Exposition of the Apostles Creed, Sermon 5 – Part 1
HEB. 3.13.
But Exhort one another dayly, while it is called to day, lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin.
IT is the part of a wise man not only to discover a danger, but to shew the means to prevent it. Which Rule our Apostle here follows; for having in the former verse given notice of the great enemy of the soul, Infidelity, and the follower of it, Apostacy, in this he acquaints the Hebrews and us, which way they and we may be secured from the mischief. The present Armour against both, and that which here follows is Exhortation; and therefore he first exhorts
1. That we Exhort, or call upon.
2. That it be done in charity, foreign, One another.
3. Seasonably, continually, dayly, day by day.
4. Speedily, without delay. While it is called to day.
5. The reason drawn from the danger. If omitted or delayed, the heart may be hardned by the deceitfulness of sin.
1. foreign. Exhort.
It was a mistake in a great Clerk to teach Animam oblivionis non esse capacem, That the soul of man was not capable of oblivion;Tertul. de anim. c. 23. for I hope to make it evident, that there is not such another forgetful creature as man. For he needs a Remembrancer to put him in minde what he was, what he is, and what he may be. That he was a creature framed by God, the sole creature after his Image.Gen. 1.26, 27. John 8.44. A creature transformed by sinne to the image of the devil; that he may be happy or unhappy as he believes, or dis-believes, obeyes or disobeyes his Maker. Thus much hath God recorded in his Book with the point of a Diamond; but men have not eyes to read it; or if read, not to heed it; or if heeded for the present, yet as a shadow before night it is behinde, past, forgotten; call'd upon men must be, and call'd upon often; and therefore the Apostle calls upon us to call upon them.
Exhortation is of excellent use; for by it we may be rooted in faith and obedience; And it seems in the Primitive Church it was so necessary,Rom. 12.8. that some were to attend about it. He that Exhorts, let him wait upon Exhortation.
And a service it is that no man need to be ashamed of. For in the execution he doth the Office of the Third Person in the Trinity, who takes his name from it. For he is stiled foreign, from the comfort some say,John 16.7. others from the counsel he gives; indeed from both. If we be of a faint heart, he is foreign by to recover us; if we doubt, he is foreign by to resolve us; if we be perplexed, ready he is to advise, to guide us. He is the Spirit of comfort, John 14.17. Isa. 11.2.the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of counsel to raise, to direct, to exhort us.
From this Paraclete then learn foreign to call upon, comfort, and counsel. Learn to do the duty from him, and from him learn to do it aright; for there is great art to be used about it. All men are not of one disposition, and therefore all exhortations are not to be framed one way. Respect must be had to the Persons, the matter, the manner, if we ever mean to exhort to purpose.
1. some are yet scare in the way,The persons. and these are to be shew'd their danger, and exhorted in time to look about them. Others are in the way, but stand all the day idle; these must be exhorted to work, and to take notice, that none shall have the penny but those who labour. A Third sort are,Mat. 20.6, 9. and go in the way, but it is too slow a pace. Sunt tepidi, Bern. de ascens. Ser. 3.Their obedience is without devotion, their prayers without intention, their reading without edification; these must be exhorted to grow more zealous. A fourth sort there are yet who are Trepidi of a fearful heart, that eat, that pray,Tit. 2.14. Rev. 3.19. Isa. 35.4. Psal. 73.2, 3. Isa. 35.3. Luke 22.32. Gal. 6.9. that sing with us. But at the prosperity of the wicked their treadings had well nigh slipt. So…ii sunt tribulationis, consolationis non item, Companions they are of our Tribulation, but not of our Consolation. And these feeble knees must be strengthened, and exhorted not to despair; for in due time they shall reap, if they faint not.
You see then Dulce est sapere in loco, it is good to shew wisdome in an opportune time and place; A word spoken in due season, is like Apples of gold in pictures of silver, which cannot be done without respect had to the person;Prov. 25.11. Rom. 12.17. foreign stands well with the Text; and it is no ill doctrine, that he who means to do good by his Exhortation, preach the Gospel in season.2 Tim. 4.2. Eccles. 3 5. Whatsoever some speak of time-servers, a man may well serve God in serving the time.
2. And respect being had to the persons, next let him look to the matter of his Exhortation,The matter. that it be sound and wholesome doctrine, which the Apostle calls foreign,Ephes. 6.4. the instruction or information of the Lord. This is likened to a building, and then the exhorter must needs be a builder. In a building which we mean shall stand, necessary it is that there be a foundation, which must be deep digg'd, and foundly laid; if upon a Rock, the better, the Fabrick being likely to continue the longer; but if laid shallow, and in the sand, the winde and the raine beat upon that house, and down it falls, and great is the fall thereof.Mat. 7.26, 27.
At this day we live to see many breaches, many ruines in Religion; and these cracks and flaws, these dilapidations have proceeded from no other cause, save from the folly and deceitful dealing of the Exhorters. The foundation by them was never honestly laid, and no marvail then if their work is of so tottering a disposition. To day a Papist, to morrow an Anabaptist, the next day a Brownist, the fourth an Enthusiast; sometimes a Presbyter, and shortly after an Independent, and at last a Neuter, or an Atheist. I dare say't, and I know what I speak, let a maine part of the giddy-headed multitude be examined upon the fundamental points,Heb. 6.1. viz. Repentance from dead works, and faith toward God, and they who stand high in their own conceit, will be found no less ignorant than that people who in the Saints judgement know not the Law, and are accursed.
John 7.49.This can be imputed to nothing else, but that they who have taken upon them to be chief Exhorters and Master-workmen, have shaped their work according to the fashion of the time, neglecting wholly to lay the foundation truly and soundly. But in the beginning it was not so. Theophilus, Apollos, Luke 1.4. Act 18.15. 2 Tim. 3.15.Timothy were all Catechized. And the Churches of Galatia, Carthage, Hippo, Alexandria, had respectively in them Pantenus, Clemens, Origen, Dionysius, Augustine, Optatus set a part to that Office.
The Christians had this way of Exhortation in great reputation from the beginning,Prov. 22.6. and the Jewes before them. Traine up a childe in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Traine up, saith the Text; Catechise, saith the margent, according to the natural force of the Hebrew word Chanach, that signifies to enter or initiate. And Sepher Chinnuch, the Book of Institutions; i. e. a Catechism, is a Book well known among the Jewes in every place where they are known. Were babes in Christ carefully fed with such milk as this, that is fit (I had almost said only for the tender age) they would grow to be perfecter and sounder men in Religion, and never prove such deformed, such misshapen, such diseased creatures as now they do.
