But this by the way In the Words that I have read which are a part of Ezra's Address unto God by humble and affectionate Confession of their Sin he spreads and lays open the Aggravations of it together with the Danger and sad Issues of it if they should still continue in it The Aggravations thereof are these three 1. The great Severity that God had formerly shewed against them for their Sins which is set forth and express'd in the first Words After all that is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Trespass 2. The merciful Tenderness and Compassion that God however even in that Severity was pleased to manifest towards them in the next Words Seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve 3. The singular Favour God had shewed them in rescuing them from under those Calamities which their Sins had brought upon them in the Clause following And hast given us such a Deliverance as this These were the things by which their Sin would be greatly heightned after so much Severity Compassion and Kindness to have returned to Folly and to have broken God's Commandments again was to have done as bad as they could as the Prophet speaks and to have given their Sins all the Aggravations that they were capable of Then as for the Danger they exposed themselves to that was no less than utter Ruine and Destruction After this Mixture of severe and merciful Providences should we again break thy Commandments wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no Remnant nor Escaping They had indeed already broken God's Commandment in a grievous manner and sinned against him with an high Hand by those unlawful Marriages His meaning therefore is should we again break thy Commandment as we have done Should we still continue in our Sin and obstinately refuse to be reduced to Obedience If we should still perversly and irreclaimably go on in our Trespasses wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us Of these Particulars in order as they lie in the Text. I begin with the Aggravations of their Sin the first of which is the great Severity God had formerly shewed against them for their past Transgressions After all that is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Trespass should we again break thy Commandments Here divers things are observable 1. That Ezra and all those who joined with him in this Confession of their Sins did endeavour to aggravate their Sins by calling in and laying together all those Circumstances by which the Hainousness of them might the better appear And this they did to the end their Hearts might be the more affected with them and the more soundly humbled for them as also that they might be the more willing to forsake them And this is the Property of all true Penitents they ever desire to be throughly apprehensive of the Evil of their Sins and therefore they aggravate them to the utmost in their Confessions charging themselves fully with them and laying as much Load upon themselves as they can They think they can never speak enough against themselves nor sufficiently discover and represent the Evil of their Ways insomuch that sometimes they rather exceed than come short herein charging themselves more heavily than there was cause for But Hypocrites unhumbled and impenitent Sinners are of a different temper these instead of aggravating their Sins are wont to extenuate and palliate them If they be forced to confess them 't is for the most part but by halves that they do it If they cannot but acknowledg they have offended yet they will do it with an Apology or with an Addition of something that may qualify and lessen their Sin They are indeed sometimes overtaken but 't is very rarely 't is when they are drawn aside by ill Company or overpower'd by the Strength of Temptation that they are not the only Persons that are faulty in that kind that some others that would be esteemed much better than themselves are much more blame-worthy that there is no Man but must have his Allowances and that it would go hard with us all if all our Actions should be narrowly scanned and the like These and such like are the Excuses which they plead and the Defences they make for themselves when they should take shame to themselves and own their Excesses and Exorbitances in their full Magnitude judging themselves that they might not be judged of the Lord. These partial and favourable lame and imperfect Confessions of Sin when some little Part is owned but much more is denied when Fig-leaves and specious Pretences are studiously sought out to cover as much of a Man's Shame as is possible are ever an infallible Argument that the Sinner was never duly humbled for that Sin for which he hath still so much Kindness and Affection 2. Another thing observable is that Ezra and those other holy Men that together with him made this Confession did impute all those Miseries and Calamities which they had suffered in the Captivity unto their Sins they did own their Sufferings as the Fruit of their Sins and acknowledg their Transgressions to have been the meritorious Cause and Procurers of their Afflictions After all say they that is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Trespass They were convinced and did yield and assent that God's Intentions in bringing those Evils upon them were to punish them for their Sins This Conviction and Acknowledgment was necessary for them and is for us all in reference to our Afflictions and yet 't is very difficult to attain it 'T is necessary because without it we can neither be patient under our Afflictions nor profit by them nor rationally expect a good Issue out of them 1st Unless we be convinced that our Sufferings have relation to our Sins and own them as the Fruits of our Sins we shall hardly be able to undergo with Patience what is inflicted on us To be sure we shall want one of the most effectual Arguments to work Patience in us 'T is the Sense of our Sins deserving whatsoever is come upon us and an Acknowledgment of the righteous Hand of God in bringing such Afflictions on us for our Sins that humbles and subdues our Hearts to God composeth and quieteth our tumultuous Spirits and gives check to all the Risings of our rebellious Nature against God's Providence It was the Sense that Eli had of his own Guilt and of the just Desert of his own Sin and the Sins of his Family that made him so patient quiet and silent when that heavy Sentence was by Samuel pronounced against him and his as that he had not a Word to say more than only to profess his humble and meek Submission to the good Pleasure of God It is the Lord saith he 1 Sam. 3.18 let him do what seemeth him good And this is that which the Spirit
upon the Authority of God revealing them he both could and would most readily have assented to them because he had both a power and a readiness of mind to believe whatsoever truth God should reveal And this is all that in these matters God requires of us The deep things of the Gospel are not propounded to us to be perfectly understood and comprehended by us but they being unfathomable by the longest Line of our Reason all that God expects from us is that we give our assent to them and believe them and this only because he who can neither be deceived nor deceive hath revealed them But as the case now stands with us since the Fall though these things are most clearly revealed and as such propounded to us yet we will not believe them they are foolishness to us as the Apostle speaks So miserably are our Minds taken up and prepossessed with a proud and fond Opinion of our selves of our own natural Ability to judge of these things with false Principles with inveterate Prejudices and rank Enmity against the Truth and what not that we shut out the light and forbid it entertainment with us 2. Add hereunto that the perverseness and stubbornness of the Will the irregularity the inordinate propensions and impetuous motions of the Affections and sensual Appetite do not a little hinder the reception of Spiritual Truths into the Understanding For as bad Meats as crude and inconcocted Humours in the Stomach send up noisom Vapours into the Head clouding the Mind discomposing the Brain and disturbing the Fancy so the sinful Distempers the inordinate Passions the unruly and rebellious disorders of the inferior Faculties send up such fumes into the higher Region of the Soul as darken the Understanding as incline and dispose the Mind to embrace what is most sutable to the corrupt bent of the Will and Affections and to reject the contrary Aristotle's censure of young Men as incompetent Auditors of the Precepts of Moral Philosophy hath more reason in it than at first appears The strength of their Lusts and Passions doth not only make them unwilling to come under the severity of Moral Precepts in their Practice and Conversation but likewise much obstruct the passage of those severer Truths into their Understandings 'T is no easie matter to gain the assent of the Understanding to those practical Truths which a man hath no mind to be ordered by Men will be very ingenious to invent and very facil and easie to be prevailed with to entertain reasons against that which in respect of the contrary byas of their Wills they would not have to be truth As 't is most true on the one side Quod nimis miseri volumus hoc facile credimus A weak and dark Argument shall have strength and evidence enough to persuade us of the truth of that which we have a mind to believe So on the other side the most clear and demonstrative Arguments in the World shall not easily persuade us where we are unwilling to be persuaded Neither is it thus only in matters of Morality but much more in spiritual things as the corrupt Heart of man is naturally at a far greater remoteness and distance from them Upon this ground it seems to be that Solomon who could best speak to that Argument tells us That the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Prov. 1.7 When a man's heart is seasoned with the fear of God and in some measure purged from corrupt Affections when 't is subdued unto God and made yielding and pliable to his Will then is a man fit to receive the Law from his mouth and then is the Heart a meet Vessel to receive the rich and invaluable treasure of heavenly Wisdom And so much in answer to the first Objection I go on to the second That our not entertaining the light seems to be put upon Satan's score And here though Satan's malice and guilt be nothing the less 't is apparent that this cause may also in great part be resolved into man's sin and wickedness How comes it to pass that Satan hath such advantage against man in this matter whence is it that he can so easily befool men prejudice them against the light of the Gospel keep them in darkness and lead them blindfold to Hell as the Prophet led the Army of the Syrians into Samaria Is it not because he finds them preingaged in sinful Courses from which they cannot endure to be taken off Is it not because he finds them resolved to comply with their Lusts and corrupt Affections the gratifying of which is not to be gainsayed they cannot bear it were it not that he finds in mens hearts such fit matter to work upon laid in before and prepared to his hands he could not so easily delude and blind them to their ruine Satan had as much malice against Christ and did with the greatest rage and violence assault him and endeavour to break in upon him but he could not do it as finding nothing within to bid him welcome The Prince of this world cometh Joh. 14.31 saith he and findeth nothing in me Nihil sui operis suique vestigii saith St. Hierom in his Epistle to Algasia nothing of his own Work no impressions which he himself hath made no footsteps which he himself hath left behind him nothing at all on which to ground an Accusation or to fasten a Temptation The words may comprehend both tho indeed the former seems to be in that place chiefly intended Let Satan come to any of us when he will he is sure to find something of his own something of his own work something of his own image which he hath stampt upon us something that he may lay claim to as his something of his party that will own him and side with him Hence the different issue of Christ's Temptations and ours When Satan came to assault him he found his Soul as an impregnable Castle well fortified on every quarter clear and heavenly light without any mixture of darkness in the Understanding perfect holiness in the Will exact regularity and composedness in the Affections all of one accord within to make resistance so as it was impossible for him to get possession When he comes to us he finds the Soul as a city that is broken down Prov. 25.28 and without walls as Solomon speaks And he finds a treacherous party within that is ready to invite him that would gladly set open the Gates to him and betray all into his hands were the Soul otherwise never so well fortified And thus we see how far all the mischief that Satan doth us may be resolved into our own sin 'T is true he blinds us but 't is because we have no mind to see he closeth our eyes against the light of the Gospel but he finds us endeavouring to close our own eyes and glad of any assistance from him to do it more effectually In a word he shuts out the
