were the fathers or Ring-leaders of their Sect. But Sirs all sincere Christians are of one society and have but one master even Christ His sheep hear his voice and follow him for they know his voice But a stranger they will not follow but will flee from him for they know not the voice of strangers Joh. 10.4 5. So much for the fourth case that requireth such abundant circumspection that we be not insnared by the example of the multitude 5. The fifth is In case of men of excellent parts and learning and knowledge above others When many of that rank such as are accounted wise understanding judicious persons shall act sanfully and turn aside into crooked wayes then the common sort of people think they may warrantably tread in the same path when they have men of renown for knowledge to go before them Surely will they argue If there were any hurt in such things so many learned Doctors would not approve of them Shall we be so highly conceited of our selves as to think we are wiser than such great Scholars and Teachers of the word of God Herein seemeth to lie the force of the argument that was brought against the officers who durst not lay hands upon Christ because they took him for a Prophet for that never man spake like him Jo. 7.47 48 49. Then answered them the Pharisees are ye also deceived Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him But this people that knoweth not the law are cursed As if they had said do but observe Christs followers and you shall find that generally they are but a company of poor ignorant and illiterate people you have hardly one learned man amongst them that owneth him Do you think that if he were indeed the Messiah the Pharisees would oppose him who are men well skilled in the Law Would not the Rulers close with him will you be so proud and arrogant as to prefer your judgment before theirs To quicken you a little to be cautious in this respect there are four things worthy to be considered in this behalf 1. That the promises for discovering the will and mind of the Lord in reference to matters of everlasting concernment are not made to men of great parts and learning but to such as serve the Lord in simplicity and integrity of heart When a person is truly desirous to fear the name of God and maketh it his study and principal design to commend his conscience in his sight such a one though he be but of meaner parts and accomplishments is in a greater likelihood to be clearly instructed in the things concerning the kingdom of heaven * Nisi fidelium operum usus praecesserit doctrinae cognitio non apprehendetur Hil. in Ps 118. then the greatest scholars that are strangers to the sanctifying grace of the spirit Psal 25.12 What man is he that feareth the Lord Him he will teach in the way that he shall chuse And v. 14. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his covenant Mark it Sirs it is not much learning in the head but godly sincerity and the fear of the Lord in the heart that doth entitle us to these promises of divine teaching So that this is a poor argument of the goodness or justifiableness of any way because many great scholars and wise men walk in it Besides the Holy Ghost is express in this point that most wise men after the slesh are strangers unto the power of godliness and enemies to the way of salvation 1 Cor. 1.26 27. For you see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty Some there are of all sorts that are gathered into the kingdom of Christ for it is not the condition or state of life but the constitution or frame of the heart which is the hindrance unto salvation But there are not many of this sort namely of them that are learned and wise after the flesh The greatest number of such are usually adversaries to the truth See the words of our Saviour in his thanksgiving unto God Mat. 11.25 At that time Jesus answered and said I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes 2. Are they men of wisdom and understanding whose examples are pleaded in opposition to the commands of Jesus Christ But how shall it be known whether they are wise indeed All is not gold we say that makes a glittering shew so All is not true wisdom that carrieth the face of it and hath that name and title given to it They alone are truly wise who keep exactly close to the word of God and that dare not venture to do what is displeasing in his sight Whatsoever hath a tendency to carry a man in opposition to the word or to cause him to reject the law of the Lord of hosts is but the appearance and shew of wisdom it is indeed the greatest madness and folly There are two places of divine writ for the confirmation of this point worthy to be wrote on the tables of mens hearts as in letters of Gold and as with the pen of a Diamond that they may never be obliterated The first is that Deut. 4.5 6. Behold I have taught you statutes and judgments even as the Lord my God commanded me that ye should do so in the Land whither ye go to possesse it Keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations which shall hear all these statutes and say Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people By contempt of the word of Christ we provoke to indignation the God of infinite power against whom never man hardened himself and prospered And is it not perfect madness to ingage him to be our adversary It is a point of the highest wisdom to keep in with the most high and to get an interest in his favour Obedience to the statutes of God hath the promise of a blessing annexed to it and the contrary is attended with a curse that will secretly insinuate it self into all a mans enjoyments and eat out the comfort of them It is by the word of Christ you must be judged hereafter and sentenced to receive your everlasting portion And therefore it must needs be an act of the highest wisdom not to despise the word nor to set up the dictates of men above the word The other text you have Jer. 8.9 The wise men are ashamed they are dismayed and taken Lo they have rejected the word of the Lord and what wisdom is in them 3. God doth many times leave many learned and wise men unto
