compleated by their Successors And what little reason we have now to think to ingratiate our selves with the Pagan-Christians as some think they have ground enough to stile the Papists I would rather ye should hear from a learned Doctor than from me who delivers this among his Documents as he calls them Seeing we are so well assured that the Papacy is the Kingdom of Antichrist or that City of Babylon wherein the people of God were held captive we should leave no string or tassel of our ancient captivity upon us such I mean as whereby they may take hold on us and pull us back again into our former Bondage but look upon our selves as absolutely free from any tie to them more than in endeavouring their Conversion and Salvation Which we knowing so experimentally not to be compassed by needless symbolizings with them in any thing I conceive our best policy is studiously to imitate them in Nothing But for all indifferent things to think rather the worse of them for their using them As no Person of Honour would willingly go in the known garb of any lewd and infamous Persons Whatsoever we court them in they do but turn it to our scorn and contempt and are the more hardened in their own wickedness Dr. Hen. More Divine Dialogues Part ii pag. 398. How easily soever Pagan Rites were admitted into the Christian Church I am sure many of them have taken such deep root that it is very difficult to eradicate and purge them out So much for the third Obstruction Fourthly They who desire to be helpful in promoting the entertainment of the Gospel must not unnecessarily provoke and exasperate those whom they would win over to it Moses refused to permit the Israelites to sacrifice to the Lord before the faces of the Egyptians lest they should be enraged thereupon and stone them Exod. viii 25 26. They must not indeed forbear to do that which under all due circumstances God hath made to be their present duty Yet even in such cases they should remember my Text Walk in wisdom toward them that are without And learn what that meaneth I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice They must declare against their idolatry and endeavour to convert them to the true God as Paul did Acts xiv 15. We preach to you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God And his success therein was wonderful as Demetrius testifies Act. xix 26. Moreover ye see and hear that not only at Ephesus but almost throughout all Asia this Paul hath perswaded and turned away much people saying that they be no Gods which are made with hands But this must not be done with revilings reproaches and insultations but with judgment tenderness and meekness 2 Tim. ii 25 26. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves We may conclude then that it is none of Gods way from whomsoever men have learnt it to convert Heathens by robbing them of their Goods and Estates and butchering their Persons which was the method that the Spaniards took to Gospellize the Indians or to send Dragoons as Missionaries to torment those whom they call Hereticks thereby to reduce them to their Catholick Church That 's the fourth Obstruction Fifthly They must religiously avoid that which is the greatest Obstruction of all The profligate and flagitious lives of some that call themselves Christians If men were prompted and employed by the Devil himself they could not take a more effectual course to make the Gospel to be abhorred than by living as some Christians do How can it be expected That the poor ignorant Heathen should have any reverence for the great and Sacred Name of God when they hear those who pretend that they have a deep veneration for him to Reproach and Blaspheme it They will conclude That men do but prevaricate when they tell them That Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. ii 14. and yet live so as if Christ died only to procure for them a Licence to continue in sin or to purchase impunity for them that do so Will they believe those that tell them Christ was made manifest to destroy the works of the Devil and that they act under him as the Captain of their Salvation while they employ all their time parts and power to establish and defend Satan's Kingdom Can ye perswade men That ye believe there is an Hell and eternal Flames prepared for the ungodly and impenitent and that the wicked shall be cast into it when they observe those that say They believe this to run posting sporting and laughing unto it They will never apprehend That the Heaven which they are told the Gospel promiseth to the Faithful and Holy is any other than a Poetical Elysium or a Mahometan Paradise while they perceive that such as call themselves Christians do prefer the world and sensual pleasures before it Can any man convince them That the Saints are such excellent Creatures when they see those who call themselves so to live like Bruits or Devils It is a vain attempt to perswade others To believe and obey the Gospel until they who profess it have learnt better what it teacheth them Tit. ii 11 12. To deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present world These are some of the stumbling Blocks which are to be removed out of the way before any successful perswasions Motives Inducements or other Means will prevail to dispose and incline those who have not received the Gospel to embrace it 2. But these Obstructions being removed what ways are to be taken to help on the Entertainment of the Gospel To answer that Question I shall recommend unto you some Few among many which I conceive to be most obvious practicable and effectual e. gr 1. Private Christians should endeavour to oblige those whom they would perswade by Civilities Kindness and doing good Offices for them that they may be assured that they love them and seek their real and eternal good Our blessed Saviour who best understood what Attractives were most proper and powerful to draw men to receive Him and his Gospel took this Method Act. x. 38. He went about Doing good He did Good to mens Bodies that he might do good to their Souls The Miracles which he wrought were generally of Beneficence and Obligations as To heal the Sick To give Sight to the Blind c. It 's true He had a superior Aim and End in working Miracles which was To shew forth his Glory to confirm his Doctrine to strengthen the Faith of his Disciples c. Joh. ii 11. and xx 31. yet secondarily it was To testifie his Kindness and Compassion toward those whom he designed to perswade to believe on him Matth. xv 32. I have compassion on the multitude and thereupon he wrought a Miracle for their Refreshment ver 36 37 38. feeding Four thousand
the Lord What Promises more inviting and encouraging than those he hath given us which are exceeding great and precious Where if any one can let him tell us where we shall see Sin so clearly and fully in its deformity and ugliness in order to a real and thorow aversation from it or Religion Godliness and a Conversation order'd aright more in it's loveliness and enamouring beauty in order to our setting our Hearts upon it than we do or at least may see it in the Gospel When all is said and done that can be it is the Grace of God Tit. 2.14 The Doctrine the Gospel of Grace which bringeth Salvation and hath appeared to all men Jews and Gentiles men of all sorts and ranks it is that yea it is that which teacheth us and all thâ—t sit under it to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Oh therefore that this precious and everlasting Gospel of God our Saviour may be the main object of Ministers study and the Principal Theme upon which they insist in their several Congregations therein imitating the great Apostle of the Gentiles who told the Corinthians He determined to know nothing among them but Jesus Christ and him crucified But this is not all Ministers ought not only to preach Christ but likewise to live him What good are those pretended Ministers like to do in whatever Place Countrey or Nation they are to be found who are scandalous and prophane Grant that some of them preach well I would fain know whether that be enough either to save themselves or those that hear them What such men seem to build up by their Doctrine they pull down by their Practice Let any rational man judge whether they are like to convince and perswade others who do lead self-contradicting lives How can they prevail with others to be sober who will sit and quaffe and be drunk themselves With what face can they perswade others to possess their vessels in Sanctification and Honour who are unclean and filthy themselves In short how are they like to lead others in the way everlasting who do themselves turn aside to crooked paths with the workers of Iniquity Oh that therefore care might be taken by all those who are invested with Power and have the oversight of such things as these that those and none but those may be set as spiritual Guides and Leaders over the several Flocks and Congregations in the Land as may without blushing say to their hearers Walk so as ye have us for an Example and be ye Followers of us even as we are of Christ Tenthly and Lastly In order to the effectual Suppression of prophaneness I would and do heartily commend to all those that are in Authority over us diligent yea and utmost care for the strict observation of the first day of the Week which is in Rev. 1.10 Called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords Day and ought to be kept as the Christian Sabbath to the end of time A day sanctified and set apart for the solemn publick and private worship of God both in Churches Families and Retirements and for a sweet close and intimate Communion with him while we are deliver'd and taken off from those secular affairs that upon the other days of the Week do necessarily engage us and cannot but divert us A day not to be spent in any thing no not any the most minute part of it but the duties of Religion and works of Godliness except those works of Necessity and Mercy which God out of his Goodness and Pity to man doth allow for he will have Mercy rather than Sacrifice so that when Acts of Mercy are of absolute Necessity Sacrifice shall give place to it This is a day which God hath seen fit to usher in with a Memento in the fourth Commandment Remember that thou keep Holy the Sabbath day As if the Lord should have said I know your frailty that you have slippery and treacherous memories and possibly may yea certainly will forget some nay many other things in which you are concerned but let this be fastened as a nail in a sure place be sure to think of this to be mindful of this I charge and command you to remember it Remember the Sabbath day before it comes so as to rejoice in the thoughts of it to long for it and to prepare for it that upon the day of Praise you may have on your Garments of Praise Souls in a right frame and remember to sanctifie and keep it Holy when it is come We find the Sabbath was given unto Israel for a sign between God and them So you have it in Ezek. 20.12 I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifie them By this they were distinguished from all other Nations These were a plain and evident proof that they were the Lords People and that Jehovah was their God This did loudly proclaim Gods choosing and calling them out from the rest of the World and gracious setting them apart for himself as his peculiar Portion and Inheritance And indeed where there is no care of sanctifying the Sabbath by Nations Families or Persons it is a plain case it amounts to a demonstration that they are unsanctified Nations Families and Persons It is an evident sign of a people estranged and alienated from the Life of God of a wicked people that savour not the things of God but only those things that be of men of a People that have not the fear of God before their Eyes that are not carried out in desires of honouring him and lifting up his Name or of enjoying Communion with him in the World To prophane Sabbaths is a very great and notorious piece of prophaneness Sins willfully and out of choice committed upon a Sabbath are Sins in grain Scarlet and Crimson-sins To mind worldly Affairs to sit brooding upon worldly Thoughts to follow the Trades and Callings of the World to open Shops and buy and sell upon a Sabbath-day are God-provoking Sins acts of prophaneness These are lawful upon other days in which God hath given you leave nay more he hath made it your Duty to labour and do all that you have to do of this Nature but they are very sinful upon the Sabbath Let me propound Nehemiah to the Consideration of Magistrates and Inferiour Officers and his care and activity in this point as an example richly worth their Imitation Take the account of him as it is drawn up by himself in Neh. 13.15 c. He saw some treading Wine-presses upon the Sabbath-day and bringing in Sheaves and lading Asses as also Wine Grapes and Figs all manner of burdens which they brought into Jerusalem upon the Sabbath-day the men of Tyre also dwelt there who brought Fish and all manner of wares and sold on the Sabbath to the Children of Judah and in Jerusalem This was exceeding evil
give quite another sense of the words which I will not so much as mention but presently propose what I take to be the summ of the Text. Doctrine We should strictly and frequently call our selves to an account that we may the better give an answer to Christs question what end we propose to our selves in attending upon the Ministry of the Word 'T was but a little while since there was a general flocking after John Baptist as if they would turn the City into a Wilderness and make the Wilderness the City (b) Joh. 5.35 He was a burning and a shining light and ye were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light but that flash is over and now they are flocking after Christ with like affection Christ doth as it were say to them 'T is a foolish and ridiculous lightness to run after the best Preachers in the World without proposing some end unto our selves beyond the vanity and pomp of the World some fruit that may remain The blessed Apostle would have those that had been his Hearers to call themselves to an account examine themselves (c) 2 Cor. 13.5 put such searching questions to their own Consciences whether they be in the Faith whether the Doctrine of Faith hold them that they do not fwerve from it and whether the Grace of Faith be in them that they live by it If not they can't expect that Christ should approve of them I shall endeavour to make my way to the stating of the Case thorow the explaining of the Doctrine by these Propositions Proposition 1. John Baptists Ministry was the best in the world when he began to Preach and all people that had any care of their Souls went out after him His Ministry differed from the ordinary Ministry of the Times He cryed not up Humane Inventions before Divine Institutions but with holy vehemency press'd the necessary Doctrine of Repentance a Repentance upon which they might expect pardon of sin (d) Luke 3.3 and 't was convincing where 't was not converting those that loved their sins better than to yield 'T was of Divine Authority yet they loved their credit better than to affirm 't was but of Humane Authority (e) Mar. 11.14 32. In short his main design was to bring or send persons to Christ I Baptize you with water (f) Mat. 3.11 12. to repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier than I whose shoâ—s I am not worthy to bear he shall Baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fâ—re Whose â—an is in his hand and he will throughly purge his â—â—â—or