any Rewards or Punishments We had been obliged by the Laws of Creation to embrace and practice it to obey the Dictates of Reason that by obeying them we might have procured the perfection of our Nature Many Duties do arise from the Consideration of our Nature and that Relation which we bear to God and the whole world which would not have ceased to oblige us although no Revelation had been made unto us Or if it had pleased God to re-inforce these Duties by a particular Revelation yet was it not necessary that he should entail any rewards on the performance of them as being parts of our Duty antecedently to any such Revelation If he had required of us more than was naturally suggested to us by the light of Reason even the most difficult and laborious Duties He might justly have done it by the right of Creation as being the Author of our Being It had been a sufficient Reward to Mankind to have received from God the benefit of Existence and the Continuation of it and to enjoy the ordinary effects of his Providence If to these he had added Threats and Punishments he might reasonably be supposed to have abundantly secured Mankind from the neglect of his Commands since none but the most stupid and brutal Persons would for the Fruition of a few not only irrational but trifling Vanities incurr the displeasure of an Almighty Being and draw upon themselves the effects of his Vengeance Or if to Actions in themselves indifferent and not in the least contributing to the perfection of our Nature Actions having nothing extraordinary in them beside the greatness of their Difficulty he had adjoyned a Promise of infinite Rewards yet could we not have omitted them without the highest degree of Folly when the performance of them might procure so vast a Reward the sole hopes of which might induce us to force our Inclinations and do violence to our Nature But when to the common Benefits of Creation and Preservation he hath added the Revelation of Divine Truths and adapted those Revelations to the capacity and imperfection of our Nature when he hath urged the practice of these revealed Truths by the Promise of Reward on the one side and the Threats of Punishment on the other And as if all this were not sufficient proceeds to heap new Favours on us intreats us as a Friend bears with us as a Father and by Prodigies of Mercy leads us to our own Happiness we must profess our selves astonished and confounded at so stupendious a Goodness and acknowledge our selves unable to celebrate as we ought the Mercy of God who when he might have satisfied both the Justice and Holiness of his Nature by requiring of us the performance of the greatest Duties without any Reward or proportioned his Reward to the imperfection of our Service or proposed both Rewards and Duties without adding continued Acts of Mercy and Forgiveness yet contributed all to the Happiness of Mankind and thereby made the Emanation of his Goodness to be no less infinite than his Nature the Fountain of them Who when it was sufficient alone to manifest the Justice of his proceeding to appeal even to the Judgment of Mankind as he did sometime in the Prophet Are not my ways equal are not your ways unequal O house of Israel chose rather to conquer us by kindness and by the greatness of his Goodness lead us to Repentance By the Goodness of God in this place we are not so much to understand that incommunicable Attribute of perfect Holiness upon account of which our Saviour said Matth. XIX 17. There is none good but one that is God As his kindness and benignity which inclines him to exercise Acts of Beneficence Love and Mercy which is frequently in Scripture called by the name of Goodness as Psalm LXXIII 1. Truly God is good unto Israel even unto such as are of a clean heart And again Psalm CXLV 9. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works Where his Goodness is aptly expressed by the Tenderness of his Mercy The former Attribute indeed representeth God to Mankind as a fit object of Worship and Adoration and inciteth brave and generous Souls to the exercise of Vertue that so they may attain a nearer Similitude and Conformity to their Creator the imitation of whom is their ùtmost perfection But the latter chiefly creates in us that Love of God which is the best and most efficacious Principle of all religious Actions by representing to us his infinite affection to Mankind his benefactive Nature and proneness to Acts of Mercy and Compassion which even although we forget our Duty and neglect our Interest cannot but excite a lively Senfe of gratitude in us and a profound Veneration of the Divine Mercy This Beneficence and indulgence of God is designed in the Text by the term Goodness or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eminent instance of which the Apostle had laid down in the former part of this Verse in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forbearance and Long-suffering whereby God does not immediately inflict the deserved Punishments upon Sinners but with-holds his anger and patiently awaits their Repentance whereby he does not presently revenge the Injuries and Affronts done to his Laws and Person by the sins of Mankind but compassionates our Nature and at all times reserveth Mercy for penitent Sinners An Attribute than which nothing can render God more amiable and dear unto us or more effectually secure our Obedience to him were not the Perverseness of Mankind no less infinite than his Goodness Yet did many in that Age and as I fear more in our Times make a contrary use of this Goodness by thence taking Encouragement to continue in their sins because they see not Vengeance to be speedily executed and experience in themselves and others the Forbearance and Long-suffering of God The Apostle complains of these Men in the former part of the Verse That they despised the riches of the goodness forbearance and long-suffering of God and from these Attributes inferrs a contrary Conclusion to what they had formed namely That this ought rather to dispose us to repentance and reformation of Life by enforcing all other Arguments of our Duty with a powerful Obligation of gratitude which is violated in a most enormous manner by those who abused the Divine Mercy to a contrary intent Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth us to repentance In handling these words I shall endeavour to illustrate and improve the Apostles Argument by considering it as well in Relation to that influence which it ought to have upon all our Actions in general as in disposing us to this Duty of Repentance in particular In Discoursing of the first Head I will lay down these two Propositions I. That gratitude or a right Sense of our Obligation arising from the consideration of the infinite Benefits and Mercies of God towards us was intended by God
