The Sound Believer

THE

SOUND BELIEVER.

TREATISE OF EVANGELICAL CONVERSION.

DISCOVERING THE WORK OF CHRIST’S SPIRIT IN

RECONCILING OF A SINNER TO GOD.

__________________________

MATT. 18:11. –– “I came to save that which was lost.”

TO HIS DEAR FRIEND,

MR. W. GREENHILL.

______________

Sir: Many strugglings I have had about publishing these notes. I have looked up to God, and at last been persuaded upon these grounds: –

1. The many desires both of friends and strangers, both by private speeches and letters, which I thought might be the voice of Christ.

2. Some good (as I hear) those which are already out have done, and which the rest might do, which I have looked on as a testimony of the Lord’s acceptance of them.

3. I know not what they Lord’s meaning should be to bring to light by his providence, without my privity, knowledge, or will, the former part, unless it was to awaken and enforce me (being desired) to publish the rest; our works, I thought, should resemble God’s works, not to be left imperfect.

4. I considered my weak body, and my short time of sojourning here, and that I shall not speak long to children, friends, or God’s precious people, –– I am sure not to many in England, –– to whom I owe almost my whole self, whom I shall see in this world no more; I have been therefore willing to get the wind, and take the season, that I might leave some part of God’s precious truth on record, that I might speak (O that it might be to the heart!) among whom I can not (and when I shall not) be. I account it a part of God’s infinite grace to make me an instrument of the least good. If the Lord shall so far accept of me in publishing these things, it is all that I would desire; if not, yet I have desired forgiveness in the blood of his Son, for whatever errors or weaknesses may be in it, or are in myself, which may hinder success, and frustrate its end; only what I have in much weakness believed, I have written, and sent it unto you, leaving it wholly with yourself, whom I much love and honor, that you would add or detract anything you see meet, (so as it be not cross to what I have writ;) and if you then think it meet for public view, you see upon what grounds I am content with it’ but if you shall bury it, and put it in perpetual silence, it shall be most pleasing to him who thinks more meanly of it than others can.

THO. SHEPARD.

THE SOUND BELIEVER.

_________________________

CHAPTER 1.

AS THE GREAT CAUSE OF THE ETERNAL PERDITION OF MEN IS OF THEMSELVES, SO THE ONLY CAUSE OF THE ACTUAL DELIVERANCE AND SALVATION OF MAN IS JESUS CHRIST.

Hosea 13:9. “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help.”

SECTION 1.

These words, as they are set down in the Hebrew, are (according to the style of this prophet) very short and sententious, and therefore difficult to translate into English without some periphrasis; but the sense is here truly expressed, “In me is thy help;” which you may see confirmed from verse 4: “There is no Savior beside me;” and verse 14: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; O, death, I will be thy plague; O, grave, I will be thy destruction.” Suppose the prophet should speak here of temporal salvation, help and ransom, (which he doth not;) yet the argument is strong; if there be no Savoir from temporal woe and misery but only the Lord Jesus, how much more is there from woes eternal? Only understand me here aright; I am not now speaking of man’s deliverance and salvation by price in way of satisfaction to justice, (for that I have already handled,) but of his deliverance and salvation by power; not of man’s purchased deliverance, which is by the blood of Christ, but of man’s actual deliverance, which is by the efficacy and power of the Spirit of Christ. Some captives among men are redeemed by price only, of all men, under the severity of justice and power of sin, that without the price of Christ’s blood, (Eph. 1:7,) and the power of Christ’s Spirit, (John 8:36,) there is no deliverance; the Lord Jesus having paid the price for our deliverance. Yet it is with us as with any company of captives in prison: our sins like strong chains hold us; Satan , our keeper, will not let us go; the prison doors, through unbelief, are shut upon us, (Rom. 11:32;) and thereby God and Christ are kept out from us. What power now can rescue us, that are held fast under such a power, even after the price is paid? Truly it can be no other but that in my text, “In me is thy help.” When our ransom is paid, the Lord must come himself and fetch us out by strong hand. (Is. 53:1,) “To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Truly very few, yet to some it is; and certainly look as they make Christ no Savior, indeed, who deny his salvation by price and satisfaction, so those also make him an imperfect Savior who deny salvation and actual deliverance of man to be only the almighty arm and efficacy of his Spirit and power: excellent therefore is the speech of the apostle, (Acts 5:30,31,) “God hath exalted Jesus to give repentance and remission of sins to Israel.” Look as Jesus was abased to purchase repentance and remission, so he is now exalted actually to give and apply repentance and remission of sins, but God in Christ, an by Christ only? Whose glory is it to give repentance, (which in this place comprehends the work of conversion and faith, as Beza observes,) whereby we apply remission, but the same God only? The one is as difficult to be conveyed as the other, and we stand in as much need of Christ to do the one as the other; all the power of Christ exalted is little enough to give us repentance and remission, the condition of the covenant expressed in repentance, and the blessings in the covenant, summed up in the forgiveness of sins; the Socinians deny redemption and salvation by prize; the Arminians by Christ’s power, leaving suasion only to him, but power of conversion to the power and liberty of the will of man. O, adulterous generation, that are thus hacking at and cutting the cords of their own salvation! I shall here speak only to one question, which is the principle, and most profitable, and that is this: How doth Christ redeem and save us by his power, out of that miserable estate? and consequently what is the way for us to seek, and so to find and feel deliverance by the hand of Christ’s power?

As there are four principal means and causes, or ways, whereby man ruins himself, –– 1. Ignorance of their own misery; 2. Security and unsensibleness of it; 3. Carnal confidence in their own duties; 4. Presumption of resting upon the mercy of God by a faith of their own forging, –– so, on the contrary, there is a fourfold act of Christ’s power, whereby he rescues and delivers all his out of their miserable estate.

The first act or stroke is conviction of sin.

The second is compunction for sin.

The third humiliation or self-abasement.

The fourth is faith; all which are distinctly put forth (when he ceaseth extraordinary to work) in the day of Christ’s power; and so ever look for actual salvation and redemption from Christ. Let them seek for mercy and deliverance in this way, out of which they shall never find it; let them begin at conviction, and desire the Lord to let them see their sins, that so being affected with them, and humbled under them, they may by faith be enabled to receive Jesus Christ, and so be blessed in him. It is true, Christ is applied to us next by faith, but faith is wrought in us in that way of conviction and sorrow for sin; no man can or will come by faith to Christ to take away his sin; no man can or will come by faith to Christ to take away his sins, unless he first see, be convicted of, and loaded with them. I confess the manner of the Spirit’s work, in the conversion of a sinner unto God, is exceeding secret, and in many things very various; and therefore it is too great boldness to mark out all God’s footsteps herein; yet so far forth as the Lord himself tells us his work, and the manner of it in all his, we may safely resolve ourselves, and so far, and no farther, shall we proceed in the explication of these things. It is great profanes not to search into the works of common providence, though secret and hidden. (Ps. 28:5, and 92:6.) Much greater is it not to do this unto God’s work of special favor and grace upon his chosen.

I shall therefore begin with the first stroke –– Christ’s power, which is conviction of sin.

SECTION 2.

The first Act of Christ’s Power, which is Conviction of Sin.

