Book 6

Revelation 3:17. Because you say I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and know not that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

The general nature of preparation has been opened [illegible], and those common circumstances, that were of special consideration have been [illegible][illegible], [illegible][illegible] the freeness of the work, and the fitness of the time that the Lord is pleased to take, to bring the [illegible] of his [illegible][illegible] in that spiritual good that was provided and stored up for them in the Lord Jesus. We are now to inquire about the main and substantial parts of this so great a work.

And these are two:

- 1 The dispensation of this work as it comes from God. - 2 The frame and disposition which is wrought in the soul thereby.

For this work of preparation being a transient work as it proceeds from God, that is, a work which so passes from God to the creature as the proper subject about which it is exercised, as that it leaves some real impression, some alteration and change in the creature, and therefore it implies necessarily as the [illegible] who [illegible] prepare, and who are prepared, so also the manner of the working of the one who does it, and the disposition of the other who does [illegible] the impression thereof: and hence in these two the whole nature of preparation is taken up, as the nature of the whole is fully comprehended in the parts. The manner of God's dispensation in this, may thus be conceived and described.

It is that whereby the soul, settled in the security of its sinful condition and wholly unwilling to be severed from it, is by [illegible] holy kind of violence driven there [illegible], and drawn to Christ by God the [illegible].

Where we may attend these particulars:

- 1 The soul naturally is settled in a sinful security, or is dead asleep in the security of a sinful condition. - 2 It is unwilling to be severed therefrom; it is death to part with its distemper; it is against the [illegible] and the heart, to have its corruption plucked away from it, to be awakened out of this sleep. - 3 That with a holy kind of violence it is driven out of this condition, and drawn to Christ by the hand of the Father.

We shall pursue these particulars in the order proposed, and briefly handle the two first only to make way to a clear discovery, and right understanding of the last point.

For the two first being apprehended in the full breadth of them, the necessity and mysterious depth of God's dispensation in the last will appear with greater evidence, and be more easily conceived, and assented to with greater readiness.

For the ground of the first point we have chosen the words of this text, (Revelation 3:17), where we have the different, indeed the contrary judgment of the Lord, and the Church of Laodicea touching their spiritual estate and condition. They sat down [reconstructed: well pleased] in the apprehension, indeed the admiration of their own happiness, and professed they had as much as they needed, and were as good as they desired to be: when as the Lord who knew better, and could judge better of their condition, passes a peremptory sentence to the contrary, that they were wretched, poor, and blind, and naked. They wanted not either wretchedness or misery, but wanted sense of either, and that was the reason they were secure under both.

Here then we see the manner of a graceless heart, of one [illegible] his natural estate before the Lord set upon the soul: they need nothing in their own apprehension though indeed they have nothing; they see no evil nor danger toward them, though they be compassed and beset on every side with sins and plagues. Men naturally are most secure in their sins, when they are most under the power and plague of them. See how [reconstructed: well pleased] they sit down in the present frame of their hearts (for it is spiritually meant as appears by the opposition, in the counsel which is administered in the following verse, I counsel you to buy of [illegible] eye salve, that you may see, white raiment and be zealous and repent) but I say, see how they please themselves in this present condition; if all men were as well contented with them as they are with themselves, they would be no better, and they conceive they should be no other. They neither need, [illegible] should alter their condition, nor yet be disquieted with what it is; it is as good as they would have it. This is the meaning of the parable: When the strong man keeps the house, all is in peace (Luke 11:[illegible]). As long as Satan has the world at will, does all, and disposes of all according to his own mind, there is no opposition, and so no distraction, nor trouble. Wicked men go as they are led; so the Apostle's speaking of the Corinthians in [illegible], natural condition (1 Corinthians 12:2), all go one way, and all is at [illegible]. They imagine their estates as safe as any other [illegible] therefore it is needless [illegible] disquiet themselves. So they who lifted themselves against Moses and Aaron, and concluded their penny as good silver as theirs, ([illegible] 16:3), Are not all the [illegible] of the Lord [illegible]? You take too much upon you. They imagine it is the pride and singularity of some men, who require more strictness and a higher strain of holiness [illegible] is needful, that they may be [illegible] more than ordinary, and so draw the eyes of men toward them, [illegible] so raise a greater account of them than they do [illegible]; or else it is the simplicity and feebleness of [illegible] who having some men's persons in admiration [illegible] easy to believe more than they should, or [illegible] a greater excellency than there is. As for their [illegible] parts, they question it not, but their estates are good, and themselves happy. Thus Paul professed of himself, and speaks it in the stead of all men naturally, as that which is incident to all (Romans 7:9): I was alive without the law. When he wanted the [illegible] knowledge of himself, and of the law of God, [illegible] then imagined his condition was such, as those who had and led the life of grace: but when the law came, that the Lord by the law discovered [illegible] to himself, then indeed he did discern where he was, that sin was yet alive in him, that he was in a deadly and damnable condition. See the point [illegible] good in five particulars, wherein this security is expressed in the several degrees thereof.

