The Christian Life Volume 5, Discourse 1 (2 of 3)

The Christian Life Volume 5 · Discourse 1 (2 of 3)

p. 565ly. The Soul of Man is also liable to the perpetual Vexations of its own cross, wild, and furious Passions. We have sufficient Experience in this Life how vexatious our cross and excessive Passions are; for when our Passions p. 57are divided, and contrary Objects have raised contrary Desires and Appetites in us, how do they rend and distract our Souls, and cause perpetual Mutinies and Tumults within us? But by Reason of those many sensual Gratifications with which we now make a shift to stop the Mouths of those Daughters of the Horse-Leech, when they cry out give, give; we cannot be so sensible of the Trouble and Vexation of them; but unless we now subdue and mortifie them, we shall be forced to carry them into Eternity along with us. For by being separated from their Bodies the Souls of Men are never separated from their prevailing Tempers, but in their separated State are for the main of the same Disposition as they were here; and do retain the same Passions and Appetites. 'Tis true, they cannot be supposed to retain their bodily Appetites after they have thrown off their Bodies, but when they have wholly accustomed themselves in this Life to fleshly Pleasures, and have never Experienced spiritual ones, it is impossible but that in the other they should be tormented with an outragious Desire of being imbodied again; that so being incapable of relishing any other, they may repeat those fleshly Pleasures which heretofore they were accustomed to, and act over the brutish Scene anew. p. 58And this vehement Hankering of these carnalized Souls to return into their Bodily State, is perhaps the only Sensuality that a seperate Soul is capable of; but it is such a Sensuality as must necessarily render such Souls extreamly miserable; for in that State it will be like the Hunger of a Starving Man that is Immured between two dead Walls, that is, it will be a fierce Desire without Hope of Satisfaction, a corroding Hunger, sharpened with Despair of Food, than which there is nothing more intolerably grievous and tormenting. For how will it vex the wretched Spirit to look back from the Shores of Eternity into this corporeal World, and to ruminate thus with it self; O miserable Creature that I am! here am I cast away for ever upon a strange and desolate Shore, where I must Famish for want of Food, pine away a long Eternity, and wander to and fro for ever tormented with restless Rage and hungry unsatisfied Desires; where there is not one Pleasure that I can relish, not an Object that I can taste any sweetness in. Wo is me! yonder are all my Ioys and Comforts, all that is dear and precious to me. O that I might go back again, and be once more restored to the Injoyment of them! but alas! between me and them there runs an impassible Gulph, that deprives me of all hope of returning! For thus p. 59will the unhappy Soul torment it self with an outragious Longing for that which it can never hope to enjoy. But then besides this Appetite of Sensuality which it will there be vexed with, it will also carry along with it all that Envy and Malice, that Wrath and Impatience, Pride and Insolence which it here contracted; which black and Hellish Passions will prove perpetual Furies in its Bosom; For in that wretched State it will not only have Objects always present to excite them, but such Objects too as will excite them all at once to the most outragious Excesses. For when all at once it shall see others advanced to the greatest Heights of Glory and Happiness, and it self not only rejected but abandoned to endless Misery, the Sense of this must necessarily irritate all its devilish Passions to the highest Extremities, and cause its Pride to swell, its Envy to burst, and its Wrath to boil into a Diabolical Fury; and what a continual Hell must this create in the Soul, to be perpetually worried with so many black and rabid Passions, to have all its inferiour Parts and Affections, like those of the Monster Scylla whom the Poets talk of, as so many Dogs continually barking and snarling at one another, and yet remain unseperable, as being Comparts of the same Substance?

6ly. The Soul of Man is also liable to the p. 60intolerable Anguish of its own guilty Conscience. The Spirit of a Man, says Solomon, can bear his Infirmities, but a wounded Spirit who can bear? Intimating that of all the Passions which humane Nature is liable to, there are none so grievous as that of a Mind awakened with a sense of Guilt. And of the Truth of this we have some Experience even in this Life, tho now we can make a shift either to divert our selves by our sensual Mirth and Jollities, from listening to the Clamours of our guilty Minds, or else to deceive our selves into a groundless Peace by indulgent and fallacious Principles; but unless we expiate our Guilts here, we shall carry them into Eternity with us, where all those sensual Pleasures, with which we now divert our selves from reflecting on our Actions will be removed, and all those fallacious Principles, with which we cheat and deceive our selves, will be baffled by a woful Experience. So that then our Souls will be nakedly exposed to the Lash of its own furious Thoughts, and having nothing to guard or defend it self against the cutting Reflections of a guilty Conscience, which being roused up and kept awake by the unintermitting sense of our Misery will be always clamouring upon us, and continually torturing our wretched Minds with sharp and p. 61vexatious Reflections: and besides, whilst our Soul doth act by bodily Instruments, and work in this Mire of Flesh, it is impossible it should be so nimble and expedite in its Motions, as it will be when it is a naked Spirit. For then its Perceptions will be much clearer, its Convictions more strong and evident, and all its Reflections active as the Lightning, and quick as the Wing of an Angel. So that whereas now the sharpest Stings of our Conscience have an Intermixture of Fancy and Imagination in them, being gross and material Powers do dull and rebate the Edg of them, and render them less pungent and sensible; when we are stripped out of our Flesh, and sent naked into the other World, we shall have no Clog about us to break or allay those sharp Reflections with which we shall be forced to lash our selves for ever. And then our Conscience will cut to the quick, and sting with a corroding Venom; then will the Remembrance of those Guilts which brought our Miseries upon us, rouze up such a Swarm of Horrors in our Minds, as we shall be able neither to avoid nor indure. For the Sense of our Misery will be every Moment suggesting those Guilts to our Minds that were the Cause of it, and continually upbraiding us with those desperate Follies by which we p. 62ran our selves into it; the Consideration of which will cause us to hate and curse our selves for ever, and to discharge our Fury upon our own Heads, which will make our Soul turn Devil to it self, and force it to be its own Executioner. For it being now conscious to it self that its Miseries are nothing else but the rueful and pitiless Deserts of its own Folly and Madness, it will be continually meditating horrible Reflections and singing Satyrs on it self. So that while it is wandring among wretched Ghosts through the dismal Shades below, it will never cease lashing it self with its own sharp and stinging Thoughts, till it hath chafed it self into a Fury, and boiled up its self-condemning Rage into everlasting Madness.

