Omission for not visiting the Sick and Imprisoned and not relieving the Hungry and Naked Then it may inform us That nothing short of practical godliness will speak a mans estate safe at this Day or fore-speak his estate to be comfortable at that day The want of this is the cause of these mens condemnation They might forbear injuring the Saints they might speak them fair bid them Be ye fed Be ye cloathed They might wish them well they might honour and respect them as Herod did the Baptist for their sanctity and righteousness yet because they were void of this practical godliness they gave them not wherewith to be fed and cloathed they are banished the presence of Christ and adjudged to the Curses and Company of Devils 1. A great Profession will not do without this practical godliness Some soar high in their Professions of and pretences to greater strictness and degrees of Grace and Holiness than others who alas fall foully often on Earth and always into Hell for lack of this practical godliness As some great Tradesmen who living wholly upon their Credit with others without any stock of their own quickly break and miscarry A Profession is but as the leaves of a Tree a sign of fruit not the fruit it self There is a vast difference between leaves and fruit Some think that Christ had not cursed the Fig-Tree if it had been without leaves as well as without fruit But when by its leaves it professed to have fruit Vide Robinson 1. part 132 and invited him to it in expectation thereof and disappointed him he presently claps a Curse on it that withers it at the very roots The Pharisees were great Professors made broad their Philacteries where-ever they went would be known for persons extraordinarily pious and religious yet how wicked was their state Matth. 5.20 Except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall never enter into the Kingdom of God and how woful is their Condition Woe to you Scribes Pharisees Hypocrites ye live in Omissions ye neglect the great things of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faith Matth. 23.23 2. Great Gifts and Parts will not do without this A man may have choice natural Abilities rare acquired Accomplishments yea common Gifts of the Spirit of God and yet for want of this practical godliness be damned What amiable words come out of Balaams mouth he speaks like a Saint yea like an Angel how often have I heard his Prophesies with great admiration and affection his Tongue hath melted my heart and yet he had no good works for all his many good words and his lack of practical godliness ruin'd him What special endowments had they who preached in the Name of Christ and in his Name cast out Devils and in his Name did many marvailous works and yet were cast to Devils for being Workers of Iniquity as all are who are void of this practical godliness Matth. 7.21 23. What excellent Gifts doth the Apostle suppose a man to have the gift of Prophesing of understanding all Mysteries and all Knowledge and of all Faith so as to remove Mountains and yet if he have not Charity he is nothing c. 1 Cor. 13.2 3. If he love not his Brother and express it not to his power by spiritual and bodily Charity which is part of practical godliness he is nothing in Gods Eye what ever he may be in the eyes of men 3. Great Priviledges with seeming performances without this practical godliness will not do They who had Tabernacle Temple Ark Covenant Promises for want of this were destoy'd The Ark could not preserve them Afterwards when they nelected practical godliness the Temple could not protect them He bids the Jews go and see what he did to his place at Shiloh for their Iniquities He made them monuments of his Fury who had been patterns of his Pity when they neglected this practical godliness How meanly doth God discourse of seeming Obedience to his own Institutions when this is neglected Though they had his own Divine stamp on them and were signs of the sweetest Sacrifice and the most acceptable Service imaginable and he had often taken delight in them yet when they left off to do well observe his Language about them To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifice to me saith the Lord bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an abomination to me Your new Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth I cannot bear them What strange expressions are here of his own Institutions But what 's the reason Truly the lack of this vers 17. Learn to do well seek Judgment relieve the Oppressed Judge the Fatherless Plead for the Widow Isa 1.11 to 18. And how peremptorily doth he beat men off from trusting in their Priviledges as of no advantage without this practical godliness Think not saith the Baptist to say within your selves We have Abraham to our Father this was a great Priviledge for with him and his Seed was the Covenant made and to them were Circumcision and the Pass-over the Seals of it given but what counsel doth he give them truly to mind practical godliness Bring forth fruit meet for Repentance i. e. for all the great priviledge in which you take so much pride and upon which you lay so much stress yet you can never flee from the wrath to come unless you bring forth good fruit fruit meet for repentance such fruit as will speak your hearts to be changed such fruit as is suitable to a renewed nature This and this alone is practical godliness The Coherence in that Matth. 3.8 9 10. deserves our Observation And John saith unto the Pharisees O Generation of Vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come bring forth therefore fruit meet for repentance And think not to say within your selves We have Abraham to our Father For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up Children to Abraham Do not think that God is bound to and must save you because ye are Abrahams Seed for God can of stones make Sons of Abraham And now also the Ax is laid to the root of the Tree therefore every Tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire CHAP. XXIX The Condition of men only Civil is unsafe and sad 5. IF Christ will condemn men at the Great Day for sins of Omission for not relieving the Poor and Afflicted It may inform us That the condition of men meerly civil and negatively religious will be woful at that day Why Because Christ will command them to depart from him into everlasting fire Ah how dreadful will it be to take an eternal Farewel of the Lord of Life the God of all Grace the Well of Salvation and to enter into a state of Death and Wrath and that for ever If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the Sinner and Vngodly appear 1 Pet. 3. By Sinner I
them for ever to make them more worth than both Worlds If upon a faithful trial they found things well it would rejoyce their hearts encourage them in ways of holiness and confirm them against Satans Temptations to dispair But men generally neglect their Examinations till God comes to examine them as the Rulers commanded Paul to be examined with scourgings and scorpions They presume all is well hope the best and would be sorry any should question their estates and thus persist in their self-deceits till they come to appear before God that the gate of Mercy be shut and the golden Scepter of Grace be wholly withdrawn and their estates become as desperate as the estates of the Devils To urge this Use a little Reader consider these two particulars 1. Consider of what weight it is and how much depends upon this question Am I of the number of them that shall be condemned for sins of Omission or not Or am I guilty of Omissions so as to be banished the presence of Christ for them or not I tell thee thy eternal Joy or Sorrow Happiness or Misery Pleasure or Pain depends on it Do but read and consider and then say whether it be not of infinite weight Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the World For I was hungry and ye gave me meat thirsty and ye gave me drink c. On the other side Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels For I was hungry and ye gave me no meat thirsty and ye gave me no drink c. Friend are not these weighty things that depend on the performance or neglect of these positive Precepts Come ye blessed of my Father Is not a coming close near intimate familiar into his very bosom and dearest embraces to Christ a weighty thing To come to Christ here is so weighty that he came to men into this World to call them to him Matth. 11.28 Matth. 9.13 But to come to Christ there in all his Robes and Riches and Royalty in all his Beauty and Glory and Magnificence will questionless be of more concern to the Soul On the contrary Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Is there not weight Reader in these words Dost thou know what it is to bid Christ farewel farewel for ever to take an eternal leave of all good Canst thou bear the extremity of our Culinary fires for a day Canst thou dwell in everlasting burnings or abide unquenchable flames Thou seest all this depends upon thy performing or neglect of the Divine positive Precepts Doth it not concern thee in a matter of such weight to be faithful in the trial of thy self Friend are Life and Death are eternal Life and eternal Death indifferent things or things of small moment Are an eternal enjoyment of God or an endless separation from God mean or trivial things Oh how infinitely do they exceed and over-ballance thy understanding How short must thou of necessity come of conceiving of these things according to their weight Alas Friend what pitiful toys and trifles are Houses and Lands and Friends and Relations and Honors and Preferments I and Liberty and this temporal Life to an eternal happy Life 2. Consider all are guilty of Omissions even the Good as well as the Bad and therefore the more faithfulness and prudence and caution is requisite lest we mistake If Saints and Sinners are both guilty of Omissions how shall I know whether my Omissions are such as will consist with Salvation unless I try and examine my self The good man being guilty of Omissions may fear the dreadful Sentence of Go ye cursed c. And the wicked man knowing that the best are guilty of many Omissions as well as he may presume upon the joyful Sentence Come thou blessed of my Father c. How shall each be rectified in his mistake and satisfied in the truth but by an impartial and through examination of himself God hath given us a Test which is the word of Truth Eph. 1.13 whereby we may try our selves and prevent all mistakes Where there is a possibility of a mistake in a business of such infinite weight there is sufficient ground for a serious trial but where there is so great a probability of mistaking as a thing that is so easie and ordinary because all men are guilty too much of Omissions there is a necessity of a faithful and impartial trial There is that maketh himself rich in Temporals he is worth thousands in Spirituals he is rich towards God and worth millions yet hath nothing Orig. yet nothing in him or to him he is nothing he hath nothing for all his brags there is that makes himself poor speaks himself poor would have others think him poor yet hath great riches Hebr. yet much substance the man hath a great Estate but is willing to conceal it Merchants who are worth thousands do not publish or boast of their Wares or Wealth about the City those poor Creatures do it who carry all their worth on their Heads or in their Arms. Junius reads the words well Est qui divitem se jactat quum desint omnia item qui pauperem se fingit cui substantia ampla There is that boasts himself rich to whom all things are wanting and that feigns himself poor yet hath large substance There is that boasts and brags himself rich in the fear and favour of God and will tell you of his communion and converses with the Divine Majesty of his love to and delight in the Ways and People and Ordinances of God when all these things are wanting to him he hath nothing at all in reality of any of them There is that fains himself poor that dissembles as it were his estate that is a Beggar as some read the word Poor here in his own account and would have all others judge him so too he is so covetous after more that he over-looks what he hath and so greedy of further attainments that he takes little notice of his present spiritual enjoyments If you will believe him he is a meer Beggar hath not one bit of bread to eat and if his Father in whose house there is bread enough and to spare do not pity and relieve his prodigal Child he shall perish for hunger yet this man hath much substance is a man of worth and wealth indeed He is like a branch mightily laden with fruit and an ear fully laden with corn which the heavier they are laden the more they bow down to the ground A meer titular Christian like an empty Vessel may make a great sound but the full Vessel that contains the precious Liquor is silent I come now to the marks whereby men may know their estates And for that end I shall lay down several Propositions 1. Proposition Those that live in Commissions as well as Omissions must certainly be condemned at the
