but consider whether these thoughts which poise down our hearts be not groundless see whether they will hold water at the last and whether in making such excuses to great presumption we add not the height of folly To pretend for our delay the Profits and Pleasures of sin and yet hope for Heaven at the last as well as the generation of the righteous it 's but a meer fallacy and delusion of Satan to fill our hearts with such Vanities Can it be expected that we should have our good in this World and in the World to come too This is well if it might be But let us try the matter and begin with your first branch You are loth to part with your Profits and Pleasures But consider what a grand iniquity this is Can you offer God a greater wrong and indignity Do you thus requite the Lord you foolish and unwise Dost thou think this the way to make thy peace with God whom thou hast offended as long as thou mayst to be a Rebel against him What a high dishonour is it to him that thou shouldst give him thy feeble and doting old age and the Devil thy lively and vigorous youth thy strength and spirits Dost thou think he will drink the Dregs and eat the Orts Will he accept thee in the next World when thou thus scornest him in this If you offer the Blind for sacrifice is it not an evil If you offer â—he Lame and Sick is it not evil Offer it now unto thy governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of Hosts Mal. 1.8 But mark how he goes on v. 14. Cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing Mark God accounts such service a corrupt thing and the Person that offers it a mere Cheat a Deceiver Never look for a blessing from God in Heaven when thou sacrificest to him such corrupt things No thou art Cursed of God as long as thou continuest in this Hypocrisy We are to offer and present our selves a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God Rom. 12.1 Now judge whether they offer God the living who say when my doting days come my lame days thar I cannot go my blind dayes that I cannot see I le offer my self a sacrifice to God Will this be acceptable to him Is not this Evil saith the Lord to offer me such a corrupt thing Nay more he 's accursed that offers such an offering such a polluted sacrifice God will not like with it when we serve our selves first with the best and choise Do you thus requite the Lord Do you think he will accept it at your hands Go offer such a gift to thy Ruler to thy Prince will he accept it or be pleased with it No a Landlord will have the best and the choice and it must needs provoke God when we give him the refuse I am King of Kings saith the Lord my name is dreadful and I will look to be served after another manner Let no man then thus delude himself with vain hopes but let him consider how dishonourable a thing it will be to God 2. And how unprofitable to him whoever thou art Indeed we cannot be profitable unto Him Properly as he that is wise may be profitable to himself Job 22.2 But he is so gracious a master that he esteems our sincere and seasonable service to be his own gain and our sloth and neglect to be his detriment he accompts our destruction to be his own loss Now it s the ready way 1. It s the ready way to thy Destruction Heaven and happiness and eternal life are laid up for those that embrace the acceptable time death horrour and eternal misery for those that refuse it and wilt thou hazard Soul and Body on this Moses on this ground did rather choose to suffer affliction in this World with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Hebr. 11.25 When these things are past what profit will you have of those things whereof then you will be ashamed Nay whereof were thine eyes open thou wouldst now be ashamed and happy wouldst thou be if thou wert as the converted Romans were even now ashamed Rom. 6.21 Shame accompanies Sin so constantly and unavoidably that even repentance it self removes it not The Romans now Christians were ashamed for what they had done before they knew Christ. When a man comes to see truly and throughly into himself he will find no profit of such things as these Death will certainly follow us not only Temporal but Eternal also if we Repent not the more speedily that 's all the profit we shall find 2. But suppose thou prevent everlasting death by repentance yet what profit is there of those things whereof we are now for the present ashamed The best can come is shame 3. Thou art loth to part with the Pleasures of sin for a Season and hereafter thou thinkest thou canst amend all But consider the particulars and then shall you see how you are befool'd in your hearts and souls Believe it for an undoubted truth there 's nothing in the World by which Satan more deludes a man then by this perswading him to neglect his day and that he may repent well enough hereafter That you may expel this suggestion out of your Souls pray unto God that he would go along with his Word and cause you to lay this to heart that by his Spirit your understanding may be enlightned to see the truth Though I make this as clear as the Sun that it is a false supposition and mere folly on which we build in deferring our return to God yet God from Heaven must teach you or you will be never the wiser Know therefore that this very day God reaches out the Golden Scepter to thee and what folly were it no neglect it since thou knowest not whether he will ever proffer it thee again And assure thy self that he is a Lyar that tels thee thou mayst as well repent hereafter as now and this will appear whether we consider the order of outward things in the World or the nature of sin 1. For external things every Age after a man comes into the World if he embrace not the present opportunity for repentance is worse then other and are each of them as so many Clogs which come one after a another to hinder it As for thy Childish Age that 's mere Vanitie and thy riper Age will bring many Impediments and Hinderances that youth never thought of Thou art then troubled about many things and perplexed how to provide for maintenance in the midst whereof know that thou hast not a body of Brass but a Corruptible and Fading body and yet such is the Folly of the heart of man that the less Ground he hath to go the fewer Dayes to spend the more he often provides and is the more covetous Consider that
that we must forsake all the sinful lusts of the flesh This is that which makes Baptism to be Baptism indeed to us The other thing required is that we forsake all Rom. 6.2 It is not confined to the very act but it hath a perpetual effect all the dayes of thy life I add it never hath its full effect till the day of our death the abolition of the whole body of sin That which we seal is not compleat till then till we have final grace The water of Baptism quenches the fire of Purgatory for it is not accomplished till final grace is received We are now under the Physicians hands then shall we be cured Baptism is not done onely at the Font which is a thing deceives many for it runs through our whole life nor hath it consummation till our dying day till we receive final grace The force and efficacy of Baptism is for the washing away of sin to morrow as well as the day past the death of sin is not till the death of the body and therefore it s said we must be buried with him by Baptism into his death Now at our death we receive final grace till when this washing and the vertue thereof hath not its consummation Let no man therefore deceive you with vain words take heed of looking on your selves in these false glasses think it not an easy thing to get Heaven the way is strait and the passage narrow There must be a striving to enter there must be an ascending into Heaven a motion contrary to nature And therefore it 's folly to think we shall drop into Heaven there must be a going upward if ever we will come thither EPH. 2.1 2 3. And you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins where in times past you walked according to the course of this World according to the Prince that ruleth in the Air the Spirit that worketh in the Children of disobedience Amongst whom also c. THE last time I declared unto you the duty that was necessarily required of us if we look to be saved that we must not onely take the matter speedily into consideration and not be deluded by our own hearts and the wiles of Satan but that we must not do it superficially or perfunctorily but must bring our selves to the true touchstone and not look upon our selves with false glasses because there is naturally in every one self-love and in these last and worst times men are apt to think better of themselves then they deserve If there be any beginning of goodness in them they think all is well when there is no greater danger in the World then being but half-Christians He thinks the half-Christian I mean that if he hath escaped the outward pollutions of the world through lust and be not so bad as formerly he hath been and not so bad as many men in the World are therefore he is well enough Whereas his end proves worse then his beginning This superficial repentance is but like the washing of a Hog the outside is onely wash't the swinish nature is not taken away There may be in this man some outward abstaining from the common gross sins of the World or those which he himself was subject unto but his disposition to sin is the same his nature is nothing changed there is no renovation no casting in a new mould which must be in us For it is not a little reforming will serve the turn no nor all the morality in the World nor all the common graces of Gods Spirit nor the outward change of the life they will not do unless we are quickned and have a new life wrought in us unless there be a supernatural working of Gods Spirit we can never enter into Heaven Therefore in this case it behoves every man to prove his own work Gal. 6.4 A thing men are hardly drawn unto to be exact examiners of themselves Coelo discendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Heathen himself could say to know a mans self is a heavenly saying and it 's an heavenly thing indeed if we have an Heavenly Master to teach us The Devil taught Socrates a lesson that brought him from the study of natural to moral Philosophy whereby he knew himself yet the Devil knew morality could never teach him the lesson indeed All the morality in the World cannot teach a man to escape Hell We must have a better instructor herein than the Devil or our selves the Lord of Heaven must do it if ever we will be brought to know our selves aright St. Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel one of the learnedst Doctors of the Pharisees and yet he could not teach him this When he studied the law he thought himâ—elf unblameable but coming to an higher and better Master he knows that in him that is in his flesh dwells no good thing Rom. 7. By self-examination a man may find many faults in himself but to find that which the Apostle afterwards found in himself to see the flesh a rottenness the sink of iniquity that is within him and to find himself so bad as indeed he is unless it please the Lord to open his eyes and to teach him he can never attain it Now we come to this place of the Apostle wherein we see the true glass of our selves the Spirit knows what we are better then our selves and the Spirit shews us that every man of us either was or is such as we are here set down to be We are first natural before we can be spiritual there is not a man but hath been or is yet a natural man and therefore see we the large description of a natural man before he is quickned before God which is rich in mercy enlivens him being dead in sins and saves him by grace in Christ. Thus is it with us all and thus must it be and we shall never be fit for grace till we know our selves thus far till we know our selves as far out of frame as the Spirit of truth declares us to be In this place of Scripture consider we 1. Who this carnal man is what they are which the Apostle speaks of to be dead in sins and that walk after the course of the World led by the Devil and have their conversation after the flesh Children of wrath These are big words and heavy things Consider first the subject of whom this is spoken Then follows the Praedicate or 2. What that ill news is which he delivers of them We begin with the first 1. Who they are of whom this is spoken and that is you You hath he quickned who were dead and ye in the words following that in times past walked after the course of the world and in the third verse more particularly Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past He speaks now in the first person as before in the second so that the subject is we all and ye all Not a man in
heart the Prince of the Power of the Air. While thou wert carried with the world thou went'st with the Stream and hadst the tide with thee but now the Devil being come thou hast both wind and tide and how can he chuse but run whom the Devil drives But this is not all There must be something in thine own disposition too that it may be completely filled Though there be wind and tide yet if the Ship be a slug it will not make that hast that another light ship will Therefore here is the flesh too and the fulfilling the desires thereof which is a quick and nimble vessel and this makes up the matter So that if we consider the wind and tide and lightness of the Ship it will appear how the room is filled And how woful must the state of that man be It is a fearful thing to be delivered up unto Satan but not so fearful as to be delivered up to ones own lusts But by the way observe this for a ground God never gives us up God never forsakes us till we first forsake him He is still before hand with us in doing us good but in point of hurt we our selves are first in the point of forsaking we are always before hand with God If it should be proposed to thee whether thou wilt forsake God or the Devil and thou dost forsake God and chusest the Devil thou deservest that he should take possession of thee When a man shall obstinately renew his gross sins doth he not deserve to be given up Observe the case in our first Parents God told the woman one thing the Devil perswades her another she hearkens to the Devil and believes him rather than God and when we shall desire to serve the Devil rather than God the God that made us and that made heaven for us do we not deserve to be given up to him For his Servants we are whom we obey Rom. 6.16 And thus we see how fearful a thing it is to be delivered up to our selves and to the Devil Psal. 81.11 First they forsake God God comes and offers himself unto them I will be thy God thy Father thou shalt want nothing yet notwithstanding Israel would not hear they would have none of me And then if thou wilt have none of me I will have none of thee saith God Then see what follows v. 12. God commits the Prisoner to himself I gave them up to their own hearts lusts c. And there 's no case so desperate as this when God shall say If thou wilt be thine own Master be thine own Master Thus to be given up to a mans self is worse than to be given up unto Satan To be given up unto Satan may be for thy safety but there 's not a mountain of Gods wrath greater than to give a man up unto himself We would fain go over the hedges but when God loves us he hedges up our ways Hos. 2.6 If God love us he will not leave us to our selves though we desire it But when God shall say go thy wayes if thou wilt not be kept in be thy own Master this is a most fearful thing And this is the third woe First the soul is polluted with sin it forsakes God and God forsakes it Then the World the Flesh and the Devil these fill up the room and then what follows when these three rule within But all kinds of sin And so all kinds of punishment which is the next Woe 4. And this woe brings in all the curses of Almighty God an Iliad of evils Sin calls for its wages viz. Death Death That 's the payment of all The wages of sin is death And this is the next thing which I shall open and explain Now in handling hereof I will first shew how death in general must of necessity follow sin that thou who hast forsaken the fountain of life art liable to everlasting death And for this see some places of Scripture Rom. 6.2 3. The wages of sin is death Consider then first what this wages is Wages is a thing which must be paid If you have an hireling and your hireling receive not his wages you are sure to hear of it and God will hear of it too James 5.4 He which keeps back the wages of the labourer or the hireling their cry will come into the ears of the Lord of Sabboth As long as hirelings wages are unpaid Gods ears are filled with their cries Pay me my wages pay me my wages So sin cries and it is a dead voice Pay me my wages pay me my wages the wages of sin is death And sin never leaves crying never lets God alone never giveâ— him rest till this wages be paid When Cain had slain Abel he thought he should never have heard any more on 't but sin hath a voice The voice of thy Brothers blood cries unto me from the ground So Gen. 18.20 the Lord saith concerning Sodom Because the cry of Sodom is great and their sin very grievous therefore I will go down and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come up into mine ears As if the Lord had said It 's a loud cry I can have no rest for it therefore I will go down and see c. If man had his ears open he would continually hear sin crying unto God Pay me my wages pay me my wages kill this sinful soul And though we do not hear it yet so it is The dead and doleful sound thereof fills Heaven It makes God say I will go down and see c. Till sin receive its wages God hath no rest Again see Rom. 7.11 Sin taking occasion by the Commandment deceived me and by it slew me I thought sin not to have been so great a matter as it is We think on a matter of profit or pleasure and thereupon are inticed to sin but here 's the mischief sin deceives us It is a weight it presses down it deceives men it 's more then they deemed it to be The committing of sin is as it were running thy self upon the point of Gods blade Sin at first may flatter thee but it will deceive thee It 's like Joabs kiss to Amasa Amasa was not aware of the sword that was in Joabs hand till he smote it into his ribs that he died 2 Sam. 2.26 When sin entices thee on by profits and pleasures thou art not aware that it will slay thee But thou shâ—lt find it will be bitterness in the end A sinner that acts a tragedy in sin shall have a bloody Catastrophe Rom. 6. What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed Blood and death is the end of the Tragedy The end of those things is death The sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15. What is sin It 's the sting of death Death would not be death unless sin were in it Sin is more deadly then death it self It 's sin enableth death to sting enableth
mans soul There is blood shed and by it pardon of sin and life convey'd unto thee on Christs part Now if there be faith and repentance on thy part and thou accept of Christ as he is offered then thou mayst say I have the Son and as certainly as I have the bread in my hand I shall have life by him This I speak but by the way that the Sun might not set in a cloud that I might not end only in death but that I might shew that there is a way to recover out of that death into which we have all naturally praecipitated our selves by our apostacy from God ROM 6.23 The wages of Sin is death THe last day I entred on the Declaration of the cursed effects and consequents of sin and in general shewed that it is the wrath of God that where sin is there wrath must follow As the Apostle in the Epistle to the Galathians As many as are under the works of the Law are under the curse Now all that may be expected from a God highly offended is comprehended in Scripture by this term Death Wheresoever sin enters death must follow Rom. 5.12 Death passed over all men forasmuch as all had sinned If we are children of sin we must be children of wrath Eph. 1.3 We are then children of wrath even as others Now concerning death in general I shewed you the last time that the state of an unconverted man is a dead and desperate estate He is a slave it would affright him if he did but know his own slavery and what it is that hangs over his head that there 's but a Span betwixt him and death he could never breath any free air he could never be at any rest he could never be free from fear Heb. 2.15 the Apostle saith that Christ came to deliver them that through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage This bondage is a deadly bondage that when we have done all that we can do what 's the payment of the service Death And the fear of this deadly bondage if we were once sensible if God did open our eyes and shew us as he did Belshazar our doom written did we but see it it would make our joynts loose and our knees knock one against another Every day thou livest thou approachest nearer to this death to the accomplishment and consummation of it Death without and Death within Death in this World and in the World to come Not only death thus in gross and in general but in particular also Now to unfold the particulars of death and to shew you the ingredients of this bitter Cup that we may be weary of our estates that we may be drawn out of this death and be made to fly to the Son that we may be free indeed observe that Death is not here to be understood of a separation of the Soul from the Body only but a greater death than that the death of the Soul and Body We have mention made of a first Resurrection Rev. 20.6 Blessed and happy is he that hath his part in the first Resurrection for on such the second death hath no power What is the first resurrection It is a rising from sin And what is the second death It is everlasting damnation The first Death is a Death in sin and the first Resurrection is a rising from sin And so again for all things the judgments or troubles that appertain to this death all a man suffers before It