read them with sorrow and terror whether they will or no. CHAP. II. The division and brief Explication of 4. THe Pronunciation of the Sentence vers 41 42 43 c. In which we may take notice 1. Of the Persons sentenced these are described 1. By their station on the left hand Then shall he say to them on the left hand 2. By their condition cursed ones Depart ye cursed 2. Of their punishment In which there is 1. Pain of loss Depart from me 2. Pain of sense which punishment is aggravated 1. By its extremity Fire This is amplified 1. By their Companions in those flames The Devil and his Angels 2. By the Divine Ordination of it for them Prepared for the Devil and his Angels 2. By its eternity Everlasting Fire 3. Of the reason of this punishment For I was hungry and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink vers 42 43. I shall begin with the Sentence wherein every word speaks Woe and Wrath Fire and Fury Death and Damnation and every syllable speaks the deepest Sorrow and dreadfulest Sufferings It is like Ezekiel's Roll written within and without and within is written Lamentation Weeping and Woe Ezek. 2.10 The Lord Chief Justice of the World the Judge of the Quick and Dead is now in all his Robes and Royalty with millions of glorious Attendants in the Glory of his Father with all his holy Angels set on the Bench. The poor Prisoner whose trembling Soul is newly reunited to the loathsome Carkasse of his Body is drag'd to the Bar awaiting and expecting some doleful doom He is lately come from Hell to give an account of his Life on Earth and to receive his Sentence and loath he is to go back to that place of torments as knowing that the pain of his Body will be a new and grievous addition to his misery when that shall burn in flames as his Soul doth already in fury Therefore he pleads Prisoner Lord let me stay here though poor wretch he hath his Hell about him in his accusing affrighting Conscience rather than go to that Dungeon of darkness A sight of thy beautiful Face may possibly abate my Sorrows and thy Presence may mittigate my Sufferings Judge No saith Christ here is no abiding for thee be gone hence Thou mayst remember when my Presence was thy Torment when thou didst bid me depart from thee choosing my room before my company Now my absence shall be thy Terror I like thee not so well to have thee nigh me Depart I say from me Prisâ—ner Lord if I must undergo so dreadful a doom as to depart from thee the Father of Lights and Fountain of Life yet bless me before I go One good wish of thy Heart one good word of thy Mouth will make me blessed where ever I go Those whom thou blessest are blessed indeed Bless me even me O my Father At this parting grant me thy blessing Judge Sinner be gone and my curse go along with thee Thou hast many a time despised my Blessing when it hath been offer'd to thee though I was made a Curse to purchase it for thee therefore I say depart from me and the Curse of an angry Lord and of a righteous Law accompany thee for ever Depart I say thou cursed Prisoner Lord if I must go and thy Curse with me send me to some good place where I may find somewhat to refresh me under thy loss and curse It 's misery enough to lose thy presence Good Lord command me to some good place Judge No Sinner be gone with my Curse to that place which will torture and rack thee with extremity and universality of pains The time hath been that thou hast wallowed in sensual Pleasures now thou must fry in intollerable flames Depart thou cursed into fire Prisoner Ah Lord if I must go with thy Curse and to so woful a place as fire I beseech thee let me not stay there long Alas who can abide devouring flames one moment material fires of mans kindling are terrible but how intollerable are those flames which thy breath like a stream of brimstone hath kindled I beseech thee if I must go to it let me pass swiftly through it and not stay in it Judge No Sinner depart and my Curse with thee to those extream Torments that admit of no ease and no end where the worm never dieth and the fire never goeth out to the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone for ever Depart thou cursed into everlasting fire Prisoner Lord this is dismal and dreadful indeed to go from thee who art all good and to go to fire which hath in it extremity of all evil and to lose thee and fry in flames for ever ever ever yet Lord if it is thy Will it should be so hear me yet in one desire let me have such society as may mitigate at least such as may not aggravate my misery Judge No Sinner thy Company must be such for ever as thou didst choose in thy life time He who was thy Tempter shall be thy Tormentor And they who led thee captive at their will shall be bound with thee in Chains of everlasting darkness and faggotted up with thee together for unquenchable fire Such fiery Serpents gnawing Worms stinging Adders poisonous Toads roaring and devouring Lions hideous Monsters frightful Fiends must be thy eternal Companions Depart from me thou cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels I shall now speak particularly to the punishment of these wicked ones and explain the words as I come to speak to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est Metaphora qua vita humana cursus per iter sive prosectionem describitur I begin with the beginning of Christ's Sentence viz. The pain of loss which shall be the punishment of the damned Depart from me The word depart is a metaphor which describes the course of humane loss by a Journey Luk. 1.6 2 Pet. 2.10 And also their progress to death Luk. 13. The eternal death of the damned will consist partly if not principally in their departure from the Lord of Life But it may be Objected Who can depart from him who is every where Christ is God Joh. 1.1 1 Joh. 5.20 And God is Omnipresent Whither shall I fly from thy presence Psal 139.7 Therefore we must know there is a three-fold presence of God or Christ 1. There is the essential presence of God as he is infinite in his Being included in no place and excluded out of none so none can depart from him Psal 139.6 to 10. Jer. 23.24 Amos 9.2 3. 2. There is the favourable presence of God as he is the Fountain of Life and Love and the Father of Mercy and kindness and all good The former is the presence of his Being this of his Bounty This is as the presence of the Sun by his heat chearing and by his light delighting the Creature His presence in this sense is the substance
It is a deep impression of infinite wrath and fury on every member of the Body and faculty of the Soul And O what a fearful thing is it to fall into the hands of the living God for our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12.2 ult The wrath of God is sometimes compared to that of a Lion roaring after her prey which tears and rents and kills and slays without the least pity And to a Bear robbed of her Whelps which claws and wounds and destroys whatsoever comes near her But alas the wrath of a God is infinitely more cutting more killing The Mountains are moved the Rocks are rent in pieces the stoutest Oaks are rooted up the Foundations of the Earth tremble the great Luminaries are darkned the course of Nature is over-turned when he is wroth Thou even thou art to be feared for who may stand when thou art angry If his wrath be kindled but a little how wofully do his own Children cry out Job 6.4 The Arrows of the Almighty are within me Job 13.24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine enemy Psal 88. Their Spirits are drunk up while they suffer his terrors they are distracted What then will be the condition of them on whom he will pour out all his wrath If a small degree of God's anger be so terrible when it is mingled with Love what will a full Cup of pure wrath be 3. They differ in the ends of their Creation Our fires were created for our Service and Comfort God made these for the use and benefit of man to fence us against the cold to melt and mould metals and form them into several moulds c. But the fire of Hell is created for the torment of Men and Devils God makes it of such a nature as may best suit his end For every wise Agent fitteth his means to his end and the more wise the Agent is the more proper means he findeth out for his end Now when the only wise God to whom Angels themselves are Fools shall set his infinite Wisdom awork about the most proper means of racking and torturing the poor Creature surely it will be done to purpose As when his Love sets his Wisdom awork to find out a way to comfort his Children what Rivers of Pleasures VVeights of Glory Crowns of Life fulness of Joy doth he provide So when his wrath sets VVisdom awork to find out a way for the afflicting his Enemies what stinging Adders and gnawing VVorms and Chains of Darkness and Lakes of Brimstone doth he provide 4. They differ in the Fewel that feeds them Our fires are maintain'd and preserv'd in burning by wood or coals or somewhat that is combustible and the fire must be suitable to the meanness and limitedness of the fewel But the fire of Hell is fed with the Curse of a righteous Law and the wrath of an infinite God and the lusts of the damned Ah what work will sin back'd with the Curse and wrath of God make in the Souls and Bodies of men If David beloved of God under the weight of sin and sense of Divine displeasures went mourning all the day and cryeth out so mounfully Thine Arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine Anger nor rest in my bones because of my Sin Mine Iniquities are gone over mine head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me Psal 38.2 3 4. O what will they suffer and how will they roar and howl whose Sins are as a Mountain of Lead shall press and oppress their Consciences all whose lusts shall gnaw their Spirits set home and close to their Souls by the fury and malediction of God 5. They differ in this that our fires are accompanied with Light but the fire of Hell though it hath heat to torment hath no light to comfort It is a state of darkness of utter darkness Matth. 25. Of Blackness of Darkness Jude vers 13. They have only light enough to see themselves endlesly and easelesly wretched and miserable Darkness is dreadful but what darkness like utter darkness or blackness of darkness The Egyptians did not move out of their places in the time of their darkness but what will men do in the dark in the midst of ravenous VVolves and roaring Lions and stinging Adders and fiery Serpents and frightful Devils 6. They differ in their Operations 1. Our fires work only on the Body they cannot pierce the Soul but Hell fire pierceth the Soul Spirits burn in it as well as Bodies Go into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels If it seise on Devils it will also on the Souls of men The Spirit whose senses are most acute will feel the greatest pain in the unquenchable fire 2. Our fires destroy and consume their fewel they turn their wood and coals into dust and ashes the bodies of men are by them turn'd into ashes and hereby the pain ceaseth with the life of the Creature But the fire of Hell will never consume though it be ever consuming it will always be destroying but never destroy the Sinner The damned will be always dying but never die The Almighty hand of God will preserve them to undergo that wrath that is intollerable and those flames that are unquenchable CHAP. XII The fulness of wicked mens misery in that it 's positive and privative with some Cautions against it Vse LEarn hence the full misery of the wicked in the other World They shall not only be deprived of all good in their banishment from the presence of God but also be afflicted with all evil in their suffering the pains of Hell fire The godly in the other World shall be perfectly blessed in their freedom from all poenal and all moral evil and their fruition of all that is truly good for they shall ever be with the Lord who is an universal good So the Wicked in the World to come shall be perfectly cursed in the absence of what ever is comfortable and in the presence of whatsoever is dreadful and may render them miserable Snares Fire Brimstone an horrible Tempest shall be rained on them as their portion woful are the fruits of Sin oftentimes in this World It keeps good from men here strips them of their Estates Relations Liberties Limbs Health Names nay of the Gospel Ordinances and seasons of Grace and brings on them much evil here Aches Pains Diseases in their Bodies Horrors and Terrors in their Souls But these are nothing to the effects of Sin in the other World Here in the midst of Judgment Mercy is remembred there is no state on Earth of mear or pure wrath All good things are not removed nor all evil things inflicted on any In the worst Estate there is Life and that cloathed with some Favours The pained have some intermission or at least remission of their pains In the lowest estate there is hope of better and that is no small Cordial
Justice notwithstanding his will to sin for ever and his choice of eternal death and all the other reasons that are usually brought for the eternity of their pains he should not stay long in that prison of Hell but quickly be released But because a poor finite Creature hath not a back strong enough to bear an infinite blow therefore he must be always suffering The notoriety and malignity of sin proceeds from the dignity of the Person against whom it s committed as I have largely shewn else-where Because the Authority of an infinite God is dispised the Law of an infinite God disobeyed the Love of an infinite God undervalued and the Image of an infinite God defaced by sin therefore there is an infinite demerit in sin In a Treatise called The Incomparableness of God And because man cannot give satisfaction infinite in value therefore he must give that satisfaction which is infinite in time or rather in its eternity Psal 49.7 8. Psal 51.4 Job 7.20 And considering that God was resolved to have full satisfaction for sin I conceive Christ himself could not have satisfied for the sins of any if he could not have offered a Sacrifice of infinite merit to answer the infinite demerit of sin But herein the Wisdom and Goodness of God did superabound in providing an Antidote stronger than the Poyson for whereas sin is infinite only Objective as committed against an infinite God The Sacrifie of Christ is infinite both Objective and Subjective as offer'd up to an infinite Majesty and offer'd by one that was an infinite Majesty whose Person being infinite rendred his Sacrifice of such boundless value and merit CHAP. XIV How little cause to envy Sinners and how careful we should be to avoid their eternal misery Vse 1. WE may learn hence what little cause any have to envy Sinners their fat and sweet in this World Alas for their poor short pleasures of sin they must have extream and eternal torments Who would grudge them their portion or eat of their Dainties or buy their Bargains that is not mad and quite bereaft of his wits Prov. 23.17 18. My Son envy not Sinners for surely there is an end I and a sad end for poor Sinners An end of Woe and Wrath and Death and Misery without any end or ease Ah what sad Objects are they of Pity who laugh a minute and must weep for ever who for a little gigling mirth and poor drossy pleasures must fry eternally in Hell flames among Devils and damned Spirits Ex. Reader Believe and consider this misery of the Wicked and be restless till thou art secured against it Ponder it well to be among Devils those stinging Serpents roaring Lions frightful Monsters would make thy hair stand an end and thy heart to ake but to be amongst them in extremity of Torments in fire in fire kindled by the infinite wrath of God and in universality of Torments to have all kind of Judgments and Plagues inflicted on thee I and on every part of thy Body and all the powers of thy Soul and to suffer all this for ever ever ever Canst thou bear the company of Lions and Bears and Wolves and Adders and Serpents the deformed Monsters here for ever How then wilt thou bear the Company of Devils hideous monstrous frightful Hell-hounds for ever Thou canst not bear the pain of our fire for one day no not for one quarter of an hour how then wilt thou bear the pain of Hell fire for ever Ah who can dwell in everlasting burnings who can endure abiding flames The Patient in a violent fit of the Stone or Colick or Gout supports himself with this Cordial This will not last long The Woman in labour in the extremity of her pains hath this to revive her All this through the kindness of God will soon be over The Primitive Christians comforted themselves under their dreadful Sufferings from their Persecutors with this Our light Afflictions are but for a moment They are black Clouds but will soon pass over and vanish away But Reader if once thou art turn'd into Hell into those unconceivable intollerable flames amongst those frightful Devils thou canst have nothing to bear up thy Spirit not the least hope of any cessation or intermission or remission of thy pains Ah how will dispair like a dagger stab thee to the heart what a cutting corosive will it be to think I am here amongst horrid hideous hellish Devils who have been my Tempters and are now my Tormentors banished the blissful presence of God and Jesus Christ suffering those torments and pains and misery to which all the fires and racks on Earth are but as the rasing of skin to Nebuchadnezzars fiery Furnace Ah what Tongue can tell what this poor Body suffereth in every part of it Ah what Understanding can apprehend the anguish and remorse of this Soul its cutting Reflections on what it hath been and done and its killing praevision of what it must undergo and I must endure all this for ever Though my pains are so extream in their intention yet if they were short in their duration I had some ground of comfort nay if they were to last no more millions of years than there are Stars in Heaven and drops of water in the Ocean I should have some crevis of light some hope to bear up my heart But alas alas I am here in the midst of this cursed Crew under these extream ineffable pains and must be here for ever The wrath upon me is abiding wrath Joh. 3. ult It is wrath to come and ever will be wrath to come After Ages and Generations and millions of them I and millions of millions of them my pain would not be a moment the nearer a period My night of darkness and horrour will be along night indeed the Clock will never strike the time will never pass the morn will never dawn and the Sun will never rise O what shall I do thousands and thousands of thousands millions and millions of millions of millions signifie not a moment to my wretched and cursed eternity Ah such company such misery and that for ever ever ever Reader doth not thy Soul tremble to think of this which will be the portion probably of most in the Christian World and wilt thou give thy self a moments rest in a state liable and obnoxious to it For the sake of thy precious Soul if thou hast any true self-love Break off thy sins by Repentance and thine Iniquities by accepting of thy Redeemer Hell hath not yet shut its mouth upon thee nor is the gate of Mercy yet shut against thee O bless the Divine Patience and know the things that concern thine own peace Thy life is short and uncertain when once death seiseth thee thou art immediately fixed there can be no change no alteration of thy state Tears Prayers Groans Sighs Sobs will work nothing prevail nothing with the Judge to alter his Sentence or thy Condition Now is the accepted
