think himself well because he is not hanged as soon as condemned when the Judge hath set a day for his Execution Alas what small security is in that short respite Dost thou not know that the goodness of God leads thee to Repentance and yet wilt sin and so treasure up wrath to thy self by hardness of heart against the day of the Revelation of Gods just Judgment The Fool puts the Evil day far from him which how near it is God only knows 4. This is also one addition to this folly that he will sin when he hath been told not only that there is a set Day of Judgment and consequently of Punishment though delayed a while but also that a sinner by a course of impenitence may be shut up in a state inevitably obnoxious to the punishment of that Day a long while before the person dies and so comes to his particular Judgment One may so much grieve the Lord as the Israelites did in the Wilderness that he will swear they shall never enter into his rest They may sin so long that no place is left for Repentance and so no hope of Mercy It is a dreadful curse when God saith Let them fall from one wickedness to another that so often and the sins so great that they never come into his Righteousness Gray hairs are upon the foolish sinner and he perceives not that he grows old in sin and guilt My Spirit shall not always strive with men Pharaoh having hardned his heart against several miraculous Declarations of Gods Power and Anger was irrecoverably destinated to Ruin though God told him that he preserved him a while to show his power and anger upon him before he utterly destroyed him The sins of the Amorites were not at the full Who knows whether he hath filled up the measure which God will stop at yet fond sinners add to it daily When our gracious Saviour perceived Ierusalem to be in this case he wept over it and said O Ierusalem Ierusalem how oft would I have gathered thee O that thou hadst in this thy day seen the things which belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes We know that men by sin may grow so stupid as to their minds that they will pray for life to that which is dead and as to their Affections they may be given up to those which are so vile as that it is a shame to mention them and grow so base that they will sell Heaven as Esau did his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage I have heard of a man who having been drunk overnight and passed over a very narrow Bridge which no sober Horsman durst attempt being brought the next day to see what danger he went through fell down in a swoon upon the sight of it But sinners are so besotted with the love of sin that they will on though they are shewed before that the Bridge they are going to is impassable and that the Lake of Fire and Brimstone is under it This is enough to have shown the folly of sin which whosoever is guilty of when he considers it will find reason enough to be ashamed of himself 3. The third consideration in this matter is that high Injustice of which he makes himself guilty that sins There is nothing in the world so due to any person as Obedience is to God That which is made by another ought to receive Law from him There is nothing more absurd in Nature than for a Creature to be its own This was the Root upon which the misery of Mankind grew at first that they would be sui juris their own Law-givers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 still he which sins knows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but his own Appetites and this he declares in his Actions And sometimes it comes to that boldness that he says so in words too as those Miscreants Our lips are our own who is Lord over us Monstrous absurd It is not so unjust or shameful for Lacqueys to ride on Horseback and Princes to attend them on foot as for a Creature to think to be at its own dispose and to speak and do what it will No said those pious souls who understood their estate thou hast made us and not we our selves And therefore as the Apostle adds we should so speak and so do as those who shall be judged by the Creators Law and give an accompt to him who will pass a severe sentence upon the injustice of Disobedience Men are mightily concerned for their own dues and take it ill if any deprive them of their Right Shall not the God of heaven and earth regard what is due to him by a Right which is transcendent to all created propriety See what notice God takes of his wrongs A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master If then I be a Father where is mine Honour If I be a Master where is my fear Art not thou ashamed who art by nature but a Servant to deny the homage which is due to the Soveraign Lord of the World and yet art very careful of those petty Rights which are only due to thee by his appointment Dost thou think it a shame for Creatures to do unjustly to one another and yet dost not blush to wrong thy God This is so strange a thing in Gods accompt that as the Prophet Malachi tells us God wonders at it Will a man rob God It is most unlikely yet you have robbed me God had bestowed the Land of Canaan upon them but reserved to himself as Lord Proprietor several Tithes and Offerings which he would