7ly. And lastly, The Soul of Man is also liable to endure all these dismal things for ever: For that our Souls are naturally immaterial and immortal, I have already proved; so that if God in his infinite Justice shall think fit to sentence wicked Souls irrecoverably to all these above named Miseries, they must by the Constitution of their own Natures live in, and undergo them for ever. And that he doth think to pronounce and execute such a Sentence upon them, he himself hath assured us; for so in Scripture he hath plainly declared, that their Punishment p. 63shall be everlasting, Matth. 25. 7. These, saith he speaking of the Wicked, shall go away into everlasting Punishment: and accordingly the Fire in, and with which they are to be punished, is called everlasting fire, Matth. 25. 41. and that they shall subsist for ever in this Fire, and be co-eternal with it, is evident by those Passions and Actions that are attributed to them in it; for Rev. 14. 11. they are said to have no rest day nor night in it, but to be in a continual unintermitting Fever, that will necessarily burn and scorch them, and not allow them the least Intervals of Ease or Comfort. And in Matth. 13. 42. the bitter Anguish vvhichwhich they shall endure in this Fire is described by their weeping, and wailing, and gnashing their Teeth; vvhichwhich Actions are plain Indications not only of their subsisting in this everlasting Fire, but of the extream Horror and Anguish that they shall therein endure. And indeed vvhen God sentences any immortal Being to Misery, its Misery must be supposed to continue as long as it lives, and consequently to continue for ever, since it is to subsist and live for ever. And what a fearful Accession is this to all those above named Miseries? If we were to endure the softest and most gentle Pain without any Interval for thirty, forty, or a hundred Years, p. 64the Prospect of that which is to come would render that which is present so intolerable, that we should quickly grow weary of our Lives, and wish our selves in our Graves. Lord! what shall we then do when we come to languish out a long Eternity in the tormenting Agonies of damned Ghosts? How will it imbitter every present Torment to us, to think of that never-ending Duration of Torment to come, that after we have consumed Millions of Millions of Ages on the Rack, we have still an eternal H…ll behind, and are as far distant from the End of our Misery, as we were when it first began? O! now if we could die and be insensible for ever! what welcome Tidings would it be? how gladly should we receive that fatal Blow that could put an End to a woful Eternity? But now it will be in vain for us to cry, O Death, Death, have mercy upon us, and dispatch us quickly into an eternal Grave! For Death is deaf and cannot hear, every Moment it stabs and wounds, but woe is me! it cannot kill; it strikes and strikes but cannot strike home, and so is forced to continue as strugling under the Pangs of an immortal Death. If there were any Prospect of an End of our Misery, though it were after a Million of Ages, this would give some Ease to the languishing Sufferer; p. 65But never, never—O how that fatal Word stabs the wretched Soul, and rankles its Anguish into eternal Desperation! For to be in extream Misery, and see no End of it, is the Perfection of Hell, and the utmost Possibility of Damnation.

And thus have I endeavoured to represent unto you the fearful Mulcts our Souls are liable to in the other World; which are such as, one would think, were sufficient to awaken the most stupid and insensible Creature.

II. I now pass on to the second thing proposed, which was to shew you upon what Accounts it is that our Souls are liable to these dreadful Things; or what it is that exposes us to the Danger of them. In general, it is our own Sin and Wickedness, which doth not only incense the holy God against us, who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity, and provoke and urge him to inflict these endless Miseries upon us as the just Retributions of our desperate Folly and Obstinacy; but doth also by its own natural Causality prepare us for, and sink us into that miserable State So that if God should not damn us, yet our own Wickedness would; the Misery of Damnation being little else but the Perfection and Consummation of Sin. For the Sting of eternal as well as temporal Death is Sin, and it is Goodness and Wickedness that makes Heaven p. 66and Hell, those two opposite Hemispheres of the Invisible World; and as, if Goodness were plucked out of Heaven, it would cease to be Heaven, and be overcast immediately with the dismal Shades of Hell; so if Wickedness were banished out of Hell, it would be Hell no longer, but presently clear up into Light and Serenity, and shine forth into a glorious Heaven; But wheresoever Sin and Wickedness reigns, there is Hell and Damnation in its necessary Causes. Since therefore in necessary Causes that which is the Cause of the Cause is also the Cause of the Effect, our best way to be resolved what it is that renders us liable to these future Miseries, will be to enquire what it is that renders us liable to fall into a sinful Condition at the present; for whatsoever renders us liable to Sin, must necessarily expose us to the Danger of Misery. Now the Danger of our falling into and continuing in a State of Sin, proceeds from these following Causes.

1. From the natural Liberty of our Wills to Good and Evil.

2ly. From the many Temptations to Evil among which we are placed.

3ly. From the more close and intimate Access which these Temptations have to us, than the contrary Motives to Goodness.

p. 674ly. From the great Correspondence of these Temptations with the corrupt Inclinations of our Nature.

5ly. From the unwearied Diligence and great Subtilty of the Devil to make Use of, and apply these Temptations to us.

6ly. From the plausible Pretences we are furnished with to excuse, and justifie our Compliance with them.

7ly. From the extream Difficulty which this our Compliance brings us under to reject and vanquish them for the future.

1. We are liable to fall into a sinful State, and from thence into eternal Misery from the natural Liberty of our Wills to Good and Evil. If indeed we were necessarily determined to Good, our Happiness would be intailed upon our Natures, and it would be as impossible for us to be miserable, as it is for the Fire to freeze, or for the Ice to burn; but to be so determined I am apt to think is not consistent with the condition of a Creature. For to be good by a natural Necessity requires an infallible Understanding, or a Mind that is infinitely removed from all Possibility of being deceived and mistaken; and this no finite Mind can be: But how should the Will be in all particulars necessarily determined to what is Right, so long as it is p. 68under the Conduct of a fallible Mind that hath a natural Possibility of misleading it? So that to be naturally, necessarily, and essentially good, seems to be an incommunicable Prerogative of the Divine Nature, according to that of our Saviour, There is none good save one, and that is God, Luke 18. 19. For since no Will can be essentially good but that which is guided by an infallible Mind, and no Mind can be essentially infallible but that which is infinite in Knowledge, it hence necessarily follows, that to be free to Good and Evil is as natural to reasonable Creatures, as it is to be finite in Knowledge and Understanding. 'Tis true the greater Light of Knowledge there is in the Mind, the less Freedom to Evil there must be in the Will, unless it hath some antecedent Biass and Inclination to Evil; and consequently the Angels being of far more intelligent Natures than we Men, must needs be naturally less free to Evil; but yet that even they are naturally free to it is evident, for that some of them have actually lapsed into Devils; and if they are so by their Natures, then much more are we by ours, who are so much their Inferiours in the rational World. For as we are finite Intelligences we must necessarily have some Degree of Freedom to Evil in us, but as we are of the lowermost Rank of Intelligences, p. 69we must naturally have greater Degrees of this Freedom in us than any other Order of intelligent Natures; And if this were all, yet this very Condition of our Natures renders us more liable to degenerate into an evil and sinful State, than any other kind of reasonable Creatures. If we were now in a State of perfect Innocence, yet of all intelligent Creatures, we should have the greatest Reason to apprehend the Danger of our Fall; because being the least intelligent we have the greatest Freedom to Evil, and consequently are on that Account in the greatest danger of falling into it. By the very Condition of our Natures we are of all rational Creatures placed nearest to the Brinks of the fatal Precipice, and therefore have most Reason to apprehend the Danger of falling headlong into it. For doubtless among innocent Creatures, there are none so near the Danger of sinning as those whose Wills are least restrain'd from it, and therefore though we were now as innocent as the blessed Angels are, yet our Condition would be unspeakably more unsafe; because by how much we fall short of them in Knowledge and Understanding, by so much we should exceed them in our Freedom to Evil, and consequently by so much the more liable to it. But this alas is the least of our Danger; For

