the Law will execute Justice on him there is no benefit had by repentance the law will seize on him he should have looked to it before If thou committest Murther or Burglary it 's not enough to put one good deed for another to say I have done thus and thus for the King I kept such a Fort or I won such a Town this will not serve thy turn it will not save thy neck the law takes no knowledge of any good thing done or of any repentance This is thy estate Consider then what a case they are in that are shut up under the Law until a man hath saith it admits no exeuse requires things far above thy power to perform it will accept no repentance And therefore we may well make this Conclusion in the Galathians As many as are under the law are under the curse as it is written Cursed is every one that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them Gal. 3.10 But now where are we thus shut up It 's under sin as the Apostle â—ells us For the Law discovers sin to be sin indeed that sin by the commandment may become exceeding sinful Rom. 7.13 The Law makes us see more of it than we did or possibly could come to have seen Rom. 3.20 By the Law cometh the knowledge of sin I had not known sin but by the law Yes peradventure I might have known Murther Adultery c. to have been sins but to have known them to have been exceeding sinful I could not but by the law To know what a kind of plague sin is in it self so as not to make a game of it or a small matter as many usually make it to see the ugliness of it I cannot without the law But that we may know what sin is and that we may see it to be exceeding sinful I here bring you a few Considerations which I would have you ponder on and enlarge them to your selves when you come home 1. Consider the baseness of him that offends and the excellency of him that is offended You shall never know what sin is without this twofold Considerations lay them together and it will make sin out of measure sinful See in David The drunkards made songs and ballads of him He aggravates the indignity offered him in that he was their King yet that those wretched and filthy beasts the drunkards made songs of him See it likewise in Job Cap. 29. when he had declared unto them in what glory he once was that he was a King and Prince in the Country Then see Cap. 20. They that are younger than me have me in derision whose fathers I would have disdain'd to have set with the dogs of my flock He aggravates the offence First from the dignity of the persons wronged a King and a Prince Then from the baseness and vileness of those who derided him They were such as were younger than he such as whose fathers he would have disdain'd to have set with the dogs of his flocks A great indignity and mightily aggravated by these circumstances that a King should be abased by such vile persons Now some proportion there might be between David and the drunkards Job and these men but between thee and God what proportion can thâ—re be Who art thou therefore that darest set thy self in opposition and rebellion against God What a base worm that crawleth on the earth dust and ashes and yet darest thou thy Maker Dost thou saith God lift thy self up against him before whom all the powers of Heaven do tremble whom the Angels do adore Exaltest thou thy self against him who inhabiteth Eâ—ernity What oppose thy self a base creature to Almighty God thy Creator Consider this and let the baseness of the delinquent and the Majesty and Glory of that God against whom he offends be the first aggravation of sin and thou shalt find sin out of measure sinful 2. Consider the smalness of the Motives and the littleness of the inducements that perswade thee so vile a creature to set thy self against so glorious a God If it were great mâ—tters set thee a work as the saving of thy life it were somewhat But see how small and little a thing does usually draw thee to sin A little profit it may be or pleasure It may be neither of these or not so much When thou breathest out oaths and belchest out fearful blasphemies against God when thou rendest and tearest his dreadful and terrible name what makes such a base and vile villain as thou thus to fly in Gods face Is there any profit or delight in breathing forth blasphemies Profit thou canst take none and if thou take pleasure in it then the Devil is in thee yea then thou art worst than the Devil himself This is the second Consideration which may make us to see the vileness of sin and abhor our selves for it to wit the slenderness of the temptations and smalness of the motives to it 3. Add what strong helps and means God hath given thee to keep thee from sin As I say thou shouldst consider the bitterness of the delinquent the glory of the offended the mean motives whch cause so base a creature to do so vile an act so also consider the great means God hath given thee to keep thee from sin He hath given thee his Word and this will greatly aggravate thy sins to sin against his Word Gen. 3.11 When God convinces Adam he proceeds thus far with him Hast thou saith he eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat What hast thou done it as if thou wouldst do it on purpose to cross God God hath given thee an express command to the contrary and yet hast thou done this Hast thou so often heard the Law and pray'd Lord have mercy on me and incline my heart to keep this law and yet wilt thou lye swear commit adultery and deal falsly and that contrary to the command of God obstinately disobey him Now God hath not only given this great means of his Word and Commandment but great grace too Where understand that there is not only final grace but degrees of grace else the Apostle would not have said receive not the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in vain 2 Cor. 6.1 Consider then how much grace thou hast received in vain How many motions to good hast thou rejected Perhaps thy heart is touched at this Sermon though it is not my tongue nor the tongue of the most elegant in the world that can touch the heart but the Spirit that comes along with his Word Now when thou findst with the Word a Spirit to go with it it is a grace If thy conscience be enlightned and thy duty revealed to thee so that it tells thee what thou art what thou oughtest to do and not to do it is a grace Now if for all this thou blindly runnest through and art never the better but obstinately
to him for righteousness But doth God justifie the ungodly that 's a hard speech we read in the Proverbs 17.15 He that justifieth the wicked and condemneth the just even they both are abomination to the Lord. But here we must understand this as we do some other Scriptures we read in S. Luke 7.22 that the blind see the lame walk the dumb speak It 's impossible for a man to be blind and see to be dumb and speak all at once yet take the chief of sinners suppose Paul and he was so in his own account but the act of justification alters him God justifies the ungodly that is him that was even now so but by the imputation of Christ's righteousness he is made righteous that is righteous in God's account And indeed justification in S. Paul's acception importing the remission of sins the person justified must of necessity be supposed to have been a sinner otherwise remission of sins would no more concern him than repentance doth the holy Angels which never offended But in proceeding in this point I did reflect a little back God finds a man with a number of sins full of sin and forgives these sins now I demanded this how far doth this justification and forgiveness extend to sins past alone or to sins past and to come And I answered that we must consider this matter two ways First to justifie a mans person simply and then to justifie a man from this or that particular act The phrase is used in Scripture Acts 13.39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses There is justification from this or that thing There is first Justification of a man's person he that was an enemy is now made a friend he is now no longer a stranger at home but is in the list of God's houshold Now this we say no sooner doth a man receive it but the self-same hour that he receiveth it the bond is cancell'd the evidence is torn and fastened to the Cross of Christ and hangs up among the Records whereas before it was an evidence against us and would have lain heavy on us at the bar but now it is fastened to the Cross as a cancell'd Record the bond is become void Secondly but now when we consider justification from this or that particular act I declared that so a man is only justified from sins past for it is contrary to reason and Scripture that a man should be justified from sins to come For Scripture the Apostle hath it Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God and it is clear also from the nature of the thing A thing cannot be remitted before it be committed nor covered before it had an existence nor blotted out before it be written Therefore justification from such or such a fault must have relation to that which is past but for justification for the time to come I will speak anon there I left the last time I have now faith and I believe in Christ I have now relation to him and remission of sins past But why then do I pray for it to what end is that Bellarmine objects that it is an act of infidelity to pray for it afterwards but we do it and we ought to do it see Psal. 51. David made that Psalm after the Prophet Nathan had told him his sin was pardoned See the title of it and we must know that the title is a part of God's word as well as the rest A Psalm of David when Nathan came unto him after he had gone in unto Bathsheba Nathan told him that God had took away his sin Yet he cryeth here throughout the whole Psalm to have his sin pardoned and blotted out so that though there were faith and assurance yet he still prays for it Now Bellarmine saith this cannot be but doth he dispute against our opinion no he disputes against the Holy Ghost for David having received a message of forgiveness yet prays Therefore if the Jesuit had grace he would joyn with us to salve the matter rather than through our sides to strike at God But it is a Fallacy to joyn these two together for a man to pray for a thing past it is an act of infidelity as to pray that God would create the world and incarnate his Son I answer there is difference between an act done and an act continued when the World was made by God God had finished that work And when Christ took our flesh upon him the act was done but the forgiveness of sin is a continued act which holds to day and to morrow and world without end God is pleased not to impute thy sins but cover them Now this covering is no constant act but upon a supposition of constant indulgence which ought to be solicited by constant prayer I may cover a thing now and uncover it again now forgiveness of sin being an act not complete but continued and continued world without end and therefore we say the Saints in Heaven are justified by imputative righteousness God's continuance of his act of mercy The point then is this As long as we continue in the world and by contrary acts of disobedience continue to provoke God to discontinue his former acts of mercy and our sins being but covered therefore so long must we pray for forgiveness When the servant had humbled himself before his Lord it is said The Lord of that servant loosed him and forgave him the debt Mat. 18.27 But though he forgave him yet he did another act that caused his Lord to discontinue his pardon Matth. 18.33 Shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant as I had pity on thee He had pity on him yet since he doth another act which turns his Lord's heart against him therefore he is now cast into prison and he must not come out thence till he hath paid the utmost farthing He had forgave him to day and to morrow and would have continued his forgiveness if he had not thus provoked him we must pray to God to continue his acts of mercy because we continually provoke him by new acts of rebellion Add to this The King grants a pardon to a man In all Patents of pardon there is a clause that the man must renew his Patent If forgiveness may be renewed then those things are to be renewed again by which the renovation of my remission may be wrought God would have me renew my acts of faith and if of faith why not of repentance and of prayer There is a singular place in Ezek. 36.29 35 37. that makes it plain That though God intends to do the thing yet he appoints this to be the means Thus saith the Lord God I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to
