continues still to do in order to the freeing and delivering the Children of God from the fear of death and the bondage that ensues thereon 1. He worketh and increaseth those Graces of his Spirit in them which are destructive hereof and opposite hereunto you 'l say which are they 1. There is the Grace of Faith This is the Grace that conquers the World that conquers the Devil and that conquers also the slavish fear of Death This excellent Grace of Faith hath such an excellent hand in the conquering of all these that it is call'd the conquest and victory it's self This is the victory says the Apostle John 1 John 5.4 even your Faith Our Saviour tells Peter Luke 22.31 32. That Satan had desired to have him that he might sift him as Wheat And with what did he sift and shake him Why it was with the fear of Death he was afraid they would deal with him as they did with his Master It was his slavish fear of Death that made him deny Christ and to do it once and again but anon he recovered himself and got above this fear he was reâ—dy by and by boldly to confess Christ and that in the face of Death and danger How came this about Why it was by means of Faith Christ had pray'd for him that his Faith should not fail it may be said of those that are fearful of death that they are of little Faith 2. A second Grace is Love An ardent love of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ will banish all slavish fear of death out of the Soul 1 John 4.18 There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear Of what fear doth he speak The next words tell you he speaks of slavish tormenting fear of that fear which hath torment By perfect love he means a greater measure and degree of love I said but now of fearfull Christians that they have but little Faith I may add also that they have but little Love for perfect or great love expells all tormenting and servile fear 3. A third Grace is Hope The very nature of Hope is quite contrary to fear Where there is a Hope of eternal life there can be no prevailing fear of Death 'T is said of the righteous Prov. 14.32 that they have Hope in their death and those that have Hope in their death they are not afraid to dye Then Hope doth more especially free us from an inordinate fear of Death when it grows up to that which the Scripture calls The full assurance of Faith Heb. 6.11 this is a gracious Gift which the Father bestows upon many of his Children they know that they are in him that they are pass â—â— from death to life 1 John 2.5.3.14 2 Cor. 5.1 that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolv'd they shall have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Ay this is that which steels and fortifies them against the fear and terror of Death This leads me to consider of a second way or means whereby Christ delivers the Children from a slavish fear of death 2. He delivers them from it by convincing and parswading them that they shall not be Losers but Gainers yea great gainers thereby It was this perswasion that made the Apostle Paul to desire death rather than to dread it I desire says he to depart or to be dissolv'd which is far better Philip. 1.23 And again v. 21. he saith For me to dye is gain It were easie here to expatiate and shew the advantage the exceeding great advantage that Believers have by Death It is commonly said to consist in these two things in a freedom from all Evil in the fruition of all Good 1. It consists in a freedom from all Evil which is sub-divided into the evil of Sorrow and the evil of Sin Believers are freed by Death from the evil of Sorrow 'T is one blessed Notion of the life to come that God will wipe off all tears from his peoples eyes and remove all sorrow and causes of Sorrow from their Hearts Believers also are freed by Death from the evil of sin which is indeed the greatest evil the evil of evils all the evils of sorrow are but the effects and fruits of the evil of sin By Death they are deliver'd from all actual sins not only from Fleshly but Spiritual filthiness Now they are deliver'd ordinarily from inordinate actions but then also from inordinate affections they shall never any more be troubled with Pride Passion Discontent Unbelief or the like By Death also they are discharg'd from Original sin and all remainders thereof when the Body dies Believers are rid of that body of death which dwelleth in them and is always present with them they no more complain of themselves as wretched creatures upon the account thereof 2. It consists in the fruition of all Good Believers when they dye they enjoy God Himself who is the chiefest Good He is bonum in quae omnia bona all other things that are good and desireable are comprized in him as the Sun-beams are in the Sun the Saints enjoyment of God in this life is a Heaven upon Earth but our enjoyment of God after death will be the Heaven of Heavens David says in one Place Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee There are Saints and Angels and Arch-Angels in Heaven says Musculus with whom David and such as he will have to do but what are these to God Believers won't barely enjoy God after death but they will enjoy him fully In this life they enjoy a little of God and oh how sweet and refreshing it is But in the life to come they shall have as much enjoyment of God as their hearts can wish or hold Now they enjoy God in the use of means in Prayer in hearing the Word and in receiving the Lords Supper but hereafter they shall have not only a full but an immediate fruition of God Now they see the Face of God in the Glass of his Word and Ordinances and 〈◊〉 what a lovely sight is it But then they shall see God face to face and what tongue can mention or heart imagine the loveliness of that sight If it were not too great a digression I could readily demonstrate the gain and advantage of Death from other Topicks Believers in the other life shall possess and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven which doth more transcend the Kingdoms of this World and all the glory of them than the light of the Sun doth excell the light of a Candle they shall be most gloriously perfected both in their Souls and in their Bodies their vile bodies at the Resurrection shall be changed and fashioned like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 3.21 Their gain and happiness will be greatly augmented in the other life by the work and employment that they shall do and by the Society and Company that they shall
