Page images
PDF
EPUB

Ser. 128. would have much the fame effect upon the generality of men.

But if we fuppofe this à fingular cafe, (which there is no reafon to do) in that cafe the effect would probably be this; a man that was strongly addicted to his lufts, and had no mind to leave them, would be apt, when the fright was over, to be easily perfuaded that all this was merely the work of fancy and imagination; and the rather because such things did not happen to others as well as to himfelf.

2. We have as great or greater reason to believe the warnings or threatenings of God's word, as the difcourfes of one that fhould come to us from the dead. For the threatenings of God's word against fuch fins as natural light convinceth men of, have the natural guilt and fears of men on their fide, the particular teftimony of every man's confcience, and the concurring teftimony of mankind to the probability of the thing; and to give us full affurance of the truth and reality of them, we have a credible relation of great and unquestionable miracles wrought on purpofe to give teftimony to thofe perfons who denounced thofe threatenings, that they came from God. So that here is a very publick and authentick teftimony given to the threatenings of God's word, more fuitable to the generality of mankind, and of greater authority than a private apparition, or a fingle miracle; and if that will not convince men, why fhould we fuppofe that this will ?

3.

The very fame reafon which makes men to rejeft the counfels of God in his word, would, in all probability, hinder men from being convinced by an apparition from the dead. It is not generally for want of evidence that men do not yield a full and effectual affent to the truth of God's word, I mean, that they do not believe it fo as to obey it; but from the intereft of fome luft. The true caufe is not in mens understandings, and because there is not reafon enough to fatisfy them, that the fcriptures are the word of God: but in the obftinacy of their wills, which are enflayed to their lufts. And

the

the difeafe being there, it is not to be cured by more evidence, but by more confideration, and by the grace of God, and better refolutions.

The man is addicted to fome vice or other, and that makes him unwilling to entertain thofe truths which would check and controul him in his courfe." The light of God's word is offenfive to him, and therefore he would fhut it out. This account our bleffed Saviour gives of the enmity of the Jews against him and his doctrine, John iii. 19. Light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil; for every one that doth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh he to the light, left his deeds should be reproved. Upon the fame account it is, that men refift the doctrine of the holy fcriptures; not because they haye fufficient reafon to doubt of their divine authority; but because they are unwilling to be governed by them, and to conform their lives to the laws and precepts of that holy book: For the wills of men have a great influence upon their understandings, to make affent eafy or difficult; and as many are apt to affent to what they have a mind to, fo they are flow to believe any thing which croffeth their humours and inclinations; fo that though greater evidence were offered, it is likely, it would not prevail with them, because the matter does not stick there. Their wills are diftempered, men hate to be reformed, and this makes them caft the laws of God behind their backs; and if God himself fhould fpeak to them from heaven, as he did to the people of Ifrael, yet for all that, they might continue a ftiffnecked and rebellious people. Though the evidence were fuch as their understandings could not refift; yet their wills might ftill hold out, and the prefent condition of their minds might have no lafting influence upon their hearts and lives; fuch a vio lent conviction might affect them for the prefent, but the fenfe of it might perhaps wear off by degrees, and then they would return to their former hardness. Men by a long and obftinate conţinu

ance

ance in fin, may bring themfelves to the temper and difpofition of devils; who though they believe and tremble at the thoughts of God and his threatenings, yet they are wicked ftill; for fo long as men retain a ftrong affection for their lufts, they will break through all conviction, and what evidence foever be offered to them, they will find fome way or other to avoid it, and to delude themfelves. The plain truth of the cafe is this, (if men will honeftly speak their confciences, they cannot deny it) they do not call for more evidence, either because they want it, or are willing to be convinced by it, but that they may feem to have fome excufe for themfelves for not being convinced by that evidence which is afforded to them.