that we must forsake all the sinful lusts of the flesh This is that which makes Baptism to be Baptism indeed to us The other thing required is that we forsake all Rom. 6.2 It is not confined to the very act but it hath a perpetual effect all the dayes of thy life I add it never hath its full effect till the day of our death the abolition of the whole body of sin That which we seal is not compleat till then till we have final grace The water of Baptism quenches the fire of Purgatory for it is not accomplished till final grace is received We are now under the Physicians hands then shall we be cured Baptism is not done onely at the Font which is a thing deceives many for it runs through our whole life nor hath it consummation till our dying day till we receive final grace The force and efficacy of Baptism is for the washing away of sin to morrow as well as the day past the death of sin is not till the death of the body and therefore it s said we must be buried with him by Baptism into his death Now at our death we receive final grace till when this washing and the vertue thereof hath not its consummation Let no man therefore deceive you with vain words take heed of looking on your selves in these false glasses think it not an easy thing to get Heaven the way is strait and the passage narrow There must be a striving to enter there must be an ascending into Heaven a motion contrary to nature And therefore it 's folly to think we shall drop into Heaven there must be a going upward if ever we will come thither EPH. 2.1 2 3. And you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins where in times past you walked according to the course of this World according to the Prince that ruleth in the Air the Spirit that worketh in the Children of disobedience Amongst whom also c. THE last time I declared unto you the duty that was necessarily required of us if we look to be saved that we must not onely take the matter speedily into consideration and not be deluded by our own hearts and the wiles of Satan but that we must not do it superficially or perfunctorily but must bring our selves to the true touchstone and not look upon our selves with false glasses because there is naturally in every one self-love and in these last and worst times men are apt to think better of themselves then they deserve If there be any beginning of goodness in them they think all is well when there is no greater danger in the World then being but half-Christians He thinks the half-Christian I mean that if he hath escaped the outward pollutions of the world through lust and be not so bad as formerly he hath been and not so bad as many men in the World are therefore he is well enough Whereas his end proves worse then his beginning This superficial repentance is but like the washing of a Hog the outside is onely wash't the swinish nature is not taken away There may be in this man some outward abstaining from the common gross sins of the World or those which he himself was subject unto but his disposition to sin is the same his nature is nothing changed there is no renovation no casting in a new mould which must be in us For it is not a little reforming will serve the turn no nor all the morality in the World nor all the common graces of Gods Spirit nor the outward change of the life they will not do unless we are quickned and have a new life wrought in us unless there be a supernatural working of Gods Spirit we can never enter into Heaven Therefore in this case it behoves every man to prove his own work Gal. 6.4 A thing men are hardly drawn unto to be exact examiners of themselves Coelo discendit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Heathen himself could say to know a mans self is a heavenly saying and it 's an heavenly thing indeed if we have an Heavenly Master to teach us The Devil taught Socrates a lesson that brought him from the study of natural to moral Philosophy whereby he knew himself yet the Devil knew morality could never teach him the lesson indeed All the morality in the World cannot teach a man to escape Hell We must have a better instructor herein than the Devil or our selves the Lord of Heaven must do it if ever we will be brought to know our selves aright St. Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel one of the learnedst Doctors of the Pharisees and yet he could not teach him this When he studied the law he thought himâ—elf unblameable but coming to an higher and better Master he knows that in him that is in his flesh dwells no good thing Rom. 7. By self-examination a man may find many faults in himself but to find that which the Apostle afterwards found in himself to see the flesh a rottenness the sink of iniquity that is within him and to find himself so bad as indeed he is unless it please the Lord to open his eyes and to teach him he can never attain it Now we come to this place of the Apostle wherein we see the true glass of our selves the Spirit knows what we are better then our selves and the Spirit shews us that every man of us either was or is such as we are here set down to be We are first natural before we can be spiritual there is not a man but hath been or is yet a natural man and therefore see we the large description of a natural man before he is quickned before God which is rich in mercy enlivens him being dead in sins and saves him by grace in Christ. Thus is it with us all and thus must it be and we shall never be fit for grace till we know our selves thus far till we know our selves as far out of frame as the Spirit of truth declares us to be In this place of Scripture consider we 1. Who this carnal man is what they are which the Apostle speaks of to be dead in sins and that walk after the course of the World led by the Devil and have their conversation after the flesh Children of wrath These are big words and heavy things Consider first the subject of whom this is spoken Then follows the Praedicate or 2. What that ill news is which he delivers of them We begin with the first 1. Who they are of whom this is spoken and that is you You hath he quickned who were dead and ye in the words following that in times past walked after the course of the world and in the third verse more particularly Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past He speaks now in the first person as before in the second so that the subject is we all and ye all Not a man in
settest thy self against God and dost many things which others that have not received the same grace would not have done know then that thou receivest this grace in vain and thy case is lamentable 4. Consider God's great goodness which ought to restrain thee from sin upon a double account 1. First his goodness in himself should keep thee from offending him There 's nothing but goodness infinite goodness in him and canst thou find in thy heart to sin against so good a God To offend and wrong a good disposition'd person one of a sweet nature and affection it aggravates the fault 't is pity to wrong or hurt such a one as injures no body Now such a one is God a good God infinite in goodness rich in mercy very goodness it self and therefore it must needs aggravate the foulness of sin to sin against him But now he is not only thus in himself but 2. Secondly He 's good to thee Rom. 2. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance c. What hast thou that thou hast not received from his bountiful hand Consider of this and let this be a means to draw thee off from thy sinfulness When David had greatly sinned against God and when God brings his murther home to him he pleads thus with him When thou wert nothing in thine own eyes I brought thee saith God to the Kingdom I took thee from the sheep-fold and exalted thee and brought the to a plentiful house Vid. 2 Sam. 12.7 8. And may not God say the like to us and do you thus requite the Lord O you foolish people and unwise Deut. 32.6 that the more his mercy and goodness is to you the higher your sins should be against him 5. Besides consider more than all this we have the examples of good men before our eyes God commands us not what we cannot do If God had not set some before our eyes that walk in his ways and do his will then we might say that these are precepts that none can perform But we have patterns of whom we may say such a man I never knew to lye such a one never to swear and this should be a means to preserve us from sinning Heb. 11.7 Noah was a good man and being moved with fear set not at nought the threatning of God but built the Ark and thereby condemned the world His example condemned the world in that they followed it not although it were so good but continued in their great sins So art thou a wicked deboist person there is no good man but shall condemn thee by his example It 's a great crime in the land of uprightness to do wickedly Isa. 26.10 to be profane when the righteous by their blameless lives may teach thee otherwise 6. And lastly add to all the consideration of the multitude and weight of thy sins Hadst thou but sinned once or twice or in this or that it were somewhat tolerable But thy sins are great and many They are heavy and thou continually encreasest their weight and addest to their number Jer. 5.6 A lyon out of the forrest shall slay them and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them a leopard shall watch over their Cities and every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces Why Because their transgressions are many and their back-slidings are encreased If thou hadst committed but two or three or four sins thou mightest have hope of pardon but when thou shalt never have done with thy God but wilt be still encreasing still multiplying thy sins then mayst thou expect to hear from Gods mouth that dreadful expostulation in the Prophet Jer. 5.7 How can I pardon thee Thus David sets out his own sins in their weight and number Psal. 38.4 Mine iniquities are gone over my