are sanctified both in Soul and Body therefore in Body and Soul they shall be gloryfied The dead shall rise again all that are in the Graves shall hear the Voice of Christ and shall come forth they that have done good to the resurrection of Life they that have done evil to the resurrection of Damnation Joh. 5. 28 29. The Grave is only a prison for a time not a Body that is there that shall lye there always the same Body that was employed in the unfruitful works of darkness shall be raised by the Power of the righteous Judge to share in the demerited Punishment And the same Body of the Saints the Members of which were used as Instruments of Righteousness unto Holiness by Vertue of its Union with Christ shall rise again and be made like unto Christs glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3. 21. It is not another Body I grant that qualities are alter'd but the substance is the same therefore the Apostle does not stick to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This corruptible shall put on incorruption this mortal shall put on immortality so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15. 53 54. 4. Will there be a Judgment 't is wonderful there should be so much security in them that hear of it Really the very mentioning of Christs Tribunal before which all must stand should make all Criminals to tremble If a Man were seized for a Crime that 's capital deserving Death by the Law of God and Man and being in Bolts and Fetters in Newgate he should be secure and unconcerned though the Sessious were at hand you would conclude him to be very stupid and inconsiderate What Sinner secure and shortly to be Judged O Drunkard Whoremonger Swearer Sabbath-breaker Covetous Worldling what secure and speedily to appear at the Judgment-seat of Christ who has said That they that do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God! Sin is folly security in Sin is the folly of that folly Take heed of Security 't is not I only but Christ himself also that gives you this necessary caution Luk 21. 34 35 36. And take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkeness and the cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares for as a share shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth Watch ye therefore and Pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all those things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. VSE II. By way of Counsel Two words of Counsel I would give this Congregation The one is more firmly to believe a Judgment and more frequently to think of it The other is Be sure in time to prepare for eternal Judgment 1. More firmly believe more frequently think of Judgment You have reason to believe it for the Judge is ordained and though neither Men nor Angels know the day yet the day is appointed Act. 17. 30 31. The time of this ignorance God winked at but now commands all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all in that he hath raised him from the dead The stronger your assent is unto this the more serious and often will be your Consideration of it To think of Judgment is proper for a Saint that he may be encouraged to fight the good fight of Faith and persevere in well doing to the end To think of Judgment is proper for a Wicked Man to awaken him and to make him with fear and trembling to work out his Salvation It 's proper for an Hypocrite to think of Judgment because then all Masks and Vizours will be pull'd off all shews will be at an end and naked Truth will appear at that day The Graves will be open'd and do ye think the whited painted Sepulchers will remain shut Oh! then all the concealed Pride and Filthiness and Selfishness and Sensuality and Injustice and earthliness of Professors will with all their aggravations be brought to light before Men and Angels Oh how many demure and serious Countenances that have been a covering to naughty Hearts will then be filled with Confusion 'T is proper for the Old to think of Judgment they have one foot in the Grave already and quickly the whole body must drop into it and the Spirit must return to God who gave it You also that are Young should think of Judgment have the youngest of yoa any assurance of your Lives Infants Children Youths do not many of them dye and step into Eternity and as you see them leave the World so certainly they appear before God and one way or other have their Doom Solomon tells you that Childhood and Youth are Vanity Would you that are Young be serious the Meditation of Judgment would conduce much to it Eccles 11. 9. Rejoyce O young Man in thy Youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy Youth and walk in the wayes of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes He says Rejoyce but speaks Ironically and means the quite contrary thoa hast no reason at all to rejoyce whilst thou walkest that are seen and whilst thou walkest in those evil ways which thy Heart naturally does like Then the Wise man speaks seriously But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment If you ask me What are the Benefits that will accrue by a firm Belief and frequent Meditation of Judgment I thus Answer to this momentous Question 1. This will be a great Preservative against Temptation Look beyond the present advantage and delight that Sin boasts of and see as far as the Judgment-seat this is the way to silence the Tempter and to avoid his share Would the Lyar dare to speak falily if he considered that all Lyars shall be adjudged to the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death Rev. 21. 8. Would the Unclean Person dare to desile himself and run to the Harlots house if he did but believe and consider that it boremangers and Adulterers God will judge Improve Christs Cross and think of Christs Tribunal and this will cool and kill Corruptions and take away the force of your Temptations 2. The Belief and Meditation of Judgment will cause you to use this World as not abusing it to make a good improvement of it You that have this World in great abundance and have the clearest and largest Estates do you think you are Proprietors of what you have Do you think 't is given or only lent you for a
