454 our Love. And, if We have no Perfuafion of that Good, it is, as to all Effect upon Us, as if it were not at all. For every thing works upon the Paffions of Men, not according to what it is in its own Nature, but in proportion to what they apprehend concerning it. And therefore no Man can fix his Affections on Heaven and Heavenly Joys, who hath no Profpect, no Hope, of ever having any Part or Place There. 'Tis true indeed, Reafon will not lead us to infer, that Sorrow for the paft, or Amendment for the time to come, can be any Equivalent Satisfaction for our Offences. But Revelation hath affured us, that God may be appeafed; and it hath told us how he is appeafed: Even by the precious Blood of that Son, who came to give his Life a Ranfom for many. God hath declared himself fo fully in this Matter, that the very Heinoufnefs of our Sins is not a greater Provocation, than the Defpairing of Mercy, after we have committed them. For that Distrust does, in Effect, and by neceffary Interpretation, make God a Liar, and difparage the Merits of Chrift's Sacrifice. It plainly argues, that we think God will not be fo good as his Word; And, that there are some Offences fo horrid, that the Sufferings of his Son cannot be a fufficient Compenfation for them. Thus Hope of Mercy, and Faith in the Promifes and Satisfaction of Chrift, are the very Life and Spirit of true Repentance; Effential, and indifpenfably requifite to quicken and recommend every part of it. And, confequently, fo ineffectual muft Judas his Repentance needs have been, which was deftitute of thefe neceffary Qualifications. If it be enquired, how Judas came to be wanting in this Point; The immediate Caufe, no Queftion, was, that God had forfaken, and withdrawn his Grace from him. But then, if we purfue this Enquiry ftill farther, and drive it up to its true Head; The Matter will fall at last upon Judas himself, as the proper and original Cause of his own Mifery and Destruction. For, never was was there a more flagrant Inftance, of Grace obftinately refifted and abused; Of Advantages, and Knowledge to do better, caft behind One's Back; Of prefumptuous and inflexible Refolutions to do wickedly; Of Reproofs and timely Warnings loft upon a hardened Wretch; than we may observe in the Cafe before us. Then was the Seafon of Grace; And Means and Opportunities were not wanting, for defifting from his Villanous Enterprize. 'Tis true, the Devil is faid to have entred into Judas. Which fignifies, no queftion, a more than ordinary Influence, and Power over him. But we fhall do well to take Notice, that this is not affirmed of Him, or of any other Perfon in Scripture; till we are firft informed of fome very grievous, and often repeated, Impieties, which have provoked God to give them over to their own Perverseness. When the Spirit of the Lord is driven away, then, and not before, the evil Spirit enters, and takes Poffeffion. Then he permits the Tempter to have his full Scope at them, by taking off thofe Affiftances and Reftraints, which before were afforded, as a Check to their Lufts, and a Controul to his Temptations. And then God denies them the Helps of his preventing and Strengthning Grace, which they have fo long refifted, and defeated. II. I have now done with the First Head I propofed, and, from the Confideration of Judas his Repentance, proceed to make fuch Inferences from it, as are fuitable to this Subject. 1. And First, Let me moft earnestly exhort and intreat all that read this Paffage, to confider the mighty Danger, and difmal Confequences, of known and wilful Sins, before it be too late to prevent, or to remedy them. One very fuccefsful Artifice, made ufe of by the Devil for our Deftruction, is to drefs up his Temptations to fuch Advantage; that all the Profit, all the Pleafure, all we propose to our felves, as our End in Sinning, shall be fet in its Best Light, and appear in Proportions larger Ff 4 larger than the Life; But all the Difficulty, all the Danger, the Troubles and ill Effects of it, fhall be infinitely leifened to, or altogether concealed from, our Sight. This Deceit is One cause, why we feel our Selves fo very different Men, while we are preffing forward, heated with Defire, and big with falfe and flattering Expectations; from what we are, when looking back again upon the thing done, and ftung with Reproaches and Self-condemnations. For alas! These will be fure to have their turn too; and the Devil is not wanting in his Addrefs, in this Point alfo. Before the Fact, he hides all difcouraging Circumstances; and infinuates, how finall the Fault, and how eafy to be Forgiven. Afterwards, he fhifts the Scene, distracts us with the difmalleft Reprefentations of our Guilt, and labours to magnify our Crime, fo as to be more horrid, than can be forgiven. By the Former he blows us up into Prefumption; by the Latter he finks us into