Now, for the more distinct explication of this, I shall open to you these four things: –

1. I shall prove that the Lord Christ by his Spirit begins the actual deliverance of his elect here.

2. What is that sin the Lord convinceth the soul thus first of.

3. How the Lord doth it.

4. What measure and degree of conviction he works thus in all his.

1. For the first ,it is said, (john 16:8,9,) that the first thing that the Spirit doth when he comes to make apostles’ ministry effectual, is this: it shall “reprove or convince the world of sin;” it doth not first work faith, but convinceth them that they have no faith, (as in verse 9,) and consequently under the guilt and dominion of their sins; and after this he “convinceth of righteousness,” which faith apprehends. (Ver. 10.) It is true, that the word conviction, here, is of a large extent, and includes compunction and humiliation for sin; yet our Savior wraps them up in this word; because conviction is the first, and there-fore the chief in order; here the Lord, not speaking now of ineffectual, but effectual, and through conviction expressed in deep sorrow and humiliation. Now, the text saith, the Lord begins thus not with some one or two, but with the world of God’s elect, who are to be called home by the ministry of the word, which our Savior speaks ( as many may see who considers the scope) purposely to comfort the hearts of his disciples, that their ministry shall be thus effectual to the world of Jews and Gentiles; and therefore can not speak of such conviction as serves only for to leave men without excuse for greater condemnation, (as some understand the place;) for that is a poor ground of consolation to their sad hearts. Secondly. I shall hereafter prove that there can be no faith without sense of sin and misery; and now there can be no sense of sin without a precedent sight or conviction of sin; no man can feel sin, unless he doth first see it; what the eye sees not, the heart rues not. Let the greatest evil befall a man –– suppose the burning of his house, the death of his children; if he doth not first know, see, and hear of it, he will never take it to heart, it will never trouble him: so let a poor sinner lie under the greatest guilt, the sorest wrath of God, it will never trouble him until he sees it and be convinced of it. (Acts 2:37.) “When they heard this, they were pricked;” but first they heard it, and saw their sin before their hearts were wounded for it. (Gen. 3:7.) They first saw their nakedness before they were ashamed of it. Thirdly. The main end of the law is to drive us to Christ. (Rom. 10:4.) If Christ be the “end of the law,” then the law is the means subservient to that end, and that not to some, but to all that believe: now, the law, though it drives us to Christ by condemnation, yet in order it begins with accusation. It first accuseth, and so convinceth of sin, (Rom. 3:20,) and then condemneth. It is folly and injustice for a judge to condemn and bring a sinner out of his execution before accusation and conviction; and is it wisdom or justice in the Lord or his law to do otherwise? and therefore the Spirit, in making use of the law for this end, first convinceth as it first accuseth, and lays our sins to our charge. Lastly. Look, as Satan, when he binds up a sinner in his sin, he first keeps him (if possible) from the very sight and knowledge of it; because, so long as the see it not, this ignorance is the cause of all their woe, why they feel it not, why they desire no to come out of it; the Lord Jesus, who came to untie the knots of Satan, (1 John 3:8,) begins here, and first convinceth his, and makes them see their sin, that so they may feel it, and come to him for deliverance out of it. O, consider this, all you that dream out your time in minding only things before your feet, never thinking on the evils of your own hearts; you that heed not, you that will not see your sins, nor so much as ask this question, What have I done? what do I do? how do I live? what will become of me? what will be the end of my foolish courses? I tell you, if ever the Lord save you, he will make you see what now you can not, what now you will not; he will not only make you to confess you are a sinner, but he will convince you of sin: this shall be the first thing the Lord will do with thee.

But you will say, What is that sin which the Lord first convinceth of? which is the second thing to be opened. I answer in these three conclusions: –

The Lord Jesus by his Spirit doth not only convince the soul in general that it is a sinner and sinful, but the Lord brings in a convicting evidence of the particulars: the first is learnt more by tradition, (in these days,) by the report and acknowledgment of every man, rather than by any special act of conviction of the Spirit of Christ; for what man is there almost but lies under this confession that he is a sinner? The best say they are sinners, “and if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,” and “I know I am a sinner;” but that which the Spirit principally convinceth of is some sin or sins in particular; the Spirit doth not arrest men for offences in general, but opens the writ and shows the particular cause – the particular sins. (Rom. 3:9.) We have proved, saith the apostle, that Jews and Gentiles are under sin; but how doth the apostle, (being now the instrument of the Spirit,) in this work of conviction, convince them of this? Mark his method, verses 10-18, wherein you shall see it is done by enumeration of particulars; sins of their natures, there is none righteous; sins of their minds, none understandeth; sins in their wills and affections, none seek after God; sins in their lives, all gone out of the way; sins of omission of good duties, there is none that doth good; their throats, tongues, lips, are sepulchers, deceitful, poisonful; their mouths full of cursing, their feet swift to shed blood, etc. And this is the state of you Jews, (ver.19.) as well as of the Gentiles; that all flesh may stand convinced as guilty before God. If it be here demanded, What are those but particular sins which the Lord convinceth men of? I answer, In variety of men there is much variety of special sins, as there is of dispositions, tempers, and temptations; and therefore the Lord doth not convince one man at first of the same sins of which he doth another man; yet this we may safely say: usually (though not always) the Lord begins with the remembrance and consideration of some one great, if not a man’s special and most beloved sin; and thereby the Spirit discovers, gradually, all the rest: that arrow which woundeth the heart of Christ most, the Lord makes it fall first upon the head of the sinner that did shoot it against Heaven, and convinceth, and as it were hits him first with that. How did the Spirit convince those three thousand, those patterns of God’s converting grace? (Acts 3:37.) Did not the Lord begin with them for one principal sin, viz., their murder and contempt of Christ by imbruing their hands in his blood? There is no question but now they remembered other sinful practices; but this was the imprimis which is ever accompanied with many other items which are then read in God’s bill of reckonings where the first is set down. Israel would have a king. (1 Sam. 8:19.) Samuel, for a time, could not convince them of their sin: herein what doth the Lord do? Surely he will convince them of sin before he leaves them; and this he doth by such terrible thunder as made all their hearts ache. And how is it now? What sin do they now see? They first see the greatness of that particular sin; but this came not to mind alone, but they cried out, (1 Sam. 12:19,) “We have added unto all our evils this, in asking to ourselves a king.” Look upon the woman of Samaria. (John 4.) The Lord Christ indeed spake first unto her about himself, the substance of the gospel, about the worth of this water of life: but what good did she get until the Lord began to convince her of sin? And how doth he that? He tells her of her secret whoredom she lived in, the man that she now had was not her husband; and upon the discovery of this, she saw many more sins; and hence (ver. 29) she cries out, “Come and see the man that hath told me all that ever I did in my life.” And thus the Lord deals at this day: the minister preacheth against one sin, it may be whoredom, ignorance, contempt of the gospel, neglect of secret duties, lying, Sabbath-breaking, &c. This is thy case, saith the Spirit unto the soul; remember the time, the place, the persons with whom thou lividest in this sinful condition: and now a man begins to go alone, and to think of all his former courses, how exceeding evil they have been; it may be the Lord brings upon a man a sore affliction, and when he is in chains, crying out of that, the Lord saith to him as those, (Jer. 30:15,) “Why criest thou for thy affliction? for the multitude of thine iniquities I have done this:” it may be, the Lord sometimes strikes a man’s companion in sin dead, by some fearful judgment; and then that particular sin comes to mind, and the Lord reveals it armed with multitude of many other sins, the causes of it, the fruits and effects of it; as the father whips a child upon occasion of one special fault, but then tells him of many more which he winked at before this, and saith, Now, sirrah, remember such a time, such a forward fit, such undutiful behavior, such a reviling word you spake, such a time I called, and you ran away and would not hear me; and you thought I liked well enough of the seways; but now know that I will not pass them by, etc. Thus the Lord deals with his; and hence it is, many times, that the elect of God, civilly brought up, do hereupon think well of themselves, and so remain long unconvinced of their woful estates; the Lord suffers them to fall into some foul, secret, or open sin, and by this the Lord takes special occasion of working conviction and sorrow for sin; the Lord hereby makes them hang down the head, and cry, “Unclean, unclean.” Paul was civilly educated; he turned at last a hot persecutor, oppressor, blasphemer: the Lord first convinced him of his persecution, and cried out from heaven to him, “Paul, Paul, why persecutest thou me?” This struck him to the heart, and then sin revived. (Rom. 7:9.) Many secret sins of his heart were discovered, which I take to begin and continue in special in those three days, (Acts 3:9,) wherein he was blind, and did (through sight of sin and sorrow of heart) neither eat nor drink. As a man that hath the plague, not knowing the disease, he hopes to live; but when he sees the spots and tokens of death upon his wrist, now he cries out, because convinced that the plague of the Lord is upon him; so when men see some one or more special sins break out, now they are convinced of their lamentable condition; yet it is not always, (though usually thus;) for some men the Lord may first convince of sin by showing them the sinfulness of their own hearts and ways; the Lord may let a man see his blindness, his extreme hardness of heart, his weakness, his willfulness, his heartlessness; he can not pray, or look up to God, and this may first convince him; or that all that he doth is sinful, being out of Christ; the Lord may suddenly let him see the deceits of his own heart, and the secret sinful practices of his life; as if some had told the minister, or as if he spake to none but him; that he is forced to fall down being thus convinced, and to confess, God is in this man. (1 Cor. 14:25.) Nicodemus may first see and be convinced of the want of regeneration, and thereby feel his need of Christ; the Lord may set a man upon the consideration of all his life past, how wickedly it hath been spent; and so not one, but a multitude of iniquities compass him about; a man may see the godly examples of his parents or other godly Christians, in the family or town where he dwells, and by this be convinced, that is their state and way be good, his own (so far unlike it) must needs be stark naught: the Lord ever convinceth the soul of sins in particular, but he doth not always convince one man of the same particular sins at first he doth another; whether the Lord convinceth all the elect at first of the sin of their nature, and show them their original sin in and about this first stroke of conviction, I doubt not of it. Paul would have been alive, and a proud Pharisee still, if the Lord had not let him by the law see this sin, (Rom. 7:9;) and so would all men in the world, if this should not be revealed first or last, in a lesser or greater measure, under a distinct notion; and hence arise those confessions of the saints – I never thought I had such a vile heart; if all the world had told me, I could not have believed them, but that the Lord hath made me feel it and see it at last; was there ever such a sinner, (at least in heart, which is continually opposing him,) whom the Lord at any time received to mercy, as I am?

