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
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.
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 I Have several times told you that the Apostle in these words makes a Comparison between an Holy and Virtuous and a Sinful and Vicious Course of Life Vol. 8. and sets before us the manifest Inconveniences of the one and the manifold Advantages of the other I have finish'd my Discourse upon the First Part of the Comparison the manifest Inconveniences of a sinful and vicious Course I proceed now to the other Part of the Comparison which was the Second Thing I propounded to speak to from these words viz. the manifold Benefits and Advantages of an Holy and Virtuous Course and that upon these Two accounts First Of the present Benefit and Advantage of it which the Apostle here calls Fruit Ye have your fruit unto holiness Secondly In respect of the future reward of it and the end everlasting life So that here is a considerable Earnest in hand besides a mighty Recompence afterwards infinitely beyond the proportion of our best Actions and Services both in regard of the greatness and duration of it everlasting life that is for a few transient acts of Obedience a perfect and immutable and endless state of Happiness And these Two the Apostle mentions in Opposition to the Inconveniences and Evil Consequences of a wicked and vicious Course What fruit had you then in those things c. But before I come to speak to these Two particulars I shall take notice of the description which the Apostle here makes of the change from a state of Sin and Vice to a state of Holiness and Virtue But now being made free from sin and become the servants of God intimating that the state of sin is a state of Servitude and Slavery from which Repentance and the change which is thereby made does set us free but now being made free from sin And so our Saviour tells us that whosoever committeth sin is the Servant of sin and this is the vilest and hardest Slavery in the World because it is the Servitude of the Soul the best and noblest part of our selves 't is the subjection of our Reason which ought to rule and bear Sway over the inferior Faculties to our sensual Appetites and brutish Passions which is as uncomely a sight as to see Beggars ride on Horse back and Princes walk on foot and as Inferiour Persons when they are advanced to Power are strangely Insolent and Tyrannical towards those that are subject to them so the Lusts and Passions of men when they once get the Command of them are the most domineering Tyrants in the World and there is no such Slave as a Man that is subject to his Appetite and Lust that is under the Power of irregular Passions and vicious Inclinations which transport and hurry him to the vilest and most unreasonable things For a wicked Man is a Slave to as many Masters as he hath Passions and Vices and they are very imperious and exacting and the more he yields to them the more they grow upon him and exercise the greater Tyranny over him and being subject to so many Masters the poor Slave is continually divided and distracted between their contrary Commands and Impositions one Passion hurries him one way and another as violently drives him another one Lust commands him upon such a Service and another it may be at the same time calls him to another Work His Pride and Ambition bids him spend and lay it out whilst his Covetousness holds his Hand fast closed so that he knows not many times how to dispose of himself or what to do he must displease some of his Masters and what Inclination soever he contradicts he certainly displeaseth himself And that which aggravates the Misery of his Condition is that he voluntarily submits to this Servitude In other Cases men are made Slaves against their wills and are brought under the Force and Power of others whom they are not able to resist but the sinner chuseth this Servitude and willingly puts his neck under this yoke There are few men in the World so sick of their Liberty and so weary of their own Happiness as to chuse this Condition but the Sinner sells himself and voluntarily parts with that Liberty which he might keep and which none could take from him And which makes this Condition yet more intolerable he makes himself a Slave to his own Servants to those who are born to be subject to him to his own Appetites and Passions and this certainly is the worst kind of Slavery so much worse than that of Mines and Gallies as the Soul is more Noble and Excellent than the Body Men are not usually so sensible of the Misery of this kind of Servitude because they are govern'd by Sense more than Reason But according to a true Judgment and Estimation of things a Vicious Course Life is the saddest Slavery of all others And therefore the Gospel represents it as a design every way worthy of the Son of God to come down from Heaven and to debase himself so far as to assume our Nature and to submit to the Death of the Cross on purpose to rescue us from this Slavery and to assert us into the liberty of the Sons of God And this is the great design of the Doctrine of the Gospel to free men from the Bondage of their Lusts and to bring them to the Service of God whose service is perfect freedom And therefore our Saviour tells us John 8.31 32. That if we continue in his word i. e. if we obey his Doctrine and frame our lives according to it it will make us free Ye shall know says he the truth and the truth shall make you free And if we observe it the Scripture delights very