Christ should be lyable to these Passions But it is certain God the Father made an immediate impression of pains upon his soul his soul did immediately suffer Look on him in the Garden he was not yet touched nor troubled by men and yet he fell in a sweat Consider the season of the year this was then when they that were within doors were glad to keep close by the fire he thus did sweat in the Garden when others freez'd within this was much but to sweat blood thick blood clotted congealed blood for so the word will bear it not like that in his veins and yet it came through his garments and fell to the ground this is a thing not to be comprehended Our blessâ—d Saviours encountring with his Father he falls a trembling and is overwhelmed as it were with the wrath beseeching God intensively saying Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me Mat. â—7 39 thou mayst give free pardon which affections in Christ are such a thing as pusâ—els us all we must not say Christ did forget for what he came but he did not remember these words proceeded from the seat of passion which while it is disturbed reason suspends its Acts. Christ had Passions though no impurity in them As take a clear Vial full of water from the fountain and shake it it may be frothy yet it will be clean water still Christ did not forget only he had the suspension of his faculties for a time As a man in a sleep thinks not what he is to do in the morning and yet he is said properly to forget He cryed My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.40 He was contented to be forsaken for a time that thou mighst not be forsaken everlastingly and this was no faint prayer if you will read the place in the Psalm He cryed out unto God And Heb. 5.7 It 's said Who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong cries and tears He cryed to the Almighty he made Gods own heart to pity He would break Isa. 53. yet his heart is repenting and rolled together so that he sent an Angel to support and comfort him Psal. 27. those strong cries are expressed with a more forcible word My God my God why hast thou forsaken me why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring Consider how it was with Christ before any earthly hand had touched him when he beseeched God for his life this shews the wonderful suffering of Christ and for that point Why hast thou forsaken me Consider it was not with Christ as with the Fathers they suffered a great deal of punishment and taches and would not be delivered yet Christ was more couragious than they all He had a spirit of fortitude he was anointed abve his fellows and yet he quivers Our Fathers cryed unto thee they trusted in thee and were not consumed they were delivered but I am a worm and no man I can find no shadow of comfort Lord Why art thou so angry with me this speech came not from the upper part of the soul the seat of reason but from the lower part the seat of Passion My God my God these were not words of desperation He held fast to God Why hast thou forsaken me these are words of sense thus you see the price is paid and what a bitter thing sin is God will not suffer his Justice to be swallowed up by Mercy It must be satisfied and our Saviour if he will be a Mediator must make payment to the uttermost farthing Consider what a time this was when our Saviour suffered The Sun with-draws his beams the earth shakes and trembles What aileth thee O thou Sun to be darkned and thou earth to tremble was it not to shew his mourning for the death of its Maker The soul of Christ was dark within and it 's fit that all the world should be hung in black for the death of the King of Kings But mark when he comes to deliver up his life and to give up the Ghost the vail of the Temple rent in twain and that was the ninth hour which in the Acts is called the hour of prayer it was at three a Clock in the afternoon Hence it is said Let the lifting up of my hands be as the evening sacrifice The Priest was killing the Lamb at that time there was a vail that severed the Holy of Holies it was between the place of oblations and the Holy of holies which signifies the Kingdom of Heaven Assoon as Christ died the vail rent and Heaven was open the Priest saw that which was before hidden Our Saviour saith the Apostle entred through the vail of his flesh unto his Father and fit it was that the vail should give place when Christ comes to enter but what becomes of Christ's soul now his soul and body were pull'd asunder and through the vail of his flesh as it were with blood about his ears he entred the Holy of Holies unto God saying Lord here am I in my blood and here is blood that speaks better things than the blood of Abel that cries for vengeance this for blessing and expiation of our sins JOHN 1.12 But to as many as received him to them gave he Power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his Name HAving heretofore declared unto you the woful estate and condion wherein we stand by nature I proceeded to the Remedy that God of his infinite Mercy hath provided for the recovery of miserable sinners from the wrath to come And therein I proposed two things that our Saviour that was to advance us and raise us out of this condition when we had lost our selves in Adam did both deliver us from the punishment which we had deserved and also translate it upon his own person He did his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 We having eaten sour grapes he was to have his teeth set on edge we accounted him smitten of God and buffeted but we had sinned and he was beaten That when the Lord in his wrath was ready to smite us he underwent the dint of God's sword and stood betwixt the blow and us the blow lighted on him that was equal with God and deserved not to be beaten Awake O sword against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow The sword was unwilling to strike him and thus being smitten he became a propitiation for our sins The chastisement of our peace was on him He offered himself a sacrifice Here are two things considerable 1. How Christ was offered for us 2. How he is offered to us First For us and so he offered up himself a Sacrifice a sweet smelling Sacrifice unto God Eph. 5.2 Mark the point is he is not only the Sacrifice but the Sacrificer He offered up himself saith the Apostle He was the Priest and
