Refusal of his Grace it is righteous severity For this is threatened as the Punishment of backsliding Christian Churches against such who would not receive the Truth in the Love of it The Deceived and the Deceiver are his Job 12.16 Now God may do this two ways First By permitting Deceivers and false Teachers to speak and act at that rate of Cunning and colour of Truth that it is very difficult to resist or withstand the snare And therefore we read of the coming of the Man of sin with all signs and lying Wonders or with Wonders to confirm those Lyes This God foretold and warned the Jews of before hand 2. God may give Men up to strong Delusions by taking away the Assistance of Reason and a clear Judgment to distinguish between things that differ Thus Men wrest the holy Scriptures to their own Destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 Which they could not do without his Providence and Permission And when the Gentiles had sinned highly against the Light of Nature God gave them over to a Reprobate Mind Rom. 1.26 or to a mind uncapable of Judging as the word imports a blind unjudicious Mind that could not examine or distinguish between Truth and Falshood This is as consistent with the Justice of God considering it as the Punishment of former Guilt as the depriving us of any of our senses would be And without some such thing as this it will be impossible to give an Account of the Growth and Prevalency of the many ridiculous absurd Doctrines and Practices of Popery It cannot otherwise be accounted for that such Fooleries as are to be found in their Opinions and Worship should ever be received believed complied with and pleaded for by Men otherwise of Judgment and Learning But it is to be feared that they are given over to strong Delusions to believe Lyes There are many others that are no Papists whom this may concern who after a great Profession have fallen back into secret Wickedness and at last into more open Crimes against Convictions and Resolutions Promises and former Experience Many such in the last Age and some in this have been thus left of God to run into strange Enthusiasm and real Fanaticism to receive the most extravagant and sometimes blasphemous Opinions to espouse and plead for them against the plainest Reason and the most express Scripture that can be But usually it may be observed the Doctrines they receive and the new Lights they follow are such as tend to Licentiousness to encourage the Gratification of their Lusts that they can sin on by the help of these Opinions with greater Security and Peace This is another step whereby men are given up to their own Hearts Lusts LASTLY When God gives special Permission to the Devil the great Enemy of Souls to exert his Power and Malice in blinding and destroying Sinners We do not sufficiently consider what we owe to Gods Restraint of Satan that we are not more succesfully tempted to deny the Faith and cast off the yoke of Christ When the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul an Evil Spirit from the Lord is sent to trouble and punish him and Satan filled his heart with Rage and Cruelty 1 Sam. 16.14 Some evil Spirit had leave from God to seduce Ahab 1 Kings 22.21 22. Who acted his part succesfully to deceive and destroy If our Gospel be hid says our Apostle it is hid to them that are lost 2 Cor. 3.4 Whose eyes are blinded by the God of this World HE is ready to do us all the mischief he can if God restrain him not What a Power had he over the Bodies of some Men in the days of our Saviour He would manifest as much over their Souls too if God did but give him leave The Red Dragon went out to deceive the Nations we read in the Apocalyps As to those who are judicially left of God and given up to their own Hearts Lusts it may come to this and sometimes doth so that God leaves them to the Power of Satan to deceive and ruine them and they are led captive by him at his will How dismal must the Case of such Persons be Which brings me to consider III. THE Severity of this Judgment Besides what has been said concerning it already let me add a few Particulars 1. The Severity of this Judgment will appear if we consider that it is never inflicted but after many preceeding Provocations upon habitual and obstinate sinners For sins against Light and Knowledge presumptuous and repeated Transgressions such for which there was no sacrifice appointed under the Law Numb 15.30 2. The Severity of this Judgment may be argued from the Subject of it it falls upon the Soul it doth especially respect that as its immediate Subject The dismal Effects of it reach to the Soul The Beauty and Comeliness of the Soul is hereby spoiled For what more dismal Spectacle can there be than such a man thus left of God The Honour and Dignity of the Soul is hereby debased for men given up to their own Hearts Lusts are almost transformed into Beasts 3. Because the most dishonourable Slavery follows upon it They are left under the Power and Rage of their own Lusts and did you know what a Slavery that is you would rather beg of God that you might fall into the Hands of the most barbarous and cruel Tyrant in the World than to be left under the Dominion of your own Lusts 4. Because they are left to walk in their own Counsels as the fruit of their being given up to their own Lusts And these are First The most foolish blind Guides that can be that fill men with vain Projects and Designs As the rich Fool in the Gospel Luke 16. He would pull down his Barns and build greater and say Soul take thine ease c. Secondly They are false and treacherous Guides They promise Peace and Happiness but procure nothing like it Promise Ease and Rest but can by no means perform what they promise but leave a man to wander and go astray unto his own Destruction Prov. 5.31 Thirdly They are cruel and pernicious Guides as well as deceitful ones Such Persons will walk in the way that leads to Destruction He that walketh after his own Counsel will find the End of that way to be Death Lastly The Severity of this Judgment will appear in that it can never be inflicted but in Anger This is the Fruit of divine Wrath. All other Calamities and Afflictions may be the Fruit of Love may be sanctified for our good may turn to our Advantage But this Calamity has no such Original and no such Effect A man may be given up to Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh that the Soul may be saved But to be given up to sin is a thousand times worse because that is the Fruit of Divine Anger in order to the Damnation of the Soul Here God wounds like an Enemy and like a cruel one And we may boldly say
He that being often reproved hardens his Heart shall suddenly be destroyed and that without Remedy If Men once come to this that under the most searching lively Sermons they can continue secure and wilful in known sins they may fear lest they be left to go further even to the hating of Godliness and good Men Or at least to be so far stupified as not to feel any thing of the force of Gods Terrors or the sweetness of his Promises but to make a Jest of sin and think a Life of Godliness a needless thing Such Persons when it comes to this especially if they grow old in this Course have Cause to fear lest they be forsaken of God and given over to their own Hearts Lusts sealed up under Judicial Blindness and Hardness of Heart III. WHEN The Spirit of Grace gives over striving with the Souls of Men. This is a most dangerous Case For except He return they are irrecoverably lost There is an absolute necessity of the Influence of the Divine Spirit to the Begining Progress and Continuance of the Spiritual Life and there is no Opposition in the Soul but this Spirit of Life and Power can overcome But when he gives over striving with men how deplorable must their Case be And this he doth with many after they have resisted the Spirit and rebelled against the Spirit and vexed the Holy Spirit of God as we read of some that did Acts 7.51 Now if this blessed Spirit move not upon the Soul of a Backslider he can never be recovered And when he hath often been repulsed and grieved and quenched he may withdraw in Anger and God may justly resolve as concerning the old World that his Spirit shall strive no more no longer with them Especially when after a great Profession of Christianity men turn Apostates and despise Preaching and the other Institutions of the Gospel having done despite to the Spirit of Grace Heb. 10.29 Which though spoken of open final Apostates should make Others that approach thereto to tremble And of how much soever Punishment shall such be thought guilty that do thus Despight to the Spirit of Christ who bears Witness to his Person and Doctrine Who can tell the Dreadfulness and Horrour of their Punishment The Constitution of the Law of Moses reached but to a temporal Death without mercy But besides temporal Judgments such a Guilt will expose them to Eternal Wrath For the greatest sin will have the greatest Punishment No wonder then if the Holy Spirit strive no more with Persons that come under this tremendous Guilt that sin against the Holy Spirit even as a Spirit of Grace doing Despight to the Spirit of Grace who did invite and wooe and draw them unto Christ to bring them under the Bond of the Covenant My Spirit shall not alway strive with men Gen. 6.3 Heb. 3.13 Luke 13 7. When the Spirit of Grace and Love and Benignity hath shone in upon their Minds and often touched their Consciences and secretly whispered Sinner Wilt thou not yet turn What hast thou no Inclinations to return to me O do not go on and perish c. Now to despight this very Spirit of Grace must needs be attended with great Aggravations of Guilt because it is after some Experience of his Influence and Power This must be one of the most dangerous Symptoms of a perishing lost Condition The Gospel must needs be hid unto such because without the Light and Influence of the Holy Spirit it can have no saving Effect If our Gospel be hid says our Apostle it is hid to them that are lost 2 Cor. 4.3 Whose Minds are blinded by Satan lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine into their Hearts Though I must here add that no Man I believe can determine what Degree of this Guilt as to particular Persons doth distinguish those who are Irrecoverably lost from such as are Recoverable and may be called to Repentance IV. THOUGH The Spirit have not done striving yet when the preaching of the Word though you cannot resist the Light of divine Truth but somewhat of it shines into the Mind and Conscience if yet your Hearts stand out and will not yield this is a