'Tis not my meaning that men inclose and circumscribe their thoughts in Catechistical rudiments, but before they soare higher, I would have them skilfull in these first.Heb. 6.1. The Apostle puts upon us this progress, Learn the principles of the doctrine of Christ, and go on to perfection. Not to leave at them,2 Pet. 3.18. but not to leave them out; that we endeavour to encrease in knowledge, but first make sure of the foundation. For let the superstructures be what they will, this is sound and wholesome. Sound in it self; for other foundation can no man lay; 1 Cor. 3.11.and very wholesome if well digested; for it will breed good blood, which will repaire, fortifie, and preserve the vital spirits of Religion; and those are good and wise servants, discreet exhorters,Gal. 1.8. 2 Tim. 2.15. which from this begin to divide the Word of God.
3. To go a step farther, when an eye hath been had to the matter of the Exhortation, and a regard to the persons, heed must be taken to the manner or method we proceed by; it must not have its rise either from deceit,1 Thes. 2.3, 4. or uncleanness, or guile; the Apostle renounceth it; Our Exhortation was not of deceit, not of uncleanness, not of guile. But as we are allow'd of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak. foreign, Deceit is to be referr'd to the substance of the Exhortation, foreign uncleanness to the affection of the heart, but foreign Guile to the juggling about it. God likes not that his Exhorters be Planets or wandering starres in the Orb of the Church; their influences are too Saturnine, too Martial, too Mercurial, and if fame be not a lyar, Ʋenereal. And this must not be neither, not foreign, that is uncleanness. There were a generation of Nicolaitans, Rev. 2.15.whose impurity was hateful to our Saviours soul: And if there be any of that posterity alive, who exhort that all things be common, let them perish with their Exhortation. But as for guile, it ought not once to be named by a professor of Truth; It is too Serpentine and devilish to speak Roses, and instill poyson. All Exhorters are but Trustees of the Gospel; and they truly discharge their trust, when they exhort sincerely, foreign, without error; holily, foreign, without impurity; plainly, foreign,Acts 19.25. 1 Sam. 17.30. without guile or Legerdemaine; having neither Demetrius's end, nor Sauls desire.
Now you may conceive that all this while the duty of Exhortation belongs not to you; and therefore too apt you are to lay the whole burden on our shoulders. But I pray weigh the next word, and then it will appear, that respect being had to your several relations, you are call'd to this work also; else why doth the Apostle command
2. Exhort foreign. Schol. graec. foreign vosin vicem. One another.
To us of the Clergy no question it is that this duty ex officio by Office belongs. For Debtors we are to the Greeks and Barbarians, Rom. 1.14. 1 Tim. 4.13.to the wise and unwise. And to us it is spoken in the person of Timothy, Give attendance to exhortation. But you may not so far engage us, as to discharge your selves. Ex charitate, even you of the Laity are debtors also; as God hath advanced you to the dignity of a Father, a Master, or any way made you a Superiour, bound you are (if enabled) to pay to your children, to your servants, to your brethren exhortation. That this be done within the walls of your own families, is required by the Law of charity; but that any private man without a calling step into a Pulpit and do it publickly,1 Thes. 5.11. Heb. 3.13. Col. 3.16. 2 Pet. 3.16. Prov. 30.33. Mat. 28.19. Mark 16.15. Luke 24.47. is more than can be defended. Such Texts as these, Edifie one another, admonish one another, exhort one another, &c. are I know by Socinus, and our gifted men produced to give countenance to it; But it is to wrest the Scripture, and fetch blood from it. Certain it is that the Commission to preach was given in other words. In Saint Matthew it is foreign, make Disciples, and Baptize; and then none to preach, but they who might administer the Sacrament: In Saint Mark it is foreign, Go and proclaime the Gospel; and foreign were alwayes Officers and publick persons; and these words I hope import somewhat more than building, edifying, admonishing, exhorting.
What is it then? are we against these charitable acts in private, against the instructions of peaceable, humble gifted men? No, we call for them, and wish that all the Lords people were in this sense Prophets,Numb. 11.29. able and ready to instruct their families. That which we dislike, is, that charity is become uncharitable, and turn'd out of office; those who had the Commission, under pretence of gifts,Naz. Ep. silenced those who were truly gifted. That the Swallows have out-babbled the Swans, and brought the world into a belief that their chatterings are to be heard as the sole and most powerful exhortations: When being compared with the weight, worth, and authority of a learned Ministers paines, they will seeme but as a churle upon a gentleman, as tedious and nauseating as small beer and water after men have drank well of the best wine;Dr. Gaudent. Hieraspist p. 215 Or as the scraps of poor Countrey fare, after men have been filled with the marrow of fat things.
To close this point, and to return: We finde no cause why these two may not be lawfully joyned together in a Christian and a comfortable union;page 214. the publique gifts of Ministers in a publique way of divine authority, and private gifts of the faithful in a way of private Christian charity. We ex officio, by our office and place publiquely, you out of duty and charity must call upon and exhort one another.
3. foreign. Every day dayly.
That is, with a willing minde, so often as opportunity and occasion doth require.1 Thes. 5.17. Ephes. 5.20. Phil. 4.4. For this is of the number of affirmative precepts, such as are Pray without ceasing, Give thanks to God alwayes, Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes, and many the like, which may not be expounded litterally, as if they did bind a man ad semper, to every instant and minute of time; for so actually to performe them, would prove impossible; for should a man always pray, he should have no time to exhort; nothing but exhort and pray, no time to labour, and so one duty would interrupt another. These then and the like forms of speech, and the commands laid upon us by them, binde the conscience only habitually; that all negligence and satiety laid aside, we have a ready disposition of minde and will, to pray, to give thanks, to rejoyce, to exhort at all hours and seasons, so farre forth as we shall be called upon. To omit the other duties, I shall insist upon this only: And that you exhort one another the more readily without intermission, I shall quicken you with these four reasons.