and gâ—thâ—r his wâ—â—at into his gaâ—ner but will burn up the chasf with unqu nchable fire q. d. Christ will Baptize with the pouring out of his Spirit on Believers and with that fiery tryal which shall refine the Gold from the Dross and winnow the Wheat from the Chaff he will gather the Faithful into his Heavenly Kingdom and burn up Unbelievers with unquenchable fire Prop. 2. Persons of all ranks with some kind of pains and self-denyal followed John Baptist for his convincing Instruction (g) Mat. 3.5 Some were savingly converted and got that good by his Ministry which they made good use of many a year after 'T is said of Apollos (h) Acts 18.25 26. that he knew only the baptism of John He taught diligently the things of the Lord and with the help of what he got by Christian Conference he mightily convinced the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah but besides few such 1. The Pharisees they followed him who were themselves the most applauded Preachers among the Jews they whose Dictates were taken for Oracles they left the chair of Moses to hear this Elias 2. The Sadducees who denyed the Resurrection and the Immortality of the Soul John asks them (i) Mat. 3.7.8 Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come q. d. You Pharisees are so conceited of your own Righteousness that you think you are in no danger of Hell and you Sadducees think there is none John presses both to Repentance that might evidence it self by its fruit to be sincere 3. Persons that pretend nothing to Religion but were so infamous for gross wickedness that every one who valued his Reputation shun'd being seen in their company (k) Mat. 21.31 32. The Publicans and the Harlots got Heaven by believing 4. Souldiers that the Romans kept to maintain their Conquest of Judea such do not use to trouble themselves with Cases of Conscience (l) Luke 3.14 The Souldiers also demanded of him saying And what shall we do He doth not blame the employment but regulates their behaviour 5. Courtiers who could not bear plain dealing yet could expect no other from him They could not but fear him though they did not love him 'T is said that Herod himself (m) Mar. 6.20 feared John knowing that he was a just man and an holy and observed him and when he heard him he did many things and heard him gladly As if he would bribe his Conscience by parting with some sins more quietly to give him leave to keep others that he could not part with And thus you see what a Congregation John preached to Prop. 3. Those that attend upon the Ministry of the Word they do or should propose unto themselves some End why they do it Those who through Grace propose a good end to themselves they always obtain their end they (n) 2 The. 2.10 who receive the truth in the love of it shall be saved But for the most 1. Some propose to themselves no End at all neither can they so much as speak sense to any one that shall ask them why they come there I cannot better express it than in the words of the Divine Historian in describing of that rout truly so called though he names it a Church (o) Acts 19.32 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the assembly was confused and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together I am loth to say this description fits too many Congregations 2. Some propose to themselves Ends down-right sinful viz. Some to catch at expressions for the exercise of their frothy Wits over a glass of Wine (p) Isa 28.22 Be not mockers lest your bands be made too strong for you to break Some to ensnare the Minister we need not think it strange for they dealt so with our Master (q) Mark 12.13 14. They send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to catch him in his words and they pretend a scrupulous Conscience they say unto him Master we know that thou art true and carest for no man for thou regardest not the person of men but teachest the way of God in truth Is it lawful to give that as Tribute to Caesaer which Moses appointed for the use of the Sanctuary Christ doth as it were answer them If 't were really a Case of Conscience they would not stick at paying both
old Wall which they seeing drew their Swords to defend themselves which being discerned by their Servants who attended at the door they drew likewise and the Armies seeing this did the like and slaughtered one another a long time before they understood the mistake And just so hath it often fared with God's Church abroad and at home Wise and good Men have been ready for a Reconciliation and in effect agreed when that Old Serpent the Devil being ready to burst with Malice at it hath spoil'd so good an enterprize and renew'd the flames of Discord again 2. Jesuites and other Emissaries from Rome These have been Satans Instruments to set the World in Flames It was Campanella's old Advice to the Spaniard that they should by all means keep up Union among themselves and keep open the breaches among the Protestants The like by Adam Contzen another Jesuite in his Politicks These doubtless did blow the Coals in our Civil Wars and insinuated themselves into each Party And it is strange that though this their Principle and Practice be undenyable neither side will discern or yield any such Boutefeu's to be among them What else could maintain that deadly rage and violent Prejudice so long among Englishmen and Protestants whose Temper and Religion is of it self so sweet and gentle but such Instruments as these who aggravate Differences and exasperate mens spirits and endeavour to perswade People that it is better to yield to a Forreign Religion than to one another and to this end their Doctrines and Ceremonies are represented with the fairest and falsest Colours our first Reformers abroad and at home slily censured and our domestick Differences rendred irreconcileable 3. Atheistical and Debauched Persons These hate all sound Religion in whomsoever and are ripe for any Profession which will gratifie their Lusts and so are as ready to be Mahumetans as Romans who for all their Professions of Loyalty would hate their Governors at the Heart if the Laws were strictly executed against their Vices These cry out Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us and so must needs abhorr any such Settlement as would conduce to the flourishing oâ— â—eal Piety Besides their Practices provoke God to fasten his Judgments upon us whereof our Contentions are not the least And also these having an inveterate Antipathy to all sober and religious Persons of what Character soever do equally hate such of every Party and on the other side adhere unto and animate the looser sort whose Religion consists in Humour Noise or Shew and wherever they live are pouring Oyl into our Flames 4. Ignorant and Proud People whereof the number is too great in every Party Such as have neither read the Scriptures with Judgment nor other Ecclesiastical Histories nor considered the Constitution of the Churches of God in other parts of the World but only pore upon what is next to their Senses and these commonly are most conceited and unmoveable abounding only in their own sence and condemning all others with the greatest contempt Of such good old Mr. Greenham is to be understood when being ask'd by the Lord Treasurer Cecil where the blame of that great rent lay between the Bishops of those times and Others The fault said he is on both sides and on neither side for the godly-wise on both sides bear with each other and concurr in the main but there be some selfish peevish spirits on both sides and these make the quarrel And how few are there that are no way byass'd by their worldly Interest which is a strong and irrefragable Argument and where it rules will make men content to behold a whole Nation on fire so that they may warm themselves thereby How rare a thing is a publick Spirit or a Man that looking upon the distracted condition of a Church and Nation without the false Spectacles of Prejudice and private Interest can drop a Christian Tear or impartially offer any Balm to cure their Wounds From such as these before-mention'd proceed our Uncharitable Contentions And woe be to them unless they repent that is amend Vse 3. If these prepare for Destruction Then We in this sinful Nation are in the ready way to misery For 1. Our Differences and Contentions are notorious Divisions in the Church Divisions in the Nation Cities divided yea Houses divided Names of Distinction impos'd and no Pacificatory Endeavours nor Inviting Providences have yet cemented us Our Enemies smile at it and our well-wishers mourn 2. We are Vncharitable in these Contentions we bite and devour one another we censure we slander we rail we damn and we are ready to mischieve one another by force by fraud the Press sweats the Pulpit rings with Invectives and with Reproaches O Lord how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear even cry out to thee of violence and thou wilt not save why dost thou shew me iniquity and grievance for spoiling and violence are before me and there are that raise up strife and contention c. Habac. 1.2 3. The Law of Kindness is banish'd out of mens Mouths the Law of Love too much out of mens Hearts Yea some Preach Christ of envy strife and contention supposing to add affliction to others bands as it was Philip. 1.17 We may take up Optatu's complaint of old Nullus vestrum est qui non convitia nostra suis tractatibus misceat Lectiones Dominicas incipitis tractatus vestros ad nostras injurias explicatis Profertis Evangelium facitis absenti fratri convitium Auditorum animis infigitis odia inimicitias suadendo docendo suadetis This hath been Englished too often in Pulpits I am loth to do it In all concourses instead of kindness freedom and love either uncivil clashings or a fearful reservedness The worst Interpretations made of one anothers actions words looks and behaviour Certainly the Enemy hath done this his cloven Foot is evident in these effects but this is matter of fact and undenyable 3. Too many of those that should quench these flames exasperate them If St. Paul were here he would ask again as 1 Cor. 6.5 Is it so that there is not a wise man among you I speak it to your shame If St. James were among us he would ask as Jam. 3.13 Who is a wise man and indued with knowledge among you let him shew out of a good Conversation his works with meekness of wisdom and conclude But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lye not against the truth Magistrates and Ministers should be Healers but there have been some of these and that of each Party that have increased these flames How industriously have our wounds been kept open and some have not been asham'd to set themselves against all Coalition and Vnion Where are our healing Shepherds Is there no Balm in Gilead is there no Physician there why then is not the health of the daughter of my People recovered The Pythagorians had a
his Royal Captives who helped to draw his Charlot looking wistly on the Wheel how the part now lowest was presently uppermost so that he considering the mutability of these sublunary things released him from that bondage And however forget not what the Holy Ghost saith Jam. 2.13 He shall have judgment without mercy that sheweth no mercy and mercy rejoyceth against judgment 10. My last Advice is to Pray for the peace of Jerusalem This every one may do and this every one ought to do Psal 122.6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces There are few greater Reasons for our solemn Fasting and Prayer than this If some Plague or War or Drought come upon us we reckon it 's high time to Fast and Pray But alas those are in themselves but Miseries but our Contentions are so our Miseries that they are our sins also Those will but destroy some of our People but Uncharitable Contentions will consume us all But whatever Others do herein let it be every sincere Christian's care to lay holy violence to Heaven upon this Account You have done all that is in your Power to restore Love and Peace and it is in vain try thâ—â— what God can do Abi in cellam dic miserere Deus He can make Men to be of one mind in a House City and Nation He can bow the Hearts of a whole Nation even as the Heart of one man and that in a moment of time He can bring the Wolf and the Lyon and the Lamb to feed together so that they shall not hurt nor destroy in all his holy mountain Isa 65 25. And O that the Prayer of our most Blessed Saviour Joh. 17.21 may yet prevail with God to pour down a spirit of Love and Peace into us all In the mean time let all those that are passive that are upright humble and quiet comfort themselves with Salvian's saying Insectantur nos in nobis Deum Christ is a fellow-sufferer with all that suffer as Christians and their design is against God himself that devour his servants And then pergant nostrae patientiae praecones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beatos nos hoc modo facient dum vellent miseros They that speak and write all manner of evil of you so it be falfely while they endeavour to render you miserable do thereby make you happy True Virtue and Piety shines most in the fire and therefore in Patience possess your Souls if you can possess nothing else And for Others if after all Warnings and Endeavours their Hearts be still fill'd with Rancour and bent upon mischief we must leave them to St. Augustine's Sentence Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat There is a God who tells his Servants wandrings and puts their tears in his bottle and who will execute judgment upon all that have spoken or done hardly toward them and though they may support themselves with their present impunity and prosperity yet the Lord of that servant that began to smite his fellow servants will come in a day he looked not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder Matth. 24.50 And though they may think it a long time to that day they will find there is a longer space after it They that choose the Fire shaâ—â— have their fill of it For to them that are contentious there remains indignation and wrath and Fire that is everlasting But I despair not of so much Remorse in such as have without Prejudice and with Consideration read these Pages but that they will awake and shake off the Inchantment which hath possess'd them and discerning their Sin and our common Danger they will embrace all their faithful Brethren and become sincere lovers of Truth and Peace which effect the God of Love and Peace work in us all by his Holy Spirit for the sake of the Prince of Peace Jesus Christ our Redeemer Amen Amen Quest From what Fear of Death are the Children of God delivered by Christ and by what Means doth He deliver them from it SERMON IV. HEB. II. 15. And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their life time subject unto bondage IN this and in the foregoing Verse you have some Account of the design and end of our Lord Jesus Christ in his Incarnation and Passion There were divers weighty Reasons why he assum'd our Nature and therein subjected himself to Death and two of them are told us in this Context 1. That he might destroy the Devil 2. That he might deliver the Elect People of God 1. That he might destroy the Devil who is describ'd to be one that had the power of Death not the supream but a subordinate Power of Death a Power of Death as God's Executioner to inflict it and affright men with it to make it terrible and formidable to them by heightning their guilty Fears and representing to them its dreadful consequents In these and in divers other respects that might be mentioned the Devil is said to have the Power of Death Him as it follows hath Christ destroyed That is disarm'd and disabled Christ hath not destroy'd him as to his being and substance but as to his Power and Authority over the Children and chosen of God And this Christ did by his own Death Through or by death he destroy'd him that had the power of Death viz. The Devil It was upon the Cross that be spoil'd Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it 2. To come to what I intend another End and reason of Christ's Incarnation and Passion was that he might deliver the Elect People of God These he calls the Children in the foregoing Verse not the Children of Men as some expound it but the Children of God Such Children as the Father had given the Son so they are said to be Ver. 13. Behold says Christ I and the Children which thou hast given me such as were predestinated to the adoption of Children as it is phras'd Ephes 1.5 These the Text also describes and tells us in what Condition they were by Nature Through fear of Death they were all their life-time subject to bondage By all their Life time you must understand all that time which they liv'd before they were deliver'd This is the Condition of the Elect of God as they come into the World they are not only subject unto Death but unto the Fear of Death and unto bondage by reason thereof The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is render'd subject signifies they were held fast and manacled as Birds that are taken in a snare or as Malefactors that are going to their Execution The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred bondage signifies a state of servitude or slavery such as men dislike but cannot avoid One calls it a poenal disquietment or perplexity of mind that ariseth from a
