not accuse those of acting by the Devil but from the Power of God from hence he concludeth That he did not cast out Devils as they malitiously charged him by the help of the Devil and that they were themselves otherwise convinced in their own Consciences therefore he did it by the Spirit of God and by that they could not but know that the Kingdom of God was come amongst them and so they spake Evil of God and the Spirit of God and that out of Malice contrary to the Conviction of their own Consciences Now saith he Take heed what you do this is a kind of Sin which God will never forgive though all other Sin and Blasphemy shall be forgiven yet for you knowing that what I do I do as God and by the Power and Spirit of God to Persecute me and to Repraoch me and that you may the better do it to ascribe that to the Devil which is the Work of God done by me this is a Sin which shall never be forgiven So that according to our Saviours Words this seemeth to be the Sin That the Pharises knowing well enough that Christ was God Eternal God and having sufficient means to convince them of it and that from his Casting out of Devils and several other Miraculous Operations which it was in the Power of God onely to do Notwithstanding yea against this Conviction Maliciously Persecuted the Lord Jesus Christ and denied these mighty Operations to be from the Spirit of God but said they were from Beelzebub the Master Devil From hence will appear though not distinctly what the Specifical Sin against the Holy Ghost is yea what Sins border upon it and come nearest to it 1. All Sinning against Light and Convictions 2. Apostacy from a former Profession and owning of the Gospel and the Holy Ways of God 3. A Malicious Pursuing and Persecuting of such as our Consciences tells us are Righteous Persons 4. An Ascribing to the Devil what we are Convinced of to be the Works of God and so reproaching the Operations of the Spirit of God whatsoever the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost be These things or the most of them must be ingredients into it and truly if Persons have been enlightened with the Knowledge of the Truths and Ways of God and have made some Profession of them and have had some Savour of them if they fall away from that Profession and that to such a degree as not onely to disown what themselves formerly owned but to hate those Truths and Ways of God and to Persecute such as still Profess them and adhere to them and charge those Impressions and Operations which are from the Holy Spirit of God to be from the Devil so Blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God if there be such an unpardonable Sin to be commited surely these are under the guilt of it nor can I see any thing can possibly free them from the dreadful Consequence of it but a timely Repentance remembring their first professed Love and turning unto God which whosoever can do or shall obtain Grace from God to do undoubtedly hath not sinned beyond Pardon for he that confesseth his Sins and forsaketh them shall have Mercy But as I said before these Sins comes nearest this Guilt and where any Soul hath been or shall be in this kind and to this degree guilty the Devil hath a very fair Advantage against him to move him to Despair upon a Suggestion that he hath committed that Sin which according to the Revealed Will of God in Holy Writ shall never be forgiven nor will he find any way to get out of this Snare nor any thing to answer the Tempter pressing hard upon him with a Temptation of this Nature until he can say I have indeed done this but God hath given me an Heart to Repent of it to remember from whence I fell and to do my first Works and he will find it as hard for him to recover any just hopes of Pardon and Eternal Life and Salvation as he will find it to be renewed by Repentance if the latter be found impossible to a Soul under these Circumstances so will the former also be found O therefore to prevent Temptations of this nature take heed of all sinning of any continuance and going on in a course of Sin especially of any sinnings against Light and Convictions or against former Professions and especially of any Malice and Hatred to the ways of God which you either have formerly owned and acknowledged or which your Consciences tell you are the right ways of the Lord. 3. Thirdly Let me again commend to you an Acquaintance a through Acquaintance with the Covenant of Grace and the Dispensation of Salvation revealed to us in the Gospel The Despairing Soul hath ordinarily a Legal Spirit and sticks in the Covenant of Works Remember that we are not under the Law bâ—t under Grace in some sense not onely true Believers but even the whole World or at least that part of it to which the glad Tidings of Salvation through the Gospel is published is not under the Law but under Grace not under a Legal Dispensation So as none can be saved without a personal perfect Obedience to the Law of God but under a gracious Dispensation wherein as the Apostle saith Rom. 1. 17. The Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith that is wherein it is revealed that the Righteousness wherein a Man must stand Just and Righteous before God is not his own Righteousness made up of his Obedience to the Commandements contained in the Divine Law but the perfect Righteousness of Christ by God reckoned unto every Soul that repenteth and believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ who walketh not after the Flesh but after the Spirit minding and savouring the things of the Spirit which Righteousness of Christ is reckoned to the Soul as soon as it comes to own receive and lay hold upon Christ in the Gospel exhibited and tendered unto it The Soul well possessed of the Doctrine of Free Grace and Gospel Justification though it may see frequent Causes for Heart-sorrow and Humiliation as well for its former as for its renewing Sins yet cannot easily see the umbrage of any ground to Despair and cast away its hope as to Divine Mercy and Forgiveness or Eternal Life and Salvation But I have elsewhere enlarged upon this Argument 4. Fourthly If you would avoid Temptations to Despair take heed of presuming You shall observe in the Tempers of those with whom you converse in the World That those whose hopes are most quickly up find them also soonest down The reason is because they are persons that usually have no great depth of judgement and do not build their hopes upon good and sufficient bottoms So that as it is with some little Rivolets whose Channel is but a small continent and which want depth every good showr of Rain raiseth them and causeth them to overflow the Banks but then the same degree of Rain
