make us to be by your false reports Job saith you shall not take away mine integrity nor will I let my innocency go till I dye Job 27.5 Paul would not pass for mans sentence 1 Cor. 4.3 Yea it will fortify us against accusations Internal arising from defects failings I sleep but my heart waketh Cant. 5.2 A Gospel conscience will acquit us yea it comforts in sickness Isa. 38.3 Remember Lord I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart A sick man when his appetite is gone when he can eat nothing a good conscience is a continual feast 3. The latter Testimony in the consciences of others is to be regarded Here let me shew you 1. That it is to be regarded 2. How far 1. That it is to be regarded 1. Partly because the safety and credit of our service dependeth upon it When we have a Testimony in the Consciences of men 't is a restraint to violence Mark 6.19 20. Herodias would have killed John but she could not for Herod feared John because he was a just man So Paulinus was spared by Valence Wicked men fear the good but hate them When their hatred is greater then their fear then no mercy now 't is grievous when their fear is lessened by our scandals 2. This is not affectation of praise but doing things praise worthy Our care must be to do our duty and trust God with our credit Most men do otherwise they would have honour from men but neglect their duty to God Yet honour me before the people 1 Sam. 15.30 We are careless of service and yet hunt for praise Austins rule is good Laus humana non appeti debet sed sequi 't is not a thing to be desired but it must follow of its own accord if it be the event of the action let it not be the aim So Aquinas Gloria bene contemnitur nihil malè agendo propter ipsam bene appetitur nihil malè agendo contra ipsam A good fame is well contemned by doing nothing evil for it well desired by doing nothing evil against it 3. Complying with the humours of men is dangerous but leaving a witness in their Consciences is safe for Conscience is Gods deputy the most serious faculty in us Let us convince others though we aim not at their applause 1 Pet. 3.16 Having a good Conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evil doers they may be ashamed that falsly accuse your good Conversation in Christ. 2. How far it may be regarded 1. Surely so far as that we should not forfeit it by any sin or imprudent action or indiscretion of ours 2 Cor. 6.3 Giving no offence in any thing that the Ministry be not blamed So that the profession be not blamed that the way of truth be not evil spoken of 2dly So far as to make a just Apology or Vindication of our credit from aspersions As Paul in the Text wherein he doth not intend his own Apology so much as the Apology of the Gospel An Holy Life is the best Apology 1 Pet. 2. â—5 With well doing we put to silence the ignorance of foolish men Muzzle or stop the mouths of gain-sayers yet we may make Apologies that the truth suffer not 3. The utmost end must be the Glory of God and the honour of the Gospel Matth. 5.16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your gâ—od works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven 1 Pet. 2.12 That they may by your good works which they shall behold glorify God in the day of visitaâ—ion They do not glorify you but God that entertain a good opinion of the Christian Religion 4. That though this threefold approbation must be looked after yet every branch of it in its proper place The order is that we should first look to God and then our own Consciences and afterwards a Testimony in the Consciences of others for thus downward the one succeeding the other then a man hath the full comfort of his sincerity but if upward and singly or apart it will not hold As if a man had the approbation of others but not of his own Conscience Or if of his own Conscience but not of God if of others a man cannot rejoice in the Testimony of another mans Conscience because another man saith I am a good man for another man knoweth not the springs and motives of my actions Or if I had the bare Testimony of mine own Conscience that would not be sufficient for my comfort 1 Cor. 4 4. For I know nothing by my self yet am I not hereby justified There is an higher Judge for I am blind partial and unadvised till the Spirit concurreth with the witness of Conscience I cannot have a firm and solid peace Rom. 9.1 I say the truth in Christ I lie not my Conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy-Ghost And Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God There are two witnesses Gods Spirit and our Conscience But now descendendo it holdeth good and many times one inferreth all the rest If I have the approbation of God his Spirit beareth witness with my Conscience and he hath also the hearts and tongues of men in his own hand or if that be not the approbation of God is absolutely necessary for my Salvation the Testimony of Conscience is very comfortable and the third conduceth much to our safety and service in the World My Salvation dependeth upon the approbation of God my inward comfort upon the witness of his Spirit in my Conscience my outward peace and service upon a Testimony in the Consciences of others I observe this to a double end 1. To direct us in point of duty A good man should look more to God than to Conscience and to Conscience more than to fame and report to a good name in the last place First he looketh to God who is above Conscience and who is an infallible Judge and then he looketh to Conscience which is Gods Deputy and then to good report among men Invert this order and great inconvenience will follow Look to men above God and it maketh a breach upon sincerity John 5.44 And John 12.42 Therefore 't is not man or Glory and praise from him but God alone that the sincere heart is fixed upon As those that run in a race as the Scripture often compareth our Christian course did not regard the acclamations of the spectatours but the opinion of the Quaestor Palestrae or the Judge of the sports who was to determine on whose side the victory was So again if the last be set before the Second it will be almost as bad A Christian cannot be safe if he doth not value and prize the witness of a good Conscience before the Opinion of men for then by humouring men a man displeaseth Conscience which is his best friend of all things and above all persons next to God a
owns the same Creed the same Bible and the same Baptism and that is a mighty Help and Advantage Vse 2. It informeth us of the Love and Care of Christ he would omit no Blessing that conduceth to the Church's Good He would have those convinced whom he doth not convert that we may have no stumbling-block in our way to Heaven It was a Question Have any of the Rulers believed in him John 7.48 Alas when the Powers of the World are against the People of God the World is apt to think hard of Christ and many stumble at this Rock of Offence Now that we may have the Help of their Power and Authority and Countenance and the Gifts of Carnal Men the Lord will put them under some Conviction of the Truth of Christianity Christ would not only give us the Benefit of our Fellow Saints but of Carnal Hypocrites as the Moon hath no Light in it self yet it giveth Light to others tho they have no Grace in their Hearts yet they have notable Parts and they do a great deal of good and that our Pilgrimage might not be wholly uncomfortable If all the World were divided into two Ranks as Jeremiah's Basket of Figs Jer. 24. were either very good or very naught There were no living in the World if all were Pagans or Christians No some must come under a temporary Faith that the People of God may live more commodiously It is the Wisdom of Providence that there is a middle Party that are as a Skreen between the extreamly Wicked and the Saints they are not so bad as the worst because they are convinced more tho not converted Christians In Christ all things are ours not only the Elect who are our Companions and Fellows in the same Grace but also the Reprobates are ours the more civil and convinced sort of the World are for our good and do much serve the Uses of the Church and the worst sort of Reprobates serve for our exercise and trial for the awakening more serious Grace in us by their Oppositions and for the heightning our Privileges the more evil they are the more cause have we to bless a good God that hath made us better Vse 3. It presseth us not to slight nor yet to rest in these Convictions and in this Temporary Faith 1. Do not slight your Convictions and Remorses of Conscience Tho all convinced Men are not converted yet there are none converted but they are first convinced A Temporary Faith taken up upon common Inducements makes way for a Saving Faith as the priming of a Post makes it receptive of better Colours Whereas on the other side slighted Convictions tho you smother them now will be felt another day it is but a Wound skinned over and slightly healed that festers into a dangerous Sore Twenty Years were past and there was no remembrance of Joseph but when his Brethren were in distress Conscience wrought Gen. 42.21 And they said one to another We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear him therefore is this distress come upon us they were convinced of some Wrong done to him Convictions are forgotten smothered neglected Conscience speaketh no more but it writeth when it doth not speak and when the Mists of the Soul are a little cleared and scattered all is legible that which they thought was forgotten cometh to light and those old Convictions break out with violence to our horror and trouble Therefore flight them not 2. Do not rest in these Convictions Thus it may be with Reprobates they may be convinced of the best Way almost perswaded but not altogether The Young Man was not far from the Kingdom of Heaven he was near but never entred Some civil Men are upon the Borders of Grace Do not rest in this Estate How shall I know I am only convinced and not converted to God Answ. Thus 1. If Sin be discovered but not mortified if there be no endeavour to get it removed As a March-Sun raiseth aguish Vapors but cannot scatter them as when the Sun gets up into its height So Conviction discovers Sin but doth not help us to mortify it Rom. 7.9 For I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died 2. When we have Wishes but no Practice slight and cold Desires Oh when shall this sensual Heart be made Heavenly this worldly Heart put into a better frame but no serious looking after it nor waiting upon God that we may obtain these things we desire Balaam had his Wishes and good Moods Numb 23.10 Oh that I might die the death of the Righteous and that my latter end may be like his vellent sed nolunt they would and they would not empty Velleities they would fain have Grace but they will not be at the cost of continual attending upon God till he work it in their Hearts And they are ineffectual Glances Wishing without Working obtains nothing These are like early Blossoms in the Spring that put forth lustily but are soon nipt and never come to Fruit. 3. Negatives without Positives Men do not hate Christ nor the People of God but do they love them 1 Cor. 1â— 22 If any Man love not the Lord Jesus Christ c. It is not enough not to hate Christ but are your Hearts carried towards him So many do not oppose the Ministry of the Gospel Ay but they neglect the Message of the Gospel they content themselves with a few flying Thoughts about Christ Heaven and the Blessed Things that are to come like the glance of the Sun-beam upon a Wave Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation It is not said if we contemn resist undermine it No they are not of that Rank but they are of a more plausible Rank and Sort of People they would countenance the Profession of Godliness but neglect the Duties of it There are two sorts of Men some are well-willers to good Things some open malicious Persecutors In some natural Hatred is more allayed tho all hate it but there is a despight in Neglect as the neglect of Things worthy and great argue a scorn and contempt as well as the malicious refusal To be neutral and cold indifferent to God and Sin is to be an Enemy 4. There is an inward Approbation many times without an outward Profession or without such a constitution of Soul as to chuse these things for our Portion Alas many that are convinced approve things that are Excellent Rom. 2.18 Thou knowest his Will and approvest the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the Law Acts 5.13 And of the rest durst no Man join himself to them but the People magnified them An honourable esteem they had but they could not endure the severity of Discipline as being afraid because of the Case of Ananias who paid so dearly for a little dissembling So many are not
know what is the hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the Saints in light and 2 Pet. 1.9 He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off Nor of our duty for tho some moralities be evident to corrupt nature Rom. 2.14 Yet for a full resignation Obedience and Love to God Nature owneth little of it and depraved Reason is blind or sleepy so that we may have no clear deep sense of our duty impressed upon our hearts so as that conscience which is applicative reason should warn us of sin or mind us of our duty upon all necessary occasions 2. The commanding power is weakned For our sences are so masterly inordinate and eagerly set upon the Objects that we yield our selves to the conduct of them how unreasonable soever the acts are Tit. 3.3 For we our selves were sometimes foolish and disobedient serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another We give way to that which is evil and oppose that which is good even against the urgings of Conscience The law of our members warreth against the law of our minds Rom 6.22 And 't is a trouble to the flesh to be restrained from what it desireth as an headstrong Horse is loath to be curbed 2. Because as the leading part of the soul cannot hinder sin so it doth promote it and the more Wit and Wisdom we have if it be carnal the more is our enmity against God as appeareth by those men in a carnal estate who have most of natural Acquisitions the Devils cause is varnished by them and they prostitute all their sufficiencies to the interest of the flesh and to cast off the Government of God how many Wit themselves into Hell But it is common to all as appeareth by the two principal effects of the carnal minding Arguing and Contriving by these two the Malignity of the flesh doth most bewray its self 1. By the arguings of the flesh What carnal Reasons have men for every sin and against every duty which sheweth the corruption of Nature hath not not only taken hold of the Appetite and Senses but hath over-spread the Mind and Reason let any Temptation come to inordinate Pleasure they will palliate it and honest it with some excuse that the bait is soon swallowed or to unlawful gain by it they pretend they shall be inabled to do good to the Church of God if to honour and applause they will say Religion shall have the advantage of it so if the Temptation be against duty they will say that they will recompence it another time 2. By contriving Rom. 13.14 and make no more provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Wherein do men usually spend their Time but in studying to please the flesh or to fulfil their fleshly desires all their Wit is wholly imployed to this end 1. VSE is Caution Not to stroke the carnal minding with a gentle censure as if it were no great matter it is enmity to God and if you indulge it you live in a state of Rebellion against him 't is an evil first as a wrong done to God whose we are and whom we should serve because 't is an usurping of the Government of our selves against Gods right as if we were at our own disposal as if we might do with our selves and faculties as we list without giving an account to an higher Lord now to rob God of his Authority over his Creature is no small evil Psal. 12.4 Who have said with our tongue we will prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us To challenge any thing as our own is to affect to be as God Secondly 't is a wrong to our selves for so we set up our sences and appetite above our Reason and make the Beast ride the Man for the lower faculties rule when the mind is debauched to serve the flesh and to cater for it and contrive about it when it should govern our senses in order to our true happiness and felicity Jude 10. In what they know naturally in those things as brute beasts they corrupt themselves That is against the light of nature they ingulph themselves in all manner of sensuality Thirdly 't is a contempt of that glorious happiness which God hath provided for us Heb. 3.2 When Soul and Heaven and God and all Things are despised for our carnal ends how can we look upon it as a light sin Is it nothing to cast off God and Christ and despise our own souls and all the happiness of the world to come which God hath encouraged us to expect as if a little worldly transitory pleasure of sin were much better Fourthly 'T is the worse because it is natural your very natures being destitute of original Righteousness incline you to please the flesh before God so that this opposition against God being natural 't is first the more lasting for natural Antipathies are not easily broken and cured as that between the Wolf and the Lamb the Raven and the Dove and the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy Jam. 4.5 and Gen. 6.5 Every imagination of the thought of his heart is only evil continually We find it early we find it to be constant after Grace received the understanding is not so clear and watchful as it should be but a dark imperfect guide to us our will not so powerful as it ought to be the Wisdom of the flesh is kneaded into our natures that we cannot get rid of it and there is too great a rebellion in the Appetite and Sences and in the best a great averseness to their duty our reason still too often stoopeth to our sensuallity 1. 'T is the less to be pityed Accidental evil is matter of compassion but natural of indignation we pity a Dog poisoned but hate a Toad that is poisonous if it were only a slip of our natures or a frailty it were another thing but 't is the rooted disposition of our hearts we can better dispense with a fit of Anger than with cankered Malice a blow and away may be forgiven but an abiding enmity provoketh us to take rerevenge Thus 't is necessary to know the evil that we may seek after and admire the cure 2. VSE is To press us to come out of this estate of carnality Will you live in enmity against God 1. Can you make good your part against him 1 Cor. 10.22 Will you provoke the Lord to jealousie are you stronger than he Secondly He hath potestatem vitae necis Jam. 4.12 There is one law giver who is able to save and to destroy Thirdly God is an enemy to those that are enemies to him Psal. 5.5 He hateth all workers of iniquity And Psal. 7.11 12. He is angry with the wicked every day if he turn not he will whet his sword he will bend his bow and will make it ready Gods Justice if it doth for a while spare the
manifested and we have seen it and bare witness and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the father and manifested unto us that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you Acts 4.20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard they had it not by hearsay but some kind of sight there being fidelity in the witness there should be faith in those that hear and read The Apostles had sensible confirmation of what they did declare If they say that they heard saw and handled that which they never did then they were deceivers if they only imagined they did see and hear those things then they were deceived if what they saw and heard will not amount to a proof of Eternal life then their testimony is not sufficient But their down-right simple honesty and great holiness sheweth they had no mind to deceive and the nature of the things they relate sheweth that they could not be deceived for they were eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses and always conversing with Christ the proof is sufficient If such miracles such resurrection ascention such a voice from the excellent glory will not prove another world what will 4. There is a care taken that we also may have a sight of these things so far as is necessary to a lively and quickning hope for the spirit is given to refine our reason and elevate our minds and raise them above sensible things that we may believe these supernatural truths and hope to enjoy this blessedness in the way of Christianity Gal. 5.5 For we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith interpret it not only of the righteousness of faith but the hope built thereupon it doth assure us of bliss and glory for all that are obedient to the faith and believe those endless joys which are prepared for Christians John 1.17 18. 5. If we see not these things by faith 't is because we are blinded by lusts and bruitish affections which misbecome the humane nature 2 Cor. 4.3 4. If our gospel be hid 't is hid to them that are lost whose eyes the God of this world hath blinded 'T is because worldly advantages have seduced and perverted their affections which inchant their minds that these sublime truths make no impression upon them nor have any influence upon their hearts so 2 Pet. 1.9 He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off They have not that purity of heart which should inable them to believe this Doctrine or see things that should contradict or check their lusts and being wedded to present things have no prospect of things to come 1. USE For Confutation of those that will not believe or hope for any thing which they see not they think Christians a company of credulous fools that nothing is sure that is invisible that the promises of the Gospel are but like a dream of mountains of Gold or Pearls dropt from the Sky and all the comforts thence deduced are but fanatical illusions that nothing so ridiculous as to depend upon unseen hopes that lie in another world they make the life of faith a matter of sport and jesting Psal. 22.7 8. All they that see me laugh me to scorn they shut out the lip and shake the head saying he trusted in God that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him 1 Tim. 4.10 We therefore labour and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God Christians thought their reward sure and endured all things Atheists and Infidels therefore scoff at them persecute them To these I shall propose two things 1. Is nothing to be believed and hoped for that is not seen Reason will shew you the contrary Country people obey a King whom they never saw but only know his power by the effects in his Laws and Officers of Justice and doth not sense teach us the same concerning God if we transgress his laws by omitting a duty or committing a sin we hear from him though we see him not Rom. 1.18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men And Heb. 2.2 For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward And for hope do not men venture their estates in forreign Countries in the hands of persons whom they never saw nor knew and shall we venture nothing on the promises of God 'T is true God liveth in another world and our hopes lye there also but doth he not manifest himself from thence to be concerned in our actions whether they be good or evil And if he be concerned in them will he not punish the evil and reward the good hath not natural conscience a sense of these things And therefore 't is unreasonable to question these things 2. They think good people are credulous and easie of belief their own experience of these good people evidenceth the contrary that they are too slow of heart to believe what God hath revealed concerning the other world and that by the use of all holy means 't is with difficulty accomplished But what if we prove that none so credulous as the Atheist or Infidel First you are not sure there is no such life 't is impossible they should ever know or prove the contrary it may be questionless the Lord that made this world can make a world to come and the same persons to exist there in ignominy contempt and shame that lived wicked here and bestow honour on the godly and holy the question between the downright Infidel and the Christian is not so much Whether there be a world to come but whether we can prove there is none The belief of the positive That there is a God That there is everlasting life is necessary to our hope but to their conviction let them infallibly prove there is none they can never do that you cannot disprove the reality of the Christian hope or by any sound Argument evince that there is no heaven or hell for ought you can say or know there are both and if we should go on no further it were best to take the surer side especially when you part with no more than a few base pleasures and carnal satisfactions that are not worth the keeping In a Lottery where there is but a loose possibility of gaining men will venture a shilling or a small matter for a prize of an hundred pound So be there no heaven or hell or be there one you part with no more than the vain pleasures of a fading life but if it should prove true in what a woful case are you then when to gratifie a bruitish mind you run so great an hazzard the heathens granted it an Hypothesis conducing to vertue and goodness Secondly To the Atheist and Infidel bating all Scripture it may be proved That 't is a thousand to one but it is so natural reason will
