Epist 22. That there are some Qui sic aliorum visiis irascuntur quasi invideant Who are so angry at other Mens Vices as if they they envied them It cannot be hoped that the Reproof of such should ever take place But when a Man of a clear and unspoted Name shall reprove the Sins and Vices of others his Rebukes carry Authority with them and if they cannot reform yet at lest must they needs daunt and silence the Offenders that they shall have nothing to reply no Subterfuges nor Evasions but they must needs be convinced that their Sins are as evil as he represents them by his own Care and Caution to be avoided Fiftly Motives for reproving our Brother The only Thing that remains is to propound to you some Motives that may quicken you to the conscientious discharge of this much neglected Duty And I shall but name some few and leave them to your consideration to be farther prest upon you And here next to the express Command of Almighty God whose Authority alone ought to prevail against all the Difficulties that we either find or fancy in the way of Obedience thereunto Consider Benefit of reproving others First the great benefit that may redound both to the Reprover and Reproved First Thou shalt hereby provide thy self a Friend that may take the same liberty to reprove thee when it shall be needful and for thy great good And it may very well be thought that the Apostle upon this Account requires us to Restore our fallen Brother Gal. 6.1 with meek Reproofs considering our selves lest we also be tempted That is that hereby we may purchase a true Friend who will be as faithful to us as we have been to him However certainly it is the best and most generous way of procuring to our selves true Love and Respect from those whom we have thus reformed Prov. 9.8 So says Solomon Rebuke a wise Man and he will love thee And in another place says he Prov. 28.23 He that Rebuketh a Man afterwards shall find more favour than be that flattereth with his Tongue Secondly Thou wilt hereby intitle thy self to that great and precious Promise Dan. 12.3 Daniel 12. That they that be wise shall shine as the Brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever And to that other of the wise Man Prov. 24.25 To them that rebuke the Wicked shall be Delight and a good Blessing shall come upon them Thirdly Thou shalt increase thy own Graces and Comforts more than possibly thou couldst do by separating thy self from them Thy Graces will be more confirmed because reproving of others will ingage thee to a greater Watchfulness over thy self Thy Comforts also will be increased because a conscientious discharge of this Duty will be to thee a great Evidence of the integrity and sincerity of thy Heart First The practice of this Duty will be greatly profitable unto him that is reproved How knowest thou but it may be a means to turn him from his Iniquity and so thou shalt prevent a Multitude of Sins Jam. 5.20 and save a Soul from Death And hereby likewise we shall frustrate one of the great Designs and Artifices of the Devil which is to allure Men to Sin by the examples of those Wickednesses that pass uncheckt and uncontroul'd in the World Secondly Tit. 3.3 Consider that we our selves also were disobedient and foolish serving divers Lusts and Pleasures but were wrought upon either by publick or private Reproof And why then should not we use the same Charity towards others which God hath been pleased to make effectual towards us Thirdly Consider that the Text makes it an apparent sign of hating our Brother if we forbear justly to reprove him Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy Heart 1 Joh. 3.15 thou shalt in any wise reprove him So that he who reproves not his Brother hates him Now he that hates his Brother is a Murderer says St. John And no Murderer hath Eternal Life Yea we are guilty of Soul-Murder which is so much the more heinous by how much the Soul is more precious than the Body Fourthly Consider that the performance of this Duty were it more universal would be the aptest and readiest means to prevent Schism and Division The grand pretence for Separation is the wickedness of many who are Church-Members Now our Saviour's Method is that such should be first reproved and admonish'd before they be cast out but it is a most preposterous and headlong Course that thousands in our Days take who cast themselves out of the Communion of the Church for the Sins of those who deserve to be cast out and rather than they will perform this ingrateful Work of Reproof choose to separate whereas if they would make use of our Saviour Christ's Advice Mat. 18.15 16. to reprove privately and in case of Obstinacy to convict publickly there would be as no need so no Pretence left for Separation but either their private Reproofs would prevail to reform or their publick Complaints and Accusations to remove Offenders Fifthly Consider that the neglect of this Duty brings the Sin and Guilt of others upon your own Souls See for this that Scripture Ephesians 5.11 Eph. 5.11 Have no Fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness but rather reprove them If we reprove them not we are Partakers of their evil Deeds and deserve to be Partakers of their Torments FINIS The Dreadfulness of God's Wrath against Sinners explained IN SEVERAL SERMONS HEB. 10.30 31. For we know him that hath said Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompence saith the Lord and again the Lord shall judg his People It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God THere are two principal Attributes of God An Introduction which the Scripture propounds to us as the most powerful and efficacious Motives to restrain us from Sin And they are his Mercy and his Justice Mercy tho it be a soft yet is it a strong Argument to encourage us to Purity and Holiness And therefore says the Apostle Rom. 2.4 Rom. 2.4 The Goodness of God leadeth us to Repentance And certainly that Mercy that expresseth it self so ready to pardon Sin cannot but lay a mighty Obligation upon the Ingenuity of a Christian Spirit to abstain from the commission of it He that can encourage himself in Wickedness upon the consideration of the infinite Free-Grace of God doth but spurn those very Bowels that yern towards him and strike at God with his own Golden Scepter yea he tares abroad those Wounds which were at first opened for him and casts the Blood of his Saviour back again in his Face But because Ingenuity is perisht from off the Earth and Men are generally more apt to be wrought upon by Arguments drawn from Fear than Love therefore the Scripture propounds to us the consideration of the dreadful
