Jesus You are espoused to Him and should you not consent to be like to him who has betrothed you unto himself in Loving-kindness Mercy and Faithfulness for ever Hos 2.19 20. Nay you are members of his body Therefore you should grow up into Him in all things which is the Head even Christ Eph. 4.15 You should discover such a mind as Christ had you should manifest the same Spirit and act as he acted when he was here in the World 3. Consider that God did fore-ordain you that are Believers to a conformity to the Lord Jesus Rom. 8.29 For whom he did fore-know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many Brethren If you would appear with Christ in Glory you must be now changed into his Image Holiness and patient suffering will make you like him and is the decreed way unto his Kingdom 4. Walking as Christ walked will make it evident that you are indeed in him 1 Joh. 2.6 He that saith he abideth in him ought to prove what he saith and himself so to walk even as he walked To be in Christ is to be a new creature And these new Creatures do all resemble him for he is formed in them Naming the name of Christ will never demonstrate your Christianity unless you depart from iniquity which makes you so unlike unto your Lord. But likeness to him will prove you His in Truth And an evidence of this what strong consolation will it afford If you are in Christ how safe are you you are secured from the curse of the Law the stroke of vindictive Justice the wrath of the Destroyer the bondage of Corruption and Sin the sting of the first Death and the power of the second If you are in Christ His God is your God his Father your Father Joh. 20.17 You are loved as He is loved Joh. 17.23 That the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me And v. 26. That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them You are joint-heirs with Christ unto the same incorruptible inheritance how firm and sure is your title how certain and soon will be your possession and after possession is taken you shall not be dispossess'd unto Eternity 5. Your following the Example of Christ very much honours Him and credits Christianity 't is a sign that Christs death has a mighty vertue in it when it makes you to die to Sin and to be unmoved by the biggest offers that Mammon makes to you 'T is an argument that He is truly Christ when you are truly Christians that He is indeed alive when he lives in you and makes you to live to him and like him 'T is a demonstration that our Lord is risen indeed when you rise with him and seek those things that are above Col. 3.1 Christ is very much unknown and being unknown is undesired and neglected because so little of him is seen in Christians conversation How few deserve digito monstrari to be pointed at and to have such a Character given them There go the persons who discover such a Spirit who talk and walk too after such a manner that 't is evident Christ dwells and speaks and walks and works in them Be all of you prevailed with to honour your Lord Jesus by shewing the world what he was when here upon Earth and how powerfully he works in you though now he is in Heaven Chrysostom with great reason does call good works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unanswerable Syllogisms and demonstrations to confute and convince Infidels The World would flock into the Church being struck with the Majesty and Glory shining forth in Her if She were but more like unto her glorious Head But when they who are called Christians are so like unto the World 't is no wonder if the men of the World continue still as they are 6. Christ frequently speaks to you to follow him and observes whether and how you do it His word is plain that you should learn his Doctrine and live after his example And his eyes which are as a flaming fire are upon Professours ways His Omniscience should be more firmly believed and seriously considered by the Church it self Rev. 2.23 All the Churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the Reins and Hearts and I will give to every one of you according to your works I shall here by a Prosopopeia bring in our Lord Jesus speaking to you and himself propounding his own Example that you may hear and heed and follow the Lamb of God To this effect Christ speaks to you Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the Earth Look unto me and become like me all you that profess your selves to be my Members What Do you see in me that in any reason should turn away your faces or your hearts from me Blessed is He whosoever shall not be offended in Me. The Father is well pleased in Me and so should you as you value his favour and would consult your own interest I never took so much as one step in the ways of misery and destruction be you sure to avoid them I always trod in those paths which to you will prove pleasantness and peace though to satisfy for your deviations and going astray I was fain my self to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Consider your Lord and Master you that call your selves my disciples Many look upon you that will not look into my word and will judge of Me by your practices Be not so injurious to Me by misrepresenting Me as if I allowed those evils which you allow your selves in Why should I be wounded in my honour in the house of my Friends Why should you crucify me afresh And put me to an open shame When you yield to Satans temptations are you like to me When you are eager after worldly wealth the applause of men and flesh-pleasing delights are you like to me When you are proud and haughty bitter envious and revengeful do you at all resemble Me When you seek your selves and please your selves and matter not how much God is forgotten and displeased Am I in this your example O all you upon whom my name is called content not your selves with an empty name Be my disciples in truth and let the same mind that was in me be in you also be my disciples indeed live as I did in the World to honour God and to do good to man let it be your business for I have left you an example that you should follow my steps 7. Follow Christs Example that you may enter into his glory For if we be dead with him says the Apostle we shall live with him if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2.11 12. Be of good courage and conflict but do it in his Strength with your Spiritual enemies and
worthy than that which I have now mention'd of the depth of the Riches of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God which may be allowed to be on the top of this foundation-stone and round about the Stone that which follows Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity Which words I shall at present be confined to they may be understood as a seasonable Caution least any that heard of the Continuance and Assurance of Gods Care and Love should be puffed up for as the Apostle would not have the defection of others to cause any to despond so he would by no means have others security upon any pretensions whatsoever to cause them to presume but as a wise Physician having prescribed so great a Cordial against their fainting at the sight of others falling ◠Cor 3.9 by telling them that they who were of God's Building should stand he gives them direction how to use this Cordial least if unwarily taken it might strengthen their distemper in which Direction we may take notice 1. Upon whom this Injunction is laid viz. Every one that nameth the Name of Christ 2. The Injunction it's self viz. To depart from Iniquity which last words to depart from Iniquity I shall suppose to be so far understood as that I need not to stay in the Explication of them All Sin is an unequal and unjust thing against our Duty which we owe to God or Man 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the manner of the Apostles expression is equivalent to a Negative Form which is most comprehensive and therefore Eight of the Ten Commandments at least are Negative but they do all include the contrary positive As the forbidding us to have any other God commands us to take Jehovah for our God and to Love and Obey him accordingly And thus the departing from Iniquity includes not only the leaving of all Sin but the following after and practising of Holiness in all Duties that are required in every Relation and Condition So that there is no Duty to God or Man but he that names the Name of Christ is required to practise it nor no Sin against God or Man against the first or second Table but he is enjoyn'd to forsake it which will farther appear when we have considered 1. What is meant by naming the Name of Christ or who is understood by the Apostle to name this Name of Christ 2. That such an one as thus names the Name of Christ is especially concern'd and obliged to depart from Iniquity As to the first What is meant by naming the Name of Christ What is meant by naming the name of Christ it is evident that it cannot be understood of a bare speaking of the word Christ sounding the letters of which it is made which Pagans and Mahometans may do and the wicked Jews often did but by naming the Name of Christ is understood a making some special use of it or of him that is signified by it We must therefore consider That wheresoever there is any thing of Divine Revelation there mans Fall and Misery is manifested for tho by natural Light it could be perceiv'd that all was not well with Man hence the many complaints that Nature dealt very hardly with Man the noblest visible Creature that had rule and command over the rest of the Creation yet that he was so short-lived so full of misery and trouble Job 5.7 which seem'd as natural to him as for sparks to flie upward This was for a lamentation amongst the very Heathen But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence all this mischief came they knew not In Scripture only we find the Cause of our disease and the Remedy against it and here Vbi invenitur venenum juxta latus ejus nascitur Antidotus Where we may discover the Malady we may seek for and discover the Remedy In the Word of God we have Means prescribed Institutions appointed which being used and observed will help and recover us In the former Oeconomy and Dispensation they were vail'd under Shadows and Types The wages of Sin being Death Gen. 2.17 Rom. 6.23 every Transgressor of the Law forfeits his Life and his sin cannot be expiated but by Blood it might justly have been his own blood and no others But the Law-giver being graciously pleas'd to accept of Animam vicariam anothers blood or life such as he should appoint he did for a while accept of the sacrificing of Beasts in the stead of the Sinners till the fulness of time was come in which he sent his Son this Christ whom the Text mentions to make full satisfaction to his offended Justice and by his Death to expiate for all the sins of them that by Faith apply themselves unto him Hence it is said he was made sin for us and that he was bruised for our Iniquities 2 Cor. 5.21 Isa 53.5 and that the chastisement of our peace was upon him But as under the Law the Transgressor was to lay his hand upon the Beast to be sacrific'd thereby acknowledging that he was the Creature that had deserv'd to dye and desiring that the death of the Beast to be sacrificed might be accepted in his stead Lev. 3.2.4.4 so under the Gospel we must apply to Christ with a due sense of our sins and our deserving of death for them and be accordingly affected with them Yet more when all the outward Ceremonies were perform'd the sacrific'd Beast accepted and slain thô the Law according to the letter was satisfied and a legal Expiation did ensue and a legal Atonement was made yet if the Person that brought the Sacrifice did not mortifie his sin as well as the Priest kill the Sacrifice his Conscience inwardly remained defiled and God still provoked and incensed Nay if the Sinner had done one without the other killed his Beast and spared his sin alive God look'd upon it as a double Iniquity for so indeed it was to acknowledge he had offended God and to pretend that he desired to be reconciled unto him and yet to go on in provoking of him Hence God did forbid and reject their Sacrifices tho of his own appointment Psal 50.9 I will take no Bullock out of thy house nor he-goats out of thy fold Nay he declares that in such a case he that killeth an Oxe Isa 66.3 is as if he slew a Man he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a dogs neck he that offereth an Oblation as if he offered swines blood he that burneth incense as if he blessed an Idol and elsewhere Bring no more vain oblations Isa 1.3 incense is an abomination unto me Now that all Sacrifices were Types of Christ thrô whom only they had their virtue and efficacy is confessed by all Christians Thus Christ was a Lamb slain from the foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 And the Christian when affected with his sin and desirous to be reconciled to God whom by his sin he
and duration and so could not give us a just measure of the demerits of sin 3. If we consider the sufferings of Christ they will prove that the evil of sin is unmeasurable they were such as could not be expressed and therefore the Ancient Christians used in their Prayers to beg of Christ that he would deliver them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by thy unknown torments Lord deliver us And hence we may infer that the Love of Christ must needs be unmeasurable because he delivered us from unmeasurable wrath by unconceivable torments 2. The Love of Christ to sinners is unmeasurable for these Reasons 1. Reas We have no scale in nature in which we can weigh no line in created things by which we can measure it § 1. If we examine the love of Relations we find them all limited and bounded and they ought to be so The love of a Father to a child is an intense love the love of a Father to an undutiful child a rebellious child may stretch the line somewhat farther yet this will fall vastly short of the Love of Christ to sinners The highest instance of this love that I remember was that of David to his rebellious Son Absalom expressed 2 Sam. 18.33 O Absalom my son my son would God I had died for thee O Absalom my Son my Son Here is Paternal love strained up to the highest pitch imaginable That a King should desire to die for a Rebellious Subject that a Father should be willing to die for the most disingenuous and rebellious of Sons This was great but yet we find this love extended but to a natural death he would have been unwilling to have died a Cursed death to have been made a Curse for him to have been made sin for him And yet the torrent of this impetuous love soon dryed up it was founded in passion rather than judgment and perhaps in cool blood he would have been unwilling to have died that such a wretch might live I question much whether David durst deliberately advisedly and premeditately have laid down his life to save that of a vitious debauched Son yet such was the Love of Christ who laid down his life for sinners the greatest of sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 And laid it down voluntarily when none could take it away John 10.18 and not only died against the persuasions of his friends to save his life Mark 8.32 but against that bitter malice of his Enemies which always sparkled and at last flamed out in the most cruel bloody implacable fury that ever was in the World nay against the just displeasure of God as a Judge all which he had a clear prospect into and yet gave this great pregnant proof of his unconquerable Love that he not only poured out his Soul in tears Luke 19.41 his Soul in prayers Luke 23.34 Father forgive them but his Soul in sacrifice too unto the death Isa 53.12 But if the love of a Father to his Son will not measure this Love of Christ perhaps the love of a Mother to her Son may And this is indeed naturally the more soft and passionate Sex and of this love the case is put Isa 49.15 Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her Womb The case is put exceeding strong A Child a sucking Child that hangs upon the breast and is always crying for pity in its natural dialect the Son of the Womb that 's more than the Child of the breast she can hardly forget that at any rate which she brought forth at such a dear rate yet the circumstances may be such that this tender Mother may forsake and forget nay kill and destroy too this innocent Child such exigences they have been in that Nature has prov'd unnatural or Nature in one instance has overcome Nature in another A Mothers hunger has caus'd her to forget her pity to the Child of her Womb Lam. 4.10 The hands of the pitiful Women have sodden their own children to forsake to forget to kill to cook and at last to eat is certainly the greatest stemming of the current and stream of natural affection that we can conceive of but Christ's Love will not suffer him to forget to forsake he has oftens forgotten himself to remember them he has forgotten his own food that he might provide for their Souls John 4.34 he has forgotten his own approaching death that he might provide for their life 1 Cor. 11.23 The same night in which he was betrayed he took bread c. And yet perhaps the love of the Husband to his Wife may come up to this example of Love Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it Here 's an argument indeed to enforce that conjugal Love and here 's a president for conjugal Love to look upon but that As is not a note of equality but of some general similitude for the Husband gives himself to his Wife but will not is not bound to die for his Wife he cannot be persuaded to have her sins charg'd upon his Soul How short are all the Loves the Affections of Relations to give us a pattern and example of the Love of Christ But possibly we may find a love in Nature more strong than any of these And that if any where must be amongst some of those great instances of Love which have been amongst friends It is indeed said 1 Sam. 18.1 3. That Jonathan loved David as his own Soul and in Deut. 13.6 The friend is said to be as a Mans own Soul But yet when we come to examine these expressions they fade away and signifie nothing but the life where is the friend that will make his Soul an offering for sin Isa 53.10 However this is the highest flight that ever humane love took to lay down life for a friend but Christ has put this quite out of countenance John 15.13 Greater love has no man than that he lay down his life for his friend but a far greater Love than this had Christ that he laid down his life for enemies Christ laid down a better life for them that were worse And this is proposed to our consideration as that which has out-done all the love in the World Rom. 5.7 8. Scarcely for a righteous Man will one die No I think it s out of question that none will for who would be so friendly to him that walks by the rules of strict justice that will do no wrong yet shews no mercy but peradventure for a good Man some would even dare to die If there be an instance found in the World of any that has laid down his life for another it must be for a good Man one that is a publick blessing to the age wherein he lives some one may throw away his private life which is not very useful for so generous a Person that is a Common good to his Country but if such an instance be found which