condemned and killed the just and he doth not resist you but some if they had their wills would adjudge them to the bottom of Hell John 16.2 They will put you out of the Synagogues as well as kill you That is curse and condemn you to Hell which is the second death but their rash censures are not ratified in Heaven their cursing hurts no more than their absolution benefiteth us therefore this is not the meaning the words relate to the supream Court What fear is there of condemnation by God when he declareth his mind concerning the justification of such as believe in Christ Now God hath expresly said That he that believeth shall not come into condemnation and who dareth to contradict his sentence False Teachers may deny this comfort to the penitent believers and make their hearts sad whom God would not have made sad but God will not retract his grant and the sentence of any judge on this side God needeth not to be stood upon 'T is on their part presumption and usurpation of the Throne of God and their act cannot do us harm we stand or fall to our own proper Lord and Master 2. The ground of the challenge We are acquitted from condemnation on Christs account this blessing runneth in the channel of his Mediation four branches of it are here mentioned 1. Christs Death 2. Resurrection with an yea rather 3. His Exaltation at the right hand of God 4. His intercession for us all which would be in vain and lose their effect if any condemnation were to be feared by us From the whole observe 1. That freedom from the fears of Condemnation is one great priviledg of true and sound believers 2. That our triumph over the fears of condemnation ariseth from the several acts of Christs Mediation For the first Point That freedom from the fears of condemnation is one great priviledg of true and sound believers What a great priviledg it is will appear 1. By the dreadfulness of the sentence 2. The difficulty to get rid of these fears 3. The sure and solid grounds of a believers peace 1. The dreadfulness of the sentence To condemn is to adjudg to punishment and for God to condemn is to adjudg us to everlasting punishment the final sentence is set down Matth. 25.41 Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels In the general they are pronounced cursed but in particular there is the poena damni the loss of Gods Favour and Presence and Glory they depart from God who made them at first after his Image from the Redeemer whose Grace was offered to them but slighted by them from the Holy Ghost who strove with them to sanctifie them and reduce them to God till they quenched all his motions and expelled him out of their hearts The Disciples wept when Paul said Ye shall see my face no more But what anguish will fill the hearts of the reprobate when God shall say to them Ye shall never see my face more you are now cut off from all hopes and possibility of salvation for ever Wicked men banish God out of their company now Job 21.14 Depart from us for we desire not the knowledg of thy ways God will then be even with them and banish them out of his presence not from his essential presence for that is with them to their everlasting misery but from his gracious presence which is the everlasting delight of the saints and from all possibility of acceptance with him 2. Poena sensus into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels Into fire not purifying but tormenting for so hell is a place of torment and a state of torment Luke 16.24 I am horribly tormented in this flame And v. 25. He is comforted and thou art tormented v. 29. That they come not into this place of torment 2. It is for duration everlasting fire It had a beginning but will never have an end The Saints in all their troubles can see both banks and bottom they never met with any such hard condition but it had an end but here there still remaineth a fearful looking for more fiery indignation from the Lord The glory which they refused is everlasting glory and the torments which they incur are everlasting torments 3. 'T is said prepared for the devil and his angels This sheweth the greatness of the misery of the wicked The Devil and his Angels must be their everlasting companions they who entertained his suggestions in their hearts shall then remain for ever in his company and society as Christ with his blâ—ssed Angels and Saints make one Kingdom or family living together in perpetual blessedness so the Devil and his Angels and the wicked make one society living together in perpetual misery This is the sentence of condemnation in the Christian notion of it 2. The difficulty to get rid of these fears 1. We all deserve condemnation upon many accounts both upon the account of original sin Rom. 5.18 As by the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation so by the righteousnese of one the free gift came upon all to justification of life Our actual offences make it more our due for the wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 The second death as well as the first 2. In our natural estate we were actually condemned by the sentence of the law which is confirmed by the Gospel if we refuse the offered remedy John 5.18 19. He that believeth not is condemed already And v. 12. This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil 3. Our consciences own it that where there is guilt there will be condemnation and therefore our own hearts condemn us 1 John 3.20 And unless this condemnation be reversed and that upon good grounds we can have no firm and solid peace within our selves conscience speaketh aloud this truth and is the more to be regarded partly because the fears of the guilty creature are founded in the nature of God his Holiness and Justice his pure Holiness Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity 'T is a natural truth that sin is displeasing to God and maketh the sinner hateful and loathsom to him and worthy to be cast off and punished by him Gods holiness is at the bottom of all our fears we fear his wrath because 't is armed with an Almighty Power we fear his Power because 't is set a work by his Justice we fear his Justice because 't is awakened by his Holiness which cannot endure sin and sinners 1 Sam. 6.20 And the men of Bethshemesh said who is able to stand before this Holy Lord God So also on the other hand all mens security ariseth from a misprision of Gods nature as if he were not so holy Psal. 59.21 Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self Not much offended with sin Now for the
in his conversation 2 Cor. 6.4 5 6. But in all things approving our selves as ministers of God in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in Imprisonments in tumults in labours in Watchings in fastings By pureness by knowledge by long-sufferings by kindness by the Holy Ghost by love unfeigned by the word of truth by the power of God by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left c. These were the evidences which he had in their consciences The faithful discharge of his Office in all sorts of pressures wants and exigencies as also by the constant study of the mind of God and purity of life and abundance of Spirit and sincere charity and love to Souls by these things should a People Choose a Minister and by these things did Paul approve himself to their consciences 2. All these may others have hating for the publickness of his Office and the extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost all Ministers and all Christians may have an approbation of God and the testimony of their own consciences and a witness in the consciences of others 1. They may have the approbation of God who certainly will not be wanting to the comfort of his faithful Servants Partly Because he hath promised not only to reward their sincerity at last but to give them the comfort of it for the present John 4.21 He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father And I will love him and will manifest my self to him Let a man but love Christ and be â—aithful to him and he is capable of this promise God will love him and Christ will love him and in Testimony thereof he will manifest himself to him Christ knoweth the burden of believers and what it costs them in the World to be faithful to him and what sad hours many times they have who make Conscience of obedience Now to incourage them the more seriously they ingage in it the more evidences and confirmations they shall have of his love to them yea sensible manifestations and comfortable proofs thereof shall still be given out to them in their course of a constant uniform diligent and self-denying obedience Hidden love is as no love Pro. 27.5 Open rebuke is better than secret love As in our Love to God if it be not manifested 't is but a compliment and vain pretence so in Gods Love to us though he hath not absolutely ingaged for our comfort yet he hath his times of allowing special manifestations of himself to his people and lifting up the light of his Countenance upon them Surely God will not be altogether strange reserved and hidden to a loving faithful and obedient Soul They need more Testimonies of his favour than others do and they shall not be without them Partly Because the Spirit of God is given us for this end not only as a Spirit of Sanctification but of Revelation to witness Gods acceptance of our persons and services and the great things which he hath promised for us 1 Cor. 2 11 12. What man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God That we might know the things that are freely given us of God None but the Holy-Ghost can know Gods secrets and revealeth thereof to believers as much as is needful for their Salvation For as mans own understanding can only know mans secrets so none can know Gods secret thoughts but Gods own Spirit Now we have received not the Spirit of the World which only carryeth a proportion with Worldly things but the Spirit of God which is given us to know the mind of God concerning us in Christ He doth not only reveal the mysteries of Salvation in general but our own Interest therein Rom. 8.16 The Spirit its self bearing witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God The infinite mercies of God being bestowed on us God would not have them concealed from us thus we may have the approbation of God 2. We may have the Testimony of conscience concerning our sincerity For conscience is that secret spy which is privy to all our designs and actions and taketh notice of all that we are and do therefore a man should or may know the acts of grace which he puts forth 'T is hard to think that the Soul should be a stranger to its own operations the Spirit in man knoweth the things of a man much more acts of grace Partly Because they are the most serious and Important actions of our lives many acts may escape us for want of advertency they not being of such moment but things that concern our eternal Interests and done with the most advisedness and seriousness surely the man that is thus conversant about them he will mind what he doth and how he doth it 1 John 2.3 Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandments 1 Cor. 9.26 I therefore so run not as uncertainly And partly Because acts of grace are put forth with difficulty and with some strife and wrestling a man cannot believe but he feeleth oppositions of unbelief Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help my unbelief A man cannot love God and attend upon holy things but he feeleth drowsiness and deadness in his heart which must be overcome though with difficulty Cant. 5.2 I sleep but my heart waketh A man cannot obey God or do any serious good action but the flesh will be opposing Gal. 5.17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other And Rom. 7.21 I find then a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me Now things difficult and carryed on with opposition must needs leave a notice and Impression of themselves upon the conscience And partly Because there is a special delight which accompanyeth acts of grace by reason of the excellency of the object they are conversant about and by reason of the greatness and excellency of the power they are assisted withal and the excellency and nobleness of the faculties they are acted by Faith can hardly be exercised about the pardon of sin or the hopes of Glory but a man findeth some peace and joy in believing Rom. 15.13 Acts of love and hope are pleasant a prospect of eternity is delightful now any notable pleasure and delight of mind notifieth its self to the Soul and therefore upon the whole we may have glorying if we love and fear God and hope for eternal life from him and thereupon study to approve our selves to him conscience which is privy to these things will witness them to us 3. We may leave a Testimony in the consciences of others If we keep up the majesty
against it Methinks it looks like going to the Day of Judgment Here we receive the Pledges of our Salvation or Damnation 3. We should come with Oyl in our Vessels as well as in our Lamps 1. Our Lamps should be kept burning bright If you are sluggish now 't is a sign you are slight in the whole Surely now the King sitteth at his Table Cant. 1.2 our Spicknard should send forth the smell thereof a lively exercise of Grace Now we come for meat which perisheth not now is our familiar converse with Christ and near Communion with him now we come to our Legal Investiture Christ and all his benefits are delivered by these signs which he hath instituted As if a man should say Here is my House when a Deed is delivered and you give up the Key or give possession of Land by a Turf This is our solemn taking possession of him and all his benefits We receive Christ in the Promises of the Covenant but here is a particular close Application In the Word Christ is offered and exposed to all as the Brazen Serpent that whoever looked upon him might be healed But this Supper is like the Blood sprinkled upon the Door-posts In the Word Christ and Immortality are brought to light now Christ is slain before our eyes The Bread is put into our hands and mouths 2. We should come with Oyl in our Vessels Would we have the Spirit blow upon a dead Cole He findeth nothing in us to work upon We are bidden to examine and what must we examine 1 Cor. 11.28 The Apostle will tell you Whether you be in the faith or no 2 Cor. 13.5 But to speak to this case I confess that in Foro Ecclesiae in the Court of the Church all are Virgins that take their Lamps that do profess to believe all these must be admitted But in Foro Coeli in the Court of Heaven none but Converted ones are admitted But in Foro Conscientiae in the Court of Conscience I dare not discourage those that have the grace of the second or third ground 'T is a means to strengthen them in Faith Hope and Love and make them more firm in the Covenant of God And the difference is too nice between temporary Grace and saving Grace for any to exclude themselves I am bound to come with Grace but I am not bound to come with Assurance Besides in the Kingdom of Grace Christ will not shut them out They that have good affections should come but with this caution I would press them to mind the renouncing and engaging part of the Covenant and earnestly to break the League between themselves and their own wayes and engage themselves more firmly to God for time to come that you may not think as you have done or speak as you have done nor behave your selves in your Relations as you have done but throw sin out of doors I would press you in the Apostles words Heb. 10 22. Let us draw near with a true heart having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our Bodies washed with clean water The one relateth to the Duty-part Let us draw nigh with a true heart the other relateth to the Promissory part Though your Grace be common Grace 't is this way moulded into special 2 Doct. That this will be found to be true Wisdom and the other Folly For Wisdom to begin with that Wisdom is Index sui obliqui Wisdom lyeth 1. In proposing a right End 2. In the Choice of fit Means And 3. In an earnest Prosecution of the End by these Means This is the property of Wisdom in the General and it holdeth true in Godly Wisdom The wise Virgins did so Their End was right to be admitted in to the Nuptial Feast or everlasting enjoyment of God And then they use right Means such as will bring them to the end We do not use to draw Ships in the Sea with Horses nor draw Wagons with the Wind. We must not use contrary means nor insufficient means We cannot go to to the bottom of a Well that is thirty foot deep with a line that is but ten foot We must use such as will certainly do The Wisdom of God hath fixed Means for us and we are doubly Fools if we will not use them opportunely carefully and constantly Else 't is a Prize put into a fools hand Prov. 16.17 The Wise Virgins did all this sought Oyl in time both for their Lamps and Vessels Luk. 13.24 On the contrary he that contents himself with a profession of Christ without a work of Grace upon his Heart is a Fool he is not a Profane Fool that doth the contrary but a Professing Fool that sort of Profession is better than Prophaneness so far 't is a degree of Wisdom but rested in 't is Folly it faileth in all the points of Wisdom in the end they do not esteem the Lord as the chief good for they think a little ease of the Flesh or a little sensual Liberty or a satisfaction of a Lust to be better or Honour or Pleasure or Gain this quiets them in the neglect or want of God they see some good in Christ offer fair for him but take him not as the chiefest good they are willing to part with something but not with all for his sake SERMON IV. MATTH XXV v. 5. While the Bridegroom tarryed they all Slumbred and Slept WE have seen wherein they differed now we shall see again wherein they agree In the words observe 1. What happened to the Virgins They all slumbred and slept 2. The Occasion of it I do not say the Cause While the Bridegroom tarryed The Cause of sleeping was Infirmitas humana the Occasion of it Mora Sponsi In the first of these 1. Who They all 2. What slumbred and slept First Who They all 'T is no wonder to hear it of the foolish Virgins but that the wise should do it there is the difficulty Therefore some of the Ancients understand it of Death which is called sleep in Scripture but that is improbable and suiteth not with the frame and drift of this Parable Some would understand it distributively not conjunctively that the wise slumbred and the foolish slept but 't is not said slumbred or slept but slumbred and slept The meaning is all of them were not so diligent in their Duty as they should have been even the good are in part negligent as well as the foolish though they alwayes keep a good Conscience and an heart in some measure alwayes prepared to meet Christ. Secondly What Slumbred and slept Wherein the degree of their security is set forth they did not only slumber which is a less failing but Slept Thirdly The Order First slumbred and then slept Doctrine That the Foolish and Wise both Slumber and Sleep I shall First enquire What this Slumbering and sleeping is Secondly How far it may befall the Children of God or the Wise Virgins Thirdly The Causes and Reasons of it First What
