nothing so much at heart as their true welfare. Let | befriends the soul's employments and enjoyments, when the body rests, that it may give the soul the more scope; and, therefore, all who have an honour for their own souls, will call the sabbath A delight, holy of the Lord, and honourable. all who converse with you know, by your constant watchfulness over your words and ways, that you have a true respect for your own souls, and would not do any thing to their prejudice. Be much in communion with your own hearts, in reflecting upon yourselves, and inquiring what progress you make in the way to heaven; and how you grow in grace, what ground you get of your corruptions, and whether you do not lose ground. Be aware of guilt contracted by your sins of daily infirmity, and renew your repentance daily, and the application of the blood of Christ to your consciences, to cleanse and purify them; and thus make it appear that you value your souls. Be afraid of sin, of every thing that looks like it and leads to it, and stand upon your guard against every temptation, that you may resist it at the first. Check the risings of corruption, and look diligently, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble and defile you. To sin, is to wrong the soul, and to save that wrong from being its ruin, there is no other way but to repent, and that is to afflict the soul, to be pricked to the heart. To sin, is to make work for repentance, that is the best that can come of it; so that if we have any value for our own souls, we must show it by keeping at a distance from sin, and having not only a dread of it, but an antipathy to it. We must show that we love our souls by our diligent and constant attendance on the means of grace, by our keeping up secret prayer, and conversing much with the word of God, without which the soul cannot prosper, or be in health. Whatever has a tendency to the good of our souls, and the improving of them in knowledge and grace, and fitness for heaven, we must show our esteem for our souls by improving them, for the directing and quickening, the strengthening and comforting, of our souls, and the renewing of the inward man more and more. 4. Let us value other things as they have relation to our souls, and fix our estimate of them by the value of our souls, and stand affected to them accordingly. Let us value the Bible as the best book, because it is a book for the soul; it discovers our souls to us as a glass, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It discovers to our souls the way that leads to their present and future happiness. In the Scriptures we think we have eternal life, life for the soul. It is the excellency of the word of God, that it converteth the soul, it enlightens the mind, it | rejoiceth the heart; and for this we should value it, because it makes the soul wise unto salvation, and furnishes it for every thing that is good. Let us value the sabbath as the best day of the week, because it is a day for the soul, a day that Let us value those as our best friends who are friends to our souls, and fear those as our worst enemies who are enemies to our souls; too often we do the contrary. It is certain, that those who tempt us to sin are enemies to our souls, who court us to forbidden pleasures, and flatter us in forbidden practices, and tell us that we shall have peace, though we go on; yet such as these, most people are pleased with as their friends, delight in their company, and willingly hearken to all they say. It is certain, that those who reprove us for sin are friends to our souls, who faithfully tell us of our faults, and warn us of our danger, and call us to our duty: yet, such as these most people are displeased with as their enemies; so they reckon them, because they tell them the truth. Would we show that we value our own souls, let us learn to say to a tempter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou speakest as one of the foolish people speak; and to say to a reprover, Smite me, and it shall be a kindness: and that which I see not teach thou me. Let us reckon that condition of life best for us, that is best for our souls; which is most free from temptations, especially, to the sin that most easily besets us; and which gives us the greatest advantage for our souls. Our value for our souls should reconcile us to afflictions, which though grievous to the body, yet, by the grace of God working with them, are beneficial to the soul, and yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who are exercised thereby. Blessed is the man whom God chasteneth; though it be painful and uneasy to the body, if thereby he teach him out of the law, that will be nourishing to the soul.