in any condition or rank of men more than in any other Now being God so plainly threatens death eternal unto the impeitent and disobedient can there be any so great an errour as for these men to presume of pardon and to expect eternal life while they continue so to be The Gospel denounces death upon them they promise life unto themselves and is not then this promise of theirs expresly contrary to the Gospel The Gospel tells them that they must die they say no but we shall live and do they not contradict the Gospel The Gospel saith that they are under Gods displeasure but they presume they are in his favour and where do you think lies the truth in the Gospel or in their presumptions We must believe what the Gospel saith whatsoever it be that they presume and so the Apostle himself believed when he put this truth upon record 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad for what doth he add to these words Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men we labour to instruct the ignorant we labour to convince the obstinate we labour to awake the drowsy we strive to stir up every person to escape from the wrath which is to come by timely repentance and reformation we know the terrour of the Lord we do not guess but we are assured that it will overtake the impenitent when he shall return to judge the World and therefore use our utmost power to perswade repentance and reformation 5. And now because that impenitent persons even those that abide in wilful sin are wont to ground their hopes of pardon and life eternal on the death of Christ and the satisfaction made by him it will he sit in the last place to shew that his death and satisfaction is so far from giving any countenance to this errour that it doth utterly overthrow it nor need we any further argument to convince and perswade us that this is so than that the death of our blessed Lord is always used in the holy Scripture as a mighty motive to obedience For certainly that very same thing can be no motive unto obedience that gives any just and true encouragement for a man to continue in his sins yet so it is the death of Christ is always represented in Scripture as a mighty motive to obedience unto all obedience to the Gospel and so designed by Christ himself He gave himself for us says the Apostle that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 He bare our sins in his own body upon the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness 1 Pet. 2.24 He gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world that is from the lusts and corruptions of it Gal. 1.4 He gave himself for his Church or Body that he might sanctifie and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Eph. 5.25 c. And that you may see that he was really understood to design this in his dying for us and that his death tends effectually to this purpose with them that understand it aright hear what the Apostle himself speaks upon this point 2 Cor. 5.14 15. The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again From whence observe that the death of Christ was so apprehended and understood by the primitive followers of our Lord that they took their very greatest motives their strongest arguments to obedience from it so far was it from giving them any grounds or reasons to cherish and indulge their sins If any man ask what then hath the death of Christ done for the remission of our sins My answer is that the satisfaction thereby made hath gained the pardon of all those sins we repent of not of those whereof we do not repent It operates to the remission of sin of all degrees and kinds of sin when we abandon and forsake them not while we cherish and indulge them and thus it becomes not an encouragement to live in them but to abandon and cast them off 3. Having thus shewed that for God to accept men in their sins to pardon them while they live in them is flatly contrary to his nature contrary to his own decree declared and published in the Gospel I may now very justly conclude the thing which I propounded at the first that a presumption of his pardon while a man continues in his sins is a very great and dangerous errour for so of necessity must that be which is so manifest a mistake both of the nature and will of God and that in a matter of no less moment than that of eternal life and happiness Add hereunto that this is an errour which makes men stupid and secure in the midst of the very greatest dangers lulls them asleep under Gods displeasures charms them with the hope of peace while it is far removed from them They speak peace unto themselves the Gospel speaks quite contrary they judge themselves in Gods favour the Gospel pronounces that they are not so they promise themselves remission of sins eternal happiness and Salvation the Gospel threatens death and judgment In the mean time having reconciled the hopes of Heaven to the fruition of their lusts they enjoy themselves they enjoy their sins without any fear of danger from them for such is the nature of this errour that it infatuates the mind it self removes the force and power of Conscience le ts the corruptions of nature loose leaves no restraint leaves no check at all upon them and so exposes them to destruction till it be discovered and removed 3. I have said enough of the propositions which are implyed in the words before us namely 1. that men may presume of Gods favour while they continue in their sins 2 That this presumption of theirs is a very great and dangerous errour and shall now conclude with what is expressed He that doth righteousness is righteous that is to say he that is hearty and sincere in the practice of all the several duties prescribed unto us in the Gospel he is acceptable unto God he is in grace and favour with him nor will God charge him with the guilt of such lapses and inadvertencies as flow from the frailty of humane nature And what is the use we should make of this It is to awake and excite our selves to all diligence to all sincerity in our duties And
