Debts and using Justice Equity and Honesty in all their Dealings they are Robbers Thieves and Enemies to Human Society 4. Opera Charitatis Misericordiae as to relieve the Poor to be good to all to help others by our Counsel or Admonition We are often called upon for these thus Acts 9 36. Dorcas is said to be full of good Works and Alms-deeds which she did So 1 Tim. 6. 18. Charge them to be rich in good Works It is not left arbitrary to you but laid upon you as Part of your Charge and Duty a Debt we owe to God Now if you do not mind these kind of good Works you are unfaithful Stewards in the good things committed to your Trust. You must not deny God his own when he or any of his have need of it 5. I think there is another Sort of good Works which concern our selves and that is Sobriety Watchfulness Mortification Self-denial A Man oweth Duty to himself Tit. 2. 12. Teaching us that denying Ungodliness and worldly Lusts. we should live soberly c. These conduce to our Safety 1 Pet. 5. 8. Be sober be vigilant for your Adversary the Devil like a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour And belong to our Fidelity to Christ. Gal. 5. 24. They that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts thereof Therefore take in these also and call them Opera Militiae Christianae the Works of our Spiritual Warfare by which we guard our selves from the Enemies of our Salvation that our Hands be not weakned and enfeebled in God's Work that we may carry it on without unevenness and interruption Secondly The Requisites to a good Work are 1. That the Person be in a good State Mat. 7. 17. A good Tree bringeth forth good Fruit. Married to Christ. Rom. 7. 4. Wherefore ye also are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the Dead that we should bring forth Fruit unto God A Believer Tit. 3. 8. Let them which believe in God be careful to maintain good Works A carnal unregenerate Man may do that which is for the matter good but till he be changed in his Heart and State his Works are not acceptable to God 2. The Principles of Operation must be Faith Love and Obedience Faith owning God's Authority Psal. 119. 66. Teach me good Iudgment and Knowledg for I have believed thy Commandment Love inclining the Heart 2 Cor 5. 14. The Love of Christ constraineth me Obedience swaying the Conscience 1 Thess. 4. 5. This is the Will of God your Sanctification 1 Tim. 1. 5. The End of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure Heart and good Conscience and Faith unfeigned There we have the Pedigree of good Works Faith unfeigned begets a good Conscience and that a pure Heart and that Love to God and then all particular Duties succeed 3. A due Regard of Circumstances that it may be not only good but done well Luk. 8. 15. with that Diligence Reverence Seriousness Alacrity which the Nature of the Work doth require 4. The End that it be for God's Glory Phil. 1. 11. Filled with the Fruits of Righteousness which are by Christ Iesus to the Praise and Glory of God II. How new Creatures are obliged to these good Works 1. With respect to God He hath ordained that we should walk in them If you refer it to his Decree he will have his Elect People distinguished from others by the Good they do in the World that they may be known to be followers of a good God as the Children of the Devil are by their Mischief His Eternal Decree is made evident to us by our making Conscience of good Works and so we make our Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. If you take it for his Precept and Command surely we should make Conscience of what our Father giveth us in charge he hath appointed us to do so sent us into the Vineyard to work and shall we say I will not Mat. 21. 29 30. or loiter and neglect when we have given our Consent or pretend to go and never set about it To a gracious Heart the Signification of God's Will is instead of all Reasons 1 Thess. 5. 18. In every thing give thanks for this is the Will of God concerning you 1 Pet. 2. 15. For this is the Will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the Ignorance of foolish Men. 2. With respect to Christ who died to restore us to a Capacity and Ability to perform these good Works Tit. 2. 14. Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works not only to do them but do them with Alacrity and Zeal As Christ came to raise the Comfort of the Creature to the highest so also the Duty of the Creature to the highest that his People might be eminent in Holiness Justice Goodness and Truth above all others 3. With respect to the Spirit who reneweth us for this end We are new made that we may look upon doing good as our Calling and only Business All other things are valuable according to the Use for which they serve the Sun was made to give Light and Heat to inferior Creatures and we are enlightned by Grace and inclined by Grace that our Light may shine before Men Mat. 5. 16. 4. With respect to Heaven and Eternal Happiness They are the Way to Heaven We discontinue or break off our Walk when we cease to do Good but the more we mind good Works the more we proceed in our Way Phil. 3. 14. Pressing onward to our final Reward and at length our Entrance is more full and with greater peace 2 Pet. 1. 11. III. How they are fitted and prepared by this new Nature that is put into them for good Works Answ. There is a remote Preparation and a near Preparation 1. The remote Preparation is an Inclination and Propensity to all the Acts of the holy and heavenly Life All Creatures have an Inclination to their proper Operations so the new Creature As the Sparks fly up and the Stones downward by an Inclination of Nature so are their Hearts bent to please and serve God The Inclination is natural the Acts are voluntary because it is an Inclination of a free Agent The Law of God is in their Hearts Psal. 40. 8. Psal. 37. 31. Others force themselves but here there is an Affinity between the Work and the vital Principle which is in us so that we need not much enforcement 1 Thess. 4. 9. As touching Brotherly Love I need not write unto you for you are taught of God to love one another Now God's teaching is not by Expression but by Impression he hath inclined suited our Hearts to it As there need not many Arguments to move the Mother to give suck to her tender Infant Nature hath taught her
Birth they have the happiness to be born there where Christ is the God of the Country that which makes others Turks and Infidels makes them Christians but though they stand upon the higher Ground they are not the taller Men. 3. They are very willing to be forgiven by Christ and to obtain Eternal Life but this is what meer Necessity requires them They will not suffer him to do his whole Work to sanctify them and fit them to live to God nor part with their nearest and dearest Lusts and come into the obedience of the Gospel or at least if Christ will do it for them without their improving this Grace or using his holy Means they are contented But having such precious Promises and such a blessed Redeemer we are to cleanse our selves 2 Cor. 7. 11. The Work is ours though the Grace be from him So Gal. 5. 14. They that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts. 4. Some have a strong Conceit that they shall be saved and have Benefit by Christ. This which they call their Faith may be the greatest Unbelief in the World that Men living in their Sins shall yet do well enough is to believe the flat contrary of what God hath spoken in his Word 1 Cor. 6. 9. Know ye not that the Unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Drunkards nor effeminate Persons c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God It is not Strength of Conceit but the sure Foundation of our Hope that will support us nor are they the most happy who have the least Trouble but who have the least Cause Use 2. Do we believe in the Son of God Here will be the great Case of Conscience for setling our Eternal Interest 1. If we believe Christ will be precious to us 1 Pet. 2. 7. Unto them which believe he is precious Christ cannot be accepted where he is not valued when other Things come in competition with him and God will not be prodigal of his Grace 2. Where there is true Faith the Heart will be purified Acts 15. 9. Purifying their Hearts by Faith 3. If you do believe in Christ the Heart will be weaned from the World 1 Ioh. 5. 4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World and this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith 4. If you have the true Faith it works by Love Gal. 5. 6. For in Iesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love By these things will the Case be determined Then the Comfort and Sweetness of this Truth falls upon your Hearts that God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life SERMON XVII DEUT. 30. 