Practical Discourses Volume 2, Discourse 6
JOHN III.16.
— That whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting Life.
IN these Words you have the Love of God measured by a twofold Standard; first by the Greatness of the Gift which he hath bestowed upon the World, God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son; Secondly, by the blessed End for which he did bestow him, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, &c. The first of these I have already gone through, and now I shall proceed to the Second, viz. The blessed End for which he gave his only begotten Son, That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
In which Words you have also two very great Instances of God's infinite Love and good Will to Mankind; the First is his imposing upon us such a gentle, and easie, and merciful Condition, That whosoever believeth in him. Secondly, His proposing such a vast Reward to us upon our performing of this Condition.
I begin with the first, viz. His imposing upon us such a gentle and easie, and merciful Condition, That whosoever believeth in him should not perish. In the Management of which I shall do these two Things:
1. Shew you what it is that is included in this Condition, whosoever believeth in him.
2. How good God hath been to us in making the Condition which he hath imposed upon us so gentle and merciful.
1. What is it that is included in this Condition? To which I answer in general, that believing in Christ doth not only denote a naked Assent to the Truth of this Proposition, That he is the Son of Cod, and the Messenger of Gods Mind and Will to the World, and the Saviour of Mankind; but that it also includes whatsoever is naturally consequent thereunto. For thus it is very ordinary with the Scripture to express the natural Effects and Consequents of things by their Causes and Principles. This is the love of God, saith the Apostle, that we keep his Commandments, 1 Jo. v.3. whereas in strictness of Speaking, our keeping his Commandments is only the Effect or Consequence of our loving him. So Prov. viii.13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; whereas indeed this is only the Effect, or Consequence of the Fear of the Lord. Thus by knowing, and hearing, and remembring of God the Scripture usually expresses the consequent Effects of them, Thus Act. xxii.14. The God of our Fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldst know his Will; that is, that thou mayst not only know it, but by thy Knowledge mayst be suitably affected with it; (for it was not to a bare contemplative Knowledge of it that St. Paul was chosen:) and then it follows, and see that Just one, and shouldst hear the voice of his Mouth; that is, that hearing the Voice of his Mouth, thou shouldst thereby be induced to obey it; for he was not meerly to hear Christ speaking to him out of the Heavens, but that hearing him he might submit to his Will, and become his Apostle to the World. Many other Places I might easily give you, where the natural Effects and Consequents are in Scripture expressed by their Causes and Principles. And thus also Faith or Believing whensoever it is used in Scripture to signify the Condition of the Gospel-Covenant always imploies its natural Effects and Consequents, that is, sincere and universal Obedience to those Rules of Holy Living which the Gospel prescribes; for this is the most natural Effect of our believing in Jesus Christ. And hence it is called the obedience of Faith, Rom. xvi.26. that is, the Obedience which springs from Faith, as from its Cause and Principle; And accordingly, Rom. x.16. you find that to believe and to obey the Gospel signifies one and the same Thing; But they have not all obeyed the Gospel, saith he; for Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? that is, who hath believed it, so as to obey it? So that wheresoever Faith is mentioned singly as the Condition of the Gospel-Covenant, it is apparent it must be understood in the largest Sense, as comprehending that Obedience which is the Effect and Consequence of it. So 1 Joh. v.1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God; that is, whosevever so believes the Truth of this Proposition as to practise upon it, and govern his Life and Actions according to the Tenour and Direction of it, is truly a Child of God. For he who believes Christ to be the Messias, but continues obstinately disobedient to his Laws, is so far from being truly and really a Child of God, that he thereby becomes ten Times more a Child of the Devil; for, saith the Apostle, If I have all Faith, and have not Charity, I am nothing; and Gal. v.6. For in Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing, nor Vncircumcision, but Faith which worketh by Love; and if so, then Faith it self is nothing abstracted from this blessed Effect of it, i. e. working by love: For in Gal. vi.15. he tells us that Circumcision is nothing, but the new Creature; by which new Creature he means an obedient Temper and Disposition of Mind, as he plainly tells us, 1 Cor. vii.19. Circumcision is nothing, and Vncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the Commandments of God. So that by these different Variations of expression it is apparent, that by Faith as significant in the Account of Christ, he always means a working Faith, the Effect of which is the new Creature, or keeping the Commandments of God. And so I have done with the first Thing proposed, which was to shew you what is included in this Condition, whosoever believeth in him, which you see is not to be confined to a bare and naked Belief of him, but must be extended further, even to that whole Course of Obedience which is the natural Effect of such a Belief. So that whosoever believes in him, is as much as if he had said, Whosoever so believes in him, as sincerely and universally to obey him.
