the Earth but banished him their Hearts and Houses must think and expect that he will not like or love their presence but sentence them to an everlasting banishment from him 2. The grosly ignorant Creature shall be banished the presence of Christ He will not know them who do not know him Wilful Ignorance doth certainly exclude the undefiled Inheritance A blind eye cannot see the blessed Jesus in all his Glory neither can a dark Heart enjoy the Kingdom of Light The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels to render Vengeance on them that know not God 2 Thess 1.7 8. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. The portion of such will be everlasting destruction from his presence They are destroyed for lack of knowledge because they reject knowledge Christ will reject them Hos 4.6 They are lost Souls whose eyes the God of this World hath blinded 2 Cor. 4.4 Inner darkness is the direct way to utter darkness 3. The hypocritical Professor shall be excluded the presence of Christ He that hath but the shadow of Holiness must expect a real Hell If thou bearest the Name of Christ and art not partaker of the Divine Nature thy Profession as Vriahs Letter to Joab will but hasten thy Execution Job 13.16 He i. e. God also shall be my Salvation but an Hypocrite shall not come before him God will be the godly upright Souls Salvation but not the Hypocrites He shall not dwell with God Psal 5.4 No not stand in his sight Psal 5.5 Nay not so much as come before him with any Comfort He may come before good men with acceptance as the foolish Virgins before the wise who were ignorant of their Hypocrisie but he shall not come before the Omniscient God When those Virgins came which wanted Oil the door was shut Matth. 25. There was no entrance no admission for them They had not received God into their Hearts though he was often in their Lips and he would not receive them into his House The door was shut CHAP. IX An Exhortation to flie from this wrath to come with some helps thereunto 2. IT may exhort us to take heed that this separation from Christ be not our portion O Reader how much doth it concern thee what-ever thou losest to make sure of the presence of Christ in the other World Believe it though thou canst bear the loss of an Estate or Friends or Relations yea and the partial absence of Christ in this World yet the total loss of Christ in the other World will be an intollerable loss They who live here chearfully without him cannot do so there When thou shalt be banished from all thy Possessions and all thy Relations and all thy worldly Comforts then also to be banished from Christ the Prince of Life and Lord of Glory and Consolation of Israel will be a woe with a witness Canst thou read and hear the misery of the wicked in their total eternal separation from Christ and not tremble for fear it should be thy portion lest thou shouldst be of the number of them that shall hear that dreadful Voice Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire To this end that thou mayst escape this woful Condition of the Ungodly obey these few Directions 1. Believe and bewail your enmity against Christ He loves you yet by nature thou hatest him Prov. 8. Rom. 1.31 Rom. 8.7 Indeed he may say of thee and all others in thy Condition They hated me without a cause But thou dost hate him and thereby art wholly uncapable of his presence Can two walk together unless they be agreed This enmity of thine against Christ which discovers it self in thy daily Rebellions against his Laws and Opposition to his Authority must be felt and lamented There is little hope of their recovery who are sick unto death and insensible thereof Matth. 9.12 They that be whole need not the Physician but they that are sick Thy first work must be to know this plague of thine own heart and to know it not notionally as a Physician by reading of it or beholding it in others but experimentally as the Patient knoweth a Disease by feeling it complaining of it mourning for it and longing to be freed from it Consider with thy self how impossible it is for thee to delight in the presence of Christ whom thou abhorrest and to take pleasure in the Company of any whom thy nature hath a reluctancy against 2. Make Christ your Friend through Faith in his blood There is no getting to Christ hereafter but by coming to him here Accept him now and he will accept thee then He will say to those that are now strangers to him Depart from me I never knew you If thou dost not know him and him crucified in this World he will not know thee in the other World Thou canst not rationally expect admission into his presence if thou hast no acquaintance with his person Strangers and Enemies are kept out when Children and those that are the Friends of the Master of the house are taken in It is by Faith in his blood that thou canst be united to him and made one with him as the Wife is united to the Husband and the Members to the Head Ephes 5.27 That he might present it to himself a glorious Church Ephes 1. ult Which is the Body the fulness of him that filleth all in all Ephes 3.17 And being so made one with him Husband and Wife Head and Members shall be together for ever Where I am there shall ye be also Joh. 14.2 3. The great ground of Christs passion was to bring those that believe to God and that they might abide with him eternally 3. Follow after holiness The holy Soul can only suit an holy Saviour and therefore the holy Soul can only enjoy the holy Saviour Two cannot walk comfortably together unless there be an agreement in their dispositions Into the new Jerusalem can in no wise enter any thing that defileth or is unclean Rev. 21. ult Heaven is an holy Hill Psal 15.1 An undefiled Inheritance 1 Pet. 1.3 The holiest or most holy place Heb. 9.8 12. And therefore will admit of none but holy persons Dogs must be without when Children shall be taken within doors CHAP. X. The positive part of the Sinners misery exprest by Fire and why I Come now to the second part of the Punishment of the Wicked and that is Poena sensus the positive part of their misery or that anguish which God will inflict on their Souls and Bodies Which punishment is set forth 1. By its extremity 2. Eternity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall speak first to its extremity Fire The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from the Hebrew Vr and so the Latin Vro to burn From the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes Pyrausta a flie that lives in the fire and dies out of it Fire is used to describe the pains
scorned and mocked for their purity and preciseness in the presence of Christ in the Arms and embraces of Christ in a state of full Happiness and perfect Satisfaction while they themselves are shut out and denied entrance Luk. 13.25 28. The fire of Hell will give them light enough to see as well as heat enough to feel themselves infinitely miserable 5. It will greatly add to their torment and anguish to consider that they were sometime near the enjoyment of this blissful presence of Christ Pardon and Peace and Love and Life and the endless fruition of the blessed Jesus were tendered to them were nigh them were at the very door of their hearts They were solemnly commanded lovingly invited severely threatned sweetly allured and pathetically perswaded to accept of Christ and Grace yea and Heaven and Happiness and eternal Life yea and their hearts began to relent and to close with the intreaties of the Gospel They were almost perswaded to be Christians indeed There was but a little a very little between them and Christ The bargain was driven so far that Christ was got into their consciences they bore witness for him and warn'd them if they loved their Lives their Souls to accept of him while he would accept of them yea Christ was got into their Judgments they gave their Verdict on his side as one infinitely more amiable and elegible than the World or Flesh nay he had possibly got into their Affections they delighted to hear of his great Love to poor Sinners and of the great things he purchased for them with his own blood and yet though they were so near they came short and like Ephraim play'd the part of unwise Sons and stay'd in the place of the breaking forth of Children O how like a Dagger will it pierce the heart of them that live under the Gospel and neglect the great Salvation offer'd to them when they come to be banished the presence of Christ and to see others who made Religion their business on Earth bathing their Souls in Rivers of Pleasures drawing water with joy out of the Well of Salvation eating of the Tree of Life that groweth in the midst of Paradise and hous'd in the Arms of their dearest Saviour and shall reflect and consider with themselves all those Joys and Pleasures all those Dainties and Delicacies all those Robes and Riches and Glories and Felicities which they enjoy in the presence of Christ might have been mine they were freely and frequently and affectionately offered to me I had the refusal of them nay I had a good mind to them I was not far from the Kingdom of Heaven There was but a little between me and them they were at the very door of my heart and stood knocking there for admission and desired only hearty acceptance but like a Fool I dallied with them and defer'd them as if hereafter had been time enough and so have lost them for ever 6. It will much augment their anguish and misery to consider who it is that passeth so severe a doom upon them This dreadful Sentence is pronounced by Love and Grace and Goodness it self He that sometimes call'd them to him so sweetly so affectionately now casts them from him so sharply so furiously He who sometimes cry'd to them Come to me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and wept over them O that thou hadst known even thou in this thy day the things of thy peace He that formerly invited intreated besought them to be reconciled 2 Cor. 5.20 and shew'd them his heart-blood the price of their Pardon and Life and stretch'd out his Arms to imbrace their returning Souls will now in wrath and rage and flames and fury bid them be gone from him and his Curse go along with them And if Love prove their Enemy surely Wrath will not be their Friend And if Mercy be thus against them surely Justice will not be for them Ah how sorely will it gall the Sinner to consider This dreadful doom is denounced against me not by an Enemy or one that hated me but by a Friend and Father by one that loved me and took my nature on him and suffered therein the Laws Curse to render me capable of escaping these Torments which I now suffer and partaking of those Pleasures which yonder blessed Souls enjoy CHAP. VII Containing the folly of Sinners and the vast difference between them and the Godly at the Great day 3. IT informeth us that every wicked man is out of his wits surely the man is mad who exchangeth his Soul and Saviour and God and all for a little worldly profit or fleshly pleasure yea that parts with true and durable Riches for shadowy and fading Treasure that loseth heavenly and eternal Joys for earthly and transitory Pleasures No man can love sin but he hates himself nor part with his Duty but he parts with his Felicity And surely such a man who hates himself and forsakes his Happiness is a mad man Well might the Holy Ghost speak the Prodigal out of his wits when he was out of his way and wandring from his Father's house How mad was he to forsake Bread for Husks all the world is but Husks dry coorse empty Fare to the Dainties of the Gospel Bread in a Fathers house for Husks among Swine yea and plenty of Bread enough and to spare for a few Husks that could not fill their Bellies If one Soul be more worth than a whole World surely one Saviour one God is more worth than a thousand Souls than a million of Worlds How mad then is he that parts with this Soul this Saviour this God for a little a very little of this World yea for this little of the World for a very little time If all the delights of the Flesh and all the Pleasures of Sin and all the profits of the World cannot ballance the partial enjoyment of God in his Ordinances for one hour How unable will they be to compensate the loss of full Communion with God for ever O how infinitely doth Christ out-weigh what ever the flesh or world can offer in exchange for him 4. It informeth how contrary the portion of the Godly and the Wicked is at the day of Judgment At this day they fare often alike they fall under the same favourable and frowning Providences they have the same Comforts and the same Crosses If any difference for the better 't is usually on the Sinners side The vilest men are exalted and the proud prosper But at that day there will be a difference indeed for the better on the Saints side That day will be terrible to the Wicked a day of wrath a day of the perdition of ungodly men Rom. 2.4 2 Pet. 3.7 To the Godly a day of Redemption a time of refreshing a day of Light and Gladness and a good day Luk. 21.28 Act. 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the time of refreshment shall come from
suppose is meant the scandalous man who liveth in Commission It 's said of Mary Magdalen who had been guilty of notorious Enormities Luke 7. For she is a Sinner And it 's said of the Publican whose whole Tribe was infamous for Extortion and Bribery That he was a Sinner He is gone to be a Guest to one that is a Sinner By Ungodly as the very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth is meant one that liveth in Omissions one that liveth without the Worship of God i. e. without the Love and Fear the Acknowledgment and Adoration of this God Worship is that high Honour and Solemn Respect that the Creature owes to God Not to give him this is ungodliness An ungodly man is one that doth not seek God nor trust God nor obey God that doth not own him in his Mercies as his Father and Benefactor nor in his Judgments as a wise Master that would by Chastisements make him partaker of his Holiness Now if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the sinner and ungodly appear If there be a difficulty in the Salvation of the Righteous there is a necessity of the damnation of the Sinner and ungodly If the Righteous get so hardly to Heaven the Sinner and Ungodly must surely be cast into Hell Where shall the Sinner and Ungodly those that are guilty of these Omissions and Commissions appear They must appear somewhere but they can appear no where with comfort or without unspeakable horrour Where shall they appear before God why they hate his Being despise his Dominions slight his Love disobey his Laws and indeed seek his Life and can they appear before him Can they look for a smile from his Face who loath him perfectly or can they stand before his Frowns and Fury Do they know the weight of his Hand the killing-darts of his Eye and the Power of his Anger No surely they cannot appear before him Thou even thou art to be feared and who may stand when thou art angry Where shall they appear Shall they appear before Christ the Judge of Quick and Dead Before him who sometimes invited them earnestly to come to him and intreated them affectionately to accept of him and life with him Shall they appear before him It 's his Call which they have despised and his Commands which they have violated It 's his Blood which they have trampled on and his Spirit whom they have grieved They are his Members whom the Sinners have oppressed and wronged and his Children and Spouse and Body which the Ungodly have neglected and not relieved O how glad would they be if the Rocks would crush them to pieces that they might be deliver'd from the wrath of the Lamb Rev. 6.15 Their severe Sentence which may make every Ear to tingle and Heart to tremble that hears it will proceed from his mouth Then shall he say unto them on his left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire But where shall these Sinners and Ungodly appear Shall they appear before the Saints Alas with what face can they behold them whose Persons they have imprison'd whose Estates they have plundered whose Profession they have derided whose Names they have abused and whom they have often wished out of the way and thought the Troublers of the Family and Town and Country where they lived If the Saints plead it must be against them for they cannot but as Justices agree and concur with the Sentence of the Judge as righteous and just But where shall they appear Shall they appear before the Law No that condemneth them for the least Omission for the smallest Commission to Hell fire they are the Prohibitions of the Law that the Sinner hath transgressed and they are the Precepts of the Law that the Ungodly hath not obeyed and therefore the Law curseth them both to the uttermost The Law enableth Sin to bind over the Transgressor of it to the Wrath and Curse of God Hence it 's said The strength of Sin is the Law But where shall they appear Shall they appear before the Gospel No their Omissions have most relation to the Gospel They have not believed the truth of it They have not embraced the goodness of it They have not obeyed the Precepts of it They rejected the tenders of Pardon and Life made to them in the Gospel with frequency and fervency They would not come to their Physitian to be healed of their mortal Diseases Though he came to them and offer'd his help freely and assured them of effectual and speedy recovery if they would be directed by him yet they rejected the Counsel of God against themselves therefore the Gospel will condemn as surely and more sorely than the Law Heb. 2.2 3 Joh. 3.19 If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every Disobedience received a just recompence of Reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation And again Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy But where shall they appear Shall they appear on Earth Surely there will be no Earth then for them to appear in That Earth which they sported so much in as Leviathan in the waters and which they were fond of and delighted in will be burnt up with fire and consumed with fervent heat But where shall they appear Shall they appear in Heaven Can an unsanctified heart enter into the Holy of Holies No. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 An impure Eye cannot behold such an infinitely pure Object When Angels seated in Heaven as their Habitation once lost their purity they soon lost that place Heaven could not bear them 't is not as Noahs Ark to take in all sorts Clean or Unclean Into it can in no wise enter any thing that is Vnclean Rev. 21.27 Neither could they bear Heaven Thee spiritual delights of that Coelestial Court became unsuitable to their polluted Natures The rarest Dainties and most curious Delicates are altogether unsavoury and unpleasant to an aguish and distemper'd Palat. But where shall they appear If they cannot appear before God their Maker before the Lord Jesus Christ before the Saints Before whom shall they appear If they cannot appear before the Law before the Gospel before what shall they appear It must be in Hell before Devils and damned Spirits with them to lodge and dwell for ever Ah the Great Day is called The terrible Day of the Lord Jesus and it will be a terrible Day indeed to these meer Civilians It is called the Day of Perdition of ungodly men It 's to others a Day of Consolation Lift up your Heads with joy for the Day of your Redemption draweth nigh A Day of Promotion It 's your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom Luke 12.32 Joh. 17.24 A Day of Rest from all their Labours and Sorrows and Sufferings bodily or spiritually Rev. 14.13 But it 's the Day of Perdition of Ungodly men They who live without God here must live without him for