your right eye you must pull it out The guilt of one known sin will put a sting into Death and make it very terrible to you especially in your near approaches unto it 7. You must look to it that your whole Conversation be order'd arigh◠and that it be as becomes the Gospel of Christ When all is done an upright and holy Life is one of the best Defences against the dread of Death We are told in two several Chapters of the Proverbs that Righteousness delivers from Death Prov. 10.2.11.14 Whatever other Interpretations those words will admit of I am sure this is a true one That it delivers from a slavish Fear of Death Hear how David speaks he bids you Mark the perfect man and behold the righteous or upright Psal 37.37 for the the end of that man is peace The Apostle Paul was above the Fear of Death he seem'd rather to desire than dread it as I said before and well it might be thus with him seeing he liv'd in all good Conscience and had this Testimony from his Conscience That in simplicity and godly sincerity Acts 23.1 2 Cor. 1.12 and not with fleshly wisdom but by the Grace of God he had his Conversation in the World Quest How is Gospel-Grace the best Motive to Holiness SERMON V. 2 TIM II. 19. And let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity 1 Tim. 1.2 2 Tim. 1.2 THis Epistle was wrote by St. Paul to his Son Timothy whom he had begot in the Faith as his fatherly Blessing a little before his death for he was at the writing of it in bonds Ch. 1. vers 8. and he had finished his course Ch. 4. v. 7. This very Paul whom God had so miraculously delivered at Damascus 2 Cor. 11.32 Acts 16.26 and at Philippi and where not for whosoever reads the Catalogue of his sufferings 1 Cor. 11.26 may wonder how so many evils could befall any one man but as they did abound deliverance did proportionably abound yet now when God had no further work for him to do he calls his Servant home to receive his wages and being so near the end of his Race Phil. 3.14 Paul stretches out his hand for the prize of his high calling in Christ Jesus And if we cannot but allow the Children of God to grow in Grace and in Knowledge 2 Pet. 3.18 and that the Lights of God's setting up in his Church are brightest a little before they are extinguished by death Timothy and all Believers had reason to mind especially the words of this dying Man This Epistle being his last Will and Testament in which every Member of Christ's Church hath a Legacy left unto him ' more precious if understood and improved than Gold that perish In the beginning of this Chapter the Apostle requires that those things he had taught Vers 2. might be continued still to be taught and to be practis'd He knew that there was no getting into Heaven per saltum that there was no coming to Glory but by taking the degrees at least arriving at the truth of Grace and therefore here as elsewhere in all his Epistles so many Exhortations and Dehortations are to be found so many Precepts about what we are to do and Cautions about what we are to avoid The Philosopher treating of Happiness observes Arist Rhet. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Way is narrow and the Danger is great and they are the best Friends to us that bid us beware and are jealous lest we should mistake But withal the Apostle here meets with a great Obstacle a Stone or Rock of Offence which he endeavours to remove out of our way Hymenaeus and Philetus two considerable persons and probably highly accounted of in the Church for we find no such difficulty arose at the turning away of Phygellus and Hermogenes of whom mention is made Chap. 1. vers 15. Apostatiz'd from the Truth and whether they were by their Office Teachers or no is not certain but that their breath was infectious and that their words did eat as a canker is testified vers 17. That their error was in a fundamental Article denying the Resurrection is very obvious for as the Apostle says If there be no Resurrection then is our preaching vain and our believing vain 1 Cor. 15.13.14 yet such a darkness or perversness rather hath the Fall and our corruption betray'd us to that without God cause his Light to shine into us there is nothing so senceless irrational or unscriptural which we shall not embrace for truth Hence these wretches did not perish alone but overthrew the Faith of some vers 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or temporary Believers who assented to the Truths of the Gospel and were reckoned amongst the Faithfull nay and they shrewdly shak'd the Faith of others When men in a Field-battle see such fall who stood next them or were before them their hearts are apt to misgive them least the next Bullet should take them off also Especially true Believers knowing so much of the deceitfulness of their own hearts as to make them humble all their days and being so charitable towards others and apt to believe any better than themselves Their concern also being so great for their Souls Hinc lacrymae they cry we shall one day fall To such the Apostle accommodates these words Nevertheless as if he had said Granting all that any fearfull and weak but true Believers amongst you can Object that so many fall away and such as seem'd so resolute have Apostatiz'd Mat. 7.24.25 Yet the Foundation of God standeth sure Thô they who built upon the Sand with their statelyest and highest confidence fell yet every building upon the Rock should hold out all winds and weathers To prove which the Apostle offers a double security 1. From the Election and fore-knowledge of God The Lord knoweth them that are his Verba sensûs intellectus ponunt affectum effectum is a known Rule to understand Scripture by God does not only know his People as he does all other men and all other Creatures in the World but he hath a special eye upon every one of them and a special care for them as well as Love unto them and this is as it were the Privy Seal which every Child of God may take for his security 2. They have also a broad Seal their Sanctification which comparatively at least is evident for it is as a light set on a Candlestick and is visible more or less unto all at least they may have the Testimony of a good Conscience ◠Cor. 1.12 which is as a thousand Witnesses Some have thought that these words may relate to an ancient custom of putting words and sentences upon such stones as were laid for Foundations in buildings in which something of the Builder or Author or at least something thought worthy by him to be perpetuated Rom. 11.33 was inserted and what more
rejoycing and yet neither ought our mourning to exclude a humble rejoycing in God nor our rejoycing shut out a holy mourning The Men of Issachar are recorded as famous on this account 1 Chron. 12.32 That they had understanding of the time to know what Israel ought to do And herein we are oftentimes at a great loss like those children Matth. 11.17 that complained of their fellows they had piped unto them and yet not been answer'd with dancing that they had mourned to them but they had not lamented Holy Wisdom would teach us to accommodate the present frame of our hearts to Gods present dispensations Providence does not teach us new duties but how to single out those that God has made our duties Secondly We need wisdom that we be not deluded with shadows instead of substances that we take not appearances for realities for want of which O how often are we cheated out of our interests our real concerns our integrity of heart and peace of Conscience We account him a weak and foolish Man who is imposed upon by Copper for Gold that would warm his hands by painted fire or hope to satisfie his craving appetite with painted food yet such are we who spend our mony for that which is not bread and our labor for that which profits us not Isa 55.2 who set our affections on those things that are not Prov. 23.5 Thirdly Another point of wisdom which we need to be instructed in is the worth of Time and what a weight of eternity depends on these short and flitting moments but we weak and silly ones count a day for no more than it stands for in the Calender an hour no more than so much time measured by the hourglass when one hour to repent in a moment to make our Calling and Election sure in may come to be more worth than all the World can be to us Fourthly Wisdom would teach us the due order and method of all things what first what last ought to be our study and our concern wisdom would teach us to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Matth. 6.33 And then if there be time to spare to bestow some small portion of it for those other things which God in his bounty will not deny and in his wisdom knows in what measure to bestow Fifthly Wisdom would teach us the true worth and value of all things to labour pray and strive for them proportionable to their true intrinsick dignities to think that Heaven cannot be too dear what-ever we pay for it nor Hell cheap how easily soever we come by it wisdom would instruct us that we cannot lay out too much of our time strength contrivance upon Eternals nor too little upon these perishing Temporals that Earth deserves very little of our Hand less of our Head and nothing at all of our Heart little of our pains less of our plotting and least of all of our love and affections III. Le ts pray and strive strive in the due and diligent use of § 3 means and pray for a blessing upon them that we may be filled with a spiritual understanding A carnal heart will carnalize the most spiritual Mercies and a carnal mind will debase the most spiritual Truths the Manna was design'd to feed the Souls as well as the Bodies of the Jews but they ate the spiritual meat and drank the spiritual drink 1 Cor. 10.23 with very carnal Heads and Hearts so that they needed the Spirit of God to instruct them in the right use of it Nehem. 9.10 Thou gavest thy good Spirit to instruct them and with-heldest not the Manna from their mouth They might then have eaten their own condemnation as well as we under the Gospel by that Symbol John 3.3 Christ had deliver'd a great and necessary Truth except a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven but Nicodemus tho' a great Rabbi turns it into a gross and carnal interpretation How can a Man be born when he is old Can he enter the second time into his Mothers womb and be born again And at the same pass were his rude and carnal hearers John 6.51 I am the living bread says Christ that came down from Heaven if any Man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh that I will give for the life of the world but his Capernatical hearers conceive of nothing but a literal and oral Manducation of his natural flesh vers 52. The Jews therefore strove among themselves saying How can this Man give us his flesh to eat And yet Christ had said enough to obviate that gross mistake vers 35. I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst One Man hears the great Duties of the Gospel pressed upon his Conscience and either sitting down despondeth at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or else undertakes them in his own strength and the power of his free will not considering that there is Covenant grace to answer Covenant duties and Covenant pardon for those imperfections that attend them Another perhaps hears the curse thundred out against Every one that continues not in all things written in the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 he hears that the primitive end of the Law was to justifie a righteous person that had perfectly observed it and he falls upon the observation of that Law as the condition of the Covenant of works hoping to drudge out a righteousness thereby that shall present him blameless before God not knowing that Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 Let us therefore pray for a spiritual understanding that we may know every Truth as it is in Jesus Ephes 4.21 that every line every letter of the Old and New Testament has its center in a Redeemer § 4 IV. Let 's pray again and strive that we may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing knowing that all our services all our sacrifices are nothing unless our God smell a sweet savour in them nor can we fill the sails of our Souls with a more noble and generous ambition than to be accepted of God This was the height of the Apostles ambition 2 Cor. 5.9 We labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him which was the glorious frame of our blessed Saviours heart John 8.29 That he always did the things that pleased his Father It s a common delusion of Professors that if they can get the work of their hands not to regard whether ever it comes upon Gods heart or no But what are our Prayers if God receives them not Our Praises if God accepts them not Our Obedience if God regards it not Now that we may reach this great end we must walk worthy of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There ought to be a suitableness between the frame of our hearts and