15. See I have set before thee this day Life and Good Death and Evil. MOses the Man of God having acquainted the People with the Tenour of God's Commandments both concerning Worship and civil Conversation doth inforce all by a pregnant Exhortation laying before their Eyes the Blessings of Obedience and the Plagues and Curses that should overtake them in case they should decline from the Ways of the Lord thus recommended to them In all which he sheweth himself not only as an ordinary Preacher speaking by way of Exhortation and Doctrinal Threatning but as a special Prophet speaking by way of Prediction and that with such clearness and certainty that these few Chapters may be looked upon as an exact Kalender and Prognostication wherein the good or bad days of this People are expresly calculated and foretold yea comparing Events with the Prediction you would rather conceive Moses his Speech to be an Authentick Register and Chronicle of what is past than an infallible Prophecy of what was to come nothing good or bad hath befallen this People from the beginning to this Day but what is here foretold What is more largely declared upon in this Exhortation is contracted into a narrow room and summary here in the Text See I have set before thee this day Life and Good Death and Evil. In the Words observe 1. The Matter propounded in two Pairs that have a mutual Connection one with another Life and Good Death and Evil. 2. The Manner of Proposal I have set before thee 3. A Duty inferred or Attention excited See 1. The Matter propounded a double Pair or Conjugation Life and Good Death and Evil. Life as the End Good as the Means leading to Life Or else Life that is the enjoyment of God and Good the Felicity following it The Septuagint changeth the Order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. The Manner of Proposing I have set before thee The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in a lively manner laid forth and offered for choice We have a saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that contraries put together do mutually illustrate each other Here is Good and Evil Life and Death put together that we may embrace the one and eschew the other As the Poets feign of Hercules when he was young Vertue and Vice came to woo and make court to him Vertue like a sober chast Virgin offering him Labours with Praise and Renown Vice like a painted Harlot wooing him with the Blandishment of Pleasures So in the 5th of Proverbs Wisdom and Folly are represented both pleading to draw in the Hearts of Men to them ver 4. compared with the 16th Whoso is simple let him turn in hither as for him that wanteth Understanding she saith Come eat of my Bread and drink of the Wine that I have mingled The one hath her Pleasures and the other hath her Pleasures only the Pleasures of Folly are stolen Waters and Bread eaten in secret Comforts we get by Stealth Jollity and Mirth when Conscience is asleep So here Moses layeth before them the fruit of Obedience and Disobedience Life and Death 3. The Word exciting Attention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See I have done this in order to Choice for so it is ver 19. Choose Life that both Thou and thy Seed may live Doct. It is the Duty of the Faithful Servants of the Lord in a lively manner to set before the People Life and Death as the fruit of Good and Evil. Moses was God's Minister to instruct this People and what doth he propose and confirm in his Doctrine but Life and Death Good and Evil and this was a part of his Faithfulness Witness that vehement Obtestation used ver 19. He calls Heaven and Earth to record that he had faithfully discharged his Duty herein This was the course that God himself took with Adam in Innocency he set before him Life and Death a Blessing and a Curse the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledg Gen. 2. 9. That he might live by the one and not perish by the other God had respect to the Mutability of his Nature and therefore restrained him by the threatning of
shall shew what Necessity lies upon us to seek after this Pardon 2. Our Misery without it 3. I shall speak of the annexed Benefits and our Happiness if once we attain it 1. The Necessity that lies upon us being all guilty before God to seek after our Justification and the Pardon of our Sins by Christ. That it may sink the deeper into your minds I shall do it in this Scheme or Method First a reasonable Nature implies a Conscience a Conscience implies a Law a Law implies a Sanction a Sanction implies a Judge and a Judgment-day when all shall be called to account for breaking the Law and this Judgment-day infers a Condemnation upon all Mankind unavoidably unless the Lord will comprimize the matter and find out some way in the Chancery of the Gospel wherein we may be relieved This way God hath found out in Christ and being brought about by such a mysterious Contrivance we ought to be deeply and thankfully apprehensive of it and humbly and broken-heartedly to quit the one Covenant and accept of the Grace provided for us in the other 1. A Reasonable Nature implies a Conscience for Man can reflect upon his own Actions and hath that in him to acquit or condemn him accordingly as he doth good or evil 1 Iohn 3. 20 21. Conscience is nothing but the Judgment a Man makes upon his Actions morally considered the good or the evil the Rectitude or Obliquity that is in them with respect to Rewards or Punishment As a Man acts so he is a Party but as he reviews and censures his Actions so he is a Judge Let us take notice only of the condemning part for that is proper to our Case After the Fact the Force of Conscience is usually felt more than before or in the Fact because before through the Treachery of the Senses and the Revolt of the Passions the Judgment of Reason is not so clear I say our Passions and Affections raise Clouds and Mists which darken the Mind and do incline the Will by a pleasing Violence but after the evil Action is done when the Affection ceaseth then Guilt flasheth in the face of Conscience As Iudas whose Heart lay asleep all the while he was going on in his villany but afterwards it fell upon him Thou hast sinned in betraying innocent Blood When the Affections are satisfied and give place to Reason that was before condemned and Reason takes the Throne again it hath the more force to affect us with Grief and Fear whilst it strikes through the Heart of a Man with a sharp sentence of Reproof for obeying Appetite before Reason Now this Conscience of Sin may be choak'd and smother'd for a while but the Flame will break forth and our hidden Fears are easily revived and awakened except we get our Pardon and Discharge A Reasonable Nature implies a Conscience 2. A Conscience implies a Law by which Good and Evil are distinguished for if we make Conscience of any thing it must be by virtue of some Law or Obligation from God who is our Maker and Governour and unto whom we are accountable and whose Authority giveth a force and warrant to the Warnings and Checks of Conscience without which they would be weak and ineffectual and all the Hopes and Fears they stir up in us would be vain Fancies and fond Surmises I need not insist upon this a Conscience implies a Law The Heathens had a Law because they had a Conscience Rom. 2. 15. Which shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their Thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another They have a Conscience doth accuse or excuse doth require according to the tenor of the Law So when the Apostle speaks of those Stings of Conscience that are revived in us by the approach of Death he saith 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law Those Stings which Men feel in a death-threatning Sickness are not the Fruits of their Disease but justified by the highest Reason they come from a Sense of Sin and this Sense is strengthned and increased in us by the Law of God from whence Conscience receives all its force 3. A Law implies a Sanction or a Confirmation by Penalties and Rewards for otherwise it is but an arbitrary Rule or Direction which we might slight or disregard without any great loss or danger No the Law is armed with a dreadful Curse against all those that disobey it There is no dallying with God he hath set Life and Death before us Life and Good Death and Evil Deut. 30. 15. Now the Precept that is the Rule of our Duty and the Sanction is the Rule of God's Process what God will do or might do and what we have deserved should be done to us The one shews what is due from us to God and the other what may justly be expected at God's hands therefore before the Penalty be executed it concerns us to get a Pardon The Scripture represents God as angry with the Wicked every day standing continually with his Bow ready with his Arrow upon the String as ready to let fly with his Sword not only drawn but whetted as if he were just about to strike if we turn not Psal. 7. 11 12 13. 4. A Sanction implies a Iudg who will take cognizance of the keeping or breaking of this Law for otherwise the sanction or penalty were but a vain scare-crow if there were no person to look after it God that is our Maker and Governour is our Judg. Would he appoint penalties for the breach of his Law and never reckon with us for our offences is a thought so unreasonable so much against the sense of Conscience against God's daily Providence against Scripture which every-where in order to this to quicken us to seek forgiveness of Sins represents God as a Judg. Conscience is afraid of an invisible Judg who will call us to account for what we have done The Apostle tells us Rom. 1. ult the Heathen knew the Iudgment of God and that they that have done such things as they have done are worthy of death And Providence shews us there is such a Judg that looks after the keeping and breaking of his Law hath owned every part of it from Heaven by the Judgments he executes Rom. 1. 18. The Wrath of God is reveal'd from Heaven against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men hath owned either Table by punishing sometimes the Ungodliness and sometimes the Unrighteousness of the World nay every notable breach by way of Omission or Commission the Apostle saith every Transgression and every Disobedience these two words signifie Sins of Omission or Commission it hath been punished and God hath owned his Law that it is a firm authentick Rule And the Scripture also usually makes use of this Notion or Argument of a Judge to quicken us to look after the pardon of our Sins Act. 10. 42