dangerous Case For men may be convinced by the Word of the sinfulness and Danger of their Condition they may come to determine and to pronounce Judgment upon themselves that what God requires of them is but Just and equal and that hitherto they have not complied with his Call One thing or other from day to day hath hindered them from coming up to the terms of the Gospel from a covenant Closure with the Son of God upon the Gospel Call They may say and own it before God and Men That they are deeply convinced such a thing ought to be done But I have not yet found the time or the Leisure or the Heart to retire into a Closet and consider it and set about it in good earnest and give up my Soul to him I am convinced I must do it or I cannot enter into Heaven I am convinced I must turn or I shall dye I am satisfied this my present Course must issue in my Ruine my Eternal Ruine that if I go on and dye in this Case I am lost for ever But yet notwithstanding such Convictions with many still the Heart holds out against all that can be said The highest and the most important matters that can be named though propounded with the clearest Evidence and represented as of the nearest Concern to them yet do not effectually prevail with them Though we propose in the Name of God the Incouragment of that Blessedness and Priviledge which no man that understands and believes but must desire Though we flash the Fire of Hell before them and endeavour by the Terrors of the Lord to perswade them yet they have heard of these things so often that they are not moved by them to yield themselves to the Lord. All that we speak in the Name of Christ is as a Tale that is told they have heard it so often it makes little Impression Things are come to that sad pass with them and they are Scrmon-proof to that Degree that to use the words of a Great man unless we could speak of greater things than Heaven and Hell we cannot move them And though their Minds are inlightened and some Convictions begun yet their Lusts carry the Day against their Convictions Conscience is baffled or kept under by the Power of vicious Inclinations And while men go on at this rate who can tell but God may say Let them alone but that he may give them up to those Lusts they have chosen and so their Condition be desperate Though they themselves do not apprehend it to be so And as to individual Persons we cannot distinctly tell when it is so but so it may be and God be clear in his Righteousness herein because it is penal and after great Provocations and it was lately otherwise
in Thunder and Lightning with such an amazing Voice as upon Mount Sinai to the People of the Jews When he made the Mountaine shake and the People Tremble Heb. 12.26 and even Moses himself exceedingly to do so But imploys Messengers like our selves to speak in his Name He considers our weakness and the Necessity of our Case and promises to accompany the ordinary Preaching of the Gospel with the Power of his Spirit That the great and necessary truths published explained and pressed by a serious Ministry shall be the Power of God unto Salvation He requires those that are intrusted with this work to instruct to exhort to warn and reprove to beseech and intreat you in the Name of Christ with Earnestness and Importunity that you would not receive the Grace of God in vain that you would be reconciled to God praying you in Christ's stead that you would be so least the Things that concern your Peace should be for Ever hid from your Eyes Thirdly Consider Who They are that are said to refuse to hearken to the Voice of God My People Israel My First born more nearly related to me more peculiarly favoured and priviledged by me than the rest of the World We Christians succeed in their Priviledges not only as Domestick Servants but as Children visibly related to God as our Father by the Covenant of Baptism And shall not Children receive the Instruction of a Parent Deut. 21.18 a stubborn Son that refused to hearken to the Voice of his natural Parent was under the Law to be stoned to Death and all the Men in the City were to have a Hand in bringing such a Monster to that deserved Punishment Fourthly That the Complaint and Reproach is Just will appear by considering what is Connected with it in the Words that immediately follow Israel would none of me that is if they will not hearken to my Voice they declare they will have none of me God offers himself to enter into a Covenant and to be your God only obey my Voice and I will be so But they inquire not after him There is none that saith where is God my Maker They will none of me i e they will not have me to be their Lord and Ruler they will not have me to be their Portion and Chief Good It is plain they will not because they refuse my Teachings and Guidance they will not hearken to my Voice Now this being duely attended to will sufficiently Justify the Divine Severity v. 12. towards such who will not hearken to the Voice of God For thereby they do in Effect bid him depart from them they tell him we desire not the Knowledge of thy Ways And if hereafter he should bid them depart from him into Everlasting Fire with the Workers of Iniquity the Sentence would not be more dreadful than Righteous If he say Depart from me you unthankful despisers of my Grace I would have instructed and sanctifyed and saved you but you would not I called but you refused and turned the deaf Ear I exhorted and beseeched and intreated you to have Pity on your selves in Time but you would not hearken to my Voice I faithfully warned you of your danger but you made light of it I offered to be your God and to make you happy and blessed for Ever if you would but accept my offer but you would none of me Therefore if he should speak to them hereafter in his Wrath and vex them in his sore Displeasure if he then be Deaf to their Crys who now refuse to hearken to his Voice their Sentence will be Just And no less would it be if God should inflict the heavy Doom mentioned in this Text which is the Beginning of Hell where it continues without Remedy and timely Relief is not admitted Such as will not hearken to the Voice of God the Language of whose Heart is thereby manifest that they will none of him Such as these God may Justly give up to their own Hearts Lusts and leave them to walk in their own destructive Councels And this brings me to consider the Second Proposition That for wilful Sinners to be given up to their own Hearts Lusts and to be left of God to walk in their own Councels is one of the most tremendous Judgments that can be threatned or inflicted in this World First What is it for God to give up any to their own Hearts Lusts Secondly What is his usual Method of inflicting such a Judgment Thirdly Wherein does the Terrour and Dread of such a Judgment appear or what Considerations will manifest this to be such a dismal Judgment What I shall speak under these Three Heads will make way for the practical Application I must grant that there is an unsearchable Depth in the divine Judgments especially in his Methods of Severity towards the Souls of Men And therefore when we have gone as far as Scripture and Experience will direct and lead us we must yet cry out O the bottomless Depths of the Divine Councels how unsearchable are his Judgments Rom. 11.33 Deut. 32.4 and his ways past finding out However we must hold to this that all his Works are perfect â—nd that he is a God of Truth and without Iniquity his Ways are Judgment Deut. 29.3 4. and Just and Right is he And it is remarkable that this is spoken after a terrible Expression a little before concerning the Jews that after having seen the Signs and Wonders and Miracles that God wrought among them yet hath he not given you a Heart to perceive and Eyes to see and Ears to hear unto this Day But whatever Obscurity there may be in the Manner yet such a Thing as Gods leaving Men to themselves must be acknowledged yea Isa 10.29 Mar. 4.12 his pouring out a spirit of slumber and deep sleep upon Men closing their Eyes in righteous Judgment after they have wilfully shut them Never was any People so punished in this Manner as the Nation of the Jews After having long resisted the Spirit neither Word nor Rod could awaken them but the Things of their Peace were hid from their Eyes But we must not conceive of this as an Act merely of Will and Pleasure in God without Respect to their former sin But consider it as an act of Righteous Judgment upon great Provocation This Doom never goes before the Fault when they will not be purged they are left to be filthy still After long striving and Resistance God lets 'em Alone We must view it as something Judicial toward those who had highly deserved it by former Refusals of his Grace and disobeying his Voice And therefore when God is said in the 4th of Exodus to harden Pharaoh let us consider who he was and what he had done Was he not guilty of the most prophane contempt of God Who is the Lord that I should obey his Voice I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Exod. 5.2 And was he