head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me The continual multiplying of them adds to their heap both in number and weight Thus I have shew'd you what the Law does in respect of sin the benefit of being under the Law that it makes sin appear in its own colours and sets it forth to be as indeed it is exceeding sinful But the Law does not yet leave sin nor let it scape thus But as the Law discovers our sinfulness and accursedness by sin its wretchedness and mans misery by it till his blessedness comes from the hand of his Jesus so it lays down the miserable estate which befals him for it If he will not spare God with his sins God will not spare him with his plagues Let us consider of this accursedness sin brings on us God will not let us go so but as long as we are under the Law we are under the Curse and till we are in Christ we can expect nothing but that which should come from the hand of a provoked God Assure thy self thou that pleasest thy self in thy abomonations that God will not take this at thine hands that by so base a creature as thou art so vile a thing as sin is should be committed against him But of the woful effects of sin which is Gods wrath we will speak the next time LAM 5.16 Woe unto us that we have sinned I Declared unto you heretofore what we are to consider in the state of a natural man a man that is not new fashioned new moulded a man that is not cut off from his own stock a man that is not ingrafted into Christ he is the son of sin he is the son of death First I shewed you his sinfulness and now Secondly I shall shew you his accursedness that which follows necessarily upon sin unrepented of I declared before what the nature of sin is And now I come to shew what the dreadful effects of sin are I mean the enevitable consequence that follows upon sin and that is woe and misery Woe unto us that we have sinned A woe is a short word but there lieth much in it Doct. Woe and anguish must follow him that continueth sinning against God And when we hear this from the Ministers of God it is as if we heard that Angel Rev. 8.13 flying through the midst of Heaven denouncing Woe woe woe to the Inhabitants of the earth The Ministers of God are his Angels and the same that I now deliver to you if an Angel should now come from Heaven he would deliver no other thing Therefore consider that it is a voice from Heaven that this woe woe woe shall rest upon the heads upon the bodies and souls of all them that will not yield unto God that will not stoop to him that will be their own masters and stand it out against him woe woe woe unto them all Woe unto us It 's the voice of the Church in general not of one man but but woe unto us that we have sinned That I may now declare unto you what these woes are note by the way that I speak not to any particular man but to every man in general It is not
it to hurt and wound us So that we may look on sin as the Barbarians looked on the viper on Pauls hand they expected continually when he would have swollen and burst Sin bites like a Snake which is called a fiery Serpent not that the Serpent is fiery but because it puts a man into such a flaming heat by their poyson And such is the sting of sin which carries poyson in it that had we but eyes to see our ugliness by it and how it inflames us we should continually every day look when we should burst with it The Apostle James 1.15 useth another metaphor Sin when it is accomplished bringeth forth death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Original sin goeth as it were with child with death The word is proper to Women in labour who are in torment till they are delivered Now as if sin were this Woman he useth it in the faeminine gender 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So it is with sin sin is in pain cries out hath no rest till it be delivered of this dead birth till it have brought forth death That is sin grows great with child with death and then it not only deserves death but it produceth and actually brings forth This is generally so Now consider with your selves death is a fearful thing When we come to talk of death how doth it amaze us The Priests of Nob are brought before Saul for relieving David and he saith Thou shalt surely die Ahimelech And this is your case you shall surely die death is terrible even to a good man As appears in Hezekiah who though he were a good man yet with how sad a heart doth he entertain the message of death The news of it affrighted him it went to his heart it made him turn to the wall and weep How cometh it to pass that we are so careless of death That we are so full of infidelity that when the word of God saith Thou shalt die Ahimelech we are not at all moved by it What can we think these are Fables Do we think God is not in earnest with us And by this means we fall into the temptation of Eve a questioning whether Gods threats are true or not That which was the deceit of our first Parents is ours Satan disputes not whether sin be lawful or not Whether eating the fruit were unlawful Whether Drunkenness c. Be lawful he 'l not deny but it is unlawful But when God saith If thou dost eat c. Thou shalt die he denies it and saith ye shall not die He would hide our eyes from the punishment of sin Thus we lost our selves at the first and the Floods of sin came on in this manner When we believed not God when he said If thou dost eat thou shalt surely die And shall we renew that Capital sin of our Parents and think if we do sin we shall not die If any thing in the World will move God to shew us no mercy it 's this when we sleight his Judgments or not believe them This adds to the height of all our sins that when God saith if thou dost live in sin thou shalt die and yet we will not believe him That when she shall come and threaten us as he doth Dâ—ut 29. v. 19. When he shall curse and we shall bless our selves in our hearts and say we shall have peace though we go on c. v. 20. The Lord will not spare that man but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against him It is no small sin when we will not believe God This is as being thirsty before we now add Drunkenness to our thirst That is when God shall thus pronounce curses he shall yet bless himself and say I hope I shall do well enough for all that There are two words to that bargain Then see what follows The anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man c. We are but now entred into the point but it would make your hearts ake and throb within you if you should hear the particulars of it All that I have done is to perswade you to make a right choice to take heed of Satans delusions Why will ye die Ezek. 33.11 Therefore cast away your sins and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will you die Ezek. 18.31 Where the Golded Candlestick stands there Christ walks there he saith I am with you Where the Word and Sacraments are there Christ is and when the Word shakes thy heart take that time now choose life Why will you die Consider of the matter Moses put before the people life and death blessing and cursing Deut. 30.15 19. We put life and death before you in a better manner He was a Minister of the letter we of the spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 Now choose life But if you will not hearken but will needs try conclusions with God therefore because you will choose your own conclusions and will not hearken unto God because you will needs try conclusions with him will not obey him when he calls therefore he will turn his deaf ear unto you and when you call and cry he will not answer Prov. 1.28 I press this the more to move you to make a right choice But now to turn to the other side as there is nothing but death for the wages of sin and as I have shewed you where death is So give me leave to direct you to the Fountain of life There is life in our blessed Saviour if we have but an hand of faith to touch him we shall draw vertue from him to raise us up from the death of sin to the life of righteousness 1 John 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life he that hath not the Son hath not life You have heard of a death that comes by the first Adam and sin and to that stock of Original sin we had from him we have added a great heap of our own actual sins and so have treasured up unto our selves wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 Now here is a great treasure of happiness on the other side in Christ have the Son and have life The question is now whether you will choose Christ and life or sin and death Consider now the Minister stands in Gods stead and beseeches you in his name he speaks not of himself but from Christ. When he draws near to thee with Christs broken body and his blood shed and thou receivest Christ then as thy natural life and strength is preserved and encreased by these Elements so hast thou also spiritual life by Christ. If a man be kept from nourishment a while we know what death he must die If we receive not Christ we cannot have life we know that there is life to be had from Christ and he that shall by a true and lively faith receive Christ shall have life by him There is as it were a pair of Indentures drawn up between God and a
speak so brutish were they to be led away by stocks and stones I think the Papist Gods cannot do it unless it be by couzenage yet such is their senselesness that though Gods fury be revealed from Heaven against Papists such as worship false Gods yet are they so brutish that they will worship things which can neither hear nor see nor walk They that made them are like unto them and so are all they that worship them as brutish as the stocks themselves They have no heart to God but will follow after their puppets and their Idols and such are they also that follow after their drunkenness covetousness c Who live in lasciviousness lusts excess of riot 1 Pet. 4.2 that run into all kind of excess and marvel that you do not so too They marvel that ye that fear God can live as ye do and speak evil of you that be good call such Hypocrites Dissemblers and I know not what nick-names This I say is a most woful condition it 's that dead blow When men are not sensible of Mercies of Judgments but run into all excess of sin with greediness And this is a death begun in this life even while they are above ground But then comes another death God doth not intend sin shall grow to an infinite weight His Spirit shall not alwayes strive with man but at length God comes and crops him off and now cometh the consummation of the death begun in this life Now cometh an accursed death 3. After thou hast lived an accursed life then cometh an accomplishment of curses First a cursed separation between body and soul and then of both from God for ever and this is the last payment This is that great death which the Apostle speaks of Who delivered us from that great death 2 Cor. 1.10 So terrible is that death This death is but the severing of the body from the Soul This is but the Lords Harbinger the Lords Serjeant to lay his Mace on thee to bring thee out of this World into a place of everlasting misery from whence thou shalt never come till all be satisfied and this is never First Consider the nature of this death which though every man knoweth yet few lay to heart This death what doth it First it takes the