read them with sorrow and terror whether they will or no. CHAP. II. The division and brief Explication of 4. THe Pronunciation of the Sentence vers 41 42 43 c. In which we may take notice 1. Of the Persons sentenced these are described 1. By their station on the left hand Then shall he say to them on the left hand 2. By their condition cursed ones Depart ye cursed 2. Of their punishment In which there is 1. Pain of loss Depart from me 2. Pain of sense which punishment is aggravated 1. By its extremity Fire This is amplified 1. By their Companions in those flames The Devil and his Angels 2. By the Divine Ordination of it for them Prepared for the Devil and his Angels 2. By its eternity Everlasting Fire 3. Of the reason of this punishment For I was hungry and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink vers 42 43. I shall begin with the Sentence wherein every word speaks Woe and Wrath Fire and Fury Death and Damnation and every syllable speaks the deepest Sorrow and dreadfulest Sufferings It is like Ezekiel's Roll written within and without and within is written Lamentation Weeping and Woe Ezek. 2.10 The Lord Chief Justice of the World the Judge of the Quick and Dead is now in all his Robes and Royalty with millions of glorious Attendants in the Glory of his Father with all his holy Angels set on the Bench. The poor Prisoner whose trembling Soul is newly reunited to the loathsome Carkasse of his Body is drag'd to the Bar awaiting and expecting some doleful doom He is lately come from Hell to give an account of his Life on Earth and to receive his Sentence and loath he is to go back to that place of torments as knowing that the pain of his Body will be a new and grievous addition to his misery when that shall burn in flames as his Soul doth already in fury Therefore he pleads Prisoner Lord let me stay here though poor wretch he hath his Hell about him in his accusing affrighting Conscience rather than go to that Dungeon of darkness A sight of thy beautiful Face may possibly abate my Sorrows and thy Presence may mittigate my Sufferings Judge No saith Christ here is no abiding for thee be gone hence Thou mayst remember when my Presence was thy Torment when thou didst bid me depart from thee choosing my room before my company Now my absence shall be thy Terror I like thee not so well to have thee nigh me Depart I say from me Prisâ—ner Lord if I must undergo so dreadful a doom as to depart from thee the Father of Lights and Fountain of Life yet bless me before I go One good wish of thy Heart one good word of thy Mouth will make me blessed where ever I go Those whom thou blessest are blessed indeed Bless me even me O my Father At this parting grant me thy blessing Judge Sinner be gone and my curse go along with thee Thou hast many a time despised my Blessing when it hath been offer'd to thee though I was made a Curse to purchase it for thee therefore I say depart from me and the Curse of an angry Lord and of a righteous Law accompany thee for ever Depart I say thou cursed Prisoner Lord if I must go and thy Curse with me send me to some good place where I may find somewhat to refresh me under thy loss and curse It 's misery enough to lose thy presence Good Lord command me to some good place Judge No Sinner be gone with my Curse to that place which will torture and rack thee with extremity and universality of pains The time hath been that thou hast wallowed in sensual Pleasures now thou must fry in intollerable flames Depart thou cursed into fire Prisoner Ah Lord if I must go with thy Curse and to so woful a place as fire I beseech thee let me not stay there long Alas who can abide devouring flames one moment material fires of mans kindling are terrible but how intollerable are those flames which thy breath like a stream of brimstone hath kindled I beseech thee if I must go to it let me pass swiftly through it and not stay in it Judge No Sinner depart and my Curse with thee to those extream Torments that admit of no ease and no end where the worm never dieth and the fire never goeth out to the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone for ever Depart thou cursed into everlasting fire Prisoner Lord this is dismal and dreadful indeed to go from thee who art all good and to go to fire which hath in it extremity of all evil and to lose thee and fry in flames for ever ever ever yet Lord if it is thy Will it should be so hear me yet in one desire let me have such society as may mitigate at least such as may not aggravate my misery Judge No Sinner thy Company must be such for ever as thou didst choose in thy life time He who was thy Tempter shall be thy Tormentor And they who led thee captive at their will shall be bound with thee in Chains of everlasting darkness and faggotted up with thee together for unquenchable fire Such fiery Serpents gnawing Worms stinging Adders poisonous Toads roaring and devouring Lions hideous Monsters frightful Fiends must be thy eternal Companions Depart from me thou cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels I shall now speak particularly to the punishment of these wicked ones and explain the words as I come to speak to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est Metaphora qua vita humana cursus per iter sive prosectionem describitur I begin with the beginning of Christ's Sentence viz. The pain of loss which shall be the punishment of the damned Depart from me The word depart is a metaphor which describes the course of humane loss by a Journey Luk. 1.6 2 Pet. 2.10 And also their progress to death Luk. 13. The eternal death of the damned will consist partly if not principally in their departure from the Lord of Life But it may be Objected Who can depart from him who is every where Christ is God Joh. 1.1 1 Joh. 5.20 And God is Omnipresent Whither shall I fly from thy presence Psal 139.7 Therefore we must know there is a three-fold presence of God or Christ 1. There is the essential presence of God as he is infinite in his Being included in no place and excluded out of none so none can depart from him Psal 139.6 to 10. Jer. 23.24 Amos 9.2 3. 2. There is the favourable presence of God as he is the Fountain of Life and Love and the Father of Mercy and kindness and all good The former is the presence of his Being this of his Bounty This is as the presence of the Sun by his heat chearing and by his light delighting the Creature His presence in this sense is the substance
all disturb them they go up and down and eat and drink and sleep as merrily as if they obeyed the whole Will of God Job tells you of those that bid God depart from them that desire not nor endeavour to know him that cast off Prayer to him and all his Service as fruitless and yet these men guilty of such great and gross Omissions could take the Timbrel and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ and spend their days in wealth and mirth Job 21.12 13 14 15. These Negative Sins are still and silent and make none or little noise in the ears of Conscience But positive sins are more clamorous We read of those that were guilty of Bribery and Oppression under their guise and mask of Religion and how they are stab'd and frighted A dreadful sound is in their Ears trouble and anguish make them afraid They believe not that they shall come out of darkness Job 15.21 22 24 compared with 34. 35. verses How many do we know in places where we live who if they should rob or wrong their Neighbours would hardly enjoy any peace or quietness in their Spirits who can live chearfully and contentedly day after day nay year after year while all this while they rob God of that Love and Fear and Trust which they ow him in their hearts and of that open Homage and Allegiance which they ow him in their Houses The reason hereof is because sins of Commission are most against natural light In sins of Omission there is no such actual disturbance by which the free contemplation of the mind is hindered as in sins of Commission Beside foul acts of Sin as Uncleanness and Murther c. bring more shame and cause more horrour than bare neglects of our Duty Conscience is not wont to take any great notice of external neglects or of spiritual defects 2. We are the more prone to overlook and take no notice of sins of Omission as Conscience is less troubled for them so our Christian Friends are not so apt to warn and admonish us of them as of sins of Commission If a Professor fall into some gross sin of Commission as if he be over-taken with intemperance or lying or going beyond his Neighbour All the Town or Neighbourhood rings of it his Christian Friends hear and take notice of it and out of love to his and faithfulness to their own Souls admonish him of it and endeavour with the Spirit of meekness to bring him to repentance for it But this Professor may neglect prayer in his Closet reading and meditating on the Word of God examining his own heart nay possibly prayer in his Family and the instruction of those committed to his Charge in the Principles of Religion and his Friends be wholly ignorant hereof and so be all their days wanting to acquaint him with his sin herein When David had been guilty of several sins of Commission in the matter of Vriah Nathan hears of it for it seems to be the Town-talk in that it 's said That he caused the Enemies of God to blaspheme vers 14. And I suppose Gods Narration of it to him was rather a Command or Commission for the manner of his reprehension of David than of certifying him of that he was ignorant before he goeth to him and tells him thereof and calls him to Repentance for them 2 Sam. 12. 1 to 10. But though David in all this time likely nine moneths for the Child was born vers 14. had been guilty of many Omissions in not confessing his sin with sorrow and shame in not begging pardon with Faith and Hope and in several other particulars yet Nathan takes no notice thereof in his Speech to him neither makes any mention of them 3. We are the more prone to overlook sins of Omission because they are so near akin to Intermissions which are lawful and necessary Affirmative Precepts as was said before do not bind ad semper I am bound to pray in my Closet and Family every day but I am not bound to pray in either all the day God commands me to mind the nourishing and refreshing my Body and to follow my particular Calling and as occasion is to visit the Fatherless and Afflicted now because these Intermissions or Omissions for a time are allowed and commanded men are apt to turn them or to fall from them into total Omissions and when they do so to be little troubled for them Because men may be excused from solemn religious Duties three parts or more of the week-day therefore they will neglect them altogether and are insensible of their neglect Commissions being never lawful for the Negative Commands bind ad semper therefore if men be guilty of them they take the more notice of them and lay them more to heart but positive Precepts being sometimes unseasonable and binding but at sometimes i. e. the Duties of them are to be performed but at some time when instead of our intermission there be an omission we are ready to wink at it and regard it at most but as an Infirmity which may require a pardon of course If I may omit Prayer and Scripture ten hours of the day saith the subtle wicked heart of man why not eleven hours and if eleven hours what great hurt if it be omitted twelve hours i. e. the whole day and the Duty be not performed at all CHAP. XXIV The Reasons why sins of Omission are damnable I Come now to the third thing to be spoken to in the explication of this Doctrine and that is to give the Reasons why Christ will condemn men at the Great Day to eternal Torments for Sins of Omission Thirdly The Reasons of the Doctrine Why sins of Omission are damnable Reason 1 1. The great and grand Reason is because they are Sins Every sin is damnable The wages of sin as sin is death Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Rom. 6. ult Therefore these Omissions being sins as well as Commissions must of necessity be damnable to our Souls As there is bitterness in every Sprig or Branch of Wormwood and saltness in every drop or spoonful of Sea-water so there is Death and Hell and Wrath and Damnation in every Sin The wicked Papists distinguish Sins into Venial and Mortal but they got that distinction from the Devil not from God they have their seven deadly sins But the Holy Ghost tells us All sins are deadly without any distinction Gal. 3.10 Though one Sin may be greater and more hainous than another yet every sin is mortal A Pistol is less than a Musket and a Musket than a Canon but they are all of them killing Ezek. 18. The Soul that sins shall die Under the word death is comprehended all the misery of this and the other World Sin being a contempt of the Authority a violation of the Law and a slighting the Love of an infinite God deserves all that privation of Good and infliction of Evil which this Sentence of Christ