of them Our Inveterateness in them Our Sinning against the Holy Ghost None of these sufficient The greatness of the Sin of Despair shewn in what it implieth what it is attended with and produceth 4. Other Directions for Souls thus tempted THus far I have discoursed you in order to the prevention of these Assaults Possibly as to some this Counsel may come too late they may already find in their Souls Thoughts tending to Despair The next Question is What shall these do Or indeed rather what shall be said to or done for those for their Support Relief or Deliverance I know but three things that can be done for such a Soul 1. The First is With the Physician of the Body who is Gods Ordinance the Means he hath appointed by which he healeth our Bodies 2. The Second is with God who alone hath a Power paramount to Sathan and alone can find a way to our Hearts and make powerful Impressions upon them 3. The Third is with the Party Tempted to perswade him or her of the unreasonableness of the Temptation the contrary Revelation of the Will of God in Scripture and the use of Means Natural Moral and Religious for the support of him or her self and the bringing him or her self out of this horrible Pit Under these three Heads I shall bring my whole remaining Discourse upon this Argument 1. The first thing I say is to be done in this Case relates to the Physician It is a thing that we find very difficult to perswade Souls under these circumstances to believe nay many others too less knowing Christians that there is any thing of Bodily Distemper in the case But there is nothing more true nothing that is more ordinarily experimented God forbid that we should think that all Despairing Thoughts and Expressions are the Effects of a Natural Cause a disordered Body or Head The contrary is evident but that in many they are so I was about to say that in the most they are so and that where they are not simply and singly the Effects of those Causes they are yet highly advantaged and improved by the Concurrence of such Bodily Distempers is most evident to those who have any Experience in these things either from what they have found in themselves or observed from their converse with and ministring unto those that have lien under these great Burthens And there can be no greater Argument for this then the frequent Experiences we have of Persons that in the beginning of these Distempers have had them removed by the use of Natural Means Not that God is to be neglected for admitting these Fits of Despair to be but the products of a Natural Cause by the ill influence that some disordered peccant Humours of the Body have upon the Mind disposing it to Fears and Jealousies Suspicious Diffidence and Distrust Yet it is God that must heal us by his giving a Blessing upon Means but the Question is not about the Principal Efficient Cause in the Cure which must be God but concerning the Means to be used and in the use of which God is to be sought and his Assistance expected Therefore I say the first thing to be done in these Cases is consulting with the Physician about the Health of our Bodies and that with an Able and Experienced Physician for it is an exceeding weighty Case with reference to our Good and well Being Nor ought any Means to be neglected which such a one shall direct for bringing our Bodies into a right Order not yet to be used without solemn Applications to God begging both his Direction of them and his Blessing upon them Nor ought this to be delayed for none knoweth the Effects of such Disorders as these and how quick a growth such Beginning Distempers oft times have But this is one of the first things I should advise in such a Cause as this is 2. Secondly Such a Soul hath also a greal deal of business to do with God The Nature of which must be determined according to what it findeth to have given the first rise and cause to these Thoughts If it findeth that some Bodily Distempers hath given the first rise and cause to these dark and ill concluding Thoughts Our business with God lies 1. In begging Gods Direction of us unto the Use and Blessing upon us in the use of such Means as are proper and he will Bless unto the Healing of us and the Deliverance of us from so great a Burthen that he who ministreth unto us may not have a miscarrying hand 2. That he would please to command the Means used to exert and put forth that Vertue which he hath created in them for the producing that Effect we desire and for the obtaining of which we make use of them 3. That in the mean time he would please so to influence and to support our Souls that our Bodily Distempers may have no such ill Influence upon our Minds as to be occasions to us of dishonouring God by entertaining any unworthy Thoughts of the Divine Majesty Mercy and Goodness If we find that these black and dark Thoughts arise in us or in any others from any other Cause whether our own Reflexions upon our former Sinful Courses or some particular guilt of Sin upon us Our Business is still with God by Prayer for it is he alone that can Pardon Sin that can give Eternal Life and Salvation and that can beget in the Soul a lively Hope as to such Pardon and obtaining Eternal Life and Salvation that can Bless any Spiritual Means to be used in order to the obtaining of any of these but here the matter of Prayer and of our Petitions to God must be of another Nature That which the Soul in this Cause hath to do with God is 1. To confess its Sin unto God and to begg of God a broken and contrite Heart that it may confess and bewail its Sin as it ought to do When saith David Psal 32. v. 3 4. I kept silence my Bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long for day and night thine hand was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer I acknowledged my Sin unto thee and mine Iniquity I have not hid I said I will confess my Transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the Iniquity of my Sin 2. He hath a further Work with God viz. To begg of him the Pardon of his Sin and the begetting in his Soul a lively Hope in his Mercy and Godness It is God 1 Pet. 1. 3. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant Mercy begetteth the Soul to a lively Hope by the Resurection of Jesus Christ from the Dead to an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in the Heavens for us 3. Thirdly to begg of God a Blessing upon all Means in order to this end whether the reading or the hearing of the Word or any Spiritual Conference with