forsaken and left of God He beheld the City and mingled his Lamentations over it with his Tears Saying O! Jerusalem Jerusalem if thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy Day the Things which belong unto thy Peace but now they are hid from thine Eyes He knew how deplorable the Condition of such Persons must needs be and what was due to so great a Calamity or he would not have lamented it with Tears He knew the aggravation of their Guilt and the Severity of the Divine Justice and the Value of Immortal Souls and the Depth of Misery into which such guilty sinners are sinking he perfectly knew these Things or he would not have bestowed Tears upon this Occasion And which yet is most * See Mr. How 's Redeemers Tears Pag. 149. Dreadful to consider when Persons are becomâ— incurably Obstinate and Impenitenâ— unto Perdition the Redeemers Teaâ— may Express his Compassion but wilâ— not abate their Misery or asswagâ— their Torment They that have rejected and dispised his Mercy and trampled upon his Blood shall yeâ— have his Tears of Compassion Thâ— former would have saved them buâ— the latter only bewails their Folly and their Misery what they have losâ— because they would not be saved They neglected God's season and he departed Hosea 5.6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord But they shall not find him He hath withdrawn himself from them So John 8.21 Theâ— said Jesus again unto them I go my way and ye shall seek me and shall dy in your sins Whither I go ye cannot come It is impossible for me to describe the Horrour of their Case with whom Matters are come to this Issue That God resolves to let them alone to give them up into the Hands of their own Counsels to leave them to their own Hearts Lusts to the Dominion and Tyranny of their vile Affections and Inclinations that they shall be holden in the Cords of their own Iniquity and without further Instruction or Restraint Prov. 5.22 23. in the midst of their Folly be left of God to go astray When because they would not be purged they shall not be purged till the Divine Fury be made to rest upon them God will let them Alone and say if they will go on to treasure up Wrath against a Day of Wrath e'ne let them do it If they will harden their Hearts if they will dye if they are so intent upon their own Ruin as that they refuse my counsel and slight my Reproofs and resist my Spirit and hate to be Reform'd let them take their Course let them walk in the Ways of their own Heart and in the Sight of their Eyes let them prosecute their own foolish Choice I will do nothing to hinder it My Gospel shall not instruct and heal them My Spirit shall not to any good purpose longer strive with them that which is the Savour of Life and the Power of God unto salvation unto Others shall have a deadly Savour unto them No words can express the Horrour of such a Case And such a Case is possible but we have no certaine Rule given us whereby to determine our Judgment concerning any particular Person so as to enable us to say positively This is the sad condition of such a Man or such a Woman But because many fear it is their own Case and the Person who by a Letter desired me to preach on this Subject is afraid lest Things may already be come to this Issue I will not now close without some Application And Passing over several Uses that may be made of this I shall hence take Occasion to Exhort to three Things First To take heed not to pass a definitive Sentence against your selves concerning the state of your own Souls as to this Judgment Secondly However to apprehend the Danger of approaching to it if you are under any ill Symptoms of that kind and beware of those Things that have a Tendency to so sad a Doom Thirdly Diligently to improve the Means you are yet under by the Warnings of the Word convictions of Conscience and the Motions of the Divine Spirit that you may Effectually prevent it That as it is not your Case for the present it never may be so First Take heed of passing a definitive Sentence against your selves in this matter There is a Time even with the Impenitent and Unconverted when God may move their Hearts more strongly unto Conversion than afterwards And when such a Time is over with thee thou mayest be apt to think that God hath utterly Abandon'd and Forsaken thee and be ready to conclude Thy Day of Grace is past In this Sense it may be past with many long before their Death and yet their state not be irrecoverable This is like enough to be the Case of many of you present but you need not thereupon question but you shall be accepted of God if you are now willing to return to him You have no ground to question whether Christ will receive you if you are willing to come to him or whether pardoning Mercy may be had if you penitently forsake your wicked ways and turn to the Lord with all your heart Men that formerly had some Motions and Helps to Repentance which they neglected and misimproved and obstinately resisted may be so given up to their Obstinacy as never to have such Motions more and so on that Account the Day of Grace may be past with divers But such Persons are hardened in Sin and hate an Holy Life oppose serious Godliness and the Means of their Recovery c. But the Day of Grace is never so past in this Life with any Man as that he shall not be accepted and pardoned if he do truly repent Therefore for a penitent returning Sinner to fear his Day of Grace is utterly past or that his Repentance if it be true does now come too late This is to contradict the whole Tenour and Scope of the Gospel Your Case may be more dangerous than that of most others and yet not Irrecoverable Be sure it is not if you have not sinn'd that Sin which can't be pardon'd which in the general I firmly believe no man is guilty of who is afraid lest he hath been or is so guilty Our Obstinate continued forsaking of God is the great sign of our being forsaken of him And where that is not the Case you should not Judg so concerning your selves or others And even where it is so for the present the Grace of God may be rejected for many years and yet we may hope that some Persons may afterwards be converted by that Grace which before they rejected So that we cannot tell what God will do as to particular Persons Neither would it be any advantage for us to know if such and such be so far forsaken of God as that they shall never be recovered but continue in their Obstinacy and Impentiency to the End of their Days God
hath * Mr. How 's Redeemers Tears pag. 82. not made it any Man's Duty to believe this concerning himself nor to beleive it concerning any other particular Person Some of those whose Hearts were once as hard as yours who slighted Christ as much and as long as you have done who dispised many awakening Warnings who refused and turn'd their Backs upon many Invitations and Calls of the Gospel and resisted the Spirit of Grace for a long Time have afterwards been made the Triumph of the Power Love and Grace of God Therefore don't pass a definitive Sentence against your selves To pass a Judgment upon our State and to believe it concerning our selves is to nullity the Gospel and to make it impossible for us to Repent and Believe which God hath made to be our Duty It is a sinful prescribing limits to the Grace of God to say It hath waited on me so long it will it can wait no longer Secondly However Apprehend the Danger of the present Case if you are under any such Symptoms as have a Tendency to so severe a Judgment as this is It may be you have sinned your selves into hardness of Heart that you are not affected with the Word Preached as formerly that you do not find such Impressions by it that the Operations of the Spirit with the Word that were formerly strong do now seem to cease You are not so affected with the Evil of Sin with such hearty Sorrow and bitter Repentance as formerly tho thy sins be most highly aggravated And are little affected with the sins of others you are more senceless stupid and secure under the Guilt of great Provocations than formerly And this notwithstanding some Tokens of God's Displeasure by afflictive Rebukes of Providence It may be you have taken up with a fruitless barren empty Profession of Religion for a long Time joyn'd with the Neglect of the inward Spiritual Part of Godliness Mortification of Sin Watchfulness over your Hearts Government of your Thoughts Passions and Sences c. And have gone on in a formal Course and Round of some external Duties without Heart or Life or Quickning and this contrary to your Convictions Resolutions and repeated Promises c. This case is exceeding sad and sinful and God only knows where it will Issue if deep and timely Repentance do not awaken you You ought to apprehend it to be indeed a very provoking and dangerous Case but not quite desperate Nay let me go further Secret Prayer it may be hath been neglected for a Time or performed with so much coldness that you now Tremble to think how low you are sunk Or which is much worse it may be you do not Tremble The Power of Conscience is in a great measure lost both in restraining from Sin and in checking for it You can now more easily stifle Convictions rebel against Light and venture upon a known sin indulge a secret Lust and allow your selves those Things from day to day which formerly you could not without sharp Rebukes of Conscience And such Preaching and such Helps as did once startle awaken and quicken you have now little or no such Effect This is indeed unspeakably dismal O! how low are such fallen how difficult how sorrowful must be the awakening and Recovery of such Backsliders What can be said to such Persons and why should they not fear the Judgment of this Text lest God give them up to their own Hearts Lusts I am so far from discouraging such a Fear that I would by all Means awaken it Therefore I say it would be Just with God to cast thee off and God would be Righteous if he reject thee utterly if he forsake thee for Ever if he never strive with thy Heart more if Never Providence or Sermon do thee good more This would be Just But at the same Time let Hope be intermingled with Fear there is much Cause to Fear but there is none to Despair the one is a Duty and the other a Sin And if the Consideration of your sin and Danger begin to melt and mollify your Heart then know that Christ came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance and mercy may yet be had he takes pleasure in them that hope in his Mercy it is by hope we are saved Therefore aggravate your sins and the grounds of your Fear and the Danger of your perishing to Eternity But don 't sit down in Despondency don't yeild your selves to perish without striving to prevent it Fall down before his Mercy-Seat study the Nature and Promises of the Covenant of Grace and fly to Christ according to the general Invitation and Call of the Gospel to that End Thirdly if your Hearts begin to melt and move within you who have apprehended your selves in Danger of this Judgment if you are yet under the strivings of the Spirit as your very Sollicitude and Fear about it and Desire of Assistance doth Imply then I would beseech you to set presently to work out your Salvation with all Diligence Let not the Dictates of an awakened Conscience be hush'd and silenc'd Cherish and obey the holy Motions of the Spirit Let not your present Convictions and Resolutions become abortive for want of Meditation and Prayer and advising with your Ministers and Judicious Faithful Friends Especially take heed of extinguishing the Sentiments of an awakened Conscience by new Guilt and fresh Transgressions While Conscience is thus at Work your Conversion is more probable and hopeful now than formerly If you quench not the Motions of the Spirit and provoke him to leave you If you will but hearken to his Voice and follow his Counsel and not again harden your Hearts If you would now earnestly implore and thankfully entertaine and carefully improve his holy Influences Is it not of highest Importance that you do so without Delay When your Breath is in your Nostrils and the Day of your Life and your Day of Grace may both be ended before to morrow Morning Should not the Kindness of God overcome you That Mercy is offered â—o such returning Backsliders should 〈◊〉 not be a melting transporting Thought for such as you to consider â—hat Christ invites you to come to him â—f you are weary and heavy laden and â—romises Rest Read Judges 10th the â—atter End for your Encouragment where God having delivered his People and they yet forsook him it is said â—hat he would deliver them no more but â—id them go to the Gods they had â—hosen But they cryed to him and â—urned from their evil Ways and his â—oul was greived for them and he did â—eliver them They cryed heartily Lord â—o unto us what seemeth thee good only deâ—ver us so do you in like Manner and â—here is yet Hope Go in â—ecret and â—ell him that it is the Desire of your Souls now to return to him beg his â—anctifying Spirit with utmost imporâ—unity plead the Vertue of the Blood of Christ say unto him Lord do with â—ne what thou
