like but worse than the Beasts for the fiercest Beasts of Africa or Hyrcania have a respect for their own likeness tho' they devour others yet they spare those of their own kind but Men are so degenerate as to be most cruel against their Brethren These are some of the Evils that proceed from sin as their natural Cause And from hence 't is evident that sin makes Men miserable were there no Hell of torment to receive them in the next State 2. I will consider the Evils consequent to sin as the penal effects of the sentence against sin of Divine Justice that decrees it and Divine Power that inflicts it and in these the sinner is often an active instrument of his own misery 1. The fall of the Angels is the first and most terrible punishment of sin God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell reserved in chains of darkness to judgment How are they fall'n From what height of glory and felicity into bottomless perdition How are they continually rackt and tormented with the remembrance of their lost happiness If a thousand of the prime Nobility of a Nation were executed in a day by the sentence of a righteous King we should conclude their crimes to be atrocious innumerable Angels dignified with the titles of Dominions and Principalities were expell'd from Heaven their native seat and the sanctuary of life and are dead to all the joyful operations of the intellectual nature and only alive to everlasting pain One sin of pride or envy brought this terrible vengeance from whence we may infer how provoking sin is to the holy God We read of King Vzziah that upon his presumption to offer incense he was struck with a Leprosie and the Priests thrust him out and himself hasted to go out of the Temple a representation of the punishment of the Angels by presumption they were struck with a Leprosie and justly expelled from the Celestial Temple and not being able to sustain the terrors of the Divine Majesty they fled from his presence 'T is said God cast them down and they left their own habitation 2. Consider the penal effects of sin with respect to Man They are comprehended in the sentence of death the first and second death threaten'd to deter Adam from transgressing the Law In the first Creation Man while innocent was immortal for altho his Bâ—â—y was compounded of jarring Elements that had a natural tendency to dissolution yet the Soul was endowed with such vertue as to imbalm the Body alive and to preserve it from the least degree of putrefaction But when Man by his voluntary sin was separated from the fountain of life the Soul lost its derivative life from God and the active life infused by its union into the Body It cannot preserve the natural life beyond its limited term A righteous retaliation Thus the Apostle tells us Sin came into the World and death by sin Even infants who never committed sin die having been conceived in sin And death brought in its retinue evils so numerous and various that their kinds are more than words to name and distinguish them Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of trouble at his birth he enters into a labyrinth of Thorns this miserable World and his life is a continual turning in it he cannot escape being sometimes prick'd and torn and at going out of it his Soul is rent from the embraces of the Body 'T is as possible to tell the number of the waves in a tempestuous Sea as to recount all the tormenting passions of the Soul all the Diseases of the Body which far exceed in number all the unhappy parts wherein they are seated What an afflicting object would it be to hear all the mournful lamentations all the piercing complaints all the deep groans from the miserable in this present state What a prospect of Terror to see Death in its various shapes by Famine by Fire by Sword and by wasting or painful Diseases triumphant over all mankind What a sight of woe to have all the Graves and Charnel-houses open'd and so many loathsom Carcasses or heaps of dry naked Bones the trophies of Death expos'd to view Such are the afflicting and destructive effects of sin For wickedness burns as a fire it devours the Briars and Thorns Besides other miseries in this life sometimes the terrors of an accusing Conscience seise upon Men which of all evils are most heavy and overwhelming Solomon who understood the frame of humane Nature tells us The Spirit of a Man can bear his infirmity that is the mind fortified by Principles of moral Counsel and Constancy can endure the assault of external Evils but a wounded Spirit who can bear This is most insupportable when the sting and remorse of the mind is from the sense of guilt for then God appears an enemy righteous and severe and who can encounter with offended Omnipotence Such is the sharpness of his Sword and the weight of his Hand that every stroke is deadly inward Satan the cruel enemy of Souls exasperates the wound He discovers and charges sin upon the Conscience with all its killing aggravations and conceals the Divine mercy the only lenitive and healing Balm to the wounded Spirit What visions of horror what spectacles of fear what scenes of sorrow are presented to the distracted mind by the Prince of darkness And which heigthens the misery Man is a worse enemy to himself than Satan he falls upon his own Sword and destroys himself Whatever he sees or hears afflicts him whatever he thinks torments him The guilty Conscience turns the Sun into darkness and the Moon into blood the precious promises of the Gospel that assure favour and pardon to returning and relenting sinners are turn'd into arguments of despair by reflecting upon the abuse and provocation of mercy and that the advocate in Gods bosom is become the accuser Doleful state Beyond the conception of all but those who are plung'd into it How often do they run to the grave for sanctuary and seek for death as a deliverance Yet all these anxieties and terrors are but the beginning of sorrows for the full and terrible recompenses of sin shall follow the Eternal Judgment pronounc'd against the wicked at the last day 'T is true the sentence of the Law is past against the sinner in this present state and temporal evils are the effects of it but that sentence is revocable at death the sentence is ratified by the Judge upon every impenitent sinner 't is decicive of his state and involves him under punishment for ever But the full execution of judgment shall not be till the publick general sentence pronounc'd by the everlasting Judge before the whole World It exceeds the compass of created thoughts to understand fully the direful effects of sin in the Eternal State For who knows the power of Gods wrath The Scripture represents the punishment in expressions that may instruct the mind
sense of misery that a man would fain be rid of and can't 't is a Yoke whereby his Neck is gall'd but he can't put it off and if he should be released from it by any undue ways or means it would be to his farther detriment and danger in the end Now from this Fear of Death the Children are said to be delivered by Christ There are many evils from which he redeems and delivers them he delivers them from the bondage of sin and Satan from the rigour and Curse of the Law from everlasting Punishment and Wrath to come and he delivers them also from the Fear of Death This is imply'd if it be not express'd in the Text for upon the mentioning of their deliverance he gives this description of the Persons that are delivered that they wâ—â—e such as were afraid of Death and lyable to continual bondage by reason thereof Hence all Expositors both ancient and modern do rationally inferr That the Fear of Death is one of those evils from whence we are deliver'd by Jesus Christ The Text thus briefly open'd administers a fair occasion of resolving this Case or Question From what Fear of Death are the Children of God deliver'd by Jesus Christ and by what means doth he deliver them from it I shall break this Question in two and enquire 1. From what Fear of Death the Children of God are delivered from by Jesus Christ And then 2. By what Means or Methods he doth deliver them from it 1. From what Fear of Death are the Children of God deliver'd by Jesus Christ That I may resolve this Question aright I must distinguish of the Fear of Death 1. There is a natural Fear of Death This is common to all Men as Men and 't is more or less in them according to their different Constitutions and other accidental Occurrences This is nothing else but Natures aversation to it 's own dissolution and in it's self it is a sinless infirmity such as sickness weariness or the like To be loth or afraid to dye is humane and inseparable from the nature of man this fear of Death is found with the best of men Nature as one says hath a share in them as well as in others and will work as Nature or like it self The Apostle Paul tells us how good godly men are unwilling to be uncloath'd and to put off the body 2 Cor. 5.4 Our blessed Saviour who was a true though not a meer Man without the least impeachment of the Holiness and Perfection of his humane Nature express'd at some times an aversion to death John 12.27 Mark 14.35 This therefore is not the fear of Death of which the Text speaks and from which the Children of God are deliver'd by Jesus Christ 2. There is a slavish Fear of Death which hath Torment in it or which torments the Souls of men which fills their hearts with terrors and distractions which discomposeth their minds and unfits them for the duties of their general or particular callings and totally disables them from prosecuting the things that belong to their Peace and Welfare This is that fear of Death of which the Text speaks and from which the Children are deliver'd such as genders unto bondage and is servile or slavish a fear of Death as poenal and drawing after it everlasting punishment This fear of Death takes hold of carnal men they are not so much afraid of Death as of that which the Scripture calls the second Death Revel 2.11 20.6 Heb. 9.26 't is that which follows after death that makes it so formidable to them after Death as that Text speaks comes Judgment when they must receive according to the things which they have done in the Body When they dye they must launch out into an endless Ocean and go the way as Job says from whence they shall never return Job 16.22 And if Death overtakes them in their unregenerate state and condition then it will be an entrance or inlet into outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth These and such-like are the considerations that make Death so dreadfull to the Children