early and before longer Custom in Sin hath produced those confirmed radicated and obstinate habits of Sin which cannot easily be removed God is very gracious to some this way he takes them up sharply and chastens them severely betimes They no sooner enter upon the ways of Sin but he opposeth himself against them and hedgeth up their way with Thorns This is very grievous and afflicting to our corrupt Nature which can endure no restraint But we little consider or understand how much we are obliged to God for his Care of us herein How many others are there whom he suffers to go on in their Sins without check or controul till they contract those strong habits of Sin which they are never rid of as long as they live Do you think your self hardly dealt with that God doth not suffer you also to take your course and make your self as vile here and as miserable hereafter as others 'T is God's exceeding great kindness to you that he imbitters unto you the beginnings of Sin and strews the first entrance into sinful ways with Briars and Prickles so that you cannot go on but you must hurt your self It seems you would have liked it better if the way to Hell had been strewed with Roses for you Beware you do not misinterpret God's Providence If he be pleased to use seasonable means to make you weary of the ways of Sin before you are more hardened in them count it a singular favour and an effect of that his gracious care of you for which you can never be enough thankful VSE 3. This discovers the folly and danger of deferring Repentance and especially of putting it off till the time of Sickness or till our Deathbed The longer we defer Repentance the more difficult will the business be through so long custom in Sin If you find it hard at present to think of leaving your Sins what will it be hereafter when they will have taken deeper root in you and when your habitual Inclinations to them will be stronger And as for putting off Repentance till the time of Sickness or Death what wise Man would put off a work of the greatest Importance and the most difficult work and a work that will be still more difficult every day the longer 't is put off I say what wise Man would put off such a work till that time when he will be weakest and most unable to undertake it and go thorough with it Are the infirmities of Sickness are the pains and languishings of a Death-bed likely to make you stronger and abler for this work Is that a fit season to be chosen beforehand for beginning to break and subdue those inveterate Corruptions in you that have been gathering strength all your days Your greatest and most implacable Enemy the Devil himself could not direct you to the choice of a more unfit season for that business And yet besides who knows whether or no you shall then have any opportunity of endeavouring to do any thing in that great work which you put off till then as if it were of all other the fittest season for it Who can tell you but you may be so suddenly and violently surprized with Sickness and cut off that you may have no time to bestow one serious Thought upon that Business which is of no less Concernment to you than your Souls Eternal Happiness or Misery Or if you should not be so quickly taken away yet who can tell but you may then be deprived of the use of Reason and what then will become of this great business which being put off till that time must be then dispatch'd or never VSE 4. This should admonish the younger sort to remember their Creator in the days of their youth Eccl. 12.1 as Solomon counsels them To consecrate their tender years to God before custom of sin hath strengthened vicious Inclinations in them and hardened their hearts against God As 't is much more acceptable to God when we give him the First-fruits when we offer up to him the flower of our age so 't is much more easie and comfortable for us For hereby we prevent those habits of sin which time and custom would beget to our far greater trouble afterwards Those Vices which in younger years discover themselves are more easily pluck'd up as young Weeds out of the Soil in which they have not as yet taken any deep root Old habits of sin so close do they stick to us so deeply are they rooted in us and so strongly and intricately are their Roots twisted together with our Nature that the plucking of them up is as the rooting up of a great Oke that hath the advantage of many years growth to settle it self in the ground You who are young if you be wise create not so much trouble to your selves as to let sin grow old and strong in you before you break it off or pluck it up by repentance VSE 5. This should also prevail with Parents to be very careful of their Childrens Education beginning to restrain and beat down sin in them in season that so custom in sin and all the sad effects thereof may be prevented How happy had it been both for many Parents and Children if seasonable Restraints and Chastisements had been applied before the customary practice of sin had made them obstinate and incorrigible The neglect whereof how much sorrow and heart-breaking doth it occasion to Parents and how much sin and misery to Children Nothing is more ordinary than to hear the sad Complaints that Parents make of the stubbornness and untractableness of their Children and of those sinful courses which they addict themselves unto and cannot be drawn off from by all the means they can think of to reclaim them But whom may too many Parents thank for it rather than themselves whose indulgence to them or neglect of them in their tender years hath been the cause They would not begin with them in season while they were tender and pliable and now they are by long practice of sin become stubborn and refractory then they would not restrain them and now they cannot do it And what greater mischief can Parents do their Children than by giving them the head and laying the Reins on their neck when they are young whereby they come to be irreclaimably and desperately hardened in sin when they grow up While Parents complain of Children may not Children as justly complain of Parents that have by their neglect of them betrayed them to sin and Satan Many such Children when by their sins they have come to shameful ends have most passionately cried out against their Parents whose ill Example or neglect to correct them had brought them to that misery and could we listen to the Language of those who are in Hell there is no doubt but our ears would tingle to hear the lamentable Outcries and curses of the Souls of undone Children against those whose Parental Relation should have ingaged them to have left
That when other Means prove ineffectual for the reclaiming of impenitent and obstinate Sinners God is pleased to make use of Afflictions 'T is true God can effectually reclaim and convert the most stubborn and obstinate the most obdurate and hard-hearted Sinners without Afflictions He needs not take the Rod in hand to do his Work upon them He that made Hearts can remake them he can change and renew them when he pleaseth and how he pleaseth He can do it by Means and he can do it without Means He can create and infuse Grace in an Instant he can in the twinkling of an Eye without the Intervention or Service of any created Instrument transform the filthiest the most loathsom and abominable Sinner into a Saint a Devil into an Angel of Light There is nothing too hard for him who being Omnipotent can do whatsoever he pleaseth But yet however ordinarily he makes use of Afflictions for humbling and reclaiming obstinate Sinners when other Means prevail not And seeing he doth make use of Afflictions we must conclude that he judgeth that the best and fittest Course for otherwise he would not make choice of it We may perhaps in favour to our selves be apt to think this great Work might be much better effected without Afflictions Our carnal Wisdom may apprehend that it would more conduce to the exalting and magnifying of God's Power and Goodness if this great Work of changing and renewing the Hearts of obstinate Sinners were effected by the immediate Hand of God and the powerful Operation of his Spirit on the Heart without the Suffering the Smart or Durance of the Sinner But alas who are we that we should presume to oppose our foolish Reasonings against his Infinite Wisdom Whatever our dark selfish and partial Reason may suggest to the contrary that must needs be the best and fittest Course that could be taken which God hath pitched on no better Course could be thought on no wiser Method could be devised for bringing Sinners to Repentance and for working a Change in them than that which he hath made choice of When we have considered the Matter this we must of necessity grant unless we will make our selves wiser than God unless we will take upon us to dictate and prescribe to him a better way than he hath contrived Now for the Proof and Confirmation of this Point that God is pleased to make use of Afflictions for the reclaiming of obstinate Sinners when other Means prevail not I need not say much our own Experience is a sufficient Confirmation thereof There is no Man that hath observed God's Dealings with the Sons of Men but must have taken notice that nothing is more ordinary in the Course of God's Providence than to bring them home to himself by Afflictions who will not otherwise be reduced from the Error of their ways And as he takes this Course with wicked Men to convert them so he takes the same Course with his Children to recal them and to bring them into the right way again when they have gone astray This was the Course which he took with David as he himself acknowledgeth Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep thy Word And again Ver. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes He means that he might so learn God's Statutes as to practise them and frame his Life and Conversation according to them Now to apply this Truth briefly Vse 1. If God be pleased to make use of Afflictions for reclaiming and reducing Sinners when other Means will not prevail then if Men be wise and if they would prevent and keep off Afflictions it concerns them to improve those other Means which God makes use of I mean Instructions Admonitions Reproofs and Warnings humbling themselves for their Sins and reforming their Lives that so God may not bring those Afflictions upon them which will be grievous to them What Folly and Madness is it when Men will put God to lay sore and grievous things upon them because they will not be wrought upon by gentler Means Solomon saith Prov. 17.10 A Reproof entreth more into a wise Man than an hundred Stripes into a Fool. So then in the Judgment of Solomon he is a wise Man into whom a Reproof enters that is on whom it makes Impressions and by whom it is entertained and improved Prov. 12.1 but he that hateth Reproof is brutish He is so far from being a wise Man that he is scarce a Man he is more like a Brute than a Man he understands not his own Interest which is to take Reproofs to Heart to be affected with them and to make a good Use of them and not by rejecting them to draw those Evils upon himself which he might avoid if he would Consider this you that are now admonished reproved and warned but will not hearken Do you know what you do As much as in you lies you put the Rod into God's Hand to correct you severely and to make you smart sorely to try if that Course may not take better Effect upon you than those milder Courses which he hath hitherto taken with you Why should you consult and procure Sorrow Sufferings and Smart to your self How much better had it been for Manasseh to have hearkned to the Message of the Lord brought to him by the Prophets and not by his Disobedience and Obstinacy to have procured the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria to be sent against him to bind him with Fetters and carry him to Babylon When we suffer for our Sins then we condemn and cry out against our selves that we should be so foolishly obstinate as not to hearken to good Counsel when time was whereby we might have prevented our Sufferings But so it is that in things of this Nature we seldom learn Wit till we have bought it and paid dearly for it Vse 2. If God be pleased to make use of Afflictions to reclaim and reduce Sinners when other Means will not prevail then let such as are afflicted be careful that they do not impatiently murmur and fret against the Lord who correcteth them For 1. They may thank themselves that they are corrected they have been the Authors and Procurers of their own Sufferings If they would have been humbled and reformed by gentler Means there would have been no need of those severer Courses which now are taken with them God is not forward to correct he takes no such Delight in correcting as to take the Rod in Hand when there is no need of it He doth not afflict willingly he never doth it but when there is great Cause for it and our obstinate Perseverance in our Sins against all other Means makes Correction necessary 2. They have so little Reason to fret and murmur against God for correcting them that they have great Cause to be thankful to God for his Care of them and that he doth not
Sinners it makes Men serious it calls in their Minds from the World and the things thereof and makes them reflect upon themselves and consider 2. Afflictions bring Men to the Sight of their Sins which is a further Step towards their reclaiming The Affliction which God lays upon a Man is oft-times such as to its Kind Nature and Circumstances that it evidently points at a Man's Sin and plainly shews the Sinner what the Sin is which God corrects him for To make Men see and discern their Sins and the better to convince them of their Sins God often as it were writes the Sin upon the Punishment and that in such fair and legible Characters as that all may read it especially the Sinner himself who is best acquainted with his own Sin and so can best discern how exactly God sutes the Punishment thereunto A most famous and remarkable Instance hereof we have in Adonibezek Judg. 1.6 7. who having cut off the Thumbs and great Toes of threescore and ten Kings had at length his own Thumbs and great Toes cut off which made him acknowledg the righteous Judgment of God herein saying As I have done so God hath requited me But though Afflictions be not such as evidently point at the Sin and presently make Men see it and acknowledg it whether they will or no yet do they conduce to the bringing of us to the Sight of our Sins divers ways 1st Afflictions make Men sensible of God's Displeasure When they are afflicted they apprehend God to be angry with them though perhaps they cannot see what it is by which they have provoked him They say within themselves Surely God is much displeased with us or else such or such an Affliction had never befallen us 2dly This makes them search and inquire after the Cause of their Afflictions the Sins by which God hath been so much provoked to Displeasure against them This is a Work that Men take little Content in 't is a Work which they are most averse from Men care not how little and how seldom they look into themselves they had much rather be abroad than at home But however Afflictions put them upon this unacceptable Work Search after their Sins they will rather than still smart under the Hand of God that afflicts them 3dly Afflictions make Men willing to find out their Sins and they make them search after their Sins as those that have a Mind to find them Men feeling the Smart of the Rod and earnestly desiring to be freed from it and to be at Ease will search after their Sins narrowly and diligently they will search after them with all their Hearts as the Prophet speaks in another Case they will search after them with an earnest Desire to find them and never be at rest till they do find them because they know till then they may not hope to be freed from their Afflictions 4thly Afflictions do also open Mens Eyes to see that which before they could not or would not see Men are not willing to see their Sins they willingly overlook them or close their Eyes that they may not see them But Afflictions make them see and acknowledg those their Errors and Miscarriages which they would never be convinced of or acknowledg till the Hand of God was upon them The Child that is corrected will confess and acknowledg his Faults under the Rod which he would never own or acknowledg before 2 Sam. 24.4 When David commanded the People to be numbred he saw not or would not see the Evil of that Action though Joab and the Captains of the Host saw it and utterly disliked the thing And as for Joab though he was none of the best Men otherwise yet 't is said of him 1 Chron. 