greatest danger is from the Sin that does most easily beset us 't is called by the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sin that hangs faltest about us Some by this understand Original Sin the depravation and Corruption of Nature some understand the carnal and ensnaring Fear of Man The Apostle arms the Hebrw Saints against this and would have them couragious and if called to it resist even to blood slriving against sin But by the Sin that does most easily beset us we may understand any sin that does so Yet when we take notice of the Master-sin which is most apt to prevail we should by all means trace it to its Original and take notice of the corrupt Fountain from which this strong and filthy Stream proceeds 3. Here is the way how to be secured from Danger by laying aside every weight and especially the greatest and the heaviest Clogg of all the Sin that does most easily beset us Cast away every transgression so iniquity shall not be your ruine but especially that which naturally you love best and more than all because this this is most of all pernicious and destructive Doct. The Doctrine which I raise from the words is this Though all sin is to be cast away the Master-sin especially is to be abandoned In the handling of this Doctrine I shall 1. Prove that all Sin is to be cast away 2. I shall shew you how the Master sin may be known 3. Produce the Reasons why this in a special manis to be forsaken And then in the last place make Application In the first place I am to prove that every sin should be cast away and the Argument to convince you of this is in the Verse where my Text lies Every Sin is a weight and a most unreasonable thing it is that Men should be fond of that which is burthensome and grievous The weightiness of Sin I shall demonstrate in these particulars 1. Sin is a weight to a softned and sensible soul though a stupid Transgressor feels Sin no more than a stone does a Mountain that lies upon it yet when once the Heart of Stone is turned into a Heart of Flesh Sin presently becomes very burthensome He that has a new Heart and a new Spirit given him will have new and other apprehensions of Sin he will look upon Sin with sorrow and himself with self-abhorrency Ezek. 36. 26 31. A new Heart will I give you a new Spirit will I put within you Then shall ye remember your evil wayes and your doings that have not been good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations David could not make light of sin when once convinced of its evil by the Spirit he grieves because he had offended God he fears his wrath that he had deserved and earnestly implores compassion and favour His Sin lay very hard upon him Psal 38. 4 6. Mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burthen they are too heavy for me I am troubled I am bowed down greatly I go mourning all the day long 2. Sin is a weight unto the damned in Hell that 't is so I know but how weighty I cannot express no mind on Earth is able to conceive Sin is the weight which has sunk all the Souls that are there into that place of Wo and because sin will ly upon them for ever they shall never be able to rise up under it In Hell there is a full a general an everlasting Conviction that sin is heavy If we could discourse with the rich Man who as the Gospel tells us is in Hell and ask him whether his Gluttony Pride contempt of God hatred of Holiness are light or weighty Oh! what would that Tongue that cryed out for a drop of Water answer to such a question Surely none in Hell can make light of sin which brought them thither 3. Sin is a weight which burthens the whole Creation Hard-hearted Man groans not under it when the whole Creation besides does The Creatures were made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope Rom. 8. 20. and v. 22. We know that the whole Creation groaneth and travelleth in pain together even until now And all these travelling pains they are the effects of Sin. Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes uses several very significant expressions Vanity of Vanities all is vaniny and all things are full of labour Man cannot utter it And again there are many things that increase vanity When Sin entred into the World it made a sad alteration in it well may the Creatures groan under it and though their pains are terrible pains of travel yet because such pains they are hopeful and will issae in a restauration which will certainly be for God has said it He has told us thus much that the Creature shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God Rom. 8. 