works Col. 1.21 The mind is either inventing of evil things and finding out new sins Rom. 1.30 or projecting and contriving how to justifie the flesh and to fulfil the lusts of it Rom. 13. ult Or the mind is taken up in cloaking and covering of sin it finds out excuses it sews the Fig-leaves of Pretenses together to hide the filthiness and deformity of sin from the Eye of Conscience and so to blind and deceive their own Souls How should this afflict and wound our Souls that we have been enemies to him that is the chief good to a glorious infinite eternal Being who spake the World out of nothing and could as easily speak us and all things else into their First Nothing again But because men are ready to deny this Charge and plead not Guilty to it Paul proves mens enmity against God by their opposition to and rebellion against the Law of God The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be Rom. 8.7 6. Men are Children and Captives of the Devil 1. They are Children of the Devil But Men will start and deny such an Accusation The Jews affirmed That God was their Father John 8.41 but Christ asserted that which was very different from and contrary to this John 8.44 Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do Was not Christ's Testimony to be credited rather than theirs Tho' Men as to their natural Life proceed and descend from their Parents yet as to their corrupt Life they issue from Satan The enmity and malignity of their Souls against God his People and his Laws this is the very image and likeness of Satan The Jews hated the Truth that Christ preached abhorred him and were inclined to murder him and these were the very Lusts of Satan Whoredom Gluttony and Drunkenness are gross and brutish Lusts but the most Spiritual sins as Pride Envy Hatred are properly the Lusts of Satan In these Men do most resemble him these are the very Lineaments of his Face It is said of wicked men Psal 58.4 That their poyson is like the poyson of a serpent This seems to be a plain allusion to the first sin When the Devil under and by a Serpent tempted our First Parents then he did distil his Venom and drop his Poison into them when his word was believed and his suggestions embraced He misrepresented God as envious of their Good of their higher Knowledge and of their sweetest Pleasures and Delights He did set forth the Fruit of a Tree as the best and most desirable Good and to be preferred before the favour of God and as if God's threatning was but a vain and false word This Poison of the Serpent we may discern and find in our own Souls and therefore while unregenerate may be justly charged to the Satans Children yea the Souls of Sinners are the House that Satan dwells and the Shop that he works in they have Members Col. 3.5 that God never made they have Lusts that he never kindled 1 John 2.15 16. and are under a Law Rom 7.21 23. that God never enacted but these Members Lusts and Law came from Satan 2. Unregenerate Men are the Devils Vassals Slaves and Captives Satan did but present Job's Cattle as a desirable Booty and Prey and blow up the Fire of their Lusts and the Chaldeans and Sabeans quickly make an Inroad Invade Job's Possession and take away his Cattle Job 1.15 17. Satan carries Men on in the Chanel of their own corrupt Nature and on the violent stream and torrent of their own Lusts Men are said to walk according to Satan Ephes 2.2 but how is this The Apostle tells us in the next Verse Eph. 2.2 3. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind They think they have nothing to do with Satan when they obey him in serving of their Lusts The Devil takes men captive at his will 2 Tim. 2. last yet he leads men captive by their own Wills The very liberty of their Wills is inslaved Sinners yield and give up their own corrupt Wills and carnal Affections as so many Cords for Satan to lead them by to Hell Satan finds Lusts in us as Chains to bind us as Snares to hold us shall not this consideration deeply wound the Souls of Men that they side and join with Satan to seduce and destroy themselves Men close their eyes Matt. 13.15 And Satan blinds their minds 2 Cor. 4.4 5. and so they put the greatest cheat on their own Souls They see not the Good that Satan deprives them of and the Misery and Destruction he brings on them 7. Unregenerate Men are Prisoners Is 42.7 Is 49.9 they sit in darkness and are bound with chains Is 61.1 and dwell in the Prison House They are under a sentence of condemnation John 3.18 He that believes not is condemned already And they are under a fear of a day of Execution Heb. 2.15 Through the fear of death they are all their life time subject to bondage How much are Sinners and Hipocrites affrighted What dreadful Exclamations do they make Who among us shall dwell with devouring Fire Who among us shall dwell with everlasting Burnings O what bitter cries of destruction Is 35.5 will Sinners lift up when they shall see the whetted Sword of Justice hanging over their Heads and their Feet at the brink of the bottomless Pit When their eyes shall see their destruction and they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath Job 21.20 30. 