Men and Angels and exposed us to an open Shame or hardens us in a dead careless Course Lusts let alone end in gross Sins and gross Sins in final Apostacy Love of Pleasure will end in Drunkenness or Adultery or the rage of unclean Desires or else in such a vain light frothy Spirit which is no way fit for Religion Envy will end in Mischief and Violence if not in Murder Iudas by his Covetousness was brought to betray his Master Gehazi was first surpriz'd with Covetousness then blasted with Leprosy and then became a Shame and Burthen to himself The Devil trieth by Lust to bring us to Sin and by Sin to Shame and by Shame to Horror and Despair But do the Children of God run into such notable Excesses and Disorders Yes when they let Sin alone discontinue the exercise of Mortification when they do not remember the Sacrifice must be salted with Salt Witness David who ran into Lust and Blood Witness Peter who ran into denying Christ with Oaths and Execrations Witness Solomon who ran into Sensuality and Idolatry And in all of us old Sins long since laid asleep may awake again and hurry us into spiritual Mischiefs and Inconveniencies if we make not use of this holy Salt 2. As to Punishment Sins prove mortal if they be not mortified Either Sin must dye or the Sinner There is an Evil in Sin and there is an Evil after Sin The Evil in Sin is the Violation of God's righteous Law the Evil after Sin is the just Punishment of it Eternal Death and Damnation Now those that are not sensible or will not be sensible of the Evil that is in Sin they shall be made sensible of the Evil that comes after Sin The unmortified Person spares the Sin and destroys his own Soul the Sin lives but he dies In the Prophets Parable to the King of Israel when he had let go the Syrian saith he Thy Life shall go for his Life So our Lives shall go for the Life of our Sins The End of these things is Death Rom. 6. 21. And The Wages of Sin is Death v. 23. But you will say What is this to a justified Person There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ. I answer You must take in all Those who are in Christ that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit they have the Salt of the Covenant But if you can suppose a justified Person to live after the Flesh you may suppose also a justified Person shall be condemned Eternal Death may be considered two ways either as to the Merit or as to the Event As to the Merit as an Evil which God hath appointed to be the Fruit of Sin or as to the Event an Evil that will certainly befall us A justified Person one that is really so may must fear it in the first Sence There is such a Connection between living in Sin and Eternal Punishment that he ought to represent the Danger to his Soul of living willingly and allowedly in his Sins that he may eschew it For this is nothing but a holy making use of the Threatnings or considering the Merit of Sin But as to the actual Event and perplexing Trouble that ariseth from the apprehension of it if his Sincerity be clear and unquestionable he must not fear it Now to make Application I. For the Reproof of those that cannot abide to hear of Mortification The Unwillingness and Impatience of this Doctrine may arise from several Causes 1. From sottish Atheism and Unbelief They despise all sober spiritual Counsel they make no Conscience of yeilding obedience to God Solomon tells us Prov. 19. 16 He that keepeth the Commandments keepeth his own Soul but he that despiseth his Way shall dye There are the different Issues of a strict Obedience and a slight vain Conversation And mark the Opposition of the two Tempers he that keeps the Commandments and he that despiseth his own Ways that is takes no heed to his Life and Actions to order them according to the Will of God He cares not whether he please or displease whether he honour or dishonour God but leaves the Boat to the Stream lives as his brutish Lusts incline him come of it what will come He despiseth his own Ways and so runs into Vanity Luxury Riot Fraud Injustice and all manner of Licentiousness Now no Man thus despiseth his own Ways but he despiseth other things which should be very sacred and of great regard and esteem with him He despiseth God and the Word of God and his own Soul Prov. 14. 2. He that walketh in his Uprightness fears God but he that is perverse in his Ways despiseth him He that makes Conscience of his Duty hath a high esteem of God he looks on his Authority as supreme his Power as infinite his Knowledge of all things exact his Truth in Promises and Threatnings as unquestionable his Holiness as immaculate his Justice as impartial and his Goodness exercised to us in sundry Benefits as rich and every way glorious Therefore he dare not but please God he hath such a deep reverence for him that he is always saying within himself What will the Holy and All-seeing God have done Or How can I do this Wickedness and Sin against God But now the careless and slight Person that takes no care to govern his Actions according to the Will of God hath contemptuous and slight thoughts of God as if he were a senslels Idol that took no notice of humane Affairs that sees not or would not punish the breaches of his Laws They also despise the Word of God Prov. 13. 13. He that despiseth the Word shall be destroyed but he that fears the Commandment shall be rewarded There are some gracious Hearts that stand in awe of the Word and though their Minds be never so much set upon a thing yet if a Commandment stand in the way it is more than if an Angel with a drawn Sword stood in the way to keep them back they dare not break through God's Hedge But now a carnal careless and unbelieving Wretch sets at nought all the Precepts Promises and Threatnings of God and can break with him for a trifle for a little vain delight and profit Nay further he despiseth his own Soul Prov. 15. 32. He that refuseth Instruction despiseth his own Soul He only cares for the Body but neglects his Soul scarce ever considers whether he has a Soul to save or a Soul to lose as if he counted all fabulous which is spoken of God and Immortality of the Day of Judgment or of Heaven and Hell Now it is in vain to speak to these to renounce and mortify their pleasing Lusts till their Atheism and Carelessness be cured And their Case is the more desperate because the Disease doth not lye in their Minds but in their Hearts and comes not so much from Opinion as Inclination A setled Opinion must be vanquish'd by Reason but a brutish Inclination must be
SERMONS PREACHED BY The Late Reverend and Learned Divine THOMAS MANTON D. D. LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Sign of the three Pigeons over-against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1678. The PREFACE IT may seem a just discouragement from publishing more Sermons at this time when there are such numbers abroad in the hands of all for the abundance of things useful is fatal to their value and the rareness exceedingly inhances their price If Men were truly wise Spiritual Treasures should be excepted from this Common Law yet plenty even of them causeth satiety But the following Sermons have that peculiar Excellence that will make them very valuable to all that have discerning Minds and such a tincture of Religion as makes them capable of tasting the goodness of Divine things I shall say nothing particularly here of the intellectual Endowments of the Author in which he appeared Eminent among the first nor of his Graces to adorn his Memory for a Saint that is ascended into Heaven and crown'd with Eternal Glory by the righteous Iudge needs not the weak fading testimony of Praise from Men. Besides that universal esteem he had from those who knew his Ability Diligence and Fidelity in the Work of God makes it unnecessary for them who were his Admirers and Friends And for those who are unacquainted with his Worth if they take a view of his Works formerly printed or the present Sermons that deserve equal approbation they will have the same opinion with others I will give some account of the Sermons themselves The main design of them is to represent the inseparable connexion between Christian Duties and Priviledges wherein the Essence of our Religion consists The Gospel is not a naked unconditionate offer of Pardon and Eternal Life in favour of Sinners but upon most convenient terms for the Glory of God and the good of Men and enforc'd by the strongest obligations upon them to receive humbly and thankfully those Benefits The Promises are attended with Commands to Repent Believe and persevere in the uniform practice of Obedience The Son of God came into the World not to make God less holy but to make us holy that we might please and enjoy him not to vacate our Duty and free us from the Law as the Rule of Obedience for that is both impossible and would be most infamous and reproachful to our Saviour To challenge such an exemption in point of right is to make our selves Gods to usurp it in point of fact is to make our selves Devils But his end was to enable and induce us to return to God as our rightful Lord and proper Felicity from whom we rebelliously and miserably fell by our disobedience in seeking for Happiness out of him Accordingly the Gospel is called the Law of Faith as it commands those Duties upon the Motives of eternal Hopes and Fears and as it will justifie or condemn Men with respect to their Obedience or Disobedience which is the proper Character of a Law These things are managed in the following Sermons in that convincing perswasive manner as makes them very necessary for these times when some that aspired to an extraordinary height in Religion and esteemed themselves the Favourites of Heaven yet wofully neglected the duties of the lower Hemisphere as Righteousness Truth and Honesty and when carnal Christians are so numerous that despise serious Godliness as solemn Hypocrisy and live in an open violation of Christ's Precepts yet presume to be saved by him Though no Age has been more enlightned with the knowledge of holy Truths yet none was ever more averse from obeying them I shall only add further that they commend to our ardent Affections and Endeavours true Holiness as distinguish'd from the most refin'd unregenerate Morality The Doctor saw the absolute necessity of this and speaks with great jealousy of those who seem in their discourses to make it their highest aim to improve and cultivate some moral Vertues as Iustice Temperance Benignity c. by Philosophick helps representing them as becomming the dignity of the Humane Nature as agreeable to Reason as beneficial to Societies and but transiently speak of the Supernatural Operation of the Holy Spirit that is as requisite to free the Soul from the Chains of Sin as to release the Body at the last Day from the Bands of Death that seldom preach of Evangelical Graces Faith in the Redeemer Love to God for his admirable Mercy in our Salvation Zeal for his Glory Humility in ascribing all that we can return in grateful Obedience to the most free and powerful Grace of God in Christ which are the vital principles of good Works and derive the noblest forms to all Vertues Indeed Men may be compos'd and considerate in their Words and Actions may abstain from gross Enormities and do many praise-worthy Actions by the rules of moral Prudence yet without the infusion of divine Grace to cleanse their stained Natures to renew them according to the Image of God shining in the Gospel to act them from Motives superiour to all that Moral Wisdom propounds all their Vertues of what elevation soever though in an heroick degree cannot make them real Saints As the Plant Animal has a faint resemblance of the sensitive Life but remains in the lower rank of Vegitables so these have a shadow an appearance of the Life of God but continue in the corrupt state of Nature And the difference is greater between sanctifying saving Graces wrought by the special Power of the Spirit with the holy Operations flowing from them and the vertuous Habits and Actions that are the effects of Moral Counsel and Constancy then between true Pearls produced by the Celestial Beams of the Sun and counterfeit ones formed by the smoaky heat of the Fire In short the Lord Iesus our Saviour and Iudge who purchas'd the Heavenly Glory and has sole power to give the actual possession of it assures us that unless a Man be born of the Spirit he can never enter into the kingdom of God The Supernatural Birth entitles to the Supernatural Inheritance Without this how fair and specious soever the Conversation of Men appears they must expect no other priviledge at last but a cooler place in Hell and the coolest there is intolerable W. BATES The Contents Sermon 1 and 2d Pag. 1. ON Psal. 32. 1 2. Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven whose Sin is covered Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no Guile Sermon 3. Pag. 44. On Acts 3. 26. Unto you first God having raised up his Son Iesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his Iniquities Serm. 4th Pag. 66. On 2 Pet. 1. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these you might be Partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust. Serm. 5. pag. 81. On Mark 9. 49. For every one shall
God 1. The consciousness of God's displeasure and the fear of his Wrath should make offers of Pardon acceptable to us When Sin entred into the World Fear entred with Sin The grand scruple which haunteth the guilty Creature is how God shall be appeased and the Controversy taken up between us and his Justice Micah 6. 6 7. Wherewith shall he be appeased and what shall I give for the Sin of my Soul We fear Death and Punishment from a Holy and Just God and this is the bottom cause of all our Troubles Therefore till the forgiveness of Sin be procured for us and represented to us upon commodious Terms we know not how to get rid of this Bondage the Justice of the Supream Governour of the World will be ever dreadful to us These fears may be for a while stifled in Men but they will ever and anon return upon us Now let us admire the Wisdom of God who hath provided such a suitable remedy to our Disease as reconciliation and remission of Sins by Jesus Christ. And that God shewed himself so ready to pardon us who are so obnoxious to his Wrath and vindictive Justice 2. The other great Priviledg offered in the Covenant is Eternal Life which suiteth with those desires of Happiness which are so natural to us Corrupt Nature is not against the offers of Felicity We would have Immunity Peace Comfort Glory none would be against his own Benefit but every one would be willing to be freed from the curse of the Law and the Flames of Hell and enjoy Happiness for evermore Though we be unwilling to deny the Flesh and renounce the Credit Pleasure and Profit of Sin and grow dead to the World and worldly things yet never was there a Creature heard of that would not be happy for there was never a Creature but loved himself Now the Lord in his Covenant hath brought Life and Immortality to light setled our Happiness and the way to it he promises that which we desire to induce us to that which we are against As we sweeten Pills to Children that they may swallow them down the better they love the Sugar though they loath the Aloes God would invite us to our duty by our Interest He hath told us of an Happiness full sure and near that he may draw us off from the false Happiness wherewith we are inchanted and bring us into the way of Holiness that we may look after this blessed Hope 2dly The Terms he hath required of us The Terms are either for Entrance or making Covenant with God or Continuance or keeping Covenant with God For Entrance Faith and Repentance are required 1. Faith in Christ. The World thinks Faith quits Reason and introduceth fond Credulity No there is much of the Wisdom of God to be seen in it For Faith hath a special aptitude and fitness for this Work 1. Partly in respect of God For He having design'd to glorify his Mercy and free Grace and to make our Salvation from first to last a meer Gift and the Fruit of his Love to us hath appointed Faith for the acceptance of this Gift Rom. 4. 16. It is of Faith that it might be by Grace Faith and Grace go always together and it is put in opposition to the Merit of Works or the Strictness of the old Covenant 2. As it is fittest to own Christ the Redeemer the Fountain of Life and Happiness and our Head and Husband whom we receive and to whom we are united and married by Faith 3. With respect to the Promises of the Gospel which offer to us an Happiness and Blessedness spiritual and for the most part future Unseen things are properly Objects of Faith Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the Substance of things hoped for the Evidence of things not seen 4. It is fittest as to our future Obedience that it may be comfortable and willing Now we owning Christ in a way of Subjection and Dependance and consenting to become his Disciples and Subjects other Duties come on the more easily 2 Cor. 8. 5. 2. For Repentance This is the most lively and powerful Means of bringing Men to new Life and Blessedness 1. It is most for the Honour of God that we should not be pardoned without submission without confession of past Sin and Resolution of future Obedience Common Reason will tell us that our Case is not compassionable while we are impenitent and hold it out against God Who will pity those in Misery who are unwilling to come out of it Besides it would infringe the Honour of God's Law and Government that one continuing in his Sins and despising both the Curse of the Law and the Grace of the Gospel should be pardoned and saved Repentance is often called a giving Glory to God Mal. 2. 2. Ye will not lay it to Heart and give Glory to my Name Josh. 7. 19. My Son give Glory to God and make Confession to him Rev. 16. 9. They repented not to give Glory to God Repentance restoreth God's Honour to Him as it acknowledges the Justice of his Laws The self-condemning Sinner acknowledges that God may destroy him and if he save him it is meer Mercy 2. The Duty of the Creature is best secured and the penitent Person more bound to future Obedience partly by the Vow it self or the Bond of the holy Oath into which he is entred and the Circumstances accompanying it which surely induce a Hatred of Sin and a Love of Holiness There will be a hearty Consent to live in the Love Obedience and Service of our Creator with a detestation of our former Ways When we feel the smart of Sin such a Sense of it will ever stick by us and when we are in the deepest and freshest Sense of his pardoning Mercy when we see at how dear rates he is pleased to have us and upon what free terms to pardon all our Wrongs we shall love much Luk. 7. 47. Surely they that are brought back from the Gibbet and the very Gates of Hell by such an Act of pardoning Mercy are most likely to remember the Vows of their Distress and are more ingaged to love God and please Him than others are 3. It is most for the Comfort of the Creature that a stated Course of recovering our selves into the Peace and Hope of the Gospel should be appointed to us which may leave the greatest Sense upon our Consciences Now what is likely to do so much as this apparent Change whereby we renounce and utterly bewail our former Folly and solemnly devote and give up our selves to God by Christ. Those things that are serious and advised leave a Notice and Impression upon the Soul This is the most important Action of our Lives the Setling of our Pardon and Eternal Interest The Heart is hardly brought to this to renounce what we dearly love therefore it is usually rewarded with some notable Tasts of God's Love Isa. 57. 15. God delights to revive the Hearts of his contrite Ones 2.
