ye are guilty. For ye are not, as ye imagine, idolaters, profaners of God's name and day: ye have always been, (according to your opinion) even during your childhood, obedient to your parents: ye are strangers to murder, whoredom, theft, lying, and coveting your neighbour's goods, and have an aversion from such abominations. Where then are all your sins, about which ye make such an ado, as if ye knew them all exceedingly well? But ye know neither the spirituality of the law, nor the hateful sink of your own hearts. 4. And, friends, if ye knew your misery, would ye have so many cloaks of shame at hand to excuse your sins, when they are discovered to you, and also "flatter yourselves so in your own eyes, when your iniquity is found to be hateful?" Psalm xxxvi. 2. Would it indeed displease you so, when your abominable and miserable condition was clearly discovered to you, and when we would awaken you out of your beloved carelesness? would ye take it so ill, when men did not honour nor love you, but exposed you to shame, loss and pain? If ye knew your hateful and damnable character, ye would certainly see that ye deserved every reproach and vexation; yea, ye would be amazed, that such monsters as ye are, should enjoy any good. 5. It is true, some of you know their misery, they see without searching that they are abominable: for their sins are manifest, and every one sees them; or do they commit sins privately, conscience accuseth them, and tells them that while they conduct in this manner, they cannot be saved. But I pray you who are thus, tell us, have your sins and misery ever affected your hearts, and rendered you concerned and anxious, so that they caused you to cry out earnestly, "What must we do to be saved?" Acts xvi. 30. Others are seized like "Felix, with fear," Acts xxiv. 25, but they soon recover from their seasick qualms: when your hearts are wounded in this manner with a sharp arrow, what is it that relieves you so soon? ye cannot retain those grievous thoughts with you, but endeavour to divert, or banish them by doing this or that: or ye suppress them by some duty, by breaking off this or that sin, by reading your bible, saying a prayer, weeping heartily, until your mind be somewhat eased, and upon this all your distress, and according to your imagination, all your misery is at an end: or ye dispel your concern by vain imaginations, that it is your duty to believe in Christ, that your gloomy thoughts proceed only from the devil and from your unbelief: and thus ye deceive yourselves with vain imaginations, and "say not, there is no hope; for ye have found the life of your hands; therefore ye are not grieved," Isaiah Ivii. 10. Or ye become des perate, and think it is so now if I must perish, how can I help it? as well I as another: and so ye indulge a pernicious discouragement and carelessness, saying with your heart and actions, like the impenitent Jews, Ezek. xxxiii. 10. "If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live ?" But, hearers, ye who are thus disposed, this aggravates your misery, that ye do not yet know it. To hate so, and to be so hateful, and not to know it, or not to know it rightly, how dreadful is it! How shall ye be delivered?" Are we blind also?" said the Pharisees. Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye would have no sin; but now ye say, we see, therefore your sin remaineth," John ix. 40, 41. If ye knew your misery out of the law, as ye ought, ye would flee to the Mediator and be delivered: but now ye remain in yourselves, and so under the curse of the broken covenant of works, as Paul speaks, Gal. iii, 10. And ye do not yet possess "Christ for justification, which is the end of the law," Rom. x. 4. What hath bewitched you? what do ye imagine? Have ye nothing to do with God? Is he not holy and just? do ye think that it is a matter of indifference to him, whether ye love or hate him and your neighbour? He will most surely and most severely recompense and punish the abominations of your hearts and actions. Do ye not believe it, hear then the man after God's own heart say, Psalm xxi 8-12. “Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies; thy right hand shall find out all them that hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them," &c. What say ye? Are ye desirous to be delivered from your misery, and to become other persons, than ye are, or are ye not? Will ye remain as ye are, and suffer your hearts to wander after the w. rld and sin without concern? Go on then, but know that your end will be bitterness. But are ye desirous to obtain grace and salvation, and will ye earnestly endeavour henceforth to save your souls in God's way. 1. Believe then that ye are so abominable, that ye hate God and your neighbour, and are therefore in the highest degree punishable before that dreadful judge, that ye may begin to suspect yourselves, and to be afraid. Whether ye see it or not, it is nevertheless the truth, that ye are hateful, and hate one another. God saith it in his word; the reformed church, with which ye hold, teaches it from the scripture, and there is not one of those who are delivered, but he sees it experimentally in himself, and it would lead you also into the way of deliverance, if ye saw it. "Only acknowledge thine iniquity," saith the Lord, Jer. iii. 3. 