is not as fools think the last blow that fells the Tree but every blow helps forward 'T is not the last blow that kills the man but every blow that goes before makes way unto it Every trouble of mind every anguish every sickness all these are as so many strokes that shorten our life and hasten our end and are as it were so many deaths Therefore however it is said by the Apostle It is appointed for all men once to dye yet we see the Apostle to the Corinthians of the great conflicts that he had in 2 Cor. 11.23 saith that he was in labours abundant in stripes above measure in prisons frequent in deaths oft In deaths often what 's that That is however he could dâ—e but once yet these harbingers of death these stripes bonds imprisonments sicknesses c. all of them were as so many deaths all these were comprehended under this curse and are parts of death in as much as he underwent that which was a furtherance to death he is said to die So we read Exod. 10.17 Pharaoh could say Pray unto your God that he would forgive my sins this once and intreat the Lord that he will take away from me but this death only Not that the Locusts were death but are said to be so because they prepared and made way for a natural death Therefore the great judgments of God are usually in Scripture comprised under this name Death All things that may be expressions of a wrath of an highly provoked God are comprehended under this name All the judgments of God that come upon us in this life or that to come whether they be spiritual and ghostly or temporal are under the Name of Death Now to come to particulars look particularly on Death and you shall see death begun in this world and seconded by a death following the separation of body and soul from God in the world to come 1. First in this life he is always a dying man Man that is born of a woman what is he He is ever spending upon the stock he is ever wasting like a Candle burning still and spending it self as soon as lighted till it come to its utter consumption So he is born to be a dying man death seizeth upon him as soon as ever it findeth sin in him Gen. 2.1 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye saith God to Adam though he lived many years after How then could this threatning hold true Yes it did in regard that presently he fell into a languishing estate subject and obnoxious to miseries and calamities the hastners of it If a man be condemn'd to dye suppose he be reprieved and kept prisoner three or four years after yet we account him but a dead man And if this mans mind shall be taken up with worldly matters earthly contentments purchases or the like would we not account him a Fool or a stupid man seeing he lightly esteems his condemnation because the same hour he is not executed Such is our case we are while in our natural condition in this life dead men ever tending toward the Grave towards corruption as the gourd of Jonah so soon as ever it begins to sprout forth there is a worm within that bites it and causes it to wither The day that we are born there is within us the seed of corruption and that wasts us away with a secret and incurable consumption that certainly brings death in the end So that in our very
birth begins our progress unto death A time a way we have but it leads unto death There is a way from the Tower to Tyburn but it is a way to death Until thou comest to be reconciled unto Christ every hour tends unto thy death there 's not a day that thou canst truly say thou livest in thou art ever posting on to death death in this world and eternal death in the world to come And as it is thus with us at our coming into the world so we are to understand it of that little time we have above ground our days are full of sorrow But mark when I speak of sorrows here we must not take them for such afflictions and sorrows as befal Gods children for theirs are blessings unto them Chastisements are tokens of Gods love For as many as I love I rebuke and chasten saith Christ. Revel 3.19 Affliction to them is like the Dove with an Olive-branch in her mouth to shew that all is well but take a man that is under the Law and then every cross whether it be loss of friends loss of goods diseases on his body all things every thing to him is a token of Gods wrath not a token of Gods love as it is to Gods children but it is as his impress money as part of payment of a greater sum an earnest of the wrath of God the first part of the payment thereof It 's the Apostles direction that among the other Armour we should get our feet shod that so we might be able to go through the afflictions we shall meet withal in this life Eph. 6.15 Let your feet be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace What is the shooing of the feet a part of the Armour Yes For in the Roman discipline there were things they called Galltraps which were cast in the way before the Army before the horse and men they had three points so that which way soever they threw them there was a point upwards Now to meet with and prevent this mischief they had brazen shooes that they might tread upon these Gall-traps and not be hurt As we read of Goliah amongst other Armour he had boots of Brass To this it seems the Apostle had reference in this metaphorical speech The meaning is that as we should get the shield of faith and sword of the spirit so we should have our feet shod that we might be prepared against all those outward troubles that we should meet with in the world which are all of them as so many stings and pricks all outward crosses I say are so And what is it that makes all these hurt us what is it that makes all these as so many deaths unto us but sin If sin reign in thee and bear rule that puts a sting into them It is sin that arms death against us and it is sin that arms all that goes before death against us Hast thou been crossed in the loss of thy Wife Children good friends c. why the sting of all is from sin sin it is which makes us feel sorrow What shall we then do Why get thy feet shod with the preparation of thâ— Gospel of peace Prepare thy self get God at peace with thee and then whatsoever affliction cometh howsoever it may be a warning piece to another that Gods wrath is coming yet to thee it is a messenger of peace Now these outward troubles are the least part of a wicked mans pâ—yment though all these are a part of his death so long as he remains unreconciled whatsoever comes upon him whereby he suffers either in himself or in any thing that belongs unto him they are all tokens of Gods wrath and are the beginnings of his death in the 26th of Levit. and the 28th of Deut. the particulars of it are set down But this is that I told you the last time how that the law of God is a perfect law and nothing is to be added to it yet the variety of the curses belonging unto a man unreconciled are so many that the ample book of God cannot contain them Deut. 28.61 All the curses which are not written c. we read v. 27. The Lord shall smite thee with â—he botch of Aegypt and with hemeroids and with a scab and with itch See the diversities of plagues all these are made parts of the curse The very itch and scab is a part of the payment of Gods wrath in hell Lev. 26.26 I will send a Sword amongst you which shall avenge the quarrel of my Covenant the sword that shall destroy you that when you shall hear of war of the coming of the sword which the children of God need not fear all is alike unto them it shall be to avenge the quarrel of Gods Covenant The Book of God comprehends not all the curses that are to light on the wicked And therefore we find in Zachary a Book a great Folio Book every side whereof was full of curses Cap. 5.2 He said unto me what seâ—st thou And I said I see a flying roll the length thereof is 20 cubits and the breadth thereof is 10 cubits Here 's a big book indeed but mark what is in it Sure it is not for nought that the Holy Ghost sets down the dimensions of it there is something questionless in it the length thereof is 20 cubits and the breadth 10 cubits a huge volume Nor is it a Book but a Roll so that the crassitude goeth into the compass and this is written thick within and without and is full of curses against sin Now for the dimension of it compare this place with 1 Kings 6.3 and you shall find them the very dimensions of Solomons Porch A great place where the people were wont to come for the hearing of the Word and not only in that time but it was continued to the time of Christ and the Apostles For we read how our Saviour walkâ—d in Solomon 's Porch and the Apostles were in Solomons Porch Acts 5. So large then was this Roll that it agreed in length and breadth with Solomons Porch and so many curses were written in it as were able to come in at the Church door It is as if we should see a huge book now coming in at the Church door that should fill it up Such a thing was presented unto him and it was a Roll full of curses and all these curses shall come on those that obey not all the Commandments all shall come upon them and overtake them Cursed shalt thou be in the City and cursed shalt thou be in the field cursed in thy basket and in thy store cursed when thou comest in and when thou goest forth Deut. 28.16 Till a man come to receive the Promises till he come to be a son of blessing till he be in Christ he is beset so with curses that if he lie down to sleep there is a curse on his pillow if he put his Money in his cofer he lays up a curse