and negative must be written out by the Magistrate that we might observe it and it was also written in a Book by Moses and put into the Ark as a witness against the Israelites if they should not observe it Deut. 31.24 25 26. Joshua succeeds Moses in his Charge over the Jews and in his Commands to them both affirmatively and negatively Joshua 23.7 Samuel follows after and speaks the same Language Serve the Lord with all your heart fear him and serve him in truth And turn ye not aside for then ye should go after vain things which cannot profit or deliver for they are vain 1 Sam. 12.20 21 24. David doth the like Depart from evil and do good Psal 34.14 Solomon writes after his Fathers Copy in the very qualifications of those whom he intreats Mercy for If they sin and afterwards bethink themselves and turn i. e. from their sins and return unto thee with all the Heart and with all the Soul then hear thou from Heaven from thy Dwelling-place 2 Chron. 6.36 to 40. Isaiah calls on men not only to forsake their evil ways and evil thoughts but also to return unto the Lord Isa 55.7 Jeremiah crieth to his people Not to oppress the Stranger the Fatherless and the Widows and also throughly to execute Judgment between a man and his Neighbour Jer. 7.5 6. So Ezekiel and the rest of the Prophets Ezek. 18.21 Our Saviour in his Exposition of the Law doth forbid what is Evil and command what is Good Matth. 5.43 44. So Matth. 7. per tot The Apostle St. Paul commands Not to be conformed to the World there is the Prohibition but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind proving what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God there is the Precept Rom. 12.1 2. Again Put off the works of Darkness put on the armour of Light Put off the old man which is corrupt according to his deceitful lusts And put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4.23 24. Lye not one to another but speak the truth The Apostle St. James tells us Religion consisteth in Negatives and Positives also James 1.21 22 26 27. So St. Peter 1 Pet. 1.14 15. 1 Pet. 2.11 12. St. Joh. 3.9 10. Jude vers 21 22 23. Thus we see through the whole Bible the Mind of God by his Messengers to be Positive as well as Negative and this Mind of his he hath ordained to be the rule of our Hearts and Lives and what shall we answer when we shall be called to an account for our Disobedience To what purpose is a Rule if it be not followed and to what end is the Penalty denounced against the Ungodly if it be not executed This is the Voice of the Law of God and therefore Reader either thou must betake thy self to practical godliness or else disown the Scriptures for thy rule and square Thy Duty must at least in thy desires and endeavours carry some proportion to thy standard and rule or else thy Religion is a meer cypher and signifieth nothing So far as the best come short of the Law they sin 1 Joh. 5.3 Sin is a transgression of the Law And that because the Law is given to him as a rule of Life God hath therefore qualified it with the porperties of a Rule 1. A Rule must be perfect and not defective not redundant The Law of the Lord is perfect Psal 19.7 2. A Rule must be plain not dark All her ways are plain to him that understandeth 3. A Rule must be published and known otherwise it 's a snare to intrap men God hath proclaimed his Law The Command is not hidden from thee nor far off Deut. 30.11 It 's not in Heaven that thou shouldst say Who shall go up for us thither and fetch it thence that we may hear it and do it Nor beyond the Seas But the Word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart 12 13 14 verses that thou mayst do them 4. A Rule is that by which men shall be judged so is this Law Joh. 12. 48. The Word that I have spoken the same shall judge you at the last day 2. The Mercies of God to thee are positive as well as privative and why should not thy Duty be suitable to the Divine Bounty God is not only a Shield to defend thee from evil in thy Body in thy Soul in thy Person in thy Relations in thine Out-goings and in thine Incomings by Night and by Day at all times and in all places but he is also a Sun to refresh thee with good with temporal good Food Raiment Friends Relations Sleep Liberty Wealth esteem in the World c. With spiritual good with Sabbaths Scriptures Sacraments seasons of Grace with the tenders of Pardon and Peace and Adoption and eternal Salvation upon excellent and equitable terms And what reason can we give why our Obedience should not bear a proportion to his Beneficence He is a Sun and a Shield and gives Grace and Glory and with-holdeth no good things from them that walk uprightly Psal 84. Shall God with-hold no good thing from thee and canst thou find in thy heart to deny the doing of any good thing for him Is his Bounty of so large an extent as to comprehend protection from all Evil and the fruition of all good and must thy Duty be so narrow and scanty as if he did not deserve so much as he requireth Is it honest to receive or buy in by one Measure and to return and sell out by another Divers Weights and divers Measures both of them are abomination to the Lord. A Weight and a Weight a Measure and a Measure one to buy with that 's large another to sell with that is less I only allude to it It 's abominable for thee to receive of God by the largest measure and to return to him by the least Reader if thou art born of God and guilty of these partial temporary Omissions consider it seriously let ingenuity plead for God When he first wrought upon thy Soul he did not only translate thee out of the Kingdom of Darkness but also bring thee into the Kingdom of his dear Son He did not only turn thee from Satan but also cause thee to return to himself He brought thee out of a state of Wrath and brought thee into a state of Love and Favour 1 Pet. 2.9 He redeemed thee from those Enemies which had carried thee Captive Sin Satan Death Hell Rom. 6.11 Ephes 2.3 4. Heb. 2. 2 Tim. 1.9 10. 1 Thess 1. ult But this is not all he hath also brought thee into the glorious liberty of the Children of God 1 Joh. 12. 1 Joh. 3.1 He hath delivered thee from this present evil World that its affrightments its allurements that all its power and policy shall not be able to destroy thee but this is not all he hath made thee an Heir of a better
step nearer to thee Did God or any of them send his only begotten Son to redeem thee out of the hands of the Law and Divine Justice and to purchase for thee a state of Peace and Love and Adoption and everlasting Life Did they or any of them bear the Curse of the Law and the Wrath of an infinite Majesty and the Rage of the Fiends of Darkness to deliver thee from them and to make thee blessed O Reader where are thy Wits what is become of thine Understanding If he that sends thee in all the good thou enjoyest and freeth thee from all the evil thou escapest doth not deserve all thou hast and art who doth I know not Hast thou laid the thousandth part of those Obligations on any Child or Servant thou hast which God hath on thee Didst thou make them dost thou preserve them canst thou redeem them Alas thou art but a poor Instrument in the hand of God to convey some small matters to them yet thou expectest positive as well as negative Obedience from them and why should not God who hath laid such millions of Obligations on thee look for the like from thee Once more to whom wilt thou call in thy day of Distress To whom wilt thou cry in thy time of trouble to God or any of those three fore-mentioned Masters is it to them or to God that thou wilt lift up thy Hands and Eyes and Heart on thy sick on thy dying Bed when all thy Friends and Kindred will be insignificant and helpless to thee and Devils will wait on thee to devour thee Who is it that offereth thee an unchangeable state of Pleasure and Happiness upon excellent and equitable terms that intreats and invites and wooeth and courteth thee to accept of freedom from misery and Hell flames and eternal damnation and also to embrace his tenders of fulness of joy and a Crown of Life and a Kingdom of Glory for ever and ever Ah Friend little dost thou know how much thou owest the blessed God I am sure thou canst not deny him any part of thy Heart or Life if thou wilt give him what he deserves thy Conscience must tell thee that it is his due And then if thou wilt give every one his due why shouldst thou put by the glorious Lord If thy Friends thy Neighbours thine Enemies all must have their due I beseech thee do not deny God but let him have thy positive Obedience which is unquestionably his due 8. Consider Sanctification Repentance or sound-saving Conversion consisteth in positive as well as negative Holiness nay more especially and principally in positive Holiness as that which consummateth and perfecteth the work And how then canst thou have any grounded hope that thy condition is safe without it When the Prophet mentions that Repentance which is never to be repented of that Repentance which shall find Mercy and obtain Pardon he enjoyneth both Isaiah 55.7 An aversion from Sin and a Conversion to God as their supream and chiefest good When the Apostle mentions that Sanctification which is the inseparable concomitant of Justification and the constant effect of our Union with Christ he mentions both Reckon ye also your selves to be dead unto sin freed from it Laws as a dead Wife from the Laws of her Husband and disabled unto its Service as a dead man is unto the actions of life here is negative Holiness but alive unto God obliged unto his Laws as a living Subject is unto the Laws of his Soveraign and enabled unto his Service as a living man is unto actions that are suitable to life here is positive Holiness through Christ This is the root upon which Sanctification groweth as the fruit Rom. 6.11 So vers 18. Being then made free from Sin ye became the Servants of Righteousness Being deliver'd from the former Usurper they became obedient to their rightful Lord and served him Now Friend what wilt thou do for an evidence of Repentance and Sanctification which are of such absolute necessity that thou canst not be saved without them Luke 13.3 Heb. 12.14 If thou neglectest positive godliness indeed thou mayst flatter thy self with an hypocritical Repentance but a sincere one respects both parts of the Law An Hebrician observes that in the word Tamim which signifieth upright or perfect there is a great Tau to note that an upright man observeth the whole Law from the first to the last letter thereof He may be too critical but this is certain the true Penitent chooseth the way of Obedience as well as refuseth the way of Disobedience He is described by this Character He chooseth the things that please God Isa 56.4 He doth not only refuse the things that displease God but also choose the things that please him yea and because they please him The natural Votary is what he is from the good temperament of his body which makes him more gentle and pliable than otherwise he would be The moral Religionist is what he is from the improvement or rather misimprovement of his natural Reason The Civilian is what he is from fear of man or out of respect to man He is still in the bond of Iniquity but he is so careful to line his Fetters that they do not clink to the disturbance of others or to his own shame But the true Christian is what he is from Conscience of and love to the Will of God and as he at his first implantation into Christ brings forth this good fruit so he continueth in it to the end of his life He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit Joh. 15.5 As Naturalists observe of the Bees that they are laborious in their youth and do not dispense with themselves to be idle in their age but as they increase in dextrousness so also in laboriousness being more early at work than the younger nay when their Bodies are over-spent and their wings ragged they will venture abroad to work though they often prove too weak to return home Thus the right Convert flourisheth as the Palm-Tree in his youth and is fat and flourishing and brings forth fruit in his old age Psal 92.12 13 14. CHAP. XXXVIII If God should omit his care of us a moment we are undone And if Christ had omitted the least in our Work of Redemption we had been lost irrecoverably 9. COnsider if God should omit his care of thee and neglect thee as often as thou omittest his Service and neglectest him nay if he should withdraw his positive Providence from thee one moment what would become of thee thy Body would be turn'd into a dead loathsome Carkass and thy Soul would be haled by Devils to Hell fire Is it not more just that God should neglect thee than that thou shouldst neglect him and hath he not much more reason to neglect thee a moment than thou hast to neglect him days and moneths and years He hath no Obligation to thee thou hast thousands to him
to the same excess of riot will then be manifested to be men of Integrity and Humility and to have declined the prophane courses of others not out of foolish preciseness or needless scrupulosity or humoursomeness but out of Conscience to the Commands of God Their Faith and Love and Sincerity will be found to their praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus When Christ who is our Life shall appear then shall ye appear with him in Glory 1 Pet. 1.7 They who are now despised and reproached and trampled on as the dirt and dung and filth of the Earth will then be manifested to be Gods Jewels Christs Glory and the Temples of the Holy Ghost When Christ who is our Life shall appear we shall appear with him in Glory Col. 3.4 Then there will be a manifestation of the Sons of God Rom. 8.19 Bad men will then be manifested to be the Servants of Unrighteousness the Children of the Devil the Slaves and Vassals of Corruption and notwithstanding all their glorious Profession and specious Pretences to have been but as a painted Sepulchre gaudy without and rottenness within or as a curious Chimney-piece without white and shining but within full of soot and blackness He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the thoughts of the heart 2. Of the Lord Jesus Christ We read of the appearing of Christ at that day 1 Pet. 1.7 Col. 3.4 He was vail'd and hid and obscured when on Earth but then he shall be reveal'd and discover'd to the whole World When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven 2 Thess 1.7 And it will be a glorious Revelation Looking for the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2.13 In this World he appeared as the Son of man as one born of a Woman and in the form of a Servant but then he shall appear as the Son of God as the only begotten of the Father and as the Head of Principalities and Powers and as the Heir of all things Matth. 16.27 For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works He shall come in the Glory of his Father i. e. in that Glory and Honour which is proper and peculiar to the Divine Nature At his first appearing a weak mortal man was his Harbinger Mat. 3.3 4. to prepare his way before him But at his second appearing a mighty immortal Arch-Angel shall be his fore-runner and go before him For the Lord himself shall descend with a shout with the voice of the Arch-Angel and with the Trump of God 1 Thess 4.16 At his first appearing he was accompanied with a few poor mean Fishermen but at his second appearing he shall be attended with his mighty Angels 2 Thess 1.7 With all his holy Angels Matth. 6.27 With the thousand thousand that are before him and the ten thousand times ten thousand that minister to him At his first appearing he came as a Servant to minister unto others and to be abased He came riding upon an Asse Matth. 20.5 28. But at his second appearing he shall come in the Clouds of Heaven as his Chariot Matth. 26.61 To be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe And then he shall appear as a Lord some think it 's therefore called the Lords-day 2 Pet. 3.10 At his first appearing he appeared wholly as a Saviour and Redeemer When he appeared to the World the Philanthropy or kindness of God to man appeared Titus 3.4 And the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation appeared Titus 2.11 But then he shall appear as a Judge full of Fire and Fury and Wrath against his Enemies The Kings and Captains and Nobles will call to the Rocks to fall on them and to the Mountains to cover them from the wrath of the Lamb when that great day of his Wrath is come Rev. 6.16 17. At first he appeared as a Sinner In the likeness of sinful flesh Rom. 8.3 He was numbred among the Transgressors The Lord laid on him the inquity of us all Isa 53.12 He was called a Samaritan and one that had a Devil Joh. 10. A Wine-bibber and a Glutton a Friend of Publicans and Sinners Joh. 8.48 Matth. 11.19 A Traytour against Caesar Joh. 19.12 One guilty of Blasphemy against God Matth. 26.65 A Conjurer and one in Compact and Covenant with the Devil Matth. 12.24 But his second appearing will be without any such likeness of sinful Flesh or imputation of sin by God or reputation of a Sinner among men But unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto Salvation Heb. 9. ult 2. There will be at that day a manifestation of things The Books that are now sealed up will then be opened Rev. 20.12 The Book of the Divine Decrees will then be unclasped and the Names written in the Lambs Book of Life will then be visible and legible to all And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life Rev. 20.12 All the Divine Providences in time will be manifest then will the Divine Purpose from eternity as now the Divine Purpose is manifest by the Divine Providence The Book of Divine Providences will then be opened and all the rare curious Contrivances thereof unfolded the agreement of Providence with the Promises as well as with the eternal Purpose will then be apparent The History of the whole World will then be read by the Saints in one entire Volume Now we see a little of Gods Wisdom and Power and Faithfulness in one Providence and a little in another and a little in a third yea we are so blind and Providences often so dark that through our ignorance and unbelief God loseth much of the Glory due to him for them and we much of the comfort we might receive by them but then we shall with strengthened and enlarged Understandings discern the whole Series Method and Contexture of Divine Providences together and how by a powerful wise gracious Government all things conspired and combin'd and wrought together for our everlasting good Rom. 8. 28. It 's one thing to see a rich piece of Arras with a curious story wrought in it by parcels and pieces and another thing to see it all together hung up and to be seen all at once with one view The Book of Conscience will then be opened Though now wicked men blot and blur this Book by their wilful Presumptuous sins that they cannot read it though they darken their Eyes and stiffen their Wills and harden their Hearts and will not read it yet then they shall have the Book of Conscience representing to them in large though black yea bloody Characters all their atheistical Impieties Enormities Drunkenness Revellings Debaucheries Hypocrisies Blasphemies and they shall be forced to
