restraints of fear and shame are taken off and every breath of a temptation is strong enough to overthrow the Carnally minded The purest and noblest Chastity is from a principle of Duty within not constrain'd by the apprehension of discovery and severity 4. The Continuance of the temptation she spake to him day by day Her Complexion was lust and impudence and his repeated denials were ineffectual to quench her incensed desires the black fire that darkned her mind She caught him by the garment saying Lye with me she was ready to prostitute her self and ravish him 5. The Person tempted Joseph in the flower of his age the season of sensuality when innumerable by the force and swing of tâ—eir vicious appetites are impell'd to break the holy Law of God 6. His Repulse of the temptation was strong and pereâ—â—tory How can I do this great wickedness He felt no sympathy nâ— sensual tenderness but exprest an impossibility of consenting to her guilty desire We have in Joseph exemplified that property of the Regenerate He that is born of God cannot sin by a sacred potent instinct in his brest he is preserved not only from the consummate acts but recoils from the first offers to it 7. The Reasons are specified of his rejecting her polluting motion Behold my Master knows not what is with me in the House and he hath committed all that he hath to my Hands there is none greater in his House than I neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee because thou art his Wife How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God 'T was a complicated crime of injustice and uncleanness a most injurious violation of the strongest tyes of duty and gratitude to his Master and of the sacred marriage Covenant to her Husband and the foulest blot to their persons Therefore how can I commit a sin so contrary to natural Conscience and supernatural grace and provoke God Thus I have briefly considered the narrative of Josephs temptation and that Divine grace preserved him unspotted from that contagious fire may be resembled to the miraculous preserving the three Hebrew Martyrs unsinged in the midst of the flaming furnace The patience of Job and the Chastity of Joseph are transmitted by the Secretaries of the Holy Ghost in Scripture to be in perpetual remembrance and admiration From this singular instance of Joseph who was neither seduced by the allurements of his Mistriss nor terrified by the rage of her despis'd affection to sin against God I shall observe two general Points I. That temptations to sin how alluring soever or terrifying ought to be rejected with abhorrenc II. That the fear of God is a sure defence and guard against the strongest temptation I will explain and prove the first and only speak a little of the second in a branch of the Application I. That temptations to sin how alluring soever or terrifying are to be rejected with abhorrence There will be Convincing proof of this by considering two Things 1. That sin in its Nature prescinding from the train of woful effects is the greatest Evil. 2. That Relatively to us it is the most pernicious destructive Evil. 1. That sin considered in it self is the greatest Evil. This will be evident by considering the general Nature of it as directly opposite to God the supreme good The definition of sin expresses its essential Evil 't is the transgression of the Divine Law and consequently opposes the rights of Gods Throne and obscures the Glory of his Attributes that are exercis'd in the Moral Government of the World God as Creator is our King our Lawgiver and Judge From his propriety in us arises his just title to Sovereign Power over us Psal 100. Know ye that the Lord he is God 't is he that made us not we our selves we are his people and the Sheep of his pasture The Creatures of a lower order are uncapable of distinguishing between Moral Good and Evil and are determin'd by the weight of Nature to what is merely sensible and therefore are uncapable of a Law to regulate their choice But Man who is endowed with the powers of Understanding and Election to conceive and choose what is Good and reject what is Evil is govern'd by a Law the declared will of his Maker accordingly a Law the rule of his Obedience was written in his Heart Now sin the transgression of this Law contains many great Evils 1. Sin is a Rebellion against the Sovereign Majesty of God that gives the life of Authority to the Law Therefore Divine Precepts are enforced with the most proper and binding motives to obedience I am the Lord. He that with purpose and pleasure commits sin implicitly renounces his dependance upon God as his Maker and Governor over-rules the Law and arrogates an irresponsible license to do his own will This is exprest by those Atheistical designers who said Psal i2 4 With our Tongue we will prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us The Language of Actions that is more natural and convincing than of Words declares that sinful Men despise the Commands of God as if they were not his Creatures and Subjects What a dishonour what a displeasure is it to the God of glory that proud dust should fly in his Face and controule his Authority Daniel 7.10 Psal 103.20 He has ten thousand times ten thousand Angels that are high in dignity and excel in strength waiting in a posture of reverence and observance about his Throne ready to do his will How provoking is it for a despicable Worm to contravene his Law and lift his Hand against him It will be no excuse to plead the Commands of Men for sin for as much as God is more glorious than Men so much more are his Commands to be respected and obeyed than Mens When there is an evident opposition between the Laws of Men and of God we must disobey our Superiours tho' we displease them and obey our Supreme Ruler He that does what is forbidden or neglects to do what is Commanded by the Divine Law to please Men tho' invested with the highest Sovereignty on Earth is guilty of double wickedness of impiety in debasing God and idolatry in deifying Men. It is an extreme aggravation of this Evil in that sin as it is a disclaiming our homage to God so 't is in true account a yielding subjection to the Devil For sin is in the strictest propriety his work The original rebellion in Paradise was by his temptation and all the actual and habitual sins of Men since the fall are by his efficacious influence He darkens the carnal mind 2 Cor. 4.4 and sways the polluted will he excites and inflames the vicious affections Ephes 2.2 and imperiously rules in the Children of disobedience He is therefore stiled the Prince and god of this World And what more contumelious indignity can there be than the preferring to the glorious Creator of Heaven
Palace Good Name and Honour be your precious Oyntments The things that make you cheerful in your selves grateful and useful unto others True I would rather my own Heart should commend me than all the World's Mouth beside Next to Gods own praise of us the praise of a well informed Conscience is the most desirable Nevertheless mens good esteem good mens especially is useful to the foresaid purposes And your Conversion is requisite thereto For 't is the King of Heaven is the true Fountain of Honour and he maketh Converts and no others Vessels of Honour Honour both below and above Hypocrites know this and therefore for the praise of men they make an outside Conversion to God Converts do know this and therefore by all the Reproaches of Men will not be beaten off from the way of God Plato could say a wicked man was the Earths vilest Dunghill and a Religious one its most sacred Temple Under the Law we know that God would have those that touch'd a dead Man to be held unclean seven times as long as those that touch'd a dead Beast So teaching how debased and defiled a thing an ill man is more than a brute Creature What need words who be those that you see earthly Potentates advance to Honours but their true zealous and active Friends Turn you truly zealously actively to the King immortal he shall forthwith love you more than any of his Angels can love him And that love it self shall be a crown of Honour enough to make all the Divels in Hell envy you many of the worlds Hypocrites wish themselves in your state and all the Saints of God with holy Angels to prize you beyond expression and without Flattery Every convert whether he consider it or no hath a name greater than of Earls and Dukes God writeth them that give up their names unto him Princes in all Lands and Kings and Priests unto him for ever Psal 45. Rev. 1. Indeed the world counts them and tramples on them as dirt but God calls them and will make them up as Jewels See 1 Cor. 4.13 with Mat. 3.17 The world's Dusts be God's Diamonds If then the best things of both worlds can oblige you see your selves obliged to Turn presently unto God R. 4. You are convinced by your own Consciences as truly as other people be that you ought presently to turn unto God Therefore 't is Duty Young people God's Commands Threats and Promises do oblige whether you learn and know and mind them or not Your Negligence and Unbelief cannot make them of no effect though to your selves they may easily make them of very ill effect But when the kindness of God brings them unto your Knowledge and Thoughts when he sets Conscience which is his Vice-roy and Deputy in your Souls to the work and makes it in your very Heart and Reins to Command his Commands to Promise his Promises and to Threaten his Threats what think you then Believe it then he accounts your Engagement to be heighthened with your Advantage And he stands up for the Honour and Reverence of Conscience the Honour of which he takes for your utmost Honour of himself and Contempt of which he takes for your utmost Contempt of him And if now it appear that his Vicegerent Conscience hath been contemned and you have sinned against the Edicts and Commands thereof your sin then is exceeding sinful in his Eyes Then have you broken many yea all his Bonds and must be beaten with many yea the worst of his stripes The Conscience then which you would not have to be your Ruler shall be your Tormentor Sooner or later it shall What plead you therefore Which of you all can look me in the Face and say that your Consciences are convinced of no such thing And therefore whatever Witnesses I do bring your Consciences are none unto the Truth of my Doctrine You are Men and not Brutes You are English people too You live where the Gospel shines And I must tell you I nothing doubt but the Holy Ghost beams in Light very early into English Children Light convincing them of the Necessity of Conversion and of the Malignity of Procrastination I would be understood especially of the Children of Religious Parents and such as are carried to hear Ministers that do understand and preach Christianity and not scoff at all Regeneration beside Baptismal and do not dispense Stones for Bread and Serpents for Fish But do give Babes sincere Milk designing to Edifie not to Amuse them All such as are like to Hear or Read my Labors I would ask these Questions 1. Think you not that your Minds Wills and practick Powers were given to you to Know Love and Serve your God 2. That you are bound from your first Capacity to exercise them thereunto 3. That in order to your so Exercising them 't is incumbent on you to go learn the Gospel-Covenant and Accept it 's gracious offers and Rely on its Promises and Purpose Promise and Vow by the Grace of Jesus Christ from this time for ever to be the Lords 4. That Haste hereto is your Duty and Delay is Sin very manifold Sin 5. That present Conversion will be unto the present Pardon and Mortification of all Sin but the Delay of it will keep every sin Unpardoned Mortifie no sin but give a growing strength unto all 6. That present Conversion is most Honour to God benefit unto your selves joy to your pious Friends c. I am so far from suspecting the more grown of you that I have satisfactory grounds to believe that most of five six and seven years old do in their hearts believe all Yea and have their Consciences oft-times telling them these things as Parents and Ministers are inculking of them As St. Austin said of Seneca I dare say of most of you youngest ones You make much of what you think nothing worth and declaim against that which you do above all prefer in your heart However can you chuse but see that you all who are convinced are all extraordinarily obliged to convert presently 'T is infinitely the Duty of all but yours it would be if possible more than infinitely No man must tell me Regeneration is a great Mystery above Childrens reach and therefore for all my Confidence I do mistake them Well I know Regeneration is a Mystery of the greatest but I deny that the Necessity of it is a Mystery That is of the plainest principles And I utterly deny that so young Children as I have named are uncapable of Understanding as much of Conversion as God will accept of from them Know it O little ones Give God your All he will not reject it as little give him your Best he will accept it as little good as is in it But oh greater and lesser of you hear and fear Hell gapes for all delaying Unconverts And of any is likest to swallow up those whose delays are against Convictions Peter Martyr says St. Paul dealt more severely with the