be Pardoned I might be Saved but I have not Repented I do not Repent my Heart is harder than the neather Milstone I weep and howl indeed for my Plagues I see I am a poor undone Creature that makes me complain and wring my hands but I see nothing of the evil of my Sin I shed not a tear upon that account nor cannot therefore there is no hope 1. It must be acknowledged that both Repentance and Faith is the Gift of God and naturally no Man hath a Power to the one or to the other Acts 11. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 25. and Faith is not of our selves it is the Gift of God Eph. 2. 8. Phil. 1. 29. The Question is not therefore taking Repentance in a full and proPer sense whether thou canst Repent or Believe but whether God hath wrought or will yet work in thee a power truly to Repent and Believe And how doest thou know that God will not do that For thou canst not conclude supposing God hath not done it yet that he will not do it before thy dying hour 2. Possibly thou mayest be mistaken in thy determining that God hath not done it from a mistake concerning the true Nature of Repentance a sense and sorrow for Sin are but the out-works of it True Repentance lies in the Souls displicence to Sin and hatred of it and readiness to take a Revenge upon it self for it and Resolution and endeavour against it for the time to come I know it is not impossible that a Soul under such Horrours as these may not have any true sense of Sin or Hatred of it but even Blaspheme God because of its Horrours Terrours and Affrightments but let me tell you the Instances of Souls are very rare that are under great Terrours and Affrightments for Sin so aâ— to conclude there is no hope and yet at the same time Love Delight in such Sins take pleasure in them and desire but occasions to commit them I would ask thee seriously under these Terrours for some Sins thou hast committed doest thou not from thine heart wish thou hadst not committed them Couldst thou not even tear thy flesh that ever thou shouldest be so far betrayed by the Lusts and Passions of thy depraved Heart Wouldest thou now do the like again What doth this speak but Repentance so far as it can be judged of under thy present Circumstances Indeed it is possible all this may be and yet a Soul recovered out of these sad Circumstances may again return with the Dog to its vomit and the Swine to the wallowing in the mire again but this is not what at present thou canst conclude to hinder thy Souls Hope and Confidence in the Mercy and Free-grace of God 3. But admit thou canst not satisfie thy self that thou hast Repented or Believed yet may not God yet give thee an Heart to Repent and Believe What hindreth Or if he may what hindreth thy hope in the Mercy of God Nay if thou doest what in thee lyeth I dare assure thee that God will not be wanting in the Aids and Assistances of his Grace But I have said enough to evince the first thing that I propoâ—ed That there is no sufficient Reason considering the Covenant of Grace and Gods Revelation of his Mind in the Gospel for any Soul to Despair The Issue of which is this That a Soul thus sinning Transgresseth without a Cause and a Reasonable Soul in this acteth not according to Principles of Reason or any just Conclusion drawn from Gospel Promises or Principles This is the first thing 2. A Second thing which I would offer to such a Souls Reflection is the greatness of the Sin of Despair Presumption is a Sin but yet Despair seemeth to be a far greater Sin To Evidence which I shall desire you to consider 1. What it Implieth 2. What must Accompany it 3. What better Consequents it hath 1. It Implieth and carrieth along with it a denial either of the Power of God Or of the Goodness and Mercy of God or thirdly of his Truth and Faithfulness 1. Of the Power of God It was laid to the charge of the Israelites That they limited the Holy One of Israel Psal 78. 41. They said Can God bring us Water out of the Rock And Can God give us Meat in the Wilderness Thou sayest Can God Pardon such a Sinner as I have been Can God give Repentance Can God give me Faith in Jesus Christ What is this but to limit the Almighty The unbelieving Noble Man of whom you read in the Book of Kings when the Prophet fore-told that Food should by the next day be at so cheap a Rate said If God would make Windows in Heaven the thing could not be The Prophet told him it should be he should see it but he should not Eat of it and the Chapter telleth you he saw it verified he saw it the next day but he was trodden to Death by the Multitude Sarah laughed it was a laughter of unbelief when the Angel told her she should have a Son God punished it gently in her but more severely in Zachary that would not believe that his barren Wife should have a Son he was struck Dumb What doest thou do less than Question the Power of God If God can forgive Sins why mayest thou not hope If he can even in the last hour give Repentance unto Life why should a living Man not hope Ah! but saith this Soul No no I do not doubt but God can do it but he will not do it 2. Secondly Is not this to deny the Lords Goodness and Mercy God hath exalted his Mercy above all his Name when God proclaimed his Name to Moses Exo. 34. you shall find there 8 or 9 Expressions all but one which will by no means clear the Guilty signifying the Goodness and Mercy of God which hath made a very Learned Interpreter v. De Dieu ad Loc. doubt whether we have truly Translated that Phrase God triumpheth more in this than in any other part of his Name he hath chosen to be exalted in his Arttribute of Mercy he hath exalted it above all his Name Now this is that Artribute the Glory of which Despair Robbeth God of Presumption denieth him the honour of his Truth of his Justice and Judgment which indeed he stileth his Work but his strange Work as that which floweth not from himself but is as it were forced from him by a meritorious Cause in the Creature Mercy is the proper and natural Work of God flowing meerly from himself without any Cause in the Creature This is that the Honour of which Despair denieth unto God nor is it to be freed from a questioning the Power of God also for although as thou pretendest thou doest not Universally question the Prerogative and Power of God to Forgive Sins yet thou deniest his Power to Forgive thy Sins yea the Sins of any who are in the like Circumstances of sinning with thee for unless thou canst charge
