THE
1. THAT THERE IS A GOD, AND THIS GOD IS MOST GLORIOUS. |
2. THAT GOD MADE MAN IN A BLESSED ESTATE. |
3. MAN’S MISERY BY HIS FALL. |
4. CHRIST THE ONLY REDEEMER BY PRICE. |
5. THAT FEW ARE SAVED, AND THAT WITH DIFFICULTY. |
6. THAT MAN’S PERDITION IS OF HIMSELF. |
“Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life;
and few there be that find it.” -Matt 7:14
In these evil and perilous times, God hath not left us without some choice mercies. Our sins abound, and his mercies super-abound. The Lord might have justly spoken those words of death against us which of old he did against the Jews – I have taken away my peace from this people, loving kindness and mercies; which had he pulled from us, we had cause enough to mourn with Rachel, and to refuse comfort; for all our happiness lies wrapped up in peace, loving kindness, and mercy. But God is yet good unto Israel, (Ps. 73:1;) he command deliverance for Jacob, (Ps. 44:4;) he overrules all the powers of darkness, (Ps. 76:10,) and tells the sons of Belial (men of corrupt minds and cursed practice) that they shall proceed no further, but that their folly shall be made manifest unto all. (2 Tim. 3:8,9.) He makes all enemies, all devils, all creatures to further his own glory, and the good of his peculiar people. When times are naught and dangerous, he saith, Come, my people, enter into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, till the indignation be overpast. (Isa. 26:10.) If troubles threaten life, he saith, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flames kindle upon thee; for I am the Lord thy God.” (Isa. 43:3) When enemies are incensed, fears and sorrows multiplied, he saith, “Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee, I will help thee; yea, I will up hold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded, they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.” (Isa. 40:10,11.) Such words of comfort and life doth God speak unto his. And among other mercies, he stirs up the spirits of his servants to write many precious truths and tracts, to further the everlasting good of his beloved ones. If the bottomless pit be opened, and smoke rise thence, to darken the air and obscure the way of the saints, (Rev. 5:2,) heaven also is opened, (Rev. 11:19,) and there are lightnings and voices, to enlighten their spirits and direct their paths. Had ever any age such lightnings as we have? Did ever any speak, since Christ and his apostles, as men now speak? We may truly and safely say of our divines and writes, The voice of God, and not of man: such abundance of the Spirit hath God poured into some men, that it is not they, but the Spirit of the Father that speaks in them.
What infinite cause hath this age to acknowledge the unspeakable mercy of God in affording us such plenty of spiritual tractates, full of divine, necessary, and conscience-searching truths, yea, precious, soul-comforting, and soul-improving truths! Such whereby head, heart, and soul-cheating errors are discovered and prevented; such as soundly difference true grace from all seemings and paintings. No time, no nation exceeds us herein. And shall we, that abound in truths, be penurious in praises? Consider, reader, whether spiritual truths be not worthy of thy choicest praises. Every divine truth is one of God’s eternal thoughts; it is heaven born, and bears the image of God. Truth is the glory of the sacred Trinity. Hence the Spirit is called Truth, (John16:13,) Christ is called Truth, (John 14:6,) and God himself is said to be the God of truth. (Deut. 32:4.) It is so delightful to him, that his eyes are always upon the truth. (Jer 5:3.) And when the only-wise God would have men make a purchase, he counsels them to buy the truth. And is it not good counsel? Is it not a good purchase? Can you bestow your pains or lay out your money better? If you be dead in sins and trespasses, truth is the seed of a new life, of a heavenly birth. (James 1:18.) If you be in any bondage, truth can make you free. (John 8:32.) If compassed about with enemies, truth can shield thee. (PS. 91:4.) If you be full of filthy thoughts and lusts, or any impurities, the truth can sanctify you. (John 17:17.) If darkness and faintness possess your souls, truth is lumen et pabulum animoe- “the light and life of the soul.” (Ps. 119:105.)
Let us, then, advance our thoughts of truth, and rate it above all sublunary things, and buy it, though it cost us all. It is no simony, it is not too dear; you cannot overvalue truth. It is sister to the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. See how God himself estimates his word and truth. (Ps.138:2,) “Thou hast magnifies thy word above all thy name.” Whatsoever God is known by, beside his word, is beneath his word. Take the whole creation, which is God’s name in the greatest letters, it is nothing to his word and truth. Therefore Christ tells the Pharisees, it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail. If the least jot or tittle of the law be prized by God above all the world, let us take heed of undervaluing the great and glorious truths of the gospel, and settle it as a law upon our hearts that we can never overprize or yield sufficient praise for any truth. Men can praise God for the blessings of the field, the seas, the womb, and of their shops; but where is the man that praises God for his blessing of blessings. –for TRUTH- for good books, for heavenly treatises? Man seldom purposely lift up their hearts and voices to heaven, to praise God for the riches of knowledge bestowed upon them. In good books you have men’s labors and God’s truth. The tribute of thanks is due for both, that God enables man to so great labors, and that he conveys such precious treasures through earthen vessels. David thought it his duty to praise God for truth, (Ps. 138:2,) and hath left it on record for our imitation. He saw such excellency, and found so much sweet gain in truth, that he must break out in praises for it. Reader, give over thy old way of slighting and censuring men’s labors. Experience hath long since told thee, that no good comes that way. Now learn to turn thy prejudices into praises, and prove what will be the fruit of honoring and praising God for truths dispensed by his faithful servants. Let me tell thee, this is a chief way to keep truth still among us. If truths be not received with the love of them, and God honored for them, presently strong delusions come, and truth most suffer or fly. God hath made good that promise in Jeremy. He hath revealed unto us abundance of peace and truth; and we, through ingratitude, have forfeited both. Out peace is shaken; and who can promise himself, with Hezekiah, There shall be peace and truth in my days? Peace may fail thee, but let not truth. Every good Christian may and should say, with the good king, There shall be truth in my days, if not peace and truth. I will so far honor truth, as to receive the love of it. I will hold it fast by faith, hold it forth by practice, praise God daily for it, and venture all in defense if it. So did the martyrs, whose memory is sweet, and whose regard is great. It is better suffering for truth than with truth: yet if truth must suffer, or can die, better it is to die with truth than outlive it. But that truth may live, and we live by truth, let us magnify God much for truth, for his word and good books that spring thence. Some probably may say, It’s enough to praise God for his word. Other books are not tanti. Wilt thou praise God for the sea, and be unthankful for the rivers and springs? Wilt thou lift up thy voice for the great waters, and be silent for the silver drops and flowers? If the former rain effect thee, be not ungrateful for the latter. God would have man to value his servants, and praise him for their labors. But have they errors in them. Be it so. Shall we refuse to praise God for the flowers and the corn, because there be some weeds in the garden, and thistles in the field? Prejudice not thyself: buy, read, take thy delight. Here is a garden without weeds, a cornfield without cockle or darnel, thorn or thistle. Art thou a sincere convert? Here are truths suitable, solid, and wholesome. Thou mayest feed and feast without fear.
The author is one of singular piety, inward acquaintance with God, skilled in the deceits of men’s hearts, able to enlighten the dark corners of the little world, and to give satisfaction to staggering spirits. His work needs not the purple of another’s commendation to adorn it. But because custom, not necessity, (for it is truth’s prerogative to travel without a passport,) – I say, because custom causeth truth to crave and carry epistle commendatory, know that the work is weighty, quick, and spiritual. And if thine eye be single in perusing it, thou shalt find may precious, soul-searching, soul-quickening, and soul-enriching truths in it; yea, be so warned and awakened, as that thou canst not but bless God for the man and matter, unless thou be possessed with a dumb devil.
To conclude: Christian reader, take heed of unthankfulness. Spiritual mercies should have the quickest and fullest praises. Such is this work; thou foresawest it not, thou contributest nothing to the birth of it. It is preventing mercy. By it, and other of the same nature, God hath made knowledge to abound; the waters of the sanctuary are daily increased, and grown deep. Let not the waters of the sanctuary put out the fires of the sanctuary. If there be no praise, there is no fire. If thy head be like a winter sun, full of light, and heart like a winter’s earth, without fruit, fear lest thy light end in utter darkness, and the tree of knowledge deprive thee of the tree of life. The Lord grant thou mayest find such benefit by this work as that thy heart may be ravished with truth, and raised to praise God to purpose, and made to pray, Lord, still send forth thy light and truth, that they may lead us. So prays.
Thine in Christ,
W. GREENHILL.
The knowledge of divinity is necessary for all sorts of men- both to settle and establish the good, and to convert and fetch in the bad. God’s principles pull down Satan’s false principles set up in man’s head, loved and believed with men’s hearts, and defended by their tongues. Whilst strongholds remain unshaken, the Lord Jesus is kept off from conquering the soul.
Now, spiritual truths are either such as tend to enlarge the understanding, or such as may work chiefly upon the affections. I pass by (in this knowing age) the first of these, and, being among a people whose hearts are hard enough, I begin with the latter sort; for the understanding, although it may literally, yet it never savingly, entertains any truth, until the affections be herewith smitten and wrought upon.
