Romans
3:19
That
every mouth may be stopped.
The main subject of the doctrinal part of this epistle,
is the free grace of God in the salvation of men by Christ Jesus; especially as
it appears in the doctrine of justification by faith alone. And the more
clearly to evince this doctrine, and show the reason of it, the apostle, in the
first place, establishes that point, that no flesh living can be justified by
the deeds of the law. And to prove it, he is very large and particular in
showing, that all mankind, not only the Gentiles, but Jews, are under sin, and
so under the condemnation of the law; which is what he insists upon from the beginning
of the epistle to this place. He first begins with the Gentiles; and in the
first chapter shows that they are under sin, by setting forth the exceeding
corruptions and horrid wickedness that overspread the Gentile world: and then
through the second chapter, and the former part of this third chapter, to the
text and following verse, he shows the same of the Jews, that they also are in
the same circumstances with the Gentiles in this regard. They had a high
thought of themselves, because they were God's covenant people, and
circumcised, and the children of Abraham. They despised the Gentiles as
polluted, condemned, and accursed; but looked on themselves, on account of
their external privileges, and ceremonial and moral righteousness, as a pure
and holy people, and the children of God; as the apostle observes in the second
chapter. It was therefore strange doctrine to them, that they also were unclean
and guilty in God's sight, and under the condemnation and curse of the law. The
apostle does therefore, on account of their strong prejudices against such
doctrine, the more particularly insists upon it, and shows that they are no
better than the Gentiles; and as in the 9th verse of this chapter, "What
then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both
Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin." And, to convince them of
it, he then produces certain passages out of their own law, or the Old
Testament, (to whose authority they pretend a great regard,) from the ninth
verse to our text. And it may be observed, that the apostle, first, cites
certain passages to prove that all mankind are corrupt, (verses 10-12.)
"As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one: There is none that
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God: They are all gone out of
the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good,
no not one." Secondly, the passages he cites next, are to prove, that not
only all are corrupt, but each one wholly corrupt, as it were all over unclean,
from the crown of the head to the soles of his feet; and therefore several
particular parts of thebody are mentioned, the throat, the tongue, the lips,
the mouth, the feet, (verses 13-15.) "Their throat is an open sepulchre;
with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their
lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to
shed blood." And, Thirdly, he quotes other passages to show, that each one
is not only all over corrupt, but corrupt to a desperate degree, by affirming
the most pernicious tendency of their wickedness; "Destruction and misery
are in their ways." And then by denying all goodness or godliness in them;
"And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before
their eyes." And then, lest the Jews should think these passages of their
law do not concern them, and only the Gentiles are intended in them, the
apostle shows in the text, not only that they are not exempt, but that they
especially must be understood: "Now we know that whatsoever things the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law." By those that are under
the law is meant the Jews; and the Gentiles by those that are without law; as
appears by the 12th verse of the preceding chapter. There is a special reason
to understand the law, as speaking to and of them, to whom it was immediately
given. And therefore the Jews would be unreasonable in exempting themselves.
And if we examine the places of the Old Testament whence these passages are
taken, we shall see plainly that special respect is had to the wickedness of
the people of that nation, in every one of them. So that the law shuts all up
in universal and desperate wickedness, that every mouth may be stopped; the
mouths of the Jews, as well as of the Gentiles, notwithstanding all those
privileges by which they were distinguished from the Gentiles.
The things that the law says, are sufficient
to stop the mouths of all mankind, in two respects.
1. To stop them from boasting of their
righteousness, as the Jews were wont to do; as the apostle observes in the 23rd
verse of the preceding chapter.- That the apostle has respect to stopping their
mouths in this respect, appears by the 27th verse of the context, "Where
is boasting then? It is excluded." The law stops our mouths from making
any plea for life, or the favor of God, or any positive good, from our own
righteousness.
2. To stop them from making any excuse for
ourselves, or objection against the execution of the sentence of the law, or
the infliction of the punishment that it threatens. That it is intended,
appears by the words immediately following, "That all the world may become
guilty before God." That is, that they may appear to be guilty, and stand
convicted before God, and justly liable to the condemnation of his law, as
guilty of death, according to the Jewish way of speaking.
And thus the apostle proves, that no flesh
can be justified in God's sight by the deeds of the law; as he draws the
conclusion in the following verse; and so prepares the way for establishing of
the great doctrine of justification by faith alone, which he proceeds to do in
the following part of the chapter, and of the epistle.
DOCTRINE
"It is just with God eternally to cast
off and destroy sinners."- For this is the punishment which the law
condemns to- The truth of this doctrine may appear by the joint consideration
of two things, viz. Man's sinfulness, and God's sovereignty.
I. It appears from the consideration of
man's sinfulness. And that whether we consider the infinitely evil nature of
all sin, or how much sin men are guilty of.
1. If we consider the infinite evil and
heinousness of sin in general, it is not unjust in God to inflict what
punishment is deserved; because the very notion of deserving any punishment is,
that it may be justly inflicted. A deserved punishment and a just punishment
are the same thing. To say that one deserves such a punishment, and yet to say
that he does not justly deserve it, is a contradiction; and if he justly
deserves it, then it may be justly inflicted.
Every crime or fault deserves a greater or
less punishment, in proportion as the crime itself is greater or less. If any
fault deserves punishment, then so much the greater the fault, so much the
greater is the punishment deserved. The faulty nature of any thing is the
formal ground and reason of its desert of punishment; and therefore the more
any thing hath of this nature, the more punishment it deserves. And therefore
the terribleness of the degree of punishment, let it be never be so terrible,
is no argument against the justice of it, if the proportion does but hold
between the heinousness of the crime and the dreadfulness of the punishment; so
that if there be any such thing as a fault infinitely heinous, it will follow
that it is just to inflict a punishment for it that is infinitely dreadful.
A crime is more or less heinous, according
as we are under greater or less obligations to the contrary. This is
self-evident; because it is herein that the criminalness or faultiness of any
thing consists, that it is contrary to what we are obliged or bound to, or what
ought to be in us. So the faultiness of one being hating another, is in
proportion to his obligation to love him. The crime of one being despising and
casting contempt on another, is proportionably more or less heinous, as he was
under greater or less obligations to honour him. The fault of disobeying
another, is greater or less, as any one is under greater or less obligations to
obey him. And therefore if there be any being that we are under infinite
obligations to love, and honour, and obey, the contrary towards him must be
infinitely faulty.
Our obligation to love, honour, and obey any being, is in proportion to his
loveliness, honourableness, and authority; for that is the very meaning of the words.
When we say any one is very lovely, it is the same as to say, that he is one
very much to be loved. Or if we say such a one is more honourable than another,
the meaning of the words is, that he is one that we are more obliged to honour.
If we say any one has great authority over us, it is the same as to say, that
he has great right to our subjection and obedience.
But God is a being infinitely lovely,
because he hath infinite excellency and beauty. To have infinite excellency and
beauty, is the same thing as to have infinite loveliness. He is a being of
infinite greatness, majesty, and glory; and therefore he is infinitely
honourable. He is infinitely exalted above the greatest potentates of the
earth, and highest angels in heaven; and therefore he is infinitely more
honourable than they. His authority over us is infinite; and the ground of his
right to our obedience is infinitely strong; for he is infinitely worthy to be
obeyed himself, and we have an absolute, universal, and infinite dependence upon
him.
So that sin against God, being a violation
of infinite obligations, must be a crime infinitely heinous, and so deserving
of infinite punishment.- Nothing is more agreeable to the common sense of
mankind, than that sins committed against any one, must be proportionably
heinous to the dignity of the being offended and abused; as it is also
agreeable to the word of God, I Samuel 2:25. "If one man sin against
another, the judge shall judge him;" (i.e. shall judge him, and inflict a
finite punishment, such as finite judges can inflict;) "but if a man sin
against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?" This was the aggravation of
sin that made Joseph afraid of it. Genesis 39:9. "How shall I commit this
great wickedness, and sin against God?" This was the aggravation of
David's sin, in comparison of which he esteemed all others as nothing, because
they were infinitely exceeded by it. Psalm 51:4. "Against thee, thee only
have I sinned."-The eternity of the punishment of ungodly men renders it
infinite: and it renders it no more than infinite; and therefore renders no
more than proportionable to the heinousness of what they are guilty of.
If there be any evil or faultiness in sin
against God, there is certainly infinite evil: for if it be any fault at all,
it has an infinite aggravation, viz. that it is against an infinite object. If
it be ever so small upon other accounts, yet if it be any thing, it has one
infinite dimension; and so is an infinite evil. Which may be illustrated by
this: if we suppose a thing to have infinite length, but no breadth and
thickness, (a mere mathematical line,) it is nothing: but if it have any
breadth and thickness, though never so small, and infinite length, the quantity
of it is infinite; it exceeds the quantity of any thing, however broad, thick,
and long, wherein these dimensions are all finite.
So that the objections made against the
infinite punishment of sin, from the necessity, or rather previous certainty,
of the futurition of sin, arising from the unavoidable original corruption of
nature, if they argue any thing, argue against any faultiness at all: for if
this necessity or certainty leaves any evil at all in sin, that fault must be
infinite by reason of the infinite object.
But every such objector as would argue from
hence, that there is no fault at all in sin, confutes himself, and shows his
own insincerity in his objection. For at the same time that he objects, that
men's acts are necessary, and that this kind of necessity is inconsistent with
faultiness in the act, his own practice shows that he does not believe what he
objects to be true: otherwise why does he at all blame men? Or why are such
persons at all displeased with men, for abusive, injurious, and ungrateful acts
towards them? Whatever they pretend, by this they show that indeed they do
believe that there is no necessity in men's acts that is inconsistent with
blame. And if their objection be this, that this previous certainty is by God's
own ordering, and that where God orders an antecedent certainty of acts, he transfers
all the fault from the actor on himself; their practice shows, that at the same
time they do not believe this, but fully believe the contrary: for when they
are abused by men, they are displeased with men, and not with God only.