of Men that give it the denomination of the King of Terrors and of terrible things the most terrible they are not as one said afraid to dye but they are afraid to be damn'd Hence it is that though Death be terrible to all men yet it is most terrible to those whose Consciences are awakened and whose understandings are enlightned who have been instructed in the Knowledge of God and of a future State of Retribution Death as one observes is not half so terrible to a Heathen as it is to an ungodly Christian Heathen men are in the dark and see but little of that which is the true terror of Death But enlightned Christians who have been acquainted with the Scripture who know that the Wrath of God is reveal'd from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Rom. 1.18 1 Cor. 6.9 Psal 9.17 2 Thes 1.7 8 9. that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God that the wicked shall be turned into Hell and all Nations and people that forget God that Jesus Christ shall be reveal'd from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power That the greatest part by far of the wages of sin which is eternal damnation shall be paid in another World These are they that are surrounded with the slavish fears of Death 'T is true that many wicked Persons who live under the Gospel are under none of these terrors but then 't is because they look on Death at a great distance from them and the remoteness of any Object though in it's self never so terrible takes away the fear of it Or else it is because they are over-busied and taken up about the things of the World as the lust of the flesh or of the eyes or the pride of life and if any thoughts of Death and of the World to come arise in their minds they are presently smother'd and stifled by worldly objects and diversions Cain was a while afraid of Death he thought every one that met him would slay him but by and by he gets into the Land of Nod and there he falls a building of Cities and doth so immerse or drown himself in the affairs of the World that by little and little the slavish fear he had of Death did wear out of his mind Or else it is because of their Atheism or Infidelity there is a great deal of this amongst professed Christians All wicked men as the Apostle Paul says are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2.12 without God in the World or as it may be rendred they are Atheists in the World They are all practical Atheists and too many are
continues still to do in order to the freeing and delivering the Children of God from the fear of death and the bondage that ensues thereon 1. He worketh and increaseth those Graces of his Spirit in them which are destructive hereof and opposite hereunto you 'l say which are they 1. There is the Grace of Faith This is the Grace that conquers the World that conquers the Devil and that conquers also the slavish fear of Death This excellent Grace of Faith hath such an excellent hand in the conquering of all these that it is call'd the conquest and victory it's self This is the victory says the Apostle John 1 John 5.4 even your Faith Our Saviour tells Peter Luke 22.31 32. That Satan had desired to have him that he might sift him as Wheat And with what did he sift and shake him Why it was with the fear of Death he was afraid they would deal with him as they did with his Master It was his slavish fear of Death that made him deny Christ and to do it once and again but anon he recovered himself and got above this fear he was reâ—dy by and by boldly to confess Christ and that in the face of Death and danger How came this about Why it was by means of Faith Christ had pray'd for him that his Faith should not fail it may be said of those that are fearful of death that they are of little Faith 2. A second Grace is Love An ardent love of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ will banish all slavish fear of death out of the Soul 1 John 4.18 There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear Of what fear doth he speak The next words tell you he speaks of slavish tormenting fear of that fear which hath torment By perfect love he means a greater measure and degree of love I said but now of fearfull Christians that they have but little Faith I may add also that they have but little Love for perfect or great love expells all tormenting and servile fear 3. A third Grace is Hope The very nature of Hope is quite contrary to fear Where there is a Hope of eternal life there can be no prevailing fear of Death 'T is said of the righteous Prov. 14.32 that they have Hope in their death and those that have Hope in their death they are not afraid to dye Then Hope doth more especially free us from an inordinate fear of Death when it grows up to that which the Scripture calls The full assurance of Faith Heb. 6.11 this is a gracious Gift which the Father bestows upon many of his Children they know that they are in him that they are pass â—â— from death to life 1 John 2.5.3.14 2 Cor. 5.1 that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolv'd they shall have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Ay this is that which steels and fortifies them against the fear and terror of Death This leads me to consider of a second way or means whereby Christ delivers the Children from a slavish fear of death 2. He delivers them from it by convincing and parswading them that they shall not be Losers but Gainers yea great gainers thereby It was this perswasion that made the Apostle Paul to desire death rather than to dread it I desire says he to depart or to be dissolv'd which is far better Philip. 1.23 And again v. 21. he saith For me to dye is gain It were easie here to expatiate and shew the advantage the exceeding great advantage that Believers have by Death It is commonly said to consist in these two things in a freedom from all Evil in the fruition of all Good 1. It consists in a freedom from all Evil which is sub-divided into the evil of Sorrow and the evil of Sin Believers are freed by Death from the evil of Sorrow 'T is one blessed Notion of the life to come that God will wipe off all tears from his peoples eyes and remove all sorrow and causes of Sorrow from their Hearts Believers also are freed by Death from the evil of sin which is indeed the greatest evil the evil of evils all the evils of sorrow are but the effects and fruits of the evil of sin By Death they are deliver'd from all actual sins not only from Fleshly but Spiritual filthiness Now they are deliver'd ordinarily from inordinate actions but then also from inordinate affections they shall never any more be troubled with Pride Passion Discontent Unbelief or the like By Death also they are discharg'd from Original sin and all remainders thereof when the Body dies Believers are rid of that body of death which dwelleth in them and is always present with them they no more complain of themselves as wretched creatures upon the account thereof 2. It consists in the fruition of all Good Believers when they dye they enjoy God Himself who is the chiefest Good He is bonum in quae omnia bona all other things that are good and desireable are comprized in him as the Sun-beams are in the Sun the Saints enjoyment of God in this life is a Heaven upon Earth but our enjoyment of God after death will be the Heaven of Heavens David says in one Place Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee There are Saints and Angels and Arch-Angels in Heaven says Musculus with whom David and such as he will have to do but what are these to God Believers won't barely enjoy God after death but they will enjoy him fully In this life they enjoy a little of God and oh how sweet and refreshing it is But in the life to come they shall have as much enjoyment of God as their hearts can wish or hold Now they enjoy God in the use of means in Prayer in hearing the Word and in receiving the Lords Supper but hereafter they shall have not only a full but an immediate fruition of God Now they see the Face of God in the Glass of his Word and Ordinances and 〈◊〉 what a lovely sight is it But then they shall see God face to face and what tongue can mention or heart imagine the loveliness of that sight If it were not too great a digression I could readily demonstrate the gain and advantage of Death from other Topicks Believers in the other life shall possess and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven which doth more transcend the Kingdoms of this World and all the glory of them than the light of the Sun doth excell the light of a Candle they shall be most gloriously perfected both in their Souls and in their Bodies their vile bodies at the Resurrection shall be changed and fashioned like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 3.21 Their gain and happiness will be greatly augmented in the other life by the work and employment that they shall do and by the Society and Company that they shall
have they shall associate with an innumerable company of Angels and with just men made perfect with many of their dearest Relations and Friends whom whilst alive they dearly lov'd and whose death and departure hence they greatly lamented Let me close this with one Text 't is in 1 John 3.2 There the Apostle tells us wherein the gain and glory of the godly consisteth after death he summs it up in two things They shall be like Christ and they shall see him as he is Ay that is the happiness of the Children when they dye it lyes in Conformity to Christ and in the Vision the beatifical Vision of him 3. Christ delivers Believers from the slavish fear of Death by giving them some real Foretastes of Heaven and of Eternal Life It is usual with God to give his People some Cluster of the Grapes of Canaan here in the Wilderness to give them some drops and sips of that new Wine which they shall drink full draughts of in the Kingdom of their Father he gives them to taste not only of the good Word of God and of the heavenly gift but of the powers of the world to come and this sets them a longing to have their fill thereof Even as the Gauls when they had tasted the Wines of Italy they were not satisfy'd to have those Wines brought to them but they would go and possess the Land where they grew This foretaste of Heaven is that which the Scripture calls The earnest of our Inheritance Eph. 1.14 't is both a pledge and a small part of that Happiness which the Saints shall hereafter inherit Rom. 8.23 We says the Apostle that have the first-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves do groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the