how doth he know but this one robbery may bring him to the gallows So the man that sins this day how doth he know but that this very dayes work may bring him to hell Deut. 32.35 To God belongs vengeance their feete shall slide in due time Therefore if a man sin against him he may stand to day and to morrow and many dayes but when the due time comes even the time which God hath set then up goes his heels he shall slide and break his neck thy houre-glasse runs in heaven and thou seest not when the sand comes to the bottome but when t is out then down thou goest to hell for ever There was one resolved to kill Julius Caesar such a day the night before a friend sent him a letter to acquaint him with it but being at supper and busie I will not look upon it now saith he to morrow is a new day The next day when he should have read his letter he was stabd Whence this Proverb came in Greece To morrow is a new day God sends thee a letter and a message from heaven to day hear his voice to day repent and come out of your sins or for ever to hell to day be converted and sanctified or for ever be hardned Dost thou refuse to bearken to day and puttest it off untill to morrow it may be to morrow may be a day of Gods wrath and then thou maiest be hardned seared and bound over unto the great day of Gods vengeance to morrow God may set the decree upon thy soul that thou shalt never repent Therefore if thou refuse this thou refusest all for what knowest thou but this very day may be thy day Reas 1 The reason is because Gods patience is in his own brest and who can tell how long it will last Hast thou Momus his glasse-window to look into Gods secret counsell hast thou a key-hole to look into Gods treasurie canst thou stand on tiptoe to look over Gods shoulder to look into Gods decree to see how long his patience will last It may be God hath suffered thee till this day thou art guilty of ten thousand sinnes and yet he is patient towards thee God hath stayed thus long for thee that hast sworne I know not how many oaths God hath born thus long with thee that hast told I know not how many lies prophaned I know not how many Sabbaths contemned I know not how many ordinances and sleighted I know not how many judgements yet Gods patience is in his own brest it is the long sufferance of God Thou mayest say I would fain have it to morrow and this seven yeers but alas it is his long sufferance and not thine and how dost thou know when he will conclude it it may be this day as well as to morrow Joel 2.13 Rent your hearts and not your garments saith the Prophet for the Lord he is gracious and mercifull This word for hath a great deal of force in it First It is a descriptivum for for he is gracious and a mercifull God therefore rent thy heart and let thy soul burst within thee that thou hast sinned against him for he is a mercifull God and it may be he will pardon all thy sins and heal all thy rebellions committed against him Secondly it is an upbraiding for upbraiding thee for thy sins rent thy heart therefore why he is a patient God wilt thou goe on in thy sins against such a patient God and rebel against such a loving Father that hath loved thee with so much compassion Rent thy heart for he is patient Thirdly it is a comforting and incouraging for rent thy heart for there is incouragement for thee to repent give over thy sins and go to the throne of grace For there is much mercie to welcome thee and great patience for to bid thee come home and abundance of grace for to incourage thee therefore rent thy heart and come home unto the Lord for he is patient and long-suffering Fourthly it is a forewarning for rent your hearts for the Lord is gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindnesse yet his mercie lasteth yet his patience endureth yet hee hath all his attributes and yet he is pleased to manifest the same still tendring grace and mercie unto thee Oh turn unto him while these endure or else thou shalt perish for ever Fifthly it is a threatning for now he is gracious now he is mercifull but his mercy will end his patience will end and then if thou hast not rent thy heart before it will be too late then Therefore as ever thou lovest thine own soule now rent thy heart and turn unto God It is Gods own proclamation The Lord the Lord slow to anger and of great mercie forgiving iniquity and sin Yea what man soever it be that humbles his soule before him he shall find grace and mercie with him yea abundance of mercie pardoning iniquity transgression and sinne yea any thing Let but a soul come prostrate before him humbling his soule he will pardon his sin But as it followeth in the words He will by no means clear the guiltie if notwithstanding all Gods patience and mercie thou go on in thy sins the Lord will never forgive thee but will visit thy sinnes upon thee unto the third and fourth generations because thou hast withstood the day of grace Beloved men run on in their sins as if so be an Angel from heaven should cry unto them and tell them yet God will be good unto them yet God will show them mercie and forbear them Beloved let your consciences answer if you ever heard the Lord God say to any of you thus long I will forbear you No Gods patience is in his own breast and therefore no man knows how long it will last Reas 2 A second reason is because Gods patience giveth no marks or inklings of it before it ends commonly when God strikes a man with death he giveth some signes of warnings of it before as sicknesse and pains and gray hairs and many sorrowes c. Now because thy life is in Gods hands thou carest not for it but venturest to go on in thy sinnes hoping to have some warning though thousands be cut off without it but the day of grace may come to an end and yet thou never have any inkling or warning of it before-hand commonly when God strikes a man with death he tells him of it before-hand by aches and pains as if the Lord should say Now thou shalt die now will I take thee out of the world But when the Lord taketh away the day of grace from a man though the spirituall man may take some notice of it yet there is no sensible apparition of it but after the day of grace is set upon a man he may be as strong and lustie as before he may come to Church as well after as before performe religious duties and do many good things as well after as