which is worse than nothing Psal 90.9 How short that time is that remaineth God only knoweth for thy time is in his hand not thine own surely then it behoveth thee to redeem the time to make the most of it and whilst thou hast it to improve it for the doing of good O Friend hast thou loyter'd so long is thy work so great thy day to work in so short and yet is it not time to bestir thy self Is death at thy door art thou within a step of eternity within the view of the other World and yet wilt thou not up and be doing Can any assure thee of standing in the Vineyard another year nay another moneth nay another day and is it not yet time to be fruitful Dost thou not see that as Labourers are sent into the Vineyard at all hours so they go out of the Vineyard at all hours Thou owest a debt to Nature to the God of Nature the day of payment is not expressed therefore it may be demanded at any time Reader though some fruit falls from the Tree by reason of its maturity yet how much more is blown off or cudgeld off whilst it is green Do not thine eyes see Coffins and Graves of all sorts and sizes And wilt thou be as the silly Beasts who though the Butcher come one day to the Field and fetch away one another day and fetch away another to the slaughter yet those that remain neither miss them that are gone nor dread their own destinies O Friend what dost thou think to do when time is gone and death comes wilt thou stop the Sun of thy Life in its career Will it hear thy Voice and obey thy Command Or wilt thou call to Time as Israels General did to the Sun Stand still that I may be avenged of all my Sensuality and Idleness and Pride and Impenitency and all my spiritual Enemies which have robbed me of God and Heaven Do you imagine Time will be at your beck Or are the apprehensions of the King of Terrors and of a dreadful Day of Judgment and of an amazing Eternity no whit rousing or awakening to thee Canst thou believe a dark night of Death a fit time to trim and adorn and attrire thy Soul in for the love and embraces of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Now God gives thee a day but of how many hours whether longer or shorter thou canst not tell Thy life is fleeing away Time's Chariot moves swiftly Yet a little while the Light is with thee walk while thou hast the Light lest Darkness come upon thee Joh. 12.35 Two things especially occur in these words 1. Now thou hast time yea opportunity make much of it improve it to the utmost Walk while thou hast the Light God allots thee a due time for bringing forth Hence it 's Observable That God gave the Figg-Tree three years to bear in other Trees as the Olive and Nut-Tree required more time but so succulent a Plant as the Figg-Tree needed no more nay saith A Lapide If the Figg-Tree bear not the third year it will never bear God never expected Brick without allowing Straw nor requires his Rent before Quarter-day or the time of payment comes 2. Thy time or at least thine opportunity is very short therefore work much in a little time whilst thou hast the Light Yet a little while the Light is with thee a little while and the Light will be taken from thee A little while and the light of Life a little while and the light of means and helps and seasons of Grace will be taken from thee And what then truly then darkness will come upon thee a dark Grave will be the receptacle of thy Body and a dark Dungeon will be the receptacle of thy Soul if thou now loyterest and darkness is no fit state nor a dark night a fit time to walk or work in Darkness is dreadful and every thing seems more frightful in the night If a mans house be on fire in the night that he hears the noise and ratling of the flames seeth no way of escape for himself his Wife and his Children O in what a plight is he he stands naked in his Chamber at a loss what to do he is full of horrors and terrors to be conceived by none but himself How pale is his Countenance and how heavy his Heart when he seeth the flames seizing his Chamber when they come near his Body he is almost drown'd to death with grief and sorrow before he is burnt to death with the flames So it is when the night of death surpriseth the Loyterer that hath neglected the doing of good when Conscience is in a flame about his ears and frights him with the fore-apprehensions of the unquenchable burnings and with cutting reflections upon his former negligence and unprofitableness the man is quaking and trembling not knowing what to do Is that a time to put on the Armor of Light when he is putting off his natural Life Is a dark night of fear and amazement a time to seek God in or to work out his own Salvation Ah Friend it is too great and weighty a work to be done in an instant and the poor Sinner is too much astonished to set about it If the fear of a danger gone and over kill a Nabal and make his heart like a stone what will the fear the certain knowledge of wrath of the wrath of a God of the everlasting wrath of a God to come do to a poor Sinner O Friend make use of time while thou hast it Work the work of him that sent thee while it is day for the night cometh when no man can work Joh. 9.4 CHAP. XLI The grand cause of sins of Omission An unregenerate heart with the cure of it a renewed nature I Proceed now to the second and third particulars viz. The cause and cure of sins of Omission I shall recite one more general and principal Cause others more special and less principal and joyn the Cure to the Cause 1. The grand Cause of these sins of Omission is an unregenerate Heart Where the ground is unplowed and lieth fallow no Fruit can be expected Weeds may grow good Corn cannot grow there When the Heart is not broken up by Repentance but hardned through custom and continuance in sin no fruits of Righteousness no Faith no Love or Humility c. can be expected there Can the Leopard change his spots or the Blackamore his skin no more can he that is accustomed to do evil learn to do well Jer. 23.13 Natures Fruit will be according to its Root whether sweet or sowr There must of necessity be a good Foundation laid before there can be a good Superstructure of Holiness rear'd An unrenewed Heart hath no tendency towards it and Nature will work little farther than its own inclination The Water will run as the Tyde carrieth it Nay the unregenerate Heart is contrary to religious Duties hath an hatred and
grow to great ones if let alone Time will turn small dust into stone The poysonous Cockatrice at first was but an Egg. General Norris received a slight wound in the Irish wars which he neglected whereupon his Arm gangren'd and both Arm and Life were lost together Small Twigs will prove thorny Bushes if not timely stubbed up 3. The least sin is damnable The smallest bit of sin is a murthering morsel Deut. 27.26 Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them To eat a little Leaven seems a small thing yet it 's a cutting off from Israel Exod. 12.19 Gathering a few sticks on a Sabbath looking into the Ark nay touching the Ark are all punished with death It 's observable how God urgeth the Command to abstain from blood which seems a small matter with this argument as they desire God to do any good for them or theirs Deut. 12.22 23 24. and upon pain of death Friend a little thing a prick of a thorn festring the kernel of a Raisin a small bone in thy Throat may deprive thee of thy natural life and these little sins as thou callest them may hinder thee of eternal life A small leak in a Ship unstopt may sink it A dram of poyson diffuseth it self to all parts till it seize and strangle the vital Spirits A Pen-knife will stab mortally and kill a man as surely as a Sword A Pistol will kill as dead as a Cannon Caesar was slain as some report with Bodkins There are other Diseases mortal beside the Plague Some have been eaten up by Bears and Lions others by Mice and Lice It 's spiritual Murder to stifle and suppress the Conceptions of the Spirit in thy Soul as well as to do open despight to the Holy Ghost The Rabbies reckon'd up 613 Commandments of the Law and distinguished them into greater and lesser the lesser they judged might be neglected with little or no guilt but what Scripture makes deadly men must not make indifferent Gods thoughts are not as their thoughts in this particular Ezek. 18.3 The Soul that sins shall die without a distinction Thou mayst say of Sin as Lot of Zoar It is but a little one and my Soul shall live when thou hast much more cause to say as Jonathan Behold I have tasted but a little honey and I must die 1 Sam. 14.43 I have been guilty of a little Sin and without Repentance I must die eternally for it A little spark may kindle such a fire as may burn down a whole City 4. How little soever they should be in their own nature they become great by thy allowance The nature of Sin stands not so much in the material part of it which is often little but principally in the form or anomy which is the breach of Gods Law and also in the manner or carriage of the heart in its Commission A Sin may be great in abstracto as the fact is measured by the Law and as the matter of it may be and yet small in concreto and by circumstances as not allowed of or domineering in the Soul On the other side a Sin may be small as measured by the Law or according to the nature of the fact and yet great by circumstances as liked and approved by us In a Corporation a man of a great Estate and Quality may be an inferior and underling in point of Authority and Sway and one that is of small Estate or Degree may be chief Governour Sick Bodies love to be gratified with some little bit which they love though it never so much favour their Disease As some Favours we receive from God are little in their kind but great in their circumstances and so very ingaging to the Creature as to have a little Food sent in when a man is starving c. So there are some Sins which may be small in their nature but by the time when or wilfulness of the Sinner may be very great For a man to commit a Sin materially greater is not so great a Sin as to commit a lesser with deliberation To commit actual Adultery out of ignorance or for want of advice is not so great a Sin as for a man to be guilty of adulterous thoughts with allowance and advisedly Reader take heed of this for thou wilt find at last that it will be an hard thing to give them comfort who sin with counsel though in small matters A sin little in its nature the more it 's allowed and the more wilfully committed the greater it is nay it may be much greater than Sins materially greater if these be not committed plena voluntate with a full consent of will As a little stone thrown with a strong Arm will do more harm than a much greater stone thrown with a weak Arm. So a little Sin committed with security deliberation and allowance will more wast the Conscience and wound the Soul than far greater out of infirmity and inadvertency Petty Princes usually prove the cruellest Tyrants and do the most mischief to their Subjects Friend dost thou not consider where ever Sin reigneth it is horrid hainous most defiling and damning and thy little Sins may reign as well as great ones There have been Kings of Countries as here in England in the time of the Heptarchy nay of Cities among the Grecians as well as Emperors of vast and large Dominions There are Mayors and Constables commanding in chief in their places as well as Justices and Judges A little hair hanging in the pen may make a great blot and thy little Sins allowed will very greatly defile and wound thy Soul In this sense what the Philosopher saith is true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the smallest errors prove most dangerous Arist Polit. lib. 5. cap. 8. 5. The baser and unworthier art thou to fall out with thy best Friend for a little small matter Ah how great is thy ingratitude to disobey and provoke and displease and dishonour the blessed God to whom thou art so infinitely obliged for a poor small business And what folly and madness is it to forfeit the Divine Favour and incur his Anger and to expose thy self to infinite torments for a trifle a bable a light little inconsiderable thing God aggravates the Sin of the Jews and threatneth them severely for it Amos 2.6 That they sold the poor for a pair of shooes that they sold what was of so great value his people for a pair of shooes so poor and mean a price Friend how will he deal with thee if thou sellest thy own Soul and eternal salvation the blood of thy Saviour the love of thy Father and all the joys and delights of the other World for a pair of shooes for that which thou thy self acknowledgest is but a small and little matter Truly the less the thing the greater thy contempt in denying to do it Ah who will stand with his God for a tittle for a small
