of every Crime to the Will of Man and there to leave it Upon this all Laws and Judgments 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 Man's Will should be the first Cause so much as of a sinful Mode and answer all occurring 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 than to know it self and to know its Qualities and Operations rather than 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. God's Judgments 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 you 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 is the Cause of that Condemnation though not of his Decree 3. God's Decrees are Acts Immanent in himself and make no change on you and therefore do not necessitate you to sin any more than his Fore-knowledg doth For both cause only a necessity of Consequence which is Logical as the Divines on both sides do confess And therefore this no more caused you to sin than 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 God's Fore knowledg doth so 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 escape 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 Death and Confusion and Misery that is in the Word 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 did not die for me He died but for his Elect and none could be saved without his Death Answ He did die for you and for more than his Elect though he absolutely purposed only their Salvation Your Sins crucified him and your Debt lay upon him and he so far ransomed you that nothing but your wilful Refusal of the Benefits could have condemned you The nine and twentieth Excuse It was Adam's Sin that brought me into this Depravedness of Will which I can neither cure nor could prevent Answ 1. If Adam cast away his Holiness he could no more convey that to us which he cast away than a Nobleman that is a Traitor 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 〈◊〉 gives He gave me not Grace to repeat and believe 〈◊〉 without his Gift I could not have it Answ 1. God will justly require more than he giveth that is the improvement of his Gifts as Mat. 25. shews He gave Adam but a Power to persevert and not actual Perseverance Yet did he justly punish him for want of the Act even for not using by his own Wll 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 nearer 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 tho this were not sufficient to cause you to believe it was sufficient to have brought you nearer to believing 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 cured your Wills and caused you to accept him for neglect of which and so for not believing and so for all your other Sins you justly perish The one and thirtieth Excuse Alas Mâ—â— is a Worn a dry Leaf Job 13. 25. a silly foolish Creature and therefore his Actions be not regardable nor deserve so great a Punishment Answ Though he be a Worm and as nothing to God and 〈◊〉 by Sin yet he is naturally so noble a Creatur◠〈◊〉 â—â—age of God was on him Gen. 12. 26. 〈◊〉 1. James 3. 9. and the World made his Servâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Angels his Attenâ—ants Heb. 1. 14. so noble 〈◊〉 Christ died for him God takes special care of him he is capable of knowing and enjoying God 〈◊〉 Heaven is not thought too good for him if he will â—ey And he that is capable of so great Good must 〈◊〉 capable of as great Evil and his Ways not to be so â—â—erlooked by that God that hath undertaken to be
neglect and abuse of this they shall be judged and not meerly for sinning against the Law that was given us in pure Innocency so that Christ as Redeemer shall judg them as well as others though they had but one Talent yet must they give an account of that to the Redeemer from whom they received it But if any be unsatisfied in this let them remember that as God hath left the State of such more dark to us and the Terms on which he will judg them so doth it much more concern us to look to the Terms of our own Judgment Obj. But how shall Insants be judged by the Gospel that were uncapable of it Answ For ought I find in Scripture they stand or fall with their Parents and on the same Terms but I leave each to their own Thoughts VII For the seventh Head What will be the Cause of the Day to be enquâ—ed after what the Accusation and what the Defence Answ This may be gathered from what was last said The great Cause of the Day will be to enquire and determine who shall die and who shall live who ought to go to Heaven and who to Hell for ever according to the Law by which they must then be judged 1. As there is a twofold Law by which they must be judged so will there then be a twofold Accusation The first will be that they were Sinners and so having violated the Law of God they deserve everlasting Death according to that Law If no Defence could be made this one Accusation would condemn all the World for it is most certain that all are Sinners and as certain that all Sin deserveth Death The only Defence against this Accusation â—ieth in this Plea confessing the Charge we must plead that Christ hath satisfied for Sins and upon that Consideration God hath forgiven us and therefore being forgiven we ought not to be punished To prove this we must shew the Pardon under God's Hand in the Gospel But because this pardoning doning Act of the Gospel doth forgive none but those that repent and believe and so return to God and to sincere Obedience for the time to come therefore the next Accusation will be that we did not perform these Conditions