Conversion When they were in this dismal Condition they were not troubled with Cares for Wife or Children Houses or Lands how can we think but that these men died in Peace that were in so good a Humour yet see what follows verse 36. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouths and lied unto him with their tongues Besides consider the Vnworthiness of it I le Forsake Sin when Sin Forsakes me We leave it when we can keep it no longer Thank you for nothing may God say if you could you would sin longer this is that Folly which deferring our Repentance brings us to But to draw to a conclusion God hath set us a Certain Day and if we pass the time wo be to us For though he is full of Mercy and Patience yet Patience hurt oftentimes harms and provokes the Almighty to Fury God will not alwaies strive with man but his daies shall be an hundred and twenty years if he convert in that space and return well if not he shall be swept away And to this purpose is that parable Luke 13.6 A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his Vineyard and he came and sought Fruit thereon and found none Then said he unto the dresser of his Vineyard behold these three years I came seeking fruit on this fig-tree and find none Cut it down why combreth it the ground There is an appointed time then fore ordained by God wherein he offers us Grace Let it alone saith the dresser one year more It may be seven years or ten it may be but two hours for ought thou knowest that God may offer thee longer this space No man knows the time and its continuance but he that hath appointed it to this purpose Which is a point I thought not to speak of but not I will You hear much talk of Gods eternal and everlasting election and we are to apt to rest on this that if we are elected to salvation we shall be saved and if not we shall be damned troubling our selves with Gods work of Praedestination whereas this works no Change in the party elected until it come unto him in his own Person What is God's election to me It s nothing to my comfort unless I my self am effectually called We are to look to this effectual calling The other is but Gods love to sever me from the Corrupt mass of Adams posterity But what is my effectual calling It s that when God touches my heart and translates me from the Death of sin to the life of Grace Before this effectual calling even the elect Ephesians were without Christ Aliens from the Commoa-Wealth of Israel Strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the World Ephes. 2.12 Now there are certain times which God appoints for this effectual calling wherein he uses the means to work on us and of which he can say what could I do more then I have done And mayst thou not fear an actual rejection since thou hast lived thus long under the means of Grace That God hath waited these not only three but mâ—ny years the dew of Heaven continually falling on thee and that yet thou shouldst remain unfruitful Doest thou not fear I say that dismal sentence cut it down why combereth it the ground Gods grace is not to be dallied with as wanton Children do with their meats if we do thus slight him he may justly deprive us of all See a terrible place to this purpose Heb. 6.7 8. The earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth Herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God but that which beareth Thorns and Briers is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned Consider these places God calls us where the droppings of his Grace are distilled consider then do we bring forth that fruit which is meet for the dresser answerable to those continual distillings and droppings on us If our consciences witness for us happy are we but when there have been these showers of grace out of Gods word flowing down upon us and yet we have received so much Grace in vain O what can we expect but a curse in this life and eternal death in the World to come What can we look for but the fig-trees curse which was barren The Tree was not cut down but withered We are near the same curse if we answer not Gods grace When we have had so long a time the Ministry of the Word and yet suffer it to be lost through our barrenness our condition is sad and woful we can look for nothing but withering Heb. 6.9 But beloved I must hope better things of you and such as accompany salvation Labour therefore to prevent and arm your selves against this suggestion and fallacy of Satan and resolve to hear God in this acceptable time now to set to the work which if we do all will be well God will be gracious to us If otherwise we are undone for ever Till you have learned this lesson you can no further Wherefore let not Satan possess you with that madness to cause you to pass and let slip this golden opportunity through a false conceipt that you may have a more seasonable day of your own for repentance hereafter I will not say that a death-bed repentance is alwaies fruitless the Ancient Fathers though they give no encouragement to defer it till then yet in case it be so long put off they injoyn it even then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost. in Psal. 51. pag. 675 and 705. Edit Savi-lian As long as thou breathest even in the last day of thy life upon thy bed when thou art expiring and about to depart from the Theatre of this life then repent the straitness of the time doth not exclude the Philanthropy of God that love which he beareth to Mankind Onely remember what I have said of the danger of this procrastination and how unfitting a season it is for so great a work and what reasons we have to judge it seldome serious GAL. 6.3 4. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself But let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another HAving entred on the Doctrine of the conversion of a sinner in that Text Heb. 4.7 upon which depends our everlasting salvation I laboured to perswade you of the necessity of taking the accepted time of embracing the proffers of Gods grace and of the necessity of doing it speedily I shewed you that there is a certain time in which God will be found and that this time was the present time I declared unto you the great danger that would follow if we took not God at his word but refused his day for a day of our own as if we were wiser than he If when God calls and holds out the Golden Scepter we refuse to
that we must forsake all the sinful lusts of the flesh This is that which makes Baptism to be Baptism indeed to us The other thing required is that we forsake all Rom. 6.2 It is not confined to the very act but it hath a perpetual effect all the dayes of thy life I add it never hath its full effect till the day of our death the abolition of the whole body of sin That which we seal is not compleat till then till we have final grace The water of Baptism quenches the fire of Purgatory for it is not accomplished till final grace is received We are now under the Physicians hands then shall we be cured Baptism is not done onely at the Font which is a thing deceives many for it runs through our whole life nor hath it consummation till our dying day till we receive final grace The force and efficacy of Baptism is for the washing away of sin to morrow as well as the day past the death of sin is not till the death of the body and therefore it s said we must be buried with him by Baptism into his death Now at our death we receive final grace till when this washing and the vertue thereof hath not its consummation Let no man therefore deceive you with vain words take heed of looking on your selves in these false glasses think it not an easy thing to get Heaven the way is strait and the passage narrow There must be a striving to enter there must be an ascending into Heaven a motion contrary to nature And therefore it 's folly to think we shall drop into Heaven there must be a going upward if ever we will come thither EPH. 2.1 2 3. And you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins where in times past you walked according to the course of this World according to the Prince that ruleth in the Air the Spirit that worketh in the Children of disobedience Amongst whom also c. THE last time I declared unto you the duty that was necessarily required of us if we look to be saved that we must not onely take the matter speedily into consideration and not be deluded by our own hearts and the wiles of Satan but that we must not do it superficially or perfunctorily but must bring our selves to the true touchstone and not look upon our selves with false glasses because there is naturally in every one self-love and in these last and worst times men are apt to think better of themselves then they deserve If there be any beginning of goodness in them they think all is well when there is no greater danger in the World then being but half-Christians He thinks the half-Christian I mean that if he hath escaped the outward pollutions of the world through lust and be not so bad as formerly he hath been and not so bad as many men in the World are therefore he is well enough Whereas his end proves worse then his beginning This superficial repentance is but like the washing of a Hog the outside is onely wash't the swinish nature is not taken away There may be in this man some outward abstaining from the common gross sins of the World or those which he himself was subject unto but his disposition to sin is the same his nature is nothing changed there is no renovation no casting in a new mould which must be in us For it is not a little reforming will serve the turn no nor all the morality in the World nor all the common graces of Gods Spirit nor the outward change of the life they will not do unless we are quickned and have a new life wrought in us unless there be a supernatural working of Gods Spirit we can never enter into Heaven Therefore in this case it behoves every man to prove his own work Gal. 6.4 A thing men are hardly drawn unto to be exact examiners of themselves Coelo discendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Heathen himself could say to know a mans self is a heavenly saying and it 's an heavenly thing indeed if we have an Heavenly Master to teach us The Devil taught Socrates a lesson that brought him from the study of natural to moral Philosophy whereby he knew himself yet the Devil knew morality could never teach him the lesson indeed All the morality in the World cannot teach a man to escape Hell We must have a better instructor herein than the Devil or our selves the Lord of Heaven must do it if ever we will be brought to know our selves aright St. Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel one of the learnedst Doctors of the Pharisees and yet he could not teach him this When he studied the law he thought himâ—elf unblameable but coming to an higher and better Master he knows that in him that is in his flesh dwells no good thing Rom. 7. By self-examination a man may find many faults in himself but to find that which the Apostle afterwards found in himself to see the flesh a rottenness the sink of iniquity that is within him and to find himself so bad as indeed he is unless it please the Lord to open his eyes and to teach him he can never attain it Now we come to this place of the Apostle wherein we see the true glass of our selves the Spirit knows what we are better then our selves and the Spirit shews us that every man of us either was or is such as we are here set down to be We are first natural before we can be spiritual there is not a man but hath been or is yet a natural man and therefore see we the large description of a natural man before he is quickned before God which is rich in mercy enlivens him being dead in sins and saves him by grace in Christ. Thus is it with us all and thus must it be and we shall never be fit for grace till we know our selves thus far till we know our selves as far out of frame as the Spirit of truth declares us to be In this place of Scripture consider we 1. Who this carnal man is what they are which the Apostle speaks of to be dead in sins and that walk after the course of the World led by the Devil and have their conversation after the flesh Children of wrath These are big words and heavy things Consider first the subject of whom this is spoken Then follows the Praedicate or 2. What that ill news is which he delivers of them We begin with the first 1. Who they are of whom this is spoken and that is you You hath he quickned who were dead and ye in the words following that in times past walked after the course of the world and in the third verse more particularly Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past He speaks now in the first person as before in the second so that the subject is we all and ye all Not a man in
Christ. If we would have comfort therefore let us mark the knocking of the spirit and not grieve him by withstanding holy motions and then we shall find him sealing up our salvation witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God Men you see wait for the wind and not the wind for them otherwise they may wait long enough before they reach home so must we watch the knocking 's of Christ and let him in that his spirit may seal us up to the day of Redemption Thirdly Another thing the true witness of the spirit leaves behind it is Love It makes a man more inflam'd with love to God If a man do not love God more after such an enlightening it is false and counterfeit Psalm 116. I will love thee dearly O Lord my God because thou hast heard my voice And says the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constraineth us And therefore if we be obedient Sons we will shew it in loving and honouring our Father more and more as the Prophet speaks Malach. 6. A Son honoureth his Father and a servant his Master if then I be a Father where is mine honour These are the trials before and after a true illumination to try it from the counterfeit which that we may always find and observe in our selves Let us pray O Lord our God c. FINIS A TABLE TO THE SERMONS A ACceptation and Affiance two acts of Faith 95 Active Obedience See Obedience Aggravations of sin 37 A temporary Believer desires Christ only in Affliction 119 120 Assurance no part of justifying faith 97. It is attainable 150. Why so many Christians want it 141 B. BAptism what it obliges to 23. It hath not its full effect till the day of our death ibid. To believe is a hard matter 22 96 To believe is our duty 88 Five words or Scripture-ways that God uses to perswade sinners to Believe in Christ viz. General Proclamation 86. Special invitations 87. Entreaties 87. Commands 88. Threatnings 89 To Believe is to come to Christ 111 It is exprest by Hungring and Thirsting 113 A Believer's case like the Beggars 114 A true Believer distinguished from a Temporary 1. by the ground of his desires 119. 2. by his desiring Grace as well as Mercy 122. 3. by his Love to God 122 A Believer's privilege 150 C. GOd Calls sinners to Christ by five words 86 Christ's equality with God 68. It renders his Humiliation the greater and more meritorious 68 Christ's Humiliation the extent degrees and particulars of it 69 72. Part of his Humiliation to be God's Servant 74. He was a Servant on earth in respect of men 70. Vsed and valued at the rate of a bondman 71 Christ's sufferings the more meritorious because voluntary 74 Christ's Active Obedience in the course of his life 74. his Humiliation and sufferings from his Conception to his death described 75 c. Christ's death described in the Accursedness of it 78. in the shame of it 78. in the painfulness of it 78 Christ suffered not the pains of Hell proved 80. yet he suffered in his Soul immediately from God 80 Whether Christ takes away all the sins of the world 83 Christ's being offered for us no comfort unless he be offered to us 66 That Christ died sufficiently for all is an improper speech 66 To receive Christ what 84. Christ offered freely 83 86. He that hath a will to receive Christ hath a warrant to receive him 86 Christ the proper and immediate Object of justifying Faith 93. Christ loved and valued above all by true believers 96. Christ and the Cross go together in this life 96 Christ very compassionaee 111 Christ is our peace 149 To be a Christian indeed is no easie maâ—ter 96 Civil Righteousness See Morality Men deceived by Comparing themselves with others 20. and with themselves 20 The Conditions of Faith and Obedience required hinder not the freedom of Gospel Grace 80 92 Confession of sin necessary and why 114 Carnal Confidence as to our spiritual estate dangerous the vain grounds of it discovered 19 Conscience one of the Tormentors in Hell 62 Peace of Conscience See Peace Conviction necessary to Conversion 17 33 Conviction a work of Gods Spirit 109 Two hindrances of Conversion 2 A limited time for it 4 Crucifying a Cursed Shameful Painful death 77. The manner of it 79 The Curse follows sin 40 The Curses attending an unregenerate man in this life 48 c. The Curses on his Soul 51 The Curses at his death 53 Custom in sin hardens the heart 12 D. DAy of grace limited 45 15. The folly and danger of neglecting it 13 Death the wages of sin 45. The comprehensiveness of the word Death 48 Death terrible 45. The terribleness of Bodily Death set forth in three particulars 53 c. What the first and second Death is 48 The Death of Christ described 78 c. Death-bed Repentance See Repentance Deferring Repentance dangerous 7. The reasons of Carnal mens Deferring Râ—pentance 9 c. The vanity of them ibid. Desires after Christ may be stronger in Tâ—mporaries than in true believers 119 120 The Devil takes possession of those whom God leaves 43 44 The Reason of Christians Doubting 141 E WHat use to make of the Doctrine of Election and Reprobation 15 Encouragements for sinners to come to Christ 86 Examination of a mans self See Self-Examination F. FAith why required to the receiving of Christ since he is a free gift 84 Faith consists not in a mans being perswaded that God is his God and that his sins are pardoned 86 91. It s proper and immediate Object is not that forgiveness of sins but Christ 93 Faith must have a ground for it out of the word 91. What Faith justifies 118 c. Faith justifies not as a vertue but in respect of its object 93. Faith justifies not as a Habit but as an act 132. The Acts of Faith 94. By what sins the Acts of Faith are hindred 92. How those obstructions are removed ibid. Faith an instrument to receive Justification not to procure it 135 140 Why Faith chosen for an instrument of justification rather than any othâ—r grace 141. A weak Faith justifies as much as a strong 140. yet a strong Faith is to be laboured for and why 140 How Faith alone justifies 140 Faith may be certainly known There may be Faith where there is no feeling 90 96 113 128. Faith strongest when sense least 147 Encouragements to Faith 86 Carnal Fear its sinfulness and danger 56 57 Men apt to Flatter themselves as to their spiritual estate 18 Five false glasses that cause this self Flattery 18 c. Forgiveness of sins not a distinct thing from Imputation of Righteousness 85 c. Forgiveness is properly of sins past only 125. It is one continued act 131. and therefore may be prayed for by a justified person ibid. Forgiveness frees from guilt and punishment 133 God forsakes none till they forsake him 44 True believers forsake