no more Sermons and joyn in no more Prayers and receive no more tenders of Grace or intreaties of the Gospel Isa 38.11 I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the Land of the living I shall behold man no more with the Inhabitants of the world Where the King is there he hath his Secretaries and Seals and Ministers of State and they who are banished the Court are banished from these 4. They shall depart from all the good things of this Life Each Country hath its proper peculiar Commodities and so hath each World This World hath its peculiar good things such as are proper to this and not to be found in the other World therefore the Apostle calls them this worlds goods He that hath this worlds goods 1 Joh. 3.17 So the other World hath its proper peculiar Commodities such as are to be found no where else The blessings of this are not to be look'd for in the other Life There is neither marrying nor giving in marriage but all are as Angels Good men as good Angels above all bodily and temporal Blessings and evil Men as evil Angels without them and fixed in a state of endless misery The wicked man possibly was honourable but his glory doth not follow after him Psal 49.17 He was rich but that was only in this world 1 Tim. 6.17 He was one that abounded in Pleasures but now they are gone and exchanged for pains James 5.5 Luk. 16.25 But Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented The Sinner shall bid adieu to Temporal good Spiritual good Eternal good all good that he may speak indefinitely what Job supposing himself dying spake restrictively Mine eye shall no more see good Job 7.7 CHAP. IV. The Properties of the Sinners loss Secondly I Shall speak to the Properties of this departure from Christ or loss therein 1. It is spiritual It is a loss peculiar to the Soul or Spirit of Man and a loss of that good that is most suitable to the Soul or Spirit of Man No mercies are like Soul-mercies Ephes 1.3 and Job 6.4 No miseries are like Soul-miseries For the nobler any Being is the better that is which advantageth it and the worse that is that injureth it It 's one thing to relieve or abuse a distressed Prince and another thing to relieve or abuse a distressed Subject The Soul of man is the Prince the chief and noblest part of man and it is principally the subject as chiefly sensible of this departure It 's true the Soul cannot depart from God locally but it can and doth morally here in its affections and conversation But that which is now its practice and pleasure will then be their torment and punishment Other losses pinch the Flesh but this pierceth the Spirit Other losses are castigatory and the portion of Children but this is damnatory and the portion of Devils Ah how will the Soul pine and wither away when it shall take its farewel of that Sun who alone could revive and refresh it What a dismal doleful death must it undergo when it shall depart from him who is its only Life Such a wounded Spirit who can bear The Soul hath more exquisite sense and more curious feeling than the Body therefore its loss of its own peculiar suitable satisfying good will cut deep and fill it with bitter horrour 2. It will be a total departure Here they depart in part from God but then totally Here Cain complains if not allowed God's presence in Ordinances though he had his presence in many ways of ordinary Favour Behold thou hast driven me this day from the face of the Earth and from thy face shall I be hid Gen. 4.14 But alas how doth he complain there where he is wholly deprived of the Divine presence in any way of Favour where he hath not the least glimpse of the light of his Countenance The partial departures of God have forced sad Complaints from them that are godly Job 13.24 Why hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine enemy saith Job I can bear the withdrawings of men and their absence I can bear the strangeness of my Friends and the unkindness of Relations but I cannot bear thy strangeness to me thy with-drawings from me Why hidest thou thy face Job though a strong stout man able to overcome the strong One the Devil yet was ready to faint away and die at this David crieth out mournfully at it Psal 10.1 Why standest thou afar off O Lord why hidest thou thy self in time of trouble Poor Heman is distracted and almost dead with it Psal 88.14 15. Lord why hidest thou thy face I am afflicted and ready to die while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted If these partial departures which had much love in them and with them cast down the Friends of God so heavily O what will his total departures out of pure Wrath cause to his Enemies That world must needs be dolesome and darksome indeed to whom this Sun is wholly set and totally ecclipsed â— It will be an eternal departure They must leave God for ever though it had been spiritual and total yet if but temporal there had been somewhat to have allay'd their Sorrows but to suffer so great a loss and that wholly and for ever too must needs pierce to the quick The Sinner shall see the blessed Jesus no more for ever He must depart from the tenderest Father lovingest Friend richest Treasure choicest Good greatest Glory sweetest Pleasure and that for ever Jude vers 13. To whom is reserved blackness of darkness for ever The Sentence one denounced Depart from me will be like the Law of the Medes and Persians which cannot be altered 2 Thess 1.8 9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. The Anchor of Hope will then be broken the Bridge of Grace will then be drawn the Gate of Mercy will then be shut and the Gulph between Christ and the Wicked never to be passed over They may cry out in truth what the Psalmist in unbelief Will the Lord cast off for ever will he be favourable no more Is is mercy clean gone for ever Psal 77.7 8. Alas they are cast off for ever he will be favourable to them no more They may roar out in vain How long wilt thou forget me O Lord shall I never me remembred Psal 13.1 4. It is an irreparable loss such a loss as nothing can make up There are many good things which we may do well without because the want of them may be supplied by other things But Christ is the one thing necessary the one thing excellent the want of whom no good thing in Heaven or Earth can make up When the Soul departs from Christ it departs from all good because nothing is good without him and nothing can be had in the room of him
judgment of many that a Princes Negative Voice is a greater part and mark of his Royalty than any Affirmative Command of his for a King may have Power to Command that which he hath no Power to forbid As he may and should enjoyn his Subjects to Worship the true God according to his revealed Will but he hath no Power to forbid them Thus in Sins of Omission for a man to live without Prayer without the love and fear of God without delight in him and communion with him without care of and watchfulness over his own heart and life may be a greater sign of the reign of Sin and thereby of an unregenerate state than the commission of some gross actual Transgressions It is apparent that this man is under the power of Lust as a Servant to it Tit. 3.3 And under the dominion of the Devil carried captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 And an unregenerate unsanctified person because he lives in Disobedience to these positive Laws of God Whereas he that is born of God sinneth not 1 Joh. 3.9 with his whole will there is not a free voluntary chearful submission of his Will to the quiet undisturbed dominion of Sin And he that is born of God hath a tender regard to the whole Law I have esteemed thy Precepts concerning all things to be right therefore I hate every false way Psal 119.128 He hath respect to Affirmative as well as Negative Precepts He hath an equal uniform regard to all the Law to that part which commands the doing good as well as that part which forbids the doing evil Therefore the man that lives in Sins of Omission is not born of God and therefore uncapable by the Gospel of Heaven and so justly for this cause sentenced to Hell CHAP. XXV Farther Reasons why Christ at the Great Day will condemn men for sins of Omission 3. CHrist will condemn men at the Reason 3 Great Day for sins of Omission because those that live in such Sins have no interest in himself There is no way to escape Hell but by the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thess 1. ult Jesus that delivereth from the wrath to come There is no way to attain Heaven but by Christ I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish Joh. 10.28 As Salvation is God's Gift Rom. 6. ult so it 's Christs Purchase There is no Name under Heaven whereby men may be saved but by the Name of Christ Act. 4.12 So that all who are without Christ not interested in him must of necessity perish He that hath the Son hath life he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 Joh. 5.12 Those that are without Christ are unpardoned All their sins are imputed to them Ephes 4. ult Rom. 3.25 And where-ever sin is imputed it condemneth Ezek. 18.3 Those that are not interested in Christ are Children of the Devil Joh. 8.44 and Children of wrath Ephes 2.2 3. And such Children must be with their Father the Devil and under wrath for ever Now those that live in Sins of Omission have no interest in Christ Our interest in Christ and so in Life is by Faith That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith Ephes 3.17 Gal. 2.20 I live by Faith in the Son of God It is Faith that causeth the Union between Christ and the Soul and joyns them together by virtue of which Union the Christian hath communion with Christ in his Merits and Righteousness that his Life and Death and Burial are the Christians are by God imputed to him as if performed in his own person Hence it 's said That the Christian lives with Christ is crucified with Christ and buried with Christ Rom. 6.4 And the Christian is said to be the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. ult By this Union with Christ which is the fruit of Faith the Christian is made a Son of God Gal. 3.26 and so an Heir of God and Joynt-Heir with Christ Rom. 8.17 As a Woman by marriage being united and made one with a Man hath communion with him in his Relations Honours and Estate So the Christian by Faith made one with Christ hath communion with him in his Relations Go tell my Brethren I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God Joh. 20.17 In his Estate Christ is Heir of all things Heb. 1.2 and the Believer is a Joynt-Heir with him as is before proved Christ was the First-born among many Brethren and so the Inheritance did belong to him Col. 1.18 Believers are a Congregation of first-born and so the right of the Inheritance is theirs Heb. 12.23 But such as live in sins of Omission are without Faith and therefore without Christ and therefore must be without Heaven for ever Faith is a sanctifying as well as a justifying Grace Act. 26.18 And to give them an Inheritance among them that are sanctified through Faith in Christ and therefore will not suffer the Soul to live in any sin Faith will not suffer a man to live in the want of love to God in so great an Omission for when Faith certifieth the Soul of Gods love to it this kindleth in the Soul flames of love to God 1 Joh. 4.19 When Faith brings much fewel the fire of love will be great Faith will not suffer a man to live without Repentance The eye of Faith which beholds a Christ crucified for sin affects the heart with sorrow for and indignation against those sins that crucified him Zach. 12.10 They shall see him whom they have pierced and mourn Faith will not suffer a man to live without delight in Christ and rejoycing in the God of all Consolation Faith seeth so much good certainly laid up in the Covenant and Promises for the Soul that it fills the Soul with joy in the hope and expectation of the enjoyment of them Whom having not seen we love and in whom believing though now we see him not we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.7 8. Faith will not suffer a man to live without waiting quietly on God Faith will not limit the Holy One of Israel but patiently stay Gods time for the mercies the Soul wanteth Faith knoweth his Bonds are good his Debts are in sure Hands The God that cannot lye hath promised Tit. 1.2 and therefore is not hasty to call them in He that believeth will not make haste Isa 28.16 Faith will not suffer a man to live without prayer He that knows his own wants and necessities how great and urgent they are and also where he may quickly have liberal Supplies and bountiful Relief will not long be kept from that Door You may sooner and easier put off a Beggar ready to starve who must needs perish if Charity do not help him and perswade him never to ask Alms more as keep a Believer from his daily waiting at Heavens Temple to ask spiritual Alms. An Unbeliever hath little hope to speed and therefore little heart to