p. 702ly. We are liable to fall into a sinful State, and from thence into eternal Misery, from the many Temptations to Evil among which we are placed. For this State of Being in which we now are, being intended by God for our Tryal and Probation, it was requisite in order thereunto that we should be placed among Difficulties, that we might have sufficient Opportunity to exercise our Skill and Courage in Religion; for unless we had some such Difficulties to encounter, there could no Proof or Tryal be made of our Virtue. Hence therefore hath God placed our rational Souls in mortal Bodies, which do naturally abound with brutish Appetites and Desires, and compassed us round with this World of sensual Goods and Evils, which continually importunes and excites them, that so we might have sufficient opportunity to exercise those humane Virtues which consist in the Dominion of our rational Faculties over these our bodily Appetites and Desires, that we might never want occasion to give the most glorious Proofs of our Patience and Chastity, Temperance and Equanimity, Meekness and Sobriety; all which are proper to us as Beings made up of Soul and Body whence all those brutish Appetites arise, in the good or bad Government whereof consists the Nature of humane Virtue and Vice. So that this present State of p. 71humane Life is intended by God for a Field of Combat between Reason and Sense, between the Law in our Minds, and the Law in our Members; and that the Victory of Reason might, through the Difficulty of it, be render'd more glorious and rewardable, he hath furnished its Antagonist, viz. the bodily Appetite with various Weapons, with the Temptations of a World of sensitive Goods and Evils to assault and oppose it, to try its Metal, and exercise both its active and passive Virtues; and upon the success of this Combat depends the everlasting Fate of the Soul. If Sense prevail, and lead her finally Captive into Vice and Wickedness, she is lost for ever, but if Reason get the Victory, and finally reduce the Desires and Appetites of Sense under the Dominion of Virtue, when this mortal Life ends She shall triumph for ever, and be translated hence into a free and disintangled State, where she shall be vexed and inticed no more with the Importunities of sensual Lusts and Affections, but to all Eternity enjoy the Serenity and Pleasure of a pure Intellectual Being. This being therefore the true State of Affairs, it is too to obvious how liable the Soul is to miscarry when it is placed in a Body among so many brutish Passions and Appetites, and that Body is placed in a tempting World, among so many p. 72sensitive Goods and Evils that are continually importuning those Appetites to mutiny against Reason, and carry us away Captive into Folly and Wickedness. How much Reason have we to look about us, when we are placed in the midst of so many Dangers, and have such numberless Snares on every side ready to decoy and intangle us? But this is not all neither; For

3ly. We are liable also to fall into a sinful State, and from thence into eternal Misery, from the more c…ose and intimate Access which these Temptations have to us, than the contrary Motives to Goodness. For the great Advantage which these Temptations to Vice have over the most powerful Motives to Virtue is this, that they are all of them present and sensible; for as for those grand Motives to Goodness that are drawn from the Consideration of our future State, they propose to our Hopes and Fears, those Master-Springs of our Motions, such Goods and Evils as are a great way off, and beyond the prospect of our bodily Senses, which makes the Land-skip of them appear exceeding dim and faint upon the Mind; their Futurity, which is one sort of Distance, causing them like Things afar off to look confused and indistinct, by Reason of which they cannot affect us so powerfully, and draw p. 73such strong and lasting Draughts of themselves upon our minds: For Goods, like Magnets, have always the strongest Attractions when they are nearest; but as for those invisible Goods of the other World, they are at such a Distance from us that they can hardly reach us who live upon the remotest Circumference of the Sphere of their Attraction. And as Distance lessens all Objects to the Eye, and renders them much smaller in Appearance than they are in Reality; so the remote Futurity of those eternal Goods which the Motives of Vertue do propose, detracts from their just Magnitude and makes them, tho unspeakably vast in themselves, appear exceeding small and inconsiderable to our short-sighted Minds. And the same is to be said of those future Evils also, which they denounce against us; and besides, being not only remote, but invisible too, they cannot strike upon our Senses, by which the most vigorous Impressions of Things are made upon our Minds; whereas the Temptations of Vice are all present and sensible, and do so circle us round as soon as we look abroad into the World, that which way soever we turn our Eyes they are still before us thrusting themselves into our Minds, and with their constant Importunity stirring and working our Desires. p. 74So that when ever these outward Goods or Evils do assault us, we lie bare and open to them, and they continually press so close upon our Senses, that we are not able to avoid their Impressions: When any outward Good invites us to a sinful Action, it hath the vast Advantage of being present and sensible; by Reason of which, it having a more immediate Access to our Minds doth many times prevail before we can Rally up a sufficient Strength of Considerations against it; and when we set our selves to resist and struggle with it, the best of our Weapons is a Company of thin and faint Notions of Things a far off; Things that we never saw nor felt; which whilst we are recollecting, the Vice we are Tempted to, hath its Powers ready to seize upon the Will, which having oftentimes experienced the Pleasure it invites to, is the more easily seduced to a fresh Compliance. And whilst our Enemies are so near us, and our Helps and Succors so far off, we must needs acknowledge our Danger very great and urgent.

4ly. We are liable to fall into a sinful State, and from thence into eternal Misery, from the great Correspondence of these Temptations with the corrupt Inclinations of our Natures. For by Reason of the Nearness and Sensibleness of those outward worldly p. 75Goods by which we are continually tempted and solicited to Evil, they have the Advantage of preingaging our Affections to them before we arrive to the Use of our Reason; for in our tender years these are the only Goods that we can relish, they are these that do feed, clothe, and furnish us in hand with whatsoever our natural Appetites do gape for; that are the sole Entertainment of our childish Fancies, and the only Objects our yet unfledg'd Thoughts and Desires can reach at, and our Youth being thus intirely inured to them, by that time we are grown up to the Age of Reason and the Capacities of Virtue and Religion, we have generally contracted such an excessive Inclination towards them, and are so strongly biass'd with the Love of them, that whensoever they beckon to us we are ready to follow them through all the forbidden Tracts that lead to everlasting Ruin. For our Natures being thus vitiated, the Temptations without us have a strong Party within us, a Party of traytorous Inclinations which upon every Summons sollicites us to yield, and surrender up our Vertue and Innocence; and no sooner can any Temptation from without give the Alarm, but presently our own Lusts are up raising a Mutiny within us, and with the Heats of our corrupted Fancy p. 76do many times so disorder our Understanding that it cannot rally up its Considerations against them. For before ever our Understanding could be Furnished with Considerations, our Hearts were prepossessed with such an excessive degree of ambitious, covetous, and luxurious Inclinations, that when afterwards the Pleasures, Profits, and Honours without begin to hold forth their grateful Lures to us, and to tempt us away to Fraud or Treachery, to Vanity or Licentiousness, those depraved Inclinations have gotten such Head within us, that they prove most commonly too strong for all our Consideration, and with their impetuous Current carry us away, and drive us headlong down towards eternal Ruin; and unless we put forth all the strength of our Reason and Resolution, and the Grace of God also come in to our Aid, it will be impossible for us to stem such a furious Tide when it is driven by the Wind of an outward Temptation. When therefore our own Inclinations do so vigorously conspire with the Temptations without to thrust us on into Sin and Perdition, how can we be insensible of the eminent danger we are in of Miscarrying forever? But