Great Day These bid open defiance to the Prohibitions Precepts and Penalty of the Law and dare the Law to do its worst Either these must be condemned or all shall be saved But God is of an holier Nature than to dwell with such Sinners They may read their doom written under his own hand and like the Law of the Medes and Persians That cannot be alter'd 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Ephes 5.5 Rom. 8.5 To be carnally minded is death vers 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die 2. Proposition They who are guilty of total external Omissions are in a damnable Condition This is written in broad Letters that he who runs may read it They who pray not are under wrath and the effusions of wrath Jer. 10. ult They who neglect to pay their external Allegiance to the true God and deny him his outward Homage and Acknowledgment shall be denied and disowned by Christ before his Father and before his holy Angels The Holy God doth all along speak of these as Heathens Psal 79.6 and Sinners with a witness Psal 36.1 2 3. and threatneth that Christ shall come in flaming fire to render Vengeance on them 2 Thess 2.7 8 9 10. Those who are guilty of these total Omissions in regard of the matter of the Duties commanded them are ungodly in the highest degree for ungodliness strictly and properly speaks the neglect of our Duties to God and sins against the first Table as unrighteousness the neglect of our Duties to our Neighbour and our Transgressions against the Second Table and so none in the whole Scripture more obnoxious to wrath and ruine Psal 73.12 These are the Ungodly who prosper in the World but mark how soon they perish vers 18. Thou castest them down to destruction and utterly consumest them with terrours 2 Pet. 3.7 Jude vers 4. 15. 3. Proposition Those who perform external Duties and wholly neglect internal or please themselves in total inward Omissions cannot be in a state of Salvation God will not be put off with the Body without the Soul of Religion Indeed external Duties are but the Garments or Cloaths of Religion wherein it appears and whereby it is known to the World the life and power of it consists in internal Performances or those that are the motions and actions of the Understanding and Will and Affections as in the Knowledg of God his Being and Excellency and the kindness he hath for and the love he hath to Mankind in Jesus Christ as also in the choosing him for our richest Treasure and supream Lord and Law-giver and in loving him with all the heart and Soul and strength and desiring his love above all the World and delighting in his Favour as the Souls felicity and seeking to please him rather than to command the Creation A man without these is but the Picture of a Saint he hath somewhat of the resemblance but nothing of the reality of a Christian He hath a form but nothing of the power of godliness 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4 5 to 7. and therefore is in a state of perdition The neglect of believing repenting loving the Lord Jesus Christ are all inward Omissions for these are acts proper and peculiar to the Soul and condemned in Scripture with the most dreadful damnation Mark 16.16 John 3. ult Luke 13.3 1 Cor. 16.22 If a man pray and pray wholly without Faith and without fervency Jam. 1. Jam. 5. this is no way acceptable to God All such prayers are howlings and bablings and of no sweet sound in Gods Ears Hos 7. Isa 1.15 16 17. Whatsoever a man doth either by way of hearing or singing or praying or receiving if there be not that dread of God and love to his Name and Faith in Christ which are the essentials of these Duties all is as nothing 4. Proposition Those who allow themselves in partial Omissions whether external or internal are in no good Condition By partial Omissions I mean at sometimes as for prayer a man it may be prays in his Closet or Family usually but if any worldly business intervene and calls for his company he will as usually attend on that and wholly omit his Closet and Family-Duties for that Morning or Evening Or for a man to pray as some do only at the Evening and not in the Morning as if God were the God of the Night and not of the Day or as some others who will pray only upon the Lords-Day as if God had a right to them then but not all the week after Or when men perform some religious Duties and not others will pray but not read Scripture daily or pray and read the Word but not take notice of those under their Roofs to instruct and admonish and support them as occasion is Or some will perform their Duties which immediately concern God but will not be charitable to the Poor at least not in such a degree and measure as their Estates will bear and as God expects These and such like I understand by partial and external Omissions What is meant by internal partial Omission is next to be consider'd Partial internal Omissions are when men oftentimes though not constantly are negligent in the manner of performing their Duties and though they be formal and superficial and lazy and slothful in the Worship of God yet they take little or no notice thereof Indeed sometimes they find some heat and warmth and this pleaseth them but at other times they are cold and liveless in their Duties and this doth not much displease them They can commonly pray as if they pray'd not and read as if they read not and wait on God without any suitable and considerable affections towards him and not be disturbed at it These sudden heats at one time and colds at another time speak the Body out of order and the Soul not healthy The next thing to be explain'd is what is meant by allowing themselves in partial Omissions and indeed the stress of the Proposition depends on that To allow themselves in these partial Omissions notes these two things To know these partial Omissions to be sins and yet to continue in them without any great disturbance or trouble of Spirit They must know that they are sins otherwise continuance in them will not argue a total want of Grace or the predominant power of sensuality in the Soul I doubt not but in many dark places of this Nation there may be those who live in a total Omission of some Duties as praying with their Families and a strict sanctification of the Sabbath or who yet fear God in truth and make great Conscience of their Conversations These men neglect prayer and devoting the Sabbath wholly to God c. because they do not know them to be their Duties And where a man desires and endeavours to know his Masters Will and lives up to that Light God hath given him he may upon a general repentance expect pardon through the blood of Christ for
which is worse than nothing Psal 90.9 How short that time is that remaineth God only knoweth for thy time is in his hand not thine own surely then it behoveth thee to redeem the time to make the most of it and whilst thou hast it to improve it for the doing of good O Friend hast thou loyter'd so long is thy work so great thy day to work in so short and yet is it not time to bestir thy self Is death at thy door art thou within a step of eternity within the view of the other World and yet wilt thou not up and be doing Can any assure thee of standing in the Vineyard another year nay another moneth nay another day and is it not yet time to be fruitful Dost thou not see that as Labourers are sent into the Vineyard at all hours so they go out of the Vineyard at all hours Thou owest a debt to Nature to the God of Nature the day of payment is not expressed therefore it may be demanded at any time Reader though some fruit falls from the Tree by reason of its maturity yet how much more is blown off or cudgeld off whilst it is green Do not thine eyes see Coffins and Graves of all sorts and sizes And wilt thou be as the silly Beasts who though the Butcher come one day to the Field and fetch away one another day and fetch away another to the slaughter yet those that remain neither miss them that are gone nor dread their own destinies O Friend what dost thou think to do when time is gone and death comes wilt thou stop the Sun of thy Life in its career Will it hear thy Voice and obey thy Command Or wilt thou call to Time as Israels General did to the Sun Stand still that I may be avenged of all my Sensuality and Idleness and Pride and Impenitency and all my spiritual Enemies which have robbed me of God and Heaven Do you imagine Time will be at your beck Or are the apprehensions of the King of Terrors and of a dreadful Day of Judgment and of an amazing Eternity no whit rousing or awakening to thee Canst thou believe a dark night of Death a fit time to trim and adorn and attrire thy Soul in for the love and embraces of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Now God gives thee a day but of how many hours whether longer or shorter thou canst not tell Thy life is fleeing away Time's Chariot moves swiftly Yet a little while the Light is with thee walk while thou hast the Light lest Darkness come upon thee Joh. 12.35 Two things especially occur in these words 1. Now thou hast time yea opportunity make much of it improve it to the utmost Walk while thou hast the Light God allots thee a due time for bringing forth Hence it 's Observable That God gave the Figg-Tree three years to bear in other Trees as the Olive and Nut-Tree required more time but so succulent a Plant as the Figg-Tree needed no more nay saith A Lapide If the Figg-Tree bear not the third year it will never bear God never expected Brick without allowing Straw nor requires his Rent before Quarter-day or the time of payment comes 2. Thy time or at least thine opportunity is very short therefore work much in a little time whilst thou hast the Light Yet a little while the Light is with thee a little while and the Light will be taken from thee A little while and the light of Life a little while and the light of means and helps and seasons of Grace will be taken from thee And what then truly then darkness will come upon thee a dark Grave will be the receptacle of thy Body and a dark Dungeon will be the receptacle of thy Soul if thou now loyterest and darkness is no fit state nor a dark night a fit time to walk or work in Darkness is dreadful and every thing seems more frightful in the night If a mans house be on fire in the night that he hears the noise and ratling of the flames seeth no way of escape for himself his Wife and his Children O in what a plight is he he stands naked in his Chamber at a loss what to do he is full of horrors and terrors to be conceived by none but himself How pale is his Countenance and how heavy his Heart when he seeth the flames seizing his Chamber when they come near his Body he is almost drown'd to death with grief and sorrow before he is burnt to death with the flames So it is when the night of death surpriseth the Loyterer that hath neglected the doing of good when Conscience is in a flame about his ears and frights him with the fore-apprehensions of the unquenchable burnings and with cutting reflections upon his former negligence and unprofitableness the man is quaking and trembling not knowing what to do Is that a time to put on the Armor of Light when he is putting off his natural Life Is a dark night of fear and amazement a time to seek God in or to work out his own Salvation Ah Friend it is too great and weighty a work to be done in an instant and the poor Sinner is too much astonished to set about it If the fear of a danger gone and over kill a Nabal and make his heart like a stone what will the fear the certain knowledge of wrath of the wrath of a God of the everlasting wrath of a God to come do to a poor Sinner O Friend make use of time while thou hast it Work the work of him that sent thee while it is day for the night cometh when no man can work Joh. 9.4 CHAP. XLI The grand cause of sins of Omission An unregenerate heart with the cure of it a renewed nature I Proceed now to the second and third particulars viz. The cause and cure of sins of Omission I shall recite one more general and principal Cause others more special and less principal and joyn the Cure to the Cause 1. The grand Cause of these sins of Omission is an unregenerate Heart Where the ground is unplowed and lieth fallow no Fruit can be expected Weeds may grow good Corn cannot grow there When the Heart is not broken up by Repentance but hardned through custom and continuance in sin no fruits of Righteousness no Faith no Love or Humility c. can be expected there Can the Leopard change his spots or the Blackamore his skin no more can he that is accustomed to do evil learn to do well Jer. 23.13 Natures Fruit will be according to its Root whether sweet or sowr There must of necessity be a good Foundation laid before there can be a good Superstructure of Holiness rear'd An unrenewed Heart hath no tendency towards it and Nature will work little farther than its own inclination The Water will run as the Tyde carrieth it Nay the unregenerate Heart is contrary to religious Duties hath an hatred and
abhorrency of them no wonder then if it live in the Omission of them The Carnal Mind Lady Reason her self the chief and principal faculty of man is enmity against God It is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Rom. 8.7 He who is an enemy to a mans Person will never be a friend to his Precepts much less will he who is enmity against Gods Life be subject to his Law There is an impossibility hereof Neither indeed can be Till the Heart be changed it will never like the Divine Commands that are so contrary to its lusts and till it be brought to love them it will neglect Obedience to them When the Will the great Commander is set against the Laws of God how can any of the other faculties submit to them As in fleshly lusts the titillation is from sense and appetite but the consent of the reasonable Will is that which makes it a vice so unto good the inclination may possibly be from example or education but the royal assent of the Will is that which makes it a virtue The Devil finds it no hard work to part Sin and his Duty whose Will never chose it and whose Heart never loved it but it will be much easier to part him and his Duty whose Will and Heart have an enmity and reluctancy against it If a Lads calling doth not suit his genius he seldom comes to do any thing well or to be expert at it much less when he hates it The Scholar who loves not his Book will hardly proceed from the degree of a Dunce much less he who loatheth his Book If the nature of a man be contrary to God and his Ways the presence of God is troublesome to him Job 21.14 They say to God depart from us and the Worship of God is tedious to them When will the new Moon be gone and the Sabbath be over And the Precepts of God are Fetters and Cords to them Psal 2.3 Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us Common gifts of the Spirit as Illumination Convictions sudden flashes of Affection may do somewhat against this distemper of Nature but the virtue of that Physick is soon spent and then it returns to its former illness Colours not laid in Oyl will soon be washt off Indeed how can it be expected that a Body separated from a Soul should stir or move and much less can it be expected that a Soul without Christ its life should pray or hear or watch or do any thing according to the Will of God Paul tells us I live i. e. to God according to his Will doing what is good But how comes this about at whose cost doth he keep house yet not I but Christ liveth in me I may thank my Lord Jesus I am beholden unto him for all ability unto sacred actions And the life that I live in the Flesh is by Faith in the Son of God It 's from Christ alone that I receive supplies of strength and virtue to live to God What will then become of the Unregenerate person who is without Christ Ephes 2.12 He who hath not the Son hath not life And he who hath not life I am sure cannot live to God The Apostle fitly joyns them together Trees without fruit twice dead i. e. certainly dead or dead indeed Jude vers 12. Where the stock is dead the branches must needs wither and if they wither there is little likelihood of fruit Besides an unregenerate Soul is necessitated as to internal Omissions in regard of his want of spiritual life so to external Omissions in regard of his engagements to his carnal interest One is possibly married to Profit and when that calls him he must go though Closet or Family or any other Duties bid him stay Matth. 8. No man can serve God and Mammon but he will love the one and hate the other or dispise the one and cleave to the other When once there comes a competition between godliness and gain in the life it will quickly appear which hath the greatest sway and predominancy in the heart The young man would not follow Christ because his Estate denied to give him leave Had he been less rich he had been probably more religious but having once espoused the interest of his Wealth he could not leave it though he left God and Christ and Heaven for it Another is ingaged to Pleasures and when they require his presence it cannot be supposed that he will deny them for the exercises if Religion which are so painful to him Herod may pretend fair for Religion and profess some kindness to the Baptist but when his Dalilah commands his love to her over-comes his fear of John and instead of doing many things or any thing that was good he cuts off that Head which had a Tongue in it so bold as to reprove him for his sin A third is wedded to Honour and if that be inconsistent with Holiness as sometimes the case may be he will neglect his Duty to God to pay his Homage to this Diana Jehu will do one good work because Gods and his interest were both conjoyned His slaughter of Ahabs Sons and Prophets tended to settle him the firmer in his Throne and so his ambition call'd for the same with Gods Command But Jehu will omit another good work he will not destroy the Idolatry at Dan and Bethel because there his interest and Gods were divided for though God enjoyned the destruction of Idols in one place as well as another yet Jehu was fearful as his Predecessor Jeroboam that the Crown would not be fast on his Head if the people should have gone up to Jerusalem to Worship therefore when his carnal interest forbids what God commands he disobeys God to serve that There is no unsanctified person in the World but hath some worldly interest of his own superiour and paramount nay in many things opposite and contrary to the interest of God and therefore though he may obey God while both those Interests can agree and walk together in the same way yet when there is a necessity of their parting he will cleave to that which hath the predominancy within him Where God hath some residence and is entertain'd but as an underling to the Flesh when it comes to this pass that one must be turn'd out of doors for they cannot agree long together you may easily guess which it shall be The Cure of this Reader must be if thou art not born again to get a new heart An old heart will never serve for or enable unto the acts of new Obedience The water will rise no higher than the Fountain head a whence it floweth If you would have a Clock to move regularly and the hand without to go true you must have the wheels and poizes right within A good temperament of Body may cause a propensity to some things that are honest but that excellency must be of little worth that hath
of his Promises Fear not I will be with thee Isa 43.2 3 5. Jer. 1.8 Jer. 15.20 Luk. 1.28 Act. 18.10 His presence in this sense is the Redeemers purchase He suffered the Just for the Vnjust to bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 Thence the Name of the Redeemer is Immanuel God with us Matth. 1.23 Against his departure in this sense Jer. 14.8 is the Churches earnest Prayer Leave us not And the fear of it doth so affect Moses that he is ready to throw up all Exod. 33.15 If thy presence go not with us carry us not hence His presence in this sense is Heaven it self Psal 16. ult In thy presence is fulness of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Luk. 22. 1 Thess 4.17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. This is that presence of Christ which the wicked shall want for ever This is included in Depart from me 3. There is the afflicting punishing presence of God There is the presence of his Fury as well as of his Favour In this sense Job prayeth for God's absence How long wilt thou not depart from me Job 7.19 Which Junius glosseth Turn thine anger away from me In this sense God tells men That he will visit them i. e. with Judgments As a Father beholding his Child about some naughty Action tells him I l'e be with you presently meaning to correct him Isa 23.17 Jer. 6.15 At the time that I visit them they shall be cast down saith the Lord. In this sense wicked men shall have the presence of God for ever His tormenting presence as well as the absence of his Grace and Favour will be their eternal portion And certainly if his afflicting presence in this World which hath love for its Original and their good for its end be so grievous to his own people that they cry out Let him turn from me Job 14.6 Let him depart away what will his tormenting presence be to the wicked in the other World of which wrath pure wrath is the Original and satisfaction to justice his end CHAP. III. Concerning the privative part of the Sinners Punishment THis part of the Verse will afford this Doctrine Doct. That a great part of wicked mens punishment in the other World will consist in their departure from the presence of Christ Then shall he say to them on his left hand Depart from me They now bid God depart from them They say unto God Depart from us Job 21.14 But that which is their wish here shall be their woe for ever And he shall say unto them depart from me ye workers of Inquity I know you not Matth. 7.23 The presence of Christ is now their Trouble but his absence will then be their Torment Hence the state of the wicked in the other World is called utter-darkness Calvin in Matth. 8.12 Matth. 8.12 And blackness of darkness for ever Jude vers 13. Because of its separation from Christ who is the Light of the World and the Sun of Righteousness Joh. 1.9 Mal. 4.2 It seems an allusion to them that are fetter'd in dark doleful dungeons or to those that in the night-time stand without in the dark being excluded such Rooms as are full of Lights wherein are rare and costly Feasts In the explication of this Doctrine I shall describe the punishment of the wicked 1. In the perfection of the Object from which they must depart 2. In the properties of their departure and then give the Reasons of the Doctrine First As for the Object of their loss 1. They lose the Lord Jesus Christ the Prince of Life the Lord of Glory the fairest of ten thousand the only begotten of the Father and the Heir of all things The better the Object is the greater their loss who are deprived of it The more excellent the Person of Christ is the more exquisite their punishment will be who must depart from him Christ is the highest the greatest the chiefest good In losing him 1. They depart from an universal good one that is Bread Water Light Life Rest Health Ease Wine Marrow a Feast a Friend a Father Pardon Peace Love Grace Glory any thing every thing all things that the Soul wanteth and requireth to its perfect Felicity 2. They depart from a suitable good that very savoury meat which the Soul loveth and needeth They lose that good which the Soul should have and would have and must have if ever it be happy The Soul is guilty and Christ is pardon pardon is suitable to a guilty Soul 1 Joh. 1.7 The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin The Soul is poor and Christ is riches Riches are suitable to a poor Creature Eph. 3.8 The unsearchable Riches of Christ Prov. 8.18 Riches and Honour are with me yea durable Riches and Righteousness The Soul is miserable naked filthy obnoxious to Death and Wrath but Christ is Mercy Raiment cleansing freedom from Hell and the Heaven of Heaven Rev. 3.17 18. 1 Thess 1. ult Rom. 8.1 He is a good that doth exactly directly suit the condition of the Soul the miseries of the Soul and the necessities of the Soul He is the Plaister that fits the Sores and the Balm that hits the wounds of the Soul when Creatures are Physicians and Physick of no value 3. They depart from an eternal Good they lose that Good which doth not only suit the Souls disposition but also its duration that will last and abide and continue for ever Jesus Christ is the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 He is everlasting Righteousness Dan. 9.24 Everlasting meat Joh. 6.27 Eternal life 1 Joh. 5. ult 2. They depart from with Christ the Society of all Christians When they depart from the Head they depart from the Members When they depart from the Root they depart from the Branches For Head and Members Root and Branches must be together for ever Joh. 14.2 3. Where I am there ye may be also Now the Sheep and Goats flock together but then they shall be parted asunder Matth. 8.11 12. And I say unto you that many shall come from the East and from the West and shall set down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven But the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into utter darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth They who are now the Objects of their Contempt will then be the Objects of their envy When once they lose the sight they shall lose the sight of those glorious Stars for ever Every Saint may then say to the Sinner who now frets and fumes at the Saints presence because of his preciseness as Moses to Pharoah I will see thy face no more Matth. 25. ult 3. They shall depart when from Christ from all the means of Grace or Communion with God They shall hear