excelling in Holiness himself loveth the Vertue and Holiness of his Creature Prov. 11. 20. For how can he be imagined but to love his own Image And as Goodness and Holiness are loved by him so he hateth the Workers of Iniquity Psal. 5. 5. and abhorreth those that despise that which is most glorious in Himself his Holiness And then if God loveth the Good and hateth the Evil he will express this in answerable Effects Good with Life and Evil with Death In short The Difference between Good and Evil is not more naturally known than it is naturally known that the one is to be punished the other rewarded Whether we consider the Wisdom of God which sorteth and joyns all things according to their natural Order and therefore Sin which is a Moral Evil is joyned with Sufferings a Natural Evil that is a feeling of something painful to Nature and afflictive to it Or the Justice of God which dealeth differently with Men that differ in themselves Or the Holiness of God who therefore will express his Love to the Good in making them happy and his Detestation of the Wicked in the Misery of their Punishment 2. The Greatness of both these Life and Death they are both Eternal Punishment in one Scale holdeth Conformity with the Reward in the other The full Reward is an Eternal and far more exceeding Weight of Glory called everlasting Life so is the full Punishment the Eternal Abode of Body and Soul under Torments expressed by everlasting Fire If we did only deal with you upon slight and cheap Motives you might refuse to hearken but when we tell you of Life and Death Eternal you ought most seriously to consider Whatever can be hoped or feared from Man is comparatively of little moment because his Power of doing Good or Evil is limited But on the one side it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God Heb. 10. 31. On the other side Rom. 5. 2. We rejoyce in the Hope of the Glory of God God will act like himself infinitely gloriously especially when he is All in All when he doth not act by the mediation of the Creatures but immediately punishing the Wicked and rewarding the Good The Vessel can convey no more than it receiveth When the Creature is an Instrument of Vengeance God acteth according to the proportion and rate of that Creature as if a Giant should strike one with a Straw If God doth us good by an Ordinance the Water runneth but as the Pipe will contain he cannot manifest himself in that Latitude but then God is All himself immediatly Consider 1. The Greatness of the Death that accompanieth Evil. The Afflictions and Sorrows of this Life are a part of this Death When Moses here had insisted on many temporal Plagues which should befall his People he saith I have set Life and Death before you There are many Miseries in this Life which are the Fruit of Sin which would make your Hearts ake and your Ears tingle to hear of And then Death which consists in the separation of the Soul from the Body is the King of Terrors But we speak of the second Death which is far more terrible which consists in an Eternal Separation from the blessed and glorious Presence of the Lord no Death like this In all Creatures that have Sense Death is accompanied with Pain but this is a perpetual living to deadly Pain and Torment from whence there can be no Release In the first Death the Pain may lie in one place but in the second it extends all over The first Death the more it prevaileth the more we are past feeling but in this Death the Sufferer has a greater vivacity than ever the Capacity of every Sense is enlarged and made more receptive of Pain While we are in the Body Vehemens sensibile corrumpit Sensum the more vehemently and violently any thing strikes upon the Senses the more doth it dead the Sense as the Inhabitants about the Fall of Nilus are deaf with the continual noise Too much Light puts out the Eyes Taste is dulled by Custom But here the Capacity is improved by feeling The Power of God sustains the Sinner whilst his Wrath torments him As the Saints are prepared for the Blessedness of Heaven we cannot bear the least Glimpse of that Happiness which they enjoy above so the wicked are fitted to endure those inconceivable Pains When the first Death approaches there is strugling for Life Men would not dy but in the second Death they desire a final Destruction they would not live 2 The Greatness and Excellency of that Life that ensueth Good All manner of Blessings in this Life is the lowest step of it At Death when the Spirit returneth to God that gave it then it beginneth to be discovered but it is consummated when Body and Soul shall be translated to Heaven This is Life indeed Nescio an ista Vita mortalis Vita an vitalis Mors dicenda sit the present Life is a kind of Death always in fluxu like a Stream it runneth from us as fast as it cometh to us Iob 14. 1. He fleeth away as a Shadow and continueth not We die as fast as we live like the Shadow of a Star in a flowing Stream This Life is annoyed with a thousand Sorrows and Calamities but there is a freedom from all Sin and Misery and a full fruition of Pleasures for evermore Psal. 16. 11. And our Capacities are strong to bear them This Life is patched up with Supplies from the Creatures there is a full Fruition of God himself 1 Cor. 13. 12. And in this Life such Days may come wherein we have no pleasure Eccl. 12. 1. Life it self becomes a Burthen but that Life as it lasteth for ever so we are never weary of it The Enjoyment of God is new and fresh to us every moment As the Angels for thousands of years are beholding the Face of God but never weary of so doing so shall we always delight our selves in seeing God as he is 3. The Certainty of both these Life and Death Hell and Heaven as the Fruits of Good and Evil. 1. Reason sheweth it certainly that there is Eternal Life and Death or a State of Torment and Bliss after this Life All Men are perswaded that there is a God and very few have doubted but that he is a Rewarder of Vertue and and a Punisher of Vice Now neither the one nor the other is fully accomplished in this World even in the Judgment of those that have no great knowledg of the Nature of Sin nor what Punishment is competent thereto Therefore there must be after the sojourning in the Body a time in which retributive Justice shall be executed and Punishments and Rewards that here are dispensed so disproportionably even to what natural Reason would expect from the Hand of God shall most equally be dispens'd to Persons If any say Vertue is a Reward to it self as in some sence
43. And he hath commanded us to preach and testify to the People that it is he that was ordained of God to be the Iudge of the quick and dead To Him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of Sins So Acts 3. 19 20 21. Surely we that are to appear before the Bar of an Impartial Judge being so obnoxious to him for the breach of his holy Law what have we to do but to make supplication to our Judge and prevent Execution by a submissive asking of a Pardon and accepting the Grace God hath provided 5. A Iudge implies a Iudgment-day or some Time when his Justice must have a solemn Trial when he will reckon with the lapsed World He reckons sometimes with Nations now for Ungodliness and Unrighteousness by Wars and Pestilence and Famine He reckons with particular Persons at their Death and when their Work is done he pays them their Wages Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed for all Men once to dye and after that the Iudgment But there is a more general and final Judgment when his Justice must have a solemn Tryal which is in part evident in Nature for the Apostles did slide in the Christian Doctrine mostly by this means into the Hearts of those to whom they preached Acts 24. 25. He reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Iudgment to come The particularity of it belongs to the Gospel-Revelation but Nature hath some kind of Sense of it in it self and they are urged to repent because God hath appointed a Day wherein he will judge the World in Righteousness by the Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the dead Acts 17. 31. God judgeth the World in Patience now but then in Righteousness when all things shall be reviewed and every thing restored Vertue to its publick Honour and Vice to its due Shame 6. If there be a Solemn Iudgment-day when every one must receive his final Doom this Judgment certainly infers a Condemnation to a fallen Creature unless God set up another Court for his Relief for now Man is utterly disinabled by Sin to fullfil the Law and can by no means avoid the Punishment that is due to his Transgression I shall prove this by three Reasons The Law to fallen Man is Impossible the Penalty is Intolerable and the Punishment for ought yet appears if God do not take another Course is Unavoidable 1. The Duty of the Law is impossible The Apostle tells us what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the weakness of our flesh It could not justify us before God it could not furnish us with any Answer to his Demands when he shall call us to an Account Man is mightily addicted to the Legal Covenant therefore it is one part of a Gospel-Minister's work to represent the Impossibility of ever obtaining Grace or Life by that Covenant Man would stick to the Law as long as he can and will patch up a sorry Righteousness of his own some few superficial things He makes a short Exposition of the Law that he may cherish a large Opinion of his own Righteousness and curtails the Law of God that the Ell may be no longer than the Cloth and brings it down to a poor contemptible thing requiring a few external superficial Duties of Men. We read often of being dead to Sin and to the World it is as certainly true we must be dead to the Law Now how are we dead to the Law the Scripture tells us in one place that through the Law we are dead to the Law and in another place that we are dead to the Law through the Body of Christ The first place is Gal. 2. 19. Through the Law I am dead to the Law Men are apt to stand to the Legal Covenant and have their Confidence in the Flesh to place their Hopes of acceptance with God in some few external things which they make their false Righteousness For the carnal World as it cryes up a false Happiness as its God so Men have a false Righteousness which is their Christ. Now through the Law they are dead to it How The Law supposeth us as innocent and requires us to continue so Cursed is every one that continues not in every thing c. Suppose a Man should exactly fulfill it afterwards yet the paying of new Debts will not quit old Scores And then we are dead to the Law by the Body of Christ Rom. 7. 4. By the crucified Body of Christ by which he hath merited and purchased a better Hope and Grace for us Well the Duty is impossible 2. The Penalty is intolerable for who can stand when God is angry Ezek. 22. 14. Can thine Heart endure or can thine Hands be strong in the Day that I shall deal with thee We that cannot endure the pain of the Gout or Stone how shall we endure the eternal Wrath of God It is surely a very dreadful thing to fall into the Hands of that living God that lives for every to punish the Transgressors of his Law 3. The Punishment is unavoidable unless Sin be pardoned and you submit to God's way for I would ask you what Hope can you have in God whose Nature ingageth him to hate Sin and whose Justice obligeth him to punish it 1. Whose Nature ingageth him to hate Sin and Sinners Hab. 1. 13. He is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity I urge this for a doubleReason partly because I have observed that all the Security of Sinners and their Neglect of seeking after Pardon by Jesus Christ it comes from their lessening thoughts of God's holiness and if their Hearts were sufficiently possessed with an awe of God's unspotted Purity and Holiness they would more look after the Terms of Grace God hath provided Psal 50. 21. Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self Why do Men live securely in their Sins and do not break off their evil Course They think God is not so severe and harsh and so all their Confidence is grounded upon a Mistake of God's Nature and such a dreadful Mistake as amounts to a Blasphemy Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self The other Reason is this partly because I observe the bottom Reason of all the Fear that is in the Hearts of Men is God's Holiness 1 Sam. 6. 20. Who is able to stand before this holy God And Who would not fear thee for thou art holy Rev. 15. 4. We fear his Power why because it is set on work by his Wrath. We fear his Wrath why because it is kindled by his Justice and Righteousness We fear his Righteousness because it is bottom'd and grounded upon his Holiness and upon the Purity of his Nature 2. His Justice obligeth him to punish Sin that the Law might not seem to be made in vain It concerns the Universal Judge to maintain the Reputation of
upon the string and how soon God may let it fly we cannot tell Therefore we are never safe till we turn to God and enter into his Peace Where-ever there is Sin there is Guilt and where-ever there is Guilt there will be Punishment If we dance about the brink of Hell and go merrily to Execution it argues not our Sin but Stupidity and Folly 2. On our part our sensless Forgetfulness will do us no good Carnal Men mind not the Happiness of an immortal Soul and they are not troubled because they consider not their condition But they are not happy that feel least trouble but those that have least cause A benummed Conscience cannot challenge this Blessedness they only put off that which they cannot put away which God hath neither forgiven nor covered They do but skin the Wound till it fester and rankle into a dangerous Sore God is the wronged Party and Supreme Judge to whose Sentence we must stand or fall If he justifies then who will condemn We may lay our selves asleep and sing peace to our selves but it is not what we say but what God saith There is no Peace saith my God to the Wicked 3. A Pardon is surely a great Blessing if we consider first the Evils we are freed from and secondly the Good depending upon it 1. The Evils we are freed from Guilt is the Obligation to Punishment and Pardon is the dissolving or loosing that Obligation Now the Punishment is exceeding great no less than Hell and Damnation and Hell is no vain Scare-crow nor is Heaven a May-game Eternity makes every thing truly great Look the Loss An Eternal Separation from the comfortable Presence of God Mat. 25. 41. Go ye Cursed c. And Luk. 13. 27. Depart ye Workers of Iniquity When God turned Adam out of Paradise his Case was very sad but God took care of him made him Coats of Skins to cloath him gave him a day of Patience afterwards promised the Seed of the Woman who should recover the lapsed State of Mankind and so intimated Hopes of a better Paradise That Exile therefore is nothing comparable to this for now Man is stript of all his Comfort sent into an endless State of Misery where there shall be no Hope of ever changing his Condition Now to be delivered from this that is so great an Evil what a Blessedness is it For the Paena Sensus the Pain as well as the Loss our Lord sets it forth by two Notions Mark 9. 44. The Worm that never dies and the Fire that shall never be quenched The Scripture speaks of the Soul with allusion to the state of the Body after Death In the Body Worms breed usually and many times they were burnt with Fire Accordingly our State in the World to come is set forth by a Worm and a Fire The Worm implies the Worm of Conscience a Reflection upon our past Folly and Disobedience to God and the Remembrance of all the Affronts we have put upon Christ. Here Men may run from the Rebukes of Conscience by many Shifts Sports distracting their Minds with a Clatter of Business but then there is not a thought free but the damned are always thinking of slighted Means abused Comforts wasted Time the Offences done to a merciful God and the Curse wherein they have involved themselves by their own Folly The Fire that shall never be quenched notes the Wrath of God or those unknown Pains that shall be inflicted upon the Body and Soul which must needs be great because God himself will take the sinful Creature into his own hands to punish him and will shew forth the Glory of his Wrath and Power upon him When God punisheth us by a Creature the Creature is not a Vessel capacious enough to convey the Power of his Wrath as when a Giant strikes with a Straw that cannot convey his Strength But when God falls upon us himself It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the living God how dreadful is that Is it not a Blessedness to be freed from so great an Evil then a little Mitigation a Drop to cool your Tongue would be accounted a great Mercy 2. If we consider the Good depending on it You are not capable of enjoying God and being happy for evermore till his Wrath be appeased and your Sins forgiven but when that is once done then you may have sure Hope of being admitted into his Presence Rom. 5. 10. If when we were Enemies we were reconciled by his Death much more being now reconciled shall we be saved by his Life That is to say It is far more credible that a reconciled Man should be glorified than that a Sinner and Rebel should be reconciled If you can pass over this Difficulty and once get into God's Peace then what may you not expect from God The first Favour to such as have been Rebels against him facilitates the belief of all Acts of Grace Now what must we do that we may be capable of this blessed Priviledg that our Sins may be pardoned and our Filth covered and our Debt may be forgiven I shall give my Answer in three Branches I. I will shew you what is to be done as to your first Entrance into the Evangelick State II. What is to be done as to your Continuance therein and that you may still enjoy this Priviledge And III. What is to be done as to your Recovery out of grievous Lapses and Falls and Wounds as are more troublesom to the Conscience for which a particular and express Repentance is required I. As to our first Entrance into the Evangelick State that is by Faith and Repentance Both are necessary to Pardon Acts 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of Sins There Remission of Sins is granted to a Believer Now Repentance is full out as necessary Acts 2. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the Remission of Sins Luk. 24. 47. And that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Ierusalem What is in another Evangelist to preach the Gospel to every Creature in this is that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preached in his Name And this is preaching the Gospel for the Gospel is nothing else but a Doctrine of Repentance and Remission of Sins So if we will not hearken to the vain Fancies of Men who have perverted the Scripture but stand to the plain Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ these two Duties are necessary to pardon Christ's Satisfaction is not imputed to us but upon Terms agreed on in the Covenant of Redemption As to the Impetration there is required the intervention of Christ's Merit so to the Application Faith and Repentance without which we are not pardoned These two Graces have a distinct Reference and it is intimated by that Passage of Paul for he gives this
