Doct. 2. These p;'oud are cursed , or, those that obstinately and impenitently continue in their sins, they are under a curse.
1. I shall open the nature of this curse.
2. Show how impenitent sinners come under this curse.
First, The natui-e and quality of this curse ; or what is that curse which lies upon all wicked men ? That will best be understood by considering that scripture wherein the tenor of the law is described : Deut. xxxvii. 26, ' Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them ;' and Gal. iii. 10, ' Cursed is every one which continuetli not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.' Where there is considerable, the duty which the law exacteth, and then the penalty which the law inflicteth.
1. The duty which the law exacteth; every one must continue in the words of this law to do it. An innocent holy nature, that is pre- supposed, for it is said the person must continue. It doth not consider man as lapsed or fallen, or as having already broken with God. And then he must continue in all things ; there is a universal, a perfect obedience, that is indispensably required, while we are in our natural condition. And then the perpetuity ; he must hold out to the last ; if he fail in one point he is gone. All this is indispensably exacted of all them that live under the tenor of this covenant^: ' He that doth them shall live in them ;' and ' the soul that sinneth shall die.' There is required perpetual, perfect, personal obedience. What will you do if this covenant lie upon you, as it doth upon all men in their natural condition ? If God call you to a punctual account of the most inoffensive day that ever you past over, what will become of you ? ' If thou, 0 Lord, shalt mark iniquity, 0 Lord, who shall stand ? ' Ps. cxxx. 3. Better never have been born than be liable to that judg- ment. Oh ! therefore, when the law shall take a sinner by the throat, and say, ' Pay me that which thou owest,' what shall a poor sinner do ? This is the duty exacted.
2. The penalty that shall be inflicted, ' Cursed is everyone that con- tinuetli not in the words of this law to do it.' The law hath a mouth that speaketh terrible things. Cursed, it is but one word, but it may be spread abroad into very large considerations. In one place it is said. ' The Lord will not spare him. All the curses that are written in this book of this law shall light upon him,' Deut. xxix. 20. The book of the law is full of curses, and all together they show you what is the portion of an impenitent sinner. In another place it is said.
VeU. 21.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 201
' Every curse and every plague which is not written in the book of this law will the Lord bring upon thee,' Deut. xxviii. 61. Mark, though it be not specified in the law. God hath threatened sundry sorts of punishments, yet he hath many ])lagues in store which are not com- mitted to record or writing ; therefore, whatever is written or unwritten, revealed in the word or dispensed in providence by way of plague and misery, it is but the interpretation of this one word, ' Cursed is he that continueth not,' &c. However, because particulars are most affective, I will name some parts of the curse.
[1.] This is one part of the cursed condition of a sinner that is under the law, that the knowledge of his duty doth but the more irritate cor- ruption : Rom. vii. 9, ' Tlie commandment came, and sin revived.' The more we understand of the necessity of our subjection to God, the more is tlie soul opposite to God. Sin takes occasion by the com- mandment, as oppositions do more exasperate and enrage a waspish spii'it.
[2.] This exaction of duty doth either terrify or stupify the con- science ; he that escapeth the one suffereth the other. Either men are terrified : indeed all sinners are liable to it ; the conscience of a sinner is a sore place, and the apostle saith they are ' liable to bondage all their days,' Heb. ii. 14 ; as Belshazzar trembled to see the hand- writing upon the wall, and Felix trembled to hear of judgment to come ; so a carnal man is afraid to think of his condition, and some are actually under horror, and wherever they go, as the devils do, they carry their own hell about them. Or if conscience be not terrified, then it is stupified ; they grow senseless of their misery, and are ' past feeling,' Eph. iv. 19 ; and that is a very sad estate, and dangerous temper of soul, when men have outgrown all feelings of conscience, and worn out the prints of conviction. These are the two extremes that all Christless persons are incident unto.
[3.] There is a curse upon all that a man hath, as long as he con- tinues in his rebellion and obstinacy against God ; he is ' cursed in his basket and store, in his going out, and coming in,' &c., Deut. xxviii. 15-17. A man is cursed in his table ; that becomes a snare ; his afflictions are but beginnings of sorrows. It is a miserable thing to lie in such an estate. If the curse do not break out so visibly or sensibly, it is because now it is the day of God's patience, xmd he waits for our return. But mark, God's spiritual providence is the more dreadful. When God 'rains snares' upon men, all the seeming com- forts which they have do but harden them in an evil course, and hold them the faster in the bonds of iniquity.