The light of nature teaches all mankind,
that when an injury is voluntary, it is faulty, without any consideration of
what there might be previously to determine the futurition of that evil act of
the will. And it really teaches this as much to those that object and cavil most
as to others; as their universal practice shows. By which it appears, that such
objections are insincere and perverse. Men will mention others' corrupt nature
when they are injured, as a thing that aggravates their crime, and that wherein
their faultiness partly consists. How common is it for persons, when they look
on themselves greatly injured by another, to inveigh against him, and aggravate
his baseness, by saying, "He is a man of a most perverse spirit: he is
naturally of a selfish, niggardly, or proud and haughty temper: he is one of a
base and vile disposition." And yet men's natural and corrupt dispositions
are mentioned as an excuse for them, with respect to their sins against God, as
if they rendered them blameless.
2. That it is just with God eternally to
cast off wicked men, may more abundantly appear, if we consider how much sin
they are guilty of. From what has been already said, it appears, that if men
were guilty of sin but in one particular, that is sufficient ground of their
eternal rejection and condemnation. If they are sinners, that is enough. Merely
this, might be sufficient to keep them from ever lifting up their heads, and
cause them to smite on their breasts, with the publican that cried, "God
be merciful to me a sinner." But sinful men are full of sin; full of
principles and acts of sin: their guilt is like great mountains, heaped one
upon another, till the pile is grown up to heaven. They are totally corrupt, in
every part, in all their faculties, and all the principles of their nature,
their understandings, and wills; and in all their dispositions and affections.
Their heads, their hearts, are totally depraved; all the members of their
bodies are only instruments of sin; and all their senses, seeing, hearing,
tasting, &c. are only inlets and outlets of sin, channels of corruption.
There is nothing but sin, no good at all. Romans. 7:18. "In me, that is,
in my flesh, dwells no good thing." There is all manner of wickedness.
There are the seeds of the greatest and blackest crimes. There are principles
of all sorts of wickedness against men; and there is all wickedness against
God. There is pride; there is enmity; there is contempt; there is quarreling;
there is atheism; there is blasphemy. There are these things in exceeding
strength; the heart is under the power of them, is sold under sin, and is a
perfect slave to it. There is hard-heartedness, hardness greater than that of a
rock, or an adamant-stone. There is obstinacy and perverseness,
incorrigibleness and inflexibleness in sin, that will not be overcome by
threatenings or promises, by awakenings or encouragements, by judgments or
mercies, neither by that which is terrifying nor that which is winning. The
very blood of God our Saviour will not win the heart of a wicked man.
And there are actual wickednesses without
number or measure. There are breaches of every command, in thought, word, and
deed: a life full of sin; days and nights filled up with sin; mercies abused
and frowns despised; mercy and justice, and all the divine perfections,
trampled on; and the honour of each person in the Trinity trod in the dirt. Now
if one sinful word or thought has so much evil in it, as to deserve eternal
destruction, how do they deserve to be eternally cast off and destroyed, that
are guilty of so much sin!
II. If with man's sinfulness, we consider
God's sovereignty, it may serve further to clear God's justice in the eternal
rejection and condemnation of sinners, from men's cavils and objections. I
shall not now pretend to determine precisely, what things are, and what things
are not, proper acts and exercises of God's holy sovereignty; but only, that
God's sovereignty extends to the following things.
1. That such is God's sovereign power and
right, that he is originally under no obligation to keep men from sinning; but
may in his providence permit and leave them to sin. He was not obliged to keep
either angels or men from falling. It is unreasonable to suppose, that God
should be obliged, if he makes a reasonable creature capable of knowing his
will, and receiving a law from him, and being subject to his moral government,
at the same time to make it impossible for him to sin, or break his law. For if
God be obliged to this, it destroys all use of any commands, laws, promises, or
threatenings, and the very notion of any moral government of God over those
reasonable creatures. For to what purpose would it be, for God to give such and
such laws, and declare his holy will to a creature, and annex promises and
threatenings to move him to his duty, and make him careful to perform it, if
the creature at the same time has this to think of, that God is obliged to make
it impossible for him to break his laws? How can God's threatenings move to
care or watchfulness, when, at the same time, God is obliged to render it
impossible that he should be exposed to the threatenings? Or, to what purpose
is it for God to give a law at all? For according to this supposition, it is
God, and not the creature, that is under the law. It is the lawgiver's care,
and not the subject's, to see that his law is obeyed; and this care is what the
lawgiver is absolutely obliged to! If God be obliged never to permit a creature
to fall, there is an end of all divine laws, or government, or authority of God
over the creature; there can be no manner of use of these things.
God may permit sin, though the being of sin
will certainly ensue on that permission: and so, by permission, he may dispose
and order the event. If there were any such thing as chance, or mere
contingence, and the very notion of it did not carry a gross absurdity, (as
might easily be shown that it does,) it would have been very unfit that God
should have left it to mere chance, whether man should fall or no. For chance,
if there should be any such thing, is undesigning and blind. And certainly it
is more fit that an event of so great importance, and that is attended with
such an infinite train of great consequences, should be disposed and ordered by
infinite wisdom, than that it should be left to blind chance.
If it be said, that God need not have
interposed to render it impossible for man to sin, and yet not leave it to mere
contingence or blind chance neither; but might have left it with man's free
will, to determine whether to sin or no: I answer, if God did leave it to man's
free will, without any sort of disposal, or ordering [or rather, adequate
cause] in the case, whence it should be previously certain how that free will
should determine, then still that first determination of the will must be
merely contingent or by chance. It could not have any antecedent act of the
will to determine it; for I speak now of the very first act of motion of the
will, respecting the affair that may be looked upon as the prime ground and
highest source of the event. To suppose this to be determined by a foregoing
act is a contradiction. God's disposing this determination of the will by his
permission, does not at all infringe the liberty of the creature: it is in no
respect any more inconsistent with liberty, than mere chance or contingence.
For if the determination of the will be from blind, undesigning chance, it is
no more from the agent himself, or from the will itself, than if we suppose, in
the case, a wise, divine disposal by permission.
2. It was fit that it should be at the
ordering of the divine wisdom and good pleasure, whether every particular man
should stand for himself, or whether the first father of mankind should be
appointed as the moral and federal head and representative of the rest. If God
has not liberty in this matter to determine either of these two as he pleases,
it must be because determining that the first father of men should represent
the rest, and not that every one should stand for himself, is injurious to
mankind. For if it be not injurious, how is it unjust? But it is not injurious
to mankind; for there is nothing in the nature of the case itself, that makes
it better that each man should stand for himself, than that all should be
represented by their common father; as the least reflection or consideration
will convince any one. And if there be nothing in the nature of the thing that
makes the former better for mankind than the latter, then it will follow, that
they are not hurt in God's choosing and appointing the latter, rather than the
former; or, which is the same thing, that it is not injurious to mankind.
3. When men are fallen, and become sinful,
God by his sovereignty has a right to determine about their redemption as he
pleases. He has a right to determine whether he will redeem any or not. He
might, if he had pleased, have left all to perish, or might have redeemed all.
Or, he may redeem some, and leave others; and if he doth so, he may take whom
he pleases, and leave whom he pleases. To suppose that all have forfeited his
favor, and deserved to perish, and to suppose that he may not leave any one
individual of them to perish, implies a contradiction; because it supposes that
such a one has a claim to God's favor, and is not justly liable to perish;
which is contrary to the supposition.
It is meet that God should order all these
things according to his own pleasure. By reason of his greatness and glory, by
which he is infinitely above all, he is worthy to be sovereign, and that his
pleasure should in all things take place. He is worthy that he should make
himself his end, and that he should make nothing but his own wisdom his rule in
pursuing that end, without asking leave or counsel of any, and without giving
account of any of his matters. It is fit that he who is absolutely perfect, and
infinitely wise, and the Fountain of all wisdom, should determine every thing
[that he effects] by his own will, even things of the greatest importance. It
is meet that he should be thus sovereign, because he is the first being, the
eternal being, whence all other beings are. He is the Creator of all things;
and all are absolutely and universally dependent on him; and therefore it is
meet that he should act as the sovereign possessor of heaven and earth.
APPLICATION
In the improvement of this doctrine, I would
chiefly direct myself to sinners who are afraid of damnation, in a use of
conviction. This may be matter of conviction to you, that it would be just and
righteous with God eternally to reject and destroy you. This is what you are in
danger of. You who are a Christless sinner are a poor condemned creature: God's
wrath still abides upon you; and the sentence of condemnation lies upon you.
You are in God's hands, and it is uncertain what he will do with you. You are
afraid what will become of you. You are afraid that it will be your portion to
suffer eternal burnings; and your fears are not without grounds; you have
reason to tremble every moment. But be you never so much afraid of it, let
eternal damnation be never so dreadful, yet it is just. God may nevertheless do
it, and be righteous, and holy, and glorious. Though eternal damnation be what
you cannot bear, and how much soever your heart shrinks at the thought of it,
yet God's justice may be glorious in it. The dreadfulness of the thing on your
part, and the greatness of your dread of it, do not render it the less
righteous on God's part. If you think otherwise, it is a sign that you do not
see yourself, that you are not sensible what sin is, nor how much of it you
have been guilty of. Therefore for your conviction, be directed,
First, To look over your past life: inquire
at the mouth of conscience, and hear what that has to testify concerning it.
Consider what you are, what light you have had, and what means you have lived under:
and yet how you have behaved yourself! What have those many days and nights you
have lived been filled up with? How have those years that have rolled over your
heads, one after another, been spent? What has the sun shone upon you for, from
day to day, while you have improved his light to serve Satan by it? What has
God kept your breath in your nostrils for, and given you meat and drink, that
you have spent your life and strength, supported by them, in opposing God, and
rebellion against him?
