Twenty Sermons, Sermons · Sermon 5
GAL. 3.22.
But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
YOu see in this excellent portion of Scripture, the two Covenants of Almighty God: to wit, the Covenant of Nature, and the Covenant of Grace. The first of Nature, which was written by God in mans heart, and this is the holy Law of God, by vertue whereof a man was to continue in that integrity, holiness and uprightness, in which God had first created him, and to serve God according to that strength he first enabled him with, that so he might live thereby.
But now, when man had broken this Covenant, and enter'd into a state of Rebellion against God, he's shut up in misery, but not in misery for ever, as the Angels that fell …ere, being reserved in chains till the judgement of the great day, Jud. v. 6. No, the Lord hath shut him up in prison, only for a while, that so he may the better make a way for their escape and deliverance, and for their entrance into the second Covenant of Grace: that so making him see his own misery, wherein by nature he is, and cutting him off from his own stock, he may be ingrafted in Christ, draw sap and sweetness from him, and bring forth fruits to everlasting life. And this is the method the Scripture useth: It concludes all under sin, that so the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe, Gal. 3.22. It's no new Doctrine devised by us, but it's the course and method of the Scripture: for it begins in this great Work with imprisoning and shutting up. The Law is as a Justice of Peace, by his Mittimus commands us to prison: It's a Serjeant that arrests a man, and carries to the Gaol: But why does the Scriptures do thus? It's not to destroy you with famine; the Law sends you not hither to starve you, or to kill you with the stench of the prison, but thereby to save and preserve you alive, and that you may hunger and thirst after deliverance. So that we find the reason added in the Text, The Scripture concludes all under sin, why? It's that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given …o them that believe. You are shut up as prisoners and rebels, that having found the smart of it, seen your misery, and learn'd what … is to be at enmity with God, and the folly to make your selves wiser an… … than God, you may submit your selves, casting down your plumes, a…d desire after Christ with an hungry and thirsty appetite, for not only a Prie… to sacrifice himself for you, and a Prophet to teach and instruct you, … King to be swayd by him, earnestly craving from your soul to be his …, and to be admitted into the priviledge of his subjects in the Com…onwealth of Israel and esteem it your greatest shame that ye have been a…ens so long, so long excluded. The Scripture then concluded you under sin, and shut up by it, not to bring you to despair, but to bring you to salvation: … a Physician, which gives his Patient bitter pills, not to make him sick, but that so he may restore him to health: or as a Chirurgion, that lays sharp drawing plaisters, and cuts the flesh, not with an intent to hurt, but to cure the wound.
This is the Scriptures method, it concludes all under sin, foreign, hath shut up all. The Text saith not foreign, but foreign, not all men in the masculine gender, but all things in the neuter. And it is all one, as if the Apostle had said, The Scripture arrests not only thy person but thine actions: The Scripture lays hold not only of the man, but of every thing in him. This word (all) is a forcible word, and empties us clean of every thing, that we may truly confess with the Apostle, In me, that is, in my flesh dwells no good thing, Rom. 7.18. It's impossible a man should by nature think thus of himself, that there is no good in him; or that he should by asking others find himself half so bad, as the Law makes him to be, by shutting up a man under sin, and all things in a man, yea all good whatsoever is in thee.
And this it doth that thou mayst come to Christ: as it is enlarged in the second verses following. Before faith came (saith the Apostle) we were kept up under the Law, shut up unto the faith, which should afterward be revealed: wherefore the Law was our School-master to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Before the time then that thou hast faith, (which is the day wherein salvation comes to thine house) thou art kept under the Law. Thou art not assured of salvation, nor canst thou expect, till then, that God should shew thee mercy. We have a conceit, that though we are never transplanted, nor cut off from our own stock, yet God will shew us mercy: But we shall beguile our selves to hell therein; for we are kept under the L…w till faith comes, that so we may know our selves. We are kept, &c. (Kept) It's a Metaphor drawn from Military affairs, when men are k…pt by a Garrison, and kept in order. Now the Law is Gods Garrison, which keeps men in good awe, and order. The Law doth this, not to terrifie you too much, or to break your minds with despair, but to fit you for the faith: It's a shutting up, till that faith comes, which should afterward be revealed. He's a miserable Preacher which ends with preaching of the Law; the Law is for another, it's to fit us for faith. It's our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. We thunder not the Law, to make men run away from God, but to bring them home unto him. The Schoolmaster by the smart of his rod makes the child weary of his bondage, and desire earnestly to be past his non-age; and this is his end, not that he delights to hear him cry. Thus are we beaten by the Law, not that God delights or loves to hear us sigh or sob, but that we may grow weary of our misery and cruel bondage, may desire to be justified by faith. The Law then is so a Schoolmaster, as that by making us smart, it might bring us home. We see then the course and method of the Scripture, it hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Now because men like not this kind of Doctrine, to begin with Preaching of the Law, and therefore think there may be a shorter and nearer way to preach Christ first, I will therefore make knwon unto you this method of the Scripture, and I will justifie it unto you.
