let them bear in mind, that the object of every 
 gracious invitation which the gospel contains, is to 
 urge and persuade them, in this the day of their 
 most merciful visitation, to remember the things 
 that belong to their peace, before they are for ever 
 hid from their eyes. 
 
 B 2 
 
xxvm 
 
 It will not, we think, be disputed, that one of the 
 most powerful and persuasive arguments, by which 
 the enmity of the carnal mind can be assailed, is 
 furnished by the. simple fact, that God has left no 
 conceivable means unemployed, whereby to demon- 
 strate the reality of his compassion for sinners, and 
 of his unwillingness that they should continue in a 
 state of impenitence and of unbelief; and of the many 
 proofs of this fact to be found in Scripture, there 
 are none, perhaps, either more decisive or more af- 
 fecting, than our Lord's weeping over the fate of 
 Jerusalem. We are aware, that in the preceding 
 remarks, we have done little more than hinted at 
 this argument; but for the farther illustration of the 
 subject, we gladly refer to the following Treatise, as 
 containing one of the most powerful appeals to the 
 conscience with which we are acquainted. It would 
 be difficult, indeed, to point out any work, in which 
 so much important matter has been condensed into 
 so small a compass. Within the limits of a few 
 pages, the reader will find exhibited in a very strik- 
 ing and impressive light, the true state of the contro- 
 versy, which sinners are maintaining with God — the 
 nature of faith and genuine repentance — the respon- 
 sibility of those who live under the gospel dispensa- 
 tion, as enjoying a day of grace, which may, in va- 
 rious ways terminate, while they are still in a state 
 of alienation from their Maker — the folly of the 
 arguments by which the unregenerate will sometimes 
 seek to justify their indolence and indifference, on 
 the ground that no anxiety or efforts of theirs, will 
 avail any thing, till God is pleased to put forth upon 
 
XXIX 
 
 them the efficacious influences of his Holy Spirit, 
 the unreasonableness, as well as the mischievous 
 tendency of those painful suspicions by which the 
 awakened sinner sometimes permits himself to be 
 perplexed, when he sets about determining whether 
 his day of grace may not already be over— and a 
 vindication of the rectitude of the divine procedure 
 in those cases, where, in consequence of the sinner's 
 obstinacy, the . influences of the Holy Spirit are 
 withheld, or finally withdrawn. We can hardly 
 conceive it possible, that the most indifferent should 
 attentively peruse this Treatise, without rinding 
 some suspicions of their safety, and some misgivings 
 about the validity of the plea which, they may have 
 been accustomed to. urge in their own defence, and 
 by which they have hitherto contrived to reconcile 
 their conscience to a life of thoughtlessness and folly. 
 And should any such begin to feel uneasiness, on 
 the recollection . of the ingratitude and neglect with 
 which they have treated the mercy and forbearance 
 of God, we would earnestly recommend to their 
 serious perusal the discourses on " Self-dedication," 
 and " Yielding ourselves to God," which have been 
 selected as an appropriate accompaniment to the 
 Treatise, which it is the more immediate object of 
 this publication to bring within the reach of those, 
 who may not have access to the full edition of our 
 Author's works.* These discourses are characterized 
 by the same spirit of earnest and affectionate solici- 
 
 * The public are indebted to the Rev. John Hunt, of Chi- 
 chester, for a uniform edition of the whole of Howe's Works, in 
 eight volumes, 8vo. commenced in 1810, and completed in 1822. 
 
XXX 
 
 tude, for the salvation of sinners, which breathes 
 throughout the Treatise on our Lord's Lamentation 
 over Jerusalem — and if any salutary impressions 
 are made by the perusal of the one, it will be found 
 that in the other, the Author never for a moment, re- 
 linquishes his hold of the conscience of his readers, 
 till he brings them to the point where every reflect- 
 ing mind must be compelled to acknowledge the ne- 
 cessity of coming to an immediate decision on the 
 question, which more than any other, the natural 
 man is anxious to evade. Of the sublimity of con- 
 ception, the ardour of feeling, and energy of lan- 
 guage which distinguish the following Treatises, it 
 is unnecessary for us to speak : but we would en- 
 treat those, into whose hands they may come, not 
 to lay them aside with a single reading, for we may 
 venture to assure them, that however much of their 
 excellence they may discover on a first perusal, every 
 subsequent one, will more than confirm the estimate. 
 It is matter of regret, that these, as well as the other 
 works of Howe, have for a long period been so lit- 
 tle known; and we should rejoice to be in any de- 
 gree instrumental in bringing into wider circulation, 
 what through the divine blessing, is so eminently 
 calculated to promote the cause of vital godliness. 
 May the Spirit of God give efficiency to the pre- 
 sent feeble effort for awakening the thoughtless 
 and self-secure, and seal on the hearts of all who 
 shall peruse the following pages, the momentous 
 truths which they contain. 
 
 R. G. 
 Edinburgh, October, 1822. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 THE REDEEMER'S TEARS WEPT OVER LOST 
 
 SOULS, , . . 33 
 
 Preface, 35 
 
 The Redeemer's Tears, &c. . . . . . 51 
 
 Appendix — Concerning the Blasphemy against the Holy 
 Ghost ; and how God is said to will the Salvation of them 
 that perish. • 153 
 
 ON SELF-DEDICATION, ... 171 
 
 ON YIELDING OURSELVES TO GOD, . . 231 
 
THE 
 
 REDEEMER'S TEARS 
 
 WEPT OVER 
 
 LOST SOULS. 
 
 B3 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 When spiritual judgments do more eminently be- 
 fall a people, great outward calamities do often ensue. 
 We know it was so in the instance to which the text 
 here insisted on refers. But it is not always so : 
 the connexion between these two sorts of judgments 
 is not absolutely certain and necessary, yea, is more 
 frequent with the contraries of each. For this 
 reason, therefore, and because judgments of the for- 
 mer kind are so inexpressibly greater, and more 
 tremendous, and about which serious monitions both 
 have a clearer ground, and are of greater impor- 
 tance; this Discourse insists only upon them, and 
 wholly waves the latter. 
 
 Too many are apt first to fancy similitudes between 
 the state of things with one people and another, and 
 then to draw inferences; being, perhaps, imposed 
 upon by a strong imagination in both, which yet 
 must pass with them for a spirit of prophecy: and 
 perhaps they take it not well, if it do not so with 
 others too. It were indeed the work of another pro- 
 
36 
 
 pliet, certainly to accommodate and make application 
 of what was spoken by a former, to a distinct time 
 and people. It is enough for us to learn, from such 
 sayings as this of our Saviour, those rules of life 
 and practice, such instructions and cautions as are 
 common to all times, without arrogating to ourselves 
 his prerogative, of foretelling events that shall happen 
 in this or that. The affectation of venturing upon 
 futurity, and of foreboding direful things to king- 
 doms and nations, may, besides its being without 
 sufficient ground, proceed from some very bad prin- 
 ciple or other. Dislike of the present methods of 
 Providence, weariness and impatience of our present 
 condition, too great proneness to wish what we take 
 upon us to predict, the prediction importing more 
 heat of anger than certainty of foresight, a wrathful 
 spirit, that would presently fetch down fire from 
 heaven upon such as favour not our inclinations and 
 desires, so that, as the Poet speaks, "whole cities 
 should be overturned at our request," if the " hea- 
 venly powers would be so easy" as to comply with 
 such furious imprecations; — a temper that ill agrees 
 with humanity itself, not to care at what rate of com- 
 mon calamity and misery a purchase be made of our 
 own immunity from sufferings. Nay, to be willing to 
 run the most desperate hazard in the case, and even 
 covet a general ruin to others, upon a mere appre- 
 hended possibility that our case may be mended by 
 it, when it may be more probable to become much 
 worse. But O how disagreeable is it to the spirit 
 of our merciful Lord and Saviour, whose name we 
 bear, upon any terms, to delight in human miseries ! 
 
37 
 
 The greatest honour men of that complexion are 
 capable of doing the Christian name, were to disclaim 
 it. Can such angry heats have place in Christian 
 breasts, as shall render them the well-pleased spec- 
 tators, yea, authors of one another's calamities and 
 ruin ! Can the tears jhat issued from these com- 
 passionate blessed eyes, upon the foresight of Jerur 
 salem's woful catastrophe, do nothing towards the 
 quenching of these flames ! 
 
 But I add that the too-intent fixing of our 
 thoughts upon any supposable events in this world, 
 argues, at least, a narrow, carnal mind, that draws 
 and gathers all things into time, as despairing of 
 eternity: and reckons no better state of things con- 
 siderable, that is not to be brought about under their 
 own present view, in this world; as if it were un- 
 certain or insignificant, that there shall be unexcep- 
 tionable, eternal order, and rectitude in another. 
 
 It is again as groundless, and may argue as ill 
 a mind, to prophecy smooth and pleasant things, in 
 a time of abounding wickedness. The safer, middle 
 course is, without God's express warrant, not to pro- 
 phecy at all, but, as we have opportunity, to warn* 
 and instruct men, with all meekness and long-suffer- 
 ing; for which the Lord's ordinary messengers can 
 never want his warrant; and, after our blessed Sa- 
 viour's most imitable example, to scatter our tears 
 over the impenitent, even upon the (too probable) 
 apprehension of the temporal judgments which hang 
 over their heads, but most of all upon the account 
 of their liableness to the more dreadful ones of the 
 other state ; which, in the following Discourse, I 
 hope it is made competently evident this lamentation 
 
38 
 
 of our Saviour hath ultimate reference unto. For 
 the other, though we know them to be due, and most 
 highly deserved; yet, concerning the actual inflic- 
 tion of them, even upon obstinate and persevering 
 sinners, we cannot pronounce. We have no settled 
 constitution or rule, by which we can conclude it, 
 any more than that outward felicity or prosperity 
 shall be the constant portion of good men in this 
 world. The great God hath reserved to himself a 
 latitude of acting more arbitrarily, both as to pro- 
 mises and threatenings of this nature. If the ac- 
 complishment of either could be certainly expected, 
 it should be of the promises rather; because as to 
 promised rewards, God is pleased to make himself 
 debtor, and a right accrues to them to whom the 
 promise is made, if either the promise be absolute, 
 or made with any certain condition that is actually 
 performed. But Qod is always the creditor pcence 
 — the right to punish remains wholly in himself; 
 the exacting whereof he may therefore suspend, with- 
 out any appearance of wrong, as seemeth good un- 
 to him. If, therefore, he may withhold temporal 
 blessings from good and pious men, to which they 
 have a remote and fundamental right, as having re- 
 served to himself the judgment of the fit time and 
 season of bestowing them; much more doth it be- 
 long to his wisdom to fix the bounds of his patience 
 and long-suffering; and determine the season of ani- 
 madverting upon more open and insolent offenders 
 by temporal punishments, according as shall make 
 most for the ends of his government, and finally 
 prove more advantageous to the dignity and glory 
 of it. The practice, therefore, of our Saviour, in 
 
39 
 
 speaking so positively, concerning the approaching 
 fall and ruin of Jerusalem, is no pattern unto us. 
 He spake not only with the knowledge of a prophet, 
 but with the authority of a judge: and his words 
 may be considered both as a prediction and a sen- 
 tence. We can pretend to speak in neither capa- 
 city, touching things of this nature. 
 
 But for the everlasting punishments in another 
 world,. that belong to unreconciled sinners, who re- 
 fuse to know the things of their peace, the gospel- 
 constitution hath made the connexion firm and unal- 
 terable, between their continuing, unrepented wicked- 
 ness, and those punishments. When, therefore, we 
 behold the impudent, provoking sins of the age 
 wherein we live, against the natural, eternal law of 
 our Creator, persisted in, with all the marks of infi- 
 delity and obduration against the truth and grace 
 that so gloriously shine forth in the gospel of our 
 Redeemer, we may, after him, speak positively, 
 " He that believeth not shall be damned, — is con- 
 demned already; — shall not see life, — but the wrath 
 of God abideth on him. If ye believe not that I 
 am he, ye shall die in your sins. Except ye repent 
 ye shall all likewise perish." And here, how doth 
 it become us too, in conformity to his great example, 
 to speak compassionately, and as those that in some 
 measure, " know the terror of the Lord !" O how 
 doleful is the case, when we consider the inconsistent 
 notions of many, with, not this or that particular doc- 
 trine, or article of the Christian Faith, but with the 
 whole sum of Christianity; the Atheism of some; 
 the avowed mere Theism of others ! The former 
 sort far outdoing the Jewish infidelity: which people, 
 
40 
 
 besides the rational means of demonstrating a Deity, 
 common to them with the rest of mankind, could, 
 upon the account of many things peculiar to them- 
 selves, be in no suspense concerning this matter. 
 How great was their reverence of the books of the 
 Old Testament, especially those of Moses ! their 
 knowledge most certain of plain and most convincing 
 matters of fact. How long the government of their 
 nation had been an immediate Theocracy ! What 
 evident tokens of the divine presence had been among 
 them from age to age ! in how wonderful a manner 
 they were brought out of Egypt, through the Red 
 Sea, and conducted all along through the wilderness! 
 how glorious an appearance and manifestation of him- 
 self God afforded to them, at the giving of the law, 
 upon Mount Sinai! and by how apparent exertions 
 of the Divine power the former inhabitants were ex- 
 pelled, and they settled in the promised land ! Upon 
 all this they could be in no more doubt concerning 
 the existence of a Deity, than of the sun in the fir- 
 mament. Whereas, we are put to prove, in a 
 Christian nation, that this world, and its continual 
 successive inhabitants, have a wise intelligent Maker 
 and Lord, and that all things came not into the state 
 wherein they are, by (no man can imagine what) 
 either fatality or casualty. 
 
 But both sorts agree in (what I would principally 
 remark) the disbelief of Christ's being the Messiah. 
 And so, with both, the whole business of Christian- 
 ity must be a fable and a cheat. And thus it is de- 
 termined, not by men that have made it their busi- 
 ness to consider, and examine the matter, (for the 
 plain evidence of things cannot but even obtrude a 
 
41 
 
 conviction upon any diligent inquirer) but by such 
 as have only resolved not to consider; who have be- 
 fore hand settled their purpose, never to be awed by 
 the apprehension of an invisible Ruler, into any 
 course of life that shall bear hard upon sensual incli- 
 nation; have already chosen their master, enslaved 
 themselves to brutal appetite, and are so habituated 
 to that mean servility, made it so connatural, so deep- 
 ly inward to themselves, so much their very life, as 
 that, through the pre-appreh ended pain, and uneasi- 
 ness of a violent rupture, in tearing themselves from 
 themselves, it is become their interest not to admit 
 any serious thought. Any such thought they are 
 concerned (they reckon) to fence against as against 
 the point of a sword; it strikes at their only life; the 
 brute must die, that (by a happy 7ra.Kiyyovvi<rioL) they 
 may be again born men. That is the design of 
 Christianity, to restore men to themselves again; 
 and because it hath this tendency, it is therefore not 
 to be endured. And all the little residue of human 
 wit which is yet left- them (which because the sensual 
 nature is predominant, is pressed into a subserviency 
 to the interest and defence of the brutal life), only 
 serves them to turn every thing of serious religion 
 into ridicule, and being themselves resolved never to 
 be reasoned into any seriousness, they have the con- 
 fidence to make the trial whether all other men can 
 be jested out of it. 
 
 If this were not the case, if such persons could 
 allow themselves to think, and debate the matter, 
 how certain would the victory, how glorious would 
 the triumph be, of the Christian religion, over all 
 
42 
 
 the little cavils they are wont to allege against it ! 
 Let their own consciences testify in the case, whether 
 ever they have applied themselves to any solemn 
 disquisition concerning this important affair, but 
 only contented themselves with being able, amidst 
 transient discourse, to cast out, now and then, some 
 oblique glance, against somewhat or other, that was 
 appendant, or more remotely belonging to the 
 Christian profession, (in so much haste as not to 
 stay for an answer) and because they may have sur- 
 prised, sometimes, one or other, not so ready, at a 
 quick repartee, or who reckoned the matter to re- 
 quire solemn, and somewhat larger discourse, (which 
 they have not had the patience to hear) whether 
 they have not gone away puffed and swollen with 
 the conceit that they have whiffled Christianity 
 away, quite off the stage, with their profane breath ; 
 as if its firm and solid strength, wherein it stands 
 stable, as a rock of adamant, depended upon this 
 or that sudden, occasional, momentary effort on the 
 behalf of it. But if such have a mind to try 
 whether any thing can be strongly said in defence of 
 that sacred profession, let them considerately peruse 
 what hath been written, by divers, to that purpose. 
 And not to engage them in any very tedious, long- 
 some task, if they like not to travel through the 
 somewhat abstruser work of the most learned Hugo 
 Grotius, concerning the truth of the Christian Reli- 
 gion, or the more voluminous Huetius' Demonstratio 
 Evangelica, or divers others that might be named, let 
 them but patiently and leisurely read over, that later 
 very plain and clear, but nervous and solid discourse, 
 
43 
 
 of Dr. Parker, upon this subject; and judge, then? 
 whether the Christian religion want evidence, or 
 whether nothing can be alleged why we of this age, 
 so long after Christ's appearance upon the stage of 
 the world, are to reckon ourselves obliged to profess 
 Christianity, and to observe the rules of that holy 
 profession. 
 
 And really, if, upon utmost search, it shall be 
 found to have firm truth at the bottom, it makes it- 
 self so necessary (which must be acknowledged part 
 of that truth) that any one that hath wit enough to 
 be the author of a jest, might understand it to be 
 a thing not to be jested with. It trifles with no 
 man. And where it is once sufficiently propounded, 
 leaves it no longer indifferent whether we will be of 
 it or no. Supposing it true, it is strange if we can 
 pretend it not to be sufficiently propounded to us : 
 or that we are destitute of sufficient means to come 
 by the knowledge of that truth ! Was this religion 
 instituted only for one nation or age? Did the 
 Son of God descend from heaven, put on flesh, and 
 die? had we an incarnate Deity conversant among 
 men on earth, and made a sacrifice for the sins of 
 men? and hath he left the world at liberty, whether, 
 upon any notice hereof, they should inquire and 
 concern themselves about him or no? being incar- 
 nate, he could not, as such, be every where; nor 
 was it fit he should be long here; or needful (and 
 therefore not fit) he should die often. It was con- 
 descension enough that he vouchsafed once to appear 
 in so mean and self-abasing a form, and " offered 
 himself to put away sin, by the sacrifice of himself." 
 
44 
 
 And whereas he hath himself founded a dominion 
 over us in his own blood, " did die, and revive, and 
 rise again, that he might be Lord of the living and 
 of the dead:" and the eternal Father hath hereupon 
 " highly exalted him, given him a name above every 
 name, that at his name every knee should bow, and 
 that all should confess that he is Lord, to the praise 
 and glory of God:" and hath required " that all 
 should honour the Son as himself is to be honoured; 
 hath given him power over all flesh; and made him 
 head of all things to the church:" Was it ever in- 
 tended men should, generally, remain exempt' from 
 obligation to observe, believe, and obey him? Was 
 it his own intention to wave, or not insist upon his 
 own most sacred, and so dearly acquired rights? to 
 quit his claim to the greatest part of mankind? why 
 did he then issue out his commission as soon as he was 
 risen from the dead, " to teach all nations," to pro- 
 selyte the world to himself, " to baptize them into his 
 name," with that " of the Father and the Holy 
 Ghost," O the great and venerable names that are 
 named upon professing Christians ! Could it be his 
 intention, to leave it lawful to men to choose this, or 
 any, or no religion, as their humours or fancies, or 
 lusts, should prompt them ; to disregard and deride his 
 holy doctrines, violate and trample upon his just and 
 equal laws, reject and contemn his offered favours and 
 mercy, despise and profane his sacred institutions! 
 When he actually makes his demand, and lays his 
 claim, what amazing guilt, how swift destruction must 
 they incur, that dare adventure to deny the Lord 
 that bought them ! And they that shall do it among 
 
45 
 
 a Christianized people^ upon the pretended insuffi- 
 ciency of the revelation they have of him, do but 
 heighten the affront and increase the provocation. 
 It is to charge the whole Christian institution with 
 foolery, as pretending to oblige men, when they 
 cannot know to what, how, or upon what ground they 
 should be obliged; to pronounce the means and 
 methods inept and vain, which he hath thought 
 sufficient, and only fit for the propagating and con- 
 tinuing Christianity in the world; to render the 
 rational reception of it from age to age, impossi- 
 ble, in his apppointed way : or unless men should 
 be taught by angels, or voices from heaven, or 
 that miracles should be so very frequent and 
 common, as, thereby also to become useless to 
 their end; and so would be to make the whole 
 frame of Christian religion an idle impertinency ; 
 and in reference to its avowed design, a self-repug- 
 nant thing, and consequently were to impute folly 
 to him who is the wisdom of God. 
 
 And how are other things known, of common 
 concernment, and whereof an immediate knowledge 
 is as little possible? Can a man satisfy himself, 
 that he hath a title to an estate, conveyed down to 
 him by very ancient writings, the witnesses whereof 
 are long since dead and gone ? or that he is obliged 
 by laws made many an age ago ? Or could any re- 
 cords be preserved with more care and concern, than 
 those wherein our religion lies ? or be more secure 
 from designed, or material deprivation ? . But this is 
 no place to reason these things. Enough is said by 
 others referred to before. I only further say, if any 
 
46 
 
 that have the use of their understandings, living in 
 a Christian nation, think to justify their infidelity 
 and disobedience to the Son of God, by pretending 
 they had no sufficient means to know him to be so, 
 the excuse will avail them alike, as that did him who 
 insolently said, " Who is the Lord, that I should 
 obey his voice ? I know not the Lord, neither will 
 I." For have not we as good means to know who 
 Christ is, as the Egyptians at that time had to know 
 " who was the God of Israel," though afterwards 
 he was more known by the judgments which he exe- 
 cuted? Although the knowledge of the only true 
 God be natural, and the obligation thereto com- 
 mon to men ; yet, the indisposition, to use their un- 
 derstanding this way, is so great and general, and 
 " the express revelation that Jesus Christ was 
 the Son of God," requires so much less labour to 
 understand it, than there is in arguing* out the ex- 
 istence and attributes of God, by an inhabile, slug- 
 gish mind, that the difference cannot be great, if 
 any, on that side. This latter only needs the in- 
 quiry whence the Revelation comes, which, as it is 
 not difficult in itself, so this occasion, namely, of its 
 being proposed, doth invite and urge to it; whereas 
 the generality of the Pagan world have little of ex- 
 ternal inducement, leading them into inquiries con- 
 cerning the true God. Therefore, all circumstances 
 considered, I see not how they that live under the 
 gospel, can be thought to have less advantage and 
 obligation to own Jesus of Nazareth to be the Son 
 of God, than the rest of the world, to own the only 
 living and true God ; or, that, the former should 
 
47 
 
 be less liable to the " revelation of the wrath of God 
 from heaven," for holding supernatural truth in 
 unrighteousness, than the other for doing so injuri- 
 ous violence to that which is merely natural. Unto 
 what severities then, of the divine wrath and justice, 
 even of the highest kind, do multitudes lie open in 
 our days ! 
 
 For besides those, much fewer, mental or notional 
 infidels, that believe not the principles of the Christian 
 religion, against the clearest evidence, how vastly 
 greater is the number of them that are so, in heart 
 and practice, against their professed belief ! that live 
 in utter estrangement from God, as without him, in 
 the world, or in open enmity against him, and con- 
 trariety to the known rules of the religion they pro- 
 fess ! How many that understand nothing of its 
 principle and plainest doctrines ! as if nothing were 
 requisite to distinguish the Christian from the Pa- 
 gan world, more than an empty name ; or as if the 
 Redeemer of sinners had died upon the cross, that 
 men might more securely remain alienated from the 
 life of God, not to reconcile and reduce them to 
 him ! or that they might with safety indulge appe- 
 tite, mind earthly things, make the world their god, 
 gratify the flesh, and make provision to fulfil the 
 lusts of it, defy heaven, affront their Maker, live 
 in malice, envy, hatred, to one another ! not to bless 
 them, by turning them from these impieties and ini- 
 quities ! As if it were so obscurely hinted, as that 
 it could not be taken notice of, that " the grace of 
 God,- which briugeth salvation to all men, hath ap- 
 peared, teaching them to deny ungodliness and 
 
48 
 
 worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and 
 godly in this present world, so looking for the bles- 
 sed hope." And that " Christ gave himself for 
 us, to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify us 
 to himself, a peculiar people, zealous of good works !" 
 How many, again, are Christians, they know not 
 why ! upon the same terms that others are Maho- 
 metans, because it is the religion of their country, 
 by fate or by accident, not by their own choice and 
 judgment ! the same inconsideration makes them to 
 be Christians, that makes others to be none. 
 
 And now, shall our Redeemer be left to weep 
 alone, over these perishing souls ■? have we no tears 
 to spend upon this doleful subject ! " O that our 
 heads were waters, and our eyes fountains !" It is 
 nothing to us, that multitudes are sinking, going 
 down into perdition, under the name of Christian, 
 under the seal of baptism, from under the means 
 of life and salvation ! perishing, and we can do no- 
 thing to prevent it ! We know they must perish 
 that do not repent and turn to God, and love him 
 above all, even with " all their hearts and souls, 
 and mind and might; that do not believe in his Son, 
 and pay him homage, as their rightful Lord, sin- 
 cerely subjecting themselves to his laws and govern- 
 ment. But this they will not understand, or 
 not consider. Our endeavours, to bring them to 
 it, are ineffectual, it is but faint breath we utter. 
 Our words drop and die between us and them ! We 
 speak to them in the name of the eternal God 
 that made them, of the great Jesus who bought 
 them with his blood, and they regard it not. 
 
49 
 
 The Spirit of the Lord is, in a great degree, de- 
 parted from among us, and we take it not to heart ! 
 We are sensible of lesser grievances, are grieved 
 that men will not be more entirely proselyted to our 
 several parties and persuasions, rather than that they 
 are so disinclined to become proselytes to real Chris- 
 tianity; and seem more deeply concerned to have 
 Christian religion so or so modified, than whether 
 there shall be any such thing; or whether men be 
 saved by it, or lost ! 
 
 This sad case, that so many were likely to be lost 
 under the first sound of the gospel; and the most 
 exemplary temper of our blessed Lord in reference 
 to it, are represented in the following Treatise; with 
 design to excite their care for their own souls, who 
 need to be warned, and the compassions of others, 
 for them, who are so little apt to take warning. 
 The good Lord grant it may be, some way or other, 
 useful for good ! 
 
 JOHN HOWE. 
 
THE 
 
 REDEEMER'S TEARS 
 
 WEPT OVER 
 
 LOST SOULS. 
 
 Luke xix. 41, 42. 
 
 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and 
 wept over* it, saying, If thou hadst known, even 
 thou, at least in this thy day, the things which be- 
 long unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from 
 thine eyes. 
 
 We have here a compassionate lamentation in the 
 midst of a solemn triumph. Our Lord's approach 
 unto Jerusalem at this time, and his entrance into 
 it, as the foregoing history shows, carried with them 
 some face of regal and triumphal pomp, but with such 
 allays, as discovered a mind most remote from osten- 
 tation ; and led by judgment, not vain glory, to 
 transmit through a dark umbrage, some glimmerings 
 only of that excellent majesty which both his son- 
 ship and his mediatorship entitled him unto : a very 
 modest and mean specimen of his true indubious 
 royalty and kingly state. Such as might rather 
 C 2 
 
52 
 
 intimate than plainly declare it, and rather afford an 
 after instruction to teachable minds, than beget a 
 present conviction and dread, in the stupidly obsti- 
 nate and unteachable. And this effect we find it 
 had, as is observed by another evangelical historian, 
 who, relating the same matter, how in his passage 
 to Jerusalem, the people met him with branches of 
 palm-trees, and joyful hosannas, he riding upon an 
 ass's colt, as princes or judges, to signify meekness 
 as much as state, were wont to do, Judges v. 10. 
 tells us, " These things his disciples understood 
 not at the first ; but when Jesus was glorified, then 
 remembered they that these things were written of 
 him, and that they had done these things unto 
 him." For great regard was had in this, as in all 
 the other acts of his life and ministry, to that last 
 and conclusive part, " his dying a sacrifice upon the 
 cross for the sins of men;" to observe all along that 
 mediocrity, and steer that middle course between 
 obscurity and a terrifying over-powering glory, that 
 this solemn oblation of himself might neither be 
 prevented, nor disregarded. Agreeably to this de- 
 sign, and the rest of his course, he doth, in this 
 solemnity, rather discover his royal state and dignity 
 by a dark emblem, than by an express representation ; 
 and shows in it more of meekness and humility, 
 than of awful majesty and magnificence, as was for- 
 merly predicted, Zech. ix. 9. " Rejoice greatly, O 
 daughter of Zion ! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem ! 
 Behold, thy King come unto thee : he is just, and 
 having salvation, lowly, and riding upon an ass, and 
 upon a colt, the foal of an ass." 
 
53 
 
 And how little he was taken with this piece of 
 state, is sufficiently to be seen in this paragraph of 
 the chapter. His mind is much more taken up in 
 the foresight of Jerusalem's sad case ; and therefore 
 being come within view of it, (which he might very 
 commodiously have in the descent of the higher op- 
 posite hill, Mount Olivet,) he beheld the city, it 
 is said, and wept over it. 
 
 Two things concur to make up the cause of this 
 sorrow. 
 
 1. The greatness of the calamity: Jerusalem, 
 once so dear to God, was to suffer, not a scar, but 
 a ruin; " The days shall come upon thee, that thine 
 enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass 
 thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall 
 lay thee even with the ground, and thy children 
 within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one 
 stone upon another." Luke xix. 43, 44. 
 
 2. The lost opportunity of preventing it: " If thou 
 hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the 
 things which belong unto thy peace ! but now they 
 are hid from thine eyes," ver. 42. And again, 
 " thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." 
 
 1st, The calamity was greater in his eyes than it \/ 
 can be in ours. His large and comprehensive mind 
 could take the compass of this sad case. Our 
 thoughts cannot reach far, yet we can apprehend 
 what may make this case very deplorable; we can 
 consider Jerusalem as the city of the great King, 
 where was the palace and throne of the Majesty of 
 Heaven, vouchsafing to dwell with men on earth. 
 Here the divine light and glory had long shone. 
 
54 
 
 Here was the sacred Shechinah, the dwelling place 
 of the Most High, the symbols of his presence, 
 the seat of worship, the mercy seat, the place of 
 receiving addresses, and of dispensing favours : the 
 house of prayer for all nations. To his own peo- 
 ple, this was the city of their solemnities, " Whi- 
 ther the tribes were wont to go up, the tribes of 
 the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give 
 thanks unto the name of the Lord: for there were 
 set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house 
 of David." He that was so great a lover of the 
 souls of men, how grateful and dear to his heart 
 had the place been where, through the succession 
 of many by-past ages, the great God did use, 
 though more obscurely, to unfold his kind propen- 
 sions towards sinners, to hold solemn treaties with 
 them, to make himself known ; to draw and allure 
 souls into his own holy worship and acquaintance! 
 And that now the dismal prospect presents itself of 
 desolation and ruin, ready to overwhelm all this glo- 
 ry ! and lay waste the dwellings of divine love I 
 His sorrow must be conceived proportionable to the 
 greatness of this desolating change. 
 
 2d, And the opportunity of prevention was quite 
 lost ! There was an opportunity : he was sent to 
 the lost sheep of the house of Israel: he came to 
 them as his own. Had they received him, O how 
 joyful a place had Jerusalem been ! How glorious 
 had the triumphs of the love of God been there, 
 had they repented, believed, and obeyed ! These 
 were the things that belonged to their peace; this 
 was their opportunity, their day of visitation ; these 
 
55 
 
 were the things that might have been done within 
 that day: but it was now too late, their day was 
 over, and the things of their peace hid from their 
 eyes. And how fervent were his desires, they had 
 done otherwise! taken the wise and safe course! 
 " If thou hadst known !" The words admit the 
 optative form, e/ being put, as it is observed to be 
 sometimes with other authors, for e'/3-e, utinam ; O 
 that thou hadst known, I wish thou hadst. His 
 sorrow must be proportionable to his love. Or other- 
 wise we may conceive the sentence incomplete, part 
 cut off by a more emphatical aposiepesis, tears in- 
 terrupting speech, and imposing a more speaking 
 silence, which imports an affection beyond all words. 
 They that were anciently so over-officious as to eraze 
 those words " and wept over it," out of the Canon, 
 as thinking it unworthy so divine a person to shed 
 tears, did greatly err, not knowing the Scriptures, 
 which elsewhere speak of our Lord's weeping, nor 
 the power of divine love, now become incarnate, 
 nor indeed the true perfections and: properties of hu- 
 man nature: otherwise, they had never taken upon 
 them to reform the gospel, and reduce not only 
 Christianity, but Christ himself to the measures 
 and square of their Stoical philosophy. But these 
 have also met with a like ancient confutation. 
 
 One thing, before we proceed, needs some dis- 
 quisition, namely, Whether this lamentation of our 
 blessed Lord do refer only or ultimately to the 
 temporal calamity he foresaw coming upon Jerusa- 
 lem? Or whether it had not a further and more 
 principal reference to their spiritual and eternal mi- 
 
56 
 
 series, that were certain to be concomitant, and 
 consequent thereunto?. Where let it be consid- 
 ered, 
 
 1. That very dreadful spiritual plagues and judg- 
 ments did accompany their destruction very generally; 
 which every one knows who is acquainted with their 
 after-story; that k> that takes notice what spirit 
 reigned among them, and what their behaviour was 
 towards our Lord himself, and afterwards towards 
 his apostles and disciples, all along to their fearful 
 catastrophe, as it may be collected from the sacred 
 records, and other history; what blindness of mind, 
 what hardness of heart, what mighty prejudice, what 
 inflexible obstinacy, against the clearest light, the 
 largest mercy, the most perspicuous and most gra- 
 cious doctrine, and the most glorious works, wrought 
 to confirm it, against the brightest beams and evi- 
 dences of the divine truth, love and power; what per- 
 severing impenitency and infidelity against God and 
 Christ, proceeding from the bitterest enmity; " Ye 
 have both seen and hated me and my Father;" what 
 mad rage and fury against one another, even when 
 death and destruction were at the very door. Here 
 were all the tokens imaginable, of the most tremen- 
 dous infatuation, and of their being forsaken of God : 
 here was a concurrence of all kinds of spiritual 
 judgments in the highest degree. 
 
 2. That the concomitancy of such spiritual evils 
 with their temporal destruction, our Lord foreknew, 
 as well as their temporal destruction itself. It lay 
 equally in view before him ; and was as much under 
 his eye. He that knew what was in man, could as 
 
57 
 
 well tell what would be in him. And by the same 
 light by which he could immediately look into hearts, 
 he could as well see into futurities, and as well the 
 one futurity as the other. The knowledge of the 
 one he did not owe to his human understanding; to 
 his divine understanding, whereby he knew all 
 things, the other could not be hid. 
 
 3. The connection between the impenitency and 
 infidelity that prove to be final; and eternal mi- 
 sery is known to us all. Of his knowledge of it 
 therefore, (whose law hath made the connection, 
 besides what there is in the nature of the things 
 themselves) there can be no doubt. 
 
 4. That the miseries of the soul, especially such 
 as prove incurable and eternal, are, in themselves, 
 far the greatest, we all acknowledge. Nor can we 
 make a difficulty to believe, that our Lord appre- 
 hended and considered things according as they were 
 in themselves, so as to allow every thing its own 
 proper weight and import, in his estimating of them. 
 These things seem all very evident to any eye. 
 
 Now though it be confessed not impossible, that 
 of things so distinct from one another, as outward 
 and temporal evils, and those that are spiritual and 
 eternal, even befalling the same persons, one may 
 for the present, consider the one, without attending 
 to the other, or making distinct reflection thereon at 
 the same time ; yet how unlikely is it, these things 
 bordering so closely upon one another as they did, 
 in the present case; that so comprehensive a mind 
 as our Saviour's was, sufficiently able to enclose 
 them both; and so spiritual a mind, apt, no doubt, 
 C 3 
 
58 
 
 to consider most what was in itself most considera- 
 ble, should, in a solemn lamentation of so sad a 
 case, wholly overlook the saddest part ! and stay 
 his thoughts only upon the surface and outside of 
 it ! 
 
 That he mentions only the approaching outward 
 calamity, ver. 43, 44. was that he spake in the 
 hearing of the multitude, and upon the way, but in 
 passing, when there was not opportunity for large 
 discourse ; and therefore he spake what might soon- 
 est strike their minds, was most liable to common 
 apprehension, and might most deeply affect ordinary 
 and not yet enough prepared hearers. 
 
 And he spake what he had no doubt, a deep sense 
 of himself. Whatever of tender compassions might 
 be expected from the most perfect humanity and 
 benignity, could not be wanting in him, upon the 
 foresight of such a calamity as was coming upon that 
 place and people. But yet, what was the sacking 
 of a city, the destroying of pompous buildings, that 
 were all of a perishable material, the mangling of 
 human flesh, over which the worm was otherwise 
 shortly to have had dominion; to the alienation of 
 men's minds from God, their disaffection to the only 
 means of their recovery, and reconciliation to him, 
 and their subjection to <his wrath and curse for ever ! 
 When also it is plain he considered that perverse 
 temper of mind and spirit in them, as the cause of 
 their ruin ! which his own words imply; that " the 
 things which belonged to their peace were hid from 
 their eyes;" and that the things he foretold, should 
 befall them, because " they knew not the day of 
 
59 
 
 their visitation." For what could the things be that 
 belonged to their peace, but turning to God, believ- 
 ing in himself, as the Messiah, bringing forth of 
 fruits meet for repentance? Whence also there 
 must be another latent, and concealed meaning of 
 their peace itself; than only their continued amity 
 with the Roman state; their peace with heaven; their 
 being set right, and standing in favour and accep- 
 tance with God. For was it ever the first intention 
 of the things enjoined in the gospel, but to entitle 
 men to earthly secular benefits? 
 
 Nor can we doubt but the same things lay deep 
 in the mind of our blessed Lord, when he uttered 
 these words, as when he spake those so very like 
 them, Matthew xxiii. 37, 38. " O Jerusalem, Je«- 
 rusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest 
 them which are sent unto thee, how often would I 
 have gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
 gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye 
 would not ! Behold, your house is left unto you 
 desolate." These other were not spoken indeed at 
 the same time, but very soon after. Those we are 
 considering, in his way to the city, — these, when he 
 was come into it; most probably, by the series of 
 the Evangelical History, the second day, after his 
 having lodged the first night at Bethany. . But it is 
 plain they have the same sense, and that the same 
 things lay with great weight upon his spirit ; so that 
 the one passage may contribute much to the enligh- 
 tening and expounding of the other. 
 
 Now, what can be meant by that, " I would have 
 gathered you as the hen her chickens under her 
 
60 
 
 wings?" Could it intend a political meaning? that 
 he would have been a temporal Prince and Saviour 
 to them? which he so earnestly declined and dis- 
 claimed? professing to the last, " his kingdom was 
 not of this world?" It could mean no other thing, 
 but that he would have reduced them back to God; 
 have gathered and united them under his own gra- 
 cious and safe conduct, in order thereto; have se- 
 cured them from the divine wrath and justice, and 
 have conferred on them spiritual and eternal bles- 
 sings. In a like sense, their peace here, was no 
 doubt more principally to be understood; and their 
 loss and forfeiture of it, by their not understanding 
 the things belonging thereto, considered and la- 
 mented. 
 
 Therefore the principal intention of this lamen- 
 tation, though directly applied to a community, and 
 the formed body of a people, is equally applicable 
 unto particular persons living under the gospel, or 
 to whom the ordinary means of their conversion and 
 salvation are vouchsafed, but are neglected by them 
 and forfeited. 
 
 We may therefore thus sum up the meaning and 
 sense of these words : — That it is a thing in itself 
 very lamentable, and much lamented by our Lord 
 Jesus, when such as living under the gospel, have 
 had a day of grace, and an opportunity of knowing 
 the things belonging to their peace, have so outworn 
 that day, and lost their opportunity, that the things 
 of their peace are quite hid from their eyes. 
 
 Where we have these distinct, heads of discourse 
 to be severally considered and insisted on. 
 
61 
 
 I. What are the things necessary to be known by 
 such as live under the gospel, as immediately belong- 
 ing to their peace. 
 
 II. That they have a day or season wherein to 
 know, not these things only, but the whole compass 
 of their case, and what the knowledge of those things 
 more immediately belonging to their peace supposes, 
 and depends upon. 
 
 . III. That this day hath its bounds and limits, so 
 that when it is over and lost, those things are for 
 ever hid from their eyes. 
 
 IV. That this is a case to be considered with 
 deep resentment and lamentation, and was so by 
 our Lord Jesus. 
 
 I. What are the things necessary to be known 
 by such as live under the gospel, as immediately be- 
 longing to their peace. Where we are more parti- 
 cularly to inquire. 
 
 1. What those things themselves are. 
 
 2. What sort of knowledge of them it is that is 
 here meant and made necessary. 
 
 1st, What the things are which belong to the 
 peace of a people living under the gospel ? The 
 things belonging to a people's peace, are not through- 
 out the same with all. Living, or not living under 
 the gospel, makes a considerable difference in the 
 matter. Before the incarnation, and public appear- 
 ance of our Lord, something was not necessary 
 among the Jews, that afterwards became necessary. 
 It was sufficient to them before, to believe in a Mes- 
 siah to come, more indefinitely. Afterwards he 
 plainly tells them r if if ye believe not that I am he, 
 
62 
 
 ye shall die in your sins." Believing in Christ can- 
 not be necessary to pagans, that never heard of him, 
 as a duty, however necessary it may be as a means. 
 Their not believing in him cannot be itself a sin, 
 though by it they should want remedy for their other 
 sins. But it more concerns us who do live under 
 the gospel, to apprehend aright what is necessary for 
 ourselves. That is a short and full summary which 
 the Apostle gives, Acts xx. 21. " Repentance to- 
 wards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ/' 
 The gospel finds us in a state of apostacy from God, 
 both as our sovereign Ruler, and sovereign good: 
 not apt to obey and glorify him, as the former, nor 
 enjoy him, and be satisfied in him, as the latter. Re- 
 pentance towards God cures and removes this disaf- 
 fection of our minds, and hearts towards him, under 
 both these notions. By it the whole soul turns to 
 him, with this sense and resolution. I have been a 
 rebellious disloyal wretch, against the high authority, 
 and most rightful government of him who gave me 
 breath, and whose creature I am, I will live no lon- 
 ger thus. Lo, now I come back unto thee, O Lord, 
 thou art my Lord and God. Thee I now design to 
 serve and obey as the Lord of my life, thee I will 
 fear, unto thee I subject myself, to live no longer 
 after my own will, but thine ; I have been hitherto 
 a miserable, forlorn, distressed creature, destitute 
 of any thing that could satisfy me, or make me hap- 
 py ; have set my heart upon a vain and thorny world, 
 that had nothing in it answerable to my real neces- 
 sities, that hath flattered and mocked me often, ne- 
 ver satisfied me, and been wont to requite my pur- 
 
63 
 
 suits of satisfaction from it with vexation and trou- 
 ble, and pierce me through with many sorrows. I 
 have borne, in the mean time, a disaffected heart to- 
 wards thee, have therefore cast thee out of my 
 thoughts, so that amidst all my disappointments and 
 sorrows, it never came into my mind to say, Where 
 is God my Maker ? I could never savour any thing 
 spiritual or divine, and was ever ready in distress to 
 turn myself any way than that which I ought to- 
 wards thee. I now see and bemoan my folly, and 
 with a convinced, self-judging heart, betake myself 
 to thee ; " The desires of my soul are now unto 
 thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. Whom 
 have I in heaven but thee, or on earth that I can de- 
 sire besides thee." 
 