of our Desires And partly through Slavish Fear We hate those whom we fear A condemning God can never be loved by a guilty Creature We look upon him as one that will call us to an account for our Sins Now all these Reasons concur to shew us that till Sin be taken away we cannot love nor delight in God neither can God love us and delight in us God will not have Communion with us while we are in our Sins Christ when he came to bring us to God he came not to make any Change in God to make God less holy but to make us holy and amiable in his sight The reasonable Nature cannot digest this Conceit that the holy God should take Sinners into his Bosom without any change Would it become the Governour of the World to be indifferent to good and bad the holy God to be a Friend to Sinners The new Nature in us sheweth the contrary for that causes an abomination and abhorrence both of Impurity and the Impure As Lot's righteous Soul was vexed with the Sodomites And we are told Prov. 29. 27. An unjust Man is an Abomination to the Iust and he that is upright in the Way is Abomination to the Wicked If a Man be sanctified but in part he cannot delight in the wicked freely to converse with them He hath a Hatred not of Enimity so as to seek their Destruction not a Hatred opposite to good Will that is contrary to the Nature of Grace which is made up of Love but an Hatred of Abomination which is contrary to the Love of Complacency he cannot take any delight in him Now then without a manifest reproach to the Holy God we cannot imagine he should admit Sinners into an intimate Communion with him Thou hatest all the Workers of Iniquity Psal. 5. 5. God said to the Prophet Ier. 15. 19. Let them return unto thee but return not thou to them God will not return to us in our Sins but we must come off from our Sins to him 2. We are freed from the great Blemish of our Natures Sin defaced the Image of God in us Rom. 3. 23. All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God We lost not only the Favour of God but the Image of God the great Excellency of our Nature was eclipsed and defaced Now the Plaister will not be as broad as the Sore nor our Reparation by Christ correspondent to our Loss by Adam if our Nature be not healed and the Image of God restored in us If Adam had only left us guilty the Pardon of Sin had been enough but he conveyed an evil Nature and therefore we must be turned from our Sins as well as pardoned otherwise Christ would not restore all that Adam took away Psal. 69. 4. Is he a good Physician that takes away the Pain and leaves the great Disease uncured But Christ has procured the Favour of God for us and repaired the Image of God in us and therefore certainly put us into a way of Blessedness again Holiness was our Primitive Excellency and Amiableness 3. We are freed from that that is the great Burden of the Creature as well as his Blemish Whatever it be to the common Sinner that is no matter he hath no right thoughts of things and is besotted with his carnal choice for Sin is an Evil whether it be felt or no but the awakened Sinner is sensible not only of the Guilt of Sin but it is his greatest Burden that he should have a Nature inclines him to grieve and dishonour God Pharaoh could say Take away this Plague But a penitent broken-hearted Sinner cries Take away all Iniquity They desire a Change of this State by Regeneration Therefore the Promises of the Gospel considering a penitent Soul under such a Distress are suted to the Case 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and cleanse us from all Unrighteousness If you know what Sin is and penitently bemoan your selves to God you will be troubled with the Power and Pollution of it as well as the Guilt Mic. 7. 18 19. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity and passeth by the Transgression of the Remnant of his Heritage He will turn again he will have compassion hewill subdue our Iniquities A Heart truly affected doth not only desire Pardon and Ease but Power against Sin A Man that hath his Leg broken would not only desire Ease of his pain but to have his Leg set right again A Leprous Condemned Malefactor desires not only to be freed from the Sentence of Condemnation but to be cured or his Pardon will do him no good Now surely it is a great Blessing to be turned from our Sins to be freed from that a penitent Soul finds to be so great a Burden and the Mediatour gives us a notable proof of his Love in it 4. Being turned from our Sins we are freed from the great bane of our Persons and all our happiness Sin is a Cursed Inmate it fires the Lodging where it is entertain'd and harboured unless speedily cast out of doors it involves us in the curse of the Law The wages of Sin is Death therefore Christ that he might free us from Misery doth first free us from Sin If pardon of Sin be a blessing certainly to be turned from Sin is a blessing for the one cannot be had without the other till you are turned from Sin you cannot be pardoned not justified till you are sanctified Psal. 32. 1 2. Blessed is the Man whose Sin is forgiven and whose Iniquity is covered and unto whom the Lord will not impute his Sin in whose spirit there is no guile When God hath given us an holy sincere heart and turned us from our Sins then we have the Blessedness of Pardon There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 1. who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit We are freed from the condemning power of the Law when freed from Sin and all that Woe and Wrath that belongs to every Soul that doth evil By all these Considerations it appears how great a Blessing the turning us from Sin is in the privative notion that is the removal of so great an evil 2. Take Blessedness in the Positive Notion that is to enjoy a great Good and it will appear it is a blessed thing to be turned from our Sins 1. Because this is the matter of our Serenity Comfort and Peace here and the pledg and beginning of our eternal Felicity hereafter The Soul can never be setled in an holy Peace till it be turned from its Sins we can never find rest till we get out of Satan's yoke and get into Christ's blessed Liberty The fruit of Righteousness is Peace Isa. 32. 17. We are freed from those unquiet and troublesom thoughts wherewith others are haunted A wicked Man's Soul is in a mutiny one Affection wars against another and all against
the Heart is an Introduction into our glorious State and the more sanctified the more meet to be Partakers thereof Col. 1. 12. Now that which doth positively make us capable of Glory and Happiness is a greater Priviledge than that which only removes the Impediment 4. That is the greatest Benefit which makes us more amiable in the Sight of God and is the Object of his Delight now he delights in us as sanctified rather than pardoned We love him indeed for pardoning and forgiving so great a Debt she loved much because much was forgiven her But God delighteth in Holiness and the Reflection and Impress of his own Image upon us Prov. 11. 20. The Upright in the Way are his Delight When the Spirit hath renewed us according to the Image and Nature of God that makes us amiable in his Sight and an Object of Divine Complacency Therefore surely this is the great Priviledge and Blessing we have by the Mediator here in this World I come to the fourth Thing IV. In what way doth Christ turn us from our Iniquities 1. He doth purchase this Grace for us And 2. He works it in us 1. He purchaseth this Grace for us that we may be turned 1 Pet. 1. 24. He bore our Sins in his own Body upon the Tree that we being dead unto Sin should live unto Righteousness That was his end not only to lay the Obligation upon us but to procure the Grace whereby we may be enabled to do so This Sacrifice was a truly propitiatory Sacrifice whereby God was appeased and forfeited Blessings restored The Loss of God's Image was a great part of our Punishment and it is a part of our Deliverance that Christ hath purchased this Grace as well as Pardon He hath given himself for us that he might cleanse us and sanctify us and make us a pure and holy People unto God Eph. 5. 25 26. 2. As he hath purchased it for us so he works it in us partly by the power of his Internal Grace and partly by blessing and sanctifying External Means and Helps for such an End and Purpose First I say by the Power of his Internal Grace changing our Hearts and Minds Tit. 3. 9. He saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy-Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour And he acteth in us as Christ's Spirit and as we are Members of Christ. It is the Spirit enlightens the Mind so that we begin to see the Evil that is in Sin the Necessity to get rid of it After I was instructed I smote upon the Thigh and also to overcome the obstinate Heart of Man and turn it to God and to fix the Inclination of the Soul against Sin In short by his preventing Grace he doth convert us by his exciting Grace sanctify us by his assisting Grace he makes us persevere in turning us more and more from Sin to Holiness Secondly He sanctifies and blesses External Helps and Means I shall instance in two Ordinances and Providences 1. Ordinances such as the Word and Sacraments Ioh. 17. 19. I sanctified my self that they might be sanctified by the Truth that is the preaching of the Word He gave himself for his Church that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of Water through the Word Mark these and other places of Scripture and you will find the Merit of Christ doth reach the Ordinances that by them Grace may be conveyed and Sin might be mortified and subdued in us The Word calls us to excite our Resolutions against Sin and strengthen them to avoid Occasions to cut off the Provisions of the Flesh to make it our daily Task to war and strive against it And none conscienciously wait upon the Word but something by every attendance is given out for the weakning of Sin and setting them afresh against it And then the Sacrament that represents the Death of Christ as the Price of our dying to Sin and it represents him as the Pattern according to which we must be conformed that we may know that our old Man is crucified and that we may renew our Covenant with God and our Resolutions and bind our selves to more serious Endeavours against Sin The Lord Jesus after he had procured the Spirit and this wonderful Grace to turn us from our Sins hath appointed congruous and and fit Ordinances whereby he may dispense this Grace to us more and more And as he sanctifies Ordinances so 2. Providences for we are thresh'd that our Husks may fly off Wherefore doth he chasten us sometimes and very sorely but to make us out of love with Sin The Fruit of all shall be to take away Sin Isa. 27. 9. And he chastens us verily for our Profit that we may be made Partakers of his Holiness Heb. 12. 10. By all these means we are sanctified by Ordinances and Providences and by the all-powerful Grace of his holy Spirit Thus I have opened the fourth Thing how the Lord Jesus doth turn us from our Sins The Uses we may make of this Point are 1. Of Information It informs us 1. Of the vain Hopes of the Carnal and such as yet live in their Sins for at present they have no Interest in him and so living and dying will find him rather a Judge than a Saviour for the greatest part of their Work is undone We must be saved from the Guilt and Power of Sin and the latter is the proper Sign of our Recovery We are justified in the Name of the Lord Iesus and sanctified also in the Spirit of our God Christ did not purchase our Salvation by piece-meal nor can we receive it by piece-meal a whole Saviour we must have or no Saviour She was the true Mother that pleaded against the dividing of the Infant They are true Christians I am sure who would have Christ undivided who would have him Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption for if you take him in one respect and neglect him in another especially the chief thing you should make use of him for you do not take him at all Therefore the Carnal that live in their Sins are at present excluded from all Claim to Christ. 2. It shews us what we should mainly seek in our Prayers Leave not the Redeemer till he hath blessed you with his principal Blessing Our Prayers for temporal Happiness are not so welcom to Christ as our Prayers for sanctifying Grace and Power against Sin Natural Sense will put us upon asking Corn and Wine and Oil but the new Creature saith Lord take away Iniquity Every Man hath a sence of outward Evils and would fain be at ease but every Man hath not a sence of Sin and an hunger and thirst after Righteousness Self-love will prompt us to beg exemption from Trouble but Sin is the worst Burden to a tender Heart When your Children ask you for Apples and Plums and such things as are pleasing to their childish Appetite they do
no Sacrifice without it Not that he tasted of their Meat-offerings or did eat the Fat or Flesh of Bulls and Goats and drink their Blood and so would have it seasoned for his Pallate and Appetite it is not so to be understood but in Types as well as in Similitudes there is a condescension to our sense and apprehension of things That that is salted is savoury therefore God would note his acceptation of our persons and services this way By nature we are all odious unsavoury and distasteful to God by reason of Sin Psal. 14. 3. They are all become filthy there is none that doth good no not one in the Hebrew it is putrified stinking like corrupt and rotten Flesh. We must be salted and seasoned by the Grace of Christ and so we become amiable and acceptable in the sight of God The more upright we are the more he delighteth in us 2. To Men the more we are thus salted and mortified the more shall we do good to others Our Lord tells his Disciples Mat. 5. 13. Ye are the Salt of the Earth but if the Salt lose its savour wherewith shall it be salted it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of Men. This is spoken to the Disciples as Disciples not as Apostles and publick Persons It is a mistake to think that only Ministers are the Light of the World and the Salt of the World No all Christians must shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation all Christians must be as the Salt of the Earth Christ's whole Sermon contains general Duties and the Disciples were not yet sent abroad as Apostles nor ever heard of such a Commission or that their Master would send them abroad for the proselyting the World to the Kingdome of God that was done afterwards Chap. 10. and therefore here he speaks to Christians as Christians Now they are said to be Salt even as they season all those among whom they live A Christian is never savoury in his Conversation with others till he hath Salt in himself then all his actions are seasoned with Grace and beget a remembrance of God then his words are seasoned with Grace and do good to others The Apostle saith Eph. 4. 29. Let no corrupt Communication come out of your Mouths that rotten and corrupt Communication which vents it self in slandering rayling ribaldry foolish jesting at holy things lyes cursing and the like all these come from a corrupt Heart as a stinking Breath argues rotten Lungs These want the Grace of Mortification so are all sapless Spirits that cannot speak any thing of God seriously but in their most serious discourse are as fresh as Water But go among the mortified and you receive the savour of good things from them you have not only savoury Prayers and savoury Sermons but savoury Conferences and Discourses Col. 4. 6. Let your speech be alway poudered with Salt that is do not speak idely much less profanely but in an edifying manner Now Christians ought to take heed they do not lose their savouriness for then they do not please God nor profit Man and are fit for nothing but the Dunghil Thus I have proved the second thing that the Grace of Mortification is the true Salt that seasons Christians III. There is a Necessity of this Salt in all those that have entered into Covenant with God and have dedicated and devoted themselves to him 1. By our Covenant Vow we are bound to the strictest Duties and that upon the highest Penalties The Duty to which we are bound is very strict We have answered God in all the demands of his Covenant 1 Pet. 3. 21. For Baptism saveth as the answer of a good Conscience towards God The Lord demands and puts in effect this Question Will you die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness this is the tenour of the Baptismal Covenant that is so often so solemnly renewed at the Lord's Supper and you are to reckon your selves Rom. 6. 11. to be dead unto Sin and alive unto Righteousness through Christ Iesus our Lord reckon your selves that is in Vow and Obligation And the Penalty is very high Heb. 10. 26. that we sin wilfully so that our admission into Christ's Family will be in vain yea to our further ruine If you do not stand to the Covenant if you keep Sin still alive and add Fuel to the Flames 2. The Abundance of Sin that yet remains in us and the marvellous activity of it in our Souls we cannot get rid of this cursed Inmate till our Tabernacle be dissolved and this House of Clay tumbled into the Dust. Paul groaned sorely under it Oh wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Rom. 7. 24. And it is called Sin that doth easily beset us Heb. 12. 10. Well then since Sin is not nullified it must be mortified It works it wars there is a marvellovs activity in it it is very active and restless Rom. 7. 8. Sin wrought in me all manner of concupiscence he means sinful nature And the Apostle Iames tells us Iam. 4. 5. The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy there is not a sleepy but a stirring Principle always inclining us to evil and hindring that which is good Sin doth not only make us a little flexible and yeelding to Temptations but doth hurry us and impel us thereunto It is a Law warring in our Members that brings us into Captivity to Sin Rom. 7. 23. Corrupt Nature is not a tame thing that works not till it be irritated by the suggestions of Satan or temptations of the World but is like a living Spring that pours out Water of its own accord it will not let us alone the Heart of Man is evil continually and so it always hinders us from that that is good Rom. 7. 21. When I would do good evil is present with me it blunts the edge of our Affections it seeks to weaken our purposes by unbelieving thoughts or drawing us away from God by the lure of some sensitive delight in stealing our Hearts from him in the very duties and solemn addresses we make to him distracting our minds with thoughts of the World and the Pomp and Glory thereof and so turns our very Duties into Sin and makes us lose the comfort and sweetness of them it blasts and perverts our most sincere endeavours Well then without this Salt of the Covenant if this be so what shall we do have we not need to keep humble and watchful if Sin be stirring we must be stirring against it and improve the grace of the Holy Spirit upon the account of Christ's Death and use all good means that it may be subdued in us 3. Consider the sad consequences of letting Sin alone both either as to further Sin or Punishment 1. As to further Sin For Christ speaks here of Scandals If Lust be not mortified it grows outragious it has foil'd us before God
