2. Lust entices, by representing that pleasure that is in sin greater than indeed it is: it swells the proportions of every thing, and shews them, as it were, through a magnifying-glass, greatened and multiplied by desire and expectation; which always exhibit objects to the soul, not as they are, but as they would have them be. Nothing cheats a man so much as expectation; it conceives with the air, and grows big with the wind; and, like a dream, it promises high, but performs nothing. For the truth is, even in lawful enjoyments God has put an emptiness, and made it the very specific and inseparable property of the creature. So that Solomon, who had both the largest measure of those enjoyments, and of wisdom to pass a right judgment upon them, has given the world a full account and declaration of their vanity and dissatisfaction, upon the credit of a long and unparalleled experience. And if the very condition of the creature gives it such a shortness, and hollowness, and disproportion to the desires of a rational soul, even in the most innocent and allowed pleasures; what shall we think of the pleasures of sin, which receive a farther embasement and diminution from the superaddition of a curse? They are cursed like the earth, not only with barrenness, but with briers and thorns; there is not only a fallacy, but a sting in them and consequently they are rendered worse than nothing; a reed that not only deceives, but also pierces the hand that leans upon it. : But the exceeding vanity of every sinful pleasure will appear, by considering both the latitude of its extent, and the length of its duration. 1. And first, for the latitude or measure of its extent it seldom gratifies but one sense at a time; and if it should diffuse an universal enjoyment to them all, yet it reaches not the better, the more capacious and more apprehensive part of man, his soul; that is so far from communicating with the senses, that in all their revels it is pensive and melancholy, and afflicted with inward remorses from an unsatisfied, if not also an accusing conscience. 2. And then, secondly, for its duration or continuance it is but for a moment; it affects and leaves the sense in an instant, and scarce affords so much scope as for reflection: the whole course of such pleasures passes like a tale that is told; a tale, that, after it is told, proves a lie. How transient and vanishing are the pleasures of the epicure, that expire with a taste, and determine with the poor and momentary gratifications of his palate! And yet, who thinks he shares so largely of the pleasures of sin as he? ment: it speaks loftily, and undertakes largely; it offers mountains and kingdoms, and never suffers a man to purchase a right judgment of it, but at the dear rate of a disappointment: and then he finds how those offers sink and dwindle into nothing; and what a pitiful skeleton of an enjoyment that is, that at first dazzled his apprehensions with such glistering pretences and glorious overtures of pleasure. He, therefore, that would stand upon his guard against all the enticements of his corruption, must fortify himself with this consideration, that sin never makes any proposal, whatsoever show of advantage it may have, but it is with an intent to abuse and deceive him. And consequently, that it is an infinite folly to seek for pleasure or satisfaction but in the ways of duty; the only thing that leads and unites to the great, inexhaustible fountain of satisfaction; "in whose presence is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore." SERMON XX. "For it is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour."— ISAIAH, xxvii 11. THIS chapter is one of the eloquent strains of the most oratorical of the prophets, describing a severe judgment to be inflicted on the Jews, in the deplorable destruction of Jerusalem, the demolishing their stately buildings, and the wasting their pleasant and delightful habitations. All this is set down in the 10th and 11th verses: "The defenced city shall be desolate :" no defence or munition can keep out a judgment, when commissioned by God to enter. "And the habitation forsaken:" when God forsakes a place, the inhabitants do not stay long behind. "And there shall the calf feed, there shall he lie down" when men forget their Maker, and degenerate into brutish affections, it is but just with him, that they, who have changed affections with beasts, should change dwellings with them too. "When the boughs thereof are withered," &c. For the exposition of these words, we must note, that they admit of a double construction: 1. They may be either understood literally, and so they set forth the destruction of Jerusalem in the devastation of the pleasant gardens and vineyards; which shall be left so desolate, that the vines and trees shall wither, and poor women shall come and But when sin entices, it takes no notice gather them into bundles, for the making of these littlenesses and flaws in the enjoy-of fires and heating ovens. Thus we see the vintage of sin, and the clusters of Sodom; they destroy the vines, and fire the vineyard. 