no more Sermons and joyn in no more Prayers and receive no more tenders of Grace or intreaties of the Gospel Isa 38.11 I said I shall not see the Lord even the Lord in the Land of the living I shall behold man no more with the Inhabitants of the world Where the King is there he hath his Secretaries and Seals and Ministers of State and they who are banished the Court are banished from these 4. They shall depart from all the good things of this Life Each Country hath its proper peculiar Commodities and so hath each World This World hath its peculiar good things such as are proper to this and not to be found in the other World therefore the Apostle calls them this worlds goods He that hath this worlds goods 1 Joh. 3.17 So the other World hath its proper peculiar Commodities such as are to be found no where else The blessings of this are not to be look'd for in the other Life There is neither marrying nor giving in marriage but all are as Angels Good men as good Angels above all bodily and temporal Blessings and evil Men as evil Angels without them and fixed in a state of endless misery The wicked man possibly was honourable but his glory doth not follow after him Psal 49.17 He was rich but that was only in this world 1 Tim. 6.17 He was one that abounded in Pleasures but now they are gone and exchanged for pains James 5.5 Luk. 16.25 But Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented The Sinner shall bid adieu to Temporal good Spiritual good Eternal good all good that he may speak indefinitely what Job supposing himself dying spake restrictively Mine eye shall no more see good Job 7.7 CHAP. IV. The Properties of the Sinners loss Secondly I Shall speak to the Properties of this departure from Christ or loss therein 1. It is spiritual It is a loss peculiar to the Soul or Spirit of Man and a loss of that good that is most suitable to the Soul or Spirit of Man No mercies are like Soul-mercies Ephes 1.3 and Job 6.4 No miseries are like Soul-miseries For the nobler any Being is the better that is which advantageth it and the worse that is that injureth it It 's one thing to relieve or abuse a distressed Prince and another thing to relieve or abuse a distressed Subject The Soul of man is the Prince the chief and noblest part of man and it is principally the subject as chiefly sensible of this departure It 's true the Soul cannot depart from God locally but it can and doth morally here in its affections and conversation But that which is now its practice and pleasure will then be their torment and punishment Other losses pinch the Flesh but this pierceth the Spirit Other losses are castigatory and the portion of Children but this is damnatory and the portion of Devils Ah how will the Soul pine and wither away when it shall take its farewel of that Sun who alone could revive and refresh it What a dismal doleful death must it undergo when it shall depart from him who is its only Life Such a wounded Spirit who can bear The Soul hath more exquisite sense and more curious feeling than the Body therefore its loss of its own peculiar suitable satisfying good will cut deep and fill it with bitter horrour 2. It will be a total departure Here they depart in part from God but then totally Here Cain complains if not allowed God's presence in Ordinances though he had his presence in many ways of ordinary Favour Behold thou hast driven me this day from the face of the Earth and from thy face shall I be hid Gen. 4.14 But alas how doth he complain there where he is wholly deprived of the Divine presence in any way of Favour where he hath not the least glimpse of the light of his Countenance The partial departures of God have forced sad Complaints from them that are godly Job 13.24 Why hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine enemy saith Job I can bear the withdrawings of men and their absence I can bear the strangeness of my Friends and the unkindness of Relations but I cannot bear thy strangeness to me thy with-drawings from me Why hidest thou thy face Job though a strong stout man able to overcome the strong One the Devil yet was ready to faint away and die at this David crieth out mournfully at it Psal 10.1 Why standest thou afar off O Lord why hidest thou thy self in time of trouble Poor Heman is distracted and almost dead with it Psal 88.14 15. Lord why hidest thou thy face I am afflicted and ready to die while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted If these partial departures which had much love in them and with them cast down the Friends of God so heavily O what will his total departures out of pure Wrath cause to his Enemies That world must needs be dolesome and darksome indeed to whom this Sun is wholly set and totally ecclipsed â— It will be an eternal departure They must leave God for ever though it had been spiritual and total yet if but temporal there had been somewhat to have allay'd their Sorrows but to suffer so great a loss and that wholly and for ever too must needs pierce to the quick The Sinner shall see the blessed Jesus no more for ever He must depart from the tenderest Father lovingest Friend richest Treasure choicest Good greatest Glory sweetest Pleasure and that for ever Jude vers 13. To whom is reserved blackness of darkness for ever The Sentence one denounced Depart from me will be like the Law of the Medes and Persians which cannot be altered 2 Thess 1.8 9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. The Anchor of Hope will then be broken the Bridge of Grace will then be drawn the Gate of Mercy will then be shut and the Gulph between Christ and the Wicked never to be passed over They may cry out in truth what the Psalmist in unbelief Will the Lord cast off for ever will he be favourable no more Is is mercy clean gone for ever Psal 77.7 8. Alas they are cast off for ever he will be favourable to them no more They may roar out in vain How long wilt thou forget me O Lord shall I never me remembred Psal 13.1 4. It is an irreparable loss such a loss as nothing can make up There are many good things which we may do well without because the want of them may be supplied by other things But Christ is the one thing necessary the one thing excellent the want of whom no good thing in Heaven or Earth can make up When the Soul departs from Christ it departs from all good because nothing is good without him and nothing can be had in the room of him
scorned and mocked for their purity and preciseness in the presence of Christ in the Arms and embraces of Christ in a state of full Happiness and perfect Satisfaction while they themselves are shut out and denied entrance Luk. 13.25 28. The fire of Hell will give them light enough to see as well as heat enough to feel themselves infinitely miserable 5. It will greatly add to their torment and anguish to consider that they were sometime near the enjoyment of this blissful presence of Christ Pardon and Peace and Love and Life and the endless fruition of the blessed Jesus were tendered to them were nigh them were at the very door of their hearts They were solemnly commanded lovingly invited severely threatned sweetly allured and pathetically perswaded to accept of Christ and Grace yea and Heaven and Happiness and eternal Life yea and their hearts began to relent and to close with the intreaties of the Gospel They were almost perswaded to be Christians indeed There was but a little a very little between them and Christ The bargain was driven so far that Christ was got into their consciences they bore witness for him and warn'd them if they loved their Lives their Souls to accept of him while he would accept of them yea Christ was got into their Judgments they gave their Verdict on his side as one infinitely more amiable and elegible than the World or Flesh nay he had possibly got into their Affections they delighted to hear of his great Love to poor Sinners and of the great things he purchased for them with his own blood and yet though they were so near they came short and like Ephraim play'd the part of unwise Sons and stay'd in the place of the breaking forth of Children O how like a Dagger will it pierce the heart of them that live under the Gospel and neglect the great Salvation offer'd to them when they come to be banished the presence of Christ and to see others who made Religion their business on Earth bathing their Souls in Rivers of Pleasures drawing water with joy out of the Well of Salvation eating of the Tree of Life that groweth in the midst of Paradise and hous'd in the Arms of their dearest Saviour and shall reflect and consider with themselves all those Joys and Pleasures all those Dainties and Delicacies all those Robes and Riches and Glories and Felicities which they enjoy in the presence of Christ might have been mine they were freely and frequently and affectionately offered to me I had the refusal of them nay I had a good mind to them I was not far from the Kingdom of Heaven There was but a little between me and them they were at the very door of my heart and stood knocking there for admission and desired only hearty acceptance but like a Fool I dallied with them and defer'd them as if hereafter had been time enough and so have lost them for ever 6. It will much augment their anguish and misery to consider who it is that passeth so severe a doom upon them This dreadful Sentence is pronounced by Love and Grace and Goodness it self He that sometimes call'd them to him so sweetly so affectionately now casts them from him so sharply so furiously He who sometimes cry'd to them Come to me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and wept over them O that thou hadst known even thou in this thy day the things of thy peace He that formerly invited intreated besought them to be reconciled 2 Cor. 5.20 and shew'd them his heart-blood the price of their Pardon and Life and stretch'd out his Arms to imbrace their returning Souls will now in wrath and rage and flames and fury bid them be gone from him and his Curse go along with them And if Love prove their Enemy surely Wrath will not be their Friend And if Mercy be thus against them surely Justice will not be for them Ah how sorely will it gall the Sinner to consider This dreadful doom is denounced against me not by an Enemy or one that hated me but by a Friend and Father by one that loved me and took my nature on him and suffered therein the Laws Curse to render me capable of escaping these Torments which I now suffer and partaking of those Pleasures which yonder blessed Souls enjoy CHAP. VII Containing the folly of Sinners and the vast difference between them and the Godly at the Great day 3. IT informeth us that every wicked man is out of his wits surely the man is mad who exchangeth his Soul and Saviour and God and all for a little worldly profit or fleshly pleasure yea that parts with true and durable Riches for shadowy and fading Treasure that loseth heavenly and eternal Joys for earthly and transitory Pleasures No man can love sin but he hates himself nor part with his Duty but he parts with his Felicity And surely such a man who hates himself and forsakes his Happiness is a mad man Well might the Holy Ghost speak the Prodigal out of his wits when he was out of his way and wandring from his Father's house How mad was he to forsake Bread for Husks all the world is but Husks dry coorse empty Fare to the Dainties of the Gospel Bread in a Fathers house for Husks among Swine yea and plenty of Bread enough and to spare for a few Husks that could not fill their Bellies If one Soul be more worth than a whole World surely one Saviour one God is more worth than a thousand Souls than a million of Worlds How mad then is he that parts with this Soul this Saviour this God for a little a very little of this World yea for this little of the World for a very little time If all the delights of the Flesh and all the Pleasures of Sin and all the profits of the World cannot ballance the partial enjoyment of God in his Ordinances for one hour How unable will they be to compensate the loss of full Communion with God for ever O how infinitely doth Christ out-weigh what ever the flesh or world can offer in exchange for him 4. It informeth how contrary the portion of the Godly and the Wicked is at the day of Judgment At this day they fare often alike they fall under the same favourable and frowning Providences they have the same Comforts and the same Crosses If any difference for the better 't is usually on the Sinners side The vilest men are exalted and the proud prosper But at that day there will be a difference indeed for the better on the Saints side That day will be terrible to the Wicked a day of wrath a day of the perdition of ungodly men Rom. 2.4 2 Pet. 3.7 To the Godly a day of Redemption a time of refreshing a day of Light and Gladness and a good day Luk. 21.28 Act. 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the time of refreshment shall come from
the wicked Neighbours of these men will confess the truth thereof and their Consciences will force them to consent thereto Again there is hardly a Muck-worm whose Motto is To have and to hold to heap and to hoard up who will as soon part with his blood as any thing considerable to the poor but all his Neighbours good and bad observe him speak of him and generally condemn him for his earthly-mindedness So that when Christ at the Great Day shall accuse him they will be forced to attest the truth of that Accusation and when Christ at that day shall condemn him they cannot but agree to the Sentence Psal 52.6 7. The Righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him Lo this is the man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthned himself in his wickedness 2. Because these acts of Charity are signes of Faith and Love to which Graces Heaven is promised James 1.12 James 2.5 Joh. 3.16 17 ult Christ who knoweth the Heart understandeth â—â—om what inward root our outward â—ruit springeth and therefore Faith and Love which are the Fountain of true Charity James 2.15 16 17. being inward and secret he mentions what is more open and known as a sign and testimony of that faith in him and love to him which are invisible and unknown to the World Faith is a Grace seated in the heart With the heart man believeth unto righteousness where by heart I suppose is understood the Vnderstanding and Will for Faith in habitu is in each and in exercitio an act of both And the heart is called an hidden man 1 Pet. 3. But it discovers it self to the Believer by love For when once the Soul applieth Christ for Pardon and Life and begins to hope for those great and good things which Christ hath purchased for him and promised to him this Faith kindleth an holy flame of Love in the affections to Christ and hereby the Soul understands that he is a true Believer beloved of God for our Love is but the reverberation of God's Love back again to himself 1 Joh. 4.19 And then Faith discovers it self to others by these fruits and effects of love to God i. e. feeding the Hungry and cloathing the Naked St. Paul tells us That Faith works by love as its Tool or Instrument Gal. 5.6 Love to God produceth love to his Saints and love to the Saints will draw out the hand and heart and purse to relieve them in their wants 1 Joh. 3.17 Love is costly and expensive thinks nothing too much or too good for it s Beloved Mary's Box of Oyntment is very precious but not too precious for her Lord. Life is worth all the World yet laid down for a Christian at the command of Love 1 Joh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us 3. Because practical godliness of which Charity is a part will be that by which men shall be tried at the Great Day our Lord Jesus doth hereby declare That it is not the Profession but the practice of Religion that will be enquired into by the Judge of quick and dead It is not saying Be thou fed and be thou cloathed without giving wherewith to be fed and cloathed But it is feeding the Hungry and cloathing the Naked that shall be rewarded Good words may please our selves but good works only please God and profit our own Souls Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven It 's the doing not the talking Christian that hath the promise of Heaven Matth. 7. It 's the practical not the verbal Christian that hath a right to Heaven through the precious blood of Christ and the gracious promise of God Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life and may enter in through the gates into the City It is the real not the nominal Christian that is prepared for heaven None are fit to do the will of God in heaven but those who have been accustomed to do the Will of God on Earth There is a making meet for the Inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 A young man by the School is made meet for the University and a Christian by practical Holiness is fitted for eternal Happiness Our Redeemer would hereby declare That all shews and shadows of Godliness all gaudy Professions and curious flourishes of Religion if void of good Works though as Gloworms they shine somewhat in the dark night of this World yet in the long day of eternity they will all vanish and disappear God will not then examine who hath been the greatest Talker of his Will but the greatest Walker in his Way nor who hath been the best Speaker but who hath been the best Doer For whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful Hearer but a doer of the Work this man shall be blessed in his deed Jam. 1.25 Hearing the Word without doing the Work it commands brings no blessing The life and substance of Religion consists in practising what is good and not in praising what is good It consists in Scripture-Duties not in Scripture Phrases 4. Because Christ would hereby publish to the World the great respect he hath for Charity therefore he tells us He will take special notice of his Saints Charity at that day Charity whether in relieving the Oppressed or comforting the Sorrowful or counselling the Doubtful or supporting the Feeble or feeding the Hungry or visiting the Sick or cloathing the Naked is highly esteemed of Christ To what Duty hath he annexed more or larger Promises Matth. 5.7 Psal 18.25 Eccles 11.1 2. Psal 41.1 Psal 112.1 Isa 58.12 He speaks of it as if very much of Religion did consist in it and almost all of it Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is to visit the Fatherless and the Afflicted James 1. ult He slights our most severe Duties those which are most irksome to the flesh if this be wanting Psal 58.7 8 9 10. He limits his own Mercy to the merciful 2 Sam. 22.25 James 2.13 He is himself a merciful High Priest Heb. 5. He had compassion on the ignorant and those that were out of the way Heb. 5.2 On those that had nothing to eat Matth. 15.32 On those that were scattered as sheep without a Shepheard Matth. 9.36 Therefore he cannot but value exceedingly and love tenderly those that are like him That which lieth so near his heart must needs be enquired after as much if not more than any thing else And there is scarce any thing that speaks our respect of persons or things more than our enquiry after them Joseph loved his Father Jacob dearly I suppose far above all his Kindred and therefore he first enquires after him â—…s your
Father well the old man of whom ye spake Gen. 43.27 David's heart was set on Absolom therefore when the Messenger return'd from the Battel he doth in the first place and in a special manner enquire after him Is the young man Absolom safe 2 Sam. 18. Thus Christ being so infinitely taken with Charity cannot but make a great enquiry after it at the Great Day It is fruit that will then abound to the Saints account Phil. 4.17 And such Seed that they who sow it liberally shall reap it liberally 2 Cor. 9.6 CHAP. XVII Three particulars about the Text. I Come now somewhat closer to the Reason of the Sentence For I was hungry and ye gave me no meat c. Here we must understand 1. Observ That the omission of inward Charity is included in this of outward and will be as dangerous if not more at the Great Day The subject of it the Soul is much more noble than the Body therefore to suffer a Soul to perish through our neglect of giving it spiritual Alms is a greater sin than to suffer the outward man to perish for want of bodily Alms. Again the end of spiritual Alms is higher than of bodily the eternal Salvation of the Soul 1 Pet. 1.9 Receiving the end of your Faith the eternal salvation of your Souls Both sorts of Charity are comprehended into these two verses Visito Poto Cibo Redimo Tego Colligo Condo Consule Castiga Solare Remitte Fer Ora. 2. Observ That other Works beside Works of Charity and other Omissions beside the Omission of this Duty will be mentioned at that Day and men shall be judged according to them Indeed all our Works will be then accounted for But you will say What time will this take up I answer It seems probable that the day of Judgment may last longer than most imagine The Holy Ghost tells us That God will bring every Work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Eccles 12. ult If every Work then more than acts of Charity and if every Work good or bad open or secret then the day of Judgment must be a long day The Apostle speaks the same as to the matter of Judgment with the wise man We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ 2 Cor. 5.10 There are two of our eminent English Divines now with God who have left their Judgment herein upon Record One tells us I humbly conceive That the day of Judgment shall not be past over in an instant but shall be of long continuance Mr. Strong in a Serm. on 2 Cor. 5.10 p. 26. For if Christ should judge only as God he could dispatch it in an instant but his judging us men will be after the manner of men that the Creature may understand admire and approve what is done The other saith Mr. Shepherds sound Convert p. 88. It must take up some large quantity of time to manifest all the secret sins of men and therefore it may be made evident both from Scripture and Reason that this Day of Christs Kingly Office in judging the world shall last happily longer than the day of Christs private Administration now in governing the World Austin tells us Austin De Civit. Dei lib. 20. cap. 1. Per quot dies hoc judicium extendatur incertum est Scripturarum more diem poni solere pro tempore nemo nescit 3. Observ Christ doth not say Ye took my Meat from me or wrong'd me of my Raiment or persecuted me and cast me into Prison But I was hungry and ye gave me no meat naked and ye cloathed me not in prison and ye visited me not He doth not say I was hungry and naked and sick and instead of relieving ye derided me and by your taunts and jears added Affliction to the afflicted or ye despised and condemned me as they James 2.6 But I was hungry and ye gave me no meat c. It was a bare omission of a necessary Duty for which they are sentenced to Hell It 's not robbing but not relieving not oppressing them with violence but not supplying their necessities which Christ here condemneth them for These words consider'd thus relatively as the reason of Christs severe Sentence will afford us this Doctrine which I chiefly intend CHAP. XVIII That sins of Omission are dangerous and damnable Doctrine THat sins of Omission are dangerous and damnable or Christ will sentence men at the Great Day to eternal punishment of loss and sense for not feeding the Hungry and cloathing the Naked Observe how naturally the Doctrine floweth from the Text Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels For I was hungry and ye gave me no meat thirsty and ye gave me no drink c. The sin mentioned is a bare omission and the Sentence clearly speaks the punishment Hence I gather That sins of Omission are damnable Christ will sentence men to Hell for them Saul's not slaying Agag an omission lost him the Kingdom 1 Sam. 15.20 26. The Moabites and Ammonites were excluded the Sanctuary of God an high and special Priviledge to the tenth Generation for an omission for not meeting Israel with bread and water in the Wilderness Deut. 33.4 But it 's as clear these sins bring eternal as well as temporal pains and punishment The slothful Servant is sentenced and sent into utter darkness where is weeping and gnashing of teeth for a bare omission for not improving his Talent Matth. 25.24 to 31. The Servant did not waste his Talent by Riotousness as the Prodigal did for he tells his Lord v. 25. Lo here is thine only omit to improve it through idleness But he who wanted hands to work had fetters provided for hands and feet And he who would not work by the light is rewarded with utter darkness Again we have a clear and full proof of the Doctrine in Matth. 3.10 And now also the Ax is laid to the root of the Trees therefore every Tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire In the verse we have three parts considerable 1. the Sin and that is a bare omission the not bringing forth good fruit Our Saviour speaks the same in Matth. 7.19 He doth not say Every Tree that bringeth forth evil fruit is hewn down that bringeth forth Drunkenness or Robbery or Uncleanness or unsavory Communication c. is cast into the fire But every Tree that bringeth not forth good fruit The sin is only a neglect of positive holiness 2. The severity of the punishment is hewn down and cast into the fire The hewing down is the fitting and preparing the Sinner for the fire as the Tree cut down is prepared for burning This is done by their provoking God to leave them to impenitency under the ministry of the Word The Word is compared to a Sword Ephes 6.17 A two-edged Sword Rev. 1.16 And it will cut and hack and
