And to the same effect is that of St. James To him that knoweth to do good Ch. 4.17 and doeth it not to him it is sin that is sin to the purpose sin of no ordinary complexion 2. What is done against light hath not only an inconformity to the Rule but some degree of contempt thereof Wherefore in such cases God looks upon himself as despised Why hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord said he to David when he had knowingly and deliberately sinned 2 Sam. 12.9 3. It argues Corruption to have gotten head and to have grown up to a great measure of strength and maturity it argues such a person to be set upon sin and wholly bent to gratify himself therein whatsoever shall come of it When the light it self shall stand in a man's way and flash in his face and yet he will go on he acts as one so resolved to sin as nothing shall take him off This in the language of the Scipture is to sin presumptuously by which a man under the Law was judged to have reproached the Lord in regard whereof no less punishment was appointed than the utter cutting him off from among his people Numb 15.30 31. And thus far I have only insisted on the consideration of light more generally 'T is light that is refused and contemned and therefore neither the sin nor the punishment of the person so offending can be small 2. 'T is not any kind of light but Gospel light that is so ill treated and this hath yet much more in it than all that hath been hitherto mentioned 1. The light of the Gospel is a clearer light All other light is but darkness to this The Heathens had the light of Nature for their guide but yet they were still in darkness till the Gospel enlightened them for the very Errand of the Gospel to them was to open their eyes Acts 26.18 and to turn them from darkness to light The Jews under the dispensations of the Law had much more light and yet were heavenly things in great part so vail'd and wrapt up in Types and Shadows as their condition to that of Gospel-times seems to have been but as the morning spread upon the Mountains to the noon day-light 2. 'T is a light that presents to our view the most excellent and most desirable things Pardon of sin Acts 10.43 Peace with God Rom. 5.1 Eternal life John 3.36 A kingdom that cannot be shaken Heb. 12.28 An inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 1.4 Such things as neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor have entred into the heart of man to conceive 1 Cor. 2.9 3. These excellent things which the light of the Gospel sets before us are such as were by infinite Wisdom and unspeakable Love designed and contrived for us before the foundations of the World were laid The most wise and gracious God did in nothing more discover the unsearchable Treasures of his Wisdom and the Riches of his Grace than in the Contrivance of our Salvation in such a way as in which Mercy and Justice so admirably meet together and Righteousness and Peace kiss each other We cannot therefore refuse or slight these excellent things without a manifest disparagement of the Wisdom and Love of God as if neither the one nor the other were considerable herein and as if after all that God hath done the things so wifely designed and graciously proffer'd were not worth our acceptance 4. The Gospel presseth the entertainment of these excellent things with the most cogent and forcible Arguments 'T is not laid before us as a matter of indifferency whether we will embrace what 's tendered or refuse it We are told and assured that as the acceptance of the things proffered will render us unspeakably blessed and happy to eternity so the refusal of them will certainly make us everlastingly and unconceivably miserable He that believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 5. Besides the external tender of these things in the Gospel the Spirit of God usually more or less accompanies the outward Ministration of the Gospel inwardly working together with it treating with us and solliciting the matters of our peace by Enlightnings and Convictions by stirring up good Motions and Affections Purposes and Resolutions which makes our refusal of mercy after all this much more worthy of the severest punishment 6. Add to all this the consideration of the greatness of the Person who at first published the Gospel and made tender of those excellent things to the World himself while here on Earth and also still continues to do it by his Servants The Lord of Life and Glory the Eternal Son of God who is over all God blessed for ever came in person from Heaven out of the Bosome of his Father on this very Errand that he might make reconciliation for sin Dan. 9. â—4 and bring in everlasting righteousness And offer the fruits and benefit of all to Mankind making this general Proclamation Whosoever believeth shall be saved If but an Earthly Prince should send his only Son to the remotest Parts of his Dominions on purpose to make tender of some great thing to one of his meanest Subjects what an indignity and how intolerable an affront would it be if that his tender should be slighted But here the King Eternal sends his only Son from Heaven to offer us Everlasting Life and we entertain him no otherwise than as if he came in a needless Embassy for so much our most unworthy carriage towards him imports if we do not accept of his Tenders This the Scripture insists on as a circumstance that carries in it no small aggravation of the sin of our unbelief If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken to us by the Lord Heb. 2.2 3. Heb. 12.25 And again If they escaped not who refused him who spake from earth much more shall not we escape if we refuse him who speaketh from heaven Now put all these things together and I see not how you can chuse but conclude That as there is no sin like that which is committed against the light of the Gospel so there is no punishment like unto that which will be inflicted for this sin or That this is the condemnation That light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light And so I proceed to the application of what hath been spoken VSE 1. First then To speak to the more dissolute Professors of the Christian Religion From the Premises we may infer That 't is a most vain and empty Plea which many loose Christians think to help themselves with at the day of their account to God They have had their birth and education where the light of the Gospel shines and under the
stripes One stripe the more for every beam of light which was not improved to the ends for which it was afforded I speak not this to disparage knowledge which is an excellent gift of God and a principal part of his Image in man much less to dishearten any in their pursuit of it but to provoke them to a joint endeavour after grace and knowledge according to the Apostle's Exhortation 2 Pet. 3.18 It was said of Galba who had a fine Wit but a deformed Body Ingenium Galbae malè habitat Galba's good Wit hath but an ill habitation The same may I say of excellent Gifts in a corrupt mind 'T is a thousand pities that so noble a Guest should have no better Lodgings Get your Soul adorned with grace and then it will be fitter to entertain Gifts And to press this a little more upon you let me leave with you only these three Considerations 1. If Knowledge be excellent and desirable Grace is much more excellent and much more worthy to be the Object of our most raised desires After the Apostle had been discoursing of those extraordinary and miraculous Gifts which in the Primitive times God was pleased to pour out upon Believers he makes way to his following Discourse of love and grace by this commendatory Preface 1 Cor. 12.31 Yet shew I unto you a more excellent way You are digging and searching after Knowledge as after hid Treasure and why not then much more after Grace Luke 16.11 which is the most precious and invaluable Treasure the only true Riches Matth. 23.23 This ye ought to have done and not to have left the other undone as our Saviour speaks in another case Yea this ye ought much rather to have done in comparison whereof your pursuit of knowledge is but as the tything of mint and cummin compared with the most weighty matters of the law 2. The more Knowledge you have the more Grace you need A little Grace will not suffice you to manage a large stock of Knowledge Your Knowledge is one of your chiefest Talents for which you must be accountable and 't is impossible you should so imploy it as to be able to give a comfortable account thereof without a proportionable measure of Grace The higher any man is lifted up in parts and gifts the more is he exposed to the violent assaults of manifold Temptations Temptations to Pride Self-confidence overvaluing of himself contempt of others wicked abuse of his knowledge and parts to the service of Satan and the disservice of God and his Church And therefore no man hath more need of grace of a plentiful measure of grace than he that is most accomplisht with knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The more knowledge we have the greater is our danger saith Clem. Alex. in the 4th Book of his Stromates 3. Unless you have grace together with your knowledge the time will come when you shall wish that you had been as ignorant as you are graceless Quà m nescirem literas How could I wish that I had never learnt to write or read was the mild and compassionate Speech of an Emperor when he was desired to set his Hand for the Execution of a Malefactor What he said out of a tender and merciful regard to the Life of another man that shall the graceless and finally impenitent knowing man one day say out of the anguish and horror of his own Soul Vtinam nescissem literas Oh that I had never known my Letters and that my Parents had never set me to School Oh that I had been confined all my days to some poor Cottage or dark Corner where I might scarce have known my right Hand from my left that I had been the most silly ignorant contemptible Creature in the World a meer Idiot or natural Fool rather than by my sins against so much knowledge to have procured to my self this direful access to my Torments You may have heard of a poor Idiot who having never uttered one serious word before was heard to utter this short and pertinent Petition when he was going out of the World Lord require no more of me than thou hast given me The ungodly knowing man the profane Wit the learned Atheist will have his mouth stopt he will not be able to find so good a Plea for himself as that poor Idiot had He hath received much from the hand of God and much shall be required of him And so I go on to what followeth in the 20th Verse PART II. Verse 20. Every one that doth evil hateth the light THE words are a Proposition so clearly and plainly exprest that to endeavour to make it plainer were but to lose time Seeing therefore I cannot express it in clearer terms nor cast it into a better form I shall even take it as it lyes and so handle it Every one that doth evil hateth the light The Truth of which Proposition I know not how I can better demonstrate than by shewing what influence the light hath upon men in reference to sin and withal how men stand affected towards their sin 1. The light I mean principally the light of the Gospel of which our Saviour here speaks discovers sin There is a threefold light which discovers sin the light of Nature the light of the Law and the light of the Gospel 1. The very light of Nature doth in some measure discover sin The Gentiles who have not the law Rom. 2.14 15. do by nature the things contained in the law their consciences in the mean while accusing or excusing them according as their actions are more or less conformable to the dictates of the light of nature in them This light was full and perfect as it was at first set up in man by his Creator but is by the fall now become weak and imperfect so that in many things it leaves a man at a great loss That first light represented things to man exactly according to their nature so as by the help of it he could clearly and perfectly discern between good and evil but now that Primitive light being in great part extinguished the weak remainders of it represent good and evil in a dark and obscure manner so as by this light alone a man sees many times little better than he who saw Men as Trees Mar. 8.24 yea worse a great deal taking good for evil and evil for good light for darkness Isa 5.20 and darkness for light as the Prophet speaks 2. The light of the Law of God written goes further in the discovery of sin in which respect the Apostle ascribes the knowledge of sin to the Law Rom. 3.20 The Law exceeds the light of Nature as to the discovery of sin in a double respect 1. The Law discovers more sins than the meer light of Nature could I had not known sin saith the Apostle Rom. 7.7 unless the law had said Thou shalt not covet He had not known the sinfulness of the inward
no means untried for keeping them from that place of torment VSE 6. Let no Children think it any part of their misery or unhappiness that by God's Providence they are under the government and discipline of those Parents who keep them in and restrain them who endeavour to nip the first buddings and blossomings of sin in them who will not suffer them to run with others to that excess of riot which their corrupt Natures would be gratified with in a word who use the best means they can for preventing of those evil Customs and Habits of sin which would be the misery of both Parents and Children Let them think themselves well at ease under the Discipline of such Parents and willingly submit their Necks to that Yoke which is laid upon them for their good If they understand themselves and their highest concernment they will think themselves happier a thousand times happier under that restraint than if they had all that sinful liberty which man 's corrupt Nature reacheth out after and eagerly pursueth VSE 7. Hence moreover we may learn how great a benefit 't is to live under Magistracy where good Laws are duly executed and Sin is severely punished This through God's blessing is a means of the timely stopping of that course of sin in many which without this help would end in obstinacy and incorrigibleness The wholsome severity of good Laws put in execution prevents the growth of sin and the ripening of it into those habits which making the Sinner's condition incurable ripens him for his ruin 'T is no privilege but a great misery to live in a place where evey man may do what is good in his own eyes and where there is no Magistrate to put any man to shame This was the condition of Laish before its destruction Judges 18.7 VSE 8. This shews how much thankfulness is due unto God from those unto whom God hath been pleased to give converting grace after a long course of sin by which they were so wofully hardened as nothing would work upon them When God converts old and obdurate Sinners when he cures these Spiritual Diseases that seemed now to be past all cure how doth he hereby magnify the power of his Grace and how doth he exalt the riches of his Mercy When God converts a young Sinner he quickeneth the dead but when he converts old Sinners he quickeneth those who are as it were twice dead V. 12. as St. Jude speaks dead by nature and dead by long custom in sin which had made them twofold more the Children of Hell than they were by nature If converting Grace wherever God is mercifully pleased to vouchsafe it calls for thankfulness surely when 't is vouchsafed to old sinners it calls for double thankfulness And so I have done with the Uses of this Point It remains that I answer one Objection and so conclude Obj. If custom in sin make it so extreamly difficult to leave sin if to endeavour to reclaim such a one be as it were to attempt to wash a Blackmore white this may seem to be a great discouragement to any man's endeavours for reforming old Sinners Ans 'T is certainly a great discouragement and one of the greatest that is but yet should it not take a man off from seeking the Conversion even of such For 1. 'T is a Duty and so the difficulty and doubtfulness of success doth not discharge a man from it 2. Though it be extreamly difficult yet 't is not impossible Old Sinners have sometimes obtained mercy and God hath no where declared his purpose of denying converting Grace to such absolutely and universally 3. The more inveterate the habits of sin by long custom contracted are grown the sadder is the Condition of such and the louder doth it call upon us to lend them our best help for rescuing them out of the Snare of the Devil 4. Whatsoever the issue of our Endeavour may be God will be thereby glorified 2 Cor. 2.15 and we shall be unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish 5. Though our Endeavours should prove succesless yet shall they be nevertheless accepted of God and rewarded Isa 49.4 I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought and in vain yet surely my judgment is with the Lord and my work is with my God The Third Sermon EPHES. V. 15 16. See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil THESE Words though containing in themselves an intire sense have some coherence with what went before as the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then as we render it or therefore implies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See then that ye walk circumspectly Which Particle seems to look back upon what the Apostle had said v. 8. touching their translation from darkness to light from the darkness of Gentilism to the light of the Gospel Ye were sometimes darkness saith he but now are ye light in the Lord. Whence he presently infers in the same verse walk as children of the light And again v. 11. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them Seeing they were enlightned he exhorts them to a conversation suitable to their present state And this yet once more he presseth them unto in the words of my Text See then that ye walk circumspectly that is Being now no longer in darkness but in the light Take heed that you indulge not your selves in those sins and in that sinful liberty which formerly you did when as yet the light of the Gospel had not been afforded you Then you led your lives as you pleased following the dictates of your dark Understandings and the corrupt inclinations of your sinful Natures but now better things are expected from you This seems to be the connexion of the words with the Apostle's former discourse but I shall not take any notice of what might be observed from the coherence but keep my self to the words absolutely considered without any reflection upon the dependance of them In the words we have 1. A great and weighty Duty strictly enjoined See that ye walk circumspectly 2. An Argument by which the Duty is enforced an Argument at least implied in those words not as fools but as wise As if he had said See that ye walk circumspectly because 't is our wisdom so to walk and our folly if we do not 3. We have one special instance of our circumspect walking or in which our circumspection should be shewed redeeming the time And 4. An Argument or Reason to enforce that also because the days are evil Of all these in order The first thing to be spoken to is The Duty enjoined See that ye walk circumspectly So then the point to be treated of is That 't is our duty to walk circumspectly In discoursing of this point I shall 1. Shew what 't is to walk circumspectly 2. I
in time of Affliction 3. In time of Affliction we have some special Advantage towards the searching after and finding out of our Sins which at other times we are destitute of 1st Afflictions abate the Vanity and Lightness of our Spirits and make us serious and so more fit to reflect on our selves and consider our Ways At other times our Minds will not be so easily fix'd and our Thoughts held in and kept close to a Work which is not very pleasing to us and which we are apt to recoil from 2dly Affliction makes our Hearts soft as Job speaks it makes Impressions of God's Displeasure upon our Hearts and makes us sensible of his Anger When God several ways lays his Hand upon you then you say with them Deut. 31.17 Are not these things come upon us because God is not amongst us Because he in Displeasure hath withdrawn from us 3dly Affliction makes us teachable and willing to be informed of what is amiss it makes us desirous to understand what 't is for which God hath a Controversy with us God speaks to Men in their Prosperity and they will not hear as he complained Jer. 22.21 But Affliction as God sanctifies it to them makes them willing to hear and learn wherein they have offended Then they beg of God that he would teach them as Job did in his Affliction saying Make me to know my Transgression and my Sin chap. 13.23 Then God shews them their Work and their Transgressions that they have exceeded and openeth their Ear to Discipline ch 36.9 10. 4thly God in his Wisdom oft-times makes choice of such Afflictions to correct Men with by which he as it were points at their Sin When Absolom and Adonijah both of them their Father's Darlings rose up against their Father it was no hard Matter for David to discern what Sin of his God thereby intended to correct He too fondly treated both the one and the other and used much more Lenity and Indulgence towards them than was meet and by God's wise and just Permission they requite him accordingly This his Miscarriage David could not so well see before for inordinate Affection and fond Love are blind but now no doubt he saw and was made sensible of his Error in the Education of his Children That God's Judgments and Chastisements are often such as the Sin which he punisheth or correcteth for may be known by them is most agreeable both unto Scriptures and Experience How frequently may we observe that such Children as have been stubborn and undutiful to their Parents have afterwards been punished themselves with undutiful and rebellious Children that false and unfaithful Servants have met with such themselves when afterwards they have had Families of their own that unthankful Persons have met with as ill Requitals from those who have received Kindnesses from them that false and treacherous Friends have been betrayed by those on whose Friendship and Faithfulness they most depended It seems good to the Wisdom of God so to order and dispose of the Circumstances of his Judgments or Chastisements that either the Time or the Place or the Instrument or the Manner or the Matter and Object of them have often some Correspondence with and Relation to the Sin which he chiefly aims at 1. God sometimes points out Mens Sin by the time he takes to punish them A Man hath it may be often offended in the same kind and God hath for the most part still discovered his Displeasure more or less by somewhat that the Sinner hath met with or hath befallen him either at or presently upon the renewed commission of that Sin At length he offends in the same kind more notoriously and immediately thereupon some more severe Stroke lights upon him from the Hand of God than ever at any time before When thus it is what other Construction can a Man make of God's dealing with him but that he is chastned for such a Sin And as for Chastisements so for the Judgments of God they often light on Men either in the Act or presently upon the commission of their Sins When Nebuchadnezzar was saying in the Pride of his Heart Dan. 4.30 31 32 33. Is not this great Babylon which I have built for the House of my Kingdom and by the Might of my Power and for the Honour of my Majesty While the Word was yet in the King's Mouth there fell a Voice from Heaven saying O King Nebuchadnezzar to thee it is spoken The Kingdom is departed from thee They shall drive thee from Men and thy Dwelling shall be with the Beasts of the Field and they shall make thee eat Grass as Oxen. And the same Hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar So afterwards when Belshazzar was profanely carouzing and drinking Wine in the Golden Vessels of the Temple and praising his Gods of Gold and Silver Dan. 5.3 4 5 30. of Brass and of Iron and of Wood and of Stone In the same Hour came forth Fingers of a Man's Hand and wrote upon the Plaister of the Wall that Judgment which God had decreed should light upon the King and which accordingly that same Night was put in Execution And thus Herod as soon as he had finished his Oration and received the Applauses of the People crying out It is the Voice of a God Acts 12.21 22 23. and not of a Man Immediately the Angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the Glory and he was eaten of Worms and gave up the Ghost 2. Sometimes the Judgments or Chastisements of God light upon Men in the very Place where they formerly had offended So God threatned to requite Ahab in that Plat 2 Kings 9.26 in that very Plat of Ground where he had sinned So whereas the Israelites had highly provoked God to Anger by building high Places in Tophet for their Idolatrous Worship and by burning their Sons and their Daughters in the Fire there God threatned there to punish them for their Idolatry and Cruelty Thus saith the Lord Jer. 7.31 32 33. The Days come that it shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom but the Valley of Slaughter for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no Place and the Carcases of the People shall be Meat for the Fowls of the Heaven and for the Beasts of the Earth and none shall fray them away 3. The Instruments by which God punisheth Men are sometimes the same which were the Instruments of their Sin Judg. 7. Thus the Sichemites whom Abimelech made use of as his Instruments and Assistants in slaying his Brethren were afterwards through God's righteous Judgment a Means of the Destruction of Abimelech himself 4. God often punisheth Men in such a manner as bears some Resemblance with their Sin The Scripture is full of Instances hereof If Jacob deceive his aged Father and make him believe he is his eldest Son Esau and so steal away the Blessing from his Brother
