wrestle and strive with our Redeemer and not let him go until he bless us Until he open our eyes to see the dangers we are in and through his mercy shew us a way to escape them Till he quicken us up to resolutions of amendment and carry us strongly through these resolutions Until he heal our backslidings and make up our breaches Until he save our souls from death and our Nation from destruction To work our selves to these Resolutions and to fix us in them to make them abide upon us all our days let us remember what hath been spoken and let us frequently meditate upon that Sarcastical Concession of the Text Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth walk in the ways of thy heart and the sight of thy eyes But know that for all these things God will bring thee to Iudgment FINIS A SERMON CONCERNING The Strangeness Frequency and Desperate Consequence OF Impenitency Preached at WHITE-HALL April 1. 1666. Soon after the great Plague BY SETH then Lord Bishop of EXON LONDON Printed by E. T. and R. H. for Iames Collins at the Kings-Arms within Ludgate near St. Pauls 1672. A SERMON Containing The Strangeness Frequency and Desperate Consequence OF IMPENITENCY Revel 9. 20. And the rest of the men which were not killed by the plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands ALthough I am not without apprehension that the frequencie of penitential discourses and the seeming easiness of repentance may indispose some persons for such an attention as is necessary both to speaker and hearers for a due performance of the Offices which we are about yet I shall not spend time in making Apologies for the Argument which I have chosen Among all the aggravations of our sins there is none more heinous than the frequent hearing of our duty Among all the errors of our lives there is none more fatal than that concerning the easiness of the duty of Repentance To discover the fallacy and to prevent the dangerous consequences of this imagination I have chosen at this time to treat of this instructive instance of the Text. If Repentance were so easie as is imagined why did not these men repent that are mentioned in the words which I have read They had not only the Dictates of Nature and the advantage of the Scriptures to move them to it they had the Ministry of Angels to perswade them they had Thunders and Trumpets to awaken them and rouze them up they had signs and wonders in the heaven above and in the earth below they had providential instances of prodigious judgements and wonderful mercies They were spectators of grievous Plagues brought upon their neighbours they were Monuments of singularâ— mercies and deliverances a long time continued to themselves When thousands fell beside them they were a remnant kept alive when others were destroyed they were preserved for experiment to try whether yet they would repent I say the persons in the Text were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rest of the men that were not killed by those Plagues And the rest of the men that were not killed yet repented not of the works of their hands My endeavours at this time will be by shewing the danger and fatal consequences of impenitence to move my self and others to repent And to determine precisely who these persons were of what Nation of what Church of what condition in what time they lived what were the Plagues brought upon them when and how they were executed and such other particulars I am no way obliged by the design which I have propounded About these particulars Expositors extremely differ in this they all agree that they had the advantage of the Scriptures to bring them to repentance Whatever is the exact either liberal or mystical meaning of this vision of the seven Angels and the seven Trumpets and of that lofty tragical Scheme wherein it is represented thus much is evident that notwithstanding all Gods dealings with men to bring them to repentance they will sometimes continue in impenitence and that this is an horrible provocation The words which I have chosen contain the sad result of the labours of six Angels the warning of six Trumpets the operation of six Plagues and six Deliverances And they are the common node or term connecting the Antecedent parts of the vision beginning at the 8 th Chapter with the Catastrophe thereof delivered in the 10 th They are to be considered two ways 1 Absolutely where we have 1 Matter containing the character of their persons described by 1 Gods dealing with them not killed remnant of others killed killed by grievous plagues 2 Their dealings with Godâ—repented not not of the works of their hands worship of Devils Idols first Table Sorceries Murthers Fornications Thefts second Table 2 Form and manner in the form of an Epiphonema express'd by the particle yet repetible upon every part of their character not killed yet repented not yet repented not of the works of their hands Yet is vox Admirantis Accingenâ—is advindictant It first implies the strangeness of the case and secondly the desperateness of the provocation for the words are to be considered not only absolutely but also 2 Relatively as they look backward and forward and are the connexion of the Antecedent parts of the Vision with the Catastrophe Six Angels sounded six Trumpets and executed six Judgementsâ— yet they repented not They repented not and the seventh Angel sounded and swore that time i e. Time of repentance respite of vengeance should be no longer The words thus resolved would afford many considerable observations I shall take up three that lye uppermost 1. From the form and manner of the words as they are an Epiphonema expressing a kind of wonder and admiration I shall observe the strangeness of the impenitency of such men as these considered in common reason 2. From the matter of them I shall observe the frequencie of such impenitencie in common experience 3. From the relative consideration of the words as they connect the Catastrophe of the Vision with the Antecedent parts of it I shall observe the lamentable consequence of this impenitency And 4. Conclude with a few words of Application I. First then to bring to our apprehension the strangeness of impenitencie of such men as these considered in Thesi and in Theory it will be needful only to reflect upon the causes of admiration and to lay before you some of their advantages and Motives to Repentance Things wonderful in their nature are those whose causes are unsearchable things strange and admirable to common reason are such as happen contrary to the Laws of Nature and of Reason From the former cause the motion of the heavens is wonderful from the latter it was prodigious and admirable that the sun stood still in Gibeon and the moon in the valley of Ajalon That God should take advantage upon the lapsed Angels that upon their offence
