Judgment In the Consideration therefore of your Danger awake to use Gods appointed Means And here 1. I might advise that you Watch carefully lest you enter into Temptation 2. That you take heed of slight Thoughts of sin 3. That you labour to have right Apprehensions concerning the Attributes of God and the tenor of the New Covenant by Christ Jesus 4. That you attend the Ministry of the Word with a Desire and Design of some spiritual Advantage suitable to your own Case Take heed of being slight and careless in the use of those Means that must cure a hard Heart if ever it be cured 5. In the 〈◊〉 of all Means look up to God for 〈◊〉 Influence of the divine Spirit Apprehend the Necessity of it for the Cure of a hard or backsliding Heart 6. Call your selves often to an Account how matters stand between God and you 7. Ingage more heartily seriously and constantly in the use of secret Prayer 8. Improve the sickness and Death of others as Warnings to awaken the Thoughts of your own 9. In any Doubt and Difficulty of Conscience especially under Temptations to Despair do not scruple to open your Case to some faithful Minister of Christ that may enlighten and and guide you 10. Labour to understand distinctly what that Repentance towards God is and that Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ which are the stated Terms of Life and the Condition of the new Covenant And never give over the use of Means till you are brought to Repent of all your sins against God and truly to believe in Jesus Christ with all your Heart evidencing your unfeigned Faith by new Obedience Therefore take heed by what Marks and Signs you Judge your selves lest all your Soul Trouble should end in a false Peace I connot conclude without repeating the Admonition against that false Peace which one great Work of our Ministry is to destroy For there are Multitdes of People who pretend to love God and to love good Men and to trust in Christ that he dyed for them and to rely on Christ and to cast themselves on Christ and think they believe on him and that they shall be saved Who will tell you that as for Obedience they mind it as they can though they be not as good as others their Hearts are good and they mean well and they know their own Hearts better than Ministers do they are sure they believe in Christ and they will conclude that all is well c. Tho 't is notorious of Many such that they are Ignorant of God and strangers to Christ and live in the common allowed practice of great sins Yet they will thus Hope well of themselves and speak Peace to themselves NO Wonder if they do so now when even at the Day of Judgment some are brought in disputing with Christ till the Heart of their Hopes 〈◊〉 broken by his condemning Senâ—ce Not as if those that now dye 〈…〉 â—â—enitence and Unbelief should not know or believe that they shall perish for ever till after the general Judgment But matters seem there to be represented as applied to the Persons of those who shall be found alive at the End of this World or whose Eternal State in the next World is concluded by what their Case is when they leave this state of salvation SEE Therefore that your Hopes be of a right Kind grounded on Scripture Evidence purâ—fying the Heart conquering the World exciting thy Desires after Christ and Heaven making thee to sin less and to please and glorifie God more Such an Hope you may hold fast it will not make you ashamed But of all things fear a false Hope Dread it as you would the sin of Despair yea as the most dangerous of the two because more common I mean not a Despair of the sufficiency and Willingness of Christ to pardon and save thee if thou repent and believe and obey him Nor a Despair of finding Mercy if thou heartily seek it But despair thou must of ever seeing God without Holiness Despair that Christ will ever be the Author of eternal Salvation to any but such as believe and obey him Despair of escaping Eternal Death if thou live after the Flesh Despair of entering into Heaven if thou wilt not seek it in the first place Despair of escaping the Doom of perishing with the Ungodly except you soundly Repent except you turn to God and Holiness from sin and the World except you penitently and thankfully accept of Christ obey and follow him as your Lord and Saviour Despair therefore of ever being saved in the state thou art in with whom it is not thus GOD will ere long deal plainly with thee and let thee know the Truth And what will it avail thy perishing Soul for Ministers to deceive and flatter thee with vain Hopes when without Repentance and turning to God in Christ there is none Nay if any thing keep thee out of Heaven I speak of the Case of most ordinary Hearers and Professors If any â—hing keep thee out of Heaven it is a â—se and groundless Hope of coming thiâ—â—er CHRISTIANS We must 〈…〉 speak plain Would you have us be unfaithful to God and you We must be accountable to God ere long as well as you We must stand before his Judgment seat as well as you Why should we give you Hopes if God do give you none I therefore say it again that without speedy and sincere Repentance towards God and Faith in Jesus Christ evidenced by cordial faithful Obedience to him there is no Hope for any one of you And they that hear often of these things and will yet go on in sin it is Just with God to leave them and give them up to their own Hearts Lust Therefore 〈…〉 away your Transgressions return to the Lord with all your Hearts and yield your selves to the Claim and Call of Christ without Delay while Mercy invites you and Grace may be had for why will you Dye O House of Israel FINIS Books Printed for Abraham Chandler THe Mourners Companion or Funeral Discourses from several Texts 8â— price bound 1 s. 6 d. Death a Deliverance in a Funeral Discourse from 2 Cor. 5.4 fit to bind with the Mourners Companion Sacramental Discourses on several Texts before and after the Lords Supper together with a Paraâ—â—â—n the Lords Prayer 12º 1 s. Practical Relfection 〈…〉 are Earthquakes in Jamaica 〈…〉 Malta c. With a Particular 〈◊〉 Account of those and Divers other Earthquakes 8º price bound 1 s. 6 d. Serious Reflections on Time and Eternity with some other Subjects Moral and Divine to which is Annexed an Appendix concerning the first Day of the year how observed by the Jews and may best be employed by a serious Christian All five by Mr. John Shower
