(3.) There are the terrors of the world; if a man stands in fear of them, he also will not come to God by Christ. The fear of man brings a snare. How many have, in all ages, been kept from coming to God aright by the terrors of the world? Yea, how many are there to one’s thinking who have almost got to the gates of heaven and have been scared and driven quite back again by nothing but the terrors of this world? This is that which Christ so cautioned his disciples about, for he knew it was a deadly thing. Peter also warns the saints to beware of this as something very destructive. (Luke 12:4-6, 1 Peter 3:14,15)
(4.) There is also the glory of the world, an absolute hindrance to convictions and awakenings, to wit, honors, greatness, and preferences: ‘How can ye believe,’ said Christ, ‘which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only.’ (John 5:44) If therefore a man is not in his affections crucified to these, it will keep him from coming to God aright.
3. As a man must know himself, how vile he is, and the world, how empty it is, he must also know the law, how severe it is; otherwise, he will not come to God by Jesus Christ, our Lord.
A man who is under awakening is in double danger of falling short of coming to God by Christ. If he knows not the severity of the law, he is either in danger of slighting its penalty or of seeking to make amends to it by doing good works, and nothing can keep him from splitting his soul upon one of these two rocks, but a sound knowledge of the severity of the law.
(1.) He is in danger of slighting the penalty. This is seen in the practice of all the profane in the world. Do they not know the law? Verily, many of them can say the Ten Commandments without a book. But they do not know the severity of the law; therefore, when awakenings come upon their consciences at any time, they strive to drive away the guilt of one sin by wallowing in the filth of another.
But would they do this if they knew the severity of the law? They would as soon eat fire. The severity of the law would be an intolerable, insupportable burden to their consciences; it would drive them and make them fly for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before them.
(2.) Or if he slights the penalty, he will seek to make amends to it by doing good works for the sins he has committed. This is manifested by the practice of the Jews and Turks and all that swerve on that hand—to wit, to seek life and happiness by the law. Paul was also here before he met Jesus on the way. This is natural to consciences that are awakened unless also they have given to them to see the true severity of the law; the which that thou mayest do, if my mite helps, I will cast in for thy conviction these four things—
(a.) The law charges thee with its curse, as well for the pollution of thy nature, as for the defilements of thy life; yea, and if thou hadst never committed sinful acts, thy pollution of nature must stand in thy way to live, if thou comes not to God for mercy by Christ.
(b.) The law takes notice of and charges you with its curse, as well for sinful thoughts as for vile and sinful actions. ‘The [very] thought of foolishness is sin,’ (Prov 24:9), though it never breaks out into act, and will as surely merit the damnation of the soul as will the greatest transgression in the world.
(c.) If now thou could keep all the commandments, that will do thee no good at all, because thou hast sinned first: ‘The soul that sinned shall die.’ Unless, then, thou canst endure the curse and so legally overcome it for the sins that thou hast committed, thou art gone, if thou comes not to God by Christ for mercy and pardon.
(d.) And never think of repentance, thereby to stop the mouth of the law; for the law calleth not for repentance, but life; nor will it accept of any, shouldst thou mourn and weep for thy sins till thou hast made a sea of blood with tears. This, I say, thou must know, or thou wilt not come to God by Christ for life. For the knowledge of this will cause that thou shalt neither slight the severity of the law nor trust in the works thereof for life. Now, when thou does neither of these, thou canst not but speed thee to God by Christ for life; for now, thou hast no stay; pleasures are gone; all hope in thyself is gone. Thou now dies, and that is the way to love, for this inward death is, or feels like, a hunger-bitten stomach that cannot but crave and gape for meat and drink. Now it will be as possible for you to sleep with your finger in the fire as to forbear cravings of mercy so long as this knowledge remains.
4. As a man must know himself, the emptiness of this world, and the law, so he must know that there is a hell and how insupportable the torments of it are; for all threats, curses, and determinations to punish in the next world will prove but fictions and scarecrows if there be no woeful place, no woeful state, for the sinner to receive his wages in for sin when his days are ended in this world. Therefore, the word ‘saved’ is supposed such a place and state. He can save from hell, from the woeful place, from the woeful state of hell, them that come unto God.
Christ, therefore, often insinuated the truth of hell in his invitations to the sinners of this world to come to him; as where he tells them they shall be saved if they do, they shall be damned if they do not. As if he had said, there is a hell, a terrible hell, and they that come to me I will save them from it; but they that come not, the law will damn them in it. Therefore, that thou mayest indeed come to God by Christ for mercy, believe there is a hell, a woeful, terrible place. Hell is God’s creature, ‘he hath made it deep and large’! The punishments are by the lashes of his wrath, which will issue from his mouth like a stream of burning brimstone, ever kindling itself upon the soul. (Isa 30:33) Thou must know this by the Word, and fly from it, or thou shalt know it by thy sins, and lie and cry in it. I might enlarge, but if I did, I should be swallowed up; for we are while here no more able to set forth the torments of hell, than we are whole here to set forth the joys of heaven; only this may, and ought to be said, that God is able, as to save, so to cast into hell. (Luke 12:5) And as he can make heaven sweet, good, pleasurable, and glorious beyond thought; so he can make the torments of hell so exquisite, so hot, so sharp, so intolerable, that no tongue can utter it, no, not the damned in hell themselves. (Isa 64:4) If thou loves thy soul, slight not the knowledge of hell, for that, with the law, are the spurs which Christ used to prick souls forward to himself withal. What is the cause that sinners can play so delightfully with sin? It is that they forget there is a hell for them to descend into for their so doing when they go out of this world. For here usually, he gives our stop to a sinful course; we perceive that hell hath opened her mouth before us. Lest thou should forget, I beseech thee, another time, to retain the knowledge of hell in thine understanding, and apply the burning-hot thoughts thereof to thy conscience; this is one way to make thee gather up thy heels, and mend thy pace in thy coming to Jesus Christ, and to God the Father by him.
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