the justice and goodness of God and the revelation of his will in Ezech. 18.4 and other Texts This dispensation at first view seemeth not to comport with the justice of God which must give every man his due and recompence to every one according to his work Now the work of the Father is not the work of the Child how then cometh it to be recompensed to the Child much less doth it seem to comport with the goodness of God to visit the iniquity of the Father upon the child and then it seemeth to cross what God hath said Ezech. 18.4 The soul that sinneth shall dye and again Jer. 31.29 30. Every one shall dye for his own iniquity every man that eateth the sowre grape his teeth shall be set on edge But I beseech you observe 1. How ready we are to quarrel with God for what is done every day with men and no man accuseth it of injustice to take away the estates of Children for the treasons of Parents for the debts of Parents c. How ordinarily in war do innocent Children suffer for their Parents yet as to man the law of God is plain Deut. 24.16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children neither shall the children be put to death for the parents every man shall be put to death for his own sin and reason holds much stronger for Gods punishing even with death the sin of the parent upon the child For 1. God can compensate the loss of a temporal life to the child with an eternal life this man cannot do This was Augustines reason 2. God seeth guilt enough in children to justifie his vengeance To man they are innocent yet according to that barbarous custom in war nothing is more ordinary than to take away the lives of children for the fathers faults yet the world doth not much clamour at this 2. The justice of God is sufficiently cleared in this That God never punisheth any for the sin of their correlate in whom there is not personal guilt enough to justifie God in that proceeding Every one in his punishment beareth his own burden though possibly his sin and the sin of his father be punished together 3. Correlates are the goods of their Relations Children are the great portion of Parents so are people the riches and goods of Princes thus Aquinas solveth this difficulty Filii sunt res parentum Thus the learned Rivet saith children have in them aliquid parentis indeed that is something more children are not only the portion and goods of their parents but they are pieces of their parents and their parents are punished in them As David was punished in the death of his first child by Bathsheba Some may say this is something if children were only punished during the life of their parents but how are their parents punished in them when they are dead before vengeance cometh upon the child Answ The fear of it all their life-time is a punishment 2. Is it no punishment to them though dead to have their names blotted out 4. The goodness of God is seen in this That it is a rational means to do good to the parents and parents are often advantaged by the punishment of the children David was so you know If God will say to the child I will punish you and use your punishment to do good to your parents what have we to say to it If we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren as St. John determines certainly if God calls children to it they ought to be willing to lay down their lives for their parents if God impose it upon them Debent parentibus hoc officium saith Augustine Plutarch disputing the justice of the gods he was a Heathen and that his dialect in this particular saith that Physitians use to bleed the arm for a pain in the head and by a parity of reason so excuseth the Divine Justice The Parents have been instruments of giving life to the Children and God giveth Children many advantages for the Parents sake 5. In the mean time if the children be good and holy their afflictions are but fatherly chastisements Their deaths do but remove them to a better life so that they have no wrong not suffering in their souls nor by eternal punishments for the sins of their parents 6. Lastly saith Augustine God by this means doth maintain discipline and keep up his authority and government in states in the world in his Church in particular families Now who shall deny God the liberty of exercising an act of meer Power and Soveraignty if it were no more when by it a discipline and government is kept up in the Universe and by it many greater disorders and wickednesses are prevented Sinners are terrified and the thoughts of the miseries their children may feel for their sins may affright those who would adventure their own skins and necks and souls too I have now done with the Doctrinal part of this Observation I come to the Practical Application of this discourse Vse 1. In the first place this may serve to satisfie us as to the Justice of God in the distribution of some rewards of this life to the worst of men by the rewards of this life I understand riches honours outward prosperity and blessing It is a saying usually imputed to Hierom Omnis Dives est vel injustus vel injusti haeres every rich man is either an unrighteous man or the son of an unrighteous man I do not know but we may say the contrary That every prosperous man is either justus aut haeres justi either himself a good and righteous man or the child of such a one I mean not the immediate child but descended from such a one I will not assert it too universally but shall refer it to your Observation If you see a leud and wicked man growing great rich prospering much in the world observe whether he be not one who like Jehu hath not personally done some eminent service for God so Jehu did so Assyria did so Nebuchadnezzar did he made his Army to do a great service against Tyre 2. If you cannot find that enquire if he were not a descendent from some that had done some such service Jeroboam the Son of Joash Jehu's Grandchild was a naughty man yet the Kingdom of Israel had no such time of prosperity as in his Reign God did not reward any personal vertue in him but he rewarded the service which his Grandfather Jehu had done against the house of Ahab The prosperity therefore of wicked men should not trouble us nor be a temptation to us we should only conclude thus How much more will the Lord reward his faithful servants who worship and serve him in truth and with a perfect heart Vse 2. In the second place This may serve to rectifie the mistakes of those who may be under a temptation to say with David That they have washed their hands in vain and cleansed their hearts
for his not repenting not believing according to his Word Is there any unrighteousness with God in this case more than in the Fathers dealing with the Child upon the former Supposition What pretence is there for it The Sinner you will say could not repent could not believe without the special Grace of God which was never given him No more could the Child buy those things the Father willed it to have and come before him with unless the Father first gave it mony the Child had no mony of its own But the Child might have left its play it might have read and heard the Word he might have come to God by Prayer and begg'd of him a soft and contrite heart and a believing heart he had power to do all this and had he done this God had not been wanting to him in his further Grace To him that hath shall be given saith our Saviour that is to him that hath and useth and proveth what Gifts and Graces he hath as he ought to do shall be given more Grace But this the poor wretch hath not done but dieth an hard-hearted an impenitent and unbelieving wretch what unrighteousness is there with God in his condemnation he perisheth in his own iniquity his blood is upon his own head his damnation lieth at his own door his destruction is of himself his help might have been from God if he had not been wanting to himself O sinful men are not the Lords ways equal Yes yes they are our own ways that are unequal the straight ways of the Lord are only made crooked by our idle fancies our proud hearts and corrupt reasons and foolish misprisions Vse 4. In the last place let me apply this discourse by way of Exhortation it will afford matter of Exhortation 1. To the people of God 2. To the men of the World those I mean that are not yet converted unto God 1. To Gods People 1. To you it speaketh to make you more afraid of sin for the time to come Sin in Scripture is ordinarily resembled by sickness and a disease Now what is true of sickness is true of Sin every sickness is not unto death but every sickness hath something of death in it it leadeth to the Grave it is not the last stroke at the giving of which the Tree falleth but it is a blow in order to the fall of it Every sin doth not bring forth death yea as to you No sin shall bring forth death because Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Jesus Christ but every sin hath something of the nature of a self-ruining and destruction in it The wages of every sin is death the natural tendency of every sin is unto death It is the Gift and Free-Grace of God that as to you prevents it and although your sins do not bring forth an Eternal ruine and destruction to you because the Blood of Christ and the Intercession of Christ hath prevented and will prevent that yet your sins may bring forth many lesser deaths to you for them you may be in deaths often for them there may be a death of your peace and comforts as there are no temporal Evils which sin may not bring upon the people of God so there are few spiritual Evils on this side of Hell to which it doth not subject them So that although you be not under the danger of an Eternal ruine yet you are under the danger of so many deaths so many destructions as may justly lay a Law upon you and make you afraid of sinning against God 2. But Secondly This calleth to all of you to admire the Divine Grace by which you are saved I hope it is the portion of many of you to whom I am speaking you are not yet got up to the new Hierusalem but you are in the right way that leadeth thereunto O cry Grace Grace unto the hand which set you upon that Shore It is true of you you also by sin had destroyed your selves by Grace you are saved you were once Fire-brands as well as any others are you now brands pluckt out of the Fire It was the hand of Grace that pluck'd you out You hath he quickned saith the Apostle Ephes 2.1 who were dead in Trespasses and sins Amongst whom also we had our conversation of old according to the Lusts of the Flesh you also were once acted by the Prince of the Air who yet worketh in the Children of Disobedience and were by Nature the Children of Wrath as much as others It is a sweet though in some sence a bitter meditation to cast a thought back and think Lord How had I also destroyed my self How near was I going to the Pit of Eternal ruine and destruction Nay how often yet is our Salvation from God We are every day destroying our selves we lye down with sin enough to justify God in destroying us before the Morning and rise up every day with sin enough to justify God in destroying us before the Evening By Grace we are saved 2. But Secondly let me speak to those which can have no such good hope through Grace They yet are in their natural State and condition in the Gall of bitterness and in the very bands of iniquity Sirs it is that which I have often told you and I wish the sound of it may never be out of your Ears you are Creatures ordained to Eternity when you dye you dye not like brute-Beasts Death will not determine your beings you shall be either Eternally happy or Eternally miserable All that I have to say to you is to plead with you that you would not ruine your selves and let me tell you that if ever you perish it must be because you have destroyed your selves Do not fright your selves with thoughts of Gods eternal decrees secret things belong to God revealed things to us Whatever Gods secret counsels and purposes be this is his revealed will The Soul that sinneth and that alone shall dye Trouble not your selves with any such thoughts as these If I be not elected do what I will I shall be damned If God hath cast me off I shall labour in vain It is the Sluggard saith Solomon which saith There is a Lion in the way We cannot ascend up into Heaven to search Gods Books there is no need of it The Word is near us even in our mouths that telleth us that God never destroyeth any Soul but the meritorious cause of it is in himself and this we know that all sin is voluntary O then take heed of destroying your selves by wilful and presumptuous sinning against God Nature teacheth every Man to look to himself as to his Life Health Estate and shall not our reasonable Nature instructed by the Word of God prompt us to take care of our selves as to our Eternal Interest You will say unto me what shall we do that we may not de destroyed for who liveth and sinneth not against God I have before told you that