* But above all, let us value our Lord Jesus Christ as the best friend that ever poor souls had, who died to redeem and save them. The good Shepherd is the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls; a good Shepherd indeed, who laid down his life for our souls; who has provided food for our souls, and healing for our souls, and rest for our souls, and an eternal happiness for our souls. O let our souls love him, and prize him, and study what we shall render to him for his love! And what shall we render? All the return he expects is, that since he has approved himself such a good friend to our souls, we should apply ourselves to him accordingly, and make use of him. Let me therefore now, in the close, press this upon you with all earnestness; show the value you have, both for precious Jesus and for your own precious souls, by trusting him with them; commit them to his care, submit them to his conduct and government; observe his orders, follow his prescriptions, and then depend upon his power and goodness to do all that for your souls which their case calls for. What his mother said to the servants at the marriage in Cana, is my charge to you; Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it, though displeasing to flesh and blood, and then he will turn water into wine in your souls, and they shall want for nothing. Trust your souls with Jesus Christ, and know whom you have trusted, even one who is able to keep what we have committed to him against that day. Lastly, If we must not despise our own souls, we must not despise the souls of others; for if ours be precious, so are theirs; and if we ought in love to our own souls to do all we can for their salvation, which is the true self-love, certainly the great commandment, which binds us to love our neighbour as ourselves, binds us to do all we can for the salvation of the souls of others, as for the salvation of our own. this honour and work. Thus we must honour all men. Pity self-destroying sinners, who are damning their own souls, and if you can do any thing, have compassion upon them, and help them. We should justly condemn ourselves, as not having the value we ought to have for human life, if we saw a madman ready to cut his own throat, and did not interpose to prevent it; and may we not justly then charge it upon ourselves that we have not the value we ought to have for human souls, when we see wicked people, who are beside themselves, running headlong upon the destruction of their own souls, and never show any concern about it? Observe what an emphasis the apostle lays upon this, in the encouragement he gives us to do our utmost for the converting of sinners from the error of their ways, that they who do so shall save a soul from death. There is a soul in the case, and therefore we should think nothing too much to do to help it. d Pity self-disquieting saints, whose souls are troubled and cast down, who are of a sorrowful spirit, and go mourning from day to day; put your souls into their souls' stead, and then instead of despising them, (as those are apt to do who are themselves wholly at ease and quiet,) try what you can do to strengthen them with your mouth; and let the moving of your lips be, if possible, to assuage their grief, and to help them out of that horrible pit and miry It certainly obliges us to take heed of doing any thing to the prejudice of the souls of others. Those despise their brethren's souls who care not what stumbling-blocks and occasions of sin they lay in the way of their brethren, by their abuse of their Christian liberty; nor how much they contribute to the wickedness of the wicked, and to the grief and trouble of the spirits of good people. Destroy not those souls which are the work of God, and pre-clay, considering yourselves, lest ye also be tempted. cious work; which are the purchase of Christ, for whom Christ died. Be afraid of doing any thing to discourage those who are weak in their way to heaven; Christ will not quench the smoking flax, do not you then. Be tender of tender consciences, and despise not those who scruple to do that which you are free in, nor insult over them for their weak-pray with them, or for them, nor take any care to ness. we can. Nay, it is not enough that we do not put contempt upon our brethren's souls, but we must put a value upon them, and be ready to do them all the service All the children of men who dwell on the face of all the earth have precious souls; Turks and Heathens, Moors and Indians, have so; the Negroes who are bought and sold have so; precious souls, that are capable of knowing, and glorifying, and enjoying God, and must be ever either happy or miserable. O that this were more thought of, and that the souls of such were not despised as they are! In God's hand is the soul of all mankind, and therefore they should be much upon our hearts, and we should concern ourselves for them. This is a good reason why we should pray for all men, that God's name may be sanctified, and his will done, by all men on earth, as it is done by all angels in heaven; because they have all precious souls capable of Especially have a tender regard to the souls of those who are under your charge: O do not despise them; let it be not an different thing to you whether the souls of your children and servants be saved or damned; as it plainly is to those who never teach them the things that belong to their peace, who never ness. restrain them from doing evil, or quicken them to do You may be together for ever praising him. It will be | consent detest and abhor all sin, because that is the so, if you really have the value you ought to have for | mother of all mischief; that was it that introduced their souls, and for your own. all that death which sullies the world's beauty, ruffles its peace, and stains the pride of all its glory. THE FOLLY OF DESPISING OUR OWN WAYS. PROVERBS