5.1 Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. p. 136 Sermon XVIII Rom. 5.1.2 Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God p. 145 Sermon XIX Rom. 8.15 16. For ye have not received the spirit of Bondage again to fear but ye have received the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the Children of God p. 157 Sermon XX. Rom. 8.16 The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the Children of God p. 167 Speedy Conversion The only Means to prevent IMMINENT DESTRUCTION HEBREWS 4.7 Again he limiteth a certain Day saying in David to day after so long a time as it is said to day if you will hear his Voyce harden not your hearts I Have entered on these Words in the other Vniversity on a day of Publick Humiliation as being suitable to the occasion the chief matter of them being the Doctrine of the Conversion of a sinner For as much as God's Judgments are abroad upon the Earth and hang over our heads the only means to prevent and remove both temporal and eternal is our speedy conversion and return unto God Else he will whet his sword bend his bow and make it ready to our destruction Psal. 7.12 God did bear a deadly hatred against sin in the time of the Psalmist and so he doth still for his nature cannot be changed If we return not we are but dead men The eternal weight of God's wrath will be our portion both here and in the world to come if we repent not In the Words there are three observable Points though not expresly named yet if we weigh the Context sufficiently implied 1. Continuance in sin brings certain death it hinders us from entring into God's rest and out of it there is nothing but death Or For sin God's Judgments are on particular Nations and Persons 2. If particular Nations or Persons turn away from their evil courses no hurt shall come near them or if temporal calamities surprize them they shall be made beneficial unto them God takes no delight in the death of a sinner nor that he should despair of his mercy but would have us turn out of the broad way which leads to destruction 3. It behooves every one speedily to set about the work of conversion Esteem not this therefore a vain word I bring you those things whereon your life depends Obeying it you are made for ever neglecting it you are undone for ever Unless you embrace this Message God will bend his bow and make ready his arrow against you or rather the arrows which he hath drawn to the head he will let fly upon you Know therefore 1. That continuance in sin brings certain death There will be no way of escaping but by repentance by coming in speedily unto God The words of this Text are taken from Psal. 95. Harden not your hearts as in the Provocation and as in the Temptation in the Wilderness If when God calls us either to the doing of this or leaving that undone yet we are not moved but continue in our evil ways What 's the reason of it It 's because we harden our hearts against him The Word of God which is the power of God to salvation and a two-edged sword to sever between the joynts and the Marrow The strength of the Almighty encounters with our hard hearts and yet they remain like the stony and rockie ground whereon though the Word be plentifully sown yet it fastens no root there and though for a season it spring yet suddenly it fades and comes to nothing We may haply have a little motion by the Word yet there 's a rock in our souls a stone in our hearts and though we may sometimes seem to receive it with some affection and be made as it were Sermon-sick yet it holds but a while it betters us not Why because it 's not received as an ingrafted word Therefore saith St. James Receive with meekness the ingrafted word James 1.21 Let the word be ingrafted in thee one sprig of it is able to make thee grow up to everlasting life Be not content with the hearing of it but pray God it may be firmly rooted in your hearts this will cause a softning To day if you will hear his voyce harden not your hearts against Almighty God If you do expect him also to come against you in indignation Hearken what he saith by his Prophet I will search Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that are settled on their lees that say in their heart the Lord will not do good neither will he do evil Zeph. 1.12 Mark I will search Jerusalem with candles and punish those that are settled on their lees When a man is thus settled and resolved to go on in his sins to put the matter to the hazard come what will come there 's a kind of Atheism in the soul. For what do's he but in a manner reply when God tells him by his Minister that he is preparing the instruments of death against him do you think us such fools to believe it What does this but provoke God to swear that we shall never enter into his rest What 's the reason of this It 's because men are not shifted they have no change they are settled on their lees Moab hath been at ease from his youth he hath been setled and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel neither hath he gone into captivity Jer. 48.11 Consider we whether our security comes not from the same cause We have not been emptied from vessel to vessel we have always been at rest Why have we so little conversion There are two things hinder it the hardning of a mans heart against the Word and our setling our selves on our lees When we have no change in our condition we are secure we never see an evil day That makes us say with the Sensualists in the Prophet To morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant Isa. 56.12 And this is that which slays the foolish person Wo to them that are at ease It were better for thee to be emptied from vessel to vessel to go into captivity For as long as a man continues thus in an unregenerate condition he can look for nothing but troubles certain Judgments must necessarily follow and as sure as God is in Heaven so sure may they expect misery on Earth and they shall receive the eternal weight of God's wrath treasured up against the day of wrath Therefore there is a necessity of our conversion if we will keep off either temporal or eternal wrath Our Saviour makes it the case of all impenitent sinners to be liable to wrath One Judgment befel the Galileans another
those on whom the Tower of Siloam fell But what saith our Saviour Suppose you that these were greater sinners above all the men of Jerusalem I tell you nay but except you repent you shall all likewise perish Luke 13.3 All every Mother's Son here present if you turn not from your sinful courses God will meet with you one time or other if you harden your hearts against him be sure Who ever hardned his heart against God and prospered Job 9.4 As long as a man is in this condition his state is woful As many as are in the state of unregeneracy are under the power of Satan 2 Tim. 2.25 26. Mark the Apostles words In meekness instruct those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will The state then of the hardned and setled on their lees is as of a bird in a cage taken alive at the will of the Fowler So it is here as long as we continue obstinate and hardned we are taken alive at Satan's will we are at his disposing While we are at liberty we are way-laid by his nets and traps and taken we are at his pleasure As long as we are hardned in heart we are in the Devil's cage true repentance is that whereby alone we purchase our freedom whereby we recover our selves and therefore in Rom. 2.5 Hardness of heart and impenitency signifie the same thing After thy hardned and impenitent heart thou treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath Mark then what 's a hard heart It 's an impenitent heart Dost thou harden thy heart Then know that for the present thou art a dead man If notwithstanding all God's threats out of his word thou art not a jot moved thou art dead whilst alive as the woman that lived in pleasure And if thou continuest so thou treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath and the just revelation of God's Judgments God's word is the especial means to recover thee A man that is in a swoon they rub him to recover him because there 's life in him but if dead strong-waters or any thing else cannot restore him Examine thy self then does the working of the Word rub and gall thee It 's a sign there is life in thee but if it make no impression it moves thee not it 's a sign of a dead heart Consider then the danger of this condition for a man to resolve on his evil courses never purposing to alter matters It exceedingly hastens God's Judgments But leaving this I proceed to the second Point which is to direct us how to work our escape Though God threatens us yet if we have but the grace to look about us and remember our selves If God do but cause us to consider we have to deal with a merciful Father and make us meet him by humiliation then though our sins were as scarlet yet submitting our selves to our Judge living as obedient Subjects the storm shall pass from us So that this is the Second Point 2. Notwithstanding God threatens us yet if he gives us but grace to repent and bethink our selves let our sins be never so great we may be sure of mercy O that we could see with what a gracious God we have to deall Canst thou but humble thy self All these things shall speak peace unto thee As an impenitent sinner is under the power of Satan and liable to all misery So contrariwise who ever returns and seeks the Lord is sure to be under his wings and free from all evil Thinkst thou that God makes use of threatnings for thy hurt No he deals not with us as an angry Judge but as a compassionate Father men will take an enemy always at an advantage when they may do him most hurt God's terrors overtake us he threatens us that he will do this and this that we may prevent it He knows that unless his terrors awake us we will rest secure Before he smites us he tells us He will whet his sword He hath bent hiâ— bow and made it ready He hath prepared his instruments of death Psalm 7.12 13. He could shoot thee presently and instantly run the through but he threatens thee that so he may not strike thee Non te vult percutere qui tibi clamat Observa He that saith Look to your self hath no intention to strike thee See what the Prophet Amos denounces from the Lord Cap. 11 12. I have given you cleanness of teeth I have with-holden rain v. 6 7 8. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew v. 9. I have sent amongst you the Pestilence v. 10. yet have you not returned unto me Therefore thus will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do thus unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel v. 12. What Judgments have befallen us have befallen us for our own use if so be we will be warned by them The reason why God saith he will overthrow us is not because he means to do it but that we may prevent him by repentance Look into Jer. 3 1. and see what wonderful passages are to this purpose There 's a Law case If a man put away his Wife and she go from him shall he return unto her again Shall not that Land be greatly polluted But thou hast plaid the Harlot with many Lovers And in the 20. v. As a Wife treacherously departeth from her Husband so have you dealt treacherously with me O house of Israel And yet see God's unspeakable mercy Return again unto me And 23. v. Return ye back-sliding Children and I will heal your back-sliding turn to me and I 'll not cause mine anger to fall upon you Only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God v. 13. See God supporteth us the worst and vilest of all and yet as it were intreats us to return See then â—he Conclusion of the second Point how if God give us but grace to repent let our former evils be what they will the danger is past the terror I mean of eternal destruction so that you may say and not in Agag's delusion the bitterness of death the second death is past 1 Sam. 15.32 But I leave this and come to the Third for which I chiefly chose this Text. You have seen how dangerous a thing hardness of heart is how it brings certain death and that if we have the heart to repent we are safe As to make it appear in an instance It 's not the falling into water but the lying under it that drowns a man Art thou faln into sin only lift up thy head if thou canst be but thus happy the promise of salvation belongs to thee The main thing then is this 3. It behooves us to set about the work of conversion and repentance presently God is angry with us and we know not
but consider whether these thoughts which poise down our hearts be not groundless see whether they will hold water at the last and whether in making such excuses to great presumption we add not the height of folly To pretend for our delay the Profits and Pleasures of sin and yet hope for Heaven at the last as well as the generation of the righteous it 's but a meer fallacy and delusion of Satan to fill our hearts with such Vanities Can it be expected that we should have our good in this World and in the World to come too This is well if it might be But let us try the matter and begin with your first branch You are loth to part with your Profits and Pleasures But consider what a grand iniquity this is Can you offer God a greater wrong and indignity Do you thus requite the Lord you foolish and unwise Dost thou think this the way to make thy peace with God whom thou hast offended as long as thou mayst to be a Rebel against him What a high dishonour is it to him that thou shouldst give him thy feeble and doting old age and the Devil thy lively and vigorous youth thy strength and spirits Dost thou think he will drink the Dregs and eat the Orts Will he accept thee in the next World when thou thus scornest him in this If you offer the Blind for sacrifice is it not an evil If you offer â—he Lame and Sick is it not evil Offer it now unto thy governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of Hosts Mal. 1.8 But mark how he goes on v. 14. Cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing Mark God accounts such service a corrupt thing and the Person that offers it a mere Cheat a Deceiver Never look for a blessing from God in Heaven when thou sacrificest to him such corrupt things No thou art Cursed of God as long as thou continuest in this Hypocrisy We are to offer and present our selves a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God Rom. 12.1 Now judge whether they offer God the living who say when my doting days come my lame days thar I cannot go my blind dayes that I cannot see I le offer my self a sacrifice to God Will this be acceptable to him Is not this Evil saith the Lord to offer me such a corrupt thing Nay more he 's accursed that offers such an offering such a polluted sacrifice God will not like with it when we serve our selves first with the best and choise Do you thus requite the Lord Do you think he will accept it at your hands Go offer such a gift to thy Ruler to thy Prince will he accept it or be pleased with it No a Landlord will have the best and the choice and it must needs provoke God when we give him the refuse I am King of Kings saith the Lord my name is dreadful and I will look to be served after another manner Let no man then thus delude himself with vain hopes but let him consider how dishonourable a thing it will be to God 2. And how unprofitable to him whoever thou art Indeed we cannot be profitable unto Him Properly as he that is wise may be profitable to himself Job 22.2 But he is so gracious a master that he esteems our sincere and seasonable service to be his own gain and our sloth and neglect to be his detriment he accompts our destruction to be his own loss Now it s the ready way 1. It s the ready way to thy Destruction Heaven and happiness and eternal life are laid up for those that embrace the acceptable time death horrour and eternal misery for those that refuse it and wilt thou hazard Soul and Body on this Moses on this ground did rather choose to suffer affliction in this World with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Hebr. 11.25 When these things are past what profit will you have of those things whereof then you will be ashamed Nay whereof were thine eyes open thou wouldst now be ashamed and happy wouldst thou be if thou wert as the converted Romans were even now ashamed Rom. 6.21 Shame accompanies Sin so constantly and unavoidably that even repentance it self removes it not The Romans now Christians were ashamed for what they had done before they knew Christ. When a man comes to see truly and throughly into himself he will find no profit of such things as these Death will certainly follow us not only Temporal but Eternal also if we Repent not the more speedily that 's all the profit we shall find 2. But suppose thou prevent everlasting death by repentance yet what profit is there of those things whereof we are now for the present ashamed The best can come is shame 3. Thou art loth to part with the Pleasures of sin for a Season and hereafter thou thinkest thou canst amend all But consider the particulars and then shall you see how you are befool'd in your hearts and souls Believe it for an undoubted truth there 's nothing in the World by which Satan more deludes a man then by this perswading him to neglect his day and that he may repent well enough hereafter That you may expel this suggestion out of your Souls pray unto God that he would go along with his Word and cause you to lay this to heart that by his Spirit your understanding may be enlightned to see the truth Though I make this as clear as the Sun that it is a false supposition and mere folly on which we build in deferring our return to God yet God from Heaven must teach you or you will be never the wiser Know therefore that this very day God reaches out the Golden Scepter to thee and what folly were it no neglect it since thou knowest not whether he will ever proffer it thee again And assure thy self that he is a Lyar that tels thee thou mayst as well repent hereafter as now and this will appear whether we consider the order of outward things in the World or the nature of sin 1. For external things every Age after a man comes into the World if he embrace not the present opportunity for repentance is worse then other and are each of them as so many Clogs which come one after a another to hinder it As for thy Childish Age that 's mere Vanitie and thy riper Age will bring many Impediments and Hinderances that youth never thought of Thou art then troubled about many things and perplexed how to provide for maintenance in the midst whereof know that thou hast not a body of Brass but a Corruptible and Fading body and yet such is the Folly of the heart of man that the less Ground he hath to go the fewer Dayes to spend the more he often provides and is the more covetous Consider that
