and terrifie the imagination that may work upon the Principles of Reason and Sense by which Men are naturally and strongly moved 1. Sinners shall be excluded from Communion with the blessed God in Heaven in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore In the clear and transforming vision of his glory and the intimate and indissolvable union with him by love consists the perfection and satisfaction of the immortal Soul The felicity resulting from it is so entire and eternal as God is great and true who has so often promis'd it to his Saints Now sin separates lost Souls forever from the reviving presence of God Who can declare the extent and degrees of that evil For an evil rises in proportion to the good of which it deprives us it must therefore follow that Celestial blessedness being transcendent the exclusion from it is proportionably evil and as the felicity of the Saints results both from the direct possession of Heaven and from comparison with the contrary state so the misery of the damned arises both from the thoughts of lost happiness and from the lasting pain that torments them But it may be replied if this be the utmost evil that is consequent to sin the threatning of it is not likely to deter but few from pleasing their corrupt appetites for carnal Men have such gross apprehensions and vitated affections that they are careless of Spiritual glory and joy They cannot taste and see how good the Lord is nay the Divine Presence would be a torment to them for as light is the most pleasant quality in the World to the sound Eye so 't is very afflicting and painful to the Eye when corrupted by a suffusion of humors To this a clear answer may be given in the next state where the wicked shall for ever be without those sensual objects which here deceive and delight them their apprehensions will be changed they shall understand what a happiness the fruition of the blessed God is and what a misery to be uncapable of enjoying him and expell'd from the Celestial Paradise Luke 15.28 Our Saviour tells the infidel Jews There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you your selves shut out How will they pine with envy at the sight of that triumphant felicity of which they shall never be partakers Depart from me will be as terrible a part of the judgment as eternal Fire 2. Gods justice is not satisfied in depriving them of Heaven but inflicts the most heavy punishment upon Sense and Conscience in the damned for as the Soul and Body in their state of union in this life were both guilty the one as the guide the other as the instrument of sin so 't is equal when reunited they should feel the penal effects of it The Scripture represents both to our capacity by the worm that never dies and the fire that never shall be quenched and by the destroying of Body and Soul in Hell fire Sinners shall then be tormented wherein they were most delighted they shall be invested with those objects that will cause the most dolorous perceptions in their sensitive faculties The lake of Fire and Brimstone the blackness of darkness are words of a terrible signification and intended to awaken sinners to fly from the wrath to come But no words can fully reveal the terrible ingredients of their misery the punishment will be in proportion to the glory of Gods Majesty that is dishonour'd and provok'd by sin and the extent of his power And as the Soul was the principal and the Body but an accessary in the works of sin so its capacious faculties will be far more tormented than the more limited faculties of the outward senses The fiery Attributes of God shall be transmitted through the glass of Conscience and concenter'd upon damned Spirits the fire without them is not so tormenting as this fire within them How will the tormenting passions be inflam'd What rancour reluctance and rage against the power above that sentenc'd them to Hell What impatience and indignation against themselves for their wilful sins the just cause of it How will they curse their Creation and wish their utter extinction as the final remedy of their misery But all their ardent wishes are in vain for the guilt of sin will never be expiated nor God so far reconcil'd as to annihilate them As long as there is justice in Heaven and fire in Hell as long as God and Eternity shall continue they must suffer these torments which the strength and patience of an Angel cannot bear one hour From hence we may infer what an inconceivable evil there is in sin and how hateful it is to the most High when God who is love who is stiled the Father of mercies has prepared and does inflict such Plagues for ever for the transgression of his holy Laws and such is the equity of his judgment that he never puniâ—â—es offenders above their desert I shall now apply this Doctrin by reflecting the light of it upon our minds and hearts 1. This discovers how perverse and depraved the minds and wills of Men are to chuse sin rather than affliction and break the Divine Law for the obtaining temporal things If one with an attentive Eye regards the generality of mankind what dominion present and sensible things have over them how securely and habitually they sin in prosecution of their carnal aims as if the Soul should not survive the Body as if there were no Tribunal above to examine no Judge to sentence and punish sinners if he has not marble bowels it will excite his compassion or indignation What comparison is there between the good things of this World and of the next in degrees or duration Aiery honour Sensual pleasures and Worldly riches are but the thin appearances of happiness shadows in masquerade that cannot afford solid content to an immortal Spirit the blessedness of Heaven replenishes with everlasting satisfaction What proportion is there between the light and momentary afflictions here and a vast eternity fill'd with indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish and desperate sorrow What stupid Beast what monster of a Man would prefer a superficial transient delight the pleasure of a short dream before ever-satisfying joys Or to avoid a slight evil venture upon destruction Yet this is the true case of sinners if they can obtain the World with the loss of Heaven they count it a valuable purchase if they can compound so as to escape temporal troubles tho involved under guilt that brings extream and eternal misery they think it a saving bargain Amazing solly Either they believe or do not the recompenses in the future state if they do not how unaccountable is their impiety If they do 't is more prodigious they do not feel the powers of the World to come so as to regulate their lives and
sense of misery that a man would fain be rid of and can't 't is a Yoke whereby his Neck is gall'd but he can't put it off and if he should be released from it by any undue ways or means it would be to his farther detriment and danger in the end Now from this Fear of Death the Children are said to be delivered by Christ There are many evils from which he redeems and delivers them he delivers them from the bondage of sin and Satan from the rigour and Curse of the Law from everlasting Punishment and Wrath to come and he delivers them also from the Fear of Death This is imply'd if it be not express'd in the Text for upon the mentioning of their deliverance he gives this description of the Persons that are delivered that they wâ—â—e such as were afraid of Death and lyable to continual bondage by reason thereof Hence all Expositors both ancient and modern do rationally inferr That the Fear of Death is one of those evils from whence we are deliver'd by Jesus Christ The Text thus briefly open'd administers a fair occasion of resolving this Case or Question From what Fear of Death are the Children of God deliver'd by Jesus Christ and by what means doth he deliver them from it I shall break this Question in two and enquire 1. From what Fear of Death the Children of God are delivered from by Jesus Christ And then 2. By what Means or Methods he doth deliver them from it 1. From what Fear of Death are the Children of God deliver'd by Jesus Christ That I may resolve this Question aright I must distinguish of the Fear of Death 1. There is a natural Fear of Death This is common to all Men as Men and 't is more or less in them according to their different Constitutions and other accidental Occurrences This is nothing else but Natures aversation to it 's own dissolution and in it's self it is a sinless infirmity such as sickness weariness or the like To be loth or afraid to dye is humane and inseparable from the nature of man this fear of Death is found with the best of men Nature as one says hath a share in them as well as in others and will work as Nature or like it self The Apostle Paul tells us how good godly men are unwilling to be uncloath'd and to put off the body 2 Cor. 5.4 Our blessed Saviour who was a true though not a meer Man without the least impeachment of the Holiness and Perfection of his humane Nature express'd at some times an aversion to death John 12.27 Mark 14.35 This therefore is not the fear of Death of which the Text speaks and from which the Children of God are deliver'd by Jesus Christ 2. There is a slavish Fear of Death which hath Torment in it or which torments the Souls of men which fills their hearts with terrors and distractions which discomposeth their minds and unfits them for the duties of their general or particular callings and totally disables them from prosecuting the things that belong to their Peace and Welfare This is that fear of Death of which the Text speaks and from which the Children are deliver'd such as genders unto bondage and is servile or slavish a fear of Death as poenal and drawing after it everlasting punishment This fear of Death takes hold of carnal men they are not so much afraid of Death as of that which the Scripture calls the second Death Revel 2.11 20.6 Heb. 9.26 't is that which follows after death that makes it so formidable to them after Death as that Text speaks comes Judgment when they must receive according to the things which they have done in the Body When they dye they must launch out into an endless Ocean and go the way as Job says from whence they shall never return Job 16.22 And if Death overtakes them in their unregenerate state and condition then it will be an entrance or inlet into outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth These and such-like are the considerations that make Death so dreadfull to the Children of Men that give it the denomination of the King of Terrors and of terrible things the most terrible they are not as one said afraid to