voluntary departure from Gods Precepts Heb. 3.12 Jer. 2.5 And its woful Effect is an eternal total departure from his gracious presence His partial temporary departure from his own people who are the Objects of his eternal Choice and infinite Love which makes them go mourning all the day and lie roaring all the night because of their sins speaks much of the evil of sin but his full everlasting departure from others which leaves them naked and stript of all Comfort and exposed to all Misery and Mischief doth more abundantly proclaim its filthiness and loathsomeness It can be no ordinary Cloud or Vapour that can obscure the Sun at noon-day in all his beauty and brightness and turn the clear day into a black night And it can be no little or small thing which provokes the Father of Mercy and God of all Grace to deal so severely with the works of his own hands 2. It informs us of the unconceivable misery of Sinners They must depart from Christ for ever To depart for ever from loving and lovely Relations is no mean misery to them who have no other Kindred than those on Earth It was no small trial of Abraham to leave his Kindred and Fathers house Gen. 12.1 To depart for ever from dear and intimate Friends is a sore trouble to him whose heart is knit to them The failure and distance of Friends was grievous to Job Job 19.13 14. And David Psal 38.11 To depart for ever from all the Saints the Children of the most high the excellent of the Earth from the Members of Christ of whom the World is not worthy will cut deep in them who have any eyes to see the amiableness of their Persons and any hearts to underderstand the benefit of their Prayers and Patterns But to depart for ever from Christ the Prince of Life the Lord of Glory the Heir of all things the richest Treasure and highest Honour and sweetest Pleasure is doleful and dreadful indeed How may the damned cry out Ah whither do we go now we are going from thee thou hast the words of eternal life The presence of Christ is the happiness of the Soul on Earth Deut. 4.7 I will see you and your hearts shall rejoyce Joh. 16.22 And ye now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again and your hearts shall rejoyce and your joy no man taketh from you No such hearty comfort as in the gracious presence of Christ And the presence of Christ is the happiness of the Soul in Heaven I desire to be dissolved though death simply consider'd be not desirable and to be with Christ Finis conciliat mediis amorem His presence is the Heaven of Heavens It 's the excellency of the new Jerusalem that there the Tabernacle of God is with men and God himself shall be with them Rev. 21.3 And the felicity of the Citizens there They shall see his Face Rev. 22.4 In the presence of Christ is all good and in the absence of Christ is all evil If it were death to Absolom not to see the Kings face what death will it be to the damned to be denied for ever the blissful sight of the face of Christ If God depart from his people in some degrees for he is their God still Psal 22.1 Psal 88.1 and but for a time as a loving Father to make his Children more sensible of their folly and of the worth of his Favour How sadly have they cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me How horribly will they screech and roar from whom he departs wholly and eternally as a supream and righteous Judge It will greatly aggravate their misery to consider these particulars 1. The greatness of their loss It 's not the loss of an House or Estate or bodily good but the loss of a Soul the loss of a Saviour the loss of a God yea the loss of all good and that for ever It 's such a loss as never had its fellow or equal It 's such a loss as cannot admit of any addition to it It 's a loss that never had the like before it nor shall have the like after it It 's an incomparable loss that the damned may say as he Ye have taken away my God and what have I more 2. For how small a thing they lose the blessed Jesus If they had lost Christ for somewhat which might have countervail'd the want of him or had in any degree equal'd him it had been the better but to lose a God a Christ a Soul fulness of Joy for a little aiery Honour or bruitish Pleasure this will cut to the heart O how will it wound the Soul in the other World to think for how small a toy for how pitiful a trifle have I lost a Crown of Glory and Rivers of Pleasures for ever Ah what a Fool have I been to lose Substance for Shadows Bread for Husks a Fountain of living Waters for broken Cisterns their own Mercies for lying Vanities Christal streams for puddle Water the choice Dainties of Gods House for the Devils scraps Heaven for Earth and all things for nothing Was any in Bedlam ever half so distracted 3. It will much aggravate their misery to consider that it was their own voluntary act to lose so much for so little They shall then think with themselves that this woful condition in which they are was their own choice All the power and policy of Earth and Hell could not force them to destroy themselves The Cords that bind them were of their own twisting the Rods that scourge them were gather'd with their own hands The Web in which they are caught and kill'd was spun out of their bowels God may say to them as once to Israel Ye have destroyed your selves Hos 13. Ye are your own Murtherers I put your Salvation so far into your own hands that ye could not be damned against your wills Your own Iniquities correct you and ye are holden with cords of your own sins Prov. 5.22 Jer. 4.18 Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart Jer. 2.19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee and thy back-slidings shall reprove thee know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God 4. It will exceedingly increase their anguish to know perfectly the greatness of their loss Here they know not the worth of a Christ and thence they are little troubled at the want of Christ but then their eyes shall be opened to see the Beauty Excellency and Amiableness of him whom they have lost and to see the costly Delicacies choice Dainties pure and perfect Pleasures which the Godly enjoy in him and with him and so by the increase of their knowledge will be an increase of their sorrow They shall see Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven they shall see their Neighbours whom they
rational Creatures may be elected Rom. 8.30 Rom. 11.7 5. If fore-sight of mens Works be the cause of their Election then man hath whereof to glory He is then the cause of his own Salvation Election is the Original of all a spring that runneth under ground for a time first bubleth up and discovers it self in effectual Calling so glideth along in a life of Faith Holiness and at last emptieth it self in the Ocean of Peace and Joy and Happiness So that if man be the Cause of his Election then he may thank himself for his Salvation John is no more beholden to God than Judas for 't is the improvement of the freedom of his Will which brings him to Heaven God did as much for Judas say they as for John But how contrary is this to the word of Truth Rom. 4.2 But if Abraham were justified by Works he had whereof to glory The Scripture speaks in another Dialect By Grace ye are saved through Faith not of Works lest any man should boast Eph. 2.4 5. The Knife with which Adam cut his own Throat and wherewith he murther'd his Posterity was Pride He would hold of himself and not of God The wise and gracious God in the way he hath taken for our Recovery is pleased to lay this Knife as far as may be out of our way lest we be ruin'd by it a second time Though this Pride the Popish Doctrine of Merits and fore-sight of good Works maintains but God tells us Man is nothing and God all in all that no flesh might glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1.27 28 29. 6. The Holy Ghost gives us the true ground or motive of Election far differing from this of the Papists and that is the Will and Pleasure Having predestinated us according to the good Pleasure of his Will Ephes 1.5 Being predestinated according to the purpose of him vers 11. Rom. 9.18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth Matth. 11.26 Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us with a holy Calling not according to our work but according to his own Purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ before the world begun Again the Particle For enim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is counted causal Piscat in Loc. not that always it noteth the Cause but sometimes a Reason or Argument whether taken from the Cause or Effect Matth. 1.18 Matth. 15.14 2 Tim. 2.7 Besides this is sufficient for parity of reason or the resemblance that as some go by the way of good Works to Heaven so others by the way of evil Works to Hell Good Works are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ceu causa salutis sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 respectu fidei finis ejus vitae aeternae Glass not the cause of reigning but the way to the Kingdom Once more Let the Papists shew the same proportion between a few imperfect defective good Works which men are enabled to do by the help of God and the unconceivable eternal Joys and Glory of Heaven that is between the evil works of men and the endless pains of Hell and then let them plead their merits They may if they please observe that the Saints themselves are so far from pleading their Merits or boasting their deserts that they hardly remember that they ever did those Works which Christ proclaims to their praise and rewards through his own blood with a Kingdom Lord when saw we thee hungry or thirsty c. O what a vast difference is there between an upright humble Christian who acknowledgeth himself less than the least of all Gods mercies and a proud Papist that dares say Coelum gratis non accipiam CHAP. XVI Why Christ will try men at the Great Day by acts of Charity THe second question to be discussed before I proceed to the Doctrine is why Christ tryeth men at that day by the neglect or performance of Charity and not of some other Duty as hearing praying watching c. Or by their Patience Humility Temperance or Heavenly-mindedness c. To this I answer These Works of Charity are by a Synechdoche put for new Obedience and all the good works of a Christians life Though Christ mention those as the test of men at that day yet he doth not hereby exclude others The Scripture abundantly proveth that other Graces and Duties shall be rewarded at that day 1 Pet. 1.6 7. Matth. 10.18 Heb. 6.10 c. and that men shall be condemned for other sins beside the neglect of Charity The want of the Wedding-Garment Matth. 22.12 13. Unprofitableness in the improvement of Talents Matth. 25.30 We have a Bed-Roll of other sins condemning 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Rev. 21.8 Indeed every sin any sin that men have lived in and loved who have died impenitent will be found damnable at that day It cannot rationally be supposed that the performance or neglect of those outward acts of Charity should be the general test I mean of all for how then shall those that die in their Infancy and Childhood or such as are extreamly poor be tried who are rendred wholly uncapable of feeding the Hungry or cloathing the Naked Neither do I judge it shall be the sole test for it 's possible for a man in these outward acts to be bountiful to men who hath no regard or fear of God in him The Apostle supposeth a man may give all his Goods to the poor and yet be void of true love to the poor 1 Cor. 13.3 It 's unquestionable that the Worship of the blessed God is much more excellent than our kindness to the Children of men as Calvin well observeth on the Text yet Christ who knoweth the hearts of all men and from what principles they act will mention the Saints acts of Charity at that day and reward them accordingly and will mention the Sinners omission of Charity at that day and condemn him for it 1. Because acts of Charity are more obvious and apparent to the World Though the Christian usually is close therein and will not let his left hand know what his right hand doth yet Charity like Musk will discover it self The Objects thereof will publish their Benefactors and he himself thinks it needful sometimes to be open and publick in his liberality though not for self-ostentation yet for others imitation Luther tells us That Christ will try men this way because the World shall justifie his Sentence both of reward and punishment If a man be charitable all his Neighbours take notice of it yea commonly love him for it the vilest of them will commend him though by his holy Conversation he condemns them I suppose this is the good man of whom the Apostle speaks when he tells us That for such a one a man will even dare to die Rom. 5. Therefore when Christ shall acknowledge the Charity of his people and then reward them with himself
the wicked Neighbours of these men will confess the truth thereof and their Consciences will force them to consent thereto Again there is hardly a Muck-worm whose Motto is To have and to hold to heap and to hoard up who will as soon part with his blood as any thing considerable to the poor but all his Neighbours good and bad observe him speak of him and generally condemn him for his earthly-mindedness So that when Christ at the Great Day shall accuse him they will be forced to attest the truth of that Accusation and when Christ at that day shall condemn him they cannot but agree to the Sentence Psal 52.6 7. The Righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him Lo this is the man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthned himself in his wickedness 2. Because these acts of Charity are signes of Faith and Love to which Graces Heaven is promised James 1.12 James 2.5 Joh. 3.16 17 ult Christ who knoweth the Heart understandeth â—â—om what inward root our outward â—ruit springeth and therefore Faith and Love which are the Fountain of true Charity James 2.15 16 17. being inward and secret he mentions what is more open and known as a sign and testimony of that faith in him and love to him which are invisible and unknown to the World Faith is a Grace seated in the heart With the heart man believeth unto righteousness where by heart I suppose is understood the Vnderstanding and Will for Faith in habitu is in each and in exercitio an act of both And the heart is called an hidden man 1 Pet. 3. But it discovers it self to the Believer by love For when once the Soul applieth Christ for Pardon and Life and begins to hope for those great and good things which Christ hath purchased for him and promised to him this Faith kindleth an holy flame of Love in the affections to Christ and hereby the Soul understands that he is a true Believer beloved of God for our Love is but the reverberation of God's Love back again to himself 1 Joh. 4.19 And then Faith discovers it self to others by these fruits and effects of love to God i. e. feeding the Hungry and cloathing the Naked St. Paul tells us That Faith works by love as its Tool or Instrument Gal. 5.6 Love to God produceth love to his Saints and love to the Saints will draw out the hand and heart and purse to relieve them in their wants 1 Joh. 3.17 Love is costly and expensive thinks nothing too much or too good for it s Beloved Mary's Box of Oyntment is very precious but not too precious for her Lord. Life is worth all the World yet laid down for a Christian at the command of Love 1 Joh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us 3. Because practical godliness of which Charity is a part will be that by which men shall be tried at the Great Day our Lord Jesus doth hereby declare That it is not the Profession but the practice of Religion that will be enquired into by the Judge of quick and dead It is not saying Be thou fed and be thou cloathed without giving wherewith to be fed and cloathed But it is feeding the Hungry and cloathing the Naked that shall be rewarded Good words may please our selves but good works only please God and profit our own Souls Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven It 's the doing not the talking Christian that hath the promise of Heaven Matth. 7. It 's the practical not the verbal Christian that hath a right to Heaven through the precious blood of Christ and the gracious promise of God Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life and may enter in through the gates into the City It is the real not the nominal Christian that is prepared for heaven None are fit to do the will of God in heaven but those who have been accustomed to do the Will of God on Earth There is a making meet for the Inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 A young man by the School is made meet for the University and a Christian by practical Holiness is fitted for eternal Happiness Our Redeemer would hereby declare That all shews and shadows of Godliness all gaudy Professions and curious flourishes of Religion if void of good Works though as Gloworms they shine somewhat in the dark night of this World yet in the long day of eternity they will all vanish and disappear God will not then examine who hath been the greatest Talker of his Will but the greatest Walker in his Way nor who hath been the best Speaker but who hath been the best Doer For whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful Hearer but a doer of the Work this man shall be blessed in his deed Jam. 1.25 Hearing the Word without doing the Work it commands brings no blessing The life and substance of Religion consists in practising what is good and not in praising what is good It consists in Scripture-Duties not in Scripture Phrases 4. Because Christ would hereby publish to the World the great respect he hath for Charity therefore he tells us He will take special notice of his Saints Charity at that day Charity whether in relieving the Oppressed or comforting the Sorrowful or counselling the Doubtful or supporting the Feeble or feeding the Hungry or visiting the Sick or cloathing the Naked is highly esteemed of Christ To what Duty hath he annexed more or larger Promises Matth. 5.7 Psal 18.25 Eccles 11.1 2. Psal 41.1 Psal 112.1 Isa 58.12 He speaks of it as if very much of Religion did consist in it and almost all of it Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is to visit the Fatherless and the Afflicted James 1. ult He slights our most severe Duties those which are most irksome to the flesh if this be wanting Psal 58.7 8 9 10. He limits his own Mercy to the merciful 2 Sam. 22.25 James 2.13 He is himself a merciful High Priest Heb. 5. He had compassion on the ignorant and those that were out of the way Heb. 5.2 On those that had nothing to eat Matth. 15.32 On those that were scattered as sheep without a Shepheard Matth. 9.36 Therefore he cannot but value exceedingly and love tenderly those that are like him That which lieth so near his heart must needs be enquired after as much if not more than any thing else And there is scarce any thing that speaks our respect of persons or things more than our enquiry after them Joseph loved his Father Jacob dearly I suppose far above all his Kindred and therefore he first enquires after him â—…s your
