as have in all Ages befallen it Now God never enjoyns us this as our Duty although he lays them upon us as our Burden 2. God's Will of Purpose permits the Evil of Sin for Wise and Gracious Ends that he may bring good out of Evil even those very Sins and Wickedness which his Will of Precept forbids his Will of Purpose permits for if God did not will to permit them there would be no such thing as Sin in the World Secondly Hence ariseth another very remarkable difference that we may effectually resist God's Will of Precept so as to hinder the accomplishment of it but whatsoever we do so it is our Sin and will without repentance be our condemnation So Stephen accuseth the Jews Act. 7.51 You do always resist the Holy Ghost that is by your Practices you do always go contrary to the Commands of God revealed by his Spirit in his Word And were it not for this resisting of the Will of God we should be perfectly holy and blameless But we cannot resist the Will of God's Purpose so as to hinder the Execution of it although sometimes to endeavour it may be so far from Sin as to be our necessary and indispensible Duty For though it may be the Will of God to bring us into Poverty or into Prison or to lay sore Diseases upon us yet it is not only lawful for us but we are obliged as far as lies in us to hinder these Evils of Punishment from befalling us and to preserve our Estates our Liberty our Health and all our outward Comforts by all lawful and allowed ways and means Much more if God should will to permit a Sin in others or in our selves are we bound to hinder the Commission of it for for us to be willing to permit because God is though it be a conformity of our Wills to God's Will of Purpose yet this is not our Rule to walk by And it is a wretched Rebellion against his Will of Precept which alone we are to respect in all our Actions and endeavour to conform our selves unto Doubtless it was God's Will of Purpose that Christ the Lord of Life and Glory should be Crucified but yet the Jews conforming themselves according to this Will were guilty of the most horrid Wickedness that ever was committed in the World for both these we have confirmed to us Acts 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate Counsel and Fore-knowledge of God ye have taken and by Wicked Hands have crucified and slain Although it was by the determinate Counsel and Will of God that Christ should be taken and slain yet nevertheless they were wicked Hands that were imbrued in that precious and inestimable Blood And thus I have shown how the Will of God's Purpose and Precept do differ But yet Secondly Although there be this great difference yet is there no contrariety or repugnancy but a perfect Harmony and Uniformity between them Some have thought that if God wills such a thing should be done as for instance the Crucifying of our Lord and Saviour by his Will of Purpose and yet Wills that it should not be done by his Will of Precept that these two Wills must needs contradict one another and this Argument some do make no small use of to explode the distinction of the Will of God But the Solution is most easie for when Wills are contrary to each other there must be a Willing and a Nilling of the same thing but it is not so here for the Object of God's Will of Purpose is Event but of his Will of Precept Duty Now it is far enough from having any shadow of a contradiction for God to will or permit that to be which he hath willed or commanded us not to do Indeed to will such an Event to be and not to be that such a thing shall be my Duty and shall not be my Duty are contradictions and not to be imputed unto God But to will that such a thing shall eventually be and yet to will that it shall be my Duty to endeavour to hinder it is so far from being a contradiction that it is most apparent and evident and falls out most frequently in our ordinary converse in the World So in the forementioned famous instance of the Death of Christ God willed by his Will of Purpose that it should so come to pass in all the circumstances of it as it was perpetrated but then he willed by his Will of Precept that it should be their Duty not to do it Now certainly there is no contradiction or absurdity that Duty and Event may be quite contrary one to the other unless we could take away all Sin and Authorize all the greatest Villainies that ever were committed under the Sun And thus much for the first Head And having thus seen what the Will of God is The next General is to enquire what Will it is we pray may be done when we say Thy Will be done And here First It is clear that we especially and absolutely pray that the Will of God's Precept may be done and that not only by us but by all Men For this Will of God is the Rule of our Obedience and according to it we ought to conform all our Actions And because we are not sufficient of our selves so much as to think any thing of our selves much less to perform all those various and weighty Duties of Holiness which God hath enjoyn'd us in his Word therefore our Saviour hath taught us to beg of God Grace and Assistanee to enable us to fullfil his Will giving us not only Commands of Obedience but Promises for our Relief and Encouragment instructing us in the Word to crave supplies of Grace from him who hath required Duty from us And indeed there is a great deal of Reason we should pray that his Will of Precept should be done on Earth if we consider First The great Reluctancy and Opposition of Corrupt Nature