Chapter 3: The Fall of Man

The Devil abusing the Serpent, and man abusing his own free-will, overthrew Adam, and in him all his posterity by sin (Genesis 3:1-3), etc.

Now man's misery appears in these two things.

- 1. His misery in regard of sin. - 2. His misery in regard of the consequences of sin.

1. His misery in regard of sin, appears in these particulars.

1. Every man living is born guilty of Adam's sin. Now the justice and equity of God in laying this sin to every man's charge, though none of Adam's posterity personally committed it, appears thus.

First, If Adam standing, all mankind had stood; then it is equal that he falling, all his posterity should fall. All our estates were ventured in this ship: therefore, if we should have been partakers of his gains, if he had continued safe, [reconstructed: it is fit] we should be partakers of his loss too.

But secondly, we were all in Adam, as a whole country in a Parliament-man, the whole country does what he does; and although we made no particular choice of Adam to stand for us, yet the Lord made it for us; who being goodness itself, bears more good will to man, than he can or could bear to himself; and being wisdom itself, made the wisest choice, and took the wisest course for the good of man; for this made most for men's safety and quiet; for if he had stood, all fear of losing our happy estate had vanished; whereas, if every man had been left to stand or fall for himself, a man would ever have been in fear of falling.

And again, this was the sure way to have all men's estates preserved; for having the charge of the estates of all men, that ever should be in the world, he was the more pressed to look the more about him, and so to be more watchful, that he be not robbed, and so undo and procure the curses of so many thousands against him. Adam was the Head of mankind, and all mankind naturally are members of that head: and if the Head invent and plot Treason, and the head practise treason against the King or State, the whole body [reconstructed: is] found guilty, and the whole body must needs suffer. Adam was the poisoned root and cistern of all mankind, now the branches and streams being in the root and spring originally, they therefore are tainted with the same poisonous principles. If these things satisfy not, God has a day coming wherein he will reveal his own righteous proceedings before men and Angels (Romans 2:4).

Oh that men would consider this sin, and that the consideration of it could humble people's hearts. If any mourn for sin, it is for the most part for other foul actual sins, few for this sin, that first made the breach and began the controversy between God and man. Next to the sin against the Holy Ghost, and contempt of the Gospel, this is the greatest sin that cries loudest in God's ears for vengeance day and night against a world of men. For now men's sins are against God in their base and low estates; but this sin was committed against Jehovah, when man was at the top of his preferment. Rebellion of a traitor on a dunghill is not so great as of a favorite in the Court. Little sins against light are made horrible: no sin by any man committed was ever against so much light as Adam had. This sin was the first that ever displeased God. Drunkenness deprives God of the glory of sobriety; whoring of Chastity, but this sin darkens the very Sun, defaces all the image of God, the glory of man, and the glory of God in man; this is the first sin that ever did you a mischief. This sin like a great captain has gathered together all those troops and swarms of sins that now take hold upon you. Thank this sin for an hard heart, you so much complain of: thank this sin for that hellish darkness that overspreads you. This has raised Satan, Death, Judgment, Hell and Heaven against you.

O consider those fearful sins that are packed up in this one evil.

1. Fearful Apostasy from God like a Devil.

2. Horrible Rebellion against God in joining sides with the Devil, and taking God's greatest enemies' part against God.

3. Woeful unbelief in suspecting God's threats to be true.

4. Fearful Blasphemy in conceiving the Devil, (God's enemy and man's murderer) to be more true in his temptations, than God in his threatening.

5. Horrible pride in thinking to make this sin of eating the forbidden fruit to be a step and a stair to rise higher, and to be like God himself.

6. Fearful contempt of God, making bold to rush upon the sword of the threatening secretly, not fearing the plague denounced.

7. Horrible unthankfulness, when God had given him all but one tree, and yet he must be [reconstructed: coveting] that too.

8. Horrible theft, in taking that which was none of his own.

9. Horrible Idolatry; in doting upon, and loving the creature more than God, the Creator, who is blessed forever.

You therefore that now say, no man can say black is your eye, you have lived civilly all your days, look upon this one grievous sin, take a full view of it, which you have never shed one tear for as yet, and see your misery by it, and wonder at God's patience. He has spared you who were born branded with it, and have lived guilty of it, and must perish forever for it, if the Lord from Heaven pity you not.

But here is not all, consider secondly, every man is born stark dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1). He is born empty of every inward principle of life, void of all graces, and has no more good in him (whatever he thinks,) than a dead carrion has. And hence he is under the power of sin, as a dead man is under the power of death, and cannot perform any act of life: their bodies are living coffins to carry a dead soul up and down in.

'Tis true (I confess) many wicked men do many good actions, as praying, hearing, almsdeeds, but it is not from any inward principle of life: external motives like plummets on a dead (yet artificial) clock, set them a running. Jehu was zealous, but it was only for a kingdom: the Pharisees gave alms only to be seen of men. If one write a will with a dead man's hand deceased, that will can hold no law, it was not his will, because it was not writ by him, by any inward principle of life of his own. Pride makes a man preach, pride makes a man hear, and pray sometimes. Self-love stirs up strange desires in men, so that we may say, this is none of God's act by his grace in the soul, but pride and self-love. Bring a dead man to the fire, and chase him, and rub him, you may produce some heat by this external working upon him: but take him from the fire again, and he is soon cold: so many a man that lives under a sound minister, under the lashes and knocks of a chiding, striving conscience, he has some heat in him, some affections, some fears, some desires, some sorrows stirred, yet take him from the minister, and his chasing conscience, and he grows cold again presently, because he lacks an inward principle of life.