more hainous but that they are less scandalous Sins of Commission as Drunkenness Uncleanness Theft Swearing Murther these make a great noise in the World are taken notice of by all and with the Snail leave a slime and filth behind them wheresoever they are But sins of Omission as not praying in our Closets not examining our own Hearts not relieving the Poor and Needy not bringing up our Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord c. These are more still and quiet observed by few or none 5. They differ in this that sins of Omission are the aversion of the heart from God and sins of Commission are the conversion of the heart to the Creature or somewhat below God Omission turns the heart from God Hence we read of mans going far from God Jer. 2.5 and of their departing away from the living God Heb. 3.12 Which is not meant in regard of local motion for so none can depart from God Psal 139.2 3 4 5. but in regard of their inward carnal Affections and disobedient Conversations Jer. 17.5 Whose heart departeth from the Lord. Commissions are a turning to the Creature Whose heart is after covetousness They imagine mischief in their hearts Psal 140.2 Eccles 9.3 The heart of the Sons of men is full of evil Having spoken to the nature of sins of Omission in general and more particularly by their several distinctions and their agreement with and difference from sins of Commission I come to the second thing promised in the explication of the Doctrine and that is the danger of them CHAP. XXII The danger of sins of Omission in the hainous nature of them and their offensiveness to God Secondly THe danger of sins of Omission though men are ready to conceive that sins of Omission because they make no great cry in the World are but infirmities are venial sins and are not much to be regarded as having little of danger to the Soul in them yet the contrary will appear plainly if we consider these particulars 1. The malignity and sinfulness of them speaks their danger The more venome and poyson there is in any Cup or Dish the more dangerous it must needs be the more sinfulness there is in any sin the more hazardous it is to the Soul Now I shall shew the sinfulness of omissions 1. They are most against the mind and will of God Those sins are the greatest which most cross the Will of the Law-giver For sin is a transgression of the Law or Mind of God And every one knoweth that the Mind of God is more in the Precept or Affirmative part of the Law than in the Prohibition or Negative part of it The Precept or performance of the Duty commanded is the main thing the Prohibition is as it were accidental in order to our Obedience to the Precept Mens legis est lex therefore sins of Omission being against the substance and principal part of the Command and so most directly against that which is the special Mind of the Law-giver must needs be the greatest Sins It is more good to do good than not to do evil Omissions are not to be esteemed bare Negations or Privations but as breaches of a positive Law wherein the mind of God is most discover'd Now how great a Sin and how dangerous is it to cross the Mind of God surely it 's bad thwarting him that can cast Body and Soul into Hell Vide ante The second difference between sins of omission commission I say unto you saith Christ fear him Matth. 10.28 2. Sins of Omission are the ground of and make way for Sins of Commission The want of love to God and our not believing his Word which are Sins of Omission are the ground of all abominations When a man once casteth off daily reading the Word and seeking God by Prayer or performs those Duties coldly and carelesly he throws himself out of God's Protection and so becomes a Lacquey to the Devil and a tame Slave to every Lust to trample on and tyranize over at pleasure Psal 14.3 4. They are all gone aside they are altogether filthy there is none that doth good no not one Negligentiam in orando semper aliqua notabilis transgressio sequitur saith One always some notable Sin followeth upon slothfulness in prayer David's not watching his Eyes and Heart and his not imploying his time better at that hour of the day brought forth Drunkenness Murder Adultery Lying c. Some Sins of Omission are like great men that never go without many Followers admit their Persons you must admit their long train which they bring with them So a Gad a whole troop of ugly lusts will throng in upon our neglect of one Duty Not doing good fits the heart for doing evil The ground not sown with good Corn doth naturally of its own accord bring forth evil weeds Indeed it 's impossible for him that doth no good not to do evil He that doth not gather with Christ scattereth and he that is not with me is against me Matth. 12.30 He that fights not for his Prince in a day of Battel is his Enemy and that Servant who helps not his Master in Harvest hinders him Not to save a life when we may is to destroy and murther it The Negative Christian will quickly fall to be a positive Atheist and Heathen If the Heart be empty of good and swept clean of Grace the unclean Spirit will quickly take up his logding in it Besides God doth often judicially give up them to commit Evil who refuse to do good Because they received not the truth in the love of it here is a Sin of Omission God gave them up to strong delusions that they might believe a lye c. 2 Thess 2.10 11. Now how great and dangerous is this Sin that ushers in so many Sins Alas one Sin is too weighty for thy Soul to bear how heavy then will that whole rabble and regiment of sins be that one sin of Omission may bring along with it If I live in Sins of Omission Sins of Commission will follow both naturally and judicially 3. Sins of Commission do exceedingly grieve the Spirit of God Indeed every Sin is offensive to the Holy Ghost or Spirit of Holiness as directly contrary to its nature but the Spirit of God sets a particular special brand and mark upon these Sins as grievous to him Follow that which is good rejoyce evermore pray without ceasing In every thing give thanks quench not the Spirit despise not Prophesying 1 Thess 5.15 16 17 18 19. Observe the Duties are all positive the neglect whereof is a Sin of Omission to which he exhorts them if they would not quench the Spirit The Spirit is not only grieved but also quenched by Sins of Omission Fire may be quenched by with-drawing fewel from it as well as by throwing water on it By scandalous Sins of Commission we throw water on this heavenly Flameâ— quench it but by
neglecting to pâ—â—â—â—…d to attend on Prophesying and such Sins of Omission we withdraw fewel from it and thereby put it out When the Israelites would not hear the Voice of God they are said to grieve his holy Spirit Psal 95. And when they believed not his Word the Wonders that he wrought they are said to vex his holy Spirit Isa 63.10 with Numb 14.11 Numb 20.12 Then they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit Not to obey God is to disobey him Not to be loyal to him is to be rebellious now hereby they vexed his holy Spirit Now how great a Sin and how dangerous is it to grieve the Spirit of God the size or measure of Sin is to be taken from the Majesty slighted disobeyed and offended by it The Spirit is God an infinite boundless Being whom these Sins of Omission grieve and vex Again how dangerous is it to grieve and drive the Spirit from us It 's the Spirit that must enable us to our Duties Rom. 8.26 Direct us in our walkings Psal 143.10 Comfort us in our Sorrows Joh. 14.16 Isa 65.1 2 3. It is the Spirit that is the Spirit of Grace and Holiness Zach. 12.10 〈◊〉 1.4 and must work them in our hearts if ever we be gracious and holy 1 Pet. 1.2 It is the Spirit must strengthen us with might in our inward man to keep the Commandments of God Ephes 3.16 Ezez 36.27 It is the Spirit that is the earnest of our Inheritance the First-fruits of our eternal blessed Harvest and that must seal us up unto the day of Redemption Ephes 1.13 14. Rom. 8. Ephes 4.30 How great a Sin and how dangerous therefore is it to grieve this Spirit and by Sins of Omission to incense him to with-draw from us without whom we are unable unto any good and indeed exposed to all evil 2. The danger of these Sins will appear by their offensiveness to God Since our Felicity depends on the Favour of God and our Misery on his Anger Hell it self being but his wrath ever to come 1 Thess 1. ult those Sins which are highly provoking to God must be very dangerous If in his Favour be Life Psal 30.5 and his Wrath be worse than Death Psal 90.11 I had need to beware how I provoke him to jealousie Now the not believing God which is a sin of Omission is called the Provocation Psal 95.8 9. Harden not your hearts as in the Provocation as in the day of temptation in the Wilderness When your Fathers tempted me proved me and saw my Works This Provocation was their not believing his Word for all the Wonders he had wrought for them They said Can God furnish a Table in the Wilderness Behold he smote the Rock that waters gushed out Can he give Bread also Can he provide Flesh for his people Therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth So a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger also came up against Israel because they believed not in God and trusted not in his Salvation Psal 78.19 to 23. It will appear how provoking sins of Omission are to God by these three particulars 1. By his frequent Reprehensions and complaints of men for them He blames men for not sacrificing Mal. 3.18 for not mourning 1 Cor. 5. And sharply reproves for not receiving Correction Jer. 2.30 In vain have I smitten your Children they received no Correction For not grieving when smitten Jer. 5.3 For not seeking God Isa 9.13 Nay observe what special notice he takes of and how sadly he aggravates their Omissions Jer. 3.7 I said after she had done all these things i. e. gone up upon every high Mountain and upon every green Tree Turn thou unto me but she turned not Here he complains of Israels Omission in not turning to him but mark how he accents Judahs Omission who knew what Israel had done and how God had put her away vers 8. Yet her treacherous Sister Judah feared not the dreadful doom of Israel struck no aw into the heart of Judah And vers 10. And yet for all this that Israel hath committed and been severely punished for her treacherous Sister Judah hath not turned unto me with the whole heart but feignedly saith the Lord. Here was an Omission internal or in the manner of her Conversation it was not sincere but with dissimulation 2. By his severe Comminations and Threatnings denounced against those that are guilty of Omissions He curseth those that deny him their help in a day of Battel and that come not forth to help the Lord against the mighty Judg. 5.23 He curseth those that are not diligent about his Work Jer. 48.10 And believe it his Curse is effectual not like the discharge of a piece with powder only which doth no execution Those whom he curseth are cursed indeed His curse like Lightning blasteth and withereth where-ever it cometh I cursed his habitation saith Eliphaz not as a private Malediction of his own Spirit but as a pious Praediction of Gods Spirit Now mark what followeth upon God's cursing the wicked mans Habitation Job 5.2 3 4. His house is by this breath of God tumbling to the ground presently His Children that should be the honour and support of it are far from safety vers 3. they are crushed in the Gate and there is none to deliver them vers 4. Whose harvest the hungry eateth up and taketh out of the thorns and the Robber swalloweth up his substance His Estate which is a second thing requisite to the outward glory of a Family that is seised on and snatched from him So God threatneth multitudes with his wrath which is so terrible so intollerable that none can stand before it Psal 147.8 that Mountains are moved Rocks are rent in pieces the Foundations of the Earth tremble at it yea that God's own people are ready to be distracted at it Psal 88.3 4 5. for a Sin of Omission For not calling on his Name Jer. 10. ult God threatneth to cut a man off from his people which includes either a cutting off from the society of Gods people here and hereafter as Gen. 17.14 or of being cut off out of the Land of the living by the Sword of the Magistrate Exod. 30.33 or both as some think for a meer omission But a man that is clean and is not in a journey and forbeareth to keep the Passover even the same Soul shall be cut off from his people Numb 9.13 3. It appears that Sins of Omission are highly provoking to God by the execution of his Judgments on them that are guilty of them His Works as well as his Word speak his great indignation against these sins Saul lost his Kindgom for not killing Agag and the best of the Flock Because thou hast rejected the Word of the Lord the Lord hath also rejected thee from being King saith Samuel to him 1 Sam. 15.23 26 28. Ahab omitted to kill Benhadad and lost his life for it 1 King 20.42 Because thou hast let go a man out of thy
includes Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels God cannot inflict a greater punishment nor can a finite limited Creature bear greater Torments than Sin being of infinite demerit requires and calls for Now I have largely proved that Omissions are sins as well as Commissions and to speak properly and exactly there is no sin but the sin of 〈…〉 ion For even in Commissions their sinfulness consisteth in their want of that goodness which the Law requireth Were there not a deficiency in them of somewhat which they ought to have or a want of conformity to the Law there would be no sin in them Yea I have proved sins of Omission in some respect greater sins as more against the Mind of the Law-giver whose Will consists rather in the Affirmative than Negative part of the Command and as the ground of sins of Commission and as more directly against the Gospel than sins of Commission They are much mistaken who judge Omissions pure Privations or meer Negations little other than non-entities for Omissions are transgressions of an Affirmative Command and violations of a positive Precept and the greatest Contradictions to the Mind of the Law and therefore most justly liable to its Curse The Apostle tells us what Obedience the Law requireth and what the Condition of such as fail therein is Gal. 3.10 1. It requireth practical Obedience not hearing or knowing or speaking only of what is written in the Book of the Law but doing it To do them It 's doing that the Law requireth Do this and live c. And it's doers that the Law justifieth Rom. 2.13 Not the hearers of the Law but the doers thereof shall be justified Now under this doing sins of Omission are expresly forbidden and those Duties the neglect of which are sins of Omission are commanded 2. It requireth personal Obedience Every one It takes no notice of Obedience by a Proxy or a Surety but requires it in our own persons The Law admits not a Mediator 3. Perfect Obedience In every thing written in the Book of the Law It will not admit of the least deviation of any one step awry but presently curseth and condemneth for them If any thought word or deed be never so little too light it will not grant the least grain of allowance but damneth for them 4. It must be perpetual That continueth not If in one day one hour one moment of his life he fail he is undone If a man could be obedient to the whole Law all the time of his life and should in his dying-hour disobey it the Law would take no notice of all his former Obedience but sent him to Hell for his latter Disobedience For mark the state of those that yield not this perfect personal perpetual practical Obedience Their Condition is cursed Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the Book of the Law to do them In the word cursed all evil is included So that Omissions or the neglect of those Duties which the Law requireth being sins they render the Creature liable to the Curse which is indeed all manner of misery here and hereafter Death and Hell are the end of every Sin though they are not the end of every Sinner they are the reward of every evil Work though not the reward of every evil Worker Free Grace in the blood of Christ doth sometimes interpose and put in an Exception to this general Rule The Gospel accepted and pleaded is a bar to those rigorous proceedings of the Law Therefore though this Reason will justifie Christ and condemn the Sinner in the judgment of his own Conscience especially this Sinner being under a Covenant of Works yet I shall give farther Reasons from the Sinners non-interest in the Priviledges of the Gospel 2. Christ will condemn men at the Reason 2 last day to eternal Torments for sins of Omission because they speak a man in a carnal natural estate The Gospel that is the only Ark for a Christian to shelter his Soul in against the Flood of the Laws Curses requireth a change of the nature and disposition as absolutely necessary to Salvation Christ the great Preacher and Purchaser of the Gospel affirmeth solemnly Verily Verily I say unto thee Except a man be born again he shall never see the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.3 This is indispensably requisite not only as a condition without which Heaven may not be had in regard of Gods pleasure but also as a disposition without which Heaven or Happiness cannot be enjoy'd in regard of the subject For 't is this that is meant by our being made meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 Again the Holy Ghost tells us That without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 12.14 This holiness as a due qualification of the Agent in relation to the beatifical Vision or sight of God the blessed-making Object is necessary by the Gospel How often are the Unregenerate and unsanctified by the Spirit of God doomed to Hell and excluded Heaven Joh. 3.18 Rev. 19. Into it can in no wise enter any thing that is defiled or unclean Again Turn ye turn ye why will ye die Ezek. 33.11 Implying that Death and Destruction are the portion of the Unconverted Now these Sins of Omission are evidences of a mans want of Regeneration Nay there is much more evil in a state of Sin than in an act of Sin which state of Sin consisteth most in Sins of Omission For this was the great evil and misery of the Ephesians by nature Eph. 2.12 That they were without God i. e. were without any inward regard of him or outward Obedience to him Sound Conversion and saving Repentance make clear work as the Flood drown'd all out of the Ark Noahs Friends as well as others So Repentance destroys all sins even sins of Omission as well as Commission It loves none it allows of none Restraining Grace will probably refuse the way of Disobedience but renewing Grace will close the way of Obedience Those that are in a wicked and unregenerate state are characterized in Scripture from their sins of Omission The wicked through the pride of his heart will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 The Lord hath a controversie with the Land because there is no Mercy nor Truth nor Knowledge of God in the Land Hos 4.1 Nay the reign of Sin which ever speaks an unconverted and unregerate estate is as visible if not more in Omissions than in Commissions As there is as high an act of Authority and Soveraignty and Princely Power in a Negative Voice or denying such and such things to be done as in a positive Law enjoyning such and such things to be done So the omission of what is good or refusing to do what God commands may speak Sin reigning in the Soul as well as doing or commanding to be done what God hath forbidden It is indeed the
speak But a Believer hath tasted God to be gracious and received many a blessing upon his knees and therefore cannot but know that Door again at which he hath received so good so large Doles He knoweth that whatsoever he asketh according to the Will of God in the Name of Christ shall be granted him 1 Joh. 5.14 Joh. 14.14 Hereby he is encouraged to beg and ask I believed therefore have I spoken saith David Psal 116.10 I believed saith the Soul therefore have I wept and pray'd and made supplication and have prevailed Faith will not suffer a man to live without Scripture The Word of God is the Food of Faith and a man can as well live without Bread as Faith without the Word 1 Pet. 2.2 It 's Scripture that breeds Faith Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Rom. 10.17 And it 's Scripture that feeds Faith and helps it to thrive I hope in thy Word Psal 119.114 Hope is a degree of Faith So Psal 119. Establish thy Word unto thy Servant upon which thou hast caused me to trust Thus I might shew how inconsistent other Sins of Omission are with Faith and therefore they who live in such sins must be Unbelievers and so obnoxious to the wrath of God Joh. 3. ult But I shall conclude this Head with this Note that Faith is obediential and therefore it 's impossible for a Believer to live in Disobedience to God's positive Laws We read in Scripture of the Obedience of Faith Faith in the Promises works Obedience to the Precepts As 't is impossible without Faith to please God Heb. 11. So 't is impossible with Faith not to desire to please him The Disobedient and Unbelievers are joyn'd together Abraham was called to an hard piece of Service To leave his Country this was hard to forsake his Native soil Jer. 2.10 Nescio qua natale solum therefore God commands us to pity and relieve Strangers Jer. 2â— 3 because they are comfortless being out of their own Country To leave his Kindred this was harder there is a tender affection between near Relations If he had gone into a strange Country with his Kindred their company might have sweetned the bitterness of his banishment but he must leave his Country as well as Kindred behind him Nay he must leave these and go into a place where he must not have a foot of Land for himself Gen. 12 1 2 3 4. yet Abraham obeys But what was the weight which set the wheels in such quick ready motion truly his Faith was the spring of his Obedience Mark Heb. 11.8 By Faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an Inheritance obeyed and went out not knowing whither he went Reason 4 4. Christ will at the Great Day condemn men to Hell who live in sins of Omission because such persons are Hypocrites Hell is prepared for Hypocrites and Unbelievers saith Christ Matth. 