sence of the believing World Believers generally know as having found it by experience that they are naturally impotent to spiritual good They find much weakness in themselves after grace is wrought in them and nothing but weakness before God work it They acknowledge they cannot work any degree of grace in themselves when some already they have much less could they work it in themselves when they really had none And how come others to have more strength than they Did not they fall in Adam Or had his Apostasie a less malignant influence upon them than upon others How come they to have such a reserve of Spiritual strength when the rest of the World hath lost it 4. If they can work repentance in themselves why do they not do it sooner Why do they defer it so long when they cannot deny but one time or other it must be wrought Is it a fit return to God for the goodness he hath shewn them all their days to live in sin all their days and turn to him when they can live no longer in it Or will it be an acceptable answer to him when he calls them to a reckoning that they had not served sin long enough nor had their fill of their lusts or else they would have turned to him sooner 5. And how many be there who to encourage themselves in their present impenitency and the enjoyments of their sinful pleasures fancy they can turn themselves when they please yet if God open their eyes and awaken their Consciences and they begin in good earnest to set themselves to labour after repentance they are soon convinced of the hardness and deadness of their Hearts and their utter disabilities to such a work and are fain in spight of all their high thoughts and conceits of themselves to look up to God and implore his assistance and depend upon him for the working of that grace in them which they fondly imagined they could work in themselves 5. God may not give them grace to repent when they come to die Admit they have time and means yet God may not give a blessing to the means Let it be considered First To how few God ever gives repentance at the last even of those who have as good means and helps as their weak and dying condition will admit of It is one of the saddest parts of a Ministers work to visit dying sinners How few do they leave any better than they find them How few give any hopes of a through change wrought in them How few can they perswade to believe in Christ when they have an hundred times before rejected him How few can they bring to repentance then when they never minded it before Ministers even the best are but Men and not God flesh and not Spirit and means instructions exhortations are but means whose whole efficacy depends on Gods co-operation with them and when he with-holds his Blessing they are altogether ineffectual When they judge of man's eternal State though their judgment is not to be rash nor peremptory yet it should be reasonable some good grounds they should have for it But alas if they keep to Scripture-rules in how few of them that never repented before do they find when dying so much as a foundation for a charitable judgment of their Spiritual state 1. If we set aside those that die in gross ignorance of the things of God of the very first Principles of Religion the nature of God the Offices of Christ the ends of his Death the necessity of satisfaction for sin the nature and use of Faith the terms of the Covenant c. Ignorant indeed of those truths some knowledge of which is necessary to the very being of saving Grace How many such do we find and what hope can we have of the truth of their Repentance and so of their Salvation How can their Hearts be holy when their Minds are so blind What Heavenly heat can their be in there affections when there is such an hellish darkness in their understandings Such may read their doom Isa 27.11 2. Set aside those that die stupid without any awakenings of Conscience any sense or concernedness about their spiritual state and so die as much like Beasts as they lived 3. Those that die despairing fill'd with horror and void of hope overwhelmed with the sense of sin the thoughts of approaching vengeance and a fearful expectation of appearing before the Tribunal of that righteous God whom they cannot escape and dare not trust They have not hearts to pray to him hope in him or commit their Souls into his hands when they die having never loved nor served nor regarded him while they lived 4. Those that die presuming Such are the ignorant before mentioned such are Formalists Moralists proud Pharisees conceited self-justifiers The Innocency of their Conversation the Profession they make or the Duties they perform are the righteousness by which they expect to be justified Nay how many after a Life of sin hope to be saved meerly by the mercy of God without respect to any righteousness at all either of Justification or Sanctification either imputed to them or inherent in them either that whereby they may have a title to glory or meetness for it Sure I am such as these are void of repentance and when the greatest part of dying Sinners may be reduced to one or other of these sorts to how few doth God give repentance at the last of those who did not before seek it of him Secondly With how many is the day of Grace past and the time of God's patience run out and then we may be sure God will not give them repentance They have so many times rejected the counsel of God against themselves Luke 7.30 refused the Offers of Grace turned a deaf ear to the calls of the Gospel stiffned their necks and refused to return that now they are past it God that waited on them so long will wait no longer They had a time of acceptation a day of salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 but that being over they are to have no more God was nigh to them and might have been found of them Isa 55.7 but is now withdrawn from them and they may seek Christ and die in their sins John 8.21 the may seek and not find call and God give them no answer Prov. 1.28 Thirdly God may have judicially hardned their Hearts when they had sinfully hardened them before And this seems to be one great cause of that stupidness and insensibleness we so often find in Sinners at the time of death True God infuseth no sin into them yet he may wholly abandon them to the power of the hardness they have contracted and give them up into the Devils hands to delude and blind to act and manage them according to his pleasure and their own corrupt inclinations They may not have so much as an heart to desire to repent or pray to God for Grace to enable them to to it all those
it was a rule amongst the Heathens that a wise man should worship all their Deities The Romans were so insatiable in Idolatry that they sent to forreign Countries to bring the gods of several Nations an unpolisht Stone a tame Serpent that were reputed Deities they received with great solemnity and reverence But the true God had no Temple no Worship in Rome where there was a Pantheon dedicated to the honour of all the false gods The reason he gives of it is that the true God who alone has Divine Excellencies and Divine Empire will be worshipt alone and strictly forbids the assumption of any into his Throne To adore any besides him is infinitely debasing and provoking to his dread Majesty Now sin in its nature is a conversion from God to the creature and whatever the temptation be in yielding to it there is signified that we choose something before his favour Sin is founded in bono jucundo something that is delectable to the carnal Nature 't is the universal character of carnal Men they are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God To some riches are the most alluring object The young Man in the Gospel when our Saviour commanded him to give his estate to the poor and he should have treasure in Heaven went away sorrowful as if he had been offer'd to his loss To others the pleasures that in strict propriety are sensual are most charming Love is the weight of the Soul that turns it not like a dead weight of the Scales but with election freely to its object in the carnal ballance the present things of the World are of conspicuous moment and outweigh Spiritual and Eternal blessings Altho the favour of God be eminently all that can be desir'd under the notion of riches or honour or pleasure and every atom of our affection is due to him yet carnal Men think it a cheap purchase to obtain the good things of this World by sinful means with the loss of his favour This their actions declare Prodigious folly as if a few sparks struck out of a Flint that can neither afford light or warmth were more desirable than the Sun in its brightness And how contumelious and provoking it is to God he declares in the most moving expressions Be astonished O ye Heavens Jer. 2.12 13. at this and be horribly affraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out broken cisterns that can hold no water This immediately was charg'd upon the Jews who set up Idols of jealousie and ador'd them rather than the glorious Jehovah and in proportion 't is true of all sinners for every vicious affection prefers some vain object before his Love and the enjoyment of his glorious presence that is the reward of obedience 5. The sinner disparages the impartial Justice of God In the Divine Law there is a connexion between sin and punishment the evil of doing and the evil of suffering This is not a mere arbitrary constitution but founded on the inseparable desert of sin and the rectitude of Gods nature which unchangably loves holiness and hates sin Altho the threatning does not lay a strict necessity upon the Lawgiver always to inflict the punishment yet God having declar'd his equal Laws as the rule of our duty and of his judgment if they should be usually without effect upon offenders the bands of Government would be dissolved and consequently the honour of his justice stain'd both with respect to his nature and office for as an essential attribute 't is the correspondence of his will and actions with his moral perfections and as Sovereign Ruler he is to preserve equity and order in his Kingdom Now those who voluntarily break his Law presume upon impunity The first rebellious sin was committed upon this presumption God threaten'd if you eat the forbidden fruit you shall die the Serpent says eat and you shall not die and assenting to the temptation Adam fell to disobedience And ever since Men are fearless to sin upon the same motive Psalm 50. God chargeth the wicked Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self not concern'd to punish the violation of his sacred Laws The sinner commits the Divine Attributes to fight against one another presuming that Mercy will disarm Justice and stop its terrible effects upon impenitent obstinate sinners From hence they become bold and hardnen'd in the continuance of their sins Deut. 29.17 19 20. There is a root that beareth gall and wormwood and when the curse of the Law is declar'd and denounc'd against sin the wicked blesseth himself in his heart saying I shall have peace tho I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst This casts such a foul blemish upon the Justice of God that he threatens the severest vengeance for it The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that Man and all the curses written in this book shall be upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven Psalm 50. Consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver 6. The sinner implicitly denies Gods omniscience There is such a turpitude adhering to sin that it cannot endure the light of the Sun or the light of Conscience but seeks to be conceal'd under a mask of vertue or a vail of darkness There are very few on this side Hell so transform'd into the likeness of the Devil as to be impenetrable by shame What is said of the Adulterer and Theif sinners of greater guilt and deeper dye Job is true in proportion of every sinner If a Man sees them they are in the terrors of the shadow of death Now from whence is it that many who if they were surpriz'd in the actings of their sins by a Child or a stranger would blush and tremble yet altho the holy God sees all their sins in order to judge them and will judge in order to punish them are secure without any fearful or shameful apprehensions of his presence Did they stedfastly believe that their foul villanies were open to his piercing pure and severe Eye they must be struck with terrors and cover'd with Confusion Will he force the Queen before my face was the speech of the King inflamed with wrath and the prologue of Death against the fallen favourite Would Men dare to affront Gods authority and outragiously break his Laws before his face if they duly consider'd his omnipresence and observance of them it were impossible And infidelity is the radical cause of their inconsideration It was a false imputation against Job but justly applied to the wicked Jâ—â— 22.13 14 Thou sayest How does God know can he judge through the dark cloud Thick clouds are a covering to him that he sees not And such are introduced by
like but worse than the Beasts for the fiercest Beasts of Africa or Hyrcania have a respect for their own likeness tho' they devour others yet they spare those of their own kind but Men are so degenerate as to be most cruel against their Brethren These are some of the Evils that proceed from sin as their natural Cause And from hence 't is evident that sin makes Men miserable were there no Hell of torment to receive them in the next State 2. I will consider the Evils consequent to sin as the penal effects of the sentence against sin of Divine Justice that decrees it and Divine Power that inflicts it and in these the sinner is often an active instrument of his own misery 1. The fall of the Angels is the first and most terrible punishment of sin God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell reserved in chains of darkness to judgment How are they fall'n From what height of glory and felicity into bottomless perdition How are they continually rackt and tormented with the remembrance of their lost happiness If a thousand of the prime Nobility of a Nation were executed in a day by the sentence of a righteous King we should conclude their crimes to be atrocious innumerable Angels dignified with the titles of Dominions and Principalities were expell'd from Heaven their native seat and the sanctuary of life and are dead to all the joyful operations of the intellectual nature and only alive to everlasting pain One sin of pride or envy brought this terrible vengeance from whence we may infer how provoking sin is to the holy God We read of King Vzziah that upon his presumption to offer incense he was struck with a Leprosie and the Priests thrust him out and himself hasted to go out of the Temple a representation of the punishment of the Angels by presumption they were struck with a Leprosie and justly expelled from the Celestial Temple and not being able to sustain the terrors of the Divine Majesty they fled from his presence 'T is said God cast them down and they left their own habitation 2. Consider the penal effects of sin with respect to Man They are comprehended in the sentence of death the first and second death threaten'd to deter Adam from transgressing the Law In the first Creation Man while innocent was immortal for altho his Bâ—â—y was compounded of jarring Elements that had a natural tendency to dissolution yet the Soul was endowed with such vertue as to imbalm the Body alive and to preserve it from the least degree of putrefaction But when Man by his voluntary sin was separated from the fountain of life the Soul lost its derivative life from God and the active life infused by its union into the Body It cannot preserve the natural life beyond its limited term A righteous retaliation Thus the Apostle tells us Sin came into the World and death by sin Even infants who never committed sin die having been conceived in sin And death brought in its retinue evils so numerous and various that their kinds are more than words to name and distinguish them Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of trouble at his birth he enters into a labyrinth of Thorns this miserable World and his life is a continual turning in it he cannot escape being sometimes prick'd and torn and at going out of it his Soul is rent from the embraces of the Body 'T is as possible to tell the number of the waves in a tempestuous Sea as to recount all the tormenting passions of the Soul all the Diseases of the Body which far exceed in