redemption of our body By Redemption he means the Resurrection of the Body at the last day which the Scripture calls a Resurrection unto Life The Apostle knew there could be no Redemption of the Body without the dissolution thereof therefore in waiting for the one he must needs also wait for the other The Apostle and the Believers with him did groan for this they were so far from groaning under the fears of Death that they rather groan'd to be partakers of that which follows after Death nay In this they groan'd earnestly 2 Cor. 5.2 as he elsewhere speaks Now whence was this but from their having the first-fruits of the Spirit which are all one with the foretastes of Heaven and everlasting Happiness of which I have been speaking Those that whilst they live have these tastes of future Blessedness they are not afraid of Death the door by which they enter into the full enjoyment of them Having thus resolved this Question in both its Branches give me leave to make some short Application of what I have said and I 'le conclude I would Exhort you that are the Children of God and Oh that all that read these Lines were of the number of such I would earnestly beseech and exhort you to prize and improve this great Priviledge to wit a deliverance from the slavish Fear of Death 1. Be perswaded to Prize it it is a Priviledge that was purchas'd for you at a dear rate even with the precious Blood of Christ Oh what a blessed Priviledge is this not only to be delivered from the second Death but also from the servile and enthralling fear of the first Death This is the benefit and blessing that the Apostle Paul seems to be so much affected with Thanks be to God says he who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ What Victory doth he mean The foregoing words tell us 1 Cor. 15 5â— that he means a Victory over Death with all its fearful concomitants and consequents Death is become a Friend and not an Enemy 't is without any Sting or Curse attending of it Oh! this is owing to Jesus Christ he is the great Deliverer he hath so order'd the matter that though we must dye yet we shall not be in bondage all our dayes through a slavish Fear of Death 2. Be perswaded to Improve this Priviledge put in for a part and share therein See to it that you be Partakers of this benefit of Christ's Death to live without any tormenting fear of your own You 'l say how shall we help it can we contribute any thing towards our Deliverance from the Fear of Death I answer You may And therefore as I have shewn you what Christ hath done and doth to deliver you so now give me leave to shew you farther what you must do towards your own Deliverance I 'le give you some short hints of things which you may enlarge upon at your leisure in your own thoughts 1. You must be earnest with God that he would apply to you this benefit of his Sons Death by his blessed Spirit Oh! begg of God and that with all importunity that the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus may set you free from a tormenting Fear of Death This hath been done for others and who can tell but it may be done for you likewise Ezek. 36.37 only remember that God will be enquir'd of by you to do this for you 2. You must give all diligence to the attaining of a greater measure of Faith Love and Hope yea to the attaining of a full Assurance of Hope 't is by means hereof as you heard before that the Children are deliver'd in part from the Fear of Death 'T is Grace and the Assurance of Grace that is the Anchor of the Soul that keeps it safe from the fear of Shipwrack 3. You must resist the Devil and withstand his Temptations not only to other sins but to the sin of Despondency in particular You must not give place to Satan nor give way to enthralling Fear when he tempts you thereunto Remember as I told you before 't is the Law of the Combate betwixt the Devil and you that if you fight he shall fly if you stand your ground he must give ground 4. You must have frequent Meditation of Death and of the gain that is to be gotten thereby the frequent thoughts hereof will familiarize Death to you and if once Death and you be familiar together you won't be so much afraid of it 5. You must have frequent Contemplation also of the Resurrection You find that Job had conquer'd the Fear of Death and if you read the 9th Chapter of Job and Ver. 26 27. you will see that his thoughts of the Resurrection were very helpful to him herein He is a Conqueror over the Fear of Death that considers with the Apostle Paul that the Grave shall lose its Victory 1 Cor. 15.56 It was the saying of a worthy Minister of our Nation That nothing lifted him over the Fear of Death like the belief and Meditation of the Resurrection to Eternal Life 6. You must take heed of living or allowing your selves in any known Sin if it be as
Favour of God he is eminently precious Who can break the Constraints of such Love If there be a spark of reason or a grain of unfeigned Faith in us We must judge that if one died for all then all were dead and those that live should live to his Glory who died for their Salvation Add to this that in the Sufferings of Christ there is the clearest Demonstration of the Evil of 〈◊〉 and how hateful it is to God if we consider the Dignity of his Person the Greatness of his Sufferings and the innocent recoilings of his humane Nature from such fearful Sufferings He was the eternal Son of God the Heir of his Fathers Love and Glory the Lord of Angels he suffered in his Body the most ignominious and painful Death being nail'd to the Cross in the sight of the World The Sufferings of his Soul were incomparably more afflicting For though heavenly Meek he indured the Derision and cruel Violence of his Enemies with a silent Patience yet in the dark Eclipse of his Fathers Countenance in the desolate state of his Soul the Lamb of God opened his Mouth in that mournful Complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His innocent Nature did so recoil from those fearful Sufferings that with repeated ardency of Affection he deprecated that bitter Cup Abba Father all things are possible to thee let this cup pass from me He address'd to the Divine Power and Love the Attributes that relieve the Miserable yet he drank off the dregs of the Cup of Gods Wrath. Now we may from hence conclude how great an Evil Sin is that could not be expiated by a meaner Sacrifice then the offering up the Soul of Christ to atone incensed Justice and no lower a Price than the Blood of the Son of God the most unvaluable Treasure could Ransom Men who were devoted to Destruction 4. The consideration of the evil of sin in it self and to us should excite us with a holy circumspection to keep our selves from being defiled with it 'T is our indispensable duty our transcendent interest to obey the Divine Law entirely and constantly The tempter cannot present any motives that to a rectified mind are sufficient to induce a consent to sin and offend God Let the scales be even and put into one all the delights of the senses all the pleasures and honours of the World which are the Elements of carnal felicity how light are they against the enjoyment of the blessed God in glory Will the gain of this perishing World compensate the loss of the Soul and Salvation for ever If there were any possible comparison between empty deluding vanities and celestial happiness the choice would be more difficult and the mistake less culpable but they vanish into nothing in the comparison so that to commit the least sin that makes us liable to the forfeiture of Heaven for the pleasures of sin that are but for a season is madness in that degree that no words can express Suppose the tempter inspires his Rage into his Slaves and tries to constrain us to Sin by Persecution how unreasonable is it to be dismayed at the Threatnings of Men who must dye and who can only touch the Body and to despise the terrors of the Lord who lives for ever and can punish for ever Methinks we should look upon the perverted raging World as a swarm of angry Flies that may disquiet but cannot hurt us Socrates when unrighteously prosecuted to Death said of his Enemies with a Courage becoming the Breast of a Christian They may Kill me but cannot Hurt me How should these Considerations raise in us an invincible Resolution and Reluctancy against the Tempter in all his Approaches and Addresses to us And that we may so resist him as to cause his flight from us let us imitate the excellent Saint whose Example is set before us 1. By possessing the Soul with a lively and solemn Sense of Gods Presence who is the Inspector and Judge of all our Actions Joseph repell'd the Temptation with this powerful Thought How shall I sin against God The fear of the Lord is clean 't is a watchful Sentinel that resists Temptations without and suppresses Corruptions within 'T is like the Cherubim plac'd with a flaming Sword in Paradise to prevent the Re-entry of Adam when guilty and polluted For this end we must by frequent and serious Considerations represent the Divine Being and Glory in our Minds that there may be a gracious Constitution of Soul this will be our Preservative from Sin for although the habitual thoughts of God are not always in act yet upon a Temptation they are presently excited and appear in the view of Conscience and are effectual to make us reject the Tempter with Defiance and Indignation This holy Fear is not a meer judicial Impression that restrains from Sin for the dreadful Punishment that follows for that servile affection though it may stop a Temptation and hinder the Eruption of a Lust into the gross act yet it does not renew the Nature and make us Holy and Heavenly There may be a respective dislike of Sin with a direct affection to it Besides a meer servile Fear is repugnant to Nature and will be expell'd if possible Therefore that we may be in the fear of the Lord all the day long we must regard him in his endearing Attributes his Love his Goodness and Compassion his rewarding Mercy and this will produce a filial Fear of Reverence and Caution lest we should offend so gracious a God As the natural Life is preserved by grateful Food not by Aloes and Wormwood which are useful Medicines so the Spiritual Life is maintained by the comfortable Apprehensions of God as the Rewarder of our Fidelity in all our Trials 2. Strip Sin of its Disguises wash off its flattering Colours that you may see its native Ugliness Joseph's reply to the Tempter How shall I do this great wickedness Illusion and Concupiscence are the Inducements to Sin When a Lust represents the Temptation as very alluring and hinders the Reflection of the mind upon the intrinsick and consequential Evil of Sin 't is like the putting Poison into the Glass but when it has so far corrupted the mind that Sin is esteemed a small Evil Poison is thrown into the Fountain If we consider the Majesty of the Law-giver there is no Law small nor Sin small that is the Transgression of it Yet the most are secure in an evil course by conceits that their Sins are small 'T is true there is a vast difference between Sins in their nature and Circumstances there are insensible Omissions and accusing Acts but the least is Damnable Besides the allowance and number of Sins reputed small will involve under intolerable Guilt What is lighter than a grain of Sand you may blow away a hundred with a Breath and what is heavier than a heap of Sand condenst together 'T is our Wisdom and Duty to consider the Evil of Sin
