this furnishes them with the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season to the weary soul ; by this means they are able to " com- " fort others with the same comforts wherewith they themselves " have been comforted of God," 2 Cor. i. 4.
Thus you have had a brief account, what the burden of sin is, how souls are supported under that burden, and why the Lord causes sin to lie so heavy upon the souls of some sinners. The im- provement of all will be in a double use, viz.
Of information and direction. First use for information.
Inference 1 . Is there such a load and burden in sin? What then was the burden that our Lord Jesus Christ felt and hare for us, upon ichom the whole ice'iglit of all the sins of all GocVs elect lay ! Isa. liii. 6. " He hath made the iniquities of us all to meet on him.'" Our burden is heavy, but nothing to Christ's. O there is a vast difference betwixt that which Christ bare, and that which we bear. We feel but the single weight of our own sins ; Christ felt the whole weight of all our sins. You do not feel the whole weight that is in any one sin ; alas, it would sink you, if God should let it bear in all its aggravations and effects upon you. Psal. exxx. 2, 3. "If thou, Lord, should st mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall " stand !* You would sink presently, you can no more stand under it, than under the weight of a mighty mountain. But Christ bare all the burden upon himself; his understanding was deep and large ; he knew the extent of its evil, which we do not : we have many reliefs and helps under our burden, he had none ; we have friends to counsel, comfort, and pity us ; all his friends and fami- liars forsook him, and fled in the day of his trouble : we have comforts from heaven, he had frowns from heaven : " My " God, my God, (saith he in that doleful day) why hast thou for- saken me?11 There is no comparison betwixt our load and Christ's.
Inf. 2. If there be such a burden in sin, then certainly sinners will pay dear for all the pleasure they find in sin hi the days of their vanity. " What * one saith of crafty counsels, we may say of all 6 sins ; though they seem pleasant in their first appearance, they " would be found sad in the event :" they are honey in the mouth, but the gall of asps in the belly ; they tickle the fancy, but rend the conscience. O sinner, thy mirth will certainly be turned into mourning, as sure as thou livest ; that vain and frothy breast of thine shall be wounded ; thou shalt feel the sting and pain, as well as relish the sweet and pleasure of sin. O that thou wouldst but
* Cojisilia callida prima specie leeta ; tractatu dura ; eventu tristia. Livy.
| Prov. xx. 7. Ibid, xxiii. 31,32. Job xx. 12, 13, 14. James i. 15. Rom. vi. 21.
SERM. IX. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 167
give thyself the leisure seriously to ponder those * scriptures in the margin; methinks they should have the same effect that the hand, writing upon the plaister of the wall had upon that jovial king in the height of a frolic, Daniel v. 5. Reason thus with thine own heart, and thou wilt find the conclusion unavoidable ; either I shall repent for sin, or I shall not : If I shall not, then must I howl under the wrath of God for sin, in the lowest hell for evermore. If I shall, then by what I have now read of the throbs and wounds of conscience, I see what this heart of mine, this vain heart of mine, must feel in this world. () how much wiser was the choice that Moses made, Heb. xi. 25. the worst of sufferings rather than the best of sin, the pleasures of sin, which are but for a season !
Inf. 3. Is there such a burden in sin, then the most tender com- passion is a debt due to souls afflicted and heavy laden with sin. Their condition cries for pity, whatever their tongues do ; they seem to call upon you, as Job upon his friends ; " Have pity, have pity " upon me, O ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched " me, Job xix. 21. And O let all that have felt the wounds and anguish of an afflicted conscience themselves, learn from their own experience tenderly to pity and help others. Gal. vi. 1. " You " that are spiritual, restore (+ or set him in joint again) in the spirit " of meekness, considering thyself.1''
Israel was commanded to be kind to strangers, for, saith God, you know the heart of a stranger. And surely if any case in the world require help, pity, and all compassionate tenderness, this doth ; and yet how do some slight spiritual troubles upon others ? Parents slight them in their own children, masters in their servants ; the more brutish and wicked they ! O had you but felt yourselves what they feel, you would never treat them as you do. But let this comfort such poor creatures, Christ hath felt them, and will pity and help them ; yea, he therefore would feel them himself, that he might have compassion upon you. If men will not, God will pity you ; if men be so cruel to persecute him whom God hath smitten, God will be so kind to pour balm into the wounds that sin hath made : if they pull away the shoulder from you, and will not be concerned about your troubles, except it be to aggravate them, God will not serve you so : but certainly you that have paNsed through the same difficulties, you cannot be without compassion to them that are now grappling with them.
Inf. 4. How inexpressibly dreadful is the state of the damned, toko must bear the burden of all their sins upon themselves, without reliefs or hope of deliverance ! Mark ix. 44. " where their worm, " dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
* Prov. xx. 7. Ibid, xxiii. 31, 32. Job xx. 12, 13, 14. James i. 15. Rom. xl 21, T KaraortZslSj luxata membra in suum locum restilucre.
1G8 THE METHOD OF GEACE. SEEM. IX.
O ! If sin upon the soul that is coming to Christ for deliverance, be so burdensome, -what is it upon the soul that is shut out from Christ, and all hopes of deliverance for ever ! For, do but ponder these differences betwixt these two burdens.
First, No soul is so capacious now, to take in the fulness of the evil and misery of sin, as thev are who are gone down to the place of torments. Even as the joys of God's face above are as much unknown to them that have the fore-tastes and first fruits of them here by faith, so the misery of the damned is much unknown, even to them that have in their consciences now, the bitterest taste and sense of sin in this world : as we have the visions of heaven, so we have the visions of hell also, but darkly through a glass.
Secondly, No burden of sin presseth so continually upon the soul here as it doth there. Afflicted souls, on earth, have intermissions, and breathing times ; but in hell there are no lucid intervals, the wrath of God there is still flowing; it is mjluccu continuo, Isa. xxx. S3, a stream of brimstone.