settest thy self against God and dost many things which others that have not received the same grace would not have done know then that thou receivest this grace in vain and thy case is lamentable 4. Consider God's great goodness which ought to restrain thee from sin upon a double account 1. First his goodness in himself should keep thee from offending him There 's nothing but goodness infinite goodness in him and canst thou find in thy heart to sin against so good a God To offend and wrong a good disposition'd person one of a sweet nature and affection it aggravates the fault 't is pity to wrong or hurt such a one as injures no body Now such a one is God a good God infinite in goodness rich in mercy very goodness it self and therefore it must needs aggravate the foulness of sin to sin against him But now he is not only thus in himself but 2. Secondly He 's good to thee Rom. 2. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance c. What hast thou that thou hast not received from his bountiful hand Consider of this and let this be a means to draw thee off from thy sinfulness When David had greatly sinned against God and when God brings his murther home to him he pleads thus with him When thou wert nothing in thine own eyes I brought thee saith God to the Kingdom I took thee from the sheep-fold and exalted thee and brought the to a plentiful house Vid. 2 Sam. 12.7 8. And may not God say the like to us and do you thus requite the Lord O you foolish people and unwise Deut. 32.6 that the more his mercy and goodness is to you the higher your sins should be against him 5. Besides consider more than all this we have the examples of good men before our eyes God commands us not what we cannot do If God had not set some before our eyes that walk in his ways and do his will then we might say that these are precepts that none can perform But we have patterns of whom we may say such a man I never knew to lye such a one never to swear and this should be a means to preserve us from sinning Heb. 11.7 Noah was a good man and being moved with fear set not at nought the threatning of God but built the Ark and thereby condemned the world His example condemned the world in that they followed it not although it were so good but continued in their great sins So art thou a wicked deboist person there is no good man but shall condemn thee by his example It 's a great crime in the land of uprightness to do wickedly Isa. 26.10 to be profane when the righteous by their blameless lives may teach thee otherwise 6. And lastly add to all the consideration of the multitude and weight of thy sins Hadst thou but sinned once or twice or in this or that it were somewhat tolerable But thy sins are great and many They are heavy and thou continually encreasest their weight and addest to their number Jer. 5.6 A lyon out of the forrest shall slay them and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them a leopard shall watch over their Cities and every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces Why Because their transgressions are many and their back-slidings are encreased If thou hadst committed but two or three or four sins thou mightest have hope of pardon but when thou shalt never have done with thy God but wilt be still encreasing still multiplying thy sins then mayst thou expect to hear from Gods mouth that dreadful expostulation in the Prophet Jer. 5.7 How can I pardon thee Thus David sets out his own sins in their weight and number Psal. 38.4 Mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me The continual multiplying of them adds to their heap both in number and weight Thus I have shew'd you what the Law does in respect of sin the benefit of being under the Law that it makes sin appear in its own colours and sets it forth to be as indeed it is exceeding sinful But the Law does not yet leave sin nor let it scape thus But as the Law discovers our sinfulness and accursedness by sin its wretchedness and mans misery by it till his blessedness comes from the hand of his Jesus so it lays down the miserable estate which befals him for it If he will not spare God with his sins God will not spare him with his plagues Let us consider of this accursedness sin brings on us God will not let us go so but as long as we are under the Law we are under the Curse and till we are in Christ we can expect nothing but that which should come from the hand of a provoked God Assure thy self thou that pleasest thy self in thy abomonations that God will not take this at thine hands that by so base a creature as thou art so vile a thing as sin is should be committed against him But of the woful effects of sin which is Gods wrath we will speak the next time LAM 5.16 Woe unto us that we have sinned I Declared unto you heretofore what we are to consider in the state of a natural man a man that is not new fashioned new moulded a man that is not cut off from his own stock a man that is not ingrafted into Christ he is the son of sin he is the son of death First I shewed you his sinfulness and now Secondly I shall shew you his accursedness that which follows necessarily upon sin unrepented of I declared before what the nature of sin is And now I come to shew what the dreadful effects of sin are I mean the enevitable consequence that follows upon sin and that is woe and misery Woe unto us that we have sinned A woe is a short word but there lieth much in it Doct. Woe and anguish must follow him that continueth sinning against God And when we hear this from the Ministers of God it is as if we heard that Angel Rev. 8.13 flying through the midst of Heaven denouncing Woe woe woe to the Inhabitants of the earth The Ministers of God are his Angels and the same that I now deliver to you if an Angel should now come from Heaven he would deliver no other thing Therefore consider that it is a voice from Heaven that this woe woe woe shall rest upon the heads upon the bodies and souls of all them that will not yield unto God that will not stoop to him that will be their own masters and stand it out against him woe woe woe unto them all Woe unto us It 's the voice of the Church in general not of one man but but woe unto us that we have sinned That I may now declare unto you what these woes are note by the way that I speak not to any particular man but to every man in general It is not
heart the Prince of the Power of the Air. While thou wert carried with the world thou went'st with the Stream and hadst the tide with thee but now the Devil being come thou hast both wind and tide and how can he chuse but run whom the Devil drives But this is not all There must be something in thine own disposition too that it may be completely filled Though there be wind and tide yet if the Ship be a slug it will not make that hast that another light ship will Therefore here is the flesh too and the fulfilling the desires thereof which is a quick and nimble vessel and this makes up the matter So that if we consider the wind and tide and lightness of the Ship it will appear how the room is filled And how woful must the state of that man be It is a fearful thing to be delivered up unto Satan but not so fearful as to be delivered up to ones own lusts But by the way observe this for a ground God never gives us up God never forsakes us till we first forsake him He is still before hand with us in doing us good but in point of hurt we our selves are first in the point of forsaking we are always before hand with God If it should be proposed to thee whether thou wilt forsake God or the Devil and thou dost forsake God and chusest the Devil thou deservest that he should take possession of thee When a man shall obstinately renew his gross sins doth he not deserve to be given up Observe the case in our first Parents God told the woman one thing the Devil perswades her another she hearkens to the Devil and believes him rather than God and when we shall desire to serve the Devil rather than God the God that made us and that made heaven for us do we not deserve to be given up to him For his Servants we are whom we obey Rom. 6.16 And thus we see how fearful a thing it is to be delivered up to our selves and to the Devil Psal. 81.11 First they forsake God God comes and offers himself unto them I will be thy God thy Father thou shalt want nothing yet notwithstanding Israel would not hear they would have none of me And then if thou wilt have none of me I will have none of thee saith God Then see what follows v. 12. God commits the Prisoner to himself I gave them up to their own hearts lusts c. And there 's no case so desperate as this when God shall say If thou wilt be thine own Master be thine own Master Thus to be given up to a mans self is worse than to be given up unto Satan To be given up unto Satan may be for thy safety but there 's not a mountain of Gods wrath greater than to give a man up unto himself We would fain go over the hedges but when God loves us he hedges up our ways Hos. 2.6 If God love us he will not leave us to our selves though we desire it But when God shall say go thy wayes if thou wilt not be kept in be thy own Master this is a most fearful thing And this is the third woe First the soul is polluted with sin it forsakes God and God forsakes it Then the World the Flesh and the Devil these fill up the room and then what follows when these three rule within But all kinds of sin And so all kinds of punishment which is the next Woe 4. And this woe brings in all the curses of Almighty God an Iliad of evils Sin calls for its wages viz. Death Death That 's the payment of all The wages of sin is death And this is the next thing which I shall open and explain Now in handling hereof I will first shew how death in general must of necessity follow sin that thou who hast forsaken the fountain of life art liable to everlasting death And for this see some places of Scripture Rom. 6.2 3. The wages of sin is death Consider then first what this wages is Wages is a thing which must be paid If you have an hireling and your hireling receive not his wages you are sure to hear of it and God will hear of it too James 5.4 He which keeps back the wages of the labourer or the hireling their cry will come into the ears of the Lord of Sabboth As long as hirelings wages are unpaid Gods ears are filled with their cries Pay me my wages pay me my wages So sin cries and it is a dead voice Pay me my wages pay me my wages the wages of sin is death And sin never leaves crying never lets God alone never giveâ— him rest till this wages be paid When Cain had slain Abel he thought he should never have heard any more on 't but sin hath a voice The voice of thy Brothers blood cries unto me from the ground So Gen. 18.20 the Lord saith concerning Sodom Because the cry of Sodom is great and their sin very grievous therefore I will go down and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come up into mine ears As if the Lord had said It 's a loud cry I can have no rest for it therefore I will go down and see c. If man had his ears open he would continually hear sin crying unto God Pay me my wages pay me my wages kill this sinful soul And though we do not hear it yet so it is The dead and doleful sound thereof fills Heaven It makes God say I will go down and see c. Till sin receive its wages God hath no rest Again see Rom. 7.11 Sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived me and by it slew me I thought sin not to have been so great a matter as it is We think on a matter of profit or pleasure and thereupon are inticed to sin but here 's the mischief sin deceives us It is a weight it presses down it deceives men it 's more then they deemed it to be The committing of sin is as it were running thy self upon the point of Gods blade Sin at first may flatter thee but it will deceive thee It 's like Joabs kiss to Amasa Amasa was not aware of the sword that was in Joabs hand till he smote it into his ribs that he died 2 Sam. 2.26 When sin entices thee on by profits and pleasures thou art not aware that it will slay thee But thou shâ—lt find it will be bitterness in the end A sinner that acts a tragedy in sin shall have a bloody Catastrophe Rom. 6. What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed Blood and death is the end of the Tragedy The end of those things is death The sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15. What is sin It 's the sting of death Death would not be death unless sin were in it Sin is more deadly then death it self It 's sin enableth death to sting enableth
it to hurt and wound us So that we may look on sin as the Barbarians looked on the viper on Pauls hand they expected continually when he would have swollen and burst Sin bites like a Snake which is called a fiery Serpent not that the Serpent is fiery but because it puts a man into such a flaming heat by their poyson And such is the sting of sin which carries poyson in it that had we but eyes to see our ugliness by it and how it inflames us we should continually every day look when we should burst with it The Apostle James 1.15 useth another metaphor Sin when it is accomplished bringeth forth death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Original sin goeth as it were with child with death The word is proper to Women in labour who are in torment till they are delivered Now as if sin were this Woman he useth it in the faeminine gender 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So it is with sin sin is in pain cries out hath no rest till it be delivered of this dead birth till it have brought forth death That is sin grows great with child with death and then it not only deserves death but it produceth and actually brings forth This is generally so Now consider with your selves death is a fearful thing When we come to talk of death how doth it amaze us The Priests of Nob are brought before Saul for relieving David and he saith Thou shalt surely die Ahimelech And this is your case you shall surely die death is terrible even to a good man As appears in Hezekiah who though he were a good man yet with how sad a heart doth he entertain the message of death The news of it affrighted him it went to his heart it made him turn to the wall and weep How cometh it to pass that we are so careless of death That we are so full of infidelity that when the word of God saith Thou shalt die Ahimelech we are not at all moved by it What can we think these are Fables Do we think God is not in earnest with us And by this means we fall into the temptation of Eve a questioning whether Gods threats are true or not That which was the deceit of our first Parents is ours Satan disputes not whether sin be lawful or not Whether eating the fruit were unlawful Whether Drunkenness c. Be lawful he 'l not deny but it is unlawful But when God saith If thou dost eat c. Thou shalt die he denies it and saith ye shall not die He would hide our eyes from the punishment of sin Thus we lost our selves at the first and the Floods of sin came on in this manner When we believed not God when he said If thou dost eat thou shalt surely die And shall we renew that Capital sin of our Parents and think if we do sin we shall not die If any thing in the World will move God to shew us no mercy it 's this when we sleight his Judgments or not believe them This adds to the height of all our sins that when God saith if thou dost live in sin thou shalt die and yet we will not believe him That when she shall come and threaten us as he doth Dâ—ut 29. v. 19. When he shall curse and we shall bless our selves in our hearts and say we shall have peace though we go on c. v. 20. The Lord will not spare that man but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against him It is no small sin when we will not believe God This is as being thirsty before we now add Drunkenness to our thirst That is when God shall thus pronounce curses he shall yet bless himself and say I hope I shall do well enough for all that There are two words to that bargain Then see what follows The anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man c. We are but now entred into the point but it would make your hearts ake and throb within you if you should hear the particulars of it All that I have done is to perswade you to make a right choice to take heed of Satans delusions Why will ye die Ezek. 33.11 Therefore cast away your sins and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will you die Ezek. 18.31 Where the Golded Candlestick stands there Christ walks there he saith I am with you Where the Word and Sacraments are there Christ is and when the Word shakes thy heart take that time now choose life Why will you die Consider of the matter Moses put before the people life and death blessing and cursing Deut. 30.15 19. We put life and death before you in a better manner He was a Minister of the letter we of the spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 Now choose life But if you will not hearken but will needs try conclusions with God therefore because you will choose your own conclusions and will not hearken unto God because you will needs try conclusions with him will not obey him when he calls therefore he will turn his deaf ear unto you and when you call and cry he will not answer Prov. 1.28 I press this the more to move you to make a right choice But now to turn to the other side as there is nothing but death for the wages of sin and as I have shewed you where death is So give me leave to direct you to the Fountain of life There is life in our blessed Saviour if we have but an hand of faith to touch him we shall draw vertue from him to raise us up from the death of sin to the life of righteousness 1 John 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life he that hath not the Son hath not life You have heard of a death that comes by the first Adam and sin and to that stock of Original sin we had from him we have added a great heap of our own actual sins and so have treasured up unto our selves wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 Now here is a great treasure of happiness on the other side in Christ have the Son and have life The question is now whether you will choose Christ and life or sin and death Consider now the Minister stands in Gods stead and beseeches you in his name he speaks not of himself but from Christ. When he draws near to thee with Christs broken body and his blood shed and thou receivest Christ then as thy natural life and strength is preserved and encreased by these Elements so hast thou also spiritual life by Christ. If a man be kept from nourishment a while we know what death he must die If we receive not Christ we cannot have life we know that there is life to be had from Christ and he that shall by a true and lively faith receive Christ shall have life by him There is as it were a pair of Indentures drawn up between God and a