but consider whether these thoughts which poise down our hearts be not groundless see whether they will hold water at the last and whether in making such excuses to great presumption we add not the height of folly To pretend for our delay the Profits and Pleasures of sin and yet hope for Heaven at the last as well as the generation of the righteous it 's but a meer fallacy and delusion of Satan to fill our hearts with such Vanities Can it be expected that we should have our good in this World and in the World to come too This is well if it might be But let us try the matter and begin with your first branch You are loth to part with your Profits and Pleasures But consider what a grand iniquity this is Can you offer God a greater wrong and indignity Do you thus requite the Lord you foolish and unwise Dost thou think this the way to make thy peace with God whom thou hast offended as long as thou mayst to be a Rebel against him What a high dishonour is it to him that thou shouldst give him thy feeble and doting old age and the Devil thy lively and vigorous youth thy strength and spirits Dost thou think he will drink the Dregs and eat the Orts Will he accept thee in the next World when thou thus scornest him in this If you offer the Blind for sacrifice is it not an evil If you offer â—he Lame and Sick is it not evil Offer it now unto thy governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of Hosts Mal. 1.8 But mark how he goes on v. 14. Cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing Mark God accounts such service a corrupt thing and the Person that offers it a mere Cheat a Deceiver Never look for a blessing from God in Heaven when thou sacrificest to him such corrupt things No thou art Cursed of God as long as thou continuest in this Hypocrisy We are to offer and present our selves a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God Rom. 12.1 Now judge whether they offer God the living who say when my doting days come my lame days thar I cannot go my blind dayes that I cannot see I le offer my self a sacrifice to God Will this be acceptable to him Is not this Evil saith the Lord to offer me such a corrupt thing Nay more he 's accursed that offers such an offering such a polluted sacrifice God will not like with it when we serve our selves first with the best and choise Do you thus requite the Lord Do you think he will accept it at your hands Go offer such a gift to thy Ruler to thy Prince will he accept it or be pleased with it No a Landlord will have the best and the choice and it must needs provoke God when we give him the refuse I am King of Kings saith the Lord my name is dreadful and I will look to be served after another manner Let no man then thus delude himself with vain hopes but let him consider how dishonourable a thing it will be to God 2. And how unprofitable to him whoever thou art Indeed we cannot be profitable unto Him Properly as he that is wise may be profitable to himself Job 22.2 But he is so gracious a master that he esteems our sincere and seasonable service to be his own gain and our sloth and neglect to be his detriment he accompts our destruction to be his own loss Now it s the ready way 1. It s the ready way to thy Destruction Heaven and happiness and eternal life are laid up for those that embrace the acceptable time death horrour and eternal misery for those that refuse it and wilt thou hazard Soul and Body on this Moses on this ground did rather choose to suffer affliction in this World with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Hebr. 11.25 When these things are past what profit will you have of those things whereof then you will be ashamed Nay whereof were thine eyes open thou wouldst now be ashamed and happy wouldst thou be if thou wert as the converted Romans were even now ashamed Rom. 6.21 Shame accompanies Sin so constantly and unavoidably that even repentance it self removes it not The Romans now Christians were ashamed for what they had done before they knew Christ. When a man comes to see truly and throughly into himself he will find no profit of such things as these Death will certainly follow us not only Temporal but Eternal also if we Repent not the more speedily that 's all the profit we shall find 2. But suppose thou prevent everlasting death by repentance yet what profit is there of those things whereof we are now for the present ashamed The best can come is shame 3. Thou art loth to part with the Pleasures of sin for a Season and hereafter thou thinkest thou canst amend all But consider the particulars and then shall you see how you are befool'd in your hearts and souls Believe it for an undoubted truth there 's nothing in the World by which Satan more deludes a man then by this perswading him to neglect his day and that he may repent well enough hereafter That you may expel this suggestion out of your Souls pray unto God that he would go along with his Word and cause you to lay this to heart that by his Spirit your understanding may be enlightned to see the truth Though I make this as clear as the Sun that it is a false supposition and mere folly on which we build in deferring our return to God yet God from Heaven must teach you or you will be never the wiser Know therefore that this very day God reaches out the Golden Scepter to thee and what folly were it no neglect it since thou knowest not whether he will ever proffer it thee again And assure thy self that he is a Lyar that tels thee thou mayst as well repent hereafter as now and this will appear whether we consider the order of outward things in the World or the nature of sin 1. For external things every Age after a man comes into the World if he embrace not the present opportunity for repentance is worse then other and are each of them as so many Clogs which come one after a another to hinder it As for thy Childish Age that 's mere Vanitie and thy riper Age will bring many Impediments and Hinderances that youth never thought of Thou art then troubled about many things and perplexed how to provide for maintenance in the midst whereof know that thou hast not a body of Brass but a Corruptible and Fading body and yet such is the Folly of the heart of man that the less Ground he hath to go the fewer Dayes to spend the more he often provides and is the more covetous Consider that
draw neer and touch it Also what danger there is of being deluded by Satan and our own hearts I shewed you farther that the work was half done is this were done if we could but learn this lesson And now all that I shall speak will be to little purpose if this be not first wrought If it be already wrought in us blessed are we Our condition were thrice happy would God now strike in and cause us to return to himself It 's not good to dally with God the time may come when it will be too late when we shall wish he had done otherwise and taken the accepted time Now I will go on to a farther point which is this when Satan cannot prevail with a sinner to say to his soul or to think with himself I will do it hereafter or I will at the day of death when he cannot prevail with him to defer it and leave it quite undone for the present then he will give way to his doing a little to it but it shall be so superficial and on such false grounds that he had as good leave it undone For Satan makes him thus conclude with himself well since I see it is a duty so necessary I will not defer I will not put it off to an hour but yet I see no such matter required in conversion no such great need of being new moulded But now in the point of conversion there are two things to be thought on First what estate the sinner is in for the present and then when he hath made search and found it to be amiss then the next thing is he must turn unto God and resolve to amend I shall not now stand to speak of that common aspersion cast upon Religion and the waies of God that men must sail to Heaven by the Gates of Hell