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A26805
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Sermons upon death and eternal judgment by William Bates.
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Bates, William, 1625-1699.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing B1123; ESTC R29022
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96,846
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349
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touching a dead Body contracted Uncleanness he was to wash his Cloaths in the evening and not to lie down in his Uncleanness This was typical of our duty that we should wash away our sinful defilements every day in the purifying Fountain of Christ's Blood that is set open for Sin and for Uncleanness And the method of the Gospel to obtain the grant of Pardon and our comfortable sense and the blessed effects of it is this there must be a mournful sight and serious acknowledgment of our daily sins and a judging our selves by the domestical tribunal in our breasts as worthy of Condemnation for tho we cannot satisfie Divine Justice for the least Sin we must glorify it and with humility and fervency desire that God would graciously forgive our renewed Sins with unfeigned Resolutions and Care against them for the future Thus we are to sue out our Pardon for Sins committed every day And whereas many Errors in regard of our frailty and their fineness do slip from us we should with contrite Spirits implore the Divine Majesty to cleanse us from our secret Sins such as through ignorance or inadvertancy escape from our observation If we are obliged to be reconciled to an offended or offending Brother before the night and the Sun must not go down upon our wrath much more to be reconciled to an offended God that his displeasure may be atoned The morning and evening Sacrifice was a Figure of the constant use of Christ's Merits and Mediation for us The secure neglect of renewing our Repentance for our renewed Sins deprives us of the comforts of the Covenant and will make the thoughts of Judgment as heavy as Mountains upon the Conscience when 't is awakened out of its slumber But when the Soul's Accounts are kept clear with Heaven every day O what a blessed Rest does the penitent Believer enjoy in the Favour of God! O the divine calm of Conscience when our Debts are cancell'd in the Book of God's Remembrance If we should be unexpectedly summoned to appear before the Judg of all the sight of our Sins will rather excite thankful affections and joyful praises of God for his Mercy that he hath pardoned them than fearful despairing thoughts of his Mercy that he will not pardon them And as this considering our ways leads to Repentance and is a remedy for past Sins so 't is a powerful Preservative from Sins afterwards For as in War the greatest care is to fortify the weakest part of a besieged Town and make it impregnable so a Christian by the experience of his infirmity and danger will be more wise and wary more circumspect and resolved against those Sins whereby he has often been foil'd to prevent the daily incursion and sudden surreption by them And according to the degrees of our Innocence we have confidence of Acceptance with God in Judgment 4. Let us improve with a wise and singular diligence the talents committed to our trust for in that day we shall be responsible for all that we have received All the Blessings we possess whether natural our Life our Faculties our Endowments our Health and Strength or Civil Honour and Dignity Riches and Reputation or Spiritual the Gospel in its light and power the graces and assistance of the Holy Ghost as they are gifts from God's Love so they are talents to be imployed for his Glory We are Stewards not Proprietaries for the Supream Lord does not relinquish his right in our Blessings that we may dispose of them at our own pleasure but hath prescribed Rules for our using them in order to his Glory our own Good and the Benefit of others And 't is sad to consider that usually those who enjoy the greatest gifts render the least acknowledgments and the most abundant in Favours are most barren in Thankfulness Time that unvaluable treasure that is due to God and the Soul the price of which arises from the work of Salvation to be done in it how is it squander'd away Conscience would blush at the serious reflection that every day so much is spent in the business of the World or Pleasures and so little redeemed for Communion with the holy God that as in the Prophetick Dream the lean Kine devoured the fat so unconcerning vanities take up that time that should be employed for our last and blessed End While time is miserably wasted the Soul lies a bleeding to everlasting Death More particularly we shall be accountable for all the days of the Son of Man that we have seen all the special seasons of Grace these we should improve for our Eternal Advantage to prepare us for the Divine Presence above But alas the Lord's Day that is consecrated for the immediate Service of God and should be entirely spent in it and in things that have a necessary subordination to it yet neither the enforcement of Duty nor incitations of Love prevail upon the most conscienciously to imploy it in spiritual affairs If they afford their presence at the Publick Worship 't is thought enough and as if the rest of the Day was unsanctified time they waste it in either Complemental Visits or Secular Business in Recreations or things impertinent to their Salvation Riches are an excellent Instrument of doing good Gold is the most precious and extensive Metal and by a marvellous Art an Ounce may be beaten out into some hundred Leaves but 't is a more happy Art by giving it to enrich our own Souls and supply the Necessities of many others But great Estates are often used to foment Mens vicious guilty affections Pride and Sensuality and 't is called Greatness Magnificence to waste them in sumptuous Vanities I instance in these Talents because they are usually abused to the dishonour of the Donor If the slothful Servant that hid his single Talent in a Napkin and returned it without advantage to his Lord was cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth a fearful Image of what will befal all unprofitable persons how severe will their Accounts be who lavish out their numerous Talents to gratify their carnal Appetites and betray the Blessings of God to his enemy the Devil Only the wise and good Servant that with prudent Contrivance and zealous Endeavours improves his Talents shall from the gracious Lord in whom are all attractives and remuneratives of our service receive an excellent Reward 5. Another Rule of our Acceptance at the last Day is That we must with Courage and Zeal maintain in our rank and places the Cause of Christ. For thus he declares expresly Whosoever shall confess me before Men him also will I confess before my Father which is in Heaven But whosoever shall deny me before Men him also will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven When the truth purity and power of Religion in Doctrine Worship and Practice is discountenanc'd and over-born our Saviour commands and will reward our undiscouraged visible Constancy in it