2. The Lord Jesus by his Spirit doth not only convince the soul of its sin in particular, but also of the evil, even the exceeding great evil, of those particular sins. The Lord Jesus doth not only convince of the evil of sin, but of the great evil of sin. O thou wretch, saith the Spirit, (as the Lord to Cain, Gen. 4:10,) what hast thou done, whose sins cry to heaven, who hast thus long lived with God, and done this infinite wrong to an infinite God, for which thou canst never make him amends! That God who could have long since cut thee off in the midst of thy sins and wickedness, and crushed thee like a moth, and sent thee down to those eternal flames where thou now seest some better than thyself mourning day and night, but yet hath spared thee out of his mere pity to thee, that God hast thou resisted and forsaken all thy lifetime; and, therefore now see and consider what an evil and bitter thing it is thus to live as thou hast done. (Jer. 2:19.) Look, as it is in the ways of holiness, many a man void of the Spirit may see and know them in the literal expressions of them, but can not see the glory of them but by they Spirit; and hence it is he doth not esteem and prize them and the knowledge of them above gold. So in the ways of unholiness; many a man void of the spirit of conviction of sin may and doth see many particular sins, and confess them; but he doth not, can not see the exceeding evil of them; and thence it is, though he doth see them, yet he doth not much dislike them, because he sees no great hurt or evil in them, but makes a light matter of them; and therefore, when the Spirit comes, it lets him see and stand convinced of the exceeding greatness of the evil that is in them. (Job 36:8,9.) In the time of affliction, (which is usually the time of conviction of a wild, unruly sinner,) he shows them their transgressions; but how? that they have exceeded, that they have been exceeding many and exceeding vile. O beloved, before the Lord Jesus comes to convince, we have cause to pray for and pity every poor sinner, as the Lord Jesus did, saying, “Lord, forgive them; they know not what they do.” You godly parents, masters, how oft do you instruct your children, servants, and convince them of their sinfulness, until they confess their faults? yet you see no amendment, but they go on still; what should you now do? O, cry out for them, and say, Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Their sins they know, but what evil of them is, alas! they know not; but when the Spirit comes to convince, he makes them see what they do, and what is the exceeding evil of those sins they made light of before; like madmen that have sworn, and cursed, and struck their friends, and when they come to be sober again, and remember their mischievous ways and words, now thy see what they have done, and how abominable their courses then were. O you that walk on in the madness of your minds now, in all manner of sin, if ever the Lord do good to you, you shall account your ways madness and folly, and cry out, O Lord, what have I done in kicking thus long against the pricks?

The Lord Jesus by his Spirit doth not only convince the soul of the evil of sin, but of the evil after sin; I mean, of the just punishment which doth follow sin; and that is this, viz., that it must die, and that eternally, for sin, if it remain in this estate it is now in. (Rom. 4:15,) “The law worketh wrath,” i.e., sight and sense of wrath. (Rom. 7:9,) “when the law came, sin revived, and I died;” i.e., I saw myself a dead man by it; so the soul sees clearly God hath said, “The soul that sinneth shall die;” I have sinned, and therefore, if the Lord be true, I shall die; to hell I shall, if now the Lord stop my breath, and cut off my life, which he might justly and may easily do. “Death is the wages of sin,” even of any one sin, though never so little; what, then, will become of me, who stand guilty of so many, exceeding the number of the hairs on my head, or the stars in heaven? “Whore-mongers and adulterers God will judge;” the minister hath said so, the Lord himself hath told me so. (Heb. 13:4.) I am the man; my conscience now tears me, and tells me so; what will become of me? “The Lord Jesus will come in flaming fire to render vengeance against all that know not God, and that obey not they gospel.” This I believe, for God hath said it. (2 Thess. 2:7-9.0 And now I see I am he that hath lived long in ignorance, and know not God; I have had the gospel of grace thus long wooing and persuading my heart, and oftentimes it hath affected me, but yet I have resisted God and his gospel, and have set my filthy lusts, my vain sports, my companions’ cups and queans at a higher price than Christ, and have loved them more than him; and therefore, though I may be spared for a while, yet there is a time wherein Christ himself will come out against me in flaming fire. To this purpose doth the Spirit work; for, beloved, the great means whereby Satan overthrew man at first in his innocency was this principle –– Although thou dost eat , and so sin against God, yet thou shalt not die. (Gen. 3:4,) “Ye shall not surely die.” The serpent doth not say, “Ye shall not die,” for that is too gross an outfacing of the word, (Gen. 2:17;) but he saith, “Ye shall not surely die;” that is, there is not such absolute certainty of it; it may be you shall live; God loves you better than so, and is a more merciful Father than to be at a word and a blow. Now look, as Satan deceived and brought out first parents to ruin by suggesting this principle, so at this day he doth sow this accursed seed, and plant this very principle in the soul of every man’s heart by nature; they do not think they can not believe they are dead men, and condemned to die, and that they shall die eternally for the least sin committed by them; men nor angels can not persuade them of it; they can not see the equity of it, that God, so merciful, will be so severe for so small a matter; nor yet the truth of it, for then they think no flesh should be saved; and thus, when the old serpent hath spit this poison before them, they sup it up, and drink it in, and so thousands, nay, millions of men and women are utterly undone. The Lord Christ, therefore, when he comes to save a poor sinner, and raise him up out of his fall, convinceth the soul by his Spirit, and that with full and mighty evidence, that it shall die for the least sin, and tells him, as the Lord told Abimelech in another case, (Gen. 20:3,) “Thou art but a dead man for this;” and if the Spirit set on this, let who can claw it off. I tell you, beloved, never did poor condemned malefactor more certainly know and hear the sentence of condemnation passed upon him by a mortal man, than the guilty sinner doth his, by an immortal and displeased God; and therefore those three thousand cry out, (Acts 2:37,) “Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved?” We are condemned to die; what shall we do now to be saved from death? Now the soul is glad to inquire of the minister, O, tell me, what shall I do? I once thought myself in a safe and good condition as any in the town or country I lived in; but now the Lord hath let me hear of other news; die I must in this estate, and it is a wonder of mercies I am spared alive this day. There is not only some blind fears and suspicions that it may possibly be so, but full persuasions of heart, die I must, die I shall in this estate; fir if the Spirit reveal sin, and convince not of death for sin, the soul under this work of conviction, being as yet rather sensual than spiritual, will make a light matter of it when it sees no sensible danger in it; but when it sees the bottomless pit before it, everlasting fire before it, for the least sin, now it sees the heinous evil of sin; the way of sin, thou never so peaceable before, is full of danger now, wherein it sees there are endless woes and everlasting deaths that lie in wait for it. (Rom. 6:21.) And now, saith the Spirit, you may go in these sinful courses as others do, if you see meet; but O, consider what will be the end of them; what it is to enjoy the pleasures of sin for season, and to be tormented forever for them in the conclusion; for be assured that will be the end: and hence the soul, seeing itself thus set apart for death, looks upon itself in a far worse estate that the brute beasts,, or vilest worm upon the earth; for it thinks, When they die there is an end of their misery; but O, then is the beginning of mine forever. Hence also arise those fears of death and of being suddenly cut off, that, when it lies down, it trembles to think, I may never rise again, because it is convinced, not only that it deserves to die, but that it is already sentenced for to die: hence the soul justifies God, if he had cut him off in his sin; and wonders what kept him from it, there being nothing else due from God unto it: hence, lastly, the soul is stopped and stands still, goes not on in sin as before; or if it doth, the Lord gives it no peace. (Jer. 8:6.) Why doth the horse go on in the battle? Because it sees not death before it; but now the soul sees death, and therefore stops. O, remember this, all you that never could believe that you are dead, condemned men, and therefore are never troubled with any such thoughts in your mind. I tell you that you are far from conviction, and therefore far from salvation: if God should send some from the dead to bear witness against this secure world concerning this truth, yet you will not believe it, for his messenger sent from heaven are not believed herein; woe be to you if you remain unconvinced of this point.