his Justice in reference to Men and to appear to them still as a Righteous God Gen. 18. 25. Shall not the Iudge of all the Earth do right And Rom. 3. 5 6. Is God unrighteous to take Vengeance how then shall he judge the World These Scriptures imply that if there were the least Blemish if you could suppose he should fail in point of Righteousness this were to be denyed that God should be the Judge of the World Therefore God's Righteousness and Justice which gives to every one their due must shine in its proper place he will give Vengeance to whom Vengeance is due and Blessing to whom Blessing belongs In our Case Punishment belongs to us and what can we expect from this God but Wrath and eternal Destruction Therefore if all this be so if a Conscience suppose a Law a Law a Sanction a Sanction a Judge a Judge some time when his Justice must have a Solemn Tryal and this will necessarily infer Condemnation to a fallen Creature What then shall we do 7. From this Condemnation there is no Escape unless God set up another Court and Chancery of the Gospel where condemned Sinners may be taken to Mercy and their Sins forgiven and they justified and accepted unto Grace and Life upon Terms that may salve God's Honour and Government over Mankind There is a great deal of Difference between the forgiving private Wrongs and Injuries and the pardoning of publick Offences between the Pardon of a Magistrate and the Pardon of a private Person When Equals fall out among themselves they may end their Differences in Charity and in such ways as best please themselves by a meer forgiving by acquitting the sense of the Wrong done or a bare Submission of the Party offending But the Case is different here God is not reconciled to us meerly as the Party offended but as the Governour of the World the Case lies between the Judge of the World and sinning Mankind therefore it must not be ended by meer Comprimise and Agreement but by Satisfaction that his Law may be satisfied and the Honour of his Justice secured Therefore to make the Pardon of Man a thing convenient to the Righteous and Holy Judge to bestow without any Impeachment to the Honour of his Justice and Authority of his Law the Lord finds out this great Mystery God manifested in our Flesh Iesus Christ is made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law Gal. 4. 5. And is become a Propitiation to satisfy God's Iustice Rom. 3. 25 26. And so God shews Mercy to his Creatures and yet the Awe of his Government is kept up and a full Demonstration of his Righteousness is given to the World 8. This being done conveniently to God's Honour we must sue out our Pardon with respect to both the Covenants both that which we have broken the Law of Nature and that which is made in Christ and is to be accepted by us as our Sanctuary and sure Refuge 1. We must have a broken-hearted Sense of Sin and of the Curse due to the first Covenant for it is the Disease brings us to the Physician the Curse drives us to the Promise and the Tribunal of Justice to the Throne of Grace and the Avenger of Blood at our Heels that causeth us to fly to our proper City of Refuge and to take Sanctuary at the Lord's Grace Heb. 6. 18. So that if you mince and extenuate Sin you seem to hold to the first Covenant and had rather plead innocent than guilty no if you would have this favour you must confess your Sins 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and vo cleanse us from all Unrighteousness You must confess your Sins and with that remorse that will become Offences done to so great a God And there must not only be a Sense of Sin but of the Curse and Merit of Sin also for we must not only accuse but judge our selves that God may not judge and condemn us 1 Cor. 11. 31. Self-accusing respects Sin and is acted in Confession Self-judging respects the Curse or Punishment that is due to us for Sin and it is a Persons pronouncing upon himself according to the tenor of the Law what is his due acknowledging his Guilt and this with much brokenness of Heart before God when he hath involved himself in God's eternal Wrath and Displeasure I observe that the Law-Covenant is in the Scripture compared to a Prison wherein God hath shut up guilty Souls Rom. 11. 32. He hath concluded or shut them up that he may have Mercy upon them Gal. 3. 22. He hath shut them up under Sin The Law is God's Prison and no Offenders can get out of it till they have God's leave and from him they have none till they are sensible of the Justice and Righteousness of that first Dispensation confess their Sins with brokenness of heart and that it may be just with God to condemn them for ever 2. We must thankfully accept the Lord's Grace that offers Pardon to us For since God is pleased to try us a second time and set us up with a new stock of Grace and that brought about in such a wonderful way that he may recover the lost Creation to himself surely if we shall despise our Remedy after we have rendred our selves uncapable of our Duty no Condemnation is bad enough for us Ioh. 3. 18 19. Therefore we should admire the Mercy of God in Christ and have such a deep sence of it that it may check our sinful self-love which hath been our bane and ruine And since God shewed himself willing to be reconciled we must enter into his Peace not look upon our selves in a hopeless and desperate condition but depend upon the Merit Sacrifice and Intercession of Christ and be encouraged by his gracious Promise and Covenant to come with boldness that we may find Grace and Mercy to help in a time of need Heb. 4. 16. Thus you see the Need we have to look after this Pardon of Sin 2dly I must shew our Misery without this And this will be best done by considering the Notions here in the Text. Here is Filth to be covered a Burden of which we must be eased and here is a Debt that must be cancelled and unless this be what a miserable Condition are we in 1. What a heavy Burden is Sin where it is not pardoned Carnal Men feel it not for the present Elements are not burdensom in their own place but how soon may they feel it Two sorts of Consciences feel the burden of Sin a tender Conscience and a wounded Conscience It is greivous to a tender Heart that values the Love of God to lie under the Guilt of Sin and to be obnoxious to his Wrath and Displeasure Psal. 38. 4. Mine Iniquities are gone over mine Head as a Burden too heavy for me Broken Bones are sensible of the least Weight certainly a