24.51 Others as younger Brethren receive their part of wrath under them as the Heirs They are the great Owners of Hell the chief Landlords of the Valley of Death others do as it were hold from and under them So the Hypocrite in heart heaps up wrath The Hypocrite in heart Hypocrisie lies close in the heart as the Juglers tools out of sight As in the Cellar under the Parliament there was nothing to be seen but what was lawful and allowable Coals and Wood fit Provision for Winter But when these were taken away and the Cellar was searched to the bottom then the Barrels of Powder appeared and the Coals and Wood were discover'd to be fewel laid in for the Devils Kitchin So many persons who are unblamable as we say in their lives walk without offence are negatively holy these seem to be good men approved but if we search them further to the bottom their Hypocrisie appears that all this was for vain-glory or some carnal interest they heap up wrath and shall have that wrath which is so dreadful that Hell is called by that Name in great measure or he himself by his Hypocrisie is daily filling up that Cup of Wrath which he must drink of eternally An hypocritical Nation are the people of Gods wrath Isa 10.5 6. whom he appoints to ruine They go about to mock God as they do men but they deceive themselves God is not mocked They do as those who use much art to hide the wrinkles and defects of Nature but God can see Jezabel under all her paint and find out the Wife of Jeroboam notwithstanding her disguise and will punish the Dissembler with the Lake of Fire and then what shall become of the Professor All that love and make a lye are doomed to that Dungeon of Darkness Hypocrisie is the loudest lye that ever was told because it is given to God himself It may be said to every Hypocrite as Peter to Ananias Thou hast lyed not to man but to God Act. 5.4 For he tells God and would make him believe he forbears gross Sins and is negatively holy because it 's his Will when he neglects his positive Precepts wherein he hath discover'd most of his Will Now such as live in Omissions notwithstanding all their Profession and all their negative Piety are but Juglers and Dissemblers They who are partial in their holiness are not sound at heart Whoever obeys any Command out of Conscience will endeavour Obedience to every Command David is approved for his Integrity from the universality of his Obedience 1 King 14.8 So Zachary and Elizabeth are declared righteous before God i. e. upright walking in all the Statutes and Commandments of the Lord blameless Luk. 1.6 Uprightness makes no baulks in the field of Divine Precepts Were not this man who lives in Omissions unsound he would fear Omissions as much as Commissions for sincerity hates every evil way Psal 119.104 and he would be careful to obey Affirmative as well as Negative Commands for uprightness as Moses hath the whole Law in its hands nay written in its heart and expounded in its life But this man who like a Globons body toucheth the Law of God in some one point but meets not in the rest sheweth plainly that he is hollow within as your Globes are For observe it if this man were sincere and acted upon conscientious grounds then those pious Reasons upon which he forbears sins of Commission would incline him to take heed of sins of Omission If he forbear Commissions because they are against the Will of God which should be the main ground of all Obedience Psal 119.5 6. then he would also take heed of Omissions because they are as much against the Will of God as Commissions If the Authority of God were that which sway'd him in his Negative the same would move him to positive holiness for there is the same authority in Negative and in Positive Precepts Exod. 20. The same God that saith Thou shalt not steal saith Thou
vitia quam cum virtute Rather seemingly free from Vice than really filled with Virtue Or at best as was reported of Cato That he was homo virtuti simillimus A man that looked like a virtuous person How many civil men presume their persons holy because they are not so filthy as those who rake in Ditches and Kennels and defile themselves daily with scandalous Abominations and they presume their states to be good and themselves in the way to Heaven because they are no Drunkards no Swearers no Adulterers no Theeves no Murderers when for all this they shall be cast to Hell because they are no Believers no Penitents no obedient Subjects to the King of Saints Because they know not God and obey not the Gospel 2 Thess 1.7 8. Such men are farther distant from good than from evil Ceasing from evil is not enough it 's but one step Heaven-ward doing of good must accompany it or it will be of small moment I confess when I behold a civil man who is harmless in his Carriage unblamable in regard of scandal in his publick Conversation and courteous in his Behaviour to all I cannot but respect him and am ready to wish as Athanasius that all the World of Atheists and prophane Wretches would turn Hypocrites that all scandalous Sinners would turn Civilians and come so far towards Holiness but yet I must say that this is scarce half way to Christianity He is not half a Saint who is but a negative Saint The forbearance of gross Corruptions is the easiest and least part of Religion and therefore will not speak any man in a state of Salvation The Tree that is barren and without good fruit is for the fire as well as the Tree that brings forth evil fruit For men to think to excuse themselves that they do no hurt wrong neither Man Woman or Child and are not as the Pharisee said as the Publicans who generally were Oppressors is but a vain foolish thing The idle Servant might have said Lord I did no harm with my Talent I did not lay it out in Rioting and Drunkenness or any way to thy dishonour I only hid it and did not improve it Matth. 25. yet this was enough to condemn him Can we call ground good ground for bearing no weeds if it never bring forth good Corn Or do we count that Servant a good Servant who doth not wrong his Master in his Estate by purloining or wasting it if he live idle all day and neglect the business his Master appoints him Believe it Reader thou mayst not be morally evil to the abomination of men and yet not spiritually good to the acceptation of God He keeps no Law of God who minds only the negative part of it A life free from enormity is too often accompanied with an heart full of iniquity And that this negative Holiness is insufficient will appear if we consider 1. That the Holy Ghost characterizeth a godly man both negatively and positively The Scripture tells us That a true Christan minds both parts of the Law its commanding part as well as its forbidding part When the Holy Ghost speaks of Davids goodness he tells us That he served the Wills of God in his Generation not only his forbidding-will but also his commanding-will Act. 13.36 When Job is commended as a godly man he is said to eschew evil there was his negative Holiness and to fear God there was his positive Holiness Job 1.1 8. The Psalmist describes the happy man by his holiness both ways 1. By way of Negation Blessed is the man that walketh not in the Counsel of the Vngodly i. e. that committeth not wickedness which is the consultation of the Ungodly nor standeth in the way of Sinners i. e. that goeth not on with pleasure in any course of prophaneness nor sitteth in the Seat of the scornful i. e. that hardneth not not his heart against advice and admonition c. 2. By way of Position But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in that Law doth he meditate day and night His affection to the Law and his meditation in it are both positive and without these the man could neither be holy nor happy He might have been able to say I have not walked in the Counsel of the Vngodly nor stood in the way of Sinners not sate in the Seat of the scornful and yet been a wicked and cursed man for Negatives neither speak nor make any man holy It is a positive quality that gives being perfection and denomination to Piety Therefore Jehu is branded for a wicked man notwithstanding all his zeal against Baal because he took no heed to walk in the Law of the Lord God of Israel 1 King 10.29 30 31. Philosophers tell us That motions are imperfect and but in fieri whilst they are passing from the Terminus a quo and are not perfect or in facto esse till the Terminus ad quem be attained Whilst a man is departing from evil he is but an imperfect Christian when he comes to the doing of good which is the end of the former then he is a Christian indeed 2. The Law which is the Rule of Religion is Affirmative as well as Negative Every man is so far perfect in his Calling or in any Art as he agrees with his Rule And every man is so far religious and no farther as he agreeth with the Will of God revealed in his Word which is the Rule of Religion Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this Rule peace be to them c. Now this Rule hath Positive as well as Negative Commands Nay all its Negative Commands have as hath been shewn before somewhat positive in them and therefore negative holiness cannot be sufficient He that makes not Conscience of every part of Gods Will makes Conscience of no part of Gods Will. He that denieth ungodliness and worldly lusts because the Law his Rule forbids them will also live righteously soberly and godly because the same Rule commands them Tit. 2.11 12. Indeed all true eschewing of evil doth proceed out of love to good so that he who doth not delight in good and do it cannot eschew evil out of any good Principle Observe the Rule Ephes 4.23 24. And be renewed in the Spirit of your mind And that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Isa 1.15 But men love to be compleat in every thing but that which deserves exactness 3. An Heathen may be negatively religious A Cato a Seneca an Aristides may be free from Intemperance Bribery Injustice Uncleanness and all gross sins and can we think that Religion sufficient for us which Heathens may attain to Is there nothing revealed by the Sun-light of Scripture for us to do which they were unable to see by the dim Rush-candle of Nature The Holy Ghost acquaints us with the condition of the Heathen Ephes 2.12 That they were without God without Christ
for the perpetration of gross Enormities 1. If we consider the Religion of the Heathen we shall find that it is vastly inferior in purity to the Christian Religion Among the Gentiles who lived without the Gospel it can scarce be said there was any Religion at all for their Gods were Stocks and Stones and Trees and Fire and Water and Beasts and dead Men nay their Precepts were so far from purity that they commended and commanded impurity As among the ancient Babylonians in the Worship of Venus the Women prostituted themselves to all Strangers nay the very Gods of the Heathen did according to their own fictitious Writers patronize all their Impieties even by their own Patterns Jupiter the chief forsooth of their Gods who hath his Name from being an helping Father commits Incest with his own Sister Juno and his Daughter Minerva Sodomy with Ganymedes ravisheth Europa banisheth his Father Saturn out of his Kingdom Venus was a Whore Mercury a Thief Bacchus a Drunkard c. But to leave these and speak to them that were more sober in their Understandings and not so vain in their Imaginations who had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work of the Law written in their hearts Rom. 2.14 and improved it to more purpose than others yet these pleased themselves with a little outward civility without any inward or outward practical godliness Their chief devotion consisted in abstaining from gross sins which might expose them to the shame of men and the doing some external acts of Piety as sacrificing and mumbling over a few Prayers that were little significant O how vastly doth the Christian Religion excel this This Religion of the Heathen doth rather hide sin then heal it It doth not root the love of sin out of the heart only restrain it in the life But the Christian Religion doth forbid sin in the Affections as well as in the Conversation it doth abscindere as well as abscondere cure sin as well as cover it In the best Heathen the fire of their Lusts was only raked up and cover'd with ashes from the eyes of the World But now in the Christian it is quenched at least in part and shall by degrees be wholly quenched The Christian Religion doth not only forbid all Sins or outward Commissions but also all Lusts and inward Inclinations I beseech you brethren to abstain as Pilgrims and Strangers from all fleshly Lusts that war against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 And a religions Christian doth not only forbear gross Commissions but also abhor secret sinful motions I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love Psal 119. Those among the Heathen who were the wisest made nothing of neglecting to give God their love and fear and trust their highest Honour and superlative Esteem and exactest Obedience which are the chief of Religion They allowed Revenge in case of suffering Injury and some of their greatest Law-givers ordained Theft to be unpunishable if it could be done cleanly and cleaverly so as not to be found out They put away their Wives upon any small distast and took others during their pleasure only Their whole Religion hath not one Prohibition against inward Corruptions nor one Precept for inward heart Duties and therefore must of necessity come short of the Christian Religion for Purity 2. If we consider the Turkish Religion what a bundle of fooleries is Mahomets Alcoran and what a dunghil of filthiness is the Religion of his Followers They allow a man as many Wives as he can maintain and encourage men to murder with a promise of a Poetical carnal Paradise to all that shall die in the Wars against the Christians They obey the Lusts of their Tyrant in all things even to the murder of their Soveraigns nearest Relations or chiefest Ministers of State against the very light and law of Nature They do not so much as profess to mind those heart Prohibitions and Precepts without which all external Holiness is but as a rotten Carkass noisome and unsavoury to Gods Nostrils and without any loveliness or life in his Eyes Nay the Popish Religion so far as it differs from the true Christian Religion is impure They have sins that are Venial allow publickly of Uncleanness The Pope hath a Revenue out of the Stews they dispense with Sodomy incest any Sin for money They place all their Holiness in some external Mortifications which God never required at their hands But what doth the Christian Religion do It reacheth the Heart and teacheth the Soul The Law of the Lord is perfect Psal 19. 1. It directs the whole Man and gives Laws to all the powers of the Soul and parts of the Body It directs us about our Bodies and outward Conversation It commands to present our Bodies a living Sacrifice to God Rom. 12.1 and the members of our Bodies as Instruments of Righteousness unto Holiness It binds the Eyes Ears Tongue Hands Feet all the members to their good behaviour It allows not any part to be abused to prophaneness Job 31.1 Psal 119. Psal 37.30 31. Psal 34.13 14. Rom. 6.13 14 15 16 17. It directs us about our Souls The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul Psal 19.7 It changeth the nature of the Soul and opens the eye of it and turns it from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to God Act. 26.18 It directeth the mind to learn the Knowledge of God as the richest Treasure and choicest Portion and only Happiness of the Creature 1 Chron. 28.9 And thou Solomon my Son know the God of thy Fathers It directs the Will to choose this God for its suitable and satisfying and everlasting felicity Psal 73.25 It limits the Affections as to their Objects and their motion towards those Objects It forbids inordinate desires after or delight in sublumary Vanities and commands moderation in our love to all created Comforts Let your moderation be known to all men The time is short let them that have Wives be as though they had none c. 1 Cor. 7.29 It enjoyns our love in the greatest degree to be placed on the worthiest Object Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and all thy Soul and all thy Strength Matth. 22.37 And so our fear Fear him that can cast Body and Soul into Hell I say unto you fear him It keeps all the unruly passions within their proper banks and bounds and preserves the superior and inferior faculties in their proper places Now what Religion either of Moralists or Mahometans doth do 2. As it directs about the whole man so it directs as to every part and passage of this mans Conversation We need never be at a loss for a Rule or at a stand what to do if we will but use diligence to know and understand the revealed Will of God The Christian Religion directs us in our Callings whether Magistrates Ministers Tradesmen Souldiers Luk. 3. It directs us in our Relations as Husbands Wives Parents Children Masters
by Omissions and know not how often we offend him by them God may say to thee and me Reader Is not thy Wickedness great and Iniquities infinite as he to Job Job 20.5 Where by Wickedness Expositors understand Commissions or those Sins by which we prejudice or injure others and by Iniquities Omissions by which we neglect according to our Duties to relieve others And Eliphaz calls his Wickedness great because as I have shew'd in the first Information they are in some respects greater more hainous than sins of Omission and his Iniquities infinite because sins of Omission are more numerous than sins of Commission Corrupt Nature can much better forbear what it hath an inclination and propensity to than do that which it hath a dislike of and an enmity against For their nature I have proved that they are very ponderous that they are breaches of a positive Law grieve the Holy Ghost provoke God defile the Conscience yea and destroy the Soul for ever how light soever some make of them and for their number they are infinite beyond all account or reckonings If they were small sins their number would compensate their lightness grains of sand are little but an heap of them together is weighty Prov. 27.3 The sand is weighty In many things we offend all James 3.2 Now how should the nature and number of these sins humble us every day before the the Lord What hour is there when we are awake wherein we may not do more good than we do When did we in visiting a Friend or conferring with a Neighbour advantage their Souls as we might and ought Can we say that we have been as diligent in our Callings as watchful and exemplary in our Conversations as thankful for our Mercies as fruitful under the Ordinances of God and as faithful in the improvement of our Talents as we are commanded to be Do we every day pray and read Scripture in our Closets and Families with that holy reverence humility faith seriousness and integrity which God requireth Do not worldly concerns now and then contend with and justle out the Worship of the Great God at least cause us to slip our Prayers and adjourn the Scriptures reading till a more convenient season Are we every week-day laborious in our Callings out of Conscience to Gods Precept and not out of a principle of Covetousness Do we spend the greatest part of the day therein without diversions by vain Companions or needless Recreations Are our Affections in Heaven and our Hearts above while our Actions are earthly and our Hands are busie here below And do we deal in all things with others as we would in the Judgment of sound reason that others should deal with us Matth. 5.12 Is our daily carriage towards our Relations sober pious affectionate exemplary and in all things as becomes the Gospel of Christ O how many are our Omissions and what millions of them are we guilty of and therefore they call aloud upon us to mourn for them Others are in Hell and must weep for ever for them where their Sighs and Sobs and Prayers and Tears will no way advantage them Blessed be God it is not so with us though their Tears will prove their Hell our Tears through the blood of Christ may prove our Heaven Nehemiah in the day of his solemn Humiliation with the Jews acknowledgeth and bewaileth their Omissions their not hearkening to his Commands and their not minding the Wonders that he wrought for them Neh. 9.16 17. So Daniel when he fasted and pray'd and confessed his sins and the sins of his people bewails their Omissions Dan. 9.6 We have not hearkened unto thy Servants the Prophets which spake in thy Name to our Kings and Princes and Fathers and to all the people of the Land vers 10. We have not obeyed the Voice of the Lord our God to walk in the Laws which he set before us by his Servants the Prophets vers 13. All this evil is come upon us yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God What then why he judgeth himself and his people for these sins and justifieth God in all his severity O Lord Righteousness belongs to thee but to us confusion of face as at this day to the men of Juda and Inhabitants of Jerusalem vers 7. So again O Lord to us belongeth confusion of face to our Kings to our Princes to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee vers 8. Omissions must be lamented in this or the other World we must all be ashamed of them here or hereafter and is it not much better to bewail them here than to bewail them in Hell to judge and condemn our selves for them than to be judged and condemned by God for them at the Great Day Ah at what a cheap rate may a Christian by Repentance prevent that blow that will separate him and all his happiness and bring him to that Repentance which will ever be repented of but all to no purpose Oh it 's good to be wise on this side another World CHAP. XXXII Vse of Trial whether we be guilty of these Omissions or no. Vse 2. THis Doctrine may be useful in the second place by way of Examination or Trial. If Christ will condemn men at the Great Day for sins of Omission then it concerns us to examine our selves whether or no we are of the number of them that shall be condemned for them at that day Reader it will not be amiss for thee to retire out of the crowd of the World into thy Chamber and there to commune with thine own heart concerning thy present Condition and how thou art like to fare for the future nay it is of infinite weight and concernment and may be as much worth as thy Soul and eternal Salvation How many prove Bankrupts and are quite undone for this World for want of a timely casting up their accounts If they had cast up their accounts before and perceived how far they had ran behind-hand they might have retrenched their Expences and advised and consulted some way to have prevented their utter destruction but they neglected to cast up their accounts till their accounts cast them up and it was too late to think of recalling what was past or remedying what was amiss Thus many that are Professors or Christians in title deal with their own Souls and defer the trial of their estates till it be too late to amend any thing amiss If they would now in their health and strength search and try their hearts and ways if they found things ill they would have advantages and opportunities through the help of Christ to make them better They might seek the Lord while he would be found and call upon him while he is near They might sue and seek to Christ for Eye-salve that they might see the things of their Peace for Raiment to hide their Nakedness that it might not appear to their everlasting shame and for Gold to enrich
