3. God is more careful of his people than revengefull against his enemies He first orders the sealing of the mourners before he orders the destruction of the rebells he will first honour his mercy in the protection of the one before he will glorifie his justice in the destruction of the other The Angel hath orders to secure Lot before Sodom was fired The executioners of his wrath were to march after the securing Angel not before him Nor equal with him And were only to cut off those whom the Angel had passed by 4. If you take this mark for a mark on the Conscience then observe That Serenity of Conscience is a gift of God to his people in the time of severe judgments As when death is near the Conscience of a good man is most serene and sings sweetly in his breast the notes of his own integrity In judgments as well as in death God sets Conscience upon its pleasant notes But this mark is not properly meant here the Conscience is a mark to our selves but this is a mark to the executioners 5. The places where God hath manifested the glory of his Ordinances are the subjects of his greatest judgments upon their provocations Go through the City through Jerusalem That Jerusalem wherein I have manifested my glory which I have intrusted with my oracles which I have protected in the midst of enemies like a spark in the midst of many waters Go thorow that City into the midst of it and let not your eye spare 6. The greatest fury of God in a time of judgment often lights upon the Sanctuary v. 6. Begin at the Sanctuary defile the house Not a man of them escaped as Oecalampad notes v. 7. I was left He saw not in the vision what was done in the City but he was left alone in the Temple The whole Sanhedrim the 70 Ancients had revolted to Idolatry Ezek. 8.11 and the stroak first lights upon them v. 6. Then they began at the Ancient men which were before the house In the v. observe 1. Gods care in the preserving his people He Commands the Angel to go thorow the midst of the City and set a mark a visible mark upon their foreheads 2. The Qualification of the persons so preserved He doth not say All that have not committed Idolatry but such as sigh which signifies 1. The intenseness of their grief Sigh and cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notes an intense groaning and sorrow 2. The Extensiveness of the Object All the Abominations Doct. Lamenting the sins of the times and places wherein we live is a duty incumbent on us acceptable to God and a great means of preservation under publick Judgments There are three Branches 1. 'T is a Duty 2. A Duty acceptable to God God has his Eye particularly upon them that practise it 3. 'T is a means of preservation under publick Judgments 1. 'T is a Duty If we are by the Praescript of God to bewail in confession the sins of our Forefathers committed before our being in the world certainly much more are we to lament the sins of the Age wherein we live as well as our own Levit. 26.40 If they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their Fathers If then their uncircumcised be hubmled then will I remember my Covenant Posterity are part of the same body with their Ancestors and every member in a Nation is part of the body of a Nation every drop in the Sea is a part of the Ocean God made a standing Law for an annual Fast wherein they should afflict their Souls the tenth day of the seventh month answering to our September and backed it with a severe penalty He whose soul was not afflicted in that day should be cut off from among his people which the Jews understand of cutting off by the hand of the Lord Levit. 23.27 29. The particular sin for which they were thus annually to afflict their Souls was that national sin of the golden Calf in the Judgment of the Jewish Doctors It was also the practice of holy men in their private Retirements as Daniel Dan. 9.5 6. He bewails the sins of his Ancestors and Nehemiah Neh. 1.6 Much more it is our duty to bewail a present guilt The Churches Eyes are compared to the Fish-pools of Heshbon Cant. 7.4 in her weeping for her own and others sins To what purpose has God given us passions but to honour him withal And our affections of grief and anger cannot be better employ'd than for the interest nor better bestowed than for the service of him who implanted those passions in us Our natural motions should be ordered for the God of Nature and spiritual ordered for the God of Grace 1. This was the practice of Believers in all Ages Before the Deluge * Broughton Lives of the Fathers p. 7. Crit. in loc Seth called the name of his Son which was born at the time of the profaning the name of God in worship Enosh which signifies sorrowful or miserable that he might in the sight of his Son have a constant Monitor to excite him to an holy grief for the profaneness and Idolatry that entred into the Worship of God Gen. 4.26 He called his name Enos then began men to call upon the name of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profane it by calling upon it The rational and most precious part of Lot was vexed with the unlawful deeds of the generation of Sodom among whom he lived 2 Pet. 2.7 8. he had a horrour and torment in his righteous Soul at the execrable villanies he saw committed by his neighbours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afflicted under it as under a grievous burden It was a rack to him as the other word v. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies The meekest man upon Earth with grief and indignation breaks the Tables of the Law when he saw the holiness of it broken by the Israelites and expresseth more his regret for that than his honour for the material Stones wherein God had with his own finger engraven the Orders of his will He is more desirous to destroy the Idol than preserve the Tables Such an indignation against their sin could not well be without grief for it David a man of the greatest goodness upon Record had a Deluge of tears because they kept not God's Law Psal 119.136 Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law Besides his grief which was not a small one horrour seiz'd upon him upon the same account Psal 119.53 like a storm that tost him to and fro How doth poor Isaiah bewail himself and the People among whom he lived as men of polluted lips Isa 6.5 Perhaps such as could hardly speak a word without an Oath or by hypocritical lip-service mocked God in the very Temple Jeremy is upon the same practice Jer. 13.17 when his Soul should weep in secret for the pride of the people and as if he was not satisfied with a few tears