things which thou spentst thy whole life in getting It robs thee of all the things thou ever hadst Thou hast taken pains to heap and treasure up goods for many yeors presently when this blow is given all is gone For honour and preferment it takes thee from that pleasure in idle company-keeping it bars thee of that Mark this is the first thing that death doth it takes not onely away a part of that thou hast but all it leaves thee quite naked as naked as when thou camest into the World Thou thoughtst it was thy happiness to get this and that Death now begins to unbewitch thee thou wast bewitched before when thou didst run after all wordly things Thou wast deceived before and now it undeceives thee it makes thee see what a notorious fool thou wast it unbefools thee Thou hadst many plots and many projects but when thy breath is gone then without any delay in that very day saith the Psalmist all thy thoughts perish Psal. 146.4 all thy plottings and projections go away with thy breath A strange thing to see a man with Job the richest man in the East and yet in the evening we say as poor as Job He hath nothing left him now Now though death takes not all things from thee yet it takes thee from them all and so in effect them also from thee though they remain in thy house and grounds yet they are as far removed from thee is ahou from them All thy goods all thy books all thy wealth all thy friends thou mayst now bid farewel now adieu for ever never to see them again And that is the first thing 2. Now death rests not there but cometh to seize upon thy body It hath bereaved thee of all that thou possessedst of all thy outward things they are taken away Now it comes to touch the wicked mans person and see what then It toucheth him it rents his soul from his body those two loving companions that have so long dwelt together are now separated It takes thy soul from thy body This man doth not deliver up his spirit as we read of our Saviour Father into thy hands I commit my spirit or deliver their spirits as Stephen did But here it 's taken from them it 's much against his mind it 's a pulling of himself from himself This it doth 3. But then again when thou art thus pulled asunder what becomes of the parts separated 1. First The body as soon as the soul is taken from it hastens to corruption that must see corruption yea it becomes so full of corruption that thy dearest friend cannot then endure to come near unto thee When the soul is taken from the body it 's observed that of all carkasses that are mans is the most loathsome none so odious as that Abraham loved Sarah well but when he comes to buy a monument for her see his expression Gen. 23.8 He communes with the men and saith if it be your mind to sell me the field that I might bury my dead out of my sight Though he loved her very well before yet now she must be buried out of his sight It is sown in dishonour and it 's the basest thing that can be Therefore when our Saviour was going near to the place where Lazarus lay his Sister saith Lord by this time he stinketh Joh. 11.39 I have said to corruption thou art my Father saith Job and to the worm thou art my Mother and my Sister Job 17.14 As in the verse before The grave is my house I have made my bed in the darkness Here then he hath a new kindred and though before he had affinity with the greatest yet here he gets new affinity He saith to corruption thou art my Father and to the worm thou art my Mother and my Sister The worm is our best kindred here the worm then is our best bed yea worms thy best covering as Esay 14.11 Thus is it thy Father thy Mother and thy Bed nay it is thy consumption and destroyer also Job 26. Thus is it with thy body it passeth to corruption that thy best or dearest friend cannot behold it or endure it 2. But alas what becomes of thy soul then Thy soul appears naked there 's no garment to defend it no Proctor appears to plead for it It is brought singly to the bar and there it must answer It is appointed for all men once to dye but what then And after that to come to judgmâ—nt Heb. 9.27 Eccles. 12.7 The body returns unto the earth from whence it was taken but the Spirit to God who gave it All mens spirits assoon as their bodies and souls are parted go to God to be disposed
God It 's a saying of Moses Psal. 90.11 for 't is Moses Psal. Who knoweth the power of thine anger The power of Gods anger is unknown And so in his Song Deut. 32.22 he sets it out in some measure A fire is kindled in mine anger which shall burn unto the lowest Hell c. Mat. 25.41 So that the King being thus provoked is provoked to curse thee Mat. 29. It 's put into the form of thy sentence this cursing shall be thy lot in hell it shall be thy very sentence Go ye cursed into everlasting fire There is nothing but cursing As Job cursed himself and the day of his birth so then shall cursing be all thy song thou wilt curse thy self that thou didst not hearken to the Preacher that thou wouldst not accept of Christ and the means of mercy and grace when it was offered thee And thou wilt curse the time thou wert acquainted with this man and that man and others will curse thee for drawing them to sin God curses thee and man curses thee and God curses not in vain when he curses Others will curse thee and thou thy self and others and think then how cursed will be thy condition All the curses that cannot be thought on shall rest on the head of an impenitent sinner to shew Gods terrible and just indignation against him O beloved to deliver us from this curse Christ the Son of God was made a curse for us the curse is so great nought else can free us from it But now that I may rank these punishments of the damned and bring them for memories sake into some order although there be no order there for it 's a place of confusion Job 11.22 you may consider that the penalties of Gods enemies are penalties partly of loss and partly of sense 1. Of loss And that consists in the deprivation of every thing that might administer the least comfort to him and for this cause Hell is termed utter darkness Now darkness is a privation of all light so is Hell of all comfort to shew that there is not the least thing that may give thee content nor is the poorest thing thou canst desire to be had there Darkness was one of the plagues of Egypt though there were no kind of sense in it yet we may think what a plague and vexation it was to them to sit so long in dâ—rkness The darkness of Hell is darker then darkness it self They shall never see light Psal. 49.19 saith the Scripture they shall not have so much as a glimpse of it To be cast into this utter darkness where shall be nothing to administer the least comfort what an infinite misery will that be Were it only the loss of the things we now possess and enjoy of all which death robs us as pomp honour riches and preferment this were grievous to a wickâ—d man These are things death dispossesses a man of these cannot follow him nought but thy works accompany thee Thy friends may follow thee to the grave but there they shall leave thee To have been happy and to be miserable is the greatest woe to have lived in good fashion and to be wretched is the greatest grief How will this add to the sinners misery when he shall say to himself I had once all good things about me but have now for my portion nothing but woe I had a bed of down but it is now exchanged for a bed of fire I was once honourable but now I am full of shame and contempt this will greatly add to his misery But all this is nothing these are but the beginnings of his sorrow in regard of loss for a man to be rich and wealthy to day and to morrow to be stript of all and left not worth a groat to have all swept away this is a woeful case 2. But if this be so grievous what is it to lose Heaven Certainly to lose the highâ—st and greatest good is the greatest evil and punishment that can be inflicted upon a creature Which makes many Divines think that the penalties of loss are far greater then those of sense though they seem not to make that imprâ—ssion It 's another thing to judge of things by sense then by loss As for example a man is greatly troubled with the tooth-ach and he thinks his case more miserable then any and thinks no man ever endur'd so much misery as himself he judges of his misery by sense Another man is in the consumption and he hath little or no pain at all yet if a man come with a right judgment he will judge his condition far worse then the others So take all the pains in Hell though sense may say they are the greatest that can be yet discreet judgment can say that the loss of God the greatest good is the worst of evils Now if thou be a firebrand of Hell thou must be for ever banish'd from Gods presence Thou base wretch dost thou think Heaven a place for thee Not so ' Tis. without are dogs and sorcerers c. Revel 22.15 Thou art a damned dog therefore thou must out from God and from the company of the blessed Saints and Angels When Peter saw Moses and Elias with Christ in his Transfiguration though he had but a glimpse of glory yet he saith It is good for us to be here Mat. 17.14 But oh how infinite good will it be to be in Heaven How shall we be then rapt up with glory when we shall be for ever with the Lord 1 Thes. 4.17 in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore Psal. 16.11 On the contrary how exceeding terrible will it be to be shut out from the presence of God When God shall say avaunt hence whip out this dog what doth he here Let him not defile this room this is no place for such a filthy dog Oh the unspeakable horrour and dread Oh the infinite shame of that man who is in such a case But this is not all There is yet one thing more the wicked shall not only be banished from Gods gracious presence and cast into Hell but this shall be done in the sight of Heaven The glorious Saints of God have continually a sight of Gods justice upon sinners that they may glorifie his mercy the more The Scripture runs much to this purpose Rev. 14.10 If any man worship the beast and his image the same shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of God and of his holy Angels This in the 9th verse is the portion of them that worship the beast that is the Pope and receive the mark of his name That is if any will be an express publick or private Papist if any one will be a slave to the Pope see his portion he shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God and be banished from the society of holy Angels and be tormented with hell fire in their presence Oh what a
