are let alone to enjoy our Sins is a Contradiction and so not the Object of any Power no not of Omnipotence it self For Sin it self is the greatest Misery that human Nature is liable to 't is this that convulses all its Faculties that racks and stretches them out of Joint and distorts them into an unnatural Figure and Position 't is this that makes us our own Reverse transposes our Head with our Feet and makes our Reason truckle to our Sense our intellectual Faculties that were made to govern to serve those brutish Passions and Appetites which Nature designed to be their Vassals which is such a barbarous Violence to the very Frame and Constitution of our Nature as will whensoever we recover out of our lethargick Stupidity be as sensibly dolorous to our Souls as Racks or Wheels or Catasta's to our Bodies So that for God to save us from Misery whilst he suffers us to continue in our Sins is altogether as impossible as it is to save us from burning whilst he suffers us to continue weltring in the Flames of Fire and to make us well in Sickness or easie in Diseases are not more repugnant to the Nature of Things than 't is to make us happy in our Sins and yet this is the only Matter we complain of that God will not allow us a free Dispensation to be wicked in that which is the Condition of our Salvation O blessed God! How is it possible thou shouldst ever please such froward peevish and ungrateful Creatures who will never be satisfied unless thou performest Impossibilities and makest Contradictions to be true for their sakes For shame therefore let us no longer complain that the Condition of our Salvation is too hard and rigorous but since God hath been pleased to condescend so low to us as to indulge us whatsoever is consistent with our Salvation let us admire and adore his Goodness and with our Souls inflamed with Love and Gratitude to him chearfully undertake what he hath so mercifully enjoyned us JOHN III. 16 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life I Am now upon the latter Part of this Text that whosoever believeth in him c. In which there are two great Instances of God's Goodness to us First his imposing upon us such a gentle and merciful Condition that whosoever believeth in him Secondly his proposing to us so vast a Reward upon the Performance of it should not perish but have everlasting Life The first of these I have handled already and now I proceed to the second viz. the vast Reward he hath proposed to us upon the Performance of this merciful Condition And in this you have First the negative Part of it that whosoever believeth in him might not perish Secondly the positive One but have everlasting Life I. I begin with the first of these that whosoever believeth in him might not perish In prosecution of which Argument I shall do these three Things 1. Shew you what is meant by perishing here 2. By what Right we were concerned in and obliged to it 3. What unspeakable Goodness God hath discovered to us in freeing and absolving us from this Obligation 1. What is meant by perishing here or not perishing That whosoever believeth in him should not perish that is that whosoever believes in him might be pardoned or absolved from the obligation of perishing for ever to which his Sins have rendred him justly liable For that by this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should not perish or be destroyed is not meant the Annihilation or Destruction of our Beings as the Socinians and some others imagin is evident by its being opposed to everlasting Life which as I shall shew you hereafter doth not denote our mere Continuance in Life and Being for ever but our Continuance in a most blissful and happy Life for ever and consequently the Destruction that is here opposed to it must not denote our eternal Discontinuance to be and live but our living most wretchedly and miserably for ever And indeed wheresoever Death or Destruction is spoken of in Opposition to eternal Life this is apparently the Sense of it So Rom. vi 23 The wages of Sin is death but the Gift of God is eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now that by Death here is understood a State of endless Misery and Suffering in Opposition to that State of endless Happiness which eternal Life implies is evident because he cannot mean the first Death which consists in the Separation of the Soul from the Body for though this were originally the Wages of Sin yet in it self it is not so now but the necessary Condition of our Nature for whether we Sin or no we must undergo it being obliged to it by the irreversible Decree of our Maker But the Death here spoken of is the Effect of our own personal Sin without which we are not liable to it as you may plainly see v. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things i. e. those Sins whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things or Sins is Death Wherefore since it cannot be meant of the first it must be meant of the second Death which St. John makes mention of Rev. 2.11 He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second Death And what that is the same Author tells you Rev. 20.14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire This is the second Death that is this Lake of Fire or the Torments and Miseries which condemned Sinners endure in it is the second Death for so he explains himself v. 10. And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where the Beast and the false Prophet are and shall be tormented Day and Night for ever and ever And this is that Death which is opposed to the immortal Rewards of the Blessed as you may see Rev. 21.7 8. He that overcometh shall inherit all things that is all those immortal Recompences which God has prepared for virtuous Souls But the fearful and unbelieving c. shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstrone Which is the second Death And as Death when opposed to eternal Life denotes a State of endless and continued Misery so doth Destruction also So Mat. 7.13 14. Broad is the way that leadeth to Destruction Narrow is the way which leadeth unto Life By the later of which it is granted on all hands he means Life eternal and that by Destruction he means a State of endless Misery is evident from Matth. 10.28 but fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell which according to St. John's Exposition Rev. 20.10 is to torment them Day and Night for ever and ever And this destroying in Hell our Saviour elsewhere expresses by casting into Hell into the fire that never shall be quenched where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched which is as plain