But this by the way In the Words that I have read which are a part of Ezra's Address unto God by humble and affectionate Confession of their Sin he spreads and lays open the Aggravations of it together with the Danger and sad Issues of it if they should still continue in it The Aggravations thereof are these three 1. The great Severity that God had formerly shewed against them for their Sins which is set forth and express'd in the first Words After all that is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Trespass 2. The merciful Tenderness and Compassion that God however even in that Severity was pleased to manifest towards them in the next Words Seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our Iniquities deserve 3. The singular Favour God had shewed them in rescuing them from under those Calamities which their Sins had brought upon them in the Clause following And hast given us such a Deliverance as this These were the things by which their Sin would be greatly heightned after so much Severity Compassion and Kindness to have returned to Folly and to have broken God's Commandments again was to have done as bad as they could as the Prophet speaks and to have given their Sins all the Aggravations that they were capable of Then as for the Danger they exposed themselves to that was no less than utter Ruine and Destruction After this Mixture of severe and merciful Providences should we again break thy Commandments wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no Remnant nor Escaping They had indeed already broken God's Commandment in a grievous manner and sinned against him with an high Hand by those unlawful Marriages His meaning therefore is should we again break thy Commandment as we have done Should we still continue in our Sin and obstinately refuse to be reduced to Obedience If we should still perversly and irreclaimably go on in our Trespasses wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us Of these Particulars in order as they lie in the Text. I begin with the Aggravations of their Sin the first of which is the great Severity God had formerly shewed against them for their past Transgressions After all that is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Trespass should we again break thy Commandments Here divers things are observable 1. That Ezra and all those who joined with him in this Confession of their Sins did endeavour to aggravate their Sins by calling in and laying together all those Circumstances by which the Hainousness of them might the better appear And this they did to the end their Hearts might be the more affected with them and the more soundly humbled for them as also that they might be the more willing to forsake them And this is the Property of all true Penitents they ever desire to be throughly apprehensive of the Evil of their Sins and therefore they aggravate them to the utmost in their Confessions charging themselves fully with them and laying as much Load upon themselves as they can They think they can never speak enough against themselves nor sufficiently discover and represent the Evil of their Ways insomuch that sometimes they rather exceed than come short herein charging themselves more heavily than there was cause for But Hypocrites unhumbled and impenitent Sinners are of a different temper these instead of aggravating their Sins are wont to extenuate and palliate them If they be forced to confess them 't is for the most part but by halves that they do it If they cannot but acknowledg they have offended yet they will do it with an Apology or with an Addition of something that may qualify and lessen their Sin They are indeed sometimes overtaken but 't is very rarely 't is when they are drawn aside by ill Company or overpower'd by the Strength of Temptation that they are not the only Persons that are faulty in that kind that some others that would be esteemed much better than themselves are much more blame-worthy that there is no Man but must have his Allowances and that it would go hard with us all if all our Actions should be narrowly scanned and the like These and such like are the Excuses which they plead and the Defences they make for themselves when they should take shame to themselves and own their Excesses and Exorbitances in their full Magnitude judging themselves that they might not be judged of the Lord. These partial and favourable lame and imperfect Confessions of Sin when some little Part is owned but much more is denied when Fig-leaves and specious Pretences are studiously sought out to cover as much of a Man's Shame as is possible are ever an infallible Argument that the Sinner was never duly humbled for that Sin for which he hath still so much Kindness and Affection 2. Another thing observable is that Ezra and those other holy Men that together with him made this Confession did impute all those Miseries and Calamities which they had suffered in the Captivity unto their Sins they did own their Sufferings as the Fruit of their Sins and acknowledg their Transgressions to have been the meritorious Cause and Procurers of their Afflictions After all say they that is come upon us for our evil Deeds and for our great Trespass They were convinced and did yield and assent that God's Intentions in bringing those Evils upon them were to punish them for their Sins This Conviction and Acknowledgment was necessary for them and is for us all in reference to our Afflictions and yet 't is very difficult to attain it 'T is necessary because without it we can neither be patient under our Afflictions nor profit by them nor rationally expect a good Issue out of them 1st Unless we be convinced that our Sufferings have relation to our Sins and own them as the Fruits of our Sins we shall hardly be able to undergo with Patience what is inflicted on us To be sure we shall want one of the most effectual Arguments to work Patience in us 'T is the Sense of our Sins deserving whatsoever is come upon us and an Acknowledgment of the righteous Hand of God in bringing such Afflictions on us for our Sins that humbles and subdues our Hearts to God composeth and quieteth our tumultuous Spirits and gives check to all the Risings of our rebellious Nature against God's Providence It was the Sense that Eli had of his own Guilt and of the just Desert of his own Sin and the Sins of his Family that made him so patient quiet and silent when that heavy Sentence was by Samuel pronounced against him and his as that he had not a Word to say more than only to profess his humble and meek Submission to the good Pleasure of God It is the Lord saith he 1 Sam. 3.18 let him do what seemeth him good And this is that which the Spirit
must not expect that patience and forbearance at his hands which he was pleased to exercise towards those who lived in darker Ages and times of Ignorance Barren Trees might long stand before Mat 3.10 but now the Ax is laid to the root of the tree and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewen down and cast into the fire The main Errand and Design of the Gospel is that men be turned from darkness to light Acts 26.18 and from the power of Satan unto God To this purpose is that of the Apostle Rom. 13.12 13 14. The night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof And again Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present sent world 2 Tim. 2 19. And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity But this is that which the corrupt Heart of man can least of all endure Men are unwilling to see their sins but much more unwilling to forsake them Whence else are those excuses which many frame when they are invited to come unto Christ One is ingaged in this business and it must be dispatched he must be dispensed with till it be over Another is ingaged in that Affair Luke 14.18 19 20. and he is not at leisure Whence else are those downright and peremptory Refusals Joh. 5.40 Ye will not come to me that ye might have life Yea you would not be gained and prevailed with to come by the largest Proffers by the most rich and excellent Promises The greatest Love and Tenderness the most Compassionate Solicitations and Importunities are not able to overcome them into a willingness what to do To be undone No to be made for ever to be gathered under the Wings of Christ's most tender Care and Love that they might be everlastingly Happy in the Fruition of him That sin is the cause of this peremptory refusal cannot be denied for nothing but sin could so bewitch and transport them that they should with so much obstinacy stand in their own light wilfully thrust away from themselves Everlasting Life and forsake their own Mercies 'T is agreed on that all men naturally desire happiness 't is Nature's Language Who will shew us any good Psal 4.6 Could men therefore reject Eternal Happiness and Glory upon any other Consideration than that the Terms on which 't is offered seem to be too hard They must part with their sins if they will be happy and O how hard a saying is this to Flesh and Blood The Friendship which is between the heart of man and sin being so strict and entire can that light of the Gospel be welcome to him whose Errand from Heaven is to make an everlasting separation between him and his sins Most clear it is that wicked men while such cannot abide the light and that however they may endeavour to cover over their Enmity against it with other pretensions yet the true reason why they hate it is the wickedness of their hearts and lives they therefore hate it because their deeds are evil as our Saviour gives us an account of the ground of their hatred thereof But it may here be objected That the Holy Scriptures elsewhere seem to give other reasons of mens not entertaining the light of the Gospel Sometimes they seem to impute it to the sublimity and to the mysterious Nature of the great Truths contained in the Gospel 1 Cor. 2.14 The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Sometimes the Scriptures impute it to the subtilty and malice of Satan darkening the minds of men 2 Cor. 4.3 4. If our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them And lastly otherwhile the Scriptures speak of God's concealing the Mysteries of the Gospel from some men so our Saviour speaking to his Father saith Mat. 11.25 Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent There being also these other reasons of mens not embracing the light of the Gospel how is it that our Saviour seems to lay the whole stress of this matter upon this that mens deeds are evil To this I answer 1. That it is not necessary that we should so understand our Saviour as if he intended to make man's sin the sole or only cause why he hates the light but one principal cause And that 't is a principal cause thereof hath already appeared from what hath been spoken and will yet more fully appear by what shall be further spoken in answer to the Objections Wherefore 2. Though there may be some other causes of mens hating the light and preferring darkness before it yet they may for the most part be some way or other resolved into this which our Saviour here mentioneth Other things may concur sometimes but there is scarce any thing that hath so general and almost so perpetual an influence upon mens hating declining running away from opposing and rejecting the light as mans sin That mostly all other causes may be resolved into this I shall endeavour to shew in answer to the forementioned Objections As to the first of them 't is most true that in Spiritual things there is a great disproportion between the Intellective Faculty as now 't is since the Fall and the Object The Mysteries of the Gospel are high and sublime our understanding is dark weak and shallow But 1. Whence came this disproportion Was it not very much from the sin of man at first who put out his own Eyes wounded his Intellectuals and weakened his natural Powers It cannot be denied but that Adam in the state of Innocency and Integrity though he could not have found out those deep Mysteries of the Gospel concerning our Redemption by Christ and the things relating thereunto they being things that have no natural cause from whence the highest created reason might deduce or collect them and many of them being things above Nature and such as depend meerly upon the good pleasure of God unknown to us until by himself revealed I say though Adam could not by the strength of his Reason and Natural Abilities have found out these deep things yet it cannot be denied but that if these things had been propounded to Adam to be assented to and believed
light that it shine not in upon us to our conviction humiliation and conversion but he makes him shuttings to do it of our own darkness prejudices false Principles and corrupt Affections I now proceed to the third Objection taken from Matth. 11.25 where God himself is said to hide the Mysteries of his Gospel from the wise and prudent Before I say any thing to this Objection I must premise That God in this matter as in other things hath a Prerogative which he makes use of and according to which he acts where and when he sees good He being the Supream Lord of Heaven and Earth as our Saviour styles him in the place whence this Objection is taken may dispose of the knowledge of the Mysteries of his Kingdom as he pleaseth freely vouchsafing it to some and withholding it from others For what can restrain him but that he may do with his own as he pleaseth Matth. 20.15 as in the person of the Householder he argues This good pleasure of God is it into which our Saviour expresly resolveth his hiding the Mysteries of the Gospel from the wise and prudent Matth. 11.26 Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes even so father for so it seemed good in thy sight So then reserving unto God his Prerogative I answer That yet however God's hiding the Mysteries of the Gospel from men may very much and in many cases though not universally be resolved into the sins of men For whereas there are chiefly three ways by which God may be said to hide the Mysteries of the Gospel from men namely by denying to them or removing from them the means of knowledge or by with-holding the effectual influences and operation of his Spirit to accompany the means or by permitting Satan to blind them upon consideration of the matter we shall find That the sins of men have frequently very much to do therein and contribute much towards it though even here the good pleasure of God must also be acknowlegded who permits it so to be and doth not powerfully interpose to hinder it as he might do if he saw good 1. If God deny the Gospel to men 't is often through their thrusting it away and keeping it off from themselves when 't is approaching towards them How often do men oppose themselves against it How often do men decline the light and chuse to live in places of darkness where there are no means or as good as no means of knowledge So if God remove the Gospel from a People is it not most commonly not only for their own sin but by their sin that 't is removed God for their unfruitfulness and unthankfulness for their manifold sins against the Gospel most righteously gives them up to be active and instrumental themselves in putting out the light and sending the Gospel far away from themselves 2. If God continuing the Gospel and the means of grace to a People with-hold the powerful influences and co-operation of his Spirit what is this in effect but a leaving them to themselves suffering their lusts prejudices love of sin and hatred of holiness so far to prevail in them as to shut and bar up the Soul and forcibly to keep out the light or so far to weaken the influences and impressions of it as nothing to purpose is done upon them 3. If God hide the Mysteries of his Kingdom from them by giving them up to Satan to be blinded and deluded by him the thing is still upon the matter one and the same for as hath been at large shewed Satan effects his purpose much by their own sin and makes use of their Corruptions as the Weapons of his warfare against the Soul to keep it under the power of darkness Now to apply what hath been spoken VSE 1. This gives us a true account of the reason of several Practises of the Church of Rome As 1st Of their vilifying and disparaging the Holy Scriptures as defective and imperfect as obscure and uncertain and no better than a Nose of wax that may be turned any way at pleasure that may be moulded and shaped to every man's fancy as one of that Party wickedly and and profanely reproacheth it In short Their making the word written insufficient to inform us touching the matters of our belief and practise and to lead us in the way to Heaven without the help and supplement of Human Traditions 2. Of their refusing to bring their Doctrines Worship and Practises to the Test and Touchstone of the Holy Scriptures alone and of their setting up another pretended Infallible Judge of Controversies not admitting the Scriptures to be the common Umpire and Determiner of them 3. Of their shutting up the Book of the Holy Scriptures and forbidding it to be read by the People so taking away from them the key of Knowledge What 's the reason of these their ungodly and abominable Practises but this He that doth evil hateth the light and cometh not to it lest his deeds should be reproved Their Principles are unsound and rotten wicked and abominable their Doctrine false their Worship Idolatrous their Usages vain and superstitious and therefore they hate the light of the Scriptures that discovers their Errors Cheats and Juglings therefore they decline the light and run away from it they defame and reproach it they shut it up and imprison it they do what they can to extinguish it and keep men in darkness wheresoever they have power to do it But blessed be God that we are not yet brought into bondage by them they have not yet prevailed to deprive us of the light of the Gospel we have free access to the Holy Scriptures the Bible lies open before us in our Mother-tongue O! may we never by our unthankfulness our not improving the mercies we enjoy and our other sins so far provoke God as that he should suffer the Land of our Nativity to be again overspread with that worse than Egyptian darkness VSE 2. This discovers the true reason why many that frequent Publick Ordinances love and affect such Preaching only as comes not too near the Conscience meddles not with their spiritual estate toucheth not their own particular darling and beloved sins A smooth and general Discourse that descends not to the concernments of their own Souls or it may be a serious and smart Sermon that reproves the sins of the Age or the sins of some particular Persons known to them those sins which they thomselves are not guilty of all this they can hear with much patience and perhaps with some delight Mar. 6.20 as Herod is said to have heard John Baptist gladly But if any man shall lay open and set before them the great evil of their own sins the unsoundness of their spiritual Estate while they continue in them the extream danger of their present condition the absolute and indispensable necessity of Regeneration of sincere and universal Repentance of sound Conversion
of the World The Second Sermon JER XIII 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil IN these words we have a short but very satisfactory account of the Ground of God's severe proceedings against the Jews for their sins God had long born with them he had used all sorts of means to reclaim them He had sometimes been drawing them by the Cords of a Man with Bands of Love he had been trying to win them by kindness Hos 11.4 he was to them as they that take off the yoke on their Jaws and he laid meat unto them He had treated them with that gentleness and kindness which is wont to work upon Irrational Creatures and make the very brute Beasts tame gentle and tractable Isa 1.3 For even the Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his masters crib Otherwhile he had been trying whether severity might take any better effect upon them he had been correcting them first more favourably and with much lenity afterwards more sharply and severely and together with other means he had been still warning admonishing exhorting reproving threatning them by his Prophets and setting before them the Comforts and Rewards of Repentance and Obedience and the sad consequents and issues of their disobedience in case they should still go on in their Sin and Impenitency But none of these things would work upon them through long custom and continuance in sin they were now become incorrigible 't was in vain to expect that they should be reformed All means and endeavours were but lost upon them Wherefore seeing their Disease appeared to be incurable God was resolved to be rid of them and to ease himself of them once for all They should dwell in his Land no longer away they must into Captivity and such a Captivity as should not only remove them far from the Land of their Nativity but scatter them up and down and disperse them from one another So we have their Sin and Punishment set forth in the words of the Text and the following Verse Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness Before I come to the words we may by the way observe That 't is a most woful condition to be still incorrigible under all means applyed to humble and reform us The misery of such a people lyes in these two things 1. That God is wont to give up such a people to themselves to walk in the way of their own Hearts He saith of them as of the Jews Isa 1.5 Why should ye be stricken any more Ye will revolt more and more and as of Ephraim Hos 4.17 Ephraim is joined to Idols let him alone he is so nearly joined and intirely united to them in his Affections that nothing will withdraw him from them therefore let him alone let him take his course and see what will come of it in the end And though this may seem to be no great evil but rather an advantage and a very desirable liberty in the Judgment of the Sinner who cannot endure to be curbed or restrained yet 't is a very heavy Judgment and so much worse than any Affliction whatsoever as the evil of sin is worse than the evil of punishment And so God speaks of this his Dispensation in words full of high Indignation and Displeasure Psal 81.11 12. My people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me so I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels As if he had said I met with them and was avenged of them for their wretched contempt of me I let them go on and suffered them to be as vicious and profligate as filthy and abominable as they had a mind to be 2. Another thing in which lyes the Misery of an incorrigible people is that they are now ripe for Ruin or for some terrible Judgment Because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged said God to Jerusalem that is Because I used all fit means to purge and reform thee and yet still thou wallowest in thy filthiness and lewdness thou art incorrigible Ezek. 24.13 Prov. 29.1 therefore thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee Prov. 29.1 He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy An incorrigible Person whom no reproofs will work upon is next door to destruction to unavoidable destruction if still he go on he shall suddenly be destroyed without remedy nothing shall plead for him or interpose in his behalf to rescue him from destruction In the 2 Chron. 36.14 15 16 17. God by the Penman of that Book sets forth the great sins of Judah and Jerusalem the means he was pleased to make use of to reduce them to obedience their incorrigibleness under those means and lastly the terrible Judgments which thereupon he brought upon them All the chief of the Priests and the People transgressed very much after the Abominations of the Heathen and polluted the House of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers rising up betimes and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling-place but they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets until the wrath of God arose against his people till there was no remedy and what was at length the issue of this their incorrigibleness and stubbornness That follows in the next words therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion upon young man or maiden old man or him that stooped for age And as the incorrigibleness of this stubborn and stiff-necked people brought the Chaldees upon them so afterwards the like incorrigibleness brought the Romans upon their Posterity to their utter ruin and final desolation for 't is their incorrigibleness that our Saviour makes the fore-runner and cause of their destruction by the Romans Matth. 23.37 38. O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together within thee even as an hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not therefore your house is left unto you desolate Take notice of this and lay it to heart all you that have been often reproved for your sins and yet you still harden your Necks unto whom many seasonable Admonitions and wholesome Counsels and Advices have been tender'd but you have stopt your Ears against them who have often smarted for your sins and yet you love