that reproves Nay let a man be unblameable for the present if he have been faulty before if it were seven or ten or twenty yeares before if it be knowne it is a thousand to one but he shall be hit in the teeth with it when he reproves you committed adultery and you did steale at such a time if it were never so long agoe Therefore St. Paul would not consent to take Mark with him in the ministery Acts 15. because he had been offensive to the Church before We had need be marvellous carefull and wary if wee will reprove I had thought to have named other Uses but I leave this Exposition and take it as it is passively interpreted He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy THough it may be expounded the other way yet I rather incline to this The Reason is Because this is the constant current of all Interpreters generally I meet but with one or two that expound it the other way but all passively He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck c. Secondly because the word in the origiall is A man of reproofs that hardeneth his own neck Now though it be indifferent whether it be active or passive yet look in the Scripture and you shall finde it more often passive then active A man of reproofs that is a man often reproved in the passive As in Isay 53.3 Christ is a man of sorrows not making others sorry but made sorry passively And so in Dan. 9.23 It is said Daniel was a man of desires that is not a man desiring other men or other things not actively desiring but passively desired beloved of God exceedingly So it is said of Jeremiah Jerem. 15.10 he was a man of strife not a man striving with others but a man striven with So in 1 King 2.26 A man of death that is not killing others but to be killed himselfe It is taken more frequently in the passive sense so we may more boldly take it so A man of Reproofs that is reproved againe and againe that hath received divers reproofs and yet hardeneth his owne neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy Here I might observe by the way this point of Doctrine That The Lord doth not destroy man willingly He saith not A man shall be destroyed without remedy but a man when he hath sinned against God when he hath committed sinne and not onely so but when he is reproved for his sin and goeth on The Lord doth not destroy a man nakedly but upon consideration of sin Willingly the Lord doth not afflict any Lament 3. Mercy and punishment they flow from God as the hony and the sting from the Bee the Bee yeeldeth hony of her own nature but she doth not sting but when she is provoked so the Lord is gracious and good and favourable and kind and blesseth his people from his own nature but he doth not punish and plague and destroy but being provoked by sin and iniquity I will not stand to follow this point I let it go The text it self contains the great mercie of God in lending a man a reproof And what a great sin it is what a great ill it is for a man to sin against his reproof The greatnesse of the ill is set down two wayes First by the great sinfulnesse of the thing it is called the hardening of a mans own neck Secondly by the greatnesse of the punishment that God inflicts upon this sin and that is he will destroy him and without remedy For the first namely what a great mercie it is for God to let a man be reproved for his sins It may bee proved by many places of Scripture onely I find in Scripture it is brought as an aggravation of sinne when they sinned against reproof Hosea 5.2 saith hee they are profound to commit sinne though I have been a rebuker of them all As if he should say though I have been so mercifull as to shew them the danger of sinne to tell them what would come of their wretched courses though I have called them to repentance and have given them warning what would be the issue of these things yet for all this for all my mercy they have gone on in their sinnes though I have reproved them This Though is a word of aggravation as we see in the speech of Daniel to Belshazzar Thou O King hast not humbled thy selfe though thou knewest this as if he had said though the Lord let thee know the punishment upon thy Father and the plagues of Nebuchadnezzar thy grandfather though the Lord have let thee understand what it is for thee ro exalt thy selfe against him yet thou art not humbled he aggravates his sinne So this aggravates a mans sinne when he goes on notwithstanding he is reproved The reasons are First because when God reproves a man of sinne the reproof primarily comes out of love therefore when he reproved Laodicea and told her she was luke-worm and said I would thou wert either hot or cold And since she was neither he would spue her out of his mouth he tells her whence the reproof flowed because I love I reprove As many as I love I rebuke Rev. 3.19 It is not out of ill will that I tell thee of thy lukewarmnesse and threaten to spue thee out of my mouth I tell thee these things that thou mayst avoid that ill I say Gods reprofes flow primarily from love to men whereby he would have them lay aside their wretched courses and avoid the judgements Nay it is an argument of hatred when a man doth not reprove his brother of sinne If God let a man goe on in sinne and never tell him of his drunkennesse nor never find fault with his pride and security never convince him or wound or touch him nor deal with him about his unsetled estate and his rotten condition it is a signe God hates the man but when God reproves a man from day to day Man thou art a proud creature thou shalt to hell for thy pride and hypocrisie and securitie and harpnesse of heart When the Lord reproves a man from day to day this is an argument of love the other is an effect of hatred not to reprove Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart saith Moses but shalt in any wise reprove him and not suffer sinne to be upon him Levit. 19.17 Thou hatest thy brother when thou seest him sinne and doest not warn him and knowest he is guilty of sinfull courses and doest not reprove him and when thou hast time and place and opportunity and fit circumstances to reprove and yet thou wilt not doe it it is a signe thou hatest thy brother it is the greatest degree of hatred one of them If a man deny food for the body and let a man rather die of hunger then hee will give him meat or let a man fall into a pit rather
