use such Persuasions and Arguments as were sufficient to convince and to mention no more Acts 28.23 He expounded and testified the Kingdom of God perswading them concerning Jesus St Paul in his Epistle to Timothy useth this word in a most vehement sense for giving a solemn charge 1 Tim. 5.21 I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so 2 Tim. 2.14 charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words and so 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and here in the Text the word seems to be of a very high and intense signification because of the circumstances mentioned before and after he tells us before that he taught them at all seasons v. 18. publickly and from house to house v. 20. and afterwards at the 31. v. that he warned them day and night with tears so that testifying to the Jews Repentance and Faith must signifie his pressing and perswading of them with the greatest vehemency to turn from their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ his charging on them these things as their duty his pleading with them the necessity of Faith and Repentance and earnestly endeavouring to convince them thereof Repentance toward God and Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ What is the Reason of this appropriation of Repentance and Faith the one as properly respecting God and the other our Lord Jesus Christ I answer Repentance doth properly respect God because he is the party offended and to whom we are to be reconciled the Faith of the Gospel doth properly refer to the Lord Jesus Christ as the chief and principal Object of it so that by testifying to them repentance towards God c. we are to understand that the Apostle did earnestly press and perswade them to repent of their sins whereby they had offended God and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messias the person that was ordained of God and sent to be the Saviour of the world From the Words thus explained this is the Observation that doth naturally arise That Repentance and Faith are the sum and substance of the Gospel and that Ministers ought with all earnestness and vehemency to press people to repent and believe to charge them with these as their duty and by all means to endeavour to convince them of the necessity of them In the handling of this I shall do these Two things First Shew you what is included in Repentance and Faith that you may see that they are the sum of the Gospel And Secondly Shew you the necessity of them First What is included in these I. Repentance this properly signifies a change of mind a conviction that we have done amiss so as to be truly sorry for what we have done and heartily to wish that we had not done it To repent is to alter our mind to have other apprehensions of things than we had to look upon that now as evil which we did not before from whence follows sorrow for what we have done and a resolution of mind for the future not to do again that which appears now to us to be so evil that we are ashamed of it and troubled for it and wish we had never done it So that repentance implies a conviction that we have done something that is evil and sinful contrary to the Law we are under and those Obligations of duty and gratitude that lie upon us whereby God is highly provoked and incensed against us and we in danger of his wrath and the sad effects of his displeasure upon which we are troubled and grieved and ashamed for what we have done and wish we had been wiser and had done otherwise hereupon we resolve never to do any thing that is sinful that is contrary to our duty and obligations to God and by which we may provoke him against us These two things are contained in a true repentance a deep sense of and sorrow for the evils that are past and the sins that we have committed and a firm purpose and resolution of obedience for the future of abstaining from all sin and doing what ever is our duty the true effect of which Resolution is the breaking off the practice of sin and the course of a wicked life and a constant course of obedience II. Faith in Christ is an effectual believing the Revelation of the Gospel the History and the Doctrine of it the History of it that there was such a person as Jesus Christ that he was the true Messias prophesied of and promised in the Old Testament that he was born and lived and preached and wrought the Miracles that are recorded that he was crucified and rose again and ascended into Heaven that he was the Son of God and sent by him into the world by his Doctrine to instruct and by the Example of his life to go before us in the way to happiness and by the Merit and Satisfaction of his death and sufferings to appease and reconcile God to us and to purchase for us the pardon of our sins and eternal life upon the Conditions of Faith and Repentance and sincere Obedience and that to enable us to the performance of these Conditions he promised and afterward sent his holy Spirit to accompany the preaching of his Gospel and to assist all Christians to the doing of that which God requires of them this is the History of the Gospel Now the Doctrine of it contains the Precepts and Promises and Threatnings of it and Faith in Christ includes a firm belief of all these of the Precepts of the Gospel as the matter of our duty and the Rule of our life and of the Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel as arguments to our duty to encourage our Obedience and deter us from sin So that he that believes the Lord Jesus believes him to be the great Guide and Teacher sent from God to bring and conduct men to eternal happiness and that therefore we ought to hearken to him and follow him this is to believe his Prophetical Office He believes that he is the Author of salvation and hath purchased for us forgiveness of sins ransom from hell and eternal life and blessedness upon the Conditions before mentioned and therefore that we ought to rely upon him only for salvation to own him for our Saviour and to beg of him his holy Spirit which he hath promised to us to enable us to perform the Conditions required on our part this is to believe his Priestly Office And lastly He believes that the Precepts of the Gospel being delivered to us by the Son of God ought to have the authority of Laws upon us and that we are bound to be obedient to them and for our encouragement if we be so that there is a glorious and eternal Reward promised to us and for our terror if we be not there are terrible and eternal Punishments threatned to us to which Rewards the
Lord Jesus Christ at the day of Judgment will sentence men as the great Judge of the world and this is to believe the Kingly Office of Christ And this is the sum of that which is meant by Faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ which the Apostle saith was one Subject of his preaching And the proper and genuine effect of this Faith is to live as we believe to conform our lives to the Doctrine to the truth whereof we assent Hence it is that true Christians that is those who fashioned their lives according to the Gospel are call'd believers and the whole of Christianity is many times contained in this word believing which is the great Principle of a Christian life As in the Old Testament all Religion is express'd by the fear of God so in the New by Faith in Christ And now you see what is included in Repentance and Faith you may easily judge whether these be not the sum of the Gospel that men would forsake their sins and turn to God and believe the revelation of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ that is heartily entertain it and submit to it What did Christ preach to the Jews but that they would repent of their sins and believe on him as the Messias And what did the Apostles preach but to the same purpose When St. Peter preached to the Jews Acts 2. the effect of his Sermon and the scope of it was to perswade them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus that is to profess their belief in him v. 38. And so Acts 3.19 This is the conclusion of his discourse repent therefore and be converted and then he propounded Christ to them as the Object of their Faith being the great Prophet that was Prophesied of by Moses who should be raised up among them v. 22. So likewise St. Paul when he preached to the Jews and Gentiles these were his great Subjects Acts 17.30 This is the conclusion of his Sermon to the Athenians to perswade them to repent by the consideration of a future Judgment and to perswade them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who was to be the Judge of the world from the Miracle of his Resurrection But now he commands all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day c. whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead So that you see that these are the great Doctrines of the Gospel and were the sum of the Apostles preaching all their Sermons were perswasives to these two Duties of Repentance and Faith Secondly For the Necessity of these Doctrines They are necessary for the escaping of eternal misery and attaining of everlasting happiness And this will appear by considering the Nature of them and the Relation they have to both these For the avoiding of eternal punishment 't is necessary that guilt should be removed which is an obligation to punishment and that cannot be but by pardon and sure we cannot imagine that God will ever pardon us without repentance he will never remit to us the punishment of sin so long as we tell him we are not at all troubled for what we have done and we are of the same mind still and will do the same again and till we repent we tell God this and we may be sure God will not cast away