strangers to the Covenant of Promise and aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and without hope in the World In which words we have their dreadful estate how far they are from any Saviour and so from any hope of Salvation which would not be if their negative holiness were sufficient to make them happy Third Use of Information 3. If Christ will condemn men for sins of Omission at the Great Day then it may inform us of the Justice and Righteousness of Christ It 's said of Christ That he loveth Righteousness and hateth Iniquity Psal 45. And again That he shall judge the world in Righteousness Act. 17.31 Herein it appears 1. Because he spares no Sins He condemneth those that live in Omissions little light sins in the imaginations of men as well as those that live in Commissions He sends to Hell those that do not relieve as well as those that rob his people He poureth out his wrath upon them that do not visit his Members in Prison as well as those that cast them into Prison Those sins that are Peccadilloes in the Worlds eye have felt the heavy weight of his hand The man that gather'd a few sticks was destroy'd with stones Vzzah touch'd the Ark out of kindness but God smote him with death for it Moses for omitting the Circumcision of his Child was like to have lost his life Aarons two Sons Nadab and Abihu neglected as is supposed by Expositors to fetch fire from the Altar to burn their Sacrifices and were destroy'd with fire from Heaven Levit. 10. The impartiality of Christ is evident herein that at the Great Day he will bid the Civil as well as the Scandalous Sinner depart from him into everlasting fire 2. Because he spareth no Sinners He saith to all those on his left hand whether Rich or Poor Great or Small High or Low if guilty of these Omissions Depart from me into everlasting fire He is no respecter of persons he spareth none for their greatness and strength His hand reacheth the tallest Cedars and plucks up the strongest Oaks Neither Power nor Majesty can free or exempt persons from his severity If Princes and Potentates will omit their Duty they must expect to feel his Fury Pharaoh Jeroboam Ahab Ahaz Rev. 6.15 Nebuchadnezzar Herod might neglect their Duties to men and escape punishment from men but could not neglect their Duties to God at so easie a rate As all their sins were within the view of his Omniscience so all their persons were within the reach of his Vengeance and that found them out to their cost He spareth none for their nearness to him He beholdeth them afar off that are very near to him when they make bold with him Judges on Earth may sometimes though sinfully always favour their Kindred in an unrighteous cause but he judgeth otherwise Though Coniah be to be as the signet on my right hand I will pluck him thence Jer. 22.24 Israel was the nearest people to God of any people in the world Psal 148. ult with Deut. 4.7 and Moses was the nearest to God of any of the people of Israel yet they were excluded his Rest for not believing his Word and he was denied entrance into Canaan for not sanctifying Gods Name 3. He judgeth all according to Law This is another requisite to suffice He will not condemn any for their Omissions or Commissions but according to Law We count that Judge just indeed that keeps the Law and will not upon any account swerve from that Our Lord Jesus when he sentenceth those that neglect to feed the Hungry and cloath the Naked c. to everlasting fire proceedeth according to Law exactly These persons as hath been before proved are under the Law of Works and so must stand or fall for ever as they obey or disobey that Law Now that Law condemneth for Omissions and not doing our Duties as well as for Commissions and abounding in enormities It saith Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.13 Observe the Law curseth those that omit that continue not to do their Duties as well as those that do the contrary 4. He will render to every man according to his Works He may punish and doth in this World less but neither in the other nor in this more than our Inquities deserve All mens sins are not equal therefore all mens sufferings shall not be equal According to the degree of mens defilements such shall be the degree of their punishment He distinguisheth between sins and sins between them that afflict his Children and those that relieve them not in their Afflictions between those that hale them to Prisons and put them to death and those that visit them not in prison He exacteth not of men more than is meet He will put a difference between Heathens who have little means to know and worship him aright and Jews To whom were committed the Oracles of God to whom pertained the Adoption and the Covenant and the giving of the Law and the Promises These have greater Means and Mercies and therefore greater Wrath and Severity Tribulation and Anguish Indignation and Wrath on the soul of every man that doth evil on the Jew first and also on the Gentiles Rom. 3.2 Rom. 9.4 Rom. 2.7 You only have I known therefore you will I punish of all the Families of the Earth for your Iniquities Amos 3.2 He will distinguish between Jews and Christians that live under the Gospel Omissions are more tollerable and less punishable among Heathens than Jews and among Jews before Christs coming than those Jews that lived under the Gospel and saw Christ's Miracles and heard his Sermons with those Christians that enjoy the Gospel Matth. 11.21 22 23. It will be more tollerable for Tyre and Sidon than for Corazin and Bethsaida and for Sodom and Gomorrah than for Capernaum because these lived under greater Light and Helps and yet continued in the neglect of Faith and Repentance He will not punish those that omit their Duties ignorantly when they are diligent to improve what advantages they have for knowledge so severely as he will those who neglect their Duties knowingly God expects a life answerable to that Light which he hath given us and if we imprison his Truth in unrighteousness we provoke him in the highest degree He that knoweth his Masters Will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes He that knoweth not his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with few stripes Both shall be beaten but the former suffer more stripes than the latter It 's cold comfort yet herein the Righteousness of the Judge appeareth that some who are guilty of Omissions shall have a cooler Hell than others For he rendreth to every man according to his Works Rom. 2. CHAP. XXVIII Practical godliness necessary Fourth Use of Information 4. IF Christ will condemn men at the Great Day for Sins of
Servants Ephes 5. Ephes 6. Col. 3. Col. 4. It directs us in all Conditions how to demean our selves in Prosperity to be joyful in Adversity to consider how God hath set the one against the other In Afflictions to be patient and prayerful and more studious of a right improvement of them than of deliverance out of them Under Mercies it directs us to be thankful to God the more chearful in his Service and faithful in the use of our Talents for the honour of our Master It directs us in all our Thoughts Jer. 4.14 Words Psal 39.2 Works Prov. 4.23 24 26. It directs us in all our natural Actions as Eating Drinking Sleeping 1 Cor. 10.31 Tit. 2.12 In our civil Converses Micah 6.8 In our religious Duties how to pray James 5. James 1. How to hear how to receive 1 Cor. 11. 3. It s purity above and beyond all other Religions appears in this That it forbids Evil all Evil nothing but Evil it commands Good whatsoever is Good and nothing but Good Isa 1. Psal 32.14 The Laws of Lycurgus among the Grecians and Numa among the Romans had somewhat of good in them but not all prohibited somewhat that was evil but not all that was evil But the Christian Religion is of a larger extent both in its Precepts and Prohibitions I have seen an end of all Perfections but thy Commandments are exceeding broad Psal 119.96 A man with the eye of his Body may behold an end of many worldly Perfections of many fair Estates great Beauties large Parts hopeful Families but a man with the eye of his Soul for by Faith may see an end of all earthly Perfections He may see the World in a flame and all its Pomp and Pride and Glory and Gallantry and Crowns and Scepters and Riches and Treasures turn'd into ashes he may see the Heavens passing away like a scroll and the Elements melting with fervent heat and the Earth with the things thereon consumed and all its Persections which men doted so much on vanished into smoke and nothing It 's easie to see to the end of all terrene Perfections but its difficult yea impossible to see to the end of Divine Precepts But thy Commandments are exceeding broad Of a vast Latitude beyond our apprehension They are so deep that none can fadom them Psal 36.6 So high that they are established in Heaven Psal 119.48 So long that they endure for ever 2 Pet. 1. And so broad that none can measure them They are not only broad but exceeding broad Higher than Heaven longer than the Earth broader than the Sea The Commands of God reach the inward parts the most secret motions and retired recesses of the Soul They reach all the privy thoughts They pierce even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the Joynts and Marrow and discern the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4.12 They reach to all our Actions to those that seem smallest and of less concernment as well as to those that are greater and of more concernment They reach to the manner nay circumstance of Actions The Divine Law takes notice of all the circumstances of sins as aggravations of sin As 1. From the time of Gods patience towards the Sinner These three years I came seeking fruit Luke 13. 2. The place where the sin was committed The Sons of Eli lay with the Women that assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation 1 Sam. 2.22 3. From the season of committing the Sin Isa 58.3 4. Behold in the day of your Fast ye find pleasure and exact all your labour c. 4. From the Condition of the person that sins He that eats bread with me lifts up his heels against mee Joh. 13.18 A familiar Friend proves a treacherous Enemy So Joh. 3.10 Art thou a Master in Israel and knowest not these things 5. From the means the person enjoys You only have I known therefore you will I punish for your Iniquities Amos 4. Rom. 2.7 6. From the manner of committing the Sin So they spread Absalom a Tent on the top of the house and Absalom went in to his Fathers Concubins in the sight of all Israel 2 Sam. 16.22 Impudency in sin doth highly increase it Were they ashamed when they committed all these Abominations No they were not ashamed But how far are other Religions from observing much more from condemning men for such sinful circumstances CHAP. XXXI The holiest have cause of humiliation 8. IF Christ will condemn men at the Great Day for sins of Omission I was hungry and ye gave me no meat c. Then it may inform us That the best have abundant cause of humiliation for the best have in them abundant matter of Condemnation O how many are our Omissions every day every hour and by reason of them we are obnoxious to Hell flames Good Bishop Vsher who for Piety and Learning was honoured through the Christian World though he was early converted and feared the Lord in his Youth though he was eminently industrious in private in his Family in chatechising and instructing and praying often every day with and for them that were committed to his Charge Though he was a constant Preacher and that with Judgment and Affection Though he was singularly famous for his many worthy pieces which he wrote in Latin and English yet after all this diligence and labour when he came to die Usher's Life the last words almost which he was heard to speak were Lord in special forgive my Sins of Omission Sins of Omission will at death lie heavier on our hearts than we think for in life If such a laborious person found cause of bewailing his Omissions surely much more cause have Loyterers as we are Omissions are fruits of Original Corruption as well as Commissions It 's from that dead stock that we are so defective in bringing forth good fruit Paul layeth his Omissions at this door Rom. 7.17 to 23. In my flesh is no good When I would do good evil is present with me c. Now whatsoever is the Child of such a monstrous Parent is loathsome and calls on us for sorrow and self-abhorrency Holy Job did but suspect his Children to be guilty of Omissions of not sanctifying the Name of God in their Hearts according to their Duties at their Feasts and Meetings And he riseth early and offereth Sacrifice according to the number of them all Job 1.4 5. He goeth to God and begs Pardon for them and the blessing of God upon every one of them It may be saith he my Sons have sinned and cursed and not blessed God so Calvin reads it God in their hearts Thus did Job continually Now if Job upon a supposition that his Sons might be guilty of Omissions was so constant in his addresses to God on their behalf by way of humiliation acknowledging their Iniquity and beseeching his Mercy What cause have we on the behalf of our own Souls who know that we often offend God
