this Congregation but is or was as bad as the holy Ghost here makes him But 2. To come to that which is delivered of him he is one not quickned dead in sins no better then nature made him that corrupt nature which he hath from Adam till he is thus spiritually enlivened Now he 's described 1. By the quality of his person 2. By his company Even as others Thou mayst think thy self better then another man but thou art no better never a barrel the better herring as we say Even as others thou art not so alone but as bad as the worst not a man more evil in his nature then thou art When thou goest to Hell perhaps some difference there may be in your several punishments according to your several acts of Rebellion but yet you shall all come short of the Glory of God And for matter of quickning you are all alike 1. First concerning their quality And this is declared 1. By their general disposiâ—ion they are dead in trespasses and sins Dead and therefore unable and indisposed to the works of a spiritual living man Besides not onely indisposed and unable thereto but dead in trespasses and sins For the separation of the Soul from God is a more dangerous death than the separation of the Soul from the Body and this is the reason why St. John calls damnation the second death Rev. 20.14 reckoning in comparison the naturall death for none Accordingly also speaketh the learned Patriarch of Alexandria St. Cyril Tom. 6. p. 415. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is not properly death which separateth Soul from the body but that which separateth God from the Soul God is the life of the Soul but he that is separated from life is dead being deprived of alacrity and cheerfulness as of life He lies rotting in his own filth like a rotten carkass and stinking carrion in the nostrils of the Almighty so loathsome is he all which is drawn from Original sin Not onely dis-enabled to any good but prone to all sin and iniquity 2. By his particular conversation And that appears in the verse following Where in times past ye walked How Not according to the word and will of God not according to his rule but they walked after three other wicked rules A dead man then hath his walk you see a strange thing in the dead but who directs him in his course These three the World the Flesh and the Devil the worst guides that may be yet if we look to the conversation of a natural man we see these are his Pilots which are here set down 1. The World Wherein times past ye walked after the course of the World He swims along with the stream of the World Nor will he be singular not such a precise one as some few are but do as the World doth run amain whither that carries him See the state of a natural man He 's apt to be brought into the slavery of the World This is his first guide Then follows 2. The Second which is the Devil The Devil leads him as well as the World According to the Prince of the power of the Air the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of disobedience In stead of having the Spirit of God to be led by he 's posted by the Spirit of Satan and the lusts of his Father the Devil he will do He hath not an heart to resist the vilest lusts the Devil shall perswade him to When Satan once fills his heart he hath no heart to any thing else then to follow him 3. There remains the Flesh his guide too and that 's not left out v. 3. Amongst whom we had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind So that you see the three guides of a natural man and he is as bad as these three can make him and till the stronger man comes and pulls him out in this condition he remains and in this natural estate he is a son of disobedience We see then the state of disobedience described to be wretchedness 3. This further appears by that which must follow which is cursedness Rebellion and wretchedness going before cursedness will follow For God will not be abused nor suffer a Rebel to go unpunished Therefore saith the Apostle We are by nature the Children of wrath Being the natural sons of disobedience we may well conclude we are the Children of wrath If we can well learn these two things of our selves how deep we are in sin and how the wrath of God is due to us for our sins then we may see what we are by Nature Thus much concerning the quality of a natural man Next follows 2. His company Even as others By nature we are the Children of wrath even as others That is to say we go in that broad wide way that leads to damnation that way we all naturally rush into though we may think it otherwise and think our selves better yet we are deceived For it is with us even as with others Naturally we are in the same state that the worst men in the World are so that we see the glass of a natural man or of a man that hath made some beginnings till Christ come and quicken him Q. See we then who it is spoken of to be dead men that are rotten and stinking as bad as the World the Flesh and the Devil can make them Who should these be A. I answer it 's you you hath he quickned And ye wherein ye walked c. But who are they The Ephesians perhaps that were in times past Heathens I hope it belongs not to us They were Gentiles and Pagans that knew not Christ v. 12. Aliens to the Commonweal of Israel strangers to the covenant of promise having no hope without God in the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Text renders it Atheists and therefore they might well be so But I hope it 's not thus with me I was never a Pagan or Heathen I was born of Christian Parents and am of the Church But put away these conceits Look on the 3d. v. Amongst whom we also had our conversation and wherein ye your selves c. It 's not onely spoken of you Gentiles but verified of us also As if he had said here as Gal. 2. We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles He paints out not onely you the Gentiles in such ugly colours but we Jews also we of the Common-wealth of Israel We before we were quickned were in the same state that you are described to be in Obj. Oh but the Apostle may do this out of fellowship and to avoid envy as it were making himself a party with them as Ezra did cap. 9. that included himself in the number of the offenders though he had no hand in the offence O our God saith he what shall we say Our evil deeds
c. and how shall we stand before thee because of this Making a particular confession whereas he was not accessory to the fault but to sweeten it to them Sol. But here the Apostle doth not so he was not thus minded but it 's we all he puts universality to it So that it 's clear that before conversion and quickning by grace from Christ we all all of us are in as foul and filthy a condition as this which is here desâ—ribed and set down So that this is the point that it is not spoken of some desperate sinners but that it is the common state and condition of all the sons of Adam Doct. All men every man and woman in this place either is or hath been in the state that here the Apostle describeth the natural man to be in Therefore we have all need to examine our selves whether we yet remain in that condition or not The Apostle brings this description to testifie the truth of the point Gal. 3.22 The Scripture hath concluded all under sin The whole current and course of the Scripture shews the universality of it that it 's true of all See the Apostle speaking of himself and the rest Tit. 33. saith We our selves also not onely you of the Gentiles but we our selves also were foolish disobedient c. But after the kindness of God towards man appeared c. That is before the day-star of grace did arise in our hearts there 's not the best of us all but have been thus and thus Rom. 3.19 There the Apostle insists on the point expresly that every mouth might be stopped to shew the state of all men naturally having laid down a large beadrole of the iniquities of the Heathen he cometh afterward to convince the Jews What are we better then they no in no wise for we have proved before that all are under sin there is none good no not one Obj. But though you bring many places to prove that all are sinners yet I hope the Virgin Mary was not Sol. An inch breaks no squares but All are sinners There is none righteous no not one The drift of the Apostle in this is to shew that these things are not spoken of some hainous sinners onely but there 's not one to be exempted and therefore in his Conclusion v. 19. he saith that whatever things the Law saith it saith to them which are under the Law That every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty thefore God and thâ—t by the deeds of the Law no flâ—sh can be justified from sin So that now having proved this so clearly to you consider with your selves how needful it is to apply this to our own souls Many men when they read such things as these of the Scripture read them but as stories from strange Countries What are we dead in sinâ— not able to stir one foot in Gods wayes bad we are indeed but dead rotten and stinking in sins and trespasses What as bad as the World the Devil and Flesh can make us What Children of wrath Firebrands of Hell Few can perswade themselves that it is so bad with them Therefore take this home to your selves think no better of your selves then you are for thus you are naturally Therefore consider if thou wert now going out of the world what state thou art in a child of wrath a child of Belial or the like Set about the work speedily go to God pray and cry earnestly give thy self no rest till thou know this to be thy condition Let not thy corrupt nature deceive thee to make â—hee think better of thy self then God saith thou art Now that we may the better know to whom these things belong know it is thou and I we all have been or are in this estate till we have supernatural grace and therefore we are declared to be Children of wrath and Children of disobediâ—nce till regenerated Why It 's because it 's thy nature it belongs to all Now we know the common nature always appertains to the same kind There 's nothing natural but is common with the kind If then by nature we are Children then certainly it belongs to every Mothers son of us for we are all Sons of Adam In Adam we all die Rom. 5. That 's the fountain whence all misery flows to us As thou receivedst thy nature so the corruption of thy nature from him For he begat a son in his own likeness Genes 5.3 This therefore is the condition of every one The Apostle in 1 Cor. 15. speaks of two men the first was from the earth earthly the second was the Lord from Heaven What were there not many millions and generations more True but there were not more men like these men of men two head-men two Fathers of all other men There were but two by whom all must stand or fall but two such mâ—n By the fall of the first man we all fell and if we rise not by the second man we are yet in our sins If he rise not we cannot be risen We must rise or fall by him He is the Mediator of the second Covenant If he rise and we are in him we shall rise with him but if not we are dead still So it is in the first Adam we all depend on him he is the root of all mankind It 's said in Esay 53. Our Saviour should rejoyce to see his seed His seed that is to say he is the common father of all mankind I mean of all those that shall proceed from him by spiritual generation He shall present them to his father as when one is presented to the University Heb. 2.14 Behold here am I and the câ—ildrâ—n tâ—ou hast given me So in Adam he being the head of the Covâ—nant of nature or works that is the Law if he had stood none of us had fallen if he fâ—ll noâ—e of us all can stand He is the peg on which all the kâ—yes â—â—ng if that stand they hang fast but if that fall thâ—y fall with it As we see in matter of bondage if the father forfeit his liberty and become a bondman all his Children are bondmen to a hundred generations here is â—ur case We were all once free but our faâ—her haâ—h forfeited his liberty and if he become a Slave he cannot begâ—t a Free-man When our Saviour tells the Jews of being free-men We were never bond men say they though it be false for even Cicero himself could tell a Jew that he was a slave genus hominum ad servitium natum although they had a good opinion of themselves But our Saviour saith you are bond men unto sin and Satan For till the Son make you free you are all bond-men But when he makes you free then are you free indeed So that we see our condition here set down 1. We are dead in trespasses and sins that is there is an indisposition in us to all good works A dead man cannot
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
