Son into the World that we might live through him So that under this Term or Notion of Life the Scripture is wont to express all happiness to us and more especially that eternal Life which is the great Promise of the Gospel And this is Life by waâ— of Eminency as if this frail and mortal and miserable Life which we live here in this World did not deserve that Name And on the other Hand all the Evils which are consequent upon sin especially the dreadful and lasting Misery of another World are called by the Name of Death The end of these things is Death So the Apostle here in the Text and 23. v. The wages of sin is Death not only a Temporal Death but such a Death as is opposed to Eternal Life The wages of sin is Death but the gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that Death here in the Text is plainly intended to comprehend in it all those fearful and astonishing Miseries wherewith the wrath of God will pursue and afflict sinners in another World But what and how great this Misery is I am not able to declare to you it hath no more enter'd into the heart of man than those great and glorious things which God hath laid up for them that love him and as I would fain hope that none of us here shall ever have the sad experience of it so none but those who have felt it are able to give a tolerable description of the intolerableness of it But by what the Scripture hath said of it in general and in such Metaphors as are most level to our present Capacity it appears so full of Terror that I am loth to attempt the Representation of it There are so many other Arguments that are more Humane and Natural and more proper to work upon the Reason and Ingenuity of Men as the great Love and Kindness of God to us the grievous Sufferings of his Son for us the Unreasonableness and Shamefulness of sin the present Benefit and Advantage the Peace and Pleasure of an Holy and Virtuous Life and the mighty Rewards promised to it in another World that one would think these should be abundantly sufficient to prevail with men to gain them to goodness and that they need not be frighted into it and to have the Law laid to them as it was once given to the People of Israel in thunder and lightning in blackness in darkness and tempest so as to make them exceedinly to fear and tremble And it seems a very hard Case that when we have to deal with men sensible enough of their Interest in other Cases and diligent enough to mind it we cannot perswade them to accept of Happiness without setting before them the Terrors of Eternal Darkness and those amazing and endless Miseries which will certainly be the Portion of those who refuse so great an Happiness this I say seems very hard that men must be carried to the Gate of Hell before they can be brought to set their faces towards Heaven and to think in good earnest of getting thither And yet it cannot be dissembled that the Nature of men is so degenerate as to stand in need of this Argument and that men are so far engaged in an Evil Course that they are not to be reclaimed from it by any other Consideration but of the endless and unspeakable Misery of impenitent sinners in another World And therefore God knowing how necessary this is doth frequently make use of it and our Blessed Saviour than whom none was ever more mild and gentle doth often set this Consideration before men to take them off from sin and to bring them to do better And this St. Paul tells us Rom. 1.18 is one principal thing which renders the Gospel so powerful an Instrument for the reforming and saving of Mankind because therein the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men So that how harsh and unpleasant soever this Argument may be the great stupidity and folly of some men and their inveterate obstinacy in an Evil Course makes it necessary for us to press it home that those who will not be moved and made sensible of the danger and inconvenience of sin by gentler Arguments may be rous'd and awakened by the Terrors of Eternal Misery That the last Issue and Consequence of a wicked Life will be very Miserable the general Apprehension of Mankind concerning the fate of bad men in another World and the socret misgivings of mens Consciences gives men too much ground to fear Besides that the Justice of Divine Providence which is not many times in this World so clear and manifest does seem to require that there should be a time of Recompence when the Virtue and Patience of good men should be Rewarded and the Insolence and Obstinacy of bad men should be Punish'd This cannot but appear very reasonable to any Man that considers the Nature of God and is perswaded that he governs the World and hath given Laws to Mankind by the observance whereof they may be Happy and by the neglect and contempt whereof they must be Miserable But that there might remain no doubts upon the Minds of men concerning these matters God hath been pleas'd to reveal this from Heaven by a Person sent by him on purpose to declare it to the World and to the truth of these Doctrines concerning a future state and a day of Judgment and Recompences God hath given Testimony by unquestionable Miracles wrought for the Confirmation of them and particularly by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead whereby he hath given an assurance unto all men that he is the Person ordained by God to Judge the World in righteousness and to render to every Man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal Life but to them who obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of Man that doth evil So that how quietly soever wicked Men may pass through this World or out of it which they seldom do Misery will certainly overtake their Sins at last unspeakable and intolerable Misery arising from the anguish of a guilty Conscience from a lively Apprehension of their sad Loss and from a quick sense of the sharp Pain which they labour under and all this aggravated and set off with the Consideration of past Pleasure and the Despair of future Ease Each of these is Misery enough and all of them together do constitute and make up that dismal and forlorn State which the Scripture calls Hell and Damnation I shall therefore briefly represent for it is by no means desirable to dwell long upon so melancholy and frightful an Argument First The principal Ingredients which constitute this miserable State And Secondly The Aggravations of it First The principal Ingredients which constitute this miserale State and
bear to their Children so that if we have any Regard to them or Concernment for their Happiness we ought to be very careful of our Duty and afraid to offend God because according as we demean our selves towards him we entail a lasting Blessing or a great Curse upon our Children by so many and and so strong bonds hath God tyed our Duty upon us that if we either desire our own Happiness or the Happiness of those that are dearest to us and part of our selves we must fear God and keep his Commandments And thus I have briefly represented to you some of the chief Benefits and Advantages which an Holy and Virtuous life does commonly bring to men in this World which is the first Encouragement mention'd in the Text ye have your fruit unto holiness Before I proceed to the Second I shall only just take notice by way of Application of what hath been said on this Argument 1. That it is a great Encouragement to well-doing to consider that ordinarily Piety and Goodness are no hindrance to a Man's temporal Felicity but very frequently great promoters of it so that excepting only the case of Persecution for Religion I think I may safely challenge any Man to shew me how the Practice of any Part or Duty of Religion how the exercise of any Grace or Virtue is to the prejudice of a Man's temporal Interest or does debar him of any true Pleasure or hinder him of any real Advantage which a prudent and considerate Man would think fit to chuse And as for Persecution and Sufferings for Religion God can Reward us for them if he please in this World and we have all the assurance that we can desire that he will do it abundantly in the next 2. The hope of long life and especially of a quiet and comfortable death should be a great encouragement to an Holy and Virtuous Life He that lives well takes the best course to live long and lays in for an happy old Age free from the Diseases and Infirmities which are naturally procur'd by a vicious Youth and likewise free from the guilt and galling Remembrance of a wicked Life And there is no condition which we can fall into in this World that does so clearly discover the difference between a good and bad Man as a Death-bed For then the good Man begins most sensibly to enjoy the comforts of Well-doing and the Sinner to taste the bitter fruits of Sin What a wide difference is then to be seen between the hopes and fears of these two sorts of persons And surely next to the actual possession of Blessedness the good hopes and