to go on and fortifie their good resolutions to be more vigilant and watchful over themselves to strive against sin and to resist it with all their might And according to the success of their endeavours in this conflict the evidence of their good condition will every day clear up and become more manifest The more we grow in grace and the seldomer we fall into sin and the more even and constant our obedience to God is so much the greater and fuller satisfaction we shall have of our good estate towards God For the path of the just is as the shining light which shines more and more unto the perfect day And the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever I shall only make two or three Inferences from what hath been discoursed upon this Argument and so conclude 1. From hence we learn the great danger of sins of Omission as well as Commission Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God The mere neglect of any of the great duties of Religion of piety towards God and of kindness and charity to men though we be free from the commission of great sins is enough to cast us out of the favour of God and to shut us for ever out of his kingdom I was hungry and ye gave me no meat thirsty and ye gave me no drink sick and in prison and ye visited me not therefore depart ye cursed 2. It is evident from what hath been said That nothing can be vainer than for men to live in any course of sin and impiety and yet to pretend to be the Children of God and to hope for eternal life The Children of God will do the works of God and whoever hopes to enjoy him hereafter will endeavour to be like him here Every man that hath this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure 3. You see what is the great mark and character of a mans good or bad condition whosoever doth righteousness is of God and whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God Here is a plain and sensible evidence by which every man that will deal honestly with hâ—mself may certainly know his own condition and then according as he finds it to be may take comfort in it or make haste out of it And we need not ascend into heaven nor go down into the deep to search out the secret counsels and decrees of God there needs no anxious enquiry whether we be of the number of Gods elect If we daily mortifie our lusts and grow in goodness and take care to add to our faith and knowledg temperance and patience and charity and all other Christian graces and vertues we certainly take the best course in the world to make our calling and election sure And without this it is impossible that we should have any comfortable and well grounded assurance of our good condition This one mark of doing righteousness is that into which all other signs and characters which are in Scripture given of a good man are finally resolved And this answers all those various phrases which some men would make to be so many several and distinct marks of a child of God As whether we have the true knowledg of God and divine illumination for hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandments Whether we sincerely love God for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments And whether God loves us for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness and his countenance will behold the upright Whether we be regenerate and born of God for whosoever is born of God sinneth not Whether we have the Spirit of God witnessing with our Spirits that we are the children of God for as many as have the Spirit of God are led by the Spirit and by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the flesh Whether we belong to Christ and have an interest in him or not for they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof In a word Whether the promise of heaven and eternal life belong to us for without holiness no man shall see the Lord but if we have our fruit unto holiness the end will be everlasting life So that you see at last the Scripture brings all to this one mark viz. holiness and obedience to the Laws of God or a vicious and wicked life In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God Let us then deal impartially with our selves and bring our lives and actions to this tryal and never be at rest till the matter be brought to some issue and we have made a deliberate judgment of our condition whether we be the children of God or not And if upon a full and fair examination our consciences give us this testimony that by the grace of God we have denyed ungodliness and worldly lusts and have lived soberly and righteously and godly in this present world we may take joy and comfort in it for if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God But if upon the search and tryal of our ways our case appear clearly to be otherwise or if we have just cause to doubt of it let us not venture to continue one moment longer in so uncertain and dangerous a condition And if we desire to know the way of Peace the Scripture hath set it plainly before us Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Though our case be very bad yet it is not desperate This is a faithful saying and worthy of all men to be embraced that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners And he is still willing to save us if we be but willing to leave our sins and to serve him in holiness and righteousness the remaining part of our lives We may yet be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God We who have ventured so long upon the brink of ruin may yet by the infinite mercies of God and by the power of his grace be rescu'd from the base and miserable slavery of the Devil and our lusts into the glorious liberty of the sons of God And thus I have endeavoured with all the plainness I could to represent every man to himself and to let him clearly see what his condition is towards God and how the case of his soul and of his eternal happiness stands And I do verily believe that what I have said in this matter is the truth of God
