said to be the Accusers Where it is false it can be only the work of Satan the malitious adversary who as we may see in Jobs case will not stick to bring a false Accusation If any think that the Accuser will not do so vain a work at least they may see that potentially this is the Accusation that lyeth against us and which we must be justified against For all Justification implyeth an Actual or Potential Accusation He that is truly accused of final Impenitency or Unbelief or Rebellion hath no other Defence to make but must needs be condemned He that is falsly accused of such non-performance of the condition of Grace must deny the Accusation and plead his own personal Righteousness as against that Accusation and produce that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience and Perseverance by which he fulfilled that Condition and so is Evangelically Righteous in himself and therefore hath part in the blood of Christ which is instead of a Legal righteousnses to him in all things else as having procured him a pardon of all his sin and a right to everlasting glory And thus we must then be Justified by Christs satisfaction only against the accusation of being sinners in general and of deserving Gods wrath for the Breach of the Law of works But we must be justified by our faith repentance and sincere Obedience itself against the Accusation of being Impenitent unbelievers and Rebels against Christ and having not performed the Condition of the promise and so having no part in Christ and his Benefits So that in Summ you see that the cause of the day will be to enquire Whether being all known sinners we have accepted of Christ upon his terms and so have right in him and his benefits or not Whether they have forsaken this vain world for him and loved him so faithfully that they have manifested it in parting with these things at his Command And this is the meaning of Mat. 25. Where the enquiry is made to be whether they have fed and visited him in his members or not That is whether they have so far loved him as their Redeemer and God by him as that they have manifested this to his members according to Opportunity though it cost them the hazard or loss of all Seeing danger and labour and cost are fitter to express love by then Empty Complements and bare Professions Whether it be particularly enquired after or only taken for granted that men are sinners and have deserved Death according to the Law of works and that Christ hath satisfied by his death is all one as to the matter in hand seeing Gods enquiry is but the Discovery and Conviction of us But the last Question which must decide the Controversie will be whether we have performed the condition of the Gospel I have the rather also said all this to shew you in what sense these words are taken in the text that Every man shall be Judged according to what he hath done in the flesh whether it be good or bad Though every man be Judged worthy of Death for sinning yet every man shail not be Judged to dye for it and no man shall be Judged morthy of Life for his good works It is therefore according to the Gospel as the rule of judgement that this is meant They that have Repented and believed and returned to true though imperfect Obedience shall be Judged to everlasting Life according to these works not because these works Deserve it but because the free Gift in the Gospel through the blood of Christ doth make these things the condition of our possessing it They that have lived and dyed Impenitent Unbelievers and Rebels against Christ shall be judged to everlasting punishment because they have deserved it both by their sin in general against the Law and by these sins in special against the Gospel This is called the Merit of the Cause that is what is a mans due according to the true meaning of the Law Though the due may be by free gift And thus you see what will be the cause of the Day and the matter to be enquired after and decided as to our Life or Death VIII THE next point in our method is to shew you What will be the Evidence of the Cause Answ There is a fivefold Evidence among men 1. When the fact is notorious 2. The knowledge of an unsuspected Competent Iudge 3. The parties Confession 4. Witness 5. Instruments and visible effects of the action All these Evidences will be at hand and any one of them sufficient for the conviction of the guilty person at that day 1. As the sins of all men so the Impenitency and Rebellion of the wicked was notorious or at least will be then For though some play the hypocrites and hide the matter from the world and themselves yet God shall open their hearts and former lives to themselves and to the view of all the world He shal set their sins in order before them so that it shall be utterly in vain to deny or excuse them If any menwill then think to make their cause as good to God as they cannow do to us that are not able to see their hearts they will be fouly mistaken Now they can say they have as good hearts as the best then God will bring them out in the light and shew them to themselves and all the world whether they were good or bad Now they will face us down that they do truly Repent and they obey God as well as they can but God that knoweth the Deceivers will then undecieve them We cannot now make men acquainted with their own unsanctified hearts nor convince them that have not true Faith Repentance or Obedience but God will convince them of it They can find shifts and false answers to put off a Minister with but God will not so be shifted off Let us preach as plainly to them as we can and do all that ever we are able to acquaint them with the impenitency and unholiness of their own heart and the necessity of a new heart and life yet we cannot do it but they will Believe whether we will or not that the old heart will serve the turn But how easily will God make them know the contrary We plead with them in the dark for though we have the candle of the Gospel in our hands when we come to shew them their corruption yet they shut their eyes and are wilfully blind But God will open their eyes whether they will or not not by holy Illumination but by forced conviction and then he will plead with them as in the open light See here thy own unholy soul canst thou now say thou didst love me above all canst thou deny but thou didst love this world before me and serve thy flesh and lusts though I told thee if thou didst so thou shouldst dye Look upon thy own heart now and see whether it be a holy or an unholy heart a spiritual or