For he that hath Heaven for his Haven must be infinitely peevish if he quarrels at a rough Sea and doth nor bless the Storms and Winds that are driving him thither And thus I have proved to you at large that the Commands of God are not grievous and that both because they are easie in their own Nature and are made much more easie by our Blessed Lord and Saviour But after all that hath been said I do foresee a material Objection that will be made against this Discourse and that is this That it contradicts the universal Experience of Mankind For do not the Generality of those Men that have attempted a religious Life find by Experience a great deal of difficulty Are they not forced to strive and wrastle with themselves and to do the greatest Violence to their own Inclinations Are they not forced to keep themselves under a severe Discipline to pray earnestly and watch diligently to prevent the Surprises and Incursions of those Temptations that continually way-lay them wheresoever they are and whatsoever they are about And do they not many times find the difficulties so great as that they are quite beaten off and utterly disheartned by them All this I confess is very true and may very well be so without any Prejudice to the Argument in hand for we have not been discoursing of what Religion may accidentally be but of what it really is in it self The Light in it self is pleasant to the Eye but yet it may accidentally be grievous if the Eye be sore or weak and not able to endure its Splendor And so Religion though in its self extremely easie yet it may and often doth become accidentally difficult to us by Reason of those sinful Prejudices against it which we do too often contract in the Course of a sinful Life But 't is an unreasonable Thing for Men to measure the Easiness of God's Laws not by their own intrinsick Nature but by the Reluctancy and Opposition which they find in their own Hearts against them For to a Man in a Fever every Thing is bitter but yet the Bitterness is not in the Honey he tasts but in the Gall that overflows his own Palate And so to a vicious Man every Virtue is a Burthen but the Burthensomness is not so much in the Virtue as in his own Repugnancy to bear it For I have already proved at large that Religion is every way agreeable to humane Nature and therefore there can be no other Reason why it should not agree with us unless it be that we disagree with our selves We spoil our own Natures and do degenerate from the humane Nature into the brutal or diabolical and what wonder is it that the Religion of a Man should be a Burthen to the Nature of a Beast or a Devil But if we would take but a little Pains to retrieve our selves and weed out those unnatural Habits with which our Nature is over-grown we should find that our Religion and That would very well accord and then that which is our Burthen would become our Recreation I confess before this can be accomplished we must take a great deal of Pains with our selves we must watch and pray and strive and contend and undergo the severe Discipline of a sorrowful Repentance if ever we mean to recover our Natures again But for God's sake consider Sirs there is now no Remedy for this and you may thank your selves for it for you must undergo great Difficulties take which side you please If you resolve to continue as you are you must be most wretched Slaves to your own Lusts you must tamely submit to all their tyrannical Commands and run and go on every Errand they send you and though they countermand each other and one sends you this Way and another the quite contrary though Sloth pulls you back and Ambition thrusts you forwards and Covetousness bids you save and Sensuality bids you spend though Pride bids you strut and Flattery bids you cringe and there is as great a Confusion in their Wills and Commands as there was in the Language of the Brick-layers of Babel and though in such a Huddle of Inconsistencies you are frequently at your Wits end and know not what to do yet you must be contented to endure the Hurry and if you cannot do all at once you must do what you can and when you have done so 't is a thousand to one but there will be as many of your Lusts dissatisfied as satisfied And in the mean time while you are thus hurried about in the Crowd of your own sinful Desires your wretched Conscience will ever and anon be alarming you with its ill-boding Horrors and griping and twinging you with many an uneasie Reflection Thus like miserable Gally-Slaves you must tug at the Oar work against Wind and Tyde and row through the Storms and Tempests of your own Conscience and all this to run your selves upon a Rock and invade your own Damnation So that considering all I dare say the Toil of being wicked is much more insupportable than that of a holy Life and which is sad to consider it hath no other Issue but eternal Ruin for the wages of Sin saith the Apostle is death Rom. vi 23 And methinks it should be very uncomfortable for a Man to work so hard for nothing but Misery and even to earn his Damnation with the sweat of his Brows especially considering that the Toil and Drudgery of a sinful Life hath no End For though Custom and Habit renders all other Things easie yet by accustoming our selves to do Evil we add to our Toil and render those cruel Taskmasters our Lusts more tyrannical and imposing for still the more we gratify them the more craving they will be and the more impatient of denyal and so by working for them we shall but increase our own Toil and still acquire new Degrees of Labour and Drudgery But as for the main Difficulty of Religion it chiefly lies in the Entry to it for there we must shake hands with all our darling Lusts and bid them adieu for ever and to persuade our selves throughly to this is the main Difficulty of all for then to be sure they will cling fastest about us and use their utmost Oratory to stagger our Resolution and the old Love we have born them and the dear Remembrance of the Pleasures which they have administred to us will make our Hearts relent and our Bowels yearn towards them But if with all those mighty Arguments wherewith our Religion and our Reason furnishes us and all those divine Assistances which we are encouraged to ask and if we do are assured to obtain we can but conquer our Reluctancies and heartily persuade our selves to part with them this is the sharpest Brunt in all our spiritual Warfare for now if we do but keep the ground that we have gotten and maintain our Resolution against the Temptations that assault it our Lusts will every day grow weaker and