A natural [illegible] before the Lord comes to seize upon him, he sees no danger in his estate, and therefore will not suffer himself to be persuaded to any such [illegible], what can be said to evict it by the most [illegible] arguments to win his assent to that; so it was with them in the old world (Matthew 24:38), they [illegible] and gave in marriage, they did eat and drink, and took up themselves in the eager pursuit [illegible] these present pleasing contentments, which [illegible] with our natural hearts, but knew nothing either of the [illegible] of their own sins, or the heaviness of the plagues decreed and threatened. Hence this security is in Scripture compared to a dead sleep: Awake you that sleep, and stand up from the dead, and Christ shall give you life (Ephesians 5:14). In a sleep, we know if it fall heavy upon any, he sees no dangers nor enemies though he was in the midst of them; if any evil be plotted or practiced against him he perceives it not, and therefore it is said, They that sleep, they sleep in the night. So it is here, though the sinner be compassed about with his own sins, and the judgments of God ready to be inflicted on him, and the devils of Hell ready to devour him, yet being in a dead sleep he discerns not the danger he is in.

As they see none; so while the Lord is pleased to abate them, the expressions of his heavy displeasure, nor yet proceeds to take them to task for their great and grievous offenses, they feel no evil. They see other men as vile as themselves, fare like themselves, and therefore they conclude there is no danger (Psalm 73:7): Their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than heart can wish, they are not in bonds like other men, and therefore pride compasses them about as a chain, etc. Upon this ground it is, the false-hearted resolve to join sides with the proud, because they saw their proceedings prosperous: We count the proud happy, say they (Malachi 3:15). For naturally, further than the Lord is pleased to grapple with the sinner, there is a benumbed kind of stupidness of spirit takes possession of them, they become senseless wholly of their sins, and so of the plagues that are threatened, and treasured up for them against the day of wrath. When the disease has mastered nature so that it has lost its lively strength, when it is now dying it feels not death because sense was gone before. The soul that is slain by sin it becomes senseless of it. As it [illegible] the drunkard (Proverbs 23:35): They have stricken me, and I was not sick, they have beaten me, and I felt it not.

They fear no evil for the time to come: senseless before, fearless now. They feel no evil for the present, and they fear none for the future; they reason from sense and experience, it has not been, therefore it will not be. Thus those made a league with Hell and Death (Isaiah 28:15): they entrenched and fortified themselves in this fearless presumption against the approach of any future evil. And therefore in all the threatenings they read and hear, though such as express the direful displeasure of the Lord, yet they take off the edge of all; they imagine it is nothing but a kind of policy in men who preach these threatenings, that so they might awe others by a prudent way of proceeding, and partly it is folly in those who believe them and entertain them as real, when there is no such thing to be feared. This was the conclusion of those who sat upon the lees and dregs of this security (Zephaniah 1:12): they profess, the Lord will neither do good, nor evil.

Hence the sinner in a blind kind of deluded confidence, puts the safety of his condition beyond all question and dispute: to doubt of God's love or the work of God's grace in his heart, or his own everlasting happiness, he cannot talk of it but with detestation, looks at that as a thing that is past. That dale is mown, and the danger over and gone: give any good proof or sound evidence of his spiritual welfare he cannot, yet dispute it he will not; takes it for granted, and therefore will not trouble himself with it any more. Whatever searching truths are expressed for the narrowest search and saving trial of the soundness of the work of God's grace, and so a sure title for eternal life, he catches at those and takes them for his own, without any inquiry or consideration, whether they do belong to him, or no. Whether his heart be right and sound in God's statutes he will not dispute, but that he shall be happy he will certainly conclude; and that conclusion he will hold. He doubts not but to die [illegible], [illegible] go to Heaven as well as the most precise professor of them all. Thus they in Deuteronomy 29:19-20: when they heard all the curses of the law, yet they blessed themselves, saying, I shall have peace.