2. I proceed now to the next Thing, which was to shew you how good God hath been to us in making the Condition which he hath imposed upon us, so gentle and merciful; and this will appear if we consider these five Things.
1. That he hath put nothing into this Condition but what is in its own Nature exceeding good for us.
2. That he hath most mercifully proportioned the Whole to the present State and Circumstances of our Nature.
3. That he hath rendred the Whole almost necessarily consequent to our believing in Jesus Christ.
4. That to beget that Belief in us, he hath given us the most plain and convincing Evidence.
5. That to render this Belief operative, he hath engaged himself to assist, actuate, and inliven it by his ow immediate Concurrence.
1. That God hath put nothing into this Condition but what is in its own Nature exceeding good for us. For there is no Precept in all the Gospel but what contains either some effectual Means or apparent Instance of what is morally and eternally Good; and whatsoever is morally good is naturally so. For the moral Goodness of Things consists in the Fitness and Reasonableness of them, and that which is the moral Good, or Duty of Men consists in doing that which is eternally fit and reasonable for them, considering the Frame and Circumstances of their Natures, and the different Relations wherein they are placed in the World. But now for Men to do what is eternally fit and reasonable, is naturally good for and beneficial to themselves; because by so doing they perfect and advance their Natures, and accomplish their own Satisfaction and Happiness. For our Reason being that proper Character of our Natures that distinguishes us from all sublunary Beings, and sets us in a Form of Being above them; the Perfection of our Nature must necessarily consist in being perfectly reasonable; in having our Vnderstandings informed with the Principles of right Reason, and our Wills and Affections regulated by them; and when once we are released from the Slaveries of Sense and Passion, and all our Powers are so perfectly subdued to this superior Principle of Reason, as to do every Thing that it commands, and nothing that it forbids, and we chuse and refuse, and love, and hate, and hope, and fear, and delight, according as right Reason directs and dictates; then, and not till then we are come to the full Stature of perfect Men in Christ Jesus. Now all the Duty of the Gospel being a reasonable Service, as the Apostle calls it, Rom. xii.1. the End and Tendency of it must be to habituate us to live according to the Laws of right Reason, which is all one as to advance us to the Perfection of reasonable Beings; and being once arrived at this, we shall find unspeakable Satisfaction from within our selves, and feel a Heaven of Joys springing up within our own Bosoms. For when once our disjointed Powers are set in Order, and all our Faculties reduced to their natural Subordination, our Nature will be in perfect Rest and Ease, being freed from that unnatural Violence and Oppression under which it now groans, and cured of all those Spasms and Convulsions of Mind which are the inseparable Effects of its Lapse and Degeneracy. And all the Motions of our Wills and Affections being regulated by the eternal Reason of our Minds, with what delightful Relishes and sweet Gusts of Pleasure shall we taste and review our own Actions, they being always such as our best and purest Reason doth approve of with a full and ungainsaying Judgment? So that God's Commands, you see, being all of them most reasonable must necessarily tend to the Perfection and Happiness of our Nature; besides, that they generally promote even our sensitive Happiness, our Pleasure, and Profit, and Reputation in this World. Now what a most endearing Instance is this of God's Goodness towards us, that he should make our Benefit the Measure of our Duty, and oblige us to nothing but what is for our good; that he should so far concern himself in our Happiness, as to impose it upon us under the Penalty of his severest displeasure, and to inforce his Laws with such inviting and such dreadful Sanctions, only to secure us from running away from our own Mercies? So that to be a Christian, is in Effect nothing else but only to be obliged to be kind to our selves, and bound in Conscience to be happy: Good God, that thou shouldst be so infinitely Zealous of our Welfare as to make the Means of it the only Matter of thy Laws, and to promise such vast Rewards, and denounce such dreadful Punishments against us for no other Reason but only to affright and allure us out of Misery into Happiness! That thou shouldst hate our Sins so implacably, only because they are our irreconcilable Enemies, and be so infinitely pleased with our Obedience, only because it leads to our endless Bliss and Perfection! And that it is thus, is so plain and apparent, that we cannot but acknowledge it a most convincing Instance of God's infinite Goodness towards us,