Secondly Mocking may be taken for slighting and making no account of looking upon things or Persons as trivial and inconsiderable And thus it is used in Job where the Horse is said to mock at fear Job 39.2 when he rusheth into the Battel and is not terrified but rather enraged by all the Horrors of War When the Quiver rattleth against him the glittering Spear and the Shield And so it is said of the Leviathan Job 41.29 Job 41.29 He laugheth at the shaking of the Spear for he esteemeth Iron as Straw and Brass as rotten Wood. Now in either of these two Senses may the Words of the Text be taken when they tell us they are Fools that make a Mock at Sin For Sin may be considered A twofold Consideration of Sin either as committed by others or as committed by our solves and it is egregious Folly to make a Mock of either so as to sport at the one or to slight the other First They are Fools that make a Mock at other Men's Sins so as to turn them into a Matter of Jest and Raillery Secondly They are Fools that make a Mock at their own Sins so as to think the Commission of them a slight and inconsiderable thing I shall very briefly speak of the First and so pass on unto the Second Particular First therefore They are Fools that make a Mock at other Men's Sins They are Fools that make a Mock at other Men's Sins so as to make them a matter of Mirth and Pastime This indeed is Sport for Devils all whose Recreation and Hellish Solace is the Sin and Wickedness of Men. The Damnation of Souls is the Sport of Hell And Thou who canst rejoice in their Joy deservest likewise to howl under their Woes and Torments We justly condemn it as a most barbarous and inhumane Custom amongst the ancient Romans who brought many selected Pairs of miserable Men into their publick Theatres only to delight the Spectators with their Blood and Death But this was an innocent Recreation in comparison of thine who takest pleasure to see thy poor Brother wounding and stabbing yea damning his precious Soul Go laugh at a wrethed Man upon the Rack or upon the Wheel Laugh at the odd distorted Postures of Epilepticks or the Convulse Motions of Dying and Expiring Men Sport thy self with their writh'd Looks and antick Shapes of Misery This is far more civil more humane more pious than to make those Sins thy Mirth which will be thy Brothers Eternal Woe and Anguish What thinkest thou Couldst thou look into Hell that place of Torment Couldst thou see there all the Engines of God's Justice and the Devil's Cruelty set on work in the eternal Torture of those who perhaps once made as light of their own Sins as thou dost of other Men's wouldst thou think this a pleasant Spectacle Wouldst thou sport and divert thy self to see how they wallow in Fire and Brimstone or how they circle and twist themselves in unquenchable Flames Certainly such a Sight as this would affect thee with a cold Horrour and a shivering Dread And how then canst thou sport thy self to see thy Brother damning himself since it would fright thee to see him damned Believe it Sirs The Sins that now abound in the World challenge our Tears and Pity We ought to mourn and repent for those who do not who will not repent for themselves It is a sad and a doleful Sight to see so many every where dishonour God disgrace their Natures and destroy their Souls to see some come reeling home disguis'd in all the brutish Shapes that Drunkenness can put upon them ready to discharge their Vomit in the Face of every one they meet Others frantick with Wrath and Rage like a Company of Mad Men Prov. 26.18 flinging about Fire-brands Arrows and Death To see such woeful Transformations and the dire Effects that Sin and Wickedness have caused in the World certainly he that can entertain himself with Mirth at these things hath not only forsworn his Religion but his Humanity and may with much more Reason make the Miseries of poor distracted People chain'd up in Bedlam to become his Sport and Pastime I know it will be here pretended that surely it can be no such great Crime to explode and hiss Sin off the Stage nay it were a proper Means to keep Men from being generally so wicked could we but make Wickedness more ridiculous in them But alas Vice is now-a-days grown too impudent to be laughed out of Countenance and those Methods of a scurrilous Mockery which some plead for as rendring Vice ridiculous have I doubt only made it the more taking and spreading and encouraged others to be the more openly sinful by teaching them to be the more wittily vile and wicked Few will be deterred from sinning when they think they shall but gratifie others by making Sport for them and stir up not their Indignation and Abhorrence but their Mirth and Laughter 'T is true we read that Elijah mock'd the Idolatrous Worshippers of Baal and his Scoffs and Taunts at them were very biting and sarcastical and cut them much deeper than they are said to cut themselves But this he did in a serious and zealous reproving of their Sins not in a jocular and sportive Merriment There are two things in Sin Impiety and Folly we may lawfully enough scorn the one while we are sure to hate and detest the other And a due Mixture of both these together Scorn and Detestation are very fit to enkindle our Zeal for God and may oftentimes be a requisite Temper for him who is to reprove confident and audacious Sinners But to laugh and sport at others Wickedness and to make the Guilt Shame of others our Mirth and Recreation is both unchristian and inhumane and we may as well laugh at their Damnation as at that which will lead them to it Thus to make a Mock at Sin is to make our very Mocks to be our Sins and argues us not only profane but foolish for this is to laugh and rejoyce at our own Stain and Dishonour and to abuse our own Nature that Nature which is common to us as well as others that Nature which were it not debased with Sin renders us but a little lower than the Angels What a fair and glorious Creature was Man before Sin debased and sullied him A Friend to his God Lord of the Creation made a little lower than the Angels being a-kin to them though of a younger House and meaner Extract adorn'd with all both natural and divine Perfections till Sin despoil'd him of his Excellency and made him who was almost equal to the Angels worse than the very Brutes that perish sottish and miserable And canst thou laugh and sport thy self at that which hath ruin'd and undone thee as well as others Thy Nature is blemish'd and corrupted as much as theirs When we look abroad in the World and observe the abominable Wickednesses
