a sincere and hearty Repentance David saw nothing more as to the Guilt of his Sins when he penn'd his 51st Psalm than his own Reason and Natural Conscience might inform him before but he had quite another Sense of his Sins then his Heart was broken and his Soul wounded under the Apprehension of God's Displeasure and this makes him pray so earnestly and so importunately to God for the Pardon of his Sins And if it were thus in the case of a Man otherwise after God's own heart i.e. afraid of offending him and carefull to please him what may we imagine it to be in those who in the time of Youth walk in the way of their hearts and in the sight of their eyes i. e. allowing themselves in all Sensual Inclinations and pursuing Carnal Delights so far till they have lost all Sense of God and another World and such as these nothing but the Powerfull Influences of Divine Grace can awaken and recover 3. The Third Reason is A General Presumption upon God's Mercy The first thing which Sinners in the Heat of their Youth and Pursuit of their Lusts aim at is to think as little as may be of what they are doing or what will be the Consequence of their Actions For every thought of themselves is very uneasie to them and every thought of God is much more so therefore they drive away all such thoughts by one means or other by Sleep Diversion Company and such Publick Entertainments as rather heighten and inflame their Vices than correct them If all this will not doe but there will be some Melancholy Hours wherein Conscience begins to rouse it self and to awaken the Sinner to some Sense of his Folly then he is ready to hearken with Pleasure to any Raileries against Religion and Morality and admires the Wit of any one who dares say a bold and sharp thing against the Wisdom of all Ages and of the best Men in them And one or two such Sayings without Proof are cried up as far beyond the best Rules of Morality or the Evidence of natural and revealed Religion Any Sceptical Disputes are sufficient Demonstrations to them and the most unreasonable Cavils against Religion are embraced because against the thing they hate and even a Jest against the Day of Judgment shall signifie more with them than the strongest Arguments in the World to prove it The true Reason is they love their Vices and hate every thing which makes them uneasie to them and nothing doth more so than the thoughts of a Judgment to come But suppose after all the terrible and frequent Expressions of Scripture concerning the Day of Judgment joyned with the Reasonableness of the thing do make such Impression on their Minds that they cannot wholly shake off the Fears and Apprehensions of it then their last endeavour is to mitigate and lessen them from a General Presumption of God's Mercifull Nature and therefore they are willing to suppose that however God to keep the World in awe hath threatned them with the dreadfull Severities of the Great Day yet as a tender Father who threatens his Disobedient Son in order to reclaim him with no less than Disinheriting him for ever yet when it comes to Execution he may Relent not from his Sons Deserts but his own Compassion so they hope or believe or are willing to doe so that God at the Great Day will not proceed according to the rigour which he hath threatned to use And to comfort themselves in these hopes they find out all possible Extenuations of their Sins If we say they had been created purely intellectual Beings free from this load of Flesh and the Inclinations which are natural to it then it had been more reasonable to have called us to a strict Account for every Action of our Lives for then every Inclination to Evil must have come from our Minds but now our Bodies corrupt and draw them aside and the Inclinations to Evil grow faster than our Reason which should check and restrain them And when those Inclinations are strongest Men have not that Judgment which is necessary to the Government of unruly Passions So that the very frame of humane Nature seems to plead for Sins committed in the Heat and Violence of Youth Besides such is the Strictness and Purity of the Law of God and so great the Weakness and Disability the Ignorance and Inadvertency of Mankind that if God will make no Allowance for humane Frailty who can stand before his Tribunal And if any Allowance be made for Sins of Infirmity there are so many Abatements to be made for Sins committed through sudden Passion through Mistake through the unavoidable Impotency of humane Nature in this degenerate Condition that the Severity of that Day is not much to be feared This is the utmost of the Sinners Plea against the Severity of the Day of Judgment But to shew how faulty it is I shall offer these Considerations 1. That God will certainly Iudge the World in Righteousness and therefore none shall have Cause to complain of the Harshness or Severity of his Proceedings For this Righteousness is