his Pardons upon those that despise them so that Repentance is necessary to the escaping of Hell And Faith in Christ is necessary to it for if this be the method of God's grace not to pardon sin without Satisfaction and Jesus Christ hath made Satisfaction for sin by the merit of his Sufferings and if it be necessary that we should believe this that the benefit hereof may redound to us then Faith in Christ is necessary to the obtaining of the pardon of sin by which the guilt of sin is removed that is our obligation to eternal punishment And then for attaining Salvation Christ having in the Gospel revealed to us the way and means to eternal happiness it is necessary that we should believe this Revelation of the Gospel by Jesus Christ in order to this end So that you see the necessity of Faith and Repentance because without these we can neither escape Misery nor attain to Happiness I should now come to draw some Inferences from this Discourse but I will first give satisfaction to a Query or two to which this Discourse seems to have given occasion 1. Query You will say why do I call Repentance a Doctrine of the Gospel It is a Doctrine of Nature Natural Religion tells us that when we have offended God we ought to be sorry for it and resolve to amend and reform Ans I do not make the Doctrine of Repentance proper to the Gospel as if it had not been revealed to the world before but because it is a Doctrine which the Gospel very much presseth and perswadeth men to and because the great Motives and Enforcements of it are peculiar to the Gospel So that the Doctrine of Repentance considered with those powerful Reasons and Arguments to it which the Gospel furnisheth us withal is in this sense proper to the Gospel and not known to the world before There are two Motives and Enforcements to Repentance which the Gospel furnisheth us with 1. Assurance of Pardon and Remission of sins in case of repentance which is a great encouragement to repentance and which before the Gospel the world had never any firm and clear assurance of 2. Assurance of eternal Rewards and Punishments after this life which is a strong Argument to perswade men to change their lives that they may avoid the misery that is threatned to impenitent sinners and be qualified for the Happiness which it promiseth to Repentance and Obedience And this the Apostle tells us in the forementioned place Acts 17.30 31. is that which doth as it were make Repentance to be a new Doctrine that did come with the Gospel into the world because it was never before enforced with this powerful Argument the time 's of that ignorance God winked at but now he calls upon all men every where to repent because c. When the world was in ignorance and had not such assurance of a future state of eternal Rewards and Punishments after this life the Arguments to Repentance were weak and feeble in comparison of what they now are the necessity of this Duty was not so evident But now God hath assur'd us of a future Judgment now Exhortations to Repentance have a commanding power and influence upon men so that Repentance both as it is that which is very much prest and inculcated in the Gospel and as it hath its chief Motives and Enforcements from the Gospel may be said to be one of the great Doctrines of the Gospel Query 2. Whether the preaching of Faith in Christ among those who are already Christians be at all necessary Because it seems very improper to press those
to believe in Christ who are already perswaded that he is the Messias and do entertain the History and Doctrine of the Gospel Ans The Faith which the Apostle here means and which he would perswade men to is an effectual belief of the Gospel such a Faith as hath real effects upon men and makes them to live as they believe such a Faith as perswades them of the need of these Blessings that the Gospel offers and makes them to desire to be partakers of them and in order thereto to be willing to submit to those Terms and Conditions of Holiness and Obedience which the Gospel requires This is the Faith we would perswade men to and there is nothing more necessary to be prest upon the greatest part of Christians than this for how few are there among those who profess to believe the Gospel who believe it in this effectual manner so as to conform themselves to it The Faith which most Christians pretend to is meerly negative they do not disbelieve the Gospel they do not consider it nor trouble themselves about it they do not care nor are concerned whether it be true or not but they have not a positive belief of it they are not possest with a firm perswasion of the truth of those matters which are contained in it if they were such a perswasion would produce real and positive effects Every man naturally desires Happiness and 't is impossible that any man that is possest with this belief that in order to Happiness it is necessary for him to do such and such things and that if he omit or neglect them he is unavoidably miserable that he should not do them Men say they believe this or that but you may see in their lives what it is they believe So that the preaching of this Faith in Christ which is the only true Faith is still necessary I. Inference If Repentance towards God and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ be the sum and substance of the Gospel then from hence we may infer the Excellency of the Christian Religion which insists only upon these things which do tend to our Perfection and our Happiness Repentance tends to our recovery and the bringing of us back as near as may be to innocence Primus innocentiae graedus est non peccasse secundus penitentia and then Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ tho it be very comprehensive and contains many things in it yet nothing but what is eminently for our advantage and doth very much conduce to our happiness The Historical part of the Gospel acquaints us with the Person and Actions of our Saviour which conduceth very much to our understanding of the Author and Means of our Salvation The Doctrinal part of the Gospel contains what God requires on our part and the Encouragements and Arguments to our Duty from the consideration of the Recompence and Rewards of the next life The Precepts of Christs Doctrine are such as tend exceedingly to the Perfection of our nature being all founded in Reason in the nature of God and of a Reasonable Creature I except only those positive Institutions of the Christian Religion the two Sacraments which are not burthensome and are of excellent use This is the first II. we may learn from hence what is to be the sum and end of our Preaching to bring men to Repentance and a firm belief of the Gospel but then it is to be considered that we preach Repentance so often as we preach either against sin in general or any particular sin or vice and so often as we perswade to holiness in general or to the performance of any particular Duty of Religion or to the exercise of any particular Grace for Repentance includes the forsaking of sin and a sincere resolution and endeavour of reformation and obedience And we preach Repentance so often as we insist upon such Considerations and Arguments as may be powerful to deter men from sin and to engage them to holiness And we preach Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ so often as we declare the grounds of the Christian Religion and insist upon such Arguments as tend to make it credible and are proper to convince men of the Truth and Reasonableness of it so often as we explain the Mystery of Christ's incarnation the History of his Life Death Resurrection Ascension and Intercession and the proper Ends and Use of these so often as we open the Method of God's Grace for the salvation of sinners the Nature of the Covenant between God and us and the Conditions of it and the way how a sinner is justified and hath his sins pardoned the Nature and Necessity of Regeneration and Sanctification so often as we explain the Precepts of the Gospel and the Promises and Threatnings of it and endeavour to convince men of the Equity of Christ's Commands and to assure them of the Certainty of the Eternal Happiness which the Gospel promises to them that obey it and of the Eternal Misery which the Gospel threatens to those that are disobedient all this is preaching Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ III. This may correct the irregular humor and itch in many people who are not contented with this plain and wholsom food but must be gratified with sublime Notions and unintelligible Mysteries with pleasant passages of Wit and artificial strains of Rhetorick with nice and unprofitable Disputes with bold interpretations of dark Prophecies and peremptory Determinations of what will happen next year and a punctual stating of the time when Anti-Christ shall be thrown down and Babylon shall fall and who shall be employed in this Work Or if their humor lies another way you must apply your self to it by making sharp Reflections upon matters in present controversie and debate you must dip your stile in Gall and Vinegar and be all Satyr and Invective against those that differ from you and teach people to hate one another and to fall together by the ears and this men call Gospel preaching and speaking of Seasonable Truths Surely St. Paul was a Gospel Preacher and such an one as may be a Patern to all others and yet he did none of these he preached what men might understand and what they ought to believe and practice in a plain and unaffected and convincing manner he taught such things as made for peace and whereby he might edifie and build up men in their holy Faith The Doctrines that he preached will never be unseasonable that men should leave their sins and believe the Gospel and live accordingly And if men must needs be gratified with Disputes and Controversies there are these great Controversies between God and the sinner to be stated and determined Whether this be Religion to follow our own lusts and inclinations or to endeavour to be like God and to be conformed to him in Goodness and Mercy and Righteousness and Truth and Faithfulness Whether Jesus Christ be not the Messias and Saviour of the world Whether Faith and
