him the Gospel i. e. a more full and clear discovery of the way of Salvation by Christ than before That the light in both senses is come into the World and finds no better reception This is The condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the judgment according to the proper acception of the word but here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judgment for Condemnation by an usual Synechdoche and so our Translators have rendered it looking rather at the sense than at the immediate propriety of the word Again This is The condemnation that is by a Metonymy the cause of condemnation that which deserves meritoriously procures and brings on condemnation Lastly This is The condemnation not solely and exclusively as to all other things but in the sense that shall be afterwards mentioned when I come to speak to that particular The words of my Text not to spend time in any unnecessary Preface to what I have to say we may conveniently resolve into these four Propositions 1. That light is come into the world 2. That men love darkness rather than light 3. That the reason why men love darkness rather than light is because their deeds are evil 4. That this is the condemnation that though light be come into the world yet men love darkness rather than light Passing by the three former the last of these Propositions is that which I intend at present to insist on as being the chief thing intended in this portion of holy Scripture Concerning the sense of which Proposition a few words will be necessary to be premised before I proceed to lay down the grounds thereof This is The condemnation not solely and exclusively as to all other things as if nothing else could condemn a man but signally and emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great meritorious cause of the severest punishment I say the rejection of the light of the Gospel or not giving it due entertainment is not the only thing that condemns men For 1. Those Heathens unto whom the light of the Scriptures never came shall not therefore be exempted from punishment The Apostle hath taught us That as many as have sinned without the law Rom. 2.12 shall also perish without the law Their sins against their natural light and the Law of Nature written in their hearts shall condemn them there shall be no need of calling in the assistance of the Law externally promulged and written in Tables of Stone much less of the Gospel to give evidence against them 'T is true if the Gospel were never offered them and they shut up under a moral impossibility of being acquainted with it we cannot apprehend how their not believing should be charged upon them as their sin Aquinas hath rightly stated this matter 22dae Quaest 10. Artic. 1. Si infidelitas sumatur secundum negationem puram si cut in illis qui nihil audiverunt de fide non habet rationem peccati pure negative infidelity or a meer not believing in those who never heard any thing of the Gospel hath not the nature of sin And this was likewise St. Austin's judgment as appears by the Exposition he gives of the words of our Saviour John 15.22 If I had not come unto them they had had no sin Loquitur de peccato quo non crediderunt in Christum Our Saviour speaketh saith he of the sin of not believing in Christ Though they had been guilty of many other sins yet their not believing had not been imputed to them And the reason hereof is evident because they had never a power in Adam of believing that which was never made known unto them there being a simple incompossibility and repugnancy in the nature of the thing that a man should by faith assent to and embrace that which he was never in the least acquainted with which was never as much as propounded to him to be the object of his faith How shall we believe on him of whom we have not heard Rom. 10.14 'T is a question that cannot be answered Adam himself with all that strength which he received from God could not have done it and therefore neither can that be required of his Posterity which he himself never received 2. As for such as have the Gospel published to them and finally persevere in unbelief neither is their unbelief the only sin for which they are condemn'd What sober man can think that one sin can expunge another that mens unbelief should take off and extinguish the guilt of all their other sins so as none of them should at all come under consideration when Christ pronounceth the condemnatory Sentence They who should entertain so wild a phansy must have forgotten the form of the Proceedings at the last day as Christ himself hath described it Matth. 25. where express mention is made of other sins as the ground of the Sentence to be then pronounced Yet I deny not but that in a limited sense wicked men living under the light of the Gospel may be said to be condemned only for their unbelief because if they had believed none of their other sins should have condemned them But now they not believing the guilt of all their other sins against the Law abideth on them and besides there is an addition of further guilt by their great sin against the Gospel and this their sin against the Gospel is that which presseth them most heavily and hath the sorest influence upon the final Sentence for the inflaming and heightening of it So then these things being thus premised we have the sense of the Proposition before us This is The condemnation the matter and meritorious cause of the most sore and dreadful condemnation that light being come into the world the Gospel being published and Christ in the Gospel being tendered to the Sons of men they slight and refuse this light preferring darkness before it and chusing rather to continue in their sins though it cost them dear than to embrace Christ to their everlasting bliss and happiness Now the grounds of the Proposition together with the equity of that severity which it imports will further appear unto us if we take into consideration these ensuing particulars 1. 'T is light that is refused and refused with an affront put upon it darkness being preferred before it Now in this alone there are several things which do not a little aggravate a man's sin and by consequence heighten his punishment 1. When a man goes on against light there is more of the formality of sin than where light is wanting There is a direct and plain opposition against the Rule an intentional 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or irregularity whereas in case of ignorance the Rule indeed was violated materially but not formally and wittingly as such Our Saviour lays much stress upon this for the greatning of a man's sin Joh. 9.41 If ye were blind ye should have no sin that is none in comparison of what now you have
stripes One stripe the more for every beam of light which was not improved to the ends for which it was afforded I speak not this to disparage knowledge which is an excellent gift of God and a principal part of his Image in man much less to dishearten any in their pursuit of it but to provoke them to a joint endeavour after grace and knowledge according to the Apostle's Exhortation 2 Pet. 3.18 It was said of Galba who had a fine Wit but a deformed Body Ingenium Galbae malè habitat Galba's good Wit hath but an ill habitation The same may I say of excellent Gifts in a corrupt mind 'T is a thousand pities that so noble a Guest should have no better Lodgings Get your Soul adorned with grace and then it will be fitter to entertain Gifts And to press this a little more upon you let me leave with you only these three Considerations 1. If Knowledge be excellent and desirable Grace is much more excellent and much more worthy to be the Object of our most raised desires After the Apostle had been discoursing of those extraordinary and miraculous Gifts which in the Primitive times God was pleased to pour out upon Believers he makes way to his following Discourse of love and grace by this commendatory Preface 1 Cor. 12.31 Yet shew I unto you a more excellent way You are digging and searching after Knowledge as after hid Treasure and why not then much more after Grace Luke 16.11 which is the most precious and invaluable Treasure the only true Riches Matth. 23.23 This ye ought to have done and not to have left the other undone as our Saviour speaks in another case Yea this ye ought much rather to have done in comparison whereof your pursuit of knowledge is but as the tything of mint and cummin compared with the most weighty matters of the law 2. The more Knowledge you have the more Grace you need A little Grace will not suffice you to manage a large stock of Knowledge Your Knowledge is one of your chiefest Talents for which you must be accountable and 't is impossible you should so imploy it as to be able to give a comfortable account thereof without a proportionable measure of Grace The higher any man is lifted up in parts and gifts the more is he exposed to the violent assaults of manifold Temptations Temptations to Pride Self-confidence overvaluing of himself contempt of others wicked abuse of his knowledge and parts to the service of Satan and the disservice of God and his Church And therefore no man hath more need of grace of a plentiful measure of grace than he that is most accomplisht with knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The more knowledge we have the greater is our danger saith Clem. Alex. in the 4th Book of his Stromates 3. Unless you have grace together with your knowledge the time will come when you shall wish that you had been as ignorant as you are graceless Quà m nescirem literas How could I wish that I had never learnt to write or read was the mild and compassionate Speech of an Emperor when he was desired to set his Hand for the Execution of a Malefactor What he said out of a tender and merciful regard to the Life of