Lice and Frogs creeping up and down our Chambers Were our heads and hearts possest by this substantial truth we should be ashamed to think what we shall be ashamed to own at the last day 5. Keep a constant watch over your hearts Psal 141.3 David desires God to set a watch before the door of his lips much more should we desire that God would keep the door of our hearts We should have grace stand Sentinel there especially for words have an outward bridle they may disgrace a man and impair his interest and credit but thoughts are unknown if undiscovered by words If a man knew what time the Thief would come to rob him he would watch We know we have Thieves within us to steal away our hearts therefore when they are so near us we should watch against a surprize and the more carefully because they are so extraordinary sudden in their rise and quick in their motion Our minds are like idle School-Boys that will be frisking from one place to another if the Master's back be turned and playing instead of learning Let a strict hand be kept over our affections those wild beasts within us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato because they many times force the understanding to pass a judgment according to their pleasure not its own sentiment Young men should be most intent upon their guard because their fancies gather vigor from their youthful heat which fires a world of squibs in a day which mad-men and those which have hot diseases are subject to because of the excessive inflammation of their brains and partly because they are not sprung up to a maturity of knowledge which would breed and foster better thoughts and discover the plausible pretences of vain affections There are particular seasons wherein we must double our guard as when Incentives are present that may set some inward corruption on a flame Timothy's Office was to exhort younger as well as elder women 1 Tim. 5.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Apostle wisheth him to do it with all purity or chastity that a temptation lying in ambush for him might not take his thoughts and affections unguarded Engage thy diligence more at solitary times and in the night wherein freedom from business gives an opportunity to an unsanctified imagination to conjure up a thousand evil spirits whence perhaps it is that the Psalmist tells us God had tryed him in the night and found him holy Psal 17.3 Gen. 19.30 Cellulam mearum cogitationum pertimescebam Hieron The solitary Cave tainted Lot with Incest who had preserved himself fresh in the midst of the salt lusts of Sodom In ill company wherein we may be occasionally cast there is need of an exacter observation of our hearts lest corrupt steams which rise from them as vapours from Lakes and Minerals being breath'd in by us may tincture our spirits or as those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as Physicians tell us exhaling from consumptive persons do by inspiration steal into our blood and convey a contagion to us And though above all keepings and watchings we are to keep and watch our hearts because out of them are the issues of life Prov. 4.23 yet we must walk the rounds about our senses and members of the body as the wise man there adviseth v. 24. the mouth which utters wickedness the eyes v. 25. which are Brokers to make bargains for the heart and v. 26. the feet which are Agents to run on the errands of sin And the rather must we watch over our senses because we are naturally more ready to follow the motions of them as having had a longer acquaintance and familiarity with them before we grew up to the use of reason Plotinus describes thoughts thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ennead 1. lib. Cor oculi sunt proxenetae peccati Besides most of our thoughts creep in first at the windows of sense The Eye and the Ear robb'd Eve of original righteousness and the Eye rifled David both of his Justice and Chastity If the Eyes behold strange women the heart will utter perverse things Prov. 23.33 Perverse thoughts will sparkle from a rolling Eye Revel-rout is usual where there is a negligent Government He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a City that is broken down and without walls †Prov. 25.28 where any Thieves may go in and out at pleasure 3. The third sort of directions are for the ordering of evil thoughts when they do intrude and 1. Examine them Look often into your heart to see what it is doing and what thoughts you find dabling in it call to an account enquire what business they have what their errand and design is Psal 42.11 Why art thou disquieted O my soul whence they come and whither they tend David askt his soul the reason of its troubled thoughts so ask thy heart the reason why it entertains such ill company and by what authority they come there and leave not chiding till thou hast put it to the blush Bring every thought to the test of the Word Asaph had envious thoughts at the prosperity of the wicked Psal 73.2 3. which had almost tript him up and laid him on his back And these had blown up Atheistical thoughts that God did not much regard whether his commands were kept or no as though God had untied the link between duty and reward and the breach of his laws were the readiest means to a favourable recompence v. 13. I have cleansed my hands in vain But when he weighed things in the ballance of the sanctuary by the holy rules of God's patience and Justice v. 17. He sees the brutishness of his former conceits v 22. So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee and v. 25. he makes an improvement of them to excite his desire for God and delight in Him Let us compare our thoughts with Scripture-rules Comparing spiritual things with spiritual is the way to understand them comparing spiritual sins with spiritual commands is the way to know them and comparing spiritual vices with spiritual graces is the way to loath them Take not then any thing upon trust from a crazy fancy nor without a scrutiny believe that faculty whereby dogs dream and animals perform their natural exploits 2. Check them at the first appearance If they bear upon them a palpable mark of sin bestow not upon them the honour of an examination If the leprosie appear in their foreheads thrust them as the Priests did Vzziah out of the Temple or as David answered his wicked sollicitors Psal 119.115 Depart from me ye evil doers for I will keep the commandments of my God Though we cannot hinder them from haunting us yet we may from lodging in us The very sparkling of an abominable motion in our hearts is as little to be look'd upon as the colour of wine in a glass by a man inclined to drunkenness Quench them instantly as
that Army as some think is uncertain And every man a slaughter-weapon in his hand A Hammer of destruction an Instrument of death the word seems to signifie a weapon much like a Pole-ax And one of them clothed with Linnen with a Writers Ink-horn by his side Christ say the Ancients and so they understood it before and in Hierom's time who appears here in his Priestly habit a Linnen garment being the Vestment of the Priests Levit. 16.4 White is an Emblem of Peace Christ seals his People with his Spirit the Spirit of Peace Calvin rejects not this Interpretation but rather understands it of an Angel whom God commissioned to secure his People in this destroying Judgment And indeed Angels have often appear'd in the form of men and clothed with Linnen as to Daniel Dan. 10.5 Dan. 12.6 7. Christ's Royal Power is founded upon his Priestly Office which is the ground of all the spiritual and temporal salvation Believers have from God Ink-horn The word is so translated Though the word say some signifies a Table such as they then used to write upon with a Pen of Iron Or rather it signifies a case to put those Pens in wherewith they wrote And they went and stood beside the brazen Altar 'T is uncertain whether this respects the original cause of their punishment viz. Their offering Sacrifices to their Idols upon that Altar which was consecrated to the Service of God Or else respects the Sacrifices of vengeance those were instrumentally to offer to God's Justice The Judicial punishment of God's Enemies is called a Sacrifice in Scripture Isa 34.6 A Sacrifice in Bozrah Jer. 46.10 God's Day of Vengeance is called God's Sacrifice in the North Country Observe 1. With what a small number if God please can he destroy a city or nation But six mentioned Almightiness needs not great numbers to effect his will no not a man since he can do it by his immediate hand and command judgment in a trice 2. How quick are Gods creatures to obey his call for the punishment of a rebellious people He calls those six men and they presently appear ready to execute Gods pleasure 3. God doth not bring judgments on a people till their wickedness hath overgrown the goodness of his own Children Six to destroy But one to preserve a Sixfold work of Judgment to one of preservation intimating that there were six bad to one good in the City 4. The security of Gods people in this world as well as that to come depends upon the priestly office of Christ v. 3. