he will forgive sins for the time before they are committed but what do we get nothing for the time to come yes yes when the sin is past by faith we have a new access unto God and having risen by repentance we get a new act not of universal justification but of a particular justification from this and that particular sin But if there be forgiveness of sins past already and I know that I am justified and my sin remitted may I now pray for forgiveness of sins past The Papists say it is active infidelity and as absurd as to pray to God to create the world anew or incarnate his Son again But there is no remission where there is no praying and there is need of praying for the remission of sins past and against sin for the time to come as I shall shew next time as also consider whether there be any interruption of the act of justification by falling into great sins There is no man hath a mind more against quierks and quillets than I yet for the opening of these things and staying and setling the mind and clearing the understanding give me leave the next time to clear these things unto you ROM 5.1 Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ c. IN this Chapter especially in the beginning thereof I shewed unto you that the Apostle sets down unto us those special comforts that a man receives after God hath wrought that supernatural grace of faith in his heart so that here is set down The Mother-Grace Justification by faith and then the blessed issues or daughters thereof and those are a free access to God a joyful hope of the glory to come and not only a patient but a joyful suffering of all afflictions that shall befall us in this life Concerning justification by faith I laboured to open it unto you the last day three things may well be considered therein 1. What that faith is whereby we are justified 2. What that justification is we have by faith 3. What relation the one of these hath to the other Concerning the first of these I told you that it was not every faith that justifieth nor every kind of faith that a man can live by There is a dead faith and a man cannot live by a dead thing And there is a living faith and that is called a faith unfeigned And though it be in Scripture called the faith yet it is with some restriction it is the faith of God's elect and common to none besides There is a faith also which is but temporary that being touch'd with the sense of sin and seeing there is no deliverance from the curse due to sin but by Christ and that there is no part to be had in Christ but by renouncing all corruptions the consideration of the desperateness of his case without Christ makes him long after him and since he cannot have Christ without leaving sin he will resolve on that too he will make towards Christ and perhaps he comes to taste of the sweetness of Christ and feels the power of the world to come he forsakes sin and thereby comes so near the true believer that a man must as it were cut a hair to divide between them And this is a thing very necessary to be considered of And I shewed unto you also that these are not moral things not a faith that is wrought by the power of men but by a work of God's Spirit for it humbles a man for sin and makes him make toward Christ and seek him above all things and having laid some hold on him he escapes the pollutions of the world and yet this faith is but temporary a thing supernatural it is yet it is without root Now as I noted unto you this is not different in the circumstance of time for time alters not the thing A child that liveth but half an hour doth as properly and truly live as one that liveth a hundred years But it is called temporary not that therein stands the difference but therein it is shewn and that proves the man to have something wanting Our being united to Christ and being nigh unto him is as a graft or scyons put into a Tree there are two grafts put into one stock and each of them have all the several things necessary done unto them as cutting binding c. yet time discovers that the one thrives and the other withers so that there was a fault unseen though he that put in the graâ—â—s never saw it yet time discovers it Now the difference is not in the time but in the foundation of the thing it sâ—lf Now what the difference is between these I laboured to declare unto you the last day The use of it is in brief this faith I mean the sâ—und faith is not in all these All have not faith the faith I say of God's 〈◊〉 yet some come so near and have faith so like it that it will trouble a wiâ—â— man to make the distinction These are like the foolish Virgins that lived very civilly and kept their maiden-heads in regard of the world none could accuse them for any evil they had done yet they are at length shut out Many think themselves in a good way and a safe condition yea and go out of the world in this conceit and think they are entring into the gate of Heaven till they in a moment are cast down to hell Try we therefore search and sift our selves if this grace were as grass that grows in every field it were something but it is a precious flower which if we have not Christ prefiteth us nothing This is the means of Christs being applied unto thee how doth it therefore behove every one of us to look to it and not to slubber over the matter slightly but to search and try and examine our selves And in the marks I shewed before that it was such a thing as may be likened to a conception which never comes to the birth such a thing is this temporary faith Among others let me add the tokens of love it is twice set down in the Galatians neither circumcision nor uncircumcision c. but faith which worketh by love and again neither circumcision c. but the new creature They that have a temporary faith want nothing but the new creature what 's that it's faith that worketh by love They that love God it 's a sure token that God hath loved them first and God never giveth this love to any but they have faith unfeigned The next thing is he is ever careful to try himself to prove himself The temporary cannot endure to be brought to the touch or trial He accounts every beginning of grace in himself very great every Mole-hill to be a Mountain Now God's children know that they may be deceived with counterfeits and therefore they try themselves Mark the speech of the Apostle 1 Cor. 16.5 Examine your selves prove your own