 This is repentance towards God ; and is one thing 
 belonging, and most simply necessary to our peace. 
 But though it be most necessary, it is not enough. 
 It answers to something of our wretched case, but 
 not to every thing. We were in our state of apos- 
 tacy, averse and disaffected to God. To this evil, 
 repentance towards him is the apposite and only pro- 
 per remedy. But besides our being without incli- 
 nation towards him, we were also without interest 
 in him. We not only had unjustly cast off him, 
 but were also most justly cast off by him. Our in- 
 justice had set us against him, and his justice had 
 set him against us ; we need, in order to our peace 
 with him, to be relieved as well against his justice, 
 as our own injustice. What if now we would return 
 to him, he will not receive us ? And he will not 
 receive us for our own sakes. He must have a re- 
 
64 
 
 eompense, for the wrong we had done him by our 
 rebellion against his government, and our contempt 
 of his goodness. Our repentance is no expiation. 
 Nor had we of our own, or were capable of obliging 
 him to give us the power and grace to repent. Our 
 high violation of the sacred rights and honour of the 
 Godhead, made it necessary, in order to our peace 
 and reconciliation, there should be a sacrifice and a 
 Mediator between him and us. He hath judged it 
 not honourable to him, not becoming him to treat 
 with us, or vouchsafe us favours upon other terms. 
 And since he thought it necessary to insist upon 
 having a sacrifice, he judged it necessary too, to 
 have one proportionable to the wrong done, lest he 
 should make the Majesty of Heaven cheap, or oc- 
 casion men to think it a light matter to have fun- 
 damentally overturned the common order which was 
 settled between himself and men. The whole earth 
 could not have afforded such a sacrifice, it must be 
 supplied from heaven. His co-eternal Son made 
 man, and so uniting heaven and earth in his own 
 person, undertakes to be that sacrifice, and, in the 
 virtue of it, to be a standing continual mediator be- 
 tween God and us; through him, and for his sake, 
 all acts and influences of grace are to proceed to- 
 wards us. No sin is to be forgiven, no grace to 
 be conferred be but upon his account. It is reckoned 
 most God-like, most suitable to the divine greatness, 
 once offended, to do nothing that shall import favour 
 towards sinners, but upon his constant interposition. 
 Him hath he set over us, and directed that all our 
 applications to himself, and all our expectations from 
 
65 
 
 him, should be through him. " Him hath he ex- 
 alted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give us re- 
 pentance and remission of sins." Now to one so 
 high in power over us, he expects we should pay a 
 suitable homage. That homage the holy Scripture 
 calls by the name offaith, believing on him. " God 
 hath set him forth to be a propitiation, through faith 
 in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the re- 
 mission of sins that are past, through the forbear- 
 ance of God ; to declare his righteousness, that he 
 might be just, and the justifier of him which believ- 
 eth in Jesus." So that when by repentance we 
 turn to God, as our end, we must also apply our- 
 selves by . faith, to our Lord Jesus Christ, as our 
 way to that end. Which till we do, we are in re- 
 bellion still, and know not what belongs to our peace. 
 He insists that his Son, into whose hands he hath 
 committed our affairs, should be honoured by us, as 
 he himself requires to be. 
 
 Now these two things sum up our part of the 
 covenant between God and us. By repentance we 
 again-take-God far. our God. Repenting we return 
 to him as our God. By faith we take his Son for 
 our Prince and Saviour. These things, by the 
 tenor of the_exarigelical covenant, are required of us. 
 Peace is settled between God and us (as it is usually 
 with men towards one another after mutual hostili- 
 ties) by striking a covenant. And in our case, it is 
 a covenant by sacrifice,- as you have seen. Nor are 
 harder terms than these imposed upon us. Dost 
 thou now, sinner, apprehend thyself gone off from 
 God? and find a war is commenced, and on foot, be* 
 
66 
 
 tween God and thee ? He can easily conquer and 
 crush thee to nothing, but he offers thee terms of 
 peace, upon which he is willing to enter into cove- 
 nant with thee. Dost thou like his terms ? Art 
 thou willing to return to him, and take him again 
 for thy God ? to resign and commit thyself with un- 
 feigned trust and subjection, into the hands of his Son 
 thy Redeemer ? These are " the things which be- 
 long to thy peace." See that thou now know them. 
 2d, But what knowledge of them is it that is here 
 meant. The thing speaks itself. It is not a mere 
 contemplative knowledge. We must so know them 
 as to do them; otherwise the increase of knowledge 
 is the increase of sorrow. Thy guilt and misery 
 will be the greater. To know any thing that 
 concerns our practice, is to no purpose if we do 
 not practise it. It was an Hebrew form of speech, 
 and is a common form, by words of knowledge to 
 imply practice. It being taken for granted that in 
 matters so very reasonable and important, if what we 
 are to do, once be rightly known, it will be done. 
 Thus, elsewhere, the same great requisites to eter* 
 nal life and blessedness are expressed by our Lord. 
 " This is life eternal, to know thee the only true 
 God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." It 
 being supposed and taken for granted, that a true 
 vivid knowledge of God and Christ will immediately 
 form the soul to all suitable dispositions and deport- 
 ments towards the one and the other; and conse- 
 quently to all men also, as Christian precepts do 
 direct to all the acts of sobriety, justice, and charity, 
 unto which the law of Christ obliges. An habitual 
 
67 
 
 course of sin, in any kind, is inconsistent with this 
 knowledge of the things of our peace, and therefore 
 with our peace itself. All sin is in a true sense re- 
 ducible to ignorance; and customary sinning into 
 total destitution of divine knowledge. According 
 to the usual style of the sacred writings, 1 Cor. xv. 
 34. " Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for 
 some have not the knowledge of God. 3 John 11. 
 " He that sinneth," that is, that is a doer of sin, . 
 OX.XK07TOIOOV, a worker of iniquity, " hath not seen 
 God." 
 
 II. Such as live under the gospel have a day, or 
 a present opportunity, for the obtaining the know- 
 ledge of these things immediately belonging to their 
 peace, and of whatsoever is besides necessary there- 
 unto. I say nothing of what opportunities they have 
 who never lived under the gospel; who yet no doubt 
 might generally, know more than they do; and 
 know better what they do know. It suffices us who 
 enjoy the gospel, to understand our own advantages 
 thereby. Nor, as to those who do enjoy it, is every 
 one's day of equal clearness. How few in compari- 
 son, have ever seen such a day as Jerusalem at this 
 time did ! made by the immediate beams of the Sun 
 of Righteousness ! Our Lord himself vouchsafing to 
 be their Instructor, so speaking as never man did, 
 and with such authority as far outdid their other 
 teachers, and astonished the hearers. In what 
 transports did he use to leave those that heard him, 
 wheresoever he came, " wondering at the gracious 
 words that came out of his mouth!" And with 
 what mighty and beneficial works was he wont to 
 
68 
 
 recommend his doctrine, shining in the glorious 
 power, and savouring of the abundant mercy of hea- 
 ven, so as every apprehensive mind might see the 
 Deity was incarnate ; God was come down to treat 
 with men, and allure them into the knowledge and 
 love of himself. " The word was made flesh!" 
 What unprejudiced mind might not perceive it 
 to be so ? He was there manifested and veiled 
 at once; both expressions are used concerning the 
 same matter. The divine beams were somewhat 
 obscured, but did yet ray through that veil; " so 
 that his glory was beheld as the glory of the only 
 begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth," 
 John i. 14. This sun shone with a mild and benign, 
 but with a powerful vivifying light. " In him was 
 life, and that life was the light of men." Such a 
 light created unto the Jews this their day. Happy 
 Jews, if they had understood their own happiness ! 
 And the days that followed to them, for a while, 
 and the Gentile world were not inferior, in some re- 
 spects brighter and more glorious, (the more copious 
 gift of the Holy Ghost being reserved unto the 
 crowning and enthroning of the victorious Re- 
 deemer) when the everlasting gospel flew like light- 
 ning to the utmost ends of the earth; and the word 
 4i which began to be spoken by the Lord himself, 
 was confirmed by them that heard him, God also 
 himself bearing them witness, with signs, and won- 
 ders, and gifts of the Holy Ghost." No such day 
 hath been seen this many an age. Yet whitherso- 
 ever the same gospel, for substance comes, it also 
 makes a day of the same kind, and affords always 
 
69 
 
 true, though diminished light; whereby, however, 
 the things of our peace might be understood and 
 known. The. written gospel varies not; and if it 
 be but simply and plainly proposed, (though to some 
 it be proposed with more advantage, to some with 
 less,) yet still we have the same things immediately 
 relating to our peace, extant before our eyes, and 
 divers things besides, which it concerns us to be ac- 
 quainted with, that we may, the more distinctly, and 
 to better purpose, understand these things. For 
 instance, 
 
 1. We have the true and distinct state of the 
 quarrel between God and us. Pagans have under- 
 stood somewhat of the apostacy of man from God; 
 that he is not in the same state wherein he was at 
 first. But while they have understood that some- 
 thing was amiss, they could scarcely tell what. The 
 gas^eJLre veals the universal depravity of the degene- 
 rate nature even of all men, and of every faculty in 
 man. " That there is none that doeth good, no 
 not one," Rom. ii. 1. "and that everyone is altoge- 
 ther become filthy and impure, that there is an en- 
 tire old man to be put off; wholly corrupt by deceiv- 
 able lusts," Eph. iv. that the clk^ottokk;, the noblest 
 powers are vitiated, the mind and conscience defiled; 
 that the spirit of the mind needs renewing, is sunk 
 into carnality; and that " the carnal mind is enmity 
 against God, and is not subject to his law, nor can 
 be ;" Rom. viii. nor capable of savouring the things 
 of God; that the sinner is in the flesh under the do- 
 minion and power, and in the possession of the flesh- 
 ly sensual nature, and can therefore neither obey 
 
70 
 
 God, nor enjoy him; that it is become impossible to 
 him, either to please God, or to be pleased with him; 
 that the sinner's quarrel therefore with God, is about 
 the most appropriate rights of the Godhead. The 
 controversy is, who shall be God, which is the su- 
 preme authority, and which is the supreme good. 
 The former peculiarity of the Godhead, the lapsed 
 creature is become so insolent, as to usurp and arro- 
 gate to himself. When he is become so much less 
 than a man, a very beast, he will be a God. His 
 sensual will shall be his only law. He lives and 
 walks after the flesh, serves divers lusts and plea- 
 sures, and says, Who is Lord over me ? But be- 
 ing conscious that he is not self-sufficient, that he 
 must be beholden to somewhat foreign to himself 
 for his satisfaction, and finding nothing else suita- 
 ble to his sensual inclination ; that other divine pe- 
 culiarity, to be the supreme good, he places upon 
 the sensible world ; and for this purpose that shall 
 be his God; so that between himself and the world? 
 he attempts to share the undivided Godhead. This 
 is a controversy of a high nature, and about other 
 matters than even the Jewish Rabbins thought of, 
 who, when Jerusalem was destroyed, supposed God 
 was angry with them for their neglect of the reci- 
 tation of their philacteries morning and evening; or 
 that they were not respectful enough to one another; 
 or, that distance enough was not observed between 
 superiors and inferiors. The gospel impleads men 
 as rebels against their rightful Lord; but of this 
 treason against the Majesty of Heaven, men little 
 suspect themselves till they are told. The gospel 
 
71 
 
 tells them so plainly, represents the matter in so 
 clear a light, that they need only to contemplate 
 themselves in that light, and they may see that so it 
 is. Men may indeed, by resolved, stiff, winking, 
 create to themselves a darkness amidst the clearest 
 light. But open thine eyes, man ; thou that livest 
 under the gospel, set thyself to view thine own soul, 
 thou wilt find it is day with thee ; thou hast a day, 
 by being under the gospel, and light enough to see 
 that this is the posture of thy soul, and the state of 
 thy case Godward. And it is a great matter towards 
 the understanding the things of thy peace, to know 
 aright what is the true state of the quarrel between 
 God and thee. 
 
 2. The gospel affords light to know what the issue 
 of this quarrel is sure to be, if it go on, and there be 
 no reconciliation. It gives us other and plainer ac- 
 counts of the punishments of the other world; more 
 fully represents the extremity and perpetuity of the 
 future miseries, and state of perdition appointed for 
 the ungodly world, speaks out concerning the Tophet 
 prepared of old, Isa. xxx. 33. " the lake of fire and 
 brimstone," Rev. xxi. 8. shows the miseries of that 
 state to be the immediate effects of divine displea- 
 sure: " that the breath of the Almighty, as a river 
 of brimstone, always foments those flames," Rom. ii. 8. 
 that " indignation and wrath" cause the " tribula- 
 tion and anguish" which must be the portion of 
 evil-doers; and how " fearful a thing it is to fall 
 into the hands of the living God !" Heb. x. 31. gives 
 us to understand what accession men's own unaltered 
 vicious habits will give to their miseries; their own 
 
72 
 
 outrageous lusts and passions, which here they 
 made it their business to satisfy, becoming their in- 
 satiable tormentors; that they are to receive " the 
 things done in the body, according to what they 
 have done," 2 Cor. v. and that " what they have 
 sowed the same also they are to reap," Gal. yi. and 
 what their own guilty reflections will contribute, the 
 bitings and gnawings of the worm that dies not, the 
 venomous corrosions of the viper bred in their own bo- 
 soms, and now become a full-grown serpent; what the 
 society and insults of devils, with whom they are 
 to partake in woes and torments, and by whom they 
 have been seduced and trained into that cursed part- 
 nership and communion; and that this fire wherein 
 they are to be tormented together is to be everlast- 
 ing, " a fire never to be quenched." If men be 
 left to their own conjecture only, touching the dan- 
 ger they incur by continuing and keeping up a war 
 with heaven, and are to make their own hell, and 
 that it be the creature only of their own imagination; 
 it is like they will make it as easy and favourable as 
 they can; and so are little likely to be urged earnestly 
 to sue for peace by the imagination of a tolerable 
 hell. But if they understand it to be altogether 
 intolerable, this may make them bestir themselves, 
 and think the favour of God worth the seeking. 
 The gospel imports favour and kindness to you, 
 when it imports most of terror^ in telling you so 
 plainly the worst of your case, if you go on in a sin- 
 ful course. It makes you a day by which you may 
 make a truer judgment of the blackness, darkness, 
 and horror of that everlasting night that is coming 
 
73 
 
 upon you ; and lets you know that black and end- 
 less night is introduced by a terrible preceding 
 day, that day of the Lord, the business whereof is 
 judgment. They that live under the gospel cannot 
 pretend they are in darkness, so as that day should 
 overtake them as a thief; and that, by surprise, they 
 should be doomed and abandoned to the regions of 
 darkness. The gospel forewarns you plainly of all 
 this: which it does not merely to fright and torment 
 you before the time, but that you may steer your 
 course another way, and escape the place and state 
 of torment. It only says this, that it may render 
 the more acceptable to you what it hath to say be- 
 sides; and only threatens you with these things if 
 there be no reconciliation between God and you. 
 But then, at the same time, 
 
 3. It_abo--repx.es ents God to you as reconcilable 
 through a Mediator. In that gospel " peace is 
 preached to you, by Jesus Christ." That gospel 
 lets you see " God in Christ reconciling the world 
 unto himself, that sin may not be imputed to them." 
 That gospel proclaims " glory to God in the highest, 
 peace on earth, good will towards men." So did the 
 voices of angels sum up the glad tidings of the gos- 
 pel, when that Prince of Peace was born into the 
 world. It tells you, " God desireth not the death 
 of sinners, but that they may turn and live;" that 
 he would have " all men be saved, and come to the 
 knowledge of the truth ;" that he is "long-suffering 
 towards them, not willing that any should perish, 
 but that all should come to repentance;" that he " so 
 loved the world* that he gave his only-begotten Son, 
 D 
 
74 
 
 that whosoever believes on him should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life." The rest of the world 
 cannot but collect, from darker intimations, God's 
 favourable propensions towards them. He spares 
 them, is patient towards them, that herein his 
 goodness might lead them to repentance. He sus- 
 tains them; lets them dwell in a world which they 
 might understand was of his making, and whereof 
 he is the absolute Lord. " They live, move, and 
 have their being in him, that they might seek after 
 him, and by feeling find him out." He doeth them 
 " good; gives them rain from heaven, and fruitful 
 seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness." 
 He lets his sun shine on them, whose far extended 
 beams show forth his kindness and benignity to 
 men, even to the utmost ends of the earth. " For 
 there is no speech or language whither his line and 
 circle reaches not." But those are but dull and 
 glimmering beams in comparison of those that shine 
 from the Sun of Righteousness through the gospel- 
 revelation, and in respect of that divine glory which 
 appears in the face of Jesus Christ. How clearly 
 doth the light of this gospel-day reveal God's de- 
 sign of reducing sinners, and reconciling them to 
 himself by a Redeemer ! How canst thou but say, 
 sinner, thou hast a day of it? and clear day-light, 
 showing thee what the good and acceptable will of 
 God towards thee is? Thou art not left to guess 
 only; thou mayest be reconciled and find mercy; 
 and to grope and feel thy way in the dark, unless it 
 be a darkness of thy own making. And whereas a 
 sinner, a disloyal rebellious creature, that hath af- 
 
15 
 
 fronted the Majesty of heaven, and engaged against 
 himself the wrath and justice of his Maker, and is 
 unable to make him any recompense, can have no 
 reason to hope God will show him mercy, and he 
 reconciled to him for his own sake, or for any thing 
 he can do to oblige or induce him to it: the same 
 gospel shows you plainly, it is for the Redeemer's 
 sake, and what he hath done and suffered to procure 
 it. But inasmuch, also, as the sinner may easily 
 apprehend, that it can never answer the necessities of 
 his state and case, that God only be not his enemy; 
 that he forbear hostilities towards him; pursue him 
 not with vengeance to his destruction. For he finds 
 himself an indigent creature, and he needs some- 
 what beyond what he hath ever yet met with to make 
 him happy; that it is uneasy and grievous to wander 
 up and down with craving desires among varieties of 
 objects that look speciously, but which, either he 
 cannot so far compass as to make a trial what there 
 is in them, or wherewith, upon trial, he finds him- 
 self mocked and disappointed, and that really they 
 have nothing in them: He finds himself a mortal 
 creature, and considers that if he had all that he can 
 covet in this world, the increase of his present en- 
 joyments doth but increase unto him trouble and 
 anguish of heart, while he thinks what great things 
 he must shortly leave and lose for ever; to go, he 
 knows not whither, into darksome gloomy regions; 
 where he cannot so much as imagine any thing sui- 
 table to his inclinations and desires. For he knows 
 all that is delectable to his present sense, he must 
 here leave behind him; and he cannot divest himself 
 D 2 
 
76 
 
 of all apprehensions of a future state, wherein if 
 God should make him suffer nothing, yet if he hath 
 nothing to enjoy, he must he always miserable. 
 
 4. The gospel, therefore, further represents to 
 him the final, eternal blessedness, and glorious state, 
 which they that are reconciled shall be brought into. 
 They that live under the gospel are not mocked 
 with shadows, and empty clouds, nor with fabulous 
 elysiums: Nor are they put off with some unintelli- 
 gible notion of only being happy in the general: 
 but are told expressly wherein their happiness is to 
 consist. " Life and immortality are brought to 
 light in the gospel." It is given them to understand 
 " how great a good is laid up in store." The 
 " things which eye hath not seen, and ear not heard, 
 and which otherwise could not have entered into the 
 heart of man;" the things of God's present and 
 eternal kingdom are set in view. It shows the fu- 
 ture state of the reconciled shall consist not only in 
 freedom from what is evil, but in the enjoyment of 
 the best and most delectable good. That God 
 himself, in all his glorious fulness, will be their 
 eternal and most satisfying portion: that their bles- 
 sedness is to lie in the perpetual fruitive vision of his 
 blessed face, and in the fulness of joy, and the 
 everlasting pleasures, which the divine presence it- 
 self doth perpetually afford. And whereas their 
 glorious Redeemer is so nearly allied to them, flesh 
 of their flesh, and bone of their bone, who, " inas- 
 much as the children were made partakers of flesh 
 and blood, he also himself likewise took part of 
 the same," and is become, by special title, their 
 
77 
 
 authorised Lord, they are assured (of that, than 
 which nothing should be more grateful to them) 
 " they shall be for ever with the Lord;" that " they 
 are to be where he is, to behold his glory;" and 
 shall be joint-heirs with Christ, and be glorified 
 together with him; shall partake according to their 
 measure and capacity, in the same blessedness which 
 he enjoys. Thou canst not pretend, sinner, who 
 livest under the gospel, that thou hast not the light 
 of a day to show thee what blessedness is ! Heaven 
 is opened to thee. Glory beams down from thence 
 upon thee, to create thee a day, by the light whereof, 
 thou mayest see, with sufficient clearness, what is 
 the inheritance of the saints in light. And though 
 all is not told thee, and it do not in every respect 
 appear what we shall be; so much may be foreknown, 
 " that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, 
 and shall see him as he is." And because the heart, 
 as yet carnal, can savour little of all this, and find- 
 ing itself strange and disaffected to God, affecting 
 now to be without Christ and without God in the 
 world, may easily apprehend it impossible to it to be 
 happy in an undesired good, or that it can enjoy 
 what it dislikes; or, in the mean time, walk in a 
 way to which it finds in itself nothing but utter 
 averseness and disinclination. 
 
 5. The gospel further shows us what is to be 
 wrought and done in us to attemper and frame our 
 spirits to our future state, and present way to it. 
 It lets us know we are to be "born again; born 
 from above; born of God; made partakers of a divine 
 nature," that will make the temper of our spirits 
 
78 
 
 connatural to the divine presence: That whereas 
 " God is light, and with him is no darkness at all;" 
 we, " who were darkness, shall be made light in the 
 Lord:" That we are to be " begotten again to a 
 lively hope; to the eternal and undefiled inheritance 
 that is reserved in the heavens for us :" That we are 
 thus to be made " meet; to be made partakers of 
 that inheritance of the saints in light:" And, as we 
 are to be eternally conversant with Christ, we are 
 here to put on Christ; to have Christ in us, the 
 hope of glory. And, whereas, only the way of ho- 
 liness and obedience leads to blessedness, that we 
 are to be " created in Christ Jesus to good works; 
 to walk in them;" and shall thereupon find the ways 
 prescribed to us by him, who is the Wisdom of 
 God, to be " all ways of pleasantness and paths of 
 peace." That he will " put his Spirit into us, and 
 cause us to walk in his statutes," and to account that 
 " in keeping them there is great reward." And 
 thus all that is contained in that mentioned summary 
 of the things belonging to our peace, " Repentance 
 towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ," 
 will all become easy to us, and as the acts of nature; 
 proceeding from that new and holy nature imparted 
 to us. 
 
 And whosoever thou art that livest under the 
 gospel, canst thou deny that it is day with thee, 
 as to all this? Was thou never told of this great 
 necessary heart-change? Didst thou never hear 
 that the " tree must be made good that the fruit 
 might be good?" that thou must become a " new 
 creature; have old things done away, and all things 
 
79 
 
 made new?" Didst thou never hear of the neces- 
 sity of having a new heart, and a right spirit created 
 and renewed in thee ; that except thou wert bom 
 again, or from above, (as that expression may be read) 
 thou couldst " never enter into the kingdom of 
 God ?" Wast thou kept in ignorance that a form 
 of godliness, without the power of it, would never 
 do thee good? that a name to live, without the 
 principle of the holy divine life, would never save 
 thee? that a specious outside, that all the external 
 performances, while thou wentest with an unrenewed, 
 earthly, carnal heart, would never advantage thee as 
 to thy eternal salvation and blessedness ? And this 
 might help thine understanding concerning the na- 
 ture of thy future blessedness, and will be found 
 most agreeable to it, being aright understood; for 
 as thou art not to be blessed by a blessedness with- 
 out thee, and distant from thee, but inwrought into 
 thy temper, and intimately united with thee; nor 
 glorified by an external glory, but by a glory reveal- 
 ed within thee : So, neither canst thou be qualified for 
 that blessed, glorious, state, otherwise than by hav- 
 ing the temper of thy soul made habitually holy and 
 good. As what a good man partakes of happiness 
 here, is such, that he is satisfied from himself; so 
 it must be hereafter, not originally from himself, 
 but by divine communication made most intimate to 
 him. Didst thou not know that it belonged to thy 
 peace, to have a peace-maker? and that the Son of 
 God was he? and that he makes not the peace of 
 those that despise and refuse him, or that receive 
 him not; that come not to him, and are not willing 
 
80 
 
 to come to God by him? Couldst thou think, 
 living under the gospel, that the reconciliation be- 
 tween God and thee was not to be mutual? that he 
 would be reconciled to thee while thou wouldst not 
 be reconciled to him, or shouldst still bear towards 
 him a disaffected implacable heart? For couldst 
 thou be so void of all understanding as not to appre- 
 hend what the gospel was sent to thee for? or why 
 I it was necessary to be preached to thee, or that thou 
 shouldst hear it? Who was to be reconciled by a 
 gospel preached to thee but thyself? Who was to 
 be persuaded by a gospel sent to thee; God, or thou? 
 Who is to be persuaded but the unwilling? The 
 gospel, as thou hast been told, reveals God, willing 
 to be reconciled, and thereupon beseeches thee to 
 be reconciled to him ! Or could it seem likely to 
 thee, thou couldst ever be reconciled to God, and 
 continue unreconciled to thy reconciler? To what 
 purpose is there a day's-man, a middle person be- 
 tween God and thee, if thou wilt not meet him in 
 that middle person? Dost thou not know that 
 Christ avails thee nothing, if thou still stand at a 
 distance from him; if thou dost not unite and join 
 thyself to him, or art not in him? And dost thou 
 not again know that divine power and grace must 
 unite thee to him? and that a work must be wrought 
 and done upon thy soul by an Almighty hand; by 
 God himself; a mighty transforming work to make 
 thee capable of that union? that " whosoever is in 
 Christ is a new creature ?" that thou must be (of 
 God) in Christ Jesus, " who then is made unto 
 thee (of God also) wisdom, righteousness, sane- 
 
81 
 
 tification, and redemption ;" every way answering 
 the exigency of thy case, as thou art a foolish, 
 guilty, impure, and enslaved, or lost creature? 
 Didst thou never hear, that none can come to 
 Christ but whom the Father draws? and that he 
 draws the reasonable souls of men, not violently, or 
 against their wills, (he draws, yet drags them not) 
 but makes them willing in the day of power, by 
 giving a new nature, and new inclinations to them? 
 It is sure, with thee, not dark night; not a dubious 
 twilight, but broad day as to all this. 
 
 Yes, perhaps thou mayest say, but this makes 
 my case the worse, not the better; for it gives me 
 at length to understand, that what is necessary to 
 my peace and welfare is impossible to me: and so 
 the light of my day doth but serve to let me see 
 myself miserable and undone, and that I have nothing 
 to do to relieve and help myself. I therefore add, 
 
 6. That, by being under the gospel, men have 
 not only light to understand whatever is any way 
 necessary to their peace, but opportunity to obtain 
 that communication of divine power and grace where- 
 by to comply with the terms of it. Whereupon, if 
 this be made good, you have not a pretence left you 
 to say your case is the worse, or that you receive 
 any prejudice by what the gospel reveals of your 
 own impotency to relieve and help yourselves; or 
 determines touching the terms of your peace and sal- 
 vation, making such things necessary thereto, as are 
 to you impossible, and out of your own present 
 power; unless it be a prejudice to you not to have 
 your pride gratified; and that God hath pitched upon 
 D3 
 
82 
 
 such a method for your salvation, as shall wh oily- 
 turn to the praise of the glory of his grace, or that 
 you are to be (of him) in Christ Jesus, 1 Cor. i. 
 30, 31. " that whosoever glories, might glory in the 
 Lord." Is it for a sinner that hath deserved, and is 
 ready to perish, to insist upon being saved with re- 
 putation? or to envy the great God, upon whose 
 pleasure it wholly depends whether he shall be saved 
 or not saved, the entire glory of saving him? For 
 otherwise, excepting the mere business of glory and 
 reputation, is it not all one to you whether you have 
 the power in your own hands of changing your 
 hearts, of being the authors to yourselves, of that 
 holy new nature, out of which actual faith and re- 
 pentance are to spring, or whether you may have it 
 from the God of all grace, flowing to you from its 
 own proper divine fountain; your case is not sure 
 really the worse, that your salvation from first to 
 last is to be all of grace, and that it is impossible to 
 you to repent and believe, while it is not simply 
 impossible; but that he can effectually enable you 
 thereto, " unto whom all things are possible;" sup- 
 posing that he will (of which I shall afterwards speak): 
 nay, and it is more glorious and honourable, even to 
 you, if you understand yourselves, that your case is 
 so stated as it is. The gospel, indeed, plainly tells 
 you that your repentance must be given you. Christ 
 is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give re- 
 pentance and remission of sins. And so must your 
 faith, and that frame of spirit, which is the princi- 
 ple of all good works. " By grace ye are saved, 
 through faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of 
 
83 
 
 God: not of works, lest any man should boast: for 
 we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto 
 good works, which God hath before ordained that 
 we should walk in them." Is it more glorious to 
 have nothing in you but what is self-sprung, than 
 to have your souls the seat and receptacle of divine 
 communications; of so excellent things as could have 
 no other than an heavenly original? If it were not 
 absurd and impossible you should be self-begotten, 
 is it not much more glorious to be born of God? 
 as they are said to be that receive Christ. " But 
 as many as received him, to them gave he power to 
 become the sons of God, even to them that believe 
 on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of 
 the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
 God." 
 
 And now, that by being under the gospel, you 
 have the opportunity of getting that grace, which is 
 necessary to your peace and salvation; you may see, 
 if you consider, what the gospel is, and was designed 
 for. It is the ministration of the Spirit; that Spirit, 
 by which you are to be born again, John iii. 3, 5, 
 6. The work of regeneration consists in the im- 
 pregnating, and making lively and efficacious in you 
 the holy truths contained in the gospel. " Of his 
 own good will begat he us with the word of truth, that 
 we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." 
 And again, " being born again, not of corruptible 
 seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God." 
 So our Saviour prays : " Sanctify them through thy 
 truth, thy word is truth." The gospel is, upon 
 this account, called "the word of life," Phil. ii. 16. 
 
84 
 
 as by which the principles of that divine and holy it 
 life are implanted in the soul, whereby we live tot b f 
 God, do what his gospel requires, and hath made 
 our duty, and that ends at length in eternal life. 
 
 But you will say, Shall all then that live under 
 the gospel obtain this grace and holy life? or if they 
 shall not, or if, so far as can be collected, multitudes 
 do not, or perhaps in some places that enjoy the 
 gospel, very few do, in comparison of them that do 
 not; what am I the better? when perhaps it is far 
 more likely that I shall perish notwithstanding, than 
 be saved? 
 
 In answer to this, it must be acknowledged, that 
 all that live under the gospel do not obtain life and 
 saving grace by it. For then there had been no 
 occasion for this lamentation of our blessed Lord 
 over the perishing inhabitants of Jerusalem, as 
 having " lost their day," and " that the things of 
 their peace were now hid from their eyes," and by 
 that instance it appears too possible that even the 
 generality of a people living under the gospel, may 
 fall at length into the like forlorn and hopeless con- 
 dition. 
 
 But art thou a man that thus objectest ? a rea- 
 sonable understanding creature? or dost thou use 
 the reason and understanding of a man in objecting 
 thus? Didst thou expect that when thine own 
 wilful transgression had made thee liable to eternal 
 death and wrath, peace and life, and salvation should 
 be imposed upon thee whether thou wouldst or not, 
 or notwithstanding thy most wilful neglect and con- 
 tempt of them, and all the means of them? Could 
 
85 
 
 it enter into thy mind, that a reasonable soul should 
 be wrought and framed for that high and blessed end, 
 whereof it is radically capable, as a stock or a stone 
 is for any use it is designed for; without designing 
 its own end or way to it ? Couldst thou think the 
 gospel was to bring thee to faith and repentance 
 whether thou didst hear it or not? or ever apply thy 
 mind to consider the meaning of it, and what it did 
 propose and offer to thee? or when thou mightest so 
 easily understand that the grace of God was neces- 
 sary to make it effectual to thee, and that it might 
 become his power (or the instrument of his power) 
 to thy salvation ; couldst thou think it concerned thee 
 not, to sue and supplicate to him for that grace, 
 when thy life lay upon it, and thy eternal hope? 
 Hast thou lain weltering at the foot-stool of the 
 throne of grace in thine own tears (as thou hast been 
 formerly weltering in thy sins and impurities) crying 
 for grace to help thee in this time of thy need? 
 And if thou thinkest this was above thee, and with- 
 out thy compass, hast thou done all that was within 
 thy compass, in order to the obtaining of grace at 
 God's hands? 
 
 But here, perhaps, thou wilt inquire, Is there 
 anything then to be done by us, whereupon the 
 grace of God may be expected certainly to follow? 
 
 To which I answer, 1. That it is out of ques- 
 tion nothing can be done by us to deserve it, or for 
 which we may expect it to follow. It were not 
 grace if we had obliged, or brought it by our desert 
 under former preventive bonds to us. And 2. 
 What if nothing can be done by us upon which it 
 
86 
 
 may be (certainly) expected to follow? Is a cer- 
 tainty of perishing better than a high probability of 
 being saved? B. Such as live under the gospel, 
 have reason to apprehend it highly probable they 
 may obtain that grace which is necessary to their 
 salvation, if they be not wanting to themselves. 
 For 4. There is generally afforded to such, that 
 which is wont to be called common grace. I speak 
 not of any further extent of it, it is enough to our 
 present purpose, that it extends so far, as to them 
 that live under the gospel, and have thereby a day 
 allowed them wherein to provide for their peace. 
 Now though this grace is not yet certainly saving, 
 yet it tends to that which is so. And none have 
 cause to despair, but that being duly improved and 
 complied with, it may end in it. 
 
 And this is that which requires to be insisted on, 
 and more fully evinced: In order thereto, let it be 
 considered, That it is expressly said to such, they 
 are to work out their salvation with fear and trem- 
 bling, for this reason, that God works (or is work- 
 ing ivTiv b Mfyav) in them, that is, is statedly, and 
 continually at work, or is always ready to work in 
 them, " to will, and to do, of his own good plea- 
 sure." The matter fails not on his part. He will 
 work on in order to their salvation, if they work in 
 that way of subordinate co-operation with his com- 
 mand, and the necessity of their own case oblige 
 them unto. And it is further to be considered, that 
 where God had formerly afforded the symbols of his 
 gracious presence, given his oracles, and settled his 
 church, though yet in its nonage, and much more 
 
87 
 
 imperfect state, there he however communicated 
 those influences of his Spirit, that it was to be im- 
 puted to themselves if they came short of the saving 
 operations of it. Of such it was said, " Thou gav- 
 est thy good Spirit to instruct them." And to such, 
 " Turn ye at my reproof; I will pour out my Spirit 
 to you; I will make known my words unto you. 
 Because I called and you refused, I stretched out 
 my hand and no man regarded, but ye set at nought 
 my counsel, and despised all my reproof, I also will 
 laugh at your calamity," &c. We see whence 
 their-destruction came, not from God's first restraint 
 of his Spirit, but their refusing, despising, and set- 
 ting at nought his counsels and reproofs. And 
 when it is said, " they rebelled and vexed his Spirit," 
 and he therefore " turned and fought against them, 
 and became their enemy," Isa. lxiii. 10. it appears, 
 that before his Spirit was not withheld, but did 
 variously, and often make essays and attempts upon 
 them. And when Stephen, immediately before his 
 martyrdom, thus bespeaks the descendants of these 
 Jews, " Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised, ye do 
 always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, 
 so do ye," Acts vii. it is implied, the Holy Ghost 
 has been always striving, from age to age, with that 
 stubborn people; for where there is no counter-striv- 
 ing there can be no resistance, no more than there 
 can be a war on one side only. Which also appears 
 to have been the course of God's dealing with the 
 old world, before their so general lapse into idolatry 
 and sensual wickedness, from that passage, Gen, vi. 
 8. {according to the more common reading and 
 sense of those words.) 
 
88 
 
 Now, whereas the gospel is eminently said to be 
 the ministration of the Spirit, in contradistinction 
 not only to the natural religion of other nations, 
 but the divinely instituted religion of the Jews also, 
 as is largely discoursed, 2 Cor. iii. and more largely 
 through the epistle to the Galatians, especially chap, 
 iv. and whereas we find that in the Jewish Church, 
 the Holy Ghost did generally diffuse its influences, 
 and not otherwise withhold them, than penally, and 
 upon great provocation, how much more may it be 
 concluded that under the gospel, the same blessed 
 Spirit is very generally at work upon the souls of 
 men, till by their resisting, grieving, and quench- 
 ing of it, they provoke it to retire and withdraw 
 from them. 
 
 And let the consciences of men living under the 
 gospel testify in the case. Appeal, sinner, to thine 
 own conscience; Hast thou never felt any thing of 
 conviction, by the word of God? hadst thou never 
 any thought injected of turning to God, of reform- 
 ing thy life, of making thy peace? have no desires 
 ever been raised in thee, no fears ; hast thou never 
 had any tastes and relishes of pleasure in the things 
 of God? whence have these come? what from thy- 
 self? who art not sufficient to think any thing as of 
 thyself, that is, not any good or right thought ! 
 All must be from that good Spirit that hath been 
 striving with thee; and might still have been so 
 unto a blessed issue for thy soul, if thou hadst not 
 neglected and disobeyed it. 
 
 And do not go about to excuse thyself by saying, 
 that so all others have done too; it is like, at one 
 
89 
 
 time or other; and if that therefore be the rule and 
 measure that they that contend against the strivings 
 and motions of God's Spirit must be finally deserted, 
 and given up to perish, who then can be saved? 
 Think not of pleading so for thy neglecting and 
 despising the grace and Spirit of God. It is true, 
 that herein the great God shows his sovereignty, 
 when all that enjoy the same advantages for salva- 
 tion deserve by their slighting them to be forsaken 
 alike; he gives instances and makes examples of just 
 severity, and of the victorious power of grace as 
 seems him good, which there will be further occasion 
 to speak more of hereafter. In the mean time the 
 present design is not to justify thy condemnation, 
 but procure thy salvation ; and therefore to admon- 
 ish and instruct thee, that, though thou art not 
 sure, because some others that have slighted and 
 despised the grace and Spirit of God are notwith- 
 standing conquered and saved thereby, it shall there- 
 fore fare as well with thee; yet thou hast reason to 
 be confident, it will be well and happy for thee, if, 
 now, thou despise and slight them not. And 
 whether thou do or do not, it is however plain that 
 by thy being under the gospel, thou hast had a day 
 wherein to mind the things of thy peace (though it 
 is not told thee it would last always, but the con- 
 trary is presently to be told thee.) 
 
 And thou mayest now see it is not only a day in 
 respect of light, but influence also; that thou 
 mightest not only know notionally what belonged 
 thereto, but efficaciously and practically, which you 
 have heard is the knowledge here meant. And 
 
90 
 
 the concurrence of such light and influence have 
 made thee a season wherein thou wast to have been 
 at work for thy soul. The day is the proper season 
 for work; when the night comes working ceases, 
 both because that then light fails, and because 
 drowsiness and sloth are more apt to possess men. 
 And the night will come. For which is the next 
 thing we are to speak to. 
 
 III. This day hath its bounds and limits, so that 
 when it is over, and lost with such, the things of 
 their peace are for ever hid from their eyes. And 
 that this day is not infinite and endless, we see in 
 the present instance. Jerusalem had her day ; but 
 that day had its period, we see it comes to this at 
 last, that now the things of her peace are hid from 
 her eyes. We generally see the same thing, in 
 that sinners are so earnestly pressed to make use of 
 the present time. " To-day if you will hear his 
 voice, harden not your hearts," Psal. xcv. quoted 
 and urged, Heb. iii. 7, 8. They are admonished 
 to " seek the Lord while he may be found, to call 
 upon him while he is nigh," Isa. lv. 6. It seems 
 some time he will not be found, and will be afar oft'. 
 They are told, " this is the accepted time, this is 
 the day of salvation." Isa. xlix. 8. 2 Cor. vi. 6. 
 
 This day, with any place or people, supposes a 
 precedent night, when the " day spring from on 
 high" had not visited their horison, and all within 
 it " sat in darkness, and in the region and shadow 
 of death. Yea, and there was a time, we know, 
 of very general darkness, when the gospel day, the 
 day of visitation had not yet dawned upon the 
 
91 
 
 world ; times of ignorance, wherein God, as it were, 
 winked-ttpon... the nations of the earth; the beams 
 of his eye did in a sort overshoot them, as the word 
 vTrifilaY imports. But when the eyelids of the 
 morning open upon any people, and light shines to 
 them with direct beams, they are now commanded 
 to repent, Acts xvii. 30. limited to the present point 
 of time with such peremptoriness, as that noble Ro- 
 man used towards a proud prince : asking time to 
 deliberate upon the proposal made to him of with- 
 drawing his forces that molested some of the allies 
 of that state, he draws a line about him with the 
 end of his rod, and requires him now, out of hand, 
 before he stirred out of that circle, to make his 
 choice, whether he would be a friend or enemy to 
 the people of Rome. So are sinners to understand 
 the state of their own case. The God of thy life, 
 sinner, in whose hands thy times are, doth with 
 much higher right, limit thee to the present time, 
 and expects thy present answer to his just and mer- 
 ciful offers and demands. He circumscribes thy day 
 of grace; it is enclosed on both parts, and hath an 
 evening as well as a morning: as it had a foregoing, 
 so it hath a subsequent night, and the latter, if not 
 more dark, yet usually much more stormy than the 
 former ! For God shuts up this day in much dis- 
 pleasure, which hath terrible effects. If it be not 
 expressly told you what the condition of that night 
 is that follows your gospel-day ; if the watchman 
 being asked, What of the night ? do only answer, It 
 cometh as well as the morning came; black events are 
 signified by that more awful silence. Or it is all one 
 
92 
 
 if you call it a day; there is enough to distinguish 
 it from the day of grace. The Scriptures call such 
 a calamitous season indifferently either by the name 
 of night or day : but the latter name is used with 
 some or other adjunct to signify, that day is not meant 
 in the pleasant or more grateful sense: a day of 
 wrath, an evil day, a day of gloominess and thick 
 darkness, not differing from the most dismal night ; 
 and to be told the morning of such a day is coming, 
 is all one, as that the evening is coming of a bright 
 and a serene day. 
 