have paid to him as an Acknowledgment of himself of whom they held what they enjoyed They pay'd not these Dues But God doth not care for it possibly Doth he not See what follows ye are curs'd with a dreadful curse because you have robbed me even this whole Nation He which truly repents turns with shame for the wrong which he hath done to his God and blushes as a penitent Thief when he brings back stollen goods As a Thief is ashamed when he is found so is the House of Israel And so we read in the Confessions of those good men which prayed to God for 'em when they made their Repentance publick they were ashamed and confounded when they considered the wrongs which they had done to God To thee O Lord belongs Righteousness but to us shame and confusion of face to us not only the men of Iudah and Inhabitants of Ierusalem but to our Kings and Princes because we have sinned against thee So Ezra and others 4. This shame is heightened by this in that he which sins against God is guilty of most hainous Ingratitude He which sins offends his most good God abuseth his best Friend Dost not thou who sinnest slight him in whom thou livest movest and hast thy being affront him who hath fed and clothed thee all thy days This Ingratitude is so great an aggravation of the
the Prophet brings in the Heavens as wondring at it Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be ye horribly afraid saith the Lord for my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the Fountain of Living Waters and hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns which can hold no water 'T is true it was applyed principally to their forsaking the living God to serve dead Idols Hath a Nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit It was a strange Impudence in those wicked Jews of whom this Prophet speaks who when they were in a bad Condition made such by their sins would mend it by their sins They were in captivity because of their wickedness and in particular for Idolatry and were told so by the Prophet See what use they made of it We will burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink-offerings to her as did our Fathers who were then well and had plenty of all things Lyars They were now in Famine for that Disobedience and yet said we will do what hath come into our minds when as all the Prosperity which they enjoyed before was from observing Gods Commands and they bereav'd themselves of it now by forsaking God as the Prophet told them before that they procured this to themselves in that they forsook the Lord their God And that their own wickedness should correct them and make them know that it was an evil thing and bitter that they had forsaken God and that the fear of displeasing him was not in them and that it should enter into their heart i. e. to gnaw it when they considered what they had done What less folly are they guilty of who forsake the peace of Conscience and hope of Immortality and pleasures of Divine Favour for the embraces of an Harlot voluptuous Riots unjust Gain or for all that Good that any or all sorts of sin can bring in exchange When they come to themselves as it was said of the Prodigal for a sinner is out of his wits they say to themselves as the Apostle did to the Romans What profit have we of those things which now only produce shame in our souls Or as that great Souldier when he saw the folly of his base Condescension in the sad Consequences of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Prodigal I have left the bread and all good entertainments of my Fathers house to feed upon Husks with Swine I have of a Freeman made my self a slave to Corruption When David not weighing things in the Balance of the Sanctuary i. e. esteeming them as God doth according to the true worth did undervalue the happiness of good men because they wanted that prosperity which he saw some wicked men enjoy when he came to consider better how did he condemn the folly of his former thoughts in these words So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a Beast before thee But as I have none in Heaven but thee so in Earth there is nothing that I can desire in comparison of thee Thy favour is better than life or any thing in it This was the folly of the first sinners they would mend the estate God had put them in by following their own counsels and so for the slight and short pleasure which they had in eating forbidden fruit lost the joy of Divine Favour and the peace of their own Consciences and flung themselves into shame and fear Art not thou ashamed whoever thou art which consents to sin to throw thy self out of the joy of thy soul a serene tranquillity of mind into melancholy and grief when thou seest how by sin thou hast debased thy self lost thy honour and devested thy self of the Dignity and Pleasure of Vertue for some mean satisfaction of bodily Appetite and indulging some vile Affection 2. The folly of Sin appears more he which disobeys God will transgress his Laws and go beyond the bounds which God hath set though they lay no curb upon Appetite nor stop the course of Action be to preserve us from that mischief into which we shall fall if we go farther than they permit