Nature and Religion to perform our Duty to God rather out of the Sense of our Obligations to him than the fear of Punishment or the hope of Reward In the first Case the chief Principle of all our Actions will be the Love of God in the latter the Love of our selves By this we may become the Clients but by that the Friends of God Lastly Let us remember that this Forbearance and Long-suffering of God will not endure for ever that if despised it shall be withdrawn from us and that God hath set a time for Repentance beyond which he will not a wait nor suffer his Goodness to be abused For we must not ascribe to God such an unlimited Exercise of Mercy as may destroy his Justice and include the highest Contradictions of Sinners and pardon Offences committed against plain Conviction of Conscience and in open Contempt of all means of Repentance afforded to them To pass by such enormous Sins would favour of a Childish Fondness debase the Majesty of God and by making him irrational destroy his Nature How shall I pardon thee for this saith God in the Prophet Jeremy V. 7 9. Shall not I visit for these things and shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this God hath appointed his Mercy as a refuge to Mankind for Sins of ignorance Passion and Inadvertency not as a Sanctuary to prophane and incorrigible Sinners He winked indeed at the times of ignorance but now commandeth all men every where to repent If a man will not turn he will whet his sword Psal. VII 13. And then the dreadful consequence of his anger himself tells us Deut. XXXII 40 41. For I lift up my hand to heaven and say I live for ever If I wheâ—… my glittering sword and mine hand take hold of judgment I will render vengeaâ—…te to mine enemies and will reward them that hatâ—… me Let us therefore perfect our Repentance while a space is yet open for us before Mercy return to Judgment and the Door be shut upon us that so we also may partake of the goodness forbearance and long-suffering of God and not fall into their Condemnation who despise the riches of them Wâ—…oso is wise will pâ—…nder these things and they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. The Sixth SERMON PREACH'D December 30. 1688. At LAMBETH CHAPEL 1 Cor. I. 23. We preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness THE coming of the Messias into the world and therewith the Manifestation of the Divine Mercy to lost Mankind which we at this time Commemorate was so signal a Benefit and in all respects so infinite that it cannot but administer Matter of Admiration to us to see it rejected derided and opposed by the greatest part of Mankind It may justly seem strange to us that that which was proposed by God to rescue Men from that fatal Ignorance wherein they were involved should be treated with Scorn become a Stumbling-block and be accounted Folly That the glad tidings of great joy to Men should be made a Matter of Derision and be received not with Thankfulness as it deserved but with Scofts and Contumelies But such is the unhappiness of Mankind ever since the Fall of Adam that their Understandings being darkned with Ignorance as well as their Wills corrupted with Passions and inordinate Desires it hath been equally difficult without the Assistance of Revelation to find out the Truth as to pursue the Dictates of it when once discovered Such is the natural consequence of that unhappy Fall and such have been the Effects of it in all Ages But then whereas the Corruptions of the Will could not be denied or dissembled the Sense of which induced Men to seek Remedies for them the failings of the Understanding were so far from being perceived and acknowledged that a great part of Mankind had flattered themselves into an Opinion of a perfect knowledge and believed the Truth not only to be possessed by them but their own Understandings to be the rule and measure of it They had framed to themselves a System of Religion either from their own vain Imaginations or some precedent mistaken Revelation and being pre-possessed with Notions derived from thence refused to hearken to any Doctrine different from them They falsely imagined their own Conceptions to be infallible and thereby treated the Christian Religion which opposed them as an erroneous and ridiculous Doctrine especially being proposed with that unaffected Simplicity to which themselves were so much strangers as believing every Opinion to be so much Divine by how much more it was more refined and placed beyond the common Apprehensions of Men. Whereas the Christian Doctrine was more humane and easie lay level with the Capacity of the meanest Persons and excluded not the most illiterate from a perfect knowledge of it being an Enemy to Pride and Ostentation devoid of Subtilties and unuseful Niceties and resembling the Nakedness as well as the Purity of Paradise withal teaching such Mysteries as might directly contribute to destroy the Pride of such men not only by opposing their Opinions but also teaching the Mystery of God incarnate therein humbling himself to take upon him an humane State living a mean and obscure Life and at last undergoing the shame of the Cross a Mystery which at once intirely ruined both the carnal and spiritual Pride of the World The Simplicity of the Christian Religion its want of all those external pompous Arguments of Subtilty and mistaken Learning which recommended other Systems together with its opposition to the received false Opinions of men had induced some Christians at Corinth who lived among the learned Philosophers of the Heathens and Doctors of the Jewish Law to doubt of the Truth of it others to refine it into a System of mysterious and subtil Niceties and so hindred many from becoming Christians The Apostle therefore in this Chapter argueth against all these Men and in the 17th Verse opposeth to these new Refiners of Christianity his own Example who had preached the Gospel among them without any affected shew of Eloquence with a Simplicity becoming the Majesty and agreeable to the intention of the Lawgiver Not with Wisdom of words least the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect and fail of its Design as it would most certainly do if proposed according to the Fancies of those men who turned it into a System of difficult and elaborate Contemplation For hereby it would exceed the reach and capacity of the greater part of Mankind whereas it was indifferently intended for the benefit of all And it would want that powerful Confirmation of the truth of it that being proposed in a plain and familiar way by mean and unlearned Persons It notwithstanding surmounted the pompous Learning of the Schools and Synagogue and gained a more universal Reception in the world That therefore as God had chose to contrive the Redemption of Mankind in a way very different
this prejudice that Men forming Rules from like Cases of this World fondly imagine that Men have escaped all possibility of punishment when they have put off the Body as the Tyrant said of his Adversary who had killed himself that he had escaped his Hands In that case Men see not the punishment inflicted on them and then those who are wont to consult the report of sense alone will not believe it little considering that it is impossible the Soul of Man should perish that after the dissolution of the Body it is no less capable of Reward or Punishment since by that alone it is that Man even in this Life is sensible of either that after Death it ceaseth not to be the Creature of God subject to his Dominion and responsible for all its Actions done in this Life which was the time of Probation allowed to it All this is illustrated by the Parable following in this Chapter which our Lord purposely delivered in confirmation of what he had spoken in the Text. There God is represented in the Person of the Possessor of a Vineyard wherein was an unfruitful Vine the ordinary apprehensions of Men are represented in the Dresser of that Vineyard who perceiving the unfruitfulness of the Vine presently crieth out that it ought to be cut down that it cumbreth the Ground that it should be rooted up and cast out of the Vineyard The Owner of the Vineyard on the contrary commandeth it should be let alone for some while longer that it may fully appear if perhaps it will ever bear Fruit during which he willeth the Dresser of his Vineyard to dig about it and dung it to promote