of which many are so much afraid But yet we must not think that our Saviour came to heal those which were whole already he 's a God of Wisedome and the Physician of the Soul he comes to find that which is lost So that we must be lost in our own apprehensions if we will be found as David was Ps. 119. ult He first saith I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost then seek thy servant If now we are once lost we are lost for ever if he seek us not therefore we should first consider with our selves what estate we are in now how the case stands with us at present that if God should come and strike thee with Death if thou wert now to come to Judgment what would trouble thee most what couldst thou then answer him Therefore since it is uncertain how soon God may deal thus with thee it is wisedome to be always ready Lam. 3.40 Let us search and try our wayes and turn again unto the Lord. Let us first try how the matter stands with us at the present let us examine our selves and our ways and see if all be well and then may we go on with comfort in the way wherein we are But when we have searched and find thingâ— not to go as well as they ought or that we are not in a right way then after our searching we must Turn unto the Lord Thus the Prophet did Psal. 129.57 I thought upon my wayes and turned my feet unto thy testimonies First he thought on his wayes he considered whither he was going to Heaven or Hell then when he had thus thought he made hast and turned his feet unto Gods testimonies Here are both put together first he made hast and thought on his ways and then he turned I took this Text to shew that one of these is as dangerous as the other and how men are apt to deceive themselves in their search and examination 'T is as dangerous not to prove our wayes as to put off and defer our â—urâ—ing to God This is a dangerous disease that when men come to examine and try their spiritual estates they have false weights and unequal ballances to prove themselves by they are very willing to save themselves the labour though they be deceived A man is loth to be cozened by another but here is his folly that he is willing enough to decâ—ive and betray himself Such Fools the Devil makes many men because they take not right Glasses to look on themselves in and so they deceive themselves For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself but let every man prove c. In the words here are 1. The Disease 2. A Remedy 1. The Disease is in the 3d. v. If a man think himself â—o be something when he is nothing c. This is a common dangerous disease and a disease which is both common and dangerous is the more to be feared the more careful must the Physician be This is the most common disease for there is not a man but finds a smatch of it in his own heart And it is the more dangerous for who is in more danger than he that is blind and will be blind that is willing to be cheated by Satan and himself This is the patient Now what his disease is and the dangerousness of it the Apostle tells us He thinks himself to be something and is nothing This is the Patient to be cured and that is his disease than which none more common for there is not the worst of men but will say I thank God I am something and I am not half so bad as the Preacher would make me I have some good thing in me Now this his disease stands in two things 1. That he is nothing 2. That he thinks himself to be something 1. He is nothing And for a man to be brought before Gods Judgment-seat and have nothing to answer how will it fare with him then But yet this man cannot but think he is something Well then something he is but nothing to the purpose As we say of an Idol An Idol is nothing in the World that is Nothing that can help or succour those that bow to it and adore it nothing that can relieve the worshipper of it An Idol is something indeed for it is Silver or Gold or Brass or Stone c. But it 's nothing that is is nothing to the purpose nothing that can plead for a man when he holds up his hand at Gods Bar. 2. He thinks himself to be something though he be nothing He thinks he shall come to Heaven though he be not in the way as the foolish Virgins that thought they should be let in feared not the contrary till they came to the Marriage Chamber door Matth. 25.11 So these men walk in their way all their life and yet fear not entrance into Heaven till they receive sentence to the contrary If these men knew themselves to be nothing they would seek something for themselves but now they are nothing though they think themselves something This is the Disease 2. The
settest thy self against God and dost many things which others that have not received the same grace would not have done know then that thou receivest this grace in vain and thy case is lamentable 4. Consider God's great goodness which ought to restrain thee from sin upon a double account 1. First his goodness in himself should keep thee from offending him There 's nothing but goodness infinite goodness in him and canst thou find in thy heart to sin against so good a God To offend and wrong a good disposition'd person one of a sweet nature and affection it aggravates the fault 't is pity to wrong or hurt such a one as injures no body Now such a one is God a good God infinite in goodness rich in mercy very goodness it self and therefore it must needs aggravate the foulness of sin to sin against him But now he is not only thus in himself but 2. Secondly He 's good to thee Rom. 2. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance c. What hast thou that thou hast not received from his bountiful hand Consider of this and let this be a means to draw thee off from thy sinfulness When David had greatly sinned against God and when God brings his murther home to him he pleads thus with him When thou wert nothing in thine own eyes I brought thee saith God to the Kingdom I took thee from the sheep-fold and exalted thee and brought the to a plentiful house Vid. 2 Sam. 12.7 8. And may not God say the like to us and do you thus requite the Lord O you foolish people and unwise Deut. 32.6 that the more his mercy and goodness is to you the higher your sins should be against him 5. Besides consider more than all this we have the examples of good men before our eyes God commands us not what we cannot do If God had not set some before our eyes that walk in his ways and do his will then we might say that these are precepts that none can perform But we have patterns of whom we may say such a man I never knew to lye such a one never to swear and this should be a means to preserve us from sinning Heb. 11.7 Noah was a good man and being moved with fear set not at nought the threatning of God but built the Ark and thereby condemned the world His example condemned the world in that they followed it not although it were so good but continued in their great sins So art thou a wicked deboist person there is no good man but shall condemn thee by his example It 's a great crime in the land of uprightness to do wickedly Isa. 26.10 to be profane when the righteous by their blameless lives may teach thee otherwise 