Which point might make us to take up a bitter lamentation for every natural man. It is said (Exodus 12:30) that there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house wherein there was not one found dead. Oh Lord, in some towns and families what a world of these are there? Dead husband, dead wife, dead servants, dead children, walking up and down with their sins (as fame says some men do after death) with their grave-clothes about them, and God only knows whether ever they shall live again or not. How do men lament the loss of their dead friends! O you have a precious soul in your bosom stark dead, therefore lament your estate, and consider it seriously.

First, a dead man cannot stir, nor offer to stir. A wicked man cannot speak one good word, or do any good action, if heaven itself did lie at stake for doing of it, nor offer to shake off his sins, nor think one good thought. Indeed he may speak and think of good things, but he cannot have good speeches, nor good thoughts; as a holy man may think of evil things, as of the sins of the times, yet the thought of those evil things is good, not evil, so, on the contrary.

Secondly, a dead man fears no dangers, though never so great, though never so near. Let ministers bring a natural man tidings of the approach of the devouring plagues of God denounced, he fears them not.

Thirdly, a dead man cannot be drawn to accept of the best offers. Let Christ come out of heaven and fall about the neck of a natural man, and with tears in his eyes beseech him to take his blood himself, his kingdom, and leave his sins, he cannot receive this offer.

Fourthly, a dead man is stark blind and can see nothing, and stark deaf and hears nothing, he cannot taste anything: so a natural man is stark blind, he sees no God, no Christ, no wrath of the Almighty, no glory of heaven. He hears the voice of a man, but he hears not the voice of God in a sermon; he savors not the things of God's Spirit.

Fifthly, a dead man is senseless, and feels nothing: so, cast mountains of sin upon a wicked man, he feels no hurt, until the flames of hell break out upon him.

Sixthly, a dead man is a speechless man, he cannot speak unless it be like a parrot.

Seventhly, he is a breathless man; a natural man may say a prayer, or devise a prayer out of his memory and wit, or he may have a few short-winded wishes; but to pour out his soul in prayer, in the bosom of God, with groans unutterable he cannot. I wonder not to see so many families without family prayer; why? They are dead men, and lie rotting in their sins.

Eighthly, a dead man has lost all beauty: so a mere natural man has lost all glory: he is an ugly creature in the sight of God, good men and angels, and shall one day be an abhorring to all flesh.

Ninthly, a dead man has his worms gnawing him. So natural men have the worm of conscience breeding now, which will be gnawing them shortly.

Lastly, dead men want nothing but casting into the grave. So there wants nothing but casting into hell for a natural man. So that as Abraham loved Sarah well while living, yet when she was dead, he seeks for a burying place for her to carry her out of his sight: so God may let some fearful judgment loose, and say to it, take this dead soul out of my sight, etc. It was a wonder that Lazarus, though lying but four days in the grave, should live again: O wonder you, that ever God should let you live, you who have been rotting in your sin 20, 30, perhaps 60 years together.

3. Every natural man and woman is born full of all sin (Romans 1:29), as full as a toad is full of poison, as full as ever his skin can hold; mind, will, eyes, mouth, every limb of his body, and every piece of his soul is full of sin; their hearts are bundles of sin: hence Solomon says, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; whole treasures of sin, an evil man (says Christ) out of the evil treasure of his heart, brings forth evil things; indeed raging seas of sin (Isaiah 20), indeed worlds of sin. The tongue is a world of mischief; what is the heart then? For out of the abundance of the heart the tongue speaks: so that look about you and see, whatever sin is broached and runs out of any man's heart into his life through the whole world, all those sins are in your heart; your mind is a nest of all the foul opinions, heresies, that ever were vented by any man; your heart is a stinking sinkhole of all atheism, sodomy, blasphemy, murder, whoredom, adultery, witchcraft, buggery; so that if you have any good thing in you, it is but as a drop of rose water in a bowl of poison, where fallen, it is all corrupted.

It is true, you do not feel all these things stirring in you at one time, no more than Hazael thought he was or should be such a blood-sucker, when he asked the Prophet Elisha if he were a dog; but they are in you like a nest of snakes in an old hedge. Although they break not out into your life, they lie lurking in your heart; they are there as a filthy puddle in a barrel, which runs not out, because you perhaps lack the temptation or occasion to broach and tap your heart, or because of God's restraining grace by fear and shame, education, good company, you are restrained and built up. And therefore when one came to comfort that famous picture, pattern and monument of God's justice by seven years of horror and grievous distress of conscience — when one told him he never had committed such sins as Manasseh, and therefore he was not the greatest sinner since the creation, as he conceived — he replied that he should have been worse than ever Manasseh was if he had lived in his time and been on his throne.

Master Bradford would never look upon anyone's lewd life with one eye, but he would presently return within his own breast with the other eye, and say, "In this my vile heart remains that sin, which without God's special grace I should have committed as well as he." Oh, methinks this might pull down men's proud conceits of themselves, especially such as bear up and comfort themselves in their smooth, honest, civil life — such as through education have been washed from all foul sins, they were never tainted with whoredom, swearing, drunkenness, or profaneness — and here they think themselves so safe, that God cannot find in his heart to have a thought of damning them.

Oh, consider this point, which may make you pull your hair from your head, and turn your clothes to sackcloth, and run up and down with amazement and paleness in your face, and horror in your conscience, and tears in your eyes. What though your life be smooth, what though your outside, your sepulcher be painted? — oh, you are full of rottenness of sin within. Guilty not before men as the sins of your life make you, but before God, of all the sins that swarm and roar in the whole world at this day, for God looks to the heart; guilty you are therefore of heart-whoredom, heart-sodomy, heart-blasphemy, heart-drunkenness, heart-buggery, heart-oppression, heart-idolatry; and these are the sins that terribly provoke the wrath of almighty God against you (Isaiah 57:16): "For the iniquity of his covetousness," says our translation, "I smote him" — but the Hebrew renders it better: "the iniquity of his conscience" (which is the sin of the heart and nature) "I smote him." As a king is angry and musters up his army against rebels, not only which brings his soldiers out to fight, but who keeps soldiers in their trenches ready to fight. These sins of your heart are already armed to fight against God at the watchword or alarm of any temptation. No, I dare affirm, and will prove it, that these sins provoke God to anger, and are as bad, if not worse, than the sins of your life, for:

1. The sin of your heart or nature is the cause, the womb that contains, breeds, brings forth, and suckles all the bitter — all the troop of sins that are in the life — and therefore giving life and being to all other, it is the greatest sin.