another man that shall the graceless and finally impenitent knowing man one day say out of the anguish and horror of his own Soul Vtinam nescissem literas Oh that I had never known my Letters and that my Parents had never set me to School Oh that I had been confined all my days to some poor Cottage or dark Corner where I might scarce have known my right Hand from my left that I had been the most silly ignorant contemptible Creature in the World a meer Idiot or natural Fool rather than by my sins against so much knowledge to have procured to my self this direful access to my Torments You may have heard of a poor Idiot who having never uttered one serious word before was heard to utter this short and pertinent Petition when he was going out of the World Lord require no more of me than thou hast given me The ungodly knowing man the profane Wit the learned Atheist will have his mouth stopt he will not be able to find so good a Plea for himself as that poor Idiot had He hath received much from the hand of God and much shall be required of him And so I go on to what followeth in the 20th Verse PART II. Verse 20. Every one that doth evil hateth the light THE words are a Proposition so clearly and plainly exprest that to endeavour to make it plainer were but to lose time Seeing therefore I cannot express it in clearer terms nor cast it into a better form I shall even take it as it lyes and so handle it Every one that doth evil hateth the light The Truth of which Proposition I know not how I can better demonstrate than by shewing what influence the light hath upon men in reference to sin and withal how men stand affected towards their sin 1. The light I mean principally the light of the Gospel of which our Saviour here speaks discovers sin There is a threefold light which discovers sin the light of Nature the light of the Law and the light of the Gospel 1. The very light of Nature doth in some measure discover sin The Gentiles who have not the law Rom. 2.14 15. do by nature the things contained in the law their consciences in the mean while accusing or excusing them according as their actions are more or less conformable to the dictates of the light of nature in them This light was full and perfect as it was at first set up in man by his Creator but is by the fall now become weak and imperfect so that in many things it leaves a man at a great loss That first light represented things to man exactly according to their nature so as by the help of it he could clearly and perfectly discern between good and evil but now that Primitive light being in great part extinguished the weak remainders of it represent good and evil in a dark and obscure manner so as by this light alone a man sees many times little better than he who saw Men as Trees Mar. 8.24 yea worse a great deal taking good for evil and evil for good light for darkness Isa 5.20 and darkness for light as the Prophet speaks 2. The light of the Law of God written goes further in the discovery of sin in which respect the Apostle ascribes the knowledge of sin to the Law Rom. 3.20 The Law exceeds the light of Nature as to the discovery of sin in a double respect 1. The Law discovers more sins than the meer light of Nature could I had not known sin saith the Apostle Rom. 7.7 unless the law had said Thou shalt not covet He had not known the sinfulness of the inward
forgiveness of their Sins may be confirmed several other ways As 1. Because Mercy is promised to the greatest Sinners upon their Repentance Isa 1.16 17 18. 55.7 Ezek. 18.27 28. 30.31 32. Mat. 12.31 2. Promises of Pardon made unto penitent and believing Sinners run in general Terms John 3.16 Mark 16.15 16. Acts 10.43 3. Christ invites all that feel the Burden of their Sins to come unto him promising them Ease and Refreshing if they come Mat. 11.28 John 7.37 38 Rev. 22.17 4. Christ expostulates with Sinners and complains that they come not to him for Mercy John 5.40 Mat. 23.37 5. He declareth and professeth that he will reject and put off none that shall come unto him John 6.37 Vse 1. This Truth is Matter of very great Encouragement to the chief of Sinners to come to Christ and to be humble Suitors to him for the pardon of their Sins They see that pardoning Mercy has been obtained by many of the greatest Sinners that the Promises of finding Mercy with God upon condition of Faith and Repentance run in general Terms excluding none that are so qualified they see that Christ most graciously invites all sorts of labouring and heavy-laden Sinners without exception to come unto him that he expostulates with Sinners and complains that they will not come unto him that they may have Life and lastly that he declareth and professeth that he will cast out none that come unto him that come unto him in a due manner and as they ought to come that is to say with unfeigned and sincere Repentance for their Sins past and with firm Resolutions and sincere Endeavours to cast off and forsake their Sins for the time to come Now what more can the greatest Sinners wish or desire to encourage them to seek Mercy at the Hands of God than that they may rest assured that they shall not lose their labour that they shall not seek him in vain but certainly obtain what they are Suitors to him for But here however they must be careful to seek him 1. Seasonably Isa 55.6 2 Cor. 6.2 Heb. 3.15 2. Earnestly and importunately this manner of seeking God is that which prevails with him especially when we seek unto him for so great a thing as is the forgiveness of our Sins Jer. 29.13 3. Abandoning forsaking and casting off all their Transgressions Ezek. 18.30 that Iniquity may not be their Ruine If thus they come unto Christ and seek Mercy at his Hands as hath been said before Christ will in no wise turn them off with a Repulse but assuredly and without fail entertain them graciously and give them to find Mercy with him in the pardon and forgiveness of their Sins But here desponding and discouraged Sinners be apt to object several things Object 1. Saith the Sinner that is deeply affected and sadly cast down with the sense of his Sins None ever obtained Mercy that sinned as I have done Answ 1. That is a very rash and unadvised Speech as I have elsewhere shewed at large Do you know all the Sins which all the penitent Sinners that ever found Mercy with God have been guilty of 2. Consider and ponder a little better the Instances before-mentioned Are your Sins greater than the Sins of Manasseh Are your Sins greater than the Sins of that Woman Luk. 7.37 38. who was notorious for her Lewdness all the City over Are your Sins greater than the Sins of all those foul and abominable Sinners which the Apostle reckons up 1 Cor. 6.9 10 3. If your Sins have been really greater than the Sins of any of these or all of them together yet are they greater than the boundless Mercies of God and the Merits of Christ Take heed how you entertain such a Thought 4. Are your Sins so great as that they are without the compass of all the Promises made to believing and penitent Sinners Far be it from you to harbour such black Thoughts concerning your Condition If you had upon you the Guilt of all the Sins that ever have been committed since the Fall of Adam to this day yet if you could sincerely repent of them all cast them all off and truly believe in Christ you might be sure of the pardon of them for so universal and unlimited of so large a compass and extent are the Promises of Mercy which are made to all believing and penitent Sinners that they would extend to them all and take them in This is so clear and evident that no Exception can be made against it unless by one that will be satisfied with nothing that can be laid before him or offered him for his Satisfaction Object 2. But I have run on so long impenitently and rejected so many Offers of Mercy that I fear there is no Mercy there can be none for me Answ 1. Doth not God call and invite such as well as others Are not his gracious Calls and Invitations to Repentance general Are they any where restrained or clogged with any Limitations Are they any where narrowed and straitned with the exception of any sorts of Sinners whatsoever 2. How many of those in the Old Testament and in the New that had long gone on in a sinful Course impenitently obtained Mercy at length notwithstanding the long-continued Perseverance in their evil Ways 3. Do not the Promises of Mercy to be obtained by penitent and believing Sinners extend to such as well as unto others Where are they by any Scripture excluded from Mercy And if the holy Scriptures exclude them not why should they exclude themselves 4. Doth not our Saviour assure us that all manner of Sin and Blasphemy shall be forgiven unto Men upon their Repentance Mat. 12.31 for that is ever in this matter supposed though not expressed Now if all manner of Sin and Blasphemy shall upon Repentance be forgiven unto Men then undoubtedly no truly humbled and sincerely penitent Sinners shall be denied the Forgiveness of their Sins how long soever and how obstinately soever they have gone on in their sinful Practices Object 3. But I fear I may not belong to the Election of Grace and if so then all my Endeavours to find Mercy with God would be fruitless Answ 1. You ought not to neglect your known Duty because you cannot dive into God's secret Decrees though you know not what God 's secret Counsels and Purposes may be concerning you yet he hath plainly and sufficiently revealed what your Duty is and what he requires of you in order to your Salvation It concerns you therefore not to trouble your Mind about God's secret Purposes concerning you but to apply your self with all holy Diligence to the conscientious Performance of your Duty and so doing to cast your self upon the free Grace and Mercy of God in Christ Secret things belong unto the Lord our God Deut. 29.29 but things revealed belong to us and to our Children that we may do them 2. If you perform your Duty as you ought God will be
