Woe to the persons that use the Talents God hath given them to such a wicked purpose and serve the Devil so openly in the world and that are imployed as his Agents not only to destroy themselves but to pervert and destroy the Souls of others with whom they have any fellowship I would not be in the condition of those that go down to the Grave with the guilt of such a sin on them for all the World If as the Apostle tells us He that converteâ—h a sinner from the evil of his waâ— shall save his Soul from death and hide 〈◊〉 of sins James 5.23 What reward shall be given unto thee thou false tongue Psal 120.3 that studiest to convert a sinner to the errour of thy ways and to bring his soul to death what shall be done unto thee that dost in plain terms or else by cunning Fetches endeavour to discourage thy brother from prayer meditation in the word of God and consideration of the life to come If you have any belief of the life to come and compassion for your souls avoid the company of such persons as much as you can and stopt your ears to such discourses or rather openly declaim against them and rebuke the persons roundly that are such enemies to the salvation of mens souls and consequently to all the means that should promote and bring it to pass amongst which Consideration is none of the least Fourthly see that you carefully shun too much occupation in worldly affairs If your thoughts be much entangled with the matters of the world they will be very unfit for the consideration of such weighty serious things which you must think upon till you are affected with them more than all other matters that meerly concern this life or else wish that God had never given you a thinking faculty Be still and know that I am God so we render it Psal 46.10 But in the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Desist from and remit your other imployments and consider that I am God For the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hiph signifies Desistere Absistere Remittere 1. To desist to leave off or remit If worldly matters be too busie in your heads spiritual and eternal things cannot be considered nor thought upon as they ought You may as well walk upright with a Mountain on your backs as erect your thoughts Heaven-ward whilst they are incumbred with the world Though slight and trivial business may be transacted in a Croud yet when we have matters of weight and moment we then chuse silence and retâ—â—â—ment Let me tell you there 's nothing of such consequence as those things that are to fall under our consideration And do you think a mind distract with worldly cares is fit for such a work as this It is not easie to be affected with the eye of God that 's ever on us and to stand always in awe of him unless frequent serious consideration make way And who can do that that hath one worldly business or another perpetually in his mind And is even burthened and oppressed with such thoughts As the eye of the body is disturbed by the violent motion of the Wind or Air so the eye of the understanding is more perturbed by busie confused and tumultuous thoughts And although they that have their heads continually exercised and imployed in worldly business are very subject to such confusion and disorder yet even those also that have not their hands very much imployed may have their hearts in continual disturbance and agitation and may have as little vacancy and leisure for such consideration as those that are over head and ears in the World and are as busie all the day long as if they were labouring for a Crown or Kingdom It is an unvaluable mercy to have a free composed and undisturbed mind and to have vacancy and leisure to ask a mans self what he is doing and whether it will yield him comfort when he is passing out of the World Many have bitterly repented them that they have had so many Irons in the Fire and that with Martha they have been careful and solicitous for many things whilst they have neglected the one thing necessary Luke 10.41 Let their Repentance be a warning unto us that the oppressing cares of the world do not either prevent or else smother and choke better thoughts Fifthly Another grand obstruction to the work of necessary consideration is pride in all the kinds thereof As God deals with pride so pride deals with him He looks upon the proud and the proud look upon him afar off or rather he regardeth them not at all nor they him The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not consider and seek after God God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 His wayes are alwayes grievous to him They are far above out of his sight Vers 5. Though the proud man looketh too high yet not high enough you see to take God into his consideration who should be the principal object of it There is none that standeth at a greater distance from God both Actively and Passively by way of sin and punishment than the proud person Though the heart that 's lifted up with pride beareth it self so high yet not high enough for such a work as consideration is that is to be exercised in the highest matters It 's true both pride and consideration are of an aspiring nature and yet you can scarce name two things that are more inconsistent The one seeks the vanishing breath and applause of men The other is ambitious of God's approbation The one reacheth after the pomp and glory of the Earth and the other foares after the riches and glory of Heaven And as pride lifteth up the flesh so consideration doth enable and advance the Spirit Now he that is gotten up to the Top of wordly pride and greatness is far more indisposed to consider the high Attributes of God and his glorious perfections and the life to come and the joys of Heaven than he that is cast down and humbled by worldly poverty and shame he hath a better prospect into the Heavenly Kingdom and Glory and seeth more of the Majesty of God and the splendour and dignity of his Servants that is placed low in the world than he that is got upon a Pinnacle or stands upon the Mountain of worldly honour and felicity There is no man that is the least acquainted with the 〈◊〉 of God but will easily confess that an 〈…〉 lowly spirit hath more clear distinct affecting apprehensions of the highest things than the proudest and most 〈◊〉 spirit Men think to advance themselves to honour by such a spirit as this but it 's certainly true that nothing doth more debase them so true is it thâ—â— Solomon â—ffiâ—â—meth that the wicke worâ—â—â—th a deceifed work Râ—oâ—â— 11.18 As pride is an enâ—my to all grace whatsoever so it is a deadly enemy to consideration for there 's nothing
2 Tim. 3.16 and shew how by Doctrine Reproof Correction and Instruction in Righteousness all the visible Creatures would help on this Remembrance of God and therefore forgetfulness of God hath the greater sin by how much it prevailes against the greater means vouchsafed by God for its cure But least that way shâ—uld not seem so intelligible and convincing I shall chuse rather to nominate four other ways whereby the several Creatures do provoke man to have God highest in their Remembrance 1. They all offer themselves to his sight and by that to his understanding to inform him in the glorious Perfections of God which they palpably discover and therefore are very serviceable in the work of Contemplation No one so sottish as to imagine they could make themselves then they must be made by another that 's God but such infinite variety and such rare and excellent works must suppose and therefore put any one that thinks on them in mind of infinite Wisdom and Skill infinite Goodness and Power in the creating of them 2. They serve for his Food and Rayment and are the means to keep him alive that could not live a day without them Let him that thinks he is least of all beholding to the Creatures consider whether he could live an hour without the Air he sucks in or how many days he could live without Food which one Creature or another serves in every day and then let him think who hath made and doth supply every Creature to him and forget God if he can 3. They serve for his other necessary uses in great delightful variety The Horse to fetch in and carry out both himself and other things and to remove his Luggage from place to place The Wood and Stones to build his Habitation and the Art and Workmanship of Man to adorn it the Dog to keep it and all things conspire together to make him as happy as he can be in the absence of God even a Lord on Earth because God hath appointed him so to be and hath he not yet enough to advance his great Benefactor in his Heart 4. They serve also for his Recreation and sober Pleasure and Refreshment when he hath been tired by his more serious Employments and yet to forget God whose Praise and Service these Creatures do so constantly bespeak by their so beneficial service to us All these steps lead up the sin to a higher guilt In a word to have all the Senses assaulted by the several Objects that God hath furnished to them The Eye to be fed with so many delightful sights of several things The Ear with such various Harmony and Sound The Taste with so many distinct and grateful Relishes of things which the wisdom of the Creator hath provided and offered to that Sense And the Objects of the other Senses are multiplied to as great a variety And is it not monstrous for the mind of man to have so many Monitors and yet to forget God in despight of all 3. Thirdly He hath moreover given us his Son that we might not want an Argument of the greatest force to provoke a remembrance of him When we were like to withstand all other Arguments and to lose the sense of all his other mercies towards us and to perish in a wicked oblivion and forgetfulness of God for ever He hath taken such a course that one would think should create a memory of him where there was none at all of him before and should recover those that are the most desperately gone in forgetfulness and force them to say that the love of Christ constraineth them 2 Cor. 5.14 Would not a Malefactor that 's sentenced and condemned to die take it for a favour indeed and place that man high in his Remembrance that should step between him and death and release him with the loss of his own life especially if he were a Person of Honour and Degree And doth it not deserve a Remembrance not a Customary but a substantial Remembrance when the highest and most honourable Person that ever lived in the World hath laid down his life in the room of ours Sure we think we are not so beholding to him as we are when such an obligation as this wiâ—l prevail no more to exalt God in our Hearts If this be not an obligation that doth inforce a gracious Remembrance now I am sure it is such a one that will enforce a tormenting Remembrance hereafter When the thought of such a mercy so wickedly slighted shall be a raging fire in their Bowels and then they shall not be able to forget it What 's the matter that such a motive is put off and not regarded by too many I am sure there 's nothing but flat downright wickedness can make a man so sleepy and forgetful If such a Breath as this will not kindle the love of God in our Hearts if such a spur will not prick us forward to the duty of Remembrance It 's not because we want Arguments but because we want Grace and how we should want Grace if we were apprehensive of the mercy would be very difficult to resolve and how we should not be apprehensive if we did but think frequently of it would be as impossible to determine So that you see the wickedness of this sin is ultimatly resolved into not thinking or bending our selves to think what we have received Well we are left to take our choice the death of Christ will either oblige us to the duty of Remembrance or aggravate the sin of forgetfulness Lastly We have the Spirit Word and all the Ordinances of God to beget and cherish this Remembrance of God I joyn all these together because I would not multiply particulars too much Obj. But you may say Though the Death of Christ and the Gift of the Spirit are Arguments of great strength and may do good service to quicken up a Believer that 's backward to this work yet how can they compel a wicked man or one that forgets God since Christ died for none but the Elect and none can know themselves to be such but such as have true Faith and know they have it and so also for the Spirit and therefore these Arguments are cogent to none but such as these Answer That Christ gave himself intentionally for all men and that God accepted his Sacrifice to that universal end is so plain in Scripture that scarce any truth is plainer 1 Tim. 2.6 Who gave himself a ransom for all 1 John 2.2 And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole World But because some evade those places by distinguishing of All and World that All is sometimes taken for some and World for part of the World As if the Apostle fore-saw such Quirks and meant to stop every Mouth his words are not liable to evasion Heb. 2.9 That he by the Grace of God should taste of Death for every Man And to make mention
they cannot want instruction if they will go for it to almost every Church about them or to their knowing Neighbours and desire to be instructed It 's one of these two or both that undoes all the World uncatechised Head and an unmortified Heart He that hath an honest Heart and a willing Mind cannot want the knowledge that is necessary to Salvation and wo to them that want this knowledge for the Lord Jesus shall shortly be revealed from Heaven in flaming Fire to take Vengeance on all that know not God Shun Ignorance therefore for he that knows not God cannot Remember him Thirdly Flee Inconsideracy for next to Ignorance this is the great impediment to this Remembrance and your own Happiness Wherefore hath God given thee a Faculty to consider and bestowed Reason on thee Wherefore hath he set his Word and Works before thee Doth he not mean to draw forth thy thoughts thereby that thou mayst consider and reap the benefit and give God the Glory The most concerning weighty truth will do no good and never affect thy Heart unless they be considered Though you know and believe that God is the Spring-head from whence all your Mercies come and that he hath redeemed you by his Son and offereth to save you by his Spirit and Word if you will but come unto Christ by Faith yet if you consider not these things no wonder if you make light of Christ no wonder if you trample his Blood under your Feet and go your â—way one to his Farm another to his Merchandize and take the happiness the World will afford you though it be at the Plow and Cart in rising early and sitting up late and in the hardest Toyl and Labour rather than believe in the Son of God or spend an hour in Prayer or reading the Word of God that you may Remember him that hath made all things and to whom all the World is but a shadow Though you believe that the wicked shall be turned into Hell and all that forget God and that all that die in impenitency shall be sentenced to the Eternal Flames yet if you shut these thoughts out of your minds and will not consider them what wonder if you live as if there were no such things What though you believe that the hour is coming in which all that are in the Grave shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of Life John 5.28 29. yet if you consider not what God hath prepared for them that love him no wonder if you be weary and faint in the way Consideration openeth the Eye and softneth the Heart and maketh you feel the force and power of truth If you shut your Eyes by inconsideration the most taking Objects will never move you and the most fearful sight will never fright you Though it is impossible to perswade a Man whose Eyes are open to run into the Fire or Water or throw himself down a Precipice yet going on and shuts his Eyes will not long escape one mischief or another you will go with the Ox to the slaughter and with the Fool to the correction of the Stocks if you consider not that it is for your Life O how many are now roaring in the unquenchable Fire that would never have come there if they had but considered O how many forget God and their own Souls day after day that would not that could not do so if they did but seriously consider What madness hath filled the Heart of Man that he should be backward to nothing more than to consider whilst it may do him good and when every thought will cut his Heart he will follow the work close and do nothing else but reflect upon and bewail his misery As consideration if it be timely followed and wisely managed is the best and usual instrument on mans part to bring a foolish careless senseless sinner to his wits again So Consideration when it is too late is the greatest instrument to put him quite out of his Wits and to fill his Heart with