Reading and Hearing the Word 4. Avoiding the Company of Blasphemers and Atheists or reading their Books 5. To take all lawful Diversions 6. To be much in the company of good Christians 7. To give such Thoughts no entertainment 8. To be much in Fasting and Prayer HEre are two things 1. What may be done for Prevention 2. What for a present Support and Relief but they may both be spoken to with the same breath for the same Directions which are proper for the prevention of them when remote from us will also be found useful for the Support and Consolation of a Christian groaning under the burthen of them 1. The first thing to be done is for to perswade the Soul or for the Soul to prepossess or perswade it self That these impressions lay it under no guilt before God and do not render it unlovely in the sight of God Luther was an eminent Servant of God much himself exercised with temptations and much conversing with those who were so exercised It is said of him that he was wont to say That the three things which made a Divine were Temptation Meditation and Prayer In his Commentary upon Psal 90. he takes special notice of this Tenptation to Atheistical and Blasphemous Thoughts I cannot direct you better than in the words of that great Man of God It often hapeneth Luth. c. 4. p. 4. 34. Jen. in Psal 90. 1. saith he and I have seen it in many that when they have discerned themselves exercised with these thoughts they have been as men without life There is therefore a necessity they should be governed and the True Government of them is this Ut statuas te non ideo esse a Deo abjectum quod ista sentis for you to determine that you are not rejected of God because of them for altho there be some cause of them in us and they are the fruits of Original Sin yet they are much promoted and augmented by the Tempter the Devil For it often happeneth that the Soul sincerely and passionately desires to be delivered from them but it cannot there saith he this advice is to be followed That the Soul do not because of them despair 2. That it oppose such thoughts what it can possibly and not approve nor indulge them For saith he these thoughts are not therefore sent for you to judge your self from them but that you may oppose and withstand them When saith he the Devil hath Tempted us with these Blasphemous Thoughts he goes on See saith he what an Heart you have Are you not now a grievous Sinner This the Soul cannot deny He groweth upon this God is therefore saith he very angry with thee How can God but be angry with such a Blasphemer Here saith he do but yield a little and he sinketh you and I have known many thus undone You must therefore govern these Thoughts you must oppose the Adversary and fix your self upon this That God is not displeased with you for these Impressions and Thoughts if you do not entertain and indulge them Thus far that great man And indeed this is the first and great thing to be learned by the Soul The Sin of Atheism and Blasphemy will in an Hour of Temptation especially appear so great so hainous unto the Soul that unless you can deliver such a Soul from the apprehensions of such a guilt all that you can say to it will be of little avail Ministers and private Christians dealing and treating with Souls in these paroxysmes ought to lay the great Stress here and to make this the Alpha and Omega of their Discourses What may be said to evince this to the Soul I have largely shewed you in the former Chapter Let the thus troubled Soul meditate of those things and let Experienced Ministers and Christians add what they can of that nature and lay the great Stress here and they will find all little enough to induce a Soul thus circumstanced to be thus perswaded and on the other side if this be done the Cure is wrought the Soul will then quickly understand that Faith and Patience are its work The more wee can shew the Soul of the Devil in the Impression the more it will be frighted from hearkening to or complying with him and the more Valiant will the Christian be in this Spiritual Combate Mind therefore Christians under these circumstances that Christ himself was not without such kind of Sinful Impressions yet without Sin That our first Parents in Innocency had them That it is contrary to what our Saviour hath Taught us to think that any thing That is from without and entereth into a Man defileth a Man That there is no Law prohibits them That there being nothing of our own will in them it is Impossible they should be our guilt c. But these things I have further opened and enlarged upon in the former Chapter Secondly Indeavour to possess your selves with the truest apprehensions of God you can This is good before the hour of Temptation it will prepare you for the Spiritual Combate and if you have neglected this before yet do not neglect it in the hour of Temptation Here I shall onely give you this caution Take heed of taking your Notions of God from Sense or meerly from Reason 1. Not from Sense Spiritual Beings fall under no cognisance of the External Senses None ever saw Gods Shape none ever saw his Similitude and here let me caution you against any Pictures of God or any Person in the God-head We are ready in our minds to form Idea's in our minds of any Beings according to the representations which Pictures and Images make of them It is Impossible but all Pictures Images or External representations of the Divine Being must be Teachers of Lyes It is impossible that a Limner should draw the true representation of a man whom he never saw How is it possible he should draw any representation of an Invisible God a Being which he neither ever saw nor can see The fairest pretence is for the Picture of our Saviour who assumed our nature and was a man in all things But all those Pictures must be Teachers of lies too For Christ was God-Man and the representation of a Man is no representation of the Person of the Mediatour Doth any say that upon the same Argument there should be no Pictures drawn for a Picture doth but represent our Fleshly Part the Soul cannot be expressed I answer there yet are these differences 1. The Picture of our friend is the representation of a being that we know is or was informed with a reasonable Soul so as the other essential part of the man is on course understood but it is not so as to Christ Tho the Picture of an humane Shape hath this advantage that we may understand under it a reasonable Soul of which every man is possessed yet we cannot under any such Shape understand the Divine Nature personally united to the Humane Nature 2. Again Even
