by except we will walk on in darkness unto the land of utter darkness But as a lanthorn is no guidance to the blind and a light is of use only where there is an eye so Gods commandments can have no influence upon nor give direction or assistance to our waies except this eye of the mind be enlightned by them for it is Conscience that is the conveiance to all duty to the heart of man that cannot set up obedience but as the Conscience do's press it on it that conveys the immediate obligation My Conscience tells me this I must forbear that I must practise Yea where there was no law to give direction the eye of Conscience looking o're the frame of man a creature reasonable in his making could strait see a necessity of doing things agreable to right reason and viewing the materials of the pile saw he was built of Soul as well as body of of an immortal Spirit as well as a carnal part knew that his life was to be order'd to the uses of the Spirit as well as of the flesh and more indeed that being the better part and easily could gather hence that man was not to serve his lower brutish part the body so as to discompose his soul and when it did so did condemn him for the doing of it And upon this S. Paul affirms Rom. 2. 14 15. When the Gentiles that have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law they having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written on their hearts their Conscience bearing them witness Which says that tho the rest of the world had not the Revelation of Gods will and Law as the Jews had yet from the dictats of their reason and the notions of good and evil implanted in them their conscience did oblige them unto the performance of such things as the Law required and upon such performance or omission without any other Law did either excuse them as men that did not culpably wander out of those paths which the light and Eye that God had planted in them did direct them in or else accuse them as transgressors and render them obnoxious to punishment And so it did before the Law So Rom. 5. 13 14. For until the Law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there is no Law Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgressions First after Adams time till Moses before the giving of the Law men fin'd and tho it be true that sin is not charg'd to punishment but where there is a Law to forbid it under that penalty and therefore it might be thought that sin without the Law would not have brought death into the world yet from Adam till Moses death reign'd men died that had not sinn'd as Adam did against an express actual precept promulgated as his was and establish't with a positive threat of death but died because they had sinn'd against the laws of their nature the principles of duty that were put into their making which Conscience prest upon their practise and whose guidance they would not follow they pull'd death upon themselvs in the errors of their waies 'T was by the equity of this that when the wickedness of men grew great in the earth the floud grew so too an inundation of waters overspread it when sin had once don so and iniquity against the dictates of conscience struck all the world at once with death except eight persons Conscience therefore where there is law and also where there is none is the great director of our actions and to this I shall apply our Saviors discourse dividing not the Text but Conscience and in the several members verifying what our Savior he reaffirms 1. Conscience either respecteth actions to be don or actions already don First as it respecteth actions to be don telling us this we must do that we must forbear so first as it answers to the single Eye it denotes the pure Conscience the enlightned Eye of the mind as S. Paul calls it that is a truly well inform'd Conscience a Conscience that judges according to its rule and to this I shall first tell you what is the entire rule of conscience and consequently when it s dictates are right when it informs me truly this I must do that I must forbear 2. Prove to you that all our actions that are regulated by such a well inform'd conscience are good and honest so that if this eye be single the whole body shall be full of light If the conscience be pure the man's holy and so the first part of the text is proved 2. As it answers to the evil eye so it denotes an evil conscience a conscience that do's not give true judgment of duty ill inform'd And this either First wholly so and then 't is reprobate sense such as that of them that call good evil and evil good from which men are stil'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 4. 2. or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Phavorinus Rom. 1. 31. Or secondly but in part and then 't is either first an erring conscience or secondly a doubtful conscience or thirdly a scrupulous conscience to which also several others will fall in And I shall shew you how every of these do's mislead a man into the dark The scrupulous raiseth clouds and mists about him dark errors and discomforts too the doubtful do's instead of guiding leave him so puzl'd that he knows not which way to be-take himself and the erring conscience lights him into the pit takes him by the hand to thrust him down guides him into a necessity of sin and the no conscience the reprobate sense it is a darkness somwhat worse then that the blackness of Hell here All this I shall do in order Upon the other part conscience as it relates to actions already don so it do's testify and in so doing either excuse or accuse Rom. 2. 15. Now tho conscience in the other former respect hath indeed the greater influence upon our practise and so to it the text do's more directly answer yet this latter having some also in order to the making future actions holy by repentance for when once the soul hath shipwrack't on a sin and she is ready to sink and perish there is no plank on which she can escape but repentance Now 't is this Eye that must look out for that 't is an accusing conscience that must set him upon Repentance this hurry's him about and will not let him rest 'till he get upon the plank that 's fastned to the Anchor even the Anchor of hope by which until it be secur'd a good conscience never is at quiet Because I intend to say but little to this I shall dispatch it now And that in order to its actions excusing and accusing And first if conscience be the
their lusts advance but their lusts are their plague and torment them and they extremely hate and curse those things which they do passionately desire Now that habitual Sinner his sins they are his emploiment his delight too he longs as those other but he satisfies also and finds pleasure in them and then if those others be fit company for the Devils onely canst thou believe thy self fit company for Christ that he should bid thee come to him No begin to act thy Hell a little sooner account them here thy torments hate them in time perceive them to be burdens while they may be laid down and then come unto Christ and he will give thee rest And evermore O Lord give us of thy rest a rest from sin here and a rest from misery eternally Yea O Lord give us to labor and to find trouble under that intolerable burden of our guilt that we may with eager hast fly to the refreshment that we perverse obdurate Sinners whom thy mercies cannot invite our own miseries may force to be happy and tho our wickednesses are multiplied into an infinite mass and weight yet despise us not when we fall under them for thou didst invite us to come and bring all that load to thee despise us not tho heavy laden for thou thy self didst bear this weight and didst die under it And O thou who didst thy self thus suffer by reason of this load pity us that labor with it ease us of the burden of our former guilt free us from the slavery of our iniquity from bearing any longer Sathan's loads then shall we at last sit down with thee in the Land of everlasting rest deliver'd from all weights but that eternal weight of glory and resting from all labors save that of praising thee and ascribing all Honor Power Praise Might Majesty and Dominion to Father Son and holy Ghost for evermore SERMON X. OF THE CHRISTIANS VICTORY Over Death Sin and the Law 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory thro our Lord Jesus Christ. THE words are the close of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Song of joy and triumph for a victory Now a victory supposeth Enimies and the verse before names them and the Text shews us the means that they art conquer'd by and who they are that are partakers of the Victory I shall declare and treat of both 1. The Enimies here mention'd and we may account them three if that which gives both aid and strength to fortifies our Enimy be so as sure it is 1. Here is Death which sin arms with a sting and do's envenome it 2. Sin it self empower'd and strengthned by the Law 3. That Law also In the second place here are the means by which the Victory is gotten and for whom us the victory thro Jesus In handling all which I shall shew First that the Law gives Sin all its strength and how it do's so 2ly That Sin is the sting of Death and how it is so 3ly That by Christ both the Law which is the strength of Sin is taken away and Sin which is the sting of Death pull'd out and so both Sin and Death so weaken'd that they cannot hurt now and they shall be swallowed up in perfect victory and who they are all this is don for Of these all in this order which I crave leave to speak to directly without any least diverting from the Text or Subject First I am to speak of the first preparations that are made against us in behalf of our Enimies and that is to shew you that the Law gives all the strength to Sin which it hath and how it do's so Sin hath its very being from Law it being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the transgression of the Law 1 John 3. 4. and Sin is not imputed where there is no Law Rom. 5. 13. yea where there is no Law there is no transgression c. 4. 