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the Cherub whereupon he was to the threshold of the house The glory of God which was in the Propitiatory above the Cherubims went from one Cherub to another till it came to the threshold as birds that are leaving their nests leap from one branch to another till they fly quite away Observe 1. God is not fixed to any one place He hath his temple among his people discovers himself in his Ordinances but upon provocations departs The glory of God and his Ordinances are not entayled upon any nation longer than they walk worthy of them 2. The glory of Gods Ordinances is obscured among a people before judgments come upon them The glory of God went up from the Cherub I will take away the hedge of my vineyard and it shall be eaten up and break down the wall thereof and it shall be troden down Isa 5.5 The Ordinances of God are understood by some interpreters to be the hedge and wall of a People when God takes away the Hedge the breach is made wide for every wild beast to enter and tread it down The presence of God in his Ordinances the presence of God in his providences is the hedge of a people The Temple is forsaken by God and then polluted in judgment by men v. 7. God then comes to the man clothed with linnen that had the Writers inkhorn by his side said unto him Go thorow the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof v. 4. And v. 5. He commands the executioners of his wrath to go after him smite without any pity both small and great beginning at his Sanctuary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Interpreters trouble themselves much what this mark should be and tell us from Origen that a believing Jew told him the ancient Samaritan letter called Tau was written like a cross But that is a fancy the ancient Samaritan letter being the same with the Phaenician was not writ in that form Vossius de Arte Grammar l. 1. c. Some say it was the law because the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the law begins with that letter to shew that such were to be marked that were devoted to the observance of the law Markt they were saith Calvin with a Tau because that being the last letter in the Alphabet shews that the people of God are of the lowest account among men and the off-scouring of the world ת being the first letter of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vives noted the preservation of them On the foreheads * Grotius Alluding to the custom of the Eastern countries to mark their Servants on the foreheads with the names of their masters * Oecolampad Not on their visible foreheads but on their invisible consciences the conscience is the forehead of the Soul As eminent in the heart as a forehead in the body The bloud of Christ upon the conscience is the best mark of distinction as the blood of the paschal Lamb upon the posts was the mark whereby the Israelites were discerned from the Aegyptians and the edge of the Angels destroying sword diverted from them It was a mark of a special providence of God The destroying Judgments were to follow the Sealing Angel and not touch those that were markt by him on the forehead Observe 1. All judgments have their commissions from God whom to touch whom to overthrow God doth not strike at random The man in the linnen garment was to bridle the Chaldeans direct their Swords to the right objects God overpowers the natural inclinations of all his creatures whom he appoints executioners God hath a hook in the nostrils of Leviathan nothing can be done without the leave of providence man forms the weapons God gives the edge and directs the stroak 2. In the highest fury and vengeance God hath reserves of mercy for his own people Angels are appointed to be preservers of his children in the midst of the destroying of a people Invisible Angels are joyned with visible enemies to conduct and govern their motions according to the Command of their great General God's Judgments are dispensed with greater kindness to his People than desires to take vengeance upon his Enemies He hath a heart of Mercy as well as a hand of Justice
Africa have been added to her Empire her Progeny shall be hereafter as numerous as it hath been when the devices of Antichrist shall be more seen and perceived they will be more nauseated and many with Ephraim shall say What have I to do any more with Idols Second thing That God has hitherto establisht Sion 1. 'T is testified by its present standing when other Empires have sunk by Age or violence God hath promised the stability and eminency of the Mountain of the Lord's house above all the Mountains the strongest Power and most compacted Empires of the world sometimes signified to us by that title Isa 2.2 And in the midst of his destroying Plagues and his milder Anger with the Church she hath a Charter of security Jer. 30.11 Though I make a full end of all Nations yet will I not make an end of thee Further the reasons why Kingdoms and Nations are pull'd up by the roots and utterly wasted is not only because they are inveterate enemies but refuse her easie chains and decline her service Isa 60.12 The Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish yea those Nations shall be utterly wasted The warrant for the execution of such is as firmly sealed by Heaven as the Patent for the Churches preservation 't is repeated with an Emphasis The persecuted Church hath still been lifted up when the Assyrian Persian and Greek Monarchies have fallen in pieces and left no footsteps of their Grandeur The prosperity of worldly Kingdoms is no better than a fire of straw that blazeth and vanisheth it hath but the brittle foundation of humane Policy and an establishment by a temporary Providence the everlasting Covenant and the Basis of Divine Truth and Love cannot be claimed by any but the Church not a Kingdom can be pitched upon in all the Records of History that hath maintain'd its standing triumphed over its enemies and subsisted at such a rate and by unusual and unheard of Methods as the Church hath done Those that have been best guarded by Laws hedg'd in with the best Methods of Government and arm'd with a strong power to protect them have found something or other rising from their own bowels or their enemies Power to procure their dissolution But the Church though dasht against so many Rocks has yet floated above the deluge of those Commotions that have sunk other Societies The Kings of the world could never yet boast of a full Conquest of her or brag that she hath been subjected to the same condition with themselves she hath born up her head in the midst of earthly Revolutions and met with her preservation or resurrection where carnal Interests have found their Funeral Those that have set their feet upon the Churches breasts or spilt her blood have found their poison where they imagin'd they should find their safety The Babylonish Empire which was God's Rod for the correcting his People saw her self in the chains of her Enemies that night she had been sacrilegiously carouzing healths in the sacred Vessels of the Temple Dan. 5.3 30. And the Jews enjoy'd a Deliverer where the Babylonians felt the force of a Conquerour Many such fatal Periods may