some sins are majoris reatus but minoris scandali so it is here The sins of Sodom had more Scandal but the sins of Capernaum greater Guilt Q. But wherein lyes the sinfulness of Impenitency under the Gospel above other sin Ans 1. Such will be left without Excuse above all others If the Heathen are said to be without excuse not living and worshipping God according to the dictates of natural Light and the notices of God suggested by the works of Creation Rom. 1.20 If the Jews will have their Mouth stopped having the written Law of God and the Knowledge of God's Will therein and yet transgressing this Law as the Apostle speaks Rom. 3.19 much more will those who live impenitently under the Gospel be without excuse and have their mouths stopped in the day of Judgment Had I not come and spoken to them saith Christ they had had no sin but now they have no cloak for their sin John 15.22 The Gospel strips sinners of every Cloak and so exposeth them more naked to the severe Justice of God John 3.19 For this is the Condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light And so are without excuse 1. Such cannot plead as the Heathen may that they were ignorant of a Saviour and how to be saved by him from their sin 2. Neither can they plead that Salvation by him was revealed so darkly that they could not have any distinct knowledge of it as the Jew may plead 3. Neither can they plead that this Revelation was never confirmed from Heaven so that they might certainly believe it to be from Heaven and not the invention of Men. The Confirmation of it is now made evident 4. Neither can they plead that they knew not that Unbelief and Impenitency were damnable sins and would expose men to the judgment and wrath of God 5. Neither can they plead Ignorance of God's punitive Justice The Sufferings of Christ for sin to satisfie offended Justice do clearly evidence this to all that know any thing of the Gospel And this more fully than any Judgments God hath inflicted upon sinners in this world even Sodom it self 6. Neither can they plead Ignorance of a future state of the Immortality of the Soul the Resurrection of the Body and Judgment to come and Heaven and Hell Though the Heathen had but dark notions the wisest of them about these things yet now Life and Immortality are brought to light by the Gospel and a future state is more clearly revealed than before either to Jew or Gentile 7. Neither can they plead ignorance of God's pardoning Mercy and his readiness to pardon upon repentance whereby sinners may be hardned in their sin as being without all hope There is forgiveness with thee that thou may'st be feared saith the Psalmist Psal 130.3 And knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance saith the Apostle Rom. 2.4 2 Cor. 5.19 And God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their trespasses to them His pardoning Mercy is now clearly revealed which is the great Motive to Repentance Obj. But then to be ignorant will be a Man's advantage and will furnish him with an excuse Ans 1. That Ignorance which is invincible will excuse but not slothful and affected Ignorance If a King hath publish't and proclaimed his Law a Man's Ignorance will not excuse him from the penalty And to shut out the Light is as sinful as to sin against it When the light shineth in darkness it will be no excuse if the darkness comprehend it not 2. Impenitency under the Gospel is a resisting the loudest Calls of God to Repentance The Heathen were call'd to Repentance by the Light of natural Conscience and the Works of Creation and Providence The Jews were call'd by the Law God gave them and the Prophets God sent among them but now under the Gospel the Call is louder than before When the Gospel was entring the World in John Baptist's Ministry it entred thus Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. 3.2 And under Christ's own Ministry the Call was louder The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand Repent ye and believe the Gospel Mark 1.15 And under the Apostle's Ministry the Call went into all the World Acts 17.30 The times of their ignorance God winked at now he calls all men every-where to repent And still the great Work of the Ministry is that which our Saviour speaks of his and the end of his coming Not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance And what the Apostle Paul speaks of his Ministry in Asia Teaching Repentance towards God and Faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20.21 this is the great Work of the Ministry now And higher Motives are laid before sinners to repent under the Gospel than ever before 3. There is the highest Contempt of God in it He call'd by his Prophets to repentance before but now he hath call'd by his own Son If a King sends his own Son to command Rebels to lay down their Arms and accept of terms of Mercy and they still refuse it is greater Contempt than if he had sent his Servants As the King in the Parable said Surely they will reverence my Son Matth. 21.37 though they misused and killed his Servants There hath been Contempt of God by sinners in every Age as the Psalmist complains Psal 10.13 Wherefore do the wicked contemn God But this Contempt riseth to an higher degree under the Gospel since Christ came into the world 1. An higher Contempt of God's Authority To transgress the Law of God delivered by Angels upon the Mount to Moses and by Moses to the People was a Contempt of God's Authority and received a just recompence of reward Heb. 2.2 How greater Contempt is it to disobey the Gospel which was preached by the Lord himself as the Apostle there argues To refuse him that spake from Heaven is greater Contempt of God's Authority than to refuse him that spake from Earth Heb. 12.25 Rejecting the Gospel Christ calls it a despising both him and his Father Luke 10.16 And the Law was delivered in the hand of Christ to men when he came into the world so that now disobedience to it is an higher Contempt both of the Law and Law-giver than before If I had not come and spoke saith Christ they had no sin John 15.22 The Authority of the Speaker makes the Contempt the greater 2. An higher Contempt of God's Goodness For the Goodness of God is now revealed in the Gospel more fully and clearly than before Every impenitent sinner under the Gospel puts a Contempt upon the highest revelation of God's Goodness And that Goodness that should lead him to Repentance is now rejected and despised And nothing doth aggravate Sin more than when committed against special Love Grace Kindness and Goodness To turn Grace into Wantonness is great abuse but to put it under
should attempt to re-build it Vse Last From all that hath been said we may lastly conclude That Sinners that are impenitent have little reason to flatter themselves because of their present impunity Let them consider how it will fare with them in the day of Judgment Christ refers to that in the Text. And those who have Eyes to see afar off will look so far as that day So did Paul 2 Cor. 5.11 Wherefore we strive whether present or absent to be accepted for we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ And hereupon he counted it a small thing to be judged of Men or at Man's day looking to the Judgment to come and that great Day of the Lord 1 Cor. 4.5 6. The fal'n Angels are said to be bound in Chains of Darkness reserved to the Judgment of the great Day and so are impenitent Sinners reserved to that day when notwithstanding their present Impunity they shall then fall under Judgment more intolerable than that of Sodom As a Malefactor that is kept in the Gaol under Bolts and Fetters till the Assize hath little reason to rejoyce in his present freedom from the Sentence of the Judge And this is the case of Sinners Because Sentence is not speedily executed their hearts are fully set to do evil Eccles 8.11 And so I make the Conclusion of this Discourse with that which Solomon makes the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments c. For God will bring every work to Judgment and every secret thing whether Good or Evil. Quest How the uncharitable and dangerous Contentions that are among Professors of the true Religion may be allayed SERMON III. GALAT. V. 15. But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another MY Business from this Scripture is to enquire into the Cause the Danger and the Cure of uncharitable Contentions in the Church of God The Holy Apostle Paul having some few Years before planted a Church in Galatia a region in the upper parts of the lesser Asia there soon crept in a sort of false Teachers who contended that the Mosaical Ceremonies in particular that Circumcision was still to be observed even by the believing Gentiles and that the Christians were not justified before God by Faith but by the Works of the Law Which two Errors when he had fully confuted in the former part of this Epistle he Applies in this Chapter and in the Next 1. By way of Exhortation to stand fast in this their Christian Liberty ver 1. which he backs with divers Arguments 2. By way of Direction to use the same aright not for an occasion to the Flesh ver 13. the Works whereof he afterwards reckons up at large but rather that they should by Love serve one another and abound in all Holiness and Goodness which he inlargeth upon in the rest of this Chapter and in the Next This Text in hand lies within the Verge of this latter Vse where the Apostle using their own Weapon the Law whereof they crack'd so much against themselves he roundly tells them that the whole Law to wit the second Table which also hath an inviolable connexion with the first is fulfilled in loving their Neighbour as themselves and so though they were free from the Law of Ceremonies yet not from the Law of Love and though the Moral Law had now no power to justifie the Sinner nor to condemn the Believer yet still it hath the force of a Rule to guide them in that grand Duty as much as ever before These Words then come in as a Motive to press the Galathians to exercise that Charity which he had affirm'd before to be the summe and scope of the whole Law and it is drawn from the Danger of the contrary temper Plain Commands of God should be sufficient to sway us to our Duty but generally we have need of the most powerful Motives especially when the violent streams of Rage Lust or Revenge do oppose it as in the Case â—efore us But if ye bite and devour one anothir take heed that ye be not câ—â—â—â—med one of another In which Words you may see 1. The Sin specified whereof they were suppos'd to be guilty But if ye bite that is reproach and defame one another some violently maintaining these Jewish Ceremonies and others passionately opposing them and devour one another that is tear and oppress each other by all the mischievous Hostilities ye can for religious Feuds are always sharpest 2. Here is the Danger forewarn'd in Case they proceeded therein take heed that ye be not consumed one of another that is you will certainly destroy one another The Division of the Members must issue in the Dissolution of the Body The Decay of your Love will weaken your Faith both parties will rue it ye will be in danger of total ruine Body and Soul here and hereafter Now if we consider these words only in Hypothesi or in Relation to these Persons in the Text they teach us 1. That there were Contentions in the Church of Galatia So that Vnity is no infallible Mark of a true Church Unity may be out of the Church of Christ and Dissention may be within it 2. That many People were Violent in them For the Apostle would scarce have express'd himself in such terms of biting and devouring unless there had been some outragious Carriage among them toward one another 3. That these Contentions were very dangerous to them all They threatned no less than the overthrow of both the contending Parties the consumption of them all But considering the words of the Text in Thesi or Absolutely which we may safely do seeing the same Causes do still produce or at least dispose unto the same Effects we may collect this Conclusion That Vncharitable Contentions do prepare for utter Destruction And here I shall 1. Clear and open the Terms 2. Amplifie and confirm the Truth And 3. Apply and bring home the Influence of this Point unto our selves I. To understand the Subject of this Proposition to wit Vncharitable Contentions we must distinguish 1. Of the Matter of Contentions and they are either of a Civil or of a Spiritual Nature 1. Of a Civil Nature which concern Men in their Lives Liberties Names or Estates And these are either Private or Publick 1. Private Contentions which are about Meum and Tuum and these are troublesome to those which are in the right and damnable to those that are in the wrong and oftentimes ruinous unto both and therefore are by all good means to be prevented or else by all fair and just means to be managed and all fit opportunities are to be watched not so much to obtain a full Victory as a quiet Conclusion lest the Remedy prove as it doth frequently worse than the Disease 2. Publick Contentions which are usually about the Succession Power or Prerogative of Princes and the Liberties or Properties of Subjects And here