Jesus Christ required and so much spoken of in Scripture I will content my self but with two Reasons at this time 1. Faith in Christ is most fitted for the acceptance of God's free Gift Faith and Grace do always go together and are put as opposite to Law and Works Rom. 4. 16. It is of Faith that it may be of Grace Eph. 2. 8. For by Grace ye are saved through Faith and not of your selves it is the Gift of God not of Works left any Man should boast Faith establishes and keeps up the Interest and Honour of Grace for it is the free Grace and Favour of God to condescend to the Rebel World so far as he hath done in the new Covenant We present our selves before him as those that stand wholly to his Mercy have nothing to plead for our selves but the Righteousness and Merit of our Redeemer by virtue of which we humbly beg Pardon and Life to be begun in us by his Spirit and perfected in Glory 2. Why Faith in Christ Because the way of our Recovery is so strange and wonderful It can only be received by Faith Sense cannot convey it to us Reason will not and nothing is reserved for the entertainment of this glorious Mystery Pardon and Salvation by our Redeemer but Faith alone If I should deduce this Argument at large I would shew you nothing but Faith or the Belief of God's Testimony concerning his Son can support us in these Transactions with God The Comfort of the Promise is so rich and glorious Sense and Reason cannot inform us of it Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor can it enter into the Heart of Man to conceive 1 Cor. 2. 9. the things God hath prepared for them that love him It is not meant only of Heaven but of the whole Preparations and rich Provisions God hath made for us in the Gospel It is not a thing can come to us by Eye or Ear or the conceiving of Man's heart we only believe and entertain it by Faith And then the Persons upon whom it is bestowed are so unworthy that certainly it cannot enter into the Heart of Man that God will be so good and do so much good to such Adam when he had sinned grew shy of God and ran away from him Besides the way God hath taken for our deliverance is so supernatural God so loved the World that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting Life That God should become Man that he should submit to such an accursed Death for our Sakes is so high and glorious it can only be entertain'd by Faith Besides our chief Blessedness lies in another World He that lacketh Faith is blind and cannot see afar off Here in this lower World where our God is unseen and our great Hopes are to come where the Flesh is so importunate to be pleased where our Temptations and Trials are so many and Difficulties so great we are apt to question all and we can never keep waiting upon God were it not for Faith and a steady Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. For these Reasons if you look into the Scriptures it is why Faith is so much insisted upon that we may keep up the honour of God's Grace and because this Grace of the Redeemer is so mysterious and wonderful 4. The Use of these two Graces discover their Nature What is Faith and Repeatance Repentance towards God is a Turning from Sin to God The Terminus à quo of Repentance is our begun Recovery from Sin and therefore called Repentance from dead Works Heb. 6. 1. The Terminus ad quem to which we return is God and our being devoted to God in Obedience and Love God never hath our Hearts till he hath our Love and Delight till we return to a Love of his blessed Majesty and delight in his Ways This is called in Scripture sometimes a turning to God in many other places a seeking after God a giving up our selves to God 2 Cor. 8. 5. They gave up themselves to the Lord. This is the Repentance by which we enter into the Gospel-State Now what is Faith Besides an Assent to the Gospel which is at the bottom of it It is a serious thankful broken-hearted Acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ that he may be to every one of us what God hath appointed him to be and do forevery one of us what God hath appointed him to do for poor Sinners It is serious and broken-hearted done by a Creature in misery and thankful for such a wonderful Benefit a trusting to this Redeemer that he may do the Work of a Redeemer in our Hearts to save us from the evil of and after Sin And thus I have briefly opened this necessary Doctrine as clearly laid down in the Scripture And this is your Entrance in the Evangelick State II. For our Continuance therein For we must not only mind our Entrance but our Continuance Our Lord Jesus tells us of a Gate and a Way the Gate signifies the Entrance and the Way our Continuance And we read of making and keeping Covenant with God we read of Union with Christ that is our first Entrance for this Faith is the closing Act and exprest sometimes by a being married to Christ. But there is not only an Union with Christ but an Abiding in him Abide in me and I will abide in you Now as for our Continuance I would shew you that the first Works are gone over and over again Faith and Repentance are still necessary For the Righteousness of God is revealed frm Faith to Faith And Repentance is still necessary But I shall only press two things First New Obedience Secondly Daily Prayer 1. New Obedience is required 1 Ioh. 1. 7. If we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have fellowship one with another and the Blood of Iesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Holy Walking is necessary to the continuance of our being cleansed from Sin and therefore Mercy is promised to the forsaking of our Sins Prov. 18. 13. He that confesseth and forsaketh his Sins shall find Mercy Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have Mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Our Hearts were not sound with God in the first Covenanting if we undo what was done If we build again the things we have destroyed then we are found Transgressours Gal. 1. 18. Well then a Man that seeks after Pardon seeks after it with the ruine and destruction of Sin Sin was the greatest Burden that lay upon his Conscience the Greivance from whence he sought ease the Wound pain'd him at Heart the Disease his Soul was sick of And was all this Anguish real and shall a Man come to delight in his Sores again and take up the Burden he groaned under and tear open
the Conscience and the Conscience against all But where the Heart is framed to the obedience of God's Will there is Peace Pax est tranquillitas ordinis when all things keep their place as in an accurate orderly Life they do Gal. 6. As many as walk according to this Rule Peace and Mercy be upon them and the whole Israel of God There is Peace for there is an harmonious Accord between God and them and between them and themselves Psal. 119. 165. Great Peace have they that love thy Law not only Peace but great Peace a Peace that passeth all understanding Whilst we are in our Sins there is ever a fear of the War which is between God and us and there is a War in our selves Conscience disallowing our practices and our practices disliking the conduct of Conscience so that there is no peace to the Wicked But when the Lord Jesus hath taken us in hand and begun to cure us and frame us aright and shew us his wonderful Grace in turning us from our Sins here is matter provided for Serenity and Peace 2. It is the pledg of our eternal Felicity hereafter For Heaven is the perfection of Holiness or the full fruition of God in glory Now when the Mediator begins to take away Sin he blesses you for the Life is then begun which shall be perfected in Heaven Unless it be begun here it will never be perfected there For without Holiness no Man shall see God Heb. 12. 14. But if it be begun it will surely be perfected there for blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God The vision and fruition of God is begun here the Spirit of Holiness is the earnest of our Inheritance Eph. 1. 13 14. O what Blessedness is it then to have the new heart planted into us by Christ and to live the new Life It is the Beast about you that delights in the momentany base dreggy Pleasures of Sin But when Christ hath turned you from your Sins you are blessed indeed you are in the way to Blessedness and you shall be blessed for ever he gives Peace as a Pledge of Happiness and Eternal Glory III. I shall prove that this is the Mediator's Blessing 1. Let me lay down this that those Blessings that are most proper to the Mediator are spiritual Blessings We forfeited all by Sin but especially the Grace of the Spirit whereby we might be made serviceable to God Other Mercies run in the Channel of common Providence but spiritual Blessings are the discriminating Graces and Favours that are given us by the Mediator Eph. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual Blessings in heavenly Places Christ came not to distribute Honours and Greatness and worldly Riches to his Followers but to turn away every one of us from our Sins to reduce us to God that we may love him and be beloved of him He came as a spiritual Saviour to give us Grace rather than temporal Happiness Most Men have a Carnal Iewish Notion of Christ they would have a temporal Safety and Happiness they would have Deliverance from Affliction rather than Deliverance from Sin To be delivered from every evil Work is more than to be delivered from the Mouth of the Lion This is most proper to the Mediator 2 Tim. 4. 18. A sanctified Use of Troubles is more than an Exemption from them a carnal Man may have Exemption from them but not a sanctified Use of them Poverty Lameness Blindness are not as bad as Ignorance unruly Lusts and Want of Grace Moral Evils are worse than Natural Daniel was cast into a Lion's Den you would think that was a Misery but it was a greater Misery when Nebuchadnezzar was thrust out among the Beasts being given up to a brutish Heart Exemption from Trouble may be hurtful to us but Deliverance from Sin is never hurtful to us Among the spiritual Blessings we have by the Mediator Conversion from Sin to God is the chiefest we have on this side Heaven That it was the main Part of Christ's Undertaking I shall prove by Scripture and Reason For Scripture the Text is clear for it for thus the Apostle interprets the Covenant-Blessing In thy Seed shall all Nations of the Earth be blessed viz. God hath sent him to bless you wherein in turning every one of you from your Sins He shall be called Iesus Mat. 1. 