it was part of his Priest-hood to offer up himself The Sacrifices in the old Law that typified him were only sufferers The poor beasts were only passive but our Saviour he must be an Actor in the business He was active in all that he suffered He did it in obedience to his Fathers Will yet he was an Agent in all his Passions John 11.43 He groaned in Spirit and was troubled the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it is in the Margent He troubled himself With us in our Passions it is otherwise we are meer sufferers Our Saviour was a Conqueror over all his passions and therefore unless he would trouble himself none else could trouble him unless he would lay down his life none could take it from him unless he would give his cheek to be smitten the Jews had no power to smite it Isa. 50.6 I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that pluckt off the hair and hid not my face from shame and spitting In all these we should consider our Saviour not as a Sacrifice only but a Sacrificer also an Actor in all this business their wicked hands were not more ready to smite then he was to give his face to be smitten and all to shew that it was a voluntary Sacrifice He did all himself He humbled himself unto the death Phil. 2.8 And now by all this we see what we have gotten we have gotten a remedy and satisfaction for sins That precious blood of that immaculate Lamb takes away the sins of the world because it is the Lamb of God under which else the World would have eternally groaned Object But doth this Lamb of God take away all the sins of the world Sol. It doth not actually take away all the sins of the world but virtually It hath power to do it if it be rightly applyed the Sacrifice hath such vertue in it that if all the World would take it and apply it it would expiate and remove the sins of the whole World but it is here as with medicines they do not help being prepared but being applied Rhubarb purgeth choler yet not unless applied c. Exod. 39.38 there is mention made of a Golden Altar Christ is this Golden Altar to shew that his blood is most precious We are not redeemed with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Rev. 8.3 9.13 He is that golden Alter mentioned in the Revelation which stands before the Throne He was likewise to be a brazen altar for so much was to be put upon him that unless he were of brass and had infinite strength he would have sunk under the burden Its Jobs Metaphor Job in his passion saith Is my strength the strength of stones or is my flesh brass Job 6.12 If Christs flesh had not been brass if he had not been this brazen Altar he could never have gone through these now he is prepared for us a sacrifice for sin Rom. 8.3 For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin for sin make a stop there condemned sin in the flesh This same for sin hath not reference to condemned To condemn sin for sin is not good sense but the words depend on this God sent his Son that is God sent his Son to be a Sacrifice for sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word is translated Heb. 10.6 a sacrifice for sin It was impossible the Law should save us not because of any imperfection or failing in the Law but because our weakness is such as that we could not perform the conditions therefore God was not tyed to promises by reason then of the weakness of our flesh rather than we should perish God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and in that flesh of his condemned all our sins we need not look that sin should be condemned in us when he bare our sins on the tree then were our sins condemned therefore it 's said Isai. 53. When he had made his soul an offering for sin that is in the Original when he had made his soul sin then he saw his seed Isa. 57. We come now to the second thing if Christ be offered for us yet unless he offer him to us unless any man may have interest in him it 's nothing worth Here then stands the Mystery of the Gospel Christ when he comes to offer himself to us he finds not a whit in us that is to be respected nothing And that is the ground of all disturbance to ignorant consciences for there is naturally in men pride and ignorance they think they may not meddle with Christ through Gods Mercy unless they bring something unless they have something of their own to lay down This is to buy Christ to barter betwixt Christ and the soul but salvation is a free gift of God As the Apostle speaks Christ is freely given unto thee when thou hadst nothing of worth in thee Faith when it comes empties thee of all that is in thee To whom is the Gospel preached to the dead Now before Christ quicken thee thou art stark dead rotting in thy sins Here 's the point then when there is no manner of goodness in thee in the world In me saith St. Paul that is in my flesh there is no good thing When I have been the most outragious sinner I may lay hold on Christ. Christ comes and offers himself to thee Now when Christ offers the other part of the relation holds we may take We have an interest to accept what he proffers Consider it by an example If one give me a million and I receive it not I am never the richer and so if God offer me his Son and with him all things I am nothing the better if I receive him not That he is born and given what is that to us unless we can say To us a child is born to us a Son is given Isa. 9.6 Faith comes with a naked hand to receive that which is given we must empty our selves of what is in us Consider thy estate the Lord sets dowâ— how it is with us when he comes to look upon us Ezek. 16.6 And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thy blood I said unto thee when thou wâ—rt in thy blood live Why is this â—et down It 's to shew how God finds nothing in us when he comes to shew Mercy He finds nothing in us that is lovely when he comes to bestow his Son upon us For it is said Rev 1.5 That Christ loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood He doth first cast his eyes upon us when we are unwashed as I may say unwashed and unblessed When no eye pittied thee and thou wast cast out in the open fiâ—ld when thou wast in thy blood I said unto thee live when he comes
unto it By the way then take notice of the filthiness of sin how filthy is it that the Lord compares it to the vomit of a dog Then there follows another comparison of it It is as the Sow that is washed and returns to her wallowing in the mire See another loathsome resemblance of this temporary faith the Sow was washed but how her swinish nature was not washed from her as long as the Sow is kept from the mire in a fair Meadow with the Sheep she looks as sleek and clean as they she was washed there is an external change but her nature remained bring the Sow and the sheep to a puddle the sheep will not go in because it hath no swinish nature but the other retaining its swinish nature though before in outward appearance as clean as the sheep was yet she goes again to her wallowing in the mire There may be the casting away of a man's sins and yet no new creature wrought in him That I may shew this to you take this example A man known to be as covetous a man as liveth he loveth his money as well as his God yet perchance this man is brought in danger of the Law and must be hanged for some misdemeanor committed this man to save his life will part with all he hath What is his disposition changed no not a whit he is as covetous as before he is the same man he doth it to save his life and to this end he is content to part with his money The same mind had those in the Acts of the Apostles who in a storm cast their wares into the Sea with their own hands Act. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 willingly and yet half unwillingly for the saving of their lives they would part with these things yet it was with a great deal of repining and reluctancy As we read of Phaltiel when his wife was taken from him he followed behind weeping 2 Sam. 3.16 till they bid him be gone and return back So these men forsake their sins and hate them but it is but imperfectly they part with them but they part weeping Well at this parting there may be a great deal of joy it may taste not only the sweetness of the Word of God but because they are in a disposition and way to salvation they may have some kind of feeling of the joys and taste of the powers of the world to come as the Apostle speaks Heb. 6.4 It is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost c. There is a supernatural work wrought in them and they have tasted the good Word of the Lord they begin to have some hope and rejoyce in the glory of the world to come What is the difference then here is a tasting but as it is Joh. 6.54 it is not said he that tastes my flesh and tastes my blood but he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood hath eternal life There is a difference betwixt tasting and drinking there may be a tasting without drinking and the Text saith Matth. 27.34 When they gave Christ Vinegar he tasted thereof but would not drink He that can take a full draught of Christ crucified he shall never thirst but shall be as a springing fountain that springeth up to everlasting life but it shall not be so with him that doth but taste The Vintner goes round the Cellar and tastes every Vessel he takes it into his mouth and spits it out again and yet knows by the tasting whether it be good or bad the wine goeth but to his palate it reaches not the stomach So a temporary believer tastes and feels what an excellent thing it is to have communion with Christ and to be made partaker of his glory but he does but taste it Look in Hosea 5.15 where we have another instance of this temporary Believer Ye would think they sought in God in a good sort and in as good a manner as one could desire well but how did they seek him It was only upon occasion in time of affliction I will go and return to my place until they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early and again Hosea 6.4 The Lord complains of them notwithstanding They will in their affliction seek me early Was not this a fair returning Come say they let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us c. What a deal of comfort did they seem to gather from the wayes of the Lord But see what follows Hosea 6.4 O Ephraim saith the Lord what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I do unto thee For your goodness is as the morning cloud and as the early dew it goeth away that is it is but a temporary thing wrought by affliction which will not abide As when a wicked man on his death-bed desires that God would spare him and restore him to his health and that he would become a new man all this comes but from the terrours of death for it oft proves that if God restores him he becomes as bad if not worse than ever he was before But that I may not hold you too long 2. Take this for another difference That Gods children can as earnestly desire grace as mercy The temporary desire mercy but never desire grace The believer desires grace to have his nature healed to hate his former conversation The temporary never had nor never will have this desire should one come to the temporary believer and tell him God will be merciful unto him you may go on and take your fill of sin you shall be sure of mercy he would like this well and think it the welcomest news as could be because he only fears damnation and self-love makes him only desire freedome from that but now the child of God hates sin though there were no Hell Judge nor Tormentor he begs as hard of God for grace as for mercy and would do so were there no punishment His nature being chang'd he desireth grace as well as mercy which the temporary never does 3. The last mark is from the words of the Apostle Neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love Love and the new creature puts Gods children on work their hearts are first altered and changed by being made new creatures As the Scripture saith his flesh is circumcised he is a dead man dead not as formerly in trespasses and sins but dead unto them Ephes. 2.1 Rom. 6.11 Deadness argueth impotency of doing those things which a living man doth he cannot walk c. The temporary will not sin for fear of after-claps but this man cannot sin his heart is changed he is dead to sin we see how both abstain from sin but the temper and disposition is not alike The temporary believer perchance commits not the sin but he could find