walk and converse with the blessed and glorious God Is not his Law worth observing his Glory worth advancing and his Service worth minding and his Love worth accepting when he can make thee miserable or happy with a word in an instant when thou and all thou hast are in his hand every moment to be disposed of for Good or Evil altogether at his Pleasure when he can with the breath of his Nostrils with the blast of his Lips with a glance of his Eye send thee to Hell where the Worm never dieth and the Fire never goeth out Friend consider it Is it not good advice to wish thee to sue and seek to him to pray to and please him upon whom thine unchangeable Felicity or Misery dependeth and who shall judge thee to thine everlasting state of Life or Death Is it not good to have the King thy Friend how many Pleasures may he do thee and how many Favours may he bestow on thee But how much better is it to have the King of Kings thy Friend What Pleasure is there which he cannot do thee what Favour which he cannot bestow on thee He can give thee Earth Heaven Riches Honours Pleasures Life Health Food Raiment Friends Relations his Day his Word his Ordinances his Love his Image his Peace his Joy his Spirit his Son Himself every Good any Good all Good O how blessed is he that hath this God! But Reader wouldst thou have all these without so much as asking for them We say they are poor Favours that are not worth asking Sure I am these Mercies are of more value than thine Understanding can conceive and therefore must deserve more Prayers and Tears and Groans for them than thou art capable of giving Do not any day upon any pretence omit to offer up thy Morning and Evening Sacrifices Remember so often as thou neglectest Morning-Prayer so often thou art all the day naked destitute of thy spiritual Guard and exposed to all manner of Evils and Enemies and dost fore-speak thy self an evil Day and so often as thou omittest Evening-Prayer thou presumest upon sleep and rest and safety without God's leave and fore-speakest thy self an evil Night What did Thomas lose by one Omission Jesus appeared the first day of the week to his Disciples but Thomas saith the Text was not there Joh. 20.24 But what is the issue of this Omission truly by his neglecting this opportunity of confirming his Faith he falls into a desperate fit of Unbelief When the Apostles told him That they had seen the Lord He presently answers Except I shall see in his hands the print of the Nails and put my finger into the print of the Nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe Joh. 20.24 25. Ah what had become of Thomas if infinite Majesty had not stooped to recover him 2. Take heed of internal Omissions In the next place I advise thee to look seriously to the manner of thy performances to be sure that thou worship God with thy Heart and Affections This is the chief and substance and heart of thy Performances according to which they shall be accepted or not In all thy Addresses draw nigh to God with an humble Faith and Confidence as to a Father ready able and willing to supply all thy wants and answer all thy Doubts and to grant all thy Prayers and Desires as also with a chearful reverence and awfulness as to a God infinite in his Being and in all his Perfections between whom and thee a poor worm there is an infinite distance In every Duty Let thy Faith in Christ thy Love to God and thy Repentance from dead Works be exercised Hereby thy Duties will be more comfortable to thy self Men that perform Duties in a round out of custom or for fashion-sake have no pleasure therein are backward to them untoward at them and careless after them They come to them with trouble as to that to which their hearts have a reluctancy and go from them with joy as from that which was burdensome and tedious to them But when men pray with a sense of their wants and beg mercy with hope in the blood of Christ and have their love and joy acted in their Duties how sweetly do they come off nay how pleasant are they in the very performance of them Communion with God in them brings peace and comfort indeed Now Reader do I advise thee to thy hurt when I advise thee to the life of a Saint to the life of an Angel to a life of love and joy and delight in the Father of Mercies and God of all Consolations Is not this Life the Suburbs the Earnest the First-fruits of the life of the Blessed of the life of those heavenly Courtiers who bathe themselves without intermission in Springs of Joy and in Rivers of Pleasures And by this care of thine about the manner of performing thy Duties they will be the more acceptable to God He commands the Heart Prov. 23.26 delights in truth in the inward parts Psal 51. and is nigh to them that call upon him in truth Psal 34. How pleasing would it be to thee to know thy prayers and readings to be pleasing to God Jer. 30.21 And I will cause him to draw near and to approach unto me i. e. with welcome and acceptance for who is this that engageth his heart to approach unto me If thou bring thy Heart to a Duty God will bring his Ear to hear thee In the prosecution of this Use I shall first lay down some Arguments or Motives to inforce it 2. Lay down the cause of these Omissions which are so frequent among us 3. Prescribe somewhat for the Cure and Remedy thereof CHAP. XXXIV Arguments against Omissions The positiveness of our Rule and of Gods Mercies I Begin with the first viz. The Arguments to move us to mind positive Duties 1. Consider the Law which God hath given us for the Rule of our Lives is both positive and negative and therefore our Obedience must be such What need positive Precepts but to require positive Practices Single Prohibitions would have sufficed for a negative Religion The Law is holy in its Commands that immediately concern God just in what it commands concerning our Neighbours and good in what it commands concerning our selves Rom. 7.12 Look to the Moral Law every negative command hath a positive Precept Take the Prophets all along that speak in the Name of the Lord and we shall find that they still enjoyn Duty as well as forbid Sin Deut. 12.29 to the end Take heed that thou be not snared by following the Nations that are destroyed before thee and that thou inquire not after their gods saying How did these Nations serve their gods even so will I do likewise Here is Sin forbidden But mark also Duty is commanded What thing soever I command you observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it Nay a Copy of this Law both positive
but also against thy new spiritual Life It 's hard we say for a man to thwart or cross nature Naturam expellas furca c. and wilt thou take such pains to disobey thy Gods Precepts The Devils Servants do his Will but it is with their own whole Wills according to their own inclinations they do not cross themselves to please him But thou canst not neglect the Will of God but it must be in part against thine own will and against thine own inclinations and wilt thou displease thy self to displease God and walk contrary to thy self that thou mayst walk contrary to God This is the part and guise of the most spiteful envious and malicious Enemies and I am sure it 's impossible for thee if a Believer to be such an enemy to God God did purposely endue thee with a new Spirit that thou mightest live to his praise Isa 43.21 This people have I formed for my self and new made and moulded them they shall shew forth my praise Now how is the praise of God spread in the World but by good Works Matth. 5.16 Let your light so shine before others that they seeing your good works may glorifie your heavenly Father so Joh. 15.8 Again it would be marvailous if thou shouldst not follow thy own natural propensity and inclinations For a dead man to lie still and not stir nor perform any actions of life is nothing strange none expecteth any other but for a living man one that hath a principle of life to do so would be accounted little less than miraculous For a man dead in Sins and Trespasses that hath no Spirit of Grace to enliven his poor Soul to lie still in his idleness and slothfulness and carnal security and to neglect the performance of the Duties of a spiritual Life is no wonder but is it not a wonder for one that is quickened in Christ Ephes 2.5 created unto good works fitted and formed for them Eph. 2.10 that hath Jesus Christ living in him Gal. 2.20 and a principle of holiness inclining and inabling him hereunto should omit those actions that are proper to life I beseech thee Friend do not displease thy self and cross thy very Nature to disobey thy God surely he is worthy of more dutiful behaviour from thee 12. The Reward will answer the Work and the profit of positive Holiness will answer all thy pains I confess Obedience to the affirmative part of the Command to pray and hear and give to the Poor c. with those qualifications and in that manner which God commandeth is much harder than to the Negative and to do good is much more difficult than not to do evil but thy labour shall not be in vain I have told thee already all the reward of a meer negative Holiness is a cooler Hell but I must tell thee now that the reward of positive Holiness will be a glorious and blessed and endless state of happiness in Heaven A negative Holiness shall not have so much as a full negative Happiness it shall not abolish only abate the Torments of Hell and the reason is because such Holiness is counterfeit and hypocritical But positive Holiness shall have both a full negative and positive Happiness God will do him good that is good and doth good Psal 125.4 And if God undertake to do good to a person he will do it to good purpose Mans doing good which is his positive Holiness is little yea nothing to God My goodness extendeth not to thee saith David Psal 16.3 But Gods doing good which is his positive Bounty is effectual yea all in all with man therefore when he would speak in few words the great kindness he had in store for his people he only tells them Jer. 32.40 I will not turn away from them to do them good And vers 41. I will rejoyce over them to do them good Nay though negative godliness obtains only at present some respect from men and hereafter fewer stripes from Hells Jaylor positive Holiness hath a far greater and another manner of reward both here and hereafter In the doing of thy Commands there is great reward Psal 19. In the forbearing thy Prohibitions there is some reward but in the doing thy Commands there is great reward Positive Holiness hath meat in its mouth affirmative Obedience is its own recompence It brings that calmness and serenity of mind that nothing else can do Negative Holiness may do somewhat towards a negative quietness i. e. a freedom from those dreadful horrors and terrors which sometimes seize those who commit gross unnatural sins but positive Piety brings positive Peace Great peace have they which love thy Law Psal 119. 165. and nothing shall offend them They are not only freed from those gripes of Conscience with which many others are afflicted but they have that spiritual joy and heart-comfort which the World is a stranger to Gal. 6.16 Faith which is not the least part of this holiness fills the Soul with joy yea with joy unspeakable and full of Glory Rom. 15. 1 Pet. 1.8 I may appeal to the experience of a Christian whether ever he find more comfort than when he hath done his God faithful Service and whether ever their hearts are more heavy than when they have been negligent of their Duty David and the Israelites were almost transported their hearts leaped for joy that they had offered so willingly and liberally towards the building of the Temple then the people rejoyced for that they offered willingly because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord and David the King also rejoyced with great joy and the wine of their joy was so strong that he was forced to give it vent Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the Congregation and said Blessed be thou Lord God of Israel our Father for ever and ever c. 2 Chron. 29.9 10 11 12 c. But mark God is so tender of this man that mindeth his Duty that he will suffer no wind no ill wind to blow upon him Great peace have they which love thy Law and nothing shall offend them None must knock at their door to disturb them of their rest All the Creatures must be kind to them for his sake they must have nothing done to them which may be offensive Yet this is not all the profit of Holiness here though I shall pass to the next much less in the other World As I said before a positive Holiness shall have a positive Heaven The Christians avoiding what is evil through the blood of Christ shall be recompenced with a freedom from Hell and the Christians doing what is good through the same meritorious cause shall be rewarded with the fruition of Heaven The two Servants that had not hid their Talents in a Napkin as the negative Christian doth but traded according to his trust and improved his stock faithfully in doing good as he had opportunity is commended by his Master for a good and faithful Servant
true he is pleased to see men deny ungodliness and worldly lusts but nothing to that pleasure which he takes in seeing them live righteously soberly and godly in this present evil World He likes ceasing from evil because it 's agreeable to his Word but he likes better doing of good because it 's more conformable to his Will Isa 64.5 Thou meetest him that rejoyceth and worketh righteousness Thou meetest him with the riches of Mercy who worketh what is good with alacrity If he come to thee thou wilt not cast him away nay thou wilt run to meet him and embrace him As the Father of the Prodigal ran to meet his returning Son Luke 15. And as one at odds but willing to be reconciled tells us He will meet his Opposite half-way And I may say of Gods meeting a Soul that worketh Righteousness as God tells Moses Behold Aaron thy Brother comes to meet thee and when he seeth thee he will be glad at his heart Behold thy God and Father cometh to meet thee and when he seeth thee working Righteousness he will be glad at his heart nay so glad that the disadvantage of a mans Country shall not hinder him of this kindness Acts 10. And Peter said I perceive now that God is no Respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him God proclaimeth to all the World That he delighteth in such a mans way Psal 73.23 and therefore his Word which he hath given us for our Rule herein is called his good and acceptable Will Rom. 12.2 And the reason is because such persons are most like God therefore they have most of his love and delight God is a pure Act and so cannot but approve of them that are active He is ever at work Joh. 5.17 Hitherto my Father worketh and I work And its righteousness he is always working The Lord is holy in all his Ways and righteous in all his Works Psal 145. He is good and doth good so that those who are positively holy do most resemble him and so do most delight him We all take most pleasure in those Children that are our exactest Pictures Reader art thou negatively holy Canst thou say I am no Drunkard no Glutton no Adulterer thou mayst say this and be like the Devil for the Devil himself may say as much Canst thou say I am no Thief no Swearer no Blasphemer no Sabbath-breaker no Trader with false Weights or false Measures no Bearer of false witness against my Neighbour A Beast may say as much and thou mayst be free from these sins and yet like a Beast But if thou livest in the love and delight of the blessed Majesty doing his pleasure this is to be like an Angel Psal 103. And doing good to others this is to be like God and this is that which takes his heart Common humanity is much affected with one that aboundeth in goodness and is rich in good Works therefore the Apostle tells us That for a good man possibly some may even dare to die Rom. 5. The reason of which is because the people of the Jews were divided into three sorts of Persons there were Reshagnim or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wicked or ungodly those who lived without the Worship of God and walked in prophane courses there were also Tsidikim or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the just or righteous men of rigid righteousness or severe innocency and Chasidim or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good and liberal men of large Hearts and open Hands to do good to others who as publick Conduits are of publick advantage in the places where they live Now saith the Apostle Scarcely for a righteous man that is for a man of austere Justice will one die but for a good man a man full of good works one that is bountiful to others and useful in his Generation a man would even dare to die Humanity is so taken with doing good that a man can be contented almost to die for such much more must goodness it self and the Fountain of all Goodness be affected therewith He tells us That he is a God who executeth Kindness Judgment and Righteousness For in these things I delight saith the Lord. Both in doing them my self and seeing them done by others Psal 11. ult Mich. 6.8 What thinkest thou Reader of this motive to good Works wouldst thou not delight the heart of God How long hast thou by thy Omissions grieved him and is it not yet time to rejoyce him How often hast thou displeased him how many millions of times and wilt thou not now please him Thou daily seest that though he hath no Obligations to his Creatures but the contrary he doth them good and gives them food and fruitful seasons and fills their Hearts with gladness And wilt thou not do thy utmost to glad his Heart who hath above all apprehensions obliged thee Truly he doth not deserve the name of a rational Creature who doth not above all things seek to please his Maker and there is no way hereunto like abounding in well-doing Therefore the Apostle begs for the Colossians That they may be filled with the knowledge of his Will Why that they might keep their Light in a dark Lanthorn or have it as men wear a Glass-eye for shew and not for use or that men might be able to talk the more of Religion and the things that appertain thereunto No That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his whole liking and delight that ye might please God I but how may this be done he presently tells us how That ye may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work There is no such way to please God as fruitfulness in every good Work It rejoyceth the Husbandman to see his Trees laden with fruit to see his Fields cover'd over as the Psalmists phrase is Psal 65. ult with Corn and to see his returns answer his Cost And it rejoyceth the blessed God to see an Heart that hath long lain fallow and been barren full of faith and love and humility and heavenly-mindedness and all the fruits of Righteousness and so a Life that hath been idle and unprofitable abundant in acts of Piety Charity and the like David who served the Wills of God in his Generation he of all men was the man after Gods own heart 14. Consider thou hast but a little time to do good in therefore it concerns thee to set speedily upon it and to be diligent at it Alas how short is thy whole Life from the Womb to the Tomb It 's but a shadow that fleeth away and continueth not a Vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away it 's nothing Job 14.2 James 4.14 Psal 39.6 And how much of this time is gone hath been spent as a tale that is told impertinently and to no purpose in doing nothing or in doing that