5ly. We are liable also to fall into a sinful State, and from thence into Eternal Misery, p. 77from the unwearied Diligence and great Subtilty of the Devil to make Use of, and apply these Temptations to us. For that the Devil doth commonly, as an assistant Genius to the Corruption of our Natures; excite and provoke Men to Wickedness is very evident from Scripture; where he is said to work in the Children of Disobedience. Eph. 2. 2. To fill the Heart of Ananias to lye to the Holy Ghost. Acts. 5. 3. And to take away the Word out of Mens hearts, lest they should believe and be saved, Luke 8. 12. All which Expressions do plainly imply that the Devil is a constant Agent in the Sins of Men. And being a Spiritual Agent, he must needs be supposed to have a nearer Access to the Soul than any material Cause whatsoever. For tho he be totally debarr'd from all kind of Intercourse with the immediate Operations of the reasonable Soul, and can no more look into the Thoughts than we can into the Bowels of the Earth; yet he can easily get into the Fancy which stands next to that mysterious Chamber that is open to no Eye but Gods, and make what use he pleases of the infinite Images and Phantasms that are in it, and dispose, and order, and distinguish them into the Pictures of what Objects he pleases, just as the Painter doth his numerous Colours that lie confusedly before him in their p. 78several Shells, and continue and repeat those Pictures and Representations as long and as oft as he pleases. And then considering what the natural Use of the Fancy is, both to the Vnderstanding and Will, how it prompts the one with matter of Invention, and supplies it with Variety of Objects to work on, and draws forth and excites the other to chuse or reject those Objects it presents, according as they are pleasing or displeasing; we must needs suppose that the Devil hath a vast Advantage of insinuating his black Suggestions into the Soul, by having such free Access into the Fancy. And accordingly he is said to put it into the heart of Iudas to betray Christ, John. 13. 2. But then he being not only a spiritual, but also an intellectual Agent, of a vast and capacious Understanding by Nature, and particularly improved in the black Art of tempting by a long Experience of its Wiles and Stratagems, having been a Tempter almost ever since he hath been an Angel; he must needs be supposed to be wonderfully expert and sagasious in it; that after having had five Thousand years experience of the Methods of seducing Souls to increase and perfect his natural Subtilty, he must by this be fully instructed when and how to apply himself to every Age and Constitution. For this hath been his sole Business wherein he p. 79hath been infinitely intent and active ever since he became a Devil, and if from a Man, then much more from a Devil of one Busines. Good Lord deliver me, from a Devil that for five thousand Years hath been continually making Experiments of Temptation, and drawing them into Rules to direct and order his mischievous Practice on the Souls of Men. But besides, as the Devil is of a spiritual and intelligent Nature, so he hath a vast Number of his black Angels continually roving about the World to seduce and captivate us into Sin and Ruin. And tho these malignant Spirits have no ligament of natural Love between them to tie and oblige them to one another, yet by that perfect Hatred which they all bear to God and Men they are united together in an inviolable League, and go hand in hand with one another in pursuance of their desperate Design to involve our wretched Souls in the same eternal Ruin with themselves, which renders their Force so much the more formidable. And when we have so many spiritual, subtil, and Powerful Adversaries combining against, and continually wandring to and fro like roaring Lyons to devour us, we cannot but apprehend our Danger exceeding great; especially considering the infinite Temptations from without, that this World p. 80fords the great Variety of sensual Goods and Evils which they have to object to our carnalized Minds. For these mischievous Spirits having so great Insight into our Tempers, and so great a Choice of Objects to suggest to our Fancies, can never be at a Loss how they may nick us vvith a convenient Temptation; and that which gives their Temptations a vast Advantage over us is, that vve knovv not hovv to distinguish them from the Motions of our own Hearts, For could vve see the Devil at our Elbovvs, or hear him vvhispering at our Ears every time he insinuates his wicked suggestions into our Minds, vve should doubtless reject them vvith an unspeakable Horror; but because vvhen they are convey'd into us, vve knovv not hovv to distinguish them from the natural Births of our own Minds; therefore vve do make no scruple to hug and dandle them in our Thoughts and entertain them vvith an actual Complacence. And vvhen the Devil can convey his Poyson into us in such an invisible manner, vvithout discovering his Devils Face; vvhen he can thus prompt us behind the Curtain, and so disguise his Whispers that vve can't discern them from the secret Lustings of our own Hearts; hovv can vve be safe, vvithout great Care and Watchfulness, from the Malice of such a formidable Enemy? But

p. 816ly. We are also liable to fall into a sinful State, and from thence into eternal Misery, from the plausible Pretences we are furnished with to excuse and justify our Compliance with them. When by our own Folly and the Devil's Malice we are actually betrayed into any wilful Sin, a speedy Repentance would recover us immediately, and heal the Wound as soon as it is made; but instead of that we have a thousand plausible Excuses to palliate and skin it over; but alas! in the mean time it rots inwardly, and is festring apace into an incurable Gangrene. For when our Conscience begins to fly in our Faces, we have no other Way, but either presently to repent of, or to excuse and cloak our Wickedness; the later of which is usually pitch'd on as being both the most easy, and the most agreeable with our corrupt Inclinations. And indeed there are so many Coverts which Men have found out for their Lusts to shelter them from the Persecutions of their Consciences, that this Way there are no Men can be long to seek; for either they may blanch them over with an innocent Name, and call their Intemperances, Good-fellowship, their Knaveries, ingenious Fetches; and their Incontinences, Tricks of Wit; or else they may extenuate and mince them into Peccadillo's, and smooth over their grossest Rebellions p. 82with the softer name of humane Failings and Infirmities; or else they may furnish themselves with some Shew of Argument to vindicate their Vices and assert them lawful, as some of late have done in the Case of Fornication and Vncleanness; or else they may set up for Philosophical Sinners, and quote Texts out of their Gospel, the Leviathan, against the eternal Differences of Good and Evil. But if their Consciences will not be put off with such poor Pretences as these, there are Religious Pretences enough in the World to protect and give Countenance to All their Impieties; and they may either fly to the Romish Doctrins of Confession and Penance, of Venial Sins, and of probable Opinions, with any one of which they may easily reconcile their Lusts and Consciences: Or if they chance to have an Antipathy to the name of Roman Catholick, they may furnish themselves with such Doctrins out of some of our modern Enthusiasts, as will be as favourable to their Lusts as they need, or wish, or desire; that will consecrate their irregular Passions into Signs of Grace, and dwindle their grossest Crimes into the Spots of God's People; that will exalt a mechanick Train of Fancies and Passions into a sincere Conversion, and improve an Hysterical Fit into a spiritual Experience. By these, and such like p. 83ways may Men easily excuse their Vices to their Consciences; and when they are furnished with so many Expedients whereby to inable themselves to sin on quietly, in how much Danger are they of falling fast asleep in the midst of their Guilts, and never waking again till they flame out about their Ears into everlasting Burnings? For whereas this Faculty of Conscience was implanted within us by the Author of our Natures, to be a Guard to our Innocence, and a Scourge to our Lusts, the Generality of Men have invented so many Tricks to shift and evade it, that it is become almost totally useless to them. And when they have thus disabled their Consciences from defending them against the Importunities of their Lusts, in what unspeakable Danger must they be, not only of falling into, but continuing in them till they have utterly ruined and destroyed them?