dye but they are afraid to be damn'd Hence it is that though Death be terrible to all men yet it is most terrible to those whose Consciences are awakened and whose understandings are enlightned who have been instructed in the Knowledge of God and of a future State of Retribution Death as one observes is not half so terrible to a Heathen as it is to an ungodly Christian Heathen men are in the dark and see but little of that which is the true terror of Death But enlightned Christians who have been acquainted with the Scripture who know that the Wrath of God is reveal'd from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Rom. 1.18 1 Cor. 6.9 Psal 9.17 2 Thes 1.7 8 9. that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God that the wicked shall be turned into Hell and all Nations and people that forget God that Jesus Christ shall be reveal'd from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power That the greatest part by far of the wages of sin which is eternal damnation shall be paid in another World These are they that are surrounded with the slavish fears of Death 'T is true that many wicked Persons who live under the Gospel are under none of these terrors but then 't is because they look on Death at a great distance from them and the remoteness of any Object though in it's self never so terrible takes away the fear of it Or else it is because they are over-busied and taken up about the things of the World as the lust of the flesh or of the eyes or the pride of life and if any thoughts of Death and of the World to come arise in their minds they are presently smother'd and stifled by worldly objects and diversions Cain was a while afraid of Death he thought every one that met him would slay him but by and by he gets into the Land of Nod and there he falls a building of Cities and doth so immerse or drown himself in the affairs of the World that by little and little the slavish fear he had of Death did wear out of his mind Or else it is because of their Atheism or Infidelity there is a great deal of this amongst professed Christians All wicked men as the Apostle Paul says are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2.12 without God in the World or as it may be rendred they are Atheists in the World They are all practical Atheists and too many are
knowledge of Christ in comparison of which all other things were loss and dross and dung That he might know Christ and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to his Death Phil. 3.8 10. And this is one way of clearing the difficulty and reconciling the seeming contradiction 2. Others have recourse to a Hyperbaton and would clear the Thing by transposing the words And they order the words thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To know the surpassing Love of the knowledge of Christ and then the sense will be this I pray that you may know that surpassing that incomparable Love of God which appeared in giving you the knowledge of Christ And it must be for ever acknowledged that this was a marvellous instance of the Love of God that he was pleased to Communicate to the World the knowledge of a Redeemer but yet it seems rather to impoverish the sense than to give us the full import of the expression 3. There is no need to fly to Critical Niceties nor to call in Rhethorick and its figures to our Relief The words will be consistent and freed from all appearance of self-contradiction if we attend to these following Positions 1. That which cannot be known by a meer humane understanding may yet be understood by the Spirit of Christ which searcheth all things even the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 And the Spirit of God is given for this end to shed abroad the Love of God and so the Love of Christ in our Hearts Rom. 5.5 2. That which cannot be fully known of the Love of Christ in this present state where our understandings are very much clouded and our faith weak thro' the remainders of inward Corruption yet shall be more gloriously known when we come to see God in Christ face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 Now we know but in part but then we shall know as we are also known 3. Although there be much of the Love of Christ which passes all our present knowledge yet there 's enough of that Love that may be known enough to feed our knowledge that it starve not in this life and yet to whet the edge of the Souls appetite to know more in the life to come enough to guide us and conduct us thro' our pilgrimage and abundance more reserv'd for our portion The Love of Christ has Depths in it wherein the daring Soul may drown and yet those shallows wherein the humble Soul may safely wade and comfortably bathe it self without danger of being swallowed up And we have some parallel expressions in Scripture which may well illustrate this of the Text Phil. 4.7 The peace of God passes all understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it exceeds all conception and yet there is that in the Peace of God which may be conceived and expressed too even something of that inward satisfaction which arises from a well grounded hope that our peace is made with God and that peace copied out upon and exemplified in a pure and quiet Conscience so in the verse following my Text we read that God is able to do exceeding abundantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above that we can ask and think and yet we may conceive something of what God will do for us and cloath those conceptions with suitable expressions and make our humble Addresses to him for what he has promised to give to us and do for us in such a way as shall be acceptable to God thro' the Interest of our Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ In a word As Moses could not see Gods face and live Exod. 33.20 And yet Moses could not live except he saw Gods face so is there a measure a degree of the knowledge of the Love of Christ which we cannot reach if we would die for 't and yet there is such a measure such a Degree of the knowledge of that Love of Christ which we must reach or we die for 't And hence I will briefly touch upon two Propositions I. Prop. There is something in the Love of Christ which in this present state surpasses all perfect knowledge of it Something of which we may say as one said of a Learned Book If that which I understand be so admirable what is that which I do not understand Take any one mystery of the Gospel and when we have pursued it as far as our faculties are able to trace it we must be forced to make a stand and as Paul upon the shore of the Ocean of Gods unsearchable untraceable Counsels Rom. 11.33 to cry out O the Depth or as Job chap. 26.14 Lo these are parts of his ways and how little a portion is heard of him There are two things that are unmeasurable The evil of sin and the Love of a Saviour And the Love of a Saviour must be therefore unmeasurable to the sinner because the evil of sin is unmeasurable He that knows not the exceeding greatness of his debt can never fully know the exceeding greatness of his Love that became a surety for it He that cannot measure the greatness of the Curse he lay under can never measure the Love of his Deliverer And he that never could fully estimate the misery of his bondage can never fully value or conceive aright of the Love of his Redeemer 1. The evil of his is unmeasurable It is so whether we consider the Object against whom sin is committed or the Punishment which sin hath deserved or the Agonies which the Redeemer suffer'd to Atone it 1. If we consider sin as committed against an infinite God so sin is infinite objectively and therefore unmeasurable the malignity of sin is unconceivable it strikes at the Authority the Glory the very Being of the chiefest Good Every sin would in its tendency dethrone the most High 2. If we consider the demerit of sin it is that which passes all understanding Psal 90.11 Who knows the power of thine anger We cannot take the just and Adequate measure of that wrath which is due to sin by all the Plagues and Judgments by which God ever bore witness against the evil of sin The fire of Sodom and Gomorra was dreadful fire but yet it was quencht a little time extinguisht it but that fire of wrath which burns upon but never burns up sinners is inextinguishable fire Mark 9.44 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fire is inextinguishable It is everlasting punishment Matth. 25.46 The Deluge that drowned the old World argued great Displeasure against sinners yet neither was that a just measure of Gods wrath that is due to sin for the waters of the Deluge were soon dryed up but so will not the Floods of Divine Vengeance poured out upon sinners to the uttermost for the breath that is the anger of the Lord as a stream of fire and brimstone kindles and feeds the matter of those flames The Plagues of Egypt were exceeding great demonstrations of Divine anger against sin yet they were determinate for number
against all Old Folks Sin No but without any restriction against all peoples Sin And alas for you did you never with your own Eyes see God's Wrath cut off Young Sinners Did you never hear that in the Flood of Old Children and Young People were drowned with the Old And in Sodom the Young and Old Folk burned together And that Bears tore in pieces Two and Forty little Bodies for mocking an Holy Prophet 2 King 23 24. The Spirit of Christ in the Old Testament saith expresly that for all your unrepented follies â—od will bring you Young ones into Judgment of Condemnation Eccles 11.9 And in the New Testament he doth not tell you that except an Old Body be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God No but that except a Man any Man be born again he cannot Now in Scripture Language whatever is born of a Woman is a Man though he be but a Span long Vengeance must be taken on all that know not God and obey not the Gospel all such must be punished with Everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power Nor hath Childhood or Youth any exemption 2 Thes 1.8 9. Come read ye then the terrible hand-Writings of God against you so shall your malepert Countenances fall your Marble Hâ—â—rts break the Joynts of your Loins be loosed your Knees smite one against another and your doubt be fully resolved whether present Conversion be your Duty or not The Threat of a fiery Furnace made by Nebuchadnezzar made all the Country save Three Children of God to bow to an Idol What would God's Threat of such a Furnace as Hell is do if it were but duly consider'd A Furnace of worse Fire Fire of Extremity and Eternity A Threat of it by a Mightier Power and