not seem to confine the Consequences here mention'd to another World altho' the full Accomplishment of them be only there to be expected but if we attend to his Scope and Design in the End of the foregoing Chapter and the Beginning of this we shall find that even in this Life the result of a carnal Mind is a sort of a Spiritual Death and of a Spiritual Mind is Life and Peace For when St. Paul in the 7â—h Chapter had represented himself as carnal and sold under Sin although there were great strugglings between the Convictions of his Conscience and the strength of carnal Inclinations yet as long as the latter prevailed so that he could not do the things that his Mind and Reason told him he ought to do but did those things which he was convinced be ought not to have done The more he reflected upon himself the more sad and miserable he found his Condition to be as appears by that Emphatical expression which follow'd upon it O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death But he no sooner finds hopes of Delivery and Escape out of that Estate but he breaks forth into Transport of Joy and inward Satisfaction Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Not meerly a Victory over Death but over Sin too And so he begins this Chapter after a triumphant manner There is therefore no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit For the Lord of the Spirit of Life which was in Christ Jesus hath made me â—â—ee from the Law of Sin and Death He that groaned under his Captivity before to the Law of Sin doth now rejoyce in his Deliverance from it by the Grace of the Gospel For what could not be done by natural Freedom by the Power of the Law and the Force of Reason is brought to pass by the Assistance of Divine Grace given to the Souls of Men by Jesus Christ. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh What was that which the Law could not do It could awaken convince terrifie and confound the Consciences of Sinners under the Sense and Apprehension of their Sins but it could neither satisfie the Justice of God nor the Minds of Men it could not remove the Guilt nor take away the Force and Power of Sin But God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinfull Flesh and for sin condemned sin in the Flesh i. e. Jesus Christ becoming an expiatory Sacrifice for Sin took off the damning Power of Sin and by the prevailing Efficacy of his Grace subdued the strength and force of it to such a degree That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit How could this be if St. Paul still considered himself in the same Condition he did in the foregoing Chapter For if he were still in Captivity to the Law of Sin in his Members how was it possible that the Righteousness of the Law should be fulfilled in him How could he walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit if the Good which he would he did not and the Evil which he would not that he did For these things are so repugnant to each other that when they are spoken of the same Person it must be under different Considerations the one of him as meerly under the Power of the Law the other as under the Grace and Influence of the Gospel The one was like rough and a churlish sort of Physick which searches into every Part and puts all the ill Humours of the Body into Motion and makes a general Disturbance and Uneasiness within but yet lets them remain where they were the other is like a gentle but more effecutal Remedy which carries off the Strength and Power of inward Corruptions and alters the Habit and Temper and puts quite another Disposition into us which produces very different Effects upon us For instead of Horrour and Despair and inward Anguish and Confusion there will follow a new Life of Joy and Peace here and Eternal Happiness hereafter And this is what the Apostle means in the Words of the Text To be carnally minded c. Wherein are two things which very much deserve our Consideration I. The different Tempers of Men's Minds some are carnally and others spiritually minded II. The different Consequences which follow them To be carnally minded is Death but to be spiritually minded is Life and Peace I. The different Tempers of Men's Minds The different Denominations are taken from the Flesh and the Spirit which are here represented as two Principles so different from each other that the same Person cannot be supposed to be acted by both of them For as the Apostle saith in the foregoing Words They that are after the Flesh do mind the things of the Flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit Where the Flesh in a Moral sense takes in all our sensual Inclinations which are sinfull either in their Nature or Degree The Spirit is that Divine Principle which possesses the Mind with the Love and Esteem of Spiritual things and keeps our natural Inclinations within the Compass of God's Law To be carnally minded is to be under the Influence of carnal things so as to make the Pursuit of them our chief Design To be spiritually minded is to have so deep and just a Sense of God and his Law upon our Minds as to make it our business to please him and therefore to subdue all such Inclinations which are repugnant