 And here, perhaps, reader, thou wilt expect to 
 be told what are the limits of this day of grace ? It 
 is, indeed, much more difficult punctually to assign 
 those limits, than to ascertain thee there are such : 
 but it is also less necessary. The wise and merciful 
 God doth in matters of this nature little mind to 
 gratify our curiosity ; much less is it to be expected 
 from him, that he should make known to us such 
 things, whereof it were better we were ignorant, or 
 the knowledge whereof would be much more a pre- 
 judice to us than an advantage. And it were as 
 bold and rash an undertaking, in this case, as it 
 would be vain and insignificant, for any man to take 
 upon him to say, in it, what God hath not said, or 
 given him plain ground for. What I conceive to 
 be plain and useful in this matter I shall lay down 
 in the following propositions, insisting more largely 
 where the matter requires it, and contenting myself 
 but to mention what is obvious, and clear at the first 
 sight. 
 
 1. That there is a great difference between the 
 
93 
 
 ends and limits of the day or season of grace as to 
 particular persons, and in reference to the collective 
 body of a people, inhabiting this or that place. It 
 may be over with such or such a place, so as that 
 they that dwell there shall no longer have the gos- 
 pel among them, when as yet it may not be over with 
 every particular person belonging to it, who may be 
 providentially cast elsewhere, or may have the in- 
 grafted word in them, which they lose not. And 
 again it may be over with some particular persons in 
 such a place, when it is not yet over with that peo- 
 ple or place, generally considered. 
 
 2. As to both there is a difference between the 
 ending of such a day, and intermissions, or dark 
 intervals, that may be in it. The gospel may be 
 withdrawn from such a people, and be restored. 
 And God often, no doubt, as to particular persons, 
 either deprives them of the outward means of grace, 
 for a time (by sickness, or many other ways) or 
 may for a time forbear moving upon them by his 
 Spirit, and again try them with both. 
 
 3. As to particular persons, there may be much 
 difference between such, as, while they lived under 
 the gospel, gained the knowledge of the principal doc- 
 trines, or, of the sum and substance of Christian- 
 ity; though without any sanctifying effect, or im- 
 pression upon their hearts, and such as through 
 their own negligence, lived under it in total igno- 
 rance hereof. The day of grace may not be over 
 with the former, though they should never live under 
 the ministry of the gospel more. For it is possible, 
 while they have the seeds and principles of holy 
 
94 
 
 truth laid up in their minds, God may graciously 
 administer to them many occasions of recollecting and 
 considering them, wherewith he may so please to 
 co-operate, as to enliven them, and make them 
 vital and effectual to their final salvation. Where- 
 as, with the other sort, when they no more enjoy 
 the external means, the day of grace is like to be 
 quite over, so as that there may be no more hope in 
 their case than in that of Pagans in the darkest parts 
 of the world ; and perhaps much less, as their guilt 
 hath been much greater by their neglect of so great 
 and important things. It may be better with Tyre 
 and Sidon. 
 
 4. That yet it is a terrible judgment to the most 
 knowing, to lose the external dispensation of the 
 gospel, while they have yet no sanctifying impres- 
 sion upon their hearts by it, and they are cast upon 
 a fearful hazard of being lost for ever, being left by the 
 departed gospel, in an unconverted state. For they 
 need the most urgent inculcations of gospel truths, 
 and the most powerful enforcing means, to engage 
 them to consider the things which they know. It 
 is the design of the gospel to beget not only light in 
 the mind, but grace in the heart. And if that was 
 not done while they enjoyed such means, it is less 
 likely to be done without them. And if any slight- 
 er, and more superficial impressions were made upon 
 them thereby, short of true and thorough conver- 
 sion, how great is the danger that all will vanish, 
 when they cease to be pressed, and urged, and called 
 upon by the public voice of the gospel ministry any 
 more. How naturally desident is the spirit of man, 
 
95 
 
 and apt to sink into deadness, worldliness and car- 
 nality, even under the most lively and quickening 
 means ; and even where a saving work hath been 
 wrought; how much more when those means fail, 
 and there is no vital principle within, capable of 
 self-excitation and improvement. O that they would 
 consider this, who have got nothing by the gospel 
 all this while, but a little cold, spiritless, notional 
 knowledge, and are in a possibility of losing it be- 
 fore they get any thing more ! 
 
 5. That as it is certain death ends the day of 
 grace with every unconverted person, so it is very 
 possible it may end with divers before they die; by 
 their total loss of all external means, or by the de- 
 parture of the blessed Spirit of God from them, so 
 as to return and visit them no more. How the day 
 of grace may end with a person, is to be understood 
 by considering what it is that makes up and consti- 
 tutes such a day. There must be some measure 
 and proportion of time to make up this or any day 
 which is as the substratum, and ground forelaid. 
 Then there must be light superadded, otherwise it 
 differs not from night, which may have the same 
 measure of mere time. The gospel revelation, some 
 way or other, must be had, as being the light of such 
 a day. And again there must be some degree of 
 liveliness, and vital influence, the more usual con- 
 comitant of light ; the night doth more dispose men 
 to drowsiness. The same sun that enlightens the 
 world disseminates also an invigorating influence. 
 If the spirit of the living God do no way animate 
 the gospel revelation, and breathe in it, we have no 
 
96 
 
 day of grace. It is not only a day of light, but a 
 clay of power, wherein souls can be wrought upon, 
 and a people made willing to become the Lords, Psal. 
 ex. As the Redeemer revealed in the gospel, is 
 the light of the world, so he is life to it too, though 
 neither are planted, or do take root every where. 
 " In him was life, and that life was the li^ht of men." 
 That light that rays from him is vital light in it- 
 self, and in its tendency and design, though it be 
 disliked, and not entertained by the most. 
 
 Whereas, therefore, these things must concur to 
 make up such a day : if either a man's time, his life 
 on earth expire, or if such light quite fail him, or if 
 all gracious influence be withheld, so as to be com- 
 municated no more; his day is done, the season of 
 grace is over with him. Now it is plain that many 
 a one may lose the gospel before his life end; and 
 possible that all gracious influence may be restrained, 
 while as yet the external dispensation of the gos- 
 pel remains. A sinner may have hardened his 
 heart to that degree, that God will attempt him no 
 more, in any kind, with any design of kindness to 
 him, not in that more inward, immediate way at all, 
 that is, by the motions of his Spirit, which peculiarly 
 can import nothing but friendly inclination, as where- 
 by men are personally applied unto, so that another 
 cannot be meant; nor by the voice of the gospel, 
 which may either be continued for the sake of others, 
 or they continued under it, but for their heavier 
 doom at length. Which though it may seem se- 
 vere, is not to be thought strange, much less un- 
 righteous. 
 
97 
 
 It is not to be thought strange to them that read 
 the Bible, which so often speaks this sense, as when 
 it warns and threatens men with so much terror, as 
 Heb. x. 26, 27, 28, 29. " For if we sin wilfully 
 after that we have received the knowledge of the 
 truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but 
 a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery 
 indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 
 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy, 
 under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer 
 punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought wor- 
 thy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, 
 and hath counted the blood of the covenant, where- 
 with he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done 
 despite unto the Spirit of grace ?" And when it tells 
 us, after many overtures made to men in vain, of his 
 having given them up. " But my people would 
 not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of 
 me : so I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust; 
 and they walked in their own counsels;" and pro- 
 nounces, "Let him that is unjust, be unjust still; 
 and let him which is filthy, be filthy still :" and 
 says, " In thy filthiness is lewdness: because I have 
 purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt 
 not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I 
 have caused my fury to rest upon thee." Which 
 passages seem to imply a total desertion of them, 
 and retraction of all gracious influence. And when 
 it speaks of letting them be under the gospel, and 
 the ordinary means of salvation, for the most dire- 
 ful purposes : as that, " This child Jesus was set for 
 the fall, as well as for the rising of many in Israel," 
 
98 
 
 Luke ii. 34. As to which text the very learned 
 Grotius, glossing upon the words kutoli and £/V 5T7w/k, 
 says, Accedo Us qui non necdum eventum, sed et con- 
 silhcm, that he is of their opinion who think that 
 not the naked event, but the counsel or purpose of 
 God is signified by it, the same with rlS-irai ; and 
 alleges several texts where the active of that verb 
 must have the same sense, as to appoint, or ordain; 
 and mentions divers other places of the same import 
 with this so understood; and which therefore to re- 
 cite will equally serve our present purpose, as that 
 Rom. ix. 33. " Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling 
 stone, and rock of offence." And 1 Pet. ii. 8. 
 " The stone which the builders refused, is made a 
 stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to 
 them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, 
 whereunto also they were appointed," With that 
 of our Saviour himself, John ix. 39. " For judg- 
 ment, I am come into this world, that they which 
 see not, might see ; and that they which see, might 
 be made blind." And most agreeable to those for- 
 mer places is that of the prophet Isaiah xxviii. 13. 
 " But the word of the Lord was unto them precept 
 upon precept, precept upon precept ; line upon line, 
 line upon line ; here a little, and there a little; that 
 they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, 
 and snared, and taken." And we may add, that our 
 Lord hath put us out of doubt, that there is such a 
 sin as that which is eminently called " the sin against 
 the Holy Ghost;" that a man may, in such circum- 
 stances, and to such a degree, sin against that bles- 
 sed Spirit, that he will never move or breathe upon 
 
99 
 
 them more, but leave them to a hopeless ruin; though 
 I shall not, in this discourse, determine or discuss the 
 nature of it: but I doubt not it is somewhat else than 
 final impenitency and infidelity; and that every one 
 that dies, not having sincerely repented and believ- 
 ed, is not guilty of it, (though every one that is 
 guilty of it, dies impenitent and unbelieving) but 
 was guilty of it before ; so as it is not the mere 
 want of time that makes him guilty. Whereupon, 
 therefore, that such may outlive their day of grace, 
 is out of question. 
 
 But let not such, as, upon the descriptions the 
 gospel gives us of that sin, may be justly confident 
 they have not, perhaps, committed it, therefore think 
 themselves out of all danger of losing their season 
 of making their peace with God before they die. 
 Many a one may, no doubt, that never commit- 
 ted the unpardonable blasphemy against the Holy 
 Ghost, as he is the witness, by his wonderful 
 works, of Christ's being the Messiah : as one may 
 die, by neglecting himself, that doth not poison 
 himself, or cut his own throat. You will say, but 
 if the Spirit retire from men, so as never to return, 
 where is the difference? I answer, the difference 
 lies in the specific nature, and greater heinousness 
 of that sin, and consequently, in the deeper degrees 
 of its punishment. For though the reason of its 
 unpardonableness lies not, principally, in its greater 
 heinousness, but in its direct repugnancy to the way 
 of obtaining pardon, yet there is no doubt of its be- 
 ing much more heinous than many other sins for 
 
 which men perish: and therefore it is in proportion 
 E2 
 
100 
 
 more severely punished. But is it not misery 
 enough to dwell in darkness and woe for ever, as 
 every one that dies unreconciled to God must do, 
 unless the most intense flames and horror of hell be 
 your portion? as his case is sufficiently bad that 
 must die as an ordinary felon, though he is not to 
 be hanged, drawn, and quartered. 
 
 Nor is there any place, or pretence for so profane 
 a thought, as if there were any colour of unrighte- 
 ousness in this course of procedure with such men. 
 Is it unjust severity, to let the gospel become dead- 
 ly to them, whose own malignity perverts it, against 
 its nature and genuine tendency, into a " savour of 
 death," as 2 Cor. ii. 16. which it is ro7^ cl7tokkv}Avoh; 9 
 that is, to them, (as the mentioned author speaks) 
 who may be truly said to seek their own destruction ; 
 or that God should intend their more aggravated 
 condemnation, even from the despised gospel itself, 
 who, when such light is come into the world, hate 
 it, show themselves lucifagce teneb?*iones 9 as he also 
 phrases it, speaking further upon that first mentioned 
 text, " such as fly from the light, choose and love 
 to lurk in darkness ?" He must have very low 
 thoughts of divine favour and acceptance of Christ, 
 and grace, and glory, that can have hard thoughts 
 of God, for his vindicating, with greatest severity, 
 the contempt of such things. What could better 
 become his glorious majesty and excellent greatness, 
 than, as " all things work together for good towards 
 them that love him," so to let all things work for 
 the hurt of them that so irreconcilably hate him, 
 and bear a disaffected and implacable mind towards 
 
101 
 
 him ? Nor doth the addition of his designing the 
 matter so, make it hard: For if it be just to punish 
 such wickedness, is it unjust to intend to punish it? 
 and to intend to punish it according to its desert, 
 when it cannot be thought unjust actually to render 
 to men what they deserve? 
 
 We are, indeed, to account the primary intention 
 of continuing the gospel to such a people, among 
 whom these live, is kindness towards others, not 
 this higher revenge upon them; yet nothing hinders 
 but what this revenge upon them may also be the 
 fit matter of his secondary intention. For should 
 he intend nothing concerning them ? Is he to be 
 so unconcerned about his own creatures that are un- 
 der his government? While things cannot fall out 
 to him unawares, but that he hath this dismal event 
 in prospect before him, he must at least intend to 
 let it be, or not to hinder it. And who can expect he 
 should ? for, that his gracious influence towards them 
 should, at length, cease, is above all exception : that 
 it ceasing, while they live still under the gospel, 
 they contract deeper guilt and incur heavier punish- 
 ment, follows of course. And who can say he 
 should not intend to let it follow ? For should he 
 take away the gospel from the rest, that these might 
 be less punished? that others might not be saved, 
 because they will not? 
 
 Nor can he be obliged to interpose extraordinarily, 
 and alter, for their sakes, the course of nature and 
 Providence, so as either to hasten them the sooner 
 out of the world, or cast them into any other part 
 of it, where the gospel is not; lest they should, by 
 
102 
 
 living still under it, be obnoxious to the severer pun- 
 ishment. For whither would this lead ? he should, 
 by equal reason, have been obliged to prevent men 
 sinning at all, that they might not be liable to any 
 punishment: and so not to have made the world, or 
 have otherwise framed the methods of his govern- 
 merit, and less suitably to a whole community of 
 reasonable creatures ; or to have made an end of the 
 world long ago, and have quitted all his great de- 
 signs in it, lest some should sin on and incur pro- 
 portionable punishment ! or to have provided ex- 
 traordinarily that all should do and fare alike ; and 
 that it might never have come to pass, that it should 
 be less tolerable for Capernaum, and Chorazin, and 
 Bethsaida, than for Tyre, and Sidon, and Sodom, and 
 Gomorrah. But is there unrighteousness with God? 
 or is he unrighteous in taking vengeance ? or is he 
 therefore unjust, because " he will render to every one 
 according to his works; to them who, by patient con- 
 tinuance in well doing, seek glory, honour and im- 
 mortality, eternal life : but unto them that are con- 
 tentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey un- 
 righteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and 
 anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil, of 
 the Jew first, and also of the Gentile?" Doth righ- 
 teousness itself make him unrighteous ? O sinner, 
 understand how much better it is to avoid the stroke 
 of divine justice, than accuse it ! God will be found 
 true, and every man a liar, " that he may be justi- 
 fied when he speaks, and be clear when he judges." 
 6. Yet are we not to imagine any certain fixed rule, 
 according whereto (except in the case of the unpardon- 
 
103 
 
 able sin) the divine dispensation is measured in cases 
 of this nature, namely, That, when a sinner hath 
 contended just so long, or to such a degree, against 
 his grace and Spirit in his gospel, he shall be finally 
 rejected; or if but so long, or not to such a degree, 
 he is yet certainly to be further tried, or treated 
 with. It is little to be doubted, but he puts forth 
 the power of victorious grace, at length, upon some 
 more obstinate and obdurate sinners, and that have 
 longer persisted in their rebellions; (not having 
 sinned the unpardonable sin) and gives over some 
 sooner, as it seems good unto him. Nor doth he 
 herein owe an account to any man of his matters. 
 Here sovereign good pleasure rules and arbitrates, 
 that is tied to no certain rule. Neither, in these 
 variations, is there any show of that blameable n-j>o<r- 
 utokw^ioc, or accepting of persons, which, in his 
 own word, he so expressly disclaims. We must 
 distinguish matters of right, (even such as are so by 
 promise only, as well as others) and matters of mere 
 unpromised favour. In matters of right, to be an 
 accepter of persons is a thing most highly culpable 
 with men, and which can have no place with the holy 
 God: that is, When a human judge hath his rule 
 before him, according whereto he is to estimate 
 men's rights, in judgment; there, to regard the per- 
 son of the rich, or of the poor, to the prejudice of the 
 justice of the cause, were an insufferable iniquity; 
 as it were also in a private person to withhold an- 
 other's right, because he hath no kindness for him: 
 so even the great God himself, though of mere grace 
 he first fixed and established the rule, fitly therefore 
 
104 
 
 called the covenant, or law of grace, by which he 
 will proceed in pardoning and justifying men, or in 
 condemning and holding them guilty, both here and 
 in the final judgment; yet, having fixed it, he will 
 never recede from it, so as either to acquit an im- 
 penitent unbeliever, or condemn a believing peni- 
 tent. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just 
 to forgive. None shall be ever able to accuse him 
 of breach of faith, or of transgressing his own rules 
 of justice. We find it therefore said, in reference 
 to the judgment of the last day, " when God shall 
 render to every man according to his works," whe- 
 ther they be Jews or Gentiles, that " there is no re- 
 spect of persons with God,'' Rom. ii. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 
 11. Yet qui promisit pcenitenti veniam, non pro- 
 misit peccanti pcenitentiam, he who has promised par- 
 don to the penitent, has not promised penitence to 
 the sinner — whereas he hath, by his evangelical law,, 
 ascertained pardon to one that sincerely obeys it, but 
 hath not promised grace to enable them to do so; to 
 them that have long continued wilfully disobedient 
 and rebellious, this communication of grace is, there- 
 fore, left arbitrary, and to be dispensed, as the mat- 
 ter of free and unassured favour, as it seems him good. 
 And, indeed, if in matters of arbitrary favour, respect 
 of persons ought to have no place, friendship were 
 quite excluded the world, and would be swallowed up 
 of strict and rigid justice. I ought to take all men 
 for my friends alike, otherwise than as justice should 
 oblige me to be more respectful to men of more merit. 
 7. Wherefore no man can certainly know, or 
 ought to conclude, concerning himself or. others, as 
 
105 
 
 long as they live, that the season of grace is quite 
 over with them. As we can conceive no rule God 
 hath set to himself to proceed by, in ordinary cases 
 of this nature; so nor is there any he hath set 
 us to judge by, in this case. It were to no purpose, 
 and could be of no use to men, to know so much; 
 therefore it were unreasonable to expect God should 
 have settled and declared any rule, by which they 
 might come by the knowledge of it. As the case is 
 then, namely, there being no such rule, no such thing 
 can be concluded; for who can tell what an arbi- 
 trary, sovereign, free agent will do, if he declare not 
 his own purpose himself? How should it be known, 
 when the Spirit of God hath been often working 
 upon the soul of a man, that this or that shall be 
 the last act, and that he will never put forth another? 
 And why should God make it known? To the per- 
 son himself whose case it is, it is manifest it could 
 be no benefit. Nor is it to be thought the Holy 
 God will ever so alter the course of his own pro- 
 ceedings, but that it shall finally be seen to all the 
 world, that every man's destruction was, entirely, and 
 to the last of himself. If God had made it evident 
 to a man, that he were finally rejected, he were ob- 
 liged to believe it. But shall it ever be said, God 
 hath made any thing a man's duty which were incon- 
 sistent with his felicity. The having sinned him- 
 self into such a condition wherein he is forsaken of 
 God, is, indeed, inconsistent with it. And so the 
 case is to stand, that is, that his perdition be in im- 
 mediate connexion with his sin, not with his duty : as 
 it would be in immediate, necessary connexion with 
 E 3 
 
106 
 
 his duty, if he were bound to believe himself finally 
 forsaken, and a lost creature. For that belief makes 
 him hopeless, and a very devil; justifies his unbelief 
 of the gospel, towards himself, by removing and 
 shutting up, towards him, the object of such a faith, 
 and consequently brings the matter to this state, that 
 he perishes, not because he doth not believe God 
 reconcilable to man, but because, with particular 
 application to himself, he ought not so to believe. 
 See more to this purpose in the Appendix. 
 
 And it were most unfit, and of very pernicious 
 consequence, that such a thing should he generally 
 known concerning others. It were to anticipate the 
 final judgment, to create a hell upon earth, to tempt 
 them whose doom were already known, to do all the 
 mischief in the world, which malice and despair can 
 suggest, and prompt them unto; it were to mingle 
 devils with men ! and fill the world with confusion ! 
 How should parents know how to behave themselves 
 towards children, a husband towards the wife of 
 his bosom, in such a case, if it were known they were 
 no more to counsel, exhort, admonish them, pray 
 with or for them, than if they were devils? 
 
 And if there were such a rule, how frequent mis- 
 applications would the fallible and distempered minds 
 of men make of it? So that they would be apt to 
 fancy themselves warranted to judge severely, or 
 uncharitably, and, as the truth of the case perhaps 
 is, unjustly concerning others, from which they are 
 so hardly withheld, when they have no such pre- 
 tence to embolden them to it, but are so strictly for- 
 bidden it: and the judgment-seat so fenced, as it is, 
 
107 
 
 by the most awful interdicts, against their usurpation 
 and encroachments. 
 
 We are therefore to reverence the wisdom of the 
 divine government, that things of this nature are 
 among the arcana of it: Some of those secrets which 
 belong not to us. He hath revealed what was fit 
 and necessary for us and our children, and envies to 
 man no useful knowledge. 
 
 But it may be said, when the apostle (1 John v. 
 16.) directs to pray for a brother whom we see sin- 
 ning a sin that is not unto death, and adds, " there 
 is a sin unto death, I do not say he shall pray for it." 
 Is it not implied that it may be known when one 
 sins that sin unto death, not only to himself, but 
 even to others too? I answer, it is implied there 
 may be too probable appearances of it, and much 
 ground to suspect and fear it concerning some, in 
 some cases. As when any, against the highest evi- 
 dence of the truth of the Christian religion, and 
 that Jesus is the Christ, or the Messiah, (the pro- 
 per and most sufficiently credible testimony, whereof 
 he had mentioned in the foregoing verses, under 
 heads to which the whole evidence of the truth of 
 j . Christianity may be fitly enough reduced) do, not- 
 withstanding, from that malice which blinds their 
 understanding, persist in infidelity, or apostatize and 
 relapse into it, from a former profession, there is 
 great cause of suspicion, lest such have sinned that 
 sin unto death. Whereupon yet it is to be ob- 
 served, he doth not expressly forbid praying for the 
 persons whose case we may doubt; only he doth not 
 enjoin it, as he doth for others, but only says, " I 
 
 
108 
 
 do not say ye shall pray for it;" that is, that, in his 
 present direction to pray for others he did not intend 
 such, but another sort, for whom they might pray 
 remotely from any such suspicion: namely, that he 
 meant now such praying as ought to be interchanged 
 between Christian friends, that have reason, in the 
 main, to be well persuaded concerning one another. 
 In the mean time, intending no opposition to what 
 is elsewhere enjoined, the praying for all men, 1 Tim. 
 ii. 1. without the personal exclusion of any; as also 
 our Lord himself prayed indefinitely for his most 
 malicious enemies, " Father, forgive them, they 
 know not what they do;" though he had former- 
 ly said, there was such a sin as should never be 
 forgiven; whereof, it is highly probable, some of 
 them were guilty: yet such he doth not expressly 
 except; but his prayer being in the indefinite, not 
 the universal form, it is to be supposed it must 
 mean such as were within the compass and reach I 
 of prayer, and capable of benefit by it. Nor doth 
 the apostle here direct, personally, to exclude any, 
 only that indefinitely, and in the general such must 
 be supposed not meant as had sinned the sin unto 
 death; or must be conditionally excluded, if they 
 had; without determining who had, or had not. 
 To which purpose it is very observable, that a more 
 abstract form of expression, is used in this latter 
 clause of this verse. For whereas, in the former 
 positive part of the direction, he enjoins praying for 
 him or them that had not sinned unto death, (namely, 
 concerning whom there was no ground for any such 
 imagination or suspicion that they had;) in the ne- 
 
109 
 
 gative part, concerning such as might have sinned it, 
 he doth not say for him or them, but for it, (that is 
 concerning, or in reference to it), as if he had said, 
 the case in general only is to be excepted, and if per- 
 sons are to be distinguished (since every sin is some 
 one's sin, the sin of some person or other) let God 
 distinguish, but do not you; it is enough for you to 
 except the sin, committed by whomsoever. And 
 though the former part of the verse speaks of a par- 
 ticular person, " If a man see his brother sin a sin 
 that is not unto death," which is as determinate to 
 a person as the sight of our eye can be, it doth not 
 follow the latter part must suppose a like particular 
 determination of any person's case, that he hath sin- 
 ned it. I may have great reason to be confident 
 such and such have not, when I can only suspect 
 that such a one hath. And it is a thing much less 
 unlikely to be certain to one's self than another, for 
 they that have sinned unto death, are no doubt so 
 blinded and stupified by it, that they are not more 
 apt or competent to observe themselves, and consi- 
 der their case, than others may be. 
 
 8. But though none ought to conclude that their 
 day or season of grace is quite expired, yet they 
 ought deeply to apprehend the danger lest it should 
 expire, before their necessary work be done, and 
 their peace made. For though it can be of no use 
 to them to know the former, and therefore they have 
 no means appointed them by which to know it; it is 
 of great use to apprehend the latter; and they have 
 sufficient ground for the apprehension. All the 
 cautions and warnings wherewith the holy Scripture 
 abounds, of the kind with those already mentioned, 
 
110 
 
 have that manifest design. And nothing can be 
 more important, or apposite to this purpose, than 
 that solemn charge of the great apostle, Phil. ii. 12. 
 a Work out your own salvation with fear and trem- 
 bling;" considered together with the subjoined 
 ground of it, verse 13. " For it is God that worketh 
 in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." 
 How correspondent is the one with the other: work, 
 for he works; there were no working at all to any 
 purpose, or with any hope, if he did not work. And 
 work with fear and trembling, for he works of his 
 own good pleasure. As if he had said, it were the 
 greatest folly imaginable to trifle with one that 
 works at so perfect liberty, under no obligation, 
 that may desist when he will; to impose upon so 
 absolutely sovereign and arbitrary an agent, that 
 owes you nothing, and from whose former gra- 
 cious operations, not complied with, you can draw 
 no argument unto any following ones, that be- 
 cause he doth, therefore he will. As there is 
 no certain connexion between present time and fu- 
 ture, but all time is made up of undepending, not 
 strictly coherent moments, so as no man can be sure, 
 because one now exists, another shall; there is also 
 no more certain connexion between the arbitrary acts 
 of a free agent within such time: so that I cannot 
 be sure, because he now darts in light upon me, is 
 now convincing me, now awakening me, therefore he 
 will still do so, a^ain and again. Upon this ground, 
 then, what exhortation could be more proper than 
 this, " work out your salvation with fear and trem- 
 bling?" What could be more awfully monitory, 
 and enforcing of it, than that he works only of 
 
Ill 
 
 mere good will and pleasure? How should I trem- 
 ble to think, if I should be negligent, or unduti- 
 ful, he may give out the next moment, and let the 
 work fall, and me perish I 
 
 And there is more especial cause for such an ap- 
 prehension, upon the concurrence of such things as 
 these, 
 
 1. If the workings of God's Spirit upon the soul 
 of a man have been more than ordinarily strong 
 and urgent, and do now cease. If there have been 
 more powerful convictions, deeper humiliations, more 
 awakened fears, more formed purposes of a new life, 
 more fervent desires, that are now all vanished and 
 fled, and the sinner is returned to his old, dead, and 
 dull temper. 
 
 2. If there be no disposition to reflect and consi- 
 der the difference, no sense of his loss, but he appre- 
 hends such workings of spirit, in him, unnecessary* 
 troubles to him, and thinks it well he is delivered and 
 eased of them. 
 
 3. If, in the time when he was under such work- 
 ings of spirit, he had made known his case to his 
 minister, or any godly friend, whose company be now 
 shuns, as not willing to be put in mind, or hear any 
 more of such matters. 
 
 4. If hereupon he hath more indulged sensual 
 inclination, taken more liberty, gone against the 
 checks of his own conscience, broken former good 
 resolutions, involved himself in the guilt of any 
 grosser sins. 
 
 5. If concience, so baffled, be now silent, lets him 
 alone, grows more sluggish and weaker, which it 
 must, as his lusts grow stronger. 
 
112 
 
 6. If the same lively, powerful ministry, which 
 before affected him much, now moves him not. 
 
 7. If, especially, he is grown into a dislike of 
 such preaching, if serious godliness, and what tends 
 to it are become distasteful to him, if discourses of 
 God and Christ, of death and judgment, and of an 
 holy life, are reckoned superfluous and needless, are 
 unsavory and disrelished; if he have learned to put 
 disgraceful names upon things of this import, and 
 the persons that most value them, and live accord- 
 ingly; if he hath taken the seat of the scorner, and 
 makes it his business to deride what he had once a 
 reverence for, or took some complacency in. 
 
 8. If, upon all this, God withdraw such a minis- 
 try, so that he is now warned and admonished, ex- 
 horted and striven with, as formerly, no more. O, 
 the fearful danger of that man's case ! Hath he no 
 cause to fear lest the things of his peace should be 
 for ever hid from his eyes? Surely he hath much 
 cause of fear, but not of despair. Fear, would, in 
 this case, be his great duty, and might yet prove 
 the means of saving him: Despair would be his 
 very heinous and destroying sin. If yet he would 
 be stirred up to consider his case, whence he is fal- 
 len, and whither he is falling, and set himself to se- 
 rious seeking of God, cast down himself before him, 
 abase himself, cry for mercy, as for his life, there is 
 yet hope in his case. God may make here an in- 
 stance what he can obtain of himself to do for a 
 perishing wretch ! But 
 
 IV. If, with any that have lived under the gos- 
 pel, their day is quite expired, and the things of 
 

 113 
 
 their peace now for ever hid from their eyes, this is, 
 in itself, a most deplorable case, and much lamented 
 by our Lord Jesus himself. 
 
 That the case is in itself most deplorable, who 
 sees not? A soul lost! a creature capable of God! 
 upon its way to him ! near to the kingdom of God I 
 shipwrecked in the port ! O sinner, from how high 
 a hope art thou fallen ! into what depths of misery 
 and woe ! 
 
 And that it was lamented by our Lord, is in the 
 text. He beheld the city, (very generally, we have 
 reason to apprehend, inhabited by such wretched 
 creatures) and wept over it. This was a very affec- 
 tionate lamentation; we lament often, very heartily, 
 many a sad case, for which we do not shed tears. 
 But tears, such tears, falling from such eyes ! the 
 issues of the purest, and best governed passion that 
 ever was, showed the true greatness of the cause. 
 Here could be no exorbitancy or unjust excess, no- 
 thing more than was proportionable to the occasion. 
 There needs no other proof, that this is a sad case, 
 than that our Lord lamented it with tears, which, 
 that he did, we are plainly told, so that touching 
 that, there is no place for doubt. All that is liable 
 to question is, whether we are to conceive in him any 
 like resentments of such cases, in his present glori- 
 fied state? 
 
 Indeed, we cannot think heaven a place or state 
 of sadness or lamentation; and must take heed of 
 conceiving any thing there, especially on the throne 
 of glory, unsuitable to the most perfect nature, and 
 the most glorious state. We are not to imagine 
 
114 
 
 tears there; which, in that happy region, are wiped 
 away from inferior eyes; no grief, sorrow, or sigh- 
 ing, which are all fled away and shall he no more: 
 as there can be no other turbid passion of any kind. 
 But when expressions that import anger or grief are 
 used, even concerning God himself, we must sever 
 in our conception every thing of imperfection, and 
 ascribe every thing of real perfection. We are not 
 to think such expressions signify nothing, that they 
 have no meaning, or that nothing at all is to be at- 
 tributed to him under them. 
 
 Nor are we again to think they signify the same 
 thing with what we find in ourselves, and are wont 
 to express by those names. In the divine nature, 
 there may be real, and yet most serene complacency 
 and displacency, that is, that are unaccompanied 
 with the least commotion, and that import nothing 
 of imperfection, but perfection rather, as it is a per- 
 fection to apprehend things suitably to what in them- 
 selves they are. The holy Scriptures frequently 
 speak of God as angry, and grieved for the sins of 
 men, and their miseries which ensue therefrom. 
 And a real aversion and dislike is signified thereby, 
 and by many other expressions, which in us would 
 signify vehement agitations of affection, that we are 
 sure can have no place in him. We ought, there- 
 fore, in our own thoughts, to ascribe to him that 
 calm aversion of will, in reference to the sins and 
 miseries of men in general; and, in our own appre- 
 hensions, to remove to the utmost distance from him, 
 all such agitations of passion or affection, even 
 though some expressions that occur carry a great 
 
115 
 
 appearance thereof, should they be understood ac- 
 cording to human measures, as they are human forms 
 of speech: as (to instance in what is said by the 
 glorious God himself, and very near in sense to what 
 we have in the text) what can be more pathetic, 
 than that lamenting wish, " O that my people had 
 hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my 
 ways ! " 
 
 But we must take heed, lest, under the pretence 
 that we cannot ascribe every thing to God that such 
 expressions seem to import, we therefore ascribe 
 nothing. We ascribe nothing, if we do not ascribe 
 to him a real unwillingness that men should sin on 
 and perish; and consequently a real willingness that 
 they should turn to him and live; which so many 
 plain texts assert. And therefore it is unavoidably 
 imposed upon us, to believe that God is truly un- 
 willing of some things, which he doth not think fit 
 to interpose his omnipotence to hinder; and is truly 
 willing of some things, which he doth not put forth 
 Jhis omnipotence to effect. That he most fitly makes 
 this the ordinary course of his dispensations towards 
 men, to govern them by laws, and promises, and 
 threatenings, (made most express to them that live 
 under the gospel) to work upon their minds, their 
 hope, and their fear, affording them the ordinary 
 assistances of supernatural light and influence, with 
 which he requires them to comply, and which, upon 
 their refusing to do so, he may most righteously 
 withhold, and give them the victory to their own 
 ruin, though oftentimes he doth, from a sovereignty 
 of grace, put forth that greater power upon others, 
 
116 
 
 equally negligent and obstinate, not to enforce, but 
 effectually to incline their wills, and gain a victory 
 over them, to their salvation. 
 
 Nor is his will towards the rest altogether ineffec- 
 tual, though it have not this effect. For whosoever 
 thou art that livest under the gospel, though thou 
 dost not know that God so wills thy conversion and 
 salvation, as to effect it, whatsoever resistance thou 
 now makest, though thou art not sure he will finally 
 overcome all thy resistance, and pluck thee as a 
 firebrand out of the mouth of hell; yet thou canst 
 not say his good will towards thee hath been without 
 any effect at all tending thereto. He hath often 
 called upon thee in his gospel, to repent and turn to 
 him through Christ; he hath waited on thee with 
 long patience, and given thee time and space of re- 
 pentance; he hath within that time, been often at 
 work with thy soul. Hath he not many times let 
 in beams of light upon thee ? shown thee the evil of 
 thy ways? convinced thee? awakened thee? half- 
 persuaded thee? and thou never hadst reason to 
 doubt, but that if thou hadst set thyself with seri^ 
 ous diligence to work out thy own salvation, he 
 would have wrought on, so as to have brought things 
 to a blessed issue for thy soul. 
 
 Thou mightest discern his mind towards thee to 
 be agreeable to his word, wherein he hath testified 
 to thee " he desired not the death of sinners, " that 
 he hath " no pleasure in the death of him that 
 dieth," or in the " death of the wicked," but that 
 he should M turn and live;" exhorted thee, expos- 
 tulated with thee and others in thy condition, " turn 
 
117 
 
 ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" he hath told thee 
 expressly, thy stubbornness and contending against 
 him, did " grieve him," and " vex his Spirit," that 
 thy sin, wherein thou hast indulged thyself, hath 
 been an "abomination to him," that it was the 
 " abominable thing which his soul hated," that he 
 was " broken with the whorish heart of such as thou, 
 and pressed therewith, as a cart that was full of 
 sheaves." 
 
 Now such expressions as these, though they are 
 borxowed from man, and must be understood suit- 
 ably, to God, though they do not signify the same 
 thing with iiim as they do in us, yet they do not 
 signify nothing. As when hands and eyes are at- 
 tributed to God, they do not signify as they do 
 with usj i yei they signify somewhat correspondent, 
 as active and visive power; so these expressions, . 
 though they signify not, in God, such unquiet mo- 
 tions and passions as they would in us, they do 
 signify a mind and will, really; though, with the 
 most perfect calmness and tranquillity, set against 
 sin, and the horrid consequences of it, which yet, 
 for greater reasons than we can understand, he may 
 not see fit to do all he can to prevent. 
 
 And if we know not how to reconcile such a will 
 in God, with some of our notions concerning the 
 divine nature, shall we, for what we have thought 
 of him, deny what he hath so expressly said of him- 
 self, or pretend to understand his nature better than 
 he himself doth ?* 
 
 * See the Appendix. 
 
118 
 
 And when we see from such express sayings in 
 Scripture, reduced to a sense becoming God, how 
 God's mind stands in reference to sinners, and their 
 self-destroying ways, we may thence apprehend what 
 temper of mind our Lord Jesus also bears towards 
 them in the like case, even in his glorified state. 
 For can you think there is a disagreement between 
 him and the Father about these things? 
 
 And whereas we find our blessed Lord, in the 
 days of his flesh, one while complaining " men 
 would not come to him that they might have life," 
 John v. 40. elsewhere " grieved at the hardness of 
 their hearts," Mark iii. 5. and here scattering tears 
 over sinning and perishing Jerusalem ; we cannot 
 doubt but that the (innocent) perturbation, which 
 his earthly state did admit, being severed, his mind 
 is still the same, in reference to cases of the same 
 nature; for can we think there is any disagreement 
 between him and himself? We cannot therefore 
 doubt but that, 
 
 1. He distinctly comprehends the truth of any 
 such case. He beholds, from the throne of his 
 glory above, all the treaties which are held and 
 managed with sinners in his name, and what their 
 deportments are therein. " His eyes are as a flame 
 of fire," wherewith he " searches hearts, and trieth 
 reins." He hath seen, therefore, sinner, all along, 
 every time an offer of grace hath been made to thee, 
 and been rejected; when thou hast slighted counsels 
 and warnings that have been given thee, exhortations 
 and entreaties that have been pressed upon thee for 
 many years together, and how thou hast hardened 
 
^v 
 
 119 
 
 thy heart against reproofs and threatenings, against 
 promises and allurements; and beholds the tendency 
 of all this, what is like to come of it, and that, if 
 thou persist, it will be bitterness in the end. 
 
 2. That he hath a real dislike of the sinfulness 
 of thy course. It is not indifferent to him whether 
 thou obeyest or disobeyest the Gospel; whether 
 thou turn and repent or no; that he is truly displeas- 
 ed at thy trifling, sloth, negligence, impenitence, 
 hardness of heart, stubborn obstinacy, and contempt 
 of his grace, and takes real offence at them. 
 
 3. He hath real kind propensions towards thee, 
 and is ready to receive thy returning soul, and ef- 
 fectually to mediate with the offending Majesty of 
 heaven for thee, as long as there is any hope in thy 
 case. 
 
 4. When he sees there is no hope, he pities 
 thee, while thou seest it not, and dost not pity thy- 
 self. Pity and mercy above are not names only; it 
 is„JLgxeat reality that is signified by them, and that 
 hath_plae£L there, in far higher excellency and per- 
 fection, than it can with us poor mortals here below. 
 Ours is but borrowed and participated from that first 
 fountain and original above. Thou dost not perish 
 unlamented, even with the purest heavenly pity, 
 though thou hast made thy case uncapable of remedy. 
 As the well-tempered judge bewails the sad end of 
 the malefactor, whom justice obliges him not to 
 spare, or save. 
 
 And now let us consider what use is to be made of 
 all this. And though nothing can be useful to the 
 
120 
 
 persons themselves, whom the Redeemer thus laments 
 as lost, yet that he doth so, may be of great use to 
 others; which will partly concern those who do 
 justly apprehend this is not their case; and partly 
 such as may be in great fear that it is. 
 
 I. For such as have reason to persuade themselves 
 it is not their case. The best ground upon which 
 any can confidently conclude this, is that they have 
 in this their present day, through the grace of God, 
 already effectually known the things of their peace, 
 such, namely, as have sincerely, with all their hearts 
 and souls, turned to God, taken him to be their 
 God, and devoted themselves to him, to be his; 
 entrusting and subjecting themselves to the saving 
 mercy and governing power of the Redeemer, ac- 
 cording to the tenor of the gospel-covenant^ from 
 which they do not find their hearts to swerve or de- 
 cline, but resolve, through divine assistance, to 
 persevere herein all their days. 
 
 Now for such as with whom things are already 
 brought to that comfortable conclusion, I only say 
 to them, 
 
 1. Rejoice and bless God that so it is. Christ, 
 your Redeemer rejoices with you and over you ; 
 you may collect it from his contrary resentment of 
 their case who are past hope; if he weep over them, 
 he, no doubt, rejoices over you. There is joy in 
 heaven, concerning you. Angels rejoice, your glo- 
 rious Redeemer presiding in the joyful consort. 
 And should not you rejoice for yourselves. Con- 
 sider what a discrimination is made in your case ! 
 