the same Law-giver forbids us to bear false witness against our Neighbour that forbids the Worshipping of a graven Image And sometimes men Bite by downright Rayling if not Cursing those that differ from them devising and affixing the most disgraceful Names and Titles concluding them all to be Knaves or Fools that are of a contrary mind both Praying and Drinking to their Confusion Thus Men sharpen their Tongues like a Serpent Adders Poyson is under their lips Psal 140.3 Their throat is an open sepulchre their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness But the wrath of man worketh not the Righteousness of God A bad cause is never made better but a good cause is alwayes made worse by such methods Adeo invisa est mihi discordia sayes Erasmus ut veritas etiam seditiosa displiceat As God's Truth needs not Mans lye so neither doth it need his rancour to uphold or promote it 2. Men Devour one another by Actual Endeavours to injure and hurt one another when their inward rage breaks out into overt Actions and Practices tending to ruine their Brethren And this is done sometimes 1. By fraud which signifies all the cunning devices which Malice can suggest whereby to undermine their credit estate and comfort Such there were of old and yet Professors of a true Religion of whom the Psalmist Psal 10.9 10. He lieth in wait to catch the poor He doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his Net He croucheth and humbleth himself that the poor may fall by his strong ones It is endless to particularize all the arts and sleights of uncharitable men each against other but the end is to devour the Estates Lives Names and Posterity of others And is this to love your Neighbour as your selves or to do as you would be done to nothing less 2. Sometimes this is done by Force When either party can get any humane Law on their side down without mercy go all their Opposites yea sometimes without it and beyond it yea oftentimes you shall see them most zealous for compliance with one or two Laws which fit their humour who live in the continual breach of twenty others All Ages have groan'd under this disease what work did not only the Arians and Circumcellians make of old when they got power into their hands but in latter ages nothing hath been more common than the imploying the secular arm to the utmost by those that could obtain it to promote their purposes But where is that Dove-like innocence and harmlesness this while Columbae non sunt saith Augustine accipitres sunt milvi sunt non laniat columba And he though he was zealous in writing against the Errors of the Donatists yet profest that he had rather be slain by them than occasion their persecution unto Death Propos 4. These uncharitable Contentions do prepare for utter Destruction So saith 1. The Scripture So 2. All History and Experience 3. Undeny Reason confirms it 1. For Scripture see Hos 10.2 Their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty There may be different Notions in the head yea there may be different practices one may eat Flesh and another only Herbs and yet the Church may flourish It was a good Motto of a great Scholar Opinionum varietas Opinantium unitas non sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But when the Distemper lodges at the Heart when that 's wounded when that 's divided the Man dies And this is not only meant of mans heart divided and distracted from God but of Mens hearts divided from one another which it should seem was the Case of Israel at that time under the reign of Hoshea And what follows Now shall they be found faulty or as the word will bear and others render it They shall be made desolate This will prepare them for certain and speedy desolation now shall they be made desolate Agreeable to which is our own Saviours words Matth. 12.25 Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought into desolation and every City or House divided against it self shall not stand Where you see 1. One great Cause of the ruine of a Kingdom City or Family which is being divided against it self If the Head and Members be set one against another nay if there be only an inveterate jealousie between them it is often fatal but when the Hearts of a People in a Kingdom City or Family are in a burning Fever one against another and no art or means can qualifie them a dissolution of the Body a desolation of that People is at hand for so it follows every such Kingdom is brought into desolation Where 2. You see the greatness of that ruine that follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it shall be made desert and desolate which implies and contains all the miseries that do concurr to make a Kingdom a desert It will not only be shaken indangered weakened and decayed but if some speedy and effectual remedy be not applied it is ruined utterly 3. See the Certainty thereof for as our Saviour speaks positively in the beginning of the Verse it is brought into desolation so in the latter end of the verse as peremptorily it shall not stand The undoubted seeds of ruine are in it nothing but an Eradication of them by real amendment can prevent it And lest any place Angle or Isle in the World should think to escape see 4. The universality of this Axiom Every Kingdom every City and every House though the Kingdom be never so well peopled never so well furnisht never so well fortified though the City be never so well built never so well chartered never so well traded though the House be never so well situate never so well guarded never so well adorned yet if the Inhabitants be divided against themselves they will come to desolation But the Text in hand is sufficient to affirm this position Take heed that ye be not consumed one of another which Caution questionless implies manifest danger and the danger is no less than mutual consumption or utter perishing as you heard before Hic enim est dimicationis exitus as Grotius the end of these Contentions if they be not repented and extinguished is Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Ruine 2. Histories and Experience do attest the same For Contentions in general it is evident that the Divisions which were among the Trojans made way for their overthrow by the Greeks the like animosities among the Greeks brought them under the slavery of Philip The Fewds that were among the Assyrians brought in the Persians and the like among the Persians subjected them to the Macedonians and the Contentions among Alexanders Successours rendred them up to be swallowed by the Romans one after another yea the Roman Empire it self near the time when the Western and the Eastern branches of it were hottest in Contention about the Supremacy of their Bishops and about Images behold the Goths and Vandalls destroyed the one and the Saracens and Turks ruined the other The
Atheists in Opinion likewise they say in their Hearts though they don't speak it out with their Tongues that there is no God Psal 14.1 they have not a thorough belief of a Deity or of a future State of Rewards and Punishments Or else it is in the last place because of their great Security Multitudes of professed Christians are fast asleep in their sins they give up themselves sinfully and many of them are given up of God judicially to a spirit of slumber and of deep sleep And when this is the case with men no wonder they are without any dread of Death or Hell or any thing else You know when a Man is in a deep sleep he fears no danger whatsoever These and such-like are the reasons why many carnal persons do spend their days in mirth and sensuality without any actual fear of Death or of it's dreadfull consequents But then it must be remembred that these very persons are subject or liable thereunto and if God awaken their Consciences and rouze them out of their security Job 24.17 Psal 55.4 5. then they are as 't is in Job in the terrors of the shadow of death horror overwhelmes them as 't is in that Psalm and the terrors of death fall upon them Like Foelix they fall a trembling and like Belshazzar their knees are ready to smite one against another 'T is time now that I should come to the second branch of the Question which is By what Means and Methods are the Children of God deliver'd by Christ from the fear of Death To this I shall return an Answer First By shewing you what Christ hath already done and then Secondly What he continues still to do in order to this end 1. I shall shew you what Christ hath already done to deliver or free the Children of God from the fear of Death He himself in his own Person hath suffered or tasted death for them This is every where declar'd in the New Testament and 't is hinted to us in the Text. Christ by death that is by his own death hath delivered the Children from the fear of death The death of Christ hath made Death to look with another face than formerly it had As the Wood that Moses cast into the waters of Marah did alter their property so the Death of Christ hath alter'd the property of Death and taken away the bitterness and formidableness thereof hence 't is that the death of Believers in Scripture is call'd a Sleep It is said of Stephen when he dyed though it was by a violent death That he fell asleep Acts 7.60 And the Apostle Paul says 1 Thes 4.14 That as Jesus dyed and rose again even so them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him It is well observed by some that the Apostle doth seem purposely to vary the Phrase he says that Jesus dyed and that the Saints sleep in Him and the reason is because that he sustained Death with all its terrors that so it might become a calm and quiet sleep unto the Saints The Death of Christ must needs sweeten the fore-thoughts of death to the Children and Chosen of God because that he dy'd in their stead he did not only dye in their Nature but in their Room not only for rheir good but also in their stead You know how it was with the Sacrifices of old they were put to death in the room of the Sacrificers So it was with Christ the truth of those Sacrifices he was put to death in the room of Sinners and they dy'd in him as their Representative Now this serves to free them from an enthralling fear of Death why should they fear that which Christ hath undergone in their place and room There are two things more to be considered under this Head 1. Christ by his Death hath taken away the true Reason of the fear of Death that is the Curse and Condemnation of the Law of God The Apostle Paul says That the sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15.56 and the strength of sin is the Law Death hath it's wounding power from sin and sin hath it's condemning power from the Law 't is the Law that discovers the nature of sin that enhanceth the guilt of sin that denounceth condemnation against him that commits it and 't is this condemnation of the Law that torments the Sinner with the fear of death Now Christ having in our stead subjected himself to death and so undergone the penalty of the Law he hath taken away the Curse and condemning power thereof He hath says the Apostle Paul redeemed us from the curse of the Law being himself made a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 The death of Christ hath satisfi'd every demand of the broken Law The Law of God hath nothing now to lay to the charge of God's Elect it owns the Blood of Christ to be a sufficient compensation for their violations of it there are no petty satisfactions to be made by themselves since Christ hath made compleat satisfaction for them and in their behalf The Law now is ready to acquit the Believer it says Thou mayst live for all me and live eternally I require not thy death as being satisfied with the Death of Christ When thou dyest a natural death it is rather to comply with the appointment of God and in order to the raising up hereafter a better and more curious Fabrick of thy Body than to satisfie any demand of mine 2. Christ by his Death hath deprived the Devil of the power of death and by this means also he hath deliver'd the Children from a servile fear of Death The Devil as I said before hath a power to terrifie the Consciences of men with the apprehension of death and the dreadful consequents thereof you see into what bondage he brings men upon this account many times he brings the Children themselves into the suburbs of Hell and lays them under dreadful terrors and horrors the pains of Hell says one of them gat hold of me I found trouble and sorrow Psal 116.3 2 Sam. 22.6 and again at another time the sorrows of death compassed me about Now this power of Satan is taken away by the Death of Christ The Blood of Christ hath cancel'd or at least contracted and lessened his Commission So that when he assaults a Believer in this kind he is easily resisted the Devil gives ground if the Believer stands his ground he can't prevail against a Child of God unless God give him a special Commission or unless he yields to his Temptation being justified by Faith in the Death of Christ we have that peace which all the Devils in Hell are not able to disturb the weapons of his power and warfare in this way are wrested out of his hands by the Death of Christ Thus you see what Christ hath already done 2. Let me proceed to shew you what he