Of Man's wickedness in both these thieves who had spent all their time in sin even to the last hour of their lives but especially in the impenitent thief whom neither Bonds nor Tryal nor Condemnation had humbled or mollified or brought to repentance but being still under the power of an hardned heart we find him at the last gasp railing on a Saviour instead of believing in him and belching out his blasphemies in the very mouth of Hell vers 39. If thou be Christ save thy self and us II. Of Divine grace in the penitent thief First Converting grace and that 1. In the power and efficacy of it for how powerful must that grace needs be which had wrought so great a change had suppled that heart in an instant which had been hardning in sin for so many years overcome so many stubborn inveterate lusts at once and made the Man all on a suddain commence one of the most eminent Saints the World had ever yet had and act faith to such an hight as might not only have become the chiefest of the Apostles but did really exceed any they had hitherto shewn The Disciples of Christ who had sat so long at their Masters feet yet were hardly induced to believe his Resurrection even after he was risen Luke 24.25 When this thief who hitherto had been a stranger to him and now saw him hanging on a Cross and dying yet by faith sees him in his Kingdom triumphing over his Cross and Death too 2. In the freeness of it for 1. Gods grace did not wait for his preparations good moods good dispositions these were all over if ever he had any but it takes hold of him when at the hight of sin and not only was void of grace but seemed past grace i. e. never like to come to it by any ordinary methods 2. It seised on him and passed by the other though no worse that we know of than himself Grace makes a difference where none was before of these two in the like case it takes one and leaves the other II. Pardoning grace This appears in our Lords answer and carriage to him vers 43. He doth not upbraid him with the abominations of his forepast life his Theft or Rapine or Violence his hardness of Heart or long Impenitence but easily readily gently receives him and is so far from denying him a pardon that he assures him of a present Salvation To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise The case of these two thieves doth in a good measure parallel the case of other dying sinners though dying upon their beds They were in the extremity of their lives drawing their last breath both full of pain and anguish in their Bodies and very likely full of shame and confusion in their Minds considering their death was not only cruel and grievous but reproachful in the eyes of Men and accursed by the sentence of God So that here was much to interrupt disturb and distract them in so great so close and serious a work as Repentance is And is it not so with others who live in sin all their days and pretend to Repent at last They are taking their leave of the World groaning under their Diseases racked with pains and have many things tho not the same the thieves had to discompose disquiet and divert them from or hinder them in the like work But if we look to the issue the parallel will not reach so far Here is Man for Man one of the thieves humble believing repenting and accordingly accepted the other unbroken unbelieving impenitent and dying like a reprobate This equality is not to be found among other dying sinners as hereafter we shall see However from the example of these two thieves we may safely infer this Proposition Doctrin That tho a very late even a death-bed repentance may be sincere yet it is not safe to run the hazard of it Two parts there are of this Proposition 1. That even a death-bed repeentance may be sincere this I shall speak to by way of Concession 2. That yet it is dangerous running the hazard of it by deferring repentance till such a time this I shall handle by way of Assertion I. It is possible that a death-bed repentance may be sincere In speaking to this I shall briefly 1. Premise something in general concerning the nature of Repentance 2. Lay down the reasons of this Concession First For the former Repentance may be considered either I. In the Act or exercise of it which the Scripture usually expresses by turning or returning implying that sinners are out of the way to God and their own happiness till by repentance they return into it If we speak distinctly of it we may consider 1. The Essence of repentance which is the turning mentioned a turning from sin to God i. e. from all sin both of Heart and Life as to the love and allowance of it and subjection to it and a turning to God as our Sovereign Lord from whom we had revolted to walk with him in all known ways of obedience and holiness And tho we cannot attain to a legal perfection in this Life either as to freedom from all Sin or the practice of all Duty yet there is not meerly a temporary and transient but a peremptory fixed and setled purpose for the one and against the other which is more than a promise de futuro and amounts to a present breach with all sin and an actual will to engage in every duty a respect to all Gods Comandments Psal 119.6 in the degree of our obedience to which we notwithstanding may oftentimes fail 2. The causes from which it proceeds First A right sence of sin as to the guilt defilement and dominion of it It s being offensive and odious to God Jer. 44.4 as well as hurtful to our selves in the danger to which it exposeth us the blot it leaves upon us and the tyranny it exerciseth over us Secondly An apprehension and belief of the mercy of God in Christ Jesus to them that do repent This is always the principle from which Evangelical repentance proceeds Tho the terrors of the Law may help to drive Men from sin yet there must be Gospel attractives to draw them to God either in a way of faith or repentance Who will dare to trust him from whom he expects no mercy or care for serving him from whom he looks for no acceptance Hence it is that Gods mercy is used as the grand motive to perswade Men to repentance Matth. 3.2 The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and Isa 55.7 From these proceed both that Godly sorrow for sin and that hatred of it which always accompanies Gospel repentance and in a good measure promotes it Paul seems to place Godly sorrow among the causes of repentance 2 Cor. 7.10 II. If we consider repentance in the habit I need say no more but that it is that grace of the Holy Spirit which he infuseth into the Soul as the immediate
and Earth a damned Spirit the most cursed part of the Creation It is most reasonable that the baseness of the Competitour should be a foil to reinforce the lustre of Gods authority yet Men reject God and comply with the tempter O prodigious perversness 2. Sin vilifies the ruling Wisdom of God that prescrib'd the Law to Men. Altho the dominion of God over us be Supreme and Absolute yet 't is exercis'd according to the councel of his Will by the best means 1 Tim. 1.17 for the best ends he is accordingly stiled by the Apostle The eternal King and only wise God 'T is the glorious Prerogative of his Sovereignty and Deity that he can do no wrong for he necessarily acts according to the excellencies of his Nature Particularly his Wisdom is so relucent in his Laws that the serious contemplation of it will ravish the sincere minds of Men into a compliance with them They are framed with exact congruity to the Nature of God and his relation to us and to the faculties of Man before he was corrupted From hence the Divine Law being the transcript not only of Gods Will but his Wisdom binds the understanding and will our leading faculties to esteem and approve to consent and choose all his precepts as best Now sin vilifies the infinite understanding of God with respect both to the precepts of the â—â—w the rule of our duty and the sanction annext to confirm its obligâ—â—â—on It does constructively tax the precepts as unequal too rigid â—â—d severe a confinement to our wills and actions Thus the impious Rebels complain The ways of the Lord are not equal as injurious to their liberty and not worthy of observance What St. James saith to correct the uncharitable censorious Humour of some in his time James 4.11 He that speaks evil of his brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law as an imperfect and rash rule is aplicable to Sinners in any other kind As an unskillful Hand by straining too high breaks the strings of an Instrument and spoils the Musick so the Strictness and Severity of the Precepts breaks the harmonious Agreement between the Wills of Men and the Law and casts an Imputation of Imprudence upon the Law-giver This is the implicit Blasphemy in Sin Besides the Law has Rewards and Punishments to secure our Respects and Obedience to it The wise God knows the Frame of the reasonable Creature what are the inward Springs of our Actions and has accordingly propounded such Motives to our Hope and Fear the most active Passions as may engage us to perform our Duty He promises his favour that is better then life to the Obedient and threatens his wrath that is worse then death to the rebellious Now Sin makes it evident that these Motives are not effectual in the Minds of Men And this reflects upon the Wisdom of the Law-giver as if defective in not binding his Subjects firmly to their Duty for if the Advantage or Pleasure that may be gain'd by Sin be greater than the Reward that is promised to Obedience and the Punishment that is threatned against the Transgression the Law is unable to restrain from Sin and the Ends of Government are not obtained Thus Sinners in venturing upon forbidden things reproach the Understanding of the Divine Law-giver 3. Sin is a Contrariety to the unspotted Holiness of God Of all the glorious and benign Constellation of the Divine Attributes that shine in the Law of God his Holiness has the brightest Lustre God is Holy in all his Works but the most venerable and precious Monument of his Holiness is the Law For the Holiness of God consists in the Correspondence of his Will and Actions with his moral Perfections Wisdom Goodness and Justice and the Law is the perfect Copy of his Nature and Will The Psalmist who had a purged Eye saw and admir'd its Purity and Perfection Psal 19. Psal 119.140 The Commandment of the Lord is pure inlightning the eyes The word is very pure therefore thy servant loves it 'T is the perspicuous and glorious Rule of our Duty without Blemish or Imperfection The Commandment is holy just and good It injoyns nothing but what is absolutely Good without the least Tincture of Evil. The Sum of it is set down by the Apostle to live soberly that is to abstain from any thing that may stain the Excellence of an understanding Creature To live righteously which respects the State and Scituation wherein God has disposed Men for his Glory It comprehends all the respective Duties to others to whom we are united by the Bands of Nature or of civil Society or of Spiritual Communion And to live godly which includes all the internal and outward Duties we owe to God who is the Sovereign of our Spirits whose Will must be the Rule and his Glory the End of our Actions In short The Law is so form'd that prescinding from the Authority of the Law-giver its Holiness and Goodness lays an eternal Obligation on us to obey it Now Sin is not only by Interpretation a Reproach to the Wisdom and other Perfections of God but directly and formally a Contrariety to his infinite Sanctity and Purity for it consists in a not doing what the Law commands Rom. 11. or doing what it forbids 'T is therefore said That the carnal mind is Enmity against God An active immediate and irreconcilable Contrariety to his holy Nature and Will From henee there is a reciprocal Hatred between God and Sinners God is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity without an infinite Displicence the Effects of which will fall upon Sinners and tho' 't is an Impiety hardly conceivable Rom. 1. yet the Scripture tells us that they are haters of God 'T is true God by the transcendent Excellence of his Nature is uncapable of suffering any Evil and there are few in the present State arrived to such Malice as to declare open Enmity and War against God In the Damned this Hatred is explicit and direct the Fever is hightned to a Frenzy the blessed God is the Object of their Curses and eternal Aversation If their Rage could extend to him and their Power were equal to their Desires they would Dethrone the most High And the Seeds of this are in the Breasts of Sinners here As the fearful Expectation of irresistible and fiery Vengeance increases their Aversation increases They endeavour to rase out the Inscription of God in their Souls and to extinguish the thoughts and sense of their Inspector and Judge They wish he were not All-seeing and Almighty but Blind and Impotent uncapable to vindicate the Honour of his despised Deity The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God The Heart is the Fountain of Desires and Actions interpret the Thoughts and Affections from whence the Inference is direct and conclusive that habitual Sinners who live without God in the world have secret Desires there was no Sovereign being
Favour of God he is eminently precious Who can break the Constraints of such Love If there be a spark of reason or a grain of unfeigned Faith in us We must judge that if one died for all then all were dead and those that live should live to his Glory who died for their Salvation Add to this that in the Sufferings of Christ there is the clearest Demonstration of the Evil of 〈◊〉 and how hateful it is to God if we consider the Dignity of his Person the Greatness of his Sufferings and the innocent recoilings of his humane Nature from such fearful Sufferings He was the eternal Son of God the Heir of his Fathers Love and Glory the Lord of Angels he suffered in his Body the most ignominious and painful Death being nail'd to the Cross in the sight of the World The Sufferings of his Soul were incomparably more afflicting For though heavenly Meek he indured the Derision and cruel Violence of his Enemies with a silent Patience yet in the dark Eclipse of his Fathers Countenance in the desolate state of his Soul the Lamb of God opened his Mouth in that mournful Complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His innocent Nature did so recoil from those fearful Sufferings that with repeated ardency of Affection he deprecated that bitter Cup Abba Father all things are possible to thee let this cup pass from me He address'd to the Divine Power and Love the Attributes that relieve the Miserable yet he drank off the dregs of the Cup of Gods Wrath. Now we may from hence conclude how great an Evil Sin is that could not be expiated by a meaner Sacrifice then the offering up the Soul of Christ to atone incensed Justice and no lower a Price than the Blood of the Son of God the most unvaluable Treasure could Ransom Men who were devoted to Destruction 4. The consideration of the evil of sin in it self and to us should excite us with a holy circumspection to keep our selves from being defiled with it 'T is our indispensable duty our transcendent interest to obey the Divine Law entirely and constantly The tempter cannot present any motives that to a rectified mind are sufficient to induce a consent to sin and offend God Let the scales be even and put into one all the delights of the senses all the pleasures and honours of the World which are the Elements of carnal felicity how light are they against the enjoyment of the blessed God in glory Will the gain of this perishing World compensate the loss of the Soul and Salvation for ever If there were any possible comparison between empty deluding vanities and celestial happiness the choice would be more difficult and the mistake less culpable but they vanish into nothing in the comparison so that to commit the least sin that makes us liable to the forfeiture of Heaven for the pleasures of sin that are but for a season is madness in that degree that no words can express Suppose the tempter inspires his Rage into his Slaves and tries to constrain us to Sin by Persecution how unreasonable is it to be dismayed at the Threatnings of Men who must dye and who can only touch the Body and to despise the terrors of the Lord who lives for ever and