1. Food for the soul is as necessary as nourishment for the body. Thus much the Oratour could teach us,Cic. de Senect. Non solum subveniendum corpori, sed menti & animo multo magis, &c. We may not only cherish and feed the body, but the mind and understanding much more; for this is like a Lamp, into which if you instil not oyle, it will go out. His oyle was Moral precepts, ours is a more pure,John 6.32, 33, &c. sublime, and heavenly material. 'Tis the bread that came down from thence, 'tis the milk that God hath provided for Babes, the meat allotted for strong men and Travellers.1 Pet. 2.2. Heb. 5.12.14. He, the Heathen knew they could not spare theirs; and we Christians must not think to live without ours. As that Tabernacle of our body (for such it is, and so esteeme it) will quickly down, if it be not staid up with the staffe of bread:Ezra 4.16. So also your better part which sojourns in this Tabernacle, will starve and die except it have a daily supply of spiritual food. I appeal to your own breasts; how quick, how lively, how couragious have you been to a duty after an exhortation! how resolute to withstand a temptation after a sad admonition, what Votaries I had almost said against it. Methinks I have seene those that are mighty to pour in strong drink,Isa. 5.11, 22. after the Wo denounced, and an exhortation to sobriety, either to forbear their riot, or to decline the house and company,Chrysost. Hom. 1. de Lazar. or at least not to frequent it, or if drawn sometimes aside, yet to sit there unwillingly, to drink unpleasantly; the remembrance of the exhortation giving a check to every glasse, and taking off the former accustomed delight. I see that Solomons words will prove true; The words of the wise are as goads and nails. Eccles. 12.11.Goads to quicken a slow beast to work, and nails to fasten him, that he fall not from his work; and all exhorters, whether by Office, or out of charity, are the Masters of the Congregation that handle them, and drive them home, to the utter removal and exclusion of an impudent hard heart.
2. For in that lies the danger (from which I draw my second reason) For neglect this duty, and your heart of flesh may be turned into an heart of stone; (and what that is, and the danger of it, I shall by and by open unto you) against which fearful judgement daily exhortation is a soveraign Antidote.
Nusquam scouritas, brethren; we walk in a dangerous way.Bern. The Angels could not be secure in heaven: Not Adam in Paradise, and shall we now expect to be secure on earth? Every day our feet may slip, and therefore we ought to take heed every day, lest we catch a fall. Be it we were, which few of us are, burning and shining Lamps; yet know we must, that we are sub Dio, John 5.35.not in domo, we are abroad in the open are, and then it behoves us with both hands to keep in the light, not to trust over-much to the aire, though it seeme never so still and quiet. Were it that we were in that house which we all hope for in heaven, eternal, not made with hands, where no enemy comes,2 Cor. 5.1. whence no friend departs, there were no occasion either of fear or counsel. But we live, as I said, sub Dio, and that little light we have is exposed to the fury of three most impetuous winds; The Divel which blusters about us,1 Pet. 5.8. Rev. 12.4. for he walks and seeks whom he may devour. The World that without assaults us; and the Fl…sh that sets upon us within; that I say not how we are subject to wasting, to fainting, to weaknesse, to a secret decay of our selves, had we no other enemy. Therefore with both hands, with that of our own, with that of our neighbours, let care be taken that this light be kept in. My soul, saith David, Psal. 119.109.is in my hand; As a canndle carried betwixt both hands, possible to be extinguished: And yet as a candle betwixt two hands to be looked to, preserv'd, covered with all possible diligence.
And every day this lesson would be ingeminated and said over, that every man hath a soul, a soul in danger, a soul in danger to be-stiffned and hardned; and when stiffned and hardned, that it can receive no impression of the Spirit; and he that hath not that impresse, belongs not to God. All which inconveniences by assiduous and dayly exhortation may be prevented.
3. Adde to this, that possibly he that exhorts another may be much the better for it;Dan 12.3: I speak not of the reward we shall have at the hands of God (though I know it shall be very great, farre beyond the merit of so slight a work) but his knowledge by this will be much improved, and his deadnesse to a duty quickned.
Qui docet indoctos, licet indoctissimus esset,
Ipse brevi reliquis doctior esse queat.
No way so easie, to attain perfection in any Art as instruction of the ignorant. One Flint struck against another grows hot and sparkles, and a dull Knife whetted by another becomes sharper: The way then to be perfect scholars,Deut. 6.7. is acuendo haec, to rehearse, and by rehearsing to sharpen, and whet the doctrine of Christ one upon another. While you exhort others, you shall teach and exhort your selves, and day by day become the more learned, as by you day by day another man learns.
These reasons I have added ex super abundanti, over and above, to quicken you to this duty. But yet there be three more, of more validity, than any thing that I can say, because they are the reasons of the Text. The first drawn from the Opportunity and Time that God hath given to do it. The second from the danger, if not done. The third from the cunning and slynesse of sinne. First, Do it, exhort, foreign, build up,Occumen, in loc. 1. encourage, set right one another; because God hath given you a day, and but a day to do it.1 Sam. 25.37. Secondly, If not done, there is great danger in it, for the heart will grow hard; and to foreign. What is hard and dry, will hardly yield, and becomes inflexible by him that Exhorts
3. Sinne is a notable Sophister, and is apt to put a fallacy upon us; A deceitfulness is in it. If then you mean not to answer for your neglect of time,1 Pet. 4.3. Job 14.14. 1 Cor. 7.29. Psal. …0.12. or if you tremble at the fore-tunner of hell, a hard heart, or mean not to expose your selves to be seduced by the Sophisms of sinne, see that you call upon one another dayly; delay it not, but set about it, and do it first.
4. Whilst it is called to day.
And this intimates that it will not alwayes be call'd so. It is not with the Tides of Gods grace, as it is with the Tides of water which flow at a set hour, so that he which overslips the Tide to day,1 Cor. 7.29. may take it to morrow. No, no, it is full sea-mark to day; take advantage then of this day; for if lost, or overslipt, there is no promise made, nor assurance given, that the like grace shall be offered againe. Wherefore the Apostle four several times presseth this circumstance, as if none were more helpful to this work of our salvation; none more dangerous, if not laid hold on.
Est dies nostra… & est dies Domini. God hath reserved one day to himself, and he hath bestow'd another day upon us. Our day is of the same length with our lives; It was to the old World 120. years, to the Israelites 40. years, to the Ninivites 40. dayes. But the first were disobedient, and the second provoked him; and the first perished by water, and the carkasses of the other perished in the Wilderness. The third only were spared, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and made use of the day while it was so called;Luke 12.20. Psal. 104.19. And this may set us to work while it is to day; for the night will come when no man can work.