How many sorts of wickedness have you not
been guilty of! How manifold have been the abominations of your life! What
profaneness and contempt of God has been exercised by you! How little regard
have you had to the Scriptures, to the word preached, to sabbaths, and sacraments!
How profanely have you talked, many of you, about those things that are holy!
After what manner have many of you kept God's holy day, not regarding the
holiness of the time, not caring what you thought of in it! Yea, you have not
only spent the time in worldly, vain, and unprofitable thoughts, but in immoral
thoughts; pleasing yourself with the reflection on past acts of wickedness, and
in contriving new acts. Have not you spent much holy time in gratifying your
lusts in your imaginations; yea, not only holy time, but the very time of God's
public worship, when you have appeared in God's more immediate presence? How
have you not only attended to the worship, but have in the mean time been
feasting your lusts, and wallowing yourself in abominable uncleanness! How many
sabbaths have you spent, one after another, in a most wretched manner! Some of
you not only in worldly and wicked thoughts, but also a very wicked outward
behavior! When you on sabbath-days have got along with your wicked companions, how
has holy time been treated among you! What kind of conversation has there been!
Yea, how have some of you, by a very indecent carriage, openly dishonored and
cast contempt on the sacred services of God's house, and holy day! And what you
have done some of you alone, what wicked practices there have been in secret,
even in holy time, God and your own consciences know.
And how have you behaved yourself in the
time of family prayer! And what a trade have many of you made of absenting
yourselves from the worship of the families you belong to, for the sake of vain
company! And how have you continued in the neglect of secret prayer! Therein
wilfully living in a known sin, going abreast against as plain a command as any
in the Bible! Have you not been one that has cast off fear, and restrained
prayer before God?
What wicked carriage have some of you been
guilty of towards your parents! How far have you been from paying that honour
to them which God has required! Have you not even harboured ill-will and malice
towards them? And when they have displeased you, have wished evil to them? yea,
and shown your vile spirit in your behavior? and it is well if you have not
mocked them behind their backs; and, like the cursed Ham and Canaan, as it
were, derided your parents' nakedness instead of covering it, and hiding your
eyes from it. Have not some of you often disobeyed your parents, yea, and
refused to be subject to them? Is it not a wonder of mercy and forbearance,
that the proverb has not before now been accomplished on you, Proverbs 30:17.
"The eye that mocketh at his father, and refuseth to obey his mother, the
ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat
it."
What revenge and malice have you been guilty
of towards your neighbors! How have you indulged this spirit of the devil,
hating others, and wishing evil to them, rejoicing when evil befell them, and
grieving at others' prosperity, and lived in such a way for a long time! Have
not some of you allowed a passionate furious spirit, and behaved yourselves in
your anger more like wild beasts than like Christians?
What covetousness has been in many of you!
Such has been your inordinate love of the world, and care about the things of
it, that it has taken up your heart; you have allowed no room for God and
religion; you have minded the world more than your eternal salvation. For the
vanities of the world you have neglected reading, praying and meditation; for
the things of the world, you have broken the sabbath: for the world you have
spent a great deal of your time in quarreling. For the world you have envied
and hated your neighbor; for the world you have cast God, and Christ, and
heaven, behind your back; for the world you have sold your own soul. You have
as it were drowned your soul in worldly cares and desires; you have been a mere
earth-worm, that is never in its element but when grovelling and buried in the
earth.
How much of a spirit of pride has appeared
in you, which is in a peculiar manner the spirit and condemnation of the devil!
How have some of you vaunted yourselves in your apparel! others in their
riches! others in their knowledge and abilities! How has it galled you to see
others above you! How much has it gone against the grain for you to give others
their due honour! And how have you shown your pride by setting up your wills
and in opposing others, and stirring up and promoting division, and a party
spirit in public affairs.
How sensual have you been! Are there not
some here that have debased themselves below the dignity of human nature, by
wallowing in sensual filthiness, as swine in the mire, or as filthy vermin
feeding with delight on rotten carrion? What intemperance have some of you been
guilty of! How much of your precious time have you spent at the tavern, and in
drinking companies, when you ought to have been at home seeking God and your
salvation in your families and closets!
And what abominable lasciviousness have some
of you been guilty of! How have you indulged yourself from day to day, and from
night to night, in all manner of unclean imaginations! Has not your soul been
filled with them, till it has become a hold of foul spirits, and a cage of
every unclean and hateful bird? What foul-mouthed persons have some of you
been, often in lewd and lascivious talk and unclean songs, wherein were things
not fit to be spoken! And such company, where such conversation has been
carried on, has been your delight. And with what unclean acts and practices
have you defiled yourself! God and your own consciences know what abominable
lasciviousness you have practised in things not fit to be named, when you have
been alone; when you ought to have been reading, or meditating, or on your
knees before God in secret prayer. And how have you corrupted others, as well
as polluted yourselves! What vile uncleanness have you practised in company!
What abominations have you been guilty of in the dark! Such as the apostle
doubtless had respect to in Ephesians 5:12. "For it is a shame even to
speak of those things that are done of them in secret." Some of you have
corrupted others, and done what in you lay to undo their souls, (if you have
not actually done it;) and by your vile practices and example have made room
for Satan, invited his presence, and established his interest, in the town
where you have lived.
What lying have some of you been guilty of, especially in your childhood! And
have not your heart and lips often disagreed since you came to riper years?
What fraud, and deceit, and unfaithfulness, have many of you practised in your
own dealings with your neighbours, of which your own heart is conscious, if you
have not been noted by others.
And how have some of you behaved yourselves
in your family relations! How have you neglected your children's souls! And not
only so, but have corrupted their minds by your bad examples; and instead of
training them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, have rather brought
them up in the devil's service!
How have some of you attended that sacred
ordinance of the Lord's supper without any manner of serious preparation, and
in a careless slighty frame of spirits, and chiefly to comply with custom! Have
you not ventured to put the sacred symbols of the body and blood of Christ into
your mouth, while at the same time you lived in ways of known sins, and intended
no other than still to go on in the same wicked practices? And, it may be, have
sat at the Lord's table with rancour in your heart against some of your
brethren that you have sat there with. You have come even to that holy feast of
love among God's children, with the leaven of malice and envy in your heart;
and so have eaten and drank judgment to yourself.
What stupidity and sottishness has attended
your course of wickedness: which has appeared in your obstinacy under awakening
dispensations of God's word and providence. And how have some of you
backslidden after you have set out in religion, and quenched God's Spirit after
he had been striving with you! And what unsteadiness, and slothfulness, and
long misimprovement of God's strivings with you, have you been chargeable with!
Now, can you think when you have thus
behaved yourself, that God is obliged to show you mercy? Are you not after all
this ashamed to talk of its being hard with God to cast you off? Does it become
one who has lived such a life to open his mouth to excuse himself, to object
against God's justice in his condemnation, or to complain of it as hard in God
not to give him converting and pardoning grace, and make him his child, and
bestow on him eternal life? Or to talk of his duties and great pains in
religion, as if such performances were worthy to be accepted, and to draw God's
heart to such a creature? If this has been your manner, does it not show how
little you have considered yourself, and how little a sense you have had of
your own sinfulness?
Secondly, Be directed to consider, if God
should eternally reject and destroy you, what an agreeableness and exact mutual
answerableness there would be between God so dealing with you, and your spirit
and behaviour. There would not only be an equality, but a similitude. God
declares, that his dealings with men shall be suitable to their disposition and
practice. Psalm 18:25, 26. "With the merciful man, thou wilt show thyself
merciful; with an upright man, thou wilt show thyself upright; with the pure,
thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward, thou wilt show thyself
froward." How much soever you dread damnation, and are affrighted and
concerned at the thoughts of it; yet if God should indeed eternally damn you,
you would be met with but in your own way; you would be dealt with exactly
according to your own dealing. Surely it is but fair that you should be made to
buy in the same measure in which you sell.
Here I would particularly show,- 1. That if
God should eternally destroy you, it would be agreeable to your treatment of
God. 2. That it would be agreeable to your treatment of Jesus Christ. 3. That
it would be agreeable to your behaviour towards your neighbours. 4. That it
would be according to your own foolish behaviour towards yourself.
I. If God should for ever cast you off, it
would be exactly agreeable to your treatment of him. That you may be sensible
of this, consider,
1. You never have exercised the least degree
of love to God; and therefore it would be agreeable to your treatment of him,
if he should never express any love to you. When God converts and saves a
sinner, it is a wonderful and unspeakable manifestation of divine love. When a
poor lost soul is brought home to Christ, and has all his sins forgiven him,
and is made a child of God, it will take up a whole eternity to express and
declare the greatness of that love. And why should God be obliged to express
such wonderful love to you, who never exercised the least degree of love to him
in all your life? You never have loved God, who is infinitely glorious and
lovely; and why then is God under obligation to love you, who are all over
deformed and loathsome as a filthy worm, or rather a hateful viper? You have no
benevolence in your heart towards God; you never rejoiced in God's happiness;
if he had been miserable, and that had been possible, you would have liked it
as well as if he were happy; you would not have cared how miserable he was, nor
mourned for it, any more than you now do for the devil's being miserable. And
why then should God be looked upon as obliged to take so much care for your
happiness, as to do such great things for it, as he doth for those that are
saved? Or why should God be called hard, in case he should not be careful to
save you from misery? You care not what becomes of God's glory; you are not
distressed how much soever his honour seems to suffer in the world: and why
should God care any more for your welfare? Has it not been so, that if you
could but promote your private interest, and gratify your own lusts, you cared
not how much the glory of God suffered? And why may not God advance his own
glory in the ruin of your welfare, not caring how much your interest suffers by
it? You never so much as stirred one step, sincerely making the glory of God
your end, or acting from real respect to him: and why then is it hard if God
doth not do such great things for you, as the changing of your nature, raising
you from spiritual death to life, conquering the powers of darkness for you,
translating you out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear
Son, delivering you from eternal misery, and bestowing upon you eternal glory?