different entertainment of the good and bad Servant there 't is Good and faithful Servant here Thou wicked and slothful Servant Christ will upbraid the unfaithful at the day of Judgment He is called a wicked evil Servant because unfaithful Sloathful because negligent 1 Doct. A Sloathful Servant is a wicked Servant These two Terms are here coupled There is a twofold Sloath. First Common In the ordinary affairs of this Life 2 Thes. 3.10 We commanded you that if any would not work neither should they eat 1 Tim. 5.8 13. He that provideth not for his own is worse than an Infidel v. 13. And withall they learn to be idle Secondly Spiritual called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Torpor spiritualis one of the seven deadly sins among the Papists a remiss will in divine and heavenly matters or a negligence in the duties of Holiness because of the labour and trouble that accompanieth them Rom. 12.11 Not sloathful in Business fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. Heb. 6.12 That ye be not sloathful but Followers of them who through Faith and Patience have inherited the Promises There are in these Scriptures two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dull Stupid Backward They are both bad but this latter is worst because of the Matter about which 't is conversant The one in our Particular the other in our General Calling To be negligent in our ordinary Callings is bad but much more in the great Affairs of our Souls 'T is not only an evil Thing but an evil Sin Of this principally 1. Because total Omissions against Knowledge and Conscience especially of necessary Duties are very great Sins That Omissions are Sins as well as Sins of Commission appeareth from the Nature of the Law which consists of a Precept and Prohibition It enforceth Good as well as forbiddeth what is Evil. Psal. 34.14 Depart from Evil and do Good In the Government of Man the Law useth both these the Bridle and the Spur inciting him to that which is Good and restraining him from that which is Evil. You deny God his due when you with-hold from Him that Service Love and Worship which He requireth Which is a great Evil in his Creatures which are made by Him and fed and maintained by Him You wrong Him when you deprive Him of your Service for whose Use you were made Therefore Sins of Omission are Sins Now of all Omissions Omissions of the most necessary Duties are most culpable want of Love to God Fear of God Faith in God are greater Evils than not Praying at such a time Hearing of the Word or Labouring in our Callings at such a time The Life of Religion lieth in the one more than in the other and they are more indispensibly required The Scripture pronounceth an heavy Doom upon these kind of Defects 1 Cor. 16.22 If any Man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be accursed Among these Sins contra Remedium are more baneful than Peccata contra Officium Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Especially when Total To omit an Act of Love to God or to fail in Point of Faith in a particular Case or Exigence is a great Evil but to be wholly careless and mindless of the Favour of God or to seek after it in a very overly sleight manner is worst of all Rom. 3.11 There is none that understandeth that seeketh after God They do not make it their Business to remember God or their Duty to Him or their Study to please Him They think of Him seldom or very neglectfully worship Him or make mention of Him very coldly serve Him carelesly or by the bye This sheweth that Men are naughty wicked and in a cursed Estate Especially when they are convinced of better that God deserveth more serious Regard at their hands and Christ to be more dear and precious to them and their Converses with Him more delightful The Religion they profess doth plainly call for more at their hands and their Consciences are clamorous and the Spirit of God importunate with them To omit a Duty against Knowledge is as great a Sin as to commit Evil against Knowledge Jam. 4.17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do Good and doth it not to him it is Sin The closer the Application by serious Convictions strong Motions and Impulses to do better the greater their Sin For this argueth a flat Disobedience and Contempt of God and a Grieving of his Spirit Ephes. 4.30 To give Him the Repulse when He would fain enter and take Possession of our Hearts Now put all these things together and you will soon find that a Sloathful Servant is a very wicked naughty Servant Satis est Mali ipsum nihil fecisse Boni They are not only evil Servants that teach Falsities but they also that do not promote the Kingdom of Christ to their Power Not only they that do no Hurt but they that do no Good Matth. 3.20 Every Tree that bringeth not forth good Fruit is hewn down and cast into the Fire Not only the Poysonous but the Barren Tree 2. The Motives that draw us to this Idleness and Sloath are paltry base and such as offer great Wrong to God Alas what have we to hinder us in God's Service but a little worldly Profit Pleasure or Honour Now what a gross Sin is it to love the World above God or to neglect Christ that died for thee meerly to please the Flesh and to seek its Ease and Contentment Probatio unius sine contumelia alterius procedere non potest Heb. 12.15 Lest any Root of Bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled If there were some better or more considerable thing in the Case the Fault were the less and our Negligence might the more be excused But this is a gross Sin to despise God for poor contemptible Vanities The World counts Prophaneness by another Measure than the Scripture You count Adulterers and Drunkards and Swearers prophane but the Scripture counteth them prophane that have not an esteem of spiritual Priviledges There are peccata majoris infamiae and peccata majoris reatus Some sins in the eye of the world have more filthiness and turpitude in them and some sins in the eye of God have more guilt as when we despise the favour of God and do not think it worthy our most serious and lively diligence the smallness of the temptation aggravateth the negligence The Service of God is of everlasting consequence but the things of the World are of short continuance all this dust is gone with the spurn of a foot one turn of the hand of God separateth thy neglected Soul from thy pampered Body and then whose are all these things 2 Cor. 4. ult 3. Negligent Unfruitfulness is a breach of Trust to which we are bound by Covenant and so a disappointment of Gods expectation To fortifie this Consideration I need not repeat that all Gods Gifts to us imply a
Negligence in God's Service To undeceive you First Take these general Considerations 1. That Carnal Men are ill versed in the Art of excusing Evil when they have a right Principle to go upon and that which they think maketh for them usually maketh against them Solomon telleth us Prov. 26.9 That a Parable in a Fool 's Mouth is like a Thorn in the Hand of a Drunkard The Thorn was their Instrument of Sewing as the Needle with us Now a Drunkard woundeth and goreth himself because of his uneven Touch when his Spirits are disturbed with excess of Drink Do but observe how contrarily and perversely wicked Men will reason and what Inferences and Conclusions they will draw from those very Principles the Godly make a good use of As in 1 Cor. 15.32 Let us eat and drink for to Morrow we shall die Now compare this with 1 Cor. 7.29 30. But this I say Brethren the Time is short it remaineth that both they that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use the World as not abusing it For the Fashion of this World passeth away 2 Kings 6.33 And while he yet talked with them behold the Messenger came down unto him and he said Behold this Evil is of the Lord why should I wait for the Lord any longer Compare this with 1 Sam. 3.18 And Samuel told him every whit and hid nothing from him and he said It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good So Haggai 1.2 Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts The People say the Time is not come the Time that the Lord's House should be built Compare this Scripture with 2 Sam. 7.2 And the King said unto Nathan the Prophet See now I dwell in an House of Cedar but the Ark of God dwelleth within Curtains When David dwelt in a stately House his Heart was set upon building an House for the Lord. So Rom. 2.4 Or despisest thou the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance with Titus 2.11 12. For the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men teaching us that denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World Jude 4. Vngodly Men turning the Grace of God into Lasciviousness 2. Sometimes Carnal Men pretend certain Causes and Excuses when their Conscience knoweth 't is otherwise and then the things alledged are not the real Opinions and inward Sentiments of their own Minds but something said or taken up to justifie their Sloath. 1 Cor. 6.9 Know ye not that the Vnrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolators nor Adulterers nor Esseminate nor Abusers of themselves with Mankind c. As Hopes of Impunity though they live a Godless and sinful Course of Life If they were serious Conscience would tell them Men may be deceived with these things but God cannot Ye may stifle Conscience for a while with these Allegations but it will speak and then these sorry Fig-leaves will not serve the turn to hide your Nakedness 3. Sometimes these Excuses are the Fruit of Blindness Sottishness Ignorance and Infatuation and the Sluggard hath an high Conceit of his own Allegations Prov. 26.16 The Sluggard is wiser in his own Conceit than seven Men that can render a Reason He thinketh others are mopish giddy and crack-brain'd People that make more ado with Religion than needeth are too nice and scrupulous take it to be good Prudence to keep out of harms way His very foolish Thoughts he thinketh are wise Reasons that Religion is a merry thing Prov. 15.19 The way of a sloathful Man is a Hedge of Thorns but the way of the righteous Man is made plain He imagineth Difficulties and intolerable Hardships in a course of Goodliness 'T is our Cowardise and Pusillanimous Ignorance maketh the Ways of God seem hard All things are comfortable plain and easie to the pure and upright Heart Thus he bloweth hot and cold speaketh contrary things according as he looketh upon them with a sleight or pusillanimous Heart 4. Excuses argue an ill Spirit and an unwilling Heart When they should do something for God there is something still in the way some Danger or some Difficulty which they are loath to encounter withal Prov. 26.13 The sloathful Man saith There is a Lyon in the way They are fruits of the Quarrel between Conviction and Corruption and are usually found in us when we first begin to understand the way of the Lord but are loath to come up to the Terms Certainly 't is better be doing than excusing Doing is safe but Excuses are but a Patch upon a sore Place If we have done a Fault 't is better confess and seek a Pardon than to excuse and extenuate 5. Consider the Invalidity of all things that are usually alledged by Sinners And to help you consider 1. Nothing can be pleaded as Reason which God's Word disproveth The Scriptures were purposely penned to refute the vain Sophisms that are in the Hearts of Men. Hâ—b 4.12 To divide between Soul and Spirit Joynts and Marrow and to discern the Thoughts and Intents of the Heart To discover the Affections of a sensual Heart how ever pailiated with the Pretences of a crafty Understanding to hide the Evil from themselves and others You must not lift up your private Conceits against the Wisdom of God 2. Nothing can be pleaded as Reason which your Consciences are not satisfied with as Reason That is the Reason there are so many Appeals to Conscience in Scripture Do not your Consciences tell you you ought to be better to mind God more That if these things be true 2 Pet. 3.11 That all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness 3. Nothing can be pleaded by way of Excuse which reflects upon God as if he had made an hard Law We are apt to plead so The way of the Lord is not equal The Woman thou gavest me she gave me and I did eat Will you excuse your Idleness and sin by the Severity of your Master and cast your Brat at his Doors 4. There can be no Excuse for a total Omission of necessary Duties In a partial Omission the Law it self alloweth a Dispensation as in case of Sickness we are taken off from some Work which God requireth at other times But some things are indispensibly required John 3.5 Except a Man be born of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Heb. 12.14 Without Holiness no Man shall see the Lord. Here is Necessitas precepti medii 5. You should harden your selves with no Excuse or Reason but what you dare plead when you stand before the Bar of Christ
brake in pieces the Image and cut down the Groves and defiled their Places with the bones of Men. Infants were burnt there with horrible Cries And Screeches and sound of Drums and Tabrets and other Instruments to drown the Noise And those that were condemned were burnt in that Valley as also the Bones of Malefactors Now to the Piles of Wood and the Piles continually burning there doth the Prophet allude This was represented in Sodom's Burning as a Type as the Drowning of the World was a Figure of Christ's coming to Judgment The Burning of the Sacrifice which in the Interpretation of the Law was the Sinner himself was the Figure of it 2. Now come we to the New-Testament There are Places without number 'T is sometimes represented by Fire where we read of a Furnace of Fire Matth. 13.42 And shall cast them into a Furnace of Fire there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth God's Wrath is compared in the Old-Testament to a fiery Oven where the contracted Flame appeareth most dreadful Sometimes to a Lake of Fire Revel 19.20 And the Beast was taken and with him the false Prophet that wrought Miracles before him with which he deceived them that had received the Mark of the Beast and them that worshipped his Image both these were cast into a Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone At other times 't is compared to a Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 By which also be â—â—nt and preached to the Spirits that are in Prison Or to a Bottomless Pit Revel 9.11 And they had a King over them which is the Angel of the Bottomless-Pit There is Darkness and Chains and Gaoler and Judge The Chains of Invincible Providence and their own horrible Despair There is no making an Escape But of this more hereafter So that unless we will count God a Liar there is such a Place of Torment provided 2. Ask Men. The blind Nations had a Sense of Eternity and Fancies of an Heaven and Hell Elizian Fields and obscure Mansions and Places of Torment There are some Relicks of his Truth in the corrupt Doctrine of the Gentiles But we need not go so far back as Tradition look to Conscience Wicked Men find in themselves an apprehension of Immortality and Punishment after Death Râ—â— 1.32 Who knowing the Judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of Death Reason sheweth that he that perfectly hateth sin will perfectly punish it not in this life for abominable sinners are many times prosperous here Justice is not discovered to the utmost therefore guilty Conscience presageth there is more evil to come There is much in these presages of Conscience especially when we are more serious however they dissemble the matter when well Heb. 2.15 And deliver them from the fear of death who all their life-time were subject to bondage Yet when they come to die when they are entring upon the confines of Eternity then they cannot hide their fears any longer Oh! the horrours and terrours of wicked men when they lie a dying if ever men may be believed 't is then 3. The Devils are Orthodox in this point for Jyudges There are no Atheists in Hell Matth. 8.29 And behold they cryed out saying What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God art thou come to torment us before the time They know there is a time when they shall be in greater torment than now they are therefore if we will take Gods Word or Authentick Record for it or Mans word when he is not in a case to Dissemble or the Devils word there is a Hell or everlasting Torments prepared for the wicked Obj. 1. But is it not an everlasting abode under Death and to make it the more terrible to vulgar capacities expressed by Eternal Fire I Answer This were to make Christ a Deceiver indeed and to publish his Doctrine with a lye or an handsome fraud But clearly 1. There is a state of Torment as well as a state of Death 'T is true 't is called the Second Death because deprived of Eternal Life which is the only true Life and because 't is worse than the temporal Death better never been born Matth. 26.24 It had been good for that man he had never been born He doth not say It had been good but it had been good for that man If only Death and Annihilation were in it what sense would there be in this Speech Therefore there is a lively and effectual sense of the Wrath of God Besides the Consciences of wicked men feareth and presageth other kind of Punishment from Gods Wrath or else why are they most troubled when they come to dye why is it so dreadful a thing to fall into the hands of the Living God Heb. 10.31 We are mortal Creatures but God is a living God why should the Eternity of God make his Wrath terrible but that there is a fear of an eternal subsistence on our part also we read of many and fewer stripes Luk. 12.47 48. Math. 11.22 It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of Judgment than for you If it be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you torments are measured out by proportion according to our sins and means of Grace that we have enjoyed but not improved 2. There is a place of Torment a local Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 16.28 This place of torment And Judas went to his own place Acts 1.25 As in all Common-wealths the Prince hath not only his Palace but his Prison it must be somewhere for the wicked are somewhere God keepeth it secret with wise Councel because he will exercise our Faith and not our Sense Job 38.17 Have the gates of Death been opened to thâ—e or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of Death This is one of the secrets of Providence Obj. 2. But how can it stand with Gods Love and Mercy to punish his Creature for ever Our Bowels are troubled if we should hear the howling of a Dog in a fiery Furnace for a small space of time Now God is Love its self 1 Joh. 4.8 therefore surely he will not damn his Creature to everlasting torments I Answer Man is not fit to fix the bounds of Gods Mercy but the Lord himself therefore take these considerations 1. Gods Punishments may stand with his Mercy 'T is very notable in one place 't is said Heb. 10.31 'T is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God But in another place 't is said 2 Sam. 24.14 I am in a great strait let us fall now into the hands of the Lord for his Mercies are great The one noteth God Angry the other God Appeased When God hath been long upon a treaty of Love Patience abused is turned into Fury The one sheweth what God is in himself Love Sweetness Mercy the other what he is when provoked The Sea in its self is smooth and calm but when the Winds and Tempests arise how dreadfully
it hateth because I testify of it that the Works thereof are evil We are to contest with Publick Miscarriages Interests and Powers stir up the Malice and Rage of Men Sore Eyes cannot endure the Light nor a guilty Conscience the Word John 3.20 For every one that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh he to the Light lest his Deeds should be reproved The Ethiopians curse the Sun Rev. 10.11 The two Witnesses tormented them that dwell on the Earth This drouzy World would fain take a Nap and sleep were it not for some bawling Preachers Proud covetous carnal Men Men wedded to their Interests will hate us if we preach in good earnest as a good Thresher maketh the Straw to flie about his Ears Nay and Errors are more touchy than Sins a Drunkard is more patient of Conviction than a Seducer Errors take away the Light of Reason and leave nothing but the Pride of Reason A Drunkard standeth upon lower ground his Practices cannot endure the Test of the Light of Nature but every erroneous Person thinketh he standeth upon the upper Ground because of the height of his Pride and the plausibleness of his Notions 2. By the Providence of God Preachers are like Gideon's Lamps in earthen Pitchers possibly the Apostle may allude to it when he saith We carry this Treasure in Earthen Vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 Now as when the Pitcher is dashed to pieces the Lamp breaketh out to the amazement of the Adversaries so the Sufferings of Ministers are a great Confirmation to their Doctrine Vse 1. Advice to us 1. To prepare for Sufferings 2. When they come do not count it strange I. To prepare for Sufferings It will do us no hurt to be prepared for Sufferings It hath ever been the Lot of God's People to be obnoxious to the World's hatred and we our selves cannot look for any Exemption I shall lay down several Probabilities to shew when God is about to bring Trouble on the Church 1. Observe That after God hath laid in many spiritual Comforts there comes a time to lay them out again and after great Receipts we are put upon great Expences The Disciples first enjoyed Christ's Presence and Ministry and then were exposed to a dreadful Persecution John 11. Christ biddeth them make use of Light because Darkness was coming upon them Never was the Gospel powerfully preached but Trials came 1 Thess. 1.5 For our Gospel came not unto you in Word only but also in Power and in the Holy-Ghost and in much Assurance And it follows Verse 6. Ye received the Word with much Affliction God will try how we can live upon the Comforts of the Gospel Castles are first victualled and then besieged Heb. 10.32 After ye were illuminated ye endured a great Fight of Afflictions The Churches of Asia had horrible Desolations after a powerful Ministry The Germans after a sufficient Promulgation of the Gospel suffered many sad Years 2. Observe After Trials and Reformations there come Trials and Probations that after we have submitted to the Ways of God we may honour them with Sufferings The Ten Persecutions were after Christ had set up the Ordinances of the Gospel The Marian and Bloody Days were after King Edward's Reformation God will have every Truth honoured in its season When the Witnesses had finished the Testimony of their Prophecy after a short time they were slain Rev. 11. 3. Observe When Reformations stick in the Birth God will promote them by Troubles he taketh his own Fan into his hand Mat. 3.12 Whose Fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his Floor When Men cannot or will not effect it God will purge his Floor and cleanse the Church from prophane mixtures Christ came with his Whip to cleanse the Temple Joh. 2.15 Grosthead prophesied That the Church should not be reformed but ore gladii cruentandi God usually tendreth a Reformation to the World with a Judgment in his hand and if the Reformation be obstructed the Judgment will proceed Ezek. 24.12 13. She hath wearied her self with Lies and her great Scum went not forth out of her her Scum shall be in the Fire In thy filthiness is lewdness because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my Fury to rest upon thee When the Pot is put over the Fire if the Scum remaineth still he overturneth all 4. Observe When there are great Differences among God's own People the End is bitter We warp in the Sun-shine The Dog is let loose that the Sheep may run together A piece of Wax when it is broken put it together never so often it will not close but put it into the Candle and the Ends stick close together Ridley and Hooper could agree in a Prison A little before Dioclesian's Persecution the Church was rent and torn by intestine Broils Pastor against Pastor and People against People Ease begets Pride and Wantonness and that maketh way for Contention God may soder you in your own Blood and effect Union by making you Objects of the same Hatred and Persecution Nazianzen was wont to call the Enemies of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the turbulent Enemies many times prove the best Reconcilers and the Wolves bring the Sheep together 5. Observe Libertines and Fanatical Persons when they encrease in Power and Numbers become cruel Jude 11. Wo unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain The Donatists are of detestable and accursed memory because of their insolent Cruelties Hos. 5.5 The Revolters are profound to make Slaughter Men that have cast off the holy Faith after some Profession the Lord keep us from their tender Mercies The Arrians grew bloody Want of Truth is usually made up by a supply of Rage Lees and Dregs are usually very tart and sowre 6. Observe When Religion hath received Wounds in the House of her Friends and occasion is given to the World by Scandals to think evil of the Ways of God God taketh his Scourge in his hand and the Devil hath an Advantage he stirreth the Malignant World against the Children of God As a Sect of Monsters the Gnosticks by their impure and libidinous Courses made Christianity odious and then the Heathens rose up against them as Pests of Mankind Satan is a Liar but never his Lies carry more pretence 7. Observe When there is a decay of the Power of Godliness and Formality and Contempt of the Word take place which are the usual Effects of Prosperity As soon as we come out of Miseries we run into Disorders therefore God is wont to return us into our old Chains and Captivity that we may wanton it no more Hos. 5. ult I will go and return to my Place till they acknowledg their Offence and seek my Face In their Affliction they will seek me early I will try them by Adversity I will try what my Rod will do to better my People As also to discover Hypocrites When