to relieve the Poor to pray in their Families or to attend publick praying and preaching hereby they are scandalous and offensive They grieve the godly Rivers of tears run down mine eyes because the wicked forsake thy Laws Psal 119. and they harden the wicked VVhen ungodly men see others neglect all Religion they are encouraged in their Atheism and Irreligion and presuming others are wise and that themselves shall fare as well as others As it was said of those Ezek. 13.21 so it may be said of these They strengthen the hands of the wicked Again these are guilty in all respects they who offend in the matter of a Command by neglecting the Duty it self in the substance thereof offend in the manner and measure also but they who offend in the manner and measure may not offend in the matter 2. VVhen the omission is in regard of the manner of the duties performance As when men do pray but they pray not uprightly with the heart Jer. 12.2 Thou art nigh their mouths but far from their reins Nor earnestly with their whole heart and with all their heart and all the powers of their Souls as the Precept is Jer. 29.13 and that Prayer to which the Promise is annexed James 5.16 But pray as if they pray'd not formally and customarily and carelesly scarce hearing themselves and no wonder then if God hear them not they pray not reverently with the aw of God upon their Spirits but are rash in their words and irreverent in their hearts Eccles 5.1 2. So when men give Alms but do not give chearfully with a free willing ready heart For God loves a chearful giver 2 Cor. 9.17 Nor seasonably when it may do most good Prov. 3.18 Say not to thy Neighbour Go and come again to morrow when thou hast it by thee So when men hear the Word but hear not awfully in the fear of God as in the presence of God Acts 10.33 We are all here present before God to hear all things commanded thee of God Neither hear believingly giving their assent to what they hear and applying it to their own Souls The Word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it Heb. 4.2 These and such like though they are not guilty of omission in regard of the matter of a Duty yet they are guilty of omission in regard of the manner of it though they do the thing commanded yet they do it not as it is commanded and so are guilty of the breach of a positive Law and Command 3. When the omission is in regard of the measure of the Duty As when a man gives Alms but not answerable to his Estate though God hath filled his Belly with hidden treasures and waters of a full Cup are wrung out to him and he is able to give pounds to poor indigent Families he puts them off with a few pence or at most shillings this is an omission in regard of the measure God expects charitable Contributions from men answerable to his Bounty to them 1 Cor. 16.2 Vpon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come According to the measure of the Divine Mercy to us such should be the measure of our Charity to others According to the seed thrown into the Earth is the Crop return'd by the good ground Therefore to make scanty Returns when we have large Receipts is a sin of omission So when men pray but not with that frequency which they might and ought The Command is To pray contiuually to pray without ceasing to pray evermore Which must include at lest frequent i. e. daily prayer each Morning and Evening but some men pray but it 's only at certain seasons now and then by fits and starts Some pray only upon the Lords-Days as if they had liberty all the working-days to be Atheists and neglect the owning of the great God Others pray only under some Affliction and as Patients to their Physitian never go to God but when they cannot tell what to do without him So the Jews In their Affliction they will seek me early Hos 5.15 When he smote them then they sought him but their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant Psal 78.34 37. Unevenness of Pulse argues a distemper'd Body so doth unevenness in Duties a distemper'd Soul In their trouble they will pour out a prayer When troubles are on them they will make bold to trouble God and call him up for their help God expects frequency of Application to him every day and greater frequency of those that have more time and fewer Obstacles and Impediments than others Now the putting God off with Applications to him and Acknowledgments of him once a week instead of every day and much under Affliction instead of doing it in all conditions and at all seasons or putting him off with Morning-Prayer only instead of Morning and Evening-Prayer or with Family-Prayer only when we should also pray in our Closets daily these are sins of Omission in regard of the measure of the Duty Secondly These sins of omission are either partial or total Total omissions are when men wholly neglect the Duties commanded as when they altogether cast off Praying and Hearing and giving Alms and examining their own hearts Psal 14.3 4. They are all gone aside there is none that doth good They call not upon God A man may read the Word Atheist in the fore-heads of these men They carry about them where-ever they go the sign and mark of Condemnation They please themselves possibly that they do not abound in scandalous sins of Commission not considering that they may be guilty of self-murther as well by starving or not feeding their Souls as by stabbing or poisoning their Souls 2. Partial Omissions are when men do sometimes perform the Duties commanded but not with that constancy which they ought Job 15.4 Thou castest off fear and restrainest prayer before God i. e. Thou imprisonest Prayer and dost not afford it the liberty it formerly had It was wont to appear every day openly but now it is kept in and shews it self but seldom Thirdly Sins of omission are distinguished into external or internal omissions 1. External Omissions are a neglect of the outside as I may call it of the Command 2. Internal Omissions are the neglect of the inside of the Command We must know that in every Command there is an Extra and an Intra an Out-side and an Inside somewhat that concerns the Hands Conversation somewhat that concerns the Heart and Affections As for example In the Fourth Command of sanctifying the Sabbath there God commands us to spend the whole time of his day except so much as the works of Necessity and Mercy call for in religious Exercises and the Duties of his own worship as Praying Reading Hearing Singing c. Now the bare performance
more hainous but that they are less scandalous Sins of Commission as Drunkenness Uncleanness Theft Swearing Murther these make a great noise in the World are taken notice of by all and with the Snail leave a slime and filth behind them wheresoever they are But sins of Omission as not praying in our Closets not examining our own Hearts not relieving the Poor and Needy not bringing up our Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord c. These are more still and quiet observed by few or none 5. They differ in this that sins of Omission are the aversion of the heart from God and sins of Commission are the conversion of the heart to the Creature or somewhat below God Omission turns the heart from God Hence we read of mans going far from God Jer. 2.5 and of their departing away from the living God Heb. 3.12 Which is not meant in regard of local motion for so none can depart from God Psal 139.2 3 4 5. but in regard of their inward carnal Affections and disobedient Conversations Jer. 17.5 Whose heart departeth from the Lord. Commissions are a turning to the Creature Whose heart is after covetousness They imagine mischief in their hearts Psal 140.2 Eccles 9.3 The heart of the Sons of men is full of evil Having spoken to the nature of sins of Omission in general and more particularly by their several distinctions and their agreement with and difference from sins of Commission I come to the second thing promised in the explication of the Doctrine and that is the danger of them CHAP. XXII The danger of sins of Omission in the hainous nature of them and their offensiveness to God Secondly THe danger of sins of Omission though men are ready to conceive that sins of Omission because they make no great cry in the World are but infirmities are venial sins and are not much to be regarded as having little of danger to the Soul in them yet the contrary will appear plainly if we consider these particulars 1. The malignity and sinfulness of them speaks their danger The more venome and poyson there is in any Cup or Dish the more dangerous it must needs be the more sinfulness there is in any sin the more hazardous it is to the Soul Now I shall shew the sinfulness of omissions 1. They are most against the mind and will of God Those sins are the greatest which most cross the Will of the Law-giver For sin is a transgression of the Law or Mind of God And every one knoweth that the Mind of God is more in the Precept or Affirmative part of the Law than in the Prohibition or Negative part of it The Precept or performance of the Duty commanded is the main thing the Prohibition is as it were accidental in order to our Obedience to the Precept Mens legis est lex therefore sins of Omission being against the substance and principal part of the Command and so most directly against that which is the special Mind of the Law-giver must needs be the greatest Sins It is more good to do good than not to do evil Omissions are not to be esteemed bare Negations or Privations but as breaches of a positive Law wherein the mind of God is most discover'd Now how great a Sin and how dangerous is it to cross the Mind of God surely it 's bad thwarting him that can cast Body and Soul into Hell Vide ante The second difference between sins of omission commission I say unto you saith Christ fear him Matth. 10.28 2. Sins of Omission are the ground of and make way for Sins of Commission The want of love to God and our not believing his Word which are Sins of Omission are the ground of all abominations When a man once casteth off daily reading the Word and seeking God by Prayer or performs those Duties coldly and carelesly he throws himself out of God's Protection and so becomes a Lacquey to the Devil and a tame Slave to every Lust to trample on and tyranize over at pleasure Psal 14.3 4. They are all gone aside they are altogether filthy there is none that doth good no not one Negligentiam in orando semper aliqua notabilis transgressio sequitur saith One always some notable Sin followeth upon slothfulness in prayer David's not watching his Eyes and Heart and his not imploying his time better at that hour of the day brought forth Drunkenness Murder Adultery Lying c. Some Sins of Omission are like great men that never go without many Followers admit their Persons you must admit their long train which they bring with them So a Gad a whole troop of ugly lusts will throng in upon our neglect of one Duty Not doing good fits the heart for doing evil The ground not sown with good Corn doth naturally of its own accord bring forth evil weeds Indeed it 's impossible for him that doth no good not to do evil He that doth not gather with Christ scattereth and he that is not with me is against me Matth. 12.30 He that fights not for his Prince in a day of Battel is his Enemy and that Servant who helps not his Master in Harvest hinders him Not to save a life when we may is to destroy and murther it The Negative Christian will quickly fall to be a positive Atheist and Heathen If the Heart be empty of good and swept clean of Grace the unclean Spirit will quickly take up his logding in it Besides God doth often judicially give up them to commit Evil who refuse to do good Because they received not the truth in the love of it here is a Sin of Omission God gave them up to strong delusions that they might believe a lye c. 2 Thess 2.10 11. Now how great and dangerous is this Sin that ushers in so many Sins Alas one Sin is too weighty for thy Soul to bear how heavy then will that whole rabble and regiment of sins be that one sin of Omission may bring along with it If I live in Sins of Omission Sins of Commission will follow both naturally and judicially 3. Sins of Commission do exceedingly grieve the Spirit of God Indeed every Sin is offensive to the Holy Ghost or Spirit of Holiness as directly contrary to its nature but the Spirit of God sets a particular special brand and mark upon these Sins as grievous to him Follow that which is good rejoyce evermore pray without ceasing In every thing give thanks quench not the Spirit despise not Prophesying 1 Thess 5.15 16 17 18 19. Observe the Duties are all positive the neglect whereof is a Sin of Omission to which he exhorts them if they would not quench the Spirit The Spirit is not only grieved but also quenched by Sins of Omission Fire may be quenched by with-drawing fewel from it as well as by throwing water on it By scandalous Sins of Commission we throw water on this heavenly Flameâ— quench it but by
hand whom I appointed to utter destruction thy life shall go for his life Eli was a good man and as much in Gods Favour but by not reproving his Sons he so far incurred Gods anger that he lost his two wicked Fondlings in a day and the Priest-hood for ever 1 Sam. 3.12 13 c. Moses was God's special Friend and Favorite And the Lord spake to Moses face to face as a man speaketh to his Friend Exod. 33.11 And the Lord said to Moses thou hast found grace in my sight and I know thee by Name Yet when this Moses is guilty of an Omission that he doth not believe God nor sanctifie his Name in the eyes of the Children of Israel he is excluded the temporal Canaan Numb 20.12 Though Moses was taken up to the Mount to converse with God forty days together when Aaron and all the people must stay below though Moses was honour'd to see the Commands written with God's own Hand though Moses was taken into a Rock while God passed before him that he might hear his Name The Lord the Lord God gracious c. proclaimed and see his back parts though God was pleased to confer with Moses as one Friend with another yet when this Moses comes to be guilty of such an Omission he is denied liberty to enter into the Land flowing with Milk and Honey Nay though this Moses begs so hard I pray thee let me go over and see the good Land beyond Jordan that goodly Mountain and Lebanon Yet God was so provoked by his Omission that though he had heard him once and again for greater things on the behalf of others Exod. 33.11 to 15. Numb 14.10 He would not hear him in this small Request for himself But his wrath was kindled and he would not hear me and said let it suffice thee speak no more unto me of this matter Deut. 3.25 26. Nay how angry was Christ with the man who had not a Wedding-Garment at his Supper how severe is his Sentence how dreadful his Doom And when the King came in to see the Guests he saw there a man which had not a Wedding-Garment Though but one in a Crowd Christ spied him 1. Here is his Transgression We do not read that the man slighted the Invitation and denied to come as they in vers 5. nor that he intreated his Servants spitefully and slew them as those vers 6. We do not read that the man came to the Feast in a drunken-fit or reproached and abused either the Master or Guests but only omitted to bring with him a Wedding-Garment which some say is Charity others Obedience he was a Professor but without godly practices but I suppose is meant Christ and the Graces of the Spirit which are compared to a Garment Rom. 13. Col. 3. Ephes 4.23 24. And that ye be renewed in the Spirit of your Minds And that ye put on the new man 2. Here is the mans self-conviction vers 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was muzled The same word is used of muzling the mouth of a Beast whereby its unable to open it to eat 1 Cor. 9.9 His conscience was that which put a muzle on his mouth being convinced that he might and ought to have procured a Garment before he had gone to the Feast They who have a form and no power of Godliness who make a shew without any substance of Religion will be speechless when Christ shall come to reckon with them 3. Here is his Condemnation vers 13. Bind him hand and foot When Malefactors are cast in Law either by their own Confession or the Evidence of others the Gaoler puts new Fetters and Shackles on them to secure their Persons against Sentence and Execution lest they should make an escape Bind him hand and foot Make sure of him The Sinner shall have no power of resisting or possibility of flying from Divine severity And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ejicite cast him forth Cast him out as a vile loathsome abominable wretch unfit for company whom I hate to behold Into utter darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Prison a Dungeon where there is no light a condition most remote from joy and comfort such darkness as hath a blackness joyn'd to it Jude vers 13. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth weeping for the extremity of their own pain and gnashing of teeth out of envy at others happiness CHAP. XXIII The danger of sins of Omission in their destructiveness to man and our proneness to over-look them 3. THe danger of Sins of Omission will appear by their destructiveness to men The more wrong and injury any Sin doth us the more danger is in it Now what hath been already spoken doth abundantly evince this If Omissions are so great sins that they most directly cross the mind of the Law and make way for all Sins of Commission and exceedingly grieve the Spirit of God they must needs be dangerous and destructive to men If God himself blame them so sharply threaten them so severely and punish them so grievously who are guilty of such sins then these Sins must be very injurious to us But it will further appear if you consider that they cause 1. The Judgments of God on men in regard of their Bodies or external Comforts He punisheth many with extream penury for not being diligent in their particular Callings Their idleness which is a sin of Omission cloaths them with rags Prov. 23.21 Again The idle Soul shall suffer hunger Prov. 19.15 How doth experience prove the truth of this Many begin the World as we say with considerable Estates who in a few years for lack of care and industry in their Imploys have wasted all The idle man may call the Prodigal Brother Besides these Sins of Omission are punished with a temporal destruction The Lord having saved the people out of the Land of Egypt afterwards destroyed them that believed not Jude vers 5. Israel was God's own people his peculiar treasure Exod. 19.5 a people nigh unto him Psal 148. ult incomparable for this Deut. 4.7 and other Priviledges Rom. 9.4 Yet when guitly of this Omission God would not spare them but destroy'd them No Priviledges can exempt from punishment God may forsake his Tabernacle at Shiloth deliver his strength into captivity and his glory into the enemies hand if they will not believe him if they will not obey him Psal 78.60 61. 2. A judicial tradition to spiritual Judgments Of all Judgments none in this World are so dreadful as those that are spiritual bodily Judgments touch the Flesh but these the Spirit When God would speak and wreak his anger against a person or people to the utmost he doth it this way by giving them up to their own wickedness When he would strike Ephraim under the fifth Rib and kill him at a blow it is by this Judgment Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone Hos 4.17 He is given to Idolatry let him take his fill of it