Repentance and Sincere Obedience be not the Terms of Salvation and the necessary Conditions of Happiness Whether there shall be a future Judgment when all men shall be sentenced according to their works Whether there be a Heaven and Hell Whether good men shall be eternally and unspeakably happy and wicked men extreamly and everlastingly miserable These are the great Controversies of Religion upon which we are to dispute on God's behalf against sinners God asserts and sinners deny these things not in Words but which is more emphatical and significant in their Lives and Actions These are practical Controversies of Faith and it concerns every man to be resolved and determined about them that he may frame his life accordingly And so for Repentance God says Repentance is a forsaking of sin and a through change and amendment of life the sinner says that it is only a formal Confession and a slight asking of God forgiveness God calls upon us speedily and forthwith to repent the sinner saith 't is time enough and it may safely be defer'd to sickness or death these are important Controversies and matters of moment But men do not affect common Truths whereas these are most necessary And indeed whatever is generally useful and beneficial ought to be common and not to be the less valued but the more esteemed for being so And as these Doctrines of Faith and Repentance are never unseasonable so are they more peculiarly proper when we celebrate the Holy Sacrament which was instituted for a solemn and standing Memorial of the Christian Religion and is one of the most powerful Arguments and Perswasives to repentance and a good life The Faith of the Gospel doth more particularly respect the death of Christ and therefore it is call'd Faith in his Blood because that is more especially the Object of our Faith the Blood of Christ as it was a Seal of the truth of his Doctrine so it is also a Confirmation of all the Blessings and Benefits of the New Covenant And it is one of the greatest Arguments in the world to repentance In the Blood of Christ we may see our own guilt and in the dreadful Sufferings of the Son of God the just desert of our sins for he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities therefore the Commemoration of his Sufferings should call our sins to remembrance the Representation of his Body broken should melt our hearts and so often as we remember that his blood was shed for us our eyes should run down with rivers of tears so often as we look upon him whom we have pierced we should mourn over him When the Son of God suffered the rocks were rent in sunder and shall not the consideration of those sufferings be effectual to break the most stony and obdurate heart What can be more proper when we come to this Sacrament than the renewing of our Repentance When we partake of this Passover we should eat it with bitter herbs The most solemn Expressions of our Repentance fall short of those Sufferings which our blessed Saviour underwent for our sins if our head were waters and our eyes fountains of tears we could never sufficiently lament the cursed Effects and Consequences of those provocations which were so fatal to the Son of God And that our Repentance may be real it must be accompanied with the Resolution of a better life for if we return to our sins again we trample under foot the Son of God and profane the Blood of the Covenant and out of the Cup of Salvation we drink our own damnation and turn that which should save us into an instrument and Seal of our own ruin SERMON II. Serm. 2. Preach'd on Ash-Wednesday Of confessing and forsaking Sin in Order to Pardon PROV XXVIII 13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy SInce we are all sinners and liable to the Justice of God it is a matter of great moment to our comfort and happiness to be rightly informed by what Means and upon what Terms we may be reconciled to God and find mercy with him And to this purpose the Text gives us this advice and direction whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy Vol. 8. In which words there is a great Blessing and Benefit declared and promised to sinners upon certain Conditions The Blessing and Benefit promised is the mercy and favour of God which comprehends all the happy Effects of God's mercy and goodness to sinners And the Conditions upon which this Blessing is promised are two Confession of our sins and forsaking of them and these two contain in them the whole nature of that great and necessary Duty of Repentance without which a sinner can have no reasonable hopes of the mercy of God I. Here is a Blessing or Benefit promised which is the mercy and favour of God And this in the full extent of it comprehends all the Effects of the mercy and goodness of God to sinners and doth primarily import the pardon and forgiveness of our sins And this probably Solomon did chiefly intend in this expression for so the mercy of God doth most frequently signifie in the Old Testament viz. the forgiveness of our sins And thus the Prophet explains it Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon But now since the clear revelation of the Gospel the mercy of God doth not only extend to the pardon of sin but to power against it because this also is an Effect of God's free grace and mercy to sinners to enable them by the grace of his holy Spirit to master and mortifie their lusts and to persevere in Goodness to the end And it comprehends also our final pardon and absolution at the great day together with the glorious Reward of eternal life which the Apostle expresseth by finding mercy with the Lord in that day And this likewise is promised to Repentance Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and he shall send Jesus Christ who before was preached unto you that is that when Jesus Christ who is now preached unto you shall come you may receive the final sentence of absolution and forgiveness And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the Blessing and Benefit here promised the mercy of God which comprehends all the blessed Effects of the divine grace and goodness to sinners the present pardon of sin and power to mortifie sin and to persevere in a good course and our final absolulution by the sentence of the great day together with the merciful and glorious Reward of eternal life II. We will consider in the next place the Conditions upon
and heinous Provocations of the Divine Majesty which many of us have been guilty of in the long course of a wicked Life together with the heavy Aggravations of our Sins by all the circumstances that can render them abominable and shameful not only in the Eye of God and Men but of our own Consciences likewise we have great reason to humble our selves before God in a penitent acknowledgment of them and every one of us to say with Job Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay mine hand upon my mouth I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes and with Ezra O my God! I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God for our iniquities are increased over our heads and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens And now O my God what shall we say after this for we have forsaken thy commandments and with holy Daniel We have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of face Thus we should reproach and upbraid our selves in the Presence of that Holy God whom we have so often and so higly offended and against whom we have done as evil things as we could and say with the prodigal Son in the Parable Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son If we would thus take shame to our selves and humble our selves before God he would be merciful to us miserable Sinners he would take away all iniquity and receive us graciously and so soon as ever he saw us coming towards him would meet us with joy and embrace us in the Arms of his Mercy And then II. As we should be heartily ashamed of the past Errours and Miscarriages of our Lives so we should firmly resolve by God's Grace to do better for the future never to consent to Iniquity or to do any thing which we are convinc'd is contrary to our Duty and which will be matter of Shame to us when we come to look back upon it and make our Blood to rise in our Faces at the mention or intimation of it which will make us to sneak and hang down our heads when we are twitted and upbraided with it and which if it be not prevented by a timely Humiliation and Repentance will fill us with Horror and Amazement with Shame and Confusion of Face both at the Hour of Death and in the Day of Judgment So that when we look into our Lives and examine the Actions of them when we consider what we have done and what our Doings have deserved we should in a due sense of the great and manifold Miscarriages of our Lives and from a deep Sorrow and Shame and Detestation of our selves for them I say we should with that true Penitent described in Job take Words to our selves and say Surely it is meet to be said unto God I will not offend any more That which I know not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more And thus I have done with the second Inconvenience of a sinful and vicious Course of Life viz. that the reflection upon it afterwards causeth Shame What fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed SERMON VII Serm. 7. The final Issue of Sin an Argument for Repentance The Third Sermon on this Text. ROM VI. 21 22. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death But now being made free from sin and become Servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end Everlasting Life THESE words are a Comparison between an Holy and Virtuous and a Sinful and Vicious Course of Life and set before us the manifest Inconveniences of the one Vol. 8. and the manifold Advantages of the other I have enter'd into a Discourse upon the First of these Heads viz. The manifest Inconveniences of a sinful and vicious Course And the Text mentions these three I. That it is Unprofitable II. That the reflection upon it afterwards is matter of Shame These Two I have spoken largely to I shall now proceed to the III. And last Inconvenience which the Text mentions of a sinful and vicious Course of Life viz. That the final Issue and Consequence of these things is very dismal and miserable The end of those things is Death No Fruit then when ye did these things shame now that you come to reflect upon them and Misery and Death at the last There are indeed almost innumerable Considerations and Arguments to discourage and deter men from sin the Unreasonableness of it in it self the Injustice and Disloyalty and Ingratitude of it in respect to God the ill Example of it to others the Cruelty of it to our selves the Shame and Dishonour that attends it the Grief and Sorrow which it will cost us if ever we be brought to a due Sense of it the Trouble and Horror of a guilty Conscience that will perpetually haunt us but above all the miserable Event and sad Issue of a wicked Course of Life continued in and finally unrepented of The Temptations to sin may be alluring enough and look upon us with a smiling Countenance and the Commission may afford us a short and imperfect Pleasure but the Remembrance of it will certainly be bitter and the End of it miserable And this Consideration is of all others the most apt to work upon the generality of men especially upon the more obstinate and obdurate sort of sinners and those whom no other Arguments will penetrate that whatever the present Pleasure and Advantage of sin may be it will be Bitterness and Misery in the end The two former Inconvenieces of a sinful Course which I have lately discoursed of viz. That sin is Unprofitabte and that it is Shameful are very considerable and ought to be great Arguments against it to every sinner and considerate Man and yet how light are they and but as the very small dust upon the balance in comparison of that insupportable weight of Misery which will oppress the sinner at last Indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of Man that doth evil This this is the sting of all that the end of these things is death It is very usual in Scripture to express the greatest Happiness and the greatest Misery by Life and Death Life being the first and most desirable of all other Blessings because it is the Foundation of them and that which makes us capable of all the rest Hence we find in Scripture that all the Blessings of the Gospel are summ'd up in this one word John 20.31 These things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have Life through his Name 1 Joh. 4.9 In this was manifest the love of God towards us because God sent his only begotten
Son into the World that we might live through him So that under this Term or Notion of Life the Scripture is wont to express all happiness to us and more especially that eternal Life which is the great Promise of the Gospel And this is Life by waâ— of Eminency as if this frail and mortal and miserable Life which we live here in this World did not deserve that Name And on the other Hand all the Evils which are consequent upon sin especially the dreadful and lasting Misery of another World are called by the Name of Death The end of these things is Death So the Apostle here in the Text and 23. v. The wages of sin is Death not only a Temporal Death but such a Death as is opposed to Eternal Life The wages of sin is Death but the gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that Death here in the Text is plainly intended to comprehend in it all those fearful and astonishing Miseries wherewith the wrath of God will pursue and afflict sinners in another World But what and how great this Misery is I am not able to declare to you it hath no more enter'd into the heart of man than those great and glorious things which God hath laid up for them that love him and as I would fain hope that none of us here shall ever have the sad experience of it so none but those who have felt it are able to give a tolerable description of the intolerableness of it But by what the Scripture hath said of it in general and in such Metaphors as are most level to our present Capacity it appears so full of Terror that I am loth to attempt the Representation of it There are so many other Arguments that are more Humane and Natural and more proper to work upon the Reason and Ingenuity of Men as the great Love and Kindness of God to us the grievous Sufferings of his Son for us the Unreasonableness and Shamefulness of sin the present Benefit and Advantage the Peace and Pleasure of an Holy and Virtuous Life and the mighty Rewards promised to it in another World that one would think these should be abundantly sufficient to prevail with men to gain them to goodness and that they need not be frighted into it and to have the Law laid to them as it was once given to the People of Israel in thunder and lightning in blackness in darkness and tempest so as to make them exceedinly to fear and tremble And it seems a very hard Case that when we have to deal with men sensible enough of their Interest in other Cases and diligent enough to mind it we cannot perswade them to accept of Happiness without setting before them the Terrors of Eternal Darkness and those amazing and endless Miseries which will certainly be the Portion of those who refuse so great an Happiness this I say seems very hard that men must be carried to the Gate of Hell before they can be brought to set their faces towards Heaven and to think in good earnest of getting thither And yet it cannot be dissembled that the Nature of men is so degenerate as to stand in need of this Argument and that men are so far engaged in an Evil Course that they are not to be reclaimed from it by any other Consideration but of the endless and unspeakable Misery of impenitent sinners in another World And therefore God knowing how necessary this is doth frequently make use of it and our Blessed Saviour than whom none was ever more mild and gentle doth often set this Consideration before men to take them off from sin and to bring them to do better And this St. Paul tells us Rom. 1.18 is one principal thing which renders the Gospel so powerful an Instrument for the reforming and saving of Mankind because therein the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men So that how harsh and unpleasant soever this Argument may be the great stupidity and folly of some men and their inveterate obstinacy in an Evil Course makes it necessary for us to press it home that those who will not be moved and made sensible of the danger and inconvenience of sin by gentler Arguments may be rous'd and awakened by the Terrors of Eternal Misery That the last Issue and Consequence of a wicked Life will be very Miserable the general Apprehension of Mankind concerning the fate of bad men in another World and the socret misgivings of mens Consciences gives men too much ground to fear Besides that the Justice of Divine Providence which is not many times in this World so clear and manifest does seem to require that there should be a time of Recompence when the Virtue and Patience of good men should be Rewarded and the Insolence and Obstinacy of bad men should be Punish'd This cannot but appear very reasonable to any Man that considers the Nature of God and is perswaded that he governs the World and hath given Laws to Mankind by the observance whereof they may be Happy and by the neglect and contempt whereof they must be Miserable But that there might remain no doubts upon the Minds of men concerning these matters God hath been pleas'd to reveal this from Heaven by a Person sent by him on purpose to declare it to the World and to the truth of these Doctrines concerning a future state and a day of Judgment and Recompences God hath given Testimony by unquestionable Miracles wrought for the Confirmation of them and particularly by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead whereby he hath given an assurance unto all men that he is the Person ordained by God to Judge the World in righteousness and to render to every Man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal Life but to them who obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of Man that doth evil So that how quietly soever wicked Men may pass through this World or out of it which they seldom do Misery will certainly overtake their Sins at last unspeakable and intolerable Misery arising from the anguish of a guilty Conscience from a lively Apprehension of their sad Loss and from a quick sense of the sharp Pain which they labour under and all this aggravated and set off with the Consideration of past Pleasure and the Despair of future Ease Each of these is Misery enough and all of them together do constitute and make up that dismal and forlorn State which the Scripture calls Hell and Damnation I shall therefore briefly represent for it is by no means desirable to dwell long upon so melancholy and frightful an Argument First The principal Ingredients which constitute this miserable State And Secondly The Aggravations of it First The principal Ingredients which constitute this miserale State and