121 
 
 To how many hath that gospel been a deadly savour, 
 which hath proved a savour of life unto life to you ! 
 How many have fallen on your right hand and on 
 your left, stumbling at that stone of offence, which 
 to you is become " the head-stone of the corner, 
 elect and precious!" Whence is this difference? 
 Did you never slight Christ? never make light of 
 offered mercy? was your mind never blind or vain V 
 was your heart never hard or dead? were the terms 
 of peace and reconciliation never rejected or disre- 
 garded by you ? How should you admire victorious 
 grace, that would never desist from striving with 
 you till it had overcome ! You are the triumph of 
 the Redeemer's conquering love, who might have 
 been of his wrath and justice ! Endeavour that 
 your spirits may taste, more and more, the sweet- 
 ness of reconciliation, that you may more abound in 
 joy and praises. Is it not pleasant to you to be at 
 peace with God? to find that all controversies are 
 taken up between him and you? that you can now 
 approach him, and his terrors not make you afraid? 
 that you can enter into the secret of his presence, 
 and solace yourselves in his assured favour and love? 
 How should you " joy in God through Jesus 
 Christ, by whom you have received the atonement !" 
 What have you now to fear? If, when you were 
 enemies, you were reconciled by the death of Christ, 
 how much more, being reconciled, shall you be 
 saved by his life ? How great a thing have you to 
 oppose to all worldly troubles? If God be for 
 you, who can be against you ? Think how mean 
 it is for the friends of God, the favourites of heaven, 
 F 
 
122 
 
 to be dismayed at the appearance of danger that 
 threatens them from the inhabitants of the earth! 
 What if all the world were in a posture of hostility 
 against you, when the mighty Lord of all is your 
 friend? Take heed of thinking meanly of his 
 power and love ! Would any one diminish to him- 
 self, whom he takes for his God? All people will 
 walk, every one in the name of his God; why should 
 not you much more in the name of yours, glorying 
 in him, and making your boast of him all the day 
 long? O the reproach which is cast upon the glori- 
 ous name of the great God, by their diffidence and 
 despondency, who visibly stand in special relation to 
 him, but fear the impotent malice of mortal man 
 more than they can trust in his almighty love ! If 
 indeed you are " justified by faith," and have peace 
 with God, it becomes you so to rejoice in the hope 
 of the glory of God, as also to glory in tribulation, 
 and tell all the world that in his favour stands your 
 life, and that you care not who is displeased with 
 you, for the things wherewith you have reason to 
 apprehend he is pleased. 
 
 2. Demean yourselves with that care, caution, 
 and dutifulness that become a state of reconciliation. 
 Bethink yourselves that your present peace and 
 friendship with God is not original, and continued 
 from thence, but hath been interrupted and broken; 
 that your peace is not that of constantly innocent 
 persons. You stand not in this good and happy state 
 because you never offended, but as being reconciled, 
 and who, therefore, were once enemies. And when 
 you were brought to know, in that your day which 
 
123 
 
 you have enjoyed, the things belonging to your 
 peace, you were made to feel the smart, and taste 
 the bitterness of your having been alienated, and 
 enemies in your minds by wicked works. When 
 the terrors of God did beset you round, and his 
 arrows stuck fast in you, did you not then find trou- 
 ble and sorrow? Were you not in a " fearful ex- 
 pectation of wrath and fiery indignation to consume 
 and burn you up as adversaries?" Would you not 
 then have given all the world for a peaceful word or 
 look? for any glimmering hope of peace? How 
 wary and afraid should you be of a new breach ! 
 How should you study acceptable deportments, and 
 to "walk worthy of God unto all well-pleasing!" 
 How strictly careful should you be to keep faith 
 with him, and abide steadfast in his covenant ! How 
 concerned for his interest! and in what agonies of 
 spirit, when you behold the eruptions of enmity 
 against him from any others ! not from any distrust, 
 or fear of final prejudice to his interest, but from the 
 apprehension of the unrighteousness of the thing 
 itself, and a dutiful love to his name, throne, and 
 government. How zealous should you be to draw 
 in others ; how fervent in your endeavours, within 
 your own sphere, and how large in your desires, 
 extended as far as the sphere of the universe, that 
 " every knee might bow to him, and every tongue 
 confess to him." They ought to be more deeply 
 concerned for his righteous cause, that remember 
 they were once most unrighteously engaged against 
 it. And ought besides to be filled with compassion 
 towards the souls of men, yet in an unreconciled 
 F2 
 
124 
 
 state, as " having known the terrors of the Lord," 
 and remembering the experienced dismalness and 
 horror of that state; what it was to have divine wrath 
 and justice armed against you with almighty power ! 
 And to have heard the thunder of such a voice, " I 
 lift my hand to heaven, and swear I live for ever: 
 if I whet my glittering sword, and my hand take 
 hold on vengeance, I will recompense fury to mine 
 adversaries, vengeance to mine enemies." Do you 
 not know what the case is like to be, when " pot- 
 sherds, that should strive but with the potsherds of 
 the earth," venture to oppose themselves as antago- 
 nists to omnipotency? and when "briars and thorns 
 set themselves in battle array" against a consuming 
 fire, how easily it can " pass through, and devour, 
 and burn them up together ?" and how much more 
 fearful is their condition that know it not ! but are 
 ready to " rush like the horse into the battle!" 
 Do you owe no duty, no pity to them that have the 
 same nature with you, and with whom your case was 
 once the same? If you do indeed know the things 
 of your peace Godward, so as to have made your 
 peace, to have come to an agreement, and struck a 
 covenant with him; you have now taken his side, 
 are of his confederates, not as equals but subjects. 
 You have sworn allegiance to him, and associated 
 yourself with all them that have done so. There 
 can hereupon be but one common interest to him 
 and you. Hence therefore you are most strictly 
 obliged to wish well to that interest, and promote it 
 to your uttermost, in his own way, that is, according 
 to his openly avowed inclination, and design, and 
 
 ' 
 
125 
 
 the genuine constitution of that kingdom which he 
 hath erected, and is intent to enlarge and extend 
 further in the world. That you do well know is a 
 kingdom of grace; for his natural kingdom already 
 confines with the universe, and can have no enlarge- 
 ment, without enlarging the creation. Whosoever 
 they are that contend against him, are not merely 
 enemies, therefore, but rebels. And you see he 
 aims to conquer them by love and goodness; and 
 therefore treats with them, and seeks to establish a 
 kingdom over them, in and by a Mediator, who, if 
 he were not intent upon the same design, had never 
 lamented the destruction of any of them, and wept 
 over their ruin, as here you find. So therefore, 
 should you long for the conversion of souls, and the 
 enlargement of his kingdom this way, both out of 
 loyalty to him, and compassion towards them. 
 
 II. For such as may be in great fear, lest this 
 prove to be their case. They are either such as 
 may fear it, but do not; or such as are deeply af- 
 flicted with this actual fear. 
 
 1. For the former sort, who are in too great dan- 
 ger of bringing themselves into this dreadful de- 
 plorable condition, but apprehend nothing of it. All 
 that is to be said to them apart by themselves, is only 
 to awaken them out of their drowsy, dangerous 
 slumber and security; and then they will be capable 
 of being spoken to, together with the other sort. 
 Let me therefore 
 
 (1.) Demand of you: Do you believe there is a 
 Lord over you, yea or no ? Use your thoughts; for, 
 about matters that concern you less, you can think. 
 
126 
 
 Do you not apprehend you have an invisible owner 
 and ruler, that rightfully claims to himself an inter- 
 est in you, and a governing power over you? How 
 came you into being? You know you made not 
 yourselves. And if you yet look no higher, than to 
 progenitors of your own kind, mortal men, as you 
 are, how came they into being? You have so much 
 understanding about you, if you would use it, as to 
 know they could none of them make themselves 
 more than you, and that therefore human race must 
 have had its beginning, from some superior Maker. 
 And did not he that made them make you and all 
 things else? Where are your arguments to prove 
 it was otherwise, and that this world, and all the 
 generations of men, took beginning of themselves, 
 wit! 1 out a wise and mighty Creator? produce your 
 strong reasons, upon which you will venture your 
 souls, and all the possibilities of your being happy 
 or miserable to eternity! Will your imagination 
 make you safe? and protect you against his wrath 
 and justice, whose authority you will not own? Can 
 you, by it, uncreate your Creator, and nullify the 
 Eternal Being? or have you any thing else, besides 
 your own blind imagination, to make you confident, 
 that all things came of nothing, without any Maker? 
 But if you know not how to think this reasonable, 
 and apprehend you must allow yourselves to owe 
 your being to an Almighty Creator, let me 
 
 (2.) Ask of you, how you think your life is main- 
 tained? Doth not he that made you live, keep you 
 alive? Whereas you have often heard that " we all 
 live, and move, and have our beings in him," doth it 
 
127 
 
 not seem most likely to you to be so? Have you 
 the power of your own life? Do you think you can 
 live as long as you will? At least, do you not find 
 you need the common helps of meat, and drink, and 
 air, and clothing for the support and comfort of your 
 lives? And are not all these his creatures as well as 
 you? And can you have them, whether he will or not? 
 
 (3.) And how can you think that he that made and 
 maintains you, hath no right to rule you ? If it were 
 possible any one should as much depend upon you, 
 would you not claim such power over him? Can you 
 suppose yourselves to be under no obligation to 
 please him, who hath done so much for you? and to 
 do his will, if you can any way know it? 
 
 (4.) And can you pretend you have no means to 
 know it? That book that goes up and down under 
 the name of his word, can you disprove it to be his 
 word? If such writings should now first come into 
 the world, so sincere, so awful, so holy, so heavenly, 
 bearing so expressly the divine image, avowing them- 
 selves to be from God, and the most wonderful works 
 are wrought to prove them his word, the deaf made 
 to hear, the blind to see, the dumb to speak, the 
 sick healed, the dead raised, by a word only com- 
 manding it to be so, would you not confess this to 
 be sufficient evidence that this revelation came from 
 heaven. And are you not sufficiently assured they 
 are so confirmed ? Do you find in yourselves any 
 inclination to cheat your children in any thing that 
 concerns their well-being ? Why should you more 
 suspect your forefathers' design to cheat you, in the 
 mere reporting falsely a matter of fact ? Was not 
 
128 
 
 human nature the same, so many hundred years ago? 
 Did ever the enemies of the Christian name, in the 
 earlier days of Christianity, when it was but a no- 
 velty in the world, and so much hated, and endea- 
 voured to be rooted out, as ever any profession was, 
 deny such matters of fact? Have not some of the 
 most spiteful of them confessed it? Did not Chris-* 
 tians then willingly sacrifice their lives by multitudes, 
 upon the assured truth of these things? Have they 
 not been ever since most strictly careful to preserve 
 these writings, and transmit them, as wherein the 
 all of themselves, and their posterity was contained? 
 And where is now your new light? where are your 
 later discoveries, upon which, so many ages after, 
 you are able to convict these writings of falsehood, or 
 dare venture to disbelieve them ? 
 
 (5.) But if you believe these writings to be divine, 
 how expressly is it told you, in them, what the state 
 of your case is Gpdward, and what he requires of 
 you? You may see you have displeased him, and 
 how you are to please him, as hath been shown 
 before in this discourse. You know that you 
 have lived in the world mindless, and inobservant 
 of him, not trusting, fearing, loving, or delight- 
 ing in him, declining his acquaintance and con- 
 verse; seeking your own pleasure, following your 
 inclination, doing your own will, as if you were su- 
 preme, never minding to refer your actions to his 
 precepts as your rule, or to his glory as your end. 
 And from that word of his you may understand all 
 this to be very displeasing to him: and that you can 
 never please him by continuing this course, but by 
 
129 
 
 breaking it off, and returning to him as your Lord 
 and your God: that since your case did need a Re- 
 deemer and Reconciler, and he hath provided and 
 appointed one for you; you are to apply yourselves 
 to him, to commit and subject your souls to him, 
 to trust in his merits and blood, and submit to his 
 authority and government. And 
 
 (6.) Are you not continually called hereto by the 
 gospel, under which you have lived all this while? 
 so that you are in actual, continual rebellion against 
 him all the while you comply not with this call: 
 Every breath you draw is rebellious breath. There 
 is no moment wherein this lies not upon you, by 
 every moment's addition to your time. And that 
 patience of his which adds by moments to your life, 
 and should lead you to repentance, is, while you re- 
 pent not, perverted by you, only to the " treasuring 
 up of wrath against the day of wrath, and the revela- 
 tion of his righteous judgment." 
 
 (7.) And do you not find, as his word also plainly 
 tells you, a great averseness and disinclination in you 
 to any such serious, solemn applying yourself to him, 
 and your Redeemer ? Try your own hearts ! Do 
 you not find them drawback and recoil? if you urge 
 them, do they not still fly off? How loath are you 
 to retire ! and set yourselves to consider your case ! 
 and unto serious seeking of God in Christ ! both 
 from a reluctancy and indisposition to any such em- 
 ployment as this is itself, and from disaffection to 
 that whereto it tends; the breaking off your former 
 sinful course of life, and entering upon a better. 
 And does not all this show you the plain truth of 
 F3 
 
130 
 
 what the word of God hath told you, " that the 
 -/Ethiopian may as soon change his skin, or the leo- 
 pard his spots, as they do good who are accustomed 
 to do evil," — that you have a heart that cannot re- 
 pent, " till God give you repentance to life,"— 
 that you " cannot come to Christ till the Father 
 draw you." Do you not see your case then, that 
 you must perish if you have not help from heaven; 
 if God do not give you his grace, to overcome and 
 cure the averseness and malignity of your nature? 
 That things are likely thus to run on with you as they 
 have from day to day, and from year to year; and 
 you that are unwilling to take the course that is ne- 
 cessary for your salvation to day, are likely to be as 
 unwilling to-morrow, and so your lives consume in 
 vanity, till you drop into perdition? But 
 
 (8.) Dost thou not also know, sinner, (what hath 
 been so newly shown thee from God's word) that, by 
 thy being under the gospel, thou hast a day of 
 grace? not only as offers of pardon and reconcilia- 
 tion are made to thee in it, but also as through it 
 converting heart-renewing grace is to be expected, 
 and may be had? that what is sufficient for the turn- 
 ing and changing of thy heart, is usually not given 
 all at once; but as gentler insinuations (the injec- 
 tion of some good thoughts and desires) are complied 
 with, more powerful influences may be hoped to 
 follow? That, therefore, thou art concerned, upon 
 any such thought cast into thy mind, of going now 
 to seek God for the life of thy soul, to strive, thy- 
 self, against thy own disinclination; that if thou do 
 not, but yield to it, and still defer, it may prove mor- 
 
131 
 
 tal to thee? For is it not plain to thee in itself, 
 and from what hath been said, that this day hath its 
 limits, and will come to an end? Dost thon not 
 know thou art a mortal creature, that thy breath is 
 in thy nostrils? Dost thou know how near thou art 
 to the end of thy life? and how few breaths there 
 may be for thee between this present moment and 
 eternity? Dost thou not know thy day of grace 
 may end before thy life end? that thou mayest be 
 cast far enough out of the sound of the gospel? and 
 if thou shouldst carry any notices of it with thee, 
 thou who hast been so unapt to consider them while 
 they were daily pressed upon thee, will most probably 
 be less apt when thou nearest of no such thing? 
 that thou mayest live still under the gospel, and the 
 Spirit of grace retire from thee, and never attempt 
 thee more, for thy former despiting of it? For 
 what obligation hast thou upon that blessed Spirit ? 
 Or why shouldst thou think a Deity bound to at- 
 tend upon thy triflings? And 
 
 (9.) If yet all this move not, consider what it will 
 be to die unreconciled to God! Thou hast been 
 his enemy: he hath made thee gracious offers of 
 peace, waited long upon thee : thou hast made light 
 of all. The matter must at length end either in 
 reconciliation or vengeance ! The former is not 
 acceptable to thee: art thou prepared for the latter? 
 Canst thou sustain it ? Is it not a " fearful thing 
 to fall into the hands of the living God?" Thou 
 wilt not do him right, he must then right himself 
 upon thee: Dost thou think he cannot do it ? 
 Canst thou doubt his power? Cast thine eyes 
 
132 
 
 about thee, behold the greatness (as far as thou 
 canst) of this creation of his, whereof thou art but a 
 very little part. He that hath made that sun over 
 thine head, and stretched out those spacious heavens, 
 that hath furnished them with those innumerable 
 bright stars, that governs all their motions, that hath 
 hung this earth upon nothing, that made and sus- 
 tains that great variety of creatures that inhabit it, 
 can he not deal with thee? a worm? Can thine 
 heart endure, or thine hands be strong, if he plead 
 with thee ? if he surround thee with his terrors, and 
 set them in battle array against thee ? Hell and de- 
 struction are open before him; and without covering, 
 how soon art thou cast in and ingulphed ? Sit 
 down, and consider whether thou be able, with thy 
 impotency, to stand before him that comes against 
 thee with Almighty power ? Is it not better to sue 
 in time for peace ? 
 
 But perhaps thou mayest say I begin now to fear 
 it is too late : I have so long slighted the gospel, 
 resisted the holy Spirit of God, abused and baffled 
 my own light and conscience, that I am afraid God 
 will quite abandon me, and cast me off for ever. It 
 is well if thou do indeed begin to fear. That fear 
 gives hope. Thou art then capable of coming into 
 their rank who are next to be spoken to, namely, 
 
 2. Such as feel themselves afflicted with the ap- 
 prehension and dread of their having out-lived their 
 day, and that the things of their peace are now irre- 
 coverably hid from their eyes. I desire to counsel 
 such faithfully, according to that light and guidance 
 which the gospel of our Lord affords us in reference 
 to any such case. 
 
133 
 
 (1.) Take heed of stifling that fear suddenly, but 
 labour to improve it to some advantage, and then to 
 cure and remove it by rational-evangelical means and 
 methods. Do not, as thou lovest the life of thy 
 soul, go about suddenly, or by undue means, to 
 smother or extinguish it. It is too possible, when 
 any such apprehension strikes into a man's mind, 
 because it is a sharp or piercing thought, disturbs 
 his quiet, gives him molestation, and some torture, 
 to pluck out the dart too soon, and cast it away. 
 Perhaps such a course is taken, as doth him un- 
 speakably more mischief, than a thousand such 
 thoughts would ever do. He diverts, it may be, to 
 vain company, or to sensuality; talks, or drinks away 
 his trouble; makes death his cure of pain; and, to 
 avoid the fear of hell, leaps into it. Is this indeed 
 the wisest course? Either thy apprehension is rea- 
 sonable, or unreasonable. If it should prove a rea- 
 sonable apprehension, as it is a terrible one, would 
 the neglect of it become a reasonable creature, or 
 mend thy case? If it should be found unreasonable, 
 it may require time, and some debate to discover it 
 to be so; whereby, when it is manifestly detected, 
 with how much greater satisfaction is it laid aside! 
 Labour then to inquire rightly concerning this mat- 
 ter. 
 
 (2.) In this inquiry, consider diligently what the 
 kind of that fear is that you find yourselves afflicted 
 with. The fear that perplexes your heart, must 
 some way correspond to the apprehension you have 
 in your mind, touching your case. Consider what 
 that is, and in what form it shows itself there. Doth 
 
134 
 
 it appear in the form of a peremptory judgment, 
 a definitive sentence, which you have past within 
 yourself concerning your case; that your day is over, 
 and you are a lost creature ; or only of a mere doubt, 
 lest it should prove so. The fear that corresponds 
 to the former of these, makes you quite desperate, 
 and obstinately resolute against any means for the 
 bettering of your condition. The fear that answers 
 to the latter apprehension hath a mixture of hope in 
 it, which admits of somewhat to be done for your re- 
 lief, and will prompt thereunto. Labour to discern 
 which of these is the present temper and posture of 
 your spirit. 
 
 (3.) If you find it to be the former, let no thought 
 any longer dwell in your mind (under that form) 
 namely, as a definitive sentence concerning your state. 
 You have nothing to do to pass such a judgment; 
 the tendency of it is dismal and horrid, as you may 
 yourself perceive. And your ground for it is none 
 at all. Your conscience within you is to do the 
 office of a judge; but only of an under-judge, that 
 is, to proceed strictly by rule, prescribed and set by 
 the sovereign Lord and arbiter of life and death : 
 There is one Lawgiver who is " able to save and to 
 destroy." Nor is your conscience, as an under- 
 judge, to meddle at all, but in cases within your cog- 
 nizance. This about your final state is a reserved, 
 excepted case, belonging only to the supreme tri- 
 bunal, which you must take heed how you usurp. 
 As such a judgment tends to make you desperate, 
 so there will be high presumption in this despair. 
 Dare you take upon you to cancel and nullify to 
 
135 
 
 yourself the obligation of the evangelical law ? and 
 whereas that makes it your duty to " repent, and 
 believe the gospel," to absolve yourself from this 
 bond, and say, it is none of your duty, or make it 
 impossible to you to do it ! you have matter and 
 cases enough within the cognizance of your con- 
 science, not only the particular actions of your life, 
 but your present state also, whether you be as yet 
 in a state of acceptance with God, through Christ, 
 yea or no? And here you have rules set you to 
 judge by. But concerning your final state, or that 
 you shall never be brought into a state of accep- 
 tance, you have no rule by which you can make such 
 a judgment; and therefore this judgment belongs 
 not to you. Look then upon the matter of your 
 final condition, as an exempt case, reserved to the 
 future judgment; and the present determination 
 whereof, against yourself, is without your compass 
 and line, and most unsuitable to the state of proba- 
 tion, wherein, you are to reckon, God continues, you 
 here with the rest of men in this world; and there- 
 fore any such judgment you should tear, and re- 
 verse, and, as such, not permit to have any place 
 with you. 
 
 (4.) Yet since, as hath been said, you are not quite 
 to reject, or obliterate any apprehension or thought, 
 touching this subject, make it your business to cor- 
 rect and reduce it to that form, that is, let it only 
 for the present remain with you, as a doubt, how 
 your case now stands, and what issue it may at length 
 have. And see that your fear thereupon be answer- 
 able to your apprehension, so rectified. While as 
 
136 
 
 yet it is not evident you have made your peace with 
 God upon his known terms, you are to consider God 
 hath left your case a doubtful case ; and you are to 
 conceive of it accordingly; and are to entertain a 
 fear concerning it, not as certainly hopeless, but as 
 uncertain. And as yours is really a doubtful case, 
 jt is a most important one. It concerns your souls, 
 and your eternal well-being, and is not therefore to 
 be neglected, or trifled with. You do not know how 
 God will deal with you ; whether he will again afford 
 you such help as he hath done, or whether ever he 
 will effectually move your heart unto conversion and 
 salvation. You therefore are " to work out your 
 salvation with fear and trembling," because, as was 
 told you, " he works but of his own good pleasure." 
 Your fear should not exceed this state of your case, 
 so as to exclude hope. It is of unspeakable con- 
 cernment to you, that hope do intermingle with your 
 fear. That will do much to mollify and soften your 
 hearts, that after all the abuse of mercy, and impos- 
 ing upon the patience of God, your neglects and 
 slights of a bleeding Saviour, your resisting and 
 grieving the Spirit of grace, he may yet, once for 
 all, visit your forlorn soul with his vital influence, 
 and save you from going down to perdition ! How 
 can your hearts but melt and break upon this appre- 
 hension ! And it is not a groundless one. He that 
 " came not to call the righteous, but sinners to re- 
 pentance," will not fail to treat them well, whom he 
 sees beginning to listen to his call, and entertaining 
 the thoughts that most directly tend to bring them 
 to a compliance with it. Your hope insinuating it- 
 
137 
 
 self and mingling with your fear, is highly grateful 
 to the God of all grace. " He takes pleasure in 
 them that fear him, and in them that hope in his 
 mercy." 
 
 (5.) But see to it also that your fear be not slight 
 and momentary, and that it vanish not, while as yet it 
 hath so great a work to do in you, namely, to engage 
 you to accept God's own terms of peace and reconcili- 
 ation, with all your heart and soul. It is of conti- 
 nual use, even not only in order to conversion, but to 
 the converted also. Can you think those mentioned 
 words were spoken to none such. " Work out your 
 own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is 
 God which worketh in you both to will and to do of 
 his good pleasure." Or, those, " Let us therefore 
 fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his 
 rest, any of you should seem to come short of it?" And 
 do we not find a holy fear is to contribute all along 
 to the whole of progressive sanctification? " Hav- 
 ing therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us 
 cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and 
 spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." And 
 that by it he preserves his own, that they never de- 
 part from him ? " And I will make an everlasting 
 covenant with them, that I will not turn away from 
 them, to do them good ; but I will put my fear in 
 their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." 
 Much more do you need it in your present case, 
 while matters are yet in treaty between God and 
 you. And as it should not exceed the true ap- 
 prehension of your case, so nor should it come 
 short of it. 
 
138 
 
 (6.) You should therefore, in order hereto, aggra- 
 vate to yourselves the just causes of your fear. Why 
 are you afraid your day should be over, and the 
 things of your peace be for ever hid from your eyes ? 
 Is it not that you have sinned against much light, 
 against many checks of your own consciences, against 
 many very serious warnings and exhortations, many 
 earnest importunate beseechings and entreaties you 
 have had in the ministry of the gospel, many motions 
 and strivings of the Spirit of God thereby? Let 
 your thoughts dwell upon these things. Think 
 what it is for the great God, the Lord of Glory, to 
 have been slighted by a worm ! Doth not this de- 
 serve as ill things at the hands of God as you can 
 fear ? It is fit you should apprehend what your de- 
 sert is, though perhaps mercy may interpose, and 
 avert the deserved dreadful event. And if he have 
 signified his displeasure towards you hereupon, by 
 desisting for the present, and ceasing to strive with 
 you as he hath formerly done ; if your heart be 
 grown more cold, and dead, and hard, than sometime 
 it was, if you have been left so as to fall into gros- 
 ser sin; it is highly reasonable you should fear being 
 finally forsaken of the blessed Spirit of God, and 
 greatly fear it, but with an awful fear, that may 
 awaken you most earnestly to endeavour his return 
 to you, not with a despairing fear that will bind you 
 up from any further endeavour for your soul at all. 
 
 And if upon all this, by death or otherwise, such 
 a ministry be withdrawn from you, as God did work 
 by, in some degree, upon you, and you find not, in 
 that kind, what is so suitable to your state and case; 
 
139 
 
 take heed lest you be stupid under such a stroke. 
 Think what it imports unto you, if God have, as it 
 were, said concerning any servant of his, as Ezek. 
 iii. 26. " I will make his tongue cleave to the roof 
 of his mouth, that he shall not be a reprover to you 
 anymore!" Consider that God may, by this, be 
 making way that " wrath may come upon you to the 
 uttermost," and never let you have opportunity to 
 know more the things of your peace. Perhaps you 
 may never meet with the man more, that shall speak 
 so accommodately to your condition, that shall so 
 closely pursue you through all the haunts and sub- 
 terfuges, and lurking holes, wherein your guilty 
 convinced soul hath wont to hide itself, and falsely 
 seek to heal its own wounds. One of more value 
 may be less apt, possibly, to profit you; as a more 
 polished key doth not therefore alike fit every lock. 
 And thy case may be such, that thou shalt never 
 hear a sermon, or the voice of a preacher more. 
 
 (7.) And now in this case recollect yourselves, 
 what sins you have been formerly convinced of, un- 
 der such a ministry, and which you have persisted 
 in notwithstanding. Were you never convinced of 
 your neglecting God, and living as without him in 
 the world? of your low esteem and disregard of 
 Christ? of your worldliness, your minding only the 
 things of this earth ? of your carnality, pride, self- 
 seeking, voluptuousness, your having been lovers of 
 pleasures more than lovers of God ? of your unpro- 
 fitableness in your station, wherein you ought to 
 have lived more conformably to Christian rules and 
 precepts, according to the relations wherein God 
 
140 
 
 hath set you? Were you never convinced how very 
 faulty governors you have been, or members of fami- 
 lies? parents or masters, children or servants? 
 What will this come to at last, that convictions have 
 hitherto signified and served for nothing but increase 
 of guilt? 
 
 (8.) Under all this weight and load of guilt, con- 
 sider what you have to do for your souls ! Bethink 
 yourselves; are you to sit down and yield yourselves 
 to perish ? Consider, man, it is the business of thy 
 soul, and of thine eternal state, that is now before 
 thee. Thou hast the dreadful flaming gulf of ever- 
 lasting horror and misery in view: hast thou nothing 
 left thee to do but to throw thyself into it? Me- 
 thinks thou shouldst sooner reconcile thy thoughts 
 to any thing than that; and that, if any thing at all 
 be to be done for thine escape, thou shouldst rather 
 set thyself about it, and do it. Thou art yet alive, 
 not yet in hell, yet the patience of God spares thee : 
 thou hast yet time to consider, thou hast the power 
 to think yet left thee, and canst thou use it no other 
 way than to think of perishing ! Think rather how 
 not to perish. A great point is gained, if thou art 
 but brought to say, " What shall I do to be saved?" 
 which doth imply thou dost both apprehend the dis- 
 tressedness of thy case, and art willing to do any 
 thing that is to be done for thy relief. And if thou 
 art brought to this, thy circumstances may perhaps 
 be such that thou canst only put this question to thy- 
 self, and art only thyself to answer it, without a liv- 
 ing, present guide, which may therefore make such 
 a help as this needful to thee. Possibly some ir- 
 
141 
 
 resistible providence may have so cast thy lot, that 
 thou art only now to be thy own preacher; though 
 it sometime was otherwise with thee; and things 
 were said to thee most suitable to the condition of 
 thy soul, which thou wouldst not then consider. It 
 is yet pressed upon thee to consider now, with some 
 design to direct thy thoughts, that they run not into 
 useless and troublesome confusion only. And your 
 subject being what course you are now to take, that 
 you may escape eternal wrath and ruin? It is ob- 
 vious to you to apprehend nothing is to be done 
 against, or without God, but with him, and by him. 
 Your utmost consideration can but bring the matter 
 to this short point, that whereas you have highly 
 offended the God that made you, incurred his wrath, 
 and made him your enemy; either to resist, or treat 
 and supplicate. That madness which would let you 
 intend the former, is not capable of consideration at 
 all. For, if you consider, will you contend with 
 Omnipotency, or fight with an all-devouring flame? 
 And as to the latter, it is well for you, that it can 
 be the matter of your consideration, that you have 
 any encouragement to turn your thoughts that way. 
 You might have enemies, that, being provoked, and 
 having you in their power, would never admit of a 
 treaty, nor regard your supplications, but fall upon 
 you with merciless fury, and leave you nothing to 
 think of but perishing. Here it is not so with you. 
 The merciful God hath graciously told you " fury 
 is not so in him," but that (though " if briars and 
 thorns will set themselves in battle against him, he 
 will easily pass through, and burn them up together, 
 
142 
 
 yet) if any will take hold of his strength, that they 
 may make peace with him, they shall make peace 
 with him." Isaiah xxvii. 4, 5. You are to consi- 
 der there is danger in your case; and there is hope, 
 that your sin is not so little as to need no forgive- 
 ness, nor too great to be forgiven. Wherefore, 
 whose case soever this is, since you may be forgiven, 
 if you duly apply yourselves, and must be forgiven, 
 or you are undone, my further advice to you is, and 
 you may, as to this, advise yourself, having nothing 
 else left you to do. 
 
 (9.) That you cast yourselves down before the 
 mercy-seat of God, humble yourselves deeply at his 
 foot-stool, turn to him with all your soul, implore his 
 mercy through Christ, make a solemn covenant with 
 him, taking him to be your God, and devoting your- 
 self to him, to be his, accepting his Son as your Lord 
 and Saviour, and resigning your soul with submission 
 and trust entirely to him, to be ruled and saved by 
 him. That you are to do this the case is plain, and 
 even speaks itself: How you are to do it may need 
 to be more particularly told you. 
 
 1. Take heed that what you do in this be not the 
 mere effect of your present apprehended distress, but 
 of the altered judgment and inclination of your mind 
 and heart. The apprehension of your distressed 
 dangerous condition, may be a useful means and 
 inducement to engage you more seriously to listen 
 and attend to the proposals made to you in the gos- 
 pel. But if, upon all this, it should be the sense of 
 your heart that you would rather live still as with- 
 out God in the world, and that you would never 
 
143 
 
 come to any such treaty or agreement with him, if 
 mere necessity and the fear of perishing did not 
 urge you to it, you are still but where you were. 
 Therefore, though the feared danger was necessary 
 to make you bethink yourself, and consider what 
 God propounds to you; that consideration ought to 
 have that further effect upon you, to convince you 
 of the equity and desirableness of the things them- 
 selves which he propounds, summarily, of your be- 
 taking yourselves to him as your sovereign Lord, and 
 supreme good, to fear and love, obey and enjoy him, 
 in Christ Jesus, and accordingly ought to incline 
 your heart thereto. 
 
 2. You are to consider, in your entering into this 
 covenant with God in Christ, that it is not a trans- 
 action for the present only you are about, but for 
 your whole life. " This God is to be your God, 
 for ever and ever, your God and your guide even to 
 the death." Psalm xlviii. 14. You are to live in 
 his fear and love, in his service and communion all 
 your days, and must understand this to be the mean- 
 ing and tenor of the covenant which you make with 
 him. 
 
 3. And hence, therefore, it is plain that your 
 whole transaction in this matter must proceed from 
 a new nature, and a new vital principle of grace and 
 holiness in you. What you do herein will other- 
 wise neither be sincere nor lasting. You can never 
 embrace religion for itself, without this, nor con- 
 tinue on in a religious course. What you do only 
 from a temporary pang of fear upon you, is but from 
 a kind of force that is for the present upon you, and 
 
144 
 
 will come to nothing, as soon as the impression of 
 that fear wears off. The religion which is true, and 
 durable, is not from a spirit of fear, " but of love, 
 power, and a sound mind." You must be a new 
 creature, God's workmanship, created in Christ 
 Jesus unto good works — that you may walk in them. 
 The life of the new creature stands in love to God, 
 as its way and course afterwards is a course of walk- 
 ing with God. If your heart be not brought to love 
 God, and delight in him, you are still but dead to- 
 wards God, and you still remain alive unto sin, as 
 before. Whereas, if you ever come to be a Chris- 
 tian indeed, you must be able truly to " reckon your- 
 self dead to sin, and alive to God through Jesus 
 Christ," Rom. vi. 11. Whereupon, in your mak- 
 ing the mentioned covenant, you must " yield your- 
 self to God, as one that is alive from the dead,$* as 
 it is verse 13, of the same chapter. A new nature 
 and life in you, will make all that you do, in a way 
 of duty, (whether immediately towards God or rnan, 
 the whole course of godliness, righteousness, and 
 sobriety) easy and delightful to you. And because 
 it is evident, both from many plain Scriptures, and 
 your own, and all men's experience, that you can- 
 not be, yourselves, the authors of this holy new life 
 and nature, you must therefore, further, in enter- 
 ing into this covenant, 
 
 4. Most earnestly cry to God, and plead with 
 him for his Spirit, by whom the vital unitive bond 
 must be contracted between God in Christ and your 
 souls. So this will be .the covenant of life and 
 peace. Lord ! how generally do the Christians of 
 
145 
 
 our age deceive themselves with a self-sprung reli- 
 gion ! Divine indeed in the institution, but merely 
 human, in respect of the radication and exercise. 
 In which respects also it must be divine or nothing. 
 What, are we yet to learn that a divine power 
 must work and form our religion in us, as well as 
 divine authority direct and enjoin it ? Do all such 
 Scriptures go for nothing that tell us, (i It is God 
 that must create the new heart, and renew the right 
 spirit in us;" that he must turn us if ever we be 
 turned; that we " can never come to Christ, except 
 the Father draw us." Nor is there any cause 
 of discouragement in this, if you consider what hath 
 before been said in this discourse. " Ask, and you 
 shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and 
 it shall be opened to you." Your heavenly Father 
 will give his Spirit to them that ask, more readily 
 than parents do bread to their children, and not a 
 stone. But what if you be put to ask often, and 
 wait long, this doth but the more endear the gift, 
 and show the high value of it. You are to remem- 
 ber how often you have grieved, resisted, and vexed 
 his Spirit, and that you have made God wait long 
 upon you. What if the absolute sovereign Lord of 
 all expect your attendance upon him? " He waits to 
 be gracious : — and blessed are they that wait for 
 him." Renew your applications to him. Lay 
 from time to time that covenant before you, which 
 yourselves must be wrought up unto a full entire 
 closure with. And if it be not done at one 
 time, try yet if it will another, and try again and 
 again. Remember it is for your life, for your soul, 
 G 
 
146 
 
 for your all. But do not satisfy yourself with 
 only such faint motions within thee, as may only be 
 the effects of thy own spirit, of thy dark, dull, list- 
 less, sluggish, dead, hard heart, at least not of the 
 efficacious regenerating influence of the divine Spirit. 
 Didst thou never hear what mighty workings there 
 have been in others, when God hath been trans- 
 forming and renewing them, and drawing them into 
 living union with his Son, and himself through 
 him? what an amazing penetrating light hath struck 
 into their hearts. " For God, who commanded the 
 light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our 
 hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the 
 glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Such 
 as when he was making the world, enlightened the 
 chaos: such as hath made them see things that con- 
 cerned them as they truly were, and with their own 
 proper face, God, and Christ, and themselves, sin 
 and duty, heaven and hell, in their own true appear- 
 ances ! Flow effectually they have been awakened ! 
 how the terrors of the Almighty have beset and 
 seized their souls ! w r hat agonies and pangs they 
 have felt in themselves, when the voice of God hath 
 said to them, " Awake thou that sleepest, and arise 
 from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light !" 
 How he hath brought them down at his feet, thrown 
 them into the dust, broken them, melted them, 
 made them abase themselves, loathe and abhor them- 
 selves, filled them with sorrow, shame, confusion, 
 and with indignation towards their own guilty souls, 
 habituated them to a severity against themselves, 
 unto the most sharp, and yet most unforced self- 
 
147 
 
 accusations, self-judging, and self-condemnation; so 
 as even to make them lay claim to hell, and confess 
 the portion of devils belonged to them, as their own 
 most deserved portion. And if now their eyes have 
 been directed towards a Redeemer, and any glim- 
 mering of hope hath appeared to them; if now they 
 are taught to understand God saying to them, Sin- 
 ner, art thou yet willing to be reconciled, and 
 accept a Saviour? O the transport into which it 
 puts them ! this is life from the dead ! What, is 
 there hope for such a lost wretch as I? How taste- 
 ful now is that melting invitation? how pleasant an 
 intimation doth it carry with it, " Come unto me 
 all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest." If the Lord of heaven and earth do 
 now look down from the throne of glory, and say, 
 What, sinner, wilt thou despise my favour and 
 pardon, my Son, thy mighty merciful Redeemer, 
 my grace and Spirit still! — What can be the 
 return of the poor abased wretch, overawed by the 
 glory of the divine Majesty, stung with compunc- 
 tion, overcome with the intimation of kindness and 
 love? " I have heard of thee, O God, by the 
 hearing of the ear, now mine eye seeth thee; where- 
 fore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." 
 So inwardly is the truth of that word now felt, " that 
 thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never 
 open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, 
 when I am pacified towards thee, for all that thou 
 hast done, saith the Lord God." Rut, sinner, 
 wilt thou make a covenant with me, and my Christ? 
 wilt thou take me for thy God, and him for thy 
 G 2 
 
148 
 
 Redeemer and Lord? And may I, Lord! yet, 
 may I ? O admirable grace ! wonderful sparing 
 mercy ! that I was not thrown into hell at my first 
 refusal ! Yea, Lord, with all my heart and soul. 
 I renounce the vanities of an empty cheating world, 
 and all the pleasures of sin: In thy favour stands 
 my life : Whom have I in heaven but thee ? whom on 
 earth do I desire besides thee ? And O thou blessed 
 Jesus, thou Prince of the kings of the earth, who hast 
 loved me, and washed me from my sins in thy blood, 
 and whom the eternal God hath exalted to be a 
 Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and remis- 
 sion of sins, I fall before thee, my Lord, and my 
 God; I here willingly tender my homage at the 
 footstool of thy throne. I take thee for the Lord 
 of my life. I absolutely surrender and resign my- 
 self to thee. Thy love constrains me henceforth n© 
 more to live to myself, but to thee who diedst for 
 me, and didst rise again. And I subject and yield 
 myself to thy blessed light and power, O Holy 
 Spirit of grace, to be more and more illuminated, 
 sanctified, and prepared for every good word and 
 work, in this world, and for an inheritance among 
 them that are sanctified in the other. Sinner, never 
 give thy soul leave to be at rest till thou find it 
 brought to some such transaction with God (the 
 Father, Son, and Spirit) as this; so as that thou 
 canst truly say, and dost feel thy heart is in it. Be 
 not weary or impatient of waiting and striving, till 
 thou canst say, this is nOw the very sense of thy 
 soul. Such things have been done in the world 
 (but O how seldom of latter days!) So God hath 
 
149 
 
 Wrought with men to save them from going down to 
 the pit, having found a ransom for them. And 
 why may he not yet be expected to do so? He 
 hath smitten rocks ere now, and made the waters 
 gush out ; nor is his hand shortened, nor his ear 
 heavy. Thy danger is not, sinner, that he will be 
 inexorable, but lest thou shouldst. He will be 
 entreated, if thou wouldst be prevailed with to 
 entreat his favour with thy whole heart. 
 
 And that thou mayest, and not throw away thy 
 soul, and so great a hope through mere sloth, and 
 loathness to be at some pains for thy life; let the 
 text, which hath been thy directory about the things 
 that belong to thy peace, be also thy motive, as it 
 gives thee to behold the Son of God weeping over 
 such as would not know those things. Shall not 
 the Redeemer's tears move thee! O hard heart ! 
 Consider what these tears import to this purpose. 
 
 1. They signify the real depth, and greatness of 
 the misery into which thou art falling. They drop 
 from an intellectual and most comprehensive eye, 
 that sees far, and pierces deep into things, hath a 
 wide and large prospect ; takes the compass of that 
 forlorn state into which unreconcilable sinners are 
 hastening, in all the horror of it. The Son of 
 God did not weep vain and causeless tears, or for a 
 light matter; nor did he for himself either spend his 
 own, or desire the profusion of others' tears. 
 " Weep not for me, O daughters of Jerusalem." 
 He knows the value of souls, the weight of guilt, 
 and how low it will press and sink them; the severity 
 of God's justice, and the power of his anger, and 
 
150 
 
 what the fearful effects of them will be, when they 
 finally fall. If thou understandest not these things 
 thyself, believe him that did, at least believe his 
 tears. 
 
 2. They signify the sincerity of his love and 
 pity, the truth and tenderness of his compassion. 
 Ganst thou think his tears deceitful? his, who never 
 knew guile? was this like the rest of his course? 
 And remember that he who shed tears, did, from 
 the same fountain of love and mercy, shed blood 
 too! Was that also done to deceive? Thou 
 makest thyself some very considerable thing indeed, 
 if thou thinkest the Son of God counted it worth 
 his while to weep, and bleed, and die, to deceive 
 thee into a false esteem of him and his love. But 
 if it be the greatest madness imaginable to entertain 
 any such thought, but that his tears were sincere 
 and inartificial, the natural genuine expressions of 
 undissembled benignity and pity, thou art then to 
 consider what love and compassion thou art now 
 sinning against; what bowels thou spurn est; and 
 that if thou perishest, it is under such guilt as the 
 devils themselves are not liable to, who never had a 
 Redeemer bleeding for them, nor, that we ever 
 find, weeping over them. 
 