Actually unwilling If a man have so accustomed himself to murder drunkeness stealing or the like wickedness so far that he cannot leave it will you therefore forgive him or will any Judge or Jury hold him excused Or rather think him the more unfit for mercy 5. Note also that the want of a supernatural Habit no nor the presence of the contrary Habit do not Efficiently determine the will to particular acts much less take away its natural Freâ—â—om 6. And that till Habits attain an utter predominancy at least there is a Power remaining in the will to resist them and use means against them Though Eventually the perverse Inclination may hinder the use of it The three and twentieth Excuse I have heard from learned men that God doth determine all Actions Natural and Free as the first Efficient Physical immediate Cause or else nothing could Act. And then it was not long of me that I chose forbidden Objects but of him that irresistly moved me therto and whose Instrument I was Answ This is a trick of that wisdom which is foolishness with God and to be deceived by vain Philosophy 1. The very principle it self is most likely to be false and those that tell you this to err Much more I think may be said against it then for it 2. I am sure it is either false or reconcileable with Gods Holiness and mans liberty and culpability so that its a mad thing to deceive yeur selves with such Philosophical uncertainâ—ies when the Truth which you oppose by it is infallibly certain That God is not the Author of sin but man himself who is justly condemned for it is undoubtedly true and would you obscure so clear a Truth by searching into points beyond homane reach if not unsound as you conclude them The four and twentieth Excuse But at least those learned Divines among us that doubt of this do yet say that the will is necessarily and infallbly Determined by the Practical Understanding and that is as much unresistibly necessitated by Objects and therefore whatever act was done by my understanding or will was thus necessitated and I could not help it Theâ— say Liberty is but the Acting of the faculty aggreeably to its nature And it was God as Creator that gave Adam his faculties and God by providential dtspose that presented all Objects to him by Which hi understanding and so his Will were unvoidable necessitated Answ This is of the same nature with the former uncertain if noâ— certainly false Were this true for ought we can see it would lay all the sin and misery of this world on God as the unresistible necessitating Cause which because we know infallibly to be false we have no reason to take such principles to be true which infer it The understanding doth not by a necessary efficiency Determine the will but morally or rather is regularly a Condition or necessary Antecedent without which it may not Determine itself Yea the Will by commanding the sense and phantasie doth much to determine the Understanding As the eye is not necessary to my going but to my going right so is not the Understandings Guidance necessary to my willing there the simple Apprehension may suffice but to my Right willing There are other wayes of Determining the Will Or if the Understanding did Determine the Will Efficiently and Necessarily it is not every act of the Understanding that must do it If it be so when it saiâ—h This must be done and saith it importunately yet not when it only saith This may be done or you may venture on it which is the common part which it hath in sin I am not pleased that these curious Objections fall in the way nor do I delight to put them into vulgar heads but finding many young Schollars and others that have converted with them assaulted with these Temptations I thought meet to give a touch and but a touch to take them out of their way As Mr. Fenner hath done more fully in the Preface to his Hidden Manna on this last point to which I refer you I only add this The will of man in its very Dominion doth bear Gods Image It is a self Determining Power though it byassed by Habits and needs a Guide As the Heart Vital Spirits by which it acteth are to the rest of the Body so is It to the soul The Light of Nature hath taught all the world to carry the Guilt of every crime to the will of man and there to leave it Upon this all Laws and Judgements are grounded From Ignorance and Intellectual weakness men commonly fetch Excuses for their faults but from the Will they are Aggravated If we think it strange that mans will should be the first cause so much as of a sinful mode and answer all occuring Objections it may suffice that we are certain the Holy Majesty is not the Author of sin and he is able to make all this as plain as the Sun and easily answer all these vain Excuses though we should be unable And if we be much ignorant of the frame and motions of our own souls and especially of that high self determining principle Free-Will the great spring of our actions and the curious Engine by which God doth Sapientially Govern the world it is no wonder Considering that the soul can know it self but by Reflection and God gave us a soul to use rather then to know itself and to know its qualities and operations rather then its Essence The five and twentieth Excuse No man can be saved nor avoid any sin nor believe in Christ but those whom God hath predestinated thereto I was under an irreversible Sentence before I was born and therefore I do nothing but what I was predestinated to do and if God decreed not to save me how could I help it Answ 1. Gods Judgements are more plain but his Decrees or secret purposes are mysterious And to darken certainties by having recourse to points obscure is no part of Christian Wisdom God told you your Duty in his word and on what terms vou must be Judged to Life or Death Hither should you have recourse for Direction and not to the unsearchable mysteries of his mind 2. God decreeth not to Condemn any but for sin Sin I say as the Cause of that Condemnation though not of his Decree 3. Gods Decrees are acts Immanent in himself and make no change on you and therefore do not necessitate you to sin any more then his fore-knowledge doth For both cause only a necessity of Confequence which is Logical as the Divines on both sides do Consess And therefore this no more caused you to sin then if there had been no such Decree And it s a doubt whether that Decree be not negative A willing suspending of the Divine will as to evil or at most A purpose to permit it The six and twentieth Excuse If it be no more yet doth it make my perdition unavoidable For even Gods foreknowledge doth so