2. Sin is more abundantly in the heart than in the life. An actual sin is but a little breach made by the sea of sin in your heart, where all sin, all poison is met and mingled together. Every actual sin is but as a shred broken off from the great bottom of sin in the heart, and hence Christ says, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and out of the evil treasure of the heart we bring forth evil things. A man's spending money (I mean sin in the life) is nothing compared to his treasure of sin in the heart.

3. Sin is continually in the heart. Actual sins of the life fly out like sparks and vanish, but this brand is always glowing within: the toad spits poison sometimes, but it retains and keeps a poisonous nature always. Hence the Apostle calls it, "sin that dwells in me" — that is, which always lies and remains in me. So that in regard of the sins of your heart you do rend in pieces and break: 1. all the laws of God; 2. at one stroke; 3. every moment of your life. Oh, methinks the thought of this might rend a heart of rock in pieces, to think: I am always grieving God, at all times, whatever I do.

4. Actual sins are only in the life and outward porch; sins of the heart are within the inward house. One enemy within the city is worse than many without; a traitor on the throne is worse than a traitor in the open field. The heart is Christ's throne. A swine in the best room is worse than in the outward house. More I might say, but thus you see, sins of the life are not so bad, nor do they provoke God's wrath so fiercely against you, as the sins of your heart. Mourn therefore not so much that you have not been so bad as others are, but look upon your black feet, look within your own heart, and lament that in regard of the sins there you are as bad as any; mourn not so much merely that you have sinned, as that you have a nature so sinful, that it is your nature to be proud, and your nature to be vain and deceitful, and loathe not only your sins but yourself for sin, being brimful of unrighteousness. But here is not all — consider, fourthly:

4. Whatever a natural man does is sin; as the inside is full, so the outside is nothing else but sin, at least in the sight of a holy God, though not in the sight of blind, sinful men. Indeed he may do many things which, for the matter of them, are good — as he may give alms, pray, fast, come to church — but as they come from him they are sin, as a man may speak good words, but we cannot endure to hear him speak because of his stinking breath which defiles them. Some actions indeed from their general nature are indifferent, for all indifferences lie in generals; but every deliberate action considered in individuo, with all its circumstances — as time, place, motive, end — is either morally good or morally evil, as may be proved easily; morally good in good men, morally evil in unregenerate and bad men. For let us see particular actions of wicked men.

1. All their thoughts are only evil, and that continually (Genesis 6:5).

2. All their words are sins (Psalm 50:16); their mouths are open sepulchers which smell filthy when they are opened.

3. All their civil actions are sin, as their eating, drinking, buying, selling, sleeping and plowing (Proverbs 21:4).

4. All their religious actions are sins, as coming to church, praying (Proverbs 15:8-9, 28:9), fasting and mourning — roar and cry out of yourself till doomsday, they are sins (Isaiah 58).

5. All their most zealous actions are sins, as Jehu who killed all Baal's priests; because his action was outwardly and materially good, therefore God rewarded him with temporal favors; but because he had a hawk's eye to get and settle a kingdom to himself by this means, and so was theologically evil, therefore God threatens to be revenged upon him (2 Kings 10).

6. Their wisdom is sin. Oh, men are often commended for their wisdom, wit, and parts, yet those wits, and that wisdom of theirs is sin (Romans 8). The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God.

Thus, all they have or do are sins; for, how can he do any good action whose person is filthy? A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit; you are out of Christ, therefore all your good things, all your kindnesses done to the Lord and for the Lord, as you think, are most odious to him. Let a woman seek to give all the content to her husband that may be, not out of any love to him, but only out of love to another man, he abhors all that she does. Every wicked man wants an inward principle of love to God and Christ, and therefore, though he seeks to honor God never so much, all that he does, being done out of love to himself, God abhors all that he performs. All the good things a wicked man does, are for himself, either for self-credit, or self-ease, or self-contentment, or self-safety: he sleeps, prays, hears, speaks, professes for himself alone; hence, acting always for himself, he commits the highest degree of idolatry, he plucks God out of his throne, and makes himself a God, because he makes himself his last end in every action; for a man puts himself in the room of God as well by making himself his finis uttimus as if he should make himself primum principium. Sin is a forsaking or departing from God. Now every natural man remaining always in a state of separation from God, because he always wants the bond of union which is faith, is always sinning, God's curse lies upon him, therefore he brings out nothing but briers and thorns.

Objection: But you will say, if our praying and hearing be sin, why should we do these duties? We must not sin.

Answer, 1. Good duties are good in themselves, although coming from your vile heart they are sins.

2. It is less sin to do them, than to omit them; therefore if you will go to hell, go in the fairest path you can there.

3. Venture and try, it may be God may hear, not for your prayer's sake, but for his name's sake. The unjust judge helped the poor widow, not because he loved her or her suit, but because of her importunity; and so be sure you shall have nothing if you do not seek: what though you are a dog, yet you are alive, and are for the present under the table. Catch not at Christ, snatch not at his bread, but wait till God give you him; it may be you may have him one day. Oh wonder then at God's patience, that you live one day longer, who have all your lifetime like a filthy toad spit your venom in the face of God, that he has never been quiet for you: oh look upon that black bill that will one day be put in against you, at the great day of account, where you must answer with flames of fire about your ears, not only for your drunkenness, your bloody oaths, and whoring, but for all the actions of your short life, and just so many actions so many sins.