and duration and so could not give us a just measure of the demerits of sin 3. If we consider the sufferings of Christ they will prove that the evil of sin is unmeasurable they were such as could not be expressed and therefore the Ancient Christians used in their Prayers to beg of Christ that he would deliver them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by thy unknown torments Lord deliver us And hence we may infer that the Love of Christ must needs be unmeasurable because he delivered us from unmeasurable wrath by unconceivable torments 2. The Love of Christ to sinners is unmeasurable for these Reasons 1. Reas We have no scale in nature in which we can weigh no line in created things by which we can measure it § 1. If we examine the love of Relations we find them all limited and bounded and they ought to be so The love of a Father to a child is an intense love the love of a Father to an undutiful child a rebellious child may stretch the line somewhat farther yet this will fall vastly short of the Love of Christ to sinners The highest instance of this love that I remember was that of David to his rebellious Son Absalom expressed 2 Sam. 18.33 O Absalom my son my son would God I had died for thee O Absalom my Son my Son Here is Paternal love strained up to the highest pitch imaginable That a King should desire to die for a Rebellious Subject that a Father should be willing to die for the most disingenuous and rebellious of Sons This was great but yet we find this love extended but to a natural death he would have been unwilling to have died a Cursed death to have been made a Curse for him to have been made sin for him And yet the torrent of this impetuous love soon dryed up it was founded in passion rather than judgment and perhaps in cool blood he would have been unwilling to have died that such a wretch might live I question much whether David durst deliberately advisedly and premeditately have laid down his life to save that of a vitious debauched Son yet such was the Love of Christ who laid down his life for sinners the greatest of sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 And laid it down voluntarily when none could take it away John 10.18 and not only died against the persuasions of his friends to save his life Mark 8.32 but against that bitter malice of his Enemies which always sparkled and at last flamed out in the most cruel bloody implacable fury that ever was in the World nay against the just displeasure of God as a Judge all which he had a clear prospect into and yet gave this great pregnant proof of his unconquerable Love that he not only poured out his Soul in tears Luke 19.41 his Soul in prayers Luke 23.34 Father forgive them but his Soul in sacrifice too unto the death Isa 53.12 But if the love of a Father to his Son will not measure this Love of Christ perhaps the love of a Mother to her Son may And this is indeed naturally the more soft and passionate Sex and of this love the case is put Isa 49.15 Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her Womb The case is put exceeding strong A Child a sucking Child that hangs upon the breast and is always crying for pity in its natural dialect the Son of the Womb that 's more than the Child of the breast she can hardly forget that at any rate which she brought forth at such a dear rate yet the circumstances may be such that this tender Mother may forsake and forget nay kill and destroy too this innocent Child such exigences they have been in that Nature has prov'd unnatural or Nature in one instance has overcome Nature in another A Mothers hunger has caus'd her to forget her pity to the Child of her Womb Lam. 4.10 The hands of the pitiful Women have sodden their own children to forsake to forget to kill to cook and at last to eat is certainly the greatest stemming of the current and stream of natural affection that we can conceive of but Christ's Love will not suffer him to forget to forsake he has oftens forgotten himself to remember them he has forgotten his own food that he might provide for their Souls John 4.34 he has forgotten his own approaching death that he might provide for their life 1 Cor. 11.23 The same night in which he was betrayed he took bread c. And yet perhaps the love of the Husband to his Wife may come up to this example of Love Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it Here 's an argument indeed to enforce that conjugal Love and here 's a president for conjugal Love to look upon but that As is not a note of equality but of some general similitude for the Husband gives himself to his Wife but will not is not bound to die for his Wife he cannot be persuaded to have her sins charg'd upon his Soul How short are all the Loves the Affections of Relations to give us a pattern and