There must be this Preparative, else the Gospel will come unseasonably. If before we are sowred by the leaven of the Law Christ be preached, he well be but unsavoury and unpleasant to us.
2. Does God at the first Preaching of the Gospel begin with Adam by Preaching Christ,It's necessary to preach the Law before the Gospel. before he saw his sin and wickedness? No, he said not to him presently, assoon as he had sinned, Well, Adam, thou hast sinned, and broken my covenant, yet there is another covenant, thou shall be saved by one that comes out of thy loyns: But God first summons him to appear, he brings him out of his shelters and hidings places, tells him of his sin, and saith, Hast thou eaten of the tree which I forbad thee to eat of? But the man shifts it off, and the woman also to the serpent: …he serpent beguiled guiled me, and I did eat: Yet all this will not excuse him, Gods judgements are declared, his sin is made apparent, he sees it: Then being …hus humbled, comes in the promise of the Gospel, The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head. This is the 1 Instance.Be ye open then ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.
2 Instance.2. John the Baptist, who was the Harbinger to prepare the way for Christ, Preaching to the Scribes and Pharisees, warned them, O generation of vipers. He came to throw down every high hill, and to beat down every mountain: calls them serpents. This was his office, to lay the Ax at the root of the Tree.
3 Instance.3. And Christ himself coming into the World, and Preaching to Nicodemus, begins: Vnless a man be b…rn again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, John 3. A man in his natural condition can never enter into Heaven, for he is carnal. That that is born of the flesh is flesh, and that that is born of the Spirit is Spirit. It's carnal, and must be born again. A little patching will not serve the turn. Thou must be new born, new moulded, a little mending is not sufficient: A man must be a new creature, and new made. So that this is the substance of this Doctrine of Christ, that if thou be no better than moral vertue, or civil education can make thee; if thou hast any thing less than Regeneration, believe me thou canst never see heaven. There's no hope of heaven till then, till thou art born again: till then our Saviour excludes all false fancies that way.
4. The Apostles begin to gather the first Church after Christs Resurrection, Act. 2.23. They do not begin to preach Christ first, his Vertue and Efficacy; but first they tell them of their great sin, in crucifying the Lord of Life, viz. Whom with wicked hands you have taken and crucified. But what was the end of their doing thus? It's set down, v. 37. They were pricked to the heart, and then they cried out, Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved? See, this was the end of all, the humbling of them, that by declaring what they had done, they might be pricked at the heart; so that now they see it, if it be no better with them, then for the present, it's like to go ill with them. This makes them cry out, What shall we do? Then (saith Peter) repent and be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost. After he had told them their own, & had brought them to their search, which is their first work, then comes the promise of Christ. Observe the Apostles method in the Epistle to the Romans: which Book is a perfect Catechism of the Church, which contains these three parts of Divinity, Humiliation, Justification, and Sanctification. See how the Apostle orders his method. From the first Cap. to part of the third, he treats all of the Law, and convinces both Jew and Gentile, and all of sin. Then Cap. 3.19. mark his Conclusion: that every mouth may be stopped. When he had stopped every mouth, cast down every strong hold, which lifted it self up against God: when he had laid all at Gods feet, and left them bleeding, as it were, under the knife of God, then comes he to Christ, Rom. 3.21. The righteousness of God without the Law is manifest. He had done his first business in humbling them, in shewing them their sins by the Law: and assoon as that was done, when every mouth was stopped, then comes he to the promise by faith in Jesus Christ to all that believe.
