SERMON

CLXV.

The final iffue of fin, an argument for repentance.

ROM. vi. 21. 22.

What fruit had ye then in those things, whereof ye are now afbamed? for the end of thofe things is death. But now being made free from fin, and become fervants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

T

The third fermon on this text.

Hefe words are a comparison between an holy and virtuous, and a finfül and vitious course of life, and fet before us the manifeft inconveniencies of the one, and the manifold advantages of the other. I have entered into a difcourfe upon the first of thefe heads, viz. the manifest inconveniencies of a sinful and vitious courfe: and the text mentions these three.

I. That it is unprofitable.

II. That the reflection upon it afterwards is matter of fhame. These two I have fpoken largely to. I fhall now proceed to the

III. And laft inconvenience, which the text mentions, of a finful and vitious courfe of life, viz. that the final iffue and confequence of thefe things is very difmal and miferable; the end of those things is death. No fruit then when ye did thefe things; fhame now that you come to reflect upon them; and mifery and death at the laft.

There are indeed almost innumerable confiderations and arguments to difcourage and deter men from fin; the unreasonableness of it in itself; the injuftice, and difloyalty, and ingratitude of it in refpect to God; the ill example of it to others; the cruelty of it to ourselves; the fhame and difhonour that attends it; the grief and forrow

forrow which it will coft us, if ever we be brought to a due fenfe of it; the trouble and horror of a guilty confcience, that will perpetually haunt us; but, above all, the miferable event and fad iffue of a wicked courfe of life continued in, and finally unrepented of. The temptations to fin may be alluring enough, and look upon us with a fmiling countenance, and the commiffion may afford us a fhort and imperfect pleafure, but the remembrance of it will certainly be bitter, and the end of it miferable.

And this confideration is, of all others, the most apt to work upon the generality of men, efpecially upon the more obftinate and obdurate fort of finners, and those whom no other arguments will penetrate; that whatever the prefent pleasure and advantage of fin may.. be, it will be bitterness and mifery in the end.

The two former inconvenienciesofa finful course which I have lately difcourfed of, viz. that fin is unprofitable, and that it is fhameful, are very confiderable, and ought to be great arguments against it to every finner, and confiderate man: and yet how light are they, and but as the very small dust upon the balance, in comparison of that infupportable weight of mifery which will opprefs the finner at laft! Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguifh upon every foul of man that doth evil. This, this is the fting of all, that the end of these things is death.

It is very ufual in fcripture, to exprefs the greatest happiness, and the greateft mifery, by life and death; life being the first and most desirable of all other bleffings, because it is the foundation of them, and that which makes us capable of all the reft. Hence we find in fcripture, that all the bleffings of the gospel are fummed up in this one word, John xx. 31. These things are written, that you might believe that Jefus is the Chrift, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. 1 John iv. 9. In this was manifeft the love of God towards us, becaufe that God fent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. So that, under this term or notion of life, the fcripture is wont to exprefs all happiness to us, and more efpecially that eternal life which is the great pro

mife of the gospel. And this is life by way of eminency; as if this frail, and mortal, and miferable life, which we live here in this world, did not deserve that

name.

And, on the other hand, all the evils which are confequent upon fin, especially the dreadful and lafting mifery of another world, are called by the name of death, the end of thefe things is death. So the Apostle, here in the text, and ver. 23. The wages of fin is death, not only a temporal death, but fuch a death as is opposed to eternal life; the wages of fin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life through Jefus Christ our Lord. So that death here in the text is plainly intended to comprehend in it all those fearful and aftonishing miferies wherewith the wrath of God will purfue and afflict finners in another world.

But what and how great this mifery is, I am not able to declare to you; it hath no more entered into the heart of man, than thofe great and glorious things which God hath laid up for them that love him; and as I would fain hope, that none of us here fhall ever have the fad experience of it; fo none but those who have felt it, are able to give a tolerable defcription of the intolerableness of it.