Defpair. And Both contribute equally, to his Purpose of contriving our Ruin. But then, to be fure, he hath us faft, when we are entangled in the Snare, careless what we do, and verily perfuaded, that there is no poffibility of ever getting difengaged. The Smart of a wounded Spirit, even when there remain fome hopes of a Cure, and the bitter Reflections of a trembling true Penitent, are Grievous to be born. But no words can exprefs the Mifery of that Man. who hath Sinned himself past Hope, and is given up to the Tortures and infupportable Anguish of a condemning Confcience. This was directly the ftate of Judas. His greedinefs of Gain blinded his Eyes, and quite diverted his Thoughts, from confidering the horror of his Treachery. But then that Reflection fell upon his Mind, with this terrible back-blow; And he, that brought again the thirty pieces of Silver, would have given ten thoufand Worlds, no doubt, had he been Master of them, never to have yielded to this Villanous Suggestion. When there therefore we are affaulted by any Temptation; Let us be careful to take the thing, in all its different Profpects. Let us confider betimes, not only the Baits of Pleasure, or Profit, or Greatnefs, which are apt to dazle the Eyes of unwary Sinners; but remember withal, that Sorrow and Death are upon the Hook, and think what we shall do, in the End thereof. Think, I fay, what our Condition will be, if God should abandon Us to black Thoughts, to the Agonies of Guilt and Despair; When we fhall fee nothing, but the dreadful looking for of terrible Indignation, when Fiends fhall furround us, and Flames fhall be continually flashing in our Faces, and our Hell fhall be already begun upon Earth. In Other Cafes, our Fears are apt to be the most wild and extravagant of all other Paffions, and scare us with Images, far greater and more frightful than the Life; But This is the peculiar Aggravation of a loft Sinner's unhappiness, that the Mifery, He lives in perpetual dread of, infinitely exceeds all the Terrors, even of his moft jealous and melancholy Apprehenfions. An Eternity of Torments is what no finite Imaginations can ever come up to. And as little can we form to our Selves a juft Idea of the Extremity of thofe Torments; Which, though they were to laft but for a Moment, would, even thus, be more infupportable, than whole Ages of the most exquifite Mifery, which Flesh and Blood is capable of enduring, in this present Life. Oh! Were we but careful to lay these things fairly be-fore us, They, fure, would check us, in our hottest and moft eager Pursuits; and convince us, that no Confideration can be fufficient, for the Commiffion of one deliberate Sin. Now this is what the Example of Judas may be serviceable to us in. We may Profit our Selves of it greatly, By thofe Fruitlefs Pangs of Remorfe, which God rejected, when he had first been rejected by His Obftinacy; By its working in us, a Dread of that Juftice and Indignation, which will not always be intreated, sterous Method, and liable to many great and fatal Mistakes. For no Remorse is so afflicting, as That which fhuts Men out from all Comfort: And yet this Remorse is, of all other, the moft fruitless, and the farthest off from true Repentance. There may be, and there often is, great danger in the very Degree of our Sorrow. For, if This degenerate into Aftonishment and Perplexity of Heart, into the Darkness of Horror and Confufion, into Diftruft of Mercy through Chrift, and a Perfuafion that our Sin is greater than can ever be forgiven; It is as difpleafing to God, and as deftructive of Repentance, as it is tormenting and uncomfortable to the Patient's own felf. So that, where thefe Terrors are not the effect of Disease, and a Melancholy Conftitution, (as very often they are) they ought to be looked upon, as a fresh Aggravation of the Fault. For this reafon God promises to heal the broken in Heart, to pour Balm into thefe Spiritual Wounds, by reviving Hopes, and seafonable Confolations, and the fupporting Senfe of his Favour and readiness to be Reconciled, and the cheering Profpect of an everlafting Blifs, which fhall wipe away all Tears from the Eyes of these Pious Mourners. And, upon the fame account, St. Paul commands the Corinthians, To forgive and restore the In1 Cor. ii. 7. ceftuous Perfon, whom they had caft out of the Church, left perhaps fuch a one should be fwallowed up with over-much Sorrow. In a word, God values Mens Reformation, more than their Sighs and Tears. Indeed, he values These, only fo far as they contribute to That: And thofe Men are forry as they ought, who are fo forry, as to Sin no more. Let no Man therefore diftract himself with vain and fantastical Notions in this Matter; but let us every one fo now Lament his past Offences, as to forfake and amend them. And Bleffed are all they who thus mourn, For they shall not fail to be comforted. Monday |