Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A62638
|
Several discourses of repentance by John Tillotson ; being the eighth volume published from the originals by Ralph Barker.
|
Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708.
|
1700
(1700)
|
Wing T1267; ESTC R26972
|
169,818
|
480
|
the Text They are a Nation void of knowledge neither is there any understanding in them And the wish that follows in the Text is as seasonable for us as it was for them O that they were wise that they uaderstood this that they would consider their latter end And by parity of Reason this may likewise be applyed to particular Persons and to perswade every one of us to a serious Consideration of the final Issue and Consequence of our Actions I will only offer these two Arguments I. That Consideration is the proper Act of reasonable Creatures and that whereby we shew our selves men So the Prophet intimates Isa 46.8 Remember this and shew your selves men bring it again to mind O ye transgressors that is consider it well think of it again and again ye that run on so furiously in a sinful Course what the end and issue of these things will be If ye do not do this you do not shew your selves men you do not act like reasonable Creatures to whom it is peculiar to propose to themselves some end and design of their Actions but rather like Brute Creatures which have no understanding and act only by a natural instinct without any Consideration of the end of their Actions or of the means conducing to it II. Whether we consider it or not our latter end will come and all those dismal Consequences of a sinful Course which God hath so plainly threatned and our own Consciences do so much dread will certainly overtake us at last and we cannot by not thinking of these things ever prevent or avoid them Death will come and after that the Judgment and an irreversible Doom will pass upon us according to all the evil that we have done and all the good that we have neglected to do in this Life under the heavy weight and pressure whereof we must lie groaning and bewailing our selves to everlasting Ages God now exerciseth his Mercy and Patience and Long-suffering toward us in expectation of our amendment he reprieves us on purpose that we may repent and in hopes that we will at last consider and grow wiser for he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance but if we will trifle away this day of God's Grace and Patience if we will not consider and bethink our selves there is another day that will certainly come That great and terrible Day of the Lord in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then all these things shall be let us consider seriously what manner of Persons we ought to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness waiting for and hastning unto the coming of the Day of God To whom be glory now and for ever SERMON XV. Ser. 15. The Danger of Impenitence where the Gospel is preach'd MATTH XI 21 22. Woe unto thee Chorazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of Judgment than for you AFter our Blessed Saviour had instructed and sent forth his Disciples he himself went abroad to preach unto the Cities of Israel particularly he spent much time in the Cities of Galilee Chorazin and Bethsaida Vol. 8. and Capernaum Preaching the Gospel to them and working many and great Miracles among them but with little or no success which was the cause of his denouncing this terrible woe against them ver 20. Then began he to upbraid the Cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not Woe unto thee Chorazin c. In which words our Saviour declares the sad and miserable Condition of those two Cities Chorazin and Bethsaida which had neglected such an opportunity and resisted and withstood such means of Repentance as would have effectually reclaimed the most wicked Cities and People that can be instanced in in any Age Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and therefore he tells them that their Condition was much worse and that they should fall under a heavier Sentence at the day of Judgment than the People of those Cities whom they had always lookt upon as the greatest sinners that ever were in the World This is the plain meaning of the words in general but yet there are some difficulties in them which I shall endeavour to clear and then proceed to raise such Observations from them as may be instructive and useful to us The Difficulties are these I. What Repentance is here spoken of whether an external Repentance in shew and appearance only or an inward and real and sincere Repentance II. In what Sense it is said that Tyre and Sidon would have repented III. What is meant by their would have repented long ago IV. How this assertion of our Saviour's that Miracles would have converted Tyre and Sidon is reconcileable with that other saying of his Luke 16.31 in the Parable of the rich Man and Lazarus that those who believed not Moses and the Prophets neither would they be persuaded tho' one rose from the dead I. What Repentance is here spoken of whether a meer external and Hypocritical Repentance in shew and appearance only or an inward and real and sincere Repentance The Reason of this doubt depends upon the different Theories of Divines about the sufficiency of Grace accompanying the outward Means of Repentance and whether an irresistible degree of God's Grace be necessary to Repentance for they who deny sufficient Grace to accompany the outward Means of Repentance and assert an irresistible degree of God's Grace necessary to Repentance are forced to say that our Saviour here speaks of a meer External Repentance because if he spake of an inward and sincere Repentance then it must be granted that sufficient inward grace did accompany the Miracles that were wrought in Chorazin and Bethsaida to bring men to Repentance because what was afforded to them would have brought Tyre and Sidon to Repentance And that which would have effected a thing cannot be denyed to be sufficient so that unless our Saviour here speaks of a meer External Repentance either the outward Means of Repentance as Preaching and Miracles must be granted to be sufficient to bring men to Repentance without the inward Operation of God's Grace upon the Minds of Men or else a sufficient degree of God's Grace must be acknowledged to accompany the outward Means of Repentance Again if an irresistible degree of Grace be necessary to true Repentance it is plain Chorazin and Bethsaida had it not because they did not repent and yet without this Tyre and Sidon could not have sincerely repented therefore our Saviour here must speak of a meer External Repentance Thus some argue as they do likewise concerning the Repentance of