God that when Christ had satisfied his utmost Demands that any of the punishment due to our Sins for which he satisfied should have lain upon him longer for that would have been no other than punishing without an Offence Now nothing is clearer in Scripture than that Death is a punishment inflicted upon us for Sin Rom 6 23. So says the Apostle The Wages of Sin is Death And in another place and 5 1â— By Sin Death entred into the World and Death passed upon all because all have sinned From all which it follows that as Christ taking upon him our Sins became thereby liable to Death so having satisfied for our Sins and thereby freed himself from the Guilt that he lay under by Imputation he was no longer liable unto Death which is one part of the punishment he underwent so that it could not have been agreeable to infinite Justice that Christ should have been holden of Death who by his undergoing of Death hath sustained the whole Load of God's infinite Wrath and Displeasure and fully satisfied for all those Sins that were imputed to him and therefore ought in Justice to be acquitted from all Penalties and consequentially from Death Fourthly Christ could not be holden of Death because of his Mediatorship It was impossible Christ should be holden of Death in respect of his Office of Mediatorship For having as our Mediatour undertaken the desperate Service of bringing sinfull and fallen Man to Life and Happiness he must of necessity not only dye but rise again from the dead without which his Death and whatever else he did or suffered for us would have been of no avail There are two Things requisite before any real or eternal Benefit can become ours First A meritorious purchase procuring the Thing it self for us Secondly An effectual Application of that Benefit to us The Purchase of Mercy was made by the Death of Christ by which a full Price was paid down to the Justice of God But the effectual Application of Mercy is by the Life and Resurrection of Christ Wherefore if Christ had only dyed and not risen again if he had not overcome Death within its own Empire and triumph'd over the Grave in its own Territories it would have been to his Disappointment and not at all to our Salvation The Loss of Christ's Life would not have procured Life for us unless as he laid it down with Freedom so he had again restored it with Power Our hope of Salvation otherwise would have been buried in the same Grave with himself but what he died to procure he lives to confer It was Ignorance of Christ's Resurrection from the Dead Luk. 24.16 19 20 21. that so stagger'd the two Disciples going to Emaus They tell Christ himself a sad Story of one Jesus of Nazareth that was condemned and crucified who while he lived among us by his Word and Works testified himself to be the true Messiah we little thought of his Dying and when he told us of his Death he likewise foretold us of his Resurrection the third Day and behold the third Day is already come and yet is there no Appearance of this Jesus Verily we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel but now our Hopes grow faint and languish in us for certainly there can be no Redemption for Israel by him who cannot redeem himself from Death There was nothing in the World did so much prejudice the Gospel and hinder its taking place in the Hearts of Heathens in the Primitive Times as this of the Cross and Death of Christ for believing that he was lifted up upon the Cross but not believing that he was raised up from the Dead they assented to their Natural Reason which herein taught them that it was Folly to expect Life from him who could not either preserve or restore his own It is true it was Folly thus to hope but that his Life applies what his Death deserv'd and our Salvation begun on the Cross is perfected on the Throne And therefore the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 15.17 our Faith in a crucified Saviour and our Obedience to him is all vain if he had not risen again from the Dead For unless he had risen from the Dead he could not have acquitted us from the Guilt of Sin because he could not have been justified himself We are justified by the Righteousness of Christ as the Apostle speaks in his Epistle to the Romans Rom 4 25 which Righteousness he wrought out for us both by his perfect Obedience to the Law and by his Submission to the Punishment of the Law But yet this Righteousness could not have availed to our Justification had he not after the Fulfilling of it risen again from the Dead because he himself had not been justified much less could we have been justified by one who could not have justified himself And therefore we read 1 Tim. 3.16 Great is the Mystery of Godliness says the Apostle God manifested in the Flesh in his Incarnation justified in the Spirit by his Resurrection seen of Angels in his Ascension Had he not been raised and quickned by the Spirit that is by the glorious Power of his Divine Nature he had not been declared just nor could he have justified us For this Declaration that Christ was just was made upon the Resurrection of his Body from the Dead by which he was set free from all those Penalties due to our Sins that were imputed to him If therefore the Justification and Salvation of Sinners was a Design laid by the infinite Wisdom of God it must needs follow that it was impossible for Christ to be kept under Death because that would have obstructed their Justification and Salvation and so would have brought a Disappointment upon the infinite Wisdom of God which was impossible to be done and therefore consequentially Christ could not be holden of Death The Application of this great Truth shall be briefly in these following Inferences Use I First then If it was impossible for Christ not to have risen from the Dead it is evident then that Christ is the true Messiah For had he been an Impostor or False Prophet it would have been so far from an Impossibility that he should not have been raised that it would have been a very Impossibility for him to have risen again for neither could he have raised himself being a mere Man neither would God have raised him being a mere Impostor and Cheat. When therefore the Jews call'd for a Sign from Christ to prove him to be the true Messiah he gives them the Sign of his Resurrection in Matth. 