profit and good to break the Sabbath and to borrow now and then a point of conscience But in the upshot you will find it to be for your hurt and ruine We reckon poverty in the estate and sickness of body and outward disasters and calamities to be the main evils But alas they are nothing if laid in the ballance with sin That is the great evil in a fivefold respect 1. It is sin which hinders us in the enjoyment of God which is the chiefest good that doth put an obstacle in the way of the participation of his favour and the light of his countenance which is better than life it self Isa 59.1 2. Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear 'T is that which is a contempt of the divine Majesty who is an infinite and incomprehensible Being It is that which makes Jehovah to become our adversary who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords in whose hands our breath and our dayes and all our comforts are For Sirs God doth not abhor and cast off any of the children of men because they are poor or friendless or low in the world but because they are workers of iniquity Therefore his wrath is kindled against them and they suffer evil from him because they do evil against him Deut. 32.29 2. It is sin which murders and destroyeth the soul which is the principal part of man and ought chiefly to be regarded by him So Job calleth it Job 30.15 Terrours are turned upon me they pursue my soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my principal one as the wind In comparison of the soul all the riches of the earth are as nothing Mark 8.36 37. For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Now The more excellent the subject is upon which an evil falls the greater is the evil that falleth upon it And sin is that which is a plague to the soul and bringeth desolation upon the soul and murders the immortal part which all the men on earth are not able to kill Prov. 8.36 He that sinneth against me they are the words of Christ the infinite wisdom of God wrongeth his own soul all they that hate me love death 3. It is sin which maketh persons miserable for ever that renders them everlastingly wretched without cessation or end that doth cast them into that pit from whence there is no redemption Other evils have their period and determinate time of continuance and then they are removed from us or we shall be removed from them But now sin doth expose a man to eternal vengeance The guilt of the least transgression if laid upon the sinner would sink him unavoidably into the bottomless pit of destruction from whence there is no deliverance You read of it as the just guerdon and punishment of ignorance which many account so small a sin that they hope thereby to excuse all their other impieties 2 Thes 1.8 9. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 4. To commit sin is to do evil For that is the fountain evil the original and well-spring of all other evils whatsoever It is the evil of transgression that brings affliction upon mens persons and a curse into their families and estates and puts vanity and vexation into their creature-comforts and accommodations It is sin that lets in wars and commotions into kingdoms and burns up Towns and Cities and makes a Land desolate by turning a fruitful place into barrenness 'T is sin that bringeth diseases upon the body and filleth the spirit with bitterness and puts fear and horrour and astonishment into the heart that compasseth a person about with terrours on every side and at last carrieth him to the King of terrours Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned What is the source of all that wretchedness and misery that followeth the children of men continually at the heels See the answer returned by the Lord himself Jer. 13.22 And if thou say in thy heart Wherefore come these things upon me For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered and thy heels made bare Read Job 20. from v. 12. to the end 5. To commit wickedness is to do evil For sin in a right sense is the only evil and nothing but evil All other things are no further evil than they are contempered with sin and proceed from thence or have a tendency thereto The sorest afflictions and calamities have something of good in them As they come from the Lord and are the operation of his hands as they are domonstrations of his being and righteousness and means for the vindication of his holiness For the Lord is known by the judgments which he executeth But iniquity and transgression is purely evil nothing but evil and that which makes other things to be evil For the sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15.56 The bitterness of sickness is from sin and the poyson of all corrections and distresses is from thence Psal 107.17 18. Fools because of their transgressions and because of their iniquities are afflicted Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat and they draw near to the gates of death It is that which puts gall and wormwood into whatsoever we find made bitter unto us Jer. 23.10 11 12 14 15. Concl. 