articulately call to us to lay our quarrels to sleep and cordially to joyn our Prayers and Endeavours in our places to rescue our common Faith from so great a danger but yet we have been since that time biting and devouring one another as sharply as ever before And now once more we have a fair Call and each Party hath professed a serious Inclination to unite together against our common Adversaries God forbid that our Prejudices Humours or Interests should still hinder so great a Blessing I come now in the Third and Last place to direct the best Method to cure this great Evil and to prevent this great Danger And 1. Lament your own and others sin in this particular All sound Amendment begins in godly sorrow We are glowing hot in wrath and strife Tears are necessary to quench this Flame mourn for others fierceness and for your own For the Divisions of Reuben let there be great searchings of heart When we are once truly humbled and penitent before God our Brethren will have better quarter from us Consider how often you have added fewel to this fire how you have exasperated this burning Fever and how little you have done to asswage and mitigate it How easily you have been prejudiced how easily provok'd how hardly pacified If you should have met with such treatment from your Heavenly Father as your Brethren have had from you you had been devour'd and consum'd long ago .. Do not think that needless Divisions in Christs Church is so light a fault that reproaches and revilings are venial sins when Our Saviour hath assured us Matth. 18.6 That it were better for him that shall offend one of his little ones that believe in him to have a Milstone hanged about his Neck and be drowned in the depth of the Sea And how wittily soever it be exprest yet he that shall say to his Brother Thou fool shall be in danger of Hell-fire Mat. 5.22 Whatever uncharitable Reflexion therefore you have been guilty of repent of it speedily and also mourn for the miscarriages of others When we are a little melted for our own and others faults then we are fit for the healing mercy of God And the Lord turned the Captivity of Job when he prayed for his Friends Job 42.10 2. Learn Christian Wisdom Thereby you will be able to weigh and consider things and to look at them on every side What mischief hath Zeal without Wisdom done in the Church of God! A wise man will observe the weight and consequence of the things he undertakes to oppose and defend and then he will consider what are the most proper means to convince and to reduce his mistaken Adversary He that hath knowledge and a man of understanding is of an excellent that is a sedate calm and cool Spirit Prov. 17.27 A wise Man distinguisheth between tolerable mistakes and intolerable and proportions his zeal and the expressions thereof accordingly Whereas a fools lips enter into contention Prov. 18.6 He is hurried by his folly into all the terms moods and figures of Provocation And therefore the Apostle James calls for such wisdom upon this account Jam. 3.13 Who is a wise man and indued with knowledge among you Let him come with his meekness of wisdom As the deepest Rivers run most calmly so the wisest minds are ever most peaceable A wise Man will consider that it will be in the Church as it is in an House some Children do work and others make work some are for the School some for the Field some for the Cradle and yet all Children and thus God hath tempered the Body that there may be a various love among the Members in the strong to the weak a love of Care in the weak to the strong a love of Reverence Again a wise Man can govern his passions and not cast Fire-brands Arrows and Death and then say Am I not in sport Prov. 26.19 No he will make Controversies as few and then as short as he can and manage Sacred matters with a solid gravity And therefore get wisdom and with all your getting get understanding And to that end add to earnest Prayer reading in God's Book especially and as far as your Calling and Capacity will permit in the Histories of the Church and withall Observe and Digest those things which you have seen or heard or read so will you be able perhaps to make peace among others how ever to keep the peace your selves 3. Endeavour for a Catholick Spirit that is a due and tender respect to all the parts and members of the Christian Church For of that whole Mystical Body every true Christian is a Member For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit Now ye are the Body of Christ and Members in particular 1 Corinth 12.13.27 Hereby we shall not suddenly un-Church others at home or abroad for some imperfections or corruptions for he is but meanly read in the Records of the Church that hath not observed manifold defects deformities and corruptions in all the Christian Societies which have been in the World and on the other side that some holy Persons in all Ages have in some thing or other dissented from the Common Opinions and that many weak and peevish people have and ever will exercise the Patience and Charity of the rest On the contrary a poor narrow spirit in many hath not been the least cause of our Contentions whereby they have confined the Grace Presence and Goodness of God to some few Persons or Societies that have been more strict and devout than others No godly People but they none godly Ministers but theirs And the Papists are notoriously culpable in this point while they would impropriate all Christianity to themselves not valuing any person how Learned and Holy soever who will not be of their Communion But a true Catholick though he be fully perswaded in his own Mind of his Principles and Practices yet he can wish well unto and think well of and cordially embrace all that are sound in the Fundamentals of Religion though in divers things they do err and go astray 4. Be cloathed with Humility For whatsoever Pleas and Pretences are hung out it is Pride within which hath an hand in the beginning and maintaining of our quarrels Prov. 22.10 Cast out the Scorner and Contention shall go out Yea strife and reproach shall cease Hereby we are wise in our own eyes we look not on others things but only on our own This makes the Superiour look upon the Inferiour that differs from him with great contempt and this prompts him that is on the lower ground to all the envious Reflections and constructions imaginable of him that is got above him Sayes the one Shall I give way or yield a jot to Men so ordinary for their Parts and so obnoxious for their Circumstances I that neither need them
Atheists in Opinion likewise they say in their Hearts though they don't speak it out with their Tongues that there is no God Psal 14.1 they have not a thorough belief of a Deity or of a future State of Rewards and Punishments Or else it is in the last place because of their great Security Multitudes of professed Christians are fast asleep in their sins they give up themselves sinfully and many of them are given up of God judicially to a spirit of slumber and of deep sleep And when this is the case with men no wonder they are without any dread of Death or Hell or any thing else You know when a Man is in a deep sleep he fears no danger whatsoever These and such-like are the reasons why many carnal persons do spend their days in mirth and sensuality without any actual fear of Death or of it's dreadfull consequents But then it must be remembred that these very persons are subject or liable thereunto and if God awaken their Consciences and rouze them out of their security Job 24.17 Psal 55.4 5. then they are as 't is in Job in the terrors of the shadow of death horror overwhelmes them as 't is in that Psalm and the terrors of death fall upon them Like Foelix they fall a trembling and like Belshazzar their knees are ready to smite one against another 'T is time now that I should come to the second branch of the Question which is By what Means and Methods are the Children of God deliver'd by Christ from the fear of Death To this I shall return an Answer First By shewing you what Christ hath already done and then Secondly What he continues still to do in order to this end 1. I shall shew you what Christ hath already done to deliver or free the Children of God from the fear of Death He himself in his own Person hath suffered or tasted death for them This is every where declar'd in the New Testament and 't is hinted to us in the Text. Christ by death that is by his own death hath delivered the Children from the fear of death The death of Christ hath made Death to look with another face than formerly it had As the Wood that Moses cast into the waters of Marah did alter their property so the Death of Christ hath alter'd the property of Death and taken away the bitterness and formidableness thereof hence 't is that the death of Believers in Scripture is call'd a Sleep It is said of Stephen when he dyed though it was by a violent death That he fell asleep Acts 7.60 And the Apostle Paul says 1 Thes 4.14 That as Jesus dyed and rose again even so them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him It is well observed by some that the Apostle doth seem purposely to vary the Phrase he says that Jesus dyed and that the Saints sleep in Him and the reason is because that he sustained Death with all its terrors that so it might become a calm and quiet sleep unto the Saints The Death of Christ must needs sweeten the fore-thoughts of death to the Children and Chosen of God because that he dy'd in their stead he did not only dye in their Nature but in their Room not only for rheir good but also in their stead You know how it was with the Sacrifices of old they were put to death in the room of the Sacrificers