The most Reverend D r. IOHN TILLOTSON late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Several DISCOURSES OF REPENTANCE viz. The Necessity of Repentance and Faith Of confessing and forsaking Sin in order to Pardon Of Confession and Sorrow for Sin The Unprofitableness of Sin in this Life an Argument for Repentance The Shamefulness of Sin an Argument for Repentance The final Issue of Sin an Argument for Repentance The present and future Advantage of an Holy and Virtuous Life The Nature and Necessity of holy Resolution The Nature and Necessity of Restitution The Usefulness of Consideration in order to Repentance The Danger of Impenitence where the Gospel is preach'd By the Most Reverend Dr. JOHN TILLOTSON Late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Being The EIGHTH VOLUME Published from the Originals By Ralph Barker D. D. Chaplain to his Grace LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1700. THE CONTENTS SERMON I. The Necessity of Repentance and Faith ACTS XX. 21 Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ Page 1 SERMON II. Preach'd on Ash-Wednesday Of confessing and forsaking Sin in order to Pardon PROV XXVIII 13 He that covereth his Sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy p. 29 SERMON III. Of Confession and Sorrow for Sin PSAL. XXXVIII 18 I will declare mine Iniquity and be sorry for my Sin p. 69 SERMON IV. Preach'd on Ash-Wednesday 1689. The Unprofitableness of Sin in this Life an Argument for Repentance JOB XXXIII 27 28. He looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not He will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light p. 101 SERMON V VI VII VIII The Shamefulness of Sin an Argument for Repentance ROM VI. 21 22. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is Death But now being made free from sin and become Servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting life p. 137 169 193 225 SERMON IX X XI The Nature and Necessity of holy Resolution JOB XXXIV 31 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more p. 271 299 327 SERMON XII XIII The Nature and Necessity of Restitution LUKE XIX 8 9. And if I have taken any thing from any Man by false accusation I restore him fourfold And Jesus said unto him This day is Salvation come to this house p. 353 385 SERMON XIV The Usefulness of Consideration in order to Repentance DEUT. XXXII 29 O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end p. 417 SERMON XV. The Danger of Impenitence where the Gospel is preach'd MATTH XI 21 22. Woe unto thee Chorazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you p. 443 SERMON I. Serm. 1. The Necessity of Repentance and Faith Acts XX. 21 Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ TO have seen St. Paul in the Pulpit was one of those three things which St. Augustine thought worth the wishing for And sure it were very desirable to have seen this glorious Instrument of God who did such wonders in the World to have heard that plain and powerful Eloquence of his which was so mighty through God for the casting down of strong holds Vol. 8. and the subduing of men to the obedience of the Gospel to have beheld the zeal of this holy man who was all on fire for God with what ardency of affection and earnestness of expression he persuaded men to come in to Christ and entertain the Gospel This were very desirable but seeing it is a thing we cannot hope for it should be some satisfaction to our curiosity to know what St. Paul preached what was the main Subject of his Sermons whither he refer'd all his Discourses and what they tended to This he tells us in the words that I have read to you that the main substance of all his Sermons was repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ The Occasion of the words was briefly this St. Paul being in his Journy to Jerusalem and intending to be there by the day of Pentecost that he might not be hindred in his Journy he resolves to pass by Ephesus and only to call to him the Elders of the Church to charge them with their duty and the care of the Church and to engage them hereto he tells them how he had carried and demeaned himself among them v. 18. with what diligence and vigilance he had watched over them with what affection and earnestness he had preached to them v. 19 20. And here in the Text he tells them what had been the sum of his Doctrine and the substance of those many Sermons he had preached among them and what was the End and Design of all his Discourses viz. To perswade men to repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ Testifying both to the Jews and Greeks c. I shall explain the words a little and then fix upon the Observations which I intend to speak to because I design this only as a Preface to some larger Discourses of Faith and Repentance For explication Testifying the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to testifie to prove a thing by testimony so 't is used Heb. 2.6 But one in a certain place testifyeth saying In heathen Writers the word is often used in a Law sense for contesting by Law and pleading in a Cause and from hence it signifies earnestly to contend or persuade by arguments and threatnings In the use of the LXX it signifies to protest to convince to press earnestly to perswade It is used most frequently by St. Luke in a very intense signification and is sometimes joyned with Exhorting which is an earnest perswading to a thing Acts 2.40 And with many other words did he testifie and exhort saying save your selves from this untoward generation and with Preaching Acts 8.25 And when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord and so Acts 18.5 Being pressed in spirit he testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ Being pressed in spirit signifies intention and vehemency in testifying to them that he did vehemently endeavour to convince them it seems to be equivalent to the expression v. 28. where it is said Apollos did mightily convince the Jews that Jesus was the Christ that is did
accompanied with great sorrow for our sins considering the great dishonour we have brought to God and the danger into which we have brought our selves I will declare mine iniquity says David and I will be sorry for my sin And this Sorrow must be proportionable to the degree of our Sin If we have been very wicked and have sinned greatly against the Lord and have multiplied our transgressions and continued long in an evil course have neglected God and forgotten him days without number the measure of our sorrow must bear some proportion to the degree of our Sins if they have been as Scarlet and Crimson as the Prophet expresseth it that is of a deeper dye than ordinary our Sorrow must be as deep as our Guilt for it is not a slight trouble and a few tears that will wash out such stains Not that tears are absolutely necessary tho' they do very well become and most commonly accompany a sincere Repentance All tempers are not in this alike some cannot express their sorrow by tears even then when they are most inwardly and sensibly grieved But if we can easily shed tears upon other occasions certainly rivers of tears ought to run down our eyes because we have broken Gods Laws the Reasonable and Righteous and good Laws of so good a God of so Gracious a Soveraign of so mighty a Benefactor of the Founder of our Being and the perpetual Patron and Protector of our lives but if we cannot command our tears there must however be great trouble and contrition of Spirit especially for great sins to be sure to that degree as to produce the 3. Property I mentioned of a Penitent Confession namely a sincere Resolution to leave our sins and betake our selves to a better course He does not confess his fault but stand in it who is not resolved to amend True Shame and Sorrow for our Sins is utterly inconsistent with any thought of returning to them It argues great obstinacy and impudence to confess a fault and continue in it Whenever we make Confession of our sins to God surely it is meet to say unto him I will not offend any more that which I know not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more This is the first part of Repentance mentioned in the Text the first Condition of our finding mercy with God the Penitent acknowledgment of our sins to him I proceed to the Second Condition required to make us capable of the mercy of God which is the actual forsaking of our sins whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy I shall not go about to explain what is meant by forsaking sin it is that which every body can understand but few will do there lies all the difficulty I shall only put you in mind that forsaking of sin comprehends our return to our duty that necessarily follows from it In sins of Commission he that hath left any Vice does thereby become master of the contrary Virtue virtus est vitium fugere not to be drunk is to be sober not to oppress or defraud or deal falsly is to be Just and Honest and for sins of Omission the forsaking of them is nothing else but the doing of those Duties which we omitted and neglected before And therefore what Solomon here calls forsaking of sin is elsewhere in Scripture more fully exprest by ceasing to do evil and learning to do well Isa 1.16 By forsaking our sins and turning to God Isa 55.7 Let the wicked man forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. By turning from all our sins and keeping all Gods Laws and Statutes Ezek. 18.21 If the wicked will turn from all his sins which he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right And this is a most Essential part of Repentance and a necessary condition of our finding mercy with God That part of Repentance which I have mentioned and insisted upon before the Penitent acknowledgment of our sins to God with Shame and Sorrow for them and a firm purpose and Resolution to leave them all this is but Preparatory to the actual forsaking of them that which perfects and compleats our Repentance is to turn from our evil ways and to break off our sins by righteousness And these terms of confessing and forsaking our sins are Reasonable in themselves and Honourable to God and Profitable to us and upon lower Terms we have no reason to expect the Mercy of God nor in truth are we capable of it either by the present forgiveness of our sins or the final absolution of the great day and the blessed Reward of Eternal Life God peremptorily requires this change as a condition of our Forgiveness and Happiness Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3.19 If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments Matth. 