You were not willing to deny yourself for God; you never cared to put yourself
out of your way for Christ; whenever any thing cross or difficult came in your
way, that the glory of God was concerned in, it has been your manner to shun
it, and excuse yourself from it. You did not care to hurt yourself for Christ,
whom you did not see worthy of it; and why then must it be looked upon as a hard
and cruel thing, if Christ has not been pleased to spill his blood and be
tormented to death for such a sinner.
2. You have slighted God; and why then may
not God justly slight you? When sinners are sensible in some measure of their
misery, they are ready to think it hard that God will take no notice of them;
that he will see them in such a lamentable distressed condition, beholding
their burdens and tears, and seem to slight it, and manifest no pity to them.
Their souls they think are precious: it would be a dreadful thing if they
should perish, and burn in hell for ever. They do not see through it, that God
should make so light of their salvation. But then, ought they not to consider,
that as their souls are precious, so is God's honour precious? The honour of
the infinite God, the great King of heaven and earth, is a thing of as great
importance, (and surely may justly be so esteemed by God,) as the happiness of
you, a poor little worm. But yet you have slighted that honour of God, and
valued it no more than the dirt under your feet. You have been told that such
and such things were contrary to the will of a holy God, and against his
honour; but you cared not for that. God called upon you, and exhorted you to be
more tender of his honour; but you went on without regarding him. Thus have you
slighted God! And yet, is it hard that God should slight you? Are you more
honourable than God, that he must be obliged to make much of you, how light
soever you make of him and his glory?
And you have not only slighted God in time
past, but you slight him still. You indeed now make a pretence and show of
honouring him in your prayers, and attendance on other external duties, and by
sober countenance, and seeming devoutness in your words and behaviour; but it
if all mere dissembling. That downcast look and seeming reverence, is not from
any honour you have to God in your heart, though you would have God take it so.
You who have not believed in Christ, have not the least jot of honour to God;
that show of it is merely forced, and what you are driven to by fear, like
those mentioned in Psalm 66:3. "Through the greatness of thy power shall
thine enemies submit themselves to thee." In the original it is,
"shall lie unto thee;" that is, yield feigned submission, and
dissemble respect and honour to thee. There is a rod held over you that makes
you seem to pay such respect to God. This religion and devotion, even the very
appearance of it, would soon be gone, and all vanish away, if that were
removed. Sometimes it may be you weep in your prayers, and in your hearing
sermons, and hope God will take notice of it, and take it for some honour; but
he sees it to be all hypocrisy. You weep for yourself; you are afraid of hell;
and do you think that is worthy of God to take much notice of you, because you
can cry when you are in danger of being damned; when at the same time you
indeed care nothing for God's honour.
Seeing you thus disregard so great a God, is
it a heinous thing for God to slight you, a little, wretched, despicable
creature; a worm, a mere nothing, and less than nothing; a vile insect, that
has risen up in contempt against the Majesty of heaven and earth?
3. Why should God be looked upon as obliged
to bestow salvation upon you, when you have been so ungrateful for the mercies
he has bestowed upon you already? God has tried you with a great deal of
kindness, and he never has sincerely been thanked by you for any of it. God has
watched over you, and preserved you, and provided for you, and followed you
with mercy all your days; and yet you have continued sinning against him. He
has given you food and raiment, but you have improved both in the service of
sin. He has preserved you while you slept; but when you arose, it was to return
to the old trade of sinning. God, notwithstanding this ingratitude, has still
continued his mercy; but his kindness has never won your heart, or brought you
to a more grateful behaviour towards him. It may be you have received many
remarkable mercies, recoveries from sickness, or preservations of your life
when exposed by accidents, when if you had died, you would have gone directly
to hell; but you never had any true thankfulness for any of these mercies. God
has kept you out of hell, and continued your day of grace, and the offers of
salvation, so long a time; while you did not regard your own salvation so much
as in secret to ask God for it. And now God has greatly added to his mercy to
you, by giving you the strivings of his Spirit, whereby a most precious
opportunity for your salvation is in your hands. But what thanks has God
received for it? What kind of returns have you made for all this kindness? As
God has multiplied mercies, so have you multiplied provocations.
And yet now are you ready to quarrel for
mercy, and to find fault with God, not only that he does not bestow more mercy,
but to contend with him, because he does not bestow infinite mercy upon you,
heaven with all it contains, and even himself, for your eternal portion. What
ideas have you of yourself, that you think God is obliged to do so much for
you, though you treat him ever so ungratefully for his kindness wherewith you
have been followed all the days of your life.
4. You have voluntarily chosen to be with
Satan in his enmity and opposition to God; how justly therefore might you be with
him in his punishment! You did not choose to be on God's side, but rather chose
to side with the devil, and have obstinately continued in it, against God's
often repeated calls and counsels. You have chosen rather to hearken to Satan
than to God, and would be with him in his work. You have given yourself up to
him, to be subject to his power and government, in opposition to God; how
justly therefore may God also give you up to him, and leave you in his power,
to accomplish your ruin! Seeing you have yielded yourself to his will, to do as
he would have you, surely God may leave you in his hands to execute his will
upon you. If men will be with God's enemy, and on his side, why is God obliged
to redeem them out of his hands, when they have done his work? Doubtless you
would be glad to serve the devil, and be God's enemy while you live, and then
to have God your friend, and deliver you from the devil, when you come to die.
But will God be unjust if he deals otherwise by you? No, surely! It will be
altogether and perfectly just, that you should have your portion with him with
whom you have chosen to work; and that you should be in his possession to whose
dominion you have yielded yourself; and if you cry to God for deliverance, he
may most justly give you that answer. Judges 10:14. "Go to the gods which
you have chosen."
5. Consider how often you have refused to
hear God's calls to you, and how just it would therefore be, if he should
refuse to hear you when you call upon him. You are ready, it may be, to complain
that you have often prayed, and earnestly begged of God to show you mercy, and
yet have no answer of prayer: One says, I have been constant in prayer for so
many years, and God has not heard me. Another says, I have done what I can; I
have prayed as earnestly as I am able; I do not see how I can do more; and it
will seem hard if after all I am denied. But do you consider how often God has
called, and you have denied him? God has called earnestly, and for a long time;
he has called and called again in his word, and in his providence, and you have
refused. You was not uneasy for fear you should not show regard enough to his
calls. You let him call as loud and as long as he would; for your part, you had
no leisure to attend to what he said; you had other business to mind; you had
these and those lusts to gratify and please, and worldly concerns to attend;
you could not afford to stand considering of what God had to say to you. When
the ministers of Christ have stood and pleaded with you, in his name, sabbath
after sabbath, and have even spent their strength in it, how little was you
moved! It did not alter you, but you went on still as you used to do; when you
went away, you returned again to your sins, to your lasciviousness, to your
vain mirth, to your covetousness, to your intemperance, and that has been the
language of your heart and practice, Exodus 5:2. "Who is the Lord, that I
should obey his voice?" Was it no crime for you to refuse to hear when God
called? And yet is it now very hard that God does not hear your earnest calls,
and that though your calling on God be not from any respect to him, but merely
from self-love? The devil would beg as earnestly as you, if he had any hope to
get salvation by it, and a thousand times as earnestly, and yet be as much of a
devil as he is now. Are your calls more worthy to be heard than God's? Or is
God more obliged to regard what you say to him, than you to regard his
commands, counsels, and invitations to you? What can be more justice than this,
Proverbs 1:24, &c. "Because I have called, and ye refused, I have
stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my
counsel, and would none of my reproof: I will also laugh at your calamity, I
will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your
destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early,
but they shall not find me."
6. Have you not taken encouragement to sin
against God, on that very presumption, that God would show you mercy when you
sought it? And may not God justly refuse you that mercy that you have so
presumed upon? You have flattered yourself, that though you did so, yet God
would show you mercy when you cried earnestly to him for it: how righteous
therefore would it be in God, to disappoint such a wicked presumption! It was
upon that very hope that you dared to affront the majesty of heaven so
dreadfully as you have done; and can you now be so sottish as to think that God
is obliged not to frustrate that hope?
When a sinner takes encouragement to neglect
secret prayer which God has commanded, to gratify his lusts, to live a carnal
vain life, to thwart God, to run upon him, and contemn him to his face,
thinking with himself, "If I do so, God would not damn me; he is a
merciful God, and therefore when I seek his mercy he will bestow it upon
me;" must God be accounted hard because he will not do according to such a
sinner's presumption?
Cannot he be excused from showing such a
sinner mercy when he is pleased to seek it, without incurring the charge of
being unjust; if this be the case, God has no liberty to vindicate his own
honour and majesty; but must lay himself open to all manner of affronts, and
yield himself up to the abuse of vile men, though they disobey, despise, and
dishonour him, as much as they will; and when they have done, his mercy and
pardoning grace must not be in his own power and at his own disposal, but he
must be obliged to dispense it at their call. He must take these bold and vile
contemners of his majesty, when it suits them to ask it, and must forgive all
their sins, and not only so, but must adopt them into his family, and make them
his children, and bestow eternal glory upon them. What mean, low, and strange
thoughts have such men of God, who think thus of him! Consider, that you have
injured God the more, and have been the worse enemy to him, for his being a
merciful God. So have you treated that attribute of God's mercy! How just is it
therefore that you never should have any benefit of that attribute!