21.6 that the Word of the King was abominable to him But whatever Joab and the Captains of the Host thought of this Action David was resolute and would have it done and his Word prevailed against Joab and against the Captains of the Host as we read in the Place before-mentioned Thus far David would not be convinced of the Sinfulness of his commanding the People to be numbred But afterwards when his Heart had smitten him and especially after that seventy thousand of his People had been swept away by the Pestilence Ver. 10. then he saw his Miscarriage and cried out I have sinned and I have done wickedly Ver. 17. but these Sheep what have they done Let thy Hand be against me and against my Father's House Thus we have seen how Afflictions are Means of bringing Men to the Sight of their Sins and how many ways they conduce thereunto 3. By Afflictions Men come to be acquainted with the Evil the hainous Nature and Danger of Sin Before the Sinner is afflicted he makes light of Sin he thinks there is no great Evil or Danger in those Sins which he indulgeth himself in But when God severely corrects him for those things which he looked upon as small Matters and very pardonable Offences such venial Sins as he thinks no Man need question but that they are pardoned in Course and remitted as often and as easily as committed I say when God severely corrects him for those things then he begins to have other Thoughts of them then he understands that there is much more Evil and Malignity in them than he was aware of then he begins to be sensible of the Danger of allowing himself in them Thus by Afflictions God rectifies his Judgment and corrects his Errors and Mistakes about the Nature and Danger of Sin The unclean Person as long as he escapes unpunished is apt to think he may safely enough gratify his Lust by addicting himself to that abominable Sin But when he feels that his Bones are full of the Sins of his Youth when he hath brought upon himself those Infirmities and Diseases those exquisite and tormenting Pains which are the natural Attendants and proper Fruits of that Sin then he begins to understand that there is much more Evil and Danger in that Sin than he was apprehensive of So the Drunkard is apt to think there is little Evil or Danger in that Excess which he often indulgeth himself in but when he finds that he hath thereby ruined himself and his distressed Family that he hath brought both himself and such as depend on him to a Morsel of Bread and moreover that he hath overthrown the State of his Body impaired his Health wasted his Strength treasured up in his declining and half-rotten Carcase Matter for all manner of Diseases almost extinguished natural Heat and even drowned Nature by the continual Droppings of his Excess and by all this brought himself to the brink of the Pit then at length he becomes sensible of the great Evil and the woful Consequents of his intemperate Courses then he cries out against himself that he should ever be such a Beast as he hath been that he should by his Excess ruine his Family and destroy
nothing again if he pleased so continuing it in being he might lay any such Pain or Anguish upon it without relation to Sin We see what Anguish the unreasonable Creatures endure which yet are not capable of Sin And why might not God inflict the like on any rational Creature though no Sin had occasioned it or made way for it It is not easy to give a Reason why he might not for even an innocent Creature being a Creature however must of necessity be in Subjection to the Power and Dominion of the Creator from whom it received its Being 'T is true such Evils could not then have the Nature of Punishment because Punishment properly so called hath relation to Sin but yet there could be no Injustice in such a Dispensation no more than when by many tormenting and lingring Pains God takes away the Lives of brute Beasts whose Nature is not a Subject capable of Sin or moral Evil. Now in such a Case the Creature would have no just Cause to complain or murmur because no Injury could possibly be done it by God's using that just and rightful Power and Dominion which he hath over the Work of his Hands Whence we may thus argue to our present Purpose If God's absolute Power over the Work of his Hands be such as calls for humble Submission to his Providence and silent bearing of whatever he inflicts how much more should his Justice strike us dumb and effectually restrain us from all murmuring or muttering against him If we ought not to complain or murmur though we had no Sin how much less reason have we to do it when we have so much Upon this Consideration it was that the Church took up her Resolutions of patient Submission to the Hand of God Micah 7.9 I will bear the Indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Now I come to apply what hath been spoken Vse 1. Let us in all our Afflictions observe the Frame of our Hearts and be humbled for all the secret Grudgings and Risings of our Spirits against the Providence of God And especially if the inward Distempers of our Souls should be at any time so great as to break forth and vent themselves in any unmeet Language if our inward Discontents and Heart-burnings should discover themselves by complaining and murmuring against God and by making such Representations of him to others as if he had dealt hardly with us and as if we might have expected other measure at his Hands This is a Miscarriage which we are very apt to run into when our Afflictions are severe and lasting when they smart much and continue long But however it fare with us the Sinfulness of our murmuring against God is so great that no Circumstance of our Sufferings can render it excusable and therefore we cannot be sufficiently humbled for it To the end we may the better discover the Evil of it and see what reason there is why we should be humbled for it let us first look upon it in its Cause and the Root whence it springs then let us behold it as it is in it self and consider it in its formal Nature And lastly let us view it in its Effects and Consequents 1. Let us look upon it in its Root We loath and abhor some things the more when we know whence they are and what gave Birth to them the wicked Offspring for the cursed Mother that bare it and brought it forth Now the Root of our murmuring is our Pride we have entertained too good an Opinion of our selves we think we have deserved better things at the Hands of God and therefore we murmur and complain as if we were injured Were we throughly sensible of our Sinfulness were we convinced that we are worthy of far sorer Evils than those which we groan under instead of murmuring we would not only accept of the Punishment of our Sins as the Phrase is Levit. 26.41 take in good part meekly and patiently bear whatsoever God lays on us but from our Hearts acknowledg that we are mercifully and kindly dealt with in that no more is inflicted on us 2. If we behold it as it is in it self and consider the formal Nature of it our murmuring is in effect nothing else but a Degree of Insurrection and Rebellion against God As discontented Subjects or mutinous Souldiers sharpen their Tongues against their Prince or General and thereby heighten their own and other Mens Discontents to dispose them to make Resistance So when we murmur against God we set our Mouths against Heaven doing what in us lies to strengthen in our selves and instil into others Principles of Disaffection against the highest Majesty and to withdraw them with whom we converse from their Obedience and Loyalty 3. Let us view it in the Effects and Consequents of it We are so far from easing our selves by murmuring that it both increaseth and prolongeth our Afflictions 1st It increaseth them for our Unquietness and Stubborness under God's Hand provokes him to lay more Load upon us that is all we gain by our Untowardness as the Child that struggles swells and murmurs when he is corrected doth but thereby procure to himself the more Stripes Besides our fretting and murmuring doth of it self make those our Afflictions much more grievous which might be undergone with Ease if with humble Silence and Patience we submitted our selves to the Chastisement of our heavenly Father 2dly It also prolongs our Afflictions for our murmuring diverts us and takes us off from applying our selves to that Course which if any thing would put a speedy End to our Troubles And that is the Course which we are put upon in the Text namely a serious Reflection upon our selves and a diligent Search and Enquiry after the Sins which have procured our Afflictions and a turning from them unto God whom we have forsaken As long as we are taken up in murmuring this Work is not minded and so our Afflictions are protracted and drawn out to a greater length than they should have been if in stead of murmuring against God we had seasonably and narrowly searched into our Hearts and Ways found out our Sins judged our selves for them and forsaken them Thus we see what Reason we have to be humbled for this Sin But though in these Respects all that are guilty of it have Cause to be humbled yet have they most reason to be humbled for murmuring who have least reason to murmur such as are 1. Great and notorious Sinners whose Offences and Enormities have been such that whatsoever they suffer unless they be wilfully blind or strangely partial to themselves they must be inforced to confess that they suffer justly Should they complain of hard measure who are so bad that no Punishment is severe enough for them And yet these are oft-times as ready to complain as any else 2. Those who have drawn such Afflictions upon themselves as in which they may plainly read their Sin written in legible Characters
and reformed then many times we discover more of the Pride Stubbornness and Incorrigibleness of our Hearts than ever we did before Thus it was with Ephraim when God in order to his Humiliation and Reformation laid his Hand upon him When I would have healed Israel Hosea 7.1 then the Iniquity of Ephraim was discovered 3. Though God's Corrections had for the present put some little Stop to your Sins yet it may be afterwards you quickly returned to them again And if we return to Sin we need not count it strange that God should return to afflict us 4. Though there should be no new Provocation yet God may afflict us again for Prevention He sees the secret Frame and Disposition of your Heart If there be but a Readiness and Preparation of Heart to return to Sin again upon any Occasion or Temptation offered God who searcheth the Heart discerneth this evil Frame thereof and judgeth it necessary to stop the breaking forth thereof by some Affliction or other To be sure God never returns to chasten and renews his Witnesses against us but when there is need and therefore this we may certainly conclude that whensoever he takes the Rod again into his Hand there is a Cause whether we discern it or no. Wherefore if we must needs complain let us complain against our selves Let us complain of the desperate Wickedness of our Hearts and the Stubbornness of corrupt Nature that calls for so many Blows Let us complain of the Strength of Sin within us that needs so many Afflictions to break the Power of it and subdue it Let us complain that after we have suffered so much we should still be so bad that so many Rods must be worn out upon us and yet we are little the better Object 6. But my Afflictions are such as I see not how they can ever do me any Good If I saw any probable Grounds of Hope that they might prove beneficial to my Soul and that I might be a Gainer by them in the end then I think I could bear them more quietly But when I can discern no Tendency that they have to my Good how can I shuse but complain of my hard Lot that I should be more grievously afflicted than many others in such ways as from which no Advantage can redound unto me Answ 1. If it should so be as you apprehend that no Benefit could accrue to you or was ever intended you by your Afflictions if God should lay his Hand on you merely because it pleaseth him so to deal with you if he had no other end in afflicting you than only to use his Soveraignty and absolute Dominion over you yet in that Case ought you quietly to submit You are his Creature the Work of his Hands and he made you for himself Prov. 16.4 Rev. 4.11 For his Pleasure you are and were created And having made you for himself and for his own Pleasure have you any reason to complain of Wrong done you if he deal with you as he pleaseth What are you that you should think to be exempted from the common Condition of all Creatures which is to be in Subjection to their Creator and to be absolutely at his Disposal 2. But yet this is not the Case God is not wont to afflict us merely to exercise his Dominion over us He chastens us for our Profit Heb. 12.10 that he may make us Partakers of his Holiness This we are sure is his Design in his Chastisements And the Assurance which he hath given us hereof in the general should quiet us even when we cannot discover the particular end of his Corrections for the present much less perceive wherein our Afflictions are advantageous to us 3. Whereas you say you see not how you can receive any Benefit by your Afflictions Why should you make your self wiser than God Doth not he much better understand what Course is fittest to do you good than you do Will you so disparage his Wisdom as to say he takes a wrong Course and that unless he shall think of dealing with you in another manner you shall never be the better for his Chastisements If you grant that God is infinitely wise and good you must believe that the Course which he takes with you is best and shall not fail in the Issue to procure unto you all that Good which he intended you thereby 4. What if it should so be that your Afflictions should already have done you much Good though you discern it not This is a thing that often is we are in the dark and the Benefit which we have received and are still receiving by our Afflictions is hid from our Eyes Even they who most complain of the Fruitlesness of their Afflictions yea that they are the worse for them rather than the better do many times by their very Complaints discover the Benefit which by their Afflictions they have received Their Complaints shew that since they have been afflicted they have had a deeper Sense of the Power and Prevalency of Sin in themselves and of the Hardness of their Hearts and of the Obstinacy and Rebellion of their corrupt Nature They had never so clear a Sight or so lively a Sense of these things neither did they ever so much take them to Heart as since the Hand of God hath lain heavy on them Now these are such evident and signal Fruits and Benefits of Affliction as ought to be acknowledged with all Thankfulness 5. So it is that oft-times it seems good to the most wise God for a while to conceal from us his Intentions in afflicting us to the end that he may thereby make us the more solicitous about his meaning therein and that he may quicken us to a more diligent Enquiry and Search after the Cause of our Afflictions and that we may the more earnestly and importunately seek unto him and beg of him that he would be pleased to shew us why he contendeth with us and lays his afflicting Hand on us as also to help us to profit by our Afflictions Wherefore if at any time we cannot discern God's End in afflicting us much less see that we profit by our Afflictions this should awaken us and affect us so much the more this should stir us up to make a more narrow Search after those Sins by which we have incurred God's Displeasure against us it should incite us to pray the more that God would enable us to improve our Afflictions to those Ends for which God lays them on us This is the Use that we should make of it when we can neither perceive that our Afflictions do us any Good nor understand why God afflicts us and not presently conclude that we shall never be the better for our Afflictions 6. The chief Benefit to be attained by Afflictions is to be expected afterwards rather than in the time of our lying under the Chastnings of God So much the Apostle hath given us to understand Heb. 12.11 No