4. For the original of it whence it doth proceed All the evils which are done in the life of a sinner proceed from within out of the heart and flow from the native pravity and corruption of the Spirit When a person walketh in any sinful course he doth but as the spider weave a cursed web out of his own poysonous bowels At the first mans sinful and irregular actions did corrupt his nature and now our polluted nature doth transmit defilement into our actions We are not forced and compelled unto the practise of evil but our hearts encline and carry us thereunto Mar. 7.21.22 For from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts covetousness wickedness deceit lasciviousness an evil eye blasphemy pride foolishness all these evils come from within This is a point of great concernment to be studied and effectually pressed upon the conscience 1 That it may work in us an holy shame and self abhorrence in respect of actual transgressions and we may be induced to loath our selves in our own sight For my
119. v. 59. I thought on my waies and turned my feet unto thy testimonies So much for the first influence which the example of the multitude hath to lead into sin viz. By ministring an argument for the justification of sin 2. The example of a multitude is commonly a powerful inducement to the commission of sin By contributing to the extenuation and lessening of the evil of sin From hence persons will conclude that if an action be granted to be evil yet undoubtedly it is not so great an evil as some would perswade them surely it is but a small matter and of no heinous nature or else others would avoid it and it would not be so commonly embraced Thus Sirs if a man hath but slight and low apprehensions of the evil of sin he will never be stedfast and resolute in opposition against it he will soon be brought to a complyance with it As your thoughts of sin are so your carriage towards it in a measure will be If it be reckoned as a little evil men will never be at any great cost or make much adoe for the avoiding of it Now the consideration of the practise of a multitude that many walk in such a way doth hugely tend to the extenuation of the evil of it in a mans thoughts It is a difficult thing to keep up abhorring thoughts in the Soul of that which multitudes live in the practise of They will be ready to conclude that without controversy there is no great hurt in it nor any considerable danger or otherwise so many would not agree together therein Ezek. 8.17 Then he said unto me hast thou seen this O son of man It it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here Observe it was a general corruption and so accounted small in their eyes Is it a light thing q. d. It is in your estimation but a small matter Certainly you reckon it but a light and trivial thing little to be regarded And thus the people answered the prophet Jeremie when he laboured to set before them the greatness of their folly and wickedness they produce the general practise for it It is that which we have done we and our fathers our Kings and our Princes in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem Jer. 44. v. 7.17 To abate the force of this influence let us duly ponder and press upon our spirits these three particulars 1. Although all sins if considered comparatively are not equally heynous some being of lesser malignity and others of a crimson die yet there is no sin little in it self or that has but little evil in the nature of it It is an argument of a graceless heart that is an utter stranger to the spirit of regeneration to account any sin to be a small evil For hadst thou layn under the burden of thine iniquities and felt that smart and bitterness in the sense of sin which is the usual preparative and antecedent to a saving conversion it would rectifie thy thoughts in this respect thou wouldst account the guilt of the least sin to be an insupportable burden And indeed there is reason for it For the least transgression cannot be expiated at a lower rate then by the precious bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ as of a lamb without spot or blemish All the angels in heaven and all the treasures upon earth cannot make an attonement for the least offence against the Law of God The smallest sin is a contempt of the great King even of the Lord of hosts who is of infinite and unsearchable majesty and excellency You know the horridness of a fact is not only to be collected from the matter wherein it doth consist but principally from the object against whom it is committed That which is but a petty misdemeanor if against another is treason if done against a King Why Sirs every sin is a slighting of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords it is a rising up in rebellion against the sovereign possessour of heaven As Joseph argueth against the temptation Gen. 39.9 How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God So should you reason the case against conjunction with a multitude in any unjust way Though all the world be defiled with this or the other abomination yet I perceive it is rebellion against the * Omne peccatum est Deicidium incomprehensible God and how shall I dare to joyn in confederacy with them Isa 7.13 Heare ye now O house of David Is it a small thing for you to weary men but will ye weary my God also q. d. Can that be a light thing which is a despising of the Lord and an ecclipsing of his glory Is it a small matter that openeth the door of hell and makes the sinner liable to everlasting condemnation Why the wages of sin quatenus sin and therefore of the smallest transgression is death everlasting death and destruction as appeareth