force nor power with him to restrain his Corruption because he feels it not though he might as certainly foresee it as that which he now feels And he will do more to be rid of the Tooth-ach or some present Affliction than to prevent one that 's a thousand times greater Is he guided by Reason or Sense and doth he live like a Man that hath Understanding or like a Bruit that hath none that will take more care and pains and be at more cost to be freed from present Pain and Sickness and to get out of Poverty or Hardship when it pincheth him and to throw off any present Burthen that he feels himself oppressed with than to escape the Damnation of Hell though he must otherwise most certainly feel it ere long Judge impartially whether this be not to be like the Horse and Mule and other meer sensitive Creatures that have no Understanding Let them have what they have at present and feel no present Pain and you please them well enough though you feed them for the Slaughter You cannot Shoe an Ox unless you bind and cast him down and force him though it be to keep his Feet from hurt Your Horse is not pleased when you let him Blood though it save his Life because you hurt them for the present The Man that considers not will be too like these Brutish Creatures and run into Eternal Misery to avoid a little present Affliction Moreover 3. It 's an Argument of Pride not to Consider Psal 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his Countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts thy Judgments are far above out of his sight God hath set Heaven and Earth before him and set such variety of things on purpose to be Considered And the Inconsiderate Man shuts his Eyes and will not behold the Glory of the Lord nor give him the Honour due to his Name If it be foolish Pride to undervalue any Creature what Arrogancy is it to despise and overlook the most absolute and perfect Being things of the highest value and most worthy our Observation Fifthly It 's easie to Consider your Thoughts will run some way whether you will or not The Soul of Man is a busie active thing and will not be idle it will rather be impertinently employed than not at all and the bare work of thinking is no hard matter It 's rather a work of difficulty to restrain them especially from the things that we have the highest Love and Respect for If God and thy Soul were valued and loved by thee above all other things as they must be if thou art a Christian at the Heart thou couldst not but think and think again how to please the one and save the other If things that are more worth than the whole Frame of Heaven and Earth and all that 's visible to the Eyes are not worthy thy most prizing pleasing Thoughts they are worth nothing and if thou thinkest so thou art either an ignorant Sot or an Atheist It 's a cheap purchase to gain the highest Wisdom and the Love of God and to save thy Soul for ever at the expence of a few sober serious thoughts If you stick at Consideration which it must cost you if ever you be saved you judge your selves unworthy of Eternal Life It 's easie enough to you to turn your Thoughts to an Object of Gain or Pleasure and is there any greater Gain than to save your Souls What will it profit you to win the whole World and lose your Souls Mat. 16.26 It 's a rational question that the greedy Heart of Man shall never be able to answer without Self-condemnation if he run his Soul upon destruction though he should get to be the happiest man upon Earth O unhappy Soul that couldst consider and Judge no better Wast thou master of no more Brains and Wit than what could inform thee how to Feed and Trick up thy Carkass and commend it to the Eyes of a few dying men And to live in a little Credit whilst thou art above ground though thy Name stink for ever afterwards Was this the upshot of all thy Thoughts Couldst thou think to better for thy poor Soul that might be Eternally Happy if you would not fly consideration but turn your Thoughts to those things for which God gave to you your faculty to Think O remember that it 's easie and very natural to consider how you may save your Soul if you were not become unnatural and cruel to your selves And it will shame you unto the deepest silence when God shall ask you Why you did not Consider of those things when the matters were so great and the work so easie Sixthly You will consider when it is too late and wish that you had made more hast when it would have done you good It would not be such a perfect degree of madness in us not to consider how wonderfully God hath made us how deeply we stand Indebted to him for no less than all that we have or hope for and how wickedly we have departed from him and what our sin hath deserved and what our Saviour hath done save us from the woful consequents thereof it would not be so absurd to put these Thoughts out of our Minds now if we could always keep them out But in the latter end we shall consider Jer. 23.20 It would not be so great a sin to be inconsiderate now if we could be ever so But alas stupidity and insensibleness of such things as these is the disease only of this present Life and will last no longer than the day of Grace And woe to us a thousand times if it last so long But when the day of Mercy is past be stupid if thou canst and harden thy heart against such Thoughts if thou art able Consideration is now our duty and the fittest instrument to show us the evil of Sin and the worth of Grace but if it be here neglected it shall be our punishment hereafter and the most cruel instrument to torment us Believe it then we shall passionately wish that we had considered a little sooner and had let these things sink into our hearts O that we had pondered them whilst we had the day But now the fearful night is come upon us and we are Sentenced everlastingly to such dismal Thoughts If we had spent a few serious Thoughts what this misery is to which we are now condemned we had escaped these Torments If we had considered what it is to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power 2 Thes 1.9 and to be forsaken of all comfort for ever we had not been now pouring forth these bitter cryes and complaints But alas what are they now worth who regardeth them or is moved to any the least compassion towards Yea the righteous God will laugh at your calamity Prov. 1.26 and the Saints will praise him and say
him when their obedience is required so that the subjection of the Heart to Christ and a deliberate purpose to serve him sincerely and constantly all our days is the first Foundation of our Union with Christ and specâ—â— Relation to him from whence Justification doth immediately flow And what a Mercy and Priviledge that is none but such as reap the Fruit of Justification perfectly in the other life can throughly tell Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven and whose 〈◊〉 is covered yea again Blessed is the Man 〈◊〉 David unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no Guile Psal 32.1 2. But as the Man is miserable and wretched for the present that is not justified so wo to him if he die in an unjustified state And this if he want true Faith he will certainly do Justification is the Act of the Supreme Rector none hath Authority to do it but he only and none can effectually remit or renounce the Penalty but he only who alone is both the Kingdom and the Power And this we have the Testimony of his certain and infallible Word that he will not do but upon the Condition of Faith and an unfeigned subjection to his Son which alone is the effectual Means to bring them off from their Sins and to reduce them to their Obedience to God Never hope to be justified till from the sense of your vile Nature and corrupt Inclinations and proneness to rebel against God and obnoxiousness to his just displeasure you do thankfully fly to Christ as your only Remedy and take his Person for your Ruler and his Laws and Example for your Rule and his Spirit for your Sanctifier For these are the only Terms on which a Sinner is made a true Member of Christ's Church and consequently justified and pardoned 4. Fourthly There 's no way whereby we can bring more honour to our Redeemer than by Believing For hereby we give him the Glory 1. Of his Love and Mercy and all the ways whereby he hath demonstrated his Bowels and Compassions towards us in his wonderful Condescention to be made like to us in the Assumption of our Nature in subjecting himself to the Law yea and to the Miseries of his Life Poverty Reproach and Shame and that in such a degree as never any one of us endured or could endure in suffering the most pitiful Usage the most sarcastical Taunts the most bitter Agonies and the most ignominious cursed Death and all to bring us into a salveable condition if we will believe Now as there can be no greater Affront nor Provocation given to him than to slight and make void his Grace and Mercy so unspeakably great so we can do him no greater honour than to close with it and accept it and be saved by it and so stand as the Eternal Monument of his Love 2. We hereby give him also the Glory of his Sovereignty that by his own Merit and Conquests as well as the Free Donation of God is advanced to the right hand of God and hath the Supreme Sovereignty and Lordship over all things both in Heaven and Earth And therefore he tells us Matth. 28.18 All Power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth And Paul tells us that to this End Christ both died and rose again and revived that he might be Lord both of Dead and Living Rom. 14.9 And Phil. 2.8 9 10. Because Christ was obedient even to the Death of the Cross Therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name That at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth Matth. 11.27 All things are delivered to me of my Father and so Luke 10.22 Now to believe on him is practically to acknowledge his Sovereignty that he is Lord of all Acts 10.36 That he is gone into Heaven and is on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject to him 1 Pet. 3.22 When we subject our selves to him by Faith we own him whom God hath made a little lower than the Angels and crowned him with Glory and Honour and did set him over the Works of his hands and hath put all things in subjection under his feet 2 Heb. 7.8 9. Did we know what a Blessing and Priviledge it is to come under his Protection and live in subjection to him we should need no other Argument to perswade us to believe As we honour him so we ease our selves and rid our selves of those Fears that we are otherwise exposed to and therefore our Saviour that he might comfort his Disciples exhorts them John 14.1 Let not your Hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me When we believe we do in effect say He hath satisfied the Justice of God and he hath given Sinners into his hands and laid the Government upon his shoulders and that he can save to the utmost all that come unto God by and through him since he ever liveth as an immutable and everlasting Priest to make intercession for them Heb. 7.25 3. Hereby we give him also the Glory of his Skill when by Faith we bring our diseased Souls to him with confidence of a Cure For that is one of the Chief Ends of Faith that we may be purified from all our Corruptions and perfect Holiness in the Fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 As it was one of Christs great Ends in dying so it should be ours in believing that we might be saved from our sins Matth. 1.21 It must be a skilful Physitian indeed that knows how to free the Soul of Man from such a Mass of Corruption from such a Chronical and Inveterate Disease that 's made up of such a complication of Distempers It must be no less than a Divine Skill indeed that must raise such an Earthly Mind that must Cure a Heart so full of Contradiction to the Will of God and that must tame the Affections to God that are grown so carnal It must be one that knows all the windings and turnings of the Heart and is throughly acquainted with its Pulse and all its secret Motions that can Cure its Selsishness and take it off from its inordinate pursuit of Earthly Things and make it submissive to the Will of God that can dispel the darkness of Mans Mind and heal the Confusion of his Thoughts and awaken him to an impartial Consideration of Things and fortifie Reason against the Flesh and rectifie his Judgment both as to present and future things and recover him out of Delirancy and Madness O how much do holy Souls admire his skill whom he hath perfectly recovered and how much will they that are now languishing in Selfishness and Pride and the doting Love of this World and under all that Litter of Corruptions wherewith their Souls are daily disquieted when he shall have restored them to Integrity again and to their right Mind Come unto him