weakned by Almighty Grace 2. It may come from Libertinism And these harden their Hearts in sinning by a mistaking the Gospel 1. Some vainly imagine as if God by Jesus Christ were made more reconcilable to Sin that it needs not so much to be stood upon nor need we to be so exact to keep such ado to mortify and subdue the Inclinations that lead to it They altogether run to the Comforts of the Gospel and neglect the Duties thereof Christ died for Sinners therefore we need not to be troubled about it Some actually speak out these things as if all the Mortification required were but to quell the Sense of Sin in the Conscience not to destroy the Power of Sin in their Hearts and if they can but believe strongly they are pardoned all is well If this were true then in the hardest Heart would be the best Faith for they have the least trouble about Sin and least Conscience of Sin This is to cry up the Merit of Christ to exclude the Work and Discipline of this Spirit yea to set the Merit of his Death against the End of it and so to set Christ against Christ. He bore our Sins He bore our Sins in his Body upon the Tree that we might be dead to Sin and alive to Righteousness to promote this Mortification that we speak of 2. Another Sort think such Discourses may be well spared among a Company of Believers and they need not this Watchfulness and holy Care especially against grievous Sins that they have such good Command of themselves that they can keep within Compass well enough 'T is well if you be come to this height of Christian Perfection that Temptations make none or no considerable Impression upon you But we must warn you and that of the most gross Sins Christ thought fit to warn his Disciples Luk. 21. 34. Take heed lest your Hearts be overcharged with Surfetting and Drunkenness and the Cares of this Life And the Apostle every where warns Christians of Malice of Hypocrisy of Envy of Lying of Evil-speaking 1 Thess. 4. 6. Take heed that you do not over-reach and defraud one another for God is the Avenger of all such But these Men would be fed with refined Strains of Contemplative Divinity and have no Sins reproved but such kind of Sins as would seem a Credit rather than a Disgrace like those Diseases that are incident only to the best Complections and Constitutions If you speak against something that may rather argue their Excellency than shame them of their Sin you shall be welcome This over-spiritual Preaching ends in an aery Religion Is Sin grown less dangerous or Men more skilful to avoid it than heretofore Certainly he that considers how many scandalous Professors there are that would be accounted the People of God hath no cause to think so If Paul saw need of Mortification 1 Cor. 9. 27. We are not more strong but more fool-hardy 3. A third Sort are such as think Believers are not to be scared with Threatnings but only oiled with Grace But then consider the words of Christ were to his Disciples And to whom did the Apostle Paul write to Believers questionless If you live after the Flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the Deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. No part of the Spirit 's Discipline must be omitted If one end of Christ's coming was to verify God's Threatnings and that the Curse of the Law should not fall to the Ground surely there is use of Threatnings still 3. It may arise from another Cause that is the Passionateness of carnal Affections Men are so wedded to their Lusts they cannot leave them and so strangely besotted they are even ready to sit down and say they will venture their Souls rather than live a strict Life Is the pleasing of the Flesh so sweet to you or Hell so slight a Matter And will the Day of Judgment be so slubber'd over There is a raging Despair and there is a sottish Despair The raging Despair of a Cain Gen. 4. 13. My Evil is greater than can be born when we are ready to sink under the Burden of our Sins And a sottish Despair when we are not sound with God and loth to improve the Grace of the Redeemer but say There is no hope we will go on in the Imaginations of our own Heart Jer. 2. 25. There is no Hope it is an Evil and I must bear it If I be damned I cannot help it I must bear it as well as I can What! will you bear the Loss of Heaven the Wrath of the Almighty and Eternal God Surely you know not what Eternity means what Hell and Heaven means You will know when the Eyes that are now blinded by the delusions of the Flesh shall be opened when you shall see others sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and you shall be shut out Canst thou bear this If Rachel could not endure the want of Children and Iacob the supposed Loss of Ioseph when all his Sons and Daughters rose up to comfort him If Ahitophel could not endure the loss of his Credit in Counsel How wilt thou endure the Loss of thy Soul and the Glory of the Blessed to all Eternity When thou hast nothing to beguile thy Mind and thou art devested of all other Comforts and thou must feed upon this for ever So for the Pains of Hell Thou that canst not endure to be scorched a day or two in feaverish Flames or the Pain of the Stone or Gout when God arms the Humours of thine own Body against thee and canst not endure the Torment of an aking Tooth how canst thou endure the Wrath of an Eternal God Can your Hearts endure or your Hands be made strong in the Day that I will deal with you saith the Lord 2d Use is To perswade you not to neglect the Salt of the Covenant It may be fretting but it is healthful as the most salutary Medicines are usually most troublesom To help you to improve this kind of Argument which our Lord here useth 1. Consider There are but two Sorts of Men in the World and you are one of them There is no Neutral no middle State there are but two Principles that Men are influenced by the Flesh and the Spirit and there are but two Ends Men propound to themselves either the pleasing of the Flesh upon Earth or the enjoyment of God in Heaven And two Places they issue into Heaven or Hell The Scripture is peremptory and tells you who shall go to Heaven and who shall go to Hell Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the Deeds of the Body ye shall live Gal. 6. 8. He that soweth to the Flesh shall of the Flesh reap Corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life everlasting Or consider that Prov. 14. 14.
In all these God hath shewed great Wisdom I. As to the purchase and impetration of Grace by the Death and Incarnation of the Son of God 1. There is Wisdom in this that in our faln estate we should not come immediately to God without a Mediator and Reconciler God is out of the reach of our commerse being at such a distance from us and variance with us The wise Men of the World pitched on such a way 1 Cor. 8. 5 6. The Heathens saw so far that it was an uncomfortable thing to make their immediate approaches to their Supream God But here is the true God and the true Mediator But to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Iesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him One God the Father from whom we derive all Graces to whom we direct all Services one Lord Iesus Christ who conveyeth the Graces and Benefits to us and returneth our Prayers and Acts of Obedience to God This is a mighty relief to our thoughts for the apprehensions of the pure God-head do amaze us and confound us when we come to consider of that glorious and infinite Being As heretofore before they found out the use of the Compass they only coasted as loth to venture themselves in the great Ocean So by Christ we come to God He is the true Iacob's Ladder Joh. 11. 50. 2. That this Mediator is God in our Nature Therein the Wisdom of God appeared in crossing and counter-working Satan's design Satan's great design was double to dishonour God and depress the Nature of Man 1. To dishonour God to Man by a false representation as if he were envious of Man's Happiness Gen. 3. 5. God doth know in the day that ye eat thereof your Eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil His first Battery was against the Goodness of God to weaken the esteem thereof Now by the Incarnation of Christ the Lord's Grace is wonderfully manifested he is represented as lovely and amiable in our Eyes not envying our Holiness and Happiness but promoting it and that at the most costly rate and shewing love to Man above all his other Creatures God is Love 1 Joh. 4. 8. 'T is eminently demonstrated to us in the Son of God assuming our Nature and dying for us Rom. 5. 8. When Christ was incarnate Love was incarnate Love walked up and down and healed all Sicknesses and Diseases Love died and Love hung on a Cross Love was buried in the Grave When that ill representation was suggested to us it was necessary there should be some eminent demonstration of the Love of God to Man Especially after we had made our selves liable to his Wrath and were conscious to our selves that we had incurred his displeasure and so it was necessary that we should have some notable discovery of his Philanthropy or Love to Mankind Many Believers are harrast with doubts and fears and cannot come to be perswaded that God loves them Herein is Love and God commended his Love to us in that his Son died for us 2. The next design of Satan was to depress the nature of Man which in its innocence stood so near to God Now that the humane nature so depressed and debased by the malicious suggestion of the Tempter should be so elevated and advanced and set up so far above the Angelical Nature and admitted to dwell with God in a personal Union it is a mighty counter-working of Satan and sheweth the great Wisdom of God When he laboured to put God and us asunder the Lord sent his Son who took the unity of our Nature into his own Person 3. That being in our Nature he would set us a Pattern of Obedience by his Holy Life for he lived by the same Laws that we are bound to live by He imposed no Duty upon us but what he underwent himself that he might be an Example of Holiness unto us we learn of him Obedience to God at the dearest rates contempt of the World and contentation with a low and mean Estate and to be lowly and meek in Heart Mat. 11. 29. Now Man being so prone to imitation it is the greatest effect of the Wisdom of God thus to oblige us unless we would be utterly unlike him whom we own as our Lord and from whom we have all our Hopes and Expectations 4. That he should die the Death of the Cross to expiate our Sins Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us c. Phil. 2 8. He humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross. That the Justice of God might be eminently demonstrated the Law-giver vindicated and the breach that was made in the frame of Government repaired and God might keep up his just Honour without prejudice to his Peoples Happiness that he might be manifested to be Holy and an hater of Sin and yet the Sinner saved from Destruction Rom. 3. 25 26. An absolute Pardon without satisfaction might have exposed God's Laws to contempt as if the violation of them were not much to be stood upon therefore God dispensed his Grace with all Wisdom and Prudence would shew eminent Mercy but withal a demonstration of his Justice and Holiness that the World might still be kept in awe and there might be a full Concord and Harmony between his Mercy and Justice 5. That after his Death he should rise from the Dead and ascend into Heaven to prove the reality of the Life to come 1 Pet. 3. 21. Guilty Man is faln under the power and fear of Death strangely haunted with doubts about the other World therefore did Christ in our Nature arise from the Dead and ascend into Heaven that he might give a visible demonstration of the Resurrection and Life to come which he had promised to us and so encourage us by a Life of Holiness and Patience in Sufferings to follow after him into those Blessed Mansions So that from first to last you see the Wisdom of God II. The Publication of it in the Gospel or Covenant of Grace 'T is ordered in all things and sure 2 Sam. 23. 5. The Messengers by whom it is published are not extraordinary ones but Men of like Passion with our selves The great thing in a Minister is love to Souls Christ saith he came not to be ministred unto but to minister In the Covenant of Grace you see the Wisdom of God in two things 1. The Priviledges offered 2. The terms or Duties required 1. In the Priviledges offered to us which are Pardon and Life In these Benefits Pardon and Life there is due Provision made for the desires necessities and wants of mankind Pardon answereth the fears of the Guilty Creature and Life those desires of Happiness which are so natural to us and therefore are the most powerful and inviting Motives to draw our Hearts to
necessary Business for their welfare Sion said the Lord hath forsaken me my God hath forgotten me Isa. 49. 14 15. In the misgivings of our Hearts God seems to have cast off all Care and Thoughts of us God's affectionate Answer sheweth that all this was but a fond Surmise Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have Compassion on the Son of her Womb Yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee So we think that we are cut off when God is about to help and deliver us Psal. 31. 22. Many times we think he has quite cast us off when we are never more in his Heart Surely when our Affections towards God are seen by mourning for his Absence he is not wholly gone his Room is kept warm for him till he come again We mistake God's Dispensations when we judge that a forsaking which is but an emptying us of all carnal Dependance Psal. 49. 18 19. When I said my Foot slipped thy Mercy O Lord held me up In the multitude of my Thoughts within me thy Comforts delight my Soul He is near many times when we think him afar off as Christ was to his Disciples when their Eyes were with-held that they knew him not but thought him yet lying in the Grave Luk. 24. 16. But this cannot be imagined of Christ who could not be mistaken If he complained of a Desertion surely he felt it It was a real Desertion he could not mis-interpret the Dispensation of God he was now under for such Misapprehensions are below the Perfection of his Nature 2. Though it were real the Desertion must be understood so as may stand with the dignity of his Person and Offices Therefore 1. There was no Separation of the Father from the Son this would make a Change in the Unity of the Divine Essence Ioh. 10. 30. I and my Father are one Joh. 12. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Eternal Union of the Person of the Father with the Person of the Son always remained for the Divine Nature though it may be distinguished into Father Son and Holy-Ghost yet it cannot be divided 2. There was no Dissolution of the Union of the two Natures in the Person of Christ for the Humane Nature which was once assumed was never after dismissed or laid aside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ ever remained Immanuel God with us or God in our Nature He was the Lord of Glory even then when he was crucified 1 Cor. 2. 8. It was the Son of God that was delivered up for us all Not a meer Man suffered for our Redemption but Acts 20. 28. God purchased the Church with his Blood Death that dissolved the Bond and Tie between Soul and Body did not dissolve the Union of the two Natures They resemble it by a Man drawing a Sword and holding the Sword in one Hand and the Scabbard in another the same Person holds both though separated the one from the other 3. The Love of God to him ceased not We read The Father loved the Son and put all things into his hand Joh. 3. 35. Now he was his dear Son or the Son of his Love Col. 1. 13. In whom his Soul delighted Isa. 42. 1. Eph. 1. 6. He hath made us accepted in the Beloved Primum amabile He was the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person Heb. 1. 3. Therefore he could not but love him in every State Yea he never more loved him as Mediator than when on the Cross that being the most eminent Act of his Self-denial and Obedience Phil. 2. 7. and so a new Ground of Love Ioh. 10. 17. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my Life to take it up again The Father was well pleased with the Reconciliation of lost Sinners he loveth Christ for undertaking and performing it therefore it is unreasonable to imagine that now he was about the highest Act of Obedience there was any Decrease of his Love to him No his Dispensation might be changed but not his Love As the Sun shining through a clear Glass or through a red Glass casts a different Reflection a bloody or a bright but the Light is the same 4. His personal Holiness was not abated or lessened The Lord Jesus was full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. He had the Spirit not by measure Joh. 3. 34. He had in perfection all Divine Gifts and Graces to accomplish him for this Office Col. 1. 19. Ioh. 1. 16. He was anointed by the Holy-Ghost and the Oil that was poured on him never failed Therefore he was always most holy and pure one that never knew nor did Sin Neither his Nature nor his Office could permit an Abatement of Holiness Heb. 7. 26. Such an High-Priest became us as was holy harmless undefiled separate from Sinners The Son of God might fall into Misery which is a natural Evil and so become the Object of Pity not of Blame but not into Sin which is a moral Evil a Blot and a Blemish When he died He died the Iust for the Unjust 1 Pet. 3. 18. The Death of Christ had profited us nothing if he had been a Sinner for a moment Therefore this Desertion was not a Diminishing of his Holiness but a Suspension of his Comfort 5. God's Assistance and sustaining Grace was not wholly withdrawn for the Lord saith of him Isa. 42. 1. This is my elect Servant whom I uphold And every where the Lord is said to be with him in this work Psal. 101. 5. The Lord is at thy right hand And Psal. 16. 8. I have set the Lord always before me he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Which Passage is by Peter applied to Christ Acts 2. 25. For David speaketh concerning him I foresaw the Lord always before my Face for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved The Power Presence and Providence of God was ever with him to sustain him in his difficult Enterprize When his Agonies began he told his Disciples Ioh 18. 32. Ye shall leave me alone yet I am not alone but the Father is with me The Father was with him when his Disciples forsook him and fled every one to his own to carry him through and that his Arm might work Salvation for him and that he might not sink under the Burden Secondly Positively 1. God's desertion of us or any Creature may be understood with a respect to his communicating Himself to us We have a twofold Apprehension of God as an Holy and Happy Being And when he doth communicate Himself to any reasonable Creature it is either in a way of Holiness or in a way of Happiness He doth now in the Kingdom of Grace communicate Himself more in a way of Holiness but in the Kingdom of Glory fully in a way of Happiness both as to the Body and the Soul These two have such a respect to one another that he never gives Felicity and Glory
God and the everlasting Fruition of Him By a wonderful Exchange he taketh our evil things upon Himself that he might bestow his good things upon us and took from us Misery that he might convey to us Felicity Application First by way of Information 1. How different are they from the Spirit of Christ that can brook God's Absence without any remorse or complaint Christ cried with a loud voice My God my God why hast thou forsaken me These go on securely never observe God's Accesses and Recesses when the Comforts of his Spirit and the Communications of his Grace are wholly suspended and with-holden from them they never lay it t Heart Stupid and insensible Creatures It is all one to them whether God go or come whether He manifest Himself propitious to them or his Face be hidden from them They take up with the vain delights of the present World Micah shewed more respect to his Idols than they do to God Iudg. 18. 24. Ye have taken away my Gods and what have I more And do you ask What aileth thee When God is gone they are not troubled The Christians wept when Paul said Ye shall see my Face no more Acts 20. 25. And will ye not mourn and lament your Loss when God hideth his Face and shutteth up Himself in a Vail and Cloud of Displeasure Much of serious Christianity lies in an Observation of God's coming and going and a sutable Carriage Mat. 9. 15. A serious Christian will be affected with the Loss of comfort and quickning and lament after a withdrawn God 2. It informeth us of the Grievousness of Sin It is no easy matter to reconcile Sinners to God It cost Christ a Life of Sorrows and afterwards a painful and an accursed Death and in that Death Loss of actual Comfort and an amazing Sense of the Wrath of God We make a Mock of Sin jest and sport away our Souls but Christ found it hard Work to save them and recover them to God When you make Sin a light matter you slight the Sufferings of Christ. O therefore take heed you do not break with God for every Trifle 3. The Greatness of our Obligation to Christ who omitted no kind of Sufferings which might conduce to the Expiation of Sin He exchanged his Heaven for a kind of Hell to do you good the Fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily and therefore he had a Heaven upon Earth If one could say Anima iusti Coelum est because Heaven is begun there in Peace of Conscience and Joy in the Holy Ghost How was it with Christ This Heaven he wanted for a while felt no Comfort yea he was amazed at the sence of God's Wrath due to Sinners therefore it was said in the Type of him The pains of Hell got hold upon me Psal. 116. 3. Oh let this excite us to love Christ that you may count nothing too dear for him 4. The Infiniteness of God's Mercy who appointed such a degree of Christ's Sufferings as in it he gives us the greatest ground of Hopes to invite us the more to submit to his Terms There is nothing standeth in the way but our own impenitence and unbelief Now God is so amply satisfied shall we deprive our selves of Eternal Blessedness This is the worst Cruelty and Hatred to our own Souls SERMON X. ROM 1. part of the 29th and 30th Verses Whisperers Backbiters THe Context sheweth how corrupt and miserable Man's Nature is without Christ his Heart was first withdrawn from God and then became a Sink of loathsom Sins and Vices Therefore the Apostle telleth us how after Men were false to God how little they were true to themselves whether considered singly and apart or as to Commerce and Society singly and apart defiling themselves with uncleanness of all sorts as to Commerce and Humane Society full of Malice and Contention which sometimes goeth as far as Blood at other times sheweth it self in falseness and baseness of Disposition generally in Self-Love and Detraction from others Of all Judgments Spiritual Judgments are the sorest When God leaveth Mankind to its own degeneracy and corruption and one great Branch of this corruption is Detraction which venteth it self either by Whispering or Backbiting So it is in the Text Whisperers Backbiters These two words agree that they both wound the Fame of our Neighbour and they both do it behind his Back or in his absence But they differ 1. In that whispering doth it secretly and closely but backbiting openly The one being privy the other open Defamation and are like Theft and Rapine what Theft and Robbing are to our Goods the same are Whispering and Backbiting to our good Names 2. Whispering tendeth to breed strife among our Friends or to disgrace us to some who are well conceited of us but backbiting to our general disgrace before all the World or amongst whomsoever The one seeketh to deprive us of the good will of our Friends the other to destroy our Service But however they agree and differ they are often conjoyned in Scripture 2 Cor. 12. 20. I fear lest when I come among you I shall not find you such as I would and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not lest there be Debates Envyings Wraths Strifes Backbitings Whisperings Swellings Tumults The Apostle foresaw it as too probable that neither of them would be much pleased with their meeting together nor he with the Corinthians when he should find them corrupted with Partialities and Divisions nor the Corinthians with him when he should be forced to inflict censures upon them for their Factions and Emulations too much bewrayed by their backbitings and whisperings against each other So here in the Text they are conjoyned Whisperers Backbiters when the Apostle speaketh of the reigning Sins among the Gentiles Doct. One great Sin wherein the corruption of Humane Nature bewrayeth it self is Detraction or depriving others of a good Repute Here I shall shew I. What is Detraction II. The Hainousness of the Sin I. What it is 1. The Nature of it 2. The Kinds of it First The Nature of it in general It is an unjust violation of an others Fame Reputation or that good Report which is due to him God that hath bidden me to love my Neighbour as my self doth therein bid me to be tender not only of his Person and Goods but of his good Name And indeed one Precept is a Guard and Fence to another I cannot be tender of his Person and Goods unless I be tender of his Fame For every Man liveth by his Credit and therefore certainly this is 1. A Sin against God 2. A wrong to Men. 3. It proceedeth from evil Causes 1. It is a Sin against God who hath forbidden us to bear false Witness against our Neighbour and to speak evil of others without a cause Eph. 4. 31. Let all evil speaking be far from you by evil speaking is meant there disgraceful and contumelious Speeches whereby we seek
Principle Eph. 4. 24. It is created after God in Righteousness and true Holiness as suiting us to these things So the Spirit is promised to enable us to walk in God's ways Ezek. 36. 27. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Iudgments and do them It helps us to avoid Sin 1 Joh. 3. 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit Sin for his Seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God They that give back cannot yeild to those Sins with which others are surprized and captivated 2. It prepares us for Heaven Thither is the tendency of the new Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. 1 Joh. 5. 4. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World it moveth us to mind love and seek after Heavenly things This Grace came from Heaven and there it is perfected 2. There is an other Principle of corrupted Nature remaining in us which is sometimes called Flesh as before sometimes the old Man Eph. 4. 22. Sin that dwelleth in us Rom. 8. 17. The Body of Sin Rom. 6. 6. The Law of the Members warring against the Law of the Mind Rom. 7. 23. By this Principle they are inclined to that which is evil This Principle also may be known 1. By the manner how it was derived to us 2. By its Tendency and Operations 1. The manner how it was derived to us from Adam in his Apostacy and as faln from his chief Good and last End Ioh. 3. 6. When Man fell from God he fell to himself The Temptation was Ye shall be as Gods Gen. 3. 5. He would set up Self as a God And what was that Self which Man sought to idolize but himself rather considered as a Body than as a Soul And therefore when God sought to reduce Man where lay the difficulty that Text will inform you Gen. 6. 3. My Spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he is also Flesh that is sunk or lost in Flesh altogether wedded to the Interests of the bodily Life 2. By its Tendency and Influence it prompts us to do those things which are most acceptable to Sense or agreeable to our worldly and carnal Ends. The Flesh operateth several ways according to Mens callings occasions or constitutions Isa. 53. 6. 1 Ioh. 2. 16. As every Soil beareth such Weeds as are most suitable to the Nature and Quality of the Ground so some are enslaved by this some by that particular Sin yet all of them alike opposite to God Differences there are as to the choice of their way wherein they please the Flesh some in a more gross some in a more cleanly manner yet they all walk in the Lust of the Flesh following inbred Corruption as their Guide or obey it either in a way of Worldliness Ambition or Sensuality Some ways are more blameless before the World because they less deserve a Worldly Interest some are so prodigiously wicked that they cause a Horror even in Mankind though degenerated Now after Conversion some of our former Sins cripple us and we halt of the old Maim still and it is not enough to stop one gap while corruption runneth out at many more but we must make Conscience of not fulfilling the Lusts of the Flesh in any kind Well now I have shewed you the two Principles which are in a Christian That we may have a Sence of our imbecillity and that we are but regenerated in part II. I will prove to you that there is a Liberty in a Christian of walking according to each Principle either the Spirit or Flesh. 1. That the Christian hath Liberty of walking according to the Spirit is out of question for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. Surely the Spirit of Christ can free us and doth free us from the bondage of Corruption Rom. 8. 2. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ hath freed me from the Law of Sin and Death otherwise there would be no distinction between Nature and Grace If we should be still shackled and manacled by our Lusts and be as unable to pursue our last End as we were before if there were no inclination to God and Heavenly things what have they gotten by Grace and therefore though we are still weak yet we have the gift of the Spirit to free us from Sin The Force and Efficacy of the new Nature appeareth in three things Scire Velle Posse in knowing our Duty and willing and purposing and doing our Duty suitable to the three Faculties of Man his Understanding Will and vital Power So the Spirit received from Christ 2 Tim. 1. 7. is a Spirit of Power Love and a sound Mind 1. For Scire The new Nature partly consists in the internal Light of the Mind by which we understand the things of God revealed in the Scriptures concerning our Duties and Priviledges and so the Unction is said to teach us all things 1 Joh. 2. 20. That is all things which belong to our necessary Duty and Happiness God's Children in necessary things have a good Understanding or as it is said Isa. 11. 3. They are quick of Understanding in the fear of the Lord. By this it doth warn us of our danger mind us of ourduty upon all occasions 2. For Velle To be willing The force of the new Creature lieth in the love of God for we are never converted to God till he hath our Hearts till we love him with all our Soul with all our Might and Strength and hate what is contrary to him Psal. 17. 10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil Now surely they that love God and hate evil are at liberty more than others to serve and please God and avoid Sin Hate Sin once and it hath little Power over you 3. For Posse or the active Power The wonder is rather how he can sin deliberately voluntarily than how he cannot sin 1 Ioh. 3. 9. and for doing good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2. 13. I can do all things Eph. 2. 10. A Spiritual Man is prepared for every good work 2. The Assistant Power which accompanieth the new Creature in all his Actions doth certainly give him a great advantage of Liberty to know will and do things pleasing unto God As he doth first convert us unto God and quicken us when we are dead in Trespasses and Sins so after Conversion when the Principles of a new Life are put into us he still helpeth us and as all Creatures depend upon God in esse conservari operari Acts 17. 28. So doth the new Creature depend on the Spirit he leadeth and guideth all the Children of God to their Everlasting Estate Rom. 8. 14. He assists the Will and the vital Power Phil. 2. 13. Otherwise we may complain with Paul Rom. 7. 18. For to Will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not There may be a Will or an