and see what the end will be He is fond of lyes and vanities and delights in prostituting himself to their embraces Let him alone Let none disturb him or recall him let no Mercy no Misery no Means no Ministry ever hinder him in the prosecution of his Lusts or stop him in his course much less be effectual for his Repentance and Amendment In temporal Judgments God acts the part of a Father to whip his Child that he may reclaim him for his Errors and be fit to inherit his Estate But in spiritual God acts the part of a Judge to deliver the Malefactor over to Execution In the former he prunes the Tree that it may bring forth fruit and so continue in his Garden to his joy and delight but in the latter he leaves the Tree as unsound and barren to be cut down for the fire Now sins of Omission cause God to deliver men up to these Judgments God calls upon Israel to hear and obey him they will not But my People would not hearken to my Voice Israel would none of me What was the result of their refusal So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels Psal 81.11 12. God doth not testifie his anger for their contempt of him by sending Plague or Flames or wild Beasts among them He doth not say Well since they thus slight my Authority I will be avenged on them to purpose I will give them up to the Sword or Famine or racking Diseases or greedy devouring Lions which would have been sad and grievous but he executes on them a far more sad and grievous Judgment when he saith So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels God's leaving one Soul to one lust is far worse than leaving him to all the Lions in the World Alas it will tear the Soul worse than a Lion can do the Body and rent it in pieces when there is none to deliver it God's giving them up to their own wills that they walked in their own counsels is in effect a giving them up to eternal wrath and woe 3. The destructiveness of Sins of Omission to the Souls of men appears in that they render the Condition of men desperate and without remedy Sins of Commission wound the Soul dangerously but sins of Omission make the state of the Patient hopeless and desperate Sins of Commission are directly against the Law and so bind the Sinner over to its Curse but Sins of Omission are directly against the Gospel and thereby hinder the Patients Cure Gal. 3.20 Joh. 3. ult He that hath broken the Precepts of the Law is liable to its punishment but yet this Sinner may flie to the Gospel as his City of Refuge and lay hold on Christ there tendered for Pardon and Life But by some sins of Omission he rendereth the Gospel ineffectual for his good and himself uncapable of the good things promised in it Faith and Repentance are the two Conditions upon which all the exceeding rich and precious Promises depend so that by not believing and not repenting which are Sins of Omission men deny themselves all the benefit and advantage of the Gospel He that believeth shall be saved he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 He upbraided the Cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not Woe to thee Corazin woe to thee Bethsaida c. Matth. 11.21 22 23. Sins of Commission make the wound and Sins of Omission keep off that Plaister which alone can heal it Sins of Commission plunge us into a bottomless gulph of Misery and Sins of Omission stop the current of that Mercy that alone can relieve and succour us These Sinners are like men in swoons gasping for breath and ready to expire yet shut their mouths and fasten their teeth together to keep out those Cordials that alone can recall them to life 4. The danger of Sins of Omission will appear by our proneness to slight and neglect them If Sins of Omission are of so deadly a nature as most to contradict the Will of God and so highly provoking to him and so mortally destructive to us then the more we slight this great Enemy the more dangerous it is to us A weak enemy and an enemy that can do us little harm may be slighted without great danger But when an enemy is so powerful so deadly so damnable our contempt of him is a great advantage to him and a great disadvantage to us for by this means he falls upon us disarmed and unprepared for him Pompey slighted Caesar when News first came to Rome of his marching into Italy with his Army and said That if did but stamp with his foot he should therewith fetch Souldiers enough out of all parts to subdue Caesar And so made small preparation to resist him which was his own and the Common-wealths destruction Truly thus men are apt to slight sins of Omission and thereby to undo themselves As it 's said of Joab He spake kindly to Amasa and made as if he would kiss him But Amasa took no heed to the Sword that was in Joabs hand so he smote him therewith in the fifth rib and shed out his bowels to the ground that he died 2 Sam. 20.9 10. Thus sin of Omission is familiar with us and pretends rather love and kindness than any hurt to us for in all sin there is a deceitfulness and we taking no heed to the Sword in its hand Heb. 3.13 to its malignant killing-nature but slighting it as if it were venial are destroy'd by it And there are three Reasons why we are so apt to over-look sins of Omission 1. Because Conscience doth not so soon cheek us for them as for sins of Commission If a man commit Murther or Adultery or Theft his Conscience is ready to flie in his face and thunder in his ears as it did with Cain after the slaughter of his Brother that he cried out My punishment is greater than I can bear and he went up and down trembling as some think all his days Gen. 4.13 14. But men may neglect Praying or Reading or Charity especially in regard of the manner of doing them and Conscience will take little notice of it Such Omissions may pass with little or no regard Cain in the Offering he brought to God neglected probably to bring the best of the fruit of the ground however to offer it with an upright believing heart but we read not that he took notice of these Omissions though he did of God's manifest disrespecting his Offering Gen. 4.3 4 5. It 's ordinary with some moral men if they fall into ill Company sometime by accident and are made drunk to be ashamed of it and much troubled for it but these men can live in their Families without Prayer and Scripture and neglect to teach their Children and Servants the ways of God and yet these Omissions do not at
judgment of many that a Princes Negative Voice is a greater part and mark of his Royalty than any Affirmative Command of his for a King may have Power to Command that which he hath no Power to forbid As he may and should enjoyn his Subjects to Worship the true God according to his revealed Will but he hath no Power to forbid them Thus in Sins of Omission for a man to live without Prayer without the love and fear of God without delight in him and communion with him without care of and watchfulness over his own heart and life may be a greater sign of the reign of Sin and thereby of an unregenerate state than the commission of some gross actual Transgressions It is apparent that this man is under the power of Lust as a Servant to it Tit. 3.3 And under the dominion of the Devil carried captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 And an unregenerate unsanctified person because he lives in Disobedience to these positive Laws of God Whereas he that is born of God sinneth not 1 Joh. 3.9 with his whole will there is not a free voluntary chearful submission of his Will to the quiet undisturbed dominion of Sin And he that is born of God hath a tender regard to the whole Law I have esteemed thy Precepts concerning all things to be right therefore I hate every false way Psal 119.128 He hath respect to Affirmative as well as Negative Precepts He hath an equal uniform regard to all the Law to that part which commands the doing good as well as that part which forbids the doing evil Therefore the man that lives in Sins of Omission is not born of God and therefore uncapable by the Gospel of Heaven and so justly for this cause sentenced to Hell CHAP. XXV Farther Reasons why Christ at the Great Day will condemn men for sins of Omission 3. CHrist will condemn men at the Reason 3 Great Day for sins of Omission because those that live in such Sins have no interest in himself There is no way to escape Hell but by the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thess 1. ult Jesus that delivereth from the wrath to come There is no way to attain Heaven but by Christ I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish Joh. 10.28 As Salvation is God's Gift Rom. 6. ult so it 's Christs Purchase There is no Name under Heaven whereby men may be saved but by the Name of Christ Act. 4.12 So that all who are without Christ not interested in him must of necessity perish He that hath the Son hath life he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 Joh. 5.12 Those that are without Christ are unpardoned All their sins are imputed to them Ephes 4. ult Rom. 3.25 And where-ever sin is imputed it condemneth Ezek. 18.3 Those that are not interested in Christ are Children of the Devil Joh. 8.44 and Children of wrath Ephes 2.2 3. And such Children must be with their Father the Devil and under wrath for ever Now those that live in Sins of Omission have no interest in Christ Our interest in Christ and so in Life is by Faith That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith Ephes 3.17 Gal. 2.20 I live by Faith in the Son of God It is Faith that causeth the Union between Christ and the Soul and joyns them together by virtue of which Union the Christian hath communion with Christ in his Merits and Righteousness that his Life and Death and Burial are the Christians are by God imputed to him as if performed in his own person Hence it 's said That the Christian lives with Christ is crucified with Christ and buried with Christ Rom. 6.4 And the Christian is said to be the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. ult By this Union with Christ which is the fruit of Faith the Christian is made a Son of God Gal. 3.26 and so an Heir of God and Joynt-Heir with Christ Rom. 8.17 As a Woman by marriage being united and made one with a Man hath communion with him in his Relations Honours and Estate So the Christian by Faith made one with Christ hath communion with him in his Relations Go tell my Brethren I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God Joh. 20.17 In his Estate Christ is Heir of all things Heb. 1.2 and the Believer is a Joynt-Heir with him as is before proved Christ was the First-born among many Brethren and so the Inheritance did belong to him Col. 1.18 Believers are a Congregation of first-born and so the right of the Inheritance is theirs Heb. 12.23 But such as live in sins of Omission are without Faith and therefore without Christ and therefore must be without Heaven for ever Faith is a sanctifying as well as a justifying Grace Act. 26.18 And to give them an Inheritance among them that are sanctified through Faith in Christ and therefore will not suffer the Soul to live in any sin Faith will not suffer a man to live in the want of love to God in so great an Omission for when Faith certifieth the Soul of Gods love to it this kindleth in the Soul flames of love to God 1 Joh. 4.19 When Faith brings much fewel the fire of love will be great Faith will not suffer a man to live without Repentance The eye of Faith which beholds a Christ crucified for sin affects the heart with sorrow for and indignation against those sins that crucified him Zach. 12.10 They shall see him whom they have pierced and mourn Faith will not suffer a man to live without delight in Christ and rejoycing in the God of all Consolation Faith seeth so much good certainly laid up in the Covenant and Promises for the Soul that it fills the Soul with joy in the hope and expectation of the enjoyment of them Whom having not seen we love and in whom believing though now we see him not we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.7 8. Faith will not suffer a man to live without waiting quietly on God Faith will not limit the Holy One of Israel but patiently stay Gods time for the mercies the Soul wanteth Faith knoweth his Bonds are good his Debts are in sure Hands The God that cannot lye hath promised Tit. 1.2 and therefore is not hasty to call them in He that believeth will not make haste Isa 28.16 Faith will not suffer a man to live without prayer He that knows his own wants and necessities how great and urgent they are and also where he may quickly have liberal Supplies and bountiful Relief will not long be kept from that Door You may sooner and easier put off a Beggar ready to starve who must needs perish if Charity do not help him and perswade him never to ask Alms more as keep a Believer from his daily waiting at Heavens Temple to ask spiritual Alms. An Unbeliever hath little hope to speed and therefore little heart to
for the perpetration of gross Enormities 1. If we consider the Religion of the Heathen we shall find that it is vastly inferior in purity to the Christian Religion Among the Gentiles who lived without the Gospel it can scarce be said there was any Religion at all for their Gods were Stocks and Stones and Trees and Fire and Water and Beasts and dead Men nay their Precepts were so far from purity that they commended and commanded impurity As among the ancient Babylonians in the Worship of Venus the Women prostituted themselves to all Strangers nay the very Gods of the Heathen did according to their own fictitious Writers patronize all their Impieties even by their own Patterns Jupiter the chief forsooth of their Gods who hath his Name from being an helping Father commits Incest with his own Sister Juno and his Daughter Minerva Sodomy with Ganymedes ravisheth Europa banisheth his Father Saturn out of his Kingdom Venus was a Whore Mercury a Thief Bacchus a Drunkard c. But to leave these and speak to them that were more sober in their Understandings and not so vain in their Imaginations who had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work of the Law written in their hearts Rom. 2.14 and improved it to more purpose than others yet these pleased themselves with a little outward civility without any inward or outward practical godliness Their chief devotion consisted in abstaining from gross sins which might expose them to the shame of men and the doing some external acts of Piety as sacrificing and mumbling over a few Prayers that were little significant O how vastly doth the Christian Religion excel this This Religion of the Heathen doth rather hide sin then heal it It doth not root the love of sin out of the heart only restrain it in the life But the Christian Religion doth forbid sin in the Affections as well as in the Conversation it doth abscindere as well as abscondere cure sin as well as cover it In the best Heathen the fire of their Lusts was only raked up and cover'd with ashes from the eyes of the World But now in the Christian it is quenched at least in part and shall by degrees be wholly quenched The Christian Religion doth not only forbid all Sins or outward Commissions but also all Lusts and inward Inclinations I beseech you brethren to abstain as Pilgrims and Strangers from all fleshly Lusts that war against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 And a religions Christian doth not only forbear gross Commissions but also abhor secret sinful motions I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love Psal 119. Those among the Heathen who were the wisest made nothing of neglecting to give God their love and fear and trust their highest Honour and superlative Esteem and exactest Obedience which are the chief of Religion They allowed Revenge in case of suffering Injury and some of their greatest Law-givers ordained Theft to be unpunishable if it could be done cleanly and cleaverly so as not to be found out They put away their Wives upon any small distast and took others during their pleasure only Their whole Religion hath not one Prohibition against inward Corruptions nor one Precept for inward heart Duties and therefore must of necessity come short of the Christian Religion for Purity 2. If we consider the Turkish Religion what a bundle of fooleries is Mahomets Alcoran and what a dunghil of filthiness is the Religion of his Followers They allow a man as many Wives as he can maintain and encourage men to murder with a promise of a Poetical carnal Paradise to all that shall die in the Wars against the Christians They obey the Lusts of their Tyrant in all things even to the murder of their Soveraigns nearest Relations or chiefest Ministers of State against the very light and law of Nature They do not so much as profess to mind those heart Prohibitions and Precepts without which all external Holiness is but as a rotten Carkass noisome and unsavoury to Gods Nostrils and without any loveliness or life in his Eyes Nay the Popish Religion so far as it differs from the true Christian Religion is impure They have sins that are Venial allow publickly of Uncleanness The Pope hath a Revenue out of the Stews they dispense with Sodomy incest any Sin for money They place all their Holiness in some external Mortifications which God never required at their hands But what doth the Christian Religion do It reacheth the Heart and teacheth the Soul The Law of the Lord is perfect Psal 19. 1. It directs the whole Man and gives Laws to all the powers of the Soul and parts of the Body It directs us about our Bodies and outward Conversation It commands to present our Bodies a living Sacrifice to God Rom. 12.1 and the members of our Bodies as Instruments of Righteousness unto Holiness It binds the Eyes Ears Tongue Hands Feet all the members to their good behaviour It allows not any part to be abused to prophaneness Job 31.1 Psal 119. Psal 37.30 31. Psal 34.13 14. Rom. 6.13 14 15 16 17. It directs us about our Souls The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul Psal 19.7 It changeth the nature of the Soul and opens the eye of it and turns it from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to God Act. 26.18 It directeth the mind to learn the Knowledge of God as the richest Treasure and choicest Portion and only Happiness of the Creature 1 Chron. 28.9 And thou Solomon my Son know the God of thy Fathers It directs the Will to choose this God for its suitable and satisfying and everlasting felicity Psal 73.25 It limits the Affections as to their Objects and their motion towards those Objects It forbids inordinate desires after or delight in sublumary Vanities and commands moderation in our love to all created Comforts Let your moderation be known to all men The time is short let them that have Wives be as though they had none c. 1 Cor. 7.29 It enjoyns our love in the greatest degree to be placed on the worthiest Object Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and all thy Soul and all thy Strength Matth. 22.37 And so our fear Fear him that can cast Body and Soul into Hell I say unto you fear him It keeps all the unruly passions within their proper banks and bounds and preserves the superior and inferior faculties in their proper places Now what Religion either of Moralists or Mahometans doth do 2. As it directs about the whole man so it directs as to every part and passage of this mans Conversation We need never be at a loss for a Rule or at a stand what to do if we will but use diligence to know and understand the revealed Will of God The Christian Religion directs us in our Callings whether Magistrates Ministers Tradesmen Souldiers Luk. 3. It directs us in our Relations as Husbands Wives Parents Children Masters