 3. They show the remedilessness of thy case, if 
 thou persist in impenitency and unbelief till the 
 things of thy peace be quite hid from thine eyes. 
 These tears will then be the last issues of (even 
 defeated) love, of love that is frustrated of its kind 
 design. Thou mayest perceive in these tears the 
 steady unalterable laws of heaven, the inflexibleness 
 
151 
 
 of the divine justice, that holds thee in adamantine 
 bonds, and hath sealed thee up, if thou prove in- 
 curably obstinate and impenitent, unto perdition; 
 so that even the Redeemer, himself, " he that is 
 mighty to save," cannot at length save thee, but 
 only weep over thee, drop tears into thy flame, 
 whieli -assuage it not; but (though they have another 
 design, even to express true compassion) do yet un- 
 avoidably heighten, and increase the fervour of it, 
 and will do so to all eternity. He even tells thee, 
 sinner, thou hast despised my blood, thou shalt yet 
 have my tears. That would have saved thee, these 
 do only lament thee lost. 
 
 But the tears wept over others as lost and past 
 hope, why should they not yet melt thee, while as 
 yet there is hope in thy case; if thou be effectually 
 melted in thy very soul, " and looking to him whom 
 thou hast pierced, dost truly mourn over him," thou 
 mayest assure thyself the prospect his weeping eye 
 had of lost souls, did not include thee. His weep- 
 ing over thee would argue thy case forlorn and hope- 
 less. Thy mourning over him will make it safe and 
 happy. That it may be so, consider further that 
 
 4. They signify how very intent he is to save 
 souls, and how gladly he would save thine, if yet 
 thou wilt accept of mercy while it may be had. For 
 if he weep over them that will not be saved, from 
 the same love that is the spring of these tears, would 
 saving mercies proceed to those that are become 
 willing to receive them. And that love that wept 
 over them that were lost, how will it glory in them 
 that are saved? There his love is disappointed and 
 
152 
 
 vexed, crossed in its gracious intentions; but her* 
 having compassed it, how will he joy over thee witl 
 singing, and rest in his love ! And thou also, in- 
 stead of being involved in a like ruin with the un- 
 reconciled sinners of the Old Jerusalem, shalt 
 enrolled among the glorious citizens of the New, 
 and triumph together with them in eternal glory. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 CONCERNING THE BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY 
 ghost; AND HOW GOD IS SAID TO WILL THE 
 §ALYATION OF THEM THAT PERISH. 
 
 Because some things, not fit to be wholly omitted, 
 were as little fit to come into the body of a practi- 
 cal discourse, it was thought requisite to subjoin here 
 the following additions, that will, severally, have re- 
 ference to distinct parts of the foregoing discourse. 
 As to what was said, p. 104, of the unreasonable- 
 ness, and ill consequence of admitting it to be any 
 man's duty to believe himself utterly rejected, and 
 forsaken of God, inasmuch as it would make that 
 his duty which were repugnant to his felicity. This 
 is to be evinced by a consideration, which also, even 
 apart by itself, were not without its own great weight, 
 namely, that such a belief were inconsistent with his 
 former stated and known duty: It were therefore in- 
 consistent with his felicity, inasmuch as it would 
 make that duty impossible to be performed, which, 
 before, was, by the constitution of the evangelical 
 law, made necessary to it; namely, " Repentance 
 towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ," 
 
 The hope of acceptance is so necessary to both these, 
 G3 
 
154 
 
 that the belief of a man's being finally rejected, or 
 that he shall never be accepted, cannot but make 
 them both impossible, equally impossible, as if he 
 were actually in hell; as much impossible to him, as 
 to the devils themselves. Nor is this impossibility, 
 merely, from a moral impotency, or that obduration 
 of heart which were confessedly vicious, and his 
 great sin, but from the natural influence of that be- 
 lief of his being for ever rejected, which, upon the 
 mentioned supposition, were his duty. Besides, in- 
 asmuch as it is the known duty of a sinner under 
 the gospel, " to turn to God through Christ," and 
 it is also declared in the same gospel, sufficiently to 
 make it the common matter of faith to Christians, 
 that none can " of themselves turn to God, and 
 believe in his Son," without the help of speeiaLeffi- 
 caeious grace; it must hereupon be a man's duty 
 also to pray for that grace which may enable him 
 hereto. How deep in wickedness was Simon Magus, 
 even in the "gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity," 
 when yet Peter calls him to repentance, and puts 
 him upon praying for forgiveness, which must im- 
 ply also his praying for the grace to repent ; but how 
 can a man pray for that, which, at the same time, he 
 believes shall not be given him ? yea, and which is 
 harder, and more unaccountable, how can he stand 
 obliged in duty, to pray for that, which, at the same 
 time, he stands obliged in duty to believe he shall 
 not obtain? How can these two contrary obligations 
 lie upon a man at the same time; or is he to look 
 upon the former as ceased ? should he reckon the 
 gospel as to him repealed ? or his impenitency and 
 
155 
 
 infidelity, even when they are at the highest, no 
 sins ? 
 
 I know it is obvious to object, as to all this, the 
 case of the " unpardonable blasphemy against the 
 Holy Ghost ;" which will be supposed to be stated 
 and determined in the sacred Scriptures, and being 
 so, the person that hath committed it, may equally 
 be thought obliged, (by a mixed assent, partly of 
 faith to what is written, partly of self-knowledge, 
 which he ought to have of his own acts and state) 
 to conclude himself guilty of it; whereupon all the 
 former inconvenience and difficulty will be liable to 
 be urged as above. But even as to this also, I see 
 not but it may fitly enough be said, that though the 
 general nature of that sin be stated, and sufficiently 
 determined in thesi, yet that God hath not left it 
 determinable in hypothesis by any particular person, 
 that he hath committed it. For admit that it gener- 
 ally lies in imputing to the devil those works of the 
 Holy Ghost, by which the truth of Christianity was 
 to be demonstrated, I yet see not how any man 
 can apply this to his own particular case, so as justly 
 and certainly to conclude himself guilty of it. I take 
 it for granted, none will ever take the notion of blas- 
 phemy in that strictness, but that a man may possibly 
 be guilty of this sin as well in thought, as by speech. 
 I also doubt not but it will be acknowledged on all 
 hands, that prejudice and malice against Christianity, 
 must have a great ingrediency into this sin ; not such 
 malice as whereby, knowing it to be true religion, 
 a man hates and detests it as such (which would sup- 
 pose these Pharisees, whom our Saviour charges 
 
156 
 
 with it, or cautions against it, to have been, at that 
 time, in their judgments and consciences, Christians) 
 but such malignity, and strong prejudice as darkens 
 and obstructs his mind, that he judges it not to be 
 true, against the highest evidence of its being so: 
 It will also be acknowledged, that some enmity and 
 disaffection to true religion, is common to all men ; 
 more especially in their unregeneracy, and unconvert- 
 ed state. 
 
 Now let it be supposed that some person or other, 
 of a very unwarrantably sceptical genius, had oppor- 
 tunity to know certainly the matter of fact, touching 
 the miraculous works wrought by our Saviour, and 
 understood withal somewhat generally of the doc- 
 trine which he taught; and that he sets himself as 
 a philosopher to consider the case. Suppose that, 
 partly through prejudice against the holy design of 
 Christianity, whereof there is some degree in all; 
 and partly through shortness of discourse, not hav- 
 ing thoroughly considered the matter, he thinks it 
 possible that some demon or other, with design, un- 
 der a specious pretence, to impose upon, or amuse 
 the credulous vulgar, may have done all those 
 strange things. Suppose his judgment should for 
 the present more incline this way. What, if think- 
 ing this to be the case in the instance of Apollonius 
 Tyanaeus, he hath not yet, upon a slighter view, 
 discerned enough to distinguish them, but thinks 
 alike of both cases? Yea, and suppose he have 
 spoken his sentiments to some other ; perhaps, upon 
 further inquiry and search, he might see cause to 
 alter his judgment. And now, setting himself to 
 
157 
 
 inquire more narrowly, he perceives the unexcep- 
 tionable excellent scope and tendency of our Saviour's 
 doctrine and precepts, considers the simplicity and 
 purity of his life, contemplates further the awful 
 greatness of his mighty works; but amidst these 
 his deliberations, he finds among the rest of Chris- 
 tian constitutions this severe one, " Wherefore I 
 say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall 
 be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against 
 the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. 
 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of 
 man, it shall be forgiven him : but whosoever speaketh 
 against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven 
 him, neither in this world, neither in the world to 
 come," — and begins to fear lest, supposing the truth 
 of this excellent religion, he have precluded him- 
 self of all the advantages of it by that former judg- 
 ment of his : What is he to do in this case ? what 
 were he to be advised unto? What, to pass judg- 
 ment upon himself, and his case as desperate? or 
 not rather to humble himself before the God of hea- 
 ven, ask pardon for his injurious rash judgment, and 
 supplicate for mercy, and for further illumination, 
 " in the mystery of God, of the Father, and of Christ? 
 WTiich course, that it may have a blessed issue with 
 him, who dare venture to deny or doubt? And 
 what have we to say hereupon, but that in great 
 wisdom and mercy, our §aviour hath only told us 
 there is such a sin, and what the general nature of 
 it is, or whereabouts it lies : but the judgment of 
 particular cases wherein, or of the very pitch and de- 
 gree of malignity wherewith it is committed, he hath 
 
158 
 
 reserved to himself; intending further to strive with 
 persons by his Spirit, while he judges them yet with- 
 in the reach of mercy, or withhold it, when he sees 
 any to have arrived to that culminating pitch of ma- 
 lignity, and obstinacy, wherein he shall judge this 
 sin specially to consist? And what inconvenience 
 is it to suppose he hath left this matter, touching 
 the degree, humanly undeterminable. The know- 
 ledge of it can do them who have committed it no 
 good: and probably they have by it so blinded and 
 stupified their own souls, as to have made themselves 
 very little capable of apprehending that they have 
 committed it, or of considering whether they have 
 or not. But they are sunk into a deep abyss of dark- 
 ness and death, so as that such knowledge may be 
 as little possible, as it would be useful to them. 
 All their faculties of intellection, consideration, and 
 self-reflection, being, as to any such exercise, bound 
 up in a stupifying dead sleep. 
 
 And to what purpose should they have a rule by 
 which to determine a case, who, 1. Can receive no 
 benefit by the determination, and 2. Who are sup- 
 posed, when they are to use it, to have no faculty 
 sufficiently apt to make this sad, but true judgment 
 of" their case by it? But for them who have not 
 committed it, and who are, consequently, yet capable 
 of benefit by what should be made known about it, 
 there is, therefore, enough made known for their 
 real use and benefit. It will 
 
 1. Be of real use to many such, to know their 
 danger of running into it. And it is sufficient 
 to that purpose, that they are plainly told wherein 
 
159 
 
 the general nature of it consists, or whereabouts 
 it lies; without showing them the very point that 
 hath certain death in it; or letting them know just 
 how near they may approach it, without being sure 
 to perish, when there is danger enough in every 
 step they take towards it. As if there were some 
 horrid desert, into any part whereof no man hath 
 any business to come, but in some part whereof there 
 is a dreadful gulf, whence arises a contagious va- 
 pour, which, if he come within the verge of it, will 
 be certainly poisonous and mortal to him. What 
 need is there that any man should know just how 
 near he may come, without being sure to die for it? 
 He is concerned to keep himself at a cautious awful 
 distance. 
 
 2. It may be of great use to others, that are af- 
 flicted with very torturing fears lest they have com- 
 mitted it, to know that they have not. And they 
 have enough also to satisfy them in the case. For 
 their very fear itself, with its usual concomitants 
 in such afflicted minds, is an argument to them that 
 they have not. While they find in themselves any 
 value of divine favour, any dread of his wrath, any 
 disposition to consider the state of their souls, with 
 any thought or design of turning to God, and mak- 
 ing their peace: they have reason to conclude God 
 hath hitherto kept them out of that fearful guilt; 
 and is yet in the way, and in treaty with them. For 
 since we are not "sufficient to think any thing (that 
 good is) of ourselves," it is much more reasonable to 
 ascribe any such thoughts or agitations of spirit that 
 have this design to him, than to ourselves, and to 
 
160 
 
 account that he is yet at work with us (at least in the 
 way of common grace) though when our thoughts 
 drive towards a conclusion against ourselves, that we 
 have committed that sin, and towards despair there- 
 upon, we are to apprehend a mixture of temptation 
 in them, which we are concerned earnestly to watch 
 and pray against. And yet even such temptation is 
 an argument of such-a-one's not having committed 
 that sin. For such as the devil may apprehend more 
 likely to have committed it (and it is not to be 
 thought he can be sure who have) he will be less apt 
 to trouble with such thoughts, not knowing what the 
 issue of that unquietness may prove, and apprehend- 
 ing it may occasion their escaping quite out of his 
 snares. And I do conceive this to be a safer me- 
 thod, of satisfying such as are perplexed with this 
 fear in our days, than to be positive in stating that 
 sin so, or limiting it to such circumstances, as shall 
 make it impossible to be committed in this age of 
 the world. For let it be seriously considered, whe- 
 ther it be altogether an unsupposable thing, that, 
 with some in our days, there may be an equivalency, 
 in point of light and evidence of the truth of Chris- 
 tianity, unto what these Jews had, whom our Saviour 
 warns of the danger of this sin, at that time when he 
 so warned them; his warning and cautioning them 
 about it, implies that he judged them, at least in a 
 possibility, at that time, of incurring the guilt of it: 
 If the text Matt. xii. do not also imply that he rec- 
 koned them, then, actually to have committed it. 
 For it is said, verse 25, he " knew their thoughts," 
 that is, considered the temper of their minds, and 
 
161 
 
 thereupon said to them that which follows concern- 
 ing it. Let us consider wherein their advantage 
 towards their being ascertained of the truth of the 
 Christian religion, Was greater than we now can have: 
 It was, chiefly, in this respect greater, that they had 
 a nearer, and more immediate knowledge of the mat- 
 ter of fact, wherein that evidence which our Saviour 
 refers to did consist. A more immediate way of 
 knowing it they had; the most immediate the per- 
 sons whom he warns, or charges, seem not to have 
 had. For those Pharisees, it is said, heard of the 
 cure of the demoniac, not that they saw it. They 
 took it upon the, no doubt sufficiently credible, re- 
 port of others. Now let it be further considered, 
 what we have to balance this one single advantage. 
 We have, to intelligent considering persons, ration- 
 ally sufficient evidence of the same matter of fact. 
 But how great things, that have since followed, have 
 we the sufficiently certain knowledge of besides, be- 
 yond what they had in view, at that time : as, the 
 wonderful death of our Lord, exactly according to 
 prediction, in many respects, together with all the 
 unforetold amazing circumstances that attended it ! 
 —his more wonderful resurrection, upon which so 
 great a stress is laid for demonstrating the truth of 
 the religion he taught — the destruction of Jerusa- 
 lem, as he foretold, and the shattered condition of the 
 Jewish nation, as was also foretold, ever since — the 
 strange success of the gospel in the first, and some 
 following ages, by so unlikely means, against the 
 greatest opposition imaginable, both of Jews and 
 Pagans, Not to insist on the apostacy foretold, in th§ 
 
16-2 
 
 Christian church, with many more things that might 
 be mentioned, let it be considered whether the want 
 of a so immediate way of knowing some of these 
 things, be not abundantly compensated by the great- 
 ness of the other things that are however sufficiently 
 known. And if such as have wit and leisure to con- 
 sider these things in our days, are often pressed to 
 consider them, have them frequently represented, and 
 laid before their eyes, if such, I say, have in view as 
 great evidence, upon the whole, of the truth of 
 Christianity, as these Pharisees had; it is then fur- 
 ther to be considered, whether it be not possible that 
 some such may equal the Jewish malice, against the 
 holy design of our religion. To which I only say, 
 the Lord grant that none may. But if there be 
 really cause to apprehend such a danger, some other 
 way should be thought of to cure the trouble of 
 some, than by the danger, and too probable ruin of 
 others. 
 
 However, none should themselves make their own 
 case incurable, by concluding that they have sinned 
 that sin, or by believing they are, otherwise, for- 
 saken and rejected of God; so as that he will never 
 more assist their endeavours to repent, and turn to 
 him through the Mediator. 
 
 If it be inquired here, Since, as hath been shown, 
 some may be quite forsaken of God, while yet they 
 live in the world; ought such to believe then they 
 are not forsaken, and so believe an untruth that they 
 may make it true, or try if they can better their con- 
 dition by it? I answer, nor that neither. For that 
 God will further assist an obstinate sinner, that hath 
 
m 
 
 long resisted his Spirit, and despised his mercy, is 
 no matter of promise to him, and so no matter of 
 faith. When he doth conquer, at length, any such, 
 it is of mere unpromised favour; (as was also shown) 
 whereof therefore he gives others no ground to de- 
 spair; and for which they are deeply concerned, with 
 great earnestness, to supplicate. But if it be said, 
 how can they pray for that whereof they have no pro- 
 mise? and can have no faith, since " what is not of 
 faitbJ^Lsin," Rom. xiv. 23. I answer, that passage 
 of Scripture would, in this case, be much misapplied. 
 It speaks not of faith concerning the certainty of any 
 event to be expected, but the lawfulness of a work to 
 be done, and of doubting, not concerning the event, 
 but my own act. Can any man in his wits doubt 
 concerning; his own act in this case? whether it be 
 better to pray for the grace of God to save him, than 
 slight it and perish? nor are they without very en- 
 couraging promises concerning the event " that God 
 will be a rewarder of them that diligently seek him," 
 and " that whosoever shall call upon the name of 
 the Lord shall be saved;" which promises, it is true, 
 the context of both shows, do speak of believing 
 prayer. They are to faith, not of it, and import, 
 that God will reward and save the believer: not that 
 he will give faith to the obstinate contemptuous un- 
 believer. If he do this, it is, as was said, of unpro- 
 mised bounty. But though they are not promises 
 to give faith, they should induce it; and incline sin- 
 ners to cast themselves down before the throne of so 
 gracious a God, and seek grace to help them in their 
 need, in confidence that he will never reject penitent 
 
164 
 
 believing prayer. They* indeed, that for their for- 
 mer wilful sinning, are utterly forsaken of God, will 
 not thus apply themselves; but our question is not 
 what they will do, but what they should. Because 
 they would not, therefore they were forsaken, and 
 because they yet will not, they are still, and finally 
 forsaken. Their refusal proceeds not from any dis- 
 couragement God hath given them, but from the 
 malignity of their own hearts. God hath not re- 
 pealed his gospel towards them. The connection 
 continues firm between the preceptive and promissory 
 parts of it. Their infidelity is not become their duty, 
 but remains their heinous sin, and the more deeply 
 heinous by how much their own malignity holds them 
 more strongly in it. 
 
 Unto what also is discoursed, p. 117, concerning 
 anger and grief, (or other passions) ascribed to God, 
 it will not be unfit here to add, that unless they be 
 allowed to signify real aversion of will, no account 
 is to be given what reality in him they can signify 
 at all. For to say (what some do seem to satisfy 
 themselves with) that they are to be understood ac- 
 cording to the effects, not according to the affections, 
 though true as to the negative part, is, as to the affir- 
 mative, very defective and short; for the effects of 
 anger and grief, upon which those names are put, 
 when spoken of God, are not themselves in him, but in 
 us. But we are still at a loss what they signify in him. 
 Such effects must have some cause. And if they be 
 effects which he works, they must have some cause in 
 himself that is before them, and productive of them. 
 This account leaves us to seek what that cause is, 
 
165 
 
 that is signified by these names. That it cannot 
 be any passion, as the same names are wont to sig- 
 nify with us, is out of question. Nor indeed do those 
 names primarily, and most properly signify passion 
 in ourselves. The passion is consequent only, by 
 reason of that inferior nature in us, which is suscep- 
 tible of it. But the aversion of our mind and will 
 is before it, and, in another subject, very separable 
 from it, and possible to be without it. In the bles- 
 sed God we cannot understand any thing less is sig- 
 nified than real displacency at the things whereat he 
 is said to be angry or grieved. 
 
 Our shallow reason indeed is apt to suggest in 
 these matters, why is not that prevented that is so 
 displeasing? And it would be said, with equal rea- 
 son in reference to all sin permitted to be in the 
 world, why was it not prevented? And what is to 
 be said to this? shall it be said that sin doth not 
 displease God? that he hath no will against sin? 
 it is not repugnant to his will? Yes: it is to his 
 revealed will, to his law. But is that an untrue re- 
 velation? His law is not his will itself, but the 
 sign, the discovery of his will. Now, is it an in- 
 significant sign ? a sign that signifies nothing ? or 
 to which there belongs no correspondent significa- 
 tion? nothing that is signified by it? Is that which 
 is signified (for sure no one will say it signifies no- 
 thing) his real will, yea or no? Who can deny it? 
 that will, then, (and a most calm, sedate, impasskm- 
 ate will it must be understood to be) sin, and con- 
 sequently the consequent miseries of his creatures, 
 are repugnant unto. And what will is that? it is 
 
166 
 
 not a peremptory will concerning the event, for the 
 event falls out otherwise; which were, upon that 
 supposition, impossible : '" For who hath resisted his 
 will?" as was truly intimated by the personated 
 questionist, Romans ix. 19; but impertinently, when 
 God's will of another (not a contrary) kind, that is, 
 concerning another object, was in the same breath 
 referred unto, " why doth he yet find fault?" It is 
 not the will of the event that is the measure of 
 faultiness: for then there could not have been sin in 
 the world, nor consequently misery, which only, by 
 the Creator's pleasure, stands connected with it. 
 For nothing could fall out against that irresistible 
 will. The objector then destroys his own objection, 
 so absurdly, and so manifestly, as not to deserve any 
 other reply than that which he meets with. " Nay, 
 but who art thou, O man, that repliest against 
 God?" 
 
 And what is the other object about which the di- 
 vine will is also conversant? matter of duty; and 
 what stands in connexion with it, not abstractly and 
 separately, but as it is so connected, our felicity. 
 This is objectively another will, as we justly distin- 
 guish divine acts, that respeet the creature, by their 
 different objects. Against this will falls out all the 
 sin and misery in the world. 
 
 All this seems plain and clear, but is not enough. 
 For it may be further said, that when God wills this 
 or that to be my duty, doth he not will this event, 
 namely, my doing it? otherwise wherein is his will 
 withstood, or not fulfilled in my not doing it? He 
 willed this to be my duty, and it is so. I do not, 
 
167 
 
 nor can hinder it from being so, yet I do it not, ant! 
 that he willed not. If all that his will meant was, 
 that this should be my duty, but my doing it was 
 not intended; his will is entirely accomplished: it 
 hath its full effect, in that such things are constituted, 
 and do remain my duty, upon his signification of 
 this his will; my not doing it, not being within the 
 compass of the object, or the thing willed. 
 
 If it be said, he willed my doing it, that is, that 
 I should do it, not that I shall, the same answer will 
 recur, namely, that his will hath still its full effect* 
 this effect still remaining, that I should do it, but 
 that I shall he willed not. 
 
 It may be said, I do plainly go against his will 
 however; for his will was that I should do so, or 
 so, and I do not what he willed I should. It is 
 true, I go herein against his will, if he willed not 
 only my obligation, but my action according to it. 
 And indeed it seems altogether unreasonable, and 
 unintelligible, that he should will to oblige me to 
 that, which he doth not will me to do. 
 
 Therefore it seems out of question, that the holy 
 God doth constantly and perpetually, in a true sense, 
 will the universal obedience, and the consequent 
 felicity of all his creatures capable thereof. He 
 doth will it with simple complacency, as what were 
 highly grateful to him, simply considered by itself. 
 Who can doubt, but that purity, holiness, blessed- 
 ness, wheresoever they were to be beheld among his 
 creatures, would be a pleasing and delightful spec- 
 tacle to him, being most agreeable to the perfect ex- 
 

 168 
 
 eellency, purity, and benignity of his own nature, 
 and that their deformity and misery must be conse- 
 quently unpleasing? But he doth not efficaciously 
 will every thing that he truly wills. He never 
 willed the obedience of all his intelligent creatures 
 so, as effectually to make them all obey, nor their 
 happiness, so as to make them all be happy, as the 
 event shows. Nothing can be more certain, than 
 that he did not so will these things; for then no- 
 thing could have fallen out to the contrary, as we 
 see much hath. Nor is it at all unworthy the love 
 and goodness of his nature not so to have willed, 
 with that effective will, the universal sinlessness, 
 and felicity of all his intelligent creatures. The 
 divine nature must comprehend all excellences in it- 
 self, and is not to be limited to that one only of benig- 
 nity, or an aptness to acts of beneficence. For then 
 it were not infinite, not absolutely perfect, and so 
 not divine. All the acts of his will must be conse- 
 quently conform and agreeable to the most perfect 
 wisdom. " He doth all things according to the 
 counsel of his will." He wills, it is true, the recti- 
 tude of our actions, and what would be consequent 
 thereto, but he first, and more principally wills the 
 rectitude of his own. And not only not to do an 
 unrighteous, but not an inept, or unfit thing. We 
 find he did not think it fit efficaciously to provide 
 concerning all men, that they should be made obe- 
 dient and happy, as he hath concerning some. That 
 in the general he makes a difference, is to be attri- 
 buted to his wisdom, that is, his wisdom hath in the 
 
169 
 
 general made this determination, not to deal with all 
 alike, and so we find it ascribed to his wisdom that 
 he doth make a difference. And in what a trans- 
 port is the holy Apostle in the contemplation and 
 celebration of it upon this account ! " O the depth 
 of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of 
 God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his 
 ways past finding out !" But now, when in parti- 
 cular he comes to make this difference between one 
 person, and another, there being no reason in the 
 object to determine him this way, more than that, 
 his designing some for the objects of special favour, 
 and waving others (as to such special favour) when 
 all were in themselves alike ; in that case wisdom 
 hath not so proper an exercise, but it is the work of 
 free, unobliged sovereignty here to make the choice: 
 " Having predestinated us unto the adoption of 
 children, by Jesus Christ, to himself, according to 
 the good pleasure of his will." 
 
 Yet, in the mean time, while God doth not effi- 
 caciously will all men's obedience introductive of 
 their happiness, doth it follow he wills it not really 
 at all? To say he wills it efficaciously, were to con- 
 tradict experience, and his word: to say he wills it 
 not really, were equally to contradict his word. He 
 doth will it, but not primarily, and as the more prin- 
 cipal object of his will, so as to effect it notwithstand- 
 ing whatsoever unfitness he apprehends in it, namely, 
 that he so overpower all, as to make them obedient 
 and happy. He really wills it, but hath greater 
 
 reasons than this or that man's salvation, why he 
 H 
 
170 
 
 effects it not. And this argues no imperfection in 
 the divine will, but the perfection of it, that he wills 
 things agreeably to the reasonableness and fitness of 
 them. 
 
ON 
 
 SELF-DEDICATION. 
 
 H 2 
 
TO 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 JOHN, EARL OF KILDARE, 
 BARON OF OPHALIA, 
 
 FIRST OF HIS ORDER IN THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND. 
 
 MY LORD, 
 
 I little thought when, in so private a way, I 
 lately offered much of the following Discourse to 
 your Lordship's ear, I should receive the command 
 (which I am not now, so far as it proves to me a 
 possible one, to disobey or further to dispute) of 
 exposing it thus to the view of the world, or so much 
 as to present it to your Lordship's own eye. It 
 was indeed impossible to me to give an exact account 
 of what was then discoursed, from a memory that 
 was so treacherous, as to let slip many things that 
 were prepared and intended to have been said that 
 day; and that could much less (being assisted but by 
 very imperfect memorials) recollect every thing that 
 was said, several days after. Yet I account, upon 
 the whole, it is much more varied by enlargement. 
 
174 
 
 than by diminution; whereby, I hope, it will be 
 nothing less capable of serving the end of this en- 
 joined publication of it. And I cannot doubt but 
 the injunction proceeded from the same pious grati- 
 tude to the God of your life, which hath prompted, 
 for several years past, to the observation of that 
 domestic annual solemnity, iii memory of your great 
 preservation from so near a death.* That the re- 
 membrance of so great a mercy might be the more 
 deeply impressed with yourself, and improved also 
 (so far as this means could signify for that purpose) 
 to the instruction of many others. 
 
 Your Lordship was pleased to allow an hour to 
 the hearing of that Discourse. What was proposed 
 to you in it, is to be the business of your life. And 
 what is to be done continually, is once to be 
 thoroughly done. The impression ought to be very 
 inward, and strong, which must be so lasting as to 
 govern a man's life. And were it as fully done as 
 mortality can admit, it needs be more solemnly re- 
 newed at set times for that purpose. And indeed, 
 that such a day should not pass you without a fall, 
 nor that fall be without a hurt, and that hurt pro- 
 ceed unto a wound, and that wound not to be mor- 
 tal, but even next to it, looks like an artifice and 
 contrivance of providence to show you how near it 
 could go, without cutting through that slender thread 
 of life, that it might endear to you its accurate 
 superintendency over your life, that there might 
 
 By a fall from a horse, December 5, 1674. 
 
175 
 
 here be a remarkable juncture in that thread, and 
 that whensoever such a day should revolve in the 
 circle of your year, it might come again, and again, 
 with a note upon it under your eye, and appear 
 ever to you as another birth-day, or as an earlier day 
 of resurrection. 
 
 Whereupon, my honoured Lord, the further 
 design of that providence is to be thoroughly studied, 
 and pondered deeply. For it shows itself to be, at 
 once, both merciful and wise, and as upon the one 
 account it belonged to it to design kindly to you, so, 
 upon the other, to form its design aptly, and so as 
 that its means and method might fitly both serve and 
 signify its end. If therefore your Lordship shall be 
 induced to reckon the counsel acceptable which hath 
 been given you upon this occasion, and to think the 
 offering yourself to God, a living sacrifice, under 
 the endearing obligation of so great a mercy is, in- 
 deed, a reasonable service; your life by that dedica- 
 tion acquires a sacredness, becomes a holy, divine 
 life. And so by one and the same means is not 
 only renewed and prolonged in the same kind of 
 natural life, but is also heightened and improved to 
 a nobler and far more excellent kind. And thus, 
 out of that umbrage only and shadow of death, which 
 sat upon one day of your time, springs a double 
 birth and resurrection to you. Whereby (as our 
 apostle speaks in another place of this epistle) you 
 come to yield yourselves to God, as one alive from 
 the dead. 
 
 So your new year (which shortly after begins) 
 will always be to you a fresh setting forth in that 
 
176 
 
 new and holy course of life, which shall at length 
 (and God grant it to be, after the revolution of 
 many fruitful years, wherein you may continue a 
 public blessing in this wretched world) end, and be 
 perfected in a state of life not measured by time, 
 wherein you are to be ever with the Lord. Which 
 will answer the design of that merciful providence 
 towards you; and of this performance, how mean 
 soever, of 
 
 Your Honour's most obedient, 
 
 Humble Servant, 
 
 JOHN HOWE, 
 
ON 
 
 SELF-DEDICATION. 
 
 Romans xii. 1. 
 
 / beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of 
 God, that you present your bodies a living sacri- 
 Jice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 
 reasonable service. 
 
 Two things are more especially considerable in these 
 words: — The matter of the exhortation, that we 
 would " present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, 
 acceptable to God, our reasonable service." And 
 the pathetic form of obtestation that is used to en- 
 force it. " I beseech you by the mercies of God." 
 The former I intend for the principal subject of the 
 following Discourse, and shall only make use of the 
 other for the purpose unto which the holy apostle 
 doth here apply it. Our business therefore must 
 be, to show the import of this exhortation. In the 
 doing whereof we shall — Explain the terms wherein 
 the text delivers it. And— Declare more distinctly 
 the nature of the thing expressed by them. 
 H3 
 
178 
 
 I. We shall explain the terms which the text 
 employs in this exhortation. 
 
 By " bodies," we are to understand our whole 
 selves, expressed here (synecdochically) by the name 
 of bodies, for distinctions sake. It having been 
 wont heretofore, to offer in sacrifice the bodies of 
 beasts, the apostle lets them know they are now to 
 offer up their own: meaning, yet, their whole man, 
 as some of these following words do intimate; and 
 agreeably to the plain meaning of the exhortation, 
 " Glorify God in your bodies and spirits, which are 
 his." 
 
 " Sacrifice" is not to be understood in this place 
 in a more restrained sense, than as it may signify 
 whatsoever is by God's own appointment dedicated 
 to himself. According to the stricter notion of a 
 sacrifice, its more noted general distinction (though 
 the Jewish be variously distributed*) is into propi- 
 tiatory and gratulatory or eucharistical. Christian- 
 ity in that strict sense, admits but one, and that of 
 the former sort. By which One (that of himself) 
 our Lord hath perfected for ever them that are 
 sanctified. We Ourselves, or any service of ours, 
 are only capable of being sacrifices by way of analogy, 
 and that chiefly to the other sort. And so all sin- 
 cere Christians are " as lively stones, built up a 
 spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiri- 
 tual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ," 
 (1 Pet. ii. 5.) being both temple, priests, and sa- 
 
 See Sigonius de Repub. Heb. Dr. Outr. de Sacr. 
 
179 
 
 orifices, all at once; as our Lord himself, in his 
 peculiar sacrificing, also was. 
 
 In the addition of " living," the design is carried 
 on of speaking both by way of allusion and opposi- 
 tion to the ritual sacrificing. By way of allusion. 
 For a morticinum, any thing dead of itself, the 
 Israelites were not to eat themselves, (Deut. xiv. 
 21.) because they were a holy people; (though they 
 might give it to a stranger;) much more had it been 
 detestable, as a sacrifice to God. The beast must 
 be brought alive to the altar. Whereas then we 
 are also to offer our bodies, a living sacrifice, so far 
 there must be an agreement. Yet also, a difference 
 seems not obscurely suggested. The victim brought 
 alive to be sacrificed, was yet to be slain in sacrific- 
 ing: but here, living may also signify continuing to 
 live. You, as if he should say, may be sacrifices, 
 and yet live on. According to the strict notion we 
 find given of a sacrifice, it is somewhat to be in the 
 prescribed way destroyed, and that must perish in 
 token of their entire devotedness to God who offer 
 it. When we offer ourselves,* life will not be 
 touched by it or at all impaired, but improved and 
 ennobled highly by having a sacredness added to it. 
 Your bodies are to be offered a sacrifice, but an 
 unbloody one. Such as you have no cause to be 
 startled at, it carries no dread with it, life will be 
 still whole in you. Which shows by the way, it is 
 not an inanimate body, without the soul. But the 
 
 Cloppenburg. Schol. Sacrific. and others. 
 
180 
 
 bodily life is but alluded to and supposed, it is a 
 higher and more excellent one that is meant; the 
 spiritual, divine life, as chapter vi. .13. "Yield your- 
 selves to God, as those that are alive from the dead." 
 And verse 11. shows what that being alive means, 
 " Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, 
 but alive unto God through Jesus Christ." Alive 
 by a life which means God, which aims at him, 
 terminates in him, and is derived to you through 
 Christ. As he also speaks, Gal. ii. 19-, -20. " I am 
 dead to the law, that I might live to God. I am 
 crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not 
 I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now 
 live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of 
 God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." 
 
 " Holy," though it be included in the word sacri- 
 fice, is not in the Greek Sw/a, and was therefore 
 added without verbal tautology. And there were, 
 however, no real one. For there is a holiness that 
 stands in an entire rectitude of heart and life, by 
 which we are conformed in both, to the nature and 
 will of God, besides the relative one which redounds 
 upon any person or thing by due dedication to him. 
 And which former is pre-required, in the present 
 sacrifice, that it may be, as it follows, 
 
 " Acceptable to God," not as though thereby it 
 became acceptable, but as that without which it is 
 not so. Yet also holiness, in the nature of the 
 thing, cannot but be grateful to God or well-pleas- 
 ing, (as the word here used signifies, tvaf>i<i70Y,) but 
 not so as to reconcile a person to him, who was be- 
 fore a sinner, and hath still sin in him. But sup- 
 
181 
 
 posing the state of such a person first made and 
 continued good, that resemblance of himself cannot 
 but be pleasing in the eyes of God, but fundamentally 
 and statedly in and for Christ, as 1 Peter ii. 5. 
 (before quoted.) This therefore signifies, both how 
 ready God is to be well pleased with such a sacrifice, 
 and also signifies the quality of the sacrifice itself, 
 that it is apt to please. 
 
 " Reasonable service," or worship, as the word 
 signifies. This "also is spoken accommodately, to 
 the notion given before of offering ourselves, in op- 
 position to the former victims wherein beasts were 
 the matter of the sacrifice. Those were brute sacri- 
 fices. You are to offer reasonable ones. And it 
 signifies our minds and understandings the seat of 
 reason, with our wills and affections that are to be 
 governed by it, must all be ingredient as the matter 
 of that sacrifice; implying also the right God hath 
 in us, whence nothing can be more reasonable than 
 to offer ourselves to him. 
 
 " Present," that is, dedicate, devote yourselves, 
 set yourselves before God, as they sistere ad altar e^ 
 present at the altar, the destined sacrifices, make 
 them stand ready for immolation. You are so to 
 make a tender of yourselves, as if you would say, 
 " Lord, here I am, wholly thine. I come to sur- 
 render myself, my whole life and being, to be en- 
 tirely and always at thy disposal, and for thy use. 
 Accept a devoted, self-resigning soul!" Thus we 
 are brought to the thing itself. Which now, 
 
 II. In the next place, with less regard to the al- 
 lusive terms, we come more distinctly to open and 
 
182 
 
 explain. It is briefly but the dedicating of ourselves : 
 or, as it is 2 Cor. viii. 5. the giving our ownselves to 
 the Lord. So those Macedonian converts are said 
 to have done. And there is a special notice to be 
 taken therein of the word first, which puts a remark- 
 ableness upon that passage. The apostle is com- 
 mending their liberal charity towards indigent ne- 
 cessitous Christians: and shows how their charity 
 was begun in piety. They did not only, most freely 
 give away their substance for the relief of such as 
 were in want, but first gave their ownselves to the 
 Lord. 
 
 But that we may not misconceive the nature of 
 this act, of giving ourselves, we must know it is not 
 donation in the strict and proper sense, such as con- 
 fers a right upon the donee, or to him to whom a 
 thing is said to be given. We cannot be said to 
 collate, or transfer a right to him who is before, JDo- 
 minus absolutus; the only proprietor and supreme 
 Lord of all. It is more properly but a tradition, a 
 surrender or delivery of ourselves, upon the supposal 
 and acknowledgment of his former right; or the put- 
 ting ourselves into his possession, for his appointed 
 uses and services, out of which we had injuriously 
 kept ourselves before. It is but giving him his 
 own, " All things come of thee, and of thine own 
 have we given thee." It is only a consent, and 
 obedience to his most rightful claim, and demand of 
 us, or a yielding ourselves to him, as it is signifi- 
 cantly expressed in the mentioned Rom. vi. 13. 
 Though there the word is the same with that in 
 the text, 7Toif(<rTHfju 9 or #r&fflF&ou®f) which here we read 
 " present." 
 
183 
 
 And now, that we may more distinctly open the 
 nature of this self-dedication, we shall show what 
 ought to accompany and qualify it, that we may be a 
 suitable and grateful present to him, in evangelical 
 acceptation, worthy of God, such as he requires and 
 will accept. 
 
 1. It must be done with knowledge and under- 
 standing. It cannot but be an intelligent act. It 
 is an act of religion and worship, as it is called in 
 the text. Service we read it, which is much more 
 general, but the word is k&Tfu'ot, " worship." It is in- 
 deed the first and fundamental act of worship. And 
 it is required to be a rational act. Your reasonable 
 service. Religion cannot move blindfold. And 
 though knowledge and reason are not throughout 
 words of the same signification and latitude ; yet the 
 former is partly presupposed upon the latter, and 
 partly improved by it, nor can therefore be severed 
 from it. In the present case, it is especially neces- 
 sary that we distinctly know and apprehend the state 
 of things between God and us : that we understand 
 ourselves to have been, with the rest of men, in an 
 apostacy, and revolt from God, that we are recalled 
 unto him, that a Mediator is appointed on purpose 
 through whom we are to approach him, and render 
 ourselves back unto him : that so this may be our 
 sense in our return, " Lord, I have here brought 
 thee back a stray, a wandering creature, mine own- 
 self. I have heard what the Redeemer, of thy own 
 constituting, hath done and suffered for the recon- 
 ciling and reducing of such, and, against thy known 
 design, I can no longer withhold myself." 
 
184 
 
 2. With serious consideration. It must be a de- 
 liberate act. How many understand matters of 
 greatest importance, which they never consider, and 
 perish by not considering what they know ! Consi- 
 deration is nothing else but the revolving of what we 
 knew before: the actuating the habitual knowledge 
 we had of things: a more distinct reviewing of our 
 former notices belonging to any case, a recollecting 
 and gathering them up, a comparing them together; 
 and, for such as appear more momentous, a repeat- 
 ing, and inculcating them upon ourselves, that we 
 may be urged on to suitable action. And this, 
 though of itself without the power and influence of 
 the Divine Spirit, is not sufficient, yet being the 
 means he works by, is most necessary to our becom- 
 ing Christians, that is, if we speak of becoming so, 
 not by fate or by chance, as too many only are, but 
 by our own choice and design: which is the same 
 thing with dedicating ourselves to God through 
 Christ, whereof we are discoursing. For upon our 
 having thus considered and comprehended the whole 
 compass of the case in our thoughts, either the 
 temper of our hearts would be such that we would 
 hereupon dedicate ourselves, or we would not; if we 
 would, it is because we should judge the arguments 
 for it more weighty than the objections, which, with- 
 out such pondering of both, we are not likely to 
 apprehend, and so, for want of this consideration, 
 are never likely to become Christians at all. Or, 
 if we would not, it is because to the more carnal 
 temper of our hearts, the objections would out- 
 weigh. And then, if we do seem to consent, it is 
 
185 
 
 because what is to be objected came not in view : and 
 so we should be Christians to no purpose. Our 
 cojitract with the Redeemer were void in the mak- 
 ing, we should only seem pleased with the terms of 
 Christianity, because we have not digested them in 
 our thoughts. So our act undoes itself' in the very 
 doing. It carries an implicit, virtual repentance in 
 it, of what is done. We enter ourselves Christians, 
 upon surprise or mistake. And if we had considered 
 what we are, consequently, to do, what to forbear, 
 what to forego, what to endure, would not have done 
 it. And, therefore, when we do come distinctly to 
 apprehend all this, are like actually to repent and re- 
 volt. As they, John vi. who, while they under- 
 stood not what it was to be a Christian, seemed very 
 forward followers of Christ. But when they did 
 more fully understand it, upon his telling them 
 plainly, went back and walked no more with him. 
 And he lets them go; as if he should say, " Mend 
 yourselves if you can ; see where you can get a bet- 
 ter master." 
 
