Practical Godliness, Sermon · Method 2
II. Improvement by way of Exhortation.
I Must conclude with one word of Exhortation. To all you that Profess the Doctrine of our God and Saviour, the Doctrine which is according to godliness; and yet have seen it lie gasping, bleeding, and ready to die. O pitty a holy Doctrine that suffers unworthy things, and a Saviour that suffers in it: when you lay in your Blood, the Divine pity that saw you wallowing there hopeless, and helpless, Said unto you, even when you were in your blood, live! Ezek. xvi. 4, 5, 6. And have you no Compassion for a bleeding Gospel, for a bleeding Jesus? 'Twas enough that he once suffered for you, let him not a second time be Crucified, and Murdered by you! When the spirit of grace shall be poured out that is promised, Zech. xii. 10. To make us look upon him that we have pierced; there will be bitter mourning, as that for an onl… son, for a first born, for the untimely death of a good Josiah in the valley of Megiddo. Let us none of us say, What is all this to us? Let them see to it who were guilty; Let J… das look to it who betrayed and sold him: let Pilate look to that who condemned him: let Herod look to that who buffeted and scourged him: let the bloody Soldier look to that who pierced his Side with his Spear: But as for us we are Innocent, and can wash our Hands in Innocency with Pilate, saying we are Innocent of the blood of this Just Person! O wretched evasions of deceitful Hearts! We, even we, this Professing Age, this Generation of Professors has Pierced, Crucified the Lord Jesus. As it will be charged upon some at the great and dreadful day; that the kindness they might have shown, and did not show to his Brethren, was not shown to him; so will it be charged that the Dishonour, the Scandals, the Reproaches they brought upon his Doctrine, his Truths, his Worship, was thrown upon his Person.
I have heard of an aged Gentlewoman who having an only Son, who it seems had found a Pistol in some secret place of the House, she presents it to his Breast in pleasantry, but the Pistol fires and Shoots him to the Heart, when he had only so much time and strength as to say, Ah Mother! You have slain your only Son! Think with your selves; what amazement, what confusion, what consternation seized her soul when the Hearts blood of a dutiful, of an only Son spun out into her Face, and his dying Accents sounded in her Ears, and she found herself Childless in one moment through her own rashness and folly!
Let us set before our Eyes the blessed Gospel of our dear Lord Jesus, wounded, bleeding, dying by our careless Walkings, by our Animosities and Heats boyled up into Hatred! Not only his seamless Coat, but his tender Heart rent in pieces by our Divisions; together with the Triumphs of the Profane, who insult over Religion, and say, Down with it, down with it, even to the ground; and now it's fallen it shall rise up no more. Look seriously upon these things, and then tell me, tell your own Souls; and let Conscience, an awakened, a wounded, a reflecting Conscience tell you, with what Regret, with what self-Abhorrence, you, we, all of us should resent these Indignities offered to the dear, and precious concerns of our God and Saviour.
I am assured, and rejoice in that Assurance that there is a sound part amongst the Professors of the Gospel, which hath not drawn this Condemnation upon their own Heads. There was one Joseph amongst the guilty Sanhedrim who had not consented to their unjust Sentence, Luke xxiii. 51. There are holy souls that Mourn in secret for all the Abominations that be done in the midst of us, Ezek. ix. 4. And there may be others whose Hearts God has touch'd with Sorrow for the sins of others, and Repentance for their own: now for the sake of these, and such others, as the Convincing Grace of God shall reach, I will
1. Give some Counsel and Advice.
2. Offer some Motives to give an edge to that Advice.