21. for he shall save his People from their sins not only from the Guilt but the Power of Sin not only from the Evil after Sin but the Evil of Sin it self Denominatio est à majori the Name is taken from what is chiefest And so when he is promised to the Iews The Redcemer shall come out of Sion and he shall turn away Ungodliness from Iacob There is his principal Work 1 John 3. 5. Christ came to take away Sin and in him is no Sin He means not only the condemning Power but the Power of it in the Heart for he is pleading Arguments for Holiness why Believers should not run into Sin which is a Transgression of the Law One is from the Undertaking of Christ he came to take away Sin and from the Example of Christ In him is no Sin he plainly means the Power of Sin 2. Now to give you some Reasons why this is the chief Benefit most eyed by Christ and should be most regarded by us 1. Christ's Undertaking was principally for the Glory of God All the Promises are in him Yea and Amen to the Glory of God And it should not be a Question which should have the precedence the Glory of God or our Good Christ came to promote God's Glory and that must have the precedence of our Benefit Now then the abolishing the Guilt of Sin doth more directly respect our Interest and Good but the abolishing the Power of Sin or the turning and cleansing the Heart from it doth more immediately respect the Glory of God and our Subjection to God Therefore Christ would not only pacify the Wrath of God but his chief Work that doth mostly concern the Glory of God was to heal our evil Natures and prevent Sin for the time to come 2. To be turned from Sin is to be freed from the greatest Evil. For Pardon gives us an Exemption from Punishment which is a natural Evil but Conversion gives us freedom from our naughty Hearts which is a moral Evil and certainly Vice is worse than Pain and Sin than Misery Besides Sin is the Cause of all Evil and the taking away the Cause is more than ceasing the Effect 3. This hath nearer Connection with the Life of Glory Pardon only removes the Impediment but the sanctifying and healing of our Natures is the beginning of the Life of Glory and Introduction into it Pardon removes our Guilt which hinders our Happiness therefore Divines say Justification is Gratia removens prohibens that that removes the Impediment but the sanctifying
be not conformed to this World but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God Col. 1. 10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work And also to glorify him is their end and use Phil. 1. 21. 1 Cor. 10. 31. This is the Dedication by which a Christian becomes a spiritual and an holy Sacrifice unto God Now we must be sincere and real in this partly 1. Because the Truth of our dedication will be known by our use many give up themselves to God but in the use of themselves there is no such matter they carry it as though their Tongues were their own and had no Lord over them Psal. 12. 4. They speak what they please they use their Hearts as their own to think and covet what they please their Hands as their own to do what they please their Bodies as their own to prostitute them to all excess and filthiness and their Wealth and Strength and Time as their own either to spare it or lavish it according as their lusts guide and incline them No no a sincere Christian makes Conscience of his dedication to God the reality and sincerity of it is seen in the use of themselves and if he be tempted to do any thing contrary to this vow and dedication his Heart riseth against the Temptation 1 Cor. 6. 15. Shall I take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot God forbid In point of fidelity to God as we are in Covenant with him we must be careful that we employ and use what is God's for the Glory of God we must make conscience of alienating that that is sacred that that is the Lord's your thoughts your affections your time your strength do all belong to him 2. Because God will one day call us to an account Luk. 19. 23. He will demand his own with Usury We shall be called to a reckoning what we have done for God what part and portion he hath had in our time our strength our parts our interest therefore every prudent and wise Christian should himself keep a faithful and constant reckoning how he lays out himself for God for he must have a share in all things that we have or do 3. We must be very sincere in this because we are under the Eye and inspection of God who considers whose business we do his or our own Luk. 1. 75. That we should serve him in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our Life We are ever before him and though he doth not presently call us to an account yet many times now he punisheth us for our neglect and mindlessness of his Interest Ezek. 16. 8. Ye entred into a Covenant with me and became mine That was the reason of his Judgments against them When those that are his do not carry themselves as his when that that is Sacred is profaned by a common use then a Judgment is coming upon a Nation if dedicated to God and it warps from him or upon a Person if his ways be not upright with him II. The next thing I am to do is to prove that the grace of Mortification is the true Salt wherewith this Offering and Sacrifice should be seasoned There is some dispute what is meant by the Salt which Christ recommends to his Disciples and what was figured by the Salt in the Sacrifice whether Wisdom or Zeal in general it is the grace of the Holy Spirit by which Sin is subdued and prevented and the meaning suits exactly with the Emblem and representation For 1. Salt preserves Flesh from putrefaction by consuming that superfluous and excrementitious moisture which otherwise would soon corrupt and so the Salt of the Covenant doth prevent and subdue those Lusts which would cause us to deal unfaithfully with God Alas Meat is not so apt to be tainted as we are to be corrupted and weakned in our resolutions to God without the mortifying grace of the Spirit That which is lame is soon turned out of the way unless it be healed Heb. 10. 13. And nothing is so unstable and mutable as an unmortified Soul therefore we can never behave our selves as a Sacrifice and an offering to God unless we mortify our Members which are upon Earth inordinate Affections Covetousness and the like Col. 3. 5. In short the Flesh is that which is apt to be corrupted and therefore the grace that doth preserve us must be something that doth wean us from the interests of the Flesh and what is that but the mortifying Grace of the Holy Spirit The Apostle saith Eph. 6. 24. Grace be with all them that love the Lord Iesus in Sincerity or in Incorruption There are many crooked Lusts which are apt to corrupt us and withdraw our love to other things but when these are mortified and subdued that we may have a greater amplitude of affection towards God and Christ then we are said to love him in sincerity and in incorruption 2. Salt hath an acrimony and doth macerate things and pierce into them and so the grace of Mortification is painful and troublefome to the carnal nature how healthful and useful soever it be to the Soul no Question it is distasteful to curbe our Affections and govern our Hearts in the fear of God and to row against the stream of Flesh and Blood but yet it is wholesome it is a crucifying of the Flesh to handle it as Christ suffered on the Cross to give it Vinegar and Gall but yet this is necessary this is the thing which our Lord intends here in the Context that the Sacrifice must be consumed or macerated we either must suffer the pains of Hell or the pains of Mortification we must be salted with Fire or salted with Salt 'T is better to pass to Heaven with difficulty and austerity than to avoid these difficulties and run into Sin and so be in danger of eternal Fire The strictness of Christianity is nothing so grievous as the punishment of Sin The Philosophers when they speak of the nature of Man observe that in the concupiscible part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something like moisture inclines to pleasure in the irrascible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something like Cold inclines to fear this Salt is to fetch out both by checking our sensual inclination and also our worldly fears We must crucify the Flesh with the Fassions and Lusts thereof they that are Christ's have done so We should rather displease our selves and displease all the World than displease God or be unfaithful in our duty to Christ. No profit no pleasure or secular concernment is so necessary so comfortable so useful to us as Salvation 3. Salt makes things savoury so Grace makes us Savoury which may be interpreted with respect either to God or Man 1. Acceptable to God when seasoned with this Salt for God would accept of
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.