to his Will But here lies the main Difficulty how to judge concerning this matter so as to be able to determine whether we our selves be carnally or spiritually minded Which is a thing of so great Consequence for us to know that the Peace of our Minds the true Comfort of our Lives our due Preparation for Death and a happy Eternity do all depend upon And yet that this is a real Difficulty will appear from these Considerations 1. It requires a greater Knowledge of our selves as to our spiritual Condition than most Persons in the World can pretend to For it is not a slight and superficial View of our selves not a transient sudden Reflection nor a partial Inquiry into our inward Passions and the Course of our Actions which can make us capable of passing a true Judgment upon the Temper of our Minds but there must be a true Light a serious and diligent Search frequent Recollection free and deliberate Thoughts long Observation and due Comparison of our selves with our selves and with the Law of God before we can form a just Opinion as to the prevailing Temper and Disposition of our Minds It 's true this is not necessary in all Persons for some and I am afraid too many are so carnally minded that
believe no Life after this be compared with the Pains and Martyrdoms of those who have suffer'd for their Religion these will appear to be far more eligible than the other because the Mind hath far greater Satisfaction under them and a certain Expectation of an infinite Reward to follow upon them Whereas the other can have no Comfort in looking back on what they have done or forward in what they are to expect For they have destroy'd their own Happiness and hasten'd that upon themselves which they account their only Misery 2. As to the common Calamities of Life which none can prevent or avoid the spiritual Mind hath very much the Advantage of the carnal for the one â—ills them with inward Peace and Satisfaction of Mind which of all things carry Men best through the Troubles of Life being joyned with Patience Humility Self-denial and Submission to the Will of God which are all the genuine Effects of a spiritual Mind but a carnal Mind is froward and impatient uneasie to it self and to all about it and this makes every Pain and Trouble to be much greater than it would have been like the Ass in the Fable Which lay down in the Water with his Burthen of Wool and so made it heavier than before There were two things the philosophical Men of Pleasure sought to comfort themselves by under the unavoidable Troubles of Life which the spiritual Mind hath far greater Advantages than any of them had as to both of them and these are Reflection and Expectation 1. Reflection When Epicurus was in his last Agonies under the Stone what a miserable way was it for him to go about to comfort himself by reflecting upon his Atoms and his Maxims his imaginary Notion of the Happiness of Life consisting in Pleasure when his Life was so near being ended by excessive Pain But a good Man that hath sincerely endeavour'd to serve God in his Generation and to do all the good he could and to promote the Interests of Religion and Vertue in the World may in the Midst of many Failings and Infirmities look back with comfort on the Course of his former Life and by the Peace of a good Conscience may injoy inward Satisfaction under such Pains and Distempers which make Life uneasie and Death more welcome as it is a Passage to a far better State And that is the next thing 2. Expectation It was a sorrowfull Expectation which Epicurus supported himself with when he was in the Prospect of Death which was no more than that the subtle Atoms which made up his Soul would soon be scatter'd and dispersed he knew not where and then he should be as if he had never been But what Comfort is there in such a Dissolution Men that have deserved it may heartily wish it but they have deserved something worse and that they must expect For the just and holy God will certainly call them to an Account for all their Vices and Follies and it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God and what a miserable Case are those in who have nothing to look for but Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall consume the Adversaries of God and Religion But O the blessed Hope and joyfull Expectation that attends a spiritual Mind Especially when it is enliven'd and assisted by the powerfull Influences of Divine Grace For without that even good Men may be liable to some Dejections and Fears as to another World from the Vastness of the Change the Sense of their Failings the Weakness of their Minds and Mistrust of their own Fitness for Heaven but so great is the Goodness and Mercy of God towards them that sincerely love and fear him that he always makes their Passage safe though it be not so triumphant And although the Valley of the Shadow of Death may seem gloomy and uncomfortable at a Distance yet when God is pleased to conduct his Servants through it he makes it a happy Passage into a State of a glorious Immortality and everlasting Life and Peace To which God c. SERMON IX Preached before the King and Queen AT WHITE-HALL ON Christmass-Day 1693. St. John III. 