the fertility of it by all means possible and if after all it continueth unfruitful then giveth sentence that it shall be cut down During the time of this Life God executeth not his final sentence upon Men he doth not immediately deliver them up to the Tormenter upon the first Act of disobedience for then alas who could be saved But with an admirable patience awaits their Repentance till the end of Life when there is no more place of Repentance left and in the mean time promotes it by the solicitations of his Spirit by the admonitions of his Pastors by all imaginable methods which may incline the Will of Man without putting any force upon it If then in this Life we find not the just recompence of our evil Actions it is not because they have escaped the knowledge of God or pass unregarded by him it is not because they deserve not the Divine Vengeance or that we continue in his Favour but because he will not alter the method of his most prudent Government of the World nor violate the ordinary Rules of it by which he hath determined this World to be the Stage of Action for Mankind and the next to be the Seat of Judgment Yet may not this forbearance of God encourage Men to deferr their Repentance till the end of their Life That St. Paul tells us Rom. 2. Is to despise the riches of the goodness forbearance and long-suffering of God and thereby to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath Our Lord throughout all his Gospel warns Men concerning the suddenness and unexpected time of his coming to Judgment in prevention of this fatal errour What his second coming was to the Jews and what his last coming in Judgment will be to all Mankind that Death is to us which if it finds us unprepared all the miseries which Christ denounced should befall them will fall on us Nor if Life were assured to us could we at all times form such a true Repentance as would qualifie us for the Mercy of God which consists not in a transient sorrow for past Sins but in a total change of all the vicious habits and inclinations of the Will Nor lastly is there any pardon promised to presumptuous sins deliberately committed in prospect of the pardon offered to all truly penitent sinners But of the Nature Necessity and Benefits of Repentance I shall speak more largely in the further prosecution of these words in my next Discourse The Eleventh SERMON PREACH'D March 23d 16889 90. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Luk. XIII 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish IN my last Discourse I described to you the Reason and the Excellency of the Institution of this Holy Season To improve which I proposed to treat of Repentance from these words and therein observed the occasion of them which was a pernicious mistake of the Jews that the Divine Justice not punishing the Sins of men in this Life did thereby warrant them and that the Defect of such a visible Execution was an Argument of the little necessity of Repentance In opposition to which I shew you that however the Jewish Revelation might give some Countenance to such an Opinion yet that they had therein mistaken their Law That under Christianity there is yet much less Pretence to entertain such a perswasion which is contrary to the Constitution of humane Nature to the Wisdom of God and to the present Order of the world settled by him the Author of it Lastly That however God doth ordinarily bear with the Sins of men in this Life and deferr the Punishment of them to another world yet that this giveth no reasonable Encouragement to men to put off their Repentance till the end of their Lives After having removed these obstacles of Repentance I proceed to enforce the Duty and direct you in the use of it The Motive to Repentance is taken from the plain words of the Text being the certainty of Destruction without Repentance pronounced by our Lord Except ye repent ye shall perish And the Usefulness of it is insinuated in the same words that by Repentance if true sincere and rightly applied Destruction may be avoided These two then shall be the Heads of my present Discourse And first I will improve the Argument of Repentance drawn from the inevitable consequence of Destruction attending the want of it and endeavour to convince you of the certainty of that Consequence The Evidence of the Argument when once a full Conviction is formed of the truth of it is manifest being taken from that which most affects Mankind their own Interest It were indeed more noble to pay our just Obedience to God rather from a Sense of Duty than that of Interest rather out of Gratitude to God for the many Benefits received from him and a Conviction of the entire Subjection due to that Almighty Being than from the fear of Punishment or the hope of Reward But such is the weakness of humane Nature so corrupted is his Will and so much darkened his Understanding that this Argument hath been ever found insufficient God therefore of his infinite Mercy hath been pleased to employ that more sensible Argument of Profit and Interest by propofing Rewards to his obedient Servants and denouncing Punishments to obstinate Sinners An Argument which cannot fail if Man
we are warned by Examples to Repentance and still continue unmoved We hear the voice of our Lord calling to Repentance the Exhortations of his Apostles preaching to the World whose Message was Repent and be baptized We read the dreadful Examples of Punishments inflicted in this World upon notorious Sinners And yet reflect not that we are the Creatures of God as well as they that we are subject to the Laws of Government that the Duty is not remitted but made more severe and that the hand of God is not shortned that he cannot punish us but that his Power always continueth the same and that the Rules of Conduct given to Men are no more changed than is the Nature of them It is somewhat surprizng indeed that Men should know and confess all this and yet not attend to it that it should be possible to form an habit of Acting constantly in opposition to the clearest and no less constant Conviction of mind For can we hear with what Detestation the Scripture speaketh of the hardness of Pharaohs Heart and what a sudden Destruction followed and not reflect that in continuing deaf to so many Admonitions of Repentance we are guilty of the same Crime and that in one respect in a higher Degree inasmuch as he knew not at first that that God who commanded him to let the Captive Jews depart was the true God until he was convinced by many Miracles whereas we are convinced from the beginning of the Divine Authority of him who imposeth this Duty on us Or can we call to mind the severe Judgments which God exercised upon the Jews for sudden and rash Resolutions taken up in heat and as soon repented of such as their frequent Rebellions against Moses their refusing to march to the promised Land after having râ—…ceived a false account from the timorous Spies and many such other occasions Do we remember all this and imagine that God will pass-by unregarded our deliberate and obstinate Rebellions such as is the Continuation of every habit of Sin These things were written for our Example that by them we might receive Instruction being terrified by the knowledge of their Sufferings from following the Example of their Sins It is absurd to think that God hath remitted his Justice herein and will oversee those Sins in us which he so eminently revenged in elder times His Attributes always continue the same his Justice his Holiness and his hatred of Sin The Reasons of his Favour are eternal and unchangeable being Piety and