for a Scripture-demonstration That though Ministers dye their message is immortal It is your profit I aim at in treating of this Doctrine that I may therefore be more distinct and particular I will parcell it out into these following Propositions And now Christians I do in the name of my Supream Lord and Master solemnly require such attention as becomes those that shall feel this truth in both worlds Proposition 1. Those that live in contempt of the Word cannot out-live the power of it Many persons live and dye in a self-flattery that the threatnings against their sins the sins that they are resolved to live in shall never overtake them How many are there that study to be Infidels and strive to be Atheists they would fain perswade themselves that a Scripture faith is but a fancy and that God will never be so severe as we report him but yet a little while and they shall feel the contrary Others hear the Word and are at present startled but their convictions wear off and their sense of duty dyes before them Alas Sirs our obligations to duty do not ebb and flow according to our apprehensions of it The evil and danger of sin doth not abate as we would have it Ezek. 2.4 5. They are impudent children and stiff-hearted I do send thee unto them and thou shalt say unto them thus saith the Lord God And they whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for they are a rebellious house yet shall know that there hath been a Prophet among them Beloved Christians I pray you consider it The way of sin is the way of the greatest folly in the world for men will industriously live in sin and as industriously avoid taking notice of Gods indignation against it and because they take no notice they are willing to perswade themselves God takes no notice of them Yet these very persons when they are under any qualms of conscience and any tendency towards repentance then they as industriously perswade themselves God must needs take notice of them and that a few gripes of conscience must needs be mortification sufficient Why Sirs what do you make of God all this while But what need I ask this question seeing the Word of God hath so plainly resolved it Psal 50.21 Thou thoughtst saith God that I was altogether such an one as thy self The sinner thinks while he hath a kindness for sin God must needs indulge it and when he is never so little uneasie under it God must needs pardon it while he winks at sin God must not see it and when he never so slightly looks up for mercy God must not deny it Oh how do poor Ministers find this by experience Those that while they are well all we can say will not move them If they send for us when sick we must say nothing to discourage them we are harsh and uncharitable yea uncivil and not fit to visit a dying person if we disturb them with any close questioning of their repentance Oh 't is a piece of cruelty to thrust the probe of the Word into their festered consciences we must take sins forsaking of them when they can no longer commit it to be their forsaking of sin and though we with never so much tenderness suspect their estate and beg of them to take heed of dying in a mistake that will then cease to be cureable yet such language is not to be endured we must at least be dismist with Felix his complement Acts 24 25. Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee But that season never comes one while such melancholy for so must all seriousness be called will hinder the working of his Physick another while 't will break his rest and so he must rather be let alone to go to Hell than be troubled with directions how to get to Heaven Well in short think what you will of us and of our errand both in health and in sickness though you carry it as if 't were alwayes too soon or too late for you to be serious in Religion the warning we give you will have its efficacy one way or other Isa 55.10 11. if your hearts be not melted they will be hardned by the shining of the Sun of Righteousness if you make it not your business to lay hold on eternal life you cannot avoid it but eternal death will lay hold on you Proposition 2. Though Ministers dye their message shall survive them The authority and certainty of our message doth not depend upon our usage in the world nor our going out of it It is an easie matter to quarrel with the messenger but it is impossible to evade the message We are as subject to death as other men and what if I should say I speak it by way of enquiry not positively 't is worth while to consider Whether there be not fewer eminently faithful Ministers live to old age than persons of any other Calling whatsoever They live more time time worth the name of living in one year than others do in twenty The keener the Knife the sooner it cuts the Sheath Those that run hard are soonest at the end of their race But doth their message dye with them No sure What is said of young Samuel that lived to see his words verified may be said of those that dye before they see any effect of them 1 Sam. 3.19 The Lord was with him and did let none of his words fall to the ground Though men let them fall to the ground God will not 2 Tim. 2.9 I saith the Apostle suffer trouble as an evil doer even unto bonds but the word of God is not bound I know not why we should restrain this to the liberty the Apostle had while in prison to preach to those that were present and to write Epistles to those that were absent but it may also refer to the power and efficacy of the Word that it never returns in vain to him that sent it those to whom it is sent shall most certainly be the captives of his love or of his wrath And let me here put in one word for the comfort of believers As God in justice fulfills threatnings after the Ministers that publish them are dead so God graciously fulfills Promises after the Ministers that declare them are dead How many troubled souls are ready to conclude upon the death of their spiritual Physitian to whom to their comfort they have opened their grief Oh now they have none to speak to now those refreshments they were wont to have shall cease No. Dear Christians fear it not the Promises they have helpt you to apply shall abide by you and God will bring you into a profitable acquaintance with others that shall through grace help you to experiment that spiritual Physick will not lose its efficacy by the death of the Physitian Christ encourageth his Apostles with this that they should reap what the Prophets only lived to