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
speak so brutish were they to be led away by stocks and stones I think the Papist Gods cannot do it unless it be by couzenage yet such is their senselesness that though Gods fury be revealed from Heaven against Papists such as worship false Gods yet are they so brutish that they will worship things which can neither hear nor see nor walk They that made them are like unto them and so are all they that worship them as brutish as the stocks themselves They have no heart to God but will follow after their puppets and their Idols and such are they also that follow after their drunkenness covetousness c Who live in lasciviousness lusts excess of riot 1 Pet. 4.2 that run into all kind of excess and marvel that you do not so too They marvel that ye that fear God can live as ye do and speak evil of you that be good call such Hypocrites Dissemblers and I know not what nick-names This I say is a most woful condition it 's that dead blow When men are not sensible of Mercies of Judgments but run into all excess of sin with greediness And this is a death begun in this life even while they are above ground But then comes another death God doth not intend sin shall grow to an infinite weight His Spirit shall not alwayes strive with man but at length God comes and crops him off and now cometh the consummation of the death begun in this life Now cometh an accursed death 3. After thou hast lived an accursed life then cometh an accomplishment of curses First a cursed separation between body and soul and then of both from God for ever and this is the last payment This is that great death which the Apostle speaks of Who delivered us from that great death 2 Cor. 1.10 So terrible is that death This death is but the severing of the body from the Soul This is but the Lords Harbinger the Lords Serjeant to lay his Mace on thee to bring thee out of this World into a place of everlasting misery from whence thou shalt never come till all be satisfied and this is never First Consider the nature of this death which though every man knoweth yet few lay to heart This death what doth it First it takes the things which thou spentst thy whole life in getting It robs thee of all the things thou ever hadst Thou hast taken pains to heap and treasure up goods for many yeors presently when this blow is given all is gone For honour and preferment it takes thee from that pleasure in idle company-keeping it bars thee of that Mark this is the first thing that death doth it takes not onely away a part of that thou hast but all it leaves thee quite naked as naked as when thou camest into the World Thou thoughtst it was thy happiness to get this and that Death now begins to unbewitch thee thou wast bewitched before when thou didst run after all wordly things Thou wast deceived before and now it undeceives thee it makes thee see what a notorious fool thou wast it unbefools thee Thou hadst many plots and many projects but when thy breath is gone then without any delay in that very day saith the Psalmist all thy thoughts perish Psal. 146.4 all thy plottings and projections go away with thy breath A strange thing to see a man with Job the richest man in the East and yet in the evening we say as poor as Job He hath nothing left him now Now though death takes not all things from thee yet it takes thee from them all and so in effect them also from thee though they remain in thy house and grounds yet they are as far removed from thee is ahou from them All thy goods all thy books all thy wealth all thy friends thou mayst now bid farewel now adieu for ever never to see them again And that is the first thing 2. Now death rests not there but cometh to seize upon thy body It hath bereaved thee of all that thou possessedst of all thy outward things they are taken away Now it comes to touch the wicked mans person and see what then It toucheth him it rents his soul from his body those two loving companions that have so long dwelt together are now separated It takes thy soul from thy body This man doth not deliver up his spirit as we read of our Saviour Father into thy hands I commit my spirit or deliver their spirits as Stephen did But here it 's taken from them it 's much against his mind it 's a pulling of himself from himself This it doth 3. But then again when thou art thus pulled asunder what becomes of the parts separated 1. First The body as soon as the soul is taken from it hastens to corruption that must see corruption yea it becomes so full of corruption that thy dearest friend cannot then endure to come near unto thee When the soul is taken from the body it 's observed that of all carkasses that are mans is the most loathsome none so odious as that Abraham loved Sarah well but when he comes to buy a monument for her see his expression Gen. 23.8 He communes with the men and saith if it be your mind to sell me the field that I might bury my dead out of my sight Though he loved her very well before yet now she must be buried out of his sight It is sown in dishonour and it 's the basest thing that can be Therefore when our Saviour was going near to the place where Lazarus lay his Sister saith Lord by this time he stinketh Joh. 11.39 I have said to corruption thou art my Father saith Job and to the worm thou art my Mother and my Sister Job 17.14 As in the verse before The grave is my house I have made my bed in the darkness Here then he hath a new kindred and though before he had affinity with the greatest yet here he gets new affinity He saith to corruption thou art my Father and to the worm thou art my Mother and my Sister The worm is our best kindred here the worm then is our best bed yea worms thy best covering as Esay 14.11 Thus is it thy Father thy Mother and thy Bed nay it is thy consumption and destroyer also Job 26. Thus is it with thy body it passeth to corruption that thy best or dearest friend cannot behold it or endure it 2. But alas what becomes of thy soul then Thy soul appears naked there 's no garment to defend it no Proctor appears to plead for it It is brought singly to the bar and there it must answer It is appointed for all men once to dye but what then And after that to come to judgmâ—nt Heb. 9.27 Eccles. 12.7 The body returns unto the earth from whence it was taken but the Spirit to God who gave it All mens spirits assoon as their bodies and souls are parted go to God to be disposed
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
mouth First He convinceth the Gentile which was easie to be done after he convinceth the Jew that there is righteousness to be had in another though none in my self He shall convince the world c. As if he should say To be shut up under unbelief is to be convinced of all sins Now consider what is the nature of unbelief it is to fasten all sins upon a man and when I have faith all my sins are put out of possession they are as if they were not but if we are shut up under unbelief we are dead The second work of God's Spirit is the Ministry of the Word He shall convince the world that there is righteousness to be had by a communion with another though we are guilty in our selves yet he will set us free and the reason is because I go to my Father As if he should say though you be convinced of your sins that you are wholly dead in trespasses and sins and have no means in the world to put that away yet notwithstanding the second work of God's Spirit is to convince of righteousness that there is a righteousness to be had in Christ because he was our Surety arrested for debt he was committed to prison where he could not come out till he had paid the utmost farthing There is a justification to be had in me I go to the Creditor I have made no escape not like one that brake the prison and ran away but I am now a free-man I have not made an escape before the debt is paid then I might be brought back again but the debt is discharged and therefore I go to my Father to maintain my plâ—ce and standing I was given unto death for your sins but I am risen again for your justification and I now sit at my Father's right hand this is the second thing But is there not a third thing that the work of the Ministry must do Yes to convince the world that there is judgment or righteousness inherent There is a hard place I shall speak of it it is usual in Scripture to joyn righteousness and judgment together The words of the Lord are righteousness and judgment And the integrity of a man's heart which is opposed to hypocrisie is called judgment as God liveth who hath taken away my judgment Job 27.2 How did God take away his judgment is it meant that he had taken away his wits No but he hath put his heavy hand on me that hath put a conceit in the mind of my friends that I am an hypocrite though to confront the error of his mis-judging friends he was resolved to persist in his integrity vers 8. My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live His judgment was taken away i. e. the opinion they had of his integrity And this will expound another place in Matth. 12.20 A bruised reed shall he not break and smoaking flax shall be not quench until he send forth judgment unto victory What is that until he send forth judgment This judgment signifies nothing but those inherent graces those infused qualities that God sends into the heart of a Christian which being produced in the children of God by the spirit of judgment through which they are eâ—abled to judge what is right and acceptable to God in Christ who is their wisdom are themselves called judgment You read therefore of washing away the filth of the Daughters of Sion and purging the blood of Jerusalem which is the sanctification of the Church by the spirit of judgment Isa. 4.4 In a man's first conversion there are but beginnings of grace what is faith hope patience and fear it is like a smoaking flax i. e. like the smoaking wick of a candle made of flax as when a candle burns in the socket it is now up now down you know not whether it be alive or dead so in the first conversion of a Christian infidelity and faith hope and despair mount up and down There is a conflict in the beginning of conversion but he will not give it over until he bring forth judgment until he get the victory of all opposition from the flesh And what is the reason Because the Prince of this world is judged He shall convince the world of an inherent righteousness in spite of the Devil's teeth because he is condemned He that before worked in the children of disobedience is now cast down The strong man is cast out and therefore upon that ground you have the third point Besides the grace of justification following upon Christ's death there is another the grace I mean of sanctification through which the Devil shall be dispossessed the Devil is strong where he doth wicked things but he shall be disarmed he shall not touch thee the wicked one shall not hurt thee thou shalt overcome him I now go forward The third thing I noted besides faith and justification was Thaâ— we must observe what relation one hath to the other and how it comes to pass that justification is attributed to faith there being more noble graces in us than faith I answer the reason is because faith is brought as the only instrument whereby we receive our justification purchased by the merits of Christ's death When we say faith is an instrument we must understand it right well we say not faith is an instrument to work my justification Christ alone must do that it is no act of ours nothing is in us faith is said to be an instrument whereby we get our justification in respect of the object it is a nearing us to Christ it is the instrument of application the only instrument whereby we apply the medicine and the plaister of Christ's blood whereby we that were strangers and afar off are made near faith is the only hand which receiveth Christ wâ—en the hand layeth hold on a thing it layeth hold on a thing without it self so is faith a naked hand not as a hand that gets a man's living but like a beggar's hand that receives a free alms given by the donor as the Apostle speaks Rom. 5.17 For if by one man's offence death raigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. There is abundance of grace and a gift of righteousness faith is the only means whereby we receive this gift Whereupon I inferred this which was of great consequence seeing faith did justifie not as an active instrument but as it did râ—ceive the gift of grace it did follow that the weakest faith that was did get as much justification as the strongest faith of any whatsoever because faith justifieth not as a work but as it did receive a gift therefore our Saviour saith O ye of little faith Matth. 8.26 yet as little as it was it was builded upon the Rock and though Satan desired to winnow them and fift them as