be reckoned up both in sacred and humane story either for not protecting or persecuting that which is so dear to the Highest who hath establisht her 2. No Society but the Church ever subsisted in the midst of a multitude of Enemies Has she not been like a little Flock in the midst of many Wolves which though they suckt the blood of some yet could never reach the head or heart of the whole The Devil hath aâ—tackt her without vanquishing her shaken her without ruining her The biting of the Serpent according to the ancient promise may bruise the heel but not the head and make an incurable wound in the Mystical Body She hath been preserved in a hating world in spight of the enmity of it by a Divine Wisdom that hath not regulated it self by the Methods of flesh and blood His feeding the Israelites in the wilderness was a figure of what he would do to his Church and he hath accomplisht it to the Gospel-Church as really as he did to the ancient Israel While she hath been in a wilderness these 1200 years and I hope somewhat upwards she hath not wanted her Manna nor her Rock she hath been fed in her straits and preserved in her combates and as Christ reigns so the Church lives and hath her Table spread in the midst of her Enemies What is 1100 years continuance of the Venetian Government to so many thousand years preservation of the Church in the midst of Atheism Paganism Antichristianism ever since it was first born and nurst in Adam's Family and this hath been when her friends have forsaken her when her enemies have been confident of her ruine when her self hath expected little else than destruction when she hath thought sometimes in her straits her God ignorant of her when Hell hath poured out a flood the carnal Earth hath sometimes found it their Interest to help her though their enmity were irreconcileable against her Rev. 12.16 The subtilty and power of her Enemies that have found success in their other projects have met with an unforeseen baffle when they have armed against her Men of the greatest abilities have proved fools when they have exercised their wit against her Achitophel's wisdom was great when on David's side and changed to folly when he shifted sides against him A secret blast hath been upon the Projects of men when they have turned against her upon secular Interests In the greatest Judgments which have come and shall come upon the world when wonders shall be shewn in the Heavens and in the Earth blood fire and pillars of smoke when the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood Joel 2.30 31. yet God will have a Mount Sion and Jerusalem Some that call upon his Name v. 32. Not the malice of her enemies shall impair her because of God's Power nor the common Judgments of the world under which others sink shall extinguish her because of God's Truth v. 32. As the Lord hath said Whence comes all this but from God's having been her dwelling-place in all generations Psal 90.1 He was so to her from the time of Abraham to the introduction of his posterity into Canaan he hath sheltred her as an house doth an Inhabitant or the Ark did Noah in the midst of many waters In all generations Sion hath been impregnable for he that is her dwelling-place hath formed the Mountains and from everlasting to everlasting is only God v. 2. And though one generation pass and another comes he is the same dwelling-place and never out of repair never will want repair and therefore it is an astonishment that the Devil after so long an experience should be such a fool as to engage in new attempts when he hath found so little success in his former and hath had so many
dream they could scarce believe they were freed when the Enemy felt himself punish'd In all other Plagues God sent Moses as an Herauld with warning to Pharaoh but in this God surprised him and hurried him to destruction without giving him any caution Like chaff that the Tempest carrieth away and is seen no more Job 21.18 So shall the Plagues of spiritual Aegypt come in one day Rev. 18.8 yea in one hour v. 17. And the Church shall be like a Lilly which by the assistance of the Dew flourisheth in the morning when over night it looked as if it were withered 2. Magnificently Sometimes in deliverance God puts the frame of nature in confusion He melts the mountains cleaves the vallies as wax before the fire and as waters poured down a steep place Mic. 1.4 i. e. He wasts the strength and riches of his enemies when he comes to judge When he appears in the generation of the righteous he shall appear in such glory as to make the adversaries in great fear and strike a terrour into them Psal 14.5 God will perform it in a prodigious and unusual way God might have taken off the wheels of the Aegyptian Chariots before they had entred the gap of the Sea and hindred them from approaching so near his beloved people he might have afflicted their hands with the palsy and rendred them uncapable to manage their weapons or might have sent a spirit of aemulation among them and made them sheath their swords in one anothers bowels But though this had secured his people it would not have rendred his operation so illustrious as the making that which was a means of his peoples security to be his Enemies destruction and the waters at once Indulgent to the Israelites and severe to the Aegyptians He magnifies his Judgments and mercies by one and the same stroak and drowns the Enemies in the Sea whereby he delivers the Israelites So he preserved Daniel in the midst of those Lions which devoured his accusers The more contrary things are to an eye of reason the fitter subjects they are for the exaltation of God As Christ the head so the Church the body is raised out of the grave by the glory of God the Father Rom. 6.4 His right hand shall find his enemies Psal 21.8 his right hand shall teach him terrible things Psa 45.4 Then shall he come with a shout as one refreshed with wine recruited with new Spirits and risen from sleep Psa 78.65 He calls upon all creatures to be assistant to Cyrus in the design of his peoples deliverance Isa 45.8 He will perfect it by a way of creation I have created righteousness to deliverance with the manifestation of a creative power he makes things serve against their natural order appointed by God Thus when God shall appear for the final overthrow of spiritual Aegypt he shall come with Voices Thunders and Lightnings an earthquake out of the temple and appear as magnificently in the garb of a Judge as he did on Sinai in that of a Law-giver Rev. 16.19 and make the Ten horns which were the support of the beast to be the Instruments of her desolation Rev. 17.16 3. Severely They sank to the bottom like lead in the mighty waters God sends out the greatest Judgments against those that deal sharply with his people greater than against any other part of the world Zac. 6.6 The black horses the instrument of the execution of his Anger were sent towards Babylon where his people were in Captivity but the bay horses of a mixt colour noting a mixture of Mercy and Judgments are sent towards other parts of the world to walk not to run signifying the patience of God to those parts which had not yet opprest his people God deals not so smartly with those as with them that are Enemies to Israel In such concerns he answers his people by terrible things in righteousness When he appears as a God of Salvation to his people he appears terrible in his righteousness to his Enemies Psa 65.5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us O God of our Salvation His Judgments shall be as terrible as they are righteous The executioners of his vengeance ride upon horses to shew their readiness to any warlike ingagement upon red horses of a bloody colour to shew the severity of their commission against the Enemies of God Zac. 1.8 He will pay all arrears together that they shall be forced to say God is true to the word of his threatning as well as that of his promise As the Amalekites in Samuel's time payed the scores of their Ancestors in the time of the Israelites travel through the wilderness 1 Sam. 15.2 I remember that which Amalek did to Israel how he laid wait for him in the way when they