break-neck it will be a Devill unto me the more I have been delighted with it the more it will gall me the more I have gotten by it the more it will damne me the sin which I most of all loved will most of all torment me Ecclesiast 11.9 look thus upon sin The third means dive into thine owne soul and heart there is a tough brawn over thy heart that it feels not its sins Now Meditation must look through and come to the heart at the quick and cause the truth to dive into the deep places of the soule When the timber is hard the workman cannot thrust in the nail with the weight of his hand no he must hammer it in Meditation is the hammering of the heart It 's a pertinent phrase Jer. 23.24 Is not my word like a fire saith the Lord and like a hammer that breaketh the rocks in peices There be two similitudes first of a hammer the Word of God is the hammer meditation is the hand that taketh this hammer and knocks the nail into the rocky heart and makes it enter Wilt thou not feele I le make thee feele saith meditation wilt thou not take notice of thy wretched estate Meditation comes with blow after blow and makes it take notice Seeondly of fire the word is like fire Meditation kindles it about the heart A man benummed with cold is senselesse the water frozen with cold though the least peble would have sunk in it before now a great milstone is able to lie upon it and not sink the water is able to beare it so is the heart be it sins never so heavie as the hill of Basan yet it bears it and feels no weight but Meditation thawes the heart and then every sinne pincheth and oppresseth Is not my word like fire as if he should say think of it and muse of it and meditate of it and thou shall feele it as a fire Meditation is the often smiting of the heart with this hammer so did Ephraim smite upon his thigh Jer. 31.19 like a man in a miserable agony he thumps his own breast and in a vexation strikes his hand on his thigh Oh miserable wretch that I am So did Ephraim Oh what an unruly Ox am I how unwilling am I to bear the yoke of the Lord Oh and oh the hardnesse of my heart oh that I could tell how to beat thee black and blue Many men smite their hearts but they smite them not often enough When Elâ—sha bad Joash smite upon the ground he smote thrice and staâ—ed The man of God said to him in anger Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times for then thou hadst smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed them where as now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice 2. Kin. 13.19 So men smite their hearts twice or thrice or so but they will not smite their sins dead it may be they break the head of their sins but they recover again and grow strong upon them as at first Thou must smite five or six times yea fifty times five times till thou hast quite broken the impostume of thy heart Meditate on the mercies of God and with them smite it often and often Meditate on the justice of God and with it smite it again and again Meditate on the wrath of God which is as a consuming fire and with it smite it soundly Meditate on the truth of the Lord this threatning and that threatning this commandement and that commandement this promise and that promise and with all these smite it to powder The forth manner Anticipate and prevent thine owne heart meditate what thy heart will one day wish if it be not humbled and tell thy soule as much thou wilt one day wish Oh that I had been humbled under the reproofes of the Lord Oh that I had been wise to have understood mine owne mercie Cursed bee the day that ever I neglected the means of grace so the Lord brings in a foolish obstinate sinner cursing and banning his owne soule sobbing and howling at the last Oh how have I hated instruction and my heart despised repâ—oofe and have not observed the voyce of my Teachers nor inclined mine care to them that instructed mee Pro. 5.12 13. I had Ministers to preach to me but I would not come at them â—or if I did I cared not for their doctrine I had friends that advised me wel but woe is me damned wretch I heeded them not Thus thou wilt cast the foole into thine owne teeth and fling a thousand curses into thine own face because of thy madnesse I might have learned but I would not I might have been humbled but I would not I was almost in all evill in the midst of the assembly of the congregation vers 14. I lived where the Saints of God were in whole assemblies but I mockt them I hated them I misliked them for being too precise I was not ashamed of my security no not in thy sight Thus thou wilt cry out one day if now thou wilt not yeeld unto meditation which must make this as present with thee Know thou O my soul the time of thy visitation is at hand thou wilt curse thy selfe hereafter if thou doest not now be moved by Gods mercies thou shalt never see mercie more Now be awaked by Gods judgements or else thou shalt feel them for evermore now or for ever thou shalt roare for them Then thou shalt curse thy gains and thy profits that bewitched thee thou shalt curse thy pleasures and delights that besotted thee curse thine own heart and thine own soul and thine own conscience that have damned thee Meditation may tell thee thus it will be with thee unlesse thou obeyest now Hear ye me now oh ye children and depart not from the words of my mouth ver 7. hear the word now and obey it let it not depart out of thy meditation Now be humbled with grace oâ— then thou shalt be humbled with horrour then thou shalt wish Oh that I had been ruled When thou art in hell then thou shalt meditate 〈◊〉 it was good counsell that such and such a â—ster gave me good counsell that such a 〈◊〉 and such a brother gave me but wretch 〈◊〉 I was I had not grace to follow it I had more mind of my pleasures more mind of my vanities then of grace Oh if it were to do again I would not do so for a thousand worlds but alas it is now too late Therefore let Meditation presse this upon thee before-hand Now follows the third thing how to put life to Meditation Foure duties are to be done to this purpose 1. Let Meditation haunt thy heart let meditation dogge thee with the hellish looks of thy sins and follow it with the dreadfull vengeance of God haunt it with promises haunt it with threatnings haunt it with mercies and haunt it with judgements and haunt it with Commandments The heart is like the Beaver when it perceiveth it cannot possibly escape