not guilty of the most barbarous Injustice and Cruelty against the People of God Had he not for many years opprest and inslaved them were not He and his Subjects resolved to destroy those whom God resolved to preserve c. He is three times said to have hardned his own heart Exod. 8.15 32. And chap. 9.34 Tho â—e had sufficient means of Conviction â—y Aarons Rod swallowing up those of â—e Magicians 7 Exod. 1.2 And by the Magicians being non-plust in their Art â—oncerning the Judgment of Lice Exod. â— 18 And they themselves were â—mitten with Boils Chap. 9.11 12. And now and then Pharoah had some Relentings chap. 9.27 10. chap. 16.17 So the Jews in our Saviour's Time concerning whom the like Expressions are used John 12.40 They were such as hated the Light as would not accept of Christ or his Forerunner the Baptist but said of both that they were possessed of a Devil In this Case we may use the Apostles Expression Is God unrighteous who taketh Vengeance Rom. 3.5 God forbid Here indeed is very dismal Severity but there is no shadow of unrighteousness This being premised we may consider First What these Lusts of Mens Hearts are Secondly What it is to be given up Judicially to them The Lusts of our Hearts unto which some are given up by God may Comprehend the false Imaginations and undue Conceptions of Things that are framed in the Soul concerning God and our selves Sin and Duty Happiness and Misery c. And our Irregular Desires and Inclinations with all the wicked Projects and Contrivances of the Soul concerning the gratifying and fulfilling the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eyes and the Pride of Life Now for God to give up any Men to these Lusts so as not to hinder them from walking in their own Councels is not to be supposed as if he gave his approving Consent that they should obey these Lusts Not that he gave them leave to sin or approved what they did in serving divers Lusts but that which is chiefly comprehended in it is First That such Persons are cast out of Gods special Protection and Care and so are exposed to wander and go astray Hos 4.16 To walk as a Lamb in alarge Place and so are more easily assaulted and Overcome by the Devil who seeketh whom he may destroy Secondly That they are left of God under the Dominion and Power and Tyranny of their own Lusts He that 〈◊〉 filthy let him be filthy still Rom. 22. â—1 He that heareth let him hear and he â—â—at forbeareth let him forbear for â—hey are a Rebellious House Ezek. 3.27 So â—hat the Restraints and Checks â—hat they were formerly under by the Motions of his Spirit or by External Providence should no â—onger hinder them in the Prosecution of their Lusts Mar. 4.11 Joh. 12.34 Eze. 24 13.16 4. Hos 4.14 They shall not be smitten any more nor their way hedged up with Thorns The Spirit of God shall not strive with them any more at least not to such a Degree as formerly Nay further we read of Mens being given up after sins against Light unto a * Rom. 1.28 29 30 31. Reprobate unteachable Mind to vile affectiâ—ons to unnatural Lusts Yea delivered up to * 2 Thes 2.11 strong Delusions of Satan that they may believe Lyes that they may be damned But remember this is an Act of Justice and Righteousness in God for the Persons thus given up are describâ—d to be such as would not receive the Truth in the Love of it That there is such a Judgment as this besides the Express Testimoniâ— of Scripture is manifest by sad Experience For what tolerable account can be otherwise given of the Generality of professing Christians with whom the sence of Duty the Honour 〈◊〉 Christ the Interest of his Kingdom have so little Influence to a conscientious governing their Hearts anâ— Lives Yea how else is it That notwithstanding Mercies and Judgments notwithstanding providential warning and gracious Calls notwithstanding many Convictions and Resolutions and good Beginnings notwithstanding many severe Rebukes for pasâ— Backslidings and some Experience how evil and bitter a Thing it isâ— and hath been to forsake God that yet in Despite of God and Conscience and all these Obstacles in their way many have forsaken the Way of Righteousness and wallowed againe in the Pollutions of the World after they had escaped it And whatever Hazard they run by it whatever Difficulties they meet in their way whatever Methods have been used to recover and save them yet on they will go and from a seeming Zeal for God and Godliness and constant dayâ—â— Exercise of the principal Duties of Religion in their Families and Closets â—hey come at last to live without any â—f these in the total Neglect of such Duties and in allowed Practises of Drunkeness Uncleaness and Unrighteousness with the Contempt of the Means of their Conversion and a secret Enmity against the true Interest of Christ in the World and against the serious Profession and Power of Godliness My Friends The Case of such Apostates and the more common Degeneracy of many Others after good and hopeful Beginnings who have sinned themselves into a quiet peaceful Conscience or rather into stupidity and Hardness of Heart notwithstanding the Dayly Commission of great Abominations the deplorable Case I say of such Persons and the Frequency of such Cases makes it manifest that there is such a Thing as mens being left of God and given up to their own Hearts Lusts But remember I call it a deplorable Case not an irrecoverable one For I do not think as to all such Persons that their Day of Grace is past that the Things of their Peace are so hid from their Eyes that it is impossible for them to be renewed to Repentance There are Degrees of Gods forsaking Men there is a total and there is a partial Obduracy and Hardness of Heart But I shall speak more of this afterwards We should Secondly Consider by what Method God does for the most part proceed to inflict and Execute such a Judgment as this But Thirdly For the present let us briefly consider the Severity and Terrour of this Judgment According to the Degrees of this Punishment inflicted on any so is the Wretchedness of their Case in Proportion to be estimated For a Man to be totally left to the Hardness and Obduracy of his own Heart there is no Judgment in this World so severe and therefore sayes * Owens Dominion of Sin Page 73. Dr. Owen it is never Executed but towards those that are habitually and obstinately wicked and do out of choice harden themselves in their sins You may Consider the Dread and Horrour of such a Judgment by reading Prov. 1.23 Heb. 10.26 c. Very much may be gathered from Luke 19.41 42. Where we have 〈◊〉 most significant Representation of such a dismal Case in our Lords affectionate Bewailing of the Misery of Jerusalem as