Obedience Although he hath been pleased in ancient times to demonstrate his Justice by more visible Examples than in after Ages which was no more than was necessary at the first Delivery of any general Revelation partly to attest the Authority of those Revelations and partly to deterr Men by such severe Examples from the Prosecution of sin who ought thence to conclude That if God exercised not the same Severity toward them in this Life he reserved it for another it being impossible that God who is no respecter of persons should be so inexorable to some Sinners and unaccountably indulgent to others involved in the same Guilt To be farther convinced of the impossibility of Salvation without Repentance we may consider the Mystery of our Lords Incarnation Death and Passion who having taken upon himself the Sins of Mankind bore our Infirmities upon the Cross and became answerable to God for them Surely if ever God would Pardon the sins of Men without any Satisfaction whether of Punishment or Repentance he would have remitted his Methods of Justice to his only begotten Son and not required him to take upon himself the Shame and Bitterness of the Cross. Yet such was the Divine Hatred of Sin that although earnestly and passionately intreated by Christ in his Prayer in the Garden to remit his Decree therein and receive Mankind to Mercy without requiring so severe a Satisfaction he would not condescend to do it nor would give Pardon to Man upon any other terms than that that ever Blessed Person who had taken the Sins of Mankind upon him should suffer all the Marks of Divine Displeasure which Man in this Life can undergo and expiate it by the shedding of his own Blood Could the Justice of God permit him to Pardon the sins of Man without any satisfaction he would never have put such an hard Condition upon his own Son as that either the World whose Redemption he had undertaken must be for ever lost or himself must lay down his Life in exchange for it When therefore a Life of such inestimable value must be Sacrificed to appease the Anger of God to sinful Men how terrible must that Anger have been how vehement his Hatred of sin the occasion of it Nor did his Hatred of sin expire with the offering up of that inestimable Sacrifice that continueth yet fixed and constant Only now he may remit to men the full and just Punishment of their sins without any prejudice to his Attributes of Holiness and Justice which without that Satisfaction of the Cross he would not do least Man should conclude that he took delight in or winked at their sin which he pardoned so easily or that Sin was not of so deep a Guilt since Man with all his sins was capable of the Divine Favour without any Compensation for it whereas now Man cannot reflect upon the means of Pardon offered by God without conceiving at the same time his hatred of Sin God indeed required ne the Life of every particular Man in Punishment of his Sins which in strict Justice would seem agreeable but he required the Life of his own Son more valuable than the Lives of all sinful Men put together He receiveth to Mercy the most enormous Sinners but condemned to Punishment that Divine Person who took the Sins of them all upon him And even after so much done and suffered by Christ for the Expiation of the sins of Men God distributeth not the Benefits of that Sacrifice indifferently to all who lay any Claim to it Hereby the sins of Men are not actually pardoned nor Man immediately acquitted of the Guilt of them but only made capable of Pardon and the grant of Pardon in God made possible without any Diminution to his Justice This Pardon he distributeth to Men upon those Conditions which himself hath pleased to appoint and those such which farther declare his Hatred of sin being Repentance and Reformation a Confession of the guilt of sin and a forsaking of it such means as may produce in the Soul of Man a like Detestation of Sin Upon no other account can Man claim any Benefit from the Merits of that Sacrifice the sum of the Conditions required being included in that comprehensive form of Speech so often mentioned in the New Testament Repent and be baptized Acknowledge the Guilt of your former sins conceive a Sorrow for them and form a Hatred of them Renounce any farther Exercise of them testifie your Resolutions
to the Church into which you are received by taking such a visible Mark upon you as may be both a fit Emblem of your designed Purity and a Seal of the Covenant made there with God These are the Conditions upon which alone Mercy is offer'd to Mankind even after the great Expiation of the Cross. Nor may it be hoped that God will dispense with these Conditions in any Man God proposed to his own Son undertaking the Salvation of the World as the only Condition to effect it the laying down his Life for it He proposeth to Man seeking Delivery from the Sentence of Damnation due to his Sins as the only Condition of Pardon sincere Repentance He would not remit to his own Son the determined Condition of the Salvation of the World much less therefore will he remit to sinful Men the Condition of Pardon which he hath once fixed If he spared not his eternal Son herein much less will he spare Man the work of his own hands especially while continuing in Rebellion against him It neither becomes us nor will it be of any use to us to enquire whether God could not have pardoned the Sins of men without exacting so great a Satisfaction or whether he cannot yet Pardon the sins of particular Men without requiring from them the ordinary Condition of Pardon which is Repentance It is sufficient to us that he hath declared that he will not do it and that he hath also said of himself that he cannot lie He hath done all which is wont to create a Belief in Man to perswade him of the certainty of his Resolution in this Matter he hath affirmed that he will not justifie the Sinner unless he turns from the evil of his way He hath often repeated his Asseverations he hath confirmed them by an Oath he hath given frequent Examples of it in visible Punishments of more notorious Sinners he hath Sacrificed his own Son because he would not change his Resolution and yet he cannot perswade us that in all this he deals in earnest We willingly believe all other Points of Revelation but this we will not believe that God will judge us according to the strict Rules of his Gospel nor grant us any more Mercy than what he hath there promised We presently lay hold of all such Passages as declare the infinity of his Mercy little considering that it is joyned with no less infinite Justice We remember what passionate Concern he often expresseth for the good of Mankind forgetting his unchangeable Hatred of sin Whereas if we fairly considered those very places where God expresseth the greatest Tenderness and whence Men chiefly raise their hopes we shall find that even in them he giveth manifest Indications of the impossibility of receiving his Mercy without their own precedent Repentance He representeth himself as stretching forth his Hands to them all day long but adds that if they will not hear he giveth them up to their own hearts Lusts. He describeth his Concern for them by the similitude of a Housholder cultivating his Vine Dressing Digging about it and watering it but subjoyns his command of cutting it down if it still remains unfruitful He breaks out into passionate Exclamations in sorrow for their obdurate Impenitence As in Ezek. XXXIII 11. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye Turn ye fâ—…om your evil way for why will ye die O ye house of Isaael And Psal. LXXXI 14. O that my people would have hearkned unto me for if Israel had walked in my ways I should soon have put down their enemies c. and Matt. XXIII 37. O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets c. how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not In all the Scripture there are not more vehement Protestations of kindness to Mankind and yet all these carry along with them a certain Denunciation of Destruction without Repentance In the first place it is plainly insinuated that if Israel will not turn from their evil way there is no Remedy but they must die The second Passage carrieth this Sense in other words O that my People would put themselves into a capacity of receiving my Favour which while they continue Disobedient to me I cannot bestow upon them Which because they would not do it is adjoyned in the 13. Verse But my people would not hearken unto me and Israel would have none of me Therefore I gave them up unto their own hearts lusts and let them follow their own imaginations or in other words I would have none of them And in the last place where to the passionate Commiseration of Jerusalem it is added that our Lord even wept over it yet it immediately follows that because they would not obey his command of Repentance and put themselves under his Protection Behold your house is left unto you desolate However then we dare â—…not affirm that God could not have pardoned Man without the Expiation of the Cross or that he cannot communicate the Benefits of the Cross to an unrepenting Sinner because we presume not to measure the Power of God yet this we may affirm and this is most evident that Man continuing in a state of Unrepentance cannot receive the Mercy and the Pardon of God For the distribution of Mercy or Pardon supposeth a Reconciliation between God and Man and therefore St. Paul saith of his Exhortations to Repentance We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God While Man continueth in Sin he is in a state of Enmity with God in as much as every Sin is a violation of the Divine Authority and a Rebellion against him in its own Nature and every willful Sin is an absolute disclaiming of his Government and renouncing Subjection to him Resolvedly to deferr Repentance is such a willful Sin and therefore cuts off all Communication of Favour between God and Man it being absurd to say That he is reconciled to God who continueth in Rebellion to him and fears not to Affront him with his sins who defieth his Threats of Punishment against impenitent Sinners or at least slights his Commands of universal Repentance These things are so inconsistent that the least Attention will manifest the impossibility of a Pardon without Repentance This also follows from all those earnest Exclamations of God before recited which are so many Affirmations that while Men continue in disobedience to him he cannot bestow any Act of Favour on them cannot I say not by reason of any defect of his Power but by reason of the incapacity of Man to receive in that state of Unrepentance any such Favour and in complyance to his most just Determinations of the contrary Upon which account he plainly makes it impossible for himself to Pardon unrepenting Sinners Jeremy V. 9. Their transgressions are many and their backslidings
fitted to receive the favour of God Other Sins there are which may consist with such a pious Habit of Soul as is required namely Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity The first sort arise from an Errour of the understanding when a Man offends against his Duty because he knows it not The second Spring from the disorder of the sensual Appetite as when a Man through a sudden fear or Passion is hurried on rashly to commit a Sin before he well considers what he doth before he hath time to reflect upon his Duty or to consider with himself what he should or should not do But a willful Sin or Sin of Presumption ariseth from a corruption of Will and proceeds upon deliberate Choice and advised Resolution I will illustrate all these by Examples St. Paul persecuted the Church of God not knowing it to be his Church although he was all the while ready to receive and obey the Truth as soon as it should be manifested to him This was a Sin of Ignorance for which he saith of himself that he received Mercy because he did it in unbelief If this Ignorance should be affected because Men will not inquire after Truth or will not attend to it the mis-carriages founded upon it cease to be Sins of Ignorance and become willful Sins Of sins of Infirmity St. Peter is a great Example who through a sudden fear of Death or Punishment was betrayed to deny his Master Although he had before fully resolved against it and as soon as the violence of his Fear was over and his Mind returned to the former Freedom as soon as he thought of it He wept bitterly Of willful Sins that of David against Uriah is an eminent Instance where the Sin of Adultery and Murder was after long Deliberation and a Contrivance of many days together at last put in Execution by him And for this it was that Nathan told him he had deserved to die this created to him that lasting and vehement Sorrow which we often find described in the Book of Psalms and this stuck as an indelible blot to his Memory when lesser offences were passed by And therefore it is said of them 1 King XV. 5. That David did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing which he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite We read of many Sins of Infirmity which he committed but these were easily pardoned that stuck close to him and could not be wiped off but by a long and strict Repentance and patient enduring of terrible Calamities inflicted on him Other Sins alter not the Constitution of the Soul of Man and if a good Man should suddenly die even in the Commission of one of them we might still hope for Mercy but for a willful Sin no Mercy is to be expected till the habit of the Mind be intirely changed by Repentance This Distinction of Sins may instruct you in the necessary manner of forming your Repentance For Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity a general Repentance may suffice a hearty Sorrow for having offended God in Thought Word or Deed an humble Supplication of Pardon a sincere Resolution of endeavouring to avoid any such for the future But for every willful Sin a particular Repentance is required a sad reflection of the Mind upon it an earnest and continued Supplication for pardon of it a diligent strugling with the corrupt Inclinations of the Will a long Preparation of it by Prayer by Resolution by Meditation by all necessary Acts of Mortification which may intirely change the Bent and remove the Corruptions of it and subdue it to the Obedience of God Then and not till then may the willful Sinner presume of Pardon believe himself reconciled to God and to have escaped the Sentence of Destruction pronounced in the Text which God of his infinite Mercy Grant that by a true and perfect Repentance we may all avoid for the Sake c. The Twelfth SERMON PREACH'D April 21st 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Acts. X. 34 35. Then Peter opened his Mouth and said Of a Truth I perceive that God is no respecter of Persons But in every Nation he that feaâ—…eth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him THE Christian Religion being the ultimate ought also to be the most perfect Revelation of the Will of God And that it is so cannot better be discovered than from its most perfect agreement with the Divine Attributes and subservience to them The end of all Religion is