as His cognizance He weighs the Spirits Prov. 16.2 in the ballance of His Sanctuary and by the weights of His Law to sentence them if they be found too light The word doth discover and judge them Heb. 4.12 13. It divides asunder the soul and spirit the sensitive part the affections and the rational the understanding and will both which it doth dissect and open and judge the acts of them even the thoughts and intents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever is within the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whatsoever is within the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one referring to the Soul the other to the Spirit These it passeth a Judgment upon as a Critick censures the Errata's even to syllables and Letters in an old Manuscript These we are to render an account of as the Syriack renders those words v. 13. with whom we have to do Of what Of the first bubblings of the heart the motions and intents of it The least Speck and Atome of dust in every chink of this little world is known and censured by God If our thoughts be not judged God would not be a righteous judge He would not judge according to the merit of the cause if outward actions were only scann'd without regarding the intents wherein the principle and end of every action lies which either swell or diminish the malignity of it Actions in kind the same may have different circumstances in the thoughts to heighten the one above the other and if they were only judged the most painted hypocrite might commence a blessed spirit at last as well as the exactest Saint 'T is necessary also for the Glory of God's omniscience 1 Cor. 4.5 'T is hereby chiefly that the extensiveness of God's knowledge is discovered and that in order to the praise or dispraise of men viz. To their Justification or condemnation Those very thoughts will accuse thee before God's Tribunal which accuse thee here before conscience His Deputy Rom. 2.15 16. Their thoughts the mean while i. e. in this life while conscience bears witness accusing or excusing one another in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men i. e. and also at the day of judgment when conscience shall give in its final Testimony upon God's examination of the secret counsels This place is properly meant of those reasonings concerning good and evil in men's Consciences agreeable to the Law of nature imprinted on them which shall excuse them if they practise accordingly or accuse them if they behave themselves contrary thereunto But it will hold in this Case for if those inward approbations of the notions of good and evil will accuse us for our contrary practices Non solum opus sed mali operis cogitatio poenas luet Hieron in Hosâ—â— 7. Acts 8.22 they will also accuse us for our contrary thoughts Our good thoughts will be our accusers for not observing them and our bad thoughts will be indictments against us for complying with them 'T is probable the Soul may be bound over to answer chiefly for these at the last day for the Apostle chargeth Simon 's guilt upon his thought not his word and tells him pardon must be principally granted for that The tongue was only an Instrument to express what his heart did think and would have been wholly innocent had not his thoughts been first criminal What therefore is the principal subject of pardon would be so of punishment as the first incendiaries in a rebellion are most severely dealt with And if as some think the fallen Angels were stript of their primitive Glory only for a conceiv'd thought how heinous must that be which hath inrolled them in a remediless misery Having proved that there is a sinfulness in our thoughts let us now see what provocation there is in them Which in some respects is greater than that of our actions But we must take actions here in sensu diviso as distinguished from the inward preparations to them In the one there is more of scandal in the other more of odiousness to God God indeed doth not punish thoughts so visibly because as He is Governour of the world His Judgments are shot against those sins that disturb humane society but He hath secret and spiritual Judgments for these suitable to the nature of the sins Now thoughts are greater in respect 2. Of fruiâ—fulness The wickedness that God saw great in the earth was the fruit of imaginations They are the immediate causes of all sin No Cockatrice but was first an Egg. It was a thought to be as God * Gen. 3.5 2 Cor. 11.3 that was the first breeder of all that sin under which the world groans at this day For Eve's mind was first beguiled in the alteration of her thought Since that the lake of inward malignity acts all it's evil by these smoaking steams Evil thoughts lead the van in our Saviour's Catalogue Mat. 15.19 as that which spirits all the black regiment which march behind As good motions cherish'd will spring up in good actions so loose thoughts favoured will break out in visible plague-sores and put fire unto all that wickedness which lyes habitually in the heart as a spark may to a whole stock of Gun-powder 2 Tim. 2.16 The vain babblings of the soul as well as those of the Tongue will encrease to more ungodliness Being thus the cause they include virtually in them all that is in the effect as a seed contains in its little body the leaves fruit colour scent which afterward appear in the plant The seed includes all but the colour doth not virtually include the scent or the scent the colour or the leaves the fruit so 't is here One act doth not include the formal obliquity of another but the thought which caused it doth seminally include both the formal final obliquity of every action both that which is in the nature of it and in the end to which it tends As when a Trades-man cherisheth immoderate thoughts of gain and in the attaining it runs into many foolish and hurtful Lusts there is cheating lying swearing to put off the commodity 1 Tim. 6.9 all these several acts have a particular sinfulness in the nature of the acts themselves besides the tendency they have to the satisfying an inordinate affection all which are the spawn of those first immoderate thoughts stirring up greedy desires 2. In respect of Quantity Imaginations are said to be continually evil There is an infinite variety of conceptions as the Psalmist speaks of the Sea wherein are all things creeping innumerable both small and great and a constant generation of whole shoals of them that you may as well number the Fish in the Sea or the Atomes in the Sun-beams as recount them There is a greater number in regard of the acts and in regard of the objects 1. In regard of the acts of the mind 1. Antecedent acts How many preparatory motions of the mind are there to one wicked
and if in one duty why not in another why not in prayer Mat. 13.20 Like a fire of thorns that makes a great blaze but a short stay 3. From a good Conscience A good heart is a continual feast Prov. 15.15 He that hath a good conscience must needs be chearful in his religious and civil duties Guilt will come trembling and with a sad countenance into the presence of Gods Majesty A guilty child cannot with chearfulness come into a displeased fathers presence A Soul smoakt with Hell cannot with delight approach to heaven Guilty Souls in regard of the injury they have done to God will be afraid to come and in regard of the soot of Sin wherewith they are defiled and the blackness they have contracted they will be ashamed to come They know that by their sins they should provoke his anger not allure his love A Soul under conscience of sin cannot look up to God Psal 40.12 Nor will God with favour look down upon it Psal 59.2 It must be a pure heart that must see him with pleasure Mat. 5.8 And pure hands must be lifted up to him 1 Tim. 2.8 Jonah was asleep after his sin and was out-stript in quickness to pray even by Idolaters The marriners jogg him but could not get him that we read of to call upon that God whom he had offended Jon. 1. Where there is corruption the sparks of sin will kindle that tinder and weaken a Spiritual delight A perfect heart and a willing mind are put together 1 Chron. 