the World for his sport and pastime nor set on one part of his Creation to bait another for his own diversion He does not like some of the cruel Roman Emperours take pleasure to exercise men with dangers and to see them play bloody prizes before him Nay he does nothing that is severe out of humour and passion as our earthly Parents many times do Indeed he is angry with us for our sins but yet so as still to pity our persons And when his Providence makes use of any sharp and cutting instruments it is with this merciful design to let out our corruption If he cast us into the Furnace of affliction it is that he may refine and purifie us from our dross So that though the Judgments of God be Evils in themselves yet considering the intention of God in them they are no real objections against his goodness but rather arguments for it as will appear if we consider these three things 1. That the Judgments of God are proper for the cure of a far greater Evil of another kind 2. They are proper for the prevention of far greater Evils of the same kind 3. They are not only proper to these Ends but in many cases very necessary First The Judgments of God are very proper for the cure of a far greater Evil of another kind I mean the Evil of sin We take wrong measures of things when we judg those to be the greatest Evils which afflict our bodies wound our reputation and impoverish our Estates For those certainly are far the greatest which affect our noblest Part which vitiate our understandings and deprave our wills and wound and defile our souls What corrupt humours are to the body that sin is to the souls of men their disease and their death Now it is very agreeable with the goodness and mercy of the Divine providence to administer to us whatever is proper for the cure of so great an evil If we make our selves sick that is our own folly and no fault of the Physitian but we are beholden to him if he recover us though it be by very bitter and unpleasing means All temporal Judgments which are short of Death are properly Medicinal and if we will but suffer them to have their kindly operation upon us they will work a cure and how grievous and distastful soever they may be for the present they will prove mercies and blessings in the issue Upon this account David reckons afflictions among the happy blessings of his life Psal 119.72 It is good for me saies he that I have been afflicted And he gives the reason of it in the same Psalm ver 67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I learn'd thy precepts So that though all afflictions are Evils in themselves yet they are good for us because they discover to us our disease and tend to our cure They are a sensible argument and conviction to us of the evil and danger of sin We are commonly such fools as Solomon speaks of who make a mock of sin and like Children will be playing with the edge of it till it cut and wound us We are not sufficiently sensible how great an evil it is till we come to feel the dismal effects and consequences of it And therefore to rectify our apprehensions concerning it God makes us to suffer by it Thus Elihu describes to us the happy effect of afflictions upon sinners Job 36.8 9 10 If they be bound in fetters and held in cords of affliction then God sheweth them their work and their transgression that they have exceeded He openeth also their ear to discipline and commandeth that they return from their iniquity God doth but invite and entreat us by his mercies but his Judgments have a more powerful and commandng voice When he holds men in cords of affliction then he openeth their ear to discipline In our prosperity we are many times incapable of counsel and instruction but when we are under Gods correcting hand then are we fit to be spoken withall Secondly The Judgments of God are likewise proper for the preventing of far greater evils of the same kind I mean farther punishments In sending of temporal Judgments upon sinners God usually proceeds with them by degrees First he le ts flye several single shots at them and if upon these they will take warning and come in they may prevent the broad-sides and volleys of his wrath But the great advantage of all is that temporal Judgments may prove to us the opportunities of preventing the miserable and unspeakable torments of a long Eternity For all Judgments which are not final leaving men a space of Repentance have in them the mercy of Reprieve which by a serious and timely return to God may be improv'd into a Pardon Besides that adversity and afflictions do usually dispose men and put them into a fit temper for Repentance They fix our minds and make us serious and are apt to awaken us to consideration and suggest to us such thoughts and meditations as these If temporal evils be so grievous how insupportable then will be the extreme and endless torments of the next life If in this day of Gods grace and patience we sometimes meet with such severity what may we not look for in the day of vengeance If these drops of Gods wrath which now and then fall upon sinners in this world fill them with so much anguish and affliction how deplorably miserable will those wretches be upon whom the storms of his fury shall fall Who would venture to continue in sin when the greatest miseries and calamities which we feel in this life are but a small and inconsiderable earnest of those woful wages which sinners shall receive in the Day of