There is something peculiarly heinous in
sinning against the mercy of God more than other attributes. There is such base
and horrid ingratitude, in being the worse to God because he is a being of
infinite goodness and grace, that it above all things renders wickedness vile
and detestable. This ought to win us, and engage us to serve God better; but
instead of that, to sin against him the more, has something inexpressibly bad
in it, and does in a peculiar manner enhance guilt, and incense wrath; as seems
to be intimated, Romans 2:4, 5. "Or despisest thou the riches of his
goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of
God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart,
treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the
righteous judgment of God."
The greater the mercy of God is, the more
should you be engaged to love him, and live to his glory. But it has been
contrariwise with you; the consideration of the mercies of God being so
exceeding great, is the thing wherewith you have encouraged yourself in sin.
You have heard that the mercy of God was without bounds, that it was sufficient
to pardon the greatest sinner, and you have upon that very account ventured to
be a very great sinner. Though it was very offensive to God, though you heard
that God infinitely hated sin, and that such practices as you went on in were exceeding
contrary to his nature, will, and glory, yet that did not make you uneasy; you
heard that he was a very merciful God, and had grace enough to pardon you, and
so cared not how offensive your sins were to him. How long have some of you
gone on in sin, and what great sins have some of you been guilty of, on that
presumption! Your own conscience can give testimony to it, that this has made
you refuse God's calls, and has made you regardless of his repeated commands.
Now, how righteous would it be if God should swear in his wrath, that you
should never be the better for his being infinitely merciful!
Your ingratitude has been the greater, that
you have not only abused the attribute of God's mercy, taking encouragement
from it to continue in sin, but you have also presumed that God would exercise
infinite mercy to you in particular; which consideration should have especially
endeared God to you. You have taken encouragement to sin the more, from that
consideration, that Christ came into the would and died to save sinners; such
thanks has Christ had from you, for enduring such a tormenting death for his
enemies! Now, how justly might God refuse that you should ever be the better
for his Son's laying down his life! It was because of these things that you put
off seeking salvation. You would take the pleasures of sin still longer,
hardening yourself because mercy was infinite, and it would not be too late, if
you sought it afterwards; now, how justly may God disappoint you in this, and
so order it that it shall be too late!
7. How have some of you risen up against
God, and in the frame of your minds opposed him in his sovereign dispensations!
And how justly upon that account might God oppose you, and set himself against
you! You never yet would submit to God; never willingly comply, that God should
have dominion over the world, and that he should govern it for his own glory,
according to his own wisdom. You, a poor worm, a potsherd, a broken piece of an
earthen vessel, have dared to find fault and quarrel with God. Isaiah 45:9.
"Woe to him that striveth with his Maker. Let the potsherd strive with the
potsherds of the earth: shall the clay say to him that fashioned it, What
makest thou?" But yet you have ventured to do it. Romans 9:20. "Who
art thou, O man, that repliest against God?" But yet you have thought you
was big enough; you have taken upon you to call God to an account, why he does
thus and thus; you have said to Jehovah, What dost thou?
If you have been restrained by fear from
openly venting your opposition and enmity of heart against God's government,
yet it has been in you; you have not been quiet in the frame of your mind; you
have had the heart of a viper within, and have been ready to spit your venom at
God. It is well if sometimes you have not actually done it, by tolerating
blasphemous thoughts and malignant risings of heart against him; yea, and the
frame of your heart in some measure appeared in impatient and fretful
behaviour.- Now, seeing you have thus opposed God, how just is it that God should
oppose you! Or is it because you are so much better, and so much greater than
God, that it is a crime for him to make that opposition against you which you
make against him? Do you think that the liberty of making opposition is your
exclusive prerogative, so that you may be an enemy to God, but God must by no
means be an enemy to you, but must be looked upon under obligation nevertheless
to help you, and save you by his blood, and bestow his best blessings upon you?
Consider how in the frame of your mind you
have thwarted God in those very exercises of mercy towards others that you are
seeking for yourself. God exercising his infinite grace towards your
neighbours, has put you into an ill frame, and it may be, set you into a tumult
of mind. How justly therefore may God refuse ever to exercise that mercy
towards you! Have you not thus opposed God showing mercy to others, even at the
very time when you pretended to be earnest with God for pity and help for
yourself? Yea, and while you was endeavouring to get something wherewith to
recommend yourself to God? And will you look to God still with a challenge of
mercy, and contend with him for it notwithstanding? Can you who have such a
heart, and have thus behaved yourself, come to God for any other than mere sovereign
mercy?
II. If you should for ever be cast off by
God, it would be agreeable to your treatment of Jesus Christ. It would have
been just with God if he had cast you off for ever, without ever making you the
offer of a Saviour. But God hath not done that; he has provided a Saviour for
sinners, and offered him to you, even his own Son Jesus Christ, who is the only
Saviour of men. All that are not for ever cast off are saved by him. God offers
men salvation through him, and has promised us, that if we come to him, we
shall not be cast off. But if you have treated, and still treat, this Saviour
after such a manner, that if you should be eternally cast off by God, it would
be most agreeable to your behaviour towards him; which appears by this, viz.
"That you reject Christ, and will not have him for your Saviour."
If God offers you a Saviour from deserved
punishment, and you will not receive him, then surely it is just that you
should go without a Saviour. Or is God obliged, because you do not like this
Saviour, to provide you another? He has given an infinitely honourable and
glorious person, even his only begotten Son, to be a sacrifice for sin, and so
provided salvation; and this Saviour is offered to you: now if you refuse to
accept him, is God therefore unjust if he does not save you? Is he obliged to
save you in a way of your own choosing, because you do not like the way of his
choosing? Or will you charge Christ with injustice because he does not become
your Saviour, when at the same time you will not have him when he offers
himself to you, and beseeches you to accept of him as your Saviour?
I am sensible that by this time many persons
are ready to object against this. If all should speak what they now think, we
should hear a murmuring all over the meeting-house, and one and another would
say, "I cannot see how this can be, that I am not willing that Christ
should be my Saviour, when I would give all the world that he was my Saviour:
how is it possible that I should not be willing to have Christ for my Saviour
when this is what I am seeking after, and praying for, and striving for, as for
my life?"
Here therefore I would endeavour to convince
you, that you are under a gross mistake in this matter. And, First, I would
endeavour to show the grounds of your mistake. And Secondly, To demonstrate to
you, that you have rejected, and do wilfully reject, Jesus Christ.
First, That you may see the weak grounds of
your mistake, consider,
1. There is a great deal of difference
between a willingness not to be damned, and a being willing to receive Christ
for your Savior. You have the former; there is no doubt of that: nobody
supposes that you love misery so as to choose an eternity of it; and so
doubtless you are willing to be saved from eternal misery. But that is a very different
thing from being willing to come to Christ: persons very commonly mistake the
one for the other, but they are quite two things. You may love the deliverance,
but hate the deliverer. You tell of a willingness; but consider what is the
object of that willingness. It does not respect Christ; the way of salvation by
him is not at all the object of it; but it is wholly terminated on your escape
from misery. The inclination of your will goes no further than self, it never
reaches Christ. You are willing not to be miserable; that is, you love
yourself, and there your will and choice terminate. And it is but a vain
pretence and delusion to say or think, that you are willing to accept of
Christ.
2. There is certainly a great deal of
difference between a forced compliance and a free willingness. Force and
freedom cannot consist together. Now that willingness, whereby you think you
are willing to have Christ for a Saviour, is merely a forced thing. Your heart
does not go out after Christ of itself, but you are forced and driven to seek
an interest in him. Christ has no share at all in your heart; there is no
manner of closing of the heart with him. This forced compliance is not what
Christ seeks of you; he seeks a free and willing acceptance, Psalm 110:3. "Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power." He seeks not that you
should receive him against your will, but with a free will. He seeks
entertainment in your heart and choice.- And if you refuse thus to receive
Christ, how just is it that Christ should refuse to receive you? How reasonable
are Christ's terms, who offers to save all those that willingly, or with a good
will, accept of him for their Saviour! Who can rationally expect that Christ
should force himself upon any man to be his Saviour? Or what can be looked for
more reasonable, than that all who would be saved by Christ, should heartily
and freely entertain him? And surely it would be very dishonourable for Christ
to offer himself upon lower terms.- But I would now proceed,
Secondly, To show that you are not willing
to have Christ for a Saviour. To convince you of it, consider,
1. How it is possible that you should be
willing to accept of Christ as a Saviour from the desert of a punishment that
you are not sensible you have deserved. If you are truly willing to accept of
Christ as a Saviour, it must be as a sacrifice to make atonement for your
guilt. Christ came into the world on this errand, to offer himself as an
atonement, to answer for our desert of punishment. But how can you be willing to
have Christ for a Saviour from a desert of hell, if you be not sensible that
you have a desert of hell? If you have not really deserved everlasting burnings
in hell, then the very offer of an atonement for such a desert is an imposition
upon you. If you have no such guilt upon you, then the very offer of a
satisfaction for that guilt is an injury, because it implies in it a charge of
guilt that you are free from. Now therefore it is impossible that a man who is
not convinced of his guilt can be willing to accept of such an offer; because
he cannot be willing to accept the charge which the offer implies. A man who is
not convinced that he has deserved so dreadful a punishment, cannot willingly
submit to be charged with it. If he thinks he is willing, it is but a mere
forced, feigned business; because in his heart he looks upon himself greatly
injured; and therefore he cannot freely accept of Christ, under that notion of
a Saviour from the desert of such a punishment; for such an acceptance is an
implicit owning that he does deserve such a punishment.
I do not say, but that men may be willing to
be saved from an undeserved punishment; they may rather not suffer it, than
suffer it. But a man cannot be willing to accept one at God's hands, under the
notion of a Saviour from a punishment deserved from him which he thinks he has
not deserved; it is impossible that any one should freely allow a Saviour under
that notion. Such an one cannot like the way of salvation by Christ; for if he
thinks he has not deserved hell, then he will think that freedom from hell is a
debt; and therefore cannot willingly and heartily receive it as a free gift.-
If a king should condemn a man to some tormenting death, which the condemned
person thought himself not deserving of, but looked upon the sentence as unjust
and cruel, and the king, when the time of execution drew nigh, should offer him
his pardon, under the notion of a very great act of grace and clemency, the
condemned person never could willingly and heartily allow it under that notion,
because he judged himself unjustly condemned.
