and quicken it The next thing to be enquired into is how God keeps Men back from presumptuous Sins even then when their proneness to them is most violent and eager Now for satisfaction to this you must know God hath two hands whereby he holds Men back from their Sins First The strong hand of his providence Secondly The powerful hand of his Grace and sometimes God puts both these hands to it in a mixt way of Providence and Grace together these are as it were God's left hand and his right hand by the one he over-rules the actions and by the other he over-rules the hearts of Men and both almightily God by his Providence keeps Men from sin First God frequently withholds Men from the Commission of Sin by a strong hand of Providence upon them frequently he doth so and that he doth not so always is not because he is defective either in Power or Goodness whereby he should restrain them from evil but because he is Infinite in Wisdom whereby he knows how to bring good out of evil and therefore before I proceed to lay down those several ways that Providence takes to hinder the commission of sin I shall premise this That it is no taint at all to the pure Holiness of God that he doth by his Providence concur to those wickednesses of Men that if he pleased he might prevent and hinder that God doth so is clear for Providence is not so often a restraint from sin as it is a powerful temptation unto Sin it is a temptation as it administers Objects and Opportunities and as it sutes them both unto the lusts of Men thus Cain killed his Brother Abel by a Providence and Achan stole the wedge of gold Judas betrayed his Master and the Jews Crucified him by a Providence yea all that villany that ever was acted under the Sun was all brought forth out of the cursed Wombs of Mens lusts and made fruitful by God's Providences neither is it hard to conceive how God should without sin himself concur to sin in others since his most Soveraign Will being above all Law cannot possibly fall under any guilt we are obliged to keep back Men from the commission of sin when it is in our power to do it but no such obligation lies upon God though he can easily keep all wicked Men in the World from ever sinning more yea though they are so tied up that they are not able to sin without his permission and concurrence yet he permits wisely concurs holily and yet notwithstanding at last punishes justly In brief God doth whatever Man doth for as the Prophet saith he works all our works in us and for us and in him we live move and have our beings and yet in one and the same action Man sins and God is holy because Man acts contrary to that Law which God hath set him but God himself is subject to no Law besides his own Soveraign Will and where there is no Law there is no transgression as the Apostle speaks in Romans 4.15 God is not bound to hinder the commission of sin as we are and therefore when he permits nay when Providence accomplisheth it still is he holy just and good still is he righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works though he works that together with Men that makes them unrighteous and unholy this I thought fit to premise that so when you hear how many ways God is able to hinder the commission of sin by his Providence you should not suffer any undue thoughts to rise up in your hearts against his Holiness when he chuseth sometimes rather to permit and concur to the sins of Men than to hinder and forbid them who when he permits sin permits it righteously and when he hinders sin hinders it almightily Now there are four remarkable ways whereby the All-wise Providence of God hinders the commission of a sin even then when Men are most bent and eager upon it Providence prevents sin by shortning the life of the Sinner First Sometimes where his Grace doth not sanctifie the heart his Providence shortens the life of the Sinner where he doth not cleanse the Fountain yet there he removes the Foundation of a Sin that is he takes away the very life and being of the Sinner many times when wicked Men have imagined some presumptuous sin and go big with it God suddenly cuts them off from the Land of the Living and gives them no space to bring it forth unless it be in Hell among these Devils that inspired it Psal 64.6 7. says the Psalmist there they search out iniquity they accomplish a diligent search but what follows God shall shoot at them with an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded while they are thinking and contriving wickedness in their hearts in that very day they perish and their thoughts with them Thus proud Pharaoh resolves in spight of God and all his Miracles to bring back the Children of Israel to their old Bondage but before he could bring his purpose into execution God brings him to execution and so Senacherib intends the destruction of Jerusalem but before he could compass it God slays his Army and his own Children also Herod he intends a bloody Persecution against the Church but God smites him Lice devour him and eat a way into that very heart that conceived so wicked a purpose it were endless to cite instances in this particular Histories and Helâ— are full of those whom God's Providence hath cut off before they could fulfil theiâ— ungodly designs upon whom thaâ— threatning in Ecclesiastes 8.11 hath been signally verified It shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days because he feareth not before God Now this Providence God doth usually if not only exercise upon wicked Men snatching them away from their sins and yet in their sins also yea and herein he deals with them also in some kind of Mercy in that he abridges the time of his Patience to them whom he foresees will only abuse it and treasure up to themselves Wrath against the day of Wrath for hereby their account is lessened and their torments made more tolerable it had been better for Sinners that they had dropt immediatly from the Womb to the Tomb better that they had been swadled in their Winding-sheets yea shall I say it had been better for them that they had been doomed to everlasting torments as soon as they saw the Light than that God should suffer them to live Twenty Forty or Sixty Years adding iniquity to iniquity without repentance and God accordingly adding torments to torments to punish them never to be repented of O the desperate conditions that Sinners are in unless God give them repentance the sooner they are in Hell the better it will be for them and it is a Mercy if God will damn them betimes those whom God doth not endear to his Grace by changing their natures yet he indebts to his Providence
they who thus argue and who thus act never knew what a sweet and powerful Attractiveness there is in the sense of pardoning Grace and Love to win over the Heart from the practice of those sins that God hath forgot to punish Pardoning Grace engageth to Love God Secondly This should engage us to Love that God who so loved us as freely for his own sake to forgive us such vast Debts and such multiplied sins This is the import of that Speech of our Saviour he loveth most to whom most is forgiven him And hence it is and you may commonly observe it That none are such great Lovers and Admirers of free Grace as those who before Conversion were the vilest and most flagitious Sinners Thirdly Pardoning Grace should teach us to forgive others Since God doth so freely pardon us let this teach us and prevail with us to pardon and forgive the offence of others This is that the Scripture doth urge as the most natural Inference of this Doctrine of God's pardoning Grace Thus the Apostle Ephes 4.32 Be ye kind to one another tender-hearted forgiving one another as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you And say not as ignorant People are wont to do I will forgive but I will never forget for God doth forgive and forget too I will blot out your transgressions and I will remember your sins no more Your sins against God are Talents others Offences against you are but Pence and if for every trivial Provocation you are ready to take your Brother by the Throat and wreak your wrath and revenge upon him may you not fear lest your Lord and Master to whom you stand deeply indebted should also deal so with you for far greater Crimes than others can be guilty of against you and cast you into Prison until you have paid the utmost most Farthing especially considering that you pray for the forgiveness of your own sins as you do proportionably forgive the sins of others Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And thus I have opened and demonstrated unto you the former part of the Doctrine That the Grace of God whereby he blots out and forgives sin is absolutely free I am now in the next place to prove that it is infinitely glorious Now this I shall endeavour to do by considering pardon of sin in the Nature of it in the Concomitants of it and in the Effects and Consequences of it From all which it will appear both how great a Mercy it is to us and how great a Glory it is to God that he blots out and forgets sin And First Let us consider the nature of pardon of sin what it is And this we cannot better discover than by looking into the Nature of sin Sin therefore as the Apostle describes it is a Transgression of the Law Now to the Validity of any Law there are Penalties literally expressed or tacitly implyed which are altogether necessary The guilt contracted by the transgressing of the Law is nothing but our liableness to undergo the Penalty threatned in the Law and this guilt it is two-fold the one is intrinsical and necessary and that is the desert of punishment which sin carries always in it The other is extrinsical and adventitious by which sin is ordained to be punished These two things are in every sin Every sin deserves Death and God hath in his Law ordain'd and threatned to inflict Death for it Question Now it being clear That Pardon and Remission of Sin is nothing but the removal of the guilt of sin the Question is Whether it removes that guilt that consists in the desert of punishment or that which consists in the voluntary appointment of it unto punishment or both Answer To this I Answer Pardon of sin doth not remove the intrinsical desert of punishment but only the adventitious appointment and ordination of it unto punishment flowing from the Will of God who hath in his own Law threatned to punish sin Remission doth not make that the sins even of Believers themselves should not deserve Death for a liableness to the penalty of the Law in this sence is a necessary consequent upon the Transgression of the Law But because God in the Covenant of Grace hath promised not to reward his Penitent Servants according to the evil of their doings therefore Pardoning Grace removes this guilt of sin arising from God's Ordination of it unto punishment As now suppose a Traytour should accept of the proffer of a Pardon the guilt of his Treason ceaseth not in the inward nature of it but still he deserves to be punished but this Obnoxiousness of his through the Prince's Favour and Appointment is taken away and so that guilt ceaseth So the Repenting Sinner every sin he commits deserves Death but upon his believing in the Lord Jesus Christ this liableness unto Death ceaseth being graciously remitted to them by God Now the Scripture sets forth this Pardon of sin in very sweet and full Expressions It is called a covering of sin Psal 32.1 Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered Though our covering of our sins is no Security from the inspection of God's Eye who clearly beholds the most hidden and secret things of Darkness yet certainly those sins that God himself hath covered from himself he will never again look into so as to punish for them Nay yet farther as a ground of Comfort Pardon of sin is not only called a covering of our sins from God's sight but a covering of God's Face and Sight from them so we have it Psal 51.9 Hide thy face from my sins and blot out mine iniquities It is a casting of our sins behind God's back as a thing that shall never more be regarded or look'd upon so it is expressed to us Isaiah 38.17 Thou hast in love to my soul says good Hezekiah when a Message of Death was brought to him by the Prophet cast all my sins behind thy back It is a casting of them into the depth of the Sea from whence they shall never more arise either in this World to terrifie our Consciences or in the World to come to condemn our Souls so we have it in Micah 1.19 I will cast all their Iniquities says God into the depth of the Sea It is a scattering of them as a thick cloud so it is called Esay 44.22 I will scatter their sins as a cloud and their iniquities as a thick cloud And in the Text it is called a blotting out and a forgetting of sin I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy sins a blotting out to shew That God will never read his Debt-Book against us and a forgetting it That we may not fear that God will accuse us without-book Now these and such like Expressions with which the Scripture doth abound do very much illustrate the Mercy of God in pardoning of sin and I
and Eternal Salvation out shall openly be shew'd â—o all the World and laughed at by all â—he World that such a Sin should keep â— Man from Heaven and Eternal Happiness And therefore says David Psal 119.6 Psal 119.6 Then shall I not be ashamed when I â—ave respect unto all thy Commandments To have respect to some of God's Commandments and not to all is now Hypocrisy and will at last be shame and â—onfusion It is a most certain Truth â—hat though the Commission of the greaâ—est Sin be consistent with the truth of Grace yet so is not the approbation of â—he least Sin Oh! what a severe and criâ—ical thing is true Holyness that will no more allow the least Transgression than â—he greatest nor more tolerate the deâ—ilement of Dust in our Hearts than a Dunghill We have all of us need thereâ—ore to pray with David Psal 139.23 Psal 139.23 Search me O Lord and try my Heart try me and know my Thoughts and see if â—here be any evil way in me because our Sins may be so little as to escape our own â—earch and because the least Sin if let alone in the Heart will like a small speck in fruit spread to a total rottenness Therefore O Lord do thou search and try us and if there be any way of wickedness in us cast thou out our Corruptions that so thou maist not cast us out as corrupt and rotten at the last Little Sins make way for greater Sins Fifthly Consider little Sins do usually make way and open a passage into the Heart for the greatest and vilest Sins Thus a little thief that creeps in at the Window may unlock the Door for others that stand without And thus in fared with David while sensual Delight crept in by the eye at the sight of Bathsheba it opened his Heart to the temptation and in rusht those two outrageous Sins of Adultery and Murder Believe it there is no Sin so small but tends to the utmost wickedness that can possibly be committed An irreverent Thought of God tends to no less than Blasphemy and Atheism A slight grudge at another tends to no less than Murder A lascivious Thought tends to no less than impudent and common Prostitution And though at first they seem to play only singly about the Heart yet within a while they will mortally wound it There are two things give little Sins their growth and increase First The Devil by his Temptations is continually nursing up youngling Sins till they arrive to a full strength and stature of wickedness He is continually suiting Occasions and Temptations to the propensions of our Lusts Hath he wrought any sinful desire or any evil purpose in you he will take care you shall not long want an occasion to fulfil it Were it not for his vigilancy many a Sin must needs Die in the Womb that conceived it but as it was conceived by his Temptations so is it brought forth by his industry and diligence Secondly Natural Corruption it self is of a thriving growing Nature If any Lust hath seized strongly on the thoughts and boils there it will vent it self in Discourse A bad Heart as well as a bad Liver will break out at the Lips and if the Discourse be poysonous the Venom will spread it self into the Life and Conversation for out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh and evil Words corrupt good Manners Sinful Thoughts form themselves into Words and Words will consolidate themselves into Actions and then Sin is perfected and hath attained its full growth And if you would know what the next degree or step is that Sin takes the Apostle St. James tells you Jam. 1.15 When Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth Sin and Sin when it is perfected bringeth forth Death You can no more set bounds to your Corruptions than to the raging Sea nor say to it Hitherto shall thy proud Waves go and no further It were Folly when you have set fire to a Train of Powder to expect it should stop any where short of the utmost of it So truly when the Thoughts are set on fire of Hell this will inflame the Tongue and that will inflame the Life and unless God's infinite Mercy prevent this burning will stop no where short of everlasting burning Ask but your own Experiences this Have you not often found it so Hath not the Devil drill'd you on from little Sins to great Sins and from these to far greater Abominations Believe it there is a bottomless deceit in every Sin and this is the desperate issue of it that if once you come to account any Sin small you will soon reckon the greatest Sin to be no more We commonly reckon the greatness of Sin by the abruptness of our advance to it Possibly it would seem a horrid thing at the first rising of a Temptation in our hearts if we should presently perpetrate the utmost of it into Act therefore the Method of Sin is more smooth and deceitful it counts a sinful Thought a little Transgression and sinful Discourse to have but a little more guilt in it than a sinful Thought and sinful Actions to have but a little more guilt in them than sinful Words A great Sin but in a little degree exceeds a less and so comparing Sin with Sin and not with the Law we at length come by invisible Advances to look upon the greatest Impieties in the world to be but little Sins and so to commit them If Satan prevails with us to go with him one step out of our way we are in danger to stop no where till we come to the height of all Prophaneness he will make us take a second and a third and so to travel on to Destruction for each of these is but one step the last step of Sin is but one step as well as the first and if the Devil prevails with us to take one step why should he not prevail with us to take the last step as well as the first step seeing it is but one Your second Sin no more exceeds your first than your first doth your Duty and so of the rest We should not therefore account any Sin small but look upon them as the spawn of all the vilest Abominations And as you would abhor Death and Hell so abhor the least Sin because it hath a Plot upon us in subserviency to greater Sins that without infinite Mercy will certainly bring to and terminate in Death and Hell Little Sins so called are indeed the greatest Sixthly Consider that those Sins that we commonly call the least are indeed the greatest and vilest Provocations Some Sins are Sins of greater Infamy and Scandal other Sins are Sins of greater Guilt and Sinfulness rude and blustering Sins Those Sins that are of greater Infamy are such as make him that commits them a scandalous person and these are commonly reputed great and crying Sins by the World If a Man be a Swearer or a Drunkard a