Temptation in that Livery which suiteth with every Man's Humour and Complexion and plieth that Object which suiteth with the Distemper he knoweth every Distemper loveth the Diet that feedeth it hath Honours for the Ambitioâ—s Wealth for the Covetous Pleasures for the Sensual and God by a Righteous Dispensation permitteth it Jer. 6.21 Therefore thus saith the Lord Behold I will lay stumbling-blocks before this People and the Fathers and the Sons together shall fall upon them As when we â—uspect a Servant to be given to filching we leave loose Mony about the House to try if he will steal it So God to try us may suffer Satan to ply us with a Diet suitable to our Distemper Secondly The next Reason is our own weakness There are not only Snares and Temptations in the World but there is a flexibleness in the Party tempted James 1.14 Every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and inticed The Fire burneth in our own Hearts Satan doth but blow up the Flame There is bad Liquor in the Vessel Satan giveth it vent and sets it abroach with Violence Mat. 5.28 He that looketh upon a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart There is an intrinsecal flexibleness in the Heart a treacherous Party within The Evils of the World were tolerable if there were not Lust in the Heart 2 Pet. 1.4 Having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust. We carry the worst Enemy in our own Bosom Satan could not prevail against us were it not for our own Lusts as the Philistines could not prevail against Sampson if Dalilah had not lull'd him asleep or as Baalam first corrupted Israel before he could curse them Nay when there is Grace wrought still there is a treacherous Party within Mat. 26.41 The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak The Will hath a proneness still and in your Affections there is a suitableness to carnal Baits It is as with a Garison besieged tho the treacherous Party be weakest in the Town yet they may do much hurt so there is still corruption enough to open the Door to Satan Vse 1. Caution Take heed the World is a dangerous place even to a Disciple of Christ and therefore you have need to use it as if you used it not The Heart is soon tainted and that insensibly There are two Remedies that you should constantly use Watching and Prayer they are prescribed by our Saviour Mat. 26.41 Watch and Pray that ye enter not into Temptation These must always go together we Watch that we may not be careless we Pray that we may not be self-confident These two Duties help one another the Heart is best kept when it is commended to God We watch only to discover the Approaches of the Enemy and we cry for God's help against the Temptation As Watching helps Prayer Danger descried giveth quickness fervency and earnestness in Supplication So also Prayer helpeth Watching we can best maintain our Station when we call in God's Help 1 st Watch and that especially against two Things the Occasions of Sin and the privy Distempers of the Heart 1. The Occasions of Sin Do not put your selves upon danger it is a sign of a naughty Heart to dally with Occasions as Ravens when they are driven away from the Carrion will stand within the scent It is not good to be within the scent of Sin Lot and his Wife were not to look back upon Sodom Gen. 19.26 Lot 's Wife looked back from behind him and she became a Pillar of Salt The Act in it self was not sinful but it was forbidden to them as an Occasion of Sin You shall see Vers. 29. Abraham looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah and he is commended but it was forbidden to Lot Vers. 17. Escape for thy Life look not behind thee because it was likely to work Relentings he was loth to leave that pleasant Vale the sight was more like to work on Lot's Heart and his Wives than Abraham's and prove a Snare to them Therefore Lot's Wife is turned into a Pillar of Salt Pray mark it Ananias and Saphira were striken dead for a Sin and Lot's Wife for putting her self upon a Temptation to Sin God hath declared his displeasure against hankering after Corruption as well as closing with it and in these days Sin is not grown less dangerous nor God less angry with it a wanton Look putting our selves upon the presence of a Temptation without a Call beholding the Wine while it sparkleth in the Glass these are Temptations and we have no need to tempt the Tempter Satan is waiting for such Advantages he can interpret the silent Language of a Blush a Smile a Frown a Look the glance of a lustful Eye he is watchful and is an excellent Naturalist skilled in the external Gestures and Motions of the Spirits 2. Against Privy Distempers We are not only to watch against Actual Sins but the secret growing of Evil Habits especially against Deadness Drowsiness and those Distempers that insensibly creep upon the Heart Conversing with worldly Pleasures and worldly Objects breedeth a deadness and withdraweth the Heart e're we are aware Natural Conscience is kept waking against foul Lusts and Corruptions they are in a dead sleep that can as Jonah did sleep in a storm that fall into brutish practices without remorse But the great end of Spritiual Watching is to keep the Heart in Frame to prevent the sly Incroachments of the World But how shall we know when the World doth incroach I Answer When your care is lessened towards Heavenly Things and your Delight is lessened in them 1. When your Care is lessened towards Heavenly Things you are not so serious so frequent in communion with God This is Martha's Fault She was cumbred about much serving while Mary sat at Jesus his feet and heard his Words Luke 10. latter end When you begin to lessen your course of Duty tho the same Abilities Opportunities and Necessities continue and only out of respect to the World it is a carnal Distemper especially when the World beginneth to upbraid Conscience if I hear as much and pray as much and meditate as much as I was wont it will engross my Time and hinder my worldly Pursuits As Sarah thrust Ishmael out of Doors when he began to scoff at Isaac it is good to thrust the World out of the Heart when it encroacheth too much Be it the World of carnal Delight or of carnal Profit when it would defraud God or the Soul or the Family of its due Allowance it is sad 2. When your Delight is lessened and you have lost your savour of the Word or the Ordinances or Sabbath and prize Communion with God less God is defrauded 1 John 2.15 Love not the World nor the Things of the World for if any Man love the World the Love of the Father is not in him The Love of the World hath made you weary of God When
he will worship God and report that God is in you of a Truth In converting Sinners to God James 1.18 Of his own Will begat he us with the Word of Truth In building up them that are sanctified Acts 20.32 And now Brethren I commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an Inheritance among them that are sanctified This is no sluggish idle Power that may be hid and obscured but manifests it self by sensible Effects it is lively and operative not only to change Men's Lives but Hearts Psal. 19.7 8. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the Simple The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the Heart the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the Eyes This the Apostle makes to be a sensible proof of Christ speaking in him 2 Cor. 13.3 Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me which to you-ward is not weak but is mighty in you Object But this is an Argument to those that have felt it How will it perswade others Answ. 1. It is an Argument to others also for this mighty Operation is sensible to others they may see the change wrought in them and wonder at it 1 Pet. 4.4 Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to all excess of Riot 2. There are publick Effects of the Power of the Word besides private Instances Wherever the Word hath been Satan vanished where formerly he tyrannized and his Deceits are of no more force Oracles ceased at Delphos the Devils howled Where the Gospel is preached there are less Witchcrafts and Diabolical Delusions they are not so frequent where the Gospel has had a free passage 3. Those that have felt no experience of this Power have a secret fear of it John 3.20 Every one that doth Evil hateth the Light neither cometh to the Light left his Deeds should be reproved Conscience is afraid of the Majesty of God shining forth in the Scriptures Men dare not pause upon and consider the Doctrine therein contained Atheism lieth in the Heart the Seat of Desire Psal. 14.1 The Fool hath said in his Heart There is no God Men question the Word because they would not have it true When Men give leave to Lusts they are afraid the Word should prove true and therefore would rather accuse the Word of Falsity than their own Hearts as Ahab was loth to hear Micaiah because he prophesied Evil. Strong Lusts make the Soul incredulous they fear the Scriptures and then question them They know there is Power in them to astonish them and therefore as Malefactors desire to destroy the Records and Evidences that are against them so do wicked Men they are Antiscripturists in Affection rather than Opinion Fifthly By the Spirit 's Testimony That it is so is clear 1 John 5.6 It is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is Truth The Doctrine of the Gospel is there called Spirit because he is the Author of it 2 Pet. 1.21 For the Prophecy came not in old Time by the Will of Men but Holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Or because the Spirit is Truth therefore he is the Supreme Witness He is of God's Privy Council 1 Cor. 2.11 For what Man knoweth the Things of a Man save the Spirit of Man that is in him Even so the Things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God Now the Spirit witnesseth from Heaven or on Earth 1 John 5.7 8. For there are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are One. And there are three that bear witness in Earth the Spirit and the Water and Blood and these three agree in One. From Heaven in Miracles and so Christ as God might be a Witness in his own Cause On Earth so in an Association and Conjunction with Water and Blood when we feel the Effects of it in ease of Conscience or Sanctification of Heart And over and above the Spirit 's Testimony there is an inward Testimony 1 John 5.10 He that believeth in the Son of God hath the Testimony in himself But what is this inward Testimony a Witness to the Truth of Scripture by the certainty of our own Thoughts it is not that which every one's Mind and Fancy suggests to him but the Light of the Holy Ghost leading us into the acknowledgment of the Truth the same Holy Ghost which inspired the Penmen of the Scriptures inclines our Hearts to believe them 1 John 2.27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any Man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you all things and is Truth and is no lie and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him Faith cannot be wrought by Humane Authority or more rational Inducements it is the Work of the Spirit We may plead and urge but the Heart closeth not with what is represented till the Spirit worketh Isa. 53.1 Who hath believed our Report and to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed There is an outward Report and an inward Revelation This Testimony of the Spirit may be thus discerned 1. It is affective Truth represented in the Light of Reason leaveth a weak Impression but Truth represented in the Evidence and Demonstration of the Spirit 2. Cor. 2.4 worketh after another manner sees another manner of excellency and beauty in Christ another manner of vanity in the Creatures 2. It draweth to Admiration Psal. 119.18 Open thou mine Eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law A Man never wondreth so at the dreadfulness of God's Wrath at the sweetness of God's Mercy in Christ at the Evil of Sin the strictness of Duty till the Spirit opens his Eyes Acts 13.12 Then the Deputy when he saw what was done believed being astonished at the Doctrine of the Lord. 3. It begets more certainty Till we have the Spirit 's Light we have but a trembling wavering Opinion but then we have that which the Apostle calleth The Fulness of the Assurance of Vnderstanding Col. 2.2 Tho we have no other Arguments yet we see by another Light As Gerson reporteth of a devout Man that doubted of an Article of Faith and came to be setled not by any new Demonstration but by the humiliation and captivation of the Understanding to see more by former Arguments As Hagar's Eyes were opened to see the Fountain by her Gen. 21.19 The Spirit taketh away the Vail of Ignorance the Pride of Reason and by an over-powering Force maketh the Soul stoop to the simplicity of the Gospel 4. It is a transforming Light 2 Cor. 3.18 We all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of our God A Man
the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but they that sow to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Now it concerneth us to consider what or who it is that employeth us Our Bodies are worn out and the vigour of Nature is daily spent but in what in pleasing the flesh in that which it craveth or in serving pleasing and glorifying God The Prophet saith Isa. 55.2 Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Every man is at the cost and expence of his time and labour and bestoweth it on something or other but in what Do not think of compounding the matter for as every man serveth one of these Masters so no man serveth both Mat. 6.24 No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon They both require our full strength and both command contrary things therefore as a man cannot go two contrary ways at once so he cannot obey these two Masters if sin reign in our Souls it draweth all things into obedience the consent of your minds is not enough to satisfie it but it will employ the body to fulfil its cravings and especially those two Adjuncts of the bodily Life Time and Strength And Grace doth the like the Faculties and Powers of the Soul and Body must be employed one way or another they cannot lie idle in such an active restless Creature as man is 2. Both these Services are entred into by consent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Some men pronely yield up themselves to do what sin would have to be done therefore they are said to give themselves to work wickedness and where sin is vehement and obstinate they are said to sell themselves to work wickedness and in other Phrases Eccles. 8.11 The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Eph. 4.19 They have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness when they have cast off all remorse of Conscience and fear of Gods Judgments with full consent they abandon themselves to their brutish lusts and filthy desires there is no check nor restraint can hold them But this is when sin is grown an height 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jude 11 They have ran greedily c. as water is poured out of a Bucket But generally in all sin there is a voluntariness if not a wilfulness in it as a stone runneth down hill because it is its own proper motion 2. To God we consecrate our selves with a thorow consent of will Rom. 12.1 I beseech you by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service And 2 Cor. 8.5 And this they did not as we hoped but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word either alludeth to Servants who stand before or in the presence of their Lord and Master to shew their readiness to be commanded or employed by him so present your selves to shew your readiness to obey all the commands of God or in allusion to the Sacrifice which was presented before the Altar in token that the party did design it and with it himself to God so do we yield up our selves to God Bodies and Souls all that we are and have we resign it to him There is this difference in both these resignations the Devils Servants do not what they do in love to him but to their own flesh but Christs Servants do what they do in love to him as well as to themselves they know him and love him he is not a Master to be ashamed of The giving up our selves to sin is a concealed act we would not be seen in it for there is somewhat in their own hearts to check it and condemn it some Conscience of good and evil as also a fear of blame from God and the World and so men do it covertly but do we give up our selves solemnly and professedly 3. The service of sin should not be allowed by us 1. Partly because Sin is an Usurper whereas God hath a full and clear right both to our Bodies and our Souls for he made them both Sinners so far as they owne a God and their obligations to him cannot but look upon sin as a disorder for it alienateth our subjection from him to whom it is due All sinners are not Atheists and therefore can never get off this Conviction that God is their Owner for he is their Maker and framed them for such an use and end namely to keep his Laws therefore to lend or give their bodies to sin is disloyalty and rebellion against the great and just Soveraign of the World 1 Joh. 3.4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the Law for sin is the transgression of the Law Men do not only say but notionally know that God is their Owner but if they did practically improve it the reformation of the World would not be so desperate a Cure as it is but alas professing to know God in their works they deny him Tit. 1.16 their lives are quite contrary to their notional acknowledgement of God what could they do more or worse if there were no God Reason will tell us that it is impossible for us to be our own for we neither made our selves nor can we subsist of our selves for one moment All wicked men are God's whether they will or no yea the Devils themselves not expected they are his against their wills and therefore do not live as his 2. Sin is Gods enemy and ours too it destroyeth us while it seemeth to gratifie us The end of these things is death Rom. 6.21 Now he is a Traitor to his Country that supplieth the Enemy with Arms you wrong God and wrong your own Bodies and Souls Therefore yield not your members us weapons of unrighteousness unto sin It is a miserable thing to be Traitors to God and our selves Thy dâ—struction iâ— of thy self Hos. 13.9 our misery is of our own procuring God is not to be blamed but our own perverse choice we cherish a Serpent in our bosoms that will sting us to death 4. Since sin cannot challenge any just Title to us it is unquestionably our Duty to yield up our selves to the Lord. Let us see in what manner it is to be done 1. It must be done with hearty and full consent of Will In the Covenant of Grace God demandeth his Right to be given him by your Consent it is indeed a due Debt but it is called a Gift My son give me thy heart Prov. 23.20 because you become his People not by constraint but by consent Psal. 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power and therefore it is resembled to Marriage than which