15. But this is not all for in the Law besides the Precepts there is also Sanction and it lays a twofold obligation first to duty secondly upon transgression to punishment 1. To duty and that perfect and unsinning strict obedience for the terms are these Cursed is he that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them And to this the whole man is oblig'd the soul as well as body caro spiritus Dei res est saith Tertull. God made the soul as well as body one 's his creature as much as the other and the one hath as much reason then to pay him honor and obedience as the other if indeed the spirit hath not much more to obey him in its own motions and actings than in those of the body which are onely under it and guided by it So that thoughts are criminal against this Law as well as doings by them the Soul fulfils its part of the transgression more it may be than its own share while it robs the Flesh seizes its satisfactions and makes them her own against her nature And indeed whatever part the Law is broken and transgrest by 't is transgression and sin still whether by the mind for lust when it hath conceived onely sin is then begotten James 1. 15. or by the tongue for of every idle word we must give an account at the day of Judgment Matth. 12. 36. and by thy words thou shalt be condemn'd Or lastly by the works So that according to the Tenor of this strict and severe Law whatever we can do or indeed whatever we do not is Sin besides commissions that are sinful there is still defect and so transgression in our thoughts our words and deeds even in the best and in not doing also there 's omission and so failing But besides this severe obligation of the Law to duty upon this our faileur there is a severer obligation 2. To punishment for every sin is cursed as we saw Upon this account the Law saith St Paul worketh wrath Rom. 4. 15. we are children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. whose inheritance is destruction and who are of right to possess onely the sad issues of God's indignation for to this the Law condemns us all by reason of our Sins and upon that account the Law is said to be the strength of Sin Because by force and vertue of this threatning of the Law we that have sinned are therefore liable and obnoxious to the condemnation of it And this I take to be the meaning of that place Rom. 7. 7 8 9 10. I had not known sin but by the law for I had not known concupiscence except the law had said thou shalt not covet But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence for without the law sin was dead but when the commandment came sin revived and I died and the commandment which was ordain'd to life I found to be unto death The Apostle's drift here is not to evince how the
2 Tim. 3. 8. nor by a wretchless unconcerndness take up with slight appearances and receive a vulgar error for a sacred revelation and having mens persons in admiration Jude 16. believe as doctrines the devices or commandments of men Matt. 15. 9. not to consider what this celebrated Teacher or this Sect and Party say but make our resort to the Law and to the Testament what Law of God there is for or against this action For in this case it is most true There is one Law-giver who can save and destroy James 4. 12. and if sin be the transgression of a law 1 John 3. 4. it inevitably follows that where no law is there is no transgression Rom. 4. 15. And yet 't is strange to see how men amuse and embarras themselves in things that have no bottom or foundation in Scripture and in the mean time omit the weighty matters of the law judgement mercy and faith Thirdly if I have bin engag'd in any practices of which by the contrary practices of other sober rational men I see there may be reason if not to doubt yet to search into them then I 'le take the same course in order to the settling or the rectifying of my judgment and especially if any obligations to the contrary have got possession of me if obedience and meekness and peace of the State or Church or any sacred bond in a word if any commands of Superiors or engagements to them seem strong for the other side then nothing but clear Law of God or my Superiors shall fixe me Fourthly where things are not absolutely convincing on either side and there is no clear Law on neither or else so much like Law on both sides here as I must suspend if possible my action for these must needs make doubts so if I be necessitated to act on one side or other then if my conscience do mistake according to the degree of my diligence in examining so will be the degrees of my guilt If I have search't to my utmost and so offend out of an ignorance I could not overcome it is the constant doctrine of all that the mercy of our God by the tenure of the Gospel will not impute the error to a person otherwise of holy life but if there was a means of knowing that either heat or any other thing did hurry me from a sufficient consideration thereof according to my means so is my sin Abimelech had a competent ground to think that Sarah was not Abrahams wife when both herself and he had told him so and upon that he saies he took her to him in the integrity of his heart his conscience reasonably well-inform'd telling him that he might do it and yet God pâ—nisheth his hast he determin'd too speedily his desire was too quick did not proceed by those slow steps that a good careful conscience do's move with that will examin with all strictness where he discerns there will be gross sin on the other side The Jews had a strong prejudice against Christ's reformation of the Law by those so many promises of Scripture that their sacrifices should be eternal and when for many ages they had bin brought up in a Religion so own'd by God and were so harden'd in that Religion by all their Teachers 't was no wonder they rejected the Apostles preaching out of conscience of their own Religion Paul himself had don so and yet God gives them up to final induration for it because they had sufficient means of knowing Christ was sent by God to reform their Religion for have they not heard Rom. 10. 18. Thy diligence therefore shall alleviate the fault and where it is us'd in a good measure probably will not suffer the conscience to be long positive and peremtory in a mistake but at the most will let it only be a doubting conscience which how far 't is an evil eie and how we are to guide our selves out of that darkness it do's lead into we must now shew A doubting conscience may be either in things of very little moment and also where there is very little light to guide it and then we only call it scrupulous or else in things of consequence and of these we now treat and the Position is that he that acts according to a doubting conscience sins and this evil eie leads into utter darkness The Aphorism is a certain reveled pronunc't truth he that doubteth is damn'd if he eat Rom. 14. 23. However sacred the tribunal of conscience can be thought to be it must not stand in competition with the Throne of Almighty God and oblige us to do that which the Divine Command has interdicted or to leave that undon the doing of which he has expresly charg'd upon us It was thought to be a tyrannous hardship which the Egyptian task-masters put upon the Israelites that they should be beaten because they made not brick when they had no straw to make it with but it would seem a more tyrannous cruelty to punish them if they made and also to punish if they did not make it But so it is he who chuses to do that which his conscience suggests he ought to avoid as being ill and resolves to omit that which he judges or believes he ought to do as being good has all the inordination of mind that constitutes the most flagrant guilt he pursues evil and turns away from good apprehended to be such and so has that depravation of mind that constitutes a Devil But on the other side our opinions cannot alter the real natures of things nor will my belief that my act is laudable make it to be so any more than my fancy that Poisons are wholsome food will free them from their noxious venim and render them restoratives and cordials In like manner my adventuring on an action which I think is bad upon the cold reserve of a possibility that it may be otherwise involves the desperate resolution of doing it howsoever which differs very little from doing it tho I know it to be certainly unlawful But a doubting conscience admits of a counterpoise from a contrary doubt and there is fear of sin as on the one so also on the other part I am uncertain whether I may not do ill in acting and yet whether I may not do worse in forbearing or thus I am not sure that what I enterprize is lawful but yet I have no ground to believe it is unlawful Now from this exigent thus declared I might deduce resolutions in many cases of our life As 1. When there is no ground to build a certain judgment on of either side but it is only probable the thing is not sin and consequently I cannot be sure it is not yet if upon that probability I act this is clear different from the state of the doubting conscience for tho I may have some doubt 't is possible the thing may not be good yet having honestly examined it I have no reason to think it
triumphing in the Blood of God To see those dire instances of the deservings of a Sinner those amazing prelusions to his expectations and consider it was easier for God to execute all this upon his Son than suffer Sin to go unpunish'd Indeed they make all that is real in the whole account they give of satisfaction made to God for sin to consist in this that the temporal Death of Christ which God by vertue of his absolute Dominion may inflict on the most innocent taking away that which himself had given especially since Christ who had that right over his own life which none else had did of his own accord submit to it and he laid down his life who had a power to do so That Death I say might justly be ordain'd by God for an Example of his Wrath and Hatred against Sin and then might be accepted in the stead of their death who were warned by that example and affrighted from committing sin And truly there is colour for it for all satisfaction seems either of a loss sustain'd which is acquired by compensation or the satisfaction of our Anger which is commonly appeased by the sufferings of the injurious party or else the satisfaction of our fears and doubts that we may be secure not to sustain the like again which is most likely to be best provided for by punishment For sure one will not venture upon that which he must suffer for the doing Now of all these the first the satisfaction of compensation as it cannot properly be made to God who could sustain no real diminution by Man's sin For though thy wickedness saith Job may hurt a man as thou art yet if thou sinnest what doest thou against God or if thy transgressions be multiplyed what doest thou