can there be any better news than to say All is peace all your sins are done away I have blotted as a thick cloud thy transgressions as who should say it is the tydings of such good things as all within thee is too little to praise the Lord and therefore it is not a thing to be slighted over blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven Psal. 32. which is no Noun Adjective nor of the singular number neither it signifieth blessednesses as it were an heap of blessings They commonly call it the eight beatitudes it is but varied upon divers subjects were there eighty eight that were all one To have thy sins forgiven thee is the comprising of all happiness and he whose iniquity is covered hath interest in them all Again when a man sets his eyes too much upon his sins more upon his sins than upon the mercies of God freely offered in Christ this is a wonderful hinderance of the peace Thou lookest on the wrong object looking too much on thy sins when thou shouldst look on Christ that brazen Serpent offered unto thee then 't is no wonder that thou seest not Christ though he be near thee Mary Magdalen complains and weeps as she thought to the Gardener that they had taken away her Lord and she knew not where they had laid him when as he stood at her elbow her eyes were so full of tears that she could not behold her Saviour Now therefore stand not in thine own light but look upon Christ as well as upon thy sins observe though there be a peace and a calm yet presently all turmoils will not cease after humiliation When there is a great storm at Sea which lasts perhaps twenty four hours and then ceaseth what are the waves presently quiet as soon as the storm is over no there will be tossing and rolling many hours afterwards because there must be a time of setling and so though there be peace between God and thee and the storm over yet there must be a time of setling I should now shew you the difference between the peace that wicked men have and this other peace theirs is not peace There is no peace to the wicked It 's a truce only and we must make a great difference between a truce and a peace A truce when it is expired commonly ends in more bitter War With them there is a cessation of trouble their consciences do not accuse them but when the time limited is over and conscience again breaks loose it will be more unquiet and unsetled than ever before it will be at open war against them ROM 5.1 Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God HAving out of these words declared unto you the Mother-grace justification by faith I proceed to the consideration of her Daughters those fruits or graces which spring from a true justifying faitb So that here we have the great Charter and Privilege that a justified man is indowed withal First He hath peace with God Secondly Free access unto him Thirdly Vnspeakable joy and that joy not only in respect of that delectable object the hope of the glory of God in heaven hereafter but here also that which spoils the joy of a natural man afflictions c. are made the matter of this mans joy Now concerning peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ the first of â—hese I considered three parts in it 1. What the peace was which the justified man enjoyeth 2. The parties between whom this peace was made 3. Who was the peace maker Concerning the peace I declared unto you what it was that it was an unconceivable thing The peace of God that passeth all understanding a thing which our shallow understandings cannot reach unto we cannot apprehend the excellency of this grace Consider itâ— excellency by the contrary there is no misery in the world like that as when a man stands at enmity with God Do we provoke the Lord Are we stronger then he 1 Cor. 10.22 If a man sin against a man saith Eli the Judge shall judge him another man may take up the quarrel but if a man sin against God if the controversie be between God and us who shall intercede for us 1 Sam. 2.25 Were it not for this our peace-maker Christ Jesus we should be in a woful condition unless he put to his hand and took up the matter Now it is a great matter to come to the fruit of peace the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Jam. 3.18 We have this fruit of peace from righteousness we do not sow fruit but seed the fruit comes afterwards It is not so with a Christian he is as sure as if the thing where in hand he soweth not only the seed but the fruit of peace in righteousness that is in that application of Christs righteousness to his justification as soon as he is justified at that instant he hath the fruit of peace So we have peace but with whom is it it is between God and us God and a justified man is at peace through Jesus Christ at the very same instant that a man is justified he is at peace with God This peace as I declared unto you is a gift of an high nature which belongs not to every man but to the justified man only he who is justified by faith he only hath peace In the Ephesians and Isaiah there are general proclamations of peace Peace be unto them that are near and unto them that are afar off and Isa. 57.19 The word the Apostle useth in the Ephesians hath allusion to this in Isaiah vers 19. I create the fruit of the lips peace peace to them that are afar off and to them that are nigh saith the Lord and I will heal them but the wicked are like a troubled Sea that cannot rest There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Though the proclamation be never so general to Jews and Gentiles yet it belongs only to those who have peaceable minds towards God those who will not stand on terms of rebellion against him What madness is it to think that if I stand in point of rebellion against God I should have peace with him But I must cast down my arms renounce my treasons and I must come with a subject's mind then there will be peace otherwise no peace When Jehu came to revenge the quarrel of God Joram asked him Is it peace Jehu he answers What peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezabel and her witch-crafts are so many 2 King 9.22 As long as thou continuest in a course of rebellion what hast thou to do to talk of peace Why thinkest thou on peace when thou art the chief rebel As long as wickedness continues in thy heart thou hast no peace of God by
his Word and therefore I will not let go Such a strong faith had Abraham contrary to reason God's Word is true he gives me his Word and I will trust him So a child of God will not be put off though God write bitter things against him he will not forego him We have an excellent example in the woman of Canaan the end of it is O woman great is thy faith Matth. 15.28 But how doth the greatness of it appear Lord have mery upon me my Daughter is grievously afflicted c. Why not rather Lord have mercy on my daughter the reason is because she was afflicted in her daughter's affliction By the way we may hereby understand the meaning of the Commandment where it is said he will visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him But why to the third and fourth generation because I may see the third and fourth generation and may see the judgment of God on them and may remember my sin for which they are plagued the case is mine and not theirs only Lord have mercy upon me for my daughter is diseased I see my own sin is punished by the judgment on her in my sight Poor woman Christ will not hear her she might have been dashed out of countenance the Disciples were weary of her clamorous cryes and say Send her away for she troubleth us What saith Christ Is it fit to take the children's bread and cast it unto dogs This was enough to dash her quite before she was discouraged by silence but to be called dog it were enough quite to discourage her but see the fruit of faith she seeks comfort of that which would have undone another What am I a dog under the table there I shall get a crum others of the children that are better let them have the loaves I account my self happy if I may but get a crum O woman great is thy faith This is great faith when it goes contrary to all sense that when God calls me dog when he spurns at me and frowns on me I will not be put off Faith is of the nature of the Vine if it have but the least hold on the wall it makes use of it and climbs higher and higher So out of the least thing that drops from her Saviours mouth she raiseth her faith higher So though we have this peace with God yet oft times he with holds the notification of it to us 3. The last thing is to note the difference between the peace of a carnal and a spiritual man carnal peace is mixed with a great deal of presumption and pride but the more spiritual peace thou hast the more thou art dejected in thy self the more cast down see it in Ezekiel Ezek. 16.60 61 62 63. I will establish with thee an everlasting Covenant then shalt thou remember thy ways and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy sisters thy elder and thy younger and I will give them unto thee for daughters but not by thy Covenant and I will establish my Covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord that thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord When God is pacified yet they hold down their heads and are ashamed when a man knoweth that God hath pardoned his sins he is ashamed that he hath carried himself so wickedly against God of whose mercy he hath now such experience When God is pacified a man remembers his former sins and is confounded as it is Ezek. 36.31 Then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight fer your iniquities and for your abominations in that time when I am pacified toward you That which would work in a carnal man security and pride for he never thinks himself better than when there is peace within will work in the child of God the grace of humiliation In the last Chapter of Job God had manifested himself wonderfully to Job and however before he had very sharp afflictions his sufferings in soul were next to the sufferings of Christ. I believe never any man suffered so much as Job did insomuch that the arrows of the Almighty stuck in him the poyson whereof saith he drinketh up my spirit Job 6.4 This was the case of Job and he stood upon terms of justification he wished that God would dispute with him that God would either be the Opponent or the Answerer If God would answer he would oppose or if God would oppose he would answer God comes as he would have him and Job is not at that point that he was before when God draws nigh unto him he saith I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now my eye seeth thee Job 42.5 Well this may make thee a proud man and elevate thee no saith he now I abhor my self in dust and ashes The nearer God draws unto us and the more merciful he is unto us by that light we the more discern our own abominations That which would make another man proud brings Job to the knowledge of his vileness Therefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes 3. Now another thing is Who is this peace-Maker This I shall but touch We have peace with God But how Through our Lord Jesus Christ he is our peacemaker and interposeth between his Fathers wrath and us Ephes. 2.14 For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down that partition wall between us we have not only peace with God through Christ but Christ is the very peace not only the peace maker but the peace There was a middle wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles and between God and us Christ breaks it down sin shall no longer be a wall of partition Having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances for to make himself of twain one new man so making peace and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross. There was hatred between God and us Christ hath crucified that hatred with the nails wherewith he was fastened to the Cross he hath kill'd it by his crucifixion and now enmity being slain peace must needs be alive there is peace and reconciliation made You are come saith the Apostle to the blood of sprinkling Heb. 12.24 whereas the blood of Abel cryed for vengeance against Cain the murtherer This blood cries for peace it out-cries all our sins sin hath a voice it s said The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah went up into the ears of the Lord Every sin thou committest hath a voice to cry but the blood of Christ hath a shriller voice and out-cries the cry of thy sins it is so preheminent it speaks for peace and doth