Now by this it is evident that you are not
willing to accept of Christ as your Saviour; because you never yet had such a
sense of your own sinfulness, and such a conviction of your great guilt in God
's sight, as to be indeed convinced that you lay justly condemned to the
punishment of hell. You never was convinced that you had forfeited all favour,
and was in God's hands, and at his sovereign and arbitrary disposal, to be
either destroyed or saved, just as he pleased. You never yet was convinced of
the sovereignty of God. Hence are there so many objections arising against the
justice of your punishment from original sin, and from God's decree, from mercy
shown to others, and the like.
2. That you are not sincerely willing to
accept of Christ as your Saviour, appears by this, That you never have been
convinced that he is sufficient for the work of your salvation. You never had a
sight or sense of any such excellency or worthiness in Christ, as should give such
great value to his blood and his mediation with God, as that it was sufficient
to be accepted for such exceeding guilty creatures, who have so provoked God,
and exposed themselves to such amazing wrath. Saying it is so and allowing it
be as others say, is a very different thing from being really convinced of it,
and a being made sensible of it in your own heart. The sufficiency of Christ
depends upon, or rather consists in his excellency. It is because he is so
excellent a person that his blood is of sufficient value to atone for sin, and
it is hence that his obedience is so worthy in God's sight; it is also hence
that his intercession is so prevalent; and therefore those that never had any
spiritual sight or sense of Christ's excellency, cannot be sensible of his
sufficiency.
And that sinners are not convinced that
Christ is sufficient for the work he has undertaken, appears most manifestly
when they are under great convictions of their sin, and danger of God's wrath.
Though it may be before they thought they could allow Christ to be sufficient,
(for it is easy to allow any one to be sufficient for our defense at a time
when we see no danger,) yet when they come to be sensible of their guilt and
God's wrath, what discouraging thoughts do they entertain! How are they ready
to draw towards despair, as if there were no hope or help for such wicked
creatures as they! The reason is, They have no apprehension or sense of any
other way that God's majesty can be vindicated, but only in their misery. To
tell them of the blood of Christ signifies nothing, it does not relieve their
sinking, despairing hearts. This makes it most evident that they are not
convinced that Christ is sufficient to be their Mediator.- And as long as they
are unconvinced of this, it is impossible they should be willing to accept of
him as their Mediator and Saviour. A man in distressing fear will not willingly
betake himself to a fort that he judges not sufficient to defend him from the
enemy. A man will not willingly venture out into the ocean in a ship that he
suspects is leaky, and will sink before he gets through his voyage.
3. It is evident that you are not willing to
have Christ for your Saviour, because you have so mean an opinion of him, that
you durst not trust his faithfulness. One that undertakes to be the Saviour of
souls had need be faithful; for if he fails in such a trust, how great is the
loss! But you are not convinced of Christ's faithfulness; as is evident,
because at such times as when you are in a considerable measure sensible of
your guilt and God's anger, you cannot be convinced that Christ is willing to
accept of you, or that he stands ready to receive you, if you should come to
him, though Christ so much invites you to come to him, and has so fully
declared that he will not reject you, if you do come; as particularly, John
6:37. "Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." Now, there
is no man can be heartily willing to trust his eternal welfare in the hands of
an unfaithful person, or one whose faithfulness he suspects.
4. You are not willing to be saved in that
way by Christ, as is evident, because you are not willing that your own
goodness should be set at nought. In the way of salvation by Christ men's own
goodness is wholly set at nought; there is no account at all made of it. Now
you cannot be willing to be saved in a way wherein your own goodness is set at
nought, as is evident, since you make much of it yourself. You make much of
your prayers and pains in religion, and are often thinking of them; how considerable
do they appear to you, when you look back upon them! And some of you are
thinking how much more you have done than others, and expecting some respect or
regard that God should manifest to what you do. Now, if you make so much of
what you do yourself, it is impossible that you should be freely willing that
God should make nothing of it . As we may see in other things; if a man is
proud of a great estate, or if he values himself much upon his honourable
office, or his great abilities, it is impossible that he should like it, and
heartily approve of it, that others should make light of these things and
despise them.
Seeing therefore it is so evident, that you
refuse to accept of Christ as your Saviour, why is Christ to be blamed that he
does not save you? Christ has offered himself to you, to be your Saviour in
time past, and he continues offering himself still, and you continue to reject
him, and yet complain that he does not save you.- So strangely unreasonable,
and inconsistent with themselves, are gospel sinners!
But I expect there are many of you that
still object. Such an objection as this, is probably now in the hearts of many
here present.
Objection. If I am not willing to have
Christ for my Saviour, I cannot make myself willing.- But I would give an
answer to this objection by laying down two things, that must be acknowledged
to be exceeding evident.
1. It is no excuse, that you cannot receive
Christ of yourself, unless you would if you could. This is so evident of
itself, that it scarce needs any proof. Certainly if persons would not if they
could, it is just the same thing as to the blame that lies upon them, whether
they can or cannot. If you were willing, and then found that you could not,
your being unable would alter the case, and might be some excuse; because then
the defect would not be in your will, but only in your ability. But as long as
you will not, it is no matter, whether you have ability or no ability.
If you are not willing to accept of Christ,
it follows that you have no sincere willingness to be willing; because the will
always necessarily approves of and rests in its own acts. To suppose the
contrary, would be to suppose a contradiction; it would be to suppose that a
man's will is contrary to itself, or that he wills contrary to what he himself
wills. As you are not willing to come to Christ, and cannot make yourself
willing, so you have no sincere desire to be willing; and therefore may most
justly perish without a Saviour. There is no excuse at all for you; for say
what you will about your inability, the seat of your blame lies in your
perverse will, that is an enemy to the Saviour. It is in vain for you to tell
of your want of power, as long as your will is found defective. If a man should
hate you, and smite you in the face, but should tell you at the same time, that
he hated you so much, that he could not help choosing and willing so to do,
would you take it the more patiently for that? Would not your indignation be
rather stirred up the more?
2. If you would be willing if you could,
that is no excuse, unless your unwillingness to be willing be sincere. That
which is hypocritical, and does not come from the heart, but is merely forced,
ought wholly to be set aside, as worthy of no consideration; because common
sense teaches, that what is not hearty, but hypocritical is indeed nothing,
being only a show of what is not; but that which is good for nothing, ought to
go for nothing. But if you set aside all that is not free, and call nothing a
willingness, but a free hearty willingness, then see how the case stands, and
whether or no you have not lost all your excuse for standing out against the
calls of the gospel. You say you would make yourself willing to accept if you
could; but it is not from any good principle that you are willing for that. It
is not from any free inclination, or true respect to Christ, or any love to
your duty, or any spirit of obedience. It is not from the influence of any real
respect, or tendency in your heart, towards any thing good, or from any other
principle than such as is in the hearts of devils, and would make them have the
same sort of willingness in the same circumstances. It is therefore evident,
that there can be no goodness in that would be willing to come to Christ: and
that which has no goodness, cannot be an excuse for any badness. If there be no
good in it, then it signifies nothing, and weighs nothing, when put into the
scales to counterbalance that which is bad.
Sinners therefore spend their time in
foolish arguing and objecting, making much of that which is good for nothing,
making those excuses that are not worth offering. It is in vain to keep making
objection. You stand justly condemned. The blame lies at your door: Thrust it
off from you as often as you will, it will return upon you. Sew fig-leaves as
long as you will, your nakedness will appear. You continue wilfully and
wickedly rejecting Jesus Christ, and will not have him for your Saviour, and
therefore it is sottish madness in you to charge Christ with injustice that he
does not save you.
Here is the sin of unbelief! Thus the guilt
of that great sin lies upon you! If you never had thus treated a Saviour, you
might most justly have been damned to all eternity: it would but be exactly
agreeable to your treatment of God. But besides this, when God,
notwithstanding, has offered you his own dear Son, to save you from this
endless misery you had deserved, and not only so, but to make you happy
eternally in the enjoyment of himself, you have refused him, and would not have
him for your Saviour, and still refuse to comply with the offers of the gospel;
what can render any person more inexcusable? If you should now perish for ever,
what can you have to say?
Hereby the justice of God in your
destruction appears in two respects:
1. It is more abundantly manifest that it is
just that you should be destroyed. Justice never appears so conspicuous as it
does after refused and abused mercy. Justice in damnation appears abundantly
the more clear and bright, after a wilful rejection of offered salvation. What
can an offended prince do more than freely offer pardon to a condemned
malefactor? And if he refuses to accept of it, will any one say that his
execution is unjust?
2. God's justice will appear in your greater
destruction. Besides the guilt that you would have had if a Saviour never had
been offered, you bring that great additional guilt upon you, of most
ungratefully refusing offered deliverance. What more base and vile treatment of
God can there be, than for you, when justly condemned to eternal misery, and
ready to be executed, and God graciously sends his own Son, who comes and
knocks at your door with a pardon in his hand, and not only a pardon, but a
deed of eternal glory; I say, what can be worse, than for you, out of dislike
and enmity against God and his Son, to refuse to accept those benefits at his
hands? How justly may the anger of God be greatly incensed and increased by it!
When a sinner thus ungratefully rejects mercy, his last error is worse than the
first; this is more heinous than all his former rebellion, and may justly bring
down more fearful wrath upon him.