You have painted your face over now with good duties, and good desires; and a little honesty among some men, is of that worth and rarity, that they think God is beholden to them, if he can get any good action from them. But when your painted face shall be brought before the fire of God's wrath, then your vileness shall appear before men and angels. Oh know it, that as you do nothing else but sin, so God heaps up wrath against the dreadful day of wrath.

Thus much for man's misery in regard of sin.

Now follows his misery in regard of the consequents or miseries that follow upon sin. And these are,

- 1. Present. - 2. Future.

First, man's present miseries, that already lie on him for sin, are these seven, that is;

First, God is his dreadful enemy (Psalm 5:5).

Question: How may one know another to be his enemy?

Answer: 1. By their looks. 2. By their threats. 3. By their blows. So God,

1. Hides his face from every natural man, and will not look upon him (Isaiah 59:2).

2. God threatens, indeed curses every natural man (Galatians 3:10).

3. God gives them heavy bloody lashes on their souls and bodies.

Never tell me therefore, that God blesses you in your outward estate; no greater sign of God's wrath, than for the Lord to give you your full range, as a father never looks after a desperate son, but lets him run where he pleases. And if God be your enemy, then every creature is so too, both in heaven and earth.

Secondly, God has forsaken them, and they have lost God (Ephesians 2:12). It is said, that in the grievous famine of Samaria, dove's dung was sold at a large price, because they wanted bread. Oh! men live and pine away without God, without bread, and therefore the dung of worldly contentments are esteemed so much of. You have lost the sight of God, and the favor of God, and the special protection of God, and the government of God. Cain's punishment lies upon you in your natural estate, you are a runagate from the face of God, and from his face you are hid. Many have grown mad to see their houses burnt, and all their goods lost. Oh, but God the greatest good is lost: this loss made Saul cry out in distress of conscience (1 Samuel 28:15), The Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me; the loss of the sweetness of whose presence, for a little while only, made the Lord Jesus himself cry out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Whereas you have lost God all your lifetime. Oh, you have a heart of brass that cannot mourn for his absence so long. The damned in hell have lost God, and know it, and so the plague of desperate horror lies upon them; you have lost God here, but do not know it, and the plague of a hard heart lies upon you, that you cannot mourn for this loss.

Thirdly, they are condemned men, condemned in the court of God's justice, by the law which cries treason, treason, against the most high God, and condemned by justice and mercy by the Gospel, which cries murder murder against the son of God (John 3:18), so that every natural man is damned in heaven, and damned on earth. God is your all-seeing terrible Judge: conscience is your accuser; a heavy witness: his word is your jail: your lusts are your fetters: in this Bible is pronounced and writ your doom, your sentence: death is your hangman, and that fire that shall never go out, your torment: the Lord has in his infinite patience reprieved you for a time; O take heed and get a pardon before the day of execution come.

Fourthly, being condemned take him jailor, he is a bondslave to Satan (Ephesians 2:3), for his servants you are whom you obey, says Christ. Now every natural man does the Devil's drudgery, and carries the Devil's pack, and however he says he defies the Devil, yet he sins, and so does his work. Satan has overcome and conquered all men in Adam, and therefore, under his bondage and dominion. And though he cannot compel a man to sin against his will, yet he has, 1 Power.

First, to present and allure a man's heart by a sinful temptation.

Secondly, to follow him with it, if at first he be something shy of it.

Thirdly, to disquiet and rack him if he will not yield, as might be made to appear in many instances.

Fourthly, besides he knows men's humors, as poor wandering beggarly gentlemen do their friends, in necessity (yet in seeming courtesy) he visits and applies himself to them; and so gains them as his own. Oh he is in a fearful slavery who is under Satan's dominion, who is;

1. A secret enemy to you.

2. A deceitful enemy to you, that will make a man believe (as he did Eve) even in her integrity, that he is in a fair way, yet most miserable.

3. He is a cruel enemy or Lord over them that be his slaves (2 Corinthians 4:3), he gags them, so that they cannot speak, as that man that had a dumb devil, neither for God, nor to God in prayer; he starves them, so as no sermon shall ever do them good; he robs them of all they get in God's ordinances, within three hours after the market, the sermon is ended.

4. He is a strong enemy (Luke 11:21), so that if all the devils in hell are able to keep men from coming out of their sins, he will: so strong an enemy, that he keeps men from so much as sighing or groaning under their burdens and bondage (Luke 11:21), When the strong man keeps the palace, his goods are in peace.

Fifthly, he is cast into utter darkness, as cruel jailers put their prisoners into the worst dungeons; so Satan does natural men (2 Corinthians 4:3-4), they see no God, no Christ, they see not the happiness of the saints in light, they see not these dreadful torments that should now in this day of grace awaken them and humble them. Oh those bypaths which thousands wander from God in, they have no lamp to their feet to show them where they err. You that are in your natural estate are born blind, and the Devil has blinded your eyes more by sin, and God in justice has blinded them worse for sin, so that you are in a corner of hell, because you are in utter darkness, where you have not a glimpse of any saving truth.