Recompences Thirdly The Judgments of God are not only proper to these Ends but in many cases very necessary Our condition many times is such as to require this severe way of proceeding because no other course that God hath taken or can take with us will probably do us good God does not delight in the miseries and calamities of his Creatures but we put him upon these extremities or rather his own goodness and wisdom together do prompt and direct him to these harsh and rigorous ways May be we have brought our selves into that dangerous state and the malignity of our distemper is such that it is not to be remov'd without violent Physick and that cannot be administred to us without making us deadly sick So that the Judgments of God which are many times abroad in the earth are nothing else but the wise Methods which the great Physitian of the World uses for the cure of Mankind They are the Rods of his School and the Discipline of his Providence that the inhabitants of the world may learn righteousness They are a merciful invention of Heaven to do men that good which many times nothing else will and to work that blessed effect upon us which neither the wise
and without delay And because they are many I shall insist upon those which are most weighty and considerable without being very curious and solicitous about the method and order of them For provided they be but effectual to the end of perswasion it matters not how inartificially they are rang'd and disposed 1. Consider that in matters of great and necessary concernment and which must be done there is no greater argument of a weak and impotent mind then irresolution to be undermined where the case is so plain and the necessity so urgent to be always about doing that which we are convinced must be done Victuros agimus semper nec vivimus unquam We are always intending to live a new life but can never find a time to set about it This is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another till he have starved and destroyed himself It seldom falls under any mans deliberation whether he should live or not if he can chuse and if he cannot chuse 't is in vain to deliberate about it It is much more absurd to deliberate whether we should live virtuously and religiously soberly and righteously in the world for that upon the matter is to consult whether a man should be happy or not Nature hath determined this for us and we need not reason about it and consequently we ought not to delay that which we are convinced is so necessary in order to it 2. Consider that Religion is a great and a long work and asks so much time that there is none left for the delaying of it To begin with Repentance which is commonly our first entrance into Religion This alone is a great work and is not only the business of a sudden thought and resolution but of execution and action 'T is the abandoning of a sinful course which we cannot leave till we have in some degree mastered our lusts for so long as they are our masters like Pharaoh they will keep us in bondage and not let us go to serve the Lord. The habits of sin and vice are not to be plucked up and cast off at once as they have been long in contracting so without a miracle it will require a competent time to subdue them and get the victory over them for they are conquered just by the same degrees that the habits of grace and virtue grow up and get strength in us So that there are several duties to be done in Religion and often to be repeated many graces and virtues are to be long practised and exercised before the contrary vices will be subdued and before we arrive to a confirmed and setled state of goodness such a state as can only give us a clear and comfortable evidence of the sincerity of our resolution and repentance and of our good condion towards God We have many lusts to mortifie many passions to govern and bring into order much good to do to make what amends and reparation we can for the much evil we have done We have many things to learn and many to unlearn to which we shall be strongly prompted by the corrupt inclinations of our nature and the remaining power of ill habits and customs and perhaps we have satisfaction and restitution to make for the many injuries we have done to others in their persons or estates or reputations In a word we have a body of sin to put off which clings close to us and is hard to part with we have to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God to encrease and improve our graces and virtues to add to our faith knowledg and temperance and patience and brotherly kindness and charity and to abound in all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God We have to be useful to the world and exemplary to others in a holy and virtuous conversation our light is so to shine before men that others may see our good works and glorifie our father which is in heaven And do we think all this is to be done in an instant and requires no time That we may delay and put off to the last and yet do all this work well enough Do we think we can do all this in time of sickness and old age when we are not fit to do any thing when the spirit of a man can hardly bear the infirmities of nature much less a guilty conscience and a wounded spirit Do we think that when the day hath been idlely spent and squandered away by us that we shall be fit to work when the night and darkness comes When our understanding is weak and our memory frail and our will crooked and by a long custom of sinning obstinately bent the wrong way what can we then do in Religion what reasonable or acceptable service can we then perform to God when our candle is just sinking into the socket how shall our light so shine before men that