of God calls the accepting of the Punishment of our Sins Lev. 26.41 But if the Sinner be not convinced that he suffers for his Sins and that his Transgressions have been the Procurers of his Afflictions it cannot easily be but that his corrupt Nature should rebel against God and impatiently rise up against his Providence as unequal too rigorous severe 2dly Neither can a Man profit by his Afflictions unless he be convinced that his Sins have been the Cause of them and that God strikes at them in his Sufferings Who can think himself concerned to amend and reform that upon the account of his Afflictions which he never discerned to be the Cause of them nor can be convinced that they have any relation to it But let a Man once be throughly apprehensive of the Displeasure of God against him for his particular Sins and see the Hand of God in his Afflictions striking at those Sins and then he will soon think himself highly concerned to rectify or remove out of the way that which hath done him so much Mischief He will think he cannot make too much haste to quit and be rid of that for which he sorely smarts already and may yet smart more unless by his speedy Reformation he prevent it When God had sent a Plague among the Israelites for their murmuring Moses being deeply sensible of the fierce Wrath of God against them for that Sin saith to Aaron Numb 16.46 Take a Censer and put Fire therein from off the Altar and put on Incense and go quickly unto the Congregation and make an Atonement for them for there is Wrath gone out from the Lord the Plague is begun Go quickly saith he for Wrath is gone out from the Lord. A lively Sense of the Anger and Displeasure of God in your Afflictions for your Sins will speed and quicken your Endeavours to make your Peace with God by answering the End of his Corrections 3dly Neither can you rationally expect to be freed from your Afflictions in a way of Mercy until they bring you to the Sight of your Sins and you look upon them as the Punishment of Sin For till that be done upon you your Afflictions are wholly fruitless as having done no part of that Work for effecting of which God sent them To understand why you are afflicted and to see the Sins which God strikes at in your Afflictions is the first Step towards God's attaining his End in afflicting you If this be not done upon you nothing is done And therefore you have no Reason to expect the Removal of them unless it be to make way for some other more smarting Rod which may effectually work that in you which God intended But though in these Respects it be most necessary to see and own our Sins as the Cause and Procurers of our Sufferings yet to do it is as difficult as 't is necessary For such is the Pride and Stubbornness of our Hearts that we are not easily brought to take Shame to our selves and to acknowledg our own particular Sins to have been the Cause of our Sufferings saying to our selves as God saith to Jerusalem Jer. 4.18 Thy VVay and thy Doings have procured these things unto thee We are very unwilling to acknowledg our own Guilt and would much rather lay the Cause of our Sufferings at any other Door than our own And this we are especially apt to do in publick and common Calamities These we ascribe 1. To Chance or common Providence in which we do not think our selves particularly touch'd or concern'd 2. To the Wickedness of some malicious and mischievous Instruments that were the Contrivers and Causers of our Sufferings 3. To the Sins of others The Provocations of such and such profligate and abominable Persons drew down the Judgments of God upon the Place and not our own Offences As for our selves we suffered only in the Croud and because we were found among those who were to be punished Or 4. If we acknowledg our Sins in the general to have been the meritorious Cause of our Sufferings yet we descend not to Particulars we charge not our selves with such and such Sins for which God hath been angry with us And so our owning our Sin only in general as the Cause of our Sufferings is but a formal thing with which we are little affected 'T is little better than if we had said We believe indeed that we have deserved all that is come upon us but we know not how nor wherein Ezra no doubt went a great deal further 't is not to be questioned but that he had in his most passionate Confessions an Eye upon the particular Sins for which they suffered in Babylon We may be sure they were not Generalities only that so deeply affected him he had upon his Heart the particular Instances of their vile Provocations together with the Circumstances of them and so must we if we desire to be affected with God's terrible Providences as we ought and to take them to Heart in a right manner Though what I am now speaking concerns us all yet there may be those amongst us who may think themselves very little concerned therein 1. Those who though they have been Sufferers together with others yet have been free from all those foul and enormous Offences and high Provocations which many others have been guilty of and possibly over and above their being free from the Guilt and Stain of fouler Sins they have been such as have made a stricter Profession of Religion than most others These Persons may be very inclinable to think that God did not particularly intend the correcting of them for their Sins in the common Judgment that lighted upon the Place but that they suffer rather upon their Neighbours Account than their own 2. Of the same Opinion perhaps may they be tempted to be who seem even as to outward things to have gained by their Afflictions and to be in a better Condition as to Trade than they were in before 'T is easy for such if any such be to entertain themselves with a pleasant Dream that God only emptied them to the end he might fill them fuller than they were before and that he had no other Design in pulling down their Houses than that he might build them up fairer But let neither the one nor the other deceive themselves They would but flatter themselves if they should think that God did not aim at their Sins in his severe Providences as well as at the Sins of their Neighbours As for the former of these though they may have been free from the fouler Abominations and crying Sins of the Place and though they may have made a strict and high Profession of Religion yet even such may have been tainted with the Pollution of many Sins which may have had no small Influence in procuring the heavy Judgments of God upon the Town And their Sins in respect of their nearer relation to God and stricter Profession
him the Gospel i. e. a more full and clear discovery of the way of Salvation by Christ than before That the light in both senses is come into the World and finds no better reception This is The condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the judgment according to the proper acception of the word but here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgment for Condemnation by an usual Synechdoche and so our Translators have rendered it looking rather at the sense than at the immediate propriety of the word Again This is The condemnation that is by a Metonymy the cause of condemnation that which deserves meritoriously procures and brings on condemnation Lastly This is The condemnation not solely and exclusively as to all other things but in the sense that shall be afterwards mentioned when I come to speak to that particular The words of my Text not to spend time in any unnecessary Preface to what I have to say we may conveniently resolve into these four Propositions 1. That light is come into the world 2. That men love darkness rather than light 3. That the reason why men love darkness rather than light is because their deeds are evil 4. That this is the condemnation that though light be come into the world yet men love darkness rather than light Passing by the three former the last of these Propositions is that which I intend at present to insist on as being the chief thing intended in this portion of holy Scripture Concerning the sense of which Proposition a few words will be necessary to be premised before I proceed to lay down the grounds thereof This is The condemnation not solely and exclusively as to all other things as if nothing else could condemn a man but signally and emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great meritorious cause of the severest punishment I say the rejection of the light of the Gospel or not giving it due entertainment is not the only thing that condemns men For 1. Those Heathens unto whom the light of the Scriptures never came shall not therefore be exempted from punishment The Apostle hath taught us That as many as have sinned without the law Rom. 2.12 shall also perish without the law Their sins against their natural light and the Law of Nature written in their hearts shall condemn them there shall be no need of calling in the assistance of the Law externally promulged and written in Tables of Stone much less of the Gospel to give evidence against them 'T is true if the Gospel were never offered them and they shut up under a moral impossibility of being acquainted with it we cannot apprehend how their not believing should be charged upon them as their sin Aquinas hath rightly stated this matter 22dae Quaest 10. Artic. 1. Si infidelitas sumatur secundum negationem puram si cut in illis qui nihil audiverunt de fide non habet rationem peccati pure negative infidelity or a meer not believing in those who never heard any thing of the Gospel hath not the nature of sin And this was likewise St. Austin's judgment as appears by the Exposition he gives of the words of our Saviour John 15.22 If I had not come unto them they had had no sin Loquitur de peccato quo non crediderunt in Christum Our Saviour speaketh saith he of the sin of not believing in Christ Though they had been guilty of many other sins yet their not believing had not been imputed to them And the reason hereof is evident because they had never a power in Adam of believing that which was never made known unto them there being a simple incompossibility and repugnancy in the nature of the thing that a man should by faith assent to and embrace that which he was never in the least acquainted with which was never as much as propounded to him to be the object of his faith How shall we believe on him of whom we have not heard Rom. 10.14 'T is a question that cannot be answered Adam himself with all that strength which he received from God could not have done it and therefore neither can that be required of his Posterity which he himself never received 2. As for such as have the Gospel published to them and finally persevere in unbelief neither is their unbelief the only sin for which they are condemn'd What sober man can think that one sin can expunge another that mens unbelief should take off and extinguish the guilt of all their other sins so as none of them should at all come under consideration when Christ pronounceth the condemnatory Sentence They who should entertain so wild a phansy must have forgotten the form of the Proceedings at the last day as Christ himself hath described it Matth. 25. where express mention is made of other sins as the ground of the Sentence to be then pronounced Yet I deny not but that in a limited sense wicked men living under the light of the Gospel may be said to be condemned only for their unbelief because if they had believed none of their other sins should have condemned them But now they not believing the guilt of all their other sins against the Law abideth on them and besides there is an addition of further guilt by their great sin against the Gospel and this their sin against the Gospel is that which presseth them most heavily and hath the sorest influence upon the final Sentence for the inflaming and heightening of it So then these things being thus premised we have the sense of the Proposition before us This is The condemnation the matter and meritorious cause of the most sore and dreadful condemnation that light being come into the world the Gospel being published and Christ in the Gospel being tendered to the Sons of men they slight and refuse this light preferring darkness before it and chusing rather to continue in their sins though it cost them dear than to embrace Christ to their everlasting bliss and happiness Now the grounds of the Proposition together with the equity of that severity which it imports will further appear unto us if we take into consideration these ensuing particulars 1. 'T is light that is refused and refused with an affront put upon it darkness being preferred before it Now in this alone there are several things which do not a little aggravate a man's sin and by consequence heighten his punishment 1. When a man goes on against light there is more of the formality of sin than where light is wanting There is a direct and plain opposition against the Rule an intentional 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or irregularity whereas in case of ignorance the Rule indeed was violated materially but not formally and wittingly as such Our Saviour lays much stress upon this for the greatning of a man's sin Joh. 9.41 If ye were blind ye should have no sin that is none in comparison of what now you have