6. And lastly add to all the consideration of the multitude and weight of thy sins Hadst thou but sinned once or twice or in this or that it were somewhat tolerable But thy sins are great and many They are heavy and thou continually encreasest their weight and addest to their number Jer. 5.6 A lyon out of the forrest shall slay them and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them a leopard shall watch over their Cities and every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces Why Because their transgressions are many and their back-slidings are encreased If thou hadst committed but two or three or four sins thou mightest have hope of pardon but when thou shalt never have done with thy God but wilt be still encreasing still multiplying thy sins then mayst thou expect to hear from Gods mouth that dreadful expostulation in the Prophet Jer. 5.7 How can I pardon thee Thus David sets out his own sins in their weight and number Psal. 38.4 Mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me The continual multiplying of them adds to their heap both in number and weight Thus I have shew'd you what the Law does in respect of sin the benefit of being under the Law that it makes sin appear in its own colours and sets it forth to be as indeed it is exceeding sinful But the Law does not yet leave sin nor let it scape thus But as the Law discovers our sinfulness and accursedness by sin its wretchedness and mans misery by it till his blessedness comes from the hand of his Jesus so it lays down the miserable estate which befals him for it If he will not spare God with his sins God will not spare him with his plagues Let us consider of this accursedness sin brings on us God will not let us go so but as long as we are under the Law we are under the Curse and till we are in Christ we can expect nothing but that which should come from the hand of a provoked God Assure thy self thou that pleasest thy self in thy abomonations that God will not take this at thine hands that by so base a creature as thou art so vile a thing as sin is should be committed against him But of the woful effects of sin which is Gods wrath we will speak the next time LAM 5.16 Woe unto us that we have sinned I Declared unto you heretofore what we are to consider in the state of a natural man a man that is not new fashioned new moulded a man that is not cut off from his own stock a man that is not ingrafted into Christ he is the son of sin he is the son of death First I shewed you his sinfulness and now Secondly I shall shew you his accursedness that which follows necessarily upon sin unrepented of I declared before what the nature of sin is And now I come to shew what the dreadful effects of sin are I mean the enevitable consequence that follows upon sin and that is woe and misery Woe unto us that we have sinned A woe is a short word but there lieth much in it Doct. Woe and anguish must follow him that continueth sinning against God And when we hear this from the Ministers of God it is as if we heard that Angel Rev. 8.13 flying through the midst of Heaven denouncing Woe woe woe to the Inhabitants of the earth The Ministers of God are his Angels and the same that I now deliver to you if an Angel should now come from Heaven he would deliver no other thing Therefore consider that it is a voice from Heaven that this woe woe woe shall rest upon the heads upon the bodies and souls of all them that will not yield unto God that will not stoop to him that will be their own masters and stand it out against him woe woe woe unto them all Woe unto us It 's the voice of the Church in general not of one man but but woe unto us that we have sinned That I may now declare unto you what these woes are note by the way that I speak not to any particular man but to every man in general It is not
of by him where they shall keep their everlasting residence Consider when thou hearest the Bell rung out for a dead man if thou hadst but the wings of a Dove to fly and couldst fly after him and appear with him before Gods Tribunal to see the account that he must give unto God for all things done in the flesh and when no account can be given what a state of misery and horror wouldst thou see him in and this is a silent kind of judging The last day of judging shall be with great pomp and solemnity This is a matter closely carried between God and thy self but then thou must give an account of all that thou hast received and then when thou canst not give a good account then is thy talent taken from thee Why saith God I gave thee learning how didst thou use it I gave thee other gifts of mind how didst thou employ them God hath given thee wisdom and wealth Moral vertues meekness and patience c. These are good things but mark whatsoever good things thou hadst in this world is now taken from thee If a man could but see the degrading of the Soul he should see that those moral vertues in which his hope of comfort lay even these though they could never bring him to heaven yet they shall be taken from him As when a Knight is degraded first his sword is taken from him then comes one with a hatchet and chops off his golden Spurs and then go Sir Knave This is the degrading of the soul before the judgment is received the moral vertues are taken from him and then see what an ugly soul he hath he had hope before now he 's without hope he had some patience in this world but he made no good use of it and now his patience is taken from him And when thou shalt come to a place of torment and thy hope and patience be taken from thee what case wilt thou be in then Patience may stay a man up in trouble and hope may comfort a man up in torment but both these are taken away This is a thing we very seldom think but did we seriously consider of this first Act of the Judgment before the Sentence we would not be idle in this world 3. Then Lastly he is put into an unchangeable estate So soon as ever death lays Gods Mace upon him he 's put into an estate of unchangeableness Such is the terribleness of it that now though he yell and groan and pour out Rivers of Tears there is no hope of change Consider now what a woful case this is if some friend of this mans should now come to him would he not tell him we have often been very merry together but didst thou know the misery that I am in thou wouldst be troubled for me Half those tears that I now pour forth would have put me into another place had I taken the season but now it is too late Oh! therefore do thou make use of tears a little may do it now hereafter it will be too late That 's the thing we should now come to speak of the Second death But think not that I am able to speak of it now No that which is everlasting deserves an hour at least in speaking and an Age in thinking of it Therefore that everlasting torment horror and anguish which God hath reserved for those that make not their peace with him which is easily done God knows I shall speak of the next time REV. 21.8 But the Fearful and Vnbelieving and the Abominable and Murtherers and Whoremongers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and all Lyars shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death THe last day I entred you know upon the miserable estate of an unreconciled sinner at the time of his dissolution when his soul shall be taken from him and be presented naked before Christs Tribunal there to receive according to the works which he hath done in the flesh And I shew'd that the wofulness of that estate consisted in two acts done upon him The one before he comes to his place before he is thrust away from Gods presence into hell fire which I shew'd you the last day and did then promise to shew you the other To wit the wofulness of his estate being once come into his place The act done to the sinners soul before he is sent to hell is the deprivation of his light the taking away of his talent For whilst a man is in this world he hath many good things in him too good to accompany him to Hell Now all these excellent gifts and natural endowments which did adorn a wicked mans soul before the soul is hurled into hell must be taken away from him There is a kind of degradation of the soul it is depriested as it were and becomes like a degraded Knight rhat hath his honour taken from him All the rich talents and all the rich prizes that were put into the fools hand shall be taken from him Is there any moral virtue Are there any common graces and natural endowments in the miserable soul it shall be stript of all and packt to Hell You that have abused your learning and gifts that God haah given you do you think that they shall go with you to Hell No such matter you shall be very Sots and Dunces there All your learning shall be taken from you and you shall go to Hell arrant Block-heads He that had sortitude in this World shall not carry one drachm of it to Hell All his courage shall then be abased and his cowardly heart shall saint for fear Fortitude is a great advantage to a man in distress but let not the damned soul expect the least advantage His fortitude whiâ—h he hâ—d whilst hâ— was in the way shall be taken from him It may be he had patience in this World Now patience is a vertue unfit for Hell therefore shall that be taken from him A man if he were in most exquisite torment yet if he had patience it would bear it up with head and shoulders as we say but this shall add to his torments that he shall not have any patience left him to allay it A man hath perhaps hope in this World and as the Proverb is were it not for hope the heart would burst yet even this too shall be taken away from him he shall have no hope left him of ever seeing Gods face again or of ever having any more tasts of his favour And so what hath been said of some may be said of all his graces and endowments He shall clean be stript of all ere he be sent to Hell I come now to speak of the place of torment it self wherein the sinner is to be cast eternally which is the second act But think not that I am able to discover the thousandth part of it no nor any man else God grant that no soul here present ever come
vexation will this be to the damned when they shall see others in heaven and themselves shut out of door This will cause weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth It will go to their very heart when they shall see Moses and Aaron and the Prophets and holy Saints in joy and glory and shall consider and remember that if they had made use of those means and opportunities of grace they might have lived in heaven too whereas now they must be everlastingly tormented in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone and that without any hope of recovery 2 Thess. 1.9 Punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power You know that by the Law of Moses whensoever an offender was to receive his strokes Deut. 25.2 3. The Judge was to cause him to lye down and to be beaten before his face and he himself was to see it done So when God comes to give the damned their stroaks in hell for hell is the place of execution wherein he that knows his masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes he himself will see them beaten in the presence of all his holy Angels and if so how shameful will their punishment be when there shall be so many thousand witnesses of it when they shall be made as we say the worlds wonder These are they that shall rise to everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 So in Esay ult Cap. v. ult it 's said of the damned their worm shall not dye nor their fire be quenched but they shall be an abhorring to all flesh and the holy Angels and Saints shall go forth and look upon them those proud ones that scorned Gods people here shall then be abhorred and scorned of them 4. Add to all this that he 's not only banished from thâ— presence of God for a while but from all hope of ever seeing God again with comfort Thy estate is endless and remediless Whilst thou art here in this life of a Saul thou mayst become a Paul and though thou art not yet a beloved Son yet thou mayst come in favour Whilst thou livest under the means of grace there is yet hope of recovery left thee it may be this Sermon may be the means of thy conversion But then amongst all thy punishments this will be one of the greatest that thou shalt be deprived of all means of recovery and this shall be another hell to thee in the midst of hell to think with thy self I have heard so many Sermons and yet have neglected them I had so many opportunities of grace and yet have slighted them this will make the sinner rage and bite his tongue and tear himself to think how that now all means are past And this is the first penalty the penalty of loss That of the sense succeeds By the former we are deprived of all the joys and comforts of heaven and earth of Mount Sion shut out of the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem deprived of an innumerable company of Saints of the general Assembly and Church of the first-born of God himself the judge of all and the souls of the Saints made perfect This shall make a sinner curse himself Now follows the penalty of torments and sense When Adam was banished out of Paradise he had the widâ— world to walk in still but it is not so here Thou art not only cast out of heaven but cast into hell and art deprived of thy liberty for ever 1 Pet. 3.19 It 's said Christ preached to the Spirits in prison them that in the days of Noah were disobedient and for this cause are now in prison Hell is compared to a prison and a prison indeed it is and that an odious one For 1. Look on thy companions If a man were to be kept close prisoner it were a great punishment but go ye cursed saith God into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels To be among such compâ—nions is most infinitely miserable there is nothing but Devils and damned howling Ghosts woful companions If there be an house possâ—ssed wiâ—h an evil Spirit a man will scarce be hired to live in it but here the dâ—mned spirits the filthy and cursed host must be thy yoke-fellows Suppose there were no torment to suffer yet to be banished from Heaven and to be tied and yoked to wicked spirits were a torment sufficient to make the stoutest that ever was tremble and