Chapter 14: The drawing mens hearts to a happy choice
THe Lord then persuade your heart to change your choice; change it, or else you art lost, better you hadst never been born, then that you should not change your choice; O that now you hadst wisdom for eternity! whatever your ways have been, now at last in this your day, learn to know the evil of them, to renounce them, to embrace the ways of godliness, and let it be sufficient, that you have spent so much time in the ways of sin, and giving content to your flesh. O that this may be the day of your new choice, that you may bless God for this day, that God did this day dart in some truths, to turn the streams of your soul another way, to make another, choice! that there might be before you goest out of the presence of God, a secret frame of spirit, surrendring your soul unto God, being convinced of your evil choice, and say, O Lord, how have I lived? What has my course been? the Lord knows my course has been to give content to my flesh, and to live bravely in my life; now God begins to make me afraid, lest I have been in a dangerous false way; the Lord have mercy upon me, what have I done? Is it not time to look about me? I have all this time miscarried in the choice of my soul for my everlasting estate, I have chosen the ways of death all this while.
O that the fear of God might fall upon your hearts this day! and then the promise of God is, Psalm 25:12 Who is the man that fears the Lord, him will he teach in the way that he shall choose. The fear of God will put you into a teachable frame, and the Lord delights to teach such; and surely it is an unspeakable blessing of God, to be taught in the way of our choice. How happy were it, if the Lord would put a reasoning frame into your hearts, that you might begin to ponder, and weigh things, and if spiritual arguments cannot prevail, yet let us see whether they you reasonable Creatures or no; Esay 46:8 Remember, and show yourselves men, bring to mind, O ye transgressors! Come, let us reason together; Is there not infinite reason for Gods ways more then those ways you have walked in? Is not God infinitely worthy of honor and praise from you, other manner of honor and praise then he has had from you, your own consciences being judges? Has not God given you immortal souls? and are they not capable of better things then these things that you have chosen for your chiefest good? Has not God made you for a higher end, then to eat, and drink, and play? What, did the blessed Trinity consult to make a glorious creature, Come, let us make man, according to our own image: and when this great work is done, is he made for no other end then to eat and drink, and commit wickedness? What, is not man to live by rule? indeed no creatures but Angels and men, have a rule to walk by, no creature is capable of knowing a rule but they.
What if so be that now you were to dye, what would comfort you? if God should put an end to your days, and call you to an account for your ways, what account could you give to the great and dreadful God, of your ways and life? would your ways be peace? It may be you thinkest you mayest have your pleasure, and that which is spoken out of the word by the Ministers, you can avoid, and there are no such things as you hearest; but what if those things that we deliver, concerning the evil of sin, and the danger of that way of sin, should prove true? then wo unto you, if all your comfort depends upon this, you hopest these things that we preach are not true; and is not this all the support of your comfort, which if it fail, you art lost for ever? Certainly, if that glory of God, and that eternal estate we preach so much of be true, it is worth the venturing of the loss of greater pleasures and delights, then any you hast in your seeking after them: make but a supposition, What if it should be so, is it not worth the venturing? You will do so in other things, the very supposition of a great gain, or possibility of great evil, will make you venture much: God does not call you to venture much, they are poor things that you are persuaded to leave, and be not too confident in your way, all that is written in the word may be true, and if it be but possible, yet be so wise as upon a supposition to venture.
O that you would make tryal of the ways of God! If once your hearts were in them, whereby you would be satisfied, as to want none of these pleasures, it would make the moderation of them more pleasant then the excess: You would finde more pleasure in the very act of self-denial, then in all the pleasure of your lives; and if there be so much pleasure in the denying false pleasure, what then is there in the enjoying true? Surely God has pleasure enough for you, if you had a heart to trust him with your pleasure; you shall only lose your sin, not your pleasure. Bernard has a notable expression in a declamation of his De bonis deserendis; If you be willing, says he, to sacrifice your Isaac, which signifies laughter, that is your pleasure, your Isaac, your pleasure shall not dye; it is the Ram, that is, your stoutness of spirit, yourself-willedness that shall dye; but Isaac shall live, you shall have pleasure still. Do not harbor ill thoughts of God, to think that God is an enemy to your pleasure, and delight, he does not delight to grieve the spirits of men; if you would trust him with your pleasure, you should have pleasure, it may be in this world, but howsoever in the conclusion you shall have pleasure enough, my soul for your. You must trust God with your souls, and eternal conditions, and will you not trust him with your pleasures? Do you think Christ came to dye, and shed his precious blood to bring men into worser conditions then before? O no, certainly Christ did not come to take away any pleasure from his people, but to bring them the pleasures of Heaven, and of earth too, so far as they are needful. Is it not more like you should have pleasure when you art reconciled to God, then when you art an enemy?