wilt afflict me how thou pleasest strip me of all my pleasant Things if that may serve the Ends of thy Glory only let not thy holy Spirit forsake me only deliver me out of â—he hands of my Lusts break these my Chains knock off these Fetters save me from my sins and from thâ— Wrath accept me for thy Covenanâ— servant write thy Law upon my Heart that I may walk in thy Ways And whatever thou give me or whatever thou deny me Lord for Jesuâ— Christ's sake never give me up to my owâ— Hearts Lusts that I should be left to waâ—â— in my own Counsels Amen The Second Sermon Psalm LXXXI 12. I gave them up to their own Hearts lusts and they walked in their own Counsels WE can never look back to our primitive state considering how richly and plentifully the Bounty of our Maker â—ad provided for us without admiâ—ing Thoughts of his Beneficence and Kindness And yet if we view the Divine Compassion unto guilty and â—ebellious Man since the Fall and â—ow many obstacles his Grace overâ—ame This latter will be Judged to surpass his former Bounty to Innocent Man For before the Entrance of sin the Current of Divine Love met with nothing to obstruct its passage theâ— was nothing to discourage its Exeâ—cise towards an Innocent and Obedient Creature But now sin hath made a great gulf betwixt God and us We are in a state of Enmity and Hostility against Him which sets a value upon the Power and Freenesâ— of the Grace imployed to Recoveâ— and save us And yet after all this display of thâ— unsearchable Riches of Grace and Love in the Work of our Redemption it is a question whether our willful provoking Obstinacy against God be not more astonishing than his undeserved Compassion and Love to us that in contradiction to all the Princâ—ples of Reason and Interest we should slight his Kindness and despise his glorious Love and refuse his Grace the only Remedy that can save us That when he offers to be Reconciled to us and Intreats us to be Reconcileâ— to him we will not hearken to his Voice That we should persist in our chosen Distance and Estrangment and say We will have none of him Let him depart from us we desire not the Knowledge of his ways We care for â—o Reconciliation to him or Communion with him or any share in the Happiness he offers to confer upon â—s Were not this very highly proâ—oking the Blessed God would not Complain of it as he doth and Repreach â—s with it as he also doth in many â—laces and particularly in this My People would not hearken to my Voice and â—srael would none of me so I gave them â—p c. Both Expressions are in the â—uture though we translate them as alâ—eady inflicted The Original signiâ—â—es that God would deal so severely â—ith them The Aggravations of his Complaint of God concerning Israel have been already mentioned What I propose now to discourse of â—s this First That it is matter of most Just Complaint and most heavy Reâ—roach when any People or Person will not hearken to the Voice of God Secondly That for any wilful sinâ—ers to be given up by God to their own Hearts Lusts and left to walk in their own Counsels is one of the most fearful Judgments that can be threatned or inflicted In speaking to the Second General I proposed to shew First What it is foâ— God to give Men up to their owâ— Hearts Lusts And that such a thing there may be and is as Gods giving men over to their false Imaginations and Conceptions of things their inordinate Desires and irregular Passions their wicked Projects and Contrivances for the fulfilling of their variouâ— Lusts c. When he gives them up to these Lusts he casts them out of hiâ— special Care and Protection so as they become an easy prey to the Deviâ— And the Hebrew word which we translate give up is often used for thâ— casting out a People out of their Country as in 44. Psal 2. Such Persons aâ— also left of God under the Tyranny and Dominion of their Lusts withouâ— those Restraints of Providence anâ— Grace which before they had Whaâ— more may be intended in such an Expression will appear in speaking to the Second Head viz. To shew by what steps and Degrees God doth execute and inflict such a Judgment upon them And then Thirdly I shall speak something further of the Dreadfulness of this Judgment and so Apply the whole II. By What steps or Degrees the Blessed God doth usually proceed in inflicting such a Judgment as this For the better understanding of this I must premise by way of Caution 1. That Whatever Method is taken in the Execution of so severe a Doom we must remember there is a great depth of Obscurity in these Judgments of God There is so in all his works of Judgment but especially in such as do more immediately relate to the Souls of Men. We know very little of the manner of Gods Influence upon mens Spirits and therefore should be very humble and wary modest and cautions in our Expressions about it And yet from what we observe of such spiritual Judgments we may cry out with the Apostle Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out We know very little of the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Influence in forming the Image of God upon the Soul and much less concerning the manner of this Punishment in the Text whereby men are hardened in sin through the righteous Judgment of God to their Eternal Ruine However 2. Remember This is a Judicial Act in God not an arbitrary thing that depends upon meer Will and Pleasure without any respect to the Aggravations of Mens wilful Rebellion and sinning against Light It is such a Judgment as supposes very hainous Provocations to precede it The Instance of the Jews doth abundantly prove this with whom the Patience of God did long bear and his Spirit strive But they alwaies resisted the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 From generation to generation maintaining the war against the Divine Spirit till he turned to be their Enemy and fought against them Isa 63.9 10. And then their Doom is pronounc'd in a most solemn manner with terrible and astonishing Preparations for it Isa 6. By a glorious Apparition of the great God in the Temple which made the Prophet cry out I am undone c. The fearful message he was to deliver to that People was that 9 10. v. Hear ye indeed but understand not see ye indeed but perceive not make the Heart of this people fat and their ears heavy and shut their Eyes lest they see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and understand with their Heart and convert and be healed This Doom we find with great Awfulness repeated in the new Testament by our Saviour Mat. 13.14 Luk. 8.10.12 John 40. And
not be divorced from their beloved Lusts As one of the Antients speaks concerning Philotimus who had weakened his Constitution and impaired his Health as the Effect of his Intemperance and Riot And being told by the Physicians that if he would not forbear and presently break off his licentious Course that he must certainly lose his Eye sight There was no help for him but in a little time he would be Blind He presently answers the Physician thus Valeat lumen amicum Farewell O pleasant and desirable Light rather than not sin on as I have done I am content never to behold the Light of the Sun more Will the Blessed God think you be unrighteous if he condemn such resolved sinners to everlasting Darkness Or to give them up now to those Lusts that they are so madly set upon But where he hath Designs of Mercy to any he will not leave them to go on without Correction As many as I love I rebuke and chasten If you will not be reclaimed by one Rod you shall have another and a third and a fourth If you will not for all this turn to the Lord I will yet punish you seven times more for your Iniquities Levit. 26.18 In these Cases God doth not spare that he may spare he doth not seem to have Mercy that he may have Mercy He doth not forbear his Rod that we may forbear our sins He will not let us alone that he may not be forced utterly to abandon us He will rebuke and chasten that we may not harden our selves unto our Eternal Ruine Whenever you behold a wicked Person thrive and flourish in the World when you see him prosper in his Trade and boasting of his Riches priding himself in his Power when you see him strong and healthful surrounded with all that is desirable to flesh and blood flourishing with all variety of outward Blessings personal and family Advantages c. And â—et neglect God and wallow in all â—â—anner of carnal Impurities restrain Prayer from the Almighty in his Family and in his Closet and live like a Beast without God in the World When you behold such spectacles think of the Accomplishment of such like Scriptures where God threatens in Anger to forbear to punish such and such men This is the first Method his forbearing to afflict 2. By taking away the External Means of Knowledg and Grace or otherwise disposing of Persons so as they cannot enjoy such seasons Acts 19.9 When divers were hardned and believed not but spake evil of that way before the multitude he departed from them God continues not the outward means in such places or the persons remove into remote parts of the world where the Gospel of Christ is not known Thus when lewd and disobedient Youths have sinned against God and their Parents to that degree that they know not what to do with them they either go of themselves or are sent into the Fleet or Army or to the Indies to such Places where the Gospel is not preached And by this means men are left to walk in their own Counsels The Publick Ministery of the Word being the ordinary Means of Sanctification And so 't is no wonder if they greedily fulfill their brutish Lusts Therefore if God withdraw such a Ministery from the Place where you reside or