2. Consider the threatening, so as to weaken security, not to weaken faith. There is a great deal of difference between these two ; we are not to weaken the certainty of faith, but the security of the flesh. It is good for christians to observe what is the issue and result of their fear, and of their reflections upon the threatenings, torment, or caution : 1 John iv. 18, ' Fear hath torment in it ; ' that is, slavish fear ; but godly fear makes us more wary in our walking with God ; it makes us more circumspect, but not less comfortable. Though there may be assurance to escape damnation, yet still there is care to avoid sin : this is the godly fear. Now to do that, you must consider God's ordination of punishment is with a supposition ; that is, if I go on in a carnal course, then my end will be death, and I shall be undone for ever. It is with an ' if,' propounded to the children of God : Rom. viii. 13, ' If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.' If it be possible that a man in Christ could live after the flesh, it is as possible and safe to conclude he should die for ever. So the apostle, Gal. vi. 8, ' If ye sow to the flesh, ye shall of the flesh reap corruption.' Where there is sin in the
VeH. 7.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL 189
seed, there will be a curse ia the crop ; not as if the children of God were actually to expect eternal death, but to look upon it as the proper demerit of sin, and so to depart from it.
3. The children of God should reflect upon the sad consequences of sin in the present life: 1 Cor. xi. 32, 'When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.' God hath still a bridle upon them. Though you are exempted from eternal death, yet your pilgrimage may be made very uncomfort- able ; you may feel the anguish of conscience, and be humbled by spiritual desertion, and lose and forfeit the sense of your joys and spiritual consolation ; you may stand under a spiritual excommuni- cation ; that is, by being separated from the comfort of the covenant, and cast out of the actual fruition of God's favour, and be under much anguish of conscience, which is a spiritual part of discipline. A disobedient child maybe whipped, though he be sure not to be disin- herited ; so God hath sore and bitter afflictions to lay upon you ; he hath other evils besides damnation to bring on you.
4. The times when you should use this argument are these. When lusts are boisterous, it is good to oppose these stronger and more terrible motives of the terrors of the Lord ; and when you are slack and remiss in the work of the Lord. When oxen do not labour, the husbandman useth the goad ; when you begin to wax wanton and careless, it is good to use this spur — when we begin to grow deaf, slack, and cold in the work of God. So in the time of special temptation, wlien the fear of man is like to prove a snare, as Solomon saith, Prov. xxix. 25, say, I know the terrors of the Lord, and what a dangerous thing it is to please men, and to engage omnipotency against me. So after grievous offences, the children of God, when they foully sin, do not only lose their peace but their tenderness ; therefore this will enforce them to run for their pardon.
Secondly, I come to the strength and force of Noah's faith, inti- mated in these words — ' Of things not seen as yet — irep t rwv /xTj^iTrco /3\e- iro/xevcov — of things that by no means could be seen ; not any way liable to the judgment of sense ; by which the apostle means the tidings of the deluge and the manner of his own preservation in the ark, which were things strange, full of difficulty to be done, and likely to be entertained with the scoff and opposition of the world ; yet he prepared an ark. To instance, either in the flood or ark. For the flood : never such a thing had been before, therefore it was more difficult to be believed, there being no precedent ; for the world was but newly created, and it seemed unlikely to the men of that age that God would destroy it presently ; besides, this judgment was to come after many years. By the grant of God himself they had the respite of a hundred and twenty years, and all others besides Noah were utterly secure ; yet, though he had but the naked word of God, he believed. Then for his own gracious preservation, the means was by an ark, which was an impro- bable and incredible way of safety, as the flood was of the world's ruin ; for the ark was made like a grave, or coffin, or sepulchre, wherein Noah for some months was to be buried, rather than preserved, with- out tbe comfort of light or fresh air ; there was he with the cattle and all kinds of living creatures for many days. And besides, it was of