the Letters of which every Word we read is composed or as it is to give restorative Food to a distempered Body before the peccant Matter be purg'd out that is the cause of the Distemper But then though it be the first step in Religion and the first acceptable Service we can perfornâ—â—â— God It is not there that we must rest we are not there to sit down and advance no further as if we were gotten to Hercules Pillaâ—s and there were no higher Perfection to be attained in Religion And to mistake the subordinate and subservient part of God's Service for that which is more perfect and principal for hereby Sin and the Devil will get these Two great Advantages 1. God will be misrepresented both to our selves and others and he that is so full of Compassion and Mercy and all amicable and lovely Perfections will be thought by the Religion which he preserâ—bes to be cruel and unmerciful and to delight in the Torment and Affliction of his Creatures For Men will be drawing his Image by such a false Pencil And then 2. They that make it their whole endeavour to weep and mourn and afflict themselves for their sins will thereby disable both Body and Soul for any Service of God at all and both destroy their Bodily Health and overthrow their Reason And so whilst they are bewailing their Sin and as they think are conquering of it they do but entangle themselves the more and utterly waste that strength that should mortifie and subdue it And the reason why God doth speak so much in his Word in approbation of the sorrowful broken and contrite Heart which I doubt is the Reason of these Mens mistake is because such Persons have need of such Encouragement and might otherwise faint under the Anguish and Burthen of their Spirits and therefore because he would not break the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax till he hath brought forth Judgment unto Victory He gives these Cordials to such as are under the Pangs of the New Birth But he had much rather that Men would leave the Principles of the Doctrin of Christ and not stick always at the Foundation of Repentance from Dead Works and of Faith towards God Not that we are to shake hands with Repentance and sorrow for Sin after we are once heartily converted unless we could be sure to commit no more sin But then sin will need a more short and transient sorrow when we presently bewail it so soon as ever it is committed But our first Repentance and Sorrow will cost us hotter Water and put us to â—â—â—e trouble If a Man that hath a long Journey to go should set out a quite contrary way to the place whither he is to go and so travel on till he hath spent half or more of the time that is allotted for his Journey you must needs think that will cost him more vexation and trouble to get into his right way than after he is gotten in if he should chance to step out a Mile or two A small Errour is more speedily corrected than a great one of long continuance But yet it is always true That it 's better to prevent sin and keep out of it at the first than to get out of it by Repentance Though by Accident and through the Mercy of God it may sometimes prove better to the sinner that he did fall into sin if he doth afterwards heartily rerepent of it But absolutely and in it self it is not better And he that should presume to let loose the Reigns to Sin upon that account I believe would find it much worse But before I produce those Considerations which through the Blessing of God may stir up and strengthen this Affection which must prepare the way for Faith in Christ which lays the Foundation for all Joy and Peace I will first shew what this Godly Sorrow doth imply or what Acts are included in it if it be such as will work Repentance never to be repented of And here let me Note That Repentance is sometimes taken by a Synechdoche for the whole Work of Conversion and then it includes Faith in it so it 's taken Luke 15.7 There shall be joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance So Luke 13.3 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish where Faith also is implied So Acts 11.18 Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life where Repentance is named as the only condition of Life which without Faith also in Christ cannot be had and therefore it is included Sometime Repentance is taken only for Contrition and then usually Faith is joyned with it So Acts 20.21 Testifying to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ And in this latter sense I here take the word Repentance when I make use of it And so Repentance or Godly Sorrow is a deliberate Act of the Soul performed upon the Motions or by the Assistance of the good Spirit of God whereby a Man being touched with unfeigned Sorrow and Remorse for all that he hath sinned whither in his Parents or in himself either inwardly and in secret or else openly and in the sight of Men is now resolved to close with Christ as his only Remedy against the Guilt and Power of it So that you may perceive by this Description that sincere Repentance and Sorrow for Sin must imply these following Acts or otherwise it can never be an advised and deliberate Act nor conclude in a firm resolution and purpose to take Christ as his only sufficient Saviour First It implys a deep Conviction of the Holiness of God and his sin-hating Nature And that you may as soon reconcile Light and Darkness as God and the least Sin whether you take it in its Material or Formal Consideration In its Material Consideration it 's nothing but Deformity and Absurdity and Contradiction to all Right and Reason And in its Formal Respect it 's a thwarting God's Will that 's supreme and governed with infinite wisdom and a breach of his righteous Law And in both these Respects it must needs be the Object of Divine Hatred and Abhorrence surely he must needs abhor to see a Creature cross his own Will and oppose his own Government and when he hath endued him with reason to see him act so absurdly Hence the Psalmist tells us That such as are foolish cannot stand in his sight he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psalm 5.5 And if an imperfect Saint such a one as David hath such an aversation to such Works and the doers of them that he can say depart from me all ye workers of Iniquity much more doth he that is of spotless purity hate all Filthiness and Pollution which every sinner hath some degree of If the Lord were not an utter Enemy to all Iniquity he had never turned so many Angels
know the best have too much of this sin and forget their endeared Lord too much not only in the works of their civil and common Employment but also in their acts of Worship and immediate Service of him and have not adoring prising thoughts of his Greatness and Goodness as they should have and this is some degree of forgetfulness and therefore they will be ready to condemn themselves and take some share in this Reproof but the sharpest part of the Reproof belongs most to them that are least disposed to take it and most ready to quarrel with and fight against it And this is the most doleful aggravation of their misery O what a misery is it to need a bitter Cup a smarting Rod sharp and cutting reproof and yet not to endure the remedy and the proper means of their recovery to be desperately sick and not to abide the Physician This is the condition of those that have most of Guilt and therefore the sorer they are the less they care to be search'd and dress'd If it be any dangerous Distemper in the Body it 's sad when the case is thus but if the Wound be Spiritual and the Soul be the subject to be handled and will not abide it the condition of that Man or Woman is much more to be lamented O how sad is their case that need Humiliation and Repentance and the sense of their sins and misery that make them so forgetful of God and yet are impatient of the means that the Wisdom of God hath appointed and that they must use to bring this to pass O what a fearful state is it and deeply to be lamented to have the greatest necessities on them accompanied with the greatest stupidity and insensibility To have need to cry aloud for mercy mercy and a heart fit to receive it and yet to have no mind to lift up an earnest Prayer unto God and to stir up the remembrance of him nor to be awakened thereto by any way that 's like to speed How dreadful is the condition of a senseless hard hearted sinner that must die Eternally without Repentance and be broken by the vengeance of God for ever if his heart do not break now and yet doth eonsent yea and set this Seal to his own Destruction and yet doth reject all the humbling softning means that Christ the greatest friend that ever he had or shall have in the World hath taught him and beseeched him to use say not that a man may forget God and yet need no such reproof nor be in any such danger I have told you what forgetfulness of God implies and who they are that are chargeable therewith and who can easily speak worse of any unless it be those that have more of this sin and are guilty of it in a higher degree Those that the Text speaks to are such as God threatens to tear in pieces unless they be recovered by consideration And the Scripture doth not use to speak with so much heat and indignation where the sin is not so provoking I come therefore now to shew you 1. The guiltiness this sin 2. The danger of this sin And what a madness as well as wickedness it is to forget God that if it be possible this double sight of the sin and danger may the better prepare them for the means that must recover them and bring them to speedy use of them And this will appear 1. From the hainous nature of this sin 2. From the fearful effects thereof The odious nature of this sin is manifest in that this forgetfulness of God is a sin against the highest Obligations 1. On Gods part 2. On Our part 1. On Gods part 1. First In that he hath given us our