them still and delight in them as much as ever you did you that have been often in the Furnace of Affliction and yet your Dross is not separated from you I say take notice of the woful condition of incorrigible Sinners and consider what awaits you and will certainly be your portion unless by Repentance you speedily prevent it You unteachable and incorrigible Children whom no Admonitions or Chastisements will reduce to that Dutifulness humble Submission and Obedience which you owe to your Parents tremble at the thoughts of what may be coming upon you for your sin You who tread in the steps of Hophni and Phineas both in respect of your other sins and in respect of your obstinate carriage when you are reproved for them can you without horrour read or hear what the Spirit of God saith concerning them 1 Sam. 2.25 They hearkned not to the voice of their father because the Lord would slay them You whose lewd and ungodly Conversation hath been often reproved and condemned in the Ministry of the Word and yet you are still insensible of your danger and proceed still in your old ways and walk in the imagination of your heart to add drunkenness to thirst consider what befel such as you are Zech. 7.11 12. They refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear Yea they made their heart as an adamant stone lest they should hear the law and the word which the Lord sent by his Prophets therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of Hosts Therefore it is come to pass that as he cried and they would not hear so they cried and I would not hear saith the Lord of Hosts You whom no Counsels or Perswasions can prevail with to leave your lewd and graceless Companions You that notwithstanding all that can be said or done to keep you in and withhold you from your wicked Associates say still with that lewd and ungovernable generation There is no hope Jer. 2.25 No I have loved strangers and after them will I go Consider with fear and trembling what the Prophet said to Amaziah who stopt his Ears against good advice 2 Chron. 25.16 By this I know that God hath determined to destroy thee because thou hast not hearkened to my counsel I do not say God hath determined to destroy you also I take not upon me to be so well acquainted with God's secret purposes but this I say you are at present in the high-way to destruction and you have great cause to fear lest God destroy you as he hath done by other such incorrigible persons as you are If you still continue to be like others who have been destroyed for the same sins what reason have you to expect more favour than they had God is not changed he is still the same his hatred of sin his justice and severity against Sin is still as great as ever it was And so much concerning that Observation I come now to that which I chiefly intended Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots That is they cannot no Art or Labour can effect it Wash and rub the Skin of the Ethiopian while you will it will retain its natural hew you may sooner rub away the Skin than alter the colour of it and so for those spots with which Nature hath mark'd the Leopard you may by much tampering destroy the subject of them but the subject remaining you can never get out the spots And little less difficulty there is in removing those habitual Inclinations to sin which long custom hath produced The case is much alike to wash a Blackamoor white and to get him to do good that is accustomed to do evil So then 't is a Proverbial comparison by which is signified the extream difficulty of delivering a Man from those vicious impressions which custom in sin hath made upon him And that 's the thing which I purpose to treat of Custom in sin makes it very difficult to leave sin There needs little other proof hereof than our own Experience Though some vicious Persons who are taken in hand and dealt with betimes may be more easily drawn off from their sinful courses yet how rare a thing is it to see any man recovered who hath long been exercised in a trade of sin Shall you easily prevail with the intemperate or lustful or ambitious or covetous person to leave those paths of sin which have been long trodden by them So great is the force of custom in sin that men will by no Arguments be perswaded to forsake those long-continued sinful practices which are continually attended with so many visible and great inconveniences as one would think were sufficient to make any man weary of such courses Take for an instance but a wandring Beggar that necessarily undergoes many hardships and runs many hazards in that irregular and wicked course of life which he hath been wonted to and you shall in vain tempt him to leave it by the best provisions and accommodations which you can proffer him in any setled way of honest Imployment Or take a nearer instance in the same kind When almost do you ever see one of our poor people whose hands refuse to labour and who make a trade of begging from Door to Door I say when almost do you see any such Person reclaimed and brought to endeavour to get his Living in any honest and laborious Calling I deny not but 't is possible there maybe instances of some such that have been reduced to an orderly course of life but I believe such instances are very rare especially of those who have from their Childhood been addicted to that disorderly course as too many are the only Breeding and Education which their Parents give them being to teach them how to eat the Bread of idleness and live upon the Charity of others if that may be called Charity which is bestowed upon such people The grounds of this point are these 1. Custom begets a strong fixed and habitual Inclination to sin Hence a Man is ever in a readiness to yield to and comply with any Temptation to that sin unto which he hath been accustomed No sooner is occasion offered but it meets with a preparation of heart to embrace it Instead of preparing to resist Temptations when they begin to approach and offer themselves he that hath been accustomed to sin will meet them half way invite them to come on and bid them welcome instead of declining Temptations he will seek after them and studiously make provision for his Lusts For custom is now become another Nature to him and he seems to enjoy himself no longer than he is complying with it To be divorc'd and separated from such sins is a most grievous thing 't is as the pulling out of a right Eye or the cutting off of a right Hand 2. Custom in sin brings on delight in sin the actions that are natural are mostly
accompanied with some pleasure And so are sinful actions when custom hath made them familiar to us and given them as it were the stamp of Nature 'T is strange that a Man should be sensible of any pleasure or delight at all in some sins and yet through custom there is that content and complacency in them that it is as death to forsake them To sit in an obscure Ale-house and to be continually pouring in that which to a sober Man would be little better than a Potion to spend days and nights in a dark hole amidst the stink of Vomits and Spewings round about to the blasting of a Man's Reputation the impairing of his Health the mis-spending of his time and the wasting away of that which it may be Wife and Children want at home who would think there should be any content in such a Life And yet there are who by custom have made it so pleasurable to them that they prefer it before all the contents and satisfactions that a fair House a Table richly spread and the Society of their nearest Relations can afford them and whatever other advantages and accommodations might render their converse at home comfortable and delightsom If custom hath once made such base and dirty ways of sin pleasant you shall in vain tempt them out of them or indeavour to draw them off from them by the fairest and most taking proffers that you can make them 3. Custom in sin blinds the mind and corrupts the judgment so that a man ceaseth to be a competent judge of the nature of things and of the differences between good and evil By degrees he is besotted and comes to be in great measure deprived of the reason of a man so far hath sin darkened his understanding and weakened his Intellectuals for judging of Spiritual things He is given up to a reprobate mind Rom. 1.28 as the Apostle speaks he puts good for evil and evil for good light for darkness and darkness for light And when the light of reason is darkened and the Eye of the Soul is put out when the leading and governing Faculty of the Soul is thus depraved it must needs be a difficult thing to draw a man off from those ways the evil whereof he cannot discern nor will be apprehensive of 4. Custom in sin seareth the Conscience and draws such a callus or brawniness over it as it becomes insensible At first there is some tenderness of Conscience some reluctancy and shrinking back from those sins which after a frequent repetition and customary practice of them a man makes no bones of but smoothly swallows down He that at first durst not tell a Lie or if he were at any time overtaken was wont to be much troubled afterwards yet upon a customary practice of that sin will add Lies to Lies and stand to them most impudently and obstinately He that seemed to fear an Oath will through customary Swearing arrive at that degree of insensibleness that he will not stick to multiply Oaths and Perjuries also if need be and all this without any touch of remorse any gainsayings or grudgings of his Conscience Now when a Man through custom in sin comes to that pass that his Conscience is quiet and doth not either interpose before the commission of sin to hinder him or molest him and disturb his peace afterwards 't will be no easie matter to disengage him from that sin 5. Custom in sin doth consequently harden the heart against all means by which the Sinner should be reclaimed 1. It hardens the heart against the Word The threatnings thereof and all the most dreadful denunciations of Judgments make no impression upon such a Mans heart 't is as Steel or Adamant that will not yield or relent 2. Neither will the wholesome Counsels Advices or Admonitions of Friends and Christian Acquaintance work upon it He hath no sense of any thing which in that way is offered him for his good His Ears are stopt against the voice of the Charmer Charm he never so wisely 3. He is fortified with Armour of proof against all Providences by which he might be stopt in his course of sin or reduced from the Errour of his ways Let God oppose him in his sinful course let him hedge up his ways with Thorns or stand before him with a drawn Sword all is one on he will fearlesly and presumptuously and adventure himself upon the thick Bosses of his Buckler in Job's phrase 6. Custom in Sin emboldens Satan to tempt Where the Conscience is tender and the Heart is sensible of the evil and danger of Sin and where he hath been formerly resisted and repelled there if he tempt yet he doth it with less confidence of prevailing and with some degree of Cowardly Expectation of being worsted but where he hath to do with those who have been long accustomed to the Sin he would again draw them into he makes little question of prevailing as knowing well the searedness of their Consciences the hardness of their Hearts and their strong propensions to the sin unto which he is about to tempt them as also remembring how often his Temptations in the same kind have already been successful 7. By Custom in sin God is provoked to leave a Man to himself to the power of Satan and the efficacy of Temptation and in way of his righteous Judgment to give him up to a further degree of impenitency and hardness of heart VSE 1. Then let such as have been long accustomed to any ways of Sin take heed that they make not account it will be an easie matter to leave those ways You may be apt to think that you can come off from those your sinful courses at pleasure that 't is but take up Resolutions against them and you shall be disengaged and freed from them presently But herein you would much deceive your self 'T is not so easie a matter to deliver your self from the power of that sin which you have been so long accustomed unto When you address your self to endeavour to leave it you will find other work of it You may take up Resolutions upon Resolutions and yet you may be still where you were at first as much enslaved to your Sin as ever and as unable to resist any Temptation to it They must be strong and firm Resolutions and those frequently renewed that will stand you in stead where Sin hath by custom gotten such possession of you And besides you must look higher than your own Resolutions you must earnestly implore God's help against your self so miserably brought under and subjected to the power of Sin Never think to prevail against those Sins which Custom hath strengthened and confirmed in you without much Prayer to God great watchfulness over your self and diligence in the use of all other means whereby the power of Sin may be weakened VSE 2. You must therefore acknowledge it to be a great Mercy if you meet with Crosses and Afflictions in your sinful ways
keep a more narrow and constant watch over our selves and to take better heed to our ways than we have done Now though all are concerned highly concerned to walk circumspectly yet are some in a special manner concerned to do it above others As 1. They who in respect of their Rank and Quality their Acquaintance and Alliances their Callings and Imployments are exposed to most Temptations They who necessarily meet with many Temptations cannot but often offend unless they be very circumspect 2. It concerns them above others to be circumspect who have formerly most offended through their carelesness their heedlesness and their want of more circumspection How often have you been overtaken with sin in one kind or other which you might easily have avoided if you had been circumspect 'T is high time for you to resolve to be more circumspect for the future who have already contracted so much guilt through your carelesness and especially if you have also smarted for your careless and regardless walking 3. It concerns them above others to be circumspect who in respect of their Places and Stations ought to be Examples to others These are so much the more obliged to walk circumspectly because else they become ill patterns to those whose Eyes are upon them and occasions of much sin and guilt to them 4. It behoves them above others to walk circumspectly who are drawing near the end of their walk who are not far from their long home and have little time left them to correct the manifold Errors of their Life past 5. It behoves them above others to walk circumspectly who after more strictness formerly have for some time now last past taken more liberty and walked more loosly and carelesly For 1. If these give not all dilgence to recover themselves and regain what they have lost they will still grow more remiss and careless 2. It would be a very sad thing if their last ways should be their worst and if death should surprize them in a declining condition 6. It behoves them above others to walk circumspectly who having been often convinced of the necessity and comforts of circumspect walking and having often resolved on it could never yet put their Resolutions in practice or at least with any constancy go on therein The Convictions and Resolutions of these Persons as they do much aggravate and heighten their sin so they will much heighten and inflame their reckoning when God shall call them to an account Now in the further prosecution of this Use I shall offer some Directions for walking circumspectly give some Cautions about it and lastly answer such Objections as may be made against it By way of Direction for walking circumspectly I shall only mention these few things 1. Keep your heart with all diligence As the frame of your heart is so for the most part are your actions Prov. 4.23 From the heart are the issues of life Your circumspection in the course of your Life hath its rise from your keeping your heart He that neglects his heart will never be able to order and frame his words and actions according to the rule Wherefore be sure that you lay the Foundation of all your circumspection in the heeding of your heart and in keeping it under Government Govern your heart well and you govern your Tongue and rule your hand and the whole Man Let the heart be once out of order and the effects of it will soon appear in the unruliness of the Tongue and the irregularity of your Actions Whatsoever else is out of order to be sure the heart was first out of order O how easie a task would it be to order all the rest if the heart were well ordered O let 's begin there keeping a strict and constant guard over it 2. Set God always before your Eyes and labour to keep up lively Apprehensions of his Presence and Omniscience How awful and circumspect would this make you How solicitous would you be of pleasing him and how much afraid of offending him This constant sense of God's presence and awe of his All-seeing Eye upon our hearts no man that hath not had some Experience of it can easily conceive what an influence it would have upon us to beget in us this holy circumspection 'T is our unmindfulness of God's Eye and Presence that makes us so heedless and unwatchful 3. Consider all your ways and ponder your paths as Solomon's counsel is Weigh your words and actions in the ballance of the sanctuary Prov. 4.26 examine them by the rule But let this be done most carefully and exactly when any matter of great and weighty consequence lies before you Then be sure that you do nothing but upon sound and mature deliberation and upon clear satisfaction that what you do is agreeable to the rule and suitable to the principles of good conscience How often doth mens precipitancy and rashness hurry them into those sins which afterwards occasion much anguish and horror of Conscience to them So what is rashly done in a quarter of an hour lies grating upon their Consciences many years after it may be they are never fully eased of the burthen of it as long as they live 4. Take heed of being swayed and overruled by the judgment and practice of others to a compliance with them in what your own Conscience is not satisfied to do The Opinion and Practice of the multitude is a deceitful and crooked Rule What the generality cry up approve of and applaud concur and agree in may be extremely evil what is highly esteemed among men may be abomination in the sight of God Luk. 16.15 And again What men cry down and vilify what they make to be matter of reproach and contumely that may be in such account with God as it may be highly accepted and rewarded And yet so it is that we are apt to place very much in the opinion and example of a multitude What many or most do what the generality of Town and Country do that we stick not to do Weak Arguments shall be strong enough to prevail with us to be of the stronger side and to concur with the multitude Wherefore it was not without great cause that God gave his People a special caution against this weak and sinful compliance Exod. 23.2 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment God saw our proneness to be influenced and swayed by the multitude and to go non quà eundum sed quà itur not in that path in which we should go but in which the greater part go If in any thing therefore our circumspection be necessary it is when we are assaulted with the temptation to warp and turn aside out of the right way 5. Be careful to keep at a distance from all temptations to sin as far as you are able Where you foresee they are making towards you avoid them run away