them take them to whom they appertain viz. Whosoever shall fall upon this stone shall be broken But on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to peices If their own destruction will not take them off from touching the Lords anointed and from plucking the stars out of his hand let yet the Anguish and vexation that shall accompany their destruction either deter them or confound them For he hath said it who will make it good that there shall be a Resurrection both unto Gods truths and to such as bear Testimony thereunto Mean while let this satisfie such as are faithful whilst God and those that truly fear God prize faithful Ministers it matters not what the rest think of them As King David said in not much an unlike Case of those shall they be had in honour I have now done with the most famous Author of these Sermons of whom I may say as one very Learned saâ—d of Mr. Calvin That famous Man and never to be named without some Preface of Honour Or as another of a Learned and Godly Man God hath so provided that they who lived in Heaven whilst on Earth shall live on Earth whilst in Heaven That they shall leave their Names for a blessing when others leave them behind them for a curse or rather with the Apostle of Demetrius he hath a good Report of all men and of the truth it self A word now concerning these Sermons of his by occasion of the publishing whereof I have thus enlarged They are not so exact as his Immanuel or the Incarnation of the Son of God so accurately couched that you cannot find a word defective or redundant because they wanted his own hand for their publication but yet they are such wherein the Reader may discern much of the Gracious and Heavenly Spirit of this unparalleld Bishop They were preached ad populum in the Vniversity of Oxford the general Subject of them is Conversion or turning from Sin unto God and so mightily did the Lord bless them not only to the Edification and Consolation of very many but also to the Conversion of some as we have good cause to Judge I will say no more the Name of Doctor Vsher by which he is more known to some and the Name of the most Reverend and Learned Father of our Church Doctor James Usher late Arch Bishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland by which he is more known to others not only in these our Kingdomes but in foreign parts his great and good Name I say every wrere as oyntment poured forth prefixed before this Book though with some allay is enough to raise high Expectation of whatsoever cemeth after these words And is argument enough to invite the Reader to look within and read them over And then he will find the least siling of this Master Workmans Gold very precious Good Wine they say needs no bush and if this Wine was so sweet at first running I presume whosoever tasts it now though he have it but at the second or third hand will find it hath not altogether lost its strength nor will he repent his labour in reading these Sermons if he be one that desires to profit his soul more then to please his Palat. That out of this Phoenix the Lord would raise such successors as may by Pen Life and Doctrine do as this burning and shining Light hath done before them is the prayer but scarce the belief of him that prayeth for the Peace and Prosperity of Jerusalem and therein hopeth to have his share in the concurrent prayers of every Godly Reader Stanley Gower Dorchester October the third 1659 A TABLE Directing to the TEXTS of SCRIPTURE Handled in the Following SERMONS Sermon I. HEbrews 4.7 Again he limiteth a certain day saying in David to day after so long a time as it is said to day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts pag. 1 Sermon II. Heb. 4.7 Again he limiteth a certain day saying in David to day after so little time as it is said to day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts p. 8 Sermon III. Gal. 6.3 4. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself but let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another p. 16 Sermon IV. Ephes. 2.1 2 3. And you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past ye 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 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the Children of wrath even as others p. 24 Sermon V. Gal. 3.22 But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe p. 32 Sermon VI. Lament 5.16 Woe unto us that we have sinned p. 40 Sermon VII Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death p. 48 Sermon VIII Rev. 21.8 But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murtherers and whore-mongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all lyars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death p. 55 Sermon IX Phil. 2.5 6 7 8. Let this mind be in you which also was in Jesus Christ who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion of a man he humbled himself unto the death even the death of the Cross. p. 65 Sermon X. Phil. 2.8 And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became Obedient unto the Death even the Death of the Cross. p. 92 Sermon XI John 1.12 But to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name p. 82 Sermon XII Ephes. 1.13 In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the words of truth the Gospel of your Salvation in whom also after you believed you were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise p. 90 Sermon XIII 1 Cor. 11.29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body p. 99 Sermon XIV 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 p. 108 Sermon XV. Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. p. 117 Sermon XVI Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ p. 127 Sermon XVII Rom.
5.1 Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. p. 136 Sermon XVIII Rom. 5.1.2 Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God p. 145 Sermon XIX Rom. 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 spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the Children of God p. 157 Sermon XX. Rom. 8.16 The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the Children of God p. 167 Speedy Conversion The only Means to prevent IMMINENT DESTRUCTION HEBREWS 4.7 Again he limiteth a certain Day saying in David to day after so long a time as it is said to day if you will hear his Voyce harden not your hearts I Have entered on these Words in the other Vniversity on a day of Publick Humiliation as being suitable to the occasion the chief matter of them being the Doctrine of the Conversion of a sinner For as much as God's Judgments are abroad upon the Earth and hang over our heads the only means to prevent and remove both temporal and eternal is our speedy conversion and return unto God Else he will whet his sword bend his bow and make it ready to our destruction Psal. 7.12 God did bear a deadly hatred against sin in the time of the Psalmist and so he doth still for his nature cannot be changed If we return not we are but dead men The eternal weight of God's wrath will be our portion both here and in the world to come if we repent not In the Words there are three observable Points though not expresly named yet if we weigh the Context sufficiently implied 1. Continuance in sin brings certain death it hinders us from entring into God's rest and out of it there is nothing but death Or For sin God's Judgments are on particular Nations and Persons 2. If particular Nations or Persons turn away from their evil courses no hurt shall come near them or if temporal calamities surprize them they shall be made beneficial unto them God takes no delight in the death of a sinner nor that he should despair of his mercy but would have us turn out of the broad way which leads to destruction 3. It behooves every one speedily to set about the work of conversion Esteem not this therefore a vain word I bring you those things whereon your life depends Obeying it you are made for ever neglecting it you are undone for ever Unless you embrace this Message God will bend his bow and make ready his arrow against you or rather the arrows which he hath drawn to the head he will let fly upon you Know therefore 1. That continuance in sin brings certain death There will be no way of escaping but by repentance by coming in speedily unto God The words of this Text are taken from Psal. 95. Harden not your hearts as in the Provocation and as in the Temptation in the Wilderness If when God calls us either to the doing of this or leaving that undone yet we are not moved but continue in our evil ways What 's the reason of it It 's because we harden our hearts against him The Word of God which is the power of God to salvation and a two-edged sword to sever between the joynts and the Marrow The strength of the Almighty encounters with our hard hearts and yet they remain like the stony and rockie ground whereon though the Word be plentifully sown yet it fastens no root there and though for a season it spring yet suddenly it fades and comes to nothing We may haply have a little motion by the Word yet there 's a rock in our souls a stone in our hearts and though we may sometimes seem to receive it with some affection and be made as it were Sermon-sick yet it holds but a while it betters us not Why because it 's not received as an ingrafted word Therefore saith St. James Receive with meekness the ingrafted word James 1.21 Let the word be ingrafted in thee one sprig of it is able to make thee grow up to everlasting life Be not content with the hearing of it but pray God it may be firmly rooted in your hearts this will cause a softning To day if you will hear his voyce harden not your hearts against Almighty God If you do expect him also to come against you in indignation Hearken what he saith by his Prophet I will search Jerusalem with candles and punish the men that are settled on their lees that say in their heart the Lord will not do good neither will he do evil Zeph. 1.12 Mark I will search Jerusalem with candles and punish those that are settled on their lees When a man is thus settled and resolved to go on in his sins to put the matter to the hazard come what will come there 's a kind of Atheism in the soul. For what do's he but in a manner reply when God tells him by his Minister that he is preparing the instruments of death against him do you think us such fools to believe it What does this but provoke God to swear that we shall never enter into his rest What 's the reason of this It 's because men are not shifted they have no change they are settled on their lees Moab hath been at ease from his youth he hath been setled and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel neither hath he gone into captivity Jer. 48.11 Consider we whether our security comes not from the same cause We have not been emptied from vessel to vessel we have always been at rest Why have we so little conversion There are two things hinder it the hardning of a mans heart against the Word and our setling our selves on our lees When we have no change in our condition we are secure we never see an evil day That makes us say with the Sensualists in the Prophet To morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant Isa. 56.12 And this is that which slays the foolish person Wo to them that are at ease It were better for thee to be emptied from vessel to vessel to go into captivity For as long as a man continues thus in an unregenerate condition he can look for nothing but troubles certain Judgments must necessarily follow and as sure as God is in Heaven so sure may they expect misery on Earth and they shall receive the eternal weight of God's wrath treasured up against the day of wrath Therefore there is a necessity of our conversion if we will keep off either temporal or eternal wrath Our Saviour makes it the case of all impenitent sinners to be liable to wrath One Judgment befel the Galileans another
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