Obedience to Superiors and Contempt of the World of Patience and Courage and Meekness and Resignation to the Will of God that so by his Example we might be excited to the Exercise of all those passive Virtues which are not only most glorious but most difficult to human Nature and that by beholding how mean and yet how good he was we might all become more ambitious of being good than great in the World Now what an amazing Instance of God's Goodness is this that meerly for our sakes and to promote our Happiness he should depress his own Son into such a miserable Condition that he who was in the Form of God who thought it no Robbery to be equal with God should by the Appointment of his own Father to whom he was so infinitely dear make himself of no Reputation take on him the Form of a Servant become a Man of sorrows and acquaint himself with Griefs and all this to put himself into a better Capacity of doing good to the World Good God! When I consider with my self that once there was a Time when thou didst send thy blessed Son from Heaven to assume my Nature that therein he dwelt upon this Earth and conversed with such poor Mortals as my self that he suffered himself to be despised and persecuted and by thy own Appointment wandred about like a poor Wretch naked and destitute of all those Comforts which I abundantly enjoy and all this that he might the more effectually do good to a World of ill-natured Sinners methinks this wonderous Prodigy of Love not only puzles my Conceit but outreaches my Wonder and Admiration And though it be a Love that exceeds my largest Thoughts such as I have infinite Cause to rejoyce in but could never have had the Impudence to expect yet while I stand gazing on it methinks I am like one that is looking down from a stupendous Precipice whose Height fills me with a trembling Horror and even oversets my Reason 6 thly And lastly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears also in this that he gave his only begotten Son to be a Sacrifice for the Sins of miserable Sinners and this is plainly implied in that Expression he gave his only begotten Son For in the two Verses foregoing the Text our Saviour foretells his own Death for as Moses saith he lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal Life and then it immediately follows for God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that is he gave him to be lifted up upon the Cross even as the Serpent was lifted up by Moses in the Wilderness that so by his precious Death and Sacrifice he might make an Atonement for the Sins of the World And accordingly he is said to be delivered up for our offences Rom. iv 25 even as the Sacrifice was delivered up at the Door of the Tabernacle to propitiate God for the Sins of the Offerer For to compleat the propitiatory Sacrifices under the Law three Things were requisite first the offering of it at the Door of the Tabernacle the slaying of it and the presenting of its Blood either within the Holy of Holies or elsewhere all which were found in the Sacrifice of our blessed Saviour First he offered himself to God as a willing Victim for the Sins of the World Hence Joh. xvii 19 for this cause saith he do I sanctify my self that is offer up my self as a Sacrifice to thee for so in Levit. xxii 2 3. and sundry other places to hallow or sanctify any Thing to the Lord denotes the offering it to him in Sacrifice And accordingly we find that that Prayer by which Christ consecrated himself to the Lord Joh. xvii was much like that by which the High Priest did consecrate his Victims before the Altar on the great day of Expiation for as he before he slew the Sacrifice did first commend himself and his own Family then the Family of Aaron and the whole Congregation to the Lord so our Saviour in this excellent Prayer whereby he sanctified himself to his Father a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World first commended himself to him then his Apostles then all those who should afterwards believe in his Name which having done he went forth presently to the Place where he was apprehended and carried to Judgment and condemned to Death Then as a propitiatory Sacrifice he was slain for our sins for so St. Peter tells us Ephes. ii 24 he bore our Sins in his own Body on the Tree that is that natural Evil of a most shameful and painful Death was inflicted on him for our Sins that so he might make an Expiation for them and free us from the Guilt and Punishment that was due to them Hence in that Prophecy of him Isa. liii we often meet with such Expressions as these surely he hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows he was Wounded for our Transgressions he was Bruised for our Iniquities The chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his Stripes we are Healed The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all For the transgression of my people was he stricken Thou shalt make his Soul an offering for Sin and he shall bear their Iniquities He was numbered with the Transgressors and he bare the sin of Many and made intercession for the Transgressors All which Expressions do plainly imply that what he suffered he suffered for our Sins as a Sacrifice substituted in the Room of us who were the Offenders that so he might make Expiation for us and obtain our Pardon from his Father And accordingly in the New Testament he is said to be made a Curse for us to be our Ransom and Propitiation to redeem and reconcile us and obtain the Remission of our Sins by his Blood to die for us and for our Sins and to be our Propitiation all which Expressions being applyed to the Sacrifices of Atonement under the Law and from them derived upon our Saviour do plainly denote him to be a Sacrifice of Atonement for the Sins of the World And then lastly there is the presenting of his Blood for us in Heaven and in the Virtue thereof his interceeding for us with his Father And hence the Blood of Christ as it is now presented in Heaven is called the blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel Heb. xii 24 In which he plainly alludes to the High Priest's sprinkling of the Blood of the Sacrifice in the Holy of Holies which was a Type of Christs presenting his Blood for us in Heaven as you may see Heb. ix 7 compared with the 11th and 12th Verses Verse 7th he tells us that the High Priest entered not into the Holy of Holies without blood But then Verse 12th it is said that Christ with his own blood entred in once into the holy