So it was with Christ the truth of those Sacrifices he was put to death in the room of Sinners and they dy'd in him as their Representative Now this serves to free them from an enthralling fear of Death why should they fear that which Christ hath undergone in their place and room There are two things more to be considered under this Head 1. Christ by his Death hath taken away the true Reason of the fear of Death that is the Curse and Condemnation of the Law of God The Apostle Paul says That the sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15.56 and the strength of sin is the Law Death hath it's wounding power from sin and sin hath it's condemning power from the Law 't is the Law that discovers the nature of sin that enhanceth the guilt of sin that denounceth condemnation against him that commits it and 't is this condemnation of the Law that torments the Sinner with the fear of death Now Christ having in our stead subjected himself to death and so undergone the penalty of the Law he hath taken away the Curse and condemning power thereof He hath says the Apostle Paul redeemed us from the curse of the Law being himself made a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 The death of Christ hath satisfi'd every demand of the broken Law The Law of God hath nothing now to lay to the charge of God's Elect it owns the Blood of Christ to be a sufficient compensation for their violations of it there are no petty satisfactions to be made by themselves since Christ hath made compleat satisfaction for them and in their behalf The Law now is ready to acquit the Believer it says Thou mayst live for all me and live eternally I require not thy death as being satisfied with the Death of Christ When thou dyest a natural death it is rather to comply with the appointment of God and in order to the raising up hereafter a better and more curious Fabrick of thy Body than to satisfie any demand of mine 2. Christ by his Death hath deprived the Devil of the power of death and by this means also he hath deliver'd the Children from a servile fear of Death The Devil as I said before hath a power to terrifie the Consciences of men with the apprehension of death and the dreadful consequents thereof you see into what bondage he brings men upon this account many times he brings the Children themselves into the suburbs of Hell and lays them under dreadful terrors and horrors the pains of Hell says one of them gat hold of me I found trouble and sorrow Psal 116.3 2 Sam. 22.6 and again at another time the sorrows of death compassed me about Now this power of Satan is taken away by the Death of Christ The Blood of Christ hath cancel'd or at least contracted and lessened his Commission So that when he assaults a Believer in this kind he is easily resisted the Devil gives ground if the Believer stands his ground he can't prevail against a Child of God unless God give him a special Commission or unless he yields to his Temptation being justified by Faith in the Death of Christ we have that peace which all the Devils in Hell are not able to disturb the weapons of his power and warfare in this way are wrested out of his hands by the Death of Christ Thus you see what Christ hath already done 2. Let me proceed to shew you what he
Of Man's wickedness in both these thieves who had spent all their time in sin even to the last hour of their lives but especially in the impenitent thief whom neither Bonds nor Tryal nor Condemnation had humbled or mollified or brought to repentance but being still under the power of an hardned heart we find him at the last gasp railing on a Saviour instead of believing in him and belching out his blasphemies in the very mouth of Hell vers 39. If thou be Christ save thy self and us II. Of Divine grace in the penitent thief First Converting grace and that 1. In the power and efficacy of it for how powerful must that grace needs be which had wrought so great a change had suppled that heart in an instant which had been hardning in sin for so many years overcome so many stubborn inveterate lusts at once and made the Man all on a suddain commence one of the most eminent Saints the World had ever yet had and act faith to such an hight as might not only have become the chiefest of the Apostles but did really exceed any they had hitherto shewn The Disciples of Christ who had sat so long at their Masters feet yet were hardly induced to believe his Resurrection even after he was risen Luke 24.25 When this thief who hitherto had been a stranger to him and now saw him hanging on a Cross and dying yet by faith sees him in his Kingdom triumphing over his Cross and Death too 2. In the freeness of it for 1. Gods grace did not wait for his preparations good moods good dispositions these were all over if ever he had any but it takes hold of him when at the hight of sin and not only was void of grace but seemed past grace i. e. never like to come to it by any ordinary methods 2. It seised on him and passed by the other though no worse that we know of than himself Grace makes a difference where none was before of these two in the like case it takes one and leaves the other II. Pardoning grace This appears in our Lords answer and carriage to him vers 43. He doth not upbraid him with the abominations of his forepast life his Theft or Rapine or Violence his hardness of Heart or long Impenitence but easily readily gently receives him and is so far from denying him a pardon that he assures him of a present Salvation To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise The case of these two thieves doth in a good measure parallel the case of other dying sinners though dying upon their beds They were in the extremity of their lives drawing their last breath both full of pain and anguish in their Bodies and very likely full of shame and confusion in their Minds considering their death was not only cruel and grievous but reproachful in the eyes of Men and accursed by the sentence of God So that here was much to interrupt disturb and distract them in so great so close and serious a work as Repentance is And is it not so with others who live in sin all their days and pretend to Repent at last They are taking their leave of the World groaning under their Diseases racked with pains and have many things tho not the same the thieves had to discompose disquiet and divert them from or hinder them in the like work But if we look to the issue the parallel will not reach so far Here is Man for Man one of the thieves humble believing repenting and accordingly accepted the other unbroken unbelieving impenitent and dying like a reprobate This equality is not to be found among other dying sinners as hereafter we shall see However from the example of these two thieves we may safely infer this Proposition Doctrin That tho a very late even a death-bed repentance may be sincere yet it is not safe to run the hazard of it Two parts there are of this Proposition 1. That even a death-bed repeentance may be sincere this I shall speak to by way of Concession 2. That yet it is dangerous running the hazard of it by deferring repentance till such a time this I shall handle by way of Assertion I. It is possible that a death-bed repentance may be sincere In speaking to this I shall briefly 1. Premise something in general concerning the nature of Repentance 2. Lay down the reasons of this Concession First For the former Repentance may be considered either I. In the Act or exercise of it which the Scripture usually expresses by turning or returning implying that sinners are out of the way to God and their own happiness till by repentance they return into it If we speak distinctly of it we may consider 1. The Essence of repentance which is the turning mentioned a turning from sin to God i. e. from all sin both of Heart and Life as to the love and allowance of it and subjection to it and a turning to God as our Sovereign Lord from whom we had revolted to walk with him in all known ways of obedience and holiness And tho we cannot attain to a legal perfection in this Life either as to freedom from all Sin or the practice of all Duty yet there is not meerly a temporary and transient but a peremptory fixed and setled purpose for the one and against the other which is more than a promise de futuro and amounts to a present breach with all sin and an actual will to engage in every duty a respect to all Gods Comandments Psal 119.6 in the degree of our obedience to which we notwithstanding may oftentimes fail 2. The causes from which it proceeds First A right sence of sin as to the guilt defilement and dominion of it It s being offensive and odious to God Jer. 44.4 as well as hurtful to our selves in the danger to which it exposeth us the blot it leaves upon us and the tyranny it exerciseth over us Secondly An apprehension and belief of the mercy of God in Christ Jesus to them that do repent This is always the principle from which Evangelical repentance proceeds Tho the terrors of the Law may help to drive Men from sin yet there must be Gospel attractives to draw them to God either in a way of faith or repentance Who will dare to trust him from whom he expects no mercy or care for serving him from whom he looks for no acceptance Hence it is that Gods mercy is used as the grand motive to perswade Men to repentance Matth. 3.2 The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and Isa 55.7 From these proceed both that Godly sorrow for sin and that hatred of it which always accompanies Gospel repentance and in a good measure promotes it Paul seems to place Godly sorrow among the causes of repentance 2 Cor. 7.10 II. If we consider repentance in the habit I need say no more but that it is that grace of the Holy Spirit which he infuseth into the Soul as the immediate