And to the same effect is that of St. James To him that knoweth to do good Ch. 4.17 and doeth it not to him it is sin that is sin to the purpose sin of no ordinary complexion 2. What is done against light hath not only an inconformity to the Rule but some degree of contempt thereof Wherefore in such cases God looks upon himself as despised Why hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord said he to David when he had knowingly and deliberately sinned 2 Sam. 12.9 3. It argues Corruption to have gotten head and to have grown up to a great measure of strength and maturity it argues such a person to be set upon sin and wholly bent to gratify himself therein whatsoever shall come of it When the light it self shall stand in a man's way and flash in his face and yet he will go on he acts as one so resolved to sin as nothing shall take him off This in the language of the Scipture is to sin presumptuously by which a man under the Law was judged to have reproached the Lord in regard whereof no less punishment was appointed than the utter cutting him off from among his people Numb 15.30 31. And thus far I have only insisted on the consideration of light more generally 'T is light that is refused and contemned and therefore neither the sin nor the punishment of the person so offending can be small 2. 'T is not any kind of light but Gospel light that is so ill treated and this hath yet much more in it than all that hath been hitherto mentioned 1. The light of the Gospel is a clearer light All other light is but darkness to this The Heathens had the light of Nature for their guide but yet they were still in darkness till the Gospel enlightened them for the very Errand of the Gospel to them was to open their eyes Acts 26.18 and to turn them from darkness to light The Jews under the dispensations of the Law had much more light and yet were heavenly things in great part so vail'd and wrapt up in Types and Shadows as their condition to that of Gospel-times seems to have been but as the morning spread upon the Mountains to the noon day-light 2. 'T is a light that presents to our view the most excellent and most desirable things Pardon of sin Acts 10.43 Peace with God Rom. 5.1 Eternal life John 3.36 A kingdom that cannot be shaken Heb. 12.28 An inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1.4 Such things as neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor have entred into the heart of man to conceive 1 Cor. 2.9 3. These excellent things which the light of the Gospel sets before us are such as were by infinite Wisdom and unspeakable Love designed and contrived for us before the foundations of the World were laid The most wise and gracious God did in nothing more discover the unsearchable Treasures of his Wisdom and the Riches of his Grace than in the Contrivance of our Salvation in such a way as in which Mercy and Justice so admirably meet together and Righteousness and Peace kiss each other We cannot therefore refuse or slight these excellent things without a manifest disparagement of the Wisdom and Love of God as if neither the one nor the other were considerable herein and as if after all that God hath done the things so wifely designed and graciously proffer'd were not worth our acceptance 4. The Gospel presseth the entertainment of these excellent things with the most cogent and forcible Arguments 'T is not laid before us as a matter of indifferency whether we will embrace what 's tendered or refuse it We are told and assured that as the acceptance of the things proffered will render us unspeakably blessed and happy to eternity so the refusal of them will certainly make us everlastingly and unconceivably miserable He that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 5. Besides the external tender of these things in the Gospel the Spirit of God usually more or less accompanies the outward Ministration of the Gospel inwardly working together with it treating with us and solliciting the matters of our peace by Enlightnings and Convictions by stirring up good Motions and Affections Purposes and Resolutions which makes our refusal of mercy after all this much more worthy of the severest punishment 6. Add to all this the consideration of the greatness of the Person who at first published the Gospel and made tender of those excellent things to the World himself while here on Earth and also still continues to do it by his Servants The Lord of Life and Glory the Eternal Son of God who is over all God blessed for ever came in person from Heaven out of the Bosome of his Father on this very Errand that he might make reconciliation for sin Dan. 9. â—4 and bring in everlasting righteousness And offer the fruits and benefit of all to Mankind making this general Proclamation Whosoever believeth shall be saved If but an Earthly Prince should send his only Son to the remotest Parts of his Dominions on purpose to make tender of some great thing to one of his meanest Subjects what an indignity and how intolerable an affront would it be if that his tender should be slighted But here the King Eternal sends his only Son from Heaven to offer us Everlasting Life and we entertain him no otherwise than as if he came in a needless Embassy for so much our most unworthy carriage towards him imports if we do not accept of his Tenders This the Scripture insists on as a circumstance that carries in it no small aggravation of the sin of our unbelief If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken to us by the Lord Heb. 2.2 3. Heb. 12.25 And again If they escaped not who refused him who spake from earth much more shall not we escape if we refuse him who speaketh from heaven Now put all these things together and I see not how you can chuse but conclude That as there is no sin like that which is committed against the light of the Gospel so there is no punishment like unto that which will be inflicted for this sin or That this is the condemnation That light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light And so I proceed to the application of what hath been spoken VSE 1. First then To speak to the more dissolute Professors of the Christian Religion From the Premises we may infer That 't is a most vain and empty Plea which many loose Christians think to help themselves with at the day of their account to God They have had their birth and education where the light of the Gospel shines and under the
motions to sin at least such of them as go before the consent of the will the motus primo primi as the Schools call them 2. The Law makes a more full and clear discovery of those very sins which were in some measure known by the light of Nature 3. The light of the Gospel goes yet further in the discovery of sin and in some respects as much exceeds the Law herein as the Law doth the light of Nature For 1. The light of the Gospel as 't is far greater and clearer so 't is of a more piercing and penetrating nature to find out and discover sin as the Noon-day light looks into many a dark corner and exposeth those things to our view which before could not be discerned 2. Gospel Administrations are accompanied with a more full Effusion of the Spirit than was ordinarily under the Law Now one special part of the Spirits work being to convince of sin John 16.8 we may well conclude that the Spirit 's Discovery and Convictions of sin under the Gospel are more full and effectual 3. The Gospel furnisheth us with several Glasses in which we may behold sin represented to us in a more lively manner than by the Law alone and this whether we consider the filthiness or the heinousness of sin These Glasses are the Holiness and the Justice of God 1. The Holiness of God is so displayed and set forth in the Doctrine of the Gospel and in the Life of Christ as never before Hence it is that the Scripture seems so to speak of this matter as if God were little known until Christ by his Heavenly Doctrine and Holy Conversation revealed him No man hath seen God at any time John 1.18 the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father John 12.45 46. he hath declared him He that seeth me seeth him that sent me I am come as a light into the world that whosoever believeth in me should not abide in darkness Mat. 11.27 No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him 2 Cor. 3.18 And the Apostle discoursing of the Glory and Excellency of the Evangelical Administration beyond the Legal saith That whereas they of old had a vail upon their Hearts and saw things but darkly we all with open face as in a glass behold the glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ And that he there chiefly intends the Glory of his Holiness we may collect from what followeth and we are changed saith he into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now contraries affording mutual light to one another the more we discern of the Holiness of God the more filthy and loathsome will sin appear to us This we see exemplified in the Prophet Isaiah Isa 6.3 5. who when he had seen the Lord sitting upon his Throne and heard his Holiness proclaimed by one of the Seraphims crying Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory in the sense of his sinfulness he cries out Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips 2. Another Glass to behold sin in is the Justice and Severity of God against sin As the Holiness of God shews us the filthiness of sin so doth his Justice and Severity shew us the Heinousness and abominable nature of it But now the Justice and Severity of God against sin was never so much discovered by all the dreadful Threatnings of the Law and terrible Judgments that