A madman will on though you stop him only upon the top of a Precipice Is not the pleasure of single Life enough with Chastity and Divine Love or if Nature requires another state are not the modest allowances of Marriage enough without the unclean pleasures of forbidden Beds Is not the satisfaction of eating and drinking to a temperate chearfulness much better than to be drown'd in excess of Wine and choked with Gluttony and Surfets Is not a competency of worldly Means sutable to the necessities of our Condition and number of our Relatives thankfully enjoy'd better than the tormenting content of a ravenous Temper which makes the man haunted with it always to endeavour to add House to House Land to Land and to encrease his Heap with unjust Actions as well as greedy Desires When the Fool which makes a mock of sin comes to himself and is made to see what he hath done his countenance will fall as it was said of Cain and he will be ashamed to have parted with the sprightly erect temper of his Soul which with Innocence he had in the favour of God when by sin he finds himself depressed grieved undone Sampson broke the Law of his God which as a Nazarite he had upon him and suffered a Harlot to cut off his Hair but when he went out to shake himself as he said and found the Spirit of God departed from him what horrour with shame with despondence of Soul seiz'd upon him 3. The folly of a sinner appears also in this that he is not sensible of the great danger which his sin leads him into no though he hath been often told of it See this point of Folly in a few Particulars 1. He minds not that an action once done cannot be recalled and that therefore sin once committed cannot be undone Non est nunquam omnino fecisse facere cess asse He which sins makes himself guilty 2. He acts as supposing that he may be happy without the Divine Favour or may disobey and not lose it as if God could stand Neuter among men in the World and did not impartially weigh the actions of men and were not of purer eyes than to behold Iniquity But the Fool sins on neither minding the threatnings which are annexed to the Laws which he breaks nor considering that he who made those threatnings is Almighty and so can both put them in execution and appoint such punishments as we can neither imagine nor endure 3. The sottishness of the security appears more plainly because God hath declared that he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the World in Righteousness Is thy heart set to do evil because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily Shall a Malefactor
baseness of sin that the Prophet Isaiah astonished at it cries out in Gods behalf Hear O Heavens give ear O Earth why what 's the matter I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Why is that such a matter that God should resent it on that fashion Yes For as it follows it is a vileness so low that Beasts are not capable of it The Ox knows his owner and the Ass his Masters Crib and as they come for meat to their Masters so they serve in grateful return for what they receive But Israel doth not know my people doth not consider They neither have a sense of me their God nor of the Favours they have received from me nor consider the Obligation which is upon them to obey me nor how ungrateful they are in not obeying nor the baseness of their Ingratitude whilst they disobey So Ieremiah Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of darkness that they say we are Lords we will come no more at thee I thought I had been to them that Fountain of goodness at which they drank all their days I thought that by the constant Irrigations of Mercy I had made their souls like a watered garden But it was true of them which was said of Hezekiah He returned not as he received neither for his recovery from a deadly Sickness nor deliverance from the potent Army of the Assyrians Therefore the Penitent hath good reason to say I am ashamed O Lord I blush to think how many mercies I slight how many obligations I trample upon how basely unthankful I have been Doth Iesurun kick and forget it was undeserved mercy which made him fat Because thou art full dost thou sin and not remember that thou rebellest against him who fed thee O foolish people and unwise do you thus requite the Lord Or as the Prophet Dost thou not know that I gave thee thy Corn and Wine saith God and that I multiplyed thy silver and thy gold I will return and take away my corn wine and wooll and make thee know with what ingratitude thou hast forgot thy Benefactor and chief Patron The Penitent may do well to increase this shame in his soul by the consideration of some of the chief mercies by which God hath laid Obligations of Obedience upon him and that will make him say with Ezra Have I sinned having received such deliverance as this Was I delivered to do abominations O my God I am ashamed to look up to Heaven I blush and hide my face And to all considerations of Ingratitude add always this never to be forgotten the Love of thy Saviour in dying for thy sins and then thou wilt say Do I please my self with committing sin when my Saviour in pure love suffered so much pain with infinite amazements