Law loose to have its course And thus as in the work of Redemption he would have the height of Justice appear so would he have it appear in the application of our Redemption that Justice should not be swallowed up of Mercy But even as that woman 2 King 4. Who had nothing to pay was threatned by her Creditors to take away her two Sons to put them in prison So though we have nothing to pay the Law is let loose upon us to threaten Imprisonment and Damnation to affright and terrifie us and all for the magnifying of God's Justice which also we satisfie not by what we suffer yet it is meet we should acknowledge and learn thereby more highly to value the suffering of our Saviour But farther God hath set forth many terrible threatnings in his Word against sinners shall all these be to no purpose The wicked they are insensible of them must they therefore be in vain Some people there must be on whom they shall work Shall a Lyon roar saith the Prophet and we not be afraid Amos 3.8 Since then those who should will not some there be who must tremble and those even of God's own dear Children This the Prophet excellently sets forth Isa. 66.2 where the Lord sheweth who he will regard But to this man will I look even to him that is of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word So that you see even some of his own must tremble and be thus humbled of necessity and that it is not without a just cause that God doth deal with his own Children after this manner though it be sharp in the experience We must fear tremble and be humbled and then we shall receive a spirit not to fear again That vain courage which some brag they have so as not to fear Death is not it which is meant here fâ—â— alas such braggers out of ignorance of the thing and desire to be out of misery in this Life may embrace Death unwillingly hoping it may put an end to their sorrows But this spirit not to fear again is such a spirit that assures me of the forgiveness of all my sins shewing me my freedome by Christ Jesus from Hell and eternal Damnation making me live a holy Life and from hence not to fear and so sealing me up unto the day of Redemption as you shall hear more when we come to speak of the witness of the spirit This now is for the glory of Gods Justice Secondly it is requisite that the comforter should first work in men a fear for the glory of Gods mercy which would never be so sweet relish so well nor be so highly esteemed of by us if the awful terrour of Justice had not formerly made us smart As we may see in that parable whereunto our Saviour likeneth the Kingdom of Heaven of the man that owed ten thousand Talents unto the King his master he shews him mercy and forgives him all but what did he first Why first he requires the whole debt of him and because he had nothing to pay he commands him his Wife and Children and all that he had to be sold that payment might be made first he would have him pincht throughly that he might know much he was indebted and in that case how great that favour was which he received in having all that he owed forgiven him Thus a King many times casts men in Prison suffers the sentence of condemnation to pass on them and perhaps orders them to be brought to the place of execution before he pardons them and then mercy is mercy indeed and so God deals with us many times he puts his Children in fear shews them how much they owe him how unable they are to pay casts them into prison and threatens condemnation in Hell for ever after which when mercy comes to the Soul then it appears to be wonderful mercy indeed even the riches of exceeding mercy Why do so many find no savour in the Gospel Is it because there is no sweetness or matter of delight in it No it is because such have had no tast of the Law and of the spirit of bondage they have not smarted nor found a sense of the bitterness of sin nor of that just punishment that is due unto the same Even as the King will suffer the Law to pass on some greivous malefactor for high Treason bring him to the place of Execution and lay his head on the block before a pardon he produced as we have had experience in the Country of a man who otherwise would not cry nor shed a tear for any thing Despising Death and not affraid to meet an host of men Such a one having now at an instant a pardon brought from the King how wonderfully doth it work upon him causing softness of heart and tears to flow from his eyes when nothing else could whilest the wonder of this mercy which now appeareth so sweet and seaâ—onable is beheld and admired he is so struck that he knows not what to say for this cause therefore God shews us first a Spirit of bondage to prepare us to relish mercy and then he gives a Spirit of Adoption not to fear again And thus by this order the one is magnifyed and highly esteemed by the foregoing sense of the other If therefore this terrour and fear be hard and troublesome unto us yet if it be for Gods glory let us endure If he will give me over to a wounded terrified conscience to fears tremblings astonishments yea or to draw me into the fire it self or any other punishment so we see he dealt with his Church of old he brought her through the fire and water before she came into a wealthy place Psal. 66.12 Since it is for his glory I must be contended But what do I say He gets nothing by us of all that we do all is for our selves our Acknowledgments of him make him no stronger wiser juster or better then he is but in glorifying of him we do glorify our selves and so pass from glory to glory until we come to be fully transformed into his Image And herein consists our happiness in acknowledging of his wonderful Attributes that by the reflex and knowledge of them we grow up in them as much as may be God was as glorious powerful wise just happy and good before the World was made as now and if the case be put concerning glorifying of him the three persons of the Trinity were only fit and worthy of so great honour not we as we may read Prov. 8.30 There wisdom shews how it was with the Father before all time and that they did mutually solace themselves in the contemplations of one anothers glory Then says Wisdom Was I by him as one brought up with him and I was dayly his Delight rejoycing always before him and in 17 John There we read the same thing in effect where Christ prays And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the
Christ Now when the spirit hath wrought this will in me and I come and take God at his word and believe in Christ laying hold by degrees on the other promises of life winding and wrapping my self in them as I am able it is faith But that perswasion only which many have that they shall go to heaven is not faith but rather a consequent hereof The promise is made unto those that believe in Christ For in him says the Apostle all the promises are yea and Amen If a man weep much and beg hard for the remission of sins he may weep and be without comfort unto the end of his life unless he have received Christ and applyed his vertues home unto his trembling soul. A man must first receive Christ and then he hath a warrant to interest himself in all the promises So that now this being done if such a man were asked hast thou a warrant to receive Christ Yes I have a warrant says the soul for he keeps open house unto all that come wellcoming all and I have a will to come this is a good and sufficient warrant for me to come if I have a will wrought in me and then if I do come this is the first thing to be observed in the witness of our Spirit Now if a man do stagger for all the King keeps open house so as he will not or does not come then in the second place comes Invitation because we are slow to believe therefore God invites us as in Matthew 11.28 Come unto me all ye that Labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Many object O I am not worthy to come but you see here is invitation to encourage me to come yea the sorer and heavier my load is I should come so much the rather So that in this case if the question should be asked of such a one friend how came you hither What warrant had you to be so bold Then he shews forth his ticket as if he should say Lord thou gavest me a word of comfort a warrant of thy invitation in obedience to thy word and faith in thy promise I come hither Now this invitation is directed to them who as yet have no goodness in them when then my Spirits warrants this much unto me that upon this word of promise and invitation I have come in for releif and ease of may miseries unto Christ Jesus the great Physician relying on him for cure and lying as it were at his feet for mercy this is the testimony of my Spirit that I do believe and a ground for me to rest on that now I am in the way of life and justified by his grace Thirdly sometimes Christ meets with a dull and slow heart lazy and careless in a manner what becomes of it not knowing or weighing the dangerous state it is in making excuses here Christ may justly leave us for is it not much that the King should invite us for our good as he did these in the Gospel who for refusing to come to his Supper were excluded from ever tasting thereof strangers being fetched in in their places God might so deal with us but you see in 2 Corinth 5.20 God sends as Embassage to entreat us erects as it were a new office for our sakes saith he Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead to be reconcile unto God This may seem to be needless we being weaker than he Ambassadours for the most part are sent unto those that are stronger The Apostle reasons the matter are we stronger than he do we provoke the Lord to anger But here we see and may admire his