Faculties on purpose to remember him and hath fitted them for this very use and service And what a sin must it needs be to frustrate so great a design of God in the very Make and Fabrick of the best of his Creatures here on Earth This end and use is legible enough in his uppermost Faculties which the rest were made to serve and obey For if all were made to minister unto one and that on purposelâ—y to do Homage unto God then all are made ultimatly for God but that he had his noblest Perfections for this very end it 's easie to see with half an Eye What should he do with an Immortal Soul indued with the powers of Reason and free Choice But that by the one he might discern the greatest Good and by the other make it his Choice There are certain Relations that intercede between all Creatures amongst which those of Cause and Effect Means and End are the most principal which the understanding of Man was given him intentionally to argue and find out that by these he might step up to the highest Cause and the supream and last end and do the highest acts of Homage and Reverence to them that his understanding and will are able to give in appretiation and love which are their two most essential Acts. Not a Creature but would lead the Reason of Man to the Creator of all things if he will use his Reason and follow this Guide The most contemptible thing had a Father that begot it that I may use Job's expression Job 38.28 c. Hath the Rain a Father or who begot the drops of the Dew Every thing hath a cause that brought it into being and that was produced by a former and that by something that was before that till you come to the foremost and highest cause And so for the other Relation of Means and End there 's nothing but is subservient to some end and that to a higher till you come to the highest e.g. The Showres moisten and supple the Earth and make it bring forth Grass This Grass is to serve a higher end viz. to feed and noâ—rish the Beasts that they might be fit for the use and service of Man his Food and other imployments either serious or recreative And can we think that here 's a full stop and man was made for no higher end but to domineer over the other Creatures and take aâ—ay their lives when it pleaseth him for his uses Certainly there was a further and higher end that God intended Man for and that is to have him in perpetual Remembrance It 's certain there 's no Creature here on Earth but Man hath any capacity to know God or to bear his Image in Holiness or to worship him which two last imply the first 1. A knowledge of him 1. What he is in himself in some measure 2. What he is to them Their Creator Preserver and bountiful Provider Neither hath any of them a Faculty to express and utter thus much to another Creature being all deprived of Speech and Eloquution which is mans Glory only Obj. And if you object the 19 Psalm 1. The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament c. and therefore not man only Ans The
2 Tim. 3.16 and shew how by Doctrine Reproof Correction and Instruction in Righteousness all the visible Creatures would help on this Remembrance of God and therefore forgetfulness of God hath the greater sin by how much it prevailes against the greater means vouchsafed by God for its cure But least that way shâ—uld not seem so intelligible and convincing I shall chuse rather to nominate four other ways whereby the several Creatures do provoke man to have God highest in their Remembrance 1. They all offer themselves to his sight and by that to his understanding to inform him in the glorious Perfections of God which they palpably discover and therefore are very serviceable in the work of Contemplation No one so sottish as to imagine they could make themselves then they must be made by another that 's God but such infinite variety and such rare and excellent works must suppose and therefore put any one that thinks on them in mind of infinite Wisdom and Skill infinite Goodness and Power in the creating of them 2. They serve for his Food and Rayment and are the means to keep him alive that could not live a day without them Let him that thinks he is least of all beholding to the Creatures consider whether he could live an hour without the Air he sucks in or how many days he could live without Food which one Creature or another serves in every day and then let him think who hath made and doth supply every Creature to him and forget God if he can 3. They serve for his other necessary uses in great delightful variety The Horse to fetch in and carry out both himself and other things and to remove his Luggage from place to place The Wood and Stones to build his Habitation and the Art and Workmanship of Man to adorn it the Dog to keep it and all things conspire together to make him as happy as he can be in the absence of God even a Lord on Earth because God hath appointed him so to be and hath he not yet enough to advance his great Benefactor in his Heart 4. They serve also for his Recreation and sober Pleasure and Refreshment when he hath been tired by his more serious Employments and yet to forget God whose Praise and Service these Creatures do so constantly bespeak by their so beneficial service to us All these steps lead up the sin to a higher guilt In a word to have all the Senses assaulted by the several Objects that God hath furnished to them The Eye to be fed with so many delightful sights of several things The Ear with such various Harmony and Sound The Taste with so many distinct and grateful Relishes of things which the wisdom of the Creator hath provided and offered to that Sense And the Objects of the other Senses are multiplied to as great a variety And is it not monstrous for the mind of man to have so many Monitors and yet to forget God in despight of all 3. Thirdly He hath moreover given us his Son that we might not want an Argument of the greatest force to provoke a remembrance of him When we were like to withstand all other Arguments and to lose the sense of all his other mercies towards us and to perish in a wicked oblivion and forgetfulness of God for ever He hath taken such a course that one would think should create a memory of him where there was none at all of him before and should recover those that are the most desperately gone in forgetfulness and force them to say that the love of Christ constraineth them 2 Cor. 5.14 Would not a Malefactor that 's sentenced and condemned to die take it for a favour indeed and place that man high in his Remembrance that should step between him and death and release him with the loss of his own life especially if he were a Person of Honour and Degree And doth it not deserve a Remembrance not a Customary but a substantial Remembrance when the highest and most honourable Person that ever lived in the World hath laid down his life in the room of ours Sure we think we are not so beholding to him as we are when such an obligation as this wiâ—l prevail no more to exalt God in our Hearts If this be not an obligation that doth inforce a gracious Remembrance now I am sure it is such a one that will enforce a tormenting Remembrance hereafter When the thought of such a mercy so wickedly slighted shall be a raging fire in their Bowels and then they shall not be able to forget it What 's the matter that such a motive is put off and not regarded by too many I am sure there 's nothing but flat downright wickedness can make a man so sleepy and forgetful If such a Breath as this will not kindle the love of God in our Hearts if such a spur will not prick us forward to the duty of Remembrance It 's not because we want Arguments but because we want Grace and how we should want Grace if we were apprehensive of the mercy would be very difficult to resolve and how we should not be apprehensive if we did but think frequently of it would be as impossible to determine So that you see the wickedness of this sin is ultimatly resolved into not thinking or bending our selves to think what we have received Well we are left to take our choice the death of Christ will either oblige us to the duty of Remembrance or aggravate the sin of forgetfulness Lastly We have the Spirit Word and all the Ordinances of God to beget and cherish this Remembrance of God I joyn all these together because I would not multiply particulars too much Obj. But you may say Though the Death of Christ and the Gift of the Spirit are Arguments of great strength and may do good service to quicken up a Believer that 's backward to this work yet how can they compel a wicked man or one that forgets God since Christ died for none but the Elect and none can know themselves to be such but such as have true Faith and know they have it and so also for the Spirit and therefore these Arguments are cogent to none but such as these Answer That Christ gave himself intentionally for all men and that God accepted his Sacrifice to that universal end is so plain in Scripture that scarce any truth is plainer 1 Tim. 2.6 Who gave himself a ransom for all 1 John 2.2 And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole World But because some evade those places by distinguishing of All and World that All is sometimes taken for some and World for part of the World As if the Apostle fore-saw such Quirks and meant to stop every Mouth his words are not liable to evasion Heb. 2.9 That he by the Grace of God should taste of Death for every Man And to make mention
perfect Obedience It was said of Luther that he could do what he would with God by Prayer If God be promoted in thy Heart as high as he was in Luth. thou shalt prevail with him as much as ever Luth. did I know thou hast no ground from the word to expect that God should satisfie thy desires in temporal things when they will not consist with the welfare of thy Soul But every desire that is honourable to God to grant and profitable to thy Soul to receive thou shalt have And when he denies thee what thou dost express he will give what thou dost imply and mean When he granteth not thy particular Request he will give thee thy general Request whatsoever thou askest it 's happiness that thou meanest that 's the general intent and meaning and this he will fulfil though not always in the same method it may be that thine own Wisdom suggesteth he will give thee money or money worth Thou shalt have thy desire in kind or value yea a frequent Remembrance of God will teach thee to pray so as thou shalt prevail and the knowledge of his Attributes and Perfections which the Remembrance of God doth imply will make thee so ingenious as to ask nothing that shall cross the Wisdom Justice or Holiness of God or be the least prejudicial to the merciful design of thy Salvation O what a priviledge is it to have such an open free access to him that can strangely turn things about when it pleaseth him and is wonderful in Counsel and mighty in Working Esay 28.29 with a promise to be heard to plead with God and get the Blessing for thy Self for thy Relations and for the Land of thy Nativity and by this means to be one of the Props and Pillars of the Nation of which thou art a Member This is an Honour indeed and an unvaluable Mercy which yet thou shalt partake of in that degree and measure as thou dost Remember him Fourthly To Remember God is the ready way to entail the Blessing of Heaven and Earth upon thy Seed and Posterity