Vse 1. In the first place let then all men that live upon the Earth praise the Lord but especially such as are superiors and rulers over others and more especially such as are his Church The Psalmist Psal 135.1 calls to all saying Praise the Lord praise ye the name of the Lord and ver 19 20 21. He calleth in particular Bless the Lord O house of Israel Bless the Lord O house of Aaron Bless the Lord O house of Levi you that fear the Lord bless the Lord Blessed be the Lord out of Zion which dwelleth at Hierusalem 1. This observation calleth to all the sons and daughters of men to bless the Lord. We are all sociable creatures and much of the comfort of our lives lyeth in our societies and fellowships one with another either in our family-societies or in our civil-societies or in our Church-societies We should think it a life worse than death to be condemned to live like a wild Ass alone in the wilderness Now there are some lusts of men that would spoil us of all this comfort God peculiarly sets himself against them and makes these the marks for his arrows of vengeance The Jews said of the Centurion He hath loved our nation and hath built us a synagogue We may say of our good God he hath loved mankind for he hath taken care to preserve order in humane societies and severely to chasten the invaders upon the rights of others What an ingagement doth this lay upon all men to praise the Lord Certainly sirs there is a great deal of praise and glory and homage due to God from all men as they are concerned in their several societies There is a great deal of glory due to God from families for his testimony against those lusts of men such as are murtherers and adulterers which in a short time would spoil all the comfort of those societies Certainly every family is bound to worship God and to walk with God But particularly 1. Let Rulers praise the Lord. Let all the Princes of the Earth give homage to him that ought to be served they are more especial marks for furious and ambitious mens lusts Gods Providence as you have heard is eminently seen in preventing their dangers in revenging their harms 2 Sam. 23.3 4 5. Surely then as David saith those that rule over men should be just ruling them in the fear of the Lord their light should be like the light of the morning without clouds God hath not only set them up as lights upon an hill but he hath made his special Providence to be a lanthorn about them that 't is rarely that the wind of sedition and treason prevails to blow them out and then 't is ordinarily for some eminent Provocation of God But I am not speaking to persons in that capacity You that are parents praise the Lord Gods special Providence you see reacheth you and in a great measure secureth you from that great heart-ach of rebellious and disobedient children I know you will say How then cometh this to be the great affliction of many good parents To which I answer 1. There is many a good parent may have been but like good old Ely too indulgent and cockering to their children ordinarily God keepeth up the authority of parents over their children until themselves have prostituted it and in the rebellion and disobedience of their children they may read their own sin and see as much cause to be humbled for that as any thing else as David in the case of Adonijah 1 King 1.5 6. And herein the goodness of God towards parents will be seen that if he doth not upon their endeavours secure to them the duty of their children yet he will not fail to revenge their quarrels against them 2. Let the poor and weak of the earth praise the Lord he hath declared himself the father of the fatherless and the judg of the widows a refuge for the oppressed Psal 68.5 Exod. 22.5 Psal 10.11 How are all the widows and fatherless children all the poor and oppressed people of the world bound to praise and to serve this God who hath taken upon himself the special patronage and protection of them This indeed would be the best use we could possibly make of this Observation relating to the special Providence of God if it might lay a special obligation upon all those who are thus especially concerned to magnifie God as their great patron and defender And how can they praise God more effectually than in doing those particular duties which concern them all in their respective relations or with reference to those peculiar circumstances of Providence under which they are acted I shall add but one branch of Application more and indeed it is not a new Use for it is a part of our praise and homage which we owe unto God upon this Reflexion viz. Vse 2. To all to take heed of those sins which God in his word declares himself more eminently to abhor and in the execution of Providence doth most severely punish All sin is in it self a filthy and abominable thing and the just object of every good mans hatred for should not we hate what God hateth and what hath of all things the greatest opposition to God yes we ought to hate it with a perfect hatred But such is the naughtiness of our heart that we are not so led to an hatred and abhorrence of sin from the intrinsecal evil and obliquity of it as from the dangerous and pernicious consequence of it Death eternal death is the wages of every sin but this being only matter of faith to bold sinners none having ever come from the dead to give them an account of those flames the punishments of sin in this life are those things which most deter carnal sensual men But if men will look no further nor believe any more yet let this lay some law upon us and make us afraid of those sins which I have instanced in being such whose judgment the Providence of God seldom letteth sleep so long as to another life Let this mind us not to meddle with them that are given to change that curse Kings and Rulers in their bed-chambers and are of turbulent and unquiet spirits always plotting and contriving seditions and treasons and disturbances to civil governours it is very rarely that God suffereth their designs to come to issue or their persons to come to the grave in peace 2. What a law should it lay upon the rich and great men of the earth to take heed of violent perverting justice and judgment of turning away the causes of the widows and the fatherless in judgment To consider that he who is the highest doth consider the matter and there is one higher than the highest of them who abuse their power to trample the poor under foot If men be not turned Atheists and have banished all the fear of God from their eyes and hearts it must a little give them law and lay
But for a good man one that disperseth abroad and gives to the poor Prov. 3.9 10. David never saw such a mans seed begging their bread and 't is no wonder thousands of men grow poor by lending but he that gives to the poor lends to the Lord saith Solomon never any man lost by that lending The great God never yet failed never yet was unfaithful I could fill your ears with stories I will only give you one or two It is reported in the life of that famous Junius Minister in France and Holland he died but in the year 1602 he met with the Lot of many godly Divines in all ages as well as ours and came to be pinched with want and resolved for the supply of his necessities every each day to dig in the Town-ditch But see the Providence of God there lived near a Taylor a young man whose Mother had in France lived near to this Junius's mothers house and being very poor Junius's mother had often relieved her Her son remembreth this kindness and though but a poor man inviteth Junius to his house and provideth meat and lodging for him for seven months I could tell you many and strange stories of Gods repaying Charity in its kind of little pieces of silver given in this kind repaid with an hundred fold even in this life But this is an observation which justifieth it self in the experience of every one of you I shall rather shew you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine Providence which will be evident to you I will open it to you in five particulars 1. God doth this to evidence his general love to mankind and special care of Providence for the needy the poor and the fatherless the stranger and the widow Justice and Charity are the two pillars of the world all humane society is dependent upon them Justice because as I told you before from Solomon oppression makes the wise-man mad mens spirits will never be calm under a course of oppression hence Tyrants must have constant standing-armies to secure their lusts The Turkish Empire is little but injustice and oppression it could not stand but for his Janizaries Charity is another pillar of the Earth the reason is because as our Saviour told us The poor we shall have always with us Now God sheweth his great love to societies of men in eminent upholding of both these And besides the Scripture speaketh God to have taken the special patronage of the poor and needy the stranger and widow and fatherless God doth this by raising them up friends and it is a great means to raise them friends to incourage them by sensible rewards and that of the same kind 2. It is necessary that as our Saviour oft saith all righteousness should be fulfilled The promises might have a being given them I told you before that the promises made to mercy and charitableness are very many now some of these promises are made for a term within this life He shall not lack saith Solomon that must be a promise respecting reward in this life and so for the threatnings against cruelty and hard-heartedness towards them in misery or that exercise any barbarous dealings towards their brother so that it is necessary God should in this life retaliate such wickedness 3. It is necessary for the terror of such sorts of sinners God himself gives this as one of his ends in establishing the law of Retaliation in