29.2 There cannot be willingness without sincerity nor sincerity without willingness 4. From a holy and frequent familiarity with God Where there is a great familiarity there is a great delight delight in one anothers company and delight in one anothers converse strangeness contracts and familiarity dilates the Soul There is more alacrity in going to a God with whom we are acquainted than to a God to whom we are strangers This doth encourage the Soul to go to God I go to a God whose face I have seen whose goodness I have tasted with whom I have often met in prayer Frequent familiarity makes us more apprehensive of the excellency of another an excellency apprehended will be beloved and being beloved will be delighted in 5. From hopes of speeding There is an expectative delight which ariseth from hopes of enjoying Rom. 12.12 Rejoycing in hope There cannot be a pleasant motion where there is a palsie of doubts How full of delight must that Soul be that can plead a promise and carry God's hand and seal to Heaven and shew him his own Bond when it can be pleaded not only as a favour to engage his mercy but in some sense a debt to engage his truth and righteousness Christ in his prayer which was his Swan-like song John 17. pleads the terms of the Covenant between his Father and himself I have glorified thee on Earth glorifie me with that golry I had with thee before the world was This is the case of a delightful approach when we carry a Covenant of grace with us for our selves and a promise of security and perpetuity for the Church Upon this account we have more cause of a pleasant motion to God than the ancient Believers had Fear acted them under the Law Love us under the Gospel He cannot but delight in prayer that hath Arguments of God's own framing to plead with God who cannot deny his own Arguments and Reasonings Little comfort can be suckt from a perhaps But when we come to seek Covenant-mercies God's faithfulness to his Covenant puts the mercy past a perhaps We come to a God sitting upon a Throne of Grace upon Mount Sion not on Mount Sinai to a God that desires our presence more than we desire his assistance 6. From a sense of former mercies and acceptation If Manna be rained down it doth not only take off our thoughts from Aegyptian Garlick but quickens our desires for a second shower A sense of God's Majesty will make us lose our garishness and a sense of God's Love will make us lose our dumpishness We may as well come again with a merry heart when God accepts our prayers as go away and eat our bread with joy when God accepts our works Eccles 9.7 The Doves will readily fly to the windows where they have formerly found shelter and the Beggar to the door where he hath often received an Alms. Because he hath inclined his ear to hear me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live Psal 116.2 I have found refuge with God before I have found my wants supplied my soul raised my temptations check'd my doubts answered and my prayers accepted therefore I will repeat my Addresses with chearfulness I might add also other Causes as a love to God a heavenliness of spirit a consideration of Christ's Intercession a deep humiliation The more unpleasant sin is to our rellish the more delightful will God be and the more chearful our Souls in Addresses to him The more unpleasant sin is to us the more spiritual our Souls are and the more spiritual our Souls the more spiritual our Affections The more stony the more lumpish and unapt for motion the more contrite the more agil From a spiritual tast report of a thing may contribute some pleasure but a tast greater 3. Reasons Without chearful seeking we cannot have a gracious Answer 1. God will not give an answer to those prayers that dishonour him A flat and dumpish temper is not for his honour The Heathens themselves thought their gods should not be put off with a Sacrifice dragg'd to the Altar We read of no Lead that lumpish earthly metal imployed about the Tabernacle or Temple but the purer and most glistering sorts of metals God will have the most excellent Service because he is the most excellent Being He will have the most delightful Service because he bestows the most delightful and excellent gifts All Sacrifices were to be offered up with fire which is the quickest and most active Element 'T is a dishonour to so great so glorious a Majesty to put him off with such low and dead-hearted Services Those Petitions cannot expect an answer which are offered in a manner injurious to the person we address to 'T is not for the credit of our great Master to have his Servants dejected in his work As though his Service were an uncomfortable thing as though God were a Wilderness and the World a Paradise 2. Dull and lumpish Prayer doth not reach him and therefore cannot expect an answer Such desires are as Arrows that sink down at our feet there is no force to carry them to Heaven The heart is as an unbent Bow that hath no strength When God will hear he makes first a prepared heart Psal 10.17 He first strings the Instrument and then receives the sound An enlarged heart only runs Psal 119.32 A contracted heart moves slowly and often faints in the Journey 3. Lumpishness speaks an
unwillingness that God should hear us It speaks a kind of a fear that God should grant our Petitions He that puts up a Petition to a Prince coldly and dully gives him good reason to think that he doth not care for an answer That Husbandman hath no great mind to a Harvest that is lazy in tilling his ground and sowing his seed How can we think God should delight to read over our Petitions when we take so little delight in presenting them God gives not mercy to an unwilling person The first thing God doth is to make his People willing Dull spirits seek God as if they did not care for finding him Such tempers either account not God real or their Petitions unnecessary 4. Without delight we are not fit to receive a mercy Delight in a mercy wanted makes room for desire and large desires make room for mercy If no delight in begging there will be no delight in enjoying If there be no chearfulness to quicken our prayers when we need a blessing there will be little joy to quicken our praise when we receive a blessing A weak sickly stomack is not fit to be seated at a plentiful table Where there is a dull asking supply there is none or a very dull sense of wants Now God will not send his mercies but to a Soul that will welcome them The deeper the sense of our wants the higher the estimation of our Supplies A chearful Soul is fit to receive the least and fit to receive the greatest mercy He will more prize a little mercy than a dull petitioner shall prize a greater because he hath a sense of his wants Had not Zacheus had a great joy at the news of Christs coming by his door he had not so readily entertained and welcomed him Use 1. Of Information 1. There is a great pleasure in the ways of God if rightly understood Prayer which is a duty wherein we express our wants is delightful There is more sweetness in a Christians asking than in a wicked mans enjoying blessings 2. What delight will there be in heaven If there be such sweetness in desire what will there be in full fruition There is joy in seeking what is there then in finding Duty hath its sweets its thousands but glory its ten thousands If the pleasure of the seed-time be so great what will the pleasure of the harvest be 3. The miserable condition of those that can delight in any thing but prayer 