fire if we continue so But this is not the only sad case of a natural man but he 's very active and fruitful in the works of darkness the others were sins of omission Here he is wholly set upon the commission of sins and trespasses Heb. 6 7.7 He not only brings not forth meet fruit or good fruit or no fruit but he brings forth thorns and briars and is therefore rejected and nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burnt Thou art not only found a barren tree and so deservest to be cut down but thou bringest forth thorns and briars and deservest to be burnt not only no good fruit but noxious bad and poyson'd fruit and this doth mightily aggravate the matter Now for us that have lived so long under the Ministry and the Lord hath watered and dressed and hedged us do we think the Lord expects from us no good fruit Had we lived among heathens or where the Word is not taught then so much would not be expected but we have heard the Word often and powerfully taught and therefore it is expected that we should not only bring forth fruit but meet fruit answerable to the means Where God affords greatest means there he expects most fruit If a man live thirty or forty years under powerful means the Lord expects answerable fruit which if he bring forth he shall have a blessing from the Lord. But when a man hath lived long under the means and brings forth no fruit pleasing to God but all Gods cost is lost when notwithstanding the dew and the rain which falls oft upon him he brings forth nothing but thorns and briars he is rejected and nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burnt The earth which drinketh in the former and the latter rain c. if it bring not forth fruit answerable to the labour of the dresser it 's nigh unto the curse Now if we consider but the particulars and search into Gods Testimonies we shall see how bâ—d this man is But who should this man be We have Gods own word for it It 's men generally all men Gen. 6.5 God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every thought and imagination of his heart was only evil continually Every word is as it were a thunder bolt and was it not time when it was thus with them for God to bring a flood The thoughts are the original from which the words and actions do usually proceed Now all their thoughts were evil What was there no kind of goodness in their thoughts No they were only evil continually and that was the reason the flood came Well but though it were so before the flood yet I hope they were better after the flood No God said again after the flood cap. 8. The thoughts of the hearts of men are evil c. Like will to like Men are of one kind till they receive grace from Christ. We are all one nature and naturally all the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts are only evil continually See it in the understanding 1 Cor. 3.14 The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them for they are foolishness unto him c. Look upon his will Rom. 8. It is not subject to the will of God neither indeed can it be Our Saviour Mat. 15.8 doth anatomize the heart of such a man Those things that come out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile the man for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murthers adulteries c. these are they which defile the man because they come from his heart from within If a man go by a house and seeing great flakes of fire come out of the chimney though he see not the fire within yet he cannot know but there is fire within because he seeth the flakes without I am not able to see the heart of any man and to declare to you what I have seen with mine eyes but yet if I see such to come forth as murther thefts blasphemies lying and the like I may say there is hell-fire in the heart thy heart is a little hell within thee these manifestations from without make it appear to be so The words of this man are rotten words and stinking words and his heart is much more So this is the point we are utterly indispos'd aliens to all good and bent to all evil I am carnal saith the Apostle we are sold under sin slaves unto it sin is our Lord and we its slaves We have generally forfeited our happy estate and are servants to Sâ—tan whom we obey Therefore this is a thing not easily to be passed over this our condition of which if we were once truly perswaded we would never give our selves any rest till we were got out of it If the party that goes to the Physician could but know his disease and cause the Physician to know it and the causes of it whether it came from a hot cause or a cold it were easily cured it were as good as half done That is the chief reason why so many miscarry because their disease is not perfectly known That is the reason we are no better because our disease is not perfecâ—ly known That is the reason that we are no better because we know not flow bad we are If we did once know our disease and knew our selves to be heart-sick and not like the Laodiceans which thought themselves rich and wanted nothing when they were poor blind and naked then we would seek out and were in the way to be cured So much for this time but we will have another Lecture on this point GAL. 3.22 But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe YOu see in this excellent portion of Scripture the two Covenants of Almighty God to wit the Covenant of Nature and the Covenant of Grace The first of Nature which was written by God in mans heart and this is the holy Law of God by vertue whereof a man was to continue in that integrity holiness and uprightness in which God had first created him and to serve God according to that strength he first enabled him with that so he might live thereby But now when man had broken this Covenant and enter'd into a state of Rebellion against God he 's shut up in misery but not in misery for ever as the Angels that fell â—ere being reserved in chains till the judgement of the great day Jud. v. 6. No the Lord hath shut him up in prison only for a while that so he may the better make a way for their escape and deliverance and for their entrance into the second Covenant of Grace that so making him see his own misery wherein by nature he is and cutting him off from his own stock he may be ingrafted in Christ draw sap and sweetness from him and bring forth fruits to
with it which as rust eats it out and cankers it if he beget a child he is accursed there 's a curse against his person and his goods and all that belongs unto him there 's still a curse over his head The creditor in this World by the Laws of the Realm may choose whether he will have his debtors person seized on or his goods and chattels But not so here this writ is executed against his person and goods and all that belongs unto him So that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God If this be the condition of a wicked man that his very blessings be curses what a woful case is it There 's nothing till he be reconciled to Christ but hath a curse at the end of it Consider that one place in the Prophesie of Malachy where the very blessings are accursed not onely when God sends on him the itch or botch or scab or sword but in blessings cap. 2.2 he 's accursed If you will not hear and if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name saith the Lord I will even send a curse upon you But how See how this curse is threatned I will curse your very blessings yea I have cursed them already because you do not lay it to heart Mark is it not a great blessing that God yet affords the Word that we yet enjoy it but if we come to hear but formally to hear it onely and lay it not to heart God curseth this blessing yea I have cursed it already saith the Lord. When thou prayest in hypocrisie thy prayer is a curse to thee If thou receive the Sacrament unworthily the cup of blessing is a cup of poison a cup of cursing to thee Stay not therefore one hour longer quietly in this cursed condition but fly unto Christ for life and blessing run to this City of refuge for otherwise there is a curse at the end of every outward thing that thou enjoyest I have cursed these blessings already It is as sure as if already pass't on thee What a woeful thing then is it think you to be liable to the curse of God! 2. But what 's become of the soul now Why if thou didst but see the cursed soul that thou carriest in thy body it would amaze thee These outward curses are but flea-bitings to the blow that is given to the soul of an unregenerate man that deadness of spirit that is within didst thou but see the curse of God that rests upon the soul of this man even while he is above ground it would even astonish thee 1. Consider there are two kinds of blows that God gives unto the soul of an unregenerate man The one is a terrible blow The other which is the worst of the two is an insensible blow The sensible blow is when God lets the conscience out and makes it fly into the face of a man when the conscience shall come and terribly accuse a man for what he hath done This blow is not so usual as the insensible blow but this insensible is far more heavy But as it falls out that as in this World sometimes before the glory in Heaeen the Saints of God have here a glimpse of Heaven and certain communion with God and Christ certain love tokens a white stone a new name ingraven which no man knoweth but he that receiveth it And this is the testimony of a good conscience which is hidden joyes Privy intercourse is between Christ and them secret kisses And as Gods Children do as it were meet with a Heaven upon Earth sometimes and are as we read of Paul caught up into the third Heaven which to them is more then all the things in the World besides So the wicked have sometimes flashes of Hell in their consciences If you had but seen men in the case that I have seen them in you would say they had an Hell within them they would desire rather and they have expressed it to be torn in pieces by wild horses so they might be freed from the horrours in their consciences When the conscience recoyls and beats back upon it self as a musket or'e charged it turns a man over and over And this is a terrible thing This sometimes God gives men in this World And mark where the word is most powerfully preacht there is this froth most rais'd which is the cause many desire not to come where the word is taught because it galls their consciences and desire the Mass rather because they say the Mass bites not They desire a dead Minister that would not rub up their consciences they would not be tormented before the time They would so but it shall not be at their choice God will make them feel here the fire of Hell which they must endure for ever hereafter This is the sensible Blow when God le ts loose the conscience of a wicked man and he needs no other fire no other worm to torment nothing else to plague him he hath a weapon within him his own conscience which if God lets loose it will be Hell enough But now besides this blow which is not so frequent there is another more common and more insensible blow God saith he is a dead man and a flave to sin and Satan and he thinks himself the freest man in the World God curses and strikes and he feels it not This is an insensible blow and like unto a dead palsie Thou art dead and yet walkest about and art merry though every one that hath his eyes open seeth death in thy face O this deadness this senselesness of heart is the heaviest thing that can befal a sinner in this life It is the cause the Apostle speaks of in the Rom when God delivers up a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a reprobate mind And so in the Epistle to the Ephes. 4.19 declares such a man to be past feeling Who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness even with greediness Although every sin as I told you before is as it were the running a mans self on the point of Gods sword yet these men being past feeling run on on on to commit sin with greediness till they come to the very pit of destruction they run amain to their confusion When this insensibleness is come upon them it is not Gods goodness that can work upon them Who art thou that despisest the riches of Gods goodness not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee unto repentance Rom. 2.4 It is not Gods judgments that will move them they leave no impression as Rev. 9.20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Devils c. brass nor stone and wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk They repented not though they were spared but worshipped Gods which cannot see nor hear nor