Servants Ephes 5. Ephes 6. Col. 3. Col. 4. It directs us in all Conditions how to demean our selves in Prosperity to be joyful in Adversity to consider how God hath set the one against the other In Afflictions to be patient and prayerful and more studious of a right improvement of them than of deliverance out of them Under Mercies it directs us to be thankful to God the more chearful in his Service and faithful in the use of our Talents for the honour of our Master It directs us in all our Thoughts Jer. 4.14 Words Psal 39.2 Works Prov. 4.23 24 26. It directs us in all our natural Actions as Eating Drinking Sleeping 1 Cor. 10.31 Tit. 2.12 In our civil Converses Micah 6.8 In our religious Duties how to pray James 5. James 1. How to hear how to receive 1 Cor. 11. 3. It s purity above and beyond all other Religions appears in this That it forbids Evil all Evil nothing but Evil it commands Good whatsoever is Good and nothing but Good Isa 1. Psal 32.14 The Laws of Lycurgus among the Grecians and Numa among the Romans had somewhat of good in them but not all prohibited somewhat that was evil but not all that was evil But the Christian Religion is of a larger extent both in its Precepts and Prohibitions I have seen an end of all Perfections but thy Commandments are exceeding broad Psal 119.96 A man with the eye of his Body may behold an end of many worldly Perfections of many fair Estates great Beauties large Parts hopeful Families but a man with the eye of his Soul for by Faith may see an end of all earthly Perfections He may see the World in a flame and all its Pomp and Pride and Glory and Gallantry and Crowns and Scepters and Riches and Treasures turn'd into ashes he may see the Heavens passing away like a scroll and the Elements melting with fervent heat and the Earth with the things thereon consumed and all its Persections which men doted so much on vanished into smoke and nothing It 's easie to see to the end of all terrene Perfections but its difficult yea impossible to see to the end of Divine Precepts But thy Commandments are exceeding broad Of a vast Latitude beyond our apprehension They are so deep that none can fadom them Psal 36.6 So high that they are established in Heaven Psal 119.48 So long that they endure for ever 2 Pet. 1. And so broad that none can measure them They are not only broad but exceeding broad Higher than Heaven longer than the Earth broader than the Sea The Commands of God reach the inward parts the most secret motions and retired recesses of the Soul They reach all the privy thoughts They pierce even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the Joynts and Marrow and discern the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4.12 They reach to all our Actions to those that seem smallest and of less concernment as well as to those that are greater and of more concernment They reach to the manner nay circumstance of Actions The Divine Law takes notice of all the circumstances of sins as aggravations of sin As 1. From the time of Gods patience towards the Sinner These three years I came seeking fruit Luke 13. 2. The place where the sin was committed The Sons of Eli lay with the Women that assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation 1 Sam. 2.22 3. From the season of committing the Sin Isa 58.3 4. Behold in the day of your Fast ye find pleasure and exact all your labour c. 4. From the Condition of the person that sins He that eats bread with me lifts up his heels against mee Joh. 13.18 A familiar Friend proves a treacherous Enemy So Joh. 3.10 Art thou a Master in Israel and knowest not these things 5. From the means the person enjoys You only have I known therefore you will I punish for your Iniquities Amos 4. Rom. 2.7 6. From the manner of committing the Sin So they spread Absalom a Tent on the top of the house and Absalom went in to his Fathers Concubins in the sight of all Israel 2 Sam. 16.22 Impudency in sin doth highly increase it Were they ashamed when they committed all these Abominations No they were not ashamed But how far are other Religions from observing much more from condemning men for such sinful circumstances CHAP. XXXI The holiest have cause of humiliation 8. IF Christ will condemn men at the Great Day for sins of Omission I was hungry and ye gave me no meat c. Then it may inform us That the best have abundant cause of humiliation for the best have in them abundant matter of Condemnation O how many are our Omissions every day every hour and by reason of them we are obnoxious to Hell flames Good Bishop Vsher who for Piety and Learning was honoured through the Christian World though he was early converted and feared the Lord in his Youth though he was eminently industrious in private in his Family in chatechising and instructing and praying often every day with and for them that were committed to his Charge Though he was a constant Preacher and that with Judgment and Affection Though he was singularly famous for his many worthy pieces which he wrote in Latin and English yet after all this diligence and labour when he came to die Usher's Life the last words almost which he was heard to speak were Lord in special forgive my Sins of Omission Sins of Omission will at death lie heavier on our hearts than we think for in life If such a laborious person found cause of bewailing his Omissions surely much more cause have Loyterers as we are Omissions are fruits of Original Corruption as well as Commissions It 's from that dead stock that we are so defective in bringing forth good fruit Paul layeth his Omissions at this door Rom. 7.17 to 23. In my flesh is no good When I would do good evil is present with me c. Now whatsoever is the Child of such a monstrous Parent is loathsome and calls on us for sorrow and self-abhorrency Holy Job did but suspect his Children to be guilty of Omissions of not sanctifying the Name of God in their Hearts according to their Duties at their Feasts and Meetings And he riseth early and offereth Sacrifice according to the number of them all Job 1.4 5. He goeth to God and begs Pardon for them and the blessing of God upon every one of them It may be saith he my Sons have sinned and cursed and not blessed God so Calvin reads it God in their hearts Thus did Job continually Now if Job upon a supposition that his Sons might be guilty of Omissions was so constant in his addresses to God on their behalf by way of humiliation acknowledging their Iniquity and beseeching his Mercy What cause have we on the behalf of our own Souls who know that we often offend God
them good when ye will but me ye have not always Mary did well to improve the season she had in her hand as knowing if once lost it was lost for ever The Apostle Paul upon this account adviseth the Galathians While ye have time do good to all Gal. 6.10 Nothing more sads and dulls the heart when one comes to die saith a Divine now with God than his neglect of such opportunities which God's Providence Essex herse p. 19. or his own Place have put into his hands of doing or receiving good Nor is there a sharper Corrosive than the reflection upon those days and times that have passed over him Male aliud nihil agentem Ah how sad and uncomfortable will it be for thy time to be gone when thy work is not done when thy Sun is setting and the shadows of the Evening are stretching themselves upon thee for Conscience to give thee this salute Thy day is passed thy time is wasted the business of life is neglected and now thine Errors can never never be amended Ah what a dreadful hour will a dying-hour be to thee when Conscience shall plead against thee with Whips and Scorpions and Flames and not the dearest Friend or Relation thou hast be admitted to plead for thee or be able to comfort thee But if the day of death will be so uncomfortable how terrible will the Day of Judgment be Then it is that the Saint shall reap the benefit of all the good he hath done and the Sinner shall reap the mischief of all the good he hath omitted or left undone Then the idle Servant that did not trade with his Talent will be found an evil Servant and as such condemned to the Worm that never dieth and the Fire that never goeth out Mat. 25. Then the unfruitful Factor will be found an unfaithful Factor and as such disown'd and condemned by his Lord. Reader believe it though thou mayst live by a Negative Religion yet thou canst not die by it much less stand before the Judgment-Seat of Christ with it It 's true even such a Religion is of high price with men but if alone it's abomination in the sight of God Reader let me reason the case with thee In other things all are for fruitfulness in what is good The Husbandman would have his ground fruitful in good Corn as well as empty of weeds He would have his Cattel labour and do him service and thinks it not enough that they are in the stable or fields and do him no hurt The Master would have his Servant industrious in his Shop or Field or some way or other about his business and is not pleased to see him sit still all day and forbear to purloin his Goods or fight with his fellow Servants The Father who sends his Child to School would have him learn the Languages and profit daily therein and without this will not be satisfied to hear that his Child sits still all day at School learns no Oaths or Blasphemies calls no Names abuses none of his Companions And Reader why should God be contented with thy harmlesness when thou art barren and unprofitable Hath not God as much right to thee as thou hast to thy Ground or Cattel and art not thou as much bound to God as thy Servant or Child is bound to thee and why then shouldst thou think to put God off with that in thy self which thou wilt not be put off with in thy ground or Cattel or Servant or Child Besides I must tell thee thou art not harmless if thou dost no good though thou livest not in the Commission of gross Evils The Tree in the Garden that brings not forth good fruit is hurtful though it bring not forth evil fruit partly because it cumbers the ground and takes up room to no purpose partly because it draws the moisture of the earth to it and so hinders the thriving of those Trees that are near it who but for them would be more fruitful So if thou neglectest what is good though thou dost no open scandalous evil thou art mischievous and hurtful in the place where thou livest Thou takest up the room of a Member that might be serviceable to God and his Country If thou wert gone there might be one in thy House Place Lodging kept and maintain'd by the Great House-keeper of the World with the same Mercies with which thou livest that should adorn the Gospel glorifie the Name of God and edifie the Souls of others and dost thou no harm then by hindring such a one Is not the Drone hurtful which idleth all the day and lives upon the Bees labour and forceth them sometimes to want because of her Theft Is not the Wem in the Body hurtful when it serves to no use yet sucks away the nourishment from other parts of the Body Doth not that Factor wrong the Master who imploys him if he let his stock lie still though he do not waste it in Riotousness and Drunkenness and Filthiness when the Master might have had one in his place who would have traded with it and probably have improved it to his great advantage Did ever any Merchant trust a Servant with a stock to lie by him Nay is Nature it self content with the removal of what is oppressive doth it not long and breath after what is perfective Is not the presence of malum what is evil a burden So the absence of bonum what is good occasion of complaint There is ingrafted within us not only Bados a depth of distast against feared Evils but also Hiatus large desires after known Good As Nature much more doth Religion call men off what is bad and provoke men to what is right and just and good Reader let me come up a little closer to thee What is it that I am advising thee to Is it any thing that is evil If it be reject and renounce it Is it not to be good and to do good I will tell thee what I would desire of thee and then do thou judge whether I advise thee as a Friend or whether my Counsel be worth hearkning to or no 1. Take heed of external Omissions If thou hast been faulty herein I would advise thee every day to mind Prayer Scripture watchfulness over thy Heart Tongue and Actions diligence in thy Calling faithfulness in thy Relations and to do good to others as thou hast opportunity Hereby thou wilt acknowledge thy dependance on and subsistance by the blessed God to whom thou art bound by millions of Obligations Hereby thou wilt procure his Protection of thy Person Provision for thy Family and Benediction on thy Calling and all thine Undertakings And is this ill Counsel to direct thee to the way how to procure his Favour which can sweeten the bitterest Condition and turn the most loathsome Prison into a lovely Palace and an Hell of misery into an Heaven of Mercy Friend do I advise thee for thy hurt when I advise thee daily to
and negative must be written out by the Magistrate that we might observe it and it was also written in a Book by Moses and put into the Ark as a witness against the Israelites if they should not observe it Deut. 31.24 25 26. Joshua succeeds Moses in his Charge over the Jews and in his Commands to them both affirmatively and negatively Joshua 23.7 Samuel follows after and speaks the same Language Serve the Lord with all your heart fear him and serve him in truth And turn ye not aside for then ye should go after vain things which cannot profit or deliver for they are vain 1 Sam. 12.20 21 24. David doth the like Depart from evil and do good Psal 34.14 Solomon writes after his Fathers Copy in the very qualifications of those whom he intreats Mercy for If they sin and afterwards bethink themselves and turn i. e. from their sins and return unto thee with all the Heart and with all the Soul then hear thou from Heaven from thy Dwelling-place 2 Chron. 6.36 to 40. Isaiah calls on men not only to forsake their evil ways and evil thoughts but also to return unto the Lord Isa 55.7 Jeremiah crieth to his people Not to oppress the Stranger the Fatherless and the Widows and also throughly to execute Judgment between a man and his Neighbour Jer. 7.5 6. So Ezekiel and the rest of the Prophets Ezek. 18.21 Our Saviour in his Exposition of the Law doth forbid what is Evil and command what is Good Matth. 5.43 44. So Matth. 7. per tot The Apostle St. Paul commands Not to be conformed to the World there is the Prohibition but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind proving what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God there is the Precept Rom. 12.1 2. Again Put off the works of Darkness put on the armour of Light Put off the old man which is corrupt according to his deceitful lusts And put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4.23 24. Lye not one to another but speak the truth The Apostle St. James tells us Religion consisteth in Negatives and Positives also James 1.21 22 26 27. So St. Peter 1 Pet. 1.14 15. 1 Pet. 2.11 12. St. Joh. 3.9 10. Jude vers 21 22 23. Thus we see through the whole Bible the Mind of God by his Messengers to be Positive as well as Negative and this Mind of his he hath ordained to be the rule of our Hearts and Lives and what shall we answer when we shall be called to an account for our Disobedience To what purpose is a Rule if it be not followed and to what end is the Penalty denounced against the Ungodly if it be not executed This is the Voice of the Law of God and therefore Reader either thou must betake thy self to practical godliness or else disown the Scriptures for thy rule and square Thy Duty must at least in thy desires and endeavours carry some proportion to thy standard and rule or else thy Religion is a meer cypher and signifieth nothing So far as the best come short of the Law they sin 1 Joh. 5.3 Sin is a transgression of the Law And that because the Law is given to him as a rule of Life God hath therefore qualified it with the porperties of a Rule 1. A Rule must be perfect and not defective not redundant The Law of the Lord is perfect Psal 19.7 2. A Rule must be plain not dark All her ways are plain to him that understandeth 3. A Rule must be published and known otherwise it 's a snare to intrap men God hath proclaimed his Law The Command is not hidden from thee nor far off Deut. 30.11 It 's not in Heaven that thou shouldst say Who shall go up for us thither and fetch it thence that we may hear it and do it Nor beyond the Seas But the Word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart 12 13 14 verses that thou mayst do them 4. A Rule is that by which men shall be judged so is this Law Joh. 12. 48. The Word that I have spoken the same shall judge you at the last day 2. The Mercies of God to thee are positive as well as privative and why should not thy Duty be suitable to the Divine Bounty God is not only a Shield to defend thee from evil in thy Body in thy Soul in thy Person in thy Relations in thine Out-goings and in thine Incomings by Night and by Day at all times and in all places but he is also a Sun to refresh thee with good with temporal good Food Raiment Friends Relations Sleep Liberty Wealth esteem in the World c. With spiritual good with Sabbaths Scriptures Sacraments seasons of Grace with the tenders of Pardon and Peace and Adoption and eternal Salvation upon excellent and equitable terms And what reason can we give why our Obedience should not bear a proportion to his Beneficence He is a Sun and a Shield and gives Grace and Glory and with-holdeth no good things from them that walk uprightly Psal 84. Shall God with-hold no good thing from thee and canst thou find in thy heart to deny the doing of any good thing for him Is his Bounty of so large an extent as to comprehend protection from all Evil and the fruition of all good and must thy Duty be so narrow and scanty as if he did not deserve so much as he requireth Is it honest to receive or buy in by one Measure and to return and sell out by another Divers Weights and divers Measures both of them are abomination to the Lord. A Weight and a Weight a Measure and a Measure one to buy with that 's large another to sell with that is less I only allude to it It 's abominable for thee to receive of God by the largest measure and to return to him by the least Reader if thou art born of God and guilty of these partial temporary Omissions consider it seriously let ingenuity plead for God When he first wrought upon thy Soul he did not only translate thee out of the Kingdom of Darkness but also bring thee into the Kingdom of his dear Son He did not only turn thee from Satan but also cause thee to return to himself He brought thee out of a state of Wrath and brought thee into a state of Love and Favour 1 Pet. 2.9 He redeemed thee from those Enemies which had carried thee Captive Sin Satan Death Hell Rom. 6.11 Ephes 2.3 4. Heb. 2. 2 Tim. 1.9 10. 1 Thess 1. ult But this is not all he hath also brought thee into the glorious liberty of the Children of God 1 Joh. 12. 1 Joh. 3.1 He hath delivered thee from this present evil World that its affrightments its allurements that all its power and policy shall not be able to destroy thee but this is not all he hath made thee an Heir of a better
World Of a Child of the Devil thou art made a Child of God of a Slave to sin a Citizen of Sion nay he doth not only free thee from damnation and the curse of the Law but also give thee the blessing of eternal life in and with himself among his innumerable Company of Angels and the Congregation of the First-born Now Reader judge whether it be not very disingenious to receive from God all sorts of Mercies and to give to God not half the Duties we owe to him How canst thou mete to God one measure and expect from him another Friend God doth not put thee off with half-Happiness and why shouldst thou put him off with half-Holiness CHAP. XXXV Arguments against Omissions Christ purchased positive as well as negative Holiness and our Priviledges oblige to both 3. COnsider Christ died to purchase positive as well as negative godliness for men and wilt thou disappoint him of the Fruits of his Death Indeed if it had been possible for him to have bought mans deliverance from sin without the re-impression of Gods Image on the Soul he had been but half a Saviour and made us at the most but half happy But according to the Apostles phrase he saves perfectly or to the utmost upon all accounts and in all respects Heb. 7.25 and in order thereunto bought man off from sin and unto the Service of God He redeems us from sin We are redeemed saith the Apostle from our vain Conversation received by tradition from our Fathers Not with corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without spot and blemish 1 Pet. 1.17 18 19. He redeems also unto his own Service Chap. 3. vers 18. of the same Epistle He suffered the Just for the Vnjust to bring us to God He died that we might die to sin and he died that we might live to God He suffered to bring us off from our cursed loathsome Lusts and he suffered to bring us to the Fear and Love and Service of the blessed and glorious Lord. We have both these ends of our Saviours Sufferings mention'd in Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself his Death is called a giving himself because it was voluntary and a freewill Offering for us here is his Passion but what ends had he in his eye truly both these that he might redeem us from all Iniquity make us negatively religious in freeing us from the bondage of sin and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works i. e. make them positively holy None are purified without positive qualifications and gracious habits in the Soul To be purified unto himself is to be thus qualified for the honour and service of Christ And to make it more plain the Apostle tells us To purifie unto himself a peculiar people a people that shall disown all other Lords and all other Work and shall be his Servants and do his Work only zealous of good works He did not die only to make men good and to enable men to do good but also to cause them to do good with heat and heart and fervency of Spirit Nay it is evident that to make men positively pious was the main and principal end of his Passion and that his delivering us from sin was only in order to this to his adorning us with Sanctity As a man cannot put on new Robes till he hath first put off his old Rags so a man cannot put on the new man the beautiful Image of the heavenly till he hath put off the old man the abominable Image of the earthly Adam Luke 1.74 75. We are delivered out of the hands of our Enemies that we should serve him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives He plougheth up the fallow ground of the Heart and kills the weeds of sin in order to the casting in the seed of Grace into the Soul Now Reader consider if Christ died to purchase positive Holiness for thee what hope canst thou have of an interest in his Death without it Canst thou think he bought one for thee without the other or that thou mayst be a partial sharer in his Death And what wilt thou do without an interest in his Sufferings Except he wash thee in his blood thou hast no part in him and if thou hast no part in him thy part must be among Devils and damned Spirits Again wilt thou by thy Omissions deny and deprive Christ of that Service which he hath bought so dearly Alas how little is it that thou art able to do for him when thou dost all thou canst And how much did that cost him what pangs and throws did he bear what rage from men what wrath from God how did he wrastle with the Frowns and Fury with the Power and Policy of the World and Hell And after all this dost thou grudge him that poor Service for which he was hungry and thirsty and weary and tempted and betrayed and crucified Whether we live saith the Apostle we live to the Lord whether we die we die to the Lord whether we live or die we are the Lords To this end Jesus died and rose again that he might be Lord both of the Dead and Living Rom. 14.7 8. Thou wouldst take it ill thy self to be denied the Service of that for which thou hast so dearly paid O think of it when thou art guilty of Omissions in the matter or manner of Duties I now rob Jesus Christ of that which he bought with his most precious blood and let him see the travail of his Soul upon thee and be satisfied 4. Consider the Priviledges thou enjoyest call aloud upon thee to mind positive Holiness and to do good as well as to forbear evil I am sure thy Priviledges are positive and so should thy Piety be What is the Gospel but a Cabinet of precious Jewels a River of living water a Case of the richest and costliest Cordials a Counterpart of Heavens eternal Court-Rolls concerning the Philanthropy or kindness of God to Mankind wherein are all sorts of blessings for Body and Soul in every condition treasur'd up The enjoyment of it is a special singular Priviledge the Ministration of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 9. The Ministration of Righteousness far above the Legal Ministration The Psalmist tells us The Laws God gave to the Israelites were a special distinguishing Mercy He sheweth his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel He hath not dealt so with every Nation as for his Judgments they have not known them Psal 147.19 20. But his Gospel-Dispensation is an higher and greater Favour But what doth this Gospel-Priviledge call for surely positive as well as negative godliness The Grace of God the Gospel is so called because it declares it to us 2 Tim. 1.10 and interests us in it as an Instrument thereof Rom. 1.16 which bringeth Salvation which proclaimeth Life upon holy Conditions teacheth us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts Commissions