came up from Aegypt So when God reckons with Babylon for all the bloud of the Saints Prophets Rev. 18.20 The bloud of all the Prophets and Saints that were slain upon the earth shall be found upon her skirts and avenged on her and gives unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath all that she hath done shall come into his remembrance Rev. 16.19 And how severe it shall be is exprest Rev. 14.19 20. she shall be cast into the great wine-press of the wrath of God as grapes bruised with the greatest strength and crushed in pieces both skin stones And to express it more sensibly to our understandings he speaks of the flowing of the bloud out of the wine-press unto the horse bridles by the space of a 1000 and 600 furlongs two hundred miles not that we should understand it literally but the Spirit of God is so particular in describing the height of the deluge of bloud to the bridles of the horses the length of the floud to the space of two hundred Miles to set before our apprehension the severity of the wrath that shall be poured out upon them And as God never repented of his Judgments upon Aegypt so never will he of those which are to come upon Babylon 4. Vniversally and therefore severely The horse and the rider did God cast into the Sea the Chariots the Host and the chosen Captains were drowned there Exod. 15.1 4. The waters covered the Enemy there was not one of them left Psa 60.11 Exod. 14.28 Not a messenger to carry back the news their floating bodies and wracks were the first that gave notice of the defeat to their remaining countrymen God throws off all tenderness his bowels are silent he strikes like a wrathful Enemy lanceth not like a tender Chyrurgion so shall it be with their partners in their sins every man that worships the Beast and his Image shall drink of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his Indignation and whoever receiveth the mark of his name Rev. 14.9 10 11. The Sun the political power that defends it shall be darkened the rivers whereby their traffick
3. God is more careful of his people than revengefull against his enemies He first orders the sealing of the mourners before he orders the destruction of the rebells he will first honour his mercy in the protection of the one before he will glorifie his justice in the destruction of the other The Angel hath orders to secure Lot before Sodom was fired The executioners of his wrath were to march after the securing Angel not before him Nor equal with him And were only to cut off those whom the Angel had passed by 4. If you take this mark for a mark on the Conscience then observe That Serenity of Conscience is a gift of God to his people in the time of severe judgments As when death is near the Conscience of a good man is most serene and sings sweetly in his breast the notes of his own integrity In judgments as well as in death God sets Conscience upon its pleasant notes But this mark is not properly meant here the Conscience is a mark to our selves but this is a mark to the executioners 5. The places where God hath manifested the glory of his Ordinances are the subjects of his greatest judgments upon their provocations Go through the City through Jerusalem That Jerusalem wherein I have manifested my glory which I have intrusted with my oracles which I have protected in the midst of enemies like a spark in the midst of many waters Go thorow that City into the midst of it and let not your eye spare 6. The greatest fury of God in a time of judgment often lights upon the Sanctuary v. 6. Begin at the Sanctuary defile the house Not a man of them escaped as Oecalampad notes v. 7. I was left He saw not in the vision what was done in the City but he was left alone in the Temple The whole Sanhedrim the 70 Ancients had revolted to Idolatry Ezek. 8.11 and the stroak first lights upon them v. 6. Then they began at the Ancient men which were before the house In the v. observe 1. Gods care in the preserving his people He Commands the Angel to go thorow the midst of the City and set a mark a visible mark upon their foreheads 2. The Qualification of the persons so preserved He doth not say All that have not committed Idolatry but such as sigh which signifies 1. The intenseness of their grief Sigh and cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notes an intense groaning and sorrow 2. The Extensiveness of the Object All the Abominations Doct. Lamenting the sins of the times and places wherein we live is a duty incumbent on us acceptable to God and a great means of preservation under publick Judgments There are three Branches 1. 'T is a Duty 2. A Duty acceptable to God God has his Eye particularly upon them that practise it 3. 'T is a means of preservation under publick Judgments 1. 'T is a Duty If we are by the Praescript of God to bewail in confession the sins of our Forefathers committed before our being in the world certainly much more are we to lament the sins of the Age wherein we live as well as our own Levit. 26.40 If they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their Fathers If then their uncircumcised be hubmled then will I remember my Covenant Posterity are part of the same body with their Ancestors and every member in a Nation is part of the body of a Nation every drop in the Sea is a part of the Ocean God made a standing Law for an annual Fast wherein they should afflict their Souls the tenth day of the seventh month answering to our September and backed it with a severe penalty He whose soul was not afflicted in that day should be cut off from among his people which the Jews understand of cutting off by the hand of the Lord Levit. 23.27 29. The particular sin for which they were thus annually to afflict their Souls was that national sin of the golden Calf in the Judgment of the Jewish Doctors It was also the practice of holy men in their private Retirements as Daniel Dan. 9.5 6. He bewails the sins of his Ancestors and Nehemiah Neh. 1.6 Much more it is our duty to bewail a present guilt The Churches Eyes are compared to the Fish-pools of Heshbon Cant. 7.4 in her weeping for her own and others sins To what purpose has God given us passions but to honour him withal And our affections of grief and anger cannot be better employ'd than for the interest nor better bestowed than for the service of him who implanted those passions in us Our natural motions should be ordered for the God of Nature and spiritual ordered for the God of Grace 1. This was the practice of Believers in all Ages Before the Deluge * Broughton Lives of the Fathers p. 7. Crit. in loc Seth called the name of his Son which was born at the time of the profaning the name of God in worship Enosh which signifies sorrowful or miserable that he might in the sight of his Son have a constant Monitor to excite him to an holy grief for the profaneness and Idolatry that entred into the Worship of God Gen. 4.26 He called his name Enos then began men to call upon the name of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profane it by calling upon it The rational and most precious part of Lot was vexed with the unlawful deeds of the generation of Sodom among whom he lived 2 Pet. 2.7 8. he had a horrour and torment in his righteous Soul at the execrable villanies he saw committed by his neighbours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afflicted under it as under a grievous burden It was a rack to him as the other word v. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies The meekest man upon Earth with grief and indignation breaks the Tables of the Law when he saw the holiness of it broken by the Israelites and expresseth more his regret for that than his honour for the material Stones wherein God had with his own finger engraven the Orders of his will He is more desirous to destroy the Idol than preserve the Tables Such an indignation against their sin could not well be without grief for it David a man of the greatest goodness upon Record had a Deluge of tears because they kept not God's Law Psal 119.136 Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law Besides his grief which was not a small one horrour seiz'd upon him upon the same account Psal 119.53 like a storm that tost him to and fro How doth poor Isaiah bewail himself and the People among whom he lived as men of polluted lips Isa 6.5 Perhaps such as could hardly speak a word without an Oath or by hypocritical lip-service mocked God in the very Temple Jeremy is upon the same practice Jer. 13.17 when his Soul should weep in secret for the pride of the people and as if he was not satisfied with a few tears