'T is an aggravation of our enmity to God when we can sin chearfully and pray dully When duty is more lothsome than iniquity Use 2. Of Examination We pray but how are our hearts If it be for what concerns our momentary being is not our running like the running of Ahimaaz But when for Spiritual things do not our hearts sink within us like Nabals Let us therefore follow our hearts close suffer them not to give us the slip in our examination of them resolve not to take the first answer but search to the bottom 1. Whether we delight at all in prayer 1. How do we prize the opportunities of duty There is an opportunity of an earthly and an opportunity of a heavenly gain consider which our hearts more readily close with Can we with much pleasure follow a vain world and heartlesly welcom an opportunity of duty delight more with Judas in baggs than in Christs company This is sad But are praying opportunities our festival times Do we go to the house of God with the voice of joy praise 2. Whether we study excuses to wave a present duty when conscience and opportunity urge and invite us to it Are our Souls more skillful in delaies than in performances Are there no excuses when sin calls us and studyed put-offs when God invites us Like the sluggard folding our arms yet a little while longer Or do our hearts rise and beat quick against frivolous excuses that step in to hinder us from prayer 3. How are our hearts affected in prayer Are we more ready to pray our selves asleep than into a vigorous frame Do we enter into it with some life and find our hearts quickly tire and jade us Are we more awake when we are up than we were all the time upon our knees are our hearts in prayer like withered sapless things and very quick afterwards if any worldly business invite us Are we like logs and blocks in prayer and like a Roe upon the mountains in earthly concerns Surely what our pulse beats quickest to is the object most delighted in 4. What time is it we choose for Prayer Is it not our drowziest lazyest time when our nods are as many or more than our petitions as though the dullest time and the deadest frame were most sutable to a living God Do we come with our hearts full of the world to pray for heaven Or do we pick out the most lively seasons Luther chose those hours for prayer and meditation wherein he found himself most lively for study 5. Do we not often wish a duty over As those in the Prophet that were glad when the Sabbath was over that they might run to their buying and selling Or are we of Peter's temper and express Peter's Language 'T is good to be here with Christ on the Mount 6. Do we prepare our selves by delightful and enlivening considerations Do we think of the Precept of God which should spur us and of the Promise of God which should allure us Do we rub our Souls to heat them Do we blow them to kindle them into a flame Do we send up Ejaculations for a quickening spirit If thoughts of God be a burden requests to him will not be a pleasure If we have a coldness in our thoughts of God and Duty we can have no warmth in our desire no delight in our Petitions 7. Do we content our selves with dull motions or do we give check to them Can we though our hearts be never so lazy stroke our selves at the end and call our selves good and faithful Servants Do we take our Souls to task afterwards and examine why they are so lazy why so heavy Do we enquire into the causes of our deadness A gracious Soul is more troubled at its dulness in prayer than a natural conscience is at the omission of prayer He will complain of his sluggishness and mend his pace 2. If we find we have a delight let us examine whether it be a delight of the right kind 1. Do we delight in it because of the gifts we have our selves or the gifts of others we joyn with A man may rejoyce in hearing the Word not because of the holiness and spirituality of the matter but because of the goodness of the dress and the elegancy of the expression Ezek. 33.32 The Prophet was unto them as a lovely Song as one that had a pleasant voice He may upon the same ground delight in prayer But this is a temper not kindled by the true fire of the
doth not commit sin nor cannot sin He commits it not Potiùs patitur quà m facit he gives not a full consent to it he hates it while he cannot escape it He is not such a committer of it as to be the servant of sin John 8.34 He that commits sin is the servant of sin because he serves with his mind the Law of God He bestows not all his thoughts and labour upon sin in making provision for the flesh Rom. 13.14 in being a Caterer for sin He yields not up his Members as Instruments of unrighteousness unto sin he doth not let sin reign in his mortal body nor yield a voluntary obedience to it in the lusts thereof Rom. 6.12 13. for being God's Son he cannot be sins Servant he cannot sin in such a manner and so absolutely as one of the Devil's Children one born of the Devil His Seed remains in him His refers to God or the person born of God God's Seed efficiently man's Seed subjectively Born of God Twice repeated In the first is chiefly intended the declaration of the State in the second the disposition or likeness to God Observe 1. The Description of a Christian Born of God 2. The Priviledge of this Birth or Effects of it 1. Inactivity to sin He doth not commit it 2. Inability to sin He cannot 3. The ground and reasons of those Priviledges 1. The inward Form or Principle whereby he is regenerate which makes him unactive 2. The Efficient Cause which makes him unable Born of God or likeness to God makes him unable 4. The latitude of them in regard of the Subject Whosoever every regenerate man I intend not to run thorow all the parts of this Text having only chose it as a bar to presumption which may be occasioned by the former Doctrine upon mens false suppositions of their having grace There needs not any Doctrine from the Text but if you please take this Doct. There is a mighty difference between the sining of a regenerate and a natural man A regenerate man doth not neither can commit sin in the same manner as an unregenerate man doth That I may not be mistaken observe when I use the word May sin I understand it of a May of possibility not a May of lawfulness And when I say a regenerate man cannot sin so or so understand it of a settled habitual frame distinguish between passion and surprise a sudden effort of nature and an habitual and deliberate determination The sense of this cannot I shall lay down in several Propositions 1. It is not meant exclusively of lesser sins or sins of infirmity There are sins of daily incursion and lighter skirmishes there are some open some secret assaults a multitude of secret faults Psal 19.12 undiscernable and unknown Every good man is like Jacob though he hath one thigh sound he hath another halting I do not find that ever God intended to free any in this life from the remainders of sin What he hath not evidenc'd to have done in any we may suppose he intended not to do 'T is a total Apostacy not a partial Fall that the Covenant provides against Christ in his last prayer prays for Believers preservation and gradual sanctification not for their present perfection The very Office of Advocacy erected in Heaven supposeth sins after regeneration and during our continuance in the world 1 John 2.1 My little Children I write unto you that you sin not and if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father In many things we offend all James 3.2 Not only you that are the inferior sort of Christians but we Apostles We is extensive All offend in many things 'T is implyed in the Lord's Prayer the daily standing Pattern As we are to pray for our daily bread so for a daily pardon and against daily temptations which supposeth our being subject to the one and our commission of the other The brightest Sun hath its spots the clearest Moon her dark parts The Church in her highest comeliness in this world hath her blackness of sin as well as of affliction because though sin be dismounted from its Throne by grace it is not expelled out of its residence It dwells in us though it doth not rule over us Rom. 7.20 And it cannot but manifest it self by its fruits while it remains Yet those sins do not destroy our Adoption Christ in his Sermon on the Mount to his Disciples supposeth the inherency of sin with the continuance of the relation of Children Matth. 