truly it were impossible utterly impossible to keep them from running up and down the Streets like distracted Persons and Mad-Men crying out with horrour of Soul O I am damned I am damned but their Presumption stupifies them and they are lull'd asleep by the Devil and though they live in Sin yet they still dream of Salvation and thus their Presumption flatters them till at length this Presumption ends then where their Damnation begins and never before And thus I have in six Particulars shewed you what it is that makes a Sin to be presumptuous which is that which David in the Text prays to God to keep him from and I doubt not but these Particulars have represented to you so much Guilt and Ugliness in presumptuous Sins as that you also pray with him Lord keep us also from presumptuous Sins Aggravations of presumptuous sinning Now though possibly it may seem altogether needless to die scarlet redder yet that your Prayers against them may be more importunate and your endeavours unwearied I shall in the next place by some aggravating considerations ingrain these scarlet crimson sins and strive to make them appear as they are in themselves out of measure sinful Consider therefore in the first place Presumptuous Sins harden the heart with resolutions to persevere in them without Repentance that the commission of presumptuous Sins doth exceedingly harden and steel the heart with resolutions to persevere in them without repentance and what can be more dreadful than this is resolvedness to sin is a disposition likest to that of the Devil and it is a punishment next to that of Hell a Man that is confirmed in wickedness is not many removes off from a Devil in his nature and from a damned Person in his State there is a fatal consequence betwixt Man's resolving to continue in sin to the end and God's resolving to punish him with those torments that shall have no end God hath two Seals the one of the Spirit of Adoption whereby he seals up Believers to the day of Redemption and the other of Obduration whereby he seals up the Impenitent to the Day of Destruction he seals them up under sin and sets them aside for Wrath hence the Apostle in Romans 2.5 speaks of a hard and impenitent heart treasuring up wrath unto it self against the day of wrath Now presumptuous Sins have a two fold malign influence thus to harden and make Men resolute in wickedness for either they make them secure under sin or else quite contrary desperate for sin and both these strongly conduce to the hard'ning of the heart Presumptuous Sins make Men resolute under the threatnings of God First The commission of presumptuous Sins oftentimes makes a Sinner resolute and secure under the blackest guilt the Soul can contract and the fearfullest threatnings God can denounce Security under guilt arises from impunity Sinners have read and heard terrible things against themselves that God will wound the hairy scalp of such as go on still in their iniquities that he will destroy the incorrigible suddenly and that without remedy but yet none of all this is executed their Heads instead of being wounded are crowned with Blessings and this speedy destruction still loyters they neither feel terrors within nor meet with troubles without and therefore as Solomon observes because they go unpunished they grow secure in Ecclesiast Eccles 8.15 vers 8.15 Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed therefore the hearts of the Sons of Men are fully set in them to do evil Carnal reason measures God's way of taking vengeance by its own it is the custom of Men if they can to revenge while an injury is warm delay and forbearance usually cools them into forgiveness and hence presumptuous Sinners argue That certainly were there any truth in God's threatnings were there any thing to be feared besides the huge noise that they make they should then have been exemplarily plagued when they committed such and such a daring sin while the provocation was fresh and from this it is that the worst of Sinners after the commission of some vile and crying sins are for a while troubled with a trembling and tormenting Conscience that the threatnings that are denounced should fall upon them by some visible appearance and some signal hand of God against them but when they see no such thing come of it but their condition is prosperous and all their ways Sun-shine how doth this work with them why truly instead of admiring God's patience and long suffering they despise his wrath and scoff at those threatnings that before they dreaded and think none of them true because none of them felt We read of such bold Sinners as these are in 2. S. Peter the 3. and 4. Where is the promise of his coming do not all things continue as they were So these presumptuous Sinners say in their hearts where is the threatning of his coming against us do not all things continue with us as they were though Preachers roar out whole Pulpits full of Hell and Damnation and singe our Ears continually with Fire and Brimstone making fearful clamours of Death Hell and Damnation and everlasting Torments yet all things are with us as they were Is not the Sun 's light as chearing the Aires breath as refreshing and the Earths Womb as fruitful as it was their greatest sins have not disturbed the least Atome in the Creation nor moved so much as a hair of their head for all that sudden and unavoidable destruction that is denounced against them they still flourish and prosper and because God doth not as Man revenge in the first heat they think all threatnings are made rather to affright than to do execution and hence it is that they embolden and harden themselves in sin and take up resolutions that they will continue in them and that is the first way how the commission of presumptuous Sins bring Men to resolutions of sinning by making them regardless of Divine threatnings Secondly Presumptuous Sins make Men desperate in Sin and to despair The frequent commission of presumptuous sins leave men desperate whereby they are harden'd to continue in their sins Nothing more fortifies resoâ—ution than despair make a coward desperate and you make him invincible â—ow presumptuous sins they usually end â—n desperate resolutions they make Men despair of ever gaining power over them and of ever obtaining pardon for them First Of subduing of them Men that frequently commit presumptuous sins they despair of ever subduing them Let your own hearts make â—nswer when you have sinned presumptuously against your own Consciences and God's known Law have you not been ready to conclude that it were as good for you to abandon your selves over to the swing of such a lust as still to strive thus in vain against it when resolutions against sin prove unsuccessful they commonly end in desperate resolutions to sin and yet truly this is no other than as
that the inclinations of the best were too strong even to those Sins that a perfect Moralist would think scorn that they should be suspected of and therefore he Exhorts them with all earnestness and frequent importunity to Mortifie such foul Sins as these are Thirdly From the irritating Power of the Law It appears also from the irritating power that the Law hath Even in the best of God's Children there is accidentally through our Corruption such a Malign influence if I may so call it in the Holy Just and Good Law of God that instead of quelling Sin it doth the more enrage and provoke it and this we call the irritating power of the Law Thus the Apostle tells us in Rom. 7.11 13. That Sin takes occasion by the Law to work in us all manner of Concupiscence Why now were it possible that Sin should grow strong by that Law that was given on purpose to destroy it but that there is in us violent propensions towards what is forbidden us and eager desires after that which God hath denied us So strangely depraved are our Corrupt Natures that we swell with our Yoke and labour to throw off whatever may lay a restraint upon us like Green Sticks which being bent one way by natural strength we start as far back the other way Can none of us call to mind some Sins that possibly we should never have committed had they not been forbidden to us the Command often-times gives Corruption a hint in what how it may offend God And is not this therefore a clear demonstration of that mighty proness that there is in all of us unto Sin when that Law that forbids Sin shall prove an incentive to it The more will a high mettled Horse foam and fling the harder you Rein him in And if you stop a River in its course it will rise and swell till it over-flows its Banks and whence is this but because there is a Natural Proneness in it to run towards the Sea And when God casts his Law before Men as a stop to them in their sinful course they swell the higher till they have born or over-flown all those Bounds and Dams that God hath set to bound them in And whence proceeds all this but only because there is a Natural tendency and propension in Men's Hearts to Sin and therefore the more they are opposed the higher still do our Corruptions swell and the more do they rage and although the force of this sinful propension may be in some of God's Children in a good measure broken yet in the very best of them is there some degree or other of this irritating power of the Law to stir them up to Sin even by forbidding of them to Sin And that 's the last demonstration The next thing propounded Whence it is that Christians have a proneness in them unto every Sin was to enquire into the Original Cause whence this sinful inclination proceeds how it comes to pass that there is in all Men and even in the best Christians such a strong propension unto Sin Now in the enquiry into this I shall lead you on gradually by these following steps First In Man's first Creation the Will had in it a Natural Power to determine the Specification of its own Acts that is freely to sway it self either unto Good or Evil which of them it pleased and if there was any Biass in it to draw it more one way than another as some there was it was an inclination to that which is Good for Man's Faculties were then entire and perfect his Knowledg clear to discern what was his chief Good and his highest Happiness his Will free to choose it and his Affections ready to embrace and clasp about it His Love his Fear his Joy his Delight were all of them Centred in God that which is now in us from Grace was in him from Nature Since the Fall we need a Twofold assistance one a Common influence and assistance such as is vouchsafed to all Men to enable them to the performance of the common and ordinary Actions of this Life it is from God's immediate influence that we are enabled to Move to Think to Speak for in him we Live Move and have our Beings And then we need also a Special influence vouchsafed only to the Children of God whereby we are enabled to perform Holy and Spiritual Actions as to Love Fear and Obey God sincerely and this Special influence we commonly call Grace whereby we are enabled to Act Divinely and Spiritually Now the difference betwixt Common and Special influence lies in this that what God works in us by a Common influence that is wrought without any grudg or reluctancy in Man's Nature to the contrary but what is wrought in us by a Special influence that is brought to pass Nature gain-saying and contradicting it thus when God enables a Sinner to Act Faith or Love or any Divine and Heavenly Grace this is contrary to the tendency of Corrupt Nature and therefore this is called Special Grace Now while Man stood in the state of Innocency there was nothing in his Nature that contradicted his Fear of God his Dependance on God or his Love to God and therefore to enable him to Act all these he needed no Special influence of Special Grace but only of a common and ordinary Providence Before the Fall Adam stood in no need at all of any such thing as Special Grace as we now stand in need of but the same assistance of God for the kind of it that enabled him to Move or to Speak or to Think was sufficient also to enable him to perform the most Spiritual Obedience because then the most Spiritual Obedience was no more to him than those Actions which we call Natural as Eating and Drinking Speaking Walking and Thinking are to us now and therefore he required no more assistance from God for the performance of Spiritual Obedience than we now require from God for our Natural Actions Now as he had this perfection of power to perform what was good so he had a proneness of will also to it but yet in that proneness there was not perseverance He might as afterwards he did turn aside from God unto Satan and notwithstanding his inclination to Obedience and proneness to that which was Good yet having not a perseverance in that proneness but being Lord over his own Will as he was over the rest of the visible Creation he voluntarily and wilfully consented to the Commission of Sin Why now Secondly This voluntary inclination of Adam to Sin hath ever since by a dreadful yet righteous Judgmen of God brought upon all his Posterity a natural and necessary inclination unto Sin so that now either whatever they do is Sin or there is Sin in whatever they do Now that we may clearly apprehend how Adam's first Sin and Provocation committed so many Thousand Years ago causes such strong propensions to Sin in all his Posterity you must
a Vessel that is full of new Liquor upon the least Vent given works over into foam and froth so truly our hearts almost upon every slight trivial Temptation makes that inbred Corruption that lodgeth there swell and boil and run over into abundance of Scum and Filth in our Lives and Conversations Have we not great cause therefore to be jealous and suspicious of our selves and to keep a watchful eye over all the motions of those Bosom-Traitors our own hearts He that trusteth to his own heart says Solomon is a Fool Prov. 28.25 Certainly it were the greatest Folly in the World to trust our Hearts after so frequent experience of their Treachery and Slipperiness venture them not therefore upon Temptations What Security have you that your sinful Hearts will not sin yea and it may be betray you into such great Abominations as you cannot now think of without horrour as Men presume upon the Mercy of God to pardon their lesser Sins so they presume also upon their own strength to preserve them from greater Sins they say of small Sins is it not a little one and our Souls shall live And they say of great Sins is it not a great one and our Souls shall never commit it Alas how know you but if once you lay your head in the Lap of a Temptation these Philistines will be upon you and you like Samson think to go and shake your selves as at other times but alas your great strength is departed from you and you left a Prey to the foulest and worsâ— of Sins whatsoever And thus now you have seen in David's Prayer the besâ— Saints proneness to the worst Sins The next Thing observable is The best Saints Weakness and Inability to preserve themselves without the assistance of Divine Grace and both these namely their proneness to commit Sin and their weakness to resist it are evident Demonstrations of the general Proposition the Almighty Grace of God is their best yea and their only Security Now as the Bottom and Foundation of this present Exercise I shall lay down this Point to be treated of Doct. That it is not a Christians own but God's Power only that can preserve him from the Commission of the most daring and presumptuous Sins Advantages that men have to keep themselves from presumptuous Sins And yet truly if any Sins are easie to be resisted and overcome they are the Sins of the grosser sort for many times it is with Sins as with over-grown Bodies the vaster the Bulk of them is the less is their force and activity The Soul hath great advantage to lay hold on great Sins and to keep them off at Arms length when less Sins flip in and seize upon the heart unperceivably For First Presumptuous Sins give warning to prepare for resistance Great and presumptuous Sins seldom make an assault upon the Soul but they give warning before-hand to prepare for resistance The Stratagems of War if they are but discovered they usually prove unsuccessful as strong Liquors taking vent lose their strength and spirits so is it in this holy War also the Soul may easily foresee gross Sins and therefore may more easily avoid them If a Man feels in himself sinful Thoughts stirring and sinful Desires strugling hereupon an Assault is made and the Devil hereby gives us warning what Sins we should especially watch against Are they lascivious Thoughts Beware of Vncleanness Are they wrathful Thoughts Beware of Murther Are they murmuring thoughts Beware of Blasphemy Are they worldly Thoughts and Desires Beware of Oppression and Injustice Thus these Giant-like Sins stand forth in view and send open defiance to the Soul and bid it prepare for the Combat sinful thoughts and sinful desires go before as Armour-bearers use to go before their Champions and proclaim what great Lust is about to make an Assault upon the Soul Now such fore-warnings as these are is a great advantage that we have to repel and subdue them Job 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me And what follows Why If I have done iniquity I will do so no more When a man sees his Enemy before him this is a mighty advantage either to avoid or to conquer This Advantage now we have not against smaller Sins we cannot so easily escape sins of Ignorance because we cannot see them nor yet the Sins of our Thoughts and Desires because we cannot foresee them Who of us all knows what Thoughts will next bubble up in our Hearts whether holy and gracious or whether sinful and prophane These strike without warning and as an Enemy within rise up in the midst of our Hearts unseen Sins are of two sorts either such by which we are tempted or such to which we are tempted The Devil makes use of one Sin to tempt to another of a less to tempt to a greater â—hus wicked Thoughts are at once sins â—n themselves and also temptations unâ—o wicked Actions Now it is very hard â—nd the best Christians find it so to keep â—hemselves free from sinful Thoughts â—ecause these spring up immediately in â—he Heart without any foregoing Temâ—tations to them but while the Devil â— tempting us to sinful Actions by sinful Thoughts then the Soul hath leisure to â—ecollect it self to muster up all its â—races to set its Guards to call in Diâ—ine Help and Assistance and upon â—hese Preparations it may more easily â—esist the Sin and overcome the Tempâ—tion and that 's one great Advantage â—e have to keep our selves from preâ—mptuous Sins Secondly Natural Conscience opposeth the commission of presumptuous Sins Natural Conscience also abâ—rs more and doth more oppose these â—trageous presumptuous Sins than it â—oth those Sins that it judgeth proceed â—ly from weakness and infirmity and this so gives us a mighty Advantage to keep â—r selves from them Little Sins do not â—uch disturb the peace and quietness of Man's Conscience and therefore the â—postle speaks of himself before his Conversion in Acts 23.1 I have lived says he in all good Conscience before God until this very day And so in Phil. 3.6 Touching the Law says he speaking oâ— himself before his Conversion I waâ— blameless How could that be What blameless and unconverted and in state of Nature Yes he was not guilty of notorious scandalous Sins and aâ— for lesser Faults his Conscience over look'd them and never blam'd him foâ— them and so truly is it with many moral Man his Conscience hath not word to say against all their small anâ— petty Sins let their Hearts be sensuaâ— and their Thoughts vain and their Diâ—course unsavoury and their Lives unprofitable yet still Conscience and the live very friendly together But let thâ— Devil tempt such a sober Sinner as thâ— is to Murther or Adultery or Drunkenness or some such branded Impiety Conscience then flings Fire-brands anâ— storms and cries out with Hazaeâ— What is thy Servant a Dog that he shouâ— do such things as these are As Subjecâ— pay to their