can punish for ever Methinks we should look upon the perverted raging World as a swarm of angry Flies that may disquiet but cannot hurt us Socrates when unrighteously prosecuted to Death said of his Enemies with a Courage becoming the Breast of a Christian They may Kill me but cannot Hurt me How should these Considerations raise in us an invincible Resolution and Reluctancy against the Tempter in all his Approaches and Addresses to us And that we may so resist him as to cause his flight from us let us imitate the excellent Saint whose Example is set before us 1. By possessing the Soul with a lively and solemn Sense of Gods Presence who is the Inspector and Judge of all our Actions Joseph repell'd the Temptation with this powerful Thought How shall I sin against God The fear of the Lord is clean 't is a watchful Sentinel that resists Temptations without and suppresses Corruptions within 'T is like the Cherubim plac'd with a flaming Sword in Paradise to prevent the Re-entry of Adam when guilty and polluted For this end we must by frequent and serious Considerations represent the Divine Being and Glory in our Minds that there may be a gracious Constitution of Soul this will be our Preservative from Sin for although the habitual thoughts of God are not always in act yet upon a Temptation they are presently excited and appear in the view of Conscience and are effectual to make us reject the Tempter with Defiance and Indignation This holy Fear is not a meer judicial Impression that restrains from Sin for the dreadful Punishment that follows for that servile affection though it may stop a Temptation and hinder the Eruption of a Lust into the gross act yet it does not renew the Nature and make us Holy and Heavenly There may be a respective dislike of Sin with a direct affection to it Besides a meer servile Fear is repugnant to Nature and will be expell'd if possible Therefore that we may be in the fear of the Lord all the day long we must regard him in his endearing Attributes his Love his Goodness and Compassion his rewarding Mercy and this will produce a filial Fear of Reverence and Caution lest we should offend so gracious a God As the natural Life is preserved by grateful Food not by Aloes and Wormwood which are useful Medicines so the Spiritual Life is maintained by the comfortable Apprehensions of God as the Rewarder of our Fidelity in all our Trials 2. Strip Sin of its Disguises wash off its flattering Colours that you may see its native Ugliness Joseph's reply to the Tempter How shall I do this great wickedness Illusion and Concupiscence are the Inducements to Sin When a Lust represents the Temptation as very alluring and hinders the Reflection of the mind upon the intrinsick and consequential Evil of Sin 't is like the putting Poison into the Glass but when it has so far corrupted the mind that Sin is esteemed a small Evil Poison is thrown into the Fountain If we consider the Majesty of the Law-giver there is no Law small nor Sin small that is the Transgression of it Yet the most are secure in an evil course by conceits that their Sins are small 'T is true there is a vast difference between Sins in their nature and Circumstances there are insensible Omissions and accusing Acts but the least is Damnable Besides the allowance and number of Sins reputed small will involve under intolerable Guilt What is lighter than a grain of Sand you may blow away a hundred with a Breath and what is heavier than a heap of Sand condenst together 'T is our Wisdom and Duty to consider the Evil of Sin
in its essential Malignity which implies no less than that God was neither wise nor good in making his Law and that he is not just and powerful to vindicate it And when tempted to any pleasant Sin to consider the due Aggravations of it as Joseph did which will controle the Efficacy of the Temptation I shall only add that when a Man has mortified the lusts of the flesh he has overcom the main part of the infernal Army that Wars against the Soul Sensual objects do powerfully and pleasantly insinuate into carnal Men and the affections are very unwillingly restrain'd from them To undertake the cure of those whose Disease is their pleasure is almost a vain attempt for they do not judge it an evil to be regarded and will not accept distastful remedies 3. Fly all tempting occasions of sin Joseph would not be alone with his Mistriss There is no vertue so confirmed and in that degree of eminence but if one be frequently ingaged in vicious Society 't is in danger of being eclipst and controul'd by the opposite vice If the Ermins will associate with the Swine they must lie in the mire if the Sheep with Wolves they must learn to bite and devour if Doves with Vultures they must learn to live on the prey Our surest guard is to keep at a distance from all engaging snares He that from carelessness or confidence ventures into temptations makes himself an easie prey to the tempter And let us dayly pray for the Divine Assistance to keep us from the evil of the World without which all our resolutions will be as ineffectual as ropes of sand to bind us to our duty 5. The consideration of the evil of sin is a powerful motive to our solemn and speedy Repentance The remembrance of our original and actual sins will convince us that we are born for repentance There are innumerable silent sins that are unobserved and do not Alarm the Conscience and altho a true Saint will neither hide any sin nor suffer sin to hide it self in his brest yet the most holy Men in the World have great reason with the Psalmist to say with melting affections who can understand his errors O clense me from my secret sins discover them to me by the light of the Word and cover them in the blood of the Redeemer There are sins of infirmity and dayly incursion from which none can be perfectly freed in this mortal state these should excite our watchfulness and be lamented with true tears There are crying sins of a crimson guilt which are to be confest with heart-breaking sorrow confounding shame and implacable antipathy against them and to be forsaken for ever Of these some are of a deep die in their nature and some from the circumstances in committing them some are of a heynous nature and more directly and expresly renounce our duty and more immediately obstruct our Communion with God As a mud-wall intercepts the light of the Sun from shining upon us 2. Some derive a greater guilt from the circumstances in the commission Such are 1. Sins against knowledge for according to the ingrediency of the will in sin the guilt arises Now when Conscience interposes between the carnal Heart and the temptation and represents the evil of sin and deters from compliance and yet Men will venture to break the Divine Law this exceedingly aggravates the offence for such sins are committed with a fuller consent atd are justly called rebellion against the light And the clearer the light is the more it will increase the disconsolate fearful darkness in Hell 2. Sins committed against the Love as well as the Law of God are exceedingly aggravated To pervert the benefits we receive from God to his dishonour to turn them into occasions of sin which were designed to endear obedience to us to sin licentiously and securely in hopes of an easie pardon at last is intensive of our guilt in a high degree This is to poison the antidote and make it deadly There is a Sacrifice to reconcile offended Justice but if Men obstinately continue in sin and abuse the Grace of the Gospel there is no Sacrifice to appease exasperated Mercy 3. Sins committed against solemn promises and engagements to forsake them have a deeper die for perfidiousness is joyn'd with this disobedience The Divine Law strictly binds us to our duty antecedently to our consent but when we promise to obey it we increase our obligations and by sinning break double chains In short any habitual allowed sin induces a heavy guilt for it argues a deeper root and foundation of sin in the Heart a stronger inclination to it from whence the repeated acts proceed which are new provocations to the pure Eyes of God Accordingly in repenting reflections our sorrow should be most afflicting our humiliation deeper our self-condemnation most severe for those sins which have been most dishonourable to God and defiling to us Not that we can make any satisfaction for our sins tho we should fill the Air with our sighs and Heaven with our tears but it becomes us to have our sorrows inlarged in some proportion to our unworthiness And this mournful disposition prepares us for the grace of God The Law does not allow repentance but exacts entire obedience 't is the privilege of the Gospel that repenting sinners are assur'd of forgiveness without this qualification 't is inconsistent with the Majesty Purity and Justice of God to extend pardoning Mercy to Sinners for they will never value nor humbly and ardently seek for Mercy till they feel the woful effects of sin in their Conscience only the stung Israelite would look to the brazen Serpent and this is requisite to prevent our relapsing into sin for the dominion of sin being founded in the love of pleasure the proper means to extinguish it is by a bitter repentance the Heart is first broken for sin and then from it To Conclude Let us renew our repentance every-day let not the wounds of our Spirits putrifie let not the Sun go down upon Gods wrath let us always renew the applications of Christs blood that alone can cleanse us from Sin The Case or Question which comes to be spoken unto this morning is Quest How may Private Christians be most helpful to promote the entertainment of the Gospel SERMON XII Colossians IV. 5. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without YE have heard the Question And as I conceive a due attendance unto the words read may lead us far toward the Resolution of it And for that reason was this Text chosen I design not therefore to frame a set Discourse upon it but only to lay it as a ground-work to support that which I have to offer toward the Answering of the Question propounded We have before us then a serious Exhortation Walk in wisdom toward them that are without And therein we may observe 1. The Persons to whom the Apostle doth direct it And they are private Christians This is apparent
the ends of the Earth Why will ye by your disobedience as much as in you lies make void the Commandments of Christ Doth not He expresly charge you To pray to the Lord of the Harvest that he would send forth Labourers into his Harvest And to pray That his Kingdom may come And will ye say That the Lord Christ doth injoin his Servants to do that which is insignificant and impertinent Why will you by your unbelief go about to make the Promises of God of none effect When as he himself hath assured us That He will fulfil the regular desires of them that fear him Psal cxlv 18 19. And that whatsoever we ask according to his will he heareth us 1 Joh. v. 14. For ever then beware of entertaining that Temptation which is formed and cherished in the hearts of the ungodly Who say unto God What profit should we have if we pray unto him Job xxi 14 15. I shall close this when I have added That were the Prayers of private godly Christians more frequent intense and importunate for the spreading of the Gospel it would be an hopeful indication that the Gospel is about through the blessing of God to find better entertainment in the World than it hath done of later years This may suffice to have been spoken touching the first way and means wherein private Christians who live remote from those places where the Gospel is not entertained may be helpful to promote the spreading of it that it may be brought to them viz. by the Prayers which they put up to God in Faith for the propagation of it 2. The second way and means whereby private Christians who live remote from those places whither the Gospel is not yet come may promote the reception of it among them is By a ready chearful and liberal contribution of supplies and encouragements to them who labour in that holy work And here the different Abilities and Capacities of private Christians are to be considered They who are rich may cast in much into the Lords Treasury and for the proportion the Apostles Rule and Measure should be attended unto 1 Cor. xvi 2. Every one as God hath prospered him When the Tabernacle was to be made every one brought something They who had gold silver and precious stones offered them they who could bring but rams-skins and badgers skins were accepted And those good Women who had nothing to bring did yet spin with their hands and brought that which they had spun and they also were accounted and recorded among the Contributers What private Christian is there who can afford Nothing They who subsist by the labour of their hands should spare something for works of Piety and Charity Eph. v. 28. To excite and encourage you to comply with this Direction I shall lay before you several Examples which will shew you how Practical and Acceptable a work this is 1. Private Christians were helpful to our Lord Jesus Christ himself in his preaching of the Gospel in the days of his flesh upon Earth Tho all things were made by him and he upholds them by the Word of his power and so the Earth is His and the fulness thereof yet for our sakes he became poor and was pleased to receive provisions for his subsistence from some godly women who ministred to him of their substance Luk. viii 1 2 3. 2. The Apostle Paul records it to the praise of the Philippians That they were careful of him and made provision for him not only when he laboured among them and when he was in Bonds for preaching the Gospel And I heartily wish that all private Christians among us yea and such as glory in their profession would keep pace with them so far but also when he was employed in the service of the Lord among such as were then strangers to Christ and the Gospel Phil. iv 15 16. Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the Gospel when I departed from Macedonia no Church communicated with me as concerning Giving and Receiving but ye only For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again to my necessity 3. St. John drawing up the fair character of Gaius a private Christian placeth this as a beautiful flower in his garland That he was hospitable and liberal to those who for Christs names sake went forth preaching the Gospel among the Gentiles taking nothing of them 2 Ep. John ver 5.6 7. Let private Christians take notice that the name of Gaius and his Charity are registred in the sacred Scripture and if their disposition and practice be like to his theirs also shall be written in Christs book of remembrance Mat. x. 41 42. He that receiveth and so he that encourageth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward 4 Take notice that it stands as a Blot in the Escutcheon of the Corinthians that they were altogether for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratuitum Evangelium A Gospel that should cost them nothing Corinth was the most convenient and so the most frequented Port for Trade in all Greece The Inhabitants are said to have been very Wealthy Proud and Voluptuous They had abundance to spend upon Themselves but could find nothing for Paul while he resided among them and preached the Gospel to them For this the Apostle makes a very mild but a very close reflection upon them enough to make their Consciences to start if they had any Spiritual life and sense and their Faces to blush if they retained any sparks of Ingenuity in them 2 Cor. xi 8 9. I robbed other Churches taking wages of them to do you Service For when I was present with you and wanted I was chargeable to no man for that which was lacking to me the Brethren which came from Macedonia supplyed It is a sad word but too frequently experienced That a faithful Minister of Christ may Labour and yet Live in want in a wealthy City And I think it cannot be rationally supposed that such as suffer those to want who labour among them will be very forward with their purses to assist them who preach the Gospel to Infidels in the remote parts of the World Upon this Head give me leave to say a little as I did upon the former London doth out-shine Corinth in Trade God grant that it may still flourish in wealth and yet be preserved from those Vices which are the usual Attendants of it May London ever have the Corinthians advantages and the Philippians spirit It will be I hope to the praise of God and of many of Londons Citizens to Recollect what hath been done here to help on the propagation of the Gospel in New-England and I hope also that the care of that work is not extinct but will revive as there may be a necessity and opportunity for it When I shewed how private Christians might he helpful to promote the Gospel by their Prayers I made a Request to you that ye would not fail to befriend