the Spirit of God that he may be a Spirit of Adoption to you as well as of Regeneration pray in the Spirit for the Spirit that you may have the frame of a Child filled with Zeal for the Fathers Name and Interest 'T is the Spirit of Adoption that teaches us to cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 'T is the Spirit of God that gives us an inward freedom and liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 Whâ—â—e the Spirit of the Lord is there 's Liberty This Spirit will not give you a liberty unto sin but from it nor from God but with him This Spirit will not break the Bonds of the Commandment but tye up your hearts to it and give you liberty and chearfulness in it We read that the Son makes us free John 8.36 If the Son shall make you free then are you free indeed We read also that the Spirit makes us free too but in different respects The Son makes us free from the Curse of the Law from the guilt of Sin from the Wrath of God but the Spirit makes us free too from the reigning power of sin from the bondage that is in the Conscience The Authority of God has made his Precepts necessary what is necessary in the precept the Spirit makes voluntary in the principle God charges the Conscience with Duty and the Spirit enlarges the heart to obedience Psal 119.32 I will run the way of thy Commandment when thou shalt enlarge my heart 3. Pray for the Spirit that he would perform his whole Office to you that you may not partake only of the work of the Spirit in some one or some few of his operations but in all that are common to Believers And especially that he that has been an anointing Spirit to you would be a sealing Spirit to you also that he that has sealed you may be a witnessing Spirit to his own work and that he would be the earnest of your inheritance a pledge of what God has further promised and purposed for you 2 Cor. 1.21 22. Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed you is God Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit into our hearts 2. To speak a little more particularly what the Apostle prays for his Ephesians in more general Terms he prays for the Colossians more particularly Col. 1.9 10. We do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be fill'd with the knowledge of his Will in all Wisdom and Spiritual Vnderstanding that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and encreasing in the knowledge of God And when I have opened the particulars of this Scripture I shall not need to seek elsewhere for an answer to this Inquiry What is the matter of the fulness of God which we ought to pray and strive to be filled with I. Let us pray and strive and strive and pray again adding endeavours § 1 to prayers and prayers to endeavours that we may be filled with the knowledge of Gods will And we have need to make this an essential part of our prayer for first We may happily do the will of God Materially when we do it not Formally not under that formal and precise consideration that what we do is the will of God and that we do it under that consideration because it is the will of God A Man may perhaps stumble upon some practices that are commanded by the Moral Law and yet in all this not do Gods will but his own that which in all our obedience we are to eye and regard is the Authority the will of God we cannot be said to observe a Commandment unless we observe Gods Authority in that Commandment nor to keep Gods Statutes unless we keep God in our eye as the great Legislator and Statute maker A blind obedience even to God is no more acceptable than a blind obedience to Men is justifiable Secondly We ought to pray that we may be filled with the knowledge of Gods will that there may be more employment for the powers and faculties of the Soul which in every heart wherein the grace of God radically is are in the general inclined to do the will of God There are some well disposed Christians of strong affections and good inclinations to do Gods will who are but slenderly furnisht with knowledge what that will of God is which he would have them do And thus those warm propensions of Spirit either lye like dead stocks upon their hands or else they laid out the zeal of their Souls upon that which is not the will of God and when they have spent their vigour and strength of Soul upon it they come to God for a reward who asks them who required this at your hand And thus even holy Davids zeal was mislaid upon this account that God had not spoken a word nor revealed his will in the Case 2 Sam. 7.7 Thirdly It s our great concern that we may know the will of God and be filled with that knowledge that the knowledge of Gods will may be an operative principle of obedience thus David prays Psal 143.10 Teach me to do thy will O God We are to pray that God would teach us to know and then teach us to do his will knowledge without obedience is lame obedience without knowledge is blind and we must never hope for acceptance if we offer the blind and the lame to God Luke 12.47 That Servant which knew his Lords will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes As therefore all our practice must be guided by knowledge so must all our knowledge be referred to practice Fourthly and lastly We ought to pray that we may be filled with the knowledge of God's will that this knowledge being rooted and grounded in our Souls it may render that obedience easie and delightful which is so necessary to its acceptation when Satan had entred Judas his heart he would not stick at any of the Devils commands and when he had filled the heart of Ananias and Saphira Acts 5.3 how ready were they to lie unto God If our hearts were more filled with the knowledge of Gods will that this Divine Law were written there duty would be our delight obedience our meat and drink nor would there be room left for those corruptions which hang upon us like dead weight always incumbring us in our obedience § 2 II. Let us pray again that we be filled with all wisdom in the doing of the will of God we want knowledge much we want wisdom more we need more light into the will of God and more judgment how to perform it For first It 's one great instance of wisdom to know the seasons of duty and what every day calls for As the providence of God disposes us under various circumstances so it calls for the exercise of various duties one circumstance calls for mourning another for
importance of the Old yet the sincere ones who did believe the Prophets as the Apostles exhorted 1 Acts 26.27 John 20.31 they with Philip and Nathaneel Israelites indeed rejoyced they had found him of whom Moses has written in the Law 2 John 1.41 and whom the Prophet foretold should be the desire of all Nations 3 Hag. 2.7 a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the people Israel Wherefore I may very fairly hence under this First Head in the explication deduce from my Text I. That the Holy Scriptures read preach'd and heard accompanied with Prayer and other institutions of Christ as the Seals of the new Covenant and the Ministry of Reconciliation are the Means of Grace ordained of God to bring Men and Women to repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ 4 Acts 20.21 That Men by the applying themselves sincerely to the use of these means which tho' they have no natural force in and of themselves to the effecting of a change may by the efficacy of the Spirit exerting insuperable Grace 4 John 15.3 17.17 Eph. 5.26 be cleansed 5 God the great Efficient may in these helps of his own ordaining reveal his own arm 6 Isa 53.1 draw them unto Christ 7 John 6.45 Rev. 1.16 make the Seed of the Word fruitful and putting forth his own Power bring them to salvation in the Heavenly Kingdom and rest sweetly in Abraham's Bosom where they shall not know trouble any more II. These are ordinary means according to the order established by the supream Ruler who knows what 's best for those under his Government in opposition to extraordinary which seldom happen upon some singular work of Judgment or Mercy to a Person or People 'T is true the most Sovereign Agent who is most free he may if he pleaseth without means by an immediate Impression of Light and infusion of Grace work on the Soul as he did on the Apostles and Paul 8 Acts 2.4 9.1 c. Gal. 1.12 but generally and for the most part God revealeth himself mediately by the ordinary means he hath setled to abide in his Church to the end there being an aptness and fitness in them under Divine Influence for converting the Soul 9 Psal 19.17 when Embassadors come in Christs stead beseeching men to be reconciled to God 10 2 Cor. 5.20 having a promise of his Presence with them to the end of the World 11 Mat. 28. ult in communicating of the mind of God by writing or speaking reading or interpreting exhorting and directing 12 2 Pet. 3.1 Acts 21.25 4.20 29. 15.21 8.30 35. 1 Cor. 12.30 Acts 15.32 1 Thess 2.11 every way preaching for the begetting of Faith 13 Ro. 10.13 15 when the advice of Gregory Nazianzen is observ'd namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Pray and search having pray'd with David Open thou mine eyes or reveal 14 Psal 119.18 that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law It concerns us to be much in meditating upon it 15 1.2 John 5.39 Gregory called the Great gives an account of an illiterate man who bought a Bible hired one to read to him out of it and thereby became a great Proficient in the School of Christianity Luther ‖ Melch. Adeon in vita by reading of it was turn'd from Popery so was John Hus by reading of our Wickliff's Books proving his Doctrin from it We know Augustine was converted by taking it up and reading * Confess l. 8. ch 8. § 2. Nicephor p. 5. 27. And 't is said Cyprian by reading the Prophet Jonas As Junius by the first Chapter of John's Gospel tho' t is supposed neither of them then had much skill in the Originals but were beholding to Translations Thus we see how the Scripture is the means and the ordinary means The next thing in the explication is to shew II. That this means becomes more certainly succesful or effectual Certainly is to be understood in opposition to that which happens uncertainly and peradventure Not as if every where that the Immortal Seed of the Word is sown Conversion did certainly and always follow it being but a subservient Instrument some Seed meets with bad ground 16 Mat. 13.4 5. some reject the Counsel of God against themselves 17 Luke 7.30 they put it from them judging themselves unworthy of eternal Life 18 Acts 13.46 i. e. by contradicting of the Word they do as evidently deprive themselves of eternal Life as if the Judge did pass that Sentence upon the Bench. So what is the Savour of Life to others becomes the Savour of Death to them 19 2 Cor. 2.16 The Rich-man as he is brought in here conceits after the mode of the Jews seeking for Signs 20 John 4.48 6.30 which Christ gave check to when by his accomplishment of the Prophecies he had demonstrated himself to be the Messiah and they would have him to be a Political or Temporal King 21 Mat. 12.39 that one rising miraculously from the dead and preaching would keep others from Hell But Abraham the Father of the Faithful who knew what it was to repent and believe and be converted was of another perswasion He bids hearken to the written word read and preached on which Faith and Repentance was to be grounded God's Providential Works how admirable soever not being the Rule for Men to go by but his Word It being no good sense that God's extraordinary actings should be our ordinary Rule He that would not Plow or Sow till Manna be rain'd from Heaven because it once did may expect Bread till he starve and so may he that looks to be fed with Ravens as Elias once was Man may be most certainly assured from God's Word what his Mind is God himself indeed doth principally make any means effectual or successful Paul's planting and Apollo 's watering comes to nothing without him his influence and blessing 22 1 Cor. 3.6 7. De Gratia Christi ch 24. Augustine said right Men may read and understand behold and confess not by the Law and Doctrin sounding outwardly but by the inward and hidden wonderful and ineffable power God doth not only work Divine true Revelations but also good Wills Yet from the external preaching of the Word of God as a means of his appointment there is a Godly Sorrow or a sorrowing after God wrought which worketh repentance to Salvation 23 2 Cor. 7.10 11. It proves successful to some who are not hearers only but doers of the Word 24 Jam. 1.22 It falls out prosperously and happily with them using of the means Solomon saith 1 Prov. 13.15 A good understanding giveth favour and success Be sure a good understanding of Gods mind from his Word becomes ordinarily more successful that the Soul may be in health and prosper 2 3 Epist John v. 1. than any expectation of that which can