of sin Or as the Saints of God are eminent for some special Graces Abraham for Faith Moses for Meekness Job for Patience Joseph for Chastity Timothy for Temperance so these have their notorious and contrary blemishes 2. There is a more secret and close Dominion of Sin that is varnished over with a fair appearance Men have many good qualities no notorious blemishes but yet some sensitive good or other lieth nearest the heart and occupieth the room and place of God that is it is loved respected and served instead of God or more than God that which is our chiefest Good or last End is our God or occupieth the room of God Mat. 6.24 No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon Joh. 5.44 How can ye believe which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God only Luke 14.26 If any come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple We must be dead not only to carnal Pleasures but to Relations Estate yea Life and all nothing on this side God must fit nearest the heart nor bring us under its command and power 1 Cor. 6.12 I will not be brought under the power of any thing We are besotted and bewitched with some temporal thing cannot part with it or leave it for Gods sake or notwithstanding all the mischief it doth to his interest in the Soul though a man serve it cunningly closely and by a cleanly conveyance yet all his Religion is to hide and feed this Lust. 6. There is a Predominancy of one Sin over another and the Predominancy of Sin over Grace In the first sense renewed men may be said to have some reigning corruption or predominant sin namely in comparison of other sins That such predominant sins they have appeareth by the great sway and power they bear in commanding other evils to be committed or forborn accordingly as they contribute to the advancement or hinderance of this sin As in the Body a Wen or Strain draweth all the noxious humors to its self and thereby groweth moâ—e great and monstrous It appeareth also by the frequent relapses of the Saints into them and their unwillingness to admit admonition and reproof for them and sometimes their falling into them out of an inward propensity when outward Temptations are none or weak or very few Well then there are some sins which are less mortified than others or unto which they are naturally carried by Constitution or Education natural Inclination or course of Life Thus David had his iniquity Psal. 18.23 I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine iniquity whether it were hastiness or distrust of the Promise or also an inclination to revenge himself some sins that men favour or withstand less or which are most urgent and importunate upon them and steal away their hearts most from God the great Pond into which other rivulets or streams of sin do empty themselves or that bough or limb which taketh away the nourishment from all the under-shrubs that which is loved and delighted in above other sins and when other sins will not prevail the Devil sets this a-work as the Disciples looked on the Disciple whom Jesus loved Joh. 13.23 24. Now there was leaning on Jesus bosom one of the disciples whom Jesus loved Simon Peter therefore beckened unto him that â—e should ask Who it should be of whom he spake Well then in regard of other sins one may reign and sit in the Throne of the Heart or be loved more than another but not in regard of Predominancy over Grace for that is contrary to the new Nature that sin should have the upper hand constantly and universally in the Soul For any one thing though never so lawful in it self habitually loved more than God will not stand with sincerity Luke 14.33 Whosoever be be that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple if we must not keep our natural Comforts certainly not our carnal Lusts. To love any thing apart from Christ or against Christ or above Christ is a dispossessing of Christ or a casting him out of the Throne 7. There is a twofold Prevalency and Dominion actual or habitual Actual is only for a time habitual for a constancy though a regenerate man be not one that lets sin reign over him habitually yet too often doth sin reign over him actually as to some particular acts of sin First The habitual Reign of Sin may be known by the general frame and state of the heart and life where it is constantly yielded unto and not controuled and opposed but beareth sway with the contentment and delight of the party sinning Men give the bridle to sin and let it lead them whither it will and generally walk after the flesh and not after the Spirit no doubt that is peccatum regnans cui homo nec vult nec potest resistere the sinner hath neither will nor power because usually after many lapses into hainous sin God giveth up men to penal or judicial hardness of heart they first voluntarily take on these bonds and chains upon themselves these are said to walk after their own lusts 2 Pet. 3.3 to continue or live in sin Rom. 6.2 to be dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.1 to serve divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3.3 to draw on iniquity with cart-ropes Isa. 5.18 to addict and give up themselves to a trade of sin with delight and consent But more closely the reign of sin is never broken till the Flesh be made subject to the Spirit that will be found by examining every day what advantage the Spirit hath gotten against the Flesh or the Flesh against the Spirit how Providences and Ordinances are blessed for that end or for the weakening of sin for every day the one or the other gets ground Dough once soured with Leaven will never lose the taste and smatch but the sweetness of the Corn may prevail above it Sin dwelleth in the heart but doth it decay Gal. 5.16 This I say walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Secondly Actual Sin may now and then get a Victory over the Faithful but not a full quiet Reign Sin actually prevaileth when we do that which is evil against our Consciences or yield pro hic nunc to obey sin in the lusts thereof It gameth our consent for the time but the general frame and bent of the heart is against it In short when sin is perfected into some evil action or lust hath conceived and brought forth sin Jam. 1.15 that is some heinous offence for that time no question it hath the upper hand and carrieth it from Grace and the Flesh doth shew it self in them more than the
of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men Avoid it pass not by it turn from it and pass away Prov. 4.14 15. Evil company is a snare Our Saviour taught us to pray Lead us not into temptation he doth not say into sin the temptation openeth the gate 3. For Praying we oftner pray from our Memories than from our Consciences or from our Consciences as inlightned rather than hearts renewed by Grace Prayer as it is the fruit of Memory and Invention is but slight and formal words said of course a Body without a Soul as dictated by Conscience it may be retracted by the Will timebam ne me exaudiret Deus Or at best they are but half desires faint wishes like Baalam's wishing which will never do good The soul of the sluggard desireth but hath nothing God never made promise that such wishes should be satisfied SERMON XV. ROM VI. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace USE 1. of Reproof to reprove 1. The security and carelesness of many that never look to the state of their hearts nor regard whether Christ reigneth or Sin reigneth or at least do not take good heed which way things tend to the greatning or increasing of Gods interest or Satans in their Souls Many count an holy jealousie or heedful watchfulness to be but Preciseness and that we make more ado than needeth and make the lives of Christians burdensom when we press them to a constant watchfulness and holy jealousie of themselves no this is no burden but a blessing Prov. 28.14 Blessed is the man that feareth always Sin gaineth upon us for want of taking heed at first They that see no need of this caution are little acquainted with the practice of Godliness or the state of their own hearts have not a due sense and apprehension of the danger of displeasing God or of their own proclivity and proneness to sin therefore live by chance and peradventure and leave themselves to be transported by their own affections to do any thing which Occasions and Temptations invite them unto Were we as sensible of the dangers of the inward as outward man we should surely stand more upon our guard and resist the first motions and tendencies towards a sin certainly we would not give such harbour and indulgence to our Corruptions as usually we do lest we nourish and foster a Viper in our own bosoms which will at length sting us to death Surely it is no wisdom to carry till the dead blow cometh an inclination to evil is best mortified at first and the longer we dally and play with a Temptation the harder will our conflict be But when may we be said to omit our Watchfulness 1. When we grow bolder with sin and the Temptations and Occasions of it and think we have so good a command of our selves and can keep within compass well enough though we cast our selves upon tempting objects and occasions unnecessarily and without a call Surely these men forget themselves and the danger of sin as if they had some special Amulet against it which the People of God had not in former times They know exactly how far they may go in every thing even to the cleaving of an hair and will not lose one jot of their liberty and seem to make a sport of it to shew how far they can go and how near the pit and not fall in They can allow themselves in all kind of liberty for lascivious Songs wanton Plays and yet look to the main chance well enough please themselves with all kind of froth and folly yea sometimes execrable filth yet never any kind of infection cometh near their hearts Alas poor deluded Creatures they that do all that they may will soon do more than they should and those that come as near a sin as possibly they can without falling into it cannot be long safe yea and they are infected already that have so little sense of the strength of sin and their own weakness I confess some are more liable to Temptations than others but yet all need watchfulness for their preservation for sin is not extirpated and rooted out of any And again when I am in my Calling I am under Gods Protection as a Subject is under the Protection of his Prince travelling in due hours on the High-way but none can presume their Knowledge is so found their Faith so strong their Hearts so good to God as to think no hurt will come when they cast themselves voluntarily upon occasions of sin 2. When you make a small maâ—ter of those Corruptions which were once so grievous even intolerable to you Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death You lose tenderness of Conscience remit of your care 3. When you content your selves with the customary use of holy Duties though you find no profit nor increase of Grace by them rather perform them as a task than use them as a means to get and increase Grace Nunquam abs to absque te recedam Lord I will never go from thee without thee Gen. 32.26 I will not let thee go except thou bless me 4. When you neglect your hearts grow strangers to them find little work to do about them Every Christian findeth work enough from day to day to get his heart quickened when it is dead inlarged when it is straitned prepared when it is indisposed to be made serious when it is vain and frothy cured when it is distempered setled when it is troubled and discomposed But sin becometh easie and Conscience becometh patient and quiet under it Surely you are not watchful and mind not your Covenant-vow 2. It reproveth those that hope to have sin subdued and kept from reigning though they never strive against it It is the striving Christian which is here encouraged those that have given up themselves to Christs conduct and to fight in his Warfare Many run of their own accord into sin others make no opposition against it now Christ undertaketh not to keep these The Captain of our Salvation only taketh charge of his own Souldiers to lead them safe to eternal Glory and Happiness others are excepted Grace received from him is of little use to us if we fight not Therefore besides watching there must be resisting This Resistance must be First Earnest and vehement such as cometh from an hatred of sin as sin The Light of Nature will rise up against many sins especially at first as sin is a disorder and inconvenience but this is but partial and soon tireth but the resistance required of Christians is such as ariseth from a constant hatred Rom. 7.15 That which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but what I hate that do I. When Eve speaketh faintly the Devil reneweth the assult Gen. 3.3 Of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God
prevent hardness of heart by all holy means that we may not settle in an evil course it is not enough to ask Pardon to forbear the Act but you must mortifie the root of the distemper There are three things in sin Culpa Reatus Macula The Fault is continued as long as the Act is repeated you are in danger of this till the breach be made up between God and you as Lot doubled his Incest the orifice of the wound was not yet closed and Peter doubled and trebled his denials whilst the Temptation was yet upon him and he had not recovered himself by Repentance Samsons folly and inordinate love to women twice betrayed him Judg. 16.1 4. The Guilt continueth till Repentance and suing out Pardon in the Name of Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Though a man should forbear the Act yet unless he humbleth himself before God and in a broken hearted way applieth himself to his Mediator and Advocate the guilt is not done away But besides there is the blot or the inclination to sin again the evil influence of the sin continues till we mortifie the root and the core of the distemper be gotten out Take for an instance Jonah the Prophet the original reason of his tergiversation from his Call was a fear of being ashamed and found false in those threatnings which he was to denounce in the Name of God this maketh him run away from his Duty and it cost him dear for a Tempest pursued him and he was thrown into the Sea and swallowed up of a Whale or great Fish Well he being disciplined confesseth his fault repenteth his forsaking his Call begs pardon is delivered addresseth himself to his work God interposeth by the Prerogative of his Grace upon the Humiliation of the Ninevites and then Jonah is all in a fury his old reasons return Jonah 4.1 2. Was not this my saying when I was yet in my country c. Therefore it is not enough to bewail or discontinue the sin but we must launce the sore mortifie the root of the distemper till all be well This was the reason of Christs Speech to Peter Joh. 21.15 Simon Peter lovest thou me more than these that is more than the rest of the Disciples present Peter had boasted Mat. 26.33 Though all men be offended because of thee yet will I never be offended Now saith Christ Lovest thou me more than these he reflecteth upon his former-conceit of himself and singular undertaking Peter had wept bitterly for the fact of denying his Master Christ would try if the cause were removed The evil of the Saints Apostasie and Defection will never be cured thorowly unless the Fountain-cause and root of it be cured and continually watched over his making comparisons and lofty conceit of himself was that which occasioned his former Fall therefore Christ to see what he did think of it and whether it did continue with him puts him this Question Peter was grown more modest than to make any comparisons now his sad Fall taught him sobriety not to boast of himself beyond others Sixthly You are to watch against evil Customs that you do not lose your tenderness of Conscience Conscience as the Eye is soon offended the least dust if it get into the Eye will pain it so will Conscience smite for lesser â—ailings and exorbitancies but afterwards when you make bold with it it is like the stomach of the Estrich which digesteth Iron or like a part or member of the Body which is seared with an hot Iron it hath no feeling 1 Tim. 4.2 or like freezing water which at first will not bear a pin but afterwards it freezeth and freezeth till it bear a Cart-load so men lose their tender sense by frequency of sinning Therefore it is some degree of Mortification to prevent the Custom and the hardness of Heart that comes thereby When a member is sprained or out of joynt if you let it alone and delay to set it it never groweth strong or straight so the longer Corruption is spared the worse it groweth and requireth more strength Therefore at least let not your hearts settle in a course of Vanity or Disobedience unto God Seventhly Take heed of your darling Sin We are more tender of one sin than another It is sweet in our mouths and we hide it under our tongues Job 20.12 there is most pleasure and profit in it This is the sin which is most apt to prevail and settle into a Tyranny in the Soul and your Uprightness is tryed by your watching and striving against it as Psal. 18.23 I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine iniquity Unless we humble our selves more for this watch against this strive against this it will be our ruine and prove the ground of our Apostasie in a time of Temptation There is some secret vent which all men have for their Corruptions or some Postern or Back-door by which Satan usually enters Now this sin should be always in your eye for the strength of other sins dependeth upon love to this Fight not against small nor great but against the King of Israel 1 Kings 22.21 You should be most jealous of your hearts lest they miscarry by this sin and labour to increase in the contrary Grace He that will not spare his darling he hateth no sin indeed Secondly For striving this is required of us also for we are bidden to stand against the wiles of the Devil Eph. 6.11 To withstand that after all we may stand vers 13. A stout and peremptory resistance of Satans Temptations is required of us in order to Victory The more we yield to sin the more it tyrannizeth over us Mat. 12.45 Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first The more Satan is resisted the more he loseth ground Jam. 4.7 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you Christ promiseth the Crowns to those that will fight manfully Rev. 2.10 Be thou faithful unto the death and I will give thee a Crown of life Therefore do not basely yield nor lazily sit down as if the work were already done But what is this Striving It implieth two things 1. An avowed Defiance 2. A couragious Resistance 1. An avowed Defiance The first preparation of it is the Resolution of the Mind or the Dedication of our selves to God When we are regeneraet we renounce the Devil the World and the Flesh and bid defiance or proclaim an eternal feud and hostility against them declare our selves enemies to these three 2. A couragious resistance for after that time we are fearfully assaulted and in continual warfare with Satan 1 Pet. 5.8 Be sober be vigilant because your adversary the Devil like a roaring lion continually walketh about seeking whom
to your satisfaction and peace This is enough to support us in all conditions one drop of it is enough to sweeten all our crosses Rom. 5.5 Hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us And it is the life of all our comforts Psal. 4.6 7. Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased And Psal. 63.3 Because thy loving-kindness is better than life my lips shall praise thee 3. As God will owne them so Conscience speaketh peace and comfort to them that have their fruit to Holiness Before our full and final reward we have this solace that our own hearts do not only acquit us but approve what we do and a holy course of Life is usually rewarded with peace of Conscience it is not only without offence Acts 24.16 Herein do I exercise my self to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man but it breedeth Joy 2 Cor. 1.2 Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world On the contrary mens hearts smite and reproach them for their sins and the breaches they make in their Duty Job 27.6 My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live the words imply that the heart hath a reproaching and condemning power when we do evil we shall sensibly find it by accusing thoughts within our selves Rom. 2.15 Their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts in the mean time accusing or else excusing one another Conscience must be better used before it will speak a word of well-grounded peace to a man They that keep the thorn in the foot will never walk without pain If you would prevent the checks and upbraidings of your own Consciences you must take away the causes and occasions thereof walk so that our hearts may not reproach you Do you take care of your Duty and God will take care of your Comfort but if you give way to sin Conscience will awaken upon you 4. Our Title to the heavenly Inheritance is more clear and our Right confirmed by Holiness There is fulness of joy reserved for Gods People Psal. 16.11 and if we look to the end it must needs make the way the more pleasant and comfortable especially when we have by Faith a lively foresight of this endless Glory and Blessedness Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen and by Hope and Love a foretaste of it Rom. 5.2 We rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Blessed will the time be when ye shall be for ever with the Lord and see his Glory and this is the end of the way you walk in Alas others can never have solid comfort they know where they are but know not where they shall be when they dye they must into an unknown World and which is worse to an unknown God of whose Love they never had any Taste or Experience But those that live always in the fight of the World to come and keep themselves in the way that tendeth thither and look continually when God will translate them into his immediate Presence they have the Foretaste before they have the Injoyment the Promise is matter of joy to them which is Gods Grant Psal. 119.11 Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart The way they walk in is matter of Joy to them because that confirmeth their Right 1 Tim 6.12 Fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses While they are in the way they look to the end of their Journey while running their Race they see a Crown set before them the very Acts of Faith Hope and Love are pleasant Rom. 15.13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Well then who live the more pleasant lives they that walk upon the brink of Hell every moment or the Heirs of Eternal Life and Happiness who have an Heaven to wait for 5. They have easier Access to God or more free Communion with him here than others have because there is nothing to hinder neither on Gods part nor theirs God hath assured them of Audience and Welcome and they have in a great measure overcome their legal Bondage so as they are not shy of God nor stand aloof from him they do not allow themselves in the omission of any known Duty nor in the commission of any known sin and are sincere though not perfect 1 Joh. 3.21 22. If our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do the things which are pleasing in his sight Two things obstruct our ready access to God our own Guiltiness and Gods Terror Our own Guiltiness straitens the heart and stops the mouth and makes us afraid and shy of God but they who are renewed and pardoned come out of this state of bondage their hearts do not condemn them for living in any known disobedience to God or course of sin which whosoever doth carrieth his sting and his wound about him and is subject to tormenting evils and legal fear On Gods part he is reconciled to such as make Conscience of Holiness and they may obtain at his hands whatever in Reason and Righteousness they ask of him he hath given them Liberty by his new Covenant-Grant and Charter founded in the Blood of Christ the Covenant is large and gracious and their Claim firm and sure and therefore they come boldly unto him But now Gods Presence which is the comfort of the Faithful is the burden of the carnal and the guilty terrible to them that live in sin and therefore they think they are never better than when they are furthest off from God Well then you see to have our Fruit to Holiness is the pleasure and comfort of our Lives for then we maintain our liberty in Prayer and our confidence towards God there is an open door of access to admit us to God and free and full Communion with him 6. Their Work is more easie because it is not done against the bent of the Heart but it is the course of Life which they have chosen Psal. 40.8 I delight to do thy will O God yea thy Law is within my heart 1 Joh. 5.3 This is the love of God that we keep his commandments and