Men beside Women and Children with seven Loaves and a few little Fishes And to this we may add the Apostles advice Gal. vi 10. As ye have opportunity let us do good unto all men even to such as are not of the houshold of faith i. e. tho they be Infidels Very pertinent hereto is that remarkable passage in Eusebius who acquaints us That the Christian Religion gained a very high esteem among the Infidels upon this occasion when Famin and Pestilence raged extremely in the reign of Maximinus the Christians shewed a tender compassion to the Pagans when they were neglected by those of their own Superstition for they Buried their Dead attended and ministred unto their Sick and every day distributed Bread to those who were ready to perish and so by their works declared themselves to be the true worshippers of God through Jesus Christ Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 9. c. 8. 2 Private Christians must be very just and punctual in their Negotiations and Traffick with those whom they would perswade to embrace the Gospel They must inviolably keep their word and promise with them and take no advantage of their want of Skill or Experience thereby to over-reach and defraud them Mr. Terry that was Chaplain to Sir Thomas Row as I remember Ambassador at the Court of the Great Mogul and hath written of those Countries hath this passage which cuts to the quick That when the Indians offered a Commodity in Sale to a Christian he bade very disproportionably to the price demanded they would usually reply Do you think that I am a Christian intimating thereby That they made no conscience in Buying and Selling but thought all gain lawful which they stuck not to purchase by Flattery Lying and Unrighteousness If then they should measure the Rules of the Gospel by the Practice of such as Profess it which is very ordinary they would despise it as falling short of their own Philosophy or Morality which were greatly refined about Matters of common Right and Justice 3. Private Christians should abound in the exercise of those amiable Graces the Evidences and Effects whereof fall under the notice and observation of Others Such as are mentioned Gal. v. 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance They who are Strangers to the Gospel understand not the sublime Mysteries of Faith But they can judge of things that fall under the perception of Sense and Reason They understand not what a man's notions may be in Speculation But they can tell when a man is just sober humble courteous c. and when those excellent Qualities do shew themselves they may be brought to enquire into and to admire those hidden Causes that produce such rare and desirable Effects 4 Private Christians should labour to maintain and discover an even and undisturbed frame of Spirit under various revolutions of Providence neither over-joying their Comforts nor Over-grieving their Crosses 1 Cor. vii 29 30 31. But this I say Brethren the time is short It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none And they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not and they that buy as though they possessed not And they that use this world as not abusing it What a convincing Argument must this needs be to one who is acted by no higher a Principle than Flesh or Nature to behold a Christian to live above the Gaieties of the world as having more pure spiritual and heavenly Enjoyments to entertain his Soul withal And to observe That Crosses and Afflictions do not abate his Love to God his Reverence which he hath for God or his Joy in him 5 Private Christians should make themselves remarkable and considerable in the faithful discharge of Relative Duties With these they are frequently and earnestly charged and that upon this particular account because the Honour and Interest of the Gospel is so much concerned in them 1 Tim. vi 1. Let as many Servants as are under the yoke count their own Masters worthy of all honour that the name of God and his doctrin be not blasphemed It is evident that Heathen-Morality was greatly defective in the regulating of Domestick Offices and therefore the Rules and Directions given in the Gospel concerning them must highly advance it in the esteem and judgment of all considering persons 6 Private Christians should order the whole course of their lives and conversations so as it becometh the Gospel of Christ Phil. i. 27. that thereby they may adorn the Doctrine of God and our Saviour in all things Tit. ii 10. when men see such glorious rays of Holiness sparkling and shining in the whole tenour of a Christian's conversation they must needs be convinced That the Gospel doth furnish them with those Principles of Light and Grace that infinitely transcend those obscure and broken notices of Good and Evil that are found in Lapsed but Unrenewed Nature These Instances among several others that might be mentioned may direct private Christians How they may be helpful to promote the Entertainment of the Gospel Which was the Enquiry at first propounded to be answered Application And now After that all this hath been spoken It is likely That some Private Christians who mean well may think this whole Discourse very remote from their concernments and that it tends but little to their Edification and thereupon infer That the Subject was ill chosen and that something more profitable might have been pitcht upon But I would entreat those who have entertained any such prejudices before they pass their censure maturely to consider what it is that hath been insisted upon and then I hope that they who are sincerely Godly and Prudent will not think themselves unconcerned in that which so nearly relates to the Glory of God the Sanctifying of his Name and the enlargement and Prosperity of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ Such prejudices being removed There are two things that I would earnestly recommend to godly private Christians 1. Charge your Consciences with this as a necessary excellent honourable and comfortable Duty That ye stand obliged in all ways prescribed by God according to your circumstances to be helpful toward the promoting of the entertainment of the Gospel Look upon your former failings as sinful and to be repented of and for the future apply your selves more vigorously and chearfully to this blessed work To move and encourage you hereunto 1. Excite your Faith to receive and reallize those many glorious Promises which are made to Christ as Mediator touching the Establishment and Enlargement of his Kingdom in the world as Psal ii 8. Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession with abundance more of the same import 2. Consider that the Preaching of the Gospel is the ordinary means whereby subjects are gained to Christ
Jesus You are espoused to Him and should you not consent to be like to him who has betrothed you unto himself in Loving-kindness Mercy and Faithfulness for ever Hos 2.19 20. Nay you are members of his body Therefore you should grow up into Him in all things which is the Head even Christ Eph. 4.15 You should discover such a mind as Christ had you should manifest the same Spirit and act as he acted when he was here in the World 3. Consider that God did fore-ordain you that are Believers to a conformity to the Lord Jesus Rom. 8.29 For whom he did fore-know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many Brethren If you would appear with Christ in Glory you must be now changed into his Image Holiness and patient suffering will make you like him and is the decreed way unto his Kingdom 4. Walking as Christ walked will make it evident that you are indeed in him 1 Joh. 2.6 He that saith he abideth in him ought to prove what he saith and himself so to walk even as he walked To be in Christ is to be a new creature And these new Creatures do all resemble him for he is formed in them Naming the name of Christ will never demonstrate your Christianity unless you depart from iniquity which makes you so unlike unto your Lord. But likeness to him will prove you His in Truth And an evidence of this what strong consolation will it afford If you are in Christ how safe are you you are secured from the curse of the Law the stroke of vindictive Justice the wrath of the Destroyer the bondage of Corruption and Sin the sting of the first Death and the power of the second If you are in Christ His God is your God his Father your Father Joh. 20.17 You are loved as He is loved Joh. 17.23 That the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me And v. 26. That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them You are joint-heirs with Christ unto the same incorruptible inheritance how firm and sure is your title how certain and soon will be your possession and after possession is taken you shall not be dispossess'd unto Eternity 5. Your following the Example of Christ very much honours Him and credits Christianity 't is a sign that Christs death has a mighty vertue in it when it makes you to die to Sin and to be unmoved by the biggest offers that Mammon makes to you 'T is an argument that He is truly Christ when you are truly Christians that He is indeed alive when he lives in you and makes you to live to him and like him 'T is a demonstration that our Lord is risen indeed when you rise with him and seek those things that are above Col. 3.1 Christ is very much unknown and being unknown is undesired and neglected because so little of him is seen in Christians conversation How few deserve digito monstrari to be pointed at and to have such a Character given them There go the persons who discover such a Spirit who talk and walk too after such a manner that 't is evident Christ dwells and speaks and walks and works in them Be all of you prevailed with to honour your Lord Jesus by shewing the world what he was when here upon Earth and how powerfully he works in you though now he is in Heaven Chrysostom with great reason does call good works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unanswerable Syllogisms and demonstrations to confute and convince Infidels The World would flock into the Church being struck with the Majesty and Glory shining forth in Her if She were but more like unto her glorious Head But when they who are called Christians are so like unto the World 't is no wonder if the men of the World continue still as they are 6. Christ frequently speaks to you to follow him and observes whether and how you do it His word is plain that you should learn his Doctrine and live after his example And his eyes which are as a flaming fire are upon Professours ways His Omniscience should be more firmly believed and seriously considered by the Church it self Rev. 2.23 All the Churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the Reins and Hearts and I will give to every one of you according to your works I shall here by a Prosopopeia bring in our Lord Jesus speaking to you and himself propounding his own Example that you may hear and heed and follow the Lamb of God To this effect Christ speaks to you Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the Earth Look unto me and become like me all you that profess your selves to be my Members What Do you see in me that in any reason should turn away your faces or your hearts from me Blessed is He whosoever shall not be offended in Me. The Father is well pleased in Me and so should you as you value his favour and would consult your own interest I never took so much as one step in the ways of misery and destruction be you sure to avoid them I always trod in those paths which to you will prove pleasantness and peace though to satisfy for your deviations and going astray I was fain my self to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Consider your Lord and Master you that call your selves my disciples Many look upon you that will not look into my word and will judge of Me by your practices Be not so injurious to Me by misrepresenting Me as if I allowed those evils which you allow your selves in Why should I be wounded in my honour in the house of my Friends Why should you crucify me afresh And put me to an open shame When you yield to Satans temptations are you like to me When you are eager after worldly wealth the applause of men and flesh-pleasing delights are you like to me When you are proud and haughty bitter envious and revengeful do you at all resemble Me When you seek your selves and please your selves and matter not how much God is forgotten and displeased Am I in this your example O all you upon whom my name is called content not your selves with an empty name Be my disciples in truth and let the same mind that was in me be in you also be my disciples indeed live as I did in the World to honour God and to do good to man let it be your business for I have left you an example that you should follow my steps 7. Follow Christs Example that you may enter into his glory For if we be dead with him says the Apostle we shall live with him if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2.11 12. Be of good courage and conflict but do it in his Strength with your Spiritual enemies and