number all the unhappy parts wherein they are seated What an afflicting object would it be to hear all the mournful lamentations all the piercing complaints all the deep groans from the miserable in this present state What a prospect of Terror to see Death in its various shapes by Famine by Fire by Sword and by wasting or painful Diseases triumphant over all mankind What a sight of woe to have all the Graves and Charnel-houses open'd and so many loathsom Carcasses or heaps of dry naked Bones the trophies of Death expos'd to view Such are the afflicting and destructive effects of sin For wickedness burns as a fire it devours the Briars and Thorns Besides other miseries in this life sometimes the terrors of an accusing Conscience seise upon Men which of all evils are most heavy and overwhelming Solomon who understood the frame of humane Nature tells us The Spirit of a Man can bear his infirmity that is the mind fortified by Principles of moral Counsel and Constancy can endure the assault of external Evils but a wounded Spirit who can bear This is most insupportable when the sting and remorse of the mind is from the sense of guilt for then God appears an enemy righteous and severe and who can encounter with offended Omnipotence Such is the sharpness of his Sword and the weight of his Hand that every stroke is deadly inward Satan the cruel enemy of Souls exasperates the wound He discovers and charges sin upon the Conscience with all its killing aggravations and conceals the Divine mercy the only lenitive and healing Balm to the wounded Spirit What visions of horror what spectacles of fear what scenes of sorrow are presented to the distracted mind by the Prince of darkness And which heigthens the misery Man is a worse enemy to himself than Satan he falls upon his own Sword and destroys himself Whatever he sees or hears afflicts him whatever he thinks torments him The guilty Conscience turns the Sun into darkness and the Moon into blood the precious promises of the Gospel that assure favour and pardon to returning and relenting sinners are turn'd into arguments of despair by reflecting upon the abuse and provocation of mercy and that the advocate in Gods bosom is become the accuser Doleful state Beyond the conception of all but those who are plung'd into it How often do they run to the grave for sanctuary and seek for death as a deliverance Yet all these anxieties and terrors are but the beginning of sorrows for the full and terrible recompenses of sin shall follow the Eternal Judgment pronounc'd against the wicked at the last day 'T is true the sentence of the Law is past against the sinner in this present state and temporal evils are the effects of it but that sentence is revocable at death the sentence is ratified by the Judge upon every impenitent sinner 't is decicive of his state and involves him under punishment for ever But the full execution of judgment shall not be till the publick general sentence pronounc'd by the everlasting Judge before the whole World It exceeds the compass of created thoughts to understand fully the direful effects of sin in the Eternal State For who knows the power of Gods wrath The Scripture represents the punishment in expressions that may instruct the mind
sense of misery that a man would fain be rid of and can't 't is a Yoke whereby his Neck is gall'd but he can't put it off and if he should be released from it by any undue ways or means it would be to his farther detriment and danger in the end Now from this Fear of Death the Children are said to be delivered by Christ There are many evils from which he redeems and delivers them he delivers them from the bondage of sin and Satan from the rigour and Curse of the Law from everlasting Punishment and Wrath to come and he delivers them also from the Fear of Death This is imply'd if it be not express'd in the Text for upon the mentioning of their deliverance he gives this description of the Persons that are delivered that they wâ—â—e such as were afraid of Death and lyable to continual bondage by reason thereof Hence all Expositors both ancient and modern do rationally inferr That the Fear of Death is one of those evils from whence we are deliver'd by Jesus Christ The Text thus briefly open'd administers a fair occasion of resolving this Case or Question From what Fear of Death are the Children of God deliver'd by Jesus Christ and by what means doth he deliver them from it I shall break this Question in two and enquire 1. From what Fear of Death the Children of God are delivered from by Jesus Christ And then 2. By what Means or Methods he doth deliver them from it 1. From what Fear of Death are the Children of God deliver'd by Jesus Christ That I may resolve this Question aright I must distinguish of the Fear of Death 1. There is a natural Fear of Death This is common to all Men as Men and 't is more or less in them according to their different Constitutions and other accidental Occurrences This is nothing else but Natures aversation to it 's own dissolution and in it's self it is a sinless infirmity such as sickness weariness or the like To be loth or afraid to dye is humane and inseparable from the nature of man this fear of Death is found with the best of men Nature as one says hath a share in them as well as in others and will work as Nature or like it self The Apostle Paul tells us how good godly men are unwilling to be uncloath'd and to put off the body 2 Cor. 5.4 Our blessed Saviour who was a true though not a meer Man without the least impeachment of the Holiness and Perfection of his humane Nature express'd at some times an aversion to death John 12.27 Mark 14.35 This therefore is not the fear of Death of which the Text speaks and from which the Children of God are deliver'd by Jesus Christ 2. There is a slavish Fear of Death which hath Torment in it or which torments the Souls of men which fills their hearts with terrors and distractions which discomposeth their minds and unfits them for the duties of their general or particular callings and totally disables them from prosecuting the things that belong to their Peace and Welfare This is that fear of Death of which the Text speaks and from which the Children are deliver'd such as genders unto bondage and is servile or slavish a fear of Death as poenal and drawing after it everlasting punishment This fear of Death takes hold of carnal men they are not so much afraid of Death as of that which the Scripture calls the second Death Revel 2.11 20.6 Heb. 9.26 't is that which follows after death that makes it so formidable to them after Death as that Text speaks comes Judgment when they must receive according to the things which they have done in the Body When they dye they must launch out into an endless Ocean and go the way as Job says from whence they shall never return Job 16.22 And if Death overtakes them in their unregenerate state and condition then it will be an entrance or inlet into outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth These and such-like are the considerations that make Death so dreadfull to the Children of Men that give it the denomination of the King of Terrors and of terrible things the most terrible they are not as one said afraid to dye but they are afraid to be damn'd Hence it is that though Death be terrible to all men yet it is most terrible to those whose Consciences are awakened and whose understandings are enlightned who have been instructed in the Knowledge of God and of a future State of Retribution Death as one observes is not half so terrible to a Heathen as it is to an ungodly Christian Heathen men are in the dark and see but little of that which is the true terror of Death But enlightned Christians who have been acquainted with the Scripture who know that the Wrath of God is reveal'd from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Rom. 1.18 1 Cor. 6.9 Psal 9.17 2 Thes 1.7 8 9. that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God that the wicked shall be turned into Hell and all Nations and people that forget God that Jesus Christ shall be reveal'd from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power That the greatest part by far of the wages of sin which is eternal damnation shall be paid in another World These are they that are surrounded with the slavish fears of Death 'T is true that many wicked Persons who live under the Gospel are under none of these terrors but then 't is because they look on Death at a great distance from them and the remoteness of any Object though in it's self never so terrible takes away the fear of it Or else it is because they are over-busied and taken up about the things of the World as the lust of the flesh or of the eyes or the pride of life and if any thoughts of Death and of the World to come arise in their minds they are presently smother'd and stifled by worldly objects and diversions Cain was a while afraid of Death he thought every one that met him would slay him but by and by he gets into the Land of Nod and there he falls a building of Cities and doth so immerse or drown himself in the affairs of the World that by little and little the slavish fear he had of Death did wear out of his mind Or else it is because of their Atheism or Infidelity there is a great deal of this amongst professed Christians All wicked men as the Apostle Paul says are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2.12 without God in the World or as it may be rendred they are Atheists in the World They are all practical Atheists and too many are
Atheists in Opinion likewise they say in their Hearts though they don't speak it out with their Tongues that there is no God Psal 14.1 they have not a thorough belief of a Deity or of a future State of Rewards and Punishments Or else it is in the last place because of their great Security Multitudes of professed Christians are fast asleep in their sins they give up themselves sinfully and many of them are given up of God judicially to a spirit of slumber and of deep sleep And when this is the case with men no wonder they are without any dread of Death or Hell or any thing else You know when a Man is in a deep sleep he fears no danger whatsoever These and such-like are the reasons why many carnal persons do spend their days in mirth and sensuality without any actual fear of Death or of it's dreadfull consequents But then it must be remembred that these very persons are subject or liable thereunto and if God awaken their Consciences and rouze them out of their security Job 24.17 Psal 55.4 5. then they are as 't is in Job in the terrors of the shadow of death horror overwhelmes them as 't is in that Psalm and the terrors of death fall upon them Like Foelix they fall a trembling and like Belshazzar their knees are ready to smite one against another 'T is time now that I should come to the second branch of the Question which is By what Means and Methods are the Children of God deliver'd by Christ from the fear of Death To this I shall return an Answer First By shewing you what Christ hath already done and then Secondly What he continues still to do in order to this end 1. I shall shew you what Christ hath already done to deliver or free the Children of God from the fear of Death He himself in his own Person hath suffered or tasted death for them This is every where declar'd in the New Testament and 't is hinted to us in the Text. Christ by death that is by his own death hath delivered the Children from the fear of death The death of Christ hath made Death to look with another face than formerly it had As the Wood that Moses cast into the waters of Marah did alter their property so the Death of Christ hath alter'd the property of Death and taken away the bitterness and formidableness thereof hence 't is that the death of Believers in Scripture is call'd a Sleep It is said of Stephen when he dyed though it was by a violent death That he fell asleep Acts 7.60 And the Apostle Paul says 1 Thes 4.14 That as Jesus dyed and rose again even so them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him It is well observed by some that the Apostle doth seem purposely to vary the Phrase he says that Jesus dyed and that the Saints sleep in Him and the reason is because that he sustained Death with all its terrors that so it might become a calm and quiet sleep unto the Saints The Death of Christ must needs sweeten the fore-thoughts of death to the Children and Chosen of God because that he dy'd in their stead he did not only dye in their Nature but in their Room not only for rheir good but also in their stead You know how it was with the Sacrifices of old they were put to death in the room of the Sacrificers So it was with Christ the truth of those Sacrifices he was put to death in the room of Sinners and they dy'd in him as their Representative Now this serves to free them from an enthralling fear of Death why should they fear that which Christ hath undergone in their place and room There are two things more to be considered under this Head 1. Christ by his Death hath taken away the true Reason of the fear of Death that is the Curse and Condemnation of the Law of God The Apostle Paul says That the sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15.56 and the strength of sin is the Law Death hath it's wounding power from sin and sin hath it's condemning power from the Law 't is the Law that discovers the nature of sin that enhanceth the guilt of sin that denounceth condemnation against him that commits it and 't is this condemnation of the Law that torments the Sinner with the fear of death Now Christ having in our stead subjected himself to death and so undergone the penalty of the Law he hath taken away the Curse and condemning power thereof He hath says the Apostle Paul redeemed us from the curse of the Law being himself made a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 The death of Christ hath satisfi'd every demand of the broken Law The Law of God hath nothing now to lay to the charge of God's Elect it owns the Blood of Christ to be a sufficient compensation for their violations of it there are no petty satisfactions to be made by themselves since Christ hath made compleat satisfaction for them and in their behalf The Law now is ready to acquit the Believer it says Thou mayst live for all me and live eternally I require not thy death as being satisfied with the Death of Christ When thou dyest a natural death it is rather to comply with the appointment of God and in order to the raising up hereafter a better and more curious Fabrick of thy Body than to satisfie any demand of mine 2. Christ by his Death hath deprived the Devil of the power of death and by this means also he hath deliver'd the Children from a servile fear of Death The Devil as I said before hath a power to terrifie the Consciences of men with the apprehension of death and the dreadful consequents thereof you see into what bondage he brings men upon this account many times he brings the Children themselves into the suburbs of Hell and lays them under dreadful terrors and horrors the pains of Hell says one of them gat hold of me I found trouble and sorrow Psal 116.3 2 Sam. 22.6 and again at another time the sorrows of death compassed me about Now this power of Satan is taken away by the Death of Christ The Blood of Christ hath cancel'd or at least contracted and lessened his Commission So that when he assaults a Believer in this kind he is easily resisted the Devil gives ground if the Believer stands his ground he can't prevail against a Child of God unless God give him a special Commission or unless he yields to his Temptation being justified by Faith in the Death of Christ we have that peace which all the Devils in Hell are not able to disturb the weapons of his power and warfare in this way are wrested out of his hands by the Death of Christ Thus you see what Christ hath already done 2. Let me proceed to shew you what he