You see then the method of the Scripture is first to conclude all under sin, and so to fit men for the promise of Jesus Christ. Know therefore, that Law is the high-way to the Gospel, the path that leads to it, that way which must be trodden in: we are still out of our way, till we have begun our walks in this path: And if thou art not terrified by the Law, and the sight of thy sins, been at thy wits end, as it were, weary of thy condition and bondage, thou art not in the way yet. Our sowing must be in tears, Psal. 126.5. And it is said, that in the Church Triumphant all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes. That's a promise: But is it possible that tears should b… wiped from our eyes before we shed them? Shall we look to go to Heaven in a way that was never yet found out? Shall it be accounted a point of preciseness to walk in this way, or a soul-torturing doctrine to preach it? This is the way that all our Fore-Fathers have both preached, and gone. This is that time of sowing spoken of in Psal. 126.5, 6. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. It brings us joy in the end, to begin our sowing in tears. It waters that precious seed, and makes it bring forth joy unto us in abundance, yea such as no man can take from us.
So then having laid laid this point for a foundation, we now will come to the next.
That until we come to Christ, the Law layes hold of us. Till Christ come, we are shut up under the Law, kept under it. And if there were nothing else in the World to make a man weary of his condition, this were enough. Until a man hath given over himself to Christ, and renounced his own righteousness, he is subject to the Law, kept under it, not under grace. It brings a man only to the place, where grace is. Put this therefore close to your consciences, and jumble not these two together. First Nature cometh, and whilst you are under that, you are under the Law. Never think you are under the Covenant of Grace, till you believe (of which belief we shall speak more hereafter.) Whilst you are under the Law, you are held under it and by it made obnoxious to the wrath of God; Whoever is under the Law, is under the curse.
Now that I may unfold it, and shew what a fearful thing it is to be under the Law, to be held under it (although many think it no great matter) hearken what the Apostle saith of it: Cursed be every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to doe them, Gal. 3.10. Well then, art thou under the Law? Then never think of being under grace at the same time; not but that we may hope to be under grace afterwards: By this Law we must be judged, and the Judgment of the Law is very severe: It requires not onelyonly, that thou do this, or that good thing; but if thou continuest not in every thing, that is written therein, it condemns thee.
Strange conceits men have now adayes, and strange Divinity is brought forth into the World: That if a man does as much as lies in him, and what he is of himself able to do; nay farther, though he be a Heathen, that knows not Christ, yet if he doth the best he can; if he live honestly towards men; according to the conduct of his reason, and hath a good mind towards God, it's enough, he need not question his eternal welfare. A cursed and desperate Doctrine they conclude hence? Why (say they) may not this man be saved as well as the best? But if it be so, I ask such, What is the benefit and advantage of the Jew more then the Gentile? What is the benefit of Christ? of the Church? of Faith? of Baptism? of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper? This ground of Pelagianism, is that, for which the devout Spouse of Christ, the Church abhors us: when we shall undertake to bring a man to salvation without Christ: whereas, if he be not under grace, under Christ, he is accursed. If thou wilt be saved by the Law, it is not thy endeavour or doing, what lieth in thee; that will serve the turn; every jot and …ittle that the Law requires, must be fulfilled. What would be thine estate, if thou shouldst be examined according to the strict rigour of the Law? Not the least word or thought, that is contrary to it, but thou must give an account for. If thou standest upon thine own bottom, or lookest to be saved by thine own deeds; not one vain word which thou speakest, but thou shalt be questioned for, cast, and condemned. Consider then the great difference of being under Christ and grace, and of being under the Law. When we are under Christ, we are freed from a great deal of inconvenience: we are not liable to answer for those evil things, which we have committed; as in that comfortable place of Ezekiel, All his iniquities that he hath done shall not be mentioned unto him. When a man is come to forsake his old way; his evils are cast out of mind; a marvellous comfort to a Christian: whereas if a man be not in Christ, every idle word he must be accountable for; if in Christ, the greatest sin he ever committed he shall not hear of. All they that stand on Gods right hand, hear onelyonly of the good things they have done, you have fed, cloathed, and visited me: But they on the left hand hear not a word mentioned concerning the good they have done, only their evil deeds are reckoned up.
Now that I may declare to you the difference between the Law and the Gospel: I will difference it in three particulars.