of such who are loath to be too much beholding to the Grace of God for their Salvation It is true no Man Sins nor no Man abstains from Sin but it is with his Will but yet still there is an Almighty Influence from God an Influence of common Providence to the Wicked without which they could not so much as Will and an Influence of Special Grace to the Godly without which they could not abstain from Sin It is God saith the Apostle that works in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure it is not whether or not the Will be free in abstaining from Sin that is acknowledged but whether the motion of the Will be principally and primarily from God or from it self and this the Apostle concludes to be from God From him it is that we both will and do he gives the first beginning he adds the progress and he concludes He first begets Grace then he encreaseth it and at last he crowns it All is from God Secondly This may instruct us to whom we ought to ascribe the Praise and the Glory of our Preservation from those foul and horrid Sins that we see others daily fall into Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name be all the Praise and Glory We have Natures as sinful as the worst of Men ever had and that such sinful Natures should not produce as wicked Lives whence proceeds this but only from the Miracle of God's Grace for it is a Miracle that when the Fountain is as bitter when our Hearts are as bad as the Hearts of others yet the streams should not be so Whence is it since we have the same Corrupt Hearts with Cain and Judas and all the Wicked Rabble in the World whence is it that we have not committed the same Impieties with them or worse than they have done Why God hath either Restrained or Sanctified us But Sanctifying Grace is not enough for whence is it that we have not been Drunken with Noah Adulterers or Murderers with David Abjurers of Christ with Peter are we more Holy than they or are we more Sanctified than they No it is only our gracious God's vouchsafing to us a constant influence of Exciting Grace that hath thus kept us from those Sins into which he suffers Wicked Men to fall and not only them but sometimes his own dear Children too It is not a difference in our Natures it is not a difference from inherent Grace within us that makes this difference in our Lives but it is only a difference from the unaccountable Exciting Influencing Grace of God there lies the difference Well then let not the strong Man glory in his strength but let him that glorieth glory in the Lord for he is our strength and our deliverer What have we that we have not received and if we have received why do we boast as though we had not received it is not what we have of our selves but it is what we have received from God and what we do daily receive in a way of special influence that makes us to differ from the Vilest and most Profligate Sinners in the World and therefore let us ascribe the Glory of all to the Almighty Powerful Grace of God Lastly To shut up all If our preservation from Sin be from God beware then how you provoke him to withdraw and suspend the influence of his Grace whereby you have been preserved and still are Indeed if we belong to him he will never so far depart from us as utterly to forsake us but yet he may so far depart from us as that we may have no comfortable sense of his presence nor no visible supports from his Grace we may be left a naked and destitute Prey to every Temptation and fall into the commission of those Sins out of which we may never be able to recover our selves to our former Strength Comfort and Stability we may fall to the breaking of our Bones and we may rise agaiâ— possibly but it will be to the breaking of our Hearts So much for this time and for this subject FINIS OF PARDON AND Forgiveness of Sin IN FOUR SERMONS ON ISAIAH xliii 25. By EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-Derry LONDON Printed by Tho. Warren for Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard 1693. OF PARDON AND Forgiveness of SIN c. ISAIAH xliii 25. â— even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy sins IN the foregoing Verses Introduction we have a heavy Charge drawn up against the People of the Jews in which they stand charged both with sins of Omission and of Commission By the one they shewed themselves weary of God and by the other God became weary of them Thou hast not called upon me â—or brought me thy burnt-offerings nor honoured me with thy Sacrifices but thou hast been weary of me O Israel as it is in 22 23. Verses Thou thought'st my Commands grievous and my Service buâ— thensome and though as thou aâ— my Sworn Servant I might compâ— thee to work yet I have born wiâ— thy sloth and suffered my Work to â— undone I have not caused thee to serâ— with Offerings nor wearied thee with 〈◊〉 cense as it is in the 24th Verse Naâ— as if so be rejecting my Service hâ— not been Indignity enough thou haâ— even brought me into a kind of Servâ—tude even me thy Lord and Masteâ— thou hast wearied my Patience thâ— hast loaded my Omnipotency thou hâ— made me serve with thy sins thou hâ— wearied me with thine Iniquities Ver. 2â— And what could we now in reason expect should be the close of so heavy aâ— Accusation but only as heavy a Dooâ— and Sentence Thou hast brought mâ— no Sacrifices therefore I will makâ— thee a Sacrifice to my Wrath thoâ— hast not called upon me and when thoâ— doest call I will not answer thou haâ— wearied me with thy Sins and I wilâ— weary thee with my Plagues Buâ— there 's no such expected severity follows hereupon but I even I am he thaâ— â—lotteth out thy Transgressions for my own â—ike and will not remember thy sins The â—ike Parallel place we have concerning Ephraim Isa 51.17 18. He went on frowardly in the way of his own Heart Well says God I have seen his ways and what with the froward shall I shew my self froward No but I have seen his ways and I will heal him Here 's the Prerogative of free Grace to infer Pardon there where the guilty themselves can infer only their own Execution and Punishment It is the guise of Mercy to make strange and abrupt Inferences from sin to Pardon The words are a Gracious Proclamation of Forgiveness or an Act of Pardon passed on the Sins of Men and contain in them three things First Here is the Person that gives out this Pardon and that is God accented here by a vehement Ingemination I even I am he Secondly
manner of Men O Lord but as far as the Heavens are above the Earth so far are the Thoughts of God above our Thoughts and his Ways above our Ways And therefore as far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed our Sins from us And why so far but only that he might make room for these great and unspeakable Mercies of Justification Sanctification and Adoption to intervene And so much for the Second thing proposed namely the Concomitants and Adjuncts of Pardon of Sin Of the Effects and Consequences of Pardon of Sin Thirdly Let us now Consider Pardon of Sin in the Effects and Consequences of it and from hence also it will appear How transcendent a Mercy it is and how just a Title God hath to glory in it when he saith I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions Mercies temporal and spiritual the Blessings of this Life and the Glory of a future what-ever indeed can be called a Mercy or good thing doth acknowledge it self a retainer to this primitive and fountain-Mercy of Pardon of Sin Now in such a heap of them I shall only cull out some few that are most conspicuous Now Remission of Sin may be consider'd either as it lies in God's Eternal Intention or in the Spirit 's temporal Application of it The one is God's purpose before all time to forgive us the other is rhe execution of that purpose in time If we consider Pardon of Sin in God's Eternal purpose and intendment so there are two blessed Effects flowing from it and they are these First The sending of Jesus Christ into the World Secondly The great Gift of Faith First The sending Christ into the World the effect of God's purpose to pardon sin The sending of Jesus Christ into the World who is the cause of all happiness unto sinful Man was it self the effect of this purpose of God to pardon and forgive Sinners It is very difficult to trace out the Order of the Divine Decrees concerning the Salvation of Mankind and to pass from one of them to another as they lie ranked and methodized in God's Breast And divers that have attempted to search out these Arcana Dei this Art and Mystery of Justice and Mercy have trodden in paths different from one another and doubtless many of them differing from the Truth also I shall not stand to draw a Scheme of these Decrees of God let it now suffice us to know that God from all Eternity foreseeing the Sin and Misery which Man would by his permission and his own sin involve himself in did for the manifestation of the Riches both of his Mercy and Justice enter into Counsel how to pardon and save him This was the end of God's design even to restore again to Happiness some of Mankind even as many as he should select out of the Mass and common Rubbish of Sin and Misery and set apart for himself Well but how shall this end be accomplished and brought about Justice brandisheth its Sword in the Face of Sinners and demands as great a share of Glory in punishment as Mercy doth in pardoning and God is resolved to glorifie both of these Attributes of his in their several demands This now put him upon ransacking of the deepest Counsel that ever lodged in his Heart even of an Adored Mediatour in whom Justice receives full satisfaction and Mercy triumphs in a full Pardon and both are infinitely glorious For this end God sent down his Son from Heaven to Earth to become a Propitiation for us and so through the shedding of his Bloud to obtain remission and forgiveness of sins for us God's Mercy and his Beloved Son could not rest together in his Bosom and therefore his purpose of pardoning Sin was so efficacious that to make room for the displaying of his Mercy he sends his own Son out of Heaven never to enter again there till by his Merit and Sufferings he had procured Remission of Sins for all those that believe in him Hence the Apostle Rom. 3.26 tells us That God sent forth Christ to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Bloud to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past through God's forbearance that he might be Just and the Justifier of them that believe in Jesus As if the Apostle had said God could not be Just if he should justifie Sinners that deserve his Wrath unless he had sent forth Jesus Christ into the World to become a Propitiation and Sacrifice to his Justice for their Sins For having threatned in his unalterable word to inflict vengeance upon all that are guilty his Truth obliged him to this dreadful severity upon all since all are guilty But that Christ taking on him the guilt of sinners by his own undergoing the wrath of God and the Curse of the Law hath so fully appeased Divine Justice that now God though he doth not punish Sinners in themselves can yet be Just and the Justifier of Sinners therefore he sent forth Christ to be a Propitiation God's Eternal Purpose to glorifie his Justice in the punishing sin and yet to glorifie his Grace and Mercy in pardoning Sinners wrought this great effect of sending Christ into the World whereby two such different ends might with Infinite Wisdom be accomplished So that Christ who is the cause of all our Happiness and Mercy is yet himself the effect of God's Purpose and Intent to pardon sin And what can be said more to advance the greatness of this Mercy a Mercy so great that one of the Fathers St. Gregory by Name doubted whether it were more Misery or Happiness that Adam fell since his Sin and Fall occasioned such a wonderful Redeemer and such a Glorious Salvation Foelix culpa says he O Happy Fall that obtained such a Redeemer Faith the Effect of pardoning Mercy Secondly Another blessed Effect of God's purpose in pardoning sin is the great gift of Faith Indeed to give Jesus Christ were utterly in vain did not God withal give Faith to accept him To tender Christ to an Unbeliever is to offer a Gift where there is no Hand to receive it Hence that God's purpose of giving pardon might stand valid that the Death of Christ might not be fruitless and that his Bloud might not be like Water spilt on the ground that cannot be gathered up again God decreed to bestow Faith upon them that believe that may convey to them the Benefits of Christ's Merits in their Pardon and Remission These two blessed Effects now follow in God's Purpose and Intention of pardoning sin even the Gift of Christ to procure and the Gift of Faith to apply Pardon unto the Soul Secondly And more especially Let us consider Pardon of Sin in its temporal and real Application And so the happy Effects of it are manifold I shall only instance in some at present First Pardon of sin gives security against God's Justice Pardon of Sin gives an inviolable security
A Second Volume of DISCOURSES OR SERMONS ON SEVERAL SCRIPTURES By EZEKIEL HOPKINS late L. Bishop of London-Derry LONDON Printed by E. H. for NATHANAEL RANEW at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1693. EZEKIEL HOPKINS EPISCOPUS DERENSIS Printed for Nathanael Ranew THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Christian Reader THE former Writings of this Reverend Prelate already Published having found so general an Acceptance both among the Clergy and Laity hath given an Encouragement to make as publick these following Discourses which are as truly his Lordship's as the former written with his own Hand and from whom also they were received It cannot be expected that any thing which is posthumous should in every Sentence and Passage thereof be as exact and accurate as what is published by the Authors themselves but yet this may be said for the following Sermons that they do as really and truly shew whose they were as any of those Things already published by himself and unto my own knowledge there are very many yet living who with great pleasure and benefit heard them preached who can and will attest that they were the Reverend Prelate's whose Name they bear Were it my Design in this Preface I might enlarge both in the Praises of the Author and in the Commendation of the following Discourses but as the Author sought not the Praises of Men in doing his Master's Work when living so is he now above the Praises of Men being dead having I doubt not received the Euge of a good and faithful Servant Let his Works therefore praise him in the Gate As for the Sermons they will speak for themselves unto any indifferent and judicious Reader the Subject-Matters of ehem being very useful unto all that shall peruse them and more especially in in some Cases See the Sermons on Heb. 9.27 Ex. gr When Men are eager and inordinate in their pursuits after this World as if their Happiness were wrapt up in it what can be more seasonably press'd upon them to take off the edge of their Desires after them than to present to their most serious thoughts the Consideration of their own Mortality Sermons on Mot. 5.19 And when among Professors of Religion multitudes perish by adventuring upon those Sins which the World account small and little what can be more effectual to deter Sinners in their way to Hell and Destruction than to offer unto their Consciences the Consideration of the infinite Evil and Danger there is in Sin Sermons on Psalm 19.13 And because many have so accustomed themselves unto a sinful Course that they are become daringly bold and presumptuous to sin notwithstanding all Restraints what can be of more Use to awaken such secure sinners than to represent to them the Danger of presumptuous Sins with the heinous Aggravations thereof And though where Christians are diligent in observing their Hearts and Ways Sermons on 1 Thes 5 2â— that they may be kept from presumptuous sins yet may be led into temptation of sin not watching against the Occasions and Appearances of Evil nothing can be more advantageous in this Case than Directions how they may be preserved from them And lastly Sermoâ— on Isa â—3 25 When notwithstanding a Christian's greatest Circumspection to preserve himself from sin yet through Ignorance and Infirmity he may fall into sin daily what more welcome Message unto such mourning souls than to hear of Pardon and Forgiveness from the free Grace of God in and through the Blood of Jesus All which are the Subject-Matters of the ensuing Discourses And that they may be blessed to all good Ends and Purposes they shall be followed with the sincere Prayers of the Publisher Farewell THE CONTENTS OF THE BOOK CONTAINING The Titles of the several Subjects Treated of therein with the Texts of Scripture from which they are handled I. A Discourse on Man's Mortality in Two Sermons from Hebr. 9.27 It is appointed unto Men once to die and after that the Judgment II. The great Evil and Danger of little Sins in four Sermons from S. Matth. 5.19 Whosoever therefore shall break any one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven III. Of abstaining from the Appearance of Evil in Two Sermons on 1 Thes 5.22 Abstain from all appearance of Evil. IV. The Nature Danger Aggravations and and Cure of Presumptuous sinning with the difference between Restraining and Sanctifying Grace in effecting thereof in six Sermons from Psalm 19.13 Keep back thy Servant from Presumptuous Sins let them not have dominion over me V. Of Pardon and Forgiveness of Sin in Four Sermons from Isaiah 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy Sins THE Vanity of the World with other Sermons in Octavo An Exposition on the Ten Commandments with other Sermons in Quarto An Exposition on the Lord's Prayer with a Catechistical Explication thereof by way of Question and Answer for the instructing of Youth To which are added two Discourses the one concerning the Mystery of Divine Providence the other concerning the excellent Advantages of reading and studying the Holy Scriptures in Quarto Discourses or Sermons on several Scriptures Vol. 1. Containing The Folly of Sinners in making a Mock of Sin from Prov. 14.19 True Happiness from Rev. 22.14 The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from Acts 2.24 Brotherly Admonition from Lev. 19.17 The Dreadfulness of God's Wraeh against Sinners from Heb. 10.30 31. in Octavo A Second Volume of Discourses or Sermons on several Scriptures in Octavo All Five written by Ezekiel Hopkins late Lord Bishop of London-Derry and sold by Nathanael Ranew at the King's-Arms in S. Paul's Church-Yard A DISCOURSE ON Man's Mortality IN TWO SERMONS ON HEBR. IX 27. It is appointed unto Men once to die and after this the Judgment By EZEKIEL HOPKINS late Lord Bishop of London-Derry LONDON Printed by E. H. for NATHANAEL RANEW at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1693. A DISCOURSE ON MAN's MORTALITY FROM HEB. IX 27. It is appointed unto Men once to die and after this the Judgment A Sermon of Death hath then a double Advantage to make deep impressions upon us An Introduction when it is attended with a Spectacle of Mortality Were there but the sad Pomp of a Funeral now presented before you a dead Corpse brought to be interred a Grave digged through into the Earth dry and rotten Bones lying scattered about the Mouth of it in fearful confusion a solemn Train of Mourners tolled along the Streets by the doleful Moan of a Bell Did you see the Dead laid down in the Dust the Place of Darkness and Silence their Friends groaning out their last Farewell Clods of Earth falling in upon them and striking a horrid murmur upon their Coffins Had your Affections but such a Preparatory as this is possibly this might more easily work and move upon them for it must needs make Men