2. Know that ye are still bound to the law of works in order, under the sanction of a promise of life, and a threatening of death, to love God and your neighbour perfectly: and that since ye have not done this, and because of your wicked nature, cannot do it, ye are still under the curse. For as long as the sinner is and abides in his misery, and hath not been convinced, truly regenerated, and converted, and hath not saving faith in Christ, so long he is and abides under the law of works, and therefore "under the curse," Gal. iii. 10. 3. "Examine yourselves with a full purpose of heart by the law, and see how far ye have declined from the demands of it. Read the catechism once and again from the thirty third to the forty fifth Lord's day, and see what virtues are commanded and what vices are forbidden in the law and consider thoroughly your heart and actions, that ye may see by the law how crooked and perverse ye are. "Examine yourselves strictly, yea examine yourselves strictly, a ye listless people," Zeph. ii. 1. : 4. Is there any one, who beholds with shame, concern and distress, his hating, hateful and punishable nature, let him flee to "Christ, the end of the law," Rom. x. 4. Sinner, thou who art concerned ; he calls to thee, and invites thee, "Look unto me, and be saved," saith he, Isaiah xlv. 22. "Come, he will not cast thee out," as he saith, John vi 37. Do not stand still and ponder on the abominableness and greatness of thy sins, nor on the small measure of thy sorrow; it is great enough, if it render thee distressed, and drive thee out of thyself: our concern is not our Saviour, nor is it in itself agreeable to the Lord; but it must serve merely to cause the sinner to seek his salvation cut of himself in the Son of God. But with respect to you, () believers, (a) See from what, and how ye are delivered: that hateful sin of yours, with which ye formerly hated God and your neighbour, is through the love of God to mankind forgiven ye are renewed after the image and love of God, and have obtained a new, yea, "a divine nature," Titus iii. 3, 6. 2 Peter i. 4. The law cannot condemn you any longer: " for ye are dead to the law through the body of Christ," Rom. vii. 4. "Sin," even your wicked nature, "shal not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace," Rom vi. 14. Christ, the Son of God hath borne for you the curse, to which ye had exposed yourselves by your wicked hatred, and "hath delivered you from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for you," Gal. iii. 13. Yea, the Lord God hath made that law which condemned you, serve you, that ye might be delivered 66 from it by Christ, when he convinced you by the law, that he migh drive you out of yourselves, and cause you to seek life with hims "For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live untė God," saith the apostle, Gal. ii. 19. Behold this is what we say, observe God's great and free grace and love in this, admire it, and praise the Lord, with Paul, 1 Tim. i, 13, 14, 15. (b) Love now the Lord your God with all your might and most heartily. “I will love thee heartily, O Lord my strength," said David, when the Lord had delivered him from all his enemies, Psalm xviii. 1. And love, for the Lord's sake, your neighbour as yourselves. "For this commandmen have we from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also,” 1 John iv. 21. Ye are indeed dead to the law, and it is not given u you, as a condition of the covenant of works, to seek life by it, to be condemned by it; but it is given to you as a rule of gratitudes it is indeed an expression of the image of God. Ye are and always remain bound to the Lord, to love him and your neighbour : he is worthy to be loved and obeyed on his own account; he hath imprint ed the law of love on your hearts; yea his great love to you hath bound your natural obligation to love him, more strongly on you and the love of Christ should constrain you," 2 Cor. v. 14. (c) Exer-, cise yourselves yet daily in seeking a knowledge of your miseries through the law, with Paul, Rom. vii. Is it become your nature to love God and your neighbour, your nature is nevertheless not perfect: there are still many wicked humours in it, which oppose God and your neighbour: "Ye know," with the apostle, Rom. vii. 18, "that in you, that is, in your flesh, there dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with you; but how to perform that which is good, ye find not." This would conduce to your happiness, it would humble your souls, cause you to make use of Christ more, and to be more watchful. (d) Humble and abase yourselves in secret before the Lord, and before your neighbour. Will ye exalt yourselves on account of the excellency of the revelation, that God hath delivered you out of your hateful and miserable condition? We cannot boast of aught but what we have of ourselves, and what is worthy to be boasted of. But what is it that ye have of and in yourselves? is it not that ye hate God and your neighbour, and have rendered yourselves damnable and detestable? are ye not so hateful now? Is there not now yet wickedness enough in your nature to make you repeatedly ashamed? Is there aught that is good in your soul? "Who maketh you to differ? and what have ye that ye have not received? and if ye have received it, why do ye glory, as if ye had not received it?" 1 Cor. iv. 7. And why have ye received it? because ye were so |