much to set forth to us the Benefits and Advantages of the Christian Religion by the Metaphor of Liberty and Redemption from Captivity and Slavery Hence our Saviour is so often call'd the Redeemer and Deliverer and is said to have obtained eternal Redemption for us And the publishing of the Gospel is compared to the Proclaming of the year of Jubile among the Jews when all Persons that would were set at Liberty Isa 61.1 2. The spirit of the Lord is upon me saith the Prophet speaking in the Person of the Messiah because he hath anointed me to Proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And it is probable that upon this account likewise the Christian Doctrine or Law is by St. James call'd the Royal law of liberty This is the great design of Christianity to set men free from the Slavery of their Lusts and to this end the Apostle tells us Tit. 2.13 that Christ gave
before is call'd the prayer of faith meaning that Miraculous Faith in the Power whereof Christians did obtain of God whatever they were inspir'd to ask of him according to our Saviour's promise in the Gospel concerning the efficacy of the Prayers of Christians which we find mention'd among the other Miraculous Powers which were to be conferr'd upon them by the coming of the Holy Ghost 2. Confession of our Sins to Men is likewise reasonable in order to the ease and satisfaction of our minds and our being directed in our Duty for the future In this Case common Reason and Prudence without any Precept of Scripture will direct men to have recourse to this remedy viz. to discover and lay open our disease to some skilful spiritual Physician to some faithful Friend or prudent Guide in order to spiritual advice and direction for the peace and satisfaction of our minds And then 3. In case our Sins have been publick and scandalous both Reason and the practice of the Christian Church do require that when men have publickly offended they should give publick Satisfaction and open Testimony of their Repentance But as for private and auricular Confession of our Sins to a Priest in all cases and as of absolute necessity to our obtaining Pardon and Forgiveness from God as the Church of Rome teacheth this is neither necessary by divine Precept nor by any Constitution and Practice of the ancient Christian Church as I have shewn in my former discourse Not to mention the bad consequences of this Practice and the impious and dangerous use which hath been made of this Seal of Confession for the concealing and carrying on of the most wicked and barbarous designs and the debauching of the Penitents by drawing them into the Commission of the same and greater Sins than those which they confessed which the more devout Persons of that Church have frequently complain'd of I proceed now to shew briefly in the III. Place the Grounds and Reasons of the necessity of confessing our Sins to God and I shall but just mention them 1. From the Precept and Command of God for which I have already produced clear Proof of Scripture 2. From the Nature of the thing because without this there can be no Repentance towards God He that will not so much as own the faults which he hath been guilty of can never Repent of them If we will not confess our Sins to God we are never like to be sorry for them Thus much for the first thing in the Text the Confession of our Sins I proceed now to the Second Ingredient of Repentance mentioned in the Text which is Sorrow for Sin I will declare mine iniquity and be sorry for my Sin In the handling of this Argument I shall I. Consider the Nature of this Passion of Sorrow II. The Reason and Grounds of our Sorrow for Sin III. The Measure and Degrees of it IV. How far the outward expression of our inward grief by Tears is necessary to a true Repentance I. For the Nature of this Passion Sorrow is a trouble or disturbance of Mind occasioned by something that is evil done or suffer'd by us or which we are in danger of suffering that tends greatly to our damage or mischief So that to be sorry for a thing is nothing else but to be sensibly affected with the Consideration of the evil of it and of the mischief and inconvenience which is like to redound to us from it Which if it be a Moral evil such as Sin is to be sorry for it is to be troubled that we have done it and to wish with all our hearts that we had been wiser and had done otherwise and if this Sorrow be true and real if it abide and stay upon us it will produce a firm Purpose and Resolution in us not to do the like for the future 'T is true indeed that we are said to be sorry for the death and loss of Friends but this is rather the effect of Natural Affection than of our Reason which always endeavours to check and moderate our grief for that which we cannot help and labours by all means to turn our Sorrow into patience And we are said likewise to grieve for the miseries and sufferings of others but this is not so properly Sorrow as Pity and Compassion Sorrow rather respects our selves and our own doings and Sufferings I proceed in the II. Place To enquire into the Reasons and Grounds of our Sorrow for Sin and they as I have already hinted are these two the Intrinsecal or the Consequent evil of Sin either the evil of Sin in it's self or the mischiefs or inconveniencies which it will bring upon us For every one that is sorry for any fault he is guilty of he is so upon one of these two accounts either upon the score of ingenuity or of interest either because he hath done a thing which is unworthy in it's self or because he hath done