others may see our good works Alas the longest life is no more than sufficient for a man to reform himself in to repent of the errors of his life and to amend what is amiss to put our souls into a good posture and preparation for another world to train up our selves for eternity and to make our selves meet to be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light 3. Consider what a desperate hazard we run by these delays Every delay of repentance is a venturing the main chance It is uncertain whether hereafter we shall have time for it and if we have time whether we shall have a heart to it and the assistance of Gods grace to go thorough with it God indeed hath been graciously pleased to promise pardon to repentance but he hath no-where promised life and leisure the aids of his grace and holy Spirit to those who put off their repentance He hath no-where promised acceptance to meer sorrow and trouble for sin without fruits meet for repentance and amendment of life He hath no-where promised to receive them to mercy and favour who only give him good words and are at last contented to condescend so far to him as to promise to leave their sins when they can keep them no longer Many have gone thus far in times of affliction and sickness as to be awakened to a great sense of their sins and to be mightily troubled for their wicked lives and to make solemn promises and professions of becoming better and yet upon their deliverance and recovery all hath vanished and come to nothing and their righteousness hath been as the morning cloud and as the early dew which passeth away And why should any man meerly upon account of a death-bed repentance reckon himself in a better condition than those persons who have done as much and gone as far as he and there is no other difference between them but this that the
to which we ought all gladly to yield and render up our selves For great is Truth and mighty above all things She is faithful and impartial in her counsels and though she be not always welcome yet 't is always wise to hearken to her for in great kindness and charity she lets men know their condition and the danger of it that they may take care to prevent it With her is no accepting of persons and in her judgment there is no unrighteousness I will conclude all with that excellent advice of a Heathen Philosopher Make it no longer a matter of dispute what are the marks and signs of a good man but immediately set about it and endeavour to become such an one A SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL IN LENT March 30 th 1677. Luke XV. 7 I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance AFTER many attempts made in vain to reclaim sinners from their evil ways and to bring them to the wisdom of the just it is hard for us who are the messengers of God to men not to sit down in despondence and at last quite to despair of doing good upon them But when I consider the infinite patience of God with sinners and how long his spirit strives with them why should we we who are sinners our selves think much to bear with sinners and patiently to contend with their obstinacy and perverseness When I consider that our blessed Saviour the great Preacher and Pattern of righteousness did not give over the worst of men nor despair of their recovery this methinks should make us who are Ambassadours for Christ unwearied in beseeching men in his stead to be reconciled to God And of this we have a famous instance in this Chapter The Publicans and sinners as they had done several times before came to hear our Saviour He treated them very kindly and conversed familiarly with them at this the Pharisees were displeased and murmured and this unreasonable murmuring of theirs gave occasion to the three Parables in this Chapter In which our Saviour does at once answer the objection of the Pharisees and give all possible encouragement to the repentance of these great sinners He answers the Pharisees by letting them plainly see that he was about the best work in the world the most acceptable to God and matter of greatest joy to all the heavenly inhabitants Instead of a severe reproof of their uncharitableness he offers that calmly to their consideration which ought in all reason to convince them that he was no ways to blame for this familiar conversation of his with sinners having no other design upon them but to reclaim them from their vices and to make them fit company for the best of men that he was a spiritual Physitian and therefore his proper work and employment lay among his Patients And then instead of terrifying these sinners who seemed to come with a good mind to be instructed by him he gently insinuates the most winning arguments and the greatest encouragements to repentance by shewing how ready God was after all their sins and provocations to receive them to his grace and favour provided they did sincerely repent and betake themselves to a better course And not only so but that the repentance of a sinner is great joy to the great King of the world and to all that holy and heavenly host that attend upon him From which method of our Saviour in treating so great sinners so gently I cannot but make this observation for my own use as well as for others That it is good to give even the greatest of sinners all the encouragement we can to repentance and though men have been never so bad yet if they have but this one good quality left in them that they are patient to be instructed and content to hear good counsel we should use them kindly and endeavour to recover them by the fairest means not so much upbraiding them for their having been bad as encouraging them to become better To this purpose our Saviour uttered three