For euit dies Domini; for upon the setting of our day, there will succeed another, that will be none of ours. That will be Gods day, in which he will have all the doings; and as we have dealt with him in our day, so will he deale with us in his. These who have heard him speak now, shall be heard then; but to those who in this their day, have with the deaf Adder stopped their cares, he will, though they call, give no pleasing answer. Suppose Noah, Daniel, and Job; Noah before the flood, Job before the Law, or Daniel, and Moses and Samuel under the Levitical priest-hood; yea, though all the Saints in heaven should present their suit,Eccles. 12.5. yet by their righteousness they should only deliver their own souls.
There is but one fountaine opened for sinne and uncleanness, and it was opened to the living, not to the dead. He then that lives, if he will be clean must wash in it. And the sooner the better; for though that no time be amiss, but at what time soever we repent, that is the acceptable time, that the day of salvation; yet God that hath promised pardon at all times to Penitents, hath not promised grace to repent at all times. A day beyond this day he hath no where allotted; which shews, that as for all things under the Sun, so for this great and weighty business, there is not only foreign, but foreign, a nick of time, a season and opportunity given, which if taken with the five wise Virgins, we may enter with the Bridegroom to that great Supper; but if slighted and neglected, we shall be shut out of doors for ever. 'Twill be but in vaine to bounce, and knock, and cry, Land, Lord, open to us; for the door is fast, and a voice heard from within, an uncomfortable voice, Depart, Mal. 1.8.I know you not. Profecto, ad hoc tonitru, Certainly, he who is not affrighted at this Thunder, hath with Nabal a heart dead within him, cold as a stone.
Time and opportunity doth very much facilitate whatsoever is difficult. It hath its Articulos, its Articles, and as it were joynts; if you hit upon them, the work is done with much case; but if mistaken, much labour may be bestowed to little purpose. In their season the principles of Arts may be learned, which being let slip, known it is by lamentable experience, they will not be obtained; or if ever, yet not so perfectly, not with ease. Therefore this circumstance hath with wise men ever carried the force of an Argument. Saint Peter, Job, Saint Paul, who not have serv'd themselves of it? and David prayes to God to be taught this first point in Arithmetick, O teach me to number my dayes. Now that what I perswade about it, may come the warmer to your hearts, weigh the several reasons that may move you to make use of this your day.
First, It is but short; which is Saint Pauls reason, This I say, because the day is short. Those who have but a little light to bring them to bed, husband it as thriftily as they may; and since we have but (as I may so say) a candles end of life to lay us in our beds of dust, we ought to be thrifty of it. Your time, you may see here and elsewhere, is not measur'd out to you by ages, by years, by months, by dayes, but by a single day,Luke 19.22. 2 Cor. 6.2. Acts 17.31. which at the longest is of no great continuance.
Secondly, But grant that we presume it long, yet it is of a fluent nature, alwayes in motion, wasting, and consuming still; the more spent, the less behinde. It is like oyle in the Lamp, or Wine in the Vessel,Gen. 6.3. that dayly grows less and worse. This houre then omitted, is an houre lost;Gen. 7. Heb. 3. Verse 17. Jonah 3.10. and this day neglected, is a day irrecoverable; so much at least thou art cast behind in this great Work.
Thirdly, Yea, and which is farther to be thought on also, this may be the last day for ought thou knowest. God may call for thy soul this night.John 9.4. The Sun knows his houre to set, and the Moon her time of going down; but man knows not when his Lamp of life will go out; for death doth not arrest men,Isa. 61.2. Joel 2.2. and lay them up in the prison of their grave according to their seniority, age, and standing. A young Josiah dyes, as well as an old Methuselah. When you see bubbles dancing upon the face of the stream, you behold men, of which some swell higher, some are less,Prov. 1.28. Ezek. 14.14. but all after they have fetcht a few frisks and turnes, fall flat into a sheet of water, and those into a sheet for the earth.
Fourthly, What should I say, that grant a longer day be given,Jer. 15.1. and a man deferr'd till the Almond Tree do flourish, yet it will be nor wisdome, nor gratitude to deferre the Exhortation, or not to lend an ear to it, or obey it till then. First, No wisdome;Zach. 13.1. for what man that is in his right minde travelling on the way, and having store of lusty and able beasts, would let them all go empty, and lay all his pack and whole carriage upon some poor, leane, and infirme Jade that is scarce able to carry himself, much less the Pack, the Load that is cast upon him?2 Cor. 6.2. And surely no less unreasonable is that man, who passing away over idly the able and lusty dayes of his youth, packs all the labour and travel for his soul upon his impotent old age,Eccles. 3.1. whose infirmities are so many and so troublesome, that they weary him of themselves, though you reckon not the weight of this burden. Secondly,Mat. 25.11, 12. But to let this pass, what ingratitude and injustice is this to our good God, who hath lent us our time, to set out the least, the last, the worst part of our life unto his service? For it is but the dregs in the bottome when the Wine is drawn out, and the amurca and snuff in the Lamp, the oyl being spent: and who can tell, being brought, whether God will accept it?Augustine.
Sure I am that he is accursed by God, that having whole and sound Cattle in his flock,Ma…. 1.8. doth yet offer unto him the lame and halt; and may not men fear who have so many sound dayes of youth and strength, yet presume to bring him their rotten and limping old age? No man in the old Law, was to have two measures in his house;Deut. 25.13, 14 a greater for his friend, a less for other men: And yet thou art not ashamed to use two measures for thy life; a less for thy God, a greater for those thou esteemest thy friends. To him thou allottest a little, short, niggardly pittance of thy old age; but to thy own lusts and pleasures on whom thou hast cast thy love, the greatest, the fairest, the fullest measure that can be; a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.Luke 6.38.
Oh unequal dealing! O extreame ingratitude! What reason is there that God should be thus used at our hands? what equity? that having spent in the service of lust the flower of youth, thou dish out to him thy old diseased bones? that his enemies have the best, and he the leavings? they the Wine, and he the dregs? as if a man had learn'd his Lesson of the Traveller in the Apologue, that eat up all the Kernels and Almonds, and presented the rines and shells to his God.Levit. 3.16. Dost thou not remember that in his Sacrifice his portion was the fat? the best part? follow then the counsel of the holy Ghost given by Solomon, Remember thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth, before the evil days come, Eccles. 12.1.when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; and if those evil dayes please not thee, presume not they will please him.
You have heard the Apostles first reason, why you should be active in this Duty; and why also they who are exhorted, should take their day and do their work in it. Now it follows that we consider the second, which is drawn ab eventu, from a dangerous consequence that may follow upon it. Do it
5. Lest your heart be hardned, foreign, lest it be dryed; for the root is foreign, that signifies foreign, Hesych. to dry, and wither up.