something which may prove prejudicial to himself either out of a principle of love and gratitude to God or from a principle of self-love And tho' the former of these be the better the more generous principle of Sorrow yet the latter is usually the first because it is the more sensible and toucheth us more nearly For Sin is a base and ill-natur'd thing and renders a Man not so apt to be affected with the injuries he hath offer'd to God as with the Mischief which is likely to fall upon himself And therefore I will begin with the latter because it is usually the more sensible cause of our Trouble and Sorrow for Sin 1. The great Mischief and Inconvenience that Sin is like to bring upon us When a Man is thoroughly convinc'd of the danger into which his sins have brought him that they have made him a child of wrath and a Son of perdition that he is thereby fallen under the heavy dipleasure of Almighty God and liable to all those dreadful curses which are written in his Book that ruin and destruction hang over him and that nothing keeps him from eternal and intolerable torments but the Patience and Long-suffering of God which he does not know how soon it may cease to interpose between him and the wrath of God and let him fall into that endless and insupportable misery which is the just portion and desert of his Sins he that lays to Heart the sad Estate and Condition into which he hath brought himself by Sin and the Mischiefs which attend him every moment of his continuance in that state and how near they are to him and that there is but a step between him and Death and hardly another between that and Hell he cannot surely but be very sorry for what he hath done and be highly displeased and offended with himself that he should be the Author of his own ruin and have contributed as much as in him lies to his everlasting undoing 2. Another and better Principle of Sorrow for Sin
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
and heinous Provocations of the Divine Majesty which many of us have been guilty of in the long course of a wicked Life together with the heavy Aggravations of our Sins by all the circumstances that can render them abominable and shameful not only in the Eye of God and Men but of our own Consciences likewise we have great reason to humble our selves before God in a penitent acknowledgment of them and every one of us to say with Job Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay mine hand upon my mouth I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes and with Ezra O my God! I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God for our iniquities are increased over our heads and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens And now O my God what shall we say after this for we have forsaken thy commandments and with holy Daniel We have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face Thus we should reproach and upbraid our selves in the Presence of that Holy God whom we have so often and so higly offended and against whom we have done as evil things as we could and say with the prodigal Son in the Parable Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son If we would thus take shame to our selves and humble our selves before God he would be merciful to us miserable Sinners he would take away all iniquity and receive us graciously and so soon as ever he saw us coming towards him would meet us with joy and embrace us in the Arms of his Mercy And then II. As we should be heartily ashamed of the past Errours and Miscarriages of our Lives so we should firmly resolve by God's Grace to do better for the future never to consent to Iniquity or to do any thing which we are convinc'd is contrary to our Duty and which will be matter of Shame to us when we come to look back upon it and make our Blood to rise in our Faces at the mention or intimation of it which will make us to sneak and hang down our heads when we are twitted and upbraided with it and which if it be not prevented by a timely Humiliation and Repentance will fill us with Horror and Amazement with Shame and Confusion of Face both at the Hour of Death and in the Day of Judgment So that when we look into our Lives and examine the Actions of them when we consider what we have done and what our Doings have deserved we should in a due sense of the great and manifold Miscarriages of our Lives and from a deep Sorrow and Shame and Detestation of our selves for them I say we should with that true Penitent described in Job take Words to our selves and say Surely it is meet to be said unto God I will not offend any more That which I know not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more And thus I have done with the second Inconvenience of a sinful and vicious Course of Life viz. that the reflection upon it afterwards causeth Shame What fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed SERMON VII Serm. 7. The final Issue of Sin an Argument for Repentance The Third 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 THESE words are a Comparison between an Holy and Virtuous and a Sinful and Vicious Course of Life and set before us the manifest Inconveniences of the one Vol. 8. and the manifold Advantages of the other I have enter'd into a Discourse upon the First of these Heads viz. The manifest Inconveniences of a sinful and vicious Course And the Text mentions these three I. That it is Unprofitable II. That the reflection upon it afterwards is matter of Shame These Two I have spoken largely to I shall now proceed