17. For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved THese words are part of the Gospel written by St. John wherein he doth not only fill up the History of our Saviour with many particular Discourses omitted by the other Evangelists but the whole seems to be penned in another Strain and with some different Purpose and Design It 's true that they all agree in the same general End of Writing which St. John mentions viz. That we might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing we might have life through his Name but they make use of several Methods as most agreeable to the Circumstances of the Time and Place and Occasion of their Writing St. Matthew wrote his Gospel for the sake of the Jews and therefore he begins with the Genealogy of Jesus Christ from Abraham and shews that the Prophecies were accomplished in him and how he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it and that his Miracles and Doctrine were sufficient to convince them that he was the promised Messias St. Mark wrote only a summary Account of the most material Passages relating to the Person and Doctrine of Christ for the sake of the Gentiles St. Luke takes a larger Compass and puts things into an exacter Order of Time as himself tells us and adds many Circumstances relating to the Birth of Christ and the general Advantage to Mankind by his coming that he was to be a Light to lighten the Gentiles as well as the Glory of his People Israel St. John succeeding the rest found two great things which gave him occasion of writing his Gospel 1. The perverting the Doctrine of Christ by the Ebionites and Cerinthians who pretended to give great Honour to Christ as an excellent Person both for Wisdom and Holiness but yet so that he was but a meer Man to whom God upon his Baptism had given extraordinary Gifts and Assistances of his Holy Spirit 2. The other was that the Gospel which was designed for the Universal good of the World met with such cold Reception and Entertainment from it He was in the World and the World was made by him and the World knew him not He came unto his own and his own received him not What could be more uneasie to so true a lover of Christ as St. John was than that he lived to see his Doctrine perverted and his Design in so great a Measure rendred ineffectual And therefore in the writing of this Gospel 1. He begins after another manner and in a very short significant and lofty Style he sets forth his Eternal Being and Godhead In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word
me for my Sins and yet I had no heart to repent of them When I could not but see my danger and yet was unwilling to come out of it I can never be sufficiently thankfull for so great a Mercy as his bringing me to my self hath been I had gone on in the same secure stupid senseless Condition that others lie in if he had not throughly awaken'd me and roused me out of my impenitent State How dreadfull had my Condition for ever been if my first awakening had been in the Flames of Hell Nothing but infinite Goodness and Patience would have waited so long for the Repentance of such an Offender as I have been I have sinned so often that I am ashamed to think of the Number of my Transgressions so deeply that I am confounded at the thoughts of them so foolishly that I am unworthy to be called thy Son who have acted so unlike thy Children so the prodigal Son here speaks to his Father And if thou wouldst admit me but to the meanest Condition of thy Servants I shall ever esteem it as the greatest Privilege of my Life and endeavour to serve Thee for the future tho' in the lowest Capacity Thus the repenting Prodigal goes on v 19. And in a suitable Manner every true Penitent behaves himself towards God with great Humility and a deep Sense of his own Unworthiness and is thereby rendred more capable of Divine Favour For God reâ—steth the proud but giveth grace to the humble And therefore it is very agreeable to infinite Wisdom and Goodness to shew pity towards a truly humble and penitent Sinner For a broken and contrite heart he will not despise 3. If God were not so full of Compassion to penitent Sinners there would have been no incouragement for Sinners to repent but they must have sunk into everlasting Despair For if God should forgive none that Sin then all Mankind must be condemned to Eternal Misery for all have sinned and there is not a just Man upon Earth who sinneth not and so the best and worst and all forts of Sinners must here suffer together which would have taken away all the Notion of any such thing as Mercy and Clemency in God towards Mankind But if we set bounds to it as to some particular kinds and degrees of sinning we limit that which is infinite we determine what we know not viz. how far God's Mercy doth extend we destroy the Power of Divine Grace in changing and reforming the worst of Men. But the Scriture hath recorded some remarkable Instances of great Sinners who have been great Penitents and upon that have been pardon'd such as Manasses and some others that no penitent Sinner might be discouraged in the Work of Repentance For a true Penitent searching to the bottom and setting all his Sins before