thou mayst for shame or fear forbear it a while yet as two Lovers parted by their Parents contrive and conspire how to meet together and do find some opportunity or other concurring with their desires so thou wilt find some time to give thy old beloved Lusts a visit and as close and fond embraces as ever There is a necessity of being renewed in the Spirit of thy Mind if thou wouldst not be conformable to the World in sin and folly Rom. 12.2 Formerly thou hast lookt on Holiness as a mean contemptible thing as a foolish ridiculous thing as a fruitless unprofitable thing Joh. 7.48 49. 1 Cor. 2.14 Job 21.15 Mal. 3. and thereupon hast turn'd thy back upon it If thou art still of the same Opinion thou will be still of thine old ungodly Conversation Till thy Mind be enlightned to see the beauty of Holiness the excellency of Obedience the equity of the Divine Precepts the Right and Title that God hath to thy Person and Service thou wilt never perform Duties to any purpose Till thou art turn'd from Darkness to Light thou canst never be turned from Satan to God Acts 26.18 They must be renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created them who would put on the new man which is after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Col. 3.10 Ephes 4.24 This illumination is requisite in order to the second thing there must be a change in the Judgment before there can be any in Affections 2. Get thy Heart changed about Sin and Obedience If there be not a loathing in thee of Sin and a love in thee to Holiness thou wilt not much or long forsake the one or follow after the other By nature thou lovest Sin as thy Meat and Drink Prov. 4.17 as thy Dainties Psal 141. as thy Members Col. 3.5 as thy right Hand and right Eye Matth. 18. as thy self Matth. 16.24 Now whilst this love continueth thou canst never leave sin As the Dog may forbear the meat on the Table whilst the Servants eye is on him for fear of the Cudgel But when he can come at it alone and scape he will fall to it greedily If from a Conviction of the great evil of Sin thy Heart be not brought to abhor it though some qualm of Conscience or sharp Providence may make thee desist from it at present yet when these Distempers as thou countest them are gone thy Stomach will come and as one recovered of an Ague thou wilt fall too more greedily and feed on it more largely than ever By Nature thy heart is set against Obedience Thy Voice is I will not have this man to Rule over me The Voice of thy Heart which was the Voice of their Lips for they spoke plain English As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the Name of the Lord we will not do it Jer. 44.16 Both the King and his Laws are odious to thee and how then shall they be obey'd If thy Heart continue thus bent against Holiness dost thou think thou canst mind it All thy shews and shadows and flourishes and profession and privilegdes and purposes and promises will signifie nothing for Holiness or against Sin till thou canst say with David I hate every false way but thy Law do I love Psal 119. He is hardly separated from his Master be he God or Satan who is bound and fastened to him with the heart-strings of love And the Devil shall find it a tough task to rob Christ of that Servant who takes pleasure and delight in his work Therefore Reader thy judgment must be alter'd that thou mayst judge of Sin and Holiness aright and thereby thy heart be brought out of love with Sin and in love with Holiness and then the work of Piety will go on pleasantly and thou wilt chearfully obey the Divine Commands His Statutes will be thy Songs whilst thou art in this house of thy Pilgrimage Psal 119. O how readily wilt thou set about thy business when the Laws of God are the joy of thy heart Psal 119.111 And thy delight is in his Law Psal 1. when thou hast a nature in thee that inclines and inableth and ingageth thee to godliness when thou canst savour and relish Duties and Ordinances and tast them more pleasant to thy Soul than ever the greatest Dainties have been to thy Body If thou wouldst be truly and positively holy thou seest Reader a necessity of Conversion without it thou canst no more act holily than a dead man can move or a stone walk or the Tyde of it self turn backward when in its full strength and career What then wilt thou do For I must confess withall that this regenerating Work which is a resurrection from the Dead and a new Creation is altogether beyond thy power Thou canst as soon stop the Sun in its course and Seal up the influence of the Stars as convert thy self But to encourage thee know that there is help to be had God hath proclaimed himself the Author of it James 1.18 Of his own will begat he us and his Word and Ministers the Instruments of it by the word of Truth so Acts 26.18 1 Cor. 4.15 So that thy work must be to wait on God in his Word and to beg hard of him that he would be found of thee in his own way Alas how shouldst thou fill Heaven and Earth night and day with thy Cries and Groans and Tears and Prayers when thou considerest except thou livest to God and walkest after the Spirit thou art lost for ever and without a new Heart and new Spirit thou canst not live or walk so and none but God can do this for thee O Friend fall down on thy knees before him acknowledge thy unworthiness urge God with his Promise I will give you a new heart and a new Spirit will I put into you and I will take away your hearts of stone and give unto you hearts of Flesh And I will put my Spirit into you and cause you to walk in my ways c. Ezek. 38.26 27. God cannot deny his own hand-writing he will make good what he hath spoken Look up to Jesus Christ to plead for thee who died to purchase Holiness and delights to see that paid which he hath bought and hath God engaged to him That he shall see the travail of his Soul to his satisfaction Isa 53.10 and persevere in so doing knowing thou shalt reap in time if thou faintest not CHAP. XLII Another cause of sins of Omission Ignorance with the cure of it labouring after knowledge 2. ANother cause of sins of Omission is Ignorance They who know not their Masters Will can never do it Let Papists say That Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion the Word of God and our own experience do loudly speak the contrary Ephes 4.18 They are estranged from the life of God i. e. a life of Holiness a life in Heaven through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their hearts A blind man may well miss his way and a blind Mind can never do his work Whatever the World talks of their honesty and goodness notwithstanding their ignorance Without knowledge the mind is not good Prov. 19.2 They presume to excuse their dark Heads with their good Hearts but these two are inconsistent A dark Cellar is not fuller of Vermine nor a dark hole of dust than a dark Heart is of filthiness Hos 4.1 2. They who want the knowledge of God are under the dominion of the Devil He is the Ruler of the darkness of this World Ephes 6. And I am sure the unclean Spirit never bears sway in a clean Heart nor this evil Spirit in a good Heart No as the Eagle he first pecks out the eyes of his prey and then devours it How easily is a blind Soul conquer'd and kill'd by the enemies of his Salvation What Error will not an ignorant Creature swallow down he is like water ready to take the impression and form of what Vessel you please to pour him into Matth. 22.29 Our Saviour tells the Sadduces That they erred not knowing the Scriptures And the Apostles told the Corinthians who doubted at least about the Resurrection as the Sadduces denied it Some have not the knowledge of God 1 Cor. 15.32 What crime will not an ignorant man commit Knowledge to the Mind is as Light to the World which discovers our way and thereby prevents our wandrings but it 's no wonder at all for men in the night and darkness of ignorance to go astray or to stumble and fall If a man walk in the night he stumbleth because he seeth not the light of this World Joh. 11.9 Why do we think Sin is called a work of darkness truly not only because it 's from the Devil the Prince of Darkness and he that doth evil loveth darkness hates the light and it 's the way to blackness of darkness but also because it 's conceived in the Womb of a dark Heart The Prince of Darkness may beget what Monsters he pleaseth on such Persons 2 Tim. 3.3 Ignorant women were laden with divers lusts No soil fuller of such weeds than that which is not manured with knowledge St. Paul's ignorance was the ground of his wasting the Church at such a cruel rate I was a Blasphemer a Persecutor injurious but I did it ignorantly 1 Tim. 1.13 That Monster Sin which the Sun hid his head as ashamed to behold the Murther of our Lord Jesus Christ had ignorance for its Mother Acts 3.15 Ye killed the Prince of Life vers 17. And now Brethren I wot that through ignorance ye did it as did also your Rulers So the Apostle Paul Had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory Now if ignorance be the cause of such grieveous Commissions it must much more be the cause of Omission for in all these Commissions there are great Omissions but I shall shew particularly that Ignorance is one cause of sins of Omission We are bound to love God and that with all our Hearts and with all our Souls and with all our Strength Matth. 22.37 But is it possible to love one whom we are ignorant of Did ever any fear an unknown Evil or desire or delight in an unknown Good Are not the greatest Rarities and richest Jewels of the World that are undiscovered undesired The Apostle saith He that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen 1 Joh. 3. I am sure he that doth not so much as see God with the eye of his Soul his Understanding can never love him We say What the eye sees not the heart grieves not it 's as true what the eye seeth not the heart loves not Who can obey Divine Precepts who is ignorant of them or fear Divine Threatnings who doth not know them or be allured by Divine Promises who is altogether a stranger to them God and Christ and Pardon and Life and Promises Covenant may stand long enough knocking at the door of an Heart fastened with Ignorance before they will find admittance It is our Duty our great Gospel-Duty to believe in Christ Joh. 6. This is his Commandment that ye believe in him whom he hath sent 1 Joh. 3.23 But ignorance hinders this How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard Rom. 10.10 Who will trust a meer stranger especially in a matter of weight I had need to know him well whom I trust with my Soul and Salvation with all I am worth for this and the other World A wise man will not venture his Estate much less his Life least of all his Soul with one of whose integrity and faithfulness and ability and responsibleness he hath not good assurance The Psalmists saying is They that know thy Name will trust in thee Psal 9.10 They who know thy Grace Goodness thy Promise and Power and Truth they will trust thee but others will not Paul's hope could not have been so high nor the Wine of his joy so brisk when his Death drew near had it not been for his great acquaintance with him with whom he had ventured his all 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed how willing how ready how able to save me and what I have committed to him he is able to keep for me against that day Knowledg is so requisite to Faith that it 's once again put for Faith Isa 53.10 1 Cor. 2.2 Joh. 17.3 Phil. 3.8 9. but Ignorance is Faiths great hinderance Again Our Duty is to repent even pain of eternal perdition Luke 13.3 Matth. 11.22 23. But ignorance causeth men to omit this as well as the other Where there is a vail upon the Understanding there is ever a caul upon the Heart and Conscience As in the night season we have always the hardest Frosts and the coldest weather Therefore the Holy Ghost tells us when Israel shall repent and turn to the Lord The vail shall be taken away 2 Cor. 3.16 17. While the vail remains they are still turning more and more from God till wrath come upon them to the uttermost but when the Vail shall be taken away that they shall see the evil and mischief and loathsomeness and folly of those ways they have turned to and also for the beauty and amiableness and bounty and kindness of that God they have turned from then they will quickly return unto the Lord. Indeed men may thank their Ignorance for most of their Omissions especially the Heathen and many Christians who live in dark corners of the Land I and many who are as void and empty of Knowledge as the Heathen who live under the Gospel Many of these neglect Family-Duties Closet-Prayer a strict Sanctification of the Lords-Day edifying others to their power as opportunity is offer'd them and several others because they do not understand them to be their Duty Reader the cure of this must be for
thee if ignorant to labour after the Knowledge of God and thy Duty to him When David leaves his charge with his Son Solomon to serve and worship the blessed God as the great business of his life Mark how he begins with the means thereof and concludes with the motive thereto And thou Solomon my Son know the God of thy Fathers and serve him with a perfect heart and willing mind If thou seek him he will be found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever 1 Chron. 28.9 As if he had said Solomon thou Son of my Love thou Son of my Vows I am now dying and going to my long home Nature and Grace my love to thee and to God do both strongly incline me to desire thy well-fare and to wish thee well eternally I know not better how to speak and declare it than by charging and commanding thee that what-ever thou omittest or neglectest thou wouldst adore and worship the God of thy Fathers and that not formally and customarily but solemnly and sincerely with a perfect Heart and willing Mind and to this end there is a necessity of thy knowing him Till thou knowest his Grace and Goodness thou wilt never love him till thou knowest his Holiness and Justice thou wilt never fear him till thou knowest his Promises and Power and Faithfulness thou wilt never trust him and till thou knowest his boundless Soveraignty and Dominion over his unquestionable Right and Propriety in the works of his Hands thou wilt never obey him therefore study the knowledge of this God of thy Fathers that thou mayst serve him for be assured he will not be mocked But with the Vpright he will carry himself upright and with the Froward he will carry himself froward Psal 18. If thou livest after the Flesh thou shalt die if thou walkest after the Spirit thou shalt live If thou seek him in his own way with all thy Heart as the great work and business of thy Life he will reveal himself to thee and be found of thee in a way of Grace and Favour but if thou imbrace the World or the Flesh as thy Soveraigns or Portions and so cast him off be confident he will forsake and cast thee off for ever and then what will Devils do to thee and what misery will not surprize thee Friend God affords thee many helps for knowledge and wilt thou not labour after it shall men stumble and fall into Hell for want of doing their Duties and neglect to do their Duties for want of knowledge and that in the clear Sun-shine of the Gospel as those do that live in the night and darkness of Heathenism and Paganism Reader wilt thou not see at Mid-day at Noon-day shall neither the Works nor Word of God teach thee the knowledge of him Wouldst thou do the Will of God or not if thou wouldst not I have no more to say to thee But the Lord have mercy on thee If thou wouldst as thou must if ever thou be saved Matth. 23. Thou seest a necessity of knowledge for can thy Child or Servant do thy Will if they be ignorant of thy Will Is it rational to expect that one who knoweth not what thou wouldst have should do what thou wouldst have Why canst not thou make thy Beast as pliable and as obedient to thee as thy Son Is it not because thy Beast is not so capable of understanding thy mind as thy Son is Nay if thou shouldst do what God commands and not know that he commanded it thou couldst not obey him in it for all Obedience consisteth in doing what God bids us because he bids us Psal 119.5 6. For unless his Authority do principally sway the Conscience in our subjection to what he enjoyns it 's nothing worth God hates blind Sacrifices Mal. 1. Reader wouldst thou have high and honourable thoughts of God wouldst thou have awful and reverential apprehensions of God wouldst thou have Heart and Life wholly at his Command then know him Psal 78.1 In Judah is God known his Name is great in Israel How comes his Name to be so much reverenced and praised and admired in his Church more than in all the World beside but because there he is better known In Judah is God known thence his Name is so great in Israel Father the World hath not known thee but these have known thee Joh. 17. So that Reader if ever thou wouldst esteem and honour and love and obey God get the knowledge of him This is spiritual life and the seed of eternal Joh. 17.3 Be not bruitish in the shape of a man as the Horse and Mule which hath no understanding Psal 32.9 Psal 49. ult Psal 92.6 but take any pains in hearing and reading and meditating and in conferring with others that thou mayst get knowledge They shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased The Merchant ventures to and fro from Port to Port in a wooden bottom to increase his Wealth and get some precious Pearls Knowledge is a Jewel of much greater value Let no labour be thought too much for it especially cry after Knowledge and lift up thy Voice for Vnderstanding seek her as Silver and search for her as for hid Treasure Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God Prov. 2.4 5 6. CHAP. XLIII Another cause of sins of Omission Idleness with the cure of it 3. A Third cause of sins of Omission is Idleness Negative Holiness requires no great pains a man may forbear Drunkenness swearing lying stealing c. without any great labour A man may keep his Bed or his Chair all day and so do no hurt Some men as the Historian observes Tacitus are sola socordia innocentes do no mischief not because they dare not God having forbidden it but because it would cost them some pains to do it Their Heads must work to plot and contrive it and their Hands to manage and execute it There is a sluggish temper and poorness of spirit in many men who prefer a mean quiet before a treasure with labour The Sluggard would do evil as other men only he is unwilling to lose his sleep and ease as they do to accomplish their wicked designs and he would do good as others I mean in regard of the matter of Duties only he is loth to be at the labour Negative godliness requires only a siting still and a forbearing to meddle with such and such things which God hath prohibited but positive Godliness if to any purpose requires industry and zeal and activity and the putting forth our strength and spirits which makes the idle Wretch take his leave of it The slothful Servant could let his Talent lie still in the Earth and not lay it out in gaming and rioting c. and continue his slothfulness but if he had improved it in trading for his Masters profit he must have gone up and down and taken pains It 's