of Forgiveness and therefore being Vnbelievers Impenitent and Rebels against the Redeemer we have no right to Pardon but by the Sentence of the Gospel are liable to a greater Punishment for this Contempt of Christ and Grace This Accusation is either true or false where it is true God and Conscience who speak the Truth may well be said to be the Accusers Where it is false it can be only the Work of Satan the malicious Adversary who as we may see in Job's 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 lieth against us and which we must be justified against For all Justification implieth 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 Evangilically Righteous in himself and therefore hath part in the Blood of Christ which is instead of a Legal Righteousness to him in all things else as having procured him a Pardon of all his Sins and a Right to everlasting Glory And thus we must then be justified by Christ's Satisfaction only against the Accusation of being Sinners in general and of deserving God's Wrath for the Breach of the Law of Works but we must be justified by our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience it self against the Accusation of being Impenitent Vnbelievers 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 sum 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 sed 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 than empty Compliments 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 God's Enquiry is but the Discovery and Conviction of us But the last Question which must decide the Controversy 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 shall not be judged to die for it and no Man shall be judged worthy of Life for his good Works It is therefore according to the Gospel as the Rule of Judgment 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 died 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 the Law and by these Sins in special against the Gospel This is called the Merit of the Cause that is what is a Man's 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 Knowledg of an unsuspected competent Judg.
to him that died for them and rose again Rom. 14. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Mat. 28. 18 19 20. 1 Pet. 1. 17 18. You will then understand that you were not your own but were bought with a Price and therefore should have glorified him that bought you with your Bodies and Spirits because they were his 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. This one Aggravation of your Sin will make you doubly and remedilesly miserable that you trod under foot the Son of God and counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith you were sanctified an unholy thing Heb. 10. 26 27 28 29. and crucified to your selves the Son of God afresh and put him to open Shame Heb. 6. 5 6. 3. Moreover all the personal Mercies which they received will be so many Evidences for the Condemnation of the Ungodly The very Earth that bore them and yielded them its Fruits while they themselves are unfruitful to God The Air which they breathed in the Food which nourish'd them the Clothes which cover'd them the Houses which they dwelt in the Beasts that laboured for them and all the Creatures that died for their Use All these may rise up against them to their Condemnation And the Judg may thus expostulate with them Did all these Mercies deserve no more Thanks Should you not have served him that so liberally maintained you God thought not all these too good for you and did you think your Hearts and Services too good for him He served yours with the weary Labours of your fellow-Creatures and should you have grudged to bear his easy Yoak They were your Slaves and Drudges and you refused to be his free Servants and his Sons They suffered Death to feed your Bodies and you would not suffer the short Forbearance of a little forbidden fleshly Pleasure for the sake of him that made you and redeemed you O how many thousand Mercies of God will then be reviewed by those that neglected them to the Horror of their Souls when they shall be upbraided by the Judg with their base Requital All the Deliverances from Sickness and from Danger all the Honours and Privileges and other Commodities which so much contented them will then be God's Evidences to shame them and confound them On this Supposition doth the Apostle reprove such Rom. 2. 4 5 6. Despisest thou the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance But after thy hardness and impenitent Heart treasurest up unto thy self Wrath against the Day of Wrath and Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God who will render to every Man according to his Deeds 4. Moreover all the Means which God used for the Recovery of Sinners in the Day of their Visitation will rise up against impenitent Souls in Judgment to their Condemnation You can hear Sermons carelesly and sleepily now but O that you would consider how the Review of them will then awake you You now make light of the Warnings of God and Man and of all the wholesom Advice that is given you but God will not then make light of your Contempt O what cutting Questions will they be to the Hearts of the Ungodly when all the means that were used for their Good are brought to their Remembrance on one side and the Temprations that drew them to Sin on the other Side and the Lord shall plead his Cause with their Consciences and say Was I so hard a Master or was my Work so unreasonable or was my Wages