the case of false witnesses Deut. 19.16 17 18 19 20. And those which remain shall hear and fear and from henceforth commit no such evil more amongst you The most of men hearing that Adonibezek who cut off so many Princes thumbs and great toes came to be served in the same kind himself are afraid of such kind of Inhumanity 4. Again It is necessary for the conviction of unbelievers There are many sins against which there are dreadful Revelations of Divine Wrath in holy Writ and the Providence of God gives them a being every day but yet sinners will not believe when they see the vengeance that comes upon them that God designs to punish them for their unmercifulness and cruelty to their brethren no all things fall alike to all men and those that judg otherwise are with them in no better repute than as bold priers into the secrets of God and judges of his Counsels God therefore will please sometimes to write their sin in their plague It shall be wrote over the Gallows fifty cubits high upon which Haman was hanged this was the Gallows which he prepared for Mordecay The accusers of the three Children shall be thrown into the same fiery furnace which they had caused to be heated for the three children and Daniel's accusers into the same den of Lyons in which they would have had him perished He that leadeth into captivity shall be led into captivity and he that killeth with the sword shall be killed with the sword When men see this if they will believe any thing they will believe this 5. Lastly It is also reasonable for the more perfect demonstration of Gods favour to these exercises of grace and vertue Our Saviour faith All men have not faith The most of men live either meerly by sense or by reason The promises of a reward of Heaven are matters of faith A true believer only from these understands Gods favour to merciful men his faith being the evidence of things not seen indeed evidenceth to him Gods love sufficiently Inward rewards of grace are like the new-name given unto the People of God only known to them that have them The most of men are acted by sense and convinced by that mostly for in this cafe Reason will do little God is therefore pleased to reward such persons to great degrees in this life and that in the same kind too that all the Earth may know what he will do for such persons But I come to the Application which I shall dispatch in two branches making it a foundation Vse 1. First for Admonition to all that hear me to take heed of these sins I would have you brethren take heed of all sin for the wages of every sin is without repentance eternal death but especially take heed of sins eminently against charity Take heed of stopping your ears against the cry of the poor God will be even with you you or yours shall cry and not be heard It is a woful folly for a man so to govern himself in his Conversation as if he were not subject to changes it speaketh the man that doth it to be void of understanding and it is a most unreasonable madness for a man to expect that from another which himself would not do to another Abraham checks Dives in the parable for thinking that Lazarus should go to fetch him a cup of cold water when as he in his life-time would not afford him a cup of drink take heed of cruelty of false-witnessing of any eminent act of uncharitableness Remember
the justice or goodness of God To his justice who hath accepted a price and satisfaction for them at the hand of his Son concerning whom he hath said that in him as our Mediator he was well pleased How then can God punish mâ—n and women for those sins for which he hath accepted a price and satisfaction Or how is this reconcileable to the fulness of Gods pardoning grace How are those sins pardoned which God afterward punisheth But this Cavil proceedeth upon a double mistake or error 1. The first concerning the punishments of sin upon the Children of God 2. The second concerning the satisfaction of Christs death As to the first it supposeth that the afflictions and punishments of Gods people are all for satisfaction which if it were so they were of all men moâ—â— miseraâ—â—â— a their afflictions do ordinarily more abound than the afflictions of others It is true that the impenitent and irreconciled sinner hath no reason to look upon any affliction otherwise than as an arrest of divine vengeance upon every ague every feaver as Gods taking him by the throat and saying to him Pay me now what thou owest because they cannot apprehend any such thing as that Christ hath for them satisfied Divine Justice but the case is otherwise with a believer Supposing our afflictions and punishments of this nature these two things would follow from them 1. A Christian should never be able to see to the bottom of his bitter cup were satisfaction to be given by us when could we so much as hope to say All is finished We might burn but when could we hope to come out of the flames we might be paying and paying but when could we think to have paid the uttermost farthing Satisfaction in our persons must be an endless work the offended Justice being no less than infinite 2. We could never hope by our afflictions to be made gainers in grace If it were possible for us to apprehend that by our suffering we could make full payment to the Justice of God yet we could have no hope by affliction to grow more holy no man groweth richer by parting with money to pay his debts none could hope by afflictions to grow more holy that his affliction should purge away his dross or take away his tin or he by them be made more conformable to the Image of his blessed Saviour if our afflictions were for satisfaction But the holy Scripture giveth us quite another notion of afflictions so far as they concern the People of God it bottometh them in Divine Love it calleth them chastenings and calleth them fatherly corrections Heb. 12.6 7 8. We are bid not to despise the chastening of the Almighty we are told That they are blessed whom he chasteneth and teacheth out of his law we are told that he chasteneth whom he loveth and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth Now it is true satisfaction is not consistent with the satisfaction of Christ but corrections and fatherly chastisements are consistent enough with the price which Christ hath paid and the satisfaction which he hath given for us hanging the malefactor or otherwise putting him to death is not consistent with pardon but I hope whipping him branding sending him a while to Bridewel banishment of him when he deserved death is consistent enough with it The Papists indeed fancy that Christ hath only satisfied for the eternal punishment but still we are bound to satisfie by temporal punishments Hence are their penances and purgatory founded but that is a very uncomfortable notion and the more we look into it the more dreadful it will appear On the other side the Antinomians are as much almost on the other hand denying the afflictions of Gods People to be punishment of sins or judgments when the Scripture so calls them The truth lyes in the middle betwixt these two extreams they are judgments they are punishments of sin but they are no legal demands of satisfaction nor giving satisfaction Christ hath satisfied for the whole guilt of their sins for whom he died All of that nature as to them was finished upon the cross so that the afflictions of the People of God their punishments for sin have now both another name and notion than satisfactions 2. A second mistake upon which this objection is founded is That Christ by his death paid a price into the hands of his fathers justice for all temporal punishments due to man for sin so as to excuse those for whom he died from them Now as to this whatsoever we may fancy 1. It is manifest that our Lord Jesus never did purchase for his people any such thing as a freedom from temporal death and the smart of bodily afflictions He hath taken away the sting of death but not death he hath delivered us from the curse but not from the cross This is all which the Scripture saith Gal. 3.13 He hath redeemed us from the curse by being made a curse for us himself hath told us That if any one will be his disciple he must deny himself and take up the cross and follow him And we are told by the Apostle That all who will live godlily in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution And accordingly the servants of God have experienced it even Paul himself was in deaths often and had his thorn in the flesh 2. Nor was it any branch of that Covenant of Redemption and Grace in which Christ was a party with or a surety to the eternal father I put in those two terms Redemption and Grace I know some make two Covenants the one they call the Covenant of Redemption the other the Covenant of Grace and that there are very different notions of the Covenant of Grace For my own part I see no need of asserting more than one Covenant and that eternal Isa 42.6 This I take to be a paction from eternity made betwixt the Father the eternal Father on the one part and the Lord Jesus Christ on the other wherein Christ Covenanted with his Father that he would do his whole will for the redemption of his chosen ones Psal 40.7 Heb. 10.7 and that we by grace derived from him should do what the father requires of us in order to our salvation in respect of which he is said to be made the surety of a better Covenant Heb. 7.22 The Father mutually Covenanted with his Son that he would be well-pleased in him that he would give him the souls for whom he should dye that he might give them eternal life and all that grace and good which should be advantageous for them but neither did Christ ask of his Father neither did his Father promise him on their behalf an immunity from temporal punishments afflictions or chastisements for sin We cannot understand the terms of the Covenant of Grace but from the Exhibition of it in Scripture which was very various sometimes more clearly sometimes more darkly to Adam Noah Abraham David c. One of the fairest copies