not to terrifie and affright men but by forewarning them to keep them thence For after I have shewn you the danger I shall shew a way to escape it and how the Lord Jesus was given to us to deliver us from this danger But if you will not hear but will try conclusions with God then you must to your proper place to the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone A Lake 't is a River a flaming River as Tophet is described to be a lake burning with fire and brimstone a Metaphor taken from the judgment of God on Sodom and Gomorrah as in that place of St. Jude before mentioned as also in 2 Pet. 2.6 where 't is said God turned the Cities of Sodom into ashes making them an example to all them that should after live ungodly Mark the judgement of God upon these abominable men the place where they dwelt is destroyed with fire and the scituation is turn'd into a lake full of filthy bituminous stuff called Lacus Asphaltites which was made by their burnings And this is made an instance of the vengeance of God and an Emblem of eternal fire therefore said he you shall have your portion with Sodom Nay shall I speak a greater word with Christ and tell you that though they were so abominable that the lake was denominated from them yet it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah than for you if you repent not while you may but go on to despise Gods grace But can there be a greater sin than the sin of Sodom I answer yes For make the worst of the sin of Sodom it is but a sin against nature but thy impenitency is a sin against grace and against the Gospel and therefore deserves a hotter hell and an higher measure of judgment in this burning pit But what is this second death 2. Sure it hath reference to some first death or other going before A man would as it is commonly thought think that this second death is opposed to that first death which is the harbinger to the second and separates the soul from the body but it 's far otherwise That alas is but a petty thing and deserves not to be put in the number of deaths The second death in the Text hath relation to the first Resurrection Rev. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath his portion in the first Resurrection on such the second death shall have no power The first death is that from whence we are acquitted by the first Resurrection and that is the death for that is a kind of death as St. Paul speaking of a wicked and voluptuous Widow saith she is dead while she liveth and the time shall come and now is when they that are dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live And again Let the dead bury their dead So that the first Resurrection is when a man hearing the voice of the Minister is rouzed up from the sleep of sin and carnal security and the first death is the opposite thereunto So that the death of the body is no death at all for if it were then this were the third death For there would be a death of sin a death of the body and a death of body and soul This death of the body is but a flea-biting in comparison of the other two This second death is the separation of the body and soul from God and this death is the wages of sin and God must not will not lye in arrear to sin but will pay its wages to the full All the afflictions a wicked man meeteth withal here are but as Gods press-money and part of payment of that greater sum But when he dies the whole sum comes to be paid Before he did but sip of the Cup of Gods wrath but he must then drink up the dregs of it down to the bottom and this is the second death it 's called death Now death is a destruction of the parts compounded a man being compounded of body and soul both are by this death eternally destroyed That death like Sampson pulling down the pillars whereby it was sustained pulled down the house draws down the Tabernacles of our bodies pulls Body and Soul in sunder A thing which hath little hurt in it self were it not for the sting of it which makes it fearful To dye is esteemed far worse than to be dead in regard of the pangs that are in dying to which death puts an end This temporal death is in an instant but this other eternal whereby we are ever dying and never dead for by it we are punished with an everlasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Thess. 1.9 and that from the presence of the Lord by the glory of his power Then which piece I have no need to add more for as much as can be said of men and Angels is fully comprehended in it The Apostle terms this a fearful thing indeed Heb. 2.15 whereon if a man but think if he hath his wits about him he would for fear of it be all his life long subject to bondage He would scarce draw any free breath but would still be in bondage and drudgery till he were delivered Thus I have declared the nature of the place and of this second death That I may now go farther know that this Lake and this place is the place that the Lord hath provided for his enemies It is the Lords slaughter-house it s called a place of torments Luke 16. vers 24 28. a place wherein God will shew the accomplishment of his wrath and revenge upon his enemies Those mine enemies that would not have me to reign over them bring them forth and slay them before my face Luke 19.27 Those vessels of wrath those Rebels the King is inraged and his wrath is as the roaring of a Lyon which makes all the beasts of the Forrest to tremble Prov. 19.12 And where there is the wrath of such a King the issue thereof must needs be death Prov. 16.14 The wrath of a King is as a messenger of death How much more fearful is the wrath of the King of Kings God hath sharp arrows and he sets a wicked man as his Butt to shoot at to shew his strength and the fierceness of his wrath See the expression of Job in this case The arrows of the Almighty stick fast in me and the venome thereof hath drunk up my spirits In so few words there could not be an higher expression of the wrath of God First that God should make thee a Butt and that thou shouldst be shot at and that by Gods arrows And then they are not shot by a child but as the man is so is his strength by the Almighty by his bow wherein he draws the arrow to the head And then again these arrows are poyson'd arrows and such poyson as shall drink up all thy soul and spirit Oh what a fearful thing is it to fall into the hands of such a
The next action is The pouring out of the wine This is my blood saith Christ Drink you all of this Dost thou see the wine poured out at that very instant consider how much blood Christ spilt how much he poured forth and that not only in the very time of his passion when he hung upon the Cross when the spears pierced his sides when the nails bored and digged his hands and feet But that which he shed in the garden in the cold Winter time when he shed great drops great clots of blood thickest blood that pierc'd his garment and ran down upon the ground Consider how much blood he lost when he was whipped and lashed When the spear came to the very Pericardium thus let us weigh his torments and it will be a means to make us much affected with his sufferings for us But this is not all there is another thing yet in the blood This was but the outward part of his sufferings Yet some there are who are against Christ sufferings in his soul If it were so say they then something either in the sacrifices of the old-Testament or in the new Testament should signifie it What ever such persons object against it I am sure there was as much in the sacrifices of the old Testament as could possibly be in a Type to signifie it Now that I may make this to appear know that in every sacrifice there were two parts or two things considerable and those were the Body and the Blood The whole was to be made a sacrifice viz. both Body and blood the body was to be burned the blood to be poured forth Now nothing in a beast can signifie the sufferings of Christ in soul better then the pouring out of the blood Lev. 17.11 The blood was the life and this is that which had a relation to the soul and was therefore as in the same place appears poured out as an attonement for the soul. And to this in our common prayers there is an allusion viz. Grant us gracious Lord so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ and to drink his blood that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and our souls washed through his most precious blood And in Isa. 53.12 The Metaphor holds He poured out his soul unto death for us So that whatever some have fondly thought its evident and manifest that Christ suffered both in soul and body Both soul and body were made an offering for sin in the fashion of sin who knew no sin I should have gone further but the time cuts me off HEB. 4.16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need IN handling heretofore the Doctrine of the conversion of a sinner I declared and shewed you what man's misery was and what that great hope of mercy is that the Lord proposeth to the greatest sinner in the world I shewed unto you â—he means whereby we may be made partakers of Christ and thâ—t waâ— by the grace of faith which doth let fall all other things in a man's self and comes with an open and empty hand to lay hold on Christ and fill it self with him I shewed you also the acts of Faith as it justâ—fies And now because it is a point of high moment wherein all our comfort stands and in which it lies I thought good to resume it all again so far as may concern our practice that we may see what the work of God's Spirit is from the first to the last and the conversion of a sinner from the corruptions and pollutions of the flesh in which he wallowed and to this purpose have I chosen this place of Scripture wherein we are encouraged by God's blessed Word that whatever we are though accursed and the greatest sinners in the world and that whatever we want we should come to God's throne of grace And we are to think that whatever sins are or have been committed and though our sins are never so great yet that they are not so great as the infiniteness of God's mercy especially having such not only an Intercessor but Advocate to plead the right of our cause so that Christ comes and he pleads payment and that however our debts are great and we run far in score yet he is our ransome and therefore now God's justice being satisfied why should not his mercy have place and free course This is the great comfort that a Christian hath that he may come freely and boldly to God because he comes but as for an acquittance of what is already paid As a debtor will appear boldly before his creditor when he knows his debt is discharged he will not then be afraid to look him in the face Now we may come and say Blessed Father the debt is paid I pray give me pardon of my sins give me my acquittance And this is that boldness and access spoken of Rom. 5.2 In whom we have access by faith Now that I may not spend too much time needlesly come we to the ground and matter in the words Wherein there is 1. A preparative for grace 2. The act it self whereby we are made partakers of the grace of God First the preparatives are two The Law and the Gospel and wrought by them The first preparative 1. Wrought by the Law The Law works in a time of great need or rather by the operative power of the Law convincing us of sin we are made sensible of our need and deep poverty This is the first preparative for a man to be brought to see he stands in great need of God's mercy and Christ's blood so that the sinner cries out Lord I stand in great want of mercy His eyes being thus opened he is no longer a stranger at home but he sees the case is wondrous hard with him so that he concludes unless God be merciful unto me in Christ I am lost and undone for ever This is the first preparative and till we come to it we can never approach the throne of grace The second is 2. Wrought by the Gospel I see I stand in great need but by this second preparative we see a Throne of grace set up and that adds comfort unto me If God had only a throne and seat of Justice I were utterly undone I see my debt is extremely great but the Gospel reveals unto me that God of his infinite mercy hath erected a Throne of grace a City of refuge that finding my self in need my soul may fly unto And now to fit us for this God's blessed Spirit works by his Word to open unto us the rigour and strictness of the Law and our wants to enlighten our understandings that we stand in great need to win our affection and open the Gospel and its comforts Therefore first for the time of need The Law reveals unto us our woful condition to be born in sin as the Pharisee said and yet not