2. Another sense of these words is figurative and metaphorical; and so this expression, "When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off," signifies thus much : when the inhabitants have filled up the measure of their sins, when they are spiritually withered and dead, and fruitful to no good work, then they shall be broken off, and ruined with the heaviest destruction. And to aggravate this judgment, to put an edge upon this misery, it is added in the next words, that "women shall come and set them on fire" that is, a womanish and effeminate generation of men (for such were the Babylonians) shall triumph over them. A hint of their luxury we have in the seventh chapter of Joshua; it was a Babylonish garment that enamoured Achan. We know how Lucian brings in Menippus, speaking of Sardanapalus, one of the womanish kings of Babyfon. Επίτρεψον μὴ ὦ Ἑρμῆ τὴν Σαρδανάπαλον Tαтážαι xaтà xópóns. Now a generous spirit, that has the least spark of honour and virility, does not feel so much smart in the punishment, as in the unworthiness of the hand that does inflict it. And this was the emphasis of Samson's disgrace, to be held in captivity by a woman. And it is the height and aggravation of this judgment, for men to be fired and destroyed by women; the valiant to be made a prey to the luxurious. And thus having described the judgment, he does in the next words assign a reason of it; "for it is a people of no understanding." One would have thought that ignorance should have excused the sin: he that sins out of ignorance is rather to be pitied than punished. Is any father so cruel, so hardhearted, as to disown and cast off his son, because he is a fool? No; an innocent ignorance excuses from sin, both before God and man and God himself will own that maxim of equity, "Ignorantia excusat peccatum." But then there is another sort of ignorance, which is not an ignorance of an empty understanding, but of a depraved heart; such an ignorance as does not only consist in a bare privation, but in a corrupt disposition; where the understanding is like that sort of blind serpents, whose blindness is attended with much venom and malignity. This was such a blindness as struck the Sodomites; there was darkness in their eyes, and withal, villainy in their hearts. There is an ignorance that could not be remedied, the schools call it an invincible ignorance, and this excuses from sin, and that deservedly; for this is a man's unhappiness, not his fault. But there is also an affected ignorance, such an one as is contracted by a wilful neglect of the means; and this is not excusing, but condemning. Such a want of understanding it was, that is here charged upon the Jews, as the sad occa sion of this woful punishment: for they had large and enriching means of grace; the mysteries of God, the "arcana cæli," were intrusted with them, and explained to them; the fountains of this great deep of knowledge were broken up before them. And in this case to be ignorant; in the midst of light to be in darkness; for an Israel to have an Egypt in a Goshen; this is highly provoking, and may justly cause God to lay hold on vengeance. Where, by the way, we observe, that some want of understanding, some ignorance, is so far from excusing sin, that it is its highest aggravation: "It is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them," &c. Here we ought also to note, in what strango terms God expresses his anger. It is not said, the Lord, the just God will punish them; this was not so wonderful little to be expected from God's justice but a sinner's misery. No; God assumes the most endearing titles, and under them gives the severest judgments: he joins the creator and the destroyer, such expressions as almost confute one another: he clothes himself in the robes of mercy, and in these pronounces the sentence of death upon the sinner. From the words thus explained, we may naturally deduce these two observations: I. The relation of a Creator strongly engages God to put forth acts of love and favour towards his creature. This is clear from the strength of the antithesis in the words, "he that made them will not save them :" where, for the advantage of the expression, it is redoubled; "he that formed them will shew them no favour." As if he should say, It may seem strange to you that your Creator, which very name speaks nothing but bowels of love and tenderness, should break and ruin, utterly confound and destroy you. Yet thus it must be; though the relation make it strange, yet your sins will make it true. II. Sin does totally disengage God from all those acts of love and goodness to the creature, that the relation of a Creator can engage him to. Or more clearly thus: There is more provocation in sin for God to destroy, than there is obligation upon him as a Creator to preserve the creature. Conclusion the first, namely, That the relation of a Creator strongly obliges God, &c. The strength of this obligement appears in these two considerations: 1. That it is natural; and natural obligements, as well as natural operations, are always the strongest. 