against it The Law is Spiritual but we are Carnal and sold under sin Rom. 7.4 and in the best of Men there is a Law in their Members warring against the Law of their Minds that when they would do good evil is present with them and therefore we have need to pray That God would encline our hearts to his Commandments and then strengthen us to obey them That as our Will to good is the effect of his Grace so the effect of our Wills may be the performance of his Will Secondly God's Glory is deeply concern'd in the doing of his Will For it is the Glory of a King to have his Laws obey'd And so is it God's When we profess our selves to be his Subjects and pray that his Kingdom may come it is but fit and rational that we should pray likewise Thy Will be done without which this his Kingdom of Grace would be but meerly Titular For his Word is the Scepter and Law of his Kingdom and if we yield not Obedience to it we do
Righteousness through whom alone Pardon of our sins is to be obtained Sixthly and lastly We pray that we may be brought over to close with the Lord Jesus Christ by a lively Faith that his Righteousness thereby may be made ours and we by that Righteousness may obtain Pardon of our sins and an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified For though Pardon be procured by the Death of Christ yet the Application of it to the Soul is only by Faith uniting us unto him and making us one with him For all that Christ hath either done or suffered for the Redemption of the World would be altogether in vain as to our particular benefit and advantage were it not that Faith entitles us unto it and makes that satisfaction which he hath given to Divine Justice to be Mystically our Act as it was Personally his And thus I have considered the Petition it self Forgive us our Debts I now proceed to the Condition or Plea annexed As we forgive our Debtors And here we have First the Act Forgive Secondly The Object Debtors Thirdly The limitation of this Object our Debtors Fourthly The proportion or resemblance in the Particle as As we forgive our Debtors I shall begin with the Object Debtors As all Men stand indebted to God in a Two-fold Debt a Debt of Obedience and a Debt of Punishment So one Man may be a Debtor to another two ways either by owing to him a Debt of Duty or else a Debt of Satisfaction First Some Men stand indebted to others in a Debt of Duty And indeed I might well have said this Debt is reciprocal between Man and Man Thus Children owe Parents Reverence and Obedience and Parents their Children Provision and Education Subjects owe their Magistrates Honour and Tribute and Magistrates owe their Subjects Justice and Protection Servants owe their Masters Fear Diligence and Faithfulness and Masters owe their Servants Maintenance and Encouragement And generally all Men owe one another Love Respect and Kindness Now these Debts cannot balance one another that as much as is left unpaid me by any person so much again I may refuse to pay him If a Father pay not his Debt to his Child or a Magistrate to his Subject or a Master to his Servants they are not hereby acquitted of their Obligations but still Duty Obedience and Faithfulness is required from Inferiours to their Superiours And so on the contrary Love Protection and Maintenance is required from Superiours to their Inferiours although peccant as long as the Relation shall continue between them And the reason is because we are bound to these Duties not only by the Obligations that mutual Offices lay upon us but by God's express Will and Command and the performance of the Relations that is betwixt us And therefore though it be Lawful for two Persons that owe one another an equal Debt of Money or other such like things to cross out one Debt by the other and so discount it betweem them Yet it is not so where the Duties that God requires are the Debts they owe to each other for although others may fail in the performance of what belongs to their part yet thou oughtest not to fail in thine for thus to be even with Men is to run in Debt with God and to make him thy Creditor who will certainly be thy Revenger And from hence it appears that this is not the Debt that we are to forgive our Debtors for we have no power to release them from their Obligation to Duty whilst the Relation between us continues no more than we have to rescind the Laws of God and of Nature Secondly Some Men may stand indebted to others in a Debt of Satisfaction as they owe them reparation on good grounds for wrongs and injuries done against them and this is the Debt which we are to forgive others Now as wrongs and injuries are of divers sorts so many divers ways may others become Debtors to us And they are chiefly these Six that follow First By wronging us in our persons either by unjust Violence or by unjust Restraints Thus the Persecuting Jews were Debtors to the Apostles and Disciples of Christ for often Scourging and Imprisonieg them Secondly By wronging us in our Place and Dignity and in the Office to which by God's Providence we are called And so also those that vilifie the persons and detract from the Authority of those that are set over them become their Debtors Thus Aaron and Miriam were Debtors unto Moses for traducing the Authority that God had committed unto him Numb 12.2 Thirdly By wronging us in our Friends and Relations either by corrupting them Thus Sechem became a Debtor to Jacob and his Sons for violating his Daughter and their Sister Or else by destroying