them â—d the greatest Sins Every thought â—ou thinkest and every word thou â—eakest in an unregenerate State and conâ—tion there is Sin in it and though most â— them possibly are but little Sins yet â— multitude of them alone are able to â—nk you down into the lowest Hell â—our Consciences start back and are â—frighted as indeed they ought at a â—emptation to Murder Incest Blasâ—emy or any of those more horrid Sins â—at are the prodigies of corrupt Nature â—ese Sins you dare not so much as comâ—it once And yet thousands of thouâ—nds of lesser Sins such as sinful Thoughts â—le Words petty Oaths commodious Lyes â—ese proceed from you without either â—riving against them or mourning for â—em Why now Sirs do you more fear â—tolerable and everlasting Wrath for â—e single Commission of a great Sin than you do for the frequent and repeated Commission of less Sins Truly â— cannot precisely tell you whether you had not as good Blaspheme God once aâ— take his Name in vain often whetheâ— it be not as good to Murder once as to hate always The frequency of little Sins makes their guilt so great and theiâ— punishment so intolerable that the vilest Sins you can imagine shall have nothing to exceed them in unless it be the horror of the Name of that Sin Anâ— yet it fares with us as it did with thâ— Israelites we tremble more at one Goliah than we do at the whole Army of thâ— Philistines One gross scandalous Siâ— makes Conscience recoil and go back when yet we venture upon the number less guilt of smaller Sins that have leâ— terror in their Name though united iâ— their guilt they bring far sorer Condemnation on the Soul than the single Commission of a great Sin What great diâ—ference is there whether your Eternaâ— burning be kindled by many sparks oâ— by one fire brand Whether you Die bâ— many smaller Wounds or by one greaâ— one Many little Items may make Debt desperate and the payment impossible And truly when God shall â—eckon up against us at the great Day many thousand vain Thoughts and as many superfluous idle Words with as many petty Oaths and Lyes that we â—ave been guilty of the account will be â—s dreadful and the Wrath that will â—ollow as insupportable as if Murder Blasphemy or the greatest outrage that â—ver was committed in the World were â—ingly charged upon us Thirdly It 's difficult to convince men of the evil of little Sins Consider it is very difficult â—o convince Men of the great Evil and Danger that there is in little Sins and â—herefore it is very difficult to bring them â—o Repentance for them Indeed this is â—he great and desperate Evil that there â—s in small Sins that Men will not be perswaded that they are Evil. Flagitious wickednesses are usually self condemning they carry that brand upon them that makes them evident to every Mans Conscience that they come from Hell and will certainly lead to Hell Rom. 1.33 and therefore the Apostle Rom. 1.33 after he had reckoned up a black Catalogue of Sins tells them in the last verse that though they were Heathens yet they knew the Judgments of God that they that committed such things were worthy of Death But now the guilt of little Sins is not so apparent the eye of a meer natural Conscience looks usually outward to the Life and Conversation and if that be plain and smooth it sees not or dispenseth with the lesser Sins of the Heart Hence is it that we so seldom confess or mourn for those that we call lesser Sins When is it that we are deeply humbled for the Omission of duties or for the slight and perfunctory performance of them these we look not upon as deserving Damnation and therefore we think they need no Repentance Nay are we not so far from judging and condemning our selves for them that we seek out pretences to excuse and lessen them calling them Slips Failings and vnavoidable Infirmities Gen. 19.20 And as Lot said of Zoar is it not a little one and our Souls shall live What can I think there is so much danger in a foolish Thought in a vain and inconsiderate Word Can I think that the great God will torment his poor creatures for ever for a Thought for a Word for a Glance yes believe it unless these Sins be done away in the Blood of Christ there is not the least of them but hath an infinite Evil in it and an infinite Wrath following of it If you will not now be convinced of it you shall be then when with dread and astonishment you shall hear God calling your little Sins by other Names than you now do you call them Failings and Infirmities but God will call them Presumptions and Rebellions What you say is but a vain Thought shall be arraign'd as Treason against God as Atheism and Soul Murder Then every formal heartless Duty that here you performed shall be accused of mocking and scoffing of God they are so interpretatively and in God's esteem and unless the guilt of them be done away by the Blood of sprinkling you will find them no less at the great and terrible Day of the Lord. Indeed the generality of Men have gotten a dangerous Method of doing away the guilt of their Sins great Sins they make to be little and little Sins they make to be none at all and thus they do away their Sins and so they Live in them customarily and Die in them impenitently and perish under them irrecoverably The least sin allow'd is a sign of an hypocritical Heart Fourthly Consider that the allowance anâ— cordial approbation but of the least Sin is â— certain sign of a most rotten and hypocriticaâ— Heart Be thy Conversation never sâ— blameless be thy profession never so glorious be thy Duties and Services never sâ— pompous yet if there be the secret reservation and allowance but of the leasâ— Sin all this is no more than so much vain show and pageantry Jam. 1.26 What says the Apostle Jam. 1.26 If any Man among you seem tâ— be Religious and bridleth not his Tongue that Man deceiveth himself his Religion is vain Why is it not strange that after so many prayers daily put up to God after an eminent profession and a considerable progress made in the ways of God that yet both the sincerity and success oâ— all this should depend upon so small â— thing as the tip of a man's Tongue If thaâ— be allowed to run at random into impertinencies not to say into Debaucheries and Prophaneness all your Duties all youâ— Prayers all your Profession is blown away by the same Tongue that uttered them and all your Religion will be in vain and let me add This seeming Religion will enâ— only in shame and confusion at the last when the Soul and Conscience of a sinner shall be ript open at the great Day before Men and Angels and that little Sin that kept God and Christ
of thy vain Thoughts and of thy idle Words or thou must for ever perish under them Fourthly If there be so great evil and Vse 4 danger in little Sins hence see then what cause we have to bemoan and humble our selves before God with Tears in our Eyes and Sorrow in our Hearts even for our little Sins We should never approach before the Throne of Grace in Prayer but before the close thereof we should in Confession mourn over and beg strength against those that the World calls and we account small Sins Indeed it is impossible to confess them all particularly who can reckon up the vain Thoughts and idle Words of one Day without a whole Day 's time to recount them for indeed we do little else in the Day And who then can reckon up the vain Thoughts and idle Words that he is guilty of in his whole Life without living over his whole Life to recount them When we have therefore confessed the more observable Failings of every Day we ought to wrap up the rest in a general but yet in a serious and sorrowful Acknowledgment Thus you find David did Psalm 51. where you have him confessing his two foul Sins of Adultery and Murder It is true one would think he should have been so intent upon the begging of Pardon for those Sins as that he could not spare a Petition to ask Pardon for any other Sins But yet though these were his great Sins yet he knew himself guilty of other Transgressions besides though of a less Nature and therefore he sums up all together and heartily begs pardon for them in the heap vers 9. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities And so truly we ought in our daily Prayers to God after particular Confession of those Sins that do more nearly touch and grate upon our Consciences to bind up the â—est in one general Petition and so preâ—ent them to God for Pardon in some such like manner as this Lord my own Conscience condemns me and thou art greater than my Conscience and knowest all things I have observed much Sin and guilt by my self this Day and thou who searchest the Heart and triest the Reins knowest far more by me than I do by my self but whatever I know by my self or whatever thou knowest by me Lord do thou freely pardon and forgive it all unto me Only here take heed that when you thus make your Confessions of your small Sins in general you do not also make them overtly slightly and superficially which is the common Fault of those that confess Sin by the heap As many little Sins of an ordinary Infirmity do equal the Guilt of one great Sin So truly when we thus every Day confess many of them together we ought to be deeply affected with true godly Sorrow and as earnestly pray for the pardon of them and as importunately beg power and strength against them with the same Tears Groans and holy Shame as if that Day we had committed some more gross and heinous Sin When therefore in your Prayers you come to this Request Lord pardon me the Sins and Failings of this Day think with your self now I ought to be as fervent as affectionate and penitent as if I were confessing Drunkenness or Murder for possibly the little Sins and Failings that I have committed this Day if they were all of them put together the Guilt of them may amount to be as great as one of those gross Sins Now upon such a general Confession and Humiliation as this is God issues out a Pardon in course for our common and ordinary Infirmities and by one Act of Oblivion blots out many Acts of Provocation There are two Considerations that may be very useful to us in order to the humbling of our selves before God for little Sins By little Sins we continually offend God First Consider these little Sins are those Sins whereby we continually without intermission offend against God and provoke him against our own Souls Still either the Matter of our Actions are contrary to the Holy Will and Law of God or the manner in which we perâ—orm them If the Substance of our Actions are not evil yet the Circumâ—tances are there 's not a Word in Prayâ—r not a Thought in Meditation but â—ath the Guilt of some Sin cleaving to 〈◊〉 and if it be so with us in our Holy Performances how do you think then it â—s with us in our common and ordinary Conversation And should it not deepâ—y humble us to consider that there is â—ot one hour no nor one moment of â—ur Lives free from Sin that our Pulses â—eat too slow to keep an Account of our â—ins by our Thoughts are continualâ— in Motion without intermission or cesâ—ation and yet Every one of the Imaginaâ—ions of the Thoughts of our Hearts are only â—vil and that continually Gen. 6.5 Gen. 6.5 Certainly did we seriously consider what â—t is we say when we confess to God â—hat our whole Lives are nothing but one continued course of Sin those moments every one of which brings fresh Guilt upon â—s would not slide away so pleasantly with us as they do but because our Sins seem small to us we regard them not and so our Time wasts and our Guilt encreaseth till Eternity puts a period anâ— full end to those Sins to which wâ— could never put any stop or intermission Little Sins proceed from a corrupt Nature Secondly Consider what a corrupt and depraved Nature these little Sins â— flow from When at any time we are sensible of a vain and sinful Though rising up in our Hearts we should trace â— along to the Fountain of it even Original Corruption from whence it bubbleâ— up If we would but do so we should seâ— great cause to be deeply humbled for that fruitful seed-plot of all manner of Sins that is in our Hearts Many thousands of Lusts lie crawling and knotting together there that never yet saw the light the Damned in Hell have not worse Natures in them than we have There is no Sin how horrid so ever that they committed on Earth or can be supposed to commit now in Hell but we also should run into it did not God's powerful restraints with-hold us Now do little Sins proceed from such a Corrupt and cursed Fountain and have we not then great cause to be humbled before the Lord for them and say Lord here is Sin a little Sin it is but yet it proceeds from a Heart that hath in it the Spawn of all the greatest and vilest Sins that ever were or can be committed and that it is but a vain Thought and not Blasphemy Murder or Adultery or any of the greatest and most crying Sins that ever were committed in the World is to be acknowledged and attributed only to the powerful restraint of thy free Grace For the same corrupt Fountain that sends forth this vain Thought and that idle Word would have sent forth Blasphemy
Adultery Atheism or any of the vilest Abominations but it is thy free Grace only that hath restrain'd us Fifthly and Lastly If there be so Vse 5 great Evil and Danger in little Sins this then should teach us We should take heed of making light of any Sin not to make light of any Sin Load every Sin with its due Weight give every Sin its proper Aggravations and then certainly you will see no Reason to account any of them to be small or little To help you in this take briefly these Directions First Pray earnestly for a wise and an understanding Heart and for a soft and tender Conscience Some Sins so Counterfeit an harmless appearance and look so innocently that a Man had need of much spiritual Wisdom to know how to distinguish between Good and Evil and to put a difference between those things that differ as much as Heaven and Hell do Now this ariseth from that great blindness and ignorance that is in Mens minds whereby they cannot discern that great evil and mischief that lurks under small Sins but are apt to account every thing that is not scandalous and grosly wicked to be but an indifferent matter And as their Minds are thus blinded so their Hearts are hardned that what they see and know to be sinful yet they will dare to venture upon it Whence is it else that the generality of the World live in the Commission of those that they call little Sins but because their Hearts are hardned and their Consciences seared that those Sins that are great enough to Damn them yet are not great enough to trouble them A tender Conscience is like the Apple of a mans Eye the least dust that gets into it afflicts it No surer and better way to know whether our Consciences begin to grow dead and stupid then to observe what impressions small Sins make upon them If we are not very careful to avoid all appearance of Evil and to shun whatsoever looks like Sin if we are not as much troubled at the vanity of our Thoughts and Words at the rising up of sinful motions and desires in us as we have been formerly we may then conclude our Hearts are hardned and our Consciences are stupifying for a tender Conscience will no more allow of small than of great Sins Secondly Labour always to keep alive upon your Hearts awful and reverent Thoughts of God his Omnipresence and Omniscience That there is no Sin so small but he knows it though but a Sin in our Thoughts yet every Thought of our Hearts is altogether known unto him Call to remembrance his infinite Purity and Holiness whereby he hates every little Sin even with an infinite hatred as well as the greatest Think of his Power whereby he can and of his Truth Justice and Severity whereby he will punish every little Sin with no less than Eternal Destruction And whilest you thus think of God indulge your selves in little Sins if you can The Psalmist gives this very Direction Ps 4.4 Stand in awe and Sin not that is of the infinite glorious Majesty of God Have awful thoughts and reverential apprehensions of God abiding upon your Hearts and that will keep you from sinning Stand in awe and Sin not To look upon Sin thorough the Attributes of God is to look upon it through a Magnifying Glass and thus you may best see its ugly deformed Nature this is the best way to represent the infinite guilt that is in it and that contrariety that it bears to the Holy Nature of God And while you thus see Sin comparing it with God even the least Sin must appear hainous And when you are Tempted to any Sin while you thus think you may repell a Temptation as Joseph did his Mistress Gen. 39.9 How shall I do this great wickedness and Sin against God The World indeed counts it but a little Sin but looking upon it and comparing it with the Holiness and Purity of God we must cry out How shall we commit this Sin though accounted little by others and so provoke a great and holy God Thirdly Get a more thorough acquaintance with the Spiritual sence and meaning of the Law This was the cause why the Pharisee did so slight the commission of small Sins because he kept himself to the Literal Sence of the Law and so because there he was commanded not to kill not to commit Adultery and the like thought if he did abstain from the outward Act of those Sins he observed the Law yea and observed it sufficiently But now the spiritual meaning of the Law that forbids not only the outwarâ— Act but it forbids whatever tends â— the outward Act inward Though â— Motions Desires Complacencies in â— that are presented to the Fancy â— whatever tends to or belongs unto Sâ— the spiritual Sence of the Law forbids all these Why now grow more in acquaintance with the spiritual sence and meaning of the Law and then you will thinâ— small Sins such as the Sins of the Thoughts of the Desires and of the Fancy and the like to be no less forbidden by the Law than Murder or Adultery and other heinous Sins the Law having as strictly forbid the one as the other Fourthly and Lastly Beware you compare not Sins among themselves The Apostle speaks of some 2 Cor. 10.12 Who measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves were not wise Truly it is as great a Folly for us to measure Sin by Sin or to compare one Sin with another For as when we measure our selves with others our Pride is apt to suggest to us That such and such are inconsiderable Persons in comparison of us So when we measure one Sin by another Corruption is apt to suggest to us such a Sin is a small and inconsiderable Sin in comparison of another Sin and therefore I may venture upon it Certainly if we observe it there are two sad Events usually follow upon our comparing Sins among themselves Either First We make little Sins less than they are or if we are beaten off from such false Opinions by being shewn how great an Evil there is in them then Secondly We make it as good to commit the greatest Sin as the least These two sad Events always happen if we compare one Sin with another Compare not therefore Sin with it self but compare Sin with thy Duty compare the least Sin with the Holiness of that God against whom thou committest it and this is the way whereby you may be brought to account no Sin to be small or little OF ABSTAINING FROM THE Appearance of EVIL IN TWO SERMONS ON 1 THESSAL V. 22. Abstain from all Appearance of Evil. By EZEKIEL HOPKINS late Lord Bishop of London-Derry LONDON Printed by E. H. for NATHANAEL RANEW at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1693. Of Abstaining from the Appearance of Evil. FROM 1 THESS V. 22. Abstain from all Appearance of Evil. MY last Subject as you may remember