Parables of the recovery of a lost sheep of finding a lost piece of money of the return of a prodigal son to his father And though they all aim at the same scope and design yet our Saviour useth this variety not only to convey the same thing to several capacities in a more acceptable manner one similitude happening to hit one person and another another but likewise to inculcate so weighty a matter the more upon his hearers and to fix it more deeply in their minds The words which I have read are the Moral or Application of the first Parable concerning a man who had an hundred sheep and having lost one leaves the ninety and nine to go to seek that which was lost and having found it with great joy brings it home By which our Saviour gives us to understand what joy God and the blessed Spirits above take in the conversion of a sinner I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance Than which nothing could have been more proper both to silence the uncharitable murmuring of the Pharisees against our Saviour for conversing with publicans and sinners to so good an end and likewise to encourage sinners to repent For why should the Pharisees be displeased at that which was so great a pleasure to God and the holy Angels and what greater encouragement to repentance than this that God is not only willing to receive the returning sinner but that the news of his repentance is entertained in heaven with so much joy that if it be possible for the blessed Inhabitants of that place to have any thing added to their happiness this will be a new accession to it There are three things in the words which require a very careful explication 1. How we are to understand the joy that is in heaven at the conversion of a sinner 2. Who are here meant by the just persons that need no repentance 3. With what reason it is here said that there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance There is something of difficulty in each of these which deserves our heedful and attentive consideration I. How we are to understand the joy that is in heaven at the repentance of a sinner And this as indeed this whole passage of our Saviours we are not to understand too strictly and rigorously but as spoken in a great measure after the manner of men and by way of accommodation to our capacity so far as the persons here spoken of are capable of any addition to their joy and happiness As it refers to God it seems very inconsistent with the happiness and perfection of the Divine nature to suppose Him really capable
unpardonable I would fain know how could he have expressed the matter in higher fuller words Dr. Hammond mollifies the words another way that this sin shall never be pardoned but upon a particular repentance for it As if our Saviour's meaning was that a general repentance which was sufficient for sins of Ignorance would not be sufficient in this case but there must be a particular repentance for it without which it would never be pardoned But this is by no means agreeable to the scope of our Saviour's discourse Because he plainly intends to difference this from all other sorts of sins I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men But according to this interpretation our Saviour must mean that all other sins would be forgiven upon a general repentance which is not true for there are many other sins besides sins of Ignorance there are wilful and heinous sins such as wilful murder and adultery and blasphemy that only excepted which is against the Holy Ghost and the like gross sins which all Divines hold shall not be forgiven but upon a particular repentance So that this interpretation does not sufficiently difference this sin from all other sorts of sins which yet it is very plain our Saviour intended to do It remains then that these words must in all reason be understood absolutely that the persons that are guilty of this great sin shall never have it forgiven to them And it may be this will not seem so harsh when we have considered in the IV. Fourth place how it comes to pass that this sin is above all others incapable of pardon And that upon these two accounts First Because by this sin men resist their last remedy and oppose the best and utmost means of their conviction What can God be imagined to do more to convince a man of a Divine Revelation or of the truth of any Doctrine or message that comes from him than to work miracles to this purpose And what greater assurance can men have that miracles are wrought than to be eye-witnesses of them themselves And if men will resist such evidence what can God do more for their satisfaction If when men see plain miracles wrought they will say that it is not the power of God that does them but the power of the Devil And if when men see the Devils cast out they will say that the Devil conspires against himself this is to outface the Sun at Noon-day and there is no way left to convince such perverse persons of the truth of any Divine Revelation So that there is no remedy but such persons must continue in their opposition to the truth For this is such a sin as does in its own nature shut out and prevent all remedy And he that thus perversely and maliciously opposeth the truth must upon the same grounds unavoidably continue in his opposition to it because there is nothing left to be done for his conviction more than is already done If God should send a person immediately from heaven to him to convince him of his errour he can give him no greater testimony that he comes from God than miracles And if when God enables that person to work these by the power of his Spirit this man will obstinately impute them to the power of the Devil he defeats all the imaginable means of his own