so contemptible that no Perswasions could draw you into my Service Was Satan so good a Master or was his Work so honest and profitable or was his Wages so desirable that you would be so easily perswaded to do as he would have you Was there more perswading Reason in his Allurements and Deceits than in all my holy Words and all the powerful Sermons that you heard or all the faithful Admonitions you received or all the good Examples of the Righteous or in all the Works of God which you beheld Was not a Reason fetch'd from the Love of God from the Evil of Sin the Blood of Christ the Judgment to come the Glory promised the Torments threatned as forcible with you and as good in your Eyes to draw you to Holiness as a Reason from a little fleshly Delight or worldly Gain to draw you to be unholy In the Name of God Sinners I intreat you to bethink your selves in time how you will sufficiently answer such Questions as these You should have seen God in every Creature that you beheld and have read your Duty in all his Works what can you look upon above you or below you or round about you which might not have shewed you so much of the Wisdom and Goodness and Greatness of your Maker as should have convinced you that it was your Duty to be devoted to his Will and yet you have his written Word that speaks plainer than all these and will you despise them all will you not see so great a Light will you not hear so loud and constant Calls shall God and his Ministers speak in vain And can you think that you shall not hear of this again and pay for it one Day you have the Bible and other good Books by you why do you not read them You have Ministers at hand why do you not go to them and earnestly ask them Sirs What must I do to be saved and intreat them to teach you the Way to Life You have some Neighbours that fear God why do you not go to them and take their good Advice and imitate them in the Fear of God and in a holy Diligence for your Souls Now is the time for you to bestir your selves Life and Death are before you You have Gales of Grace to further your Voyage There are more for you than against you God will help you his Spirit will help you his Ministers will help you every good Christian will help you the Angels themselves will help you if you will resolvedly set your selves to the Work and yet will you not stir Patience is waiting on you Mercies are enticing you Scourges are driving you Judgment stayeth for you The Lights of God stand burning by you to direct you And yet will you not stir but lie in â—â—arkness And do you think you shall not hear of this Do you think this will not one Day cost you dear IX The ninth part of our Work is to shew you â—hat are those frivolous Excuses by which the Vnrighteous may then indeavour their Defence Having already shewed you what the Defence must be that must be sufficient to our Justification If any first demand Whether the Evidence of their Sin will not so overwhelm the Sinner that he will be speechless and past excuse I answer Before God hath done with him he will be so but it seems at first his clark Understanding and partial corrupted Conscience will set him upon a vain Defence
rather that godly Christians might the better understand how to deal with these vain Excuses when they meet with them which will be daily if they deal with Men in this sad Condition X. We have done with that part of the Judgment which consisteth in the Exploration or Trial of the Cause we now come to that which is the Conclusion and Consummation of all and that is to shew you what the Sentence will be and on whom And for this we must go strait to the Word of God for our Light it being impossible for any Man to have any particular Knowledg of it if Christ had not there revealed it unto us Indeed almost all the World do acknowledg a Life after this where it shall go well with the Good and ill with the bad But who shall be then accounted righteous and who unrighteous and on what Terms and Grounds by whom they shall be judged and to what Condition they know not The Sentence in Judgment will be 1. Either on those that never had Means to know Christ 2. Or on those that had 1. For the former as it less concerneth us to enquire of their Case so it is more obscurely revealed to us in the Scripture It is certain that they shall be judged according to their Use of the Means which they had Rom. 2. 11 12 13 14 15 16. and the Talents which they received Mat. 25. But that it ever falleth out that he that hath but the one Talent of natural Helps doth improve it to Salvation or that ever they who knew not Christ are justified and saved without that Knowledg being at Age and Use of Reason I find not in the Scriptures I find indeed that as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law Rom. 2. 12. but not that any are justified by the Works of Nature such as are here said to be without Law I find also that They have the Work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their Thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another in the Day when God shall jude the Secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel Rom. 2. 