must not expect that patience and forbearance at his hands which he was pleased to exercise towards those who lived in darker Ages and times of Ignorance Barren Trees might long stand before Mat 3.10 but now the Ax is laid to the root of the tree and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewen down and cast into the fire The main Errand and Design of the Gospel is that men be turned from darkness to light Acts 26.18 and from the power of Satan unto God To this purpose is that of the Apostle Rom. 13.12 13 14. The night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof And again Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present sent world 2 Tim. 2 19. And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity But this is that which the corrupt Heart of man can least of all endure Men are unwilling to see their sins but much more unwilling to forsake them Whence else are those excuses which many frame when they are invited to come unto Christ One is ingaged in this business and it must be dispatched he must be dispensed with till it be over Another is ingaged in that Affair Luke 14.18 19 20. and he is not at leisure Whence else are those downright and peremptory Refusals Joh. 5.40 Ye will not come to me that ye might have life Yea you would not be gained and prevailed with to come by the largest Proffers by the most rich and excellent Promises The greatest Love and Tenderness the most Compassionate Solicitations and Importunities are not able to overcome them into a willingness what to do To be undone No to be made for ever to be gathered under the Wings of Christ's most tender Care and Love that they might be everlastingly Happy in the Fruition of him That sin is the cause of this peremptory refusal cannot be denied for nothing but sin could so bewitch and transport them that they should with so much obstinacy stand in their own light wilfully thrust away from themselves Everlasting Life and forsake their own Mercies 'T is agreed on that all men naturally desire happiness 't is Nature's Language Who will shew us any good Psal 4.6 Could men therefore reject Eternal Happiness and Glory upon any other Consideration than that the Terms on which 't is offered seem to be too hard They must part with their sins if they will be happy and O how hard a saying is this to Flesh and Blood The Friendship which is between the heart of man and sin being so strict and entire can that light of the Gospel be welcome to him whose Errand from Heaven is to make an everlasting separation between him and his sins Most clear it is that wicked men while such cannot abide the light and that however they may endeavour to cover over their Enmity against it with other pretensions yet the true reason why they hate it is the wickedness of their hearts and lives they therefore hate it because their deeds are evil as our Saviour gives us an account of the ground of their hatred thereof But it may here be objected That the Holy Scriptures elsewhere seem to give other reasons of mens not entertaining the light of the Gospel Sometimes they seem to impute it to the sublimity and to the mysterious Nature of the great Truths contained in the Gospel 1 Cor. 2.14 The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Sometimes the Scriptures impute it to the subtilty and malice of Satan darkening the minds of men 2 Cor. 4.3 4. If our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them And lastly otherwhile the Scriptures speak of God's concealing the Mysteries of the Gospel from some men so our Saviour speaking to his Father saith Mat. 11.25 Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent There being also these other reasons of mens not embracing the light of the Gospel how is it that our Saviour seems to lay the whole stress of this matter upon this that mens deeds are evil To this I answer 1. That it is not necessary that we should so understand our Saviour as if he intended to make man's sin the sole or only cause why he hates the light but one principal cause And that 't is a principal cause thereof hath already appeared from what hath been spoken and will yet more fully appear by what shall be further spoken in answer to the Objections Wherefore 2. Though there may be some other causes of mens hating the light and preferring darkness before it yet they may for the most part be some way or other resolved into this which our Saviour here mentioneth Other things may concur sometimes but there is scarce any thing that hath so general and almost so perpetual an influence upon mens hating declining running away from opposing and rejecting the light as mans sin That mostly all other causes may be resolved into this I shall endeavour to shew in answer to the forementioned Objections As to the first of them 't is most true that in Spiritual things there is a great disproportion between the Intellective Faculty as now 't is since the Fall and the Object The Mysteries of the Gospel are high and sublime our understanding is dark weak and shallow But 1. Whence came this disproportion Was it not very much from the sin of man at first who put out his own Eyes wounded his Intellectuals and weakened his natural Powers It cannot be denied but that Adam in the state of Innocency and Integrity though he could not have found out those deep Mysteries of the Gospel concerning our Redemption by Christ and the things relating thereunto they being things that have no natural cause from whence the highest created reason might deduce or collect them and many of them being things above Nature and such as depend meerly upon the good pleasure of God unknown to us until by himself revealed I say though Adam could not by the strength of his Reason and Natural Abilities have found out these deep things yet it cannot be denied but that if these things had been propounded to Adam to be assented to and believed
them still and delight in them as much as ever you did you that have been often in the Furnace of Affliction and yet your Dross is not separated from you I say take notice of the woful condition of incorrigible Sinners and consider what awaits you and will certainly be your portion unless by Repentance you speedily prevent it You unteachable and incorrigible Children whom no Admonitions or Chastisements will reduce to that Dutifulness humble Submission and Obedience which you owe to your Parents tremble at the thoughts of what may be coming upon you for your sin You who tread in the steps of Hophni and Phineas both in respect of your other sins and in respect of your obstinate carriage when you are reproved for them can you without horrour read or hear what the Spirit of God saith concerning them 1 Sam. 2.25 They hearkned not to the voice of their father because the Lord would slay them You whose lewd and ungodly Conversation hath been often reproved and condemned in the Ministry of the Word and yet you are still insensible of your danger and proceed still in your old ways and walk in the imagination of your heart to add drunkenness to thirst consider what befel such as you are Zech. 7.11 12. They refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear Yea they made their heart as an adamant stone lest they should hear the law and the word which the Lord sent by his Prophets therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of Hosts Therefore it is come to pass that as he cried and they would not hear so they cried and I would not hear saith the Lord of Hosts You whom no Counsels or Perswasions can prevail with to leave your lewd and graceless Companions You that notwithstanding all that can be said or done to keep you in and withhold you from your wicked Associates say still with that lewd and ungovernable generation There is no hope Jer. 2.25 No I have loved strangers and after them will I go Consider with fear and trembling what the Prophet said to Amaziah who stopt his Ears against good advice 2 Chron. 25.16 By this I know that God hath determined to destroy thee because thou hast not hearkened to my counsel I do not say God hath determined to destroy you also I take not upon me to be so well acquainted with God's secret purposes but this I say you are at present in the high-way to destruction and you have great cause to fear lest God destroy you as he hath done by other such incorrigible persons as you are If you still continue to be like others who have been destroyed for the same sins what reason have you to expect more favour than they had God is not changed he is still the same his hatred of sin his justice and severity against Sin is still as great as ever it was And so much concerning that Observation I come now to that which I chiefly intended Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots That is they cannot no Art or Labour can effect it Wash and rub the Skin of the Ethiopian while you will it will retain its natural hew you may sooner rub away the Skin than alter the colour of it and so for those spots with which Nature hath mark'd the Leopard you may by much tampering destroy the subject of them but the subject remaining you can never get out the spots And little less difficulty there is in removing those habitual Inclinations to sin which long custom hath produced The case is much alike to wash a Blackamoor white and to get him to do good that is accustomed to do evil So then 't is a Proverbial comparison by which is signified the extream difficulty of delivering a Man from those vicious impressions which custom in sin hath made upon him And that 's the thing which I purpose to treat of Custom in sin makes it very difficult to leave sin There needs little other proof hereof than our own Experience Though some vicious Persons who are taken in hand and dealt with betimes may be more easily drawn off from their sinful courses yet how rare a thing is it to see any man recovered who hath long been exercised in a trade of sin Shall you easily prevail with the intemperate or lustful or ambitious or covetous person to leave those paths of sin which have been long trodden by them So great is the force of custom in sin that men will by no Arguments be perswaded to forsake those long-continued sinful practices which are continually attended with so many visible and great inconveniences as one would think were sufficient to make any man weary of such courses Take for an instance but a wandring Beggar that necessarily undergoes many hardships and runs many hazards in that irregular and wicked course of life which he hath been wonted to and you shall in vain tempt him to leave it by the best provisions and accommodations which you can proffer him in any setled way of honest Imployment Or take a nearer instance in the same kind When almost do you ever see one of our poor people whose hands refuse to labour and who make a trade of begging from Door to Door I say when almost do you see any such Person reclaimed and brought to endeavour to get his Living in any honest and laborious Calling I deny not but 't is possible there maybe instances of some such that have been reduced to an orderly course of life but I believe such instances are very rare especially of those who have from their Childhood been addicted to that disorderly course as too many are the only Breeding and Education which their Parents give them being to teach them how to eat the Bread of idleness and live upon the Charity of others if that may be called Charity which is bestowed upon such people The grounds of this point are these 1. Custom begets a strong fixed and habitual Inclination to sin Hence a Man is ever in a readiness to yield to and comply with any Temptation to that sin unto which he hath been accustomed No sooner is occasion offered but it meets with a preparation of heart to embrace it Instead of preparing to resist Temptations when they begin to approach and offer themselves he that hath been accustomed to sin will meet them half way invite them to come on and bid them welcome instead of declining Temptations he will seek after them and studiously make provision for his Lusts For custom is now become another Nature to him and he seems to enjoy himself no longer than he is complying with it To be divorc'd and separated from such sins is a most grievous thing 't is as the pulling out of a right Eye or the cutting off of a right Hand 2. Custom in sin brings on delight in sin the actions that are natural are mostly