it was part of his Priest-hood to offer up himself The Sacrifices in the old Law that typified him were only sufferers The poor beasts were only passive but our Saviour he must be an Actor in the business He was active in all that he suffered He did it in obedience to his Fathers Will yet he was an Agent in all his Passions John 11.43 He groaned in Spirit and was troubled the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it is in the Margent He troubled himself With us in our Passions it is otherwise we are meer sufferers Our Saviour was a Conqueror over all his passions and therefore unless he would trouble himself none else could trouble him unless he would lay down his life none could take it from him unless he would give his cheek to be smitten the Jews had no power to smite it Isa. 50.6 I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that pluckt off the hair and hid not my face from shame and spitting In all these we should consider our Saviour not as a Sacrifice only but a Sacrificer also an Actor in all this business their wicked hands were not more ready to smite then he was to give his face to be smitten and all to shew that it was a voluntary Sacrifice He did all himself He humbled himself unto the death Phil. 2.8 And now by all this we see what we have gotten we have gotten a remedy and satisfaction for sins That precious blood of that immaculate Lamb takes away the sins of the world because it is the Lamb of God under which else the World would have eternally groaned Object But doth this Lamb of God take away all the sins of the world Sol. It doth not actually take away all the sins of the world but virtually It hath power to do it if it be rightly applyed the Sacrifice hath such vertue in it that if all the World would take it and apply it it would expiate and remove the sins of the whole World but it is here as with medicines they do not help being prepared but being applied Rhubarb purgeth choler yet not unless applied c. Exod. 39.38 there is mention made of a Golden Altar Christ is this Golden Altar to shew that his blood is most precious We are not redeemed with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Rev. 8.3 9.13 He is that golden Alter mentioned in the Revelation which stands before the Throne He was likewise to be a brazen altar for so much was to be put upon him that unless he were of brass and had infinite strength he would have sunk under the burden Its Jobs Metaphor Job in his passion saith Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh brass Job 6.12 If Christs flesh had not been brass if he had not been this brazen Altar he could never have gone through these now he is prepared for us a sacrifice for sin Rom. 8.3 For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin for sin make a stop there condemned sin in the flesh This same for sin hath not reference to condemned To condemn sin for sin is not good sense but the words depend on this God sent his Son that is God sent his Son to be a Sacrifice for sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is translated Heb. 10.6 a sacrifice for sin It was impossible the Law should save us not because of any imperfection or failing in the Law but because our weakness is such as that we could not perform the conditions therefore God was not tyed to promises by reason then of the weakness of our flesh rather than we should perish God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and in that flesh of his condemned all our sins we need not look that sin should be condemned in us when he bare our sins on the tree then were our sins condemned therefore it 's said Isai. 53. When he had made his soul an offering for sin that is in the Original when he had made his soul sin then he saw his seed Isa. 57. We come now to the second thing if Christ be offered for us yet unless he offer him to us unless any man may have interest in him it 's nothing worth Here then stands the Mystery of the Gospel Christ when he comes to offer himself to us he finds not a whit in us that is to be respected nothing And that is the ground of all disturbance to ignorant consciences for there is naturally in men pride and ignorance they think they may not meddle with Christ through Gods Mercy unless they bring something unless they have something of their own to lay down This is to buy Christ to barter betwixt Christ and the soul but salvation is a free gift of God As the Apostle speaks Christ is freely given unto thee when thou hadst nothing of worth in thee Faith when it comes empties thee of all that is in thee To whom is the Gospel preached to the dead Now before Christ quicken thee thou art stark dead rotting in thy sins Here 's the point then when there is no manner of goodness in thee in the world In me saith St. Paul that is in my flesh there is no good thing When I have been the most outragious sinner I may lay hold on Christ. Christ comes and offers himself to thee Now when Christ offers the other part of the relation holds we may take We have an interest to accept what he proffers Consider it by an example If one give me a million and I receive it not I am never the richer and so if God offer me his Son and with him all things I am nothing the better if I receive him not That he is born and given what is that to us unless we can say To us a child is born to us a Son is given Isa. 9.6 Faith comes with a naked hand to receive that which is given we must empty our selves of what is in us Consider thy estate the Lord sets dowâ— how it is with us when he comes to look upon us Ezek. 16.6 And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thy blood I said unto thee when thou wâ—rt in thy blood live Why is this â—et down It 's to shew how God finds nothing in us when he comes to shew Mercy He finds nothing in us that is lovely when he comes to bestow his Son upon us For it is said Rev 1.5 That Christ loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood He doth first cast his eyes upon us when we are unwashed as I may say unwashed and unblessed When no eye pittied thee and thou wast cast out in the open fiâ—ld when thou wast in thy blood I said unto thee live when he comes
able to see it Every man may say in generalities I am a sinner yet to say and know himself to be such a sinner as indeed he is to stand in such need that he cannot do This one would think to be a matter of sense but unless God's Spirit open our eyes we can never see our selves to be such sinners as we are or else what is the reason that the child of God cries out more against his sin and the weight thereof after his conversion than he did before What are his sins greater or more than they were formerly No but his Light is greater his eyes are opened and now he sees more clearly what sin is When the Sun shines and its rays come in what a number of motes do we discover which before we saw not Not as if the Sun-beams made them or the Sun raised the dust no there are here as many motes and as much dust flying about as if the Sun shined here What is the matter then Why this the Sun discovers them to us So that here is the point Our sins in our souls are as motes in the air and are not more than they were before conversion but we cannot see them till the glorious beams of God's Spirit shine upon us The sight of sin and of the danger that comes by it is the work of God's Spirit The Spirit discovers sin unto us Joh. 16.8 When the Spirit cometh he shall convince the world of sin the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit shall convince them And the same word is used Heb. 11.1 where Faith is said to be the evidence of things not seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heretofore we had a slight imagination of our sins but to have our mouth stopped and to be convinced is not a work of flesh and blood but of God's Spirit Rom. 3.19 Till we are awakened by his Spirit we cannot see nor feel the mountains and heaps of sins that lie upon our souls Thou art dead in sin Rom. 8. Thou art in bondage and to know it is a work of the Spirit not of nature The spirit of bondage what is that Why however we are all bond men until the Son hath made us free in a woful estate slaves to sin and Satan yet till God's Spirit convince us and shew it us and make us know it we shall sleep secure are not afraid but think our selves the freest men in the world and see not this to be a time of need This therefore is the first preparative when God brings his people by Mount Sinai Heb. 12.18 For you are not come unto the Mountain that may be touched and that burned by fire nor unto the blackness and darkness and tempest so Gal. 4.25 Mount Sinai is made a figure of the Law which begets bondage Not that Mount which might be touched and that burn'd with fire where was the sound of the Trumpet and voice of words such a sound as never before was heard nor never will be till one day we shall hear the same The sound of the Trumpet which sounded at the delivery of the Law Exod. 19.19 where it is described for when the voice of the Trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder that Moses heard it was such a noise a great noise at first but it grew higher and higher and at last it came to that heighth that it was almost incomprehensible then Moses spake And what spake he The Holy Ghost sets not down what he spake in that place Look in Heb. 12.21 So terrible was the voice that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake Such a kind of lightning and loud voice this was the Lord commands such a voice as this Esay 58.1 Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a Trumpet and shew my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins When God shall sound with the voice of the Trumpet of his holy word of his Law and shew thee that thou art a trayterous Rebel and there is an Execution gone out against thee body and goods when God sounds thus to a deaf ear of a carnal man then cometh the spirit of bondage of necessity on him which shews that we have a time of need The Law must have this operation before thou comest to the Throne of grace None will flie to the City of Refuge till the revenger of blood be hard at his heels Nor any to Christ till he sees his want Thus the Lord makes us know our need by turning the edge of his Axe towards us Offenders when they are brought to the bar at Westminster for Treason have the edge of the Axe turned from them but whâ—n they have received the sentence of condemnation and are carried back to the Tower the edge of the Axe is turned towards them Thus is it here The Law turns the edge of God's Axe towards us and therefore it 's said of S. Peter's Hearers Acts 2.38 That they were pricked to the heart The Law puts the point of God's sword to our very breasts as it were and brings us to see that we stand in great need of a pardon This is the first preparative when God enlightens our minds to see our dangerous estate and then there must of necessity follow fear and desire to be rid of this condition for the will and affections always follow the temper of the mind And hence when a man hath a false perswasion that he is in a good case that he is safe and well what works it but pride presumption confidence and security So on the contrary when this perswasion appears to be delusion contrary effects must follow If a man be in health and jollity and on a sudden be proclaimed a Traytor that he must lose his life and goods is it possible it should be thus and he not wrought on nor have any alteration So when news comes from the Law that thou art a dead man and everlastingly must perish the Law then works wrath that is it manifests unto us the wrath of God When it is thus there follows a shaking and trembling and it 's impossible but with Moses thou shouldst exceedingly quake and tremble 2. For all this there is a Throne of Grace erected God hath not forgotten to be merciful though thy sins be never so great This is the next preparative for faith namely the discovery and acknowledgment of the Gospel of Christ Jesus We see in in Ezra 10.2 We have trespassed against our God and have taken strange wives of the people of the Land yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing we have trespassed What then must we be the subjects of God's wrath No Yet notwithstanding though we have committed this great offence there is hope in Israel concerning this thing What though we have provoked God to indignation must we be the matter for his wrath to work on No There is balm in Gilead Jer 8. ult Is there no balm in Gilead Is there
