The wels of salvation opened: or, a treatise discovering the nature, preciousnesse, usefulness of Gospel-promises, and rules for the right application of them. By William Spurstowe, D.D. pastor of Hackney near London. Imprimatur, Edm. Calamy.

SECT. 1. How farre a believer ought to censure himselfe, after atrocious sinnes.

First, how farre a believer may and ought to judge and sentence himselfe for sinnes that are not quotidianae incursionis, of daily incursion, and incident to humane frailty; but are devorat••ria salutis, sinnes that more immediately hazard and endanger salvation it selfe, as springing from more mature deliberation, and a more full consent

of will; and take it in these particulars.

First, a believer ought to acknowledge that such sinnes which have in them not••rie∣tatem facti, a notoriety of fact, do deserve no∣torietatem poenae, a notoriety, and exemplari∣nesse in their punishment; and he is to be af∣fected as one who hath justly merited death, though it be not inflicted; because the de∣sert of sinne is still the same, though the sen∣tence be revoked by a pardon. The mercy of a Prince is richly manifested in giving unto a traitour his life; but yet that doth not dis∣oblige him to confesse that his offence▪ de∣served death; but layes rather a greater tie upon him to do it; that so he may magnifie the clemency of his Soveraigne: So though God do keep a believer from coming into the condemnation of sinners, by giving un∣to him a Royal and full pardon for whatever he hath done against him; yet this ought to be so farre from withholding him to acknow∣ledge what the just wages of his rebellions are; as that it ought the more to provoke him thereunto, that so he may give God the glory of his free pardoning grace. Thus Peter bewailed the foulenesse of his sinne in denying his Lord and Master, Mark 14. 72. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. We translate it, He thought

thereon, and wept. But Teophilact, and others with him interpret it, Obvelavit se, he co∣vered his head, and wept. Alluding to the generall custome in the Easterne Countreys, where the condemned malefactors had their faces covered. And by this ceremony Peter judged his sinne to have deserved no lesse then death, and as a sonne of death he wailed himselfe: He wept bitterly, Luk. 22. 62.

Secondly, a believer may so farre charge the guilt of grosse sinnes, and defections up∣on himselfe, as to acknowledge his utter unworthinesse to stand in any relation of love unto God, and that he might be so farre from owning him as a sonne, as that he might de∣ny to look upon him in the number of his servants. Thus the Prodigal (whom Divines not improbably conceive to be the embleme of a regenerate man falling into scandalous sinnes) in his returne to his father, Luke 15. 19. acknowledgeth himselfe to be unwor∣thy to be called his sonne. Though he doth not deny the relation of a sonne; yet he judgeth himselfe most unworthy of the title of a sonne, and thinkes it an happinesse if he may but be in his house as an hireling. And surely every child of God, who hath through loose and riotous living wasted both his

grace and his comforts, and brought sad ex∣tremities upon himselfe by straying from his fathers house, ought in those resolutions and purposes of heart, which he hath of re∣turning unto God againe, to be deeply ap∣prehensive how unworthy he is of any fa∣vourable reception from him, how unde∣serving he is to lodge in his house as a ser∣vant, much more to lie in his bosome as a sonne, that thereby he may the better prize the mercy of restored love; and for the fu∣ture, may the more dread the sad effects of a voluntary departure from God, and be more watchfull in preserving his communion with him.

Thirdly, a believer falling into scandalous and vile pollutions, ought so farre to judge himselfe, and to charge the guilt of them up∣on his soul; as not to lay hold immediately up∣on the promises of forgivenesse, untill he first re∣new his repentance, and be throughly ashamed of the evil of his doings. When Moses inter∣ceded for Miriam whom God had smitten with aleprosie; If her father (saith the Lord) had but spit in her face, should she not have been ashamed seven dayes? Numb. 12. 44. That is, if her earthly father provoked to anger, had expressed his displeasure by spitting upon

her, should she not for a season have been sor∣rowfull and pensive? How much more then when her heavenly Father is displeased by her sinne, should she for a time be ashamed, and shut out from the priviledges and society of the Congregation? To be guilty of great sinnes, and at the same time without remorse, and grief of heart to lay hold on the promises of mercy; is not the acting of faith, but of presumption; because faith alwayes pro∣ceeds according to Gods method in the ob∣taining of peace, and comfort. Now the way by which God speakes peace, and makes good the promises of forgivenesse, is by re∣pentance. And therefore till that be renew∣ed, the comfort of pardon is suspended. First, God heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe, Jer. 31. 18. And then he remembred him: then he manifests the bowels of a tender Father, and saith, I will surely have mercy up∣on him, vers. 20.

Fourthly, a believer falling into grosse and peace-destroying sinnes, is so farre to charge the guilt of them upon his soul; as to acknowledge, That all those temporal afflicti∣ons and chastisements, which God as a Father provoked to anger, doth lay upon him, are by his sinnes justly deserved, and by God righteously

inflicted. ••hat God doth make his own chil∣dren to feel the smart of his displeasure in heavy and sore afflictions, occasioned by their iniquities, is a truth which the Scripture holds forth with so much evidence, that he that runnes may reade it: They rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit, therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them, Isa. 63. 10. So again, For the iniquity of his covetousnesse was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, Isa. 57. 17. What pregnant instances also were old Eli, upon whose person and posterity God brings a most severe, and dreadfull judgement? I Sam. 2. 31, 32, 33. David, who complaines that his sinnes are a burthen too heavy for him, Psal. 38. 4. that his wounds stink, and are corrupted because of his foolishnesse, ver. 5. that he is feeble and sore broken, v. 8. Jonah, who cries out of the belly of the whale, as out of the belly of hell, that he is forsaken and cast out of Gods sight, Jonah 2. 2, 3. How easie were it by an addition of examples in this kinde to make the number to swell into a Catalogue? But a taste is e∣nough. Now what their carriage and be∣haviour towards God is in this condition, see it in their expressions. Old Eli when he

heard of the judgement of God denounced against him, saith, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good, 1 Sam. 3. 18. David under all his pressures acknowledgeth, that in faithfulnesse he had afflicted him, Psal. 119. 75. So Jonah who had fled from the pre∣sence of God, in the prayer that he poureth out before him in his extremity, confesseth the sinne, and vanity of all other depen∣dencies save on God alone: They that observe lying vanities, forsake their own mercies, Jonah 2. 8.

But it may be objected, How can it stand with the justice of God to punish sinne in his children, with any such kinde of affliction; Christ having made an absolute, and plenary satisfaction for them?

To this the answer is easie; that these temporal punishments, though they have dis∣pleasure mixed with them, yet they do not slow from the vindictive justice of God, as an irreconciled enemy; but are the corrections of a provoked Father, and do wholly differ in the end from the vindictive which are not medicinal, but destructive. The Judge who sentenceth the hand of a malefactor to be cut off, hath not the same end with the Physician that cuts of an hand when it is incurably

festred; the one commands it as a satisfacti∣on due to justice; the other enjoynes it, as a meanes to preserve the safety of the other parts: So when God afflicts the wicked and believers with the same temporal evils; though the smart and paine may be in both alike; yet he doth it not with the same mind, nor to the same end; the one he punisheth in order to the satisfaction of his justice, the other as a Father he corrects in order to their amendment; to the one therefore it is pro∣perly a punishment, and to the other truly a medicine.