Self-Murther However the Text saith No Murtherer hath Eternal Life We have heard the Subject let me open the Praedicate and shew in what Sense the Proposition is true That no Murtherer hath Eternal Life 2. Eternal Life is to be considered either In the First Fruits of it or the fuller Harvest 1. In the First Fruits and so it must be considered here or else we must admit an Enallage of the Present Tense for the Future 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not onely so but also limit the Sense of it to the Future for which I see no reason at all For take Eternal Life as it signifieth the happy State of Souls after the Resurrection in the Beatifical Vision of God so no one alive hath Eternal Life Eternal Life therefore in the first place signifieth That special Effectual Grace of God which will certainly bring the Soul to Eternal Life That which he before called the Seed of God abiding in the Soul And that will bring in a Question to which I may possibly speak something by and by Whether an Elect Soul that is called and sanctified may not fall into this Sin 2. But 2dly Eternal Life is also considerable in the full Harvest as it signifieth the Blessed Estate of the Soul in the Beatifical Vision of God and so it is true no Murtherer none that dieth under the Actual Guilt of Murther not repented of not removed from him shall see God and to this purpose is that Rev. 21. 8. where Murtherers are reckoned amongst those who shall have their part in the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the Second Death and that brings in a Second Question Whether a Murtherer cannot be saved But before I can speak any thing to these it is reasonable I should speak something to a more Origiinal Question with reference to this Sin Case Whether it be not lawful for a Person in any Case to Kill him or her self It is plain from the reading of Prophaner History that diverse of the Heathens yea some of their Philosophers did not think it unlawful for Men and Women to kill themselves but thought it in some Cases their Duty In Case of their Countrey or Friends under great Disturbances of Mind or Pressures of Bodily Afflictions c. but even amongst them there were a wiser and so understanding part who from their Light of Reason saw better things for even they would sometimes dispute That it was no Indication of Valour or Fortitude but of a base and impotent and cowardly Mind that durst not encounte with a little pain or trouble and that we were set in this World by our great Commander the Lord of all as Souldiers in a Rank and File which we must not break out of but by order and direction from him and that it was an injury to the Kingdom or Common-wealth wherein we lived and such like But we have surer Rule to guid us by to wit the holy Scriptures And the Unlawfulness of it upon any pretence whatsoever is determined by all Divines both Ancient and Modern that are of any value and that for these Reasons 1. Because the Law of God is express Thou shalt do no Murther and that Precept is not to be limited to the Murthering of others for the Law of God doth not say Thou shalt not kill thy Neighhour but Thou shalt not kill it must indeed be restrained to Men and Women for God hath given us a Liberty as to Beasts to Kill and Eat nor is the Law concerning Brute and Irrational Creatures but such as are Rational and that without distinction Now he that killeth himself doth kill Again the Law in the General Scope of it commandeth Charity now we ought in the first place to be Charitable to our selves Murther say Casuists is the Killing of a Man without Authority Now this he doth who killeth himself for none is superior to himself none hath Authority over himself 2. Again saith Jiliucius one of the Popish Casuists who yet though many of them give strange liberty to Men to kill others yet few or none give Men liberty to kill themselves To kill a Person can be lawful but in two Causes 1. For our own Defence so a Person may kill one assaulting him breaking into his House c. Or 2. For Execution of Righteous Sentence of Justice But none can kill himself in his own Defence nor be a Magistrate to himself to Judge Sentence or Condemn himself so that say they it can be lawful in no Case for Men to put an end to their own Lives 3. Again They argue truly from a particular Enumeration of the supposed Justificant Causes that should justifie such a Fact shewing the Invalidity of them We read of one of the Heathens who having got a dark Notion of an Eternal State would put an end to his Life that he might the sooner be in possession of it But this is not the way to Eternal Life St. John saith No Murtherer hath Eternal Life Eternal Life is the gift of God and he gives it according to his Revealed Will and his Revealed Will is Rev. 21. 8. That Murtherers should have their Portion in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone and this is the Second Death A Second Cause which the Heathen assigned as justificant of Self-Murther was To avoid the Violence of others suppose Persecutors or Mutherers But this cannot justifie For what harm can the injuries or violence of others do us Saith Augustine A Third Cause some assign or pretend is To avoid Sin for the time to come To prevent their further dishonouring of God But this were to do evil that good might come of it and to prejudge our selves and deny Gods Mercy to Back-sliders A Fourth Cause assigned is To take revenge upon our selves for past Sins But who made us Judges and Revengers in the Case And surely past Sins are better washed by the Blood of Christ and the Water of true Repentance The last and indeed most general and true Cause is To avoid Shame and Ignominy to deliver our selves from horrors and terrors of Conscience or other miseries But the very Heathen condemned this as the Indication of an Impotent Cowardly Spirit of an hasty and impatient Spirit Where is the Faith and Patience of Christians if this were lawful But I shall have occasion in the sequel of this Discourse further to shew the exceeding vanity of these Pretences for the justification of so horrid a Fact 4. Again It is a Sin against the Light and Law of Nature No man yet ever hated his own Flesh Nature it self not debaucht nor disordered saith to every one Spare thy Self There cannot be a greater Violence offered to our Nature surely than to destroy it To shut up this Discourse there being few that stand in need of this Conviction who are in an ordinary way capable of it Dr. Ames a Learned Casuist of our own concludes it a Sin