to the III. And last Inconvenience which the Text mentions of a sinful and vicious Course of Life viz. That the final Issue and Consequence of these things is very dismal and miserable The end of those things is Death No Fruit then when ye did these things shame now that you come to reflect upon them and Misery and Death at the last There are indeed almost innumerable Considerations and Arguments to discourage and deter men from sin the Unreasonableness of it in it self the Injustice and Disloyalty and Ingratitude of it in respect to God the ill Example of it to others the Cruelty of it to our selves the Shame and Dishonour that attends it the Grief and Sorrow which it will cost us if ever we be brought to a due Sense of it the Trouble and Horror of a guilty Conscience that will perpetually haunt us but above all the miserable Event and sad Issue of a wicked Course of Life continued in and finally unrepented of The Temptations to sin may be alluring enough and look upon us with a smiling Countenance and the Commission may afford us a short and imperfect Pleasure but the Remembrance of it will certainly be bitter and the End of it miserable And this Consideration is of all others the most apt to work upon the generality of men especially upon the more obstinate and obdurate sort of sinners and those whom no other Arguments will penetrate that whatever the present Pleasure and Advantage of sin may be it will be Bitterness and Misery in the end The two former Inconvenieces of a sinful Course which I have lately discoursed of viz. That sin is Unprofitabte and that it is Shameful are very considerable and ought to be great Arguments against it to every sinner and considerate Man and yet how light are they and but as the very small dust upon the balance in comparison of that insupportable weight of Misery which will oppress the sinner at last Indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of Man that doth evil This this is the sting of all that the end of these things is death It is very usual in Scripture to express the greatest Happiness and the greatest Misery by Life and Death Life being the first and most desirable of all other Blessings because it is the Foundation of them and that which makes us capable of all the rest Hence we find in Scripture that all the Blessings of the Gospel are summ'd up in this one word John 20.31 These things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have Life through his Name 1 Joh. 4.9 In this was manifest the love of God towards us because God sent his only begotten
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
now we are acquainted withal for who knows the power of God's anger and the utmost of what Almighty Justice can do to Sinners Who can Comprehend the vast significancy of those Expressions Fear him who after he hath killed can destroy both body and soul in Hell and again It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God One would think this were Misery enough and needed no farther Aggravation and yet it hath Two terrible ones from the Consideration of past Pleasures which Sinners have enjoyed in this World and from an utter Despair of future Ease and Remedy 1. From the Consideration of the past Pleasures which Sinners have enjoy'd in this Life This will make their Sufferings much more sharp and sensible for as nothing commends Pleasure more and gives Happiness a quicker taste and relish than precedent Sufferings and Pain there is not perhaps a greater Pleasure in the World than the strange and sudden Ease which a Man finds after a sharp fit of the Stone or Cholick or after a Man is taken off the Rack and Nature which was in an Agony before is all at once set at perfect Ease So on the other Hand nothing exasperates Suffering more and sets a keener Edge upon Misery than to step into Afflictions and Pain immediately out of a state of great Ease and Pleasure This we find in the Parable was the great Aggravation of the rich Man's Torment that he had first received his good things and was afterwards Tormented We may do well to consider this that those Pleasures of Sin which have now so much of Temptation in them will in the next World be one of the chief Aggravations of our Torment 2. The greatest Aggravation of this Misery will be that it is attended with the Despair of any future Ease and when Misery and Despair meet together they make a Man compleatly miserable The duration of this Misery is exprest to us in Scripture by such words as are us'd to signifie the longest and most interminable duration Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire Matt. 25.41 Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched Mark 9.43 and 2 Thess 1.7 It is there said that those who know not God and obey not the Gospel of his Son shall be punisht with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power And in Rev. 20.10 That the wicked shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever And what can be imagined beyond this This is the perfection of Misery to lie under the greatest Torment and yet be in despair of ever finding the least Ease And thus I have done with the First thing I propounded to speak to from this Text viz. The manifest Inconveniences of a sinful and vicious Course of Life that it brings no present Benefit or Advantage to us that the reflection upon it causeth Shame and that it is fearful and miserable in the last Issue and Consequence of it What fruit had you c. I should now have proceeded to the Second Part of the Text which represents