he should bind them up in chains that he should exclude them from the benefit of Repentance and reserve them to the Judgement of the Great Day That he should allow this priviledge to lapsed men that he should reveal himself to them that he should make them understand their duty and their interest that he should set before them good and evil happiness and misery the desire and the detestation of humane nature that he should by all means court and wooe them to that which all men naturally desire and discourage and divert them from that which they naturally abhorr That after all this he should not prevail in such a case as this that they should scornfully reject the end of all their hopes that they should studiously pursue the object of all their fears This is that rational wonder that I am now to lay before you To manifest this wonder a little more explicitely let us consider the advantages of Nature and the Motives from Scripture to bring men to repentance The grounds and fundamental elements of the Doctrine of Repentance are these The Being Attributes of God The immortality of the Souls of men The principles of Synteresis The terrours of natural Conscience The forâ—casts of vâ—ngeance The apprehension and desire of an Attonement And all these are manifest from the Dictates and discoveries of the Light of Nature The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work They speak it loud they spread it largely they proclaim it constantly Their sound is gone out into all the world there is no speech or language but their voice is heard among them The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen even his eternal power and God-head Concerning his providence in governing the world St. Paul tells the men of Lystra and the Priest of Iupiter that he did not leave himself without witness amongst the Heathen The whole earth is full of his righteousness and all the people see his glory So that a man shall say Verily there is a reward for the righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth He is not far from any one of us in whom we live and move and have our being He is the Father of Spirits and we are his off-spring Surely there is a spirit within a man and that spirit immortal deriving from Him who only hath immortality And these things have asserted themselves with so great evidence that they have been generally acknowledged by all sorts of heathen Authors Philosophers Historians Orators and Poets Moreover they shew the Law of Synteresis written in their hearts they have consciences accusing or excusing they find themselves concluded under sin and are perplexed and tormented under the apprehensions of an offended God For Conscience condemned by its own witness is very timorous and always fore-casteth grievous things The starting of Alexander when he had killed his friend and of Nero when he had destroyed his mother The confusions of Tiberius when he wrote from Capreae to the Senate concerning the death of Sejanus The foretastes of an avenging Nemesis described by heathen Orators and Histoâ—ians The passions ascribed to Medea and Hercules and Orestes c. by the Poets The Rites and Sacrifices of all the Pagan world The prodigious ways of expiations devised to make their attonement with their imaginary Deities offended They were all of them the products of natural Conscience exerting it self in such a disquisition as is delivered by the Prophet Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord or bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt offerings with calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of oyl shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul All these and many more are the Indications of Nature the incitements and provocations of natural Conscience to bring men to repentance But beside these common Motives the persons of the Text whether they were the Jews and Inhabitants of Ierusalem at the time of the destruction of it by Titus and Vespasian or any that called themselves Christians they had a clearer and more glorious light to guide them they had far more efficacious and noble Motives to lead and urge them to repentance the Light and Motives of the Holy Scriptures There it is that the Power and Wisdom and Goodness and Severity of God are gloriously displayed the immortal Nature and sinful condition of the souls of men the rewards and punishments of this life and of the world to come are clearly discovered The elements of the Doctrine of Repentance the Motives to it are there explained and applyed mixt and combined a 1000 several ways The Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament are nothing else but a Systeme of various powerful Methods to bâ—ing men to repentance This is the general aim and common scope of all the Doctrines the Histories the Logick and Rhetorick of the Book of God This was Noah's Text upon which he preached to the old world 120 years Upon this errand God â—ent all the Prophets rising early and sending them they said Turn again now every one from his evil way This was the message of him that was the voice of one crying in the wilderness Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand Our Lord Christ and his seventy Disciples and his twelve Apostles they all with one voice insisted upon this Theme and when the Holy Ghost himself descended he likewise drove at this conclusion Repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. The time would fail me if I should attempt in any measure to lay before you the declarations promises threatnings exhortations dehortations reasonings expostulations instances of mercies and of judgements delivered in the Scriptures to bring men to repentance To this end God hath declared himself slow to anger gracious and merciful He hath said that he would have no man perish He hath sworn that he doth not desire the death of the wicked but had rather that he should turn and live He considers our frame and his ways are equal He is ready to pardon to pardon iniquity transgression and sin though they are as scarlet to make them white as snow if they be a cloud to scatter them like a cloud Wherefore let the wicked forsake his ways and the unâ—ighteous his imaginations and return unto the Lord. On the other side to break the hardness of the hearts of men to rouze them up from their impenitency he declares his justice and asserts his propriety in vengeance Vengeance is mine and I will repay it He protests that he will by no means acquit the guilty