deliberate and voluntary And truly where such an unhappy issue shutteth up a precedent Holy Life spent in a fear and dread of God an hatred of Sin a desire to walk in the Commandments of God and that for some good space of time I should be apt to judg very charitably That is that the persons final act of Self-killing was not his or her Act but the Effect of Melancholy to a great heighth as a Natural Disease working in him or of Satan by his violent Impressions and Importunities but using his or her Natural Members or Powers for the Production of so direful and sad an Effect It is true the judgment is very hard because in such Cases we cannot determine especially in Fits to what degree the person is deprived of the use of his or her Reason and acteth but like a brute Creature And this makes such issues whatever they prove to the persons concerned immediately yet to their Friends very uncomfortable So as although they do not mourn for them wholly without hope Yet of all Mourners for Relations they mourn with the least hope and are hardest to be comforted But this is all I shall speak to this Doctrinally What I principally intended in this Discourse will fall into the Application CHAP. II. The former Discourse applied by way of Praemonition to all not rashly to judge persons that kill themselves as to their Spiritual or their Eternal State Why persons should not so rashly judge What is very sad and uncomfortable in the Case of such as kill themselves What may be hoped as to them The Judgment of them best made from the General course of their former Life 1. Con. FRom hence in the first place will easily be concluded our Duty not to be too hasty in judging the Spiritual or Eternal State of any or at least of many who have killed themselves It is indeed a most sad and miserable Spectacle or hearing and which may occasion in us trouble fear and trembling but yet Secret Things belong unto God Revealed Things to us and to our Children It is a Sad Reflexion that we have no Instances in Scripture of any good Men whom God suffered thus to fall I count that Instance of Samson none He was but in his Calling he was eminently called of God to adventure his Life for the Israelites in being revenged on the Philistines It was the whole Business of his Life who will call a Soldier a Self-murtherer who in defence of his Countrey exposeth himself not indeed to a certainty of Death but to an eminent probability Nor was there an absolute certainty of Samsons Death the Providence of God might have ordered Timbers so that he might have survived as we know hath been in Blowing up of Houses but Samson plainly shewed by his words spake immediately before that his end was not the delivery of himself out of Misery but being avenged on the Philistines which was the business of his Life to which he was called of God Besides that had he not had an extraordinary Assistance of Divine Power his hands had never pulled down the House which testified Gods Approbation of the Fact But for any other we have not so much as an appearance of any good Men that were the Authors of their own Destruction voluntarily but on the other side it being certain or at least very probable that no good man mentis compos in the free exercise of his Reason can do it it is unreasonable for us to think that in that Age of the World there were none who through some Diseases Feavors or Melancholy were Distracted and lost the use and exercise of their Reason nor is it reasonable to think that the way and manner of the deaths of persons not dying in the use of their Reason should be Recorded in Holy Writ It is indeed a sad and uncomfortable Death both to those that are Near Relations and to those that are Neighbours and Spectators afar off but in regard that it is possible the Act was an irrational Act done by one who when he or she did it were not in the possession of their Reason so as to exercise and use it I would have no judgment passed upon the Eternal State of such person Souls and indeed the best judgment that can be past by any in the Case must be from our Reflections upon the former course of their Lives If Men or Women have formerly so led their Lives as we could not but judg that they lived in the Fear of God hating all Sin walking with God closely in the Performance of Duty it will be hard for us to judge that God should leave them so far in their last hour that they should commit a Sin in which they should die without any place for or possibility of Repentance The truth is no such fact can be done but either by a profane person or by one who hath been an Hypocrite who though he hath mocked God and deceived Men by a Profession yet the root of the matter hath not been in him When therefore we see any who to all appearance hath lived in the Fear and Dread of God come to such a sad end it is most charitable to judge that he or she was not themselves when they did it 2. Br. But which indeed is the main thing I intended and to which my Discourse hitherto on this Argument hath been but prefatory The terror of that Text No Murtherer hath Eternal Life ought to lay a Law upon every one of us to use all imaginable means both to prevent and to resist so great a Temptation Now in the handling of this Temptation or Motion to so great an Evil we will consider it 1. In the Efficient Causes Where we will consider what may be done to find out the Principal Efficient Cause in this Temptation 2. In the seeming or appearing good which is usually by the Tempter made as a Bait to draw a Soul into this deadly Snare 3. We will consider What is the most probable Means to be used either for the preventing Temptations of this Nature or for the repelling of them if the Soul be already under the forcible Impressions of them CHAP. III. What Care we had need to take for the prevention and resisting of Temptations to Self-Murther From what Efficient Causes such Temptations may be our Lusts The World the Devil these sometimes acting jointly What Lusts ordinarily incline us to it How to know if the Temptation be from a single or a mixt Cause and from what Cause it is YOu have heard from my former Discourse That Temptations are Motions to Sin and that all such Motions proceed either from our own Lusts or from the World or from our grand Adversary the Devil and that these three Principal Causes sometimes act singly sometimes jointly and it is a matter of no small moment for a Christian under the power of a Temptation rightly to understand from what hand his Temptation comes Whether it