have been inflicted upon Sinners ever since the Fall of Adam to this day nor will ever be so much discovered by all the Sufferings of Millions in Hell to Eternity as by what God for our sins hath laid upon his own Eternal and most dearly beloved Son who is over all God blessed for ever The reason hereof is manifest and undeniable for the Creature will never be able fully to satisfie the Justice of God by its endless Sufferings in Hell if it could why might it not be released and let out of Prison But Christ hath made full satisfaction to his Father's Justice so that we have in that satisfaction which he hath presented to his Father in that satisfaction of infinite value and in that alone an exact and adequate measure by which we may take the full dimensions of the heinousness of Man's sin Indeed what higher thing is imaginable by which we might be led to the sight of the heinousness of sin than that unparallel'd severity of the most Righteous Judge of all the Earth against it which induced him to lay such a weight of punishment upon his only begotten Son who is of the same Divine Essence with himself when having taken our Nature on him he undertook to bear what was due to us for our sins By what hath been said we see that the Gospel not only discovers sin but also doth it in a very signal way making such lively representations of the filthiness and heinousness thereof as neither the light of Nature nor the Law of God nor all the dreadful Examples of God's Justice and Severity that ever have been or ever shall be can make Let us now in the next place add hereunto That men are naturally most unwilling to see their sins and to be convinced of them and then it may be presumed we will easily grant that the light must in that respect be very unacceptable to them Such is every man's natural Pride and Self-love that he hath no mind to know how bad he is He is willing if it be possible to shut his Eyes against his own deformities that he may be able to hold up a good Opinion of himself Besides as men desire not to know too much of their own defects so they would not have them known to others Seeing therefore the same light that discovers them to themselves doth also lay them open to others it is a thing not at all strange that men as long as they are wicked and indulge themselves in sin should be no great Friends to the light It concerns those who have bad Wares to get them into dark Shops which may not discover the faultiness of them And so much of that first thing The light especially that of the Gospel makes discovery of mens sin and that is it which they cannot endure 2. The light of the Gospel doth not only discover mens sin but calls upon them to leave it Mat. 3.2 Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand was the substance of his Preaching who prepared the way for Christ and ushered in Evangelical light Though God never in the least approved of sin yet in former Ages before the coming of his Son into the World he much winked at it at least in the Gentile World but now he commandeth all men every where to repent He lets the World know Acts 16.30 that in times of Gospel-light men
a sick Man is a competent Judg of the Estate of his Body when his Disease hath gotten Possession of his Head and disturbed his Fancy Again whereas you say you should bear any other Cross with more Calmness and Silence you speak as one neither acquainted with your own Weakness nor with the Deceitfulness of your Heart 1st Your Language bewrays your small Acquaintance with your Weakness You know not what Frailty you might discover if God should try you some other way though it should be with a far lighter and more favourable Affliction We are never throughly acquainted with our Weakness till we be tried All our Strength lies in God if he be pleased to stand by us to support and strengthen us we may bear we may easily and comfortably bear the greatest Affliction if he withdraw the Influences of his Supports and the Supplies of his Grace the smallest Affliction will worst us Do we not observe how strong we are sometimes to conflict with great Trials and how weak other-while when far smaller and less considerable Afflictions encounter us Who maâ—â—â—h us thus to differ from our selves 〈◊〉 God as he either vouchsafeth us his Presence and powerful Assistances or withholdeth them 2dly You speak as one too much a Stranger to the Deceitfulness of your Heart You think you could bear any other Affliction better and that no other thing could have so discomposed you and put you out of order but herein your false and guileful Heart deludes you If you were afflicted in some other kind your Heart would then be as likely to tell you that you could bear any other Affliction better than that Your present Affliction would still be judged the most difficult to be born You are like a sick Man who complains of the Bed on which he lies and thinks he should be better at ease if he lay any where else but when he makes trial of another Bed he still finds himself as restless and uneasy as he was before He now finds 't is the Distemper of his Body not the Uneasiness of his Bed that makes him restless You think you should bear another Affliction better and more like a Christian but as long as your Heart is unsubdued to God and the unquiet and rebellious Distempers of your Spirit remain and stick close to you it is not to be questioned but that you would be as unquiet and as apt to complain and murmur under any other sharp Affliction as under this 'T is the Change of your Heart and not the Change of your Affliction that must dispose you to a patient Undergoing of your Burden Object 2. But saith another I see others as bad as my self not so severely chastned God seems to single me out and to set me up as a Mark to shoot at and to direct all his Arrows against me He makes me a Spectacle of his severe VVrath and the only Instance of his fierce Indignation VVhy should I be so grievously punished while others escape Answ 1. You do not well understand your self nor remember the Distance between God and you While you thus complain what is this but to contend with the Almighty and to quarrel with him as if he were your Equal or Inferiour Is he to be accountable to you for his Actions Must he treat you and other Men as you shall judg fitting Must he manage the Government of the World as you would have him And will you be angry and fall out with him if he doth not This is not a Deportment becoming the Creature towards its Creator An humble Acknowledgment of your Sin and a Profession of your Resolution to reform were more agreeable to your Condition and the Circumstances under which you stand towards God Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born Chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done Iniquity I will do no more So Elihu judged Job 34.31 32. 2. Are you the only Instance of God's Severity Are there not many more to be seen if you look abroad and cast your Eyes up and down the World Though God's Patience and long-Sufferance be admirable for the present and though he hath thought fit to put over the Punishment of the greater part of Offences to the Judgment of the great Day yet in the mean time he so consults the Honour of his Justice here as not to leave the World without many signal Instances of his Severity against Sin And if it seem good to him to make you one of those Instances what have you to object against it Is he not at liberty to make use of what Instances he pleaseth If he had thought fit to let you pass unpunished and instead of you had pitched on any other might not that other Person have had as good a Plea for complaining as you now think you have It seems by your Exceptions against God's Providence that he must either punish all Offenders here or none This is the Rule which you would set him for the Exercise of this Part of his Government of the World and if he do not observe it you will contest with him about it and have from him an Account thereof 3. If God make choice of you to vindicate the Honour of his Justice and Holiness before the World and to take off some part of that Imputation which in the Judgment of carnal Wisdom from his Patience seems to lie upon his Justice if in you as in one remarkable Instance he will let the World see how much he hates Sin and with what exact and severe Righteousness he intends to judg the World hereafter should you murmur at it Should you not rather be well contented that God might have any Honour by your Sufferings that you who have by your Sins so much dishonoured him should be capable of suffering any thing whereby any slender Reparations might be made to his Honour Were you not made for his Glory and if you would not be perswaded to promote it by doing were it not better you should contribute to it by suffering than that you should wholly lose the End of your Creation 4. Consider whether your complaining of God's Severity against you while he deals more favourably with many others be not a clear Evidence that your Heart is not throughly humbled for Sin The Apostle among other Fruits and Evidences of true Repentance and godly Sorrow for Sin 2 Cor. 7.11 makes mention of Indignation and Revenge An holy Indignation which the truly humbled Sinner the true Penitent hath against himself for having so grievously offended God and an holy Revenge which he takes upon himself on that Account How widely different are complaining and murmuring from that holy Frame of the penitent Sinner which the Apostle describes When you suffer your Heart to rise and give your Tongue liberty to murmur against God you seem to direct the Edg of your Indignation and Revenge against him rather