prophaneness they will pull down upon their own heads the guilt of all that prophaneness which is committed And this I dare say there is no man that liveth in the World no not the best and most holy but he hath sins enough of his own too too many more than he is able to bear or to answer for His own follies and miscarriages if bound upon him will be found sufficient to break his back and sink him into the bottomless pit of misery So David tells us and he spake no more than what his own sense and feeling did suggest and dictate to him Psal 38.4 Mine iniquities are gone over my head as a burthen they i. e. His own iniquities his own head heart and life sins are too heavy for me And as it was with him so it is with every one and therefore no man hath need to add to the load by heaping upon himself the guilt of other mens sins too Though it must be confest that notwithstanding all which the wisest and most circumspect person can do notwithstanding all the care he can take he will hardly be found altogether innocent as to this Holy Austin one of the best of the Fathers saw sufficient yea abundant reason for the putting up this humble Petition Lord deliver me from my other mens sins and it may be feared that no small number of great men who have been yea and are in place of power and authority will when the all-seeing God comes to search them be found deeply culpable and dreadfully chargeable upon this account and therâ—fore others that do at this day possess the same or like places are very nearly concerned to look to themselves Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Happy the man whom other mens sins and dangers falls and hurts make to beware That hath gone for currant as a certain truth qui non prohibet cum potest jubet He that doth not forbid and prevent the commission of sin when it is in the power of his hand to do it doth interpretativè Command the doing of it He allows it who winks at it he doth encourage it who stops it not He doth so in the account of God who is a righteous Judge He had as good command it as stand by and see it done and say nothing And if men will in this or any other way contract guilt they may expect to tast the bitter Effects of it If Rulers will spare offenders let not them think that God will spare them Ahab in a foolish kindness and pity let Benhadad go whom God had appointed to utter destruction Now observe what a thundering Message the Prophet brought him thereupon 1 Kings 20.42 Thy life shall go for his life and thy people for his people So that this kindness of Ahab to Benhadad was desperate cruelty to himself and Israel And the case of Eli is very pertinent to this purpose and most worthy of observation He was not only Priest but Judge armed with both Parental and Magistratical power His Sons did not write after that Copy which he had set them but were Sons of Belial wicked and prophane to a Prodigy for they Sacrilegiously robbed God and filthily abused the women that were assembled at the door of the Tabernacle and by these means made the offering of the Lord to stink turn'd it to an abomination For this Eli their Father reproved them but it was with very soft and silken words Why do ye such things For I hear of your evil doings by all this people nay my Sons for it is no good report that I hear ye make the Lords people to transgress And here was all he did but Oh how angry was God hereupon It made his fury come up into his face Though Eli was a good man a Priest one that God had caused to draw near to him though he had reproved his Sons and given them good advice yet this was not enough it would not serve his turn God was greatly provoked because he did proceed no further and see how dreadfully he threatned him 1 Sam. 2.31 c. I will cut off thine arm and the arm of thy Fathers house that there shall not be an old man in it thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation the man of thine that I shall not cut off from my altar shall be to consume thine eyes and to grieve thine heart And the dream is doubled the resolution of God is fixed this one threatning that carrieth sorrow and anguish enough in the bowels of it is followed with another 1 Samuel 3.11 I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle I will perform against Eli all that I have sworn concerning his house when I begin I will also make an end God would go thorow with the work and not only be diligent in the beginning of it but likewise constant in the performance and compleat in the finishing of it For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever Such a punishment shall be inflicted such a burden laid upon him as shall never be taken off for the iniquity which he knoweth because his Sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not Set a mark upon these last words in which indeed the accent and emphasis lies there was the provocation that was it that exposed him to the divine displeasure and brought him under so severe a judgment His Sons made themselves vile they defiled debased and dishonoured themselves by their sins and abominable practices they had render'd themselves odious and loathsom in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the people Eli was not ignorant of this but was told of it it raised a great cry many complaints thereof were brought to him but he RESTRAINED THEM NOT. He did not curb them He was too mild and tender and gentle he carried the matter as one that was not zealous for his God but afraid to offend them and unwilling to grieve them He did not affright and ferret them out of their prophaneness they still continued what they were and held on their former course and yet he did not draw the Sword of justice he did not inflict upon them grievous punishments though they persever'd in the Commission of grievous sins he forgot to act up to the Authority of a Father an High-Priest a Judge and therefore God will severely punish him Eli's Sons run deep in Score and because he thus let them alone God would make Eli himself to pay the reckoning Consider of this and tremble you indulgent fond Parents that hear and see your Childrens Lying Swearing Looseness and Debaucheries but let them alone you timorous Slothful Magistrates that will not make prophane persons smart know and be assured that your selves shall You let them go but Vengeance will hold you But I proceed for though Rulers own concerns should awaken and rouze them up yet that is not all therefore Sixthly
Hell unspeakable Glory and Happiness for them that obey the Gospel and conform themselves to the Law and Rule of the new Creature an everlasting shame contempt and torment for those that are workers of iniquity Know such a life hath admirable delights to sweeten it in the way and inconceivable rewards to Crown it in the end I earnestly beseech you to propound such serious and weighty Questions as these to your selves when you do either feel the stirrings and motions of Sin or are assaulted by temptations to it from without Doth such an action become me whether will it contribute to or detract from my honour interest or comfort Is a life of Debauchery and Prophaness worthy of a man that hath an immortal Soul and do expect when I die and leave this World to launch into the Ocean of Eternity would I have my Lord when he cometh find me so doing Is not this that I am now inticed and inclined to contrary to the Law and end of my Creation to the Gospel-Law and to the dictates of right reason will this be for my advantage either now or hereafter if this be the Seed I sow what will be the Harvest that I shall reap will Sin ever pay me for the cost I am at upon it and for the pains that I take about it the Scripture tells us the wages it gives its Servants are Death and what Wise Man will do hard Work for no better Wages Suppose that it doth afford present pleasure that tickles a vain carnal mind will that pleasure last Is there not a Sting to follow that honey will it not be bitterness in the latter end Certainly it will issue in shame and sorrow And who will choose to walk in that way though it be a Carpet one that will go down to and lodge the Traveller at last in the Chambers of Death and the Bed of Flames As for those of you who have hitherto been vain and loose and wicked and God knows there are too many of you do not stop your Ears to the Voice of the Charmers do not oh do not hate to be reformed It is better for you to break off your Sins by a timely and speedy repentance than to go on because none of you can tell but the very next step that you take you may tumble into Hell since every step in Sins way takes hold of it What Daniel therefore said to that proud and haughty Monarch Nebuchadnezzar Daniel 4.27 I will say to you Let my counsel be acceptable to you break off your sins by righteousness and your iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthening of your tranquilliâ—y or as you have it in the Margin of your Bibles an healing of your errour If every one would mend one how soon should we see a lovely face and excellent beauty upon the whole nay if the generality or major part of the Inhabitants of England and London would be prevailed with to come over to a Sober and Religious Life if Princes Nobles and Gentlemen will be exemplary therein Sin and Debauchery would learn to abate something of its Impudence and grow more modest than it is In stead of walking up and down with a brazen face at Noon-day in our Streets as it hath done it would seek Corners and hide it self under the covert of darkness as in the Apâ—stles times when they that were drunk were drunk in the night 1 Thess 5.7 Now that I might promote in all Persons according to their several Spheres and Capacities a consciencious care and endeavour to suppress Prophaneness I shall close this Discourse with these few following Directions First Pray for some of Christ's Eye salve that your Eyes being thereby open'd you may see the ugliness and deformity of Prophaneness Do not give credit to that report which Sin makes of it self no nor to theirs neither who are its sworn Slaves and Vassals For what true Information can you expect to receive from them who are under the power of strong delusions who are self-deceived and have their minds blinded by the God of this World and run away with a lye in their right hand But do you sit down and take the Word of God for your guide and counsellor and from thence your measures and seriously consider what beauty can there be in that which hath defaced the whole creation that was at first a most exquisite and curious piece and every thing in it very good What excellency can there be after the most diligent enquiry found in that which is in itself contrary to the best and Supream good and makes every thing else so that is so What desirableness can there be in that from whence have come all those stings with which man is tormented and all the poisons by which he is indanger'd Oh! That you could look upon it with such an eye as the infinitely wise and holy God doth and then I am sure you would see it to be out of measure sinful and so hate it with a perfect hatred and flee from it more than from the Devil for it made him what he is and is worse than He who had it not been for sin would still have continued a glorious Angel Oh that you would take a view of it as it is represented to you in the Glass of Scripture precepts which do expresly forbid it and in the glass of Scripture-threatnings which are most dreadfully thundered out against it and in the Glass of those many tremendous and amazing Judgments which have been executed up and down in the world by which God hath reveal'd his wrath from Heaven against all the ungodliness unrighteousness and wickedness of men sparing neither People nor Princes but hanging up some of both sorts as it were in Chains that they might be for the admonition and warning of them that do survive Once more look upon it in the Glass of our Saviours blood which had never been shed no not a drop of it had it not been for sin but that caused the shedding of it all even his Heart Life Blood And it was absolutely necessary according to the divine determination in order to mans Salvation that it should be so for without the shedding of bloud there would have been no remission Heb. 9.22 Had not the blood of Jesus God-man been shed and made Satisfaction as a propitiatory Sacrifice to Divine justice infinitely provoked by the Sin of man the offence and displeasure caused by sin would have to all everlasting remained without any hope or as far as we know any possibility of a Reconciliation The least sin is such an anomy or transgression of the divine Law such an affront to the Divine Majesty gives such a blow at the Soveraignty and Government of God and carrieth in it so much of malignity and provocation that there needs no more than it to sink the guilty person into the bottomless pit of endless misery I leave it then to you to consider
Zimri and Cosbi God himself took notice of it and imputed it to his zeal and was highly pleased with it and mention'd it twice Numb 25.11 He was zealous for my sake among them And again v. 13. He was zealous for his God His heart did burn within him he was all in a flame and could not with any patience endure to see his God so unworthily dealt with and dishonoured While I am writing of this I am informed of that excellent precept against the prophaning of the Lords day sent out by the Right Honourable Sir Thomas Pilkington our present Lord Mayor which being of a more than ordinary strain I look not upon as a matter of custom but an effect of his zeal and let it be for his honour to succeeding generations and an embalming of his name and let God himself remember it for good to him both in time and to eternity One thing more Lastly Frequently seriously call to mind that account which you are at the last and great day to give of your selves and your power and all your actions to a better greater and higher than any of you even to God himself He will for certain he will call you all to a strict account therefore awe and quicken your Souls with the thoughts of it It is but a little very little time that the youngest and strongest of you have to spend in the World Death will certainly come and summon you hence And when it comes it will not stay for you till you have mended faults and supplied defects possibly it will not allow you time enough to say Lord have mercy upon me And then your places will know you no more and your power will know you no more and your comforts and enjoyments will know you no more You that now sit upon thrones and in Parliament-houses and Courts of Judicature must then stand before the divine Tribunal upon an equal level with the meanest of the people everyone of you give an account of himself to God of his trust power how he did carry himself and manage and improve his power And therefore if you have any kindness for your selves make it appear by your care so to live now so to act and rule as that you may give up a good account with boldness and comfort and hear the Judge say Well done good and faithful Servants you have been faithful in your little you have done your duty and fill'd up your places now enter into the joy of your Lord. I shall conclude this Sermon with that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.10 11. We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or evil knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men so to live in the World so to order their Conversations so to trade with those talents of interest and estates of parts and power for the present that then they may be found faultless and presented with exceeding joy Quest. How may we enquire after News not as Athenians but as Christians for the better management of our Prayers and Praises for the Church of God SERMON XVI ACTS 17.21 For all the Athenians and strangers that were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing IN the Text chosen for me to speak of and for you to hear I do observe and would have you also consider we meet with a Concourse of people who pretended to be the Virtuosi of that Age and for ought I do discern may as well deserve the Character as they do in our Age who spend their time in enquiring into useless Novelties If our Learned Men equal the Learning of these Athenians If Students from Foreign parts flock to us to perfect their course of Studies as to Athens If Merchants in equal Numbers but with unequal Riches attend the Custom-houses and fill the Exchanges with us as with them If there were some Travellers who came onely to see and talk who were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strangers there If each sort