comfortable prospect of it are the greatest Happiness and next to the actual sense of Pain the fear of Suffering is the greatest Torment Tho' there were nothing beyond this life to be expected yet if men were sure to be possess'd with these delightful or troublesome Passions when they come to dye no Man that wisely considers things would for all the Pleasures of sin forfeit the Comfort of a Righteous Soul leaving this World full of the hope of Immortality and endure the vexation and anguish of a guilty Conscience and that infinite terror and amazement which so frequently possesseth the Soul of a dying Sinner 3. If there be any spark of a generous mind in us it should animate us to do well that we may be well spoken of when we are gone off the Stage and may transmit a grateful Memory of our lives to those that shall be after us I proceed now to the Second Thing I proposed as the great Advantage indeed Viz. The glorious Reward of a Holy and Virtuous Life in another World which is here called everlasting Life And the end everlasting Life by which the Apostle intends to express to us both the Happiness of our future State and the Way and Means whereby we are prepared and made meet to be made partakers of it and that is by the constant and sincere Endeavours of an holy and good Life For 't is they only that have their fruit unto holiness whose end shall be everlasting Life I shall speak briefly to these two and so conclude my discourse upon this Text. I. The Happiness of our future state which is here exprest by the name of everlasting Life in very few words but such as are of wonderful weight and significancy For they import the Excellency of this state and the Eternity of it And who is sufficient to speak to either of these Arguments Both of them are too big to enter now into the heart of Man too vast and boundless to be comprehended by humane understanding and too unweildy to be manag'd by the Tongue of Men and Angels answerably to the unspeakable greatness and glory of them And if I were able to declare them unto you as they deserv'd you would not be able to hear me And therefore I shall chuse to say but little upon an Argument of which I can never say enough and shall very briefly consider those two things which are comprehended in that short description which the Text gives us of our future Happiness by the name of everlasting Life viz. The Excellency of this state and the Eternity of it 1. The Excellency of it which is here represented to us under the notion of Life the most desirable of all other things because it is the Foundation of all other Enjoyments whatsoever Barely to be in being and to be sensible that we are so is but a dry Notion of Life The true Notion of Life is to be well and to be happy vivere est benè valere They who are in the most miserable condition that can be imagin'd are in being and sensible also that they are miserable But this kind of Life is so far from coming under the true Notion of Life that the Scripture calls it the second death Revel 21.8 it is there said that The wicked shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death And Chap. 20. ver 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death shall have no power So that a state of meer misery and torment is not Life but Death nay the Scripture will not allow the Life of a wicked Man in this World to be true Life but speaks of him as dead Ephes 2.1 speaking of the sinners among the Gentiles You saith the Apostle hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins And which is more yet the Scripture calls a Life of sinful Pleasures which men esteem the only Happiness of this world the Scripture I say calls this a Death 1 Tim. 5.6 She that liveth in pleasures is dead whilst she liveth A lewd and unprofitable Life which serves to no good end and purpose is a Death rather than a Life Nay that decaying and dying Life which we now live in this World and which is allayed by the
for them who will bring every work into judgment and every secret sin that ever we committed and take Vengeance upon us for all our iniquities So that whenever we sin we shamefully entreat our selves and give the deepest wounds to our Reputation in the esteem of him who is the most competent Judge of what is truly Honourable and Praise-worthy and cloath our selves with shame and dishonour We are ashamed of Poverty because the poor Man is despised and almost ridiculous in the Eye of the proud and covetous rich Man whose riches are his high Tower and make him apt to look down upon the poor Man that is below him with contempt and scorn we are ashamed of a dangerous and contagious Disease because all men fly infectious company but a Man may be poor or sick by misfortune but no Man is wicked but by his own fault and wilful choice Ill-natur'd and inconsiderate men will be apt to contemn us for our poverty and affliction in any kind but by our Vices we render our selves odious to God and to all good and considerate men II. Consider that shame for sin now is the way to prevent Eternal Shame and Confusion hereafter For this is one great part of the Misery of another World that the sinner shall then be filled with everlasting shame and confusion at the remembrance of his faults and folly The Eternal Misery of wicked men is sometimes in Scripture represented as if it consisted only or chiefly in the Infamy and Reproach which will then overwhelm them when all their crimes and faults shall be exposed and laid open to the view of the whole World Dan. 12.2 where the general Resurrection of the just and unjust is thus described Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and contempt Where everlasting life and everlasting shame are opposed as if Eternal shame were a kind of perpetual Death In this World sinners make an hard shift by concealing or extenuating their faults as well as they can to suppress or lessen their shame they have not now so clear and full Conviction of the evil and folly of their sin God is pleased to bear with them and to spare them at present and they do not yet feel the dismal effects and consequences of a wicked life but in the next World when the righteous judgment of God is revealed and the full Vials of his wrath shall be poured forth upon sinners they shall then be cloathed with shame as with a garment and be covered with confusion then they will feel the folly of their sins and have a sensible Demonstration within themselves of the infinite Evil of them their own Consciences will then furiously fly in their faces and with the greatest bitterness and rage upbraid and reproach them with the folly of their own doings and so long as we are sensible that we suffer for our own folly so long we must unavoidably be ashamed of what we have done So that if sinners shall be everlastingly tormented in another World it necessarily follows that they shall be eternally Confounded Is it not then better to remember our ways now and to be ashamed and repent of them than to bring everlasting Shame and Confusion upon our selves before God and Angels and Men This is the Argument which St. John useth to take men off from sin and to engage them to Holiness and Righteousness of Life 1. Joh. 2.28 That when he shall appear that is when he shall come to judge the World we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming III. And lastly Consider that nothing sets men at a farther distance from Repentance and all hopes of their becoming better and brings them nearer to Ruin than Impudence in a sinful course There are too many in the World who are so far from being ashamed of their Wickedness and blushing at the mention of their faults that they boast of them and glory in them God often complains of this in the People of Israel as a sad presage of their Ruin and an ill sign of their desperate and irrecoverable Condition Jer. 3.3 Thou hadst a whore's forehead and refusedst to be ashamed and Jerem. 6.15 Were they ashamed when they committed abominations Nay they were not ashamed neither could they blush therefore they shall fall among them that fall and in the time that I visit them they shall be cast down Hear likewise how the Apostle doth lament the case of such Persons as incurable and past all remedy Philip. 