more unchangeable Resolution Were these in your Eye you would have much to do to hold your backs turned on God Your Conversion must be hastned or your Unregeneracy imbittered You must be grievously tormented till changed You would soon for your ease crave Annihilation or a contrary posture to that your Souls now stand in toward God You are fain to wink hard and make your selves blind to be so bold as to put off your Conversion Divine Threats would bore through your Hearts if your Lusts did not first bore out your Eyes Rises now any thought within you that God is very hard thus to press upon you And to deny you the pleasures of Sin for such a moment as is your Childhood and Youth it self Besides what will follow to shame it I tell you here right I have heard of a Devout Soul that used to thank God for Hell The thoughts of it had done him so much good So much good Service against Sin 't was to him a Wall of Fire against Sin a worse Evil than Hell the worst thing in Hell No sooner shall your Eyes be opened to see what Sin is and what need you have of being by Fear driven from Sin and what need of God's Threats to make you fear it but you shall straightway think God infinitely kind in the earliness of his Calls and in the terribleness of his Threats I and your Hearts shall tell you that the worst and all that God threatens Omnis peccator citra condignum plectitur Sch. is vastly less than a minutes delay of Conversion doth deserve from him R. 3. You have the Promises of as good things as the Oldest People have if you do Convert presently Therefore 't is your Duty The very Command of God without a Threat would have made it your Duty And so would his Threats if no one Promise had been superadded But what think you that all do make it Consider ye here God promises you Spiritual Temporal and Eternal Blessings And the very same that he promises to Converts of the fullest Age. And also with as well confirmed Promises as well confirmed by his Oath and by outward visible Signs and Seals or Holy Sacraments as the Church hath long called them A Consideration enough to make the least Intelligent Babies sing Hosanna's With Reverence to the Father of Mercies I will say it He hath no better or greaâ—er Blessings to give than he doth this Morning offer to bestow on all that will Convert this Morning And on the very least of you all Neither will he think Eternity too long for your Reward if you will not think your Life-time too long for his Service A single Minutes aversion from it deserveth Hell But such is his Grace through our Redeemer that in the very Minute of your sincere Conversion he gives you a Title to Heaven Young People whatever is done by Old Adders pray do not you stop your Ears I would fain have this day to be your Coronation-day so it will be if it be your Conversion-day In Scripture dialect you are Kings and Queens the first Minute that ye be Converts Yea and more Glorious ones than any Unsanctified Heads that bear those Names If the greatest Earthly Kings and Queens knew the Vanity of their Thrones they would gladly part with them for one Evidence of Interest at the Heavenly one But wot it If any Convert upon the Earthly Globe did but know his Interest in Heaven he must presently live by Miracle or die for Joy So weighty is the Crown of Grace it self So overwhelming a Glory unto us in the Body You are ready to think this is too good to be true But hear ye then the most sure word of Prophesie Act. 2.39 The self-same Promise is to Fathers and Children The Covenant of Grace is but one for both Of the same Promises to them as of the same Demands from them And ask ye what in this Covenant is Promised I tell you 2 Cor. 6.16 God promises to be the God of every Convert 1 Cor. 3.21 That all things desirable shall be theirs Luke 15.31 It is his own Word and as large an one as Infinite Bounty it self can speak All that I have is thine Pardoning Grace and Purifying is promised Heb. 8.10 12. An Inheritance Incorruptible reserved in Heaven is promised 1 Pet. 1.4 The Necessaries of the Life that now is are promised enough to bear your Charge to Heaven 1 Tim. 4.8 An entail of Blessing on your dearest ones is promised Exod. 20.6 Rom. 11.28 The Promises of all these are by God confirmed unto you in your Baptism You have them Signed and Sealed by God's hand before you know your right hand from your left So very early God encourages you to Hope in him and Convert unto him By Signed Sealed Promise David sayes God did make him to hope when he was on his Mothers Breasts And was his God from his Mothers Belly I can understand him no otherwise Psal 22.9 10. God forestalled the World and Devil bound David so to him before they could come at him to entice him away Laid in that superabundant ground of Hope and Engagement unto all
Contempt is abominable Man can better bear to have his Power or Authority or Wisdom contemned than his Goodness Ingratitude is justly reputed among the worst of Vices and the Contempt of Goodness is the highest act of ingratitude And the higher the Goodness is that is Contemned the higher still is the Ingratitude and the more provoking 3. An higher Contempt of God's Threatnings God's Threatnings under the Law were for the most part of Temporal Evils but now under the Gospel the Threats rise higher and are more dreadful It is the damnation of Hell everlasting Fire utter darkness where there is weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power c. And great Men cannot well bear to have their Anger slighted and their Threats despised or derided But though the Lion roar and God's Threats are denounced and his Wrath revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness of Men more than ever before yet the impenitent Sinner trembles not but goes on in his sin and saith he shall have Peace and so casts Contempt upon the severest Threatnings of God 4. This Impenitency is a disappointing God in his End It is a frustrating of his great design which is to recover lost Man to himself by Jesus Christ And Man is not recovered and brought back to God but by true repentance And it is his great End in sending his Gospel to a People to bring them to Repentance And this End of God is now made void when sinners repent not Men are sometimes grieved and sometimes angried when they are disappointed in their End so is God said to be He complains often of this in the Scriptures when he is disappointed in the End of his Corrections he complains Jer. 2.30 In vain have I smitten your Children they received no Correction And in the End of his shewing favour Isai 1.2 I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me And complains of his Vineyard disappointing the End of his care and cost about it When I looked for Grapes it brought forth wild Grapes Isai 5.4 Our Saviour is said to rejoyce when Sinners were brought to repentance he now enjoy'd the End of his Coming Luke 10.21 But then at another time he grieved because of the hardness of mens hearts Mark 3.5 And there is still joy in Heaven when sinners repent And Christ's faithful Ministers rejoyce also when sinners repent for they now attain their End which they com◠upon and will give up their account with joy concerning such as they will do with grief concerning others Whereupon the Apostle as a Co-worker with God Heb. 13.17 beseecheth the Corinthians that they receive not the grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6.1 That neither God nor himself may be disappointed in the end of their work being Co-workers And Grace is bestow'd in vain when it brings not Sinners to repentance and when men accept not of the reconciliation mention'd in the foregoing Chapter which Grace hath provided for them It was a sad complaint of the Prophet when he saith I have laboured in vain Isai 49.4 Much more for an Apostle and a Minister of the New Testament thus to complain And much more for Christ to complain thus as sometimes he did And most of all for God himself to complain as he doth in the case of Sinners impenitency So that Impenitency under the Gospel must needs be very sinful 5. This Impenitency hath much folly in it as well as sin For men to run themselves into the destruction which they might avoid and refuse the offers of God's mercy and grace in the Gospel is not this folly He is call'd a fool that hath a price in his hand and hath not an heart to use it Prov. 17.16 And the Virgins in the Parable that lost their Season of entring in with the Bridegroom are styled foolish Virgins Matth. 25. And are not Sinners that continue in their sin and impenitency under the Gospel thus foolish For they have set before them the fairest price and the richest seasons The Prodigal in the Parable when he came home to his Father is said to come to himself Luke 1◠So when a Sinner repents and comes home to God he now comes to himself as if his former life was folly and madness 6. Impenitency under the Gospel shews greater Wilfulness in sin As it argues great folly in the Mind so perverseness in the Will And the more there is of the Will in sin the more sinful it is As the Schoolmen say Bonitas malitia moralis sunt potissimùm in voluntate Paul could say it was not he that sinn'd when he did sin because his Will was against it Rom. 7.20 The Evil that I would not that I do And this God chiefly looks at in Actions both good and evil There seems to be more wilfulness in Impenitency under the Gospel than ever before The more Light and Knowledge men sin against the more Will there is in sin And the fairer offers are made to men of Heaven and Salvation the more wilful is the refusal And this is the case of Sinners under the Gospel They do not repent and they will not repent they do not hear and they will not hear they do not leave their sin and they will not leave it 7. Lastly Impenitency under the Gospel is attended with the greatest resistance of the Spirit Greater than in former time There is more of the Spirit goes along with the Gospel-ministration than with any before it And there cannot be a disobedience to the Gospel without resisting that Spirit that goes along with it Upon some the Spirit prevails and brings them to repentance and in others he is resisted And some resist to that degree that they are said to offer despight to the Spirit of Grace Heb. 10.29 And the sin that is accounted unpardonable is committed against the Holy Ghost and it 's Thought cannot be committed but under the Gospel whereby Sinners are brought by a sinful to a judicial Impenitency Heb. 6.6 So that by this time you may see the great sinfulness of Impenitency under the Gospel beyond what was or could be in Sodom whereby mens damnation will be more intolerable Now I come to the last Particular to shew wherein the greater intolerableness will consist 1. Such will suffer greater Torments from their own Consciences The worm of Conscience will gnaw them with greater pain The reflections of it upon the sinner will be with greater force and fury By how much Men have sinn'd against greater Light and Mercy by so much the remembrance of this will be the more afflictive It was some aggravation of Dives his Torments in Hell the remembrance of former good things enjoy'd Much more will the remembrance of a day of Salvation lost and of the refusal or neglect of Gospel-grace and mercy be afflictive to sinners in a state of Damnation The Light they have sinn'd