to us the manifold Advantages of an Holy and Virtuous Course of Life 22 v But now being made free from sin and become the servants of righteousness ye have your fruit unto holiness there 's the present Advantage of it and the end everlasting life there 's the future Reward of it But this is a large Argument which will require a Discourse by it self and therefore I shall not now enter upon it but shall only make some reflections upon what hath been said concerning the miserable Issue and Consequence of a wicked Life impenitently persisted in And surely if we firmly believe and seriously consider these things we have no reason to be fond of any Vice we can take no great Comfort or Contentment in a sinful Course If we could for the seeming Advantage and short Pleasure of some sins dispense with the Temporal Mischiefs and Inconveniences of them which yet I cannot see how any Prudent and Considerate Man could do if we could conquer Shame and bear the Infamy and Reproach which attends most sins and could digest the upbraidings of our own Consciences so often as we call them to remembrance and reflect seriously upon them tho' for the gratifying an importunate Inclination and an impetuous Appetite all the Inconveniences of them might be born withal yet methinks the very thought of the End and Issue of a wicked Life that the end of these things is Death that indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish far greater than we can now describe or imagine shall be to every soul of Man that doth evil should over-rule us Tho' the violence of an irregular lust and desire are able to bear down all other Arguments yet methinks the Eternal Interest of our precious and immortal Souls should still lie near our Hearts and affect us very sensibly Methinks the Consideration of another World and of all Eternity and of that dismal fate which attends Impenitent Sinners after this Life and the dreadful hazard of being miserable for ever should be more than enough to dishearten any Man from a wicked life and to bring him to a better Mind and Course And if the plain Representations of these things do not prevail with men to this purpose it is a sign that either they do not believe these things or else that they do not consider them one of these two must be the reason why any Man notwithstanding these terrible threatnings of God's Word does venture to continue in an Evil Course 'T is vehemently to be suspected that men do not really believe these things that they are not fully perswaded that there is another state after this Life in which the righteous God will render to every Man according to his deeds and therefore so much Wickedness as we see in the lives of men so much Infidelity may reasonably be suspected to lie lurking in their Hearts They may indeed seemingly profess to believe these things but he that would know what a Man inwardly and firmly believes should attend rather to his Actions than to his Verbal Professions For if any Man lives so as no Man that believes the Principles of the Christian Religion in reason can live there is too much reason to question whether that Man doth believe his Religion he may say he does but there is a far greater Evidence in the Case than Words the Actions of the Man are by far the most credible Declarations of the inward Sense and Perswasion of his Mind Did men firmly and heartily believe that there is a God that governs the World and regards the Actions of men and that he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness and that all Mankind shall appear before him in that day and every Action that they have done in their whole lives shall be brought upon the Stage and pass a strict Examination and Censure 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
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
them in the other I reckon saith St. Paul Rom. 8.8 that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Particularly the Consideration of that glorious change which shall be made in our Bodies at the Resurrection ought to be a great comfort to us under all the Pains and Diseases which they are now liable to and even against Death it self One of the greatest burdens of Humane Nature is the frailty and infirmity of our Bodies the necessities which they are frequently prest withal the Diseases and Pains to which they are liable and the fear of death by reason whereof a great part of Mankind are subject to bondage against all which this is an everlasting Spring of Consolation to us that the time is coming when we shall have other sort of Bodies freed from that burden of Corruption which we now groan under and from all those Miseries and Inconveniences which Flesh and Blood are now subject to For the time will come when these vile Bodies which we now wear shall be changed and fashioned like to the glorious Body of the Son of God and when they shall be raised at the last day they shall not be raised such as we laid them down Vile and Corrruptible but Immortal and Incorruptible for the same Power which hath raised them up to Life shall likewise change them and put a glory upon them like to that of the glorified Body of our Lord and when this glorious change is made when this corruptible hath put on incorruption and this mortal hath put on immortality then shall come to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory and when this last enemy is perfectly subdued we shall be set above all the Frailties and Dangers all the Temptations and Sufferings of this mortal state there will