the Text They are a Nation void of knowledge neither is there any understanding in them And the wish that follows in the Text is as seasonable for us as it was for them O that they were wise that they uaderstood this that they would consider their latter end And by parity of Reason this may likewise be applyed to particular Persons and to perswade every one of us to a serious Consideration of the final Issue and Consequence of our Actions I will only offer these two Arguments I. That Consideration is the proper Act of reasonable Creatures and that whereby we shew our selves men So the Prophet intimates Isa 46.8 Remember this and shew your selves men bring it again to mind O ye transgressors that is consider it well think of it again and again ye that run on so furiously in a sinful Course what the end and issue of these things will be If ye do not do this you do not shew your selves men you do not act like reasonable Creatures to whom it is peculiar to propose to themselves some end and design of their Actions but rather like Brute Creatures which have no understanding and act only by a natural instinct without any Consideration of the end of their Actions or of the means conducing to it II. Whether we consider it or not our latter end will come and all those dismal Consequences of a sinful Course which God hath so plainly threatned and our own Consciences do so much dread will certainly overtake us at last and we cannot by not thinking of these things ever prevent or avoid them Death will come and after that the Judgment and an irreversible Doom will pass upon us according to all the evil that we have done and all the good that we have neglected to do in this Life under the heavy weight and pressure whereof we must lie groaning and bewailing our selves to everlasting Ages God now exerciseth his Mercy and Patience and Long-suffering toward us in expectation of our amendment he reprieves us on purpose that we may repent and in hopes that we will at last consider and grow wiser for he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance but if we will trifle away this day of God's Grace and Patience if we will not consider and bethink our selves there is another day that will certainly come That great and terrible Day of the Lord in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then all these things shall be let us consider seriously what manner of Persons we ought to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness waiting for and hastning unto the coming of the Day of God To whom be glory now and for ever SERMON XV. Ser. 15. The Danger of Impenitence where the Gospel is preach'd MATTH XI 21 22. Woe unto thee Chorazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of Judgment than for you AFter our Blessed Saviour had instructed and sent forth his Disciples he himself went abroad to preach unto the Cities of Israel particularly he spent much time in the Cities of Galilee Chorazin and Bethsaida Vol. 8. and Capernaum Preaching the Gospel to them and working many and great Miracles among them but with little or no success which was the cause of his denouncing this terrible woe against them ver 20. Then began he to upbraid the Cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not Woe unto thee Chorazin c. In which words our Saviour declares the sad and miserable Condition of those two Cities Chorazin and Bethsaida which had neglected such an opportunity and resisted and withstood such means of Repentance as would have effectually reclaimed the most wicked Cities and People that can be instanced in in any Age Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and therefore he tells them that their Condition was much worse and that they should fall under a heavier Sentence at the day of Judgment than the People of those Cities whom they had always lookt upon as the greatest sinners that ever were in the World This is the plain meaning of the words in general but yet there are some difficulties in them which I shall endeavour to clear and then proceed to raise such Observations from them as may be instructive and useful to us The Difficulties are these I. What Repentance is here spoken of whether an external Repentance in shew and appearance only or an inward and real and sincere Repentance II. In what Sense it is said that Tyre and Sidon would have repented III. What is meant by their would have repented long ago IV. How this assertion of our Saviour's that Miracles would have converted Tyre and Sidon is reconcileable with that other saying of his Luke 16.31 in the Parable of the rich Man and Lazarus that those who believed not Moses and the Prophets neither would they be persuaded tho' one rose from the dead I. What Repentance is here spoken of whether a meer external and Hypocritical Repentance in shew and appearance only or an inward and real and sincere Repentance The Reason of this doubt depends upon the different Theories of Divines about the sufficiency of Grace accompanying the outward Means of Repentance and whether an irresistible degree of God's Grace be necessary to Repentance for they who deny sufficient Grace to accompany the outward Means of Repentance and assert an irresistible degree of God's Grace necessary to Repentance are forced to say that our Saviour here speaks of a meer External Repentance because if he spake of an inward and sincere Repentance then it must be granted that sufficient inward grace did accompany the Miracles that were wrought in Chorazin and Bethsaida to bring men to Repentance because what was afforded to them would have brought Tyre and Sidon to Repentance And that which would have effected a thing cannot be denyed to be sufficient so that unless our Saviour here speaks of a meer External Repentance either the outward Means of Repentance as Preaching and Miracles must be granted to be sufficient to bring men to Repentance without the inward Operation of God's Grace upon the Minds of Men or else a sufficient degree of God's Grace must be acknowledged to accompany the outward Means of Repentance Again if an irresistible degree of Grace be necessary to true Repentance it is plain Chorazin and Bethsaida had it not because they did not repent and yet without this Tyre and Sidon could not have sincerely repented therefore our Saviour here must speak of a meer External Repentance Thus some argue as they do likewise concerning the Repentance of