of it When we dislike and disapprove of others sins as well as our own we acknowledg the glory of the law that it is just holy and good and set our seal of approbation to it It justifies the holiness of the law in prohibiting sin the righteousness of the law in condemning sin It owns the soveraignty of God in commanding and the justice of God in punishing The law requires two things obedience to it and suffering for the transgression of it This frame of heart approves of the obedience the law requires of men as rational creatures and justifies the sufferings the law inflicts upon men as impenitent sinners Unless we mourn for the sins of others and thereby shew our distast we cannot give God the glory of his Judgments which he sends upon a people This disowning of sin is very acceptable to God because by it Men honour that law for whose violations they are so troubled and own Gods right of imposing a law upon his creatures and the creatures vileness in disgracing that Law 4. 'T is a sign of such a temper God hath evidenced himself in scripture much affected with 'T is a sign of a heart of flesh the noblest work of God in the creature A sign of a contrite heart the best sacrifice that can smoak upon his Altar next to that of his Son This he will not despise because it is a beam of glory dropped down from him and ascending in a sweet savour to him Psal 51.17 Without this we cannot have a sufficient evidence that we are truly broken-hearted We may mourn for our own sins for secret by-ends because they are against our worldly Interests and have reproaches treading upon the heels of them we may mourn for the sins of our friends out of a natural compassion to them and as they are the prognosticks of some approaching misery to them but in sorrowing for the sins of the world we have not so many and so affecting obligations to divert us from a sound aim in our sorrow To be affected with the dishonour of God by the sins of others is a distinguishing character of a spiritual constitution from a natural tenderness 'T is both our duty and God's pleasure No grief is sweeter to God nor more becoming us III. 'T is a means of preservation from publick Judgments Noah did not preach righteousness without a sensible reflection on that unrighteousness he preached against and he of all the world had the security of an Ark for him and his Family when all the rest struggled for life and sunk in the waters No meer man ever wore more black for the Funeral of God's honour than David nor was any blessed with more gracious deliverances The more zeal we have for God which is an affection made up of grief and anger the more protection we have from him * The steps of a man good man our translation renders it But the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a valiant man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way Psal 37.23 The more courage we have for God the more we may expect both his conduct and security If there be any hope in a time of actual or threatned Judgments 't is by laying our mouths in the dust Lam. 3.29 If there be any ground of hope it will shine forth when we are in such a posture There might be others in Jerusalem who had not complied with the Idolatry of that Age but none exempted from the stroke of the Six Destroyers but those whose mouths lay in the dust and whose cries against the common sin ascended to Heaven only the mourners among the good men are marked by the Angel for indemnity from the publick punishment 1. Sincerity always escapes best in common Judgments and this temper of mourning for publick sins is the greatest note of it This is the greatest note of sincerity We read of an Ahab who put on Sackcloth for his own sin and humbled himself before the Lord of a Judas sorrowing that he betrayed his Master Self-interest might broach their tears and force out their sorrow but never an Ahab or Judas or any other ungodly person in Scripture lamented the sins of others Nay they were all eminent for holiness that were noted for this frame whom we have mentioned before Moses a non-such for speaking with God face to face David who only had that honourable title of a man after God's own heart Isay who had the fullest prospect of Evangelical glory of all the Prophets Ezra a restorer of his Country Daniel a man greatly beloved Christ the Redeemer of the world and Paul the only Apostle rap't up in the third Heaven he was also humbled for the sins of the Corinthians 2 Corinth 12.21 Ezra hath a mighty Character Ezra 7.10 He prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord and to do it and to teach in Israel Statutes and Judgments And he both mourned for and prayed against the common sin Lot is not recorded for this without a glorious Epithete The Spirit of God over-looks those sins of his mentioned in Scripture and speaks not of him by his single name but Just Lot his righteous Soul 2 Pet. 2.7 8. A sincere Righteousness glittered in his vexation for the wronged Interest of God What a mark of honour doth the Holy-Ghost set upon this temper 'T is not drunken Lot or incestuous Lot with which sins he is taxed in Scripture This publickly religious spirit covered those temporary spots in his Scutcheon When all other signs of Righteousness may have their exceptions this temper is the utmost term which we cannot go beyond in our self-examination The utmost prospect David had of his sincerity when he was upon a diligent enquiry after it was his anger and grief for the sin of others when he had reached so far he was at a stand and knew not what more to add Psal 139.21 22 23 24. Am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me If there be any thing that better can evidence my sincerity than this Lord acquaint me with it know my heart i. e. make me to know it He whose sorrow is only for matter confin'd within his own breast or streams of it in his life has reason many times to question the truth of it But when a man cannot behold sin as sin in another without sensible regret 't is a sign he hath savingly felt the bitterness of it in his own Soul 'T is a high pitch and growth and a consent between the Spirit of God and the Soul of a Christian when he can lament those sins in others whereby the Spirit is grieved when he can rejoyce with the Spirit rejoycing and mourn with the Spirit mourning This is a clear testimony that we have not self-ends
an Arrow of God's wrath Pride lifts up it self against God's Laws and Soveraignty as much as this frame of spirit acknowledges and submits to him It was a temper contrary to this caused God to send Worms to banquet upon Herod Acts 12.23 He gave not God the glory He was not afflicted with the sin of the People nor reproved them for ascribing to him the honour of God A Soul-affliction for common sins is a bar to Judgments God revives the spirit of the humble Isa 57.15 They that share in the griefs of the Spirit shall not want the comforts of the Spirit God is concern'd in honour by virtue of his promise not to neglect those whom he hath promised to revive He dwells with the contrite spirit who more contrite than he that grieves for publick sins and Family sins and City sins as well as his own private Men do not use to fire their own houses much less God the house and heart which is dearer to him than either first or second Temple or local Heaven it self I might add 5. That such keep Covenant with God The Contract runs on God's part to be an Enemy to his Peoples Enemies Exod. 23.22 It must run on our parts to love that which God loves hate that which God hates grieve for that which grieves and dishonours him Who can do this by an unconcernedness Those that keep Covenant with God shall not fail of one tittle of it on God's part 7. Such