example of the Love of Christ But possibly we may find a love in Nature more strong than any of these And that if any where must be amongst some of those great instances of Love which have been amongst friends It is indeed said 1 Sam. 18.1 3. That Jonathan loved David as his own Soul and in Deut. 13.6 The friend is said to be as a Mans own Soul But yet when we come to examine these expressions they fade away and signifie nothing but the life where is the friend that will make his Soul an offering for sin Isa 53.10 However this is the highest flight that ever humane love took to lay down life for a friend but Christ has put this quite out of countenance John 15.13 Greater love has no man than that he lay down his life for his friend but a far greater Love than this had Christ that he laid down his life for enemies Christ laid down a better life for them that were worse And this is proposed to our consideration as that which has out-done all the love in the World Rom. 5.7 8. Scarcely for a righteous Man will one die No I think it s out of question that none will for who would be so friendly to him that walks by the rules of strict justice that will do no wrong yet shews no mercy but peradventure for a good Man some would even dare to die If there be an instance found in the World of any that has laid down his life for another it must be for a good Man one that is a publick blessing to the age wherein he lives some one may throw away his private life which is not very useful for so generous a Person that is a Common good to his Country but if such an instance be found which
is but a peradventure we have that which will shut it out of all consideration and eclipse that which otherwise might have had some lustre vers 8. God commends his love to us that when we were yet sinners Christ died for us § 2. If the love of relations will not afford us a just Measure for the Love of Christ let 's see if there be any thing else in the whole scale of Nature that may furnish us with a line commensurate to it And we can no sooner think of making the Inquiry but we propose to our selves the height of Heaven the breadth of the Earth Prov. 25.3 The Heaven for height and the Earth for breadth but we must despair of finding any thing that may measure or circumscribe this love since the Apostle has assured us Ephes 3.8 that the riches of Christ are unsearchable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as we must expect no footsteps of in the whole Creation The Apostle might Preach it but could not fully reach it The treasures of Gold and Silver which wise providence has hid so deep in the bowels of the Earth yet the vein may be pursued so far till it s worn out but this treasure of Love in the Heart of Christ is so deep and is so rich that we can neither find out nor exhaust the fulness of it when God would give us some shadow of his Love he represents it by the height of the Heavens not that his Love reaches no higher but because there 's nothing in created Nature higher to represent it by Psal 103.11 As the Heaven is high above the Earth so great is his Mercy towards them that fear him The Love of God is only to be measur'd by it self that is by himself for God is Love 1 John 4.8 No Creature no Saint no Angel can fadom the Love of Gods heart Jer. 29.11 I know the thoughts that I think towards you And we must say the same of Christ's Love there 's one Dimension more in the Love of Christ than in the Creation Ephes 3.18 That you may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are taught to distinguish between the measure of a Man and the measure of God All bodies have but three dimensions Rev. 21.17 He measured the City with a Reed twelve thousand furlongs the length the breadth the height were equal according to the measure of a Man but in the measuring Spiritual Heavenly things such as are the Love of God and of Christ there 's one dimension more So we have it in that sublime discourse of Zophar Job 11.7 8 9. Canst thou by searching find out God canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection It is as high as Heaven what canst thou do Deeper then Hell what canst thou know The measure thereof is longer then the Earth and broader then the Sea And thus we are taught modesty and not to limit God and his purposes of Love by our narrow conceptions Isa 55.8 My thoughts are not your thoughts for as the Heavens are higher then the Earth so are my thoughts then your thoughts saith the Lord. And 1. for the Breadth of the Love of Christ It reaches Jews and Gentiles it extends to all ranks of Men high and low rich and poor it reaches all the cases of Men's Souls the Tempted Deserted the Backslider and Persecutor it reaches the bruised Reed the smoaking Flax it extends to the pardon of all sins truly repented of so that we may say that his promises which are the vehicles of Truth and Love are exceeding broad as well as his Precepts which are the indications of his Authority and Power The Love of Christ is wider than Mans will Rom. 10.21 All the day long I have stretched out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people It s wider than Mans power for John 6.44 No Man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him And yet vers 37. All that the Father has given me shall come unto me It is wider than all our wants and necessities there 's more bread in his house than there are hungry Souls to eat more mansions in Heaven than there are Souls to fill it s wider than our capacities and we may sooner enter into our Masters joy Matth. 