unto it By the way then take notice of the filthiness of sin how filthy is it that the Lord compares it to the vomit of a dog Then there follows another comparison of it It is as the Sow that is washed and returns to her wallowing in the mire See another loathsome resemblance of this temporary faith the Sow was washed but how her swinish nature was not washed from her as long as the Sow is kept from the mire in a fair Meadow with the Sheep she looks as sleek and clean as they she was washed there is an external change but her nature remained bring the Sow and the sheep to a puddle the sheep will not go in because it hath no swinish nature but the other retaining its swinish nature though before in outward appearance as clean as the sheep was yet she goes again to her wallowing in the mire There may be the casting away of a man's sins and yet no new creature wrought in him That I may shew this to you take this example A man known to be as covetous a man as liveth he loveth his money as well as his God yet perchance this man is brought in danger of the Law and must be hanged for some misdemeanor committed this man to save his life will part with all he hath What is his disposition changed no not a whit he is as covetous as before he is the same man he doth it to save his life and to this end he is content to part with his money The same mind had those in the Acts of the Apostles who in a storm cast their wares into the Sea with their own hands Act. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 willingly and yet half unwillingly for the saving of their lives they would part with these things yet it was with a great deal of repining and reluctancy As we read of Phaltiel when his wife was taken from him he followed behind weeping 2 Sam. 3.16 till they bid him be gone and return back So these men forsake their sins and hate them but it is but imperfectly they part with them but they part weeping Well at this parting there may be a great deal of joy it may taste not only the sweetness of the Word of God but because they are in a disposition and way to salvation they may have some kind of feeling of the joys and taste of the powers of the world to come as the Apostle speaks Heb. 6.4 It is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost c. There is a supernatural work wrought in them and they have tasted the good Word of the Lord they begin to have some hope and rejoyce in the glory of the world to come What is the difference then here is a tasting but as it is Joh. 6.54 it is not said he that tastes my flesh and tastes my blood but he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood hath eternal life There is a difference betwixt tasting and drinking there may be a tasting without drinking and the Text saith Matth. 27.34 When they gave Christ Vinegar he tasted thereof but would not drink He that can take a full draught of Christ crucified he shall never thirst but shall be as a springing fountain that springeth up to everlasting life but it shall not be so with him that doth but taste The Vintner goes round the Cellar and tastes every Vessel he takes it into his mouth and spits it out again and yet knows by the tasting whether it be good or bad the wine goeth but to his palate it reaches not the stomach So a temporary believer tastes and feels what an excellent thing it is to have communion with Christ and to be made partaker of his glory but he does but taste it Look in Hosea 5.15 where we have another instance of this temporary Believer Ye would think they sought in God in a good sort and in as good a manner as one could desire well but how did they seek him It was only upon occasion in time of affliction I will go and return to my place until they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early and again Hosea 6.4 The Lord complains of them notwithstanding They will in their affliction seek me early Was not this a fair returning Come say they let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us c. What a deal of comfort did they seem to gather from the wayes of the Lord But see what follows Hosea 6.4 O Ephraim saith the Lord what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I do unto thee For your goodness is as the morning cloud and as the early dew it goeth away that is it is but a temporary thing wrought by affliction which will not abide As when a wicked man on his death-bed desires that God would spare him and restore him to his health and that he would become a new man all this comes but from the terrours of death for it oft proves that if God restores him he becomes as bad if not worse than ever he was before But that I may not hold you too long 2. Take this for another difference That Gods children can as earnestly desire grace as mercy The temporary desire mercy but never desire grace The believer desires grace to have his nature healed to hate his former conversation The temporary never had nor never will have this desire should one come to the temporary believer and tell him God will be merciful unto him you may go on and take your fill of sin you shall be sure of mercy he would like this well and think it the welcomest news as could be because he only fears damnation and self-love makes him only desire freedome from that but now the child of God hates sin though there were no Hell Judge nor Tormentor he begs as hard of God for grace as for mercy and would do so were there no punishment His nature being chang'd he desireth grace as well as mercy which the temporary never does 3. The last mark is from the words of the Apostle Neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love Love and the new creature puts Gods children on work their hearts are first altered and changed by being made new creatures As the Scripture saith his flesh is circumcised he is a dead man dead not as formerly in trespasses and sins but dead unto them Ephes. 2.1 Rom. 6.11 Deadness argueth impotency of doing those things which a living man doth he cannot walk c. The temporary will not sin for fear of after-claps but this man cannot sin his heart is changed he is dead to sin we see how both abstain from sin but the temper and disposition is not alike The temporary believer perchance commits not the sin but he could find
in his heart to do it he saith not with Joseph How can I do this great wickedness and sin against my God The other saith I could do this evil well enough but I will not Thou canst not beâ—n those that are evil saith Christ in his Epistle to the Church of Ephesus This was her great commendation Revel 2.2 Now he that is born of God cannot sin there is that seed that spring in him that for his life he cannot sin but it turns his heart from it for his life he cannot tell how to swear lye c. or joyn with others in wickedness but this must be understood of the constant course of their lives I speak not what they may do in temptations when they are surprised but in the course of their lives they commit sin as if they knew not how to do it the other doth it skilfully these coblingly and bunglingly they do it ill-favouredly thus it is with a wicked man in doing a good work he cobles it up This is intimated unto us in the very Phrase of the Apostle Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin It is not the same thing to sin in St. John's acception and to commit sin committing sin is the action of the Artist and Practitioner in the Trade From this the seed of God which abideth in the regenerate secureth him 1 Joh. 3.9 Psal. 32.12 Thy faith then must be a faith that worketh by love Canst thou do those good works thou doest out of love then my soul for thine thou art saved Get me any temporary that loves God and I shall say something to you Hast thou then a faith that causeth thee to love God a working faith and a faith that will not suffer thee to do any thing displeasing to him if thou hast such a faith thou art justified before God 2. And so I come now to the point of justification the greatest of all blessings Blessed is he saith David whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity It is the most blessed condition that can be it is set down by way of Exclamation O the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity or as the Original imports O the blessedness of the man discharged from sin Here are many blessings conceived in our justification from sin For justification see what it is the Scripture in St. Paul's Epistles speaks of justification by faith and in St James of justification by works Now it will be useful to us in this point to know whence justification comes it comes from justice Tsedeck as the Original hath it and Hitsdiq to justifie so that justification and righteousness depend one upon the other for what is justification but the manifestation of the righteousness that is in a man And therefore in Gal. 3.21 they are put for one the same thing For if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily righteousness had been by the Law that is justification had been by the Law Again If righteousness be by the Law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2. that is also if justification had been by the Law c. Justification is a manifestation of righteousness and as many ways as righteousness is taken so many ways is justification which is a declaration of righteousness so that if there be a double righteousness there must be also a double justification Beloved I bring you no new doctrine be not afraid of that but I shew you how to reconcile places of Scripture against the Church of Rome and those things which the Papists bring against us in this point It stands by reason seeing justification is a declaration of righteousness that there must be so many sorts of justification as there be of righteousness Now there is a double sort of righteousness Rom. 8.4 That the righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in us see then there is a double righteousness there is a righteousness fulfilled in us and a righteousness fulfilled by us that is walking in the Spirit The righteousness fulfilled in us is fulfilled by another and is made ours by imputation so we have a righteousness without us and a righteousness inherent in us the righteousness without us is forgiveness of sins and pardon of them which is a gracious act of God letting fall all actions againsts me and accounting of me as if I had never sinned against him all my life time then there is a righteousness within me an inherent righteousness And if a righteousness then justification for that is but a declaration of righteousness And so that which the Fathers call justification is taken generally for sanctification that which we call justification they call forgiveness of sins that which we call sanctification they call justification so that the difference is only in the terms Justification we must know is not taken only as opposed to condemnation which is the first kind of righteousness Rom. 6.7 He that is dead is freed from sin if you look to the Greek or to the Margent it is he that is dead is justified from sin This is not took in the first sense as opposed to condemnation but in the other sense as it hath relation to final grace The perfection of sanctification is wrought in me for where there is final grace there is a supersedeas from all sin so Rev. 22.11 Let him that is righteous be righteous still the Greek is let him that is righteous be justified still See then the difference between St. Paul and St. James St. Paul speaks of that which consists in remission of sins as in comparing the Apostle with David will appear Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven St. James speaks of justification in the second acception You need not fly to that distinction of justification before God and justification before men Think not that St. James speaks only of justification before men Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac on the Altar What justified by killing his Son this was a proper work indeed to justifie him before man to be a parricide to kill his son though it were not so before God So Psal. 106. we read how God accounted the act of Phineas for righteousness Thus you see how works are accounted righteousness in the second kind of righteousness In the former righteousness we are justified by faith for in righteousness inherent there is goodly chain of vertues Add to your faith vertue c. add one grace to another Add to vertue knowledge Faith is but one part of the Crown Now this justification in the first sense whereby my sins are forgiven is called the righteousness of God because of Christ which is God because it is wrought by Christ Dan. 9. he is called an everlasting righteousness which continueth for ever world without end for do not think the Saints in heaven have only the second kind