19.17 Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 And why should any man hope for the Mercy of God upon other Terms than those which he hath so plainly and peremptorily declared It is a mean and unworthy thought of God to imagine that he will accept men to his favour and eternal life upon other Terms than of better obedience Will any wise Father or Prince accept less from his Children and Subjects will they be satisfied with sighs and tears as well as with Obedience And well pleased if they be but melancholy for their faults tho' they ne-never mend them We must not impute that to God which would be a defect of Wisdom and good Government in any Father or Prince upon Earth God values no part of Repentance upon any other account but as it tends to reclaim us to our Duty and ends in our Reformation and amendment This is that which qualifies us for the Happiness of another Life and makes us meet to be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light And without this tho' God should be pleased to forgive us yet we could not forgive our selves and notwithstanding the legal discharge from Guilt the Sting of it would remain and we should like our first Parents after they had sinn'd run away and hide our selves from God tho' he spake never so kindly to us God hath placed in every Man's mind an inexorable Judge that will grant no Pardon and Forgiveness but to a reformed Penitent to him that hath such a sense of the Evil of his past Life as to become a better man for the future And whoever entertains any other notion of the Grace and Mercy of God to Sinners confounds the Nature of Things and does plainly overthrow the Reason of all Laws which is to restrain men from Sin But when it is committed to Pardon it without Amendment is to Encourage the Practice of it and to take away the Reverence and Veneration of those Laws which seem so severely to forbid it So that next to impunity the forgiveness of
went forth and wept bitterly David also was abundant in this expression of his grief In the Book of Psalms he speaks frequently of his sighs and groans and of watering his couch with his tears yea so sensibly was he affected with the Evil of Sin that he could shed tears plentifully for the Sins of others Psal 119.136 Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy law In like manner Jeremiah tells us that his Soul did weep in secret places for the pride and obstinacy of the Jews that his eye did weep sore and run down with tears Jer. 13.17 And so likewise St. Paul Philip 3.18 19. There are many that walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ And there seems to be this natural Reason for it that all great and permanent impressions upon the Mind all deep inward resentments have usually a proportionable effect upon the Body and tâ—â— inferiour Faculties But tho' this happen very frequently yet it is not so constant and certain For all men have not the same tenderness of Spirit nor are equally prone to tears nay tho' a Man can weep upon natural accounts as upon the loss of a Child or near Relation or an intimate Friend or when he lyes under a sharp Bodily pain yet a Man may truly repent tho' he cannot express his Sorrow for Sin the same way provided he give Testimony of it by more real Effects And therefore the Rule which is commonly given by Casuists in this case seems to be more ensnaring than true and useful Namely that that man that can shed Tears upon account of any evil less than that of Sin as certainly all natural evils are ought to question the Truth of his Repentance for any Sin that he hath committed if he cannot shed Tears for it This I think is not true because there is scarce any Man of so hard and unrelenting a Spirit but the loss of a kind Father or a dear Child or other near Relation will force Tears from him And yet such a Man if it were to â—ave his Soul may not be able at some times to shed a Tear for his Sins And the Reason is obvious because Tears do proceed from a sensitive trouble and are commonly the Product of a natural affection and therefore 't is no wonder if they flow more readily and easily upon a natural account because they are the Effect of a Cause suitable to their Nature But Sorrow for Sin which hath more of the Judgment and Understanding in it hath not it's Foundation in natural affection but in Reason and therefore may not many times express it self in Tears tho' it may produce greater and more proper Effects So that upon the whole matter I see no Reason to call in question the Truth and Sincerity of that Man's Sorrow and Repentance who hates Sin and forsakes it and returns to God and his Duty tho' he cannot shed Tears and express the bitterness of his Soul for his Sin by the same significations that a Mother doth in the loss of her only Son He that cannot weep like a Child may resolve like a Man and that undoubtedly will find acceptance with God A learned Divine hath well illustrated this Matter by this Similitude Two Persons walking together espie a Serpent the one shrieks and cries out at the sight of it the other kills it So is it in Sorrow for Sin some express it by great Lamentation and Tears and vehement transports of passion others by greater and more real effects of hatred and detestation by forsaking their Sins and by mortifying and subduing their Lusts But he that kills it does certainly best express his inward displeasure and enmity against it The Application I shall make of what hath been said upon this Argument shall be in two particulars I. By way of Caution and that against a double mistake about Sorrow for Sin 1. Some look upon Trouble and Sorrow for Sin as the whole of Repentance 2. Others exact from themselves such a degree of Sorrow as ends in melancholy and renders them unfit both for the Duties of Religion and of their particular Calling The first concerns almost the generality of men the latter but a very few in comparison 1. There are a great many who look upon Trouble and Sorrow for their Sins as the whole of Repentance whereas it is but an Introduction to it It is that which works repentance but is not Repentance it self Repentance is always accompanied with Sorrow for Sin but Sorrow for Sin does not always end in true Repentance Sorrow only respects Sins past but Repentance is chiefly preventive of Sin for the future And God doth therefore require our Sorrow for Sin in order to our forsaking of it Heb. 6.1 Repentance is there call'd repentance from dead Works It is not only a Sorrow for them but a turning from them There is no Reason why men should be so willing to deceive themselves for they are like to be the losers by it But so we see it is that many men are contented to be deceived to their own ruin and among many other ways which men have to cheat themselves this is none of the least frequent to think that if they can but shed a few Tears for Sin upon a death-bed which no doubt they may easily do when they see their Friends weeping about them and apprehend themselves to be in imminent danger not only of Death but of that which is more terrible the heavy displeasure and the fiery Indignation of Almighty God into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall I say they think that if they can but do thus much God will accept this for a true Repentance and hereupon grant them Pardon and eternal life And upon these fond hopes they adjourn their Repentance and the Reformation of their lives to a dying hour Indeed if I were to speak to a Man upon his Death-bed I would encourage him to a great Contrition and Sorrow for his Sins as his last and only remedy and the best thing he can do at that time but on the other hand when I am speaking to those that are well and in health I dare not give them the least Encouragement to venture their Souls upon this because it is an hazardous and almost desperate remedy especially when men have cunningly and designedly contriv'd to rob God of the Service of their lives and to put him off with a few unprofitable Sighs and Tears at their departure out of the World Our Saviour tells us that it is not every one that shall say unto him Lord Lord that shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that there is a time when many shall seek to enter in but shall not be able The Summ of this Caution is that men should take heed of mistaking Sorrow for Sin for true Repentance unless it be followed with the forsaking of Sin