I shall, therefore, here prosecute the unfolding of these divine principles:-
First, that there is one most glorious God.
Secondly, that this God made all mankind at first in Adam in a most glorious estate.
Fourthly, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only means of redemption of this estate.
Fifthly, that those that are saved out of this woeful estate by Christ are very few, and that these few are saved with much difficulty.
Sixthly, that the greatest cause why so many die and perish in this estate is from themselves: either,-
1. By reason of their bloody ignorance, they know not their misery; or,-
2. By reason of their carnal security, they feel not, they groan not under their sin and misery.
3. By reason of their carnal confidence, they seek to help themselves out of their misery by their own duties, when they see or feel it; or,-
4. By
reason of their false faith, whereby they catch hold upon, and trust unto, the
merits of Christ too soon, when they see and feel they cannot help themselves.
Exodus 33:18, “I beseech thee, show me thy glory.”
This is the first divine truth, and there are these two parts considerable in it: –
1. That there is a God.
2. That this God is most glorious.
I will begin with the first part, and prove, omitting many philosophical arguments, that there is a God – a true God; for every nation almost in this world, until Christ’s coming, had a several god. Some worshipped the sun, some the moon, – called by Ezekiel the Queen of Heaven, which some made cakes unto,- some the whole heavens, some worshipped the fire, some the brute beasts, some Ball, and some Molech. The Romans, saith Varro, had six thousand gods; who, imprisoning the light of nature, were given up to sins against nature, either to worship idols of man’s invention, as the ignorant, or God and angels in those idols, as the learned did. But these are all false gods.
I am now to provide that there is one true God, the Being of beings, or the first Being. Although the proving of this point seems needless, because everyman runs with the cry and faith, There is a God, yet few thoroughly believe this point. Many of the children of God, who are best able to know men’s hearts, because they only study their hearts, feel this temptation, Is there a God? bitterly assaulting them sometimes. The devil will sometimes undermine, and seek to blow up, the strongest walls and bulwarks. The light of nature indeed shows that there is a God; but how many are there that, by foul sins against their conscience, blow out and extinguish almost all the light of nature! And hence, though they dare not conclude, because they have some light, though dim, if they saw their heart, they might see it secretly suspect and question whether there be a God. But grant that none questions this truth, yet we that are builders must not fall to a work without our main props and pillars. It may appear, therefore, that there is a God from these grounds: –
First, from the works of God. (Rom. 1:20.) When we see a stately house, although we see not the man that built it, although also we know not the time when it was built, yet will we conclude thus: Surely some wise artificer hath been working here. Can we, when we behold the stately theater of heaven and earth, conclude other but that the finger, arms, and wisdom of God hath been here, although we see not him that is invisible, and although we know not the time when he began to build? Every creature in heaven and earth is a loud preacher of this truth. Who set those candles, those torches of heaven, on the table? Who hung out those lanterns in heaven to enlighten a dark world? Who can make the statue of a man, but one wiser that the stone out if which it was hewn? Could any frame a man but one wiser and greater than man? Who taught the birds to build their nest, and bees to set up and order their commonwealth? Who sends the sun post from one end of heaven to the other, carrying so many thousand blessings to so many thousands of people and kingdoms? What power of man or angels can make the least pile of grass, or put life into the least fly, if once dead? There is, therefore, a power above all created power, which is God.
Secondly, from the word of god. There is a majesty stirring, and such secrets revealed in the word, that, if men will not be willfully blind, they cannot but cry out, “The voice of God, and not the voice of man.” Hence Calvin undertakes to prove the Scripture to be the word of God by reason, against all atheists under heaven. Hast thou not thought sometimes, at a sermon, the minister hath spoken to none but thee, and that some or other hast told the minister what thou hast said, what thou hast done, what thou hast thought? Now, that word which tells thee the thoughts of thy heart can be nothing else but the word of an all-seeing God, that searcheth the heart.
Again: that word which quickeneth the dead is certainly God’s word; but the word of God ordinarily preached quickeneth the dead; it maketh the blind to see, the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk, those that never felt their sins to load them to mourn , those that never could pray to breathe out utterable groans and sighs for their sins.
Thirdly, from the children of begotten God; for we may read men’s foreheads, as soon as ever they are born, the sentence of death; and we may see by men’s lives what hellish hearts they have. Now, there is a time that some of this monstrous brood of men are quite changed, and made all new; they have new minds, new opinions, new desires, new joys, new sorrows, new speeches, new prayers, new lives, and such a difference there is betwixt these and others, that they are hates by others, who loved them while they loves their sins. And whence came this strange change? Is it from themselves? No; for they hated this new life and these new men once themselves. Is it because they would be credited thereby? No; it is to be hated of father, mother, friends, and maligned every where. Is it out of simplicity, or are their brains grown crazy? They were indeed once fools, and I can prove them all to be Solomon’s fools; but even simple men have been made new. But lastly, is it now from a slavish fear of hell, which works this alteration? Nothing less; they abhor to live like slaves in Bridewell, to do all for fear of the whip.
Fourthly, from God’s register, or notary, which is in every man; I mean, the conscience of man, which telleth them there is a God; and although they silence it sometimes, yet in time of thunder, or some great plague, as Pharaoh, or at the day of death, then they are near God’s tribunal, when they acknowledge him clearly. The fearful terrors of conscience prove this, which , like a bailiff, arrests men for their debts; ergo, there is some creditor to set it on: sometimes, like a hangman, it torments men; ergo, there is some strange judge that gave it that command. Whence arise these dreadful terrors in men? Of themselves? No surely; all desire to be in peace, and so to live and sleep in a whole skin. Comes it from melancholy? No; for melancholy comes on by degrees; these terrors of conscience surprise the soul suddenly at a sermon, suddenly after the commission of some secret foul sin. Again: melancholy sadness may be cured by physic; but many physicians have given such men over to other physicians. Melancholy sadness may be borne, but a wounded spirit who can bear? Thus you see that there is a God.
Objection. Who ever saw God, that every one is thus bold to affirm that there is a God?
Answer. Indeed, his face never was seen by mortal man, but his back parts have been seen, are seen, and may be seen by all the world, as hath been proved.
Object. All things are brought to pass by second causes.
Ans 1. What though? Is there no master in the house, because the servants do all the work? This great God maintains state by doing all the creatures subjection; yet sometimes we may cry out in beholding some special pieces of his administration, Here is the finger of God.
2. What though there be such confusion in the world as that shillings stand for pence, and counters stand for pounds, the best men are bought and sold at a low rate, and worst men prized and preferred; yet if we had eyes to see and conceive, we should see a harmony in this discord of things. God is now like a wise carpenter, but hewing out his work. There is a lumber and confusion seemingly among us; let us stay till the day of judgment, and then we shall see infinite wisdom in fitting all this for his own glory, and for the good of his people.
Object. But if there be a God, why hears he not his people’s prayers? Why doth he forget them when they have most need of him?
I answer, Noah’s dove returns not presently with an olive branch of peace in his mouth. Prayer sometimes that speeds well returns not presently, for want of company enough to fetch away that abundance of mercy which God hath to give. The Lord ever gives them their asking in money worth, in the same thing or better. The Lord ever gives his importunate beggars their desires, either in pence by little and little, or by pounds; long he is many times before he gives, but payeth them well for their waiting.
This is a use of reproof to all atheist either in opinion or practice.
First. In opinion; such as either conclude or suspect there is no God. O, blasphemous thoughts! Are there any such men? Men! Nay, beasts; nay, devils; nay, worse than devils, for they believe and tremble. Yet the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God (Ps. 14:1.) Men that have little heads, little knowledge, without hearts, as scholars sometimes of weak brains, being guided only by their books, seeing how things come by second causes, yet cannot raise their dull thoughts to the beholding of a first cause. Great politicians are like children, always standing on their heads, and shaking their heels against heaven: these think religion to be but a piece of policy, to keep people in awe: profane persons desiring to go on in sin, without any rub or check for sin, blow out all the light of nature, wishing there were no God to punish, and therefore willing to suspect and scruple that not to be which indeed is. Those also that have sinned secretly, though not openly against nature, or the light of conscience. God smites men for incest, sodomy, self-pollution, with dismal blindness. Those also that are notorious worldlings, that look no higher than their barns, no farther than their shops; the world is a pearl in their eye; they cannot see a God.
Lastly. I suspect those men that never found out this thief, this sin, that was bred and born with them, nor saw it in their own hearts, but there it lies still in some dark corner of their souls, to cut their throats – these kind of men sometimes suspect there is no God. O, this is grievous sin! For if no God, no heaven, no hell, no martyrs, no prophets, no Scriptures. Christ was then a horrible liar, and an imposter. Other sins wrong and grieve God, and wound him, but this sin stabs the very heart of God; it strikes at the life, and is (as much as lies in sinful man) the death of God; for it saith, There is no God.
Secondly. This reproveth atheists in practice, which say there is a God, and question it not, but in works they deny him. He that plucks the king from his throne is as vile as he that saith he is no king. These men are almost as bad as atheists in opinion. And of such dust heaps we may find in every corner, that in their practice deny God; men that set up other gods in God’s room; their wealth, their honor, their pleasure, their backs and bellies to be their gods; men that make bold to do against this true God which idolaters dare not do against their idol gods; and that is, continually to wrong this God; men that seek not for all they want by prayer, nor return all back again to God by praise.