That 't is a great felicity not to be obnoxious to condemnation 2. That this is the portion of the true Christian or such as are in Christ. 3. Those who are in Christ obey not the inclinations of corrupt Nature but the motions of the Spirit First It is a great priviledg not to be obnoxious to condemnation There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. To understand this you must consider First What condemnation importeth Secondly How came we by this exemption 1. What condemnation importeth The terror of it is unspeakable when 't is sufficiently understood and therefore by consequence our exemption and deliverance from it is the greater mercy In the general Condemnation is a sentence dooming us to punishment Now particularly for this condemnation 1. Consider whose Sentence this is there is Sententia Legis and Sententia Judicis the Sentence of the Law and the Sentence of the Judge The Sentence of the Law is the Sentence of the Word of God and that is either the Law of Works or the Law of Grace The damnatory Sentence of the Law concludeth all under the curse for all are under sin Gal. 3.10 For as many as are under the works of the law are under the curse for it is written Cursed is he that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them So all the World is guilty before God Rom. 3.10 But the Gospel or the Law of Grace denounceth damnation to those that believe not in Christ and obstinately refuse his mercy Mar. 16.16 he that believeth not shall be damned and also against them that love not Christ and obey him 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be accursed This is the Sentence of the Law But then there is Sententia Judicis the Sentence which the Judg passeth upon a sinner and is either 1. The ratifying of that Sentence which the word denounceth be it either Law or Gospel for what is bound in earth is bound in heaven and God condemneth those whom his Word condemneth so that for the present wicked men have a Sentence against them they are all cast in Law condemned already as it is John 3.18 If men were sensible of their danger they would be more earnest to get the Sentence reversed and repealed before it were executed upon them they are not sure of a days respite 't is a stupid dulness not to be affected with this woful condition there is but a step between them and death and they mind it not 2. As pronounced and declared So it shall be at the last day by the Judg of all the Earth Acts 17.30 Because he hath appointed a day in which he will judg the world in righteousness And 2 Thess. 1.8 He shall come in flaming fire taking vengeance on all them that know not God and obey not the Gospel Then the Sentence is full and solemn pronounced by the Judg upon the Throne in the Audience of all the World Then 't is final and peremptory and puts men into their everlasting estate And then 't is presently executed they go away to that estate to which they are doomed Of this the Scripture speaketh John 5.39 they that have done evil shall arise to the resurrection of damnation It is miserable to be involved in a Sentence of condemnation by the Word Now that shuts up a sinner as in a Prison where the Door is bolted and barred upon him till it be opened by Grace But doleful will their condition be who are Condemned by the final Sentence of the Judg from which there is no appeal nor escape nor deliverance 2. Consider The punishment to which men are condemned and that is twofold Either the poena damni the loss of an heavenly Kingdom they are shut out from that But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into utter darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matth. 8.12 Or poena sensus the torments and pains they shall indure called the damnation of hell Matth. 23.33 Both together are spoken of Matth. 25.41 Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels Words that should cut a sinner to the heart if he had any feeling of his condition now to be exempted from condemnation to this punishment is the greater mercy 'T is enough to heighten in our thoughts the greatest sense of the Love of God that we are freed from the curse that Jesus hath delivered us from wrath to come 1 Thess. 1.10 that we are as brands plucked out of the burning but much more when we consider that we shall be admitted into Gods Blessed presence and see him as he is and be like him 1 John 3.2 And for the present that being justified by faith we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life Tit. 3.7 The Apostle expresseth both parts of the deliverance in one place 1 Thess. 5.9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Mark the Antithesis not to wrath but to obtain salvation Which should increase our sense of the priviledg that when others lie under the wrath of God we shall see him and love him and praise him in Heaven to all Eternity 3. How justly it is deserved by us by reason of Original and Actual sins both before and after Conversion Original sin for the Scripture telleth us Rom. 5.16 the judgment was by one to condemnation and again in Verse 18. by the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation All Adam's Children are become guilty before God and liable to death or brought into such an estate wherein they are condemnable before God So by many actual sins it is deserved by us As we are by nature children of wrath Eph. 2.3 so for a long time we have treasured up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 We have even forfeited the Reprieve which Gods Patience allowed to us and have more and more involved our selves in condemnation Till we comprehend our great need of pardon and exemption from condemnation we cannot understand the worth of it Nay we have deserved this condemnation since conversion He doth not say here There is no sin in us but there is no condemnation sin in its self is always damnable and our Redemption doth not put less evil into sin but in strict Justice we deserve the greater punishment this is another consideration that should indear this priviledg to us 4. How Conscience standeth in dread of this condemnation For if our own hearts condemn us 1 John 3.20 they are a transcript of Gods Law both Precept and Sanction and therefore do not only check us for sin and urge us to duty but also fill us with many hidden fears which sometimes are very stinging When we are serious the more tender the heart is the more it smiteth for sin Ro. 1.23 Who knowing the judgment
a lawful and necessary Fear which doth quicken us to our Duty Phil. 2.12 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling and is either the fear of Reverence or the fear of Caution The fear of Reverence is nothing but that awe which we as Creatures are to have of the Divine Majesty or an humble sense of the condition place and duty of a Creature towards its Creator The fear of Caution is a due sense of the importance and weight of the business we are ingaged in in order to our salvation Certainly none can consider the danger we are to escape and the blessedness we aim at but will see a need to be serious and therefore this fear is good and holy Secondly There is besides this a slavish fear which doth not further but extreamly hinder our Work For tho we are to fear God yet we are not to be afraid of God This servile fear may be interpreted either with respect to the Precept or the Sanction of the Law First with respect to the Precept and so it sheweth us how men stand naturally affected to the duty of the Law Whatever they do is meerly for fear of being punished Secondly to the Sanction Penalty and Curse The fear of evil is more powerful upon us than the hope of good The greater the evil the greater the fear and the more tormenting Doct. That men under the Law-Covenant are under a Spirit of Bondage Here I shall enquire 1. What is the Spirit of Bondage 2. How is it the fruit of the Law-Covenant 3. Whether it is good or bad 1. What is the Spirit of Bondage To open it we must explain Three Things The Nature of the Object 2. The Work of the Spirit 3. The Disposition of man 1. The Nature of the Object The Law requiring Duty of the fal'n creature and threatning punishment in case of disobedience For the Law hath a Twofold Office to convince of sin Rom. 3.20 Now by the Law only cometh the knowledg of sin and to bind over to punishment Therefore 't is said The law worketh wrath Rom. 4.15 In both respects the Old Covenant is called the Law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 The Law as a covenant of Works is called a Law of sin because it only sheweth our sin and a Law of death because it bindeth us over to death 2. The Work of the Spirit Every Truth is quickned by the Spirit and made more powerful upon our hearts The comfort which we have from the Truth of the Gospel is by the Spirit and therefore 't is called Joy in the Holy Ghost So Law-Truths are applied to the conscience by the Spirit Jer. 31.19 After I was instructed I smote upon the thigh and when the commandment came that is in the light and power of the Spirit sin revived and I died Rom. 7.9 That is was made sensible of his sinful and lost condition And indeed the usual Work wherewith the Spirit beginneth with men is to shew them their sin and misery their alienation from God and enmity to him and insufficiency to help themselves 3. The disposition of man which is corrupted under the workings of the Spirit of Bondage And so this Spirit of Bondage or servile Fear worketh several ways according to the Temper of men First in the prophane it giveth occasion of further sinning as conscience being awakened by the Spirit urgeth either the Precept or the Curse the Precept as a Bullock at first yoking groweth more unruly or a River swelleth when it meeteth with a dam and restraint Rom. 7.5 For when we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Sinful practices were more irritated by the prohibition and so our obligation to death increased or else by urging the Curse which produceth the sottish despair Jer. 18.12 And they said there is no hope we will walk after our devices There is a double despair of pleasing or being accepted There is a lazy sottish despair as well as raging and tormenting despair by which men cast off all care of the Souls welfare There is no hope Secondly in a middle sort of men that have a legal conscience it puts them upon some duty and course of service to God But 't is not done comfortably nor upon any noble motives That which is defective in it is this First 't is constrained service This Bondage which is a fruit of the Law doth force and compel men to some unpleasing Task A Christian serveth God out of love but one under the Spirit of Bondage serveth God out of fear A love to God and true holiness prevaileth with the one more than the fear of wrath and punishment for the Spirit of Adoption disposeth and inclineth him to God as a Father but one under the Spirit of Bondage is forced to submit to some kind of religiousness for fear of being damned Indeed both are constrained the one by love the other by fear 2 Cor. 5.14 only the constraint of love is durable and kindly and sweet the other his Task is grievous and wearisome Mal. 1.11 and holdeth most in a fit when danger is nigh they are frighted into some devotion Psal. 78. from 34 to 38. Secondly That service which they are forced and compelled to yield to God is outward service and obedience Isa. 58.7 hanging the head for a day like a Bulrush and as they do Micah 6.7 offer Thousands of Rams and Ten Thousands of Rivers of Oyl or the first born of their body for the sin of their souls 'T is a Sin-Offering rather than a Thank-Offering more to appease conscience than to please God consists in Rituals rather than Substantials and those invented by men rather than commanded by God Whereas the true Christian is otherwise described Phil. 3.3 For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the fiesh But the false Christian is one Matth. 15.8 that draweth nigh to God with the mouth but their heart is far from him their heart is averse from God tho they must have an outward Religion to rest in and so they serve God not as children do a father but as slaves serve an hard and cruel master Thirdly In some the Lord may make use of it to bring on conversion for according to our sense of sin and misery so is a Saviour and Redeemer welcome to us and prized by us There must be a sensible awakening knowledg of our great necessity before we will make use of Christ for our Cure and Remedy None but the sick will care for the Physitian Matth. 9.12 the burdened for ease Matth. 11.28 29. the pursued for a Sanctuary and Refuge Heb. 6.18 None but the condemned to be justified and acquitted Rom. 8.33 34. the lost and miserable to be saved Luke 19.10 2. How is it the fruit of the law covenant The law covenant is double either the
John 10.28 29. This is the great security of the Fold that they are under the power of so careful and so able a Shepherd This Almighty power of God and Christ doth mightily fortifie us against all temptations we meet with in the way to Heaven 6. This right accrueth to believers by virtue of their interest in Christ 1 Cor. 3.22 23. All things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods All things are theirs wherein they are concerned if not in possession yet in reduction or final use Friends Enemies Ordinances Providences all conditions Life Death If you resolve firmly to obey Christ and adhere to him you need not fear any thing Now upon these grounds a Christian may conclude that nothing shall separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 4. That we ought firmly to be perswaded of this here I shall shew you how this perswasion is bred in us 1. By the word of the Gospel discovering to us the whole mystery of our Redemption by Christ with all the consequent benefits There all Gods merciful designs for the justifying sanctifying and glorifying the creature are manifested to us as matter of our faith Acts 19.8 And perswading the things concerning the kingdom of God The Doctrine and end of his Ministry was to perswade men of the necessity of coming out of their lapsed estate and the power of the Devil and to put themselves under the government of the King whom God hath set upon his holy hill of Sion that he may defend them against the Devil the World and the Flesh and at length bring them to everlasting happiness Again Acts 28.23 And he expounded and testified the kingdom of God perswading them concerning Jesus c. Assuring them of his sufficiency to save them Now this they did partly by shewing the danger of the contrary 2 Cor. 5.11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men and partly by shewing the grace and readiness of God to own them in all troubles Acts 13.43 Perswading them to continue in the grace of God And if men do quarrel at this dispensation they will not be edified by any other be it never so extraordinary Luke 16.31 Neither will they be perswaded though one should rise from the dead There is more reason to perswade the Scriptures are true than if a message were brought to us by a vision or apparition which would not induce us to quit our sinful habits and customs Now this is the means when we receive it and are perswaded of it 2. By the Spirit 1 Cor. 2.12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given us of God The spirit of God is necessary that we may believe the Doctrine of the Gospel and cure our worldly and sensual inclinations for who else will be brought to forsake the things which he seeth and loveth for a God and a Glory which he never saw 3. By faith which is a perswasion of the truth of such things as God hath revealed because God hath revealed them 1 John 4.16 And we have known and believed the love which God hath to us 'T is matter of faith to believe the love and care of God over his people 4. Experience The perswasion with application increaseth our confidence His love to us in particular is known by what he hath wrought in us and for us and this increaseth our perswasion and breedeth in us a holy confidence 2 Cor. 1.10 Who hath delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us 2 Tim. 4.17 18. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthned me and I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work In this perswasion confirmed seasoned experienced Christians do continue who have not only a true faith in Christ and a settled love to him but such as maketh up an evidence in their conscience of their sincerity and giveth an undoubted perswasion of his love to them 1. They are such as are rooted and grounded in faith The full comfort of Christianity is reserved for such as are described by the Apostle Col. 1.23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel There is an initial faith which may wither as the grace of the second and third ground and there is a rooted faith which will be supported and maintained in the good and honest heart Therefore 't is not sufficient once to assent to the truth of the Gospel in our understandings or imbrace the good things offered to us by our will and affections but we must be rooted and grounded in the faith Fluctuating opinion without a well-grounded perswasion will not serve the turn Some slight desires and affections to blessedness to come will not maintain us against the several blasts of so many temptations as we meet with but we must get a faith that will make us indifferent to all worldly things heighth or depth life or death The sound world-conquering faith will only give us safety and I am sure will only give us comfort 1 John 5.4 For whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith Such a sound belief of blessedness to come maketh us dead to the present world 2. Such as are rooted and grounded in love A taste may fail Heb. 6.3 4. A slender insufficient touch of the love of God upon the soul will not break the force of opposite inclinations and temptations Eph. 3.17 18 19. That ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able with all saints to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and heigth and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge A sincere love doth so fasten us to Christ that no temptation is able to shake us or unloose us for they are acquainted more and more with Christs love and admire it are ravished by it feel the effects of it The breadth noteth the great blessings we have by it or the ample priviledges of the New Covenant The length the duration of it from one eternity to another The depth of it his profound condescention fetching us out of Hell its self by a painful cursed and ignominious death The heigth as it raised us up to the glory of Heaven and that everlasting blessedness Now none are said to comprehend this but those that are rooted and grounded in love that is to comprehend them to their comfort and joy to comprehend it to their conquest and victory over temptations to comprehend it as their triumph and confidence None but those whose hearts are filled with the love of God and
called life and well deserveth it This life is but a continued death it runneth from us as fast as it floweth to us and 't is burdened with a thousand miseries but that life which is the portion of the faithful 't is a good and happy life and 't is endless it hath a beginning but it hath no end One moment of Immortality is worth a full age of all the health and happiness that can be had upon Earth what will you call life The vegetative life or the life of a plant Alas if that may be called life 't is not an happy life for the plants have no sense of that kind of life they have The sensitive life or the life of the Beasts will you call that life They are indeed capable of pain and pleasure but this is beneath the dignity of man and those that affect this kind of happiness to injoy sensual pleasure without remorse degrade themselves from that dignity of nature wherein God hath placed them and make themselves but a wiser sort of beasts as they are able only to purvey for the flesh more than the bruits can Wherein then will you place Life Surely in reason mans Life is a kind of light given us John 1.4 In him was Life and the Life was the light of men Reason and understanding was mans perfection Well then this is the Life which we must enquire after Now when is this Life of light in its full perfection While the Soul dwelleth in flesh and looketh out by the senses to things near at hand the proper contentments of the body are the poor paltry vanities of this deceitful World Now this is not the life which we were made for but when it seeth God and injoyeth God in the highest manner that we are capable of our true life lyeth in the vision of God 1 Cor. 13.12 And Matth. 5.8 For he is only that universal and infinite object which can satiate the heart of man and our proper and peculiar Blessedness Whom have I in Heaven but thee Psa. 73.25 This is our full and continued Happiness Alas the present life hath more gall than honey its injoyments are low and base and short and fading and its troubles and miseries are many Gen. 49.9 Few and evil are the days and years of my pilgrimage But in the other World there is nothing but Glory and Blessedness A glorified Soul in a glorified Body doth for ever behold God and delight its self in God 2. The other notion is punishment the Word signifieth not only punishment but torment So we render it 1 John 4.18 Because fear hath torment Annihilation were a favour to the wicked they have a being but 't is a being under punishment and torment Divines usually distinguish of poena damni and poena sensus the loss and the pain both are included Matth. 25.41 in Christs sentence Depart and go into everlasting fire God doth not take away the being of a sinner but he taketh away the comfort of his being he is banished out of his sight for evermore and deprived of his favour and all the joys and blessedness which are bestowed on the Godly and that is enough to make him miserable 'T is true a wicked man now careth not for the light of Gods countenance because looking to visible things he hath no sound Faith of those things which are invisible but now he cometh to understand the reality of what he hath lost and besides hath no natural comforts to divert his mind no Plays or Balls or Pleasures or Meat and Drink and company which now do draw off his heart from better things and solace him in the want of them Secondly the pain of sense that 's double the worm that never dyes and the fire that shall never be quenched Mark 9.44 The worm is the worm of Conscience reflecting upon his evil choice and past folly which hath brought him to this sad and doleful estate When he considereth for what base things he sold his birth-right Heb. 12.15 He parted with felicity and the Life to come this will be a continual torment and vexation to them And being under despair of ever coming out of this Condition his torment is the more increased If there were no more than this Conscience reflecting upon the sense of his loss with the cause and consequents of it surely this will fill him with anguish and the Body united to such a miserable self vexing and self-tormenting Soul can have no rest Secondly besides this there is the fire that shall never be quenched which is the wrath which bringeth on unspeakable torments on the Body For Wo Wrath Tribulation and Anguish is the Portion of every Soul that doth evil Rom. 2.9 10. What kind of punishments they are we know not but such as are grievous and come not only from the reflection of their own Consciences but the Power of God Rom. 9.22 God will shew his Wrath and make his Power known 4. Eternity is affixed to both Everlasting Punishment and Eternal Life 1. The joys of the Blessed are Everlasting There shall never be change of and intermission in their Happiness but after Millions and Millions of Imaginary years they are to continue in this Life as if it were the first moment Paul telleth you 1 Thes. 4.17 That we shall for ever be with the Lord. And what can we desire more in this Life if we had the confluence of all manner of comforts yet the fear of losing them is some infringement of our Happiness But there whatever Glory we partake of we shall never lose it it will be thy Crown for ever thy Kingdom for ever thy Glory for ever thy God and thy Christ for ever Oh why do we no more think of this This Life that scarce deserveth the name of a Life yet we would fain continue it though in pain and misery Skin for skin all that a man hath would he give for his Life Oh then how welcome should Eternal Life be which compared with this Life is like the Ocean to a drop When we lay both of these lives together this fading moment and that enduring Eternity how much more valuable doth the one appear than the other Our sorrows will soon end but these joys when they once begin will never end 2 Cor. 4.17 This light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory Cannot we suffer with him for one hour deny our selves a little contentment in the World Shall we begrudge the labours of a few duties when assoon as the vail and curtain of the flesh is drawn we shall enter into Eternal Life and Joy 2. The Punishment is Everlasting The wicked are everlastingly deprived of the favour of God and of the light of his Countenance When Absolom could not see his Fathers Face kill me saith he rather than let it be always thus 2 Sam. 4 32. The wicked are never more to be admitted into