can they live alwayes to preach or to see their Prophecies fulfilled but though your fathers are dead their punishments ought not to be forgotten and though the Prophets are also dead their Prophecies are not to be buried with them I appeal to your consciences and observation did not the threatnings of the Prophets overtake your fathers and catch them as Huntsmen their prey or one enemy another in slight though they sought to make their escape and when they felt Gods hand upon them then they were better advised and then they began to come to the right knowledge of their estate as Mal. 3.18 Then they discerned between the righteous and the wicked then they felt the difference between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Thus Calvin and Pemble But yet Sanctius in his Paraphrase layes my Text the fairest for what I designed in the choice of it bringing in the Prophet as it were thus enquiring and advising Where are those foolish Parents that entertained my message with scorn and laughter as if the threatnings would never reach them and where are those Prophets that foretold such hard things Shall they live for ever that they may daily admonish you No truly the time is coming wherein true Prophecie shall for a long time cease and therefore hear while you may the Prophets Oracles The short result of the words is this DOCT. Though Ministers dye their message is immortal they should deliver it and people receive it accordingly Were it not for overcharging your memories I would have given it you thus Seeing those that are taught and those that teach them are both mortal but the Word of God is immortal and will certainly overtake us in this world and follow us into the next it should therefore be a prevailing argument to every one of us to make the best use of the present help of Ministers for our thorow turning unto God People dye and Ministers dye but the Word lives Men first or last shall feel that Word to be true which they are most unwilling to believe to be so and those things to overtake them which they most industriously put farthest from them Christians we deliver our message and we are called home to give an account to him that sent us men turn their backs upon the Word and run away from it and are never to seek for an excuse why they do no more regard it but all this will not serve their turn dye they must and be judged they must according to what they have heard and how they have lived and therefore it will be your wisdom to turn to God and make use of Ministers while you have them Alas my Brethren you may use us at your pleasure I do not mean you may lawfully do it but you may really do it and if your rejecting of our message could but shake off your obligation or fright your Judge from medling with you you might vapour over us and count it a piece of Gallantry to out-face poor Ministers and to out-brave their message but how long will you be able to carry it How soon may a burning Feavor cool your courage and the King of Terrors change your thoughts now is your hour alas 't is but an hour a little while and the power of your darkness that will not endure the light But Sirs be it known to you your sleepy consciences shall be awakened and your self-flattering dreams shall have an end then that Word which you counted as wind shall kindle upon you as fire and there will be no standing before it Jer. 5.13 14. Christ told his hearers Luke 11.49 That the wisdom of God said I will send them Prophets and Apostles and some of them they shall slay and persecute c. Here 's unsearchable wisdom which we cannot fully know the reason of till we come to Heaven In Jer. 26. you have an account of Gods Commission to Jeremy the Spiritual Rulers entertainment of it and the Prophets pressing of them to a better reception of his message for their own sake Verse 2. Thus saith the Lord stand in the Court of the Lords house and speak unto all the Cities of Judah which come to worshiop in the Lords house All the words that I command thee to speak unto them diminish not a word The substance of his message was the same with ours the same in all Ages Repent or perish We have no authority to abate any thing our Commission allows us not to alter a word by way of indulgence to sin or dispensation from duty if you like not the terms quarrel not with us Verse 8. Now it came to pass when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord hath commanded him it is well that they would give him the hearing and that they would hear him speak out that the Priests and the Prophets and all the people took him saying thou shalt surely dye Verse 12. Then spake Jeremiah unto all the Princes and to all the people saying the Lord sent me to prophesie against this City all the words that ye have heard Ver. 13. Therefore now amend your wayes and your doings c. Verse 14. As for me behold I am in your hand do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you Ver. 15. He doth as it were say you may rid your hands of your Prophet but you cannot do so of your punishment though the Prophet were dead his word would live and though you may shuffle through many temporal dangers yet the Word of God will certainly overtake you according to that in 1 Kings 19.17 Him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay That is though you escape falling by a forreign War and though you may shift for your selves in a Civil War yet you cannot escape the Words taking hold of you Nay though you were such Sons of Belial such gyantly sinners that no man living durst speak to you yet the Word of God will reach you One Scripture-story I commend to you to this purpose 2 Chron. 21.12 And there came a Writing to him from Elijah the Prophet saying c. Not that this Letter was written by Elias in Paradise and sent by the Ministry of Angels as Menochius interprets it but plainly the Prophet wrote this before his rapture and left it behind him to be delivered to Jehoram after he should have committed the forementioned abominations we read a Prophecy of Josiah by name 1 Kings 13.2 which Prophecy was not accomplished till three hundred and thirty years after Another of Cyrus by name Isa 45.1 almost two hundred years before the accomplishment The plain truth was this this Jehoram would not endure a living Prophet to declare the truth unto him and therefore that he might be the more convinced and confounded for his wickedness here 's a Writing brought him from one that was then in Heaven These instances may serve