first the Honour and Service of God and then the good of Men. The first is promoted by noble conceptions of God and his infinite perfections the latter is inhanced by the extent of it The primary attribute of God in relation to us is his Goverment of the World and the excellency of that consists in the Justice of it This Justice appears most conspicuously in the Universal diffusion of his Benefits in dispensing his Rewards as well as punishments impartially to all Orders and Ranks of Men in excluding none from his Favour but for Reasons common to them with all Mankind This all Men conceive to be a perfection in God and as such it must be an eternal Attribute of the Divine Nature although the influences and effects of it may be more manifest in some Ages and under some dispensations than in others As his Mercy his Goodness and his Power were from all Ages equal and uniform but more openly declared to the World by external Actions relating to us His Justice was always impartial and universal yet clouded in a great measure under the Mosaick Law while the Divine Mercies were in appearance appropriated to a small division of Mankind not clouded indeed directly and by necessary consequence but by reason of the fond Opinion of Men who from the peculiar Favours of God would take occasion to fancy him partial in their behalf and exclude the rest of the World from the participation of the same Happiness This the Jews in a most gross manner did who imagined themselves to be the only Members of Mankind for whom God had any care or respect fancied themselves dear to God not upon the common account of Piety and Obedience but for peculiar Reasons as their descent from Abraham their separation from the rest of the World by Circumcision and other Typical Rites Upon this account they Treated all other Persons as Prophane and Unclean allowed no share of the Divine Favour to them and believed them to be utterly unregarded by God in his Government of the World A prejudice which the Jews had so far imbibed that the Apostles retained it many years even after the descent of the Holy Ghost and would not receive the Gentiles to their Company or Conversation much less to the hopes and fellowship of the same blessed Calling until God by an extraordinary Vision and by the example of Cornelius taught St. Peter not to call any Man
the natural course of Nature to be observed Thus far the Divine Decree is unquestionable and secure from all objections But then the revealed History of the Creation of Man and the Divine Dispensations in relation to him include some apparent shew of injustice which may induce inconsidering Persons to accuse God of overmuch Rigour and even Tyranny in condemning the whole Race of Mankind to the Sentence of Death for the single fault of the First Man and extending the punishment of that to all his posterity which was yet unborn and therefore wholly innocent of it A proceeding and manner of Judicature which would appear harsh and even cruel among Men especially as it hath been erroneously represented by many Writers and Divines who endeavouring to amplifie the unlimited Power of God and meanness of Man would perswade us that herein God had no respect to the merits or demerits of Men that he created the far greater part of Mankind for no other end than to make them miserable and to shew forth in their punishments the effects of his Almighty Power and that in punishing the fall of Adam he subjected his whole posterity not only to Temporal but Eternal Death This would indeed effectually declare the power of God but such a Power as would be Odious and Intolerable Unjust and Tyrannical far unbecoming the purity of a most perfect Being It becomes us to entertain more noble conceptions of God and not fancy him to be the Author of such arbitrary Punishments as are inconsistent with his Holiness and Justice To vindicate therefore these Divine attributes in taking occasion from the fall of Adam to form an Universal Decree of Death to all his Posterity it will not be unseasonable to reflect a little upon it before I pass any further To clear this matter therefore we may observe that the Nature of Man as compounded of Soul and Body is Mortal and subject to Dissolution as all compounded Bodies are It is our Soul alone which being immaterial and void of all Composition can promise to it self an immortal State and that no longer than while it pleaseth God that the ordinary course of Nature shall be observed Death then was the natural effect and consequence of our Constitution even in the State of Innocence from which Man could not be rescued but by a Miraculous and extraordinary assistance of God constantly preserving the Union of Soul and Body removing Diseases repairing the defects of Nature and renewing the vigour of it This extraordinary assistance therefore and means of preservation was a superadded favour of God which he might conferr upon Man upon whatsoever condition himself pleased Subjection Adoration and Gratitude was owing to God the Author and Preserver of our Being even without the Obligation of this supernatural Benefit The Dictates of Reason and Natural Religion were wholly independent of it and although performed exactly and without any intervenient sin could not justly claim any other reward from God than the continuation of Existence as long as the ordinary course of Nature should permit it The gift of Immortality was extraordinary and as such might be annexed to whatsoever conditions or persons God should please to do it God therefore made a Covenant with Adam and promised to him That if besides the observation of the Law of Nature to which he was obliged from the consideration of his ordinary State and condition he would more particularly manifest his Obedience and Subjection to him by abstaining from the seemingly pleasant Fruit of a Tree in the Garden called the Tree of knowledge of good and evil he would in recompence entail upon himself and his posterity performing the same condition a perpetual fruition of the same State of Life which he then enjoyed and continue his Existence beyond the ordinary course of Nature even for ever which because it could not be effected without some extraordinary remedies and assistance God Created for that purpose the Tree of Life by the powerful vertue of whose Fruit the decaying Nature of Man might from time to time be restored and preserved without corruption Whereas if he should neglect to perform this small condition and be tempted to violate the Divine prohibition of Tasting the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil he should forfeit this superadded promise of Immortality not only to himself but to all his posterity descending from him not to be immediately destroyed or put to Death but to be deprived of that extraordinary assistance and so left to the ordinary course of Nature When Adam therefore really broke the condition and violated the Command of God God might justly withdraw as he in effect did the supernatural benefit of Immortality and thenceforward deny it to Mankind The Mystery of the Fall of Adam being thus explained nothing can be more unexceptionable or more agreeable to the strictest Rules of Justice and Reason Hereby no Man is punished for the fault of another For the loss or rather not obtaining a Favour to which we have naturally no right or claim can in nowise be called a punishment Hereby the Justice of God is cleared beyond all contradiction seeing that no wrong or injury is done unto any His Goodness is made evident in entailing so wonderful a Reward as Immortality upon the observation