12.38 39. Master Matth. 12.38 39. say they we would see a Sign from thee He answered and said unto them An evil and adulterous Generation seeketh after a Sign and there shall be no Sign given to it but the Sign of the Prophet Jonas For as Jonas was three Days and three Nights in the Whale's Belly so
therefore a Divine Faith must be an Assent to a Divine Testimony that is to the Word of God contained in the Holy Scriptures But now if this Faith rest only in a bare and naked Assent to the Truth of Divine Revelation it is but Historical and Dogmatical which though it be a Divine Faith in respect of the Objects believed yet is it but Humane and Natural in respect of its Principle and Motives But when this Assent to the Truths of the Scripture is joined with proportionable Affections to those Truths and doth excite us to Actions conformable to the Discoveries of the Divine Will there this Faith is Justifying and Saving And certainly this is not so very distant from Obedience as to be thought hardly reconcileable with it As for Instance A Man may give a bare Assent to this great Gospel-Truth that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners and yet this Faith may not save him because it may be unoperative and pass no farther than the Act of the Understanding This is a dead Faith which can never bring any Man to Heaven yea such a Faith as the very Devils and Damned Jam. 2.19 Spirits in Hell have who believe and tremble Another Man believes the same Truth and assents to the same Proposition but this his Assent influenceth his Affections and governs his Actions in Conformity to the Nature and Consequences of such a Belief And because he is assured that Jesus Christ came into the World to be the Saviour of it therefore he loves him trusts in him relies upon him hopes in his Promises and obeys his Commands And this indeed What Saving Faith is is a true Saving Justifying Faith for Saving Faith is a firm Assent unto the Truths of God revealed in the holy Scriptures working in us proportionable Affections and Actions He who so believes the Glory of Heaven as to have his Endeavours thereby quickned to use his utmost Diligence for the obtaining of it He who so believes the Torments of Hell as thereby to be terrified from doing any thing that might expose him to so great and fearful a Condemnation He who so believes the Attributes of God as thereby to be excited to fear him for his Greatness to love him for his Goodness to imitate him in his Bounty Purity and Holiness He who so believes the All-sufficiency Merits and Mediatory Office of Jesus Christ as thereby to be engaged with all his Soul to love him to trust in him to rely upon him alone for Salvavation and to yield to him all sincere Obedience as the Law requires such an ones Faith is Saving and Justifying So that you see there is no such Discord between Faith and Works as some would imagine for that Faith that saves us must work by Love Gal. 5.6 and those Works which capacitate us for Salvation must be the Obedience of Faith Rom. 16.26 as it is called Rom. 16.26 Use Now What is the End of all this but to press you to true practical Holiness and a strict Obedience to the Commandments of God If I should go from one Person to another and ask you one by one Do you hope to be saved Where is the Man that would not testifie the Confidence of his Hopes by his Disdain at the Question Yea but remember that Salvation is a litigious Claim and you have a powerful Adversary that puts in a strong Plea against you even the Justice of God and his Eternal Wrath and Vengeance whose Title to us were it but better weighed and considered would wofully stagger the Hopes of most Men and make their Faces gather Blackness and smite their Hearts with Amazement and their Knees with Trembling In a Matter of such infinite Importance it highly concerns us to examine our Right and Title and to peruse and try our Evidences lest at the Day of Trial we be cast in our Suit and pay dreadful Damages unto the Justice of God Only those who do God's Commandments have this Right to the Tree of Life Christ hath indeed purchased Salvation for all Heb. 5.19 but he is the Author of Salvation only to those who obey him as the Author to the Hebrews speaks Heb. 2.14 And Without Holiness no Man shall ever see the Lord. The Inheritance is indeed purchased but where are your Evidences of your Heirship Sirs flatter not your selves with any vain Conceits of the Mercy of the Gospel in prejudice to the Authority of the Law The Commandments are the Statute-Law of God's Kingdom the Gospel is his Court of Chancery but neither Justice nor Equity will relieve those who have not done their utmost to observe his Statute-Law and therefore those who indulge themselves in their Sloth and wilful Neglect both of what they ought and might have done do but deceive their Souls with vain Hopes they have no Right to the Eternal Inheritance but their Portion must for ever be with Dogs and Swine without the holy City into which no unclean thing shall ever enter And if any think this Legal Preaching let mine ever be so THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST A SERMON PREACHED ON EASTER-DAY FROM ACTS II. XXIV BY EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-Derry LONDON Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1691. THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST c. ACT. 2.24 Whom God hath raised up having loosed