Children speed ordinarily according to their Parents interest or want of interest in God Those that die in Infancy it 's more than probable that they speed according as their Parents or those that have the nearest interest in them are in Covenant with God or out of Covenant And those that live beyond an Infants state have cause to count amongst the greatest of their early Blessings that they have either one or both Parents that are true Believers especially where the Faith of their Parents is gotten up to some degree of Eminency I would not intimate that the Lord doth never shew special love and mercy to the Posterity of the Wicked nor that he doth always impart saving Grace to the Children of the godly But I believe it will prove a rare case if one instance can be produced that all the Children of Believers if they have several are finally forsaken of God and denyed his saving Grace yea many times they are all remembred It is the Argument that Peter useth to perswade Faith and Repentance to his hearers in the first Sermon which he preached after Christs Assention and the Descension of the Holy Ghost that by this means Parents would bring their Children to participate in Gospel-mercy with themselves Acts 2.39 Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost For the Promise is to you and your Children And it hath the most general testimony of the soundest Writers that the Faith of the Parents is the condition of the Childrens right to Baptism The Profession of it in the Court of Men the Possession of it in the Court of Heaven * See the Reverend Mr. Baxters Dispu of right to Sacrament But be it how it will I am sure it 's a doleful condition to be the Child of wicked Parents that forget God and a mercy better than the biggest Portion can be left them to be the Seed of Parents that Remember him Thus saith the Lord c. Fear not O Jacob my Servant for I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed and my Blessing upon thine off-spring Esa 44.3 And as the special Promise was made to Isaac so even Ishmael fared the better for being Abraham's Seed And as it is threatned in one of the Prophets that the Seed of evil doers shall never he Renowned so the Posterity of those that Remember God are the most likely to be Remembred even in this Life and to be famous in their Congregation Men of Renown Num. 16.2 I do not mean for their worldly Pomp and Splendor but for their Grace Wisdom and Usefulness to the World To which sometime such a measure of these outward Blessings are added as may make their Grace more resplendent and them more serviceable to him that will most eminently reward it If therefore your own Bowels are dear to you and you desire that your Posterity should be blessed here and had in Eternal Remembrance hereafter advance God in your Remembrance Lastly This Exercise of thy Thoughts and Affections in the Remembrance of God is thy greatest Happiness as well as thy greatest interest I mean it will yield thee the highest Pleasure as well as the highest Profit I know to the ignorant that have no competent knowledge of God and such as are unwonted to these thoughts and have their Affections buried in the World and are loaden with divers Lusts no work is more unpleasant nothing that they will more decline Light it self is unpleasant to a sore and distempered Eye but those that are pretty well acquainted with the amiable Nature and Perfections of God and with such Thoughts and Meditations of him as will amount to a worthy Remembrance of him would not be untaught this Art for all the Pleasures which the World can supply to them These are the most reviving these are the most comforting these are the most satisfying Thoughts These are the most illuminating instructing perfecting Thoughts These are the Thoughts that best improve our present Comfort and our future Hopes From all these Heads I might particularly and distinctly shew how the sincere Remembrance of God doth make way for the greatest Pleasure viz. In that it doth 1. Clear and perfect the Understanding 2. Purifie and rejoyce the Heart 3. Revive the Spirit and actuate it to greater Life and Life is sweet 4. In that it doth quiet and satisfie the very Soul 5. Multiply and improve our present Comforts 6. And our future Happiness All these ways and many other doth this Remembrance of God contribute to our immediate Pleasure and Happiness That Soul must needs abound most with Life and Joy and Pleasure that hath most frequent access to the Fountain of all Life and Pleasure who enjoy themselves more than they if other things concur that are most under the power and command of
It 's the Lord that giveth understanding but it is to such as consider and no other And as neither of the former will speed without the frequent repeated act of Consideration not Correction not Instruction so neither 3. Will his Favour and Mercies properly so called for I know both the former may be called Mercies and Favours in a larger sense These I say that are Mercies to present sense and feeling will do no good or else a great deal of hurt without Consideration God will lose our acknowledgment of them and we the blessed comfortable fruits of them What the Prophet saith of a wicked Man I may well say of an Inconsiderate Man Esay 26.10 Let Favour be shewed to such a one yet will he not remember whence it is nor learn Righteousness And therefore Samuel presseth this Duty as the fittest to bring the stupid Israelites to the Remembrance of God implied in the terms Fear and Service Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth for consider how great things he hath done for you 1 Sam. 12.24 And as Consideration is the likeliest means to bring a Man home to the Remembrance of God in Christ at first and to improve Correction Instruction and Mercy to the end so it is as successful to recover a Man after a Relapse into Forgetfulness To this Remedy David was beholding though never a whit the less to God who put him upon the use of it I thought on my wars saith he and turned my Feet unto thy Testimonies Psal 119.59 And Peter was thus recovered after his shameful Forgetting of Christ and Denial of him and Peter remembred 1. Thought upon and considered the words which Jesus said unto him Before the Cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice and he went out and wept bitterly Mat. 26.75 And Elihu proposeth this to Job as a proper Remedy to abase and humble him that so much insisted upon his own vindication and remembred not his infinite distance from God as he should have done and therefore brought him to the Bar of his own perverted Judgment Hearken unto this O Job stand still and consider the wondrous works of God Job 37.14 And this course cured him I have heard of thee saith he with the hearing of the Ear but now mine Eyes seeth thee Wherefore I abhor my self and repent in Dust and Ashes Job 42.5 6. He did before stretch his own Righteousness so far and confine the Soveraignty of God as if he had done unjustly or cruelly in afflicting one so innocent as he was But when he had more attentively considered the Majesty and Glory of God and his wonderful Power according to the scheme and draught that Elihu had set before him Then the Bladder was prick'd and he was humbled in his own thoughts and saw that for his very Integrity which he held so fast and justified so much he was beholding to God for And as Consideration is a means to bring the Heart to God at first and to recover the Heart to him when it begins to depart by unbelief so it is an excellent help to increase and strengthen this Remembrance to strain it to a higher peg and make it more intense and vigorous My Heart was hot within me while I was musing the Fire burned then spake I with my Tongue Psal 39.3 The Consideration of Gods immutable Goodness and everlasting Favour and the brevity and vanity of all other things stirr'd the Fire and awakened his Heart to a more savoury Remembrance of God when he had considered how many disgraces Riches did lie open to and what a blast Mans Life is he subjoyns And now O Lord what wait I for my hope is even in thee Psal 39.7 And while the thoughts of Believers are inditing good matters their Tongue is as the Pen of a ready Writer quick to express the praises of God Psal 45.1 And Davids desires after God grew more strong and impetuous when he thinks on the Pleasure and Priviledge of Communion with God from which he was banished in the Wilderness When I think on or remember these things I pour out my Soul in me for I had gone with the multitude with the voice nf Joy and Praise He means to the publick and solemn Worship of God And now the Consideration of his want of these Priviledges cut this gash in his Heart and made this gaping of his desires after God Caution I know there are other means to be used besides Consideration but this is 1. The leading act to bring on all the other that have any subserviency to this Remembrance of God And 2. The act that inspires Life and Soul into all other means whither they be such as are near to the end such as are near Repentance Mortification Faith and all internal Grace Holiness or such as are more remote from the end As Reading Hearing Prayer Holy Conference whose success doth usually depend upon Consideration and as it is the leading act 3. So it is the act in which most are defective and for want of which so many do miscarry and lose themselves for ever and therefore I call it a principle means to beget and cherish the Remembrance of God as I have proved And so much for the Reasons I come now to the Application 1. Reproof FIrst If Consideration be a means so necessary to the Remembrance of God then here 's sad tidings to the Inconsiderate Such Men must needs Forget God unless he were to be seen with Corporal Eyes and his glorious Perfections did lie open unto sense But alas what a poor superficial Beauty can that discover it can pierce no farther than the surface of a bodily Object and the external Accidents it 's a meer stranger to the inward make and composition of such gross beings as these are and discerns not that which is most essential to them Much less can sense discern the Nature of Spirits and find out the infinite depths of the Divine Nature and search out the Dimensions of his Glory It 's usually such persons as these that make use of no other fool than sense to build themselves up in knowledge that have so much Atheism in their thoughts But it 's another Eye that must inform us of the Being and Perfections of God and make known to us both his Immensity and Eternity whereby all his other Attributes and Perfections become bottomless and unsearchable This Eye is two fold according to the double light that is afforded to us for discovery The Eye of 1. Reason 2. Faith According to the double light of 1. Nature 2. Scripture which doth discover the Object to these two Eyes There are but three ways by which we can come to gain any knowledge of God or any other thing either 1. By sense so we come to know that the Snow is white or that Grass is green Or 2. By way of Deduction or Inference or Ratiocination so we come to know the Sun is up though we see it not because we see