was to shew you the great Evil and Danger that there is in Little Sins Now because the Words at present read unto you seem to have a near cognation to the Truth then delivered it being a most certain gradation that he that would avoid great Sins must avoid little Sins and he that would avoid both great and little must consequently shun also the very Appearances of Sin I have therefore pitched upon thiâ— brief Exhortation of the Apostle thaâ— thereby we might as far as is possible be led up unto that exact Purity and Holiness the endeavour after which is absolutely necessary by all those whosâ— Desire and Care it is to obtain eternaâ— Salvation Now in sundry Verses before the Text the Apostle laid down several sedatiouâ— Commands Let none render evil for evil rejoyce evermore pray without ceasing in every thing give thanks quench not the Spirit prove all things abstain from all appearance of evil being now towards the end and close of his Epistle and not willing to omit the mentioning of Duties so necessary for their Practice he doth as it were pour them out in weighty though short Exhortations The connexion betwixt most of them is very dark or else none at all only betwixt the Text and the two immediately foregoing Verses it may seem more plain and natural In v. 20. he exhorts them not to despise Prophesying Despise not Prophesie that is the Preaching even of the common and â—dinary Preachers and Teachers whose â—ffice it was to expound the Scriptures â— them and to declare the Mind and â—ill of God out of the Scripture Did â—e Apostle mean only that extraordinaâ— and miraculous Prophesying that he â—oke of 1 Cor. 14. When by an immeâ—ate impulse and influence of the Holy â—host either they foretold things future â— else spake in divers Languages he â—eeded not then to have so sollicitously â—re warned them not to despise him â—nce so great a Miracle as this Prophesyâ—g of would sufficiently have vindicaâ—d it self from all contempt The leaning therefore is this Whatever â—ifts or Graces you may have attained â—nto though you may know your duâ—es as well and though you may praâ—tise your duties better than they yet â—espise not their Teaching but what they â—ropound to you as the Will of God that â—ttend unto with all reverence and submission But yet says the Apostle I would â—ot have you therefore pull out your own yes because of the gifts of your Teachâ—rs and Leaders no do not mancipate â—nd captivate your selves to whatever â—hey shall dictate unto you but prove all things as it is in ver 21. Search thâ— Scriptures examine whether the thing delivered to you be true or not if upon trial you find them so then hold foâ— the form of sound words in v. 21. Holâ— fast that which is good But if upon in partial search you understand and sin that the Doctrine delivered to you bâ— unsound then abstain from it thougâ— the Doctrine delivered to you be truâ— yet if their Expressions be deceitful â— such as may lead into Errour if the Notions be dangerous if their Expreâ—sions be bold and adventurous thougâ— you must not reject the Doctrine yeâ— abstain from that appearance of evil thaâ— is in them Hence from the Connexion we may observe That in the delivering and receiving of Doctrines we should carefully abstain not only from what is unsound and dangerous but also from what is unsafe and venturous And truly had this Caution of our Apostle been duly regarded had not Teacherâ— luxuriant Tongues and Hearers itching Ears loathing old Truths unless they appear set off in new Dresses our Time â—d not been so fruitful in those Monâ—rs of Opinions that make it disputaâ—e whether our Knowledge or our Erâ—urs were more It is a true Saying â—ong the Ancients That Heresies â—ead from Words if not falsly yet â—duly and improperly spoken The â—olish rash and daring Expressions that â—ve dropp'd from Men sound in the â—ruth being received by those that have â—t been able to put a difference betwixt â—hat is Proper and what is Figurative â—hat is Doctrinal and what is Rhetoriâ—l have been the occasion of leading â—any aside into most dangerous and deâ—ructive Tenets Certainly Christian â—eligion is a thing more severe and punâ—tual than to be rhetoricated upon and â—ourished with Oratory that may through â—earers Mistakes as much pervert the â—udgment as it may please and tickle â—he Fancy There is great weight in Words for by them the Understanding â— steered either into the knowledge of Truth or else into the embracing of Erâ—our and therefore we ought to use â—ch Expressions as are least liable to any Mis-apprehensions or Mis-interpretaâ—ions It is not enough to speak that which may possibly be fetch'd off wiâ— Truth by a distinction but if we dâ— but consult the Ignorance of some anâ— the Malice of others we should see reâ—son enough to speak if possibly so â— that the ignorant might not be able â— mistake us nor the malicious be able â— mis-construe us As for instance â— affirm that we are mystically united uâ—to Christ and thereby become one wiâ— him this is a most high and most uâ—doubted Truth but to say that we aâ— Goded and Christed as some have goâ— about to express this ineffable Mysterâ— in sweet and sugar-words this hath beeâ— the occasion of that familistical Blasphemy and Nonsence that hath invaded â— many parts of the Nation We must observe and consider also that the sence anâ— meaning of many Expressions vary anâ— alter from the Time in which they werâ— used Those very Words that were welâ— used some Ages since in Matters of Dâ—vinity and Religion cannot now be use without appearance of evil in them because now their Signification is quite diâ—ferent from what it was then I will instance but in one and that is concerning the meriting of good Works It is truâ— the Ancient Fathers of the Church did hold there was Merit in good Works but yet it is clear also by their Writings that the Word Merit did not then signifie as now it doth then it signified only Rewardableness and when any maintained that Works merited the common Sence of them all was no more than this That their Works should be rewarded by God and this is all that they did affirm But now the Word Merit signifies Desert in Works arising from the Eqruality that is in them to the Reward propounded and promised to them and therefore now to assert that Works have Merit in them is very unsafe and erroneous which whilst the Papists do they do indeed still retain the Expressions of the Ancient Fathers but the Sence is gone that is they still hold fast the Feather when the Bird is flown away We should therefore beware in our Discourses of the doubtful Things of Religion that we venture not upon those Phrases and Expressions that either border upon Error or that may likely lead into Error And truly the generality of
them there we see our own heart unbowell'd and there we can discern what our selves are at the cost of other mens Sins What says the Wise man in Prov. 27 19 As in water face answereth unto face so doth the heart of a man to a man It was the proud Pharisee's boast Lord I thank thee that I am not as other men are Extortioners Vnjust Adulterers or a this Publican as it is in Luke 18. Yes believe it you and I and all yea the best of us all we are even as others are the vilest Sinners are the truest Glasses to represent to our view what our Hearts are their wickedness gives in a true Inventory of what lies locked up in our Breasts there we have the same Vipers knotting and sprawling within that crawl forth in others Lives there is Rancour and Malice and Hatred and Slaughters and Adulteries and the whole Spawn of all those black Sins that have made Men either infamous in Story or mighty in Torment and that we have not yet out-sinned all the Copies that ever were set us that we have not yet discovered some new unknown wickedness to the World is not because our inclination to Sin or our stock of Corruption fails us but because God's Grace either preventing or renewing fails not Where then is the Christian that hath not cause to go mourning to his Grave can you blame him to see him sad and disconsolate when he hath no less Reason for it than a Heart brim-full of Sin Certainly that Man neither loves God nor his own Soul that can hear that there is in him such a violent propension to injure the one and ruine the other without exclaiming with the Prophet Woe is me for I am undone because I am a Man of an unclean heart and of polluted Lips It is but just yea it is all the reason in the World that while our hearts continue to be fountains of Sin our heads should continue to be fountains of Tears That Proneness that is in God's Children to Sin should make them long for Heaven Thirdly Is there in the best a strong proneness to the worst Sins what cause have we then to long and breath after Heaven For not till then shall we be free from it In-dwelling Sin hath taken a Lease of our Souls and holds them by our own Lives it will be in us to the last gasp and as the Heart is the last that dies so also is that Corruption that lodgeth in it but yet die it must and die it shall And this is the comfort of a Child of God that though he brought Sin with him into the World yet he shall not carry it with him out of the World God hath so wisely ordered and appointed it that as Death came in by Sin so also shall Sin it self be destroyed by Death As Worms when they creep into their holes leave their Slime and their Dirt behind them Why truly so is it with a Christian when he dies he leaves all his Slime all his Filth and Corruption at the mouth of the Grave and his Soul gets free from that Clog and mounts up into the bosom of God and there alone is it that it shall no more strive and struggle against sinful Propensions and Inclinations there shall it be eternally fixed and confirmed not only in Glory but in Holiness also we shall there be out of the reach of Satan's Temptations We read indeed that sometimes the Devil appears before God as an Accuser but we never read that he comes there as a Tempter we shall no more feel the first risings and steamings up of Corruption there no more shall we cast kind glances upon our Sins nor have hovering Thoughts towards them O blessed Necessity when the Soul shall be tied up to one all-satisfying Good when it shall have as natural a proneness and ardour to delight in God as to love it self and to delight in its own happiness And who then would desire to linger any longer here below and to spin out his wretched Life wherein Sin and Sorrow shall have the greatest share here the best of us are in perpetual Combates and Quarrels betwixt Sin and Geace the one will not yield and the other cannot Corruption that compells one way and Grace commands another Haste therefore O Christian out of this Scuffle make haste to Heaven and there the controversie will be for ever decided there shalt thou no more live in fear of new sins nor yet in sorrow for old sins but all sorrow and sighing shall flee away all tears shall be wiped from our eyes and all Sin shall be rooted out of our hearts and we shall be perfectly holy even as the Angels themselves are A Proneness in us to Sin should make us â—â—â—ful to avoid occasions of Sin Lastly Is there such a strong proneness in the best to the worst Sins this then should teach us carefully to avoid all Temptations to Sin and whatever may be an occasion to draw forth that Corruption that lies latent within us Wherefore is it that one Petition of those few that Christ taught his Disciples was that God would not lead them into Temptation but because he knew there is in all of us sinful Natures that do too too well correspond with Temptations And he knew that if we were brought into Temptations it is very seldom that we are brought off from them without Sin Were we as free from inherent Sin as Adam was at first or were we confirmed in Grace as the Saints in Heaven now are we might then repell all Temptations with ease and therefore our Saviour whose Nature was spotless by an extraordinary conception and whose Holiness was secure to him by an unspeakable Union of the Godhead he tells us in John 4.13 The Prince of this World came and found nothing in him The Devil came to tempt him but because he found nothing in him therefore he could fasten nothing upon him no Temptation could enter because there was no Corruption to receive it and therefore when he tempted Christ he only cast fiery darts against an impenetrable Rock a Rock that will beat them back again into his own face but our Corruptions have made us combustible Matter that there is scarce a Dart thrown at us in vain when he tempts us it is but like the casting of Fire into Tinder that presently catcheth our Hearts kindle upon the least Spark that falls like a Vessel that is brim-full of Water upon the least jogg runs over Were we but true to our selves though the Devil might knock by his Temptations yet he could never burst open the everlasting Doors of our Hearts by force or violence but alas we our selves are not all of one heart and one mind Satan hath got a strong party within us that as soon as he knocks opens to him and entertains him and hence is it that many times small Temptations and very petty occasions draw forth great Corruptions as
but God by his Providence so orders it that Merchants pass by that way and to them they sell him There are I believe but few men who if they will examine back their Lives cannot produce many Instances both of the Devil's Policy in fitting them with occasions and opportunities of Sin and of God's Providence causing some emergent Affairs some unexpected Action to interpose and hinder them from those Sins that they purposed Providence prevents Sin by removing the Object Lastly God sometimes keeps men from Sin by removing the Object against which they intended to commit it Thus when Herod intended to put Peter to death the next morning that very night God sends an Angel and makes his escape and so prevents that Sin and so truly in all Aâ—es God hides away his Children from the fury of ungodly men There are doubtless many other various and mysterious Providences whereby God hinders the Sins of Men but these are the most common and most remarkable ways by shortning their Lives by lessening their Power by raising up another Power to oppose them by diverting another way and by removing the Objects of their Sins The next Thing is to shew you how God hinders the commission of Sin in a way of Grace but I shall leave this till another time and make some Application of what hath now been spoken And First then See here the sad and woful Estate of wicked men whom Grace doth not change but only Providence restrain A mere restraint from Sin when the Heart continues fully set and bent upon it must needs cause torment and vexation their own Corruptions urge them forward but God's Providence that meets them and crosses them at every turn and that disappointment that they meet with when they fully resolve upon Sin causes great vexation of Spirit as God will torment them hereafter for their Sins so he torments them here by keeping them from their Sins All the wicked in the world are strangely hampered by God's Providence as so many Bulls in a Net that though they struggle yet they cannot possibly break through and by their strugling they only vex and weary themselves God doth as it were give up the hearts of wicked men to the Devil only he ties their hands let them intend and imagine as much Evil and Mischief as they can yea as much as Hell can inspire into them yet none of these shall execute any of it otherwise than as God permits them Now if there be any real pleasure in Sin it is in the execution of it that which men take in plotting and contriving of it is merely the delight of a Dream and Fancy and herein lies the exceeding wretchedness of wicked men that though Providence almightily hinders them in the execution of Sin yet Justice will justly punish their intention and plotting of it Secondly This should teach us to adore and magnnfie this Sin-preventing Providence of God Our Lives our Estates yea whatever is dear precious to us hitherto have been secured to us only by his powerful hand which hath curb'd in the unruly Lusts of men and kept them from breaking forth into violence and blood and rapine Should God slack the Reins should he throw them upon the necks of ungodly men how would Uproars and Confusions Murders and Slaughters overspread the face of the whole Earth and make the World a Hell above ground Redemption and Providence are two wonderful Works of God by the one he pardons Sin that is committed and by the other he prevents Sin lest it be committed both of them are Contrivances of infinite Wisdom and both of them are unsearchable and past finding out and therefore we ought to ascribe the Glory of both unto God that hath laid both the Design of Redemption and of Providence for Man's Good and for Man's Salvation Thirdly If at any time we can recall to mind as indeed who is there that cannot that God hath thus by his Providence prevented us from the commission of Sin how should this oblige us thankfully to own this Mercy of God to us May not all of us say had not God taken away our power had he not taken away the Objects of our Lusts had he not diverted us some other way we had now been deeply engaged in those Sins that the merciful Providence of God hath diverted us from He it was that hedged up the broad way with Thorns that so he might turn us into the narrow way that leads unto eternal Life and Happiness Fourthly Hath God's Providence so many Ways and Methods to hinder the Commission of Sin why then we may be assured that he will never permit it but when it shall redound to his own Praise and Glory It is an excellent Saying of S. Austin He that is most good will never suffer evil unless he were also most wise whereby he is able to bring good out of evil And therefore when we see wicked men let alone to accomplish their hellish designs we may then quiet our selves with this God knows how to make his own advantage out of their wickedness he knows how from such Dung and Filth to reap a most fruitful Crop of Glory to himself The Rage of Man says the Psalmist thou wilt restrain and the residue thereof shall turn to thy praise that wickedness which God doth not restrain he will make redound to his own Praise and Glory Fourthly and lastly This may establish our hearts in peace when we see the wickedness of Men most raging and violent why they cannot sin unless God gives them a power as Christ told Pilate Thou hast no power over me in John 19.10 except it be given thee from above And certainly that God that gives them a power to sin still keeps a power in his own hands to limit them in their Sins and when their Lusts are most unruly he can say to them hitherto shall ye go and here shall your proud Waves be stayed He stints them and bounds them and he also can totally restrain them when he pleaseth and when it shall be most for his own Praise and Glory Now as God doth thus keep Men back from the commission of Presumptuous Sins by a strong hand of Providence So sometimes he doth by his Grace and this Grace is either meerly restraining or else it is sanctifying and renewing both of them are of very great force and efficacy by the one he holds Men back from Sin and by the other he turns them against Sin You have doubtless heard much concerning Sanctifying and Restraining Grace but yet that your Notions and Apprehensions of them may be more clear and distinct I shall give you the difference that there is betwixt these two in several particulars How restraining renewing Grace do differ they differ in their Subject they differ in their Essence and in their manner of Operation First In their Subject They differ in respect of their subject Restraining Grace is but common and it
