O think fadly upon this argument! God often gives them up to impertinency, and will not fpend a rod upon them to reclaim them. See Hol. iv. 14. Rev. xxii. 1I. Arg. 7. And then in the 7th place, thofe few that have been recovered by repentance out of it, O how bitter hath God made it to their fouls! "I find it (faith Solomon) more bitter than death," Eccl. vii. 26. Death is a very bitter thing; O what a struggling and reluctance is there in nature against it! But this is more bitter. Poor David found it fo, when he roared under those bloody lathes of confcience for it, in Pfal. li. Ah! when the Lord fhall open the poor finner's eyes, to fee the horror and guilt he hath hereby contracted upon his own poor foul, it will haunt him as a ghoft, day and night, and terrify his foul with dreadful forms and reprefentations! O dear bought pleasure, if this were all it should coft! What is now become of the pleasure of fin? O what gall and wormwood wilt thou taste, when once the Lord fall bring thee to a fight of it! The Hebrew word for repentance (Nacham,) and the Greek word (Metamelia,) the one fignifies an irking of the foul, and the other fignifies, after-grief: Yea, it is called, a renting of the heart, as if it were torn in pieces in a man's breast. Ask such a poor foul, what it thinks of such courfes now? Oh! now it loaths, abhors itfelf for them. Ask him, if he dare fin in that kind again? You may as well afk me (will he answer) whether I will thruft my hand into the fire. Oh! it breeds an indignation in him against himself. That word, ay, 2 Cor. vii. 11. fignifies the rifing of the ftomach with very rage, and being fick with anger. Religious wrath is the fierceft wrath. O what a furnace is the breast of a poor penitent! what fumes, what heats do abound in it, whilst the fin is even before him, and the sense of the guilt upon him? One night of carnal pleafure will keep thee many days and nights upon the rack of horror, if ever God give thee repentance unto life. Arg. 8. And if thou never repent, as indeed but few do that fall into this fin, then confider how God will follow thee with eternal vengeance: Thou fhalt have flaming fire for burning luft. This is a fin that hath the fcent of fire and brimstone with it, wherever you meet with it in fcripture. The harlot's guests are lodged in the depths of hell, Prov. ix. 18. No more perfumed beds; they must now lie down in flames. Whoremongers fhall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimftone; which is the fecond death, Rev. xxi. 8. Such fhall not inherit the kingdom of God and Chrift, 1 Cor. vi. 9. No dog fhall come into the New Jerufalem; there fhall in no wife enter in any thing that defileth, or that worketh abomination. You have fpent your ftrength upon fin, and now God fets himself a work to fhew the glory of his power in punishing, Rom ix. 22. The wrath of God is tranfacted upon them in hell by his own immediate hand, Heb. x. 30. Becaufe no creature is ftrong enough to convey all his wrath, and it must all be poured out upon them, therefore he himself will torment them for ever with his own immediate power: Now he will fir up all his wrath, and finners shall know the price of their pleafures. The punishment of Sodom is a little map of hell, as I may fay. O how terrible a day was that upon thofe unclean wretches! But that fire was not of many days continuance: When it had confumed them, and their houses, it went out for want of matter: but here, the breath of the Lord, like a ftream of brimftone, kindles it. The pleafure was quickly gone, but the fting and torment abide for ever. "Who knoweth the power of his anger? Even according to his fear, fo is his wrath," Pfalm xc. 11. Oh confider, how will his almighty power rack and torment thee! Think on this when fin comes with a fmiling face towards thee in the temptation. O think! If the human nature of Christ recoiled, when his cup of wrath was given him to drink; if he were fore amazed at it, how fhalt thou, a poor worm, bear and grapple with it for ever? Arg. 9. Confider further, how closely foever thou carriest thy wickedness in this world, tho' it fhould never be discovered here, yet there is a day coming when all will out, and that before angels and men. God will rip up thy fecret fins in the face of that great congregation at the day of judgment: Then that which was done. in fecret fhall be proclaimed as upon the house-top, Luke xii. 3. "Then God will judge the fecrets of men," Rom. ii. 16. " the "hidden things of darknefs will be brought into the open light." Sinner, there will be no fculking for thee in the grave, no declining this bar; thou refufedft, indeed, to come to the throne of grace, when God invited thee, but there will be no refufing to appear before the bar of justice, when Chrift fhall fummon thee. And as