The Back-slider in Heart shall be filled with his own Ways and a good Man shall be satisfied from himself There are two different Persons commencing and setting forth in the pursuit of Happiness the Backslider in Heart and the good-Man The Backslider in Heart is one that continues in the Apostacy and Defection of Mankind that indulgeth his Lusts and vain Pleasures and for a seeming Good leaves God who is the chief Good But the good Men are those who make it their business to keep their Hearts chast and loyal to God They both desire to be filled and to be satisfied the one takes his own Way and the other God's Counsel and in the event both are filled The Backslider in Heart hath enough of his own Ways when they have brought him to Hell and the good Man hath enough when he comes to the Enjoyment of the Blessed God And there is one Truth more there they are both filled from themselves their own Ways The Backslider shall have the Fruit of his own Choice and a good Man is satisfied with that Course of Godliness that he hath chosen Prov. 1. 31. Those that turn away from God it is said They shall eat of their own Ways and be filled with the Fruit of their own Devices And Isa. 3. 10. Say unto the Righteous It shall be well with him for he shall eat of the Fruit of his own Doings 2. Consider the doleful Condition of those that indulge their carnal Affections and that either threatned by God or executed upon the wicked 1. Consider it as it is threatned by God If God threaten so great a Misery it is for our Profit that we may take heed and escape it There is Mercy in the severest Threatnings that we may avoid the Bait when we see the Hook that we may digest the Strictness of an holy Life rather than venture upon such dreadful Evils Why did our Lord repeat it three times Where the Worm never dies and the Fire is never quench'd but that we may have it often in our Thoughts that we may not buy the Pleasures of Sin at so dear a rate so hard a Price as the Loss of our precious Souls 2. Consider the Punishment as executed upon the Wicked How many are now burning in Hell for those Sins which you are ready to commit The serious Consideration of it will check the Fervour of your Lusts that you may not easily venture upon an everlasting Hell 3. Consider which Trouble is most intolerable to be salted with Salt or to be salted with Fire with unpleasing Mortification or the Pains of Hell the Trouble of Physick or the Danger of a mortal Disease Surely to preserve the Life of the Body Men will endure the bitterest Pill take the most loathsom Potion why their Lives ly on it And shall we be unwilling to such a necessary Strictness to these wholsom Severities which conduce to save you with an everlasting Salvation There is no Remedy Trouble must be undergone Surely a strict Diet is better than a speedy Death and the pricking of a Vein by a Chirurgion is not so bad as a Stab at the Heart by an Enemy Better be macerated by Repentance than broken in Hell by Torments Which is worse Discipline or Execution Here the Question is put you must be troubled first or last Would you have a Sorrow mixed with Love and Hope or else mixed with Desperation Would you have a Drop or an Ocean Would you have your Souls cured or tormented Would you have Trouble in the short Moment of this Life or have it Eternal in the World to come 4. Be sure you be a Sacrifice dedicated to God really entred into Covenant with God and set apart for his Use that this may be your End your Business your Scope to please glorify and enjoy him 2 Cor. 1. 9. We can the better speak to you when you are under a Covenant-Engagement Christ bound you to this when he died for you He sanctified himself that you might be sanctified through the Truth that is dedicated to God John 17. 19. And by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified that is them that are consecrated to God or entred into a holy Covenant with God Christ bound you to it and your own Gratitude will suggest it to you I beseech you by the Mercies of the Lord present your selves c. Nay the new Nature will incline you to it Rom. 6. 13. Yeeld your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your Members as Instruments of Righteousness unto God The new Life will presently discover it self by its Tendency and End if this be indeed your End and Work to be faithful to God's Covenant 5. You will see a need of denying worldly and fleshly Lusts you will see nothing can be done in the spiritual Life without Mortification that being dead to all things here below you may be alive to God That this must be your daily Work your Necessity will sufficiently shew Are there no rebellious Desires to be subdued No corrupt Inclinations to be broken Do not you feel the Bias of Corruption drawing you off from God David did therefore he saith Incline my Heart to thy Testimonies and not to Covetousness Do not you find the sensitive Lure prevail upon you enticing your Minds and drawing you from the purity of your Hopes and strictness of Conversation Every Man is drawn away when he is enticed by his own Lusts Jam. 1. 6. Consider the sad Condition of a Believer that is under the corrective Discipline of God though he do not vacate his Justified State A sinning Believer that hath made bold with forbidden Fruit how doth he smart for Sin What a Wound in the Conscience will wilful heinous Sins make Witness David Psal. 32. And Psal. 51. He gives an account how uneasy his Heart did sit within him he was afraid of God who before was his Joy and Delight and speaks as one ready to be cast out of his Presence SERMON VI. 2 THESS 3. 5. And the Lord direct your Hearts into the Love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. THere are two things keep Religion alive in the Soul a Love to God and a hearty intent upon the coming of Christ. These are the two necessary Graces which the Apostle prays for in the Text Here is the love of God that is the first Grace and the earnest or patient waiting for Christ. Love respects God because he is the chief Object of it primum amabile as being the first and chiefest good but hope or patient expectation respects Christ who at his glorious coming will give us our full reward Love is the Life and Soul of our present Duties and by patient expectation we wait for our future hope The Love of God urgeth us to the Duties of Religion and Hope strengthens us against Temptations whether they arise from the allurernents of Sence or the troubles of the World
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
do not you to them The one the Negative conduceth to restrain Injury but the other the Affirmative urgeth us to do Good The Negative enforceth Iustice and Equity in us to others the Affirmative Love and Charity Heathens by the Light of Nature were more sensible of Negatives that they should not hurt others in their Body Goods or good Name as we would not in either of these things be wronged our selves therefore Christ passing that layeth down the Affirmative of which Nature is less sensible of doing good to them as we desire they should do to us in our Extremities But because one cannot well be handled without the other I shall begin with the Negative Consideration which concerns Right and Justice to the Persons Names Goods and Possessions of others We are earnest to have fair dealing from others we should be as earnest to yeild the same again There is no Man but hath a quick sence of Injuries done to himself When we are wronged by Lying Slandering Oppression or by fraudulent Bargains how will we discourse of Equity and plead for Right upon these occasions Why the like tender respect the like Sense should we have in our dealing with others as you would not others should defame oppress or over-reach you so should not you do to them In other Mens dealings with us we are Masters acute Discerners of Right in our own Case able to teach what Men ought to do but in our dealing with others we are scarce Scholars We would be reverenced commended fairly used have others tender of our Credit and if we be abused in Person disgraced in Speech endammaged in Goods or good Name we complain of the Wrong Therefore it was well said of Calvin That it would be much better for Mankind if we were as faithful Learners of active Duties as we are acute Doctors concerning Passives that is That we would not offer such Usage to others as we would not be well pleased with our selves but give as we would receive To impress the Rule upon you I shall give four Considerations in the Negative Sence 1. That in the Duties of the second Table we have more Light than we have in the first for when Christ sets forth the Sum of both the Tables Mat. 22. 