by its opposition to eternal life Rom. 6.23 2. This is so farre from lessening the evil of sin because it is generally practised that it is one aggravating circumstance of it whereby the danger is increased And therefore it should render us more watchful against it and cause us to be very cautious and circumspect least we be defiled therewith As with an infectious disease the more epidemical it is the more perillous and the greater care will persons take against the contagion I dare say that in a town where is the plague or pestilence the farther it spreads the more fearful would the inhabitants be O that men would tender the health of their souls according to the care they take of their bodies And that they were affected with spiritual evils and maladies as they are wont to be with temporal Then they would keep a strict watch against common abominations The Prophet speaks of it as an heightner of the guilt that it was like a spreading leprosie that went through the whole body of the Land Jer. 6.26 28. O daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thy self in ashes make thee mourning as for an only son most bitter lamentation for the spoiler shall come suddenly upon us What is the provocation whereby this sore evil is procured Why see v. 28. They are all grievous revolters walking with slanders they are brass and iron they are all corrupters And again Mal. 3.9 Ye are cursed with a curse i. e. you are certainly and dreadfully and terribly accursed for you have robbed me even this whole Nation 3. Is it a small matter as thou pleadest that is thus done against the Lord Why then the greater is thy contempt of his Majesty and the more inexcusable art thou in despising the Holy one of Israel Wilt thou prefer a trivial matter before the pleasing of God and the enjoyment of his favour This is a shrewd sign that thou wouldest not serve him in a greater How
the ground and himself in it as he was endeavouring to quench the fire He that could not burn in the cause of God was burnt under the just judgments of God The like may befal you in the case of reproach and revilings If you cannot bear them in the way of righteousness the Lord may deliver you over into the hands of the devil and to be led by your own hearts into some desperately wicked courses that you may suffer reproach as the devils Martyrs and such reproach as may stick by you for ever And this is none other than what God hath threatened upon such as despise commandments * See this expressly denounced against Zedekiah He was afraid of being mockt if he kept the word of the Lord and by his disobedience he should be made a Taunt and a by-word So that the evil he feared came upon him Jer. 38.19 20 21 22 23. that he will make them a reproach either by the execution of temporal or spiritual judgments Ezek. 5.14 15. Moreover I will make thee waste and a reproach among the Nations that are round about thee in the sight of all that pass by Jer. 23.40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten See also Jer. 29.18 19. So much for the fifth way how this temptation prevaileth 6. Sinners are soon perswaded to go down the stream with a multitude in sin Because otherwise they should be persecuted and opposed by them They are willing to live at ease and quiet and to sleep in a whole skin as we are wont to express it and therefore they dare not contradict the generality lest they should be set against by them and be reduced into sufferings under their hatred and malice Thus it wrought with those false teachers mentioned Gal. 6.12 As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh they constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the Cross of Christ Mark it The most of the Jews were eagerly set upon the retaining of circumcision and other ceremonies of the Mosaical paedagogy and they were apt to be violently bent against any that went about the abrogation of them Now these false teachers knew well enough that all such types were abolished by the death of Christ but they durst not own it still they preached up circumcision and forced it upon the practise of the converts at Galatia against the light and convictions of their own consciences What was the reason of it Why they knew that if they stiffly adhaered to the simplicity of the Gospel and waved the Mosaical ceremonies which most of the Jews were zealous for they should be persecuted by them And this was the only reason that induced them to comply with the multitude My brethren you have many that would willingly be the disciples of Christ and his followers as long as they may do it with safety without endangering their estates or lifes or their liberties by it But when they come to take up the Cross there they faulter As the rottenness and unsoundness the hypocrisie and unbelief of the heart is the fountain whence apostacy proceeds so the dayes of tribulation and distress are the time of discrimination when Apostates are wont to discover themselves They can well be contented to make a profession of godliness and to perform some of the external duties but they are not able to go through persecutions And therefore they keep all things fair with the multitude and walk in wayes of compliance with them lest if they followed truth and holiness too close at the heels it should strike out their teeth lest if they withdrew from the multitude they should be hated and persecuted by them For pray Sirs what 's the reason why the world hates and sets against the people of God Why It is for this very thing because they walk in a way by themselves and will not do as the rest of their neighbours