that very spirit which is in Christ being in us thereby we are united unto him grow in him live in him and he in us rejoyce in him and so are kept and preserved to be glorified with him He is the second Adam from whom we receive the influence of all good things showring down and distilling the graces of his spirit upon the least of all his members That look as it was said of Aaron who was a type of the second Adam and of that holy Oyl representing the graces of his spirit Which did not only run down his head and beard but the skirts of his garment also and all his rich attire about Psal. 133.2 So when I see the Oyl of Christ's graces and spirit not only rest upon the head but also descend and run down upon the lowest of his members making me now as one of them in some sort another man than I was or my natural state could make me by the same spirit I know I am united unto Christ. To this purpose is that which Christ to stands upon in Joh. 6. unto the Jews where speaking of the eating of his flesh and that bread of life which came down from heaven lest they should be mistaken he adds It is the spirit that quickneth the flâ—sh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life So that we see it is the spirit that gives a being to a thing And therefore the Apostle proceeds to shew As many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God Rom. 8.13 That look as Christ is the â—â—ue natural Son of God so we as truly by conveyance of the same spirit into us are his Sons by Adoption and so heirs with God yea and joynt heirs with Christ this he begins to shew vers 13. So that being in this excellent estate they were not only servants and friends a most high Prerogative but they were now the Sons of God having the spirit of Adoption whereby they might boldly call God Father In which Verse the Apostle opposeth the spirit of bondage which doth make a man fear again unto the spirit of Adoption which frees a man from fear Now two things may be observed hence 1. The order the spirit of God keeps e'er it comforts it shakes and makes us fear This the Apostle speaks to Heb. 2.14 where he shews that the end of Christ's coming was That because the children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage The first work then of the comforter is to put a man in fear 2. Here is shewed that until the spirit doth work this fear the heart will not stoop The Obstinacy is great yea so great that if hell gates were open ready to swallow up a man he would not yield until the spirit set in to convince the heart Therefore St. John tells us Joh. 16. That when the spirit it come he will reprove the world of sin that is he will convince and shew a man that he is but a bond-man and so from this sight he makes us to fear No man must think this strange that God deals with men at first after this harsh manner to kill them as it were before he make them alive nor be discouraged as if God had now cast them off as none of his For this bondage and spirit of fear is a work of God's spirit and a preparative to the rest yet it is but a common work of the spirit and such a one that unless more follow it can afford us no comfort But why then doth God suffer his children to be first terrified with this fear I answer That in two respects this is the best and wisest course to deal with us or else many would put off the matter and never attain a sense of mercy First in respect of God's glory Secondly in regard of our good First in respect of God's glory and that first because as in the work of Creation so in the work of Redemption God will have the praise of all his attributes for as in the work of Creation there appeared the infinite wisdom goodness power justice mercy of God and the like so will he in the work of our Redemption have all these appear in their strength and brightness and when we see and acknowledge these things to be in Gâ—d in the highest perfection hereby we honour him as on the contrary when we will not see and acknowledge the excellency of God's infinite attributes we dishonour him yea and I may safely add that the work of Redemption was a greater work than the work of Creation for therein appeared all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge in the conveying of it unto the Church Herein appeared first infinite Wisdom in ordering the matter so as to find out such a way for the Redemption of Mankind as no created understanding could possibly imagine or think of And secondly for the Mercy of God there could be none comparable to this in not sparing his own Son the Son of his Love that so he might spare us who had so grievously provoked him And thirdly there could not be so much Justice seen in any thing as in sparing us not to spare his Son in laying his Son's head as it were upon the block and chopping it off indeed the death unto which he gave his Son was not only more vile than the loss of his head but far more painful and terrible to nature the death on the Cross in renting and tearing that blessed body of his even as the Veil of the temple was rent which was a type of him so was he rent and tore and broke for us when he made his soul an offering for sin This was the perfection of Justice And thus was he just as the Apostle speaks and the Justifyer of him him that believeth in Jesus God would have Justice and Mercy meet and kiss each other and that for two reasons for the magnifying of his Justice and for the magnifying of his Mercy First For the magnifying of his Justice The spirit must first become a spirit of bondage and fear for the magnifying of God's Justice Thus the Prophet David having sinned was driven to this practice Psal. 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest Thus he a holy man was brought to confess his sin to give God the glory of his Justice And so to this end that a man might pass through or by as it were the gates of hell unto heaven the Lord will have his Justice extended to the full for which cause lessening or altogether for a time abstracting all sight of mercy he turns the
settest thy self against God and dost many things which others that have not received the same grace would not have done know then that thou receivest this grace in vain and thy case is lamentable 4. Consider God's great goodness which ought to restrain thee from sin upon a double account 1. First his goodness in himself should keep thee from offending him There 's nothing but goodness infinite goodness in him and canst thou find in thy heart to sin against so good a God To offend and wrong a good disposition'd person one of a sweet nature and affection it aggravates the fault 't is pity to wrong or hurt such a one as injures no body Now such a one is God a good God infinite in goodness rich in mercy very goodness it self and therefore it must needs aggravate the foulness of sin to sin against him But now he is not only thus in himself but 2. Secondly He 's good to thee Rom. 2. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance c. What hast thou that thou hast not received from his bountiful hand Consider of this and let this be a means to draw thee off from thy sinfulness When David had greatly sinned against God and when God brings his murther home to him he pleads thus with him When thou wert nothing in thine own eyes I brought thee saith God to the Kingdom I took thee from the sheep-fold and exalted thee and brought the to a plentiful house Vid. 2 Sam. 12.7 8. And may not God say the like to us and do you thus requite the Lord O you foolish people and unwise Deut. 32.6 that the more his mercy and goodness is to you the higher your sins should be against him 5. Besides consider more than all this we have the examples of good men before our eyes God commands us not what we cannot do If God had not set some before our eyes that walk in his ways and do his will then we might say that these are precepts that none can perform But we have patterns of whom we may say such a man I never knew to lye such a one never to swear and this should be a means to preserve us from sinning Heb. 11.7 Noah was a good man and being moved with fear set not at nought the threatning of God but built the Ark and thereby condemned the world His example condemned the world in that they followed it not although it were so good but continued in their great sins So art thou a wicked deboist person there is no good man but shall condemn thee by his example It 's a great crime in the land of uprightness to do wickedly Isa. 26.10 to be profane when the righteous by their blameless lives may teach thee otherwise 6. And lastly add to all the consideration of the multitude and weight of thy sins Hadst thou but sinned once or twice or in this or that it were somewhat tolerable But thy sins are great and many They are heavy and thou continually encreasest their weight and addest to their number Jer. 5.6 A lyon out of the forrest shall slay them and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them a leopard shall watch over their Cities and every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces Why Because their transgressions are many and their back-slidings are encreased If thou hadst committed but two or three or four sins thou mightest have hope of pardon but when thou shalt never have done with thy God but wilt be still encreasing still multiplying thy sins then mayst thou expect to hear from Gods mouth that dreadful expostulation in the Prophet Jer. 5.7 How can I pardon thee Thus David sets out his own sins in their weight and number Psal. 38.4 Mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me The continual multiplying of them adds to their heap both in number and weight Thus I have shew'd you what the Law does in respect of sin the benefit of being under the Law that it makes sin appear in its own colours and sets it forth to be as indeed it is exceeding sinful But the Law does not yet leave sin nor let it scape thus But as the Law discovers our sinfulness and accursedness by sin its wretchedness and mans misery by it till his blessedness comes from the hand of his Jesus so it lays down the miserable estate which befals him for it If he will not spare God with his sins God will not spare him with his plagues Let us consider of this accursedness sin brings on us God will not let us go so but as long as we are under the Law we are under the Curse and till we are in Christ we can expect nothing but that which should come from the hand of a provoked God Assure thy self thou that pleasest thy self in thy abomonations that God will not take this at thine hands that by so base a creature as thou art so vile a thing as sin is should be committed against him But of the woful effects of sin which is Gods wrath we will speak the next time LAM 5.16 Woe unto us that we have sinned I Declared unto you heretofore what we are to consider in the state of a natural man a man that is not new fashioned new moulded a man that is not cut off from his own stock a man that is not ingrafted into Christ he is the son of sin he is the son of death First I shewed you his sinfulness and now Secondly I shall shew you his accursedness that which follows necessarily upon sin unrepented of I declared before what the nature of sin is And now I come to shew what the dreadful effects of sin are I mean the enevitable consequence that follows upon sin and that is woe and misery Woe unto us that we have sinned A woe is a short word but there lieth much in it Doct. Woe and anguish must follow him that continueth sinning against God And when we hear this from the Ministers of God it is as if we heard that Angel Rev. 8.13 flying through the midst of Heaven denouncing Woe woe woe to the Inhabitants of the earth The Ministers of God are his Angels and the same that I now deliver to you if an Angel should now come from Heaven he would deliver no other thing Therefore consider that it is a voice from Heaven that this woe woe woe shall rest upon the heads upon the bodies and souls of all them that will not yield unto God that will not stoop to him that will be their own masters and stand it out against him woe woe woe unto them all Woe unto us It 's the voice of the Church in general not of one man but but woe unto us that we have sinned That I may now declare unto you what these woes are note by the way that I speak not to any particular man but to every man in general It is not