of him may be our sweetest daily Exercise and Imployment But without Consideration you cannot approach him nor get any transforming reviving sight of him His Ways are in the Seas and his Paths are in the deep Waters and Foot-steps cannot be known nor track'd without frequent Exercise of your Considering Faculty Psal 77.19 Secondly As we have the matters of greatest importance and necessity to Consider so we have many special advantages to excite and awaken Consideration One would think the worth and weightiness of the Object should be spur enough to quicken us to this Work and command our thoughts if there were no other motive to prick us forward but we have many current helps many a loud call from the Word of God set on by his appointed Servants that are sent forth on purpose upon this Errand Many providential help both sweet and terrible and something besides the common course strange and unusual and therefore more fit to set the Mind a thinking from what cause they come and what they drive at The veryest Atheist is sometime blank'd at some strange and unheard of events and knows not what interpretation to make of them nor whether to refer them for having denied the true Author of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They become vain in their imanations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And their foolish Heart is darkned Rom. 1.21 Yea that arch Opposer of Providence Epicurus himself had not made such a progress in Forgetfulness of God and the denial of a Deity governing and over-ruling the Affairs of the Earth but that he was so startled by some effects that he observed that he could not utterly wipe the notion of a Providence out of his Mind When a Blasphemer is struck dead in the very Act of his Blasphemy and Vengeance lights upon another with a fearful imprecation in his Mouth and some effects are so anomalous and besides the course of Nature that it is no thanks to the most Atheistical to bring in their Witness and to confess the Wisdom and Power and Justice of God Let a Man that truly worshippeth and feareth God in such a time of dreadful and publick Calamity as this is applaud the Justice of God and freely confess his handy work and assign the notorious publick allowed and encouraged sins of the City and Nation for the meritorious and provoking Cause It may be a purblind thick sighted Beast whose God is his Belly and whose Glory is his Shame that is drunk with Sensual Pleasure Phil. 9.13 will tell you that such a mortality comes about in the revolution and circle of so many years and will rake the Kennel for the Cause and ascribe the effects to the naughtiness of the Streets rather than to the naughtiness of their Hearts or look up to the true efficient to whom these causes they usually fasten upon are but subservient and all that they might hide their shame and that they might perswade themselves and others that their sin hath no hand in bringing such a scourge upon us but yet for all that when the Judgment comes a little nearer to them and begins to find them out and awaken them to Consideration which they had no time for when they were running from one brutish pleasure to another then they begin to see and to be confounded with shame They cannot now laugh out of their Hearts all serious thoughts of a Life to come nor make a jest of a Holy Life as they did in the day of their delusion but would give a World if they had it to die the death of the Righteous No wonder that strange and extraordinary Providences whether they be of Mercy or Judgment jostle the most sottish and inconsiderate Mind and awaken it to think other thoughts of all things than they did before and enforce an Heathenish Earthly Mind that spent all its thoughts upon vanity before to say that all is but vanity and God's Favour is the only ground for true Contentment if this good fit would last which Consideration hath brought him to But alas â—o sooner is the Providence over that brought him to Consider but he grows careless again and sleeps into Atheism and whilst things run in a constant Channel and keep a constant course God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 Now they think that Repentance and Faith and Self-denial are the work of Cowards yes and such as believe that God hath as great hand in the orderly course and motion of things as when they go out of order and Water that is a fluid body and should run stands still and Fire that should burn doth not Let but a Man consider and it 's as easie to believe that it s as great a power must enable the Sun to run it's race as to stand still or go backward to preserve the Societies of Men as destroy and waste them with a devouring Plague All the difference is Men now consider that would not before and conclude at least that it 's the safest course to live the Life of the Righteous though there were no God and oh that all would so conclude and hold fast such a conclusion and live accordingly then they would quickly see more and more evidence of God in the Word and the necessity of his Service and the excellency of his ways and rise up to a higher conclusion That when as before they could say it was the safest way to renounce worldly Pleasure and to mortifie their Lusts and to addict themselves to the Love and Service oâ— God now they would be able to say that it 's perfect madness not to take this course It 's a Wisdom to be laughed at to be wise for this Life and neglect the Life to come A little Consideration would shew the nakedness of such pretended Wisdom and among other helps this of Publick Calamity where Plague or Famine or any extraordinary Judgment sweeps away thousands calls the rest to come and behold the works of the Lord what Desolations he hath wrought among us Psal 46.10 Be still and know that I am God I will be exalted among the People I will be acknowledged by these careless and Atheistical Sinners ver 11. And if the Lethargy of Mens Minds be not great they will consider those that were even lost before for want of attention to the Word and Works of God will awaken now or it 's too much to be feared never shall I call it therefore a Judgment or a Mercy which the compassionate God hath sent upon this Nation that gives us so much advantage to come to sober thoughts Doth it not give some check whether we will or not to the external acts of Pride Luxury and Uncleanness whereby the inward Acts are weakened and we have time to reason with our selves and are better disposed to consider when freed from the clog of worldly cares and from the fumes of a surfeited Body overcharged with Meat and Drink and from the flattering Friend that make us
Righteous art thou O Lord in the Sentence which thou hast passed in the Judgment which thou hast executed Psal 119.137 Thou hast poured forth thy wrath and indignation on them and given them gall and bitterness to drink for they are worthy You shall then wish that your faculty to consider were gone it will follow you so close and be such a perpetual honour to you or rather that you had never had reason and understanding to consider then you might have both liv'd and died like a beast Whereas now though you have liv'd like a beast that you must die like a man that hath Memory Reason Foresight Judgment and Affections that will all conspire together to overwhelm you with eternal shame Why had I reason will the Soul say then but to prevent this misery Why had I will to choose when Life and Death were set before me and could choose no better Had it not been a wiser course to have troubled my self a little while with some few Thoughts of it then now to feel it for ever Why did God threaten Hell and destruction in his Word and set it forth with so much Terrour to mine apprehensions but that I might consider and escape it Why did he appoint the Ministerial Office but that knowing the Terrours of the Lord they might perswade men 2 Cor. 5.11 What could nothing prevail with one but what I now feel and must forever undergo Think not to say then I had not time to consider neither had I skill to follow such a work as this It 's not so much a knowing Head as an honest Heart that 's required to this work The Truths are but few and plain that thy Heart is to dwell upon and the certainty of them is beyond all doubt and question Whatever difference of Opinion there may be in other things yet here is no controversy all are agreed that man hath an Immortal Soul that there is a Life to come That the Happiness of man lies in these two things 1. In being like to God 2. In loving him and being loved by him that sin hath made us unlike to him and therefore must be repented of That Christ will purge away their guilt and sin and renew them by his Spirit that love him and consent to be ruled by him and will take him for their Physitian That there is a day in which God will summon all the World before him and Judge them Impartially according as they have believed or not believed in Christ to everlasting joy or 〈◊〉 These things are certain in the highest 〈◊〉 and there is none that doubteth 〈…〉 but either an Atheist or an 〈…〉 are the Truths that God hath 〈…〉 in great mercy and compassion 〈…〉 commanded every one 〈…〉 Poer and Rich 〈…〉 think upon when they are 〈…〉 when they are walk 〈…〉 when they lye down and 〈…〉 they rise up and to teach them diligently to their Children and to live as those that do believe and consider them Woe to the man or woman that considers not these things good it had been for him or her if they had never been born Wilt thou not think of those things It is because thou art void of understanding and hast chose the way of destruction If thou wilt not be perswaded now to consider thou wilt forget thy latter end thou wilt forget thine Immortal Soul and God will be forgotten and a little sensual pleasure will weigh more with thee than Eternal Life and Happiness And when the day of thy dishress is come upon thee thou wilt wish that thou hadst rather forgot to eat thy Bread than these things should have been forgotten and to fill up thy measure and make thee perfectly miserable God will forget thee forever Psal 50.22 Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tare you in peices and there be none to aeliver I Have set some of the Motives before you that should stir you up to Consideration and shewed you in part what a mischief it is for this faculty to lie dead which is given us by God to quicken those that are dead to the Life of Grace and Holiness and to make them strong and lively and vigorous Christians that are quickned by the spirit of Christ and have set their affections upon things above and not upon things here on Earth This is the way that God hath prescribed for Rational Creatures to get home to God that are revolted from him and to recover their affections to the right owner that are intangled in the love of Earth and vanity If they would but consider would feed upon Swinish pleasures no longer nor suffer their Souls to be charmed with more delusion nor prefer the imaginary dream of a sluggard before the happiness of a man that is awake and whose eyes are open Consideration would shew such a man the difference between Earth and Heaven rectify his judgment in this great point viz. where mans happiness lies And tell him roundly how the world hath cheated him with more shews and phantastick pleasures and put a picture into his hand instead of real felicity It would clear his Eye-sight and make him quite of another mind than once he was when Inconsideracy had blinded him and the world had befool'd him and he would see much more reason to live in the love of God looking for the mercies of his Redeemer unto eternal Life Jude the 21. than ever he did to live in carnal love and delights Consideration would bring the world and all its pleasures as much into disgrace as ever Inconsideracy brough◠them into credit And men that snatch'd at the riches and vain glory of the world before as a sweet bit to be purchased upon any terms would after they are enlightened by Consideration suspect all its soberest pleasures and those that come in upon the fairest terms What a Confession should you have from such a man of the foolishness and madness of his former Conversation when he liv'd upon Air and Trash as other Inconsiderate men still do Such a one as Paul's Tit. 3.3 For we our selves saith he describing his state before Consideration undeceived him were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures Then you should hear him bitterly accuse and condemn the soberest course he formerly took when the World had the Supremacy in his mind and heart Strange it would be to see a man so much altered for the better and advanced to such an improvement in knowledge and vertue as by impartial sober and considerate Thoughts might be done He was it may be before a covetous busie worldling that scrap'd and dig'd his happiness out of the dirt and said it up on Earth Whose God was his belly whose glory was his shame that minded Earthly things Phil. 3.19 But now his conversation is in Heaven and there he hath laid up his Treasure And digs for Wisdom as for Silver and searcheth for it as for hid Treasure Prov. 2.4 And his delight