continues still to do in order to the freeing and delivering the Children of God from the fear of death and the bondage that ensues thereon 1. He worketh and increaseth those Graces of his Spirit in them which are destructive hereof and opposite hereunto you 'l say which are they 1. There is the Grace of Faith This is the Grace that conquers the World that conquers the Devil and that conquers also the slavish fear of Death This excellent Grace of Faith hath such an excellent hand in the conquering of all these that it is call'd the conquest and victory it's self This is the victory says the Apostle John 1 John 5.4 even your Faith Our Saviour tells Peter Luke 22.31 32. That Satan had desired to have him that he might sift him as Wheat And with what did he sift and shake him Why it was with the fear of Death he was afraid they would deal with him as they did with his Master It was his slavish fear of Death that made him deny Christ and to do it once and again but anon he recovered himself and got above this fear he was reâ—dy by and by boldly to confess Christ and that in the face of Death and danger How came this about Why it was by means of Faith Christ had pray'd for him that his Faith should not fail it may be said of those that are fearful of death that they are of little Faith 2. A second Grace is Love An ardent love of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ will banish all slavish fear of death out of the Soul 1 John 4.18 There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear Of what fear doth he speak The next words tell you he speaks of slavish tormenting fear of that fear which hath torment By perfect love he means a greater measure and degree of love I said but now of fearfull Christians that they have but little Faith I may add also that they have but little Love for perfect or great love expells all tormenting and servile fear 3. A third Grace is Hope The very nature of Hope is quite contrary to fear Where there is a Hope of eternal life there can be no prevailing fear of Death 'T is said of the righteous Prov. 14.32 that they have Hope in their death and those that have Hope in their death they are not afraid to dye Then Hope doth more especially free us from an inordinate fear of Death when it grows up to that which the Scripture calls The full assurance of Faith Heb. 6.11 this is a gracious Gift which the Father bestows upon many of his Children they know that they are in him that they are pass â—â— from death to life 1 John 2.5.3.14 2 Cor. 5.1 that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolv'd they shall have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Ay this is that which steels and fortifies them against the fear and terror of Death This leads me to consider of a second way or means whereby Christ delivers the Children from a slavish fear of death 2. He delivers them from it by convincing and parswading them that they shall not be Losers but Gainers yea great gainers thereby It was this perswasion that made the Apostle Paul to desire death rather than to dread it I desire says he to depart or to be dissolv'd which is far better Philip. 1.23 And again v. 21. he saith For me to dye is gain It were easie here to expatiate and shew the advantage the exceeding great advantage that Believers have by Death It is commonly said to consist in these two things in a freedom from all Evil in the fruition of all Good 1. It consists in a freedom from all Evil which is sub-divided into the evil of Sorrow and the evil of Sin Believers are freed by Death from the evil of Sorrow 'T is one blessed Notion of the life to come that God will wipe off all tears from his peoples eyes and remove all sorrow and causes of Sorrow from their Hearts Believers also are freed by Death from the evil of sin which is indeed the greatest evil the evil of evils all the evils of sorrow are but the effects and fruits of the evil of sin By Death they are deliver'd from all actual sins not only from Fleshly but Spiritual filthiness Now they are deliver'd ordinarily from inordinate actions but then also from inordinate affections they shall never any more be troubled with Pride Passion Discontent Unbelief or the like By Death also they are discharg'd from Original sin and all remainders thereof when the Body dies Believers are rid of that body of death which dwelleth in them and is always present with them they no more complain of themselves as wretched creatures upon the account thereof 2. It consists in the fruition of all Good Believers when they dye they enjoy God Himself who is the chiefest Good He is bonum in quae omnia bona all other things that are good and desireable are comprized in him as the Sun-beams are in the Sun the Saints enjoyment of God in this life is a Heaven upon Earth but our enjoyment of God after death will be the Heaven of Heavens David says in one Place Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee There are Saints and Angels and Arch-Angels in Heaven says Musculus with whom David and such as he will have to do but what are these to God Believers won't barely enjoy God after death but they will enjoy him fully In this life they enjoy a little of God and oh how sweet and refreshing it is But in the life to come they shall have as much enjoyment of God as their hearts can wish or hold Now they enjoy God in the use of means in Prayer in hearing the Word and in receiving the Lords Supper but hereafter they shall have not only a full but an immediate fruition of God Now they see the Face of God in the Glass of his Word and Ordinances and 〈◊〉 what a lovely sight is it But then they shall see God face to face and what tongue can mention or heart imagine the loveliness of that sight If it were not too great a digression I could readily demonstrate the gain and advantage of Death from other Topicks Believers in the other life shall possess and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven which doth more transcend the Kingdoms of this World and all the glory of them than the light of the Sun doth excell the light of a Candle they shall be most gloriously perfected both in their Souls and in their Bodies their vile bodies at the Resurrection shall be changed and fashioned like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 3.21 Their gain and happiness will be greatly augmented in the other life by the work and employment that they shall do and by the Society and Company that they shall
have they shall associate with an innumerable company of Angels and with just men made perfect with many of their dearest Relations and Friends whom whilst alive they dearly lov'd and whose death and departure hence they greatly lamented Let me close this with one Text 't is in 1 John 3.2 There the Apostle tells us wherein the gain and glory of the godly consisteth after death he summs it up in two things They shall be like Christ and they shall see him as he is Ay that is the happiness of the Children when they dye it lyes in Conformity to Christ and in the Vision the beatifical Vision of him 3. Christ delivers Believers from the slavish fear of Death by giving them some real Foretastes of Heaven and of Eternal Life It is usual with God to give his People some Cluster of the Grapes of Canaan here in the Wilderness to give them some drops and sips of that new Wine which they shall drink full draughts of in the Kingdom of their Father he gives them to taste not only of the good Word of God and of the heavenly gift but of the powers of the world to come and this sets them a longing to have their fill thereof Even as the Gauls when they had tasted the Wines of Italy they were not satisfy'd to have those Wines brought to them but they would go and possess the Land where they grew This foretaste of Heaven is that which the Scripture calls The earnest of our Inheritance Eph. 1.14 't is both a pledge and a small part of that Happiness which the Saints shall hereafter inherit Rom. 8.23 We says the Apostle that have the first-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves do groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the redemption of our body By Redemption he means the Resurrection of the Body at the last day which the Scripture calls a Resurrection unto Life The Apostle knew there could be no Redemption of the Body without the dissolution thereof therefore in waiting for the one he must needs also wait for the other The Apostle and the Believers with him did groan for this they were so far from groaning under the fears of Death that they rather groan'd to be partakers of that which follows after Death nay In this they groan'd earnestly 2 Cor. 5.2 as he elsewhere speaks Now whence was this but from their having the first-fruits of the Spirit which are all one with the foretastes of Heaven and everlasting Happiness of which I have been speaking Those that whilst they live have these tastes of future Blessedness they are not afraid of Death the door by which they enter into the full enjoyment of them Having thus resolved this Question in both its Branches give me leave to make some short Application of what I have said and I 'le conclude I would Exhort you that are the Children of God and Oh that all that read these Lines were of the number of such I would earnestly beseech and exhort you to prize and improve this great Priviledge to wit a deliverance from the slavish Fear of Death 1. Be perswaded to Prize it it is a Priviledge that was purchas'd for you at a dear rate even with the precious Blood of Christ Oh what a blessed Priviledge is this not only to be delivered from the second Death but also from the servile and enthralling fear of the first Death This is the benefit and blessing that the Apostle Paul seems to be so much affected with Thanks be to God says he who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ What Victory doth he mean The foregoing words tell us 1 Cor. 15 5â— that he means a Victory over Death with all its fearful concomitants and consequents Death is become a Friend and not an Enemy 't is without any Sting or Curse attending of it Oh! this is owing to Jesus Christ he is the great Deliverer he hath so order'd the matter that though we must dye yet we shall not be in bondage all our dayes through a slavish Fear of Death 2. Be perswaded to Improve this Priviledge put in for a part and share therein See to it that you be Partakers of this benefit of Christ's Death to live without any tormenting fear of your own You 'l say how shall we help it can we contribute any thing towards our Deliverance from the Fear of Death I answer You may And therefore as I have shewn you what Christ hath done and doth to deliver you so now give me leave to shew you farther what you must do towards your own Deliverance I 'le give you some short hints of things which you may enlarge upon at your leisure in your own thoughts 1. You must be earnest with God that he would apply to you this benefit of his Sons Death by his blessed Spirit Oh! begg of God and that with all importunity that the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus may set you free from a tormenting Fear of Death This hath been done for others and who can tell but it may be done for you likewise Ezek. 36.37 only remember that God will be enquir'd of by you to do this for you 2. You must give all diligence to the attaining of a greater measure of Faith Love and Hope yea to the attaining of a full Assurance of Hope 't is by means hereof as you heard before that the Children are deliver'd in part from the Fear of Death 'T is Grace and the Assurance of Grace that is the Anchor of the Soul that keeps it safe from the fear of Shipwrack 3. You must resist the Devil and withstand his Temptations not only to other sins but to the sin of Despondency in particular You must not give place to Satan nor give way to enthralling Fear when he tempts you thereunto Remember as I told you before 't is the Law of the Combate betwixt the Devil and you that if you fight he shall fly if you stand your ground he must give ground 4. You must have frequent Meditation of Death and of the gain that is to be gotten thereby the frequent thoughts hereof will familiarize Death to you and if once Death and you be familiar together you won't be so much afraid of it 5. You must have frequent Contemplation also of the Resurrection You find that Job had conquer'd the Fear of Death and if you read the 9th Chapter of Job and Ver. 26 27. you will see that his thoughts of the Resurrection were very helpful to him herein He is a Conqueror over the Fear of Death that considers with the Apostle Paul that the Grave shall lose its Victory 1 Cor. 15.56 It was the saying of a worthy Minister of our Nation That nothing lifted him over the Fear of Death like the belief and Meditation of the Resurrection to Eternal Life 6. You must take heed of living or allowing your selves in any known Sin if it be as
your right eye you must pull it out The guilt of one known sin will put a sting into Death and make it very terrible to you especially in your near approaches unto it 7. You must look to it that your whole Conversation be order'd arigh◠and that it be as becomes the Gospel of Christ When all is done an upright and holy Life is one of the best Defences against the dread of Death We are told in two several Chapters of the Proverbs that Righteousness delivers from Death Prov. 10.2.11.14 Whatever other Interpretations those words will admit of I am sure this is a true one That it delivers from a slavish Fear of Death Hear how David speaks he bids you Mark the perfect man and behold the righteous or upright Psal 37.37 for the the end of that man is peace The Apostle Paul was above the Fear of Death he seem'd rather to desire than dread it as I said before and well it might be thus with him seeing he liv'd in all good Conscience and had this Testimony from his Conscience That in simplicity and godly sincerity Acts 23.1 2 Cor. 1.12 and not with fleshly wisdom but by the Grace of God he had his Conversation in the World Quest How is Gospel-Grace the best Motive to Holiness SERMON V. 2 TIM II. 19. And let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity 1 Tim. 1.2 2 Tim. 1.2 THis Epistle was wrote by St. Paul to his Son Timothy whom he had begot in the Faith as his fatherly Blessing a little before his death for he was at the writing of it in bonds Ch. 1. vers 8. and he had finished his course Ch. 4. v. 7. This very Paul whom God had so miraculously delivered at Damascus 2 Cor. 11.32 Acts 16.26 and at Philippi and where not for whosoever reads the Catalogue of his sufferings 1 Cor. 11.26 may wonder how so many evils could befall any one man but as they did abound deliverance did proportionably abound yet now when God had no further work for him to do he calls his Servant home to receive his wages and being so near the end of his Race Phil. 3.14 Paul stretches out his hand for the prize of his high calling in Christ Jesus And if we cannot but allow the Children of God to grow in Grace and in Knowledge 2 Pet. 3.18 and that the Lights of God's setting up in his Church are brightest a little before they are extinguished by death Timothy and all Believers had reason to mind especially the words of this dying Man This Epistle being his last Will and Testament in which every Member of Christ's Church hath a Legacy left unto him ' more precious if understood and improved than Gold that perish In the beginning of this Chapter the Apostle requires that those things he had taught Vers 2. might be continued still to be taught and to be practis'd He knew that there was no getting into Heaven per saltum that there was no coming to Glory but by taking the degrees at least arriving at the truth of Grace and therefore here as elsewhere in all his Epistles so many Exhortations and Dehortations are to be found so many Precepts about what we are to do and Cautions about what we are to avoid The Philosopher treating of Happiness observes Arist Rhet. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Way is narrow and the Danger is great and they are the best Friends to us that bid us beware and are jealous lest we should mistake But withal the Apostle here meets with a great Obstacle a Stone or Rock of Offence which he endeavours to remove out of our way Hymenaeus and Philetus two considerable persons and probably highly accounted of in the Church for we find no such difficulty arose at the turning away of Phygellus and Hermogenes of whom mention is made Chap. 1. vers 15. Apostatiz'd from the Truth and whether they were by their Office Teachers or no is not certain but that their breath was infectious and that their words did eat as a canker is testified vers 17. That their error was in a fundamental Article denying the Resurrection is very obvious for as the Apostle says If there be no Resurrection then is our preaching vain and our believing vain 1 Cor. 15.13.14 yet such a darkness or perversness rather hath the Fall and our corruption betray'd us to that without God cause his Light to shine into us there is nothing so senceless irrational or unscriptural which we shall not embrace for truth Hence these wretches did not perish alone but overthrew the Faith of some vers 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or temporary Believers who assented to the Truths of the Gospel and were reckoned amongst the Faithfull nay and they shrewdly shak'd the Faith of others When men in a Field-battle see such fall who stood next them or were before them their hearts are apt to misgive them least the next Bullet should take them off also Especially true Believers knowing so much of the deceitfulness of their own hearts as to make them humble all their days and being so charitable towards others and apt to believe any better than themselves Their concern also being so great for their Souls Hinc lacrymae they cry we shall one day fall To such the Apostle accommodates these words Nevertheless as if he had said Granting all that any fearfull and weak but true Believers amongst you can Object that so many fall away and such as seem'd so resolute have Apostatiz'd Mat. 7.24.25 Yet the Foundation of God standeth sure Thô they who built upon the Sand with their statelyest and highest confidence fell yet every building upon the Rock should hold out all winds and weathers To prove which the Apostle offers a double security 1. From the Election and fore-knowledge of God The Lord knoweth them that are his Verba sensûs intellectus ponunt affectum effectum is a known Rule to understand Scripture by God does not only know his People as he does all other men and all other Creatures in the World but he hath a special eye upon every one of them and a special care for them as well as Love unto them and this is as it were the Privy Seal which every Child of God may take for his security 2. They have also a broad Seal their Sanctification which comparatively at least is evident for it is as a light set on a Candlestick and is visible more or less unto all at least they may have the Testimony of a good Conscience ◠Cor. 1.12 which is as a thousand Witnesses Some have thought that these words may relate to an ancient custom of putting words and sentences upon such stones as were laid for Foundations in buildings in which something of the Builder or Author or at least something thought worthy by him to be perpetuated Rom. 11.33 was inserted and what more