many such when they lye a dying how 't is with them whether there be any thing that troubles them or lyes heavy upon their Consciences And they will readily answer There is nothing that troubles them nothing that disturbs their peace Ask them if they be willing to die and whether they be not afraid of death Their answer is they are very willing to die and as for death they fear it not Now call you this a dying peaceably and comfortably when men of very bad or careless Lives go out of the World fast asleep in carnal security When they die without any sense of their Spiritual and Everlasting Estate O be not deceived 't is certainly a very sad and fearful thing when a careless or wicked Life without any evidence of after-repentance is shut up in a quiet and undisturbed death How much better grounds of comfortable hopes concerning the Everlasting Estate of such men were there if they died under many fears and troubles from a sound conviction and thorough sence of the sins of their Life 'T is very true you will say if they have been very wicked Men great and notorious Sinners But if the worst that can be said of them is that they have been careless and uncircumspect in their Lives the matter is not much A. Considering the corruption of our Nature our strong proneness to Evil the many Temptations we meet with and the malice and restlesness of Satan ever watching to take hold of all advantages against us to hurry us into Sin 't is impossible but that a man of a careless and uncircumspect Life should have led a very sinful Life and have contracted and heaped up a great deal of guilt and therefore if such a one without discovery of any After-repentance and Humiliation and without any trouble upon account of his Sins go quietly out of the World 't is a sad and uncomfortable thing and though we may not rashly and peremptorily pass our Judgment concerning the Eternal Estate of particular Persons yet have we just cause to fear and all things considered we cannot but greatly fear how it may be with such a one in the other World Sure we are without Repentance whereof there was no evidence or appearance he must everlastingly miscarry So from the Duty of walking circumspectly I come to the Argument by which it is enforced implied in the next words Not as fools but as wise 'T is every man's wisdom to walk circumspectly but his folly to be careless uncircumspect and heedless in the course of his Life Prov. 17.24 Wisdom is before him that hath understanding That is He that hath understanding the man that is truely wise his wisdom is before him to look right on to ponder the path of his feet as Solomon speaks Prov. 4.25 26. to spy out and consider his way to direct and govern his steps And so is this Proverb expounded by that other to the same purpose Prov. 14.8 The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way that 's the use which he makes of his wisdom he is as to that matter wise for himself in Solomon's Language still Prov. 9.12 But the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth he exerciseth that little reason which he hath about remoter things about any thing else rather than what most nearly concerns him the observing and making choice of his way As if a Man should fix his Eyes on the Hills at a great distance where the Earth and the Heavens seem to meet and in the mean time neglect to heed his way to observe where he treads and what dangers he runs upon as the Philosopher who fell into a Pit whilst his Eyes were taken up with the Contemplation of the Celestial Bodies Thus we see 't is our wisdom to walk circumspectly and 't is so in several respects 1. We hereby shun and avoid the greatest Evils 1. The displeasure of God whose wrath is so terrible that it made the Prophet cry out Hab. 1.6 Who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger 2. The sting of an evil and guilty Conscience the Torment whereof is intolerable Prov. 18.14 A wounded spirit who can bear 3. The loss of a man's Soul which nothing can compensate or make up What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world Mat. 16 26 and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul He that walketh circumspectly avoideth these three great and formidable Evils greater than which none can be the displeasure of God the sting of a guilty Conscience and the loss of his Soul 2. On the contrary by walking circumspectly we secure to our selves the greatest the most desireable good things 1. The favour of God for while we are with God in a course of Obedience 2 Chron. 15.2 he is with us 'T is only sin that deprives us of God's favour Now the favour of God is better than life Psal 63.3 What is there in all the World that is comparable to it 2. It secures to us peace of Conscience Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this rule peace be upon them and upon the Israel of God And this also is a thing of invaluable worth Prov. 14.13 A good conscience is a continual feast The comfort of which is so great as none can tell what it is but he that hath had experience of it in himself It passeth knowledge Eph. 4.7 3. By walking Circumspectly we secure to our selves the Everlasting well-being of our Souls which even in Satans valuation of them are more worth than the whole World Mat. 4.9 Psa 50.23 To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God There being these singular advantages of walking circumspectly you need not be much troubled at the Censures of the World They who are strangers to the ways of God and were never acquainted with the Comforts of them may count them little better than Fools that run not with them to the same excess of Riot But this is more than enough to satisfie and quiet you that what they count foolishness the Holy Ghost honours with the Elogy of Wisdom So I have done with the great Duty of circumspect walking together with the reason by which it is enforced I come now to speak of the particular instance in which our circumspection should be exercised Redeeming the time To redeem properly is by laying down a price to purchase again or recover that which another hath gotten possession of So a Captive or a Slave is redeemed out of the hand of an Enemy So a Man redeems his Goods which have been pawned or sold to another Now in this very sence to redeem time that is gone is impossible For time is of that nature that it can never be recovered when once 't is lost All the Gold and Silver all the
that should open mens eyes shall shut them and when those means that should soften mens hearts shall harden them Let us take heed that this be not the case of any of us If what should convince humble and reform us take no other effect upon us but that we are so much the worse the more remote from repentance the more obstinately and resolutely bent after our sinful courses the more incorrigible and irreclaimable our Charge would be heavy when the day of reckoning comes How dreadful and intolerable would the Sentence of Condemnation to be pronounced against us be when the means we have enjoyed shall rise up in judgment against us and our mercies shall condemn us 4. As the most necessary and important work that we have to dispatch is limited to a certain time and the duration of that time is in divers respects very uncertain so not to have improved that time but to have left our greatest business undone till it be too late and till the only season in which it was to be done be now over and irrecoverably gone is a most deplorable and dismal thing How affectionately did our Saviour weep over Jerusalem in this respect Luke 19.41 42. saying If thou hadst known even thou in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes When mercy was offered her and she was earnestly importuned to accept of it she did not know the day of her visitation as it follows v. 44. She slighted mercy and refused the gracious tenders thereof But wherein doth the misery of such a condition lie I answer in these three things 1. Having finally refused mercy having obstinately persisted in the refusal of it to the end they shall never have the like offers any more The day of grace with them is run out once for all and shall never never be recalled no more opportunities of making their peace with God to eternity The united Prayers of all the Saints in the Church Militant and Triumphant if they should all join together in such a Suit could not obtain the offer of mercy for the space of one hour for any finally impenitent Sinner He hath sinned away his mercies and 't is utterly impossible that he should recover what he hath wilfully deprived himself of Lament his loss he may and rue it he shall to eternity but retrieve it he never shall 2. Another thing in which the misery of this condition lies is that the punishment of such persons shall be dreadfully heightened upon the account of the mercy that hath been offered them which they have so wretchedly slighted and rejected The Gospel it self fully and clearly represents to us what a direful aggravation of their punishment this will be We have three severe and most remarkable Scriptures to this purpose This is the condemnation that is Joh. 3.19 the most sore and dreadful condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil Mat. 11.21 22 23 24. Wo unto thee Corazin wo unto thee Bethsaida It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you And thou Capernaum that art lifted up to heaven namely in the means of grace which she enjoyed but improved not Thou Capernaum which art lifted up to heaven shalt be brought down to hell it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day judgment than for thee How shall we escape Heb. 2.3 if we neglect so great salvation 3. The last aggravation of their misery is this That the thoughts of mercy once offered and rejected and of their having wilfully made themselves eternally miserable when they were in a capacity of being eternally happy if they had not stood in their own light and been wanting to themselves I say the thoughts hereof will be in their Consciences a never-dying Worm to torment them with unspeakable anguish to eternity So dismal and deplorable a thing it is not to have improved the time and opportunities afforded us for making our peace with God And so much concerning the Reasons why we must redeem the time I now proceed to the Application which was the last thing to be spoken to And here VSE 1. 1. If Time be upon so many accounts to be redeemed to be redeemed especially for heavenly things and to be improved for the good of our Souls what may they think of themselves who make little other use of their time than to dishonour God debauch their Acquaintance and Companions in sin and to bring swift ruin and destruction upon their own Souls who redeem time indeed but 't is for the satisfaction of their Lusts for gratifying their Corruptions for glutting themselves with sinful Pleasures and sensual Delights for heaping up sin upon sin for filling up the measure of their Provocations and making themselves ripe for judgment That spend their time in excess and intemperance in riot and drunkenness in chambering and wantonness in setting their mouths against Heaven in belching out horrid Oaths and Blasphemies in scoffing at Religion and deriding Piety that make it their business to sow the Principles of Atheism and to scatter the Seeds of Irreligion and Profaneness in all Places and Companies where they come to seduce poison and corrupt all they meet with and to make them twofold more the children of hell than themselves O how many such wicked Instruments such Agitators for Hell and Factors for the Devil have our times produced How doth City and Countrey abound with them and what swarms of them are there to be found in all Quarters of the Land Though such as these come seldom to the House of God yet in regard they sometimes drop in amongst others and in regard that no Congregation if numerous at least can be presumed to be without many lewd and vicious Persons though perhaps there may not be many that have arrived at the same height and excess of wickedness with those before-mentioned I shall propose these three Questions to all those who spend their precious time in lewd and ungodly Practises of what kind soever or rather I shall desire they would propose them to themselves 1. Let them ask themselves put the question to their own Hearts and Consciences Whether they think or can think that God made them and gave them excellent and immortal Souls to these ends If they think he did then it seems they are of opinion that God gave them a being to the end they might renounce their homage and disclaim their subjection to him and serve the Devil And that he still preserves them upholds them in their being to no other purpose than that they may still go on in the same ways of open rebellion against himself and defiance against Heaven Certainly it were an high disparagement and an horrid derogation to the wisdom and holiness of God for any man to imagine that God should make
sanctified to him as that he may be enabled to make a holy Use and Improvement of them and not be transported by them into those sinful Excesses into which the Corruption of our Nature would hurry us 2. We may also learn humbly and thankfully to acknowledg the Goodness of God to us if we have received any Benefit by our Afflictions to bless God for it and to give him the Glory of it Have our Afflictions brought us to the sight of our Sins Have they humbled us Have they reduced us from the Errour of our Ways and led us home to God Let us not think these things to be the natural Issues and Fruits of Affliction No such matter 't is God and he alone that puts Efficacy into Afflictions for the production of these great and excellent things Wherefore let us ascribe them not to the Means but to God and accordingly bless him for them But to return to the Point to be insisted on Afflictions will work upon Men and prevail with them to return to God from whom they have gone astray when all other Means are ineffectual Afflictions if God be pleased to sanctify them will do Men good when no other Means will This Truth may be confirmed both from Scripture and Experience 1. From Scripture it may be confirmed David when he was out of the way wanted not other Means to reduce him and to set him right again but yet he acknowledgeth that Afflictions were the Means by which he was recalled from his Wandrings Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy Word And again It is good for me that I was afflicted Ver. 71. that I might learn thy Statutes But next to the great Instance of the Efficacy of Afflictions this way in Manasseh there is none other so full and pertinent as that of the Prodigal Son Luke 15.11 12 c. This wild young Man could not be restrained and kept in good Order by his Father's Instructions and Counsels His Father's Discipline was too severe for him his Father's House was little better than a Prison to him a strait Confinement not to be endured and such an Abridgment of his Liberty as was intolerable Abroad he must and take his Portion along with him also Having withdrawn himself from under his Father's Government and being at liberty he prodigally and riotously spends all that he had and reduceth himself to extreme Want and Misery At length when he was ready to perish and knew not what to do he considers how much better it was with him while he was at home with his Father and takes up Resolutions of returning to him and of humbling himself before him Here we see Affliction and Misery works upon this Prodigal and brings him home to his Father's House when nothing else would reclaim him And all this what is it else but a lively Emblem of the Condition of a Sinner that is gone astray from God and is reduced by Affliction when nothing else will reclaim him 2. This Truth may also be confirmed from Experience We may observe and 't is no difficult matter to observe it that when Men could not be reclaimed and taken off from their vicious Courses by any other Means Afflictions have done it Sometimes the Sense of God's Wrath and Terrors of Conscience sometimes a severe Fit of Sickness that hath brought them near the Grave or some other sharp Affliction hath imbittered that Sin to them and taken off their Hearts from it which before they could never be perswaded to part with And there is no Man that hath any good Acquaintance with himself and with his own Heart and hath made any observation of God's Dealings with his Soul but must have taken notice that Afflictions have been of that use to him and have done him that Good in making a Separation between him and his Sins which nothing else could ever do neither the Word nor all the Threatnings against Sin therein contained nor the good Counsels and Admonitions of Friends nor the Examples of the Judgments of God inflicted on others for the same Sins When none of all these things will make a Man willing to leave his Sins a Man 's own proper Smart and personal Afflictions will do it Now if you ask how God is pleased to make Afflictions the Means of reclaiming Sinners and of bringing them home to himself when other Means will not do it I answer Afflictions when God is pleased to sanctify them do many ways contribute towards the reclaiming of Sinners 1. They make Men serious they call in Mens Minds from the things of the World from the Honours the Profits the Pleasures the Divertisements and Vanities thereof and make them reflect and consider how 't is with them as to their spiritual Estate and in what Condition their Souls are and how Matters stand between God and them These things are little minded while Men are in Prosperity and they have no Changes Men have other things to entertain themselves with and to take up their Time and their Thoughts they have things which they are better pleased with and which they take more Content in But in time of Affliction they retire into themselves and are more conversant at home The time of Adversity is a time of thinking and of Consideration Eccl. 7.14 In the Day of Adversity consider saith Solomon Consideration is the proper Duty of that Time and then a Man is fittest for it Now Consideration and serious Reflection on our selves are the first Step towards our returning to God and into the way of Obedience when we have gone astray David thought on his Ways Psal 119.59 and then turned his Feet unto God's Testimonies And 't is said of the Prodigal when he was in Distress that he came to himself and said Luke 15.17 How many hired Servants of my Father's have Bread enough and to spare and I perish for Hunger He came to himself before he was beside himself he was abroad before while his Portion and his Money lasted he had other things to mind but when all was spent and when by his profuse prodigal and luxurious Courses he had brought himself to those Extremities that he was ready to be famished then he began to reflect upon himself and to consider how foolishly he had done in forsaking his Father's House what Misery he had thereby brought himself into and how much happier he might have been if he had still kept at home with his Father and never thought of rambling away from him These and the like serious Reflections and Considerations at length produce the Resolutions which he takes up saying with himself I will arise and go to my Father and will say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired Servants And so much concerning the first thing that Affliction doth towards the reclaiming of
may imply either an Aggravation of his Sins or an Incouragement to seek unto God for the Pardon of his Sins 1. The Words may imply an Aggravation of his Sins which had been committed against so many Considerations as might and should have effectually refrained him from sinning against God in such a fearful manner as he had done As 1st That he had sinned against so many good Instructions and Cautions against Sin as his Father had given him and against the pious Education which under the Care and Inspection of so religious and conscientious a Father he had enjoyed 2dly That he had sinned against all the good Examples which his Father and other religious Progenitors had given him and against all the Patterns of sincere Godliness and true Piety which they had laid before him and either were or should have been still in his Eye 3dly That he had sinned at such a fearful rate and indulged himself in such vile and profligate Courses against all the Advantages for better things which all the Prayers of his Father and other godly Ancestors had afforded him Vse Let all wicked and graceless Children of pious and religious Parents consider seriously how sad their Account must needs be another Day if they shall still go on and persevere in those wicked and ungodly ways unto which they addict themselves they must not think to plead the Piety of their religious Parents and other Ancestors this shall be so far from being any Advantage to them that it will be found to be the greatest Aggravation of their Sins and accordingly procure the most fearful Aggravation and Heightning of their Punishment The most wicked Children are apt to please and flatter themselves with this fond Imagination that being descended from such good Parents and Ancestors they shall for their sakes find Favour with God at the Great Day of their Account and that the Children of such Parents and Ancestors though they should have lived irregularly cannot easily miscarry and perish everlastingly Let not wicked Children of good Parents deceive themselves if they continue and persevere still in their evil ways they must know and I desire all such to ponder it seriously that the Piety of their Parents will be of no other Advantage to them than only to rise up in Judgment against them and to condemn them with a more sore and dreadful Condemnation John the Baptist calling upon the Ungodly to break off their wicked Practices and to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance tells them that they must not think to say within themselves Mat. 3.9 We have Abraham to our Father for God was able even of Stones to raise up Children unto Abraham Abraham wanted no such Children as they were Children that were a Dishonour and a Reproach to their godly Ancestors Abraham would never own such a wicked Posterity for his Children much less would he open his Mouth to speak one Word in their Behalf when they should stand before the Judgment-Seat of Christ to be accountable to him for all their Wickedness The true and genuine Children of Abraham are only those who imitate Abraham and tread in his Steps as for others he will utterly disown and disclaim them And the same Treatment must all wicked Children still continuing so to be expect from their godly Parents and Ancestors they must not think to shelter themselves from the Judgments of God under the Piety of their Progenitors 2. The Words may imply an Encouragement to seek unto God for the Pardon of his Sins and a great Encouragement thereunto it is upon several Accounts For 1st The Children of good Men are together with their Parents within the Compass of the Covenant which God makes and establisheth with his People Thus runs the Tenour of that Covenant Gen. 17.7 I will establish my Covenant saith the Lord to Abraham betwixt me and thee and thy Seed after thee in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God to thee and to thy Seed after thee By this St. Peter incourageth the wicked Jews that had stained their Hands with the horrid Guilt of crucifying the Lord of Life I say by this he encouraged them to Repentance for the Remission of their Sins Acts 2.39 For the Promise is unto you and to your Children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call 2dly Godly Parents make Conscience of praying for their Children that God would be pleased to pardon their Sins to strengthen them against their Temptations and to bestow his Grace and holy Spirit upon them This Consideration if duly weighed must needs be a singular Encouragement even to the most wicked and ungodly Children to become humble and earnest Suitors unto God for the Pardon of their Sins they may upon good Grounds hope that all the Prayers and Supplications which their Parents have offered up unto God for them shall not utterly miscarry and be lost Vse 1. This may inform us how great a Mercy it is for Children to have been descended from pious and religious Parents and how thankful unto God they ought to be for this singular Favour a Favour that cannot be sufficiently valued and which hath its rise purely from the free Grace of God which alone maketh one Man to differ from another especially in Matters of this Nature wherein the eternal Welfare of our Souls is so nearly concerned Vse 2. Let all such Children who have been favoured with this inestimable Privilege of being descended from religious Parents improve this Mercy to their spiritual Advantage giving all Diligence to become Followers of their Parents and Imitators of their Piety to write after that Copy and to work after that Pattern which their Parents have set them And let them pray unto God fervently and incessantly that they may by a holy and unblamable Conversation approve themselves to be the true Offspring of such Parents and be accordingly owned and acknowledged by them and above all that they may be owned and acknowledged of God for such when they shall give up their Accounts to him and receive their final Sentence according to what they have done 2 Cor. 5.10 in the Flesh whether it be Good or Evil. And thus I have done with that Observation The next thing to be considered is what Manasseh joined with his Humiliation under the afflicting Hand of God namely Prayer He humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him Whence we may observe in the next Place that Prayer is a seasonable and necessary Duty in the time of Affliction Is any among you afflicted Jam. 5.13 let him pray Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the Day of Trouble This God aims at in afflicting us and hiding his Face from us This is his Design in withdrawing his gracious Presence from us Hos 5.15 I will go and return to my Place saith he till they acknowledg their Offence and seek my Face in