hath * Mr. How 's Redeemers Tears pag. 82. not made it any Man's Duty to believe this concerning himself nor to beleive it concerning any other particular Person Some of those whose Hearts were once as hard as yours who slighted Christ as much and as long as you have done who dispised many awakening Warnings who refused and turn'd their Backs upon many Invitations and Calls of the Gospel and resisted the Spirit of Grace for a long Time have afterwards been made the Triumph of the Power Love and Grace of God Therefore don't pass a definitive Sentence against your selves To pass a Judgment upon our State and to believe it concerning our selves is to nullity the Gospel and to make it impossible for us to Repent and Believe which God hath made to be our Duty It is a sinful prescribing limits to the Grace of God to say It hath waited on me so long it will it can wait no longer Secondly However Apprehend the Danger of the present Case if you are under any such Symptoms as have a Tendency to so severe a Judgment as this is It may be you have sinned your selves into hardness of Heart that you are not affected with the Word Preached as formerly that you do not find such Impressions by it that the Operations of the Spirit with the Word that were formerly strong do now seem to cease You are not so affected with the Evil of Sin with such hearty Sorrow and bitter Repentance as formerly tho thy sins be most highly aggravated And are little affected with the sins of others you are more senceless stupid and secure under the Guilt of great Provocations than formerly And this notwithstanding some Tokens of God's Displeasure by afflictive Rebukes of Providence It may be you have taken up with a fruitless barren empty Profession of Religion for a long Time joyn'd with the Neglect of the inward Spiritual Part of Godliness Mortification of Sin Watchfulness over your Hearts Government of your Thoughts Passions and Sences c. And have gone on in a formal Course and Round of some external Duties without Heart or Life or Quickning and this contrary to your Convictions Resolutions and repeated Promises c. This case is exceeding sad and sinful and God only knows where it will Issue if deep and timely Repentance do not awaken you You ought to apprehend it to be indeed a very provoking and dangerous Case but not quite desperate Nay let me go further Secret Prayer it may be hath been neglected for a Time or performed with so much coldness that you now Tremble to think how low you are sunk Or which is much worse it may be you do not Tremble The Power of Conscience is in a great measure lost both in restraining from Sin and in checking for it You can now more easily stifle Convictions rebel against Light and venture upon a known sin indulge a secret Lust and allow your selves those Things from day to day which formerly you could not without sharp Rebukes of Conscience And such Preaching and such Helps as did once startle awaken and quicken you have now little or no such Effect This is indeed unspeakably dismal O! how low are such fallen how difficult how sorrowful must be the awakening and Recovery of such Backsliders What can be said to such Persons and why should they not fear the Judgment of this Text lest God give them up to their own Hearts Lusts I am so far from discouraging such a Fear that I would by all Means awaken it Therefore I say it would be Just with God to cast thee off and God would be Righteous if he reject thee utterly if he forsake thee for Ever if he never strive with thy Heart more if Never Providence or Sermon do thee good more This would be Just But at the same Time let Hope be intermingled with Fear there is much Cause to Fear but there is none to Despair the one is a Duty and the other a Sin And if the Consideration of your sin and Danger begin to melt and mollify your Heart then know that Christ came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance and mercy may yet be had he takes pleasure in them that hope in his Mercy it is by hope we are saved Therefore aggravate your sins and the grounds of your Fear and the Danger of your perishing to Eternity But don 't sit down in Despondency don't yeild your selves to perish without striving to prevent it Fall down before his Mercy-Seat study the Nature and Promises of the Covenant of Grace and fly to Christ according to the general Invitation and Call of the Gospel to that End Thirdly if your Hearts begin to melt and move within you who have apprehended your selves in Danger of this Judgment if you are yet under the strivings of the Spirit as your very Sollicitude and Fear about it and Desire of Assistance doth Imply then I would beseech you to set presently to work out your Salvation with all Diligence Let not the Dictates of an awakened Conscience be hush'd and silenc'd Cherish and obey the holy Motions of the Spirit Let not your present Convictions and Resolutions become abortive for want of Meditation and Prayer and advising with your Ministers and Judicious Faithful Friends Especially take heed of extinguishing the Sentiments of an awakened Conscience by new Guilt and fresh Transgressions While Conscience is thus at Work your Conversion is more probable and hopeful now than formerly If you quench not the Motions of the Spirit and provoke him to leave you If you will but hearken to his Voice and follow his Counsel and not again harden your Hearts If you would now earnestly implore and thankfully entertaine and carefully improve his holy Influences Is it not of highest Importance that you do so without Delay When your Breath is in your Nostrils and the Day of your Life and your Day of Grace may both be ended before to morrow Morning Should not the Kindness of God overcome you That Mercy is offered â—o such returning Backsliders should 〈◊〉 not be a melting transporting Thought for such as you to consider â—hat Christ invites you to come to him â—f you are weary and heavy laden and â—romises Rest Read Judges 10th the â—atter End for your Encouragment where God having delivered his People and they yet forsook him it is said â—hat he would deliver them no more but â—id them go to the Gods they had â—hosen But they cryed to him and â—urned from their evil Ways and his â—oul was greived for them and he did â—eliver them They cryed heartily Lord â—o unto us what seemeth thee good only deâ—ver us so do you in like Manner and â—here is yet Hope Go in â—ecret and â—ell him that it is the Desire of your Souls now to return to him beg his â—anctifying Spirit with utmost imporâ—unity plead the Vertue of the Blood of Christ say unto him Lord do with â—ne what thou