A second use is, for exhortation. O, labor to see and behold this God. Is there a God and wilt thou not give him a good look? O, pass by all the rivers, till thou come to the spring head; wade through all creatures, until thou art drowned, plunged and swallowed up with God. When thou tastest sweetness in the creature, or in God’s ordinances, say, Where is sweetness itself, beauty itself? Where is the sea of these drops, the sun of these beams? O that men saw this God! it’s Heaven to behold him; and yet what is less known than God? Methinks, when men hear there is a God about them, they should lie groveling in the dust, because of his glory. If men did see him, they would speak of him. Who speaks of God? Nay, men can not speak to God; but as beggars nave learnt to cant, so many a man to pray. O, men see not God in prayer; therefore the can not speak to God by prayer. Men sin and God frowns, (which makes the devils to quake;) yet men’s hearts shake not, because they see him not.
Use 3. O, make choice of this God as thy God. What though there be a God; if it be not thy God, what art thou better? Down with all thy idol gods, and set up this God. If there be any creature that ever did thee any good, that God set not a work for thy good, love that; think on that as thy God. If there be any thing that can give thee succor on thy death bed, or when thou art departed from this world, take that to be thy God. Thou mightest have been born in India, and never have heard the true God, but worshiped the devil for thy god. O, therefore, make choice for him alone to be thy God; give away thyself wholly and forever to him, and he will give away his whole self everlasting unto thee. Seek him weeping, and thou shalt find him. Bind thyself by the strongest oaths and bonds in covenant to be his, and he will enter into covenant with thee, and so be thine. (Jer 1:3,5.)
The fourth use is, a use of comfort to them that forsake all for this God. Thou hast not lost all for nought, thou hast not cast away substance for shadow, but shadows for somewhat. (Prov. 8:18.) When all comfort is gone, there is a God to comfort thee. When thou hast no rest here, there is a God to rest in; when thou art dead, he can quicken thee; when thou art weak, he is strong; and when friends are gone, he will be a sure one to thee.
Thus much of the first part of this doctrine, or divine truth, That there is a God. Now, it followeth to show you that this God is a most glorious God, and that in four things he is glorious.
1. In
his essence.
2. In his attributes.
3. In his persons.
4. In his works.
1. He is glorious in his essence. Now, what this glory is no man or angel hath, doth, or ever shall know; their cockle shell can never comprehend this sea; he must have the wisdom of God, and so be a God, that comprehendeth what it is, yet it may be apprehended that it is incomprehensible and glorious; which makes his glory to be the more admired, as we admire the luster of the sun the more in that it is so great we can not behold it.
2. God is glorious in his attributes, which are those divine perfections whereby he makes himself known unto us. Which attributes are not qualities in God, but natures. God’s wisdom is God himself, and God’s power is God himself, etc. Neither are they divers things in God, but they are divers only in regard of our understanding, and in regard of their different effects in different objects. God punishing the wicked is the justice of God; God compassionating the miserable is the mercy of God.
Now, the attributes of God, omitting curious divisions, are these: –
1. He is a Spirit, or spiritual God, (John 4:24;) therefore abhors all worship, and all duties performed without the Spirit; as to confess sins without shame or sorrow, and to say the Lord’s prayer without understanding – to hear the word that thou mayest only know more, and not that thou mayest affect more – O, these carcasses or holy duties are most odious sacrifices before God.
2. He is a living God, whereby he liveth of himself, and gives life to all other things. Away, the, with thy dead heart to this principle of life to quicken thee, that his almighty power may pluck thee out of thy sepulcher, unloose thy grave clothes, that so thou mayest live.
3. He is an infinite God, whereby he is without limits of being. 2 Chron. 6:18.) Horrible, then, is the least sin that strikes an infinite, great God, and lamentable is the estate of all those with whom God is angry; thou hast infinite goodness to forsake thee, and infinite power and wrath to set against thee.
4. He is an eternal God, without beginning or end of being. (Ps. 80:1.) Great, therefore, is the folly of those men that prefer a little short pleasure before this eternal God; that, like Esau, sell away an everlasting inheritance for a little pottage – for a base lust and the pleasure or it.
5. He is an all-sufficient God. (Gen 17:1.) What lack you, therefore? You would fain have this God, and the love of this God, but you are loath to take the pains to find him, or to be at cost to purchase him with the loss of all? Here is infinite, eternal, present sweetness, goodness, grace, glory, and mercy to be found in this God. Why post you from mountain to hill, why spend you your money, your thoughts, time, endeavors, on things that satisfy not? Here is thy resting-place. Thy clothes may warm thee, but they can not feed thee; thy meat may feed thee, but can not heal thee; thy physic may heal thee, but can not maintain thee; thy money may maintain thee, but can not comfort thee when distresses of conscience and anguish of heart come upon thee. This God is joy in sadness, light in darkness, life in death, heaven in hell. Here is all thine eye ever saw, thine heart ever desired, thy tongue ever asked, thy mind ever conceived. Here is all light in this sun, and all water in this sea, out of whom, as out of a crystal fountain, thou shalt drink down all the refined sweetness of all creatures in heaven and earth forever and ever. All the world is now seeking and tiring out themselves for rest; here only can it be found.
6. He is and omnipotent God, whereby he can do whatever he will. Yield, therefore, and stand not out in the sinful or subtle close maintenance of any one sin against this God so powerful, who can crush thee at his pleasure.
7. He is an all-seeing God. He knows what possibly can be or may be known: approve thyself, therefore, to this God only, in all thy ways. It is no matter what men say, censure, or think of thee. It is no matter what thy fellow-actors on this stage of the world imagine. God is the great Spectator that beholds thee in every place. God is thy Spy, and takes complete notice of all the actions of thy life; and they are in print in heaven, which that great Spectator and Judge will open at the great day, and read aloud in the ears of all the world. Fear to sin, therefore, in secret, unless thou canst find out some dark hole where the eye of god can not discern thee. Mourn for thy secret neglect of holy duties; mourn for they secret hypocrisy, whoredom, profaneness, and, with shame in thy face, come before this God for pardon and mercy. Admire and wonder at his patience, that, having seen thee, hath not damned thee.
8. He is a true God; whereby he means to do as he saith. Let every child of God, therefore, know to his comfort, that whatever he hath under a promise, shall one day be all made good; and let all wicked men know, whatever threatening God hath denounced, whatsoever arrows are in the bowstring, will one day fly and hit, and strike deep, and the longer the Lord is a-drawing, the deeper wound will God’s arrow (that is, God’s threatening) make.
9. He is a holy God. Be not ashamed, therefore, or holiness, which if it ascend above the common strain of honesty, the blind and mad world accounts it madness. If the righteous (that is, those that be most holy) be scarcely saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (I Pet. 4:18.) Where? Not before saints nor angels, for holiness is their trade; not before the face of the man Christ Jesus, for holiness was his meat and drink; not before the face of a blessed God, for holiness is his nature; not in heaven, for no unclean thing crawls there; they shall never see God, Christ, saints, angels, or heaven to their comfort, that are not holy. Wear, therefore, that as they crown now, which will be thy glory in heaven; and if this be to be vile, be more vile.
10. He is a just and merciful God; just in himself, and so will punish all sin; merciful in the face of Christ, and so will punish no sin, having already borne our punishments for them. A just God against a hard-hearted sinner, a merciful God towards a humble sinner. God is not all mercy and no justice, nor all justice and no mercy. Submit to him, his mercy embraceth thee. Resist him, his justice pursues thee. When a child of God is humbled indeed, commonly he makes God a hard-hearted, cruel God, loath to help; and saith, Can such a sinner be pardoned? A wicked man, that was never humbles, makes God a God of lies – one that (howsoever he speaks heavy words, yet he is a merciful God and) will not do as he saith, and he finds it no difficulty work to believe the greatest sin may be pardoned. Conceive, therefore, of him as you have heard.
Thirdly. God is glorious in his persons, which are three: Father begetting, Son begotten, and the Holy Ghost, the third person proceeding. Here the Father is called the Father of glory, (Eph.1.;) Christ is called the Lord of glory, (I Cor.2;) and the Spirit is called the Spirit of glory, (I Pet. 4.)
The Father is glorious in his great work election; the Son is glorious in his great work redemption; the Holy Ghost is glorious in his work of application: the Father is glorious in choosing the house, the Son is glorious in buying the house, the Spirit is glorious in dwelling in the house – that is, the heart of a poor, lost sinner.
4. He is glorious in his works – in his works of creation, and in his works of providence and government. Wonder, therefore, that he should so vouchsafe to look upon such worms, such dunghills, such lepers as we are; to provide, protect, to slay his Son; to call, to strive, to wait, to give away himself and all that he is worth, to us. O, fear this God when you come before him. People come before God in prayer as before their fellows, or as before an idol. People tremble not at his voice in the word. A king or monarch will be served in state; yet how rudely, how slovenly do men go about every holy duty! Thus much of the first principle head, That there is one most glorious God. Now we are to proceed to the second.