a full â—ustifiction A Heathens conscience may excuse him from those sins which he was never guilty of but not from all But no more of them 2. The case of those that have had the Gospel is more plainly opened to us in Gods Word Their Sentence is opened in many places of Scripture but most fully in Matth 25. whence we will now collect it There we find that Jesus Christ the Redeemer as King of the world shall sit in Judgement on all men at the last and shall seperate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth the Sheep from the Goats and so shall pass the final Sentence This Sentence is twofold according to the different Condition of them that are judged To them on the right hand there is a Sentence of justification and Adjudication to everlasting glory To them on the left hand there is a Sentence of Condemnation to everlasting Punishment The Sentence on each of these containeth both the state which they are Judged to and the reason or cause of the Judgement to that state For as God will not Iudge any to Life or Death without just cause so he will publish this cause in his sentence as it is the manner of Judges to do If you say Christ will not use a voice Let it satisfie that though we know not the manner yet if he do it but by mental discovery as he shews men what shall everlastingly befall them so he will shew them why it shall so befall them 1. The Sentence on them on the Right hand will contain 1. their Justification and Adjudication to Blessedness that both as generally denominated and as particularly determined and described 2. And the cause of this Iudgement 1. In general they shall be pronounced Blessed Satan would have had them cursed and miserable the Law did curse them to misery Many a fearful thought hath possessed their own brests least they should prove at last accursed and miserable But now they hear the contrary from their Iudge All the Promises in the Gospel could not perfectly overcome those their fears all the comfortable words of the Ministers of the Gospel conld not perfectly subdue them all the tendâ—er mercies of God in Christ dâ—d not perfectly subdue them But now they are vanquished all for ever He that once had heard his Redeemer in Iudgement call him Blessed will never fear being Cursed more For he that Christ Blesseth shall be Blessed indeed The Description of their blessedness followeth Come inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world And also they are called Blessed Of the Father Here is the fountain of their Blessedness The Father and the state of their blessedness in Being the Fathers For I suppose they are called the Blessed of the Father both because the Father blesseth them that is makes them Happy and because these blessed ones are the Fathers own And so Christ will publish it to the world in Judgement that he came to glorifie the Father and will proclaim him the Principal Efficient and Ultimate end of his work of Redemption and the blessedness of his Saints and that himself is as Mediator but the way to the Father It is the Father that prepared the Kingdom for them and from the foundation of the world prepared it Both for them as chosen ones and for them as future believers and Righteous ones It is called a Kingdom partly in respect to God the King in whose glory we shall partake in our places and partly Metaphorically from the Dignity of our Condition For so it is that our selves are said to be made Kings Rev. 1. 6. and 5. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 9. and not that we are properly Kings for then we must have subjects who must be Governed by us Thus we see their Blessedness in the Fountain end and state of Dignity As to the Receptive Act on their part it is expressed by two words one signifying their first entrance on it Come the other their Possession Inherit that is possess it as given by the Father and Redeemed by the Son and hoâ—d it in this Tenure for ever The true Believer was convinced in this life that indeed there was no true blessedness but this enjoyment of God in the Kingdom of heaven The Lord revealed this to his heart by his Word and Spirit And therefore he contemned the seeming happiness on earth and laid up for himself a Treasure in heaven and made him friends with the Mammon of unrighteousness and ventured all his hope in this Vessel And now he findeth the wisdom of that choice in a rich return God made him so Wise a Merchant as to sell All for this Pearl of greatest price and therefore now he shall find the gain As there Is no other true Happiness but God in glory so is there nothing more suitable and welcom to the true Believer O how welcome will the face of that God be whom he loved whom he sought whom he longed and waited for How welcome will that Kingdom be which he lived in Hope of which he parted with All for and suffered for in the flesh How glad will he be to see the Blessed face of his Redeemer who by his manifold Grace hath brought him unto this I leave the believing soul to think of it and to make it the daily matter of his Delightful Meditation What an unconceivable Ioy in one moment his Sentence of Christ will fill his soul with Undoubtedly it is now quite past our comprehension though our imperfect forethoughts of it may well make our lives a continual Feast Were it but our Iustification from the Accusations of Satan who would have us Condemned either as sinners in general or as Impenitent Unbeleiving Rebels against him that Redeemed us in sp cial it would lift up the heads of the Saints in that day After alâ— the fears of our own hearts and the slanderous Accusations of Satan and the world That we were either Impenitent Infidels or Hypocrites Christ will then Iustifie us and prononce us Righteous So much for the Condition to which they are Iudged 2. The Reason or Cause of this Justification of the Saints is given us both 1. In a general denomination and 2. In a particular Description 1. In General it is because they Were Righteous as is evident Mat. 25. 46. The Righteous shall go into life Everlasting And indeed it is the business of every just Judge to justifie the righteous and condemn the unrighteous And shall not the Judge of all the earth judge righteously Gen. 18. 25 God makes men Righteous before he judges them so and Judgeth them Righteous Because they are so He that abominateth that man who saith to the Righteous thou art wicked or to the wicked thou art Righteons who Justifieth the wicked and Condemneth the Righteous will certainly never do so himself Indeed he will Justifie them that are sinners but not against the Accusation that they are sinners but against the Accusation that they are