fool runs on singing and dancing to the correction of the stocks If God be pleased to take us off from running on heedlesly and securely upon these dangerous Precipices should we not look upon it as our happiness Hath he reason to think himself hardly dealt with or injured by me from whose lips I snatch away a cup of sweet and delicious Poyson which he is endeavouring to swallow down as greedily as if it were a Cordial 2. Yet is not this all God calls us off from these killing Pleasures that we may exchange them for better for safe sound and substantial Pleasures true Delights satisfying Contentments durable and lasting Joys Such are to be found in the ways of God and the more any man denies himself as to all sinful Delights the more strictly heedfully and circumspectly he walks the more of these spiritual Comforts and Refreshings may he hope to enjoy Obj. 2. Many of those who seem to walk circumspectly and to be of a very strict and severe conversation seem to lead but heavy and uncomfortable lives For who are more full of sad Complaints and inward Troubles Who are more subject to doubtings and dissatisfactions about their spiritual Estate Who are more held under bondage through the fears of their Eternal miscarrying than many of these Ans Though all this be true yet is this no prejudice no just prejudice to circumspect walking For 1st The cause hereof is mostly in themselves and not in the ways of God neither is it in the least to be attributed to their circumspect walking but rather to their not walking more circumspectly Their own carelesness and want of due heed and circumspection in their ways their venturing on sin or inconstancy and slothfulness in holy Duties or some other miscarriage is often the true cause of all their troubles Were they more circumspect they would be freer from troubles 2. Sometimes their troubles arise from their darkness and misapprehensions of the Covenant of Grace and the Terms on which God offers mercy unto Sinners 3. Sometimes their troubles arise from their unbelief and from their refusing to be comforted and their putting off and thrusting away from themselves those Comforts which God reacheth forth unto them 4. Sometimes their troubles are much from the temptations of Satan God for divers wise and gracious Ends permitting them to be so exercised But however it be and from what cause soever their troubles proceed while they are in God's ways they are in the ways of peace and all shall at length end in peace 5. In the mean time their condition at present with all its disadvantages is a thousand times better than the condition of those who spend their days in sinful Frolicks and even glut themselves with carnal Pleasures and sensual Delights and suddenly go down to Hell and there meet with so much the more torment and sorrow by how much they lived more voluptuously and deliciously here O thrice miserable is their condition who go from their heaven of sensual Delights and Satisfactions here to an eternity of Misery and torment in the other World And thrice happy they who having made choice of the narrow way that leadeth unto life through many inward troubles and fears and much outward tribulation also if need be enter at last into the Kingdom of God That blessed and glorious Kingdom where all tears are wiped from their eyes where sorrow and sighing shall flee away and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads And so much in answer to that Objection Obj. 3. The God whom we serve is a God of mercy Mich. 7.18 Psal 145.9 He delighteth in mercy And his tender mercies are over all his works There is no Attribute of God which the Holy Scriptures do more exalt and magnify than his Mercy His Mercies being so great why may we not hope to find mercy with him although we take some liberty and be not so strict and circumspect Can we apprehend that a God of so great mercy will be so severe as to condemn us cast us into Hell and expose us to everlasting Torments for want of this circumspection Ans Though the Mercies of God be exceeding great yet saving mercy is not extended to all but reserved for those that fear him Psal 103.17 18. for such as keep his covenant and remember his commandments to do them 'T is for the truly humbled penitent and reformed Sinner He that confesseth his sin Prov. 28.13 and forsaketh it shall have mercy God shews mercy to them that love him Exod. 20.6 and keep his commandments But as for such as plead God's mercy to justify themselves in their careless and loose conversation these must expect no mercy from him God never promised saving mercy to any that are not so strict as to make conscience of the least sin and so circumspect as to keep a watch over themselves that they be not overtaken with sin Without some measure of this circumspection no man can satisfy himself touching the truth of his Repentance without which there is no forgiveness no mercy to be looked for at the hands of God For true repentance necessarily includes a sincere desire and serious endeavour to relinquish all sin Now how can this serious and earnest endeavour to leave all sin be without such an holy wariness and circumspection as that which hath been treated of Can an uncircumspect and careless person that heeds not what he doth or how he walks that takes liberty to please himself that sticks not to run upon any temptations to sin that lie in his way can this person be thought to be one that seriously and earnestly endeavours to forsake all sin Nothing less he that truly desires and seriously endeavours to forsake Sin will be circumspect and watchful if he be not 't is apparent that he hath no great edge against his Sin there is as yet no such deadly feud between him and his Sin as is required in every true Penitent Obj. 4. Christ hath freed us from the Law and Believers now under the Gospel are more at liberty than formerly they were What necessity therefore is there of so much strictness and circumspection How doth such a severe course of Life consist with the liberty that Christ hath purchased for us Ans Christ hath indeed freed us from any Obligation to the Ceremonial Law and from the Moral Law as a Covenant of Works that requires perfect and unerring obedience we are not to be justified by the works of the Law but by Faith in Christ But however the Moral Law is still in force as the Rule of Life and we are still under the commanding power thereof And that we are so is manifest several ways 1. Mat. 5.17 Christ himself expresly declares that he came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it And the Apostle even when he disputes against justification by the works of the Law is so far from asserting that we are freed from the obligation
entring into the Field of the Fatherless which Solomon would have no man so hardy as to attempt because their redeemer is mighty Prov. 23.10 11. and he will plead their cause You who have the disposing of the Poors-money take heed you derive not upon you the guilt of this sin a sin of that heinous nature as that it were enough to set a whole Town on Fire and turn it into Ashes look to it therefore and see that the Charity of Benefactors run in its own proper Channel 2. The Poor may be oppressed by the Rich in dealing rigorously and unmercifully with them and using them hardly in those things in which they make use of their labour To enforce them to do their work upon such pitiful terms as that all which they can get by their utmost diligence will hardly buy them Bread to keep them alive while you raise your selves and grow Rich upon their uncessant Labours is certainly in God's account no better than Oppression a sin which may justly bring the Curse of God upon your Estates If there should be any here that are concerned I would earnestly request them to consider seriously of it If upon enquiry you should find you have been guilty of this kind of Oppression you may well look upon it as one of those things for which God hath had a Controversy with you and punished you by snatching away from you what had been so heaped together And let me further lay these things before you to be pondered 1. To take advantage of poor Peoples Necessities and make them part with their Work at any rate because they must have Bread for themselves and theirs or starve is that measure which you would not should be made you if you were in their Circumstances Suppose your self to be in their condition and they in yours would you not then think it very hard measure to be so dealt with 2. Though allowing them for their Labour so much as might make their Livelihood a little better you would gain so much the less yet you would have much more comfort in what is so gotten were it never so little 'T is but an uncomfortable thing for any man to grow Rich by pinching the Poor 3. You would be sure to have the Blessing of God and not his Curse upon what is so gotten be it more or less I beseech you let this be written upon the Table of your Heart let it be deeply ingraven there as a certain Truth an unquestionable Principle which can never fail you That in the Conclusion you shall be never the poorer for using Poor people well and you shall be never the Richer for having used them hardly Having hitherto spoken to the Rich I come now to speak a few words to the Poor who may also from what hath been said be minded of their Duty several ways Do the Rich and Poor meet together and do they both stand upon even ground and are they upon equal terms as in many other respects before mentioned So more especially as to their highest Concernments are the Poor the Lowest the Meanest and the most Contemptible amongst them as much the Objects of God's Care and of his gracious Providence as the Rich even as those among the Rich the height and splendor of whose condition in the World have made them Objects of the Envy of all their Inferiours Are the poorest even such as are clothed in Rags in as fair a way for Heaven and as capable of Grace here and Glory hereafter as the greatest Princes as the most Illustrious and Renowned Potentates in the World Then let the Poor hence learn not to be discouraged much less give way to murmuring and repining at the Providence of God that has put such a difference between them and their Superiors as to the things of this World It has seemed good to the Wisdom of God to place them below while others are seated above to make their condition mean and despicable while the conditions of others hath rendered them honourable and even adorable in the eyes of the inferior World But seeing the Poor and the Rich meet together and are in equal condition as to the best the most excellent and the most desirable things What good reason is there why they should not be well contented with their condition and be most thankful unto God for it What reason have they to justify their envying at the Rich and Honourable seeing they themselves are no way inferior to them and come no way short of them as to those things which are of greatest value and of highest importance VSE 2. Seeing the Poor are as capable of Heaven and Eternal Happiness in the World to come as the Rich Let them give all diligence to be duely qualified for it let their constant and earnest endeavours be to labour after a meetness to be made partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light Seeing God has put them in as fair a way for Heaven as any else let them take heed that they fall not short of Heaven through their sloth and carelesness and through their neglect of the great Salvation which God in the Gospel reveals and as freely offers to them as he doth to the Rich and which if they be not wanting to themselves they may be made partakers of upon the same terms on which the Rich are capable thereof yea in some respects upon easier terms forasmuch as the Riches Honours Preferments and high Places of their Superiors so load incumber and clog them as they are thereby much retarded and hindered in their way to Heaven Both conditions have their difficulties both their advantages both have the like end to respect both have the like capacity of attaining it herein they both meet together but the happiness of all are That God is the maker and disposer of both The Sixth Sermon 2 CHRON. 33.10 11 12 13. And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his People but they would not hearken Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria which took Manasseh among the Thorns and bound him with Fetters and carried him to Babylon And when he was in Affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers And prayed unto him and he was intreated of him and heard his Supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdom Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God IN this Chapter we have a brief History of the Reign of Manasseh from the Beginning of the Chapter to the 20th Verse This Manasseh was the Son of Hezekiah a most wicked Son though descending from a most pious and religious Father I say a most wicked Son for such he was till God was pleased to humble him and work a Change in him He that shall read the Account that is here and in 2 Kings 21. given of the former Part of his Reign and compare it with
take off our Hearts from Sin and make us willing to leave it How should it humble and abase us and cause us even to loath our selves that we should have such wicked and vile Natures that we should be so disingenuous and that there should be such a cursed League between us and Sin that we should have so much Kindness and intire Friendship and Affection for Sin which is most odious to God and most destructive to our own Souls Vse 2. If Afflictions will work upon Men and prevail with them to return to God from whom they have gone astray when all other Means are ineffectual this should reconcile us to Afflictions and make us willing to submit to that spiritual Discipline which the most wise God thinks fit to train us up under for our Good Why should you murmur and fret against the Lord when his chastning Hand is upon you Why should your Heart rise against that wholsom and necessary Severity which he makes use of for reclaiming you Is there not a Cause Doth he not see that nothing else will prevail with you What would you have him do Would you have him let you alone and suffer you to perish in your Sins Be not so in love with your present East as to be unwilling to suffer a little here to prevent your suffering eternally in another World Be not so fondly foolishly irrationally and madly in love with Sin as to be averse from undergoing any thing whereby you may be delivered from the Power and Dominion of it Have not such mean low and unworthy Thoughts of the great and inestimable Mercy of being reduced from the Error of your Ways and brought home unto God as to think much of any Severity by which it may be effected Certainly if you judg Sin to be the greatest Evil and if you be really of the mind that 't is the greatest Happiness to be freed from it and to be at Peace with God and to be reconciled to him you will not think any Course harsh grievous and intolerable whereby it may be attained I now come to a more particular Consideration of what Manasseh did in his Affliction He besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him In which Words we are informed what Manasseh did First in general Terms He besought the Lord his God and then we are more particularly informed how he sought him namely by Humiliation and Prayer He humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and he prayed unto him Concerning the Account in general of what Manasseh did in those words He besought the Lord his God I shall say nothing because there is nothing in those general Terms but what is comprehended in the following Particulars namely that he humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him First He humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers In which Words there are three things considerable That he humbled himself That he humbled himself greatly and that he humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers 1st He humbled himself But when was it that he humbled himself It was when God had first humbled him and