25. than that joy can enter into us 1 Cor. 2.9 It cannot enter into the heart of Man what things God has prepared for them that love him 2. The length of the Love of Christ An extent of Grace and Love that reaches Souls at the greatest distance It reacht Paul when he was in the heat and height of his desperate fury mad and desperately mad with an inveterate enmity against Christ It reacht Mary Magdalen when she was possest with seven Devils it reacht the Gentiles when they were far off from God estranged from the light and life of God by their Abominable Idolatries Ephes 2.13 Ye who sometimes were a far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ It reacht the Prodigal when he was far off Luke 15.20 And as it finds and reaches Souls at the greatest distance of sin and enmity so it reaches a length which we cannot with consistence of thought conceive of Hebr. 7.25 Able to save to the utmost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the uttermost length of Gods Promise and the believers Faith and Hope to the uttermost extent of Gods Purposes and our Prayers to the uttermost duration of this Life and the next through all time beyond all time to eternity 3. The depth of the Love of Christ And here unless we could sound the depth of our Misery we can never fadom the depth of Christs Love unless we could know the power of Gods Anger Psal 90.11 we can never reach the power of Christs Love The Torments of Hell are unknown Torments and those Torments which Christ endured in his Soul to deliver us from thence were unknown Torments The Love of Christ does not only reach the depth of our Misery by reason of Sin but those depths of Sorrow into which sometimes even holy Souls are plunged by Desertion The Psalmist cryed unto God out of the Depth Divine Love heard him and reacht him there Psal 130.1 Jonah cryed unto God out of the belly of Hell Divine Love heard him there and deliver'd him thence Jonah 2.2 Heman was plunged in the lowest pit in darkness in the deeps yet Love reacht him in that sad and dismal condition Psal 88.6 4. The height of the Love of Christ All the measure of the height of Christs Love we can take is to say its unmeasurable It is high we cannot attain unto it Psal 139.6 his Love reaches the Soul on Earth and never leaves it till it has conducted it to Heaven he Loves Grace into the Soul and Loves the Soul into Glory what that Glory is Go and see The taste of it is to be had
of Scripture hath he revealed it where doth he promise you repentance and pardon at the last when you had never seriously sought either all your days 2. The wickedness and profaneness of them You resolve you will repent when you die and that implies you will not repent till then i. e. you do and resolve still to love sin as long as you live but you intend to leave it when you can live no longer in it you hate God now and resolve to hate him till you die and then you will begin to love him You will make work for repentance now and seek for repentance at last offend God and provoke him and make work for pardoning mercy all your days and then sue to him for it You will persevere to affront the grace of Christ and throw his blood back into his face and then expect to be washed in it from your sins and saved by it when you go out of the World It is to as little purpose to say Object You will then send for the Minister to instruct you to pray with you c. For what if you do your case may be such that all the good Men Ans good Ministers good Instructions good Counsels in the World may not help you not save you All may come too late and signifie no more to your Souls than Physitians and Physick at that time do to your Bodies Alas what can Ministers do for you Can their instructions enlighten your minds when God hath blinded them Can their counsels soften your hearts when he hath hardned them Can the breath of prayer waft your Souls to Heaven in the last moment of your life when you have been stearing towards Hell all your days What can your Spiritual Physitians do for the cure of your Souls when the great Physitian of all hath left you as incurable and will never any more visit you Do not tell me on the other side That repentance is Gods gift Object and you cannot have it till he give it you and therefore you must tarry till he do For 1. It is as much Gods gift at last as at first Ans and you can no more have it at your death if he do not give it you than you can have it now 2. Tho it be Gods gift and you cannot work it in your selves yet cannot you seek it of God desire him to work it in you And can you not use the means by which he ordinarily works it And are you not as capable of so doing when you live and are in health as when you are sick and dying When you are sick you cannot heal your selves health is Gods gift as well as grace is tho of another kind But do you then use to lie still and say you must wait till God restore you Or do you not rather send for your Physitian and betake your selves to the use of means by which God is wont to work it You cannot get an estate unless God give it you riches are his gift Prov. 10.22 Do you therefore sit still and fold your hands in your bosom and say you must tarry till God give you an estate Or do you not rather engage in some honest Calling or Trade as the ordinary way God is wont to bless to that end The diligent hand maketh rich vers 4. and why do you not do so here too If you will go on in sin and say you wait till God give you repentance you may wait long enough when every day you continue in sin so much the farther off from repentance you are and so much the more you provoke God to deny it you To conclude Take heed especially of those things which are