to live a good Life when you are just a dying How can you be said to finish your Christian Course when you have scarce time to begin it You left not Sin but Sin has left you if it has indeed left you for your Evil Desires as far as we can judge are not alter'd or chang'd for the better but are only beat down and stunn'd at the approaching sight of Death you cannot give any convincing Proof of your Enmity to Sin or Obedience to God you can only wish you had obey'd and 't is not good Wishes but good Actions that must carry us to Heaven God forbid I should exclude you thence and God forbid but I should tell you That 't is no easie matter under your Circumstances to get thither the Way is narrow and you have made it narrower by your Transgressions the Gate is strait and you have made it straiter nay almost clos'd it up by the multitude of your Offences and your obstinate continuance in them And therefore seek diligently ask importunately and knock without ceasing that it may be opened unto you do not too much fear Despair but fear Presumption and groundless Hopes of Future Happiness willingly retain Sorrow and Anguish with you they are the most decent Company for you to appear in will do most good on others and sooner lead you to Heaven than the bold mistaken Pretences of Peace and Assurance Exercise every Act of Humiliation Be always conversant with your God and always meditating on the odiousness of Sin and the Sufferings of your Saviour for it Lose no part of the short time allow'd you to prepare for Eternity Gratify no superfluous Bodily Desire though never so innocent eat the Bread drink the Water of Afflicton wholly regard your better your Immortal Part and remember whatever the Condition of that is your Body too must share in it and therefore spare no pains but kneel and weep and read and watch and fast and pray and use your utmost endeavours that you may not enter into Eternal Condemnation THE SECOND SERMON MICAH III. 4. Then shall they cry unto the Lord but he will not hear them he will even hide his face from them at that time as they have behav'd themselves ill in their doings CRUEL and hardhearted Man ever most treacherous to himself and willing to be deceiv'd in the greatest Concern in order to it would fain alter the Establish'd Nature and Course of things Expect Happiness though he lives wickedly he would disjoin what God has always put together go on in Sin and yet hope to avoid the sad Consequences of sinning The word of God plainly tells us That the end of sin is shame and destruction Phil. 3. 19. And yet many never throughly believe this till they are beyond question convinc'd of the truth of it till 't is evidently prov'd on themselves and even then others believe it as little as they did before Had you that are now standing on the very brinks of Eternity ready to be swept into it by the stroke of Justice had you believ'd this sad truth by the Example of others you might have died the common death and been visited with the visitation of all men You might after much good done to your selves and others have descended into the Grave in peace or would but many others credit it now on your account they would not give a future Instance of it themselves But we almost always fear and dread too late Thus a timely rational fear of God and his Judgments had surely prevented all the Evils that have befallen you when now you fear to dye but know not how to avoid it you dread the day of Recompences but see it with full speed hasting towards you And there is no doubt but you have us'd all the Sollicitation of Friends and I hope have apply'd your selves to God with greater earnestness than ever but yet for all this in respect of Temporal Judgment there is no redress no remedy the neglected Truth of the Text is now made good upon you Then shall they cry unto the Lord but he will not hear them he will even hide his face from them at that time as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings The sense of which words is twofold either that of the Old Testament and then it signifies the certainty of Temporal Punishment or that of the New as we find it all along alluding to it and then it means the Eternal Punishment due to Sinners for their obstinate continuance in Sin in spight of all Warnings all Admonitions to the contrary and I will treat of these two promiscuously and then separate them by the Practical Application I shall make first to You that are by the Goodness of God and your Superiors mercifully withheld from the Punishment you have deserv'd And then secondly to You that are doom'd to dye that you may behave your selves so That though your Temporal Calamity be unavoidable yet your God may not still cover the Eye of his Mercy from you or be deaf to your Requests for pity on your poor Souls And if we look into the Holy Scriptures we shall find frequent mention of an acceptable time and of a day of salvation which we are earnestly advis'd on no account to let slip Thus says David to God Psal 69. 13. I make my prayer unto thee in an acceptable time And thus says God himself Isa 49. 8. In an acceptable time I have heard thee and in a day of salvation I have helped thee And hence came that passionate wish in the 18th verse of the 48th chap. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments then had thy peace been as a river and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea And that seasonable exhortation in the 55th chap. v. 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near and to shew its direct aspect on particular Persons as well as to a Nation in general it immediately follows Let the wicked man forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Now this acceptable time this season in which God may be found in Mercy is very often in Scripture opposed to another space of time in which some of the Children of Men shall not be accepted in which they shall not be succoured at least from the Temporal Calamities they are under though they never so piteously intreat for it and in which God will not be found of them though they diligently seek him this the Psalmist calls a time of the great water-floods in which they shall not come near him when the overflowing of Sin and wrath as a mighty stream and deep gulph shall interpose and cut off all communication of Mercy between them and their God thus again says God Isa 1. 15. Though they call I will not answer when you
