are two Phrases and Expressions which are used both together in the Text A Wilderness and a Land of Darkness and the Lord does deny himself to be guilty of either of these to his people He has neither been one nor t'other to them Not a Wilderness which is an expression of unprofitableness Not a Land of Darkness which is an expression of uncomfortableness In a word he does here plainly profess that he hath been no way wanting in any supply which might be requisite or necessary for them neither have they served him for nought or to no purpose in all their attendances upon him This is the Point here before us That God's people they do not serve him in vain and for no profit neither are they any loosers at all by their servings of him He is not one that is defective in the rewarding or recompensing of them for whatsoever they do upon his account Thus we have it in Mal. 1.10 Who is there among you that would shut the doors for nought neither do ye kindle a fire upon mine Altar for nought He speaks it to his own people and it is that which is evident and manifest from daily experience and observation so to be And it is founded upon God's Nobleness and Royalty and Magnificence Generous and magnanimous persons they do not love to be in any mans debt that they should do them service and not to pay them for it no but will recompence and requite them to the full They think their own honour is much ingaged and concerned in it and therefore they will not here be defective or wanting to themselves And so it is here with God Therefore accordingly it concerns us to be right opinionated of God and to be well perswaded of him to this purpose It is that which a great many are not as even the Scripture it self informs us which say What is the Almighty that we should serve him And what profit should we have if we prayed unto him Job 21.15 And so again Ye have said It is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinances and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts Mal. 3.14 Such people as these they make as if God were a Wilderness and a Land of Darkness to his servants but indeed it is no such matter and they are convinced of the contrary from God's own Declaration and Protestation here in this Text which we have now before us That which makes them to be so perswaded is First Because God is pleased sometimes to suspend and delay the expressions of his goodness to them Because he does not reward them presently therefore they think he will not reward them at all Because they do not see the fruit of their labours out of hand therefore they imagine as if God would be altogether barren to them But this is a very great Errour and mistake in them For the Lord he does every thing in the best and fittest season and the longer that he stayes before he rewards them the more does he reward them at last so that they shall have no cause in conclusion to complain of him Secondly Because God does not alwaies reward them in that way and kind as they desire and expect from him It may be he may heap upon them Spiritual blessings but he does not so follow them with Temporals or it may be with Temporals in such a kind but not with Temporals in another And this through their perverseness they judge to be as good as nothing at all But those who are Experienced Christians they should learn to be of another mind as it is here propounded to them And from hence to take heed of being disheartened and discouraged in God's service which Satan their Spiritual Enemy does endeavour all he can to do with them being as the Accuser of the Brethren to God so the Accuser also of God to the Brethren we should not be in this case ignorant of his devices nor unwary of his suggestions but rather arm and strengthen ourselves against them all we can and beg of God himself to strengthen us There is no unprofitableness in the service of God but there is unprofitableness in the service of Satan and in the service of Sin This will be sure to be a Wilderness to us yielding us nothing but bryers and thorns And this will be a Land of Darkness to us Will the Son of Jesse give them Vineyards c carrying us even into utter Darkness if we take not heed of it What fruit had ye saies the Apostle in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death that 's the wages and reward of sin Rom. 6.21 23. But being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life c. And that 's the first Emphasis which is considerable of us in this expression namely as it hath the force of a self-acquittance or Justification wherein God does clear himself of all suspicion of unfruitfulness or unkindness towards his people Have I been a Wilderness or a Land of Darkness to Israel That is indeed I have not been I disclaim it The Second is as it hath the force of a Remembrance or seasonable Intimation Have I been a Wilderness c Nay rather indeed I have been the quite contrary I have in reality been a Paradise It is a kind of an Ironical Speech wherein the contrary is intended to whatâ—s exprest and that for the greater conviction of the persons to whom it is spoken It serves to declare unto us the great goodness and overflowing bounty of God towards his people who is so far from being wanting to them in any thing which is necessary as that he does oftentimes abound to them in all things which can be desired of them There are some of his servants more especially amongst the rest who have large experiences of his provision for them in all particulars in blessings of Heaven above and in blessings of the Earth beneath whom he does daily load with his Benefits as the Psalmist expresseth it Psal 68.29 And they are to him as a watred Garden This it proceeds in him from his own free love and grace Bounty and liberality it needs no other motive than it self for the expressing and manifesting of it He has mercy upon whom he will have mercy and he has bounty for whom he will have bounty and he takes delight in making some persons more than others to be the ubjects and objects of it And to make known the riches of his Bounty upon the vessels of mercy Rom. 9.23 As we see it is sometimes in the world with great and wealthy persons they now and then take some content in it to make others partakers of their Beneficence Even so does this great and mighty God in his