him with their several Aggravations can be kept from Despair by nothing less than the Infinite Mercy of God to those who truly repent 4. Because there is nothing so provoking in Sin as obstinate Impenitency and Continuance in it It is true God hates all Sin for its own sake but not all equally some Sins being of a higher Nature than others are being against plainer Light stronger Convictions more easie Commands stricter Obligations than others are but yet it is the Temper of a Sinner's Mind which is most provoking when Sins are committed not through Infirmity or sudden Surprize or a violent Temptation but habitually knowingly wilfully especially when they are done in Contempt of God and his Laws and with an obstinate Resolution to continue in the Practice of them This is so provoking to God that the chief Reason of the severe Punishments of Sinners in another World is taken from thence because God hates obstinate and impenitent Sinners And thus he will by no means acquit the Guilty There is a Sin unto death saith St. John and there is a Sin not unto death There is a Sin unto death which Christ hath said he will never pardon and that is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost a Sin which none who do truly own Christianity are capable of committing But is there then no Sin unto death to them Yes it is possible for Men who have clear Convictions in their minds of the Truth of the Gospel to act so plainly and wilfully and directly against it as either to provoke God to take them away by an extraordinary Judgment and so it is properly a Sin unto death or to withdraw his Grace from them and leave them to the hardness of their own Hearts and so it becomes a Sin unto a Spiritual death But besides these Cases every wilfull Sinner who adds Impenitency to his Sin commits the Sin unto death because there is no other Condition of Pardon allow'd by the Gospel without true Repentance How infinite is the Goodness of God that excludes no Sinners from the hopes of Pardon who have a heart to repent sinâ—erely of their Sins And how just is God in the final Punishment of those Sinners who still go on in their Sins and refuse to repent after all the Invitations and Incouragements which are given them to that End Can we in Reason suppose that God should stoop lower towards Sinners than to offer them pardon of former Sins if they do repent and to tell them they must expect no Mercy in another World if they do not repent But suppose we are come thus far that we are convinced we must repent what Course and Method must we take in order to it Of this briefly and so to conclude Secondly I know no better than to follow the Example of the prodigal Son here And in the first place to form a present sincere fixed and peremptory Resolution of doâ—ng it I will arise and go to my Father c. If we suffer Convictions to cool upon our Minds the force and spirit of them will soon be gone It hath been of late observed by the strictest Enquirers into Nature that the beginnings of Life are very small and hardly discernible It is but as a spark that appears and may easily be exstinguished but if it be incouraged by a continual heat a wonderfull Alteration soon follows and the distinct parts begin to be formed the first which is discerned is the Eye but the Fountain of Life is in the Heart and when the Course of the Bloud is there setled the other parts come to their due formation with greater quickness This may be a Representation of the first Beginnings of Spiritual Life that which answers to the Eye is the Conviction of the Mind where the inward Change first appears that which answers to the Heart is Resolution and when that is fixed a mighty Reformation will soon follow But Spiritual Life as well as Natural is in its first Beginnings a very nice and tender thing it may be easily stopt and very hardly recovered It is therefore of very great Concernment to keep up the Warmth of our
earnestly but his sweat was as it were great Drops of Blood falling to the Ground What made this Amazement and dreadfull Agony in the Mind of the most innocent Person in the World Was it merely the Fear of the Pains of Death which he was to undergo That is impossible considering the Assurance which he had of so glorious a Reward so soon following after when so many Martyrs endured such exquisite Torments for his sake without any such Disturbance or Coâ—sternation But the Apostles give us another Account of it St. Peter saith he was to bear our Sins in his own body on the tree that Christ suffer'd for Sins the just for the unjust St. Paul that God made him to be Sin for us who knew no Sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him Hereby we understand how so innocent a Person came to suffer he stood in our stead he was made Sin for us and therefore was to be treated as a Sinner and to suffer that on our Account which he could not deserve on his own If he suffer'd on his own Account this were the way to fill our Minds with perplexity concerning the Justice of Providence with respect to his dealings with the most innocent and holy Persons in this World if he suffer'd on our Account then we have the Benefit of his Sufferings