avoid everlasting misery 'T is no 〈◊〉 what we suffer in time and endure in time USE 3. Improve it first to seek a reconciliation with God in the way of Faith and Repentance A man that is under the sentence of death and in danger to be executed every moment would not be quiet till he get a pardon All men by nature are Children of wrath as a Son of death as one condemned to die so 't is an Hebraism Now run for refuge to take hold of the hope that is set before you Heb. 6.18 make peace upon earth Luke 2.14 Agree with thine Adversary quickly while he is in the way Luke 12.58 59. Now God calleth to repentance Act. 17.30 31. Oh Labour to be found of him in peace 2 Pet. 3.14 How can a man be at rest till his great work be over 2. Improve it to holiness and watchfulness and to bridle licentiousness and boldness in sinning Eccl. 11.9 Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thine heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou for all these things God will bring thee to judgment As cold Water cast into a boiling pot stops its fury 1 Pet. 1.17 And if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons Judgeth every man according to every mans work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear Say as the Town Clark of Ephesus Acts 9.40 We are in danger to be called in Question for this days uproar I must give an account for idle words careless praying and unprofitable mispending of time 3. Improve it to patience under ignominy and reproaches Thy innocency will appear on thy tryal if in an abject Condition the upright shall have dominion in the morning afflictions and persecutions will then end and thou shalt have thy reward 1 Thes. 1.6 7. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word in much affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost so that ye were ensamples of all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia And 1 Cor. 15.58 Wherefore my beloved be stedfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. SERMON XVIII 2 Cor. 5.11 Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men but we are made manifest unto God and I trust also are made manifest in your Consciences THe Apostle is giving an account of his sincerity zeal and faithfulness in his Ministry Three things moved him to it hope fear and love Here he asserteth the influence of the second principle In the words take notice of two things 1. The motive and reason of his fidelity in his Ministry knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men 2. The witnesses to whom he appealeth For the proof of his fidelity and diligence 1. God the searcher of hearts 2. the consciences of his Auditours who had felt the benefit and force of the Word 1. To God as the supream Witness Approver and Judge but we are made manifest unto God he seeth our principles and aims and with what hearts we go about our work 2. To the Corinthians as secondary witnesses and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences He was confident that he had a witness of his sincerity and uprightness in their consciences The greatest approbation that we can have from men is to have an approbation in their consciences Mark the order our first desire should be to approve our selves to God who is our Judge and then to men And in doing that to approve our selves to their consciences which is the faculty which is most apt to take Gods part rather than to their humours that we may gain their respect and applause next to God the testimony of conscience next to our own conscience the consciences of others 1. I begin with the motive and reason of his fidelity knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vulgar Timorem Domini knowing the fear of the Lord. Erasmus Beza and our translation terrorem domini Grotius according to the former reading knowing the fear of the Lord i. e. The true way of religion we perswade men to Imbrace it Rather the Apostle understandeth the terrour of this Judgment being certain that these things are so and that such a terrible Judgment of Christ will come we perswade men to become Christians or to live as such as shall speed well then when others shall be destroyed he saith plurally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we perswade as comprizing his Colleagues suppose Timotheus and Sylvanus he and they perswaded men to Imbrace the Faith and to live as those who are to be judged For 't is to be looked upon 1. As an Argument and Motive to perswade himself and his Colleagues to sincerity in their Ministry who were to give an account of their dispensation 2. As an Argument and Motive to the People for their obedience to the Faith Doct. That the certain knowledge of the terrible Iudgment of God should move us to perswade and you that hear to be perswaded to a careful and serious preparation for it In managing which Point 1. I shall consider the object Here is terrour or matter of fear offered in the Judgment mentioned 2. The subject or persons fearing Paul and his Colleagues together with all the parties who are to be judged 3. The means How this fear cometh to be raised in us or to work on us Knowing 4. The effect here is perswasion grounded thereon knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men 1. That there is terrour and matter of fear offered in the day of judgment upon several accounts 1. As it is an Impartial Judgment that shall pass upon all heathens Christians Apostles Ministers private Persons This ground is urged 1 Pet. 1.17 If ye call on the Father who without respect of Persons judgeth according to every mans work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear Those who take the Lord to be their Father and themselves for his Children must consider him also as an Exact and an Impartial Judge of all their actions And therefore with the more care and sollicitude carry on the work of holiness What is respecting or accepting persons in the Judgment 'T is to esteem one person rather than another for outward advantages not regarding the merits of the cause which cometh to discussion and tryal As in mans courts when men are spared for their greatness dignity or worldly preheminence But what person may God be supposed to respect or accept in Judgment Surely none can be so irrational as to think the great or rich can have any pretention to his favour or merciful dealing rather then others no Noble or Ignoble Poor or Rich Prince or begger they all stand upon the same level before God Well then the persons who may be supposed
into the hands of God A metaphor taken from one that is faln into the hands of 〈◊〉 enemy who lyeth is wait for him to take full revenge upon him if he catch him he is sure to pay for it Now we are let alone but then we fall into his hands and he will be righted for all the wrongs which we have done him Now when God shall have an immediate hand in the punishment of the wicked it will make it terrible indeed When God punisheth by the creatâ—re he can put a great deal of strength into the creature to overwhelm us by hail locusts flyes frogs if they come of Gods errand they are terrible but abuckeâ— cannot contain an Ocean as a Gyant striking with a sâ—raw in his hand he cannot put forth all his strength when God punisheth by creatures it 's like a Gyants striking with a straw in his hand But now by himself we fall into his own hands Again observe 't is the living God God liveth him self and continueth the life of the Creature God liveth for ever to reward his friends and punish his Adversaries A mortal man cannot extend punishment beyond death when they have killed the Body they can do more Matth. 10.28 We are mortal and they that persecute and hate us are mortal But since he liveth to all eternity he can punish to all eternity So long as God is God so long will Hell be Hell 'T is tedious to think of a short fit of pain In a â—eaverish distemper we count not only hours but Minutes when in such a distemper we cannot sleep in the night how tedious and grievous is it to us But what will it be to fall into the hands of the living God Thirdly The Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wrath of God is no vain Scar-crow and if any thing be matter of terrour the terrour of the Lord is so But alas who consider it or mind this Psa. 90.11 Who knoweth the power of his Anger According to his fear so is his wrath Who layeth it to heart so as to be sensible of his own danger while he is permitted to live We divert our thoughts by vain pleasures as Saul cured the evil Spirit by musick The delights of the flesh benum the conscience and exclude all thoughts of eternity Again 't is called wrath to come Matth 3.7 And 1 Thes. 1.10 'T is so called to denote the certainty and the terribleness of it The certainty of it it will most certainly come upon the wicked the day is not foretold but it is coming wrath hovereth over our heads 't is every day nearer as the salvation of the elect is Rom. 13.4 A pari Whether we sleep or wake we are all a step nearer a day nearer a night nearer to eternity They that are in a ship are swiftly carryed on to their Port by the wind though they know it not security sheweth 't is coming on apace Whose Judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not 2. Pet. 2.3 They sleep but their damnation sleepeth not But Secondly 't is called wrath to come in regard of the terribleness of it There is a present wrath that men suffer and there is a wrath to come this is such a wrath as never was before present wrath may be slighted but wrath to come will stick close Jer. 5.3 I have stricken them but they have not grieved There is a sensless stupidness under judgments now but then men cannot have hard or insensible hearts if they would Present wrath may be reversed but men are then in their final estate and God will deal with them upon terms of grace no more Present wrath seiseth not upon the whole man the Body suffereth that the Soul may be saved but there Body and Soul are cast into Hell Present wrath is executed by the creatures but in the other World God is all in all Present wrath is mixed with comforts but there 't is an evil and an only evil Ezek. 7.5 There is no wicked man in the day of Gods patience but hath somewhat left him but there they shall drink of the Wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture Rev. 14.10 'T is not allayed and tempered with any mercies There is a difference in duration present wrath endeth with death The drowning of the World the burning of Sodom was a sad thing if a man had been by and seen the poor miserable creatures running from vallies to hills from hills to mountains from the mountains to the tops of trees and still the floods increasing upon them Or had heard the screechings when God rained Hell out of Heaven and seen the scalded Sodomites wallowing up and down in a deluge of Fire and Brimstone but all ended with death But this fire is never Quenched and the worm never dyeth Now should man know this and not perswade or be perswaded and take warning to flee from wrath to come Surely the thoughts of falling into the hands of God should shake the stoutest heart and awaken the dullest sinner rowse up the most careless to use all possible means to prevent it 2. The nearer it approacheth it should the more affect us 'T is but a short time to the general assizes we live in that Age of the World upon which the ends of the World are come 1 Cor. 10. â—â— Little Children it is the last hour 1 John 2.18 And let us stir up one anotherâ—punc so much the rather as ye see the day approacheth Heb. 10.25 It cannot be long to the end of time if we compare the remainder with what is past or the whole with eternity But for our particular doom and Judgment every man must die and be brought to his last account now the day of death approacheth apace the more of our life is past the less is yet to come every week day hour minute we approach nearer to death and death to us But alas we little think of these things every Soul of us within less than an hundred years it may be but ten or five or one shall be in Heaven or Hell The Judge is at the door Iâ—â— 5.9 We shall quickly be in another World Now should we hold our peace and let men go on sleepily to their own destruction or to suffer men to wasâ—e away more of their precious time before they get ready 'T is said Amos 6.3 They put far away the evil day And therefore it did not work upon them That is they put off the thoughts of it for as to the day its self they can neither put it on nor off 3. The more certain and unavoidable any evil is the greater matter of terrour Now 't is as certain as if it were begâ—n and there is no way to escape either tryal sentence or execution Solomon saith 〈…〉 4. The wrath of a King is as the messengers of death Because they have long hands and power to reach us The wrinkles of
of our conversations for such is the excellency and honour of religion and godliness that when it shineth in its strength it dazleth the eyes of beholders even of wicked men and maketh them wonder at it and stand in awe of it And where 't is evident and eminent it will do so indeed where Christians are Christians in a riddle shew forth more of the flesh than of the Spirit there is no such thing but where religion is in life and vigour it will discover its self As Johns sanctity extorted reverence and regard from Herod Mark 6.20 Herod feared John knowing that he was a just and strict man Holiness is the Image of God and so far commendeth its reverence and esteem as the Image of God in Adam was a terrour to the beasts and when nothing but the natural Image was left Gen. 9.2 The fear and dread of you shall be upon every beast of the field So much more the Spiritual Image of God Ahab stood in fear of Elijah Certainly a godly life is convincing and darts awe into the conscience 'T is convinceing either potentially or actually Potentially such as is apt to convince and of its own nature tendeth thereunto as Christ saith John 7.7 The World hateth me because I testify of it That is that their works were evil Not only by reproofs but conversation the World would not acknowledge it but they felt it so those that bear witness against the evil courses of the World either by the holiness of their Doctrine or innocency of life do convince others they have a testimony in their Consciences though they will not acknowledge it Or actually which doth so convince that it draweth out an acknowledgement The former may be without the latter as the Sun is apt to inlighten but it cannot make a blind man or one that winketh hard see But however Christians should live convincing lives as pure streams run though none drink of them they may convert others for conversion is facilitated by good conversation yet religion is honoured by the testimony in their consciences though they will not acknowledge it at least it will be a testimony at the day of Judgment against Impenitent sinners 3. All these we should look after The Approbation of God the Testimony of Conscience a Testimony in the consciences of others In a Moral consideration there are three beings God neighbour self and therefore we should approve our selves to God and look after this threefold approbation 1. The Approbation of God must be chiefly sought after first We cannot be sincere without it For sincerity is a streight and right purpose to please God in all things and this should be our aim to approve our selves to God in all that we do and therefore should do all things as in his eye and presence Gen. 17.1 Walk before me and be thou upright And Luke 1.75 In Holiness and Righteousness before him all the days of our lives This is it which maketh men conscientious in all their actions when they remember that they are now acting a part before the great God who looketh on either to reward or punish it checketh sin though never so secret and though it might be carryed on with security enough from men yea when we may sin not only securely but with advantage and profit Gen. 39.9 How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God So Job 31.4 Doth he not see my ways and count all my steps Therefore he durst not give way to any sin So Psalm 44.21 Shall not God search this out for he knoweth the secrets of the heart Secondly It maketh us faithful in all our Duties and Services When we sâ—rive to approve our selves to God and do all as in his presence to the praise and glory of his name and can appeal for our fidelity to no other judge but the great searcher of hearts from whom we cannot be concealed The Apostle Instanceth in two callings one of the highest and one of the meanest One of the highest and of most Importance to the other World that of a Minister 2 Cor. 4.2 Commending our selves to every mans conscience as in the sight of God And 1 Thes. 2.4 So we preach the Gospel not as pleasing men but God which tryeth our hearts A Minister will never be Faithful unless he first study to approve himself to God and behaveth himself as in Gods eye and presence and one that is to give an account to God So in the lowest a christian servant Eph. 6.6 7. Not with eye Service as men pleasers but as the Servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart With good will doing service as to the Lord not to men So Col. 3.22 Not with eye Service as men-pleasers but in singleness of heart fearing God So Titus 2.10 Not purloining but shewing all good fidelity that they may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things A Christian Servant useth all diligence in his masters business whether he be absent or present and fidelity in all things committed to his trust though he might be false with secresy enough because he fears God and would approve himself to him Well then we must study to approve our selves to God and be alike in all places and companies for all things are manifest to him 2. The Testimony of conscience must be regarded First Because it is matter of true joy and comfort to a Christian 2 Cor. 1.12 This is our Rejoycing the Testimony of our conscience I prove it from the Office of conscience 't is both Judge Witness and Executioner Conscience is the judgment that every man maketh upon his actions morally considered As a man acteth or doth any thing so he is a party as he loveth to view or censure it so he is a Judge the morality considered as to their good or evil rectitude or obliquity in them with respect to praise or dispraise reward or punishment Now joy is one part of execucuting the sentence of conscience as fear is the other Conscience is usually more felt after the act is over than before or in it For during the action the judgment of reason is not so clear and strong the affections raising mists and clouds to darken the mind in the act we feel the difficulties or the pleasure of sin but after the act the violence of the affection ceaseth and then reason taketh the throne and doth affect the mind with joy or grief according as a man hath done good or evil with grief and terrour if the sensual appetite have been obeyed before its self with delight if he hath denyed himself and been faithful with God Rewards and punishments are not altogether kept for the life to come Hell is begun in an ill conscience and a good conscience is Heaven upon Earth Secondly this joy that cometh from the Testimony of conscience is very strong it will fortify us against false Imputations When Christians can say we are not the men you