Dryness is a quality in any body, wrought either by heat or cold; for by heat the internal moysture is call'd forth, as in dryed wood; and by cold it is congealed and embodyed, as in stones and mettals; upon which there follows a stiffness, stubbornness, and hardness in the subject, so that it will not easily receive any impression. Such a quality there is in the heart of man, and proceeds from both; sometimes from abundance of heat, sometimes again from an excess of cold.
The Jewes were a zealous people; zealous of the Law of their fathers, zealous for the Law of Moses, and this hear of zeal was so great, that it stiffned their necks and their hearts so much,Acts 22.3.21.20. that the Truth of the Gospel could make no impression upon them, say the Prophets, say Christ, say the Apostles what they could, they still remained blinde, obstinate, stiff, stubborn, as good mollifie a stone. And this is yet to be seen in many zealots, upon whom this unkind heat of a presumptuous spirit hath wrought so much, that it hath stiffned them in their own opinions; so stubborne they are against manifest Truth; that rather than they will be recall'd, they will be of any Sect, Neuters, any thing, nothing, all things that may serve their turne. Through this heat of zeale their hardness becomes unspeakable, unpregnable.
But sometimes again this hardness is wrought through abundance of cold, too much earthliness, which so cools and freezeth all motions of the spirit, that the heart is no way softened by them. Achans wedge of gold, Shechem and Hamors substance,Josh. 7.21. Gen. 34.23. Acts 19.14. Demetrius silver shrines of Diana; in a word, pleasure, profit, ambition, bring such a coldness and stiffness upon the heart, that it is resolved not to yield, never to relent.
Now out of these excessive fits of heat and cold, ariseth that cauterized conscience the Apostle speaks of, which makes it past feeling;1 Tim. 4.2. which is peculiar first to Hereticks, such as give eare to seducing spirits, and doctrines of Devils, that speak lyes in hypocrisie. Then to obstinate and notorious Malefactours, who by custome of sinning extinguish the light of nature; that call good evil, and evil good, being men of a reprobate minde. Lastly,1 Kings 21.25. Psalm 94.4. to men who sinne habitually, that sell themselves to work wickednesse, and glory in doing mischief.
And how heavie this judgement is, will manifestly appear, if we shall take a view of these three. 1. The Time when it is inflicted. 2. The Agents in it. 3. And the persons upon whom it is brought.
1. A time there is for the heart to be melted, softned, mollified: It is called to Day in this place, when God offers a pardon, and useth all means to make men capable of it; he sues to us by the ministry of the Word, that it might be accepted. And this his request he seconds with intreaties, expostulations, lamentations, commiserations, and all other strains of Rhetorique, that are apt to move affections, and prevail with men to draw them nearer unto him. But all these offers of Grace becoming uneffectual, he takes a sharper course, calls for his rod and s…i…es, visits with scourges, and wounds, that so either per manum plectentem, or amplectentem, by his embraces or blows, by his love or severity, his mercy or his justice, he might make the heart to yield. At last finding that he hath to deale with a stone, that he speaks to a stone, beats upon a stone, which no hand is able to make sensible, he gives over calling, expecting, waiting, striving, smiting, and leaves the heart as he found it, hard, stubborne, rebellious, obstinate, and contumacious.Mat. 23.32. Exod. 9.12. And then the man fills up the measure of his iniquities, upon which destruction infallibly follows, Josh. 11.20.
God hardens Pharaohs heart. But when was it? not till a fair intreaty to let his people go, not till the plague of Froggs, and swarms of Flyes, nor annoyance of Lice, nor Murrain of the Cattle were able to soften him. Upon this God sends another plague, that of boyles and blaines, and then 'tis said, and not before, in a new stile, the Lord hardned the heart of Pharaoh, as upon one that was ripe for destruction,Dr. Hammond, Of late or death-bed repentance. Sect. 14. Obfirmatum est cor Pharaonis. Jun. and one upon whom he would pour all his plagues. True it is that we read, chap. 4.21. by way of prediction or Decree, I will harden Pharaohs heart; but that was not yet done; and again in our Translation, chap. 7.13. He hardned Pharaohs heart, but that is a mistake, for the words do not bear that in the Hebrew, but thus, Pharaohs heart waxed strong, or hard, or was hardned; it is passively, not actively to be understood. Gods time of hardning was not yet come; Then he did it, and not till then, when nor a fair and mild request, nor four or five sharper blows could soften him. The like is to be observed of Sihon King of the Amorites, of those Nations that God destroyed utterly. Of the ten Tribes;Deut. 2.30. Josh. 11.20. 2 Kings 17.14. 2 Chron. 36.3. Rom. 11.7, 8, 9. Of Zedekiah that hardned his heart, and stifned his neck from turning to the Lord God of Israel. And of the whole Nation of the Jews, who were broken off, rejected, and at this day dispersed. The precedent of their ruine was an obduration and stubbornnesse; and this fell not upon them, till all means that might soften them were slighted, and would not be heard. The time then that makes men ripe for this judgement, and the consequent of it, may be one strong retentive to keep men from it. Exhort, that you be not hardned.
2. But if the time when it is inflicted, move you not, then next look upon the Agents about it. First, I shall name a just God.Rom. 9.18. For whom he will h… hardneth. And when I called him just, I made an Apology for this his Agency; for he hardneth no mans heart, before the man himself hath first hardned it. Some precedent iniquity there is, which might procure God in his justice and anger to deny his mercy, or take away the mollifying grace of his Spirit. God often punisheth sinne with sinne, and makes the future iniquity to be the revenge of the former. It is easie to collect this out of Saint Pauls words, Wherefore God gave them up to beleeve a lye, because they changed the Truth of God into a lye. Rom. 1.24. 2 Thes. 2.11, 12.It was foreign, a just recompence of their former errour. Hardnesse of heart is not only a punishment, but a sin, and as a sinne it hath disorder, obliquity, deformity in it, and so God cannot be the proper cause of it; but look upon it as it is a just recompence of some foregoing wickednesse, and then it is certainly true that the justice of heaven hath a very great hand in it. Farther yet, this obduration, when attributed to God, is no work of his properly, nor act of infusion, or positive production, for he puts no hardnesse into the heart, no malice into the affections: But his approaches of mercy being slighted, he withdraws, affords his grace no longer, which should mollifie the heart, and then the heart returnes to its own hardness and malice; no otherwise than wax, which stiffness so soon as the heat of the fire, hand, or sun, that did soften it, is removed from it.