them So Herod to the Bethlemitish Mothers by murdering their Children Fourthly By wronging us in our Right and Title with-holding from us what is our due Fifthly In our Possessions when either by Force or Fraud they take from us what of Right belongs to us Sixthly And lastly in our Reputation and good Name unjustly defaming us for those Crimes which only their Malice hath invented and published against us To all these wrongs we are subject God permitting the wickedness of Men a large scope to vent it self and affording us a large field to Exercise our meekness and forgiving temper in each of these But withal if those who in any of these or any other particulars do wrong their Brethren are by the Sentence of our Saviour here pronounced Debtors this should teach them to look upon themselves as obliged to make satisfaction according to the utmost of their Power and Ability Thou therefore who art Conscious to thy self of wronging any either in their Persons or Dignities or Relations or Rights or Possessions or Reputations Though it be thy Duty to confess it before God and humble thy self to him for it begging Mercy and Pardon at his hands Yet this is not enough for by one single offence thou hast contracted a double Debt thou standest indebted to the Justice of God for the Violation of his Law But this is not all but thou standest in Debt unto Man likewise by injuries done against him and both thy Creditors must be satisfied God by the Righteousness of Christ through thy Faith and Repentance and Man by an Acknowledgment Reparation and Restitution The Apostle hath commanded us Rom. 13.8 To owe no Man any thing but to love one another And indeed Satisfaction for Wrongs is a necessary part of Repentance for he that truly Repents doth really and from his heart wish that the Wrong had never been done and therefore will be sure to do his utmost to annihilate the fault by giving the abused Party a compensation fully answerable to the injury and to the utmost of his Ability restore him into the same or a better Condition than that in which he was before he received the Wrong Therefore First Art thou Conscious to thy self that
tacitly condemn it and the Law-maker also of Injustice and thereby reflect a most intolerable disparagement upon God preferring the will of Satan and of our own Lusts before his most Holy and Righteous Will But when we endeavour to yield Obedience to his Commands and pray that we may be able to do it with more diligence and constancy this as it pleaseth so it glorifieth God for by so doing we acknowledge both his Sovereignty and his Equity his Sovereignty in that he may require of us what he pleaseth and his Equity in that he requireth of us nothing but what is most just and fit And therefore our Saviour tells us John 15.8 Herein is my Father Glorified that you bring forth much Fruit. Thirdly Our own Interest is deeply concerned in it For through Obedience and doing the Will of God it is that we come to Inherit the Promises Revel 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have a Right to the Tree of Life and may enter in through the Gates into the City And therefore to pray that God's Will may be done by us is but to pray that we our selves may be fitted and prepared for Eternal Life and Glory unto which we can no otherwise attain but by Holiness and Obedience O think but to what an Excellency doth Grace advance the Soul even in this Life and makes Christians as much above other Men as other Men are above Beasts That when they are employed about the foul and nasty Offices of sin hurried by their vile Passions unto vile and base Actions raking in the Mire and Filth of all manner of uncleanness and defiling their Soul with those Sins which will hereafter Damn them Thy work should be all Spiritual consisting of the same pure Employments that the Holy Angels and Glorified Saints in Heaven spend their Eternity in Consider what an high Honour and Priviledge it is that you should be admitted to attend immediately upon the Service of the King of kings You are called to wait about his Throne his Throne of Grace to which you have always free access to converse and commune with God by maintaining Fellowship with him in the performance of Holy Duties which is a Dignity so high that Humane Nature is capable but of one preferment more and that is of being removed from one Throne to the other from attending on the Throne of Grace to attend on the Throne of Glory And then think O Soul if it be possible to think what neither Eye hath seen nor Ear hath heard neither hath it nor can it enter into the heart of Man to conceive Think how transcendently Blessed thy Estate shall be when the Will of thy God which was here thy Duty shall there be thy Nature When thy Obligation to do it shall be turned into a happy necessity of doing it When all thy Thoughts and Affections shall be center'd in God for ever and not the least motion of thy Soul shall so much as twinkle or waver from the Eternal Contemplation and Fruition of the Infinite Deity And therefore this our Eternal Happiness being wrapt up in doing the Will of God it highly concerns us to pray That it may be done and to endeavour to do it on Earth so as that at length we may attain to the perfection of doing it in Heaven And this is the First thing that in this Petition we especially and absolutely pray for viz. That God's Will of Precept may be done by us on Earth Secondly It is more doubtful whether we are simply to pray that God's