But you will say, How doth the Lord thus convince sin, and wherein is it expressed? which is the third particular.

All knowledge of sin is not conviction of sin; all confession of sin is not conviction; there is a conviction merely rational, which is not spiritual; there are three things in spiritual conviction.

There is a clear, certain, and manifest light, so that the soul sees its sin, and death due to it, clearly and certainly; for so the word (John 16:9) ελεγκειν signifies to evidence a thing by way of argumentation, nay, demonstration. The Spirit so demonstrates these things, that it hath nothing to object; a man’s mouth is stopped; he hath nothing to say but this: Behold, I am vile; I am a dead man; for if a man have any strong arguments given him to confirm a truth, yet if he have but one objection or doubtful scruple not answered, he is not fully as yet convinced, because full conviction by a clear sunlight scatters all dark objections, and hence our Savior (Jude 15) will one day convince the wicked of all their hard speeches against him, which will chiefly be done by manifesting the evil of such ways, and taking away all those colors and defenses men have made for their language. Before the Spirit of Christ comes, man can not see, will not see his sin for punishment; nay, he hath many things to say for himself as excuses and extenuations of sin. One saith, I was drawn unto it, (the woman that thou gavest me,) and so lays the blame on others: another saith, It is my nature: others say, All are sinners; the godly sin as well as others, and yet are saved at last, and so I hope shall I: others profess they can not part with sin; they would be better, but they can not, and God requires no more than they are able to perform: another saith, I will continue in sin but a little while, and purpose hereafter to leave it: others say, we are sinners, but yet God is merciful, and will forgive it; another saith, Though I have sinned, yet I have some good, and am not so bad as other men: endless are these excuses for sin. In one word, I know no man, though never so bad though his sin be never so grievous, but he hath something to say for himself, and something in his mind to lessen and extenuate sin; but, beloved, when the Spirit comes to convince, he so convinceth as that he answers all these, pulls down all these fences, tears off all these fig leaves, scatters all these mists, and pulls off all these scales from the eyes, stops a man’s mouth, that the soul stands before God, crying, O Lord, guilty, guilty; as the prophet Jeremy told them, (Jeremiah 2:23,) “Why dost thou say, I am innocent? look upon thy way,” etc. So the Spirit saith, Why dost thou say thy sin is small? It is disobedience, as Samuel said to Saul, (1 Sam. 15:23,) which is rebellion, and as the sin of witchcraft; and is that a small matter? The Spirit of conviction, by the clear evidence of the truth, binds the understanding that it can not struggle against God any more; and hence let all the world plead to the contrary, nay, let the godly come to comfort them in this estate, and think and speak well of them, yet they can not believe them, because they are certain their estates are woful: hence also we shall observe the soul under conviction –– instead of excusing sin, it aggravates sin, and studies to aggravate sin. Did ever any deal thus wickedly, walk thus sinfully, so long against so many checks and chidings, light and love, means and mercies, as I have done? And it is wonderful to observe that those things which made it once account sin light make it therefore to think sin great, ex. gr., my sin is little. The more unkind thou (saith the Spirit) that wilt not do a small matter for the Lord. My sin is common. The more sinful thou that in those things where in all the world rise up in arms against God, thou joinest with them. God spares me after sin. The greater is thy sin, therefore, that thou hast continued so long in, against a God so pitiful to thee. The dearest sins are now the vilest sins; because, though they were most sweet to him, yet the Spirit convinceth him they were therefore the more grievous unto the soul of God. You poor creatures may now hide, and color, and excuse your sins before men; but, when the Lord comes to convince, you can not lie hid. Then your consciences (when Jesus Christ the Lord comes to convince) shall not be like the steward in the gospel that set down fifty for a hundred pounds. No; the Lord will force it to bring in a true and clear account at that day.