7.11 If then you being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him He doth acknowledge them evil while he calls God their Father and gives them the title of Children To sin is to decline from that rectitude in an act which the Agent ought to observe In this respect we sin according to the tenour of the Law in every thing we do though not according to the tenour of the Gospel 2. A regenerate man cannot live in the customary practice of any known sin either of omission or commission 1. Not in a constant omission of known duties If a good man falls into a gross sin he doth not totally omit the performance of common duties to God Not that this attendance on God in his Ordinances doth of it self argue a man to be a good man for many that walk in a constant course of sin may from natural Conscience and Education be as constant in the performing external services as he is 'T is a proper note of an Hypocrite that he will not always delight himself in the Almighty nor always call upon God Job 27.10 i. e. not customarily Whence it follows that a delight in God in duties of Worship is a property of a regenerate man An act of sin may impair his liveliness in them but not cause him wholly to omit them We need not question but David in the time of his impenitency did go to the Tabernacle attend upon the Worship of God 'T is not likely that for ten months together he should wholly omit it though no doubt but he was dead-hearted in it which is intimated when he desires a free spirit Ps 51. prayes for quickening Psa 143.11 one of his Penitential Psalms A total neglect of Ordinances and Duties is a shrewd sign of a total Apostacy and that grace was never in such a mans heart especially a total omission of prayer this is an high contempt of God denying him to be the Author of our mercies depriving him of the prerogative of governing the world disowning any need of him any sufficiency in him declaring we can be our own Gods and subsist of our selves without him and that there is no need of his blessing Grace though sunk under a sin will more or less desire its proper nourishment the Milk of the Word and other Institutions of God Nature though opprest by a disease will
the Spirit of God There is a powerful voice behind him that brings him back when he turns either to the right hand or to the left from the ways of God Isa 30.21 By virtue of this seed within him and the Spirit of God exciting it that word which comes home to the Soul after a sin becomes efficaciously melting and raises up springs of penitential motions which could not arise so suddenly were the spiritual life wholly departed For a man that hath no habit of grace in him cannot so suddenly concur with Gods proposals and exercise a repentance In such an one we see first a stupefaction of mind and an unaptness to faith no motions of a true repentance though some preparation to it But with a regenerate man it is otherwise David being admonisht by Nathan was struck to the heart and Peter presently upon our Saviours look melted into tears Their grace like tinder took fire presently upon those small but powerful occasions though it did not act at the time of their sin yet it had an aptness to act upon the removal of the impediments Though Jonah seems to cast off all regard of God and his command yet upon the first occasion in the Whales Belly he brings forth excellent fruits of faith in a moment Jonah 2. Grace in an instant upon the first motion of the Spirit will rise up and take its place from whence it seems to be deposed As a natural man under some sting of Conscience and flash of a lightning conviction may be restrained from sin yet his natural inclination to it remains though suspended at the present and may be carried the quite contrary way as the stream of a river by the force of the Tide is turned against its natural current yet slides down its channel with its wonted calmness upon the removal of the force so a good man under the violence of some lust hath not his new nature changed though at present it is restrain'd by an extrinsick force so that as the one upon the taking off his conviction returns to his sin so the other upon the removal of his fetters returns to his holiness with a greater spirit and delight A wicked man may sometimes do a good action but he continues not in it As a Planet is sometimes retrograde but soon returns to its direct course When their Conscience pinches them they awake out of their trance So a good man may sin through infirmity but he will revoke it by repentance The seed of God remains in him as the Sap in the Root of a Tree that recovers the leaves the next return of the Sun at the spring He may sink by nature and rise again by grace but the Devil who sinned at the beginning fell and never rose more Vse of Examination If you find your selves in these cases in a course of known sin resolution to commit it were it not for such bars unwillingness to know Gods pleasure and injunction despising admonitions and reproofs a settled love to it a full consent of Will without any antecedent concomitant or consequent dissent tumbling in it without rising by repentance a circle of sinning and repenting without abhorrence of sin you may conclude your selves in an unregenerate state you sin like the Devil who sinned from the beginning A DISCOURSE OF The Pardon of Sin Psalm 32.1 2. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity THis Psalm as Grotius thinks was made to be sung upon the Annual day of the Jewish Expiation when a general confession of their sins was made 'T is one of David's poenitential Psalms supposed to be composed by him after the Murder of Vriah and the pronouncing of his pardon by Nathan v. 5. and rather a Psalm of Thanksgiving 'T is called Maschil a Psalm of understanding Maschil is translated eruditio intelligentia and notes some excellent Doctrine in the Psalm not known by the light of Nature Blessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessednesses Ex omni parte beatus Three words there are to discover the nature of sin and three words to discover the nature of pardon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Transgression Prevarication Some understand by it sins of omission commission 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin Some understand those inward inclinations lusts and motions whereby the Soul swerves from the Law of God and which are the immediate causes of external sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iniquity Notes original sin the root of all Three words that note pardon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levatus forgiven Eas'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to take away to bear to carry away Two words in Scripture are chiefly used to denote remission 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to expiate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bear or carry away the one signifies the manner whereby it is done viz. atonement the other the effect of this expiation carrying away one notes the meritorious cause the other the consequent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covered Alluding to the covering of the Aegyptians in the Red Sea Menochius thinks it alludes to the manner of writing among the Hebrews which he thinks to be the same with that of the Romans as writing with a Pencil upon wax spread upon Tables which when they would blot out they made the Wax plain and drawing it over the writing covered the former letters And so it is equivalent with that expression of blotting out sin as in the other allusion it is with casting sin into the depths of the Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Impute Not charging upon account As sin is a defection from the Law so it is forgiven as it is offensive to God's holiness so it is covered as it is a debt involving man in a debt of punishment so it is not imputed They all note the certainty and extent and perfection of pardon The three words expressing sin here being the same that are used by God in the declaration of his Name Exod. 34.7 Here are to be considered 1. The Nature of Pardon 2. The Author of it God 3. The Extent of it Transgression Sin Iniquity 4. The Manner of it implied by Faith in Christ The Apostle quoting this place Rom. 4.7 to prove Justification by Faith As sin is not imputed so something is imputed instead of it Covering implies something wherewith a thing is covered as well as the act whereby it is covered 5. The Effect of it Blessedness I shall not divide than into distinct Propositions but take the words in order as they lie I. The Nature of Pardon 1. Consider the words and what notes they will afford to us 1. Covering as it alludes to the manner of writing and so is the same with blotting out Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blots out thy transgression whereby is implied that sin is a debt and pardon is the remitting of it It notes 1. The nullity of the debt A crossed book will not
have a continuance of pardon by his actual Sacrifice upon which the validity of all the former mediatory acts did depend Since now there is no more remembrance of Sin by the continuance of legal sacrifices his being so absolutely compleat Therefore God hath erected a standing Office of Advocacy for Christ 1 Joh. 2.1 in Heaven for the representing of his wounds and satisfaction and bespeaking a continuance of grace to us He is said to be the lamb that taketh away the sins of the world John 1.29 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath taken or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will take but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which notes actum perpetuum the constant effect of his death And since as I said before Christ hath an higher portion than others because he loved righteousness in this portion he hath a joy and gladness but his joy would certainly be sullied if pardon should not be continued to those for whom he purchased it 5. The worth of it That must be of incomparable value that was purchased at so great a price as the Blood of God Acts 20.28 So it is called by reason of the union of the divine nature with the humane constituting one person 'T is Blood which all the Gold and Silver and the Stones and Dust of the Earth turned into Pearls could not equal God understood the worth of it who in justice would require no more of his Son at least than the thing was worth not a drop of Blood more than the value of it Neither surely would Christ who could not be mistaken in the just price have parted with more than was necessary for the purchase of it It would have beggar'd the whole Creation to have paid a price for it The Prayers and Services of a gracious Soul though God delights in them could not be a sufficient recompence And the bare mercy of God without the concurrence of his provokt justice could not grant it though his Bowels naturally are troubled at the afflictions of his Creatures IV. Extensiveness fulness or perfectness of pardon 1. In the Act forgiving covering not imputing 2. In the Object iniquities transgressions and sins 1. Perfect in respect of state God retains no hatred against a pardoned person He never imputes sin formally because he no more remembers it though virtually he may to aggravate the offence a Believer hath fallen into after his justification So Job possessed the sins of his youth And Christ tacitly put Peter in remembrance of his denial of him The grant is compleat here though all the fruits of remission are not enjoyed till the day of judgment and therefore in Scripture sin is said then to be forgiven 'T is a question whether Believers sins will be mentioned at the day of judgment Some think they will because all men are to give an account Methinks there is some evidence to the contrary Our Saviour never mentioned the unworthy carriage of his Disciples to him in his sufferings and after his resurrection seems to have removed from him all remembrance of it 'T is not to be expected that a loving Husband will lay open the faults of his tender Spouse upon the day of the publick solemnization of the nuptials But if it be otherwise 't is not to upbraid them but to enhance their admirations of his grace He will discover their graces as well as their sin and unstop the Bottles of their tears as well as open the Book of their transgressions Our Saviour upon Maries anointing him applauds her affection but mentions not her former iniquity It must needs be perfect 1. All Gods Actions are suitable to his Nature What God doth he doth as a God And is he perfect in his other works and not in his Mercy which is the choicest flower in his Crown God sees blacker circumstances in our sins than an inraged Conscience or a malicious Devil can represent But God pardons not according to our apprehensions which though great in a tempestuous Conscience yet are not so high as Gods knowledge of it 2. The Cause of pardon is perfect Both the mercy of God and the merits of Christ are immutably perfect 'T is for his own glory his own mercies sake that he pardons He will not dimm the lustre of his own Crown by leaving the effect of his glory imperfect or satisfying the importunities of his mercy by halves The Saints in Heaven have not a more perfect righteousness whereby they continue their standing than those on Earth have for though inherent righteousness here is stain'd yet imputed upon which pardon is founded is altogether spotless A righteousness that being infinite in respect of the person hath a sufficiency for Devils had it a congruity but it hath both for us because manifested in our natures 2. In respect of the Objects Sinful nature sinful habits sinful dispositions pardon'd at once though never so heinous 1. For quality There was no limitation as to the