things which we comprehend not III. That which makes believing so difficult is the seeming contradictory acts of Faith it seems not to consist with it self Here I take Faith more generally as it has for its Object the whole Word of God the Law and the Gospel the special Object of Faith as Saving is the Promise Saving Faith seeks Life which is not to be found in Commandments and Threats but in a Promise of Mercy Faith acting upon the whole Word of God seems to contradict it self for Faith believes a Sinner is to die according to the Law and that he shall live according to the Gospel Faith has the Word of God for both both for the Death and Life of a Sinner and both are true the Law must be executed and the Promise must be performed but how to reconcile this is not so obvious and easie to every one Is the Law then against the Promises of God God forbid Gal. 3.21 't is impossible both should be accomplished in the Person of a Sinner he cannot die eternally and live eternally yet both are wonderfully brought about by Jesus Christ according to the manifold Wisdom of God without any Derogation to his Law and Justice God and his Law are satisfy'd and the Promise of Salvation made good to the Sinner and so both Law and Gospel have their ends not a tittle of either falls to the ground Heaven and Earth may sooner pass away than this can be O what a mistery is Christ Flesh and blood can't reveal this to us every believer assents to the truth of the Law as well as the Gospel he knows that both must have their full course the Law is fulfilled in inflicting Death the Gospel in giving Life the Law contributes nothing to the eternal Life of a sinner but kills him and leaves him weltering in his blood is no more concerned about him for ever if God will bring this dead sinner to life again he may dispose of him as he please the Law has done its utmost against him so the Law did against Christ spared him not but killed him out-right and left him for a time under the power of Death but having slain a Man who was God as well as Man Death was too weak to hold him he swallows up Death in victory he whom the Law slew as Man rises as God by the power of his godhead the Law contributed nothing to his Resurrection the Law had the chief hand in his Death but none in his Resurrection And here begins our eternal Life in the Resurrection of him who dies no more and is the Resurrection and Life to all who believe in him IV. The reigning unbelief that is among the generality of Men even among those who are of greatest reputation for Wisdom and Learning Ay and among those who carry the vogue for Zeal and Religion are counted the Head and Pillars of the Church Some pretending to Infallibility others set up themselves and are cryed up by many as such competent Judges in all matters of Faith that their judgment is not to be questioned but readily complied with by all who would not be counted singular and Schismatical So 't was in our Saviours time the Jews who had been the only Professors of the true Religion for many ages in opposition to all Idolatry and false Worship they stumble at the Gospel the Greeks who were the more Learned sort of the Heathen World they counted it foolishness And thus was the whole World set against Christ here was the greatest outward hinderance of the belief of the Gospel that could be imagined and add to this the indefatigable pains and industry of the Devil to keep out the light of the Gospel from shining in upon us he blinds the Eyes of Men by a cursed influence upon their corrupt minds that they should not believe Is it not a hard matter under all these discouragements to embrace the Gospel and declare our belief of it Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him But this people who know not the Law John 7.48 49. Why should any regard what a company of poor illiterate people do Their following Christ is rather an argument why we should not follow him they are all but fools and ideots that do so A cursed sort of people This is the judgement the Men of the World have of believers There is nothing among too many self-conceited Scepticks lies under a greater imputation of folly and madness than faith in the Lord Jesus Christ O what a pass are things come too that after so many hundred years profession of Christianity we should grow weary of Christ and the Gospel V. The notorious Apostacy of many Professors this day who have made Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 may convince you all that 't is no easie matter to believe so to believe as to persevere in the Faith VI. Believers themselves find it a difficult matter to act their Faith if their Lives lie upon it they cannot act it at their pleasure without the special aid and assistance of the Spirit 't is God must work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Believers are hardly put to it great is the labour and travel of their Souls in believing they meet with much opposition from flesh and blood in every act of Faith they put forth they are forced to cry out for help in the midst of an act of Faith lest they should fail in it I helieve Lord help my unbelief q. d. I am now under some light and power of Faith but I see I can't hold it if thou dost not help me I feel flesh and blood rising up against my Faith I begin to stagger already Lord help me that I may not be run down by my carnal Heart Temptations shake our Faith many times there is a perpetual conflict between Faith and Diffidence yet Faith fails not utterly there 't is still Psal 31.22 23. Psal 42.6 9. Faith upholds the Heart still Psal 116.7 Unbelievers they tremble and turn away from God but true believers in their greatest frights and fears do run to God Psal 56.3 make towards him still Were it an easie matter to believe such suddain fits of unbelief would not come so strongly upon believers themselves Secondly The Reson why many Professors count it an easie thing to Believe The main Reason is this and I will insist upon no other viz. Because they mistake a formal Profession of Faith for real believing this undo's thousands who because they are qualified as National Protestants for all worldly preferments here they rest and make no other use of their Religion as if the Articles of their Faith obliged them to nothing A formal Profession is general takes up Religion in gross but is not concerned in any one point of it But real Believing is particular brings down every Gospel Truth to our selves shews us our concernments in it Save thy self saith
for using means to attain it when they have not room for so much as a thought of it 2. Suppose Men have time and warning given them Death knocks at the door before it enters and besieges them before it storms them they lie by the brink of the grave before they fall into it yet they may want the Means of grace by which God ordinarily works when he brings Men to Repentance Publick Ordinances in such a case they cannot have and private ones they may not have They may have none with them that have the tongue of the Learned to speak a word in season to them Isa 50.4 they may lack oyl but have none that can tell them where they may buy it None that understand the nature of Repentance none that can instruct them in it or direct them how they may attain it Friends may be as carnal and ignorant and unacquainted with the things of God as themselves and so may Ministers be sometimes They may seek a vision of the Prophet but the Law may perish from the Priest and counsel from the Ancient Ezek. 7.26 True indeed God can work repentâ—nce in Man or any grace without means by his immediate power or by some extraordinary means but he never promiseth to do it and therefore it is a bold presuming and tempting of him to expect he should What if God once stopt a sinner in the midst of his carrear when not only running away from the means of Salvation but bidding defiance to them and converted him in a miraculous way by a glorious light shining about him and the immediate voice of Christ to him Acts 9. shall others hope for the like Live in sin all their days and look for conversion by miracle at last 3. If they have means when they come to die yet they may not have an heart to use them First By reason of bodily weakness failing of natural Spirits racking and tormenting pains which often afflict Men in such a casâ— These may blunt and dull Mens minds or distract them and draw away the intention of them from other things and hold them only to the consideration of their present anguish How unfit are Men for serious minding even of their Worldly affairs when under bodily indispositions and how much more than unfit for Spiritual work When the Soul is wholly taken up with helping the body with which it sympathizes to bear its present burden it is ill at leasure to think of any thing else The Israelites harkned not to Moses tho sent of God to deliver them for anguish of Spirit and cruel bondage Exod. 6.9 and is it any wonder if a Man groaning under a distemper scarce able to bear his pain or think of any thing but his pain be in an ill case to look into his Heart consider his ways listen to the best counsil joyn with the best prayers c. If Gods children that have grace in their Hearts yet in time of sickness may through present weakness find much indisposedness in themselves to the actings of grace so that they are fain to bring forth their old store and comfort themselves with their former experiences rather than with the present frame of their Hearts what wonder is it if they that are altogether graceless be alike indisposed to seek for grace Secondly By reason of contracted hardness Men are naturally backward to good but much more when habituated to evil for the more inclined they are to evil the more averse they are to good and the more accustomed they are to sin the more inclined they are to it The practice of sin hardens the Heart and strengthens the sinning disposition and still the longer Men continue in sin the stronger such dispositions grow Hence the Apostles advice to the Hebrews chap. 3.13 Exhort one another while it is called to day lest your Hearts be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin implying that that would follow upon their continuance in sin We see even in natural things that Mens being accustomed to one sort of actions unfits them for another When Men have lived in the practice of sin all their days and their natural disposition to sin is hightned into an habit it is not strange if they be much more averse to the contrary good Jer. 13.23 How can you that are accustomed to evil learn to do well If one gross sin in a believer may so debilitate and enfeeble those gracious dispositions that were before in him as to unfit him for and deaden him to spiritual duties to what a superlative hardness may a thousand and a thousand repeated acts of wilful sin bring the Heart of a carnal Man and to what not only aversness to any good but confirmedness against all 4. They cannot work repentance in themselves not make the means effectual for the enlightning of their minds the changing softning spiritualizing their Hearts or working a vital principle in them If they say they can either they must assume to themselves a Creating power a power of making themselves new Creatures or creating this grace in their own Hearts there being nothing of it in them by nature and antecedently to their making such a change Or they must say that there is some seed of grace in them beforehand some root or stock which being watered and cultivated by outward means diligence and industry may be made fruitful so that the working repentance in them is not the infusing a new principle into them but a correcting of the old one Conversion not the giving or creating in them a new nature but only a freeing the old one from its former impediments and setting it at liberty to its proper actions But this is 1. Contrary to the whole current of Scripture which affirms Mans will since the fall of Adam to be void of all saving good and impotent to it till renewed by grace John 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing Rom. 5.6 When we were without strength 2 Cor. 3.5 We are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves And prone to evil Job 15.16 Man drinks iniquity like water Prov. 2.14 Rejoyceth to do evil Rom. 6.17 He is a servant of sin Gen. 6.5 All the imaginations of his Heart are only evil continually Eph. 2.1 He is dead in trespasses and sins This is broadly to charge a lie upon the God of truth 2. To deprive God of the glory of one of his chiefest works the new Creation in which he is said to put forth the same power which he did in creating the World at first 2 Cor. 4.6 and in raising up Christ from the dead Eph. 1.19 20. compared with chap. 2.1 They are said to be born of the Spirit John 3.5 And not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of Man but of God John 1.15 Whereas they that assert the contrary take Gods work out of his hands and grudge him the honour of it 3. To go contrary to the common