as these seriously think and consider with themselves what we have hitherto treated of and be admonished and advised by it The simple pass on and are punished It is only the Prudent which foresees the evil and hides himself who does escape the Judgment And when we speak here of the Prudent and Simple we may if we please take it here a little narrower than hitherto we have taken it Not only hereby understanding Godly and Ungodly Men the Righteous and the Wicked who do differ toto genere but also as well Christians and Professors of Religion in a different frame and temper of Spirit which is considerable in them There are some Christians which are more watchful and vigilant and circumspect of themselves These are the Wise and Prudent Again There are others which though perhaps they may have some truth of Grace in them and good Principles at the bottom yet are a little more careless and remiss and negligent not so careful as they should be to stir up that good which is in them These may also be called Simple and Foolish And we see here what belongs unto them as the Doom which is past upon them They pass on and are punished That Christian that walks carelesly and securely and does not look to his Watch he does thereby ensnare himself It is not only the lot of those which are absolutely wicked and profane but even of the Servants of God themselves now and then which are not more careful of themselves for their simplicity and security to be punished So I have done with both parts of the Text and with the whole Verse it self SERMON XXXV Esaiah 9.14 Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail branch and Rush in one day Though God considered in himself in his own Blessed Majesty be altogether absolute and unaccomptable and need to give no reason at all of any thing which is done by him his own Will being the best and highest Reason that can possibly be given Yet he is pleased out of his Grace and Goodness so far oftentimes to condescend to the Sons of men as to give them some account of those Actions which are done by him Especially which do any thing more than ordinarily concern themselves as to their suffering from him And this is that which we may observe him to do in this Scripture which we have now before us where intending a great desolution of this People which he had to deal withal the People of Israel and the sending of a sweeping Judgement amongst them He here gives them a reason of so much sharpness and severity to them as proceeding not so much from himself but rather from them not from himself so much as unmercifully disposed towards them or set against them But from themselves rather who had neglected his mercy and goodness to them IN the Text it self there are two General Parts considerable First The Ground or Occasion of the Judgment that 's in the Particle Therefore which relates to that which went before in the 13th Verse the Judgment it self that 's exprest in these words The Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail c. We begin with the First of these Parts viz. The Ground or Occasion of the Judgment in the particle Therefore Therefore Wherefore Why namely because this People did not turn unto him that had smitten them neither did seek the Lord of hosts as is exprest in the Verse immediately preceeding Therefore will the Lord do thus and thus with them where the Cause which is here exprest may be conceived to proceed in the way of a threefold Gradation First Of their simple Impiety Secondly Of their Additional Impenitency Thirdly Of their continued Obstinacy There was their Simple Impiety in provoking of God by their sin and miscarriage at first There was their additional Impenitency in that they did not turn from their sin to him that smote them There was their continued Obstinacy in that they would not in all this so much as seek to the Lord of hosts First Here was their Simple Impiety and sinning of theirs against God at first as a Ground and occasion of Gods Judgment to be inflicted upon them This was that which was in the bottom of it Israel had sinned and therefore now Israel was to be punished in reference to their sin This is that which is pertinently to be observed in all proceedings of this nature sin it is the meritorious cause of all punishment and that which lays a ground for it Where ever there is sin there will be Punishment sooner or later And where once there is Punishment there has been sin greater or smaller and so the Scripture still intimates and declares unto us as 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are weak c. There is always a cause and a particular cause of Judgment and his proceeding to Punishment Sin and Punishment they are relatives and have a mutual dependance upon each other And that especially in regard of the Justice which is in God He cannot indure to behold sin and iniquity and therefore must needs punish it and be avenged upon it The wages of sin is Death and God is a true Paymaster who will not withhold their wages from such Persons to whom it is due nor yet on the other side will he give such wages to such Persons to whom it is not due Therefore we should justifie God in all his dealings with us to this purpose when his hand does at any time lye more than ordinarily heavy upon us it is good for us to search our hearts and ways in this particular and to consider how it is with us Gods quarrel is not against our Persons but against our Sins and therefore let us reflect upon them and lay the cause where it is to be laid indeed Why doth a living man complain or man for the Punishment of his Sin Let us search and try our hearts and turn unto the Lord our God as the Prophet Jeremy advises Lam. 3.31 We should for the most part suspect our sins as the causes of any Judgment which is upon us And accordingly look to find out that particular sin which may have more especial influence hereupon But Secondly As here was their Simple Impiety so also their Additional Impenitency as a further Cause of this Judgment Those that sin perhaps at first and so throughly provoke God's anger against themselves yet by Repentance and turning from their sins may happily divert it and appease it But those People here in the Text they did not so they turned not to him that smote them And this made their Judgment to be so much the furer to them than otherwise it would have been Where men repent of sinning God repents of punishing and of that Evil which he thought to bring upon them as we may see in the Ninevites But where they do not he does not neither That Punishment which is slow of it self Impenitence hastens it