raging down-right madness for ever You will not be perswaded to consider now what you are doing and whither you are going and why God hath made you and given you life and time but mark what a Prophet tells you that cannot be deceived 〈…〉 In the latter days you shall consider it perfectly and no tongue shall be able to perswade you to the contrary As corrupt Nature is backward to nothing more than consideration whilst the day of mercy lasteth so he is prone to nothing more after this day is past and gone and as he will not consider now so he shall not then avoid it Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed 〈…〉 If you would therefore Remember God to your comfort and not to your terror shun Inconsideracy and fill your Hearts with matter from the daily observation of Gods Word and Works to feed your consideration I might insist more largely upon the hindrances and shew you what impediments 1. Pride 2. Discontent 3. and Worldliness are to this Remembrance but I wave them and proceed to the positive Directions First If you would get a comforting worthy Remembrance of God into your Heart then get your Heart deeply affected with the mischief that sin hath done you and the love and compassion that Christ hath shewed to you If you understand not what God made you at the first and for what an honourable high and noble end and how much your Nature is distorted and though you could not help it that you took such a perverse Nature from your Parents yet you have too much given your Actual Consent in that you have not bewailed and lamented your case in any considerable measure to this day If you know not what ever sin deserveth nor see so much evil in it as that it should deserve the penalty that God hath threatned nor consider what number of sins you have been guilty of and to what a degree of guilt they have been aggravated by you and what a necessity there was that you should perish everlastingly unless God should deny himself which the Apostle tells us he cannot do â— Tim. 2.13 and suffer his Justice Wisdom and Holiness to lie under disgrace and reproach if Christ had not undergone the wrath of God and so stop'd the mouth of Justice vindicated the Law of God made Transgression odious and ingag'd to bring the sinners to Repentance that should partake of the Fruits of his Death and to humble them in the sense of their former wickedness and to restore the Image of God in them again and to bring them to the love of his service again which before their Repentance and Conversion they do naturally hate and abhor If you do not understand what Christ hath done for you already and what he will do by his Spirit to the changing of your Hearts If
pine away thy self from day to day with earnest desires and endeavours after it Thou wert made for God and thy Soul will be restless till it return to him Consideration would convince thee that thus it is think then more frequently what is that work thou wert made for Thirdly The next thing worth your most serious Consideration is how well you have answered the end of your Creation You see what a wise just holy and impartial God you have to do with and that you are his Creatures and wherefore he hath made you and endued you with such Faculties and given you such various helps and encouragements Now consider how well you have used them how you have improved your several Talents and served your Maker and kept the Statutes and Judgments he hath given you Have you had your heart in Heaven or in Earth ever since you came hither Have you lived to God or without God in the world Have you lived in the love and praises of your Maker and in perfect obedience to his Laws or have you not rather extinguished all love of God in your hearts and violated all his righteous Laws and preferred the wisdom of the Flesh before the wisdom of the Spirit and set your selves to oppose his Government Though it may be you have not sinned against him on set purpose and directly opposed him yet have you not neglected to consult his will and when you have known your duty in many particulars have you not refused to obey Let your own Consciences be the Judge Have you kept the fear of God always before your eyes Hath no corrupt communication proceeded out of your mouth Have no idle blasphemous wicked thoughts crept into your hearts Have you been just and righteous in all your dealings towards God and Men Have you stood up for the honour of God against all his Enemies and faithfully reproved Sin and done all your works with respect to Gods glory or have you not overlooked that and minded your own worldly interest and cherished revengeful proud ambitious thoughts in your own hearts and countenanced Sin in others at least have you not been silent when Gods Name hath been lightly used in every trivial matter and his Sabbaths profan'd and his Word derided There 's none of us but must confess we have neglected this great work too much at the best how much more at the worst Our Hereditary Corruption was enough to make us odious in the pure Eyes of God for ever what then shall we plead for our Actual Sins which are multiplied to such a number that we cannot reckon them up So that there is no man that is not liable to the Wrath of God and the Condemning Sentence of his Law Consider whether you have not been treasuring up Wrath all your days and destroying your selves and preferring Dung and Dross before him Did he make thee to affront and dishonour him and prefer a trifle before him Did he make thee to scrape after the world to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Bethink thy self and consider whether thou hast discharged thy Duty and answered the Ends of thy Creation and done all to the glory of God and you will see Cause enough to abhor your self Fourthly Being thus obnoxious to Gods displeasure and liable to Death and Condemnation consider in the fourth place whether you are sensible of your Sin and Misery and whether you have accepted the grace which the Gospel offers to you There 's no remedy but you must perish for ever and have the Judgment of Everlasting Condemnation if Consideration do not bring you to Repentance and wound your hearts with the bitter sense and feeling of your Sin O consider that it was the mere mercy of God that any such terms were offered to you he might have left you as he did the fallen Angels and therefore if now you shall slight a pardon and refuse to lay your sin to heart and to be humbled and broken for it and to come to Christ with a loving and thankful heart that he would cleanse and purifie you by his Word and Spirit your case condition will be the more doleful your Judgment at the Great Day will be more Intolerable I know you have verbally Renounced the World the Devil and the Flesh in your Baptismal promise but have you Really and Unfeignedly Renounced them in heart and life Are you Convinced that nothing can wash away the stain of any the least of your Sins but the Blood of Christ much less wipe away the Sins of your whole Life Have you throughly considered the necessity of his Blood to procure your Pardon the necessity of his Spirit to Sanctifie you And that there is no Name under Heaven by which you can be saved but his but if you be such that loath your selves for all former Sins and are weary of a corrupt and sinful Nature and Christ be the chiefest among ten Thousand to your Soul then though you have so much crossed the end of your Creation and committed so much Sin it shall not be charged on you the Blood of Christ will certainly cleanse you from all your Sin If this faith be not yet wrought in you consideration must open and soften your Heart and make way for it If you did but frequently consider what priviledges they are forthwith admitted to that do believe and what a fearful looking for of Judgment there remaineth for unbelievers you would hasten to make your escape from the Stormy Wind and Tempest Suppose that some Mortal distemper had seized on you and this will certainly be your case ere long do but a little consider what the priviledges of a believer will be worth to you then how sweet the promise of forgiveness by Christ will be to your tast Yea sweeter than the Honey to your throat Psal 119.103 Do but let your thoughts run upon this Subject and tell you How happy you would count your self if you were united to Christ and a true member of his body reconciled to God and pardoned adopted into his family and received into his especial protection what would you give then to be acquitted from all your former sins to have the sting of Death pull'd out to land safe at your desired Harbour to dye in the Lord and to have a Convoy of blessed Angels to carry your soul to endless Joy say what you would give then to be secured from the sensible sears of Hell and Death and to lie down in the Grave in Peace and Safety and to have nothing then to make you afraid Why if you are a Penitent Believer and belong to Christ there will be comfort for you in the Hour when all the World shall signifie nothing to you Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil Prov. 1.33 When natural strength will be sure to fail you and your Soul is going out from your Body where it hath so long dwelt
put us beyond all hope And shall this trouble us no more Well might our Saviour bid the Daughters of Jerusalem not to weep for him but for themselves and for their sins Luke 23.28 They had some womanish Tears to command when they saw him led away to Execution but might have shed them far more acceptably for their sins whereby they had brought such a horrid thing to pass It 's a lamentable sight to see Men endued with reason to ring their hands and weep for almost nothing and to be cruelly hard-hearted when they have the greatest cause to weep What a vast difference is there between a little bodily suffering and the intolerable pains of thy Soul between a little Scratch in thy Flesh and the Wounds of thy Spirit A wounded Spirit who can bear saith Solomon Prov. 18.14 Shewing by this Question the incomparable difference between all external griefs and those which are internal and seated in the Spirit What a wide difference is there between the loss of some temporal finite good and the loss of that which is infinite and eternal Thou mayest repair the one but thou canst never repair the other It 's far more tolerable to be scorned by Men than to be contemned by God To be fâ—ighted by thy Friends and Acquaintance when thou art in misery and distress and doest expect some pity and relief from them than that God should laugh at thy Calamity and mock when thy Fear cometh And yet in such like cases as these we want no sorrow but have Tears and Sighs and bitter Expostulations at command O Sirs stop your Tears cease your Complaints forbear your Sighs when it is but the Flesh or outward Man that is concerned Keep these in store for your outward sins which far better deserve them and do you a thousand times more wrong Noli tristari nisi quam male feceris Keep them in store for a time of greater Necessity The Sorrow of the World worketh Death 2 Cor. 7.10 These Tears give your Heart no ease but rather make way for greater sorrow The time is coming when you will wish you could have â—â—â—ghted all other Evils but that of sin Fifthly Consider This is one great End for which Christ shed his Blood and suffered the shameful Death upon the Cross that he might bring Sinners to Repentance He knew they could never be happy till they should get a true sight of the Sin and Misery and till their Hearts were throughly broken for their Transgressions And that they must part with their Corruptions or part with God Being therefore moved with wonderful pity and compassion towards them and loth that they should go on and perish in their Rebellion against God hath undertook to bring them to Repentance If the work could have been done by him alone it would have been a matter of far less difficulty to effect and bring to pass But he well knew before he began to make the least attempt that it was a far easier task to shed his blood and satisfie for his sins pass'd than to bring us to future obedience If it had been only to lay down his Life for us so great was his compassion to us that he could easily have parted with it But this was not all no nor the one half He had a worse work to do the stubborn rebellious Heart of Man to change and to renew He must be brought to see and confess and renounce his sins and come again and submit himself to his Maker whom he had provoked or else his Blood would be spilt in vain O my Brethren this was a work indeed and sets forth the wonderful amazing Love of our Redeemer that he would undertake such a Task as this If he had had no more to do but to fulfil the Law of God in his own Person and our Nature and to have fought with the Devil and Death and to have laid down his Life for us he could have conquered these with a far less power than he could have conquered the rebellious untructable Hearts of sinners It was much easier for him to have confounded all the Powers of Hâ—ll and Darkness than to break in pieces a stoâ—â— sensless Heart and to bring a sinner to Repentance and Reformation But yet he hath undertook the work notwithstanding And what course doth he tâ—ke to mollifie a flinty Heart and to make a sensless sinner feel the odiousness of his sin and to bend such a perverse and obstinate will as ours is Why he undergoes the most horrible Sufferings that the Ear of Man ever heard of And then he causeth the History of them to be written and set before us And withal doth most affectionately beseech us by all these sufferings to consider the Folly of our former Ways â—â—d to lay them to heart till we begin to yield and acknowledge our sins and are stedfastly resolued to follow his Directions and depend upon 〈◊〉 Assistance till we can perfectly overcome our Corruptions and serve the Lord that made us with singleness and sincerity of heart for the suâ—â—â—â— To this 〈◊〉 he sets up an Office on purpose to 〈◊〉 us in remembrance of the bitter Pangs and Sorrows that he hath undergone for us And he both commanded this to be Preached publickly 〈◊〉 the World He hath moreover instituted the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to represent 〈◊〉 â—â—e his Sufferings to us To tell us what Poverty land Shame he hath endured what malicious Usage from the Jews how he was wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities and how the chastisement of our peace was upon him that through his stripes we might be healed Isa 53.5 How the Lord laid on him the Iniquities of us all vers 6. How he was made sin for us that knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God through him 2 Cor. 5.21 How he trod the Wine-press of his Father's wrath Isa 63.3 and drunk off the dregs of the bitter cup of his displeasure and swet drops of Blood while he was conflicting with the Terrours of God's wrath And is not that Man a block indeed that cannot be moved with such Rhetorick as this is Is that Man fit to be pardoned or to find any Mercy at God's hands that stoppeth his Ears to one that hath thus befriended him when he is pleading with him to make his Heart give and relent for all his former sins It 's certain that Mans case is desperate that will not yield to such an Argument as this is But alas sad and woful experience tells us how many Thousand slight it and are no more moved with the real story of Christ's Passion than with a Romance or Fable no nor many I fear half so much O how must this needs Crucifie our Lord afresh to see his love and tender compassion so much slighted and his Blood trampled under feet O wretched unworthy sinner Canst thou find in thy heart to run the bloody Spear and to strike