2ly, That God hath most mercifully proportioned this Condition to the present State and Circumstances of our Naure. He saw very well into what a deplorable Condition humane Nature was reduced, how its Strength was broken, and its Health and Vigor impair'd and decayed; how its Reason was clouded, and all its Faculties depraved; how apt it was to be surprized, and to act unadvisedly; sometimes for Want of Time, sometimes for Want of Order and Distinction in its Thoughts; how much it was hindred from acting regularly by intervening Accidents, and how it was weakend and determined by the bad Habits and Necessities it had generally contracted: and seeing it reduced to this sad State, he hath most graciously accommodated its Burthen to its Strength, and taken Measure of its Duty by its Ability to discharge it. For though in his Gospel he requires that we should perfect holiness in the fear of God, and be perfect, as our Father in Heaven is perfect, that is, that we should advance to the utmost Degrees and Improvements in Virtue that our Natures are capable of; yet he requires this of us under such moderate Penalties as are no ways destructive to our eternal Happiness, such as the hiding his Face from us, and other such like paternal Severities and Castigations; his correcting us with the Rod of temporal Judgments, and abating us in the Degrees of our future Happiness proportionably to our moral Defects and Non-improvements, which Penalties though they are sufficient to quicken our Endeavours, and excite us still to a farther Progress from one Degree of Virtue to another; yet are they not such as do excommunicate us from Heaven, or disseize us of the Reward of our honest and sincere Obedience. And indeed should God have been severe in marking what we do amiss, and exacted of us under the Penalty of Damnation the utmost Degrees and Improvements that are possible for us to attain, no Flesh would be saved; it being morally impossible for us in this degenerate State to do always the utmost Good, or avoid the utmost Evil that we are able; and therefore out of a tender Regard to the Weakness and Infirmity of our Nature, he hath only forbid those Neglects and Miscarriages under this Declaration that they are inconsistent with the Sincerity of our Submission and Obedience to him. But as for our moral Defects and Infirmities and Surprises, though so far as it is in our Power to avoid them, they are truly Sins against the Law of Perfection, and as such we ought to lament, and beg Pardon for them; yet, Thanks be to a merciful God, we shall only be chastned for them here, that we may not be condemned with the World, as the Apostle expresses it, 1 Cor. xi.32. and reap less Happiness in the other World for having sowed less Degrees of good than we might, and ought to have done in this; as the same Apostle in 2 Cor. ix.6. 'Tis true indeed, as for wilful Sinners, he hath concluded them (as it is very reasonable he should) under the Sentence of eternal Death; for should he let such go unpunished, he must e'en resign up his Government, and leave the wretched World in a State of Anarchy and Confusion; but yet to these he hath extended as much Kindness, as was possible for a wise and gracious Governour to do; for he hath not so irrecoverably concluded them under this direful Sentence, but that still he doth indulge to them the saving Remedy of Repentance, having for the sake of Jesus, and his all-sufficient Propitiation bound himself by Promise to pardon and receive into his Favour every wilful Sinner in the World, if he will but repent of what is past, and amend for the future. Thus to save the miserable World he hath gone to the utmost Borders of what is fit and reasonable, and done as much for us as it was possible for the Justice and Rectitude of his Nature to admit of; for should he have proceeded any further he must have pardoned impenitent, Sinners which he could not have done without allowing and incouraging their Rebellion: And to pardon an Offendor that persists in his Fault, that is neither sorry for it, nor willing to amend it, is utterly incongruous to all wise Rules of Government, and cannot be practised by any Government either divine or humane without endangering its own Foundations. What then is there beyond this that we can modestly ask, or God wisely grant? If God had summoned us to his Privy Council in Heaven, and there promised to grant us any Terms of Salvation that we our selves could think fit to propose to him, surely the utmost that any modest Man could have asked would have been only this; Lord! Be but so merciful as to consider the Weakness and Infirmity of our Natures so as not to cast us off for every Neglect or Miscarriage that was only possible for us to avoid: And if at any time we should be such Wretches as knowingly and wilfully to Offend thee, be but so gracious as to receive us again into thy Favour whensoever we heartily repent and amend: This is the utmost that we can request at thy Hands, and for this we will praise thee on the bended Knees of our Souls, and adore thy Goodness for ever and ever: Why now all this he hath freely granted us of his own Accord; and is not this a most amazing Instance of his Goodness, that of his own free Motion he should thus indulge to us the utmost Mitigations that we could have modestly desired, and condescended so far to our Weakness, that without an unpardonable Impudence we cannot desire him to condescend yet further.