For that I may give you a clearer light in this matter, the immediate, nearest, and truest cause of this hardness, is man himself. In whose heart there is a double malignity, Innata, & adaucta, Born with him, and encreasing upon him. The first is innate, some call it natural, and God promiseth to remove it from all the Vessells of mercy, I will take away their heart of stone, and give them a heart of flesh. Before then a man be born againe this stony heart was in him,Ezek. 36. otherwise it could not be taken away. The other is humane and voluntary, when a man wilfully grows stubborne, and perverse, and will not by the still voice of mercy, nor thunder of judgement, be drawn to yield or submit. Now the Agents that encrease and heighten it, is first by accident, the Admonition, Exhortation, Commination of any man of God, sent to mollifie such a soule. Go (saith God to his Prophet) and blind their eyes. Isa. 6.10.That which should have been for their wealth, through their own default is an occasion of falling;2 Cor. 2.16. the Gospel ordain'd for life, the savour of death unto death. Then the Devil takes his advantage; and as he findes the heart enclined, works to the greater hardening of it. The Devil put into the heart of Judas to betray him. And because he knows there is no readier instrument for such a purpose than a false Prophet,John 13.2. therefore he makes choice of him to be his under Agent. I will go, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets; 1 Kings 22, 22.and this lye was so efficacious, that it deceiv'd Ahab, hardned him to go up against Ramoth-Gilead, to his destruction. This the devil himself thought was a way that could not faile. Lastly, Sinne is an Agent also in this work; or to speak more properly with our Apostle, the deceitfulnesse, 2 Thes. 2.11.the delusion, the cunning, the Sophistry of it: Of which more by and by.
Lay all this together. That God hardens in anger and justice, his grace being withdrawn. That the heart is suffered to returne ad ingenium, to that natural disposition of a stone. That the Ministry of the Word rejected encreaseth it; That the Devil and the false Prophet are great Agents in it; That sinne is the Sophist that perswades unto it: And then consider whether all meanes be not to be used, foreign, lest the heart be hardened.
3. Especially if you shall lay to heart the consequence, That it is a certain Fore-runner of perdition. For in whom doth it rest? who are the proper subject of it, but the children of disobedience? In these there is foreign, they are past feeling;Eph. 2.2. Eph. 4.19. they are like men in a phrensie, that being in a miserable case, yet smile and laugh, and think all other men distracted, and themselves well. In them there is a conscience seared as with a hot Iron, a mark t…t will not out, a callum upon which nothing will grow.1 Tim 4.2. 2 Kings 22.19. Job 23.10. Psalm 22.14. Whereas it is a property of Gods children to have a tender heart, a soft heart, a melting heart; My heart, saith David, in the midst of my body, is even like melting wax; if pricked they will bleed, if smitten they will relent, if heated and chafed, they will yield and soften; They will easily be wrought first to attrition, then to contrition. With these cauterized men it is otherwise, their heart is a hard and impenitent heart: strike upon them with the hammer of the Law, as good beat upon a Rock; they are not malleable: Go about to melt them with the fire of the Gospel, they soften not. Mourn or pipe, all's one, they will nor dance, nor weep.
Pharaoh in Egypt, Sihon destined to destruction,Luke 7.32. the Jewes ordained to captivity, after to be cast off, Nebuchadnezzar to be turn'd among beasts, Judas the sonne of perdition, with many other ominous names registred in the Book of God, are presented to posterity as so many stigmatized persons, all branded with this stiff neck, impudent forehead, proud and hard heart, and obstinate soul, that we read and tremble, tremble and take heed that we come not into the rol of these sonnes of Belial, lest we perish in their gainsaying.Jude ver. 11.
Even charity that is kinde, and judgeth the best cannot be so blinde, as of these not to suspect the worst. Look upon these then, and learne to heare God, his voice, his Word, his Spirit, his Ministers, whose labour it is to melt, to mollifie you, to form your stony heart into a heart of wax, capable of such impressions as must be sealed upon you, if ever you intend to enter into his rest. There remains a rest for the people of God, and you shall not read of one that dyed with an obstinate and hard heart ever entered into it:Heb. 4.9. No more than these stubborn Israelites (whom the Apostle hath here proposed for a terrour) into the Land of Canaan.Heb. 3.7, 8.
Wherefore as the holy Ghost saith before, To day if you will heare his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation, Ephes. 4.30. 1 Thes. 5.19. Heb. 10.29.as in the day of temptation in the Wilderness. For this is to grieve the Spirit, by whom you must be sealed (if ever) to the day of Redemption. This is to quench the fire of the Spirit, which alone can melt out your dross. This is to do despite to the Spirit of grace, when he is about to change your heart. And upon this grievance given to him, and this quench cast upon him, and this despite done him, he will be gone, and then you left in a sad condition. For then God will harden, the Devil will harden, the Gospel will harden, and sinne will harden your heart; God out of justice and revenge, the Devil out of malice, the Gospel by accident for your unbelief, and Sinne by collusion and cunning. To which pitch when an obdurate sinner is come, he is set upon the brink of hell; and if he be saved out of the flame, it must be by as strange a preservation, as Lot was saved from the fire of Sodome, when the Angel took him, and his wife,Gen. 19.16. and his daughters by the hand (the Lord being merciful unto him) and deliver'd him from that fire and brimstone.
But because among these Agents, the Apostle here singles out one as a chief actor in it, and withal acquaints us with the way by which it works, to wit, not by force and power, but by Art and slye practices, I shall in the last place speak a word of those, and give you warning about them, that you be not taken by the fallacy. I exhort then that you be not hardned
6. By the deceitfulness of sinne.
For let the matter be throughly examined, and appeare it will, that there is not one sinne in which we are taken, but by some cheat or other; so true and ingenuous is that confession of Saint Paul, Sinne hath deceived me; for it hath both escam & hamum, Rom. 7.11.the bait that appears, and the hook that is conceal'd; bread that in one hand it shews, and a stone that it hides in the other; and under the specious colour of some good, it allures us to bite so greedily, till we are taken by it, hardned, and ruin'd. An instance or two will make all plaine.
Such a practice there was upon our first Parents; the forbidden fruit was presented first as profitable,Gen. 3.6. good for food; then as pleasant, a desire to the eye; after a means to knowledge, a Tree to be desired to make one wise; and lastly, a ready way to preferment, Let them take and eat, and they should be like gods: here was the bait, in all this the deceit. Not the least syllable all this while of the Hook that was conceal'd, till the cunning Angler had catch'd his prey, then they confess'd that they were both couzened. The woman deceived me, saith the man; The Serpent deceived and beguiled me, Verse 12, 13.saith the woman; both too too late acknowledged the Parologism that was put upon them.