xix. 16. But he that despiseth his ways shall die. We have here a fair warning to a careless world; a fair warning given, O that it were but taken! There are those by whom it is taken. David speaks of it with comfort, that he had taken the alarms which God's commands gave, and, therefore, hoped for the rewards they proposed; by them is thy servant warned; and in keeping them there is great reward. The written word is a word of warning. The work of ministers is to warn sinners, they are set as watchmen for this purpose, and are to hear the word from God's mouth, and to warn them from him, and in his name. And this is that warning which they are to give from him; O wicked man ! thou shalt surely die, if thou go on still in thy trespasses. O drunkard! O swearer! O sabbath breaker! O extortioner! O unclean person! Whoever thou art, thou shalt surely die; the God of heaven has said it, and he will never unsay it, nor can all the world gainsay it, The soul that sinneth it shall die. I am here to-day in God's name to warn you, from this text, whether you will hear, or whether you will forbear, O thou that despiseth thine own ways, thou shalt die! if thou persist in this contumacy and contempt, thou shalt surely die. O that I may give the warning so as to deliver my own soul, and that you may all receive it so as to deliver yours! There are two things in the text: 1. The sinner's fall and ruin, which we are here warned of: He shall die; the wages of sin is death. It is that which sin, when it is finished, brings forth. It is the birth from that conception, the harvest from that seedness. The end of all those things is death; that is it which sin has a direct tendency to. There is a death that is the common lot of mankind; it is appointed to men, to all men, once to die: and that is the general effect of sin; it came in at the same door, at the same time: By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And if our breasts were but as susceptible of just resentments as they are of unjust ones, surely mankind would by But there is a death which is the particular lot of impenitent sinners. We lie under a sentence of Ideath for the breach of the original law, but this speaks another death, a much sorer condemnation, which is inflicted for the contempt of the remedial law. (1.) It is a spiritual death. An impenitent soul dies as a soul can die; it lies under the wrath and curse of God, which is killing to the soul, is its death; it is destitute of spiritual life, and of its principles and powers. It is under the dominion of corruption, which is as killing a sickness to the soul as the curse of God is a killing sentence. When Christ threatens concerning those who believe not in him, that they shall die in their sins, or as it is, v. 21. evry aμаprią ǹμwv, in your sin, in that sin of unbelief; he means not so much that you shall die the death of the body, in an unconverted state, but you shall die spiritually, in the same sense that we are said to be dead in trespasses and sins, Eph. ii. 1. Sinners shall die, that is, their disease shall be incurable, and consequently mortal; they shall languish of it awhile, and die of it at last. They shall die, that is, they shall be cut off from all communion with God, which is the life of the soul, and from all hope of his loving-kindness, which is better than life. They shall die; that is, they shall be dead to God, and to all good; dead to Christ, as branches in the vine that are withered, which have no communication with the root, nor derive any virtue from it. This spiritual death is a thousand times worse than the death of the body, and more to be dreaded. The body separated from the soul, which is its life, is only made a just and easy prey to the worms, which feed sweetly on it; but a soul separated from God becomes a just and easy prey to the devils, as tempters, tormentors, or both. The death of the body is not to be called death to any but to those who die in their sins, and to them it is followed by the second death: to the saints it is but a sleep, for they die in Christ, and the toil of their work ceases while the comfort and recompence of them remains. Those are dead indeed who are twice dead; the body dying, and the soul dead. O dread this spiritual death; Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from this death, and Christ shall give thee light and life. (2.) It is an eternal death: this is but the perfection of the former, the sinfulness of man and the wrath of God both immutably fastened. He shall die; that is, he shall perish eternally, he shall die e John viii. 24. 