may begin it when they please and therefore though it is daily offered unto them by Almighty God and press'd on their Consciences by the good Motions of his Holy Spirit yet they every day refuse it and go on in gratifying their Lusts and evil Affections and delay their Repentance from day to day because they think that while Life lasts they may take it up when they please But all this is downright delusion and a wilful misapprehension of things of the greatest moment for sure enough it is that Repentance is not in our own power but is merely a Gift of God and such a Gift as may and is often forfeited by an ungrateful rejecting and refusal of it and God is the God of them that Repent not only because he offers it to us but because without his Grace we cannot effect it We have ever since the Fall a backwardness in our Nature to all Good and a readiness to all Evil and without the immediate Assistance of Heaven We can never cease from that evil or learn to do that good we can do nothing of our selves 't is God alone that enables us both to will and to do His Grace indeed is sufficient for all things but if we abuse that Grace it may be taken from us and never offer'd to us again for there is abundance of truth in that known and ancient saying which so nearly concerns you That though Repentance be never too late before God when it is true yet it seldom happens to be true when it is so very slow and late and that God who has promised Pardon to the Penitent has no where promised the Grace of Repentance to those that continually turn their backs upon it and wilfully neglect the Opportunities of it This part of my Discourse then is to beg you seriously to reflect on the fatal Exigences you are now involv'd in by so long and so ungratefully resisting the Grace of God which without that resistance would have led you to Repentance and to lose no part of your short time but to cry aloud for that Repentance and spare not and do not expect cheaply to get that which you have so much undervalued and despised but return unto the Lord your God with uninterrupted weeping and fasting and mourning and rent your hearts and turn unto him with all your hearts and who knows but he too will then return and repent and yet pour down the blessing of conversion upon you But 2dly The next great Error that I shall mention is when we take a part of the Duty and a very small part too for the whole Thus most men resolve to believe it consists in a bare Sorrow and Remorse for Sin But how widely does he mistake the true nature of Repentance that thinks it only Grief and a self-reprehension for having done somewhat amiss How unjustly and without equity does he confine and imprison it For if this were Repentance we need not persuade men to it 't is impossible for them to forbear it and there would always be just as many Penitents as Sinners For Actual Sin is such a shock and force on right Reason such a contradiction to that inward standing Principle of Conscience which Almighty God has Mercifully implanted in the breast of every Man that as nothing but want of due consideration can be the parent of wickedness or put us upon doing it so on the least reflection afterwards especially when our Sins have taken such hold upon us that they have consign'd us over to Punishment we must sensibly know that 't is an evil and a bitter thing to depart from the living God We must of course and with grief wish our Sins uncommitted as naturally as the Mad-man does dislike the sad effects of his destructive fury when his fit of Frenzy is over and the sober interval come And therefore now when you are just a going to reap the fruit of your past Iniquities when the allurements of those Wickednesses that brought you hither have lost their Charms and you see them as they are in themselves and not under their former deceitful appearances when the World and all things in it has thus discarded and flung you off 't is no wonder that in this case you should retire into your selves and cast a Melancholy look both backwards and forwards backwards on the Actions of your past Life and forward on your future Eternal condition depending on those Actions and with grief and sorrow snay with bitter sighs and tears reflect on what you have done amiss and where you have dealt Wickedly for this is as natural as Rains and Storms in Winter and without a frozen benumm'd Stupefaction 't is impossible it should be otherwise What judgment then of a future condition can here be given Who in such Circumstances beside God himself can separate or distinguish the acts of sincere Repentance from the natural horror and anguish that does arise from Sin Who can say this is Divine this Human This proceeds from a due sense of Sin and ingratitude to a Merciful God a Compassionate Redeemer a Blessed Sanctifier and not from the servile fear of approaching Punishment God knows it wounds my very Spirit within me to speak these things to you but 't is for your Salvation that thus I speak and therefore put not too great a confidence in your present sorrow do not too speedily call it a sign or effect of Repentance but try your selves to the utmost and resolve to bring your selves to this frame of mind that you would not only grieve which is nothing else but Passion but be also active and willing to do any thing to gain your God and that you would rather dye for your sins than live in them But Thirdly The next Mistake which I shall observe to you lies in this If to our grief and sorrow for sin we add Promises of avoiding it and to these join Resolutions of obedience for the future then we are sure we are got into the very heart and center of Repentance and that all the Benefits belonging to it cannot without much wrong or injury be denied us but alas the wrong is not done to the Man but to the Vertue if we assign it no larger a sphere to act in If indeed we leave Sin before temptation and the opportunity of Sinning has left us if we depart from Iniquity before it brings us to punishment and Christianly fence our selves against it by Vows and Promises by Resolutions and Ingagements to the contrary this I confess looks as if we were in earnest with God and our own Souls but yet even here 't is time only can tell us whether we are so or no For as resolute as we appear now our old Sins may in a little while get the dominion over us 'T is true God who is the searcher of hearts and the trier of the reins and who sees all things at once which Men by degrees draw out into action knows on what