God never punished any Man or Woman with this Spiritual Judgment in Kindness and Love The Third Sermon Psalm LXXXI 12. So I gave them up to their own Hearts lusts and they walked in their own Counsels UPON the Rehearsal of some terrible Threatning when Judgment is denounced or signified to be approaching but the particular Persons are not named who are to be the Subjects of it we may use the Words of the Prophet Daniel chap. 4.29 Before he opened to the King the Import and sense of his ominous Dream The Dream be to them that hate thee O King and the Interpretation thereof unto thine Enemies But such is the Severity and Horrour of this threatned Judgment in the Text that we should not we ought not to wish so much Evil to our worst Enemies but do what we can to prevent it For of all Calamities that can be threatned or inflicted in this World what can be worse than for a Man to be given up to his own Lusts and left to walk in his own Counsels Two or three things we may observe by way of general Inference before I speak to some particular Cases and Questions that relate hereto 1. HOW Much to be pitied is the Ignorance and Folly of sinners that are afraid of any other Calamity more than this I gave 'em up to their own Hearts Lusts is a thousand times worse than if God had given 'em up to the Syrians to spoil 'em or to their most enraged Adversaries to oppress ' em Men are ready to quake and tremble and their Hearts to be moved as the Trees of the Wood are moved with the Wind if a thick or dark Cloud hover over them as to publick or private Affairs If their Health and Ease their Liberties and Estates their outward Priviledges and Advantages are threatened and endangered they presently apprehend themselves concerned to look about them and do their utmost to prevent it But if sin be the greatest Enemy to be given up to sin is the greatest Judgment and should be more feared than Plague or Pestilence or Famine or War or any of those Calamities that Nations and Persons do commonly dread as most Formidable Evils 2. Is it the greatest Judgment to be given up to our own Hearts Lusts How unreasonable is the Displeasure and Anger of Men at the sharpest Methods of Divine Grace that would bring them to Repentance and thereby prevent this sad Catastrophe The most smart Reproofs of the Word the most close Exhortations and Admonitions of Ministers that are now accounted troublesome the most pungent and uneasy Convictions of Conscience and the most afflictive Rebukes of Providence too that have this merciful Design and Tendency they are the real Effects of Kindness as preventive of a greater Mischief even this of being left of God and given up to our own Hearts Lusts What Enemies therefore are they to their own Interest who use such Language as that of the Stubborn Jews Isa 30.10 saying to the Prophets Prophecie not unto us Right things speak unto us smooth things and prophecie Deceits Till God in righteous Judgment resolve and say as he did afterwards Ezek 3.26 Thou shalt no longer be unto them a Reprover Thou shalt be dumb and thy Tongue cleave to the Roof of thy mouth for they are a rebellious House When such as would convince and awaken Men by necessary Reproofs are disliked and their Preaching reckoned a Burden because the Earth is tormented with their Words Revel 11.10 3. HOW wretched and dangerous is their Mistake who think their Case good because their Consciences now trouble them no more They have sinned themselves into such hardness of Heart and searedness of Conscience under such Judicial Blindness and stupidity that the sin which was formerly burdensom as a Mountain they now feel not they bewail it not Conscience that did rebuke them is now silent and fast asleep All things are at peace with them they say and they are glad of it and so is the Devil too God lets them prosper in the World they have no rub in their way to Hell But in the mean time he hath given them over that they shall not be smitten any more that they shall not be troubled with the strivings of his Spirit any more Neither Word nor Rod shall do them good more They applaud themselves in this and rejoyce in it But if to be given up to our own Hearts Lusts be the greatest Judgment there is no storm more dismal than such a Calm or more to be dreaded No Trouble but is better than such Peace No Sickness but is preferable to such Health No Sorrow but is rather to be chosen than such mad Joy Doubt 1. BUT because I would not break the bruised Reed or quench the smoking Flax or sadden the Hearts of those whom God would not have saddened but rather awaken the Joy and assist the Consolation and promote the spiritual Peace of those unto whom it doth of right belong I shall therefore consider some of the Doubts and Objections of several weak or melancholy dejected Christians who on all Occasions argue against themselves and conclude hardly of their own State from every word of Threatening and Terrour against the Ungodly As melancholy People can hardly hear any Disease talked of or described but they presently imagin they have some of the Symptoms of it in their Case WHAT I have said of the Nature and Terrour of this Judgment and of the Methods oâ— Divine Justice in the Execution of it may make some ready to say I fear lest God hath given me up for I have resisted many of the strivings of the Spirit of Grace and now I think he doth not strive with me any more I have been under the Rod and not bettered by it the Spirit of slumber and of a deep sleep seems to possess me I have outstood many Calls to Repentance and stifled many Convictions of Conscience and contradicted many good Resolutions and broken many Vows and Promises I have backsliden and revolted from God after very hopeful Beginnings Therefore the Punishment of Apostates may Justly be inflected on me I that have casted the good Word of God and of the Powers of the World to come may well fear being left of God so as it should be impossible for me to be renewed by Repentance Heb. 6.7 My Day of Grace is over saith Another my accepted Time past there is nothing so bad but I may Justly fear it For I find I grow worse and worse instead of making progress in Holiness whereas if my Grace were true it would be growing But I find my Corruptions exceeding strong my heart very dead and hard c. Doubtless God has withdrawn his Spirit from me will Another say I have not the Covenant Blessing of a soft Heart a Heart of Flesh I cannot weep a Tear for my sins as once I could I am good for nothing unfit for any spiritual Duty None in the World have