3.18 19. There are many of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly whose glory is in their shame Such Persons who glory in that which ought to be their shame what can their end be but destruction There is certainly no greater argument of a degenerate Person and of one that is utterly lost to all sense of goodness than to be void of shame and as on the one Hand they must be very towardly and well disposs'd to Virtue who are drawn by ingenuity and meer sense of Obligation and Kindness so on the other hand they must be very stupid and insensible who are not wrought upon by Arguments of fear and sense of shame There is hardly any hopes of that Man who is not to be reclaimed from an Evil course neither by the apprehension of danger nor of disgrace and who can at once securely neglect both his Safety and Reputation Hear how the Prophet represents the deplorable Case of such Persons Isa 3.9 The shew of their countenance bears witness against them in the Hebrew it is The hardness of their countenance doth testifie against them and they declare their sin as Sodom they hide it not Wo unto their Souls for they have rewarded evil to themselves When Men are once arrived to that pitch of Impiety as to harden their Foreheads against all sense and shew of Shame and so as to be able to set a good face upon the foulest Matter in the World wo unto them because their Case seems then to be desperate and past all hopes of Recovery For who can hope that a Man will forsake his Sins when he is not so much as ashamed of them But yet one would think that those that are not ashamed of their Impiety should be ashamed of their Impudence and should at least blush at this that they can do the vilest and the most shameful things in the World without blushing To conclude this whole Discourse let the Consideration of the evil and shamefulness of Sin have this double effect upon us to make us heartily ashamed of the past Errors and Miscarriages of our Lives and firmly resolved to do better for the future I. To be heartily ashamed of the past Errors of our Lives So often as we reflect upon the manifold
to speak of it we do but lisp like Children and understand like Children and reason like Children about it That which is imperfect must be done away and our Souls must be raised to a greater Perfection and our Understandings fill'd with a stronger and steadier Light before we can be fit to engage in so profound a Contemplation We must first have been in Heaven and possest of that Felicity and Glory which is there to be enjoyed before we can either speak or think of it in any measure as it deserves In the mean time whenever we set about it we shall find our Faculties opprest and dazled with the weight and splendor of so great and glorious an Argument like St. Paul who when he was caught up into Paradise saw and heard those things which when he came down again into this World he was not able to express and which it was not possible for the Tongue of Man to utter So that in discoursing of the state of the Blessed we must content our selves with what the Scripture hath revealed in general concerning it that it is a state of perfect freedom from all those Infirmities and Imperfections those Evils and Miseries those Sins and Temptations which we are liable to in this World So St. John describes the Glory and Felicity of that state as they were in Visions represented to him Rev. 21.2 3 4. And I John saw the holy City the new Jerusalem prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away that is all those Evils which we saw or suffered in this World shall for ever vanish and disappear and which is the great Privilege and Felicity of all that there shall no Sin be there v. 27. There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth and consequently there shall be no Misery and Curse there So we read Chap. 22.3 4. And there shall be no more curse but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him and they shall see his face In which last words our Employment and our Happiness are exprest but what in particular our Employment shall be and wherein it shall consist is impossible now to describe it is sufficient to know in the general that our Employment shall be our unspeakable Pleasure and every way suitable to the Glory and Happiness of that state and as much above the noblest and most delightful Employments of this World as the Perfection of our Bodies and the Powers of our Souls shall then be above what they are now in this World For there is no doubt but that he who made us and endued our Souls with a desire of Immortality and so large a Capacity of Happiness does understand very well by what way and means to make us happy and hath in readiness proper Exercises and Employments for that state and every way more fitted to make us Happy than any Condition or Employment in this World is suitable to a temporal Happiness Employments that are suitable to the spirits of just men made perfect united to Bodies purified and refined almost to the Condition of Spirits Employments which we shall be so far from being weary of that they shall minister to us a new and fresh delight to all Eternity and this perhaps not so much from the variety as from the perpetual and growing Pleasure of them It is sufficient for us to know this in the general and to trust the infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodness of God for the particular manner and circumstances of our Happiness not doubting but that he who is the eternal and inexhaustible Spring and Fountain of all Happiness can and will derive and convey such a share of it to every one of us as he thinks fit and in such ways as he who best understands it is best able to find out In a word the Happiness of the next Life shall be such as is worthy of the great King of the World to bestow upon his faithful Servants and such as is infinitely beyond the just Reward of their best Services it is to see God i. e. to contemplate and love the best and most perfect of Beings and to be for ever with the Lord in whose presence is fullness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore I will say no more upon this Argument lest I should say less and because whoever ventures to wade far into it will soon find himself out of his depth and in danger to be swallowed up and lost in that great abyss which is not to be fathom'd by the shallow Faculties of Mortal men I shall therefore only mention the 2. Thing I proposed to speak to viz. The Eternity of this Happiness And the end everlasting life by which the Apostle intends to express the utmost Perfection but not the final Period of the Happiness of good men in another World For to a perfect state of Happiness these two Conditions are requisite that it be immutable and that it be interminable that it can neither admit of a change nor of an end And this is all that I shall say of it it being impossible to say any thing that is more intelligible and plain concerning that which is infinite than that it is so I should now have proceeded to the II. Thing I proposed viz. By what Way and Means we may be prepared and made meet to be made partakers of this Happiness and that is as I have told you all along by the constant and sincere endeavour of an Holy and good Life for the Text supposeth that they only who are made free from Sin and become the Servants of God and who have their Fruit unto Holiness are they whose end shall be everlasting Life But this is an Argument which I have had so frequent occasion to speak to that I shall not now meddle with it All that I shall do more at present shall be to make an Inference or two from what hath been said upon this Argument I. The Consideration of the Happy State of good men in another World cannot be but a great comfort and support to good men under all the Evils and Sufferings of this present Life Hope is a great Cordial to the Minds of men especially when the thing hoped for does so vastly outweigh the present grievance and trouble The Holy Scriptures which reveal to us the Happiness of our future state do likewise assure us that there is no comparison between the Afflictions and Sufferings of good men in this World and the Reward of
and the real Reformation of our Lives Ahab humbled himself but we do not find that he was a true Penitent Judas was sorry for his Sin and yet for all that was the Son of perdition Esau is a sad type of an ineffectual Sorrow for Sin Heb. 12. where the Apostle tells us that He found no place for Repentance that is no way to change the mind of his Father Isaac tho' he sought it carefully with tears If Sorrow for Sin were Repentance there would be store of Penitents in Hell for there is the deepest and most intense sorrow weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth 2. Another mistake which Men ought to be caution'd against in this Matter is of those who exact from themselves such a degree of Sorrow for Sin as ends in deep melancholy as renders them unfit both for the Duties of Religion and of their particular Callings But because there are but very few who fall into this mistake I shall need to say the less to it This only I shall say that those who indulge their sorrow to such a degree as to drown their Spirits and to sink them into melancholy and mopishness and thereby render themselves unserviceable to God and unfit for the necessities of this life they commit one Sin more to mourn for and overthrow the End of Repentance by the indiscreet use of the Means of it For the End of Sorrow for Sin is the forsaking of it and returning to our Duty But he that Sorrows for Sin so as to unfit him for his Duty he defeats his