The heinousness of this sin of rejecting a
Saviour especially appears in two things:
1. The greatness of the benefits offered:
which appears in the greatness of the deliverance, which is from inexpressible
degrees of corruption and wickedness of heart and life, the least degree of
which is infinitely evil; and from misery that is everlasting; and in the
greatness and glory of the inheritance purchased and offered. Hebrews 2:3.
"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation."
2. The wonderfulness of the way in which
these benefits are procured and offered. That God should lay help on his own
Son, when our case was so deplorable that help could be had in no mere
creature; and that he should undertake for us, and should come into the world,
and take upon him our nature, and should not only appear in a low state of
life, but should die such a death, and endure such torments and contempt for
sinners while enemies, how wonderful is it! And what tongue or pen can set
forth the greatness of the ingratitude, baseness, and perverseness there is in
it, when a perishing sinner that is in the most extreme necessity of salvation,
rejects it, after it is procured in such a way as this! That so glorious a
person should be thus treated, and that when he comes on so gracious an errand!
That he should stand so long offering himself and calling and inviting, as he
has done to many of you, and all to no purpose, but all the while be set at
nought! Surely you might justly be cast into hell without one more offer of a
Saviour! Yea, and thrust down into the lowest hell! Herein you have exceeded
the very devils; for they never rejected the offers of such glorious mercy; no,
nor of any mercy at all. This will be the distinguishing condemnation of
gospel-sinners, John 3:18. "He that believeth not is condemned already,
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of
God."- That outward smoothness of your carriage towards Christ, that
appearance of respect to him in your looks, your speeches, and gestures, do not
argue but that you set him at nought in your heart. There may be much of these
outward shows of respect, and yet you be like Judas, that betrayed the Son of
man with a kiss; and like those mockers that bowed the knee before him, and at
the same time spit in his face.
III. If God should for ever cast you off and
destroy you, it would be agreeable to your treatment of others.- It would be no
other than what would be exactly answerable to your behaviour towards your
fellow-creatures, that have the same human nature, and are naturally in the
same circumstances with you, and that you ought to love as yourself. And that
appears especially in two things.
1. You have many of you been opposite in
your spirit to the salvation of others. There are several ways that natural men
manifest a spirit of opposition against the salvation of souls. It sometimes
appears by a fear that their companions, acquaintances, and equals, will obtain
mercy, and so become unspeakably happier than they. It is sometimes manifested
by an uneasiness at the news of what others have hopefully obtained. It appears
when persons envy others for it, and dislike them the more, and disrelish their
talk, and avoid their company, and cannot bear to hear their religious
discourse, and especially to receive warnings and counsels from them. And it
oftentimes appears by their backwardness to entertain charitable thoughts of
them, and by their being brought with difficulty to believe that they have
obtained mercy, and a forwardness to listen to any thing that seems to
contradict it. The devil hated to own Job's sincerity, Job 1:7, &c. and
chapter 2, verses 3, 4, 5. There appears very often much of this spirit of the
devil in natural men. Sometimes they are ready to make a ridicule of others'
pretended godliness; they speak of the ground of others' hopes, as the enemies
of the Jews did of the wall that they built. Nehemiah 4:3. "Now Tobiah the
Ammonite was by him, and he said, That which they build, if a fox go up, he
shall even break down their stone wall." There are many that join with
Sanballat and Tobiah, and are of the same spirit with them. There always was,
and always will be, an enmity betwixt the seed of the serpent and the seed of
the women. It appeared in Cain, who hated his brother, because he was more
acceptable to God than himself; and it appears still in these times, and in
this place. There are many that are like the elder brother, who could not bear
that the prodigal when he returned should be received with such joy and good
entertainment, and was put into a fret by it, both against his brother that had
returned, and his father that had made him so welcome. Luke 15.
Thus have many of you been opposite to the
salvation of others, who stand in as great necessity of it as you. You have
been against their being delivered from everlasting misery, who can bear it no
better than you; not because their salvation would do you any hurt, or their
damnation help you, any otherwise than as it would gratify that vile spirit
that is so much like the spirit of the devil, who, because he is miserable
himself, is unwilling that others should be happy. How just therefore is it
that God should be opposite to your salvation! If you have so little love or
mercy in you as to begrudge your neighbour's salvation, whom you have no cause
to hate, but the law of God and nature requires you to love, why is God bound
to exercise such infinite love and mercy to you, as to save you at the price of
his own blood? you, whom he is no way bound to love, but who have deserved his
hatred a thousand and a thousand times? You are not willing that others should
be converted, who have behaved themselves injuriously towards you; and yet, will
you count it hard if God does not bestow converting grace upon you that have
deserved ten thousand times as ill of God, as ever any of your neighbours have
of you? You are opposite to God's showing mercy to those that you think have
been vicious persons, and are very unworthy of such mercy. Is others'
unworthiness a just reason why God should not bestow mercy on them? And yet
will God be hard, if, notwithstanding all your unworthiness, and the
abominableness of your spirit and practice in his sight, he does not show you
mercy? You would have God bestow liberally on you, and upbraid not; but yet
when he shows mercy to others, you are ready to upbraid as soon as you hear of
it; you immediately are thinking with yourself how ill they have behaved
themselves; and it may be your mouths on this occasion are open, enumerating
and aggravating the sins they have been guilty of. You would have God bury all
your faults, and wholly blot out all your transgressions; but yet if he bestows
mercy on others, it may be you will take that occasion to rake up all their old
faults that you can think of. You do not much reflect on and condemn yourself
for your baseness and unjust spirit towards others, in your opposition to their
salvation; you do not quarrel with yourself, and condemn yourself for this; but
yet you in your heart will quarrel with God, and fret at his dispensations,
because you think he seems opposite to showing mercy to you. One would think
that the consideration of these things should for ever stop your mouth.
2. Consider how you have promoted others'
damnation. Many of you, by the bad examples you have set, by corrupting the
minds of others, by your sinful conversation, by leading them into or
strengthening them in sin, and by the mischief you have done in human society
other ways that might be mentioned, have been guilty of those things that have
tended to others' damnation. You have heretofore appeared on the side of sin
and Satan, and have strengthened their interest, and have been many ways
accessary to others' sins, have hardened their hearts, and thereby have done
what has tended to the ruin of their souls.- Without doubt there are those here
present who have been in a great measure the means of others' damnation. One
man may really be a means of others' damnation as well as salvation. Christ
charges the scribes and Pharisees with this, Matthew 23:13. "Ye shut up
the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither
suffer ye them that are entering, to go in." We have no reason to think
that this congregation has none in it who are cursed from day to day by poor
souls that are roaring out in hell, whose damnation they have been the means
of, or have greatly contributed to.- There are many who contribute to their own
children's damnation, by neglecting their education, by setting them bad
examples, and bringing them up in sinful ways. They take some care of their
bodies, but take little care of their poor souls; they provide for them bread
to eat, but deny them the bread of life, that their famishing souls stand in
need of. And are there no such parents here who have thus treated their
children? If their children be not gone to hell, no thanks to them; it is not
because they have not done what has tended to their destruction. Seeing therefore
you have had no more regard to others' salvation, and have promoted their
damnation, how justly might God leave you to perish yourself!
IV. If God should eternally cast you off, it
would but be agreeable to your own behaviour towards yourself; and that in two
respects:
1. In being so careless of your own
salvation. You have refused to take care for your salvation, as God has
counselled and commanded you from time to time; and why may not God neglect it,
now you seek it of him? Is God obliged to be more careful of your happiness,
than you are either of your own happiness or his glory? Is God bound to take
that care for you, out of love to you, that you will not take for yourself,
either from love to yourself, or regard to his authority? How long, and how greatly,
have you neglected the welfare of your precious soul, refusing to take pains
and deny yourself, or put yourself a little out of your way for your salvation,
while God has been calling upon you! Neither your duty to God, nor love to your
own soul, were enough to induce you to do little things for your own eternal
welfare; and yet do you now expect that God should do great things, putting
forth almighty power, and exercising infinite mercy for it? You was urged to
take care for your salvation, and not to put it off. You was told that was the
best time before you grew older, and that it might be, if you would put it off,
God would not hear you afterwards; but yet you would not hearken; you would run
the venture of it. Now how justly might God order it so, that it should be too
late, leaving you to seek in vain! You was told, that you would repent of it if
you delayed; but you would not hear: how justly therefore may God give you
cause to repent of it, by refusing to show you mercy now! If God sees you going
on in ways contrary to his commands and his glory, and requires you to forsake
them, and tells you that they tend to the destruction of your own soul, and
therefore counsels you to avoid them, and you refuse; how just would it be if
God should be provoked by it, henceforward to be as careless of the good of
your soul as you are yourself!
2. You have not only neglected your
salvation, but you have wilfully taken direct courses to undo yourself. You
have gone on in those ways and practices which have directly tended to your
damnation, and have been perverse and obstinate it. You cannot plead ignorance;
you had all the light set before you that you could desire. God told you that
you was undoing yourself; but yet you would do it. He told you that the path you
was going in led to destruction, and counselled you to avoid it; but you would
not hearken. How justly therefore may God leave you to be undone! You have
obstinately persisted to travel in the way that leads to hell for a long time,
contrary to God's continual counsels and commands, till it may be at length you
are got almost to your journey's end, and are come near to hell's gate, and so
begin to be sensible of your danger and misery; and not account it unjust and
hard if God will not deliver you! You have destroyed yourself, and destroyed
yourself wilfully, contrary to God's repeated counsels, yea, and destroyed
yourself in fighting against God. Now therefore, why do you blame any but
yourself if you are destroyed? If you will undo yourself in opposing God, and
while God opposes you by his calls and counsels, and, it may be too, by the
convictions of his Spirit, what can you object against it, if God now leaves
you to be undone? You would have your own way, and did not like that God should
oppose you in it, and your way was to ruin your own soul; how just therefore is
it, if, now at length, God ceases to oppose you, and falls in with you, and
lets your soul be ruined; and as you would destroy yourself, so should put to
his hand to destroy you too! The ways you went on in had a natural tendency to
your misery: if you would drink poison in opposition to God, and in contempt of
him and his advice, who can you blame but yourself if you are poisoned, and so
perish? If you would run into the fire against all restraints both of God's
mercy and authority, you must even blame yourself if you are burnt.