step nearer to thee Did God or any of them send his only begotten Son to redeem thee out of the hands of the Law and Divine Justice and to purchase for thee a state of Peace and Love and Adoption and everlasting Life Did they or any of them bear the Curse of the Law and the Wrath of an infinite Majesty and the Rage of the Fiends of Darkness to deliver thee from them and to make thee blessed O Reader where are thy Wits what is become of thine Understanding If he that sends thee in all the good thou enjoyest and freeth thee from all the evil thou escapest doth not deserve all thou hast and art who doth I know not Hast thou laid the thousandth part of those Obligations on any Child or Servant thou hast which God hath on thee Didst thou make them dost thou preserve them canst thou redeem them Alas thou art but a poor Instrument in the hand of God to convey some small matters to them yet thou expectest positive as well as negative Obedience from them and why should not God who hath laid such millions of Obligations on thee look for the like from thee Once more to whom wilt thou call in thy day of Distress To whom wilt thou cry in thy time of trouble to God or any of those three fore-mentioned Masters is it to them or to God that thou wilt lift up thy Hands and Eyes and Heart on thy sick on thy dying Bed when all thy Friends and Kindred will be insignificant and helpless to thee and Devils will wait on thee to devour thee Who is it that offereth thee an unchangeable state of Pleasure and Happiness upon excellent and equitable terms that intreats and invites and wooeth and courteth thee to accept of freedom from misery and Hell flames and eternal damnation and also to embrace his tenders of fulness of joy and a Crown of Life and a Kingdom of Glory for ever and ever Ah Friend little dost thou know how much thou owest the blessed God I am sure thou canst not deny him any part of thy Heart or Life if thou wilt give him what he deserves thy Conscience must tell thee that it is his due And then if thou wilt give every one his due why shouldst thou put by the glorious Lord If thy Friends thy Neighbours thine Enemies all must have their due I beseech thee do not deny God but let him have thy positive Obedience which is unquestionably his due 8. Consider Sanctification Repentance or sound-saving Conversion consisteth in positive as well as negative Holiness nay more especially and principally in positive Holiness as that which consummateth and perfecteth the work And how then canst thou have any grounded hope that thy condition is safe without it When the Prophet mentions that Repentance which is never to be repented of that Repentance which shall find Mercy and obtain Pardon he enjoyneth both Isaiah 55.7 An aversion from Sin and a Conversion to God as their supream and chiefest good When the Apostle mentions that Sanctification which is the inseparable concomitant of Justification and the constant effect of our Union with Christ he mentions both Reckon ye also your selves to be dead unto sin freed from it Laws as a dead Wife from the Laws of her Husband and disabled unto its Service as a dead man is unto the actions of life here is negative Holiness but alive unto God obliged unto his Laws as a living Subject is unto the Laws of his Soveraign and enabled unto his Service as a living man is unto actions that are suitable to life here is positive Holiness through Christ This is the root upon which Sanctification groweth as the fruit Rom. 6.11 So vers 18. Being then made free from Sin ye became the Servants of Righteousness Being deliver'd from the former Usurper they became obedient to their rightful Lord and served him Now Friend what wilt thou do for an evidence of Repentance and Sanctification which are of such absolute necessity that thou canst not be saved without them Luke 13.3 Heb. 12.14 If thou neglectest positive godliness indeed thou mayst flatter thy self with an hypocritical Repentance but a sincere one respects both parts of the Law An Hebrician observes that in the word Tamim which signifieth upright or perfect there is a great Tau to note that an upright man observeth the whole Law from the first to the last letter thereof He may be too critical but this is certain the true Penitent chooseth the way of Obedience as well as refuseth the way of Disobedience He is described by this Character He chooseth the things that please God Isa 56.4 He doth not only refuse the things that displease God but also choose the things that please him yea and because they please him The natural Votary is what he is from the good temperament of his body which makes him more gentle and pliable than otherwise he would be The moral Religionist is what he is from the improvement or rather misimprovement of his natural Reason The Civilian is what he is from fear of man or out of respect to man He is still in the bond of Iniquity but he is so careful to line his Fetters that they do not clink to the disturbance of others or to his own shame But the true Christian is what he is from Conscience of and love to the Will of God and as he at his first implantation into Christ brings forth this good fruit so he continueth in it to the end of his life He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit Joh. 15.5 As Naturalists observe of the Bees that they are laborious in their youth and do not dispense with themselves to be idle in their age but as they increase in dextrousness so also in laboriousness being more early at work than the younger nay when their Bodies are over-spent and their wings ragged they will venture abroad to work though they often prove too weak to return home Thus the right Convert flourisheth as the Palm-Tree in his youth and is fat and flourishing and brings forth fruit in his old age Psal 92.12 13 14. CHAP. XXXVIII If God should omit his care of us a moment we are undone And if Christ had omitted the least in our Work of Redemption we had been lost irrecoverably 9. COnsider if God should omit his care of thee and neglect thee as often as thou omittest his Service and neglectest him nay if he should withdraw his positive Providence from thee one moment what would become of thee thy Body would be turn'd into a dead loathsome Carkass and thy Soul would be haled by Devils to Hell fire Is it not more just that God should neglect thee than that thou shouldst neglect him and hath he not much more reason to neglect thee a moment than thou hast to neglect him days and moneths and years He hath no Obligation to thee thou hast thousands to him
All he doth for thee is mercy meer mercy not only beyond but contrary to merit All he requireth of thee and all thou canst do for him is Duty and that which the greatest Justice calls upon thee for Now if thou art unwilling to be neglected by God why shouldst thou not be as unwilling to neglect God Is thy safety of greater concern than his Glory or must thy Pleasure be prefer'd before his Wilt thou not make that golden Rule of Christ the rule of thy actions with men to deal with them as thou wouldst have them to deal with thee and wilt thou deal otherwise with the blessed God Must he remember thee at all times in all conditions keep thee night and day lest any hurt thee support and supply thee every moment and thou forget him days without number Is this fair or honest dealing Reader Let me tell thee upon him thou livest by him thou movest and from him thou hast thy Being Thou canst not think or speak or act in the least if he should suspend his care of thee thine Eyes could not see nor thine Ears hear nor thy Mouth tast nor thy Hands or Feet move if his Providence doth not concur to them If he should but with-draw his manutenency and the hold he hath of thee for the smallest pittance of time thou wouldst drop into the bottomless Pit The flames do not depend more on the Fire nor the streams on the Spring of water than thy Life and all thy Comforts for this and the other World do upon God and wilt thou provoke him to leave thee He hath said with the froward he will shew himself froward Psal 18.26 That he will walk contrary to them that walk contrary to him Lev. 26.24 and that he will forsake them that forsake him and pay men in their own Coin 2 Chron. 15.2 and wilt thou venture him any longer Others have felt the truth of those threatnings and dost thou think to go unpunished Surely if common ingenuity will not move thee to remember him night and day who remembreth thee with Loving-kindness every minute yet the Divine Severity may fright thee from forgetting him lest he forget thee for ever Believe it if he leave thee Wrath and Death and Hell and Damnation and Devils will soon find thee Thou canst now depart from him by thy neglect of his Worship and be merry and chearful notwithstanding but if once he depart from thee though but for a moment thou art undone eternally Woe be to thee when I depart from you Hos 9.12 Thy Friends and Relations and Creature-Comforts may depart from thee and it may be well with thee but if the Fountain of thy Life the God of thy Health the Father of all Mercies depart from thee woe will be to thee Heaven and Earth cannot make him blessed or hinder him from being extreamly cursed whom God leaves and forsakes Alas if the Heavens omit to give us its showers or the Sun omit to dispense its influences or the Earth omit to yield its increase where are we what can we do how lamentable is our condition Those Persons that were purer than Snow that were whiter than Milk that were more ruddy than Rubies or than polished Saphires their Visage is blacker than a coal They are not known in the streets their Skin cleaveth to their Bones it is withered it is become like a stick Lament 4.7 8. The Children and the Sucklings swoon in the streets Lam. 2.11 12. But if our case be so woful when Creatures omit their accustomed kindness to us what will it be if God should omit his care of us 10. Consider If the Lord Jesus Christ should omit the least in the Work of thy Redemption thou wouldst be undone for ever Had Christ been as unwilling to save thee to the uttermost as thou art to serve him to the uttermost what would have become of thee Friend Jesus Christ trod the whole Wine-press of his Fathers Wrath alone had he left but one drop of that bitter Cup of Divine Wrath for thee to drink it would have caused thy Belly to swell and Bowels to be troubled and Bones to ake and whole Body and Soul to suffer extremity of Torments for ever When Christ undertook to interpose between thee and his Father to stand as a skreen between thy poor Soul and a consuming Fire he omitted not the least that was requisite for thy good Though it was hard work painful work amazing work such work as neither Men nor Angels durst undertake yet when thy Miseries and Necessities required it he did it He did not omit to contend with Earth and Heaven and Hell for thee He did not omit to drink of the Brook in the way of the Cup of his Fathers Wrath and to tread the Wine-press of his Anger alone that he might obtain Favour and Life for thee He omitted not the least in point of satisfaction to his Fathers Justice he desired not the smallest abatement of those vast sums which thou thou didst ow to the Divine Majesty but paid the utmost farthing for thee He never gave over till all was finished till all the Tipes were verified all the Promises accomplished and all the Demands of his Father fully answered Joh. 19.28 He omitted nothing in point of application of the Purchase which he had bought for Sinners As he died to make satisfaction for us so he ever liveth to make intercession for us As he died to make his Will good for a Will is not of force as long as the Testator liveth Heb. 9.17 wherein he gives Pardon and Love and Life to his people so he liveth to see his Will made good that his chosen might enjoy whatsoever his boundless Love and Grace had bequeathed to them He died that he might be a legal Testator and he liveth that he might be his own Executor Now Reader did Christ omit nothing which related to thy Salvation and wilt thou omit any thing that relates to his Service Did he not shrink back when thy Miserie 's call'd him to bear that burden which made the Earth to quake the whole Creation to groan and would have broke the backs of Angels and Arch-Angels and all the heavenly Host if they had put their shoulders under it and wilt thou shrink back from that easie Yoke and light Burden which he calls thee to take upon thee Is this thy kindness to thy Friend Why dost thou use him thus as Absalom said to Hushai Is this thy gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ why dost thou serve him so 2 Sam. 16.17 When the most righteous God demanded full satifaction for the breach of his Law by the Nature that had transgressed it and resolved that if he had it not the whole Posterity of Adam should perish when his Wrath was breaking in like a Flood to overwhelm the whole World of Mankind and neither Man nor Angel durst stand in the breach to divert this deluge of Fury when the
but also against thy new spiritual Life It 's hard we say for a man to thwart or cross nature Naturam expellas furca c. and wilt thou take such pains to disobey thy Gods Precepts The Devils Servants do his Will but it is with their own whole Wills according to their own inclinations they do not cross themselves to please him But thou canst not neglect the Will of God but it must be in part against thine own will and against thine own inclinations and wilt thou displease thy self to displease God and walk contrary to thy self that thou mayst walk contrary to God This is the part and guise of the most spiteful envious and malicious Enemies and I am sure it 's impossible for thee if a Believer to be such an enemy to God God did purposely endue thee with a new Spirit that thou mightest live to his praise Isa 43.21 This people have I formed for my self and new made and moulded them they shall shew forth my praise Now how is the praise of God spread in the World but by good Works Matth. 5.16 Let your light so shine before others that they seeing your good works may glorifie your heavenly Father so Joh. 15.8 Again it would be marvailous if thou shouldst not follow thy own natural propensity and inclinations For a dead man to lie still and not stir nor perform any actions of life is nothing strange none expecteth any other but for a living man one that hath a principle of life to do so would be accounted little less than miraculous For a man dead in Sins and Trespasses that hath no Spirit of Grace to enliven his poor Soul to lie still in his idleness and slothfulness and carnal security and to neglect the performance of the Duties of a spiritual Life is no wonder but is it not a wonder for one that is quickened in Christ Ephes 2.5 created unto good works fitted and formed for them Eph. 2.10 that hath Jesus Christ living in him Gal. 2.20 and a principle of holiness inclining and inabling him hereunto should omit those actions that are proper to life I beseech thee Friend do not displease thy self and cross thy very Nature to disobey thy God surely he is worthy of more dutiful behaviour from thee 12. The Reward will answer the Work and the profit of positive Holiness will answer all thy pains I confess Obedience to the affirmative part of the Command to pray and hear and give to the Poor c. with those qualifications and in that manner which God commandeth is much harder than to the Negative and to do good is much more difficult than not to do evil but thy labour shall not be in vain I have told thee already all the reward of a meer negative Holiness is a cooler Hell but I must tell thee now that the reward of positive Holiness will be a glorious and blessed and endless state of happiness in Heaven A negative Holiness shall not have so much as a full negative Happiness it shall not abolish only abate the Torments of Hell and the reason is because such Holiness is counterfeit and hypocritical But positive Holiness shall have both a full negative and positive Happiness God will do him good that is good and doth good Psal 125.4 And if God undertake to do good to a person he will do it to good purpose Mans doing good which is his positive Holiness is little yea nothing to God My goodness extendeth not to thee saith David Psal 16.3 But Gods doing good which is his positive Bounty is effectual yea all in all with man therefore when he would speak in few words the great kindness he had in store for his people he only tells them Jer. 32.40 I will not turn away from them to do them good And vers 41. I will rejoyce over them to do them good Nay though negative godliness obtains only at present some respect from men and hereafter fewer stripes from Hells Jaylor positive Holiness hath a far greater and another manner of reward both here and hereafter In the doing of thy Commands there is great reward Psal 19. In the forbearing thy Prohibitions there is some reward but in the doing thy Commands there is great reward Positive Holiness hath meat in its mouth affirmative Obedience is its own recompence It brings that calmness and serenity of mind that nothing else can do Negative Holiness may do somewhat towards a negative quietness i. e. a freedom from those dreadful horrors and terrors which sometimes seize those who commit gross unnatural sins but positive Piety brings positive Peace Great peace have they which love thy Law Psal 119. 165. and nothing shall offend them They are not only freed from those gripes of Conscience with which many others are afflicted but they have that spiritual joy and heart-comfort which the World is a stranger to Gal. 6.16 Faith which is not the least part of this holiness fills the Soul with joy yea with joy unspeakable and full of Glory Rom. 15. 1 Pet. 1.8 I may appeal to the experience of a Christian whether ever he find more comfort than when he hath done his God faithful Service and whether ever their hearts are more heavy than when they have been negligent of their Duty David and the Israelites were almost transported their hearts leaped for joy that they had offered so willingly and liberally towards the building of the Temple then the people rejoyced for that they offered willingly because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord and David the King also rejoyced with great joy and the wine of their joy was so strong that he was forced to give it vent Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the Congregation and said Blessed be thou Lord God of Israel our Father for ever and ever c. 2 Chron. 29.9 10 11 12 c. But mark God is so tender of this man that mindeth his Duty that he will suffer no wind no ill wind to blow upon him Great peace have they which love thy Law and nothing shall offend them None must knock at their door to disturb them of their rest All the Creatures must be kind to them for his sake they must have nothing done to them which may be offensive Yet this is not all the profit of Holiness here though I shall pass to the next much less in the other World As I said before a positive Holiness shall have a positive Heaven The Christians avoiding what is evil through the blood of Christ shall be recompenced with a freedom from Hell and the Christians doing what is good through the same meritorious cause shall be rewarded with the fruition of Heaven The two Servants that had not hid their Talents in a Napkin as the negative Christian doth but traded according to his trust and improved his stock faithfully in doing good as he had opportunity is commended by his Master for a good and faithful Servant