the holy Prophet Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously 2. There is nothing in the world so contrary unto God as sin is nothing so repugnant to his nature nothing so prejudicial to his glory nothing that he hateth with so perfect an hatred 3. That it always was and is in the power of God to hinder sin God could have hindred Adams fall and all the sin which hath since that been committed in the world Now these things considered that yet God should not hinder sin but suffer men to walk in their own ways and to fulfil their unbridled lusts seems at first view of difficult apprehension It hath been so hard a Chapter to some that they have fancied two Gods the one to be the Principle of all the good the other of all the evil that is in the world they were not able to conceive how a pure and holy God could permit sin The Operations of Providence about sin I have heretofore more largely discoursed Amongst others I have instanced in these two 1. He doth permit and suffer it when he might hinder it 2. Providence doth co-operate as to the natural action though not as to the malice and sinfulness of the action It is most certain that in him every man lives and moves The blasphemer the lyer the profane curser and swearer could not speak if the Providence of God did not in the mean time uphold the natural faculties whose operations are necessary to such actions Now this is that which sometimes startles our deliberate thoughts if God indeed be so holy and pure a God as we have heard he is if he so hateth and abhorreth sinful actions and if he be so mighty and powerful a God why doth not God withdraw that Providence of his which upholdeth the sinner to the natural action while he seeth and knoweth which way the lust in the sinners heart will incline his action I conceive now my text gives some relief to our disquieted thoughts about this particular Why did God first suffer the law to enter That sin might abound that the offence might abound saith the Apostle v. 20. But why should sin abound why did the Providence of God suffer sin to abound That grace might much more abound For saith the text where sin abounded grace did much more abound That as sin hath reigned unto death even so grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ The Apostle is here doubtless speaking with a great respect to the first mans sin of which he had been speaking in the former verses Death passed over all men for that all have sinned and v. 15. Through the offence of one many be dead and so in the following verses you read of one mans sin one mans offence one mans disobedience c. But yet he is not speaking only of Adams sin for he tells you Many were made sinners and all have sinned and he is also speaking of sin as consequent to the law given which I do not think is to be understood of the law given to Adam and the Covenant made with him but of the law given by Moses and in that latitude I shall discourse this subject shewing you that God in a great deal of wisdom did first suffer sin to enter into the world and still suffereth sin to abound in the world You may take that for the Proposition Prop. The holy and omnipotent God in an infinite wisdom of Providence suffereth sin and sinners to abound in the world though himself be of purer eyes than to behold iniquity he hates and abhorreth every sin nothing so grieveth and dishonoureth him yet I say in infinite wisdom his Providence doth permit it suffering men to fulfil the lusts of their own hearts and to walk in their own ways My business must be to give you some account of the Divine Wisdom in it and to make Gods ways of Providence in this thing to appear unto you equal It is a true saying of one of the School-men Plus est bonum vel numero vel quantitate quod Deus elicit per mala quam quod destruitur per mala Al. Al. There is one way or other either in number or in quantity more good which God fetcheth out of sin than is destroyed by sin We may be confident of this or God would never suffer it And indeed the Doctrinal part of my discourse will be nothing else than a justification of that maxim I shall therefore this day entertain you with a resolution of this riddle much like that of Sampson when he had killed the Lyon and eaten of the honey the Bees had made in the carcase Jud. 14.4 shewing you how out of the eater cometh meat and out of the strong cometh sweetness How out of sin which is the vilest thing in the world the most opposite and repugnant thing to the glory of God the glory of God is yet fetched and that in a proportion to compensate the loss and prejudice to his glory from the sin of the sinner It is certain which Augustine long since said and gave as a reason of Gods permission of sin Deus judicavit melius de malis benefacere quam mala esse non permittere God judged it better to bring good out of sin than not permit sin to be committed 1. In the first place let me shew you how many Attributes of God are glorified by his permission of sin and sinners in the world 1. In the first place it is I think well observed by an acute Author That God in this motion of Providence magnifieth his equity to our humane nature Equity indeed is but a piece of justice But when I come to speak to that Attribute I shall restrain my discourse to Gods Punitive and Vindicative Justice Our great master who hath commanded us to give unto our servants that which is just and equal will much more do it himself and it is said of God He shall judg the people with equity Psal 98.9 and he took it very ill when his people said That his ways were not equal The equity of God required that he should leave humane nature to its liberty man was created with a reasonable soul and the very nature of it had been destroyed if it had been left under a coaction and in this the condition of humane nature had been worse than that of sensitive creatures which freely use their natural faculties and exercise their natural motions It is a saying of Aquinas That it is not the work of Providence in its government of man to destroy its nature but to heal and save it God in suffering men to walk in their own ways doth but leave men to their natural liberty and thus magnify the Equity of God to humane nature But this is one of the least 2. God by the permission of sin and sinners and the aboundings of
and night in his Temple Had they not been defiled with sin they needed not have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and having their robes so washed they are elevated in the praises of God 4. Finally We may as I said before be assured that God would not suffer so much sin in the world If much sin did not tend much to the glory of God at last Here may be applied all that I said before in the former part of my discourse on this Argument shewing you how the aboundings of sin conduce to the aboundings of grace 1. That grace wherein man is meerly passive and recipient aboundeth by the aboundings of sin The Apostle telleth us that love covereth a multitude of faults the more faults be covered the greater love is discovered God magnifieth grace in abundantly pardoning and there could not be abundant pardoning if there were not abounding sin a multitude of mercies could not be magnified but upon a multitude of Sin The bredth of the robes of Christs righteousness could never have been seen but for the extension of our nakedness it is the height and depth and length and breadth of Sin which maketh all Saints to comprehend what is the length and breadth and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledg that we might be filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 3.17 18. 2. That grace in the exercise of which we are active is also advantaged by the much Sin which God permitteth Our Saviour telleth us Luke 7. those who have much forgiven will love much and those to whom little is forgiven will love but little It wonderfully aggravates pardoning mercy in the sense of a gracious heart to think how many are grinding at the same Mill of sin that he was formerly imployed in and that he should be taken and they left again we should never fight the good fight so well to the glory of God if we had not many enemies to fight with But I have inlarged far enough in the Doctrinal part of this discourse shewing you the reasonableness of this motion of Divine providence in the sufferance of sin and sinners so much sin and so many sinners notwithstanding the opposition that sin hath to the honour and glory of God and to the purity and holiness of the Divine being nothing remains as to this discourse but to consider how this may be useful to us Vse 1. In the first place Let me appeal now to the reason of every one that hears me whether God in the sufferance of Sin and sinners doth not act consonantly to the wisdom of the Divine being It is nothing but our ignorance and inconsiderateness that can be any temptation to us to have any derogatory thoughts of God for these motions of his providence God doth all his own works in infinite wisdom and it is in infinite wisdom that he suffereth sinful men to walk in their own ways What though he be an holy God This will indeed conclude that himself cannot be tempted and that he tempteth no man but it will not argue that he may not suffer any one to be tempted that is as the Apostle James expoundeth it drawn away by his own lusts and enticed What though he hath a power to put a period to sin every moment yet certainly God is not obliged to do all that he can do but his power as ours also is is governed as to the exercise of it by his will What though sin dishonoureth God and impeacheth his glory he knoweth how to vindicate himself and to recompense himself as to his glory and that many ways from the sins of men True it is that it is from the lusts and wickedness of sinners hearts that so much sin is committed in the world yet it is also from the sufferance and permission of Divine Providence God being directed by his own infinite wisdom to govern the world in this method and thus to make a difference betwixt Earth and Heaven so to order it that hereby the vessels of wrath may be fitted for destruction and his chosen ones by many tribulations occasioned generally from the sins and sinners suffered in the world may be prepared for the Kingdom of God O the height and depth of Divine wisdom How unsearchable are Divine judgments how are the ways of God past our finding out Vse 2. But in the second place let every one take heed of taking any occasion from this discourse to give himself a liberty to sin This is the Apostles reflexion upon this he foresaw the ill conclusion which corrupt hearts would draw from these premises therefore adds Rom. 6.1 What shall we say then Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid he makes it his business in that Chapter to shew that no gracious justified Soul can do so How saith he can they that are dead to sin live any longer therein So again Rom. 3. v. 7 He foresaw that some would say if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lye why then am I judged as a sinner Such thoughts are ready to rise up in our hearts why am I blamed for sinning if God hath glory from my Sns Or why should I be judged as a sinner if the aboundings of sin advantage and make way for the aboundings of grace Surely God â—hen cannot so severely revenge himself upon me for sin To restrain such wild thoughts as these from entring or prevailing in any of your Souls let me offer some few things to your consideration 1. Consider first if any good come by sin to the particular soul that sinneth it must be from the abounding of graâ—e Sin doth not of it self or from any particular affection or disposition in it do any soul good God indeed sometimes turns it for good so that a soul may say it is good for me that God suffered me to fall into such a sin Sin in its own nature tendeth to nothing but the ruine and eternal destruction of a Soul it must be from the aboundings of grace if any good come to the soul from sin the aboundings of Divine grace in the free pardon and forgiveness of sin or the aboundings of grace in the infusion of gracious habits by which the soul is made more broken-hearted more humble in the sense of sin more watchful against it for the time to come and careful to avoid all temptations to it The wages of sin is death and the work of sin tendeth to death to debauch and to debase a soul If a sinner getteth to eternal Life it is through the gift of God if by reason of his former sinfulness he now loves God more and be more zealous for God and more afraid to offend God all this is of grace and grace is free Now reason teacheth every man not wilfully to run upon his own ruine in hope that he shall experience the kindness of a friend in such a ruined estate Who will