7ly. And lastly, We are also liable to fall into a sinful State, and from thence into eternal Misery, from the extream Difficulty which this our Compliance with those Temptations brings us under, to reject and vanquish them for the future. For every new Compliance with Temptations to Evil foments and inrages our evil Inclinations, and when once these evil Inclinations are by p. 84our custor…ary Compliances educated into finful Habi…s, it will be impossible for us without a mighty Assistance of divine Grace to vanquish and subdue them. So that as upon the former Accounts we are in extream danger of falling into sinful Courses, upon this Account we are in no less Danger of continuing in them. For by complying with this Temptation, I shall very much disable my self from withstanding the next; and if I yield to that too, the third will find me much more ready and tractable, and so on, till at last the Temptation grows first familiar, and then natural to me, and then it will be hard, and then harder, and then almost impossible to reject or deny it. And when Things are reduced to this Issue that my Sin is naturalized to me, and grown into an inveterate Habit, the Lord have mercy upon me! for now I am in the Suburbs of Hell, but one Remove from the State of the Damned, and am so far gone in a confirmed State of Impiety, that I have almost lost my Liberty of returning; and unless I am speedily rescued by some Miracle of Grace, it is morally impossible I should ever escape. Thus as we go on from one Degree of Wickedness to another, we do as it were break down the Bridge behind us, and do what in us lies to disappoint our selves of all Hopes of any future p. 85Retreat. For every Step forwards in our sin…ul Progress renders our Return more difficult; and when once we have proceeded into a Custom and Habit of Sin, we shall find Repentance so irksom to us, and so much against the Grain of our Nature, that it is a thousand to one but that the Difficulty of it will utterly dishearten us from attempting it; and so rather than take so much Pains as we must necessarily do in swimming against the impetuous Stream of our Natures, we shall tamely yield to it, and suffer our selves to be born down by it into the dead Sea of endless Misery. When therefore there are so many Causes conspiring together to betray us into sinful Courses, and when there are so many Difficulties when once we are in to oppose and hinder our Retreat, what eminent Danger are we in of falling into, and persevering in Sin to our everlasting Ruin! And thus you see how extreamly liable we are upon all these Accounts to be lost for ever, that is, to plunge our selves into all those endless Miseries which the Loss of our Souls implies.

What then remains but that being seriously affected with the Sense of our Danger, we presently awake out of our Security, and with the deepest Concern for our immortal Souls, cry out with St. Peter's Auditors, p. 86Men and Brethren, what shall we do to be saved? Verily when I reflect upon the strange Unconcernedness of Men about their future Condition, I am tempted to think either that they do not believe they have an immortal Soul in them, or that if they do, they believe it is impossible it should for ever miscarry. For how is it conceivable that Men, who in other matters are so solicitous when their Interest is at Stake, and exposed to the least Hazard, should believe that they have Souls in Danger of perishing for ever, and yet take no more Care or Regard of them, but (like the forgetful Mother, who, when her House was on Fire, to save her Goods, forgot her Child) lay out all their thoughts upon the little Concerns of this frail and mortal Life, and in the mean time forget their precious Souls, and leave them perishing in the Flames of Perdition? O stupid Creature! what art thou made of that canst consider that thou hast an immortal Soul surrounded with so many Dangers of being lost for ever, and yet be no more concerned for its Preservation? Methinks if thou hadst any Sense in thee, having a Prospect of such endless Miseries before thee, the remotest Possibility of falling into them should be enough to startle and awake thee; but when thou art so near the Brink of those Miseries, and p. 87hast so many Causes round about thee shoving thee forward, and thrusting thee headlong down into them, and yet be no more concerned at it, is such a Prodigy of sensless Stupidity, as Heaven and Earth may justly be astonished at. 'Tis true, if the Danger thou art in were such as is impossible to be evaded, it would then be the wisest Course thou couldst take to concern thy self as little as may be about it; but rather to live merrily whilst thou mayst, and not antedate thy Misery, by thinking of the dismal Futurity. But God be praised this is not our Case, though our Condition be dangerous, yet it is far from desperate; for if we will use our honest Endeavour, and vigorously exert the Faculties of our Nature, we not only may, but shall escape. There are indeed a great many Causes of our Danger, a great many Enemies concurring to our Ruin, but none of these are able to effect it, unless we our selves joyn hands in the fatal Conspiracy: If we will be but faithful Friends to our selves and true to our own eternal Interest, it will be beyond the power of all those Causes together to do us any material Injury. For blessed be the good God those that are for us, are far greater and might…er than those that are against us; against us we have the World, the Fl…sh, and p. 88the Devil, the weakest of which is, I confess, a dangerous and puissant Enemy; but for us we have God and Angels, and our own Reason ass…ed with the most invincible Motives; with vast and glorious Promises, that stand beckoning to us with Crowns of Immortality in their hands, to call us off from the Pursuit of our Lusts to the Practice of Virtue and Religion; with direful Threatnings, that are continually Alarming and warning us of the dreadful Consequents of our Sins; and sundry other such mighty, I had almost said Almighty Motives, as, if we would seriously attend to, would certainly render our Souls impregnable against all the Temptations of Vice. And besides our Reason thus Armed and Accoutered, we have on our side the Holy Angels of God, who are always ready to prompt us to, and assist us in our Duty, and to second us in all our spiritual Combats against the Enemies of our Souls. And besides all these we have with us the Almighty Spirit of God, who upon our sincere Desires and honest Endeavours is engaged to aid us, and co-operate with us in working out our Salvation; whose Grace is abundantly sufficient for us, to strengthen us in our Weakness, to support us under our greatest Difficulties, and carry us on victoriously through the most violent Temptations. p. 89And being back't with such mighty Auxiliaries, how is it possible that we should miscarry, unless we are resolved to betray our selves, and give fire to the fatal Trains of our Enemies; and if we are so bent there is no Remedy for our Obstinacy, and it is just and sit we should be left to the dismal and pitiless Effects of our own Folly and Madness. For if, when we see our selves in so much danger, and it is yet in our Power to escape if we please, we will notwithstanding precipitate our selves into Ruin; all the World must agree upon an impartial Inquisition for the Blood of our Souls, that we murdered our selves, that God is just, and that his hands are clean from any stain of our Blood, and that our own Ruin is wholly owing to our own invincible Obstinacy.

III. I proceed now to the Third Proposition, That our renouncing of Christ, and his Religion will most certainly infer the loss of our Souls. For, as I have shewed you, these Words are urged by our Saviour as a Motive to deter his Disciples from forsaking him, as is plain from Ver. 24, 25. which necessarily supposes that upon their forsaking him this Loss would most certainly and inevitably follow. In the Prosecution therefore of this Argument I shall endeavour these two things. p. 88duplicate page p. 89duplicate page

p. 901. To shew you what that forsaking of Christ is, which Infers this Loss.

2. Upon what Accounts our thus forsaking him infers it.

1. What that forsaking of Christ is, which infers this Loss. To which I answer, there is a Four-fold Forsaking of Christ, which the Scripture takes notice of as capital and damnable to the Souls of Men.

1. When we forsake him by a total Apostacy.

2ly. When we cowardly renounce the Profession of his Doctrine, or any Part of it, notwithstanding we still belive and are convinced of the Truth of it.

3. When by obstinate Heresy we either add to, or subtract from the Faith of Christ.

4ly. When by any wilful Course of Disobedience we do vertually renounce the Authority of his Laws.

1. We lose and forfeit our Souls, when we forsake Christ by a total Apostacy from him: When after we have been Baptized into his Name, and thereby have made a visible Profession of our believing his Doctrines, and obeying his Laws, we turn Runagadoes, and cast off our Belief of the one, and disown our Obligation to the other; we do most justly incur the Loss and Forfeiture of our Souls. For so strong and cogent p. 91is the Evidence of Christianity, that it is not to be supposed that any professed Christian can be either innocently or excusably seduced into a Disbelief of it; For Religion being a Matter of the vastest Moment and Concern, he is a Traytor to himself that either takes up his Religion without Examination, or that upon Examination refuses to be swayed by the strongest Reason; And I am sure it is impossible for any Christian to turn Infidel that is but so honest to himself as first to examine carefully the Reasons of his Faith, and then to resolve sincerely not to reject it till better Reasons appear to the contrary; But if either through their wilful Ignorance of the Evidence of Christianity, or vicious Prejudice against the Purity of it, they suffer themselves to be seduced into Apostacy, they are false Traytors to themselves, and as such are justly liable to all those eternal Damages they expose themselves to. And hence it is said of those that draw-back, that is, apostatize from Christianity, not only that God's Soul shall have no pleasure in them, but also that they draw back to perdition, Heb. 10. 38, 39. and 2 Pet. 2. 20. It is said of those Apostates, that their later end is worse than the beginning; and that it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy Commandment; p. 92which implies that Apostates from Christianity do not only forfeit their Souls, but that without Repentance they will be for ever forfeited to the most wretched Condition, even to the nethermost Degree of Perdition.