and Folly and darest not publish thy Levity Shame or Wickedness unto holy and discerning Men Nay it may be not to Men as wicked as thy self Such a reproach is folly vanity and wickedness unto any man Yea Why dost thou retire into thy own heart as if thou wouldst lock all up and make all sure and there exercise thy self in Pride Envy Self-conceit Uncleanness and act these sins with confidence and security in the darkness of thy heart which if another like thy self did but see thou wouldst not know where to hide thy self for shame And yet because all hath been transacted with so much silence and secrecy thou hast no disposition to blush or be ashamed but like the Whore in the Prov. Thou eatest and wipest thy mouth and say'st What shame have I done And dost thou think there is no witness of thy shameful wicked acts No Eye to take notice Better all the World had seen thee than he that stands but for a cypher to thy deluded forgetful Heart I might here run over all the Attributes of God both Essential Subsistential and Relative and oppress your Memory with particulars But having given these instances I leave the rest to your Meditations Yet before I leave this head and proceed to the second I shall add thus much of the Attributes of God in general 5. They may be said to forget them all at once that forget themselves and live not under a sense of their great necessities nor think considerately and perswade themselves day by day that they are poor and miserable and blind and naked Rev. 3.17 They that are rich in their own apprehensions and increased in Goods and have need of nothing must needs be stout and insolent and cannot escape this sin of Forgetfulness Jesurun that is Israel waxed fat and kicked against God Deut. 32.15 and they never remembred him to the purpose till they themselves by consideration or God by his Judgments did inforce a sense of their necessities on them When he slew them then they sought him and they returned and inquired early after God And they remembred that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer which before they forgot Psa 78.34 35. And yet so soon as ever they were out of streights and warm in Prosperity and thought they had no need they forgot God again They remembred not his hand nor the day when he delivered them from the Enemy ver 42. That man must needs send up cold and careless Prayers to God day by day that feels none or but little need of God How can be confess with a broken heart the sins that never come near his heart nor were a burthen to him How can that man magnifie or seek the Grace of God every day that doth not verily think he needs it every day How can he worthily admire his Redeemer who hath loved him and washed his Soul in his Blood that feels not his own Guilt and doth not frequently renew loathing and abhorring thoughts of it How can he lift up his Heart to the Father of Lights for the Spirit of Illumination that doth not sufficiently apprehend and bewail his own Ignorance and the darkness of his uncertain mind How can he rejoyce in the hopes of the Glory of God that foolishly adores and cheat himself with the Glory of this World The day of Deliverance and full Redemption will never be a pleasant Meditation unto him that feels not himself oppressed with his sins and is as heartily weary of that Burthen as he is of Sickness when it afflicts his Body Never think to meditate on Gods Justice with any Savour or Delight unless you bend your thoughts to consider the mischiefs of Injustice and how particular Families and Nations yea and the whole World are perverted and disturbed with Iniquity Thou wilt never apply thy Heart to God for Wisdom to live well unless thou remember thy latter end and what hast the comforts of this World make to get away from thee Can he live above in his thoughts with any content and satisfaction that doth not die daily and not often think with some seriousness that he may daily die It 's wisdom therefore to give entertainment to such thoughts How many have shut their Eyes in a healthful Sleep who have waked in another World We give too large scope to our account while we reckon seven years for a Life when we see so many dispatch'd within the Circle and Revolution of half that time and though we are such a blast our selves yet our comforts are oftentimes dead and buried before us and leave us the surviving Executors of our own misery When God hath put all things here below into the Bill of Mortality what a foolish thought is it to think that this or that shall escape which we have set our hearts upon and how sinful to take the Bill and write down this or that or the other when God hath condemned no less than all If thou forget these things God would be forgotten and one or two slight thoughts of these things will never excuse from forgetfulness These are the first sort of Men that forget God 2. Secondly They forget God that either forget or think but little on his sacred and most venerable Word when they have it continually before them I will not go about now to describe the woful state and condition of that Man that hath the Word so much in his Eyes yea in his Ears and not in his Heart and therefore cannot remember it in any saving degree or measure nor torment such a one before his time neither can I tell him the nature and danger of his Sin so well as Death or Judgment will be sure to tell him It must needs be a staring affrighting Sin when Conscience shall come to see it throughly that God hath written to us the Great things of his Law and we have counted them as a common thing Hosea 8.12 It 's in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Amplitudines or Honorabilia legis and they counted them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a strange thing i. They made themselves strange to them or these things were strange to them and seldom in their Thoughts This is a wicked requital of such a strange and wonderful Love More particularly They forget the Word of God 1. That have not a high and transcendent Reverence of the Authority thereof 2. They that are not in any considerable measure affected with the important matters which it sets before them 3. That are not awakened by any serious thoughts of the most certain and near accomplishment of all that is either threatned or promised therein I say again They that are not awed by its Authority nor moved with its Importance nor rouzed by its certainty 1. To yield hearty Subjection unto Christ 2. To his Laws 3. And by a deliberate Resolution to renounce either self or whatsoever doth oppose them will never escape this guilt but be numbred
Sabbath-breaking careless performance of his Service and Worship Selfishness Inordinate love of and Adulterous Affections to any Creature and hiding Pride from Man and turning our Eyes from a fond Admiration of Creatures and laying them in the dust They will not endure it but fret and murmur in their hearts and are ready to say as the Rebellious Followers of Korah did to Moses Wilt thou put out these Eyes of ours We will not come down we will not deny our selves nor be crossed in our wills nor leave our shame When God is putting the Bridle into their Mouths and laying a Curb and Restraint upon their Intemperance Pride and Luxury and bringing into contempt their Gallantry and swaggering Bravery they will not endure the Curb but rage and foam and grow mad and bite the Bridle that holds them in and reply as the remnant Jews did after the Captivity when they sent Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord for their Direction and liked not the Answer that he brought Jer. 44.16 17. We will not hearken to thee but will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth of our own Mouth we will let our Hearts with a full rein to any thing they desire for when we have done thus we were well and saw no evil when we leave off to shew favour and courtesie to our selves who shall befriend us when we begin to cry shame on our selves all men will cry shame on us and if once we come down and lie in the dust all men will trample upon us Those are some of the shifts that carnal Wisdom and Reason alledgeth whereby it would frustrate the Invitations of Mercy When God is calling for the Plumb Line and meting out a Nation for Destruction Amos 7.7 when he is drawing the lines of confusion in a place 1 Sam. 2.8 and marking it for Judgment they cry as the Inhabitants of Ephraim once did The Bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen Stones the Sycamores are cut down but we will change them into Cedars Esay 9.10 And though we may not be gotten up to such a degree of wickedness as this is it will concern us to make search and inquiry whether there be no seed of this wicked nature in us I am too much out of doubt that there is much of crossness and contradiction to the will of God in the best heart and too loth are the best to veil and stoop to the will of God when it crosseth ours but it will be fitter to help on this search in the Application 4. Lastly They overlook both his Attributes Word and Works all at once that put him off with shadows instead of substance that give him a few flattering words and shews for the inward worship and purity of their hearts This is the very instance of the Psalm a part of which we have now before us What an affront is this to remember him with the Mouth that he may be cast out of the Heart where he will have more to do than all the World or else abhor that person and his service whose heart it is To wash the outside with the paint of an external profession and to have a Heart full of Pride and unmortified Lusts full of putrid noisom Filth is not to play the Christian but the Pharisee To profess God at Home and at Church in our Houses and his House and to joyn with his Servants in the Externals of his Worship to read his Word and sing his Praises with our Lips and in Heart and Life to subvert the Christian Faith is not to be a Disciple but a Judas To give God the most glorious Attributes and Titles and call him thy Creator Lord and Governour and to acknowledge thou hast all from his Bounty and yet to deny him the Service and Obedience due to his Laws this is not to remember but to forget him If I be a Father where is mine Honour If I be a Master where is my fear saith God Mal. 1.6 Is not the Lord a Spirit and will he be put off with a meer bodily service only I know he will have the service of the body also he will have the Tongue and the Knee and an External Reverence that may be of good Example to others But thou art guilty of Hypocrisie and Folly both if this be all that thou canst spare if thou go not further thou mayst be a very devil in thy heart when thou haâ—st Oyl and Butter in thy Mouth and when thou speakest the smoothest words to God thou mayst have war and enmity to him in thy heart thou mayst fetch a sigh or a groan for sin at a pretty easie rate but God will not take this instead of Self-denial and mortification of thy Lusts but will abhor their shews and complements that cover hatred with lying Lips When God calls to the proud Person to come down and sit in the dust and humble himself will it be an acceptable service if he would offer him something else or will he take the fruit of the Body for the sin of the Soul Mich. 6.7 I mean a shew of humility in going softly speaking faintly looking sadly instead of true lowliness and poverty of Spirit I speak not against the outward signs they are good when accompanied with the thing signified but when we deceive our selves with these and think to deceive God also True humility consists in a universal submission to the Will of God and ready obedience to all his Laws when they cross our interest in the world as when they do promote it And he that hath not this in a prevailing measure and degree God will look upon him afar off let him come as near as he will with his Tongue or Knee Psal 138.6 and he will plentifully reward as a proud doer Psal 40.4.31.23 When God calleth to search our hearts and try our ways and remember our doings It will not serve turn to remember the doings of others and to seâ—â—ch and censure them to lay heavy burdens upon the City or Countrey and not to touch them with one of our Fingers not but we may and must confess the sins of the whole Nation when Gods hand is upon a whole Nation and calls it to repentance but if we remember not our own sins with a weeping heavy heart also and do not loath our selves for all our own abominations Ezek. 36.31 and feellingly confess with shame and detestation the sins that lie nearest our hearts and take it for a mercy to have the scourge of a just and smarting rod as well as the charge of a holy convincing word that we have not only threatning which we have made a shift to slight so often but some execution to make sin odious to us and to recover us to a due sense and apprehension of it If we have brought our selves to such a death in sin that we cannot understand what it is until we feel it it 's a mercy to feel that we may understand But let
Declaration there spoken of is improper and objective As a Dial tells what a Clock 't is 1. You may gather what time of day 't is if you look on it by the help of our Reason not any Tongue it hath to express thus much Neither hath any Creature an expliâ—â—â— desire of an Eternal Happiness that shall never fail or be interrupted And Lactantius one of the Latin Fathers that liv'd in the said Century places the Characteristical Difference and Specificial Distinction between Man and Beast not in Rationality but in Religion because some Creatures seem to do Acts that are Rational as the Elephant Hare Fox Dog but none that have any appearance of Religion or Piety Now it is a very great truth That God never made any Power or Capacity in any Creature in vain He hath given the Sun an Active Capacity to revive and exhilerate the lower World and it were unnatural if he should not put forth that vertue to that end He hath given Earthly Creatures a pasfive Capacity or Receptive Power to suck in this influence and they do and are covered over with Corn and laugh and sing Psal 65.13 And it 's universally true wheresoever there is a power that can put forth any Act that should not act according to the Power were a Monster and not a Creature God hath given the Fire a power to burn and consume when fit matter is offered and if it should spare the Wood that 's laid on it we should not count it a merciful but a monstrous act God hath made the Water to wet and moisten and if it should not do so what were it good for You would not commend this Property in Horse or Beast if they should fly in the Air or dive under Water the Fish that should shun the Water would be a monstrous and degenerate Breed And is it not as absurd and monstrous for a man that hath a Faculty on purpose to remember God yet to forget him To have a Capacity to be like God and yet not to employ and exercise it for this also is imply'd in our remembrance of him There were no sadder Spectacle in the World than Man were it not for these Acts and what is or will be consequent on them A Toad were not half so bad nor the most hated Creature no nor those that are continually hunted and pursued and live always in danger of the snare or some crafty device or other that may make them a prey to their cruel pursuers These brutish Creatures apprehend not the snare till they are caught in it nor fore-see a mischief till it is upon them nor vex themselves with the memory of what is past But Reason which is Mans proper Vtensil were it not for the service that it may do to God and his Soul make him but the more capable subject of Misery and Torment It helps him to prevent a mischief before it comes and to think on it after it's past and gone and to enjoy a calamity I may say and to chew upon an evil that 's swallowed down and past Alass alass If God gave not Man these Faculties to remember and aspire to him â—t would be far more desirable to be a Beast than a Man since then it 's past all doubt that God hath made Man for himself and given him such a high Capacity on purpose to remember him it 's monstrous and unnatural to forget him 2. Secondly And as he hath given him his Faculties on purpose to remember him so he hath displayed himself in the Firmament of Heaven as purposely to be remembered Psal 111.4 He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered And 1. That God may be remembered by them that 's the very end of them And verse 2. The works are great and magnificent sought out of all as we render it but in the Original it's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is exposed and laid open before all to take notice of And the Italian Translation renders it as it were wickedness in a man upon whom God hath bestowed Eyes to shut them perpetually and to refuse to make any use of so noble a Faculty So it is a wickedness much of the same kind when God hath set so many visible Objects before this Faculty to put him in mind of him that hath made both Faculty and Object and he makes no such use of them he hath Eyes and sees not he hath Objects and doth not understand them Judge what a wicked perversness this is We are prone to think it no great wickedness to commit such a sin as this is and to cross the very end of making our selves and other things whilst we do it not purposely and have no thought of contradiction to God in this sin But let us not deceive our selves when we have so high an obligation upon us to any Duty and are commanded to remember and think upon it and we do not though we do not purposely forget because God bids us to remember yet we are morally and reputatively guilty of thwarting and crossing the Will of God though not in quite so high a degree yet enough to undo us everlastingly unless we repent of what 's past and do otherwise for the time to come This will be but a pitiful shameful answer when God shall come to examine man by man what proficiency we have made amongst the Creatures that were made to instruct us and shall find a dunce instead of a knowing well informed Scholar Do the Heavens declare the Glory of God to the Moles that wâ—nt outward Eyes as it is usually said or to the Brutes that want the inward Eye that is understanding or to Man that is instructed with both these helps and will it be a venial sin think ye to wink with both these He that by all the Glory of Heaven and Earth is not so far enlightned so as to adore the wonderful Perfection of him that made them and to prostrate his very heart in love and reverence to him is wilfully blind and one that shall be dealt with as if he shut his Eyes against all What is there no Workmanship either in Heaven above or Earth beneath or Water under the Earth Is there nothing in the Air or bowels of the Earth that 's worth thine Observation or that can erect our blockish Heart and bring up our Affections to the glorious Artificer and Workman It 's a profound Sleep indeed into which that man is fallen and is a certain forerunner of Death when none of all these excellent Creatures that strike his sence can awaken him to any understanding reverence or love of his Excellency that hath bid all things come forth and stand in their several ranks and even gird themselves to the service of man This sin hath the higher aggravation in that there be so many various ways whereby the several Creatures would recover man to a due remembrance of God I might insist upon those four ways mentioned in the