place having obtained eternal Redemption for us And in Virtue of this Blood which he poured out as a Sacrifice of our Sins upon the Cross he now pleads our Cause at the right Hand of his Father and ever lives to make Intercession for us So that you see the Death of Christ had in it all the necessary Ingredients of a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the World and having so what a prodigious Instance is it of the Love of God to us that rather than destroy us he would give up his own Son to be a Sacrifice for us I do not deny but if he had pleased he might have pardoned and saved us without any Sacrifice at all but he knew very well that if he should do so it would be much worse for us He knew that if he should pardon our Sins without giving us some great Instance of his implacable Hatred of them we should be too prone to presume upon his Lenity and thereupon to return again to our old Vomit and Uncleanness and therefore though it would have been more for the Ease and Interest of his blessed Son to have pardoned us without any Sacrifice at all yet such was his Love to us that because he foresaw that this Way of pardoning would prove fatal and dangerous to us he was resolved that he would not do it without being moved thereunto by the greatest Sacrifice the World could afford him and that no less a Propitiation should appease his Wrath against Offenders than the Blood of his own Son that so by beholding his Severity against our Sins in this unvaluable Sacrifice of the Blood of his Son we might be sufficiently terrified from returning again to them by the very same Reason that moved him to pardon them that we might not think light of that which God would not forgive without such a vast Consideration but might tremble to think of repeating those Sins the Price of whose Pardon was the dearest Blood of the Son of God Hence is that of the Apostle Rom. iii. 25 26. whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness that is his righteous Severity against Sin for the remission of Sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be just that is sufficiently severe against the Sins of Men so as to warn them from returning and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus So that now he hath reduced Things to an excellent Temper having so provided that neither himself nor we might be damnified that we might not suffer by our doing again what we have done and that he might not suffer by our doing still the same that he might be what he is a pure and a holy Saviour and that we might be what we ought dutiful and obedient Subjects Now what an amazing Instance of God's Love is this that he should so far consult the good of his Creatures as to Sacrifice his own Son to their Benefit and Safety How inexpressibly must he needs love us that for our sakes could behold his most dearly beloved Son hanging on the Cross covered with Wounds and Blood forsaken by his Friends despised and spit on by his Barbarous Enemies that could hear him complain in the Bitterness of his Soul My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And yet suffer him to continue under that unsufferable Agony till he had given up his white and innocent Soul an unspotted Sacrifice for the Sins of the World Yea that notwithstanding the infinite Love that he bore him and the piteous Moans that his Torments forced from him was so far from relieving him that for our sakes he inflicted upon him the utmost Misery that human Nature could bear that so having an experimental Sense of the most grievous Suffering that Mankind is liable to and being touched with the utmost Feeling of our Infirmities and in all Points tempted like unto us he might carry a more tender Commiseration for us to Heaven and know the better how to pity us in all our Griefs and Extremities For in all things it behoved him saith the Apostle to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest Heb. ii 17 Hear O Heavens and give Ear O Earth and let all the Creation attend with Astonishment to this stupendous Story of Love which so far exceeds all the heroick Kindnesses that ever any Romance of Friendship thought of that no less Evidence than that of Miracles could have ever rendred it credible Well then might the Apostle say herein is love not that we loved God for after such vast Obligations this is no great Wonder but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our Sins 1 Joh. iv 10 And thus you see what an unspeakable Instance of the Love of God his giving his only begotten Son is I shall now conclude this Argument with a few practical Inferences from the whole 1. From hence I infer what monstrous Ingratitude it would be in us to deny any Thing to God that he demands at our Hands who hath been so liberal to us as to give up his only begotten Son for our sakes O blessed God! If it were possible for us to do or suffer for thee a thousand Times more than at present we are able what a poor Return were this for the Gift of thy Son that unspeakable Expression of thy Goodness And can we deny thee any Thing after such an Instance of Love especially when thy Demands are so gentle and reasonable When he requires nothing of us but what is for our good and the Requital he demands for all his Love to us is only that we should love our selves and express this Love in doing those Duties which he therefore enjoyns because they tend to our Happiness and avoiding those Sins which he therefore forbids because he knows they will be our Bane and Poyson Can any of my Lusts be as dear to me as the only begotten Son was to the Father of all things And yet he parted with him out of Love to me and shall not I part with these for the Love of him How can we pretend to any Thing that is modest or ingenuous tender or apprehensive in humane Nature when nothing will oblige us no not this astonishing Love of God in sending his Son from Heaven to live and die Miserably for our sakes Lord What do thy holy Angels think of us How do thy blessed Saints resent our Unkindness towards thee Yea how justly do the Devils themselves reproach and upbraid our Baseness who bad as they are were never so much Devils yet as to make an ungrateful Return of such a vast Obligation 2 ly From hence I infer how desperate our Condition will be if we defeat the End of this Gift of the Son of God and render it ineffectual to us For God hath no
