so And no better are they in the practice of Impiety for as Slaves are at the command of their Masters and blindly obey their wills and are no gainers by what they do and oftentimes feel the lash and the whip notwithstanding their drudgery such is the case of sinners under the power of a domineering vice Yea their service is more dirty and dishonourable their chains stronger and their recovery more difficult as being less apprehensive sensible of their thraldom And who can honour or esteem such voluntary slaves under the worst of Tyrants they render themselv's infamous despicable can not expect better then to be scorned or pittied No man will esteem or trust one that is a known drunkard and whoremaster a frugal honest man that hath but half the estate is better lov'd will be farther trusted then such a one tho he have twice as much Who can think or speak well of a drunkard any otherwise then of a cask or vessell to be often filled and emptied As of one that is a confident boaster of himself his own actions undertakings a slanderer backbiter of others one that is vaine and scandalous in company foolishly babling all he knows unfaithfully revealing the secrets of his friends rash and hasty in his resolutions extravagant in his projects irregular in his actions c. And what reputation can such a man expect the like I might say of the Glutton who spends his Life in carrying meat from the Table to the Dunghill and so of others The name of such men shall rot saith the wise man It shall putrifie assoon as their bodies and sometimes long before Yea some mens wickedness makes them infamous after they are dead kills them to immortality and poysons their memory to future ages they stand upon record as great Villains and warnings to posterity § 6. Sin corrects and reproves the sinner in this world by destroying his health How doth gluttony and drunkenness correct men by evening vomits and morning qualms crudities of the stomach pains of the head and inflammations of the liver rheums gouts dropsies cholick consumptions apoplexies palsies decay of sight want of appetite losse of memory and judgment stupifyeing the braine weakning all the members of the body and hastening old age and death How many an healthy constitution hath been destroyed by intemperance besides that it inflames passion and excites quarrells makes men more apt to give affronts more unwilling to take them On which acount saith Solomon Who hath wo who hath sorrow 23 Pr 29. who hath wounds without cause they that tarry long at the wine c. who can recount all the mischiefs to the body by an excess of eating and drinking wheras abstinence and a temperate life hath been proved by many to be the certaine cure of catarrhs and gouts and other diseases wherwith formerly they have been tormented How many miserable instances have we known of men tortur'd by acute distempers swoln with gouts burn't with feavers rackt by the stone torn with cholicks c. and forc't to pine away a great part of their days in paine misery by the effects of Intemperance and lust By this means Princes and great men have been forc't to own that it is an evil thing and a bitter to forsake God suffering such torments as the fruit of their Impieties that have made them envy the condition of Peasants Slaves and Beggars How many sacrifice their health and strength to a beastly opportunity and are punisht by pains of the head oppressions of the heart conturbations of the stomach gripeing of the bowells continual thirst unseasonable and unquiet watchfullness when nature and digestion require rest Besides that horrible disease imparted by this vice the most cruel the most filthy the most shamefull of all maladies from which no lustfull person can be secure Because 't is the nature of vice and of this in perticular to precipitate from one degree of excess to another A diseas which anticipates the corruption and uncleanness of the grave wherby sinners meet with their Limbo their Tophet here as a sad preface without repentance to an everlasting Hell § 7. By an untimely Death 'T is true a natural Death is the fruit of sin we may consider epidemical diseases and our common mortality the trouble of sickness and the pains of dyeing as some correction and reproof of sinners Their tears and groans and ghastly looks in a dyeing hour their broken sighs their distorted members their trembling languishing pulse their putrid breath and last agonies do all bespeak us to consider what sin hath done But a natural death being the punnishment of the first transgression and common to all mankind 't is an untimely death I am now to speak of Without disputeing wither the period of Life he mutable or not This is certaine that God from the infinity of his nature must needs be present in all duration at once and so cannot but foresee and know how long we shall live And t' is likewise evident from Scripture reason and experience 55 Ps 23. that some do not live out half their days to which they might have arriv'd according to the cours of nature The meek such as are blessed of God shall live long to inherit the earth but the Transgressors shall be cutt off 37 Ps 22. The fear of the Lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortned Some think that Balaam when he desired to dye the death of the Righteous and that his last end might be like his 23 Numb 10. meant only the prevention of an untimely death that he might goe to his grave in a good old age And God hath promised among other temporal blessings that the good man shall be gathered in peace to his Fathers like a shok of corn fully ripe and crown'd with length of days as well as with riches and honour T' is true a short Life and an hasty death are not allways a curse or the fruit of God's displeasure To a prepared soul t' is a blessing and as such more desireable then to abide in the flesh in order to our being with Christ which is best of all But how many are there whose impieties shorten their days and * Hinc subitae mortes atque intestata senectus It nova nec tristis per cunctas fabula coenas Ducitur iratis plaudendum funus amicis hasten their dissolution How many dye martyrs by the fire of lust By the strange woman many fall down wounded and many strong men are slaine by her Her house is the way to the grave leads to the chambers of death How many have extinguisht their vital flame by intemperate drinking and brought those diseases or furnisht the matter of them by excess wherof in a short time they dyed Besides the many thousand Murders which drunkenness hath caused in a drunken fit men have murdered themselv's their best friends and
11 30. but a part of it descend to his posterity Because the Israclites served strange Gods in their own land God threatens that other Lords should have dominion over them they should serve strangers in a land that was not their own Thus some herbs bear the marks of those parts of the body to which if ill affected they are medicinal so doth the punishment the calamity oftentimes describe the sin for which God sends it The sinners Temporal Crosse is formed as it were out of that forbidden Tree wherby he offended or rather like the crosse of Christ carries on it in capital Letters an account of the crime for which he suffers Tho many of God's judgments I confess 36 Ps 6. are of a great depth past our sounding as to the grounds reasons of them yet in several of them his Righteousness is as the great Mountains i e. visible apparent to the dullest eye 2. There is sometimes a Suitableness in respect of the quantity the measure He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly he that soweth plentifully so doth he reap which is true of evil actions as well as good Impudent extraordinary sinners haâ—â— been signalized by as remarkable judgments plagues from Heaven God lays judgment to the line equity to the Ballanâ—â— rewards them according to their works measureth out their calamities sorrows in proportion to their sins Tho sentence be not all ways speedily executed against great offenders sometimes not at all in this world but they are bound over to the laff Great Assize in the world to come yet in all ages divine justice giues some instances how notorious exemplary sinners have had as extraordinary punnishments 3. There is srequently a proportion resemblance between the sin the Punishment in respect of Time In that very hour when Belshazar was quaffing carowsing in the vessells of the Temple with his Princes his Wives Concubines praysing the Gods of gold silver the hand of the Lord was against him 5 Dan. 3-6 he saw his Doom written on the wall which made his countenance fall his Thoughts tremble the joynts of his loyns were loosed his knees smote one against an other When Benhadad the Syrian with the 32 Kings with him were drinking themselvs drunk in the Pavilions 1 Kings 20. c. 16 19. v. the young men of the Princes of the Provinces of Samaria came out against them slew every man his man c. Jonah is pursued by a Tempest at that very Time when he fled from the Commandment of God Many who have been going out of God's way have been arrested seited by some strange rebuke of divine Providence wherin the Circumstance of Time hath been peculiarly remarkable God sent the Prophet Jonah to Ninive that exceeding great City 3 Jon. 3. of three days journey to deliver his terrible message to that People but he disobey'd his voice fled to Tarshish 1 c. 3. v. For which God condemned him to be three days a Prisoner in the belly of a great Fish The word whale is not in the original Hebrew or septuagint Greek The Jewish captivity for seventy years in Babilon is attributed to the prophanati on of the Sabbath as one principal provoking cause as will appear by comparing thes following Scriptures 2 Cron. 36. c. 17. 22. v. 13. Nehem. 18 17. Jerem. 27 22. Ezek. 26. 23. c. 38 46. 