mans soul There is blood shed and by it pardon of sin and life convey'd unto thee on Christs part Now if there be faith and repentance on thy part and thou accept of Christ as he is offered then thou mayst say I have the Son and as certainly as I have the bread in my hand I shall have life by him This I speak but by the way that the Sun might not set in a cloud that I might not end only in death but that I might shew that there is a way to recover out of that death into which we have all naturally praecipitated our selves by our apostacy from God ROM 6.23 The wages of Sin is death THe last day I entred on the Declaration of the cursed effects and consequents of sin and in general shewed that it is the wrath of God that where sin is there wrath must follow As the Apostle in the Epistle to the Galathians As many as are under the works of the Law are under the curse Now all that may be expected from a God highly offended is comprehended in Scripture by this term Death Wheresoever sin enters death must follow Rom. 5.12 Death passed over all men forasmuch as all had sinned If we are children of sin we must be children of wrath Eph. 1.3 We are then children of wrath even as others Now concerning death in general I shewed you the last time that the state of an unconverted man is a dead and desperate estate He is a slave it would affright him if he did but know his own slavery and what it is that hangs over his head that there 's but a Span betwixt him and death he could never breath any free air he could never be at any rest he could never be free from fear Heb. 2.15 the Apostle saith that Christ came to deliver them that through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage This bondage is a deadly bondage that when we have done all that we can do what 's the payment of the service Death And the fear of this deadly bondage if we were once sensible if God did open our eyes and shew us as he did Belshazar our doom written did we but see it it would make our joynts loose and our knees knock one against another Every day thou livest thou approachest nearer to this death to the accomplishment and consummation of it Death without and Death within Death in this World and in the World to come Not only death thus in gross and in general but in particular also Now to unfold the particulars of death and to shew you the ingredients of this bitter Cup that we may be weary of our estates that we may be drawn out of this death and be made to fly to the Son that we may be free indeed observe that Death is not here to be understood of a separation of the Soul from the Body only but a greater death than that the death of the Soul and Body We have mention made of a first Resurrection Rev. 20.6 Blessed and happy is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection for on such the second death hath no power What is the first resurrection It is a rising from sin And what is the second death It is everlasting damnation The first Death is a Death in sin and the first Resurrection is a rising from sin And so again for all things the judgments or troubles that appertain to this death all a man suffers before It is not as fools think the last blow that fells the Tree but every blow helps forward 'T is not the last blow that kills the man but every blow that goes before makes way unto it Every trouble of mind every anguish every sickness all these are as so many strokes that shorten our life and hasten our end and are as it were so many deaths Therefore however it is said by the Apostle It is appointed for all men once to dye yet we see the Apostle to the Corinthians of the great conflicts that he had in 2 Cor. 11.23 saith that he was in labours abundant in stripes above measure in prisons frequent in deaths oft In deaths often what 's that That is however he could dâ—e but once yet these harbingers of death these stripes bonds imprisonments sicknesses c. all of them were as so many deaths all these were comprehended under this curse and are parts of death in as much as he underwent that which was a furtherance to death he is said to die So we read Exod. 10.17 Pharaoh could say Pray unto your God that he would forgive my sins this once and intreat the Lord that he will take away from me but this death only Not that the Locusts were death but are said to be so because they prepared and made way for a natural death Therefore the great judgments of God are usually in Scripture comprised under this name Death All things that may be expressions of a wrath of an highly provoked God are comprehended under this name All the judgments of God that come upon us in this life or that to come whether they be spiritual and ghostly or temporal are under the Name of Death Now to come to particulars look particularly on Death and you shall see death begun in this world and seconded by a death following the separation of body and soul from God in the world to come 1. First in this life he is always a dying man Man that is born of a woman what is he He is ever spending upon the stock he is ever wasting like a Candle burning still and spending it self as soon as lighted till it come to its utter consumption So he is born to be a dying man death seizeth upon him as soon as ever it findeth sin in him Gen. 2.1 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye saith God to Adam though he lived many years after How then could this threatning hold true Yes it did in regard that presently he fell into a languishing estate subject and obnoxious to miseries and calamities the hastners of it If a man be condemn'd to dye suppose he be reprieved and kept prisoner three or four years after yet we account him but a dead man And if this mans mind shall be taken up with worldly matters earthly contentments purchases or the like would we not account him a Fool or a stupid man seeing he lightly esteems his condemnation because the same hour he is not executed Such is our case we are while in our natural condition in this life dead men ever tending toward the Grave towards corruption as the gourd of Jonah so soon as ever it begins to sprout forth there is a worm within that bites it and causes it to wither The day that we are born there is within us the seed of corruption and that wasts us away with a secret and incurable consumption that certainly brings death in the end So that in our very
birth begins our progress unto death A time a way we have but it leads unto death There is a way from the Tower to Tyburn but it is a way to death Until thou comest to be reconciled unto Christ every hour tends unto thy death there 's not a day that thou canst truly say thou livest in thou art ever posting on to death death in this world and eternal death in the world to come And as it is thus with us at our coming into the world so we are to understand it of that little time we have above ground our days are full of sorrow But mark when I speak of sorrows here we must not take them for such afflictions and sorrows as befal Gods children for theirs are blessings unto them Chastisements are tokens of Gods love For as many as I love I rebuke and chasten saith Christ. Revel 3.19 Affliction to them is like the Dove with an Olive-branch in her mouth to shew that all is well but take a man that is under the Law and then every cross whether it be loss of friends loss of goods diseases on his body all things every thing to him is a token of Gods wrath not a token of Gods love as it is to Gods children but it is as his impress money as part of payment of a greater sum an earnest of the wrath of God the first part of the payment thereof It 's the Apostles direction that among the other Armour we should get our feet shod that so we might be able to go through the afflictions we shall meet withal in this life Eph. 6.15 Let your feet be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace What is the shooing of the feet a part of the Armour Yes For in the Roman discipline there were things they called Galltraps which were cast in the way before the Army before the horse and men they had three points so that which way soever they threw them there was a point upwards Now to meet with and prevent this mischief they had brazen shooes that they might tread upon these Gall-traps and not be hurt As we read of Goliah amongst other Armour he had boots of Brass To this it seems the Apostle had reference in this metaphorical speech The meaning is that as we should get the shield of faith and sword of the spirit so we should have our feet shod that we might be prepared against all those outward troubles that we should meet with in the world which are all of them as so many stings and pricks all outward crosses I say are so And what is it that makes all these hurt us what is it that makes all these as so many deaths unto us but sin If sin reign in thee and bear rule that puts a sting into them It is sin that arms death against us and it is sin that arms all that goes before death against us Hast thou been crossed in the loss of thy Wife Children good friends c. why the sting of all is from sin sin it is which makes us feel sorrow What shall we then do Why get thy feet shod with the preparation of thâ— Gospel of peace Prepare thy self get God at peace with thee and then whatsoever affliction cometh howsoever it may be a warning piece to another that Gods wrath is coming yet to thee it is a messenger of peace Now these outward troubles are the least part of a wicked mans pâ—yment though all these are a part of his death so long as he remains unreconciled whatsoever comes upon him whereby he suffers either in himself or in any thing that belongs unto him they are all tokens of Gods wrath and are the beginnings of his death in the 26th of Levit. and the 28th of Deut. the particulars of it are set down But this is that I told you the last time how that the law of God is a perfect law and nothing is to be added to it yet the variety of the curses belonging unto a man unreconciled are so many that the ample book of God cannot contain them Deut. 28.61 All the curses which are not written c. we read v. 27. The Lord shall smite thee with â—he botch of Aegypt and with hemeroids and with a scab and with itch See the diversities of plagues all these are made parts of the curse The very itch and scab is a part of the payment of Gods wrath in hell Lev. 26.26 I will send a Sword amongst you which shall avenge the quarrel of my Covenant the sword that shall destroy you that when you shall hear of war of the coming of the sword which the children of God need not fear all is alike unto them it shall be to avenge the quarrel of Gods Covenant The Book of God comprehends not all the curses that are to light on the wicked And therefore we find in Zachary a Book a great Folio Book every side whereof was full of curses Cap. 5.2 He said unto me what seâ—st thou And I said I see a flying roll the length thereof is 20 cubits and the breadth thereof is 10 cubits Here 's a big book indeed but mark what is in it Sure it is not for nought that the Holy Ghost sets down the dimensions of it there is something questionless in it the length thereof is 20 cubits and the breadth 10 cubits a huge volume Nor is it a Book but a Roll so that the crassitude goeth into the compass and this is written thick within and without and is full of curses against sin Now for the dimension of it compare this place with 1 Kings 6.3 and you shall find them the very dimensions of Solomons Porch A great place where the people were wont to come for the hearing of the Word and not only in that time but it was continued to the time of Christ and the Apostles For we read how our Saviour walkâ—d in Solomon 's Porch and the Apostles were in Solomons Porch Acts 5. So large then was this Roll that it agreed in length and breadth with Solomons Porch and so many curses were written in it as were able to come in at the Church door It is as if we should see a huge book now coming in at the Church door that should fill it up Such a thing was presented unto him and it was a Roll full of curses and all these curses shall come on those that obey not all the Commandments all shall come upon them and overtake them Cursed shalt thou be in the City and cursed shalt thou be in the field cursed in thy basket and in thy store cursed when thou comest in and when thou goest forth Deut. 28.16 Till a man come to receive the Promises till he come to be a son of blessing till he be in Christ he is beset so with curses that if he lie down to sleep there is a curse on his pillow if he put his Money in his cofer he lays up a curse
speak so brutish were they to be led away by stocks and stones I think the Papist Gods cannot do it unless it be by couzenage yet such is their senselesness that though Gods fury be revealed from Heaven against Papists such as worship false Gods yet are they so brutish that they will worship things which can neither hear nor see nor walk They that made them are like unto them and so are all they that worship them as brutish as the stocks themselves They have no heart to God but will follow after their puppets and their Idols and such are they also that follow after their drunkenness covetousness c Who live in lasciviousness lusts excess of riot 1 Pet. 4.2 that run into all kind of excess and marvel that you do not so too They marvel that ye that fear God can live as ye do and speak evil of you that be good call such Hypocrites Dissemblers and I know not what nick-names This I say is a most woful condition it 's that dead blow When men are not sensible of Mercies of Judgments but run into all excess of sin with greediness And this is a death begun in this life even while they are above ground But then comes another death God doth not intend sin shall grow to an infinite weight His Spirit shall not alwayes strive with man but at length God comes and crops him off and now cometh the consummation of the death begun in this life Now cometh an accursed death 3. After thou hast lived an accursed life then cometh an accomplishment of curses First a cursed separation between body and soul and then of both from God for ever and this is the last payment This is that great death which the Apostle speaks of Who delivered us from that great death 2 Cor. 1.10 So terrible is that death This death is but the severing of the body from the Soul This is but the Lords Harbinger the Lords Serjeant to lay his Mace on thee to bring thee out of this World into a place of everlasting misery from whence thou shalt never come till all be satisfied and this is never First Consider the nature of this death which though every man knoweth yet few lay to heart This death what doth it First it takes the things which thou spentst thy whole life in getting It robs thee of all the things thou ever hadst Thou hast taken pains to heap and treasure up goods for many yeors presently when this blow is given all is gone For honour and preferment it takes thee from that pleasure in idle company-keeping it bars thee of that Mark this is the first thing that death doth it takes not onely away a part of that thou hast but all it leaves thee quite naked as naked as when thou camest into the World Thou thoughtst it was thy happiness to get this and that Death now begins to unbewitch thee thou wast bewitched before when thou didst run after all wordly things Thou wast deceived before and now it undeceives thee it makes thee see what a notorious fool thou wast it unbefools thee Thou hadst many plots and many projects but when thy breath is gone then without any delay in that very day saith the Psalmist all thy thoughts perish Psal. 146.4 all thy plottings and projections go away with thy breath A strange thing to see a man with Job the richest man in the East and yet in the evening we say as poor as Job He hath nothing left him now Now though death takes not all things from thee yet it takes thee from them all and so in effect them also from thee though they remain in thy house and grounds yet they are as far removed from thee is ahou from them All thy goods all thy books all thy wealth all thy friends thou mayst now bid farewel now adieu for ever never to see them again And that is the first thing 2. Now death rests not there but cometh to seize upon thy body It hath bereaved thee of all that thou possessedst of all thy outward things they are taken away Now it comes to touch the wicked mans person and see what then It toucheth him it rents his soul from his body those two loving companions that have so long dwelt together are now separated It takes thy soul from thy body This man doth not deliver up his spirit as we read of our Saviour Father into thy hands I commit my spirit or deliver their spirits as Stephen did But here it 's taken from them it 's much against his mind it 's a pulling of himself from himself This it doth 3. But then again when thou art thus pulled asunder what becomes of the parts separated 1. First The body as soon as the soul is taken from it hastens to corruption that must see corruption yea it becomes so full of corruption that thy dearest friend cannot then endure to come near unto thee When the soul is taken from the body it 's observed that of all carkasses that are mans is the most loathsome none so odious as that Abraham loved Sarah well but when he comes to buy a monument for her see his expression Gen. 23.8 He communes with the men and saith if it be your mind to sell me the field that I might bury my dead out of my sight Though he loved her very well before yet now she must be buried out of his sight It is sown in dishonour and it 's the basest thing that can be Therefore when our Saviour was going near to the place where Lazarus lay his Sister saith Lord by this time he stinketh Joh. 11.39 I have said to corruption thou art my Father saith Job and to the worm thou art my Mother and my Sister Job 17.14 As in the verse before The grave is my house I have made my bed in the darkness Here then he hath a new kindred and though before he had affinity with the greatest yet here he gets new affinity He saith to corruption thou art my Father and to the worm thou art my Mother and my Sister The worm is our best kindred here the worm then is our best bed yea worms thy best covering as Esay 14.11 Thus is it thy Father thy Mother and thy Bed nay it is thy consumption and destroyer also Job 26. Thus is it with thy body it passeth to corruption that thy best or dearest friend cannot behold it or endure it 2. But alas what becomes of thy soul then Thy soul appears naked there 's no garment to defend it no Proctor appears to plead for it It is brought singly to the bar and there it must answer It is appointed for all men once to dye but what then And after that to come to judgmâ—nt Heb. 9.27 Eccles. 12.7 The body returns unto the earth from whence it was taken but the Spirit to God who gave it All mens spirits assoon as their bodies and souls are parted go to God to be disposed