And is it not so in love and dalliance? The fallacy here is the lips of the Harlot that drop like an honey-comb,Prov. 7.5, &c. and her words sweet as Roses: she hath forsooth peace offerings, she hath perfum'd her bed with myrrh, Aloes, Cinamon, and upon this impudently makes the motion, Come let us take our fill of love. Prov. 7.14.The bait appeares, but this is only Deceptio auris, as the other was Deceptio visus, faire words drunk in by the eare, as the Apple was the bait to the eye, but both please and kill. In that death climb'd up the windows, in this it comes in by the door. For the Harlots house is the way of hell,Jer. 9.21. Prov. 7.27. and leads on to the Chambers of death.
The Sacrilegious person is in the number of devourers; his Throat is an open Sepulchre, and he is alwayes gaping after glebe-lands, Church revenues,Psalm 14.4. Psalm 5.9. Tithes, and Offerings, or whatsoever the piety and bounty of devout souls hath dedicated and set apart to uphold the service of God, and encourage learning; All this he can glut down as easily as a man can swallow his spittle; and at every bit that he gets down, he cryes panis Christi, panis dulcis, Job 7.19.no bread so sweet as that taken from Christs Table, no meat to that which is taken from the Altar.
Populus me devovet;—
Plaudo domi, quoties nummos contemplor in arca.
But with this bait he devours the hook too, or else Solomon was mistaken, who affirmes,Prov. 20.25. That it is a snare to a man to devoure that which is holy. For that will happen to him, which befell the Eagle that stole a part of the Sacrifice from the Altar; a secret coal will be carried along with it, that will devoure the devourer, and consume his Nest and young birds together.
It were an endless labour to present you all the deceits of sinne; I shall only acquaint you with one juggle more, and produce the jugglers that by it delude, and so end. And I rather pitch upon this, because it was in great use when the Apostle wrote, and many by it drawn to harden their hearts against the Gospel. Then there were false Brethren foreign, unawares brought in; Gal. 2.4. Jude ver. 4. 1 Tim. 3.6. Ephes. 4.14.or as Jude hath it, foreign, unawares crept in; privily creeping, (a trick learned of the old Serpent who crept into Paradise) creeping into houses, and leading captive silly women. Now the way they take them is by a slight, by cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
The beguiled are here a sort of silly people; in age perhaps men and women, but in understanding meer children, foreign, they who can say little, or little to the purpose. These are foreign, as ships at Sea tost to and fro; foreign, as reeds at Land shaken hither and thither, and carried about; and that which driveth them, and tosseth them, is every winde of doctrine: This as the winde riseth from the womb of the earth, puffs, and blows, and blusters, and throws all down before it, ariseth on a sudden and gives no warning, and shifts as the winde every point of the compass. Yet with this winde these silly people are tost to and fro, and carried about. But they which carry them, are meer cheaters, as appears by their artifice; for as our Apostle teacheth, they use
First, foreign, a slight, as men at Dice. They are men of skill and Art, they have high men and low men; and false Dice, and bard Dice, and slight of hand, and all to deceive and over-reach. Cunning Gamesters they are, and there is not any thing setled in our Church, which they have not endeavoured to cog us out of. The Socinians and new Arrians out of our faith: The Antinomians of our repentance from dead works: The Libertines from our holy life and good deeds: The Anabaptists from our Orders and Sacraments: The Brownists from our Liturgy and D…scipline: The Independents from our Government: The Shakers and Enthusiasts from our devotions and prayers: Such is their foreign, their slight, their Art, their cogging.
Secondly, Which that it may take the better effect, they become foreign, subtle Merchants, that know how to make use of the Foxes Taile when the Lions skinne can do no good; and againe to roare as Lions, when they need not speak like Foxes. This the Apostle intimates also, saying, That they use not only foreign, but foreign also; and this of larger signification than the former, whatsoever the Greek Scholiast thinks; for be it that foreign is foreign, all cogging and false play is a craft, yet there is other craftiness besides that at Dice.
For foreign, as Aristotle describes,Ethic. 6. is one who is ready to undertake any course, good or bad, a crafty, subtle, witty, and inconstant man, who as Tertullian elegantly describes the Peacock, is multicolor, & discolor, Tertul. de pallio. c. 3.& versicolor, nunquam ipsa, semper alia, et si semper ipsa, quando alia, toties denique mutanda, quoties movenda: So these creeping Brethren have two faces, and two hearts, they are many colours, and different colours, and changeable colours, never the same, alwayes altering; and yet when altered, still the self-same; they move and change, and change as often as they move. He that will draw their picture and the cunning they use,Hook. Epist. Dedicatory. may take a view of what Mr. H…oker hath transcribed out of Guy de Bree's story of the Anabaptists of his time.
Thirdly, Now both these, whether foreign or foreign, cogging or craft, tends to the same ends, it is to deceive; and that you may know they are no bunglers at their work, they have a Method to do it by; the Apostle names it foreign I cannot well render it; you may call it an illusion, a studied fallacy, a back or by-way invented by these Sophisters to steale upon, and seduce honest Passengers. And their Method is this,
Their grand Maxime is,Cartwright. That the Scripture is in such sort to be the Rule of our Actions, that what we do being not directed by it is sinne, though it be to the taking up of a rush or a straw. Then, that all Philosophy and Humane learning is of a dangerous consequence in Divinity. Thirdly, That in the worship and service of God nothing may be retain'd, but what was in use in the Apostles dayes. Lastly, Those few and innocent Rites which we plead for now, are Popish, Anti-Christian, Scandalous. This is the method which these Impostours proceed by; and when they meet with weak understandings, they prove very powerful to deceive; yea, and to harden the heart also in the deceit.
What Samuel said of Rebellion, is as true of Heresie and Schism, it is as the sinne of Witchcraft.1 Sam. 15.23. For they who are foolishly bewitched with it, as were the Galatians, have thus much of the Witch, to persist and continue.Gal 3.1. Seldome you heare of a Witch reclaim'd, and a very rare thing it is for an Heretick to return to the Truth, or a Schismatick to the peace of the Church. 'Tis our ordinary Proverb of one whom reason cannot disswade from such or such a sinne, That he is bewitched. The Inchanters know that a young Serpent may be dealt with, but if he once become Chobber Chobberim, an old Adder, he will not be charmed, then he claps his Taile to one eare,Plalm 58.6. and the other to the earth, and charme the Charmer never so wisely, yet he is not moved: And thus it happens to a man that is bewitched by these Impostours, Charme him with the clearest evidence of Reason or Scripture, you sing to a deaf man. The flesh stops one eare, and the earth the other, and he will not heare.
