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A65571
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Eight sermons preached on several occasions by Nathanael Whaley ...; Sermons. Selections
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Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing W1532; ESTC R8028
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120,489
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326
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can be returned to those that should Object against the Author of it that either our Sactification was not the thing he really design'd or if it was that he has taken effectual care considering our natural averseness to it and the fierce and rampant inclinations to Vice of those that stand in greatest need of it to disappoint himself of his end that he has left us all the gains and delights of Sin and himself the honour only of Pardoning our ungodly and malitious Lives that we may dabble and bemire our selves in all the Pollutions of the Flesh and of the World and wash off all with a few Penitential Tears when we die that we may be extreamly wicked with good management to the last and tho we never glorified God in our Lives be sure to receive a Crown of Glory from him at our Death 2. That the Gospel gives no such encouragement is certain because it expresly requires Holiness and Obedience to the Precepts of it as a necessary condition of future Happiness As it designs the Professors of it should be excellent men holy in all manner of Conversation so it excludes them out of Heaven who frustrate its design by wicked and unworthy Practices and expose its Blessed Author to Open Shame Meb 12.14 Without Holiness saith the Apostle i. e. purity of Heart and Life no man shall see the Lord. Mat. 19.17 If thou wilt enter into Life saith our Saviour keep the Commandments Mat. 7.21 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the Flesh ye shall die But if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 2.7 8 9. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality God will render Eternal Life But to them that are contentious and obey not the Truth but obey Vnrighteusness Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that doth evil These and many other Texts which we must own have nothing of the shade or dimness of a Parable in them do undeniably prove the indispensable necessity of a Holy Life to fit and qualifie us for Eternal Bliss and Happiness And then to apply the Promises of Heaven to men that have lived a wicked and are past living a godly Life is plainly to expound the Gospel into a direct contradiction to it self For can a man that is dying be said to have lived holily only because he is sadly troubled for a very sinful Life Or hath he kept the Commandments that has lived in a constant violation of them and of his own Covenant to keep them and only promises over again to keep them when it is too late Can we can him a Mortifiect Man that after he has gorg'd himself with the pleasures of Sin and sinned away the power of Lust resolves yet to be very chaste and temperate upon his Death-bed Or can we say that he seeks for Glory and Immortality by his Patience and Constancy in Well-doing who at the end of his Natural is to begin the whole Christian Life and has always been a perfect Stranger to the Conversation of Heaven 'T is true those that have made it their business to please God have lived soberly and kept a Good Conscience towards Men need not doubt the pardon of their Offences upon their Repentance for them because their Repentance is ever accompanied with actual Holiness and where Holiness is the Fruit of Repentance the End will be Everlasting Life But the case is vastly different in those that have left themselves no time to reform their lives and are forc'd to spend that little they have left in fruitless Vows and Wishes Because these men have neglected the main condition of the Covenant the great End of the Gospel and of their Lives I mean the Glorification of God by the Purity and Holiness of them A thing in its own nature necessary to their Happiness without which no man can see the Lord. But perhaps you will say tho those pangs of Sorrow and Devotion which men that have lived wretched and profligate Lives discover on their Death-beds cannot be called a Holy Life yet they are good signs of Repentance and Faith in Christ and are they not sufficient to intitle them to Pardon and Eternal Life To this I Answer 8. 'T is certain that no true Penitent and Believer in Christ shall finally perish But then the Question is whether the Gospel will allow that to be true saving Faith or Repentance which is destitute of the Fruits of Rigteousness after a fair season and opportunity for them And here it is but fair the Gospel should speak for it self Bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance Mat. 3.7 8. and think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father Luk. 3.9 Every Tree which bringeth not forth Good Fruit is hewn down and cast into the Fire Mat. 16.2 For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father and then he shall reward every Man according to his Works What doth it profit Jam. 2.14 my Brethren tho a man say he hath Faith and hath not Works If a fruitless Faith and Repentance cannot profit I am sure they cannot save us Vers 17. If Faith without Works as St. James tells us is dead how sad is the condemnation of a dying Sinner whose Faith is dead before him and whose time of working is over tho' he seek it with Tears If sorrow for Sin may be without amendment of Life and then will not pass for true Repentance it can be no certain sign of it And if Christ will render to every man according to his works how sorrowful is the case of that man who has worn out his whole Life in Sin and hardly left himself the least remnant of time to amend it 2. No man can plead any Title to the Mercy or Favour of God but by virtue of his Covenant with him in Baptism 'T is by Baptism that we are made Parties in the Covenant which includes all the Promises God hath made to us in his Son and therefore ought to be the Standard of our expectations from him And whereas there are Conditions on our part and we vow Obedience to Christi's Commands as well as Faith and Repentance from Dead Works if we fail in any of these Conditions we bar our Title to the Promises which depend upon them We cut our selves off by our own Act and Deed from the Hopes of Pardon and Eternal Life For where a Promise is made upon more Conditions than one the keeping of all but one will not inable us to claim the Promise And why should we think that God will abate us the Righteousness of Faith as the Apostle styles Obedience to the Gospel or that he will