deepness of the wounds caused by the Fiery Serpents in the Wilderness the precept of looking upon them extended to the cure of all let the sting reach never so deep the wound be never so wide or sharp and his sight be never so weak if he could but cast his Eye upon the Brazen one The Commission Christ gave to his disciples was to preach the Gospel to every Creature Mark 16.15 every Humane Creature the worst as well as the best though you meet with monstrous sinners in the likeness of Beasts and Devils except none from suing out a pardon in the court of mercy The Almightiness of his mercy doth as much transcend our highest iniquities as it doth our shallowest apprehensions Our sins as well as our substance are but as the Dust of the Ballance as easily to be blown away by his grace as the other puft into nothing by his power No sin is excepted in the Gospel but that against the holy Ghost because it doth not stand with the honour of God to pardon them who wilfully scorn the means and account the Redeemer no better than an Impostor No man can expect in reason he should be saved by mercy who by a wilful malice against the Son of God tramples upon the free offers of grace and provokes mercy it self to put on the deportment of justice and call in revenging wrath to its assistance for the vindication of its despised honour The infinite grace of God dissolves the greatest mists as well as the smallest exhalations and melts the thick clouds of sin as well as the little icicles 2. The Quantity Hath God ever put a restraint upon his grace and promise that we shall find mercy if we sin but to such a number and no more 'T is not agreeable to the greatness and majesty of Gods mercy to remit one part of the debt and to exact the other It consists not with the motive of pardon which is his own love to be both a friend and an enemy at the same time in pardoning some
and charging others and thus his grace would rather be a mockery and derision of men Neither doth it consist with the end of pardon which is Salvation for to give an half pardon is to give no Salvation since if the least guilt remains unremitted it gives justice an unanswerable plea against us What profit would it be to have some forgiven and be damned for the remainder Had any one sin for which Christ was to have made a compensation remain'd unsatisfied the Redeemer could not have risen so if the smallest sin remains unblotted it will hinder our rising from the power of eternal death and make the pardon of all the rest as a nullity in Law But it is the glory of God to pass by all Prov. 19.31 It is his glory to pass over a transgression 'T is the glory of a man to pass by an offence 'T is a discovery of an inward principle or property which is an honour for a man to be known the master of If it be his glory to pass by a single and small injury then to pass by the more heinous and numerous offences is a more transcendent honour because it evidenceth this property to be in him in a more triumphant strength and power So that it is a clearer evidence of the illustrious vigor of mercy in God to pass by mountainous and heaped up transgressions than to forgive only some few iniquities of a lesser guilt Jer. 33.8 I will cleanse them from all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me and whereby they have transgrest against me Therefore when God tells the Jews that he would give them a general discharge in the fullest terms imaginable to remove all jealousie from men either because of the number or the aggravations of their sins he knew not how to leave expressing the delight he had in it and the honour which accrued to him by it It shall be to me a name of joy a praise and honour before all the nations of the earth He would get himself an honourable name by the large riches of his Clemency Mercy is as infinite as any other attribute as infinite as God himself And as his power can create incomprehensible multitudes of worlds and his justice kindle unconceiveable Hells so can his mercy remit innumerable sins 3. Perfect in respect of Duration Because the hand writing of ordinances is taken away Col. 2.14 15. Blotting out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross which was the Ceremonial Law wherein they did by their continual presenting Sacrifices and imposition of Hands upon them sign a Bill or Bond against themselves whereby a conscience of sin was retain'd Heb. 10.2 3. and a remembrance of sin renewed they could not settle the Conscience in any firm peace Heb. 9.9 they were compelled to do that every day whereby they did confess that sin did remain and want an expiation Hence is the Law called a ministration of condemnation 2 Cor. 3.9 because it puts them in mind of condemnation and compelled the people to do that which testified that the curse was yet to be abolished by virtue of a better Sacrifice This Hand writing which was so contrary to us was taken away nailed to his Cross torn in pieces wholly cancelled no more to be put in suit Whence in â—pposition to this continual remembrance of sin under the legal administâ—ation we read under the New Testament of Gods remembring sin no more Hâ—â— 10.3 17. Christ hath so compounded the business with Divine Justice that wâ— have the sins remitted never returning upon us and the renewal also of remissions upon daily sins if we truly repent For though there be a blacker Tincture in sins after conversion as being more deeply stain'd with ingratitude yet the Covenant of God stands firm and he will not take away his kindness Isa 54.9 10. And there is a greater affection in God to his Children than to his Enemies for these he loves before their Conversion with a love of benevolence but those with a love of complacency Will not God be as ready to continue his grace to those that are penitent as to offer it to offending Rebels Will he refuse it to his Friends when he intreats his Enemies Not that any should think that because of this duration they have liberty to sin and upon some trivial Repentance are restored to God's favour No where Christ is made Righteousness he is made Sanctification His Spirit and Merit go together A new Nature and a New State are Concomitants and he that sins upon presumption of the grand Sacrifice never had any share in it V. The Effect of Pardon That is Blessedness 1. The greatest evil is taken away sin and the dreadful consequents of it Other evils are temporal but those know no period in a doleful Eternity There is more evil in sin than good in all the creatures Sin stript the fallen Angels of their Excellency and dispossessed them of the Seat of Blessedness It fights against God it disparages all his Attributes it deforms and destroys the creature Rom. 7.13 Other evils may have some mixture of good to make them tolerable but sin being exceeding sinful without the mixture of any good engenders nothing but destruction and endless damnation Into what miseries afflictions sorrows hath that one sin of Adam hurl'd all his posterity what screechings wounds pangs horrours doth it make in troubled Consciences How did it deface the Beauty of the Son of God that created and upheld the World with sorrow in his Agonies and the stroak of Death on the Cross How many thousands millions of poor creatures have been damned for sin and are never like to cease roaring under an inevitable Justice Ask the damned and their groans yellings howlings will read thee a dreadful Lecture of sins sinfulness and the punishment of it And is it not then an inestimable blessedness to be delivered from that which hath wrought such deplorable Executions in the World 2. The greatest Blessings are conferred Pardon is God's Family-Blessing and the peculiar mercy of his choicest darlings He hands out other things to wicked men but he deals out this only to his Children 1. The Favour of God Sin makes thee Satan's Drudge but pardon makes thee God's Favourite We may be sick to death with Lazarus and be God's Friends sold to slavery with Joseph and yet be dear to him thrown into a Lions Den with Daniel and be greatly beloved poor with Lazarus who had only Doggs for Chirurgions to dress his Sores and yet have a Title to Abraham's bosom But we can never be beloved if we are unpardoned no share in his friendship his love his inheritance without a pardon All created evils cannot make us loathsom in a justified State nor all created goods make us lovely under guilt Sin is the