Love to Mankind God so loved the World 2. The way which God took to recover our lapsed condition or the Effect and Fruit which flows from this Fountain that he gave his only begotten Son 3. The end of it that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life Where take notice of 1. The Qualification or the free and easy condition put upon Men in the Gospel that whosoever believeth in him 2. The benefit that resulteth to us expressed Negatively and Affirmatively should not perish but have everlasting Life First The rise and beginning of all is God's unconceivable Love God so loved the World Where observe 1. The Object the World 2. The Act Loved 3. The Degree So loved 1. The word by which the Object is expressed is the World which noteth Mankind in its corrupt and miserable State 1 Ioh. 5. 19. The whole World lies in Sin The World is an Heap of Men who had broken God's Law forfeited his Love and Favour they neither loved nor feared God but were unthankful and unholy yet this World God loved 2. The Act He loved The Love of God is twofold the Love of Benevolence and the Love of Complacence 1. The Love of Benevolence is the Pity and Compassion of God towards Man lying in Sin and Misery This is understood in this place as also in Tit. 3. 4. The Kindness and Love of God our Saviour towards Man appeared 2. The Love of Complacence 〈◊〉 he loveth us when he hath made us lovely In which Sence it is said Psal. 11. 7. The Righteous God loveth Righteousness Joh. 16. 27. The Father himself loved you because ye loved me This belongeth not to this place 3. The Degree So loved He doth not tell you how much but leaveth it to your most solemn raised Thoughts It is rather to be conceived than spoken of and admired rather than conceived Observe from the Words That the Beginning and first Cause of our Salvation is the meer Love of God The outward Occasion was our Misery the inward moving Cause was God's Love 1. Love is at the Bottom of all We may give a Reason of other Things but we cannot give a Reason of his Love God shewed his Wisdom Power Justice and Holiness in our Redemption by Christ. If you ask why he made so much ado about a worthless Creature raised out of the Dust of the Ground at first and had now disorder'd himself and could be of no use to him We have an Answer at hand Because he loved us If you continue to ask But why did he love us We have no other Answer but because he loved us for beyond the first Rise of things we cannot go And the same Reason is given by Moses Deut. 7. 8. The Lord did not set his Love upon you nor chuse you because you were more in number than any People for ye were the fewest of all People but because the Lord loved you that is in short He loved you because he loved you The same Reason is given by our Lord Jesus Christ Mat. 11. 26. Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy Sight All came from his free and undeserved Mercy higher we cannot go in seeking after the Causes of what is done for our Salvation 2. The most remarkable Thing that is visible in the Progress and Perfection of our Salvation by Christ is Love And it is meet that the Beginning Middle and End should suit Nay if Love be so conspicuous in the whole Design and Carrying on of this blessed Work it is much more in the Rise and Fountain God's great End in our Redemption was the Demonstration of his Love and Mercy to Mankind yea not only the Demonstration but the Commendation of it That is the Apostle's word Rom. 5. 8. God commendeth his Love to us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us A thing may be demonstrated as real that is not commended or set forth as great God's Design was that we should not only believe the Reality but admire the Greatness of his Love Now from first to last Love is so conspicuous that we cannot overlook it Light is not more conspicuous in the Sun than the Love of God in our Redemption by Christ. 3. If there were any other Cause it must be either the Merit of Christ or some Worthiness on our part 1. The Merit of Christ was not the first Cause of God's Love but the Manifestation Fruit and Effect of it The Text telleth he first loved the World and then gave his only begotten Son It is said 1 Ioh. 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us Look as we perceive and find out Causes by their proper Effects so we perceive the Love of God by the Death of Christ. Christ is the principal Means whereby God carrieth on the Purposes of his Grace and therefore is represented in Scripture as the Servant of his Decrees 2. No Worthiness in us For when his Love moved him to give Christ for us he had all Mankind in his prospect and view as lying in the polluted Mass or in a State of Sin and Misery and then provided a Redeemer for them God at first made a perfect Law which forbad all Sin upon pain of Death Man did break this Law and still we break it day by day in every Sin Now when Men lived and went on in Sin and Hostility against God he was pleased then to send his Son to assume our Nature and die for our Transgressions Therefore the giving of a Redeemer was the Work of his free Mercy Man loved not God yea was an Enemy to God when Christ came to make the Atonement 1 Ioh. 4. 10. Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins Col. 1. 21. And you that were sometimes alienated and Enemies in your Minds by wicked Works yet now hath he reconciled We were sensless of our Misery careless of our Remedy so far from deserving that we desired no such matter God's Love was at the beginning not ours USE 1. Is to confute all Misapprehensions of God It is the grand Design of Satan to lessen our Opinion of God's Goodness So he assaulted our first Parents as if God notwithstanding all his Goodness in their Creation was envious of Mans Felicity and Happiness And he hath not left off his old wont He seeketh to hide God's Goodness and to represent him as a God that delighteth in our Destruction and Damnation rather than in our Salvation as if he were inexorable and hardly entreated to do us good And why That we may stand aloof from God and apprehend him as unlovely Or if he cannot prevail so far he tempteth us to poor unworthy mean thoughts of his Goodness and Mercy Now we can notobviate the Temptation better than by due reflections on his Love in giving his Son for the World
in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. The Author Tit. 3. 5 6. Not by Works of Righteousness which ye have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour Till we are in him and be one with him we have not this great Benefit 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature We are destitute of that Image of God wherein we were created and better we had never been born unless new-born 2. The Favour of God which is an immediate Consequent of his Image God delighted in Man as innocent but Man sinful is the Object of God's Wrath Loathing and Aversation Therefore Christ died to recover Man to the Love and Favour of God 2 Cor. 5. 14. To make peace between the offended Sovereign and Subject offending To interpose between God angry and Man guilty Now this Breach continueth till we are reconciled by Christ till we love God and are beloved by him And better we had been in a lower rank of Creatures than to continue under God's displeasure for the Misery of the Beasts dies with them Death puts an end to all their Pains at once but the Wrath of God not appeased by Christ continues on the Sinner for ever 3. Fellowship with God was lost by the Fall Man was driven out of Paradise and shut out of God's Presence by a flaming Sword Gen. 3. 24. the Emblem of his Wrath and all Entercourse was broken off But Christ came to open the Way by whom we have access unto God with boldness and confidence Eph. 3. 12. Heb. 4. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in a time of need We need daily access to God we cannot live without him How can we look him in the Face with any Comfort when we have no Mediator we cannot have any serious thoughts of him without trembling 2. There is no removal of that Misery which we have incurred which is the Death and Curse wherein we are involved by Sin As long as the Curses of the Law stand in full force against us we can have no firm confidence if we look to time past there is a huge heap of Sins the least of which is enough to sink us into Hell if we look to time present our nature being not yet healed our Hearts swarm with divers Lusts and we are ready to sin again if to time to come Death Hell and Judgment affright us Christ findeth us where Adam left us in the High-way to Hell and Damnation Joh. 3. 18. Condemned already and to hope for any release unless it be upon God's Terms is to make him untrue and unjust Certainly God will not break his Word and disturb the order of his Covenant for your sakes Therefore how will you escape the Curse and Condemnation of the Law if Christ be not given to you 3. There is no obtaining of what we should desire and pursue after as our proper Happiness but only by Christ. Man was made for God and cannot be happy without him and he is most compleatly happy in the full Enjoyment of him Now there is no coming to that blessed State but by Christ. Ioh. 14. 6. He is the Way to the Father The most eminent Sence is with respect to our final Blessedness when we come into his immediate Presence So Ioh. 5. 11. This is the Record that God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son It is Christ alone that can put us in the way and bring us home to Eternal Bliss USE 1. Is to confute the Worlds Opinion who measure God's Love by outward things or worldly Felicity Alas The Love or Hatred of God is not known by these things Eccles. 9. 1 2. Neither can the Heart of Man be satisfied with them These things can give us a Belly-full but not a Heart-full Psal. 17. 14 15. Those that take up with the Creature never felt the weight of Sin are not serious in matters of Eternal Concernments The only true Happiness is in having God for our God Christ for our Redeemer the Spirit for our Sanctifier and Comforter Use 2. Is to excite us to bless God for Jesus Christ. The Apostle doth frequently in all his Groans and Afflictions Rom. 7. 25. I thank God through Iesus Christ our Lord c. Blessed be God for the Grace of Iesus Christ whereby we have Pardon for what is past and Grace for the future to perform what God will accept So 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God which gives us the Victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. God by Christ hath given us the Victory over Sin Death and Hell So should you especially in the Lord's Supper it is an Eucharist be thankful that God hath given Christ for us which is an unspeakable Gift And now he cometh to give him to you afford him an hearty welcome into your Souls as you take him and apply him by Faith and give up your selves to him as his Redeemed Ones You come to look upon Christ who made his Soul an Offering for Sin he is here represented as crucified before your Eyes and is by God specially offered to your acceptance and with him Pardon and Life You must be joyful and thankful for these great Gifts and Benefits so dearly bought so surely sealed so freely offered and in the sense of all this devote your selves to God Use 3. Make it your main Care to see if Christ be given to us Without him you cannot have any true Remedy against Evil nor any solid Hope of Good Certain it is that in our Natural Estate we were without him Is there a Change The two great Ends for which Christ came were to appease God and to be the Principle of a new Life Is Christ given for these Ends Have you received him Do not think Christ fell from Heaven into your Bosom whether you would or no. Did you ever feel your Misery without him and cry mightily to God Give me Christ or else I die and perish for ever I confess Conversion is not always evident in feeling but it is in the Effect and Fruit. What Fruits have you then abiding in you The great Fruit of Christ being given to you is the Spirit 's dwelling in you Rom. 8. 9. But ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you The great Work of the Spirit is to sanctify the Soul to the Service of him that redeemed us Titus 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Clear this and the Cause is decided III. I come now to the third part of
think all their business is to get a Victory over their Consciences and though they do not deny their Lusts yet if they can be strongly perswaded that God will be merciful to them in Christ they shall not perish but obtain everlasting Life No we must obey we must deny our selves or else we do not trust Christ to bring us to Heaven in his own ways and methods but trust to some vain conceits of our own II. How this is to be understood That whosoever believeth since many other things are required of us as Repentance Mortification of Sin Self-denial new Obedience or Holiness Luk. 13. 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Mortification Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the Body ye shall live Self-Denial Luke 14. 16. If any Man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother yea and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple New Obedience or Holiness Heb. 12. 14. Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. I answer all Truths are not delivered in one place and therefore a solitary Faith will not bring us to Heaven but that which is seconded with other things But more distinctly I. Faith is not required to exclude other things that are connexed with it by the Ordination of God For every one that believeth Christ believeth the whole Gospel to be true Except against one part and you may except against all the rest Now it is evident in the Gospel that without Regeneration Repentance and Holiness no Man can be saved and see God therefore every one that believeth in Christ must trust him to obtain it in the way that he hath appointed and promised to give it 2. Faith is not required to exclude other things that are included in the nature of it or flow as genuine Effects from such a cause A purpose of Obedience is included in the Nature of Faith and actual Obedience is the fruit of it Every one that believeth Christ receiveth him in all his Offices therefore a purpose of Obedience is included in the nature of it and if Faith be sincere universal Obedience in Self-denial Mortification and our duty to God and Men will naturally be derived from it Therefore as he that is to entertain a King makes reckoning of his Train and that he will not come alone so every one of whom Faith in Jesus Christ is required must reckon that his Faith must be evidenced to be sincere by the Fruits of it III. Why is Faith required that we may receive Benefit by Christ For these Reasons 1. In respect of God 2. In respect of Christ. 3. In respect of the Creature 4. In respect of our Comforts 1. In respect of God that our Hearts may be possessed with a full apprehension of his Grace who in the new Covenant appeareth not as a revenging and condemning God but as a pardoning God This reason is rendred by the Apostle Rom. 4. 16. It is of Faith that it might be of Grace The Law brought in the Terror of God by being the Instrument of revealing Sin and the punishment due thereunto ver 15. The Law worketh Wrath for where there is no Law there is no Transgression no such stinging sense of it but the Gospel brought in Grace The Law stated the Breach but the Gospel shewed the way of our Recovery And therefore Faith doth more agree with Grace as it makes God more amiable and lovely to us and beloved by us by the discovery of his Goodness and Grace The saving of Man by Christ that is by his Incarnation Life Sufferings Death Resurrection and Ascension do all tend to possess our Hearts with his abundant Grace To the same tend also his merciful Covenant gracious Promises and all the Benefits given to us his Spirit Pardon and Communion with God in Glory all is to sill our Hearts with a Sense of the Love of God And all this is no more than necessary for a guilty Conscience is not easily setled and brought to look for all kind of Happiness from one whom we have so much wronged Adam when once a Sinner was shy of God Gen. 3. 10. and Sin still makes us hang off from him Guilt is suspicious and if we have not one to lead us by the Hand and bring us to God we cannot abide his Presence For this End serveth Faith That Sinners being possest of the Goodness and Grace of God may be recovered and return to him by a fit Means In the new Covenant Repentance more distinctly respects God and Faith respecteth Christ Acts 20. 21. Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ. Repentance respects God because from God we fell and to God we must return We fell from him as we withdrew our Allegiance and sought our Happiness elsewhere to him we return as our rightful and proper Happiness but Faith respects the Mediator who is the only Remedy of our Misery and the Means of our Eternal Blessedness He opened the way to God by his Merit and Satisfaction and actually bringeth us into this way by his renewing and reconciling Grace that we may be in a capacity both to please and enjoy God and that is the reason why Faith in Christ is so much insisted on as our Title and Claim to the Blessedness of the new Covenant It hath a special aptitude and fitness for our recovery from Sin to God because it peculiarly respects the Mediator by whom we come to him 2. With respect to Christ. 1. Because the whole Dispensation of Grace by Christ cannot well be apprehended by any thing but Faith partly because the Way of our Recovery is so supernatural strange and wonderful that unless we believe God's Testimony how can we be perswaded of it That the Carpenter's Son should be the Son of that great Architect and Builder who framed Heaven and Earth that Life should come to us by the Death of another that God should be made Man and the Judge a Party and he that knew no Sin be condemned as a Criminal Person that one crucified should procure the Salvation of the whole World and be Lord of Life and Death and have such Power over all Flesh as to give Eternal Life to whom he will Reason is puzsed at these things Faith can only unravel them Partly because the Comfort of the Promises is so rich and glorious and the Persons upon whom it is bestowed so unworthy that it cannot easily enter into the Heart of a Man that God will be so good and gracious to us 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive the Things God hath prepared for them that love him Therefore Sense and Reason could look for no such thing Faith is necessary and a strong Faith that it may work upon us These are things