Will of Purpose should be done And that First Because the Will of God's Purpose is secret and unknown and therefore cannot so immediately concern us in point of Duty For secret things belong to God but revealed things belong to us and to our Children Deut. 29.29 Secondly Because this Will of God shall within the periods set by his Eternal Decrees have its most perfect and full accomplishment For though his Revealed Will may be resisted and hindered yet neither Men nor Devils can hinder his secret Will and the Purposes of his Counsels these shall take place mauger all their spite and oppositions and therefore it seems not altogether so proper matter for our Prayers Again Thirdly Many things come to pass by the Will of God's Purpose which we ought not to pray for yea which we ought to pray against As not to instance in God's Will of permitting the sins and wickednesses of Men which beyond all exceptions we ought to deprecate Let us but consider common Charity obligeth us not to pray for any evil of Suffering to befal either our selves or others and yet we know that it is often-times the Will of God's Purpose to bring great and sore Judgments upon Kingdoms and upon Families and Persons And if we may indefinitely pray that this Will should be done this would be nothing else but to pray for the Death and Ruine of many thousands whom yet the Revealed Will of God commands us to pray for and to desire all Good and Prosperity to them But yet notwithstanding all this we may doubtless pray that the Will of God's Purpose may be done so far as it brings to pass those things which we are obliged to pray for by the Will of his Precept We may pray that God's Will may be fullfilled in giving Peace and Prosperity and good things both Temporal and Spiritual unto others and to our selves but simply and absolutely to pray That this Will should be done in whatsoever it respects would be as often a Curse as a Prayer Since as I told you before there is no evil comes to pass whether of sin or punishment but it is by God's Will permitting the one and effecting the other But you will say do we not find frequent Examples in Scripture of Holy Men who have Prayed that God's Will might be done even in the bringing to pass that which was evil Thus Ely when Samuel had denounced fearful Judgments both against himself and against his House It is the Lord says he let him do what seems good unto him 1 Sam 3.18 And so David when Persecuted by the unnatural Rebellion of his Son Absalom If he say thus Behold I have no delight in him let him do as seems good unto him 2 Sam. 15.26 And thus the Disciples when upon Agabus's Prophecy what Afflictions should happen unto St. Paul at Jerusalem they would have perswaded him from going thither but could not prevail conclude all with this The Will of the Lord be done Acts 21.14 And thus likewise our great Example the Lord Jesus Christ himself when he had prayed that the bitter Cup of his Passion might pass away from him he seems to correct himself and make another Prayer Not my Will but thine be done Luke 22.42 Although he knew this Will of God could not be done without his own most extreme Sufferings nor without the horrid sin and wickedness of his Murderers But
called our due and our right must be exacted to the very utmost what Debt is there that we are bound to forgive Those therefore are justly to be condemned that take every advantage against their Neighbours and although the Offence be but trivial a passionate Word or a sudden and light Blow that proceeded not from any propense and intended Malice or the like presently pursue such Advantages with rigour and extremity and because they may do it according to the Law of Man regard not the Law of God which commands us to forgive such Debtors And this is the first thing wherein forgiveness doth consist in abstaining from the outward Acts of Revenge and exacting satisfaction from those who have wronged us where we have seen how it is limitted and how to be observed Secondly Forgiving our Debtors consists in the inward frame and temper of our Hearts towards them that we bear them no Malice no Ill-will but be as much in Charity with them as though they never had offended us And this forgiveness we are bound always to exercise even in those cases in which we may seek for satisfaction yea although we could never prosecute them for satisfaction yet if we retain secret grudgings and animosities in our Hearts against them this is not an entire forgiveness and such as will be acceptable to God for he estimates the Heart and not only the outward Actions-which may have many bye ends to sway and direct them And thus I have as briefly as I could shown you what forgiving of our Debtors is and how far we are bound to do it And now Christians I know you cannot but reflect seriously upon it how hard and difficult a Duty this of forgiveness is It is that which the whole interest of Flesh and Blood and all the Party that Passions and Affections can muster up within us will certainly rebel against this Doctrine And alas how seldom is it that Men can conquer themselves so as to yield obedience unto it really and cordially Whence is it that all places are so full of Railing and Reviling Quarrels and Challenges vexatious Contentions and endless Suits Warrants Arrests Actions and Imprisonments and that upon slight Injuries and Provocations but only that they have not learned this necessary Duty of forgiving one another Nay many think it the part of a high