21. But the manner of this Restauration he has not told us Gods silence should repress inqutsitive Curiosity 4. Sin was found a Weight by Jesus the Mediator He undertook and 't was well for us he did to bear this Burthen and no Shoulders but his could have born it but when he bore it how did he groan under it This put him into an Agony this made him Sweat and Sweat drops of Blood. This made him cry out my Soul is excceeding sorrowful even unto Death And My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Oh! blessed Saviour what extorted such cryes as these from Thee Oh! Sinner It was thy Sin and the Sins of all others whom I save that lay so hard upon Me Isa 53. 6. All we like Sheep sayes the Prophet have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon him the Iniquity of us all if the Man Christ Jesus had not been the Eternal Son of God he could never have born such an heavy Load as all the Sins of his whole Church laid upon him at once all together 5. God himself complains of Sin as a weighty thing which He is very weary of Isa 43. 24. Thou hast made me to serve with thy Sins and hast wearied me with thine Iniquities And Amos 2. 13. Behold I am pressed under you as a Cart is pressed that is full of Sheaves Sin is a Burthen to the Almighty tho he be so rich and abundant in Forbearance and Long-suffering Nay Sin will make Duties to be a Burthen to Him Isa 1. 13 14. Bring no more vain Oblations your Sabbaths and calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is Iniquity even the Solemn Meeting Your new Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth they are a Trouble to me I am weary to bear them And 't is observable when the Lord comes to a Resolution to punish Sinners because of their Transgressions He speaks as One about to ease himself of a Load
Sin will make you to shine less in your lives 't wil fully your Conversations and hinder you from adorning the Gospel Oh keep unspotted and walk exactly as in the day that you may be blameless and harmless the Children ó God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation and that you may shine as Lights in the World Phil. 2. 15. 5. This Sin may cause you to set in a Cloud It may fill you with doubts when you are dying and that will be very dreadful You may be terribly frighted with the fears of Hell when you are just at Heavens gate Be therefore upright keep your selves from the iniquity that does most easily beset you that you may be more useful in your lives have the stronger and more lively hope in Death and that your End when it comes may be more perfect Peace VSE III. Of Direction How the Sin which does most easily beset you may be laid aside 1. Pray for a clean Heart Psal 51. 10. David having been overcome by a strong Corruption and done a Deed that was very foul cryes for a purer Heart a more right and constant Spirit he knew that to purge the Fountain was the way to have the streams clean Go unto God for a new Heart which he has promised and will give to all who prize and desire such an Heart Strike at the root of in the Heart then the branches and tâ—â—â— top branch the Master-sin will wither 2. Seriously lay to Heart how much he Sin that naturally is most beloved does deserve your hatred Hated Sin is so weak that it can ruine none 't is the love of Sin that gives it power and as it were puts a Sword into its hand slay you 3. Resist the very first stirrings of this Sin in you I believe if David assoon as ever he beheld from his Palace the beauteous Bathsheba had presently turn'd away his eyes and had fallen upon his knees and gone to Prayer he had overcome the Temptation Sin is more weak at the beginning Our Lords Counsel is Watch and Pray that ye enter not into temptation Mat. 26. 41. 4. If you would abandon the Masteâ—-sin Pray much for the contrary Grace Is Pride thy Master-sin Pray much for Humility Is Passâ—â—n thy Master-sin Pray much for Pâ—tience and for the Meekness and Gentleness of Christ Is Love to the World thy Master-sin Pray that thou may'st rise with Christ and love and mind a better World better Honours better Pleasures a more lasting Wealth than this World can yield 5. Let the Word of God which does â—â—rbid and threaten this Master-sin be carefully hid in your Heart This Word may be in thy Mouth thou mayest talk of it it may be in thy Mind thou may'st have a national Knowledge of it Nay â—t may go further and be in thy Conscience and be thought of in the very act of Sin. But if it will be in thy Heart if thy Will and Affections are taken with it then it will be an effectual Preservative against Iniquity Psal 119. 11. Thy Word have I hid in my Heart that I might not sin against thee 6. Improve the Death of our Lord Jesus Bring the Sin which does so easily beset you to the Cross of Christ No Sin truly dyis but upon Christs Cross Gal 5. 24. They that are Christs have Crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts these are never Mortified but by being Crucified How can the old Adam dye but upon the Cross of the second Adam Rom. 6. 6. Knowing this that our old man is Crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin 7. Call in the Spirits aid He can make the Word sharp as a two-edged Sword to pierce the Heart and to slay the strongest Sin there He glorifies Christ and can draw you to him and enable you by Faith to derive Grace from him sufficâ—ent to help you against the most powerful Corruptions He can kill the Sin that is hardest to be slain he can mortifie all the deeâ—s of he body Rom. 8. 13. the strongest members on the Earth Col 3. 5. and he can seal you unto the day of Redemption FINIS