15 16. And I believe it is a just Excuse and not an unjust which is here meant But it will be but an Excuse so far as they were guiltless and that will be but in tanto and not in toto in part only and so not a full Justification A Heathen's 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 God's 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 Judgment on all Men at the last and shall separate 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 Judgment to that State For as God will not judg 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 satisfy that though we know not the manner yet if he do it but by mental Discovery as he shews Men what shall everlastingly befal them so he will shew them why it shall so befal them 1. The Sentence on them on the right Hand will contain 1. Their Justification and Adjudication to Blessedness and that both as generally denominated and as particularly determined and described 2. And the Cause of this Judgment 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 Though hath possessed their own Breasts lest they should prove at last accursed and miserable but now they hear the contrary from their Judg. All the Promises in the Gospel could not perfectly overcome those their Fears all the comfortable Words of the Ministers of the Gospel could not perfectly subdue them all the tender Mercies of God in Christ did not perfectly subdue them but now they are vanquished all for ever He that once had heard his Redeemer in Judgment 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 Father's for I suppose they are called the Blessed of are Father both because the Father blesseth them that is makes them Happy and because these blessed Ones are the Father 's own And so Christ will publish it to the World in Judgment that he came to glorify 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 metapherically 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 hold 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
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 which is the turning Point or Cause in the Judgment For it is not all Sinners that shall be finally condemned but all impenitent unbelieving Sinners who have rebelled finally against their Redeemer 2. And the Reason why Faith itself is not expressed is 1. Because it is clearly implied 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 Mat. 10. 42. they should have received a Prophet in the Name of a Prophet and a Disciple in the Name of a Disciple all should be done for Christ's 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 Man's final Justification 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 all Men have not Ability to relieve those in misery being perhaps some of them poor themselves But all have that Love and Self-denial which will some way express it self And all have Hearts and a Disposition to do thus if they had Ability without such a Disposition 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 Master's sake that Man is none of Christ's 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 Judgment When Man had broken the Law of his Creator at the first he was liable to the Sentence of Death and God presently sat in Judgment on him and sentenced him to some part of the Punishment which he had deserved but upon the Interposition of the Son he before the rest resolved on a Way that might tend to his Recovery and Death is due yet to every Sinner for every Sin which he commits till a Pardon do acquit him But this Sentence which will pass on Sinners at the last Judgment doth much differ from that which was passed on the first Sin or which is due according to the Law of Works alone For 1. As to the Penalty called the Pain of Loss the first Judgment did deprive Man of the Favour of his Creator but the second will deprive him of the Favour both of the Creator and Redeemer the first Judgment deprived him of the Benefits of Innocency the second deprives him of the Benefits of Redemption the loss of his hopes and possibility of Pardon of the Spirit of Justification and Adoption and of the Benefits which conditionally were promised and offered him these are the Punishments of the last Judgment which the Law of Works did never threaten to the first Man or to any as it stood alone Also the loss of Glory as recovered is the proper Penalty of the violated Law of Grace which is more than the first loss As if a Man should lose his Purse the second time when another hath once found it for him or rather as if a Traitor redeemed by another and having his Life and Honours offered him if he will thankfully accept it and come in should by his Refusal and Obstinacy lose this recovered Life which is offered him which is an Addition to his former Penalty Besides that the higher Degree of Glory will be lost which Christ would bestow on him more than was lost at first The very Work of the Saints in Heaven will to praise and glorify him that redeemed them and the Father in him which would not have been the Work of Man if he had been innocent 2. As to the Pain of Sense the last Judgment by the Redeemer will sentence them to a far sorer Punishment than would have befaln them if no Saviour had been offered them Heb. 10. 