There is a real light in spiritual conviction. Rational conviction makes things appear notionally; but spiritual conviction, really. The Spirit, indeed, useth argumentation in conviction; but it goeth further, and causeth the soul not only to see sin and death discursively, but also intuitively and really. Reason can see and discourse about words and propositions, and behold things by report, and to deduct on thing from another; nut the Spirit makes a man see the things themselves, really wrapped up in those words. The Spirit brings spiritual things as well as notions before a man’s eye; the light of the Spirit as like the light of the sun –– it makes all things appear as they are. (John 3:20,21.) It was Jerusalem’s misery she heard the words of Christ, and they were not hid from them; but the things of her peace, shut up in those words, were hid from her eyes. Discourse with many a man about his sin and misery, he will grant all that you say, and he is convinced, and his estate is most wretched, and yet still lives in all manner of sin. What is the reason of it? Truly, he sees his sin only by discourse, but he doth not, nay, can not, see the thing sin, death, wrath of God, until the Spirit come, which only convinceth or showeth that really. A man will not be afraid of a lion when it is painted only upon a wall. Why? Because therein he doth not see the living lion: when he sees that he trembles. So men hear of sin, and talk of sin and death, and say they are most miserable in regard of both; yet their hearts tremble not, are not amazed at these evils, because sin is not seen alive, death is not presented alive before them, which is done by the Spirit of conviction only, revealing these really to the soul; and hence it is that many men in seeing see not. How can that be? Thus, in seeing things notionally they see them not really. And hence many that know most of sin know least of sin, because, in seeing it notionally, they see it not really. And therefore happy were it for some men, scholars and others, that they had no notional knowledge of sin; for this light is their darkness, and makes them more uncapable of spiritual conviction. The first act of spiritual conviction is to let a man see clearly that he is sinful and most miserable. The second act is to let the soul see really what sin and death is. O, consider of this. Many of you know that you are sinful, and that you shall die; but dost thou know what sin is, and what it is to die? If thou didst, I dare day thy heart would sink. If thou dost not, thou art a condemned man, because not yet a convinced man. If you here ask how they Lord makes sin real, I answer, by making God real; the real greatness of sin is seen by beholding really the greatness of God, who is smitten by sin; sin is not seen because God is not seen. (3 John 5:11,) “He that doth evil hath not seen God.” No knowledge of God is the cause why blood toucheth blood. The Spirit casts out all other company of vain and foolish thoughts, and then God comes in and appears immediately to the soul in his greatness and glory, and then the Spirit saith, Lo, this is that God thy sins have provoked. And now sin appears as it is; and, together with real sight of sin, the soul doth not see painted fire, but sees the fire of God’s wrath really, wither now it is leading, that never can be quenched but by Christ’s blood; and, when the Spirit hath thus convinced, now a man begins to see his madness and folly in times past, saying, I know not what I did; and hence questions, Can the Lord pardon such a wretch as I, whose sins are so great? Hence also the heart begins to be affected with sin and death, because it sees them now as they are indeed, and not by report only. A man accounts it a matter of nothing to tread upon a worm, wherein here is nothing seen worthy either to be loved or feared; and hence a man’s heart is not affected with it. Before the Spirit of conviction comes, God is more vile in man’s eye than any worm. As Christ said in another case of himself, (Ps. 22,) “I am a worm, and no man,” so may the Lord complain, I am viler in such a one’s eye than any worm, and no God; and hence a man makes it a matter of nothing to tread upon the glorious majesty of God, and hence is not affected with it; but when God is seen by the spirit of conviction in his great glory, then, as he is great, sin is seen great; as his glory affects and astonisheth the soul, so sin affects the heart.

There is a constant light; the soul sees sin and death continually before it; God’s arrows stick fast in the soul, and cannot be plucked out. “My sin is ever before me,” said David, (in his renewing of the work of conversion.) For, in effectual conviction, the mind is not only bound to see the misery lying upon it, but it is held bound; it is such a sunlight as never can be quenched, though it may be clouded. When the Spirit of Christ darts in any light to see sin, the soul would turn away from looking upon it, would not hear on that ear, Felix-like. But the Spirit of conviction, sent to make thorough work on the hearts of all the elect, follows them, meets them at every turn, forceth them to see and remember what they have done. The least sin now is like a mote in the eye; it is ever troubling. Those ghastly, dreadful objects of sin, death, wrath, being presented by the spirit near unto the soul, fix the eye to fasten here. They that cast off at their pleasure the remembrance and thoughts of sin and death, never prove sound, until the Lord doth make them stay their thoughts, and muse deeply on what they have done, and whither they are going. And hence the soul, in lying down, rising up, lies down and rises up with perplexed thoughts. What will become of me? The Lord sometimes keeps it waking in the night season, when others are asleep, and then it is haunted with those thoughts, it can not sleep. It looks back upon every day and week, Sabbath, sermon, prayer, speeches, and thinks all this day, this week, etc., the goodness of the Lord and his patience to a wretch hath been continued; but my sins also are continued; I sin in all I do, in all my prayers, in all I think; the same heart remains still not humbled, not yet unchanged.

And hence you shall observe, that word which discovered sin at first to it, it never goes out of the mind. I think, saith the soul, I shall never forget such a man, nor such a truth. Hence also if the soul grow light and careless at some time, and casts off the thoughts of these things, the Spirit returns again, and falls a-reasoning with the soul: Why hast thou done this? What hurt hath the Lord done thee? Will there never be an end? Hast not thou gone on long enough in thy lewd courses against God, but that thou shouldest still add unto the heap? Hast thou not wrath enough already upon thee? How soon may the Lord stop thy breath! and then thou knowest thou hadst better never to have been born. Was there ever any that thus resisted grace? that thus adventured upon the sword point? Hast thou but one Friend, a patient, long-suffering God, that hath left thy conscience, without excuses long ago, and therefore could have cut thee off? and dost thou thus forsake him, thus abuse him? Thus the Spirit follows; and hence the soul comes to some measure of confession of sin: O lord, I have done exceeding wickedly; I have been worse than the horse that rusheth in to battle because it sees not death before it; but I have seen death before me in these ways, and yet go on, and still sin, and can not but sin. Behold me, Lord, for I am very vile. When thus the Spirit hath let into the soul a clear, real, constant light to see sin and death, now there is a thorough conviction.

But you will say, In what measure doth the Spirit communicate this light?

I shall therefore open the forth particular, viz.: The measure of spiritual conviction in all the elect, viz., so much conviction of sin as may bring in and work compunction for sin; so much sight of sin as may bring in sense of sin: so much is necessary, and no more. Every one hath not the same measure of conviction; yet all the elect have and must have so much; for so much conviction is necessary as may attain the end of conviction. Now, the finis proximus, or next end, of conviction in the elect, is compunction or sense of sin; for what good can it do unto them to see sin, and not to be affected with it? What greater mercy doth the Lord show to the elect therein than unto devils and reprobates who stand convinced, and know they are wicked and condemned, but yet their hearts altogether unaffected with any true remorse for sin? “Mine eye,” saith Jeremy, “affecteth my heart.” The Lord opens the ears of men and sealeth instruction, that he may hide pride from man. Some think that there is no thorough conviction without some affection. I dare not say so, nor will I now dispute whether there is not something in the nature and essence of that conviction the elect have different from that conviction in reprobates and devils. It is sufficient now, and that which teacheth the end of this question, to know what measure of conviction is necessary. I conceive the clear discerning of it by the immediate and sensible affect of it, viz., so much as affects the heart truly with sin. But if you ask, What is the sense of sin, and what measure of this is necessary? that I shall answer in the doctrine of compunction.

Let not therefore any soul be discouraged, and say, I was never yet convinced, because I have not felt such a clear, real , constant light to see sin and death as others have done. Consider thou if the end of conviction be attained, which is a true sense and feeling of sin, thou hast then that measure which is most meet for thee, more than which the Lord regards not in any of his. But you that walk up and down with convinced consciences, and know your states are miserable and sinful, and that you perish if you die in that condition, and yet have no sense nor feeling, no sorrow nor affliction of spirit for those evils, I tell thee the very devils are in some respects nearer the kingdom of God than you be, who see, and feel, and tremble. Woe, woe to thousands that live under convicting ministries, whom the word often hits, and the Lord by the Spirit often meets; and they hear and know their sins are many, their estates bad, and that iniquity will be their ruin if they thus continue; yet all God’s light is without heat, and it is but the shining of it upon rocks and cold stones; they are frozen in their dregs. Be it known to you, you have not one drop of that conviction which begins salvation. Before I pass from this to the second work of compunction, let me make a word of application.

