·Fear and Reverence. 185 the promises of God in the soul; God receives no more glory from the faith of any, than from those of the greatest sinners through their repentance. 7. Fear and reverence. Such will never despise the riches of that goodness and patience which has been given out to him, Rom. 2. 4, because it has led him to repentance; and he will not provoke that goodness which is conducting him to the enjoyment of all the fruits of repentance, to throw him off. There is forgiveness with thee, saith David, that thou mayest be feared, or worshipped, Psa. 130. 4. If God should set a mark of death upon every iniquity, who could stand in his presence, or have any hope to be heard? but because he is a God of forgiveness, therefore he is reverenced; therefore the more forgiveness he doth expend upon any, the more he is reverenced. After a man's return to God, his fear of God is increased upon a more ingenuous account; for he fears God and his goodness, Hos. 3. 5, whereas before he feared God and his power, God and his justice. And the Jews of whom he there speaks, shall fear, or reverence that goodness the more; because the sin he has pardoned was so great, as the crucifying the Son of God, which according to their Father's wish lay upon the heads of all their posterity. " God's goodness once, tasted, will make ingenuity afraid to offend him. Self interest also will make them afraid to provoke that mercy that formally relieved them, to cashier them out of his favour. When the man was in the deep dungeon, where the fetters of sin entered into his very soul, and bound up under the terrors of the law, whenmercy stepped in, and delivered him, and poured oil into his wounds, he will be afraid to provoke that mercy to leave him in the same condition in which it found him, and from whence it drew him. He will be loath to be numbered amongst the crew of transgressors, and bank of galley-slaves, from whence he has been redeemed. He that hath tasted the bitterness of sin, will fear to commit it; and he that bath felt the sweetness of mercy, will fear to offend it. I might add, for others' sakes, to engage them to come to Christ. Every conversion of a great sinner is a new copy of God's love; it is a repeated proclamation of the transcendency of his grace. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, Eph. 2. 5, 6. God hath quickened those rank sinners, that were as black as darkness itself, and hath raised them to a condition of light; why? Not only for themselves, but that in the ages to come he might shew forth, roepßåλλovra, transcendent riches of his grace, ver. 7. It was a picture God drew of his own heart, and exposed to the view of the world, that they might know by the gracious entertainment, and high advancement of those sinners, how liberal he is, and would always be in the distributions of his grace, that penitent sinners of as great stains might be encouraged in all ages to rely upon him. This was his design in Paul's conversion in this chapter; Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting, ver. 16. A pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him. He sets up this apostle as a white flag to invite rebels to treat with him, and return to their loyalty. As every great judg ment upon a grand sinner is as the hanging a man in chains, to deter others from the like practice; so every conversion is not only an act of God's mercy to the convert, but an invitation to the spectators. This is the argument David useth to persuade God to pour into him the joy of his salvation; Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, &c. Psal. 51. 12, 13. I will make all Jerusalem ring of it; and sinners, seeing the multitude and long train of thy tender mercies, shall fly into thy arms to be partakers of the same grace. For every great conversion is as a Fear and Reverence. 187 sea-mark, to guide 'others into a safe harbour. And indeed this he tells God, when he had received pardon, that this would be the issue of God's pardon to David, Psal. 52. 5, 6, which is thought to be penned upon the same occasion, as Psal. 51, when, ver. 5, he had been forgiven, he tells God what the effect upon others would be, For this shall every one that is godly, &c. ver. 6, judging it the fittest time to come when God is dealing out his mercy. Such effects we find when Christ was upon the earth; when Christ called Matthew, Mark 2. 14, the next news we hear, ver. 15, is, that many publicans and sinners sat down with him, and followed him. Many of the same tribe were encouraged by this kindness to one of their fellows, to attend upon him. As when a physician comes into an house where many are sick, and cures one that is desperate, it is an encouragement to the rest to rely upon his skill. When Christ gives an experiment of his art on any sinner near thee, it is a call from heaven as well to excite thy emulation to come to him, as thy astonishment at it. As the conversion of the Gentiles was to provoke the Jews to jealousy; Salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke, &c. Rom. 11. 