not till then when God had delivered him into the Hands of his Enemies when God had caused him to be carried away captive to Babylon made him a Prisoner and put him in durance there from whence he knew not whether he should ever be released and set at liberty again Whence we may observe That proud stubborn and incorrigible Sinners will not humble themselves till God hath humbled them till by Afflictions he hath taken down their haughty Spirits and laid them low Wherefore you who turn the deaf Ear to all God's gracious Calls and Invitations to Repentance and to all his severe Denunciations of Judgments would you prevent God's humbling you by those sharp and heavy Afflictions which would be very grievous to you then humble your selves betimes before he takes you in hand to humble you This is the best Course or rather the only Course that you can take for preventing God's humbling you 1 Cor. 11.31 for if we would judg our selves we should not be judged When Manasseh lay under God's afflicting Hand then he humbled himself The Time of Affliction is the most proper Season for Humiliation For 1. Then if ever we see our Sins our Afflictions open our Eyes make us look about us and help us to discover those our Miscarriages which before we would not own nor take notice of 2. Then the Heart is softned and touched with the sense of our Sins 3. Then also the Sinner begins to have a sense of God's Displeasure against him for his Sins By the Afflictions which the Hand of God hath laid upon him he perceives that God is angry with him which he was not in the least sensible of before he was afflicted Now all these things do not a little further our Humiliation Vse Let us therefore when Afflictions come upon us improve that Season for our Humiliation else all those Advantages will be lost Now if you ask how we are to be active in humbling our selves I answer 1. By making diligent search after our Sins by labouring to find them out and acquaint our selves with them And this is no easy Work considering our natural Blindness in spiritual things our Unwillingness to know the worst of our selves our Partiality to our selves and our Aptness to overlook our Sins 2. By using our best Endeavours to affect our Hearts with our Sins which is to be done by a serious Consideration of the Nature Quality and Aggravations of our Sins as also of the extreme Danger attending them and of the dismal Consequents of Sin unrepented of and the most fearful and eternal Wrath of God which it unavoidably exposeth the Sinner unto 3. By humble and affectionate Confession of our Sins unto God with our most earnest and importunate Supplications to him for the pardon and forgiveness of them 4. By judging our selves for them and by passing Sentence against our selves as those who have by our Provocations deserved to be disowned and cast off for ever and to be made the miserable Objects of God's fierce Indignation to Eternity 5. By taking up the most firm and stedfast Resolutions to cast off all our Transgressions for the time to come and as far as God shall be pleased by his Grace to enable us never to return to Folly any more Now followeth the second Particular He humbled himself greatly as he had been a very great and most heinous Sinner And hence we may farther observe That our Humiliation must be proportionable to the Nature and Quality of our Sins A little slight Humiliation for great and grievous Sins is in God's account next to no Humiliation at all Let not therefore such as have been guilty of great and horrid Sins think it is enough for them to have hang'd down their Heads as
their Affliction they will seek me early Thus did God's People in the time of their Afflictions Isa 26.16 Lord saith the Prophet in Trouble they have visited thee they poured out a Prayer when thy Chastning was upon them And divers Reasons there are why all God's People should in their Afflictions betake themselves to God by Prayer As 1. All Afflictions come from God I form Light saith he Isa 45.7 and create Darkness I make Peace and create Evil I the Lord do all these things Shall there be Evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3.6 Which Words must be understood of the Evil of Affliction and Punishment not of the Evil of Sin that 's an Evil whereof God who is perfectly and infinitely Good can never be the Author Men may be Instruments in our Sufferings they may be Actors in subjecting us to Afflictions and in bringing such Evils upon us but it is God that imploys them and makes use of them to chasten his People for their Sins This is that which the Psalmist intends when he calls wicked Men God's Sword Psal 17.13 Deliver my Soul from the Wicked saith he which is thy Sword The Sword wherewith he thrusts at wounds and pierceth chastens and corrects his People when they have by their Provocations incurred his Displeasure To the same Purpose it is that he calls Assyria the Rod of his Anger Isa 10.5 and the Staff in their Hand his Indignation that is the Instrument of his Indignation which he makes use of to punish them for their Sins Hence also it is that he calls the Babylonians his Battel-Axe Jer. 51.20 and Weapons of War with which he breaks in pieces the Nations and destroyeth Kingdoms 2. Because God only can remove those Afflictions from his People which his Hand hath laid upon them This God assumes to himself as his own Prerogative Deut. 32.39 I kill saith he and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my Hand To the same Effect is that Passage in the Song of Hannah where she saith 1 Sam. 2.6 The Lord killeth and maketh alive he bringeth down to the Grave and bringeth up And that of Psal 68.20 Vnto God the Lord belong the Issues from Death Hence God himself complains of Mens neglecting to have Recourse to him by Prayer in their Afflictions who alone can relieve them by removing his afflicting Hand from them saying Jer. 9.13 The People turneth not to him that smiteth them neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts 3. Our Neglect to have Recourse to God by Prayer in our Afflictions blasteth all other Means which we make use of for our Relief No Question can be made of it but that Ahaziah having taken a dangerous Fall from a Lattice made use of all the best Means that could be had for his Cure but because in that his Affliction he sought not unto the true God the God of Israel for healing but unto the God of Ekron the Prophet in the Name of God tells him that he should not come down from that Bed on which he had gone up 2 King 1.4 but should furely die as accordingly it fell out in the Issue Wherefore this is noted as a great Miscarriage in Asa though otherwise a good Man that in his Disease 2 Chron. 16.12 even when it was very grievous he sought unto the Physicians and not unto God 4. It concerns us in our Afflictions to seek unto God by Prayer in regard of the great need we have of his Help and Assistance many other ways in the time of our Afflictions As 1st To teach us his meaning in those Afflictions with which he exerciseth us what he designs in them and what at such a time he expects from us 2dly To sanctify Afflictions to us and to enable us to improve them to our spiritual Advantage 3dly To support us under our Afflictions 4thly To give us Patience under his afflicting Hand and to keep us from murmuring repining discontent fretting against God and all other sinful Distempers which in regard of the Corruption of our Nature and the evil Frame of our Hearts we are subject unto in our Afflictions These Particulars I have only mentioned leaving it to every Man to inlarge on them in his private Meditations as he shall see cause Vse Seeing we are upon so many Considerations obliged and highly concerned to seek unto God in our Afflictions let us all be cautioned to take heed that we neglect not the Duty of Prayer while God's afflicting Hand is upon us and when if ever this Duty is both most seasonable and most necessary As soon as ever any Affliction from the Hand of God begins to light on us let us immediately betake our selves unto God by Prayer let this be the first thing we do and let us never think of making use of any other means in order to our Relief till this be done neither let us rest here but let us continue to pray without ceasing as long as God thinks good to continue his afflicting Hand upon us and ours Thus doing with Constancy and Perseverance we need not question but that we shall see a good Issue out of our Afflictions whatever they be in God's appointed time but in all our Afflictions let us not only pray but labour to be soundly humbled for our Sins which have been the meritorious Cause of all our Sufferings let us earnestly beg the Pardon of them and Strength against them for the future This is the best Course that we can take in our Afflictions and the only Course that can give us any Security that we shall be in due time delivered out of our Afflictions and be delivered with such Advantages to our Souls as shall give us just Cause to acknowledg that it hath been good for us to have been afflicted and that God hath in Faithfulness chastned us as David after his Afflictions professed and acknowledged Psal 119.75 Now follows the fifth Particular namely the Issue of Manasseh's Prayer God was entreated of him and heard his Supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdom Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God Most sad and doleful was the Condition of Manasseh while he was a Captive in Babylon he was bound with Chains and fettered with Irons he was confined to the dark and uncomfortable Vaults and Cloysters of a Prison and though perhaps in regard that he was not of the common sort of Prisoners but a King he might have better Accommodations than many others yet which was worst of all he had small or no Hopes of being ever released or set at Liberty again and which was the Height of his Misery he had no Security for his Life but was perpetually in Danger and upon that Account under Fears of being drawn out of Prison and brought to Execution every Day and every Hour This was his dismal
meet his Sin full-but as they say yet meeting it so disguised he takes no notice of it but lets it pass as a Man doth the Malefactor he is looking after when he finds him not in that Apparel by which he was described In all these Respects a diligent and narrow Search is necessary if we be in earnest and truly desirous to find out our Sins From what hath been spoken touching the difficulty of discovering our Sins we may infer 1. That some convenient Time must be set apart for this Work when a Man may wholly apply himself thereunto and when he may have nothing to distract or hinder him If a Man will find out his Sins he must search narrowly and carefully as hath been said he must look into every Corner of his Heart he must survey and consider all his Ways his Thoughts Words and Actions how he hath carried himself in his general or particular Calling how he hath discharged every Trust how he hath performed the Duties of every Relation in which he stands Such a thorow Search as this will not easily be made a few slight Thoughts or overly Reflections on himself while he is in a Croud of Businesses while his Heart and Head are full of the World will do little towards the discovery of all his Sins many of which do not appear in open view but so withdraw and hide themselves as it will cost a Man some time and pains to get a sight of them 2. That he who would so search after his Sins as to find them must get his Heart affected with a true hatred of Sin and a sincere willingness to forsake it For though Sin must be found out before it can be forsaken yet a Man must be willing to forsake it before he can readily find it out The reason is because so long as a Man is unwilling to leave his Sin he will be unwilling to find it and so will never seek narrowly and strictly after it When once we are fully convinc'd of the Evil and Danger of Sin when once we hate it unfeignedly and are resolved to do our utmost to be rid of it then shall we search after it with a Mind to find it then shall we make the most diligent and impartial Inquiry into our selves that it may not escape our Eye 3. We may also further infer that when we address our selves to this Work we must be suspicious and jealous of our selves We are too willing to favour our selves and to indulge our selves in some particular Sins which have gotten an Interest in our Affections and we are furnished with many Colours and Artifices to cover them over and hide the Evil of them from our Eyes 'T is therefore fafe and needful that we should suspect our false and deceitful Hearts and preserve a continual Jealousy of our selves lest we should be too favourable and kind to those Sins which lie nearest our Hearts whether they be profitable or pleasurable Sins or of what other Nature or Quality soever 4. We may likewise hence be informed how much it concerns us to implore God's Assistance in this Business that while we apply our selves to search and 〈◊〉 ways he would be pleased to search and try us as David's Prayer was Psal 139.23 that he would discover our Siâ—â— to us and give us a Sight of them than he would help us against the Deceitfulness of our Hearts and against our Self-love that he would enable us to search so narrowly and impartially as we may not overlook our Sins and more especially that he would be pleased to discover to us those particular Sins for which he doth afflict us Without this our Recourse to God in Prayer and his Assistance obtained all our searching will be to little purpose Now in the next Place the time of Affliction is a proper Season for this Duty For 1. Then God by his Chastisements doth as it were summon us to reflect and enquire after the Cause within our selves The Rod of God hath a Voice Micah 6.9 and it calls upon us for this Duty Every Providence of God hath its proper Language by which it remembers us of something that is expected from us Mercies call for Joy and Thankfulness and Afflictions for Reflection and Consideration Eccl. 7.14 In the Day of Prosperity be joyful but in the Day of Adversity consider We must then consider what God's Meaning and Intentions may be in laying such Afflictions on us and what those our Sins may be for which he so corrects us 2. 'T is then seasonable to search and try our Ways because that is the readiest and most effectual Course we can take for obtaining the Removal of our Afflictions I mean if we search and try our ways in order to the finding out of our Sins that we may forsake them and accordingly forsake them when we have found them out For the end of God's Chastisements being the taking away of our Sins Isa 27.9 and the cleansing and purifying of us from the Defilements thereof Dan. 12.10 When God hath his End we being turned from our evil Ways he hath by many Promises assured us that he will be at Peace with us So Jer. 3.12 Return O backsliding Israel saith the Lord and I will not cause mine Anger to fall upon you When thou art in Tribulation if thou turn to the Lord thy God and shall be obedient to his Voice he will not forsake thee neither destroy thee Deut. 4.30 31. Let the Wicked forsake his Way and the unrighteous Man his Thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have Mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa 55.7 Neither particular Persons only but even whole Nations returning to the Lord find Mercy with him for the averting or removing of his Judgments Jer. 18.7 8 At what Instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their Evil I will repent me of the Evil that I thought to do unto them Hereupon the People of God sorely smitten and wounded are encouraged to return to him in Confidence of Healing if they return Hosea 6.1 Come let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up How sad and deplorable soever their present Condition were they made no question but all their Wounds should be healed and all their Breaches should be made up if they returned to God But now what must lay the Foundation of their Return or what must be the first step towards it but a diligent Search after their Sins by which they had departed from him The Neglect hereof is that which continues and prolongs our Afflictions whatever other Means we make use of to relieve our selves thereby But of this more hereafter when I come to speak of the second Duty