did not could not satisfie for them and that he will not forgive them if you Repent and turn to God and Believe on the Name of his Son You are condemned by the Law Christ came to save sinners and such as were lost and he requires no Worthiness or Price in your Hands but that you unfeignedly Consent to be his to accept an offered Saviour and his Salvation according to the Ends and Uses of the Covenant of Grace That he may illuminate and teach you sanctifie and guide you govern and rule you by his Word and Spirit This is the Condition of your Title to the Blessings of the Covenant and consequently must be the Evidence of your Title and should be a satisfactory one But if you are Unwilling to forsake sin and return to God by Jesus Christ if you are unwilling to receive him as your Teacher Sanctifier Saviour and Lord you have reason to doubt your state indeed or rather the matter is past doubt you are unsanctified and as yet unreconciled to God Whoever theresore upon the account of their former Resistance of the Spirit stifling Convictions violating their good Resolutions c. Do question their State whether God hath not given them over yet let them Consider they are now invited and entreated to put it out of question that their Day of Grace is not past by letting this be Their Accepted time the Day of their Salvation by now heartily accepting an offered Saviour and giving up themselves unto him And then notwithstanding all your former Refusals of his Mercy and Grace if now at last you will return and submit and take his yoke upon you there is Ease and Rest and Pardon and Comfort and Life Eternal Life to be had To conclude Instead of Doubting and Complaining and questioning any longer Reduce all that which is Doubtful with you to that which is Plain and Certain It is certain that God hath sent his Son into the World to save sinners It is certain that you are some of those lost miserable guilty Creatures that need this Salvation It is certain that he has published the glad Tidings of the Gospel to such that whoever believeth shall be saved Is is certain that God cannot lye it is therefore inconsistent with his Nature that such as come to him in the Exercise of Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ should not be Accepted with him Therefore dispute and question and complain no longer how matters have been or how they are with you but come in upon the Call and Invitation of the Gospel Grace Remember the Covenant thou hast made with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in Baptism Resign yield and give up thy self with all thy Heart and Soul to be his resolving that thou wilt throw thy self into the Arms of his Love and Mercy because it is the Command of God that you believe on his Son Resolve that through his Mercy and Grace by the help of his Spirit of Grace you will now do so whatever come of it Do not perplex your selves about the Question whether you did it not formerly four or five or ten years ago But do it again Blessing God that you may now do it that he has not repealed his Gospel and that he never will repeal it to the end of the World I may Accept of his Son now as well as so many years ago Blessed be God the Invitation the Command the Promise is the same now as it was then And to as many as Receive him he will give the Priviledge to become the Sons of God even to as many as believe on his Name Blessed be God for Jesus Christ and the Covenant of Grace The Fourth Sermon Psalm LXXXI 12. So I gave them up to their own Hearts lufts and they walked in their own Counsels I Come now in the last place to consider the Case of such who make dangerous Approaches towards such a Judgment Who have provoked God to that degree that it would be no wonder if he should give them up yea concerning whom there is Reason to fear it if speedy Repentance do not prevent HAVING therefore spoken 1. To the Nature of this Judgment And Secondly considered the steps and Methods whereby God does ordinarily inflict it And Thirdly the dreadful Severity of it in Comparison of any other Judgment in this World I proceeded to the Case of those who Fear they are thus left and given up by God Several Things I named which they alledg as the ground of their Fear which yet will not prove that God hath forsaken 'em At the same time there are many other Things that will evidence the Contrary It remains therefore that I may faithfully give every one his portion Comfort to whom Comfort and Terrour to whom Terrour is due That I also speak to the Case of Such whose Guilt may quickly infer this Terrible Judgment or concerning whom we may fear whether they be not already under it or left of God There are several things with relation to this Case which ought to be Considered I. THE First dangerous Symptom is Security or a False ungrounded Peace of Conscience This is frequently the Prologue and Forerunner of Judicial hardning It is often a part of it and an Evidence of it Their Case therefore is exceeding dangerous with whom Conscience is a Asleep or Feared When that sin which formerly thy Conscience would reprove thee for thou canst now commit without Remorse or Difficulty When such or such a Lust can be freely indulged and thy Heart not reproach thee thy Conscience not fly in thy Face or speak with any smartness and Authority against it as formerly it was wont to do When the Neglect of such or such Duties was a daily Trouble to thee heretofore but now thou canst let Them alone and thy Conscience will let Thee alone without rebuking thee or calling thee to Repentance as it was wont to do Or if Conscience do speak it is with much Faintness without any such Impressions of Fear and shame and sorrow as were wont to be produced by it This speaks as if God had already given thee up in some degree or thou art very near what is worse in very great danger of this dreadful Judgment This Security and Quiet notwithstanding the neglect of known Duty and the Commission of sin I grant has it's Degrees There are some Degrees of it into which a good Man through the Prevalency of sin and Temptation for a time may fall Particularly as to the Duty of Prayer and the spiritual Performance of it But then such Persons supposing them Upright in the main who are under such Backslidings are far from approving themselves in this Case or from having any setled Peace They have many an unpleasing Thought about their own Case many Resolutions of Repentance that they may be Recovered They often say within themselves We will go and return to our first Husband for then it was better with