not the Rigour of Justice but that Equity which hath a Regard to the Circumstances of Actions and the Abatement and Extenuation of Faults which arise from them 2. None shall suffer at that Day but for their wilfull Impenitency and obstinate Continuance in Sin For this is not onely agreeable to the Mercifull Nature of God to forgive Repenting Sinners but it is one of the great Designs of the Gospel to assure Mankind of it by the highest Testimonies even by the Death and Resurrection of the Son of God and all the Miracles wrought in Confirmation of it and of the Truth of his Doctrine 3. There are several Degrees of Wilfulness and Obstinacy and Mens Judgment shall be according to them Some Mens Capacities Opportunities and Helps have very much exceeded others some have broken through stronger Convictions and more powerfull Assistences of Grace than others some have had more early Instructions more frequent Warnings more obliging Favours from Heaven than others And as it is reasonable that Persons suffer for their Obstinate Continuance in Sin so that they should suffer according to the Degrees and Circumstances of it 4. It is not unjust Severity in God to deprive Men of that Happiness which they have wilfully refused and to condemn them to that Misery which their Sins have deserved Hath not God made the most condescending Offer of Mercy and Salvation that it is possible for Creatures to expect from him after so many and great Provocations Could Heaven stoop lower than it hath done to vile and ungratefull Sinners When the Son of God came down from Heaven on purpose to reconcile God and Man together When the Spirit of God warns and excites their minds to the Consideration of their Eternal Welfare When the Messengers of this Reconciliation are to woo and intreat and beseech Sinners in Christ's stead as
doth not thereby lose any of the Real Conveniencies of Humane Life but he that places his Happiness here cannot find it in this World and is sure to be miserable in another And this makes a very considerable Difference in the Choice Indeed if God made it absolutely necessary in order to Future Happiness for us to forgoe all the Natural Pleasures and Innocent Delights of this Life the terms would be much harder and hardly possible to Humane Nature For if all Pleasures of Sense must be renounced we must not see the pleasing varieties of Nature nor hear the melodious sound of Birds nor tast the Meat when we are hungry nor drink when we are thirsty for there is really greater Pleasure of Sense when Nature craves necessary Sustenance than what the most voluptuous Epicurean enjoys in all his Contrivances first to raise his Appetite and then to please it For what is most natural and necessary is the most Delightfull every thing of Force must have something Vneasie in it But God hath not dealt thus hardly with Mankind He allows us all the reasonable Desires of Nature and hath onely forbid us what is unreasonable and unnecessary And upon the forbearance of what is so joyned with our entire dependence upon himself for it which the Scripture calls Faith working by Love he hath made the Gracious Offer of Eternal Happiness It is true in Extraordinary Cases of Persecution he requires more but then he proposes Extraordinary Rewards to make abundant Recompence for them but in the common and ordinary Case of Mankind he requires no more than our avoiding those Excesses in Pleasing our Appetites which Nature and Reason condemn And those who consider cannot but see how unreasonable it is to place their Happiness in forbidden Pleasures and to think that nothing can make them happy but what God hath declared shall make them miserable It is a strange Crossness in our Desires if nothing can please them but what displeases God It were no hard task to shew that God forbids nothing but what is really repugnant to our Well-being here and how then can any such thing as Happiness be hoped for in such things And when a man ventures being Miserable for ever for what can never make him Happy here if he had his full Liberty to pursue his Desires he shews how far he is from acting like a wise rational considering Being So that Impatience of Considering is one great Reason why the thoughts of a Judgment to come make so little Impression on Mens Minds 2. The Second Reason is the Bewitching and Stupifying Nature of Sensual Pleasures The Epicurean Philosophers who managed the Theory of Pleasure with the greatest Art so as it might look like a proper happiness for Mankind found Two things absolutely necessary in order to it 1. The Retrenching all inordinate Desires viz. such as had more Pain following them than there was Pleasure in the Enjoyment of them 2. The Removing the Fears of another World out of Mens Minds For as long as these sunk into their Minds they must rob them of that inward Tranquillity without which it were a vain thing so much as to talk of