that he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity that he will wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goes on still in his wickedness If a man will not turn he will whet his sword and bend his bow If a Nation will not repent then smite with thy hand stamp with thy foot and say alas for it shall fall by the sword by the famiâ—e and by the pestilence Now the general inference of all these is still the same this is still the Logick of the Scriptures Our God shall come and shall not keep silence wherefore consider this ye that forget God We must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade To this end we find the Lord sometimes disputing logically to convince and sometimes with divine and noble Oratory endeavouring to perswade sometimes by signal instances of pardoning mercies and of avenging judgements to induce men to repentance He speaks to their reason to their affections to their very senses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord if ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land if ye rebel ye shall be devoured Are not my ways equal are not your ways unequal Again He expostulates with them sometimes upon the principles of ingenuity Thus saith the Lord What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone away from me O my people what have I done unto thee wherein have I wearyed thee Testifie against me O Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee Sometimes he expostulates upon the point of interest How long shall vain thoughts lodge in your hearts How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity what will ye do in the end thereof Again he sets before us a multitude of glorious instances to shew that never any penitent was rejected however heinous however numerous were their sins The prodigal devoured his substance with harlots Mary Magdalen had seven Devils Peter denyed his Master with horrid oaths and imprecations Saul was exceedingly mad against him yet upon their repentance were accepted He had delivered Israel seven times and they forsook him and he said he would deliver them no more but they repented and his soul was straight-way grieved and he delivered them Instead of many consider that one instance of Manasses the evil son of good King Hezekiah He set up altars for Baalim and worshipp'd all the host of heaven Altars in the court of the temple an idol in the very temple he caused his sons to pass through the fire he observed times used inchantments dealt with familiar spirits and with wizards made Iudah and Ierusalem to do worse than the heathen And the Lord spake to him and he would not hear After all this in his afflictions he humbled himself and then God was intreated and heard his supplication His ways are not as our ways He forgave Nineveh and Ionah was displeased exceedingly he taxes him with easiness in relenting he charges him as if he had an ancient known infirmity of flexibility to his veracity and the honour of his Prophets Lord saith he was not this my saying and therefore I prevented it to slee to Tarshish for I knew that thou art merciâ—ul therefore take I beseech thee my life from me His thoughts are not as our thoughts when Nathan had told David a story of a poor man who had his ewe Lamb ravished from him then David was exceeding wroth and he swore As the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely dye But when David who had taken Bathsheba and murthered Vriah said I have sinned Nathan said unto David The Lord â—ath put away thy sin thou shalt not dye On the other side we have instances of horrible judgements for Impenitency whereof I shall after take occasion to speak Now considering all these things is it noâ— strange that men should noâ— repent That no consideration of ingenuity or of interest should move them to it That neither the Law written in their hearts nor that which was delivered by the mediation of Angels nor the Gospel given us by the Son of God should bring them to it That neither reason nor experience neither mercies nor judgements neither the sweetness of a good conscience nor the torments of a bad the beauties of vertue nor the deformity of sin the shortness of life nor length of eternity the lightness of things present nor the exceeding weight of those which are to come That neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Trumpets nor things present nor thing to come nor height nor depth nor any other thing should be able to separate mâ—n from the love of sin Is it not strange The Apostles the Prophets were astonished at this nay God himself seems to be affected with wonder Hear O heavens and give ear O earth Be astonished O ye heavens and be horribly afraid they have forsaken me This is that wonder considered in it self according to common reason the object of our first observation drawn from the form and manner of the words by way of Epiphonema expressed by the particle yet yet they repented not II. The second Observation was taken from the matter of the words However such impenitency is very strange to common reason considered in the Theory yet it is too frequent in practice and in common experience The rest of the men repented not This is that grand contradiction that fatal paradox of the life of man His very being consists in rationality his acting is contrary to all the reason in the world Man only was created under the Law of Reason man only maintains a constant opposition to the law and reason of his creation He appointed the moon for certain seasons and the sun knoweth his going down The blustring winds the raging storms the unruly Ocean the Lyon the Tiger and the Bear these all pursue the law of their creation these all are obedient unto his word charmed to it by that powerful voice whereby they were created Man only stops his ears and refuses to hear the voice of this Almighty charmer charm he never so wisely so loudly or so variously The general ways and methods of his charming have been already mentioned I am now to lay before you the general success of those methods The success 1. Of his word and his messengers 2. Of his works of 1. Mercy 2. Judgement Single Intermixed 1. For the success or rather the unsuccessfulness of his word for the entertainment or rather the barbarous usage of his messengers how often do we find God and his Prophets Christ and his Apostles complaining and as it were fretting themselves with indignation As for the word sometimes they will not hear it More â—han seven times Ieremy complains almost in the