8. O let this wound your Souls that you go so far from God Jer. 2.5 and fly so fast Hos 7.13 Woe unto them 1. For they have fled from me as if they could not go too far or hasten too fast from the Father of Mercies from the Fountain of Life And Sinners are very unwilling to return they hold fast deceit they refuse to return Jer. 8.5 They stop their ears and make their hearts like an adamant-stone lest they should hear the words of the law of the Lord of hosts Zech. 7.11 12. They have an Iron Sinew a Brow of Brass and a Heart of Stone that will not melt or relent Is 48.4 when God draws near to them with beams of Light commands of Obedience and offers of Grace Job 21.14 They bid him depart as if they had no need of God owed no homage obedience or subjection to him as if they could stand tho' he did not support them as if they could chuse their own way and order their steps tho' he did not direct them and they could be happy tho' they did not enjoy him They cast God himself and his Word too behind their backs Ezek. 23.35 When Men bid God depart is not this to pluck away his props and supports from their Building To banish Heaven from themselves and to execute a great part of Hell on themselves And to provoke God to bid them depart from him as cursed Creatures into everlasting Fire Matt.
THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF Spiritual Husbandry In breaking up our FALLOW GROUND Together with a DISCOURSE Of the Terrible Coming of CHRIST To Execute Vengeance on all that remain Fallow Ground and Obey not the Gospel By SAMVEL TOMLYNS M.A. and Minister of the Gospel in Marlborough LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheap-side near Mercers-Chapel 1699. TO Richard Wollaston Esq Grace Mercy and Peace be multiplied from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ A Spiritual Lethargy is the reigning Disease of this Age The Design of these Discourses is to Alarm the Secure to Awaken the Sleeping World Tho' Christ hath been a great while Invisible yet he will Appear to the Confusion and Terror of his Adversaries Tho' he hath long kept Silence yet he will roar out of Zion Tho' his Sword hath slept yet it will awake do Execution on and be Bathed in the Blood of Impenitent Sinners The Sins of Men and the punishing Hand of Christ will find out all his Enemies Numb 32.23 Psal 21.8 He that came at first to sase Men from their Sins yet being slighted and rejected will come a second time to destroy Men for their Iniquities They that have not prized a Day of Salvation shall Experience and feel a Day of Vengeance and Destruction How woful will the Estate of Sinners be when their own Accusing Consciences shall be as a fiery Oven Psal 21.9 within and the Vengeance of God be as a Furnace of Fire without and Sinners shall be Supported though but Tares and Chaff to be Eternal Fuel to this Fire It will be sweet to have a Well of Spiritual Water springing up within John 4.14 but it will be dreadful to have a Well of Fire to be burning in his Soul Alvarez de Semedo in his History of China speaks of such Wells of Fire kindled from Sulphurous Matter that burn and flame continually The corruption of the Soul allowed will breed that Worm that never dies I shall Rejoyce if the said Discourses do stir up Sinners to escape the Corruption that is in the World through Lust and to flee from the Wrath to come I have a due Respect to you for appearing for Nonconformists in your Station that they might not be over-pressed with Burdens I shall be glad if what I have written may contribute to the Advancement of your Salvation and stir you up to prepare to meet the Lord of Glory and to stand before the Judge of the whole World whose Eye Book and Balance will be dreadful to hardened Sinners at last But that Christ may appear as a Redeemer to perfect your Liberty and as a Bridegroom to marry your Soul is the earnest desire of Your Sincere and Affectionate Friend and Servant Samuel Tomlyns 2 Thes 1.7 8. And to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ IN these two Verses there are several weighty Truths 1. A Benefit that will be bestowed on Suffering Christians God will render Rest to those that are Troubled And Paul applies this sweet Truth to himself he puts in for a share and claims an Interest in it Rest with us 2. We have the Time when this Benefit shall be bestowed it is when the Lord Jesus shall be Revealed from Heaven The full Deliverance of the Oppressed Saints is Suspended till the Revelation of Christ he