hath provok'd layes the hand of his Faith upon Christ and humbly beggs that Christ's Death for him may be accepted instead of his own which he had deserved But now to give a further illustration of my Text and Subject if he pleads thô for Christ's sake for pardon of sin and yet retains a love and liking to his sin if he desires never so earnestly that he may not dye for sin and yet is willing that his sin may live these are vain Oblations vain Prayers but most real and dreadfull provocations There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Beast within us which we must kill I mean every corruption or no Sacrifice no not of the Lamb of God himself will be accepted for us Habes in te quod occidas Every Man hath some sin or other within him nay a whole body of sin which he must slay by at least a sincere continued endeavour or all Legal and Gospel sacrifices too in the World will not avail him we must mortifie the deeds of the flesh Rom. 8.13 or we cannot live And now we may easily understand who they are that name the Name of Christ And to what purpose For our Saviour is he who is so called the same with Messias from his being anointed by God to those Offices of King Priest and Prophet to his Church All Christians name the name of Christ Now those that apply themselves unto him for Life and Salvation are necessitated to name his Name And so they do 1. In their Profession 1. In their Profession Hence we are call'd Christians and we own the Name and rejoyce and glory in it as a name divinely imposed on the Disciples of the Blessed Jesus by God himself for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does import and in our Baptism we agree to be listed amongst his Souldiers Acts 11.26 and to fight under his Banner nay we name Christ's Name and 't is our ambition to be call'd by it 1. Owning him as our Father 1 Pet. 1.23 By whose Spirit we are born again thrô his Word and as Jacob would have his Name named on the Children of Joseph Gen. 48.16 thereby owning and respecting of them as if they were his own Children so does Christ look upon all Believers as his Children and condescends to have his Name named on them nay he names them his Children when he says Here am I Hebr. 2.13 Isa 8.18 and the Children which thou hast given me 2. Looking upon Christ as our Husband 2 Cor. 11.2 to whom this Apostle tells us that we are espoused It is as ancient as the Prophet Isaiah's time to have the Wife called by the name of her Husband Isa 4.1 which is the meaning of their desire Let us be called by thy name i. e. that being married they might change their names for that of their Husbands and this was the custom amongst many of the Romans as still amongst us Vbi tu Caius ibi ego Caia And thus all that look upon Christ as their Father and hope for the Inheritance he hath so dearly bought for them or whosoever beholds him as their Husband and esteem his Love and long for the enjoying of him are concerned in this Obligation to depart from Iniquity As also 2. In their Petition naming Christ 2. In their Petition In every Prayer to be sure they name the Name of Christ in that they ask all in his Name that is in his strength and for his sake So indeed runs the Promise John 14.13 14. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name and i' th next verse If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it especially after our Saviours Ascension when he had paid the price for his People and for all the Pardons and Graces Strength or Comfort they should want he bids them expresly to mention his Name relying on his Merit for the obtaining of them He told them a little before his going to suffer for them John 16.24 Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my Name thô doubtless they had prayed according as they were commanded Luke 11.2 the Lords Prayer day by day and implicitely at least desired all those mercies thro a Mediator They knew that the High Priest was to appear with the Names of God's Israel and to offer up Incense for them yet clearly and explicitely Christs own Apostles did not enjoy this great priviledge And doubtless some new advantages have accrewed to the Disciples of Christ since that Prayer was recommended or commanded by his Death and Resurrection Now the explicit naming of Christ is a very great encouragement in Prayer whether in those or any other words More particularly Pardon and Acceptance Justification and Peace with God must especially be desired in the Name of Christ and for his sake only for he was made a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 and by being a Curse for us hath redeemed us from the Curse he was as accursed in our stead and did bear what the Curse did threaten to transgressors which being done and God's Justice and the Law satisfied it follows that in him God is well-pleased Mat. 3.17.17.5 which words are not only mention'd by the other Evangelists but repeated again in that extraordinary voice at his Transfiguration and are the more remarkable in that it is not said That Christ was God's beloved Son with whom God was pleas'd tho that was a truth from all Eternity but that God is pleased in him that is that God is well-pleased with all that are by Faith united to him and are as it were ingrafted in him Hence we are said to be justified freely by the Grace of God thro the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 3.24 So that all who are liable to condemnation have no other Remedy no hope or help but in Christ Jesus Acts 4.12 1 Cor. 6.11 and there is no other Name by which they can be saved but by the name of Christ for we are justified by Faith in his Name Justification properly speaking is not the making of any righteous or holy tho none are justified who are not also sanctified but it is the accepting of any person who duely comes in the Name of Christ as righteous and holy for so he is in God's sight Christ's Righteousness being imputed unto him and for Christ's sake he becomes one of those blessed ones unto whom the Lord does not impute sin Psal 32.2 as the Psalmist expresses it in those very words En Graecis bonis Latina fecere non bona Ter. Whatsoever the import of the Latin word from whence our English word Justification may seem to be the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the Apostle are Juridical words and relate to a Court of Judicature where when the accused Party upon sufficient ground is acquitted he is said to be justified and Justification or Absolution is the proper Antitheton
to Condemnation as by the whole of St. Paul to the Romans ch 8.33 may appear Now we must suppose that the convinced Sinner sets himself as in God's sight and having seriously considered what the Law threatens dreading that Curse and Wrath to come hearing his Conscience pleading guilty to the Accusations of the Law against him he seems to hear the Judge asking of him what he hath to say for himself why the sentence of death should not pass upon him here it is that he names Christ and remembers in Prayer unto God what the Blessed Jesus did and suffered unto the utmost for him he became sin for him he could not be a Sinner but he was dealt withall as if he had been one because he was in the Sinners stead Now the convinc'd Sinner urges God's Promise and Covenant with Christ that He should see of the travel of his Soul c. Thus the Name of Christ is the Souls strong Tower Isa 53.11 Prov. 18.10 Isa 44.24 he runneth unto it and is safe and in Christ who is also the Lord Jehovah he hath righteousness and strength Again Is the penitent Sinner so oppress'd that words fail him only sighs and groans which in his case are never wanting are frequent with him the Name of Christ upholds him for he knows as God said of Aaron that he can speak well Exod. 4.14 Heb. 7.25 and he ever lives to make intercession for him I do not wonder that our being thus made whole only thro the Name of Christ should be by so many gainsayed and ridiculed Rom. 10.3 2 Cor. 5.21 for 't is hard to bring our Thoughts into subjection unto the Kingdom of God and Jesus Christ and when I read it so often call'd the Righteousness of God in Scripture as surely he alone could find out the Ransom c. I know it must be something beyond the ordinary apprehension of Man for no man knows the things of God but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.11 and Nil diurnum nox capit May this suffice concerning the Subject of my Text viz. He that nameth the Name of Christ We must now speak of the Injunction that is laid upon him or the Direction given unto him Let every such an One depart from Iniquity In which we shall have cause to enquire how it consists with the naming of Christ especially for our Justification as I have explained it and these four Particulars I shall offer to your consideration 1. That departing from Iniquity or Holiness is no Cause of our Justification properly taken notwithstanding 2. Holiness hath an Influence upon our Salvation and also 3. Holiness is indispensibly necessary to all justified Persons 4. Nay more Free Justification or Justification by God's Free Grace in Jesus Christ is the best and most forcible Incentive unto Holiness Departing from Iniquity is no cause of Justification Reason 1 1. It will appear that Holiness is no Cause of our Justification It did neither move God when foreseen to choose us or when actually existing to justifie us Mercy is only from something in God 1. For all God's Works of Mercy arise from something in God himself who is the fountain of Mercy or of living waters and Judgments are said to be his strange Work because he never proceeds to them but when he is necessitated to vindicate the Glory of his injur'd Attributes that is Jer. 17.13 the cause of all God's severities is out of himself and only to be found in the provocations of his Creatures The Cause of all his Mercies are his own Bowels and Compassions and wholly in and from himself O Israel Hos 13.9 thy destruction is from thy self but in me is thy help Nay when God says unto the Soul Live Ezek. 16.6 he sees it in its Blood and it remains in its Blood untill he says unto it Live for in the Apostles Phrase Rom. 4.5 6. he justifies the ungodly and the sinners that is God does for Christ's sake discharge and acquit Sinners who flee unto him and desire Pardon and Acceptance thro the Blood of his Son The Lamb of God that thus taketh away the sin of the World And yet thus the Judge of all the Earth does right too when he makes Christ to become Righteousness unto the believing and penitent Sinners for by the same Reason and Justice that they fell in one Adam they may be made alive in another and where is the Disputer Rom. 5.19 2. There is no commutative Justice betwixt God and his Creature 2. Reason There is no commutative Justice between God and his Creature We can give no Equivalent for the least mercy the least crumb the least drop to be sure as coming from God The giver puts a suitable price upon the Gift as the Giver is in excellency so is the Gift in esteem what a Prince or a King gives is much magnified tho many times otherwise a trifle but here is Eternal Life and a Crown immortal given by the great King of Heaven and Earth to such as know themselves to be but dust and ashes and to be sure they cry Grace Zech. 4.7 Grace unto it God gets nothing by all our holiest Performances devoutest Prayers Job 22.2 and most spiritual Duties Our righeousness cannot profit him Can a Man be profitable unto God that is he cannot by any ways be profitable unto his Maker no 't is for our sakes that God hath given us his Commandments and Institutions that we might by them mend the frame and temper of our hearts and be fitted for to enjoy him to all Eternity in the mean while to stay our longing after him he affords us to see him thus tho as in a glass darkly But if God could be promerited as they speak and obliged it must be by some things that are our own and Secondly It must be by such things as are not due upon any other account whatsoever 1 Cor. 4.7 Now what hast thou which thou hast not received Thy Faculties and Powers thy Grace and Goodness a Heart and Will to do good every Enlargement of Prayer and Exercise of Faith or any other Grace is his it is he that works in us to will and to do accord-to his own good pleasure Phil. 2.13 Luke 17.9 and if thanks be not due to a Servant when he does what he is bidden as our Saviour expresses what can be due to a Creature from his Creator who gives him Food and Rayment Life and Breath and all things Where is there any proportion betwixt these and any returns we can make In all Trading or Exchanging there 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quid for quo which cannot be given to God by us 2. Departing from Iniquity hath an Influence upon our Salvation tho it be not a Cause of our Salvation Departing from Iniquity hath its influence upon tho no cause of our salvation And tho it cannot
Of Man's wickedness in both these thieves who had spent all their time in sin even to the last hour of their lives but especially in the impenitent thief whom neither Bonds nor Tryal nor Condemnation had humbled or mollified or brought to repentance but being still under the power of an hardned heart we find him at the last gasp railing on a Saviour instead of believing in him and belching out his blasphemies in the very mouth of Hell vers 39. If thou be Christ save thy self and us II. Of Divine grace in the penitent thief First Converting grace and that 1. In the power and efficacy of it for how powerful must that grace needs be which had wrought so great a change had suppled that heart in an instant which had been hardning in sin for so many years overcome so many stubborn inveterate lusts at once and made the Man all on a suddain commence one of the most eminent Saints the World had ever yet had and act faith to such an hight as might not only have become the chiefest of the Apostles but did really exceed any they had hitherto shewn The Disciples of Christ who had sat so long at their Masters feet yet were hardly induced to believe his Resurrection even after he was risen Luke 24.25 When this thief who hitherto had been a stranger to him and now saw him hanging on a Cross and dying yet by faith sees him in his Kingdom triumphing over his Cross and Death too 2. In the freeness of it for 1. Gods grace did not wait for his preparations good moods good dispositions these were all over if ever he had any but it takes hold of him when at the hight of sin and not only was void of grace but seemed past grace i. e. never like to come to it by any ordinary methods 2. It seised on him and passed by the other though no worse that we know of than himself Grace makes a difference where none was before of these two in the like case it takes one and leaves the other II. Pardoning grace This appears in our Lords answer and carriage to him vers 43. He doth not upbraid him with the abominations of his forepast life his Theft or Rapine or Violence his hardness of Heart or long Impenitence but easily readily gently receives him and is so far from denying him a pardon that he assures him of a present Salvation To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise The case of these two thieves doth in a good measure parallel the case of other dying sinners though dying upon their beds They were in the extremity of their lives drawing their last breath both full of pain and anguish in their Bodies and very likely full of shame and confusion in their Minds considering their death was not only cruel and grievous but reproachful in the eyes of Men and accursed by the sentence of God So that here was much to interrupt disturb and distract them in so great so close and serious a work as Repentance is And is it not so with others who live in sin all their days and pretend to Repent at last They are taking their leave of the World groaning under their Diseases racked with pains and have many things tho not the same the thieves had to discompose disquiet and divert them from or hinder them in the like work But if we look to the issue the parallel will not reach so far Here is Man for Man one of the thieves humble believing repenting and accordingly accepted the other unbroken unbelieving impenitent and dying like a reprobate This equality is not to be found among other dying sinners as hereafter we shall see However from the example of these two thieves we may safely infer this Proposition Doctrin That tho a very late even a death-bed repentance may be sincere yet it is not safe to run the hazard of it Two parts there are of this Proposition 1. That even a death-bed repeentance may be sincere this I shall speak to by way of Concession 2. That yet it is dangerous running the hazard of it by deferring repentance till such a time this I shall handle by way of Assertion I. It is possible that a death-bed repentance may be sincere In speaking to this I shall briefly 1. Premise something in general concerning the nature of Repentance 2. Lay down the reasons of this Concession First For the former Repentance may be considered either I. In the Act or exercise of it which the Scripture usually expresses by turning or returning implying that sinners are out of the way to God and their own happiness till by repentance they return into it If we speak distinctly of it we may consider 1. The Essence of repentance which is the turning mentioned a turning from sin to God i. e. from all sin both of Heart and Life as to the love and allowance of it and subjection to it and a turning to God as our Sovereign Lord from whom we had revolted to walk with him in all known ways of obedience and holiness And tho we cannot attain to a legal perfection in this Life either as to freedom from all Sin or the practice of all Duty yet there is not meerly a temporary and transient but a peremptory fixed and setled purpose for the one and against the other which is more than a promise de futuro and amounts to a present breach with all sin and an actual will to engage in every duty a respect to all Gods Comandments Psal 119.6 in the degree of our obedience to which we notwithstanding may oftentimes fail 2. The causes from which it proceeds First A right sence of sin as to the guilt defilement and dominion of it It s being offensive and odious to God Jer. 44.4 as well as hurtful to our selves in the danger to which it exposeth us the blot it leaves upon us and the tyranny it exerciseth over us Secondly An apprehension and belief of the mercy of God in Christ Jesus to them that do repent This is always the principle from which Evangelical repentance proceeds Tho the terrors of the Law may help to drive Men from sin yet there must be Gospel attractives to draw them to God either in a way of faith or repentance Who will dare to trust him from whom he expects no mercy or care for serving him from whom he looks for no acceptance Hence it is that Gods mercy is used as the grand motive to perswade Men to repentance Matth. 3.2 The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and Isa 55.7 From these proceed both that Godly sorrow for sin and that hatred of it which always accompanies Gospel repentance and in a good measure promotes it Paul seems to place Godly sorrow among the causes of repentance 2 Cor. 7.10 II. If we consider repentance in the habit I need say no more but that it is that grace of the Holy Spirit which he infuseth into the Soul as the immediate