Let men speak what they will, preach as they please, he promises himself comfort and success in his way; men (says he) must have their [illegible], and will vent their passions and humors, but concludes what he conceives is the right. All the world shall not persuade — if there were a hundred, and a hundred ministers to that, they shall never make him believe but his condition is safe, [illegible] his way and person such as God will accept. So they to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 43:2): You speak falsely, the Lord [illegible] not sent you to say, Go not into [illegible].

The things of Christ, and ways of his grace which he has revealed in his Gospel, and enjoins all to follow, because they put them beyond their pace, and exceed either their carnal and formal course, and the frame of happiness which they have fancied in their own minds and thoughts, they look at them with disdain, and cast the name of giddiness and folly upon them, and follow them with all the reproaches and contempt that may be (1 Corinthians 2:14): the natural man perceives not the things of God for they are foolishness to him. Thus the Gospel, the glad tidings of salvation, and the only way of life in Christ — it was foolishness to the Greeks, and to the Jews a stumbling block (1 Corinthians 1:23). To become fools that we may be wise, to cast away the robes of our own conceived righteousness, worth, and sufficiency, and to go begging to Christ to [illegible] our nakedness: it is a thing [illegible] cross to carnal reason as nothing more (Romans 10:3). The Jews that [illegible] establish their own righteousness, they would not submit to the righteousness of Christ.

Therefore if the ways of [illegible] be pressed and [illegible] with zeal, as matters absolutely necessary, [illegible] that their commodities seem to be cried down, and their comforts dashed, and their persons [illegible], and [illegible] under [illegible] as that they are [illegible] men, even your most civil naturalist, a man [illegible] is most [illegible] in his carriage, will count it a matter of [illegible] to proceed to [illegible] against such, and you shall [illegible] these men, most [illegible] and restless in persecution, because they do it upon a misconceit, as a duty of [illegible]. They conclude they are as good as men should be, and do as much as any ought. Acts 26:9. So [illegible], I [illegible] with myself [illegible] to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus: and [illegible] Savior Christ [illegible] it, [illegible] 16:2. That they [illegible] think they do God good service in [illegible] opposing the ways and servants of Christ, and [illegible] in the highest degree. So that if the Lord lets in any light to such a one, to reveal either more or better to him, he stands amazed as a man new come out of a dream, he knows not where he is, or what he has done all his life long. If this be true, I never knew either my sin, or myself; I am of all men most miserable: as Paul, when the Lord met him and stopped him in his way, and broke in upon him with his converting grace, he falls down trembling and astonished, Lord, [illegible]? And, What will you have me to do? Acts 9:5, 6, 7. He neither [illegible] Christ, nor himself, nor his own estate, he was as far to seek as if he had never heard of these things; therefore the Apostle Peter expresses it thus (1 Peter 2:9): Who has called you [illegible] darkness to his marvelous light: that a man begins to wonder and marvel to see themselves so wonderfully deceived and deluded all their days, they have often heard of sin, but never saw it before now, they have heard of humiliation, and faith, and sanctification, but never understood what they were; but now they begin to see an absolute need of them, and there never was any man whom God called effectually to himself, but he stands wondering at his sins that they should be so loathsome, and yet that he should love them so much; at the beauty and excellency of Christ, that he has neglected so much, marveling at his own pride and security in that miserable estate that now he finds himself in.

Gather up the point then: If he neither sees [illegible] feels any evil in his condition, and therefore fears no danger in it, and therefore blesses himself in his present estate; accounting whatever is more required, to be foolishness, and persecutes whatever seems to blemish it, then he is (and can be no other than) abundantly satisfied and settled immovably in the security of his carnal estate.

The reasons of it are chiefly three.