then be no fleshly lusts and brutish Passions to War against the Soul no law in our members to rise up in Rebellion against the law of our minds no diseases to torment us no danger of Death to terrifie us all the Motions and Passions of our outward Man shall then be perfectly subject to the Reason of our Minds and our Bodies shall partake of the Immortality of our Souls How should this Consideration bear us up under all the Evils of Life and the fears of Death that the Resurrection will be a perfect Cure of all our Infirmities and Diseases and an effectual Remedy of all the Evils that we now labour under and that it is but a very little while that we shall be troubled with these Frail and Mortal and Vile Bodies which shall shortly be laid in the dust and when they are raised again shall become Spiritual Incorruptible and Glorious And if our Bodies shall undergo so happy a change what Happiness may we imagine shall then be conferr'd upon our Souls that so much better and nobler part of our selves As the Apostle reasons in another Case Doth God take care of Oxen Hath he this Consideration of our Bodies which are but the brutish part of the Man What regard will he then have to his own Image that spark of Divinity which is for ever to reside in these Bodies If upon the account of our Souls and for their sakes our Bodies shall become Incorruptible Spiritual and Glorious then certainly our Souls shall be endued with far more Excellent and Divine Qualities if our Bodies shall in some degree partake of the Perfection of our Souls in their Spiritual and Immortal Nature to what a pitch of Perfection shall our Souls be raised and advanced even to an equality with Angels and to some kind of participation of the Divine Nature and Perfection so far as a Creature is capable of them II. The Comparison which is here in the Text and which I have largely explain'd between the manifest Inconveniences of a Sinful and Vicious Course and the manifold Advantages of an Holy and Virtuous Life is a plain direction to us which of these two to chuse So that I may make the same appeal that Moses does after that he had at large declared the Blessings promis'd to the Obedience of God's Laws and the Curse denounc'd against the Violation and Transgression of them Deut. 30.19 I call Heaven and Earth to record against you this day that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that you may be happy in Life and Death and after Death to all Eternity I know every one is ready to chuse Happiness and to say with Balaam Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his but if we do in good earnest desire the End we must take the Way that leads to it we must become the Servants of God and have our fruit unto holiness if ever we expect that the end shall be everlasting life SERMON IX Serm. 8. The Nature and Necessity of holy Resolution The First Sermon on this Text. JOB XXXIV 31 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more THESE words are the words of Elihu one of Job's Friends and the only one who is not reproved for his Discourse with Job and who was probably the Author of this ancient and most eloquent History of the sufferings and patience of Job and of the end which the Lord made with him Vol. 8. and they contain in them a Description of the temper and behaviour of a true Penitent Surely it is meet c. In which words we have the Two essential parts of a true Repentance First An humble Acknowledgment and Confession of our Sins to God Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement Secondly A firm Purpose and Resolution of amendment and forsaking of Sin for the future I will not offend any more if I have done iniquity I will do no more First An humble Acknowledgment and Confession of our Sins to God Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement that is have sinned and been justly punish'd for it and am now convinced of the Evil of Sin and resolved to leave it I have born chastisement I will offend no more Of this First part of Repentance viz. An humble Confession of our Sins to God with great Shame and Sorrow for them and a thorow Conviction of the Evil and Danger of a sinful Course I have already treated at large In these Repentance must begin but it must not end in them for a penitent Confession of our Sins to God and a Conviction of the evil of them signifies nothing unless it bring us to a Resolution of amendment that is of leaving our Sins and betaking our selves to a better Course And this I intend by God's assistance to speak to now as being the
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
Confession Contrition and Satisfaction and the Form of it which is the Absolution of the Priest in which they make the main virtue and force of Repentance to consist in quâ proecipuè ipsius vis sita est are the very words of the Council of Trent And here is a wide difference betwixt us for tho' the comfort of the Penitent may in some case consist in the Absolution of the Priest yet the Virtue and Efficacy of Repentance does not at all consist in it but wholly in the Contrition and sincere Resolution of the Penitent as the Scripture every where declares and to think otherwise is of dangerous Consequence because it encourageth Men to hope for the benefit of Repentance that is the Pardon and forgiveness of their sins without having truly repented And indeed the Council of Trent have so framed their Doctrines in this point that any one may see that they did not matter how much they abated on the part of the Penitent provided