guilty of punishment for sin but that is because he first made them just and so Justifiable by by pardoning their sin through the blood of Christ And its true also that he will Justifie those that were wicked but not those the are wicked but Judgement findeth them as Death leaveth them and he wlll not take them for wicked that are sanctified and cleansed of their former wickedness â—o that Christ will first pardon them before he justifie them against the charge of being sinners in general and he will first give men Faith Repentance and new Obedience before he will justifie them against the charge of being Impenitent Infidels or Hypocrites and consequently unpardoned and doubly guilty of damnation This twofold righteousness he will first Give men and so constitute them Just before he will Declare it and Sentence them just 2. The Reason of the sentence particularly Described is from their Faith and Love to Christ expressed in their Obedience self-denyal and forsaking all for him For I was hungry and ye fed me I Was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in Naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came to me Verily I say unto you in as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me Mat. 25. 35. to 41. Here is 1. The causal conjunction for 2. And the Cause or Reason it self Concerning both which Observe 1. How it is that mans Obedience and self-denyal is the Reason and Cause of his Justification 2. Why it is that God will have the Reason or Cause thus declared in the Sentence For the first observe that its one thing to give a Reason of the Sentence and another thing to express the Cause of the Benefit Given us by the promise and Judged to us by the Sentence Mans Obedience was no proper Cause why God did in this life Give pardon of sin to us or a Right to glory much less of his Giving Christ to dye for us And therefore as to our Constitutive Justification at our Conversion we must not say or think that God doth Justifie us For or Because of any works of our Obedience Legal or Evangelical But when God hath so Justified us when he comes to give a Reason of his Sentence in Judgement he may and will fetch that Reason partly from our Obedience or our performance of the Conditions of the New Covenant For as in this life we had a Righteousness consisting in free pardon of all sin through the blood of Christ and a Righteousness consisting in our personal perormance of the Conditions of the promise which giveth that pardon and continueth it to us so at Judgement we shall accordingly be justified And as our Evangelical personal Righteousness commonly called Inherent was at first only in our Faith and Repentance and Disposition to obey but afterward in our Actual sincere Obedience in which sense we are Constitutively Justified or made Righteous here by our works in James his sense Jam. 2. 24. so accordingly a double Reason will be assigned of our sentential Justification One from our pardon by Christs blood and merits which will prove our Right to Impunity and to â—lory The other from our own Faith and holy Obedience which will prove our Right to that pardon through Christ and to the free Gift of a Right to glory and so this last is to be pleaded in subordination to the former For Christâ—s beeome the the Author of Eternal salvation to all them that Obey him Heb. 5. 9. He therefore that will be saved must have a Christ to save him as the Author and an Obedience to that Christ as the Condition on of that salvation and consequently both must be declared in the Iudgement The Reason why the ludge doth mention our Good works rather then our Believing may be because those holy self-denying expessions of Faith and Love to Christ do contain or certainly imply Faith in them as the life of the tree in the fruit but faith doth contain our works of Obedience but only as their cause These works also are a part of the personal Righteousness which is to be enquired after that is we shall not be Iudged righteous meerly because we have Believed but also because we have added to our Faith vertue and have improved our Talents and have loved Christ to â—he hazard of all for his sake For it is not only or principally for the goodness of the work considered in it self or the good that is done by 〈◊〉 to the poor but it is as these works did express our Faith and Love to Christ by doing â—im the most costly and hazardous service hat by Fath we could see Christ in a poor beggar or a prisoner and could love Christ in These better then our worldly goods or liberties which we must part with or hazard by the works that are here mentioned 2. The Reasons why Christ will so publikely Declare the personal righteousness of men to be the Reason or Cause of his Iustifying sentence it is because It is the business of that day not only to glorifie Gods meer Love Mercy but eminently to glorifie his Remunerative Iuice and not only to express his love to the Elect as such but to expess his love to them as Faithful and Obedient and such as have denyed all for Christ and Loved God above all And to shew his justice to the men and faithfulness in fulfilling all his promises and also his holiness in the high estimation of the holiness of his people I shall express this in the words of a Learned Divine Dr Twiss against M. Cotton pag 40. Was there no more in Gods intention when he elected some then the manifestation of the riches of his glorious grace Did not God purpose also to manifest the glory of his Remunerative Justice It is not undenyable that God will bestow salvation on all his Elect of ripe years by way of reward and Crown of Righteousness Which God the Righteous Judge will given 2 Tim. 4. 2 Thes 1. It is great pitty this is not considered as usually it is not Especially for the momentous Consequence thereof in my Judgement So far he So much of the Sentence of Justification which shall be passed by Christ at Judgement Upon the Righteous 2 We are next to consider of the Sentence of â—ondemnation which shall then by Christ be passed on the unrighteous Which is delivered to us by Christ Mat. 25. in the same order as the former This Sentence containeth 1. The Condemnation it self 2. The Reason or Cause of it The Condemnation expresseth the misery which they are judged to 1 Generally in the Denomination Cursed 2 Particularly by Description of their Cursed state To be cursed is to be a People destinated and adjudged to utter unhappiness to all kind of misery without remedy 2. Their Cursed condition is described in