of so easie a condition and enforcing the observation of it by an Argument drawn from the happiness or unhappiness of all Mankind ensuing to it which in all reason might be supposed to make Adam infinitely more careful and concerned in it Lastly the Wisdom of God is most manifest herein whereby this Mystery becomes not only just but rational For by this fatal example Mankind cannot but be made sensible how subject they are to Temptations and how prone to Sin That therefore if what they naturally desire an extraordinary reward of their Obedience be expected the hopes of which must be founded in a revealed Covenant it can be obtained no otherwise than in vertue of a Covenant wherein frequent remission of Sin and Disobedience may be bestowed upon Repentance and Reformation and Mercy allowed to Sinners until they should appear absolutely incorrigible That therefore neither plenary rewards nor punishments could be dispensed in this Life and if either were desired they must necessarily be deferred till after Death A Truth which Mankind would very hardly have been convinced of had not the Example and Fall of Adam taught it to us So naturally are Men led to imagine their Supreme Happiness to consist in the perpetual fruition of those worldly pleasures and enjoyments which they now so much value and to suspect the truth of those promises the performance of which they cannot receive till after Death Whereas now neither the Wisdom of God nor the Reason of things can permit it to be otherwise which I will endeavour to shew in discoursing upon the Second Head proposed namely in manifesting II. The Justice and Wisdom of the Divine Decree of deferring the
for many years and yet are as solicitous about the affairs of this World as if we were to continue in it many Ages We own that the duration of this Life is even nothing if compared to the Eternity of the next and yet every trifling pleasure can perswade us to exchange Eternity for this nothing If we review all the reasons why God deferreth the Execution of his Judgments till another Life we shall find abundant cause carefully to prepare our selves to undergo it If God in mercy awaits our repentance even till the last scene of our Life how dreadful may we imagin those punishments to be which he would not inflict till the Sinner had filled up the measure of his Iniquities and by dying impenitent declared himself to be absolutely Incorrigible and worthy to undergo the utmost fury of an enraged God If he rather suffers his Providence and Justice to be traduced in this World than consent to dispose of his Rewards and Punishments according to the erroneous imaginations of Men it is because he hath reserved an unerring Judgment to the last times when he will infallibly return to every one the true Reward of their Actions and discovering the most secret faults of every individual Criminal make their demerits as publick as their punishment If in this Life Punishments cannot be imposed with sufficient severity how rigorous and terrible how much exceeding all the Calamities of this World must be the Torments prepared hereafter If the highest and most admired enjoyments here are not worthy to be conferred as a reward to a Pious Christian we may conclude the joys of Heaven to be inconceivable and ought to be powerfully insluenced by the hopes of them If the Final Judgment of Men was not to be executed upon Earth because inconsistent with the exercise of all more noble and Christian Vertues we may be then convincâ—… how necessary they are to fit us for the Judgment hereafter Lastly if God would not inflict the deserved punishments on Sinners here least he should represent a Hell on Earth and affright even good Men with so dismal a spectacle how dreadful must the Torments of Hell be which may in some measure even make the Spectators miserable Such powerful and forcing Arguments have we to oblige us to a careful practice of our Duty and yet all this can scarce induce us even to a serious consideration of it Neither the certain assurance of Death can move nor the Terrours of Hell affright us nor the Hopes of Heaven allure us nor the dread of future Judgment arrest us and then what if none of all these had been if neither Heaven nor Hell Death or Judgment had attended us If God had not appointed Men once to die and we had been permitted to live Immortal Sinners What Sins should we then have scrupled at what Violence should we not then have committed So that even the Final Decree of Death upon all Men is no small benefit to Mankind and far from being repined at ought to be gratefully received by us At least let us take care to improve the knowledge of this Decree to a real advantage by continually preserving it in our minds opposing it to all Temptations and acting under a constant sense of it So shall we not need to fear the Judgment which shall follow it but shall patiently a wait it boldly encounter it and joyfully receive it which God of his infinite Mercy grant for the sake and merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Eighth SERMON PREACH'D February 10. 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL 1 Tim. I. 17. Now unto the King eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever Amen THE Consideration of the Divine Attributes is of such excellent use to all Christians and tendeth so highly to beget and preserve true Notions of Religion in us that the Spirit of God hath chosen frequently and upon all occasions to inculcate it in Holy Writ St. Paul in this place breaks out in Admiration of the Divine Mercy to himself which he had described in the foregoing Verses and then returneth Praise and Thanksgiving to him in these words words so admirably framed that they express not only the extreme Gratitude of the Apostle but powerfully intice us also to joyn in the same Doxology to God by representing and briefly enumerating his infinite Perfections upon account of which he deserveth to be adored by us And indeed in this chiefly consists the difference between true and false Religions that in the one right Notions of the Divine Attributes are entertained and Worship founded upon them in the other erroneous and mean Conceptions of the Deity are taken up and religious Adoration paid upon Reasons which will not warrant it Religion is the perfection of Man and therefore ought to be placed upon such Foundations as may secure the Honour of it and convince the Consciences of Men of the necessity and reasonableness of it God hath indeed out of his abundantMercy andLove to Mankind provided many other Arguments whereby we may be induced to Fear him to love him to obey his Commands and yield Submission to him He hath sent his Son into the World to save Sinners as we are told in the 15th verse of this Chapter that the sense of so wonderful a Benefit might engage us to gratitude he sheweth forth his long suffering to them which believe and to them which do both believe and actagreeably to their belief he promiseth everlasting Life as it follows in the next verse The consideration of these matters will indeed strike us with a lively concern we cannot but love the Author of these signal Benefits admire his Goodness and fear to displease him least by his displeasure we forfeit the Reward proposed by him These are indeed powerful Arguments to us to be Religious but yet we find nothing whereon to place the most essential Act of Religion Worship and Adoration we know not how to Form it nor to whom to give it till we proceed to consider the Perfections and Attributes of God till we begin to reflect with the Apostle that he is a King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God and then we cannot but conclude with the Apostle also to him be Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen The words therefore present us with these two considerations of which I intend to Discourse I. The Reasons why Religious Worship and Adoration ought to be referred and paid to God by us namely because he is our King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only wise God II. The Nature of this Religious Worship to be paid to him to him be Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen First then the Reasons why Worship and Adoration ought to be paid to God are his Infinite Perfections or Attributes That these belong to God we are taught by the light of Nature it being the very first Notion which all Men conceive of a Deity that he possesseth