From the deceitfulness and subtlety of sin which pretends nothing, promises nothing but that which is full of content to the sinner, and therefore he pleases himself in it for the present. As the [illegible] hides his sting that may poison, and shows only his speckled skin that may please the eye, so it is with [illegible], it presents nothing to the view but that which may please the flesh, either profits to enrich, or honors to advance, or pleasures to delight, either [illegible] of the flesh, or the [illegible] of the eyes, or the pride of life (1 John 2:16). As the wise man speaks of the young man led aside with the harlot, that with her oiled words she [illegible], and he follows her as an ox [illegible] to the slaughter, and a fool to the stocks, and knows nothing till a dart strikes through his liver (Proverbs 7:22). As the fisher that shows [illegible] to the fish but the bait to allure, but hides the hook that will catch: so the fowl sees nothing but the grain to feed her, not the net that takes her. So it is with the deceitfulness of sin, it promises nothing but all the content that we have, and would have; but the hook that should catch us, and the [illegible] that should [illegible] us, that is kept back for the present.

If taken from the sensuality of the soul of every man naturally, which is so suitable to the nature of [illegible], that it tastes nothing but that which [illegible] their [illegible], and therefore they will not believe there is anything there to distaste. A sinful heart meets with temptations, they do fit and suit one with [illegible], and because the soul takes content in sin, it cannot believe that there is anything else there, but what it now finds: no, sometimes though the judgment is informed, and conscience convinced these [illegible] your sins, and these will be your ruin; the [illegible] heart says, It is false; I taste no such matter. As it is in a distempered body when the stomach is [illegible] with noisome humors, because the bitterest [illegible] seem sweet to the taste so distempered; the physician cannot persuade, they cannot believe that [illegible] are bitter. So it is with a distempered heart which tastes nothing but its own lusts and humors, which are so incorporated into it, and [illegible] with it, that let all ministers, and reasons, say what [illegible] can to the contrary; say they, I believe it not; [illegible] taste it not; it is the best life in the world to follow [illegible] own mind, to have my own will, and to satisfy [illegible] own lusts. Proverbs 10:23. It is a sport to a fool [illegible] do [illegible]: no pastime is so pleasing to him, as to suit the carnal disposition of his heart in his sinful ways: but he is a fool for it, that is, a [illegible] man.

Self-love, and self-ease will not suffer the [illegible] to hear of anything that may disquiet or distemper and therefore [illegible] the mind and heart with the daily fears and suspicions of terrors and discouragements that attend a good course, that it dare not listen in the least measure to anything that tends [illegible] way. Hence it is there is such a noise and [illegible] raised against the good ways of God's grace, and God's [illegible], that if ever he gives way to the power of them to have his sins revealed and [illegible] by them, he thinks he shall never have quiet more [illegible] and therefore in a carnal family, if one man [illegible] and careful in his course, and have got [illegible] hard knocks from the Word, they cry out, their children are undone, and they fear to come under the [illegible] stroke of the truth, lest they should be troubled. [illegible] the meaning of that (Psalm 36:2), The wicked [illegible] himself in his own eyes: as who should say, This is the only way you are in, you may [illegible] quietly and comfortably, and go to heaven [illegible] all this ado: Ay, do so, and be so, says the heart. And as (2 Peter 3:2), they are willingly ignorant. A man that is loath to rise, shuts his eyes from [illegible] light, and stops his ears, that he may not hear [illegible] knocks at the door; so a man that would sleep [illegible] in the security of his natural state, he would [illegible] suffer the certainty of God's judgments and the terribleness of them, to come home to his soul to awaken him out of his dead sleep.

Thus the deceitfulness of sin promises nothing but good; the [illegible] of a man's heart is such, [illegible] nothing but good, men's self-love and [illegible] is such, it will not suffer anything but good to be presented to the view of the soul.

These are the grounds why a sinful heart settles itself in security, and blesses itself, though nothing belongs to him but misery.

