4. To conclude, " the pleasures of sin are but for a season, as you read, Heb. xi. 25. but the wrath of God in hell is for ever and ever. There is a time when the pleasures of sin cannot be called pleasures to come, but the wrath of God that will still be wrath to come. Oh ! consider for what a trifle you sell your souls. When Lysimachus parted with his kingdom for a draught of water^ he said when he had drank it. For how short a pleasure have I sold a Idngdom I And Jonathan lamented, 1 Sam. xiv. 43. " I tasted " but a little honey, and I must die.'" Satan would not charm so powerfully as he doth with the pleasures of sin, if this point were well believed, and heartily applied.
Iiif. 3. What a matchless madness is it to cast the said into Cadi's prison, to save the body out of mart s prison I
Men have their prisons, and God hath his : But because the one
142 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
is an object of sense, and the other an object of faith, that only is feared, and this shghted all over this unbelieving world, except by a very small number of men, who tremble at the word of God. Now this I say is the height of madness, and will appear to be so in a just collation of both in a few particulars. (1.) Man's prison restrains the body only, God's prison soul and body, Mat. x. 28. The spirits of men (as my text speaks) are the prisoners there. Oh ! what a vast odds doth this single difference make ! A thou- sand times more than the captivating and binding of the greatest king or emperor differs from the imprisonment of a poor mechanic or vagrant beggar. (2.) In man's prison there are many comforts and unspeakable refreshments from heaven, but in God's prison none, but the direct contrary. You read of the apostles. Acts xvi. 25. how they sang in the prison: The Spirit of God made them a banquet of heavenly joys, and they could not but sing at it : Though their feet were in the stocks, their spirits were never more at liberty. Algerius dated his letteYsJrom the delectable orchard of' the Leonine prison ; zvhere, saith he,flozcs the sweetest nectar. Ano- ther tells us, Christ was always kind to him : but since lie became a prisoner for him, he even overcame himself in kindness. / verilT/ think (saith he) the chains of my Lord are all overlaid with piwe gold^ and his cross perfumed. But the worst terrors of the prisoners in hell come from the presence of the Lord, 2 Thes. i. 9. " God is a terror to them. (3.) The cause for which a man is cast into prison by men, may be his duty, and so his conscience must be at last quiet, if not joyful in such sufferings. So was it with Paul, Acts xxviii. 20. " For the hope of Israel am I bound with this chain :" This diffuses joy and peace through the conscience into the whole man. But the cause for which men are cast into God's prison, is their sin and guilt, which arm their own consciences against them, and make them, as you heard before, self- tormentors, terrors to themselves. What odds is here ! (4.) In man's prison the most excellent company and sweet society may be found. Paul and Silas were fellow-prisoners. In queen Mary's days the most excel- lent company to be found in England was in the prisons : Prisons ■were turned into churches. But in God's prison no better society is to be found than that of devils and damned reprobates, Mat. XXV. 41. (5.) In man's prison there is hope of a comfortable de- liverance, but in God's prison none : Mat. v. 26. " Thou shalt " not come out thence till thou hast paid the last mite." It is an everlasting prison.
Compare these few obvious particulars, and judge then what is to be thought of that man, who stands readier to cast himself into any guilt, than into the least suffering. What is it but as if a man should offer his neck to the sword, to save his hand ? The Lord
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 14$
convince us what trifles our estates, liberties, and lives are to our souls, or to the peace and purity of our consciences.
Inf. 4. What an invaluable mercy is the pai'don of sin^ which sets (he soul out of all danger of going into this prison ! When the debt is satisfied, a man may walk as boldly before the prison door as he doth before his own : They that owe nothing fear no bailiffs. It is the law (as I said before) that commits men to prison, a mittimus is but an instrument of law ; but the righteousness of the law is ful- iilled in them that believe, Rom. viii. 4. Yea, they are made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. v. 21. There can be no pro- cess of law against them. For who shall condemn when it is God that justifieth? Rom. viii. 33, 34. And that Divine Justice might be no bar to our faith and comfort, he adds. It is Christ that died ; and yet farther, to assure us that his death had made plenary satis- faction to God for all our sins and debts, it is added, i/ea, rather, that is risen again : q. d. If the debts of believers to God were not fully paid and satisfied for by the blood of Christ, how comes it to pass that our Surety is discharged, as by his resurrection he ap- pears to be ! Oh believer ! thy bonds are cancelled, the hand- writing that was against thee is nailed to the cross, the blood of Christ hath done that for thee that all the gold and silver in the world could not do, 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. " It is a * countei-price fully " answering to thy (^ebts," Mat. xx. 28. And hence, to the eter- nal joy of thy heart, result three properties of thy pardon, which are able to make thine eyes gush out with tears of joy whilst thou art reading of it.
1. It is a free pardon to thy soul ; thougli it cost Christ dear, it costs thee nothing. We have redemption, even •' the remission of " sias, according to the riches of his grace," Eph. i. 7. The pro- ject of it was God's, not thine ; the price for it was Christ's blood, not thine ; the glory and riches of free grace are illustriously dis- played in thy forgiveness.
2. It is as full as it is free ; a complete and perfect cause pro- duceth a complete and perfect effect. Acts xiii. 39. " Justified " from all things." Whatever thy sins be for nature, number, or circumstances of aggravations, they cannot exceed the value of the meritorious cause of remission. The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin.
3. It must be as firm as it is free and full, even an irrevocable pardon for evermore. Christ did not shed his blood at a hazard ; the way of justification by faith, makes the promise sure, Rom. iv. 16. The justified shall never come again under condemnation.
AvnAvlfiov est i-retiuin ex adverso rcspondens.
I'ii A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
Oh the unspeakable joy that flows from this spring ! Oh the triumphs of faith upon this foundation!