For the opening of which assertion I have chosen this text, (Eccl 7:29,) God made man righteous; which clearly demonstrates, –
That God made all mankind at first in Adam, in a most glorious, happy, and righteous estate. Man, when he came first out of God’s mint, shined most glorious. There is a marvelous glory in all creatures, (the servants and household stuff of man;) therefore, there was a greater glory in man himself, the end of them. God called a parliament, and gathers a council, when man was to be made; and said, “Come, let us make man in our own image,” as though all the wisdom of the Trinity should be seen in the creation of man.
Wherein did the glory and blessedness of man appear?
In the impression of God’s image upon him. (Gen. 1:26.) Can there be any greater glory for a Joseph, for a subject, than to be like his prince?
What was the image of God?
The schoolmen and fathers have many curious (yet some necessary) though difficult questions about this. I will omit all theirs, and tell you only what is the apostle’s judgment, (Col. 3:20,) out of which this general description of God’s image may be thus gathered: It is It is man’s perfection of holiness, resembling God’s admirable holiness, whereby only man pleaseth God.
For all other inferior creatures did carry the marks and footsteps of God’s power, wisdom, goodness, whereby all these attributes were seen. One of the most perfect attributes, his holiness, he would have men only appear in, and be made manifest by man, his best inferior creature, as a king’s wisdom and bounty appears in managing the affairs of all his kingdom; but his royal, princely, and most eminent perfections appear in the face and disposition of his Son, next under him. But more particularly this image appeared in these four particulars: –
1. In man’s understanding. This was like unto God’s. Now, God’s image here chiefly consisted in this particular, viz.: As God saw himself, and beheld his own infinite, endless glory and excellency, so man was privy to God’s excellency, and saw God most gloriously; as Moses, though a sinful man, saw him face to face, much more Adam, a perfect man. God, loving man, could do no less than reveal himself to man.
2. In his affections. The image of God chiefly appeared in two things: –
First. As God, seeing himself, loved himself, so Adam, seeing God, loved this God more than the world, more than himself. As iron put into the fire seems to be nothing but fire, so Adam, being beloved of God, was turned into a lump of love, to love God again.
Secondly. As God delighted in himself, so did Adam delight in God, took sweet repose in the bosom of God. Methinks I see Adam rapt up in continual ecstasies in having this God.
3. In his will. The image of God chiefly appeared in two things: –
First. As God only willed himself as his last end, so did Adam will God as his last end, not as man doth now.
Secondly. As God willed nothing but good, so did Adam will nothing, though not immutably, but good; for God’s will was his.
4. In his life, God’s image did appear thus: that, even as God, if he had assume man’s nature, would have lived outwardly, so did Adam; for God would have lived according to his own will, law, and rule: so did Adam. Adam’s body was the lantern through which holiness, like a lamp burning in his heart, shined. This was God’s image, by means of which, as it is said in the description, he pleased God, similitude being the ground of love; and hence God did most dearly love him, and highly honor him to be Lord over all creatures. No evil (continuing in that estate) could hurt him; here was no sorrow, no sickness, to tears, no fears, no death, no hell, nor ever should have been if there he had stood.
Objection. How was this estate ours?
Answer. As Christ’s righteousness is a believer’s by imputation, though he never performed it himself, so Adam’s righteousness and image was imputed to us, and accounted ours; for Adam received our stock or patrimony to keep it for us, and to convey it to us. Hence, he proving bankrupt, we lost it. But we had it in his hands, as an orphan may have a great estate left him, though he never received one penny from him that was his guardian, that should have kept it for him, and conveyed it to him.
Here se the horrible nature of sin, that plucks man down by the ears from his throne, from his perfection, though never so great. Adam might have pleaded for himself, and have said, Although I have sinned, yet it is but one and the first fault. Lord, behold, I am thy first born. O, pity my poor posterity, who are forever undone if thou forgivest not. Yet see, one sin weighs him down and all his posterity, as we shall hear, into eternal ruin.
Hence learn how justly God may require perfect obedience to all the law of every man, and curse him if he can not perform it, because man was at first made in such a glorious estate, where in he had power given him to please God perfectly. God may, therefore, require this debt of perfect obedience. Now man is broke, and in prison; in hell he must lie forever, if he can not pay justice every farthing, because God trusted him with a stock which if he had well improved, he might have paid all.
See what cause every man hath to lament his miserable estate he is now fallen into. For beggars’ children to live vagrants and poor is not so lamentable as for a great prince’s children to become such. One never in favor of the prince grieves not as he doth that was once in favor, but now cast out. Man is now rejected of God that was beloved of God. He is now a runagate up and down the earth that was once a prince and lord of all the world. This is one aggravation of the damned’s sorrow. O, hopes, the means, the mercies that I once had! Can these, do these lament for the loss of their hopes and common mercies? Lord, what heart, then, have men that can not, do not, that will not lament the loss of such a special high favors, now gone, which once they had? It is said that those that saw the glory of the first temple wept when they saw the glory of the second, and how inferior it was to the first. You that either have the temple of God begun to repair in you, or not begun at all, O, think of the temple burnt, the glory of God now vanished and lost.
This speaks comfort to all God’s people. If all Adam’s posterity were perfectly righteous in him, then thou art of the blood royal, and in Christ art perfectly righteous in him much more, inasmuch as the righteousness of the second Adam exceeds the first, so art thou more happy, more holy in the second Adam than ever the first in himself was. He might lose all his righteousness; but the second Adam can not, hath not; so that, if Christ may be damned, the thou mayest; else not.
This likewise reproveth three sorts of people: –
1. Such as are ashamed of holiness. Lord, what times are we fallen into now? The image of God, which was once men’s glory, is now their shame; and sin, which is men’s shame, is now their glory. The world hath raised up many false reports of holy courses, calling folly and preciseness, pride, hypocrisy, and that, whatsoever shows men may make, they are as bad as the worst, if their sins were writ in their foreheads. Hence it cometh to pass that many a man, who is almost persuaded to be a new man, and to turn over a new leaf, dares not, will not, for shame of the world, enter upon religious courses. What will they think of me then? Saith he. Men are ashamed to refuse to drink healths, and hence maintain them lawful. Our gallants are ashamed to stay a mile behind the fashion; hence they will defend open and naked breasts and strange apparel, as things comely. O, time servers! That have some conscience to desire to be honest, and to be reputed so, yet conform themselves to all companies. If they hear others swear, they are ashamed to reprove them; they are ashamed to enter the lists of holy discourse in bad company; and they will pretend discretion, and we must not cast pearls before swine; but the bottom of the business is, they are ashamed to be holy. O, fearful! Is it a shame to be like God? O, sinful wretches! It is a credit to be any thing but religious, and, with many, religion is a shame. I wonder with what face thou darest pray, or with what look thou wilt behold the Lord of glory at the last day, who art ashamed of him now, that will be admired of all men, angels, and devils then? Dost thou look for wages from Christ that art ashamed to own Christ, or to wear his livery?
2. It reproves them that hate holiness, which is more than to be ashamed of it.
3. It reproves them that content themselves with a certain measure of holiness. Perfect holiness was Adam’s image, whereby he pleased God; and shall a little holiness content thee?
Now, there are these three sorts of them: –
1. The formalist, who contents himself with some holiness, as much as will credit him.
The form and name of religion is honos, honor sometimes; but the power and practice of it is onus, a burden; hence men take up the first, and shake off the second. And indeed the greatest part take up this course: if they have no goodness, they should be the shame, scorn, and table talk of the times; therefore every man will, for his honor’s sake, have this form. Now, this form is according to the mold wherein he is cast. If his acquaintance be but civil, he will be like them; if they be more exact, as to pray , read, confer, he will not stay one inch behind them. If to be better than his companions, to bear the bell before them, will credit him, he will be so, whatever it cost him; but yet he will never be so exact in his course as to be hated for it, unless he perceives the hatred he contracts from some men shall be recompensed with the more love and credit by other men. He disguiseth himself according to the places or company he comes into. King Joash was a good man so long as Jehoiada the priest lived. If a little religion will serve to credit men, that shall serve for the time; if more in another place, you shall then have them commending good men, good sermons, good books, and drop forth two or three good sentences. What will they think of him then? They cover themselves over with these fig leaves of common honesty to cover their nakedness; they bait all their courses over with honesty, that they may catch, for they fish only for credit. One may trap these people thus: Follow them into their private houses, there is worldliness, passion, looseness; and to their private chambers, there they ordinarily neglect or snuffle over duties to their private vain thoughts. In this trying house you shall them see these stage players; their shop windows are shut; here no honesty is to be seen scarce, because their gain, their respect, comes not in at this door, where none beholds them. Let either minister or any faithful friend search, try, discover, accuse, and condemn these men as rotten, though gilded, posts, as unsound, hollow-hearted wretches, their hearts will swell like toads, and hiss like snakes, and bark like dogs, against them that thus censure them, because they rob them of their God they served, their gain is gone.