Spirit and generous Nature to make themselves terrible to those whom they suppose have in the least wronged and affronted them and upon the least disgust fly out into all extremities of Threatnings and Revenge whereas in Truth this is but the Effect of a mean and sordid Spirit It is a Disposition breathed into Men's Souls by the Devil and demonstrates as a great deal of Pride so a great deal of Vileness and Baseness The truest Gallantry and Generousness is to imitate the great God in being patient and long-suffering and ready to pardon and forgive This is that heighth of Spirit the true Magnanimity and Greatness and if we would be perfect we must stoop stoop did I say rather we must aspire to this Heavenly Temper And to excite unto this consider First That it is infinitely more honourable to forgive a Wrong than to revenge it For First The one makes thee like to God the other makes thee like the Devil Yea it is the chiefest excellency by which God delights to be set forth I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions Isai 43.25 And who is a God like unto thee that Pardons Iniquity Micah 7.18 Now how Glorious is it to imitate God in that which he himself counts his chiefest Glory The Great Ones of the Earth imitate him in Power and Authority and are some kind of glimmering Types of his Majesty who daunts and dazles all approachers But a poor contemptible Christian whose meanness lays him open and exposed to all the Wrongs and Injuries of abusive and insulting Wretches may represent a far greater Glory of God than that wherein Princes and Monarchs shine even his Forbearance Pity Long-suffering and Pardon He may represent God sitting upon his Throne of Grace whereas the other represents him only sitting upon his Throne of Power Now God never Triumphs more in any Attribute than that of his Mercy See with what fair Flourishes he writes his Name Exod. 34.6 The Lord the Lord God infinite in Power that spreads forth the Heavens and rangeth all the Host of them that hangs up the Earth in the midst of the Air and the whole World in the midst of a vast and boundless nothing that pours out the great Deep and measures it in the hollow of his Hand that rides upon the Wings of the Wind and makes the Clouds the dust of his Feet No but when he would display himself in his greatest Glory he doth it in a still Voice The Lord God Merciful and Gracious Long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin Now O Christian by forgiving those who have wronged thee thou makest thy self as a God unto them and imitatest him in that wherein he doth chiefly Glory Secondly It is more honourable because to Pardon is always the Act of a Superiour it is a Prerogative of Royalty and highly becomes the Majesty of those whom Christ hath made Kings as well as Priests and certainly they cannot better declare themselves such than by issuing out Pardons Think therefore with thy self O Christian when thou art wronged and affronted think what an advantage the petulancies of froward Men do give thee to make thy self their Superiour it is but pardoning them and thou ascendest the Throne And certainly they can never so much Triumph over thee by their Injuries as thou maist over them by Forgiveness And so much for the First motive Secondly Consider how many Offences God hath forgiven thee and this will be an effectual motive to engage thee to forgive others And here consider who it is that hath forgiven thee and what it is he hath forgiven thee First Consider who it is that hath forgiven thee And here consider the infinite distance that is between thee and him he is the Sovereign Lord and Creator of all in comparison with whom thou art nothing yea less than nothing He stands in no need of thee but whether thou live or die perish or art saved he is the same God for ever Blessed in himself He is able to destroy thee every moment able to breath thee back into thy Dust to look thee into Hell and Destruction They perish at the rebuke of thy Countenance Psal 80.16 And yet this high and absolute Lord at thy entreaty freely forgives thee all thy Debts although he might have gotten himself a great renown in thy everlasting Perdition and might have set thee up as a flaming Monument of his Wrath and inscribed on thee Victory and Truimph to the Glory of his everlasting Vengeance And shouldst not thou then O Man O Worm forgive thy Fellow-Servant
word is not only a light to discover what you ought to do but an help to inable you to do it It is the very means that God appointed to overcome your averseness and assist your weakness And if ever this be effected it must in an ordinary way be by conversing with the Scriptures That Sick Man hath lost his Reason as well as his Health who should refuse to take Physick because if it doth not work it will but make him the worse Why the way to make it work is by taking it So it is a distempered kind of arguing against the word of God the Physick of our Souls that it is mortal and deadly if it doth not work into practice The way to make it work into practice is to take it first into our knowledge 't is true it were a great discouragement if the Scripture only shewed you how much work you have to do what Temptations to resist what Corruptions to mortifie what Graces to exercise what duties to perform and left all that upon your own hands But the Leaves of the Bible are the Leaves of the Tree of Life as well as of the Tree of Knowledge they strengthen as well as inlighten and have not only