and Earth a damned Spirit the most cursed part of the Creation It is most reasonable that the baseness of the Competitour should be a foil to reinforce the lustre of Gods authority yet Men reject God and comply with the tempter O prodigious perversness 2. Sin vilifies the ruling Wisdom of God that prescrib'd the Law to Men. Altho the dominion of God over us be Supreme and Absolute yet 't is exercis'd according to the councel of his Will by the best means 1 Tim. 1.17 for the best ends he is accordingly stiled by the Apostle The eternal King and only wise God 'T is the glorious Prerogative of his Sovereignty and Deity that he can do no wrong for he necessarily acts according to the excellencies of his Nature Particularly his Wisdom is so relucent in his Laws that the serious contemplation of it will ravish the sincere minds of Men into a compliance with them They are framed with exact congruity to the Nature of God and his relation to us and to the faculties of Man before he was corrupted From hence the Divine Law being the transcript not only of Gods Will but his Wisdom binds the understanding and will our leading faculties to esteem and approve to consent and choose all his precepts as best Now sin vilifies the infinite understanding of God with respect both to the precepts of the â—â—w the rule of our duty and the sanction annext to confirm its obligâ—â—â—on It does constructively tax the precepts as unequal too rigid â—â—d severe a confinement to our wills and actions Thus the impious Rebels complain The ways of the Lord are not equal as injurious to their liberty and not worthy of observance What St. James saith to correct the uncharitable censorious Humour of some in his time James 4.11 He that speaks evil of his brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law as an imperfect and rash rule is aplicable to Sinners in any other kind As an unskillful Hand by straining too high breaks the strings of an Instrument and spoils the Musick so the Strictness and Severity of the Precepts breaks the harmonious Agreement between the Wills of Men and the Law and casts an Imputation of Imprudence upon the Law-giver This is the implicit Blasphemy in Sin Besides the Law has Rewards and Punishments to secure our Respects and Obedience to it The wise God knows the Frame of the reasonable Creature what are the inward Springs of our Actions and has accordingly propounded such Motives to our Hope and Fear the most active Passions as may engage us to perform our Duty He promises his favour that is better then life to the Obedient and threatens his wrath that is worse then death to the rebellious Now Sin makes it evident that these Motives are not effectual in the Minds of Men And this reflects upon the Wisdom of the Law-giver as if defective in not binding his Subjects firmly to their Duty for if the Advantage or Pleasure that may be gain'd by Sin be greater than the Reward that is promised to Obedience and the Punishment that is threatned against the Transgression the Law is unable to restrain from Sin and the Ends of Government are not obtained Thus Sinners in venturing upon forbidden things reproach the Understanding of the Divine Law-giver 3. Sin is a Contrariety to the unspotted Holiness of God Of all the glorious and benign Constellation of the Divine Attributes that shine in the Law of God his Holiness has the brightest Lustre God is Holy in all his Works but the most venerable and precious Monument of his Holiness is the Law For the Holiness of God consists in the Correspondence of his Will and Actions with his moral Perfections Wisdom Goodness and Justice and the Law is the perfect Copy of his Nature and Will The Psalmist who had a purged Eye saw and admir'd its Purity and Perfection Psal 19. Psal 119.140 The Commandment of the Lord is pure inlightning the eyes The word is very pure therefore thy servant loves it 'T is the perspicuous and glorious Rule of our Duty without Blemish or Imperfection The Commandment is holy just and good It injoyns nothing but what is absolutely Good without the least Tincture of Evil. The Sum of it is set down by the Apostle to live soberly that is to abstain from any thing that may stain the Excellence of an understanding Creature To live righteously which respects the State and Scituation wherein God has disposed Men for his Glory It comprehends all the respective Duties to others to whom we are united by the Bands of Nature or of civil Society or of Spiritual Communion And to live godly which includes all the internal and outward Duties we owe to God who is the Sovereign of our Spirits whose Will must be the Rule and his Glory the End of our Actions In short The Law is so form'd that prescinding from the Authority of the Law-giver its Holiness and Goodness lays an eternal Obligation on us to obey it Now Sin is not only by Interpretation a Reproach to the Wisdom and other Perfections of God but directly and formally a Contrariety to his infinite Sanctity and Purity for it consists in a not doing what the Law commands Rom. 11. or doing what it forbids 'T is therefore said That the carnal mind is Enmity against God An active immediate and irreconcilable Contrariety to his holy Nature and Will From henee there is a reciprocal Hatred between God and Sinners God is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity without an infinite Displicence the Effects of which will fall upon Sinners and tho' 't is an Impiety hardly conceivable Rom. 1. yet the Scripture tells us that they are haters of God 'T is true God by the transcendent Excellence of his Nature is uncapable of suffering any Evil and there are few in the present State arrived to such Malice as to declare open Enmity and War against God In the Damned this Hatred is explicit and direct the Fever is hightned to a Frenzy the blessed God is the Object of their Curses and eternal Aversation If their Rage could extend to him and their Power were equal to their Desires they would Dethrone the most High And the Seeds of this are in the Breasts of Sinners here As the fearful Expectation of irresistible and fiery Vengeance increases their Aversation increases They endeavour to rase out the Inscription of God in their Souls and to extinguish the thoughts and sense of their Inspector and Judge They wish he were not All-seeing and Almighty but Blind and Impotent uncapable to vindicate the Honour of his despised Deity The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God The Heart is the Fountain of Desires and Actions interpret the Thoughts and Affections from whence the Inference is direct and conclusive that habitual Sinners who live without God in the world have secret Desires there was no Sovereign being
it was a rule amongst the Heathens that a wise man should worship all their Deities The Romans were so insatiable in Idolatry that they sent to forreign Countries to bring the gods of several Nations an unpolisht Stone a tame Serpent that were reputed Deities they received with great solemnity and reverence But the true God had no Temple no Worship in Rome where there was a Pantheon dedicated to the honour of all the false gods The reason he gives of it is that the true God who alone has Divine Excellencies and Divine Empire will be worshipt alone and strictly forbids the assumption of any into his Throne To adore any besides him is infinitely debasing and provoking to his dread Majesty Now sin in its nature is a conversion from God to the creature and whatever the temptation be in yielding to it there is signified that we choose something before his favour Sin is founded in bono jucundo something that is delectable to the carnal Nature 't is the universal character of carnal Men they are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God To some riches are the most alluring object The young Man in the Gospel when our Saviour commanded him to give his estate to the poor and he should have treasure in Heaven went away sorrowful as if he had been offer'd to his loss To others the pleasures that in strict propriety are sensual are most charming Love is the weight of the Soul that turns it not like a dead weight of the Scales but with election freely to its object in the carnal ballance the present things of the World are of conspicuous moment and outweigh Spiritual and Eternal blessings Altho the favour of God be eminently all that can be desir'd under the notion of riches or honour or pleasure and every atom of our affection is due to him yet carnal Men think it a cheap purchase to obtain the good things of this World by sinful means with the loss of his favour This their actions declare Prodigious folly as if a few sparks struck out of a Flint that can neither afford light or warmth were more desirable than the Sun in its brightness And how contumelious and provoking it is to God he declares in the most moving expressions Be astonished O ye Heavens Jer. 2.12 13. at this and be horribly affraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out broken cisterns that can hold no water This immediately was charg'd upon the Jews who set up Idols of jealousie and ador'd them rather than the glorious Jehovah and in proportion 't is true of all sinners for every vicious affection prefers some vain object before his Love and the enjoyment of his glorious presence that is the reward of obedience 5. The sinner disparages the impartial Justice of God In the Divine Law there is a connexion between sin and punishment the evil of doing and the evil of suffering This is not a mere arbitrary constitution but founded on the inseparable desert of sin and the rectitude of Gods nature which unchangably loves holiness and hates sin Altho the threatning does not lay a strict necessity upon the Lawgiver always to inflict the punishment yet God having declar'd his equal Laws as the rule of our duty and of his judgment if they should be usually without effect upon offenders the bands of Government would be dissolved and consequently the honour of his justice stain'd both with respect to his nature and office for as an essential attribute 't is the correspondence of his will and actions with his moral perfections and as Sovereign Ruler he is to preserve equity and order in his Kingdom Now those who voluntarily break his Law presume upon impunity The first rebellious sin was committed upon this presumption God threaten'd if you eat the forbidden fruit you shall die the Serpent says eat and you shall not die and assenting to the temptation Adam fell to disobedience And ever since Men are fearless to sin upon the same motive Psalm 50. God chargeth the wicked Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self not concern'd to punish the violation of his sacred Laws The sinner commits the Divine Attributes to fight against one another presuming that Mercy will disarm Justice and stop its terrible effects upon impenitent obstinate sinners From hence they become bold and hardnen'd in the continuance of their sins Deut. 29.17 19 20. There is a root that beareth gall and wormwood and when the curse of the Law is declar'd and denounc'd against sin the wicked blesseth himself in his heart saying I shall have peace tho I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst This casts such a foul blemish upon the Justice of God that he threatens the severest vengeance for it The Lord will not spare him but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that Man and all the curses written in this book shall be upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven Psalm 50. Consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver 6. The sinner implicitly denies Gods omniscience There is such a turpitude adhering to sin that it cannot endure the light of the Sun or the light of Conscience but seeks to be conceal'd under a mask of vertue or a vail of darkness There are very few on this side Hell so transform'd into the likeness of the Devil as to be impenetrable by shame What is said of the Adulterer and Theif sinners of greater guilt and deeper dye Job is true in proportion of every sinner If a Man sees them they are in the terrors of the shadow of death Now from whence is it that many who if they were surpriz'd in the actings of their sins by a Child or a stranger would blush and tremble yet altho the holy God sees all their sins in order to judge them and will judge in order to punish them are secure without any fearful or shameful apprehensions of his presence Did they stedfastly believe that their foul villanies were open to his piercing pure and severe Eye they must be struck with terrors and cover'd with Confusion Will he force the Queen before my face was the speech of the King inflamed with wrath and the prologue of Death against the fallen favourite Would Men dare to affront Gods authority and outragiously break his Laws before his face if they duly consider'd his omnipresence and observance of them it were impossible And infidelity is the radical cause of their inconsideration It was a false imputation against Job but justly applied to the wicked Jâ—â— 22.13 14 Thou sayest How does God know can he judge through the dark cloud Thick clouds are a covering to him that he sees not And such are introduced by