in me is thy help I Am now come to the second general Proposition which I promised you to discourse upon a little In my last exercise I discoursed to you of the Fountain of Life and Grace which we found to be the free-will of God There is no other account to be given of Gods shewing mercy but because he will shew mercy which is most certainly true as of Gods eternal acts of Grace so of his Acts of Providence as to the dispensation of his first Grace The next Proposition I mentioned was this 2. Prop. That God in his providential Dispensations of punishment never acteth by meer Prerogative but according to the demerit of his Creatures In his Dispensations of Grace and the means of it he acteth meerly from his own Will he will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and there is no other account to be given of those Dispensations he sendeth the Gospel to this place rather than another because he will send it he changeth this Man or Womans heart and turneth it to himself because he will shew mercy But the case is otherwise in his penal Dispensations there God acteth not upon Prerogative God there hath a Prerogative for may not the Potter do what he will with his Clay But it is one thing to have Jus absolutum an absolute right and power which we must claim for God so long as we know him to have an absolute right and Soveraignty over the works of his hands 't is another thing for God agere secundum jus absolutum to act according to his Soveraignty and absolute power this we say God doth not I pray observe I restrain my Discourse to Gods Dispensations of actual Providence I shall not meddle with the eternal Councils of God in this case that is quite beyond my Subject propounded It is unquestionable that the punishments of Sinners both in this Life and that which is to come as well as the other great issues of his Providence concerning the rewards of righteous men were set in order by an Eternal deliberation but whether by a meer negative or positive Decree whether upon consideration of sin or no are points I am not at all concerned to interest my self in having all along restrained my discourse to the motions of Actual Providence and certain it is that God in those Dispensations doth punish none either here or hereafter meerly because he will but upon consideration of Sinners demerits Shewing mercy is an Act of Grace punishments are Acts of Justice The gift of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Eternal Life that is a guift and what is freer than gift But the Wages of Sin is Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Man must earn Death before he hath it from the hand of a merciful God but Eternal Life must be given him if ever it be his Portion so saith my Text. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self I will open this in two or three conclusions 1. I understand it of all kind of destructions possibly the Text may chiefly relate to temporal destructions 't is Ephraim to whom the Prophet is speaking and it is about a bodily destruction but the Conclusion is general and the Text is well enough applyed by Divines to Eternal destruction all destructions whether of Body or Soul are of our selves yea I take the Aphonimy of the Text to be more eminently true of the destruction of the Soul than of the destruction of the Body A Child may dye for the sins of the Parents Subjects may dye for the sin of their Prince as in the case of Saul's Children that were hanged in David's time and in the case of those many thousands which in David's time were cut off for his sin in numbring of the People The Children of God may be involved in a common destruction and suffer as they are a part of a sinful Nation God may take them off to deliver them from an evil to come as in the case of Abijam the Son of Jeroboam God may punish his people with afflictions of this Life for the trial and exercise of their graces but in Eternal destructions God can have no other end than the punishment of the person and all such destruction is for a mans sin his personal sin 3. When we say that Mens destruction is of themselves you must understand of themselves as the meritorious cause not of themselves as the principal efficient cause God is rightly enough entituled to all the Evil of punishment in the City It is no dishonour to his Majesty to be the Author of his own Judgments which is all that Mr. Calvin or any of the same mind with him have said which hath made some so clamour against them as having asserted God to be the Author of Sin For God to be the Author of punishments is no stain to his Glory but a Declaration of his Justice and of his Righteousness Christ himself shall come as the Apostle telleth us in flaming fire to take Vengeance upon them who know not God and obey not his glorious Gospel God shall say to those on his left hand depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But our destruction is from our selves as the proximate and meritorious cause though from God as the efficient cause It is not from the Soveraign will of God meerly but from the stubborn and rebellious will of Man that any Soul perisheth Divines do say that though God cannot will the doing of any Sin yet he may will that it should be done The Holy Ghost telleth us that Herod and Pilate and the Jews employed in accusing condemning crucifying of Christ did no more than what the Council of God had determined should be done But I say notwithstanding this the proximate cause of mans Damnation is not because God hath willed their Damnation it is the guilt of their own Sins the demerit of their own Transgressions which bringeth them to the Pit of Destruction The Gracious God sheweth mercy and saveth all who are saved by Prerogative by Grace you are saved saith the Apostle he hath the same Prerogative in matters of Death that he hath in matters of Life but he useth it not but there acteth according to his Statute-Law The Soul that sinneth shall dye He who saveth men without themselves damneth none without themselves Men are saved by Grace but they are damned by Sin The wages of Sin is Death Omne peccatum est voluntarium all Sin is of ourselves it must have something of our own will and consent to and in it 3. Thirdly Although this be certain that all destruction all punishment is for Sin yet the particular proximate cause of some punishments is unknown to us I will instance in one particular a punishment undoubtedly a most severe punishment The withholding the Gospel and so the ordinary means of Grace and Salvation from the far greatest part of the world They hear nothing of the Lord Jesus
by the way of efficiency Therefore God must be the Author or these Divines make him the Author Or because God is the Author of his own judgments and paenal dispensations and God sometimes punisheth sin with sin therefore God must be the Author of sin taken properly as it is an oblique action contrary to his Law This is forsooth their proof of that crimination when-as there are no Divines in the world but think it not only blasphemy but non-sense to talk of God as the Author of sin which must be an action contrary to the will liking and approbation of God as the very nature of sin doth import 2. Their second Crimination is That God hath damn'd his creatures out of his meer Prerogative and Soveraignty We do indeed think and must so think till our Adversaries can possess us with other Idea's and notions of God than either Scripture or reason will help us with That there is nothing which either hath or shall come to pass in the world but God did know from all eternity neither can we conceive how God should know any thing but because he willed it either in a way of efficiency or to permit it We do say that God had a jus absolutum from eternity an absolute right over his creatures to determine how he pleased concerning them But we also say That in his paenal dispensations he acteth not according to his Soveraignty and absolute right and that every mans destruction is of himself and the proximate and meritorious cause of the punishment and eternal ruin of any Soul is his own sin God doth not condemn any Soul but for sin recompensing their own iniquities upon their heads and whatsoever is absolute and Soveraign right his Law from which he never varieth in the motions of his Providence is The soul that sinneth shall die Where is the difference then What maketh this great clamour and odious representation of eminent Divines as to the method of Gods proceedings in his actual Providence Papists Arminians Calvinists all are agreed That the wages of sin is death The soul that sinneth shall die God will condemn none but for sin Only it seems they are not agreed as to the Nature and Attributes and Prerogatives of God Those Divines whom they call Calvinists must assert God to have the same Power over his creatures which a Potter hath over the clay This the other will not understand though God expressly told it the Prophet Jeremy and the Apostle from him hath expressly told it us and this is all the difference that I can understand 3. Vse Thirdly you may from hence learn How the Righteousness of God shall be cleared in the last day in the condemnation of sinners although it hath not pleased him to give to all a power to that which is truly and Spiritually good This is a point which very many in this Generation also will not understand but the fault is in themselves If God say they hath not given to all men a power to repent and to believe how shall he be righteous in the condemning of Sinners There is no consequence at all in this but upon this Hypothesis That except men have a power to do that which is Spiritually good they are in no capacity to do that which is morally evil Whether they have a power to repent or to believe without the effectual Grace of God yea or no Certainly they have a power in a thousand things to break the Law of God yea and to do also many things which are contained in the Law of God and although the doing of these things would not save them yet certainly the omiting of them or doing contrary to them may give God a righteous cause to condemn them Suppose one of you who are Fathers to have two Sons both of them wild and fond of their play and eager at it you call them both to come to you and tell them that if they will come you will give them both mony to go and buy such things but if by such a time they have not those things and appear to you in and with them you will certainly whip them One of these Children hearkens to you leaves his play comes running to you and begs the money you promised him then procures the things and appeareth to you in the habit you desired and you are well pleased with him The other Child is mad of his play which if he would he might leave he could not have the things without mony out of his Fathers Purse but he will not leave his play nor stir a foot towards his Father nor so much as ask his Father for mony his Father indeed sends him no mony but shuts him out of his sight and ordereth him to be severely whipt because that he would not leave his idle game and come to him and ask the mony of him which he promised and because he had not bought the things and appeared before him in that habit and dress which he had commanded will not one say this foolish Child is right served