began to fail in his Obedience till first his Faith and Heart subjection to God was shaken But when his Heart began secretly to revolt from God and to haesitate about the perfect Veracity Justice and Goodness of God and to believe the Tempter before him who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then he began to transgress and violate his Command And having made Shipwreck of Faith and a good Conscience towards God his Sovereign that Law or Covenant which he had broken threatens him with Eternal Death But God being moved with pity towards lapsed Mankind did not execute the deserved Penalty but contrived a way in his Infinite Wisdom in which he might shew Mercy to his miserable Creature Man upon honourable Terms and vindicate the Honour of his Law and the Authority of the Law-giver and make Transgression as odious as if the whole Species of Mankind had suffered the Penalty of the Law And that was by the Incarnation of God the Son taking our Flesh upon him and uniting it to his Godhead and so both Humane and Divine Nature being united in one Person he might by the one be made capable of suffering and by the other of satisfying offended Justice Thus God the Son and our dearest Saviour undertook the Work liv'd in an exact Conformity to the Law fulfill'd all Righteousness and suffered what was due for our Transgressions and having finished the Work God the Father was so well pleased therewith that he alters the state of things and commits all into the hands of his Son and now the Second Kingdom commenceth which is the Kingdom of God as Redeemer as the other was of God as Creator And here the Constitution and Government is quite different from the former The former required Faith in God and Perfect Obedience upon the Penalty of Eternal Death if there was the least Violation The latter requireth Repentance and Faith in Christ as Sovereign Redeemer and sincere Obedience continued to the End or else threatneth a heavier Condemnation than the former Here Faith in God the Redeemer constitutes us Subjects of this Second Kingdom which is nothing else but Heart-Subjection to our Sovereign Redeemer as Faith in God was our Heart-Subjection to our Sovereign Creatour or else the deliberate Consent of the Soul to come under the Yoke and Government of Christ So that the Faith which puts the Christian into a Justified State is a Political Act such a one as he performs to a Prince that first consents to be his Subject 1. to do the Duties of a Subject if he may but enjoy the Priviledges and Immunities of such a Subject So that Faith is no one Physical Act of the Understanding or Will but is made up of divers Acts of both It supposeth our knowledge of God the Second Person in the Trinity suffering and satisfying in our Nature and God's acceptance and a full pardon granted to all that repenting them of their Sin and Rebellion against God their Creatour consent heartily to come under the Sovereignty of God Redeemer and to obey him in sincerity all the days of their Life It supposeth that we believe thus much and that he is able to subdue our Corruptions and to bring us into favour with God again and thereupon give ear hearty consent resigning up our selves in a deliberate Covenant unto him This is the Faith which in the Gospel is said to justifie By which description of Faith you may see that Faith Negatively is not 1. A Perswasion that we are justified for that would infer that a Man is justified before he is justified which Doctrin is so notoriously absurd that now I think Few or None own it You may see it solidly confuted by several Arguments in Mr. Baxter's Answer to Serjeant Shephard 2. Nor is it a bare Belief that Christ died for Sinners and hath satisfied the Divine Justice The Devil may have such a Faith as this 3. Nor is it an Affyance to Recumbency upon Christ for pardon The middlemost is an Act antecedent to justifying Faith and the other Two are consequent upon it though not immediately it may be at least the first For that sometimes comes a long time after when the Believer is grown up to a state of strength and stability in his Faith and sometimes it never follows at all in many weak Believers But Positively it is The weary Sinner's acceptance of Christ as his Soveraign to Rule Sanctifie and Save him and the Souls deliberate subjecting it self to him as his most endeared Lord and Governour the absolute Priest and Prophet and one every way able to save those that are his true Subjects and Disciples This is the Universal Radical and Fundamental Grace of the Gospel that diffuseth its Virtue into all parts of the Christian Life and its weakness or strength will be seen and felt in all our Christian Duties For the deeper radification and confirmation of this Grace therefore it 's necessary that we keep those Reasons continually upon our Minds that are apt to produce or strengthen it and frequently ponder them with our most serious Thoughts that they may put us upon the Practice and Exercise of this universal Grace till it grow up to the highest Perfection we are able Those that I shall suggest are such as these 1. First You will never prize nor exercise that Life of Faith till you have well considered the Miseries of an Unbeliever It 's impossible now to conceive much more to express their intolerable greatness None can throughly understand what they are but those that feel them Wo to the Person that comes thus to understand them But such assuredly will all those be that die in unbelief Let me make a Brief Enumeration of the Particulars 1. First They continue in flat Rebellion against God and how such are like to speed I leave you to judge We are all born with a rebellious Nature against God and practice nothing but Emnity and Contradiction to him till this Nature be changed shall God proclaim Pardon Mercy and Grace to Conquer the Violence of Corruption and Temptation to those that will lay down their Weapons of Rebellion and give over their stubborn opposition against God and come under the Command and Government of his Son And shall you and I reject such a gracious Offer and say with those Rebels We will not have this Man to reign over us i. e. We will not believe in him Luke 19.14 Nay hath Christ done so much to endear his Person and Government to us treading the Wine-Press of his Father's wrath for us Isa 63.3 shedding his warmest Blood to purchase our Peace with God And shall we refuse to submit our selves to him Is it he or we that are the gainers Should he glory in such poor contemptible Subjects or we in such an Almighty Sovereign and Saviour We mistake infinitely and apprehend not the Matter aright if we do not take it for a high Priviledge and Favour to be under the Conduct of such
that have not given up your Names to Christ Your foolish Friends may flatter you and your own fraudulent Heart may cheat you but the Word of God tells you plainly what will be your doom if by Faith in Christ you do not escape it How can you do to read such a Text as that in Luke 12.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Night shall they require thy Soul of thee 1 by a usual Hebraism shall thy Soul be required of thee for when there is no Nominative Case go before the Verb it 's taken impersonally 5. Lastly God is thine Enemy and that contains all the Misery that can be thought or spoken Who can do a worse turn to himself than to make God his Enemy Who can befriend that Man that hath God for his Adversary or plead his Cause for him When Saul in distress comes to Samuel as he thought for counsel what a sad Answer doth he return him Wherefore dost thou ask of me seeing the Lord is departed from thee and is become thine Enemy 1 Sam. 28.16 And it was the bitterest part of Job's suffering that he thought God was his Enemy Wherefore hidest thou thy Face and countest me for thine Enemy Job 13.24 Thou even thou art greatly to be feared and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry faith the Psalmist Psalm 76.7 We may bear the Frowns of a Mortal Man though he were never so great yea though all the World should frown there 's some Refuge against that If all Men and Devils should storm and rage against us it 's possible for a Soul to comfort it self against this and find out a shelter But whither wilt thou fly when God pursues What will you do in the day of visitation and in the desolation which shall come from far To whom will you fly for help saith the Prophet to the wicked Israelites that had provoked God to be their Enemy Isaiah 10.3 There 's no flying from him Whither shall I go from thy Spirit Or whither shall I flee from thy Presence If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there If I take the wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shall thy hand lead me c. Psal 130.7 8 9 10. There 's no escaping his hand If he come to tare in pieces there can be none to deliver Psalm 50.22 Stay a little thou that art an impenitent unbeliever and consider a while what this importeth viz. To have God for thine Adversary I 'll tell thee in brief It implys these three Things 1. First All the Attributes of God are against thee and feel it thou shalt either sooner or later 2. Secondly All the Creatures will set against thee first or last 3. Thirdly Thine own Conscience shall side with God against thee and to make thee perfectly miserable shall fall upon thee with the greatest Fury and Madness 1. If thou reject the gracious Offers of Mercy by the Gospel and refuse to have Christ reign over thee all the Attributes of God are engaged against thee The inflexible Justice and Wisdom and Holiness his infinite Power and never failing Truth and Veracity will all combine to make thee everlastingly