quake and be soon weary of it 2. But it 's a place of torment too a prison where there is a rack to which thou must be put and on which thou must be tormented I am tormented in this flame saith Dives Luk. 16.24 To speak of the torments there will be matter enough for another hour but I delight not to dwell on so sad a subject only this is that which prepares the way to the glad tidings of salvation therefore I shall a little longer insist upon it The body and soul the whole man shall be there tormented not the soul only but even the body too after judgment Do you think the members of the body which have been the instruments shall escape be rais'd and cast into Hell to no purpose Why should God quicken it at the last day but to break it on the anvil of his wrath and to make it accompany the soul as well in torments as in sinning 'T is true the soul is the fountain of all sense and the body without it hath no sense at all Take away the soul and you may burn the body and it will not feel it Now the soul being the fountain of sense and the body being united to it when God shall lay his ax at this root at this fountain how dreadful shall it be How shall the body choose but suffer too Should any of us be cast into a fire what a terrible torment would we account of it Fire and water we say have no mercy but alas this fire is nothing to the fire of Hell 't is but as painted fire to that which burns for ever and ever The furnace wherein Nebuchadnezzar commanded those to be thrown that fell not down to the graven-Image which he had set up was doubtless at every time a terrible place Hell is compared to such a furnace but what shall we think of it when the King in his wrath shall command the furnace to be heated seven times hotter then usual Nay what shall we think of Hell when the King of Heaven shall command it to be heated seventy times seven times hotter then before When there shall be a fire and a fire prepar'd for so is this fire of Tophet it 's a pile of much wood Isai. 30.33 When the King of Heaven shall as it were set to work his wisedome to fit it in the sharpest manner in procuring such ingredients as may make it rage most and be most violent It is a fire prepared for the Devil and
it he that was to be crucified was stripped naked as naked as ever he came out of his mothers Womb However the Painters may lye in it And was not this a shame thus to be stripped before thousands Wherefore it was a custome among the Romans that the greatest King if he were baptized was to be stripped naked which they did as a memorial of the shame of our Saviour So shameful a thing it was that they thought him unworthy to suffer within the walls Christ that he might sanctifie the people suffered without the walls Hebr. 13.13 Let us go with him out of the Camp bearing his reproach He was a man unfit to suffer within the walls Pilatâ— thought he would meet with them when they were so violent to have him crucified and therefore he joyns Barabbas with him the vilest Thief in the Countrey and a Murtherer So that Peter cast this in their teeth That they preferred a Murtherer before him He was reckoned with the Transgressors as it was prophesied of him before Isa. 53.12 They crucifie him between two Thieves as if he had been the Captain of them Pilate thought by naming of Barabbas to have saved Christ but so enraged was their blind malice that they preferred the release of Barabbas before the exemption of Christ. Wherefore as St. Luke saith Pilate released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison whom they had desired but he delivered Jesus to their will Luk. 23.25 Thirdly Consider the Pain of the Cross whom God raised up having loosed the sorrows of death Act. 2.24 Not meaning there were sorrows that Christ endured after his death but it s meant of the sorrows that accompanied his death It was the most dolorous death that ever could be endured We scarce know what Crucifying is The Christian Emperors in honor of our Saviour banished that kind of suffering that none after him might suffer it But yet it is fit we should know what it was since it was so terrible a thing And here as the Apostle said to the Galathians Suppose you see Christ crucified before your face at present The manner of it was thus First there was a long beam on which the party was to be stretched and there was a cross-beam on which the hands were to be stretched they pull'd them up upon the Cross before they fastned them they pull'd him to his utmost length And this is that the Psalmist speaks of Psal. 22.17 You might tell all my bones His ribs were so stretched as that they even pierced the flesh Conceive him now thus stretched with his hands and feet nailed to the wood the stretching of Christ on the Cross was such a thing as the working of the rack Imagine him before your eyes thus represented Your sins crucicified him being thus stretched upon the Cross to his full length the hands and the feet were fastned and nailed to the wood It 's no small torment to have the hands bored especially if we behold the place it was through the lower part of the hand where the veins and sinnews all met together It 's a place that is full of sense consider withal the bigness of the nails Psal. 22.16 They have digged my hands to shew the bigness of the spikes for the original bears it They digg'd him Believe not the painters Our Saviour had four nails Not one through both feet as they describe it but two through his hands and two through his feet And that you may the better comprehend it you must know that toward the lower part of the cross there went along a ledge or threshold whereto his feet were nail'd otherwise the flesh would have rent by reason of the nails if he had hung by the hands alone Then comes the lifting up as the serpent was lift up so must Christ be lift As when a man is stretched to the full length and should be with a girk put up it 's like a strapado as it were the unjoynting of a man and this is that the Psalmist speaks of All my bones are out of joynt Consider withal the time how long it was St. Mark saith cap. 15.25 It was the third hour and they crucified him In St. John it is the sixth hour but the ancient and best Copies have the third hour and so hath Nonnus The ninth hour he gave up the Ghost so that it was six long hours by the clock that our Saviour did hang upon the Cross. And it was not with him as with other men in whom extremity of pains disannul sense and blunt pains because they have not a perfect apprehension but Christ was in his perfect sense all the while All that the Jews could do could not take away his life from him till he would himself and therefore it is said in Mark 15.37 That immediately before he gave up the Ghost he cryed with a loud voice whereas others are wont at that time to be so weak that they can scarce be heard to groan but never was Christ stronger nor never cryed louder than when he gave up the Ghost Mark 15.39 this of it self made the Centurion assoon as he heard it conclude certainly this man was the Son of God How doth he gather this from his crying thus For a man to be in his full strength and