2. The guilty, self-condemned sinner, that goes further than the formalist, and contents himself with so much holiness as will quite him; and hence all the heathen have had some religion, because they had some conscience to trouble them. This man, if he hath lived in fouls sins, and began to be racked and troubled for them, he will them confess and forsake those sins. But how? As a dog doth his meat; not because he hates his carrion, but because he fears the cudgel. He performs holy duties, not because he will use them, but because he must use them; there is no quiet else. If conscience be still, he omits duties; if conscience cry and stir, he falls to duties, and so hath his good mood as conscience hath his fits. They boast and crow over hypocrites, because the holiness they have is not a bare show. No; but it is to stop thy conscience, and only to quiet the clamors of that. Thou dost bribe, and so quiet (the bailiff) thy conscience, by thy praying, hearing, and sorrowing; but God, thy Judge, hath heavy things to lay at thy charge, before whom thou shalt shortly with dread appear.
3. The pining and devout hypocrite, that, being pursued with the fear of hell, goes further, and labors for just so much holiness as will save him only, and carry him to heaven at last. Hence the young man in the gospel came with that great question to Christ, which many unsound hearts come with to ministers now – what he should do to inherit eternal life. These people set up such a man in their thoughts to be a very honest man, and one doubtless that shall be saved; and hence they will take him to be their copy and sampler, and labor to do as he doth, and to live just as he lives, and to hold opinions as he holds, and so hope to be saved. They will ask, very inquisitively, What is the least measure of grace, and the least grain of faith? And the best sermons are not such as humble them most, but such as flatter them best; wherein they may hear how well good desires are accepted of by God; which if they hear to be of that virtue to save them, God shall be served only with good desires, and the devil in their actions all their lives.
Thus they make any thing serve for God; they labor not after so much holiness as will honor Christ, but after just so much as will bear their charges to heaven, and save themselves. For this is one of the greatest differences betwixt a child of God and a hypocrite. In their obedience, the one takes up duties out of love to Christ, to have him; and hence he mourns daily, because Christ is no greater gainer by him; the other out of love to himself, merely to save his own soul; and hence he mourns for his sins, because they may damn him. Remember that place, therefore, I Cor 15. ult.
Lastly. Labor to get this image of God renewed again. Honest men will labor to pay their debts; this is God’s debt. How do men labor to be in the fashion! Better to be out of the world than to be out of the fashion. To be like God is heaven’s fashion, angles’ fashion, and it will be in fashion one day, when the Lord Jesus shall appear; then, if thou hast the superscription and image of the devil, and not the image of God upon thee, God and Christ will never own thee at that day. Labor, therefore, to have God’s image restored again, and Satan’s wash out; seek not, as many do, to purchase such and such a grace first.
But, –
1. Labor to mortify and subdue that sin which is opposite in thine heart to that grace. First put off the old man, and then put on the new. (Eph. 4.)
2. Labor for a melting, tender heart for the least sin. Gold is then only fit to receive the impression when it is tender and is melted; when thine heart is heated, therefore, at a sermon cry out, Lord, now strike, now imprint thine image upon me!
3. Labor to see the Lord Jesus in his glory. For as wicked men, looking upon the evil example of great ones in the world, that will bear them out, grow like them in villainy, so the very beholding the glorious grace in Christ, this great Lord of glory, transformeth men into this image. (2 Cor. 3:17,18.) As the glass, set full against the sun, receives not only the beams, as all other dark bodies do, but the image of the sun, so the understanding, with open face beholding Christ, is turned into the image and likeness of Christ. Men nowadays look only to be the best men’s lives, and see how they walk, and rest here. O, look higher to this blessed face of God in Christ as thine own. As the application of the seal to the wax imprints the image strongly on the soul. I come now to the third principle head in order, which I shall insist upon, out of Rom. 3:23: “All have sinned and deprived of the glory of God.”
The devil abusing the serpent, and man abusing his own free will, overthrew Adam, and in him all his posterity, by sin. (Gen. 3:1-3 etc.)
Now, man’s misery appears in these two things: –
1. His misery in regard of sin.
2. His misery in regard of the consequences of sin.
1. His misery in regards of sin appears in these particulars: –
1. Every man living is born guilty of Adam’s sin. Now, the justice and equity of God, in laying this sin to every man’s charge, though none of Adam’s posterity personally committed it, appears thus:
First. If Adam standing, all mankind had stood, then it is equal, that he falling, all his posterity should fall. Our estates were ventures in this ship; therefore, if we should have been partakers of his gains, if he had continued safe, it is fit we should be partakers of his loss too.
But, secondly. We are all in Adam, as a whole country in a parliament man; the whole country doth what he doth. And although we made no particular choice of Adam to stand for us, yet the Lord made it for us; who, being goodness itself, bears more good will to man than he can or could to himself; and being wisdom itself, made the wisest choice, and took the wisest course for the good of man. For this made most for men’s safety and quiet; for if he had stood, all fear of losing our happy estate had vanished; whereas, if everyman had been left to stand or fall for himself, a man would ever have been in fear of falling.
And again: this was the sure way to have all men’s states preserved; for having the charge of the estates of all men that ever should be in the world, he was the more pressed to look the more about him, and so to be more watchful, that he be not robbed, and so undo and procure the curses of so many thousands against him. Adam was the head of mankind, and all mankind naturally are members of that head; and if the head invent and plot treason, and the head practice treason against the king or state, the whole body is found guilty, and the whole body must needs suffer. Adam was the poisoned root and cistern of all mankind: now, the branches and streams being in the root and spring originally, they therefore are tainted with the same poisoned principles. If these things satisfy not, God hath a day coming wherein he will reveal his own righteous proceedings before men and angels. (Rom.2:4.)
O that men would consider this sin, and that the consideration of it could humble people’s hearts! If any mourn for sin, it is for the most part for other foul actual sins; few for this sin which first made the breach, and begun the controversy betwixt God and man. Next unto the sin against the Holy Ghost, and contempt of the gospel, this is the greatest sin that crieth loudest in God’s ears for vengeance, day and night, against a world of men. For now men’s sins are against God in their base and low estates; but this sin was committed against Jehovah, when man was at the top of his preferment. Rebellion of a traitor on a dunghill is not so great as of a favorite in court. Little sins against light are made horrible. No sin, by any man committed, was ever against so much light as Adam had. This sin was the first that ever displeased God. Drunkenness deprives God of the glory of sobriety; whoring, of chastity; but this sin darkens the very sun, defaces all the image of God, the glory of man, and the glory of God in man; this is the first sin ever did thee mischief. This sin, like a captain, hath gathered all those troops and swarms of sins that now take hold upon thee. Thank this sin for a hard heart thou so much complainest of; thank this sin for that hellish darkness that overspreads thee. This hath raised Satan, death, judgment, hell, and heaven against thee.
O, consider these sins that are packed up in this evil. 1. Fearful apostasy from God like a devil. 2. Horrible rebellion against God in joining sides with the devil, and taking God’s greatest enemies’ part against God. 3. Woeful unbelief, in suspecting God’s threats to be true. 4. Fearful blasphemy in conceiving the devil (God’s enemy and man’s murderer) to be more true in his temptations than God in his threatenings. 5. Horrible pride, in thinking to make this sin of eating the forbidden fruit to be a step and a stair to rise higher, and to be like God himself. 6. Fearful contempt of God, making bold to rush upon the sword of the threatening secretly, not fearing the plague denounced. 7. Horrible unthankfulness, when God had given him all but one tree, and yet he must be fingering that too. 8. Horrible theft, in taking that which was none of his own. 9. Horrible idolatry, in doting upon and loving the creature more than God the Creator, who is blessed forever.
You, therefore, that now say, No man can say, Black is your eye, you have lived civilly all your days, look upon this one grievous sin, take a full view of it, which thou hast never shed one tear for as yet, and see thy misery by it, and wonder at God’s patience; he hath spared they who wast born branded with it, and hast lived guilty of it, and must perish forever for it, if the Lord from heaven pity thee not.
But here is not all. Consider, secondly, everyman is born stark dead in sin. (Eph. 2:1.) He is born empty of every inward principle of life, void of all grace, and hath no more good in him (whatsoever he thinks) than a dead carrion hath. And he is under the power of sin, as a dead man is under the power of death, and can not perform any act of life; their bodies are living coffins to carry a dead soul up and down in.
It is true, (I confess,) many wicked man do many good actions, as praying, hearing, alms deeds; but it not from any inward principle of life. External motives, like plummets on a dead (yet artificial) clock, set them a-running. Jehu was zealous, but it was only for a kingdom; the Pharisees gave alms only to be seen of men. If one write a will with a dead man’s hand deceased, that will can not stand in any law; it was not his will, because it was not writ by him, by any inward principle of life of his own. Pride makes a man preach, pride makes a man hear, and pray sometimes. Self-love stirs up strange desires in men, so that we may say, This is none of God’s act by his grace in the soul, but pride and self-love. Bring a dead man to the fire, and chafe him, and rub him, you may produce some heat by this external working upon him; but take him from the fire again. And he is soon cold; so many a man lives under a sound minister, under the lashes and knocks of a chiding, striving conscience, he hath some heat in him, some affections, some fears, some desires, some sorrows stirred; yet take him from the minister and his chafing conscience, and he grows cold again presently, because he wants an inward principle of life.