own design and destroys the end he aims at II. The Other part of the Aplication of this Discourse should be to stir up this affection of Sorrow in us And here if I had time I might represent to you the great evil of sin and the infinite Danger and inconvenience of it If the holy men in Scripture David and Jeremiah and St. Paul were so deeply affected with the sins of others as to shed rivers of tears at the remembrance of them how ought we to be touched with the sense of our own sins who are equally concerned in the dishonour brought to God by them and infinitely more in the danger they expose us to Can we weep for our dead Friends and have we no sense of that heavy load of Guilt of that body of death which we carry about with us Can we be sad and melancholy for temporal Losses and Sufferings and refuse to be comforted And is it no Trouble to us to have lost Heaven and Happiness and to be in continual danger of the intolerable Sufferings and endless Torments of another World I shall only offer to your Consideration the great Benefit and Advantage which will redound to us from this godly Sorrow it worketh Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of saith St. Paul If we would thus sow in Tears we should reap in Joy This Sorrow would but continue for a time and in the morning of the Resurrection there would be Joy to all Eternity Joy unspeakable and full of Glory It is but a very little while and these days of Mourning will be accomplish'd and then all Tears shall be wiped from our Eyes and the ransomed of the Lord shall come to Sion with Songs and everlasting Joy shall be upon their Heads They shall obtain Joy and Gladness and Sorrow and Sighing shall flee away Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted but wo unto you that laugh for ye shall mourn and weep If Men will rejoice in the pleasures of Sin and walk in the ways of their hearts and in the sight of their eyes if they will remove Sorrow from their heart and put away all sad and melancholy Thoughts from them and are resolved to harden their Spirits against the sense of Sin against the Checks and Convictions of their own Consciences and the Suggestions of God's Holy Spirit against all the Arguments that God can offer and all the Methods that God can use to bring them to Repentance let them know that for all these things God will bring them into judgment and because they would not give way to a timely and a seasonable Sorrow for Sin they shall lye down in eternal Sorrow weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth shall be their portion for ever From which sad and miserable Estate beyond all Imagination and past all Remedy God of his infinite Goodness deliver us all for Jesus Christ his sake To whom c. SERMON IV. Serm. 4. Preach'd on Ash-Wednesday 1689. The unprofitableness of Sin in this Life an Argument for Repentance JOB XXXIII 27 28. He looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not He will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light THE great Folly and Perverseness of humane Nature is in nothing more apparent than in this that when in all other things Men are generally led and governed by their Interests Vol. 8. and can hardly be imposed upon by any Art or perswaded by any Solicitation to act plainly contrary to it yet in matter of their Sin and Duty that is in that which of all other is of greatest concernment to them they have little or no regard to it but are so blinded and bewitched with the deceitfulness of sin as not to consider the infinite Danger and Disadvantage of it and at the same time to cast the Commandments of God and the consideration of their own Happiness behind their backs And of this every Sinner when he comes to himself and considers what he hath done is abundantly convinced as appears by the Confession and Acknowledgment which is here in the Text put into the Mouth of a true Penitent I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profited me not c. In which Words here is a great Blessing and Benefit promised on God's part and the Condition required on our part First The Blessing or Benefit promised on God's part which is Deliverance from the ill Consequences and Punishment of Sin he will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light that is he will deliver him from Death and Damnation And tho' perhaps temporal Death be here immediately intended yet that is a Type of our Deliverance from eternal Death which is expresly promised in the Gospel Secondly Here is the Condition required on our part If any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not In which Words there are contained I. A penitent Confession of our Sins to God for he looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned that is make a penitent Confession of his Sin to God II. A true Contrition for our Sin not only for fear of the pernicious Consequences of Sin and the Punishment that will follow it implyed in these Words and it profited me not this is but a
time I am heartily afraid that a very great part of Mankind do miscarry upon this confidence and are swallowed up in the gulf of Eternal Perdition with this Plank in their Arms. The common Custom is and I fear it is too common when the Physician hath given over his Patient then and not till then to send for the Minister not so much to enquire into the Man's condition and to give him suitable Advice as to Minister comfort and to speak Peace to him at a venture But let me tell you that herein you put an extream difficult task upon us in expecting that we should pour Wine and Oyl into the wound before it be searched and speak smooth and comfortable things to a Man that is but just brought to a sense of the long course of a lewd and wicked Life impenitently continued in Alas what comfort can we give to men in such a case We are loth to drive them to despair and yet we must not destroy them by presumption pity and good nature do strongly tempt us to make the best of their case and to give them all the little hopes which with any kind of Reason we can and God knows it is but very little that we can give to such Persons upon good ground for it all depends upon the degree and sincerity of their Repentance which God only knows and we can but guess at We can easily tell them what they ought to have done and what they should do if they were to live longer and what is the best that they can do in those straights into which they have brought themselves viz. to exercise as deep a Sorrow and Repentance for their sins as is possible and to cry mightily to God for Mercy in and through the Merit of our Blessed Saviour But how far this will be available in these Circumstances we cannot tell because we do not know whether if the Man had lived longer this Repentance and these Resolutions which he now declares of a better course would have been good And after all is done that can be done in so short a time and in such Circumstances of confusion and disorder as commonly attend dying Persons I doubt the result of all will be this that there is much more ground of fear than hope concerning them nay perhaps while we are pressing the dying sinner to Repentance and he is bungling about it he expires in great doubt and perplexity of mind what will become of him or if his Eyes be closed with more comfortable hopes of his condition the next time he opens them again he may find his fearful mistake like the rich Man in the Parable who when he was in hell lift up his eyes being in torment This is a very dismal and melancholy consideration and commands all men presently to repent and not to put off the main work of their lives to the end of them and the time of sickness and old Age. Let us not offer up a Carcass to God instead of a living and acceptable Sacrifice but let us turn to God in the days of our health and strength before the evil days come and the years draw nigh of which we shall say we have no pleasure in them before the Sun and the Moon and the Stars be darkned As Solomon elegantly expresseth it Eccl. 12.1 2. before all the Comforts of Life be gone before our Faculties be all ceased and spent before our Understandings be too weak and our Wills too strong our Understandings be too weak for consideration and the deliberate exercise of Repentance and our Wills too strong and stiff to be bent and bowed to it Let us not deceive our selves Heaven is not an Hospital made to receive all Sick and Aged Persons that can but put up a faint request to be admitted there no no they are never like to see the Kingdom of God who instead of seeking it in the first place make it their last refuge and retreat and when they find the Sentence of Death upon them only to avoid present Execution do bethink themselves of getting to Heaven and since there is no other Remedy are contented to Petition the great King and Judge of the World that they may be transported thither Upon all these Considerations let us use no delay in a matter