not cut off by Gods hand but pardoned upon his deep repentance But this pardon was not the Act of the Law it self but the dispensation of the Law-giver And so indeed were these promises wherein the Prophets proclaimed pardon where the Law expresly death as when they promised remission and pardon to Idolaters themselves if they would repent For such was the rigour of the Law that whensoever it threatned death it did not dispense with the guilty person no not upon repentance it self not upon amendment and reformation This is the meaning of the Apostle when he saith that the Law worketh wrath Rom. 4.15 when he stiled it the ministration of condemnation 2. Cor. 3.9 This is the reason why having opposed it to the Gospel as the letter unto the Spirit he further adds that the letter killeth but that the spirit giveth life vers 6. of the same Chapter this is the reason why Christ is said to have come in the flesh to deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2.15 For as the Law threatned death to very numerous kinds of sin so it admitted no expiation no sacrifice no repentance unto life where it expresly threatned death and here was the rigour of the Law Now the Gospel on the other hand although it threaten Eternal Death to obstinate and impenitent sinners yet it allows and accepts repentance as a condition of remission in all degrees and kinds of sin wherein the Law did not allow it as to the punishment it threatned And this is the thing which S. Paul suggests Act. 13.38 Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man that is through Christ is preached unto you forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all those things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses There were numerous sins from which the Law did not absolve the offending person The Law did never absolve or justifie where a man had wittingly committed a sin to which that Law threatned excision but left him without any promise of pardon to the Soveraignty of the Law-maker Whereas the Gospel in express words admits repentance and reformation as a condition of forgiveness in all those kinds and degrees of sin no sin so hainous in its nature none so aggravated by repetition none so heightned by long continuance whereunto the Gospel doth not expresly promise pardon upon the sinners return to God Here is that grace that pardons the sensual and impure upon their amendment and reformation here is that grace that pardons the violent and injurious upon repentance and restitution Here is that mercy that forgives the impious and profane if peradventure they shall reform and return to God by true repentance A grace so great and undeserved that it is seldom mentioned in Scripture without expressions of admiration A grace so signal and so eminent that when the Apostle had described it in the fifth Chapter to the Romans he found it needful to spend the sixth in caution against the abuse of it Not that the liberty of the Gospel either in this or the former instance is really such in its own nature as that it gives any reasonable grounds for men to indulge themselves in sin but that they being bribed by their own lusts take encouragement to do this where none is given that is to use the Apostles words use the liberty given in the Gospel for an occasion to the flesh 2. And so I pass to the second part the caution which the Apostle gives against the abuse of that liberty which is allowed us in the Gospel Now as this consists in two instances liberty from the numerous Rites and from the rigour of the penal Sanction of Moses his Law so was there something of abuse of both these parts of Christian liberty in the primitive Ages of Christianity 1. For first as to the former instances some there were who being acquainted with their liberty from the Rites and Injunctions of the Law earlier than many others were used the liberty of their consciences to ensnare the consciences of other men scorned and censured them as weak and ignorant and by their censures and examples engaged them in the neglect of some Laws relating to certain days and meats before they understood their liberty or had due time to understand it And this abuse of Christain liberty is censured in S. Pauls writings both to the Romans and Corinthians 2. Others observing that S. Paul denied the necessity nay in some cases forbad the use of the works of the Law that is of the Rites before mentioned in order unto Justification took liberty as S. James suggests Jam. 3 to absolve themselves from the works and graces of the Gospel from justice mercy and humility from love and patience and veracity from the engagements and obligations not only of the Laws of Christ but even of natural Religion it self An errour which to this very day so infects the Divinity of many persons that it is no wonder to see their Followers ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth 2. But to pass on to the second instance The relaxation of that rigour which was in the penal Sanction of the Law seems to have been no less abused than liberty from its numerous Rites For it should seem that some persons observing that the Gospel promised pardon where the Law of Moses had denied it and judging that the grace of God was highly magnified by that pardon took leave to indulge themselves in sin under pretence of magnifying Gods grace Which is the errour St. Paul censures Rom. 6.12 What shall me say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid God offers no pardon but to the penitent the design of his grace in offering pardon to the penitent is to invite men to repentance and therefore to use that grace as an encouragement to impenitence is to use it just against it self contrary to its own design as well as against a mans own advantage How much of this unthankful folly may yet remain in the Christian world I am not able to determine but sure I am that there is something like unto it in very general use amongst us which is the delay of reformation grounded upon the promise of pardon to every man that forsakes his sins although he have long continued in them a great abuse of the grace of God God promises pardon to prevent despair these abuse that promise to presumption God admits repentance after sin to encourage us to forsake our sins these abuse his grace in that instance to encourge them to continue in them which is to contemn the goodness of God and despise the mercy they should adore And so S. Paul himself suggests Rom. 4.4 Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance Add