of righteousness for they have the same covering by justication by Christ in heaven that they had before God covers their sins not here only but there also justification follows them for ever Quest. But now what parts hath justification in it we are wont to say that there are two parts one imputation of righteousness the other forgiveness of sins Sol. I answer for my own part I think Justification is one simple act of God and that it is improperly distinguished as parts but rather as terminus a quo is distinct from terminus ad quem And this I shall shew unto you both by reason and authority that faith is but one act Let none say that I take away the imputation of the righteousness of Christ No the bringing in of light and the expulsion of darkness is not two acts but one but there is terminus à quo and terminus ad quem We are accounted righteous and that is we have our sins forgiven And the reason is this if sin were a positive thing and had a being in it self then the forgiveness of sin must be a thing distinct from the imputation of righteousness Scholars know the difference between adversa and privantia white and black are both existent but darkness and light are not but only a privation one of another Darkness is nothing of it self but the absence of light The bringing in of light is the suppression of it You must understand sin hath no being no entity it is only an absence of righteousness the want of that light which should be in the subject Which want is either in our nature and then it is called original or in our person and actions and then it is called actual transgression Sin is an absence of that positive being which is as I said either in our nature or works Then thus I will resolve you in another point viz. If sin were a positive thing all the world cannot avoid it but God must be the Author of it for there is nothing can have a being but it must derive its being from the first being God Now how can we avoid God's being the Author of sin Why thus It is nothing But what is sin nothing Will God damn a man and send him to hell for nothing I answer it is not such a nothing as you make it a man is not damned for nothing It is a nothing privative an absence of that that should be and that a man ought to have As when a Scholar is whipped for not saying his lesson is he whipped think you for nothing Indeed he hath nothing he cannot say a word of his lesson and therefore it is he is whipped it is for a thing he ought to have and hath not Well if you will say there are two parts of justification do if you please but this I take to be the more proper and genuine explanation Besides it appears by testimony of the Apostle Rom. 4.6 As David describeth the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works c. Saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered The Apostle cites the Prophet David Psal. 32. Mark the Apostle's conclusion and how he proves it His conclusion is That man is blessed unto whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works His argument then must needs be thus framed He whom God forgives is blessed But Him to whom God imputeth righteousness without works God forgives Therefore he is blessed Now how could this assumption hold if imputation of righteousness and remission of sins were two distinct acts for not imputing righteousness is not to bring in a light which keeps out darkness But observe the Apostle to the Colossians and Ephesians makes this forgiveness of sins the whole work nay foundation of our redemption But here remember I deny not the imputation of righteousness for that is the foundation of the other here is the point How is Christ's righteousness imputed to me that positive thing which expels the other Not so as if Christ's righteousness were in me subjectively for it was wrought by his passion as well as his action The Apostle calls it faith in his blood by faith in Christ Christ's passive obedience is imputed to me What do you think the meaning is that God doth esteem me as if I had hanged on the Cross and as if I had my side pierced No that would not stead me or do me any good that which was meritorious and singular in him did reach to us So that the meaning is this as it is in the Articles of the Church of England That we are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith and not for our own works and deservings that is for the merits of Jesus Christ God is well pleased with the obedience of his Son both active and passive He is so far satisfied as that he takes us to be in that state for his sake as if we had fulfilled all his Laws and never broken them at any time and as if we owed him not a farthing This is imputative righteousness however the Papists may scoff at it And this kind of justification must of necessity be by imputation Why because when a man hath committed a sin it cannot be undone again God by his absolute power cannot make a thing done undone for it implies a contradiction The act past cannot be revoked nor the nature thereof changed murther will be murther still c. How then can I be justified the sin being past and the nature of it still remaining I say how can I be justified in the first sense any other way than by imputation It is said in 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them c. This kind of justification which consists in remission of sins cannot be imputative sin cannot be changed nor the thing done undone But now cometh a greater question if by justification our sins be forgiven us what sins are forgiven I pray sins past or sins to come we are taught by some that in the instant of justification all our sins past and to come are remitted which is in my mind an unsound doctrine For if we look narrowly into it we shall find that in propriety of speech remission of sins hath relation to that which is past it is said therefore Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God And remission of sins hath relation to those that are past as appears by inevitable reason for what is remission of sins but sin covered Now can a thing be covered before it be blot out mine iniquities c. Psal. 51.1 saith David can a thing be blotted out before it is written this is the thing makes the Pope so ridiculous that
do it for them i.e. though I have done it and intend to do it yet will I do it by the means of prayer Howsoever that God had promised Eliah that rain should come upon the face of the earth yet he goes upon the Mount and saw no shew of a cloud The Text saith not what he did but he put his head between his knees Saint James saith he prayed and â—he opened Heaven and brought down rain It was an humble secret gesture A man may be more free in private than in publick He prayed and the heavens opened God had promised it and would do it but yet he would be sought to So we see the mediate cause is prayer so though the Lord will do this yet for all this he will be enquired of It is not with God as with men men who have promised would be loth to be sued to not to break their promise they account that a dishonour to them but it is not so with God God hath promised yet thou shalt have no benefit of it until thou sue to him for it therefore thou must go to God and say Lord fulfil thy promise to thy servant wherein thou hast caused me to trust God loves to have his bond sued out Lord make good this word perform that good word that thou hast spoken God would have his bond thus sued out And as thy faith repentance prayer is renewed so is thy pardon renewed When God will make a man possess the sins of his youth when a man is careless this way it pleaseth God to awaken him Thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the iniquity of my youth Job 13.26 When a man forgetteth the iniquities of his youth and reneweth not his repentance and hath not new acts of faith and petition then God maketh him to possess the iniquities of his youth he makes his sins stand up and cry out against him and by this means his old evidences are obliterated When a man hath a pardon and it 's almost obliterated the letters almost worn out that they cannot be read he would be glad to have it renewed to have a new exemplification Every sin it puts a great blur upon thine old evidences that thou canst not read them They may be firm in Heaven and yet perhaps be so blurr'd that thou canst not read them and therefore if thou wouldst get them clear'd again thou must go to God by prayer and renew them again so that whether our evidences be blur'd or whether it be that God will make us possess the iniquities of our youth it is necessary to pray for the forgiveness of those sins which have been before forgiven But now you will say when I have sinned afterward how come I then to be justified Then a man would think repentance only doth it and without repentance a man cannot be justified But you must understand repentance is not an instrument at all faith only is the instrument faith justifyeth me from sin hereafter as well as before The case is this faith brings lifâ— The righteous shall live by his faith as the Prophet Habakkuk speaks 2.4 What do then new sins do There are two sorts of sins one of ordinary incursion which cannot be avoided these break no friendship betwixt God and us these only weaken our faith and make us worse at ease But there are other sins which waste a mans conscience A man that hath committed murder adultery and lives in covetousness which in the Apostles is Idolatry as long as a man is in this case he cannot exercise the acts of faith we must know faith justifieth not as an habit but as an act applying Christ to the comfort of the soul. Now a wasting sin it stops the passage of faith it cannot act till it be opened by repentance Physicians give instances for it Those that have Apoplexies Epilepsies and the Falling sickness are thought to be dead for the time as it was with Eutichus yet saith Saint Paul his spirit was in him Act. 20.13 Every one thought him dead yet his spirit is in him however in regard of the operation of his senses it did appear he was dead So if thou art a careless man and lookst not to thy watch and to thy guard but art overtaken in some gross and grievous sin thou art taken for dead I say not a man can lose his life that once hath it but yet in the apprehension of others and of himself too he may appear to be dead As in Epilepsies the nerves are hindred by obstructions so sin obstructs the nerves of the soul that there cannot be that life and working till these sins be removed Now what is repentance why it clears the passages that though faith could 〈◊〉 before yet now it gives him dispositions unto it As a man in a 〈◊〉 cannot do the acts of a living man till he be refreshed again so 〈◊〉 its repentance which clears the spirits and makes the life of faith pass throughout Now when repentance clears the passages then faith acts and now there is a new act of faith faith justifies me from my new sins faith at first and at last is that whereby I am justified from my sins which I commit afterwards But this forgiveness of sins what doth it free us from In sin we must consider two things the fault and the punishment Now consider sin as it is in it self and as it respects the sinner as acted by him as respecting the fault of the sinner it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the Law The punishment is death as it respects the sinner it is guilt The sin is not guilt but the guilt the sinners For instance a man that hath told a lye or sworn an oath the act is past but a thing remains which we call the guilt At if a man commit murder or adultery the act is past but yet if he sleep or walk or wake the guilt follows him If he live an hundred years he is a murderer still and an adulterer still the guilt follows him and nothing can take away the murder or adultery from the soul but the blood of Christ applied by faith First God takes away the punishment There is now saith the Apostle no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 what nothing in him worthy condemnation God knows we are worthy of a thousand condemnations There are two Judges there is a double guilt when a man is brought to the bar first the Jury judge the fact and then the Judge that sits on the Bench he judgeth the punishment one saith guilty or not guilty The other saith guilty then he judgeth him Now when we are justified we are freed from both these guilts sin when it is accomplish't it bringeth forth death Jam. 1.15 You know the natural work of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it labours with death now God will stop the acts