miserable Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do righteously Gen. 18.25 Will Infinite Power let such Contempt of his Grace which hath stooped so low go unrevenged Will he suffer the proud Sinner to Spit in the Face of his Son for unbelief and rejecting him is no better and not wipe off that aspersion by the eternal ruin and perdition of the sinner Will it consist with the perfect Wisdom of God to look down upon the unbeliever and see him trample such amazing Love and Mercy under his feet not once nor twice but so many Years together as make up the Number of his Life and not recompence such base Ingratitude and wicked Presumption according to its desert If there be Truth and Faithfulness in God thou canst not scape He cannot deny himself 2 Tim. 2.13 Dost thou believe it If thou believest not yet he abideth faithful and let me tell thee again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he cannot deny himself He hath spoken and will not alter the thing that is gone out of his Mouth He that believeth not the Son shall not see Life John 3.36 Nay he that believeth not 〈…〉 already because he hath not 〈…〉 the Name of the only begotten Son of God John 3.18 I know he delighteth not in the misery or ruin of any of his Creatures and therefore is slow to Anger and proceeds leasurely to Judgment and strikes not till there is no Remedy after he hath used all the Methods of Mercy and Pity to reclaim the sinner and hath invited him time after time year after year to have compassion upon his own Soul and accept of Christ and pardon with him yet when no Means will succeed and the case of the sinner is quite desperate neither will he be drawn to believe however he speed Judge now what a disparagement this would be to the Wisdom Justice Holiness and Veracity of God not to pass Sentence upon such a sinner and then what a one it must be you may easily understand If they that despised Moses Law died without Mercy of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God c. Heb. 10.28 29. c. If God strike he hath a hand like himself 2. Secondly All Creatures will set against thee for they are his Armies and he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord of Hosts All thy Friends and Acquaintance will come in and bring their Witness and Accusations against thee even thy bosom Confederates shall cry shame on thee and add Affliction to thy Misery O what a killing Consideration will it be then and I would it were so now if possibly it might prevent that woful day to be overwhelmed with Misery and Desperation and when thou shalt cry out with Job Job 19.21 Have pity upon me have pity upon me O my Friends for the hand of God hath touched me and he shall find none near him to speak one word of ease to him but all his bitter Enemies This will cut him to the quick and bring down his stomack when it is too late Then if it were possible to believe in hope how earnestly would he wish to see one of the days of the Son of Man Luke 17.22 3. Thirdly To compleat his Misery his own Conscience shall fall upon him with the greatest violence It will upbraid him with wilful stupid unbelief and the most monstrous ingratitude It will bring to his remembrance the kindness of his Saviour such a one as was never heard of It will tell him of his Blood and Sufferings and how fain he would have washed him and embraced him with Mercy and he flew away and scorn'd Deliverance and slighted all
such a Case How much more would a sinner bewail his Offences committed against him that is his Creatour and Sovereign and hath absolute dominion over him and the power of Eternal Life and Death in his hands Thou canst not endure his displeasure if he doth but frown Nor live without his favour if he should totally withdraw it but an hour As he commandeth the Sun to shed his light and influence upon thee so he clotheth the Heaven with blackness and maketh Sackcloth their covering when he pleaseth Isaiah 50.3 If thou didst but know and consider the one half of the infinite Mercies he doth bestow upon thee and the worth of them it would make thee sure to break into bitter complaints for all thy odious Transgressions especially when thou knowest before-hand That the Penitent are so sure to speed and find Mercy with him This is a Third Act That Godly Sorrow if it be sincere doth imply even a deep sense of all the Obligations every one of us lies under to abstain from all Appearance of Evil. Fourthly He that would bewail his sin aright must be sensible how shameful it is and destructive to his own Soul and Body It prevents his Reason and makes him far more vile than a Creature that wants that Faculty It animates his Senses to all insolency it makes his Passions masterless and unruly it destroys the Health of the Body the Peace and Composure of the Mind it fills the Conscience with perpetual Remorse and Unquietness And all these Effects do as naturally flow from it as Poyson doth from a Toad or Serpent And thus it would punish it self although God should inflict no other punishment than what will inevitably follow such sinful inordinate Acts and such abuse of the Reason and Faculties that Man is possessed of It procures the hatred of God and the shame of Men and breeds a continual Worm at home that will gnaw in twain the Thred of this Life and will then feed upon Soul and Body to their everlasting pain and torment hereafter Fifthly He that is truly penitent and doth lament his sin as he ought doth know and consider the Merit of his sin and what Wages it deserves He is sensible that the least sin committed against such a Majesty by a Creature so much obliged and enabled to the contrary deserves damnation and that he can make God no recompence for the wrong and injury it doth him And he understands in some good measure what Eternal Damnation doth imply And then when he calls to mind the infinite Number he hath committed and how oft he hath deserved such a dreadful Reward and that yet he is invited to Repentance and knows that he shall find Mercy if he repent from the bottom of his Heart This melts him into Tears and dissolveth his rocky Heart and maketh it to feel what heretofore he made light matter of Sixthly As the penitent sinner is sensible of all the foregoing Particulars so he is acquainted with his own personal Transgressions not only that he is a sinner in general but what actual wickedness he is every day guilty of How little his Thoughts Words or Actions come up to the Rule at the best and how often they utterly thwart and contradict the Rule and what are his Master-Corruptions and where the strength of his sin lies He is also deeply sensible of his sinful Nature that he brought with him into the World and how cross it is to the Will of God expressed in his Word and Law and altogether unlike the Nature that God gave Man at the first Seventhly He doth hereupon judge himself exceeding vile and even loath himself for his Abominations Ezek. 36.31 When he thinketh upon his odious ways he is heartily ashamed and counteth himself unworthy of any outward Mercy and wondreth at the Mercies that God doth bestow so contrary to his deserts He seriously judgeth himself more wretched and miserable by reason of his sin and an Object of greater shame and contempt than if he had liv'd in the greatest poverty and want without sin as knowing that one makes him contemptible only to such as judge according to outward appearance but the other to those that judge righteous judgment He knows that sin makes him a Beast or a Devil in Humane shape and is a Disgrace and Reproach to all his Faculties and quite perverts the very frame and design of them For what is sin but an absurd and unreasonable Act Actus debito ordine privatus as the School-men define it and supposeth the Senses and their Objects to be in chief power and command and the nobler Part I mean his Rational and Immortal Spirit to be chained up and lye by as a Prisoner in Fetters or which is worse to be a voluntary Servant and Drudge to the stinking corruptible part of Man What Lord that hath the Spirit of a Man would endure to be a drudge to his Servant It 's a sad sight to see a Prince a Captive to his Subjects or a Lord to be in the hand and power of his Slaves led up and down in Chains at the will and pleasure of him that is but of a base and degenerate Breed compared with himself It was a great aggravation of Job's pitiful Condition that contemptible persons had him in derision whose Fathers he would have disdained to have set with the Doggs of his Flock Job 30.1 That Children of Fools and Base Men that were viler than the Earth made him their Song and By-word and that they did abhor him and flee far from him and not spare to spit in his Face vers 8 9 10. It was a very doleful pitiful sight to see Edward the Second so barbarously entreated by Gourney and made to sit upon a Mole-hill whilst the Barber shaved him and to take cold Water out of a Ditch to wash him with which the patient King seeing told them that in despight of them he would have warm Water at his Barbing and therewithal poured down Tears in abundance It 's a much sadder Spectacle to see Sense trample upon Reason and the Flesh that is of so base a descent to domineer over the Soul that 's born of God and is of the Blood-Royal made to rule and govern as the very Heathen could tell Animi imperio Corporis servitio utimur saith Salast And what 's the Fruit of such a Monstrous Disorder when Flesh and Sense do exercise such an oppressive usurping Power and that Faculty that makes a Man is perfectly cow'd Why This unspeakable Mischief is the Fruit thereof Earth is preferr'd before Heaven The Creature before the Creator The momentary pleasures of Sin before the durable and everlasting Felicity And Men chuse rather to be Termers in these decaying Comforts that expire with their Lives than to have the Propriety of an Eternal Inheritance hereafter that shall never be out-dated These and the like Considerations make the sinner to judge himself a vile Person a Reproach to Humane