See hence what little Reason men have to boast of their Knowledge or Gospel-priviledges when these may turn to their sorer Condemnation He that knows his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes Luke 12.47 And so Christ speaks to the Pharisees who boasted themselves to be the Pechachim the seeing men whose eyes were opened Because you say we see therefore your sin remaineth John 9.41 And thus the Jews boasted over the Gentiles That they knew God's will were instructed out of the Law and were instructers of the foolish and teachers of babes Rom. 2.18 19 20. and boasted themselves to be the Circumcision but yet they not keeping the Law the Uncircumcision should judge and condemn them v. 27. We have many among us who boast of a little Knowledge they have more than others and have learn'd to talk and dispute of Religion and despise others as foolish ignorant blind and babes when all this may make their Judgment the more intolerable Some of the Jews have a Tradition that the holy Fire of the Altar was hid in an hole of a Rock all the time of the Captivity and when at their return they lookt for it it was turned into a Jelly which they took and laid upon the Altar and there was kindled into a Fire again by the beams of the Sun When the Light that is in the Mind kindles a Flame of Love in the Heart and thence are presented holy Sacrifices to God this is Light sanctified and sanctifying the Soul but when it rests in the Mind and is resisted in the Heart and Practice of Men it will whether Men will or no shine into their Consciences first or last to their greater Terror and Condemnation And therefore let Men take heed of Sin against Light and Knowledge Against the Light of Nature the Light of Education the Light of good Example especially the Light of the Gospel For such Sins make the greatest noise in the Conscience do most harden Mens hearts make Men self-condemned and will most expose Men at the day of Judgment Vse 5. And so I come to the next Use which is To awaken us of this City and this Nation who have had Gospel-favours and Priviledges above most people under Heaven May we not say of London as Christ of Capernaum O London who hast been lift up to Heaven And if any from hence shall perish and be cast down to Hell how great will their fall be It would be better perishing out of Tire and Sidon and Sodom than out of London Tolluntur in altum ut Casu graviore ruant as the Poet speaks of Men that fall from high places What though God hath by a wonderful Hand open'd us a door of Liberty What though we have such plenty of excellent Preaching and what though we are such constant Hearers of these Lectures Morning by Morning yet if any of us still continue Impenitent it will but encrease our Doom at Dooms-day Obj. But we hope that that day will never come and all this Talk of it is but to fright people a little into good manners A device of Princes to keep People under Government or of Priests to make Markets of their Consciences Ans 1. It 's true few live as if they believ'd it But can any Man say that he is sure it will never come I think no Man dare say that Therefore it is our best wisdom to prepare for that day which may come though we should not be sure it will come A wise Man will provide against an Evil that may possibly come though he is not sure it will come especially considering the dreadful consequence of being surprized 2. And it 's true that this day is delayed but it is because God waits for Sinners repentance and would have Men saved and enter in before the door be shut 2 Pet. 3.9 3. Do any of us not believe it when the Devils themselves believe and tremble When they said to our Saviour Art thou come to torment us before our time It shew'd they believed a day of Judgment But I spake of this before Q. But what will preserve us then from Damnation seeing such a Judgment-day must certainly come Ans That which would have preserved Corazin Bethsaida and Capernaum will preserve us and that is true repentance which you may know what it is by the description I have given before of its contrary which is Impenitency Let us all in good earnest turn to God and repent Let us repent of our Pride and immodest Dresses in Apparel and reform Let our Women take down their high towring Dresses and our Men shorten their monstrous Perukes Let us repent of our Strife and Contention and the Persecutions that have been amongst us Let us repent of the great neglect of Family-duties and our spending so much time at Taverns and Coffee-houses Let others repent of their Frauds in Commerce and Trading and others of their Oaths and Blasphemies and others of their Extortion and Oppression others of their base temporizing in Religion Let Children repent of Disobedience to Parents and Parents of their neglect of the Instruction and Education of their Children so Masters and Servants of the neglect of the Duties of their mutual Relation Let us rerent of our careless Hearing and our unprofitable Hearing of our loose Observation of the Sabbath and unworthy Receiving the Lord's-Supper and bring forth fruits meet for Repentance Let London remember what befel Sodom for not repenting and take heed of Sodom's Sins which are said to be Pride Ezek. 16.49 2 Pet. 2.6 Jude 7. Idleness and Fulness of Bread and Fornication and going after strange Flesh and now have suffered the Vengeance of Eternal fire That this City may not be called Sodom's Sister as Jerusalem was for being so like her in her Sin Ezek. 16.48 and her Fruit not like the Apples of Sodom fair without and within nothing but Ashes But I have better hope concerning this City and that as God hath wonderfully saved it so he will do still and that its case is not as Sodom's not to have in it ten righteous persons when Abraham interceded for the sparing of it And though this City was once laid in Ashes yet not as Sodom which was never built again and is now a bituminous Lake call'd Asphaltites and the Waters of it are deadly and the Fumes out of it mortal and the Ground and Trees about it barren which Pliny Solinus Diodorus Siculus and other Heathen Writers have taken notice of But London stands up out of its Ruins to the terror of those that design'd it to oblivion and perpetual desolation and is more populous than ever and the joyful Sound of the Gospel and the Voice of the Turtle are yet heard in her Streets and not the Voice of Owls and Satyrs as is foretold of Babylon And is spiritually called Sodom Rev. 11.8 And was Typed by the City Jericho which would expose the Man to a fatal Curse that
his Royal Captives who helped to draw his Charlot looking wistly on the Wheel how the part now lowest was presently uppermost so that he considering the mutability of these sublunary things released him from that bondage And however forget not what the Holy Ghost saith Jam. 2.13 He shall have judgment without mercy that sheweth no mercy and mercy rejoyceth against judgment 10. My last Advice is to Pray for the peace of Jerusalem This every one may do and this every one ought to do Psal 122.6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces There are few greater Reasons for our solemn Fasting and Prayer than this If some Plague or War or Drought come upon us we reckon it 's high time to Fast and Pray But alas those are in themselves but Miseries but our Contentions are so our Miseries that they are our sins also Those will but destroy some of our People but Uncharitable Contentions will consume us all But whatever Others do herein let it be every sincere Christian's care to lay holy violence to Heaven upon this Account You have done all that is in your Power to restore Love and Peace and it is in vain try thâ—â— what God can do Abi in cellam dic miserere Deus He can make Men to be of one mind in a House City and Nation He can bow the Hearts of a whole Nation even as the Heart of one man and that in a moment of time He can bring the Wolf and the Lyon and the Lamb to feed together so that they shall not hurt nor destroy in all his holy mountain Isa 65 25. And O that the Prayer of our most Blessed Saviour Joh. 17.21 may yet prevail with God to pour down a spirit of Love and Peace into us all In the mean time let all those that are passive that are upright humble and quiet comfort themselves with Salvian's saying Insectantur nos in nobis Deum Christ is a fellow-sufferer with all that suffer as Christians and their design is against God himself that devour his servants And then pergant nostrae patientiae praecones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beatos nos hoc modo facient dum vellent miseros They that speak and write all manner of evil of you so it be falfely while they endeavour to render you miserable do thereby make you happy True Virtue and Piety shines most in the fire and therefore in Patience possess your Souls if you can possess nothing else And for Others if after all Warnings and Endeavours their Hearts be still fill'd with Rancour and bent upon mischief we must leave them to St. Augustine's Sentence Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat There is a God who tells his Servants wandrings and puts their tears in his bottle and who will execute judgment upon all that have spoken or done hardly toward them and though they may support themselves with their present impunity and prosperity yet the Lord of that servant that began to smite his fellow servants will come in a day he looked not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder Matth. 