you run madly and without a call or warrant to dwell in such places where it cannot be had I mean such a Ministery as is proper to enlighten and awaken and strive with you in order to your Conversion and your salvation it is one step to your being given over and left of God and to have the things of your Peace hid from your Eyes I wish Merchants and Traders and Parents that have undutiful Children and some Others who are resolved They will be Rich would consider this But if you have sat under a convincing lively Ministry but you begin to dislike it in that case it looks very ill Especially the more you were affected with it formerly and now disrelish it or despise it In such Cases the means of holy Knowledge and Sanctification not being continued or improved it looks fearful as to such Persons More especially if They be unaffected and unconcerned it their own Danger in these Circumstances 3. God is said to pour upon men a Spirit of Slumber and deep Sleep to suffer them to harden their Hearts and stupify their own Consciences the more by every thing they enjoy so that though the external Means be continued yet none of the divine Messages will be received nor the most useful Ministry do them any good nor the Providential goodness of God lead them to Repentance All their earthly possessions and temporal Blessings shall become snares and stumbling blocks Jer. 6.21 Therefore thus saith the Lord behold I will lay stumbling blocks before this People and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them The neighbour and his friend shall perish But this is after they have wilfully hardened themselves So it was with Pharoah when he had obstinately hardened his own Heart Exod. 7.14.8 chap. 19 32. ver After that upon his continued Obstinacy God declares that he hardened him 9. chap. 12. and 16. ver And caused him to stand up or raised him up that is kept him alive when he deserved to be cut off by a quick and sudden Destruction for this very end that he might shew in him his Power So provoking was his former Obstinacy and Incorrigibleness Thus are men the faulty Cause by chosen wilful Blindness and Hardness before they are forsaken and left of God under such a Judgment 4. Another step is God's righteous Refusal to continue that Influence of the divine Spirit with the external Means of Grace which men have abused and forfeited Without this Influence there cannot be a Day of Light and Power under the Gospel Dispensation Both which are necessary to make our day of Grace But when any People or Person have rebelled against God and vexed his holy Spirit he may cease to strive with their Hearts by any gracious Influence When he hath knocked often and they would not open such inward Motions of the Spirit as they formerly had they may have no more and so they are forsaken of God But whether totally and finally so as not to return again is more than we can say of particular Persons till the Event shew it But it is that which Men have reason to fear according to the ordinary Methods of Gods proceeding who now disobey the Voice of his Word and Spirit He might Justly withdraw the Influence of his Spirit from them and seal them up to Destruction and so it is possible their Day of Grace may be ended before they dye and their not believing or being converted will certainly follow John 12.39 40. 5. Another step is when God sends strong Delusions whereby men believe Lyes that they may be damned 2 Thess 2.11 This is severe indeed but being after obstinate
God never punished any Man or Woman with this Spiritual Judgment in Kindness and Love The Third Sermon Psalm LXXXI 12. So I gave them up to their own Hearts lusts and they walked in their own Counsels UPON the Rehearsal of some terrible Threatning when Judgment is denounced or signified to be approaching but the particular Persons are not named who are to be the Subjects of it we may use the Words of the Prophet Daniel chap. 4.29 Before he opened to the King the Import and sense of his ominous Dream The Dream be to them that hate thee O King and the Interpretation thereof unto thine Enemies But such is the Severity and Horrour of this threatned Judgment in the Text that we should not we ought not to wish so much Evil to our worst Enemies but do what we can to prevent it For of all Calamities that can be threatned or inflicted in this World what can be worse than for a Man to be given up to his own Lusts and left to walk in his own Counsels Two or three things we may observe by way of general Inference before I speak to some particular Cases and Questions that relate hereto 1. HOW Much to be pitied is the Ignorance and Folly of sinners that are afraid of any other Calamity more than this I gave 'em up to their own Hearts Lusts is a thousand times worse than if God had given 'em up to the Syrians to spoil 'em or to their most enraged Adversaries to oppress ' em Men are ready to quake and tremble and their Hearts to be moved as the Trees of the Wood are moved with the Wind if a thick or dark Cloud hover over them as to publick or private Affairs If their Health and Ease their Liberties and Estates their outward Priviledges and Advantages are threatened and endangered they presently apprehend themselves concerned to look about them and do their utmost to prevent it But if sin be the greatest Enemy to be given up to sin is the greatest Judgment and should be more feared than Plague or Pestilence or Famine or War or any of those Calamities that Nations and Persons do commonly dread as most Formidable Evils 2. Is it the greatest Judgment to be given up to our own Hearts Lusts How unreasonable is the Displeasure and Anger of Men at the sharpest Methods of Divine Grace that would bring them to Repentance and thereby prevent this sad Catastrophe The most smart Reproofs of the Word the most close Exhortations and Admonitions of Ministers that are now accounted troublesome the most pungent and uneasy Convictions of Conscience and the most afflictive Rebukes of Providence too that have this merciful Design and Tendency they are the real Effects of Kindness as preventive of a greater Mischief even this of being left of God and given up to our own Hearts Lusts What Enemies therefore are they to their own Interest who use such Language as that of the Stubborn Jews Isa 30.10 saying to the Prophets Prophecie not unto us Right things speak unto us smooth things and prophecie Deceits Till God in righteous Judgment resolve and say as he did afterwards Ezek 3.26 Thou shalt no longer be unto them a Reprover Thou shalt be dumb and thy Tongue cleave to the Roof of thy mouth for they are a rebellious House When such as would convince and awaken Men by necessary Reproofs are disliked and their Preaching reckoned a Burden because the Earth is tormented with their Words Revel 11.10 3. HOW wretched and dangerous is their Mistake who think their Case good because their Consciences now trouble them no more They have sinned themselves into such hardness of Heart and searedness of Conscience under such Judicial Blindness and stupidity that the sin which was formerly burdensom as a Mountain they now feel not they bewail it not Conscience that did rebuke them is now silent and fast asleep All things are at peace with them they say and they are glad of it and so is the Devil too God lets them prosper in the World they have no rub in their way to Hell But in the mean time he hath given them over that they shall not be smitten any more that they shall not be troubled with the strivings of his Spirit any more Neither Word nor Rod shall do them good more They applaud themselves in this and rejoyce in it But if to be given up to our own Hearts Lusts be the greatest Judgment there is no storm more dismal than such a Calm or more to be dreaded No Trouble but is better than such Peace No Sickness but is preferable to such Health No Sorrow but is rather to be chosen than such mad Joy Doubt 1. BUT because I would not break the bruised Reed or quench the smoking Flax or sadden the Hearts of those whom God would not have saddened but rather awaken the Joy and assist the Consolation and promote the spiritual Peace of those unto whom it doth of right belong I shall therefore consider some of the Doubts and Objections of several weak or melancholy dejected Christians who on all Occasions argue against themselves and conclude hardly of their own State from every word of Threatening and Terrour against the Ungodly As melancholy People can hardly hear any Disease talked of or described but they presently imagin they have some of the Symptoms of it in their Case WHAT I have said of the Nature and Terrour of this Judgment and of the Methods oâ— Divine Justice in the Execution of it may make some ready to say I fear lest God hath given me up for I have resisted many of the strivings of the Spirit of Grace and now I think he doth not strive with me any more I have been under the Rod and not bettered by it the Spirit of slumber and of a deep sleep seems to possess me I have outstood many Calls to Repentance and stifled many Convictions of Conscience and contradicted many good Resolutions and broken many Vows and Promises I have backsliden and revolted from God after very hopeful Beginnings Therefore the Punishment of Apostates may Justly be inflected on me I that have casted the good Word of God and of the Powers of the World to come may well fear being left of God so as it should be impossible for me to be renewed by Repentance Heb. 6.7 My Day of Grace is over saith Another my accepted Time past there is nothing so bad but I may Justly fear it For I find I grow worse and worse instead of making progress in Holiness whereas if my Grace were true it would be growing But I find my Corruptions exceeding strong my heart very dead and hard c. Doubtless God has withdrawn his Spirit from me will Another say I have not the Covenant Blessing of a soft Heart a Heart of Flesh I cannot weep a Tear for my sins as once I could I am good for nothing unfit for any spiritual Duty None in the World have