also fear Gods Judgments and fear is a good means to prevent them The Old World feared not God's threatning of the Deluge and that came and swallowed them up The Sodomites feared not God's Judgments and that hastened the destroying Shower The Advice of the Angel upon the approach of Judgments is to fear God and give glory to him Rev. 14.7 And then follows another v. 8. with the news of Babylons fall Babylon is fallen is fallen The fall of Babylon is the preservation of his People 4. The Vse 1. Reproof for us Where is the man that hangs his harp upon the willows at the time the Temple of God is prophaned A head a Fountain of tears for Common sins is a commodity rare to be found even in hearts otherwise gracious The Mourners have been for number but a few like the gleanings of the Vintage but the Sinners in Sion for multitude like the weeds in fallow ground What multitudes of those that disparage God and trample upon his Soveraign Commands rend in pieces the very Law of Nature as well as the rights of Religion It were well if there were one to Six as was intimated in the beginning there might be in Jerusalem but we have reason to fear that one marker for the secret mourners would be too much for an hundred destroyers I do not question but there are some that sigh for the abominations they see and hear of that because they are dishonourable to God as well as injurious to themselves But who of us present here can say we have been deeply enough and graciously enough affected with them Certainly both you and I may bring a charge against our selves before the throne of God for this neglect that we have not been throwly humbled for frequently bewailed publick iniquities and spread them before God in secret If we are unconcern'd in common sins can we imagine God will leave us unconcern'd in common Judgments If we endeavour not to keep up the glory of God he will extract glory to himself out of our ashes If this frame be so little regarded among professors what shall we say to many others that have as little remorse for the stabs of Gods honour as they would have for the Tragedy of an East India Prince nay for the death of some inconsiderable fly that have resentments for wrongs done to themselves and sorrow at Command for any worldly loss but not one spark of regret for affronts offered to God In this cause their hearts are as dry as a heath in a parching Summer Who laments the tearing the name of God in pieces by execrable oaths Who bewails the impudent uncleanness boasted of by Concubines in the face of the Sun Who mourns for so many thousand foreheads bearing the mark of the beast and so many thousands more preparing to receive it It reproves then 1. Those that make a mock and sport of sin so far they are from mourning for it The wise man gives them the title of fools Prov. 14.9 fools make a mock at sin Which though it seems too low a Character for such abominable works yet in scripture it hath a greater import than in our Common discourse it signifies an Atheist Psal 14.1 Prodigious madness to make that our sport which is the dishonour of God the murderer of Christ the grief of the Spirit and the destruction of the Soul that which opens the flood-gates of wrath and brings famines plagues wars upon a people If mourning for others sins be an affection like that of Angels delighting in other sins is an affection like that of Devils He is at the greatest distance from Christ that looks pleasantly upon that which Christ could not regard without grief and anger God seems to seal up such to destruction as well as the mourners to preservation Isa 22.12 13. And in that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and mourning to baldness and girding with Sackcloth and behold joy and gladness slaying oxen and killing Sheep eating flesh and drinking wine let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of Hosts surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you dye they were ranters instead of mourners and God passes this sentence on them their iniquity shall not be purged from them till they dye If we carry our selves jollily at the sins of others we evidence that the concerns of God are of little concern to us that we have slight thoughts of his glory and cast it at the heels of our own passions 2. Those that make others sins the matter of invectives rather than of lamentations and bespatter the man without bewailing the sin We should consider common sins with affection to God and pity to the offenders with a desire that they may restore by a true conversion the glory they have robb'd God of by an accursed Rebellion While we hate the sin we should evidence that we love the man * Non nunquam faeâ—itâ—â—i in câ—lpam saevimus in hominem Prosper We must never love the wickedness nor hate the person We pity a sick man though we loath his Disease Sinners are miserable enough without our hatred and by hating them we make our selves more miserable by committing a fault against reason and nature and do them no good The more wicked any man is the more worthy of pity by how much the more his crime is our hatred God who is infinite purity hates mens sins
of the Devil a corrupt Creature and an enemy to God the chief Lord of the World and so did deprave the order of the universe and endeavoured to frustrate the end of God and the end of all the Creatures 'T is very rational to think that tho God out of his infinite compassion would not lose his creature yet that he should set such a badge upon him that should make him sensible of a depravation he had wrought in the world 4. 'T is useful to magnify his love We should not be sensible of what our Saviour suffered nor how transcendently he lov'd us if the punishment of sin had been presently removed upon the first promise Nay how then could he have died in the fulness of time which was necessary to the demonstration of Gods love satisfaction of his justice and the security of the Creatures happiness God adds the threatning to the promise as a dark colour to set off and beautify the brighter As Christ suffered that he might have compassion on us so are we punished that we might have an estimation of him When Paul cries out of the body of death so when we cry out of the punishment of sin it should raise our thankfulness for redeeming love I thank God through Jesus Christ Rom. 7.24 25. We never know the worth of mercy till we feel the weight of misery The sharper the pains of sin the higher are our valuations of redeeming mercy In Isa 4.2 In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious In what day After great punishments v. 1. and in the foregoing chapter He appears most beautiful to us when we are under the lash for sin As sin continues in us that the justifying grace of Christs righteousness might more appear to us so punishment continues on us that redeeming love might be more prized by us 2. On our parts 'T is useful to us 1. To make us abhor our first defection and sin 'T was great and is not duly considered by us * Kellet Miscel This sin of Adam is the worst that ever was committed in the world Extensively though not Intensively worse than the sin of Judas or the sin against the holy Ghost In respect that those are but the effects of it and branches of that corrupt root Also because those sins hurt only the persons sinning but this drew down destruction upon the whole world and drove thousands into everlasting Fire and Brimstone 'T is not fit that this which was the murder of all Mankind the disorder of the Creation the disturbing of God's rest in the works of his Hands should be past over without a scar left upon us to make us sensible of the greatness of the evil Though the wounds be great upon our Souls yet they do not so much affect us as those strokes upon our Bodies This certainly was one main end of God in this to what purpose else did he after the promise of restauration and giving our first parents the comfort of hearing the head of their great seducer threatned to be bruised by the Seed of the Woman order this punishment but to put them in mind of the cause of it and stir up a standing abhorrency of it in all ages of the world Had not this been his intent he would never have usher'd it in by a promise but ipso facto have showered down a destroying judgment upon the world as he did upon Sodom without any comfortable word preceding God inflicts those punishments both to shew his own and excite our detestation of this sin He binds us in those fetters to shew us our work and our transgression wherein we have exceeded Job 36.8 9. 