2. That God put this obligement upon himself; therefore it must needs be a great and a strong one: and this is clear, because tne relation of a Creator is, in order of nature, antecedent to the being of the creature; which not existing, could not oblige God to create it, or assume this relation. There are three engaging things, that are implied in the creature's relation to God, that oblige him to manifest himself in a way of goodness to it: 1st, The first is, the extract or original of the creature's being, which is from God himself. It is the nature of every artificer to tender and esteem his own work: and if God should not love his creature, it would reflect some disparagement upon his workmanship, that he should make any thing which he could not own. God's power never produces what his goodness cannot embrace. God oftentimes, in the same man, distinguishes between the sinner and the creature; as a creature he can love him, while as a sinner he does afflict him. Hence arises that dearness between the parent and the child: what wonder is it to see him in his father's arms, who before lay in his loins? or to see that child admitted to the bosom, that before lay in the womb? It is mentioned as a sign of strange, unnatural disaffection in the ostrich, that it hardens itself against its young ones, Job, xxxix. 16. It has a stony heart without love: a flint without fire. God is not a heathen god, a Saturn, to devour his children. It casts an obligement upon the very place where we are born to regard us; and if there be no father known, it ought not only to be our country, but our parent. Now the creature's deriving its being from God, includes in it two other endearing considerations: (1.) It puts a certain likeness between God and the creature. The foundation of love is laid in the likeness that is between things: now the likeness that is between the creature and the Creator consists in this, that he has taken it into the participation and society of that great privilege of being and it is in respect of this that the creature is a copy of God, a rough draught of some perfection that is in his Maker. What is written in a large, fair character in him, is imprinted upon the creature in a small. Now, although God loathes and abominates any likeness that we make of him, yet he loves and embraces the likeness that he has drawn of himself. And as, in respect of holiness, it is not the perfection of it only that God accepts, but he is ready to cherish our very breathings and longings after righteousness; he will embrace purity, not only in practice, but in inclination. So for the perfections of being; though he does absolutely acquiesce in the contemplation of his own, yet he does not despise those weaker draughts of it, visible in created things; but is ready to own whatsoever he gees of himself in the creature: and, like the sun, can, with much serenity, behold his image in the lowest waters. Every thing has a strong interest in that, by which it had its being and beginning. (2.) Whatsoever comes from God, by way of creation, is good; and so, by reason of the native agreement that is between that and the will of God, there naturally does result an act of love for where there is nothing but goodness on the creature's part, there can be nothing but love on God's. Although the acts of God's love do not always presuppose a moral goodness; for he loves the persons of the elect, while they are unconverted: yet in is probable, that the acts of dislike presuppose a want of that goodness. Though a man is not always good before God loves him, yet many are so favourable as to think, that he is always evil before he hates him: those especially that are of this judgment, that in the very act of man's reprobation, God did not reprobate him as a man, but as a sinner. Now the creature as such, and immediately issuing from the hands of God, has no evil cleaving to it, to provoke his detestation ; but, like a sword, comes shining out of the hands of the artificer, though afterward it chance to gather rust. "God made man upright;" however since, "he has sought out to himself many inventions." And this is the first consideration that endears the creature to God, namely, the original of its being. 2d, The second thing that bespeaks God's love to the creature is, the dependence of its being upon God. As the fruit is produced by the tree, so it hangs upon the tree. If by creation the creature is endeared to God, then much more by its dependence upon him; for this is founded upon a continual creation. Every creature is upheld from relapsing into nothing, by a continual influence of that creative power by which it was made. A moral dependence upon any one, that is, the voluntary placing of all a man's hopes and confidence upon the goodness of such an one, puts a strong obligement upon the party confided in, to employ the utmost of his power and interest to preserve and defend that man. For to desert him who relies upon me; to elude those hopes, that have no refuge but myself; for that reed, upon which I lean, to pierce my hand; this is a thing that ordinary humanity would detest. But now the natu ral dependence of the creature upon God is much greater, and consequently much more obliging, than the moral dependence of one man upon another; forasmuch as that is necessary, this voluntary, and from choice. If I desert a man that depends upon me, disappoint his hopes; but if God forsakes the creature, he disappoints his being. Not to give a being to a thing, could be no misery to it; because to be miserable, presupposes first to be but when it has a being, then to desert r designation of its being for the use of his glory. or forsake it, this is a calamity, and an evil to that very existence of which God himself was author; and he will not thus deal with the II. I proceed to the second proposition, to creature till he is provoked. The same good-shew how sin disengages and takes off God ness which did incite him to make a thing from