of such mighty consequence to our eternal Happiness but let the counsel which was given to Nebuchadnezzar be acceptable to us let us Break off our sins by righteousness and our iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if so be it may be a lengthning of our tranquillity Repentance and Alms do well together let us break off our sins by righteousness and our iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor especially upon this great occasion which his Majesty's great Goodness to those distressed Strangers that have taken Sanctuary among us hath lately presented us withal remembring that we also are in the body and liable to the like sufferings and considering on the one hand that Gracious promise of our Lord Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy and on the other hand that terrible threatning in St. James He shall have Judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy To conclude from all that hath been said let us take up a present Resolution of a better course and enter immediately upon it to day whilst it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin O that men were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end And grant we beseech the Almighty God that we may all know and do in this our day the things which belong to our peace for thy mercy's sake in Jesus Christ To whom with thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen SERMON V. Serm. 5. The Shamefulness of Sin an Argument for Repentance The First Sermon on this Text. ROM VI. 21 22. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death But now being made free from sin and become Servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end Everlasting Life THERE are two Passions which do always in some Degree or other accompany a true Repentance viz. Sorrow and Shame for our Sins because these are necessary to engage men to a Resolution of making that change wherein Repentance does consist Vol. 8. For till we are heartily sorry for what we have done and ashamed of the evil of it it is not likely that we should ever come to a firm and steady purpose of forsaking our evil ways and betaking our selves to a better course And these two Passions of Sorrow and Shame for our Sins were wont anciently to be signified by those outward expressions of Humiliation and Repentance which we find so frequently mentioned in Scripture of being cloathed in Sackcloath as a testimony of our sorrow and mourning for our
that those who have made Conscience of their Duty to God and men and have lived soberly righteously and godly in this present World shall be unspeakably and eternally Happy in the next but those who have lived lewd and licentious lives and persisted in an Impenitent Course shall be extreamly and everlastingly miserable without Pity and without Comfort and without Remedy and without Hope of ever being otherwise I say if men were fully and firmly perswaded of these things it is not Credible it is hardly Possible that they should live such Prophane and Impious such Careless and Dissolute Lives as we daily see a great part of Mankind do That Man that can be aw'd from his Duty or tempted to Sin by any of the Pleasures or Terrors of this World that for the present enjoyment of his Lusts can be contented to venture his Soul what greater Evidence than this can there be that this Man does not believe the threatnings of the Gospel and how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God That Man that can be willing to undergo an hard Service for several years that he may be in a way to get an Estate and be rich in this World and yet will not be perswaded to restrain himself of his Liberty or to deny his Pleasure or to check his Appetite or Lust for the greatest Reward that God can promise or the severest Punishment that he can threaten can any Man reasonably think that this Man is perswaded of any such Happiness or Misery after this Life as is plainly revealed in the Gospel that verily there is a reward for the righteous and verily there is a God that judgeth the Earth For what can he that believes not one syllable of the Bible do worse than this comes to A strong and vigorous Faith even in Temporal Cases is a powerful Principle of Action especially if it be back'd and enforc'd with Arguments of fear He that believes the reality of a thing and that it is good for him and that it may be attained and that if he do attain it it will make him very happy and that without it he shall be extreamly miserable such a Belief and Perswasion will put a Man upon difficult things and make him to put forth a vigorous endeavour and to use a mighty industry for the obtaining of that concerning which he is thus perswaded And the Faith of the Gospel ought to be so much the more powerful by how much the Objects of hope and fear which it presents to us are greater and more considerable Did men fully believe the Happiness of Heaven and the Torments of Hell and were they as verily perswaded of the truth of them as if they were before their Eyes how insignificant would all the Terrors and Temptations of Sense be to draw them into Sin and seduce them from their Duty But altho' it seems very strange and almost incredible that men should believe these things and yet live wicked and impious lives yet because I have no Mind and God knows there 's no need to increase the number of Infidels in this Age I shall chuse rather to impute a great deal of the wickedness that is in the World to the Inconsiderateness of men than to their Unbelief I will grant that they do in some sort believe these things or at least that they do not disbelieve them and then the great cause of mens ruin must be that they do not attend to the Consequence of this Belief and how men ought to live that are thus perswaded Men stifle their Reason and suffer themselves to be hurried away by Sense into the embraces of sensual Objects and things present but do not consider what the end of these things will be and what is like to become of them hereafter for it is not to be imagined but that that Man who shall calmly consider with himself what Sin is the shortness of its Pleasure and the Eternity of its Punishment should seriously resolve upon a better Course of life And why do we not Consider these things which are of so infinite Concernment to us What have we our Reason for but to reflect upon our selves and to mind what we do and wisely to compare things together and upon the whole matter to judge what makes most for our true and lasting Interest to Consider our whole selves our Souls as well as our Bodies and our whole duration not only in this World but in the other not only with regard to Time but to Eternity to look before us to the last Issue and Event of our Actions and to the farthest Consequence of them and to reckon upon what will be hereafter as well as what is present and if we suspect or hope or fear especially if we have good reason to believe a future state after Death in which we shall be happy or miserable to all Eternity according as we manage and behave our selves in this World to resolve to make it our greatest Design and Concernment while we are in this World so to live and demean our selves that we may be of the number of those that shall be accounted worthy to escape that Misery and to obtain that happiness which will last and continue for ever And if men would but apply their Minds seriously to the Consideration of these things they could not act so imprudently as they do they would not live so by chance and without design taking the Pleasure that comes next and avoiding the present Evils which press upon them without any regard to those that are future and at a distance tho' they be infinitely greater and more considerable If men could have the Patience to debate and argue these matters with themselves they could not live so preposterously as they do preferring their Bodies before their Souls and the World before God and the things which are Temporal before the things that are Eternal Did men verily and in good earnest believe but half of that to be true which hath now been declared to you concerning the miserable state of impenitent Sinners in another World and I am very sure that the one half of that which is true concerning that state hath not been told you I say did we in any measure believe what hath been so imperfectly represented What manner of persons should we all be in all holy conversation and godliness waiting for and hastening unto that is making haste to make the best preparation we could for the coming of the day of God! I will conclude all with our Saviour's Exhortation to his Disciples and to all others Watch ye therefore and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of Man To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory world without end Amen SERMON VIII Serm. 8. The present and future Advantage of an Holy and Virtuous Life The Fourth Sermon on this Text.
himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works and herein the great Mercy and Compassion of God towards Mankind appeared in that he sent his Son to rescue us from that Servitude which we had so long groaned under that being made free from sin we might become the servants of God and the servants of righteousness And this he hath done not only by the price of his Blood but by the Power and Purity of his Doctrine and the Holy Example of his Life and by all those Considerations which represent to us the Misery of our sinful state and the infinite danger of continuing in it and on the other Hand by setting before us the Advantages of a Religious and Holy Life and what a blessed change we make when we quit the Service of Sin and become the Servants of God It will not only be a mighty present Benefit to us but will make us happy to all Eternity and these are the Two Considerations which at first I propounded to speak to at this time First The present Benefit of an Holy and Virtuous Life which the Apostle here calls Fruit But now being made free from sin and become the servants of God ye have your fruit unto holiness Secondly The future Reward and Recompence of it and the end everlasting life First Let us consider the present Benefit and Advantage of an Holy and Virtuous Life which the Apostle here calls Fruit. If all things be truly consider'd there is no Advantage comes to any Man by a wicked and vicious Course of Life A wicked Life is no present Advantage the reflection upon it afterwards is shameful and troublesom and the end of it miserable But on the contrary the Advantages of an holy and good life are many and great even in this World and upon temporal accounts abstracting from the Consideration of a future Reward in the World to come I shall instance in Five or Six eminent Advantages which it usually brings to men in this World I. It brings great Peace and Contentment of Mind II. It is a very fit and proper Means to promote our outward temporal Interest III. It tends to the lengthning our days and hath frequently the Blessing of long Life attending upon it IV. It gives a Man great Peace and Comfort when he comes to die V. After Death it transmits a good Name and Reputation to Posterity VI. It derives a Blessing upon our Posterity after us And these are certainly the greatest Blessings that a wise Man can aim at and design to himself in this World Every one of these taken severally is very considerable but all of them together compleat a Man's temporal Felicity and raise it to as high a pitch as is to be expected in this World I. A Religious and Virtuous course of Life is the best way to Peace and Contentment of Mind and does commonly bring it And to a wise Man that knows how to value the ease and satisfaction of his own Mind there cannot be a greater temptation to Religion and Virtue than to consider that it is the best and only way to give rest to his Mind And this is present Fruit and ready Payment because it immediately follows or rather accompanies the discharge of our Duty The fruit of righteousness is peace saith the Prophet and the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks of the peaceable fruits of righteousness meaning that inward Peace which a Righteous Man hath in his own Mind A Man needs not to take pains or to use many Arguments to satisfie and content his own Mind after he hath done a good Action and to convince himself that he hath no cause to be troubled for it for Peace and Pleasure do naturally spring from it Nay not only so but there is an unexpressible kind of pleasure and delight that flows from the testimony of a good Conscience Let but a Man take care to satisfie himself in the doing of his Duty and whatever troubles and storms may be raised from without all will be clear and calm within For nothing but guilt can trouble a Man's Mind and fright his Conscience and make him uneasie to himself that indeed will wound his Spirit and sting his very Soul and make him full of fearful and tormenting thoughts This Cain found after he had committed that crying sin of Murdering his Brother Gen. 4.6 The Lord said unto Cain why art thou wrath and why is thy Countenance fall'n His guilt made him full of wrath and discontent fill'd his Mind with vexation and his Countenance with shame and confusion When a Man's conscience is awakened to a sense of his guilt it is angry and froward and harder to be still'd than a peevish Child But the practice of Holiness and Virtue does produce just the contrary effects it fills a Man's Mind with Pleasure and makes his Countenance chearful And this certainly if it be well consider'd is no small and contemptible advantage The peace and tranquillity of our Minds is the great thing which all the Philosophy and Wisdom of the World did always design to bring men to as the very utmost happiness that a Wise Man is capable of in this Life and 't is that which no considerate Man would part with for all that this World can give him The greatest fortune in this World ought to be no temptation to any Man in his Wits to submit to perpetual Sickness and Pain for the gaining of it and yet there is no disease in the World that for the sharpness of it is comparable to the sting of a guilty Mind and no pleasure equal to that of Innocence and a good Conscience And this naturally springs up in the Mind of a good Man where it is not hindred either by a melancholy temper or by false Principles in Religion which fill a Man with groundless fears and jealousies of the love and favour of God towards him and excepting these two cases this is the ordinary fruit of an holy and good course which is not interrupted by frequent falling into sin and great omissions and violations of our duty For in this case the interruptions of our Peace and Comfort will naturally be answerable to the inequality of our Obedience II. Besides the present and inestimable Fruit of Holiness the quiet and satisfaction of our own Minds it is likewise a proper means to promote our Interest and Happiness in this World For as every Vice is naturally attended with some Temporal Inconvenience of Pain or Loss so there is no Grace or Virtue but does apparently conduce to a Man's temporal Felicity There are some Virtues which tend to the health of his Body and the prolonging of his Life as Temperance and Chastity others tend to Riches and Plenty as Diligence and Industry in our callings others to the secure and peaceable Enjoyment of what we have as Truth and Fidelity Justice and Honesty in all our dealings and
intercourse with men There are other Virtues that are apt to oblige Mankind to us and to gain their Friendship and good Will their Aid and Assistance as Kindness and Meekness and Charity and a generous Disposition to do good to all as far as we have Power and Oportunity In a word there is no real Interest of this World but may ordinarily be as effectually promoted and pursued to as great Advantage by a Man that Exercises himself in the Practice of all Virtue and Goodness and usually to far greater Advantage than by one that is Intemperate and Debauch'd Deceitful and Dishonest apt to disoblige and provoke sour and ill-natur'd to all Mankind For there is none of these Vices but is to a Man's real hinderance and disadvantage in regard of one kind of Happiness or another which men aim at and propose to themselves in this World III. A Religious and Virtuous Course of Life doth naturally tend to the prolonging of our days and hath very frequently the Blessing of Health and long Life attending upon it The Practice of a great many Virtues is a great Preservative of Life and Health as the due government of our Appetites and Passions by Temperance and Chastity and Meekness which prevent the chief Causes from within of Bodily Diseases and Distempers the due government of our Tongues and Conversation in respect of others by Justice and Kindness and abstaining from Wrath and Provocation which are a great security against the dangers of outward Violence according to that of St. Peter 1 Epist 3.10 He that will love life and see good days let him refrain his Tongue from evil and his Lips that they speak no guile let him eschew evil and do good let him seek peace and ensue it And beside the natural tendency of things there is a special Blessing of God which attends good men and makes their days long in the land which the Lord their God hath given them IV. There is nothing gives a Man so much Comfort when he comes to die as the reflection upon an holy and good Life and then surely above all other times Comfort is most valuable because our frail and infirm Nature doth then stand most in need of it Then usually mens Hearts are faint and their Spirits low and every thing is apt to deject and trouble