a Description of an endless State of Misery as Words can express for how is it possible that Annihilation should signify either a Fire that never goes out or a Worm that never dies So also 2 Thess. 1.9 who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord meaning the wicked Persecuters at Christ's coming to Judgment Now that by that everlasting Destruction he means a State of endless Suffering and Torment is evident if we consider the Description which our Saviour gives of that Punishment to which the Wicked shall be sentenced at the last Day Go ye cursed saith he into everlasting Fire Matth. 25.41 And lest we should fancy that 't is the Fire only that is eternal but not the Punishment v. 46. of that Chap. And these saith he shall go away into everlasting Punishment but the Righteous into Life eternal And that they do actually exist in this Fire and continue in the Torment of it is evident by those Actions that are therein attributed to them such as weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth Matth. 13.42 50 which Actions are plain Indications not only of their subsisting in this everlasting Fire but of the extream Horror and Anguish they shall therein endure And as this Fire is said to be everlasting so the Everlastingness of it is described so as to exclude all Limits and prescind from all Determinations For Fire must be extinguished e're it can cease to burn and therefore that which cannot be extinguished can never end but such is that Fire whereunto the Wicked are condemned at the Day of Judgment so Matth. 3.12 whose fan is in his hand but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable Fire And that the Sufferers shall be no more extinguished than the Fire that burns them is evident from Rev. 14.11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever And they have no rest day nor night And how can the smoke of this Fire be said to be the smoke of their torment ascending up for ever and ever unless they exist in it for ever and ever especially considering what follows immediately after they have no rest day nor night Which Expression is the same with that by which the same Author signifies the eternal Happiness of good Men so Rev. 4.8 They rest not day and night saying holy holy holy and Rev. 7.15 The are before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple And if Day and Night here when applied to the State of Heaven denotes the continued blisful Employment of happy Souls there forever then for the same Reason when 't is applied to the State of Hell it must denote the continued Miseries of the Damned there forever Well then if the Fire of Hell be everlasting yea if it be so absolutely everlasting as that it is unquenchable and if those that are cast into it shall be tormented for ever and ever all which the Scripture doth directly teach then it necessarily follows that the Wicked must subsist in their Miseries for ever and be co-eternal with the Flames that torment them The Reason therefore why that future Punishment to which our Sins do consign and oblige us is called by the Name of Destruction Perdition and Death is not because it puts a final Period either to our Being or Subsistence as some fondly Dream but because it forever separates and disjoyns us from God who is the better and the nobler Life of Man and from all those sweet Perceptions of Comfort and Pleasure of which Life is the Principle And there is no Language Phrases or Expressions can be supposed to patronize a contrary Opinion since the same Scriptures which say that the Wicked shall be destroyed and perish and die say also that they shall be tormented with never-dying Pains as they plainly and frequently do This I have the longer insisted upon because it is a very dangerous Thing for Men to be deceived in this Matter not to know the worst of the Consequents of their own Follies but to expect an easier and a shorter Hell than ever they are like to find And so I have done with the first Thing proposed viz. what is here meant by perishing and proved to you at large that hereby is meant living miserably forever 2 dly I proceed now to the next Thing proposed viz. how we came to be concerned in and obliged to this dreadful Penalty To which I answer that originally we were hereunto obliged by the Law of our Nature for Man being naturally an immortal Creature must necessarily be forever liable to the natural Effects of his own Actions and therefore since Misery is the natural Effect of sinful Actions if we continue Sinners forever we must necessarily continue miserable forever And if God should have inflicted no other Miseries upon wicked Souls when they are separated from their Bodies than what are necessarily consequent to their own Wickedness these would be an Hell of insufferable Torment to them So that from the very Immortality of our Natures we are capable of everlasting Perseverance in Sin and from our everlasting Perseverance in Sin we are fatally damned to evelasting Misery And as by the Law of our Natures we are thus bound over to eternal Punishment so are we also by the positive Sentence and Determination of God who hath not only obliged us to obey him under the Penalty of enduring forever the Miseries that are naturally appendent to our Sins but hath added thereunto all those positive Torments which the Lake of Fire and Brimstone and the Horrors of outer Darkness do imply For so in his Word he hath plainly declared to us that if after he hath tryed us to the utmost we will not be reclaimed but are so desperate as to proceed in our Wickedness maugre all the Arts and Methods he can use to reduce us he will at last shut us up in a State of endless and irreversible Torment And this is no more than what he might very justly and rightfully do for he being the Supream Law-giver of the World hath an immutable Right to enforce his Laws with such Penalties as are sufficient to secure them from being violated by his Subjects for otherwise he would be defective in his Power of Legislation for how could he have sufficient Power to make Laws if he had not Right to enforce them with sufficient Penalties But we that are his Subjects being so apt to offend and so extreamly liable to Temptations thereunto no less Penalty could be sufficient to secure our Obedience than that which is eternal for which Reason he hath enforced his Laws with the Threatning of it And if God thought no less than the Threatning of eternal Punishment necessary to deter Men from their Sins what less than the Execution of that Threat can be sufficient to render them Examples of his Severity against it For Threats without Execution are but mere Scare-crows and it is highly unreasonable for us