1. The Law rejects any kind of obedience besides that which is thorough, sound, full, and perfect, without any touch of the flesh. It rejects all crackt payment: it will take no clipt coyn. That obedience which hath any imperfection joyn'd with it, will not be accepted: But here I must not speak without book. See Rom. 7.14. We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am carnal. And then concludes, O wretched man, &c. The Law is spiritual, What's that? We may know the meaning of it by the particle (but) but I am carnal. The Law is spiritual. That is, it requires, that all our works be spiritual, without any carnality, or touch of the fl…sh. If in any point of our obedience there be a smell of the cask, it is rejected. If the beer be never so good, yet if it have an evil smatch, it will not relish. Let our services have this savour of the flesh, and they will not be pleasing to God, neither will they have a right savour in his nostrils. And thus the Law is spiritual, but w… are carnal. Now it is otherwise here in the state of the Gospel: Alas▪ We are carnal, it's true. The Apostle himself complains, That th…re is … law in his members rebelling against the law of his mind, and le…ding him …aptive, &c. Yet notwithstanding the Gospel accepts our obedience, thoug… …he Law will not. What's the reason of this? Why, it's plain. W…en …he Law comes, it looks for justice, it presents a strict rule to us; it requires w… sh…uld be compleat: But now the Gospel doth not so; it requires …ot justifi…ation of our own, but looks that being justified by Gods free grace, we …hould …h…w forth our thankfulness, and express that we are so in heart, b… our obedience to our utmost power. Here's all the strictness of the Gospel. If there b… a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to what a man hath not, 2 Cor. 8.12. God takes well the desires of our mind. This i… then our blessed condition under the Gospel: it requires not perfect obedience, but thankfulness for mercies received, and a willing mind. Suppose we cannot do what we would, that's no matter. God looks to our affections, and the willingness of our minds; if it be according to the strength that thou hast, it is received with acceptance. Here then arises the second point of difference, and that is.
2. The Law considers not what thou now hast, but what thou once hadst. If thou sayst, I have done my best; and what, would you have a man do more then he can do? The Law heeds not that: It considers not what thou doest, but what thou ough…st to do. It requires that thou shouldst perform obedience according to thy first strength, and that perfection once God gave thee, that all thou doest should have love for it's ground: that thou shouldst love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and strength. Mat. 22.37. Her… the Law is very imperious, like those Task-masters in Egypt, that laid burthens on the Israelites too heavy for them to bear. They had at first materials, and then they delivered in the full tale of bricks: But when the straw was taken from them, they complain of the heaviness of th…ir burthen. But what's the answer? You are idle, you are idle, you shall deliver the same tale of bricks as before, Exod. 5.17. So stands the case here. It's not enough to plead, Alas! if I had strength, I would do it; but I have not strength, I cannot do it. But the Law is peremptory, you must do it: you are compell'd by force, you shall do it. The impossibility of our fulfilling it, does not exempt us, as appears by comparing Rom. 8.3. with Rom. 7.6. although it be impossible, as the case stands, for the Law to be by us fulfilled, yet we are held under it, as appears plainly thus. If I deliver a man a stock of money whereby he may gain his own living, and be advantageous to me; and he spend it, and when I require mine own with increase, he tells me, True Sir, I received such a sum of money of you for this purpose, but I have spent it, and am disinabled to pay. Will this serve the turn? will it satisfie the Creditor, or discharge the debt? No, no, the Law will have its own of him. If thou payest not thy due, thou must be shut up under it. It's otherwise under the Gospel: that accepts a man according to what he hath, not according to what he hath not. And here comes in the third point.
3. Under the Gospel, although I am fallen, yet if I repent, the greatest sin that is, cannot condemn me. By repentance I am safe. Let our sins be never so great, yet if we return by repentance, God accepts us. Faith and Repentance remove all. The Law knows no such thing. Look into the Laws of the Realm. If a man be indicted and convinced of Treason, Murther or Felony; though this man plead, True, I have committed such an offence; but I beseech you Sir, pardon it, for I am heartily sorry for it: I never did the like before, nor never will again. Though he thus repent, shall he escape? No, the rigour of the Law will execute Justice on him: there is no benefit had by repentance, the law will seize on him, he should have looked to it before. If thou committest Murther or Burglary, it's not enough to put one good deed for another; to say, I have done thus and thus for the King; I kept such a Fort, or I won such a Town: this will not serve thy turn, it will not save thy neck: the law takes no knowledge of any good thing done, or of any repentance. This is thy estate. Consider then what a case they are in, that are shut up under the Law: until a man hath saith, it admits no exeuse, requires things far above thy power to perform; it will accept no repentance: And therefore we may well make this Conclusion in the Galathians, As many as are under the law, are under the curse, as it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them, Gal. 3.10.