may have reflected more Dishonour upon the Name of God than many of those Sins in others which have otherwise had much more Flagitiousness and Enormity in them And as for the latter sort who may seem to have gained by their Losses If that be the Condition of any amongst us let them not be too forward thence to conclude their Innocency God may pull down in Anger and wound in highest Displeasure and yet such is his admirable Goodness and Compassion that he may anon repent him of the Evils which he hath for our Sins most justly brought upon us and with Advantage rebuild what he had pulled down and so fully heal the Wounds that he had made as to leave us in a better Condition of Health and Strength than he found us in God by the Prophet Ezekiel foretelling the Return of the Israelites from Babylon and their Re-establishment in their own Land promised to settle them after their old Estates and to do better unto them than at their beginning Ezek. 36.11 Now what think you Might they when God had made good this Promise thence infer that God was never angry with them for their Sins and that their Sufferings in Babylon were never intended as their Punishment Their Case may be yours God hath it may be since the Fire dealt better with you than at the beginning you are in some Respects perhaps in a better Condition than formerly perhaps your Trade is doubled Will you therefore now wipe your Mouths and say you were innocent you never offended God so as to have had any Hand in procuring his Judgments to be poured out upon this Place Far be it from you to draw such a proud Conclusion from God's gracious Providence towards you Though God hath not only built you up again but adorned and beautified you and advanced you to a more splendid Condition than before yet cease not you still to acknowledge and give glory to the righteous hand of God in pulling you down and emptying you Amid all your present Mercies and Advantages be you still found putting your mouths in the dust loathing and abhorring your selves for your evil ways and from your hearts professing That as you were most justly pluckt down so you might still as justly have lain in Ruins and Ashes and have been made perpetual Desolations as God once threatned the Land of the Chaldaeans Jer. 25.12 a place never to be inhabited any more And so much concerning the second thing observable from this first aggravation of their sins The Third Particular thence observable is That to return to sin after we have been severely punished for it and grievously smarted for it doth much heighten our sin and render it much more provoking in the sight of God This is clearly implied in the form of speech which Ezra useth After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass should we again break thy commandments As if he had said This were a provocation of an high nature far be it from any of us to be guilty of it There are these three things that greaten and aggravate our sins committed against God and notwithstanding former great Severities against those our sins 1. To sin again in the same kind after that we had grievously smarted for sin argues a great degree of hardness of heart The scalled Child dreads the fire and the very bruit Beasts are afraid of medling with that for which they have been soundly beaten And were there any tenderness upon the heart of man he would not again easily be drawn to venture on that which he hath already paid so dearly for 2. It argues an heart strongly ingaged to sin and desperately bent after it which no former Severities will restrain or hold in It shews a man is mad in love with sin that will out after it whatever it cost him 'T is as much as if he said 'T is true I have already tasted of the bitter fruits of sin I can tell by experience what 't will cost me But however I must please my self I must gratify my sinful desires my sensual and brutish Lusts and I will I am resolved to do it come what will of it 3. It argues a slighting of the Anger and Displeasure of the Almighty and a contempt of his Rod. Herein a man's carriage towards God is like that of a stubborn and incorrigible Child against him that chastens him Though you make him smart he cares not correct him as long as you will he is still the same and will do what he pleaseth do you what you will or can to reclaim him Take heed of this aggravation of your sins you who have been Sufferers by the Fire and all you who have any other way been severely handled for your sins Beware how you have any more to do with those sins against which the fierce indignation of the Lord hath been so discovered and his Word as it were revealed from Heaven Keep at the greatest distance from those Sins come not near the Borders or Confines of them run away from all temptations to them And that you may be preserved from them 1. Labour to know what they be 'T is now a good while since the dreadful Fire though you were then in a miserable hurry full of dread distractions and confusions so as you had scarce the command of your own thoughts though then you had not so much sedateness and composedness of spirit nor so much freedom and liberty as to sit down and consider as to reflect and enquire into your self as to call your self to an account and find out the causes of God's fierce Indignation yet since you have had time enough to do it Have you done it Have you gotten a sight of all those your particular Sins by which the Wrath of God had been so highly incensed against you If you have not if this work hath so long been neglected if to this day you have never set about it if still you be strangers to the reasons of God's contending with you yet be now at length persuaded to make a narrow search after all those Sins which have been the procurers of so much misery to your selves and this place 2. Having found out those sins have them often in your thoughts and if it be possible carry always upon your heart the impressions of that terrible Judgment at least be sure that you often call it to mind and renew the lively remembrance of it and labour to preserve the images and representations of all the dismal circumstances of it in your mind and then say with Ezra here in the Text After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass shall we again break thy commandments So say in reference to all your particular sins your filthiness and uncleanness your drunkenness and swearing your profanation of the Lord's Day and Ordinances your pride and gallantry your covetousness and earthly-mindedness your
leave them now to themselves and suffer them to go on in their Sins to their Ruine seeing they refuse to hearken to him and harden their Hearts against all good Counsels Admonitions Reproofs and Warnings by which he hath solicited and provoked them to Repentance Having found them so perverse and refractory how justly might he now rid his Hands of them look no more after them but give them up to their own Hearts Lust Psal 81.12 and let them alone to walk in their own Counsels as in the like Case he dealt with Israel 'T is an Argument of his great Love to them that he will make Trial of all sorts of Means whereby they may be brought to Repentance before he will utterly cast them off and meddle no more with them or concern himself any further about their Good Vse 3. If God be pleased to make use of Afflictions for reclaiming and reducing of Sinners when other Means prevail not then let such as are afflicted indeavour to comply with God's Design in afflicting them They would not be won by gentler Means and therefore now God is trying whether his Rod may not effect that Good in them which his Word alone would not Be not so obstinate and refractory as to render all Means ineffectual which God makes use of for reclaiming you as to defeat and frustrate the Design of all those Methods of his Wisdom and Goodness by which you might be gained and be brought home to him Labour to answer God's End in correcting you and be perswaded to hear the Rod as God by the Prophet enjoins Mich. 6.9 Although you have stopped your Ears against the Word let not the same Complaint be taken up against you that was taken up by the Prophet against the Jews O Lord Jer. 5.3 are not thine Eyes upon the Truth thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive Correctionâ— they have made their Faces harder than a Rock they have refused to return Search after and indeavour to find out the Sins for which God hath a Controversy with you be truly humbled for them earnestly seek unto God for the Pardon of them cast them off and forsake them If God's Chastisements take you not off from your Sins if no Severities will imbitter them to you and make you willing to leave them then what remains but that God should look upon you as an incorrigible Person as one whose Disease is incurable and so leave you to perish in your Iniquity Thus God left Ephraim to take the Course which pleased him when it appeared that his Heart was so set upon his Idols that nothing would bring him out of love with them Hos 4.17 Ephraim is joined to Idols let him alone To be thus let alone is that indeed which wicked Men would have they would still gratify their Lusts go on in their Sins quietly and not be disturbed in the Enjoyment of them This is in their Account the greatest Happiness but 't is indeed the most dreadful Effect of God's highest Indignation against them It were a thousand times better and more eligible that all the Calamities and Miseries in the World should light upon a Man than that God should say of him He is an obstinate and incorrigible Sinner he is one that will not be reformed by any thing that I have said or done wherefore let him alone let him take his Fill of Sin he shall have no more Disturbance from me till I come to reckon with him once for all Do you not tremble at the fearful State of such a Man If you do not you justly may O take heed lest by your stubborn and obstinate Perseverance in your Sins against all Means for reclaiming you you at length bring your self into it And this may suffice to have been spoken concerning that Point The Point which I have now last spoken to was but general as arising from the Consideration of the Course in general which God took with Manasseh for humbling and reclaiming him when gentler Means did no Good upon him God made use of Afflictions I come to a more particular Consideration of that Affliction which God was pleased to lay upon him The Lord brought upon them upon him and his People the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria and they took Manasseh among the Thorns and bound him with Fetters and carried him to Babylon And here 1st Whereas 't is said that the Lord brought upon them the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria We may observe That 't is of God that one Nation makes War against another that one Country invades another and subjects it to all the Miseries and Calamities of the Sword This is frequently in the holy Scriptures ascribed to the over-ruling Providence of God and that not only in way of mere Permission but so as God is made in some Sense the Author and Procurer of Wars and Invasions and the Inflicter of all the Miseries that attend them Here the Lord is said to have brought upon Manasseh and his People the Captains of the Host of the King of Assyria Thus in 2 Kings 24.2 3 4. we read that the Lord sent against Jehoiakim Bands of the Chaldees and Bands of the Syrians and Bands of the Moabites and Bands of the Children of Ammon and that he sent them against Judah to destroy it according to the Word that he had spoken by his Servants the Prophets And by way of further Confirmation that all this was of God it follows in the next Words Surely at the Commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah to remove them out of his Sight for the Sins of Manasseh And thus is God said to have stirred up Hadad the Edomite against Solomon 1 Kings 11.14 and to have stirred up another Adversary against him Ver. 23. Rezon the Son of Eliadah So God speaking of the Executioners of his Justice whom he would make use of to punish his People Isa 5.26 saith he would lift up an Ensign to the Nations from far and that he would hiss unto them from the Ends of the Earth that they might come with Speed swiftly So again speaking of his calling for other Nations to invade the Land Isa 7.18 19. he saith The Lord shall hiss for the Flie that is in the uttermost part of the River of Egypt and for the Bee that is in the Land of Assyria and they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate Valleys So describing a cruel and implacable Enemy which he would cause to invade them he saith Behold I will send Serpents Jer. 8.17 Cockatrices among you which will not be charmed and they shall bite you Jer. 16.16 Behold I will send for many Fishers and they shall fish them and after that I will send for many Hunters and they shall hunt them from every Mountain and from every Hill and out of