a Commanding but an assisting Office And this the Scripture doth two ways First It directs where we may receive supplies of ability for the performance of whatsoever it requires It leads thee unto Christ who is able to furnish thee with supernatural strength for supernatural duties His treasury stands open for all concerns and his Almighty Power stands ingaged to assist those who relie upon it Be not discouraged therefore he that finds us work finds us strength and the same Scripture that injoyns us obedience exhibits God's promise of bestowing upon us the power of obeying Thou who workest all works in us and for us Isaiah 26.12 And work out your own Salvation for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do Phil. 2.12 13. Why then should we so complain of hard sayings and Grevious Commandments Have we not God's Omnipotence obliged by promise to assist in the same words wherein we are commanded to obey What saith the Apostle I am able to do all things through Christ strengthening me Phil. 4.13 When in reading the Scripture thou meetest with difficult and rigorous Duties the severity of Mortification the self cruelty of plucking out right Eyes and cutting off right Hands commend they self to these promises of aid and assistance that the same Scripture holds forth and lift up thy heart in that divine Meditation of St. Augustine Lord give what thou Commandest and command what thou pleasest Whilst thou thus duly dependest on Christ's strength and makest use of thine own it is as much his Honour and Office to inable thee as it is thy Duty to perform what he requires Secondly The Scripture as it directs us to rely on the strength of Christ so it is a means that God hath appointed to quicken and excite our own strength and Power to the discharge of those Duties it Discovers Wherefore are those pressing Exhortations and those dreadfull Threatnings every where so dispersed up and down in the Book of God but that when we are slow and dull and drowsie the Spirit may by these as by so many goads rowze us and make us start into Duty Such a spiritual sloath hath benumb'd us that without this quickening we should not be diligent in the Work of the Lord and therefore David prays Psalm 119.88 Quicken me so shall I keep the Testimonies of thy Mouth but yet it is also the word it self that quickens us to the Obedience of the word Psal 119.50 Thy word hath quickened me And indeed if you can come from reading the word that so abounds with Promises with Threatnings with rational Arguments with pathetick Expostulations winning Insinuations importunate Intreaties heroick Examples propounded to our Imitation with all the perswasive Art and Rhetorick that becometh the Majesty of the great God to use if you can read this word and yet find from it no warmth of Affection no quickening to Duty let me tell you you either read it without attending to it or else attend without believing it It is therefore no discouragement from searching and studying the Scriptures that its commands be many and difficult for it directs you whither to go for promised strength and the more you converse with it the more will you find your hearts quickened to a due Obedience of it That 's the first Answer But then secondly Whereas many think that it is better not to know than not to practise we must here distinguish of Ignorance which is of too kinds either invincible or else affected Invincible ignorance is such as is conjoyned with and proceeds from an utter impossibility of right information and it ariseth only from two things First Absolute want of necessary Instruction or Secondly Want of natural capacity to receive it Affected Ignorance is an ignorance under the means of Knowledge and always ariseth from the neglect or contempt of them Such is the ignorance of those who do or may live where the Gospel is preached and where by pains and industry they may arrive to the knowledge of the truth Now here for ever to answer this Objection and to shew you how necessary knowledge is I shall lay down these two particulars First I grant indeed that unpractis'd knowledge is a far greater sin than invincible Ignorance and exposeth to a much sorer Condemnation Hell Fire burns with Rage and meets with fuel fully prepared for it when God dooms unto it an head full of Light and an heart full of Lusts Those who know God's will but do it not do but carry a torch with them to Hell to fire that Pile that must for ever burn them We have a common Proverb That knowledge is no Burthen But believe it if your knowledge in the Scripture be merely Speculative and overborn by the violence of unruly Lusts this whole Word will be no otherwise to you than the burthen of the Law as the Prophets speak a Burthen that will lie insupportably heavy upon you for ever Better far you were born under Barbarism in some dark Corner of the Earth where the least gleame of Gospel-light never shone and where the name of Christ was never mentioned than to have this weighty Book a Book which you have read and known hung about you to sink you infinitly deeper in the Burning Lake than a Mill-stone hung about you can do in the midst of the Sea What St. Peter speaks of Apostates 2 Pet. 2.21 is but too well applicable to the knowing Sinner It had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn aside from the Commandments delivered to them How Better not to have known it Why is there any possibility to escape the Condemnation of Hell without the knowledge of the way of