the Psalmist declaring their inward sentiments The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it Lastly The sinner slights the power of God This attribute renders God a dreadful Judge He has a right to punish and power to revenge every transgression of his Law His judicial power is supreme his executive is irresistible He can with one stroke dispatch the Body to the Grave and the Soul to Hell and make Men as miserable as they are sinful Yet sinners as boldly provoke him as if there were no danger We read of the infatuated Syrians that they thought that God the Protector of Israel had only power on the Hills and not in the Vallies and renewed the War to their destruction Thus sinners enter into the lists with God and range an Army of lusts against the Armies of Heaven and blindly bold run upon their own destruction They neither believe his all-seeing Eye nor all-mighty Hand They change the glory of the living God into a dead Idol that has Eyes and sees not and Hands and handles not and accordingly his threatnings make no impression upon them Thus I have presented a true view of the evil of sin consider'd in it self but as Job saith of God how little a portion of him is known May be said of the evil of sin how little of it is known For in proportion as our apprehensions are defective and below the greatness of God so are they of the evil of sin that contradicts his Sovereign will and dishonours his excellent perfections 2. Sin relatively to us is the most pernicious and destructive Evil. If we compare it with temporal Evils it preponderates all that Men are liable to in the present World Diseases in our Bodies disasters in our Estates disgrace in our Reputation are in just esteem far less evil than the evil of sin for that corrupts and destroys our more excellent and immortal part The vile Body is of no account in comparison of the precious Soul Therefore the Apostle enforces his exhortation Dearly beloved brethren abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the Soul The issue of this War is infinitely more woful than of the most cruel against our Bodies and Goods our Liberties and Lives for our Estates and Freedom if lost may be recover'd if the present Life be lost for the cause of God it shall be restor'd in greater lustre and perfection but if the Soul be lost 't is lost for ever All temporal Evils are consistent with the love of God Job on the dunghil roughcast with Ulcers was most precious in Gods sight Lazarus in the lowest poverty and wasted with loathsom Sores was dear to his affections a guard of Angels was sent to convey his departing Soul to the Divine Presence But sin separates between God and us who is the fountain of felicity and the center of rest to the Soul Other evils God who is our wise and compassionate Father and Physitian makes use of as Medicinal preparations for the cure of sin and certainly the Disease which would be the death of the Soul is worse than the Remedy tho' never so bitter and afflicting to sense Sin is an evil of that malignity that the least degree of it is fatal If it be conceiv'd in the Soul tho' not actually finisht 't is deadly One sin corrupted in an instant angelical excellencies and turn'd the glorious Spirits of Heaven into Devils 'T is a poison so strong that the first taste of it shed a deadly taint and malignity into the veins of all mankind Sin is such an exceeding Evil that 't is the severest punishment Divine Justice inflicts on sinners on this side Hell The giving Men over to the power of their lusts is the most fearful judgment not only with respect to the cause Gods unrelenting and unquenchable anger and the issue everlasting destruction but in the quality of the judgment Nay did sin appear as odious in our Eyes as it does in Gods we should account it the worst part of Hell it self the pollutions of the damned to be an evil exceeding the torments superadded to them Sin is pregnant with all kinds of Evils the seeds of it are big with Judgments The evils that are obvious to sense or that are Spiritual and Inward Temporal and Eternal Evils all proceed from sin often as the Natural cause and always as the Meritorious And many times the same punishment is produc'd by the efficiency of sin as well as inflicted for its guilt Thus uncleanness without the miraculous waters of Jealousie rots the Body and the pleasure of sin is revenged by a loathsom consuming Disease the natural consequence of it Thus intemperance and luxury shorten the lives of Men and accelerate damnation Fierce desires and wild rage are fewel for the everlasting fire in Hell The same evils considered Physically are from the efficiency of sin consider'd legally are from the guilt of sin and the justice of God This being a point of great usefulness that I may be more instructive I will consider the evils that are consequential to sin under these two Heads 1. Such as proceed immediately from it by Emanation 2. Those evils and all other as the effects of Gods justice and sentence 1. The evils that proceed immediately by emanation from it and tho' some of them are not resented with feeling apprehensions by sinners yet they are of a fearful nature Sin has deprived Man of the purity nobility and peace of his innocent state 1. It has stain'd and tainted him with an universal intimate and permanent pollution Man in his first Creation was holy and righteous a beam of beauty derived from Heaven was shed upon his Soul in comparison of which sensitive beauty is but as the clearness of Glass to the lustre of a Diamond His understanding was light in the Lord his will and affections were regular and pure the Divine Image was imprest upon all his faculties that attracted the love and complacency of God himself Sin has blotted out all his aimiable excellencies and superinduc'd the most foul deformity the original of which was fetcht from Hell Sinners are the natural Children of Satan of a near resemblance to him The Scripture borrows comparisons to represent the defiling quality of sin from pollutions that are most loathsom to our senses from pestilential Vlcers putrifying Sores filthy Vomit and defiling Mire This pollution is universal through the whole Man Spirit Soul and Body It darkens the mind our supreme faculty with a cloud of Corruption it depraves the will and vitiates the affections 'T is a pollution so deep and permanent that the Deluge that swept away a World of sinners did not wash away their sins and the fire at the last day that shall devour the dross of the visible World and renew the Heavens and the Earth shall not purge away the sins of the guilty Inhabitants This pollution hath so defil'd and disfigur'd Man who was a fair and lovely type wherein
so doing though very ill requited for it this is high and noble indeed this is an honour not vouchsafed to the elect Angels who are not capable of suffering this is to be a Christian in truth and eminency and to resemble Christ himself who suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps In the words which I have read you may take notice 1. Of one end of Christ in Suffering and that is that he might leave us an example To say that this was the principal end of his passion to deny his satisfaction as if it were impossible or needless is heretical in a very high degree to deny the Blood of Christ to be the price of our redemption is to deny the Lord that bought us And truly the only propitiatory Sacrifice for Sin being rejected there is no other remaining but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries And yet though Christ bare our sins in his own body on the tree He is not only our Redeemer but our Example He hath bequeathed Blessings never enough to be valued in his Testament he has also left us an incomparable Example The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Example is either taken from excellent Writing-Masters who set a fair Copy for their Scholars to write after or 't is taken from Painters who draw a curious Masterpiece for inferiour Artists their Admiration and Imitation 2. They were remarkable steps that Christ took when he was here in the days of his flesh and among them all he did not take one wrong one He was made of a Woman made under the Law and he did not in the least transgress the Law He came upon this Earth to do his Father's Will Heb. 10.7 Lo I come in the volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy will O God And never did he any thing that was in any degree contrary to it 3. The Steps of Christ are to be followed Good men in Scripture are our patterns whose Faith and Patience we are to follow Heb. 6.12 That ye be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise The Cloud of witnesses is to be minded and the bright side of it gives a good light unto our feet but there is a dark side of the Cloud which may make us cautious we must take heed of resembling the best of Men in that which is bad in their falls and infirmities Abraham is renowned for his faith yet not to be imitated in the carnal shifts he made for the saving of his life Barnabas was to be blamed for being carried away by Peter's dissimulation But Christ is such an example as to walk according to it and to walk by the strictest rule is all one for our Lord did whatsoever became him and exactly fulfill'd all righteousness 4. Here is a special intimation as appears by the context of a Christian's Duty patiently to bear injuries and to take up the cross Though the Gospel be the gladdest tidings yet Suffering is a word that sounds very harsh to flesh and blood But the Apostle bids us behold Christ in his Sufferings and not think mâ—ch of our afflictions which were but a drop compared with His which were a vast Ocean The Sufferings of Christ the Head were unconceivably greater than those which any of his Members at any time are called to undergo And indeed when he drank the Cup his Father gave him he drank out the Curse and bitterness of it so that it is both bless't and sweetned to the Lambs followers who are to drink after him 5. The Sufferings of Christ and his Example being joyned together in the Text here is a signification that by his Death he has purchased Grace to assist and enable us to follow his example Our Lord knows our natural impotency nay averseness to follow him or so much as to look to him His death is effectual therefore to kill our Sin and to heal our depraved Nature his power rests upon us that we may tread the Path in which he is gone before us I am able to do all things says the Apostle through Christ strengthning me I am desired this Morning to speak of Christ as our Example and to shew how Christians are to follow him This is a Theme that commends it self to you by its excellency usefulness and seasonableness in such an Age wherein there is such a sinful sad and almost universal degenerating from true and real Christianity Glorious Head had'st thou ever on earth a Body more unlike thee than at this day How few manifestly declare themselves the Epistles of Christ written by the Spirit of the living God! Few Professors have his Image who yet bear his superscription In the handling of this Subject I shall 1. Premise some things by way of Caution 2. Shew you in what respects Christ is an Example to be followed 3. Produce some Arguments to perswade you to the imitation of him 4. Close with some Directions how this duty may