all those acts of favour, that the relation before it was, certainly, now it is made, will of a creation engaged him to. much more oblige him to preserve it. Not to beget a child, could be no injury to it; but when it is begot, and born, to deny it food and education, this is an inhuman, an unfatherly temper. "He that does not provide for his family," the Spirit of God counts him "worse than an infidel," (1 Tim. v. 8;) and the reason is, because his family has a dependence upon him. The creature's depending upon God, engages him to uphold it with love and mercy. A poor empty bladder, if we rely upon it, will keep us from sinking: if we hold fast upon any thing, it will rescue us from falling. He "that took Israel, as an eagle does her young, and bore him upon his wings," (as it is elegantly expressed, Deut. xxxii. 11,) would he, think you, without cause, have let him fall? This we may be assured of, that those impressions of love and compassion that are in us, are also in God; only with this difference, that in him they are infinite. 3. The third consideration that engages the love of God to the creature is this; that the end of the creature's being is God's glory. Now God, that loves his own glory, must needs also respect the instrument that advances it. There is no artificer, that intends a work, that would break his tools. Why does a man tender and regard his servant, but because he is for his use? The ability and aptness of the creature for the serving of God's use, does induce God so far to preserve him. For he that has a rational respect to the end, must of necessity bear a suitable affection to the means. The being of the creatures stands related by the tie of a natural connection to God's glory; they are the materials of his praise. Hence we have the business excellently stated by the prophet Isaiah, (chap. xxxviii. 18, 19,) "The grave cannot praise thee; death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee." God's glory is the motto inscribed upon every created being; and wheresoever God reads, he owns this superscription. It is all the creature has, under God's hand and seal, to shew for its life. As God stampt a mark upon Cain to secure him from men, so it is this that secures us, in respect of God. Whatsoever we are, we are not our own, but his. We are by nature servants to the interest of his glory; and if my life, my actions are devoted to such an one's service, I may very well claim a maintenance from him whose interest I serve. And thus much of the third thing that endears God's love to the creature, namely, the 66 1. It turns that which, in itself, is an obligation of mercy, to be an aggravation of the offence. True it is, to make a creature, to give it being upon a rational ground, is an argument of love. But for a creature to sin against him from whom it had its whole being; and that a puny creature, the firstborn of nothing, a piece of creeping clay, one whom, as God created, so he might uncreate with a breath; for such an one to fly in his Creator's face! this gives a deeper die to sin; this makes it ten times more sinful. What, my son! the son of my womb! the son of my vows! dost thou give thy strength to women?" What, my creature! the work of my hands! the product of my power! and the object of my care! dost thou sin against me? dost thou dishonour me? The treason of an Absalom, the stab of a Brutus, is doubled by the circumstance of so near a relation. The nearer the party that offends, the distance is so much the wider. "Nemo tam prope, tam proculque;" none so near in respect of alliance, none so far off in respect of the offence, Between friends, the same friendship that passes by some affronts, heightens others. I' is the cause why some are pardoned, and why some cannot, ought not to be pardoned. Such an one speaks slightly of me, but my friendship pleads his pardon; yes, but he endeavoured to take away my life, my reputation; the same friendship speaks this injury unpardonable: (Psalm lv. 12, 13,) "If it had been an enemy, I could have borne it; but it was thou, mine equal, mine acquaintance." The relation of a Creator is always very strong, and before sin, this strength appears in love; but after sin, the same strength vents itself in revenge. Where it meets with holiness, it protects; where it meets with sin, it destroys; as the same wind that carries a ship well ballasted, if i rigged or accoutred, it drowns it. The same strength of constitution that keeps off diseases from the body, when it comes to be infected, and to comply with a disease, quickens its dissolution. The same argument that proves this assertion, by a subtle inversion of the terms, will prove the contrary. The same relation of a Creator, that endears God to the innocent, fires him against a sinner. God looks upon the soul, as Amnon did upon Tamar: while it was a virgin, he loved it; but now it is deflowered, he hates it. We read in the law, that he that cursed his father was to be stoned to death: we do not read, that if he had cursed another, he had been dealt withal so severely. One would have thought, that the nearness of a father would have saved him; but it was this alone that condemned him. Build not therefore upon the sandy foundation of a false surmise of God's mercy as a Creator; for this relation is (as I may so speak) indifferent, and may be determined, as to its influence, either to be helpful or destructive, according to the goodness or badness of the creature. While thou doest well, it will embrace thee; but upon the least transgression, it will confound thee. The same sword that now hangs by thy side, and defends thee, may be one day brought to run thee through. 