Page images
PDF
EPUB

And the direction given to fallen Ifrael, in order to a recovery, Hof. xiv. 2. Take with you words, and Say, &c. doth plainly bear, that there fhould, in that cafe, be folemn ferious thinking before folemn prayer.

Now, to affift you in the practice of this part of your work, the following advices are offered.

First, Read fome pertinent paffage of holy fcripture; and that with application, as reading your own heart and life therein. Such are thofe paffages, which contain difcoveries and confeffion of fin, as Ifa. lix.; or lifts of fins, or of several forts of finners, as Rom. i. 29,-32. 2 Cor. vi. 9, 10. Gal v. 19, 20, 21. 2 Tim. iii. 1,—5. Rev. xxi. 8. Particularly, I recommend for this purpose Ezra ix. Neh. ix. Dan. ix. Of these, or other fcriptures of the like nature, you may read fuch as you shall judge meet.

Secondly, It will be expedient and useful, in this cafe, to read alfo the Larger Catechifm on the Ten Commands, in the answers, to the questions, What is required? and What is forbidden? and especialy the latter. For by reading thereof with application to yourfelf, you will find out your guiltinefs in many points, which perhaps would not otherwife come into your mind.

Thirdly, This done, apply yourself to think of your fins, in order to your getting a broad and humbling view of your finful and wretched cafe. And for your help herein, I fuggeft to you these things following.

1. You may compose yourself what way you find, by experience, to be beft for keeping the mind fixed. It is a piece of Chriftian prudence in this cafe, to dispose of every thing fo, as you may the more readily reach that end, and block up the avenues by which impertinent thoughts may make their entrance. As, (1.) Because the eyes often betray the heart, through a variety of objects, which present themselves

Chap. 2. themfelves to one's view in the light: if you are in a houfe you may darken it by ftopping the light : if in the fields, you may lie down upon your face, and clofe your eyes. (2.) If you can by no means keep your heart at fimple thinking, you may fpeak to yourfelf with a low voice, that words may help to fix the mind unto the thing. Thefe are only prudential advices, which they that need may ufe, they that need not may let alone.

2. It will be very profitable to obferve fome method and order, in thinking of our fins. A confufed and indeterminate manner of thinking of our fins, doth, in feveral refpects, fall fhort of an orderly thought about them. It is true, when the Spirit of the Lord is carrying on a fpecial work of conviction in the heart of a finner, the man's fin will of courfe be readily laid to hand, and fet in order before his eyes, Pfal. I. 21. But it is another cafe, where one is fearching out his fins, with an ordinary affiftance of the Spirit: herein thofe do not duly confult their own intereft, who refufe the help of method in the fearch.

And there is a twofold method or order, which may be helped to you therein; to wit, the order of the time of life, and the order of the Ten Commandments. Both thefe are natural, and eafy to

the meaneft

capacity.are

Thinking on your fins in the order of the time of your life, you will thereby get a general view of your own finfulness, and that throughout your whole life. And in this method,

ift, You are to confider the fin of your nature. You are to look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged, Ifa. li. 1. Think, what a finful lump thou waft in thy conception and birth, Jhapen in iniquity, conceived in fin, Pfal. li. 5. how thou cameft into the world, with cords of guilt wreathed about thy neck, binding thee

over to wrath under the curfe: stripped naked of original righteousnefs; thy whole nature corrupted, being the very reverfe of the holy nature of God; thy foul in all its faculties quite perverted, ready to discover with the firft occafion its wrong fet, namely, a propensity to evil, and an averfion to good; and thy body in all its members finful flesh. In confideration whereof thou mayst well fay, with admiration of the divine patience, O why did the knees prevent me! Or why the breasts that I should fuck!