But now, where are we thus shut up? It's under sin, as the Apostle …ells us. For the Law discovers sin to be sin indeed: that sin by the commandment may become exceeding sinful, Rom. 7.13. The Law makes us see more of it than we did, or possibly could come to have seen, Rom. 3.20. By the Law cometh the knowledge of sin: I had not known sin, but by the law. Yes, peradventure I might have known Murther, Adultery, &c. to have been sins; but to have known them to have been exceeding sinful, I could not but by the law. To know what a kind of plague sin is in it self, so as not to make a game of it, or a small matter, as many usually make it; to see the ugliness of it, I cannot without the law. But that we may know what sin is, and that we may see it to be exceeding sinful, I here bring you a few Considerations, which I would have you ponder on, and enlarge them to your selves, when you come home.
1. Consider the baseness of him that offends, and the excellency of him that is offended: You shall never know what sin is without this twofold Considerations: lay them together, and it will make sin out of measure sinful. See in David, The drunkards made songs and ballads of him. He aggravates the indignity offered him, in that he was their King, yet that those wretched and filthy beasts the drunkards made songs of him. See it likewise in Job, Cap. 29. when he had declared unto them in what glory he once was, that he was a King and Prince in the Country. Then see Cap. 20. They that are younger than me have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdain'd to have set with the dogs of my flock. He aggravates the offence. First from the dignity of the persons wronged, a King, and a Prince. Then from the baseness and vileness of those, who derided him, They were such as were younger than he, such as whose fathers he would have disdain'd to have set with the dogs of his flocks. A great indignity, and mightily aggravated by these circumstances, that a King should be abased by such vile persons. Now some proportion there might be between David and the drunkards, Job and these men; but between thee and God what proportion can th…re be? Who art thou therefore that darest set thy self in opposition and rebellion against God? What a base worm that crawleth on the earth, dust and ashes, and yet darest thou thy Maker? Dost thou (saith God) lift thy self up against him, before whom all the powers of Heaven do tremble? whom the Angels do adore? Exaltest thou thy self against him who inhabiteth E…ernity? What, oppose thy self, a base creature, to Almighty God thy Creator? Consider this, and let the baseness of the delinquent, and the Majesty and Glory of that God against whom he offends, be the first aggravation of sin, and thou shalt find sin out of measure sinful.
2. Consider the smalness of the Motives, and the littleness of the inducements that perswade thee so vile a creature, to set thy self against so glorious a God. If it were great m…tters set thee a work, as the saving of thy life, it were somewhat: But see how small and little a thing does usually draw thee to sin. A little profit it may be, or pleasure: It may be neither of these, or not so much. When thou breathest out oaths, and belchest out fearful blasphemies against God; when thou rendest and tearest his dreadful and terrible name: what makes such a base and vile villain as thou thus to fly in Gods face? Is there any profit or delight in breathing forth blasphemies? Profit thou canst take none, and if thou take pleasure in it, then the Devil is in thee: yea, then thou art worst than the Devil himself. This is the second Consideration which may make us to see the vileness of sin, and abhor our selves for it: to wit, the slenderness of the temptations, and smalness of the motives to it.
3. Add what strong helps and means God hath given thee to keep thee from sin. As, I say, thou shouldst consider the bitterness of the delinquent, the glory of the offended, the mean motives whch cause so base a creature to do so vile an act; so also consider the great means God hath given thee to keep thee from sin.
He hath given thee his Word, and this will greatly aggravate thy sins, to sin against his Word, Gen. 3.11. When God convinces Adam, he proceeds thus far with him: Hast thou (saith he) eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? What, hast thou done it, as if thou wouldst do it on purpose to cross God? God hath given thee an express command to the contrary, and yet hast thou done this? Hast thou so often heard the Law, and pray'd, Lord have mercy on me, and incline my heart to keep this law, and yet wilt thou lye, swear, commit adultery, and deal falsly, and that contrary to the command of God, obstinately disobey him?