them so that we had need to provide our selves of some excellent Cordial against that time and there is no Comfort like to that of a clear Conscience and of an innocent and useful Life This will revive and raise a Man's Spirits under all the Infirmities of his Body because it gives a Man good hopes concerning his Eternal State and the hopes of that are apt to fill a Man with Joy unspeakable and full of glory The difference between good and bad Men is never so remarkable in this World as when they are upon their Death-Bed This the Scripture observes to us Psal 37.37 Mark the perfect Man and behold the upright for the end of that Man is peace With what Triumph and Exultation doth the Blessed Apostle St. Paul upon the review of his Life discourse concerning his Death and Dissolution 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. I am now ready says he to be offered up and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finish'd my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge will give me at that day What would not any of us do to be thus affected when we come to leave the World and to be able to bear the thoughts of Death and Eternity with so quiet and well satisfi'd a Mind why let us but endeavour to live Holy lives and to be useful and serviceable to God in our Generation as this holy Apostle was and we shall have the same ground of Joy and Triumph which he had For this is the proper and genuine effect of Virtue and Goodness The work of righteousness is peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever All the good Actions that we do in this Life are so many seeds of Comfort sown in our own Consciences which will spring up one time or other but especially in the approaches of Death when we come to take a serious review of our lives for then mens Consciences use to deal plainly and impartially with them and to tell them the truth and if at that time more especially our hearts condemn us not then may we have comfort and confidence towards God V. An Holy and Virtuous Life doth transmit a good Name and Reputation to Posterity And this Solomon hath determined to be a much greater Happiness than for a Man to leave a great Estate behind him A good name says he is rather to be chosen than great riches Pious and Virtuous men do commonly gain to themselves a good Esteem and Reputation in this World while they are in it but the Virtues of good men are not always so bright and shining as to meet with that respect and acknowledgment which is due to them in this World Many times they are much clouded by the Infirmities and Passions which attend them and are shadowed by some affected singularities and morosities which those which have liv'd more retir'd from the World are more liable to Besides that the Envy of others who are not so good as they lies heavy upon them and does depress them For bad men are very apt to misinterpret the best Actions of the good and put false colours upon them and when they have nothing else to object against them to charge them with Hypocrisie and Insincerity an Objection as hard to be answer'd as it is to be made good unless we could see into the Hearts of men But when good men are dead and gone and the bright and shining Example of their Virtues is at a convenient distance and does not gall and upbraid others then Envy ceaseth and every Man is then content to give a good Man his due Praise and his Friends and Posterity may then quietly enjoy the Comfort of his Reputation which is some sort of Blessing to him that is gone This difference Solomon observes to us between good and bad men The memory of the just is blessed or well spoken of but the name of the wicked shall rot VI. And lastly Religion and Virtue do derive a Blessing upon our Posterity after us Oh that there were such an heart in them saith Moses concerning the People of Israel that they would fear me and keep all my Commandments always that it might be well with them and with their Children for ever And to this purpose there are many Promises in Scripture of God's Blessing the Posterity of the righteous and his shewing mercies to thousands of the Children of them that love him and keep his Commandments And this a great motive to Obedience and toucheth upon that Natural Affection which men
the Story but for the Moral of it I will namely that Consideration is one of the best and most likely means in the World to bring a bad Man to a better Mind I now come to the IV. And last particular namely that the want of this Consideration is one of the greatest Causes of mens Ruin And this likewise is implyed in the Text and the Reason why God does so vehemently desire that men would be wise and consider is because so many are ruin'd and undone for want of it This is the desperate folly of Mankind that they seldom think seriously of the Consequence of their Actions and least of all of such as are of greatest Concernment to them and have the chief influence upon their eternal Condition They do not consider what Mischief and Inconvenience a wicked Life may plunge them into in this World what Trouble and Disturbance it may give them when they come to die what Horror and Confusion it may fill them withal when they are leaving this World and passing into Eternity and what intolerable Misery and Torment it may bring upon them to all Eternity Did men ponder and lay to heart Death and Judgment Heaven and Hell and would they but let their thoughts dwell upon these things it is not credible that the generality of men could lead such profane and impious such lewd and dissolute such secure and careless Lives as they do Would but a Man frequently entertain his Mind with such thoughts as these I must shortly die and leave this World and then all the Pleasures and Enjoyments of it will be to me as if they had never been only that the remembrance of them and the ill use I have made of them will be very bitter and grievous to me after all Death will transmit me out of this World into a quite different State and Scene of things into the presence of that great and terrible that inflexible and impartial Judge who will render to every Man according to his works and then all the evils which I have done in this Life will rise up in Judgment against me and fill me with everlasting Confusion in that great assembly of Men and Angels will banish me from the presence of God and all the Happiness which flows from it and procure a dreadful sentence of unspeakable Misery and Torment to be past upon me which I can never get reverst nor yet ever be able to stand under the weight of it if men would but enter into the serious Consideration of these things and pursue these thoughts to some Issue and Conclusion they would take up other Resolutions and I verily believe that the want of this hath ruin'd more than even infidelity it self And this I take to be the meaning of that question in the Psalmist Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge that is no Consideration intimating that if they had they would do better All that now remains is to perswade men to apply their hearts to this piece of wisdom to look before them and to think seriously of the Consequence of their Actions what will be the final Issue of that Course of Life they are engaged in and if they continue in it what will become of them hereafter what will become of them for ever And here I might apply this Text as God here does to the People of Israel to the publick Condition of this Nation which is not so very unlike to that of the People of Israel for God seems to have chosen this Nation for his more peculiar People and hath exercised a very particular Providence towards us in conducting us through that Wilderness of Confusion in which we have been wandring for the space of above forty years and when things were come to the last extremity and we seemed to stand upon the very brink of Ruin Then as it is said of the People of Israel ver 36. of this Chapter God repented himself for his servants when he saw that their Power was gone that is that they were utterly unable to help themselves and to work their own deliverance And it may be said of us as Moses does of that People Chap. 33.29 Happy art thou O Israel O people saved by the Lord the shield of thy help and who is the Sword of thy excellency Never did any Nation struggle with and get through so many and so great difficulties as we have several times done And I fear we have behaved our selves toward God not much better than the People of Israel did but like Jesurun after many deliverances and great mercies have waxed fat and kicked have forsaken the God that made us and little esteemed the Rock of our Salvation by which we have provoked the Lord to jealousie and have as it were forc'd him to multiply his