us than now And every Providence of God whether of Mercy or Affliction they regard as a Call from Heaven to awaken them And if the Word preached come home to their particular Case they receive the Warning and do not reject it or oppose it But the Persons I speak of as in danger of this Judgment are such especially who are Secure and Quiet under the Guilt of great Transgressions unrepented of and under the continued Omission of plain Duties They are lost as to any sense of Sin and they approve themselves so far in their wretched Course as to speak Peace to themselves notwithstanding the repeated and loud Calls and Warnings of God to repentance Conscience did formerly speak but they have so long checked and stifled and discouraged and silenced the Voice of Conscience as to have lost one of the greatest Blessings in the World viz. Tenderness of Conscience They have either silenc'd their Conscience by main Force or they have disheartened it by a slighting disobedient Carriage or bribed it by a Form of Godliness an empty barren Profession And so it gives way to a delusive destructive Peace either to flatter them in the way to Hell or not truly to inform them of their danger of it Such persons little Apprehend the danger they are in For it is much better to have an Awakened Conscience that roats against thee than a Sleepy silent Conscience that doth not reprove thee It is better thy Conscience should not speak a good word to thee than how great cause soever there be that it should speak nothing but good That Conscience should speak Peace when God by his Word speaks Terrour is dreadful in it self and more so as to what it signifies and has a tendency to Neither is such a Spirit of Slum ber and Security only dangerous as to the Persons themselves in regard of the State or their own Souls But these spiritual Judgments where they prevail as to great numbers of Professing Christians as it is observed by many are usually followed with some terrible strokes of Temporal Judgment too For as the first and greatest part of the Deliverance of the Church is Spiritual by the pouring out of the Divine spirit and the Recovery of the Life and Power of serious Religion and the more plentiful success of the Gospel Ministrations and this makes way for publick National Blessings even those of another kind and is usually attended with them So the first Entrance into publick National Judgments as to Temporals is by spiritual Judgments on the Body of the People The abounding of such spiritual Judgments as we are now speaking of opens the Door to temporal Calamities and is the usual Forerunner of the most terrible ones even of that kind So it was with the old World so with the Jewish Nation before their Destruction by the Romans And so says Salvian was it with the African Churches before the Inundation of the Goths and Vandals And the like in later Instances I believe among our Neighbours I wish there be no moral Prognostications of a Day of Evil on this Nation upon the same Account We ought to apprehend the danger of such a thing We may on these moral grounds very well fear it But it is the Case of Particular Persons I have now before me And the more Security and false Peace of Conscience any have under great Guilt unrepented of or known Duty continually neglected the nearer do any such approach to the danger of being given up of God to their own Hearts Lusts If they are not already entered into that dismal State And yet how many such bless themselves in their Hearts and please themselves that they are now free from the Fears of Hell They do not trouble themselves about the State of their Souls as others do and as they formerly did They have few or no sad and serious Thoughts what shall become of them in the Everlasting World Of all Others these are nearest to such a Judgment as that in the Text For when they say Peace and Safety sudden Destruction shall overtake them as Travel on a Woman with Child 1. Thess 5.3 They now speak Peace to themselves but the next Day or Hour they may know and feel the Truth of the divine Threatening That there is no Peace to the wicked There are an hundred threatnings in the Book of God against such and not one Promise of safety for one Hour And yet they can lye down and rise and go up and down Securely They are not afraid when they lye down to sleep that they shall awake in Hell before the next Morning They are not afraid when they arise and go abroad in the Morning lest the Wrath of God should overtake them before Night Read the description of their sin and Danger in that terrible passage Deut. 29.18 20. II. ANOTHER Symptom of this Judgment or dangerous Approach unto it is when the Ministry of the Word and Gospel of Christ becomes a tastless insipid ineffectual thing not attended with any such spiritual Impressions as formerly Heretofore you hardly heard a Sermon without some Convictions of sin and Resolutions against it the Word was quick and powerful to give an humbling sense of sin and to excite your Resolutions to set upon neglected Duties but now there is no such thing Yea further it may be the very external Worship of the Gospel the Ordinances and Institutions of it the Dispencers of them and they that value and Mind these things are now scorned and reviled by you For this is the Case of some Backsliders after great Pretences and an high Profession In such a Case you will find your spiritual Appetite to the Food of your Souls which consists in Desires after the sincere Milk of the word that you may grow thereby to be much abated and lost and that Spiritual Savour and Relish in the Food of your Souls which followed those Desires is lost too Your Preparations Desires and Designs in coming to such Institutions are otherwise than formerly Though upon some Considerations you have not thought fit to abandon the publick Worship yet you have no such Appetite or Tast no such Desires and no such Relish as to these things as formerly you had Neither do you of late experience any of those excellent Effects which the Dispensation of the Gospel is designed to produce upon the Minds and Consciences and Lives of Men. Though there is difference in the degree of these Declensions yet this is the high Road to Obduration Hardness of Heart and final Impenitence And therefore to use the Words of a learned Person concerning such Apostates * Dr. Owen Dominion of sin and Grace p. 89. The Calls of God unto such Backsliders in heart for a return by Repentance are multiplied and the Reasons of it are innumerable and without it it is certain that they shall perish Eternally and they know not how soon they may be overtaken with that Destruction Prov. 29.1