is one and the same faculty bandying against it self and the reason of this is because a Child of God hath two Principles in every single faculty there is in him a mixture of Flesh and Spirit a carnal part that sides with sin and a spiritual part that always contradicts and opposeth it and these two are spread over his whole Soul and are mingled with every power and faculty thereof so that he can neither do the evil nor do the good that he would do without contradiction strife and reluctancy now try your selves by this when you are tempted to sin what is it that resists it Is it your Will or is it only your Conscience are you only frighted from it doth the fear of Hell overcome the love of sin why all this may be from a mere restraint in those who are altogether unacquainted with the power of sanctifying Grace this is the symptom and Character of a gracious Soul that when it is most inclinable unto sin yet at the same time is most averse from it when it most wisheth the accomplishment of sin yet even then it strongly wishes the subduing and mortifying of that sin I know this appears a Riddle and a strange Paradox to wicked Men but those who have any true sense of the work of Grace upon their own hearts know it to be a truth and rejoyce in the experiences that they have of it Fourthly and lastly Restraining and sanctifying Grace differ in the motives and arguments that they make use of for the resisting of sin there are two general Topicks or common places whence all arguments against sin are drawn and those are the Law and the Gospel both of these administer such weapons that if rightly used are very effectual for the beating down of sin and commonly restraining Grace useth those only that are borrowed from the Law it urgeth the command it thunders the curse it brandisheth the sword of Justice and makes reports of nothing but Hell and eternal Damnation and such like arguments that scare Men from the committing of their sins though still they love them now sanctifying Grace though it also makes a most profitable use of these very arguments yet it chiefly useth more mild and more ingenious motives drawn from the love of God from the Death of Christ from the comforts of the Holy Ghost and these though they strike softer yet they wound deeper now hereby also you may give a guess whether your abstaining from sin be merely from restraining or from sanctifying Grace observe what weapons you use What considerations do over-awe your hearts Are they such as are drawn only from the Law and the sad reflections of the end and issue of sin That it brings Shame and Death and Hell must you run down to Hell every time a temptation comes to fetch arguments thence to oppose against your corruptions can you no where else quench the fiery Darts of the Devil unless it be in that Lake of Fire if this be all though this too is well yet know if it be all this is no more than what restraint and common Grace may perform it is the proper character of restraining Grace to keep Men back from the commission of sin only by dread and fear of punishment but now sanctifying Grace that especially betakes it self to Gospel Arguments and considers how disingenious it is to sin against a reconciled and a gracious Father against a crucified and a bleeding Saviour against a patient and long suffering Spirit and heaps up many such like ingenious arguments that work kindly upon the heart he leads every temptation to the Cross of Christ and there shews it his Saviour hanging and bleeding and can I commit this sin that hath drawn so much blood from my Saviour to expiate it and would draw so much blood from my Conscience to perpetrate it did he die to free me from the condemnation of it and shall I wilfully rush into the commission of it no O Lord thy love withholds me I cannot do this thing and sin against so rich so free and infinite Mercy and Goodness that thou dayly extendest towards me Thus true Grace usually teacheth a Child of God to argue against his sins and this keeps him from the commission of those sins that others rising up against them only from the terrors and threatnings of the Law and other such dreadful considerations fall into notwithstanding a Wooll-pack sooner damps a bullet than a Stone-wall and truly sofâ— arguments taken from the Gospel from the love of God from the death oâ— Christ from the patience and long suffering of the Spirit these soft arguments sooner damp a temptation and resist a corruption than more rigid and severe ones will when alone used by themselves Now having thus in general shewed you the difference betwixt sanctifying and restraining Grace I shall now descend to more particular considerations of those ways and methods that God useth in keeping Men back from Sin by his special and sanctifying Grace and here I shall premise this That whatever Sin God doth I mean by his sanctifying Grace prevent his own Children from the commission of he doth it by exciting the inward Principle of Grace to the actual use and exercise of it there is a two-fold Grace always necessary to keep the best Christians from Sin Habitual and Exciting Grace and God makes use of the one to quicken and stir up the other he makes use of exciting Grace to quicken habitual Grace that else would lie sluggish and dormant in the Soul Habitual Grace that denominates the Soul alive unto God but yet it is no otherwise alive than a Man in a Swoon is it is exciting Grace that alone can enable it to perform the Functions and Offices of Life in the deepest Winter there is life in the seed that lies buried under ground but yet it acts not till the Sun's influence draws it forth and then it heaves and shoves away the Earth that covered it and spreads it self into the beauties of a Flower So is it here inherent habitual Grace is an immortal seed and it is but a seed till the influences of the approaching and exciting Grace of God awaken it and chafe it's benumbed vertue and then it stirs and thrusts away all that dung and filth of corruptions under which it lay buried and then it flows forth into actual Grace habitual and exciting Grace must both concurr to the producing of actual Grace as necessarily as there must be the concurrence both of the heat of the Sun and of life in the seed to produce a Flower now by God's exciting inherent habitual Grace in the Soul he keeps Men from sinning two ways First by prevention and secondly by suppression of Sin First hereby he prevents and excludes those Sins that werâ— we not employed in the exercise of Gracâ— we would commit when the Soul is constantly employed in holy and spirituaâ— affairs Sin hath then neither room noâ— opportunity to put
Here is the Pardon it self which for the greater Confirmation of our Faith and Hope is redoubled I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions and will not remember thâ— sins Thirdly Here are the Motives or impulsive cause that prevailed with God thiâ— to proclaim pardon unto guilty Malefactorâ— and that is for his own sake I am hâ— that blotteth out thy Transgressions for mâ— own sake 1. As for the first particular I even â— am he we may observe That God seems more to triumph in the Glory oâ— his pardoning Grace and Mercy thaâ— he doth in any other of his Attributes I even I am he Such a stately Preface must needs usher in somewhat wherein God and his Honour is much advanced Is it therefore I am he that spread forth the Heavens and martial'd all their Host that hang up the Earth in the midst of the Air that breath'd forth all the Creatures upon the face of it that poured out the great Deeps and measur'd them all in the hollow of my hand that ride upon the wings of the Wind and make the Clouds the Dust of my Feet This though it might awe and amuse the hearts of Men yet God counts it not his chiefest Glory but I even I am he that blotteth out Transgression and forgive Iniquities So we find when God condescended to shew Moses his Glory he proclaims not the Lord Great and Terrible that formed all things by the Word of his Mouth and can destroy all things by the Breath of his Nostrils No but he passeth before him with a still voice and proclaims himself to be The Lord the Lord God Gracious and Merciful long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth forgiving iniquity transgression and sin So that when God would be seen in his chiefest State and Glory he reveals himself to be a sin-pardoning God I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions and will not remember thy sins 2. As for the pardon it self Blotting out of sin implys two things that is expressed in two things I am he that blotteth out and will not remember Blotting out implys First That sin is written That our Transgressions are written down and written they are in a two-fold Book the one is in the Book of God's Remembrance which he blots out when he justifies a sinner The other is the Book of our own Consciences which he blots out when he gives us peace and assurance and oftentimes these follow one upon the other When God blots his Remembrance-Book in Heaven that blot diffuseth and spreads it self even to the Book of Conscience and blots out all that is written there also Man blots his Conscience by committing sin but God blots it by pardoning it He lays a blot of Christ's Bloud upon a blot of our guilt and this is such a blot as leaves the Conscience of a sinner purer and cleaner than it found it Secondly Blotting out of Transgression implies a legal discharge of the Debt A Book that is once blotted and crossed stands void in Law whatever the Sum and Debts were before yet the crossing of the Book signifies the payment of the Debt So is it here I will blot out thy Transgressions that is I will acquit thee of all thy Debts I will never charge them upon thee I will dash them all out I will not leave so much as one Item not one sin legible against thee This is the proper meaning of this Expression and Notion of blotting out of Transgression and Sin And this is one thing that pardon of sin is expressed by It follows in the next words and I will not remember thy sins Not that there is truly any forgetfulness in God no his Memory retains every sin we have committed surer and firmer than if all our sins were written in Leaves of Brass but God speaks here as he doth elsewhere frequently in Scripture by a gracious Condescension and after the manner of Men and it is to be interpreted only by the Effects I will not remember their sins that is I will deal so mercifully with them as if indeed I did not remember the least of their Provocations I will be to them as one that hath utterly forgotten all their injuries So that this not remembring of sin denies not the eminent Act of God's Knowledge but only the transient Act of his Justice and is no more than his promising not to punish sin as if God had said I will not be avenged on them nor punish them for their sins And here we may see what abundant security God gives his People that they shall never be impleaded for those sins which once they have attained the pardon of they are blotted out of his Book of Remembrance and that they may not fear he will accuse them without Book he tells them That they are utterly forgotten and shall never be remembred by him against them any more Thirdly Consider the impulsive cause that moves God's Hand as it were to blot out our Transgressions and that is not any thing without himself but says God I will do it for my own sake This admits of a two-fold sence efficient and final First For my own sake That is because it is my pleasure I will do it because I will do it And indeed this is the Royal Prerogative of God alone to render his Will for his Reason for because his Will is altogether Soveraign and Independent that must needs be most reasonable that he wills If any should question Why the Lord past by fallen Angels and stoopt so low as to take up Fallen Man And why among Men he hath rejected many Wise and Noble and hath chosen those that are mean and contemptible Why he hath gathered up and lodged in his own Bosom those that wallowed in the filth and defilement of the worst sins when others are left to perish under far less guilt The most reasonable Answer that can be given of all is this I have done it for my own sake I have done it because it is my Will and Pleasure to do it even the same Reason that God gave unto Moses I will be gracious because I will be gracious and I will shew mercy because I will shew mercy Exod. 33.19 Which was the same Answer our Saviour gave to himself Luke 10.21 Even so Father because so it seemed good in thy sight Secondly For my own sake we may take it in a final sense that is I will do it because of that great Honour and Glory that will accrue to my great Name by it The ultimate and chief end of God in all his Actions is his own Glory God bestows Pardon and Salvation upon us chiefly for the manifestation of his own Glory even the Glory of his Mercy and free Grace Our Salvation is therefore accomplished that it might be a means to declare to the World how Merciful and Gracious God is not so much for our good as for his Glory not for our sakes
but for his own sake Such a Parallel place we have in Ezek. 36.12 I do not this for your sake saith the Lord but for my Holy Name sake that you have profaned among the Heathen I will shew mercy unto you not so much that you may be delivered as that my Holy Name that you have profaned may be redeemed from that dishonour that you have cast upon it and may be Glorified among the Heathen And thus we have the full Interpretation of the words and from them I shall raise and prosecute this Observation Doctrine That the Grace of God whereby he blots out and forgives sin is absolutely free and infinitely Glorious I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions for my own sake and will not remember thy sins Now though this Doctrine of free Grace hath deserved well of all as being the best tenure of our present Enjoyment and the best prop for our future hopes yet hath it in all Ages found bitter Enemies and of old like the procurer of it been Crucified between two Thieves the Gnosticks and the Pelagian Hereticks the Pelagians deprive it of its freedom and enslave it to the will of Man affirming That God therefore pardons and saves some because they will by the power of their own Nature work Faith in themselves whereas the truth is therefore God works Faith in them because he will pardon and save them Thus they make free Grace a Hand-maid to wait upon the motions of free Will Now this is greatly derogatory to free Grace for Men to bottom their Faith and Pardon upon the Arbitrariness of free Will and not upon the Almighty Soveraign Grace of God that first moves the Will to believe and then pardons it upon believing Now as these depress the free Grace of God so there are others that ascribe too much unto it of old Islebius in Luther's time who was the first Ring-leader Of latter days the Antinomians and these think the Grace of God is so free as to supersede all necessity of working for it or with it and that it is enough for us to sit still and admire it and so to be hurried away to Heaven in a Dream Nay some even in our days have upon this Principle arrived to that height of Blasphemy as to affirm That we never so much glorifie free Grace as when we make work for it by stout sinning Now therefore that we may avoid both these extreams it will be very necessary to state aright How the Grace of God is free and how it is not free Now there are many sorts of Freedoms a freedom from natural necessity a freedom from violent co-action and from engaging promises and the like but these are not pertinent to our present business When Grace therefore is said to be free it must be taken in a two-fold sense First Free from any procurement Secondly Free from any limiting Conditions And accordingly I shall propound the Resolution of two Questions First Whether the Grace of God be so free as to exclude all Merit and Desert And then Secondly Whether it be so free as to require no Conditions First Whether the Grace of God be so free as to exclude all Merit and Desert Now in Answer unto this Question I shall lay down three Propositions First God's Grace is not so free as to exclude the Merits of Christ That the pardoning Grace of God is not so freely vouchsaf'd to Man as to exclude all Merit and Desert on Christ's part There is not the least sin pardon'd unto any but it first cost the price of bloud even the precious bloud of the Son of God It is this bloud that crosseth God's Debt-Book and blots out all those Items that we stand indebted to him for As Christ now sues out our Pardon by his Intercession in Heaven so he bought out our Pardon by his Sufferings on the Cross for without shedding of bloud there is no Remission Hebr. 9.22 And this is my bloud says our Saviour himself which is shed for the remission of sins Matth. 26.28 And we are not our own but we are bought with a price even with the precious bloud of Jesus Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot as the two great Apostles speak 1 Cor. 6.14 1 Pet. 1.21 Some have made bold and possibly with no bad intention to call Jesus Christ the greatest sinner in the World because the sins of all God's People meet in him and were imputed to him They were his by a voluntary susception and undertaking and if the foregoing expression may be allowed there is one in Heaven the highest in Glory whose sins were never pardoned for our Lord Christ paid down the utmost Farthing that either the Law or Justice of God could exact as a satisfaction for those sins that he voluntarily took upon himself And therefore by Law and Justice and not by free Grace he hath taken possession of Heaven for himself and is there preparing Mansions for us In respect of Christ we receive nothing of free Grace or of free Gift but all is by purchace And as we our selves are bought with a price so is every thing we enjoy even common and vulgar Mercies come flowing in upon us in streams of bloud Our Lives and all the Comforts of them much more our future Life and all the means tending to it are paid for by the Bloud of Christ So that the Grace of God is not so free as to exclude all merit on Christ's part who hath purchased all we enjoy or hope for by paying a full and equitable price to the Justice of God Secondly God's Grace in giving of Christ to us is free The infinite Grace of God in giving Christ to us and his Bloud for us through which we have pardon merited is absolutely free and falls not under any merit either of ours or of his First It falls not under any Merit of ours for certainly could we have merited Christ out of Heaven we might as well have merited Heaven without Christ When God in his infinite Wisdom foresaw how we would reject and despise his Son first spill his Bloud and then trample upon it he did not account this Demeanour of ours to be meritorious of so great a gift Secondly Which is yet more to the Glory of God's free Grace He bestowed Christ upon us not only without any merit of ours but without any merit of his also It is free Grace that Pardons that Sanctifies that saves us yet all this Christ purchased for us by a full price God will have a price paid down for all other things of a less value that so he might hereby set forth his own Bounty in parting with his own Son for us without price Pardoning Grace free in respect of us Thirdly Pardon and Grace obtained through the Bloud of Christ in respect of any Merit of ours is altogether free and undeserved We cannot of our selves scarce so much as ask forgiveness