2ly. We lose our Souls when notwithstanding we do still believe, and are convinced of the Truth of Christ's Doctrine, we do cowardly renounce the Profession of it, or of any Part of it. For when once we have received the Faith of Christ, we are thereby obliged not to renounce the Profession of it whatsoever Hazard it may expose us to, our blessed Lord having assured us that if we deny him before Men, he will also deny us before his Father which is in Heaven, Mat. 10. 33. And St. Paul also having warned us, that if we deny Christ, he will also deny us, 2 Tim. 2. 12. That is, that he will reject and abandon us before God and Angels to everlasting Misery and Damnation; for so St. Iohn assures, Rev. 2. 8. that the fearful and unbelieving, i. e. the faint-hearted Cowards that for fear of Persecution renounce the Profession of the Gospel, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with sire and brimstone. Not that in Times of Persecution we are always bound to make an actual Profession and Publication of our Faith, to p. 93run to the Tribunals of our Persecutors before we are sent for, and accuse our selves of those Doctrines for which we are Persecuted; but whenever we are apprehended, accused, and examined by them, either upon knowledge or suspicion, we are bound under the Penalty of forfeiting our Souls to own and confess our Faith, and not to deny any Doctrine or Article of it, whatsoever the Consequence may be. For in this Case to deny our Belief is not only a wilful Lye, which is in it self a damnable Crime, but an Act of High-Treason against our Lord and Saviour; for by renouncing any Doctrine which he hath revealed and committed to us, we do not only betray his Trust, but blaspheme his Veracity; to deny what we believe he hath revealed being in effect to declare him a Cheat and an Impostor. And having thus incurred the Guilt of so black a Treason against our Saviour, and wilfully persisting in it, what can we expect the Consequence of it should be, but the eternal Loss and Perdition of our Souls?

3ly. We forsake Christ to the Loss and Forfeiture of our Souls, when by obstinate Heresy we add to, or subtract from that Heavenly Doctrine which he hath revealed to us. By Heresy I do not mean barely a false Opinion in our Religion, whether it be p. 94of greater or lesser Moment; for I doubt not but the same Error may be an innocent Mistake in one Man, and a damnable Heresy in another; that in the one it may be the Effect of a weak Understanding, but in the other, of a perverse and obstinate Will; and when the Understanding misleads the Will it is Weakness, but when the Will misleads the Understanding it is Wickedness. For simple Error is only a defect of Understanding, which in a fallible Creature is every whit as inculpable as Sickness in a mortal one; but Heresy is a Fault of the Will, which is the only Subject of Vertue and Vice. When therefore by the wicked Prejudice of our corrupt Wills against the Purity of Christianity, our Understanding is betrayed into loose and erroneous Principles; when we understand by our vicious Affections, and adapt our Opinions to the Interests of our Lusts; when we believe for the sake of any darling Vice, and suffer our own factious, covetous, and extravagant Passions either to tempt us to profess those erroneous Opinions which we do not believe, or to prejudice us into a Belief of them; then is our Error no longer to be attributed to the Weakness of our Understanding, but to the Wickedness of our Wills which Improves our Error into a damnable Heresy. For he would be a wicked p. 95Man, though he were not an Heretick, that harbours those sinful Lusts which betrayed him into Heresy; but by being an Heretick he is much more wicked, because now he is wicked under a Pretence of Religion, and cloaks his Impieties with the Garments of Righteousness. And what greater Prophaness can any Man be guilty of, than to make his Religion a Baud to procure for his Lusts? So that if out of a vicious Propension of Will we obstinately persist in any Religious Errors, we are not only guilty of that wicked Propension which is of it self sufficient to ruin our Souls; but we are also accountable for vitiating our Religion with those erroneous Mixtures by which we have rendered it a Shelter and Protection to our Lust. And what the Consequence of this will be St. Iude will inform us, who speaking of certain Hereticks, who to gratifie their own wicked Inclinations, had sophisticated Christianity with sundry black and poisonous Principles, pronounces this fearful Doom on them; for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever, ver. 13.

4ly. And lastly, We forsake Christ to the Loss and Forfeiture of our Souls, when by any wilful Course of Disobedience we do virtually renounce the Authority of his Laws. For whilst we continue in any p. 96Course of wilful Sin, we live in an open Rebellion to our Saviour, and do by our Actions declare that we will not have him to Reign over us. And accordingly Tit. 1. 16. the abominable and disobedient are said to deny God in their works, even while they profess to know him; and what the Fate of such will be, St. Paul hath forewarned us, Rom. 2. 8, 9. But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness; indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every Soul of Man that doth evil, of the Iew first, and also of the Gentile. And the same Apostle speaking of these obstinate Rebels, who live and persist in an open Defifiance to our Saviour's Authority, tells us that they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, 2 Thes. 1. 8, 9. But before we dismiss this Argument, it will be requisite more particularly to explain what those wilful Courses of Sin are by which they thus renounce him; all which may be reduced to these three Heads. First, We renounce the Authority of his Laws, when we sin against him out of wilful Ignorance of them. Secondly, When we sin on against him out of wilful Inconsideration of our Obligation to them. Thirdly, When we persist in our sin against Knowledge and Consideration.

p. 971. We vertually renounce the Authority of our Saviour, when we sin on against him out of wilful Ignorance of his Laws. For the Laws of our Saviour, in which the great Lines of our Duty are described, are so plain and legible, that no man can be long excusably ignorant of them. But if our Ignorance proceed either first from a profane and profligate Mind that is altogether regardless of God, and hath utterly worn off its natural sense of Religion, and so neither heeds it nor concerns it self about it, but is become quite deaf to all the Means of Instruction; or if it proceed, Secondly, from the vicious Prejudice of our Wills, and we Industriously set our selves, for the sake of some darling Lust, to exclude from our Minds all the Means of Conviction; and either studiously to avoid all thoughts of Religion, that so we may sin on without disturbance, which is the way of those that are openly Profane and Irreligious; or to use all possible Arts to wheedle our Understandings into the Belief of such Principles as are most indulgent to our Lusts, which is the way of Hypocrites and false Pretenders to Religion: If, I say, our Ignorance of Christ's Laws proceeds from either of these Causes, it will no more excuse our falling into sin, than the want of Light will a man's p. 98falling into a Ditch that shuts his Eyes at Noon, and winks on purpose lest he should see, and escape the Danger that is before him. But then