He that being often reproved hardens his Heart shall suddenly be destroyed and that without Remedy If Men once come to this that under the most searching lively Sermons they can continue secure and wilful in known sins they may fear lest they be left to go further even to the hating of Godliness and good Men Or at least to be so far stupified as not to feel any thing of the force of Gods Terrors or the sweetness of his Promises but to make a Jest of sin and think a Life of Godliness a needless thing Such Persons when it comes to this especially if they grow old in this Course have Cause to fear lest they be forsaken of God and given over to their own Hearts Lusts sealed up under Judicial Blindness and Hardness of Heart III. WHEN The Spirit of Grace gives over striving with the Souls of Men. This is a most dangerous Case For except He return they are irrecoverably lost There is an absolute necessity of the Influence of the Divine Spirit to the Begining Progress and Continuance of the Spiritual Life and there is no Opposition in the Soul but this Spirit of Life and Power can overcome But when he gives over striving with men how deplorable must their Case be And this he doth with many after they have resisted the Spirit and rebelled against the Spirit and vexed the Holy Spirit of God as we read of some that did Acts 7.51 Now if this blessed Spirit move not upon the Soul of a Backslider he can never be recovered And when he hath often been repulsed and grieved and quenched he may withdraw in Anger and God may justly resolve as concerning the old World that his Spirit shall strive no more no longer with them Especially when after a great Profession of Christianity men turn Apostates and despise Preaching and the other Institutions of the Gospel having done despite to the Spirit of Grace Heb. 10.29 Which though spoken of open final Apostates should make Others that approach thereto to tremble And of how much soever Punishment shall such be thought guilty that do thus Despight to the Spirit of Christ who bears Witness to his Person and Doctrine Who can tell the Dreadfulness and Horrour of their Punishment The Constitution of the Law of Moses reached but to a temporal Death without mercy But besides temporal Judgments such a Guilt will expose them to Eternal Wrath For the greatest sin will have the greatest Punishment No wonder then if the Holy Spirit strive no more with Persons that come under this tremendous Guilt that sin against the Holy Spirit even as a Spirit of Grace doing Despight to the Spirit of Grace who did invite and wooe and draw them unto Christ to bring them under the Bond of the Covenant My Spirit shall not alway strive with men Gen. 6.3 Heb. 3.13 Luke 13 7. When the Spirit of Grace and Love and Benignity hath shone in upon their Minds and often touched their Consciences and secretly whispered Sinner Wilt thou not yet turn What hast thou no Inclinations to return to me O do not go on and perish c. Now to despight this very Spirit of Grace must needs be attended with great Aggravations of Guilt because it is after some Experience of his Influence and Power This must be one of the most dangerous Symptoms of a perishing lost Condition The Gospel must needs be hid unto such because without the Light and Influence of the Holy Spirit it can have no saving Effect If our Gospel be hid says our Apostle it is hid to them that are lost 2 Cor. 4.3 Whose Minds are blinded by Satan lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine into their Hearts Though I must here add that no Man I believe can determine what Degree of this Guilt as to particular Persons doth distinguish those who are Irrecoverably lost from such as are Recoverable and may be called to Repentance IV. THOUGH The Spirit have not done striving yet when the preaching of the Word though you cannot resist the Light of divine Truth but somewhat of it shines into the Mind and Conscience if yet your Hearts stand out and will not yield this is a dangerous Case For men may be convinced by the Word of the sinfulness and Danger of their Condition they may come to determine and to pronounce Judgment upon themselves that what God requires of them is but Just and equal and that hitherto they have not complied with his Call One thing or other from day to day hath hindered them from coming up to the terms of the Gospel from a covenant Closure with the Son of God upon the Gospel Call They may say and own it before God and Men That they are deeply convinced such a thing ought to be done But I have not yet found the time or the Leisure or the Heart to retire into a Closet and consider it and set about it in good earnest and give up my Soul to him I am convinced I must do it or I cannot enter into Heaven I am convinced I must turn or I shall dye I am satisfied this my present Course must issue in my Ruine my Eternal Ruine that if I go on and dye in this Case I am lost for ever But yet notwithstanding such Convictions with many still the Heart holds out against all that can be said The highest and the most important matters that can be named though propounded with the clearest Evidence and represented as of the nearest Concern to them yet do not effectually prevail with them Though we propose in the Name of God the Incouragment of that Blessedness and Priviledge which no man that understands and believes but must desire Though we flash the Fire of Hell before them and endeavour by the Terrors of the Lord to perswade them yet they have heard of these things so often that they are not moved by them to yield themselves to the Lord. All that we speak in the Name of Christ is as a Tale that is told they have heard it so often it makes little Impression Things are come to that sad pass with them and they are Scrmon-proof to that Degree that to use the words of a Great man unless we could speak of greater things than Heaven and Hell we cannot move them And though their Minds are inlightened and some Convictions begun yet their Lusts carry the Day against their Convictions Conscience is baffled or kept under by the Power of vicious Inclinations And while men go on at this rate who can tell but God may say Let them alone but that he may give them up to those Lusts they have chosen and so their Condition be desperate Though they themselves do not apprehend it to be so And as to individual Persons we cannot distinctly tell when it is so but so it may be and God be clear in his Righteousness herein because it is penal and after great Provocations and it was lately otherwise