't was at the time of the Passover that the Jews put to death the Lord of Glory afterward about the same time of the year the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost for that sin their Temple City Nation were destroy'd by the Romans Nebucadnezar was admonisht of his Pride warned of that Judgment which afterwards befell him And as the Punnishment in its kind was proportioned to his sin his Brutish condition being a suitable Rebuke for his insolence vain glory the Time also of the execution of that Judgment is observable it was just a twelve moneth from Daniel's interpretation of his dream concerning it 4 Dan. 29 30 31. v. 12 Acts. 32 Exod. took effect while the proud words were in his mouth Is not this great Babilon that I have built by the might of my power for the honour of my majesty So in the case of Herod of the Israëlites in the case of the molten calf Your own reading observation may furnish you with examples of Blasphemers Swearers Lyars Murderers Sabbath-breakers c. who have been either punisht in the act or have been follow'd by some perticular judgment afterwards at the same time of the year the same day of the moneth or week or hour of the day when they committed the sin So that the very season of their calamity hath brought the sin to remembrance for which they suffered Several Villages Towns Cities have been taken notice of to have suffered greatly by Fires which broke out on the Lordsday that were before observed talk't of as infamous for the prophanation of the Sabbath more then other places some of them forwarned of such Judgments for that very Sin 4. Oftentimes they meet with some Rebuke Punishment in the same Place where they commit their folly As in that very house where Rahab hid the Hebrew spies she her kindred were afterward preserved as the Reward of her Faith So divine Judgment doth frequently overtake men in the very place where they acted their Wickedness 10 Levit. 1 2. Nadab Abihu are destroied by Fire from Heaven before the Lord where they offered strange fire they are said to dye before the Lord. How often doth the Drunkard get his death in the same house where he drank to Excess by causless quarrelling And the Adulterer loos his Life in the same room where he committed Folly Ahab by the advice of Jezabel murders Innocent Naboth 1 Kings 21. c. v. 13. v. 19. c. 22. v. 38. his sons but the Lord had said that in the same place where Dogs lickt the bloud of Naboth shall Dogs lick thy Bloud even thine Which was not long after exactly full filled in a Place of the same nature A publick common place within the Territory of Samaria but because of his Humiliation 2 Kings 9. c. v. 23. it was more literally expresly accomplisht in the death of his son Joram Who was slaine by Jehu cast into the same plat of ground v. 33.34 c. to remaine unburied as a prey for Dogs according to the word of the Lord. And of Jezabel for the same crime spake the Lord saying The Dogs shalleat Jezabell by the wall of Jezreel Which was exactly verified This illustrates the Justice of God makes it conspicuous to every Eye As Publick Magistrates condemn notorious Criminals to be executed at or near the place where the Fact was committed That
the very Place may make the Sin to be the better Remembred render the Equity of the sentence the more manifest observable 2 We are to consider those temporal Punishments of sin which flow from the sins themselus that are either inseparable from or doe commonly attend follow them Such as thes which follow § 1. Shame Assoon as our first Parents had sinned as if the color of the forbidden fruit had got into their faces they blusht were ashamed of their nakedness of their folly which brought it And is it not in some measure thus with their posterity also Such an inseparable Shame is the fruit of sin that hardly any man will own himself guilty of the practice of any vice till he hath changed its name given it an honourable title varnisht it with some appellative of vertue that so prudence wisdom thrift good husbandry friendship good humour valour generosity may protect worldliness covetousness debauchery foolish mirth conceal madness fury pride The like may be said of other faults If men are surprized in some acts of Impiety what silly excuses will they frame what childish pretences frivolous evasions will they make what slender shifts weak apologies to justifie them selv's to extenuate or prevent the publication of their folly their disordered down cast looks or stupid silence make it evident they are ashamed The shame of being thought guilty makes them shift turn try all methods to excuse them selv's or defend what they have done so throw the blame on some what els as on the temperament constitution of their bodies which they cannot help on the importunities of their Company which they could notresist on the temptations of the Devil or rather then fail with Adam they 'l charge God himself as accessory to their crimes and reflect upon his holy Providence Except among a few Savages like beasts there is no nation or people under heaven where filthiness and intemperance some grosser sins are not reckon'd shamefull The voice of nature it self is against such sins and we therby violate the modesty of our own natures and offend against an internal witness that condemns us And when once we begin to do so God may leave us to proceed till we become publick spectacles of shame to all that know us and wish us better There are very few I hope who have sin'd them selv's beyond all shame tho more of late then ever who work all uncleanness with greediness and glory in their shame Who boast of that which should cover them with confusion of face but such have sinn'd them selv's within a step of Hell and being past