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
the wisest of men gave thee this counsel Remember thy Creator in the day of thy youth before the evil dayes come wherein thou shalt say thou hast no pleasure in them Eccles. 12.1 Here we find it 's a youthful thing and should be a young mans Practice Not according to that devilish saying a young Saint and an old Devil But Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth The more sin thou committest the more unapt thou art to Repent Custome in sinning makes thee a Lot The elder thou growest the more loth to go out of Sodom Besides 2. Consider what sin is in its nature It is a weight Heb. 12.1 Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us Sin is then a weight and so an Heavy thing but add sin to sin a weight to a weight and it becomes Heavier and Heavier A man that is in the state of impenitency hath this weight laid on him and is subject to the Devil in a state of Rebellion against God A man now in this estate is weighed down what will he be six seven or ten years hence going on in his impenitency How will he then shake that off which now he cannot free himself of He must hereafter Buckle against it with a great deal of disadvantage and Wrestle with more difficulty One sayes well that if we consider of sin aright it 's like the rising of water over which a man being to pass and finding it Higher then it was wont to be he stayes a while and then tryes again and finds it Higher then before he stayes yet longer till it become unpassable so that he may not adventure without great disadvantage Thus it is with sin Now peradventure the Waters of iniquity are Passable if thou wilt thou mayst go over but if thou delayest the adventure the streams of sin will run together into one Channel and be more difficultly passed Thou shalt find them like the Waters in Ezek. rising from the ankles to the Knees from the knees to the Loyns till they become Water in this indeed unlike them not to Swim in as they were but to Sink in like the Waters of the Red Sea returning in their force in which Pharoah and his Host sank down as a Stone nay as Lead when the Wind of the Lord blew upon them Exod. 15.5 10. Take another Metaphor from the Scripture The Scripture compares sin to Cords which are instruments of binding and the mystery of the Gospel is expressed by binding and loosing Whose soever sins you shall bind on Earth they are bound in Heaven but whose sins ye remit they are remitted Mat. 18.18 Joh. 10.23 Every sin thou committest is a bond and binds thee hand and foot against the Judgment of the great-day Therefore it 's said His own iniquity shall take the wicked and he shall be bound and holden with the cords of his sins 23. Prov. 5.22 Now consider what folly it is when a man shall say though my sins are so many Cords difficult to be broken yet I le not trouble my self about it in my younger days but I le stay till my old age and then I hope I shall be the better able to break these Bonds and cast all these Cords from me when as every iniquity I commit is as a new cord which binds me faster and faster Is not this Madness it self to think so that in our younger Years being scarce able to break one of them in our Dotage we shall be able to break ten thousand together And certainly this is the disposition and nature of sin 3. But add hereunto the Argument in the Text To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your heart But repent while it is called to day Shewing that if we pass this Day we shall be Harder and Harder Wherefore saith the Apostle Exhort every one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3.13 As if he had said if thy heart be Hard to day it will be Harder to morrow Custome in sin hardens the heart and takes away the sense of it Wherefore saith the Apostle I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmitie of your flesh For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness Rom 6.19 So that we see if a man once give himself up to sin he will not be satisfied therewith but will give himself up to iniquitie unto iniquitie What 's the meaning of that It 's as if he had said if we give our selves up to iniquity we will not rest there but we 'l add iniquity unto iniquitie Sin unto Sin we will be brought to such a custom in evil as that it will be easier for a black-moor to change his skin and a Leopard his spots then for those that have been accustomed to do evil to learn to do well Jer. 13.23 It will be to as much purpose to wash an Aethopian as to go to put off that ill custome and shake off that second Nature Sin is a Hammer and sin is a Nail too Every sin strikes the former sin home to the Head that whereas before it might easily have been drawn out it roots it in so fast as that it can very hardly be plucked out Mark how the Apostle describes this cursed nature of sin Having eyes full of Adultery and that cannot cease from sin beguiling unstable souls a heart they have exercised with covetous practices 2 Pet. 2.14 What makes a man prompt in any thing but Exercise When a man is exercised in sin see the event of it it brings him to that vicious habit as that at length he cannot cease from sin If a man deal with a young twig it will bend and break at his pleasure but when it comes to full growth it 's past his strength So fares it with sin if thou dealest with it whilst thou art Young and it in thee before it hath taken Root thou mayst easily wield it at least with more facility then otherwise thou couldst but if thou let it run on to Confirmed Habits it becomes immoveable Wherefore saith the Apostle Heb. 12.1 Let us lay aside the sin which doth so easily beset us The reason is evident because else we shall be so hardned as that we shall not be able A man that hath a green wound if he 'l seek for his cure betimes it may be quickly and easily remedied but through delay it begins to fester and must be lanced to the quick not without great Pain and Anguish to the Patient Sin is such a wound if it be let alone it corrupts and Proud flesh the more grows up the longer the cure is delayed This therefore should be a chief thing we should take heed of how we put from us Gods time and the Proffers of Mercy till another day