Sorrow for sin is absolutely needful Some have more and others less even of true Penitents TAKE heed of mistaking the Case concerning the Day of Grace being over and sinners being finally left of God For it is never true in this Life that any are so left of God and their Day of Grace so over as that if they truly repent and turn to him he will not accept them This would be against the whole tenour of the Gospel Covenant For whosoever turns to God by true Repentance and Faith in Jesus Christ shall not perish but have eternal Life But there is another sense of such Exâ—ressions that is when men have so â—â—ng resisted the Spirit and refused the â—ffers of Gods Grace and rejected the Yoke and Government of Christ that God resolves to let them alone never â—o give them the prevailing Grace of his Spirit but in righteous Judgment â—o abandon them to their own Hearts Lusts to walk in their own Counsels Because they would not turn at my Reproof they shall call but I will not answer seek me earnestly but not find me Prov. 1.28 If men harden their Hearts and will not hear and obey the voice of God He may sware in his Wrath that they shall not enter into his Rest Heb. 3.11.15 18. Num. 12.22 Ezek. 24.13 It may be this very day or hour while now thou art called by God to Turn and Live if thou refuse now thy Day may be over and past for ever To morrow God may say Let him Alone he shall not be purged he shall dye in his sins Isa 42.14 Hos 4.17 This is a possible Case but who can tell when it is thus How can this be known of particular Persons when it is so though some Approach nearer to it than Others How can it positively be said of any that God will never give such Persons Repentance unto Life You may be sure that if you find your Hearts Penitent and willing to return to him that it doth not reach you It is not your Case Therefore VI. YOU that thus complain and fear have you not many of the Fruits of the Spirit visible and manifest in you Therefore the Spirit of Christ hath not left you God hath not given you over Do you not esteem and prize the GRACE of the Gospel Do you not cry to Heaven for the Spirit of Grace Are you not earnest in the seeking the Spirit of Holiness from day to day Whence is it but from Grace that you have an Heart to prize and seek it They that have outstood the Day of Grace they despise it they are sunk into Carnality and Forgetfulness of God they are insensible and stupid and unconcerned about his Grace But for you that value it and seek it your Day of Grace cannot be over For it is from Common Grace at least which has a tendency to Special and shows your Case not to be like those who are given up of God But with most that thus complain there is more than common Grace There are Fruits of special Grace visible You do unfeignedly Repent and mourn for Sin and desire to give up your selves to Christ Now what but Grace hath made you to see the evil of sin and hate it What but Grace hath made you willing to Accept of Christ for your Lord and Saviour What but Grace has made you value the Favour of God and a holy Heart and Life above all the World How is it that you are brought to love God and delight in him to seek after him and desire to please him and to be troubled that you can do so no more no better For such as you to say your Day of Grace is over is as absurd as one expresseth it as for a Man to come into our Assemblies and hear the Sermon and then go away lamenting that the Sermon was done before he came You have received that Grace which you complain you want You know 't is otherwise with Many Were you like them Did you find your Lusts and Passions lead you captive at their pleasure had you no Affections stirring after God and Holiness did you despise Christ and all Regard and Duty to him and could not perswade your selves to hear or read or pray or think of another World or do any thing to provide for it you might then fear indeed what the issue of your Case would be But that is not the Case I am now speaking of nor of any I hope that now hear me your Appearance in these Assemblies is some sign of the contrary And though as yet you may be unconverted and unsanctified if you are so far Awake as to look after Reconciliation to God if you are touched with a sense of your sin and Danger so as to desire to be assisted and enabled to Repent and turn to the Lord how bad soever your present Case be it is not Desperate and Remediless For you are in the way of Mercy and nothing but your own wilful impenitent refusal of Mercy can deprive you of it VII As to the Complaint of an Hard Heart Remember it is the Impenitent and the Vnperswadable Heart that is the only hard Heart you need to fear They that are obstinate and disobedient intractable and incorrigible as the People of the Jews were that neither regarded the divine Threatnings or Promises or minded his Precepts These are they that are under Hardness of Heart This is the Judgment you ought to fear to be left under such a Temper But you find it otherwise with you that the voice of God doth awe and command you Your Wills are bowed unto Subjection to him you are willing to take upon you the Yoke of Christ or have taken it and renouncing all Competitors you desire to chuse Christ for your Lord and Saviour and that God in Christ should be your Ruler and your Felicity If it be thus you may be sure you are not left of God VIII THAT Sight of sin and sense of the Burthen of Corruption which you complain of as the Ground of your fear will argue the direct contrary to what you alledge it for For sin has always the greatest strength where the sinner is the least Apprehensive and Sensible of it There is more hope of a sensible Patient that feels his sickness and complains of it than of one that feels nothing but is confident all is well Is not their Case much worse who feel nothing of the Evil of sin to whom the Power of it is not troublesome nor the Pollution of it lothsom nor the Guilt of it butthenfom While it is otherwise with you you may be assured you are not given over and left of God and your Day of Grace past it is yet Day with you or else how came you by so much Light to see the evil of sin more than formerly and to see so many things to be sin which before you did not Though there may and will be a Conflict between Flesh and
did not could not satisfie for them and that he will not forgive them if you Repent and turn to God and Believe on the Name of his Son You are condemned by the Law Christ came to save sinners and such as were lost and he requires no Worthiness or Price in your Hands but that you unfeignedly Consent to be his to accept an offered Saviour and his Salvation according to the Ends and Uses of the Covenant of Grace That he may illuminate and teach you sanctifie and guide you govern and rule you by his Word and Spirit This is the Condition of your Title to the Blessings of the Covenant and consequently must be the Evidence of your Title and should be a satisfactory one But if you are Unwilling to forsake sin and return to God by Jesus Christ if you are unwilling to receive him as your Teacher Sanctifier Saviour and Lord you have reason to doubt your state indeed or rather the matter is past doubt you are unsanctified and as yet unreconciled to God Whoever theresore upon the account of their former Resistance of the Spirit stifling Convictions violating their good Resolutions c. Do question their State whether God hath not given them over yet let them Consider they are now invited and entreated to put it out of question that their Day of Grace is not past by letting this be Their Accepted time the Day of their Salvation by now heartily accepting an offered Saviour and giving up themselves unto him And then notwithstanding all your former Refusals of his Mercy and Grace if now at last you will return and submit and take his yoke upon you there is Ease and Rest and Pardon and Comfort and Life Eternal Life to be had To conclude Instead of Doubting and Complaining and questioning any longer Reduce all that which is Doubtful with you to that which is Plain and Certain It is certain that God hath sent his Son into the World to save sinners It is certain that you are some of those lost miserable guilty Creatures that need this Salvation It is certain that he has published the glad Tidings of the Gospel to such that whoever believeth shall be saved Is is certain that God cannot lye it is therefore inconsistent with his Nature that such as come to him in the Exercise of Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ should not be Accepted with him Therefore dispute and question and complain no longer how matters have been or how they are with you but come in upon the Call and Invitation of the Gospel Grace Remember the Covenant thou hast made with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in Baptism Resign yield and give up thy self with all thy Heart and Soul to be his resolving that thou wilt throw thy self into the Arms of his Love and Mercy because it is the Command of God that you believe on his Son Resolve that through his Mercy and Grace by the help of his Spirit of Grace you will now do so whatever come of it Do not perplex your selves about the Question whether you did it not formerly four or five or ten years ago But do it again Blessing God that you may now do it that he has not repealed his Gospel and that he never will repeal it to the end of the World I may Accept of his Son now as well as so many years ago Blessed be God the Invitation the Command the Promise is the same now as it was then And to as many as Receive him he will give the Priviledge to become the Sons of God even to as many as believe on his Name Blessed be God for Jesus Christ and the Covenant of Grace The Fourth Sermon Psalm LXXXI 12. So I gave them up to their own Hearts lufts and they walked in their own Counsels I Come now in the last place to consider the Case of such who make dangerous Approaches towards such a Judgment Who have provoked God to that degree that it would be no wonder if he should give them up yea concerning whom there is Reason to fear it if speedy Repentance do not prevent HAVING therefore spoken 1. To the Nature of this Judgment And Secondly considered the steps and Methods whereby God does ordinarily inflict it And Thirdly the dreadful Severity of it in Comparison of any other Judgment in this World I proceeded to the Case of those who Fear they are thus left and given up by God Several Things I named which they alledg as the ground of their Fear which yet will not prove that God hath forsaken 'em At the same time there are many other Things that will evidence the Contrary It remains therefore that I may faithfully give every one his portion Comfort to whom Comfort and Terrour to whom Terrour is due That I also speak to the Case of Such whose Guilt may quickly infer this Terrible Judgment or concerning whom we may fear whether they be not already under it or left of God There are several things with relation to this Case which ought to be Considered I. THE First dangerous Symptom is Security or a False ungrounded Peace of Conscience This is frequently the