the ordinary hinderances of a timely repentance I. Wrong notions of repentance 1. That it is an easie thing and so may be done at any time that it is but sorrowing for sin and crying God mercy for having offended him This prevails with too many that know not wherein the nature of it consists Remember therefore that it is no easie thing to get a through change wrought in your hearts to divorce your lusts to which you have been so long wedded to part with those sins you love best and engage in those ways of strict holiness which of all things in the World you hate most The old Man will fight hard ere he die The flesh will never yield and hardly be overcom And if ever God work repentance to you he will so work it as to make you work at it too and labour after it his grace using and employing your faculties And what can you ever do either in seeking repentance before the infusion of the grace or exercising it when infused but you will find sin opposing you in it and so creating difficulties in your work 2. That it is a sour and an unpleasant thing made up of sorrow and sadness and unquietness of Spirit They know no delights but sensual ones and think if they part with the pleasure of sin they part with the comfort of their lives Do not therefore look meerly on the dark side of repentance or what may make it seem uneasie to you look through it and you will find that which will make it more pleasant In the very sorrow you fear if it be right i. e. godly sorrow there will be such a mixture of Love as will make it in a good measure delightful to you If it seem painful to you to strive against sin and there be trouble in the combat yet when you prevail over it you will find comfort in the Victory You will be more pleased with having denied your selves than you could with having gratified your selves Our Saviours promise Matth. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted one would think should reconcile you not only to any seeming trouble in the work of repentance but to all the greatest difficulties and severities of the most strict and mortified life If indeed your repentance be meerly legal proceeding from fear of wrath or Popish for the expiation of your sins I grant it may be a sad and unpleasant thing but if it be a true Protestant repentance i. e. an Evangelical one mixed with Love to God and proceeding from the Faith of Free Grace and remission of sin through the Blood of Christ it need not be such a scare-crow to you as to make you hazard your Salvation by shifting your duty II. Presumptuous thoughts of Gods mercy that God may be merciful to them and give them repentance and pardon their sins at the very last Consider therefore 1. As merciful as God is yet his will sets bounds even to that infinite mercy as to the actings and outgoings of it and beyond those bounds it will never pass There is a time a day a now of grace which when it is once over no mercy will be shewn you Offers of mercy invitations made to sinners and the acceptation of them are but for a time the door is
Favour of God he is eminently precious Who can break the Constraints of such Love If there be a spark of reason or a grain of unfeigned Faith in us We must judge that if one died for all then all were dead and those that live should live to his Glory who died for their Salvation Add to this that in the Sufferings of Christ there is the clearest Demonstration of the Evil of 〈◊〉 and how hateful it is to God if we consider the Dignity of his Person the Greatness of his Sufferings and the innocent recoilings of his humane Nature from such fearful Sufferings He was the eternal Son of God the Heir of his Fathers Love and Glory the Lord of Angels he suffered in his Body the most ignominious and painful Death being nail'd to the Cross in the sight of the World The Sufferings of his Soul were incomparably more afflicting For though heavenly Meek he indured the Derision and cruel Violence of his Enemies with a silent Patience yet in the dark Eclipse of his Fathers Countenance in the desolate state of his Soul the Lamb of God opened his Mouth in that mournful Complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His innocent Nature did so recoil from those fearful Sufferings that with repeated ardency of Affection he deprecated that bitter Cup Abba Father all things are possible to thee let this cup pass from me He address'd to the Divine Power and Love the Attributes that relieve the Miserable yet he drank off the dregs of the Cup of Gods Wrath. Now we may from hence conclude how great an Evil Sin is that could not be expiated by a meaner Sacrifice then the offering up the Soul of Christ to atone incensed Justice and no lower a Price than the Blood of the Son of God the most unvaluable Treasure could Ransom Men who were devoted to Destruction 4. The consideration of the evil of sin in it self and to us should excite us with a holy circumspection to keep our selves from being defiled with it 'T is our indispensable duty our transcendent interest to obey the Divine Law entirely and constantly The tempter cannot present any motives that to a rectified mind are sufficient to induce a consent to sin and offend God Let the scales be even and put into one all the delights of the senses all the pleasures and honours of the World which are the Elements of carnal felicity how light are they against the enjoyment of the blessed God in glory Will the gain of this perishing World compensate the loss of the Soul and Salvation for ever If there were any possible comparison between empty deluding vanities and celestial happiness the choice would be more difficult