Death as a curse not to eat of the one as he enjoyned him to eat of the other as a Pledg of Life and Blessing This same course did Christ take in his Sermons by telling them of the wide Gate and the strait Gate the broad and narrow Way much Company and little the one tending to Destruction the other to Life Mat. 7. 13 14. So Wisdom speaks by Solomon Prov. 8. 35 36. Whose findeth me findeth Life and shall obtain Favour of the Lord but he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own Soul all they that hate me love Death So that you see this is an excellent way to gain Men to the Holy Life I. Let us consider our Work II. The Reasons why we must do so I. Our Work the Matter of it and the Manner in which we are to propound it to you 1. The Matter We must set before the People 1. Life and Good 2. Death and Evil. This I shall open in these Propositions First That there is a distinction between Good and Evil Vice and Vertue He that doth not acknowledg it is unworthy the name not only of a Christian but of a Man Certainly he is unworthy the name of a Christian for the whole Word of God doth mete out the Bounds between both these and shew what is forbidden and what is commanded and therefore it is a defiance of Christianity to doubt of it But he is also unworthy the name of a Man Nature apprehendeth that somethings are worthy of Praise and others worthy of Blame and Reproof else why should wicked Men be offended to be taken for such as they are and desire as much as possibly they can to seem better and to cover their dishonest Actions with a plausible Appearance Secondly The matching these two Death and Evil Life and Good And here I shall speak 1. Of the Suitableness of the Connection between them 2. The greatness of both Thirdly The certainty of both these Life and Death as the Fruit of Good and Evil. 1. The Suitableness or Correspondency there is between Holiness and Beatitude Sin and Misery It must needs be so if we consider the Wisdom Justice Holiness of God 1. The Wisdom of God which doth all things according to Weight Measure and Number cannot permit the Disjunction of these two things so closely united together as Sin and Punishment Grace and Happiness but there will be an appearance of Deformity and Irregularity For if there be such a thing as Good and Evil as Bonum and Malum morale as Reason will tell us there is And again if there be such a thing as Pleasure and Pain as Joy and Sorrow or that which we call Bonum and Malum naturale as Sense will tell us there is then it is very agreeable to the Wisdom of God that these things should be rightly placed and sorted that moral Evil which is Sin should be punished with natural Evil which is Pain and Misery that the inordinate Love of Pleasure which is the Root of Sin should be checked by a fore-thought of Pain And that Moral Good which is Vertue and Grace should end in Joy and Pleasure For God is naturally inclined as the Creator of Mankind to make his Creatures good and happy if nothing hinder him from it Well then we see how incongruous it is to the Wisdom of God who permits no dissonancy or disproportion in any of his Administrations to admit a Separation of these natural Relatives If there were no other Testimony of this yet the Dispositions of our own Hearts would know it for they are some obscure Shadows of the Properties which are in God We have Compassion on a miserable Man whom we esteem not deserving his Misery we are also moved with indignation and displeasure against one that is fortunate and successful but unworthy the Happiness that he enjoys Which is an apparent Testimony and Proof that we are sensible of an excellent Harmony and natural Order between these two things Vertue and Felicity Sin and Misery and to see them so suited doth exceedingly please us 2. The Justice of God as he is Judge of the World and so must and will do right doth require Ut 〈…〉 malis malè That it should be well with them that do well and ill with them that do evil God is naturally inclined to provide for the Happiness of Man as he is his Creator and if there were no Sin to stop the Course of God's Bounty there would be nothing but Happiness in the World But since the Entrance of Sin into the World Men are of different sorts some recover out of their estate of Sin and live holily others wallow in their filthiness still Now it is agreeable to God's general Justice as he is the Judge of the World to execute Vengeance on the one and reward the other that Happiness should accompany Vertue by a natural and inseparable Dependance and Misery incessantly attend Vice Rom. 2. 6 7 8. It is true the Bond which joyneth Happiness and Vertue together is not so strong and so every way naturally evident as that which joyneth Vice and Punishment If a Person in Sovereignty and Honour does not will that Moral Evils be punish'd 't is in some sort to consent to them but the Condition of the Creature is such that he ought to be holy and vertuous though God had not positively commanded him and God having so commanded we are bound to obey his Command though he had not proposed the Hope of a Reward in as much as we owe all to God both because of the infinite Eminence of his Majesty as because we hold our Beings and all from him And therefore there is a Distinction Rom. 6. 23. The Wages of Sin is Death but the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Iesus Christ our Lord. The one is Wages the other a Gift The Promise which God maketh of Remuneration and the actual Retribution which he performeth of the same ought to be imputed only to his Goodness and gratuitous Liberality Men cannot pretend any other Right before him from whom we hold all things yea our very Being Now that which proceedeth of Goodness seemeth not to be of so strait an Obligation but that he is at liberty to do or not to do especially when the transaction is between two Persons the Dignity and Authority of one of which is infinitely above the Condition of the other as the Majesty of God is above his Creature Therefore as to such a Reward God is free and therefore might have enjoyn'd Holiness without the Promise of such a Recompence But the general Relation that is between Punishment and Sin Holiness and Happiness as to the consequence of one upon another is agreable to the general Justice of God which is a Perfection necessary to him as he is the Supreme Governor and Ruler of the World 3. The Holiness and Purity of God which inclineth him to hate Evil and love that which is good God
it is yet the full Reward lieth in another World and the main Encouragements must be fetcht from thence There is an opposite Principle against it in the Heart which must always be curbed and suppressed and it meeteth with many Temptations from the Reproaches and Oppositions of those who like not this sort of Life The sensual and ungodly will use all Ways and Means to brand the Holy and Heavenly as an humorous Sort of Men and if their Hands be tied by the restraint of Laws and Government so that we are not exposed to Sufferings by their Violence yet we cannot but expect slanderous Abuses from them Now the Case being so the Motives must be sufficient to resist all the Temptations of this Life to keep us in the Love and Obedience of God to the end which the bare Sense of our Duty would hardly do in the midst of so many Temptations We are in an estate of Imperfection and Sense is very strong in us all and the Sufferings of the Obedient are very great that if we had not an eye to the Recompence of the Reward we could not so well deny our selves Let every Man consult his own Soul what would support him when all the World is against him and he is hooted at by the Clamours of the wicked Rabble and pursued with sharp Laws and exposed to great difficulties and hardships if he had no Life to live but this what would he do Besides it will not stand with the Goodness of God if you can suppose one that loves Goodness for Goodness sake and is so hardy as to contemn all his natural Interests that such a Man should be a Loser by his Faithfulness and Obedience to God and be made altogether miserable by his Duty without any Recompence 1 Cor. 15. 19. And upon another account his Goodness is engaged to take his Servants into his own blessed Presence for the prevailing Inclination of Holiness that is planted by his own hand in their Breath to love serve and see him is an earnest that we shall not always be thus imperfect for our Reward consisteth as of compleat Felicity so exact Holiness seeing God and being like unto him 1 Joh. 3. 2. We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is But suppose this were true that Vertue were a Reward to it self then what Provision is there made for the punishment of Vice Cannot it be said that they that addict themselves to that Course of Life are punished enough by doing so Alas wicked Men profess great Contentment in that Course of Life which they lead and would be glad of the News that they should have no other Punishment than to wallow in their Lusts. Nature teacheth us and the Practice of all Nations confirmeth it that Evils which consist in a breach of Duty must be punished with afflictive Evils painful to Nature Never such a Law-giver was heard of that would punish a Man for Robbery by causing him to commit Adultery And for Vertue though it hath a Beauty to draw our Love yet it cannot it self be its own price and recompence for Man is of such a Nature as he is still drawn on with the hope of some further good till he come to the enjoyment of the chiefest Good And so many are the Trials of the Righteous in this World that the Apostle telleth us We were of all Men most miserable if our hopes were only in this Life 1 Cor. 15. 19. The Calamities of the Good are as great a discouragement and offence as the prosperity of the Wicked therefore there is an estate of Life and Death to come Besides if Man be God's Subject employed by him in a Course of Duty and Service when his work is ended then must he look to receive his wages accordingly as he performed his Duty or faulted in it Now our work is not ended till this Life be over then God dealeth with us by way of recompence either in Pains or Joys Add further Reason will tell us that these Pains and Joys after Death should be everlasting that the recompence should last as long as Man lasts For Man as to his Soul is immortal and there is no change of Estate in the other World after our Trial is over and things of Religion become meer matter of Sense Certainly one that hath lived holily and is translated to Glory there is no Reason that he should afterwards be made miserable and the Punishment holdeth Conformity to the Reward Luk. 16. 26. Between us and you there is a great Gulph fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence There is no changing of Estates or Places in the other World the Blessedness and Misery is Eternal Things to come would not considerably counter-ballance things present if there were not Eternity in the case 2. Conscience hath a sense of it and on the one hand standeth in dread of Eternal Death and on the other is cheared with the hopes of Eternal Life The first is proved Rom. 1. 32. and Heb. 2. 14. 1 Cor. 15. 56. Men are afraid of Death not only as a natural Evil as it puts an end to present Comforts but as it is an entrance to an unknown Countrey What is the reason of the stings of Conscience which are never so sensible and quick as when Men approach near Death or behold themselves in some near danger What are these but presaging Fears that anticipate Miseries after this Life If the Soul were extinguished with the Body then troubles should in reason vanish but we find that this is the time when these Allarms are redoubled and these Tempests increase with violence On the other side there are Joys of the Spirit which are a taste and earnest of Eternal Life Eph. 1. 13. He hath given us the earnest of the Inheritance Good Men have so much of Heaven upon Earth as may assure them they may look for more this hath supported them in all their difficulties and labour Now if there were no such thing the wise and best Men that ever the World saw would be Liars or Fools Liars in pretending Comfort which they had not or Fools in being deceived by their own vain Imagination and in taking such pains in subduing the Flesh hazarding their Interests and performing their Duty upon the hopes of another World 3. Scripture if we will take God's Word for it is express Rom. 8. 13. Rom. 6. 21 22. and Gal. 6. 8. The present World is comprised in two Ranks either Sowing with the Flesh that is such who employ their labour to make Provision to gratify the Carnal Appetite or Sowing to the Spirit such as employ their Time and Study in advancing the work of the Spirit and they issue themselves into two States in the other World the State of Everlasting Perdition or Everlasting Life Thus do the Scriptures propound Good and
nearer we draw to the one the more we avoid the other so that we have a double reason not to go back and much to engage us to go forward Application Use of Exhortation 1. Suffer us to discharge our Duty in this kind Heb. 13. 22. I beseech you Brethren suffer the Word of Exhortation It is but a small request we have to you that you will but suffer us to take pains to save your Souls it is irksome to carnal Men to have their sluggishness stirred up But what is there that should make it grievous and distastful Many can endure us when we treat of the Joys of Heaven but when we come to flash Hell Terrors in the Face of obstinate Sinners and tell them of Damnation and Wrath to come they think us harsh and severe and say as Ahab of Micaiah He prophesieth nothing but evil to me I but we must set both before you both Life and Death and it is better to hear of Hell than to feel it That is a cowardly Confidence that cannot endure the mention of our Danger There are others that like the offer of Heaven but would sever those things that are so aptly joined Life and Good Death and Evil that cannot indure this Doctrine in this Sense they say with those carnal Hearers Evermore give us the Bread of Life Joh. 6. 35. But they mistake the Terms upon which it may be had Oh! but we are not in the place of God and cannot make the way to Heaven easier than it is but we propound God's Covenant as we find it Life and Good the Conditions as well as the Offer Would you have us compound with you and deceive your Souls with a false hope which will leave you ashamed when you most need the comfort of it Men would live with the Carnal die with the Sincere therefore suffer us to be earnest with you 2. The next thing that we exhort you to is to believe the certainty consider the weight and importance of these Truths that there is a difference beetween Good and Evil that the fruit of the one is Death of the other Life and consider how irrational it is for a Man to love Death and refuse Life No Man in his right Wits can make a doubt which to choose In vain is the Snare laid in the sight of any Bird. Prov. 1. 17. You cannot drive a dull Ass into the Fire that is kindled before his Eyes It is true you hate Death and yet it is proper to say you choose it Prov. 8. 36. All they that hate me love Death Why refusing the Good do you so eagerly pursue the Evil How can ye hate the Wages and yet love the Work by which the Wages is to be earned and in requital of which it will be certainly paid If you detest Hell why not Sin if you love Heaven why do not you do good There is an inseparable Connection between these Who can pitty the Torment of that Man that thrusts his Hand into the Fire What should be the cause of this but Incredulity and Inconsideration 1. Unbelief and Atheism they do not think God will recompence Men according to their Works Now till Men believe it tell them of Hell or Heaven never so much it will not work upon them Who would lose that which is certain and present for the hope or fear of that which is to come and doubtful when they suspect or believe it not fully No wonder they go on still in the Paths that lead down to the Chambers of Death and are prejudiced against the Ways of Life But why are Men such Infidels as to future things 1. You cannot disprove what is declared in Scripture or by any sound Argument evince that there is no Heaven or Hell for all you say or know there are both really existing and if there were no more but that it were good to take the surer side especially when you part with nothing but a few base Pleasures and carnal Satisfactions Reason should make us very careful In a Lottery where there is but a possibility of gaining Men will venture a Shilling or a small matter for a Prize If there be either no Hell or Heaven you part with no more than the vain Pleasures of a fading perishing Life but if this Doctrine prove true you run the hazard of Eternal Torments and lose the Comfort of Eternal Joys therefore it is better to trust this Doctrine than try it it is Prudence to make provision for the worst 2. But doth not natural Reason and Conscience and the Presages of our Hearts shrewdly evidence that there is a World to come as before was proved an Heaven for the Good and an Hell for the wicked At present the Wicked flourish and the Good many times suffer what shall we conclude thence Mol. 2. 17. Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in him or where is the God of Iudgment 3. If Nature be not so clear Scripture is full and positive If we do indeed believe the Scripture as we profess to do certainly we cannot so grosly go against the whole Current and Drift of it That Scripture which you profess to be the Book of God and take for the Rule of your Lives and Expectations that Scripture which your Consciences dread as owning the Voice of God therein that Scripture which is confirmed by God's Providence and frequent Experiments that Scripture which hath such a rational Evidence in it self 't is that assureth us of a World to come and bringeth it to light in the Word The very thoughts of such an Hell and Heaven as was invented by the ancient Heathens was enough to make them vertuous though as to the Manner and Circumstances of it the more understanding knew it to be a very Fable and Supposition yet the Thing it self being bottom'd and founded upon those natural apprehensions of the Immortality of the Soul and the Attributes of the Deity had powerful Effects upon them Now shall we talk of Christianity pretend a Reverence to the Scriptures and shall we tremble no more at the Certainty of an Hell than Gentiles at the possibility of it Shall their Suspicion work more than our Faith If they were so pliable to Poets discipline how should we be moulded and framed by the Doctrine of Christ what awe and holy trembling should it breed in our Hearts 2. Inconsideration We are so taken up with the Cares and Pleasures of the present Life that we are not at leisure to think of Death and Life Hell and Heaven or upon what Terms we stand with God Jer. 8. 6. Eccles. 11. 9. Remember that for all these things God will bring thee to Iudgment The young Man in the heat of his Lusts forgetteth that a time of reckoning will come Oh think of your ways and whither you are a going It is foolish to busy our selves about many things and neglect the main Luk. 10. 41 42. You