standing principle of actual repentance and whereby it is both enabled and disposed to it Now this repentance being a grace of Gods Spirit and yet inherent in Man as to the habit and exercised by him as to its acts or which is the same being Gods work and yet Mans duty we are to consider what is Gods part in it and what is Mans. First Gods work is 1. To infuse the grace or principle repentance in the habit which constantly is ascribed to God in Scripture Acts 11.18 Granred repentance 2 Tim. 2.23 If God will give them repentance 2. To actuate and enliven that Principle when infused as he doth other Graces Phil. 2.13 not meerly in a moral way by suggesting such Reasons and Arguments as may excite and move the Will to the exercise of Repentance but by the powerful and efficacious Influence of his Grace drawing out the habit into that exercise or causing the Soul to act suitably to this Divine Principle infused into it Secondly Mans Duty is 1. To seek and labour after Repentance in the use of all means by which God is wont to work it in the hearts of Men such as diligent attendance on the Word Repentance no less than Faith comes by hearing Rom. 10.17 and what external means of Grace are appointed in it Intention of the Mind in that attendance on the means Mens applying the Truths delivered to themselves comparing their Cases with it examining themselves by it considering their ways c. which are but the actings of their reasonable Faculties and as much in their power as other moral Actions are and need not the Supernatural Influence of Divine Grace but only those common assistances God affords to Man in the ordinary actions of a rational Life and in a word these are but such kind of workings as shew them to be Men not to be Saints Isa 46.8 To these means in the use of which God is wont to work repentance I refer Prayer for it which though by an unregenerate Person it cannot be performed graciously and unto acceptance yet we may say it may be thus far performed successfully as that those Prayers may be heard and answered in relation to the Grace they seek and in the Elect of God they are heard tho' not with respect to the Persons which being graceless faithless cannot be accepted of God yet with respect to his own thoughts of Love towards them and his eternal purpose of conferring that Grace upon them 2. To excite and stir up in himself the Grace of Repentance when God hath wrought it in him for the putting forth Acts agreeable to the Principle he hath received and to which by that Principle he is both empowred and inclined unto the production of which Acts he is no more to question the concurrence of God's Special Grace than his common concurrence to the ordinary actings of his Reason and Will it being God's usual method to work with his Creatures according to their Natures and those Principles of Acting he hath put into them Though God quickens Grace as well as works it yet Man is to use those means for the quickning it in himself which God hath appointed and with which he is wont to work 2. The reasons of this Concession or which prove that a Death-bed Repentance may be sincere 1. It appears by the the instance of this Thief that a late Repentance and as late as one upon a Dying Bed hath been sincere and therefore the like may be again He did truly repent and therefore it is possible others may And that his Repentance was sincere we have sufficient Proof not only from Christs gracious acceptation of it manifested by the peremptory promise he gave him of admitting him into his Kingdom To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise But by the other Graces we here find him exercising in concurrence with his repentance I. Faith which is the Principle of Evangelical Repentance and which never fails to work it where it is it self sincere He owns Christ as a King when he mentions his Kingdom and prays him to remember him when he comes into it This likewise implies his belief of and confidence in the Grace and Love as well as Power of Christ when he commits his departing Soul into his hands expecting his Salvation from him And indeed his Faith was not only sincere but strong and vigorous God had put as much of the Spirit of Faith into a poor Novice in Religion at the very first as he doth into many an old Disciple at the last It is a good argument of a strong Faith when it bears up against great discouragements as we see in Abraham's Faith Rom. 4.19 20. and that of the Woman of Canaan Matth. 15. from v. 22. to 28. Two great discouragements the Thief had which yet could not hinder his Faith 1. The heinousness of his Sins aggravated by long impenitence and perseverance in them to the last hour in a manner of his Life Well might he fear that God was so provoked by the continual rebellion of his wicked Life as totally to reject him now at his Death 2. The low and despicable condition he saw Christ in condemned as well as himself and hanging upon a Cross as well as himself slighted and mocked at by so many he might look on as better and wiser than himself no less than the Governours of the Church v. 33. The Rulers derided him This might have made him think there was little hope of help from him What was there in a crucify'd dying Man that to an eye of reason could make him look like a Saviour Meer Nature would as soon have looked for Life in Death it self nay Heaven in Hell as eternal Salvation in one who not only had formerly been so mean but now seemed so miserable II. Several other Graces we find in him as the fruits at least the concomitants of his Repentance 1. A free ingenuous and open confession of his Sins in the face of the World and thereby giving glory to God v. 41. We indeed justly c. Nor can it be said that his Confession was extorted from him by the Torments he suffer'd when we see his Companion impenitent under the like 2. He owns the Justice that had brought him to that end We receive the due reward of our deeds He neither murmurs against God nor quarrels with Men. 3. He sharply taxeth the impiety and profaneness of his fellow Thief in reviling Christ as well as his still continuing obstinate and impenitent v. 40. Dost not thou fear God c. and hereby he shews his indignation against Sin when he so heinously resents it not only in himself but in another Like David he beholds a transgressor and is grieved Ps 119.158 4. He doth what he can to bring his Companion to repentance Dost not thou fear God The Reproof implies an Exhortation as well as Instruction Now the communicativeness of Grace is a good argument of the sincerity of it
common assistances of Gods Spirit they sometimes had being wholly withdrawn from them and it 1. Partly as a punishment for their former wilful impenitency It is one of the most dreadful Judgments God ever executes upon any on this side Hell when he punishes one sin with another one hardness with another which yet sometimes he doth Prov. 81.11 12. Israel would none of me c. so I gave them up c. 2. As a terror to others and a warning too that they that hear it may fear and not dare to live impenitently lest they should die impenitently God not being bound to give them the Grace he denies to others who perhaps were not greater Sinners than themselves Obj. The great encouragement Men have to embolden them in sin and yet to hope for repentance at last is the instance of this poor Thief which they stretch beyond the intention of the Holy Ghost in leaving it upon Record when they use it as a means to strengthen their presumption which was designed only to prevent despair The Thief on the Cross repented at last saith a Sinner and why may not I Answ Why should not the example of the other Thief 's impenitency affright them and drive them to repentance as well as the example of the good Thief encourage them to sin It is but setting one against the other and if they argue God gave repentance to one and therefore may give it them Why may they not as well argue God denied it to one and therefore may deny it to them too 2. It is but a single instance against thousands on the other side And though one instance is sufficient to evert the generality of a Rule and therefore we cannot certainly conclude from Gods not giving repentance to thousands at the hour of Death that he will give it to none because we have the example of this Thief to the contrary yet with what reason can men expect that God should give that to them which he gave to one rather than that he should deny that to them which he hath denied to thousands If general Rules are to be drawn from particulars it is much more rational to ground them on a multitude of particulars than on any single one The most therefore any Men can infer from this example is only that it is not impossible but God may give them repentance 3. Some things seem to be singular in the case of this Thief which are not to be found in the case of others who therefore cannot reasonably argue from it 1. He was one so far as we can judge that had never formerly rejected Christ never saw him before his Sufferings never heard his Doctrin never was a Witness of his Miracles which might convince him of the truth of it He was one that had otherwise employed himself than in attending on Christs Ministry and might more likely have been found robbing on the Road than worshiping in the Temple or breaking up Houses than hearing of Sermons and therefore though he had sin enough in him for which God might have denied him Repentance and nothing in him which might move the Lord to give it him yet it is very probable this was the first of his being brought to the knowledge of a Saviour and so he was not guilty of the great Gospel-sin of Unbelief and refusing the offer of Christ and Salvation by him which doth so often provoke the Lord to leave men to themselves and deny them his Grace If it be said the same was the case of the other Thief I grant it But God being a Sovereign Agent and his gifts most free he might make use of his Prerogative in dispensing them and so grant repentance to the one and deny it to the other admit their circumstances were every way the same And why then may he not deny repentance to those now that are in some respect worse than either in that they have so many times resisted his Spirit stood out against his Calls and slighted the offers of his Grace made to them and where is the Sinner that lives under the means without repentance but as he hath daily repeated calls from God so he daily rejects them and thereby abundantly justifies the Lords refusing him that Grace at the last which he did before not only never seriously seek but wilfully reject I should have more charitable thoughts and better hopes of the veriest Varlets upon earth that were never called till the last hour than of those that are otherwise guilty of much less sin but have abused and resisted greater Grace 2. The instance of this Thief seems particularly designed by God for the honour of his suffering Son God would have a Witness even upon the Cross one to adore him when so many despised him He would have his Sons Death honoured by his giving Life to a poor Wretch even at the point of Death and make him known to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins Acts 5.31 by his giving both to such a Sinner and at such a time 3. Another end may be to render them that Crucified Christ inexcusable when this Malefactor made so honourable a confession of him to expose and shame the unbelief and hardness of the Rulers and Pharisees by the faith and repentance of a most flagitious Offender and therewithal confirm the Word of Christ spoken formerly to them that the Publicans and Harlots entred into the Kingdom of Heaven before them Matth. 21.31 6. Suppose God do give them repentance at the last yet they may have very little it may be no comfort in it I. They may be ready to question the sincerity of it and then they can have little comfort in it Admit their condition be safe yet comfortable it cannot be so long as the truth of their repentance from which their comfort should proceed is so uncertain and questionable To say nothing of their ignorance of the nature of repentance and the methods of the Spirit in working it having never found the like in themselves before nor been acquainted with what others have felt many things there are which sometimes may make them call what they find in themselves in question 1. The experience they have already had of the deceitfulness of their own hearts and perhaps of others in the like condition It may be they have known others upon a sick bed look as like Penitents as they now do who yet upon their recovery from their Diseases have relapsed into sin and by returning to their former Lusts have confuted their Profession and evidenc'd their repentance to have been unsound and hypocritical And this may make them fear lest things may be no better with themselves and their repentings no more real than their Neighbours Or it may be they themselves formerly when under a Sentence of Death have had strong convictions of sin been filled with horror of Conscience and dismal apprehensions of approaching damnation It may be they
open but for a time and when that is past it will be shut Matth. 25.10 and all your calling and knocking will never prevail with God for the opening of it again And what then shall you be the better the nearer repentance or nearer pardon for all that Ocean of mercy that is in God if you seek it too late and when he will not let out one drop of it to you 2. Gods justice is as great as his mercy All his Attributes are alike infinite one doth not overtop the other And then if you delay and put off repenting to your latter end why may you not as reasonably fear lest he should in justice punish you for your long impenitency as in mercy give you repentance Quest How doth Practical Godliness better rectifie the Judgment than doubtful Disputations SERMON X. Rom. XIV 1. Him that is weak in the Faith receive but not to doubtful Disputations THIS Epistle to the Romans is an Epitomy or Body of Divinity containing Faith and Love in Christ Jesus from which Rome degenerating hath separated from her self and the Scriptures of Truth the only grand Charter of all Christianity In the beginning of the Epistle the Apostle discourseth about Original Sin 〈◊〉 having infected the whole Nature of Man with its guilt and filth 〈◊〉 Jews and Gentiles all become abominable fallen short of the glory and image of God Chap. 3.23 For by one Man Sin entred upon all Chap. 5.12 and Death by Sin Whence he inferreth there is no possibility of our Justification by the Works either of the Ceremonial or Moral Law so that he concludeth a necessity of our being Justified by Faith without the Works of the Law Chap. 3.28 Through the Redemption of Jesus Christ But though we are justified freely by his Grace yet we are not to live freely and licentiously in Sin because Grace abounds God forbid Chap. 6.1 for holiness is inseparably entailed on our most holy Faith Jude 20. Then he proceedeth to shew the Privileges of the adopted Children of God that there is no condemnation due to them Chap. 8.1 For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made them free from the Law of Sin and Death and that they are heirs of God vers 17. which is more than all the World Till he arriveth at the Head-spring of all Grace and that is Eternal Election Chap. 9. without any foresight of Faith or Works But as in time he chose first the Jews rejecting them he chose the Gentiles without any view of Merit or Eligibility in either of them before others for the Jews were the smallest and meanest of all Nations Deut. 7.7 and the Gentiles all over-run with Idolatry and Profaneness Yet this Conversion of the Gentiles was foreknown and therefore forewilled of God from the beginning Acts 15.18 After these sublimer Doctrins he descends Chap. 12. to Practical Duties and he who will understand the eleven first Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans must practise the five last be acquainted with the mysterious Duties of Love and then you will better understand the mysteries of Faith Chap. 13.8 He exhorteth them to owe no body any thing but Love be in no bodies debt yet owe every one Love a debt always to be paying and yet always owing yet still abiding our proper treasure This 14th Chapter is a branch of some particular Duties of Love and this Verse is the sum of this whole Chapter of Charity which words are said to have occasioned the Conversion or Confirmation of Alipius as the foregoing words were of Augustines Such is the Autority and Energy of the naked Word of God upon the Consciences of Men in the day of Christs Power And the naked Sword cuts better than when it is sheathed in a gaudy scabbard of the inticing words of Mans wisdom 1 Cor. 2.4 The Apostles were frequently exercised with difficulties how to compose the differences among Christians