shall then do Right to the Oppressed and execute Vengeance on the Oppressors It is but reasonable that the Rest of the Members should depend on the Rest of their Head Psal 45.3 4. Christ is now desired to gird his Sword on his Thigh and to ride prosperously on the word of Truth and Righteousness And Christ is set forth by one riding on a white Horse with a Bow in his Hand and he went forth Conquering and to Conquer The Church is compared to the Horses in Pharaoh's Chariot Cant. 1.9 because by her Ministers she draws the Spiritual and Victorious Chariot of Christ through the World Though Christ hath a Rest as to his Person in Heaven and is above the reach and rage of his Enemies yet he is contending with and fighting against his Enemies He is winning the Hearts of his Elect and gathering them into his Kingdom and he is breaking his Enemies to pieces and putting them under his Feet 1 Cor. 15.25 26. but at last Christ will perfect and finish his Work He will appear as a Glorious and Triumphant Conqueror as one that hath won the Field and gained the Day He will sit on the Throne of his Glory Matt. 25.31 This implies a perfect Rest he shall fight and make War no more his People shall enter into his Palace Psal 45.14 15. and sit down with him in his Throne Pet. 3.21 and his Enemies shall be adjudged to Tormenting Fire and be shut up in an Eternal Prison 3. We have the Company that shall wait on Christ at his Appearing he shall come with his mighty Angels 4. We have the terrible manner of his Appearance it shall be in flaming Fire Christ is perfectly Holy and Righteous he can appear in flaming Fire yet not be hurt by it or suffer any thing from it This Fire will be hurtful to Christ's Enemies but harmless to himself He that appeared at first as the Day spring from on high comfortably to direct straying Souls into the way of Peace He that arises to those that fear God's Name as a Sun of Righteousness with healing under his wings Mal. 4.2 will now be revealed in flaming Fire to punish obstinate Rebels They that have refused and rejected Christ as a refining fire Mal. 3.2 3. shall now to their cost feel him to be a consuming fire He that once appeared incompassed with beams of Love shall now a second time appear surrounded with flames of Wrath. 5. We have the end of Christ's Revelation or why he will appear it is to render Vengeance It is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giving Vengeance O how dreadful and terrible a Gift is this He that is God's Almoner to distribute God's Alms of Mercy to poor penitent begging Sinners will have no other Gift to bestow on impenitent and unbelieving Souls but Vengeance It is said vengeance belongeth to me and I will recompence Heb. 10.30 Though to the Penitents and Believing it is said To the Lord belongeth Mercy yet as to obstinate Sinners Vengeance belongs to God Punishment is a just Debt belonging to the Wicked therefore it is said that God will repay Fury to his Adversaries Is 59.18 he will render his Anger with Fury and his Rebukes with Flames of Fire Is 66.15 Paul charges Christians to render to all their one Rom. 13.7 so Christ will render to hardened Sinners their due Sinners owe God glory to be raised out of their Misery and
25.41 They that are alienated from the Life of God and estranged from Communion with him how can they hope to be for ever with him 1 Thes 4.17 9. This should affect and awe your Souls that you are still under God's Eye and do evil in his sight Psal 51.4 The ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings Prov. 5.21 There is no darkness or shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves Job 34.22 This is peculiar to God that Malefactors are always in the presence and under the eye of him as their Judge and he is a Witness against them for all the Crimes they commit The Lord be witness against you 1 Sam. 12.5 10. How should this cut your Hearts that all your sins are marked Jer. 2.22 and all your crimes are written before him Is 65.6 The great King of the whole World writes the Chronicles of all the Lives and Actions of his Subjects all that Men speak think or do is Recorded in his Book Rev. 20.12 and Conscience keeps a Counter-part of the Record Their sin is graven as with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond in the table of their heart Jer. 17.1 11. God can make Malefactors to appear and present Delinquents before his Tribunal they cannot fly they cannot hide As for those mine Enemies that would not have me to reign over them bring them before me Luke 19.27 This is proper and peculiar to God that he can make all transgressors to appear and how dreadful will this be that they must appear 2 Cor. 5.10 where yet they cannot appear with any hope or confidence 1 Pet. 4 15. where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear They must stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ Rom. 14.10 yet the ungodly shall not stand in the Judgment Psal 1.5 O what terror may this strike into Men that God will bring them into judgment Eccles 11.9 and God will also bring all their secret actions into judgment Eccl. 12.14 God will bring all the hidden things of darkness to light 12. Impenitent Sinners shall be punished with an everlasting destruction which shall come from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power 2 Thes 1.9 The same Face that shines a Heaven into the Souls of Saints shall frown a Hell into the Consciences of the Wicked the same Arm that punishes shall support the punished still to endure more Torments as God will burn against and on Chaff Briers Thorns and Taras so he will preserve the Fuel and uphold it to Eternity Who knows the power of God's anger Psal 90.11 how miserable he can render a Creature that he fills up as a Vessel with his Wrath that he treads on as a footstool and shoots at as a Mark God asks Job Hast thou entred into the Springs of the Sea or hast thou walked in the search of the deep could he tell how deep the great Sea was could he come to the bottom of it Job 38.16 So it will be said to us Can you by the line and plumbet of your Reason sound and find out the bottom of the deep Sea of the Wrath of God Tophet is deep there is no coming up out of it Isa 30. ult The Gulf that is fixed is wide there is no passing over it Luke 16.26 And these things are near our breath is in our Nostrils ready to go out and the Judge stands at the Door ready to come in As the accusations and threatnings of the Law should be a Plough striking home and cutting deep into our Hearts so the Mercy of God in Christ and the Grace revealed in the Gospel should exceedingly wound and break our Hearts How amazing is this that when we had made God to serve with our Sins and wearied him with our Iniquities Isa 43.24 that the Son of God should take on him the form of a Servant to suffer to satisfie for and purge away our Iniquities Psal 2.76 Heb. 1.3 O that when God as a Creator Preserver Benefactor had been by our Lusts debased to be a meer Servant and Satan exalted to be the Prince yea the God of the World John 12.3 2 Cor. 4 4 5. that the Son of God should humble himself to be a Servant to his own Law as a Sacrifice to his Father's Justice to make an end of the guilt of Sin O that Christ should be sold to redeem us that he should be wounded to heal us that he should be arrested arraign'd and condemn'd to justifie us should not this make Hearts of stone to relent and break O that God should complain that he is broken with our whorish Hearts Ezek. 6.9 yet Christ to expiate and put away the guilt of these Whoredoms should complain that Reproach had broken his heart Ps 69.20 We had loaded God with our sins and provocations as a Cart is pressed under the sheaves Amos 2.13 O how amazing is it that God should lay all our sins on Christ Isa 53.6 and load him with our penalties and punishments that our Debt should be exacted of him our Curse executed on him that he should be as the Manna pounded in the Mortar that as a cluster of Grapes he should be bruised in the Wine-press of the Wrath and Justice of God! that as a Porter or bearer of burdens he should have our Iniquities bound on him and then bear them quite away The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used of Christ Isa 53.4 He hath carried our sorrows and hence he that is a Porter or bearer of burdens is called 2 Chron. 2.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of burden This Name fitly doth agree to our Lord Jesus that he was a Man of burden Never did any one bear so vast a load so great a burden We found out Inventions to inslave our selves Eccl. 7. ult and God found out a Ransom to redeem and set us at liberty Job 33.24 We hated him without a cause and he loved us freely and without a cause how should this Grace melt our hard and warm our cold Hearts with love to God shall we continue in the torrid Zone of Enmity and Lust when Believers are brought into and dwell in the torrid Zone of Love It is now possible that our Wilderness may blossom as a Rose that our dry Ground may be water'd improv'd and inrich'd Isa 35.1 44.3 4. Enemies may be reconcil'd dead Souls quicken'd and such as have been Satan's Children and meer Strangers to God may be adopted and taken into his Family 3 Q. Why must our fallow Ground be broken up I answer 1. That our carnal Confidence in our selves may be mortified and rooted out our Pride must be abated our high Mountain of carnal Confidence must be level'd Isa 40.4 How many do trust in themselves that they are righteous Luke 15.8 and this is directly contrary to believing in Christ Gal. 2.16 that they might be justified Those that have some Planks