time I am heartily afraid that a very great part of Mankind do miscarry upon this confidence and are swallowed up in the gulf of Eternal Perdition with this Plank in their Arms. The common Custom is and I fear it is too common when the Physician hath given over his Patient then and not till then to send for the Minister not so much to enquire into the Man's condition and to give him suitable Advice as to Minister comfort and to speak Peace to him at a venture But let me tell you that herein you put an extream difficult task upon us in expecting that we should pour Wine and Oyl into the wound before it be searched and speak smooth and comfortable things to a Man that is but just brought to a sense of the long course of a lewd and wicked Life impenitently continued in Alas what comfort can we give to men in such a case We are loth to drive them to despair and yet we must not destroy them by presumption pity and good nature do strongly tempt us to make the best of their case and to give them all the little hopes which with any kind of Reason we can and God knows it is but very little that we can give to such Persons upon good ground for it all depends upon the degree and sincerity of their Repentance which God only knows and we can but guess at We can easily tell them what they ought to have done and what they should do if they were to live longer and what is the best that they can do in those straights into which they have brought themselves viz. to exercise as deep a Sorrow and Repentance for their sins as is possible and to cry mightily to God for Mercy in and through the Merit of our Blessed Saviour But how far this will be available in these Circumstances we cannot tell because we do not know whether if the Man had lived longer this Repentance and these Resolutions which he now declares of a better course would have been good And after all is done that can be done in so short a time and in such Circumstances of confusion and disorder as commonly attend dying Persons I doubt the result of all will be this that there is much more ground of fear than hope concerning them nay perhaps while we are pressing the dying sinner to Repentance and he is bungling about it he expires in great doubt and perplexity of mind what will become of him or if his Eyes be closed with more comfortable hopes of his condition the next time he opens them again he may find his fearful mistake like the rich Man in the Parable who when he was in hell lift up his eyes being in torment This is a very dismal and melancholy consideration and commands all men presently to repent and not to put off the main work of their lives to the end of them and the time of sickness and old Age. Let us not offer up a Carcass to God instead of a living and acceptable Sacrifice but let us turn to God in the days of our health and strength before the evil days come and the years draw nigh of which we shall say we have no pleasure in them before the Sun and the Moon and the Stars be darkned As Solomon elegantly expresseth it Eccl. 12.1 2. before all the Comforts of Life be gone before our Faculties be all ceased and spent before our Understandings be too weak and our Wills too strong our Understandings be too weak for consideration and the deliberate exercise of Repentance and our Wills too strong and stiff to be bent and bowed to it Let us not deceive our selves Heaven is not an Hospital made to receive all Sick and Aged Persons that can but put up a faint request to be admitted there no no they are never like to see the Kingdom of God who instead of seeking it in the first place make it their last refuge and retreat and when they find the Sentence of Death upon them only to avoid present Execution do bethink themselves of getting to Heaven and since there is no other Remedy are contented to Petition the great King and Judge of the World that they may be transported thither Upon all these Considerations let us use no delay in a matter of such mighty consequence to our eternal Happiness but let the counsel which was given to Nebuchadnezzar be acceptable to us let us Break off our sins by righteousness and our iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if so be it may be a lengthning of our tranquillity Repentance and Alms do well together let us break off our sins by righteousness and our iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor especially upon this great occasion which his Majesty's great Goodness to those distressed Strangers that have taken Sanctuary among us hath lately presented us withal remembring that we also are in the body and liable to the like sufferings and considering on the one hand that Gracious promise of our Lord Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy and on the other hand that terrible threatning in St. James He shall have Judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy To conclude from all that hath been said let us take up a present Resolution of a better course and enter immediately upon it to day whilst it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin O that men were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end And grant we beseech the Almighty God that we may all know and do in this our day the things which belong to our peace for thy mercy's sake in Jesus Christ To whom with thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen SERMON V. Serm. 5. The Shamefulness of Sin an Argument for Repentance The First Sermon on this Text. ROM VI. 21 22. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death But now being made free from sin and become Servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end Everlasting Life THERE are two Passions which do always in some Degree or other accompany a true Repentance viz. Sorrow and Shame for our Sins because these are necessary to engage men to a Resolution of making that change wherein Repentance does consist Vol. 8. For till we are heartily sorry for what we have done and ashamed of the evil of it it is not likely that we should ever come to a firm and steady purpose of forsaking our evil ways and betaking our selves to a better course And these two Passions of Sorrow and Shame for our Sins were wont anciently to be signified by those outward expressions of Humiliation and Repentance which we find so frequently mentioned in Scripture of being cloathed in Sackcloath as a testimony of our sorrow and mourning for our