was first bred in Gods heart 1 John 4.19 We love him because he loved us first 3. This love is the more amplified by the worthlesness of the persons for whom all this is done the World that lay in wickedness and rebellion against God the sinful race of Apostatized Adam At our best◠how little service and honour can we bring to him but he considered us as lying in the corrupt mass of polluted mankind yet this World would God reconcile to himself and not Angels God would not so much as enter into a parley with them As if a King should take Rusticks and Skullions into his favour and pass by Nobles and Princes There lay no bond at all to shew mercy to us more than to them we had cast him off and rebelled against him as well as they 4. And this done by Jesus Christ that so costly a remedy should be provided for us Rom 8.32 God spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all God may be said to spare either in a way of impartial justice or in a way of bountiful and condescending love the first hath its use this latter is the case there We are sparing of what is precious of what we value but though Christ was his dear Son yet he spared not him 'T is the folly of man to part with things of worth and value for trifles 5. The benefit it self that he would reconcile us to himself First In laying aside his own just wrath which is our great terrour Isa. 27.4 Fury is not in me He being pacifyed in Christ. Secondly That he would take away the enmity that is in the hearts of men by his converting and healing grace which is our great burden Psal. 110.3 Thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power Thirdly That he will enter into league Covenant with us God with us we with God Heb. 8.10 I will put my Laws into their minds and write them upon their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people Fourthly That from hence there floweth an intire friendship John 15.15 Henceforth I call you not Servants but Friends for all that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you Fifthly This friendship produceth most gracious fruits and effects especially free Commerce with him here till we are admitted into his Immediate presence Heb. 10.22 Let us draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washed with pure water USE 2. Let us consider seriously the mystery of Christ's death which is the Sacrifice of our atonement 'T is full of riddles 't is a spectacle which represents to you the highest mercy in Gods sparing sinners and calling out his own Son to die in our stead and the highest Justice in punishing sin though transacted upon Christ if this be done to the green tree what shall be done to the dry here you have Christ made sin and yet at the same time the fountain of holiness 2 Cor. 5.21 And John 1.16 Out of his fulness we receive grace for grace So again the fountain of blessedness made a curse for all the World Gal. 3.13 In mans account never more weakness and foolishness shewn yet never more wisdom and power 1 Cor. 1.25 The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God stronger then men He had said before that Christ was the Wisdom of God and the Power of God The Devil never seemed to Triumph more yet never more foiled Luke 22.53 comp with Col. 2.15 Christ is the true Sampson destroyed more at his death than in all his life The cross was not a Gibbet of shame and infamy but a Chariot of Triumph This was the holiest work and the greatest act of obedience that ever was or can or will be performed and yet the wickedest work that ever the Sun beheld On Christs part an high act of obedience and self-denial Phil. 2.7 On mans part the greatest act of villany and wickedness Acts 2.23 Who by wicked hands have crucified and slain The highest act of meekness and violence The truest glass wherein we see the greatness and smalness of sin the heinousness of sin is seen in his Agonies and bloody sufferings the nothingness of it in the merit of them Christ's death is the reason of the great Judgment faln upon the Jews 1 Thes. 2.15 16. And yet the ground upon which we expect mercy both for our selves and them Eph. 2.16 In short here is Life rising out of Death Glory out of Ignominy Blessedness out of the Curse from the abasement of the Son of God Joy Liberty and confidence to us SERMON XXXV 2 Cor. 5.19 not imputing their trespasses to them DOct. One great branch or fruit of our Reconciliation with God through Christ is the pardon or non-imputation of sin Here I shall shew 1. The nature and worth of the priviledge 2. The manner how 't is brought about 3. That 't is a branch or fruit of our Reconciliation with God 1. The nature and worth of the priviledge not imputing The phrase is elsewhere used Rom. 4.8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin So 2 Tim. 4.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All men forsook me I pray God it be not laid to their charge or reckoned to their account 'T is a Metaphor taken from those who cast up their accounts and so 1. It supposeth that sin is a debt Matth. 6.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and forgive us our debts 2. That God will one day call sinners to an account and charge such and such debts upon them Matth. 25.19 After a long time the Lord of those Servants cometh and reckoneth with them For a while men live jollily and in great security care for nothing but a day of reckoning will come 3. In this day of accounts God will not impute the trespasses of those who are reconciled to him by Christ and have taken sanctuary at the grace of the new Covenant to their Condemnation nor use them as they deserve Every one deserves Wrath and Eternal Death and sin obligeth us thereunto but God will not lay it to our charge And so 't is said Psa. 32.2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity Now this is an act of great grace on Gods part and of great priviledge and Blessedness to the Creature 1. An act of great grace and favour on Gods part 1. Partly because every one is become guilty before God and obnoxious to the process of his Righteous Judgment Rom. 3.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And all the World may become guilty before God There is sin enough to impute and the reason of this non-imputation is not our Innocency but Gods mercy Among men imputations are often unjust and slanderous as David complaineth that they imputed and laid things to his charge that he was not guilty
sacrifice and the power of his Spirit we come to God and by a thankful sense of his love we are incouraged and inabled to our duty Well then when in a broken hearted manner we confess our sins and own our Redeemer and devote our selves to God and resolve to walk in Christs prescribed way then are sins pardoned and we accepted with God 2. This Faith and repentance is wrought in us by the word and mainly acted in prayer First 'T is wrought in us by the word wherein God is pleased to propound free and easie Conditions of pardon and mercy praying us to be reconciled and to cast away the weapons of our Rebellion and submit to the Law of grace For here in verses 18 19 20. He doth not only reveal the mystery but beseecheth us to enter into Covenant with him and to yield up our selves to his service Secondly Prayer by which in the name of Christ we sue out this benefit This is the means appointed both for regenerate and unregenerate The unregenerate Acts 8.22 Repent therefore of thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart be forgiven thee The regenerate 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins Believing broken hearted prayer doth notably prevail the publican had no other suit but Lord be merciful to me a sinner Luke 18.13 The Lord describeth the poor sinners that came to him for pardon Jer. 31.9 They shall come with weeping and supplications 5. We are sensibly pardoned as well as actually when the Lord giveth peace and joy in believing and sheddeth abroad his love in our hearts by the Spirit We must distinguish between the grant and the sense sometimes a pardon may be granted when we have not the sense and comfort of it We may hold a precious Jewel with a trembling hand as the waves roll after a storm when the wind is ceased God may keep his people humble as a Prince may grant a pardon to a condemned malefactor but he will not have him know so much till he come even to the place of execution Davids heart was to Absolom yet he would not let him see his face There are two Courts the Court of Heaven and the Court of Conscience The pardon may be passed in the one and not in the other and a man may have peace with God when he hath not peace of Conscience To assure our hearts before him and know our sincerity 1 John 3.9 is a thing distinct from being sincere and a man may be safe though not comfortable Every one that believeth cannot make the bold challenge of faith and say Who shall condemn Rom 8.33 6. The last step is when we have a compleat and full absolution of sin that is at the day of Judgment Acts 3.19 Your sins shall be blotted out when days of refreshment shall come from the presence of the Lord when the Judge pro tribunali shall sententionally and in the audience of all the World pronounce our pardon To make title to pardon by Law is comfortable but then we shall have it from our Judges own mouth Here we are continually subject to new guilt and so to new sins whereby arise new fears So till our final absolution we are not fully perfect not till the day of redemption Eph. 4 30. When the evils of sin do fully cease then is our Adoption full Rom. 8.23 Then will our Regeneration be full Matth. 19.28 Then all the effects of sin will cease Death upon the body will be no interruption of pardon we shall be fully acquitted and never sin more 3. That 't is a branch and fruit of our reconciliation with God the other is the gift of the Spirit or all things that belong to the new nature for God giveth sanctifying grace as the God of peace But this also is a notable branch and fruit of reconciliation 1. Because when God releaseth us from the punishment of sin 't is a sign his anger and wrath is appeased and now over Isa. 24.7 Fury is not in me God hath been angry for a little moment but when he pardoneth sin then he is pacified for sin is the make-bate between us and God 2. That which is the ground of reconciliation is the ground of pardon of sin Eph. 1.7 In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace viz. the price paid by the Mediator to his Fathers Justice and therefore a principal part of our reconciliation and redemption is Remission of sins in Justification 3. That which is the fruit of reconciliation is obtained and promoted by pardon of sin and that is fellowship with God and delightful Communion with him in a course of obedience and subjection to him Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washed with pure water Our general pardon at first is to put us into a state of new obedience our particular pardon ingageth us to continue in a course of acceptable obedience that we may maintain a holy Commerce with God 1 John 1.7 If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin VSE 1. is to inform us That all those that seek after reconciliation with God or would take themselves to be reconciled to him should be dealing with God about the pardon of sins and suing out this priviledge which is of such use in their Commerce with God But here ariseth a doubt What need have those that are reconciled to God to beg pardon Ans. very great Matth. 6 12. Our Lord hath taught us so we pray for daily pardon and daily grace Against Temptations as well as for daily bread I prove it 1. From the Condition of Gods people here in the World we are not so fully sanctified here in the World but there is some sin found in us original sin remaineth with us to the last and we have our actual slips Paul complaineth of the body of death Rom. 7.23 And the Apostle telleth us 1 John 1.8 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us And verse 10 th If we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us And Eccl. 7.20 There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Either omitting good or commiting evil They do not love God with that purity and fervency nor serve him with that liberty delight and reverence that he hath required 'T is the happiness of the Church Triumphant that they have have no sin of the Church Militant that their sin is forgiven Sometimes we sin out of ignorance sometimes out of imprudence and inconsideration sometimes we are overtaken and sometimes overborn now these things
must be heartily bewailed to God While a ship is leaking water we must use the pump and the room that is continually gathering soil must be daily swept the stomach that is still breeding ill humours must have new physick We still make work for pardoning mercy and therefore for repentance and faith 2. From the several things which we ask in asking a pardon 1. For the grant that God would accept of the satisfaction of Christ for our sins and of us for his sake Christ was to ask and sue out the fruits of his mediation Psal. 2.8 And we are humbly to sue out our right For notwithstanding the condescensions of his grace God dealeth with us as a Sovereign and doth require submission on our part Jer. 3.13 Only acknowledge thine iniquities that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God The debt is humbly to be acknowledged by the Creature though God hath found out a means to pardon it 2. We beg the continuance of a pardon as in daily bread though we have it by us we beg the continuance and use of it so in sanctification we beg the continuance of sanctification as well as the increase because of the relicks of corruption God may for our exercise make us feel the smart of old sins as an old bruise though it be healed yet ever and anon we feel it upon change of weather accusations of Conscience may return for sins already pardoned Job 13.26 Thou writest bitter things againt me and makest me possess the sins of my youth Sins of youth may trouble a man that is reconciled to God and hath obtained pardon of them Gods Children may have their guilt raked out of its grave and the appearance of it may be as frightful as a Ghost or one risen from the dead the wounds of an healed Conscience may bleed afresh Therefore we need beg as David Psa. 25.6 7. Remember thy mercies which have been of old remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions When we are unthankful unwatchful or negligent God may permit it for our humiliation 3. The sense and manifestation Few believers have assurance of their own sincerity God may blot sins out of his book when he doth not blot them but of our Consciences God blotteth them out of the book of his remembrance assoon as we repent and believe but he bloteth them out of our Consciences when the worm of Conscience is killed by the application of the blood of Christ through the Spirit Heb. 10.22 Sprinkled from an evil Conscience David beggeth the sense when Nathan had told him of the grant Psa. 51.12 Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation Forgive it in our sense and feeling 4. The increase of our sense For it is not given out in such a degree as to shut out all fear and doubt 1 John 4.18 There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath Torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love 5. The effects of pardon or freedom from those evils which are the fruits of sin We would have God to pardon us as we pardon others fully and intirely forgive and forget that he would not execute upon us the temporal punishment farther than is necessary for our good Compare 2 Kings 23.26 with Ezek. 33.12 13 14. Either he will not chastise us or if he doth he will sanctify our afflictions when God remits the eternal punishment yet he inflicteth temporal evil not to compleat our justification but to further our sanctification If we knew only the sweetness of sin and not the bitterness we would not be so shy of it Jer. 2.19 Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my fear is not in thee faith the Lord God of Hosts Chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned 1 Cor. 11 32. 6. A renewed pardon for every renewed sin which we commit 1 John 2.1 My little Children these things write I unto you that ye sin not And if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous And 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Assoon as we repent and believe there is a general pardon the state of the person is changed he is made a child of God 1 John 12. To as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to as many as believe in his name John 13.10 He that is washed needeth not to wash save his feet Because by going up and down in the World we contract new defilement He is translated from a state of wrath to a state of grace all sins past are remitted God doth not pardon some and leave others Though Gods pardon be not antedated Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past And such an one hath free leave to sue out pardon for future sins and so have a greater hold-fast upon God they have a present certain effectual remedy at hand for their pardon that is the merit of Christs blood the Covenant of grace in which they have an interest Christs Intercession and the Spirit to excite them to Faith and Repentance Well then let us fly to Christ for daily pardon as under the Law there were daily sacrifices to be offered up Numbers 28.3 God came to Adam in the cool of the day Gen. 3.8 Reconciliation with man is to be sought speedily Eph. 4.26 Let not the Sun go down on your wrath The unclean person was to wash his clothes before the Evening Our hearts should be humbled within us to think that God is displeased 7. We pray for our pardon and acceptance with Christ at the last day of general Judgment Luke 21.36 Watch and pray that ye may be accounted worthy to stand before the Son of man Some effect of sin remaineth till then as death on the Body So that whil'st any penal evil introduced by sin remaineth we pray that God will not repent of his mercy VSE 2. It sheweth how much we should prize pardon as a special fruit of the Love of God and Christ Rev 1.5 To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his blood 1 John 4.9 10. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins If we be serious we will do so Those that have felt any thing of the burden of sin will entertain the offer of pardon with great thankfulness It is a priviledge welcome to distressed Consciences What man in chains would not be glad
beseeching doth not only note Meekness in the Proposal but perseverance also notwithstanding the many delays and repulses yea rough entertainment that we meet with at the hands of Sinners 2 Tim. 2.25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if peradventure God will give them Repentance to the acknowledgment of the Truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil One reason why God will make use of the Ministry of Man is because they know the Heart of Man how much he is wedded to his folly how angry he is to be put out of his fools Paradise and to be disturbed in his Carnal Happiness Titus 3.2 3. Shewing meekness to all men for we our selves were sometimes foolish and disobedient serving divers lusts and pleasures And therefore we must wait exhort warn and still behave our selves with much love and gentleness that compassion to Souls may bear the chief rule in our dealing with them 4. The Matter Be reconciled to God We have heard much of the way of God's Reconciliation with us now let us speak of our Reconciliation with God What is to be done on Man's part 1. Let us accept of the Reconciliation offered by God Our great business is to receive this grace so freely tendred to us 2 Cor. 6.1 We as workers together with him beseech you not to receive this grace in vain That is by a firm assent believing the Truth of it 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a true and faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation And Eph. 1.13 For God hath set forth Christ to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 And thankfully esteeming and prizing the benefit for our acceptance is an Election and Choice Phil. 3.8 9. I count all things to be dung and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Matth. 13.45 46. And having found one goodly Pearl of great price he sold all and bought it depending upon the merit worth and value of it 2 Tim. 1.12 I know in whom I have believed And venturing our Souls and our Eternal Interests in this bottom sue out this Grace with this confidence Psal. 27.3 One thing have I desired of the Lord and that I will seek after that I may dwell in the House of God for ever 2. We must accept it in the way God hath appointed by performing the Duties required on our part What are they Repentance is the general word as Faith is our acceptance In it there is included 1. An humble confession of our former sinfulness and rebellion against God I have been a grievous Sinner a Rebel and an Enemy to God and this to the grief and shame of his heart Jer. 3.13 I am merciful and will not keep anger for ever only acknowledge thine iniquity which thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God and disobeyed my Voice saith the Lord. And 1 John 1.9 If we confess and forsake our sins he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins When they begged the favour of the King of Israel they came with Ropes about their necks 1 Kings 20.31 The Creature must return to his Duty to God in a posture of humiliation and unfeigned sorrow for former offences 2. We must lay aside our Enmity and resolve to abstain from all offences which may alienate God from us If we have any reserve we draw nigh to God with a treacherous heart to live like Rebels under a pretence of a friendship Heb. 10.22 Let us draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of Faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washed with pure water And Job 33.31 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born Chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me If I have done iniquity I will do so no more Unless you put away the evil of your doings the anger continueth and 't is inconsistent with a gracious estate to continue in any known sin without serious endeavours against it What peace as long as the Whoredoms of thy Mother Jezabel remaineth 3. We must enter into Covenant with God and devote our selves to become his 2 Chron. 30.8 Yield your selves unto the Lord. And Rom. 6.13 But yield your selves unto God There must be an entire resignation and giving up our selves to be governed and ordered by him at his will and pleasure Acts 9.6 Lord what wilt thou have me to do Give up the keys of the heart renouncing all beloved sins We then depending upon the merit of his Sacrifice put our selves under the conduct of his Word and Spirit and resolve to use all the Appointed Means in order to our full recovery and return to God 3. Our being reconciled to God implyeth our loving God who loved us first 1 John 4.19 For the Reconciliation is never perfect till there be an hearty love to God there is a grudge still remaining with us Faith begets Love Gal. 5.6 Repentance is the first expression of our Love the sorrowing humbling part of it is mourning Love the Covenanting part either in renouncing is Love abhorring that which is contrary to our Friendship into which we are entred with God The devoting part is Love aiming at the glory of him who hath been so good All our after-carriage is Love endeavouring to please You will never have rest for your Souls till you submit to this course and be in this manner at peace with God Matth. 11.28 29. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly and you shall find rest for your Souls For my yoke is easie and my burden is light God complaineth of his People by the Prophet that they forget their resting-place Jer. 5.6 Men seek Peace where 't is not to be found try this Creature and that but still meet with vanity and vexation of Spirit like Feverish persons who seek ease in the change of their Beds SERMON XXXIX 2 Cor. 5.20 Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be reconciled to God DOct. The great business of the Ministers of the Gospel is to perswade men to reconciliation with God VSE Let me enter upon this work now 1. To sinners 2. To those reconciled already as these were to whom he wrote He presseth them further to reconcile themselves to God 1. To sinners Will you be reconciled to God sinners Here I shall shew you 1. The necessity of reconciliation 2. Gods condescension in this business 3. The value and worth of the priviledge 4. The great dishonour we do to God in refusing it 1. Motive is the necessity of being reconciled by reason of the enmity between God and us Col. 1.21 And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled We are enemies to God and God is an enemy to us I shall prove both The