to him but onely as the breaking of his Law does in S. Paul's expression dishonour him amongst men so also it were easie to demonstrate that this one example does exalt more of Gods attributes and to a greater height than either if his Law had been obey'd or executed if that either were our business or if this sort of satisfaction did not properly belong onely to the offended party not the supream Judg or Governour as such under which notion God is here to be considered As neither does the second satisfaction that of anger the Judg being to be like his Law that hath no passions or affections And truly â—â—e the things that do satisfie our angers and revenges are no real goods the satisfactions of them are unnatural and therefore surely not Divine Monstrous appetite that hath learn'd to desire mischief hath also taught us to delight in misery and be satisfied with the griefs of others which being nothing to us cannot be our good And although we are stil'd Children of Wrath as if our portion were to be onely Plagues our inheritance Perdition and the fearful issues of Gods Fury Yet since to be angry signifies in God no more than this to testifie what great abhorrency he hath to sin how contrary to him how not to be indur'd it is It was impossible for God when he had once resolv'd to pardon sin to testifie that more than by resolving not to pardon it without such an Example so that it did satisfie his anger perfectly But all true satisfaction lies in the provision that is made by punishment against future offences This is that which the Magistrate and Law requires nec enim irascitur sed cavet for by Punishment they cannot call back the offences that are past undo or make them not have been but they can make men not to dare to do them again nor others by their example This is the end why they annex Penalties to their Laws expresly said so Deut. xix 20. Which end therefore when they attain by Punishment the Law and Magistrate is satisfied For it is not so much the Death of the Offender that is satisfaction of the Law as the Example of Terror that it gives and therefore humane Lawgivers have oft thought fit to change the Penalty and where Death was appointed to assign other sufferings that consist with Life and prolong Misery and Terror as Proscription and the Gallies c. Accordingly to propose an Example of Terror to us God laid all the severe inflictions of the Passion-day upon his own Son Now it is evident that the example of a Man suffering for the breach of Laws does certainly hedg in those Laws keep them more safe from violence therefore we see those Laws are best observ'd which the Magistrate's Sword does most guard and Experience would quickly make it good a Land would prove but a meer Shambles and a Man's life cheaper than a Beast's if Murtherers and Duellists shall get impunity more easily than he that steals an Horse or Sheep When on the other side that Nation from whom we most receive the fashions of our Vices also whom the honour of that sin is most peculiar to though they seemed to value it above Estate and Life and Family and Soul yet we know could be beaten from it be some sharp Examples And then when our Lawgiver as he spake his Laws at first with Thunder and with Lightning as if they brought their Sentence along with them and the very promulgation was a Copy and Example of their Execution So also he did write those Laws in Blood to let us see what does await transgression how he that spar'd not his own dear Son will certainly not spare any impenitent this could not chuse but have some influence if 't were consider'd Should we call to mind the kindness God had at this time to lost Man how he so long'd to pity him that he resolv'd not to pity himself how yet in all those turnings of his bowels within him his repentings over Man when his Compassion was at such an height as to give his well beloved Son to satisfie for our transgressions in the midst of all those inclinations to us at that very time how yet he did so hate our sins that â—â—athing else could satisfie him but the Blood of God How he made the Son of God empty himself of his Divinity and of his Soul and all to raise a sum only to purchase one example of that Indignation that attends a Sinner it will be easie then to recollect how unsupportable that Wrath will be to the impenitent in the Day of his fierce Anger when he shall have no kindness left for them but the Omnipotence of Mercy will become Almighty Fury Who shall be able to avoid or to endure the issues of it shall I think to scape them when he spared not his own Son or shall I venture upon bearing that to all Eternity which that Son was not able to support some hours Thus as S. Paul expresses God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh a Sacrifice for sin condemned sin in the flesh that is he shewed what did await iniquity that men by
full plenties of his Fathers house the unsatisfying transient delights of sin that have filthy toil and noisom drudgery in the gaining and instantly when they are gain'd put out themselves are gon and leave nothing but snuff or stink behind offence onely and trouble of mind compar'd those with the gladsom expectations of blessedness with the comforts that are in all the promises of Christ and the feasts of our Fathers mansion Gods entertainments the glories he hath studied for those that love him and being satisfied these are the better pleasure resolves to leave the swine his unclean beastly courses and betake himself to his Father he shall then find this fiction experience and God outdoing all the Parables of himself He will run to meet him that do's but set himself to come in earnest not onely as the proposition saies accept his service but prevent it and however miserable poor and naked he do meet him as the Sinner is Rev. 3. 17. he calls for the best Robe even the Robe of Christ's Righteousness to put upon him and puts a Ring upon his finger he does espouse him to his Son he kills the fatted calf makes ready the supper of the Lamb for him and it is the poor repenting Sinner's wedding supper with his Savior It is a chapter full of comfort to the Penitent and hath a greater advance for it than this story v. 3 4. The Sinner he hath straied into by-paths gon away from the Shepherd of his soul is a lost sheep but yet when he is gon his farthest and is in his mazes knows not which way to betake himself then this good Shepherd do's not invite onely to a return or as the Father in the Parable run to meet him in his coming back but he do's go himself to seek him seems to mind the recovery of each single one that is lost and contributes as carefully to his return as if that one were all his charge and the whole flock is not dearer to him than that one He leaves the ninety and nine to seek that one and he seeks till he finds it and when he finds it he laies it on his shoulders The wandring sheep was wearied it seems with straying and had tir'd it self with running from its shepherd but this too is provided for he could not come home therefore he is carried It is not now Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden I will not refuse you Nay when you are so lost in Labyrinths of guilt out of which you can see no issue when you have so labor'd in the paths of error that you are not able to come home if you will but be found I will seek you yea and carry you home too That no one how far soever he have gon away may yet despair of coming home this sheep had wander'd to such a distance and to so much weariness that he was fain to be born back when he was found And he laies it on his shoulders rejoycing was glad of such a burden How willing is our Savior to find out a straied Sinner when after such long errors he do's seek him till he finds him and carries him if he be weak and fainting yea and rejoyces in that carriage as if that rest he gives the Sinner were such ease and refreshment to himself he joys in it And that joy spreads it self to Heaven for there is joy in Heaven at that sight and v. 10. There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repents Heus tu peccator bono animo sis vides ubi de tuo reditu gaudeatur Thou poor disconsolate Sinner that liest groveling under the sense of the burden of thy sins thy soul sinking under that heavy weight and sinking also in the waters of thy fears drown'd in thy sorrow be of good chear Dost thou not think there is some joy in this estate of thine when it can make a joy in Heaven Those tears assure thy self have comfort in them for God and Christ and all the Angels do rejoyce at sight of them And do not dread thy burden if thou dost truly labor under it and dost but faithfully desire and endeavor to throw it off thee Dost thou not see him that laid the lost sheep on his shoulders as ready to take thee up He that would not reject thy Cross when it was loaden with thy guilt will not reject thy self when thou art lighted from that guilt He that would receive thee on his shoulders when thou wast fainting under the burden of thy sins when that is cast away into the sea and buried in his grave will certainly receive thee into his bosom He that would carry thee to give thee ease when thou wert wearied with running from him when thou dost come to him and faint into his arms will give thee everlasting rest a rest whose blessedness to understand were to enjoy it and to be able to conceive were to be infinite as it self is a blessedness which to behold is beatific O cast away your burdens and make hast and come and see Lastly learn hence the method you are to take in coming to him how you are to begin your journey The first advance is by this conviction of the burden and horror of sin till this be in us we will never move a step towards him The Church hath taught us when she invites us to come to him in Sacrament to make the first step this confession We be heartily sorry for these our transgressions the remembrance of them is grievous unto us the burden of them is intolerable And Christ hath told us here that we must find the very same things in our selves an intolerable burden that tires and wearies us until we faint before we come to him we are otherwise no part of his invitation will be no part of his retinue And then whosoever thou art that art so far from finding them intolerable that without them thy life is hardly tolerable so far from burden that thy very days are burdensom that are restrain'd from conversations of sin that dost account them thy delight not weariness and art refresht not tir'd with them and canst not think of parting with them or if no very vicious company or custom hath brought thee to this necessity and height of sinning yet thou look'st upon them as slight regardless things mistakes and oversights that slip from thee all whose repentance is but Lord have mercy and never thinkest more of it dost not apprehend that every such gross fault hath an eternal weight in it and dost not humble thy self under that weight bethink thy self whether thou art yet in the way to Christ or whether thou indeed be called to come Oh no the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the men for thou especially that takest pleasure in them dost thou think Christ will call thee to do worse with him than the damned do in Hell There they indeed nourish their sinfull appetites