and the mistake less culpable but they vanish into nothing in the comparison so that to commit the least sin that makes us liable to the forfeiture of Heaven for the pleasures of sin that are but for a season is madness in that degree that no words can express Suppose the tempter inspires his Rage into his Slaves and tries to constrain us to Sin by Persecution how unreasonable is it to be dismayed at the Threatnings of Men who must dye and who can only touch the Body and to despise the terrors of the Lord who lives for ever and can punish for ever Methinks we should look upon the perverted raging World as a swarm of angry Flies that may disquiet but cannot hurt us Socrates when unrighteously prosecuted to Death said of his Enemies with a Courage becoming the Breast of a Christian They may Kill me but cannot Hurt me How should these Considerations raise in us an invincible Resolution and Reluctancy against the Tempter in all his Approaches and Addresses to us And that we may so resist him as to cause his flight from us let us imitate the excellent Saint whose Example is set before us 1. By possessing the Soul with a lively and solemn Sense of Gods Presence who is the Inspector and Judge of all our Actions Joseph repell'd the Temptation with this powerful Thought How shall I sin against God The fear of the Lord is clean 't is a watchful Sentinel that resists Temptations without and suppresses Corruptions within 'T is like the Cherubim plac'd with a flaming Sword in Paradise to prevent the Re-entry of Adam when guilty and polluted For this end we must by frequent and serious Considerations represent the Divine Being and Glory in our Minds that there may be a gracious Constitution of Soul this will be our Preservative from Sin for although the habitual thoughts of God are not always in act yet upon a Temptation they are presently excited and appear in the view of Conscience and are effectual to make us reject the Tempter with Defiance and Indignation This holy Fear is not a meer judicial Impression that restrains from Sin for the dreadful Punishment that follows for that servile affection though it may stop a Temptation and hinder the Eruption of a Lust into the gross act yet it does not renew the Nature and make us Holy and Heavenly There may be a respective dislike of Sin with a direct affection to it Besides a meer servile Fear is repugnant to Nature and will be expell'd if possible Therefore that we may be in the fear of the Lord all the day long we must regard him in his endearing Attributes his Love his Goodness and Compassion his rewarding Mercy and this will produce a filial Fear of Reverence and Caution lest we should offend so gracious a God As the natural Life is preserved by grateful Food not by Aloes and Wormwood which are useful Medicines so the Spiritual Life is maintained by the comfortable Apprehensions of God as the Rewarder of our Fidelity in all our Trials 2. Strip Sin of its Disguises wash off its flattering Colours that you may see its native Ugliness Joseph's reply to the Tempter How shall I do this great wickedness Illusion and Concupiscence are the Inducements to Sin When a Lust represents the Temptation as very alluring and hinders the Reflection of the mind upon the intrinsick and consequential Evil of Sin 't is like the putting Poison into the Glass but when it has so far corrupted the mind that Sin is esteemed a small Evil Poison is thrown into the Fountain If we consider the Majesty of the Law-giver there is no Law small nor Sin small that is the Transgression of it Yet the most are secure in an evil course by conceits that their Sins are small 'T is true there is a vast difference between Sins in their nature and Circumstances there are insensible Omissions and accusing Acts but the least is Damnable Besides the allowance and number of Sins reputed small will involve under intolerable Guilt What is lighter than a grain of Sand you may blow away a hundred with a Breath and what is heavier than a heap of Sand condenst together 'T is our Wisdom and Duty to consider the Evil of Sin
Well if thou couldest say plainly what is thy Will 'T is a Will not moved by Gods Threats or Promises to Fear or Love him If it were so thou wouldst Convert now And if it be not so what is thy Purpose for all thy fair Promise Dost intend hereafter to turn unto a God neither Feared nor Loved Surely thou dost not Thinkest thou that thou shalt hereafter Fear and Love him I ask what should make thee so think He will for ever be the same God that now he is Lay to thy Heart what I tell thee If God be not just now worthy of Fear and Love then he never was or will be so for he Changes not In a word VVhat if thou hadst both power to Convert when thou wouldest and hadst a real will to Convert hereafter to God where is the Reason for staying without and against God all the while Thou art Servant he is Lord thou the Child he the Father When Servants run away and will not return to their Masters and very Children run away and will not come back to their Fathers No though the Masters and Fathers call and send and promise and do not need them while they all the while need their Masters and Fathers All people conclude there is a cause of this and a fault must lie somewhere in one of the Parties Either the Fathers Unnatural and the Master Cruel or else the Child is a Viper and the Servant a Monster Speak Man and say now where is the fault what is the cause that thou canst not yet be prevailed with to return to thy Lord and Father Thou must charge Him or thy self with most black and bloody faults If thou lay'st it on God thou makest him