If the Spirit begins thus with conviction of sin, then let all the ministers of Christ co-work with Christ, and begin with their people here; be faithful witnesses unto God’s truth, and give warning to this secure world that the sentence of death is passed, and the curse of God lies upon every man for the least sin. “Lift up thy voice like a trumpet,” was the Lord’s word to Isaiah, (Is. 58:2,) “and tell them their sin.” Those bees we call drones that have lost their sting. When the salt of the earth (the ministers of Christ, Matt.5.) have lost their acrimony and sharpness, or saltness, what is it good for but to be cast out? Our hearers will putrefy and corrupt by hearing such doctrines only as never search. When the Lord inflicted a grievous curse upon the people, (Ezek. 3:26,) the Lord made Ezekiel dumb that he should not be a reprover to them. What was the lamentation of Jeremy? “Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee, and have not discovered thine iniquity.” How would you have the Lord Jesus by his Spirit to convince men? Must it not be by his word? Verily you keep the Spirit of Christ from falling down upon the people if you refuse to endeavor to convince the people by your word. Other doctrines are sweet and necessary; but this is in the first place most necessary. Beware of personating, beware of bitterness and passion; but O, convince with a spirit of power and compassion; and he that shall be instrumental unto Christ in this or any other work for Christ’s sake, unto him the Lord will be the principle agent, and by him will attain his own ends, finish his great work, gather in his scattered sheep who are in great multitudes throughout the kingdom scattered from him, if once they be thoroughly convinced that they are utterly lost, and gone out of the way.

May not this also be sad reproof and terror to them that stand it out against all means of conviction, and will not see their sin, nor believe the fearful wrath of God due to them for sin? Not a man scarce can be found that will come to this conclusion: I am a sinful man, and therefore I am dead; I am a condemned man; but, like wild beasts, fly from their pursuers into their holes, and thickets, and dens –– their sinful extenuations, excuses, and apologies for sin and for themselves; and if they be hunted thither, and found out there, then they resist, and article against that truth which troubles them. “They flatter themselves in their own eyes until their iniquities be found most hateful.” Many a man dislikes the text, the use, especially the long use, wherein his sin is touched, and his conscience tossed –– especially it is be his darling sin, his Herodias, his Rimmon –– especially if withal he thinks that the minister means him, he will not see it nor confess it –– especially if he apprehends he shall lose his honor, or his silver shrines, and profit by it. He will not see his sin that he may not be troubled in conscience for his sin, that so he may not be forced to confess and forsake his sin, and condemn himself for it before God and men. O lord, I mourn that I can scarce meet with a man that either cares to be, or will be, convinced, but hath something always to say for himself: their sins are not so great, they are not so bad, but have some good, and therefore have some hope; and, if God be merciful, it is no great matter though they be exceeding sinful, or some such thing; their mouths are not stopped to say any thing for themselves but guilty. There is less conviction in the world in this age than many are aware of; for I believe that all the powers of hell conspire together to blind men’s eyes and darken men’s minds in this great work of Christ. Principiis obsta. It is policy to stop Christ in his entrance in this first stroke upon the soul; but O, little do you think what you do herein, and what woe you work to yourselves hereby. Dost thou stifle and resist the first breathings of Christ’s Spirit when he comes to save thee? What hurt will it be to know the worst of thy condition now, when there is hope hereby of coming out of it, who must else one day see all thy “sins in order before thee,” to thy eternal anguish and terror? (Ps. 1:21.) When the Lord shall say unto thee as to Dives, “Remember in thy lifetime thou hadst thy good things,” remember such a time, such a place such a sin; which then you would not see. But now thou shalt see what it is to strike an infinite God. Remember thou wast forewarned of wrath to come, but thou wouldest not believe thyself accursed, that so thou mightest have felt thy need of Him that was made a curse to bless thee; and therefore feel it now: O, you will wish then that you had known this evil in that your day. What dost thou talk of grace? thou thinkest thou hast grace, when as thou hast not the first beginning, nay, not the most remote preparation for it in this work of conviction: what should we do for such as these, but with Jeremy, (Jer. 13:17,) “If you will not hear, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride”?

O, be persuaded, therefore, to remember your sins past, and to consider of your ways now. All the profaneness of thy heart and life, all the vanity of thy youth, (Eccl. 11:9,) all your secret sins, all your sins against light and love, checks and vows; all that time wherein thou didst nothing else but live in sin; thus God’s people have done, (Ezek. 6:9.,) thus all the elect shall do. O, consider the Lord remembers them all, and that with grief of heart against thee, because thou fogettest them. (Hos.2:7.) He that numbers thy hairs, and tells the sparrow that fall, numbers much more thy sins that fall from thee; they are written down in his black book. They are no trifles, for he minds not toys; the books must be opened. O, reckon now you have yet time to call them to mind, which it may be shall not continue long; it is the Lord’s complaint (Jer. 8:6) of a wicked generation, “that he could hear no man say, What have I done?” “Winnow yourselves,” (as the word is, Zeph. 2:1,) “ O people not worthy to beloved.” I pronounce unto you from the eternal God, that ere long the Lord will search out Jerusalem with candles; he will come with a sword in his hand to search for all secure sinners in city and country, unless you awaken; he will make inquisition for blood, for oaths, for whoremongers, which grow common; for all secret sins we are frozen up in. O, be willing, be but willing that the Lord should search you and convince you, now in this evening time of the day, before the night come, wherein it will be too late to say, I wish I had considered of my ways in time: of all sins, none can so hardly stand with uprightness as a secret unwillingness to see and be convinced of sin. (John 3:20,21.) The helps and means for attaining hereunto are these:–

Bring thy soul to the light, desire the Lord in prayer, as Job did. “What I see not, O Lord, show me.” (Job 34:32.) Set the glass of God’s law before thee; look up in the ministry of the word unto the Lord, and say, O Lord, search me: the sun of this holy word discovers motes: on the Sabbath day attend to all that which is spoken as spoken unto thee; then examine thyself when thou hast leisure. When David saw (Ps. 19) how pure the law was, he cried out, “Who knows his errors?”

Look upon every conviction of thy conscience for sin as an arrest and warning given from the Lord himself; for sometimes the word hits, and conscience startles, and saith, This is my sin, my condition; yet how usual it is then for a man to put a merry face upon a foul conscience! how oft do men think this is but the word of a man who hath a latitude given him of reproving sin in the pulpit, and we must give way to them therein! Or else their hearts rise and swell against the man and word also. And why is it thus? Because he thinks it is man only that speaks; whereas did he see and believe that this was a stroke, a warning, and arrest, a check from the omnipotent God, would he then grapple, think you, with him? Would it pass lightly by him then? When Eli heard Samuel denounced sad things against his house, “It is the Lord,” said Eli. (1 Sam. 3:18.) When Paul saw Jesus speaking, “Why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 4.,) he falls down astonished, and dares not kick against the pricks any longer; and arrest in the king’s name comes with authority, and awes the heart of the man in debt.

Do not judge of sin by any other rule but as God judgeth of it, according to the rule of the word by which all men’s ways shall be judged at the last day. What made Saul (1 Sam. 15) extenuate his sin to Samuel? He judged not of it as the Lord in his word did; for had he done so, he would have seen disobedience to a command as bad as witchcraft, as Samuel told him; which also made his proud heart sink, and say, I have sinned: remember for this end these scriptures, (Rom. 1:18,2:9,6:23; Gal. 3:10,) by which thou mayest see, either I must die, (in the state I am ,) or God himself must lie. Remember that an angry look or word id murder in God’s account; a wanton eye, an unchaste thought, is adultery before a holy God, before whose tribunal thou must give an account of every vain thought and word. And therefore do not judge of sin by the present pleasure, gain, honor, or ease in it; for this is a false rule: Moses forsook the pleasures of sin for a season,” (Heb. 11:25;) nor yet by not feeling any punishment for it, for God reserves wrath (Nahum 1:2) till the day of reckoning; nor yet by the esteem that others generally have of it, who make no more of wounding the Son of God by sin than they do of crushing vermin under their feet; nor yet by the practice of others: Every man sins, and therefore I hope I shall do as well as others; nor yet seeing thyself better, and thanking God thou art not as other men: it may be so, thou didst never steal, nor whore, nor murder as yet: that is not the question; but hast thou had any one vain thought in prayer? hast thou heard one sermon unprofitably? hast thou sinned? then know God spared not the angels that sinned, and how will thou escape, unless the Lord die for thee? –– nor yet, lastly, judge of it by thy own opinion of God, in thinking God is like unto thee, that as thou makest light of it, so he maketh less. (Ps. 1:21.) O, take heed of judging the evil of sin by any of these rules: O, remember all men are apt to think of themselves better than they are: “Are we also blind?” say the Pharisees: take heed that by judging of sin by these false rules you deceive not yourselves.