commandment begets sin but how it makes sin condemning begets death and therefore I believe they are mistaken who expound sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence as if it meant the Law onely prohibiting but not quelling sin in me the more it was restrain'd the more it wrought all manner of concupiscence in me especially since there was no punishment assign'd to that sin in the Law it took advantage thence more powerfully to engage me in the pursuit of all my lusts since thence I might have hop't without any fear of punishment to pursue them For this seems perfectly to thwart his aim which was to shew us how the Law wrought condemnation and inflicted death by threatning it It seems to mean I had not onely not known sin to be so dangerous but I had not known some things to be sins and by consequence condemning things but by the Law particularly I had not known concupiscence to be so had not the Law said thou shalt not covet The next words do not seem intended to declare how the Commandment work sin that being brought in by the by as it were thus but sin the corruption of my nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had wrought in me all manner of concupiscence all actual lusts and wickednesses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 got advantage over me or strength against me by the Law which he there proves for without the law sin is dead not as to stirring in us by its sinful motions sure corruption would not fail to do that and more if there were no check but dead had no strength nor power to condemn me For it follows when the commandment came sin reviv'd got strength to do that and I died was sentenc'd to death by it and the commandment which was ordain'd to life could I have obey'd it I found to be unto death by condemning me to death for my transgression of it For sin by the Commandment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 getting advantage over me slew me not onely made me liable to death but by its guilt envenoming that death for the sting of death is sin which that it is and how it is so is the second thing I am to speak to Sin is the sting of death which I could make appear two manner of ways in relation to two senses that may be given to the words both pertinent and the one but the Anticipation of the other The first is this Sin is the sting of death 't is Sin makes the thoughts of death pungent and stinging the wicked man cannot think of his last dying day without horrors the onely imagination of a sickness stings him because he is conscious to himself of sin and he knows that that after Death cometh the Judgment and he dares not think of beholding the face of his Judg with his guilt upon him To prove this to you I shall not need to fetch any heathen Testimonies that call the Conscience of Sin a whip a sting a goad a lancing knife things that gash and prick and gall and fret all words of all kinds of terrifying punishment but if there be any gross customary Sinner that now hears me I shall need no other way of proof but by appealing to his own conscience whether when he comes hot from his iniquity he dares entertain the thought of dying And why not Alas he is too deep in arrears to venture upon account with so impartial a Judg books must be laid open if he come there the closet curtain sins nay the bosom villanies must be displaied and every one receive his doom he hath heard that all the refuge of a deplored Sinner at that great and terrible Day of the Lord is but to fly unto the Mountains to cover him and to the Rocks to hide him A wretched hope for how shall the Hills hide him whose iniquities are like Mountains or how shall the rocks cover him whose rebellions are like the great deep as the Scripture words it To such a person Death and Judgment are words of too dangerous a sense and it 's easier for him as many do to resolve there is no such thing as one of them than to think of them and go merrily on in sinning For tell me what is the design of that variety of iniquities in which thou dost ingulf thy self that circle of sins wherein one relieves and succeeds another Sure by such a perpetuity of diversified delights to stave off those severer thoughts which if there were an intermission of sinning or a nauseating of one sin for want of variety would creep in the noise of our riots is not to please the ear but to drown the barking of our consciences When the Sinner's candle is put out if weariness in wickedness do not at once close up his eyes and thoughts if the dark solitary night do but suggest some melancholly thoughts into him how do's he tumble up and down as if he thought to role away from his imagination and he do's ransack his fancy and call up the memory of his past sins about him to entertain himself with all and keep out the torturing remembrance of that sad Day which the Scripture calls putting far from them the evil day for the truth is he dares not give it place least it should happen to him as to a man upon a pointed precipice as himself is indeed situated to whom the apprehension would be as mortal as the danger and he would tumble down for fear of falling So here his sin adds such sharps to the imagination of death that he dares not entertain the thought And if Sin be such a sting in the onely thought of death that the mere remembrance of it is insupportable the use is very natural by the frequent calling of death to mind to stop the current of sin For if the wicked cannot endure to think of death he that does think on it cannot well go on to be wicked Remember thy latter end and thou shalt not do amiss I would give this counsel Think thou art to die while doing it The original of the Turks Turbant which was but by continual wearing of his winding sheet by wrapping his head in his grave-cloaths to have always a shrowd and death upon his thoughts and the Philosophers defining their wisdom to be but contemplatio mortis are not such pregnant inforcers of this use as this practical apprehension of it The man that liv'd among the Tombs tho he had a legion of Devils in him yet when he saw Jesus afar off he ran and worshipped him Mark 5. 6. The sight of graves and conversation with monuments will make even Demoniacks Religious and is so far from thrusting Praiers out of the Liturgy of Burial that it brings the very Devils on their knees But there is yet another and a fuller sense of these words which St Paul repeats out of the LXX translation of Hosea 13. 14. tho not verbatim for there insteed of 〈◊〉
see him as he is add this Every man that hath this hope purifieth himself as he is pure doth righteousness in the words following and so is righteous even as he is righteous But that we may know what King David means by beholding Gods face in Righteousness we must know that first by Righteousness is meant uprightness and sincerity of a religious holy virtuous life and as for the beholding of Gods face we may take notice that altho God saith he spoke to Moses face to face yet he tells the same Moses that he cannot see his face and live Exod. 33. 11 10. so that Davids beholding of his face is not seeing him as he did hope to do when he did awake up after Gods likeness but 1. As for God to lift up the light of his countenance Psalm 4. 6. and to make his face to shine upon a man Psalm 31. 16. is to be favorable to him and to hide Psalm 30. 7. or turn away his face 2 Chron. 30. 9. is to withdraw his favor and to be displeased so also to seek his face 1 Chron. 16. 11. is to endeavor to obtain his kindness and accordingly to see or behold his face is to be in his favor to be in a state of enjoying it But besides this also 2. As those that are said to behold the face of Kings are those that minister about them do them service of the nearest admission and that stand in their presence and are ready still to execute whatever they command So 2 King 25. 19. and he took five men of those that saw the King's face of those that serv'd him in ordinary and so very often Ester 1. 14. c. And as secondly the Angels that are ministring Spirits sent forth by God to minister perpetually are said to see the face of God always Matt. 18. 10. so when David says of God thou settest me before thy face Psalm 41. 12. the Jews expound set me that he might serve minister unto him for that is to stand before the face of one 1 Kings 1. 2 4. and c. 10. 8. and c. 17. 1. c. as he had said dost appoint me for thy service and by consequence to see his face or to behold his presence is to wait upon him in all duty and obedience to his commands whom they attend accordingly to walk before him or walk with him in his presence is to serve him constantly with all uprightness Gen. 17. 1. and to please him Heb. 11. 5. cum Gen. 5. 24. But particularly in the acts of Worship and Religion his House the place that 's dedicated to his Worship being call'd his Court his presence Psalm 95. 2. and 100. 2 4. because he sate upon and spoke from the Mercy-seat Exod. 25. 22. Numb 7. 89. and the Ark is therefore his presence and his face those that serve there are said to minister before him in his presence those that come there to appear before him Psalm 42. 2. those that pray to seek his face 2 Chron. 7. 14. and to intreat the face of the Lord 1 Kings 13. 6. and our King David did desire one thing of the Lord which says he I will require even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord Psalm 27. 