the Pains of Death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it CHristian Religion is founded upon such mysterious and supernatural Truths Introduction and the Principles of it are so paradoxal to the received Opinions of Mankind that the greatest Persecution it ever found in the World was not so much from Fire and Sword Racks and Tortures the evident Cruelties of the first Opposers of it as from the Magisterial Dictates of partial and corrupt Reason The Philosophers whom Tertullian calls the Patrons of Hereticks have established two peremptory Maxims utterly repugnant unto what the Scripture reveals to us both concerning our Happiness Comfort The one is Ex nihilo nihil habetur Out of nothing nothing can be made directly levell'd against the Creation of the World And the other is A privatione ad habitum non datur Regressus There is no Restoration of the same Being after a total Corruption and Dissolution of it which still continues a great Prejudice against the Resurrection of our Bodies which the Oracles of Reason have so much troubled the World with that whatsoever seem'd in the least contradictory to it they judged contradictory to common Sense and exploded it as ridiculous and impossible Under these great Disadvantages the Christian Religion labour'd whilst it not only own'd the Creation of the World out of nothing formerly described by Moses but more clearly and openly attested the Resurrection of the Dead which before was not either so clearly known or so clearly proved for these Doctrines were held so absurd by the great Sophisters of the
raised again before any Corruption or Putrefaction by ordinary Course of Nature siezed upon him Thus I have proved by these two Arguments that because of the Hypostatical Union of the Divine and Humane Nature of Christ in one Person it was altogether impossible he could be holden of Death Secondly Another Argument is this It was impossible Christ should be holden of Death because of God's Veracity and the Truth of those Predictions which were before made concerning Christ in those many Types and Prophesies of the Old Testament all which God's Faithfulness stood engaged to fulfil I shall only mention that famous Prediction which St. Peter here subjoins as a Proof of the Subject I am now treating upon It was not possible Act. 2 25 27. says he that Christ should be holden of Death for God saith the Apostle as David saith concerning him Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell nor suffer thine Holy One to see Corruption And this Prophesie the Apostle quotes out of the Psalmist Psal 16.10 which that it did not belong to David nor did he speak it concerning himself when he indicted that Psalm the Apostle proves Act. 2.29 30. Ver. 29 30. of this Chapter where he proves that David was dead and buried and underwent the common Lot that all other dead Bodies did putrefying and mouldering away in the Earth and therefore he was not that Holy One that should never see Corruption because that Prophecy must belong to such an one who must so taste of Death and this is clearly implied in the former Expression Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell that is in the State of the Dead for so is Hell to be understood there as I shall shew more at large Neither could it belong to any of those who before Christ were raised miraculously from the Dead and brought back out of the State of Death yet was it not in such a manner that they were not to return again to it So that if they did not in the first yet in their second Dying they saw Corruption This then could belong to none of them and therefore must of necessity belong to Christ And since the Apostle lays so much stress on this Argument give me leave a little to consider the meaning of it and how it is applicable to him And here I shall not trouble you with the various Opinions of those that have attempted to interpret these Words Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell that by this Hell into which Christ descended is meant the place of the Damned where he preached the Gospel to them freeing those that would beleive from their Pains Others think that this Hell into which Christ descended was one great Partition of it called Lymbus Patrum the Repository of the Souls of those Fathers who died in Obedience to God and in Faith to the Messias before Christ came in the Flesh And the Reason of his Descent thither was that he might release those Souls from Chains and carry them with him to Heaven so that ever since that Mansion in Hell hath been left void without any Inhabitants But this Opinion is not capable of any sufficient Proof I shall therefore give you that Interpretation and Judgment which carries with it the strongest Current both of Scripture and Reason The Word Hades that we translate Hell is very often by the Septuagint in the Old Testament used to signifie the Grave or the State of the Dead So in Gen. 44. Ishades Gen. 44 31 we translate it the Grave but it is the same Word that is used for Hell in the Text. And thus the Word is used in other places of Scripture as also in other Authors to signifie the Place and State of the Dead and of separate Souls And for the leaving the Soul of Christ in Hades or in Hell we must know that it is a thing that is not unusual in Scripture to call a Man that is dead by the Name of Soul So the Septuagint translate that place in Leviticus Levit. 