their Affliction they will seek me early Thus did God's People in the time of their Afflictions Isa 26.16 Lord saith the Prophet in Trouble they have visited thee they poured out a Prayer when thy Chastning was upon them And divers Reasons there are why all God's People should in their Afflictions betake themselves to God by Prayer As 1. All Afflictions come from God I form Light saith he Isa 45.7 and create Darkness I make Peace and create Evil I the Lord do all these things Shall there be Evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3.6 Which Words must be understood of the Evil of Affliction and Punishment not of the Evil of Sin that 's an Evil whereof God who is perfectly and infinitely Good can never be the Author Men may be Instruments in our Sufferings they may be Actors in subjecting us to Afflictions and in bringing such Evils upon us but it is God that imploys them and makes use of them to chasten his People for their Sins This is that which the Psalmist intends when he calls wicked Men God's Sword Psal 17.13 Deliver my Soul from the Wicked saith he which is thy Sword The Sword wherewith he thrusts at wounds and pierceth chastens and corrects his People when they have by their Provocations incurred his Displeasure To the same Purpose it is that he calls Assyria the Rod of his Anger Isa 10.5 and the Staff in their Hand his Indignation that is the Instrument of his Indignation which he makes use of to punish them for their Sins Hence also it is that he calls the Babylonians his Battel-Axe Jer. 51.20 and Weapons of War with which he breaks in pieces the Nations and destroyeth Kingdoms 2. Because God only can remove those Afflictions from his People which his Hand hath laid upon them This God assumes to himself as his own Prerogative Deut. 32.39 I kill saith he and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my Hand To the same Effect is that Passage in the Song of Hannah where she saith 1 Sam. 2.6 The Lord killeth and maketh alive he bringeth down to the Grave and bringeth up And that of Psal 68.20 Vnto God the Lord belong the Issues from Death Hence God himself complains of Mens neglecting to have Recourse to him by Prayer in their Afflictions who alone can relieve them by removing his afflicting Hand from them saying Jer. 9.13 The People turneth not to him that smiteth them neither do they seek the Lord of Hosts 3. Our Neglect to have Recourse to God by Prayer in our Afflictions blasteth all other Means which we make use of for our Relief No Question can be made of it but that Ahaziah having taken a dangerous Fall from a Lattice made use of all the best Means that could be had for his Cure but because in that his Affliction he sought not unto the true God the God of Israel for healing but unto the God of Ekron the Prophet in the Name of God tells him that he should not come down from that Bed on which he had gone up 2 King 1.4 but should furely die as accordingly it fell out in the Issue Wherefore this is noted as a great Miscarriage in Asa though otherwise a good Man that in his Disease 2 Chron. 16.12 even when it was very grievous he sought unto the Physicians and not unto God 4. It concerns us in our Afflictions to seek unto God by Prayer in regard of the great need we have of his Help and Assistance many other ways in the time of our Afflictions As 1st To teach us his meaning in those Afflictions with which he exerciseth us what he designs in them and what at such a time he expects from us 2dly To sanctify Afflictions to us and to enable us to improve them to our spiritual Advantage 3dly To support us under our Afflictions 4thly To give us Patience under his afflicting Hand and to keep us from murmuring repining discontent fretting against God and all other sinful Distempers which in regard of the Corruption of our Nature and the evil Frame of our Hearts we are subject unto in our Afflictions These Particulars I have only mentioned leaving it to every Man to inlarge on them in his private Meditations as he shall see cause Vse Seeing we are upon so many Considerations obliged and highly concerned to seek unto God in our Afflictions let us all be cautioned to take heed that we neglect not the Duty of Prayer while God's afflicting Hand is upon us and when if ever this Duty is both most seasonable and most necessary As soon as ever any Affliction from the Hand of God begins to light on us let us immediately betake our selves unto God by Prayer let this be the first thing we do and let us never think of making use of any other means in order to our Relief till this be done neither let us rest here but let us continue to pray without ceasing as long as God thinks good to continue his afflicting Hand upon us and ours Thus doing with Constancy and Perseverance we need not question but that we shall see a good Issue out of our Afflictions whatever they be in God's appointed time but in all our Afflictions let us not only pray but labour to be soundly humbled for our Sins which have been the meritorious Cause of all our Sufferings let us earnestly beg the Pardon of them and Strength against them for the future This is the best Course that we can take in our Afflictions and the only Course that can give us any Security that we shall be in due time delivered out of our Afflictions and be delivered with such Advantages to our Souls as shall give us just Cause to acknowledg that it hath been good for us to have been afflicted and that God hath in Faithfulness chastned us as David after his Afflictions professed and acknowledged Psal 119.75 Now follows the fifth Particular namely the Issue of Manasseh's Prayer God was entreated of him and heard his Supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdom Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God Most sad and doleful was the Condition of Manasseh while he was a Captive in Babylon he was bound with Chains and fettered with Irons he was confined to the dark and uncomfortable Vaults and Cloysters of a Prison and though perhaps in regard that he was not of the common sort of Prisoners but a King he might have better Accommodations than many others yet which was worst of all he had small or no Hopes of being ever released or set at Liberty again and which was the Height of his Misery he had no Security for his Life but was perpetually in Danger and upon that Account under Fears of being drawn out of Prison and brought to Execution every Day and every Hour This was his dismal
forgiveness of their Sins may be confirmed several other ways As 1. Because Mercy is promised to the greatest Sinners upon their Repentance Isa 1.16 17 18. 55.7 Ezek. 18.27 28. 30.31 32. Mat. 12.31 2. Promises of Pardon made unto penitent and believing Sinners run in general Terms John 3.16 Mark 16.15 16. Acts 10.43 3. Christ invites all that feel the Burden of their Sins to come unto him promising them Ease and Refreshing if they come Mat. 11.28 John 7.37 38 Rev. 22.17 4. Christ expostulates with Sinners and complains that they come not to him for Mercy John 5.40 Mat. 23.37 5. He declareth and professeth that he will reject and put off none that shall come unto him John 6.37 Vse 1. This Truth is Matter of very great Encouragement to the chief of Sinners to come to Christ and to be humble Suitors to him for the pardon of their Sins They see that pardoning Mercy has been obtained by many of the greatest Sinners that the Promises of finding Mercy with God upon condition of Faith and Repentance run in general Terms excluding none that are so qualified they see that Christ most graciously invites all sorts of labouring and heavy-laden Sinners without exception to come unto him that he expostulates with Sinners and complains that they will not come unto him that they may have Life and lastly that he declareth and professeth that he will cast out none that come unto him that come unto him in a due manner and as they ought to come that is to say with unfeigned and sincere Repentance for their Sins past and with firm Resolutions and sincere Endeavours to cast off and forsake their Sins for the time to come Now what more can the greatest Sinners wish or desire to encourage them to seek Mercy at the Hands of God than that they may rest assured that they shall not lose their labour that they shall not seek him in vain but certainly obtain what they are Suitors to him for But here however they must be careful to seek him 1. Seasonably Isa 55.6 2 Cor. 6.2 Heb. 3.15 2. Earnestly and importunately this manner of seeking God is that which prevails with him especially when we seek unto him for so great a thing as is the forgiveness of our Sins Jer. 29.13 3. Abandoning forsaking and casting off all their Transgressions Ezek. 18.30 that Iniquity may not be their Ruine If thus they come unto Christ and seek Mercy at his Hands as hath been said before Christ will in no wise turn them off with a Repulse but assuredly and without fail entertain them graciously and give them to find Mercy with him in the pardon and forgiveness of their Sins But here desponding and discouraged Sinners be apt to object several things Object 1. Saith the Sinner that is deeply affected and sadly cast down with the sense of his Sins None ever obtained Mercy that sinned as I have done Answ 1. That is a very rash and unadvised Speech as I have elsewhere shewed at large Do you know all the Sins which all the penitent Sinners that ever found Mercy with God have been guilty of 2. Consider and ponder a little better the Instances before-mentioned Are your Sins greater than the Sins of Manasseh Are your Sins greater than the Sins of that Woman Luk. 7.37 38. who was notorious for her Lewdness all the City over Are your Sins greater than the Sins of all those foul and abominable Sinners which the Apostle reckons up 1 Cor. 6.9 10 3. If your Sins have been really greater than the Sins of any of these or all of them together yet are they greater than the boundless Mercies of God and the Merits of Christ Take heed how you entertain such a Thought 4. Are your Sins so great as that they are without the compass of all the Promises made to believing and penitent Sinners Far be it from you to harbour such black Thoughts concerning your Condition If you had upon you the Guilt of all the Sins that ever have been committed since the Fall of Adam to this day yet if you could sincerely repent of them all cast them all off and truly believe in Christ you might be sure of the pardon of them for so universal and unlimited of so large a compass and extent are the Promises of Mercy which are made to all believing and penitent Sinners that they would extend to them all and take them in This is so clear and evident that no Exception can be made against it unless by one that will be satisfied with nothing that can be laid before him or offered him for his Satisfaction Object 2. But I have run on so long impenitently and rejected so many Offers of Mercy that I fear there is no Mercy there can be none for me Answ 1. Doth not God call and invite such as well as others Are not his gracious Calls and Invitations to Repentance general Are they any where restrained or clogged with any Limitations Are they any where narrowed and straitned with the exception of any sorts of Sinners whatsoever 2. How many of those in the Old Testament and in the New that had long gone on in a sinful Course impenitently obtained Mercy at length notwithstanding the long-continued Perseverance in their evil Ways 3. Do not the Promises of Mercy to be obtained by penitent and believing Sinners extend to such as well as unto others Where are they by any Scripture excluded from Mercy And if the holy Scriptures exclude them not why should they exclude themselves 4. Doth not our Saviour assure us that all manner of Sin and Blasphemy shall be forgiven unto Men upon their Repentance Mat. 12.31 for that is ever in this matter supposed though not expressed Now if all manner of Sin and Blasphemy shall upon Repentance be forgiven unto Men then undoubtedly no truly humbled and sincerely penitent Sinners shall be denied the Forgiveness of their Sins how long soever and how obstinately soever they have gone on in their sinful Practices Object 3. But I fear I may not belong to the Election of Grace and if so then all my Endeavours to find Mercy with God would be fruitless Answ 1. You ought not to neglect your known Duty because you cannot dive into God's secret Decrees though you know not what God 's secret Counsels and Purposes may be concerning you yet he hath plainly and sufficiently revealed what your Duty is and what he requires of you in order to your Salvation It concerns you therefore not to trouble your Mind about God's secret Purposes concerning you but to apply your self with all holy Diligence to the conscientious Performance of your Duty and so doing to cast your self upon the free Grace and Mercy of God in Christ Secret things belong unto the Lord our God Deut. 29.29 but things revealed belong to us and to our Children that we may do them 2. If you perform your Duty as you ought God will be
sure to perform his Promises you may depend and build upon it that if you be not wanting to your Duty he will never fail to deal with you according to his Word Heaven and Earth shall pass away Mark 13.31 but his Word shall not pass away What God hath spoken shall certainly take Effect 3. This is the best Course indeed the only Course which you can take to be satisfied concerning your Election When you find in your self the Work of Grace and the Fruits of true Faith and sincere Repentance true Holiness and universal Obedience a studious and holy Care and endeavour to please God in all things and to decline and avoid whatsoever is displeasing unto him when you find these things in your self you may thence certainly and infallibly conclude that you are one of those who belong to the Election of Grace for these things wrought in the Heart are Fruits and Effects of God's electing Grace and can be found in none but such as are his Children his Elect ordained to eternal Life Acts 13.48 Eph. 1.4 1 Thess 1.4 5. 2 Thess 2.13 Rom. 8.29 30. Col. 3.12 So then the Graces of the Spirit and that holy Change which is wrought in the Hearts of all sound and sincere Converts are Evidences of their eternal Election as may be gathered from the Scriptures last mentioned and therefore he that shall lay aside and neglect his known Duty and resolve to do nothing towards his Salvation until he knows his own Election must unavoidably perish because his Election cannot be known but by the Fruits and Effects thereof appearing in the Holiness of Mens Lives and Conversations 4. How many thousands perhaps Millions of glorified Saints may there be in Heaven who never made this Scruple or at least never suffered it so far to prevail with them as to hinder and withhold them from giving all Diligence to make their Calling and Election sure by an earnest Endeavour after Faith Repentance Holiness and all other Graces accompanying Salvation And so I come to the 6th and last thing in the Words namely What Manasseh gained or what he learned by all this Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God We may not think that Manasseh was wholly ignorant of God before some kind of Knowledg of God he had but he had no such experimental and effectual Knowledg of God as by these God's Dealings with him he attained That Knowledg of God which neither works upon the Heart nor reforms the Life and Conversation is little better than perfect Ignorance of God It is said of the Sons of Eli 1 Sam. 2.12 that they were Sons of Belial and knew not the Lord They knew not the Lord to any purpose they knew him not in such a manner as they ought to have known him and this was Manasseh's Case while he went on in his sinful Courses and would not be reclaimed he knew not the Lord. Whatever Knowledg of God he might have it signified nothing in God's Account But Manasseh by those sore Afflictions which God brought upon him gained an experimental Knowledg of God's Power to subdue and humble the most stout and obstinate Sinners of his Justice and Holiness in punishing Sin of the Truth of his Threatnings and Denunciations of Judgments against Sinners of his gracious and merciful Disposition to pardon Sin and to be reconciled to the greatest Sinners upon their sound Humiliation and sincere Repentance of God's absolute Dominion and uncontrolable Soveraignty over the highest among Men pulling them down laying them low and raising them up again as it seems good in his Eyes The experimental Knowledg of all these things in God and relating to him did Manasseh gain by that severe Course which God took with him for bringing him home to himself when gentler Means would not prevail All this may be implied in those Words Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God Now to apply this very briefly Vse 1. This should reconcile us to Afflictions and make us willing to come under that severe Course of Discipline which is so beneficial to us and by which we gain so much Vse 2. It should also teach us to improve our Afflictions so as we may profit by them and to observe what we gain by our Sufferings for Gainers we shall be if we be not wanting to our selves This is apparently God's End in bringing them upon us who as a wise and careful Inspecter and a gracious Father orders all things to our Advantage And it becomes us to observe the same Method and accordingly to improve what he so graciously intends for our Good to be humble and patient to submit to his fatherly Chastisements and to repent of those Sins he chastises us for The Eighth Sermon LAM 3.39 40. Wherefore doth a living Man complain a Man for the Punishment of his Sins Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. THE main Scope of these Words is to direct us how we should carry our selves in time of Affliction The Direction which is here given us consists of two Parts 1. We are informed what we must not do we must not complain 't is most unreasonable and unlawful to complain whatever our Afflictions be So much is at least implied in that interrogatory Form of Speech Wherefore doth a living Man complain a Man for the Punishment of his Sins 2. We are taught what is to be done and what Course we ought to take when we are afflicted We must search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. So then the former part of the Direction is negative the latter affirmative As to the former of these some apprehend there is a special Emphasis in those Words Wherefore doth a living Man complain But all do not understand and explain that Emphasis in the same manner Wherefore doth a living Man complain that is as some conceive why doth any Man living complain of his Troubles and Afflictions seeing 't is the common Lot and Condition of all Men while they live here to be subject to Afflictions Man being born unto Trouble Job 5.7 as the Sparks fly upward as Eliphaz sets forth the Calamitous Condition of Man in this World Why should any Man living complain of that which befals all others as well as himself and which none may ever hope to be exempted from as long as they live upon this Earth Others explain the Emphasis thus Why doth a living Man complain say they forasmuch as while he is alive whatever his Sufferings be he is mercifully and favourably dealt with If he were treated according to the Desert of his Sins he should no longer be a living Man he should be cut off from the Land of the Living and cast into Hell Either of these Senses is agreeable enough to the Analogy of Faith but of the two the latter best sutes with the principal Intendment of this Place and with what follows in the latter Clause of the Verse
impatient Demeanure under the Hand of God dishonour our Profession and disparage those excellent Grounds of Tranquillity and Calmness of Spirit under every Dispensation of Divine Providence which our Religion supplies and furnisheth us with Let it appear that we are above all those things which aâ— wont to disturb the Minds and discompose the Spirits of them that know not God and are Strangers to the Covenant of Grace and have no Acquaintance with the Privileges thereof Vse 2. In the second Place let us all especially such of us as have these Grounds of inward Peace Quiet silent Contentment and humble Submission to the good Pleasure of God in all our Troubles I say let us be exhorted 〈◊〉 keep our Hearts in an even quiet and undisturbed Temper under all Providences Such a Frame how comfortable would it render every Condition 〈◊〉 us How light and easy would it makâ— every Burden and Pressure to us Anâ— how much Sin would it prevent which the fretting of our Hearts against 〈◊〉 Lord as Solomon expresseth it Proâ—â— 19.3 and the tumultuous Fermentings of our Spirits against his Providence would hurry us into In the further Prosecution of this Use I shall first propound a few things for the quieting of our Hearts in Afflictions and then I shall answer some of those Pleas or Objections which unbroken and unruly Spirits not sufficiently subdued to God make use of to justify their Excesses In order to the quieting of our Hearts amidst all our Trials and to the taming of our rebellious Spirits 1. Let us get our Hearts fully possessed of the absolute Sovereignty and Dominion which God hath over us Such is his Power over us that we and all the Nations of the World are in his Hands but as the Clay in the Hand of the Potter as God makes the Comparison Jer. 18.6 He may form us and fashion us do with us and dispose of us as he sees good Neither need he render any other Reason or Account of what he doth than that of his own good Pleasure Now as the Apostle argues Rom. 9.20 21. Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter Power over the Clay to make one Vessel unto Honour and another unto Dishonour one for a baser Use another for a more honourable Service Let this rest and abide upon your Heart that God hath this Power over you and you will judg it no less unreasonable and intolerably saucy that you should murmur or contest with God about his Dealings with you than that the Clay should rise up and contest with the Potter 2. Keep alive in your Heart a Sense of God's Love in every Dispensation Black Thoughts of God and our representing him to our selves as our Enemy and every of his Chastisements as Fruits of his Hatred cannot but leaven our Hearts with such a sullen Morosity and Sowrness as will make us seek all Opportunities of quarrelling with him We take nothing well at the Hands of him whom we take to be our Enemy because we look upon all his Actions through the Glass of that Image which we have framed of him in our Minds So while we look upon God as our Enemy 't is not to be wondred at that we should be ready to pick Matter of complaining against him and contesting with him out of all the Passages of his Providence But on the other hand good Thoughts of God and a lively Sense of his Love upon our Hearts would make whatsoever he doth to look of another Colour Viewing his Providences through these Spectacles we should read his Kindness in whatsoever he doth to us or about us and we should be inclined to make the best Construction of every thing that seems to be of a doubtful Aspect And how powerfully would this subdue our Spirits sweeten our Affections and make us willing to bear with Silence and Quietness those things which to another would be intolerable 3. Labour to have always a fresh Remembrance of your Sins To this purpose it might be of good Use to us to single out some of our chief Sins by which we have most dishonoured God and wounded our Consciences and to have them always in a Readiness by us that they may presently occur to our Thoughts when at any time our Hearts begin to rise against God in respect of any of his Dealings This would furnish us with Matter of Arguments to reason down the rebellious Insurrections of our Spirits as soon as ever they begin to take Distaste at any thing that God hath done Should such as we so vile so sinful so unworthy as in such and such Instances of our Provocations we have appeared to be take pet at any thing that God doth Have we done as bad things as we could against him and is it for us to be complaining of any thing that he doth 4. Add to all this the Consideration of the extream Danger of quarrelling with God and opposing our selves against him Dare we provoke the Lord Are we stronger than he 1 Cor. 10.22 saith the Apostle Dare we challenge him into the Feild and run upon the thick Bosses of his Buckler Let us remember the Battel Job 41.8 and do no more as God cautioned Job in the like Case Wo unto him that striveth with his Maker Isa 45.9 let the Potsherd strive with Potsherds of the Earth Let not us frail Creatures contend with God who can dash us in pieces yea turn us into nothing in a Moment And so I come to speak to those Pleas whereby some endeavour to justify their complaining Object 1. My Afflictions saith one are such as never any Man was exercised with the like all things considered I could I hope with some Degree of Quietness and Silence bear any other Crosses but here I must be allowed to give way to some Distemper when my Cross is singular Answ 1. Whereas you say never any Man was afflicted as you are you speak rashly and unadvisedly Are you so well acquainted with the several Afflictions of all the Afflicted that at present are or ever were in the World that you should pronounce so peremptorily that never any was afflicted as you are Alas your Knowledg reacheth but a little way How many are there within the Compass of a few Miles it may be within the Limits of the same Town or Parish where you live whose particular Cases and the various Circumstances of whose Afflictions you are perfectly ignorant of 2. How many have had the very same Thoughts of their Afflictions besides your self 'T is indeed every Man's Temper in great Afflictions and under dark Providences to say with the Church Lam. 1.12 Behold and see if there be any Sorrow like unto my Sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the Day of his fierce Anger In sore Afflictions we are not competent Judges of the Matters that concern our Sufferings no more than