of no other Argument though I could produce several if he died for such as deny him and crucifie him to themselves afresh and finally perish then he died no question for the rest but that he tasted Death for such is plain Heb. 10.29 Having in the verse before shewed the miserable end of those that despised Moses's Law he infers by way of interrogation Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy of that hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despight to the Spirit of Grace and yet plainer 2 Pet. 2.1 There shall be false Teachers as the Apostle gives them warning that shall bring in damnable Heresie denying the Lord that bought them So that hence it is evident that Christ laid down his Blood as a price to redeem them that ungratefully deny him And if Christ had not died for all it could not be the duty of every man to believe in him But there is nothing more unquestionable than that every one is bound to believe and such as refuse are threatned with a more fearful destruction because they wickedly frustrate as much as in them lies such a wonderful Grace of God and withstand the highest motive to Repentance and a new life 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie him in your Body and in your Spirit which are his The Apostle speaketh to the Corinthians in general among whom there were many unbelievers And what 's the Argument he useth to perswade them to Faith and newness of Life but because Christ hath shewed such love to them as to die for them Since he hath offered up his Body upon the Cross for you do you offer up your Souls and Bodies unto him to be instruments of Righteousness to do him service is the force of the Apostles Argument We see then that the Death of Christ and the Gift of the Spirit are obligations upon all that hear the Gospel at least to a thankful Commemoration of the love of God and a Remembrance of him There are none that live under the sound and influence of the Gospel but have the love of Christ expressed in his Incarnation Life and Death for them to move them externally by way of Argument and the powerful Spirit inwardly to check their Corruptions and prompt them to obedience in some degree and measure and if they will not think upon the one nor submit to the other but slightly regard the one and stubbornly resist the other and stiffle every good motion which they feel and keep off from any serious thoughts of the death of Christ and will not be perswaded to consider the Blood that was shed for them nor suffer his love to be shed abroad into their hearts by the Holy Spirit Let such know that their forgetfulness of God is the more heynous because it hath so fast an obligation as this to the most necessary duty of remembrance the Word also as well as the Spirit What are all the passages of Scripture but such as prepare for or directly stir up to such a Remembrance You may observe some parts of Scripture more remotely conduce to this grand duty of remembring God other parts do more immediately serve to produce it where it is wanting others to reduce and recover it when 't is lost So that one of these three ways either by conducing to it or producing or reducing of it all the parts of Gods Word conspire io this principal duty The main division of the Scripture is into the Old and New Testament But what is the design and drift of both these but to rescue or preserve a Memory of God in the World Our Saviour sums up the Old Testament in these two heads the Law and the Prophets Now what doth the Law serve for if not to mind us of the great Law-giver and to beget an awe of his Soveraignty upon the World And the main end of the Prophets and their Prophesies was to reproduce this Remembrance of God when the ungrateful People had forgot him And what can be the end of that Light that hath shined to us in the Gospel but to teach us to deny all ungodliness 〈◊〉 Forgetfulness of God and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present evil World which we can never do without frequent and effectual Remembrance of God and our Lord Jesus Christ I might more particularly insist here and shew how all the Precepts Promises and Threatnings which are the three essential parts of Gods Word are intended to this end and will leave the Soul inexcusable that forgets him or how the several Books of the Old and New Testament which are the integral parts of God's Word oblige to this Remembrance But I think the case is so plain and clear that none of these ways of demonstration is needful to convince us That the whole Word of God is no little impulsive but presseth earnestly to this Remembrance and is therefore another great Aggravation of the sin of Forgetfulness I shall only chuse to set some of those Texts of Scripture before you that are fullest of Affection and most Pathetical and that shew how unwilling God is to forget poor sinners or that they should perish as they must needs do in their Forgetfulness of him Esay 48.18 19. With what passion doth the Lord mourn over the poor forgetful Israelites that had even now brought utter ruine upon themselves O that thou hadst hearkened to my Commandments then had thy Peace been as a River and thy Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea Thy Seed also had been as the Sand and the off-spring of thy Bowels as the Gravel thereof and Hos 11.8 When the ten Tribes were got to such a degree of wickedness that God was not remembred by them any longer but they had divorced him from them by their Idolatries and could bear no longer without disparagement to the Truth and Justice of God with what unwillingness doth he throw them off How shall I give thee up O Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah How shall I set thee as Zeboim My Heart is turned within me my Repentings are kindled together What heart that is not desperately sick of stupidity can hear this sound and not return and recover the remembrance of him whom before he had forgot O that my People had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my ways I should soon have subdued their Enemies and turned my Hand against their Adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever He should have fed them also with the finest of the Wheat and with Honey out of the Rock should I have satisfied thee Ps 81.13 14 15. Thus you see how these and such like Scriptures Numbers of which might be gathered together and as the parts of
I mean at Death and Judgment if not before he will be sure not to pass them by It 's sad tidings to them that they must be forgotten in the day of their distress but worse in their account and esteem that when the Lord maketh inquisition for sin he will certainly remember them Psal 9.12 Then they shall pay dear for all their former forgetfulness of God and their damnable inadvertency to his Word and Works As it is a fearful thing to fall out of the rewarding hands of God and to be forsaken and forgotten so it is more dreadful to fall into the revenging hand of God and to be so remembered For as God is the best and most desirable Friend so he is the worst and most formidable Enemy and both these ways thou shalt rue thy contempt and forgetfulness of him Thou shalt want him as thy friend when thou hast the greatest need and have him as thine Enemy when thou art most afraid Then thou wilt say in vain as Balak said to Balaam Num. 23.25 Neither curse us at all nor bless us at all But as he will with-hold his Blessing from them when those that are mindful of him here shall have it to the full So he will pronounce a Curse upon them which they shall never claw off Mat. 25.41 Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels As there is none that hath a Heart like him when he is shewing pity and compassion to his penitent humble servants that are ever mindful of him so there is none that hath a Hand like him when he will render vengeance to those that do forget him and plague those that hate him He hath yet left it to thy choice whether thou wilt seek him in good earnest as one that prizeth his Love and valueth his Spirit above all things or whether thou wilt more highly respect and value any thing else for what hath thine highest respect will be remembred by thee when all other things are forgotten But he hath not left it to thy choice whether he shall abhor thee yea or not or whether he shall recompence thy wickedness upon thine own head or not if thou be found guilty but will certainly lead thee forth with the workers of iniquity and make thee know what it is to use thy memory for no higher matters than the World and to put God to remember thee by forgetting him and this will cure the wicked Lethargy and Stupidity of thy Soul and make thee to remember him against thy will even to all eternity forget him then if thon canst as an angry and revenging Judge when thou wilt not remember him now as a most gracious and compassionate Redeemer And thus I have given some imperfect sight of the heinousness and danger of this sin Whereby it is evident what a madness as well as wickedness it is to be guilty of this sin and herein I might more convincingly shew the danger of this sin and by consequence the folly and madness of those that do not remember him above their chief joy by giving them a fuller description Of the 1. Fearfulness of Gods Anger that will break out against the forgetters of him and so 2. Unavoidableness of Gods Anger that will break out against the forgetters of him and so They that undervalue and therefore forget God They forget themselves and undervalue their own welfare and security But I pass this for present and proceed to the next Use 2. Vse Examination Which may serve for tryal to discover whether we have had or still have any fellowship in this provoking sin And here I shall trouble you with marks and discoveries meerly probable but give you such as are inseparable from the sin we are searching for or rather reciprocal with it Reciprocal signs I call those that are conversible with the thing they are the signs of 1. Wheresoever there is this Symtom there is this Disease and where there is this Disease there is this Symtom Wheresoever there are these marks there is forgetfulness of God and wheresoever there is forgetfulness of God it is accompanied with these marks If I should mention no more than what are contained in the Answer to the second Question viz. Who they are that forget God it were enough they that have not a competent knowledge of the Remembrance of the great Perfections of God and the Relations that he stands in to them I mean that he is 1. Their Creator 2. Their absolute Lord and Governour whom they have the highest motives to obey 3. That he is their Judge that must pass the Sentence of everlasting Happiness or Misery on them ere long 4. That he that is thus related to them is Omniscient and nothing they can think or do can escape his Eye 5. That he is their Happiness without whose Favour and inward Grace they can never be at rest 2. They that have not a competent knowledge of their own frequent and great necessities 3. They that have not a competent knowledge and Remembrance of his Word 1. As it is his Word 1. Of Divine Authority and therefore worthy of the greatest Reverence and Study 2. As it contains in it matters of deepest importance to them 3. And of certain and near accomplishment 4. They that do not competently understand and consider his works By competent I mean such a degree and measure of knowledge and consideration of these as doth 1. Turn their hearts from all Creatures to God and enable them deliberately and resolvedly to chuse him for their happiness which they can never do without a sufficient or competent knowledge of these and which they will do if they have a sufficient knowledge and remembrance of these 2. And turn their hearts to Christ as the principal means to bring them to this happiness by his Laws directively and by his Spirit effectively This I mean by competent that which is sufficient to these ends Now what degree and measure of knowledge and consideration it is that 's thus competent it 's not possible to define because it is not in all alike with some a lower degree and measure of this knowledge and consideration will make this charge others need a higher measure having stiffer Corruptions to overcome And as the same proportion of strength will not â—evate a stone of an hundred pounds weight from the Earth which will one of twenty or forty So the same Grace will not turn a Heart that hath stronger Affections to the Earth which will effectually convert one that hath weaker and hath not so strong a bias weight and inclination to fasten it to the World He that hath one of these marks hath all and he that is guilty of these is forgetful of God So that by these you may acquit or condemn your selves These marks alone I say were sufficient to detect the sin if I should mention no other but yet I shall add two other which will discover the sin both