shall his Father be judged unrighteous or severe because he gave the Child no mony as he did the other and the Child could come by the things without mony and if it had them not could not appear in or with them before his Father The case is much the same betwixt God and us God seeth two Men or Women both his Creatures alike in Adam both born in Trespasses and Sins wildly playing over the hole of the Asp and the den of the Cockatrice sporting themselves in Sin and in an hourly danger of Hell-fire God calleth them by his Ministers to leave their Sins and to turn unto him he saith let him that hath been drunk be drunk no more let him that hath been unclean be unclean no more let him that hath told a lye that hath broke my Sabbaths lye and break my Sabbaths no more let him read my Word and hear my Word and let him come and pray unto me and beg of me an heart to believe and to repent and I will give it him and he that believeth shall be saved but in the great day it shall be found That he who hath not repented and hath not believed shall be damned One of these sinners leaveth off his leud courses falls to an external Discipline readeth the Word heareth the Word of God applyeth himself to God by Prayer beggeth of God an heart to repent and to believe his Gospel God hears him gives him a power gives him repentance unto Life and a saving Faith in Christ and he obtaineth everlasting Salvation The other is mad of his Lusts and after them he will go let what will be the issue of it he will not read the Word not hear that his Soul may live nor so much as ask special Grace of God not to plead with God for Faith or Repentance God giveth them not to him he dieth in his impenitency and unbelief God throweth him into Hell
at God is an old humour of corrupt hearts O house of Israel saith God Ezech. 18.25 Is not my way equal are not your ways unequal When a righteous man turneth from his righteousness and committeth iniquities and dieth in them for his iniquity that he hath done shall he dye again when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is right he shall save his soul alive When a sinner repenteth and believeth he shall live he shall be saved when he apostatizeth from his profession and returneth with the Dog to his vomit or goeth on impenitently in his course of sin and dieth in it his soul shall perish What then are not the Lords ways equal is not God in all this holy and righteous and just and good O but it is not equal say some that God should offer life and the benefits of the Covenant of Grace to those to whom he intendeth not to give them How doth it appear that God offers any such thing to them why may not Gods offer be only to the elect and others no further concerned than as they are in the company of those to whom such grace is offered But the Ministers of the Gospel who are Gods Messengers do offer life to all that will believe they do so and God will make it good where now is the inequality of Gods ways But why is the Gospel at all preached to those who shall have no benefit by it I answer What if God please to make use of this as a means the better to restrain the lusts of men and to keep the world in order and a temper fit for mutual society But why are they commanded to repent and believe that have no power to do either Had they never a power in Adam If they had surely God may require his debt although they be not able to pay Have they a power to do nothing toward these things If they would do what in them lay would God deny his grace Did ever any soul perish think you that did what was within its power in order to its salvation If there did not why do men quarrel with God their destruction is of themselves Vse 2. What remaineth then but that leaving our disputing with God or quarrelling either with the truths of his word or motions of his Providence all men apply themselves to be obedient to the Heavenly Command The days of ignorance God winked at but now saith my Text God commandeth all men to repent Supposing an election of grace and that not of qualities but of persons Supposing an eternal Covenant and that certain made betwixt the eternal Father and the Son of his Love for those that shall be saved Supposing that Christ did not dye intentionally for all but for such only as were fore-ordained of God to eternal life and salvation Supposing lastly that man in his lapsed estate hath no power to repent or savingly to believe Yet I shall shew you there is incouragement enough for any that will mind their eternal interest to do what in them lies that they may repent and believe to that end I beg of you to consider these things 1. That God commandeth all men to repent It was John Baptists work to call to all to Repent because the Kingdom of God was at hand It was the Apostles Doctrine it is our doctrine and the substance of our Preaching certainly the commands of God are the measures of our duty and every creature by the law of his creation standeth obliged to obey his Creator If God commandeth him to do something which he cannot do by his natural power yet surely he is bound to do what he can do and then to cry to God to help him where he is at a loss God commands you all to repent and to believe certainly none can pretend but he is under the highest obligation imaginable to go as far as he can or else his blood will lye upon his own head and his own Conscience will fly in his face and in the great day he will have nothing to say why the sentence of eternal death should not pass upon him 2. God hath prepared an object for the faith of every soul that will believe This is that now that some keep a mighty stir with that if Christ hath not died for all then they have not objectum paratum not an object prepared for their faith As if the counsels of God or Christs intention in dying were the object of our faith not the proposition and promise of the Gospel that is held forth indefinitely whosoever believeth shall be saved Now what is that which God requireth of man But that he should search and try his ways and acknowledge his offences and disclaim his own merits and righteousness and hearing the proclamation of the Gospel that whosoever believeth shall be saved that he should lay hold upon the promise Is not here an object prepared is not the indefinite propounding of the grace of the Gospel ground enough to encourage a soul to trust God upon his word 3 As thou dost not certainly know that thy name is written in the Book of Life that Christ hath covenanted and dyed for thee so neither dost thou know nor any one tell thee that thou art not chosen unto life or that Christ hath not covenanted or died for thee The Lepers in the famine which you read the story of 2 Kings 7. they did not know that the Syrians were fled nor that they should find any victuals amongst them but this they knew that if they sate still at the entring in of the gate they should dye and if they entred into the City they should dye vers 3.4 Now therefore come say they let us fall into the host of the Syrians if they save us alive we shall live if they kill us we shall but dye It was encouragement enough to these poor Lepers that it was possible they might save their lives by that motion Esther did not know that the King would hold out the Golden-Scepter to her if she went in to the King but she knew that if she did not go in she and her people would all be cut off and that in a short time she ventureth in Thou knowest that if thou fittest still in thy sinful state thou shalt perish if thou goest on from sin to sin thou shalt certainly perish without hope of mercy But thou hast heard that the number of them that God hath chosen unto life for whom God hath made a Covenant with his Son and his Son hath died and satisfied Divine-justice is a certain definite number and thou dost not know that thou art one of that number but thou dost not know on the other side that thou art none of that number thou maist be one for ought thou knowest there is no law against thee certainly this is ground and encouragement enough for thee to make the adventure if God will save thee
infinite wrong to God it cannot be expressed how he dishonoureth God there is no measuring the depth of the guilt in sin Sin is indeed a finite thing but it is punished with an infinite punishment proportioned well enough to the infinite wrong done to the Divine being by it Let this be a sixth Demonstration of the justice of God 7. The justice of God in the eternal punishment of finite temporary sins is cleared in this That the sinner hath sinned in suo aeterno in his eternity There is in every sinner infinita voluntas peccandi a will to sin infinitely and without end This I remember a learned Author calleth pessimam adhaesionem peccati one of the worst circumstances of sin That the sinner doth not sin eternally is from Gods quicker cutting asunder the thred of his life had the thred of a sinners life run out to eternity he would have sinned to eternity Suppose one amongst the damned who had not spent above twenty or thirty years in the world in sinning I would appeal to the judgement of any deliberate man whether this man would not willingly have lived fifty sixty or an hundred years and if he therefore did not desire to live so long that he might take his fill of sin satiate himself with his lusts he who saith otherwise must charge God with damning a soul who he knew would have repented if God would have suffered him to have lived long enough and can any entertain such a thought of God If the sinner had lived for ever he would have gone on in his sins for ever then there was in him a kind of infiniteness in willing sin This account of the justice of God in the eternal destruction of sinners is given us by Greg. Mag. I will give you his words in English They who cavil saith he at the justice of God in this speak right if the just Judge of the whole earth did not proceed against men as well for their thoughts as their actions wicked mens sins are therefore finite because their lives are so They would have lived eternally that they might have sinned eternally for they more desire to sin than to live and therefore they desire to live always that they might never cease to sin Gr. Mag. mor. l. 4. c. 18. It is therefore righteous with God that their punishment should never end whose sinful hearts knew no end in their willingness and lustings to sin The sinner hath no end as to Divine Vengeance because as long as he could he would know no term in sinning It is not just with man to punish the intentions and motions of the heart because he can but guess at them he cannot certainly know them till they appear by some overt actions Our Law makes it treason to imagine the death of the King indeed the Traytor is not punished till his imagination be discovered by some overt words or actions by which alone man can judge of intentions and imaginations but to shew us how just even man sometimes judgeth it especially in some great crimes to punish intentions very small overt actions will sometimes serve to judge of the counsels designes and intentions of a malefactors heart 8. The justice of God in punishing sinners with everlasting destruction is apparent by his proposal of an eternal reward to the greatest sinners if they will repent and turn unto him God setteth before every sinner an eternal life as well as an eternal death