chastning for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable Fruit of Righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Afflictions are spiritual Physick Now Physick we know at present often discomposeth and disturbs Nature and puts the whole Body out of Frame it makes the Patient sick before it cures him And so it is with the Physick of the Soul you cannot discern the Benefit of it till it hath done working It makes you sick for the present but afterwards you come to see it was a good Sickness that made way for Health and ended therein 7. In the mean time that you see not that you in some measure profit by your Afflictions and that they are by degrees doing you good is very much your own Fault 1. You have a Prejudice against your Afflictions you have an ill Opinion of those Courses which God takes with you for your Good and this much hinders the kindly Operation of them upon you as an ill Opinion of your Physician or his Prescriptions hinders the working of your Physick and deprives you of much of the Benefit thereof 2. While you are under these Prejudices and perverse Misapprehensions you do not apply your self to endeavour to profit by your Afflictions improving God 's Providences and doing what in you lies to further the Success of the Means which he applies and makes use of for the Cure of your Soul While your Prejudices continue and you are thereupon still sluggish and unactive how can you expect to be sensible of the Benefit of your Afflictions Cast off your Prejudices have good Thoughts of God's Methods of Cure firmly believe that the Course which he takes with you is the best and fittest to do you good arise and be doing what you can towards the promoting of God's Design in afflicting you search your Heart try your Ways endeavour to get a Sight of your Sins a true Hatred of them serious and firm Resolutions to forsake them renew these your Resolutions often still endeavour to confirm and strengthen them more and more and above all be earnest and uncessant in Prayer to God that he would be pleased to bless your Endeavours and then say if you see any Cause of complaining that your Afflictions are such as can never do you any Good The Ninth Sermon LAM 3.40 Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. I Am now fallen upon the second part of the Text setting before us our Duty in time of Affliction Let us search and try our VVays and turn again to the Lord. The Duty is twofold First That we search and try our VVays And secondly That we turn unto the Lord. The former of these Duties as 't is first in the Order of the Text so 't is in Nature We must search after our Sins find them out and discover them and then turn away from them 'T is impossible that we should forsake them until we have a sight of them He who sees not his Sins what should he else do but still go on boldly and fearlesly in the practice of them What hath he to hinder him or reduce him I shall speak something of both these Duties and first of that which hath the first place in the Text. But before I come to speak of the Duty it self of searching and trying our Ways in time of Affliction in order to the finding out of those our Sins for which God hath laid his Hand upon us I shall speak a little in a more general way of that which is near of kin unto the Duty of the Text I mean of Self-reflection or a looking back upon our selves and a reviewing and consideration of our Thoughts Words and Ways And that which I shall say concerning it shall be touching the Excellency and great Usefulness thereof and touching the Mischiefs of the neglect of it I. As touching the Excellency of Self-reflection or reviewing of our Thoughts Words and Actions I need say no more than that 't is a Perfection which only Men and Angels are capable of All other Creatures even those of them which are most perfect in their Kind and seem to have as it were some Shadow and Resemblance of Reason in them yet fall short of this excellent Perfection They cannot review what they have done or take into consideration the Quality of their past Actions they cannot reckon with themselves and call themselves to an account of them And indeed they need not do it for they are under no other Rule or Law beside that of their Nature and those natural Instincts which God hath put into them by these they are ruled and swayed and according to these they act They are under the Command of no moral Law and consequently their Actions are not capable of moral Good or Evil. But Man being under a moral Law and accountable to his Creator for the Breaches thereof for the better regulating and ordering of his Thoughts Words and Actions according to the Prescriptions of that Law God hath endowed him with a Faculty of reviewing his Actions and of considering them with relation to the Rule to the end that where he finds he hath done well he may be comforted and encouraged and where he hath done ill he may be humbled and reformed Thus hath he a Tribunal within his own Breast before which he can as often as he pleaseth summon himself to appear demand an account of all that hath been done by himself whether good or evil At this Tribunal he can judg and pass Sentence acquit or condemn himself according to the moral Nature and Quality of his Actions Here he can rebuke and admonish as there shall be cause recal and reduce himself where he hath gone astray and lay stricter and severer Charges and Injunctions on himself of greater Care and Watchfulness for the future as in respect of his former Negligence and Remissness shall be necessary A most excellent and never-sufficiently-admired Faculty of Man's Soul What a rich Treasure have we herein if we knew how to value it and make use of it But alas how little Improvement do we make to our selves of this noble Faculty And this brings me to the second thing the great Usefulness of Self-reflection I have already in what hath been spoken on the former Head said something of the Usefulness of it in general I shall now descend to some Particulars and speak briefly to them 1st By reflecting on our selves and taking a view of our past Actions we come to know our selves We understand the State and Condition of our Souls what Case we are in and what Opinion we ought to have of our selves Hereby we come to be acquainted with our spiritual Concernments whether we be in the State of Nature or in the State of Grace whether we be in the Way to Heaven or in the Way to Hell Hereby we come to know what our Declinings and Decays what our Advances and Improvements in
Gen. 29.23 Laban shall deceive him much in the like manner giving him Leah to Wife instead of Rachel If David first commit Adultery with Bathshebah 2 Sam. 12.10 11 12. and then contrive the murdering of Vriah for the concealing thereof his Son Absolom shall be permitted to lie with his Father's Concubines as he had done with the Wife of Vriah and as he had slain Vriah by the Sword of the Children of Ammon so the Sword shall never depart from his House If Ahab and Jezebel take away the Life of Naboth because he would not part with his Vineyard and the Dogs do lick his Blood the Sentence of Ahab from the Mouth of the Lord shall be In the Place where Dogs licked the Blood of Naboth shall Dogs lick thy Blood even thine 1 Kings 21.19 And the Dogs shall eat Jezebel by the VVall of Jezreel and him that dieth of Ahab in the City Dogs shall eat and him that dieth in the Field shall the Fowls of the Air eat ver 23 24. If Nadab and Abihu Levit. 10.1 2. If the two hundred and fifty Men which were the Complices of Corah Dathan and Abyram Numb 16.35 presume to offer strange Fire before the Lord by strange Fire by a Fire coming out from before the Lord shall they be consumed If the Israelites burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven upon the Tops of their Houses Jer. 19.13 their Houses shall be set on fire and burnt down by the Enemy As the Sword of Agag the King of the Amalekites had made many Women childless so must his Mother be childless among Women 1 Sam. 15.33 5. God punisheth Men in the Matter or Object in which they have sinned If David be proud of the Multitude of his People and out of the Pride of his Heart will have them numbred God will chasten him by diminishing his People 2 Sam. 24.15 threescore and ten thousand of them shall die by the Pestilence If Jehoshaphat join himself with wicked Ahaziah King of Israel 2 Chron. 20.35 36 37. and in compliance with him builds Ships that they may go to Tarshish his Ships shall be broken and his Purposes shall be disappointed Thus we have in many Instances seen the Truth of what was spoken That God often makes choice of such Punishments as point at the Sin for which they were inflicted This God doth for several Reasons 1. To convince those who are obstinately blind and will not see their Sins nor own the Evils that light on them to be the Punishments of those Sins Men are naturally so unwilling to acknowledg their own Guilt and that they suffer for their Sins that they endeavour to make any other Construction of those Evils which befal them rather than to yield that God thereby intended to punish them for their Transgressions Sometimes they will impute all to the Malice of second Causes and the Instruments of their Sufferings never looking so high as God without whom no Creature could touch them Sometimes they will fancy that such Evils light upon them by chance and not by Divine Providence ordering them for their Punishment or Correction But now when God's Dealings bear such a Resemblance of and Correspondence with their Sins they are forced to see and acknowledg their Sins and the exact Justice of God in their Punishment A remarkable Example hereof we have in Adonibezek who when his Thumbs and great Toes were cut off was thereby enforced to give Glory to God's Justice saying Judg. 1.7 Threescore and ten Kings having their Thumbs and great Toes cut off gathered their Meat under my Table as I have done so God hath requited me 2. To help the Weakness of those who are in some measure willing to see their Sins and to discern God's End in his Corrections but cannot do it so easily unless something in the Correction it self lead them to the Sight of their Sin Thus when a Man suffers in the same kind in which he hath been injurious to others or when a Man loseth by those unlawful Artifices by which he made account to increase his Gain he cannot but take notice of his Sin in the Punishment which otherwise perhaps he would have over-look'd 3. God hereby makes the Chastisement work more kindly and effectually For these Circumstances pointing at a Man's Sin so evidently do add much to the smarting of the Rod with which God corrects and makes Men take his Chastisements the more to Heart And all this stirs up more earnest Desires and Endeavours to answer the end of his Corrections Physicians when they give gentle Physick or have to do either with obstinate or sluggish Bodies put in somewhat to animate and quicken the Operation of their Prescriptions So God by these Circumstances so directly pointing at a Man's Sin quickens the Operation of his spiritual Physick which without these Circumstances would little affect the Patient or stir those bad Humours which are to be carried off 4. God hereby sometimes intends also the Vindication of his Justice and Holiness before the World When Men have sinned grievously and â—â—enly so as the World hath taken notice of it God will have the World also 〈◊〉 notice of his Severity against such Sins and to that end he writes the Sin in fair and legible Characters upon the Punishment so as all that pass by may say Verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth But now if God should not thus point at the Sin by the Punishment many who took notice of the Sin would never take notice of the Punishment thereof and consequently God's Hatred of Sin and his Severity against it would not so manifestly appear For though God should inflict as severe a Punishment on the Sinner in some other kind yet few would understand what Sin God thereby intended to punish and so his Justice and Holiness would be as little vindicated in the Judgment of the greatest part of those who had taken notice of the Sin as if he had not punished the Sin at all 5. God thus points at the Sin by the Punishment to give warning to others that they may take heed how they venture upon those Sins which they see are so odious unto God and so severely and remarkably punished by him that others may see and fear Deut. 13.11 and do no more any such Wickedness as God speaks touching the end of the Execution of Vindictive Justice by the Magistrate So then to return to that which gave occasion of all that hath been said concerning the several Ways of God's pointing at the Sin by the Punishment by what hath been said it appears that our Afflictions are a special help to lead us to the sight of our Sins and therefore in that respect as well as in others the time of Affliction is the meetest Season for searching and trying our ways By the help that our Afflictions then afford us we may then find out those Sins which at another time
we should not so easily discover Now to apply what hath been spoken in a Word or two Vse 1. If this searching and trying of our Ways in order to the finding out and forsaking of our Sins be the special Duty the great Work required of us in time of Affliction how is it that this Work is for the most part least thought of How is it that there is so much complaining among us but so little Searching so much enquiring after Remedies and whatsoever other means may afford us Relief but so little Enquiry after our Sins that obstruct the Operation and blast the Success of all other Means How is it that this searching and trying our Ways which should be the first thing we do in time of Affliction is commonly the last The last did I say Yea rather how is it that it is for the most part wholly omitted even when no other Means that can be thought of are omitted How is it that many Afflictions succeeding one after another do so hardly bring us to this searching and trying our Ways at last Surely if there were nothing else to prove the Excellency and Usefulness of this Work yet this were enough that our corrupt Nature is so extreamly averse from it Such untoward Hearts and Natures have we that the best things are most unacceptable and most against the hair to us Could we be perswaded to make this our first Business when any Affliction first arrests us how many Trials might we avoid And how much might we either shorten or sweeten those which God sees good to exercise us with Consider the evil Consequents of our Neglect of this Duty 1st By Neglect hereof we do what in us lies that God may lose the end of his Corrections 2dly We lose the Benefit of them 3dly We either lengthen out present Afflictions or make way for others to succeed if these should be removed Now what extream Folly is it to run upon these great Evils rather than put our selves to the Trouble of taking that Course which God puts us upon for our speedy and effectual Relief What is it that makes us so unwilling Is it the Unpleasingness of the Work But all good things are so to our sinful Nature Vse 2. What is displeasing at first will become pleasant and delightful after you shall have been inured to it Is it your Love to some particular Sin and your Unwillingness to leave it If that be at the bottom take heed of it you do but harbour a Snake in your Bosom that will sting you to Death if you still cherish it that Sin as dearly as you love it will certainly be your Ruine unless you find it out and forsake it Is it your Sloth and Unwillingness to be at the Cost of so much Pains as a narrow Search into your Heart and Ways would require But 1. Can you take Pains to better Purpose Is there any thing in the World that better deserves your Pains 2. Do you not take a great deal more Pains about Matters of small Consequence in comparison of what concerns your Soul and your Peace with God Can you be content to lay out your Strength and spend your Spirits in pursuit of the things of the World and yet stick at a little Pains to be taken about your spiritual Estate Have you not some time heretofore taken a great deal more Pains in pursuit of Sin and sinful Vanities than the searching into your Heart and Ways need cost you Have you not often tired your self in the Ways of Sin with greatest Delight and yet are you so nice and tender so indulgent and favourable to your self as you cannot now be perswaded to be at the Expence of a little Pains to enquire how Matters stand between God and your Soul If this be your Temper you must not think of going to Heaven upon these Terms You must resolve to take Pains or you shall never get thither There must be striving to enter in at the strait Gate and working out your Salvation with Fear and Trembling and a taking the Kingdom of Heaven by Violence or you will fall short of it What say you to these things Are you at length perswaded and resolved to take some Pains to make a strict Search into your self And is it the full Purpose of your Heart to overlook no Sin that by your most diligent and impartial Enquiry you can discover Then for your Direction herein 1. Make use of that Help which the Circumstances of God's Chastisements offer you Try what you may thence gain towards the Discovery of the Sin whereby you have provoked God to afflict you 1st Consider the Circumstance of time when God was first pleased to lay his Hand upon you Enquire what you had been then doing and whether your Affliction did not arrest you even while you were acting Sin in one kind or other or whether it did not follow some Sin at the Heels 2dly Enquire whether the Place where your Affliction seized on you were not that in which you had sinned It may be it seized on you in your Shop where you had been cheating some Body in the Ale-house where you had been mispending your time and abusing your self by Intemperance or it may be in some other Place as bad or worse 3dly Consider the Instruments of your Affliction Doth not God punish you by those who were your Companions in Sin or whose Assistance you made use of for the commission of your Sin Doth he not take those very things with which you sinned and make them the Instruments of your Suffering 4thly Enquire whether there be nothing in the manner of God's chastening you that may lead you to the Sight of your Sin He hath chastened you with the Scourge of the Tongue have not you abused your Tongue to the defaming and injuring of others in the same kind You have met with false and deceitful Dealings from those whom you thought you might have trusted Have not you been as false and deceitful your self And doth not God measure to you according to the Measure that others have received from you God lays bodily Weaknesses and Infirmities on you Are they not the proper Effects of your Intemperance and other lewd and debauched Courses by which you have brought those Distempers and Weaknesses upon you God afflicts you in your Children Have not you set your Affections too much upon them Or have you not neglected them in their Education Or have you not given them ill Example 5thly Consider the Matter and Object of your Affliction and see if that may not help you to see your Sin God hath taken away part of your Estate from you When you had more than now you have did you not abuse it God hath blasted your Beauty Were you not proud of it God hath poured Reproach and Contempt upon you Did you not forfeit your good Name and Reputation and make your self vile by your Sins Have you not dishonoured God for which he
may bring you to sound Repentance for them or that he may more throughly humble you for the Sins that you have truly repented of or that he may thereby rub up and renew the Remembrance of former Sins and therewith also renew your former Sorrow and loathing of your self for those Sins which Time and Forgetfulness and carnal Security have almost worn out and lastly that he may prevent your Relapses into the same Sins Thus you see that God may have many Reasons to correct you for former Sins and therefore that if you will find out the Sin for which he chastens you it will sometimes concern you to cast your Eye far back and take a View of those your former Sins which you have long ago quitted and relinquished 5thly This searching and trying your Ways is a Work that must be often repeated and that not only in regard that you every Day contract new Guilt and run afresh in Arrears with God but because your former Sins may not be discovered presently though you search after them with some good measure of Care and Diligence When we search after a thing which much concerns us to find though we light not on it at first yet we search a second and a third time and will not easily give over searching until we have found it You have been making Search after the Sin for which God afflicts you and you cannot find it you are still in the dark and cannot understand God's Intentions in laying his Hand upon you But search yet once more yea a third and a fourth time if need be you may light on that at last which you have often overlook'd Whatever the Issue of your Enquiry be you will not lose your Labour He who digged up all his Vineyard in hope to find the Treasure which he had been told was hid there though he found not the Treasure he look'd after yet he had it in another kind which he expected not the loosening and mellowing of the Earth brought him in a more plentiful Vintage the next Year If by your Search you should not at last discover any one particular Sin which you can think God aimed at in the Affliction which he hath laid upon you yet you may light on somewhat else which may requite your Pains If no other Benefit accrue to you yet the Satisfaction you have in having used so much Diligence in reviewing the former Passages of your Life will be a sufficient Recompence of the Trouble you have been at therein But yet this is not all there are divers other certain Advantages which redound to us from taking a view of our former Sins and which if it be done in a due manner we never fail of attaining though we find not the particular Sin which we look'd after It makes us more humble it raiseth our Esteem and Valuation of Christ it fills us with Admiration of the free Grace and rich Mercy of God in pardoning so many and so great Sins it inflames our Love and increaseth our Thankfulness to God and it quickens us to more Care and Watchfulness to a more constant and serious Endeavour of sincere and universal Obedience for the time to come Now though it be most seasonable to search and try our Ways in time of Affliction yet there are also some other special Seasons for this Duty As 1. At any time when we are in any great Fear or Danger then though God doth not yet strike us yet he shakes his Rod over us and therefore to prevent what may be coming upon us and to avert those Evils which we fear there can be noâ— better Course than that we make a through Search after those our Sins for which God seems to threaten us 2. After a Man hath fallen into any great Sin Such Falls do for the most part fore-run some Affliction and make for the present a Breach between God and us For the closing up of which Breach and renewing of our Peace with God it will concern us not only to be humbled for that particular Sin but to make diligent Enquiry after such other Sins as may interpose between God and us and deprive us of the Light of his Countenance and the Sense of his Love 3. When we are in Expectation of or Suitors unto God for any special Mercy For considering that our Sins separate between God and us and withhold good things from us nothing can be more seasonable or necessary than that when we are waiting on God for any special Favour we carefully search and try our Ways that no Sin may hinder our Mercies obstruct the Passage of them to us or blast the Means which we make use of for obtaining them 4. Before our more solemn and extraordinary Approaches unto God as namely before our drawing near unto the Table of the Lord. God will be sanctified in all our Approaches unto him but especially in our most solemn Approaches And in particular as concerning our drawing near unto the Table of the Lord a more than ordinary Search into our selves at that time is in several Respects seasonable 1. In regard of the express Command of God 1 Cor. 11.28 Let a Man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. 2. In regard of the great Danger of coming unworthily He that eateth and drinketh unworthily Ver. 29. eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself Now unless a Man search and try his Heart and Ways how can he know whether he be an unworthy Receiver or no He must needs run a great Hazard who comes Hand over Head before he hath enquired into himself whether he be a meet Guest for the Table of the Lord or not Yea 't is very much to be feared that he who is so careless as that he never enquires into his Fitness comes unpreparedly and eats and drinks unworthily 3. In regard of the great Benefits which we shall reap thereby and the Usefulness thereof in relation to the Sacrament 1st In that Ordinance we are to bewail and mourn over our Sins we must come to it with godly Sorrow for them And how can that be unless we know them And how can we come to know them unless we search after them 'T is the reviewing of our Actions that sets before us the Sins for which we are to be humbled and affects our hearts with them 2dly We are at that Ordinance to renew our Covenant with God and to take up fresh Resolutions of cleaving to him with full purpose of Heart for the future And what is more conducing hereunto than that we by a narrow Search into our selves be informed how and wherein we have departed from God and broken Covenant with him 3dly We are there to act Faith on Christ for the Pardon of our Sins and we there expect to have the Pardon of them sealed unto us in both which Respects it is then most seasonable and requisite that we should look back and take a Survey of