upon the Cross for it What am I so base as to trample under my feet the Blood of the Son of God and to scorn the prayers and tears of my Saviour Those whom this consideration doth not make ashamed now will be confounded with it for ever hereafter and beg Rocks to fall upon them that they may not come into the presence of that Friend whom they have so vilely abused not only because they see him now so great that he can take vengeance upon them but because they perceive themselves so base by Ingratitude that they highly deserve it 5. Lastly The Penitent hath great reason to be ashamed of sin as for the aforementioned Considerations so for this that he hath made them out of measure sinful by a horrid Perfidiousness He which sins at first breaks the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Oath which is interwoven with our being of which the Philosopher spoke God making no Creature but of which he takes an Oath by the Law of its Nature that it shall be obedient to him But he is perfidious also because he breaks those voluntary Promises which the sense of Obligations laid upon him engaged him to make to God Sure this will make the Penitent blush when he finds reason to say to his soul O my soul Art not thou only so vile as to consent to sin against God but also to do it when thou hast vowed not to do so and when those Vows were made upon most serious deliberation and for those Reasons which thou dost still acknowledge to be most weighty This is enough to have said to shew not only how necessary Confession of sin is to Repentance but also how fit it is that sorrow and shame for sin committed should be joyned to the Confession of it Yet this must not be understood so as if they were only applicable to some penitential solemn acts of Confession for they are to be continued through our whole life For a good man will always be sorry and ever ashamed that he had once sinned Though God forgive a true Penitent will hardly forgive himself A Heathen could say That if we believe there is a Providence he which hath sinned shall not be despised if he grow good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet he shall carry some marks of old displeasure For as another said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there remains in the souls of Penitents the marks of old sins as skars do in the flesh though the wounds be healed 2. To Confession the Penitent must add earnest Prayer for pardon This we learn from our blessed Saviour who hath taught us to put this into our Prayers as a chief petition Forgive us our Trespasses Shall God forgive such as do not entreat him to do so It is fit the sinner should fall upon his knees before the Eternal Father and beg pardon When Daniel understood by reading the Prophecy of Ieremiah that the time was at hand in which God had promised so to pardon the sins of the Jews as to return their captivity then he set himself to seek it of God by supplication and prayer Why so Because the promise was made upon condition that they should repent of their sins which carried them captive and pray for pardon and return For so we read I will plant that which was desolate and build the ruinous places I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them i. e. I will grant it to them when they pray for it Hereupon this holy man began in prayer to do his part and directed them to do theirs But as Prayer for Pardon is a Duty unquestionable so Fervency is a qualification so requisite that without it Prayer will not be accepted as it appears by what our Saviour hath taught us in his Sermons the Apostles in their Epistles sincere Penitents in their praetise and of which we are assured because it hath ever been made a condition of the Forgiveness promised It is usually expressed thus They shall find me if they seek me with their whole heart Accordingly they are said to have sought God with their
think of a cowardly return Our Saviour hath declared That he who puts his hand to the heavenly Plough and doth not renounce what may make him look back is not fit for the Kingdom of God He which holds the Plough and often looks back will make mad work on 't his Furrows will be all crooked When the same our Saviour bids us Remember Lot's wife he signified to us plainly enough that such as have forsaken Sodom and their sins must not look back with hankering eyes upon them If thy heart be sincere with God thou mayest do well to express it to God upon thy knees in some such words as these are O Lord I have sinned against thee but I repent and thou understandest the depth of my heart and knowest that I repent truly Thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee In thy sacred presence I make my Vow that I will obey thee I will observe the Rules of my Nature so far as by them I am taught what my Duty is and where they fail I will read carefully thy Gospel and what I find there to be thy Will shall be to me an indispensable Law I make this solemn protestation that I will harbour no Enemy of thine in my soul and lest any thing lurk there which may displease thee let me know my heart by thy Instruction and I will cast it out I desire to be in thy sight an Israelite indeed