in time of Affliction 3. In time of Affliction we have some special Advantage towards the searching after and finding out of our Sins which at other times we are destitute of 1st Afflictions abate the Vanity and Lightness of our Spirits and make us serious and so more fit to reflect on our selves and consider our Ways At other times our Minds will not be so easily fix'd and our Thoughts held in and kept close to a Work which is not very pleasing to us and which we are apt to recoil from 2dly Affliction makes our Hearts soft as Job speaks it makes Impressions of God's Displeasure upon our Hearts and makes us sensible of his Anger When God several ways lays his Hand upon you then you say with them Deut. 31.17 Are not these things come upon us because God is not amongst us Because he in Displeasure hath withdrawn from us 3dly Affliction makes us teachable and willing to be informed of what is amiss it makes us desirous to understand what 't is for which God hath a Controversy with us God speaks to Men in their Prosperity and they will not hear as he complained Jer. 22.21 But Affliction as God sanctifies it to them makes them willing to hear and learn wherein they have offended Then they beg of God that he would teach them as Job did in his Affliction saying Make me to know my Transgression and my Sin chap. 13.23 Then God shews them their Work and their Transgressions that they have exceeded and openeth their Ear to Discipline ch 36.9 10. 4thly God in his Wisdom oft-times makes choice of such Afflictions to correct Men with by which he as it were points at their Sin When Absolom and Adonijah both of them their Father's Darlings rose up against their Father it was no hard Matter for David to discern what Sin of his God thereby intended to correct He too fondly treated both the one and the other and used much more Lenity and Indulgence towards them than was meet and by God's wise and just Permission they requite him accordingly This his Miscarriage David could not so well see before for inordinate Affection and fond Love are blind but now no doubt he saw and was made sensible of his Error in the Education of his Children That God's Judgments and Chastisements are often such as the Sin which he punisheth or correcteth for may be known by them is most agreeable both unto Scriptures and Experience How frequently may we observe that such Children as have been stubborn and undutiful to their Parents have afterwards been punished themselves with undutiful and rebellious Children that false and unfaithful Servants have met with such themselves when afterwards they have had Families of their own that unthankful Persons have met with as ill Requitals from those who have received Kindnesses from them that false and treacherous Friends have been betrayed by those on whose Friendship and Faithfulness they most depended It seems good to the Wisdom of God so to order and dispose of the Circumstances of his Judgments or Chastisements that either the Time or the Place or the Instrument or the Manner or the Matter and Object of them have often some Correspondence with and Relation to the Sin which he chiefly aims at 1. God sometimes points out Mens Sin by the time he takes to punish them A Man hath it may be often offended in the same kind and God hath for the most part still discovered his Displeasure more or less by somewhat that the Sinner hath met with or hath befallen him either at or presently upon the renewed commission of that Sin At length he offends in the same kind more notoriously and immediately thereupon some more severe Stroke lights upon him from the Hand of God than ever at any time before When thus it is what other Construction can a Man make of God's dealing with him but that he is chastned for such a Sin And as for Chastisements so for the Judgments of God they often light on Men either in the Act or presently upon the commission of their Sins When Nebuchadnezzar was saying in the Pride of his Heart Dan. 4.30 31 32 33. Is not this great Babylon which I have built for the House of my Kingdom and by the Might of my Power and for the Honour of my Majesty While the Word was yet in the King's Mouth there fell a Voice from Heaven saying O King Nebuchadnezzar to thee it is spoken The Kingdom is departed from thee They shall drive thee from Men and thy Dwelling shall be with the Beasts of the Field and they shall make thee eat Grass as Oxen. And the same Hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar So afterwards when Belshazzar was profanely carouzing and drinking Wine in the Golden Vessels of the Temple and praising his Gods of Gold and Silver Dan. 5.3 4 5 30. of Brass and of Iron and of Wood and of Stone In the same Hour came forth Fingers of a Man's Hand and wrote upon the Plaister of the Wall that Judgment which God had decreed should light upon the King and which accordingly that same Night was put in Execution And thus Herod as soon as he had finished his Oration and received the Applauses of the People crying out It is the Voice of a God Acts 12.21 22 23. and not of a Man Immediately the Angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the Glory and he was eaten of Worms and gave up the Ghost 2. Sometimes the Judgments or Chastisements of God light upon Men in the very Place where they formerly had offended So God threatned to requite Ahab in that Plat 2 Kings 9.26 in that very Plat of Ground where he had sinned So whereas the Israelites had highly provoked God to Anger by building high Places in Tophet for their Idolatrous Worship and by burning their Sons and their Daughters in the Fire there God threatned there to punish them for their Idolatry and Cruelty Thus saith the Lord Jer. 7.31 32 33. The Days come that it shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom but the Valley of Slaughter for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no Place and the Carcases of the People shall be Meat for the Fowls of the Heaven and for the Beasts of the Earth and none shall fray them away 3. The Instruments by which God punisheth Men are sometimes the same which were the Instruments of their Sin Judg. 7. Thus the Sichemites whom Abimelech made use of as his Instruments and Assistants in slaying his Brethren were afterwards through God's righteous Judgment a Means of the Destruction of Abimelech himself 4. God often punisheth Men in such a manner as bears some Resemblance with their Sin The Scripture is full of Instances hereof If Jacob deceive his aged Father and make him believe he is his eldest Son Esau and so steal away the Blessing from his Brother
Gen. 29.23 Laban shall deceive him much in the like manner giving him Leah to Wife instead of Rachel If David first commit Adultery with Bathshebah 2 Sam. 12.10 11 12. and then contrive the murdering of Vriah for the concealing thereof his Son Absolom shall be permitted to lie with his Father's Concubines as he had done with the Wife of Vriah and as he had slain Vriah by the Sword of the Children of Ammon so the Sword shall never depart from his House If Ahab and Jezebel take away the Life of Naboth because he would not part with his Vineyard and the Dogs do lick his Blood the Sentence of Ahab from the Mouth of the Lord shall be In the Place where Dogs licked the Blood of Naboth shall Dogs lick thy Blood even thine 1 Kings 21.19 And the Dogs shall eat Jezebel by the VVall of Jezreel and him that dieth of Ahab in the City Dogs shall eat and him that dieth in the Field shall the Fowls of the Air eat ver 23 24. If Nadab and Abihu Levit. 10.1 2. If the two hundred and fifty Men which were the Complices of Corah Dathan and Abyram Numb 16.35 presume to offer strange Fire before the Lord by strange Fire by a Fire coming out from before the Lord shall they be consumed If the Israelites burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven upon the Tops of their Houses Jer. 19.13 their Houses shall be set on fire and burnt down by the Enemy As the Sword of Agag the King of the Amalekites had made many Women childless so must his Mother be childless among Women 1 Sam. 15.33 5. God punisheth Men in the Matter or Object in which they have sinned If David be proud of the Multitude of his People and out of the Pride of his Heart will have them numbred God will chasten him by diminishing his People 2 Sam. 24.15 threescore and ten thousand of them shall die by the Pestilence If Jehoshaphat join himself with wicked Ahaziah King of Israel 2 Chron. 20.35 36 37. and in compliance with him builds Ships that they may go to Tarshish his Ships shall be broken and his Purposes shall be disappointed Thus we have in many Instances seen the Truth of what was spoken That God often makes choice of such Punishments as point at the Sin for which they were inflicted This God doth for several Reasons 1. To convince those who are obstinately blind and will not see their Sins nor own the Evils that light on them to be the Punishments of those Sins Men are naturally so unwilling to acknowledg their own Guilt and that they suffer for their Sins that they endeavour to make any other Construction of those Evils which befal them rather than to yield that God thereby intended to punish them for their Transgressions Sometimes they will impute all to the Malice of second Causes and the Instruments of their Sufferings never looking so high as God without whom no Creature could touch them Sometimes they will fancy that such Evils light upon them by chance and not by Divine Providence ordering them for their Punishment or Correction But now when God's Dealings bear such a Resemblance of and Correspondence with their Sins they are forced to see and acknowledg their Sins and the exact Justice of God in their Punishment A remarkable Example hereof we have in Adonibezek who when his Thumbs and great Toes were cut off was thereby enforced to give Glory to God's Justice saying Judg. 1.7 Threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbs and great Toes cut off gathered their Meat under my Table as I have done so God hath requited me 2. To help the Weakness of those who are in some measure willing to see their Sins and to discern God's End in his Corrections but cannot do it so easily unless something in the Correction it self lead them to the Sight of their Sin Thus when a Man suffers in the same kind in which he hath been injurious to others or when a Man loseth by those unlawful Artifices by which he made account to increase his Gain he cannot but take notice of his Sin in the Punishment which otherwise perhaps he would have over-look'd 3. God hereby makes the Chastisement work more kindly and effectually For these Circumstances pointing at a Man's Sin so evidently do add much to the smarting of the Rod with which God corrects and makes Men take his Chastisements the more to Heart And all this stirs up more earnest Desires and Endeavours to answer the end of his Corrections Physicians when they give gentle Physick or have to do either with obstinate or sluggish Bodies put in somewhat to animate and quicken the Operation of their Prescriptions So God by these Circumstances so directly pointing at a Man's Sin quickens the Operation of his spiritual Physick which without these Circumstances would little affect the Patient or stir those bad Humours which are to be carried off 4. God hereby sometimes intends also the Vindication of his Justice and Holiness before the World When Men have sinned grievously and â—â—enly so as the World hath taken notice of it God will have the World also 〈◊〉 notice of his Severity against such Sins and to that end he writes the Sin in fair and legible Characters upon the Punishment so as all that pass by may say Verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth But now if God should not thus point at the Sin by the Punishment many who took notice of the Sin would never take notice of the Punishment thereof and consequently God's Hatred of Sin and his Severity against it would not so manifestly appear For though God should inflict as severe a Punishment on the Sinner in some other kind yet few would understand what Sin God thereby intended to punish and so his Justice and Holiness would be as little vindicated in the Judgment of the greatest part of those who had taken notice of the Sin as if he had not punished the Sin at all 5. God thus points at the Sin by the Punishment to give warning to others that they may take heed how they venture upon those Sins which they see are so odious unto God and so severely and remarkably punished by him that others may see and fear Deut. 13.11 and do no more any such Wickedness as God speaks touching the end of the Execution of Vindictive Justice by the Magistrate So then to return to that which gave occasion of all that hath been said concerning the several Ways of God's pointing at the Sin by the Punishment by what hath been said it appears that our Afflictions are a special help to lead us to the sight of our Sins and therefore in that respect as well as in others the time of Affliction is the meetest Season for searching and trying our ways By the help that our Afflictions then afford us we may then find out those Sins which at another time
great Evil of Sin In every Sin God is set at nought and undervalued and the Creature is preferred before him Yea the Creature is upon the matter made our God while that Trust and Confidence is put in it that is only due to God or that Satisfaction and Happiness is expected from it that is to be expected only from God The Apostle saith The covetous Man is an Idolater Eph. 5.5 because he makes an Idol of his Riches setting them up in the room of God and making them the Object of his Trust and Reliance instead of God The same is in some degree done in every Sin when a Man makes the Creature the Object of that Joy and Delight of that Satisfaction and Complacency that he ought to take in God only Now this is an high Affront to God What viler Indignity can be offered him than that his Creatures should be preferred before him 2. We may hence also infer the extream Folly that there is in Sin for therein we forsake the Fountain of living Waters and hew us out broken Cisterns that can hold no VVater as God complains of his People Jer. 2.13 We forsake God in whom is all Fulness and betake our selves to the Creature which is mere Vanity and Emptiness 3. Hence also we may infer the singular Goodness of God to us in our Afflictions the Design and End whereof is to reduce us from our Wandrings and to bring us back again to God from whom we have gone astray to recal us from following the smaller Streams and empty Rivulets of Dissatisfaction and Vexation of Spirit to the full and overflowing Fountain of all true Bliss and Happiness 4. We may also hence infer that the Duty of Repentance ought not to be so displeasing and unacceptable to us as usually it is For as sowr and distasteful a Work as it seems to be 't is but a returning to him who is the Well of Life and a renewing our Acquaintance and Peace with him in whom our true Comforts are lodged in whose Favour is Life Psal 63.3 and whose Loving-kindness is better than Life And so much of that Observation from the Phrase or manner of Expression by which our true Repentance and Reformation are signified Now that our Return unto God is the thing that God expects from us in our Afflictions and which will assuredly prove the most effectual Means for removing God's afflicting Hand from us I have already shewed in handling the former Duty And all that I shall here add shall be to shew very briefly how we must return unto God that his chastising Hand may be taken off from us and by what Means we may be kept from leaving him again and then answer one Objection that may be made against what shall have been spoken Now as to the manner how we must return unto God if we will be freed from our Pressures 1. We must return speedily I thought on my VVays and turned my Feet unto thy Testimonies I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments said David Psal 119.59 60. What through our Sluggishness and what through our Unwillingness to forget our Sins we are long a deliberating to return and many Attempts and Essays we make at returning before we return indeed and God in his Providence deals with us accordingly he also seems to attempt to deliver us but proceeds no further because we are so backward and our Motions are so slow and inconstant Were our Returns to God speedy we might hope they would speed our Deliverance 2. We must return thorowly We many times take some Steps towards God and having gone half way we sit down Our Reformation is imperfect and partial Hosea 7.8 We are like Ephraim a Cake not turned half Dough and baked on one side only and we fare accordingly Though we have some Deliverance as God speaks 2 Chron. 12.7 yet God doth not go through with his Work because we go not through with our Work 3. We must return resolutely and stedfastly as I may so speak I mean with a resolute fixed and stedfast Purpose of Heart not to forsake God again but to cleave unto him When we return God is most ready to entertain us and be at Peace with us but 't is ever on condition that we turn not again unto Folly Psal 85.8 The Defect hereof was that which God complained of in his People their Spirit was not stedfast with God Psal 78.8 Their Goodness was as the Morning Cloud and like the early Dew that goeth away Hosea 6.4 To prevent this our Return to Sin and to enable us to cleave stedfastly unto God which was the second thing these things would be done 1st Be ever sensible of your Proneness to revolt and depart from God We are naturally bent to Backsliding as God speaks Hos 11.7 The Sense of our Weakness is one good Preservative against it 2dly Every Day acknowledg all your Strength to adhere unto God to be from God and give him the Glory of it Say with David Psal 41.12 Thou upholdest me in mine Integrity This your thankful Acknowledgment of God in your Stedfastness and Perseverance is the way still to engage him to uphold and establish you 3dly Earnestly beg of God that he would keep you close to himself and preserve you from declining Beg with David that God would unite your Heart to him to fear his Name Psal 86.11 And that according to his Promise Jer. 32.40 he would be pleased to put his Fear in your Heart that you may not depart from him 4thly Frequently set before your Eyes in your most serious Meditations the Happiness of adhering constantly to God and the extream Folly and Misery of departing from him Recount the Comforts you have found in cleaving to him and how often and sorely you have smarted for departing from him 5thly Be ever watchful over your self especially keep your Heart with all Diligence observing and opposing the first Motions to Sin 6thly Daily renew your purpose of cleaving to God and of resisting those particular Sins by which you have heretofore most frequently departed from him And so I come to speak to the Objection which may be made which was the last thing to be spoken to Object I have say you both found out my Sin for which God afflicted me and also forsaken it and yet my Affliction still continues How is this consistent with God's Promises of Deliverance out of Trouble upon our Return to him Answ 1. You have found out and forsaken one Sin but it may be you have not found out all there may be other Sins not yet discovered for which God's Hand is still stretched out against you It may be the Sin which God principally intended is still hid from your Eyes 2. It may be though you have for the present left your Sin yet you have not left it out of a true Hatred of it but only that you might be eased from the present Smart