Death doth not deprive the Soul of all gracious and vertuous Sense and Motion but renders it unfit for the Spirit of true Vertue Grace and Holiness to dwell in and so there must needs follow a Devorce and Separation between them And as in the Natural Life there is a Union between the Soul and Body so in the Moral there is a Union between the Soul and God Death Metaphorical is the privation of all the comfortable effects of Life whether it be Natural or Moral whilst bear Life doth still remain and the presence of all those evils that may afflict or imbitter it And all these are either 1. Temporal 2. Eternal From what hath been spoken for the explication of these two terms Life and Death you may perceive what a priviledge and unspeakable favour it is to be translated from Death to Life 1. If thou Remembrest God The sting of a Natural Death is pulled out and though thou art not 〈◊〉 from the part of the penalty of sin whereby the Body is deprived of all sense and separated from the Soul yet thou art delivered from that which is most terrible in Death 〈◊〉 the misery or Death that will follow after and it is a comfortable passage for them that Remember God to endless Joy and Happiness and sometimes a welcome Messenger to them They may truly say as Agag 1 Sam. 15.32 The bitterness of Death is past 2. They are translated from the Death of Sin to the Life of Grace and Holiness and are united unto God and are disposed by Faith and Love to that Holiness which is the Divine Perfection and the way to the highest Happiness and Honour that the Heart of Man can wish or desire Though this Life will be imperfect whilst we stay here And if there be such pleasure in the Union between the Soul and Body then there is much more in the Union between the Soul and God 3. As Death is put for Misery and the bitter and uncomfortable effects of the endless Life to come so they are passed from Death to Life The Sentence of Death that God hath passed against sin is so far revers'd And as for the Miseries and Evils of this Life though materially they may have more than other Men yet as to the formal and most essential part of them they feel them not so much as other Men because they are allay'd and sweetned 1. By the inward Peace and Comfort that God gives to those that Remember him 2. By the benefit and advantage they get by those outward Sufferings For as their outward Man is afflicted so their inward man is renewed strengthened and confirmed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 For their light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory even in the beginnings of it here ver 17.3 It lessens their short and momentary sufferings that by them they escape so much Temptation and all the â—aiâ—s of sin are become the less taking If thou art one in whose Remembrance God is advanced above all other things thou shalt not die but live and declare the works of the Lord Psal 118.17 And though the Lord may chasten and correct thee yet he will not give thee over unto Death ver 18. For God is the Fountain of Life and in his Light thou shalt see Life Psal 36.9 O what a Mercy is it to be delivered from the power of Death and Darkness and to be translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son where thou shalt grow up from one degree of Life to another till thou come to everlasting Life Col. 1.13 At thy first entrance into this Kingdom Death is sentenced and some execution is done upon every sort of Death which will be perfected as this remembrance of God grows up to perfection in thee O Death I will be thy Plague O Grave I will be thy Destruction Hos 13.14 Which as it was verified of Christ personally understood so it is of Christ mystically understood 1. As Christ overcame Death in his Person so every true Believer such are all and only they that have God in their Remembrance hath gotten some conquest over Death which shall grow up to a full Victory and therefore Paul in the Name of the whole Church doth acknowledge this mercy Thanks be to God that giveth us the victory thorough our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15 5 7. Whilst the wicked forgetters of God are dead in trespasses and sins and dead to all soul and solid Joy and Comfort and designed to an eternal death Thou that thinkest upon God and remembrest his Love in Christ art entred into a state of Life and hast such a Promise that contains more in it than all the rich Indian Mines Because â—e hath set his Love upon me With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my Salvation Psal 91.16 If thou didst but know what a treasure is hid in thâ—â— Remembrance thou wouldst throw out every thing of thy Memory and Heart that hinders this Remembrance of God This one priviledge of being translated from Death to Life is big with a number more 1. It implies that thou art reconciled to God and he is at peace with thee and thou needest no more to fear him as thine Enemy All his Attributes of Power Justice Holiness Vengeance Majesty that sound so terrible to the forgetters of God do but the better secure thee of thine Happiness 2. It implies also thy present Justification in title of Law God hath acquitted thee by the law of Grace and Act of the Gospel from the guilt of sin and dissolved the Obligation to condemnation Who can lay any thing to thy charge if God absolve thee Who can do thee any hurt when Christ is become thy Advocate Rom. 8.33 3. With this mercy doth concur the mercy of Adoption and Sonship It 's no small Honour to be one of his menial Servants but to be a Son yea a Heir is a priviledge not easily valued and understood 4. The gift of the Spirit to dwell within thee is here also implied to mortifie all sin and to work all gracious habits that may fit thee for a state of Glory In a word 5. All real and relative Grace so far as is necessary to Salvation is thine either in Title Possession 1. The Righteousness of Imputation is thine whereby thou art made fit for Pardon and the Righteousness of Implantation is thine whereby thou art made fit for his Love and Complacency and sweetest Communion with him Secondly If thou art one that Remembrest God all things shall co-operate and conspire for thy good Every Age every state and condition of Life every Place and Company every Change and Alteration in the World Prosperity and Adversity Friends and Enemies Health and Sickness Honour and Dishonour every Relation thou art plac'd in shall help forward thy Joy and Felicity and some Foundation God is laying in every one of these whereupon to
no rest till it hath enforced consent and resolution to obey These Truths are of two sorts 1. Some are Physick and meerly purgative 2. Others are Cordial and such as are restorative and comforting And although there is reluctancy enough in the distempered Soul of Man to both these yet he nauseats these of the first rank most and hath the greatest enmity to them He doth not relish the second sort but he perfectly hates the first sort the reason is because these Truths which I call Medicinal work directly upon the disturbing Humour and filthy Matter that must be evacuated and east out before we can find any Gust or Savour in those other Truths that are Nutritive and Cordial What aversness is there in the corrupt Nature of Man to admit those Truths into the Heart that cross either 1. The Interest or 2. The Inclination of the Flesh and that strike all the Heart and Root of the Old Man and that teach Self-denial that is the mortification of inward Lusts and the contempt of all outward Objects so far as they feed and nourish them And will a Man ever pull out his right Eye and cut off his right Hand for his Pride and his Passion and his Intemperance and his Petulary and Lasciviousness or any other Lust to which his Nature prompts him are as dear to him as his most beloved Members and will a Man ever digest such truths as these or take them into any place of strength that are such bloody enemies to his raging prevailing Lusts and arm and mortifie them against so dear and near a part of him This can never be done till Consideration make it appear that the Man is undone for ever and had better he had never been born be he never so rich and honourable in the World in whom there is any reigning Lust or Corruption till frequent thoughts convince him thoroughly that he that saveth such a Life as this shall lose it and a better But on the other side he that kills his Corruptions and suffereth no sin to prevail but mortifieth every one of these Members that make up the Body and the Life of the Old Man he that loseth such a Life as this shall find it and prove an unspeakable gainer Mark 8.35 Let me instance more particularly in some truths that must go before a worthy Remembrance of God which can never get into the Heart and work to any purpose till they be fermented by Consideration 1. It 's an easie Truth and very obvious to Man's understanding That God is the chief Good and our true happiness consisteth in his Love and Goodness This is the master Principle and Foundation of all Religion and inspires all practical Truths and the duty depends upon them with Breath and Life and were it well thought upon it would make a mighty change and alteration in the World you may see by what it does upon some that do consider it what it would do upon others if they were not inconsiderate In that proportion that Men consider this Truth and believe it they will study to please God and resemble him in all his imitable Perfections and their Love and Hatred will imitate his They will follow after Peace and Holiness without which daily Consideration assures them they can never see God Heb. 12.14 And they will have no Fellowship with the unfruitful works of Darkness because God hateth them Eph. 5.11 None in sensu morali though not in sensu physico Where that that falls short of a ruling mastering degree in Morality is said not to be And the Scripture frequently speaks after the same rate But he that lives after the Flesh and minds earthly things and blesseth himself in all worldly happiness cannot consider the fore-mentioned Truth and therefore is guilty of this Folly because he doth not consider It 's another weighty truth That we are fallen from God and Happiness into a state of Sin and Misery and shall never know what true Happiness means till we return We were made after his Likeness at the first and whilst we kept the stamp of his Image on us were happy in his Favour and Love and all Creatures were ready at our beck and service and Sorrow and Misery stood afar off and came not near us but having now provoked God and lost his Image we are now unspeakably miserable and in the path-way to Eternal Misery And what 's the reason that there are so few that are affected at the Heart with their condition that loath themselves that cry out of this bondage and would be set at liberty and restored into favour again but because there are but few that consider it The rest of their minds are taken up with other things and with worldly vanities and such disturbing thoughts as these are at the first are not permitted to enter which if they be not frequent and serious till the Soul hath got a full sight of the evil of Gods displeasure and sin that hath provoked it and the necessity and blessedness of his Favour These Truths though they should be taken in or assented to they will lie crude and raw upon the Stomach and never digest into good nourishment and be distributed into Life and Practice Consideration must awaken the Soul out of its Stupidity and Insensibleness which is Natural to all or else it will sleep into everlasting Death 3. A third plain but necessary and important Truth is That we are undone for ever unless we feel our Sin and Misery so as to confess it with inward shame and be humbled under it into that degree of Brokenness and Contrition that Salvation by Christ is the most welcome news that ever we heard or can hear insomuch that we embrace him with the highest love and respect and do heartily consent to be governed by him till he hath subdued our Corruptions sanctified us by his Spirit and made us meet for love and favour of God again But none can ever feel the worth and necessity of Christ and renewing Grace who have not set this matter by Consideration frequently before your Eyes It 's true of the Intellectual as well as the Corporal Eye out of sight out of mind what we see not by Consideration we shall never mind nor care for You will slight the greatest Truths and lie still in any state in the World though never so uneasie rather than part with sin and come to Christ if you do not consider that your sin will be bitterness in the end and Christ will make amends for all that do or suffer for him There be many other Truths in which I might instance What 's the reason that matters of such a consequence and weight and so certain and out of doubt as Death and the Resurrection and the Glory of Heaven and the Torments of Hell should work no more and make Men solicitous about them Why do Men die before they were aware and in such a careless and unprepared state Why do they
a one that hath unsearchable Wisdom to Rule us infinite Power both to protect us and break our Enemies in pieces and is not profited by our Service Job 22.2 Can a Man be profitable to God as he that is wise may be profitable to himself Thou owest thy hearty Subjection unto God He made thee and is thy rightful and absolute Sovereign and when thou hadst turn'd Traitor to him He hath not set thee up as a Monument of his terrible Wrath and Vengeance But hath laid the Government upon his Son so nearly allied to us by the Assumption of our Nature and relaxed the Rigour of his Law promising to accept sincere Service and Love though perfect Obedience be due O what a◠Aggravation will this be of our Sin if we still continue it after the Grace of God hath so much abounded towards us Rom. 6.1 and persist in our Rebellion we know too well what it is to be Rebels against God our Redeemer but we little imagin what it is to be sentenced and condemned for Rebels at the great and terrible Day 2. Secondly Every Unbeliever hath the Guilt of all his former Sins fast bound upon him not one of them is pardoned every Commission yea and every Omission every idle Thought and Word and Action with all their several Aggravations stand still upon Record uncancell'd God hath pass'd an Act of Indempnity and Oblivion and proclaimed wonderful Grace and Mercy to penitent Sinners but the Unbeliever whilst such hath no share nor portion in it The Blood of Christ hath infinite virtue to cleanse sinners from all unrighteousness 1 John 1.9 but it 's only such as do believe The Law of God the Creatour or Covenant of Works which threatneth Death to every Sin is still in Force to such as are not the sincere Subjects of Christ by Faith the wrath of God abideth upon such John 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Every violation of the Law makes it due to the sinner and Faith in Christ is the only means to remove it but where that is wanting there it continues and abides If one sin unpardoned will sink the Soul of the transgressour into everlasting condemnation into what unspeakable misery and horrour will that vast Number that he hath committed force the sinner who will not come unto Christ nor submit himself to his Redeemer Look to thy self and answer it as thou canst that wilt not come unto Christ to be thy Advocate and answer for thee stand upon thy own Legs as well as thou art able that wilt not bottom thy self by Faith on Christ endure the storm of God's wrath as well as thou canst that wilt not anchor thy Soul upon the Redeemer of the World Thou seest the worst of it if thou canst make light of it it 's but bearing all the Sins thou hast committed upon thy own Body and Soul and the Wrath of God due to them And if thou takest this to be a tolerable and a light Burden continue still in thy unbelief 3. Thirdly If thou art no true Subject of Christ by Faith in him thou art a Slave of Satan and a Vassal to thine own Corruption There are but two principal Masters Christ is one whose Right it is And Satan is the other though an Usurper If thou wilt not devote thy self to him who is thy lawful Lord and Master thou wilt be under the Commands of a Cruel Tyrant There are but two Generals Christ the Captain of our Salvation Heb. 2.10 and Satan the Ring-leader to destruction and one thou must fight under There are but two sorts of Servants either thou art the Servant of Righteousness or else thou art the Servant of Sin Rom. 6.16 If Christ do not dwell in thy Heart by Faith Ephes 3.17 Satan hath got possession and thou art a Member of that wicked Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. that efficaciously worketh in the Children of Disobedience Ephes 2.2 He formeth thy Conceptions frameth thy Discourses animateth all thy Actions steereth thy whole Conversation and when there is need instigateth thee to any Wickedness though thou art secure and little suspectest 't is he that prompteth thee in all thou goest about If thou hadst an eye to see what influence he hath upon all thy Actions it would make thee to abhor all thou doest Indeed there are wicked Habits and Dispositions that strongly move and hurry thee into the same wickedness which the Devil would have thee to commit for if thou wert meerly passive it would be thy Misery but not thy Sin But now having no part in Christ thou art at once led by thy own Corruption and the Enemy of all Goodness into all Sin and Mischief No Turkish slavery comparable to this wherein the sinner is wounding and tearing and wracking himself every day and yet though he feels the smart sometime perceives the mischief he doth himself he cannot nor will forbear You would look with pity upon a Madman gnashing and cutting himself and bless God that you are sober when you see the pernicious Effects of Madness And yet if you are impenitent unbelievers you are guilty of far worse Cruelty to your Souls 4. Fourthly If thou art a Unbeliever thou art not sure to be one Day longer out of Hell and Eternal Misery thou hangst over the Pit of Destruction by the single Thread of thy Life and if the Twine break as it is a Miracle it doth not every hour all the World cannot save thee Let not a deceived Heart turn thee aside that thou canst not by Faith in Christ deliver thy own Soul nor say is there not a Lye in my Right Hand Esa 44.2 Thy Riches and thy Honours cannot prevent thy Death much less can they procure a Release from it least of all can they Ransom thee from Destruction thou art hasting to it every Moment and thou knowest not what one Day or Hour may bring forth Prov. 27.1 As sure as thou livest so surely thou shalt dye for ever if thou go forward in unbelief when once thy Breath is departed from thy Body and how many ways that may be stop'd who knows And wilt thou yet stand out against the gracious Offers of thy Redeemer and linger in Infidelity and run the hazard of Eternal Destruction Nay it s no hazard but as undoubtedly certain as the Word of God is true O that unbelievers would ponder this that they would but consider their latter End what a few Breaths more they have to fetch before they are turned into Everlasting Despair How dare you lye down to sleep lest you should awake in Hell How dare you rise lest it should be to Judgment and Condemnation How can you enjoy your Life one Moment that know not but that the next Moment you must exchange it for Endless Torment and Misery And how will you do to give up the Ghost