now we are acquainted withal for who knows the power of God's anger and the utmost of what Almighty Justice can do to Sinners Who can Comprehend the vast significancy of those Expressions Fear him who after he hath killed can destroy both body and soul in Hell and again It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God One would think this were Misery enough and needed no farther Aggravation and yet it hath Two terrible ones from the Consideration of past Pleasures which Sinners have enjoyed in this World and from an utter Despair of future Ease and Remedy 1. From the Consideration of the past Pleasures which Sinners have enjoy'd in this Life This will make their Sufferings much more sharp and sensible for as nothing commends Pleasure more and gives Happiness a quicker taste and relish than precedent Sufferings and Pain there is not perhaps a greater Pleasure in the World than the strange and sudden Ease which a Man finds after a sharp fit of the Stone or Cholick or after a Man is taken off the Rack and Nature which was in an Agony before is all at once set at perfect Ease So on the other Hand nothing exasperates Suffering more and sets a keener Edge upon Misery than to step into Afflictions and Pain immediately out of a state of great Ease and Pleasure This we find in the Parable was the great Aggravation of the rich Man's Torment that he had first received his good things and was afterwards Tormented We may do well to consider this that those Pleasures of Sin which have now so much of Temptation in them will in the next World be one of the chief Aggravations of our Torment 2. The greatest Aggravation of this Misery will be that it is attended with the Despair of any future Ease and when Misery and Despair meet together they make a Man compleatly miserable The duration of this Misery is exprest to us in Scripture by such words as are us'd to signifie the longest and most interminable duration Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire Matt. 25.41 Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched Mark 9.43 and 2 Thess 1.7 It is there said that those who know not God and obey not the Gospel of his Son shall be punisht with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power And in Rev. 20.10 That the wicked shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever And what can be imagined beyond this This is the perfection of Misery to lie under the greatest Torment and yet be in despair of ever finding the least Ease And thus I have done with the First thing I propounded to speak to from this Text viz. The manifest Inconveniences of a sinful and vicious Course of Life that it brings no present Benefit or Advantage to us that the reflection upon it causeth Shame and that it is fearful and miserable in the last Issue and Consequence of it What fruit had you c. I should now have proceeded to the Second Part of the Text which represents to us the manifold Advantages of an Holy and Virtuous Course of Life 22 v But now being made free from sin and become the servants of righteousness ye have your fruit unto holiness there 's the present Advantage of it and the end everlasting life there 's the future Reward of it But this is a large Argument which will require a Discourse by it self and therefore I shall not now enter upon it but shall only make some reflections upon what hath been said concerning the miserable Issue and Consequence of a wicked Life impenitently persisted in And surely if we firmly believe and seriously consider these things we have no reason to be fond of any Vice we can take no great Comfort or Contentment in a sinful Course If we could for the seeming Advantage and short Pleasure of some sins dispense with the Temporal Mischiefs and Inconveniences of them which yet I cannot see how any Prudent and Considerate Man could do if we could conquer Shame and bear the Infamy and Reproach which attends most sins and could digest the upbraidings of our own Consciences so often as we call them to remembrance and reflect seriously upon them tho' for the gratifying an importunate Inclination and an impetuous Appetite all the Inconveniences of them might be born withal yet methinks the very thought of the End and Issue of a wicked Life that the end of these things is Death that indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish far greater than we can now describe or imagine shall be to every soul of Man that doth evil should over-rule us Tho' the violence of an irregular lust and desire are able to bear down all other Arguments yet methinks the Eternal Interest of our precious and immortal Souls should still lie near our Hearts and affect us very sensibly Methinks the Consideration of another World and of all Eternity and of that dismal fate which attends Impenitent Sinners after this Life and the dreadful hazard of being miserable for ever should be more than enough to dishearten any Man from a wicked life and to bring him to a better Mind and Course And if the plain Representations of these things do not prevail with men to this purpose it is a sign that either they do not believe these things or else that they do not consider them one of these two must be the reason why any Man notwithstanding these terrible threatnings of God's Word does venture to continue in an Evil Course 'T is vehemently to be suspected that men do not really believe these things that they are not fully perswaded that there is another state after this Life in which the righteous God will render to every Man according to his deeds and therefore so much Wickedness as we see in the lives of men so much Infidelity may reasonably be suspected to lie lurking in their Hearts They may indeed seemingly profess to believe these things but he that would know what a Man inwardly and firmly believes should attend rather to his Actions than to his Verbal Professions For if any Man lives so as no Man that believes the Principles of the Christian Religion in reason can live there is too much reason to question whether that Man doth believe his Religion he may say he does but there is a far greater Evidence in the Case than Words the Actions of the Man are by far the most credible Declarations of the inward Sense and Perswasion of his Mind Did men firmly and heartily believe that there is a God that governs the World and regards the Actions of men and that he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness and that all Mankind shall appear before him in that day and every Action that they have done in their whole lives shall be brought upon the Stage and pass a strict Examination and Censure and
that those who have made Conscience of their Duty to God and men and have lived soberly righteously and godly in this present World shall be unspeakably and eternally Happy in the next but those who have lived lewd and licentious lives and persisted in an Impenitent Course shall be extreamly and everlastingly miserable without Pity and without Comfort and without Remedy and without Hope of ever being otherwise I say if men were fully and firmly perswaded of these things it is not Credible it is hardly Possible that they should live such Prophane and Impious such Careless and Dissolute Lives as we daily see a great part of Mankind do That Man that can be aw'd from his Duty or tempted to Sin by any of the Pleasures or Terrors of this World that for the present enjoyment of his Lusts can be contented to venture his Soul what greater Evidence than this can there be that this Man does not believe the threatnings of the Gospel and how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God That Man that can be willing to undergo an hard Service for several years that he may be in a way to get an Estate and be rich in this World and yet will not be perswaded to restrain himself of his Liberty or to deny his Pleasure or to check his Appetite or Lust for the greatest Reward that God can promise or the severest Punishment that he can threaten can any Man reasonably think that this Man is perswaded of any such Happiness or Misery after this Life as is plainly revealed in the Gospel that verily there is a reward for the righteous and verily there is a God that judgeth the Earth For what can he that believes not one syllable of the Bible do worse than this comes to A strong and vigorous Faith even in Temporal Cases is a powerful Principle of Action especially if it be back'd and enforc'd with Arguments of fear He that believes the reality of a thing and that it is good for him and that it may be attained and that if he do attain it it will make him very happy and that without it he shall be extreamly miserable such a Belief and Perswasion will put a Man upon difficult things and make him to put forth a vigorous endeavour and to use a mighty industry for the obtaining of that concerning which he is thus perswaded And the Faith of the Gospel ought to be so much the more powerful by how much the Objects of hope and fear which it presents to us are greater and more considerable Did men fully believe the Happiness of Heaven and the Torments of Hell and were they as verily perswaded of the truth of them as if they were before their Eyes how insignificant would all the Terrors and Temptations of Sense be to draw them into Sin and seduce them from their Duty But altho' it seems very strange and almost incredible that men should believe these things and yet live wicked and impious lives yet because I have no Mind and God knows there 's no need to increase the number of Infidels in this Age I shall chuse rather to impute a great deal of the wickedness that is in the World to the Inconsiderateness of men than to their Unbelief