conviction So that it is no wonder if that sin be unpardonable which resists the last and utmost means which God hath ever yet thought fit to use to bring men to repentance and salvation And if God were willing to reveal himself and the way to pardon and salvation to such a one he doth by this very temper and disposition render himself incapable of being satisfied and convinced concerning any divine Revelation Secondly Because this sin is of that high nature that God is therefore justly provoked to withdraw his grace from such persons and it is probable resolved so to do without which grace they will continue impenitent There is no doubt but God if he will can work so powerfully upon the minds of men by his Grace and Spirit as to convince the most obstinate and supposing them to be convinced and repent it cannot be denied but that they would be forgiven And therefore when our Saviour here says they shall not be forgiven it is reasonable to suppose that he means that when persons are come to that degree of obstinacy and malice God will as justly he may withdraw his grace from them His spirit will not strive with them to overcome their obstinacy but will leave them to the byass of their own perverse and malicious minds which will still engage them in a further opposition to the truth and finally sink them in perdition So that being deserted by God and for want of the necessary help and aid of his grace justly withdrawn from them continuing finally impenitent they become incapable of forgiveness both in this world and that which is to come And there is nothing that can seem harsh or unreasonable in this to those who grant as I think all men do that God may be so provoked by men as justly to withdraw his grace from them in this life that grace which is necessary to their repentance And surely if any provocation be likely to do it this cannot be denied to be of all others the greatest obstinately and maliciously to oppose the utmost evidence that God ever gave to the truth of any Doctrine revealed by him And of this the Pharisees who are here charged with this sin against the Holy Ghost were notoriously guilty in resisting the clear evidence of our Saviours miracles And thus I have done with the four things I propounded to enquire into from these words Namely The difference between speaking against the Son of man and speaking against the Holy Ghost wherein the Nature of this sin or blasphemy against the Holy Ghost doth consist and in what sense this sin is said to be unpardonable and upon what account it is so Namely because men by this sin resist their last remedy and oppose the best and utmost means of their conviction And because it may reasonably be supposed that upon a provocation of this high nature God may and is resolved to withdraw that grace from such persons which is necessary to their repentance without which their sin remains for ever unpardonable All that now remains is to make this discourse some way or other useful to our selves And it may very well serve to these two purposes First to comfort some very good and pious persons who are liable to despair out of an apprehension that they have committed this sin Secondly To caution others against the approaches to it 1. First To comfort some very good and pious persons who are liable to despair upon an apprehension that they have committed this great and unpardonable sin and consequently are utterly incapable of ever being restored to the mercy and
favour of God And nothing can be more for the comfort of such persons than to understand aright what the nature of this sin was and wherein the heinousness of it doth consist which I have endeavoured to manifest And if this be the Nature of it which I have declared as it seems very plain that it is then I cannot see how any person now is likely to be in those circumstances as to be capable of committing it And being a sin of so heinous a nature and declared by our Saviour to be absolutely unpardonable there is no reason to extend it beyond the case to which our Saviour applies it which was the resisting of the evidence of the miracles which were wrought for the truth of Christianity by those who were eye-witnesses of them that is by those who had the utmost assurance of them that humane nature is capable of And not only a bare resistance of that evidence but with a very malicious circumstance so as to impute those works which were wrought by the Holy Ghost to the power of the Devil This was the case of the Pharisees whom our Saviour chargeth with this sin And no body hath warrant to extend this sin any further than this case and without good warrant it would be the most uncharitable thing in the world to extend it any further That which comes nearest to it both in the heinousness of the crime and the unpardonableness of it is total Apostasie from Christianity after the embracing of it and full conviction of the truth of it And this the Scripture seems to place if not in the same rank yet very near to it And of this the Apostle speaks very often in the Epistle to the Hebrews under the name of unbelief and sin by way of eminence as being the great sin that Christians were in danger of falling into call'd in that Epistle Heb. 12.