vexation will this be to the damned when they shall see others in heaven and themselves shut out of door This will cause weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth It will go to their very heart when they shall see Moses and Aaron and the Prophets and holy Saints in joy and glory and shall consider and remember that if they had made use of those means and opportunities of grace they might have lived in heaven too whereas now they must be everlastingly tormented in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone and that without any hope of recovery 2 Thess. 1.9 Punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power You know that by the Law of Moses whensoever an offender was to receive his strokes Deut. 25.2 3. The Judge was to cause him to lye down and to be beaten before his face and he himself was to see it done So when God comes to give the damned their stroaks in hell for hell is the place of execution wherein he that knows his masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes he himself will see them beaten in the presence of all his holy Angels and if so how shameful will their punishment be when there shall be so many thousand witnesses of it when they shall be made as we say the worlds wonder These are they that shall rise to everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 So in Esay ult Cap. v. ult it 's said of the damned their worm shall not dye nor their fire be quenched but they shall be an abhorring to all flesh and the holy Angels and Saints shall go forth and look upon them those proud ones that scorned Gods people here shall then be abhorred and scorned of them 4. Add to all this that he 's not only banished from thâ— presence of God for a while but from all hope of ever seeing God again with comfort Thy estate is endless and remediless Whilst thou art here in this life of a Saul thou mayst become a Paul and though thou art not yet a beloved Son yet thou mayst come in favour Whilst thou livest under the means of grace there is yet hope of recovery left thee it may be this Sermon may be the means of thy conversion But then amongst all thy punishments this will be one of the greatest that thou shalt be deprived of all means of recovery and this shall be another hell to thee in the midst of hell to think with thy self I have heard so many Sermons and yet have neglected them I had so many opportunities of grace and yet have slighted them this will make the sinner rage and bite his tongue and tear himself to think how that now all means are past And this is the first penalty the penalty of loss That of the sense succeeds By the former we are deprived of all the joys and comforts of heaven and earth of Mount Sion shut out of the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem deprived of an innumerable company of Saints of the general Assembly and Church of the first-born of God himself the judge of all and the souls of the Saints made perfect This shall make a sinner curse himself Now follows the penalty of torments and sense When Adam was banished out of Paradise he had the widâ— world to walk in still but it is not so here Thou art not only cast out of heaven but cast into hell and art deprived of thy liberty for ever 1 Pet. 3.19 It 's said Christ preached to the Spirits in prison them that in the days of Noah were disobedient and for this cause are now in prison Hell is compared to a prison and a prison indeed it is and that an odious one For 1. Look on thy companions If a man were to be kept close prisoner it were a great punishment but go ye cursed saith God into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels To be among such compâ—nions is most infinitely miserable there is nothing but Devils and damned howling Ghosts woful companions If there be an house possâ—ssed wiâ—h an evil Spirit a man will scarce be hired to live in it but here the dâ—mned spirits the filthy and cursed host must be thy yoke-fellows Suppose there were no torment to suffer yet to be banished from Heaven and to be tied and yoked to wicked spirits were a torment sufficient to make the stoutest that ever was tremble and quake and be soon weary of it 2. But it 's a place of torment too a prison where there is a rack to which thou must be put and on which thou must be tormented I am tormented in this flame saith Dives Luk. 16.24 To speak of the torments there will be matter enough for another hour but I delight not to dwell on so sad a subject only this is that which prepares the way to the glad tidings of salvation therefore I shall a little longer insist upon it The body and soul the whole man shall be there tormented not the soul only but even the body too after judgment Do you think the members of the body which have been the instruments shall escape be rais'd and cast into Hell to no purpose Why should God quicken it at the last day but to break it on the anvil of his wrath and to make it accompany the soul as well in torments as in sinning 'T is true the soul is the fountain of all sense and the body without it hath no sense at all Take away the soul and you may burn the body and it will not feel it Now the soul being the fountain of sense and the body being united to it when God shall lay his ax at this root at this fountain how dreadful shall it be How shall the body choose but suffer too Should any of us be cast into a fire what a terrible torment would we account of it Fire and water we say have no mercy but alas this fire is nothing to the fire of Hell 't is but as painted fire to that which burns for ever and ever The furnace wherein Nebuchadnezzar commanded those to be thrown that fell not down to the graven-Image which he had set up was doubtless at every time a terrible place Hell is compared to such a furnace but what shall we think of it when the King in his wrath shall command the furnace to be heated seven times hotter then usual Nay what shall we think of Hell when the King of Heaven shall command it to be heated seventy times seven times hotter then before When there shall be a fire and a fire prepar'd for so is this fire of Tophet it 's a pile of much wood Isai. 30.33 When the King of Heaven shall as it were set to work his wisedome to fit it in the sharpest manner in procuring such ingredients as may make it rage most and be most violent It is a fire prepared for the Devil and