do they separate themselves from the generality in their practise and walk more strictly and precisely and dare not allow themselves in such licentious courses wherein others live and so their lives are a practical condemnation of the others and as a corrosive to their consciences Joh. 15.19 If ye were of the world the world would love his own But because you are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Mark it If believers were of confederacy with the wicked if they could drink and revel and be vain and wanton as others are and did not take a different course by themselves they should be cherished and beloved as well as others but therefore they are hated and persecuted because they are a select company and have a peculiar way by themselves And to escape this hatred and persecution people are apt to joyn with the world and to walk according to their pattern and practise To abate the edge and take off the efficacy of this influence let me counsel you to be frequent in the meditation upon these three spiritual truths 1. That the everlasting wrath of God which is reserved as the portion of the wicked hereafter is an evil infinitely beyond all the tribulations and persecutions that can come upon the godly here So that if thou canst not bear some sharp afflictions for a time How wilt thou be able to lye under torments for ever If thou darest not walk in the wayes of holiness for fear of some trouble persecution from men How wilt thou stand under the wrath of God when he will glorifie his power in the destruction of his adversaries Why Sirs one of these will unavoidably befal you either you must live godly in Christ Jesus and then you will suffer persecution or else you must go down with the multitude into perdition either you must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven or everlastingly be sent into hell torments And can you dwell with everlasting burnings Are you able to stand before the devouring fire Lay these in the ballance together and see which is to be chosen Should not a man willingly undergo the greatest hardships upon earth rather than fal into the damnation of Hell See how pathetically our Saviour presseth this very point Mark 9. 43 44. If thy hand offend thee cut it off that is mortifie and keep under the most beloved corruption deny thy self in the dearest enjoyments thou hast willingly suffer and undergo the greatest troubles and the sorest distresses It is better for thee to enter into life maimed then having two hands to go into hell into the fire that shall never be quenched where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched 2. That even the inward peace and consolation of the spirit that is to be had in the ways of holiness is abundantly to be preferred before that outward quiet and safety which sinners promise themselves by
the Mosaical pedagogy and probably their deferting the Lords day Sabbath and adhering to the Jewish was one special part of their apostacy The first of these is plain to any understanding Christian that shall throughly study the whole scope and drift of the Epistle And I think we may very probably suppose the truth of the latter also What part of the old administration were they more likely to be zealous of than the Seventh day Sabbath in the observation whereof they had formerly been so excessively and rigorously superstitious Mat. 12.2 Mar. 3.2 And therefore it may seem consonant to the Apostles scope as to set forth the vanishing and disappearing of the legal oblations and sacrifices so to speak as here concerning the abrogation of their Sabbath and substitution of the Lords day in the room of it 2 The Holy Ghost speaketh here of a certain day of rest the celebration of a set determinate day and not of the whole season of the gospei indefinitely And what set determinate day is there that may be fitly assigned as the time of a believers rest but the Lords day See v. 7. Again he limiteth a certain day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saying in David to day after so long a time as it is said to day if ye will hear his voice hardon not your hearts And then it followeth thereupon v. 9. There remaineth therefore the celebration of a Sabbath 3 This determinate day of rest which the Apostle calleth the Sabbath that is to be kept is clearly to be meant of that day wherein the people of Christ meet together in the worship of God and provoke and quicken one another to hear the word of the Lord. For so it plainly appeareth from the 95. Psalm from which portion of Scripture the Apostles argument is taken and upon which his whole discourse of this matter is built See the whole entrance of the Psalm particularly the sixth and seventh verses O come let us worship and bow down Let us kneel before the Lord our maker For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand To day if ye will hear his voice It is of this day and the rest of it which the text I am opening is to bemeant And what day is that in the times of the gospel but the Christian Sabbath There is not to be met with any other day wherein the Saints can be supposed ordinarily to exhort and quicken each other unto the worship of God The other six dayes are appointed for labour 4 A believers personal rest into which he enters by faith was enjoyed by the Saints in the times of the old Testament For they were saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ even as we But the Apostle treateth here out of the words of David of a rest or Sabbath to be celebrated a long time after even in the daies of the New Testament for that Psalm is a prophesy of evangelical