might be so useful and wherein he hath so full and unpuestionable propriety The greatest the richest the wisest men that are trusted with most are the greatest Robbers on earth if they live not to God and shall have the greatest punishment 5. Is it not incomparably more honourable to be Gods then to be your own and to live to him then to your selves the object and end doth nobilitate the act and thereby the Agent It is more honourabe to serve a Prince then a Plowman Thâ—â— man that least seeks his own honour or carnal interest but most freely denyeth it and most intirely seeks the honour of God is most highly honoured with God and good men when selfe-seekers defraud themselves of their hopes Most men think vilely or at least suspitiously of that man that seeks for honour to himself they think if the matter were combustible he need not to blow the fire so hard if he were worthy of honour his worth would attract it by a sweet magnetick power so much industry they think is the most probable mark of indignity and of some consciousness of it in the seekers breast If he attain some of his ends men are ready to look on his honour but as Almes which he was fain to begge for before he got it and could he make shift to ascend the Throne so much in the eyes of the wisest men would be detracted from his honour as they did believe himselfe to have a hand in contriving it Quod sequitur fugio c. They honour him more that refuseth a Crown when it is offered then him that ambitiously aspireth after it or rapaciously apprehendeth it If they see a men much desire their applause they think he needs it Solomon saith To scarch their own glory Pro. 25. 27. 6. You can never have a better Master then God nor yet a sweeter employment then his service There is nothing in him that may be the least discouragement to you nor in his works that shall be distastefull The reason why the world thinks otherwise is because of the distempered aversnesse of their souls A sick stomack is no fit Judge of the pleasantnesse of meats To live to God is to live to the truest and highest delights His Kingdome is not meats and drinks but in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost His servants indeed are often troubled but ask them the reason and they I quickly tell you that it is not for being his sevatns or for serving him too much but for fear lest they are not his servatns or for serving him no better It is not in his waies or at least not for them that they meet with their perplexities but in stepping out of them wandring in their own Many besides the servants of God do seek felicity and satisfaction to their minds and some discover where it lyeth but only they attain it and enjoy it But on the contrray he hath an ill Master that is ruled by himselfe A Master that is blind and proud and passionate that will lead you to precipices and thence deject you that will most effectually ruine you when he thinks he is doing you the greatest good whose work is bad and his wages no better that feedeth his servants in plenty but as swine and in the day of famine denyeth them the husks what ever you may now imagine while you are distracted with sensuality I dare say if ever God bring you to your selves you will consider that it is better be in your Fathers house where the poorest servant hath bread enough then to be fed with dreams and pictures and to perish with hunger Reject not God till you have found a better Master 7. If you will needs be your own and seek your selves you disengage God from dealing with you as His in a gracious sense If you will not trust him nor venture your selves upon his promise and conduct but still shift for your selves then look to your selves as well as you can save your selves in danger cure your own diseases quiet your own Consciences grapple with death in your own strength plead your own Cause in judgement and save your selves from Hell if you can and when you have done go and boast of your own sufficiency and atchievements and tell men how little you are beholden to Christ Woe to you if upon these provocations God should give you over to provide for your selves and leave you without any other salvation then your own power if able to effect mark the connexion of this sin and punishment in Deut 32. 18 19 20. Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful and hast forgotten God that formed thee And when the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his Sons and of his Daughters And he said I will hide my face from them I will see what their end shall be As if he should say I will see how well they can save themselves and make them know by experience their own insufficiency 8. Those men that seek themselves and live to themselves and not to God are unfaithful and treacherous both to God and man As they neglect God in prosperity so they do but flatter him in adversity Psal 78. 34 35 36 37. And â—e that will be false to God whose interest to him is so absolute is unlikely to be true to men whose interest in him is infinitely less Hee that can shake off the great obligations of Creation Redemption Preservation and provision which God layeth on him is unlikely be held by such slender obligations as he receives from men I 'le never trust that man far if I know him that 's false to his Redeemer He that will sell his God his Saviour his Soul and Heaven for a litle sensuality vain-glory or worldly wealth I shall not wonder if he sell his best friend for a Groat Self-seeking men will take you for their friend no longer then you can serve their turns but if once you need them or stand in their way you shall find what they esteemed you for He that is in haste to be rich and thereupon respecteth persons for a piece of bread that man will transgress saith Solomon Prov. 28. 20 21. 9. Sanctification consisteth in your hearty resignation and living to God and therefore you are unsanctified if you are destitute of this Without holiness none shall see God Heb. 12. 14. And what is holiness but our sincere dedication and devotedness to God Being no longer common and unclean but separated in resolution affection and conversation from the world and our carnal selves to him It is the Office of the holy Ghost to work you to this and if you resist and refuse it you do not soundly believe in the Holy Ghost but instead of believing in him you fight against him 10. You are verbally devoted to Christ in solemn Covenant entered into Baptism and frequently renewed in the Lords Supper and at other seasons Did you not there solemnly