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sin which Christians by reason of the circumstances they were then in were especially subject to And he parallels it with the case of the Jews in the wilderness concerning whom God sware that they should not enter into his rest namely the earthly Canaan which was a type of Heaven Chap. 3. ver 18. And Chap. 6. ver 4 5 6 more expresly For it is impossible that those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they should fall away to renew them again to repentance Where by impossible the least that can be meant is that it is extremely difficult for such persons to recover themselves by repentance And 't is observable that those persons are said to have been partakers of the Holy Ghost by which is meant that they were either endued with a power of miracles by the Holy Ghost or were under the conviction of them as having seen them wrought by others So that this Apostasie may be said in that respect to be a sin against the Holy Ghost So likewise Chap. 10. ver 26 If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledg of the truth that is if we apostatize from Christianity after we have embraced the profession of it as appears plainly from the scope of the Apostles discourse there remains no more sacrifice for sin which expression declares this sin either to be unpardonable or something very like it And at the 29. vers Those persons are said to tread under foot the Son of God and to do despite unto the Spirit of Grace Which signifies that the sin there spoken of is more immediately committed against the Holy Spirit of God St. Peter likewise declares the great danger of this sin 2 Pet. 2.20 If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again entangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning St. John likewise seems to speak of this sin of Apostacy and to call it a sin unto death Discouraging Christians rather from praying for those who were fallen into it which gives great suspicion that he looked upon it as hardly pardonable 1 Joh. 5.16 If any man see his brother sin a sin not unto death he shall ask and he shall give him life for those that sin not unto death There is a sin unto death I do not say that he shall pray for it Now that by the sin unto death the Apostle here means Apostacy from the Christian Religion to the Heathen Idolatry seems extremely probable from what follows ver 18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not but keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not that is he preserveth himself from Idolatry which the Devil had seduced the world into ver 19 And we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the wicked one that is is under the power of the Devil And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us understanding to know him that is true that is to distinguish between the true God and Idols And then it follows this is the true God and eternal life Little children keep your selves from Idols Which last caution is a key to the understanding of all the rest and makes it very probable that the sin unto death is Apostacy from Christianity unto Idolatry Otherwise it is hard to imagine how the last clause comes in Little children keep your selves from Idols And this is that sin which of all other approacheth nearest to this sin against the Holy Ghost which our Saviour speaks of and concerning the pardonableness of which the Scripture seems to speak very doubtfully But if it were of the same unpardonable nature yet this can be no trouble to those persons I am speaking of who cannot but know themselves to be far enough from the guilt of this sin As for those other sins which by some are taken to be the sins against the Holy Ghost they are either such as no man is capable of committing as a malicious opposition to the truth when I am convinced and know it to be the truth For this is a contradiction Because to know any thing to be the truth is to believe it to be so and therefore no man can disbelieve it while he believes it to be truth Or else they are such as no man can know he is guilty of in this life as final impenitency which supposeth a man to live and die without repentance Or else such as I think not good man is incident to as a malicious and perverse opposing of the truth after sufficient means of conviction However none of these are that which the Scripture descrihes to be the sin against the Holy Ghost as I have already shewn But still there are two things which usually trouble honest and well-meaning
at last upon this as the greatest felicity of humane life and the only good use that is to be made of a prosperous and plentiful fortune Eccl. 3.12 I know that there is no good in them but for a man to rejoyce and do good in his life And a greater and a wiser than Solomon hath said that it is more blessed to give than to receive Thirdly To employ our selves in doing good is to imitate the highest Excellency and Perfection It is to be like God who is good and doth good and to be like him in that which he esteems his greatest glory and that is his Goodness It is to be like the Son of God who when he took our nature upon him and lived in the World went about doing good It is to be like the blessed Angels whose great employment it is to be ministring spirits for the good of others To be charitable and helpful and beneficial to others is to be a good Angel and a Saviour and a God to men And the Example of our blessed Saviour more especially is the great Pattern which our Religion propounds to us And we have all the reason in the World to be in love with it because that very Goodness which it propounds to our imitation was so beneficial to our selves when we our selves feel and enjoy the happy effects of that good which he did in the World this should mightily endear the Example to us and make us forward to imitate that love and kindness to which we are indebted for so many blessings and upon which all our hopes of happiness do depend And there is this considerable difference between our Saviour's charity to us and ours to others He did all purely for our sakes and for our benefit whereas all the good we do to others is a greater good done