Sixthly, they are bound hand and foot in this estate, and cannot come out (Romans 5:6; 1 Corinthians 2:14), for all kind of sins like chains have bound every part and faculty of man, so that he is sure for stirring; and those are very strong in him, they being as dear as his members, nay his life (Colossians 3:7), so that when a man begins to forsake his vile courses, and purposes to become a new man, Devils fetch him back, world entices him, and locks him up, and flesh says, oh, it is too strict a course, and then farewell merry days, and good fellowship. Oh you may wish and desire to come out sometime, but cannot put strength to your desire, nor endure to do it. You may hang down your head like a bulrush for sin, but you cannot repent of sin, you may presume, but you cannot believe, you may come halfway and forsake some sins, not all sins, you may come and knock at heaven's gate as the foolish virgins did, but not enter in and pass through the gate; you may see the land of Canaan, and take much pains to go into Canaan, and you may taste of the bunches of grapes of that good land, but never enter into Canaan, into heaven, but you lie bound hand and foot in this woeful estate, and here you must lie and rot like a dead carcass in his grave, until the Lord come and roll away the stone, and bid you come out and live.

Lastly, they are ready every moment to drop into hell. God is a consuming fire against you, and there is but one paper wall of your body between your soul and eternal flames. How soon may God stop your breath, there is nothing but that between you and hell; if that were gone, then farewell all. You are condemned, and the [reconstructed: muffler] is before your eyes, God knows how soon the ladder may be turned, you hang but by one rotten twined thread of your life over the flames of hell every hour.

Thus much of man's present miseries.

Now follows his future miseries, which are to come upon him hereafter.

They must die, either by a sudden, sullen, or desperate death (Psalm 89:48), which though it is to a child of God a sweet sleep, yet to the wicked it is a fearful curse proceeding from God's wrath, from which like a lion he tears body and soul asunder, death comes hissing upon them like a fiery dragon with the sting of vengeance in the mouth of it, it puts a period to all their worldly contentments, which then they must forsake, and carry nothing away with them, but a rotten winding sheet. It is the beginning of all their woe, it is the captain that first strikes the stroke, and then armies of endless woes follow after (Revelation 6:2). Oh, you had better be a toad, or a dog than a man, for there is an end of their troubles, when they are dead and gone, they fall now as men from a sleep, they know not where they shall go; now repentance is too late, especially if you have lived under means before, it is either a cold repentance, when the body is weak and the heart sick, or a hypocritical repentance, only for fear of hell, and therefore you say, Lord Jesus receive my soul. No, commonly then men's hearts are most hard, and therefore men die like lambs, and cry not out; then it is hard plucking your soul from the Devil's hands, to whom you have given it all your life by sin, and if you do get it back, do you think that God will take the devil's leavings? Now your day is past, and darkness begins to overspread your soul; now flocks of devils come into your chamber, waiting for your soul, to fly upon it as a Mastiff dog when the door is opened. And this is the reason why most men die quietly that lived wickedly, because Satan then has them as his own prey, like pirates that let a ship pass by that is empty of goods, they shout commonly at them that are richly laden. The Christians in some parts of the Primitive Church took the Sacrament every day, because they did look to die every day. But these times in which we live are so poisoned and glutted with their ease, that it is a rare thing to see the man that looks death steadfastly in the face one hour together, but death will lay a bitter stroke on these one day.

2. After death they appear before the Lord to judgment (Hebrews 9:27), their bodies indeed rot in their graves, but their souls return before the Lord to judgment (Ecclesiastes 12:7). The general judgment is at the end of the world, when both body and soul appears before God and all the world to an account. But there is a particular judgment that every man meets with after this life, immediately at the end of his life, where the soul is condemned only before the Lord.

You may perceive what this particular judgment is, thus, by these 4 conclusions.

1. That every man should die the first day he was born is clear; for the wages of sin is death; in justice therefore it should be paid to a sinful creature as soon as he is born.

2. That it should be thus with wicked men, but that Christ begs their lives for a season (1 Timothy 4), he is the Savior of all men, that is, not a Savior of eternal preservation out of hell, but a Savior of temporal reservation from dropping into hell.

3. That this space of time thus begged by Christ is that season in which only a man can make his peace with a displeased God (2 Corinthians 6:2).

4. That if men do not do so within this cut of time, when death has dispatched them, judgment only remains for them; that is, when their doom is read, their date of repentance is out, then their sentence of everlasting death is passed upon them, that never can be recalled again. And this is judgment after death. He that judges himself (says the Apostle, 1 Corinthians 11:31) shall not be judged of the Lord. Now wicked men will not judge and condemn themselves in this life, therefore at the end of it, God will judge them. All natural men are lost in this life, but they may be found and recovered again; but a man's loss by death is irrecoverable, because there is no means after death to restore them, there is no friend to persuade, no minister to preach, by which faith is wrought, and men get Christ; there is no power of returning or repenting then, for night is come and the day is past. Again, the punishment is so heavy, that they can only bear wrath, so that all their thoughts and affections are taken up with the burden. And therefore Dives cries out, I am tormented. Oh that the consideration of this point might awaken every secure sinner. What will become of your immortal soul when you are dead? You say, I know not, I hope well. I tell you therefore that which may send you mourning to your house, and quaking to your grave, if you die in this estate, you shall not die like a dog, nor yet like a toad; but after death comes judgment; then farewell friends, when dying; and farewell God forever when you are dead.

Now the Lord open your eyes to see the terrors of this particular judgment; which if you could see, unless you were mad, it would make you spend [reconstructed: whole] nights and days in seeking to set all even with God.

I will show you briefly the manner and nature of it in these particulars.

1. Your soul shall be dragged out of your body, as out of a [reconstructed: stinking] prison, by the Devil the jailer, into some place within the bowels of the third heavens, and there you shall stand stripped of all friends, all comfort, all creatures, before the presence of God (Luke 19:27), as at the assizes first the jailer brings the prisoners out.

2. Then your soul shall have a new light put into it, whereby it shall see the glorious presence of God, as prisoners brought with guilty eyes look with terror upon the judge. Now, you see no God abroad in the world, but then you shall see the Almighty Jehovah, which sight shall strike you with that hellish terror and dreadful horror, that you shall call to the mountains to cover you, O Rocks, Rocks, hide me from the face of the Lamb (Revelation 6, last verse).