to add more evil to that heap which is so vastly great already and to encrease a heavy burthen by further accumulations to it Methinks the remembrance of that time which we have mispent to the great offence of Almighty God to no true advantage to our selves should perswade the redemption of time to come by a singular diligence in obedience Sure I am that this is the Argument St Peter uses to this purpose I Pet. 4.3 The time past of our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness lusts excess of wine revellings banquetings and abominable idolatries It is enough and far too much to have spent a day an hour a minute much more a considerable part of life in service and slavery to our lusts Nor should we remember we have so done but with sad thoughts for having done it These thoughts are so proper to the remembrance of such miscarriages that God himself seems to represent them as the natural effects and issues of them For thus he speaks to the people of the Jews Ezek. 36.31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations So black and deformed is that shape wherein men appear unto themselves upon a review of their many sins that then they abhor their own image much more the sins that have deformed them And this is the first of those motives which the thoughts of their ways may suggest to men in order to the reformation of them namely the number of their sins with the many and great aggravations of them Secondly The next to this is the ill effects which those sins have had or yet may have upon them in the very concernments of this world as well as of that which is to come And for the demonstration of the former I might appeal to the crazy Bodies the feeble Limbs the decayed senses of vicious persons occasioned wholly by their vices I might appeal to their broken fortunes pitiful shifts and mean devices to gain the very supports of life which are so evident in experience that Christ himself represents the miseries which sin produces in mens souls by those wherewith it destroys their bodies and their prosperities in this world This he doth in the Parable of a younger Son Luke 15. who having requested of his Father that he would give him the portion of goods that fell to him and being gratified in this request not many days after gathers all he had together and takes a journey into a far Countrey and wasts his substance in riotous living having done this and a mighty Famine arising in the Land he then began to be in want and is presently forced to adjoin himself that is indeed to fell himself unto a Citizen of that Country who sent him into the Fields to feed Swine but it should seem so ill provided that when he would fain have filled his belly with the very husks which the Swine did eat he found not enough of them to do it and so was ready to perish for hunger Observe what a Train of ill effects his pride and vanity drew upon him it made him riotous and luxurious his luxury brought him into want being in want he is constrained to sell his liberty and part with himself to another person Being thus inslaved he is thrust into a base employment and made not only a Keeper of Swine but like to one of the Herd it self being forced to eat as they did and yet still so pinch'd and straiten'd that he found not enough to sill his Belly A very true and lively Image of men abandoned to vice and folly who by indulgence to their lusts lose that very ease and liberty that satisfaction and pleasure of life which they endeavour to find in it But to leave this Parable at the present and to proceed a step further I must not omit to put you in mind of the many remorses and regrets which always attend the first beginnings if not the intire course and progress of Apostasie from the ways of Vertue For God hath been and still is so faithful to us both in the frame of our own natures and the suggestions of his spirit that both these put many checks upon us in our first adventures upon evil and although mens consciences lose their edge and the spirit of God withdraw from them after long continuance in their sins yet is their condition much the worse for these effects though less uneasie at the present For there is no man but thinks it better to be readily capable of a cure although by the very sharpest remedies than to die of a stupid and dull disease Besides it must not be omitted that the ease that 's gain'd by being delivered from the rebukes and reproofs of Conscience is far over-ballanced by a loss which cannot be divided from it namely the loss of the joys of innocence and of the sense of Gods Favour and hope of a blessed immortality which howsoever undervalued where they are not felt nor well considered are styled unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 All this while I have said nothing of that effect of a vicious life which of all others is most dreadful and most certain if not prevented by repentance that is to say eternal death nor shall I venture my mean abilities to represent so great a thing but rather leave it to be considered in its descriptions in the Scriptures and more particularly in that we read Mark 36.37 What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Now since the recollection of our selves and serious reflection upon our ways may first recal our sins to remembrance and then suggest that all the evils before mentioned have been the effects of sin in others and that we our selves have had the experience of some degrees of some of them methinks the very same thoughts that put us in mind of all these things should powerfully move us to retire out of all the ways of sin and vanity and reduce us into the paths of wisdom Sure I am this is no more than what our Saviour himself declares touching the forementioned Prodigal who having by a luxurious life reduced himself to the utmost misery at last returned unto himself and when he was come unto himself brake out into these expressions Luk. 15.17 18 19. How many hired servants of my Fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my Father and will say unto him Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants observe the condition of those persons who surrender themselves unto their lusts and spend their days in vitious courses They are
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