2. Sin disengages God from shewing love to the creature, by taking away that similitude that is between God and him; which, as has been observed, was one cause of that love. The creature, indeed, still retains that resemblance of God, that consists in being; but the greatest resemblance, that consists in moral perfections, this is totally lost and defaced. A mere existence or being is an indifferent thing, (it is a rasa tabula,) that may be coloured over with sin or holiness; and accordingly it receives its value from these; as a picture is esteemed not from the materials upon which it is drawn, but from the draught itself. Holiness elevates the worth of the being in which it is, and is of more value than the being itself. As in scarlet, the bare dye is of greater value than the cloth. Sin debases the being in which it is; and makes the soul more unlike God, in respect of its qualities, than it is like him in respect of its substance. It is not the alliance of flesh and blood, but the resemblance of virtue, that makes the greatest likeness between the father and the son. Consanguinity and likeness of features will not so much incite him to love, as a dissimilitude, by reason of vice, will cause him to disinherit him. Better have no son, than a prodigal, profane, unclean son; better not to be a man, than an irreligious man; better an innocent nothing, than a sinful being. God has shed some of his perfections upon the natural fabric of the soul, in that he made it a spiritual, immaterial substance, refined from all the dross of body and matter: but the chief perfection of it consisted in this, that he did adorn it with holiness. As the temple of Solomon was glorious, because built with cedar; but its chief magnificence was the overlaying it with gold. But now, when this part of God's image is blotted out, he cannot read his likeness in the soul's other perfections. Be the soul ever so spiritual in its substance, yet if it be carnal in its affections; be it ever so purified from the grossness of body, yet if it be polluted with the corruption of sin; it has nothing to shew why God should not disown it, even to its eternal perdition. If we meet with a letter drawn over with filthy, scurrilous, unbecoming lines, the fineness of the paper will not rescue it from the fire. It is not thy strength, thy wit, thy eloquence, that God so much regards; these indeed may adorn thee, but it is thy holiness that must save thee. A sinner appearing before God, adorned with the greatest confluence of natural endowments, is like Agag presenting himself to Samul in his costly robes: the richness of his attire could not compound for the vileness of his person. When those glorious' pleas shall be produced in the court of heaven; "We have prophesied, we have cast out devils, we have wrought wonders;" God shall answer them with one word, weightier than them all, but "ye have sinned." Howsoever we flatter ourselves, and misjudge of things, yet God will overlook all the natural perfections of the soul, and punish us for want of moral. no. 3. Sin discharges God from shewing love to the creature, by taking off the creature from his dependence upon God. I know it cannot dissolve its natural dependence: for "in God we live, and move, and have our being," (Acts, xvii. 28,) whether we will or But our moral dependence, which is a filial reliance and recumbency upon God, this it destroys. For in sin the creature quits his hold of God, and seeks to shift for himself, to find his happiness within the centre of his own endeavours, totally departing and apostatizing from God; for sin is properly defined, "aversio a Creatore ad creaturam." It was an absolute, independent happiness that was aimed at in the first sin, which made it so detestable. Our first parents, they would be as gods, they would have an avτápxɛæ, a selfsufficience; they would stand upon their own bottom, without the support of divine influence; they would fetch all their happiness from within, without repairing to the bounty of Providence. Now when the creature depends upon God, and yet scorns to own this dependence; but in a high strain of arrogance would derive his satisfaction entirely from himself; this is the highest provocation. For one to live upon an alms, and yet to scorn an alms; to be a proud beggar; through weakness to lean upon another, and yet through pride to pretend to go alone: this is odious and insufferable; a temper made up of those two abominable ingredients, pride and ingratitude. He that pretends to live upon his own means, does not deserve the continuance of his pension: he that will not acknowledge his felicity from his Creator, deserves to lose it. If we depart and quit our reliance upon God, it is but equitable for him to let go his hold of us; if we desire to be miserable, can we blame him, if he punisheth us with the answer of our own desires? God is not so married to us by creation, but if we leave him voluntarily, it may be the just cause of a perpetual divorce. Yea, sin proceeds so far, as that although the creature cannot dissolve its natural dependence upon God, yet there is |