Exercises of them according as we have Opportunity and doth no farther forbid the Deficiency and Non-improvement of them than as it is gross and continued and inconsistent with Sincerity Now the Reality of these Christian Virtues in us consists in the universal and prevalent Consent of our Wills to them to practise them as often as Occasion requires and not wilfully to commit any contrary Sin upon any Occasion whatsoever and so long as this Consent continues and prevails in our Practice we are just in the Eye and Judgment of the Law whatsoever Weakness and Defects Surprizes and Inadvertencies we may otherwise be guilty of For he who hath so submitted his Will to God as to consent effectually without any Reserve to obey him is evidently cordial and sincere though perhaps he may be weak and imperfect For as he is sincerely chast whose Will doth prevalently Consent to the Law of Chastity so he is universally a vertuous Man whose Will doth prevalently Consent to the universal Law of Virtue because that very Consent of his includes the Being and Reality of all Virtues though not the utmost Degrees and Improvements of them This therefore is the utmost that the Law of Sincerity requires that we should universally and prevalently Consent to the Will of God so as not wilfully to neglect any Duty which he hath enjoyned and practise any Sin which he hath forbid but though this be all it requires yet this it exacts under the severest Penalty in the World even that of eternal Death and Condemnation only this Proviso it admits of that if we do repent and amend this dreadful Obligation shall be null and void So that the great Difference between the Law of Perfection and the Law of Sincerity is only this that the Penalty of the later is much more Severe than that of the former but the Duty of the former is much more large and comprehensive than that of the later Having thus briefly explained to you these two Different Laws by which the Love of God as well as all other Virtues are made our Duty this I conceive will be of very great Use in stating the due Bounds and Measures either of Love or any other Virtue God requires of us We must understand by what Laws it is that he requires it and what Measures of it those Laws do require First therefore we will consider what Degree of Love to God is required by the Law of Perfection Secondly what Degree of it is required by the Law of Sincerity 1 st What Degree of Love to God is required by the Law of Perfection To which I answer that it requires all that Love which in the several Periods of our Growth and Progress in Religion we are able to render him For it is to be considered that in this corrupt Estate both our Vnderstandings and Wills are so darkened and depraved that we do not apprehend the thousandth Part of those Degrees of Loveliness that are in him and if we did yet our Affections are so inveigled by these sensual Goods among which we are placed that we are not able to render him the thousandth Part of that Love which those Degrees of Loveliness we do apprehend in him do deserve But there is no just Law can exact of us beyond what we are able to perform and therefore this Law of Perfection being just and righteous cannot be supposed to exact more Love to God from us than we have Strength and Power all our Circumstances considered to render unto him So that he who doth his utmost to understand and affect himself with the Beauty and Loveliness of God and to substract his Love from sensual Good and terminate it on God is a just and innocent Man in the Judgment of the Law of Perfection From whence it is evident first that no Man can be bound by any Law to Love God as much as he deserves to be beloved because he being infinitely lovely in himself is the adequate Object of an infinite Love which no finite Being is capable of 2 ly That no Man is bound to understand how much he deserves to be beloved because this is beyond the Comprehension of any finite Understanding especially of ours which are so dim-sighted in their Apprehensions of spiritual and invisible Beings 3 ly That in this State no Man is bound actually to love God so far as he apprehends Reason to love him this indeed we ought to endeavour after but while we continue in these Bodies it is impossible for us so absolutely to abstract our Love from sense and sensual Things as not to be in the least diverted by it from loving him to that Degree in which we know he deserves to be beloved It is I confess our Imperfection that our Love to him is not proportionate to our Apprehensions of his Loveliness but besides this we have many other Imperfections that are our Misery indeed but not our Sin For no Imperfection is any farther our Sin than 't is in our Power to correct it and there is no true Lover of God did ever attain to that Degree of Love as not to see great Reason to wish that it were in his Power still to love him more which is a plain Evidence in every Period of this imperfect State that our Affections are so intangled by these sensible Goods about us that we are not able to raise them to such a Degree of Love as is proportionate to our Apprehensions of his Loveliness 4 ly and lastly That no Man is bound to love God in the several Periods of his Growth and Progress in Religion with the same Degree of Affection for by the Law of Perfection a Man is always bound to love him as much as he can but in the Progress of our Religion we can love him much more than in the Beginning For the more we know of God and the more our Affections are disingaged from these sensual Goods the more Power and Ability we have to love him and we are equally bound to love him as much as we can when we have ten Degrees of Power as we are when we have but one and consequently 't is as great an Offence against the Law of Perfection not to love him as much as we can when we have more Power to love him as it was when we had less So that by this Law we are always bound to love him as much as we are able and to be always augmenting our Ability of loving him and always to love him more and more as our Power and Ability increases and under this sweet Obligation perhaps we shall lie to all Eternity For there being infinite Degrees of Loveliness and Amability in God our finite Understandings will need an Infinity of Duration to discover them all and it would be unreasonable for us not to love him more according as we discover more of the Beauty and Loveliness of his Nature 'T is true in this Life the Difficulty lies not so