Hour and his Right in us and over us we shall be either tempted to deny them or at least to deny that Homage which they call for If we can overlook him that is all in all and the Spring that moves all second Causes and sets them on work to do us that good which they do for us at any time No wonder if we commit Sacriledge and rob God of his deserved Praises yea or if we undervalue them and mistake the Mercies that are more worth than Heaven and Earth to be but petty and inconsiderable we shall be as slight in our grateful Acknowledgment These two or three Things therefore are comprized in the due Reverence and Estimation of God and his Favours 1st A clear and solid Apprehension of our own great Unworthiness of any the least of his Favours and our infinite distance from his Person not only by Nature but much more through Guilt and Sin we must be pretty well acquainted with our own Poverty and Baseness and that we have nothing but from him That All is forfeited again and again That the Miseries of this Life and that which is to come are our Desert That God can expect no Advantage from us when he bestows his Mercies but the pleasure of doing good Nor when we are most cordial and diligent in his Service but the pleasure of our receiving Good and seeing his Grace prosper in us And that in all his Threats and Punishments he is still designing our Good and mortifying our Corruption which will otherwise be sure to ruine and undo us if it be not forsaken And this would teach us to prize and thank God and our Redeemer for every piece of Bread that we eat and the House that covers us and the Cloaths that warm us the Sun that shineth on us the Rod that corrects us when we come to know and consider how much we need them and how little we deserve them 2ly It would help us to prize all the Mercies of God if we did but consider and understand the Misery of those that want them We could not want the Bread we eat nor the Air we breath nor the Limbs we use nor the Senses that we have without Misery enough But what Man could want the Grace of the Gospel the Merits and Intercession of Christ that knows that he is everlastingly undone without them 3ly It will help us to estimate them rightly if we consider what they cost and the price that paid for them Our sins and the sins of our Parents whose Flesh and Blood we are did cry out aloud for vengeance in the utter destruction of our Persons And God who is the just and righteous Governour of the World could not without disparagement to his Wisdom and Justice stop his Ears to the Cry of our Sins unless his Son had suffered for our Sins and satisfied the Demands of his Justice and purchased all our forfeited Mercies back again by his Blood So that all the Temporal and Spiritual Mercies that now we have were Redeemed not with Silver and Gold but by the precious Blood of our most endeared Saviour And this Consideration if it be not customary but serious will make every Mercy full weight and enforce better Apprehensions of them and Thankfulness for them 4ly and lastly It will conduce very much to the worthy Estimation of all God's Mercies if we consider the End God hath in All to which he doth design every Mercy that he doth bestow in this present Life And that is our highest Perfection and everlasting Felicity in a blessed Communion with God for ever Every Hour he giveth us Every Favour whether Common or Special is valued infinitely below its worth if this Reference and Subordination be overlooked He can never thank God as he ought for his Health or Food or Friends or any Temporal Mercy or Affliction but will rather be tempted to murmur and repine sometimes that considers not well what it is intended for and what it may and should contribute to his endless Content and Rest These Particulars must concur to make up a due Estimation of all God's Mercies Secondly Gratitude and Praise with the concomitant Affections of Joy and Delight in God do essentially imply 1st A Love that 's suited to and bears some proportion with the Mercies we receive and God doth bestow on us Temporal and Transitory Mercies must be loved with a lower and subordinate degree of our Love Spiritual and Eternal Mercies must be loved with a higher and more absolute degree of our Love And the highest Mercy of all which is himself with the most superlative and transcendent Love 2ly And they do imply a greater Love to his Person 1. That hath purchased them 2. That doth confer them He that hath no Complacency in the Things which he doth receive and that according to the greater or lesser Tendency they have to lead him to the highest Mercy even the Fruition of God the Giver will have none worth the naming in the person that doth bestow them And he that wants that can never praise God as he ought nor do any such Act with acceptance Thirdly There must be some sensible Expressions of this Estimation of the Mind and Complacency of the Will in God and his Mercies In the Affections and Sensible Passions of Love Joy Admiration Reverence Humility which help and assist the Will and cannot lye still when the Soul is well elevated in Praises and Thanksgiving when the Soul is exercised with any seriousness and vigour in these noble Operations of Praise and Thanks and Complacency in God how can it chuse but work upon the Blood and Spirits and cause those forementioned Passions in some sensible degree Fourthly And as Thankfulness and Holy Praise if they be right will become sensible by the Affections to the very Body to which the Soul is linked more or less according as the Grace that causeth them is more or less vigorous so they will become visible to others by our more ready observance of his Will and Pleasure a greater Zeal for his Interest and Glory in the World and a more chearful obedience to him whom we thus praise and admire And as in the Law of Moses there were three kinds of Sacrifice Immolations Libations and Victimes Immolations were made of the Fruits of the Earth Libations of Liquors as Oyls and Wines Victimes of living Creatures So the Soul that is truly Grateful will not only offer up himself to God for a Victime and his Affections as it were for Liquors but his Actions also for Fruits Thanks among Men signifie nothing that evaporate and melt away into meer Words and Air and do not proceed to substantial Acts and Deeds These are the Complements and Perfection of every true Moral Act And if they come not up to Life and Practice where there is opportunity they are but meer Mockery and Deceit Having somewhat explicated the Nature of These Affections which are to be exercised I proceed
The Inundation of the Old World The Confusion of Languages The doing things against the Course of Nature such as are Raising the Dead to Life Restoring the Blind Or above Nature such as are most of the Plagues that befel Aegypt amply describe his Infinite Power And Rom. 1.20 His Eternal Power and Godhead are there said to be seen in the Creation of the World Seventhly The Measure of himself is Immensity And of all his Attributes is Infiniteness that is They have neither Bounds nor Measure 1. His Immensity is thus set forth by the Holy Ghost in Scripture 1 Kings 8.27 But will God indeed dwell on the Earth Behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee how much less this House that I have builded So 2 Chron. 2.6 to the same purport So Psalm 139.7 8 9 10. Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my Bed in Hell thou art there If I take the wings of the Morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me So Amos 9.2 3 4. 2. The infinity of all his Attributes Psal 147.5 Great is our Lord and of great power and his understanding is infinite And if one Attribute be infinite needs must all the rest be so and therefore Zophar may well propose it as a Query uncapable of solution 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 than Hell what canst thou understand The measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea See Job 37.23 Eighthly His Attributes that result from all these are 1. His Immutability which the Holy Ghost describes James 1.17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of Lights in whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning And Malach. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not therefore the sons of Jacob are not consumed Psal 102.27 2. His Greatness which the Scripture thus describeth Psal 145.36 The Lord is great and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable he is to be feared above all Gods And 1 Chron. 15.25 and Jerem. 10.6 There is none like unto the Lord great in might Dan. 9.4 He is the great and dreadful God keeping covenant and mercy to them that love him Psal 77.13 There is none so great as our God Psal 48.1 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God in the mountain of his holiness 3. His Majesty is thus described O Lord my God thou art very great thou art cloathed with majesty and honour Psalm 104.1 Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty 1 Chron. 29.11 And Elihu tells us that with God is terrible majesty Job 37.22 and Psalm 96.6 Honour and majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his sanctuary And Psal 145.10 11 12 13. All thy works shall praise thee O Lord c. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations 4. His Glory the Scripture thus expresseth Psalm 138.5 Great is the glory of the Lord. And Psal 148.13 Let them praise the Name of the Lord that is the forementioned Creatures for his Name only is excellent and his glory is about the Earth and the Heaven And Isa 6.3 Holy holys holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his glory Exod. 15.11 The Lord is there said to be glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders 5. His Lordship and Dominion over all is thus described Isa 33.22 The Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King Psal 97.5 Thou art the Lord of the whole Earth And Dan. 2.47 He is there said to be a God of Gods a Lord of Kings a revealer of secrets Psal 47.2 The Lord most high is terrible he is a great King over all the Earth Psal 103.19 The Lord hath prepared his throne in heaven and his kingdom ruleth over all Psal 145.13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion endureth throughout all ages And Rom. 31.1 The Apostle tells us there is no power but of God Prov. 8.15 16. By him Kings reign and Princes decree justice By him Princes rule the Nobles and Judges of the Earth Matth. 6.13 Thine is the kingdom the power and the glory Lastly His Eternity the Crown of all is thus described Exod. 15.18 The Lord shall reign for ever and ever And Psal 45.6 Thy throne O Lord is for ever and ever the scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter Psal 90.2 Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World thou art God from everlasting to everlasting i. a parte ante and a parte post without beginning and without end Psal 93.2 Thy throne is established of old thou art from everlasting Psal 102.27 Thou art the same viz. in opposition to mutable Creatures and thy years shall have no end Psal 104.31 The glory of the Lord shall endure forever c. Dan. 4.9 His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom Psal 106.10 The Lord shall reign for ever even thy God O Sion throughout all generations Dan. 8.18 His dominion shall be for ever unto the end These glorious Attributes of God especially as they stand in conjunction and shine upon one another calmly considered will mount and elevate an ingenuous and understanding Heart and wing it to this high and honourable imployment Secondly It will help on this blessed heavenly Work and Temper of Joy and Delight in God honourable and thankful thoughts and mention of him to behold his Attributes as they are further displayed in his Works Particularly his Bounty Wisdom Power Towards the 1. Irrational Creatures 2. Rational Creatures 1st It will something advance the dullest heart and dispose it to rejoyce in God and lift it up in praise and thankfulness to him to steep it a little in the meditation of that incomparable wisdom that shineth forth in the Being of every irrational Creature especially in the whole frame and orderly connection of all such Creatures Every Creature in its single existence hath treasure enough to enrich the understanding of the wisest Man on earth if it search into the depth and bottom of it and to imprint admiring reverent and thankful Inclinations towards him in the Heart There 's not a Pile of Grass that shoots up but directs the Eye Heavenward towards which it pointeth up unless it be kept shut by ignorance and inconsideration What excellent skill and cunning is there in