feeling are so far past all hope of being reclaim'd None but such Absolons would commit lewdness on the house top in the face of the sun and the view of the world T is a shame saith the Apostle 5 Eph. 3.2 to speak of what some men do in secret I wish such sins were secret still which were not then so much as to be named among Saints i e. not without need and not without abhorrence They that are drunk saith the same Apostle 1 Thes 5. c. 7. are drunk in the night The Heathens them selv's never celebrated the feasts of a drunken Bacchus but by night So for uncleannes The eye of the Adulterer waiteth for the twilight 24 Job 14 15 16. saying no eye shall see me and he disguiseth his face in the dark they dig throthouses which they had marked for themselv's in the day time they know not the light For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death if one know them they are in the terrors of the shadow of death So for murder and theft and other works of Darkness to which shame is inseparably annext How shamefully are men disfigured by Drunkeness How do thy talk and act like fools when wine hath fill'd them with more Spirits then they are able to govern how ill favor'd are their looks and how ridiculous their carriage betraying that folly in their drunken fits which afterwards they are ashamed to think or speak of exposing themselves to the pitty of their friends neighbours to the contempt of children and the scorn of their own servants T' is sad to consider how the commonness of this and other vices hath in great measure taken off the shame of committing it So that we may ask the question with the Prophet Were they ashamed when they commitmitted all these abominations and make the same answer No they were not at all ashamed neither did they blush If ever they reform and return to God with all their hearts they will then be heartily ashamed * E del mio vaneggiar vergogna e'l frutto E'l Pentirsi e'l conoscer chiaramente Che que quanto piace al mondo è breve sogno when reflecting on their past folly they shall ask themselv's what fruit have we of those things wherof we are now ashamed But if a timely repentance do not bring them to holy shame and confusion of face before they dye they shall arise againe to shame and everlasting contempt § 2. The paine and trouble and slavery and sufferings that wait upon sin do correct and reprove the sinner And this will appear if we consider 1. the preparatories to the commission of some crimes 2. 12 Dan. 2. The actual commission 3. The consequent trouble by disaponitment c. 1. The preparations necessary to the commission of some sins They who have had any tolerable education in the knowledg of Christianity under Religious or sober Parents cannot presently adventure upon great Transgressions They must first stifle their convictions debauch their reason and baffle conscience and lay aside consideration and serious thoughts forsake the ministry of the word neglect the reading of the Bible and other good books leave off secret prayer entertaine loose company and admit some principles of Atheism or Sadduceism before they can date to adventure For the debauching of a young man well educated is not to be done all at once it is a work of some time and must be effected by degrees and many arts of the Devil are requisite in order to it And after all t' is with reluctance at first that they dare do as others run into the same excess of riot And some grosser villanies they boggle at still and are afraid to proceed T' is a strange expression of the Psalmist 7 Psal 14. They Travel with Iniquity and conceive mischief are in as great pain almost as a woman in travell and all this to bring forth a Lye The Law of God stares them in the face and something within tells them It is better to forbear and they ought to do otherwise so that they are not easy or free from distracting fears till the way be prepared by lesser sins and a gradual Apostacy 2. We may consider the trouble they meet
return Eternal wrath is my due Hell is my deserved portion even there may I justly carry thes stings of conscience even there must I acknowledg I was justly condemned punnisht own the righteousness of my doom to unquenchable fire with my flameing tongue breath Wretch that I am who shall deliver save me only the mercy of God in Christ whose bloud cleanseth from all sin can possibly relieve the exigence of my case And wilt thou pitty and pardon and graciously receive such a rebel For Jesus Christ his sake spare me give me repentance blot out my transgression for it is great and hide thy face from my sin from my sin which is ever before me I cannot avoid the sight of it I cannot but remember it and abhorr my self in dust ashes goe mourning all the day long Thes are the thoughts this is the language of an humble Penitent under the sens of former backslidings To this purpose David tells us in one of his penitentiall Psalms 51 Ps 3. that his sin was ever before him And in another that his sorrow was continually before him The one as the cause 38 Ps 17. the other as the effect His sin as the reason of his sorrow his sorrow as the fruit of his sin was continually before him This made him cry so earnestly for