to our selves They indeed are beholden to us for the kindness we do them and we to them for the opportunity of doing it Every ignorant person that comes in our way to be instructed by us every sinner whom we reclaim every poor and necessitous man whom we relieve is a happy opportunity of doing good to our selves and of laying up for our selves a good treasure against the time which is to come that we may lay hold on eternal life By this principle the best and the happiest man that ever was governed his life and actions esteeming it a more blessed thing to give than to receive Fourthly This is one of the greatest and most substantial Duties of Religion and next to the love and honour which we pay to God himself the most acceptable service that we can perform to him It is one half of the Law and next to the first and great Commandment and very like unto it like to it in the excellency of its nature and in the necessity of its obligation For this commandment we have from him that he who loveth God love his brother also The first Commandment excels in the dignity of the object but the Second hath the advantage in the reality of its effects For our righteousness extendeth not to God we can do him no real benefit but our charity to men is really useful and beneficial to them For which reason God is contented in many cases that the external Honour and Worship which by his positive commands he requires of us should give way to that natural duty of Love and Mercy which we owe to one another And to shew how great a value he puts upon Charity he hath made it the great testimony of our Love to himself and for want of it rejects all other professions of love to him as false and insincere If any man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a liar For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Fifthly This is that which will give us the greatest comfort when we come to die It will then be no pleasure to men to reflect upon the great estates they have got and the great places they have been advanced to because they are leaving these things and they will stand them in no stead in the other world Riches profit not in the day of wrath But the conscience of well-doing will refresh our Souls even under the very pangs of death With what contentment does a good man then look upon the good he hath done in his life and with what confidence doth he look over into the other world where he hath provided for himself bags that wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not For though our estates will not follow us into the other world our good works will though we cannot carry our riches along with us yet we may send them before us to make way for our reception into everlasting habitations In short works of Mercy and Charity will comfort us at the hour of death and plead for us at the day of Judgment and procure for us at the hands of a merciful God a glorious recompence at the resurrection of the just Which leads me to the Last consideration I shall offer to you which is the reward of doing good both in this world and the other If we believe God himself he hath made more particular and encouraging promises to this grace and virtue than to any other The advantages of it in This World are many and great It is the way to derive a lasting blessing upon our estate Acts of charity are the best Deeds of Settlement We gain the prayers and blessings of those to whom we extend our charity and it is no small thing to have the blessing of them that are ready to perish to come upon us For God hears the prayers of the destitute and his ear is open to their cry Charity is a great security to us in times of evil and that not only from the special promise and providence of God which are engaged to preserve from want those that relieve the necessities of others but likewise from the nature of the thing which makes way for its own reward in this world He that is charitable to others provides a supply and retreat for himself in the day of distress For he provokes mankind by his example to like tenderness towards him and prudently bespeaks the commiseration of others against it comes to be his turn to stand in need of it Nothing in this World makes a man more and surer friends than charity and bounty and such as will stand by us in the greatest troubles and dangers For a good man says the Apostle one would even dare to die 'T is excellent counsel of the Son of Sirach Lay up thy treasure according to the Commandment of the Most high and it shall bring thee more profit than gold Shut up thy alms in thy store-house and it shall deliver thee from all affliction It shall fight for thee against thine enemies better than a mighty shield and strong spear It hath sometimes happened that the obligation that men have laid upon others by their Charity hath in case of danger and extremity done them more kindness than all the rest of their Estate could do for them and their Alms have literally delivered them from death But what is all this to the endless and unspeakable Happiness of the Next life where the returns of doing good will be vastly great beyond what we can now expect or imagine For God takes all the good we do to others as a debt upon himself and he hath estate and treasure enough to satisfie the greatest obligations we can lay upon him So that we have the Truth and Goodness and Sufficiency of God for our security that what we scatter and sow in this kind will grow up to a plentiful harvest in the other World and that all our pains and expence in doing good for a few days will be recompensed and crowned with the Joys and Glories of Eternity FINIS Bishop Sanderson Juven Vell. Patere Seneca * Tully * Aristides Antonin lib. 10.