Ezek. xxxiii. 11Ezek.
Say to them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways, for, why will ye die, O house of Israel?
IT has been explained, and proved, that God taketh pleasure in men’s conversion and salvation, but not in their death or damnation. He would rather they would turn and live, than go on and die:—That he may leave man no pretence to doubt of it, the Lord hat confirmed it to us by his oath. Yea, farther, so earnest is God for the conversion of sinners, that he doubleth his commands and exhortations with vehemency, Turn ye, turn ye.
Having already illustrated and applied each of these points, let us come to the next doctrine, and hear your reasons.
Doct. 6. The Lord condescends to reason the case with unconverted sinners, and to ask them why they will die.
A strange disputation it is, both as to the controversy and as to the disputants.
1. The controversy or question, propounded to dispute of, is, “Why wicked men will damn themselves?” Or, “Why they will rather die than turn?” Whether they have any sufficient reason for so doing?
2. The disputants are God and man; the most holy God, and wicked unconverted sinners.
Is it not a strange thing, which God doth seem here to suppose, that any man should be willing to die and be damned? Yea, that this should be the case of the wicked; that is, of the greatest part of the world: But, you will say, this cannot be, for nature desireth the preservation and felicity of itself, and the wicked are more selfish than others, and not less; and therefore how can any man be willing to be damned?—To which I answer:
1. It is a certain truth that no man can be willing of any evil as evil, but only as it hath some appearance of good; much less can any man be willing to be eternally tormented. Misery, as such, is desired by none.
2. But yet, for all that, it is most true which God here teacheth us, that the cause, why the wicked die and are damned, is, because, they will die and be damned. And this is true in several respects.
1. Because they will go the way that leads to hell, though they are told by God and man whither it goes, and where it ends; and though God hath so often professed in his word, that if they hold on in that way, they shall be condemned, and that they shall not be saved unless they turn, Isaiah xlviii. 22. and lvii. 21. “There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.” Isaiah lix. 8. “The way of peace they know not; there is no judgment in their goings; they have made them crooked paths; whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.” They have the word and the oath of the living God for it; that, if they will not turn, they shall not enter into his rest.—And yet wicked they are, and wicked they will be, let God and man say what they will; fleshly they are, and fleshly they will be, worldlings they are, and worldlings they will be; though God hath told them that “the love of the world is enmity to God; and that if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him,” James 4. iv. 1 John ii. 15. So that, consequently, these men are willing to be damned, though not directly; they are willing to walk in the way to hell, and love the certain cause of their torment; though they be not willing of hell itself, and do not love the pain which they must endure.
Is not this the truth of your case, sinners? You would not burn in hell; but you will kindle the fire by your sins, and cast yourselves into it; you would not be tormented with devils for ever, but you will do that which will certainly procure it, in despite of all that can be said against it. It is just as if you would say, “I will drink this poison, but you I will not die. I will cast myself headlong from the top of a steeple, but yet I will not kill myself.—I will thrust this knife into my heart, but yet I will not take away my life. I will put this fire into the thatch of my house, but yet I will not burn it.”—Just so it is with wicked men; they will be wicked, and they will live after the flesh and the world, and yet they would not be damned. But do you not know that the means do lead to the end? and that God hath by his righteous law concluded, that you must repent or perish? He, that will take poison, may as well say plainly, “I will kill myself;” for it will prove no better in the end: Though perhaps he loved it for the sweetness of the sugar that was mixt with it, and would not be persuaded that it was poison, but that he might take it and do well enough; but it is not his conceits and confidence that will save his life. So, if you will be drunkards, or fornicators, or worldlings, or live after the flesh, you may as well say plainly, “We will be damned.” for so you will be unless you turn. Would you not rebuke the folly of a thief or murderer, that would say, “I will steal and kill, but I shall not be hanged,” when he knows that, if he do the one, the judge in justice will see that the other be done? If he say, “I will steal and murder,” he may as well say plainly, “I will be hanged.” So, if you will go on in a carnal life, you may as well say plainly, “We will go to hell.”
2. Moreover, the wicked will not use those means, without which there is no hope of their salvation. He that will not eat, may as well say plainly, he will not live, unless he can tell how to live without meat; he that will not go his journey, may as well say plainly he will not come to the end. He that falls into the water, and will not come out, nor suffer another to help him out, may as well say plainly, he will be drowned. So if you be carnal and ungodly, and will not be converted, nor use the means by which you should be converted, but think it more ado than needs, you may as well say plainly, you will be damned. For if you have found out a way to be saved without conversion, you have done that which was never done before.
3. Yes, this is not all; but the wicked are unwilling even to partake of salvation itself. Tho’ they may desire somewhat which they call by the name of heaven, yet heaven itself, considered in the true nature of its felicity, they desire not; yea, their hearts are quite against it. Heaven is a state of perfect holiness, and of continual love and praise to God and the wicked have no heart to this. The imperfect love, and praise, and holiness, which is here to be attained, they have no mind of; much less of that which is so much greater: The joys of heaven are of so pure and spiritual a nature, that the heart of the wicked cannot desire them.
So that by this time you may see on what ground it is, that God supposeth that the wicked are willing their own destruction; they will rather venture on certain misery than be converted; and then, to quiet themselves in their sins, they will make themselves believe that they shall nevertheless escape.
2. And as this controversy is matter of wonder (that even men should be such enemies to themselves, as wilfully to cast away their souls) so are the disputants too. That God should stoop so low as thus to plead the case with man; and that men should be so strangely blind and obstinate as to need all this in so plain a case; yea, and to resist all this, when their own salvation lieth upon the issue!
No wonder that they will not hear us that are men, when they will not hear the Lord himself: As God saith, Ezek. iii. 7, when He sent the prophet to the Israelites, “The house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted” No wonder if they can plead against a minister, or a godly neighbour, when they will plead against the Lord himself; even against the plainest passages of his word, and think that they have reason on their side. When they weary the Lord with their words, they say, “Wherein have we wearied Him?” Mal. ii. 17. The priests, that despised His name, durst ask, “Wherein have we despised your name?” And when they polluted his altar, and made the temple of the Lord contemptible they durst say, “Wherein have we polluted thee?” Mal. i. 6, 7. But “Wo unto him, saith the Lord, that striveth with his Maker: Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth: Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it, What makest thou?” Isaiah xlv. 9.
*Quest.*But why is it that God will reason the case with man?
Ans. 1. Because that man being a reasonable creature, is accordingly to be dealt with, and by reason to be persuaded and overcome; God hath therefore endowed them with reason, that they might use it for him. One would think a reasonable creature should not go against the clearest and the greatest reason in the world, when it is set before him.
2. At least, men shall see that God did require nothing of them that was unreasonable, but that whatever forbideth them, he hath all the right reason in the world on his side: And they have good reason to obey him, but none to disobey. And thus even the damned shall be forced to justify God, and confess that it was only reasonable that they should have turned to him; and they shall be forced to condemn themselves, and confess that they had little reason to cast away themselves by the neglecting of His grace in the day of their visitation.