it to hurt and wound us So that we may look on sin as the Barbarians looked on the viper on Pauls hand they expected continually when he would have swollen and burst Sin bites like a Snake which is called a fiery Serpent not that the Serpent is fiery but because it puts a man into such a flaming heat by their poyson And such is the sting of sin which carries poyson in it that had we but eyes to see our ugliness by it and how it inflames us we should continually every day look when we should burst with it The Apostle James 1.15 useth another metaphor Sin when it is accomplished bringeth forth death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Original sin goeth as it were with child with death The word is proper to Women in labour who are in torment till they are delivered Now as if sin were this Woman he useth it in the faeminine gender 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So it is with sin sin is in pain cries out hath no rest till it be delivered of this dead birth till it have brought forth death That is sin grows great with child with death and then it not only deserves death but it produceth and actually brings forth This is generally so Now consider with your selves death is a fearful thing When we come to talk of death how doth it amaze us The Priests of Nob are brought before Saul for relieving David and he saith Thou shalt surely die Ahimelech And this is your case you shall surely die death is terrible even to a good man As appears in Hezekiah who though he were a good man yet with how sad a heart doth he entertain the message of death The news of it affrighted him it went to his heart it made him turn to the wall and weep How cometh it to pass that we are so careless of death That we are so full of infidelity that when the word of God saith Thou shalt die Ahimelech we are not at all moved by it What can we think these are Fables Do we think God is not in earnest with us And by this means we fall into the temptation of Eve a questioning whether Gods threats are true or not That which was the deceit of our first Parents is ours Satan disputes not whether sin be lawful or not Whether eating the fruit were unlawful Whether Drunkenness c. Be lawful he 'l not deny but it is unlawful But when God saith If thou dost eat c. Thou shalt die he denies it and saith ye shall not die He would hide our eyes from the punishment of sin Thus we lost our selves at the first and the Floods of sin came on in this manner When we believed not God when he said If thou dost eat thou shalt surely die And shall we renew that Capital sin of our Parents and think if we do sin we shall not die If any thing in the World will move God to shew us no mercy it 's this when we sleight his Judgments or not believe them This adds to the height of all our sins that when God saith if thou dost live in sin thou shalt die and yet we will not believe him That when she shall come and threaten us as he doth Dâ—ut 29. v. 19. When he shall curse and we shall bless our selves in our hearts and say we shall have peace though we go on c. v. 20. The Lord will not spare that man but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against him It is no small sin when we will not believe God This is as being thirsty before we now add Drunkenness to our thirst That is when God shall thus pronounce curses he shall yet bless himself and say I hope I shall do well enough for all that There are two words to that bargain Then see what follows The anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man c. We are but now entred into the point but it would make your hearts ake and throb within you if you should hear the particulars of it All that I have done is to perswade you to make a right choice to take heed of Satans delusions Why will ye die Ezek. 33.11 Therefore cast away your sins and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will you die Ezek. 18.31 Where the Golded Candlestick stands there Christ walks there he saith I am with you Where the Word and Sacraments are there Christ is and when the Word shakes thy heart take that time now choose life Why will you die Consider of the matter Moses put before the people life and death blessing and cursing Deut. 30.15 19. We put life and death before you in a better manner He was a Minister of the letter we of the spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 Now choose life But if you will not hearken but will needs try conclusions with God therefore because you will choose your own conclusions and will not hearken unto God because you will needs try conclusions with him will not obey him when he calls therefore he will turn his deaf ear unto you and when you call and cry he will not answer Prov. 1.28 I press this the more to move you to make a right choice But now to turn to the other side as there is nothing but death for the wages of sin and as I have shewed you where death is So give me leave to direct you to the Fountain of life There is life in our blessed Saviour if we have but an hand of faith to touch him we shall draw vertue from him to raise us up from the death of sin to the life of righteousness 1 John 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life he that hath not the Son hath not life You have heard of a death that comes by the first Adam and sin and to that stock of Original sin we had from him we have added a great heap of our own actual sins and so have treasured up unto our selves wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 Now here is a great treasure of happiness on the other side in Christ have the Son and have life The question is now whether you will choose Christ and life or sin and death Consider now the Minister stands in Gods stead and beseeches you in his name he speaks not of himself but from Christ. When he draws near to thee with Christs broken body and his blood shed and thou receivest Christ then as thy natural life and strength is preserved and encreased by these Elements so hast thou also spiritual life by Christ. If a man be kept from nourishment a while we know what death he must die If we receive not Christ we cannot have life we know that there is life to be had from Christ and he that shall by a true and lively faith receive Christ shall have life by him There is as it were a pair of Indentures drawn up between God and a
to lay it down and I have power to take it up This had I from my Father They are grosly deceived then that say Christ's active obedience was not free and voluntary because he was commanded for as well may they say his passive was not voluntary and so not meritorious because it likewise was commanded which none can deny Thus Christ's offering was a free-will-offering though it was a most bitter one yet this being a part of his Father's Will he went as voluntarily to the pains of the Cross as thou dost to thy dinner when thou art throughlâ— hungry For his meat and his drink was to do his Father's Will Joh. 4.34 And this makes it of such worth and efficacy that he did it willingly See it in the type that went before him in Isaac Isaac was grown up he was no Babe he was able to carry wood enough to burn himself when he went to be sacrificed and therefore sure he had strength If Isaac had pleased he might have ran away from the old man his Father yet he suffers himself to be bound and to be laid upon the wood A true type of our Saviour His also was a free-will offering and so a sweet-smelling sacriâ—â—ce unto God It being the highest active obedience it presently pacifieth the wâ—â—th of his Father He humbled himself and became obedient This obedience of our Saviour is the matter and ground of our Justification Rom. 5.18 As by the offence of one Judgment came on all unto condemnation so by the righteousness of one the free gift came on all to Justification of life By the obedience of this blessed Saviour many are made righteous so that now our Saviour's obedience followeth next Now this obedience is double Active or Passive 1. Active And this was that whereby he did all the Will of his Father The reason why he came into the world if we look the place bâ—fore alledged will appear Heb. 10.5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou wouldst not have but a body hast thou prepared me In burnt offerings and Sacrifice for sin thou hast no pleasure then said I Behold I come in the volume of thy book it is written of me that I should do thy Will O God When he cometh into the world saith he Lo I come For what to do thy Will O God The reason why he came into the world was that he might be obedient unto his Father Thus it behoveth us saith he to John to fulfil all Righteousness John wondred that he that was pure and spotless should come to him to be baptized He knew Baptism presupposed some sin or blot some stain or corruption to be washed off and therefore it 's said Mark 1.5 That there came unto him all the Land of Judaea to be baptized confessing their sins And sure if one who had been but a bare man should have come to John and say he had no sin and yet desired to have been baptized by him he had had no right to Baptism yet our Saviour saith Let alone let it be so that we may fulfil all Righteousness I have no need indeed in regard of my self but I have taken upon me the form of a servant and therefore what the lowest of them must do that must I do therefore was I circumcised and therefore am I baptized I came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it And he fulfilled it to the utmost both in his active and passive obedience Now for his active Obedience it had a double 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or