Prologue and Forerunner of Judicial hardning It is often a part of it and an Evidence of it Their Case therefore is exceeding dangerous with whom Conscience is a Asleep or Feared When that sin which formerly thy Conscience would reprove thee for thou canst now commit without Remorse or Difficulty When such or such a Lust can be freely indulged and thy Heart not reproach thee thy Conscience not fly in thy Face or speak with any smartness and Authority against it as formerly it was wont to do When the Neglect of such or such Duties was a daily Trouble to thee heretofore but now thou canst let Them alone and thy Conscience will let Thee alone without rebuking thee or calling thee to Repentance as it was wont to do Or if Conscience do speak it is with much Faintness without any such Impressions of Fear and shame and sorrow as were wont to be produced by it This speaks as if God had already given thee up in some degree or thou art very near what is worse in very great danger of this dreadful Judgment This Security and Quiet notwithstanding the neglect of known Duty and the Commission of sin I grant has it's Degrees There are some Degrees of it into which a good Man through the Prevalency of sin and Temptation for a time may fall Particularly as to the Duty of Prayer and the spiritual Performance of it But then such Persons supposing them Upright in the main who are under such Backslidings are far from approving themselves in this Case or from having any setled Peace They have many an unpleasing Thought about their own Case many Resolutions of Repentance that they may be Recovered They often say within themselves We will go and return to our first Husband for then it was better with
us than now And every Providence of God whether of Mercy or Affliction they regard as a Call from Heaven to awaken them And if the Word preached come home to their particular Case they receive the Warning and do not reject it or oppose it But the Persons I speak of as in danger of this Judgment are such especially who are Secure and Quiet under the Guilt of great Transgressions unrepented of and under the continued Omission of plain Duties They are lost as to any sense of Sin and they approve themselves so far in their wretched Course as to speak Peace to themselves notwithstanding the repeated and loud Calls and Warnings of God to repentance Conscience did formerly speak but they have so long checked and stifled and discouraged and silenced the Voice of Conscience as to have lost one of the greatest Blessings in the World viz. Tenderness of Conscience They have either silenc'd their Conscience by main Force or they have disheartened it by a slighting disobedient Carriage or bribed it by a Form of Godliness an empty barren Profession And so it gives way to a delusive destructive Peace either to flatter them in the way to Hell or not truly to inform them of their danger of it Such persons little Apprehend the danger they are in For it is much better to have an Awakened Conscience that roats against thee than a Sleepy silent Conscience that doth not reprove thee It is better thy Conscience should not speak a good word to thee than how great cause soever there be that it should speak nothing but good That Conscience should speak Peace when God by his Word speaks Terrour is dreadful in it self and more so as to what it signifies and has a tendency to Neither is such a Spirit of Slum ber and Security only dangerous as to the Persons themselves in regard of the State or their own Souls But these spiritual Judgments where they prevail as to great numbers of Professing Christians as it is observed by many are usually followed with some terrible strokes of Temporal Judgment too For as the first and greatest part of the Deliverance of the Church is Spiritual by the pouring out of the Divine spirit and the Recovery of the Life and Power of serious Religion and the more plentiful success of the Gospel Ministrations and this makes way for publick National Blessings even those of another kind and is usually attended with them So the first Entrance into publick National Judgments as to Temporals is by spiritual Judgments on the Body of the People The abounding of such spiritual Judgments as we are now speaking of opens the Door to temporal Calamities and is the usual Forerunner of the most terrible ones even of that kind So it was with the old World so with the Jewish Nation before their Destruction by the Romans And so says Salvian was it with the African Churches before the Inundation of the Goths and Vandals And the like in later Instances I believe among our Neighbours I wish there be no moral Prognostications of a Day of Evil on this Nation upon the same Account We ought to apprehend the danger of such a thing We may on these moral grounds very well fear it But it is the Case of Particular Persons I have now before me And the more Security and false Peace of Conscience any have under great Guilt unrepented of or known Duty continually neglected the nearer do any such approach to the danger of being given up of God to their own Hearts Lusts If they are not already entered into that dismal State And yet how many such bless themselves in their Hearts and please themselves that they are now free from the Fears of Hell They do not trouble themselves about the State of their Souls as others do and as they formerly did They have few or no sad and serious Thoughts what shall become of them in the Everlasting World Of all Others these are nearest to such a Judgment as that in the Text For when they say Peace and Safety sudden Destruction shall overtake them as Travel on a Woman with Child 1. Thess 5.3 They now speak Peace to themselves but the next Day or Hour they may know and feel the Truth of the divine Threatening That there is no Peace to the wicked There are an hundred threatnings in the Book of God against such and not one Promise of safety for one Hour And yet they can lye down and rise and go up and down Securely They are not afraid when they lye down to sleep that they shall awake in Hell before the next Morning They are not afraid when they arise and go abroad in the Morning lest the Wrath of God should overtake them before Night Read the description of their sin and Danger in that terrible passage Deut. 29.18 20. II. ANOTHER Symptom of this Judgment or dangerous Approach unto it is when the Ministry of the Word and Gospel of Christ becomes a tastless insipid ineffectual thing not attended with any such spiritual Impressions as formerly Heretofore you hardly heard a Sermon without some Convictions of sin and Resolutions against it the Word was quick and powerful to give an humbling sense of sin and to excite your Resolutions to set upon neglected Duties but now there is no such thing Yea further it may be the very external Worship of the Gospel the Ordinances and Institutions of it the Dispencers of them and they that value and Mind these things are now scorned and reviled by you For this is the Case of some Backsliders after great Pretences and an high Profession In such a Case you will find your spiritual Appetite to the Food of your Souls which consists in Desires after the sincere Milk of the word that you may grow thereby to be much abated and lost and that Spiritual Savour and Relish in the Food of your Souls which followed those Desires is lost too Your Preparations Desires and Designs in coming to such Institutions are otherwise than formerly Though upon some Considerations you have not thought fit to abandon the publick Worship yet you have no such Appetite or Tast no such Desires and no such Relish as to these things as formerly you had Neither do you of late experience any of those excellent Effects which the Dispensation of the Gospel is designed to produce upon the Minds and Consciences and Lives of Men. Though there is difference in the degree of these Declensions yet this is the high Road to Obduration Hardness of Heart and final Impenitence And therefore to use the Words of a learned Person concerning such Apostates * Dr. Owen Dominion of sin and Grace p. 89. The Calls of God unto such Backsliders in heart for a return by Repentance are multiplied and the Reasons of it are innumerable and without it it is certain that they shall perish Eternally and they know not how soon they may be overtaken with that Destruction Prov. 29.1
with them But they sinned away their Mercy and outstood their Day There was a time when he would have been found of them but now he will not O that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong unto thy Peace Now they are hid from thine Eyes A little while ago they were not But to prevent mistake Remember that though the Spirit retiring from such does infer their Day of Grace to be past if he return not and for ought you can tell he never may yet he doth not Darken their Minds by putting any ill thoughts into them or any ill Disposition of Mind God retires and the Spirit leaves you after you have provoked him and so you are lost He only says This wretched Creature will not be prevailed with he persists in a careless Neglect of me and my Son and Spirit we will leave him and let him alone to his own Lusts to walk in his own Counsels O dreadful Doom how should the Danger of it startle us V. THERE are Others whose Case is exceeding dangerous who after some trial in the ways of God for want of that sensible Joy and Comfort which they expected grow weary of them and leave them off They were formerly diligent and constant in the outward performance of such and such Duties of Worship in publick and private but now have laid them aside Some of these I believe have now and then a sentence of Condemnation within themselves but Others are hardened past feeling They tried a while and began hopefully and made a little Progress But their Convictions did not presently end in peace of Conscience they did not presently meet with that comfortable settlement and Establishment which they hoped for either through their own Ignorance or want of Advice and Counsel concerning the state of their Souls or from the Power of Temptation c. But not finding such Peace and Joy as they expected or so soon they give over and go back to their wonted Course of sin and Neglect of God This is the Case of many convinced in their Youth They follow the Tendency of that for some time they hope for a good Issue and that their Trouble of Soul will be quickly over They pray and read and confess sin and mourn for it c. But find not presently the Peace they expected they find their Lusts to strive and stir still and sin and Satan not