4. So that to behold God's face in righteousness here does signify all this I will serve thee truly faithfully attend thy commands and wait upon thee in a constant diligent performance of my duty live as always in thy presence holily and righteously especially in attendance on thy Worship when I come to seek thy face to put my self before thee in thy presence and so doing I make no doubt but that thou wilt lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and I shall behold thy face to shine upon thy servant And indeed that this is the means and that there is no other way to arrive at this state is not difficult to prove for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness saith the same David Psalm 11. 7. his countenance will behold the thing that is just whereas without this no man shall see the Lord and thereupon the Prophet Micah after strict inquiry in the peoples name what they were to do that they might find God's face look pleasingly upon them and see his favorable countenance wherewithall shall I come before the Lord and how myself before the most High God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams If his favor be to be bought tho at the greatest price 't will be abvisable to give it and the dearest purchase would be a reasonable one Or shall I give ten thousand rivers of oyl thereby to make his face to shine and look upon me with a chearfull countenance This sure were to be don Or farther yet shall I give my first-born for my transgression or the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul Time was indeed when men would do that offer up their tender infants in the fire to Moloch to preserve themselves from those sins of the other Tophet as if the burnt child were to expiate the foul heats that begat it I know not whether men believe now such transgressions can deserve so severe atonements that a sin of theirs is valuable at the life of their own first-born tho they take upon them to profess the faith that they were valued at the life of the first-born of God however there our Prophet shapes this answer to that question wherewithall shall I come before the Lord He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And truly if we come before the Lord to behold his presence in the duties of Religion we must see his face in Righteousness otherwise he will either turn away his Face or else our praiers will but call his frowns upon us and indanger us to perish at the rebuke of his countenance The Prophet Isaiah speaking as from God to that vainglorious nation of the Jews saith c. 1. v. 12 c. When ye come to appear before me who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination to me it is iniquity even your solemn meetings Sabboths and your appointed feasts my soul hateth they are a trouble unto me I am weary to bear them And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many praiers I will not hear Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment right the oppressed c. And surely if men do not put away the evil of their doings from them when they come before his face how lowd
it now unto thy Governor will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person makes use of the like climax and gradation as if he had said Had thy obedience to thy Ruler no more care nor endeavor in it had thy services to thy Lord no more devotion nor zeal were thy performances to thy Governor so slight and so regardless so full of supine negligence to say nothing of transgression and contemt were thy presentments to thy Prince so unhandsom slubber'd heedless so unchosen unprepared so trivial would they be content with them And must I No surely Cursed be the deceiver verse 14. that mocks me with his imperfect lame sick services with outsides of attendance yea with irreverence with casting of my words behind him with polluted offerings for I am a great King saith the Lord. But afterwards in case of an higher affront he breaks into an higher resentment c. 3. 8. Will a man rob God This is such a thing as the Lord's Rhetoric could lay no greater aggravation on it than by asking the question whether any man could heat himself into such a mad impiety and not be confounded at the thought of such an enterprise to abuse his God Now such an obligation of obedience to the Lord Christ he owns that does acknowledge him his God this it requires Now as to what the Title does import by way of promise here to be the God of any body signifies to be their Almighty Benefactor him from whom that person may expect and shall receive all good things that the power of a God includes So it is clear it does when God proclaims himself the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and says that is his name and his memorial to all generations Exod. 3. 15 16. From whence our Savior concludes Matt. 22. 31 32. that Abraham and the other must have a life after this for otherwise how is he yet their God How can he be a Benefactor to the dead And in the tenor of the Covenant where it is past it means I will bestow upon them all the mercies of the Covenant So in the Old that place of Deut. 26. 16 17 18 19. so in the New Heb. 8. 10 12. where 't is explained I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more So that my God does mean first he that I vow all worship and service to and secondly he from whom I claim and challenge all those glorious things that are contracted for us in Christ's Covenant the happy issues of the whole chain of methods that he works for us the designed mercies of his Predestination and the privileges that he calls us to the comfortable condition in which his Justification does instate us the graces of his Sanctification and the incomprehensible blessedness of his Glorification yea and all the preservations and mercies of this life all these are challenged in this Thou art my God For so Jer. 31. 33 34. which is repeated in the Heb. 8. 10 11 12. whatever both parts do contract for man's duty and God's promises is all sum'd up in this I will be their God and they shall be my people By which words also he assures them all deliverances from evil and enstates upon them the securings of his Providence both to themselves and their posterity And if God mean all this when he does say I will be their God then man he vows and claims all this when he does say my God Now let us see how this days performance does both these First how it vows and swears all duty worship and service all that Christ requires by his Covenant I have already shewn so that that part is don onely we may take notice Whose belly is his God in St Pauls words Phil. 3. 19. the man who does mind nothing but his sensual appeties and notwithstanding Christ's commands contrives all satisfactions for that and enjoys them that either casts the body of Christ into a stomach filled with late surfet and drowns his bloud in such intemperate draughts as are yet unrepented of or else within a few days after overlaies that body with some riot or spews that bloud out in the overflowings of his woful draughts These whatsoever they have don to day cannot yet say my God not onely because they so defy his Worship which they vowed but because they set up an Anti-God against him and while they vow upon their knees he is their God yet at that same time they adore their appetites Nor if Covetousness or rather inordinate lusting as the word bears be Idolatry as St Paul oft expresses and surely without taking in the Heathen uncleanesses in Religion and it is ill for some persons of these days that they had not the luck to be born Heathens that so they might have bin unclean devoutly committed in obedience to their Gods presented their bodies living sacrifices to be kindled by the flames of lust and whose whoredoms were their pieties for many live now as if they did not onely wish but almost think so But abating this there is sure more Idolatry in the courthips and the practice of that sin than any other There is no other thing does cast a man into such base degenerate and unworthy submissions to atchieve or to cover his transgression lower than any thing but the unclean commission it self Now if this be Idolatry the lustful person hath an Idol and then he cannot say to Christ my God And thus they in whom the God of this world hath blinded their mind in St Pauls words 2 Cor. 4. 4. they who serve Satan by going on in any vitious custom of the World or in a word they that disobey Christ for this God of the World this Prince of the power of the air the Spirit that works in the Children of disobedience Ephes. 2. 2. they cannot say to Christ my God tho they bow at his Altar they obey the Devil and he will not be a partner together with the Devil So that every one of these is perjur'd when he says my God much less can he plead the claim my God the last sense Now in that sense My God does challenge as a right and a peculiar all the Blessings temporal Spiritual and Eternal all that the promises of Christ do offer or that the hopes and expectations of a Christian fly at all these I told you God included when he said I will be their God and therefore all these he does truly challenge that can say my God It is an huge Confidence that a poor soul may take when he can go to God as David does Psalm 119. 94. I am thine save me secure thine own O Lord or else it will be thy loss what I shall suffer For I am thine vindicate thine own right let neither Sin nor Devil rob thee of thy own peculiar Behold I commit thine own charge with thee and then take care of that