cry out so strongly and immediately to give up the Ghost this is a great Miracle Truly this man was the Son of God This adds unto the greatness of his torment that he had his full and perfect sense that he was six full hours thus on the Rack and the extremity of pain took not away his sense He was as strong at the last as at the first These things seriously weighed Oh! how do they aggravate the depth of his Humiliation Seriously weigh them they are miserable and lamentable matters yet in these lie our comfort Through these words is there a passage open for us into the Kingdom of Heaven When he had overcome the terrors of death he opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers these were now but the out-side of his sufferings which did belong to man for his sins He suffered not only bodily sufferings but sufferings in soul and and that he did in a most unknown and incomprehensible manner But now may some say Object Did Christ suffer the pains and torments of Hell Sol. No he suffered those things that such an innocent Lamb might suffer but he could not suffer the pains of Hell The reason is because one thing which makes Hell to be Hell is the gnawing worm of an accusing conscience Now Christ had no such worm He had so clear a conscience as that he could not be stung with any such evil Another great torment in Hell is Desperation arising from the apprehension of the perpetuity of their torments which makes them curse and blaspheme God and carry an inexpressible hatred against him but Christ could not do so he could not hate God God forbid that
of the hidden Manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knows save he that receives it that is there is a particular intimation that I shall know of my self more than any other more than all the world besides It is such a joy as the stranger is not made partaker of Prov. 14.10 such joy as is glorious and unspeakable 1 Pet. 1.8 Such peace as passâ—th all understanding Philip. 4 7. One minute of such joy surpasseth all the joy in the world besides Now consider sure there is such a thing as this joy or else do you think the Scripture would talk of it and of the Comforter the Holy Ghost by whom we know the things that are freely given us of God 1 Cor. 2.12 There is a generation in the world that hath this joy though you that know it not do not nor cannot believe it there is a righteous generation that have it and why dost thou not try to get it do as they do and thou mayest obtain it likewise The secrets of the Lord are revealed to them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant Psal. 25.14 These are hidden comforts do you think God will give this joy to those that care not for him No the way is to seek God and to labour to fear him The secrets of the Lord are revealed to such and such only as fear him do as they do and follow their example and thou mayest have it likewise Object Many have served Christ long and have not sound it Sol. It is long of themselves you are straitned in your own bowels or else Open your mouths wide and God will fill them No wonder that we are so barren of these comforts when we be straitned in our selves There is a thing wondrously wanting amongst us and that is Meditation If we could give our selves to it and go up with Moses to the Mount to confer with God and seriously think of the price of Christ's death and of the joys of heaven and the Privileges of a Christian if we could frequently meditate on these we should have these sealing comforts every day at least oftner This hath need to be much pressed upon us the neglect of this makes lean souls He that is frequent in that hath these sealing days often Couldst thou have a parley with God in private and have thy heart rejoyce with the comforts of another day even whilst thou art thinking of these things Christ would be in the midst of thee Many of the Saints of God have but little of this because they spend but few hours in Meditation And thus as this hour would give leave have we proceeded in this point 1 COR. 11.29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh Damnation to himself not discerning the Lords body I Have heretofore declared unto you the ground of our salvation and have represented unto you first Christ offered for us and secondly Christ offered to us Now it hath pleased Almighty God not only to teach us this by his Word but because we are slow of heart to believe and conceive the things we hear it pleases his glorious Wisdom to add to his Word his Sacraments that so what we have heard with our ears we may see with our eyes being represented by signs There is a visible voice whereby God speaks to the eyes and therefore we find in Exod. 4.8 God bids Moses that he should use signs saying It shall come to pass if they will not believe thee neither hearken to the voice of the first sign that they will believe the voice of the latter sign Signs you know are the Object of the eye and yet see they have as it were a visible voice which speaks to the eye Now God is pleased to give us these signs for the helping 1. Of our Vnderstanding The eye and the ear are the two learned senses as we call them through which all knowledge is conveyed into the soul and therefore that we may have a more particular knowledge of Christ God hath not only by his Ministery given us audible voices but visible also in his Sacramenss by which as by certain glasses he represents to us the Mystery of Christ Jesus offered for us and offered to us And hence is it that Paul calls the eyes to witness as well as the ears Gal. 3.1 O ye foolish Galathians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the Truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified amongst you That is before whose eyes Christ hath been crucified not by hear-say only but evidently before your eyes not in any foolish Crucifix with the Papists but in the blessed Sacrament wherein he is so represented as if his soul were before our eyes poured out to death so that by these Sacraments heavenly things are as it were clothed in earthly Garments and this is the first reason viz. to help our Vnderstanding But besides he doth it 2. To help our Memory we are apt to forget those wonderful things Christ hath wrought for us And therefore verse 24. and 25. Of this Chapter we are bid To eat his body and drink his blood in remembrance of him To take the signs as tokens of him the Sacrament is as it were a monument and pillar raised up to the end that when ever we see it we should remember the Lords death until be come It s said 2 Sam. 18.18 That Absolom in his life time had taken and reared up for himself a Pillar which is in the Kings dale for he said I have no son to keep my name in remembrance He would fain be remembred bu he had no Child whereby he might live after he was dead therefore he raises it and calls it after his own name Absoloms place as it is this day That so as often as any came that way they might remember him Christ doth thus by his Sacrament and erects it as a Monument for the remembrance of his death and as it were calls it by his own name saying This is my body and this is my blood That when ever we see them we may call to mind Christ offâ—red for us and to us But that I may apply this my Doctrine to the ears also know that 3. These signs are for the strengthning of our faith and therefore it is considered as a seal Rom. 4.11 Abraham received the sign of Circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised It helps our understanding by being a sign and is a confirmation a seal by vertue whereof Chrlst is passed and made over to us so that we have as true an interest and right to him as to our meat and drink yea he becomes as effectually ours for every purpose in our spiritual life as our meat and drink doth for our corporal To which end these Elements are changed spiritually in their natures not in substance