entertain them Page 10 †to be supprest Page 10 11 †good ones how to be raised a Page 11. ad 14 †bad ones how prevented a Page 14. ad 16 †evil ones how to be ordered when they intrudo Page 16 17 †good ones how to be ordered when they appear Page 17 18 †Time lost if not spent in getting Divine knowledge Page 463 4. Transubstantiation groundless Page 777. 815 6 7. 853. 1094. 11-10 Tree of Life no Type of Christ Page 730. Troubles Regeneration a comfort in them Page 115. and reconciliation Page 368. and saving knowledge Page 449. meditation on Christ's Exaltation would make us couragious under them Page 1107. Christ tender of his people in them Page 1156. Christ doth not remove but comfort under Page 1157. promise of the Churches stability a comfort in them Page 38 9 †sharp to be expected and provided for Page 53 †should not put us out of the way of duty Page 1217. 54 †56 †Vid. Afflictions Trust must be in God only Page 202 3. in God exercis'd by Christ Page 313. 904. the effect of saving knowledge Page 428. will be in God or something else Page 621. a strong ground for it in the Churches greatest miseries Page 37 †Truth of God overthrown by the Patrons of Free-will Page 159 160. appears in Regeneration Page 213. honoured in Christ Page 250 511. affronted by unbelief a Page 612. ad 616. the glory of God Page 613. highly valued by him Page 616. engaged for the safety of a believer Page 679. for the damnation of an Unbeleiver Page 702. rendred satisfaction by Christ necessary a Page 923. ad 926. the first object of Faith 1161. engaged for Sions stability Page 31 †Truths not believing some is not unbelief Page 606 7. those of Christ man an enemy to Page 714 15. Types of Christ things and persons that were so most largely spoken of in Scripture Page 261. of Christ's death a Page 947. ad 950. Vid. Sacrifices U. UNbelief how great a sin Page 298 284 304. an unworthy dealing with God and Christ Page 353 4. 655 spiritual apprehensions an antidote against it Page 554. the World understands it not to be a sin Page 558. the fountain of all sin Page 601 649. ad 652. the band of all sin Page 602 675. 6 7 8. t is the greatest sin proved in general a Page 602 ad 605. 908 9. what it is not a Page 605 ad 608. what is it Page 608 9 10. it affronts God in all his Attributes a Page 612. ad 623. its malignity against Christ a Page 624. ad 629 1149. and the spirit Page 629 630. as bad nay worse than the Jews crucifying Christ a Page 630. ad 640. like the Devils first sin nay worse a Page 640. ad 645 740. like Adam's sin nay worse Page 645 6 7. 730. a sin against the law of nature Page 647 8. 9. defiles the choicest faculties Page 652 3. most odious to God Page 653. the Patience of God where 't is total or partial great Page 653 4. 699. its blackness a motive to Faith Page 655. speculative irrational Page 656 7 8. 699. 734 5. 743. practical irrational Page 658 700 1. 699 700 1. 741. 743. ungrateful Page 659 687 8 9. inexcusable Page 659 689 690 1. what kind of misery follows it Page 659 695 6 7 8. all should be sensible of it and why Page 660 1 2. 743 4. watch against it Page 662 3. 744. endeavour to come out of a state of it Page 663 4. 742 3. praise due from those that are got out of it Page 664. eternal wrath unavoidably follows it Page 374 a 675. ad 686. 692 3 4. 908. 1201 2. why eternal wrath follows it a Page 686 ad 692. not the only sin that damns Page 675. Gods anger chiefly discovered against it Page 684 5 6. we should be sensible of the misery that attends it Page 703 4. and the justice of that misery a Page 704 ad 707. 't is just ibid. to be detested Page 707. common among professors Page 712 13. the sin of the old World Page 713 717. natural to man a Page 714. ad 719. its causes Page 284. a 730. ad 740. its frequency to be lamented Page 740 1. directions against it Page 742 3. Vnbelievers who are a Page 719. ad 730 786. Vnderstanding the first blot of sin was on it Page 153. of man its blindness Page 153 565. some notions left in it Page 179. Regeneration begins in it and how 't is wrought upon a Page 218 ad 220. 440 470. enlightned by the spirit in conviction Page 574. enlightned in a renewed man Page 92 †Vnregenerate their actions only seemingly good Page 22 3. their misery Page 49 50 51. 133. their condemnation whether simply for not being regenerate Page 178. conscience awakened accuses more for wilful sins than for being unregenerate Page 183. must not come to the Supper Page 777. a 780 ad 784. sin alive in them Page 1314. Vnion of the two natures fitted Christ to be a Redeemer Page 287 291. by the Holy Ghost Page 290. with God and Christ not without regeneration Page 31 2. of a believer with Christ the ground of imputation Page 869 1200. makes him happy Page 701. in the Lords Supper Page 762. explained Page 1339. by Faith Page 1200. the foundation of communion Page 1341 2. Vnworthy receiving the Sacrament what a Page 816. ad 819. its sinfulness Page 819. its danger Page 8â—0 to be examined and avoided Page 822. Voluntary services from a regenerate man and him only Page 24 89. Christs death was Page 384 837 877 918 106 †its voluntariness explained Page 877. 8 9. proved Page 880. necessary it should be Page 881. W. WAnts of believers shall be supplied Page 340. Watchfulness over our hearts a means of Mortification Page 1321. a means to pervert bad thoughts Page 15 †to be join'd with Prayer Page 17 †Weak Grace Vid. Grace Will those that are weak in Grace should see how that stands Page 117. naturally corrupt Page 143. 152. cannot regenerate it self a Page 144. ad 147 a 156. ad 174. cannot co-operate with God in Regeneration a Page 171 ad 174. its Liberty Vid. Liberty conceits of its freedom in spirituals groundless proud dangerous Page 198. ad 202. God only can work on Page 208. not left in indifferency in Regeneration Page 214 221 226. immediately wrought on in it Page 220 453. not compelled in it Page 221. subjecting Gods grace to it absurd Page 1353. of a renew'd man changed Page 92 †Vid. Regeneration Wilfulness the cause of mens ruin Page 705 6. Vid. Impotence Wisdom of God overthrown by the Patrons of free-will Page 157. in governing free agents Page 179. not disparaged in his commands and promises though special grace be denied Page 191. displayed in Regeneration Page 214. glorified in Christ Page 250 257 344 505. Christ filled with and why Page 295. 1133. known