11. Indeed such conversions may more rationally move men, than any miracle can objectively move the sense. To see such a remarkable change wrought in the soul of a devil, in a diabolical nature. If men believe not in Christ after the sight of such standing miracles, it is an aggravation of their impenitence, as much as any miracle Christ wrought upon the earth, was of the Jews' obstinacy, and does put as black a dye upon it. Ye, when you had seen it, repented not afterward, that you might believe him, Mat. 21. 32. Not any great sinner that thou hast seen take heaven by violence, but is writ down by God as a yet upon all thy unbelief. And how many hundred yets may Christ bring against thee, upon the account of others converted round about thee. The yet set upon Paul may refer to this, Acts 9. 1, because in the foregoing chapter Luke had related the successful progress of the gospel in Samaria and Jerusalem, which was an evidence of the power of this new doctrine; yet Paul proceeded in his persecuting fury, against such clear testimonies. Had you been in the times of Christ, and seen those miracles he wrought among the Jews, you would all think you should never have been so stupid as they were, but would presently have believed in him upon a sight of those wonders. Let me tell you, the success of Christ's grace upon the souls of men, whereof you have seen many evidences, is a greater miracle, by Christ's own confession, than usually he wrought for he tells the apostles, they should work greater works, John 14. 12, which he means of their success in converting work. And so thy impenitency has as great aggravations as the Jewish perversity. Let every such conversion of a great sinner be a ground of hope to thee, and a spur in thy side. Further, such conversions evidence that God's commands are practicable, that his yoke is not burdensome. Men naturally think God a hard master, that his commands are impossible to be performed; but when they see men that had lain soaking in sin many years, to have a fresh and fair verdure by grace, to run with delight in the ways of God's commands: when they see men that had the greatest prejudices against the ways of God, thoroughly turned, they may think with themselves, why may not I observe those commands? Is it more impossible for me, than such a one? It is natural to men not to believe, unless they see miracles; Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe, John 4. 48. Therefore all the standing miracles God hath left in the world, are the extraor dinary conversions of men, and the worst of men, that men may thereby be convinced of the power of Despair groundless. 189 the gospel, and the strength of his grace, by seeing the admirable effects of it upon others; for many times conversion begins in admiration. The use of this subject is, The doctrine manifests the power of the gospel. Nothing shows more the heavenly authority of the christian religion, and the divine efficacy of the word, than the sudden conversions of notorious sinners. That a man should enter into a church a tiger, and return a lamb. It is this little stone which is instrumental to lay lusts more giant-like than Goliah, grovelling in the dust. That Paul, mad with rage against the christians, should after an arrest in his journey embrace a religion he hated. A pharisee changed into a preacher. A persecutor commence a martyr. That one of eminent parts, in favour with the Sanhedrim, should fly from a preferment expected, and patronize a doctrine contemned in the world, and attended with poverty, misery, cruel scourgings, and death. Whenever you see such effects, take them as credentials from heaven, to maintain the credit of the word, and to assert the authority of that conclusion Paul lays down, that it is the power of God unto salvation, Rom. 1. 16. God gains a reputation to the gospel, and the power of christianity, that can in a moment change persons from beasts to men, from serpents to saints. 2. Groundlessness of despair. Despair not of others, when thou dost reflect upon thy own crimes, and considerest that God never dealt with a baser heart in the world than thine was. Was not Paul as unlike to prove a convert, as any relation of thine that wallows in his blood? Who would have thought that Onesimus should run from his master, and be catched in Christ's arms? Neither despair of thyself. Shall any soul in anguish, and covered with penitential blushes, think itself cast out of the riches of God's affectionate grace? Shall any man so much blaspheme the merciful heart of Jesus Christ, as to fly to a knife, |