may be forgiven This Pareus thinks the most proper Reading That which favoureth our Translation is what followeth in the next Words Behold thou hast driven me this day from the Face of the Earth c. where he complaineth onely of his Punishment Either Reading is what the Original will bear either of them makes the words the Complaint of Cain after he had kill'd his Brother Abel and God had come down and doomed him for it telling him He was Cursed from the Earth which had epened her Mouth to receive his Brothers Blood When he tilled the ground it should not yield unto him her strength A Fugitive and a Vagabond shalt thou be in the Earth To which Cain replyeth either thus My Punishment is greater then I can bear Or Mine Iniquity is greater then that it can be forgiven Whether he complaineth of his Sin or of his Punishment That 's the onely Question nor needs it any Decision Both Readings express the Genius of a Reprobate who either complaineth of his Punishment but not of his Sin or if at any time he complains of Sin it is despairing and without hope of Mercy Onely I cannot agree with Chrysostome and others who Interpret these Words into a full Confession of Sin onely they say it was too late but true Repentance is never too late I shall in my Discourse consider the Words as you have them in the Margents of your Bibles designing onely to make use of them to discourse as to the great Temptation to Despair In my Discourse upon which I shall first Consider 1. The Nature of the Temptation in it self 2. The Tempters inforcing it 3. The means ordinarily made use of in the inforcing of it 4. The most probable means to be used for getting a victory over it As to the first I have already told you That every Evil Temptation is a Motion or Solicitation of the Soul to Sin which when it is more Importune and Impetuous we usually call a Temptation but let us more particularly inquire into the Nature of this Sin of Desperation Despair in the general Notion of it signifieth a casting away of all hope as to the obtaining of some good which we desire and so the Object of it may be any good thing of which we are not possest but may be the Object of our Desires or Hope Thus we may Despair of Life as St. Paul did 2. Cor. 1. 8. of Health of Success in Business c. but in the Notion I am now speaking to it must he limited to the greatest Spiritual Good such as Pardon of Sin Living with God in Glory another day c. And here again we must distinguish betwixt Fear and Despair for although there be no Despair without high degrees of Fear yet there may be Fears great degrees of Fear which may produce some Phrases of Despair or Fits or Passions of it where yet there is no fixed Despair Despair in the Notion of it to which I am now speaking Is a Souls total fixed permanent Want and Rejection of all Hope as to the Pardon of Sins in this Life or any happy Estate in the Life to come When as the Apostle speaks there remaineth nothing in the Soul but a certain dreadful locking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation to devour them as the Adversaries of God Heb. 10. 27. It is an Hell began in the Soul in this Life It is often attended with Dâ—sperate Impressions Blasphemy against God always with intollerable Horrour and Terrour of Conscience But we are not at present so much Considering it in the Effects and Issue of it as in the Nature and first Rise and Beginning of it The next thing we have to consider is the Efficient Causes in this great Temptation I have shewed you that every Temptation to Sin is from our own Lust the Devil or the World The Men of the World have rarely any considerable Efficiciency in this Temptation it is not often we hear them telling us That we have sinned beyond hope of Mercy They rather err on the other hand The two ordinary Efficient Causes in this Temptation are our own Lust and our grand Adversary the Devil 1. Our own Lust Our depraved hearts are enough under some circumstances which we may be under to suggest to us very unworthy thoughts of God and highly derogatory to his Honour and Glory For though in a quiet calm state our Lust suggests ordinarily other things to us yet all the Lust that is in our Hearts doth not discover it self at the same hour We shall find Lusts stirring in us in an hour of Prosperity of which we shall hear nothing in an hour of great Tribulation and Adversity And so on the other side we shall find those Lusts stirring in us in a time of great Affliction and Adversity which we diseerned little of in the halcyon days of our Prosperity When Men come to be under great pressures of Afflictions then those who in Health could think of nothing but their Sensual Satisfactions or Worldly Business begin to be at leisure to think of Dying and of the Eternal State of Souls and tho ordinarily our Lust enclineth us rather to presume and groundlesly to prophecy Good rather than Evil to our selves yet I do not know but under some circumstances our Hearts that of themselves are no better disposed to give God the Glory of his Mercy then of his Justice may though the Devil stand by suggest to us black and hard thoughts of God which may produce Desperation 2. But where the Impressions are fixed strong and abiding and the Soul though out-reasoned refuseth to be comforted or to entertain any better thoughts of God but rather is more stubborn and pertinacious and blasphemeth God I should suspect a great praedominance of a Praeternatural Cause and the Soul under the Violence of Satan for we are naturally inclined to hope well for our selves and to lay hold of every good word that looketh that way 3. Possibly The Devil may also in this Temptation joyn with our own Lusts and the Temptation may be mixt from one or both these Causes are these Temptations and this sinful Habit is begun and perfected in our Souls CHAP. II. What seeming Good is the bait in this Temptation To speak the truth of it self Possibly the serving our Malice upon God An Examination Whether the Doctrines of Election of Persons particularly Redemption and Special Grace conduce to Despair The contrary evinced THe greatest difficulty is to resolve with what Bait it is possible such an Hook as this is should be baited for whereas the Apostle telleth us as I have formerly opened to you That every one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own Lust and inticed it might justly pose an ordinary Reason to imagine what seeming Good should entice a Soul to cast away all hopes of Happiness from the Mercy of God all hopes of Eternal Life and Salvation To conclude it shall go to Hell and there