perform the very labours of your Callings that they may be ultimately for God so love your dearest friends and enjoyments that it be God that is principally loved in them More particularly as to the business of the Day what need I say more then in a word to apply this general Doctrine to your speciall Work If the Honourable Judges and the Justices will remember that they are Gods and not their own what a Rule and stay will it be to them for their Work what an answer will it afford them against all sollicitations from carnal self or importunate friends viz. I am not mine own nor come I hither to do mine own Work I cannot therefore dispose of my self or it but must do as he that owes me doth command me How would this also incite them to promote Christs interest with their utmost power and faithfully to own the Causes which lie owneth 2. If all Councellors and Solliciters of Causes did truly take themselves for Gods and not their own they durst not plead for nor sollicite a Cause which they knew God disowneth They would remember that what they do against the Innocent or speak against a righteous Cause is done and said against their Lord from whom they may expect ere long to hear In as much as you said or did this against the least of these you said or did it against me God is the great Patron of Innocency and the pleader of every righteous Cause and he that will be so bold as to plead against him had need of a large Fee to save him harmless Say not it is your Calling which you must live by unless you that once listed your selves in your Baptism under Christ will now take pay make it your profession to fight aggainst him The emptier your Purses are of Gain so gotten the richer you are at least the fuller they are you are so much the poorer As we that are Ministers do find by experience that it was not without provocation from us that God of late hath let loose so many Hands and Pens and Tongues against us though our calling is more evidently owned by God then any one in the world besides so I doubt not but you may find upon due examination that the late contempt which hath been cast upon your profession is a reproof of your guilt from God who did permit it Had Lawyers and Divines less lived to themselves and more to God we might have escaped if not the scourge of reproachful Tongues yet at least the lashes of Conscience To deal freely with you Gentlemen it is a matter that they who are strangers to our profession can scarce put any fair construction upon that the worst cause for a little money should find an Advocate among you This deiveth the standers by upon this harsh Dilemma to think that either your Understanding or your Consciences are very bad If indeed you so little know a good cause from a bad then it must needs tempt men to think you very uhskilful in your profession The seldom and smaller differences of Divines in a more sublime and mysterious profession is yet a discovery so far of their ignorance and is imputed to their disgrace But when almost every Cause even the worst that comes to the Barr shall have some of you for it and some against it and in the palpablest cases you are some on one side and some on the other this strange difference of your judgements doth seem to bewray their weakness But if you know the Causes to be bad which you Defend and to be good which you oppose it more evidently bewrayes a deplorate Conscience I speak not of your innocent of excusable mistakes in Cases of great difficulties not yet of excusing a Cause bad in the main from unjust aggravations But when Money will hire you to plead for injustice against your own knowledge and to use your wits to defraud the Righteous and spoil his Cause or vex him with delays for the advantage of your unrighteous Clyent I would not have your Conscience for all your gains nor your Accompâ— to make for all the world It s sad that any known unrighteous Cause should have a professed Christian in the face of a Christian Judicature to defend it and Sathan should plead by the Tongues of men so deeply engaged to Christ But it s incomparably more sad that almost every unjust Cause should find a Patron and no contentious malicious person should be more ready to do wrong then some Lawyers to defend him for a dear bought Fee Did you honestly obey God and speak not a word against your judgement but leave every unjust man to defend his own Cause what peace would it bring to your Consciences what honour to your now reproached Profession what relief to the oppressed and what an excellent cure to the troublesome contentions of proud or malicious men 3. To your Jurers and Witnesses I shall say but this you also are not your own and he that oweth you hath told you That he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain It s much into your hands that the law hath committed the Cause of the Just should you betray it by perjury and false witness while there is a Conscience in your guilty breast and a God in Heaven you shall not want a witness of your sin or a revenger of the oppressed if the blood of Christ on your sound repentance do not rescue you 4. If Plantiff and Defendant did well consider that they are not their own they would not be too prone to quarrels but would lose their right when God the chief Proprietor did require it Why do you not rather take wrong and suffer your selves to be defrauded then do wrong and defraud and that your Brethren 1 Cor. 6 7 8 9. To conclude I earnestly intreat you all that have heard me this day that when you come home you will betake your selves to a sober consideration of the claim that God hath laid to you and the Right he hath in you and all that you have and resolve without any further delay to give him his own and give it not to his enemies and yours When you see the Judgement set and the Prisoners waiting to receive their sentence remember with what unconceiveable Glory and Terror your Judge will shortly come to demand his due and what an enquiry must be made into the tenor of your lives As you see the Ecclipsed Sun withdraw its light so remember how before this dreadful final Judgement the Sun and Moon and whole frame of Nature shall be dissolved and how God will withdraw the light of his countenance from those that have neglected him in the day of their Visitation As ever you would be His then see that you be His now own him as your absolute Lord if you expect he should own you then as his People Woe to you that ever you were Born if you put God then to distrain