Happiness But it was impossible upon their Grounds to doe either of these For 1. It is unreasonable to suppose that the Happiness of our present Life should consist in the Enjoyment of Pleasure and yet the Pleasure of Opinion to be taken away since the Pleasure of Opinion is the far greatest part of the Pleasure of Life and that which is as much valued and esteemed by all those who place their Happiness in Pleasure If it were all to be reduced to that which lies in satisfying the necessary Desires of Nature then such as have just enough for that are far more happy than the Rich and Voluptuous because they have less Pains and Care But if any allowance be made to the Pleasure of Fancy and Opinion then no stop can be given to inordinate Desires For who can set bounds to Fancy or lay a reasonable Restraint upon Desires if the Differences of Good and Evil be taken away As they must be if meer Pleasure and Pain be to be regarded in our Actions 2. As to the other the Methods they used to remove all Fears of another World were weak and trifling and they had no Advantage in Point of Argument but what the Ignorance and Folly of the Idolatrous part of Mankind at that time gave them But there is a far greater advantage in point of Interest which makes men of Sensual Lives very willing to be rid of the Fears of another Life And a willing mind goes a great way in believing or not believing Those who place their Happiness in eating and drinking well as they call it and other Sensual Delights which can never be enjoyed when htis Life is ended have but a melancholy Prospect into another World for they are shut out from the very possibility of being happy in their own Sense unless they would believe the Eastern Impostour but when they once come to apprehend that there is no Pleasure to make them happy but what is seated in the Body they are apt to conclude that when that dies there is an end of all for their Imaginations can reach no farther And the true Reason is they have laid Reason and Conscience asleep so long that it is very hard to awaken them their Notions of good and Evil are like the confused Apprehensions of Men half awake they see enough to perplex but not enough to satisfie them And when their Fears grow upon them they have not the Heart and Courage to Examine them whether they be Reasonable or not but rather choose to return to their former Opiates than undergo the trouble of an Effectual Cure by a hearty Repentance and coming to themselves as the Prodigal Son in the Parable did when his Hardship had brought him to Consideration We do not know what had become of him if he had been wise and frugal in his Pleasures if he had taken care of a good stock and a plentifull Subsistence but he first came to be pinched with want before he was awakened to Repent But we have in Scripture a more remarkable Instance of the Stupifying Nature of Sensual Pleasures and that was in David after his Sins of Adultery and Murther It is a Wonder how a Man of such a tender Conscience in other things should continue so long under the Guilt of these Enormities without being awakened to Repentance Did he not know these to be great Sins And did not his Conscience charge him with the Guilt of them How came he then to need a Prophet to be sent to him and to deal so plainly with him as to tell him Thou art the Man But this is a plain Evidence how much the Pleasures of Sin are apt to stupifie Mens Consciences so far that unless God by his Grace be pleased to awaken them thoroughly they never come to
though God did beseech them by them that they would be reconciled to God When the Patience and Goodness and Long-suffering of God is exercised so much on purpose to lead them to Repentance When God instead of perfect Obedience is willing to pardon and pass by so many Offences if they truly Repent of them and to receive them still into his Favour and Mercy When after all this men do rather prefer the present Pleasures of Sin before all that happiness which God so freely offers is it any Injustice in him to suffer them for ever to be deprived of that which they so wilfully so ungratefully so obstinately refused And supposing the Souls of Men to subsist in another World free from all those Clouds of Errour and Mistake and the false Notions they are deceived by here as well as all the Diversions and Pleasures of this Life it is not to be imagined but they must for-ever suffer an intolerable Anguish within called A Worm that never dyes and a Fire that never goes out from the Reflexions upon their own Folly What Vengeance beyond this God may inflict we now know not may none of us ever know it but we are sure it will never exceed the proportion and desert of their Sins Which is sufficient to clear the Justice of God in his Proceedings with Mankind in the Day of Judgment 2. It remains now onely to shew by what means God's bringing us to Judgment may make a deeper