its Original from mans basest part as those materials are meâ—â— which arise out of the potentiality of the matter and truly that honesty deserves not the name of Virtue being not quickened with the command of Reason An exact Constitution may help a man to be mild meek courteous modest shame-faced but these cannot be adopted into the Family of goodness because here as they say in the motion of the Serpent the tayl leads the way to the Head the Body rules and governs the Soul and the mans perfection is from his meanest and worst part Besides the cause of all this seeming-virtue is mutable and mortal Age or Sickness or change of Air or of Condition may alter a mans good nature and then where is his Religion Truly as a Comet it came without giving notice and goeth away without giving warning The Cause being taken away the Effect ceaseth Improved Reason will do more towards Religion than a sound bodily Constitution but yet the Moralists for all their Reason were far enough from being religious Indeed reason rightly improved is a special help a serviceable Hand-Maid to Religion but as they used it or rather abused it it became an Opposite and Enemy to Religion The Mind or Understanding which is the supream faculty of the Soul they set up in defiance of Revelations and with it they out-face Illumination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the natural man animalis homo he that hath no more than a reasonable Soul perceiveth not the things of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 Natural Light will not help a man to see spiritual Objects because there is no proportion between the Faculty and the Object and because it cannot apprehend them therefore it condemneth them as foolish and ridiculous It hath its high thoughts and carnal reasonings and vain imaginations in which strong holds Lust shelters it self against all the Convictions of our own Spirit And as the Moralist deifieth his Understanding in opposition to Faith so he idolizeth the liberty of his Will in opposition to the special Energy and Virtue of the Holy Ghost Liberty saith the Philosopher I have by Nature that is a freedom to choose Good or Evil I have in common with the rest of Mankind but goodness to that liberty or an application of it to the choice of good rather than evil this I have from my self my Reason and I am beholden to my self for it So that as Austin saith if this be true Si nobis potest libera voluntas ex deo est quoad hoc potest esse vel bona vel mala bona vero voluntas ex nobis est melius est id quod a nobis quam quod ab illo est De peccat merit lib. 2. cap. 18. If our Will be free from God it may be good or bad but if it be good from our selves better is that which we have from our selves than that which we have from God In short this moral Votary differs from the natural that the Original of the latters Religion is the Constitution of his Body of the formers is the chief faculty of his Soul but neither of these can make a man religious for where the Vitals are tainted and the inward parts infected it 's in vain to use Plaisters or outward Medicines Indeed here is the great fault of both the former that they take no notice of the depravation of mans nature which alone would convince them of the necessity of a change They who have crazed Principles and crackt Brains cannot see any defects in themselves being prepossest with an Opinion of their own perfection Both the Naturalists and the Moralists are so far from knowing the plague of their own hearts that they count every thing of Nature rather lovely than loathsome And as among the Moors blackness is counted a beauty because it 's common and general and they see no other So with these men the vitiosity of Nature which is the seed of all evil is commended for the spring of Virtue Indeed they are in love with their Disease and instead of Health have this unhappiness that they feel not their own sickness so that neither the one nor the other can be religious or perform those Duties which God requireth Regeneration is absolutely requisite to this He that layeth not that for his Foundation can never build a Temple for God he must needs prove a Bankrupt that is worse than naught when he begun Some tell us that Trees shoot above ground as much and no more than they do under ground I am sure there is no more godliness outwardly in the Life than there is inwardly in the Heart If the fear and love of God be the great spring to set all the wheels a going in the ways of Religion then all is right but till then nothing is right If there be not the Oyl of solid Grace in the Vessel of the Heart to feed Profession in the Lamp and Holiness in the Life both will quickly sail When God intends that his people should walk in his Statutes keep his Judgments and do them what doth he for them to prepare them and enable them thereunto truly this he regenerates them and changeth them and putteth a new principle into them I will give them a new Heart and a new Spirit Ezek. 36.26 I will cast them in the fire of my Word and though they are old tough untoward metal I will melt them and soften them and they shall run into my mould But how can this be Nature will still run into its old temper though it may be a little alter'd in its form yet it will still continue the same in substance and matter No I will put my spirit into them and they shall walk in my Commandments and do them My Spirit shall renew and quite alter their Spirits it shall turn the stream of their Hearts from the World and Flesh unto God and shall be in them a principle of spiritual life and motion srengthening them to walk in my Statutes and to keep my Commandments and do them The natural Spirit would have served to done natural actions The Spirit of the World would have served for a man to have walked according to the course of the World but no less than a new Spirit can serve for a new life and nothing below the Spirit of God can help unto a faithful walking with God Two things Reader I would specially commend to thee without which thou canst never rightly obey any positive Precept and they are to make sure of a change in thy Judgment and thy Heart 1. Make sure of a change in thy Judgment concerning Sin and Obedience By nature thou hast lookt on Sin as Achan on the Wedge of Gold and David on Bathsheba as lovely and desirable thou hast beheld it through the Devils Spectacles and so hast judged it elegible if still thou art of the same mind though
blindness of their hearts A blind man may well miss his way and a blind Mind can never do his work Whatever the World talks of their honesty and goodness notwithstanding their ignorance Without knowledge the mind is not good Prov. 19.2 They presume to excuse their dark Heads with their good Hearts but these two are inconsistent A dark Cellar is not fuller of Vermine nor a dark hole of dust than a dark Heart is of filthiness Hos 4.1 2. They who want the knowledge of God are under the dominion of the Devil He is the Ruler of the darkness of this World Ephes 6. And I am sure the unclean Spirit never bears sway in a clean Heart nor this evil Spirit in a good Heart No as the Eagle he first pecks out the eyes of his prey and then devours it How easily is a blind Soul conquer'd and kill'd by the enemies of his Salvation What Error will not an ignorant Creature swallow down he is like water ready to take the impression and form of what Vessel you please to pour him into Matth. 22.29 Our Saviour tells the Sadduces That they erred not knowing the Scriptures And the Apostles told the Corinthians who doubted at least about the Resurrection as the Sadduces denied it Some have not the knowledge of God 1 Cor. 15.32 What crime will not an ignorant man commit Knowledge to the Mind is as Light to the World which discovers our way and thereby prevents our wandrings but it 's no wonder at all for men in the night and darkness of ignorance to go astray or to stumble and fall If a man walk in the night he stumbleth because he seeth not the light of this World Joh. 11.9 Why do we think Sin is called a work of darkness truly not only because it 's from the Devil the Prince of Darkness and he that doth evil loveth darkness hates the light and it 's the way to blackness of darkness but also because it 's conceived in the Womb of a dark Heart The Prince of Darkness may beget what Monsters he pleaseth on such Persons 2 Tim. 3.3 Ignorant women were laden with divers lusts No soil fuller of such weeds than that which is not manured with knowledge St. Paul's ignorance was the ground of his wasting the Church at such a cruel rate I was a Blasphemer a Persecutor injurious but I did it ignorantly 1 Tim. 1.13 That Monster Sin which the Sun hid his head as ashamed to behold the Murther of our Lord Jesus Christ had ignorance for its Mother Acts 3.15 Ye killed the Prince of Life vers 17. And now Brethren I wot that through ignorance ye did it as did also your Rulers So the Apostle Paul Had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory Now if ignorance be the cause of such grieveous Commissions it must much more be the cause of Omission for in all these Commissions there are great Omissions but I shall shew particularly that Ignorance is one cause of sins of Omission We are bound to love God and that with all our Hearts and with all our Souls and with all our Strength Matth. 22.37 But is it possible to love one whom we are ignorant of Did ever any fear an unknown Evil or desire or delight in an unknown Good Are not the greatest Rarities and richest Jewels of the World that are undiscovered undesired The Apostle saith He that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen 1 Joh. 3. I am sure he that doth not so much as see God with the eye of his Soul his Understanding can never love him We say What the eye sees not the heart grieves not it 's as true what the eye seeth not the heart loves not Who can obey Divine Precepts who is ignorant of them or fear Divine Threatnings who doth not know them or be allured by Divine Promises who is altogether a stranger to them God and Christ and Pardon and Life and Promises Covenant may stand long enough knocking at the door of an Heart fastened with Ignorance before they will find admittance It is our Duty our great Gospel-Duty to believe in Christ Joh. 6. This is his Commandment that ye believe in him whom he hath sent 1 Joh. 3.23 But ignorance hinders this How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard Rom. 10.10 Who will trust a meer stranger especially in a matter of weight I had need to know him well whom I trust with my Soul and Salvation with all I am worth for this and the other World A wise man will not venture his Estate much less his Life least of all his Soul with one of whose integrity and faithfulness and ability and responsibleness he hath not good assurance The Psalmists saying is They that know thy Name will trust in thee Psal 9.10 They who know thy Grace Goodness thy Promise and Power and Truth they will trust thee but others will not Paul's hope could not have been so high nor the Wine of his joy so brisk when his Death drew near had it not been for his great acquaintance with him with whom he had ventured his all 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed how willing how ready how able to save me and what I have committed to him he is able to keep for me against that day Knowledg is so requisite to Faith that it 's once again put for Faith Isa 53.10 1 Cor. 2.2 Joh. 17.3 Phil. 3.8 9. but Ignorance is Faiths great hinderance Again Our Duty is to repent even pain of eternal perdition Luke 13.3 Matth. 11.22 23. But ignorance causeth men to omit this as well as the other Where there is a vail upon the Understanding there is ever a caul upon the Heart and Conscience As in the night season we have always the hardest Frosts and the coldest weather Therefore the Holy Ghost tells us when Israel shall repent and turn to the Lord The vail shall be taken away 2 Cor. 3.16 17. While the vail remains they are still turning more and more from God till wrath come upon them to the uttermost but when the Vail shall be taken away that they shall see the evil and mischief and loathsomeness and folly of those ways they have turned to and also for the beauty and amiableness and bounty and kindness of that God they have turned from then they will quickly return unto the Lord. Indeed men may thank their Ignorance for most of their Omissions especially the Heathen and many Christians who live in dark corners of the Land I and many who are as void and empty of Knowledge as the Heathen who live under the Gospel Many of these neglect Family-Duties Closet-Prayer a strict Sanctification of the Lords-Day edifying others to their power as opportunity is offer'd them and several others because they do not understand them to be their Duty Reader the cure of this must be for
matter Truly the less the matter is the greater is the malice that will offend and provoke God for it How great is the unkindness to stand with God for a trifle How little dost thou esteem thy God the God of all Consolation how little dost value his Love and Grace and Favour and endless fruition to part with all for little or nothing The less Reader the thing is for or about which thou sinnest the greater is thy Sin Believe it that by which thou wouldst excuse thy sin doth increase it It hath been formerly said If a man will break his faith it should be for a Kingdom for something of worth yet this Sinner were a loser though by breaking his Faith he could gain the whole Earth what then is that man who will lye and forswear himself for a peny Though no man should presume upon Sin because its present profit will be great yet there is more unkindness more folly and more sinfulness in sinning for a little Some like Eagles will not stoop at flies scorn to sin for a small matter others as Ants will be busie about the least dust will break the Law for a very little the former are bad the latter worse 6. The less they are the more they call for thy care and caution for they are the harder to be cured As a wound made with a Bodkin if deep is hardlier cured than a wound with a Sword because the Orifice is so small and presently almost closeth up and so the wound bleedeth inwardly often to the death of the Patient It 's much more difficult for the Mariner to avoid Quick-sands that are hurried hither and thither then known Rocks though Sands are small things and Rocks are great vast bodies Besides our proneness to despise and slight them causeth our more frequent falling into them as also our lying longer in them without repentance 7. Small Sins are not expiated without infinite satisfaction and must they then be dallied with there is more malignity in the least sin than the whole Creation can expel and more Venome than Men Angels can antidote against Friend consider it thou sayst they are little sins therefore I may live in them Did Christ die for them and wilt thou live in them Dost thou not know what prodigious drops of sweat what clods of blood what strong cries and groans and prayers the least Sins cost thy Redeemer Dost thou not know that their weight was so heavy as little and light as thou fanciest them to be that they pressed and bruised his blessed Body that they oppressed and amazed his blessed Soul yea that they made him who is valour and courage it self obedience and dutifulness it self love and pity it self to shrink and draw back and pray against his Duty to his Father and his own Mercy to fallen man and decline the very end and errand for which he came into the world Reader think of it As Austin saith what matters it whether a Ship be overwhelmed with one great Wave or sunk by a small Cranny in the bottom whereat the water enters drop by drop And else-where what easeth it a man to be pressed to death with an heap of small sand more than with a sow of lead or to be strangled with a pack-thread rather than with an halter Reader I would not have thee think any of thy sins little It 's unbecoming a Christian to entertain such a thought of his sins nay it greatens his sin for him to presume it is little As we should not lessen the Mercies of God but always think them great and too great for us and our selves less than the very least of them so we should never lessen our sins but judge the least of them great and the lightest of them heavy and every of them too great and too heavy for us to bear and upon these accounts loath and leave them Friend think of what I have said of little sins and certainly thou wilt be of another mind than to allow of them because they are little and rather reject them because they are sins Is there any thing that God hates but sin and must that be the Object of his hatred Is there any thing that offends God or grieves his Spirit but sin and will nothing delight and please thee but what provokes and displeaseth him 4. I answer that Omissions are not little sins I have already largely proved that in some respects and as they may be circumstantiated they may be much greater sins than sins of Commission Reader consider what is written in the danger of sins of Omission before the Uses and then judge whether they are little sins or no. Are they little sins which do most oppose the Mind and Will of God which make way for whole herds of Sins of Commission and which do exceedingly grieve the good Spirit of God Are those little sins which God complains of so frequently threatneth so severely and punisheth with such dreadful Judgments on their Bodies on their Souls in this World on both eternally in the other World without any remedy But Friend consider farther 1. Can that sin be little which denieth God the highest Honour and greatest Homage and chiefest Respect which the Creature oweth to him What is that which is the choicest Jewel in the Crown of his Glory whence do the greatest Revenews of his Honour flow Are not our highest esteem our hottest love or strongest trust and our most reverential awe of his sacred Majesty the best and the most we can give him and can the omission of these be a little sin The forbearance of Commissions is but the skirt and garment and out-side of that Obedience which we owe to God it is the giving up our hearts and souls to him in our most enlarged desires after him and spiritual delights in him and superlative valuation of him which he requireth of us and principally looks after Micah 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Surely if any sin be little it 's that which incroacheth least upon the honour of God not that which injures so greatly his Royal Prerogative He that robs his Soveraign of some petty goods cannot be so great a Transgressor as he who would rob him of his Crown and Kingdom 2. Is that a little sin which provoketh God to inflict the greatest punishment Either we must believe that God punisheth men more or less according to the nature of their offences whether greater or lesser or else we must accuse him of injustice The Apostle undertakes to prove him righteous because he renders to every man according to his works Rom. 2.5 6. If so where he inflicts the greatest Judgment there must be the greatest sin Now all Divines conclude the punishment of loss which they say is for our Omissions to be far greater than the punishment of sense which is for
away Sometimes I confess it may be prudence as circumstances may be when there is a probability of enjoying another season to defer it at present but usually it is best to take the present because future time is uncertain and then it may be said A price was in the hand of a Fool and he wanted an heart 3. That if it be evident that more hurt than good will be done by our present performance of our Duties we forbear and defer them For those Duties that do not bind us ad semper God leaves much to the wisdom of the faithful Christian as to the season of performing them 4. That a certain good at present must be chosen before an uncertain future good though greater than the former If I have a price now in my hands to do my self or Neighbour some good and neglect to improve it but defer it hoping hereafter for an opportunity of doing my self and Neighbour more good this is sinful I doubt not but Felix sinned in putting Paul off till another season though he had intended to hear him afterwards for his own greater profit which he was far enough from because he must know that his own lâ—â—e continuance in his Government and Paul's life were all at the pleasure of another not at his own Reader if thou art upright with God what is said will be sufficient but if out of the deceitfulness of thy heart thy plea be only a pretence for the total omission of thy Duty know assuredly that if thou canst find no season to do God Service he will find no season for thy Salvation CHAP. XLVI A third excuse for sins of Omission It is but one sin with the answer to it 3. A Third excuse which men have for sins of Omission is It is but one Duty I omit and I hope there is no such great danger in that Though I do not read the Word yet I pray though I examine not my own heart yet I read Scripture and mind prayer It is true I give not to the poor but I am painful in my Calling and provident 〈◊〉 my Family as God commandeth me What hurt can there be if some one secret Duty the omission of which cannot be scandalous should never be performed Surely God who knoweth our weak infirm nay wicked and dâ—praved natures cannot exspect universal Obedience to his positive or negative Commands He understands that Perfection is impossible to the humane nature since the Fall and therefore sent his Son into the World to take away the sins of it To cure the distemper of the brain for it 's a kind of phrensie which makes men argue after this rate consider 1. That there is a vast difference between thy being guilty of many sins and allowing thy self in one sin Grace may consist with the being of many sins in the same subject but not with the liking of one sin As the love of money is the root of all evil so is the love of Sin the root of all the evil that befals the Sinner He who knew he could not hinder the inherency of many sins yet desires and endeavours to prevent the regency of any one Sin Psal 119.132 Order my steps by thy Word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me Oserve not any iniquity 2. Consider that the Omission of one Duty may send thee to Hell as well as the Omission of many Duties One Knife one Sword one Bullet one blow may kill a man as well as a thousand If thou allowest thy self in one Omission thou art a Servant to this one Sin For his Servant thou art whom thou obeyest Rom. 6.16 and so the Devils Slave for he hath thee as fast by this one Chain as by many and consequently an Enemy and Rebel against God and accordingly shalt suffer eternally Thy Soul Friend is the price of every sin and when thou allowest thy self in any one thou dost implicitly though not expresly bargain with the Devil thy Master to sell him thy Soul for the wages of unrighteousness 1 King 21.20 One man in Law may keep possession and keep the right owner out of his Estate One sin may keep possession for Satan and hinder Jesus Christ from his Right I mean from sitting on the Throne and swaying the Scepter of thy Soul Wallowing in one puddle defiles the Body and tumbling in one piece of filthiness defiles the Soul One piece of ward-Land though but a quarter of an Acre makes a man liable to the King and brings in his whole Estate though he be worth thousands per annum Therefore Friend do not say it is but one sin and I may be bold with it but rather it is Sin and so mortal and I may not allow it As Christ gave himself to redeem thee from all iniquity Titus 2.14 So do thou give thy self to him in all manner of Duty How severely have some been punished for one Sin Moses for not sanctifying the Name of God at one time Eli for omitting to reprehend his Children according to their wickedness which was one Sin Aarons Sons for not fetching their fire from the Altar as some judge were struck dead Levit. 10.1 2. If the Righteous be recompenced on the Earth much more the Transgressor and the Sinner Take heed if Saul's sparing one Agag lost him his temporal thy sparing one Sin lose thee not the eternal Kingdom 3. This one Sin will not go alone thou mayst hope when thou hast opened the door for this one Sin to enter that thou canst presently shut and keep out its associates but it is impossible Sins are sociable and ever go in company First one evil Spirit takes possession of the man and then seven more worse than himself As there is a concatenation of Graces where one goeth all the rest follow 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8. so there is a concatenation of Sins 2 Tim. 3.2 3 4 5. They are so linkt one in another that as in a Chain the drawing of one link brings with that a second and that a third and that a fourth and all are drawn to the very end of the Chain When Dalilah had enticed and prevailed with Sampson then come the Lords of the Philistines and bind him and put out his eyes and set him to grind at the Mill and to make them sport When one sin by its flatteries hath deceived and possessed thy Soul then come others more potent and lordly to strengthen Satans hold and make way for others Any one sin allowed is a great-bellied Monster who hath a numerous brood in the Womb of it It doth insensibly harden the heart and strongly disposeth it for other Sins as one wedge makes way for another Who could have thought that David's idleness should be accompanied with so great and cursed a crew He who neglects Morning-Prayer is hereby disposed to neglect God in his Calling and to buy and sell and do all without his counsel Consider Friend if thou fall from the top of a