entire soul that hath no blot that one that hath no spot should be purged after final grace hath made him clear and whole this is against reason and common sense They might have learned better of their own Thomas all the fire in the world will never put away sin without the infusion of grace This by the way concerning them I shewed besides that these two being both righteousnesses the Church of Rome confounds them both together Saint James his justification with Saint Pauls They confound inherent righteousness which is begun and shall be perfected in final grace with the other so that the point is not between us and Rome Whether faith justifieth by works or no but Whether it justifieth at all In truth that is the state of it The question is this whether there be such a grace as justification that is distinguished from sanctification or whether there be another grace of sanctification Do not think that we are such block-heads as to deny faith and sanctification yet faith is but a piece or part of that train of vertues There justification is taken for sanctification we acknowledge a man is justified by faith and works but the question is between us and them whether there be any justification besides sanctification i. e. whether there be any justification at all or no we say sanctification is wrought by the Kingly office of Christ he is a King that rules in our hearts subdues our corruptions governs us by the Sceptre of his Word and Spirit but it is the fruit of his Priestly office which the Church of Rome strikes at i. e. whether Christ hath reserved another righteousness for us besides that which as a King he works in our hearts whether he hath wrought forgiveness of sins for us we say he hath and so saith all the Church till the new Spawn of Jesuits arose They distinguish not remission of sins from sanctification Bellarmine saith remission of sins is the extinguishing of sin in the soul as water though it be cold yet the bringing in of heat extinguishes the cold and so remission of sins is the bringing in of inherent righteousness which extinguisheth all sin which was before A strange thing and were it not that the Scripture does speak of a cup in the hand of the Harlot of Rome whereby she makes drunk the Inhabitants of the earth with the wine of her fornication Rev. 17.4 18.3 except the men of her communion were drunk it were impossible that a learned men should thus shake out an Article of our and their Creed which hath ever been believed by all the Churches When the Scripture speaks of forgiveness of sins see how it expresseth it Ephes. 4.32 Be ye kind one to another Brethren tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Observe in the Lord's Prayer we pray that the Lord would forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us Let him that hath common understanding judge Do we forgive our Neighbours by extinguishing sin in the subject I forgive you i. e. I take away the ill office you did me Doth he forgive thus Alas no! forgiveness is without a man I have an action against you perhaps an action at Law I will let fall my suit my charges I will forgive this is forgiveness God justifieth who shall condemn Though God has just cause to proceed against me as a Rebel yet he is content to let fall his action to fasten it upon the Cross of his Son there to fix the Chirographum the hand-writing against us Colos. 2.14 He will let fall that which was the ground of a suit against us all that he could say against us That you may understand the thing the better there are two things two kinds of righteousness the one of justification the other of sanctification The Holy Ghost distinguisheth them by several terms 1 Cor. 1.30 Of him are ye in Christ Jesus who is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption You see here are two distinct graces righteousness and sanctification they make them but one sanctification and remission of sins Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified Rom. 8.30 Here justification and glorification are nothing else but justification and sanctification St Paul speaks of a thing past not of the glory to come them he glorified not shall glorifie he means sanctification which is inchoate glory For what is the glory we shall have in heaven but the enlargement of those inherent graces God begins in this world Here is the seed there is the crop here thou hast a little knowledge but there it shall be enlarged now thou hast a little joy there thou shalt enter into thy Master's joy here some knowledge but there thou shalt have a full knowledge and a full measure Here glory dwelleth in our Land but there we shall with open faoe behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and be changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 i. e. we are more and more conformed to the image of Almighty God by obedience and holy qualities infused into us that we grow from one degree of sanctification unto another And so you see how these are distinguished by their terms Justification and glorification justification and sanctification There is another place in St. John an hard place but yet as I take it these two righteousnesses that have the same name for justification and sanctification are righteousnesses both of them to be distinct in their terms in that place it is said Joh. 16.8 That when the Spirit shall come he shall reprove or as we should translate it and as you read it in the margin he shall convince the world concerning sin righteousness and judgment Thus I say it should be translated for it is of no sense to say that God should reprove the world of righteousness on what occasion this was spoken we must not stand to speak but righteousness and judgment is justification and sanctification And the drift of the place is this when the Spirit shall come how not upon me or thee but the Spirit here spoken of is that Spirit that should come upon the Apostles it shall begin at the day of Pentecost and these 1. should set forth like twelve Champions to conquer the world and to bring them unto the Sceptre of Christ. He shall convince the world i e. when the Spirit shall come on you and your tongues be tipped with that spiritual fire which shall be active it shall convince the world of three particulars of sin righteousness and judgment Of the point of humiliation for sins the point of justification by righteousness imputative and the glory of sanctification in judgment and righteousness inherent This method St. Paul useth in the Romans to stop every man's
all for Christ 96 97 Free grace in bringing sinners to Christ 84 No Free will to good 86 G. TO be given up to our selves a more fearful thing than to be given up to Satan 44 52 The Gospel not seasonable nor savoury till the Law hath been preached 33. How the Gospel differs from the Law 36 The fulness and freedom of the Grace of the Gospel not hindred by the conditions of Faith and Obedience 84 85 Guilt of sin taken away in Justification 133 134 H. HArdness of heart a hindrance to Conversion 2 3 Hell for whom provided 56 Hell described 157 c. That Christ suffered not the pains of Hell proved 80 Christians rejoyce in Hope 151 The Humiliation of Christ v. Christ. I. IMputation of Righteousness See Righteousness To be given up to Insensibleness a woful thing 52 53 Joy in the sense of God's love surpasseth all worldly joy 98. It is attainable ibid. The reason why many believers are strangers to it 98. Some Joy may be in a Temporary 121. How to try true Joy 151. Means to get it 151 152 Justification what it signifies 123. How the Fathers used the Word 123. Justification one simple act of God 124 How we are said to be justified by Faith and how by Christ's blood 93 134 In what sense we are Justified by Faith according to Paul and in what sense by Works according to James 124 Impossible to be justified but by imputed Righteousness 125 129 130. In the instant of Justification no sins are remitted but those that are past 130. A twofold Justification 127 Why a justified person may and must pray for the remission of sins past 131 Justification frees from the punishment and guilt too 133 134 Justification confounded by the Papists with sanctification 125. The difference between them 135 137 No Justification before Faith 142 How we are Justified by Faith alone 141 Judgment in Scripture sometime taken for Righteousness inherent 139 How men are deceived in Judging of of their spiritual estate 18 K. KNowledge one act of Faith 95 L. THe use of the Law 33 65 112 It is necessary to be preached before the Gospel 33 112 Men are under the Law till they come to Christ 35. how fearful a thing it is to be under the Law 35 36. the difference between the Law and the Gospel in three particulars 36 Love of God twofold 91. No temporary believer loves God 123 To be given up to our own Lusts a more fearful thing than to be given up to Satan 43 44 M WAnt of Meditation one cause most believers have so little joy in God 98 Mistakes in judging our spiritual estates See Judging Morality too much trusted to 21. It 's insufficient to bring men to heaven ibid. N. NAtural reason not to be trusted to 21. Too short to convince of sin throughly 22 Mans condition by Nature described 25. The Natural man dead in sin 29. His best works cannot please God and why 29.30 The Curses attending a Natural man in this world 49 c. Two blows that God gives a Natural mans soul in this life the one sensible 51. the other insensible 52. The Curses attending him at Death 53 c. O. CHrists active Obedience mixed with his passive 73 Wherein his active Obedience consisted 74 c. Wherein his passive 75 Partial Obedience a false glass to judge our estates by 21 To design only our Old age for God is dishonourable to him 9 10 Old age most unfit for Repentance 11 12 Men apt to have too good Opinion of themselves 17. The causes of it 1â— c. Men deceived in judging of their estates by the good Opinions of others 19 P. PArtial Obedience see Obedience Passive Obedience see Obedience Peace a fruit of Faith 143 147. Why many Christians want the sense of it 143 144 147 The differences between a true and a false Peace 148 The Causes of a Carnal Peace 147 148 Christ is our Peace 149 Spirit of Prayer what 115 116 1. The Importunity and efficacy of it 116 Why a person already justified may and must Pray for the forgiveness of sins past 130 131 R. NAtural Reason see Natural To Receive Christ what 85 What Reformation may be in a natural man 120 121 Repentance prevents ruine 3 Repentance not in our own power but in Gods gift 6. The sinfulness of deferring it 5 Death-bed Repentance the hindrances of it 13. Not to be trusted to 14. Hard to prove it sound 14 Superficial Repentance is vain 24 Repentance in what respects necessary to justification 132 Remission of sin See Forgiveness Resting or Relying upon God a proper Act of Faith 96 Righteousness two fold 123 129 Imputative Righteousness what it is 125 129. Impossible to be justified without it and why 129 130 S Sanctification a distinct thing from Justification 127 Satan See Devil A difficult thing to be Saved 22. Sealing a distinct thing from Faith 137. The Causes of Security 149. Self-Examination necessary to Conversion 17. a mark of a sound believer 128. Self flattery See flattery Self-Love how it deceives men in judging their estates 18. Sin continued in hastens Gods judgements 2.3 Sin compared to a weight 11. to Cords 12 Sin gets strength by continuance 12. The Sinfulness of Sin set forth in 6. considerations 37.38 c. The dreadful fruits and consequence of Sin It pollutes the Soul 41. It makes men loathsom to God 42 It brings the Devil into the heart 43. It calls for wages 45. The greatness of Sin should be no bar against believing in Christ 85. No Sin overtops the value of Christs blood ibid. Encouragements for Sinners to come to Christ 85. Sin not discovered throughly but by the spirit 109 Sin may be cast away and yet no true Conversion 121 Sin is only a Privation and no positive being 124 Sins not pardoned before they be committed 115. The guilt and punishment of Sin taken away in Justification 133 Spirit of Bondage what 109 Spirit of Prayer see Prayer T. A Temporary Faith how far it may go 117 c. How to know it from true faith 120 Temporary Believers desire Christ only in affliction 120. They do but only tast of Christ 121. They desire mercy but not grace 122. They do nothing out of love to God 122 The sinfulness of thoughts 42 The end of Gods Threatnings 3 U. UNregenerate Men See Natural Our unworthiness should not keep us from coming to Christ. 84 W. THe Will wrought by God as well as the deed 112. The Will more than the Deed 112. How God takes the Will for the deed 113 He that hath a Will to receive Christ hath a warrant to receive him 86 God alone enclines the Will to receive Christ ibid. A woful thing to be suffered by God to have our own Wills in this world 66 Our Wills must be crossed here or for ever hereafter ibid. The Willingness of Christs sufferings rendred them the more meritorious 74 The Word presented to our faith