Impression upon our Minds By considering thâ—se two things 1. That our not considering it will not make our condition bâ—tter but much worse 2. That our Considering it is the best means to prevent the evil Consequences of it 1. Our not considering it will not make our Condition better There were great Reason indeed to walk in the way of our hearts and in the sight of our eyes and never trouble our selves with what will happen at the great Day if the putting it out of our Heads would make our Accounts the easier when it comes But alas Whether we think of it or no the Account runs on and we must answer to every particular at last and how unprovided shall we be if we spend no time here in examining stating and clearing of them as far as we are able It is a mighty Priviledge we have by the Gospel that God allows us to clear our Accounts with him in this World For if we would judge our selves we shall not be judged i.e. If we call our selves to a strict Account for our Actions if we Repent heartily and sincerely of our Sins if we seek earnestly to God for Mercy if we have our Consciences cleansed by the Blood of Christ from the pollution of our Sins then we may with Joy and Peace in our Minds think of the Great Day of Recompence But if we never enter into our Selves to search and examine our own Actions never look into the Habits of our own Minds nor charge our selves with the Guilt of the Sins we have committed how can we ever hope to escape the Scrutiny or avoid the Severity of that Day For our Account continually increases by our neglect of it and the burden of God's Wrath must be so much heavier when we have taken no care to lessen it but after our hardness and impenitent hearts have onely treasured up wrath against the day of wrath 2. Our considering that God will bring us to Judgment is the best means to prevent the evil Consequences of it For although we cannot hope to plead Innocency yet which is next in point of Wisdom this is the most effectual Motive to bring us to Repentance And that which makes us Repent makes us to grow Wise in time and to lay a good Foundation for Eternal Life There are many Arguments to induce us to it in the Folly and Shame of our Sins the Wisdom of Reflection and Reformation the Instances of it and Exhortations to it recorded in Scripture but there is none more sensible and which touches Men more in point of Interest and Concernment than this of a Iudgment to come Must I then saith a Penitent Sinner give a strict Account to God of all the evil Actions of my Life and suffer according to the Desert of them if I die in Impenitency How much doth it then concern me to Repent betimes to Repent in good earnest to Repent while there is hopes of Mercy Away then all ye deceitfull Vanities of this wicked World ye have too long deceived and seduced me what will all this vain shew this busie Seducer this impertinent Outside of the World signifie when I must be stript of all and stand guilty and accused by my own Conscience before the Judgment-Seat of Christ Oh! how wretched shall I be if my Conscience condemns me before the Sentence of the Judge Therefore I am resolved to prevent the Judgment of that Day I will accuse judge and condemn my self nay I will proceed to Execution as to all the vitious Habits and corrupt Inclinations within me And although I cannot wholly mortifie them yet I will crucifie them i. e. nail them to the Cross and allow them no longer Liberty and albeit they may struggle for a time yet I will never give way to their Dominion over me any more that so Death and Judgment may find me prepared if not with unspotted Innocency yet with hearty and sincere Repentance To conclude all let the Consideration of this Day of Iudgment to come enter deep into our Minds and awaken us out of our Lethargy and Security We are very apt to put off unpleasing things from time to time and to pass away our time here as easily as may be But this is no part of Wisdom and we shall extremely blame our selves for it one time or other The best we can do now is to recover what is past by Repentance and to set our selves to the making up our Accounts with God in this World For we are all walking on the brink of Eternity and know not how soon we may drop into it But what Eternal Horrour and Confusion must follow us if we go on to slight the Opportunities he still affords us of making our Peace with him who is to be our Judge May God therefore of his Mercy awaken us all to a timely and serious Repentance and then our Iniquities shall not be our Ruine FINIS Ch. 12. 1. Ch. 1. 2. Ch. 2. 1. v. 3. v. 4 5 6 7. v. 8. v. 11. Ch. 8. 15. Ch. 7. 3. Ch. 9. 2. Ch. 8. 12 13. Ch. 12. 14. Act. 7. 31. Rom. 2. 16. 2 Cor. 5. 10 Rom. 2. 6. 1 Cor. 7. 31. Matt. 4. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nat. Ausc. l. 7. c. 4. n. 15. Gal. 5. 6. Luke 15. 17. 2 Sam. 12. 7. Acts 17. 31. Mark 9. 44. 1 Cor. 11. 31. Rom. 2. 5.