3. Then all the sins that ever you have or shall commit, shall come fresh to your mind; as when the prisoner is come before the face of the judge, then his accusers bring in their evidence; your sleepy conscience then will be instead of a thousand witnesses, and every sin then with all the circumstances of it, shall be set in order, armed with God's wrath round about you (Psalm 50:21). As letters written with juice of oranges cannot be read until it be brought to the fire, and then they appear; you cannot read that bloody bill of indictment your conscience has against you now; but when you shall stand near to God a consuming fire, then what a heavy reckoning will appear. It may be you have left many sins now, and go so far, and profit so much, that no Christian can discern you, in fact, you think yourself in a safe estate; but yet there is one leak in your ship that will sink you; there is one secret hidden sin in your heart, which you live in, as all unsound people do, that will damn you. I tell you, as soon as ever you are dead and gone, then you shall see where the knot did bind you, where your sin was that now has spoiled you forever, and then you shall grow mad to think: O that I never saw this sin I loved, lived in, plotted, perfected my own eternal ruin by, until now, when it is too late to amend.

4. Then the Lord shall take his everlasting farewell of you, and make you know it too. Now God is departed from you in this life, but he may return in mercy to you again; [reconstructed: but then the Lord departs, with all his patience to wait for you no more], nor shall Christ be offered to you any more, no Spirit to strive with you any more, and so shall pass sentence, though perhaps not vocally, yet effectually upon your soul, and say, Depart, you cursed. You shall see indeed the glory of God that others find, but to your greater sorrow shall never taste the same (Luke 13:28).

5. Then shall God surrender up your forsaken soul into the hands of devils, who being your jailers must keep you till the great day of account; so that as your friends are scrambling for your goods, and worms for your body, so devils shall scramble for your soul. For as soon as ever a wicked man is dead, he is either in heaven or in hell. Not in heaven, for no unclean thing comes there: if in hell, then among devils, there shall be your eternal lodging (1 Peter 3:19), and there your forlorn soul shall lie mourning for the time past now too late, amazed at the eternity of sorrow that is to come, waiting for that fearful hour when the last trump shall blow, and then body and soul meet to bear that wrath, that fire that shall never go out. Oh therefore suspect and fear the worst of yourself now, you have seldom or never or very little troubled your head about this matter, whether Christ will save you or not, you have such strong hopes and confidences already that he will; know, that it is possible, you may be deceived; and if so, when you shall know your doom after death, you cannot get an hour more to make your peace with God, although you should weep tears of blood. If either the muffler of ignorance shall be before your eyes, like a handkerchief about the face of one condemned, or if you are pinioned with any lust, or if you make your own pardon, proclaiming (because you are sorry a little for your sins, and resolve never to do the like again) peace to your soul, you are one who after death shall appear before the Lord to judgment; you who are thus condemned now, dying so, shall come to your fearful execution after death.

There shall be a general judgment of soul and body at the end of the world, wherein they shall be arraigned and condemned before the great tribunal seat of Jesus Christ (Jude 14-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10). The [reconstructed: hearing] of judgment to come made Felix to tremble; nothing of more efficacy to awaken a secure sinner, than sad thoughts of this [reconstructed: fiery] day.

But you will ask me how it may be proved that there will be such a day.

I answer, God's justice calls for it, this world is the stage where God's patience and bounty act their parts, and therefore every man will profess and conceive, because he feels it, that God is merciful; but God's justice is questioned, men think God to be all mercy and no justice; all honey and no sting; now the wicked prosper in all their ways, are never punished, but live and die in peace, whereas the godly are daily afflicted and reviled. Therefore because this attribute suffers a total eclipse almost now, there must come a day wherein it must shine out before all the world in the glory of it (Romans 2:5).

The second reason is from the glory of Christ: he was accused, arraigned, condemned by men, therefore he shall be the judge of men (John 5:27), for this is an ordinary piece of God's providence towards his people, the same evil he casts them into now, he exalts them into the contrary good in his time. As the Lord has a purpose to make Joseph ruler over all Egypt, but first he makes him a slave. God had a meaning to make Christ judge of men, therefore first he suffers him to be judged of men.

But when shall this judgment day be?

Though we cannot tell the day and hour particularly, yet this we are sure of, that when all the elect are called, for whose sake the world stands (Isaiah 1:9), when these pillars are taken away, then woe to the world; as when Lot was taken out of Sodom, then Sodom was burned. Now it is not probable that this time will come as yet: for first Antichrist must be consumed, and not only the scattered visible Jews, but the whole body of the Israelites must first be called, and have a glorious church here upon earth (Ezekiel 37). This glorious church Scripture and reason will enforce, which when it is called, shall not be expired as soon as it is born, but shall continue many a year.

Quest. But how shall this Judgment be?

Answer. The Apostle describes it (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

1. Christ shall break out of the third heaven, and be seen in the air, before any dead arise, and this shall be with an admirable shout, as when a King comes to triumph over his subjects and enemies.

2. Then shall the voice of the Archangel be heard: now this Archangel is Jesus Christ himself, as the Scripture expounds, being in the clouds of heaven; he shall with an audible heaven-shaking shout say, Rise you dead and come to Judgment, even as he called to Lazarus, Lazarus arise.

3. Then the trumpet shall blow, and even as at the giving of the Law (Exodus 19) it is said the trumpet sounded, much more louder shall it now sound when he comes to judge men that have broken the Law.

4. Then shall the dead arise. 1. The bodies of them that have died in the Lord shall rise first, then the others that live, shall, like Enoch, be translated and changed (1 Corinthians 15).