Which point might make us to take up a bitter lamentation for every natural man. It is said, (Ex. 12:30,) “That there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house wherein there was not found one dead.” O Lord, in some towns and families, what a world of these are there! Dead husband, dead wife, dead servants, dead children, walking up and down with their sins, (as fame saith some men do after death,) with grave clothes about them; and God only knows whether ever they shall live again or not. How do men lament the loss of their dead friends! O, thou hast a precious soul in thy bosom stark dead; therefore lament thine estate, and consider it seriously.
First. A dead man can not stir, nor offer to stir; a wicked man can not speak one good word, or do any good action, if heaven itself did lie at the stake for doing it, nor offer to shake off his sins, nor think one good thought. Indeed, he may speak and thing of good things, but he can not have good speeches, nor good thoughts; as a holy man may think of evil things as of the sins of the times, the thought of those evil things is good, not evil, so e contra.
Secondly. A dead man fears no dangers, though never so great, though never so near. Let ministers bring a natural man tidings of the approach of the devouring plagues of God denounced, he fears them not.
Thirdly. A dead man can not be drawn to accept of the best offers. Let Christ come out of heaven, and fall about the neck of a natural man, and with tears in his eyes beseech him to take his blood, himself, his kingdom, and leave his sins, he can not receive this offer.
Fourthly. A dead man is stark blind, and can see nothing, and stark deaf, and hears nothing, he can not taste any thing; so a natural man is stark blind, he sees no God, no Christ, no wrath of the almighty, no glory of heaven. He hears the voice of a man, but he hears not the voice of God in a sermon; “he savoreth not the things of God’s Spirit.”
Fifthly. A dead man is senseless, and feels nothing: so cast mountains of sin upon a wicked man, he feels no hurt until the flames of hell break out upon him.
Sixthly. A dead man is a speechless man; he can not speak unless it be like a parrot.
Seventhly. He is a breathless man: a natural man may say a prayer, or devise a prayer out of his memory and wit, or he may have a few short-winded wishes; but to pour out his souls in prayer, in the bosom of God, with groans unutterable, he can not. I wonder not to see so many families without family prayer. Why? They are dead men, and lie rotting their sins.
Eighthly. A dead man hath lost all beauty: so a mere natural man hath lost all glory; he is an ugly creature in the sight of God, good men, and angels, and shall one day be an abhorring to all flesh.
Ninthly. Dead men want nothing but casting into the grave: so there wants nothing but casting into hell for a natural man. So that, Abraham loved Sarah well while living, yet when she was dead, he seeks for a burying-place for her to carry her out of his sight. So God may let some fearful judgment loose, and say to it, Take this dead soul out of my sight, etc. It was a wonder that Lazarus, though lying but four days in the grave, should live again. O, wonder thou that ever God should let thee live, that hast been rotting in thy sin twenty, thirty, perhaps sixty years together.
III. Every natural man and woman is born full of all sin, (Rom. 1:29,) as full as a toad is of poison, as full as ever his skin can hold; mind, will, eyes, mouth, every limb of his body, and every piece of his soul, is full of sin; their hearts are bundles of sin; hence Solomon saith, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;” whole treasures of sin. “An evil man, (saith Christ,) out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things;” nay, raging seas of sin. The tongue is a world of mischief. What is the heart then? “For out of the abundance of the heart the tongue speaketh:” so that, look about thee and see, whatever sin is broached, and runs out of any man’s heart into his life through the whole world, all those sins are in thine heart; thy mind is a nest of all foul opinions, heresies, that ever were vented by any man; thy heart is a foul sink of all atheism, sodomy, blasphemy, murder, whoredom, adultery, witchcraft, buggery; so that, if thou hast any good thing in thee, it is but as a drop of rosewater in a bowl of poison; where fallen it is all corrupted.
It is true thou feelest not all these things stirring in thee at one time, no more than Hazael thought he was or should be such a bloodsucker, when he asked the prophet Elisha if he were a dog; but they are in thee like a nest of snakes in an old hedge. Although they break not out into thy life, they lie lurking in thy heart; they are there as a filthy puddle in a barrel, which runs not out, because thou happily wantest the temptation or occasion to broach and tap thine heart; or because of God’s restraining grace by fear, shame, education, and good company, thou art restrained and bridled up, and therefore when one came to comfort that famous picture, pattern, and monument of God’s justice by seven years’ horror, and grievous distress of conscience, when one told him he never had committed such sins as Manasses, and therefore he was not the greatest sinner since the creation, as he conceived, he replied, that he should have been worse than ever Manasses was, if he had lived in his time, and been on his throne.
Mr. Bradford would never have looked upon any one’s lewd life with one eye, but he would presently return within his own breast with the other eye, and say, “In this my vile breast remains that sin, which, without God’s special grace, I should have committed as well as he.” O, methinks this might pull down men’s proud conceits of themselves, especially such as bear up and comfort themselves in their smooth, honest, civil life; such as through education have been washed from all foul sins; they were tainted with whoredom, swearing, drunkenness, or profaneness; and here they think themselves so safe, that God can not find in his heart to have a thought of damning them.
O, consider of this point, which may make thee pull thine hair from thine head, and turn thy clothes into sackcloth, and run up and down with amazement and paleness in thy face, and horror in thy conscience, and tears in thine eyes. What though thy life be smooth, what though thy outside, thy sepulcher, be painted? O, thou art full of rottenness, of sin, within. Guilty, not before men, as the sins of thy life make thee, but before God, of all the sins that swarm and roar in the whole world at this day, for God looks to the heart; guilty thou art therefore of heart whoredom, heart sodomy, heart blasphemy, heart drunkenness, heart buggery, heart oppression, heart idolatry; and these are the sins that terribly provoke the wrath of Almighty God against thee. (Isa. 57:17.) “For the iniquity of his covetousness,” saith our translation, “I smote him;” but the Hebrew renders it better– “For the iniquity of his concupiscence” (which is the sin of his heart and nature) “I smote him.” As a king is angry and musters up his army against rebels, not only which brings his soldiers out to fight, but who keeps soldiers in their trenches ready for a fight. These sins of thine heart are all ready armed to fight against God at the watchword or alarm of any temptation. Nay, I dare affirm and will prove it, that these sins provoke God to anger, and are as bad, if not worse, than the sins of thy life. For, –
1. The sin if thine heart or nature is the cause, the womb that contains, breeds, brings forth, suckles all the litter, all the troop of sins that are in thy life; and therefore, giving life and being to all other, it is the greatest sin.
2. Sin is more abundantly in the heart than in the life. An actual sin is but a little breach made by the sea of sin in thine heart, where all sin, all poison, is met and mingles together. Every actual sin is but as a shred broken off from the great bottom of sin in the heart; and hence Christ saith, “Out of the abundance of the heart and mouth speaketh; and out of evil treasure of the heart we bring forth evil things.” A man spending money (I mean sin in life) is nothing to his treasure of sin in the heart.
3. Sin is continually in the heart. Actual sins of the life fly out like sparks, and vanish; but this brand is always glowing within: the toad spits poison sometimes, but it retains and keeps a poisonful nature always. Hence the apostle calls it “sin that dwells in me,” that is, which always lies and remains in me. So that, in regard of the sins of thy heart, thou dost rend in pieces and break, 1. All of the laws of God. 2. At one clap. 3. Every moment of thy life. O, methinks the thought of this might rend a heart of rock in pieces; to think I am always grieving God at all times, whatsoever I do.
4. Actual sins are only in the life and outward porch; sins of the heart are within the inward house. One enemy within the city is worse than many without; a traitor on the throne is worse than a traitor in the open field. The heart is Christ’s throne. A swine in the best room is worse than in the outward house. More I might say; but thus, you see, sins of the life are not so bad, nor provoke God’s wrath so fiercely against thee, as the sins of thine heart. Mourn, therefore, not so much that thou hast not been so bad as others are , but look upon thy black feet – look within thine own heart, and lament that, in regard of thy sins there, thou art as bad as many; mourn not so much merely that thou hast sinned, as that thou hast a nature so sinful, that it is thy nature to be proud, and thy nature to be vain and deceitful, and loathe not only thy sins, but thyself for thy sin, being brimful of unrighteousness. But here is not all. Consider fourthly.
IV. That whatever a natural man doth is sin; as the inside is full, so the outside is nothing else but sin, at least in the sight of holy God, though not in the sight of blind, sinful men. Indeed, he may do many things, which, for the matter of them, are good; as he may give alms, pray, fast, come to church: but as they come from him they are sin; as a man may speak good words, but we can not endure to hear him speak, because of his stinking breathe which defiles them. Some actions indeed, from their general nature, are indifferent, for all indifferences lie in generals; but every deliberate action, considered in individuo, with all its circumstances, as time, place, motive, end, is either morally good or morally evil, as may be proved easily; morally good in good men, morally evil in unregenerate and bad men. For let us see particular actions of wicked men.