adore his Infinite Mercy towards you and improve them directly to the End intended And you will do so if you make this Act of Grace a new life to your Souls as well as Bodies if with a just abhorrence of your selves and a design for the future to retract them you deliberately consider what were the beginnings of Wickedness and by what progress you arriv'd to that heighth of Iniquity that the Earth was scarce able any longer to bear you And if any of you are accounted unworthy to stay in the Land of your Nativity carry not your old Crimes to New Climates for God can find you out there and punish you for your repeated abuse of Mercy Have always then in your minds the bitter Fruits of Sin the servile Fear Shame and meanness of Spirit it betrays its Votaries to and the Temporal and Eternal Ruin that without Repentance will at length accompany it and hear and forbear and do no more so wickedly And since you have receiv'd such miserable Usage from Vice with a just disdain forsake its Service and for the future zealously ingage for Vertue against which there is no law Call to mind the lost Profession of your Christianity the Grace of God that heaps not Wrath and Misery on our heads but brings salvation teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live righteously soberly and godly in this present world Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works The neglect of this Lesson has cost you dear and the practising of it for the time to come is the only true Return you can make to that Merciful God who has deliver'd your Souls from death your Eyes from tears and now offers his Grace for the future to keep your feet from falling Let the time past of your life therefore suffice to have wrought the lusts of your flesh when you walkt according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the air the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience for your Prayers are heard and more days added to your Life that you should no longer live the rest of your time to the lusts of men but to the will of God There is mercy with God says the Psalmist that he may be feared to be drawn by the cords of a man to be won to our Duty and melted down by loving-kindness is what an ingenuous Temper can hardly withstand but to continue in sin because grace has abounded is the mark of a base abject Nature fit for nothing but ruin and therefore should you forgetful of the Goodness extended towards you abandon your present Safety return to your old Sins and by them be brought into the same condemnation again your Behaviour though never so dejected and full of submission will not be believ'd will move no pity will procure no commiseration because of your renew'd false and perfidious dealings with God and your own Souls And now I shall come to the last and most deplorable Portion of my Discourse to speak particularly to you that are doom'd to dye and to persuade you to endeavour to behave your selves so that though your Temporal Calamity be unavoidable yet your God may not still cover the Eye of his Mercy from you or be deaf to your Requests for pity on your poor Souls And truly I confess I scarce know where to begin or how to find out words mournful enough for your Condition I am sure if you look into your own Consciences every one of you can say I well remember the time when thou O God wast near unto me by thy Grace and the good Motions of thy Spirit that Blessed Spirit which would have been a lamp unto my feet and a lanthorn unto my path if I had not ungratefully turned my back upon it But not to aggravate that which is too heavy of it self or fruitlesly lament but compassionately to help you to regain the Assistance of that Blessed Spirit so needful for you in your present Circumstances I will if the former part of my Discourse has fully bent your minds to good Counsel before it be evidently too late endeavour to shew you a Glimpse of Mercy tho after all my Wishes and Endeavours I must acknowledge that there is but one whole Virtue you are now capable to practice or so to practice as you your selves may judge of the Truth of it but yet 't is a Virtue that will supply the place of a great many others and perhaps by the Mercy of God atone for the Breach of all the rest but if you willingly fail in this and next to the Grace of God it depends wholly on your Will I think you are undone for ever And this Virtue is Sincerity which abhors any evasive Arts or Shifts which excludes all Hypocrisy all Double dealing all feign'd Pretences or deceiving of God or your own Souls it admits no Mixture of Dissimulation or sinister Aim no relying on your own private deprav'd Judgments but a ready unbiass'd Freedom of Mind to impart and lay open every thing plain and naked to be judg'd of by those who sincerely desire to direct you to Heaven And let me beseech you to yield to their advice and trust those whose desire is the Salvation of your Souls rather than those who have done all they can to destroy them And the Ground of this Virtue is Honesty of Heart Uprightness of Intention and God who searches the Heart and sees into the closest Recesses there knows when you act from this Inward Principle and when not and will certainly deal with you accordingly And he that is scarce able to do any thing and yet refuses to do the little he can sullenly lies down in misery and willingly accepts of his destruction But if this be not enough to say as I know not what is enough to rescue you from the blindness and hardness of heart a long train of iniquity has involv'd you in I will yet speak my mind more plainly to you for your Circumstances will not admit Palliation or Delay I know no way to Heaven for you but by abundance of Remorse and Contrition and that manifested to God the World and your own Consciences by Restitution to the utmost of your power and a candid Consession to prevent the like Evils to others which have befallen you And Repentance is scarce any thing else but Restitution join'd with a due Sorrow and Confession a Restoring to God the lost Service of his Creature a Restoring to our Wrong'd Countrey or Neighbours what we have injuriously depriv'd them of and a Restoring our Selves by the Grace of God to the first Dignity of our Nature to the Purity and Holiness which was that Image of God in which we were created And if you will not