21.11 They shall not be defiled with dead Souls meaning dead Carcases neither shall they go into any dead Souls the Word is dead Bodies But not to detain you any longer on this Speculation though of great use for the right understanding of this excellent place of Scripture If we take Hell for the Grave we must take the Soul for the Body Thou wilt not leave my Body in the Grave But if by Hell be here understood the State of Death that is the State of Separation of Soul and Body the Interpretation will be more easie and natural Thou wilt not leave my Soul in a State of Separation from the Body but wilt certainly unite them together again and raise me up before I shall feel Corruption Thus I have given you the Interpretation of the Prophecy of David which upon the Account of God's Truth and Veracity was to take effect in the Resurrection of our Saviour and therefore being foretold he should not see Corruption the Faithfulness of God was obliged within that time inviolably to raise him up And that is the second Reason why it was impossible Christ should be holden of Death because it was foretold of him that his Soul should not rest in Hell that is either his Body in the Grave or his Soul in a State of Separation from his Body Thirdly God's Justice would not suffer Christ to lie in the Grave Another Argument is this It was impossible Christ could be holden by Death upon the Account of God's Justice For Justice as it doth oblige to inflict Punishment upon the Guilty so also to absolve and acquit the Innocent Now though Christ knew no Sin yet was he made Sin for us that is our Sins were imputed to and charged upon him and so through a voluntary Susception and Undertaking of them he became guilty of them Hereupon Divine Justice siezed upon him as being our Surety and demanded Satisfaction from him for our Offences Now no other Satisfaction would be acceptable unto God nor commensurate to our Sins but the bearing of an infinite Load of Wrath and Vengeance which if it had been laid upon us must have been prolonged to an Eternity of Sufferings for because we are finite Creatures we cannot bear infinite Degrees of Wrath at once and therefore we must have lain under those infinite Degrees of Wrath to an infinite Duration But now Christ being God he could bear the Load of infinite Degrees of Wrath at once upon him In that one bitter Draught the whole Cup of that Fury and Wrath of God that we should have been everlastingly a drinking off by little Drops Christ drank off at once Now it is the Nature and Constitution of all Laws that when a Person by undergoing the Penalty that those Laws require hath made satisfaction for the Offence committed the Person satisfying ought to be protected as innocent It could not therefore consist with the Justice of
Secondly This speaks abundance of comfort to all those whose Sins are pardon'd and they delivered from the Wrath to come Look what Spring-tides of Joy would rise in the Heart of a poor condemned Malefactor who every moment expects the stroke of Justice to cut him off to have a Pardon interpose and rescue him from Death Such yea far greater should be thy Joy who art freed meerly by a gracious Pardon from a Condemnation infinitely greater and worse than Death it self When we look into Hell and consider the Wrath that the Damned there lye under O to behold them there restlesly rolling to and fro in Chains and Flames to hear them exclaim against their own Folly and Madness and to curse Themselves and their Associates as the causes of their heavy and doleful Torments how should we rejoice that though we have been guilty of many great and heinous Sins and have ten thousand times deserved Hell and everlasting Burnings yet our good and gracious God hath freely pardon'd us our Debts and freed us from the same merited Punishments Vse 3 Thirdly This also should excite us to magnify the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ towards us who though he knew what the dreadful Wrath of God was how sore and heavy it would lye upon his Soul yet such was his infinite Compassion towards us that he willingly submitted himself to be in our stead took upon him our Nature that he might take upon him our Guilt and first made himself wretched that he might be made accursed He drank off the whole bitter Cup of his Father's Wrath at one bitter draught received the whole sting of Death into his Body at once falls and dies under the Revenges of Divine Justice only that we might be delivered from the Wrath that we had deserved but could not bear O Christian let thy Heart be inlarged with great Love and Thankfulness to thy blessed Redeemer and as he thought nothing too much to suffer for thee return him this Expression of thy Thankfulness to think nothing too much nor too hard to do or to suffer for him Vse 4 Fourthly You that go on in Sin consider what a God you have to deal withal You have not to do with Creatures but with God himself And do you not fear that increated Fire that will wrap you up in Flames of his essential Wrath and burn you for ever Consider that dreadful Expostulation that God makes Ezek. Ezek. 22.14 22.14 Can thy Heart indure or can thy Hands be strong in the Day that I shall deal with thee saith the Lord The very weakness of God is stronger than Man God can breath he can look a Man to Death Job 4.9 Job 4.9 By the Blast of God they perish and by the Breath of his Nostrils are they consumed They perish at the Rebuke of thy Countenance Psalm 80.16 Psal 80.16 O then tremble to think what a load of Wrath his heavy Hand can lay upon thee Isa 10.12 That Hand which spans the Heavens and in the Hollow of which he holds the Sea What Punishment will this great Hand of God in which his great Strength lies inflict when it shall fall upon thee in the full Power of its Might And tell me now O Sinner wouldst thou willingly fall into the Hands of this God who is thus able to crush thee to pieces yea to nothing O how shall any of us then dare who are but poor weak Potsherds of the Earth dash our selves against this Rock of Ages Indeed we can neither resist his Power nor escape his Hand and therefore since we must necessarily sooner or later fall into the Hands of God let us by true Repentance and an humble Acknowledgment of our Sins and Vileness throw our selves into his merciful Hands and then to our unspeakable Comfort we shall find that he will extend his Arm of Mercy to support us and not his Hand of Justice to crush and break us FINIS