to be overcome and it may be some Corruptions are more strong than formerly or they are more sensible of their strength and Acting Hereupon the Devil suggests to them matter of Discouragment and their own Hearts are ready to make them say in a timorous Despondency of Spirit I see I am entered into a melancholy course of Life I see no end of these Troubles I fear I shall never attain to Peace as long as I hearken to my Conscience If I thus let every sin trouble me I shall never have a days Quiet If I am thus nice and scrupulous and tender about sin and Duty I shall never while I live get out of these Perplexities Therefore I will even cast all off I will give my self more Liberty and hearken to my Conscience no longer I will take my Pleasure as I see others do and not wait any longer for those Pleasures of another kind which I was told of but despair of attaining I give up all for lost as to any of these things I shall never reach them therefore I will do as well as I can for the present I will drive away my melancholy Thoughts by Company and Wine and Mirth c. Hereupon such Persons come in a little while to dislike all such Books and Preaching as would revive their Convictions and to avoid the very Company of those who knew any thing of the state of their Souls while under Conviction and are like to speak to them about it That Ministry that will not let them alone and suffer them to be quiet in the Enjoyment of their Lusts they cannot relish and in a little while they care for none at all unless their Credit and Reputation or Temporal Interest or some such Motive ingage them to attend it Or else they cure themselves by some false Doctrines that put an end to their Convictions and make them easily perswade themselves that they are Elected and that Christ is theirs and their Sins are pardoned or were so from all Eternity c. But this is a hazardous and dreadful Case when Persons arrive to this pitch they had need look about them and Return quickly lest God should give them over VI. WHEN men continue in sin and put off their Repentance and Turning to God with this Thought and Intention that they will some time or other Repent and turn to God but not yet One can hardly tell whether the provoking Guilt and Danger of such a Case be greater than the horrid Absurdity of it And yet this is a Delusion that has ruined Thousands and made ample Harvests for the Devil They have some Tremblings under the Word as Felix when the Apostle discoursed of Righteousness and Temperance and Judgment to come But the convenient time for their complying with their Convictions and performing their good Resolutions is not come but they intend it they resolve it I would fain ask such Persons that now continue in known sin unreconciled to God who yet intend to Repent whether they indeed think that God will Accept and forgive them when they do Repent or that he will not If they say as doubtless they will We think and hope he will forgive us and whenever we truly Repent he has promised to receive us Yet 1. IS it not then the basest and the most horrid Ingratitude that can be to continue longer to abuse the Grace of God to assront him and rebel against him and delay your Return to him with this Thought Dare you say to the God of all Grace who has born with you so long Lord I have dishonoured thy Name for so many years I have slighted thy Authority I have disobeyed thy Calls I have refused thy Grace I have exposed my self to thy righteous Anger all my Life hitherto O let me alone to do so thus much longer and then I will Repent then I will ask thee forgiveness How ungrateful how absurd is such a Speech 2. WILL Not the same Argument that keeps thee from Repenting now be as strong hereafter For after all the little objections against Repenting and Reforming at present the only one at the bottom is because it is Present and that will still hold So that your Turning to God will be as improbable at any time hereafter as now It ought to be very well considered in this Case That whoever continues in sin with this Thought and Design of Repenting hereafter the Devil is sure to prosper in any Attempt against that Man For when that time comes to be present unto which he has adjourned his intended
Judgment In the Consideration therefore of your Danger awake to use Gods appointed Means And here 1. I might advise that you Watch carefully lest you enter into Temptation 2. That you take heed of slight Thoughts of sin 3. That you labour to have right Apprehensions concerning the Attributes of God and the tenor of the New Covenant by Christ Jesus 4. That you attend the Ministry of the Word with a Desire and Design of some spiritual Advantage suitable to your own Case Take heed of being slight and careless in the use of those Means that must cure a hard Heart if ever it be cured 5. In the 〈◊〉 of all Means look up to God for 〈◊〉 Influence of the divine Spirit Apprehend the Necessity of it for the Cure of a hard or backsliding Heart 6. Call your selves often to an Account how matters stand between God and you 7. Ingage more heartily seriously and constantly in the use of secret Prayer 8. Improve the sickness and Death of others as Warnings to awaken the Thoughts of your own 9. In any Doubt and Difficulty of Conscience especially under Temptations to Despair do not scruple to open your Case to some faithful Minister of Christ that may enlighten and and guide you 10. Labour to understand distinctly what that Repentance towards God is and that Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ which are the stated Terms of Life and the Condition of the new Covenant And never give over the use of Means till you are brought to Repent of all your sins against God and truly to believe in Jesus Christ with all your Heart evidencing your unfeigned Faith by new Obedience Therefore take heed by what Marks and Signs you Judge your selves lest all your Soul Trouble should end in a false Peace I connot conclude without repeating the Admonition against that false Peace which one great Work of our Ministry is to destroy For there are Multitdes of People who pretend to love God and to love good Men and to trust in Christ that he dyed for them and to rely on Christ and to cast themselves on Christ and think they believe on him and that they shall be saved Who will tell you that as for Obedience they mind it as they can though they be not as good as others their Hearts are good and they mean well and they know their own Hearts better than Ministers do they are sure they believe in Christ and they will conclude that all is well c. Tho 't is notorious of Many such that they are Ignorant of God and strangers to Christ and live in the common allowed practice of great sins Yet they will thus Hope well of themselves and speak Peace to themselves NO Wonder if they do so now when even at the Day of Judgment some are brought in disputing with Christ till the Heart of their Hopes 〈◊〉 broken by his condemning Senâ—ce Not as if those that now dye 〈…〉 â—â—enitence and Unbelief should not know or believe that they shall perish for ever till after the general Judgment But matters seem there to be represented as applied to the Persons of those who shall be found alive at the End of this World or whose Eternal State in the next World is concluded by what their Case is when they leave this state of salvation SEE Therefore that your Hopes be of a right Kind grounded on Scripture Evidence purâ—fying the Heart conquering the World exciting thy Desires after Christ and Heaven making thee to sin less and to please and glorifie God more Such an Hope you may hold fast it will not make you ashamed But of all things fear a false Hope Dread it as you would the sin of Despair yea as the most dangerous of the two because more common I mean not a Despair of the sufficiency and Willingness of Christ to pardon and save thee if thou repent and believe and obey him Nor a Despair of finding Mercy if thou heartily seek it But despair thou must of ever seeing God without Holiness Despair that Christ will ever be the Author of eternal Salvation to any but such as believe and obey him Despair of escaping Eternal Death if thou live after the Flesh Despair of entering into Heaven if thou wilt not seek it in the first place Despair of escaping the Doom of perishing with the Ungodly except you soundly Repent except you turn to God and Holiness from sin and the World except you penitently and thankfully accept of Christ obey and follow him as your Lord and Saviour Despair therefore of ever being saved in the state thou art in with whom it is not thus GOD will ere long deal plainly with thee and let thee know the Truth And what will it avail thy perishing Soul for Ministers to deceive and flatter thee with vain Hopes when without Repentance and turning to God in Christ there is none Nay if any thing keep thee out of Heaven I speak of the Case of most ordinary Hearers and Professors If any â—hing keep thee out of Heaven it is a â—se and groundless Hope of coming thiâ—â—er CHRISTIANS We must 〈…〉 speak plain Would you have us be unfaithful to God and you We must be accountable to God ere long as well as you We must stand before his Judgment seat as well as you Why should we give you Hopes if God do give you none I therefore say it again that without speedy and sincere Repentance towards God and Faith in Jesus Christ evidenced by cordial faithful Obedience to him there is no Hope for any one of you And they that hear often of these things and will yet go on in sin it is Just with God to leave them and give them up to their own Hearts Lust Therefore 〈…〉 away your Transgressions return to the Lord with all your Hearts and yield your selves to the Claim and Call of Christ without Delay while Mercy invites you and Grace may be had for why will you Dye O House of Israel FINIS Books Printed for Abraham Chandler THe Mourners Companion or Funeral Discourses from several Texts 8â— price bound 1 s. 6 d. Death a Deliverance in a Funeral Discourse from 2 Cor. 5.4 fit to bind with the Mourners Companion Sacramental Discourses on several Texts before and after the Lords Supper together with a Paraâ—â—â—n the Lords Prayer 12º 1 s. Practical Relfection 〈…〉 are Earthquakes in Jamaica 〈…〉 Malta c. With a Particular 〈◊〉 Account of those and Divers other Earthquakes 8º price bound 1 s. 6 d. Serious Reflections on Time and Eternity with some other Subjects Moral and Divine to which is Annexed an Appendix concerning the first Day of the year how observed by the Jews and may best be employed by a serious Christian All five by Mr. John Shower