36 37. He tells us that we must love God with all our Hearts our Souls our Strength and Mind but when he comes to the Love of our Neighbour he gives a Measure more easily discernable we are to love our Neighbour as our selves Love will tell us what is good for our selves The Love of God must be preferred both to our selves and to our Neighbours And in guiding and expressing our Love to God we need many Rules Our Desires of Good to our selves are a compleat Measure and Rule of that Respect we owe to our Neighbours This Principle of Self-love would shew us what we owe to one another But though Nature discovers a God and Reason that this God should be worshipped yet Nature could never carve out such a Worship as is proper to God and as God likes there needs a larger Explication Let a Man be free from Passion and from inordinate Self-love consider what he would have done to himself this will direct him plainly what should be done to others that agree with us in the same common Nature and who have an original Right with us in things that belong to Justice and Equity and should be as fairly respected by us as we expect to be treated by them 2. The Breach of this Rule is more evil in him which hath experimented the Bitterness of Wrongs or Misery than in another because Experience giveth us a truer knowledg of things than a naked Idea and Conception of them He that knoweth things by meer Contemplation doth but know them at a distance and as it were afar off but he that knoweth things by Experience knows them at hand and feels the smart of them Therefore Conscience should work more in them by way of Restraint because they know what it is to be oppressed and disgraced and remember how grievous it was when they did lie under any Wrong Look as it is made an Argument of Confidence in Christ's pity because his Heart was made tender by experience He was tempted he was despitefully used he experimented all our Sorrows therefore he is able that is has a greater fitness to succour those which are tempted Heb. 2. 18. And in another place we read That he learned Obedience by the things which he suffered Heb. 5. 8. Did Christ learn any thing better or improve his Knowledge which had the Spirit without measure Yes he might have an experimental Learning and Feeling Thus when he suffered things so regretful and contrary to that Life he had assumed he knew what it was to over-rule the natural Inclinations of Life and subordinate them to the Will of God and learn Obedience by the things which he suffered and will more compassionate when poor Creatures are put upon Duties against Flesh and Blood And it is used as an Argument why we should come to the Throne of Grace with boldness Heb. 4. 15. Because we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with our Infirmities c. He hath experimented them in his own Person he knows these things himself And so Exod. 22. 21. Thou shalt not vex a Stranger nor oppress him for ye were Strangers in the Land of Egypt The People of Israel knew what it was to be exposed to the Envy of the Natives where they had few Friends and many Enemies But especiallly observe that Levit. 19. 33 34. for there you have this great Law repeated And if a Stranger sojourn with thee in your Land ye shall not vex him but the Stranger that dwelleth with you shall be as one born amongst you and thou shalt love him as thy self Mark what thou wouldest have done to thy self do to the Stranger Why For ye were Strangers in the Land of Egypt They knew how burdensom it was to their Souls to be under the Yoke how grievous a thing Oppression was Now sutably it concerneth all those which have lain under Defamation Slander and Oppression they should be mighty tender and careful how they speak of others and what they do to others They which have been Servants themselves and have felt the Burden of heavy Tasks and short Allowance hard and unmerciful Usage from their Masters they should not exact all their Labours nor deal cruelly unto Servants when they are Masters themselves for not only the Law of God but their own Experience will rise up in Judgment against them and increase the Sting of their Conscience So the Drift of that Parable would do well to be considered in these times Mat. 18. 33. That Servant which had his own Debt for given him yet he plucked his Fellow-Servant by the Throat Shouldst thou not have had Compassion on thy Fellow-Servant as I had Compassion on thee When we are under
Flesh. Thy poor pined starved Brother is thine own Flesh. 2. The Possible Equality of all Men as to Condition and as to State of Life They are equal by Nature and it is possible they may be in the same State of Life You stand to Day another is fallen you are liable to the same Corruption and the same Calamities To the same Corruption Gal. 6. 1. If any one be fallen ye that are Spiritual restore such a one with a Spirit of Meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Rigid Censurers may fall into like Sins or worse themselves Alas the Devil is very assiduous in tempting and the Lord permits him to surprise those that are severe to others Therefore you should shew Pity and Compassion to the fallen And then as to possibility of Calamities Heb. 13. 3. Remember them that are in Bonds as bound with them and them which suffer Adversity as being your selves also in the Body There 's a twofold Interpretation of that Place some understand it of the Mystical Body of Christ but I think rather it is meant of the Body of Flesh while we are here in the present Life Strange changes may come before we go out of the Body they that are highest may be lowest In 2 Kings 4. 13. We read of the Shunamite that had given Harbour and Entertainment to the Prophet and the Prophet said What is to be done for thee wouldst thou be spoken for to the King or to the Captain of the Host and she answered I dwell among mine own People She was well and needed nothing she was able to dwell at Home and to maintain her self well enough and needed not the Prophet to speak to the King for her but afterwards there comes a great Famine and her Inheritance was invaded and she that would not be beholden to the Prophet was beholden to Gehazi the Prophets Man Compare 2 Kings 4. 13. with 2 Kings 8. 3. There may be great Changes here in the Earth great Calamities may befall us therefore since we are in the Body and since those that are high to day may be low to morrow and you may need the like help from others we must have a fellow-feeling with them God who is the great Arbiter of Human Affairs can pull down and set up at his pleasure We have opened the Rule the first Part of the Text. II. The second Part is the Commendation of this Rule For this is the Law and the Prophets that is this is the Sum of the Doctrine of God The Law and the Prophets were the Scriptures only then in force and therefore the Phrase is used proverbially in many places Mat. 11. 13. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied till Iohn Luk. 16. 31. They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them Acts 24. 14. I believe all the Law and the Prophets have spoken The Law and the Prophets were all the Bible they had for that time Now saith Christ the Law was as the Text and the Prophets as the Comment upon the Text to expound and confirm the Law by a larger Explication But you will say Is this the whole Sum of the Law and the Prophets Are there not Doctrines delivered there insisted upon concerning our Respects to God and all the Institutions of his Worship are they not contained in the Law and Prophets I answer The Proposition must be understood according to the Matter in hand this is the Law and the Prophets as to all they say concerning our Converse with Men. You may have many Rules in the Law and the Prophets where they are more copiously delivered but they all issue themselves into this general Rule The Worship of God and Duties to him are also established by the Law and the Prophets for when our Lord had spoken of what we owe to God as well as to Man he saith Mat. 22. 