2dly, Then turn your thoughts to the fins of your childhood. Solomon in his penitentials tells us, that childhood and youth are vanity, Ecclef. xi. 10. Truly, the fins of that early period of our life, are not to be remembered to be laughed at, but mourned over; and fo they will be by true penitents: for they are the early fproutings and buds of corupt nature that might have been fatal to us, ere we had gone further: Behold, how in that period thou haft Spoken and done evil things as thou couldft. It is likely that many of these things are forgotten: but yet you will still fearch out as many of them, as may be matter of deep humiliation unto you before the Lord. There may be fins of childhood, that will make a bleeding wound in a gracious heart, on every remembrance thereof, even unto the dying day.

[ocr errors]

3dly, Then take a view of the fins of your youth. Job got a moving view of his, when he was come to a good age, Job xiii. 26. Thou writeft bitter things against me, and makeft me to poffefs the iniquities of my youth. David's heart bleeds at the remembrance of his crying unto God, Remember not the fins of my youth, Pfalm xxv. 7. Youth is vain, rash and inconfiderate; and therefore a dangerous period of life, precipitating fome into fuch fteps as make them to halt all their life after, proving fatal to many, and laying up matter of repentance to all. And if the

follies

follies of it be not timely repented of, and mourned over by the finner, they shall lie down with him in the duft, Job xx. II.; and present themselves again in full tale, when for all thefe God will bring him into judgment, Ecclef. xi. 9. Therefore do you take a mournful view of them, and judge yourselves, in time.

4thly, If you are come to middle age, proceed to the fearching out of the fins of that period of your. life. In it you cannot mifs of matter of deep bumi. liation; for man at his beft eftate is altogether vanity, Pfalm xxxix. 5. Every period of life is attended with its proper fnares and temptations. And he who, right or wrong, hath made his way through thofe of youth, doth but enter into a new throng of Temptations of another kind, while he enters on the next stage of life: in the which men often, ere they are aware, pierce themselves through with many forrows, lose themselves in a cloud of cares and bufinefs, and troubled about many things, forget the one thing needful.

Lastly, If you are advanced into old age, go forward and view your fins in that period. Whatever infirmities do attend it, the fins of it must be fearched out, and repented of too: for it will not excufe a man, before a holy God, that he is an aged finner. The corruption of nature, the longer it hath kept its ground, is the more hateful, and will be the more humbling to a gracious foul.

Thus you will have your whole life before you in parcels. And that you may, with the greater dif tinctness, review any period thereof, which you have fully paft, or of which you have past a great part; you may distinguish the fame into leffer periods, according to the more notable events, turns, or changes that were in it, and review them separately; as for inftance, the time before you went to school, by itself; the time of your being at it, by itself; and fo in other cafes.

But

But for a more full and particular view of your fins, do you proceed in the order of the Ten Commandments. The holy law, confidered in its fpirituality and vast extent, is the proper means for found conviction: it is the finners looking glafs, whereby to discern the vast multitude of his fpots and defilements, in order to his humiliation: Rom. vii. 7. I bad not known fin, but by the law: for I had not known luft, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Wherefore by no means neglect, in this review to go through the Ten Commandments: and pause upon every one of them, confidering the duties required therein, and wherein you have been guilty by omiffion of them; and the fins forbidden therein, and wherein you have been guilty by commiffion of them; guilty in both kinds, in thought, word, and deed. This would be a proper means to fhew you the multitude of your trangreffions.

[ocr errors]

But to proceed in both the one and the other order jointly, namely, by reviewing each period of your life feparately, in the order of the Ten Commandments, would, through the divine bleffing, be of the most fingular ufe for reaching the most humbling view of your whole life.

Thus far of the fecond thing fuggefted for your help to think of your fins, in order to a humbling view of your cafe. And for your further help

therein.

3. Be sure that in a special manner you fet before your eyes the fignal mifcarriages of your life, those fins that have wounded your confcience deepest. I doubt there are but few, if any, of a tender confcience, who fee not fome fuch blots in their efcutcheon; fome remarkable trefpaffes in heart or life, that are ready to gall them on every remembrance; though perhaps known unto none but God and themselves. Good Eli had fuch a blot on him, pointed out to him under the name of The iniquity which

he

« PreviousContinue »