1. All their thoughts are only evil, and that continually. (Gen. 6:5.)
2. All their words are sins, (Ps 1:16;) their mouths are open sepulchers, which smell filthy when they are opened.
3. All their civil actions are sins, as their eating, drinking, buying, selling, sleeping, and ploughing. (Prov. 21:4.)
4. All their religious actions are sins, as coming to church, praying, (Prov. 15:8,9; 28:9,) fasting and mourning: roar and cry out of thyself till doomsday, they are sins. (Is. 58.)
5. All their most zealous actions are sins, as Jehu, who killed all Baal’s priests: because his action was outwardly and materially good, therefore God rewarded him with temporal favors; but because he had a hawk’s eye to get and settle a kingdom to himself by this means, and so was theologically evil, therefore God threatens to be revenged upon him. (Hosea 1:4.)
6. Their wisdom is sin. O, men are often commended for their wisdom, wit, and parts; yet those wits, and that wisdom of theirs, are sin. (Rom 8.) The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God.
Thus all they have or do are sins; for how can he do any good action whose person is filthy? “A corrupt tree can not bring forth good fruit: thou art out of Christ; therefore all thy good things, all thy kindnesses done unto the Lord, and for the Lord, as thou thinkest, are most odious to him. Let a woman seek to give all the content to her husband that may be, not out of any love to him, but only out of love to another man, he abhors all that she doth. Every wicked man wants an inward principle of love to God.
Thus all they have or do are sins; for how can he do any good action whose person is filthy? “A corrupt tree can not bring forth good fruit:” thou art out of Christ; therefore all thy good things, all thy kindnesses done unto the Lord, and for the Lord, as thou thinkest, are most odious to him. Let a woman seek to give all the content to her husband that may be, not out of any love to him, but only out of love to another man, he abhors all that she doth. Every wicked man wants an inward principle of love to God and Christ, and therefore, though he seeks to honor God never so much, all that he doth being done out of love to himself, God abhors all that he performs. All the good things a wicked man doth are for himself, either for self-credit or self-ease, or self-content, or self-safety; he sleeps, prays, hears, speaks, professeth for himself alone; hence, acting always for himself, he committeth the highest degree of idolatry; he plucks God out of his throne, and makes himself a god, because he makes himself his last end in every action; for a man puts himself in the room of God as well by making himself his finis ultimus, as if he should make himself primum principium. Sin is a forsaking or departing from God. Now, every natural man remaining always in a state of separation from God, because he always wants the bond of union, which is faith, is always sinning; God’s curse lies upon him; therefore he brings out nothing but briers and thorns.
Objection. But wilt thou say, If our praying and hearing be sin, why should we do these duties? We must not sin.
Answer 1. Good duties are good in themselves, although, coming from thy vile heart, they are sins.
2. It is less sin to do them than to omit them; therefore, if thou wilt go to hell, go in the fairest path thou canst in thither.
3. Venture and try; it may be God may hear, not for thy prayer’s sake, but for his name’s sake. The unjust judge helped the poor widow, not because he loved her suit, but for her importunity; and so be sure thou shalt have nothing if thou dost not seek. What though thou art a dog, yet thou art alive, and art for the present under the table. Catch not at Christ, snatch not at his bread, but wait till God give thee him; it may be that thou mayest have him one day. O, wonder then at God’s patience, that thou livest one day longer, who hast all thy lifetime, like a filthy toad, spit thy venom in the face of God, that he hat never been quit of thee. O, look upon that black bill that will one day be put against thee at the great day of account, where thou must answer with flames of fire about thine ears, not only for thy drunkenness, thy bloody oaths and whoring, but for all the actions of thy short life, and just so many actions so many sins.
Thou hast painted thy face over now with good duties and good desires; and a little honesty, amongst some men, is of that worth and rarity, that they think God is beholding to them, if he can get any good action from. But when thy painted face shall be brought before the fire of God’s wrath, then thy vileness shall appear before men and angels. O, know it, that as thou dost nothing else but sin, so God heaps up wrath against the dreadful day of wrath.
Thus much for man’s misery in regard of sin.
Now followeth his misery in regard of the consequents or miseries that follow upon sin. And these are, 1. Presence. 2. Future.
First. Man’s present miseries, that already lie on him for sin, are these seven; that is,–
First. God is his dreadful enemy. (Ps. 5:5.)
Question. How may one know another to be his enemy?
Answer 1. By their looks. 2. By their threats. 3. By their blows. So God, –
1. Hides his face from every natural man, and will not look upon him. (Is.59:2.)
2. God threatens, nay, curseth every natural man. (Gal. 3:10.)
3. God gives them heavy, bloody lashes on their souls and bodies.
Never tell me, therefore, that God blesseth thee in thine outward estate; no greater sign of God’s wrath than for the Lord to give thee thy swing, as a father never looks after a desperate son, but lets him run where he pleases. And if God be thine enemy, then every creature is so too, both in heaven and earth.
Secondly. God hath forsaken them, and they lost God. (Eph. 2:12.) It is said, that, in the grievous famine of Samaria, doves’ dung was sold at a large price, because they wanted bread. O, men live and pine away without God, without bread, and therefore the dung of worldly contentments are esteemed so much of, thou hast lost the sight of God, and the favor of God, and the special protection of God, and the government of God. Cain’s punishment lies upon thee in thy natural estate; thou art a runagate from the face of God, and from his face thou art hid. Many have grown mad to see their houses burnt, all their goods lost. O, but God, the greatest good, is lost. This loss made Saul cry out in distress of conscience, (I Sam. 28:15,) The Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me; the loss of the sweetness of whose presence, for a little while only, made the Lord Jesus Christ cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Whereas thou hast lost God all thy lifetime. O, thou hast a heart of brass, that canst mourn for his absence so long. The damned in hell have lost God, and know it, and so the plague of desperate horror lieth upon them; thou hast lost God here, but knowest it not, and the plague of a hard heart lieth upon thee, thou canst not mourn for this loss.
Thirdly. They are condemned men, condemned in the court of God’s justice, by the law which cries, Treason, treason against the most high God, and condemned in the court of mercy, by the gospel, which cries, Murder, murder against the Son of God, (John 3:18;) so that every natural man is damned in heaven, and damned on earth. God is thy all-seeing, terrible Judge; conscience is thine accuser, a heavy witness; this world is thy jail; thy lusts are thy fetters. In this Bible is pronounced and writ thy doom, thy sentence. Death is thy hangman, and that fire that shall never go out thy torment. The Lord hath in his infinite patience reprieved thee for a time; O, take heed and get a pardon before the day of execution come.
Fourthly. Being condemned, take him, jailer; he is a bondslave to Satan, (Eph. 2:3;) for, His servants ye are whom ye obey, saith Christ. Now, every natural man doth the devil’s drudgery, and carries the devil’s pack; and howsoever he saith he defieth the devil, yet sins, and so doth his work. Satan hath overcome and conquered all men in Adam, and therefore they are under his bondage and dominion. And though he can not compel a man to sin against his will, yet he hath power,–
First. To present and allure man’s heart by a sinful temptation.
Secondly. To follow him with it, if at first he be something shy of it.
Thirdly. To disquiet and rack him, if he will not yield, as might be made to appear in many instances.
Fourthly. Besides, he knows men’s humors, as poor wandering, beggarly gentlemen do their friends in necessity, (yet in seeming courtesy,) he visits and applies himself unto them, and so gains them as his own. O, he is in a fearful slavery who is under Satan’s dominion, who is,–
1. A secret enemy to thee.
2. A deceitful enemy to thee, that will make a man believe (as he did Evah, even in her integrity) that he is in a fair way, when his condition is miserable.
3. He is a cruel enemy or lord over them that be his slaves, (2 Cor. 4:3;) he gags them so they can not speak, (as that man that had a dumb devil,) neither for God, nor to God, in prayer; he starves them, so as no sermon shall ever do them good; he robs them of all they get in God’s ordinances, within three hours after the market, the sermon is ended.
4. He is a strong enemy. (Luke 11:21.) So that if all the devils in hell are able to keep men from coming out of their sins, he will: so strong an enemy, that he keeps men from so much as sighing or groaning under their burden and bondage. (Luke 11:21.) When the strong man keeps the palace, his goods are in peace.
Fifthly. He is cast into utter darkness; as cruel jailers put their prisoners into the worst dungeons, so Stan doth natural men, (2 Cor. 4:3,4;) they see no God, no Christ; they see not the happiness of the saints in light; they see not those dreadful torments that should now in this day of grace awaken them and humble them. O, those by-paths which thousands wander from god in, they have no lamp to their feet to show them where they err. Thou art blind in thy natural estate, art born blind, and the devil hath blinded thine eyes more by sin, and God in justice had blinded them worse for sin, so that thou art in a corner of hell, because thou art in utter darkness, where thou hast not a glimpse of any saving truth.