40. On these two hang all the Law and the Prophets These are the two things that all the Law and the Prophets seek to establish viz. Love to God and Man But our Saviour here speaks only concerning the second Table what concerns that is comprised in this Sentence All that part of Religion which is Inferioris Hemispherii of the lower Hemisphere of Duty is distill'd into this Quintessential Extract As in the Spirits of things the Vertue is contracted which otherwise is largely diffused while it is mingled with grosser Matter So here the Spirits the extract of Law and Prophets are all distilled as to Moral matters into this one Saying Whatsoever you would c. III. The third thing to be considered is the Illative Particle Therefore From what is this inferr'd In the foregoing Verses our Saviour speaks of Audience in Prayer If ye being evil know how to give good things unto your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father know how to give good things to them that ask him Therefore whatsoever ye would c. Christ makes many notable Arguments and shews that God is ready to give good things to us Ask and ye shall have c. he proves it from the kindness of Earthly Parents to their Children And now therefore to intimate this that if Men have their Prayers granted they must observe this Rule they must perform all duties of civil Righteousness as well as be earnest in acts of Piety Upon this limiting it to the audience of Prayer it plainly implies three things 1. That God is the Judg of Human Actions he will take cognizance of this whether you do to others as they do to you and you shall hear of it in your dealing with God that 's the first and lowest thing and remember you have to do with God as much as they have to do with you he shews this to bridle the Excesses of those that are in Power There are a sort of Men that think they may do any thing if they can do it safely Mic. 2. 1. That do evil because it is in the practice of their Hand They eagerly prosecute their Purposes and Desires when they have Power to effect them Now a Christian should pause upon the Matter and consider not only what is possible to be done but what is just and lawful to be done and Conscience should put a severe restraint when nothing else can hinder us as Ioseph said Gen. 42. 18. This do and live for I fear God He had a full advantage against them that wrought him so much Mischief but he had an inward Principle laid up in his Heart which begat a tenderness I fear God But when Men will do every thing they are able to effect and will do any thing as far as their Power will reach remember you must come before God and God can requite it though they cannot It is not Conscience which governs the greatest part of the World but Interest When it is not for Mens Interest they will do no wrong but when they have Power enough to do what they intend they
left such an Instinct and Inclination upon her which doth sufficiently excite her to do it 2. The near Preparation is called Promptitude and Readiness for every good Work or a ready Obedience to every good Work Tit. 3. 1. So 1 Tim. 6. 18. Ready to distribute Heb. 13. 16. Ready to communicate So Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 21. 13. This is beyond Inclination The Fire hath an Inclination to ascend upwards yet something may violently keep it down so a Christian may have a Will to Good a strong not a remiss Will but yet there are some Impediments Rom. 7. 18. Inclination implieth a remote Power but Readiness the next and immediate Power therefore a Christian ought to keep himself in a readiness or fitness of Disposition for his Duty whether it concerneth God our selves or others This is seen in Zeal that beareth down all Impediments All Graces are operative and Zeal is that earnest Impulsion and Activity of every Grace where it is in strength and vigour Faith worketh Gal. 5. 6. Love constraineth 2 Cor. 5. 14. Hope quickneth 1 Pet. 1. 3. A lively Hope This proceedeth from the new Nature when it is in right Frame and Strength We need not only make Conscience of our Duty or have some mind to it but our Hearts will not let us have any Quiet and Rest without it 2 Pet. 1. 8. They make you that you shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the Knowledg of our Lord Iesus Christ. Christians must be zealous of good Works Tit. 2. 14. Paul was pressed in Spirit Acts 17. 10. Acts 18. 5. The Benefits that come by it are 1. We do good Works more easily as being inclined thereunto Exod. 35. 29. The Children of Israel brought a willing Offering unto the Lord. Psal. 110. 3. Thy People shall be willing in the Day of thy Power There is a great deal of Difference between doing things by Compulsion and doing things from an Inclination between Israel's making Brick in Egypt and building the Wall in Nehemiah's Time Neh. 4. 6. 2. With more Delight and Alacrity 1 Iohn 5. 3. His Commandments are not grievous Psal. 112. 1. Blessed is the Man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandments It is a Pleasure to them to do a good Work to others a Toil. 3. With Constancy That which is forced lasts not long Upon the first occasion we break out cast off the Burden which pincheth and galleth us A Man is never constant to his Duty till he be held to it by his Heart and the Byass of the Heart is not Fear but Love You cannot easily perswade him against his Love and Inclination though you may overcome his Fears Cant. 8. 6 7. Set me as a Seal upon thine Arm for Love is strong as Death Iealousy is cruel as the Grave Many Waters cannot quench Love neither can the Floods drown it If a Man would give all the Substance of his House for Love it would utterly be contemned The Uses are 1. For Reproof of many professing Christians who are not more prepared for the Lord and made ready for every good Work Alas some are to every good Work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. unfit for any Christian Practice In others all their Holiness standeth in being less vitious or wicked than others If they avoid the greater Crimes though they freely practise the less they are accounted good Men. Some talk but do nothing like Cypress-Trees tall and beautiful but unfruitful or the Carbuncle afar off seeming all on fire but the Touch discovers it to be key-cold their Zeal is more in their Tongues than their Actions Others are very unready arguing for a Mediocrity disputing every inch with God beating down the price of Religion as low as they can as little Worship and Charity as may be and will do no more than needeth and it is well if they do that True Goodness like live-Honey droppeth of its own accord 2 Cor. 8. 2. and is always desirous to do more for God Psal. 71. 14. I will praise thee more and more Phil. 1. 9. I pray that your Love may abound yet more and more in Knowledg and in all Iudgment 1 Thess. 4. 1. Furthermore we exhort you Brethren That as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more But little of this Temper is to be found 2d Use of Information First Observe the Deduction of good Works from their proper Causes viz. The Will of God requiring our Regeneration fitting the one determineth our Duty the other maketh us ready to perform it While carnal that which we do is but the Image of a good Work not really and spiritually good 2dly The Necessity of good Works 1. Necessitate Consequentis as the Fruit and End of Regeneration All things are valued by their use What doth the new Creature serve for but that we may walk in newness of Life otherwise it is but a Notion It is not given us to lie hid in the Heart as a sluggish idle quality but that we may act by it and improve it for God The Lord made no Creature in vain Inded all that we have from God both in Nature and Grace was that we might be fruitful in Holiness In Nature we have Life Health and Parts for nothing else but that by our present Duty we may prepare our selves for everlasting Joys All God's Mercies bind us to Diligence all his Ordinances are Means to help us all his Graces are Power to enable us and there is over and above the holy Spirit to excite and quicken that Power Ioh. 4. 10. Ezek. 36. 27. 2. Necessitate Praecepti God hath required them at our hands Now we must make Conscience of what God hath required especially when all his Commandments are holy just and good If some greater thing were required ought we not to have done it 2 Kin. 5. 13. But when he hath required such noble Work shall we refuse There is nothing in his Law but what becometh his Nature preserveth and makes happy ours 3. Necessitate Medii as the Way to Heaven Good Works are indispensibly required of grown Persons if they mean to be saved Heb. 12. 14. Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see God A Christian shall be judged at the last day by what he hath done Rev. 20. 12. I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which was the Book of Life and the Dead were judged out of those things that were written in the Books according to their Works 1 Pet. 1. 17. If ye call on the Father who without respect of Persons judgeth every Man according to his Work Profession will not carry it but our Works come into the Judgment So Rev. 14. 13. Their Works follow them that is They have the Fruit and Comfort of them in another World and without them we cannot be
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