We read of Cajus the Emperor, (Agrippa having suffered Imprisonment for wishing him to be Emperor) that afterward when he came to be Emperor, the first thing he did was to prefer Agrippa, and gave him a Chain of Gold, as heavy as the Chain of Iron that was upon him in Prison: And so if any do suffer for God, do you think that God will let him lose by him? Suppose you have a Servant about your business, and he suffers much trouble and opposition, will you not recompence him for that which he suffers for your sake? Do you think that God will let his people sink in their sufferings for him? God forbid we should have any such thoughts of him.
Do not judge of the ways of God by outward appearance, but judge according to the true value and worth of things: Shall we in other things judge according to the value and worth of things, and only in the ways of God, judge by outward appearance, and not according to the worth? Do but come near to the ways of godliness, you will finde them other things then you imagine: As Peter Martyr had a speech in his Sermon, that was the means of that Marquess Galeacius his conversion: If so be, says he, one should see a company of Musitians, that areplaying and dancing according to their art, a great way off, he would think that they were mad men; but if he come nearer and nearer, and hear the melodious sound of the musique, and observe their art in all they do, he will be of another mind: And so men of the world look upon Gods people afar off, and think them mad men to take such courses; but if they would come nearer, and observe their ways, and see the equity and reason, and observe the excellency and beauty that is in them, they would be of other mindes.
You that have hard thoughts of Gods way, you have looked upon them as things a great way off; come nearer, pry into them a little further, make tryal of them a little, that you may have experience of them, you will think otherwise of them; if it were possible for you to enter upon Gods ways with the same base hearts that you have, Gods ways would indeed be tedious, but if you enter into the ways of God, your hearts will be changed, and you will be other men; and when your hearts are changed, those things that were grievous to you, will be delightful to you. St. Augustine in his Confessions has this notable expression: How sweet was it to me of a sudden, to be without those sweet vanities? And those things which I was afraid to lose, with joy I let go, for you who art the true and only sweetness, didst cast out those from me, and instead of them didst enter in yourself, who art more delightful then all pleasure, more clear then all light, but it was not thus with me heretofore when I sate in darkness.
Now if you have any conviction at all, tell me, Are you willing to enter into the ways of God? Do you think them worthy of regard, if it were not for trouble and affliction? Then so it stands, if you were not to suffer affliction, you would embrace them; and what an ignoble spirit is this, unbeseeming a Christian, whose spirit should have true Nobility and Magnanimity, and you come off thus basely, If you should never suffer, if have no trouble! Truly God is much beholden to you (as we may speak with holy reverence;) you would have God choose you, notwithstanding all your sins that are grievous to him: Why will not you choose God and his ways, notwithstanding the afflictions and sufferings that are grievous to you? Do you think the sufferings you are like to meet withal in Gods ways, are more grievous to you, then your sins are to him? Yet notwithstanding your sins, he chooses you; Why notwithstanding the sufferings you may meet with, should not you choose him? Suppose Christ had stood upon these terms, and said, It is true, I see poor wretched sinful man ready to perish, and must lie under the wrath of an infinite God, and it pities me to see his misery, and I could be content to redeem him, but I must suffer so much, be in the form of a servant, and be despised, and persecuted, and suffer a cursed death, and therefore let him rather perish: If Christ had stood at this, what had become of you? Yet you stand at this. Gods ways are good, my ways are evil; I could be content to embrace Gods ways; but I must suffer: If Christ did not make a stand at this, when he saw your misery, but was content to redeem you, and brake through all sufferings; Why should not you be content to embrace him in his ways through all sufferings? Why should not your hearts be convinced by that which has so much reason in it?