66 | the second death. The learned Mr. Mede observes, | there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; of that in Solomon's proverbs hell is called the con- the destruction both of soul and body in hell; of the gregation of the dead,” of Rephaim, of the giants, so furnace of fire into which the wicked shall be cast; some render it, alluding to the sinners of the old of the worm that dies not, and the fire that shall not world, who were cut off by the deluge, and died to-be quenched, the everlasting fire prepared for the gether, which was a figure of the eternal punishment of sin in hell, and he supposes that Solomon has an eye to that future state of torment, when he says, of the strange and foolish woman, that her house inclines to death, and her paths to the dead; and, that the dead are there, and her guests are in the depths of hell. Agreeable to which it is here said of the wilful sinner, that he shall die, he shall die eternally, shall go down to the congregation of the | dead and damned. devil and his angels; of those who cannot escape the damnation of hell; and many, very many, the like passages we find in Christ's preaching. Such are the warnings we have received from his mouth, and we should be false to our Master, and false to your souls, if we did not give you this warning; and we should fall under his curse, and yours too, for our unfaithfulness. Give me leave therefore briefly to tell you, [1.] That this second death, of which we give you warning, is a real thing, and no fancy. It is un That misery which those inevitably fall into who live and die in their sins, is fitly called death, be-doubtedly true, that there is a state of misery and cause, though it is not the extinguishing of their being, yet, which is equivalent, it is the extinguishing of their bliss, and non est vivere sed valere vita— life consists not in existence but in enjoyment; they are ever dying, and yet never dead. Death is the most terrible thing we can conceive, especially death by exquisite tortures, when death itself is courted as ease and release; and, therefore, hell is represented by the most killing tortures, to which that period is denied, because it is indeed more terrible than we can conceive. The metaphors are nothing to what the thing itself will be; nothing to what it is represented to us, when it is stript of the metaphors. It is indignation and wrath, tribulationing and asserting of the divine justice and holiness; h and anguish, to the soul of man that doeth evil; it is the wrath of an immortal God, filling the conscience of an immortal soul, that went out of this world unpardoned and unsanctified, and has in that world its faculties vastly enlarged, to receive the impressions of that wrath, and to make bitter reflections upon itself; that has no delights of sense to divert the thoughts of its own misery with, nor any hope of ever having benefit by the rejected Saviour, and the resisted Sanctifier. This is no pleasing subject, nor is it any pleasure to me to dwell upon it, but we dare not pass by it when it comes in our way. I hope you do not desire we should; that you are not of those who would have only smooth things prophesied to you You had better hear of it than feel it, especially when you hear of it for no other end but that for which the rich man in hell desired his five brethren might have it testified to them, lest they should also come into this place of torment. They who blame ministers for preaching these terrors of the Lord, and with them persuading men, who turn it to their reproach, that they fill their pulpits with hell and damnation, forget how frequently our Lord Jesus preached upon this subject, of being cast into utter darkness, where torment in the other world, which will certainly be the portion of all who live and die ungodly. It is not the product of a crazed or terrified imagination, nor an engine of state wherewith to keep the world in awe: no, sirs, what we tell you concerning the torments of hell, as well as concerning the joys of heaven, are the true sayings of God. This branch of God's wrath is plainly revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.i It is so far from being inconsistent with the justice of God to punish sin to this degree, that considering the pomp, pleasure, and prosperity of many wicked people in this world, it is necessary to the maintain for considering how wickedness seems to be connived at and countenanced in this world, how would it appear that God hates it, and as a governor punishes it, if there were not such a place of torment reserved for it: and, therefore, the day of wrath is called the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. And even natural conscience witnesses to the truth of it, when the terrors of the Lord set themselves in array against it. Some have felt such a hell within them, as has been a plain indication of a hell before them. O that all our hearts were possessed with the firm belief of this truth, that the wrath of God abides, and will eternally abide, upon all those who believe not in Jesus Christ, and submit not to the laws of his holy religion. The devil drew our first parents in to eat the forbidden fruit, by promising them impunity, and facing down the truth of the threatening; though in it he gave the lie to eternal truth. God had said, In the day ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die; and has said to us as plainly, He that believes not shall be damned: yet, as Satan said then to those who ate of the forbidden tree, Ye shall not die, he still says to those who persist in unbelief and impenitence, Ye shall not be damned. And shall i Rom. i. 18. h Rev. ix. 5, 6. k Rom. ii. 5. we suffer ourselves to be imposed upon by the same fallacy, or impudent falsehood rather, which was so fatal to our first parents, and to us in them? Shall we credit the father of lies, who seeks our destruction, rather than the God of truth, who desires our welfare? You who are young, in