had business of greater Importance to mind than to spend their time in hearing what others could tell or telling what others would be pleas'd with hearing which was the Folly and Distemper of those Athenians and Strangers the same is the Epidemical Folly and Disease of our Age and of all sorts of the Beaux-Esprits refineder Spirits with us The Cure of this Disease is the design of this Discourse in this Case How may we Enquire after News not as Athenians but as Christians for the better management of our Prayers and Praises for the Church of God He that Enquires to satisfie his Curiosity or his sinful Prejudices or malicious Wishes and to boast and triumph in the Sorrows of the Church of God and He that Enquires not at all nor concerneth himself with these Works of God do both highly offend The one rejoyce in the Destruction of Sion as 't is Obad. 12. v. The other is at Ease in Sion Amos 6.1 and are not grieved at the Affliction of Joseph Amos 6.6 and each do provoke the displeasure of the Lord against themselves Amos pronounceth a Wo against the one Chap. 6.1 and an utter Extirpation is threatned against the other Obad. 18. v. Such careless ones as neither fear the Evil nor hope for the Good of Sion neither pray for its Deliverance nor do praise God for his Salvation to Sion greatly Sin and are likely to be deeply Punished Isa 32.9 10 11 12. That we may Escape both the Case warns us Not to Enquire Athenian-like but to Enquire as becomes Christians and suitably Pray for a Distressed or Praise God for a Delivered Church In stating this unusual Case it will I think be best to draw it out into some previous Propositions which shall make way for the clearer Resolution of it 1. The Casuist doth grant that in some Cases we may Enquire what is the News that is abroad Whosoever asketh Direction how to do an Action is first perswaded of the lawfulness of the thing he would do How shall I come before God implieth that I may yea ought to come before him Mich. 7.6 So here the Casuist is of opinion we may Enquire but is solicitous lest you should with the most enquire amiss and therefore would direct you the best way of doing what is lawful to be done If there were a doubt the Case should be first May it be done not How is it to be done 2. News which spreads abroad in the World is of very different Nature 1. Some Trifling Reports below the gravity and prudence of a Man to receive from a Reporter or to communicate to any Hearer 2. Others of a very particular private personal Concern and among such as are of mean and abject state which as they rise among them so 't is fit they should die
or less angry with Men holds up Satan in a longer or shorter Chain Being less Angry with you Young People he suffers him not to fall upon you with such strength of Fraud or Force as upon Old Transgressors So much reach at you God doth allow him as maketh needful your Watching and Prayer and Wariness of his Devices But God allows him so very much less at you than at others that he may be repelled more easily by you than others And you have less reason to doubt of Victory when you fight against him than others have And may be certain that if you abide Unconvert in your sins and go on to incense God more against you you shall then have a much more powerful Enemy of him than now you have Now Would any General of an Army delay to Fight with his Enemy till he himself were Weaker and his Enemies stronger O do not any of you say practically I will not yet fight for my Translation out of the Kingdom of Darkness I will have the Prince of Darkness get an Hundred times more forces against me and more advantagious ground before I will encounter him How kind to Satan are Delaying Children C. 3. Your Hearts which are your Rulers under God be not yet so bad within you as Old Peoples be and as they will themselves be sure to be if you now Convert not Your Hearts the Lord shew it you are they that do most under God for your Conquering or your being Conquered by Sin Death and Hell These Hearts of yours be blind and foolish proud and perverse enough they be sufficiently Unteachable Untractable Unfaithful The Lord humble you deeply in the deepest sense of it But still they be not near so bad as Old Sinners Hearts be Believe it there is a sense in which Nicodemus his words be smart How can a Man be born when he is Old God has in his Offence departed farther from Old Men than you Satan in his long stay in them has hammered them into a greater hardness than he has yet brought you into Actual Sins have put more strength into their Habitual than into Yours And they have more Milstones about the neck of their Souls than yet are about yours Insomuch that you have as much the better of them as those who have in War a less unqualified Commanded have of them whose Leader is most blind most Lame and most Lunatick it self Your Work is more easie and your Encouragement to expect Victory is more ample than Old Sinners And both such as they will not continue unto you unless you now Convert unto God Which if you do not you do like Soldiers that should say We will have no Battel with our Enemy as yet The Leader whose Conduct and Action are our Life or Death will shortly be Stone-blind and under the Dead Palsie And we will stay till he be so before we employ him O plotted Self-Destruction O Chosen Ruine If this Consideration go for nothing with you ye are Blind against Sun-shine and Deaf unto Thunder C. 4. Your Bodies the Instruments of your Souls Action be not yet so sorry as Old Peoples be and as yours will be most certainly if you Convert not presently Sirs An Unsanctified Body is a Souls Unknown Enemy A Trojan Horse a Pandora's Box a Forge of Mischiefs Your Young ones are such that almost proverbially the Blood of Youth is Satan's Tinder and Match 'T is seen you have warm Bosom for all Snakes Legions of Devils are a less formidable Army than your own five Senses unhallowed Beware of the Flesh But withal know ye an Unruly Horse is more desirable than a Dead one He may be Bridled and made serviceable 'T is better with you than Old Folk if you will but well use that whereof they want the use Health and Strength in general reading Eyes and hearing Ears and walking Feet in particular Old Age is it self say some a Disease a very Hospital of all Many are deprived of the means of Grace by Blindness and Deafness Most do use them with much pain and great disadvantage None have so few Clogs about them as you So that great is your advantage for working out your Salvation Your Labour is less to read or hear an Hundred Sermons than theirs to hear or read one And to go Twenty Miles for Advice than theirs to go Twenty Steps Being that Sin and so Death came in at the Eye and Ear and it is God's Will to drive them out at the same and to transmit the Wisdom that saves our Souls through those Bodily Senses these are not inconsiderable things O that you had heard but what I have done of poor Old Creatures Outcryes Cursing the Courses and Companies that devoured their strength Wailing with sighs and tears their disability to Read difficulty of hearing and utterly lost faculty of Remembring The Memory ought to cut my Heart may the Notice sway yours If you will yet put off your Conversion this is the Language which that Delay utters I have a work given me to do that is for my Life Eternal I have yet Eyes and Ears and Hands and Feet I have Ease and Strength But these all have Wings and will shortly fly and be gone as others be When gone I cannot work or if I do it must be in the Fire as it were Nevertheless I will not set to my Work till my Sun and Moon and Stars be darkned I will not stir one Foot for Heaven till my other Foot is in the Grave If my Peace be ever made with God it shall be even at the Graves brink When I am just come to the Mouth of Hell and can scarce open my own Mouth to deprecate it I will bestow a wish for Heaven if that may possess me of it Sensless Creature that wantest nothing of a Bruit but Hair and two Feet more C. 5. The World another back friend of yours hath not yet lain so many Loads on your backs as upon Old Peoples and as it will lay on yours if you live longer and live under its Power and Vnsubjected and Vnconvert unto God This I speak to you especially of the Younger sort Children and next to Children I hope you have heard what an Enemy the World and the things of it do make to Conversion and Sanctification Read the Texts in the Margent Read Ecclesiastes 1 Jo. 2.15 16. Jam. 4.4 Matth. 6.24 a whole Book of Sacred Scripture took up in warning us against this said Enemy More or less Woe is to every Dweller in it because of the Avocations the Distractions and Interruptions of this Old Adam's World But here also you have the better ordinarily of Old People For themselves or their more Beloved Selfs their Children they are swallowed up of Designs Bargains c. Gains and Losses make their Souls a Sea of tempestuous Cares knowing little calm or quietness You are yet free comparatively and Unladen You may Contemplate and Act for next World without the
weights of this depressing you And go to Jesus Christ without Farms and Oxen and Wives haling you back Haling you as they do hale away multitudes before your Eyes and as they will ere long be haling your selves If now ye will not come unto him that ye may have Life if you will not now begin running your Race toward the Redeemer what do you do Truly just as a Man that is to run for his Life but cannot be perswaded to stir a foot till he has gotten many more Sheets of Lead upon his back and many more Fetters upon his feet Rise Sinner rise If not these Words shall be thy Souls Eternal Loads R. 6. The Providence of God lendeth you more Physicians and kinder ones than it doth lend Old Diseased Sinners and then it will lend you if you live much longer Especially if you live Vnconvert True it is Gods Love and Mercy unto all is wonderful God sends abundance of Helpers unto all poor sinful Creatures Every Baptized Professor is obliged to be his Brothers Keeper All Believers are bound to be Charitative Ministers unto each other Ministers of Reproof Counsel Comfort In Christ's Body no Member should be all for himself or for less than the good of all But a double Portion of Spiritual help is ordinarily vouchsafed unto you Young People Of Soul-Physicians you have more than two for Old Peoples one They have Ministers so have you or may have if you please They have Religious Friends so have you I hope But then you have Parents which they have not You have Masters and Tutors which they have not And be it considered the Aged People have few or none that will deal so boldly with them as almost all deal with you Ministers and Friends do mostly either fear to offend or despair and think impossible to benefit old Sinners with any Counsels They think it the same thing to give Advice to an Old Body and Physick to a dead one And if they give any 't is as cold as Elie's rebukes But both come more couragiously upon you They less fear your Displeasure and more hope your Reformation And therefore with more frequency and acrimonie deal with you Besides your Parents Love and your Masters and Tutors Interest and the Comfort and Credit of both do engage them to follow you close And to do more than Ministers and Friends are ordinarily capable of doing for the Conversion of your Souls Upon all hands 't is best with you You have the help of most Physicians in number and of all the number you have most of their help Incomparably more than Old Folk have and then you must look to have in your evil days approaching But you will still delay will you not I doubt many will And will as 't were in so many words shew us this is their mind Sick they think themselves Sinners they confess it they are A store of Spiritual Physicians now they have they own it But of these Physicians and Helpers some will by and by die others decay and none be so helpful hereafter as now Nevertheless Live Soul or Dye they will not till hereafter engage in any serious care of their Spiritual Cure and Recovery They will stay till they have Helpers fewer in Number more Chill in their Affection and Care and less capable of taking pains for their Salvation Sad Infatuation A wondrous Will to get out of Probability unto bare Possibility of Life if so much C. 7. You have special Encouragements to Convert now from all general Observation and Experience such as Old People are past and you will e're long be past I must remember my bounds and therefore will name but three One would think they should be enough to move any thing not twice dead And to pull out your Folly unless it be extraordinarily bound up in you Young People 1. God Regenerates the most of his chosen in Early Years If that Early Risers were mostly the Men that grew Rich and lived long in the World who of you would not leave lying late in Bed Truly They that rise in the Morning of their Days and turn unto God be mostly the Men that ever overcome the Devil They that continue in the Bed of their security late are in danger of having their Bed in Hell for ever A Young Saint and an Old Devil is a Proverb which was certainly hatched in Hell God and Men break Colts when they are Young 2. God doth Regenerate most easily those Souls whom he turneth early Know it Sirs Pain is necessary thank Sin for it Had not Sin entred never had we known Pain Grief Fear or Shame But now there is a very natural necessity for it Sin is a painful grievous fearful shameful thing Nor can I see how the Honour of God's Justice could possibly have excused Repentance Spiritually as well as Naturally we are born in Sorrow Both sorts of Children cry before they laugh All New Creatures be first Mourners But all are not in the same degree so Nor are all equally long sowing in Tears before they do reap in Joy Some Sinners are Launced more deeply than others and God keeps open the Wounds of some of his Children longer than others as he pleaseth But ordinarily we see young Timothies be not struck down like Sauls Or if they be they be not kept so many days in frightful darkness And is this a small thing Think of it and say If my Body had a Sore of easie and speedy cure if the Chirurgeon were applyed quickly unto I should not suffer a little matter to hold me from him My Soul and Body is all Spiritual Wounds God alone can heal them Those he doth heal easiest and soonest they be of first Comers most commonly Tardie and late Comers are healed rarely and so as by Fire when they be What should ail me Why should I not presently arise and go to my Father Why should I buy dearly God's hardest blows 3. God doth honour Singularly and Reward with Grace extraordinary his Early Converts If any they be those that have two Heavens Great Service and Sweet Assurance on Earth and greater degrees of Glory also than others above Most Divines think so Late Converts too much imitate the Indians that eat the Hony themselves and offer but the Wax unto their Deities They give God but the Bran of their Life when Satan has had the Flower as some have exprest themselves None so much honour God and none are so honoured by him as those who give Honour to him and accept it from him in your early days Infer you then my Young Folk You must Convert presently or delay with Loss Even with certain danger of Hell and certain loss of much of Heaven And may I not now suppose the Objections of your minds against my Doctrine in good measure removed O that the Oppositions of your Wills were but as much overpowred I conclude that your own Hearts do tell you by this time unless they be