not to terrifie and affright men but by forewarning them to keep them thence For after I have shewn you the danger I shall shew a way to escape it and how the Lord Jesus was given to us to deliver us from this danger But if you will not hear but will try conclusions with God then you must to your proper place to the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone A Lake 't is a River a flaming River as Tophet is described to be a lake burning with fire and brimstone a Metaphor taken from the judgment of God on Sodom and Gomorrah as in that place of St. Jude before mentioned as also in 2 Pet. 2.6 where 't is said God turned the Cities of Sodom into ashes making them an example to all them that should after live ungodly Mark the judgement of God upon these abominable men the place where they dwelt is destroyed with fire and the scituation is turn'd into a lake full of filthy bituminous stuff called Lacus Asphaltites which was made by their burnings And this is made an instance of the vengeance of God and an Emblem of eternal fire therefore said he you shall have your portion with Sodom Nay shall I speak a greater word with Christ and tell you that though they were so abominable that the lake was denominated from them yet it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah than for you if you repent not while you may but go on to despise Gods grace But can there be a greater sin than the sin of Sodom I answer yes For make the worst of the sin of Sodom it is but a sin against nature but thy impenitency is a sin against grace and against the Gospel and therefore deserves a hotter hell and an higher measure of judgment in this burning pit But what is this second death 2. Sure it hath reference to some first death or other going before A man would as it is commonly thought think that this second death is opposed to that first death which is the harbinger to the second and separates the soul from the body but it 's far otherwise That alas is but a petty thing and deserves not to be put in the number of deaths The second death in the Text hath relation to the first Resurrection Rev. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath his portion in the first Resurrection on such the second death shall have no power The first death is that from whence we are acquitted by the first Resurrection and that is the death for that is a kind of death as St. Paul speaking of a wicked and voluptuous Widow saith she is dead while she liveth and the time shall come and now is when they that are dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live And again Let the dead bury their dead So that the first Resurrection is when a man hearing the voice of the Minister is rouzed up from the sleep of sin and carnal security and the first death is the opposite thereunto So that the death of the body is no death at all for if it were then this were the third death For there would be a death of sin a death of the body and a death of body and soul This death of the body is but a flea-biting in comparison of the other two This second death is the separation of the body and soul from God and this death is the wages of sin and God must not will not lye in arrear to sin but will pay its wages to the full All the afflictions a wicked man meeteth withal here are but as Gods press-money and part of payment of that greater sum But when he dies the whole sum comes to be paid Before he did but sip of the Cup of Gods wrath but he must then drink up the dregs of it down to the bottom and this is the second death it 's called death Now death is a destruction of the parts compounded a man being compounded of body and soul both are by this death eternally destroyed That death like Sampson pulling down the pillars whereby it was sustained pulled down the house draws down the Tabernacles of our bodies pulls Body and Soul in sunder A thing which hath little hurt in it self were it not for the sting of it which makes it fearful To dye is esteemed far worse than to be dead in regard of the pangs that are in dying to which death puts an end This temporal death is in an instant but this other eternal whereby we are ever dying and never dead for by it we are punished with an everlasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thess. 1.9 and that from the presence of the Lord by the glory of his power Then which piece I have no need to add more for as much as can be said of men and Angels is fully comprehended in it The Apostle terms this a fearful thing indeed Heb. 2.15 whereon if a man but think if he hath his wits about him he would for fear of it be all his life long subject to bondage He would scarce draw any free breath but would still be in bondage and drudgery till he were delivered Thus I have declared the nature of the place and of this second death That I may now go farther know that this Lake and this place is the place that the Lord hath provided for his enemies It is the Lords slaughter-house it s called a place of torments Luke 16. vers 24 28. a place wherein God will shew the accomplishment of his wrath and revenge upon his enemies Those mine enemies that would not have me to reign over them bring them forth and slay them before my face Luke 19.27 Those vessels of wrath those Rebels the King is inraged and his wrath is as the roaring of a Lyon which makes all the beasts of the Forrest to tremble Prov. 19.12 And where there is the wrath of such a King the issue thereof must needs be death Prov. 16.14 The wrath of a King is as a messenger of death How much more fearful is the wrath of the King of Kings God hath sharp arrows and he sets a wicked man as his Butt to shoot at to shew his strength and the fierceness of his wrath See the expression of Job in this case The arrows of the Almighty stick fast in me and the venome thereof hath drunk up my spirits In so few words there could not be an higher expression of the wrath of God First that God should make thee a Butt and that thou shouldst be shot at and that by Gods arrows And then they are not shot by a child but as the man is so is his strength by the Almighty by his bow wherein he draws the arrow to the head And then again these arrows are poyson'd arrows and such poyson as shall drink up all thy soul and spirit Oh what a fearful thing is it to fall into the hands of such a
his Angels the strongest of creatures for the punishment of principalities and powers And if it can master Angels think not but that God hath a fire to rost thy soul. It is the soul that is in Hell onely till the day of judgment though the body be not there A man would think that the soul did not suffer but Philosophy tells us that the soul suffers mediante corpore in and by the body Therefore 't is a rule in Divinity that whatsoever God doth by means he can do without means Though the body be not there but the soul only yet God is able nay doth make the soul as well feel grief without the body as he doth by means of the body 3. But now besides thy fellow prisonerâ— in that cursed Gaol consider who are thy tormentors thou that dost continue in impenitency Now thy tormentors are these three 1. The Devil 2. Thy self 3. God Almighty 1. The Devil who is thy deadly enemy a bloody-minded adversary a murthering and merciless-minded Spirit a murtherer from the beginning a merciless tormentor who being in plagues and torments and thereby even at his wits end would fain ease himself in tormenting thee When the Devil as we read was dispossessed of a child wherein he was he rends and tears leaves him foaming that there was little hope of life in him Mar. 9.20 But now when a man shall be delivered into the hands of this merciless Spirit when God shall say to the Devil take him do what thou wilt with him do thy worst to him When thou shalt be thus put into the hands of one that hates thee and delights in thy ruine how will he tear thee into pieces How will he torment thee In how desperate and wretched a case will thy soul and body be But the tormentor within thee is far more heavy painful and grievous Mar. 9.44 46 48. That never dying worm within the sting of a guilty and wounded conscience this like a sharp dagger is still stabbing thee at the very heart This by a reflecting act upon it self will cause thee to revenge Gods quarrel on thy self and as a musket over-charged beats back on the shooter so will it most furiously return upon thee This is that that smote David when 't is said Davids heart smote him Sam. 24.10 A man needs no other fire nor other worm to torment him then that within him Which as the worms on the carkass gnaws on a wretched soul. But there is a greater tormentor then both these behind and that is 3. God himself he is highly offended and inraged at thee and therefore comes and takes the matter into his own hand and will himself be executioner of his fury There is a passage in the Thess. To this purpose which methinks is more then can be spoken by men or Angels Epist. 2. cap. 1. v. 9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power Mark that God whom thou hast so highly provoked to wrath hath a strong hand and glorious power He shewed the glory of his power in the making the world and all things in it and all that infinite power which he hath manifested in the creation of heaven and earth shall be engaged in the tormenting of a sinner Were there a man that should lay a target of brass or a target of steel on a block and should then cleave all in sunder at a blow this would sufficiently manifest his strength So doth God make manifest his power in crushing thee to pieces There are still new charges and discharges against sinners to make his power therein manifest What if God willing to make his power known saith the Apostle Rom. 9.22 suffered a while the vessels prepared to destruction God will manifest his power by the strength of his stroke on those that rebel against him Hence proceedeth weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth which is a Metaphor taken from one either that hath a great coldness on him or from the symptoms of a Fever Add to all that hath been said these two things 1. The torment shall be everlasting you shall desire to die Rev. 9.6 that your torments may have end And here you may expect that I should say something of the eternity of the torments of the damned but I am not able nor any one else sufficiently to express it It shall continue ten thousand thousand years after that an hundred thousand times ten thousand and yet be no nearer end then at the first beginning Thou must think of it seriously thy self and pray to God to reveal it to thy soul for none else sufficiently can 2. But besides as it is everlasting so is it unabateable If a man were cast into a fire the fire coming about him would in short time blunt his senses and take away his feeling and besides the materials of the fire would soon spend and wast But it is not so here here is not the least abatement of the horror nor the least inch of torment taken away throughout all eternity It was a poor request of Dives one would think that Lazarus would dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue Luk. 16.14 A cold comfort but one drop of water for the present which would soon be dried and yet that is denied him he must have no abatement of his torment Nor is there any abatement of thy feeling but thou art kept in full strength and as long as God is God shall Tophet burn and thou feel it Obj. But may some say this is preaching indeed this would affright a man and make him go hang himself sooner then be converted Sol. True should God let loose the cord of our conscience it were the way such would be the terrours of it to make a man find another cord did not God restrain him I desire not by this to hurt you but to save you I am a messenger not sent from Abraham Luk. 16.27 as Dives entreated but from the God of Abraham to forewarn you that you come not to that place of torment But now Beloved there is a way to escape this misery and that is by Jesus Christ Mat. 1.21 He was for this end called Jesus because he saves his people from their sins Mat. 1.21 And consequently from wrath Which how it is done I shall shew in a word and that is 1. By Christ Jesus offered for us And 2. By Christ Jesus offered to us By Christ offered for us he must die for us and if there be any death more cursed then other that death must he die if any more painful that must he suffer Thus he undertakes thy cause and suffers what for sin was due to thee And then being offered for us he is offered to us as we may see in the Sacrament where there are two acts of the Minister the one the breaking the bread the other the offering it to the people Thou hast as good
it he that was to be crucified was stripped naked as naked as ever he came out of his mothers Womb However the Painters may lye in it And was not this a shame thus to be stripped before thousands Wherefore it was a custome among the Romans that the greatest King if he were baptized was to be stripped naked which they did as a memorial of the shame of our Saviour So shameful a thing it was that they thought him unworthy to suffer within the walls Christ that he might sanctifie the people suffered without the walls Hebr. 13.13 Let us go with him out of the Camp bearing his reproach He was a man unfit to suffer within the walls Pilatâ— thought he would meet with them when they were so violent to have him crucified and therefore he joyns Barabbas with him the vilest Thief in the Countrey and a Murtherer So that Peter cast this in their teeth That they preferred a Murtherer before him He was reckoned with the Transgressors as it was prophesied of him before Isa. 53.12 They crucifie him between two Thieves as if he had been the Captain of them Pilate thought by naming of Barabbas to have saved Christ but so enraged was their blind malice that they preferred the release of Barabbas before the exemption of Christ. Wherefore as St. Luke saith Pilate released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison whom they had desired but he delivered Jesus to their will Luk. 23.25 Thirdly Consider the Pain of the Cross whom God raised up having loosed the sorrows of death Act. 2.24 Not meaning there were sorrows that Christ endured after his death but it s meant of the sorrows that accompanied his death It was the most dolorous death that ever could be endured We scarce know what Crucifying is The Christian Emperors in honor of our Saviour banished that kind of suffering that none after him might suffer it But yet it is fit we should know what it was since it was so terrible a thing And here as the Apostle said to the Galathians Suppose you see Christ crucified before your face at present The manner of it was thus First there was a long beam on which the party was to be stretched and there was a cross-beam on which the hands were to be stretched they pull'd them up upon the Cross before they fastned them they pull'd him to his utmost length And this is that the Psalmist speaks of Psal. 22.17 You might tell all my bones His ribs were so stretched as that they even pierced the flesh Conceive him now thus stretched with his hands and feet nailed to the wood the stretching of Christ on the Cross was such a thing as the working of the rack Imagine him before your eyes thus represented Your sins crucicified him being thus stretched upon the Cross to his full length the hands and the feet were fastned and nailed to the wood It 's no small torment to have the hands bored especially if we behold the place it was through the lower part of the hand where the veins and sinnews all met together It 's a place that is full of sense consider withal the bigness of the nails Psal. 22.16 They have digged my hands to shew the bigness of the spikes for the original bears it They digg'd him Believe not the painters Our Saviour had four nails Not one through both feet as they describe it but two through his hands and two through his feet And that you may the better comprehend it you must know that toward the lower part of the cross there went along a ledge or threshold whereto his feet were nail'd otherwise the flesh would have rent by reason of the nails if he had hung by the hands alone Then comes the lifting up as the serpent was lift up so must Christ be lift As when a man is stretched to the full length and should be with a girk put up it 's like a strapado as it were the unjoynting of a man and this is that the Psalmist speaks of All my bones are out of joynt Consider withal the time how long it was St. Mark saith cap. 15.25 It was the third hour and they crucified him In St. John it is the sixth hour but the ancient and best Copies have the third hour and so hath Nonnus The ninth hour he gave up the Ghost so that it was six long hours by the clock that our Saviour did hang upon the Cross. And it was not with him as with other men in whom extremity of pains disannul sense and blunt pains because they have not a perfect apprehension but Christ was in his perfect sense all the while All that the Jews could do could not take away his life from him till he would himself and therefore it is said in Mark 15.37 That immediately before he gave up the Ghost he cryed with a loud voice whereas others are wont at that time to be so weak that they can scarce be heard to groan but never was Christ stronger nor never cryed louder than when he gave up the Ghost Mark 15.39 this of it self made the Centurion assoon as he heard it conclude certainly this man was the Son of God How doth he gather this from his crying thus For a man to be in his full strength and cry out so strongly and immediately to give up the Ghost this is a great Miracle Truly this man was the Son of God This adds unto the greatness of his torment that he had his full and perfect sense that he was six full hours thus on the Rack and the extremity of pain took not away his sense He was as strong at the last as at the first These things seriously weighed Oh! how do they aggravate the depth of his Humiliation Seriously weigh them they are miserable and lamentable matters yet in these lie our comfort Through these words is there a passage open for us into the Kingdom of Heaven When he had overcome the terrors of death he opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers these were now but the out-side of his sufferings which did belong to man for his sins He suffered not only bodily sufferings but sufferings in soul and and that he did in a most unknown and incomprehensible manner But now may some say Object Did Christ suffer the pains and torments of Hell Sol. No he suffered those things that such an innocent Lamb might suffer but he could not suffer the pains of Hell The reason is because one thing which makes Hell to be Hell is the gnawing worm of an accusing conscience Now Christ had no such worm He had so clear a conscience as that he could not be stung with any such evil Another great torment in Hell is Desperation arising from the apprehension of the perpetuity of their torments which makes them curse and blaspheme God and carry an inexpressible hatred against him but Christ could not do so he could not hate God God forbid that