It is reported of one Marinus a Soldier, when it fell to him to be preferred in some place, he was like to lose it because he was a Christian, and he began to stagger, and to have thoughts rather to leave off Religion, then to lose his place: Then came one Theodistus, and brings him into the Temple, and laid by him the Sword and the Testament, the Gospel, and bade him take his choice: Here is the Sword, which is an emblem of your place, and here is the Gospel, choose the one, you must have but one: Then his heart gave in, and so left the Sword, and chose the Gospel. The wisdom of God this day has stood, and still stands before you, pleading with you, crying to you to come in and embrace her, to make a happy choice for your soul; folly likewise has her pleadings, and persuasions to draw you to the lusts of the flesh, both make their offers unto you; as they say of Hercules when he was yong, he saw vertue and vice in the likeness of two Virgins wooing him, vice like a painted Harlot, and vertue like a sober chaste Virgin, both presenting themselves with wooing offers unto him.
It is very observable that we finde, Prov. 9. concerning wisdom and the foolish woman, both pleading to draw the hearts of men to them, and they begin in the same manner, they both make offers to draw the heart, ver. 4. Who so is simple, let him turn in hither; as for him that wanteth understanding, she says to him; and verse 16. the foolish woman uses the same words to draw after her: and as wisdom is upon the high places of the City, ver. 3. so is folly, ver. 15. yet wisdom is above the foolish woman, for the Text says of wisdom, she is upon the highest places, and of the foolish woman, it is only said, she is in the high places: And observe further, Wisdom calls to eat her bread, and drink her wine, ver. 5. and the foolish woman makes her offer, her delights are sweet, she says; but they are but sweet waters, and that stoln too; and her bread, she says, is pleasant; but it is secret, such as she is even ashamed of her self: In the choice that wisdom presents, and that which folly presents, you have life and death set before you; as Moses therefore said to the people, so I to you, I have set before you this day life and death: Now what answer will you give to God? Will you go on in the ways of the pleasure of the flesh? Are your hearts so bold and venturous, that you dare venture to go on in these ways? Wo unto you for the cursed hardness of your hearts. Were it indeed that you never heard the ways of God opened to you, it were another matter, but in that you have, and yet you go on in your choice after this Sermon, God may say, Be it unto you as you hast chosen; God may set to his seal, you hast chosen vanities, and a lye, and base pleasures; and vanities, and a lye, and base pleasures to your flesh you shall have.
Therefore that you mayest be delivered from this seal this night, O consider what a mercy of God it is that you hast yet time to make your choice. How many has God cast off? And now it is too late to choose; God has determined the business; O that yet there should be time! O that this would move your hearts! We are fain thus to labor, and strive with mens spirits to take them off from vain pleasures, to urge the strength of all arguments we can, with all our might; were it that mens hearts were not very sensual, and hardened in their sensuality, it would not be needful thus to strive, the very propounding some one argument, might be sufficient to prevail. It was a speech of Gregory Nyssen, who lived almost thirteen hundred years ago; He that does but hear of Hell, is without any further labor or study taken off from sinful pleasures: Mens hearts are grown harder since.
But what if I should come in now? I who have given so much pleasure to the flesh, would God accept of me, and regard me?
Be it known unto you, you that hast given yourself liberty in injoying the pleasures of the flesh to the utmost, you that hast been most wretched, if you hast a heart to come in this day, and turn your choice, God is yet ready to embrace you; we have commission to offer grace and mercy to you upon your recalling yourself, yea, we have a promise, you shall have abundance of mercy, if you have a heart to come in. Prov. 1. 22, 23. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof, behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. If any of you have gone so far when we have spoken against the pleasures of the flesh, and for the ways of godliness, you have scorned the word of the Lord; if you have been scorners, and contemners, yet turn and make your choice better. Behold, I will pour out my Spirit toyou; When God pours forth his Spirit, he pours forth his grace, and mercy and goodness; you see the offer of God, if you have hearts yet to make choice of his ways.
And consider, the longer you have stayed in the satisfying yourselves in the pleasures of the flesh, the more unfit will you be to suffer hard things for God. O give in your answer, and say, The Lord forbid I should go on in my former ways; I see other things I have to regard, peace with God, pardon of sin that I have to look after, let God reveal to me what his good will and pleasure is, and though I should never enjoy good day in the flesh, yet I give myself up to that way of God. O that there might come this voice up to Heaven this night, that your souls may be blessed for ever in this days choice! And if God do begin to stir your hearts, now take the opportunity, choose the things that please him, and take hold of the Covenant; if you be convinced of the good ways of God, now close with them, cleave to them, let your hearts fasten, take such fast hold of the Covenant, as you may never let it go. Observe how these two are joined together, Isaiah 56:4 Choose the things that please me, and take hold of my Covenant; Take hold now, for it is your life.