But this by the way In the Words that I have read which are a part of Ezra's Address unto God by humble and affectionate Confession of their Sin he spreads and lays open the Aggravations of it together with the Danger and sad Issues of it if they should still continue in it The Aggravations thereof are these three 1. The great Severity that God had formerly shewed against them for their Sins which is set forth and express'd in the first Words After all that is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Trespass 2. The merciful Tenderness and Compassion that God however even in that Severity was pleased to manifest towards them in the next Words Seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve 3. The singular Favour God had shewed them in rescuing them from under those Calamities which their Sins had brought upon them in the Clause following And hast given us such a Deliverance as this These were the things by which their Sin would be greatly heightned after so much Severity Compassion and Kindness to have returned to Folly and to have broken God's Commandments again was to have done as bad as they could as the Prophet speaks and to have given their Sins all the Aggravations that they were capable of Then as for the Danger they exposed themselves to that was no less than utter Ruine and Destruction After this Mixture of severe and merciful Providences should we again break thy Commandments wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no Remnant nor Escaping They had indeed already broken God's Commandment in a grievous manner and sinned against him with an high Hand by those unlawful Marriages His meaning therefore is should we again break thy Commandment as we have done Should we still continue in our Sin and obstinately refuse to be reduced to Obedience If we should still perversly and irreclaimably go on in our Trespasses wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us Of these Particulars in order as they lie in the Text. I begin with the Aggravations of their Sin the first of which is the great Severity God had formerly shewed against them for their past Transgressions After all that is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Trespass should we again break thy Commandments Here divers things are observable 1. That Ezra and all those who joined with him in this Confession of their Sins did endeavour to aggravate their Sins by calling in and laying together all those Circumstances by which the Hainousness of them might the better appear And this they did to the end their Hearts might be the more affected with them and the more soundly humbled for them as also that they might be the more willing to forsake them And this is the Property of all true Penitents they ever desire to be throughly apprehensive of the Evil of their Sins and therefore they aggravate them to the utmost in their Confessions charging themselves fully with them and laying as much Load upon themselves as they can They think they can never speak enough against themselves nor sufficiently discover and represent the Evil of their Ways insomuch that sometimes they rather exceed than come short herein charging themselves more heavily than there was cause for But Hypocrites unhumbled and impenitent Sinners are of a different temper these instead of aggravating their Sins are wont to extenuate and palliate them If they be forced to confess them 't is for the most part but by halves that they do it If they cannot but acknowledg they have offended yet they will do it with an Apology or with an Addition of something that may qualify and lessen their Sin They are indeed sometimes overtaken but 't is very rarely 't is when they are drawn aside by ill Company or overpower'd by the Strength of Temptation that they are not the only Persons that are faulty in that kind that some others that would be esteemed much better than themselves are much more blame-worthy that there is no Man but must have his Allowances and that it would go hard with us all if all our Actions should be narrowly scanned and the like These and such like are the Excuses which they plead and the Defences they make for themselves when they should take shame to themselves and own their Excesses and Exorbitances in their full Magnitude judging themselves that they might not be judged of the Lord. These partial and favourable lame and imperfect Confessions of Sin when some little Part is owned but much more is denied when Fig-leaves and specious Pretences are studiously sought out to cover as much of a Man's Shame as is possible are ever an infallible Argument that the Sinner was never duly humbled for that Sin for which he hath still so much Kindness and Affection 2. Another thing observable is that Ezra and those other holy Men that together with him made this Confession did impute all those Miseries and Calamities which they had suffered in the Captivity unto their Sins they did own their Sufferings as the Fruit of their Sins and acknowledg their Transgressions to have been the meritorious Cause and Procurers of their Afflictions After all say they that is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Trespass They were convinced and did yield and assent that God's Intentions in bringing those Evils upon them were to punish them for their Sins This Conviction and Acknowledgment was necessary for them and is for us all in reference to our Afflictions and yet 't is very difficult to attain it 'T is necessary because without it we can neither be patient under our Afflictions nor profit by them nor rationally expect a good Issue out of them 1st Unless we be convinced that our Sufferings have relation to our Sins and own them as the Fruits of our Sins we shall hardly be able to undergo with Patience what is inflicted on us To be sure we shall want one of the most effectual Arguments to work Patience in us 'T is the Sense of our Sins deserving whatsoever is come upon us and an Acknowledgment of the righteous Hand of God in bringing such Afflictions on us for our Sins that humbles and subdues our Hearts to God composeth and quieteth our tumultuous Spirits and gives check to all the Risings of our rebellious Nature against God's Providence It was the Sense that Eli had of his own Guilt and of the just Desert of his own Sin and the Sins of his Family that made him so patient quiet and silent when that heavy Sentence was by Samuel pronounced against him and his as that he had not a Word to say more than only to profess his humble and meek Submission to the good Pleasure of God It is the Lord saith he 1 Sam. 3.18 let him do what seemeth him good And this is that which the Spirit
of God calls the accepting of the Punishment of our Sins Lev. 26.41 But if the Sinner be not convinced that he suffers for his Sins and that his Transgressions have been the Procurers of his Afflictions it cannot easily be but that his corrupt Nature should rebel against God and impatiently rise up against his Providence as unequal too rigorous severe 2dly Neither can a Man profit by his Afflictions unless he be convinced that his Sins have been the Cause of them and that God strikes at them in his Sufferings Who can think himself concerned to amend and reform that upon the account of his Afflictions which he never discerned to be the Cause of them nor can be convinced that they have any relation to it But let a Man once be throughly apprehensive of the Displeasure of God against him for his particular Sins and see the Hand of God in his Afflictions striking at those Sins and then he will soon think himself highly concerned to rectify or remove out of the way that which hath done him so much Mischief He will think he cannot make too much haste to quit and be rid of that for which he sorely smarts already and may yet smart more unless by his speedy Reformation he prevent it When God had sent a Plague among the Israelites for their murmuring Moses being deeply sensible of the fierce Wrath of God against them for that Sin saith to Aaron Numb 16.46 Take a Censer and put Fire therein from off the Altar and put on Incense and go quickly unto the Congregation and make an Atonement for them for there is Wrath gone out from the Lord the Plague is begun Go quickly saith he for Wrath is gone out from the Lord. A lively Sense of the Anger and Displeasure of God in your Afflictions for your Sins will speed and quicken your Endeavours to make your Peace with God by answering the End of his Corrections 3dly Neither can you rationally expect to be freed from your Afflictions in a way of Mercy until they bring you to the Sight of your Sins and you look upon them as the Punishment of Sin For till that be done upon you your Afflictions are wholly fruitless as having done no part of that Work for effecting of which God sent them To understand why you are afflicted and to see the Sins which God strikes at in your Afflictions is the first Step towards God's attaining his End in afflicting you If this be not done upon you nothing is done And therefore you have no Reason to expect the Removal of them unless it be to make way for some other more smarting Rod which may effectually work that in you which God intended But though in these Respects it be most necessary to see and own our Sins as the Cause and Procurers of our Sufferings yet to do it is as difficult as 't is necessary For such is the Pride and Stubbornness of our Hearts that we are not easily brought to take Shame to our selves and to acknowledg our own particular Sins to have been the Cause of our Sufferings saying to our selves as God saith to Jerusalem Jer. 4.18 Thy VVay and thy Doings have procured these things unto thee We are very unwilling to acknowledg our own Guilt and would much rather lay the Cause of our Sufferings at any other Door than our own And this we are especially apt to do in publick