it was part of his Priest-hood to offer up himself The Sacrifices in the old Law that typified him were only sufferers The poor beasts were only passive but our Saviour he must be an Actor in the business He was active in all that he suffered He did it in obedience to his Fathers Will yet he was an Agent in all his Passions John 11.43 He groaned in Spirit and was troubled the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it is in the Margent He troubled himself With us in our Passions it is otherwise we are meer sufferers Our Saviour was a Conqueror over all his passions and therefore unless he would trouble himself none else could trouble him unless he would lay down his life none could take it from him unless he would give his cheek to be smitten the Jews had no power to smite it Isa. 50.6 I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that pluckt off the hair and hid not my face from shame and spitting In all these we should consider our Saviour not as a Sacrifice only but a Sacrificer also an Actor in all this business their wicked hands were not more ready to smite then he was to give his face to be smitten and all to shew that it was a voluntary Sacrifice He did all himself He humbled himself unto the death Phil. 2.8 And now by all this we see what we have gotten we have gotten a remedy and satisfaction for sins That precious blood of that immaculate Lamb takes away the sins of the world because it is the Lamb of God under which else the World would have eternally groaned Object But doth this Lamb of God take away all the sins of the world Sol. It doth not actually take away all the sins of the world but virtually It hath power to do it if it be rightly applyed the Sacrifice hath such vertue in it that if all the World would take it and apply it it would expiate and remove the sins of the whole World but it is here as with medicines they do not help being prepared but being applied Rhubarb purgeth choler yet not unless applied c. Exod. 39.38 there is mention made of a Golden Altar Christ is this Golden Altar to shew that his blood is most precious We are not redeemed with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Rev. 8.3 9.13 He is that golden Alter mentioned in the Revelation which stands before the Throne He was likewise to be a brazen altar for so much was to be put upon him that unless he were of brass and had infinite strength he would have sunk under the burden Its Jobs Metaphor Job in his passion saith Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh brass Job 6.12 If Christs flesh had not been brass if he had not been this brazen Altar he could never have gone through these now he is prepared for us a sacrifice for sin Rom. 8.3 For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin for sin make a stop there condemned sin in the flesh This same for sin hath not reference to condemned To condemn sin for sin is not good sense but the words depend on this God sent his Son that is God sent his Son to be a Sacrifice for sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is translated Heb. 10.6 a sacrifice for sin It was impossible the Law should save us not because of any imperfection or failing in the Law but because our weakness is such as that we could not perform the conditions therefore God was not tyed to promises by reason then of the weakness of our flesh rather than we should perish God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and in that flesh of his condemned all our sins we need not look that sin should be condemned in us when he bare our sins on the tree then were our sins condemned therefore it 's said Isai. 53. When he had made his soul an offering for sin that is in the Original when he had made his soul sin then he saw his seed Isa. 57. We come now to the second thing if Christ be offered for us yet unless he offer him to us unless any man may have interest in him it 's nothing worth Here then stands the Mystery of the Gospel Christ when he comes to offer himself to us he finds not a whit in us that is to be respected nothing And that is the ground of all disturbance to ignorant consciences for there is naturally in men pride and ignorance they think they may not meddle with Christ through Gods Mercy unless they bring something unless they have something of their own to lay down This is to buy Christ to barter betwixt Christ and the soul but salvation is a free gift of God As the Apostle speaks Christ is freely given unto thee when thou hadst nothing of worth in thee Faith when it comes empties thee of all that is in thee To whom is the Gospel preached to the dead Now before Christ quicken thee thou art stark dead rotting in thy sins Here 's the point then when there is no manner of goodness in thee in the world In me saith St. Paul that is in my flesh there is no good thing When I have been the most outragious sinner I may lay hold on Christ. Christ comes and offers himself to thee Now when Christ offers the other part of the relation holds we may take We have an interest to accept what he proffers Consider it by an example If one give me a million and I receive it not I am never the richer and so if God offer me his Son and with him all things I am nothing the better if I receive him not That he is born and given what is that to us unless we can say To us a child is born to us a Son is given Isa. 9.6 Faith comes with a naked hand to receive that which is given we must empty our selves of what is in us Consider thy estate the Lord sets dowâ— how it is with us when he comes to look upon us Ezek. 16.6 And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thy blood I said unto thee when thou wâ—rt in thy blood live Why is this â—et down It 's to shew how God finds nothing in us when he comes to shew Mercy He finds nothing in us that is lovely when he comes to bestow his Son upon us For it is said Rev 1.5 That Christ loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood He doth first cast his eyes upon us when we are unwashed as I may say unwashed and unblessed When no eye pittied thee and thou wast cast out in the open fiâ—ld when thou wast in thy blood I said unto thee live when he comes
The next action is The pouring out of the wine This is my blood saith Christ Drink you all of this Dost thou see the wine poured out at that very instant consider how much blood Christ spilt how much he poured forth and that not only in the very time of his passion when he hung upon the Cross when the spears pierced his sides when the nails bored and digged his hands and feet But that which he shed in the garden in the cold Winter time when he shed great drops great clots of blood thickest blood that pierc'd his garment and ran down upon the ground Consider how much blood he lost when he was whipped and lashed When the spear came to the very Pericardium thus let us weigh his torments and it will be a means to make us much affected with his sufferings for us But this is not all there is another thing yet in the blood This was but the outward part of his sufferings Yet some there are who are against Christ sufferings in his soul If it were so say they then something either in the sacrifices of the old-Testament or in the new Testament should signifie it What ever such persons object against it I am sure there was as much in the sacrifices of the old Testament as could possibly be in a Type to signifie it Now that I may make this to appear know that in every sacrifice there were two parts or two things considerable and those were the Body and the Blood The whole was to be made a sacrifice viz. both Body and blood the body was to be burned the blood to be poured forth Now nothing in a beast can signifie the sufferings of Christ in soul better then the pouring out of the blood Lev. 17.11 The blood was the life and this is that which had a relation to the soul and was therefore as in the same place appears poured out as an attonement for the soul. And to this in our common prayers there is an allusion viz. Grant us gracious Lord so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ and to drink his blood that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and our souls washed through his most precious blood And in Isa. 53.12 The Metaphor holds He poured out his soul unto death for us So that whatever some have fondly thought its evident and manifest that Christ suffered both in soul and body Both soul and body were made an offering for sin in the fashion of sin who knew no sin I should have gone further but the time cuts me off HEB. 4.16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need IN handling heretofore the Doctrine of the conversion of a sinner I declared and shewed you what man's misery was and what that great hope of mercy is that the Lord proposeth to the greatest sinner in the world I shewed unto you â—he means whereby we may be made partakers of Christ and thâ—t waâ— by the grace of faith which doth let fall all other things in a man's self and comes with an open and empty hand to lay hold on Christ and fill it self with him I shewed you also the acts of Faith as it justâ—fies And now because it is a point of high moment wherein all our comfort stands and in which it lies I thought good to resume it all again so far as may concern our practice that we may see what the work of God's Spirit is from the first to the last and the conversion of a sinner from the corruptions and pollutions of the flesh in which he wallowed and to this purpose have I chosen this place of Scripture wherein we are encouraged by God's blessed Word that whatever we are though accursed and the greatest sinners in the world and that whatever we want we should come to God's throne of grace And we are to think that whatever sins are or have been committed and though our sins are never so great yet that they are not so great as the infiniteness of God's mercy especially having such not only an Intercessor but Advocate to plead the right of our cause so that Christ comes and he pleads payment and that however our debts are great and we run far in score yet he is our ransome and therefore now God's justice being satisfied why should not his mercy have place and free course This is the great comfort that a Christian hath that he may come freely and boldly to God because he comes but as for an acquittance of what is already paid As a debtor will appear boldly before his creditor when he knows his debt is discharged he will not then be afraid to look him in the face Now we may come and say Blessed Father the debt is paid I pray give me pardon of my sins give me my acquittance And this is that boldness and access spoken of Rom. 5.2 In whom we have access by faith Now that I may not spend too much time needlesly come we to the ground and matter in the words Wherein there is 1. A preparative for grace 2. The act it self whereby we are made partakers of the grace of God First the preparatives are two The Law and the Gospel and wrought by them The first preparative 1. Wrought by the Law The Law works in a time of great need or rather by the operative power of the Law convincing us of sin we are made sensible of our need and deep poverty This is the first preparative for a man to be brought to see he stands in great need of God's mercy and Christ's blood so that the sinner cries out Lord I stand in great want of mercy His eyes being thus opened he is no longer a stranger at home but he sees the case is wondrous hard with him so that he concludes unless God be merciful unto me in Christ I am lost and undone for ever This is the first preparative and till we come to it we can never approach the throne of grace The second is 2. Wrought by the Gospel I see I stand in great need but by this second preparative we see a Throne of grace set up and that adds comfort unto me If God had only a throne and seat of Justice I were utterly undone I see my debt is extremely great but the Gospel reveals unto me that God of his infinite mercy hath erected a Throne of grace a City of refuge that finding my self in need my soul may fly unto And now to fit us for this God's blessed Spirit works by his Word to open unto us the rigour and strictness of the Law and our wants to enlighten our understandings that we stand in great need to win our affection and open the Gospel and its comforts Therefore first for the time of need The Law reveals unto us our woful condition to be born in sin as the Pharisee said and yet not
of grace the thing that he doth is he presents unto the Father Christ bleeding gasping dying buried and conquering death and when he presents Christ to him he opens his case and confesses his sin to the full and says Lord this is my case As a beggar when he comes to ask an alms of you he will make a preface and tell you his extremity Sir I am in great want I have nor tasted a bit of bread in so many days and unless you help me by your charity I am utterly undone Now when these two concur that there is true need in the beggar and liberality in him of whom he begs it encourages the beggar to be importunate and he prevails you may know when the beggar hath need by his tone accent or language The needy beggars tone and accent is different from the sturdy beggars that hath no need but yet though the beggar be in great misery if he see a churlish Nabal go by him he hath no heart to beg and follows him not nor begs so hard because he hath but little hope to attain any thing from him But I say let both these meet together first that the beggar is in great need then that he of whom he begs is very liberal it makes him beg hard but now cannot he pray without book Think not that I speak against praying by the book you are deceived if you think so but there must be words taken to us besides which perhaps a book will not yield us A beggars need will make him speak and he will not hide his sores but if he hath any sore more ugly or worse than another he will uncover it good Sir behold my woful and distressed case he lays all open to provoke pity So when thou comest before God in confession canst thou not find out words to open thy self to Almighty God not one word whereby thou mayst unlap thy sores and beseech him to look on thee with an eye of pity I must not mince my sins but amplifie and aggravate them that God may be moved to pardon me till we do thus we cannot expect that God should forgive us A great ado there is about auricular confession but it 's a meer bable It were better to cry out our sins at the high Cross than the confess in a Priests ear Thou whisperest in the Priest's ear what if he never tell it or if he do art thou the better Come and pour out thy heart and soul before Almighty God confess thy self to him as David did for that hath a promise made to it Psal. 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou may be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest Why so Why one main cause why we should confess sin is to justifie God When a sinner confesses I am a child of wrath and of death if thou castest me into hell as justly thou mayst I have received but my due when a man does thus as the King's Attourney may frame a Bill of Inditement against himself he justifies Almighty God He gives God the honour of that justice which at the present he executes in pouring horrour into the conscience of the sinner and hath farther in store in providing the Lake of fire and brimstone for the impenitent Thus did David Against thee against thee c. Now when we have thus aggravated our misery comes the other part of begging to cry for mercy with earnestness and here 's the power of the Spirit It 's one thing for a man to pray and another thing for a man to say a prayer but to pray and cry for mercy as David did in good earnest to wrestle with God to say Lord My life lies in it I will never give thee over I will not go with a denial this is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the work of God's Spirit I named you a place in Jude ver 20. where the Apostle exhorts but ye beloved build up your selves in your most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost there 's the prayer of the faithful to pray in the Holy Ghost And in the Ephesians we read of an Armour provided for all the parts of a man's body yet will not serve the turn unless prayer come in as the chief Ephes. 6.18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance c. This is the prayer of faith that procures forgiveness of sins we must pray in faith and in the Spirit that is the language which God understands He knoweth the meaning of the Spirit and knoweth none else but that Many men are wondrously deceived in that which they call the Spirit of prayer One thinks it is a faculty to set out ones desires in fair words shewing earnestness and speaking much in an extemporary prayer This we think commendable yet this is not the Spirit of prayer One that shall never come to Heaven may be more ready in this than the child of God for it is a matter of skill and exercise the Spirit of prayer is another thing The Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought the Spirit it self makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered Rom. 8.26 What shall we think then that the Holy Ghost groans or speaks in prayer No but it makes us groan and though we speak not a word yet it so enlarges our hearts as that we send up a volley of sighs and groans which reach the Throne of grace And this is the Spirit of prayer when with these sighs and groans I beg as it were for my life This is that ardent affection the Scripture speaks of A cold prayer will never get forgiveness of sins it 's the prayer of faith which prevails The prayer of the people availeth much if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fervent In the Ancient Churches those that were possessed with an evil spirit were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because that caught them up and made them do actions not sutable to their nature Prayer is a fire from Heaven which if thou hast it will carry all Heaven before it there is nothing in the world so strong as a Christian thus praying Prayers that are kindled with such a zeal are compared to Jacobs wrestling with the Angel Hos. 12.4 whereby he had power over the Angel The Prophet expounds what this wrestling was he wept and made supplication unto him he found him in Bethel and there he spake with him This is the wrestling with God when thou fillest Heaven with thy sighs and sobs and bedewest thy couch with thy tears as David did and hast thy resolution with Jacob I will not let thee go except thou bless me God loves this kind of boldness in a beggar that he will not go away without an answer As the poor Widow in the Parable that would not give over her suit