24.50 And though they may think it a long time to that day they will find there is a longer space after it They that choose the Fire shaâ—â— have their fill of it For to them that are contentious there remains indignation and wrath and Fire that is everlasting But I despair not of so much Remorse in such as have without Prejudice and with Consideration read these Pages but that they will awake and shake off the Inchantment which hath possess'd them and discerning their Sin and our common Danger they will embrace all their faithful Brethren and become sincere lovers of Truth and Peace which effect the God of Love and Peace work in us all by his Holy Spirit for the sake of the Prince of Peace Jesus Christ our Redeemer Amen Amen Quest From what Fear of Death are the Children of God delivered by Christ and by what Means doth He deliver them from it SERMON IV. HEB. II. 15. And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their life time subject unto bondage IN this and in the foregoing Verse you have some Account of the design and end of our Lord Jesus Christ in his Incarnation and Passion There were divers weighty Reasons why he assum'd our Nature and therein subjected himself to Death and two of them are told us in this Context 1. That he might destroy the Devil 2. That he might deliver the Elect People of God 1. That he might destroy the Devil who is describ'd to be one that had the power of Death not the supream but a subordinate Power of Death a Power of Death as God's Executioner to inflict it and affright men with it to make it terrible and formidable to them by heightning their guilty Fears and representing to them its dreadful consequents In these and in divers other respects that might be mentioned the Devil is said to have the Power of Death Him as it follows hath Christ destroyed That is disarm'd and disabled Christ hath not destroy'd him as to his being and substance but as to his Power and Authority over the Children and chosen of God And this Christ did by his own Death Through or by death he destroy'd him that had the power of Death viz. The Devil It was upon the Cross that be spoil'd Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it 2. To come to what I intend another End and reason of Christ's Incarnation and Passion was that he might deliver the Elect People of God These he calls the Children in the foregoing Verse not the Children of Men as some expound it but the Children of God Such Children as the Father had given the Son so they are said to be Ver. 13. Behold says Christ I and the Children which thou hast given me such as were predestinated to the adoption of Children as it is phras'd Ephes 1.5 These the Text also describes and tells us in what Condition they were by Nature Through fear of Death they were all their life-time subject to bondage By all their Life time you must understand all that time which they liv'd before they were deliver'd This is the Condition of the Elect of God as they come into the World they are not only subject unto Death but unto the Fear of Death and unto bondage by reason thereof The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is render'd subject signifies they were held fast and manacled as Birds that are taken in a snare or as Malefactors that are going to their Execution The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred bondage signifies a state of servitude or slavery such as men dislike but cannot avoid One calls it a poenal disquietment or perplexity of mind that ariseth from a
be admitted as a foregoing condition of our Justification for the Reasons above given yet it must be acknowledged to be a condition in the Heirs of Salvation for without holiness no Man shall see God And rightly understood Holiness is such a thing with which we shall be saved Heb. 12.14 and to be sure without which we shall not be saved The Heathens made the way to the Temple of Honour thro the Temple of Virtue And amongst Christians Grace is the way to Glory that is walking in the way of God's Commandments brings us to the place where God is which way is as necessary to be walk'd in by all those that will go to God at last as a path that leads to a Town or place must be gone in by all that will come thither 'T is true good Works do not go before Justification but follow after for being sanctified also when we are justified we are created unto good works in Christ Jesus Eph. 2.10 Till we have a Being we cannot act and till the Root be made good the Fruit cannot be good Amongst the Moralists it may still be a Rule Bona agendo sumus boni By doing good we become good but this must not be so strictly urged in Divinity where the Fountain must be cleansed before the Stream can run pure indeed after Conversion and Regeneration nothing increases the habits of Grace more than the actings of Grace and in this natural and infused Habits do agree they are both strengthned by acting of them Whatsoever Grace you would have strong and lively in the Soul let it be conscienciously and frequently exercised and it will become so This hath many a probatum est amongst the Children of God The consideration of these things do give us a true account why in Scripture we shall find good Works and Holiness so much magnified on the one hand and yet sometimes on the other hand so debased Not to make proof of the former the extolling good works which deservedly is every where in Scripture Yet withall we shall find them very diminutively spoken of in Scripture as where it is said That Our righteousnesses are as filthy Rags and also where the Apostle says Isa 64.6 That he accounts his blamelesness and righteousness which is in the Law but loss nay dung That is to say when good Works are considered with any relation to Justification or when they are compared with the Righteousness of Christ we cannot think or speak too meanly of them But when Holiness is considered as a Fruit of the Spirit always accompanying Justification and a requisite preparative for Glory and an Ornament to our Profession in the mean while we cannot too much extoll it nor be too zealous and earnest in the acquiring and practising of it especially considering that 3. Holiness is indispensibly necessary unto all justified Persons Holiness is indispensably cessary to justified Ones Departing from Iniquity is the Duty of all that name the Name of Christ As it was necessary that Christ should take upon him our Flesh so it is as necessary that we should receive from him his Spirit he must become Flesh of our flesh and Bone of our bone that he might pay our debt in the same nature which contracted it so we must partake of his Spirit that we may be capacitated to receive the Fruit of his Redemption and be one with him Nay all Promises the very Covenant of Grace its self is thus to be understood viz. That the Beneficiaries or they that receive benefit by them should be holy otherwise they might not without presumption hope for any good from them And tho we do not meet with this always express'd yet it is alwayes to be understood Jer. 22.24 God expresly declaring that tho Coniah a wicked Person was as a Signet upon his right hand yet he would pluck him thence And when God engageth to continue his Favour unto any he engageth to continue them in a fit disposition to receive his Favour Thus to the Posterity of David Psal 89.32 which in a Type were the Representatives of the spiritual Seed that should be raised to our Elder Brother-Christ Jesus whom David typified it was promised that they should endure for ever but then in case of forsaking of God's Law he would visit their Transgressions with a Rod Vers 29. or he would use such means tho irksome for him to do and grievous for them to bear as might bring them back unto himself by Repentance Nay were the Promise of God never so plain and full in any case unto any Person yet there is always a Subintelligitur of such a demeanour as may be fit to receive the mercy promised as we may see in the case of Eli and his Family which God doth acknowledge that he had promised the Priesthood to and yet upon the provocations of Eli and his Sons 1 Sam. 2.30 God says Be it far from me that I should perform it Neither is God unrighteous or his Veracity to be excepted against for so long as we have to do with so Holâ— a God all Covenants are to be understood so as may agree with his Holiness and not otherwise Thou sayest But they are but vain words that thou hast such Mercies promised unto thee and treasured up for thee whereas unless thou beest sanctified and born again thou canst not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven John 3.3 or so much as see the Kingdom of God or be benefited by any promise that God hath made As 't is storyed of one who was very debauched and wicked and taking up a Bible which by his Religion he had not been acquainted with being a Papist he confessed that whatsoever Book that was it made against him So unless thou dost sincerely labour after holiness there is never a word in all the Book of God that speaks any comfort unto thee none of the Fruit that grows upon the Tree of Life can be tasted by thee This might be more evinc'd if we fix our mind on these following Reasons 1. Reason From the Nature of God 1. The first may be taken from the Nature of God I mean the Essential Holiness of this Nature by which he cannot have communion with any one that is unholy no more than Light can have fellowship with Darkness but he indispensibly hates and opposes all wickedness and hath declared his Enmity against it As fire cannot but devour stubble Isa 5.24 so God's Holiness will not suffer him to spare any whom he finds sin and guilt upon hence so many threatnings and denunciations of Judgments against it which do not linger whatsoever the Sinner may think neither can the Gospel change God's Nature or make him less to abhorr sin It is indeed a Declaration of the way and means which God hath ordained to exalt his Grace and Mercy to the Sinner by but it is in saving of him from his sin and not with it