CONCLƲSIO.
I doubt not but you are ready to prevent my inference, that since I have discover'd the snare, you are resolved to be so wise as not to be taken in it.Prov. 1.17. Hos. 7.11, 12. Surely in vaine is the Net spread in the sight of any Bird. The Net you see, the Foulers you behold, and I shall say you are like Ephraim, Every one of you a silly Dove without a heart, if yet you shall suffer it to be spread over you.
Why are you call'd Christians, if you yet do the works of unbelievers? why do you boast of the Spirit, when yet you are deceiv'd by the frauds of the flesh? To what purpose are our dayly Exhortations, should you yet be hardned by the deceitfulness of sinne? It were to no purpose that we stretch forth our hands all day long, should you yet prove a rebellious and gainsaying people. Isa. 56.2. Rom. 2.5.Is there any of you desires to heap up wrath against the day of wrath? then let him make love to this impenitent and hard heart. Any that resolves to make it yet harder? then let him listen to the Charmes, to the Elenchs, to the baits of sinne. A wedge of gold, a goodly Babylonish Garment, the accursed thing, an Herodias, a Vineyard, all the glory of the world, a cup of Fornication, some new fancy, or dream, or imagination, it hath to present you withal to winne your affection. Like it and choose, choose and love, love and take, take and harden, harden and go on, go on and die.
Think not but I could make and place down pillows under your e…bows, as well as any Balaam, Ezek. 13.18.and suffer sinne to deceive you as cunningly, and harden your hearts as powerfully, as ever it did the heart of Judas. Sed cogit me Paulus iste, But this Paul compells me to speak; he bids Exhort, and I must exhort; he commands to Warne, and warne I do, That by unbelief you depart not from the living God, that by the deceitfulness of sinne your heart be not hardned. And if this warning will not prevaile, and these Exhortations can do no good, send you I must to the Judgement Seat of God,Jer. 51.9. with this inscription on your forehead, We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed; forsake her, and let us go every one into his own Countrey; for her judgement reacheth unto Heaven, and is lifted up unto the skies.
This fallacy then of sinne is beyond that of the School; for by that a man is mocked and deluded only, and made appeare to be a weak man, but by this there is much harme done; This is a bitter deceit, it mocks and kills, jeers and undoes at once. Sarcasms and Ironies serve for wit and sport;2 Sam. 2.14. but in this there is Joabs and Abners play, in the end bitterness will be found in earnest. Sinne approacheth with a fleering and glozing smile; and that it may allure you to consent, promiseth great happiness and felicity, when yet it ends in sorrow and repentance.Rom 6.21. What profit are you like to have of those things, of which one day you will be ashamed? What profit, except to buy repentance at too deare a Rate. What profit had Achan of his golden Wedge? what Dives of his purple, fine linnen, or sumptuous feast? what profit? or rather not what disprofit?Josh. 7.25. Luke 16.24. when stones flew about the eares of that Sacrilegious wretch, and fire of hell flam'd about the head of that Epicure and Glutton; were you ever present at the sighs, the sobs, the groans of burdened and oppressed soules, summoned, as they judge by death, to answer at Gods Tribunal! The men were before (as you now are) full of youth, full of courage, full of valour, that durst have entertain'd any sin; but then the strangest object of pity, of discomfort, of weakness, that ever eye beheld. Then they confess their errour, then they acknowledge they were deceiv'd, and might they be respited, they would never be taken by sin as easily as fishes with a bait, professing that whatsoever was presented, was indeed foreign, a deceitful temptation, and not foreign,Oecum. truly and properly pleasure.
Methinks, by this time, I perceive your bowels begin to yern within you, and your hearts to melt like wax; that you are ashamed to have been deceived, and resolv'd that you will never be againe hardned by any fallacy sin can invent. For your comfort, then to a pricked, tender, bleeding soul, I dare promise the grace of Repentance; but to the hard and impenitent I cannot. To those I have warrant to Proclaime it alone, to whom Christ was sent, and those were the poor, the broken-hearted, the captives, the blinde, Luke 4.18, 19.the bruised; there is not one stubborne person among them. Take it for a Rule, If Christ heale the broken-hearted, then broken-hearted they must be before he can heale them; what is your heart whole? as hard as the neither Mill-stone? then are you not for his care. In all Christs dispensatory, there is not a medicine for such a heart, no balm in Gilead for such a sore.
The Rabbins truly teach us, That the heart may be broken from sin, and for sinne. From sinne comes all afflictions and crosses, which give the heart a mighty blow, but this is no kindly hammer. Pharaohs heart was broken with Ten plagues, but I know not how it did congeale againe, and was as hard if not harder than ever before. Then the heart is truly broken, when it is batter'd to pieces for sinne, when it beholds sinne with all its proportions and flatteries, and hates it, because it is odious to God, offensive to his Majesty, a dishonour unto his Holinesse, and so great a provocation of his anger, that no lesse Sacrifice could appease his Wrath, and Reconcile us to him, than the Blood of his Deare Sonne poured out upon the accursed Tree. This, this thought alone is able to melt the stonyest heart, that stubbornely and wilfully it should go on to provoke so merciful a Father, so kinde a Redeemer, and so present a Comforter: That by no exhortations or admonitions, it should be won from the deceits of sin.
Remember this houre, I have told you of it, and lay it to heart; it may perhaps turne back your heads, and in time break you off from presumptuous Wickednesse. That's my aime, that's my desire, that you may once at last break with your lusts. And the Lord so mollifie and soften your hearts, that the hammer of his Law may in time barter you, and the fire of his Gospel may so melt you, that you tremble at his Justice and Judgements, and believe and embrace his mercies and promises. Both together may work in you a serious and true contrition for your former hardnesse and unbelief, and a Resolution to hearken to every Exhortation and call of grace for the future.
This will make us both happy. Me for teaching you this Lesson, and me and you for practicing it. For for hearkening to his voice here, you shall heare a joyful voice there, Come ye Blessed of my Father, Mat. 25.34.inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the World.
These following Sermons are fitted to expound the Articles of the Creed; especially that they may be practical, and have an influence upon a Christian life.