and pray that I may inherit the blessing which thou bestowest upon those in whose spirit is no guile This is well expressed in that holy Prayer which David made in these words Try me O God and seek the ground of my heart prove me and examine my thoughts look well if there be any way of wickedness in me and lead me in the way everlasting 2. Honest Intention must be perfected with firm Resolution and fixed purpose of soul and that must be formed and settled by serious deliberation that is due consideration of those things which are the matter of Obedience and also the difficulties which may occur in the doing them He which undertakes the business of Religion thus will find in a little time that he needed to have his Resolution so grounded Our Saviour in several of his excellent Discourses hath taught us this let us consider some of them If any man will come after me that is to be my Disciple let him deny himself he must think now of renouncing all self-will and resigning himself wholly to my Discipline and take my yoke upon his Neck yield himself wholly to be governed by my Gospel And lest we should be mistaken and so fly off afterward our Saviour hath in that told us plainly what we must be viz. Godly Righteous Sober Chast Humble Charitable Patient and hath shown us fully what the work of his Servants is Have you considered these things Yes He requires nothing but what is exceeding good I cannot be happy except I be such a person as his Gospel requires So far it is well but this is not all for our Saviour adds That he must take up his Cross and follow him i. e. he must not only be willing to compose his temper and life according to our Saviour's Doctrine and Example he must also be prepar'd to bear patiently these Afflictions which may happen to him only for being Christ's Disciple This our Saviour declared in his general Discourses and also when any particular persons came to be Proselytes he dealt plainly with them and that they might be fully informed and follow him upon good grounds he acquainted them with what they might expect in his service A certain Scribe struck with admiration of his Miracles and thereupon possibly expecting that in a while such a Person would make his Disciples great professed that he would follow him wheresoever he went Our Saviour to see if this forward Man had any worthy Resolutions in him told him how mean his worldly condition was in that the Foxes have holes in Earth and Birds have nests in Trees but the Son of Man hath not as it happened to divers of his Servants any certain Habitation No House of his own for himself much less to entertain his followers He bad him think of this and then resolve what to do For the fuller Explication of this matter concerning the right forming of Christian Resolution let us read that Discourse which our Saviour made to a great Multitude when he was giving them his Divine Instruction touching this affair He which will be my Disciple must not only embrace my Doctrine but must make account that possibly many things will fall out to him for his profession and practise of my Religion which will not be very pleasing to flesh and blood he may perchance offend not only his Neighbours but his Parents and and make Enemies to him of his best Friends may endanger the losing of his Liberty and after that his Life and yet for all this he must not forsake my service For if any man come unto me and doth not hate his Father Mother Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life cannot be my Disciple Which words cannot be understood properly for it is impious to hate our Parents and other Relations and absurd to hate ones self but he means and other Scriptures teach us so that we must love all persons and things less than our Saviour and that will appear when we suffer none of them to make us desert the Obedience which we have promised him And he that doth not take up his Cross and come after me c. Not that Persecutions do always follow the profession of Christian Religion or that any man is bound upon the undertaking of it to abandon all he hath in the World not that we should presently do it because we are Christians but that we should be prepar'd to do it preferring our Saviour before all things and being resolv'd to part with all rather than break our Faith given to him To illustrate further what he said concerning this way of forming a Resolution our Saviour adds two Comparisons taken from the Rules which men follow in building Houses and making War If any man think of raising a House he must cast up what it will cost him both for Materials and Work and if he begin to build being either not provided for so much Charge or not willing to lay it out he will leave off in the middle of an imperfect Design and be laughed at for a foolish Undertaking Or if a man go to War he will consult with himself whether he hath Supplies enough for his Expedition and Forces sufficient to fight his Adversary else he will think it better to keep Peace if he have it or send Ambassadours for it upon as good Conditions as he can get So in this Spiritual building or warfare for in divers respects Religion may be compared to both we must be at much