Judgments and to spend his arrows upon us and to hide his face from us to see what our end will be so that we have Reason to fear that God would have brought utter Ruin and Destruction upon us and scatter'd us into corners and made the remembrance of us to have ceased from among men had he not feared the wrath of the enemy and lest the adversaries should have behaved themselves strangely and lest they should say Our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this that is lest they should ascribe this just vengeance of God upon a sinful and unthankful Nation to the goodness and righteousness of their own Cause and to the favour and assistance of the Idols and false Gods whom they worship'd to the Patronage and Aid of the Virgin Mary and the Saints to whom contrary to the Will and Command of the true God they had offer'd up so many Prayers and Vows and paid the greatest part of their Religious worship but the Lord hath shewn himself greater than all Gods and in the things wherein they dealt proudly that he is above them for our Rock is not as their Rock even our enemies themselves being Judges And we have been too like the People of Israel in other respects also so sickle and inconstant that after great deliverances we are apt presently to murmur and be discontented to grow sick of our own Happiness and to turn back in our hearts into Egypt so that God may complain of us as he does of his People Israel that nothing that he could do would bring them to Consideration and make them better neither his mercies nor his Judgments Isa 1.2 3. Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth For the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children but they have rebelled against me The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People doth not consider And so likewise he complains that his Judgments had no effect upon them ver 5. Why should ye be smitten any more Ye will revolt more and more Well therefore may it be said of us as it was of them in the Verse before
repent without such a degree of God's Grace as cannot be resisted no Man's Repentance is commendable nor is one Man's Impenitence more blameable than anothers Chorazin and Bethsaida can be in no more fault for continuing Impenitent than Tyre and Sidon were For either this irresistible Grace is afforded to men or not if it be their Repentance is necessary and they cannot help it if it be not their Repentance is impossible and consequently their Impenitence is necessary and they cannot help it neither V. I observe from the main scope of our Saviour's Discourse That the Sins and Impenitence of men receive their Aggravation and consequently shall have their Punishment proportionable to the Opportunities and Means of Repentance which those Persons have enjoyed and neglected For what is here said of Miracles is by equality of Reason likewise true of all other Advantages and Means of Repentance and Salvation The Reason why Miracles will be such an Aggravation of the Condemdemnation of men is because they are so proper and powerful a Means to convince men of the Truth and Divinity of that Doctrine which calls them to Repentance So that all those Means which God affords to us of the Knowledge of our Duty of Conviction of the Evil and Danger of a sinful Course are so many helps and Motives to Repentance and consequently will prove so many Aggravations of our Sin and Punishment if we continue impenitent The VI. And last Observation and which naturally follows from the former is this That the Case of those who are impenitent under the Gospel is of all others the most dangerous and their Damnation shall be heaviest and most severe And this brings the Case of these Cities here in the Text home to our selves For in truth there is no material difference between the Case of Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum and of our selves in this City and Nation who enjoy the clear Light of the Gospel with all the freedom and all the Advantages that any People ever did The Mercies of God to this Nation have been very great especially in bringing us out of that darkness and superstition which covered this Western part of the World in rescuing us from that great Corruption and Degeneracy of the Christian Religion which prevailed among us by so early and so regular a Reformation and in continuing so long this great Blessing to us The Judgments of God have been likewise very great upon us for our Sins God hath manifested himself by terrible things in righteousness our Eyes have seen many and dismal Calamities in the space of a few years which call lowdly upon us to repent and turn to God God hath afforded us the most effectual Means of Repentance and hath taken the most effectual Course of bringing us to it And tho' our Blessed Saviour do not speak to us in Person nor do we at this day see Miracles wrought among us as the Jews did yet we have the Doctrine which our Blessed Saviour preach'd faithfully transmitted to us and a credible Relation of the Miracles wrought for the Confirmation of that Doctrine and many other Arguments to perswade us of the Truth of it which those to whom our Saviour spake had not nor could not then have taken from the accomplishing of our Saviour's Predictions after his Death the speedy Propagation and wonderful success of this Doctrine in the World by weak and inconsiderable Means against all the Power and Opposition of the World the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Dispersion of the Jewish Nation according to our Saviour's Prophesie besides many more that might be mentioned And which is a mighty Advantage to us we are free from those Prejudices against the Person of our Saviour and his Doctrine which the Jews by the reverence which they bore to their Rulers and Teachers were generally possest withal we are brought up in the belief of it and have drunk it in by Education and if we believe it as we all profess to do we have all the Obligation and all the Arguments to Repentance which the Jews could possibly have from the Miracles which they saw for they were Means of Repentance to them no otherwise than as they brought them to the belief of our Saviour's Doctrine which call'd them to Repentance So that if we continue impenitent the same woe is denounced against us that is against Chorazin and Bethsaida and we may be said with Capernaum to be lifted up to Heaven by the Enjoyment of the most excellent Means and Advantages of Salvation that any People ever did which if we neglect and still continue wicked and impenitent under them we may justly fear that with them we shall be thrown down to Hell and have our place in the lowest part of that dismal Dungeon and in the very Centre of that fiery Furnace Never was there greater cause to upbraid the impenitence of any People than of us considering the Means and Opportunities which we enjoy and never had any greater reason to fear a severer Doom than we have Impenitence in a Heathen is a great Sin else how should God judge the World But God takes no notice of that in comparison of the Impenitence of Christians who enjoy the Gospel and are convinced of the Truth and upon the greatest reason in the World profess to believe it We Christians have all the Obligations to Repentance that Reason and Revelation Nature and Grace can lay upon us Art thou convinced that thou hast sinned and done that which is contrary to thy Duty and thereby provoked the Wrath of God and incensed his Justice against thee As thou art a Man and upon the stock of Natural Principles thou art obliged to Repentance The same Light of Reason which discovers to thee the Errors of thy Life and challengeth thee for thy Impiety and Intemperance for thy Injustice and Oppression for thy Pride and Passion the same Natural Conscience which accuseth thee of any Miscarriages does oblige thee to be sorry for it to turn from thy evil ways and to break off thy Sins by Repentance For nothing can be more unreasonable than for a Man to know a fault and yet not think himself bound to be sorry for it to be convinced of the evil of his ways and not to think himself obliged by that very Conviction to turn from it and forsake it If there be any such thing as a natural Law written in Mens Hearts which the Apostle tells us the Heathens had it is impossible to imagine but that the Law which obligeth Men not to transgress should oblige them to Repentance in case of Transgression And this every Man in the World is bound to tho' he had never seen the Bible nor heard of the name of Christ And the Revelation of the Gospel doth not supersede this Obligation but adds new Strength and Force to it and by how much this Duty of Repentance is more clearly revealed by our Blessed Saviour in the Gospel by how much the