the sinner maketh his choice he chooseth death rather than life so as the proportion of Justice in the punishment is justified by the proportion of the reward offered in case the sinner would leave his sins and turn unto God This account Aquinas gives of the justice of God in this particular The sinner saith he refuseth and putteth from him an infinite good and despiseth an unchangeable good for things that are mutable Gods punishments are no greater nor of longer duration than his rewards are which are proposed to the same persons if they would have turned from their sins that they might have lived 9. Who can so much as in a secret thought charge God with injustice in the eternal punishment of a sinner who remembreth that God for the sin of man laid a punishment upon an infinite person who was the Son of his eternal love and this the Apostle saith Rom. 3.26 Was to declare his righteousness To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the Justifier of him who believeth in Jesus Now in this we are so far from quarrelling at the justice of God that there is no Christian that doth not adore and admire it what is the difference There God punished an infinite person for a time here he punisheth finite persons in an infinity of time that what they cannot suffer in the intension of their suffering they might be ever doing in the extension of time yea and this difference more is observable God in punishing his Son laid our iniquities upon another here the sinner beareth none but his own burthen and doth but suffer the punishment due to his own iniquity Now if we will quarrel at Gods righteousness in this loading of his own Son with the burthen of his wrath we quarrel at the highest contrivement of Divine and Infinite Wisdom for the salvation of men yet it is much more reasonable to dispute that than the justice of God in the eternal personal punishment of a sinner It is the saying of Nierembergius Illud mihi videtur ridiculum mirari Divinam severitatem in aeterna scelestorum punitione nec intendere infinitam illam justitiam in innocentia unigeniti dilecti sui Quid mirum torqueri in aeternum scelestos pro peccatis suis si passus est pro alienis justissimus Dei filius Qui potuit sustinere sine contumelia suae bonitatis charissimum natum una hora pati injuste multo melius tolerabit aeternis injustos suppliciis affligi justissime Nieremb It to me saith he seemeth ridiculous to admire at Divine severity in the eternal punishment of wicked men and not to attend to that infinite justice in the innocency of his only beloved Son What wonder is it that wicked men should be for ever tormented for their own sins if the most righteous son of God suffered for the sins of others He that without a reproach to his goodness could endure his most dear Son to suffer so long as one hour will much better endure unjust sinners to be tormented with eternal punishment 10. Lastly It is the greatest error and madness imaginable for any soul to dream of mercy in God after the contempt and despising of his goodness and mercy to a final impenitency What is Divine goodness and mercy but the will of God inclining him to do good to miserable creatures This we say is to be found in God and that to an infinite degree and is abundantly seen in his long-suffering and forbearance of them
the Lord and from the glory of his power and how many are dropped into it who never lived so long nor sinned so much as you have done Do not you think that an High-way-man or some other notorious villain as he passeth by a pair of Gallows upon the road hath many such a cold thought as this How many have perished upon this tree for stealing but a few shillings or some things of little value how often have I deserved the same punishment though I as yet escape Oh that you who are yet in a state of guilt and impenitency would reflect upon your selves and say Lord how many are dropt into the pit of eternal destruction who never lived so long as I have lived nor sinned to that degree that I have sinned yet they are perished and for ever perished yet I live and am out of that pit 2. Consider what an hairs-breadth there is betwixt you and this eternal destruction You see some in a moment going down into the pit some in an hours time some in a weeks time you sleep over it every night you tread over it every day you need not be told how little there is betwixt us and death every day How suddenly do you see some snatched away on your right hand others snatched away on your left hand Ananias and Saphira drop into the pit with a lye in their mouths What know you what this day what the next night may bring forth upon our souls Let me conclude this with an Exhortation much of that nature which Daniel used to that great King Wherefore O Sinners let my counsel be acceptable unto you break off your sins by a true repentance and your iniquities by a coming unto Christ if so be you may save your selves from this wrath to come Vse 2. In the second place Let the People of God who are delivered from this wrath and by grace translated into the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ look back with thankful hearts upon this danger which they have escaped They tell a story of a person who being disordered with drink and riding over a bridg where he very narrowly but insensibly escaped the danger of his life coming back the next day and viewing his danger he was so astonished as that he dropt down dead your reflexion upon this eternal destruction which through grace you have escaped ought to have no such influence upon you But from the sight of this dreadful wrath to come which you have escaped reflect these two more profitable Meditations upon your souls 1. What hath God done for me delivering me from such a death Oh how patient was God with me how many nights did I sleep over hell how many days how many years did I tread over these endless torments Oh! what hath God done for me in plucking my foot out of this snare as a brand out of this fire 2. What shall I do what can I do enough for that God who hath saved me from such a death how often might he have thrown me into Hell O Lord I am thy servant I am thy servant thou hast saved me from that wrath which is to come What an engagement should this lay upon us in nostro aeterno to serve the Lord while we have any being Let us therefore go away singing with David We will extol thee our God our King we will praise thee for ever and ever every day we will bless thee and we will praise thee for evermore Psal 145.1 Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine iniquity who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction yea from eternal destruction who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies Psal 103.1 2 3 4. SERMON XLIII Psal LXXIII 12 13 14. Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world they increase in riches Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency For all the day long have I been plagued and chastned every morning I Am indeavouring as I have before told you to make the seemingly rough ways of Actual Providence plain expounding to you the hard Chapters of Divine Providence I am still speaking to such questions as relate to distributive justice considered as in the hand of Actual Providence and here also I have already spoken to several things I am now come to the last which I intend to speak to It is the great question which hath posed the great Philosophers of the world and hath made some of them deny the being of God others deny the care and Providence of God or at least restrain it to some particular objects How it standeth with the justice of God to punish and chasten his own people whiles in the mean time he suffereth the way of the wicked to prosper To handle this I have made choice of this Text it is no wonder that the greatest Philosophers have been posed here when we find the most eminent servants of God whose names stand upon Sacred Record at a loss to find out this riddle and finding it a sad temptation to them You shall find that Job stumbled at it Job 21.7 and Jeremy though he humbly prefaceth his complaint Jer. 12.1 with Righteous art thou O Lord in thy judgements yet he must he must talk with God about his judgements in this thing Habbakuk was also something disturbed at it Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to endure any iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is better than himself In my Text you find the man according to Gods own heart stumbling also at this stone you have an account of his fall by this temptation from the first ver to the 16. 2. His recovery of himself vers 17 18 19 20. The Propositions which may be observed from this verse are two Prop. 1. That in this life ungodly men often prosper and increase in riches when in the mean time holy men are plagued and chastened 2. Prop. That this is often a temptation to the best of men to think that they have cleansed their hearts in vain I say first God in this life doth often measure out prosperity to the worst and afflictions to the best of men The truth of the Proposition as to matter of fact is evident both from the Records of Scripture and the whole course of Divine Providence in the dispensations of it as through all ages so in our present age so as I shall not need spend any time in the proof of it The Question is Quest How this is consistent with the Justice Wisdom or Goodness of God that the ungodly should prosper in the world and increase in riches when his people are visited with afflictions every night and chastned every morning I shall add further to make use of the
Lord of life It is a dispensation that hath often put the servants of God into unseemly passions James and John would have had fire come down from Heaven as in Elijahs time to have destroyed the Samaritans Peter was out of patience to see the Informer come with a company with Swords and Staves to take his Master and in his passion draweth a Sword and with it cuts off the ear of the servant of the high priest David himself when God offered him the choice of three Judgments desired rather to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of men I say it is and hath often been a very sore temptation advantaged partly from Nature partly from some Religious reflections That which in humane nature advantageth this temptation is 1. The disdain every man naturally hath to suffer an injury from one beneath himself when Gideon would have had his Son Jether have fallen upon those two Eastern Princes Zeba and Zalmuna they said rise thou up and fall upon us men have a natural disdain and scorn to suffer from their inferiours we see it in every days experience Now although every child of God is low in his own eyes and in honour preferreth every Saint before himself yet as St. Paul sometimes magnified his office against the false Apostles and counterfeits of his age though he judged himself the least of the Apostles and unworthy of that great Name so they cannot but magnifie themselves in comparison of open profane miscreants that are the scum and off scouring of the place in which they live such as are common drunkards lyars swearers Sabbath-breakers and guilty of other debaucheries the very scabs of the body politick and spots of the Assemblies to which they are united 2. Every man naturally hath a regret at the receiving of injuries from those from whom he hath deserved no such thing Now the People of God are persons of innocence who have done no wrong to their worst Enemies they have loved their Enemies prayed for them been ready to do any offices of love to them and know not how to bear an injury from those to whom they have done no wrong This was that which troubled Davids Spirit Psal 35.12 13. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my Soul but as for me when they were sick my cloathing was sackcloath I humbled my Soul with fasting and my prayer returned into my own bosom I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother I bowed down heavily as one that mourned for my mother But in mine adversity they rejoyced and gathered themselves together yea the abjects gathered themselves together against me and I knew it not yea they did tear me and ceased not with hypocritical mockers at feasts they gnashed upon me with their teeth Lord how long wilt thou look on Rescue my Soul from their destructions 2. This temptation is likewise advantaged from some Religious reflections 1. From a reflection upon the purity and holiness of God O Lord saith our Prophet in my Text thou art of purer Eyes then to behold iniquity How a just and pure and holy God should look on and hold his peace to see a company of vile wretches tearing and devouring his own people this is a knowledg at first view too wonderful for them 2. From a reflexion upon the promises and threatnings of God they look into the holy word of God and find that full of promises of good to Gods People of threatnings of wrath and vengeance to wicked men instead of this they see vile men building up Palaces to themselves upon their ruins and adorning themselves with their Ornaments the houses of the profane furnished and adorned with that which is not theirs instead of the wicked mans preparing garments and the just mans putting them on as Job speaketh they see good and righteous men preparing garments and leud and ungodly men put them on they see the spoil of such as fear the Lord in the tents of leud and ungodly men 3. From a reflexion upon the Decrees of God O Lord saith our Prophet thou hast ordained them for destruction O mighty God thou hast established them for correction they consider leud and wicked men as men whom God by a fixed act of his Will hath ordained to judgment as persons who by the established counsel of God are to be destroyed and they cannot expound the Providence of God into a consistency with his eternal purpose when they see them not only live prosper and grow old but also live by the death of such as fear God and build their nests on high with feathers which they have plucked from their wings From these and other causes ariseth this trouble and coil in the spirits of Gods people Fluctus est Tentatio est as Augustine saith it is a great wave a great temptation and trouble and even Gods own people here are ready to think they see a knot in the thred of providence a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence in the even ways of the Lords dealing Let me indeavour in a few words to unty this knot to remove this stone Four or five things I shall speak one or other of which or all together will make this way of the Lord plain to every sober and understanding Christian 1. How is God to his people more hard or unrighteous in such a dispensation than he was to the son of his dearest love Our blessed Lord hath taught us That the Disciple is not above his Master nor the servant above his Lord it is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord Matt. 10.24 25. 'T is true the chief Informer against our Lord was one of his hoshold Judas but he was a son of perdition the only ill member of all the 12. Who were his witnesses but a company of perjured wretches who could not agree in their testimony Who mockt him and scourged him Herod a monster for all manner of wickedness Who were they that spit upon him that cried out crucifie him crucifie him that gave him Gall and Vinegar to drink were they not the abjects of the people Thou art not able to conceive of Gods righteousness in giving thee over and thy estate over to a Renegado an apostate from his former profession to wretches who make no conscience what they say what they swear what they do How was he righteous in giving over the Son of his love to such wretches We are never so like to our Lord and Master as when we are betrayed by a Judas informed against and testified against by false and perjured wretches mockt and abused by the abjects and off scouring of the people If God might be a just and righteous God in suffering these things to be done to the green tree surely he may suffer them to be done unto us who are dry trees Thou art troubled that God should suffer profane scoffers to call thee
life and peace A carnal mind doth not onely bring a Soul to eternal death in the last issue of it but it puts a great death upon his Life and Peace I mean his Spiritual Life and Peace It is impossible that the Soul that is intangled in the businesses of the World in a more than ordinary manner should find his Soul either so free for or so strong in the performances of spiritual duty as that Soul who hath less of the cares and business or concerns of the world upon it The Soul of a Man is not infinite in its powers and cannot be with equal degrees of intention employed upon two different much less contrary things While we are in the world we must be conversing with the men of the world and handling the things of the world we must else as the Apostle speaks in the case of converse with sinners Go out of the world but the less the Soul is ingaged in them the less the Heart is set upon them and its intention and affections taken up with them therefore it will be more free as to its spiritual business and stronger in the performance of it Let every one therefore learn that excellent lesson of the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.29 30. Let those that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as they that possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it 3. Thirdly Be diligent in waiting upon God in the institutions of his publick worship and consciencious in such attendance The Preaching of the Word of God is the great Ordinance of God for perfecting the Saints both as to their number by the work of Conversion and as to their graces by giving out further measures and manifestations of himself to his peoples Souls he createth the fruit of the Lips peace Christians therefore who wait for these influences are concerned to wait upon the Lord in his own way It was Gods ancient promise That wheresoever he recorded his name to dwell there be would meet his people and bless them And considering that although the blessing of Grace doth not depend upon the Instrument let Paul plant and Apollos Water God must give the increase and he that planteth is nothing nor he that watereth any thing yet God dealing with reasonable Souls useth to deal with them in reasonable wayes I do not think it enough for Christians to go to Church and hear Discourses out of Pulpits but to wait upon God under such Preaching of his Word as may appear and approve it self to them as having a rational tendency to the improvements of their Soul in Grace There are kinds of Preaching under which a Christian may sit long enough before he find his Soul quickened or strengthened or improved by them You may remember I gave you that as one reason why some receive more gradual manifestations of Divine Love than others because they have better means than others have or make a better use of means than others do I take a consciencious use of the more external means to lie much in three things 1. In a good election of them 2. In a sincere and diligent attendance upon them 3. In an after repetition of them to our selves and a more private application of them to our own hearts 1. I say first in a good election of them Though Preaching of the Word be the general means yet the Preacher and way of Preaching makes a vast difference in this means and the concurrence of God to all the purposes of Grace is upon experience found to be evidently more where the means appear in the eye of reason more proper If the Preacher ordinarily preacheth not to the understanding and capacity of the hearer or not to the conscience and hearts of hearers but fills up his time with other things impertinent to the Souls Spiritual Duty or wraps up his Duty in such Parables and Mysteries of Phraise and Abstruseness of Notions that the hearer can make nothing of it he can have little hope to profit by it and he will shew little conscience in attendance upon them Our Saviour you know gives this account why he spake to the Scribes and Pharisees and ordinary Jews in Parables but to his Disciples opened those Parables and spake more plainly and intelligibly Mat. 13.13 14. Therefore speak I to them in Parables because they in seeing see not and in hearing bear not neither do they understand and in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of the Prophet Isaias c. but v. 16. Blessed are your Eyes for they see and your Ears for they hear 2. Secondly In a sincere and diligent attendance upon them That Soul which will meet God in his Ordinances must in hearing hear he must go out with a design to meet God and he must hoc agere while he is waiting upon God Our Saviour asks his Disciples when they had been hearing John the Baptist What they went out for to to see It is a question we should all propound to our selves when we go to wait upon God in his Ordinances Now what doth my Soul go out for to do what is its end in this motion God ordinarily meeteth his People according to the sincerity of their designs which indeed maketh their attendances upon God seekings or not seekings of Gods Face 3. It lies in a practical application and whetting the Word hard upon our hearts and consciences This is the digesting of the Word this now is a piece of Holiness of great import to those that seek after the further manifestations of God and higher measures of Grace any growing whether it be in Faith or Love Nor is the Reading andPreaching of the Word onely to be attended but the Holy Sacraments also Baptism which we have generally received in our Infancy to be improved And the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to be conscienciously attended There is a great improvement to be made of Baptism in order to our Spiritual Strength and Vigour I have handled that in a particular Discourse in some of your hearing and must not now enlarge upon it it is our great error that we make no more use of our Baptism than we do The Apostle Rom. 6. draweth great arguments from it to strengthen us unto Holiness The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is called by the Apostle The Communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ The meaning of that I do not understand if it doth not signifie That it is an Ordinance wherein if it be duly and conscienciously attended upon Christ doth communicate the vertue of his death Now I am sure all Christs manifestations to the Souls of his People are a part of that purchase It is true it doth not necessarily work these effects nor is God bound necessarily in this manner to concurre with it he is a free agent in all his effluxes of Divine