to me rather than use a violence upon my self I must find out some salve now to quiet Conscience and yet keep the Vice And truly if it be but one thing that a man transgresses in he is apt to be gentle to himself and finds plump grounds to be so The best man hath his fault and this is his only in this the Good Lord pardon him in other things he will be strict but this is his particular infirmity to which his very making did dispose him having been poysoned by its Principles without his fault or conspiration 'T is true indeed men have some one or other sinful inclination which is a weight and violence upon them and which they did derive from Adam whose sin like an infection taken in by divers men breaks out in several Diseases according to variety of Constitutions But truly Adam gave them no ill Customs and they have no Original habits themselves did educate their inclinations into Vices and for those inclinations that are derived into them the water of their Baptism was therefore poured upon them to cool those inbred heats and quench those flashings out of Nature wash away those foul innate tendencies in that Laver of Regeneration which therefore they who spare and are tender to because they are original and natural they spare them for that very reason for which they there engaged to ruin them and do renounce their Baptism as to the aims and uses of it There thou didst list thy self a Soldier to fight against the Devil World and Flesh now whichsoere of these gets most into thee wilt thou think fit to spare thy Enemy because he is thy bosom one the Risque is greatest when the Foe is Rebel and Traytor too is got in thy own Quarters shuffled with thy own Forces entred thy Holds and thy Defences and mixes in thy Counsels does counterfeit thy Guard so that thou but command'st and leadst on thy own ruin Sure here is need of strictest care to rid thy self of so much treacherous danger so far is it from a defence to say this is the single force and bent of Nature in me that if I no not therefore most resist it I am perjuriously confederate with my Destruction and howsoever pure I keep my self from other Vices I am not clean David will tell me when I am Psalm xviii 23. I was uncorrupt before him and eschewed my own wickedness God hath not given us Authority to pick and choose our duties observe him where we like and leave the rest and when in the severe contritions of Repentance we come to judg our Lives we have no leave to spare a Vice because custom hath made it our Companion and Intimate or 't is as near to us as the close inclinations of our hearts He that does so although he live a careful life in other things yet all his Innocence is only this he hath a mind to but one sin and those he does not care for he forbears but that which pleaseth him that he commits And sure God is beholden to him that there is but one way of provoking which does take him and therefore must allow him what he hath an inclination to and pardon him because he does abstain from those he does not like I shall now only add that in this case St James's Aphorism holds that Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point only he is guilty of all he that allows himself to break one Precept does keep none but shall be reckoned guilty of those things which he does not commit For whosoever keepeth the whole Law and yet thus offendeth in one point is guilty of all And then I need not prove such have no Title to the goodness of the Text but may conclude if God be good to Israel it is to such as are of a Clean Heart And so I fall upon the subject Heart And here I must first caution not to think the Heart is set as if it were the entire and only Principle by which a judgment might be past upon our doings as if our Actions so wholly deriv'd denomination from it that they were pure which came from a clean upright heart In opposition to which I shall not doubt to put That the external actions may have guilts peculiar to themselves such as are truly their own not shed into them by an evil mind and a man may be wicked in the uprightness of his heart when he does not intend any such thing but rather the clean contrary Our Saviour tells his Apostles The time will come that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service John xvi 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he does offer an Oblation or Worship shall think his Murder Sacrifice that that would propitiate for other faults his Crime should seem Religion and attonement to him We have seen guilts put on such colours too and yet by these same actions which their hearts pursued with Holy aims out of a Zeal to God as S. Paul says Rom. x. 2. they sacrificed themselves and their Nation to Gods Vengeance Once more St. Paul does find reason to call himself the chief of Sinners 1 Tim. i. 15. for the commissions of that time of which he says that he served God with a pure Conscience ver 3. did what he was persuaded in his heart he ought to do pursued sincere intentions and after says he had lived in all good conscience before God until that day Acts xxiii 1. So that here was enough of the clean heart a good and a pure conscience and could his fiery persecutions by vertue of that flame within be Christned Holy Zeal Could his Pure Conscience make his Bloody hands undefil'd Oh no! 't was blasphemy and persecution and injury for all 't was Conscience for all his heart was clean from such intentions I was before a Blasphemer and a Persecuter and Injurious ver 13. We may not think to shroud foul actions under handsom Meanings and an Innocent Mind a Conscientious man may yet be chief of Sinners St. Paul was so he says and a clean Heart will not suffice alone Therefore Heart is put here accumulatively as that whose cleanness must be added to the purity of Conversation to compleat it and it implies what elsewhere he does set down more expresly Clean Hands and a Pure Heart all which a clean Heart may be set to signifie because under Gods Holy Spirit it is the principal and only safe agent in the effecting of the rest as that which only can make the other real valuable and lasting When a Disease hath once insinuated it self into the Vitals spread through the Marrow and seised the garrisons of Life the Souls strong holds and after fallies out into the outer parts in little pustles and unhandsome Ulcers they who make application only to those outward Ulcers may perchance smooth and cure the skin make the unhandsomness remove and shift its seat but all that while the man decays
it would A setled tendency a resolv'd inclination to sin that presseth with its utmost agitation is that weight which though it may perchance be stop'd in its career yet it tends to the Abysse its center and will not rest but in that Pit that hath nor rest nor bottom the Heart in this case is as liable as it can be because here it hath done its worst and such a Will shall be imputed to its self And now I need not tell those who are still designing sin or mischief in the heart although it never dares come out of those recesses how far they are removed from the goodness of God to Israel A Father finds a way to prove such souls have larger doses of Gods Vengeance who when he had asserted that the soul does not die with the body and then was ask'd what it did in that long interval for sure it is not reasonable that it should be affected with any anticipations of the future Judgment because the business of the day of Judgment should be reserved to its own day without all prelibation of the sentence and the restitution of the Flesh is to be waited for that so both soul and body may go hand in hand in their Recompences as they did in their demerits joynt Partners in the Wages as they were in the Works To this he answers The Soul does not divide all its operations with the Body some things it acts alone and if there were no other cause it were most just the Soul should there receive without the Body the dues of that which here it did commit without the Body That 's for the former sort of sins those meerly of the Heart And for the latter sort the Soul is first engaged in the commission that does conceive the sin lays the design of compassing and does contrive and carry on the machination and then why should not that be first in Punishment which is the first in the Offence Go now and reckon that thy outward gross Transgressions are the only dangerous and guilty ones and slight thy sins of Heart but know that while thy flesh is sleeping in the quiet Grave at rest and ease thy Spirit then 's in Torments sor thy Fleshes sins and feels a far severer Worm than that which gnaws thy Body Poor Soul Eternity of Hell from Resurrection to For-ever is not enough to punish it all that while it must suffer with the Body but it must have an age of Vengeance besides particularly for it self to plague it for those things it could not execute and punish it for what it did not really enjoy only because it did allow it self to desire and contrive them and it must be tormented for those unsatisfied desires And though indeed desires where they are violent if they be not allayed by satisfaction are but so much agony yet do they merit and pull on them more these Torments shall be plagued and the soul suffer for its very passion even from Death to the last Judgment and 't is but just that being it usurp'd upon the pleasures and the sins of Flesh it should also seize on and take possession of the Vengeance appointed for those sins it should invade and should usurp their condemnation But why do I stand pressing aggravations against uncleanness of Heart in an Age when God knows Vice hath not so much modesty or fear to keep within those close and dark restraints Instead of that same Cleanness which the Text requires we may find Purity indeed of several sorts but 't is either pure Fraud or pure Impiety the one of these does make a strange expression very proper pure Corruption for so it is sincere and without mixture nothing but it self no spots of Clean to chequer it but all stain The other is pure white indeed but it is that of whited Sepulcres a Life as clean as Light a bright pure Conversation but it shines with that light onely which Satan does put on when he transforms himself into an Angel of Light and it is but a glory about a fiend But yet this shines however whereas others do stand Candidates of Vice and would be glorious in wickedness and that is such a splendor as if Satan should dress himself with the shine of his own flaming Brimstone and make himself a glory with the streamings of his Lake of Fire And yet thus is the World we do not onely see men serve some one peculiar vicious inclination and cherish their own wickedness but they make every Vice their own as if the Root of bitterness branch'd out in each sort of Impiety in them such fertile soyls of sin they are here insincerity were to be wish'd and where there is not cleanness that there were a Mask that there were the Religion of Hypocrisie We may remember God was good to Israel of old by Obligation and performance the one as great as he could enter the other great to Miracle and astonishment when after seventy years Captivity and Desolation he did rebuild a Temple where there was no Monument of its Ruines and raised a Nation and Government of which there was no Reliques And yet at last when the Religion of some turned into Faction of others into Prophaneness when the strictest Sect of them the Pharisees became most holy outwardly to have the better means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mischief those