2. To make us fear to sin and to purge it out Sin hath riveted it self so deep that easy Medicines will not displace it It hath so much of our affections that gentle means will not divorce us from it We shall hate it most when we reap the punishment of it Punishment is inflicted as a guard to the law and the security of righteousness from the corrupt inclinations of the Creature So it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato calls punishment As death is continued for the destruction of sin in the Body so are the lesser punishments continued for the restraint of sin in our lives We need further conversions closer applications of our selves to God more quick walks to him and fixedness with him Gods smitings are to quicken our turnings As it was the fruit of Jacobs trouble to take away sin Isa 27.9 So it is a great end of God in those common punishments of mankind to weaken corruption in a believer by them Therefore when we have any more remarkable sense of those punishments let us see what wounds our sin gets thereby How our hatred of it is encreased If we find such gracious effects we shall have more reason to bless God for it than complain of it Oh happy troubles when they repair not ruine us when they pinch us and cure us like Thunder which though it trouble the Air disperses the infectious vapours mixed with it or the Tide which though turning the stream of the River against its natural course carries away much of the filth with it at its departure 3. To exercise Grace Punishments of themselves have no power to set any grace on work but rather excite our corruptions but the grace of God accompanying them makes them beneficial for such an end God hath to a believer altered the commission of such punishments they are to exercise our Faith improve our patience draw us nearer in acts of recumbency but he hath given them no order to impair our grace waste our faith or deaden our hopes 1. Faith and Trust 1. Tim. 5.5 She that is desolate trusts in God The lower the state the greater necessity and greater obligation to trust such exercises manifest that the condition we are in is sanctified to us As sin is suffered to dwell in a regenerate Man to occasion the exercise of Faith so is the punishment of sin continued for the same end The continuance of it is a mighty ground of our confidence in God We experiment the righteousness of God in his threatning and it is an evidence he will be the same in his promise When we bear the marks of his punitive justice it is an evidence that he will keep up the credit of his mercy in the promise as well as of his justice in the punishment both being pronounced at the same time the good of the one is as sure by God's grace to our faith as the smart of the other is by our desert to that sin The continuance therefore of those punishments may be used by a Believer as a means to fix a stronger confidence in God for if he were not true to the one we might suspect his truth in the other If God should be careless of maintaining the honour of his truth in his threatnings we should have
mind Eph. 4.23 and he hath the Spirit of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 His judgment is regulated by the Law of God he judges of sin as it is in its nature a transgression of the Law Can we imagine that a Man restored to a sound mind and that hath his natural madness and folly cured should act after this cure as much out of his wits as before If he hath his constant frenzies and madness as much as before where is his cure Can any Man in the world act always against his judgment though he may be overpowered by the importunity of others or over-ruled by a fit of passion to do something against his judgment can you expect always to find him in the road of crossing the dictates of his understanding An unregenerate Man hath a natural light in his Mind and Conscience and so a judgment of sin but he hath not a judgment of sin adequate to the object he doth not judge of sin in the whole latitude of it he hath not a settled judgment of the contrariety of his beloved sin to God He looks not upon it in the extent of it as malum injucundum inhonestum inutile if he looks upon sin as dishonest he regards it as profitable if neither as honest or profitable yet as pleasant so that the natural light which is in the understanding when it dictates right is mated and over-ruled by some other principle the pleasure or profit of it and swayed by the inherent habits of sin in the Will The Devil that works in them hath some principle to stir up or dim this natural light and cast a mist before the Eye and so they direct their course according to that particular judgment which is befriended in its vote by sense 2. 'T is against the nature of a renewed Will Grace is the law of God in the heart and is put in to inable us to walk in the ways of God and shall it endure such wilful pollutions in the Creature when it is the end of its being there to preserve from them The Spirit is given in the Heart 2 Cor. 1.22 sent into the Heart Gal. 4.6 the Law put into the Heart Heb. 10.16 Since therefore there is an habit of grace in the Will a Man cannot frequently and easily lanch into sin because he cannot do it habitually the remainders of sin being mated with a powerful habit which watches their motions to resist them Doth God put such a habit there such a seed an abiding seed to no purpose but to let the Soul be wounded by every temptation to be deserted in every time of need Grace is an habit superadded to that natural and moral strengrh which is in the Will Man by natures strength meerly or with the assistance of common grace hath power to avoid the acts of gross sins for he is master of his own actions though he is not of the motions tending to them the Devil cannot force a Mans Will And when grace a greater strength comes in shall there be no effects of this strength but the reins be as stiff in the hands of old lust and the Will as much captive to the sinful habit in it as before Grace being a new nature it is as absurd to think that a gracious man should wallow in a course of sin as it is to think that any creature should constantly and willingly do that which is against its nature A gracious man delights in the Law of God Psal 1.2 His delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night if he delights in it can he delight to break it Do Men fling that which they delight in every day in the Durt and trample upon it or rather do they not keep it choicely in their Cabinets If it be also the Character of a good man to meditate in the Law of God he must have frequent exercises of faith reflections upon himself motions to God which cannot consist with a course of sin Grace doth essentially include a contrariety to sin and a love to God in the Will 'T is a principle of doing good and eschewing evil and these being essential properties of grace are essential to every regenerate man and in every one As a drop of Water or one spark of Fire hath the essential properties of a great mass of Water or a great quantity of Fire so every renewed man hath the same love to God and the same hatred of sin essentially as the most eminent Saint though not in degree yea which those in heaven have though not in the same degree As a spark of fire will burn a drop of water will moisten though not in so eminent a measure Now upon the whole consider whether is it possible to bare reason that a regenerate man should customarily do those things which are against the essential properties of that which is in him in his will and doth denominate him a new Creature 3. Proposition A regenerate man cannot have a fixt resolution to walk in such a way of sin were the impediments to it removed Though unregenerate men may actually as to the outward exercise abstain from some sins yet it is usually upon low and mean conditions If it were not for such or such an obstacle in the way I would do such and such an act This temper is not in a good man he cannot have a fixed and determinate resolution to commit such an act if such bars were taken away Such resolutions are Common in unregenerate men Jer. 44.25 We will surely perform our vows which we have vow'd to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and Isa 56.12 We will fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant we will have as merry a meeting as we had to day The same character is ascribed to such an one Psal 36.4 He deviseth mischief upon his bed He sets himself in a way that is not good He ahhorreth not evil He modells out his sinful designs with head and heart he settles himself as an army settles in their ground when they resolve to fight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He abhors not evil He starts not at such motions but by a Meiosis he huggs and caresseth them with a wonderful delight Regenerate men fear to sin wicked men contrive to sin One would starve it the other makes provision for it This temper cannot be in a Regenerate man 1. 