and common Calamities These we ascribe 1. To Chance or common Providence in which we do not think our selves particularly touch'd or concern'd 2. To the Wickedness of some malicious and mischievous Instruments that were the Contrivers and Causers of our Sufferings 3. To the Sins of others The Provocations of such and such profligate and abominable Persons drew down the Judgments of God upon the Place and not our own Offences As for our selves we suffered only in the Croud and because we were found among those who were to be punished Or 4. If we acknowledg our Sins in the general to have been the meritorious Cause of our Sufferings yet we descend not to Particulars we charge not our selves with such and such Sins for which God hath been angry with us And so our owning our Sin only in general as the Cause of our Sufferings is but a formal thing with which we are little affected 'T is little better than if we had said We believe indeed that we have deserved all that is come upon us but we know not how nor wherein Ezra no doubt went a great deal further 't is not to be questioned but that he had in his most passionate Confessions an Eye upon the particular Sins for which they suffered in Babylon We may be sure they were not Generalities only that so deeply affected him he had upon his Heart the particular Instances of their vile Provocations together with the Circumstances of them and so must we if we desire to be affected with God's terrible Providences as we ought and to take them to Heart in a right manner Though what I am now speaking concerns us all yet there may be those amongst us who may think themselves very little concerned therein 1. Those who though they have been Sufferers together with others yet have been free from all those foul and enormous Offences and high Provocations which many others have been guilty of and possibly over and above their being free from the Guilt and Stain of fouler Sins they have been such as have made a stricter Profession of Religion than most others These Persons may be very inclinable to think that God did not particularly intend the correcting of them for their Sins in the common Judgment that lighted upon the Place but that they suffer rather upon their Neighbours Account than their own 2. Of the same Opinion perhaps may they be tempted to be who seem even as to outward things to have gained by their Afflictions and to be in a better Condition as to Trade than they were in before 'T is easy for such if any such be to entertain themselves with a pleasant Dream that God only emptied them to the end he might fill them fuller than they were before and that he had no other Design in pulling down their Houses than that he might build them up fairer But let neither the one nor the other deceive themselves They would but flatter themselves if they should think that God did not aim at their Sins in his severe Providences as well as at the Sins of their Neighbours As for the former of these though they may have been free from the fouler Abominations and crying Sins of the Place and though they may have made a strict and high Profession of Religion yet even such may have been tainted with the Pollution of many Sins which may have had no small Influence in procuring the heavy Judgments of God upon the Town And their Sins in respect of their nearer relation to God and stricter Profession
than against your self A due Sense of your Sin and of the Dishonour you have done to God thereby would make you even out of an holy Indignation and Revenge against your self humbly and patiently to submit to the utmost of that Severity which God is pleased to exercise towards you 5. Remember how ill God took it from his People the Jews that they complained the Way of the Lord was not equal which is in effect your Complaint Concerning this he complains and expostulates with them Ye say Ezek. 18.25 The Way of the Lord is not equal Hear now O House of Israel Is not my VVay equal Are not your VVays unequal And so again ver 29. And then he adds ver 30. Therefore will I judg you O House of Israel every one according to his VVays saith the Lord God repent and turn your selves from all your Transgressions so Iniquity shall not be your Ruine As if he had said Whereas ye complain of the Inequality of my Dealings with you unless you repent I will destroy you all and then you will have little Cause to complain of my inequal Dealings They who complain of the Inequality of God's dealing with them had need take heed lest God lay Judgment to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet as he threatens Isa 28.17 Lest he lay heavier things upon them lest he bring such Judgments on them as shall come up more nearly to the Measures the Proportion and Demerits of their Sins How much soever they have suffered God may yet lay much more upon them and yet still punish them much less than their Iniquities deserve 6. Whereas you complain that God deals more severely with you than with many others think with your self 1st That 't is possible your Sins may have been greater than the Sins of such as you have in your Eye greater in respect of the Circumstances and Aggravations of them It may be they never sinned against so much Light and so many clear Convictions against such Mercies and so many Discoveries of God's Love against so many Warnings and gentler Chastisements against so many severer Stroaks when milder Courses would not prevail Can you wonder at it that God deals more severely with you than with others if upon Examination it should be found that your Sins have been greater than theirs 2dly It may be God intends you more Good than many others By sorer Afflictions he means to make you better and so much the better as your Afflictions have been and are greater His Chastnings though severe are no Evidences of his Hatred but Fruits of his Love and of his Purpose to do your Soul much Good by them for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth Prov. 3.12 even as a Father doth the Son in whom he delighteth 3dly What if the time for correcting some others be not yet come even they who have been hitherto spared or been dealt very gently with may hereafter if milder Remedies do no good be as severely dealt with as you have been God takes his own Time and makes use of his own Methods for disciplining all his and some he sees good to handle after one manner some after another as to his Wisdom seems best 4thly What if some of those who are for the present spared should be reserved to the Judgment of the last Day while you are chastned here that you may not be condemned with the World hereafter God may spare some others in Anger and correct you in Mercy for his forbearing to punish is sometimes no Fruit of his Favour but an Effect of his highest Displeasure according to that Psal 81.11 12. My People would not hearken to my Voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up to their own Hearts Lust Object 3. But my Troubles are long and tedious saith another there is no End of them I have been waiting and waiting for Deliverance but it comes not I see others in Trouble and I see them come well out of it but my Feet stick fast in the Mire Answ To this I answer 1. That it is not your Case alone Did not the People of God take up the like Complaint The Harvest is past Jer. 8.20 the Summer is ended and we are not saved The time when we expected Deliverance is over and yet we are still where we were our Afflictions are still lengthened out Was there not a time when Zion said Isa 49.14 The Lord hath forsaken me my Lord hath forgotten me Was there not a time when David after he had been long praying for Deliverance and waiting Psal 69.3 said I am weary of my crying my Throat is dried mine Eyes fail while I wait for my God Wherefore have no hard Thoughts of God much less give way to murmuring against him who deals no otherwise with you than he often deals with many of his own 2. Is not the Cause of God's respiting your Deliverance in your self Are not you still unfit for Mercy and is not that the true reason why you have it not God delighteth in Mercy Mich. 7.18 He waiteth to be gracious Isa 30.18 How ready God is to shew Mercy to us when we are ready and prepared to receive it he hath declared in the most pathetical way of Expression Psal 81.13 16. O that my People had hearkned unto me and that Israel had walked in my VVays I should soon have subdued their Enemies and turned my Hand against their Adversaries The Haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured for ever He should have fed them with the finest of the VVheat and with Honey out of the Rock should I have satisfied thee And to the same Purpose is that Isa 48.18 O that thou hadst hearkned to my Commandments then had thy Peace been as a River and thy Righteousness as the VVaves of the Sea So then we may thank our selves that in our Afflictions we wait so long for Deliverance Our Mercies never meet with any Obstructions in God but in our selves We by our Continuance in Sin by our Remisness and Slackness in the Work of sound Humiliation and Reformation retard and set back our Mercies and then we complain and murmur as if God were slack and unmindful of his Promises as if he were hardly drawn to shew Mercy 3. Deliverance out of Trouble is of God's free Grace we cannot challenge it at his Hands We bring our selves into Trouble by our Sins and he may justly leave us to perish in our Troubles He therefore who doth all that he doth for us out of free Mercy may take his own time to do it when he pleaseth Is it fit that we who are unworthy of any good thing who can demand nothing of him should prescribe Times and Seasons to him and as if we required a Debt of him set him a Day when he should shew Mercy 4. His own Time is the best Time It may seem long to us that we