that were not of their Party and got a great opinion of Sanctity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as to be believed in whatsoever they did speak against the King or chief Priests and that so far as to be able openly to practise against both and raise Commotions They are Josephus's words of them and when another Sect the Zelots the most pernicious of all saith Bertram did commit Murders Sacriledg Prophanations and all kind of Villanies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with good Intentions saith the same Josephus and when those who did not separate into Sects but were the Church of Israel became lukewarm supine and negligent in their Profession yea and licentious and Prophane fit only to be joyned with Publicans in Christs expressions when sin grew generally Impudent when they did live as if they would be Scandalous as well as vicious as if they lov'd the guilt as much as the delights of sin and cared not to be wicked to themselves but must debauch as if they did enjoy the ruine of other persons sinning just as the Devil does who does not taste the sin but feasts upon the Sinners Condemnation Then did God execute a Vengeance whose prediction was fit to be mistaken for that of the Day of Judgment and whose event almost fulfill'd the terrors of that day I need not draw resemblances shew how Gods goodness to our Israel does equal that to them applying to our selves their Raptures how when the Lord turned the Captivity of our Sion we also were like them that dream surprized with Mercy Indeed as in a Dream Ideas
death which till the man be dead and the brute onely live within him cannot be his pleasures And it is plain they are not pleasures to a Sober man that lives the life of Reason not to say of Grace Nor are they such to any man till he have train'd and exercis'd himself into an habit of enduring them and by a discipline of Torment made himself experienc'd for Vice and for Damnation Nor is there ever any pleasure in some Vices What is there in the dismal Wishes of mans imprecating passion there cannot be musick in those harsh horrours and yet the Sinners will destruction so as that they call to God to pour it on them and tear it down from Heaven so that Pain and Disease seem to sauce those delights and Death to be the tempter to the pleasure 't is evident mens reasons and their Practices must be first debauch'd that they may count them Pleasures and therefore pleasure cannot be the first mover in the Sinners race to Death But I will grant that the Spirit and Flesh of Man by their so strait alliance and perpetual converse may grow to have the same likes and dislikes have but one appetite and this alas be that of flesh to whose onely satisfactions the man useth himself by long Custom of which the Soul doth so imbibe the Inclinations of the Body that nothing of another kind can possibly be relish'd In this case sensuality hath pleasures yet such as cannot answer Gods enquiry for do but consult mans other Choices and you find a present satisfaction cannot work his Resolutions to forego great after-hopes or run upon a foreseen ruine Who will exchange his right to the Reversion of a Crown which from his Father he shall certainly inherit and succeed to if he do out-live him for a present Scene of Royalty and choose a painted Coronet the pomps and adorations of a Stage and the applauses of a Croud before the real Glories of his Kingdom the love and the obedience of his Subjects And yet my Soul the disproportion of the Sinners terms is infinitely greater and there is no hazzard which to make his choice of present things more flattering the others hopes are liable to For that Heir of the Crown may die before the Crown fall to him but it is impossible that we should miss of ours except we put our selves by by such choices except we change it thus And on the other side we know men will adventure the Sentence of the Law by Robberies and murders to provide for Lusts while they hope to be undiscovered But sure a Prison made delightful by all arts of pleasure and all plenties of it will not hire a man to own those actions which shall forfeit him to certain shameful Execution the next Sessions and yet this is the Sinners state exactly he is ti'd and bound in the chain of his sins they are it may be chains of Gold and softned with delices but they reserve him to the Judgment of the great Assise And yet he chooses these and puts them on as Ensigns of delight and honour Once more Do not men choose a present Agony to keep off an afterevil they tear their bowels with a Vomit to prevent a Surfeit they cup and scarifie and with all artifice or pain upon themselves kill a Disease yea they are well content to prolong torment so they may but prolong life and though the preservation of it prove onely continued pangs and all they can effect is onely this that they are longer dying yet they are glad to be so in all cases except where the prescription is Virtue and the death prescribed against Eternal Now why do you choose thus onely in Sin and Hell 'T is clear the very pleasure you change Heaven for cannot invite you from this Life and then you that will suffer any thing rather than you will dye Why against all resistance will you dye for ever It is Secondly because you know not what it is to dye the second Death at least your notions of it are so slight and easie that they cannot fright you from a pleasure or cope with a temptation to it and so though present satisfactions are not able to engage you upon present ruin they can upon the after-death Indeed the Sinner would have reason if it meant no more than hath been taught of late by one that hath gained many Proselytes among the Virtuosi of Religion After the Resurrection the Reprobates shall be saith he in the state that Adam and his Posterity were in after his Sin i. e. the state we are now in Live as we do Marry and give in Marriage and cease to be when they have got some heirs to succeed them in Tophet Poor unhappy Souls these that never had any sin to merit being there nor any Sentence to condemn them thither but this mans Who must put them there successively one after other to find employment for Everlasting fire A Doctrine such as had an Angel Preach'd from Heaven by S. Paul's award he must have been Anathema when the Devil made Religions and Theology came from the bottomless Pit he never found out such an Engine to conveigh men into it as this pleasant notion of the punishment of sin therein as if Leviathan were made to take his pastime in that Lake also by such interpretations which surely were contrived to make out the Assertion of that Romish Priest who says that those in Hell love to be there nay more that 't was impossible for God to do a kinder thing for them than to put them there Doctrines to be abhorr'd as Hell it self and yet upon these grounds he builds their Church by demonstration so strong as that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it and in truth they have no reason to assault it on these terms But to pass by such dotages and frenzies you will be able sure to check all those presumptions which grow from sleight impressions of the second Death if you but take that prospect of it which the close of this time gives look forward through this season which is designed for you to prepare the way of the Lord to his Passion in and you shall see the Death that does await iniquity If you behold him coming to Jerusalem with Hosannas and Palms about him as if Death were his Triumph his Passion so desirable that he rode to meet it which he never did at any other time and then complaining he was straitned until it were accomplish'd as he had throws of Longing after it and singing when he went out to it you would believe the Sinner never chose his death sweetned by his most pleasant sin with a more chearful eagerness But then open the Garden and you see his apprehensions of it throw him on his Face to pray against it See how he sweats and begs his very Prayer is a Passion the zeal of it is Agony and canst thou choose that he so dreads
interpose to hinder it and hide the possibilities of mercy from their eyes that they may never see them nor recover What can then become of those for whom God does contrive that they shall not escape when instead of those bowels that did make him swear he would not have the sinner die but would have him return and live he puts on so much indignation at such Sinners as to take an order they shall not repent and take an order that they shall be damn'd And yet all this is onely to those men who being dull of hearing the suggestions of the Spirit and not willing to give entertainment to his holy motions grieve him so that they repell and drive him quite away and so by consequence onely make way for the Devil Whereas there are others that directly call him force him to them ravish and invade occasions to serve him Some there are that study how to disbelieve and with great labour and contrivance work out arguments and motives to persuade themselves to Atheism Others practise discipline and exercise themselves to be engag'd in Vice Some dress so as to lay baiâ—s snares to entrap Temptation that they may be sure it may not pass them Others feed high to invite and entertain the Tempter do all that is possible to make him come and to assure him that he must prevail when they have made it most impossible for themselves to stand and to resist Some there are indeed whom he does not overcome so easily but is put to compound with them takes them upon Articles for when he would ingage them to a sin to which he sees they have great inclinations with some fears he is fain to persuade them to repent when they have done to lay hold upon the present opportunity and not let the satisfaction escape them but be sorry after and amend For where these resolutions of Repentance usher in transgression there we may be sure it is the Devil that suggests those resolutions But if he can get admittance once thus by prevailing with a person to receive him upon purposes of after-Penitence he is sure to prosper still in his attempts upon the same condition For Repentance will wash out another sin if he commit it and so on And it is evident that by this very train he does draw most men on through the whole course of sin and life For never do they till they see themselves at the last stage begin repenting When they are to grapple with Death's forces then they are to set upon