them good when ye will but me ye have not always Mary did well to improve the season she had in her hand as knowing if once lost it was lost for ever The Apostle Paul upon this account adviseth the Galathians While ye have time do good to all Gal. 6.10 Nothing more sads and dulls the heart when one comes to die saith a Divine now with God than his neglect of such opportunities which God's Providence Essex herse p. 19. or his own Place have put into his hands of doing or receiving good Nor is there a sharper Corrosive than the reflection upon those days and times that have passed over him Male aliud nihil agentem Ah how sad and uncomfortable will it be for thy time to be gone when thy work is not done when thy Sun is setting and the shadows of the Evening are stretching themselves upon thee for Conscience to give thee this salute Thy day is passed thy time is wasted the business of life is neglected and now thine Errors can never never be amended Ah what a dreadful hour will a dying-hour be to thee when Conscience shall plead against thee with Whips and Scorpions and Flames and not the dearest Friend or Relation thou hast be admitted to plead for thee or be able to comfort thee But if the day of death will be so uncomfortable how terrible will the Day of Judgment be Then it is that the Saint shall reap the benefit of all the good he hath done and the Sinner shall reap the mischief of all the good he hath omitted or left undone Then the idle Servant that did not trade with his Talent will be found an evil Servant and as such condemned to the Worm that never dieth and the Fire that never goeth out Mat. 25. Then the unfruitful Factor will be found an unfaithful Factor and as such disown'd and condemned by his Lord. Reader believe it though thou mayst live by a Negative Religion yet thou canst not die by it much less stand before the Judgment-Seat of Christ with it It 's true even such a Religion is of high price with men but if alone it's abomination in the sight of God Reader let me reason the case with thee In other things all are for fruitfulness in what is good The Husbandman would have his ground fruitful in good Corn as well as empty of weeds He would have his Cattel labour and do him service and thinks it not enough that they are in the stable or fields and do him no hurt The Master would have his Servant industrious in his Shop or Field or some way or other about his business and is not pleased to see him sit still all day and forbear to purloin his Goods or fight with his fellow Servants The Father who sends his Child to School would have him learn the Languages and profit daily therein and without this will not be satisfied to hear that his Child sits still all day at School learns no Oaths or Blasphemies calls no Names abuses none of his Companions And Reader why should God be contented with thy harmlesness when thou art barren and unprofitable Hath not God as much right to thee as thou hast to thy Ground or Cattel and art not thou as much bound to God as thy Servant or Child is bound to thee and why then shouldst thou think to put God off with that in thy self which thou wilt not be put off with in thy ground or Cattel or Servant or Child Besides I must tell thee thou art not harmless if thou dost no good though thou livest not in the Commission of gross Evils The Tree in the Garden that brings not forth good fruit is hurtful though it bring not forth evil fruit partly because it cumbers the ground and takes up room to no purpose partly because it draws the moisture of the earth to it and so hinders the thriving of those Trees that are near it who but for them would be more fruitful So if thou neglectest what is good though thou dost no open scandalous evil thou art mischievous and hurtful in the place where thou livest Thou takest up the room of a Member that might be serviceable to God and his Country If thou wert gone there might be one in thy House Place Lodging kept and maintain'd by the Great House-keeper of the World with the same Mercies with which thou livest that should adorn the Gospel glorifie the Name of God and edifie the Souls of others and dost thou no harm then by hindring such a one Is not the Drone hurtful which idleth all the day and lives upon the Bees labour and forceth them sometimes to want because of her Theft Is not the Wem in the Body hurtful when it serves to no use yet sucks away the nourishment from other parts of the Body Doth not that Factor wrong the Master who imploys him if he let his stock lie still though he do not waste it in Riotousness and Drunkenness and Filthiness when the Master might have had one in his place who would have traded with it and probably have improved it to his great advantage Did ever any Merchant trust a Servant with a stock to lie by him Nay is Nature it self content with the removal of what is oppressive doth it not long and breath after what is perfective Is not the presence of malum what is evil a burden So the absence of bonum what is good occasion of complaint There is ingrafted within us not only Bados a depth of distast against feared Evils but also Hiatus large desires after known Good As Nature much more doth Religion call men off what is bad and provoke men to what is right and just and good Reader let me come up a little closer to thee What is it that I am advising thee to Is it any thing that is evil If it be reject and renounce it Is it not to be good and to do good I will tell thee what I would desire of thee and then do thou judge whether I advise thee as a Friend or whether my Counsel be worth hearkning to or no 1. Take heed of external Omissions If thou hast been faulty herein I would advise thee every day to mind Prayer Scripture watchfulness over thy Heart Tongue and Actions diligence in thy Calling faithfulness in thy Relations and to do good to others as thou hast opportunity Hereby thou wilt acknowledge thy dependance on and subsistance by the blessed God to whom thou art bound by millions of Obligations Hereby thou wilt procure his Protection of thy Person Provision for thy Family and Benediction on thy Calling and all thine Undertakings And is this ill Counsel to direct thee to the way how to procure his Favour which can sweeten the bitterest Condition and turn the most loathsome Prison into a lovely Palace and an Hell of misery into an Heaven of Mercy Friend do I advise thee for thy hurt when I advise thee daily to
All he doth for thee is mercy meer mercy not only beyond but contrary to merit All he requireth of thee and all thou canst do for him is Duty and that which the greatest Justice calls upon thee for Now if thou art unwilling to be neglected by God why shouldst thou not be as unwilling to neglect God Is thy safety of greater concern than his Glory or must thy Pleasure be prefer'd before his Wilt thou not make that golden Rule of Christ the rule of thy actions with men to deal with them as thou wouldst have them to deal with thee and wilt thou deal otherwise with the blessed God Must he remember thee at all times in all conditions keep thee night and day lest any hurt thee support and supply thee every moment and thou forget him days without number Is this fair or honest dealing Reader Let me tell thee upon him thou livest by him thou movest and from him thou hast thy Being Thou canst not think or speak or act in the least if he should suspend his care of thee thine Eyes could not see nor thine Ears hear nor thy Mouth tast nor thy Hands or Feet move if his Providence doth not concur to them If he should but with-draw his manutenency and the hold he hath of thee for the smallest pittance of time thou wouldst drop into the bottomless Pit The flames do not depend more on the Fire nor the streams on the Spring of water than thy Life and all thy Comforts for this and the other World do upon God and wilt thou provoke him to leave thee He hath said with the froward he will shew himself froward Psal 18.26 That he will walk contrary to them that walk contrary to him Lev. 26.24 and that he will forsake them that forsake him and pay men in their own Coin 2 Chron. 15.2 and wilt thou venture him any longer Others have felt the truth of those threatnings and dost thou think to go unpunished Surely if common ingenuity will not move thee to remember him night and day who remembreth thee with Loving-kindness every minute yet the Divine Severity may fright thee from forgetting him lest he forget thee for ever Believe it if he leave thee Wrath and Death and Hell and Damnation and Devils will soon find thee Thou canst now depart from him by thy neglect of his Worship and be merry and chearful notwithstanding but if once he depart from thee though but for a moment thou art undone eternally Woe be to thee when I depart from you Hos 9.12 Thy Friends and Relations and Creature-Comforts may depart from thee and it may be well with thee but if the Fountain of thy Life the God of thy Health the Father of all Mercies depart from thee woe will be to thee Heaven and Earth cannot make him blessed or hinder him from being extreamly cursed whom God leaves and forsakes Alas if the Heavens omit to give us its showers or the Sun omit to dispense its influences or the Earth omit to yield its increase where are we what can we do how lamentable is our condition Those Persons that were purer than Snow that were whiter than Milk that were more ruddy than Rubies or than polished Saphires their Visage is blacker than a coal They are not known in the streets their Skin cleaveth to their Bones it is withered it is become like a stick Lament 4.7 8. The Children and the Sucklings swoon in the streets Lam. 2.11 12. But if our case be so woful when Creatures omit their accustomed kindness to us what will it be if God should omit his care of us 10. Consider If the Lord Jesus Christ should omit the least in the Work of thy Redemption thou wouldst be undone for ever Had Christ been as unwilling to save thee to the uttermost as thou art to serve him to the uttermost what would have become of thee Friend Jesus Christ trod the whole Wine-press of his Fathers Wrath alone had he left but one drop of that bitter Cup of Divine Wrath for thee to drink it would have caused thy Belly to swell and Bowels to be troubled and Bones to ake and whole Body and Soul to suffer extremity of Torments for ever When Christ undertook to interpose between thee and his Father to stand as a skreen between thy poor Soul and a consuming Fire he omitted not the least that was requisite for thy good Though it was hard work painful work amazing work such work as neither Men nor Angels durst undertake yet when thy Miseries and Necessities required it he did it He did not omit to contend with Earth and Heaven and Hell for thee He did not omit to drink of the Brook in the way of the Cup of his Fathers Wrath and to tread the Wine-press of his Anger alone that he might obtain Favour and Life for thee He omitted not the least in point of satisfaction to his Fathers Justice he desired not the smallest abatement of those vast sums which thou thou didst ow to the Divine Majesty but paid the utmost farthing for thee He never gave over till all was finished till all the Tipes were verified all the Promises accomplished and all the Demands of his Father fully answered Joh. 19.28 He omitted nothing in point of application of the Purchase which he had bought for Sinners As he died to make satisfaction for us so he ever liveth to make intercession for us As he died to make his Will good for a Will is not of force as long as the Testator liveth Heb. 9.17 wherein he gives Pardon and Love and Life to his people so he liveth to see his Will made good that his chosen might enjoy whatsoever his boundless Love and Grace had bequeathed to them He died that he might be a legal Testator and he liveth that he might be his own Executor Now Reader did Christ omit nothing which related to thy Salvation and wilt thou omit any thing that relates to his Service Did he not shrink back when thy Miserie 's call'd him to bear that burden which made the Earth to quake the whole Creation to groan and would have broke the backs of Angels and Arch-Angels and all the heavenly Host if they had put their shoulders under it and wilt thou shrink back from that easie Yoke and light Burden which he calls thee to take upon thee Is this thy kindness to thy Friend Why dost thou use him thus as Absalom said to Hushai Is this thy gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ why dost thou serve him so 2 Sam. 16.17 When the most righteous God demanded full satifaction for the breach of his Law by the Nature that had transgressed it and resolved that if he had it not the whole Posterity of Adam should perish when his Wrath was breaking in like a Flood to overwhelm the whole World of Mankind and neither Man nor Angel durst stand in the breach to divert this deluge of Fury when the