dispensations As it is said in David to day after so long a time By the same reason that the Apostle proveth that this day of rest must not be meant of the Jewish Sabbath because that was instituted from the beginning of the world Heb. 4.3 We may prove it is not meant primarily of a believers personal rest by faith because that was enjoyed by the Saints in all ages of the Church before the dayes of David But here he prophecieth of a priviledg that was to be conferred on the people of Christ a long time after 5 The Apostle is to be understood of the celebration of such a Sabbath as is to be kept upon the like ground in reference to the Lord Christs ceasing from his work as the Seventh dayes Sabbath was in relation to Gods ceasing from his work For so it is in v. 10. which I mentioned For he that is entred into his rest that is the Lord Jesus Christ our Redeemer hath ceased from his work as God did from his own And therefore there remaineth a Sabbath for Christians to cefebrate I know the words are usually understood of a Believers ceasing from the works of sin But let it be well considered that the Holy Ghost speaketh of such a ceasing as Gods was when the creation was finished He rested the seventh day and was refreshed he looked on every thing that he made and beheld it was very good entirely good nothing but Good This is justly attributable unto Christs work of redemption but cannot so fitly be applyed unto the Saints When they cease from sin behold it appeareth unto them exceeding evil and bitter and they are filled thereupon with godly shame and self abhorrence Ezek. 36.26 29 31. Besides the Apostle speaketh afterwards of Christs passing into the heavens as relating to somewhat that had been before delivered And unto what can it refer but unto his entring into his rest which includes his passing into the heavens So it followeth v. 14. Seeing then that we have a great high Priest that is passed into the heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fest our profession Mark it is the same person that is said to have passed into the heavens v. 14. that is spoken of as entring into his rest v. 10. For seeing that he is passed into the heavens And he that is entred into his rest is the person that hath ceased from his work as God did from his own And upon this account there remaineth the celebration of a Sabbath unto the people †See Carter on the Covenant with Abraham page 6 7 c. And Cotton on singing of Psalms p. 10 11. From whom I have borrowed much of this matter of God Further yet the Holy Ghost seemeth plainly to distinguish in that 10. v. between the works of redemption which are ascribed to the Son and the works of Creation which are peculiarly attributed to the Father and are therefore called his own works as the Text is to be rendred * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A believer upon his conversion is delivered indeed from the dominion and power of sin but not wholly freed from all remainders of pollution still there is a Law in his members warring against the Law of his mind and leading him often captive to the performance of his works even to manifold sins through infirmity So that it cannot so fully be said of a Christian whilst in the body that he hath ceased from his works But of our Lord Jesus Christ it is exactly verified who upon his rising from the dead came forth as a victor from the conquest which he made and entred into his state of exaltation 6 The Psalmist treating of this day of rest which the Apostle referreth to doth instance in most of the Solemn parts of worship which are to be discharged on the Sabbath 1. Singing of Psalms Psal 95.1 2. 2. Prayer v. 6.3 Hearing the word which implyeth the Preaching of the word v. 7 8. All to be
consideration of a multitude may carry some stroke with men as to the mitigating or with-holding the punishment deserved yet it is of no validity whatsoever to stave off the execution of the vengeance of God or to abate the severity of his proceedings For he is of infinite power and everlastingly blessed in the enjoyment of himself Indeed men are wont to forbear the executing the rigour of the Law when a multitude offend together or at most they punish but some for an example and terrour to the rest And what is the reason of it Why possibly it may be dangerous to provoke many thousands by the rigour of the law and may force them to run upon desperate courses Perhaps they to whom the administration of justice is committed have not power to bring under the whole body of a rebellion without using lenitives and mildness towards some and ingaging for their security and indemnity Or in some cases the common-wealth would be impaired and a Nation or Kingdom dispenpled if all that have their hand in a rebellion should be cut off together But alas what are these things in reference to the God of heaven Is there any thing too hard for the Lord Is it not as easie for him to cut off many as few Doth he stand in need of your service that he should spare you out of respect to his own advantage Why man All thy service and homage doth not extend unto the Lord. He hath thousand thousands ministring unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand attending upon him He can bring glory to himself in thine utter extirpation and destruction And see what he hath said Psal 9.17 The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God So that if a whole Kingdom or Countrey nay if many people and Countreys conspire together in sin the Lord will not spare them but will bind them in bundles together and cast them into the furnace of