resisting of the Devil And when they are grown so weak that their whole Soul must be imployed to muster all its spirits all their strength but to beat off one little spot of phlegm that does besiege the avenues of breath the ports of life and sally at it and assault it once again and a third many times and yet with all the sury of its might cannot break through nor beat off that little clot of spittle when it is thus yet then are they to wrestle with and Conquer Principalities and Powers all the Rulers of the utter darkness pull down the strong holds of sin within cast down imaginations and every high thing that did exalt it self against the knowledg of God and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and with those feeble hands that they are scarcely able to lift up in a short wish or prayer they must do all this resist the Devil and take Heaven by force Now sure to put it off to such a fatal season is a purpose of a desperate concern In God's Name let us set upon the doing it while there is something left of Principle and vigor in us ere we have so griev'd Gods Spirit that he do resolve to leave us utterly and before the Devil have so broke us to his yoke that we become content and pleas'd to do his drudgery We deceive our selves if we think to do it with more ease when Constitution is grown weaker as if then Temptations would not be so â—rong For the Habits will be then confirm'd Vice grown Heroical and we wholly in the power of Satan dead and sensless under it not so much as stirring to get out But if we strive before he have us in his clutches we have an Enemy that can vanquish none but those who consent to and comply and confederate with him those that will be overcome So that if we resist he must be Conquer'd and Temptation must be conquer'd too for he will flie and then by consequence must cease to trouble and molest us This is the sure way to be rid of Temptations to put to flight the great Artificer and Prince of them subdue and overcome him and our selves And to him that overcometh thus Christ will grant to sit with him on his Throne as He also overcame and sate down with his Father on his Throne To which c. The Fourteenth SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL Last Wednesday in LENT 1667 8. PHILIPP III. 18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the Enemies of the Cross of Christ. THough many by the Cross of Christ here understand any sort of Suffering for the sake of Christ or Religion it being usual with the Scripture to entitle Christ to every evil that befals a man for doing of his duty yet others looking on it properly as that on which Christ himself suffered by the Enemies of the Cross understand those that set themselves against the whole design and influence of Christ's death upon it Now to name that in few words the Cross of Christ not onely is one of the greatest Props on which our Faith of the whole Gospel leans which it establisheth the truth of as Christs Bloud shed upon it was the sanction of the Covenant on Gods part who by that federal Rite of shedding Bloud engag'd himself and we may certainly assure our selves he cannot fail to make good whatsoever he hath promised in that Covenant who would give the Bloud of his own only Son who was so holy and who was himself to Seal that Covenant and his Bloud is therefore called the Bloud of the Everlasting Covenant But besides this extrinsick influence of it all the blessed Mercies also of the Gospel are the Purchase of this Cross and all the main essential duties of the Gospel are not onely Doctrines of the Cross such as it directs and does inforce but the Cross also hath an immediate efficacy in the working of them in us For S. Paul saith by the Cross of Christ the World is Crucified to me and I unto the World On it the Flesh is also crucified with the Affections and Lusts And to say all that comprehensive Duty of the Gospel Self-denial is but another word for taking up the Cross And then as for the Mercies of the Gospel on the Cross the satisfaction for our sins was made the Price of
and Sedition rather and therefore must needs look upon damnation in them these differences make as great a gulf and chasm as that which does divide Dives from Abraham's bosom It is one God one Faith one Worship makes hearts one Hands lifted up together in the Temple they will joyn and clasp And so Religion does fulfil its name à religando binds Prince and Subjects all together and they who thus do seek the Lord their God will also seek David their King God's next direction and my second part 2. And here three things offer themselves a King their King and David their King I am not here to read a Lecture of State-policy upon a vie of Governments why seek a King not any other sort of Government and why their King one that already was so by the right of Succession not whom addresses or election should make so And though I think 't were easie to demonstrate only Monarchy had ever a divine or natural original and that elective Monarchy is most unsafe and burthensome full of dangerous and uneasie consequences and this so much to sight that choice for the most part bounds it self proves but a ceremony of Succession yet this I need not do for I am dealing with the Jews who had God's judgment in the case and his appointment too and to me that is argument enough And when God hath declar'd for the transgressions of a land many are the Princes thereof many at once as in a common-wealth or many several families successively for so God reckons also one or many 't is still we see David their King while 't is in David's line and so the King does truly never die while his race lives If either of these many be Gods punishment for the sins of a land I will not say that they who love the many Princes love the transgressions which God plagues so but I will say they who do chuse that which God call his plague that quarrel for his vengeance and with great strife and hazard take his indignation by force I can but pity them in their own opinions and enjoyments But O my soul enter not thou into their counsels As for seeking their King I shall content my self with that which Calvin says upon the words Nam aliter verè ex animo Deum quaerere non potuit quin se etiam subjiceret legitimo imperio cui subjectus erat For they could not otherwise truly and with all their heart seek God except they did subject themselves to his Government to whom they did of right belong as Subjects And I shall add that they who do forsake their King will soon forsake their God The Rabbines say it more severely of Israel that they at once rejected three things the Kingdom of the house of David and the Kingdom of Heaven and the Sanctuary And truly if we do consult that State from the beginning we shall find that when they were without their King they always were without their God Moses was the first King in Jeshurun and he was only gone into the Mount for forty days and they set up a Golden Calf they make themselves a God if they want him whom the Lord makes so as he does the Magistrate If they have not a Prince that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 living Image of God then they must have an Idol When Moses his next successor was dead we read that the man Micah had an house of Gods and consecrated one of his Sons to be his Priest And truly he might make his Priest who made his Deities And the account of this is given in those days there was no King in Israel Jud. 17. 5 6. The very same is said ch 18. 1. to preface the Idolatry of the Tribe of Dan There was no heir of restraint as it is worded ver 7. It seems to curb impiety is the Princes Inheritance which 'till it be supprest he hath not what he is heir to But Vice will know no Boundaries if there be no King whose Sword is the only mound and fence against it for if we read on there 19 20 21. ch we shall find those dismal Tragedies of Lust and War the one of which did sin to death the Levites wife the other besides 40000. slain of them who had a righteous cause and whom God did bid fight destroyed also a Tribe in Israel These all sprang from the same occasion for so the story closes it In those days there was no king in Israel ch 21. 25. Just upon this when God in their necessities did raise them Judges that is Kings read all their story you will find to almost every several Judge there did succeed a several Idolatry God still complaining the Children of Israel did evil again after the death of such an one 'till he raised them another Those 450. years being devided all betwixt their Princes and their Idols After them Jeroboam he that made the great secession of that people from their Prince hath got no other Character from God but this the Man that did make Israel to sin at once against God and against their King Yea upon this account they are reckon'd by God to sin after both their Idolatry and State were ended when their calves and their Kingdom were destroyed Ezek. 4. 4 5. the Lord does bid the Prophet lie on his left side 390 days to bear the iniquity of Israel according to the number of the years of their iniquity But this was more then the years of their State which were only 255 390 years indeed there were betwixt the falling off of the Ten Tribes and the destruction of Jerusalem by the King of Babel but those ten Tribes were gone their Kingdom perfectly destroy'd above 130 years before But their iniquity was not it seems that does outlive their State so long as that God's Temple that King's house did stand from which they did divide As if Seditious men and schismaticks sin longer then they are even while those are whom they do sin against in separating from 'T is true there was an Ahaz and Manasseh in the house of David but Hezekiah and Josiah did succeed Mischief did not appear entail'd on Monarchy as 't is upon rebellion and having no King It does appear their Kings were guards also to God and his Religion the great defenders of his faith and worship God and the Prince for the most part stood and fell together Therefore St. Paul did afterwards advise to pray for Kings that we might live in godliness and honesty and still they were the same who sought the Lord their God and David their King But why David their King For could his Kingdom disappear and be to seek of whom the Lord had said I have sworn once by my Holiness I will not fail David Psal. 89. And his Throne therefore was as sure as God is holy But yet the Lord had said to the