Knife of the Laws Curse was even at the Creatures throat as Abraham's at the throat of Isaac Thy Redeemer call'd to his Father O Father Father hold thine hand slay not those poor Creatures I have provided a Sacrifice such as thou wilt accept I know that Beeves and Goats and Lambs are not the Sacrifices for Sin which thou wouldst have what proportion hath the blood of Beasts to the infinite demerit of Sin but I know what Sacrifice thou wouldst have thou wouldst have me to offer my self upon the Cross as a Sacrifice to thy Justice that the whole World might know the Holiness of thy Nature the Righteousness of thy Law and thine infinite kindness to thine Elect Well I come to do thy Will O God Though the Task be so great and the Work so grievous that no other dares so much as touch it and though I am wholly free and none can oblige or compel me to it yet I will undertake it Now Reader was Christ so forward so willing to obey such a Command of dying a cursed painful shameful death that he tells his Father I delight to do thy Will O God and art thou so backward to obey his Commands and to walk in his ways When his ways are ways of pleasantness and all his paths are peace Psal 40.6 Heb. 10.5 Prov. 3.17 Was Christ so careful and tender of thee that he would not omit any thing needful for thy good and art thou so careless and forgetful of him as to omit that which is of such concernment to his Glory Friend bethink thy self doth not thy Redeemer deserve fairer dealings at thy hands Heathens and Publicans would not be so base and unworthy to their Friends and Benefactors CHAP. XXXIX Arguments against sins of Omssion The new Nature in Believers inclines them to positive as well as negative Holiness and the profit will answer the pains 11. COnsider if thou art a Believer thy predominant new Nature inclines thee to positive as well as negative Holiness And shall this be given thee in vain shall God be at such cost and charge as to infuse a principle of life into thee to no purpose Pray observe what end God hath in this regenerating Work Of his own Will begat he us again by the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of First-Fruits of his Creatures Jam. 1.18 Where we have the causes of Regeneration 1. The efficient Principal He. 2. The moving His alone Will. 3. The formal Begat us again 4. The instrumental The Word of Truth 5. The final That we should be a kind of First-Fruits God begets us again that we should be devoted to him as the First-Fruits of all the sheaves were consecrated to God and that out of thankfulness to him for his innumerable blessings Prov. 3.9 Rom. 12.1 The First-Fruits were holy to the Lord and so should all Christians be Again he tells us his design in giving a new Spirit and putting his Spirit into them That they may walk in his Statutes and do them Ezek. 36.26 27. So that 't is Sacriledge and God-robbery for a Christian to imploy himself to the use of any but God because he is devoted to God and it 's also below a Christian as for a man to live as doth 〈◊〉 Beast for him that hath a noble Diâ—ine Principle to live as other men As all the Children of the first Adam derive from him a depraved Nature which inclines them not only to omit what is good but also to do what is evil therefore his Seed 〈◊〉 known by both those signs Psal 36.3 4. Hos 4.1 2 3. So all the Children of the second Adam derive from him a renewed Nature For they are made partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 which doth not only take them off from what is evil but also put them forward to that which is good Rom. 6.11 As the Branches derive from the Root that sap and moisture which enableth them to fruitfulness so the Christian draweth that Virtue from Christ even in his first Conversion that inclines him whilst he lives to bring forth fruit to God Ephes 2.10 We are his Workmanship created in Jesus Christ unto good Works which God hath ordained that we should walk in them Mark this new piece that is indeed Gods Master-piece for the New Creation doth far excel the old Heavens and Earth is formed in Christ as the efficient Cause unto good Works unto such Works as flow from the Spirit of God as the Principle as are according to the Will of God as the Rule and for the Glory of God as the end Gal. 5.20 Gal. 6.16 Phil. 1.11 Each Convert hath â—â—â—munion with Christ in his Death and also in his Life He knoweth Christ and hath fellowship with him in his Death whereby he dieth to Sin Hence he is said to be dead and buried with Christ Rom. 6.6 knowing this that our old man so Sin is called because it 's nigh as old as man is full of subtilty and craft and should be always decaying and dying is crucified with him i. e. Christ whom Sin crucified and whose Death crucifieth Sin that the body of sin sin is said to have a body because it consisteth of many members Col. 3.5 might be destroyed for as the life of Sin gave Christ his deaths-wound so the death of Christ gave Sin its deaths wound that henceforth we should not willingly chearfully customarily serve sin as our Lord and Master And as the Convert hath fellowship with Christ in his Death so also in his Resurrection That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection Phil. 3.10 i. e. Have experience for 't is such a knowledge he speaks of of the power and energy of the Life of Christ to quicken me unto new Obedience Besides the true Convert hath the Law of God written in his Heart which cannot but move him to the observation of the Law in his Life Psal 37. Heb. 8. According to the predominant principles that are in every mans nature such are his inclinations whether to God or evil and such are ordinarily his practices As a bowl moves this way or that way according as the Byass inclines Now Reader Consider either thou art a Believer or not If thou art not it concerns thee speedily to look about thee lest thou die in this estate and be damned for ever Joh. 3. ult If thou art a Believer it would be very strange for thee to continue in any Omission for all this while thou actest against thy nature It 's very much easier to sin with thy nature than against it A wicked man that hath knowledge cannot sin with such pleasure and easiness as another because he doth in sinning oppose and fight with Conscience within him but it seems harder for thee for thou dost not only offer violence to thine enlightned Conscience but also to the new Nature that is implanted in thee By thy Omissions thou dost not only sin against thy natural Light
some think were so called from their conforming to Herod in their Religion And it 's judged the Melchites who lived in the East were so called from Melech i. e. of the Kings Religion The works of great men are more powerful with the ordinary sort than the the Will and Word of the great God Again the example of the multitude is very forcible Men are carried down with the stream both easily and strongly It is as common to do as the most do in irreligious as in natural actions We think our selves in greatest safety when we are with the most numerous Party To be singular is lookt upon as ridiculous and those who are so are counted proud conceited precisians Men choose rather to be sociable in sin than singular in sanctity and to do as the most do than as the best do The fewness of Christ's Followers was a stumbling-block to his Enemies and an offence to his Friends To cure this Reader consider 1. That no patterns of any men are valid against the Precepts of God The Precepts of God are like himself of certain purity and eternal verity but the patterns of men are like themselves vain and variable Our business is not to look to what men do but to what God speaketh It is highly derogatory to the supream Being to make the examples of men and not his Commands the rule of our lives The examples of Murderers Thieves Drunkards Swearers are of as much force against the good and wholsome Law of a Prince as the irreligious examples of any men are against the holy and righteous Laws of God A Judge would deride the Malefactors Plea that should say It is true I have broke the Kings Laws but have done no more than such an Esquire or Knight or Lord I have but imitated them therein Or that should say I was guilty of such Treasons but I joyn'd with many other Traytors I had good store of company with me And dost thou think Reader the Judge of Quick and Dead when he shall arraign thee for thine unchangeable Estate and demand of thee why thou omittedst the Duties he enjoyn'd thee will accept thy Plea when thou shalt say It is true Lord I did live without Scripture or Prayer in my Family but such and such great men who lived near me did so as well as I I wrot after their Copies and thought it would be well enough to do as they did or when thou shalt say Lord though I neglected thy Worship and Service I followed therein almost all the Town and Parish where I lived and I judged it best to imitate the most Canst thou imagine that such a silly simple excuse will bear any weight Thou wilt not take such a pitiful Plea from any Child or Servant in thy Family If thy Child when reproved by thee for Drunkenness or Thieving or Disobeying thy Commands should excuse himself and say Sir other mens Sons are as bad as I such a Gentleman's Sons are worse the Children of very many meet and joyn with me in all my drinking stealing and debauched courses How ill would such an answer sound in thine ears Or what wouldst thou think if thy Servant instead of doing the work appointed him should run from Ale-house to Ale-house and spend his time in Carding and Dicing and then excuse it to thee that he did as others did there were many beside himself and some of Quality who were examples to him Consider how poor how pitiful how irrational a Plea it is to excuse thy Disobedience to God by thy imitation of irreligious men and do not think that the great God will take that excuse from thee which thou wilt not from a Child or Servant Surely there is a little more difference between the boundless blessed God and thee a poor Worm than there is between thee and any Son or Servant 2. Consider If thou wilt follow others be they great or many in sin thou shalt also follow them in intollerable and eternal Sufferings The ways of such tend to death and their steps take hold of Hell And if thou wilt walk in their ways and tread in their steps thou canst not avoid their end Rev. 18.4 Come out from among her my people and be not partakers of her Sins that ye receive not her Plagues He that catcheth the Plague of another catcheth all the pain and weakness and ill effects of such a Disease Do not think to feed on wicked mens Dainties to live their lazy sensual lives and not to pay their reckoning Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them went a whoring after strange Flesh here they joyn in sinning but are they separated in sufferings truly no Are set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Jude vers 7. If they unite in wickedness they shall be united in woe God will bind them up together as Tares for the fire I know Reader thou wouldst not be willing to dwell for ever with and fare for ever as wicked great men shall Tophet is prepared of old for the King it is prepared he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it Isa 30. ult And why then wilt thou do as they do and resemble them now in time It is unavoidable Live as they do here and live as they do for ever Again thou art unquestionably loth to be with and suffer as the most shall to eternity At the great day the World i. e. the far greater part of it shall be condemned 1 Cor. 11.31 When they shall be arraigned for their endless Estates they shall be cast and condemned to the company and curses and torments of the Devils for ever and ever and if thou wouldst not die their Deaths or partake of their unchangeable Conditions why wilt thou live their lives and walk in their wicked ways 3. Consider of all patterns these two The greatest or richest and the multitude are most unfit for thy imitation Because of all men these usually are the worst men and do least imitate Christ For great men how few are there who are good Grace and Greatness are happy and lovely but rare Conjunctions Solomon tells us That Wisdom is good with an Inheritance Eccles 7.11 But where shall we find Wisdom and Wealth Righteousness and Riches together Great and rich men have their Farms and Merchandizing and Honours and Pleasures and other things to look after than their Souls and Salvation How hardly saith our Saviour shall a rich man enter into the Kingdom of Heaven It may well be hard for him who turns the cords of Love and bands of Kindness into fewel to his lusts and weapons of unrighteousness Blessed be God there are some great men who walk religiously but truly they are very few Brethren ye know your calling not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called But God hath chosen the