and heinous Provocations of the Divine Majesty which many of us have been guilty of in the long course of a wicked Life together with the heavy Aggravations of our Sins by all the circumstances that can render them abominable and shameful not only in the Eye of God and Men but of our own Consciences likewise we have great reason to humble our selves before God in a penitent acknowledgment of them and every one of us to say with Job Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay mine hand upon my mouth I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes and with Ezra O my God! I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God for our iniquities are increased over our heads and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens And now O my God what shall we say after this for we have forsaken thy commandments and with holy Daniel We have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face Thus we should reproach and upbraid our selves in the Presence of that Holy God whom we have so often and so higly offended and against whom we have done as evil things as we could and say with the prodigal Son in the Parable Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son If we would thus take shame to our selves and humble our selves before God he would be merciful to us miserable Sinners he would take away all iniquity and receive us graciously and so soon as ever he saw us coming towards him would meet us with joy and embrace us in the Arms of his Mercy And then II. As we should be heartily ashamed of the past Errours and Miscarriages of our Lives so we should firmly resolve by God's Grace to do better for the future never to consent to Iniquity or to do any thing which we are convinc'd is contrary to our Duty and which will be matter of Shame to us when we come to look back upon it and make our Blood to rise in our Faces at the mention or intimation of it which will make us to sneak and hang down our heads when we are twitted and upbraided with it and which if it be not prevented by a timely Humiliation and Repentance will fill us with Horror and Amazement with Shame and Confusion of Face both at the Hour of Death and in the Day of Judgment So that when we look into our Lives and examine the Actions of them when we consider what we have done and what our Doings have deserved we should in a due sense of the great and manifold Miscarriages of our Lives and from a deep Sorrow and Shame and Detestation of our selves for them I say we should with that true Penitent described in Job take Words to our selves and say Surely it is meet to be said unto God I will not offend any more That which I know not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more And thus I have done with the second Inconvenience of a sinful and vicious Course of Life viz. that the reflection upon it afterwards causeth Shame What fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed SERMON VII Serm. 7. The final Issue of Sin an Argument for Repentance The Third Sermon on this Text. ROM VI. 21 22. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death But now being made free from sin and become Servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end Everlasting Life THESE words are a Comparison between an Holy and Virtuous and a Sinful and Vicious Course of Life and set before us the manifest Inconveniences of the one Vol. 8. and the manifold Advantages of the other I have enter'd into a Discourse upon the First of these Heads viz. The manifest Inconveniences of a sinful and vicious Course And the Text mentions these three I. That it is Unprofitable II. That the reflection upon it afterwards is matter of Shame These Two I have spoken largely to I shall now proceed to the III. And last Inconvenience which the Text mentions of a sinful and vicious Course of Life viz. That the final Issue and Consequence of these things is very dismal and miserable The end of those things is Death No Fruit then when ye did these things shame now that you come to reflect upon them and Misery and Death at the last There are indeed almost innumerable Considerations and Arguments to discourage and deter men from sin the Unreasonableness of it in it self the Injustice and Disloyalty and Ingratitude of it in respect to God the ill Example of it to others the Cruelty of it to our selves the Shame and Dishonour that attends it the Grief and Sorrow which it will cost us if ever we be brought to a due Sense of it the Trouble and Horror of a guilty Conscience that will perpetually haunt us but above all the miserable Event and sad Issue of a wicked Course of Life continued in and finally unrepented of The Temptations to sin may be alluring enough and look upon us with a smiling Countenance and the Commission may afford us a short and imperfect Pleasure but the Remembrance of it will certainly be bitter and the End of it miserable And this Consideration is of all others the most apt to work upon the generality of men especially upon the more obstinate and obdurate sort of sinners and those whom no other Arguments will penetrate that whatever the present Pleasure and Advantage of sin may be it will be Bitterness and Misery in the end The two former Inconvenieces of a sinful Course which I have lately discoursed of viz. That sin is Unprofitabte and that it is Shameful are very considerable and ought to be great Arguments against it to every sinner and considerate Man and yet how light are they and but as the very small dust upon the balance in comparison of that insupportable weight of Misery which will oppress the sinner at last Indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of Man that doth evil This this is the sting of all that the end of these things is death It is very usual in Scripture to express the greatest Happiness and the greatest Misery by Life and Death Life being the first and most desirable of all other Blessings because it is the Foundation of them and that which makes us capable of all the rest Hence we find in Scripture that all the Blessings of the Gospel are summ'd up in this one word John 20.31 These things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have Life through his Name 1 Joh. 4.9 In this was manifest the love of God towards us because God sent his only begotten