and therein we see how displeasing to God sin is when even his own Son suffer'd so much by taking the guilt of our Sins upon him And what can tend more to the begetting in us a due hatred of sin than to consider what Christ himself suffer'd on the Account of it What can make us have more dreadfull thoughts of it than that the great and mercifull God when he designed to save Sinners yet would have his own Son to become a Propitiation for the Sins of Mankind And unless we allow this we must put force upon the plainest Expressions of Scripture and make Christ to suffer meerly to shew God's Power over a most innocent Person and his Will and Pleasure to inflict the most severe Punishment without any Respect to Guilt And surely such a Notion of God cannot be worthy of all Acceptation 3. Which tends most to strengthen our Hope of Salvation by Christ Jesus If we believe that he suffer'd for our Sins then we have great Reason to hope for the Forgiveness of them although they have been many and great if we sincerely repent because the most prevailing Argument for Despair will be removed which is taken from the Justice of God and his declared Hatred of Sin and Displeasure against Sinners If God be so much in earnest displeased with the Sins of Mankind and his Justice be concerned in the Punishment of Sinners how can they ever hope to escape unless there be a way for his Displeasure to be removed and his Justice to be satisfied And this the Scripture tells us is done by Christ who died that he might be a Sacrifice of Attonement to reconcile us to God by his Death as St. Paul expresly affirms And by this means we may have strong Consolation from the Hopes of Forgiveness of our Sins Whereas if this be taken away either Men must believe that God was not in earnest displeased with the Sins of Mankind which must exceedingly lessen our Esteem of the Holiness and Justice of God or if he were so displeased that he laid aside this Displeasure without any Atonement or Sacrifice of Expiation And so as many as look on God's Justice and Holiness as necessary and essential Attributes of God will be in danger of sinking into the Depths of Despair as often as they reflect seriously on the Guilt of their Sins But on the other side if we believe that while we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son then we may have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and have Reason to believe that there will be no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus by a lively Faith and sincere Repentance then they may with Comfort look up to God as a reconciled Father through Jesus Christ our Mediatour then they may with inward Satisfaction look beyond the Grave and stedfastly hope for that Salvation which Christ purchased on Earth and will at last bestow on all such as love and obey him To which God of his Infinite Mercy bring us all through Jesus Christ. For This is a faithfull Saying and worthy of all Acceptation that he came into the World to save Sinners SERMON VII Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL March the 1st 1690 1. S. Luke VI. 46. And why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say THese few Words contain in them a smart and â—erious Expostâ—lation of our Blessed Saviour with such who proâ—essed great Kindness to him in their Worâ—s but shew'd no Regard to his Commands They owned him to be the Messias and depended upon him for their Happiness and were willing enough to be known to be his Disciples and Followers but yet his Doctrine made little Impression on their Minds and scarce any Alteration in the Course of their Lives They loved to be where Christ was to hear his Doctrine to see his Miracles to observe his Conversation to admire what he did and said but herein lay the whole of their Religion for although they named the name of Christ and it may be rejoyced and glory'd in it yet they did not depart from iniquity Now considering the Circumstances of that time this seems to have been an unaccountable kind of Hypocrisie For their calling Christ Lord Lord spoiled their Interest in this World and not doing what he said debarr'd them from the hopes of Happiness by him in another For if they own'd him to be their Lord they were bound to believe him in what he declared and there is nothing he doth more expresly warn men of than hoping to be saved by him without obeying his Commands Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven Which is shorter expressed but to the same purpose here by S. Luke And why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say As though he had said to them It is in vain to think to please and flatter me with your Words when your Actions are disagreeable to them To call me Lord Lord is to own my Authority in commanding you but to do this and yet wilfully to disobey me is to shew your Hypocrisie and Folly together Which Expostulation of Christ was not confined to that time no more than his Commands were but it hath always the same Force where Persons are guilty of the same Folly For although now none can plead for themselves as they did We have eaten and drank in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets yet we