5. When thus the Judge and Justices are upon their Bench at Christ's right hand on their thrones, then shall the guilty prisoners be brought forth, and come out of their graves like filthy toads against this terrible storm: then shall all the wicked that ever were or ever shall be, stand quaking before this glorious Judge, with the same bodies, feet, hands, to receive their doom.

Oh, consider of this day, you that live in your sins now, and yet are safe, there is a day coming in which you may and shall be judged.

1. Consider who shall be your Judge: why, mercy, pity, goodness itself, even Jesus Christ that many times held out his [reconstructed: bowels] of compassion towards you. A child of God may say, yonder is my brother, friend, husband. But you may say, yonder is my enemy. He may say at that day, yonder is he that shed his blood to save me; you may say, yonder he comes whose heart I have pierced with my sins, whose blood I have despised. They may say, O come Lord Jesus, and cover me under your wings: but you shall then cry out, O Rocks fall upon me and hide me from the face of the Lamb.

2. Consider the manner of his coming (2 Thessalonians 1:7). He shall come in flaming fire, the heavens shall be on a flame, the elements shall melt like scalding lead upon you: when a house is on fire at midnight in a town, what a fearful cry is there made? When all the world shall cry fire, fire, and run up and down for shelter to hide themselves, but cannot find it, but say, O now the gloomy day of blood and fire is come, here is for my pride, here is for my oaths, and the wages for my drunkenness, security, and neglect of duties.

3. In regard of the heavy accusations that shall come against you at that day. There is never a wicked man almost in the world, as fair a face as he carries, but he has at some time or other committed some such secret villainy, that he would be ready to hang himself for shame, if others did know of it; as secret whoredom, self-pollution, speculative wantonness, men with men, women with women, as the Apostle speaks (Romans 1). Why, at this day, all the world shall see and hear these privy pranks, then the books shall be opened. Men will not take up a foul business, nor end it in private, therefore there shall be a day of public hearing; things shall not be suddenly shuffled up, as carnal thoughts imagine, namely, that at this day, first Christ shall raise the dead, and then the separation shall be made, and then the sentence past, and then suddenly the Judgment day is done: No, no, it must take up some large quantity of time, that all the world may see the secret sins of wicked men in the world, and therefore it may be made evident from all Scripture and Reason, that this day of Christ's Kingly office in judging the world, shall last perhaps longer than his private administration now (wherein he is less glorious) in governing the world. Tremble, you time server, tremble, you Hypocrite, tremble, you that live in any secret sin under the all-seeing eye of this Judge; your own conscience indeed shall be a sufficient witness against you, to discover all your sins at your particular judgment, but all the world shall openly see your hidden close courses of darkness, to your ever [reconstructed: lasting] shame at this day.

4. In regard of the fearful sentence that then shall be passed upon you; Depart, you cursed creature, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels. You shall then cry out, O mercy, Lord, O a little mercy: No, will the Lord Jesus say, I did indeed once offer it you, but you refused, therefore Depart. Then you shall plead again, Lord, If I must depart, yet bless me before I go: No, no, Depart, you cursed. Oh but, Lord, if I must depart cursed, let me go to some good place; no, Depart, you cursed, into hell fire. Oh Lord, that is a torment I cannot bear, but if it must be so, Lord, let me come out again quickly. No, depart, you cursed, into everlasting fire. Oh Lord, if this be your pleasure, that here I must abide, let me have good company with me: No, Depart, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels. This shall be your sentence. The hearing of which may make the rocks to rent, so that, go on in your sin, and prosper, despise and scoff at God's ministers, and prosper, abhor the power and practice of Religion as a too precise course, and prosper; yet know, there will a day come when you shall meet with a dreadful Judge, a doleful sentence. Now is your day of sinning, but God will have shortly his day of condemning.

When the Judgment day is done, then the fearful wrath of God shall be poured out and piled upon their bodies and souls, and the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone shall kindle it, and here you shall lie burning, and none shall ever quench it. This is the execution of a sinner after judgment (Revelation 21:8).

Now this wrath of God consists in these things.

1. Your soul shall be banished from the face and blessed sweet presence of God and Christ, and you shall never see the face of God more. It is said, Acts 20, that they wept sore, because they should see Paul's face no more. Oh, you shall never see the face of God, Christ, saints, and angels more. O heavy doom to famish and pine away for ever without one bit of bread to comfort you, one smile of God to refresh you. Men that have their sores running upon them must be shut up from the presence of men sound and whole. Oh, your sins like plague-sores run on you, therefore you must be shut out like a dog from the presence of God, and all his people (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

2. God shall set himself like a consuming infinite fire against you, and tread you under his feet, who have by sin trod him and his glory under foot all your life. A man may devise exquisite torments for another, and great power may make a little stick to lay on heavy strokes: but great power stirred up to strike from great fury and wrath makes the stroke deadly. I tell you, all the wisdom of God shall then be set against you to devise torments for you (Micah 1:3). There was never such wrath felt or conceived as the Lord has devised against you that live and die in your natural estate: hence it is called wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1, last verse). The torment which wisdom shall devise, the almighty power of God shall inflict upon you, so as there was never such power seen in making the world, as in holding a poor creature under the wrath, that holds up the soul in being with one hand, and beats it with the other, ever burning like fire against a creature, and yet that creature never burnt up (Romans 9:22). Think not this cruelty, it's justice; what cares God for a vile wretch whom nothing can make good while it lives. If we have been long in hewing a block, and we can make no meet vessel of it, put it to no good use for ourselves, we cast it into the fire: God hews you by sermons, sickness, losses, and crosses, sudden death, mercies, and miseries, yet nothing makes you better; what should God do with you, but cast you hence? Oh consider of this wrath before you feel it. I had rather have all the world burning about mine ears, than to have one blasting frown from the blessed face of an infinite and dreadful God. You cannot endure the torment of a little kitchen fire on the tip of your finger, not one half hour together: how will you bear the fury of this infinite endless consuming fire in body and soul throughout all eternity?