worse than the Devil and proclaimest Satan the better Master and Father of the two If thou takest the blame on thy self I ask thee how thou canst endure to see hear or think of thy self A Creature hating it's God that is all Love and all Loveliness No words I think no words of mine I am sure can express how Blasphemous or how Self-condemned they are all that put off Conversion to another time Alas here is Life and all in the case Conversion is the Life of thy Soul Man 'T is Dying till it Convert 'T is in Hell till thou Convert And is this a fit word I will then Convert hereafter Thy darling Child drops into the Fire and thou promisest to come help it out to morrow A very Kind creature thou wilt be thought and as Wise an one Upon every account I may say of these Promises of Turning hereafter as was said of Judas It had been better they had never been born And they be Judasses indeed for though they Flatter and Kiss they Betray and Kill poor Souls R. 7. You as plainly as elder people do dare God to damn you all the while you delay your Conversion Therefore 't is your duty to convert presently I have heard of a Man much accustomed to cursing in his health that could not utter any word but a curse in his sickness Could not pronounce Yes or No but as oft as he spoke in several Months time he bid God to damn him A most frightful thing you will say And yet young people I take you to be in very like condition all that delay your Conversion For the Language of Practice is with God and Men as significant as any if not more If you practically bid God damn you you are of the same spirit with them who verbally bid him so do And if I know any thing Delayers do bid him in deeds as certainly as any sinners do in their words I appeal to your very own thoughts in the case You are corrupted with sin and condemned for it The grace of God calls you to come take your Pardon and your Cure But tells you Now is your Time Promises you no Breath of Life but what 's in your Nostrils nor any offer of Cure or Pardon after the first In every Precept requires present coming Your Delaying therefore is running the Venture And that adventuring is plain saying Lord if now just now be the time I shall not take hold of it Though I Burn I will not yet Turn Thou dost not promise to stay longer for me but if thou wilt not Damn and do thy worst with me I would rather thou wouldst change thy Word Blot now in the dayes of thy Youth out of the Bible Write Remember thy Creator when thou art old and bedridden But if this thou wilt not do I will live under thy Threatning VVrath And let its Vials fall on me if they must I am set against present Conversion for thy Peace Let me add but this Sirs There is but one way possible to Hell which is by Sin For nothing else can incense God against You. He cannot be in the least displeased for ought beside But sin is that which he cannot but Hate and Punish Now to go on wilfully delightfully and resolutely in sin is in effect as if you should kneel down on your knees and beg and pray with tears in your eyes that you may never be saved But may be assured of a place in the lowest Hell The former is interpretatively the latter O madness beyond compare though not Admired because so much Practised R. 8. You as well as Elder people do hate and rob God and imitate and obey Satan till you do Convert Therefore 't is your duty presently to Convert Young people it may be you know not what you do but knowingly or ignorantly these things you do do till you Convert You hate God Interpretatively you hate him By your actions no other can be judged of you If you desired to express hatred of him you could not take a more direct way for it then that you are in For you walk contrary unto him Comparatively you hate him If you have any love to him sure it 's nothing and less than nothing in comparison of that which you bear unto your idolized things and persons Yea Absolutely you hate him as an holy and just Ruler and Judge In his Government you hate him and wish you could dethrone him Deny it if you dare In his Children and Friends you hate him Their Company is an Eye-sore and Burthen unto you his Image on them you cannot bear If it were otherwise you could not but Convert unto him You Rob him yea and all his You rob him of a Child Christ of a Member the Holy Ghost of a Temple the Heavenly Host of a Joy the Church of a Star the World of a Pillar And in the mean time what do you VVhy Satan in the God of every unconvert Creature Him in your Spiritual impurities you Imitate in your bodily you Obey in both you Serve and Gratifie Horrid Servitude Unendurable by Souls and jod less senseless than Plants or less wild than Brutes R. 9. You as elder People do out-sin Satan himself till you do Convert Therefore
Reason our Law makes it Death to conceal High Treason so much as four and twenty hours I am sure God's Law requires you to Confess and Forsake your higher Treason against Christs Crown without so much as a Minutes delay And with much more Reason and Equity I thought I had done But I am sensible how little I have done And therefore before I make an end I must try to set two sorts of People a doing more for poor Unconvert young ones Two very concerned ones in the case Two that my Text hath surely somewhat to do with I mean Parents and Ministers Surely Natural and Ecclesiastical Fathers are all bound to joyn me in preaching of this portion of Scripture To you Natural Parents I first Address Beseeching you that you go study what you have to do and do all that you shall know for your Childrens early Conversion I am of the mind that gallant Language ne're did