Now God hath not only given this great means of his Word and Commandment, but great grace too. Where understand that there is not only final grace, but degrees of grace: else the Apostle would not have said, receive not the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in vain. 2 Cor. 6.1. Consider then how much grace thou hast received in vain. How many motions to good hast thou rejected? Perhaps thy heart is touched at this Sermon, though it is not my tongue, nor the tongue of the most elegant in the world, that can touch the heart, but the Spirit that comes along with his Word. Now when thou findst with the Word a Spirit to go with it, it is a grace. If thy conscience be enlightned, and thy duty revealed to thee, so that it tells thee what thou art, what thou oughtest to do, and not to do, it is a grace. Now if for all this, thou blindly runnest through, and art never the better, but obstinately settest thy self against God, and dost many things which others that have not received the same grace would not have done, know then that thou receivest this grace in vain, and thy case is lamentable.
4. Consider God's great goodness, which ought to restrain thee from sin upon a double account.
1. First, his goodness in himself should keep thee from offending him. There's nothing but goodness, infinite goodness in him, and canst thou find in thy heart to sin against so good a God? To offend, and wrong a good disposition'd person, one of a sweet nature and affection, it aggravates the fault, 'tis pity to wrong or hurt such a one, as injures no body. Now such a one is God, a good God, infinite in goodness, rich in mercy, very goodness it self; and therefore it must needs aggravate the foulness of sin to sin against him: But now he is not only thus in himself, but
2. Secondly, He's good to thee, Rom. 2. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance? &c. What hast thou that thou hast not received from his bountiful hand? Consider of this, and let this be a means to draw thee off from thy sinfulness. When David had greatly sinned against God, and when God brings his murther home to him, he pleads thus with him: When thou wert nothing in thine own eyes, I brought thee (saith God) to the Kingdom, I took thee from the sheep-fold, and exalted thee, and brought the to a plentiful house, Vid. 2 Sam. 12.7, 8. And may not God say the like to us? and do you thus requite the Lord, O you foolish people and unwise, Deut. 32.6. that the more his mercy and goodness is to you, the higher your sins should be against him.
5. Besides, consider more than all this, we have the examples of good men before our eyes. God commands us not, what we cannot do: If God had not set some before our eyes, that walk in his ways, and do his will, then we might say that these are precepts, that none can perform: But we have patterns, of whom we may say, such a man I never knew to lye, such a one never to swear, and this should be a means to preserve us from sinning, Heb. 11.7. Noah was a good man, and being moved with fear, set not at nought the threatning of God, but built the Ark, and thereby condemned the world. His example condemned the world, in that they followed it not, although it were so good, but continued in their great sins. So, art thou a wicked deboist person? there is no good man but shall condemn thee by his example. It's a great crime in the land of uprightness to do wickedly, Isa. 26.10. to be profane, when the righteous by their blameless lives may teach thee otherwise.
6. And lastly, add to all the consideration of the multitude and weight of thy sins. Hadst thou but sinned once or twice, or in this or that, it were somewhat tolerable. But thy sins are great and many: They are heavy, and thou continually encreasest their weight, and addest to their number. Jer. 5.6. A lyon out of the forrest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evening shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their Cities, and every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces. Why? Because their transgressions are many, and their back-slidings are encreased. If thou hadst committed but two, or three, or four sins, thou mightest have hope of pardon; but when thou shalt never have done with thy God, but wilt be still encreasing, still multiplying thy sins, then mayst thou expect to hear from Gods mouth that dreadful expostulation in the Prophet, Jer. 5.7. How can I pardon thee? Thus David sets out his own sins in their weight and number, Psal. 38.4. Mine iniquities are gone over my head, as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. The continual multiplying of them adds to their heap both in number and weight.
Thus I have shew'd you what the Law does in respect of sin, the benefit of being under the Law, that it makes sin appear in its own colours, and sets it forth to be, as indeed it is, exceeding sinful. But the Law does not yet leave sin, nor let it scape thus: But as the Law discovers our sinfulness, and accursedness by sin, its wretchedness and mans misery by it, till his blessedness comes, from the hand of his Jesus: so it lays down the miserable estate which befals him for it. If he will not spare God with his sins, God will not spare him with his plagues. Let us consider of this accursedness sin brings on us: God will not let us go so, but as long as we are under the Law, we are under the Curse; and till we are in Christ, we can expect nothing, but that which should come from the hand of a provoked God. Assure thy self, thou that pleasest thy self in thy abomonations, that God will not take this at thine hands, that by so base a creature as thou art, so vile a thing as sin is should be committed against him. But of the woful effects of sin, which is Gods wrath, we will speak the next time.