Sixthly. They are bound hand and foot in this estate, and can not come out, (Rom. 5:6; 1 Cor. 2:14;) for all kinds of sins, like chains, have bound every part and faculty of man, so that he is sure for stirring; and those are very strong in him, they being as dear as his members, nay, as his life, (Col. 3:7;) so that when a man begins to forsake his vile courses, and purposeth to become a new man, devils fetch him back, world enticeth him, and locketh him up; and flesh saith, O, it is too strict a course; farewell, then, merry days and good fellowship. O, thou mayest wish and desire to come out sometime, but canst not put strength to thy desires, not endure to do it. Thou mayest hang down thy head like a bulrush for sin, but thou canst not repent of sin; thou mayest presume, but thou canst not believe; thou mayest come half way, and forsake some sins, but not all sins; thou mayest come and knock at heaven’s gate, as the foolish virgins did, but not enter in and pass through the gate; thou mayest see the land of Canaan, and take much pain to go into Canaan, and mayest taste of the bunches of grapes of the good land, but never enter into Canaan, into heaven, but thou lie bound, hand and foot, in this woeful estate, and here thou must lie and rot like a dead carcass in his grave, until the Lord come and roll away the stone, and bid thee come out and live.
Lastly. They are ready every moment to drop into hell. God is a consuming fire against thee, and there is but one paper wall of thy body between thy soul and eternal flames. How soon may God stop thy breath! There is nothing but that between thee and hell; if that were gone, then farewell all. Thou art condemned, and the muffler is before thine eyes. God knows how soon the ladder may be turned; thou hangest but by one rotten twined thread of thy life, over the flames of hell every hour.
Thus much of man’s present miseries.
Now followeth his future miseries, which are to come upon him hereafter.
I. They must die either by a sudden, sullen, or desperate death, (Ps. 89:48,) which though it is to a child of God a sweet sleep, yet to the wicked it is a fearful curse proceeding from God’s wrath, whence, like a lion, he tears body and soul asunder; death cometh hissing upon him like a fiery dragon with the sting of vengeance in the mouth of it; it puts a period to all their worldly contentments, which then they must forsake, and carry nothing away with them but a rotten winding sheet. It is the beginning of all their woe; it is the captain that first strikes the stroke, and then armies of endless woes follow after. (Rev. 6:2.) O, thou hadst better be a toad, or a dog, than a man, for there’s an end of their troubles when they are dead and gone; they fall not as men from a steep hill, not knowing where they shall fall: now repentance is too late, especially if thou hadst lived under means before; it is either cold repentance, when the body is weak, and the heart is sick, or a hypocritical repentance, only for fear of hell; and therefore thou sayest, “Lord Jesus, receive my soul.” Nay, commonly then, men’s hearts are most hard, and therefore men die like lambs, and cry not out; then it is hard plucking thy soul from the devil’s hand, to whom thou hast given it all thy life by sin; and if thou dost get it back, dost thou think that God will take the devil’s leavings? Now thy day is past, and darkness begins to overspread thy soul; now flocks of devils come into thy chamber, waiting for thy soul, to fly upon it as a mastiff dog when the door is opened. And this is the reason why most men die quietly that lived wickedly, because Satan then hath them as his own prey; like pirates, who let a ship pass that is empty of goods, they shoot commonly at them that are richly loaden. The Christians, in some parts of the primitive church, took the sacrament every day, because they did look to die every day. But these times wherein we live are so poisoned and glutted with ease, that it is a rare thing to see the man that looks death steadfastly in the face one hour together: but death will lay a bitter stroke on these one day.
II. After death they appear before the Lord to judgment, (Heb. 9:27;) their bodies indeed rot in their graves, but their souls return before the Lord to judgment. (Eccles. 12:7.) The general judgment is at the end of the world, when both body and soul appear before God, and all the world to an account. But there is a particular judgment that every man meets with after this life, immediately at the end of his life, where the soul is condemned only before the Lord.
You may perceive what this particular judgment is, thus, by these four conclusions: –
1. That every man should die the first day he was born, is clear; for “the wages of sin is death;” in justice, therefore, it should be paid of a sinful creature as soon as he is born.
2. That it should be thus with wicked men, but that Christ begs their lives for a season. (1 Tim. 4.) He is the Savior of all men; that is, not a Savior of eternal preservation out of hell, but a Savior of temporal reservation from dropping into hell.
3. That this space of time, thus begged by Christ, is that season wherein only a man can make his peace with a displeased God. (2 Cor. 6:2.)
4. That if men do not thus within this cut of time, when death hath dispatched them, judgment only remains for them; that is, then their doom is read, their date of repentance is out, then their sentence of everlasting death is passed upon them, that never can be recalled again. And this is judgment after death. “He that judged himself,” saith the apostle, (1 Cor. 11:31,) “shall not be judged of the Lord.” Now, wicked men will not judge and condemn themselves in this life; therefore, at the end of it, God will judge them. All natural men are lost in this life, but they ma be found and recovered again; but a man’s loss by death is irrecoverable, because there is no means after death to restore them, there is no friend to persuade, no minister to preach, by which faith is wrought, and men get into Christ; there is no power of returning or repenting then; for night is come, and the day is past.
Again: the punishment is so heavy that they can only bear wrath, so that all their thoughts and affections are taken up with the burden. And, therefore, Dives cries out, “I am tormented.” O that the consideration of this point might awaken every secure sinner! What will become of thine immortal soul when thou art dead? Thou sayest, I know not; I hope well. I tell thee, therefore, that which may send thee mourning to thy house, and quaking to thy grave, if thou diest in this estate, thou shalt not die like a dog, nor yet like a toad; but after death comes judgment; then farewell friends when dying; and farewell God forever, when thou art dead.
Now, the Lord open your eyes to see the terrors of this particular judgment; which if you could see, (unless you were mad,) it would make you spend whole nights and days in seeking to set all even with God.
I will show you briefly the manner and nature of it in these particulars.
1. Thy soul shall be dragged out of thy body, as out of a foul prison, by the devil, the jailer, into some place within the bowels of the third heavens, and there thou shalt stand stripped of all friends, all comfort, all creatures before the presence of God, (Luke 9:27;) as at the assizes, first the jailer brings the prisoners out.
2. Then thy soul shall have a new light put into it, whereby it shall see the glorious presence of God, as prisoners brought with guilty eyes look with terror upon the judge. Now thou seest no God abroad in the world, but then thou shalt see the Almighty Jehovah, which sight shall strike thee with that hellish terror and dreadful horror, that thou shalt call to the mountains to cover thee – “O rocks, rocks, hide me from the face of the Lamb.” (Rev. 6. ult.)
3. Then all the sins that ever thou hast or shalt commit shall come fresh to thy mind; as when the prisoner is come before the face of the judge, then his accusers bring in their evidence; thy sleepy conscience then will be instead of a thousand witnesses, and every sin then, with all the circumstances of it, shall be set in order, armed with God’s wrath round about thee. (Ps. 1:21.) As letters writ with juice of oranges can not be read until it be brought unto the fire, and then they appear, so thou can not read that bloody bill of indictment they conscience hath against thee now; but when thou shalt stand near unto God, a consuming fire, then what a heavy reckoning will appear! It may be thou hast left many sins now, and goest so far, and profitest so much, that no Christian can discern thee; nay, thou thinkest thyself in a safe estate; but yet there is one leak in thy ship that will sink thee; there is one secret, hidden sin in thine heart, which thou livest in, as all unsound people do, that will damn thee. I tell thee, as soon as ever thou art dead and gone, then thou shalt see where the knot did bind thee, where thy sin was that now hath spoiled thee forever, and then thou shalt grow mad and think – O that I never saw this sin I loved, lived in, plotted, perfected mine own eternal ruin by, until now, when it is too late to amend!
4. Then the Lord shall take his everlasting farewell of thee, and make thee know it too. Now God is departed from thee in this life, but he return in mercy to thee again; but when the Lord departs with all his patience, to wait for thee no more, nor shall Christ be offered thee any more, no Spirit to strive with thee any more, and so shall pass sentence, though haply not vocally, yet effectually upon thy soul, the Lord saying, “Depart thou cursed,” thou shalt see indeed the glory of God that others find, but thy greater sorrow shalt never taste the same. (Luke 13:28.)
5. Then shall God surrender up thy forsaken soul into the hands of devils, who, being thy jailers, must keep thee till the great day of account; so that as thy friends are scrambling for thy goods, and worms for thy body, so devils shall scramble for thy soul. For as soon as ever a wicked man is dead, he is either in heaven or in hell. Not in heaven, for no unclean thing comes there. If in hell, then amongst devils there shall be thine eternal lodging, (1 Pet. 3:19;) and hence thy forlorn soul shall lie mourning for the time past, now it is too late to recall again; groaning under the intolerable torments of the wrath of God present, and amazed at the eternity of misery and sorrow that is to come; waiting for that fearful hour when the last trump shall blow, and then body and soul meet to bear that wrath, that fire that shall never go out. O, therefore, suspect and fear the worst of thyself now; thou hast seldom or never, or very little, troubled thy head about this matter, whether Christ will save thee or not, thou hast such strong hopes and confidence already that he will. Know that it is possible thou mayest be deceived; and if so, when thou shalt know thy doom after death, thou canst not get and hour more to make thy peace with God, although thou shouldest weep tears of blood. If either the muffler of ignorance s