the Offence and the degrees of the Punishment Justice takes the Scales into its hand before it takes the Sword Now sin against God is of such an immense Guilt that an eternal Punishment is but equivalent to it This will appear by considering 1. The Perfections of the Law-giver who is infinitely above us One Act of Sin is rebellion against God and includes in it the contempt of his Majesty before whom the highest Angels cover their Faces with reverence and adoration as unworthy to behold his Glory and cover their Feet as unworthy that he should behold them the contradiction of his Holiness that is his peculiar Glory the denial of his Omniscience and Omnipresence as if he were confin'd to the superior World and busy in regulating the harmonious order of the Stars and did not discern and observe what is done below the defiance of his Eternal Power and provoking him to jealousy as if we were stronger than he 2. If we consider the Obligations of the reasonable Creatures to obey his Commands the guilt of Sin rises prodigiously They were made by his Power with this special character of Excellency according to his Image they were happy in his Love they were endowed with intellectual Faculties capable to understand and consider their Obligations to their bountiful Lord. From hence it appears that Sin is the most unnatural Rebellion against God and in it there is a concurrence of Impiety Ingratitude Perfidiousness and whatever may inhance a Crime to an excess of Wickedness 3. The meanness of the Motives that induce Men to prefer the pleasing their depraved Appetites before Obedience to his Sacred Will extreamly aggravates the Offence Of this we have a convincing Instance in the first Sin committed upon Earth Deceitful Curiosity flattering Pride a secret pleasure of acting according to his own Will join'd with the low attractives of sence blinded and transported Adam to eat the Mortal Fruit against the express Command of God And ever since the vanishing shadows of Honour or Gain or Pleasure are the only perswasives to Sin And what can be more provoking than for a Trifle to transgress the Law of God and equally despise his Favour and Displeasure Can any punishment less than Eternal expiate such Impieties The Rules of Humane Justice may discover to us the Equity of the Divine Justice 'T is ordained by the wisest States that many Crimes which may be done in a few minutes shall be punish'd with Death and the Offender be deprived of his natural Life for ever And is it not most just that Treason against the Great and Immortal King should be revenged with Everlasting Death 4. That which farther clears the Divine Justice in punishing Sin with Hell is this That God by his infallible Promise assures us that all who sincerely and uniformly obey him shall be rewarded with Heaven for ever a Blessedness most worthy the greatness and love of the Eternal God to bestow upon his Servants a Blessedness that surpasses our most comprehensive Thoughts Now if Everlasting Glory be despised what remains but endless Misery to be the Sinner's Portion The Consequence is remediless If Sin with an eternal Hell in its Retinue be chosen and embrac'd is it not equal that the rational Creature should inherit his own choice How just is it that those who are the Slaves of the Devil and maintain his Party here should have their recompence with him for ever That those who now say to the Almighty depart from us we desire not the knowledg of thy Ways should hear the Dreadful Depart from me into everlasting Fire As there will be no vain-boasting in Heaven where the Reward is the Gift of pure Bounty so there will be no righteous Complaint against God in Hell where the Punishment is inflicted by powerful Justice He that voluntarily sins by consequence chuses the Punishment due to it 5. The estimation of an Offence is taken from the disposition of him that does it When 't is done with pleasure and obstinacy there is no place for Favour Now final impenitence alone makes Sin actually and eternally damning to the Sinner Those that notwithstanding all gracious Means live continually in rebellion against God those that impenitently die in their Sins those that desire to live here for ever that they might enjoy their sweet Sins those that are so hardned and naturaliz'd in their Vices that if they were revived and brought again into this World of Temptations would certainly return to the pleasures of Sin is it not righteous that their incorrigible obstinacy should be punish'd for ever Is it not just that those who would continue under the dominion of Sin should forfeit all their claim to the Divine Mercy For if we consider them as unrepentant and irreclaimable from their Wickedness there are in them the just provocations and true causes of God's final rejection and hatred and if we consider God as revealed in his Word and Works his essential Properties Wisdom Purity Justice necessarily work upon such Objects in such a manner How zealous an indignation did the Son of God express against the obdurate Pharisees You Serpents you Generation of Vipers how should you escape the damnation of Hell They in despite of all his Miracles the equal Expressions of his Goodness and Power resisted his Authority blasphemed his Person and slighted his Salvation Now tho' other Sins are of an inferior Nature and weaker Evidence yet Obstinacy added to them makes a Person unworthy and uncapable of Mercy From hence the misery of the Damned is without Redemption without Hope without Allay for ever 2. I shall now proceed to consider the Evidence of the Facts that is produc'd as the Reason of that Judgment The temper of Divine Justice is very observable in the particular Judgments recorded in Scripture In the first process of Justice on Earth we read that God made the enquiry of Adam Hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat and by palpable Evidence convinc'd him before he condemn'd him Thus before the fiery Vengeance upon the wicked Cities the Memory of which will never be extinguish'd The Lord said to Abraham Because the Cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their Sin is grievous I will go down now and see whether they have done according to the Cry of it that is come up unto me viz. whether they were so numerously and excessively wicked if not I will know God is pleased to incarnate himself in Man's Expression to declare more sensibly to us that he never punishes with precipitation but after an equal trial of the Cause Thus we read of that prophane King of Babylon Belshazzer That he was weighed in the Ballance and found wanting before he was sentenc'd to be deprived of his Kingdom and Life And the destruction of the Antichristian State is attended with solemn Halelujahs for the righteousness of that Judgment And in