our former Sins For 1. Hereby we shall come to know what and how many and great those Sins are for the Pardon whereof we are to act Faith on Christ 2. We shall be the better able to value that Pardon of so many and so great Sins which he is pleased in that Ordinance to seal to us and consequently we shall the better understand how much Love and Thankfulness is due from us both unto Christ who hath with his Blood purchased the Pardon of our Sins for us and to God the Father who for Christ's sake hath bestowed it on us 4thly If this Search and Trial of our selves were constantly and duly made before the Sacrament of how great Advantage would it be towards our Growth and Increase in Grace By this Course we should 1. Discover whether we thrive in Grace or no we should evidently perceive whether it be better or worse with us since our last appearing before the Lord at his Table 2. We should with Thankfulness acknowledg any further Degrees of Grace or Strength against Corruption that we have attained 3. We should be humbled for our Backslidings and Declinings after our solemn Engagements to the contrary at our last partaking at the Table of the Lord. 4. We should renew and strengthen our Resolutions against our Sins and engage our selves to a more conscientious Performance of whatsoever Duties God requires of us If any Man think there is small Benefit to be expected from such a Course he is certainly one who hath been little acquainted with it or hath not observed it with Care and Constancy Many of those who come to that Ordinance make no Conscience at all of preparing them selves but as 't is to be feared oush upon it inconsiderately and profanely Others prepare themselves out overly and carelesly or if sometimes they take more Pairs than ordinary in searching and trying their Ways and in other Parts of that Preparation which is requisite for a due 〈…〉 God in that Ordinance yet it is but very seldom that they are at this Bains For the most part they suffer one thing or other to divert them and take 〈◊〉 off from bestowing time that way and so the great Business of preparing themselves being put off to the last is but half done or as good as wholly omitted Reflect and ask your own Conscience how it hath been with you and if you find this to have been your very Case then never object that there is little Advantage from such a Course until you have practised it better and with more Constancy But to return to the Business of the Text the searching and trying of our Ways in time of any extraordinary Affliction You will say perhaps you have searched and done it with all the Seriousness and Diligence you could and earnestly implored God's Assistance therein and this you have done often and yet you cannot understand what particular Sin or Sins God aims at in the Afflictions which it hath pleased him to lay upon you You discover Multitudes of Sins that you have been guilty of but among them all to discern which they are which God at present corrects you for above others is that which by all your Enquiry you cannot attain Answ I answer It may so be that you cannot single out any one particular Sin neither it may be did God ever intend it He sometimes by Afflictions intends to humble you for Sin in general to correct your general Carelesness and Slackness in the whole Course of your Life and to engage you to walk every way more strictly and humbly before him He intends also perhaps to mind you of old Sins which you have almost forgotten and to provoke you to renew your Repentance and Humiliation for them Wherefore when at any time you cannot find out any particular Sin for which above others God should at present have a Controversy with you fall upon Sin in the general and improve your Affliction towards the attaining of greater Measures of Humiliation and Reformation judg and humble your self for old Sins as if they had been lately committed and let the Sight of all your other Sins lead you up to the Fountain of all Actual Sin to your Original Corruption and bewail that and loath your self for it Moreover you must remember that God hath other Ends in afflicting his besides the chastening of them for Sin he also by Afflictions tries exerciseth and improveth Faith Patience and other Graces He by Afflictions stirs you up to Prayer weans your Heart from the World helps you the better to relish and savour Heavenly things the Sweetness whereof you taste not when you are glutted with outward Prosperity If you be any way a Gainer by your Affliction you have reason to take Comfort therein and to be thankful Thus I have done with the former Duty in time of Affliction namely the searching and trying of our Ways I come now to the latter Duty in those Words And let us turn unto the Lord Of which I shall speak briefly because I have in good part prevented my self in what hath been spoken concerning the former Duty From the manner of Expression or Phrase of turning to the Lord we learn the true Nature both of Sin and Repentance Sin is an Aversion and turning away from God and Repentance consequently is a returning to him This is manifest from the usual Language of the Scriptures which call Sin a forsaking God a departing from God a revolting from him and the like The Scriptures thus expressing Sin are so frequent that I need not stand to mention them And the Scriptures setting forth the Nature of Repentance by returning unto God are as frequent That the Nature of Sin lies in an Aversion from God and Conversion to the Creature will better appear if we descend to some particular Instances Worldly Joy what is it but a Joy in the Creature instead of the Creator who is the proper Object of spiritual Joy Carnal Confidence what is it but a confiding in and reliance on the Creature instead of God And so 't is no other than a leaving of God to betake our selves to the Creature for those Supplies and Assistances which we stand in need of So the Prophet sets forth the Nature of that Sin Cursed be the Man that trusteth in Man Jer. 17.5 and maketh Flesh his Arm and whose Heart departeth from the Lord. And although this our departing from God and betaking our selves to the Creature be not so apparent in divers other Sins yet if we consider the Matter throughly we shall find the thing is still the same For in all Sin 't is some kind of Profit or Pleasure or Content or Satisfaction in one kind or other that we look after Now we sin when we seek these things in the Creature turning aside from God in whom there is most eminently whatsoever the Creature can afford us towards our Satisfaction and infinitely more Hence may be inferred several things 1. The
of God calls the accepting of the Punishment of our Sins Lev. 26.41 But if the Sinner be not convinced that he suffers for his Sins and that his Transgressions have been the Procurers of his Afflictions it cannot easily be but that his corrupt Nature should rebel against God and impatiently rise up against his Providence as unequal too rigorous severe 2dly Neither can a Man profit by his Afflictions unless he be convinced that his Sins have been the Cause of them and that God strikes at them in his Sufferings Who can think himself concerned to amend and reform that upon the account of his Afflictions which he never discerned to be the Cause of them nor can be convinced that they have any relation to it But let a Man once be throughly apprehensive of the Displeasure of God against him for his particular Sins and see the Hand of God in his Afflictions striking at those Sins and then he will soon think himself highly concerned to rectify or remove out of the way that which hath done him so much Mischief He will think he cannot make too much haste to quit and be rid of that for which he sorely smarts already and may yet smart more unless by his speedy Reformation he prevent it When God had sent a Plague among the Israelites for their murmuring Moses being deeply sensible of the fierce Wrath of God against them for that Sin saith to Aaron Numb 16.46 Take a Censer and put Fire therein from off the Altar and put on Incense and go quickly unto the Congregation and make an Atonement for them for there is Wrath gone out from the Lord the Plague is begun Go quickly saith he for Wrath is gone out from the Lord. A lively Sense of the Anger and Displeasure of God in your Afflictions for your Sins will speed and quicken your Endeavours to make your Peace with God by answering the End of his Corrections 3dly Neither can you rationally expect to be freed from your Afflictions in a way of Mercy until they bring you to the Sight of your Sins and you look upon them as the Punishment of Sin For till that be done upon you your Afflictions are wholly fruitless as having done no part of that Work for effecting of which God sent them To understand why you are afflicted and to see the Sins which God strikes at in your Afflictions is the first Step towards God's attaining his End in afflicting you If this be not done upon you nothing is done And therefore you have no Reason to expect the Removal of them unless it be to make way for some other more smarting Rod which may effectually work that in you which God intended But though in these Respects it be most necessary to see and own our Sins as the Cause and Procurers of our Sufferings yet to do it is as difficult as 't is necessary For such is the Pride and Stubbornness of our Hearts that we are not easily brought to take Shame to our selves and to acknowledg our own particular Sins to have been the Cause of our Sufferings saying to our selves as God saith to Jerusalem Jer. 4.18 Thy VVay and thy Doings have procured these things unto thee We are very unwilling to acknowledg our own Guilt and would much rather lay the Cause of our Sufferings at any other Door than our own And this we are especially apt to do in publick and common Calamities These we ascribe 1. To Chance or common Providence in which we do not think our selves particularly touch'd or concern'd 2. To the Wickedness of some malicious and mischievous Instruments that were the Contrivers and Causers of our Sufferings 3. To the Sins of others The Provocations of such and such profligate and abominable Persons drew down the Judgments of God upon the Place and not our own Offences As for our selves we suffered only in the Croud and because we were found among those who were to be punished Or 4. If we acknowledg our Sins in the general to have been the meritorious Cause of our Sufferings yet we descend not to Particulars we charge not our selves with such and such Sins for which God hath been angry with us And so our owning our Sin only in general as the Cause of our Sufferings is but a formal thing with which we are little affected 'T is little better than if we had said We believe indeed that we have deserved all that is come upon us but we know not how nor wherein Ezra no doubt went a great deal further 't is not to be questioned but that he had in his most passionate Confessions an Eye upon the particular Sins for which they suffered in Babylon We may be sure they were not Generalities only that so deeply affected him he had upon his Heart the particular Instances of their vile Provocations together with the Circumstances of them and so must we if we desire to be affected with God's terrible Providences as we ought and to take them to Heart in a right manner Though what I am now speaking concerns us all yet there may be those amongst us who may think themselves very little concerned therein 1. Those who though they have been Sufferers together with others yet have been free from all those foul and enormous Offences and high Provocations which many others have been guilty of and possibly over and above their being free from the Guilt and Stain of fouler Sins they have been such as have made a stricter Profession of Religion than most others These Persons may be very inclinable to think that God did not particularly intend the correcting of them for their Sins in the common Judgment that lighted upon the Place but that they suffer rather upon their Neighbours Account than their own 2. Of the same Opinion perhaps may they be tempted to be who seem even as to outward things to have gained by their Afflictions and to be in a better Condition as to Trade than they were in before 'T is easy for such if any such be to entertain themselves with a pleasant Dream that God only emptied them to the end he might fill them fuller than they were before and that he had no other Design in pulling down their Houses than that he might build them up fairer But let neither the one nor the other deceive themselves They would but flatter themselves if they should think that God did not aim at their Sins in his severe Providences as well as at the Sins of their Neighbours As for the former of these though they may have been free from the fouler Abominations and crying Sins of the Place and though they may have made a strict and high Profession of Religion yet even such may have been tainted with the Pollution of many Sins which may have had no small Influence in procuring the heavy Judgments of God upon the Town And their Sins in respect of their nearer relation to God and stricter Profession
may have reflected more Dishonour upon the Name of God than many of those Sins in others which have otherwise had much more Flagitiousness and Enormity in them And as for the latter sort who may seem to have gained by their Losses If that be the Condition of any amongst us let them not be too forward thence to conclude their Innocency God may pull down in Anger and wound in highest Displeasure and yet such is his admirable Goodness and Compassion that he may anon repent him of the Evils which he hath for our Sins most justly brought upon us and with Advantage rebuild what he had pulled down and so fully heal the Wounds that he had made as to leave us in a better Condition of Health and Strength than he found us in God by the Prophet Ezekiel foretelling the Return of the Israelites from Babylon and their Re-establishment in their own Land promised to settle them after their old Estates and to do better unto them than at their beginning Ezek. 36.11 Now what think you Might they when God had made good this Promise thence infer that God was never angry with them for their Sins and that their Sufferings in Babylon were never intended as their Punishment Their Case may be yours God hath it may be since the Fire dealt better with you than at the beginning you are in some Respects perhaps in a better Condition than formerly perhaps your Trade is doubled Will you therefore now wipe your Mouths and say you were innocent you never offended God so as to have had any Hand in procuring his Judgments to be poured out upon this Place Far be it from you to draw such a proud Conclusion from God's gracious Providence towards you Though God hath not only built you up again but adorned and beautified you and advanced you to a more splendid Condition than before yet cease not you still to acknowledge and give glory to the righteous hand of God in pulling you down and emptying you Amid all your present Mercies and Advantages be you still found putting your mouths in the dust loathing and abhorring your selves for your evil ways and from your hearts professing That as you were most justly pluckt down so you might still as justly have lain in Ruins and Ashes and have been made perpetual Desolations as God once threatned the Land of the Chaldaeans Jer. 25.12 a place never to be inhabited any more And so much concerning the second thing observable from this first aggravation of their sins The Third Particular thence observable is That to return to sin after we have been severely punished for it and grievously smarted for it doth much heighten our sin and render it much more provoking in the sight of God This is clearly implied in the form of speech which Ezra useth After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass should we again break thy commandments As if he had said This were a provocation of an high nature far be it from any of us to be guilty of it There are these three things that greaten and aggravate our sins committed against God and notwithstanding former great Severities against those our sins 1. To sin again in the same kind after that we had grievously smarted for sin argues a great degree of hardness of heart The scalled Child dreads the fire and the very bruit Beasts are afraid of medling with that for which they have been soundly beaten And were there any tenderness upon the heart of man he would not again easily be drawn to venture on that which he hath already paid so dearly for 2. It argues an heart strongly ingaged to sin and desperately bent after it which no former Severities will restrain or hold in It shews a man is mad in love with sin that will out after it whatever it cost him 'T is as much as if he said 'T is true I have already tasted of the bitter fruits of sin I can tell by experience what 't will cost me But however I must please my self I must gratify my sinful desires my sensual and brutish Lusts and I will I am resolved to do it come what will of it 3. It argues a slighting of the Anger and Displeasure of the Almighty and a contempt of his Rod. Herein a man's carriage towards God is like that of a stubborn and incorrigible Child against him that chastens him Though you make him smart he cares not correct him as long as you will he is still the same and will do what he pleaseth do you what you will or can to reclaim him Take heed of this aggravation of your sins you who have been Sufferers by the Fire and all you who have any other way been severely handled for your sins Beware how you have any more to do with those sins against which the fierce indignation of the Lord hath been so discovered and his Word as it were revealed from Heaven Keep at the greatest distance from those Sins come not near the Borders or Confines of them run away from all temptations to them And that you may be preserved from them 1. Labour to know what they be 'T is now a good while since the dreadful Fire though you were then in a miserable hurry full of dread distractions and confusions so as you had scarce the command of your own thoughts though then you had not so much sedateness and composedness of spirit nor so much freedom and liberty as to sit down and consider as to reflect and enquire into your self as to call your self to an account and find out the causes of God's fierce Indignation yet since you have had time enough to do it Have you done it Have you gotten a sight of all those your particular Sins by which the Wrath of God had been so highly incensed against you If you have not if this work hath so long been neglected if to this day you have never set about it if still you be strangers to the reasons of God's contending with you yet be now at length persuaded to make a narrow search after all those Sins which have been the procurers of so much misery to your selves and this place 2. Having found out those sins have them often in your thoughts and if it be possible carry always upon your heart the impressions of that terrible Judgment at least be sure that you often call it to mind and renew the lively remembrance of it and labour to preserve the images and representations of all the dismal circumstances of it in your mind and then say with Ezra here in the Text After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass shall we again break thy commandments So say in reference to all your particular sins your filthiness and uncleanness your drunkenness and swearing your profanation of the Lord's Day and Ordinances your pride and gallantry your covetousness and earthly-mindedness your