should be such as did clearly argue and evince his righteous Severity for otherwise it would have no Force in it to prevent our Presumption And what Motive of Pardon could better evince his Severity than the Suffering of some other in our Room especially the Suffering of his own Son the greatest and dearest Person in the whole Creation For not to be moved to grant a publick Pardon to us upon our hearty Repentance unless this blessed Person would engage to die for us whose infinite Greatness gave such an inestimable Value to his Sufferings as rendred them adequate to what we had deserved to suffer was as great an Argument of his inflexible Severity against Sin as if he should have destroyed at one Blow the whole World of Sinners So that as he hath expressed an infinite Mercy to us in admitting his own Son to die for us so in refusing to pardon us upon any less Motive than his precious Death he hath expressed an infinite Hatred to our Sins and so that very Death which moved God to pardon us moves us to stand in Awe of his Severity the Death of the Son of God upon which we are pardoned being the most terrible Instance that ever was of the Desert of our Sin and God's Displeasure against it Thus our blessed Lord hath not only given us the greatest Encouragement by procuring our Pardon to return from our Iniquities but by procuring it in such a formidable way he hath given us the most dreadful Warning of God's Severity against them So that now we cannot think upon the Reason for which our past Offences are forgiven without being vehemently moved to future Obedience And thus the main Design you see both of Christs Life and Death was to recal us from Sin to the Practice of Righteousness And hence he is said to have given himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity and to purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good Works Tit. ii 14 And then he arose again from the Dead to confirm that righteous Doctrine which he had revealed to the World and visibly ascended into Heaven to give us an ocular Demonstration of the heavenly Rewards of Righteousness and there he now sits at the right Hand of God to assure us that if we persevere in Righteousness we shall be continually befriended in the Court of Heaven through his all-powerful Intercession and hath assured us that at the End of the World he will come to Judgment and faithfully distribute those Rewards and Punishments which here he promised and threatned to righteous and unrighteous Persons Thus the main Drift you see of all these great Transactions of our Saviour was to advance the Interest of Righteousness and true Goodness What a mighty Evidence therefore is this of God's great Love of Righteousness that he should send his own most blessed Son upon its Errand to transact such mighty Things on its Behalf For by sending Christ into the World and exposing him to Misery for Righteousness Sake he did in Effect declare that he valued the Interest of Righteousness more than the present Happiness and Enjoyment of his most dearly beloved and only begotten Son and we may most certainly conclude that had not Righteousness been infinitely dear to him he would never have authorized his dearest Son to take such infinite Pains to promote it 4 thly Another supernatural Indication of God's Love of Righteousness is his promising such vast Rewards to us upon it and denouncing such fearful Punishments against us if we despise and neglect it For besides all those temporal Rewards he hath proposed to us if we seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof he hath erected a Heaven of immortal Joys and Felicities to crown and entertan it a Heaven that contains in it all the Beatitudes that humane Nature is capable of all that Truth that the most capacious Mind can comprehend and all that Good that the vastest Affections can either crave or contain In a word a Heaven whose Blisses are all as large as our immense Desires and all as lasting as our immortal Beings For 't is a Heaven which consists in an eternal Fruition of the Fountain of infinite Truth and Goodness whose everflowing Streams are abundantly sufficient to quench the Thirst and make glad the Heart of every Being that understands and loves How much therefore God loves Righteousness you may easily guess by these vast Preparations he hath made to entertain it For he built Heaven on purpose to lodge righteous Souls and that they may see he thinks nothing too dear for them he is himself their Feast there as well as their Entertainer He feeds them with his own Perfections and they live for ever as happily as their Hearts can wish upon the Sight and Love and Imitation of his Beauties So vehemently is his Heart set upon Righteousness that he will have every righteous Soul dwell with him and live upon him and partake of all those heavenly Joys in which his own Beatitude consists But as for Vnrighteousness how much his Soul abhors it is evident by those dire Punishments he hath denounced against it by those dark and dismal Abodes which he hath condemned unrighteous Souls to to languish out a woful Eternity to burn in Flames there that never consume and be gnawn with Worms which never devour them to be scared and haunted with Devils without and Furies within and perpetually worried Day and Night without any Ease or Intermission with all the Horrors Griefs and Vexations that an everlasting Hell imports O thou merciful Father of Beings How couldst thou have found in thy Heart to condemn thy Creatures to so wretched a State had not their unrighteous Practices been infinitely odious in thine Eyes No certainly the good God would never have made Hell for a Trifle for the sake of any Thing that his Nature could have endured or dispensed with nor would he ever have cast any unrighteous Creature into it were it not for the implacable Abhorrence he hath to all Unrighteousness And therefore since he hath not only made Hell but warns us of and threatens us with it we may be sure he infinitely abominates that for which he made and threatens it and consequently that he is infinitely concerned for the Cause and Interest of Righteousness 5 thly And lastly Another supernatural Indicaton of God's Love of Righteousness is his granting his blessed Spirit to us to excite us to and assist us in our Endeavours after Righteousness First he sent his Son to propagate Righteousness by his Ministry his Life and Death and upon his Return to Heaven he sent his Spirit to supply his Room and carry on that dear Design of which his Son had already laid the Foundation For in Christ's personal Absence his Spirit acts in his Stead and was sent down from the Father by Virtue of his Intercession to be his Vicegerent in the World to promote and inlarge his heavenly Kingdom to conquer our