the Psalmist declaring their inward sentiments The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it Lastly The sinner slights the power of God This attribute renders God a dreadful Judge He has a right to punish and power to revenge every transgression of his Law His judicial power is supreme his executive is irresistible He can with one stroke dispatch the Body to the Grave and the Soul to Hell and make Men as miserable as they are sinful Yet sinners as boldly provoke him as if there were no danger We read of the infatuated Syrians that they thought that God the Protector of Israel had only power on the Hills and not in the Vallies and renewed the War to their destruction Thus sinners enter into the lists with God and range an Army of lusts against the Armies of Heaven and blindly bold run upon their own destruction They neither believe his all-seeing Eye nor all-mighty Hand They change the glory of the living God into a dead Idol that has Eyes and sees not and Hands and handles not and accordingly his threatnings make no impression upon them Thus I have presented a true view of the evil of sin consider'd in it self but as Job saith of God how little a portion of him is known May be said of the evil of sin how little of it is known For in proportion as our apprehensions are defective and below the greatness of God so are they of the evil of sin that contradicts his Sovereign will and dishonours his excellent perfections 2. Sin relatively to us is the most pernicious and destructive Evil. If we compare it with temporal Evils it preponderates all that Men are liable to in the present World Diseases in our Bodies disasters in our Estates disgrace in our Reputation are in just esteem far less evil than the evil of sin for that corrupts and destroys our more excellent and immortal part The vile Body is of no account in comparison of the precious Soul Therefore the Apostle enforces his exhortation Dearly beloved brethren abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the Soul The issue of this War is infinitely more woful than of the most cruel against our Bodies and Goods our Liberties and Lives for our Estates and Freedom if lost may be recover'd if the present Life be lost for the cause of God it shall be restor'd in greater lustre and perfection but if the Soul be lost 't is lost for ever All temporal Evils are consistent with the love of God Job on the dunghil roughcast with Ulcers was most precious in Gods sight Lazarus in the lowest poverty and wasted with loathsom Sores was dear to his affections a guard of Angels was sent to convey his departing Soul to the Divine Presence But sin separates between God and us who is the fountain of felicity and the center of rest to the Soul Other evils God who is our wise and compassionate Father and Physitian makes use of as Medicinal preparations for the cure of sin and certainly the Disease which would be the death of the Soul is worse than the Remedy tho' never so bitter and afflicting to sense Sin is an evil of that malignity that the least degree of it is fatal If it be conceiv'd in the Soul tho' not actually finisht 't is deadly One sin corrupted in an instant angelical excellencies and turn'd the glorious Spirits of Heaven into Devils 'T is a poison so strong that the first taste of it shed a deadly taint and malignity into the veins of all mankind Sin is such an exceeding Evil that 't is the severest punishment Divine Justice inflicts on sinners on this side Hell The giving Men over to the power of their lusts is the most fearful judgment not only with respect to the cause Gods unrelenting and unquenchable anger and the issue everlasting destruction but in the quality of the judgment Nay did sin appear as odious in our Eyes as it does in Gods we should account it the worst part of Hell it self the pollutions of the damned to be an evil exceeding the torments superadded to them Sin is pregnant with all kinds of Evils the seeds of it are big with Judgments The evils that are obvious to sense or that are Spiritual and Inward Temporal and Eternal Evils all proceed from sin often as the Natural cause and always as the Meritorious And many times the same punishment is produc'd by the efficiency of sin as well as inflicted for its guilt Thus uncleanness without the miraculous waters of Jealousie rots the Body and the pleasure of sin is revenged by a loathsom consuming Disease the natural consequence of it Thus intemperance and luxury shorten the lives of Men and accelerate damnation Fierce desires and wild rage are fewel for the everlasting fire in Hell The same evils considered Physically are from the efficiency of sin consider'd legally are from the guilt of sin and the justice of God This being a point of great usefulness that I may be more instructive I will consider the evils that are consequential to sin under these two Heads 1. Such as proceed immediately from it by Emanation 2. Those evils and all other as the effects of Gods justice and sentence 1. The evils that proceed immediately by emanation from it and tho' some of them are not resented with feeling apprehensions by sinners yet they are of a fearful nature Sin has deprived Man of the purity nobility and peace of his innocent state 1. It has stain'd and tainted him with an universal intimate and permanent pollution Man in his first Creation was holy and righteous a beam of beauty derived from Heaven was shed upon his Soul in comparison of which sensitive beauty is but as the clearness of Glass to the lustre of a Diamond His understanding was light in the Lord his will and affections were regular and pure the Divine Image was imprest upon all his faculties that attracted the love and complacency of God himself Sin has blotted out all his aimiable excellencies and superinduc'd the most foul deformity the original of which was fetcht from Hell Sinners are the natural Children of Satan of a near resemblance to him The Scripture borrows comparisons to represent the defiling quality of sin from pollutions that are most loathsom to our senses from pestilential Vlcers putrifying Sores filthy Vomit and defiling Mire This pollution is universal through the whole Man Spirit Soul and Body It darkens the mind our supreme faculty with a cloud of Corruption it depraves the will and vitiates the affections 'T is a pollution so deep and permanent that the Deluge that swept away a World of sinners did not wash away their sins and the fire at the last day that shall devour the dross of the visible World and renew the Heavens and the Earth shall not purge away the sins of the guilty Inhabitants This pollution hath so defil'd and disfigur'd Man who was a fair and lovely type wherein
cause that will pass for just and sufficient at the great day before they resolve upon a total separation from their Brethren 8. Christ is to be followed in his great humility and meekness Mat. 11.29 Take my yoak upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your Souls Pride overcame the first man he affected Divinity and would needs be as God but behold the Lord Jesus who is the Eternal God and he humbled himself and became Man Humility was the constant attire and ornament of the Man Christ Jesus Though this great Redeemer be the chief of all the ways of God though more of God is visible in Him than in the whole Creation besides Though he glorifies his Father more than all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth put together and though he is exalted far above all Principalities and Powers and Might and Dominion no◠only in this World but in that which is to come Yet our Lord never was in the least High-minded Humility is one most remarkable feature in the image of Christ therefore resemble him in being humble Be not proud of Habit Hair and Ornaments 1 Pet. 5.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Etymologists derive the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies nodus a knot Be cloathed or be knotted with Humility I wish that other knots were less and this which is incomparably most becoming were more in fashion Let not your Estates puff you up Riches are not always to men of understanding and there may be a great deal of Gold in the Purse where there is no true Wisdom in the Head no Grace at all in the Heart Let not your natural parts your acquired endowments your spiritual Gifts though never so excellent make you to look upon others with contempt upon your selves with admiration you owe all Glory to that God from whom you have received all Let Humility look out at your Eyes a proud look is one of the seven things which the Lord hates Prov. 6.16 17. Let Humility express it self at your Lips let it attend you in all your addresses to God and beautifie your whole behaviour and converses with Men. The more humble you are the more of every other Grace will be imparted to you the more Rest and Peace you will have within your selves and since you will be ready to give him all the Praise the Lord is ready to put the more honour upon you in making you useful unto others 9. Christ is to be followed in his love to God great care to please him and fervent zeal for his Name and Glory Joh. 14.31 The World may know says Christ that I love the Father and as the Father gave me Commandment even so I do He obeyed that first and great Commandment and loved the Lord his God with all his Heart and Soul and Mind and Strength Christs love made him do whatever his Father pleased Joh. 8.29 He that sent me is with me the Father hath not left me alone for I always do those things that please him Christs love was stronger than Death no Waters no Flouds could drown it neither could the Baptism of blood quench it Christ was consumed with Divine and Holy zeal and he matters not what befal him so he might but glorifie his Father and finish the work which was given him to do Oh let us bring our cold and careless Hearts hither to the Consideration of this Great Example that the frost may melt care may be awakened and there may be something in us that may deserve the name of Warm zeal for God Let us be importunate in Prayer and restless till we feel the constraints of the Love of God forceable till we find really the greatest delight and pleasure in doing that which pleases him and aiming at his Glory we think not much of labour difficulty and hazzard that this our end may be attained 10. Christ is to be followed in his Sufferings and Death and unto this my Text has a more particular reference Christs Faith was strong though he was under a dismal Desertion The Sun of Righteousness did set in a dark cloud He submitted to his Fathers will and being confident of a joyful Resurrection he endured the Cross and despised the shame When Christians come to die their Faith should be most lively as being near finishing it should by no means fail when there is most need of it Though he slay me says Job yet will I trust in him Job 13.15 Christians should submit when the Lord of time will grant no more time to them and they should gladly enter upon a holy and blessed Eternity When the body is about to be sown in corruption by Faith they should see that its lying there will be to advantage for it will be raised in Incorruption and Glory 1 Cor. 15.42 43. Let Death be more natural or violent it is yours in the Covenant if you are true Believers 1 Cor. 3.22 Fear not to follow our Lord Jesus through that dark passage into the House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens And all the while you remain on Earth study a Conformity to your Lords death by crucifying the Flesh and dying to the World The more dead you are with Christ in this sense you will live to the better purpose and die in the greater Peace In the third place I am to produce some Arguments to perswade to the imitation of our Lord Jesus 1. Consider the greatness of the Person that gives you the Example Christ has this Name written on his Vesture and on his Thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 19.16 A Roman Historian commends a Prince who is maximus imperio Velleius Paterculus l. 2. exemplo major greatest in authority and yet greater by his example Every thing in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth does bow and is subject to the Lord Jesus and yet whose obedience ever was so exact as his was He gives us precepts and he himself is the great Pattern of performance Claudian the Poet has a notable passage concerning the examples of Monarchs and what a mighty influence they have Tunc observantior aequi Fit populus nec ferre vetat cum viderit ipsum Autorein parere sibi componitur Orbis Regis ad exemplum nec sic inflectere sensus Humanos edicta valent quà m vita Regentis Kings have many observers who very much Eye them and their high estate both awes and allures their Subjects to the imitation of them If they keep within the bounds of their own Laws their Subjects will be the more unwilling to transgress them Christ is the universal Soveraign who commands both Heaven and Earth and has the whole Creation at his beck He has kept the Laws he gives his Church 't is duty 't is interest 't is reasonable 't is honourable to resemble him in obedience 2. Remember the Relation wherein you that are Saints do stand unto the Lord