I will grant that they do in some sort believe these things or at least that they do not disbelieve them and then the great cause of mens ruin must be that they do not attend to the Consequence of this Belief and how men ought to live that are thus perswaded Men stifle their Reason and suffer themselves to be hurried away by Sense into the embraces of sensual Objects and things present but do not consider what the end of these things will be and what is like to become of them hereafter for it is not to be imagined but that that Man who shall calmly consider with himself what Sin is the shortness of its Pleasure and the Eternity of its Punishment should seriously resolve upon a better Course of life And why do we not Consider these things which are of so infinite Concernment to us What have we our Reason for but to reflect upon our selves and to mind what we do and wisely to compare things together and upon the whole matter to judge what makes most for our true and lasting Interest to Consider our whole selves our Souls as well as our Bodies and our whole duration not only in this World but in the other not only with regard to Time but to Eternity to look before us to the last Issue and Event of our Actions and to the farthest Consequence of them and to reckon upon what will be hereafter as well as what is present and if we suspect or hope or fear especially if we have good reason to believe a future state after Death in which we shall be happy or miserable to all Eternity according as we manage and behave our selves in this World to resolve to make it our greatest Design and Concernment while we are in this World so to live and demean our selves that we may be of the number of those that shall be accounted worthy to escape that Misery and to obtain that happiness which will last and continue for ever And if men would but apply their Minds seriously to the Consideration of these things they could not act so imprudently as they do they would not live so by chance and without design taking the Pleasure that comes next and avoiding the present Evils which press upon them without any regard to those that are future and at a distance tho' they be infinitely greater and more considerable If men could have the Patience to debate and argue these matters with themselves they could not live so preposterously as they do preferring their Bodies before their Souls and the World before God and the things which are Temporal before the things that are Eternal Did men verily and in good earnest believe but half of that to be true which hath now been declared to you concerning the miserable state of impenitent Sinners in another World and I am very sure that the one half of that which is true concerning that state hath not been told you I say did we in any measure believe what hath been so imperfectly represented What manner of persons should we all be in all holy conversation and godliness waiting for and hastening unto that is making haste to make the best preparation we could for the coming of the day of God! I will conclude all with our Saviour's Exhortation to his Disciples and to all others Watch ye therefore and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of Man To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory world without end Amen SERMON VIII Serm. 8. The present and future Advantage of an Holy and Virtuous Life The Fourth Sermon on this Text.
them in the other I reckon saith St. Paul Rom. 8.8 that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Particularly the Consideration of that glorious change which shall be made in our Bodies at the Resurrection ought to be a great comfort to us under all the Pains and Diseases which they are now liable to and even against Death it self One of the greatest burdens of Humane Nature is the frailty and infirmity of our Bodies the necessities which they are frequently prest withal the Diseases and Pains to which they are liable and the fear of death by reason whereof a great part of Mankind are subject to bondage against all which this is an everlasting Spring of Consolation to us that the time is coming when we shall have other sort of Bodies freed from that burden of Corruption which we now groan under and from all those Miseries and Inconveniences which Flesh and Blood are now subject to For the time will come when these vile Bodies which we now wear shall be changed and fashioned like to the glorious Body of the Son of God and when they shall be raised at the last day they shall not be raised such as we laid them down Vile and Corrruptible but Immortal and Incorruptible for the same Power which hath raised them up to Life shall likewise change them and put a glory upon them like to that of the glorified Body of our Lord and when this glorious change is made when this corruptible hath put on incorruption and this mortal hath put on immortality then shall come to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory and when this last enemy is perfectly subdued we shall be set above all the Frailties and Dangers all the Temptations and Sufferings of this mortal state there will then be no fleshly lusts and brutish Passions to War against the Soul no law in our members to rise up in Rebellion against the law of our minds no diseases to torment us no danger of Death to terrifie us all the Motions and Passions of our outward Man shall then be perfectly subject to the Reason of our Minds and our Bodies shall partake of the Immortality of our Souls How should this Consideration bear us up under all the Evils of Life and the fears of Death that the Resurrection will be a perfect Cure of all our Infirmities and Diseases and an effectual Remedy of all the Evils that we now labour under and that it is but a very little while that we shall be troubled with these Frail and Mortal and Vile Bodies which shall shortly be laid in the dust and when they are raised again shall become Spiritual Incorruptible and Glorious And if our Bodies shall undergo so happy a change what Happiness may we imagine shall then be conferr'd upon our Souls that so much better and nobler part of our selves As the Apostle reasons in another Case Doth God take care of Oxen Hath he this Consideration of our Bodies which are but the brutish part of the Man What regard will he then have to his own Image that spark of Divinity which is for ever to reside in these Bodies If upon the account of our Souls and for their sakes our Bodies shall become Incorruptible Spiritual and Glorious then certainly our Souls shall be endued with far more Excellent and Divine Qualities if our Bodies shall in some degree partake of the Perfection of our Souls in their Spiritual and Immortal Nature to what a pitch of Perfection shall our Souls be raised and advanced even to an equality with Angels and to some kind of participation of the Divine Nature and Perfection so far as a Creature is capable of them II. The Comparison which is here in the Text and which I have largely explain'd between the manifest Inconveniences of a Sinful and Vicious Course and the manifold Advantages of an Holy and Virtuous Life is a plain direction to us which of these two to chuse So that I may make the same appeal that Moses does after that he had at large declared the Blessings promis'd to the Obedience of God's Laws and the Curse denounc'd against the Violation and Transgression of them Deut. 30.19 I call Heaven and Earth to record against you this day that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that you may be happy in Life and Death and after Death to all Eternity I know every one is ready to chuse Happiness and to say with Balaam Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his but if we do in good earnest desire the End we must take the Way that leads to it we must become the Servants of God and have our fruit unto holiness if ever we expect that the end shall be everlasting life SERMON IX Serm. 8. The Nature and Necessity of holy Resolution The First Sermon on this Text. JOB XXXIV 31 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more THESE words are the words of Elihu one of Job's Friends and the only one who is not reproved for his Discourse with Job and who was probably the Author of this ancient and most eloquent History of the sufferings and patience of Job and of the end which the Lord made with him Vol. 8. and they contain in them a Description of the temper and behaviour of a true Penitent Surely it is meet c. In which words we have the Two essential parts of a true Repentance First An humble Acknowledgment and Confession of our Sins to God Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement Secondly A firm Purpose and Resolution of amendment and forsaking of Sin for the future I will not offend any more if I have done iniquity I will do no more First An humble Acknowledgment and Confession of our Sins to God Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement that is have sinned and been justly punish'd for it and am now convinced of the Evil of Sin and resolved to leave it I have born chastisement I will offend no more Of this First part of Repentance viz. An humble Confession of our Sins to God with great Shame and Sorrow for them and a thorow Conviction of the Evil and Danger of a sinful Course I have already treated at large In these Repentance must begin but it must not end in them for a penitent Confession of our Sins to God and a Conviction of the evil of them signifies nothing unless it bring us to a Resolution of amendment that is of leaving our Sins and betaking our selves to a better Course And this I intend by God's assistance to speak to now as being the