 3. With a determinate judgment, at length, that 
 this ought to be done. There are two extremes in 
 this matter. Some will not consider at all, and so 
 not do this thing; and some will consider always, 
 and so never do it. Stand, Shall I ? Shall I? Halt 
 between two opinions. These are both of them 
 very vicious and faulty extremes in reference to the 
 management even of secular affairs, both of them 
 contrary to that prudence which should govern our 
 actions, that is, when men will never consider what 
 is necessary to be done, and so neglect their most 
 
186 
 
 important concernments ; or, when they will never 
 have done considering, which is the same thing, as 
 if they had never taken up any thought of the mat- 
 ter at all. Indeed, in the present case, it is a re- 
 proach to the blessed God to consider longer, than 
 till we have well digested the state of the case. As 
 if it were difficult to determine the matter, between 
 him and the devil, which were the better, or more 
 rightful Lord ! We must at last be at a point, and 
 come to a judicious determination of the question, 
 as those sincerely resolved Christians had done, 
 John vi. 68, 69. who also express the reasons that 
 had, before that time no doubt, determined them : 
 " Lord, whither shall we go? Thou hast the words 
 of eternal life. And we believe, and are sure, that 
 thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." 
 
 4. With liberty of spirit, having thrown off all 
 former bonds, and quite disengaged ourselves from 
 other masters. As they speak, Isa. xxvi. 13. " Oth- 
 er lords besides thee have had dominion over us; 
 but by thee only will we make mention of thy name." 
 For our Saviour expressly tells us, " No man can 
 serve two masters." When those Dedititii, the 
 people of Collatia, (Livius, 1. 1.) were about the 
 business of capitulating in order to the surrender of 
 themselves, the question put, on the Romans' part, 
 was, Estne populus Collatinus in sua potestate ? 
 Are the Collatine people in their own power? Where- 
 in satisfaction being given, the matter is concluded. 
 In the present case of yielding ourselves to God, 
 the question cannot be concerning any previous tie 
 in point of right, or that could urge conscience. 
 
187 
 
 There cannot be so much as a plausible pretender 
 against him. But there must be a liberty, in oppo- 
 sition to the pre-engaged inclinations and affections. 
 And this must be the sense of the sincere soul, en- 
 treating the matter of its self-surrender, and dedica- 
 tion, with the great God, to be able to say to the 
 question, Art thou under no former contrary bonds? 
 " Lord, I am under none, I know, that ought to 
 bind me, or that justly can, against thy former so- 
 vereign right. I had indeed suffered other bonds 
 to take place in my heart, and the affections of my 
 soul, but they were bonds of iniquity, which I scru- 
 ple not to break, and repent that ever I made, I took 
 myself indeed to be my own, and have lived to my- 
 self, only pleased, and served, and sought myself, as 
 if I were created and born for no other purpose, and 
 if the sense of my heart had been put into words, 
 there was insolence enough to have conceived such 
 as these; not my tongue only, but my whole man, 
 body and soul, all my parts and powers, my estate 
 and name, and strength, and time, are all my own ; 
 who is Lord over me ? And while I pleased myself 
 with such an imagined liberty and self-dominion, no 
 idol was too despicable to command my homage. I 
 have done worse than prostrated my body to a stock, 
 my soul hath humbled itself, and bowed down to a 
 clod of clay. My thoughts and desires, and hopes, 
 and joys, have all stooped to so mean trifles, as wealth, 
 or ease, or pleasure, or fame, all but so many frag- 
 ments of earth, or, the less consistent, vapours 
 sprung from it. And whereas this world is nothing 
 else but a bundle of lusts, none of them was too 
 
188 
 
 base to rule me. And while I thought myself at li- 
 berty, I have been a servant to corruption. But 
 now Lord I have through thy mercy learned to aban- 
 don and abhor myself. Thy grace appearing, hath 
 taught me to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. 
 Thou hast overcome ; enjoy thine own conquest. I 
 am grieved for it, and repent from my soul that ever 
 I did put thee to contend for, and conquer thine 
 own." And so doth this self-dedication carry in it 
 repentance from dead works, and towards God. 
 
 5. With a plenary full bent of heart and will. 
 As that, " I have sworn, and will perform, that I 
 will keep thy righteous judgments." Or, that, 
 " I have inclined my heart to keep thy statutes al- 
 ways unto the end." And herein doth this self-de- 
 dication more principally consist, namely, in a resolved 
 willingness to yield myself, as God's own property, 
 to be for him and not for another. Which resolved- 
 ness of will, though it may in several respects admit 
 of several names, or be clothed with distinct notions, 
 is but one and the same substantial act. It may be 
 called, in respect of the competition which there 
 was in the case, choice : or in respect of the propo- 
 sal made to me of such a thing to be done, consent. 
 But these are, abstracting from these references, the 
 same act, which, in itself considered, is only a reso- 
 lute volition. " I will be the Lord's." Which 
 resolution, if one do, whether mentally or vocally, 
 direct to God or Christ, then it puts on the nature 
 of a vow; and so is fitly called devoting one's self. 
 
 It carries in it, as a thing supposed, the implant- 
 ed divine life and nature, whereby we are truly said 
 
189 
 
 " to present ourselves living sacrifices," as in the text, 
 or as it is expressed in that other place, chap. vi. 
 13. To " yield ourselves to God, as those that are 
 alive from the dead;" as verse 11. " alive to God 
 through Christ Jesus our Lord." Which life is 
 not to be understood simply, but in a certain re- 
 spect. For before, we were not dead simply, we 
 were not dead, disinclined, or disaffected to every 
 thing, but peculiarly towards God and his Christ. 
 That way we were without any inclination, mo- 
 tion, tendency, or disposition. And so were dead 
 quoad hoc, as to this thing, or in this respect : were 
 alienated from the life of God. Now we come to 
 live this life, and are made by his grace to incline 
 and move towards him, of our own accord. Dead 
 things, or destitute of life, may be moved by ano- 
 ther, are capable of being moved violently, without, 
 or against inclination, hither or thither. But a liv- 
 ing creature can spontaneously move itself, as of its 
 own accord it inclines. 
 
 And whereas there are two more noble principles, 
 that belong to this divine life and nature, faith and 
 love. A great and noted pair, as may be seen in 
 divers places of the New Testament. These have 
 both an ingrediency into this self-dedication. The 
 nature of each of them runs into it, and may be per- 
 ceived in it. And it is hereupon a mixed act, par- 
 taking an influence and tincture, as it were, from 
 the one and the other of them. 
 
 Faith respects the promises of God, and what we 
 are thereupon to expect from him. And so our 
 dedicating ourselves to God, is a self-committing. 
 
190 
 
 We give up ourselves to him as a trust, as the 
 apostle's emphatical expression intimates, " I know 
 whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that 
 he will keep that which I have committed unto 
 him," 7roLqcL)L<x.TctSY}x.v\v jbiov, my pawn or pledge, 
 my jidei commissum against that day. The soul 
 flies to God as in a distress, not knowing to be 
 safe another way. As once a people, not able to 
 obtain tutelage on other terms, surrendered them- 
 selves to them whose help they sought, with some 
 such expression, Si no?i nostros, saltern vestros^ If 
 not as ours, yet at least as your own, save, protect, 
 and defend us. Nor, in our surrendering ourselves 
 to God, is this any way unsuitable either to us or to 
 him. Not to us; for we are really distressed, ready 
 to perish; it is agreeable to the state of our case. 
 Not to him ; for it is glorious to him ; a thing worthy 
 of God to be a refuge, and sanctuary to perishing 
 souls; and is thereupon a pleasant thing, a godlike 
 pleasure, suitable to a self-sufficient, and all-sufficient 
 Being, who hath enough for himself and for all 
 others, whom he shall have taught not to despise 
 the riches of his goodness. He " taketh pleasure 
 in them that fear him, and them that hope in his 
 mercy." He waits that he may be gracious, and 
 is exalted in showing mercy, Isa. xxx. 18. He lifts 
 up himself when he does it, and waits that he may; 
 expects the opportunity, seeks out meet and suitable 
 objects, (as with thirst and appetite, an enterprising, 
 valiant man is wont to do encounters, for none were 
 ever so intent to destroy, as he is to save,) yea, 
 makes them, prepares them for his purpose. Which 
 
 
191 
 
 he doth not, and needs not do, in point of misery, so 
 they can enough prepare themselves; but in point 
 of humility, sense of their necessity and unworthi- 
 ness, great need, and no desert, nor disposition to 
 supplicate. These are needful preparations, make 
 it decorous and comely to him to show mercy. A 
 God is to be sought, with humble, prostrate venera- 
 tion. And such an opportunity he waits for. It is 
 not fit for him; not great, not majestic, to throw 
 away his mercies upon insolent and insensible 
 wretches : for, as there it follows, he is the God of 
 judgment, a most accurate, judicious wisdom and 
 prudence conducts and guides all the emanations of 
 his flowing goodness. The part of which wisdom 
 and judgment is to nick the opportunity, to take the 
 fit season when mercy will be most fitly placed; best 
 attain its end; relish best; be most acceptable to 
 them that shall receive it, and honourable to him 
 that shows it. And therefore, as is added, " blessed 
 are they that wait for him," that labour to be in a 
 posture to meet him on his own terms and in his own 
 way. 
 
 Let such as have a mind to surrender and yield 
 themselves to him consider this. Apprehend you 
 have undone yourselves, and are lost. Fall before 
 him. Lie at the foot-stool of the mercy-seat. 
 Willingly put your mouths in the dust, if so be 
 there may be hope. And there is hope. He seeks 
 after you, and will not reject what he seeks, he only 
 waited to bring you to this. It is now a fit time 
 for him, and a good time for you. And you may 
 now* in resigning, intrust yourselves also to him: 
 
192 
 
 for his express promise is your sufficient ground for 
 it. " I will receive you, and be a Father to you, 
 and ye shall be my sons and daughters." Under- 
 stand the matter aright; your presenting, and yield- 
 ing yourselves to him is not to be a desperate act. 
 It is not casting yourselves away. You are not 
 throwing yourself into flames, but upon tender mer- 
 cies, thither you may commit yourself. The thing 
 that is pleasing to him, and which he invites you to, 
 (as he x invites all the ends of the earth to look to 
 him that they may be saved,) cannot be unsafe, or 
 unhappy to you. 
 
 Again, love hath a great ingrediency into this 
 self-resignation. And as it hath, so it more admits 
 to be called dedicating, or devoting ourselves. This 
 holy, ingenuous principle respects more the commands 
 of God, as the other doth his promises, and eyes his 
 interest, as the other doth our own. This dedi- 
 tion of ourselves, as it is influenced by it, designs 
 the doing all for him we can, as by the other it doth 
 the receiving all. As by the other we resign our- 
 selves to him for safety and felicity; so we do by 
 this for service and duty to our uttermost. And an 
 ardent lover of God thinks this a little oblation. 
 Myself! Alas! What am I? Too small a thing 
 for him who is all love, and who, though he hath it 
 in hand to transform and turn me into love too, such 
 as so drossy, and limited a thing was capable of be- 
 ing made, how mean yet, and little is the subject he 
 hath to work upon ! An atom of dust ! Not com- 
 bustible, or apt to be wrought upon to this (to a di- 
 vine and heavenly love) by any, but his flame. And 
 
193 
 
 now therefore but a minute spark from the element 
 of love, that must, however, thus transformed, tend 
 towards its own original and native seat ! It shall 
 now flame upward. And this is all the flame, in 
 which it is universally necessary, thy sacrifice should 
 ascend: which will refine only, not consume it. 
 Though, that it may he offered up in other flames, 
 is not impossible; nor will it be much regretted by 
 you; if the case should so require, nor shall be de- 
 spised by him, if he shall so state the case. To 
 give the body to be burned, without love, goes for 
 nothing; but if in that way, we were called to offer 
 up our bodies, living sacrifices to God, it would (in 
 an inferior sense) be an offering of a sweet-smelling 
 savour, would even perfume heaven, and diffuse fra- 
 grant odours on earth: nor would be grudged at by 
 that love that first made our bhbxKnfov, the whole 
 of ourselves, an offering to God; and whose property 
 it is to be all things, to do all things, to bear all 
 things, to endure all things for him, whose we 
 wholly are. So that if he design any of us to be an 
 bj^oxayaTCojuci too, a whole burnt offering, and will 
 have us to glorify him in the fire, love will not re- 
 tract its vow, but say, after our great Pattern, " Not 
 my will, but thine be done:" and as he, in his pecu- 
 liar case and design, (not communicable with us, 
 though the temper of spirit should be,) " Lo, I 
 come to do thy will, O God ! A body hast thou (it 
 now appears for this very purpose) prepared for me." 
 — " He loved us, and gave himself for us." So 
 are we, from our love of him, to give ourselves for 
 him, and his use and service, in whatsoever kind he 
 
194 
 
 shall appoint and prescribe. Every true Christian 
 is, in the preparation of his mind, a martyr; but 
 they are few whom he actually calls to it. Our love 
 is ordinarily to show itself in our keeping his com- 
 mandments; and with that design we are to present 
 ourselves to him, as the resolved, ready instruments 
 of his service and praise. " Neither yield ye you? 
 members as instruments of unrighteousness unto 
 sin; but yield yourselves unto God as those that are 
 alive from the dead, and your members as instru- 
 ments of righteousness unto God." Thus having 
 been more large upon what was more essential in 
 this dedication of ourselves, I shall be more brief 
 in most of the other things belonging to it. 
 
 6. It must further be done with a concomitant 
 acceptance of God. His covenant (which is now 
 entered) is oftentimes summed up, " I will be your 
 God, and you shall be my people:" and is resembled 
 and frequently represented by the nuptial contract, 
 in which there is mutual giving and taking. We 
 are to resign and accept at the same time: to take 
 him to be our God, when we yield ourselves to be 
 his. 
 
 7. With an explicit reference to the Lord Christ. 
 We are to dedicate ourselves, after the tenor of a 
 covenant whereof he is the Mediator. God doth 
 not upon other terms treat with sinners. You are 
 not to offer at such a thing as dedicating your- 
 selves to him, but in the way and upon the terms 
 upon which you are to be accepted. The di- 
 vine pleasure is declared and known, how great a 
 one He must be in all the transactions of God with 
 
195 
 
 men; yea, and towards the whole creation, Eph. i. 
 6 — 10, " He hath made us accepted in the be- 
 loved: in whom we have redemption through his 
 blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches 
 of his grace; wherein he hath abounded towards us 
 in all wisdom and prudence; having made known 
 unto us the mystery of his will, according to his 
 good pleasure, which he had purposed in himself: 
 that, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he 
 might gather together in one all things in Christ, 
 both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, 
 even in him." We must take heed how we neglect 
 or overlook Him who is by divine appointment so 
 high in power, and with whom we have so great a 
 concern. 
 
 $. With deep humility and abasement of our- 
 selves, in conjunction with a profound reverence and 
 veneration of the Divine Majesty. There ought 
 to be the lowliest self-abasement, such as that good 
 man expresses, Ezra ix. 6. (varied to one's own case,) 
 " O my God, I am ashamed, and blush to lift up 
 my face to thee, my God: for mine iniquities are 
 increased over mine head, and my trespass is grown 
 up into the heavens." And indeed this is naturally 
 consequent upon what was last said, of the regard 
 that ought to be had in this matter to the Media- 
 tor; for surely that very constitution is in itself a 
 humbling thing to us; and we cannot apply ourselves 
 to God suitably to it, but with a self-abasing sense 
 of our own state and case. Our coming and ten- 
 dering ourselves to God in a Mediator, is in its very 
 
 nature a humiliation, and carries with it a tacit con- 
 I 2 
 
196 
 
 fession, that in ourselves we have nothing, deserve 
 nothing, are nothing, are worse than nothing; and 
 that only this constitution of his could justify our 
 offering ourselves to him, with any hope of accep- 
 tance; or make it less than an insolent presumption, 
 for sinners to approach him, and expect to be re- 
 ceived into his presence and service. It is not for 
 such as we, to behave ourselves towards him as if 
 we either had not offended, or were capable of ex- 
 piating our own offence. Yea, and if there had been 
 nothing of delinquency in the case; yet great humi- 
 lity becomes such applications to him, and that in 
 conjunction with the profoundest reverence and ven- 
 eration of him; for our very business in this self- 
 dedication, is worship, as the word in the text hath 
 been noted to signify. And it is the first and most 
 principal part of all the worship we owe to him, (as 
 was noted from 2 Cor. viii. 5.) fundamental to all the 
 rest. We must have before our eyes the awful 
 majesty and glorious greatness of God; which Scrip- 
 ture often speaks of, as one notion of his holiness, 
 and which we are to have principal reference unto in 
 all the solemn homage we pay to him; as sacrifices 
 (Outr. de Sac.) are well observed to have been offer- 
 ed to him so considered. And therefore, by this 
 consideration, their suitableness to him is to be mea- 
 sured, as he doth himself insist. " Cursed be the 
 deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, 
 and sacriflceth unto the Lord a corrupt thing; for I 
 am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my 
 name is dreadful among the heathen." 
 
 9. With great joy and gladness of heart. It 
 
197 
 
 ought to be accompanied with the highest gusts and 
 relishes of pleasure, both from the apprehensive con- 
 gruity of the thing, and the expectation we have of 
 acceptance. The thing itself should be pleasant to 
 us. We are to do it as tasting our own act, as they 
 did, 1 Chron. xxix. 9. " The people rejoiced, for 
 that they offered willingly." The self-devoting per- 
 son should be able to utter this as his sense, " Glad 
 am I, that I am any thing, that I have a being, a 
 soul, a reasonable intelligent being, capable of be- 
 coming a sacrifice to him." And that there is hope 
 of being accepted: how great a joy is that? The 
 apostle makes so great a thing of it, that he speaks 
 (2 Cor. v. 8, 9.) as if he cared not whether he was 
 in the body, or out of the body, so he might be ac- 
 cepted. Nuptials (that resemble, as hath been said, 
 this transaction between God and the soul, wherein 
 there is mutual giving^ and accepting) are wont to be 
 seasons of great festivity and gladness. The great 
 God himself rejoices in this closure, with such a joy, 
 (Isa. lxii. 5. As a bridegroom rejoiceth over his bride, 
 so will thy God rejoice over thee,) and shall not we? 
 How infinitely more aimable and delectable is the 
 object of our choice than his ! when we are to rejoice 
 in the supreme and most perfect excellency; He, in 
 what is clothed over (if he did not superinduce an- 
 other clothing) with most loathsome deformity. 
 
 10. With an ingenuous candour and simplicity, 
 with that sincerity which is to be as the salt of our 
 sacrifice : Mark ix. without latent reserves, or a hid- 
 den meaning, disagreeing to his; which were both 
 unjust and vain. Unjust ; for we may not deceive 
 
198 
 
 any. And vain; for we cannot deceive him. Th( 
 case admits not of restrictions, it must be done al 
 solutely, without any limitation or reserve. Yoi 
 have heard this self-dedication is, in part, an act of 
 love. And what limit can be set to a love, whose 
 object is infinite? A natural limit, it is true, as it 
 is the love of a creature, it cannot but have; but a 
 chosen one it ought never to have, as if we had loved 
 enough. You know what kind of love is, and can- 
 not but be, due to the all-comprehending God. With 
 all thy heart, soul, mind, and might, &c. So with- 
 out exception, that Maimonides,* reciting those 
 words, adds, etiamsi tollat animam tuam. The 
 stream of thy love to him must not be diverted, or 
 alter its course, though he would take away thy very 
 life, or soul. 
 
 11. With the concomitant surrender to him of 
 all that we have. For they that, by their own act 
 and acknowledgment, are not themselves their own, 
 but devoted, must also acknowledge they are owners 
 of nothing else. In that mentioned form of sur- 
 render in Livy, when Egerius, on the Romans' part, 
 had inquired, " Are you the ambassadors sent by 
 the people of Collatiathat you may yield up yourselves 
 and the Collatine people? and it was answered, "We 
 are:" and it was again asked, " Are the Collatine 
 people in their own power? and answered, " They 
 are :" it is further inquired, " Do you deliver up 
 yourselves, the people of Collatia, your city, your 
 
 * De fund, legis. p. 64. 
 
199 
 
 fields, your water, your bounds, your temples, your 
 utensils, all things that are yours, both divine and 
 human, into mine, and the people of Rome's power ?" 
 They say, " We deliver up all." And he answers, 
 " So I receive you." So do they who deliver up 
 themselves to God, much more, all that they called 
 theirs. God indeed is the only Proprietor, men are 
 but usufructuaries. They have the use of what his 
 providence allots them; He reserves to himself the 
 property; and limits the use so far, as that all are to 
 be accountable to him for all they possess; and are 
 to use nothing they have, but as under him and for 
 him, as also they are to do themselves. Therefore 
 as they are required to " glorify him with their 
 bodies and spirits, which are his," so they are to 
 " honour him with their substance," upon the same 
 reason. But few effectually apprehend his right in 
 their persons; which as we are therefore to recog- 
 nise in this dedication of ourselves to him, so we are, 
 in a like general sense, to devote to him all that we 
 enjoy in the world. That is, as all are not to de- 
 vote themselves specially to serve him in a sacred 
 office, but all are obliged to devote themselves to his 
 service in the general; so, though all are not re- 
 quired to devote their estates to this or that parti- 
 cular pious use, they are obliged to use them wholly 
 for his glory in the general, and for the service of 
 his interest in the world. We are obliged neither 
 to withhold from him, nor mispend, these his mer- 
 cies: but must " live righteously," (wherein charity 
 is comprehended,) " soberly, and godly" in it; de- 
 cline no opportunities that shall occur to us, within 
 
200 
 
 the compass of oar own sphere and station, of doing 
 him (though never so costly and hazardous) service; 
 must forsake all and follow him, when our duty, and 
 our continued possessions of this world's goods, come 
 to be inconsistent; must submit patiently to our lot, 
 when that falls out to be our case, or to any provi- 
 dence by which we are bereaved of our worldly com- 
 forts, with that temper of mind, as to be able cheer- 
 fully to say, " The Lord hath given, the Lord hath 
 taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." 
 
 It is indeed the greatest absurdity imaginable, 
 that they who are not masters of themselves, should 
 think it permitted them, to use what comes to their 
 hands, as they list; for the service of their own 
 lusts, and the gratifying of a rebel flesh, that hath 
 rejected the government of their own reason, and of 
 all divine laws at once: or that he who hath so ab- 
 solute a right in them, should not have that right in 
 what he hath committed to them, as to prescribe 
 rules to them, by which to use and employ it. 
 At the same time, and in the same sense, where- 
 in we make a dedication of ourselves, we do the 
 same thing as to all that we have. Even according 
 to common, human estimate, according to what in- 
 terest men have in others, or power over them, they 
 have a correspondent interest in what they possess. 
 They that absolutely surrender themselves to the 
 power of another, leave not themselves capable of 
 proper dominion as to any thing. Therefore says 
 the civil law, Non licet dedititiis testamenta facer e, 
 Those who have surrendered themselves, are not al- 
 lowed to dispose of their own property. They were 
 
201 
 
 so under several notions, it is true; but they that 
 were strictly so, had not power to make a will, as 
 having nothing to dispose of. No man has certainly 
 a power to dispose of any thing (and when they sur- 
 render themselves by their own act and deed to God, 
 they acknowledge so much) otherwise than as divine 
 rules direct or permit. They have a right in what 
 is duly theirs, against the counter-claim of man, but 
 none, sure, against the claim and all-disposing power 
 of God, whether signified by his law or by his pro- 
 vidence. Therefore with this temper of mind should 
 this self-dedication be made : " Lord, I here lay my- 
 self, and all that belongs to me, most entirely at thy 
 feet. All things are of thee:" (as they are brought 
 in saying, who make that willing, joyful offering, 
 1 Chron. xxix.) " What I have in the world is 
 more thine, than mine. I desire neither to use nor 
 possess any thing, but by thy leave and for thy 
 sake." 
 
 12. With befitting circumstantial solemnity; that 
 is, it ought to be direct, express, and explicit; not 
 to be huddled up in tacit, mute intimations only. 
 We should not content ourselves that it be no more 
 than implied, in what we do otherwise, and run on 
 with it as a thing that must be supposed, and taken 
 for granted, never actually performed and done. It 
 is very true indeed, that a continued, uniform course 
 and series of agreeable actions, a holy life and 
 practice, carry a great deal more of significancy 
 with them, than only having once said, without 
 this form of words, " Lord, I will be thine." 
 Practice, whether it be good or bad, more fully 
 13 
 
202 
 
 speaks our sense, and expresses our hearts, than bare 
 words spoken at some particular time, can do, for 
 they at the most speak but our present sense at that 
 time, and perhaps do not always that; but a course 
 of practice shows the habitual posture and steady 
 bent of our spirits. Nor do I think that a formal, 
 explicit transaction, in this matter, whether vocal or 
 mental, with circumstantial solemnity, is essential to 
 a man's being a Christian, or a holy man. A fixed 
 inclination and bent of heart towards God, followed, 
 as it will be, with a course of practice becoming them 
 that are his, will no doubt conclude a man's state to 
 be safe and good God- ward; as one may, on the 
 other hand, be the devil's servant all his days, with- 
 out having made a formal covenant with him. But 
 yet, though so explicit and solemn a transaction of 
 this matter be not essential to our Christianity, (as 
 what is said to belong only to the solemnity of any 
 thing, is therein implied not to be of the essence of 
 it,) yet it may be a great duty for all that, and I 
 doubt it not to be so. 
 
 And it may here be worth the while, to insist a 
 little; that if this indeed be a duty, it may obtain 
 more in our practice, than perhaps it doth. Some, 
 through mere inadvertency, may not have considered 
 it; others, that have, may possibly think it less need- 
 ful, because they reckon it was formerly done for 
 them. They were born of Christian parents, who 
 dedicated them to God from their birth; and they 
 were, with solemnity, presented to him in their bap- 
 tism. What need we then do over again a thing 
 already done? Let us reason this matter therefore a 
 
203 
 
 while, and consider whether notwithstanding any 
 such allegation, our personal dedicating ourselves to 
 God in Christ be not still reasonable and necessary 
 to be performed by ourselves also, as our own so- 
 lemn act and deed? It were indeed much to be 
 wished that our baptismal dedication to God were 
 more minded and thought on than it commonly is: 
 when with such sacred solemnity we were devoted to 
 the triune Deity, and those great and awful names 
 were named upon us, the name of the Father, the 
 name of the Son, and the name of the Holy Ghost. 
 Baptisms are, it is to be feared, too often in the 
 Christian world turned into a mere pageantry, and 
 the matter scarce ever thought on more, when the 
 show is over ; and very probably because this great 
 succedaneous duty is so unpractised among Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 (1.) And let it be considered, Are there no like 
 cases? Do we not know, that though all the in- 
 fants in a kingdom are born subjects, yet when they 
 arrive to a certain age they are obliged, being called, 
 to take the oath of allegiance, and each one to come 
 under personal obligation to their prince? And do 
 we owe less to the God that made us, and the Lord 
 that bought us with his blood? 
 
 Again, Though all the sons of Israelites were in 
 their infancy dedicated to God by the then appointed 
 rite for that purpose, yet how frequent were their 
 solemn, personal recognitions of his covenant; their 
 avouching themselves to be his people, as he also 
 avouched himself to be their God: which we see 
 Deut. xxvi. and in many other places. It is remote 
 
2G4 
 
 from me to intend the pressing of a covenant that 
 contains any disputable or doubtful matters, or any 
 other than the substance of our baptismal covenant 
 itself, consisting of the known essentials of our 
 Christianity, all summed up in taking God in Christ 
 for our God, and resigning ourselves to him to be 
 inviolably his: no more is meant than that this may 
 be done as our own reasonable service and worship; 
 as our intelligent, deliberate, judicious act and choice. 
 (2.) And consider further, to this purpose, the 
 great importance of the thing itself, compared with 
 the lesser concernments wherein we use to deal most 
 explicitly. Is it fit that a man's religion should be 
 less the matter of his solemn choice, than his inferior 
 concerns? that when he chooses his dwelling, his 
 calling, his servant, or master, he should seem thrown 
 upon his God and his religion by chance? and that 
 least should appear of caution, care, and punctual 
 dealing, in our very greatest concernment? How 
 great a day in a man's life doth he count his mar- 
 riage-day ! How accurate are men wont to be, in 
 all the preparations and previous settlements that are 
 to be made in order to it! And since the great 
 God is pleased to be so very particular with us, in 
 proposing the model and contents of his covenant, 
 the promises and precepts which make his part and 
 ours in it; how attentive should we be to his propo- 
 sals, and how express in our consent ! especially, 
 when we consider his admirable condescension in it, 
 that he is pleased, and disdains not, to capitulate 
 with the work of his hands, to article with dust and 
 ashes. Is it reasonable we should be slight and su- 
 
205 
 
 perficial in a treaty with that great Lord of heaven 
 and earth, or scarce ever purposely apply and set 
 ourselves to mind him in it at all? 
 . (3.) Moreover it is your own concernment, and 
 therefore ought to be transacted by yourself. So 
 far as there is any equity in that rule, What con- 
 cerns all should be transacted by all — it resolves into 
 this, and supposes it; that which concerns myself 
 should be transacted by myself. 
 
 Again, your being devoted by parents, no more 
 excuses from solemn, personal, self-devoting, than 
 their doing other acts of religion for you, excuses 
 you from doing them for yourselves. They have 
 prayed for you, are you therefore never to pray for 
 yourselves? They have lamented your sin, are you 
 never therefore to lament your own? 
 
 (4.) Consider further, Scripture warns us not to 
 lay too much stress upon parental privilege, or place 
 too much confidence in it, which it supposes men 
 over apt to do, Matth. iii. 7 — 9. Abraham's seed 
 may be a " generation of vipers." John viii. 37, 44. 
 " I know you are Abraham's seed," yet he finds them 
 another father. 
 
 (5.) Consider moreover, the renewing work of 
 God's grace and Spirit upon souls, consists in sanc- 
 tifying their natural faculties, their understandings, 
 consciences, wills, affections. And what are these 
 sanctified for, but to be used and exercised? And 
 to what more noble purpose? If there be that holy 
 impress upon the soul, that inclines all the powers 
 of it God-ward, what serves it for, but to prompt 
 and lead it on to the correspondent acts? to appre- 
 
206 
 
 hend and eye God, to admit a conviction of duty, 
 and particularly, how I owe myself to him; to choose, 
 love, fear, and serve him; and what doth all this 
 import less, than an entire self-resignation to him? 
 So that the genuine tendency of the holy new na- 
 ture is in nothing so directly answered and satisfied 
 as in this. And it ought to be considered, that the 
 faculties of our reasonable souls have a natural im- 
 provement and perfection, as well as a gracious. 
 And for their highest and noblest acts, it is fit they 
 should be used in their highest perfection. It is 
 possible, that in the children of religious parents, 
 there may be some pious inclinations betimes; and 
 the sooner they thereupon choose the God of their 
 fathers, the better, that is, if you compare doing it 
 and not doing it, it is better done than not done. 
 But because this is a thing that cannot be too often 
 done, nor too well; the more mature your under- 
 standing is r the better it will be done, the grace of 
 God concurring. Our Lord himself increased in 
 wisdom, &c. 
 
 (6.) Moreover, let it be seriously thought on 
 (what it is dreadful to think) the occasion you will 
 give, if you decline this surrendering yourselves, to 
 have your neglect taken for a refusal. It is impos- 
 sible, when you once understand the case, you can 
 be in an indifferency about it. You must either 
 take or leave. 
 
 (7.) Nor can it be denied but personal self-de- 
 voting, one way or other, (more or less solemn,) is 
 most necessary to the continuing serious Christianity 
 in the world. Without it, our religion were but 
 
207 
 
 res iinius cetatis — the business of an age: for how 
 unlikely were it, and absurd to suppose, that a man 
 should seriously devote his child to God, that never 
 devoted himself? And if that were done never so 
 seriously, must one be a Christian always, only by 
 the Christianity of another, not his own? Some 
 way or other then, a man must devote himself to 
 God in Christ, or be, at length, no Christian. 
 And since he must, the nature of the thing speaks, 
 that the more solemn and express it is, the better, 
 and more suitable to a transaction with so great a 
 Majesty. 
 
 And hath not common reason taught the world to 
 fix a transitiiS) and settle some time or other, where- 
 in persons should be reckoned to have past out of 
 their state of infancy or minority, into the state of 
 manhood or an adult state; wherein, though before 
 they could not legally transact affairs for themselves, 
 yet afterwards they could? This time, by the 
 constitutions of several nations, and for several pur- 
 poses, hath been diversely fixed. But they were 
 not to be looked upon as children always. Some 
 time they come to write man. Is it reasonable one 
 should be a child, and a minor in the things of God 
 and religion, all his days? always in nonage? 
 Sometime they must " be men in understanding," 
 and " have their senses exercised to discern between 
 good and evil." 
 
 Yea, and there is far greater reason we should 
 personally and solemnly transact this great affair 
 with God, than any concern we have with men. 
 For, among men we may have a right by natural 
 
208 
 
 descent, or by valuable considerations, to what we 
 enjoy, which may be clear and little liable to ques- 
 tion: from God we have no right, but by his favour 
 and vouchsafement. You are his children, if ever 
 you come to be so, but by adoption. And human 
 adoption has been wont to be completed by a so- 
 lemnity; the person to adopt, being publicly asked 
 (in that sort of adoption which was also called arro- 
 gation) whether he would have this person to be 
 as his own very son? And again; he that was 
 to be adopted, whether he was contented it should 
 be so? 
 
 Nor again is there that disinclination towards 
 men, as towards God, or that proneness to revolt 
 from settled agreements, with the one, as with the 
 other. Whereas love sums up all the duty of both 
 the tables; or which we owe both to God and man; 
 it is evident that, in our present lapsed state, our 
 love to God is more impaired, than to man. Indeed 
 this latter seems only diminished, the other is de- 
 stroyed, and hath, by nature, no place in us; grace 
 only restores it. Where it is in some measure re- 
 stored, we find it more difficult to exercise love to- 
 wards God, than man; which the apostle's reason- 
 ing implies, " He that loveth not his brother whom 
 he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath 
 not seen?" Who sees not that sensuality hath 
 hurried the rational world ! Unregenerate man is 
 said to be in the flesh, not as being only lodged in 
 it, as all are alike, but* governed by it, under its 
 power: as the holy apostle is said to have been in 
 the Spirit on the Lord's day, Rev. i. To be in 
 
209 
 
 the flesh is expounded by being and walking after 
 it, Rom. viii. Hence men only love and savour 
 the things within this sensible sphere. They that 
 are after the flesh, do savour only the things of the 
 flesh. Where the regenerate, divine life is im- 
 planted, it is ill lodged, in conjunction with a strong 
 remaining sensual inclination : so that where the 
 soul is somewhat raised by it, out of that mire 
 and dirt, there is a continual decidency, a prone- 
 ness to relapse, and sink back into it. Impres- 
 sions therefore of an invisible Ruler and Lord, as 
 of all unseen things, are very evanescent ; soon, in a 
 great degree worn off; especially where they were 
 but in making, and not yet thoroughly inwrought 
 into the temper of the soul. Hence is that insta- 
 bility in the covenant of God. We are not so 
 afraid before, nor ashamed afterwards, of breaking 
 engagements with him, as with men, whom we are 
 often to look-in the face, and converse with every 
 day. 
 
 Therefore there is the more need here of the 
 strictest ties, and most solemn obligations, that we 
 can lay upon ourselves. How apprehensive doth 
 that holy, excellent governor, Joshua, (Josh, xxiv.) 
 seem of this, when he was shortly to leave the peo- 
 ple under his conduct ! And what urgent means 
 doth he use, to bring them to the most express, 
 solemn dedication of themselves to God, that was 
 possible; first representing the reasonableness and 
 equity of the thing, from the many endearing won- 
 ders of mercy (as here the apostle beseeches these 
 Romans by the mercies of God) which he recounts 
 
210 
 
 from the beginning, to the 14th verse of the xxivth 
 chapter : then, thereupon exhorting them to " fear 
 the Lord and serve him in sincerity.," &c. in that 
 14th verse, telling them, withal, if they should all 
 resolve otherwise to a man, what his own resolution 
 was, (verse 15.) " And if it seem evil unto you to 
 serve the Lord, choose you this day whom we will 
 serve; whether the gods which your fathers served, 
 that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods 
 of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for 
 me and my house, we will serve the Lord;" taking 
 also their express answer, which they give, verse 
 16 — 18. But fearing they did not enough consider 
 the matter, he, as it were, puts them back (esteem- 
 ing himself to have gotten an advantage upon them) 
 that they might come on again with the more vigour 
 and force. " Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is 
 a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive 
 your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake 
 the Lord: and serve strange gods, then he will turn 
 and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he 
 hath done you good," verse 19, 20. Hereupon, 
 according to his expectation and design, they rein- 
 force their vow, <c Nay, but we will serve the Lord." 
 And upon this, he closes with them, and takes fast 
 hold of them, " Ye are witnesses," saith he, " against 
 yourselves, that he have chosen the Lord to serve 
 him." And they say, " We are witnesses," verse 
 22. He exhorts them afresh, and they engage 
 over again, verse 23, 24. Thus a covenant is made 
 with them, verse 25. After all this, a record is 
 taken of the whole transaction; it is booked down, 
 
211 
 
 (verse 26.) and a monumental stone set up, to pre- 
 serve the memory of this great transaction. And 
 the good man tells them, " Behold, this stone shall 
 be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words 
 of the Lord which he spake unto us: it shall there- 
 fore be a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God." 
 So he dismisses them, and lets them go every one 
 to his inheritance. 
 
 Nor is it to be neglected, that Isa. xliv. 5. (which 
 is generally agreed to refer to the times of the gos- 
 pel) it is so expressly set down, " One shall say, I 
 am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the 
 name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his 
 hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the 
 name of Israel." In the rendering of which words, 
 " subscribe with the hand," the versions vary. 
 Some read, " inscribe in their hands," the Lord's 
 name; counting it an allusion to the ancient custom, 
 as to servants and soldiers, that they were to carry, 
 stamped upon the palm of their hands, the name of 
 their master or general. The Syriac read to the 
 same sense as we — Shall give an hand writing to be 
 the Lord's. That the thing be done, and with 
 great seriousness, distinctness, and solemnity, is no 
 doubt highly reasonable and necessary; about the 
 particular manner I prescribe not. 
 
 Nor can I imagine what any man can have to 
 object, but the backwardness of his own heart to any 
 intercourse or conversation with the invisible God : 
 which is but an argument of the miserable condition 
 of depraved mankind; and none, that the thing is 
 not to be done. For, that backwardness must pro- 
 
212 
 
 ceed from some deeper reason than that God is in- 
 visible: a reason, that should not only convince, but 
 amaze us, and even overwhelm our souls in sorrow 
 and lamentation, to think what state the nature and 
 spirit of man are brought into! For is not the 
 devil invisible too? And what wretch is there so 
 silly and ignorant, but can by the urgency of dis- 
 content, envy, and an appetite of revenge, find a 
 way to fall into a league with him ? Is this, that 
 God is less conversable with men? less willing; to 
 be found of them that seek Him? No surely,* 
 but that men have less mind and inclination to seek 
 Him ! And is this a posture and temper of spirit 
 towards the God that made us, (the continual spring 
 of our life and being ! ) in which it is fit for us to 
 tolerate ourselves? Shall not the necessity of this 
 thing, and of our own case, (not capable of remedy 
 while we withhold ourselves from God,) overcome 
 all the imagined difficulty in applying ourselves to 
 Him? 
 
 Use. And upon the whole, if we agree the 
 thing itself to be necessary, it cannot be doubted, 
 but it will appear to be of common concernment to 
 us all; and that every one must apprehend it is ne- 
 cessary to me, and to me, whether we have done it 
 already, or not done it. If we have not, it cannot 
 be done too soon; if we have, it cannot be done too 
 often. And it may now be done, by private, silent 
 ejaculation, the convinced, persuaded heart saying 
 
 Read considerately, Heb. xi. 6. 
 
213 
 
 within itself, " Lord, I consent to be wholly thine, 
 I here resign and devote myself absolutely and en- 
 tirely to thee." None of you know what may be 
 in the heart of another, to this purpose, even at 
 this time. Why then should not every one fear to 
 be the only person of those who now hear, that dis- 
 agrees to it? If any find his heart to reluctate 
 and draw back, it is fit such a one should consider, 
 " I do not know but this self-devoting disposition 
 and resolution is the common sense of all the rest, 
 even of all that are now present but mine." And who 
 would not dread to be the only one in an assembly, 
 that shall refuse God ! or refuse himself to him ! 
 For, let such a one think, " What particular reason 
 can I have to exclude myself from such a consenting 
 chorus ? Why should I spoil the harmony, and give 
 a disagreeing vote ? W 7 hy should any man be more 
 willing to be dutiful and happy than I ? to be just 
 to God, or have him good to me? W T hy should any 
 one be more willing to be saved than I; and to make 
 one hereafter, in the glorious, innumerable, joyful 
 assembly of devoted angels and saints, that pay an 
 eternal, gladsome homage to the throne of the ce- 
 lestial King ?" But if any find their hearts inclin- 
 ing, let what is now begun, be more fully completed 
 in the closet; and let those walls, as Joshua's stone, 
 hear, and bear witness ! 
 
 Lest any should not consent, and that all may 
 consent more freely, and more largely ; I shall in a 
 few words show, what should induce to it, and what 
 it should induce to. 
 
214 
 
 1. What should induce to it? You have divers 
 softs of inducements. 
 
 (1.) Such as may be taken from necessity. For 
 what else can you do with yourself? You cannot 
 be happy without it, for who should make you so 
 but God? and how shall he, while you hold off 
 yourselves from him ? You cannot but be misera- 
 ble, not only as not having engaged him to you, 
 but as having engaged him against you. 
 
 (2.) Such as may be taken from equity. You 
 are his right. He hath a natural right in you as he 
 is your Maker, the Author of your being: and an 
 acquired right as you were bought by his Son, who 
 hath redeemed us to God, and who died, rose again, 
 and revived, that he might be Lord of the liv- 
 ing and the dead, here, to rule, hereafter, to judge 
 us. Both which he can do whether we will or not : 
 but it is not to be thought he will save us against 
 our wills. His method is, whom he saves, first to 
 overcome, that is, to make them "willing in the day 
 of his power." And dare we, who " live, move, and 
 have our being in him," refuse to be, live, and move 
 to him ? or, " deny the Lord who bought us ?" 
 