2ly. We vertually renounce the Authority of our Saviour, when we sin on against him out of a wilful Inconsideration of our Obligations to obey him. For we being reasonable Creatures, are bound by the very Constitution of our Natures to act consideratlely especially in matters of Religion which are of the greatest Moment and Importance to us; so that if we miscarry herein through wilful Inconsideration, we are every whit as inexcusable as if we had considerately betrayed our selves. Now wilful Inconsideration is either actual or habitual; Actual, is either, first when notwithstanding we have been sufficiently warned by precedent Surprizes, we take no care for the future; for though it cannot be expected we should always keep so strict a Guard upon our selves, as never to be surprized by an Enemy; yet when we have been overtaken, there is all the Reason in the World we should take warning by it, and grow more wary and vigilant for the future; that we should awaken in our Minds such Considerations as are necessary to prevent our being surpized again, which if we do not, our p. 99next Surprize will be inexcusable. And if the sense of the Lapse which was perhaps but an innocent Error, or at most but a Sin of Infirmity, doth not make us more careful of our selves for the future; the next will be a wilful Fall: Or else in the second Place, this actual wilful Inconsideration is, when upon the presenting of any beloved Temptation we either quench the good Motions of our Minds, and refuse to consider the Evil and Danger of the Sin we are tempted to, lest we should be thereby deterred from committing it; or purposely contrive to baffle our own Consideration by opposing it either with some ungrounded Hope of Impunity, or some fallacious Promise of future Amendment; and if to make way for our sin, we do either of these ways wilfully drive all good thoughts from our Minds lest they should disturb and interrupt us in the Injoyment of it, our Inconsideration is to be resolved into the Wickedness of our Wills, and not into the Weakness and Infirmity of our Natures. And he that will not consider because he will sin, and afterwards extenuate his sin by his Inconsideration, urges one sin in excuse for another, and makes that which is his Fault, his Apology. Whensoever therefore we sin out of any actual and wilful Inconsideration, we p. 100sin wilfully, and consequently do thereby vertually renounce the Authority of our Saviour; the final Event of which, without our Repentance, will be our everlasting Ruin and Perdition. But then besides this actual there is also an habitual Inconsideration, which is wilful; and that is, when by often stifling the Convictions of our Consciences we have seared them into a deep Insensibility of Good and Evil, so as that now we sin on without any Remorse or Reluctancy, and return to our Lusts with the same indifferency as we do to our Beds or our Tables, without either considering what we are doing, or reflecting on what we have done; And this is so far from palliating our sin, that it is one of the highest Aggravations of it: For as it is no excuse that we sin out of an evil Habit which we voluntarily contracted by frequent Acts of sin, so neither will it at all excuse us that we sin out of an habitual Inconsideration which we wilfully contracted by often refusing to consider. But as vicious Habits have a proper Evil and Guiltiness in them distinct from those vicious Acts that produced them; so habitual Inconsideration hath in it a peculiar Venom of its own beyond what was in those actual Inconsiderations whereby it was acquired. And accordingly it is described in the Scripture as p. 101the worst, the most desperate and incurable state of a Sinner: It is called a reprobate-Mind, Rom. 1. 28, 29. a seared Conscience, 1 Tim. 4. 2. a hard and unrelenting heart that treasureth up wrath against the day of wrath, Rom. 2. 5. So that if we go on in sin without considering, with a Mind habitually regardless & insensible, we are hardned and inveterate Rebels, that have not only renounced the Authority of our Saviour, but have also forfeited our Selves, and that almost irreparably against all his Methods of conquering and subduing us. But then

3ly. And Lastly, We vertually renounce the Authority of our Saviour, when we persist in our sin against Knowledge and Consideration. For to sin on obstinately against Knowledge & Consideration, argues an invincible Malice of Will; for tho the Condition of the ignorant and inconsiderate Sinner be very sad and deplorable, yet there is much more Hope of him because he hath never yet the Force & Efficacy of Knowledge & Consideration, which perhaps, if ever he be brought to experience, may prove a succesful Means of his Cure and Reformation. But the knowing and considerate Sinner hath tryed and conquered the Remedy, hath experimented the only means of his Cure, and yet it grows worse and worse under the Application; he knows what his sin is, and considers the Consequence of it, and yet sins on; which argues a desperate Resolution of Will in him p. 102thus to run himself upon a foreseen Ruin, and leap into Hell with his Eyes open. And what Hope is there of dissuading him from his sin, that knows and considers the Arguments against it, and yet every day breaks through them all at the Call of every sinful Temptation? And as his Condition is most desperate, so his Soul is most guilty and criminal; for every Act of his sin is an open Defiance to the Authority of God and his Saviour; his Rebellion is barefac'd, and hath no manner of Pretence wherein to mask or disguise it self; and he knows and owns himself to be in a Rebellion, and yet perseveres in it, which extreamly aggravates and inhanses the Guilt of it. For the Sinfulness and Immorality of Actions is to be measured by the Degrees of Will that are in them, and the Degrees of Will in them are more or less proportionably, as the Nature and Evil of them is more or less known and considered. Hence is that of St. Iames 4. 17. To him that knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin. Had he not known the Nature of his Action, the Weakness of his Understanding would have excused the Error of his Will, and render'd it pardonable at least, if not altogether innocent: But when his Understanding hath discharged its Office, and shewed him the Evil that he p. 103ought to avoid, that hath fairly acquitted its self, and can stand no longer chargable for his Miscarriages: So that now the Man chooses at his own Peril, and if he still choose what he ought to avoid, his Understanding is clear, and his Will alone is Culpable. And when our Rebellion against our Saviour is not only wilful, but the wilfulness of it is so extreamly aggravated by our Knowledge and Consideration, what the Consequen…e of it will be that fearful Passage will assure us, Luke 12. 47. The Servant that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not, shall be beaten with many Stripes. And thus I have endeavoured to represent to you what that Forsaking of Christ is, which exposes us to the Hazard of losing our Souls.

II. I proceed in the next Place to shew you upon what Accounts it is that our forsaking of Christ infers this fearful Loss; of which, I shall Briefly give you this four-fold Account.

1. Our thus forsaking of Christ infers the Loss of our Souls, as it is a most inexcusable Contempt of the greatest Mercy.

2ly. As it renders us the most unsitting Objects of Mercy for the future.

3ly. As it is an open Violation of the fixed and stated Condition of Mercy.

4ly. As it is an utter Rejection of our last Remedy.

p. 1041. Our forsaking of Christ by any of the aforenamed Instances infers the everlasting Loss of our Souls, as it is a most inexcusable Contempt of the greatest Mercy. For when the Son of God came down from Heaven, he brought from thence with him the largest Offers of Mercy that Heaven it self could make to a sinful World; he did not only bring down with him a Grant of universal Pardon and Indemnity under the Broad-Seal of Heaven for every Sinner that would lay down his Arms, and return to his Allegiance, together with the most endearing Invitations of the God of Heaven to woo and win us to accept it; but he also brought along with him all that an everlasting Heaven means, Crowns of Immortal Glory and Pleasure to encourage us to, and reward our Acceptance of them. And what greater Mercy could the God of Heaven have expressed to us, than to send down his blessed Son, not only to tender to us an Indemnity, but also to invite us to accept it with a Promise of Heaven? So that if now we reject him, now he is come to us with such vast and endearing Proposals, what an intolerable slight will it be to the tender Mercies of God? When we shall declare by our Actions that we will not exchange the sordid Pleasures of our Lust for the Pardon of Heaven, p. 105for the Favour of God, and for all the Hopes of a glorious Immortality? How can we expect any farther Relief from God's Mercy, after we have put such an intolerable Affront upon it by preferring such an unworthy Rival before it? When God hath laid his Pardon, his Love, and his Heaven in our Way to stop us in our sinful Courses, what a barbarous Indignity will it be to trample upon them all, and run over them into Hell? With what Face can we hope for any farther kindness from Heaven, after we have treated its Kindness with so much Rudeness and Contempt? Certainly for sinful Men to reject and run away from their Saviour, when he comes to them with so much Kindness, when he courts them with such astonishing Expressions of Mercy, is a Provocation sufficient to incense an infinite Goodness, and turn the tenderest Mercy into an implacable Fury. And when infinite Love is so infinitely provoked, what less Expiation can it claim and exact, than the everlasting Ruin and Perdition of our Souls?