to be brought to repent of it or if they do yet is it so slightly and superficially as if they feared the Amends would be greater than the Injury I come now to the Second Thing and that is Causes of Sinners making light of Sin to shew what it is that induceth and persuadeth wicked Men to make so light of their Sins Now there are these two things that make Sinners to account their Sins slight and trivial Matters I. Sinners not being exemplarily punished causes them to make light of Sin Because they see so few Instances of God's dread Wrath and Vengeance executed on Sinners in this Life and those rare ones that are extant and visible they impute rather to Chance than to the Retribution of Divine Justice And therefore upon their own Impunity and the Impunity of others they conclude that certainly Sin is no such heinous thing as some sowre tetrical People would fain persuade the World to believe And so they cry Peace Peace to themselves Deut. 19 19. though they go on in the Frowardness of their Hearts adding Iniquity to Sin Because God so long winks at them they conclude him blind or at least that he doth not much disallow those Sins which he doth not presently punish Indeed it would be somewhat difficult to answer this Argument were this present Life the appointed Time of Recompence No but God reserveth his Wrath and Vengeance to a more publick and more dreadful Execution of it than any can be in this Life Though now thou feelest no Effects of God's Wrath yet believe it the Storm is but all this while gathering But when thou lanchest forth into the boundless Ocean of Eternity then and perhaps never before then will it break upon thee in a Tempest of Fury and drown thy Soul in Perdition and Destruction II. Sinners make light of Sin because it is no real Injury to God Another thing that makes wicked Men think so slight of Sin is that it cannot affect God with any real Injury for as he is not benefited by our Services so he is not wronged by our Iniquities 'T is true could our Sins reach God could they dethrone him or rend off any of his glorious Attributes from his immutable Essence there might then be great Reason why God should so severely revenge them and we for ever detest and abhor them But since his Glory is free from any Stain and his Being from any Wrong and Prejudice our Sins are nothing to him nor is there any Reason we should judge them heinous and provoking 'T is true O Sinner thy Sins can never invade God's Essence that is infinitely above the Attempts of Men or Devils but yet every wicked Wretch would if he could dethrone God Sinners would not have him be so holy nor so just as he is not so holy in hating of their Sins nor so just in punishing of them that is they would not have him to be God for it is necessary that God should be as he is Sinners do really contradict God's Purity rebel against his Sovereignty violate his Commands defie his Justice provoke his Mercy despise his Threatnings and hinder the Manifestations of his Glory to the World And is all this nothing Every Sinner hath so much Poyson and Venom in him that he would even spit it in the Face of God himself if he could reach him But because God is in himself secure from their impotent Assaults Sin shews its Spight against him in what it can defaceth his Image where-ever it comes abolisheth all Structures and Lineaments of God in the Soul and would banish his Name his Fear his Worship from off the Face of the whole Earth And therefore thou who art guilty of this Rebellion against the great Majesty of Heaven canst thou yet think thy Sins to be slight and inconsiderable and not worth either the Cognizance or the Vengeance of the Almighty Believe it the Day is coming and will not tarry when that Guilt which thou now carriest so peaceably in thy Bosom and which like a frozen and benumb'd Serpent stirrs not nor stings not shall when heated with the Flames of Hell fly in thy Face and appear in all its native and genuine Deformities and Horrour and overwhelm thy Soul with Everlasting Anguish and Torment and then but too late then wilt thou exclaim against thy self as being worse than a Fool or Mad-man for thinking so slightly of and making a Mock at that which hath eternally ruin'd and destroyed thee And having thus shew'd you briefly that wicked Men do make light of Sin and the Inducements that tempt them to it I shall now in the Third place The Folly of Sinners in making light of Sin appears in that they shew you their great and inexcusable Folly in so doing And certainly never was any insensate Man never any that was wholly abandon'd by his Reason and Understanding guilty of a greater Folly than this is For I. Hope to repent of it Is it not most egregious Folly and Madness for any to do that which yet they hope they shall live to repent that ever they did it This is such a Folly as all the Extravagances of Fools could never match and yet this most wicked Men are guilty of They boldly rush into Sin only upon this presumptuous Confidence that they may hereafter be sorry that now they did it In which their Folly is doubly notorious in that 1. They venture upon a certain Guilt in hope of an uncertain Repentance And 2. In that they take up their unprofitable Sins upon so great and burthensome an Interest 1. Sinners Folly great in venturing upon a certain Guilt in hopes of an uncertain Repentance In that they venture upon a certain Guilt in hopes of an uncertain Repentance For either God may cut thee off O Sinner in the very Act of that Sin which thou intendest to repent of hereafter Or if he afford thee Time for Repentance he may withold his Grace and in his just and righteous but yet fearful Judgment seal thee up under Hardness and Impenitency that thou shalt go on Rom. 2 5. treasuring up to thy self Wrath against the Day of Wrath. And if either of these through the righteous Judgment of God should happen unto thee what a deplorable Fool wilt thou prove thy self to be that sinnest out of Hopes of Repentance and of a Repentance which perhaps will never be granted Alas How many hath God in his signal Vengeance cut off by some remarkable stroke with an Oath or Curse or Blasphemy in their Mouths scarce fully pronounced How many with their drunken Vomits gogling in their very Throats How many while their Souls have been burning with their lustful Embraces have even then been cast into Hell and burnt up with Everlasting Fire Or if Vengeance should spare thee for a while O Sinner yet thou knowest not how soon it will strike thee It is great Folly to expect the Warning