Let this, lastly, be a use of thankfulness to all those whose eyes the Lord hath opened to see, and so convincing you of your sins. When David was going, in the heat of his spirit, to kill Nabal, and Abigail met him and stopped him, what said he? “O, blessed be the Lord for thy counsel;” so when thou wert going on, in the heat and pursuit of thy sin, toward eternal death, that the Lord should now meet thee in thy way, and convince thee of thy folly, and so stop thee, what a world of sin else wouldest thou have committed! how vile wouldest thou have been! O, say, therefore, Blessed be that minister of the Lord , and blessed forever be the names of the Lord that gave me that counsel. It is said, Christ will “send the Comforter to convince of sin:” it is a comfortable thing to see sin? Yes, it shall one day be matter of unspeakable comfort to you that ever you saw sin; that ever he showed thee that mystery of iniquity in thy heart and life, those arcane imperii, those secrets of the power and dominion of sin over thee: Thou shalt not hate, but reprove thy brother. If the Lord should secretly keep thy sin glowing in his own bosom against thee, and never reprove thee fore it, nor convince thee of it, no greater sign of God’s everlasting hatred against thee. O, it is infinite love that he hath called thee aside and dealt plainly and secretly with thee, and will you not be thankful for this? The Lord might have left thee in thy brutish estate, and never made known thy latter end; never have told thee of thy sin or flood before it comes.

It may be you will say, If I felt my sin, and were deeply humbled for it, I could then be thankful that ever I saw it: what is it to see sin?

This is a favor the Lord shows not to all mankind; many have no means to bring them to the knowledge of it, and those that have yet are smitten with a deep sleep under those means, that they know not when death is at their doors, nor what sin means; and this, it may be, is the condition of some of thy poor friends and acquaintance, that think it strange that thou runnest not with them in the same way as they do.

Suppose some reprobates do see sin; yet the Lord puts a secret virtue in that work of conviction upon thee, which makes thee cry to Heaven for a spirit of brokenness for sin, which, without this sight of sin, thou wouldest never so much as have desired; and this they have not.

However, conviction is a work of the Spirit, though it should be but common; and wilt thou be thankful for common mercy, suppose it be outward? How much more for this that is spiritual, though it should be common! especially considering that it is the first fundamental work of the Spirit, and is seminally all. Sense of sin begins here, and ariseth hence; as ignorance of sin is seminally all sin. Remember that the discovery of Faux in the vault was the preservation of England: we use to remember the day and hour of the beginning of some great and notable deliverance: O, remember this time, wherein the love of Christ first brake out in convincing thee of thy sin, who else hadst certainly perished in it. And thus much of this first work of conviction. Now the second follows –– compunction.

Section 3.

The second Act of Christ’s Power, in working Compunction, or

Sense of Sin.

COMPUNCTION, pricking at the heart, or sense and feeling of sin, is different from conviction of sin: the latter is the work of the understanding, and seated in that principally; the other is in the affections and will, and seated therein principally: a man may have sight of sin without sorrow and sense of it. (Dan. 5:22, with 20,21. James 1:24. Rom. 2:20,21.) Yet that conviction which the Spirit works in the elect is ever accompanied with compunction, first or last. For the better unfolding this point, let me open these four things to you: –

1. That compunction or sense of sin immediately follows conviction of sin in the day of Christ’s power.

2. The necessity of this work to succeed the other.

3. Wherein it consists.

4. The measure of it in all the elect.

That compunction follows conviction is evident from Scripture and reason. (Acts 3:37.) When they heard this, that is, when they saw and were convinced of their sin in crucifying the Lord of life, which they did not imagine to be a sin before, what follows next? It is said, “They were pricked at the heart.” Lo, here is compunction. Ephraim, also, in turning unto God, (Jer. 31:19,) hath these words: “After that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh,” (as men in great calamity befallen them use to do.) “I was ashamed, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.” The men of Nineveh hearing by the prophet they were all to die within forty days, it is said, “they believed God,” (in the work of conviction,) and then they fell to sackcloth and ashes, (in the work of compunction,) which did immediately follow. Josiah, (2 Chron. 34:27,) in his renewed return unto God, after he heard the words of the law, “his heart melted, and he wept before the Lord.” For what is the end of conviction? Is it not compunction? for if the Lord should let a man see his sin, and death for sin, and yet suffer the heart to remain hard and unaffected, the Lord did but leave him without excuse; nay, the Lord should but leave him under great misery, and under a more fearful judgment, viz., for a man to see and know his sin, and yet unaffected with it, and hardened under it: hardness of heart is one of the greatest judgments; to see sin, and not be affected with it, argues greater hardness. For it is no wonder if they that see and know not sin remain senseless of sin; alas! they know not what they do; but for a man to be enlightened, and see his sin, and yet unaffected, Lord, how great is this hardness, and how unexcusable will such a man be left before God, when the Lord shall reckon with him for his hardness of heart! what is the end of that light the Lord lets into the understanding in other things? Is it not that thereby the heart might he affected thoroughly with it? Why doth the Lord let in the light of knowledge of Christ and of his will? Is it that this knowledge should, like froth, float in the understanding, and be imprisoned there? No, verily, but that the heart might be thoroughly and deeply affected therewith. And do you think the Lord will, in the light of conviction, imprison it up in the mind? Is there not a further end that by this light the heart might be deeply affected with sin? If any say that the end of conviction is to drive the soul to Christ, I grant that is the remote and last end of it; but the next end is compunction. For if the understanding be convinced of misery, and the heart remain hard, the mind may see indeed that righteousness and life only are to be had in Christ; yet the heart remaining hard, the will and affections will never stir toward Christ; it is impossible a hard heart, remaining such, wholly unaffected with sin or misery, should be truly affected with Jesus Christ; but of this more hereafter.

What necessity is there of this compunction, to succeed conviction? I speak now of necessity in way of ordinary dispensation, not of God’s usual and extraordinary way of working, where he useth neither law nor gospel (as ordinarily he doth) to work by. Many have been nibbling lately at this doctrine, and demanded, What need is there of sorrow and compunction of heart? A man may be converted only by the gospel, and God may let in sweetness and joy without any sense of sin or misery, and in my experience I have found it so; others, godly and gracious, also feel it so; why, therefore, do any press such a necessity of coming in by this back door unto Christ? This point I conceive is very weighty, and much danger in denying the truth of it; yet, withal, there needs much tenderness in handling of it, lest any stumble; and therefore, before I lay down the reasons to show the necessity of it, give me leave to propound these rules both for the clearing of the point, and answering sundry objections usually about this point: –

In this work of compunction, do not think that the Lord hath not wrought any true sense of sin, because you find it not in such a measure as you imagine you should desire to have, and that others feel; sense of sin admits degrees. I doubt not but Joseph’s brethren were humbled; yet Joseph must be more; he must be cast into the ditch, and into prison, and the iron must enter not only into his legs, but into his soul. (Ps. 105:18.) He must be more afflicted in spirit, because he was to do greater work for God, and was to be raised up higher than the rest, and therefore sis need the more ballast: some are educated more civilly than others, and thereby have contracted less guilt and stoutness of heart against God and his ways; therefore these have not such cause of trouble; and being less rugged, have less need of axes to hew them: some men’s sorrow breaks in upon them more suddenly, like storms and breaches of the sea, and the Lord is resolved to hasten and finish his work in them more speedily, and it may be more exemplarily, (for every Christian is not a fair copy,) as in those, Acts 2:37. In others their sorrows soak in by degrees; Gutta cavat lapidem; the Lord empties them by continual droppings, and hence feel not that measure of sorrow that others do: every Christian is not a Heman, (Ps. 88.,) who suffers “distracting fears and terrors from his youth up,” (ver. 15,) who is “afflicted with all God’s ways,” (ver. 7,) for he was a man of exceeding high parts and gifts, as you may see, 1Kings 4:31; and therefore the Lord had need of hanging some special plummets on his heart to keep it ever low, lest it should be lifted up above measure. Some sense of sin the Lord will work in all he saves, but not the same measure; the Lord gives not always unto his that which is good in itself, (it is good, I confess, to be deeply affected and humbled,) but that which is fit, and therefore best for thee.