Hence we may see the reason why sharp and soul-saving preaching seems so grievous and tedious to the carnal hearts of wicked and natural men; they hardly vouchsafe audience, but not acceptance: what's the cause? It would awaken them out of their sleepy security in which they lie: to bring a candle to a sleepy man is unpleasing, but to pluck off the clothes, he will hardly bear it, but will let fly at you: why will you not suffer a man to be quiet in his bed? All men are naturally in a dead sleep of sin, therefore to bring the candle of the law to them, to show them their condition, to pluck away all their coverings and hidings that they may see their sins and themselves as they are, it is death to a man in this case: plain dealing and rough dealing evermore finds harsh entertainment here. Still music is pleasing and rocks men asleep; but sound blows will awaken men, and not suffer them to sleep in their sins, and therefore they cannot bear them; they have itching ears (says the Apostle) heaping up teachers to themselves after their own lusts, and therefore they cannot endure sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3). Such ministers, and such preaching as answer their desires and please their palates, that they and their sins and all may go to heaven together, this they like very well of: itching ears must be scratched, not buffeted. You know what he said to Elijah, Are you he that troubles Israel? And have you found me, O my enemy? (1 Kings 18:17). [illegible] had 400 false prophets, he could endure them well enough, because they never disquieted him in his sins; but Elijah was a troubler of Israel, because he troubled his sin; therefore he was not able to bear with him.

Hence again, we should be persuaded and informed it is the heaviest plague that can befall a man, that God should suffer him to sleep in his sins and prosper in a wicked course: because it argues (for whatever any man knows) that God intends no good to him, nor will work no good for him; but as if the Lord has left such a one to be a prey to sin and Satan; he is in the hands of his lusts, and become a spoil to them; Jesus Christ passes by him (as it [illegible]) pities him not, meddles not with him, to rescue him out of that condition; as if the Lord should say, I have nothing to do with him, he is none of mine.

Therefore know this to your terror, all you that never knew what it was to be in distress of conscience for sin, indeed when the Word has come home to you, to convince you of your miserable estate, for you have not been able to bear it, abate of your sleep nor rest you cannot, lose anything of your [illegible] and [illegible] you will not, indeed, you bless yourselves in this condition, thinking your case is good enough: mark now, the Lord Jesus sees sin and Satan have you in their power, hurrying you down to hell with them, and he passes by, and says, Let them alone, they belong not to me, I will not rescue them nor save them, my Word and Spirit shall not convince [illegible] nor work upon them; this is the heaviest [illegible] that can befall you in this world. (Acts 17:30) The [illegible] of this ignorance God regarded not: they lived in their sins without God, and Christ, and [illegible], and the Lord never regarded them so as to look after them to recover them out of this estate. (Acts 14:16) He suffered the nations to walk in their own ways: it was the heavy displeasure of God toward them, he saw they followed their own ways, and he suffered them so to do, to go on still in the broad and the road way that leads to eternal death. All sinners are sick persons, and we know [illegible] a sad thing, for those that are sick to death not to be seen, not to be helped and succored, when the physician will not so much as look in upon them. (Luke 19:44) Jerusalem had her day of [illegible]; she was sick at the heart, and God came to [illegible] her, but she would not take his advice, therefore the Lord left her and let her alone; this is a woeful case, when the Lord leaves a sinner to himself and does not visit him with his saving health, it is a sign that he has no love to, nor care to do good to such a soul.

Of Trial. Hence we may get undoubted evidence to ourselves, whether we are yet in our natural condition, or brought out of it, I shall press it only negatively now: Is the day yet to dawn, the hour yet to come, that ever you did endeavor to come out of your natural condition, in fact, perhaps you never saw cause why you should? But you [illegible] and conceive that all things remain alike with you from the first beginning to this day: as you were, you are: you have lived quietly, and walked comfortably all your life long. Truly know it if you are not another man than when you came into the world, you are but a natural man, you are but a damned man. You came flesh and blood into the world; you came a child of wrath, and you are so still; and if so be you do live so, and die so, you are sure to be damned forever, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:50). We know, says the Apostle, that we are born of God, and the world lies in wickedness (1 John 5:19). Brought to bed in [illegible] as the original says, you are one that lives in some base wicked courses, and lies in the bed of security, and you shall perish with the world. It is observable in the parable, when all things were at peace, the strong man kept the house, that is certain! As it is said of the city of Laish (Judges 18:7), They were quiet and secure and had no business with any man: Is it so with you? You are quiet and secure, and have no business with the Word of God, you do come, and sit, and return again as if you had no business with the Lord, your conscience not convinced, your affections not stirred, your heart not affected with saving remorse for your sinful condition — truly know, the strong man keeps house there to this day.