the Jewish Converts were eager to bring their Circumcision with their observation of times and meats along with them into Christianity Gal. 4.10 The Gentiles were not accustomed to these things and therefore opposed them yet were as ready to bring a Tang of their own old Errors with them also as their Doctrin of Demons 1 Tim. 4.1 and their worshipping of Angels Col. 2.18 and probably some of their Heathenish Festivals and Customs So that both parties were in an error and neither of them fully understood that liberty Christ had brought to them from these beggerly Elements Rudiments and Ordinances to which they were in bondage For if God saw good to free his Church from those Ceremonies which were instituted by himself he would never allow them to be in a slavish subjection to the Superstitions and Ceremonies of worldly Mens inventions tho' never so Dogmatically and Magisterially imposed For as Learned Davenant on that Col. 2.18 observes such injunctions are apt to grow upon Men forbidding first not to touch or eat such and such meats then not to taste after not so much as to handle them Now to compose these differences the Apostles met at Jerusalem Acts 15.20 where they made no positive injunctions for the Christians to practise any Ceremonies or Observations of either party against their Consciences but limited the exercise of their liberty which they truly had by the Gospel but that they should abstain from Fornication which to explain is too great a digression Blood things Strangled and what was offered to Idols These they would have them to avoid that they may not offend those weak Jews who could not suddenly concoct these practices till Judgment should be brought to Victory over these feeble fancies And they laid this also as a burthen on them for a time till they could be brought to better understanding and all this by way of advice from the Apostles Elders and the whole Church vers 22. their Letter also was read to the whole multitude vers 30. So here the Apostle adviseth the Romans how to do in the like case with these weak ones Him that is weak receive c. 1. Here is the description of the person who is to be considered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not him that is weak and sick to death erring in the foundation of Faith one who doth not hold the Head Col. 2.19 Who denieth the Lord who bought him these are destructive Heresies which bring on Men swift damnation 2 Pet. 2.1 we are not to say to such God speed you 2 Epistle John 10. their very breath is blasting to Mens minds 2. Nor is it one who is sick about questions 1 Tim. 1.4 2 Tim. 3.23 foolish endless unlearned unedifying questions which only ingender contention such are idle busie-bodies seekers and disputatious quarrellers about some minute things which hypocritical and vain minds Trade in to keep themselves buzzing about the borders of Religion that they may keep off from the more serious duties and substantial parts thereof 3. But he is one
and Earth a damned Spirit the most cursed part of the Creation It is most reasonable that the baseness of the Competitour should be a foil to reinforce the lustre of Gods authority yet Men reject God and comply with the tempter O prodigious perversness 2. Sin vilifies the ruling Wisdom of God that prescrib'd the Law to Men. Altho the dominion of God over us be Supreme and Absolute yet 't is exercis'd according to the councel of his Will by the best means 1 Tim. 1.17 for the best ends he is accordingly stiled by the Apostle The eternal King and only wise God 'T is the glorious Prerogative of his Sovereignty and Deity that he can do no wrong for he necessarily acts according to the excellencies of his Nature Particularly his Wisdom is so relucent in his Laws that the serious contemplation of it will ravish the sincere minds of Men into a compliance with them They are framed with exact congruity to the Nature of God and his relation to us and to the faculties of Man before he was corrupted From hence the Divine Law being the transcript not only of Gods Will but his Wisdom binds the understanding and will our leading faculties to esteem and approve to consent and choose all his precepts as best Now sin vilifies the infinite understanding of God with respect both to the precepts of the â—â—w the rule of our duty and the sanction annext to confirm its obligâ—â—â—on It does constructively tax the precepts as unequal too rigid â—â—d severe a confinement to our wills and actions Thus the impious Rebels complain The ways of the Lord are not equal as injurious to their liberty and not worthy of observance What St. James saith to correct the uncharitable censorious Humour of some in his time James 4.11 He that speaks evil of his brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law as an imperfect and rash rule is aplicable to Sinners in any other kind As an unskillful Hand by straining too high breaks the strings of an Instrument and spoils the Musick so the Strictness and Severity of the Precepts breaks the harmonious Agreement between the Wills of Men and the Law and casts an Imputation of Imprudence upon the Law-giver This is the implicit Blasphemy in Sin Besides the Law has Rewards and Punishments to secure our Respects and Obedience to it The wise God knows the Frame of the reasonable Creature what are the inward Springs of our Actions and has accordingly propounded such Motives to our Hope and Fear the most active Passions as may engage us to perform our Duty He promises his favour that is better then life to the Obedient and threatens his wrath that is worse then death to the rebellious Now Sin makes it evident that these Motives are not effectual in the Minds of Men And this reflects upon the Wisdom of the Law-giver as if defective in not binding his Subjects firmly to their Duty for if the Advantage or Pleasure that may be gain'd by Sin be greater than the Reward that is promised to Obedience and the Punishment that is threatned against the Transgression the Law is unable to restrain from Sin and the Ends of Government are not obtained Thus Sinners in venturing upon forbidden things reproach the Understanding of the Divine Law-giver 3. Sin is a Contrariety to the unspotted Holiness of God Of all the glorious and benign Constellation of the Divine Attributes that shine in the Law of God his Holiness has the brightest Lustre God is Holy in all his Works but the most venerable and precious Monument of his Holiness is the Law For the Holiness of God consists in the Correspondence of his Will and Actions with his moral Perfections Wisdom Goodness and Justice and the Law is the perfect Copy of his Nature and Will The Psalmist who had a purged Eye saw and admir'd its Purity and Perfection Psal 19. Psal 119.140 The Commandment of the Lord is pure inlightning the eyes The word is very pure therefore thy servant loves it 'T is the perspicuous and glorious Rule of our Duty without Blemish or Imperfection The Commandment is holy just and good It injoyns nothing but what is absolutely Good without the least Tincture of Evil. The Sum of it is set down by the Apostle to live soberly that is to abstain from any thing that may stain the Excellence of an understanding Creature To live righteously which respects the State and Scituation wherein God has disposed Men for his Glory It comprehends all the respective Duties to others to whom we are united by the Bands of Nature or of civil Society or of Spiritual Communion And to live godly which includes all the internal and outward Duties we owe to God who is the Sovereign of our Spirits whose Will must be the Rule and his Glory the End of our Actions In short The Law is so form'd that prescinding from the Authority of the Law-giver its Holiness and Goodness lays an eternal Obligation on us to obey it Now Sin is not only by Interpretation a Reproach to the Wisdom and other Perfections of God but directly and formally a Contrariety to his infinite Sanctity and Purity for it consists in a not doing what the Law commands Rom. 11. or doing what it forbids 'T is therefore said That the carnal mind is Enmity against God An active immediate and irreconcilable Contrariety to his holy Nature and Will From henee there is a reciprocal Hatred between God and Sinners God is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity without an infinite Displicence the Effects of which will fall upon Sinners and tho' 't is an Impiety hardly conceivable Rom. 1. yet the Scripture tells us that they are haters of God 'T is true God by the transcendent Excellence of his Nature is uncapable of suffering any Evil and there are few in the present State arrived to such Malice as to declare open Enmity and War against God In the Damned this Hatred is explicit and direct the Fever is hightned to a Frenzy the blessed God is the Object of their Curses and eternal Aversation If their Rage could extend to him and their Power were equal to their Desires they would Dethrone the most High And the Seeds of this are in the Breasts of Sinners here As the fearful Expectation of irresistible and fiery Vengeance increases their Aversation increases They endeavour to rase out the Inscription of God in their Souls and to extinguish the thoughts and sense of their Inspector and Judge They wish he were not All-seeing and Almighty but Blind and Impotent uncapable to vindicate the Honour of his despised Deity The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God The Heart is the Fountain of Desires and Actions interpret the Thoughts and Affections from whence the Inference is direct and conclusive that habitual Sinners who live without God in the world have secret Desires there was no Sovereign being
to observe and require an account of all their Actions The radical cause of this Hatred is from the Opposition of the sinful polluted Wills of Men to the Holiness of God for that attribute excites his Justice and Power and Wrath to punish Sinners Therefore the Apostle saith They are enemies to God in their minds through wicked works The naked representing of this Impiety that a reasonable Creature should hate the blessed Creator for his most Divine Perfections cannot but strike with Horror O the Sinfulness of Sin 4. Sin is the Contempt and Abuse of his excellent Goodness This Argument is as vast as God's innumerable Mercies whereby he allures and obliges us to Obedience I shall restrain my Discourse of it to three things wherein the Divine Goodness is very Conspicuous and most ungratefully despised by Sinners 1. His Creating Goodness 'T is clear without the lea st shadow of Doubt that nothing can give the first being to it self for this were to be before it was which is a direct Contradiction and 't is evident that God is the sole Author of our Beings Our Parents afforded the gross matter of our compounded Nature but the Variety and Union the Beauty and Usefulness of the several Parts which is so Wonderful that the Body is composed of as many Miracles as Members was the Design of his Wisdom and the Work of his Hands The lively Idea and perfect Exemplar of that regular Fabrick was modell'd in the Divine Mind This affected the Psalmist with Admiration I am fearfully and wonderfully made Psal 139.14 15 16. marvellous are thy works and that my soul knows right well Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them And Job observes Thy hands have made me and fashioned me round about Job 10.8 The Soul our principal Part is of a celestial Original inspired from the father of Spirits The faculties of Understanding and Election are the indelible Characters of our Dignity above the Brutes and make us capable to please and glorifie and enjoy him This first and fundamental Benefit upon which all other Favours and Benefits are the Superstructure was the Effect from an eternal Cause his most free Decree that ordained our Birth in the spaces of time The Fountain was his pure Goodness there was no necessity determining his Will he did not want external declarative Glory being infinitely happy in himself and there could be no superior Power to constrain him And that which renders our Maker's Goodness more free and obliging is the consideration he might have created Millions of Men and left us in our Native Nothing and as I may so speak lost and buried in perpetual Darkness Now what was Gods end in Making us Certainly it was becoming his infinite Understanding that is to communicate of his own Divine Fullness and to be actively glorified by intelligent Creatures Accordingly 't is the solemn Acknowledgement of the Representative Church Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power For thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they were created Who is so void of rational Sentiments Rev. 4.11 as not to acknowledge 't is our indispensable Duty Our reasonable service to offer up our selves an intire living Sacrifice to his glory What is more natural according to the Laws of uncorrupt Natures I might say and of corrupt Nature for the Heathens practised it than that Love should correspond with Love as the one descends in Benefits the other should ascend in Thankfulness As a polish'd Looking-glass of Steel strongly reverberates the Beams of the Sun shining upon it without losing a spark of light thus the understanding Soul should reflect the Affection of Love upon our blessed Maker in Reverence and Praise and Thankfulness Now Sin breaks all those Sacred Bands of Grace and Gratitude that engage us to love and obey God He is the just Lord of all our Faculties Intellectual and Sensitive and the Sinner employs them as Weapons of Unrighteousness against him He preserves us by his powerful gracious Providence which is a renewed Creation every Moment and the Goodness he uses to us the Sinner abuses against him This is the most unworthy shameful and monstrous Ingratitude This makes forgetful and unthankful Men more brutish than the dull Ox and the stupid Ass who serve those that feed them nay sinks them below the insensible part of the Creation that invariably observes the Law and order prescribed by the Creator Astonishing Degeneracy Hear O Heavens give ear O earth I have nourished and brought up Childen and they have rebelled against me was the Complaint of God himself The considerate Review of this will melt us into Tears of Confusion 2. 'T was the unvaluable goodness of God to give his Law to Man for his rule both in respect of the matter of the Law and his end in giving it 1. The matter of the Law this as is forecited from the Apostle is holy just and good It contains all things that are honest and just and pure and lovely and of good report whatsoever are vertuous and praise-worthy In obedience to it the innocence and perfection of the reasonable creature consists This I do but glance upon having been consider'd before 2. The end of giving the Law God was pleas'd upon Mans creation by an illustrious revelation to shew him his duty to write his Law in his Heart that he might not take one step out of the circle of its precepts and immediately sin and perish His gracious design was to keep Man in his love that from the obedience of the reasonable creature the divine goodness might take its rise to reward him This unfeined and excellent goodness the sinner outragiously despises for what greater contempt can be exprest against a written Law than the tearing it in pieces and trampling it underfoot And this constructively the sinner does to the Law of God which contempt extends to the gracious giver of it Rom. 7.10 Thus the Commandment that was ordain'd unto Life by sin was found unto Death 3. Sin is an extreme vilifying of Gods goodness in preferring carnal pleasures to his favour and Communion with him wherein the life the felicity the heaven of the reasonable creature consists God is infinite in all possible perfections all-sufficient to make us compleatly and eternally happy he disdains to have any competitour and requires to be supreme in our esteem and affections the reason of this is so evident by Divine and Natural light that 't is needless to spend many words about it 'T is an observation of St. Austin * Omnes Deos colendos esse sapienti Cur ergo a numero caeterorum ille rejectus est nihil restat ut dicant cur hujus Dei sacra recipere noluerint nisi quia solum se coli voluerit Aug. de Consens Evang. c. 17. That