the Proffers of his Love Oh with what an a king Heart will the Infidel then say Why did he dye for me since I was resolved to dye for my self If he had not died for me this Death had never been so terrible as now I feel it O that any one would bring an Argument and convince me now that Christ died not for me then should I escape the greatest part of my Torment I would not torment thee with such thoughts as these now if it were not in hope to prevent such tormenting thoughts when time is past Let me earnestly entreat thee whoever thou art that art in this doleful condition either speedily to believe in Christ or believe it thine own Conscience will one day prove thy most terrible Executioner So much for the First Motive that should Teach us to prize and exercise Faith viz. Consider the Miseries of an Unbeliever But it is not my design to fright the Sinner unto Christ neither is it possible that Fear only should work true Belief and produce a justifying Faith All that I have said hitherto is to deter the Sinner from such a damning Sin as Unbelief but these be Arguments of another Nature to attract the Sinner unto Christ Consider therefore 2. Secondly What Christ hath done to draw the Heart of Sinners to him and to engage them to believe He hath given his Soul an Offering to the death and stood in the very flames of his Father's wrath that he might keep away the burning intolerable heat thereof from us and bore the grievous burden of our sins He stript himself even to the greatest Poverty and Nakedness that he might Cloth us and emptied himself that we might be filled 2 Cor. 8.9 Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that tho he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich When we were fallen into the deepest reproach and shame he made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the Form of a Servant that he might advance us to the highest dignity and honour 2 Phill. 6.7 He humbled himself to the death that he might procure our life he made a low stoop that he might lift us up when sin had cast us down He took upon him the humane Nature that he might make us partakers of the Divine Nature Heb. 2.14 compared with 2 Pet. 1.4 Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself likewise took part with them that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and purchase for us exceeding rich and precious Promises that by them we might be made partakers of the Divine Nature It was no small Endearment of himself to us to pass by the Angels and put forth his hand to help us For verily he took not upon him the Nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham 2 Heb. 16. He rejoyced in the habitable parts of the Earth and his delight was among the Children of Men Prov. 8.3 It 's his earnest desire that thou shouldst have the benefits of his Death and enjoy what he hath so dearly purchased and therefore he invites thee to believe in him because otherwise thou canst have no advantage by his Death If thou hast any understanding or ingenuity lay the Love of Christ to Heart and consider how unspeakably great it is it 's past words to express it it is so much beyond example let thy thoughts dwell upon it and never give over the serious consideration of his Sufferings and Death for such as thou art till thy Heart melt and yield and till thou canst with Love and Thankfulness resign thy self to him as one that doth deliberately resolve to be his Loyal Subject and Disciple Methinks after thou hast heard what he hath done for thee thou shouldst be ready to do any thing and stick at nothing that he bids thee do that thou mightst shew the most grateful resentment of his love But when he commands thee nothing but for thy greatest advantage that is to leave thy deadly Enemies and forsake thy self-destroying Courses and come unto him thy greatest Friend and live under his Government to refuse such a gracious Offer shews that thou art void of all true understanding ingenuity and sense of thy own Benefit and Advantage Hadst thou rather live under the cruel Laws of a deadly malitious Enemy and one that neither can nor will protect thee when the most dreadful storms are coming on thee Than under the Government of one that beareth the greatest love and compassion to thee and hath the greatest Wisdom to direct thee the greatest Power to protect thee and whose Laws are the most perfect Rule of Life and the greatest Tendency to the Peace Welfare and Perfection of Christ's loyal faithful Subjects Hadst thou rather serve a Tyrant and professed Enemy in Chains and Slavery than a rightful just and gracious Soveraign that hath given such Demonstrations of the most wonderful and â—â—â—pendious love to such as thou art whose Service is perfect Freedom who hath contrived all his Laws for the benefit of his true Subjects and sincere Disciples If the Love of Christ testified by such exquisite Sufferings and Death and thy own Welfare and Felicity will not prevail with thee to throw off the Yoke of Satan and the World and Flesh and to become a Believer and cause thee to say from thy Heart with those in the Prophet Isaiah 26.13 O Lord our God other Lords besides thee have had Dominion over us but by thee only will we make mention of thy Name 3. Thirdly Remember that Faith is the first Grace that brings thee into a justified state Condition All that thou hast or canst do before thou dost believe in Christ is of no avail to thy Justification and Salvation It 's Faith that unites the Soul to Christ and till it be united to him it can receive no saving benefit from him when first the sinner doth heartily consent that Christ shall be his King and Teacher and he will be his Subject and Disciple he is morally joyned and united unto Christ as the Soveraign and Subject make one Body Politick of which every Subject is a Member and the King is the Head and as the Master and the Scholars are morally united then begins our union with Christ and our participation of the benefits which he hath purchased when we first enter our selves into his School and list our selves under his Government and Protection God hath peremptorily resolved that none shall have the special Benefits of his Death but those that submit themselves to him Amongst which Justification is the first and then th◠〈◊〉 follow in their due place and order 〈…〉 by Faith we have Peace 〈…〉 〈…〉 â—â—pt 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 of Eternal Salvation 〈…〉 â—se that actually obey him so neither 〈…〉 the Means of their Justification to any 〈…〉 as by Faith and Cordial Subjection resolve to obey
Excellency and Perfection may justly challenge our greatest Love and Esteem yet the unparallel Good he hath done us doth call for much more Nimii durus est Animas saith Seneca qui si Amorem non velit impendere nolit rependere It 's a base Nature indeed and highly unreasonable that will not pay Love with Love Can we be content to receive all from God and to repay nothing back again He that gives him not the prime and choice of his Affections gives him nothing in the Scripture Account yea he is reputed a Hater of him Luke 14.26 If any Man come to me and hate not that is love them not less his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple Let but some of those Numberless Favours which thou hast received from him be but a while considered and it will utterly shame and put to silence this odious sin And the unthankful hard-hearted sinner that is not melted by such love as this must needs be confounded in the serious thoughts thereof either here or hereafter Here in Repentance or hereafter in Torment 1. Thou hast thy very Being from him without which thou wert uncapable of any Love or Kindness from God or any Creature He gave thee that very Heart which thou deniest him and whereby thou slightest him He gave thee thy Memory to remember him Thy Mind to think upon him He gave thee that Faculty of Love that it might burn continually towards him Ungrateful Soul to set any thing above him in thy Love and Esteem That hadst been a Brute and no Man if it had pleased him and might'st then have wanted such a gift to bestow on him or any other thing 2. The same Hand that gave thee thy Being at the first doth yet continue it and preserve thee every Day and Night every Hour and Moment If he should but subtract his Hand thou would'st soon dye and return to thy Dust again Thou hast forfeited Life and deserved Death over and over How oft hast thou run upon destruction and he hath saved thee and reversed the Sentence of Death when the Law hath condemned thee And lengthned out this Life to thee that thou might'st repent and live for ever And dost thou live by his meer grace and favour every day and yet lovest him not above all other things This is highly absurd and unreasonable 3. Thy Life and all other Comforts are not only the Fruit of his Bounty but of his meer Grace and Mercy They have been all forfeited a thousand times over Every Sin calls for Sentence and Execution upon the sinner and condemns him to universal want and misery But the Blood of God hath purchased them back again to thee and the hand of God hath restored them and recovered so base a Wretch into a state of favour and condition of hope And under each of these comprehensive Mercies infinite particulars might be reckoned up And now what canst thou set up in Competition with Him Thy Wit Thine Understanding Thy Health Strength Beauty Friends Riches Honour Life Or any Provision that 's made for it These all belong to him They are his Talents Art thou a Debter to all or any one of these that thou shouldst serve love or esteem them more than him who is so incomparably thy Benefactor Reason 3d. Thirdly God deserveth our greatest love because he is to us The most suitable Good Now that 's the most suitable good that doth most fitly and fully supply all our Necessities and satisfie our most rational Desires Now who or what can pretend to compare with him in this respect or stand in a competition with him There are Two great Necessities which every Soul lies under 1. The one is in respect of Sin The 2d in respect of Suffering and Misery which Two comprize all the Wants and Necessities of Man Both which none is capable of removing but Christ our Redeemer who is God-Man blessed for evermore And for the first Sin It exposeth every sinner to two great Wants The One of Pardon The Other of Sanctification In the want of either of which it 's plainly impossible that any Man should be happy And this needs no other Proof that the bare Explication of what Pardon and Sanctification are 1. Pardon is but the Removal of Guilt which every Sinner doth contract Now Guilt being an Obligation unto Punishment Pardon must needs be the dissolving or nulling of that Obligation which if it should continue and not be removed the guilty sinner must needs be terrified and affrighted with the sense of his obnoxiousness to God's displeasure who perfectly hates Sin and loves Justice and Righteousness more than all his Creatures and therefore must needs resent any Affront done to them as it were to the Apple of his Eye where such Guilt lies upon any Creature which sense cannot but arise in every Sinner when Conscience is awake which will be sooner or later And then he that knows God is his Enemy cannot sure be happy since he hath infinite power and wisdom against him And this is the very Case of every one that lies under Guilt unremoved he hath Almighty God for his Enemy And as the want of Pardon cannot consist with Happiness so neither can the want of 2. Sanctification For as he that hath God for his Enemy cannot be happy so neither can he that is an Enemy unto God And such a one is every unsanctified and unrenewed Soul who being unlike to God cannot take pleasure in him nor have any complacency in those things which are suited to his blessed Nature But loves them just as the Bird doth the Snare from whence he will fly and escape with all the speed he can But he that cannot love God above all and delight chiefly in his Ways can never be happy because these are the only Ways that can perfect his Nature and make him happy Pardon and Sanctification being thus explained it evidently follows by clear consequence that without these two the sinner cannot be happy but such a one is every Man and therefore without these two Supplies no Soul can be happy Thus much being evident and demonstrable it is as plain that none can remove the Guilt and Filth that sin implies but God who alone can remit sin and sanctifie the sinner and dispose him by Holiness to the Love of God and all Righteousness wherein his chief happiness doth consist The Second grand Necessity which Man lies under which indeed comprehends all Necessities whatsoever is Misery or Suffering which comprizeth all that Evil in Effect which sin doth in the Cause All that Sickness and Sorrow and Trouble and Fear and Discontent and Death and those sad Expectations after it are the Fruit and Effect of Sin by Resultancy oftentimes and always by way of a Righteous Punishment and Compensation Yea Sin is such a Monster that it not only deserves but also inflicts Evil upon
the Mansion where it dwells and like that cruel Emperour rips up the Womb that bare it and is both the Malefactor and Executioner yea and the very Death also that is inflicted I mean that I may avoid Metaphors and speak properly That Sin is both the meritorious efficient I and formal Cause of a great part of our Sufferings and Calamity though not in its formal yet in its material Consideration And as a Beast that being confined within its right Pasture by some Pale or Fence doth by the same violence break the Fence and hurt it self and get into more Feeding so doth every sinner by the same Transgression violate God's Law and his own Welfare and is both Active and Passive in the same inordinate Action For it 's one great End of God's Law to tye Mens hands that they should not hurt themselves So that God's Honour and Man's Safety do enter the very definition of all his Laws so great is the Wisdom of our Supreme Law-giver But the foregoing Similitude is but lame and doth not fully express the formal Effect of Sin as I may call it Tradition to Sin is threatned as the most fearful Judgment in Scripture Now God alone that can remove the Cause can also free the Sinner from the sad and woful Consequents and then Happiness will be the Result For he that is freed from all Evil whatsoever and yet hath an immortal duration must needs be happy For without the blessed Fruition of God such a reasonable Soul as Man hath that can see backwards and forwards and hath the Passions of Hope Fear Love Joy cannot possibly be at rest and cease from self-tormenting Thoughts and Actions Since therefore it 's God only that can supply all the Necessities of a rational Creature it follows that he only is the most suitable and proper good to such a Creature and therefore is principally and as far as is possible to be desired and loved This is the Third Reason why it is so highly congruous and doth so well beseem a reasonable Creature to love God above all Secondly As it is most highly Congruous and Reasonable so it is the Highest Dignity and Honour that a Rational Creature is capable of If Honour be truly to be estimated either by the Nobleness of the Act for which any one is honoured or the Persons in whose Esteem we are advanced both these ways be united to God above all things in Love is the highest honour that a Creature can ever arrive to unless it be to exchange sincerity of Love for Perfection or to add further degrees to this Love till it comes to its ultimum quod sic or vertical Point 1. There 's no Act that can put a greater Lustre upon the Agent than that which is directly exercised upon God especially in the way of Love For the Object as it gives Specification so it gives Worth and Nobleness to the Act and that reflects it upon the Faculty first and then upon the Agent whose Faculty it is For as the Act is more glorious that 's exercised about a Kingdom than that which is exercised upon lower and baser things so that Faculty is more noble that 's capable of doing such an Act than that which is capable only of doing the other Acts And by consequence he that steereth or governeth a Ship is more honourable than he that rows it Or rather a Prince is more honourable than a Plowman because his Acts are conversant about a nobler object This being