 (3.) And again, such as may be taken from in- 
 genuity, or that should work upon it, namely, what 
 we are besought by, in the text, " the mercies of 
 God." LIow manifold are they ! But they are the 
 mercies of the gospel especially, mentioned in the 
 foregoing chapter, which are thus referred unto in 
 the beginning of this, the transferring what the Jews 
 forfeited and lost, by their unbelief, unto us Gen- 
 
215 
 
 tiles; that " mystery" as this apostle elsewhere calls 
 it, " which in other ages was not made known unto 
 the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy 
 apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gen- 
 tiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, 
 and partakers of his promise in Christ, by the gos- 
 pel :" in reference whereto he so admiringly cries 
 out a little above the text, chap. xi. 33. 'XX /SaOoc, 
 " O the depth both of the wisdom and knowledge 
 of God ! How unsearchable are his judgments, 
 and his ways past finding out !" the mercies of 
 which it is said, Isa. lv. 1 — 3. " Ho, every one 
 that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that 
 hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, 
 buy wine and milk without money, and without price. 
 Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which 
 is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth 
 not ? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that 
 which is good, and let your soul delight itself in 
 fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me : hear, 
 and your soul shall live ; and I will make an ever- 
 lasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of 
 David." Which free and sure mercies are heigh- 
 tened, as to us, by the same both endearing and 
 awful circumstance, that these mercies are offered to 
 us, namely, in conjunction with the setting before 
 our eyes the monitory, tremendous example of a 
 forsaken nation that rejected them, intimated, ver. 
 5. " Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou 
 knowest not; and nations that knew not thee shall 
 run unto thee :" a case whereof our apostle says, 
 in the foregoing chapter, Isaiah was very bold; when, 
 
216 
 
 speaking of it in another place, lie uses these words, 
 " I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am 
 found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold 
 me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called 
 by my name." He was bold in it indeed, to mention 
 such a thing to a people, unto whom a jealous glo- 
 riation in the peculiarity of their privileged state, 
 their being without partners or rivals, for so long a 
 time, in their relation and nearness to God, was 
 grown so natural : and who took it so impatiently, 
 when our Saviour did but intimate the same thing to 
 them by parables, Matt. xxi. 33 — 46. as that they 
 sought immediately to lay hands on him for that 
 very reason. So unaccountable a perverseness of 
 humour reigned with them, that they envied to 
 others, what they despised themselves. 
 
 But on the other hand, nothing ought more high- 
 ly to recommend those mercies to us, or more engage 
 us to accept them with gratitude, and improve them 
 with a cautious fear of committing a like forfeiture, 
 than to have them brought to our hands, redeemed 
 from the contempt of the former despisers of them ; 
 and that, so terribly, vindicated upon them at the 
 same time; as it also still continues to be. That 
 the natural branches of the olive should be torn 
 off, and we inserted: that there should be such an 
 instance given us of the severity and goodness of 
 God, chap. 11. To them that fell, severity; but to 
 us, goodness, if we continue in his goodness, to 
 warn us that, otherwise, we may expect to be cut 
 off too ! and that we might apprehend, if he spared 
 not the natural branches, he was as little likely to 
 
217 
 
 spare us ! that when he came to his own and they 
 received him not, he should make so free an offer 
 to us, that if we would yet receive him, (which if 
 we do, we are, as hath been said, to yield up and 
 dedicate ourselves to him at the same time) we should 
 have the privilege to be owned for the sons of God ! 
 what should so oblige us to compliance with him, 
 and make us with an ingenuous trembling fall before 
 him, and, crying to him, "My Lord and my God," j 
 resign ourselves wholly to his power and pleasure? 
 
 And even his mercies more abstractly considered, ; 
 ought to have that power upon us. Were we not 
 lost ? Are we not rescued from a necessity of per- 
 ishing, and being lost for ever, in the most costly 
 way ? costly, to our Redeemer, but to us, without 
 cost. Is it a small thing, that he offers himself to 
 us as he doth when he demands us, and requires that 
 we offer ourselves to him: that he, in whom is all 
 the fulness of God, having first offered himself for 
 us, doth now offer himself also to us : that he hath 
 treated us, hitherto, with such indulgence, waited 
 on us with so long patience, sustained us by so large 
 bounty? And now upon all, when it might be 
 thought we should be communing with our own 
 hearts, discoursing the matter with ourselves, " What 
 shall we render ?" that he should say to us so short- 
 ly and compendiously, Render yourselves. Is that 
 too much ? Are we too inconsiderable to be his, or 
 his mercies too inconsiderable to oblige us to be so? 
 the mercies that flow so freely from him, for he is 
 the Father of mercies : the mercies that are so suit- 
 able to us, pardon to the guilty, light to them that 
 K 
 
218 
 
 dwell in darkness, life to the dead, a rich portion and 
 all-sufficient fulness for the poor, indigent, and ne- 
 cessitous : the mercies that we are encouraged to 
 expect as well as what we enjoy : the great good 
 laid up in store ! the mercies of eternity to be added 
 to those of time : the mercies of both worlds, meet- 
 ing upon us ! that here, we are to " keep ourselves 
 in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life !" that, looking 
 for that blessed hope, our life may here, in the mean 
 time, be transacted with him, that we may abide in 
 the secret of his presence, and dwelling in love, may 
 dwell in God who is love ; till the season come, when 
 we shall be able more fully to understand his love, 
 and return our own ! 
 
 Nor are the favours of his providence to be thought 
 little of in the time of our earthly pilgrimage. And 
 now, if all this do effectually induce us to dedicate 
 ourselves, 
 
 2. We are next to consider, what our having done 
 it ought further to induce us unto. 
 
 In the general, it ought to be an inducement to 
 us, as we may well apprehend, to behave ourselves 
 answerably to such a state, as we are hereby brought 
 into, if we now first dedicated ourselves to him, and 
 are confirmed in, by our iterations of it. For he 
 takes no pleasure in fools, therefore, having vowed 
 ourselves to him, to serve, and live to him, let us pay 
 what we have vowed. Better it had been not to vow, 
 than to vow and not pay; and instead of the reason- 
 able sacrifice he required of us, to give him only 
 the sacrifice of fools. We are, upon special terms, 
 
219 
 
 and for special ends, peculiar to the most high God* 
 They that are thus his, are " a royal priesthood, 
 He hath made us kings and priests." Both those 
 offices and dignities have sometime met in the same 
 person. And to God and his Father, that is, for 
 him. Not that both those offices do terminate upon 
 God, or that the work of both is to be performed 
 towards him, but our Lord Jesus, it being the de- 
 sign of his Father we should be brought into that 
 high and honourable station, hath effected it, in com- 
 pliance with his design, and hath served his pleasure 
 and purpose in it. He hath done it to, that is, for 
 him. So that, to God and his Father may be re- 
 ferred to Christ's action, in making us kings and 
 priests, not to ours, being made such. Yet the 
 one of these refers to God immediately, the other 
 to ourselves. Holy and good men are kings in re- 
 ference to themselves, in respect of their self-domi- 
 nion into which they are now restored, having been, 
 as all unregenerate persons are, slaves to vile and 
 carnal affections and inclinations. The minds of the 
 regenerate are made spiritual, and now with them 
 the refined, rectified, spiritual mind, is enthroned; 
 lifted up into its proper authority over all sensual 
 inclinations, appetites, lusts and passions. A glo- 
 rious empire ! founded in conquest, and managed 
 afterwards, when the victory is complete, and in the 
 meantime, in some degree, while " judgment is in 
 bringing forth unto victory,'' by a steady, sedate 
 government in most perfect tranquillity and peace. 
 But they are priests in reference to God; the 
 
 business of their office, as such, terminates upon 
 K2 
 
220 
 
 him: for him they worship and serve. Worship m 
 either social, external and circumstantial, that of 
 worshipping societies 5 considered according to its 
 exterior part, wherein one is appointed by special 
 office to do the part of a priest for the restj (in this 
 sense all are not priests;) or else it is solitary, inter- 
 nal, substantial and spiritual, wherein they either 
 worship alone, and apart by themselves, or being in 
 conjunction with others, yet their own spirits within 
 them work directly, and aspire upwards to God. 
 And as to this more noble part of their worship, 
 every holy man is his own priest. 
 
 And this is the double dignity of every holy, de- 
 voted soul. They are thus kings, and priests; go- 
 vern themselves, and serve God. While they go- 
 vern, they serve; exercise authority over themselves, 
 with most submissive veneration of God: crowned, 
 and enthroned; but always in a readiness to cast down 
 their crowns at the footstool of the supreme, celestial 
 throne. Into this state they come by self-dedication. 
 And now surely, it is not for such to demean them- 
 selves at a vulgar rate. They are of " the church 
 of the first-born written in heaven;" that is, the 
 church of the first-born ones; that is, all composed 
 and made up of such; (as that expression signifies;) 
 first-born, in a true (though not the most eminent) 
 sense, being sons by the first, that is, the prime and 
 more excellent sort of birth, in respect whereof they 
 are said to be begotten again " by the word of truth, 
 that they should be a kind of first-fruits of the crea- 
 tures of God." And this twofold dignity is the 
 privilege of their birthright, as anciently it was. 
 
221 
 
 Are you devoted to God? Have you dedicated 
 yourselves? Hereby you are arrived to this dig- 
 nity. For in the above-mentioned place (Heb. xii.) 
 it is said, " Ye are come;" you are actually, already, 
 adjoined to that church, and are the real present 
 members of that holy community. For you are 
 related and united to him of whom the family of 
 heaven and earth is named; are of the house- 
 hold, and the sons of God, his, under that peculiar 
 notion, when you have dedicated yourselves to him. 
 You cannot but apprehend there are peculiarities of 
 behaviour in your after-conduct and management of 
 yourselves that belong to you, and must answer and 
 correspond to your being, in this sense, his. Some 
 particulars whereof I shall briefly mention. 
 
 (1.) You should each of you often reflect upon 
 it, and bethink yourself what you have done, and 
 whose you now are. " I am the devoted one of the 
 most high God." It was one of the precepts given 
 by a Pagan (Epict.) to his disciples, " Think with 
 yourself, upon all occasions, I am a philosopher." 
 What a world of sin and trouble might that thought, 
 often renewed, prevent, " I am a Christian, one de- 
 voted to God in Christ." Your having done this 
 thing, should clothe your mind with new apprehen- 
 sions, both of God and yourselves: that he is not 
 now a stranger to you, but your God, that you are 
 not unrelated to him, but his. " I was an enemy, 
 now am reconciled. I was a common, profane thing, 
 now holiness to the Lord." It is strange to think 
 how one act doth sometimes habit and tincture a 
 man's mind; whether in the kind of good or evil. 
 
222 
 
 To have committed an act of murder ! What a 
 horrid complexion of mind did Cain upon this bear 
 with him. To have dedicated one's self to God, if 
 seriously and duly done; would it have less power 
 to possess one with a holy, calm, peaceful temper of 
 mind? 
 
 (2.) You should, hereupon, charge yourself with 
 all suitable duty towards him; for you have given 
 yourself to him to serve him; that is your very busi- 
 ness. You are his, and are to do his work, not 
 your own, otherwise than as it falls in with his, and 
 is his. You are to discharge yourself of all unsuit- 
 able cares : for will not he take care of his own, who 
 hath put so ill a note upon them that do not? He 
 that provideth not for his own, (his domestics,) those 
 of his own house, hath denied the faith, and is worse 
 than an infidel? Will you think, he can be like 
 such a one ? Who, if not the children of a prince, 
 should live free from care ? 
 
 You should most deeply concern yourself about 
 his concerns, without any apprehension or fear 
 that he will neglect those that are most truly yours : 
 and are not to be indifferent how his interest thrives, 
 or is depressed in the world ; is increased, or dimi- 
 nished. They that are his, should let his affairs 
 engross their cares and thoughts. 
 
 You should abandon all suspicious, hard thoughts 
 of him. When in the habitual bent of your spirits 
 you desire to please him, it is most injurious to him, 
 to think he will abandon, and give you up to perish, 
 or become your enemy. It is observable what care 
 was taken among the Romans, that no hostility might 
 
223 
 
 be used towards them that had surrendered themselves. 
 Can men excel God in praise-worthy things? You 
 can think nothing of God more contrary to his gos- 
 pel, or his nature, than to surmise he will destroy 
 one that hath surrendered to and bears a loyal mind 
 towards him. And what a reproach do you cast 
 upon him, when you give others occasion to say, 
 " His own, they that have devoted themselves to 
 him, dare not trust him ?" You are taught to say, 
 " I am thine, save me ;" not to suspect he will ruin 
 you. They do strangely misshape religion, consi- 
 dering in how great part it consists in trusting God, 
 and living a life of faith, that frame to themselves a 
 religion made up of distrusts, doubts, and fears. 
 
 You should dread to alienate yourselves from him, 
 which, as sacrilege is one of the most detestable of 
 all sins, a robbing of God, is the most detestable 
 sacrilege. You are to reserve yourselves entirely 
 for him. Every one that is godly he hath set apart 
 for himself. 
 
 Yea, and you are not only to reserve, but to your 
 uttermost, to improve and better yourselves for him 
 daily : to aspire to an excellency, in some measure, 
 suitable to your relation : " to walk worthy of God, 
 who hath called you to his kingdom and glory," re- 
 membering you are here to glorify him, and hereafter 
 to be glorified with him. And who is there of us 
 that finds not himself under sufficient obligation, by 
 the mercies of God, unto all this? or to whom he 
 may not say, in a far more eminent sense, than the 
 apostle speaks it to Philemon, " Thou owest even 
 
2%i< 
 
 thyself also unto me?" Shall we refuse to give 
 God what we owe? or can we think it fit, itself, 
 " we should be no otherwise his, than (as one well 
 says) fields, woods, and mountains, and brute beasts?" 
 And I may add, can it be comfortable to us, that he 
 should have no other interest in us than he hath in 
 devils? Is there no difference in the case of reason- 
 able creatures and unreasonable? their's who profess 
 devotedness to him, and their's who are his pro- 
 fessed enemies? The one sort, through natural 
 incapacity, cannot, by consent, be his, and the other, 
 through an invincible malignity, never will. Are 
 there no mercies, conferred or offered, that do pecu- 
 liarly oblige us more? Let us be more frequent and 
 serious in recounting our mercies, and set ourselves 
 on purpose to enter into the memory of God's great 
 goodness, that we may thence, from time to time, 
 urge upon ourselves this great and comprehensive 
 duty. And at this time, being here together on 
 purpose, let us consider and reflect afresh upon that 
 eminent mercy which you are wont to commemorate 
 in the yearly return of this day. 
 
 And that I may, more particularly, direct my 
 speech the same way, that the voice of that memor- 
 able providence is especially directed; you are, my 
 Lord, to be more peculiarly besought by the mer- 
 cies of God, that you would this day dedicate your- 
 self to him. I do therefore beseech you, by the 
 many endearing mercies which God hath so plenti- 
 fully conferred upon you, by the mercies of your 
 noble extraction and birth, by the mercies of your 
 
225 
 
 very ingenious and pious education, by the mercies 
 of your family, which God hath made to descend to 
 you from your honourable progenitors; which, as 
 they are capable of being improved, may be very 
 valuable mercies; by the blood and tender mercies 
 of your blessed and glorious Redeemer, who offered 
 up himself a Sacrifice to God for you, that you would 
 now present yourself to God, a holy, living sacrifice, 
 which is your reasonable service. I add, by the 
 signal mercy which hath made this a memorable day 
 to you, and by which you come, thus long, to enjoy 
 the advantages of all your other mercies. How 
 came it to pass that this day comes not to be re- 
 membered by your noble relatives, as a black and a 
 gloomy day, the day of the extinction of the present 
 light and lustre of your family, and of quenching 
 their coal which was left? You had a great Pre- 
 server, who we hope delivered you because he de- 
 lighted in you. Your life was precious in his sight. 
 Your breath was in his hand; he preserved and re- 
 newed it to you, when you were ready to breathe 
 your last. And we hope he will vouchsafe you that 
 greater deliverance, not to let you fall under the 
 charge which was once exhibited against a great 
 man, (Dan. v. 23.) " The God in whose hands thy 
 breath is — hast thou not glorified:" and make you 
 rather capable of adopting those words, " Yet the 
 Lord will command his loving kindness in the day 
 time, and in the night his song shall be with me, 
 and my prayer unto the God of my life." Your 
 acknowledgments are not to be limited to one day 
 in the year; but from day to day his loving kindness, 
 K3 
 
226 
 
 and your prayer and praise, are to compose your 
 day and night; the one, to show you, the other, 
 to be unto you your morning and evening exer- 
 cise. Let this be your resolution, "Every day 
 will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for 
 ever and ever;" or that, " I will sing unto the Lord 
 as long as I live : I will sing praise unto my God 
 while I have my being." 
 
 Yet your more solemn acknowledgments are justly 
 pitched upon this day. God hath noted it for you, 
 and made it a great day in your time. You have 
 now enjoyed a septennium, seven years of mercies. 
 And we all hope you will enjoy many more, which 
 may all be called the posterity of that day's mercy. 
 It was the parent of them all; so pregnant and pro- 
 ductive a mercy was that of this day. You do owe 
 it to the mercy of this day, that you have yet a life 
 to devote to the great Lord of heaven and earth, and 
 to employ in the world for him: and would you 
 think of any less noble sacrifice? 
 
 iEschines the philosopher, out of his admiration 
 of Socrates, when divers presented him with other 
 gifts, made a tender to him of himself. Less was 
 thought an insufficient acknowledgment of the worth 
 and favours of a man! Can any thing less be 
 thought worthy of a God ? I doubt not you intend, 
 my Lord, a life of service to the God of your life. 
 You would not, I presume, design to serve him 
 under any other notion, than as his. By dedicating 
 yourself to him, you become so in the peculiar sense. 
 It is our part in the covenant which must be between 
 God and us. " I entered into covenant with thee, 
 
227 
 
 and thou becamest mine." This is the ground of a 
 settled relation, which we are to bear towards him, 
 as his servants. It is possible I may do an occa- 
 sional service for one whose servant I am not; but 
 it were mean that a great person should only be 
 served by the servants of another lord. To be 
 served but precariously, and as it were upon courtesy 
 only, true greatness would disdain; as if his quality 
 did not admit to have servants of his own. 
 
 Nor can it be thought a serious Christian, in 
 howsoever dignifying circumstances, should reckon 
 himself too great to be his servant, when even a 
 heathen (Seneca) pronounces, Deo servire est reg- 
 nare — to serve God is to reign. A religious noble- 
 man of France (Monsieur de Renty, whose affec- 
 tion I commend more than this external expression 
 of it) tells us he made a deed of gift of himself to 
 God, signing it with his own blood. He was much 
 a greater man, that so often speaks in that style, 
 " Thy servant," that it is plain he took pleasure in it, 
 and counted it his highest glory. " Stablish thy 
 word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear." 
 " Thy servant, thy servant, O Lord, the son of 
 thy handmaid ;" (alluding to the law by which the 
 children of bond-servants were servants by birth,) 
 " thou hast broken my bonds ;" hast released me 
 from worse bonds, that I might not only be patient, 
 but glad to be under thine. 
 
 Nor was he a mean prince* in his time, who at 
 
 * Cantacuzenus, whose life also, among many other remark- 
 able things, was once strangely preserved in the fall of his horse. 
 
228 
 
 length abandoning the pleasures and splendour of 
 his own court, (whereof many like examples might 
 be given,) retired and assumed the name of Christo- 
 dulus — a servant of Christ, accounting the glory of 
 that name did outshine, not only that of his other 
 illustrious titles, but of the imperial diadem too. 
 There are very few in the world, whom the too 
 common atheism can give temptation unto to think 
 religion an ignominy, and to count it a reproach to 
 be the devoted servant of the most high God; but 
 have it at hand to answer themselves, even by hu- 
 man, not to speak of the higher angelical, instances, 
 that he hath been served by greater than we. 
 
 You are, my Lord, shortly to enter upon the 
 more public stage of the world. You will enter 
 with great advantages of hereditary honour, fortune, 
 friends; with the greater advantage of, I hope, a 
 well cultivated mind, and, what is yet greater, of a 
 piously inclined heart : but you will also enter with 
 disadvantages too. It is a slippery stage ; it is a 
 divided time, wherein there is interest against inter- 
 est; party against party. To have seriously and 
 with a pious obstinacy dedicated yourself to God, 
 will both direct and fortify you. 
 
 I know no party in which nothing is amiss. Nor 
 will that measure, let you think it advisable, to be 
 of any, further than to unite with what there is of 
 real, true godliness among them all. Neither is 
 there any surer rule or measure for your direction, 
 than this; to take the course and way which are 
 most agreeable to a state of devotedness to God. 
 Reduce all things else, hither. Wheresoever you 
 
229 
 
 believe, in your conscience, there is a sincere design 
 for the interest and glory of God, the honour or 
 safety of your prince, the real good and welfare of 
 your country, there you are to fall in, and adhere. 
 And the first of these comprehends the rest. You 
 will not be the less inclined, but much the more, to 
 give Cesar the things that are Cesar's, for your giv- 
 ing God the things that are God's. And that is, 
 as hath been said, principally and in the first place 
 yourself; and then all that is yours to be used ac- 
 cording to his holy rules, and for him whose you 
 are. 
 
 And what can be to you the ground of a higher 
 fortitude ? Can they be unsafe that have devoted 
 themselves to God? Dedicate yourself, and you 
 become a sanctuary, as well as a sacrifice, inviolably 
 safe in what part, and in what respects, it is consi- 
 derable to be so. And who can think themselves 
 unsafe, being, with persevering fidelity, sacred to 
 God; that understand who he is, and consider his 
 power and dominion over both worlds, the present, 
 and that which is to come; so as that he can punish 
 and reward in both, as men prove false or faithful to 
 him. The triumphs of wickedness are short, in this 
 world. In how glorious triumphs will religion and 
 devotedness to God end in the other ! 
 
ON 
 
 YIELDING OURSELVES 
 TO GOD. 
 
TO 
 
 THE MUCH-HONOURED 
 
 BARTHOLOMEW SOAME, of Thurlow, Esq. 
 
 AND 
 
 Susanna, his Pious Consort. 
 
 MY WORTHY FRIENDS, 
 
 I have at length yielded to your importunity, and 
 do here offer this Discourse to public view, and your 
 own: which was, one day last summer, preached 
 under your roof; attributing more to your pious de- 
 sign herein, than to my own reasons against it. I 
 no farther insist upon the incongruity, having several 
 years ago published a small Treatise on Self-dedica- 
 tion, now again to send abroad another on the same 
 subject. For the way of tractation is here very dif- 
 ferent; this may fall into the hands of divers who 
 have never seen the other; and however, they who 
 have read the other, have it in their choice whether 
 they will trouble themselves with this or not. And 
 though your purpose which you urged me with, of 
 lodging one of these little books in each family of 
 the hearers, might have been answered by so dispos- 
 ing of many a better book, already extant, yet 
 having told me how greatly you observed them to 
 be moved by these plain discourses, considering the 
 peculiar advantage of reading what had been, with 
 some acceptance and relish heard before (through 
 that greater vigour that accompanies the ordinance 
 of preaching to an assembly, than doth usually the so- 
 litary first reading of the same thing) I was not willing 
 
234 
 
 to run the hazard of incurring a guilt, by refusing a. 
 thing so much desired, and which, through God's 
 blessing, might contribute something, though in never 
 so low a degree, to the saving of men's souls. I 
 could not, indeed, as I told you, undertake to recol- 
 lect every thing that was spoken, according to that 
 latitude and freedom of expression, wherewith it was 
 fit to inculcate momentous things to a plain country 
 auditory: But I have omitted nothing I could call 
 to mind: being little concerned that the more curious 
 may take notice, with dislike, how much, in a work 
 of this kind, I prefer plainness, though they may 
 call it rudeness, of speech, before that which goes 
 for wisdom of words, or the most laboured periods. 
 May you find an abundant blessing on your 
 household, for the sake of the ark, which you have 
 so piously and kindly received; and whereas, by 
 your means, the parts about you have a help for the 
 spreading the knowledge of God among them, added 
 to what they otherwise more statedly enjoy; may 
 the blessing of Heaven succeed all sincere endea- 
 vours of both sorts; to the more general introducing 
 of the " new man which is renewed in knowledge— 
 where there is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision 
 nor uncircumcision, but Christ is all, and in all:" 
 To whose grace, you are, with sincere affection and 
 great sense of your kindness, earnestly recom- 
 mended, by 
 
 Your much obliged, 
 
 Faithful Servant in Christ, 
 
 JOHN HOWE. 
 
ON 
 
 YIELDING OURSELVES 
 TO GOD. 
 
 Romans vi. 13. 
 
 Yield yourselves unto God. 
 
 These are but a few words, but I can speak to you 
 of no greater or more important thing than I am to 
 press upon you from them this day. We are above 
 taught how absurd it is to continue in sin, whereto 
 we are avowedly dead, ver. 1, 2. as is signified by our 
 baptism; together with our entrance into a new state 
 of life, and that in both we are to be conformed unto 
 the death and resurrection of Christ, ver. 3, 4, 5. so 
 that sin ought now no more to have a new dominion 
 over us, than death can again have over him, v. 6, 
 7, 8, 9, 10. We are therefore exhorted so to ac- 
 count of ourselves, and of our present state, " That 
 we are dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord;" and thereupon never more to let 
 sin govern us, or reign over us, or yield to it, ver. 
 1 1, 12, 13. former part. 
 
236 
 
 But what then? How are we otherwise to dis- 
 pose of ourselves? If we may not yield ourselves to 
 the service of sin, what are we then to do with our- 
 selves : The text tells us, and the very reason of 
 the thing shows it ; " but yield yourselves to God," 
 &c. 
 
 The subject to be discoursed of is an express pre- 
 cept, charging it upon us all as our unquestionable 
 duty, to "yield ourselves to God;" which therefore, 
 it can only be our business, in speaking to this text, 
 to explain and apply. 
 
 I. We are to explain it. Whosoever shall charge 
 upon others such a duty, not obvious, perhaps, at 
 the first view, in the full extent of it, to every one's 
 understanding, may well expect to be asked: but 
 what do you mean by this precept? or what doth 
 this "yielding ourselves to God" signify? 
 
 And here are two things to be opened to you. 
 
 1. How, or under what notions, we are to consi- 
 der God and ourselves in this matter. 
 
 2. What our yielding ourselves to him, so consi- 
 dered, must include. 
 
 1. How we are to consider or look upon God in 
 this affair? You are to consider him both as he is 
 in himself, and according to the relations he bears to 
 you; whether before your yielding yourselves to 
 him, or in, and upon your so doing. 
 
 1. As he is in himself. You that have heard, 
 or now read what I have said, and do write, here 
 make a stand, and bethink yourselves a while ! 
 
 What ! Are you about yielding yourselves to 
 God ! Sure you ought to be thinking of it as soon 
 as you hear his claim laid to you. 
 
237 
 
 But do you now know with whom you have to 
 do? Too many have the name of God, that great 
 and awful name ! in their mouth or ear, and have no 
 correspondent thought in their mind; it passes with 
 them as a transient sound, as soon over as another, 
 common word, of no greater length; and leaves no 
 impression. Perhaps there is less in their minds to 
 answer it, than most other words which men use in 
 common discourse. For they have usually distinct 
 thoughts of the things they speak of; otherwise they 
 should neither understand one another nor them- 
 selves, but might speak of a horse, and mean a 
 sheep: or be thought to mean so. And it would 
 no more move a man, or impress his mind, to hear 
 or mention a jest, than a matter of life and death. 
 But the holy and reverend name of God is often so 
 slightly mentioned, as in common oaths, or in idle 
 talk is so merely taken in vain, that if they were on 
 the sudden stopped, and asked what they thought on, 
 or had in their mind, when they mentioned that 
 word, and were to make a true answer, they cannot 
 say they thought of any thing : As if the name of 
 God, the All ! were the name of nothing ! Other- 
 wise had they thought what that great name signifies, 
 either they had not mentioned it, or the mention of 
 it had struck their hearts ! and even overwhelmed 
 their very souls ! I could tell you what awe and 
 observance hath been wont to be expressed in re- 
 ference to that sacred name, among a people that 
 were called by it; and surely the very sound of that 
 name ought ever to shake all the powers of our souls, 
 and presently form them to reverence and adoration. 
 
Q3S 
 
 Shall we think it fit to play or trifle with it, as is 
 too common? My friends, shall we now do so, 
 when we are called upon " to yield ourselves to 
 God?" Labour to hear and think, and act intel- 
 ligently, and as those that have the understandings 
 of men. And now especially in this solemn transac- 
 tion, endeavour to render God great to yourselves: 
 Enlarge your minds, that as far as is possible and 
 needful, they may take in the entire notion of him. 
 As to what he is in himself, you must conceive of 
 him as a Spirit, John iv. 24. as his own word, which 
 can best tell us what he is, instructs us; and so as a 
 Being of far higher excellency than any thing you 
 can see with your eyes, or touch with your hands, 
 or that can come under the notice of any of your 
 senses. You may easily apprehend spiritual being 
 to be the source and spring of life, and self-moving 
 power. This world were all a dead unmoving lump, 
 if there were no such thing as spirit; as your bodies 
 when the soul is fled. You must conceive him to 
 be an eternal, self-subsisting Spirit, not sprung up 
 into being from another, as our souls are; but who, 
 from the excellency of his own being, was necessar- 
 ily of, and from himself: comprehending originally 
 and eternally in himself the fulness of all life and 
 being. I would fain lead you here, as by the 
 hand, a few plain and easy steps. You are sure 
 that somewhat now is, of this you can be in no 
 doubt; and next you may be as sure that somewhat 
 hath, of itself, ever been: For if nothing at all now 
 were, you can easily apprehend it impossible that 
 any thing should ever be, or of itself now begin to 
 
239 
 
 be, and spring up out of nothing. Do but make 
 this supposition in your own minds, and the matter 
 will be as plain to you as any thing can be, that if 
 nothing at all were now in being, nothing could 
 ever come into being; wherefore you may be sure, 
 that because there is somewhat now in being, there 
 must have been somewhat or other always in being, 
 that was eternally of itself. And then to go a little 
 farther, since you know there are many things in 
 being that were not of themselves, you may be sure 
 that what was always of itself, had in it a sufficiency 
 of active power to produce other things, otherwise 
 nothing that is not of itself could ever be. As you 
 know that we were not of ourselves; and the case 
 is the same as to whatsoever else our eyes behold. 
 
 You must conceive of God, therefore, as com- 
 prehending originally in his own being, which is most 
 peculiar to himself, a power to produce all whatso- 
 ever being, excellency and perfection is to be found 
 in all the whole creation. For there can be nothing 
 which either is not, or arises not from what was of 
 itself. And therefore that he is an absolutely, uni- 
 versally, and infinitely perfect being, and therefore 
 that life, knowledge, wisdom, power, goodness, holi- 
 ness, justice, truth, and whatsoever other conceiv- 
 able excellencies, do all in highest perfection, belong, 
 as necessary attributes, unchangeably and without 
 possibility of diminution unto him. And all which 
 his own word, agreeable to the plain reason of 
 things, doth in multitudes of places ascribe to him; 
 as you that are acquainted with the Bible cannot but 
 know. You must therefore conceive of him, as the 
 
240 
 
 All in All. So great, so excellent, so glorious a 
 One he is, to whom you are to surrender and yield 
 yourselves. 
 
 You are to conceive of him as most essentially 
 One, for there can be but one All. And so his 
 word teaches you to conceive. " Hear, O Israel ! 
 the Lord our God is one Lord." — " We know 
 there is no other God but one. For though there 
 be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in 
 earth, as there be gods many, and lords many, but 
 to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom 
 are all things, and we by him." Your thoughts 
 therefore need not be divided within you, nor your 
 minds hang in doubt, to whom you are to betake and 
 yield yourselves: there is no place or pretence for 
 halting between two opinions. He most righteously 
 lays the sole claim to you; " a just God and a Sa- 
 viour, and there is none besides him." And so 
 we are told often in that and the foregoing chapters. 
 He whose far discerning eye projects its beams every 
 way, and ranges through all infinity, says, " he 
 knows not any," Isa. xliv. 8. 
 
 Yet again you are to conceive of him as Three 
 in One; and that in your yielding yourselves to 
 him; as the prescribed form, when this surrender is 
 to be made in baptism, directs ; which runs thus, 
 " In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." 
 You are not to be curious in your inquiries beyond 
 what is written ^n this matter, how far the subsistence 
 in the Godhead are three, and in what sense one ; 
 they cannot be both in the same sense. But there 
 is latitude enough to conceive, how they may be 
 
241 
 
 distinct from each other, and yet agree in one na- 
 ture ; which in none of thern depending upon will 
 and pleasure, sets each of them infinitely above all 
 created beings : which for the divine " pleasure only 
 was and is created." And that we so far conceive 
 of them as three, as to apprehend some things spo- 
 ken of one, that are not to be affirmed of another 
 of them, is so plain, of so great consequence, and 
 the whole frame of practical religion so much depends 
 thereon; and even this transaction of yielding up 
 ourselves, which must be introductive and funda- 
 mental to all the rest, that it is by no means to be 
 neglectedin our daily course, and least of all in this so- 
 lemn business, as will more appear anon. In the mean 
 time, set this ever blessed, glorious God, the Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost before your eyes, as to whom, 
 thus in himself considered, you are now to yield 
 yourselves. 
 
 2. You must conceive of him according to the 
 relations which he bears towards you, partly before 
 your yielding yourselves to him, and partly in and 
 upon your doing it. That is, 
 
 1. Before you do any such thing, you must con- 
 ceive of him, as 
 
 (1.) Your Creator, the author of your being, " of 
 whom and through whom, and to whom are all 
 things." He that made you, demands you for him- 
 self. You are required to yield yourselves to him 
 that gave you breath. 
 
 (2.) As the continual sustainer of your being; and 
 who renews your life unto you every moment; " in 
 whom you live, and move, and have your being," 
 
242 
 
 continually; so that if he should withdraw his sup- 
 ports, you immediately drop into nothing. 
 
 But these are things common to you with all oth- 
 er creatures; and signify, therefore, his antecedent 
 right in you, before you have yielded yourselves, 
 upon which you ought to do it, and cannot without 
 great injustice to him decline doing it. There are 
 other considerations also you ought to entertain con- 
 cerning him in this your yielding yourselves to him, 
 namely, of some things which are partly and in some 
 sense before it, and which it supposes, but which 
 partly also, and in a more especial sense would fol- 
 low, and be inferred by it. Therefore you are to 
 consider the relations which he bears to you in your 
 actually doing this. Principally, this fourfold con- 
 sideration you should have of him in your yield- 
 ing yourselves to him, namely, as your Owner, your 
 Teacher, your Ruler, and your Benefactor, and all 
 these with the addition of Supreme ; it being im- 
 possible he should have a superior; or that there 
 should be any one above him in any of these. And 
 he is in some sense all these to you before you can 
 have yielded yourselves, as may, in great part, be 
 collected from what hath been already said; but 
 when you yield yourselves to him, he will be all these 
 to you in a far higher, nobler, and more excellent 
 sense ; and you are to yield yourselves to him as 
 such, or that in your so doing, he may actually be- 
 come such to you. 
 
 1. As your Owner: the God whose you are (as the 
 Apostle speaks, Acts xxvii. 23. and whom, as it there 
 follows, and is naturally consequent, you are to serve.) 
 
243 
 
 You were his by a former right, as all things, being 
 made by him, are. But you are to yield yourselves 
 to him, that you may be more peculiarly his, in a 
 sense more excellent in itself, and more comfortable 
 to you; as Exod. xix. 5. " If you will obey — you 
 shall be to me a peculiar treasure above all people, 
 for all the earth is mine." Of such as fear him, the 
 great God says, " They shall be mine in the day 
 when I make up my jewels." Your yielding your- 
 selves adds nothing to his right in you; you therein 
 only recognize, and acknowledge the right he had in 
 you before, but it adds to you a capacity and a quali- 
 fication, both by the tenor of his gospel-covenant, 
 and in the nature of the thing, for such nobler uses 
 as otherwise you cannot serve for. As the more 
 contemptible lumber about a man's house may be as 
 truly his, as the most precious things; but neither 
 doth he intend, nor can such meaner things admit 
 to be the ornaments, either of his person, or his 
 house. The great God intends his devoted peculiar 
 people to be to him " a crown and royal diadem," 
 when " he puts away the wicked of the earth like 
 dross." " In a great house there are not only ves- 
 sels of silver and gold, but also of wood, and of 
 earth." But it is only the purged and sanctified 
 soul (which is also a self-devoted one) that shall be 
 the vessel unto honour, being made meet for the 
 master's use, and prepared to every good work. 
 Persons and things acquire a sacredness by being 
 devoted to God. Persons especially, that can and 
 do devote themselves, are highly ennobled by it; he 
 hereupon, besides their relative holiness, really more 
 and more sanctifies and frames them for his own more 
 L2 
 
244 
 
 immediate service and communion. Of such a peo- 
 ple he tells us, that he hath formed them for himself, 
 and they shall praise him: and to them he saith (in- 
 tending it manifestly in the more eminent sense) 
 if Thou art mine," Isaiah xliii. 1, 7, 21. Such may 
 with a modest and humble, but with a just confidence 
 freely say, " I am thine, save me." In yielding 
 yourselves consider therefore first, that he is your 
 Owner by an unquestionable former right, and let 
 that effectually move you to do it with all your hearts. 
 For will you not give him his own ? When you 
 account duty to your prince obliges you to " give to 
 Cassar the things that are Cassar's," will you not 
 " give to God the things that are God's?" And 
 will you not know him for your Owner? " The ox 
 knows his owner." Or will it satisfy you to be in 
 no other kind his, than brutes and devils are, that 
 either through an incapacity of nature cannot ac- 
 knowledge him, or through a malignity of nature will 
 not ? O yield yourselves, with humble desire and 
 expectation that he will vouchsafe otherwise to own 
 you ! 
 
 2. As your Teacher; so indeed he also is to all 
 men, though they never yield themselves to him. 
 He that " teaches man knowledge," shall not he 
 know? There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration 
 of the Almighty gives him understanding. Yea, 
 and inferior creatures, as they all owe their natures, 
 and peculiar instincts to him, may be said to have 
 him for their teacher too. But will it content you 
 to be so only taught by him? There is another sort 
 of teaching, which, if you yield yourselves to him as 
 your great instructor, he will vouchsafe unto you. 
 
245 
 
 The things you know not, and which it is necessary 
 you should know, he will teach you, that is, such 
 things as are of real necessity to your true and final 
 welfare, not which only serve to please your fancy, 
 or gratify your curiosity. For his teaching respects 
 an appointed, certain end, suitable to his wisdom and 
 mercy, and to the calamity and danger of your state. 
 The teaching requisite for perishing sinners, was, 
 " what they might do to be saved." And when 
 we have cast about in our own thoughts never so 
 much, we have no way to take but to yield ourselves 
 to God, who will then be our most undeceiving 
 guide. To whom it belongs to save us at last, to 
 him only it can belong to lead us in the way to that 
 blessed end. 
 
 Many anxious inquiries, and fervent disputes 
 there have been, how one may be infallibly assured 
 of the way to be saved. They are to be excused 
 who think it not fit, but upon very plain grounds, 
 to venture so great a concern; or to run so great a 
 hazard in a mere compliment to any man, or party 
 of men. Confident expressions, as, my soul for 
 yours, and such like, signify nothing with a cautious 
 considering man, except that such as them care as 
 little for his soul as their own. The papal infalli- 
 bility some would have us trust to at a venture, and 
 would make us think it rudeness to doubt it; when 
 no body stands upon good manners in endeavouring 
 to escape a ruin: when a great part of their own 
 communion trust not to it. (The Gallican Church, 
 &c.) And some of them have written strongly 
 against it. (Du Pin, &c.) The accurate stating 
 
246 
 
 and discussing of the controversy, how far, or in 
 what sense any such thing as infallible light may 
 belong to the Christian church, are not fit for this 
 place, nor for a discourse of this nature. It is 
 enough now to say that this claim hereof to the 
 Pope or Bishop of Rome, as such, 
 
 1. Cannot be proved. 
 
 2. May be plainly disproved. 
 
 1. It cannot be proved. For since no principles 
 of common reason are pretended sufficient to prove 
 it of any man, or of him more than another, it must 
 be proved by supernatural Revelation, if at all. But 
 in the written word of God there is no such thing. 
 Pretences from thence are too vain to be refuted or 
 mentioned. And if any other Revelation should 
 be pretended, it will be a new, and as impossible a 
 task to prove the Divinity of that Revelation, so as 
 to infer upon the world an obligation to believe it. 
 Nor is it necessary to insist upon this; because, 
 
 2. It may be plainly disproved: for the same 
 thing cannot be both true and false. And it suf- 
 ficiently disproves such a man's infallibility, or the 
 impossibility of his erring, that it can be evidently 
 proved he hath erred. 
 
 As when he hath determined against the express 
 word of Christ, forbidding them (to take one or two 
 instances among many) to drink of the eucharistical 
 cup, whom he hath commanded to drink of it. Or^ 
 to mention a more important one, when believers in 
 Christ, or lovers of him, are pronounced damned, 
 who he hath said shall not perish, but have everlas- 
 ting life, and the crown of righteousness. Or when, 
 
247 
 
 on the other hand, pardon of sin and eternal life are 
 pretended to be given to such, whom the evangelical 
 law condemns to death. 
 
 When one to whom this privilege hath been as- 
 serted to belong, hath determined against another, 
 to whom, upon the same grounds, it must equally 
 belong. As it is well known in the Christian church, 
 that Pope might be alleged against Pope, and one 
 papal constitution against another. Not to insist on 
 what might be shown out of their own history, that 
 the same Pope hath, being so, changed his judg- 
 ment in a point of doctrine, and left us to divine 
 when he was the fallible, and when the infallible 
 Pope. And again, 
 
 When there have been determinations against the 
 common uncorrupted senses of mankind, as that 
 what their sight, and touch, and taste assures them 
 is bread, is said to be the flesh of a human body. 
 
 For if you cannot be sure of what both your own, 
 and the sound senses of any other man would tell 
 you, you can be sure of nothing at all. You can- 
 not be sure you see one another, and hear me speak- 
 ing to you ; nor be sure when you heard the trans- 
 forming words, " this is my body;" or much less 
 that they were ever spoken, if you heard them not; 
 or that that was bread and not a stone, or a piece of 
 clay that is pretended to be transubstantiated by 
 them. The foundation of all certainty were upon 
 these terms taken away from among men on earth; 
 and upon the same common grounds upon which it 
 is pretended you ought to believe that which is 
 shown or offered you to be the flesh of a man, and 
 
248 
 
 not bread any longer, you must believe or judge the 
 quite contrary, that it is bread still, and not flesh, 
 and consequently that he is far from being infallible, 
 but doth actually err, upon whose authority you are 
 directed to believe otherwise. 
 
 And indeed the claimed infallibility is by this suf- 
 ficiently disproved, that there is no imaginable way 
 of proving it. For if there were any such thing, it 
 must be by God's own immediate gift, and vouch- 
 safement; How otherwise should a man be made in- 
 fallible? And if so, it must be for an end worthy of 
 a wise and a merciful God; whereupon for the same 
 reason, for which he should have made such a man 
 infallible, he should have made it infallibly certain to 
 other men, that he hath made him so. Whereas 
 there is no one point wherein his infallible determi- 
 nation can be pretended to be necessary, against 
 which there is more to be said than against the pre- 
 tence itself of his infallibility; nor for which, less is 
 to be said than can, with any colour, or without 
 highest and most just contempt, be said for it. The 
 most weighty thing that I have known alleged is, 
 the great expediency of an infallible judge. But if 
 we will think that a good way of arguing, that things 
 are, in fact, so or so, because we can fancy it would 
 be better if they were; we may as well prove that 
 all mankind are sincere Christians, or there is no sin 
 in the world, nor ever was, and a thousand things 
 besides in the natural world, that never were, or will 
 be, because it appears to us it would be for the bet- 
 ter. So much is the foolishness of man wiser than 
 God. 
 