the Psalmist declaring their inward sentiments The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it Lastly The sinner slights the power of God This attribute renders God a dreadful Judge He has a right to punish and power to revenge every transgression of his Law His judicial power is supreme his executive is irresistible He can with one stroke dispatch the Body to the Grave and the Soul to Hell and make Men as miserable as they are sinful Yet sinners as boldly provoke him as if there were no danger We read of the infatuated Syrians that they thought that God the Protector of Israel had only power on the Hills and not in the Vallies and renewed the War to their destruction Thus sinners enter into the lists with God and range an Army of lusts against the Armies of Heaven and blindly bold run upon their own destruction They neither believe his all-seeing Eye nor all-mighty Hand They change the glory of the living God into a dead Idol that has Eyes and sees not and Hands and handles not and accordingly his threatnings make no impression upon them Thus I have presented a true view of the evil of sin consider'd in it self but as Job saith of God how little a portion of him is known May be said of the evil of sin how little of it is known For in proportion as our apprehensions are defective and below the greatness of God so are they of the evil of sin that contradicts his Sovereign will and dishonours his excellent perfections 2. Sin relatively to us is the most pernicious and destructive Evil. If we compare it with temporal Evils it preponderates all that Men are liable to in the present World Diseases in our Bodies disasters in our Estates disgrace in our Reputation are in just esteem far less evil than the evil of sin for that corrupts and destroys our more excellent and immortal part The vile Body is of no account in comparison of the precious Soul Therefore the Apostle enforces his exhortation Dearly beloved brethren abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the Soul The issue of this War is infinitely more woful than of the most cruel against our Bodies and Goods our Liberties and Lives for our Estates and Freedom if lost may be recover'd if the present Life be lost for the cause of God it shall be restor'd in greater lustre and perfection but if the Soul be lost 't is lost for ever All temporal Evils are consistent with the love of God Job on the dunghil roughcast with Ulcers was most precious in Gods sight Lazarus in the lowest poverty and wasted with loathsom Sores was dear to his affections a guard of Angels was sent to convey his departing Soul to the Divine Presence But sin separates between God and us who is the fountain of felicity and the center of rest to the Soul Other evils God who is our wise and compassionate Father and Physitian makes use of as Medicinal preparations for the cure of sin and certainly the Disease which would be the death of the Soul is worse than the Remedy tho' never so bitter and afflicting to sense Sin is an evil of that malignity that the least degree of it is fatal If it be conceiv'd in the Soul tho' not actually finisht 't is deadly One sin corrupted in an instant angelical excellencies and turn'd the glorious Spirits of Heaven into Devils 'T is a poison so strong that the first taste of it shed a deadly taint and malignity into the veins of all mankind Sin is such an exceeding Evil that 't is the severest punishment Divine Justice inflicts on sinners on this side Hell The giving Men over to the power of their lusts is the most fearful judgment not only with respect to the cause Gods unrelenting and unquenchable anger and the issue everlasting destruction but in the quality of the judgment Nay did sin appear as odious in our Eyes as it does in Gods we should account it the worst part of Hell it self the pollutions of the damned to be an evil exceeding the torments superadded to them Sin is pregnant with all kinds of Evils the seeds of it are big with Judgments The evils that are obvious to sense or that are Spiritual and Inward Temporal and Eternal Evils all proceed from sin often as the Natural cause and always as the Meritorious And many times the same punishment is produc'd by the efficiency of sin as well as inflicted for its guilt Thus uncleanness without the miraculous waters of Jealousie rots the Body and the pleasure of sin is revenged by a loathsom consuming Disease the natural consequence of it Thus intemperance and luxury shorten the lives of Men and accelerate damnation Fierce desires and wild rage are fewel for the everlasting fire in Hell The same evils considered Physically are from the efficiency of sin consider'd legally are from the guilt of sin and the justice of God This being a point of great usefulness that I may be more instructive I will consider the evils that are consequential to sin under these two Heads 1. Such as proceed immediately from it by Emanation 2. Those evils and all other as the effects of Gods justice and sentence 1. The evils that proceed immediately by emanation from it and tho' some of them are not resented with feeling apprehensions by sinners yet they are of a fearful nature Sin has deprived Man of the purity nobility and peace of his innocent state 1. It has stain'd and tainted him with an universal intimate and permanent pollution Man in his first Creation was holy and righteous a beam of beauty derived from Heaven was shed upon his Soul in comparison of which sensitive beauty is but as the clearness of Glass to the lustre of a Diamond His understanding was light in the Lord his will and affections were regular and pure the Divine Image was imprest upon all his faculties that attracted the love and complacency of God himself Sin has blotted out all his aimiable excellencies and superinduc'd the most foul deformity the original of which was fetcht from Hell Sinners are the natural Children of Satan of a near resemblance to him The Scripture borrows comparisons to represent the defiling quality of sin from pollutions that are most loathsom to our senses from pestilential Vlcers putrifying Sores filthy Vomit and defiling Mire This pollution is universal through the whole Man Spirit Soul and Body It darkens the mind our supreme faculty with a cloud of Corruption it depraves the will and vitiates the affections 'T is a pollution so deep and permanent that the Deluge that swept away a World of sinners did not wash away their sins and the fire at the last day that shall devour the dross of the visible World and renew the Heavens and the Earth shall not purge away the sins of the guilty Inhabitants This pollution hath so defil'd and disfigur'd Man who was a fair and lovely type wherein
and brought under his Government Rom. x. 14 15 17. If ye then promote the spreading of the Gospel ye enlarge the Kingdom of Christ 3. Tenderly pity and compassionate the many Millions of the Sons and Daughters of Adam who were hewn out of the same Rock and dig'd out of the same hole of the Pit with your selves who as yet lye in thraldom under Satan and are Members of his visible Kingdom It would doubtless be very grateful to you if your assistance might contribute any thing toward their deliverance out of that miserable bondage and the means to procure it is to help on as far as ye may the bringing of the Gospel among them for that is God's appointed way to effect it Luk. iv 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted to preach deliverance to the captives Acts xxvi 17 18. and from the Gentiles to whom I now send thee To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of Sins and an inheritance among them which are sanctified 4. Remember That Grace when it hath its freedom of exercise will draw you off from centering in Self and raise in you a spirit of freedom and nobleness to seek the good of others especially to advance the Glory of God in the Salvation of Souls Take heed that ye be not found in the number of those of whom the Apostle speaks Phil. ii 21. For all seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christs 5. I hope ye do not desire to be excused or excluded from bearing any part in that honourable and glorious work of being employed by Christ in your Stations and according to your Capacities in the affairs of his Kingdom but that it would grieve you at the very heart to be laid aside as a despised broken Idol when all this is recollected and maturely pondered where is that godly private Christian that will deliberately say I am not concerned to be helpful in such ways as are proper for me in promoting the Entertainment of the Gospel Secondly As for those godly private Christians whose hearts are sincerely willing to be serviceable to the Lord Jesus Christ and would exceedingly rejoyce to contribute all the assistance that they are able to afford for the Conversion and Salvation of perishing Souls but complain That the work in which this Discourse would engage them lies a great way off and is out of their reach But could they be employed about any thing of that nature within the compass of their sphere of activity they would most gladly embrace it and vigorously bestir themselves in it If that be really the Case of any Then I say to such Up and be doing and the Lord be with you to direct help and succeed you for ye will find enough to do at your own doors and probably in your own Houses Briefly and plainly then the matter stands thus There are many who have entertained the Gospel as far as a general ignorant customary Profession will go but are so far from admitting the spirit life and power of it into their hearts that they are not only utter strangers to it but are full of bitter enmity against it Will ye be helpful now to prevail with them to receive it with Faith Love and Obedience It will be as acceptable and I fear ye will find it as difficult a work to bring a wicked hard-hearted Christian to believe in Christ to the Salvation of his Soul as an open Infidel to make profession of the Gospel Ye will find many as ignorant of the very Essentials of Christianity as the very Pagans as froward perverse and opposite to all means of Instruction as Indians many that love their Lusts and hold them as fast as any in the world The Barbarians are prejudiced against our Religion because they understand it not or have had it mis-represented to them but the more plainly and truly it is set forth before prophane ones at home the more bitterly do they hate it and discover the greater aversation to it So ye see That tho' the Scene of the Question seemed to be laid afar off yet the purport and design of it reacheth us at home And I believe No godly private Christian will say that he is not concerned to seek the Conversion and Salvation of the ignorant sensual prophane and ungodly ones among whom they live If ye ask me then How may we be helpful thereunto I answer That generally the same Methods are to be made use of that have already been insisted upon As To endeavour in our several Stations and Capacities That such may be employed and encouraged to Preach the Gospel as are themselves seasoned with the Spirit and grace of it and zealously seek the Conversion and Salvation of Souls To Pray more fervently for the pouring out of the Spirit to make the Preaching of the Word successful To remove all Impediments and Obstructions as far as we can out of their way To assist them with what help we can by obliging instructing and perswading and walking exemplarily before them But I shall not proceed farther in this because it would draw out the Discourse to too great a length and I think it would be for your Edification to review over again what hath been already insisted upon and then upon second thoughts ye may discover more than fell under your notice in the first cursory reading I shall conclude all with Jam. v. 19 20. Brethren If any of you do err from the faith and one convert him Let him know that he which converteth the Sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins Quest How Christ is to be followed as our Example SERMON XIII 1 Pet. 2.21 lat part Leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps THE Persons to whom the Apostle wrote this Epistle are in the beginning of it styled Strangers So they were because dispersed and scatter'd in several Kingdoms of the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 3.7 and they were Pilgrims and Sojourners in the Earth it self being regenerated and born from above and minding a better Country than was to be found here below The Apostle endeavours to strengthen their Faith to enliven their Hope to fix their hearts upon the incorruptible and undefiled Inheritance and to keep them in the way that leads to it In this Chapter where my Text lies He admonishes them to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul he exhorts them to a conversation that would glorifie God convince the World and adorn the Gospel their Zeal ought to be so great of those works that are good that they should not think much to suffer for well doing Bona agere mala pati to do good and to hold on in
so doing though very ill requited for it this is high and noble indeed this is an honour not vouchsafed to the elect Angels who are not capable of suffering this is to be a Christian in truth and eminency and to resemble Christ himself who suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps In the words which I have read you may take notice 1. Of one end of Christ in Suffering and that is that he might leave us an example To say that this was the principal end of his passion to deny his satisfaction as if it were impossible or needless is heretical in a very high degree to deny the Blood of Christ to be the price of our redemption is to deny the Lord that bought us And truly the only propitiatory Sacrifice for Sin being rejected there is no other remaining but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and of fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries And yet though Christ bare our sins in his own body on the tree He is not only our Redeemer but our Example He hath bequeathed Blessings never enough to be valued in his Testament he has also left us an incomparable Example The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Example is either taken from excellent Writing-Masters who set a fair Copy for their Scholars to write after or 't is taken from Painters who draw a curious Masterpiece for inferiour Artists their Admiration and Imitation 2. They were remarkable steps that Christ took when he was here in the days of his flesh and among them all he did not take one wrong one He was made of a Woman made under the Law and he did not in the least transgress the Law He came upon this Earth to do his Father's Will Heb. 10.7 Lo I come in the volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy will O God And never did he any thing that was in any degree contrary to it 3. The Steps of Christ are to be followed Good men in Scripture are our patterns whose Faith and Patience we are to follow Heb. 6.12 That ye be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise The Cloud of witnesses is to be minded and the bright side of it gives a good light unto our feet but there is a dark side of the Cloud which may make us cautious we must take heed of resembling the best of Men in that which is bad in their falls and infirmities Abraham is renowned for his faith yet not to be imitated in the carnal shifts he made for the saving of his life Barnabas was to be blamed for being carried away by Peter's dissimulation But Christ is such an example as to walk according to it and to walk by the strictest rule is all one for our Lord did whatsoever became him and exactly fulfill'd all righteousness 4. Here is a special intimation as appears by the context of a Christian's Duty patiently to bear injuries and to take up the cross Though the Gospel be the gladdest tidings yet Suffering is a word that sounds very harsh to flesh and blood But the Apostle bids us behold Christ in his Sufferings and not think mâ—ch of our afflictions which were but a drop compared with His which were a vast Ocean The Sufferings of Christ the Head were unconceivably greater than those which any of his Members at any time are called to undergo And indeed when he drank the Cup his Father gave him he drank out the Curse and bitterness of it so that it is both bless't and sweetned to the Lambs followers who are to drink after him 5. The Sufferings of Christ and his Example being joyned together in the Text here is a signification that by his Death he has purchased Grace to assist and enable us to follow his example Our Lord knows our natural impotency nay averseness to follow him or so much as to look to him His death is effectual therefore to kill our Sin and to heal our depraved Nature his power rests upon us that we may tread the Path in which he is gone before us I am able to do all things says the Apostle through Christ strengthning me I am desired this Morning to speak of Christ as our Example and to shew how Christians are to follow him This is a Theme that commends it self to you by its excellency usefulness and seasonableness in such an Age wherein there is such a sinful sad and almost universal degenerating from true and real Christianity Glorious Head had'st thou ever on earth a Body more unlike thee than at this day How few manifestly declare themselves the Epistles of Christ written by the Spirit of the living God! Few Professors have his Image who yet bear his superscription In the handling of this Subject I shall 1. Premise some things by way of Caution 2. Shew you in what respects Christ is an Example to be followed 3. Produce some Arguments to perswade you to the imitation of him 4. Close with some Directions how this duty may be done effectually In the first place I am to premise some things by way of Caution 1. Think not as long as you remain in this world to be altogether free from Sin as Christ was He indeed was from his Conception in the Womb to his Ascension far above all visible Heavens altogether immaculate and without blemish Some have fancied spots in the Sun but sure I am in the Sun of righteousness there is none The Sins of all that are saved were laid upon him but no Sin was ever found in him or done by him The Apostle tells us that he was holy harmless and undefiled Heb. 7.26 You are indeed to imitate Christ in Purity but perfect Holiness you cannot attain to while you carry such a body of Death about you and are in such a world as this It may comfort you to consider after the fall of the first Adam and the sad consequences of it how the second Adam stood and conquer'd and kept himself unspotted from the world all the while he conversed in it But as long as you remain on Earth some defilement will cleave to you to admonish you where you are and to make you long for the heavenly Jerusalem More and more holy you may and ought to be but to be compleatly holy is the happiness not of Earth but Heaven 2. Think not that Christ in all his actions is to be imitated There are Royalties belonging to our Lord Jesus which none must invade He alone is Judg and Lawgiver in Zion and that worship is vain which is taught by the Precepts of Men. Christ is all in all he fills all in all Eph. 1.23 When the Fathers of the last Lateran Council told Leo the Tenth That all Power was given to him in Heaven and Earth As it was blasphemous flattery in them to give so it was blasphemous pride and right Antichristian arrogancy in