But by what the fcripture hath faid of it in general, and in fuch metaphors as are most level to our prefent capacity, it appears fo full of terror, that I am loth to attempt the representation of it. There are fo many other arguments that are more human and natural, and more proper to work upon the reafon and ingenuity of men; as the great love and kindness of God to us; the grievous fufferings of his Son for us; the unreafonablenefs and fhamefulness of fin; the prefent benefit and advantage, the peace and pleasure of an holy and virtuous life; and the mighty rewards promifed to it in another world, that one would think thefe fhould be abundantly fufficient to prevail with men to gain them to goodness, and that they need not be frighted into it, and to have the law laid to them, as it was once given to the people of Ifrael, in thunder and lightening, in blackness, in darkness, and tempeft, fo as to make them exceedingly to fear and tremble. And it seems a very hard cafe, that

when

301 when we have to deal with men fenfible enough of their intereft in other cafes, and diligent enough to mind it, we cannot perfuade them to accept of happiness, without fetting before them the terrors of eternal darkness, and thofe amazing and endless miferies which will certainly be the portion of those who refufe fo great an happiness: this, I fay, feems very hard, that men must be carried to the gate of hell, before they can be brought to fet their faces towards heaven, and to think in good carneft of getting thither.

And yet it cannot be diffembled, that the nature of men is fo degenerate as to ftand in need of this argument; and that men are fo far engaged in an evil course, that they are not to be reclaimed from it by any other confideration, but of the endless and unfpeakable mifery of impenitent finners in another world. And therefore God, knowing how neceffary this is, doth frequently make use of it; and our bleffed Saviour, than whom none was ever more mild and gentle, doth often fet this confideration before men, to take them off from fin, and to bring them to do better. And this, St. Paul tells us, Rom. i. 18. is one principal thing which renders the gofpel fo powerful an inftrument for the reforming and faving of mankind, because therein the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, against all ungodliness and unrighteouf nefs of men.

So that how harth and unpleafant foever this argument may be, the great ftupidity and folly of fome men, and their inveterate obftinacy in an evil courfe, makes it neceffary for us to prefs it home, that thofe who will not be moved, and made fenfible of the danger and inconvenience of fin by gentler arguments, may be roufed and awakened by the terrors of eternal mifery.

That the laft iffue and confequence of a wicked life will be very miferable, the general apprehenfion of mankind concerning the fate of bad men in another world, and the fecret mifgivings of mens confciences, gives men too much ground to fear. Befides that the juftice of diwine providence, which is not many times in this world fo clear and manifeft, does feem to require that there fhould be a time of recompence, when the virtue and patience of good men should be rewarded, and the inVOL. VII.

folence and obstinacy of bad men fhould be punished. This cannot but appear very reafonable to any man that confiders the nature of God, and is perfuaded that he governs the world, and hath given laws to mankind, by the obfervance whereof they may be happy, and by the neglect and contempt whereof they must be miferable.

But that there might remain no doubts upon the minds of men concerning these matters, God hath been pleafed to reveal this from heaven by a perfon fent by him on purpofe to declare it to the world; and to the truth of thefe doctrines concerning a future ftate, and a day of judgment, and recompences, God hath given teftimony by unqueftionable miracles wrought for the confirmation of them, and particularly by the refurrection of Jefus Chrift from the dead, whereby he hath given an afurance unto all men, that he is the perfon ordained by God to judge the world in righteousness, and to render to every man according to his deeds; to them who by patient continuance in well-doing, feek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life; but to them who obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every foul of man that doth

evil.

So that how quietly foever wicked men may pafs through this world, or out of it, which they feldom do, mifery will certainly overtake their fins at laft; unspeakable and intolerable mifery, arifing from the anguish of a guilty confcience, from a lively apprehenfion of their fad lofs, and from a quick fenfe of the fharp pain which they labour under; and all this aggravated, and fet off with the confideration of paft pleafure, and the defpair of future cafe. Each of thefe is mifery enough, and all of them together do constitute and make up that difmal and forlorn ftate, which the fcripture calls hell and damnation.

I fhall therefore briefly reprefent, for it is by no means defirable to dwell long upon fo melancholy and frightful an argument,

1. The principal ingredients which conftitute this miferable ftate. And,

2. The aggravations of it.