Thus I have proposed some things to your
consideration, which, if you are not exceeding blind, senseless, and perverse,
will stop your mouth, and convince you that you stand justly condemned before
God; and that he would in no wise deal hardly with you, but altogether justly,
in denying you any mercy, and in refusing to hear your prayers, though you pray
never so earnestly, and never so often, and continue in it never so long. God
may utterly disregard your tears and moans, your heavy heart, your earnest
desires, and great endeavours; and he may cast you into eternal destruction,
without any regard to your welfare, denying you converting grace, and giving
you over to Satan, and at last cast you into the lake that burns with fire and
brimstone, to be there to eternity, having no rest day or night, for ever
glorifying his justice upon you in the presence of the holy angels, and in the
presence of the Lamb.
Objection. But here many may still object,
(for I am sensible it is a hard thing to stop sinners' mouths,) "God shows
mercy to others that have done these things as well as I, yea, that have done a
great deal worse than I."
Answer. 1. That does not prove that God is
any way bound to show mercy to you, or them either. If God bestows it on
others, he does not so because he is bound to bestow it: he might if he had
pleased, with glorious justice, have denied it them. If God bestows it on some,
that does not prove that he is bound to bestow it on any; and if he is bound to
bestow it on none, then he is not bound to bestow it on you. God is in debt to
none; and if he gives to some that he is not in debt to, because it is his
pleasure, that does not bring him into debt to others. It alters not the case
as to you, whether others have it, or have it not: you do not deserve damnation
the less, than if mercy never had been bestowed on any at all. Matthew 20:15.
"Is thine eye evil, because mine is good?"
2. If this objection be good, then the
exercise of God's mercy is not in his own right, and his grace is not his own
to give. That which God may not dispose of as he pleases, is not his own; for
that which is one's own, is at his own disposal: but if it be not God's own,
then he is not capable of making a gift or present of it to any one; it is
impossible to give what is a debt.- What is it that you would make of God? Must
the great God be tied up, that he must not use his own pleasure in bestowing
his own gifts, but if he bestows them on one, must be looked upon obliged to
bestow them on another? Is not God worthy to have the same right, with respect
to the gifts of his grace, that a man has to his money or goods? Is it because
God is not so great, and should be more in subjection than man, that this
cannot be allowed him? If any of you see cause to show kindness to a neighbour,
do all the rest of your neighbours come to you, and tell you, that you owe them
so much as you have given to such a man? But this is the way that you deal with
God, as though God were not worthy to have as absolute a property in his goods,
as you have in yours.
At this rate God cannot make a present of
any thing; he has nothing of his own to bestow: if he has a mind to show
peculiar favour to some, or to lay some particular persons under peculiar
obligations to him, he cannot do it; because he has no special gift at his own
disposal. If this be the case, why do you pray to God to bestow saving grace
upon you? If God does not do fairly to deny it you, because he bestows it on
others, then it is not worth your while to pray for it, but you may go and tell
him that he has bestowed it on others as bad or worse than you, and so demand
it of him as a debt. And at this rate persons never need to thank God for
salvation, when it is bestowed; for what occasion is there to thank God for
that which was not at his own disposal, and that he could not fairly have
denied? The thing at bottom is, that men have low thoughts of God, and high
thoughts of themselves; and therefore it is that they look upon God as having
so little right, and they so much. Matthew 20:15. "Is it not lawful for me
to do what I will with mine own?"
3. God may justly show greater respect to
others than to you, for you have shown greater respect to others than to God.
You have rather chosen to offend God than men. God only shows a greater respect
to others, who are by nature your equals, than to you; but you have shown a
greater respect to those that are infinitely inferior to God than to him. You
have shown a greater regard to wicked men than to God; you have honoured them
more, loved them better, and adhered to them rather than to him. Yea, you have
honoured the devil, in many respects, more than God: you have chosen his will
and his interest, rather than God's will and his glory: you have chosen a
little worldly pelf, rather than God: you have set more by a vile lust than by
him: you have chosen these things, and rejected God. You have set your heart on
these things, and cast God behind your back: and where is the injustice if God
is pleased to show greater respect to others than to you, or if he chooses
others and rejects you? You have shown greater respect to vile and worthless
things, and no respect to God's glory; and why may not God set his love on
others, and have no respect to your happiness? You have shown great respect to
others, and not to God, whom you are laid under infinite obligations to respect
above all; and why may not God show respect to others, and not to you, who
never have laid him under the least obligation?
And will you not be ashamed, notwithstanding
all these things, still to open your mouth, to object and cavil about the
decrees of God, and other things that you cannot fully understand. Let the
decrees of God be what they will, that alters not the case as to your liberty,
any more than if God had only foreknown. And why is God to blame for decreeing
things? Especially since he decrees nothing but good. How unbecoming an
infinitely wise Being would it have been to have made a world, and let things
run at random, without disposing events, or fore-ordering how they should come
to pass? And what is that to you, how God has fore-ordered things, as long as
your constant experience teaches you, that it does not hinder your doing what
you choose to do. This you know, and your daily practice and behaviour amongst
men declares that you are fully sensible of it with respect to yourself and
others. Still to object, because there are some things in God's dispensations
above your understanding, is exceedingly unreasonable. Your own conscience
charges you with great guilt, and with those things that have been mentioned,
let the secret things of God be what they will. Your conscience charges you
with those vile dispositions, and that base behaviour towards God, that you
would at any time most highly resent in your neighbour towards you, and that
not a whit the less for any concern those secret counsels and mysterious
dispensations of God may have in the matter. It is in vain for you to exalt
yourself against an infinitely great, and holy, and just God. If you continue
in it, it will be to your eternal shame and confusion, when hereafter you shall
see at whose door all the blame of your misery lies.
I will finish what I have to say to natural
men in the application of this doctrine, with a caution not to improve the
doctrine to discouragement. For though it would be righteous in God for ever to
cast you off, and destroy you, yet it would also be just in God to save you, in
and through Christ, who has made complete satisfaction for all sin. Romans
3:25, 26. "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in
his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his
righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus." Yea, God may, through this Mediator, not only justly, but
honourably, show you mercy. The blood of Christ is so precious, that it is
fully sufficient to pay the debt you have contracted, and perfectly to
vindicate the Divine Majesty from all the dishonour cast upon it, by these many
great sins of yours that have been mentioned. It was as great, and indeed a
much greater thing, for Christ to die, than it would have been for you and all
mankind to have burnt in hell to all eternity. Of such dignity and excellency
is Christ in the eyes of God, that, seeing he has suffered so much for poor
sinners, God is willing to be at peace with them, however vile and unworthy
they have been, and on how many accounts soever the punishment would be just.
So that you need not be at all discouraged from seeking mercy, for there is
enough in Christ.
Indeed it would not become the glory of
God's majesty to show mercy to you, so sinful and vile a creature, for any
thing that you have done; for such worthless and despicable things as your
prayers, and other religious performances. It would be very dishonourable and
unworthy of God so to do, and it is in vain to expect it. He will show mercy only
on Christ's account; and that, according to his sovereign pleasure, on whom he
pleases, when he pleases, and in what manner he pleases. You cannot bring him
under obligation by your works; do what you will, he will not look on himself
obliged. But if it be his pleasure, he can honourably show mercy through Christ
to any sinner of you all, not one in this congregation excepted.- Therefore
here is encouragement for you still to seek and wait, notwithstanding all your
wickedness; agreeable to Samuel's speech to the children of Israel, when they
were terrified with the thunder and rain that God sent, and when guilt stared
them in the face, 1 Samuel 12:20. "Fear not; ye have done all this
wickedness; yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with
all your heart."
I would conclude this discourse by putting
the godly in mind of the freeness and wonderfulness of the grace of God towards
them. For such were the same of you.- The case was just so with you as you have
heard; you had such a wicked heart, you lived such a wicked life, and it would
have been most just with God for ever to have cast you off: but he has had
mercy upon you; he hath made his glorious grace appear in your everlasting
salvation. You had no love to God; but yet he has exercised unspeakable love to
you. You have contemned God, and set light by him: but so great a value has
God's grace set on you and your happiness, that you have been redeemed at the
price of the blood of his own Son. You chose to be with Satan in his service;
but yet God hath made you a joint heir with Christ of his glory. You was
ungrateful for past mercies; yet God not only continued those mercies, but
bestowed unspeakably greater mercies upon you. You refused to hear when God
called; yet God heard you when you called. You abused the infiniteness of God's
mercy to encourage yourself in sin against him; yet God has manifested the
infiniteness of that mercy, in the exercises of it towards you. You have
rejected Christ, and set him at nought; and yet he is become your Saviour. You
have neglected your own salvation; but God has not neglected it. You have
destroyed yourself; but yet in God has been your help. God has magnified his
free grace towards you, and not to others; because he has chosen you, and it
hath pleased him to set his love upon you.
O! what cause is here for praise! What
obligations you are under to bless the Lord who hath dealt bountifully with
you, and magnify his holy name! What cause for you to praise God in humility,
to walk humbly before him. Ezekiel 16:63. "That thou mayest remember and
be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I
am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God!"
You shall never open your mouth in boasting, or self-justification; but lie the
lower before God for his mercy to you. You have reason, the more abundantly, to
open your mouth in God's praises, that they may be continually in your mouth,
both here and to all eternity, for his rich, unspeakable, and sovereign mercy
to you, whereby he, and he alone, hath made you to differ from others.