thou canst not decline appearing, fo neither canft thou then palliate and hide thy wickedness any longer; for then fhall the books be opened; the book of God's omnifcience, and the book of thine own confcience, wherein all thy fecret villany is recorded; for though it ceafed to speak to thee, yet it ceafed not to write and record thy actions. If thy fhameful fins fhould be divulged now, it would make thee tear off thy hair with indignation; but then all will be difcovered: Angels and men fhall point at thee, and fay, lo, this is the man, this is he that carried it fo fmoothly in the world. Mr Thomas Fuller relates a ftory of Ottocar king of Bohemia, who refufing to do his homage to Rodulphus the firft emperor, being at laft forely chaftifed with war, condefcended to do him homage privately in a tent; but the tent was fo contrived by the emperor's fervants, (faith the Hiftorian) that, by drawing one cord, it was taken all away, and fo Ottocar prefented on his knees, doing homage to the emperor in the view of three armies.' O firs, you think to carry it clofely, you wait for the twilight, that none may fee you; but, alas! it will be to no end, this day will difcover it; and then what confufion and everlafting fhame will cover thee! Will not this work then? Arg. 10. Lastly, confider but one thing more, and I have done. By this fin thou doft not only damn thine own foul, but draweft another to hell with thee. This fin is not as a fingle bullet that kills but one, but as a chain-shot, it kills many, two at least, unless God give repentance. And if he fhould give thee repentance, yet the other party may never repent, and fo perifh for ever through thy wickedness; and, oh! what a fad confideration will that be to thee, that fuch a poor foul is in hell, or likely to go thither by thy means? Thou haft made fast a snare upon a foul, which thou canst not untie; thou haft done that which may be matter of forrow to thee as long as thou liveft; but though thou canft grieve for it, thou canst not remedy it. In other fins it is not fo: If thou hadft ftolen another's goods, reftitution might be made to the injured party, but here can be none if thou hadi murdered another, thy fin was thine own, not his that was murdered by thee: but this is a complicated fin, defiling both at once; and if neither repent, then, oh! what a fad greeting will these poor wretches have in hell! how will they curfe the day that ever they faw each other's face! O what an aggravation of their mifery will this be! For look, as it will be matter of joy in heaven, to behold fuch there as we have been inftrumental to fave, fo muft it needs be a ftinging aggravation of the mifery of the damned, to look upon those who have been the inftruments and means of their damna tion. Oh, methinks, if there be any tenderness at all in thy confcience, if this fin have not totally brawned and ftupified thee, thefe arguments should pierce like a sword through thy guilty foul. Reader, I beseech thee, by the mercies of God, if thou haft defiled thy foul by this abominable fin, fpeedily to repent. O get the blood of sprinkling upon thee; there is yet mercy for fuch a wretch as thou art, if thou wilt accept the terms of it. "Such were fome of you, but ye are wash"ed," i Cor. vi. 11. Publicans and harlots may enter into the kingdom of God, Matth. xxi. 31. Though but few such are recovered, yet how knoweft thou but the hand of mercy may pull thee as a brand out of the fire, if now thou wilt return and feek it with tears? Though it be a fire that confumeth unto deftruction, as Job calls it, Job xxxi. 12. yet it is not an unquenchable fire, the blood of Chrift can quench it. And for you whom God hath kept hitherto from the contagion of it, O blefs the Lord, and ufe all God's means for the prevention of it. The feeds of this fin are in thy nature; no thanks to thee, but reftraining grace, that thou art not delivered up to it alfo. And that thou mayeft be kept out of this pit, confcionably practise these few directions. Direct. 1. Beg of God a clean heart, renewed and fanctified by faving grace; all other endeavours do but palliate a cure: the root of this is deep in thy nature; O get that mortified, Matth. xv. 19. "Out of the heart proceed fornication, adulteries." 1 Pet. ii, 11, 12. "Abftain from fleshly lufts-having your converfation honeft." The luft muft first be subdued, before the converfation can be honeft. Direct. 2. Walk in the fear of God all the day long, and in the sense of his omniscient eye that is ever upon thee. This kept Jofeph from this fin, Gen. xxxix. 