unconscionable dealing and your dishonest methods and artifices in the managing of your Trades and particular Callings your scant Measures and deceitful Ballances your mingling adulterating and embasing your Commodities to impose upon the Buyer and inhance your gain your allowing your selves in dissimulation and lying and falshood for your advantage your laying aside the golden Rule of our Saviour and making no conscience of dealing with others as you desire to be dealt with your selves your seeking your selves and your own things with the disregard of your Neighbours and the neglect of the Publick good your lukewarmness coldness and indifferency in the things that concern the glory of God and the common and great interests of this place your not using your power and the authority you are entrusted and armed with for the due punishment of sin and the beating down and suppressing of vice your unequal and partial dealing in the administration of Justice your mutual animosities variances envyings emulations and heart-burnings I say in reference to all these so far as any of you may have been guilty of them and in reference to all other sins whatsoever which any of you may be convinced of as your own sins by which you have contributed towards the drawing down of the late terrible Judgment of God upon this place Say with Ezra in the Text After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass should we again break thy commandments Should we again return to those our sinful practises that have laid this place in ashes and made it a ruinous heap That have made it a by-word and a Proverb a gazing-stock and an hissing and an astonishment to all that pass by and that have caused the ears of all to tingle that have heard but the rumour and report of what the righteous hand of God hath brought upon us O let 's never think of taking up our former sins and closing with them again after that God hath thus declared his anger against us for them and by such terrible effects of highest displeasure done almost whatsoever could be done to imbitter them to us and disingage us from them But besides all this to set our hearts at a greater remoteness from those sins let 's also make use of those other Considerations which this Scripture affords us 2 Therefore though God hath severely handled us yet he hath in wrath remembred mercy and punished us less than our iniquities deserve If we take a true estimate of his dealings with us we cannot chuse but discern much lenity and moderation much tenderness and compassion to have been mingled with his severity and that in many respects 1. He that turned your Houses into ashes and rubbish and took away a great part of your substance might have taken away all and left you nothing 2. He might by the same terrible Fire that deprived you of your Estate have also deprived you of your Children and dearest Relations The loss of one Child in such a way of terrible Providence would have troubled you more and have gone nearer your heart than the loss of all your Estate 3. It might have been your own lot to have perished in the flames God that mercifully spared you and rescued you from the violence of the fire might by it have hurried you out of this World into Hell and sent you from one fire to another This fire was terrible but the unquenchable fire of Hell had been much more terrible 4. Though you had escaped the fire and been as a Brand pluckt out of the burning yet such impressions might the fright and danger you were in have left upon you that you might have lost the use of your Reason and have been as a Child or Ideot all your days 5. God might have made such impressions of his Wrath upon your spirit by that terrible Judgment as you might never have been rid of them but have carried them to your Grave You might have been not only a terror to your self but Magor Missabib a terror to all about you as long as you had lived How mercifully and favourably hath God treated you amid his greatest Severities seeing none of these things have befallen you or any of yours O then go one step further with Ezra in the Text and say After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass and seeing thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve should we again break thy commandments 3. God was not only pleased to deal mercifully and compassionately with you in that heavy stroke punishing you less than your iniquities deserved not stirring up all his wrath nor suffering his whole displeasure to arise but he hath also since been very gracious and favourable kind and bountiful to you many ways 1. Immediately upon that dreadful stroke what rowlings of Bowels and tender Compassions did he cause in all the Countrey round about What speedy and plentiful Supplies in that difficult Season in that hour of your extream necessities did God move the hearts of people to send you in from every quarter Nobility and Gentry and Commonalty Towns and Villages in all the circuit round striving who should do most for you and whose Charity should come most speedily in for your present succour and relief What Moses saith of that signal night in which God brought the Children of Israel out of Egypt Exod. 12 4â— It is a night much to be observed to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt this is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations The same or the like may I say of that day of your distress when God in such a strange manner touch'd the hearts of all sorts of People with a tender sense of your sad and deplorable Condition and so enlarged their hearts and hands towards you for your relief and supplies 't is a day much to be observed to the Lord to give him the glory of that mercy 't is that day which deserves never to be forgotten by you or yours 2. How kind and gracious was God to you in the mild and favourable Winter-season that followed when many of the poorer sort were even housless and harbourless and when generally the Fewel that People had laid in for the Winter had been consumed by the fire What a gracious Providence of God towards you was it That when you had neither warm Houses nor provision of Fewel to defend you from the injuries of an hard Winter the Weather should be so mild and temperate as the like had seldom been known and that through his goodness to you you should less need those helps and defences against the cold which God had then deprived you of Should a severe and sharp Winter have followed the Fire it could scarce have been possible but that many must have perished before the Winter had been over 3. What Assistances and large
Contributions have you had throughout the Kingdom towards the recruiting of your Losses and the re-building of the Town Though some miscarriages and loss there may have been in managing the Collections and though all that you have received bears not that proportion to your Sufferings and Losses which some have conceived it did yet I believe there was never any instance of any Town in England burnt or ruined for which so large Collections have been made So exceedingly and almost universally throughout the Kingdom did God stir up and open the hearts of people to commiserate your Condition God who hath the hearts of all men in his hand and turneth them as the rivers of water whithersoever he pleaseth hath so toucht the hearts of Prince and People City and Countrey that all have contributed their assistances in an extraordinary and eminent manner towards your restauration And as for the King's favour and bounty towards you it hath been very signal several ways the Instances whereof are very well known and must for ever be remembred setting aside London the Metropolis of the Kingdom I think he never did so much for any distressed Town in his Dominions as for this In all which you must look to God and acknowledge him as your great Benefactor 4. Through the favour of God and the great helps you have had from those instruments of your good which he hath raised up the Town is now in a fair way of being rebuilt and of being improved and advanced to a greater degree of lustre and beauty than ever it had before the fire And moreover many of you I hope most of you are in a good way of imployment and livelihood the Trade of the Town beginning to recover together with the Building 5. It hath also pleased God to add another Blessing that sweetens all your other Mercies and gives you the comfortable enjoyment of them and that is Health There were great and just fears lest the straitness and inconvenience of poor Houses and narrow Rooms into which for want of better Accommodations several Families were sometimes enforced to crowd might have occasioned some Epidemical Disease in the Town but in this also the wonderful goodness of God to the Town hath appeared there having hardly ever been known so long a Season of so much health in the Town as since the Fire 6. There is yet one thing more that crowns all your Mercies and that is That God affords you his Gospel a Mercy which of it self alone were enough to make you ample amends for all your Sufferings though God should strip you of all other Comforts and give you only the bread of adversity Isa 30.20 and the water of affliction Now then God having done all this for you having raised you out of the dust and set you upon your feet once more and loaded you with so many Favours what remains but that now you add what Ezra further adds in the Text and say full out with him After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass seeing thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve and hast given us such a deliverance as this should we again break thy commandments Wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping I beseech you let us all labour to say so from our very hearts and with the same holy indignation against our sins and strength of resolution to forsake them as he did and then he that hath begun to do us good and carried on his work of mercy thus far will no doubt perfect it to his own glory and our comfort But seeing our danger is so great if we return to our folly after such terrible Judgments and signal Mercies give me leave to caution you against some of those sins which we are most in danger of 1. Now that your Town begins to rise again with greater beauty and lustre take heed of being lifted up Be not high-minded but fear lest for your sins God lay you low and level you with the ground once more You know what Solomon saith Prov. 16 18. Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall The odious sin of Pride hath formerly been imputed to this place And doth it not begin to bud again as the Prophet speaks notwithstanding all that God hath done to humble us If it do not what means our apparrelling our selves above our rank and quality what means our forwardness to come as near as we can to every vain Fashion and immodest Dress which our loose times have taken up How is it that we cannot content our selves with such comely Apparrel and modest Dresses as become a People that have not long since been among the pots and lain in the ashes and whereby we might be Patterns of modesty and sobriety to others 2. Take heed of making too much haste to recover and repair your Losses by any unlawful Artifices or unjustifiable Methods of gain Solomon again hath taught us Prov. 28.20 That he who maketh hast to be rich shall not be innocent 1. Take heed of setting unreasonable Prizes upon your Commodities Do not so far deceive your selves as to think your Losses now justify you in demanding what Rates you please That were a very ill use of that heavy Judgment that hath been upon you Content your selves with moderate gain so shall you rise again more surely though more slowly 2. Take heed of dealing hardly with the Poor and oppressing them in those ways in which you make use of them Let them have what is fit and pay them well for their labour Though your own gain for the present may be somewhat the less yet both your Comfort and the Blessing of God upon what you have will be so much the greater Never think your self a loser by using a poor man well and giving him with the most rather than with the least for the service he doth you 3. As for you whose Calling lies in giving entertainment to others 1. Take heed that you for your advantage make not your selves partakers of other mens sins by entertaining idle and intemperate persons at unseasonable hours or by giving them more drink than is fit This were the ready way to debauch the Town and draw upon you the Curses of those Families that may be ready to starve at home while bad Husbands lose their time and mispend their Money in your Houses by which their Relations should be supported Can you think that what is thus gained will ever prosper with you Would it not bring the Curse of God upon all that you have 2. Above all take heed of making your Houses the harbour and rendezvouz of leud and filthy Persons Hath God for the sins of Sodom inflicted the Judgment of Sodom upon you and dare any set up and carry on the same trade again in contempt of God and in open defiance
himself both Soul and Body In short Afflictions are a kind of spiritual Eye-salve whereby our Sight is cleared and we are enabled to see what we saw not before we were afflicted and to see those things more clearly and distinctly which before we saw darkly and confusedly Afflictions help us to see those Sins in our selves which before we discerned not or if we had some obscure and imperfect Sight of them if we had a dark and confused View of them before we were afflicted our Afflictions help us to see them and to discern the Evil and Danger of them more clearly 4. Afflictions put us upon the great and necessary Duties of Humiliation and Prayer Afflictions make us humble our selves for our Sins by which we have brought our Afflictions upon us and they make us earnest Suitors to God in Prayer for the Pardon of our Sins and for the Removal of those our Afflictions which have been the bitter Fruit of our Sins Afflictions have often taught Men to humble themselves and pray who were mere Strangers to those Duties before and never had any Acquaintance with them till God's afflicting Hand was upon them Even the Mariners a Generation of Men that for the most part do not much addict themselves to Devotion will pray and call upon God in a Tempest as we may see Psal 107. where both their Danger and their Carriage therein is thus described Psal 107.25 26 27 28. He commandeth and raiseth the stormy Winds which lift up the Waves they mount up to the Heavens they go down again to the deep their Soul is melted because of Trouble they reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken Man and are at their Wits and Then they cry unto the Lord in their Trouble and he bringeth them out of their Distresses So Jonah 1.5 The Mariners being afraid by reason of a mighty Tempest cried every Man unto his God So the Prophet saith of the Jews Isa 26.16 Lord in Trouble have they visited thee they poured out a Prayer when thy Chastning was upon them And this is that which God aims at in afflicting his People I will go and return to my Place Hos 5.15 that is I will withdraw from them saith he till they acknowledg their Offence and seek my Face This here in my Text was the Effect which Affliction took upon Manasseh When he was in Affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him This Course St. James directs the Afflicted unto Is any among you afflicted let him pray Jam. 5.13 To the like Purpose is the Exhortation of St. Peter to such as are cast down under the afflicting Hand of God 1 Pet. 5.6 Humble your selves under the mighty Hand of God that he may exalt you in due time 5. Afflictions make Men willing to forsake their Sins and induce them to take up Resolutions to forsake them and cast them off The beloved Sins of Men are sweet to them and they are most unwilling to leave them as long as they can enjoy them without Trouble or Molestation as long as they suffer nothing and as they smart not upon the account of their Sins But when they are chastned and afflicted for their Sins this makes Sin bitter to them and makes them resolve to part with it to cast it off and abandon it this makes them bind and oblige themselves by the most solemn and sacred Bonds never to return to it any more This is that which God's People were to do in the time of their Affliction they must resolve upon other Courses they must promise and vow to renounce and forsake those Sins by which they had drawn down the Judgments of God upon them they must return to the Lord and say unto him Asher shall not save us Hos 14.3 we will not ride upon Horses neither will we say any more to the Works of our hands Ye are our Gods These Resolutions their Afflictions should produce and such Resolutions they would produce when their Sufferings being sanctified to them should effectually reduce them and bring them home to God And the like Resolutions did David's Afflictions produce in him as we may gather from the frequent mention there is of the Vows which he then made unto God Thy Vows are upon me O God I will render Praise unto thee Psal 56.12 Thou O God hast heard my Vows Psal 61.5 Prepare Mercy and Truth which may preserve me So will I sing Praise unto thee for ever that I may daily perform my Vows ver 7 8. I will pay thee my Vows which my Lips have uttered and my Mouth hath spoken when I was in Trouble Psal 66.13 14. Now by these his Vows no doubt but he obliged himself to testify his Thankfulness unto God when he should deliver him out of his Troubles not only by offering Sacrifices which were the usual Testifications of Thankfulness in those times but also by a more careful Endeavour to forsake all Sin and to give up himself to God more intirely in a way of constant and universal Obedience without which all their Sacrifices and Oblations had in God's Account signified little The Sum of all that hath been spoken is this Afflictions will work upon Men and prevail with them to return to God from whom they have gone astray when all other Means are ineffectual That 't is not from any natural Property or inherent Virtue in Afflictions themselves that they produce this Effect but from the Grace of God and the Operation of his Spirit accompanying Afflictions and sanctifying them to us That Afflictions sanctified Afflictions contribute towards the reclaiming of Sinners 1. By making them more serious and by causing them to reflect upon themselves and consider 2. By bringing them to the sight of their Sins which they do several ways 3. By acquainting them with the great Evil and Hainousness of Sin and with the Danger thereof 4. By putting the Sinner upon Humiliation and Prayer 5. By making him willing to forsake his Sins and by causing him to take up Resolutions to forsake his Sins and never to return to them any more Now I come to apply what hath been spoken Vse 1. If Afflictions will work upon Men and prevail with them to return to God when all other-Means are ineffectual this may inform us how entremely bad we are what sinful Natures we have how disingenuous we are how much our Hearts are set upon Sin and how fondly in love with it we are 'T is a very bad Child that will be wrought upon and be made better by nothing but the Rod if no Perswasions no wholsom Counsels no Admonitions no Promises no Threatnings will do him any good if he must be beaten and smart soundly or he will miscarry and undo himself This is our natural Temper this is the very Case of us all by Nature nothing but Blows and the Smart of the Rod will
take off our Hearts from Sin and make us willing to leave it How should it humble and abase us and cause us even to loath our selves that we should have such wicked and vile Natures that we should be so disingenuous and that there should be such a cursed League between us and Sin that we should have so much Kindness and intire Friendship and Affection for Sin which is most odious to God and most destructive to our own Souls Vse 2. If Afflictions will work upon Men and prevail with them to return to God from whom they have gone astray when all other Means are ineffectual this should reconcile us to Afflictions and make us willing to submit to that spiritual Discipline which the most wise God thinks fit to train us up under for our Good Why should you murmur and fret against the Lord when his chastning Hand is upon you Why should your Heart rise against that wholsom and necessary Severity which he makes use of for reclaiming you Is there not a Cause Doth he not see that nothing else will prevail with you What would you have him do Would you have him let you alone and suffer you to perish in your Sins Be not so in love with your present East as to be unwilling to suffer a little here to prevent your suffering eternally in another World Be not so fondly foolishly irrationally and madly in love with Sin as to be averse from undergoing any thing whereby you may be delivered from the Power and Dominion of it Have not such mean low and unworthy Thoughts of the great and inestimable Mercy of being reduced from the Error of your Ways and brought home unto God as to think much of any Severity by which it may be effected Certainly if you judg Sin to be the greatest Evil and if you be really of the mind that 't is the greatest Happiness to be freed from it and to be at Peace with God and to be reconciled to him you will not think any Course harsh grievous and intolerable whereby it may be attained I now come to a more particular Consideration of what Manasseh did in his Affliction He besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him In which Words we are informed what Manasseh did First in general Terms He besought the Lord his God and then we are more particularly informed how he sought him namely by Humiliation and Prayer He humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and he prayed unto him Concerning the Account in general of what Manasseh did in those words He besought the Lord his God I shall say nothing because there is nothing in those general Terms but what is comprehended in the following Particulars namely that he humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him First He humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers In which Words there are three things considerable That he humbled himself That he humbled himself greatly and that he humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers 1st He humbled himself But when was it that he humbled himself It was when God had first humbled him and not till then when God had delivered him into the Hands of his Enemies when God had caused him to be carried away captive to Babylon made him a Prisoner and put him in durance there from whence he knew not whether he should ever be released and set at liberty again Whence we may observe That proud stubborn and incorrigible Sinners will not humble themselves till God hath humbled them till by Afflictions he hath taken down their haughty Spirits and laid them low Wherefore you who turn the deaf Ear to all God's gracious Calls and Invitations to Repentance and to all his severe Denunciations of Judgments would you prevent God's humbling you by those sharp and heavy Afflictions which would be very grievous to you then humble your selves betimes before he takes you in hand to humble you This is the best Course or rather the only Course that you can take for preventing God's humbling you 1 Cor. 11.31 for if we would judg our selves we should not be judged When Manasseh lay under God's afflicting Hand then he humbled himself The Time of Affliction is the most proper Season for Humiliation For 1. Then if ever we see our Sins our Afflictions open our Eyes make us look about us and help us to discover those our Miscarriages which before we would not own nor take notice of 2. Then the Heart is softned and touched with the sense of our Sins 3. Then also the Sinner begins to have a sense of God's Displeasure against him for his Sins By the Afflictions which the Hand of God hath laid upon him he perceives that God is angry with him which he was not in the least sensible of before he was afflicted Now all these things do not a little further our Humiliation Vse Let us therefore when Afflictions come upon us improve that Season for our Humiliation else all those Advantages will be lost Now if you ask how we are to be active in humbling our selves I answer 1. By making diligent search after our Sins by labouring to find them out and acquaint our selves with them And this is no easy Work considering our natural Blindness in spiritual things our Unwillingness to know the worst of our selves our Partiality to our selves and our Aptness to overlook our Sins 2. By using our best Endeavours to affect our Hearts with our Sins which is to be done by a serious Consideration of the Nature Quality and Aggravations of our Sins as also of the extreme Danger attending them and of the dismal Consequents of Sin unrepented of and the most fearful and eternal Wrath of God which it unavoidably exposeth the Sinner unto 3. By humble and affectionate Confession of our Sins unto God with our most earnest and importunate Supplications to him for the pardon and forgiveness of them 4. By judging our selves for them and by passing Sentence against our selves as those who have by our Provocations deserved to be disowned and cast off for ever and to be made the miserable Objects of God's fierce Indignation to Eternity 5. By taking up the most firm and stedfast Resolutions to cast off all our Transgressions for the time to come and as far as God shall be pleased by his Grace to enable us never to return to Folly any more Now followeth the second Particular He humbled himself greatly as he had been a very great and most heinous Sinner And hence we may farther observe That our Humiliation must be proportionable to the Nature and Quality of our Sins A little slight Humiliation for great and grievous Sins is in God's account next to no Humiliation at all Let not therefore such as have been guilty of great and horrid Sins think it is enough for them to have hang'd down their Heads as