249 
 
 Besides, that sanctity must be judged as necessary 
 to the final salvation and felicity of the souls of men 
 as orthodoxy, or exemption from doctrinal error, by 
 all with whom either Christian religion, or common 
 reason signifies any thing. For the same reason, 
 therefore, for which it can be thought necessary God 
 should have put it into the power of any man to make 
 others not err, he should have put it equally into his 
 power to make them holy, to renew and change their 
 hearts and lives. But what man hath this power? 
 And one would reasonably expect, if either were, 
 that both powers should be lodged in the same man; 
 which if they should pretend, who assert the other 
 unto one man, their own histories might make them 
 blush, unless they can think it more probable that 
 he can and will effectually sanctify another, and make 
 him holy, who is himself most infamously impure and 
 unholy, than that he can secure another from erring 
 in matters of doctrine, who cannot secure himself. 
 
 But then it may be said, If such sure light and 
 guidance is not to be found or had from one man, it 
 must be from some community or body of men in the 
 Christian church. For, can it be thought God 
 should have taken care to settle a religion in the 
 world, on purpose for the saving of men's souls, that 
 yet affords no man any certainty of being saved by 
 it? 
 
 I answer, yes, there is a certain, undeceiving light 
 afforded by it to the whole body of sincere Christians 
 sufficient, and intended, not to gratify a vain humour, 
 but to save their souls, and which you can only, and 
 may confidently expect by yielding yourselves to God 
 L3 
 
250 
 
 as your Teacher. As it cannot agree with the ab- 
 solute perfection of his nature to be himself deceived 
 in any thing, it can, you may be sure, as little agree 
 with it to deceive you, or let you mistake your way, 
 in the things wherein he hath encouraged and in- 
 duced you to commit and intrust yourselves to his 
 conduct and guidance : Will he let a soul wander 
 and be lost, that hath entirely given up itself to be 
 led and taught by him ? His word hath at once 
 expressed to you his nature, and his good-will towards 
 you, in this case. " Good and upright is the Lord, 
 therefore will he teach sinners in the way." But 
 what sinners? the next words tell you, " the meek 
 (self-resigned ones, humble, teachable learners) he 
 will guide in judgment," or with judgment, (as that 
 particle admits to be read) he will guide them judi- 
 ciously, and surely, so that your hearts need not mis- 
 give, or suspect, or doubt to follow; " The meek will 
 he teach his way." Who would not wish and be 
 glad to have such a teacher? "You shall know 
 (how express is his word!) if you follow on to know 
 the Lord;" for, " his going forth is prepared as the 
 morning." You do not need to devise in the morn- 
 ing how to create your own light, it is prepared and 
 ready for you ; the sun was made before you were, 
 and it keeps its course, and so constantly will God's 
 own light shine to you, without your contrivance or 
 care, for any thing but to seek it, receive it, and be 
 guided by it. 
 
 Know your advantage in having such a teacher. 
 
 1. He will teach you inwardly; even your very 
 hearts, and so as his instructions shall reach the 
 
251 
 
 centre, the inmost of your spirits. " God that 
 made light to shine out of darkness, hath shined 
 into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge 
 of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 
 And when that holy good man had been solacing him- 
 self with highest pleasure in considering this, that 
 God was his portion, so contented and satisfying a 
 one, that he cannot forbear saying, " The lines are 
 fallen to me in pleasant places, and I have a goodly 
 heritage." He presently adds, " I will bless the 
 Lord who hath given me counsel." I should never 
 else have thought of such a thing: it had never come 
 into my mind to think of choosing God for my por- 
 tion. I should have done like the rest of the vain 
 world, have followed shadows all my days. My 
 reins also instruct me in the night season. He will 
 so teach you, as to make you teach yourselves, put 
 an abiding word into you, that shall talk with you 
 when you sit in your houses, and walk by the way, 
 and when you lie down, and when you rise up, and 
 whereby you shall be enabled to commune with your 
 own hearts upon your beds, while others sleep, and 
 revolve, or roll over in your minds, dictates of life. 
 You will not need to say, Who shall ascend into 
 heaven, to bring down Christ from above? Or, 
 Who shall descend into the deep, to bring Christ 
 again from the dead? For the word will be nigh thee, 
 not in thy mouth only, but in thine heart. You 
 will have an engrafted word, and the law of your 
 God will be in your heart, so as none of your steps 
 shall slide. This is our Lord's own interpretation 
 of divers words of the prophets, that in the days of 
 
252 
 
 the general diffusion of holy, vital light, which was 
 to be after his own appearance in the world, " They 
 shall he all taught of God," that is, so as to have 
 their hearts inclined towards himself, and drawn to 
 him, as the reference of these words to those of the 
 foregoing verse shows. Wherein, 
 
 2. Lies your further advantage, that by him you 
 shall be taught effectually. Other teaching, as it 
 doth but reach the ear, or only, at the most, beget 
 some faint notions in the mind, that you are little 
 the better for, his shall produce real fruit; he is the 
 Lord your God who teaches you to profit; and who 
 by gentle and unforcible, but by most prevailing in- 
 sinuations, shall slide in upon your spirits, win them 
 by light and love, and allure them to a compliance 
 with what shall be in the end safe and happy for 
 yourselves. He will instruct you, though not with 
 a violent, yet with a strong hand, so as not to lose 
 his kind design. Others teach you, and leave you 
 what they found you; convinced, perhaps, but not 
 changed; unable to resist any ill inclination, or your 
 disinclination to that which was good. Power will 
 accompany his teaching; a conquering power that will 
 secretly constrain and captivate your hearts ; and how 
 pleasant a victory will that be to yourselves ! O 
 the peace and joy you will find springing up within 
 you, when once you feel yourselves overcome ! The 
 most that a man can say to you is, what the prophet 
 Samuel once said, (so great and so good a man) 
 " God forbid I should sin against the Lord in 
 ceasing to pray for you ; but I will teach you the 
 good and the right way." He could only show that 
 
Q53 
 
 way, and pray that God would do the rest ; which 
 implies God only can so teach it you, as to make 
 you walk in it. 
 
 I am not persuading you to slight human teach- 
 ing; you will need it; and it is among the gifts 
 which your glorious Redeemer " being ascended on 
 high," hath given to men, that is, pastors and teach- 
 ers. But understand their teaching to be only sub- 
 ordinate, and ministerial. Without, or against 
 God, you are to call no man master, or teacher upon 
 earth. 
 
 And thus far their teaching is to be regarded, as 
 it agrees, 
 
 1. With what God doth inwardly teach you, by 
 that common light which shines in every man's own 
 bosom, that with a sincere mind, attends to it, and 
 which is too little attended to. There are truths 
 too commonly held in unrighteousness, seated gen- 
 erally in the minds and consciences of men; by which, 
 though they have not another law, " they are a law 
 to themselves;" and for the stifling and resisting 
 of which, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven 
 against them. And from such truths they might 
 infer others, and where God affords external helps, 
 come to discern a sure ground whereupon to under- 
 stand that what is contained besides in the frame of 
 Christian doctrine is true ; being enabled to judge 
 of the evidences that prove the whole revelation 
 thereof to be from God; and nothing being in itself 
 more evident than that what he hath revealed is 
 true. And withal God is graciously pleased to 
 shine into minds that with upright aims set them- 
 
254 
 
 selves to inquire out and understand his mind; and 
 so farther light comes to be superadded to that which 
 is common. Now take heed how you neglect what 
 a man teaches you, agreeably to that inward light 
 which is already, cne way or other, in your own 
 minds and consciences. To this in some part, and 
 in great part we are to appeal in our teaching you: 
 So the more early Christian teachers did. " Not 
 handling," say they, " the word of God deceitfully* 
 but by manifestation of the truth commending our- 
 selves to every man's conscience in the sight of 
 God." In the most deeply fundamental things that 
 concern your practice every day, we may appeal to 
 yourselves, and your own consciences. If we say to 
 you, ought you not to live according to his will that 
 gave you breath? Should you not above all things 
 fear and love, and trust, and obey him that made you 
 and all things? Should you not do as you would 
 be done unto? Should you not take more care for 
 your immortal souls, than for your mortal flesh? 
 You must every one say, I believe in mine own con- 
 science this is so. If I appeal to you in the very 
 thing I am speaking of, should you not yield your- 
 selves to God, whose creatures you are? I doubt 
 not any of you will say, I think in my very con- 
 science I should. We have you witnesses against 
 yourselves, if you will not hear us in such things. 
 And again, it being a matter very capable of plain 
 proof, that those writings which we call the Holy 
 Scriptures, were from God, our teaching ought so 
 far to be regarded by you, as, 
 
 2. We can manifest to you that it agrees with 
 
Q55 
 
 the Scriptures. And we are sure he will never 
 teach you inwardly against what he hath there 
 taught. Will the God of truth say and unsay the 
 same thing? That were to overthrow the design 
 of all his instructions, and to subvert the authority 
 which he requires men to reverence. No man could 
 expect to be regarded on such terms. And by this 
 rule freely examine all that we teach you, as our 
 Saviour directed the Jews to do, John v. 39. And 
 for the doing whereof, the apostle commended the 
 Berean Christians, Acts xvii. 11. And we have 
 here the same advantage at length, though not so 
 immediately upon your consciences; which cannot 
 but judge that whatsoever is found in that word 
 which you confess to be divine, must be most cer- 
 tainly true. 
 
 And if within such limits you take the help of 
 men for you instruction; having yielded yourselves 
 to God as your supreme and highest teacher, you 
 are upon safe terms. Only be sincere in listening 
 to his dictates, whether internal or external. Let 
 not a prepossessed heart, or vicious inclination be 
 their interpreter. " If any man will do his will, he 
 shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." 
 
 3. You must consider God, in your yielding 
 yourselves, as your Sovereign Ruler. " For to 
 whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his ser- 
 vants you are to whom you obey;" as by ver. 16. 
 Though teaching and ruling may be diversely con- 
 ceived of, they cannot be separate in this case. The 
 nobler and final part of God's teaching you, is teach- 
 ing you your duty; what you are to practise and do. 
 
256 
 
 And so when he teaches you, he commands you too; 
 and leaves it not arbitrary to you whether you will 
 be directed by him or not. What is his by former 
 right, and by after-consent, and self-resignation, 
 shall it not be governed by him ? if it be a subject 
 capable of laws and government, as such consent 
 shows it to be ? Your yielding yourselves to God 
 is not an homage but a mockery, if you do it not 
 with a resolution to receive the law from his mouth; 
 and that wherein soever he commands, you will to 
 your uttermost obey. But in this, and the other 
 things that follow, my limits constrain me to more 
 brevity. Only let not this apprehension of God be 
 frightful, yea, let it be amiable to you, as in itself 
 it is, and cannot but be to you, if you consider the 
 loveliness of his government, the kind design of it$ 
 and how suitable it is to the kindest design ; that it is 
 a government first and principally over minds, pur- 
 posely intended to reduce them to a holy and peace- 
 ful order, wherein it cannot but continue them, when 
 that kingdom comes to be settled there, which stands 
 " in righteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy 
 Ghost," and all the laws whereof are summed up in 
 love; being such " also as in the keeping whereof 
 there is great reward." 
 
 4. You are to consider him, and accordingly to 
 yield yourself, as your greatest benefactor, or rather 
 as your best and supreme good. Indeed you can- 
 not sever his being your ruler from his being your 
 benefactor, more than his being your teacher from 
 his being your ruler, when the tendency and design 
 of his government are understood. For it is a very 
 
257 
 
 principal part of our felicity to be under his govern- 
 ment, and he doth you the greatest good by ruling 
 you, when otherwise nothing is more evident than 
 that you would run yourselves into the greatest of 
 evil, and soon be most miserable creatures. You 
 are now so far happy as you are subject to his go- 
 vernment, and that which it aims at is to make you 
 finally and completely happy. For it is the design 
 of his government, not only to regulate your ac- 
 tions, but your inclinations, and principally towards 
 himself. You have been (i alienated from the life 
 of God," were become strangers to him, yea, and 
 " enemies in your very minds," " for the carnal 
 mind is enmity against God." The very business 
 of his government is, in the first place, to alter the 
 temper of your minds; for continuing carnal, they 
 neither are subject to the law of God, nor can be, 
 as the same place tells you. Therefore if his go- 
 vernment take place in you, and you become sub- 
 ject, you " become spiritual, the law of the Spirit 
 of Life," having now the possession and the power 
 of you. Nor was it possible he should ever be an 
 effectual benefactor to you, without being thus an 
 overpowering ruler, so do these things run into one 
 another. To let you have your own will, and fol- 
 low your carnal inclination, and cherish and favour 
 you in this course, were to gratify you to your ruin, 
 and concur with you to your being for ever misera- 
 ble : which you may see plainly if you will under- 
 stand wherein your true felicity and blessedness must 
 consist, or consider what was intimated concerning 
 it, in the proposal of this head ; that he is to be 
 
your benefactor, in being to you himself, your su- 
 preme and only satisfying good. He never doth 
 you good effectually and to purpose, till he overcome 
 your carnal inclination. For while that remains, 
 will you ever mind him? Can you love him ? desire 
 after him ? or delight in him ! The first and most 
 fundamental law which he lays upon you is, that 
 " you shall love the Lord your God with all your 
 heart, and soul, and mind, and might." What 
 will become of you if you cannot obey this law? 
 This world will shortly be at an end, and you must, 
 it is like, leave it sooner; you are undone, if your 
 hearts be not before-hand so framed as that you 
 can savour and take complacency in a better and 
 higher good. You will shortly have nothing left 
 you but himself; you will be plucked away from 
 your houses, and lands, and friends, and all your out- 
 ward comforts; and now in what a case are you, if 
 you can take no pleasure or satisfaction in God ! 
 You are therefore to yield up yourself to him in full 
 union, as with your most grateful and delectable 
 good ; with this sense possessing your soul, " Whom 
 have I in heaven but thee ? or whom on earth can 
 I desire besides thee !" 
 
 And thus you are to look upon God in your yield- 
 ing yourselves to him. 
 
 You are to yield yourselves to his claim as your 
 rightful owner. 
 
 To his instruction, as your undeceiving teacher. 
 
 To his government, as your gracious, sovereign 
 ruler. And 
 
 To the enjoyment of him, as your best and most 
 
259 
 
 satisfying good. Or your self-communicating bene- 
 factor. 
 
 But it also concerns you to have distinct and 
 right thoughts of the state of your case, and how 
 things are between him and the sons of men, that 
 you may duly apply yourselves to him in so great a 
 transaction. The gospel under which you live tells 
 you, he treats with men in and by a mediator, his 
 own Son, who came down into this wretched world 
 of ours, in great compassion to our miseries, and 
 took our nature, was here on earth among us an in- 
 carnate God. God manifested in the flesh. Be- 
 cause we were partakers of flesh and blood, he took 
 part with us likewise of the same, and in that na- 
 ture of ours died for us, to make way that we might 
 yield ourselves to God, and be accepted. " No man 
 now comes to the Father, but by him." He must 
 be acknowledged with great reverence, and a most 
 profound homage must be rendered to him. " He 
 that denieth the Son, hath not the Father." And 
 it being his pleasure to treat with us by his Son, and 
 the case requiring that we apply ourselves to him, 
 we are to take notice of him according to those ca- 
 pacities wherein Scripture represents him to us. 
 And it represents him agreeably to those same no- 
 tions according to which we have shown we are to 
 consider God the Father in this matter; so as that 
 Christ being the Mediator between him and us, when 
 we yield ourselves to him ultimately, and finally, un- 
 der the notions that have been mentioned, we are 
 first to yield ourselves to his Son, Christ Jesus our 
 Redeemer, under the like notions. For, 
 
260 
 
 1. Being to yield ourselves to God as our owner, 
 we must know, the Father hath " given all things 
 into the hands of the Son," and that " he is Lord 
 of all," which, in the first sense, signifies him to 
 be, by the Father's constitution, the owner of all 
 things, even as he is the Redeemer. For, he 
 therefore died and rose again, " that he might be 
 Lord of the dead and living," that is, of both 
 worlds ; agreeably to what he himself speaks imme- 
 diately upon his resurrection from the dead; " All 
 power is given to me both in heaven and earth." 
 
 2. And for those other notions of God under 
 which we have shown, we are to yield ourselves to 
 him, as our teacher, ruler, and benefactor, they 
 correspond to that threefold office of Christ, of which 
 you cannot but have heard much, namely, of Pro- 
 phet, King, and Priest, so that we are to commit 
 ourselves to him, when we yield ourselves to God, 
 as a teacher come forth from God, and who reveals 
 him to us whom no man hath seen at any time: 
 as one that must reign over us, and over the great- 
 est on earth, Luke xix. 14 — 27. Psal. ii. 6, 7, 8, 
 9, 10. and by whom we are to be reconciled to 
 God, and restored to the enjoyment of him. 
 
 And because our blind minds and perverse hearts 
 need light and grace from above, to direct and in- 
 cline us hereto, therefore hath the Spirit of the 
 Father and the Son a great work to do in us to 
 this purpose. Whereupon we are to yield ourselves 
 to that blessed Spirit also, as our enlightener and 
 sanctifier ; which our being directed to " walk in 
 the Spirit," and our being told that " they that 
 
261 
 
 have not the Spirit of Christ are none of his," and, 
 " that as many as are the sons of God, are led by 
 his Spirit," do plainly show. 
 
 You see then we are to yield ourselves to God, 
 the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which also our 
 having those great names named upon us in our bap- 
 tism (as we before told you) doth import. 
 
 And how necessary all this is, you will see, if, 
 II. We consider how we are to look upon our- 
 selves in this transaction; that is, 
 
 1. We are to consider ourselves as God's crea- 
 tures, being, as you have heard, to consider him, 
 as our Creator; and so we must reckon we owe our- 
 selves to him, and do but yield him what we owe, 
 and what was his before. For, how can you but be 
 his, who of his mere pleasure hath raised you out of 
 nothing? 
 
 2. We must remember we have been apostate 
 creatures, such as had fallen, and revolted from him; 
 and so our yielding ourselves to him is a giving our- 
 selves back to him, having injuriously withdrawn and 
 withheld ourselves from him before. And because 
 the injury was so great as we could never make any 
 recompense for, therefore it was necessary such a 
 Mediator should be appointed between God and us> 
 for whose sake only we can expect to be accepted 
 when we yield ourselves. So great a Majesty was 
 not to be approached by offending creatures without 
 so great a days-man, and peace-maker. 
 
 3. We must consider ourselves as impure, and 
 every way unfit for the divine presence, service, and 
 converse, and who did therefore need the power of 
 
262 
 
 the Holy Ghost to be put forth upon us to make us 
 fit; and that therefore our case required we should 
 put ourselves into such hands for that purpose. 
 
 4. We are to consider ourselves as under the 
 gospel, as sinners invited and called back to God; 
 as such whose case is not desperate; or who need to 
 abandon ourselves to ruin, though we have greatly 
 offended, as if there were no hope. We are to 
 consider ourselves with distinction from the condition 
 of other fallen creatures. The angels that fell and 
 kept not their first station have no gospel sent to 
 them to invite them back, and persuade them again 
 to yield themselves to God, as you have. Into 
 what a transport should this thought put you ! how 
 should it mollify you ! O what a yielding temper and 
 disposition of spirit should it work in you towards 
 this gracious call, and just challenge, which the 
 great God now gives you, and makes unto you ! 
 
 Thus far then you see how you are to consider 
 God and yourselves in this your yielding yourselves 
 to him. You are now next to consider, 
 
 2. What your yielding yourselves to God accord- 
 ing to such considerations, must include, or be ac- 
 companied with. For it is not reasonable to think 
 you have no more to mind in this matter, than only 
 what is contained in the bare abstract nature of such 
 an act; but looking upon your case in its circum- 
 stances, and considering the state of things between 
 God and you, it greatly concerns you to see to it, 
 that the matter be suitably carried to this state of 
 your case. Whereupon, 
 
 1. Your yielding yourselves to God must be ac- 
 
263 
 
 companied with very deep and serious repentance. 
 It is a most penitential surrender you are now to 
 make of yourselves to him; for you are to remember 
 that you are but now coming back out of a state of 
 apostacy from your Sovereign and most rightful 
 Lord. Yea though you are but renewing your sur- 
 render of yourselves, having done somewhat herein 
 before, you are yet to consider this was your case; 
 and perhaps some never have yet seriously thought 
 of any such thing, but lived in this world hitherto 
 as if you were your own, and there were no Lord 
 over you: O then with what inward remorse, with 
 what brokenness of heart, with what relentings and 
 self-accusings should this thing now be done ! you 
 should come, smiting upon the thigh, and saying 
 within yourselves, What have I done? So long 
 Lord have I lived in this world of thine, which thou 
 madest, and not I, as if I might do in it, and with 
 myself, what I pleased? I have usurped upon thy 
 unquestionable right in me, have lived to myself 
 and not to thee; I am now convinced this w r as a 
 very undutiful, unlawful way of living. Let him 
 hear you (as he once heard Ephraim, or shall do) 
 bemoaning yourselves, and saying, " Turn me and 
 I shall be turned, thou art the Lord my God." 
 How can you think of yielding yourselves now at 
 length to God, without being deeply sensible of 
 your having deferred it so long, and that you have 
 not £ done it sooner? and how great the iniquity was 
 of your former course? that you have all this while 
 committed a continual robbery upon him that gave 
 you breath. Will a man rob God? And if you 
 
264 
 
 say, Wherein have I robbed him? you have robbed 
 him of yourself, a greater thing than of tythes and 
 offerings. And this robbery was sacrilege. For 
 every thing due and devoted to God, hath a sacred- 
 ness upon it; and consider, were you not, upon his 
 just claim, in your baptism devoted to him? how 
 should this startle you? you have constantly aliena- 
 ted from him a sacred thing ! You have been in a 
 continual contest with him about one of the highest 
 rights of his Sovereignty, yea, and of his Godhead, 
 for to that, nothing is more peculiar than to be 
 Lord of all. So that the controversy between him 
 and you hath been, who shall be God? You have 
 refused him his own creature: How high a crime 
 was this ? Know then you have been a great trans- 
 gressor, a grievous revolter, and now therefore yield 
 yourself to him with a melting broken heart, or you 
 do nothing. 
 
 2. It must be done with great deliberation; not 
 as the mere effect of a sudden fright. What is done 
 in a rash haste may be as soon undone. Leisurely 
 consider, and take the whole compass of the case; 
 weigh with yourselves the mentioned grounds upon 
 which you are to yield yourselves, and the ends you 
 are to do it for, that things may be set right between 
 him and you, that you may return into your own 
 natural place and station, that you may be again 
 stated in that subordination to your Sovereign Lord 
 which fitly belongs to you ; that he may have his 
 right which he claims, and you the mercy which you 
 need. Llere is place for much consideration. And 
 when Israel is complained of as less willing to ac- 
 
265 
 
 knowledge God for his owner and master, than the 
 ox and ass were to acknowledge theirs, all is resolv- 
 ed into this, that the people did not consider, Isa. i. 
 
 3. It must be done with judgment, which is the 
 effect of such consideration. When all things have 
 been well weighed that belong to this case, then let 
 this formed judgment pass, Lord, I ought to be 
 thine, and no others. Say to him hereupon, with 
 a convinced judgment and conscience, O God, I 
 surrender myself, as now seeing none hath that 
 right in me that thou hast; when the love of Christ 
 becomes constraining upon souls, it is because they 
 thus judge, that " they ought no longer to live to 
 themselves, but to him." These things last men- 
 tioned will imply a rectified mind, which must be 
 ingredient into this transaction, else it will be defec- 
 tive throughout. 
 
 4. It must be done with a fulness of consent; 
 and herein it chiefly consists, when the soul says, 
 Lord, I am now most entirely willing to be thine : 
 This is your " yielding yourselves." And hereby 
 the covenant is struck between God and you, which 
 consists in the expressed consent of the parties cov- 
 enanting in the matters about which the covenant is. 
 This covenant is about the parties themselves, who 
 covenant, as the conjugal covenant is, which resem- 
 bles it; namely, that they shall be one anothers. 
 God hath expressed his consent in his word and 
 gospel, making therein the first overture to you. 
 When you rejoin your own consent, the thing is 
 done: this being the sum of his covenant, " I will 
 be your God, and you shall be my people," as in 
 
 M 
 
266 
 
 many places of Scripture it is gathered up. When 
 therefore, as God hath openly testified his willing- 
 ness to be their God who shall accept and take him 
 to be so, you also are willing and do consent too, you 
 do now " take hold on his covenant," matters are 
 agreed between him and you; and you may take 
 those words as spoken to you particularly; " I have 
 entered into covenant with thee, and thou art become 
 mine, Ezek. xvi. 8. 
 
 But then you must take notice that this is to be 
 done with a full consent, which that is said to be 
 which determines you, though it be not absolutely 
 perfect. No grace in any faculty is perfect in this 
 life. But as in human affairs, that will is said to be 
 full, which is the spring of answerable following ac- 
 tions, so it is here. If a man have some inclination 
 to do this or that, and do it not, it goes for nothing; 
 if he do it, his will is said to be full, though he have 
 some remaining disinclination. You may be said to 
 yield yourselves to God, with a full consent, when 
 you live afterwards as one devoted to him. 
 
 5. Your yielding yourselves to God must carry 
 life in it, as the following words signify: " Yield 
 yourselves to God as those that are alive from the 
 dead." It must be a vital act, and have vigour in 
 it. You must be capable of making that true judg- 
 ment of your case, as it is verse 11. " of reckoning 
 truly that you are dead to sin, but alive to God 
 through Jesus Christ." Do it as feeling life to 
 spring in your souls towards God in your yielding 
 yourselves to him. What ! will you offer God a 
 carcass ? not the " living sacrifice," which you see 
 
267 
 
 is required, Rom. xii. 1. Beg earnestly for his own 
 Spirit of life and power, that may enable you to offer 
 up a living soul to the living God. 
 
 6. There must be faith in your yielding your- 
 selves. For it is a committing, or intrusting your- 
 selves to God, with the expectation of being saved, 
 and made happy by him. So Scripture speaks of it, 
 " I know whom I have believed, (or trusted) and 
 that he is able to keep what I have committed to 
 him against that day." It is suitable to the gra- 
 cious nature of God, to his excellent greatness, to 
 his design, to the mediatorship of his Son, to his 
 promise and gospel-covenant, and to your own neces- 
 sities, and the exigency of your own lost, undone 
 state, that you so yield yourselves to him, as a poor 
 creature ready to perish, expecting, not for your sake, 
 but his own, to be accepted, and to find mercy with 
 him. You do him the honour which he seeks, and 
 which is most worthy of a God, the most excellent, 
 and a self-sufficient being, when you do thus. You 
 answer the intention of the whole gospel-consti- 
 tion, which bears this inscription, " to the praise of 
 the glory of his grace,'' &c. It is honourable to him 
 when you take his word, that they that believe in his 
 Son, shall not perish, but have everlasting life. 
 You herein set to your seal that he is true, and the 
 more fully, and with the more significancy, when 
 upon the credit of it you yield yourselves, with an 
 assurance that he will not destroy nor reject a poor 
 creature that yields to him, and casts itself upon his 
 mercy. 
 
 7. Another ingredient into this yielding of your- 
 M2 
 
268 
 
 selves must be love. As faith, in your yielding 
 yourselves to God, aims at your own welfare and 
 salvation; so love, in doing it, intends his service, 
 and all the duty to him you are capable of doing him. 
 You must be able to give this as the true reason of 
 your act, and to resolve it into this principle; I yield 
 myself to God, because I love him, and from the 
 unfeigned love I bear to him: to tell the world, if 
 there were occasion, he hath captivated my heart 
 with his excellencies and his love, and hereupon 
 having nothing else, I tender myself to him, to tell 
 himself, " Lord, thou knowest all things, thou 
 knowest that I love thee;" and because I do, I pre- 
 sent myself to thee; it is all I can do. I wish my- 
 self ten thousand times better for thy blessed sake; 
 and if I had in me all the excellencies of many thou- 
 sand angels, I were too mean a thing, and such as 
 nothing but thy own goodness could count worthy 
 thine acceptance; because I love thee, I covet to be 
 near thee, I covet to be thine, I covet to lead my life 
 with thee, to dwell in thy presence ; far be it from 
 me to be as without thee in the world as heretofore. 
 I love thee, O Lord, my strength, because thine own 
 perfections highly deserve it, and because thou hast 
 heard my voice, and hast delivered my soul from 
 death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from fall- 
 ing, and I yield myself to thee, because I love thee. 
 I make an offer of myself to be thy servant; thy 
 servant, O Lord, thou hast loosed my bonds; and 
 now I desire to bind myself in new ones to thee, 
 that are never to be loosed." And you can make 
 no doubt but that it ought to be done therefore with 
 
269 
 
 dispositions and a temper suitable to the state you 
 are now willing to come into, that of a devoted ser- 
 vant; namely, 
 
 8. With great reverence and humility. For, 
 consider to whom you are tendering yourself; to the 
 " high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity:" 
 To him that hath " Heaven for his throne, and 
 Earth for his footstool;" and in comparison of whom 
 all the inhabitants of the world are but as grasshop- 
 pers, and the " nations of the earth as the drop of 
 a bucket, and the dust of the balance." Yea to him 
 against whom you have sinned, and before whose 
 pure eyes, you cannot, in yourself, but appear most 
 offensively impure; so that you have reason to be 
 ashamed and blush to lift up your eyes before him. 
 
 9. And yet it surely ought to be with great joy 
 and gladness of heart, that he hath expressed him- 
 self willing to accept such as you, and that he hath 
 made you willing to yield yourselves. The very 
 thought should make your heart leap and spring 
 within you, that he should ever have bespoken such 
 as we are to yield ourselves to him ! when he might 
 have neglected us, and let us wander endlessly, with- 
 out ever looking after us more. How should it 
 glad your hearts this day, to have such a message 
 brought you from the great God, and which you 
 find is written in his own word, to yield yourselves 
 to him ! Should not your hearts answer with won- 
 der; " And blessed Lord ! Art thou willing again 
 to have to do with us ! who left thee having no cause, 
 and who returning can be of no use to thee !" O 
 blessed be God that we may yield ourselves back 
 
270 
 
 unto him ! that we are invited and encouraged to it. 
 And you have cause to bless God, and rejoice, if 
 this day you feel your heart willing to yield your- 
 selves to him, and become his. Do you indeed 
 find yourselves willing? You " are willing in the day 
 of his power." This is the day of his power upon 
 your hearts. Many are called and refuse; he f* of- 
 ten stretches out his hands, and no man regards." 
 Perhaps you have been called upon often before this 
 day to do the same thing, and neglected it, had no 
 heart to it; and he might have said to you : Now I 
 will never treat with you more; if you should call, I 
 will not hear; if you stretch out your hands, I will 
 not regard it, but laugh at your destruction, and 
 mock when your fear cometh. But if now he is 
 pleased to call once more> your hearts do answer: 
 Lord, here we are, we are now ready to surrender 
 ourselves ; you may conclude he hath " poured out 
 his Spirit upon you :" The Spirit of the Lord is now 
 moving upon this assembly: this is indeed a joyful 
 day, the day which he hath himself made and you 
 ought to rejoice and be glad in it. When the 
 people in David's days offered of their substance to 
 God for the service of his house, it is said, " the 
 people rejoiced for that they offered willingly." And 
 David, we are told, " blessed God before all the 
 congregation" — saying, " Thine, O Lord, is the 
 greatness and the power — But who am I, and what 
 is my people, that we should be able to offer so wil- 
 lingly after this sort ? for all things come of thee, 
 and of thine own have we given thee." If you are 
 this day willing to offer yourselves, how much is 
 
271 
 
 this a greater thing ! and it comes of him, and it is 
 of his own you are now giving him; for he had a 
 most unquestionable right in you before. 
 
 10. You should do it with solemnity. For have 
 you ever had a business of greater importance to 
 transact in all your days ? If you were to dispose 
 of an estate, or a child, would you not have all 
 things be as express, and clear, as may be; and 
 would not they insist to have it so, with whom you 
 deal in any such affair? And is there not a solem- 
 nity belonging to all such transactions ? especially if 
 you were to dispose of yourself; as in the conjugal 
 covenant? though that is to be but for this short 
 uncertain time of life; so as that the relation you 
 enter into to-day, may be by death dissolved and 
 broken off again to-morrow : How much more ex- 
 plicit, clear, and solemn, should this your covenant- 
 ing with God in Christ be? wherein you are to 
 make over your soul to him ? and for eternity. You 
 are to become his, under the bond of an everlasting 
 covenant. You are entering a relation never to be 
 broken off. This God is to be your God for ever 
 and ever, and upon the same terms you are to be his. 
 Is your immortal soul of less account with you than 
 the temporal concerns of a mortal child, that you 
 are placing out but for a term of years that soon ex- 
 pires ? yea, or than a piece of ground, or a horse, 
 or a sheep, about which how punctual and express 
 are your bargains and contracts wont to be ? Or are 
 only the matters of your soul, and wherein you have 
 to do with the great God, to be slightly managed? 
 or to be huddled up in confusion ? or to be slid over 
 
272 
 
 in silent intimations ? It is true, that so express and 
 solemn dealing in yielding and giving up yourselves 
 to God, is not needful on his part, who understands 
 sincerity without any expression of yours ; but it is 
 needful on your part, that a deep and lasting im- 
 pression may be made upon your spirits ; which if 
 you be sincere, you will not only feel yourselves to 
 need, but your own temper and inclination will 
 prompt you to it; accounting you can never be un- 
 der bonds strong and sure enough to him. You will 
 not only apprehend necessity, but will relish and 
 taste pleasure in any such transaction with the bles- 
 sed God, in avouching him to be your God, and 
 yourself to be his. The more solemn it is, the more 
 grateful it will be to you. 
 
 Do so then: fall before his throne; prostrate 
 yourself at his footstool; and having chosen your fit 
 season, when nothing may interrupt you; and having 
 shut up yourself with him, pour out your soul to 
 him; tell him you are now come on purpose to offer 
 yourself to him as his own. O that you would 
 not let this night pass without doing so ! Tell him 
 you have too long neglected him, and forgotten to 
 whom you belonged ; humbly beseech him for his 
 pardon, and that he will now accept of you, for your 
 Redeemer's sake, as being through his grace re- 
 solved never to live so great a stranger to him, or be 
 such a wanderer from him more. And when you 
 have done so, remember the time; let it be with you 
 a noted memorable day, as you would be sure to keep 
 the day in memory when you became such-a-one's 
 servant or tenant, or your marriage-day : renew this 
 your agreement with God often, but forget it never. 
 
273 
 
 Perhaps some may say, But what needs all this? 
 were we not once devoted and given up to God in 
 baptism? and is not that sufficient? To what pur- 
 pose should we do again a thing that hath once been 
 so solemnly done? 
 
 But here I desire you to consider, Are you never 
 to become the Lord's, by your own choice? Are 
 you always to be Christians, only by another's 
 Christianity, not by your own? And again, have 
 you not broken your baptismal vow? have you not 
 forgot it for the most part ever since? I am afraid 
 too many never think of any such a matter at all, 
 that ever they were devoted to God by others, but 
 only upon such an occasion as this, to make it an 
 excuse that they may never do such a thing them- 
 selves. And consider, were these Christian Ro- 
 mans, on whom the apostle presses this duty, never 
 baptized, think you ? Read over the foregoing part 
 of the chapter, wherein you find him putting them in 
 mind that they had been baptized into Christ's death, 
 and buried with him in baptism, and that therefore 
 this was to be an argument to them why they should 
 yield themselves to God; not why they should not. 
 
 Wherefore our way is now plain and open to 
 what we have further to do, namely, 
 
 2. To apply this practical doctrine, and press the 
 precept further upon you, which hath been opened 
 to you, and pressed by parts in some measure al- 
 ready, in our insisting on the several heads, which 
 you have seen do belong to it ; and are one way or 
 other comprehended in it. Which will therefore 
 make this latter part of our work the shorter, and 
 
274 
 
 capable of being despatched in the fewer words; and 
 with blessed effect, if the Spirit of the living God 
 shall vouchsafe to co-operate, and deal with your 
 hearts and mine. Shall we then all agree upon this 
 thing ? shall we unite in one resolution, We will be 
 the Lord's ? shall every one say in his own heart, 
 for my part, I will, and so will I, and so will I ? 
 Come now, one and all. This is no unlawful con- 
 federacy, it is a blessed combination ! " Come 
 then, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpe- 
 tual covenant, not to be forgotten." With what- 
 soever after-solemnity, you may renew this obliga- 
 tion, and bond of God upon your souls, as I hope 
 you will do it, every one apart, in your closets, or in 
 any corner, and you cannot do it too fully, or too 
 often : yet let us now all resolve the thing; and this 
 assembly make a joint surrender, and oblation of it- 
 self to the great God our Sovereign rightful Lord, 
 through our blessed Redeemer and Mediator, by the 
 eternal Spirit, (which I hope is breathing and at 
 work among us,) as one living sacrifice, as all of us, 
 alive from the dead, to be for ever sacred to him? 
 O blessed assembly ! O happy act and deed ! With 
 how grateful and well-pleasing an odour will the 
 kindness and dutifulness of this offering ascend, and 
 be received above! God will accept, heaven will 
 rejoice, Angels will concur, and gladly fall in with 
 us. We hereby adjoin ourselves in relation, and 
 in heart and spirit, to the general assembly, to the 
 church of the first-born ones written in heaven, to 
 the innumerable company of angels, and to the spirits 
 of just men made perfect, and within a little while 
 
shall be actually among them. Is it possible there 
 should be now among us any dissenting vote? Con- 
 sider, 
 
 1. It is a plain and unquestionable thing you are 
 pressed unto. A thing that admits of no dispute, 
 and against which you have nothing to say, and 
 about which you cannot but be already convinced. 
 And it is a matter full of danger, and upon which 
 tremendous consequences depend, to go on in any 
 practice, or in any neglect, against a conviction of 
 judgment and conscience. For your own heart and 
 conscience must condemn you if you consider, and 
 it betrays you if you consider not. How fearful a 
 thing is it for a man to carry his own doom in his 
 own bosom ! to go up and down the world with a 
 self-condemning heart, if it be awake, and which if 
 it be not, yet cannot sleep always, and must awake 
 with the greater terror at length. And in so plain 
 a case it is most certainly God's deputy, and speaks 
 his mind; " If our hearts condemn us, God is 
 greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things." 
 
 2. It is that, therefore, the refusal whereof none 
 of you would avow. Who among us can have the 
 confidence to stand forth and say, " I will be none 
 of the Lord's?" Would any man be content to 
 go with this writ upon his forehead from day to day ? 
 And doth not that signify such a refusal to be a 
 shameful thing? That must needs be an ill temper 
 of mind which one would be ashamed any one should 
 know. 
 
 3. And it is a mean thing to dissemble, to be 
 willing to be thought, and counted what we are not, 
 or to do what in truth we do not. 
 
276 
 
 4. And considering what inspection we are under, 
 it is a vain thing. For do we not know that " eyes 
 which are as a flame of fire," behold us, and pierce 
 into our very souls ? Do we not know, " all things 
 in us are naked and manifest to him with whom we 
 have to do ?" And that he discerns it, if there be 
 any heart among us that is not sincere in this thing ? 
 
 5. Consider that this is the very design of the gos- 
 pel you live under. What doth it signify or intend, 
 but to recall apostate creatures back again to God? 
 What is the Christian Religion you profess, but a 
 state of devotedness to God, under the conduct, 
 and through the mediation of Christ ? You frus- 
 trate the gospel, and make your religion a nullity, 
 and an empty name, till you do this. 
 
 6. And how will you lift up your heads at last in 
 the great day? and before this God the judge 
 of all ? You cannot now plead ignorance. If per- 
 haps any among you have been formerly so expressly 
 called, and urged to this yielding yourselves to 
 God ; now you are : and from his own plain word 
 it is charged upon you. Will not this be remem- 
 bered hereafter ? What will you say, when the 
 great God, whose creature you are, speaks to you 
 with the voice of thunder, and bids you gird up your 
 loins, and give him an answer ? " Were you not, 
 on such a day, in such a place, demanded and claim- 
 ed in my name ? Were you not told, were you not 
 convinced you ought to yield yourselves to me, and 
 yet you did it not ? Are you prepared to contest 
 with your Maker? Where is your right, where is 
 your power, to stand against me in this contest ?" 
 
277 
 
 7. But if you sincerely yield yourselves, the main 
 controversy is at an end between the great God and 
 you. All your former sins are pardoned and done 
 away at once. Those glad tidings you have often 
 heard that import nothing but " glory to God in 
 the highest, peace on earth, and good will towards 
 men," plainly show, that the great God whom you 
 had offended, hath no design to destroy you, but 
 only to make you yield, and give him back his own. 
 Though you have formerly lived a wandering life, 
 and been as a vagabond on the earth from your true 
 owner, it will be all forgotten. How readily was 
 the returning prodigal received ! and so will you. 
 How quiet rest will you have this night, when 
 upon such terms there is a reconciliation between 
 God and you ! You have given him his own, and 
 he is pleased, and most of all for this, that he hath 
 received you now to save you. You were his to de- 
 stroy before, now you are his to save. He could 
 easily destroy you against your will, but it is only 
 with your will, he having made you willing, that he 
 must save you. And his bidding you yield, implies 
 his willingness to do so. O how much of gospel is 
 there in this invitation to yield yourselves to God ! 
 consider it as the voice of grace. Will he that 
 bids a poor wretch yield itself, reject or destroy 
 when it doth so? 
 
 8. And how happily may you now live the rest 
 of your days in this world. You will live under 
 his care, for will he not take care of his own, those 
 that are of his own house ? An Infidel would. 
 You are now of his family, under his immediate 
 government, and under his continual blessing. 
 
278 
 
 And were you now to give an account where you 
 have been to day, and what you have been doing : 
 if you say, you have been engaged this day in a 
 solemn treaty with the Lord of heaven and earth, 
 about yielding yourselves to him: And it be further 
 asked ? Well, and what was the issue ? Have you 
 agreed? Must you, any of you be obliged by the 
 truth of the case to say, No: astonishing answer! 
 What ! hast thou been treating with the great 
 God, the God of thy life, and not agreed ! What, 
 man! Did he demand of thee any unreasonable 
 thing ! Only to yield thyself. Why that was *in 
 all the world the most reasonable thing. Wretch- 
 ed creature, whither now wilt thou go? W^hat 
 wilt thou do with thyself? Where wilt thou lay thy 
 hated head? But if you can say, Blessed be God, 
 I gladly agreed to the proposal : he gave me the 
 grace not to deny him: then may it be said this 
 was a good day's work, and you will have cause to 
 bless God for this day as long as you have a day 
 to live. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 Printed by W. Collins & Co. Glasgow. 
 
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