2ly. Our Forsaking of Christ infers the everlasting Loss of our Souls, as it renders us the most incapable Objects of Mercy for the future. For when once we are arrived to that Height of Wickedness as finally to reject Christ, and the Mercies of his Gospel, there p. 106is no farther Mercy that we are capable of; if after this God should be so kind and indulgent as to pardon us, alas! what would it signify? for we should still be wretched and miserable in Despight of his Pardon; and that wicked Temper of Mind which made us reject our Saviour, would be an everlasting Hell to us though it should indemnify us. What will a Pardon avail a Man that is dying of the Stone or Strangury? he can but die if he be not pardoned, and die he must though he be. And as little Advantage it would be to a wicked Soul to be pardoned and absolved by God, while she hath a Disease within her that preys upon her Vitals, and hastens her to a certain Ruin. She …ould have been but miserable in the future …fe if she had not been pardoned, and miserable she must be if she continues wicked, whether she be pardoned or no; there being an everlasting Hell in the very Nature of Wickedness, which no outward Act of Pardon can quench or extinguish. Nay, if after our rejecting Christ, and the Mercies of the Gospel, God should not only pardon but admit us into Heaven, and indulge us the free Enjoyment of all its Pleasures and Felicities; yet that vicious Temper of Mind which finally seduced us from our Saviour, would render us for ever incapable of relishing p. 107the Joys of it. Those Rivers of Heavenly Pleasure would never agree with the hellish Temper of our Minds, which, like a feverish Tongue, would utterly disgust their delicious Streams by Reason of its own over…lowing Gall. So that after we have finally rejected our Saviour, we are neither capable of being indemnifyed from Hell, nor of enjoying Heaven; and having cast our selves beyond the Reach of all Mercy into a State wherein we can neither begin to be happy, nor cease to be miserable, our Case is desperate, and there is no Remedy but our Souls must be lost and undone for ever.

3ly. Our forsaking of Christ infers the everlasting Loss of our Souls, as it is an open Violation of the fixed and stated Condition of Mercy. The fixed and immoveable Condition of the Mercy of the Gospel is, that we should constantly adhere to our Saviour by a true Faith and a sincere Obedience, and that whenever we fall off from him either into Infidelity, or Heresy, or Disobedience, we should remember from whence we are fallen, and return again to him by a deep and serious Repentance. And indeed this Condition is so low and condescending, that it was impossible for the wise God and Governour of the World, to propose his Mercy to us at a lower or easier Rate; and if God should p. 108have asked our Consent upon what Conditions he should propose to us the Mercies of his Gospel, this would have been the utmost Favour that we could in Modesty have craved of him, that he would be so gracious as to accept our unfeigned Faith and sincere Obedience; and that whenever we fall off either from the one or the other, he would admit us to Repentance, and receive us again upon our Return and Amendment. And should he have proposed his Mercy to us upon any lower Terms, he must of Necessity have let go the Reins of his Government, and given us a free Toleration for all manner of Wickedness. Had the Condition of his Mercy been but one step lower than Repentance, it had totally dissolved the Obligation of his Laws, and reduced the humane World into a perfect Anarchy. For should he have prostituted his Mercy to impenitent Sinners, he must have made it a Refuge for obstinate Rebels to fly to, and shelter themselves from the Reach of his Authority; and how inconsistent would this have been with the Wisdom of his Government? This therefore being the lowest Condition upon which the wise and holy God can propose his Mercy to us, there is no Ground to hope that after we have rejected this, and are finally fallen off from it, he will make any p. 109new Proposal to us. For he hath yielded as much already to the Weakness and Inconstancy of our Natures, as he could possibly do with safety to his Government; and if this will not suffice, we may depend upon it that he will rather consent to sacrifice our Souls to his righteous Vengeance, than his own Authority to our obstinate Wills. So that when once we have finally rejected our Saviour, and shaken hands for ever with Faith and Obedience, and Repentance too, we are quite beyond the Reach of any wise Mercy; and then how deplorable must our Condition be, when Things are reduced to this desperate Issue, That God must either consent to be foolishly merciful to us, or to abandon our Souls to everlasting Perdition?

4ly. And lastly, Our forsaking of Christ infers the everlasting Loss of our Souls, as it is an utter Rejection of our last Remedy. For the last Remedy which God hath prepared for Mankind to heal the Malignity of their Natures, and recover them from eternal Misery, is the meritorious Death and Sacrifice of his blessed Son, who voluntarily undertaking to be the Attorney-General, and Common Representative of sinful Men, suffered Death in our stead as a vicarious Mulct and Punishment for our Sins; upon which the most merciful Father hath granted to all believing p. 110and truly penitent Sinners, a general Indemnity from eternal Punishments, to which they were bound over by their Sins and Rebellions; by virtue of which Grant as soon as we believe in Christ, and do thereupon sincerely repent of our Sins, we are totally absolved from those everlasting Punishments whereunto they have exposed and obliged us. And this Sacrifice of Christ being the last Remedy which God hath provided for our Guilt, and the Grant of Pardon which God hath made in Consideration of it, being confined to believing and penitent Sinners, it hence necessarily follows, that they who finally persist in Vnbelief or Impenitency, do thereby for ever cut themselves off from all Interest in that Sacrifice; and from all Title to that Pardon that is granted upon it, and consequently leave themselves for ever destitute of all Hope of Pardon and Indemnity for the future. So that by renouncing Christ we do renounce his Sacrifice, which is the last and only Remedy we have to depend upon. Hence Heb. 10. 26. we are told, that if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin; that is, if after we have been baptized, and initiated into Christianity, we relapse into Infidelity or wilful Disobedience, we do thereby forfeit our Interest in p. 111Christ's Sacrifice; and when we have once rejected our Interest in that, there remains no other Sacrifice for Sin, i.e. no other Sacrifice upon which God will pardon and indemnify us. So that now all that remains to us, is that which follows in the next Verse, viz. A certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the Adversaries. For when we have finally baffled our last and utmost Remedy, the Condition of our Souls must needs be desperate and incurable. When by our obstinate Unbelief or final Impenitence we have outsinned the Virtue of our Saviour's Sacrifice, we are out of the Reach and Compass of God's Pardon, and so consequently are sunk beyond all Hopes of Recovery, into endless and irreversible Damnation. For now that precious Blood which, if we had believed and repented, would have spoke better things for us than the Blood of Abel, will rise in Judgment against us, and, like the Bl…od of those Souls that are under the Altar, will charge and impeach, and be continually imprecating the Vengeance of Heaven upon us. And when that which was prepared for the last and utmost Remedy of our Souls shall be converted into their Bane, and that which was intended for their Advocate shall become their Accuser; when that vocal Blood p. 112and those speaking Wounds which pleaded for, shall plead against, and cry out instantly for Judgment upon them; what can they henceforth expect but everlasting Ruin and Destruction?