consummatum est First For his active Obedience in the whole course of his life I hâ—ve glorified thy name and finished the work which thou gavest me to do Would you know what it is to glorifie God in this world It is to finish the work which he giveth us to do Art thou a Minister if thou wouldst glorifie God finish the work he gave thee to do then mayest thou say Glorifie thou me with thy Glory c. But now Christ's work was not all ended when he said he had finished it the greatest part was behind to wit his Passive obedience All the works of his life were done of which actions there Christ is to be understood but then cometh his Passion and that being finished there is something to do yet after that for he was to rise again to our Justification but for the oblation of the sacrifice it was fully finished If we look upon our blessed Saviour in the whole course of his life For 1. Though he lived in a whole world of sin yet he was free from all manner of sin 2. He was enriched with all manner of good works graces and vertue Christ had both of these He was free from any spot of sin though in the midst of a wicked world and there was nothing â—n him which could expose him to any temptations He was continually assaulted and yet he was spotless The Prince of the world came and yet he found nothing in him Satan could find nothing in him whereon to fasten any temptation Such a Priest it became us to have who was holy and harmless Heb. 7.16 Vndefiled separate from Sinners There is the purity of his nature he is holy and in his carriage harmless he did no man hurt Vndefiled a pure and innocent Lamb a lamb without blemish separate from sinners and could not contract any guilt of sin Though he conversed with Publicans and sinners at the Table yet they could not infect him He knew no sin neither was there guile found in him 1 Pet. 1.19 Therefore we see when it comes to the point that the Devil would tempt him yet he himself must needs say What have I to do with thee thou holy one of God He is forced to acknowledge him to be so And so if we look on the place where he saith I do the Will of my Father always Joh. 8 2â— there likewise he shews himself the holy one of God In a word as he was thus obedient unto God so was he subject to men too to his Father in the family and to Caesar in the Commonwealth As he taught he did Subjection towards Governors was his Doctrine and rather than he would not pay Tribute he would have it out of the fishes belly To shew a Recognition of his subjection unto higher powers the text tells us He went about doing good This man say they hath done all things well And at the last cast when all the quarrels and Accusations were brought against him they could bring nothing that could hold water that he could boldly challenge them all as it were Which of you can accuse me of sin You that pick so many holes in my coat come forth spare me not accuse me yet at the last he is accounted a just man Judas himself could acknowledge him to be blameless and that he had sinned in betraying his innocent blood Pilate's Wife could say
of grace the thing that he doth is he presents unto the Father Christ bleeding gasping dying buried and conquering death and when he presents Christ to him he opens his case and confesses his sin to the full and says Lord this is my case As a beggar when he comes to ask an alms of you he will make a preface and tell you his extremity Sir I am in great want I have nor tasted a bit of bread in so many days and unless you help me by your charity I am utterly undone Now when these two concur that there is true need in the beggar and liberality in him of whom he begs it encourages the beggar to be importunate and he prevails you may know when the beggar hath need by his tone accent or language The needy beggars tone and accent is different from the sturdy beggars that hath no need but yet though the beggar be in great misery if he see a churlish Nabal go by him he hath no heart to beg and follows him not nor begs so hard because he hath but little hope to attain any thing from him But I say let both these meet together first that the beggar is in great need then that he of whom he begs is very liberal it makes him beg hard but now cannot he pray without book Think not that I speak against praying by the book you are deceived if you think so but there must be words taken to us besides which perhaps a book will not yield us A beggars need will make him speak and he will not hide his sores but if he hath any sore more ugly or worse than another he will uncover it good Sir behold my woful and distressed case he lays all open to provoke pity So when thou comest before God in confession canst thou not find out words to open thy self to Almighty God not one word whereby thou mayst unlap thy sores and beseech him to look on thee with an eye of pity I must not mince my sins but amplifie and aggravate them that God may be moved to pardon me till we do thus we cannot expect that God should forgive us A great ado there is about auricular confession but it 's a meer bable It were better to cry out our sins at the high Cross than the confess in a Priests ear Thou whisperest in the Priest's ear what if he never tell it or if he do art thou the better Come and pour out thy heart and soul before Almighty God confess thy self to him as David did for that hath a promise made to it Psal. 51.4 Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou may be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest Why so Why one main cause why we should confess sin is to justifie God When a sinner confesses I am a child of wrath and of death if thou castest me into hell as justly thou mayst I have received but my due when a man does thus as the King's Attourney may frame a Bill of Inditement against himself he justifies Almighty God He gives God the honour of that justice which at the present he executes in pouring horrour into the conscience of the sinner and hath farther in store in providing the Lake of fire and brimstone for the impenitent Thus did David Against thee against thee c. Now when we have thus aggravated our misery comes the other part of begging to cry for mercy with earnestness and here 's the power of the Spirit It 's one thing for a man to pray and another thing for a man to say a prayer but to pray and cry for mercy as David did in good earnest to wrestle with God to say Lord My life lies in it I will never give thee over I will not go with a denial this is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the work of God's Spirit I named you a place in Jude ver 20. where the Apostle exhorts but ye beloved build up your selves in your most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost there 's the prayer of the faithful to pray in the Holy Ghost And in the Ephesians we read of an Armour provided for all the parts of a man's body yet will not serve the turn unless prayer come in as the chief Ephes. 6.18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance c. This is the prayer of faith that procures forgiveness of sins we must pray in faith and in the Spirit that is the language which God understands He knoweth the meaning of the Spirit and knoweth none else but that Many men are wondrously deceived in that which they call the Spirit of prayer One thinks it is a faculty to set out ones desires in fair words shewing earnestness and speaking much in an extemporary prayer This we think commendable yet this is not the Spirit of prayer One that shall never come to Heaven may be more ready in this than the child of God for it is a matter of skill and exercise the Spirit of prayer is another thing The Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought the Spirit it self makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered Rom. 8.26 What shall we think then that the Holy Ghost groans or speaks in prayer No but it makes us groan and though we speak not a word yet it so enlarges our hearts as that we send up a volley of sighs and groans which reach the Throne of grace And this is the Spirit of prayer when with these sighs and groans I beg as it were for my life This is that ardent affection the Scripture speaks of A cold prayer will never get forgiveness of sins it 's the prayer of faith which prevails The prayer of the people availeth much if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fervent In the Ancient Churches those that were possessed with an evil spirit were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because that caught them up and made them do actions not sutable to their nature Prayer is a fire from Heaven which if thou hast it will carry all Heaven before it there is nothing in the world so strong as a Christian thus praying Prayers that are kindled with such a zeal are compared to Jacobs wrestling with the Angel Hos. 12.4 whereby he had power over the Angel The Prophet expounds what this wrestling was he wept and made supplication unto him he found him in Bethel and there he spake with him This is the wrestling with God when thou fillest Heaven with thy sighs and sobs and bedewest thy couch with thy tears as David did and hast thy resolution with Jacob I will not let thee go except thou bless me God loves this kind of boldness in a beggar that he will not go away without an answer As the poor Widow in the Parable that would not give over her suit