For if he foreknow it all the World cannot hinder it from coming to pass Answ Must God either be Ignorant of what you will do or else be the cause of it If you foreknow that the Sun will rise to morrow that doth not cause it to rise If you foreknow that one man will murder another you are not the cause of it by foreknowing it So is it here The seven and twentieth Excuse God might have hindred my Sin and Damnation if he would Answ And will you wilfully sin and think to scape because God doth not hinder you The Prince that makes a Law against murder could lock you up and keep you from being a Murderer But are you excusable if he do not We are certain that God could have hindered all the sin and and death and confusion and misery that is in the world And we are as certain that he doth not hinder it but by forbidding it and giving men means against it And we are certain that he is Just and Good and Wise in all and not bound to hinder it And what his Reasons are you may better know hereafter In the mean time you had been better have looked to your own Duty The eight and twentieth Excuse How could I be saved if Christ d d not dye for me He dyed but for his Elect and none could be saved without his Death Answ He did dye for you and for more then his Elect though he Absolutely purposed only their salvation Your sins crucified him and your debt lay upon him and â—e so far ransomed you that nothing buâ— your wilful refusal of the benefits could have condemned you The nine and twentieth Excuse It was Adams sin that brought me into this Depravedness of will Which I can neither care nor could prevent Answ 1. If Adam cast away his holiness he could no more convey that to us which he cast away then a Nobleman that is a Traytor can convey his lost Inheritance or Honours to his son 2. You perish not only for your Original sin but for rejecting the Recovering mercy of the Redeemer you might have had Christ and Life in him for the Accepting The thirtieth Excuse God will require no more than be gives He gave me not Grace to Repent and Believe and wihtout his gift I could not have it Answ 1. God will justly require more then he giveth that is The improvement of his Gifts as Mat. 25. shews He gave Adam but a Power to persevere and not Actual perseverance Yet did he justly punish him for want of the Act even for not using by his own will the Power which he had given him 2. It is long of your self if God did not give you Grace to Believe It was because you wilfully refused some preparatory Grace Christ found you at a great distance from him and he gave you Grace sufficient to have brought you neerer to him than you were you had grace sufficient to have made you better than you were and restrained many sins and brought you to the means when you turned your back on them Though this were not sufficient to cause you to Believe it was sufficient to have brought you neerer to Beleeving and through your own wilfulness became not Effectual Even as Adam had sufficient grace to have stood which was not Effectual So that you had not only Christ offered to you if you would but Accept him but you had daily and precious helps and means to have cuâ—ed your wils and caused you to Accept him for neglect of which and so for not believing and so for all your other sins you â—ustly perish The one and thirtieth Excuse Alas man is a worm a dâ—y leaâ— Job 13. 25. a silly foolish creature and therefore his Actions be not regardble nor deserve so great a punishment Answ Though he be a worm and as nothing to God and foolish by sin yet is he naturally so noble a creature that the image of God was on him Gen. 1. 26. and 5. 1 Jam. 3. 9. and the world made his servants and Angels his attendants Heb. 1. 14. so noble that Christ dyed for him God takes special care of him He is capable of knowing and enjoying God and heaven is not thought too good for him if he will obey And he that is capable of so great Good must be capable of as great Evil and his waâ—es not to be so overlooked by that God that hath undertaken to be his Governor When it tendeth to Infidelity the Devil will teach you to debase man even lower than God would do The two and thirtieth Excuse Sin is no Being and shall men be damned for that which is nothing Answ 1. It is such a mode as deformeth Gods creature It is a moral Being It is a Relation of our actions and hearts to Gods will and Law 2. They that say Sin is nothing say Pain and Loss is nothing too You shall therefore be paid with one nothing for another Make light of your misery and say It is nothing as you did of your sin 3. Will you take this for a good Excuse from your children or servants it they abuse you Or from a Theif or a Murderer shall he escape by telling the Judge that his sin was Nothing Or ratheâ—have death which is nothing as the just eward of it The three and thirtieth Excuse But sin is a Tranfient thing At least it doth God no harm and therefore why sould he do us so much harm for it Answ 1. It hurts not God because he is above hurt No thanks to you if he be out of your reach 2. You may wrong him when you cannot Hurt him And the wrong deserves as much as you can bear If a Traytor endeavour the death of the Prince in vain his endeavour deserves death though he never hurt him You despise Gods Law and Authority you cause the Blaspheming of his name Rom. 2 24. He calls it A pressing him as a â—art is pressed with sheaves Amos 2. 13. and a grieving of him 3. And you wrong his Image his Church the publike good and the souls of others The four and thirtieth Excuse But Gods nature is so Good and Merciful that sure be will not damn his own creature Answ 1. A merciful Judge will hang a man for a fault against man By proportion then what is due for sin against God 2. All the death and calamity which you see in the world comes from the anger of this merciful God why then may not future misery come from it 3. God knoweth his own mercy better then you do and he hath told you how far it shall extend 4. He is infinitely merciful but it is to the Heirs of mercy Not to the final Rejecters of His mercy 5. Hath not God been merciful to thee in bearing with thee so long and offering thee Grace in the blood of Christ till thou didst wilfully reiect it Thou wilt confess to thy everlasting wo that God was merciful Had he