4thly, Experience does abundantly testify, how ineffectual extraordinary ways are to convince and reclaim men of depraved minds, and fuch as are obftinately addicted to their lufts. We find many remarkable experiments of this in the hiftory of the Bible. What wonders were wrought in the fight of Pharaoh and the Egyptians! yet they were hardened under all thefe plagues. Balaam, who gree dily followed the wages of unrighteousness, was not to be ftopt by the admonition of an Angel. The Jews, after fo many miracles which their eyes had feen, continued to be a stiff-necked and gainsaying people; fo that it is hard to fay which was more prodigious, the wonders which God wrought for them, or their rebellions against him; and when in the fulness of time, the Son of God came, and did among them the works which never man did, fuch as one would have thought might have brought the worst people in the world to repentance, thofe of Tyre and Sidon, of Sodom and Gomorrah, yet they repented not. Yea the very thing which the rich man here in my text requested of Abraham for his brethren, was done among them; Lazarus did rife from the dead, and teftified unto them, and they were not perfuaded.

And

And which is yet more, our Saviour himself according to his own prediction, while he was alive, rofe again from the dead the third day, and was vifibly taken up into heaven; and yet how few among them did believe, and give glory to God? So that we fee the very things here fpoken of in the text made good in a famous inftance; they who believed not Mofes and Prophets, which teftified of the Meffias, were not perfuaded when he rose from the dead.

And does not our own experience tell us, how little effect the extraordinary providences of God have had upon those who were not reclaimed by his word? It is not long fince God fhewed himself among us, by terrible things in righteousness, and vifited us with three of his foreft judgments, war, and peftilence, and fire; and yet how does all manner of wickedness and impiety ftill reign and rage among us. It is a very fad confideration to fee how little those who have outlived the plagues, have been reformed by them; we have not returned to the Lord, nor fought him for all this.

I may appeal to the experience of particular perfons. How frequently do we fee men, after great afflictions, and tedious fufferings, and dangerous fickneffes, return to their former evil courfes! and though they have been upon the brink of eternity, and the terrors of death have compassed them about, and the pains of hell have almost taken hold of them, though they have had as lively and fenfible convictions of another world, as if they had spoken with those that had come from thence, or even been there themselves; yet they have taken no warning, but upon their de liverance and recovery, have been as mad, as furious finners as they were before! So that it ought to be no fuch wonder to us, which the text tells us, that if men hear not Mofes and the Prophets; neither will they be perfuaded, though one rofe from the dead: Efpecially, if we confider in the

4

5th, and laft place, that an effectual perfuafion (that is, fuch a belief as produceth repentance and a good life) is the gift of God, and depends upon the opera

tion and concurrence of his grace, which is not to be expected in an extraordinary way, where men have obftinately rejected the ordinary means appointed by God for that end. To be effectually perfuaded to change our lives, and become new men, is a work not to be done without the affiftance of God's grace; and there is little reafon to expect that God will afford his grace to those who reject and despise the counfels of his word. The doctrine of falvation contained in the holy fcriptures, and the promises and threatenings of God's word are the ordinary means which God hath appointed for the converfion of men, and to bring them to repentance; and if we fincerely use these means, we may confidently expect the concurrence of God's grace to make them effectual: but if we neglect and refift thefe means, in confidence that God fhould attempt our recovery by fome extraordinary ways; though he fhould gratify our prefumptuous and unreasonable curiofity, fo far as to fend one from the dead to testify unto us, yet we have no reason to expect the affiftance of his grace, to make fuch a conviction effectual to our repentance, when we have fo long defpifed his word, and refifted his Spirit, which are the power of God unto falvation.

Without his grace and affiftance, the most probable means will prove ineffectual to alter and change our corrupt natures; by grace we are faved, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. This grace is revealed to us in the gofpel; and the affiftances of it are conveyed to us by the gofpel; and it is great prefumption to promife to ourselves the affiftance of God's grace in any other way than he hath been pleafed to promife it to us.

And thus I have fhewn you, as briefly and plainly as I could, how unlikely it is, that thofe who obftinately reject a clear and publick revelation of God, fhould be effectually convinced and brought to repentance by any apparitions from the dead.

[ocr errors]

I fhall only make two or three inferences from this difcourfe which I have made, and so conclude.

« PreviousContinue »