this age of infidelity, have need to guard against temptations of this kind. Be firmly established in this truth, and hold it fast. The revelation of it plainly comes from God, and, therefore, every suggestion, how plausible soever, that tends to shake your belief of it, must come from Satan, and must be accordingly rejected with abhorrence. Live not a carnal, sensual, wicked life, for then you will be tempted to wish there were no hell, and so by degrees to believe there is none: but by your belief of it be driven to Christ, be restrained from sin, and kept in the way of your duty, and by such good influence upon your hearts and lives, you will have your belief of it confirmed; and it will be so far from being a terror to you, that it will furnish you with matter of comfort and praise, to think that through grace you are delivered from the wrath to come. [2.] The second death, as it is a real thing, so it is a fearful thing, inconceivably dreadful; for who knows what is the power of God's anger, either what he can inflict, or what it is possible for a soul to suffer; or what a fearful thing it is for a sinner, who has made himself obnoxious to God's justice, and would not come up to the terms of pardoning mercy offered, and has made himself odious to God's holiness, and would not come under the power of sanctifying grace, offered likewise; to fall into the hands of the living God, when he comes to take vengeance, not only for his injured holiness and justice, but (which will add greatly to the account) for his despised grace and mercy? The condition of all those will no doubt be very sad and doleful, who shall be shut out from the vision and fruition of God in heaven; as all those will be who are not, by the grace of God, made meet for it but it is observable, and it is what ought to be observed to you who enjoy the gospel, and profess Christianity, that the extremities of the torments of hell are always spoken of as the portion of those, who either might have had a place and a name in the church of Christ, and would not, or have a place and name in it, and do not live up to it. They are the children of the kingdom, the unbelieving Jews who shall be cast into outer darkness, who were invited into the Christian church, but refused the invitation. They are the tares found in the field of the church, and the bad fish enclosed by the gospel net, who shall be cast into the furnace of fire." And hypocrites, who shall not escape the damna 1 Matt. viii. 12. m Matt. xiii. 42. n Matt. xxii. 13. tion of hell, even those who come to the weddingfeast without a wedding-garment." It is he who follows Christ, and yet betrays him, whose condition will be so miserable, that it had been better for that man he had never been born. And they are those who had talents but buried them; who had opportunity of relieving Christ's poor, and shut up the bowels of their compassion from them, who shall be most severely reckoned with. So that we, for our parts, are all concerned to fear the worst, and with the utmost diligence to flee from the wrath to come; for if we fall under it, (how charitably soever some may be willing to hope concerning those who never enjoyed the advantages that we enjoy, nor made the profession that we make,) it is certain that our condemnation will be more intolerable than that of Sodom and Gomorrah, (so the Judge himself has told us,) though theirs is no less than the vengeance of eternal fire.P Let our holy faith therefore produce a holy fear, as Noah's did, who by faith being warned of a deluge coming, was moved with fear to prepare an ark. O that the sinners in Sion might hereby be made afraid, because, of all sinners, it will fare worst with the sinners in Sion! O that fearfulness might surprise the hypocrites, whose doom will be the most fearful; that by this fear sinners may be awakened to cast away the filthy rags of their iniquity, and hypocrites to trust no longer to the cloak of their hypocrisy; that sinners may become saints, and hypocrites sincere: for when we preach such terrible doctrine as this, it is not, as we are sometimes told, to frighten you out of your wits, but to frighten you out of your sins. [3.] This second death is very near to all who are going on still in their trespasses. If Satan cannot prevail to take away the influence of this truth upon men's minds, by denying the reality or eternity of hell-torments, or by diminishing the terror of them, he then endeavours to do it by representing them at a vast distance, that in that view they may appear small and inconsiderable, in comparison with the things that are present and near. When we tell wicked people that they shall surely die, if they go on in sin, they are ready to tell us, perhaps it may prove so at last; but the vision that we see is for many days to come, and we prophesy of the times that are very far off,' as the people said to the prophet. If there be such an evil day coming, yet they put it as far off from them as they can, and so it makes no impression upon them. And is it so indeed? No, certainly; I am to tell thee, sinner, thou who goest on frowardly in the way of thy heart, that there is but a step between thee and this second death, and it may be a short step, and soon taken. There is but one life between thee |