past dispute it follows that the Servant of God is far more highly dignified than any other Servant whatsoever Now Love being the principal Part of his Service because it is the Service of the Heart which he chiefly requires It 's therefore the highest Honour to Love him with the whole Heart 2. And God esteems that Person most highly that thus loves him because All the Promises of the Gospel are made to such which are the highest Expressions of God's Bounty and Love And those whom he doth most richly endow and favour them he doth most highly honour Particularly 1. God dwelleth in them here 2. And they shall dwell with God hereafter Now what greater Honour can there be than Familiarity and Co-habitation with the Fountain of all Honour And as to love God superlatively and above all is 1. Most Reasonable 2. Most Honourable So Thirdly It brings in the greatest Profit and Advantage For hereby First If this Love prevail over all other Love it ascertains to us 1. That Relative Grace which consists in Pardon of all Sin Justification of our Persons Peace and Favour with God or Friendship with him and Sonship to him and Right to Heaven 2. And also to all Real Grace whereby every Christian is shaped and fashioned to the Divine Nature and Similitude And therefore may confidently expect that in the use of Means the Holy Spirit should enable him to thrive and bring forth the Fruit of a sounder Knowledge in Spiritual Things of Patience Humility Meekness Self-denial Temperance Brotherly Love and Charity every one of which is a Jewel of inestimable worth In a word He hath a sound Title by the Free Charter of the Gospel to all that Christ hath purchased and procured by the Merit of his Blood And as his Love encreaseth in the Degree and Measure and groweth towards Perfection so it doth encrease the Measure of every Grace And then Assurance which is the Consequent of an higher Measure of Grace than ordinary Christians aspire to usually flows in And then such a Measure of Boldness and Confidence in our Addresses to God as doth usually fill the Heart with daily Comfort Secondly And as this prevailing Love doth gather strength so Peace at Home and inward Calmness and Tranquility doth encrease And this is a continual Feast sweeter than all the troublesome disturbing Pleasures of the World The more any Soul is conscious to it self of a prevailing Love to God and that he hath the Supremacy in his Heart the more all his Faculties do unite and conspire to Quietness Rest and Peace For there 's nothing that puts a Man into Tumult and Disorder but the greedy desire after something that looks like Happiness but when it 's gotten proves no such thing and vexeth the Soul with Frustration and continual Disappointment Now the more the Soul is in love with God the more it is acquainted with the true happiness and is the less in danger to be diverted by false and lying Promises And when once the Soul hath got this Harbour it will stir no more out so as to forsake it but silently feeds on continual pleasure and dwells at ease as the Psalmist expresseth it Psal 25.13 And knows that all farther labour is vain unless it be to grow more deeply rooted in love And this Peace and inward Joy is always the Companion of Assurance in some sensible degree however it may perchance be wanting to those and altogether imperceptible that have the
they pass beyond our Imagination Fancy what thou wilt and Majesty Pomp and Beauty can present thee with it 's all but a poor faint Resemblance of the Glorious Life to come It 's easier for a Pencil to draw the Picture of Sound and Tast than for the Tongue to utter or the Heart to imagin The Joys of Heaven All that a curious Artist can do to describe the Content of a Soul at Rest with God and perfectly Happy is so far from what he would but cannot say as Heaven is from Earth We know There 's nothing of all this that we see hear or tast or imagin in the Heavenly Paradise But thou mayest be sure there 's more than all this Considerations to excite Shame and hearty Sorrow for all former Departure from God and present Strangeness to him THough God delighteth not in Sorrow and Contrition meerly as it is the Misery and Affliction of his Creature but rather is afflicted with them in all their Sorrows Isaiah 63.9 yet as it is an expression of any sincere hatred of former sin and willingness to forsake it and comes from any true Love to God who is dishonoured by it and Mens own Souls of which it is the death and destruction and leads directly to their future Reformation and Happiness so the Lord is delighted therewith And a sinner one that is yet under the guilt of his sins cannot present him with a better Sacrifice For The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and contrite heart O Lord thou wilt not despise Psalm 51.17 1. Thou wilt take pleasure in by a usual Figure called Litote or Mecoses And in the former Clause of the Verse The Sacrifices that is The Sacrifice of Sacrifices as the Heaven of Heavens is put for the Highest Heaven In which Forms of Speech it 's customary with the Hebrew Language to leave out the first Substantive * Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for the Elephant because she is the chief Saith Grot. of Beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for God himself because he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most excellent wisdom Psal 49.3 So the Canticles is put for the Canticle of Canticles or the most excellent Song Instances there are many of this kind to shew that the Plural Number is sometime instead of the Comparative Degree Thus you see in what sense God is delighted in our Sorrow and taketh pleasure in a sighing and broken Heart even in the same sense that Paul was glad at the sadness of the Corinthians even as it was a sign of and step to their future Amendment and Happiness 2 Cor. 2.2 For if I make you sorry saith he who is he then that maketh me glad but the same which is made sorry by me And indeed it is no wonder that the merciful God that delighteth so much in the welfare and felicity of his Creatures should yet be so well pleased in the bitter Repentance and heart-breaking Sorrow of sinful Creatures since it is such a preparative to your future Joy and that so many excellent Texts of Scripture are dropt from the Holy Spirit to encourage Sinners to labour after such a wounding piercing Sorrow as this is So Isaiah 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the High and Holy Place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive the Spirit of the Humble and the Heart of the Contrite one So Isaiah 66.2 There he seemeth to despise and slight the most magnificent stately Structure which they could build him and to prefer the humble contrite Heart far before all that the Hands of Men could possibly make Thus saith the Lord The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool where is the House that ye build unto me And where is the place of my rest For all these things hath my Hand made But to this Man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my Word And how frequently is he said to comfort those that Mourn and to bind up the broken in Heart to regard their Sighs and bottle up their Tears as if there were no Temper that God more delighteth in There are some though very few that need to be warned and admonished that they do not place the Principal Part of God's Worship and Service in Sighs and Tears and pricking Sorrow and shameful Confessions of their Sin Not that I disswade any from giving due Time and Measure to these humbling self-abasing Acts For it is the design and business of this present Labour to promote this Sorrow in the Heart so far as it is a fit Instrument to promote Reformation in the Heart and Life But yet some I say have need of this Caution that they lay not too much stress upon this part of our Duty we owe unto God much less that they confine the whole work and business of Religion to Acts of Contrition and Mortification For though the Lord delighteth in the penitent broken Heart that mourneth over all its former Sin and Folly and is ashamed of his odious hainous Transgressions and doth loath himself for his Iniquities and doth particularly search into his Sores and uncover them before God with the most distinct clear and open Confession yet this is but a lower and preparatory step to that Love of God constant delight in him praises of him chearful obedience to him in the which he is far more delighted so that Tears and Sorrow and heart-melting Repentance and afflicting our Souls are not absolutely pleasing to God and a part of the immutable unchangeable Worship we owe to him but only acceptable to him 1. Upon supposition of former Miscarriages 2. In preparation to future Obedience Had we never sinned Sorrow and Repentance had been no acceptable Service to God at all neither would it have pleased him to see us go heavily as those that mourn But now supposing that every one of us is born into the World with hereditary Corruption and a depraved Nature quite contrary to that which God gave Man at the first the very first acceptable Service that we can perform to God is to be sensible of and to bewail this perverse Disposition according to its desert and to weigh and consider all the sad and woful Consequences of such a poisoned corrupted Nature how hateful it is to God how disgraceful to our selves here and how destructive to our souls hereafter and how dangerous and infectious it is to others that we are firmly resolved to take any Course to recover our former Freedom and Priviledge we had in the state of Innocency that God shall suggest to us It is as preposterous to offer up any Service to God till this be done as it is to â—earn to Read before we are acquainted with
out of Heaven for their sin nor prepared such a place of endless and unsufferable Torment for such as are found guilty of it in the General Account He had never brought such a Deluge upon the old World and swept away all of them save Eight Persons Nor dropt down such a consuming Fire upon those Four Citys and the Inhabitants thereof Man Woman and Child if he had not been a bitter Enemy to sin If you should see a Father that tenderly loves his Children and bears a most dear Affection to them to persecute them to the Death and express the greatest Cruelty towards them you would surely say that it must be some high Provocation that can thus prevail to extinguish such inbred natural Affection to them And if you could be consident that he were a just and righteous Person that would not do such a cruel Act without a great and weighty Cause you must then say That they must be guilty of some horrid Act that can thus turn the Bowels of such a tender Father and exasperate them into such a rage The Case is the same here only with this difference that God hath infinitely more love and tender bowels to us his Creatures and the Workmanship of his Hands than the tenderest Father or Mother here upon Earth Isaiah 49.15 Can a woman forget her sucking chila that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget but I will not forget And yet what terrible and remarkable Judgments doth he execute upon some of them both here and hereafter Not only single Persons but whole Nations yea how dreadful and heavy is his hand upon those that are his Children not only by Creation but Regeneration also insomuch that they often complain that the Arrows of the Almighty stick fast in them and drink up their Spirits Job 6.4 Thus Job David Heman and many others of God's dearest Servants have complained Can any Man of reason ever think that ever God thus deals with them without some great and weighty Cause especially when it is so certain that Fury dwelleth not in him Isaiah 27.4 And he cannot be moved by any of those wild irrational and ungoverned Passions as Man is He that believes not this either believes that there is no God or else knows not what such a Being doth essentially involve But yet though we have a fall certainly that God is more tender and affectionate to Men than any Father or Mother in the World yet it is as certain that he loveth Righteousness and Equity and Truth more than all the Creatures in the World because these are a part of his own Essence but Creatures are not And therefore he stands obliged to vindicate these though it be with the Ruin of all Mankind And thus he would certainly do even destroy all the Works of his Hands if his righteous Law which is but the Transcript of his Nature could not be otherwise righted He can make another World with a Word of his Mouth But he cannot make as I may say with reverence another God Every sin strikes at the very Being of God and toucheth the very Apple of his Eye And therefore the Word of God tells us plainly That Sin is the only Make-bate between God and his Creatures that hath pull'd down all those heavy Calamities and Judgments upon the World that ever we read or heard of But the Death of his only Natural Son for the Sins of the World which he took upon him to expiate and satisfie for is such a demonstration of God's deadly and implacable Hatred against all Sin and Ungodliness that no Man in reason should ever after doubt of it Every Man that is truly penitent and sorry for his sin is apprehensive of this in some good Measure And this is the First Act that Godly Sorrow and Repentance doth imply Secondly He that unfeignedly grieveth for his sin must be very sensible how dishonourable it is to God I know it 's beyond the reach of any Creature to do him any real Dishonour But yet doth he not lose his Reputation amongst Men by every sin that is committed Are not some or other animated thereby to do the like or else if it be secretly committed is not the sinner himself more hardned thereby and disposed to more perverse unworthy Apprehensions of God It is certain he is He cannot think him so holy just and righteous as he is because Judgment is not speedily executed on him And how doth the Devil triumph and all those malicious Spirits that attend him to see a Child so unnatural to his Father as every sinner is to God How doth it feed his Malice and Pride to see him make a Creature that cares so little for him as every sinner doth He that is affected with his sin to purpose knows and is cut to the heart for the dishonour done to him by his sin and that he hath so much stained his holy Attributes and Perfections and mis-represented him to the World Thirdly He that is truly penitent for his sin is deeply sensible of those great Obligations he lies under to perform a perfect obedience to God He is his Creature I and the chief of his Creatures in this lower World made on purpose for his service shaped in his own likeness fitted for it encouraged to it That can never be happy but in his Favour and therefore was sufficiently concerned to seek and prize it above all things And to shun and avoid sin whereby he must needs lose it All Creatures upon Earth were placed at his Feet and put into his Hands to give him their best Assistance and Encouragement for this Service The good and welfare of the whole inferiour World depended upon his Obedience to God and the observance of that Law he had written upon his very Nature And therefore so soon as ever he sinned he involved all the Creatures that were made subject to him in the same Curse and Condemnation so that the whole Creation is now in Bondage and groans to be delivered into the glorious Liberty of God's Children And the earnest expectation of the Creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God Rom. 8.19 21 22. Never was any Child so much obliged to observe the Will of his Father Nor any Subject to Obey his rightful Prince and Soveraign Nor any Slave and Vassal to fulfil the Command of his Lord as we are to do the Will of our Creatour But what do I make such a Comparison as this There 's a thousand fold more obligation upon us to tender a perfect Obedience to God than there can be upon any Subject or Child or Servant to obey the strictest Laws of the best Father Lord or Sovereign here on Earth And yet what Man so mad as to incur their displeasure if they can help it Or who would not wash away such an Offence with many Tears if there were any hope to find Mercy and Favour with them in