of a sick Bed Death often surprises by sudden Casualties or by some Diseases as sudden as Casualties and there are many Ways of Dying besides Consumptions Agues and Dropsies the lingring Fore-runners of an approaching Dissolution But if God should cast thee down upon a sick Bed he may justly visit thee who hast neglected thy Soul in thy Health with such Distempers as may make thee not only unfit but such as may render thee uncapable of doing thy last kind Office for it It is Folly to expect the Admonition of Old Age Alas Eccles 12.5 the Almond-Tree doth not every where flourish and it is not one to many Thousands that lay down an Hoary Head in the Bed of the Grave Prov. 16.31 But grant thou couldst be assured of the Continuance of thy Life yet is it not egregious Folly to sin in hope of repenting when every Act of Sin will make thy Repentance the more difficult if not impossible The older thou growest still the more desperate is thy Case for thy Sins will be the more rooted and habituated in thee and thy Heart the more hardned to resist the Grace of God So that upon all Accounts thy Repentance is most uncertain and the longer thou continuest in Sin still the more unlikely and improbable And then judge thou thy self whether it be not extream Madness and Folly to make so light or no Account of Sinning because thou makest account of Repenting But 2. Suppose it were most infallibly certain that thou shalt repent Sinners great Folly to purchase the Pleasures of Sin with a bitter Repentance yet none but Fools will take up the Pleasures of Sin upon the Sorrow Anguish and Bitterness of a true and hearty Repentance Dost thou seriously consider what Repentance is It is not a transitory Wish a warm Sigh or a languishing Lord have Mercy in a Distress or on a sick Bed and yet even these cannot be without judging and condemning themselves for Fools when they sinned No but Repentance is the breaking of the Heart a rending of the very Soul in pieces The usual Preparatives to it are ghastly Fears and Terrours sharp and dreadful Convictions that will even search thy very Bowels break thy Bones and burn up thy very Marrow within thee More especially doth God deal thus terribly with veterane old confirmed Sinners making Repentance more bitter to them than to others that they may see and confess themselves Fools in indulging themselves in their Sins in hopes of repenting for them Say then when the Devil and thine own Lusts tempt thee to any Sin say If I commit this Sin either I shall repent of it or I shall not if I never repent of it as it is a hazard whether I shall or no what is there in Sin that can recompence the everlasting Pain of Damnation If I shall repent what is there in the Sin that can recompence the Anguish and Bitterness of Repentance This is such an unanswerable Dilemma that all the Craft and Subtilty of Hell can never solve And if we would but always keep this fixed in our Minds it were impossible that ever we should make slight of Sin While thou thus arguest thou arguest solidly and wisely but to say I will sin because perhaps I may repent is quite below the meanest Capacity that ever own'd the least Glimpse of Sense and Reason II. Sin will make Sinners a publick Scorn to the whole World Is it not Folly to make a Mock at that which will be sure to pay thee home and to make a publick Mock and Scorn of thee to the whole World How many have their Sins and Vices made infamous among Men They are a Shame and a Reproach to all that are but of a civil and sober Converse and as much lost to Reputation as they are to Vertue But however certainly all wicked and ungodly Men shall be made a publick Scorn and Derision to all the World both God Angels and Men God will mock at them he tells them so expresly for so the Wise Man speaks Prov 1.25 26. Because you have set at nought all my Counsel and would none of my Reproof I also will laugh at your Calamity and mock when your Fear cometh when your Fear cometh as a Desolation and your Destruction cometh like a Whirlwind All their Sins and Deeds of Wickedness shall then be exposed to the open View and Contempt of Saints and Angels who shall subscribe to the righteous Doom of their Condemnation Devils will then upbraid their Folly and triumph that they have outwitted them into the same most miserable and deplorable State with themselves Think now O Sinner How wilt thou be able to hold up thy guilty Head and thy amazed and confounded Face Whither Oh whither canst thou cause thy Shame to go when Men and Angels shall point and hiss at thee and thy Folly shall be proclaimed as loud as the last Trumpet which Heaven and Earth and all the World shall hear III. The Folly of Sinners to damn their Souls for Sin Is it not the Foolishness of Folly it self to make light of that which will for ever damn thee Art thou such an Idiot as to account Hell a Trifle and Damnation it self a slight Matter What is it then that makes thee think Sin so small and trifling a thing For Hell and Death and Eternal Wrath are certainly entail'd upon it Consider what a most cutting Reflexion it will be to thee in Hell when thou shalt for ever cry out upon and curse thy self for a wretched Fool that ever thou shouldst make slight of those Sins which would damn thee What was there in them for which thou hast forfeited Heaven and Everlasting Happiness but only a little impure brutish Pleasure And now that it is past and gone what remains of them but only the bitter Remembrances Certainly thou wilt ten thousand times and for ever call thy self an accursed Fool for so doing when it is too late to help it Be persuaded therefore now to be wise betimes for your Souls else you also will when there is no Redress curse your own Folly that hath brought upon you all those Extremities of Woe and Anguish FINIS True Happiness A SERMON PREACHED AT St LAWRENCE JEWRY June the 17th 1690. ON REVEL XXII XIV BY EZEKIEL HOPKINS Late Lord Bishop of London-Derry LONDON Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1691. True Happiness A SERMON PREACHED c. REV. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have Right to the Tree of Life and may enter through the Gates into the City THese Words which I have now read consist of these two Parts First A Proposition And Division of the Words Secondly A Proof of this Proposition First A Proposition in these Words that They that do God's Commandments are blessed Secondly Here is the Proof of this Proposition in these Words that They have a Right to the Tree