sow John 4.37 38. So that whether you are glad or sorry that God takes away your Guides the words they have spoken in the name of the Lord shall to your sorrow or comfort certainly survive them Proposition 3. Though persons to whom God vouchsafeth the Means of Grace withdraw themselves from under it and remain willingly ignorant of their sin and duty yet the Word will overtake them and find them out and they must stand or fall according to their entertaiment of it How dexterously do many persons distinguish themselves out of their duty and how industriously do others remain wilfully ignorant of it little considering that sins of wilful ignorance are in some respects worse than sins against knowledge e. g. Sins against knowledge are many times striven against and so through grace more easily pardoned than sins of wilful ignorance which are alwayes industriously committed and never striven against Besides sins of wilful ignorance are also sins against knowledge for there 's so much knowledge and sense of duty that they think if they knew more they must do otherwise or their sin would be aggravated and therefore they shut their eyes against the light that they may sin more freely So that here 's sinning against knowledge in their wilful ignorance and so there 's a double guilt each kind of which is very dreadful James 4.17 To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin Sin with a monstrous aggravation And Job 21.14 15. for those that say unto God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit shall we have if we pray unto him God answers him that for this his wilful ignorance his eyes shall see his destruction and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty God will reward him and he shall know it Verse 19 20. Do but see at what a rate men are willing to compound with God so they might but keep their sin Mic. 6.7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl All this for one transgression A dear bought sin sure but he 'l not stick at more than all this Shall I give my first born for my transgression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scelus meum my Rebellion the fruit of my body for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peccatum my error or mistake of my soul Lord if I may not compound with thee for greater provocations yet I hope thou wilt compound with me for my lesser sins the sin that my soul is loth to part with is but a little one I 'le do thee as much service as shall make amends for such a peccatillo let me keep but this small sin and I 'le stick at nothing else Wicked men will pretend well and promise fair and plead hard so they may but keep their sin so God would but let them do what they have a mind to but if not they care not for hearing from him Take notice of a doleful instance of this in a reserved remnant wonderfully delivered from several sweeping Judgments those Jews I mean that were preserved from the Sword Famine and Pestilence by which so many were destroyed that had escaped being carryed captive to Babylon and were delivered from being carryed captive by Ishmael we might rationally think the sense of these mercies being so fresh and present they would be very much afraid of displeasing God and that they would not venture upon a known sin to prevent danger But see the story Jer. 42.2 6. they would have the Prophet tell them from God what they should do when as they were before hand resolved what they would do Yea further they are so impudent as to call God to be a true and faithful witness to what they nothing less intended than what they so solemnly professed and pretended They seemed resolved to do what ever God directed were it never so disadvantageous and dangeous to them but when God forbids what they have a mind to then Jer. 43.2 they say to Jeremy Thou speakest falsly the Lord our God hath not sent thee to say Go not into Aegypt to sojourn there Whereas the plain truth is had they not been resolved even to pick a quarrel with God himself they would never have proposed a case so expresly already determined in Scripture as this was Deut. 17.16 You shall not return to Aegypt forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto them ye shall henceforth return no more that way Whence the Hebrews have a saying That it is lawful to dwell in all the world save in the Land of Aegypt and therefore the Prophet might easily tell them whence it was they pickt quarrels with the message Jer. 42.20 21. Ye dissembled in your hearts when ye sent me unto the Lord your God saying pray for us unto the Lord our God and according to all that the Lord our God shall say so declare unto us and we will do it Verse 21. And now I have this day declared it to you but ye have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God nor any thing for the which he hath sent me to you And when they were a little heated by the Prophets unwelcome message they plainly tell him Jer. 44.16 As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee When once it comes to this 't is time for God to tell them Jer. 44.28 You shall know whose words shall stand mine or yours They shuffle all they can before they come to tell God to his face they will not obey him but God tells them all along what they must trust to God will neither be flatter'd nor hector'd to any gratifying them in sin Proposition 4. Former threatnings and the execution of them should excite us to repentance though the Prophets that denounc't the one and the people that felt the other are dead and gone long since The Apostle Peter tells the Israelites of Sodoms case 2 Pet. 2.6 how God turn'd the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemning them with an overthrow making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly And the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians of Israels case 1 Cor. 10.5 6 c. With many of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the Wilderness Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted c. Christians you have the Scripture Records in your hands how God hath dealt with such sinners as you are In the very sins you are guilty of you have instances of Gods displeasure Is God more favourable to sin now than formerly If he be not so quick in temporal vengeance you have the more cause to fear eternal God is infinitely holy and cannot be less holy than he is unless he cease to be God which is