3. The never-dying worm of a guilty conscience shall torment you, as if you had swallowed down a living poisonous snake, which shall lie gnawing and biting your heart for sin past, day and night. And this worm shall torment by showing the cause of your misery, that is, that you did never care for him that should have saved you. By showing you also your sins against the law, by showing you your sloth, whereby your happiness is lost. Then shall your conscience gnaw to think, so many nights I went to bed without prayer, and so many days and hours I spent in feasting and foolish sporting. Oh if I had spent half that time now mis-spent, in praying, in mourning, in meditation, yonder in heaven had I been. By showing you also the means that you once had to avoid this misery; such a minister I heard once, that told me of my particular sins, as if he had been told of me: such a friend persuaded me once to turn over a new leaf: I remember so many knocks God gave at this iron heart of mine, so many mercies the Lord sent, but oh no means could prevail with me. Lastly, by showing you how easily you might have avoided all these miseries. Oh, once I was almost persuaded to be a Christian, but I suffered my heart to grow dead, and fell to loose company, and so lost all. The Lord Jesus came to my door and knocked, and if I had done that for Christ, which I did for the Devil many a time, to open at his knocks, I had been saved. A thousand such bites will this worm give at your heart, which shall make you cry out, O time, time, O sermons, sermons; O my hopes and my helps are now lost, that once I had to save my lost soul.

4. You shall take up your lodging for ever with Devils, and they shall be your companions: him you have served here, with him must you dwell there. It scares men out of their wits almost to see the Devil, as they think, when they be alone; but what horror shall fill your soul when you shall be banished from angels' society, and come into the fellowship of Devils for ever?

5. You shall be filled with final despair. If a man be grievously sick, it comforts him to think it will not last long. But if the physician tell him he must live all his life time in this extremity, he thinks the poorest beggar in a better estate than himself. Oh to think when you have been millions of years in your sorrows, then you are no nearer your end of bearing your misery than at the first coming in; Oh I might once have had mercy and Christ, but no hope now ever to have one glimpse of his face, or one good look from him any more.

You shall vomit out blasphemous oaths and curses in the face of God the Father forever, and curse God that never elected you, and curse the Lord Jesus that never shed one drop of blood to redeem you, and curse God the Holy Spirit that passed by you, and never called you (Revelation 10:9). And here you shall lie and weep and gnash your teeth in spite against God and yourself, and roar and stamp and grow mad, that there you must lie under the curse of God forever. Thus I say you shall lie blaspheming, with God's wrath like a pile of fire on your soul burning, and floods, no seas, no more, seas of tears (for you shall forever lie weeping) shall never quench it. And here whichever way you look you shall see matter of everlasting grief. Look up to heaven, and there you shall see (oh) that God is forever gone. Look about you, you shall see Devils quaking, cursing God; and thousands, no millions of sinful damned creatures crying and roaring out with doleful shrieks: Oh the day that ever I was born. Look within you, there is a guilty conscience gnawing. Look to time past, oh those golden days of grace, and sweet seasons of mercy are quite lost and gone. Look to time to come, there you shall behold evils, troops and swarms of sorrows, and woes, and raging waves, and billows of wrath coming roaring upon you. Look to time present, O not one hour or moment of ease or refreshing, but all curses meet together, and [reconstructed: feeding] upon one poor lost immortal soul, that never can be recovered again. No God, no Christ, no Spirit to comfort you, no Minister to preach to you, no friend to wipe away your continual tears, no Sun to shine upon you, not a bit of bread, not one drop of water to cool your tongue.

This is the misery of every natural man. Now do not shift it from yourself, and say; God is merciful. True, but it is to very few, as shall be proved. It is a thousand to one if ever you be one of that small number whom God has picked out to escape this wrath to come. If you do not get the Lord Jesus to bear this wrath, farewell God, Christ and God's mercy forever. And I am sure that it is no common evil which God gives to every wicked man; if Christ had shed seas of blood, set your heart at rest, there is not one drop of it for you, until you come to see, and feel, and groan under this miserable estate. I tell you, Christ is so far from saving you, that he is your enemy. If Christ were here and should say, here is my blood for you, if you will but lie down and mourn under the burden of your misery, and yet for all his speeches, your dry eyes weep not, your stout heart yields not, your hard heart mourns not, as to say; oh! I am a sinful, lost, condemned, cursed, dead creature: what shall I do? Do you not think but he would turn away his face from you, and say, oh! you stony hard-hearted creature, would you have me save you from your misery, and yet you will not groan, sigh, and mourn for deliverance to me, out of your misery? If you like your estate so well, and prize me so little, perish in your misery forever.

Oh labor to be humbled day and night under this your woeful estate. You are guilty of Adam's grievous sin; will this break your heart? No. You are dead in sin, and top-full of all sin, will this break your heart? No. Whatever you do, have done, shall do, remaining in this estate, is sin, will this break your heart? No. God is your enemy, and you have lost him, will this break your heart? No. You are condemned to die eternally; Satan is your jailor, you are bound hand and foot in the bolts of your sins, and cast into utter darkness, and ready every moment to drop into hell, will this break your heart? No. You must die, and after that appear before the Lord to judgment; and then bear God's everlasting insupportable wrath, which rents the rocks, and burns down to the bottom of hell; will this break your hard heart? No. Then farewell Christ forever, never look to see a Christ, until you do come to feel your misery out of Christ. Labor therefore for this, and the Lord will reveal the brazen Serpent, when you are in your own sense and feeling stung to death with your fiery serpents.

So I come to open the Fourth Principal point, namely.