easily force thee to an Acknowledgment of thy Pride and Worldliness and filthy Lusts which thou doest so carefully conceal and the hainous dishonour thou hast done to his Name He could make thine own Conscience fall upon thee and condemn thee in despight of thee and thy Tongue to fall upon thy self But he loves to deal with every Creature according to the Nature he hath given them He leaves thee to thine own choice having given thee Reason to discern what is fittest to be done and his infallible Word to guide thee He useth Arguments to perswade rather than Power to compel and draws thee with Cords of a Man as the Prophet expresseth it Hosea 11.4 That if Love and Ingenuity will not prevail with thee to do thy Duty to him Shame and Ingenuity might perswade thee to repent thee of the Folly There is some ingenuity in a free and open confession of thy sin and a proportionable sorrow for it and endeavour to vindicate the Name of God which thou hast dishonoured after thou hast been so disingenious to dishonour him by thy Transgressions He that can harden himself against his dearest Friend and blot his precious Name with any foul Aspersions and then justifie and defend what he hath done or at least manifest himself to be altogether insensible of such behaviour deserves to be thrust out of the Society of Men And all Men would take him for a Monster and degenerate piece of Humanity But it 's a thousand times worse to play such Tricks with God who will lay them to Heart and not let them go unpunished And when he sees thou art past all Ingenuity and hast out grown the Heart of a Man and there is nothing to be done with thee without stripes and blows he will deal with thee as Masters use to deal with a Scholar that will no longer be moved by any other Arguments make them the common whipping-Blocks of the School that by their just punishment the other that have some ingenuity still left may take warning or else turn such untractable Disciples quite out of their Tuition O my Brethren your Case would be sad indeed if it should once come to any of these The Heathen could say Q. Curt. Illum ego perisse dico â—â—i periit pudor He that hath lost all shame is utterly lost And he that hath lost all ingenuity is quite shameless I beseech you look into your Hearts and search Can you find no Motions to Sorrow and Complaints and bitterness of Spirit for all those Hours you have foolishly spent in the Service of the Flesh or the World and the Devil which are the professed Enemies of him who is your greatest Friend Surely you cannot reflect upon those rebellious sinful Courses you have taken and not be moved with indignation against your corrupt Inclinations that have so much seduced you Surely you can never be vile enough in your own Eyes that have so much villified and despised the just Commands of him that holdeth your Soul in life and keepeth you every moment If you are past all sorrow for sin you are past all hope and are become like a broken Vessel that can never be made up again Peter indeed was so disingenious to deny his dearest Master the effect of whose sweetest Love he had so often tasted But it was when he was in a fright and passion He no sooner thought upon his odious disingenuity but the poor Man melts into Tears and weeps bitterly There 's no sin but is curable but this of Final Impenitance and Unbelief It 's possible that though seven Devils have got possession of thee they may be cast out It was Mary Magdalen's case and she yet found mercy with the Lord but then remember how she wept and wiped the very Feet of Christ with the Hair of her Head Luke 7.44 But if thou want Tears for thy sin and a penitent bleeding Heart for thine iniquities thy case is a thousand times worse than if thou hadst the greatest sins and yet couldst bewail them and humble thy self for them For this would shew that there is some ingenuity left in thee which the Lord loveth where ever he sees it And will not let the person perish that confesseth from his heart that he hath deserved to perish and is afflicted for what he hath done Fourthly Consider there 's no Evil or Misery whatsoever calls for Grief and Sorrow so much as Sin doth And yet we can weep our Eyes out almost for some petty Evils and Miseries that sometimes do afflict us What an absurd and preposterous sorrow is it to cry for the death of a Friend to howl for the loss of a Child and to be overwhelmed with grief when an intimate dear Acquaintance is snatch'd away from thee And yet to be heart-whole when God is provoked to depart from thee and thou art in danger to lose thy Soul We take the Person for a Child or a Fool that whines and makes a stir for a Trifle and makes sad Complaints for a Scratch or a Flea-bite and is little or no whit moved for the loss of his Credit or good Name or something that 's far better This as well as all other Passions in Man should be governed by Reason otherwise they are no more regardable than the howling of a Dog And how is that Passion guided by Reason that makes a great Noise and is moved with much Violence for a Matter of nothing and is very quiet when it hath much more cause to be moved Is that a rational sorrow or doth become a Creature that hath understanding that brings a Man down even to death's door for the departure of some worldly comfort and leaves him without Tears and Sighs when he is losing that which is a thousand times more desirable Understand thy self aright and thou wilt be ashamed of such a ridiculous sorrow as this Sin is the cause of all other Evil that comes upon thee and therefore must needs be far worse it self and much more to be lamented It takes away thy Friend from thy side thy Child from thy bosom It bereaves thee of thy Health deprives thee of thy Credit and Estate It parts between thy Soul and Body and makes the most lamentable divorce of all between God and thy Soul As I live saith the Lord though the Son of Jehoiakim King of Judah were the Signet upon my right hand yet would I pluck him thence Jerem. 22.24 And why is this but because he had provoked God by his sin It is sin that is our greatest Enemy It 's our Comfort against all other Enemies that they can pursue us no further than the Grave and there the weary be at rest Job 3.17 There we shall feel our worldly troubles no longer But this Enemy begins then to rage most when all other Cruelties cease Then it comes upon us like a Tempest It follows us beyond the Grave and will never leave us till it hath compleated our Misery and
Earth move about and the Heavens to stand still which if it be supposed yet must be the effect of an infinite Power It 's the description that 's usually given of a wise Man That he is one that wonders at nothing because they suppose Ignorance to be the Cause of wonder And therefore the more we know and understand any thing the less we wonder at it But yet for all this I may take the boldness to say That he is a wise Man indeed that wonders not at every thing Especially if he be one that hath Wit enough to see the impregnable Difficulties that stand in the way and hinder a distinct and perfect understanding of any the least of God's Works And this is another Confideration that will do good service in provoking us to the Praises of the Lord if it be weighed with an undisturbed silence and attention 2. As it will advance a Heart in Praises and Thanksgiving to God and help on this noblest part of God's Worship to behold these Three great Attributes of his Wisdom Goodness and Power as they shine forth in the Works of Creation and Providence about the unreasonable Creatures So 2. It will elevate a Soul yet higher and make it more fit for the work of Thankfulness and Praise to ponder these Attributes as they are made glorious in and about the reasonable and intelligent Creatures And here I shall pass over the Angels the most noble Creatures which God hath made And because this is an Argument most likely to move us with the greatest force Let us more particularly insist upon his Goodness towards us 1. In giving us a Nobler Being than he hath done to any other visible Creature He hath stamped his Image upon Man more lively than he hath done upon any Creature if you look on him barely in his Natural Capacity as consisting of a Body and Soul The one Corruptible The other Incorruptible The first he hath in Common with other Creatures but the other is a peculiar Glory that God hath put upon no other Creature here below besides himself And yet in his very Body he far surpasseth all his Fellow-Creatures If you consider well the Comeliness and Propoâ—ition of Parts the well mixing of the Humours that give the Colour and the pure lively Spirit that gives Air and Motion to the several Parts his erect stature and the symmetry of the whole To say nothing of Speech that 's peculiar to Man alone all other Creatures must submit and bow before him But as to his Moral Capacity There 's no other Creature here below that hath any Lineament of his Maker's Image but Man only He alone was intended to represent his Maker in Righteousness and true Holiness and had a Capacity first to be honoured in his Service and to be made happy in his Eternal Enjoyment The rest of the Creatures as they have their Face downward so they have no disposition to look so high as to their Maker nor any tendency of love or desire towards him For God having made them uncapable of any such Acts or Habits expects no such Service at their Hands But God made Man for his own immediate Service and therefore gave him a Nature suited to that imployment He did not only bestow on him the Faculties of Understanding and Will but endued them with the knowledge and love of God that by the exercise of these Acts he might find out the Rest and Happiness that he doth so indefatigably seek after 2. He gave him Seigniory and Dominion over this lower World Psalm 8. As all things were made for his use and service so they were given into his hand to dispose of And they had no power to cross his Command or disobey till he had rebelled against his Maker They were all ready at his service to go and come at his beck and to execute his pleasure to their utmost strength and capacity Gen. 1.28 And God blessed them that is Adam and Eve and said to them Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth and subdue it and have dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fowl of the Air and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth See also Gen. 2.19 20. And Man wanted not the Faculty to discern the Nature and Vertue of every Creature and for what uses they might serve Yea the Inferiour Heavens were made to accommodate him and every way God dealt with him as a Bountiful Lord and most Liberal Benefactour The Sun was made to enlighten him and the Heavens to chear him and make the Earth fruitful with their Influences which was to bring him forth it s various Productions for his several uses and occasions And who that hath the Heart of a Man and not of a Beast can think of such Munificence and Bounty which God hath exercised towards him and not abhor ingratitude And even feel himself delighted in the Praises of his so great Benefactour 3. When he had undone himself and had involved his Soul and Body in Misery unspeakable the Lord did not utterly forsake him as he deserved but he set his Wisdom a work to contrive a way how to salve the honour of his Justice and yet save the miserable Rebels from destruction When we were all fallen short of the Glory of God he found out a Method to recover us into Happiness again And when no Creature in Heaven or Earth could do such a Favour for us the Son of God became Man and dyed for us that he might satisfie offended Justice and vindicate the honour both of the Law and Law-giver and procure Terms of Peace and Favour for us O what a Remarkable Sentence is that which should be engraven upon the Heart of every sinner When we were without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly Rom. 5.6 This is a faithful saying indeed and worthy of all acceptation 1. highest and most thankful entertainment that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 4.9 10. We had been now bound hand and foot and shut up in outward darkness and had been Fuel to the Wrath of God and the Flames of Hell which are kindled thereby and had been tormenting our Souls with the bitter remembrance of our sin who are or may be comforted with the blessed Tydings of the Gospel What a comfortable Thought should it be to us when we lye down and when we rise up to remember that Christ is risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15.20 To understand which Text of Scripture it 's necessary that we be informed that sin having brought a Curse upon Man and upon the Earth for his sake and all the Fruit it brought forth the Sacrifice of the First-Fruits among the Jews to which the Apostle here alludes was appointed by God as a Means whereby the whole Harvest might be sanctified and secured and the Curse removed Which First-Fruits were a Type of Christ by
whose death the sting of death is taken out and by whose Resurrection ours is secured even the Resurrection to Life to all his true and faithful Members And as the First-Fruits were as it were the Pledge and Earnest of the Harvest that was to follow after so the Resurrection of Christ is the Gage and Assurance of ours 4. Having not spared his Son but given him a ransome for us he hath with him given us all other things we receive Mercies without number from him every day And that 1. Privative in guarding us from the many Mischiefs that the desert of our sin and the desire and endeavour of our Enemies would bring upon us And 2. Positive in bestowing on us the good things which we deserve not and which the malice of our Enemies would keep from us How many dangers have we oft-times escaped which we have both known and feared but they are far more that we have escaped which we have neither known nor feared We see not the Enemies that lurk continually about our Paths and Beds and that are always plotting and endeavouring to devour us which the secret Power of one that 's stronger than they hath hitherto prevented How oft hath Satan thirsted for our Blood and desired to sift us as Wheat But Christ hath interceded for us and infatuated all his Counsels that they have not prospered hitherto When he hath dug low to hide his Counsel from the Lord and laid his design deep and covered it with the greatest cunning and secresie when he hath thought certainly now he should prevail and swallow us up he hath miss'd his purpose and gone away disappointed and God hath shewed us a way how to escape Every Beam of Light that shineth on us every Breath we fetch every Minutes Health we do enjoy every Bit we eat and are refreshed with the House that covereth us the Air that we suck in the Bed we lye on the Friends that comfort us every Sweetness that we tast either in the Acts of Sense or Understanding together with the continuance of all our Faculties In a word every Comfort that befriendeth us is a distinct Mercy of God vouchsafed to us in Jesus Christ What shall I say How numberless are these which I have but generally touched If I should insist upon the several Circumstances and Degrees of them with the frequent Repetition of every one of them But these are not the one half of what our Redeemer doth bestow The Mercies that concern our Souls are far more numberless So that though I have seemed to name but three or four Instances of the Bounty of God towards us yet these are all so comprehensive especially those of Creation Redemption and Providence that they contain more under them than can be reckoned up in the Individuals by any humane Art or Skill There are some few of those infinite ways whereby God's goodness is demonstrated to us I might further shew how much the goodness of God is manifest towards us in all our Sufferings Streights Necessities Afflictions Sickness Death which breed the only quarrel between us and the goodness of the Lord and will not let us speak out and acknowledge it freely as we ought It's easie to vindicate the goodness of the Lord even in these to such as will but bring an impartial ear Neither doth his Wisdom and Power towards us come much behind his goodness Doth it not require infinite Wisdom and Power to govern such a perverse piece as sin hath made Man to be And to make him serviceable either willingly or without his Will to the glorious Ends of Order and Government in the World And that both in his Commerce 1. with God 2. with Men 3. with other Creatures either bridling or conquering his Corruptions without any impeachment of his liberty that they do not confound and destroy all Piety Justice and Sobriety out of the World It must be no less than the Power of God that must bring down the Proud that would otherwise trample all under feet That must govern the Savage Nations and tame and restrain the barbarous and bloody minds and make the wretched devices of the Enemies of his Church to be of none effect It must be a mighty Power indeed that must turn a furious persecuting Saul into an humble penitent and faithful Saul What a wisdom is seen in making Man so great and yet so little in designing him for so high an end and yet training him up for it by such low and despicable means But I will run out no further on this Argument lest I find no end FINIS