3dly, That he hath rendred the Performance of the whole Condition of our Salvation almost necessarily consequent to our believing in Jesus Christ: For in that Revelation of his Will which he hath made by Jesus Christ he hath pressed the Performance of this Condition upon us with such irresistible Arguments, as must needs prevail wheresoever they are heartily believed and duly considered. What Man can be so stupid as to trample upon Christ's Law, that firmly believes and considers those glorious Rewards it proposes to all that sincerely obey it? What pleasures of Sin can seduce that Man from his Duty who is firmly persuaded that after a few Moments Obedience he shall swim in Rivers of Pleasures that flow from God's right Hand for evermore? How can any Man have the Courage to violate the Laws of our Saviour, who heartily believes and considers those direful Punishments which he hath denounced against the Transgressors of them? And what Evils or Miseries can scare that Man from his Duty, that is chained so fast to it by the Consideration of that Wrath of God which is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousness and Ungodliness of Men? How can any Man love his Sins any longer, that believes and reads that bloody Story of them that is written in the Agony and Passion of the Son of God? When we consider that he was delivered for our Offences, and that our Sins were the principal Actors of all that woful Tragedy; that they were these that betrayed, arraigned, and condemned him; that borrowed the Throats of a barbarous Rabble to cry out Crucify him, Crucify him; that buffeted and scourged him with the Hands of the rude Soldiers; that gored his Sides with the Spear, pierced his Temples with the Thorns, rent his sacred Hands and Feet with the Nails that fastned him to the Cross; how can we believe and consider that our Sins did thus barbarously treat the best Friend we have in the World without being all inflamed with Indignation against them? Again, how can we reflect upon that dreadful Displeasure God expressed against our Sins in this dismal Example of Sacrificing his own Son for them, without being filled with Horror, and struck into a trembling Agony at the Thought of them? Once more, How can we be so desperatly fool-hardy as to go on in our Sins, if we believe and consider the Article of the Day of Judgment, wherein we must give an Account of whatsoever we have done in the Flesh whether it be good, or evil, and stand or fall to all Eternity according as we have discharged or neglected this great Condition of our Salvation? These are such mighty Arguments, as one would think, it were impossible for Men firmly to believe, and yet not be persuaded by them. Thus God in his Mercy and Goodness to us hath furnished the Revelation of his Son with such prevalent Motives, that our believing in him almost necessarily draws after it the Performance of the whole condition of our Salvation; for upon our believing in Jesus, and considering his Proposals, we are compassed round about with so many puissant Reasons to submit our selves to his Laws, as (one would think) all the Temptations of the Devil and the World are not able to resist. So careful hath God been to secure us from Sin and Misery, that knowing the Force of our natural Reason to be so weak to secure us, he hath sent us down these fresh Auxiliaries from Heaven, by whose Assistance, if we do but trust to and imploy them, we may easily repulse all the Temptations of Sin, and fight our Way through all the Difficulties of our Duty. For this is the Victory, saith the Apostle, by which we overcome the World, even our Faith, 1 John v.4. which Words are urged by him as an Instance of the Easiness and Gentleness of our Obedience to the Gospel, which is the Condition of our Salvation; for v.3. saith he, this is the love of God, that we keep his Commandments, and his Commandments are not grievous. Well, but how doth this appear? Why saith he, for every one that is born of God overcometh the World, and this is the Victory that overcometh the World, even our Faith. For who is he that overcometh the World, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God, v.5. So that he proves the easiness of the Gospel Commands by this Argument, that the keeping them depends upon that Faith by which we believe Jesus to be the Son of God. By this means therefore God hath mercifully rendred the Condition of our Salvation easie to us by rendring the Performance of it so necessarily consequent to our believing in Jesus; in which how good he hath been to us will evidently appear, if we consider.