easie to forbear cursing and swearing and blaspheming the Name of God these may suit well with a torpid idle person but to call on the Name of God to pray fervently to pray without ceasing to lift up to the Soul in prayer to pour out the heart to stir up ones self to wrastle with God to seek him with all the heart with the whole heart this will require some pains and labour and this makes him forbear it Again it 's no great pains for a man to keep himself from hearing lascivious vain backbiting or flattering or evil Language a man may but forbear coming into such company or depart from them when he understandeth them about such wickedness but for a man to hear the Word of God with reverence as the Word of God with meekness as willing to be govern'd by it with Faith as believing all the Promises and Threatnings of it to be of unquestionable certainty and with a resolution to practise it as knowing we shall be judged by it at the day of Christ this will cost some head and heart work which the sleepy Drone is unwilling to come to Again the right performance of Duties in regard of the manner requires much more pains than in regard of the matter therefore they who take upon them a Form deny the power of Godliness and who are not guilty of external are yet of internal Omissions How many pray or mumble over a few words Morning and Evening to God and are pleased with it as if therefore all were well and think God pleased too who never trouble themselves with minding that reverence humility uprightness sense of want Faith in Christ importunity of desires which God expects in every prevalent Prayer and the reason is because the former is so easie and the latter so laborious Besides for a man to examine his own heart frequently and impartially and to call himself to a strict account what he hath been and done in the World and what is like to become of him and to befal him for ever for him to take the Looking-Glass of the Law of God and therein to behold his Heart and Life and having compared his practices with the Divine Precepts which are exceeding broad to accuse and judge and condemn and loath and abhor himself for him to lay himself low before the Lord and to acknowledge and confess with shame and anger and grief his filthiness and wickedness and to beg Pardon Grace as earnestly as one that believes if his requests be denied his poor Soul is damned for ever Friend Friend this is hard and painful work and the idle man will not meddle Once more he that will be positively holy must watch himself in all his ways must watch for opportunities of Service to God he must catch at them and improve them when he hath them put into his hand he must stand always upon his guard to defend himself against his enemies and be as a Sparrow upon the house-top to look about and consider where he may pick up any spiritual food for his Soul he must design and study and contrive how he may spend his time and parts and strength and estate to the best advantage of his Lord and Master and think nothing too much no pains no labour no not his blood for his Lord's Honour and will a sluggard that lieth with his hands in his bosom do this or any part of this Ah Friend the sleepy World dream of Happiness upon easie terms as if they could walk to Heaven in a pleasant Meadow or be carried to Heaven in a Down-bed but it must not be it cannot be Difficilia quae pulchra Canst thou obtain any thing that is excellent unless thou art diligent Doth the Tradesman get an Estate who is not industrious to look after his Customers his Books and whatsoever concerns his Calling Can he who sits still in his Chimney-corner and neither minds buying in nor selling out nor takes care how things are order'd in his Shop ever exspect to be rich Reader if ever thou wilt make any thing of it there is a necessity of shaking off this slothfulness I must tell thee an idle person is the Devils Cushion his own burden unlike and loathsome to God and a wem in the Body Politick where he lives To cure this Reader I must say to thee as the Apostle to the Ephesians Awake thou that sleepest arise from the dead Ephes 5.14 Friend thy work is not to be done sleeping God-work Soul-work Eternity-work is not to be done sleeping Labouring wrastling fighting striving running are not to be done sleeping Joh. 6.27 Gen. 32.24 Matth. 6.13 1 Cor. 9. Dost thou think to attain everlasting Pleasures and not to take pains Doth God value his blissful Mansions at so low a rate as to throw them away upon those who slight them and judge them unworthy their utmost endeavours Is the price of Heaven fallen since the Redeemers being in the World then it was Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof Matth. 6.33 And strive to enter in at the strait Gate Matth. 7.33 And labour for the meat that endureth to everlasting life Matth. 6.27 And is it now laze and loyter and be blessed for ever Though God doth not exspect from thee a natural price for his Son that is impossible for Men or Angels to give yet he doth exspect that pactional price which he hath set down in his Word as the condition of those that shall have a part in him Reader dost thou know what pains the Merchant takes for corruptible Treasures how he ventures his life in a wooden-bottom and a tempestuous Ocean and is every moment in danger of death how he sails from Haven to Haven disposing and exchanging Commodities trading and trafficking with persons of divers Countries and Languages and all to get a little wealth and if worldly Pearls cannot be had without pains dost thou think the Pearl of great and inestimable price the Lord Jesus Christ and the fruits of his precious blood may be had for nothing I tell thee as God valued his Son at so high a rate as to accept of his temporary sufferings as fuller satisfaction to his Justice on the behalf of millions of Souls than if they had fryed millions of millions of millions of years in Hell so God will make thee value and prize him if ever thou partake any benefit by him And if thou once comest to know his worth and to esteem him accordingly thou wilt think no toil no sweat nay no blood too good or too much for him Friend ponder the work of positive Godliness and then judge whether diligence be not requisite Closet-Duties as praying reading self-examining and Family-Duties must daily be performed and that with life and vigor and all the Soul and all the strength Thy earthly Calling must be followed with heavenly affections and whilst thy Occupation is amongst men thy Conversation must be with God In all Companies and
at all Seasons and in all Conditions thou art to be in the fear of God and watchful over thy self that thou dost nothing to displease him and solicitous how thou mayst do that which is most pleasing to him Thou must love God with all thy heart when he seems most angry with thee and trust in his goodness when he inflicts never so great or so many evils on thee Thy duty is to believe in a crucified Christ and so venture thy Soul on the death of another upon the bare warrant of Scripture thou art required to deny and bemoan and abhor thy self as near and dear as thou art to thy self to mortifie thy earthly members and to cut off thy right hand and pluck out thy right eye Not a Relation not a Condition not an Ordinance not a Providence but calls for Duties suitable Duties to be performed and not one of these Duties but calls for suitable Graces to be exercised Besides ere these Duties can be performed and these Graces exercised many strong and sturdy lusts must be subdued the allurements on one hand of a flattering gaudy giddy skin-deep World as Babies to please Children trampled on and its afrightments as Cloths stuft with straw to scare Birds must be despised I and all the Powers and Policies of Hell combated with and conquered And Friend can all this be done with thy hands in thy Pocket or without pains It 's in vain to think of freedom from Omissions whilst thou liest on the bed of Security Water corrupteth and breeds venemous Creatures whilst it standeth still it is preserved sweet by motion as we experience in running-streams The unused Iron rusteth whilst that which is used groweth daily more bright Neither Nature nor Art will afford us any thing that is good without labour The ground will not yield its fruit unless the Husbandman dung and plow and dress and harrow it Can any Artist make an excellent Clock or Watch or curious Vessel without pains And wilt thou presume of Holiness and Heaven without it The Heavens are ever in motion for the benefit of this lower World and never stand still but by a Miracle The Earth is always labouring to bring forth fruit for our profit and delight and never idle and barren but as cursed of God for mans sin Adam in his estate of Innocency was by God himself taught a Lesson of Industry and commanded to till the ground Our blessed Saviour was not idle but when he undertook the work of mans Redemption went up and down doing good denying himself his sleep A great while before day he was at prayer Mark 1. and he prayed all night He denied himself his Food when he was hungry and disappointed of Food at the Figg-Tree he goeth not to an house to eat but to the Synagogue to preach He denied himself his ease and pleasure and all to follow his business Joh. 9.4 As he said so he did I must work the work of him that sent me whilst it is day And did Christ contend and fight and strive and wrastle night and day before he was crown'd or could enjoy the Joy set before him and dost thou think to have all for nothing Reader to conclude this Head consider Rom. 12.11 Not slothful in business fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. Where we have the Duty I am perswading thee to commanded by the Apostle in regard of its great weight extraordinary difficulty or backwardness to it both ways 1. Negatively not slothful in business i. e. you will do nothing at it if ye be sleepy or slothful the business is not such as may be done in a dream As idleness is the burial of our persons so slothfulness is the burial of our actions It 's bad to be slow at our business but much worse to be slothful 2. Affirmatively fervent in Spirit this is the greatest diligence possible Fervency is the heat and height of the Affections and is as contrary to slothfulness as fire to water When the powers and faculties of the Soul are wound up to their highest pitch in the Service of God then a man may be said to be fervent in Spirit The labour of the body is nothing to the labour of the brains and the sweating of the outward man is little to the industry of the inward man He that hath the heart of a man may command his purse and hands and what he hath Fervency of Spirit or intension of Mind about any business will call in his time and wealth and strength and all to its assistance 2. The Duty is urged by an high and weighty reason serving the Lord. It 's the Majesty Excellency Purity and boundless Perfection of the Object which requires such warmth and life and heat and fervency of Spirit in those that adore him Though we may make bold with our fellow-dust and ashes with those that are of the same make and mould with our selves yet the most High he whose Name alone is Excellent the God of the Spirits of all Flesh to whom the whole Creation is less than nothing he is not to be made bold with His immense Being and Perfections command the highest and the hottest affections The greatest Prince must not be put off with less than the greatest Present CHAP. XLIV Another cause of Omissions is vain excuses men have that Omissions are little sins with the cure of it 4. A Fourth cause of sins of Omission is a Presumption or false Opinion that men have concerning them and so they think to excuse them 1. That they are little sins and so not much to be minded 2. That the performance of them would be unseasonable at this or that time and so they are put off to another time that never comes 3. That when they are called to the performance of this or that Duty they neglect it with this excuse that it is but one Duty they live in the neglect of or it can be no great matter for once to omit it Reader I shall handle these severally and shew first that these foolish excuses which men please themselves with do cause Omissions and then direct to the cure of each severally 1. The first excuse is that Omissions are small sins and this Opinion is generally rooted in all men Because they do not fly in the face of Conscience disturb the light of Reason trouble the Societies where and debauch the persons amongst whom we live as some sins of Commission do therefore thy fancy for it is but a fancy that they are light and little and no great matter is to be made of them When once a man hath suckt in this poysonous Opinion no wonder if his heart swell and his life swarm with such sins For when his Nature hath a reluctancy against the positive Precepts much more than against the negative and his lazy temper sets him farther off and he believes that they are Peccadilloes and little taken notice of by God yea that a pardon in the High
matter Truly the less the matter is the greater is the malice that will offend and provoke God for it How great is the unkindness to stand with God for a trifle How little dost thou esteem thy God the God of all Consolation how little dost value his Love and Grace and Favour and endless fruition to part with all for little or nothing The less Reader the thing is for or about which thou sinnest the greater is thy Sin Believe it that by which thou wouldst excuse thy sin doth increase it It hath been formerly said If a man will break his faith it should be for a Kingdom for something of worth yet this Sinner were a loser though by breaking his Faith he could gain the whole Earth what then is that man who will lye and forswear himself for a peny Though no man should presume upon Sin because its present profit will be great yet there is more unkindness more folly and more sinfulness in sinning for a little Some like Eagles will not stoop at flies scorn to sin for a small matter others as Ants will be busie about the least dust will break the Law for a very little the former are bad the latter worse 6. The less they are the more they call for thy care and caution for they are the harder to be cured As a wound made with a Bodkin if deep is hardlier cured than a wound with a Sword because the Orifice is so small and presently almost closeth up and so the wound bleedeth inwardly often to the death of the Patient It 's much more difficult for the Mariner to avoid Quick-sands that are hurried hither and thither then known Rocks though Sands are small things and Rocks are great vast bodies Besides our proneness to despise and slight them causeth our more frequent falling into them as also our lying longer in them without repentance 7. Small Sins are not expiated without infinite satisfaction and must they then be dallied with there is more malignity in the least sin than the whole Creation can expel and more Venome than Men Angels can antidote against Friend consider it thou sayst they are little sins therefore I may live in them Did Christ die for them and wilt thou live in them Dost thou not know what prodigious drops of sweat what clods of blood what strong cries and groans and prayers the least Sins cost thy Redeemer Dost thou not know that their weight was so heavy as little and light as thou fanciest them to be that they pressed and bruised his blessed Body that they oppressed and amazed his blessed Soul yea that they made him who is valour and courage it self obedience and dutifulness it self love and pity it self to shrink and draw back and pray against his Duty to his Father and his own Mercy to fallen man and decline the very end and errand for which he came into the world Reader think of it As Austin saith what matters it whether a Ship be overwhelmed with one great Wave or sunk by a small Cranny in the bottom whereat the water enters drop by drop And else-where what easeth it a man to be pressed to death with an heap of small sand more than with a sow of lead or to be strangled with a pack-thread rather than with an halter Reader I would not have thee think any of thy sins little It 's unbecoming a Christian to entertain such a thought of his sins nay it greatens his sin for him to presume it is little As we should not lessen the Mercies of God but always think them great and too great for us and our selves less than the very least of them so we should never lessen our sins but judge the least of them great and the lightest of them heavy and every of them too great and too heavy for us to bear and upon these accounts loath and leave them Friend think of what I have said of little sins and certainly thou wilt be of another mind than to allow of them because they are little and rather reject them because they are sins Is there any thing that God hates but sin and must that be the Object of his hatred Is there any thing that offends God or grieves his Spirit but sin and will nothing delight and please thee but what provokes and displeaseth him 4. I answer that Omissions are not little sins I have already largely proved that in some respects and as they may be circumstantiated they may be much greater sins than sins of Commission Reader consider what is written in the danger of sins of Omission before the Uses and then judge whether they are little sins or no. Are they little sins which do most oppose the Mind and Will of God which make way for whole herds of Sins of Commission and which do exceedingly grieve the good Spirit of God Are those little sins which God complains of so frequently threatneth so severely and punisheth with such dreadful Judgments on their Bodies on their Souls in this World on both eternally in the other World without any remedy But Friend consider farther 1. Can that sin be little which denieth God the highest Honour and greatest Homage and chiefest Respect which the Creature oweth to him What is that which is the choicest Jewel in the Crown of his Glory whence do the greatest Revenews of his Honour flow Are not our highest esteem our hottest love or strongest trust and our most reverential awe of his sacred Majesty the best and the most we can give him and can the omission of these be a little sin The forbearance of Commissions is but the skirt and garment and out-side of that Obedience which we owe to God it is the giving up our hearts and souls to him in our most enlarged desires after him and spiritual delights in him and superlative valuation of him which he requireth of us and principally looks after Micah 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Surely if any sin be little it 's that which incroacheth least upon the honour of God not that which injures so greatly his Royal Prerogative He that robs his Soveraign of some petty goods cannot be so great a Transgressor as he who would rob him of his Crown and Kingdom 2. Is that a little sin which provoketh God to inflict the greatest punishment Either we must believe that God punisheth men more or less according to the nature of their offences whether greater or lesser or else we must accuse him of injustice The Apostle undertakes to prove him righteous because he renders to every man according to his works Rom. 2.5 6. If so where he inflicts the greatest Judgment there must be the greatest sin Now all Divines conclude the punishment of loss which they say is for our Omissions to be far greater than the punishment of sense which is for