fire So in that dreadful parable of the boiling pot Ezek. 24.6 Wo to the bloody City to the pot whose scum is therein and whose scum is not not gone out of it bring it out piece by piece let no lot fall upon it It is as much as if God had said They are universally corrupted and I will destroy them all I will not have compassion on any one of them It is spoken in allusion to the practise of Commanders in war when Souldiers mutiny they do not wont to cut off a whole legion or regiment but only some are made exemplary and to that end they used to câ—st lots who should die and which of them should be spared and the like lottery was used when captives were taken for the saving of some and putting others to the sword Well but saith the Lord of Hosts I will deal with these rebels after another rate I will utterly consume them without exemption of any There shall no lot fall upon them And study well that Scripture which is peculiarly designed to overthrow this ground of presumption Prov. 11.21 Though hand joyn in hand the wicked shall not be unpunished i. e. Though sinners strengthen themselves by mutual counsels and combinations and joyn together in parties for the doing of evil yet it shall not stand them in stead The God of heaven will break in upon them in his fury and sweep them away with the besom of destraction He will pull them out piece-meal one after another and there shall none of them escape And if you do not see this alwayes executed visibly in signal outward judgments yet you must remember there are spiritual plagues poured out upon the wicked here which are the forest of judgments and that the wicked are reserved unto the day of destruction and shall be brought forth to the day of wraths 2. The examples of the judgments of God that are upon record in the word may abundantly suffice to shew the vanity of this kind of reasoning When the greatest numbers have conspired to reject his word and to trample upon his glory what hath been the manner of his dealing with them Why He hath come down in the heighth of indignation against them and set them forth as Paradeigmes or publike examples of his justice that others might be induced to take warning Look into the wilderness when the people did joyn themselves to Baal Peor and did eat the sacrifices of the dead Psal 106.28 i. e. when they did partake of the worship that was tendered to Idols which are but dead Gods which never had any reality of being and forsook Jehovah who is the living and true God when they were sharers with Idolaters in their offerings or by the sacrifices of the dead you may understand the funeral banquets which amongst Idolatrous Nations were used by way of solemn parentation to the dead You will find that this idolatry was a spreading corruption multitudes were defiled with it And were they delivered because of their multitude Why consult the History Num. 25. The plague brake in amongst them and there dyed in one day three and twenty thousand and afterwards a thousand more And this instance of severity is recorded for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come 1 Cor. 10.8 11. Let us look a little higher into the case of Sodom and Gomorrha Admah and Zeboim the inhabitants of which Cities were a great company and they were in confederacy together in sin both old and young all the people from every quarter And were they spared because they were many See Gen. 19.24 25. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven And he overthrew those Cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the Cities and that which grew upon the ground In the old world there was a numerous multitude and all flesh had corrupted their way and filled the earth with violence And were they exempted from punishment upon the account of their numbers Indeed the Lord spared them for a time and his long-suffering waited expecting their repentance but at length he brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly The fallen angels were a very comprehensive body of glorious creatures and yet when they kept not their first estate but left their own habitationp God hath reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day But you will say what are these examples unto us We hope the Lord will not be so severe now in the days of the Gospel Mark therefore how the Apostle Peter doth argue from this Topick 2 Pet. 2.4 5 6 9. If God spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down into hell c. and spared not the old world c. and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow making them an ensample to those that after should live ungodly The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to
in the imagination of mine heart to adde drunkeness to thirst As if the sinner should have said as carnal people in our dayes are wont to doe Do you think Heaven was appointed only for a company of Puritans that make more Scruples than they need Why may not a man take his fill of pleasures upon earth and yet come to the kingdom of heaven as well as others surely God never intended to tye us up in such narrow bounds as these Strait-lac't Preachers would perswade us Come let us fill our selves with strong drink and take our freedom whilst we may and yet our souls shall do as well as theirs If you would see the farther workings of this cursed and Hellish principle consult Psal 10.3 Isa 28.14 15. And Jer. 5.12.13 My beloved if you will keep your selves unspotted from the world great care must be taken that you give not the least reception or entertainment unto these devilish dictates For if once such libertine thoughts do but enter