4thly, That to beget this Belief in us he hath given us the most plain and convincing Evidence; viz. the Evidence of those miraculous Works wherewith he accompanied the Ministry of our Saviour and his Apostles, and sealed and confirmed it to the World; which of all Kinds of Evidence is the most apt to convince, and persuade the World of the Truth of any divine Revelation; for this Kind of Evidence appeals to Mens Senses, and is such an Argument as they may see and touch and handle; and Men are generally apt to give more Credit to their own Senses than to the clearest Inferences and Deductions of Reason. And indeed the Generality of Men are hardly capable of any other Notices of Things but what are immediatly impressed upon them by the Objects of their Sense; for they have not Skill enough to compare simple Terms so exactly with one another as to compound them into true Propositions, and then to infer from every such Proposition its natural Consequents and Deductions. These are Things that require a great deal more Art and Leisure, than Mens Educations and Affairs will ordinarily afford them. But Miracles are Things that are obvious to Mens Senses, and from them to infer a divine Commission in the Person that works them, is not only possible but very easie to the most vulgar Understanding. For Miracles being the visible Effects of a divine Power cannot be supposed to be wrought by any but Persons that are divinely commissionated, and he that shews me an immediate Effect of God's Power gives me that in Token that he came from God. So that the Argument of Miracles, you see, is the most plain and intelligible of all others; and as it is so, it is the most powerful to convince and persuade Men. For whereas had our Saviour proved his Doctrins in a Way of rational Discourse and Inference, he must have proved them all singly and apart by distinct and different Arguments, which would have been so tedious that the Vulgar would never have Leisure enough to attend them, nor yet Capacity enough to retain them; but by this Argument of Miracles he proved them all at once, because his Miracles were a Token that the God of Truth did approve his Doctrin; and it cannot be supposed that the God of Truth would have so visibly approved of his Doctrin in the Gross, had any Part or Proposition of it been false and erroneous. Thus God out of his infinite Goodness hath not only revealed his everlasting Gospel to us, but hath also taken the most effectual Course to convince and persuade us of the Truth of it. He hath set his own Almighty Power at Work to still the Seas, and raise the Dead, to cure the Blind and Lame and Diseased, to change and vary the Course and Order of his Creation, and all this for no other Purpose but to persuade Mankind of the Truth of those glad Tidings which he revealed from Heaven to them by his own Son. And as he hath given us the best Evidences to convince us of the Truth of his Gospel, so he hath taken the most effectual Course, to continue and perpetuate it to the World. For first, he raised up sundry Eye-witnesses who conversed with our Saviour, and beheld his Miracles, and after they had seen him risen from the Dead, and ascended up into Heaven, did openly publish and testify them to the World, and finally confirmed and ratified their Testimony by laying down their Lives for it; which was as high a Confirmation as could possibly have been given of the Truth of it. But lest after all, the World should suspect them, God also furnished them with the Gift of Miracles, and continued that Gift as an Heirlome to their Successors for Three Hundred Years together; that so as the Testimony of the first Eye-witnesses was confirmed not only by their Martyrdoms, but by their Miracles also; so it might still be handed down from them through the successive Generations in the same infallible manner till it was spread over all the World, and needed no farther Martyrdoms, or Miracles to confirm it. O blessed God! What care hast thou taken, first to provide, and then to secure the Evidences of our holy Religion, that all Generations might have sufficient Motives of Credibility; and that Mankind might still have abundant Reason to believe in thy Son to the End of the World, when they shall see him come down from Heaven to Judgment? How easie therefore hath God rendred the Condition of our Salvation to us, when he hath not only rendred the Performance of it so necessarily consequent to our believing in Jesus, but also to beget this Belief, in us hath given us such abundant Evidence? How can we sufficiently admire and adore his Goodness that hath been so infinitely solicitous to secure our Happiness, and hath so contrived Things that we cannot heartily believe his Gospel and not be persuaded by it to comply with the Terms of our Salvation; nor yet impartially consider the Evidence of his Gospel, and not heartily believe it? And yet as if all this were not enough,
5thly, And lastly, to render this Belief operative and effectual, he hath engaged himself to assist, actuate, and enliven it by his own immediate Concurrence. Provided we use our own honest Endeavour he hath assured us again and again that he will give his Holy Spirit to every one that asks; that he will work in us to will and to do, if we will but take care to work out our own Salvation with fear and trembling; and that to him that hath, i. e. makes an honest Improvement of that Strength that he hath, it shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly. So that though one would have thought he had done sufficiently for us before in giving us such abundant Evidence to beget in us an hearty Belief of his Gospel, and such prevalent Motives to persuade us to submit to it, and comply with his gracious Proposals; yet such was his Goodness to us, such his importunate Care of our Welfare, that he could not stop here, nor think that yet he had done enough for us till by an irrepealable Promise he had obliged himself to us to