Jesus You are espoused to Him and should you not consent to be like to him who has betrothed you unto himself in Loving-kindness Mercy and Faithfulness for ever Hos 2.19 20. Nay you are members of his body Therefore you should grow up into Him in all things which is the Head even Christ Eph. 4.15 You should discover such a mind as Christ had you should manifest the same Spirit and act as he acted when he was here in the World 3. Consider that God did fore-ordain you that are Believers to a conformity to the Lord Jesus Rom. 8.29 For whom he did fore-know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many Brethren If you would appear with Christ in Glory you must be now changed into his Image Holiness and patient suffering will make you like him and is the decreed way unto his Kingdom 4. Walking as Christ walked will make it evident that you are indeed in him 1 Joh. 2.6 He that saith he abideth in him ought to prove what he saith and himself so to walk even as he walked To be in Christ is to be a new creature And these new Creatures do all resemble him for he is formed in them Naming the name of Christ will never demonstrate your Christianity unless you depart from iniquity which makes you so unlike unto your Lord. But likeness to him will prove you His in Truth And an evidence of this what strong consolation will it afford If you are in Christ how safe are you you are secured from the curse of the Law the stroke of vindictive Justice the wrath of the Destroyer the bondage of Corruption and Sin the sting of the first Death and the power of the second If you are in Christ His God is your God his Father your Father Joh. 20.17 You are loved as He is loved Joh. 17.23 That the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me And v. 26. That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them You are joint-heirs with Christ unto the same incorruptible inheritance how firm and sure is your title how certain and soon will be your possession and after possession is taken you shall not be dispossess'd unto Eternity 5. Your following the Example of Christ very much honours Him and credits Christianity 't is a sign that Christs death has a mighty vertue in it when it makes you to die to Sin and to be unmoved by the biggest offers that Mammon makes to you 'T is an argument that He is truly Christ when you are truly Christians that He is indeed alive when he lives in you and makes you to live to him and like him 'T is a demonstration that our Lord is risen indeed when you rise with him and seek those things that are above Col. 3.1 Christ is very much unknown and being unknown is undesired and neglected because so little of him is seen in Christians conversation How few deserve digito monstrari to be pointed at and to have such a Character given them There go the persons who discover such a Spirit who talk and walk too after such a manner that 't is evident Christ dwells and speaks and walks and works in them Be all of you prevailed with to honour your Lord Jesus by shewing the world what he was when here upon Earth and how powerfully he works in you though now he is in Heaven Chrysostom with great reason does call good works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unanswerable Syllogisms and demonstrations to confute and convince Infidels The World would flock into the Church being struck with the Majesty and Glory shining forth in Her if She were but more like unto her glorious Head But when they who are called Christians are so like unto the World 't is no wonder if the men of the World continue still as they are 6. Christ frequently speaks to you to follow him and observes whether and how you do it His word is plain that you should learn his Doctrine and live after his example And his eyes which are as a flaming fire are upon Professours ways His Omniscience should be more firmly believed and seriously considered by the Church it self Rev. 2.23 All the Churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the Reins and Hearts and I will give to every one of you according to your works I shall here by a Prosopopeia bring in our Lord Jesus speaking to you and himself propounding his own Example that you may hear and heed and follow the Lamb of God To this effect Christ speaks to you Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the Earth Look unto me and become like me all you that profess your selves to be my Members What Do you see in me that in any reason should turn away your faces or your hearts from me Blessed is He whosoever shall not be offended in Me. The Father is well pleased in Me and so should you as you value his favour and would consult your own interest I never took so much as one step in the ways of misery and destruction be you sure to avoid them I always trod in those paths which to you will prove pleasantness and peace though to satisfy for your deviations and going astray I was fain my self to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Consider your Lord and Master you that call your selves my disciples Many look upon you that will not look into my word and will judge of Me by your practices Be not so injurious to Me by misrepresenting Me as if I allowed those evils which you allow your selves in Why should I be wounded in my honour in the house of my Friends Why should you crucify me afresh And put me to an open shame When you yield to Satans temptations are you like to me When you are eager after worldly wealth the applause of men and flesh-pleasing delights are you like to me When you are proud and haughty bitter envious and revengeful do you at all resemble Me When you seek your selves and please your selves and matter not how much God is forgotten and displeased Am I in this your example O all you upon whom my name is called content not your selves with an empty name Be my disciples in truth and let the same mind that was in me be in you also be my disciples indeed live as I did in the World to honour God and to do good to man let it be your business for I have left you an example that you should follow my steps 7. Follow Christs Example that you may enter into his glory For if we be dead with him says the Apostle we shall live with him if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2.11 12. Be of good courage and conflict but do it in his Strength with your Spiritual enemies and
their sin ver 10. accepted of their punishment and called upon God ver 15. They put away their strange gods and served the Lord then the Soul of God was grieved for their misery and he delivered them ver 16. A parallel you have in Niniveh the charge given by the King Jon. â— 8 9. which was complyed with was Let them turn every one from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hand then they conclude a possibility of escape according to the tacit reserve in the Prophets message Who can tell if God will turn away from his fierce anger and we perish not 2. But yet further The Repentance in these acts must be for National Sins If it be for other Sins and not for the Sins of the Land it will not warrant our expectations of National Mercies God will have Men direct their Repentance to that which his Wrath is kindled for and which his Testimony is against It 's not enough that you bewail your own personal private sins but these publick faults People are loathest to own bewail and leave these National Offences Custom fixeth them they are commonly reputable and by the generality of Transgressours thought innocent they are supported by lnterest and Power there 's danger by Repenting thereof If you reform as to these there 's oft a loss of Places Men are subject to shame by leaving faults in fashion or the reproach of having long offended in those things and how backward are our proud Hearts to acknowledge we have been in an error But let it be never so hard the Arrow of God is levelled against these very sins and even these shall be bewailed and forsaken or he will proceed to embitter them People may think to commute with God and amend in other matters but this is a vain attempt Mic. 6.15 16. to their own delusion and ruine Thou shalt sow but shalt not reap for the statutes of Omri are kept and all the works of the house of Ahab and ye walk in their counsels that I should make thee a desolation and the inhabitants thereof an hissing Therefore you shall bear the reproach of my people This leads me to answer one Objection Object How may we know which be the National Sins Answ If the same particular Sins be universal Consider the carriage of a people in general and compare it with the Word National Sins are too gross not to be seen when the rule of a Peoples walking is set before us But if you would know which are more eminently the National Sins observe what Sins have the greatest influence in Corrupting the Land which cleaveth fastest to a people and most especially leading persons are guilty of which have been longest continued in and in their Nature and Consequences are most grievous which seem the Judgments of God most directed against what sins do the best Ministers and People witness most against By these Rules you may discern what are those National Sins which the Nation agree in the commission of or connivance at But if the National Sins be by accumulation of several sorts of sins according to the different state of people who constitute that Community You then must distinguish a Nation into its constituent or remarkably differing parties as Magistrates and Subjects Ministers and People Rich and Poor Infidels and Believers c. Compare the frame and carriage of each of these with that which God hath made their peculiar Duty and adding the former helps those National Sins will appear which are made up by complication though the same individual Crimes are not entertained by the several parties in a Nation 3. The Repentance must usually be National I do not mean that every individual must repent but the generality or at least some very considerable number and those of such Men that most represent and influence the Body A small number of private Penitents may save themselves but seldom secure a Nation I confess here I must be wary considering how graciously God is pleased to admit sometimes a few to personate a Body and give in Blessings for many on their mediation Phineas his Zeal turns away Wrath from all his people Num. 25.11 Ezek. 22.30 God seems to conclude the unavoidableness of Israels woe from the want of one man to divert it I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the Land that I should not destroy it but I found none This the desolate Church complains of Isa 64.7 There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee But though Sovereignty admits a very few Penitents to profit many Transgressors yet we are not usually to expect this what ever in extremity we may hope for want of better grounds usually a few are called none as to this effect No man repented him of his wickedness Jer. 8.6 Isa 66.4 and 59.16 I called and none did answer he wondered there was no intercessor There were the Prophets themselves and some others that Repented yet so few were as good as none to secure the good which multitudes concurred to remove His Call is to the generality to return and on that he promiseth favour Hear ye the word of the Lord all ye of Judah Jer. 7.2 3. Thus saith the Lord Amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place And the failure by the refusal he affixeth to the body of them ver 28. Thou shalt say This is a Nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord nor receiveth correction c. We can hardly look for good to a Land unless the repenting persons be numerous enough to vindicate the Glory of God and influence the Land to Reformation Joel 1.14 15. Jon. 3.5 6. The assembly of Penitents must be solemn How general was the Repentance of Niniveh from the greatest to the least from the King and Nobles to the most abject Some farther light may arise from the next head 4. The Repentance should be suited to the different Condition and Circumstances of those that make up a Nation Each must repent of the sins common to all yea the gross trespasses of each sort must be bewailed by every sort But yet there is a Repentance peculiar to each which ought eminently to appear or at least really to be and this exerted according to their respective abilities Magistrates ought to mourn for the sins of the People and also to repent of their own ill Examples bad Laws c. And they must express their Repentance by exerting that Power which they have above others They should enact good Laws restrain and punish Sin command days of Humiliation appoint good Ministers c. So Ezra did Ezra 10.8 9. Neh. 13. The same did Nehemiah Magistrates do not repent if they do not so and a Land may perish for their neglect Suppose a Land divideable into Unbelievers and Believers These Believers must