29. The Conscience of Adam if he had not been redeemed would never have tormented him for rejecting a Redeemer nor for refusing or abusing his gracious Offers and his Mercies nor for the forfeiting of a recovered Happiness nor for refusing of the easy Terms of the Gospel which would have given him Christ and Salvation for the accepting nor for neglecting any Means that tended to Recovery no nor for refusing Repentance unto Life nor for disobeying a Redeemer that bought him by his Blood As all these are the Penalties of the Redeemer's Law and Judgment so is it a sorer Penalty than Conscience would have inflicted meerly for not being perfectly innocent and they will be far soarer Gripings and Gnawings of the never-dying Worm for the abuse of these Talents than if we had been never trusted with any after our first Forfeiture Yea and God himself will accordingly proportion his Punishments So that you see that privatively and positively or as to their Loss and their Feeling the Redeemer will pass on them a heavier Doom than the Creator did or would have done according to the first Law to perfect Man 3. Another Property of the Judgment of Christ is that it will be final peremptory and excluding all farther Hopes or Possibilities of a Remedy So was not the first Judgment of the Creator upon faln Man Though the Law of pure Nature knew no Remedy nor gave Man any Hope of a Redeemer yet did it not exclude a Remedy nor put in any Bar against one but God was free to recover his Creature if he pleased But in the Law of Grace he hath resolved that there shall be no more Sacrifice for Sin but a fearful looking for of Judgment and Fire which shall devour the Adversary Heb. 10. 26 27. and that the Fire shall be everlasting the Worm shall not die and the Fire shall not be quenched Mat. 25. ult Mat. 13. 42 50. John 5. 27. Mat. 5. 26. Mat. 3. 12. and Luke 3. 17. Mark 9. 43 44 45 46 48. He that now breaketh that pure Law that requireth perfect Innocency as we have all done may fly to the Promise of Grace in Christ and appeal to the Law of Liberty or Deliverance to be judged by that But he that falls under the Penalty of that Law which should have saved him as all final Unbelievers and impenitent ungodly Persons do hath no other to appeal
of the Wicked that the Devil and his Angels must be their Companions Though some think as is said before that the Reason why wicked Men are not mentioned tere is because they are part of the Angels of the Devil and so included And some think it is purposely to manifest God's general Love to Mankind that prepared not Hell for them but they cast themselves into the Hell prepared for the Devils But the first seems to be the true sense And how apparently Righteous are the Judgments of the Lord that those Men who would here entertain the Devil into their Hearts and daily Familiarity should be then entertained by him into his Place of Torments and there remain for ever in his Society Though few entertained him into visible Familiarity with their Bodies as Witches do who so make him their Familiar yet all wicked Men do entertain him into more full and constant Familiarity with their Souls than these Witches do with their Bodies how familiar is he in Thoughts to fill them with Vanity Lust or Revenge How familiar is he in their Hearts to fill them with Covertousness Malice Pride or the like Evils and to banish all Thoughts of returning to God and to quench every Motion that tendeth to their Recovery How familiar is he with them even when they seem to be worshipping God in the publick Assemblies stealing the Word out of their Hearts filling them with vain and wandring Thoughts blinding their Minds that they cannot understand the plainest words that we are able to speak to them and filling them with a proud Rebellion against the Direction of their Teachers and an obstinate Refusal to be ruled by them be the Matter never so necessary to their own Salvation How familiar are these evil Spirits in their Houses filling them with Ignorance Worldliness and Ungodliness and turning out God's Service so that they do not pray together once in a Day or perhaps at all How familiarly doth Satan use their Tongues in Cursing Swearing Lying Ribaldry Backbiting or Slandring And is it not just with God to make these Fiends their Familiars in Torment with whom they entertained such Familiarity in Sin As Christ with all the blessed Angels and Saints will make but one Kingdom or Family and shall live altogether in perpetual Delights so the Devil and all his hellish Angels and wicked Men shall make but one Houshold and shall live altogether in perpetual Misery O poor Sinners you are not troubled now at his Presence and Power in your Hearts but will you not then be troubled at his Presence and tormenting Power As 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 when you must see him and abide with him for ever O Sirs his Name 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 tied 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 Pleasures and rejoicing in your Hopes of the Commodities or Preferments of the World he hath another kind of Voice which you must hear and another Face to shew you that will make you know 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 Angels 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 things 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 everlasting 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 Man's 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 beforehand by the God of Truth himself For the Lord's 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 th Chapter of Matthew and regard what is told you by him that must be your Judg and now and then bethink yourselves 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 ver 42. For I was hungry and ye gave me no Meat c. The Reason is not given expresly either for 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 in Works of Mercy and Self-denial 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 chief 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