co-operate with us, and by the immediate Influences of his Grace to bless and succeed our honest Endeavours. So that we can no sooner attempt our own Restauration, no sooner set our selves in the way to our Happiness, but the good God is immediately present with us, exciting our Fath, fixing our Consideration, animating and encouraging our poor Endeavours, and supplying us with all manner of Grace and Assistance that our State and Necessities require. Nay, and many and many a Time, while we are Sleeping on in our wretched sinful Security, he comes in Pity to visit us, and ever and anon suggests good Thoughts to our Minds to rouse and awake us out of those fatal Slumbers, to enliven our Faith, and call up our Consideration; nay, and oftentimes he doth so urge, and second, and repeat those Thoughts to us, that by being so haunted with their Importunities, we are forced to fix our Minds on them whether we will or no. And though we like ungrateful Wretches do many times stifle his good Motions, and turn a deaf Ear to his Calls and gracious Invitations to Happiness; yet doth he not presently give over, but whilst we are running away from him, we hear a Voice behind us calling after us to return; and though we still run on, yet still he follows us with his Importunities through the whole Course of our sinful Life, till either he hath brought us back, or we have run our selves past all Hope of Recovery. These are Things, I dare say, that every Man in the World, one Time or other, hath had sensible Experience of. And is not this a strange Condescention of Goodness to see the God of Heaven and Earth thus courting and wooing a Company of impotent Rebels to lay down their Arms, and accept his Grace and his everlasting Preferments? And though they reject his Motions, and stop their Ears to those still Whispers of his that secretly invade their Souls; yet to consider how he still solicits and importunes them, as if he would take no Denyal, and were resolved not to let them alone till he had persuaded them to be happy; O good God! what prodigious Stories of Love are these? What strange amazing Condescentions to thy wretched undeserving Creatures? And now after all this what can the Lord our God do more for us that is consistent either with his own Wisdom, or with the Freedom of our Natures? He hath done all that can be done to draw us to Heaven, and if that will not do, it is by no Means fit that he should drag us thither; since it would be a most mean unreasonable Condescention in him to force us to be happy when we are unwilling to accept it, and to prostitute the Reward of Piety and Virtue to those that scorn, and reject it.
And now to conclude this Argument; from hence I infer how monstrously ungrateful those Persons are who complain of the Difficulty and Burthensomeness of this gentle and merciful Condition of our Salvation: When in so many Instances it is apparent how merciful God hath been in imposing such a Condition upon us. In the Name of God what would you have Sirs, would you have Heaven drop into your Mouths, while you lie still and do nothing? Or can you think it is fit that so vast a Reward should be prostituted to the lazy Wishes of such Drones and Sluggards, as do not think it worth the labouring for? That those golden Fruits should hang down from Heaven to us on an overladen Bow, to be cropt by every idle Wanton Hand, that will stretch forth it self to take and eat it? Surely no reasonable Creature can be so senseless, as to entertain such a wild and fond Conceit. Well then, would you have God admit of such a Condition of Salvation, as includes in it a Licence to enjoy your Lusts, and gives you Liberty to be as wicked as you please? But alas! if God should be so fond of your Salvation as to offer Violence to his own Nature and Government, by yielding to your Sins, and granting you a free Dispensation to enjoy them; yet it is impossible in the Nature of the Thing; because your Salvation will not consist with it. For to be saved from Misery whilst we are let alone to enjoy our Sins is a Contradiction, and so not the Object of any Power, no not of Omnipotence it self. For Sin it self is the greatest Misery that human Nature is liable to; 'tis this that convulses all its Faculties, that racks and stretches them out of Joint, and distorts them into an unnatural Figure and Position; 'tis this that makes us our own Reverse, transposes our Head with our Feet, and makes our Reason truckle to our Sense; our intellectual Faculties that were made to govern, to serve those brutish Passions and Appetites which Nature designed to be their Vassals; which is such a barbarous Violence to the very Frame and Constitution of our Nature, as will, whensoever we recover out of our lethargick Stupidity, be as sensibly dolorous to our Souls, as Racks, or Wheels, or Catasta's to our Bodies. So that for God to save us from Misery whilst he suffers us to continue in our Sins, is altogether as impossible as it is to save us from burning, whilst he suffers us to continue weltring in the Flames of Fire; and to make us well in Sickness, or easie in Diseases are not more repugnant to the Nature of Things, than 'tis to make us happy in our Sins; and yet this is the only Matter we complain of, that God will not allow us a free Dispensation to be wicked in that which is the Condition of our Salvation. O blessed God! How is it possible thou shouldst ever please such froward, peevish, and ungrateful Creatures, who will never be satisfied unless thou performest Impossibilities, and makest Contradictions to be true for their sakes? For shame therefore let us no longer complain, that the Condition of our Salvation is too hard and rigorous; but since God hath been pleased to condescend so low to us, as to indulge us whatsoever is consistent with our Salvation, let us admire and adore his Goodness, and with our Souls inflamed with Love and Gratitude to him, chearfully undertake what he hath so mercifully enjoyned us.