which maketh us Creatures only That came from his general Goodness this from his peculiar Love there it is Goodness here it is Grace 2 Tim. 1. 9. He hath called us with an holy Calling according to his own Purpose and Grace Creatures are sustained by his common Providence but new Creatures by his special Care and Covenant He openeth his Hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal. 145. 16. But he especially preserveth and supplieth Believers 1 Tim. 4. 10. He giveth others bodily Comforts but these Soul-refreshings and spiritual Graces Eph. 1. 3. There is Vestigium a Tract or Foot-print of God in all the Creation these have his Image restored in them Eph. 4. 24. The new Man is created after God Well then this is that we should look after that we may be his Workmanship made again It is a woful thing to be God's Workmanship by Creation and not by Renovation it is better never to have been God's Creature in the first making if not his Creature in the second making Better thou hadst been a Beast yea a Toad or Serpent than a Man for when the Beasts die Death puts an end to their Pains and Pleasures at once but all thy Comforts end with Death and then thy Pains begin the Beasts have no remorse to sowre their Pleasures but Man hath Conscience and therefore can have no rest till he return to God Secondly God's way of Concurrence to establish this Relation It is a Creation the Phrase is often used Eph. 4. 24. The new Man is created after God No other Hand could finish this piece of Workmanship God often sets it forth by this Term Isa. 43. 7. I have created him for my Glory I have formed him yea I have made him So vers 21. This People have I formed for my self they shall shew forth my Praise So in other places Now Creation is a Work of Omnipotency and proper to God There is a twofold Creation in the beginning God made some things out of nothing and somethings ex inhabili materia out of foregoing Matter but such as was wholly unfit for such things as was made of it As when God made Adam out of the dust of the Ground and Eve out of the Rib of Man Take the Notion in the former or latter Sence and it will sute with the Matter in hand 1. We are formed anew of God as it were out of a State of Nothing and get a new Being and a new Life To this there are frequent Allusions in Scripture as Rom. 9. 7. He calleth the things that are not as though they were 2 Cor. 4. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who speaketh Light out of Darkness he bringeth Life out of Death something out of nothing Now there is such a Distance between these two Terms that the Work can only be accomplished by a Divine Power 2. Creation out of unfit Matter We were wholly indisposed averse from Good perverse Resisters of it Now to bring us to love God and Holiness to restore God's lost Image to us it is a new forming or making of us and must be looked upon not as a low natural or common thing but as the Work of him who gave us his Image at first Col. 3. 10. The new Man is renewed after the Image of him that created him To turn a Heart of Stone into an Heart of Flesh God challengeth it to Himself Ezek. 36. 26. This Creation sheweth two things 1. The Greatness of the Disease that is clearly seen in the difficulty of the Remedy Nothing doth make a Man so sensible of the Corruption of his Nature as when we hear by what Terms our Recovery or Restitution by Grace is set forth It is a second Creation a new Birth a Resurrection a raising up of Stones to be Children to Abraham yea in a sort Beasts are turned into Angels From these things we may a little conceive of the greatness of that Disease which all Mankind were sick of Every Faculty of our Souls was both weakned and corrupted and God only by his Divine Power can restore us for to be cured we must be wholly new made and who can make or create but God Surely we contributed nothing to it What Enemies were we to our own Mercies It is no small matter for Darkness to become Light in the Lord for a rugged stubborn Creature to be mollified and submissive to the Spirit 's Discipline for a Slave of the Devil to become the Subject of Christ that an Heap of Rubbish should be erected into a Temple to God and a Dung-hill turned into a Bed of Spices 2. It teaches us to magnify this renewing Work If you think the Cure is no great matter it will necessarily follow that it deserveth no great praise and so God will be robbed of the Honour of our Recovery But why then is this Work so magnified in the Scriptures and such high Expressions used about it Why is it called an opening of our blind Eyes a turning us from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to God a quickning them that were dead and making us new Creatures Why must the Holy Ghost be shed so abundantly upon us for our Renovation Surely it is some great thing which all these Expressions do intend and should be more magnified in our thoughs that we may give God his due praise and honour And they sin greatly that have contemptuous thoughts or a low esteem of it or see not the absolute necessity of it and by extenuating this great Change give shrewd suspicion they were never acquainted with it Surely all that have felt what God hath done for their Souls they know how little they have contributed to it they dare not make light of it and ascribe it to their own Wit or Will or entertain undervaluing thoughts of this Grace Alas there is an Enmity in every carnal Heart against Holiness till God remove it and subdue it Rom. 8. 7. Col. 1. 21. And what shall conquer this Enmity but his invincible Power Surely this is the gracious and powerful Work of the ever-blessed GOD and to be ascribed to Him alone Can a stony Heart of it self become tender Or a dead Heart quicken it self Or a Creature wholly led by Sense and addicted to the Pleasures of Sin be brought of it self to seek its Happiness in an unseen World and of its own accord deny present things and lay up all its Hopes in Heaven No it is God must take away the Heart of Stone quicken those that are dead in Trespasses and Sins 3dly How far the Mediation of Christ is concerned in this Effect We are renewed by God's creating Power but through the intervening Mediation of Christ. 1. This creating Power is set forth with respect to his Merit The Life of Grace is purchased by his Death 1 Ioh. 4. 9. God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live by him Here spiritually hereafter eternally Life opposite to
the Death incurred by Sin And how by him by his being a Propitiation that he speaks of there vers 10. We were in a State of Death when the Doors of Mercy were first opened to us under the Guilt and Power of Sin for while the Guilt and Tyranny of Sin remaineth we are said to be dead and strangers to the Life of God and we begin to live when first regenerated by the Spirit of Christ. Now this we have not without Christ being a Propitiation for our Sins that is without doing something whereby God without any impeachment of his Honour might shew himself placable and propitious to Mankind his Justice Holiness and Hatred of Sin being sufficiently demonstrated in the Sufferings of Christ. Now the Honour of his governing Justice being kept up his pardoning Mercy is the more freely exercised God may be propitious to Mankind and yet still be acknowledged as a sin-hating God 2. In regard of Efficacy Christ is a quickening Head or a life-making Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45. Whatever Grace we have comes from God through Christ as Mediator and from him we have it by virtue of our Union with him 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature As soon as joyned to him as our Head this Grace is applied to us by his Spirit It is first applied by converting Grace and then continually supplied by the confirming Grace of the Spirit and so we are fitted to every good Work Christ first applieth it in Conversion when he giveth us Repentance and a new Nature Acts 5. 31. And supplieth it by continual Influence Iohn 15. 5. We live on him as the Branch doth on the Root Now from hence we learn what a great Benefit renewing Grace is it is a Fruit of reconciling Grace 2 Cor. 5. 18. All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Christ. God giveth Grace only as the God of Peace that is as pacified by Christ's Death The holy Spirit is the Gift of his Love and the Fruit of this Peace and Reconciliation which Christ made for us First our Lord Jesus Christ merited this Grace by the value of his Sacrifice and bloody Sufferings and then doth apply it by the Almighty Power of his Spirit and Christ is first our Ransom and then the Fountain of Life unto our Souls and so the Honour of our whole and entire Recovery is to be ascribed to our Redeemer When he satisfied God's Justice for our Sins he purchased a Power to change the Heart of Man and he purchased this Power into his own Hands not into anothers and therefore doth accomplish it by his Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 18. We should often think what a Foundation God hath laid for the Dispensation of his Grace and how he would demonstrate his infinite Love in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us When he would shew forth his infinite Power in determining and changing the Heart of Man all the Persons concurred the Father purposing the Son by way of Redemption and Purchase the Holy Ghost by effective Power and all to bring back our Souls to God and to make us capable of serving and pleasing him it is surely a Workmanship of much cost Two Reasons why they are as it were created anew 1. Because of the Badness of our former Estate Ruinous and decayed Buildings are only to be thrown down to make way for a new Structure and House to stand in the same place Man naturally is a Creature in a State of Apostacy and Defection under a loss of Original Righteousness averse from God yea an Enemy to him prone to all Evil weak yea dead to all Spiritual Good And what must be done with such a Creature to bring him out of his Misery but wholly to new-mould him and make him that he may have a new Being and Life The Scripture represents Man as blind in his Mind 2 Pet. 1. 9. Perverse in his Will Zech. 7. 12. Rebellious in his Affections Eph. 2. 3. fulfilling the Desires of the Flesh and of the Mind What sound Part is there left in us to mend the rest If we will be brought home to God we must of sinful and polluted become clean and holy and Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Job 14. 4. We must of carnal become spiritual and therefore we must be new-born new-made Ioh. 3. 6. That instead of minding the things of the Flesh we may mind the things of the Spirit we must of Wordly become Heavenly Now he that formeth us for this very thing is God 2 Cor. 5. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that frameth and createth us for this Heavenly State is God He that is the Framer and Maker of all things of infinite Wisdom Power and Love he createth us anew in Christ that we may look after Eternal Life The Heavenly Disposition wrought in us is a Pledge of it 2. From the Nature of God's Work which is not meerly by helping the Will but by giving us the Will it self or the Act of Volition of it not by curing the Weakness of it but by sanctifying it and taking away the Sinfulness of it and inclining it to himself If the Will were only in a Swoon and Languishment a little moral Perswasion and Excitation outward or inward by the Word and Spirit would serve the turn but we cannot say of it as Christ of the Damsel She is not dead but sleepeth No the Scripture saith We are dead in Trespasses and Sins Eph. 2. 1. God's Grace is not only necessary for facilitation that we may more easily pursue and chuse that which is good as a Horse is necessary that a Man may pass on his Journey more easily which otherwise he might perform on foot with Difficulties No 't is impossible as well as difficult to escape the Carnal Life without God Mat. 19. 26. He doth work such a Change on a carnal Man's Heart that he contemns the World and seeks after Heavenly Things Nay he doth not only give us a remote Power to will if we please or a remote Power to do if we please but he giveth to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. the Will it self and the Deed it self Thus is God's Operation set forth he reneweth the Faculties and exciteth the Act of willing and doing by his powerful and victorious Influence Ezek. 36. 26 27. Otherwise if Grace did only give us an Indifferency so that a Man may or may not then Man would be the principal Cause of his own Conversion and God lose the Glory of his Grace and the Honour of it be ascribed to the Liberty of Man 's own Will God doth not give a power to repent and believe and leave it to the Determination of Man's Will to make it effectual but he giveth Faith it self and Repentance it self Faith is his Gift Eph. 2. 8. To you it is given to believe Phil. 1. 29. The Redeemer was raised to give Repentance
saved 4. Necessitate Signi as Evidences of our Right to Salvation both to others and our selves Works or external Acts are more sensible and visible and also liable to the notice of our own Consciences and it is more hard to judg of the internal Grace than the external Fruits 1. As to others God seeth what is in our Hearts but Men see it not till the Effects manifest it When Iohn suspected the Pharisees he said to them Mat. 3. 8. Bring ye forth therefore Fruits meet for Repentance The Fear of God is more known by the external Act than by the internal Habit therefore that Description is given Prov. 8. 13. The Fear of the Lord is to hate Evil Pride and Arrogancy and the evil Way and the froward Mouth do I hate And Iob 28. 28. The Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil is Understanding The Current of a Mans Life and Actions doth best expound and interpret his Heart Thus the Psalmist discovered the wicked Psal. 36. 1. The Transgression of the Wicked saith within my Heart that there is no Fear of God before his Eyes 2. To our selves holy Conversation and Godliness is the surest note of our Regeneration We judg others by external Works alone For the Tree is known by its Fruit Mat. 7. 16. Charity forbids us to pry any further but we judg our selves by internal and external Works together If within we have Faith in Christ a love to God and hatred of Evil a delight in Holiness a deep sense of the World to come all which Graces make up the new Nature then these things issue out into an holy Conversation this breedeth Joy and Peace of Conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoycing the Testimony of our Conscience that in Simplicity and godly Sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World 1 John 3. 18 19. Let us not love in Word neither in Tongue but in Deed and in Truth and hereby we know that we are of the Truth and shall assure our Hearts before him 3. That good Works must not be opposed to God's Mercy and free Grace or Christ's Satisfaction Merit and Righteousness either in the matter of Justification or Salvation but kept in a due subordination to God's Grace and Christ's Merits This is the business of this Context to reconcile the Grace of God with the necessity of good Works è contrà and very well it may be for they are part of the Grace obtained He is most beholden to God and indebted to Grace who is enabled to do most good for all is from him Phil. 2. 13. He worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure So that our very doing is receiving But because there are a sort of Men that may be called Justiciaries who trust and teach others to trust to their own Vertues and Works without a Saviour or ascribe the part of a Saviour to them and on the other side the Libertines who teach Men not to look at any thing in themselves at all not as an Evidence Condition or Means but to trust to Christ's Blood to be instead of Faith Repentance and Obedience which is their Duty to be performed by them therefore it will be necessary to be well acquainted with what is truly the Part and Office of Christ what is truly the Office of Faith and Repentance what of Works that you may be sure to give every thing its due and may wholly trust Christ for his part and not joyn Faith or any of your Works and Duties in the least degree of that Trust and Honour which belongeth to our Saviour but regard them according to that use for which they are commanded in the Gospel 1. Our Works whatever they are either Duties to God or Man are not the first moving cause or inducement to incline God to shew us Favour or to bring about our Salvation No this Honour must be reserved for the Grace of God which moveth and stirreth all in the business of our Salvation It was his Grace to provide us a Saviour John 3. 16. God so loveth the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life And the giving of Faith or converting Grace to some before others is the meer Effect of his Mercy and good Pleasure Eph. 2. 4 5. God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he hath loved us when we were dead in Trespasses and Sins hath quickned us together with Christ by Grace ye are saved Then the Benefits consequent upon Conversion are from God's Love and Mercy As Justification Rom. 3. 24. Iustified freely by his Grace Not only by his Grace but freely that is not excited by our Works but acting freely of its own accord Then for Eternal Life we have it from the Grace of God and the Mercy of our Redeemer Jude 21. Looking for the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto Eternal Life So that Grace is the first Mover and Principle in the whole Business of our Salvation it is originally from Grace and all along by Grace 2. Our Works before or after Conversion are not that Righteousness not any part of that meritorious Righteousness by virtue of which Sins are expiated the Wrath of God appeased all Blessings of Heaven purchased and we reconciled to God For this is only to be ascribed to the Merit and Satisfaction of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we were Enemies we were reconciled by his Death and are saved by his Life Rom. 5. 10. He is our Propitiation we live by him 1 John 4. 9 10. In this was manifested the Love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins It is Christ's Office and Honour to be a Sacrifice for Sin and a Propitiation for us and a perfect Saviour and Intercessor to obtain the Spirit to fit us for our present Duty and future Happiness We are his Workmanship in Christ. 3. Our Works or Duties which we perform in Obedience to God are not the first means to apply the Grace of the Redeemer or the Condition of our first entrance into the Evangelical Estate No that is proper to Repentance and Faith Rom. 3. 22. The Righteousness of God is by Faith unto all and upon all them that believe And Repentance is frequently required also to receive Pardon and the Gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 2. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of Sins and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be Converted that your Sins may be blotted out It is the penitent believing Sinner that is