Repentance the Argument will be as strong against repenting then as it is for delaying now He will then adjourn it to some distance season 3. DO You know what Repentance is that you will venture upon sin with a Design to Repent That is that you will continue to do that which youâ— resolve and intend to wish you had never done to be heartily sorry that you were such Fools as to do it You resolve to do that which you resolve to be ashamed of and to loath your selves for and would give all the World if it were in your Power that you had not done it For this is implied in Repentance Now is it becoming the Wisdom and Reason of a Man thus to act 4. ART Thou sure to live to that time unto which thou delayest thy Repentance and Turning to God With how many every week is that the Case who intend to Repent some time or other but dye before the time comes VI. WHAT If God should give thee over to thine own Hearts Lusts May he not justly leave thee to the hardness of thine impenitent Heart Doth not such a Carriage of thine deserve it If thou wilt go on from Month to Month from year to year in the neglect of known Duties under the Convictions of Conscience that thou art not yet turned to God or reconâ—iled to him thou wilt I say yet go on and continue as thou art though thy Heart tell thee if thou dye in this Condition thou must perish and thou hast nothing to relieve thee in this sad Case but only an Intention to Repent some time hereafter O how Justly may God deny that Grace to Thee which thou hast so long abused and forfeited and wilt not now Accept How righteously mayst thou be sealed up to Destruction by Gods forsaking of thee VII THERE is another sort whose Case is exceeding dangerous viz. Who often fall into the same sins which they Repent of and are sorry for After they have sinned they Repent of those sins again and after some Repentance they commit the same sins again and so have the Aggravations of sinning against Knowledge Now to him that knoweth to do good and doth it not that knoweth what is evil and forbears it not to him it is sin with a Witness Jam. 4.7 He that knew his Masters Will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes Luk. 12.49 It is a dreadful passage though spoken of Apostates from the Profession of Christianity unto Judaism or Heathenism Heb. 10 26 27 28 29. That such as sin after the Knowledg of the Truth there remains no more sacrifice for such sins For what further Guilt may not such sins against Knowledge bring them to and issue in Doubtless the more you know and have considered the Issue and Consequence of such sins as by renewing your Repentance is implied that something of this kind has been done the more aggravated is your Sin afterward and the more dangerous your Case And the more struggle and striving there has been of Conscience against Corruption and yet thy Lusts have carried the day and got the victory over Conscience The more Vows and Promises of Amendment that you have made and broken and sinned against repenting of your Repentance as Pharoah did the greater is your sin and Danger The more Warnings you have had of God by his Providence and the more awakening Calls of his Word â—nd yet you continue this Course of â—â—â—ning and repenting of repenting and sinning still the more dangerous is your Case Especially under a professon of Religion For in a little time Conscience thus affronted is like enough to be hardened and to be seared as with an hot Iron 2 Thess 2.12 And God may give you up to an impenitent Heart leaving you to commit the grossest Abominations without shame or Remorse as he did the Gentiles Rom 1.21 24 26 28. If such be ever awakened to Repentance in this World this very Consideration will pierce them to the Heart this will make them ready to despair That as the Apostle said of himself I did it ignorantly therefore I obtained Mercy They will be ready to cry out against themselves I did so and so but it was against Knowledge therefore there is no Mercy for me There remains for such without Repentance a most fearful Punishment And a fearful looking for and Expectation of such Punishment in the Consciences of those who have sinned at this rate And there be very Few of those who have lived long under the preaching of the Word and continued to sin thus against Knowledge and Conscience till they were old very few such are recovered to Repentance Certainly the greater the Knowledge is you sin against the more you provoke God to give you up to a reprobate Mind and to leave you to hardness of Heart VIII WHEN Notwithstanding the Profession of Religion and outward Attendance on the Duties of it yet sin has the Dominion and Mastery in the Soul and sensual Inclinations are indulged without restraint even as to gross and notorious sins There are some Backsliders who would formerly have started back at such or such a Temptation who can now boldly enter into it readily yield and are easily overcome without Concern or struggle Sin has the Mastery and Dominion in the Soul they go on to commit it without Check or Fear They consent to its Rule they are willing subjects For to whom you yield your Servants to obey his Servants ye are Rom. 6.6 And that victory which Sin hath got by your own Consent may justly as it commonly doth in the swent bring that Bondage and Slavery under sin which is Judicial and Penal That slavery to sin which at first was voluntary afterwards becomes unavoidable You are held in the Chains of your own sins you are captivated and ovrecome by your own lusts While they promise themselves Liberty says the Apostle they are the Servants of Corruption for of whom a Man is overcome of the same is he brought into Bondage 2. Pet. 2.19 There is less hope of such Men that are grown loose and sensual after they have been forward Professors And they are harder to be recovered than any others For they are more likely to be left of God Some have unwarily said that an open profligate debauched Person is nearer the Grace of God and salvation by Christ than a moral honest Man that is kept from the grosser Pollutions of the World But such Expressions should not make us think that God will invite and wooe us the more earnestly the further our sins have divorced us from him * Dr. Hammonds Sermons p. 275. It is true the Holy Ghost can cleanse and adorn and prepare himself a room in any Heart and soften it and not be repulsed by the most habituate sin or Devil And some have been thus snatched like fire-brands out of the Fire and changed from incarnate Devils to incarnate Saints Yet those extraordinary and rare Examples must