9. "How can I do this wickedness and fin " against God?" Confider, the darkness hideth not from him, but fhineth as the light. If thou couldft find a place where the eye of God fhould not discover thee, it were fomewhat: thou darest not to act this wickedness in the presence of a child, and wilt thou adventure to commit it before the face of God? fee that argument, Prov. v. 20, 21. "And why wilt thou, my fon, be ravished with a strange "woman, and embrace the bofom of a stranger? For the ways of "man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his "goings." Direct. 3. Avoid lewd company, and the fociety of unclean perfons; they are but panders for luft. Evil communication corrupts good manners. The tongues of finners do caft fire-balls into the hearts of each other, which the corruption within is eafily kindled and enflamed by. Dired. 4. Exercife thyfelf in thy calling diligently; it will be an excellent means of preventing this fin. It is a good obfervation that one hath, That Ifrael was fafer in the brick-kilns in Egypt, than in the plains of Moab, 2 Sam. xi. 2. " And it came to pass in the even"tide, that David arofe from off his bed, and walked on the roof of "the king's houfe;" and this was the occafion of his fall. See 1 Tim. v. 11, 13. Direct. 5. Put a restraint upon thine appetite: feed not to excefs. Fulnefs of bread and idleness were the fins of Sodom, that occafioned fuch an exuberancy of luft*. "They are like fed horfes, every "one neighing after his neighbour's wife. When I had fed them to "the full, then they committed adultery, and affembled themselves "by troops in the harlot's houfes," Jer. v. 7, 8. This is a fad requital of the bounty of God, in giving us the enjoyment of the creatures, to make them fuel to luft, and inftruments of fin. Direct. 6. Make choice of a meet yoke-fellow, and delight in her you have chofen. This is a lawful remedy: See I Cor. vii. 9. God ordained it, Gen. ii. 21. But herein appears the corruption of nature, that men delight to tread by-paths, and forfake the way which God hath appointed; as that divine poet, Mr Herbert, faith, If God had laid all common, certainly Man would have been the closer: but fince now God hath impall'd us, on the contrary, Man breaks the fence, and every ground will plow: VOL. V. No. 43. Tt Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus. 1 O what were man, might he himself misplace! Stolen waters are fweeter to them than thofe waters they might lawfully drink at their own fountain: But withal know, it is not the having, but the delighting in a lawful wife, as God requires you to do, that thou must be a fence against this fin. So Solomon, Prov. v. 19. "Let her be as the loving hind, and pleasant roe; let her breafts fatisfy thee at all times, and be thou ravifhed always with "her love." - Direct. 7. Take heed of running on in a courfe of fin (efpecially fuperftition and idolatry; in which cafes, and as a punishment of which evils, God often gives up men to thefe vile affections, Rom. i. 25, 26. "Who changed the truth of God into a lie; [worfhipped] and served the creature more than the Creator, who is bleffed for "ever, Amen. [For this caufe] God gave them up to vile affec❝tions," &c. They that defile their fouls by idolatrous practices, God fuffers, as a juft recompence, their bodies also to be defiled with uncleanness, that fo their ruin may be haftened. Let the admirers of traditions beware of fuch a judicial tradition as this is. Woe to him that is thus delivered by the hand of an angry God! No punifhment in the world like this, when God punishes fin with fin: when he fhall fuffer those xovas evvaag, thofe common notices of confcience to be quenched, and all restraints to be moved out of the way of fin, it will not be long e'er that finner come to his own place. CAUTION IV. Nthe next place I shall make bold to expoftulate a little with your confciences concerning the precious mercies you have received, and the folemn promifes you have bound yourfelves withal for the obtaining of thofe mercies. I fear God hath many bankrupt debtors among you, that have dealt flipperily and unfaithfully with him; that have not rendered to the Lord according to the great things he hath done for them, nor according to thofe good things they have vowed to the mighty God of Jacob. But truly if thou be a defpifer of mer cy, thou shalt be a pattern of wrath. God will remember them in fury who forget him in his favours. I will tell you what a grave and eminent minister once told his people (dealing with them about this fin of unthankfulness for mercy); and I pray God it may affect you duly. * Let us all mourn (faith he) and take on; we are all behind hand with God. The Chriftian world is become bankrupt, quite • broke, makes no return to God for his love. He is iffuing out ⚫ process to seize upon body, goods, and life, and will be put off no longer. Bloody bailiffs are abroad for bad debtors all the world Christians are broke, and make no return, and God is break over. * Mr Lockyer on Col. i. p. 113 |