the Psalmist declaring their inward sentiments The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it Lastly The sinner slights the power of God This attribute renders God a dreadful Judge He has a right to punish and power to revenge every transgression of his Law His judicial power is supreme his executive is irresistible He can with one stroke dispatch the Body to the Grave and the Soul to Hell and make Men as miserable as they are sinful Yet sinners as boldly provoke him as if there were no danger We read of the infatuated Syrians that they thought that God the Protector of Israel had only power on the Hills and not in the Vallies and renewed the War to their destruction Thus sinners enter into the lists with God and range an Army of lusts against the Armies of Heaven and blindly bold run upon their own destruction They neither believe his all-seeing Eye nor all-mighty Hand They change the glory of the living God into a dead Idol that has Eyes and sees not and Hands and handles not and accordingly his threatnings make no impression upon them Thus I have presented a true view of the evil of sin consider'd in it self but as Job saith of God how little a portion of him is known May be said of the evil of sin how little of it is known For in proportion as our apprehensions are defective and below the greatness of God so are they of the evil of sin that contradicts his Sovereign will and dishonours his excellent perfections 2. Sin relatively to us is the most pernicious and destructive Evil. If we compare it with temporal Evils it preponderates all that Men are liable to in the present World Diseases in our Bodies disasters in our Estates disgrace in our Reputation are in just esteem far less evil than the evil of sin for that corrupts and destroys our more excellent and immortal part The vile Body is of no account in comparison of the precious Soul Therefore the Apostle enforces his exhortation Dearly beloved brethren abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the Soul The issue of this War is infinitely more woful than of the most cruel against our Bodies and Goods our Liberties and Lives for our Estates and Freedom if lost may be recover'd if the present Life be lost for the cause of God it shall be restor'd in greater lustre and perfection but if the Soul be lost 't is lost for ever All temporal Evils are consistent with the love of God Job on the dunghil roughcast with Ulcers was most precious in Gods sight Lazarus in the lowest poverty and wasted with loathsom Sores was dear to his affections a guard of Angels was sent to convey his departing Soul to the Divine Presence But sin separates between God and us who is the fountain of felicity and the center of rest to the Soul Other evils God who is our wise and compassionate Father and Physitian makes use of as Medicinal preparations for the cure of sin and certainly the Disease which would be the death of the Soul is worse than the Remedy tho' never so bitter and afflicting to sense Sin is an evil of that malignity that the least degree of it is fatal If it be conceiv'd in the Soul tho' not actually finisht 't is deadly One sin corrupted in an instant angelical excellencies and turn'd the glorious Spirits of Heaven into Devils 'T is a poison so strong that the first taste of it shed a deadly taint and malignity into the veins of all mankind Sin is such an exceeding Evil that 't is the severest punishment Divine Justice inflicts on sinners on this side Hell The giving Men over to the power of their lusts is the most fearful judgment not only with respect to the cause Gods unrelenting and unquenchable anger and the issue everlasting destruction but in the quality of the judgment Nay did sin appear as odious in our Eyes as it does in Gods we should account it the worst part of Hell it self the pollutions of the damned to be an evil exceeding the torments superadded to them Sin is pregnant with all kinds of Evils the seeds of it are big with Judgments The evils that are obvious to sense or that are Spiritual and Inward Temporal and Eternal Evils all proceed from sin often as the Natural cause and always as the Meritorious And many times the same punishment is produc'd by the efficiency of sin as well as inflicted for its guilt Thus uncleanness without the miraculous waters of Jealousie rots the Body and the pleasure of sin is revenged by a loathsom consuming Disease the natural consequence of it Thus intemperance and luxury shorten the lives of Men and accelerate damnation Fierce desires and wild rage are fewel for the everlasting fire in Hell The same evils considered Physically are from the efficiency of sin consider'd legally are from the guilt of sin and the justice of God This being a point of great usefulness that I may be more instructive I will consider the evils that are consequential to sin under these two Heads 1. Such as proceed immediately from it by Emanation 2. Those evils and all other as the effects of Gods justice and sentence 1. The evils that proceed immediately by emanation from it and tho' some of them are not resented with feeling apprehensions by sinners yet they are of a fearful nature Sin has deprived Man of the purity nobility and peace of his innocent state 1. It has stain'd and tainted him with an universal intimate and permanent pollution Man in his first Creation was holy and righteous a beam of beauty derived from Heaven was shed upon his Soul in comparison of which sensitive beauty is but as the clearness of Glass to the lustre of a Diamond His understanding was light in the Lord his will and affections were regular and pure the Divine Image was imprest upon all his faculties that attracted the love and complacency of God himself Sin has blotted out all his aimiable excellencies and superinduc'd the most foul deformity the original of which was fetcht from Hell Sinners are the natural Children of Satan of a near resemblance to him The Scripture borrows comparisons to represent the defiling quality of sin from pollutions that are most loathsom to our senses from pestilential Vlcers putrifying Sores filthy Vomit and defiling Mire This pollution is universal through the whole Man Spirit Soul and Body It darkens the mind our supreme faculty with a cloud of Corruption it depraves the will and vitiates the affections 'T is a pollution so deep and permanent that the Deluge that swept away a World of sinners did not wash away their sins and the fire at the last day that shall devour the dross of the visible World and renew the Heavens and the Earth shall not purge away the sins of the guilty Inhabitants This pollution hath so defil'd and disfigur'd Man who was a fair and lovely type wherein
the skill and perfections of the Creator was conspicuous that it repented God that he made Man As an Artificer having form'd a surprizing piece either a Statue or Picture wherein Art almost equall'd the life and lustre of Nature if it be torn or broken throws it from his sight with sorrow impatient to see it so rudely defaced thus God is said to hide his face from sinners to express his displeasure as unwilling to behold the Disparagement of his Master-piece the excellent Product of his Wisdom and Power 2. Sin has degraded Man from his native State and Dignity Man by his Extraction and Descent was the Son of God a little lower than the Angels consecrated and crowned as a Priest for the Service and Communion with his glorious Maker and as King over the World But being in honour he understood not his dignity his duty and felicity and became like the beasts that perish By his Rebellion against his Creator he made a Forfeitute of his Dominion and lost the Obedience of sensible Creatures and the Service of Insensible which I only mention and shall restrain my Consideration to shew how he is become like the Beasts as an Effect resulting from his Sin He is devested of his White Robe of Innocence and his noblest Perfections Reason and Religion Sense and Imagination the leading Faculties in Brutes are his Rulers The rational governing Powers of Man have lost their superior Sway and the Carnal Passions rove without Reins to forbidden Objects The lower Appetites are predominant which is the most ignominious and cruel Servitude wherein humane Liberty can be intangled and fetter'd His Understanding and Will that were capable of taking a flight for the Discovery and Fruition of celestial and eternal things are debased and limited to sensual perishing things and derive vilifying Qualities from them He is earthly minded his Aims Contrivances Desires are fastened to the Earth the divine Spark within him is cover'd under Ashes He is carnally minded always studying and making provisions for the flesh This is a viler Debasement than if the Counsellors of State were employed in the sordid Offices of the Kitchin or Stable Nay 't is a Diminution below the Rank of Beasts for by nature they are uncapable of directing their Eyes and Desires towards Heaven but Man is Brutish by his voluntary Sin To see the Head of a rapacious Wolf or fierce Tyger or lustful Horse joyned to the Body of a Man how monstrous would it appear But 't is more unnatural and ignominious for Men in whom Reason and Religion should govern to resemble them in the brutish Appetites of Lust and Rage for there is a nearer Affinity between the Body of a Man and of a Beast that agree in the common sensible Nature than between the Immortal Spirit of a Man and the Beasts that perish In short Sin has enslaved Men to Satan an Infernal Fiend They are taken Captives by him at his pleasure And which is the lowest Degradation they are the Servants of Corruption 3. Sin has broke the sweet Peace and blessed Concord in the Soul the Felicity of our innocent State Peace is the Tranquility that results from Order and Unity In Man there was a regular Harmony of all his Faculties the Affections were Consonant with his Will his Will with his Understanding and his Understanding with the Law of God This was the inward State of his Soul in his Creation for having a derived being it was natural and necessary that he should be appointed to his End and receive his Rule for the obtaining it from the Understanding and Will of his Maker Now whilst there was a Correspondence in his Faculties and their Operations with his Rule and End the Will of God and the Glory of God the Result of it as well as the Reward of it was Spiritual Peace with God Internal Peace with himself External Peace with others Now Sin has dissolved this Unity violated this sacred Order And from hence 1. Peace with God that consisted in his Favour and Friendship to us and our filial dependence upon him which is the Spring of full and satisfying Joy is broke God appears a fearful Enemy against the Sinners the penal Effects of his Wrath I shall speak of distinctly under the second general And that Divine Calm in the Conscience that Peace joyn'd with the purest Pleasure that was the refleex of Gods Favour on the Soul is changed into anxious Apprehensions of his just Power to punish us Guilt generates Fear and Fear Hatred and both cause a woful flight from God 2. Internal Peace is broke by Sin Whilst the Passions were subordinate to the Empire of Reason and in accord among themselves there was perfect Peace but Sin has raised an intestine War in Man's Breast The Law of the Members rebels against the Law of the Mind for there is no Man so prodigiously Wicked and spoil'd of his primitive Endowments but still there remains some Principles of Morality in the Mind Pâ—â—â—â—a haeâ—â—â—t â—â—â—io quâ—â—â—â—e jâ—dâ—â—â— nemâ— nâ—câ—â—â— abâ—â—â—viâ— so that his Conscience discovers and condemns