In fact, let me tell you this, that all may hear and fear, and be awakened: if Christ never awakens you, he will never give you light; and if ever he gives you light, he will awaken you first. In fact, the truth is, so long as you live so senseless and careless, know it, Christ never came into the world to do you any good. (Luke 19:10) The Son of man came to seek, and to save that which is lost: They that are sensible of their lost and undone condition, by reason of their sins against the Lord, they see Hell gaping, God plaguing, and conscience accusing, being every day ready to drop into Hell — Christ came to save such. But you that never yet in any measure were troubled about your condition, and humbled for your sins, Christ will never seek you, nor save you; in fact, he was not sent to seek, or save that miserable soul of yours: God will make you sensible of your evils before ever you can have any hope that he intends good to you.

I will not now dispute how far God may awaken a man, and yet not communicate saving grace, that belongs to another place. That I urge now, is this, that it is certain, he that never yet was awakened, or brought out of his carnal security, never was nor can be made partaker of Jesus Christ.

Exhortation. To all you secure dead-hearted sinners, that have been carried on in a calm all your days: Oh, know it, and consider of it, a man becalmed is drowned; [illegible] stir up yourself, and think of the time of awakening, it will come; and as mariners becalmed seek for winds, so should you for the gales and breathings of the Spirit of Christ. Many of you have been [illegible] up in good families, and many of you are civil, honest, quiet people, all things remain with you as they were from the first, until now; you know not what sin means, nor what faith and repentance means in the power and practice of them; you have a quiet life, but a miserable life. It is easy for a mariner to be in a calm at sea, he has quiet there, but he dies there. Women in childbirth long for throes, if their throes leave them, their life leaves them and all; but if they have many and strong throes, then they hope well. So go your ways and call [illegible] the throes of [reconstructed: conversion]: for a child to be born into the world, and the mother asleep, it is against nature, and reason, and sense, and experience and all; so before ever you be born again, before ever Christ be formed in you, it will cost you many prayers, and tears, and much sorrow; but if [illegible] throes come thick, then there is hope. Oh, therefore call for the sight of sin, and sorrow for sin, for conviction, and humiliation, as you love your lives and souls call for these. You know what they said to [reconstructed: Jonah] (Jonah 1:6), when the sea was fierce, and the winds high, and the storm great, every man fell to his prayers, and they came to [reconstructed: Jonah], you sluggard, arise and call upon your God. So if God raise a storm in your consciences, be sure you call upon [reconstructed: Jonah], those sluggish hearts of yours, awake and call upon your God.

I would advise those men that could never yet say they have any grace in their hearts, they cannot say they have anything more than they brought with them into the world: they come to sit and hear, but for Humiliation, Conversion, for the saving work of God upon their souls they know no such thing. Let me advise you thus much: Be suspicious of your estates, certainly all is not well, all is not right; unless I be born again, and repent, and be another man, and have another heart and life, I cannot enter into Heaven; thus suspect yourself. And when you have done so, do not leave it there, but betake yourself to some faithful minister or Christian, and debate your condition with them, and be sure you quiet not yourself till you come to see what you are; it may be they may help you, and show you the state of things with you.

If it shall appear upon good ground by sound reasons from the Word, that your estate is bad, then go away, convinced [reconstructed: that] it is so: attend not those carnal reasons that may take off the edge of that conviction, and hinder the working of it, but sit down without any cavil against it; but say, the truth is, I never saw my estate before, but now I do, I hope I shall never deny it; excuses and carnal reasons have taken me aside, but now I'll hear nothing against it; the truth is, I am a miserable sinful damned creature. Arise with this in the morning, [illegible], lie down with this at night, and walk with these thoughts all the day long, I am a Christless graceless man; and if the Devil say, hereafter time enough, hereafter soon enough; ay, but say, I may die suddenly, and [reconstructed: that] I am damned eternally; and if your own heart say, Am not I as good as such a one? and shall not I hope to do as well as such a one? Away with that too, I am a miserable damned man, give yourself for gone, and hold it here; [reconstructed: and] hear nothing the Devil says that my heart says, that the world or my friends say, I am in a miserable damned condition; think so, and sleep so, and [reconstructed: live] so, if you can. And when it's come to this, you may happily be prepared for the glad tidings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.