do it for them i.e. though I have done it and intend to do it yet will I do it by the means of prayer Howsoever that God had promised Eliah that rain should come upon the face of the earth yet he goes upon the Mount and saw no shew of a cloud The Text saith not what he did but he put his head between his knees Saint James saith he prayed and â—he opened Heaven and brought down rain It was an humble secret gesture A man may be more free in private than in publick He prayed and the heavens opened God had promised it and would do it but yet he would be sought to So we see the mediate cause is prayer so though the Lord will do this yet for all this he will be enquired of It is not with God as with men men who have promised would be loth to be sued to not to break their promise they account that a dishonour to them but it is not so with God God hath promised yet thou shalt have no benefit of it until thou sue to him for it therefore thou must go to God and say Lord fulfil thy promise to thy servant wherein thou hast caused me to trust God loves to have his bond sued out Lord make good this word perform that good word that thou hast spoken God would have his bond thus sued out And as thy faith repentance prayer is renewed so is thy pardon renewed When God will make a man possess the sins of his youth when a man is careless this way it pleaseth God to awaken him Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the iniquity of my youth Job 13.26 When a man forgetteth the iniquities of his youth and reneweth not his repentance and hath not new acts of faith and petition then God maketh him to possess the iniquities of his youth he makes his sins stand up and cry out against him and by this means his old evidences are obliterated When a man hath a pardon and it 's almost obliterated the letters almost worn out that they cannot be read he would be glad to have it renewed to have a new exemplification Every sin it puts a great blur upon thine old evidences that thou canst not read them They may be firm in Heaven and yet perhaps be so blurr'd that thou canst not read them and therefore if thou wouldst get them clear'd again thou must go to God by prayer and renew them again so that whether our evidences be blur'd or whether it be that God will make us possess the iniquities of our youth it is necessary to pray for the forgiveness of those sins which have been before forgiven But now you will say when I have sinned afterward how come I then to be justified Then a man would think repentance only doth it and without repentance a man cannot be justified But you must understand repentance is not an instrument at all faith only is the instrument faith justifyeth me from sin hereafter as well as before The case is this faith brings lifâ— The righteous shall live by his faith as the Prophet Habakkuk speaks 2.4 What do then new sins do There are two sorts of sins one of ordinary incursion which cannot be avoided these break no friendship betwixt God and us these only weaken our faith and make us worse at ease But there are other sins which waste a mans conscience A man that hath committed murder adultery and lives in covetousness which in the Apostles is Idolatry as long as a man is in this case he cannot exercise the acts of faith we must know faith justifieth not as an habit but as an act applying Christ to the comfort of the soul. Now a wasting sin it stops the passage of faith it cannot act till it be opened by repentance Physicians give instances for it Those that have Apoplexies Epilepsies and the Falling sickness are thought to be dead for the time as it was with Eutichus yet saith Saint Paul his spirit was in him Act. 20.13 Every one thought him dead yet his spirit is in him however in regard of the operation of his senses it did appear he was dead So if thou art a careless man and lookst not to thy watch and to thy guard but art overtaken in some gross and grievous sin thou art taken for dead I say not a man can lose his life that once hath it but yet in the apprehension of others and of himself too he may appear to be dead As in Epilepsies the nerves are hindred by obstructions so sin obstructs the nerves of the soul that there cannot be that life and working till these sins be removed Now what is repentance why it clears the passages that though faith could 〈◊〉 before yet now it gives him dispositions unto it As a man in a 〈◊〉 cannot do the acts of a living man till he be refreshed again so 〈◊〉 its repentance which clears the spirits and makes the life of faith pass throughout Now when repentance clears the passages then faith acts and now there is a new act of faith faith justifies me from my new sins faith at first and at last is that whereby I am justified from my sins which I commit afterwards But this forgiveness of sins what doth it free us from In sin we must consider two things the fault and the punishment Now consider sin as it is in it self and as it respects the sinner as acted by him as respecting the fault of the sinner it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the Law The punishment is death as it respects the sinner it is guilt The sin is not guilt but the guilt the sinners For instance a man that hath told a lye or sworn an oath the act is past but a thing remains which we call the guilt At if a man commit murder or adultery the act is past but yet if he sleep or walk or wake the guilt follows him If he live an hundred years he is a murderer still and an adulterer still the guilt follows him and nothing can take away the murder or adultery from the soul but the blood of Christ applied by faith First God takes away the punishment There is now saith the Apostle no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 what nothing in him worthy condemnation God knows we are worthy of a thousand condemnations There are two Judges there is a double guilt when a man is brought to the bar first the Jury judge the fact and then the Judge that sits on the Bench he judgeth the punishment one saith guilty or not guilty The other saith guilty then he judgeth him Now when we are justified we are freed from both these guilts sin when it is accomplish't it bringeth forth death Jam. 1.15 You know the natural work of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it labours with death now God will stop the acts
from the Scepter of his Kingdome The one is without me the other within me The one receives degrees the other not As a man that is holy may be more holy but imputed righteousness doth not more forgive one man than another Imputation is without augmentation or diminution Those things which have divers contraries cannot be one and the same thing Justification and Sanctification have divers contraries The contrary to justification is condemnation but the contrary to sanctification is wickedness and false dealing c. Aristotle distinguisheth homonymous words and bids you consider their contraries thus you see the difference between these two I should now come and descend unto the dependence one hath on the other i. e. in what respect doth faith justifie Is faith an instrument to work justification or to receive it only The answer is clear it justifieth in regard of the object If you remember the two places I bid you compare Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood is that all compare this place with chap. 5.9 Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him we are justified by his blood and by faith in his blood here are two acts which signifie the same thing It is no more then to say I was cured by the Bath or by going to the Bath so that saith is the legs of the soul that bring a man to Christ. And so my faith is an instrument not to procure my justification but to receive it so then seeing faith is an instrument to receive justification and not to procure it then the weakest faith carrieth away as much forgiveness as the strongest A strong faith rids a great deal of work because it is an active instrument The stronger faith worketh the greater work but in the point of justification it is an instrument whereby my justification is wrought an instrument whereby Christ is received And the weakest hand may receive a piece of gold as well as the strongest we must know that in the point of receiving we live on Gods alms All our justification is his free gift and faith is that Palsie hand which receives all our comfort It is not then a strong faith that justifieth but faith it is called by Peter a like precious faith Simon Peter a servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.1 It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the meanest Christian that hath a trembling hand to pitch on that and draw vertue from him it is a like precious faith in them as in the most great Apostle Peter and all the rest ROM 5.1 Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ c. I Have heretofore declared unto you that in these words and the words following there are set down the great graces and great blessings which you have in Christ in the Kingdom of grace before you come to thâ— Kingdom of glory First here is set down the mother and radical grace of all the rest and that is justification by faith and then followeth the blessed fruit that issueth from thence 1. Peace with God 2. A gracious access into his presence 3. A joyful hope arising from that great glory that we shall enjoy for the time to come 4. In the worst of our troubles and midst of our afflictions this joy is so great that it cannot be abated by any of them yea it is so far from being abated by them that they are as fuel to kindle it We rejoyce in affliction saith the Apostle that which would undo the joy of a carnal man is made the matter of this man's joy Concerning the first of these I shewed you that justification is the ground or foundation of all the rest Being justified by faith that is the root and ground without which there is no fruit no peace no joy no hope much less any kind of rejoycing in tribulation Faith is that which seasoneth all we must first be justified by faith before we have any other comforts for that is the first ground the first rudiment for a Christian in the School of Christ. Therefore I proposed unto you three things for the understanding of it 1. What that faith is that justifieth 2. What that justification is that is obtained by faith 3. What relation the one of these hath to the other Concerning the first of these I shewed you that it is not every faith that justifieth I shewed you that there is a dead faith whereupon the Apostle saith The life that I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.2 A dead thing cannot make a living man it must be and I shewed you how a living faith Again I shewed that bâ—side the true faith there was a temporary faith which is active too and comes near the other It had the operations of the Spirit but it wanted root It had supernatural works but it wanted the new creature There was a conception that was but an abortive kind of birth it came not to maturity not to a full gâ—owth it did not continue And I shewed unto you how a man might discern one of these from the other for herein lieâ—h the wisdom of a Christian not to content himself or be deceived with flâ—shes therefore the Apostle exhorts us â—o prove and try and examine our selves 2 Cor. 13.5 it is an easie matter to be deceived and therefore God's people should be careful to examine themselves to have their senses exercised herein that however others may slight and slubber over the matter they may be careful in it and then they will not only do it themselves but they will crave the aid of God also Prove me O my God c. try me c. Psal. 139.23 Then for the second thing concerning that justification that is obtained by faith I shewed you that the word justification was derived from justice or righteousness and as many ways as justice and righteousness may be taken so many ways may justification be taken Sometimes for justification of righteousness in a man and sometimes it is opposed to condemnation so it is taken in St. Paul and it is taken as an acquital sometimes it isâ— oppose to hypocrisie and pollution in a man's soul so it signifies sanctification whereby God not only covers our sins past but heals our natures The first is perfect but imputed the second inherent but imperfect When the time cometh that God will finish his cure he will then make a perfect cure when final grace cometh we shall not need to think of a Popish Purgatory Death is the Lord's refining pot then there is not a jot of sin shall be left in a Christian. Now when God hath taken away our dross then to think we shall be put in a refining fire that an
mouth First He convinceth the Gentile which was easie to be done after he convinceth the Jew that there is righteousness to be had in another though none in my self He shall convince the world c. As if he should say To be shut up under unbelief is to be convinced of all sins Now consider what is the nature of unbelief it is to fasten all sins upon a man and when I have faith all my sins are put out of possession they are as if they were not but if we are shut up under unbelief we are dead The second work of God's Spirit is the Ministry of the Word He shall convince the world that there is righteousness to be had by a communion with another though we are guilty in our selves yet he will set us free and the reason is because I go to my Father As if he should say though you be convinced of your sins that you are wholly dead in trespasses and sins and have no means in the world to put that away yet notwithstanding the second work of God's Spirit is to convince of righteousness that there is a righteousness to be had in Christ because he was our Surety arrested for debt he was committed to prison where he could not come out till he had paid the utmost farthing There is a justification to be had in me I go to the Creditor I have made no escape not like one that brake the prison and ran away but I am now a free-man I have not made an escape before the debt is paid then I might be brought back again but the debt is discharged and therefore I go to my Father to maintain my plâ—ce and standing I was given unto death for your sins but I am risen again for your justification and I now sit at my Father's right hand this is the second thing But is there not a third thing that the work of the Ministry must do Yes to convince the world that there is judgment or righteousness inherent There is a hard place I shall speak of it it is usual in Scripture to joyn righteousness and judgment together The words of the Lord are righteousness and judgment And the integrity of a man's heart which is opposed to hypocrisie is called judgment as God liveth who hath taken away my judgment Job 27.2 How did God take away his judgment is it meant that he had taken away his wits No but he hath put his heavy hand on me that hath put a conceit in the mind of my friends that I am an hypocrite though to confront the error of his mis-judging friends he was resolved to persist in his integrity vers 8. My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live His judgment was taken away i. e. the opinion they had of his integrity And this will expound another place in Matth. 12.20 A bruised reed shall he not break and smoaking flax shall be not quench until he send forth judgment unto victory What is that until he send forth judgment This judgment signifies nothing but those inherent graces those infused qualities that God sends into the heart of a Christian which being produced in the children of God by the spirit of judgment through which they are eâ—abled to judge what is right and acceptable to God in Christ who is their wisdom are themselves called judgment You read therefore of washing away the filth of the Daughters of Sion and purging the blood of Jerusalem which is the sanctification of the Church by the spirit of judgment Isa. 4.4 In a man's first conversion there are but beginnings of grace what is faith hope patience and fear it is like a smoaking flax i. e. like the smoaking wick of a candle made of flax as when a candle burns in the socket it is now up now down you know not whether it be alive or dead so in the first conversion of a Christian infidelity and faith hope and despair mount up and down There is a conflict in the beginning of conversion but he will not give it over until he bring forth judgment until he get the victory of all opposition from the flesh And what is the reason Because the Prince of this world is judged He shall convince the world of an inherent righteousness in spite of the Devil's teeth because he is condemned He that before worked in the children of disobedience is now cast down The strong man is cast out and therefore upon that ground you have the third point Besides the grace of justification following upon Christ's death there is another the grace I mean of sanctification through which the Devil shall be dispossessed the Devil is strong where he doth wicked things but he shall be disarmed he shall not touch thee the wicked one shall not hurt thee thou shalt overcome him I now go forward The third thing I noted besides faith and justification was Thaâ— we must observe what relation one hath to the other and how it comes to pass that justification is attributed to faith there being more noble graces in us than faith I answer the reason is because faith is brought as the only instrument whereby we receive our justification purchased by the merits of Christ's death When we say faith is an instrument we must understand it right well we say not faith is an instrument to work my justification Christ alone must do that it is no act of ours nothing is in us faith is said to be an instrument whereby we get our justification in respect of the object it is a nearing us to Christ it is the instrument of application the only instrument whereby we apply the medicine and the plaister of Christ's blood whereby we that were strangers and afar off are made near faith is the only hand which receiveth Christ wâ—en the hand layeth hold on a thing it layeth hold on a thing without it self so is faith a naked hand not as a hand that gets a man's living but like a beggar's hand that receives a free alms given by the donor as the Apostle speaks Rom. 5.17 For if by one man's offence death raigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. There is abundance of grace and a gift of righteousness faith is the only means whereby we receive this gift Whereupon I inferred this which was of great consequence seeing faith did justifie not as an active instrument but as it did râ—ceive the gift of grace it did follow that the weakest faith that was did get as much justification as the strongest faith of any whatsoever because faith justifieth not as a work but as it did receive a gift therefore our Saviour saith O ye of little faith Matth. 8.26 yet as little as it was it was builded upon the Rock and though Satan desired to winnow them and fift them as