iâ— we believe and repent and the other Covenant bestows this Faith and Repentance upon us The Conditional Covenant promiseth Pardon of sin and Salvation if we believe and repent and the absolute Covenant promiseth Faith and Repentance to us to inable us to believe and repent And what could God do more that might farther express the freeness of his Grace to us than to pardon upon Condition of Faith and Repentance which Faith and Repentance he works in us This is to pardon us as freely as if he had pardon'd us without any Faith and Repentance at all God pardons great sinners and passeth by those that are guilty of less Seventhly God sometimes selects out the greatest and most notorious Sinners to vouchsafe Grace and Pardon to them when he suffers others eternally to perish under far less guilt He makes a difference in his Proceedings quite contrary to the difference he finds in Mens Demerits And wherefore is this but only to shew forth the absolute freeness of his Grace greater Debts are blotted out when smaller stand still upon the account only that it may be known that God is free to do what he will with his own and that he will shew mercy to whom he will shew mercy and whom he will he pardons How many Heathens Men of improved Natural Endowments and proportionable Virtues and yet not having Faith in and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ are excluded from pardon and forgiveness whose sins rather shew them to be Men than not to be Christians Whereas others under the Noon-tide of the Gospel are guilty of such flagitious Crimes that shew them to be Monsters rather than Men and yet these upon their Faith and Repentance obtain Pardon and Remission as if it were with God as it is with Men the more there is to be remembred the sooner he forgets It is these Riches of Pardoning Grace that St. Paul admires and adores when he tells us concerning himself I was a Blasphemer and a Persecutor and Injurious but I obtained mercy 1 Tim. 1.13 God pardons without foresight of Merit Eighthly God decrees to pardon without foresight of Merit or worth in us When we lay before him as the Objects of his Mercy what was our posture but weltering in our Bloud And what promising Aspect was such a loathsome Object as this Divine Love did not foresee any attractive Comeliness in us but made it when we were rolled up in our own Filth cast forth to the loathing of our Flesh yet then was it a time of Love and even then when we were in our Bloud God said to us Live when we were full of Wounds Bruises and putrifying Sores Divine Love condescended to bind them up and cure them such miserable deformed Creatures were we And could there be any thing amiable in such an Object as this only hereby God puts an accent on the Riches of his Love laying it out upon such as were not worthy with a design to make them worthy God pardons sin though he foresees we will commit more sin Ninthly Consider this God pardons not only though he saw no Merit in us but what is more to the Glory of his free Grace though he foresaw many future wrongs and injuries would be added to those we had already done He foresaw all our Provocations and Rebellions how we would abuse his Grace and turn it into wantonness He saw the Rebellions of our unregeneracy the Infirmities of our Converted State yet tho' he foresaw all before they were yet he resolved not to see them when they are Numb 23.21 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob nor perverseness in Israel And this though it ought not to encourage us in sin yet it may be a support and comfort to us when through weakness and infirmity we have sinned that God who loved us and decreed to pardon us when he foresaw how sinful we would be will not certainly now cease to love us and pardon us when we are as vile and sinful as he foresaw we would be Tenthly The Lord Jesus Christ Christ by whom alone we are paron'd is the Gift of God by whom alone we are pardon'd is freely given to us by the Father What price could we have offer'd to have brought down the Son of his Eternal Love from his Embraces What was there in us to draw a Saviour out of Heaven Were we so amiable as to move him to divest himself of his Glory and to Eclipse his Deity in our Mortal Bodies only that he might become like such poor Worms as we are and take us unto himself Ask no more but admire God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting Life Here 's a Mystery that the whole College of Angels can never comprehend What God Condemn his Son that he might pardon Rebels The Son of God blot his Deity in our Flesh only that he might blot out our Transgressions with his Bloud This is such transcendent free Grace and Love that in this we have an Advantage above the Angels themselves standing higher in the Favour of God upon this account than they do Now compact all these Ten Particulars in your thoughts together wherein the freeness of pardoning Grace most illustriously appears and you will find there is good reason for God in the Text triumphantly to ascribe to himself I even I am he that blotteth out your Transgressions The Application I shall make of this Truth I shall only briefly mention First VSE We must not sin because of pardoning Grace Is the Pardoning Grace of God thus free Take heed then that you do not abuse or turn it into Wantonness Shall we continue in sin because God so freely pardons sin God forbid Who would ever make such a cursed Inference as this that ever had the least sense or touch of Divine Love upon his Heart Every one loves to have his Ears tickled with this soft sweet downy Doctrine of God's free Grace and Love and when they hear it they stretch themselves upon it and lull themselves fast asleep in sin But what says the wise Man Prov. 25.27 It is not good to eat much honey No there is no such dangerous Surfeit as upon the sweet and luscious Truths of the Gospel This Honey leaves a deadly sting in Men that abuse it to encourage themselves in sin It is such disingenuity to argue from freeness of pardon to freedom in sinning that I dare say That no Heart that ever had a pardon sealed to it by the Witness of the Spirit of God but utterly abhors it What therefore to provoke God because he is ready to forgive What to multiply sin because God is ready to pardon What is this but to spurn at those Bowels of Mercy that yern towards us and even to strike at God with that Golden Scepter that he holds out to us as a Token of Love and Peace Certainly
we are both ways discharged from our Guilt by Satisfaction unto the Penalty of the Law in Christ our Surety and by the free Grace and Mercy of God who hath made and sealed to us a gracious Act of Pardon in Christ's Blood and therefore we stand upright in Law and are as Just and Righteous in God's sight as if we had never sinned against him O how great Consolation is here unto the Children of God! They account themselves great Sinners yea the greatest and worst of Sinners but God accounts them Just and Righteous they keep their sins in remembrance as David speaks my sin is ever before me when God hath not only forgiven but fotgotten them they write and speak bitter things against themselves when God is writing out their Pardon and setting his Seal unto it God's Grace as easily pardons great as small sins Fourthly Pardoning Grace can as easily triumph in the remitting of great and many Sins as of few and small Sins What a great blot upon the Heavens is a thick Cloud and yet the Beams of the Sun can pierce thorow that and scatter it easily Why now God will blot out our Trangressions as a thick Cloud so himself tells us by the Prophet Isa 44.12 I will blot out thy transgressions as a cloud and thine iniquities as a thick cloud A great Debt may as easily be blotted out as a small one Ten thousand Talents is a great Summ yet it is as easily and freely forgiven by the great God as a few Pence God proclaims himself to be a God pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin that is Sins of all sorts and sizes The greatest Sins repented of are no more without the Extent of Divine Grace and Mercy than the least Sins unrepented of are without the Cognizance of Divine Justice Esay 1.18 Though your sins be as scarlet yet shall they become as white as snow though they be red as crimson yet they shall be as wooll And can there then be found a despairing Soul in the World when the great God hath thus magnified his Grace and Mercy above all his Works yea and above all ours also Say not then O Sinner my sins are greater than can be forgiven this is to stint and limit the Grace of God which he hath made boundless and infinite and thou mayest with as much Truth and Reason say thou art greater than God as that thy Sins are greater than his Mercy Of all things in the World take heed that you be not injurious to this rich Grace to this free Love and Mercy that pardons thee even for his own sake God pardons thee for himself for his own Sake and dost thou fear O Penitent believing Soul that ever he will condemn thee for thy Sins no but as much as God and his Mercy is greater than our Sins so much more Reason will he find in himself to Pardon the Repenting Believing Sinner than he can find Reason in his Sins to condemn him Thus we see what cause of Comfort there is in this Pardoning Grace of God And thus also we have consider'd Pardon of Sin in its own Nature Of the Concomitants of Pardon of sin Secondly We shall now consider Pardon of Sin in its Concomitants and Adjuncts and so we shall take a view of those things which do inseparably accompany it and thereby also we may see how great and unspeakable a Mercy it is It is a Mercy that is never bestowed upon the Soul singly and alone but evermore comes environ'd with whole Troops and Associate-Blessings As Pardon of Sin and Acceptation go together First Pardon of Sin is always conjoyn'd with the Acceptation of our Persons Indeed these two are the twin Parts of our Justification and therefore we have them coupled together Ephes 1.6 7. He hath made us accepted in the beloved In whom we have Redemption thorow his blood even the Forgiveness of Sin The whole Mystery of our Justification stands in these two things Remission and Acceptation Remission takes away our liableness unto Death and Acceptation gives us a Right and Title unto Life for to be accepted of God in Christ is no other than for God through the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ imputed to us to own and acknowledge us as having a Right and Title unto Heaven and therefore we have mention made of Pardon and an Inheritance together as the full summ of our Justification Acts 11.18 That they may receive forgiveness of sin and an inheritance among those that are sanctified It is not therefore O Soul a bare negative Mercy that God intends thee in the Pardon of thy Sins it is not merely the removing of the Curse and the Wrath that thy sins have deserv'd though that alone can never be sufficiently admired but the same hand that plucks thee out of Hell by pardoning Grace and Mercy lifts thee up to Heaven by what it gives thee together with thy Pardon even a Right and Title to the glorious Inheritance of the Saints above Secondly Another Concomitant is this Pardoning and sanctifying Grace go together Who-ever God pardons he doth also in some measure sanctifie He subdues our sins as well as blots them out he abates their Power as well as removes their Guilt And indeed it were no better than lost labour for God to pardon sin if he did not purifie the Sinner also for were but the least Sin and Corruption left to rule and reign in us we should presently run our selves as far into Debt and Arrears as ever we were Indeed the best Christian in whom Grace is most prevailing and Corruption weakest yet even he stands daily and hourly in need of pardoning Mercy but yet withal his Sins are not of so high a Nature nor so deep a Stain as usually the Sins of wicked Men are His Sins usually are such rather for the manner of them than for the matter of them God by his pardoning Grace forgives Infirmities Failings and Defects and by his sanctifying Grace ordinarily keeps him from the commission of more gross and scandalous Sins And how then can we enough admire the rich Grace of God that not only forgives us our Debts but withal bestows a new stock upon us to keep us from running into Debt again in any great and desperate Summs Pardon of Sin and Adoption are inseparable Thirdly Pardon of sin is always conjoyn'd with our Adoption into the Family of Heaven Herein is the Love of God greatly seen not only to pardon Rebels but to make them his Children not only to forgive Debtors but to make them Heirs of his own Estate The same precious Blood that blots out our Sins writes us down Heirs of Glory and Co-heirs with Jesus Christ himself O infinite and unspeakable Mercy of God thus richly and bountiful to give as well as freely to forgive that he should thus instate us at present in his Love and Favour and hereafter instate us in his Glory This is not the
against the pursuits of avenging Justice This is its formal and most immediate Effect Justice follows guilty Sinners close at the Heels and shakes its flaming Sword over their Heads every Threatning contained in this Book of God stands ready charged against them and their Sins make them so fair a Mark that they cannot be missed Hence is that sad Complaint of Job Why hast thou set me up as a Mark Into which he emptied his Arrows as into his Reins Job 7.20 Now while Justice is driving the Sinner before him from Plague to Plague resolving never to stop till he hath driven him into Hell the great Assembly and Meeting of all Plagues Mercy interposeth and lays its Arrest upon it and this Gracious Act of Pardon rescues us though under the hands of the Executioner and we ready to be turned into Hell Here the Challenge that Justice makes to us ceaseth and we are left to walk safely under the protection of Mercy For when God issues out a Pardon he calls off Justice from its pursuit Thus you have the Psalmist thankfully acknowledging Psalm 85.2 Thou hast forgiven our Iniquities and what follows now Thou hast taken away all thy Wrath thou hast turned thy self from the fierceness of thine Anger Nor is it to be feared O Soul that thou shalt evermore be questioned for those sins that are once forgiven thee God's Acts of Oblivion can never be repealed No God sets an everlasting Sanction upon them and Justice shall never again molest thee Jeremiah 34. I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more And indeed well may Divine Justice cease its pursuit of the guilty sinner for always when God pardons a sinner he turns his pursuit after Christ and satisfies all his just demands upon him for though we are the Principals in the Debt yet our Surety who stands bound for us in the Covenant of Redemption is far the more able and absolving Person Now is not this an unspeakable mercy that Justice and Vengeance the heavy stroaks of which many thousand Wretches lie under and which thy sins have provoked and armed against thy own Soul that might every sin thou committest that is every moment of thy Life strike thee Dead in the place in the dread of which if thou hast any tenderness of Conscience left in thee thou must needs live in continual fearful expectations of this Wrath of God to destroy thee as his Enemy Is it not now Infinite Mercy that God should call in the Commission given to his Justice that Mercy might secure thee from it What is this but the effect of Pardoning Grace that gives this destroyer charge to pass over all those upon whose Consciences the Bloud of Christ is sprinkled for the removal of their guilt Peace and Reconciliation an Effect of pardon of sin Secondly Another Blessed Effect of Pardon of Sin is Peace and Reconciliation with God And what happiness can there be greater than when the Quarrel betwixt Heaven and Earth betwixt God and the Sinner is taken up and compounded Open Wars have been long proclaimed and long maintained on either part ever since the first great Rebellion Man hath stood in defiance with and exercised great Hostility against his Creatour and God on the other hand hath thundred out whole Peals of Curses against these Rebels and hath slain whole Generations of them eternally Dead upon the place God hath still maintain'd his Cause with Victory and Man his with Obstinacy and this War would never cease did not God proclaim Pardon and Forgiveness to all that will lay down their Arms and submit Now hereupon Peace is concluded fully for first God's pardoning Sinners manifests himself to be fully reconciled to them so the Apostle tells us Rom. 5.1 Being Justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. God is a sworn Enemy to all guilty sinners himself hath affixed this Title to the rest of his Name That he will by no means clear the guilty Guilt hath a malign influence not only on our Consciences to discompose them with Terrours and Affrightments but on God's Countenance also to ruffle it into Frowns and Displeasure Now when God pardons sin he wipes away this over-casting Cloud and the cause of Enmity being removed his Face and Favour clears up to us And then Secondly Pardon of Sin is a strong Inducement to us to lay down the Weapons of our Warfare and be at peace with God What Argument can be more prevailing where there is any Principle of Ingenuity When God thus proclaims Peace shall I continue War He Pardons and shall I Rebel He is Reconciled and shall I be Implacable Shall I persist in those sins which he forgives No far be it from me I submit to that God whose rich Grace conquers by condescending as well as his Power by crushing And thus the Soul lays down its Weapons at the Feet of God and humbly embraceth the terms of Agreement propounded by him in the Gospel Pardon of sin lays a good foundation for Acquaintance and Communion with God Thirdly Pardon of Sin lays a good Foundation for the Souls near Acquaintance and Communion with God Guilt is the only thing that breeds Alienation Your Iniquities says the Prophet have separated betwixt you and your God Isa 59.2 Nor indeed is it possible that a guilty Sinner should any more delight in Conversing with God than a guilty Malefactour delights in the presence of his Judge And therefore we see when Adam had contracted guilt upon himself by eating the Forbidden Fruit how childishly and foolishly doth he behave himself God calls him and he runs behind a Tree to hide himself what a suddain change was here Adam who but a little before was his Creator's Familiar now dreads and shuns him his guilt makes him apprehend God's Call to be no other than a Summons to the Bar. Nor indeed can it be otherwise but that guilt should produce Alienation betwixt God and the Soul for look how distance grows between two familiar Friends so doth it here If a Man be Conscious to himself that he hath done his Friend an Injury what Influence hath this upon him why presently it makes him more shy and reserved to him than before So is it here Consciousness of guilt fills us with a troublesome ill-natur'd shame we are ashamed to look God in the Face whom we have so much wronged by our sins And Secondly this shame is always joyned with a slavish and base fear of God lest he should Revenge himself upon us for the Injuries that we have done to him and both this Shame and Fear takes off from that holy freedom and boldness which reverently to use towards God is the gust and Spirit of our Communion and Fellowship with him and all these lessen that sweet Delight in God that formerly we relisht in the Intimacy of this Heavenly Fellowship And what can be the final product of all this but a most sad