Gods Work And do find it what you call Wild Note rather than set Musick that I can ever move you by VVherefore plainly I tell you we may thank you for Earth's becoming thus unlike Heaven and like to Hell VVe may thank your Negligence and worse for the ruin of more Children than ever Herod slew or the Lyar and Murderer of France himself VVe may thank you that Children be so generally Beasts before they are Young Men and young Devils before they are Old Men. VVe may thank you for vitiating the most numerous the most ductile and the most hopeful part of the VVorld For robbing God of his First Fruits in the VVorld I beseech you by Gods tender Mercies repent of your Cruelties And I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ reform ye straitway and do as aforesaid The Light of Nature that guides you to help your Children to go and to speak and to do what is necessary for this Life guides you also to help them for the Divine Life Nor can you doubt but Gods Ordinance in the old Church for the appearanee of the Male-children before him thrice in the Year was to bring them to an early Acquaintance with himself And there is still both need and obligation to keep the substance of that precept now under the Gospel O let it not be said any longer that your care is more for your Childrens Cloaths than their Souls For shame Sirs for shame let them not be wicked without your pity nor Converted without your pains Think ye daily of both the Advantages and Engagements to do it Your Advantages You do Love your Children best do you not And you are best Beloved by them You are Nearest unto them and have most Authority over them You do know their Capacities and their Tempers VVho can suit them as you Your Engagements Their sore Needs do engage you And so do the sore Evils that however undesignedly you have done them Who brought Adam's Sin upon them and into them but you And who dares say that your own personal Sins have done them no wrong Dying Dr. Harris said He had made his Peace with God A Minister of the Church of England told me he had refused to Baptize some of his Parishioners Children because as he saw they would not afterward breed them up to Christianity And told his Children that his Sins should not hurt them therefore unless they made them their own Can you say so if you were now to dye Well very Nature also engages you Ay and Equity binds you For your Children are God's more than yours and sure it is to him and for him that you should educate his Children Truth also engages you For you promised you would so educate them when you had them Baptized did you not The Fear and Love of God if any be in you do engage you And so doth your own Interest also Yea lastly Shame engages you For 't is a shame is it not To teach Children to honour and serve you and not to honour and serve their God and yours I have bid many Children ask you whether if they were too young to be bound to keep Gods Commands they were not also too young to be bound to keep yours Listen not to the White Devils that will suggest If your Children take not to Religion of themselves without your ado your pains will do but little good Do Horses or Camels tame themselves Do Men tame Beasts of the Wilderness and you not tame the Children of your own Bodies and Families But all in a Word Does God set you a work and promise you Success and you dream it to no purpose to set about it Read you Prov. 22.6 23.13 14. 29.17 15. As for you Church-Fathers may I humbly assume to stir up your Minds but in way of Remembrance You know if the Lambs be lost the Lord of the Flock will with great anger ask Where were the Shepherds all the while What were they doing Nor will our highest feeding of the Sheep compound for the loss of his Lambs And I doubt it will not suffice to say Lord we were the while digging for profound Notions or Disputing Nice Questions or studying polite Sermons for people whose Peace and whose Praise we could not have cheaper Brethren for the Lords Sake let us all do somewhat weekly and set the Parents of our Congregations doing somewhat daily for young people's Souls And let both set to it Hopefully for the Reasons foresaid The Difficulty and Impossibility as to our Endeavours be left but to drive us to Diligence and Dependance on him to whom nothing is Difficult or Impossible The more we do look for success the more it will come Let not Catechising that is praised by all be Unpractised by any And in Preaching let none of us make need where we find none to shoot over young folks heads and use a Language we must needs know they understand not Love of God and of them would make us willing rather to be trampled under Scorners feet for our Faithfulness then to ride over their heads in Figures of Vain-glorious impertinence The which wise Hearers do no more commend than weak Hearers do Understand Neither be it any more grievous to us than it was to St. Austin to have now and then an Ad vos Juvenes To call and tell them Young people this is for you I would be glad to see wanton Wits have less Sawce and weak Souls have more Meat in all our Sermons And to discern that our pains in making Converts did exceed the Papists in making Proselytes For it must be owned 't is an uncolourable Profaneness to Baptize Infancy and not teach Youth or but slightly Because otherwise we shall starve the Nursery and then what becomes of Jesus Christ's Family The good Lord awaken us all And set Ministers Parents Young people themselves all a doing and well doing Our Churches then shall be Beautified and Joyed and Strengthned with abundance of young Meditating Isaac's Young Jacob's seeking