be done effectually In the first place I am to premise some things by way of Caution 1. Think not as long as you remain in this world to be altogether free from Sin as Christ was He indeed was from his Conception in the Womb to his Ascension far above all visible Heavens altogether immaculate and without blemish Some have fancied spots in the Sun but sure I am in the Sun of righteousness there is none The Sins of all that are saved were laid upon him but no Sin was ever found in him or done by him The Apostle tells us that he was holy harmless and undefiled Heb. 7.26 You are indeed to imitate Christ in Purity but perfect Holiness you cannot attain to while you carry such a body of Death about you and are in such a world as this It may comfort you to consider after the fall of the first Adam and the sad consequences of it how the second Adam stood and conquer'd and kept himself unspotted from the world all the while he conversed in it But as long as you remain on Earth some defilement will cleave to you to admonish you where you are and to make you long for the heavenly Jerusalem More and more holy you may and ought to be but to be compleatly holy is the happiness not of Earth but Heaven 2. Think not that Christ in all his actions is to be imitated There are Royalties belonging to our Lord Jesus which none must invade He alone is Judg and Lawgiver in Zion and that worship is vain which is taught by the Precepts of Men. Christ is all in all he fills all in all Eph. 1.23 When the Fathers of the last Lateran Council told Leo the Tenth That all Power was given to him in Heaven and Earth As it was blasphemous flattery in them to give so it was blasphemous pride and right Antichristian arrogancy in
by the Sword of the Spirit all his force was repelled Christians are to look upon the Evil one as an Enemy that Christ has conquer'd and this should encourage them in their conflicts with him they are to despise his offers they are not to be perswaded by his misapplication of Scripture to any thing that is unjustifiable and irregular The Word of God should abide in them that they may be strong and overcome the wicked one 1 Joh. 2.14 The Head always resisted shall the Members yield to this Destroyer Let not your hearts be filled with Satan let not your heads and hands be employed by him who works in the Children of disobedience 4. Christ is to be followed in his contempt of the worlds glory and contentment with a mean and low estate in it Never was the world so set forth in such an alluring dress as when the God of it in a moment of time shew'd unto our Lord Jesus all the Kingdoms of the world and all the glory of them Luk. 4.5 yet the heavenly Mind of Christ is not taken with the sight he knew he saw nothing but what was Vanity and his Kingdom which was not of this world was a far better thing than the worlds best Kingdom Instead of pursuing he flees from a Crown which the people were ready to force upon his head Ambition and covetousness after worldly grandeur and gain which make us so unlike to Christ should be far from us If the world be the great thing with us Mammon will have us at command and Christ will have but little service from us Why should that be high in the esteem and affection of your hearts which Christ so little minded Love not the world neither the things that are in the world 1 Joh. 2.15 Set your affection on things above not on things that are on earth Col. 3.2 If you have the worlds riches let not your minds be high nor your hearts set upon them and be rich in good works if you are in a meaner estate be satisfied remember who said The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head The best men in the world that have done most good in the world have least cared for the world and have been most willing to leave the world and go to a better 5. Christ is to be followed in his living a life so very beneficial doing good being his perpetual business The Apostle Peter who was one of his greatest and most constant attendants says that he went about doing good Act. 10.38 to do thus was meat and drink to him How great was his Kindness and Compassion to Souls how much Mercy does he shew to the Bodies of Men You that are Christians be very active in the best sence the true Members of Christ have the Spirit of the Head in them whose fruit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth Eph. 5.9 What have you Faith for but that it may work by Love Why are you created in Christ Jesus but that you may be employed in good works which God hath before ordained that you should walk in them Eph. 2.10 Be sure to do justly be injurious to none render unto all their dues and do not only consult the dues of others but their needs also and love to be merciful and let the perishing Souls as well as the distressed Bodies of others have a great share in your Compassions As you have opportunity do good unto all men and good of as many sorts as may be especially to the houshold of faith Gal. 6.10 The Apostle speaks with great authority and asseveration when he presses Christian practice This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they who have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable unto men Tit. 3.8 A Christian by Profession who lives wickedly is not a true Member but a Monster in the Church and will not be endured long but is near to be cut off and destroy'd It 's a true Saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death does not destroy the Soul but 't is an ill Life that ruins it 6. Christ is to be followed in his most profitable and edifying Communication We read Psal 45.2 That grace was poured into his Lips the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth were the wonder of the hearers Luk. 4.22 Exact truth always accompanied his Speeches he never spake a word that was offensive to God or injurious to any man Was he chargeable with guile or when he was reviled did he revile again No no he gave a better example he speaks words to awaken Sinners to search Hypocrites and how does he comfort the mourners calling all the weary and heavy laden to come to him for rest He takes occasion almost from every thing to discourse of the heavenly kingdom His parables of the sower of leaven of the Merchant man seeking goodly pearls and such like plainly shew that the most ordinary things may spiritually be improved unto great usefulness All Professours and especially you of London set a watch before the door of your lips and let your words be like the words of Christ Jesus Your lying and corrupt communication your slanderous and backbiting words your passionate and angry speeches and revilings are these like Christs language An unbridled tongue though it utters many a falshood yet it speaks one certain truth that your Religion is but vain Jam. 1.26 Let Conscience be tender and purpose with the Psalmist that your mouths shall not transgress Let the word of Christ be more in your Hearts for out of the abundance of the Heart the mouth speaks Let your speech be always with Grace Col 4.6 Discourse as those who do believe you are debtors of edifying words one to another that idle words are heard by him that is in Heaven and an account must be given of them in the day of judgement 7. Christ is to be followed in his manner of performing holy duties never was He negligent in an Ordinance His cries were strong his tears many Heb 5.7 and how does he wrestle with his Heavenly Father Christians should take heed of doing the work of God deceitfully they should be fervent in Spirit when serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 Look to your Hearts in all your performances for Gods eye is fixed upon them and if they are not present and right with him your duties are but dead duties and dead duties are really dead works so far from being acceptable that they are an abomination When Christ was here upon the Earth as he taught in other places so he went to the Temple and to the Synagogues though there was much corruption in the Jewish Church Christians should learn so much moderation as to own what is good even in them in whom there are mixtures of much that is bad and there should be a
cause that will pass for just and sufficient at the great day before they resolve upon a total separation from their Brethren 8. Christ is to be followed in his great humility and meekness Mat. 11.29 Take my yoak upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your Souls Pride overcame the first man he affected Divinity and would needs be as God but behold the Lord Jesus who is the Eternal God and he humbled himself and became Man Humility was the constant attire and ornament of the Man Christ Jesus Though this great Redeemer be the chief of all the ways of God though more of God is visible in Him than in the whole Creation besides Though he glorifies his Father more than all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth put together and though he is exalted far above all Principalities and Powers and Might and Dominion no◠only in this World but in that which is to come Yet our Lord never was in the least High-minded Humility is one most remarkable feature in the image of Christ therefore resemble him in being humble Be not proud of Habit Hair and Ornaments 1 Pet. 5.