Alienation and Estrangement between God and the Soul But now Pardon of Sin removes these Obstructions and causeth the intercourse betwixt God and the Soul to pass free because it gives the Soul a Holy and yet Awful Boldness in Conversing with the Great and Terrible Majesty of God So much sence of Pardon and Reconciliation as we have so much boldness shall we have ordinarily in our Addresses to God What 's the Reason the Consciences of Wicked Men drag them before God and they come with so much Diffidence Dejectedness and Jealousie Why it is because they are Conscious to themselves of guilt that lies upon them and this makes them look on God rather under the Notion of a Judge than of a Friend or Father and this makes them perform their Duties so distrustfully as if they would not have God take any notice that they were in his Presence But when a Pardon'd sinner makes his Addresses to God he may do it with a Holy freedom the Face of his Soul looks chearfully and he Treats with God with an open Heart What ground is there now for such a Confidence as this is For poor vile Dust and Ashes to appear thus before the great God of Heaven and Earth Yes there is for Guilt is removed his Peace is made in the Bloud of Christ all Enmity is abolished all Quarrels are decided and it becomes not him to serve God with such Suspiciousness as Guilty Sinners do Hence we have that Expression of the Apostle Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near to him in full Assurance of Faith having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience That is from a Guilty and an Accusing Conscience Now when the Heart and Conscience is sprinkled with the Bloud of Christ whereby this Guilt is taken off then hath a Man good ground to draw near to God in full Assurance of Faith Fourthly Pardon of Sin lays a good ground for Peace in a Man 's own Conscience I do not say that Peace of Conscience is always an inseparable Attendant upon Pardon of Sin For doubtless there are many so unhappy as to have a Wrangling Conscience in their own Bosoms when God is at Peace with them But this is certain That Pardon of Sin lays a solid ground and Foundation for Peace in a Man 's own Conscience and were Christians but as industrious as they should be in clearing up their Evidences for Heaven they might obtain Peace whenever they are pardon'd What is there that disquiets Conscience but only Guilt nothing but the Guilt of Sin doth it this is that which rageth and stormeth in Wicked Men and is as a Tempest within their Breasts this is that unseen Scourge that draws Bloud and Groans at every Lash this is that Worm that lies perpetually gnawing at the Heart of a Sinner this is that Rack that breaks the Bones and disjoynts the Soul it self In a word Guilt is the Fuel of Hell and the Incendiary of Conscience were it not for Guilt there were not a more pleasant and peaceable thing in all the World than a Man 's own Conscience Now Pardon of Sin removes this Guilt and thereby makes Reconciliation between us and our Consciences and therefore says our Saviour Matth. 9.2 to the Paralytick Man Son be of good chear thy Sins are forgiven thee why might not some say this is an Impertinent Speech to say to one that was brought to be cured of a sad Infirmity of Body That his Sins were forgiven him whilst yet his Disease was not cured Not but our Lord Christ knew that there was infinitely more cause of Joy and Chearfulness to have Sin Pardon'd than to have Diseases cured To have all calm and serene within not to have a Frown or Wrinkle upon the Face of the Soul to have all smooth Thoughts and peaceful Affections this is some faint resemblance of Heaven it self and is never vouchsaft unto any but where Pardon and the sence of it is given to the Soul Pardon of sin takes away the Curse of every Affliction Fifthly He whose Sins are Pardon'd may rest assured that whatever Calamities or Afflictions he may lie under yet therâ— is nothing in them of a Curse or Punishment It is Guilt alone that diffusetâ— Poison through the Veins as of all ouâ— Enjoyments so of all Afflictions also and turns them all into Curses Buâ— Pardon of Sin takes away this Venome and makes them all to be Medicinaâ— Corrections good profitable and advantagious to the Soul See how God by the Prophet expresseth this Isa 33.24 The Inhabitants shall not say they are sick Why so For the People that dwell therein shall be forgiven their Iniquities When Sin is Pardon'd outward Afflictions are not worth complaining of The Inhabitants shall not say We are Sick A Disease then becomes a Medicine when Pardon hath taken away the Curse and Punishment of it God hath two ends with respect of himself for which he brings Punishments upon us the one is the Manifestation of his Holiness the other is for the satisfaction of his Justice And accordingly as any Affliction tends to either of these ends so is it properly a Punishment or barely a Fatherly Chastisement If God intends by the Afflictions he lays upon thee the satisfaction of his Justice then thy Afflictions are properly Punishments and they flow from the Curse of the Law but if the manifestation of his Holiness be all he intends by them then are they only Fatherly Corrections proceeding from Love and Mercy First Those whose sins God hath pardon'd he may afflict for the declaration of his Holiness that they may see and know what a Holy God they have to deal with who so perfectly hates sin that he will follow it with Chastisements even upon those whom his free Grace hath pardon'd Secondly God inflicts no Chastisements upon those whom he hath pardon'd for the satisfaction of his Justice and therefore they are not Curses nor properly Punishments but only Corrections and Fatherly Chastisements Christ hath satisfied the demands of Justice for their Sins and God is more just than to exact double satisfaction for the same Offence one in Christ's Punishment and another in theirs The Apostle tells us Gal. 3.13 Christ hath Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us It is not the Evils that we suffer that makes them Curses or Punishments be they never so great but only the Ordination of these Evils to the satisfaction of Divine Justice upon us And therefore Christ in Scripture is said to be made a Curse not simply because he suffered but because he was adjudged to his Sufferings that thereby satisfaction might be made unto the Justice of God Hence therefore with what calmness and peace may a Pardoned Sinner look upon any Afflictions though they are sore and heavy tho they seem to carry much of God's Anger in them yet there is nothing of a Curse or of the nature of a Punishment the Sting was all
Prince in many little Sun without grudging that which were exacted from them all at once in oâ— great Tax would make them repine if â—ot rebell so is it with us we stand â—ot with the Devil for small sins but â— he tempts us to greater abominations â—hen Conscience makes an alarm and upâ—oar in the Soul and will not nay cannot consent to damn it self by wholeâ—ale certainly that Man that can as our Saviour speaks of the Pharisees swalâ—ow Camels sins of a huge bulk and size without any check or straining at them must needs have a Conscience as wide mouth'd as Hell and he who hath so â—arge a Conscience hath no Conscience at all and that 's another advantage we have against presumptuous Sins Thirdly Fear of shame and infamy a remedy against presumptuous Sins The fear of Shame and of Infamy in the World many times puts a great restraint upon the Lusts of Men and keeps them from breaking out into those daring and presumptuous Wickednesses that otherwise they would do Therefore our Saviour describes the unjust Judge to be one of a strange temper that neither feared God nor regarded Man Luke 18.2 Why those that have worn off all fear of God from their Hearts yet usually have some awe of Man still lest them though the are so hardned that they fear not God Judging them yet they are withal â— Childish that they fear Man's Censurinâ— them loath they are that their Name should be tossed to and fro from Tonguâ— to Tongue that the World should say of them this Man is a Drunkard anâ— that Man is an Vnclean Person anâ— that Man is a Thief Tell me O Sinner why else dost thou seek Corners tâ— hide thy Wickedness in why dost thoâ— not do it in the face of the Sun and before the Eyes of the whole World why that very shame that makes Men scull in secret when they Sin had they nâ— secrecy to hide themselves in from the notice of Men it would keep them also from the Sin it self It doth not terrifie Men to Consider that God write down all their Sins in his Book of Remembrance but should he write alâ— their Sins upon their Foreheads in visible Letters that all the World might Read them where is the Wretch so impudent that would dare to be seen abroad our Streets would be desolate and your Pews would be empty and the World would grow a Wilderness and those that we took for Men would appear to be but very Monsters and Beasts such woful transformation hath Sin made in the World how many Swines are there â—wallowing in their own Vomit how many Goatish sensualists are become Brutish in Filthy Pleasures how many Earth Worms are there crawling up and down in the Muck of this World loading themselves with thick Clay certainly if every Sinner should be seen in his own shape we should meet with very few Men in the World Why now Wicked Men are ashamed to be seen abroad in such disguises as these are and therefore they study to Sin in secret or if that cannot be they force themselves to abstain from Sin unwilling they are to be pointed at in the Streets there goes a Drunkard or an Extortioner there a Cheater or an Adulterer and the like and for very fear hereof sometimes they are kept from the commission of those infamous Sins that would make them a Reproach to all their Neighbours And that is another advantage The Laws of Men keep Men from Sin Lastly The fear of Humane Laws and Penalties doth many times keep Men from the committing many great and horrid Impieties such as would fall undeâ— the notice of the Law It is a great Mercy that God hath Instituted Magistracy that may be a Terrour to Evil Works as the Apostle speaks Rom. 3.13 were it not more for fear of Humane Laws the inflicting of Corporal Punishment upon Men more than God's Threatning of Eternal Punishments the wholâ— World would become worse than a Savage Wilderness within would be Fear and Tumults without would be Ragâ— and Violence our Dwellings our Persons our Possessions would be all exposed to the furious lusts of ungodlâ— Men and by swearing and lying anâ— killing and stealing and committing aduâ—tery Men would break forth till blooâ— toucheth blood as the Prophet speaks Hoâ— 4.2 but the wise Providence of God who hath subdued the Beasts of the Eartâ— to Man hath also subdued Man whâ— else would become more wild and brâ—tish than they to Man God hath therâ—fore subdued Man to Man so that thoâ— that stand not in any awe of the Goâ— of Heaven yet are they awed by the Gods of the Earth and they whom the thoughts of Hell and Eternal Wrath cannot scare from sin yet many times the thoughts of a Prison and Gibbet doth Now this fear is of great advantage to keep Men from the commission of presumptuous Sins which they have not to keep them from the commission of lesser and smaller sins and what is not this security enough against them is there need of any more were it not strange if that warning given before-hand to prepare for resistance if the reluctancy of natural Conscience if the shame of the World and the fears of humane Laws and Penalties should not be sufficient to preserve us from them Were not this strange Yes it were so yet so it is notwithstanding all these advantages still we have great cause to pray with David Lord keep back thy servants from â—resumptuous Sins all other defence is â—ut weak and all other security is but â—nsafe Lord therefore do thou keep us â—nd this I shall endeavour to demonstrate â—nto you by two particulars the one â—rom Scripture and the other from Experience First from Scripture All our ability whether for the performance of duties or for the opposing of corruption is in Scripture entirely ascribed unto the power of God thus the Apostle exhorts the Ephesians in Chap. 6.10 My Brethren says he be strong but in whom what in your selves no says he but be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might for in his Almighty Power though mighty corruptions rush in upon you and threaten your ruin though the Devil and the Powers of Hell push sore at you to make you fall yet God calls upon you to stand and to withstand them all stand alas how can we Such poor weak feeble creatures as we are how can we stand Why says the Apostle be strong in the Lord there 's your security against all the force of your Spiritual Enemies lay hold on his Almighty Power and engage that for you and this will bring you off the Field with victory and conquest So again in 2 Cor. 5. and 3. We are not sufficient says the Apostle of our selves to do any thing as of our selves not sufficient to think a good thought and therefore not sufficient to resist an evil thought for our resisting of an evil thought must be by thinking a good
one if an evil thought rise up in our hearts we cannot of our selves so much as think that that thought is evil nor think that it ought to be suppressed and stifled and much less can we then of our selves suppress any sin and what should we do under this utter impotency and inability but call in Divine help and assistance our sufficiency is of God Why now yet in this we cannot think our sufficiency to be of God nor can we depend upon the sufficiency of God to enable us to do it for it is God says the Apostle that worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure both to think and to act so you have it in Philippians 2.12 so that it is most evident to all that will not willfully shut their eyes against the light of truth that both the first motions and the whole succeeding progress of the Soul either to the performance of duty or to the resistance of sin is wholly from God's Almighty power engaged for them and strengthning them to the one and for the other Secondly Another demonstration of this truth shall be from the common experience of all have you not found sometimes that you could with holy scorn and disdain reject those very Temptations to sin that at other times when God hath absented himself from you when he hath withdrawn his Power and Grace they have sadly prevailed upon you it may be to the commission of some daring and presumptuous sin have you not found it to be so what else is this but an evident argument that it is not your own but God's Power that keeps you from the worst sins We may conclude by our falls when God doth forsake us that when we stand we stand not by our own strength but by his â— Why do you not always fall or why do you not always stand Will you say it is because we are not always alike tempted if you be not why then since the Devil is always alike malicious Even herein appears the Mercy and Power of God who almightily rebukes him but when you are alike tempted whence proceeds it that sometimes you yield and sometimes you resist and conquer but only from hence sometimes God is present to assist you and sometimes he departs from you to humble you he is present sometimes that you might not utterly sink and perish under your sins and he absents himself sometimes that you may be sensible by your falls that formerly it was not your own but his Power that preserved you and this may suffice for the demonstration of the truth that it is not in the power of the best Christians to keep themselves from presumptuous Sins but God's power only Now by this time possibly it may arise up in the hearts of some profane ones Object to make the same Objection as some did in the Apostles days against the Doctrine of Election if it be so that it is not in my own power to keep my self from the commission of sin yea of the greatest and worst sins but only God's Power why doth he yet complain why doth he yet find fault with us for doing that which we cannot but do unless he himself preserve us from it I might here take occasion to vindicate the Equity and Righteousness of Answ God in requiring from us the exercise of that Power that he bestowed upon our natures at first and which we lost only through our own willful default but I have done this divers times already and therefore I shall only at present briefly consider what Power Men have still lest them both in a State of Nature and in a State of Grace to keep themselves from the commission of Sin and that in a few particulars briefly First then Clear it is that whatever Power Men have either to naturals or to spirituals yet they cannot act or exercise that Power without exciting influence from God to quicken and rouze it who will say that a Man that sits hath not power to rise and that a Man that stands hath not power to walk and yet it is certain he neither shall rise nor walk unless God move and excite and rouze that power of his and put it upon that work for in him as we live so we move and have our being so then the power to use our power is from God's quickning enlivening and actuating of us Secondly A Child of God who is regenerated and born again hath a power to do some thing that is not sin because he hath a gracious Principle wrought within him and he acts for a right end even the Glory of God in the Salvation of his Soul but yet this withal must be supposed that he shall never so act without the special aid and assistance of God quickning and stirring up his Graces Thirdly a Man in a State of Nature hath no power to keep himself from sin in general that is he hath no power to do any thing but what is sinful for whatever action is not sinful must flow from a gracious Principle and must be directed to a right end which no action of a wicked Man can be for both the first Principle and also the last end of every action that a wicked Man doth is carnal self Fourthly Though wicked Men have not a power to do that which is not sinful yet they have a power to resist this or that particular sin They are sadly necessitated to act within the sphere of sin that is whatever they act is sinful but yet they may as it were chuse which sin they will act neither doth this overthrow what was delivered before for when they chose a less sin rather than a greater when they avoid the commission of a daring and presumptuous sin and chose rather to perform a duty this proceeds not meerly from their own power but from the power and influence of God raising and exciting their power that Men chuse to feed upon wholsome meat rather than upon poyson though they have a free will to do so yet this doth not merely proceed from their free will but from God's guiding and exciting that free will to chuse wholsome food rather than poyson so is it here what sin Man avoids is not to be ascribed to his own power though a power he hath but it is to be ascribed only to God's common or to his special Grace and Influence whereby that power that would otherwise lie dead and unacted is quickned and actuated in us what difference is there betwixt a Man that hath no power and a Man that hath a power but yet cannot use it Truly such are we what power we have against sin we cannot make use of it till God raise and act us by his exciting Grace therefore have we still need to pray with David Lord do thou keep me from sin for though I have a power yet it is but a latent and sleepy power and will not be available till thou dost awaken