of it that it shall not do that which it is apt to do which is as good as if the sin were taken away when there were wild gourds sliced into the pot 2 Kings 4.31 it 's said the Prophet took that venemous herb away i. e. though the thing were there yet it is as if it were not there it shall do no manner of hurt Bring now and pour out and there was no evil thing So in respect of us though there be an evil thing in punishment and what if we had our due would bring condemnation yet when we are sprinkled with the blood of Christ it can do us no evil no hurt it 's said in the Scripture that the stars fell from heaven why the stars are of that bigness that they cannot fall from heaven to the earth but they are said to fall when they give not their light and do not that for which they were put there so though I have committed sin yet when God is pleased for Christs sake to pardon it it is as if it were not there at all This is a great matter but I tell you there is more we are not only freed from the guilt of the punishment but which is higher we are freed from the guilt of the fact I am now no more a murderer no more a lyar when I have received a pardon from the blood of Christ he frees me from that charge the world is changed with me now Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Rom. 8.33 If the Devil lay any thing to thee thou mayst deny it Such a one I was but I am justified but I am sanctified 1 Cor. 6.11 A man hath committed High Treason against the King and the King gives him a pardon for the Treason if I call him a Traytor he can have no remedy against me for he is one the pardon takes not away the guilt But iâ— his blood be restored unto him by Act of Parliament then if I shall call him Traytor he may have remedy against me because he is restored fully and is not lyable to that disgrace This is our case though our sins be as red as scarlet yet the die shall be changed Isa. 1.18 It shall be so bloody Thou hast the grace of justification and this doth not only clear thee from the punishment but from the fault it self See in Jer. 50.20 The place is worth Gold In those dayes and in that time saith the Lord â—he iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found For I will pardon them whom I reserve What is the matter What a sinful man and no sin What then there is search made for sin in such a man shall it not be found You will say this is meant of the grace of sanctification no I will pardon them that pardoning of sin makes the sin not to be found What a wonderful comfort is this When I shall come at the day of judgment and have the benefit of my justification the last absolution such sins shall not be charged on me my sins and iniquities shall not be remembred I will remember their sins no more saith God it is a wonderful thing and a strange mistake in many men especially the Papists Did they ever write comfortably of the day of judgment Never they make that a terrible day Alas poor souls they knew not that justification is that that makes sins that they shall never be remembred Mark it is said Thou shalt hear of all thy good deeds for thy honour and thy praise but for thy sins there shall search be made and they shall not be found when God forgives sins he doth it fully it shall never be cast in thy teeth again but thou shalt hear of all thy good deeds not of thy bad Then lift up your heads for your redemption draweth near Luk. 21.28 here is the blessed grace of justification that we being justified by faith have not only no condemnation but no guilt whereas all the sins of the wicked man shall be set before his face and he shall stand quaking and trembling by reason thereof not one good thing that he hath done shall be remembred but in the iniquity that he hath committed in that shall he dye Ezek. 18.24 and so I have said somewhat of that point You may remember that I said a word perhaps that some think much of that the question betwixt us and Rome is not Whether we be justified by faith or no But Whether we be justified at all I will make it good There are two graces righteousness imputed which implies forgiveness of sins and righteousness inherent which is the grace of sanctification begun They utterly deny that there is any righteousness but righteousness inherent They say forgiveness of sins is nothing but sanctification A new doctrine never heard of in the Church of God till those last dayes till the spawn of the Jesuites devised it Forgiveness of sin is this that God will never charge me with it again They say that forgiveness of sin is an abolishing of sin in the subject where is true remission as much as to say There is no justification distinct from sanctification whereas the Apostle distinguisheth them when as he saith The Son of God is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.28 He is made unto us of God By the way let me expound it unto you Christ hath three offices A Prophetical Regal and Sacerdotical office He exerciseth his Prophetical office to illuminate our understanding He exerciseth his Kingly office to work on our will and affections there are two branches of it the Kingdome of grace and the Kingdom of glory How am I made partaker of Christs Prophetical office He is made unto me wisdome before I was a fool but now by it I am made wise First he enlightens me and so he is made unto me wisdome well he is my Priest how so He is made an expiation for my sin he is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Saint John A propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the world There is a difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a barâ— pardon but this is such a propitiation as the party offended is well pleased with Christ being made a ransome he is made unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the oblation offered unto his Father He is righteousness imputed to us And as a King he rules me in the Kingdom of grace and in the Kingdome of glory in the Kingdom of grace he is made unto me sanctification and in the Kingdom of glory he is made unto me redemption it is called by the Apostle the redemption of our bodies these two are thus clearly distinguished The work of Christs Priestly office is to be a propitiation for our sins sanctification proceeds
shall continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith It is called the joy of faith because it springs from that principle of rejoycing from that mother-grace that your rejoycing may be the more abundant The preaching of the Word whereby faith is wrought brings abundance of joy That place of St. Peter is remarkable 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now you see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Yet believing that is yet exercising the acts of faith which we too much neglect If we did exercise these acts every day we should have our Charter of joy renewed every day yet believing ye rejoyce 3. Pray and be thankful praise and thanksgiving are those fruits which fulfil all our joy When thou prayest thou conversest with God thou speakest with him face to face as Moses did He who can pray spiritually and pray hard unto God as Moses face shined when he talked with God so will thy soul thrive praying hard and being thankful There is no greater means than this to get this joy Psal. 33.1 Rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous for praising is comely for the upright Upon this hangs all our comfort praise always brings rejoycing the one begets the other In Isaiah The comfort there that God's children receive is the changing of rayment Christ preaching the acceptable year of the Lord to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion to give to them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness Isa. 61.3 The ground of praise is joy one follows the other Observe God will give us the oyl of joy Christ was anointed with this oyl above his fellows Christ hath fulness of joy this oyl doth not come on his head alone but it trickles down unto the lower most hemm of his garment even upon all the lively members of his mystical body I will add in the last place when a man considers the great things which are given to him by God and what an estate we get by Christ. I have forgiveness of sins and Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven Psal. 32.1 Christ's blood is wine and my name is written in the book of life Do not rejoyce saith our Saviour because the Devils are subject unto you but rather rejoyce because your names are written in heaven Luk. 10.20 When I consider that I am not in the black Roll and it is my faith which strengthens me which makes me reckon Christ my chiefest wealth this makes me rejoyce in mine inheritance and in hope of the glory of God When I consider the great reward in the world to come this is a great cause of rejoycing and therefore God's children long for the coming of Christ it is made Tit. 2.13 a mark of those that shall be saved That they long for the appearance of Jesus Christ looking for and hastning unto the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. And in 2 Pet. 3.12 Looking for and hastning unto the coming of the day of God A longing expectation there is in all the creatures after the second coming of Christ They wait saith the Apostle for the manifestation of the Sons of God and presently he adds Not only they but we also that have the first fruits of the Spirit groan and long for the coming of that day Rom. 8.19.23 And therefore the last breath of the Scripture is breathed out in the confirmation of this hope Rev. 22.20 He that testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly Amen even so be it come Lord Jesus There is a sweet Allegory to express this in Cant. ult 14 Make haste my beloved and be like the Hind and like the Roe Come Lord Jesus come quickly and come as the Hind and as the Roe and as a Hart upon the Mountain of spices Make haste and come quickly be swift and do not tarry and in a better place I cannot end FINIS THE SEAL OF SALVATION OR GOD's SPIRIT Witnessing with our Spirits THAT We are the Children of GOD. IN TWO SERMONS Preached at Great S. BARTHOLOMEWS by the most Reverend JAMES USHER late Arch-Bishop of ARMAGH Difficilia pulchra ROM 8.14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God LONDON Printed for Nathaniel Ranew at the King's Arms in S. Paul's Church Yard 1678. THE SEAL OF Salvation ROMANS 8.15 16. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father The same Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God THe Apostle sets down in this Epistle a platform of Christian Doctrine whereupon all persons and Churcheâ— might safely build themselves shewing therein a sure way how those might come to the Lord Jesus Chrisâ— who are to obtain salvation by him which he delivers in three heads shewing 1. First how God will convince the world of sin 2. Secondly he discovereth to them what that righteousness is which without themselves is imputed to them 3. Thirdly he setteth forth that righteousness inherent and created in us by sanctification of the spirit with the effects thereof and Motives and Helps thereunto Answering that threefold work of the spirit in John 16. where Christ promiseth that when the comforter should come he should reprove â—he world of Sin of Righteousness of Judgment First he shews the Comforter shall work a conviction of Sin a making of a man as vile empty and naked as may be not a bare confession of sin only which a man may have and yet go to hell but such a conviction as stops a man's mouth that he hath not a word to speak but sees a sink of sin and abomination in himself such as the Apostle had Rom. 7.18 For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing To attain to this sight and measure of humiliation there must be a work of the spirit First therefore in the first Chapter the Apostle begins with the Gentiles who failing grosly in the duties of the first Table God had given over also to err in the breach of all the Duties of the second Table Then the next Chapter and most of the third he spends on the Jews they bragged of many excellent privileges they had above the Gentiles as to have the Law Circumcision to be leaders of others to have God among them and therefore despised the Gentiles The Apostle reproves them shewing that in condemning the Gentiles they condemn'd themselves they having a greater light of knowledge than the Gentiles which should have led them to the true and sincere practice of what they were instructed in Then he goes on and shews all naturally to be out of the way ver 19. and so concludes them to be under sin that every mouth may be stopped and all the world