the Power of the Priest be but advanced and kept up in its full height 2. The other Mistake is of those who make Repentance to consist in the bare Resolution of Amendment tho' it never have its effect that is tho' the sinner either do not what he resolved or do it only for a fit and during his present Trouble and Conviction There is one case indeed and but one wherein a Resolution not brought to effect is available and that is when nothing hinders the performance and execution of it but only want of time and oportunity for it when the Repentance is sincere and the Resolution real but the Man is cut off between the actual Reformation which he intended and which God who sees things certainly in their Causes knows would have followed if the Man had lived to give Demonstration of it but this is nothing to those who have the oportunity to make good their Resolution and do not for because the resolution which would have been perform'd had there been time and oportunity is reckoned for a true Repentance and accepted of God as if it had been done therefore the Resolution which was not brought to effect when there was time and oportunity for it hath not the Nature of true Repentance nor will it be accepted of God I will add but one thing more upon this Head because I doubt it is not always sufficiently considered and that is this that a sincere Resolution of a better course does imply a Resolution of the means as well as of the end he that is truly resolved against any sin is likewise resolved against the occasions and temptations that would lead and draw him to it otherwise he hath taken up a rash and foolish Resolution which he is not like to keep because he did not resolve upon that which was necessary to the keeping of it So he that resolves upon any part of his Duty must likewise resolve upon the means which are necessary to the discharge and performance of it he that is resolved to be just in his dealing and to pay his debts must be diligent in his Calling and mind his business because without this he cannot do the other for nothing can be more vain and fond than for a Man to pretend that he is resolved upon doing his Duty when he neglects any thing that is necessary to put him into a capacity and to further him in the discharge of it This is as if a Man should resolve to be well and yet never take Physick or be careless in observing his rules which are prescribed in order to his health So for a Man to resolve against Drunkenness and yet to run himself upon the temptations which naturally lead to it by frequenting the Company of Lewd and Intemperate persons this is as if a Man should resolve against the Plague and run into the Pest-house Whatever can reasonably move a Man to be resolved upon any End will if his Resolution be wise and honest determine him as strongly to use the Means which are proper and necessary to that End These are the common Mistakes about this matter which Men are the more willing to run into because they are loth to be brought to a true Repentance the Nature whereof is not difficult to be understood for nothing in the world is plainer only men are always slow to understand what they have no mind to put in practice But II. Besides these Mistakes about Repentance there is another great Miscarriage in this matter and that is the delay of Repentance men are loth to set about it and therefore they put it upon the last hazard and resolve then to huddle it up as well as they can but this certainly is great folly to be still making more work for Repentance because it is to create so much needless trouble and vexation to our selves 't is to go on still in playing a foolish part in hopes to retrieve all by an after-game this is extreamly dangerous because we may certainly sin but it is not certain we shall repent our Repentance may be prevented and we may be cut off in our sins but if we should have space for it Repentance may in process of time grow an hundred times more difficult than it is at present But if it were much more certain and more easie than it is if it were nothing but a hearty Sorrow and Shame for our sins and an asking God forgiveness for them without being put to the trouble of reforming our wicked lives yet this were great folly to do those things which will certainly grieve us after we have done them and put us to shame and to ask forgiveness for them It was well said of Old Cato nae tu stultus es homuncio qui malis veniam precari quam non peccare thou art a foolish man indeed who chusest rather to ask forgiveness than not to offend At the best Repentance implies a fault it is an after-Wisdom which supposeth a Man first to have plaid the fool it is but the best end of a bad business a hard shift and a desperate hazard which a Man that had acted prudently would never have been put to it is a Plaster after we have dangerously wounded our selves but certainly it had been much wiser to have prevented the danger of the wound and the pain of curing it A wise Man would not make himself sick if he could or if he were already so would not make himself sicker tho' he had the most Effectual and Infallible Remedy in the world in his power But this is not the case of a sinner for Repentance as well as Faith is the gift of God Above all let me caution you not to put off this great and necessary work to the most unseasonable time of all other the time of sickness and death upon a fond presumption that you can be reconciled to God when you please and exercise such a Repentance as will make your peace with him at any