beating upon the will again and again what the understanding hath rightly conceived this at last works upon the will and moves it for we see the wickedest man in the world lays hold on the worst things as good and profitable unto him so when the best thing is presented to the will as the best thing and the necessity thereof urged by dangers ensuing inevitably if I will not then it apprehends that and says of it as Peter at the Transfiguration It is good for us to be here and let us build Tabernacles Hence you see what faith is in this working An act of the understanding forcing in that way of conviction which we mentioned the will and affections And thus when the understanding is captivated and the will brought to be willing then the first act of faith is past From whence we proceed to the second which is the running to the City of Refuge the application and believing of the promises and so to the apprehending of Christ surveying of the promises belonging to justification and sanctification and bringing them home to the soul from whence comes the witness of our spirit Before we come yet to speak of God's spirit witnessing with our spirit because betwixt this work there may be many times and is an interposing trial ere the spirit of God witness with our spirit we will first touch that When our spirit hath thus witnessed in Justification and Sanctification God may now write bitter things against me seem to cast me off and wound me with the wounds of an enemy remove the sense of the light of his countenance from me what then is to be done why yet I will trust in him though he kill me sure I am I have loved and esteemed the words of his mouth more than mine appointed food as Job speaks I have laid hold of Christ Jesus by the promises and believe them I have desired and do desire to fear him and yield obedience to all his Commandments if I must needs die I will yet wait on him and die at his feet Look here is the strength of faith Christ had faith without feeling when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me When sense is marvellous low then faith is at the strongest Here we must walk and live by faith we shall have sense and sight enough in another world The Apostle tells us Now we walk by faith and not by sight and by faith we stand As we may see a pattern of the woman of Canaan Matth. 15.22 First she was repulsed as a stranger yet she goes on then she was called a dog she might now have been discouraged so as to have given over her suit but see this is the nature of Faith to pick comfort out of discouragements to see out of a very small hole those things which raise and bring consolation she catches at this quickly Am I a dog why yet it is well for the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their Master's Table Thus Faith grew stronger in her and when this trial was past Christ says unto her O woman not O dog now great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt And thus have I done with the testimony of our spirit Then from our believing of God in general believing and applying the promises and valourous trustings of God and restings upon God taking him at his word comes the testimony of Gods spirit witnessing with our spirit that we are the children of God I say this being done and God having let us see what his strength in us is he will not let us stand long in this uncomfortable state but will come again and speak peace to us that we may live in his sight as if he should say what hast thou believed me so on my bare word Hast thou honoured me so as to lay the blame and fault of all my trials on thy self for thy sins clearing my Justice in all things hast thou honoured me so as to magnifie mercy to wait and hope on it for all this hast thou trusted me so as to remain faithful in all thy miseries Then the Lord puts unto the witness of our spirit the seal of his spirit as we may read Ephes. 1.13 Says the Apostle In whom also ye trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the Gopel of your Salvation in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with the holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance c. Here is the difference betwixt faith and sense faith takes hold of general promises draws then down to particulars applies them and makes them her own lives and walks by them squaring the whole life by them in all things But sense is another thing even that which is mentioned Psalm 35.3 When there is a full report made to the soul of its assured happiness Say unto my soul I am thy salvation When a man hath thus been gathered home by glorifying him and believing his truth then comes a special evidence to the soul with an unwonted joy and saith I am thy salvation which in effect is that which Christ in another place speaks John 14.21 He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him And as it is in the Canticles 1.2 Then he will kiss us with the kisses of his mouth so as we shall be able to say My beloved is mine and I am his When God hath heard us cry awhile till we be throughly humbled then he takes us up into his arms and dandles us So that a meditation of the word being past a man having viewed his Charter and the promises surveying Heaven the priviledges of Believers and the glory that is to come then comes in the Spirit and makes up a third with which comes joy unspeakable and glorious in such a measure that for the present we can neither wish nor desire any thing else the soul resting wonderfully ravished and contented This cannot nor shall not always continue but at sometimes we shall have it yet it remains always so as it can never finally be taken away as our Saviours promise is John 16 22. And ye now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy shall no man take from you This is the root of all consolation that God will not forsake for ever But will at last come again and have compassion on us according to the multitude of his mercies But here some may Object What Doth the spirit never seal but upon some such hard tryals after the witness of our Spirit I answer the sealing of Gods Spirit with our Spirit is not always tyed to hard foregoing tryals immediately for a man may be surveying Heaven and the glory to come or praying earnestly with a tender and melting heart applying the promises and wrastling with God and at the same time Gods seal many times may be and