that very spirit which is in Christ being in us thereby we are united unto him grow in him live in him and he in us rejoyce in him and so are kept and preserved to be glorified with him He is the second Adam from whom we receive the influence of all good things showring down and distilling the graces of his spirit upon the least of all his members That look as it was said of Aaron who was a type of the second Adam and of that holy Oyl representing the graces of his spirit Which did not only run down his head and beard but the skirts of his garment also and all his rich attire about Psal. 133.2 So when I see the Oyl of Christ's graces and spirit not only rest upon the head but also descend and run down upon the lowest of his members making me now as one of them in some sort another man than I was or my natural state could make me by the same spirit I know I am united unto Christ. To this purpose is that which Christ to stands upon in Joh. 6. unto the Jews where speaking of the eating of his flesh and that bread of life which came down from heaven lest they should be mistaken he adds It is the spirit that quickneth the flâ—sh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life So that we see it is the spirit that gives a being to a thing And therefore the Apostle proceeds to shew As many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God Rom. 8.13 That look as Christ is the â—â—ue natural Son of God so we as truly by conveyance of the same spirit into us are his Sons by Adoption and so heirs with God yea and joynt heirs with Christ this he begins to shew vers 13. So that being in this excellent estate they were not only servants and friends a most high Prerogative but they were now the Sons of God having the spirit of Adoption whereby they might boldly call God Father In which Verse the Apostle opposeth the spirit of bondage which doth make a man fear again unto the spirit of Adoption which frees a man from fear Now two things may be observed hence 1. The order the spirit of God keeps e'er it comforts it shakes and makes us fear This the Apostle speaks to Heb. 2.14 where he shews that the end of Christ's coming was That because the children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage The first work then of the comforter is to put a man in fear 2. Here is shewed that until the spirit doth work this fear the heart will not stoop The Obstinacy is great yea so great that if hell gates were open ready to swallow up a man he would not yield until the spirit set in to convince the heart Therefore St. John tells us Joh. 16. That when the spirit it come he will reprove the world of sin that is he will convince and shew a man that he is but a bond-man and so from this sight he makes us to fear No man must think this strange that God deals with men at first after this harsh manner to kill them as it were before he make them alive nor be discouraged as if God had now cast them off as none of his For this bondage and spirit of fear is a work of God's spirit and a preparative to the rest yet it is but a common work of the spirit and such a one that unless more follow it can afford us no comfort But why then doth God suffer his children to be first terrified with this fear I answer That in two respects this is the best and wisest course to deal with us or else many would put off the matter and never attain a sense of mercy First in respect of God's glory Secondly in regard of our good First in respect of God's glory and that first because as in the work of Creation so in the work of Redemption God will have the praise of all his attributes for as in the work of Creation there appeared the infinite wisdom goodness power justice mercy of God and the like so will he in the work of our Redemption have all these appear in their strength and brightness and when we see and acknowledge these things to be in Gâ—d in the highest perfection hereby we honour him as on the contrary when we will not see and acknowledge the excellency of God's infinite attributes we dishonour him yea and I may safely add that the work of Redemption was a greater work than the work of Creation for therein appeared all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge in the conveying of it unto the Church Herein appeared first infinite Wisdom in ordering the matter so as to find out such a way for the Redemption of Mankind as no created understanding could possibly imagine or think of And secondly for the Mercy of God there could be none comparable to this in not sparing his own Son the Son of his Love that so he might spare us who had so grievously provoked him And thirdly there could not be so much Justice seen in any thing as in sparing us not to spare his Son in laying his Son's head as it were upon the block and chopping it off indeed the death unto which he gave his Son was not only more vile than the loss of his head but far more painful and terrible to nature the death on the Cross in renting and tearing that blessed body of his even as the Veil of the temple was rent which was a type of him so was he rent and tore and broke for us when he made his soul an offering for sin This was the perfection of Justice And thus was he just as the Apostle speaks and the Justifyer of him him that believeth in Jesus God would have Justice and Mercy meet and kiss each other and that for two reasons for the magnifying of his Justice and for the magnifying of his Mercy First For the magnifying of his Justice The spirit must first become a spirit of bondage and fear for the magnifying of God's Justice Thus the Prophet David having sinned was driven to this practice Psal. 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest Thus he a holy man was brought to confess his sin to give God the glory of his Justice And so to this end that a man might pass through or by as it were the gates of hell unto heaven the Lord will have his Justice extended to the full for which cause lessening or altogether for a time abstracting all sight of mercy he turns the
Law loose to have its course And thus as in the work of Redemption he would have the height of Justice appear so would he have it appear in the application of our Redemption that Justice should not be swallowed up of Mercy But even as that woman 2 King 4. Who had nothing to pay was threatned by her Creditors to take away her two Sons to put them in prison So though we have nothing to pay the Law is let loose upon us to threaten Imprisonment and Damnation to affright and terrifie us and all for the magnifying of God's Justice which also we satisfie not by what we suffer yet it is meet we should acknowledge and learn thereby more highly to value the suffering of our Saviour But farther God hath set forth many terrible threatnings in his Word against sinners shall all these be to no purpose The wicked they are insensible of them must they therefore be in vain Some people there must be on whom they shall work Shall a Lyon roar saith the Prophet and we not be afraid Amos 3.8 Since then those who should will not some there be who must tremble and those even of God's own dear Children This the Prophet excellently sets forth Isa. 66.2 where the Lord sheweth who he will regard But to this man will I look even to him that is of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word So that you see even some of his own must tremble and be thus humbled of necessity and that it is not without a just cause that God doth deal with his own Children after this manner though it be sharp in the experience We must fear tremble and be humbled and then we shall receive a spirit not to fear again That vain courage which some brag they have so as not to fear Death is not it which is meant here fâ—â— alas such braggers out of ignorance of the thing and desire to be out of misery in this Life may embrace Death unwillingly hoping it may put an end to their sorrows But this spirit not to fear again is such a spirit that assures me of the forgiveness of all my sins shewing me my freedome by Christ Jesus from Hell and eternal Damnation making me live a holy Life and from hence not to fear and so sealing me up unto the day of Redemption as you shall hear more when we come to speak of the witness of the spirit This now is for the glory of Gods Justice Secondly it is requisite that the comforter should first work in men a fear for the glory of Gods mercy which would never be so sweet relish so well nor be so highly esteemed of by us if the awful terrour of Justice had not formerly made us smart As we may see in that parable whereunto our Saviour likeneth the Kingdom of Heaven of the man that owed ten thousand Talents unto the King his master he shews him mercy and forgives him all but what did he first Why first he requires the whole debt of him and because he had nothing to pay he commands him his Wife and Children and all that he had to be sold that payment might be made first he would have him pincht throughly that he might know much he was indebted and in that case how great that favour was which he received in having all that he owed forgiven him Thus a King many times casts men in Prison suffers the sentence of condemnation to pass on them and perhaps orders them to be brought to the place of execution before he pardons them and then mercy is mercy indeed and so God deals with us many times he puts his Children in fear shews them how much they owe him how unable they are to pay casts them into prison and threatens condemnation in Hell for ever after which when mercy comes to the Soul then it appears to be wonderful mercy indeed even the riches of exceeding mercy Why do so many find no savour in the Gospel Is it because there is no sweetness or matter of delight in it No it is because such have had no tast of the Law and of the spirit of bondage they have not smarted nor found a sense of the bitterness of sin nor of that just punishment that is due unto the same Even as the King will suffer the Law to pass on some greivous malefactor for high Treason bring him to the place of Execution and lay his head on the block before a pardon he produced as we have had experience in the Country of a man who otherwise would not cry nor shed a tear for any thing Despising Death and not affraid to meet an host of men Such a one having now at an instant a pardon brought from the King how wonderfully doth it work upon him causing softness of heart and tears to flow from his eyes when nothing else could whilest the wonder of this mercy which now appeareth so sweet and seaâ—onable is beheld and admired he is so struck that he knows not what to say for this cause therefore God shews us first a Spirit of bondage to prepare us to relish mercy and then he gives a Spirit of Adoption not to fear again And thus by this order the one is magnifyed and highly esteemed by the foregoing sense of the other If therefore this terrour and fear be hard and troublesome unto us yet if it be for Gods glory let us endure If he will give me over to a wounded terrified conscience to fears tremblings astonishments yea or to draw me into the fire it self or any other punishment so we see he dealt with his Church of old he brought her through the fire and water before she came into a wealthy place Psal. 66.12 Since it is for his glory I must be contended But what do I say He gets nothing by us of all that we do all is for our selves our Acknowledgments of him make him no stronger wiser juster or better then he is but in glorifying of him we do glorify our selves and so pass from glory to glory until we come to be fully transformed into his Image And herein consists our happiness in acknowledging of his wonderful Attributes that by the reflex and knowledge of them we grow up in them as much as may be God was as glorious powerful wise just happy and good before the World was made as now and if the case be put concerning glorifying of him the three persons of the Trinity were only fit and worthy of so great honour not we as we may read Prov. 8.30 There wisdom shews how it was with the Father before all time and that they did mutually solace themselves in the contemplations of one anothers glory Then says Wisdom Was I by him as one brought up with him and I was dayly his Delight rejoycing always before him and in 17 John There we read the same thing in effect where Christ prays And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the
of it that it shall not do that which it is apt to do which is as good as if the sin were taken away when there were wild gourds sliced into the pot 2 Kings 4.31 it 's said the Prophet took that venemous herb away i. e. though the thing were there yet it is as if it were not there it shall do no manner of hurt Bring now and pour out and there was no evil thing So in respect of us though there be an evil thing in punishment and what if we had our due would bring condemnation yet when we are sprinkled with the blood of Christ it can do us no evil no hurt it 's said in the Scripture that the stars fell from heaven why the stars are of that bigness that they cannot fall from heaven to the earth but they are said to fall when they give not their light and do not that for which they were put there so though I have committed sin yet when God is pleased for Christs sake to pardon it it is as if it were not there at all This is a great matter but I tell you there is more we are not only freed from the guilt of the punishment but which is higher we are freed from the guilt of the fact I am now no more a murderer no more a lyar when I have received a pardon from the blood of Christ he frees me from that charge the world is changed with me now Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Rom. 8.33 If the Devil lay any thing to thee thou mayst deny it Such a one I was but I am justified but I am sanctified 1 Cor. 6.11 A man hath committed High Treason against the King and the King gives him a pardon for the Treason if I call him a Traytor he can have no remedy against me for he is one the pardon takes not away the guilt But iâ— his blood be restored unto him by Act of Parliament then if I shall call him Traytor he may have remedy against me because he is restored fully and is not lyable to that disgrace This is our case though our sins be as red as scarlet yet the die shall be changed Isa. 1.18 It shall be so bloody Thou hast the grace of justification and this doth not only clear thee from the punishment but from the fault it self See in Jer. 50.20 The place is worth Gold In those dayes and in that time saith the Lord â—he iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found For I will pardon them whom I reserve What is the matter What a sinful man and no sin What then there is search made for sin in such a man shall it not be found You will say this is meant of the grace of sanctification no I will pardon them that pardoning of sin makes the sin not to be found What a wonderful comfort is this When I shall come at the day of judgment and have the benefit of my justification the last absolution such sins shall not be charged on me my sins and iniquities shall not be remembred I will remember their sins no more saith God it is a wonderful thing and a strange mistake in many men especially the Papists Did they ever write comfortably of the day of judgment Never they make that a terrible day Alas poor souls they knew not that justification is that that makes sins that they shall never be remembred Mark it is said Thou shalt hear of all thy good deeds for thy honour and thy praise but for thy sins there shall search be made and they shall not be found when God forgives sins he doth it fully it shall never be cast in thy teeth again but thou shalt hear of all thy good deeds not of thy bad Then lift up your heads for your redemption draweth near Luk. 21.28 here is the blessed grace of justification that we being justified by faith have not only no condemnation but no guilt whereas all the sins of the wicked man shall be set before his face and he shall stand quaking and trembling by reason thereof not one good thing that he hath done shall be remembred but in the iniquity that he hath committed in that shall he dye Ezek. 18.24 and so I have said somewhat of that point You may remember that I said a word perhaps that some think much of that the question betwixt us and Rome is not Whether we be justified by faith or no But Whether we be justified at all I will make it good There are two graces righteousness imputed which implies forgiveness of sins and righteousness inherent which is the grace of sanctification begun They utterly deny that there is any righteousness but righteousness inherent They say forgiveness of sins is nothing but sanctification A new doctrine never heard of in the Church of God till those last dayes till the spawn of the Jesuites devised it Forgiveness of sin is this that God will never charge me with it again They say that forgiveness of sin is an abolishing of sin in the subject where is true remission as much as to say There is no justification distinct from sanctification whereas the Apostle distinguisheth them when as he saith The Son of God is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.28 He is made unto us of God By the way let me expound it unto you Christ hath three offices A Prophetical Regal and Sacerdotical office He exerciseth his Prophetical office to illuminate our understanding He exerciseth his Kingly office to work on our will and affections there are two branches of it the Kingdome of grace and the Kingdom of glory How am I made partaker of Christs Prophetical office He is made unto me wisdome before I was a fool but now by it I am made wise First he enlightens me and so he is made unto me wisdome well he is my Priest how so He is made an expiation for my sin he is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Saint John A propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the world There is a difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a barâ— pardon but this is such a propitiation as the party offended is well pleased with Christ being made a ransome he is made unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the oblation offered unto his Father He is righteousness imputed to us And as a King he rules me in the Kingdom of grace and in the Kingdome of glory in the Kingdom of grace he is made unto me sanctification and in the Kingdom of glory he is made unto me redemption it is called by the Apostle the redemption of our bodies these two are thus clearly distinguished The work of Christs Priestly office is to be a propitiation for our sins sanctification proceeds