Do not think there is no compunction or sense of sin wrought in the soul because you can not so clearly discern and feel it, nor the time of the working and first beginning of it. I have known many that have come with complaints –– they were never humbled, they never felt it so, nor yet could tell the time when it was so; yet there hath been, and many times they have seen it, by the help of others’ spectacles, and blessed God for it. When they in Isaiah 63:17, complained, “Lord, why hast thou hardened out hearts from thy fear?” do you think there was no softness nor sensibleness indeed? Yes, verily, but they felt nothing but a hard heart; nay, such hardness as if the Lord had plagued them with it by his own immediate hand, and not born and bred with them only, as with other men. Many a soul may think the Lord hath left it, nay, smitten it with a hard heart, and so make his moan of it; yet the Lord hath wrought real softness, under self-hardness, as many times in reprobates there is felt softness when within there is real hardness. The stony ground hearers were ploughed and broken on the top, but were stony at the bottom. Some men may be wounded outwardly and mortally; this may easily be discerned. The Lord may wound others, and they may bleed out; their sorrow is more inwardly and secret, and therefore can not point with their finger to the wound as others can.

Do not think the Lord works compunction an all the elect in the same circum-stantial work of the Spirit, but only in the same substantial work; the Lord works a true sense of sin for substance and truth of it, yet there are many circumstantial works, like so many enlargements and comments upon one and the same text. Ex. Gratia, the same sin that affects Paul, it may be, doth not affect Lydia or Apollos. The same notions for the aggravation of sin in one do not come into the mind of the other; the same complaints, and prayers, and turnings of spirit in the one, may not be in the other, and yet both of them feel sin, and therefore complain; they both feel sin, yet by means of various apprehensions and aggravations. This I speak, because you may the better understand the meaning of God’s servants in opening the work of humiliation. You may hear them say, The soul doth this, and thinks that, and speaks another thing; it may be every one does not so think I in the same individual circumstances, and therefore is to be understood as producing only exemplum in re simili: something like this, or for the substance of this, is here wrought.

In this work of compunction we must not bring rules unto men, but men to rules; crook not God’s rules to the experience of men, (which is fallible, and many times corrupt,) but bring men unto the rule, and try men’s estates herein by that; for many will say some men are not humbled at all, never had any precedent sorrow for sin, God’s mercy only hath melted their hearts; and experience proves this, and many find this, who are sincere and gracious Christians.

I answer, We are not in this or any other point to be guided by the experience of men only, but attend the rule; if it be proved that according unto the rule men must be broken and affected with their sin and misery before mercy can be truly apprehended or Christ accepted. What tell you me of such or such men? Let the rule stand, but let men stand or fall according to the rule; many are accounted gracious and godly for a time, much affected with mercy and Christ Jesus; yet afterward fall or wizen into nothing, and prove very unsound?

What is the reason?

Truly the cause was here: their first wound and sorrow for sin was not right, as hereafter shall be made good; many thousands are miserably deceived about their estates by this one thing, of crooking and wresting God’s rules to Christians’ experience. Let all God’s servant tremble and be wary here; rack not the Holy Scriptures, nor force them to speak as thou feelest, but try all things by them. (1 Thess. 5:21.)

Do not make examples of converted persons in Scripture patterns in all things of persons unconverted; do not make God’s work upon the one run parallel with God’s work upon the other.

Some say that many in Scripture are converted to Christ without any sorrow for sin, and produce the examples of Lydia, whose heart God sweetly opened to receive Christ; and the eunuch, (Acts 8.,) converted in the same manner.

I answer, These are examples of persons converted to God before, who did believe in the Messiah, but did not know that this Jesus was the Messiah, which they soon did when the Lord sent the means to reveal Christ; and therefore Lydia, a Jewish proselyte, is called a worshiper of God, (Acts 16:14,) and so was the eunuch, (Acts 8:27;) and in the same condition was the centurion, (Acts 10:2,) who feared God, and whose prayers were accepted, (ver. 4,) (which can not be without faith) yet did not know that this Jesus crucified was the Messiah, until Peter came unto him. So that, suppose here was no sense or sorrow for sin, at this time; doth it therefore follow they never had any when the Lord first wrought upon them? are these examples in persons converted fit to show forth God’s work in persons unconverted? In some things, indeed, they are examples, in others not so; their examples of believing in Christ are not in the act examples of sorrow for want of Christ. And yet let me add, to say that God opened Lydia’s heart to believe in Christ, and yet opened not her heart to lament her sin and misery in her estate without Christ, (suppose she were without Christ,) is more than can be proved from the text; for it said her heart was opened to attend unto the things that were spoken by Paul; and can any think that Paul, or an apostle, ever preached Christ without preaching the need men had of him? and could any preach their need of Christ without preaching men’s undone and sinful estate without Christ? and do you think that Lydia was not made to attend unto this? do you think that when Philip came to open the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah to the eunuch, that “Christ was bruised for our iniquities;” that he did not let him understand the infinite evil of sin and misery of all sinners, and of him in special, unless the Lord Jesus was bruised for him?

In examples recorded in the Scripture of God’s converting grace, do not think they had sorrow for sin, because it is not distinctly and expressly set down in all places; for the Scripture usually sets down matters very briefly; it oftentimes supposeth many things, and refers us to judge of some by other places; as (Acts 6:7) it is said, “many of the priests were obedient to the faith:” doth it therefore follow that they did immediately believe, without any sense of sin? Look to a fuller example, (Acts 2.,) and then we may see, as the one were converted to the faith, so were the other, having a hand in the same sin. (1 Tim. 1:13,14,) Paul, he was a persecutor, but the Lord received him to mercy;” and that “God’s grace was abundant in faith and love,” doth it hence follow that Paul had no castings down, because not mentioned here? If we look upon Acts 9., we shall see it otherwise.

Do not judge of general and common workings of the Spirit upon the souls of any to be the beginning of effectual and special conversion; for a man may have some inward and yet common knowledge of the gospel, and Christ in it, before there be any sorrow for sin; yet it doth not hence follow that the Lord begins not with compunction and sorrow, because common work is not special and effectual work; when the Spirit thus comes, he first begins here, as we shall prove.

The terrors, and fears, and sense of sin and death be in themselves afflictions of soul, and of themselves drive from Christ; yet in the hand of Christ, by the power of the Spirit, they are made to lead, or rather drive into Christ, which is able to turn mourning into joy, as well as after mourning to give joy; and therefore it is a vain thing to think there is no need of such sorrows which drive from Christ, and that Christ can work well enough therefore without them; when as by the mighty power and riches of mercy in Christ, the Lord by wounding, nay, killing his of all their carnal security and self-confidence, saves all his alive, and drives them to seek for life in the Son.