the Vices he allows and practises which makes the Sinner uneasie to himself and mixes Vinegar with his Wine Besides since the Passions are disbanded into what Confusion is Man fallen How Various how Violent are they and often repugnant to one another How often do we change their Habits and Scenes in a day Sometimes we are vainly Merry and then as vainly Sad sometimes Desirous and then Averse and with respect to our selves sometimes Pleased sometimes Vex'd sometimes Aimable and sometimes Odious we are more mutable than the Planet that is the Emblem of Inconstancy How often do Clouds of Melancholy darken the bright Serenity of the Spirit and cast a dreadful Gloom over it How often do Storms of Passion disturb its Tranquility The Breast of Man that was the Temple of Peace is become a Den of Dragons every exorbitant Affection tears and torments him 'T is true this is also a penal Effect from Divine Justice There is no peace saith my God to the Wicked With which that saying of St. Austin is Consonant Jussit Domine sic est omnis inordinatus affectus est sibi paena 3. Sin has broke our Agreement with one another Whâ—â— there was a regular Consent between the superior and lower Faculties in all Men they were in Unity among themselves for they were perfectly alike But the tumultuous and tyrannical Passions have engaged them in mortal Enmity 'T is the account St. James gives From whence come wars and fightings among you Come they not hence even of your Lusts that war in your Members Sin kindles and blows the fire of discord in Families Cities Kingdoms Sin is the fury that brings a smoking fireband from Hell and sets the World into combustion Ambition Avarice the greedy desires of Rule and Revenge have made the World a Stage of not feigned but the most bloody Tragedies In this Men are not
the Angel of the Church of Ephesus to have such a Testimony given of him by the faithful and true Witness who holdeth the seven Stars in his Right hand Rev. 2.2 That he could not bear them that were evil i. e. Not with any Patience but reproved them and did what belonged to his Office either reducing them from their extravagancies and bringing them to Repentance and amendment of Life or otherwise if incurable cutting them off from the Body and casting them out of Communion Fourthly Let men neglect or be remiss about the suppression of prophaneness and they will soon see the increase of it for ill weeds will grow apace shoot and spread incredibly Men do not need to bestow time and pains and care to house them in Winter and water them in Summer for by a bare connivence and permission they will flourish and abound It is indeed a piece of great difficulty and requires skill and labour to make that take and thrive which is good and excellent such is the nature of the soil since the fall the Sin of man brought upon the very ground the curse of God so that Thorns and Thistles it will send up by whole-sale but if a man will eat bread he must do it in the sweat of his brows So here the Heart of Man is so miserably corrupt and depraved that there is scarce any thing good that will prosper in it That goodness which sometimes seems to be in some as to instance in Ephraim is like the Morning Cloud and early Dew that passeth away That which is lasting and abiding in Persons regenerate is for it's continuance beholden to the mighty Power and special influences of the Divine Spirit We see it often and often the experience of too many years of some Generations doth sadly prove how difficult a thing it is to bring about a Reformation which one would think should commend it self to the Consciences of men that understand any thing of the mind and Will of God nay to do any thing toward it or to reconcile most Persons to the Naming thereof to perswade them to break off from unwarrantable Customs to put off old Rags which are rotten and defiling and to throw away those things which have neither Marrow in them nor Flesh upon them but are meer Bones of Contention and to prevail with them to make a further remove from Rome and advance toward Sion I mean a Gospel-worship and Gospel-order How difficult a thing is it to bring the debauched Person to a sober Life or the sapless empty Formalist to the power of Godliness and a real hearty thorough closure with the Lord Jesus Christ and his Laws But as for Sin and Wickedness it needs not any endeavours to promote it in the World and commend it to the practice of men it needs no incouragement not because it is so good but because men are so bad The Devil himself may sit still and let his Servants alone they will be sure to follow his work hard without having his Eye upon them He might forbear and give over his Temptations for they can and will go yea run alone in those down-hill ways of Folly Their connate Principles of Enmity to God and Rebellion against him will of themselves break out into hostile Actions as naturally as Hay stackt or laid up when Green or Moist will fire of it's self and proceed to rage more and more Sin is like to a fire in a Town or City which if it be not extinguished or at least kept down and stopt in it's furious Career will march from House to House and step from one side of the Street to the other and never desist so long as there is any combustible matter for it to fasten upon and so till it set all on a flame and bury the whole in it's own Ruine and Ashes Let but a prophane wretch alone and I dare confidently say you shall not find him long alone He will like a decoy soon gather Company to him and multiply them too Eccl. 9.18 One Sinner destroyeth much good And so being of his Father the Devil and doing the works of his Father let him enjoy his Name call him Abaddon Apollyon a Destroyer He will call himself an hundred to one else a good Subject a good Churchman but he is a Destroyer that is his right Name If you would know how he doth destroy much good I answer in these two things 1. He doth it impiae vitae meritis By the demerits and high provocations of his impious ungodly Life He draweth Iniquity with the Cords of Vanity and so Judgment as with Cart ropes He is as a Jonah in the Ship which raiseth the Storms that threaten us and as an Achan in the Camp that arms and succeeds the Enemies that come out against us To whom do we owe the Plague that hath consumed our Inhabitants and the Fires that have devoured our Houses Towns and Cities but to him and his Fraternity Ahab spake very unhandsomely to one of the Lords Prophets when he said Art thou he that troubleth Israel But Elijah answered him truly and bravely I have not troubled Israel but thou and thy Fathers house in that ye have forsaken the Commandments of the Lord and thou hast followed Baalim 1 Kings 18.17 18. It is the Idolaters Superstitious and Prophane that troubled Israel and that trouble England and will trouble the whole world for they provoke God to trouble us and to distribute sorrows in his anger 2. They destroy much good impiis consiliis exemplis By their wicked Counsels and Examples while they allure intice and perswade and by their practices draw others into the same courses the same excess of riot These are like Samsons Foxes with fire-brands fastned to their tails that spoil the harvest we hoped for as the joyful reward of our Labours How comes our youth to be tainted as they are Who fills the eyes of Parents with tears and their hearts with sorrow who travailed in birth for them that Christ might be formed in them but now mourn and weep bitterly over them as lost because viâ—ious and extravagant Whence is it that our hopes as to the succeeding generation are so exceedingly infeebled but by means of many among us so notorious for prophaneness who make it both their work and sport to render others as bad as themselves And if timely care be not taken to prevent it we can rationally expect nothing else but the leaving this pleasant Land the Land of our Nativity to be possest by Sons of Belial who will make it mourn and groan and sick to the spewing of them out I desire you to lay this to your hearts if you have any bowels of mercy and compassion A little spark is to be narrowly watch'd where there is so much tinder ready to catch Fifthly Let this be seriously considered if Magistrates Superiour and Inferiour do not put forth their power and endeavours for the suppressing of
Well if thou couldest say plainly what is thy Will 'T is a Will not moved by Gods Threats or Promises to Fear or Love him If it were so thou wouldst Convert now And if it be not so what is thy Purpose for all thy fair Promise Dost intend hereafter to turn unto a God neither Feared nor Loved Surely thou dost not Thinkest thou that thou shalt hereafter Fear and Love him I ask what should make thee so think He will for ever be the same God that now he is Lay to thy Heart what I tell thee If God be not just now worthy of Fear and Love then he never was or will be so for he Changes not In a word VVhat if thou hadst both power to Convert when thou wouldest and hadst a real will to Convert hereafter to God where is the Reason for staying without and against God all the while Thou art Servant he is Lord thou the Child he the Father When Servants run away and will not return to their Masters and very Children run away and will not come back to their Fathers No though the Masters and Fathers call and send and promise and do not need them while they all the while need their Masters and Fathers All people conclude there is a cause of this and a fault must lie somewhere in one of the Parties Either the Fathers Unnatural and the Master Cruel or else the Child is a Viper and the Servant a Monster Speak Man and say now where is the fault what is the cause that thou canst not yet be prevailed with to return to thy Lord and Father Thou must charge Him or thy self with most black and bloody faults If thou lay'st it on God thou makest him worse than the Devil and proclaimest Satan the better Master and Father of the two If thou takest the blame on thy self I ask thee how thou canst endure to see hear or think of thy self A Creature hating it's God that is all Love and all Loveliness No words I think no words of mine I am sure can express how Blasphemous or how Self-condemned they are all that put off Conversion to another time Alas here is Life and all in the case Conversion is the Life of thy Soul Man 'T is Dying till it Convert 'T is in Hell till thou Convert And is this a fit word I will then Convert hereafter Thy darling Child drops into the Fire and thou promisest to come help it out to morrow A very Kind creature thou wilt be thought and as Wise an one Upon every account I may say of these