into your heads they will quickly fall down as a mighty Torrent upon your hearts and carry you headlong to all excess of riot As the first point of wisdom is to pitch upon the right end So the next is to take care of electing and closing with the sure and proper means for compassing that end If you fancy to your selves an easy way to salvation you do thereby tempt the tempter to lead you in the broad way to destruction Your spirits are thereby as a City without gates or walls open to all the inroades of that wicked one and of wicked men that are his instruments And therefore to Antidote your souls against this Poysonous principle let these three contrary principles sink deep within you 1. That the Holy Ghost is expresse concerning it that the way of salvation is a narrow and difficult way and that there are but few of those that sit under the teachings of the word of God that will arrive with safety at the kingdom of heaven Mark it I say these are truths which are frequently inculcated and very clearly asserted They are not dark notions and conclusions that are pretended to be drawn by far-fetcht consequences from the scripture but they are delivered so plainly that there is no way left for evading the force of them Mat. 7.13 14. Enter ye in at the straitgate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat Because strait is the gate or how strait is the gate amd narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Not only the way of holiness in the utmost extent of it is a difficult way but the way that leadeth unto life such holiness as is of absolute necessity to conduct a sinner to salvation And they are but an handful in comparison that walk in it But this may be meant will the carnal professour say in relation to Heathens and Infidels and gross Idolaters that worship a false God and never had the knowledg of a Mediatour We are Christians and members of the Church and hear the word of the Lord. Se therefore what our Saviour saith in another place Mat. 22.14 For many are called but few are chosen When are sinners externally called by a common vocation but when the word of God sounds in their eares inviting them to repentance and the Spirit of God deals by his motions with their hearts admonishing and perswading them to come unto Christ that they may be saved And few of this sort attain to eternal life Look into the old world and there were but eight persons saved from the deluge whereof there was one at least an hypocrite and the rest of the world were swept away not only with the besom of temporal destruction but into the pit of eternal perdition Consider the state of Sodom and there could not be found ten righteous persons in that populous City But least you should say that these were professed Atheists and Infidels and so the case not parallel with such as are called the people of God Let us therefore make inspection into the body of Israel when Elias made intercession to the Lord against them who thought that only himself had been left alone faithful unto Jehovah And pray what was the answer of God unto him See Rom. 11.4 I have reserved to my self seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal Mark it but seven thousand in the whole kingdom of Israel that consisted of ten of the Tribes We read of eleven hundred and threescore thousand mighty men of valour at one time in the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin besides the souldiers that kept the garisons Now if you should reckon proportionably concerning the ten tribes and make but a reasonable computation of the rest of the people men and women What were seven thousand in respect of the whole What an inconsiderable pittance scarcely one of a thousand However the case is plain there are but few in comparison that hear the word of the Lord that will come to the state of blessedness in the enjoyment of the Lord. And to bring this matter to an head if the way to Heaven were easy how comes it to pass that such multitudes perish If men might be saved at a cheap rate without strictness and diligence whence is it that the greatest number fall short of salvation If the careless and sensual are in the way to heaven who are the multitude in the visible Church that Christ tells us shall be sent into the chains of darkness Do not you tremble when you meet with such passages in the Bible I am afraid Sirs you dare not seriously study and meditate upon such scripture-truths least they should make your hearts to ake and awaken you out of your golden dreams 2. Though there are degrees of grace and different measures of holiness in the Saints and servants of God and many persons that are saved never attained to that stature and pitch of godliness in this life at which some have arrived Yet there are such things of absolute and indispensable necessity to salvation and to evidence that you are partakers of saving grace in the smallest degree that will sufficiently manifest that Heaven is not to be got without much pains and diligence in the pursuance of it Mat. 11.12 The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force There is no geting into that City except you storm it unless you vehemently strive to lay hold upon it Lazy wishings and wouldings will never bring you thither Lukewarmness and slothfulness will certainly fall short of it The bare external and superficial performance of some duties whilst in other things you take liberty to indulg the flesh will undoubtedly leave you still in the state of Damnation what ever fond conceits you may have of the contrary Let us lightly pass over the mention of some particulars