disgraces the most righteous Religion and introduces the most gross Unrighteousness Again Thirdly 'T is a common Principle of Christianity that true Repentance is indispensably necessary to the Salvation of Sinners upon which they have superstructed their Sacrament of Pennance which joyned with Absolution is of such Sovereign Virtue as to Transubstantiate a Sorrow proceeding from the Fear of Hell into true and saving Repentance By which Doctrin they have most directly superseded all the Obligations of Righteousness For what need I put my self to the Trouble of a holy and righteous Life when for allarming my self before I go to Confession into some frightful Apprehensions of Hell I can be dubbed a true Penitent and receive the Remission of my Sins For now my old Score being all wiped off I may Sin on merrily on a new Account and when I make my next Reckoning 't is but being afraid of Hell again and I am sure to receive a new Acquittance in full of all Demands and Dues And when I have spent all my Life in this Round and Circle of Unrighteousnss 't is but sending for a Priest at my last Breath confessing my Sins and dreading the Punishment of them and with a few magical Words he shall immediately conjure me to Heaven or at least out of Danger of Hell Once more it is a common Principle of Christianity that the Wages of Sin is eternal Death upon which they have introduced their Doctrins of Purgatory and Indulgencies which like Simeon and Levi Brethren in Iniquity do both conspire to render Righteousness a needless Thing For by the Sacrament of Pennance the eternal Punishment of Hell is changed into the temporary one of Purgatory and by Indulgencies especially plenary ones the temporary Punishment of Purgatory is wholly remitted and extinguished so that the first lessens the Punishment of Sin and the last annihilates it And by this Means are Sinners mightily imboldened to go on being assured that upon the Sacrament of Pennance they shall commute Hell for Purgatory and that upon plenary Indulgence they shall exchange Purgatory for Heaven Many other Instances of this Nature might be given but it would be endless to enumerate all those unrighteous Principles with which their Casuistical Divinity abounds the Frauds and Falsifications the Treasons and Murders the Slanders and Perjuries which their Guides of Conscience do not only tolerate but commend For I will maintain that there is scarce any Villany in Nature so notorious which by the Principles of some or other of their allowed Casuists may not be wholly vindicated or at least extenuated into venial Crimes So that considering the whole Frame and Structure of the Popish Religion I do most seriously believe it to be one of the most effectual Engins to undermine and tear up the Foundations of Righteousness that ever the Devil forged or made use of and were it not for those common Principles of Christianity that are intermingled with it and do allay and sometimes I hope overpower the Venom of it I am verily persuaded that the Religion of Heathens would sooner make Men righteous than that of Papists For I do affirm that there is not one Principle of pure Popery that is either a Rule of Righteousness or a Motive to it but contrariwise that the most of its Principles seem to have been purposely calculated to affront Men's Reason and debauch their Manners and if so then we may easily guess whether this be a true Religion or no which in all its Parts is so repugnant to that which God most dearly loves 2 dly Hence I infer upon what Terms a Man may safely conclude that he is beloved of God for if he hath that amiable Quality within him which is the eternal Reason of God's Love he may be sure he is beloved of him If our Souls be adorned with that Righteousness which the righteous Lord loves we may safely conclude that we are his Favourites and shall never cease to be so whilst we continue so adorned For 't is as impossible for God not to love righteous Souls as not to be righteous himself for whilst he continues so his own Nature must needs incline him to love all those in whom he finds his own most amiable Image and Resemblance Let us not therefore persuade our selves that we are beloved of God either upon any inward Whispers and Suggestions or upon any particular Marks and Signs of Grace for both these may abuse and deceive us and flatter our Minds into false and groundless Assurances We may think 't is the Spirit of God that whispers to us when all of a suddain we feel our selves surprized with joyous and comfortable Thoughts and yet this may be nothing else but a Frisk of melancholy Vapors heated and fermented by a feverish Humour For those suddain Joys and Dejections which are so often interpreted the Incomes and Withdrawings of the Spirit of God do commonly proceed from no higher Cause than the Shiverings and Burnings of an Ague and I am very sure that Histerical Fits are very often mistaken for spiritual Experiences and that when Men have most confidently believed themselves overshadowed by the Holy Ghost their Fancies have been only hagged and ridden with the Enthusiastick Vapours of their own Spleen And sometimes I make no doubt but this suddain Flush of joyous Thoughts proceeds from a worse Cause even from the Suggestion of the Devil who though he hath no immediate Access to the Minds of Men can yet doubtless act upon our Spirits and Humours and by their Means figure our Fancies into spritely Ideas and tickle our Hearts into a Rapture And this Power of his we may reasonably suppose he is ready enough to exert upon any mischievous Occasion when he finds Men willing to be deceived and to rely upon ungrounded Confidences Let us not therefore build our Hopes of the divine Favour upon any such uncertain Foundations but impartially examin our selves whether we are really righteous for unless we are so it is not more certain that God is righteous than that these our pretended spiritual Incomes and Inundations of Joy and Comfort are either the Freaks of our own Temper or else the Injections of the Devil For how can you imagin that the God of all Righteousness and Truth can without infinite Violence to his own Nature either love or pretend Love to an unrighteous Soul But then you will say by what Signs and Tokens shall we know whether we are righteous or no To which I answer that there is nothing can be a true Sign and Token of Righteousness which is distinct from Righteousness it self For Righteousness is its own Sign and if any Man judges himself righteous by any Mark which is not an Act or Instance of Righteousness he deceives and abuses his own Soul But then we must have a Care that we do not argue from any one particular Mark or Instance of Righteousness to our being righteous in general For you may as well argue that