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Etymologists derive the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies nodus a knot Be cloathed or be knotted with Humility I wish that other knots were less and this which is incomparably most becoming were more in fashion Let not your Estates puff you up Riches are not always to men of understanding and there may be a great deal of Gold in the Purse where there is no true Wisdom in the Head no Grace at all in the Heart Let not your natural parts your acquired endowments your spiritual Gifts though never so excellent make you to look upon others with contempt upon your selves with admiration you owe all Glory to that God from whom you have received all Let Humility look out at your Eyes a proud look is one of the seven things which the Lord hates Prov. 6.16 17. Let Humility express it self at your Lips let it attend you in all your addresses to God and beautifie your whole behaviour and converses with Men. The more humble you are the more of every other Grace will be imparted to you the more Rest and Peace you will have within your selves and since you will be ready to give him all the Praise the Lord is ready to put the more honour upon you in making you useful unto others 9. Christ is to be followed in his love to God great care to please him and fervent zeal for his Name and Glory Joh. 14.31 The World may know says Christ that I love the Father and as the Father gave me Commandment even so I do He obeyed that first and great Commandment and loved the Lord his God with all his Heart and Soul and Mind and Strength Christs love made him do whatever his Father pleased Joh. 8.29 He that sent me is with me the Father hath not left me alone for I always do those things that please him Christs love was stronger than Death no Waters no Flouds could drown it neither could the Baptism of blood quench it Christ was consumed with Divine and Holy zeal and he matters not what befal him so he might but glorifie his Father and finish the work which was given him to do Oh let us bring our cold and careless Hearts hither to the Consideration of this Great Example that the frost may melt care may be awakened and there may be something in us that may deserve the name of Warm zeal for God Let us be importunate in Prayer and restless till we feel the constraints of the Love of God forceable till we find really the greatest delight and pleasure in doing that which pleases him and aiming at his Glory we think not much of labour difficulty and hazzard that this our end may be attained 10. Christ is to be followed in his Sufferings and Death and unto this my Text has a more particular reference Christs Faith was strong though he was under a dismal Desertion The Sun of Righteousness did set in a dark cloud He submitted to his Fathers will and being confident of a joyful Resurrection he endured the Cross and despised the shame When Christians come to die their Faith should be most lively as being near finishing it should by no means fail when there is most need of it Though he slay me says Job yet will I trust in him Job 13.15 Christians should submit when the Lord of time will grant no more time to them and they should gladly enter upon a holy and blessed Eternity When the body is about to be sown in corruption by Faith they should see that its lying there will be to advantage for it will be raised in Incorruption and Glory 1 Cor. 15.42 43. Let Death be more natural or violent it is yours in the Covenant if you are true Believers 1 Cor. 3.22 Fear not to follow our Lord Jesus through that dark passage into the House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens And all the while you remain on Earth study a Conformity to your Lords death by crucifying the Flesh and dying to the World The more dead you are with Christ in this sense you will live to the better purpose and die in the greater Peace In the third place I am to produce some Arguments to perswade to the imitation of our Lord Jesus 1. Consider the greatness of the Person that gives you the Example Christ has this Name written on his Vesture and on his Thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 19.16 A Roman Historian commends a Prince who is maximus imperio Velleius Paterculus l. 2. exemplo major greatest in authority and yet greater by his example Every thing in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth does bow and is subject to the Lord Jesus and yet whose obedience ever was so exact as his was He gives us precepts and he himself is the great Pattern of performance Claudian the Poet has a notable passage concerning the examples of Monarchs and what a mighty influence they have Tunc observantior aequi Fit populus nec ferre vetat cum viderit ipsum Autorein parere sibi componitur Orbis Regis ad exemplum nec sic inflectere sensus Humanos edicta valent quà m vita Regentis Kings have many observers who very much Eye them and their high estate both awes and allures their Subjects to the imitation of them If they keep within the bounds of their own Laws their Subjects will be the more unwilling to transgress them Christ is the universal Soveraign who commands both Heaven and Earth and has the whole Creation at his beck He has kept the Laws he gives his Church 't is duty 't is interest 't is reasonable 't is honourable to resemble him in obedience 2. Remember the Relation wherein you that are Saints do stand unto the Lord
or less angry with Men holds up Satan in a longer or shorter Chain Being less Angry with you Young People he suffers him not to fall upon you with such strength of Fraud or Force as upon Old Transgressors So much reach at you God doth allow him as maketh needful your Watching and Prayer and Wariness of his Devices But God allows him so very much less at you than at others that he may be repelled more easily by you than others And you have less reason to doubt of Victory when you fight against him than others have And may be certain that if you abide Unconvert in your sins and go on to incense God more against you you shall then have a much more powerful Enemy of him than now you have Now Would any General of an Army delay to Fight with his Enemy till he himself were Weaker and his Enemies stronger O do not any of you say practically I will not yet fight for my Translation out of the Kingdom of Darkness I will have the Prince of Darkness get an Hundred times more forces against me and more advantagious ground before I will encounter him How kind to Satan are Delaying Children C. 3. Your Hearts which are your Rulers under God be not yet so bad within you as Old Peoples be and as they will themselves be sure to be if you now Convert not Your Hearts the Lord shew it you are they that do most under God for your Conquering or your being Conquered by Sin Death and Hell These Hearts of yours be blind and foolish proud and perverse enough they be sufficiently Unteachable Untractable Unfaithful The Lord humble you deeply in the deepest sense of it But still they be not near so bad as Old Sinners Hearts be Believe it there is a sense in which Nicodemus his words be smart How can a Man be born when he is Old God has in his Offence departed farther from Old Men than you Satan in his long stay in them has hammered them into a greater hardness than he has yet brought you into Actual Sins have put more strength into their Habitual than into Yours And they have more Milstones about the neck of their Souls than yet are about yours Insomuch that you have as much the better of them as those who have in War a less unqualified Commanded have of them whose Leader is most blind most Lame and most Lunatick it self Your Work is more easie and your Encouragement to expect Victory is more ample than Old Sinners And both such as they will not continue unto you unless you now Convert unto God Which if you do not you do like Soldiers that should say We will have no Battel with our Enemy as yet The Leader whose Conduct and Action are our Life or Death will shortly be Stone-blind and under the Dead Palsie And we will stay till he be so before we employ him O plotted Self-Destruction O Chosen Ruine If this Consideration go for nothing with you ye are Blind against Sun-shine and Deaf unto Thunder C. 4. Your Bodies the Instruments of your Souls Action be not yet so sorry as Old Peoples be and as yours will be most certainly if you Convert not presently Sirs An Unsanctified Body is a Souls Unknown Enemy A Trojan Horse a Pandora's Box a Forge of Mischiefs Your Young ones are such that almost proverbially the Blood of Youth is Satan's Tinder and Match 'T is seen you have warm Bosom for all Snakes Legions of Devils are a less formidable Army than your own five Senses unhallowed Beware of the Flesh But withal know ye an Unruly Horse is more desirable than a Dead one He may be Bridled and made serviceable 'T is better with you than Old Folk if you will but well use that whereof they want the use Health and Strength in general reading Eyes and hearing Ears and walking Feet in particular Old Age is it self say some a Disease a very Hospital of all Many are deprived of the means of Grace by Blindness and Deafness Most do use them with much pain and great disadvantage None have so few Clogs about them as you So that great is your advantage for working out your Salvation Your Labour is less to read or hear an Hundred Sermons than theirs to hear or read one And to go Twenty Miles for Advice than theirs to go Twenty Steps Being that Sin and so Death came in at the Eye and Ear and it is God's Will to drive them out at the same and to transmit the Wisdom that saves our Souls through those Bodily Senses these are not inconsiderable things O that you had heard but what I have done of poor Old Creatures Outcryes Cursing the Courses and Companies that devoured their strength Wailing with sighs and tears their disability to Read difficulty of hearing and utterly lost faculty of Remembring The Memory ought to cut my Heart may the Notice sway yours If you will yet put off your Conversion this is the Language which that Delay utters I have a work given me to do that is for my Life Eternal I have yet Eyes and Ears and Hands and Feet I have Ease and Strength But these all have Wings and will shortly fly and be gone as others be When gone I cannot work or if I do it must be in the Fire as it were Nevertheless I will not set to my Work till my Sun and Moon and Stars be darkned I will not stir one Foot for Heaven till my other Foot is in the Grave If my Peace be ever made with God it shall be even at the Graves brink When I am just come to the Mouth of Hell and can scarce open my own Mouth to deprecate it I will bestow a wish for Heaven if that may possess me of it Sensless Creature that wantest nothing of a Bruit but Hair and two Feet more C. 5. The World another back friend of yours hath not yet lain so many Loads on your backs as upon Old Peoples and as it will lay on yours if you live longer and live under its Power and Vnsubjected and Vnconvert unto God This I speak to you especially of the Younger sort Children and next to Children I hope you have heard what an Enemy the World and the things of it do make to Conversion and Sanctification Read the Texts in the Margent Read Ecclesiastes 1 Jo. 2.15 16. Jam. 4.4 Matth. 6.24 a whole Book of Sacred Scripture took up in warning us against this said Enemy More or less Woe is to every Dweller in it because of the Avocations the Distractions and Interruptions of this Old Adam's World But here also you have the better ordinarily of Old People For themselves or their more Beloved Selfs their Children they are swallowed up of Designs Bargains c. Gains and Losses make their Souls a Sea of tempestuous Cares knowing little calm or quietness You are yet free comparatively and Unladen You may Contemplate and Act for next World without the