infinite rich goodness that he comes and sues to us to be reconciled as we see it is a kind of indignity for a great Monarch to sue for peace to them that are far below him and his inferiours This dishonour God is willing to put up at our hands and sues unto us first when it rather became us upon our knees to beg and sue first unto him The effect of the Embassy is that we would be friends with him and receive that which is so highly for our advancement when therefore I see that this quickens in my heart so that as S. James speaks of the engrafted word that is able to save our souls I can bring it home having some sweet relish and high estimation of it in my heart that it begins to be the square and rule of my life then I am safe If this or any of these fasten upon the soul and thereupon I yield and come in it is enough to shew that I am a justified person And from hence our spirit may witness and that truly this is a third thing in the witness of our spirit Fourthly if none of all this will do then comes a farther degree a command from the highest you shall do it as in 1 Joh. 3.23 And this is his commandment that we should believe on his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment In the Parliament of Grace there is a Law of Faith which binds me as strictly to believe as to keep any of the commandments Says the Apostle Rom. 3. Where is boasting then it is excluded by what Law of works nay but by the Law of Faith So that if I will not believe on the Lord Jesus who eases me of the vigour of the Law and so is my righteousness I must perish for ever What may one object must I needs believe Yes thou art as strictly bound to believe as not to murder or not to be an Idolater not to steal or commit adultery nay I will add more that thy infidelty and contempt of that gracious offer thy disobedience to the Law of Faith is greater than thy breach and disobedience to the Law of Works when thou dost fling God's grace in his face again and as it were trample under foot the blood of the Covenant See for this John 16.9 What is that great sin which Christ came to reprove even this infidelity saith he because they believe not in me which in two respects is a great sin First because it is a sin against God's mercy Secondly because it is a chain which links and binds all sins together Thus our Faith is sure when it relies on the word otherwise all other thoughts are but presumption and will fail a man in the time of need for what is faith but my assent to believe every word of God he hath commanded me to believe and so endeavour the practice of it Fifthly if none of these prevail there comes threatning then God swears that such as refuse shall never enter into his rest If a Prince should sue unto a Beggars Daughter for marriage and she should refuse and contemn him do you think he would be well pleased So it is with us when the King of Heavens Son sends unto us Will you
under a double respect viz. 1 as a true Word 94. 2 as a good Word 95 Works spiritually good cannot be performed by an unregenerate man and why 29 30 In what sense we are said by James to be justified by Works 124 Wrath a Consequence of sin 40 Y. YOuth the fittest time to Repent and break off sin in 9 10 13 A Catalogue of some Books Printed for and Sold by Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard Folio's THe Works of Josephus with great diligence revised and amended according to the excellent French Translation of Monsieur Arnauld d' Andilly Also the Embassy of Philo Judaeus to the Emperor Caius Caligula never translated before with the references of the Scripture A new Map of the Holy Land and divers Copper Plates serving to illustrate the History The Principles of Christian Religion with a large Body of Divinity or the Sum and Substance of Christian Religion Catechistically propounded and explained by way of Question and Answer Methodically and Familiarly handled Whereunto is added Immanuel or the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God Composed by the Right Reverend James Vsher Arch-bishop of Armagh To which is now added twenty Sermons preached at Oxford before his Majesty and elsewhere With the life of the Author containing many remarkable passages and an Alphabetical Table never before extant Quarto's The Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ Or Discourses wherein is shewed how the Wisdom Mercy Justice Holiness Power and Truth of God are Glorified in that great and blessed Work By William Bates D. D. Of Wisdom three Books written in French by Peter Charron Doctor of Law in Paris Translated by Sampson Lennard A Sermon preached at High Wickham in the County of Bucks wherein the Minister's Duty is Remembred their Dignity Asserted Man's Reconciliation with God urged By Samuel Gardner Chaplain to his Majesty The Norfolk Feast A Sermon Preached at St. Dunstan's being the day of the Anniversary Feast for that County By William Smythes Minister in that County The Speech of Sir Audly Mervyn Knight His Majesty's prime Serjeant of Law and Speaker of the House of Commons in Ireland delivered to his Grace the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland the 13th of Febr. 1662. in the Presence Chamber in the Castle in Dublin Octavo's A Worthy Communicant or a Treatise shewing the due order of Receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper By Jeremiah Dyke The Way to Salvation or the Doctrine of Life Eternal laid down from several Texts of Scripture opened and applyed fitted to the capacity of the meanest Christian and useful for all Families By John Hieron Solitude Improved by Divine Meditation or a Treatise proving the Duty and demonstrating the Necessity Excellency Usefulness Nature Kinds and Requisites of Divine Meditation First intended for a Person of Honour and now published for general use By Nathanael Ranew some time Minister of Felsted in Essex Moral Vertues Baptized Christian or the Necessity of Morality among Christians By William Shelton of Bursted Magna in Essex The Burning of London in the Year 1666. Commemorated and Improved in an hundred and ten Meditations and Contemplations By Samuel Rolle Minister of the Gospel and sometime Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge Natural Theology or the Knowledge of God from the Works of Creation Accommodated and Improved to the Service of Christianity By Matthew Barker Christ and the Covenant the Work and Way of Meditation God's Return to the Soul or Nation together with his preventing Mercy Delivered in Ten Sermons by William Bridge sometime Minister of Yarmouth The Sinfulness of Sin and the Fulness of Christ Delivered in two Sermons by the same Author The Vanity of the World By Ezekiel Hopkins The Soul's Ascension in the state of Separation By Isaac Loeffs An Explication of the Assemblies lesser Catechism By Samuel Winney Iter Boreale with other select Poems Being an exact Collection of all hitherto extant and some added never before Printed By Robert Wild D. D. A Synopsis of Quakerism or a Collection of the Fundamental Errors of the Quakers By Thomas Danson A Poetical Meditation wherein the Usefulness Excellency and several perfections of Holy Scripture are briefly hinted By John Clark Twelves Correction Instruction or a Treatise of Affliction first Conceived by way of Private Meditation afterwards digested into certain Sermons and now published for the help and Comfort of humble suffering Christians By Thomas Case The Poor doubting Christian drawn to Christ. By Thomas Hooker of New England Ovid's Metamorphosis in English Verse By George Sandy's Aesop's Fables in Prose with Cuts The Principles of Christian Religion with a brief Method of the Doctrine thereof Corrected and Enlarged by the Reverend James Vsher Bishop of Armagh A plain Discourse of the Mercy of having Godly Parents with the Duties of Children that have such Parents By M. Goddard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Novum Testamentum huic editioni omnia Difficiliorum vocabulorum Themata quae in Georgii Passoris Lexico Gramatice resolvuntur in Margine apposuit Carolus Hoole in eorum scilicet gratiam qui primi Graecae Linguae Tyrocinia faciunt Lord in special forgive my sins of commission see Dr. Ber. Life and death of the Arch-Bp of Armagh p. 110. * Sheffeild in York-shire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 James Meath Anagram I am the same See Dr. Bernard pag. 52. See Dr. Ber. Epist. to the Reader in his life and death c. * See the Reduction of Episcopacy to the form of Synodical Government Received in the Ancient Church published by Doctor Bernard * 2 Sam. 1.22 * Isa. 50.4 * 2 Cor. 3.2 * Acts 11.21 * Dan. 12.3 * Heb. 2.13 * Tim. 4.12 * Mark 6.20 * Acts 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Mat. 7.29 * 1 Cor. 2.4 5. * 1 Cor. 14.24.25 * Acts 18 24· Collatis scripturae locis Probans nempe sicuti solent artifices aliquid Compacturi singulas partes inter se comparare ut inter se alia aliis ad amussim quadrent Bez. In Act. 9.22 Efficere condescensionem ut sic dicam id est argumentis propositis efficere ut aliquis tecum in eandem sententiam descendat Mr. Leigh Critic sacr In verb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Ser. before K. James Wansted June 20. 1629 page 34 35. * Ecl. 12.10 1◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * John 16.5 * Psal. 16.3 * Acts 13.22 * Psal. 119.63 * Math. 11 29 * Mal. 2.4.5 6 7 8 9. * Esay 43.27.28 * 1 Sam. 2.30 * Deut. 33.11 * Math. 5.12 and 10.25 * Math. 21.44 * Rev. 11.11 * 2 Sam. 6.22 * Calvino illustri viro nec unquam sine summi honoris praefatione nominando non assentior Bp. Andrâ—ws De Usuris 3 John 12. Observation Observation Observation Obj. Sol. Obj. Sol. 1. Order of outward things 2. The nature of sin Sin is compared to cords To defer repentance hardens the more The folly of those that defer their repentance till death Obj. Sol. Trust not to death-bed repentance I will be hard to prove death-bed repeâ—tance to be sound Gen. 6.3 It s our wisdom to arm against Satans fallacy and hearken to God in his accepted time 1 Glass Self-love 2 Glass Others good opinion 3. Glass When a man compares himself with others 4. Glass Partial Obedience Obj. Sol. Another false Glass The Devil transforms himself into an Angel of light Superficial repentance will not change the nature of a man No morality nor external change of life will do without quickning grace and a new life wrought Quest. Ans. Obj. Sol. Doct. Obj. Sol. No natural man doth judge himself so bad as he iâ— The best works of a natural man cannot please God Look to the original of duties Look to the end of duty It 's necessary to preach the Law before the Gospel This is the 1 Instance 2 Instance 3 Instance Note well Our Remedy or our Redemption by Christ Christ's humiliation in iife and death The second degree of his humiliation that he might he might become a servant Christ accounted as a bond-man Exam. Joseph fot the calcu 14400000 drachms (x) Which were 120000. (z) Have the quotient 120 Drachms Four Drachms went to a Shekel so divide 120 by 4 your quotient is 30 shekels for each man which was the ordinary rate c. Now this Obedience is twofold 1. Active 2. Passive 1. For his active obedience in the whole course of his Life 2. For his active obedience after his Death