carkass and as a body without soul This for spiritual death And then for Eternal which is damnation it self that 's clearly the end of all such courses It is so demeritoriously to all who thereby ate made lyable thereunto In the day that thou eatest c. thou shalt surely dye and it is so actually to all such as by repentance and faith in Christ are not freed from the execution of this sentence This is the plain and constant Doctrine of the Scripture that the wages of sin are wages of damnation both as to poena damni the loss of Gods gracious Presence and poena sensus the enduring everlasting torment c. This is that which the Apostle still is so careful to perswade and fasten upon those to whom he writes in divers places Phil. 3.19 Whose end is damnation whose glory is in their shame c. and 1 Cor. 11.29 Drinketh damnation And 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God Be not deceived c. and Gal. 5.21 speaking of the works of the flesh Of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God Therefore let us labour more to be perswaded of these things and have serlous apprehensions of them let us look upon sin in its colours and in the true shape and representation of it as that which has Death and Hell at the end of it that so we may the better be kept and preserved from it We should make use of this present Doctrine now in all suggestions and temptations to sin which we are at any time put upon Think not upon sin in the profit of it or in the pleasure of it which is but a meer fancy though it usually shews it self so but think of it in the end of it and in the concomitants of it and in the sad and pernicious effects which is death and damnation it self which though men perceive not presently yet at last they shall find to their cost if they take not better care to prevent it as the Apostle Peter speaks of them their judgment now of a long time lingers not and their damnation slumbers not Let us not look upon these things as words and notions and expressions as bug-bears to scare Children but as realities and unquestionable truths and let us labour to find the Power and Efficacy of them upon our own hearts It being better to hear of them than to feel them and to feel them now in the conscience by being affected and wrought upon by them than to feel them hereafter after another manner as all such shall which now make nothing of them let all which hath been said make us so much the more out of love with sin and if one argument alone will not do it let us take them all together as the Holy Ghost does here offer them to us Here 's a threesold Cord which theresore is not easily broken and if one or two should fail yet the other would make amends for the rest Those which have a mind to sin yet if it appears to be any prejudice to their profit that they get no good nor benefit by it it may be here they would be restrained Now for this consider says the Apostle that there 's no such sad fruit in it others there are which do not stand upon their prosit but their honour that goes near unto them and they are loth to forfeit their credit and reputation Now for this consider that these things bring shame whereof ye are now ashamed A third there are which are not moved yet They care neither for profit no honour so they may have their pleasure and safety and ease but their skin that a little affects them and their life goes to their heart and is very dear unto them all they have they would part with for this Now therefore consider here further that it is death and if there be any that stick not at this yet if they have any care but of their own souls consider further that it is damnation not only natural the death of the body but spriritual the death of the soul yea eternal the death of both and as wisdom speaks of her self Prov. 8.36 He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul all that hate me love death There 's but one thing more which I will here name and so end We may here from this Text further take notice not only of the wretchedness of sin considered in the streams and actions of it but also the wretchedness of nature and an unregenerate nondition as the fountain and spring which these issue from Here 's not only a Censure upon the performances What fruit had ye in those things c. But here is also a Censure upon the state What fruit had ye then Then when ye were unregenerate then ye were in your natural condition then when ye were at the present unconverted and as yet not brought home to God What fruit had ye then Whatever has been said of sin it may be applied in this An unregenerate condition is an unfruitful condition a shameful condition a dead and mortal condition All the time that any man spends and lives only in that he does but lose his time and run further upon the score with God for a back-reckoning hereafter We are all by nature the children of wrath Ephes 2.3 What 's the improvement which is to be made of this point and observation But first for all those which are yet but in the state of nature to labour to bear it and to come out of it as soon as may be and not to content themselves with it Let us not think too well of nature and our condition from that as many persons are ready to do both for themselves and others For our selves if we have no better Principles in us than we brought with us at first into the world we are but in a sad an miserable condition although perhaps we should abound in some kind of outward and moral actions which might have some lustre and splendor upon them as the Heathem had What fruit had ye in those We may say it not only of those actions which are plain sins in their nature but in a sense also of those which for the matter of them are duties themselves yet not done in a right manner and from a right principle What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed The sacrifice of the wicked says Solomon is an abomination to the Lord how much more when he brings it with a wicked mind Prov. 21.27 All the time that a man remains unregenerate he is unprofitable as to matter of duty as well as provoking as to matter of sin and let us take heed of being too well perswaded of the Heathem Philosophers rather make our own salvation than destruction This is a great