suffer our Reason to take place if we willfully shut not our eyes against the Truth and embolden our Minds against the influence of it when discovered we cannot but repent To harden the heart is to Act against the Conviction of a Man 's own Conscience and against the Dictates of Truth clearly and fully manifested Thus Pharaoh is often in Scripture said To have hardned his heart when he refused to let the children of Israel go He was abundantly convinced that the Dismission of them was commanded by God he knew very well that Moses was a true Prophet he experienced the Power of God in the dreadful Plagues inflicted upon his Kingdom and acknowledged him to be the true God by recurring to him and imploring his Mercy and Pardon as often as he desired the Plagues to be removed Yet for all this he perversely refused to obey the Command of God and was therefore made an Example of the terrible Justice of God even in this World We have yet a nearer instance of this kind in the People of the Jews whom the Psalmist in these words particularly reflects on Harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your Fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works They were a People peculiarly chosen by God and obliged by the most amazing temporal Benefits that ever were conferred on any fed with a constant Miracle led by a Prophet and confirmed by continual Miracles wrought in Favour of them Here was sufficient Conviction of the Truth and Power of that God they worshipped of the Greatness of the Obligation laid upon them and the Reasons they had to yield an intire Obedience to his Commands Yet we find frequent Defections in them contempt of his Precepts vilifying of his Benefits and disbelief of his Promifes which enforced God in Indignation to say of them How long will this people provoke me and how long will it be e're they believe on me for all the signs which I have shewed among them I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them c. Numb XIV 11 12. So then To harden the heart is to Act against the Convictions and impulse of our own Consciences a Sin of the highest Enormity against which God expresseth the greatest Indignation and on which he inflicteth the most severe Punishments This we cannot but acknowledge this we willingly confess We wonder at the impudence and obstinacy of Pharaoh we are apt to conceive Indignation and pronounce Sentence against him when we read or hear his History We abhor the ingratitude and baseness of the Jews and are astonished to think that they should after so many signal Miracles wrought in Favour of them rebel against God slight his Favours and endeavour to stone his Prophet and their own Deliverer We condemn the Folly and unreasonable Conduct of both and are prone to conclude with our selves had we then been in the place of Pharaoh or in the number of the Jews far be it from us that we should have imitated his obstinacy or their Perverseness But let us not deceive our selves or flatter our selves with a vain Opinion of behaving our selves better in such Circumstances Let us reflect upon our own Behaviour in relation to the Duty of Repentance and we shall find the Omission of it to be in no less a Degree a hardening of the heart than was the Crime either of Pharaoh or of the Jews For our Conviction is no less than was that of Pharaoh our Obligation greater than was that of the Jews We are without doubt fully satisfied that our God is the true God that he hath a just Right to lay his Commands upon us and to require our Obedience We know very well that he hath commanded us to observe the Rules of Holiness Temperance and Justice and that although he hath reserved Mercy and Pardon for Sinners yet that this is dispensed upon no otherCondition than that of Repentance Without the Practice therefore of this no Obedience to God can consist or be preserved And then may not he justly be said to have hardned his heart and defied the Divine Majesty who acknowledgeth all this and yet cannot be prevailed on to manifest his Obedience by forsaking bewailing and amending his former Disobedience Who confesseth himself to be his Creature and to owe to his Liberality both his Life and all the consequences of it and yet continueth to profess Enmity to him by retaining his sinful Habits Who believeth all his Attributes of Almighty Power Wisdom and Omnipresence and yet neither dreads his Anger nor reveres his All-seeing eye So that if Men considered but the natural Obligations which they have to God they could not disobey him or continue in Disobedience by unrepentance without either the constant Accusation of their Consciences or a studious stifling of them by a profligate hardness of heart But then who can reflect upon the wonderful Benefits of God revealed in the Redemption of Mankind without concluding impenitent Christians to be guilty of unparallel'd Obstinacy When the Dictates of Reason and natural light of Mankind by an universal decay of Piety wanted their effect and failed in promoting among Men obedience to their Sovereign Lord and Maker God contrived such a method to reduce them to their Duty as if an inexcusable ingratitude did not oppose could not miscarry He invited them by the Blood of his only begotten Son proclaimed Pardon to all penitent Sinners proposed infinite Rewards to sincere Repentance and settled a Succession of Pastors in the Church who might renew these Promises and promote Repentance by constant Exhortations After all this it is impossible to corroborate or add to the Obligation of what is required of us And if we inquire what that is we shall find it to be briefly comprehended in Repentance This was the Message of John the Baptist sent to prepare the way to our Saviour this was the subject of theApostles Sermons Repent and be baptized So necessary is it to the Profession of Christianity that it is pre-required to it The main design of that most Holy Religion is to promote the Honour of God by procuring a just Esteem and Adoration of himself an universal Obedience to his Laws and Devotion to his Will None of which can take place until the love of Sin be first renounced and changed into a steady Resolution of Submission to the Divine Precepts If then neither the offers of Pardon can perswade us nor the love of Christ constrain us if the frequent Exhortations of faithful Monitors cannot move us nor the necessity of the thing it self engage us if these Arguments contrived by the most Wise Providence of God become fruitless and ineffectual it must be imputed to an Obduration greater than any other because opposing Reasons stronger than any other If to slight and over-look all these Obligations be so enormous an obduration much more Criminal will it be to despise the glorious