'T is Diabolical And so falls under that in the text He cannot Commit sin as the Devil doth 'T is a stain of the Devil who is resolved in his way of malice to God and mischief to man but for the strait Chains God holds him in his resolution is fixed though the execution restrained He goes about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to drink at one draught Seeking both for an opportunity and permission Unwearied searches manifest fixed resolutions His
whether your Souls are sure Here I shall 1. Remove false signs whereon men rest and think themselves pardoned 1. The littleness of sin is no ground of pardon Oh may some say my sins are little some tricks of youth some petty oaths or the like The Scripture saith that Drunkards Fornicators Extortioners and Covetous shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven not Great Drunkards only but those that are drunk but now and then as well as those that are Drunkards every day 1. Dost thou know the malignity of the least sin No sin can be called absolutely though it may comparatively little Is it a little God who is offended by sin Is it a little wrath which is poured down on sin Is it a little Christ that hath dyed for sin Is it a little Soul that is destroyed by sin and is it a little Hell that is prepared for sin Is not the least sin Deicidium as much as in a man lieth a destroying of God Did not Christ shed his blood for the least as well as for the greatest Is not Hell kindled by the breath of the Lord for the least as well as the greatest sins Is that little which is Gods burden Christs wound the Spirits grief the penitents sorrow and the Devils Hell Every drop of poison is poison every drop of Hell is Hell every part of sin is sin and hath the destroying and condemning nature of sin Can Angels expiate the least sin or can a thousand worlds be a sufficient recompence for the injury that is done to God by the least sin 2. The less thy sin the less the excuse for thy self 'T is the aggravation of their injustice that they sold the Righteous for a pair of Shoes Amos 2.6 Dost thou undervalue God so as to sell a Righteous and Eternal God so cheap for a little sin Is a little sin dearer to thee than the favour of the great God Is a little sin dearer to thee than an Eternal Hell is grievous To endanger thy Soul for a trifle to lose God for a bubble is a confounding aggravation of it as it was of Judas his sin that he would sell his Saviour for a little Silver for so small a Sum. Sin is not little in respect of the formality of it but in respect of the matter in respect of the temptation and this littleness is an aggravation of sin 3 Dost thou know how God hath punished the least sin A drop of sin may bring a Deluge of Misery An Atom of sin is strong enough to overturn a World It was but an Apple that poisoned Adam and his whole Posterity Less sins are punisht in Hell than are pardoned here God casts off Saul for less sins than he pardoned David for How many Ships have been destroyed upon small Sands as well as great Rocks 2. Fewness of sins is no argument of pardon Conceive if thou canst the amiableness and lustre of the Angels how far beyond the glory of the Sun it was yet one sin divested them of all their glory It was but one sin kindled Hell for the fallen Angels Every sin must receive a just recompence of reward Heb. 2.2 Shall one single sin intitle thee to Hell what will millions of sins then intitle thee to One sin is too much against God Had thy iniquities been never so few Christ must have died to answer the Pleas of his Fathers Justice against thee Every sin is Rebellion against God as a Soveraign undutifulness to God as a Father * Burges Contempt of God as a Governour and preferring the Devil before God the Devil that would destroy and damn thee before God that made thee and preserves thee a preferring the Devil's temptations before God's promises 3. The commonness of sin is no argument of pardon Many Angels combin'd in the first Conspiracy against God but as they were Companions in sin so are they Companions in torments The commonness of Sodoms sin made the louder cry and hastened the severer Judgment Not one Inhabitant escaped but only righteous Lot and his Family Common sins will have common Plagues It doth rather aggravate thy sin than plead for pardon when thou wilt rather follow mens Example to offend God than conform to God's Law to please him Sin was common in the Old World for all flesh had corrupted their ways Gen. 6.12 and all were swept away by the destroying Deluge To walk according to the course of the World is so far from being a foundation of pardon that it is made a Character of a Child of the Devil To walk according to the course of the World is to walk according to the pattern of the Devil and to be in the number of the Children of Wrath Eph. 2.2 Wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this World according to the Prince of the Power of the Air. 4. Forbearance of punishment is no argument of pardon Eccles 8.11 Because Sentence against an evil-work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the Sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Forbearance is made use of by men to make them sin more desperately more headily Fully set all checks silenced and stopt Forbearance is no acquittance it argues not God's forgiving the debt the debt is due though it be not presently sued for and the longer the debt remains unpaid the greater Sum will the Interest amount unto because the longer God doth forbear punishment the longer time thou hast for Repentance the account for that time will run high That God doth not punish is an argument of his patience not of his pardoning mercy God laughs at Sinners he sees their day is coming though they may be jocund and confident of a pardon God's forbearance may be in Justice he may be brewing the Cup and mixing that which thou art to drink Prisoners may be reprieved one Assize and executed the next Reprieval of Execution is no allowance of the Crime or change of the Sentence 5. Prosperity is no sign of pardon Oh! I am not only born with and forborn but I have a great addition of outward contentments since my sin That which you make an argument of pardon may be an argument of condemnation Asaph was much troubled at the prosperity of the wicked but at last saith Pride compasseth them as a Chain and violence covers them as a garment Psal 73.6 That kindness which should have made them melt made them presume That which should broach thy Repentance enflames thy Pride Thy goods may increase thy sins 6. Forgetfulness of thy sin and Commission long ago is no sign of pardon and therefore having no checks for them is no sign of pardon God doth not forget though thou dost no sin slips from the memory of his knowledge though now he doth cast many sins away from the memory of his justice In regard of Gods eternity the first sins are accounted as committed this moment for in that there is no succession of