The terms required by the gospel are every way equal and rea- sonable. If a gracious prince will bestow a pardon upon a traitor, upon this condition, that he lay down his arms, acknowledge his offence, and list himself into his prince's service, and he shall refuse so to do, how just and unpitied would his destruction be ? And what else doth God require of thee, but only this "^ " Let the *' wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, " and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon *"' him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon,'"* Isa. Iv. 7. And as the damnation of such is just, so it will be inevitable ; for, if there be no way to glory but by Christ, as you know there is not, Acts iv. 12. " Neither is there salvation in any other.'"* And if there be no way to Christ, but by accepting him upon these very terms, as it plainly appears from Luke xiv. 26. there is not ; what then remains but inevitable damnation to all that come not up to the terms of the gospel .? If you think not Christ a good bargain, with all the sufferings, losses, and reproaches that attend him, your mouths will be stopped ; no plea will be left you in the great day. You refused a fair offer, when it was seasonably and graciously made you by the gospel, and now you must expect no more sucri offers to eternity. Thy blood, sinner, be upon thine own head ; the freeness and importunity of the tenders of grace will then only
serve to illustrate and clear the righteousness of God in thy con- demnation.
II. Use, for Exhortation.
In the next place, the point naturally leads me to a Tehement persuasive unto all sinners, of what rank or size soever they be, to hearken to the voice of Christ, who takes them all within the compass of his gracious invitation in the text, saying, If any man open, I will come in. Let all sorts of sinners bless God for the ex- tensiveness of this invitation, and that they find themselves by it, as yet, within the reach and compass of the ai*ms of a merciful Re- deemer ; and that there is nothing wanting to secure their salva- tion, but the hearty consent of their wills to the reasonable and necessary terms of the gospel. Look over the whole book of God, and you shall there find but one case absolutely excepted from the possibility of forgiveness ; but one wound absolutely incurable, of which Christ speaks. Mat. xii. 31, 32. And what may be the rea- son that this only is an incurable wound ? Certainly it cannot be because the malignity of this sin exceeds the meritorious and par- doning virtue of the blood of Christ ; but rather, because there is no sacrifice appointed by the Lord for it. God never designed that the blood of Christ should be an expiatory sacrifice for that sin, as the apostle plainly speaks, Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6j 7. All other sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven unto men, saith Christ ; that is, they are capable of forgiveness, upon sincere and actual repentance and faith ; yea, they have been actually pardoned unto many: now the greater any man's sins have been, the greater need he hath to hasten to Christ for pardon. There are some of' you greater sinners than others ; for though no sin be venial, light and trivial in itself, yet compared one with another, there is a vast difference found betwixt them in the weight and aggravations of them. Now, I will labour to shew you by what rules men are to estimate the greatness and aggravations of sin ; and then, to con- vince you that the greatest of sinners stand yet fair for mercy as well as the lesser, and sometimes much fairer. " Publicans and " harlots go into the kingdom of God before you," saith Christ, Mat. xxii. 31. Now the rules to estimate the aggravations and greatness of sin by, are these :
1. There be sins of infirmity, committed out of weakness; and there are cr\ang sins in the ears of the Lord. Of the foiTner sort, sins of infirmity, you read. Gal. vi. 1. where it is called a being overtaken in a fault. Here is no premeditation, nor deliberate consent, but a surprize : these go not to the account of gross and heinous enormities, called in Scripture, crying sins, such is the sin of oppression, Hab. ii. 10, 11. " The stone shall cry out of
*• the wall^ and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.'^ The meaning is, that the injustice and oppression which men have used in raising their own houses, shall cry in the ears of the Lord for vengeance. The stone in the wall shall say, I was digged out of the quarry, hewn, and laid here by the unrewarded labours of the
nr Mason; and the timber out of the beam shall say, I was n, squared, and placed here by the unrewarded hands of the poor Carpenter. This is a crying sin ; so also is the sin of murder, when our hands have been defiled with innocent blood. This makes a dismal cry to heaven ; Gen. iv. 10. " The voice of thy *' brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground."" A sin that makes a horrid outcry in both worlds at once ; in heaven, and in the sinner's conscience. Such also is the sin of unnatural lusts. The sin of Sodom made a cry which came up to heaven, Gen. xviii. rlO. " Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and " their sin is very grievous." Compare these sins with the sins of common infirmity, which come by way of involuntary surprise^ and what vast odds will be found in the weight and aggravations of them ?
2. You find in Scripture a great difference put betwixt sins com- mitted against the clear shining light of knowledge in the sinner's conscience, and sins of ignorance, which are committed for want of knowledge. Christ himself puts a great difference betwixt them^ Luke xii. 47, 48. and so doth the apostle, James iv. 17. " To him " that knoweth to do good, and ddth it not, to him it is sin.'' Sin with a witness !
3. There are single acts of sin, and continued or repeated acts of sin; sins committed after convictions, promises, and resolu- tions. Now there is not so much of guilt in a single act of sin as there is in a repeated and continued course of sin, called, Deut. xxix. 19. " The adding of drunkenness to thirst;" and Isa. xxx. 1. " Adding sin to sin." For, as it is in numbering, so it is in sin- ning ; if the first figure be 1, the second is 10, the third 100, the fourth 1000 ; and every addition makes a greater multipKcation. O what a dreadful reckoning will there be for the consciences of poor sinners !
4. Contrivers and studiers of sin are always in Scripture placed in the first rank of sinners. The best servant God hath in the world may be surprised by the deceitfulness of sin, against the gra- cious bent and resolution of his soul ; but the contrivance and plot- ting of sin is quite another thing ; therefore it is said of the wicked. Job XV. 35. " They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, " and their belly prepareth deceit." This sin, hke the Jcetus m the womb, hath its time of conception, ero^vth, and birth ; and