at his presence and power in your hearts but will you not then be troubled at his presence and tormenting power Asâ— long as you do not see him let him do what he will with you it grieves you little or nothing at all but what will you say wheâ— you must see him and abide with him for ever Oh Sirs his namâ— is easily heard but his company will be terrible to the stoutest heart alive He sheweth you a smiling face when he tempteth you but he hath a grimmer face to shew you when temptations have conquered you and torments must succeed As those that write of Witches say he appeareth at first to them in some comely tempting shape till he have them fast tyed to him and then he beats them and affrights them and seldom appears to them but in some ugly hew Believe it poor sinners you do not hear or see the worst of him when you are merry about your sinful Pleasuers and Rejoycing in your Hopes of the Commodities or Preferments of the world he hath another kind of Voice which you must hear another face to shew you that will make you know a a little better whom you had to do with You would be afraid now to meet him in the dark what will you be to live with him in everlasting darkness Then you will know who it was that you entertained and obeyed and plaid with in your sins 3. And as the Text tells us that it is a fire prepared for the Devil and his Angles So it telleth us that it is An everlasting fire It had a beginning but it shall have no end If these wretches would have chosen the service of God they would have met with no difficulty or trouble but what would have had a speedy end Poverty and Injuries would have had an end scorns and abuses would have had an end fasting humiliation sorrow for sin watching and fighting against our spiritual enemies would all have had an end But to avoid these they chose that ease that pleasure which hath brought them to that torment which never will have end I have said so much of these thing already in my Book called the Saints Rest that I will now say but this much It is one of the wonders of the world how men that do believe or think they do believe this word of Christ to be true that the wicked shall go into Everlastin fire can yet venture on sin so boldly and live in it so fearlesly or sleep quietly till they are out of this unspeakable Danger Only the Commonness of it and the known wickedness of mans heart doth make this less wonderful And were there nothing else to convince us that sinners are Mad and Dead as to spiritual things this were enough That ever the greatest pleasures or profits of the World or the most enticing baits that the Devil can offer them should once prevail with them to forget these endless things and draw them to reject an Everlasting Glory and cast themselves desperately into Everlasting fire Yea and all this under daily warnings and instructions and when it s told them before hand by the God of Truth himself For the Lords sake Sirs and for your souls sakes if you care not what Ministers say or what such as I say yet will you soberly read now and then this 25. Chapter of Matthew and Regard what is told you by him that must be your Iudge and now and then bethink your selves soberly whether these are matters for wise men to make light of and what it is to be Everlastingly in Heaven or in Hell fire 2. We have seen what is the Penalty contained in the sentence against the ungodly The next thing that the Text directs us to is the Cause or Reason of the Sentence vers 42. For I was hungry and ye gave me no meat c. Then Reason is not given expresly either of their sin against the Law of works that is Because they were sinners and not perfectly Innocent Nor yet from their unbelief which is the great sin against the Law of Grace But it is given from their not expressing their Faith and Love to Christ is works of mercy and self-denyal And why is this so 1. We must not suppose that these words of Christ do express the whole Judicial process in every point but the cheif parts It is supposed that all men are convicted of being sinners against the perfect Law of the Creator and that they are guilty of Death for that sin and that there is no way but by Christ to obtain deliverance But because all this must be acknowledged by the righteous themselves as well as by the wicked therefore Christ doth not mention this but that only wchich is the turning point or cuase in the Judgement For it is not all sinners that shall be finally Condemned but all Impenitent Unbeleiving sinners who have Rebelled finally against their Redeemer 2. And the reason why Faith it self is not expressed is 1. Because it is clearly implyed and so is love to Christ as Redeemer in that they should have Relieved Christ himself in his members that is as it s expressed Matth. 10. 42. they should have received a Prophet in the name of Prophet and a Disciple in the name of a Disciple All should be done for Christs sake which could not be unless they Believed in him and Loved him 2. Also because that the bare Act of Believing is not all that Christ requireth to a mans final Juitification and Salvation But holy self denying Obedience must be added And therefore this is given as the Reason of their Condemnation that they did not so obey We must observe also that Christ here putteth the special for the general that is one way of self-denying Obedience and expression of Love instead of such Obedience in general For al men have not ability to relieve those in misery being perhaps some of them poor themselves But all have that Love and self-denyal which will some way express it self And all have hearts and a Disposition to do thus if they had ability without such a Difposition none can be saved It is the fond conceit of some that if they have any love to the godly or wish them well it is enough to prove them happy But Christ here purposely lets us know that whoever doth not Love him at so high a rate as that he can part with his substance or any thing in the world to those uses which he shall require them even to relieve his servants in want and sufferings for the masters sake that man is none of Christs Disciple nor will be owned by him at the last XI THE next point that we come to is to shew you the Properties of this Sentence at Judgement When man had broken the Law of his Creator at the first he was lyable to the Sentence of Death and God presently sate in Judgement on him and sentenced him to some part of the Punishment