pardon O Lord blot out my transgressions and remember not my sinns i. e. I remember them I acknowledg I humbly confess them they are ever in my view before my face O do not thou remember them but cast them behind thy back On this account he complains of broken bones a wounded spirit That the arrows of God stuck fast in his soul and his hand pressed him sore that he roared all the day long watered his couch with his tears Thes conflicts and terrors this darkness despondency are the fruit of backsliding and t' is well if it do not issue in the sin unto death in final incurable Apostacy T' is true some who are fallen from so great an height are raised againe and God upon sincere Repentance will pardon and save returning Backsliders yet so as by fire with great difficulty And they may never recover their former tranquillity and peace but walk heavily and softly under doubts and fears and dejection of spirit to their dyeing day And likewise suffer smart Afflictions to scour off the filth they have contracted by their revolt and to humble them more deeply under the apphrehension of their agravated guilt In thes and other such instances as might be mentioned sin doth correct and reprove the sinner in this world What remains is to consider what Inferences of truth duty may be collected from the preceding discourse for our instruction and practise or what improvement we should make of it Which I shall dispatch in thes following Propositions § 1. That we ought thankfully to admire the wisdom goodness of God who hath in so great measure connected our present duty happiness That we cannot disobey God without injuring our selv's feeling the smart of it even in this Life Let us thank him for hedging up our way to Eternal death by the thorns briars of temporal calamities By makeing sin so unreasonable painfull shameful troublesome against our Intrest even on this side the Grave In so much that in many instances we can not be undone forever without being miserable now nor loos the happiness of the other world without exposeing our selv's to many sorrows calamities in this By our sin folly we make the Rod which corrects us our own finger twists the cords wherby we are rebukt chastened the web which insnares intangles us is spun out of our own bowells And God in wisdom kindness so orders it to prevent our perishing in both worlds § 2. We ought hearthly to bless God for restraining us by his grace providence from Presumtuous Crimes That he was pleas'd to stop us in our way to ruine mercifully prevent us from running into those excesses which would have been attended with such miserable effects here at last have exposed us to his condemning sentence Had he not sometimes withheld us by his grace when we were tempted prevented us at other times by his providence from divers Temptations by which others have fallen we had ere this been deplorable spectacles of divine Justice and severely corrected by our own folly And this is the favor which God is pleased to vouchsafe to his Children to succor them when they are tempted to keep them from such Temptations as they would not be able to resist Not that he is a good man who would live wickedly if he were but tempted to do so by those ordinary trials that humane nature may expect but he who prefers God and the blessedness of the other world before all things els lives agreable to such a choice if he so continue shall be saved tho there might have been supposed a Temptation so strong as would have conquered his resolutions with that measure of Grace he then had if it had not been fortified with new supplies Therfore thank God for the care of his providence which secures us from many dangerous Temptations for the assistance of his Grace in inabling us to come off wit victory when we have been tryed § 3. How much better then is a Life of holy Obedience to God then the practice of sin if there were no reward to be expected after Death If in this Life only we had hope the case of cruel persecution excepted such as St. Paul speaks of 1 Cor. 15. And extreme Poverty bodily Pains c. because under thes the hopes of a future blessedness are the chief supports otherwise We should be so far from being of all men the most miserable in this world by obeying the Gospell of Christ that t' is apparently for our present Intrest to observe the precepts of natural Christian Religion the Yoke of Christ is easier his burden lighter the service of God less difficult then the drudgery of Sin with such consequences as have been mentioned Let me seriously appeal to your Experience wither it be not evill bitter to depart from God cast off his fear have you not found it so to your cost have not you your selv's many others whom you know been severely chastened reproved by sin what fruit have you or they or what fruit have you ever had of the sins you are now ashamed of but such as hath been described what profit hath he saith the Wiseman 5 Ecl. 16. who hath labor'd for the wind Bring in your acounts of what you have ever got by a wicked Live compare it with the present reward of holy liveing Set down your income proceed to a reckoning see what the total summe amounts to So much Shame Fear so much Care