the Story but for the Moral of it I will namely that Consideration is one of the best and most likely means in the World to bring a bad Man to a better Mind I now come to the IV. And last particular namely that the want of this Consideration is one of the greatest Causes of mens Ruin And this likewise is implyed in the Text and the Reason why God does so vehemently desire that men would be wise and consider is because so many are ruin'd and undone for want of it This is the desperate folly of Mankind that they seldom think seriously of the Consequence of their Actions and least of all of such as are of greatest Concernment to them and have the chief influence upon their eternal Condition They do not consider what Mischief and Inconvenience a wicked Life may plunge them into in this World what Trouble and Disturbance it may give them when they come to die what Horror and Confusion it may fill them withal when they are leaving this World and passing into Eternity and what intolerable Misery and Torment it may bring upon them to all Eternity Did men ponder and lay to heart Death and Judgment Heaven and Hell and would they but let their thoughts dwell upon these things it is not credible that the generality of men could lead such profane and impious such lewd and dissolute such secure and careless Lives as they do Would but a Man frequently entertain his Mind with such thoughts as these I must shortly die and leave this World and then all the Pleasures and Enjoyments of it will be to me as if they had never been only that the remembrance of them and the ill use I have made of them will be very bitter and grievous to me after all Death will transmit me out of this World into a quite different State and Scene of things into the presence of that great and terrible that inflexible and impartial Judge who will render to every Man according to his works and then all the evils which I have done in this Life will rise up in Judgment against me and fill me with everlasting Confusion in that great assembly of Men and Angels will banish me from the presence of God and all the Happiness which flows from it and procure a dreadful sentence of unspeakable Misery and Torment to be past upon me which I can never get reverst nor yet ever be able to stand under the weight of it if men would but enter into the serious Consideration of these things and pursue these thoughts to some Issue and Conclusion they would take up other Resolutions and I verily believe that the want of this hath ruin'd more than even infidelity it self And this I take to be the meaning of that question in the Psalmist Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge that is no Consideration intimating that if they had they would do better All that now remains is to perswade men to apply their hearts to this piece of wisdom to look before them and to think seriously of the Consequence of their Actions what will be the final Issue of that Course of Life they are engaged in and if they continue in it what will become of them hereafter what will become of them for ever And here I might apply this Text as God here does to the People of Israel to the publick Condition of this Nation which is not so very unlike to that of the People of Israel for God seems to have chosen this Nation for his more peculiar People and hath exercised a very particular Providence towards us in conducting us through that Wilderness of Confusion in which we have been wandring for the space of above forty years and when things were come to the last extremity and we seemed to stand upon the very brink of Ruin Then as it is said of the People of Israel ver 36. of this Chapter God repented himself for his servants when he saw that their Power was gone that is that they were utterly unable to help themselves and to work their own deliverance And it may be said of us as Moses does of that People Chap. 33.29 Happy art thou O Israel O people saved by the Lord the shield of thy help and who is the Sword of thy excellency Never did any Nation struggle with and get through so many and so great difficulties as we have several times done And I fear we have behaved our selves toward God not much better than the People of Israel did but like Jesurun after many deliverances and great mercies have waxed fat and kicked have forsaken the God that made us and little esteemed the Rock of our Salvation by which we have provoked the Lord to jealousie and have as it were forc'd him to multiply his Judgments and to spend his arrows upon us and to hide his face from us to see what our end will be so that we have Reason to fear that God would have brought utter Ruin and Destruction upon us and scatter'd us into corners and made the remembrance of us to have ceased from among men had he not feared the wrath of the enemy and lest the adversaries should have behaved themselves strangely and lest they should say Our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this that is lest they should ascribe this just vengeance of God upon a sinful and unthankful Nation to the goodness and righteousness of their own Cause and to the favour and assistance of the Idols and false Gods whom they worship'd to the Patronage and Aid of the Virgin Mary and the Saints to whom contrary to the Will and Command of the true God they had offer'd up so many Prayers and Vows and paid the greatest part of their Religious worship but the Lord hath shewn himself greater than all Gods and in the things wherein they dealt proudly that he is above them for our Rock is not as their Rock even our enemies themselves being Judges And we have been too like the People of Israel in other respects also so sickle and inconstant that after great deliverances we are apt presently to murmur and be discontented to grow sick of our own Happiness and to turn back in our hearts into Egypt so that God may complain of us as he does of his People Israel that nothing that he could do would bring them to Consideration and make them better neither his mercies nor his Judgments Isa 1.2 3. Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth For the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children but they have rebelled against me The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People doth not consider And so likewise he complains that his Judgments had no effect upon them ver 5. Why should ye be smitten any more Ye will revolt more and more Well therefore may it be said of us as it was of them in the Verse before