Promises of Turning hereafter as was said of Judas It had been better they had never been born And they be Judasses indeed for though they Flatter and Kiss they Betray and Kill poor Souls R. 7. You as plainly as elder people do dare God to damn you all the while you delay your Conversion Therefore 't is your duty to convert presently I have heard of a Man much accustomed to cursing in his health that could not utter any word but a curse in his sickness Could not pronounce Yes or No but as oft as he spoke in several Months time he bid God to damn him A most frightful thing you will say And yet young people I take you to be in very like condition all that delay your Conversion For the Language of Practice is with God and Men as significant as any if not more If you practically bid God damn you you are of the same spirit with them who verbally bid him so do And if I know any thing Delayers do bid him in deeds as certainly as any sinners do in their words I appeal to your very own thoughts in the case You are corrupted with sin and condemned for it The grace of God calls you to come take your Pardon and your Cure But tells you Now is your Time Promises you no Breath of Life but what 's in your Nostrils nor any offer of Cure or Pardon after the first In every Precept requires present coming Your Delaying therefore is running the Venture And that adventuring is plain saying Lord if now just now be the time I shall not take hold of it Though I Burn I will not yet Turn Thou dost not promise to stay longer for me but if thou wilt not Damn and do thy worst with me I would rather thou wouldst change thy Word Blot now in the dayes of thy Youth out of the Bible Write Remember thy Creator when thou art old and bedridden But if this thou wilt not do I will live under thy Threatning VVrath And let its Vials fall on me if they must I am set against present Conversion for thy Peace Let me add but this Sirs There is but one way possible to Hell which is by Sin For nothing else can incense God against You. He cannot be in the least displeased for ought beside But sin is that which he cannot but Hate and Punish Now to go on wilfully delightfully and resolutely in sin is in effect as if you should kneel down on your knees and beg and pray with tears in your eyes that you may never be saved But may be assured of a place in the lowest Hell The former is interpretatively the latter O madness beyond compare though not Admired because so much Practised R. 8. You as well as Elder people do hate and rob God and imitate and obey Satan till you do Convert Therefore 't is your duty presently to Convert Young people it may be you know not what you do but knowingly or ignorantly these things you do do till you Convert You hate God Interpretatively you hate him By your actions no other can be judged of you If you desired to express hatred of him you could not take a more direct way for it then that you are in For you walk contrary unto him Comparatively you hate him If you have any love to him sure it 's nothing and less than nothing in comparison of that which you bear unto your idolized things and persons Yea Absolutely you hate him as an holy and just Ruler and Judge In his Government you hate him and wish you could dethrone him Deny it if you dare In his Children and Friends you hate him Their Company is an Eye-sore and Burthen unto you his Image on them you cannot bear If it were otherwise you could not but Convert unto him You Rob him yea and all his You rob him of a Child Christ of a Member the Holy Ghost of a Temple the Heavenly Host of a Joy the Church of a Star the World of a Pillar And in the mean time what do you VVhy Satan in the God of every unconvert Creature Him in your Spiritual impurities you Imitate in your bodily you Obey in both you Serve and Gratifie Horrid Servitude Unendurable by Souls and jod less senseless than Plants or less wild than Brutes R. 9. You as elder People do out-sin Satan himself till you do Convert Therefore
against will be hell-Hell-fire in their Consciences for ever and the clearer light the hotter fire And the higher they have been lifted up by the opportunities of Grace towards Heaven the lower they will fall under the weight of Guilt and the rebukes of Conscience 2. They will suffer more than others from the Devil and his Angels For that they are the Executioners of God's wrath upon the wicked in this world is out of question and so some think they will be in the world to come but only as under God's Commission which they ground upon that Text Agree with thine Adversary quickly lest he deliver thee to the Judge and the Judge to the Tormentours c. by whom they understand Evil Spirits Matth. 18.34 3. Christ himself will appear in greatest severity against such He is said to be revealed in flames of fire against such that know not God and obey not the Gospel 2 Thess 1.8 By both which expressions are meant impenitent Sinners under the Gospel His first Coming was in a flame of Love to save Men but when Men are impenitent and reject his Salvation he will come next in flames of Wrath to take Vengeance And in the first place against these To the Jew before the Gentile Rom. 2.9 and to the impenitent Christian before both 4. Witnesses will rise up against these more than any other sinners The Heathen will come in against them as our Saviour speaks The men of Niniveh shall rise up against this generation and condemn it The Queen of the South shall rise up and condemn it Matth. 12.41 The Heathen who have gone further by the Light of Nature than many who have lived under the Light of the Gospel will come in as Witnesses against them The Jew may come in as a witness also who under the darker Light of the Law hath out-stripped many that were under a Gospel ministration The good Angels may come in as Witnesses who having been present in the Church-assemblies have heard the Calls there given to Sinners to repent The bad Angels may come in and plead against them that they never refused the Calls of the Gospel to believe and repent for they never had any Ministers may come in as Witnesses who spent their pains and strength upon them to invite and call them to Repentance but they would not hear Many of their Neighbours and Fellow-Christians may witness against them who did believe and repent under the same means whenas these did not All which will contribute to make their Damnation the more intolerable The APPLICATION Vse 1. We may hence learn what to judge of the Heathen who have not heard of Christ I shall not dispute whether any of them may be saved or not yet this I can say that their Damnation will be more tolerable than of many others Those that sinned without the Law shall have more favourable Judgment than those that sinn'd under the Law and those that detain'd only natural Truth in unrighteousness as the Heathen Rom 1.18 shall fare better than those that so detained Truth supernatural And among the Heathen Diogenes may fare better than Dionysius Cato than Cataline Vespasian than Dioclesian The last Judgment will be exactly righteous Vse 2. Hence it appears that what is in it self a great Favour and Priviledge to a People may be the occasion of the greatest Evil. As the Gospel is in it self yet will be an occasion to many of a Damnation that will be most inexcusable and most intolerable Christ was first preached to the Jews which was their priviledge but they rejecting him it brought sorer Calamities upon their Nation than ever before And wrath came upon them to the utmost And that Christ that is a Corner-stone to his Church they first stumbled at and then it fell upon them and did grind them to powder And how it will fare with them in the day of Judgment he tells them John 12.48 The words that I have spoken the same shall judge you at the last day And what Judgment will be more severe than theirs who have refused and rejected words that came immediately from the mouth of the Son of God Words so full of Grace and Mercy Truth and Faithfulness Wisdom and Understanding so that never any Man spake as this Man As the men of Bethshemesh rejoyced and offered Sacrifices of Thanksgiving at the Coming of the Ark to them but it proved an occasion of the destruction of many Thousands of them 1 Sam. 6.19 Vse 3. We may hence take notice how ineffectual the best outward Means are of themselves to bring a people to repentance Could any City have greater means for it than Capernaum Here Christ wrought Miracles that did amaze them and preach'd Doctrine that did astonish them but not bring them to repentance The Gospel doth sometimes make some impressions upon the Minds of people that may still continue impenitent in their sin Some when they have heard a Sermon will applaud it but not repent Whether it be from a Conforming or Non-conforming Minister yet by neither are brought to repentance John Baptist preached Repentance and Christ came and preached Repent and yet the Jews for the greatest part repented not by the one or the other Some are for Gospel-preaching some for preaching the Law and yet hold fast their sins under both Such is the stupidity that is fall'n upon Man and such deceitfulness in his Heart and is so fast bound by the Chains of his Sin Obj. But God can bring Man to Repentance if he will Ans God hath a twofold Power Potestas absoluta ordinata A Power that he exerts immediately or in the use of means God can by his absolute Power preserve Man's life without eating or drinking but he maintains it ordinarily in the use of means which Man is obliged to use and if he reject them will be guilty of his own death God affords Sinners means to bring them to repentance and if they reject them God is not obliged to work by his immediate Power Hereupon God is said to be willing that all should be saved and come to repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 by his calling them and affording means to repentance Q. But why doth God make these means effectual to some not to others by giving special Grace A. When he that makes this Question can resolve me why Christ wrought his mighty Works in Corazin and Bethsaida and not in Tire and Sidon when he foresaw that Tire and Sidon would thereupon repent in dust and ashes and Corazin and Bethsaida would not repent I shall then answer him in his Enquiry Secret things belong to God but tâ—ings revealed to us and our Children Let Sinners use the means and wait there for God's special Grace And can Sodom justly complain that Christ came not to do his mighty Works in it and brought not the Light of the Gospel to it when she offer'd such Violence to the common dictates of the Light and Law of Nature Vse 4.