suppose is meant the scandalous man who liveth in Commission It 's said of Mary Magdalen who had been guilty of notorious Enormities Luke 7. For she is a Sinner And it 's said of the Publican whose whole Tribe was infamous for Extortion and Bribery That he was a Sinner He is gone to be a Guest to one that is a Sinner By Ungodly as the very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth is meant one that liveth in Omissions one that liveth without the Worship of God i. e. without the Love and Fear the Acknowledgment and Adoration of this God Worship is that high Honour and Solemn Respect that the Creature owes to God Not to give him this is ungodliness An ungodly man is one that doth not seek God nor trust God nor obey God that doth not own him in his Mercies as his Father and Benefactor nor in his Judgments as a wise Master that would by Chastisements make him partaker of his Holiness Now if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the sinner and ungodly appear If there be a difficulty in the Salvation of the Righteous there is a necessity of the damnation of the Sinner and ungodly If the Righteous get so hardly to Heaven the Sinner and Ungodly must surely be cast into Hell Where shall the Sinner and Ungodly those that are guilty of these Omissions and Commissions appear They must appear somewhere but they can appear no where with comfort or without unspeakable horrour Where shall they appear before God why they hate his Being despise his Dominions slight his Love disobey his Laws and indeed seek his Life and can they appear before him Can they look for a smile from his Face who loath him perfectly or can they stand before his Frowns and Fury Do they know the weight of his Hand the killing-darts of his Eye and the Power of his Anger No surely they cannot appear before him Thou even thou art to be feared and who may stand when thou art angry Where shall they appear Shall they appear before Christ the Judge of Quick and Dead Before him who sometimes invited them earnestly to come to him and intreated them affectionately to accept of him and life with him Shall they appear before him It 's his Call which they have despised and his Commands which they have violated It 's his Blood which they have trampled on and his Spirit whom they have grieved They are his Members whom the Sinners have oppressed and wronged and his Children and Spouse and Body which the Ungodly have neglected and not relieved O how glad would they be if the Rocks would crush them to pieces that they might be deliver'd from the wrath of the Lamb Rev. 6.15 Their severe Sentence which may make every Ear to tingle and Heart to tremble that hears it will proceed from his mouth Then shall he say unto them on his left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire But where shall these Sinners and Ungodly appear Shall they appear before the Saints Alas with what face can they behold them whose Persons they have imprison'd whose Estates they have plundered whose Profession they have derided whose Names they have abused and whom they have often wished out of the way and thought the Troublers of the Family and Town and Country where they lived If the Saints plead it must be against them for they cannot but as Justices agree and concur with the Sentence of the Judge as righteous and just But where shall they appear Shall they appear before the Law No that condemneth them for the least Omission for the smallest Commission to Hell fire they are the Prohibitions of the Law that the Sinner hath transgressed and they are the Precepts of the Law that the Ungodly hath not obeyed and therefore the Law curseth them both to the uttermost The Law enableth Sin to bind over the Transgressor of it to the Wrath and Curse of God Hence it 's said The strength of Sin is the Law But where shall they appear Shall they appear before the Gospel No their Omissions have most relation to the Gospel They have not believed the truth of it They have not embraced the goodness of it They have not obeyed the Precepts of it They rejected the tenders of Pardon and Life made to them in the Gospel with frequency and fervency They would not come to their Physitian to be healed of their mortal Diseases Though he came to them and offer'd his help freely and assured them of effectual and speedy recovery if they would be directed by him yet they rejected the Counsel of God against themselves therefore the Gospel will condemn as surely and more sorely than the Law Heb. 2.2 3 Joh. 3.19 If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every Disobedience received a just recompence of Reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation And again Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy But where shall they appear Shall they appear on Earth Surely there will be no Earth then for them to appear in That Earth which they sported so much in as Leviathan in the waters and which they were fond of and delighted in will be burnt up with fire and consumed with fervent heat But where shall they appear Shall they appear in Heaven Can an unsanctified heart enter into the Holy of Holies No. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 An impure Eye cannot behold such an infinitely pure Object When Angels seated in Heaven as their Habitation once lost their purity they soon lost that place Heaven could not bear them 't is not as Noahs Ark to take in all sorts Clean or Unclean Into it can in no wise enter any thing that is Vnclean Rev. 21.27 Neither could they bear Heaven Thee spiritual delights of that Coelestial Court became unsuitable to their polluted Natures The rarest Dainties and most curious Delicates are altogether unsavoury and unpleasant to an aguish and distemper'd Palat. But where shall they appear If they cannot appear before God their Maker before the Lord Jesus Christ before the Saints Before whom shall they appear If they cannot appear before the Law before the Gospel before what shall they appear It must be in Hell before Devils and damned Spirits with them to lodge and dwell for ever Ah the Great Day is called The terrible Day of the Lord Jesus and it will be a terrible Day indeed to these meer Civilians It is called the Day of Perdition of ungodly men It 's to others a Day of Consolation Lift up your Heads with joy for the Day of your Redemption draweth nigh A Day of Promotion It 's your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom Luke 12.32 Joh. 17.24 A Day of Rest from all their Labours and Sorrows and Sufferings bodily or spiritually Rev. 14.13 But it 's the Day of Perdition of Ungodly men They who live without God here must live without him for
ever and this farthest utmost endless departure of the Creature from God who is the only Life and Heaven of him will be a Death and Hell with a witness God will be God at that Day in the account of the worst of men though he be their laughing-stock and sinning-stock at this day Though these ungodly ones sit aloft here in the Courts of men and who but they Yet the Vngodly shall not stand in the Judgment Psal 1.5 At the Great Day when they shall be judged 1. They shall be ashamed they shall not stand i. e. not hold up their heads with joy but hang down their heads with shame Dan. 12. Some shall arise to shame and confusion of face 2. The Vngodly shall not stand in the Judgment i. e. they shall not be justified When they shall be tried for their Lives and Deaths for their endless unchangeable states they shall be cast and condemned When all Adams Posterity shall make their personal appearance before the God of the Spirits of all Flesh to receive their eternal doom and when the Judge of Quick and Dead cloathed with his Majestick Robes of Glory accompanied with an illustrious train of Angels shall sit down on the Judgment Seat he shall pronounce a Sentence of Condemnation on all ungodly Ones If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquity O Lord who should stand Psal 130.3 i. e. If thou Lord should observe exactly the best mans heart and life and accordingly deal with him not one man could be justified Who shall stand i. e. righteous at thy Bar. 3. The Vngodly shall not stand in the Judgment i. e. they shall not conquer when they shall be impleaded and accused by the Devil and the Law at that day An Army foil'd is said not to stand before their Enemies And again An Army beaten is said to fall before their Adversaries Dan. 11.25 And the Conquerors are said to stand Ephes 6.13 The Devil will bring his large Bills of Indictments into the Court against the Ungodly for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5.8 A Court-Adversary and the Law will second the Devil and joyn with him in his Accusations the Sinners Conscience will joyn with both and assent to the truth of their Indictments The Ungodly will have no Advocate to plead for him Christ that sometimes offer'd him that kindness will now plead against him and so he must needs fall and be conquer'd by his Enemies CHAP. XXX Sinners Conviction at the Day of Judgment The purity of Christs Religion above all others Sixth Use of Information 6. IF Christ will say to them on the left hand Depart from me For I was Hungry and ye gave me no meat Or if Christ will condemn men for sins of Omission at the Great Dy It informs us That Christ will be rational in his most severe proceedings even to the Conviction of the Sinners own Conscience I draw this from the Coherence of the verses Christ first pronounceth the Sentence vers 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire And then vers 42. he gives the reason For I was hungry and ye gave me no meat c. which though at first they seem to question yet at last they are muzled and put to silence Jude tells us of solemn Condemnation and solemn Conviction of these ungodly Ones as the chief businesse of that Day Behold he cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment on all and to convince all that are ungodly amongst them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly Sinners have spoken against him Jude 14 15. Execution by an Hysteron Proteron is put before Conviction yet one great work of that Great Day is to convince these ungodly Ones and the severity of the Process is against the Ungodly This Conviction implyeth 1. A reflection of Conscience upon all their past and former sins Conscience as a Glass shall represent to the Sinner all his lusts which he hath loved above his Soul and Saviour in all their ugly features and loathsome colours The Books at that day will be opened Rev. 20.12 i. e. The Book of Gods Remembrance Mal. 3. and the Book of Conscience Sins are not gone as soon as done God records them in his Book of Remembrance and Conscience will review them all in that Day of Vengeance Though it could not be heard by the Sinner in this World for the noise of his carnal delights and cry of his worldly delights yet when it sets his sins in order before his eyes in their monstrous frightful shapes it will thunder in his Ears as Reuben to his Brethren Did not I tell you of this and say Do not sin and thou wouldst not hear therefore all this Wrath and Fury and Flames and Darkness and Chains are come upon thee 2. This Conviction implyeth a silencing the Sinner that he will have nothing to say either against God or for himself A man that is convinced hath his mouth stop'd When the Spirit convinceth the World of sin the World hath not a word to say against the Sin and Guilt which the Law chargeth on it Every mouth is stoped and all the World is guilty before God How often is the poor Creature self-convinced and self-condemned here but soon after the sick qualms go off his stomach and he is revived with the Cordials of sinful shifts and excuses wherewith he deludes himself and presumes he may also deceive God but at the Great Day as his Convictions will be more killing so they will be more lasting The man will be dumb and speechless when Christ shall say Why didst thou deny to relieve my Servants in their wants Why didst thou slight my Blood neglect my Worship grieve my Spirit and omit to obey my positive Laws Matth. 22.3 4 5. The very Heathen who shall be imprison'd in the dark dungeon of Hell for imprisoning the Truth and holding it in unrighteousness will not have a motion in their Breasts of accusing God for false Imprisonment How certainly then and how fully will the Consciences of Christians who lived under the Gospel justifie God when he shall condemn them for not believing and not repenting upon the Messages he sent to them of pardon and life 7. If Christ will condemn men at the Great Day for sins of Omission It may inform us of the excellency of the Christian Religion above all other Religions The excellency of any Religion consisteth in the purity of its Precepts and strictness of its Commands now no Religion is so holy in its Commands and so exact in its Laws as the Christian Religion Moral Duties are advanced by it to their highest perfection and moral Vices are debased by it to their lowest degradation The Commandment of the Lord is pure Psal 19. Thy Word is very pure Christ will condemn men to Hell at the last Day for Omissions as well as Commissions for neglect of known Duties as well as