I before said gives us Comfort as to Children dying in their Infancy others maintain The Regeneration of Elect Infants by Baptism I shall freely tell you what I judge is all in this Cause The most of those Baptized in the time of the Apostles were Persons grown up who had first made a visible Profession of their Repentance and Faith in Christ to these Baptism was a Seal of the Forgiveness of Sins and an Engagement to an Holy Conversation as you read Rom. 6. 4 c. To Infants it is a Seal of the Covenant of Grace as exhibited to Mankind That in case they do Repent and Believe their Sins shall be washed away with the Blood of Christ To these it is an Ordinance of Admission into the Church To these it is an Engagement to be the Lords an Avouchment of God for their God and Christ for their Saviour To these if when they grow up they shall Repent and Believe it shall be as a Fountain of Living Water springing up in the Soul to Eternal Life they shall as the Apostle instructeth the Romans Rom. 6. 4 5 6. fetch Arguments obliging them to die unto Sin and to live unto God Whether it hath any such immediate Effect as to all to justifie them from the guilt of Original Sin or to Regenerate them that is to make a change in their Heart I shall not dispute but cannot prove it nor do understand how possibly it should have any further effect of this Nature than Circumcision had to the Jews I am sure the Holy Scripture makes Pardon of Sin and Justification not the necessary or ordinary Effect of Baptism but of Confession of Sin True Repentance and forsaking of Sin and True Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ Flatter not your selves therefore if there be any Soul that liveth in any known course of Sin that never confessed his Sins and forsook them nor knew what godly Sorrow for Sin meant nor what it was to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and to believe in him onely knoweth he was Baptized and he liveth in the Church and is called a Christian and here he resteth not doubting but being confident that he shall be saved Let me tell him or her he presumeth and trusts his Soul upon a Lie and that which no weighed Divine of any Perswasion would ever say was a sufficient bottom to rest his Soul upon None ever said that Baptism washed away Sins past and to come and those that do ascribe Justification to Baptism make it such a state as may be lost and is lost by a course of Actual Sinning CHAP. V. The Notion of a Power in Man to Repent and Believe agreed by few if true no ground of hopes for Eternal Life Why Mistakes about the Nature of Regeneration Conversion Saving Repentance Faith Holiness great Occasions of Presumption The Truth as to those Notions enquired and proved What Regeneration Repentance Conversion Faith Holiness is necessary to Salvation and to the raising any Hopes in us with Relation to it 4. A Fourth Notion which I instanced in as a cause of Presumption was this That every Man and Woman hath his Life in his hands I mean a power in and of himself supposing the Common Grace of God denied to none to do all that God requireth of him in order to Salvation is a power to Repent to Believe to Love God c. Hence many think that there is no haste for Men to deny themselves or to take up the Cross or to follow Christ they may stay till they are old and their Eyes can be no longer pleased with Seeing nor their Ears with Hearing if then they do but Repent and Believe all is well enough As to which give me leave to speak two or three things 1. As brisk as this Opinion seemeth to be in the World I could never yet meet with any so hardy as to affirm That these things were within the Power of Man without the Assistance of Special Grace I have met with many that have talked high for the Power of Mans Will but when they have been brought to a close Discourse they would assert it no farther than either as to Moral Actions or Acts of Moral Discipline They would affirm indeed that a Man hath a power to go to Church instead of going to the Tavern to turn away his Foot from the House of an Harlot to do Justly and an hundred such things to read to hear the Word to pray to consider his Sins Now these are things which none denieth onely we say his power as to these is much weakened by the fall So as we doubt whether by Common Grace and all the Natural Power Man hath he can do these materially good Actions when he is pressed with a vehement Temptation But I say I could never yet meet with any that would say It is in the power of Man to Believe to Repent savingly to Love God c. 2. If any doth say so He saith what is contradicted by a multitude of Scriptures But it is not my work to enlarge here on that Discourse 3. In the next place Those Divines that do hold the greatest Natural Power in the Will of Man yet do say Time may be past that a Man may have sinned away this Natural Power and have his Heart so hardened in a Course of Sinning that he may have lost this Power and so be concluded to an Eternal Misery which alone to considerate Souls is enough to spoil its Presumption from this Head For how shall I who go on in a Course of Sin knowingly presume because I have a power in my self to turn when I will if it be possible that I may by a Course of Sinning have so provoked God as he may have given me up to a judicial blindness of Mind and hardness of Heart 4. Admitting thou hast such a Power if it still remaineth established that this Power must be produced into Act and that before thou canst enter into Heaven thou must actually Repent and Believe how dost thou know thou shalt have time for it May not God take away thy Soul with a stroke May he not come upon thee on the sudden and say This Night thy Soul shall be taken from thee and then what doth thy Power signifie Doest thou not see Men and Women die suddenly So that a pretence of such a Power in thee signifies nothing but that thou art more inexcusable by it if indeed thou hadst such a Power that thou didst not use it for the end for which thou hadst it 5. I proceed now to the great grounds of Mens Presumption viz. Mistakes as to the Nature of Regeneration Faith and Holiness The Scripture makes all these so necessary to Salvation that altho some ignorant Persons may build up to themselves idle and presumptuous Hopes because God made them and Christ died for all Men and they are Christians and Baptized c. yet considerate Persons plainly must see That unless a Man be