Sinner's sobs, or, The way to Sion, and The Importance of Sobriety
CRAWFORD'S TRACTS.
No. 1.
THE SINNER'S SOBS;
OR, THE
Way to Sion,
A SERMON.
DEMONSTRATING
The absolute necessity of true Godly Sorrow, for the Sinner's safety.
BY THE REV. THOS. BOSTON.
PRINTED IN THE YEAR
1820.
THE SINNER'S SOBS;
OR, THE
Way to Sion's Joy.
Acts ii.37.
IN this chapter you have an account of the effects of the Apostle St. Peter's famous Sermon; having told the Jews in the verses before my text, that they were the men that had crucified the Lord of life, and shed the blood of the Son of God, that they had consented to it and imbrued their hands in it. This stung their consciences, and pricked their hearts: the arrows of the Lord, which the Apostles had shot secretly into their souls, came home to their hearts and consciences, that they could hear no longer; but came to Peter and the rest, and said, What shall we do to be saved?
The doctrine which I would briefly speak of from these words is this:
Doctrine an unfeigned sorrow and contrition of heart, convinced of God's hatred of sin, is absolutely necessary to salvation.
This is that we call the beginning of the work of grace, even in the bruising of a sinner's heart, under the sense of any sin committed.
To prove this to be absolutely necessary to salvation, not only scripture, but reason will tell us. For scripture see the 1 Cor. vii. 10. Godly sorrow causeth repentance unto salvation. And as the Prophet David in the bitterness of his spirit, said, Thou keepest mine eyes waking, and my sin is ever before me. If the Lord loves a sinner and means to do him good, he will not let the sinner alone in his own sinful courses, but will free him from his den, bruise and beat him as in a mortar. What caused David's sorrow but his sin? He needed no restoring, had he not been degraded.
Well then, is this a work of grace! Is this contrition and sorrow for sin, a beginning of repentance; then it must needs be of great necessity to salvation.
Now, that something may be hinted to put sinners in a way to this unfeigned sorrow, let me beg of you, in the bowels of love, earnestly desiring your souls welfare, to meditate seriously on these three things, which will if set home by the spirit of God, help you to the after work, even hearty sorrow and true contrition.
I. Look over your past life, and labour to see the goodness and patience of God, who hath been abused and despised by that unkind dealing of yours. Oh, souls! remember the days of old, and reckon up God's gracious dealings with you. Were you ever in want, who supplied you? Were you ever in weakness, who strengthened you? In sickness, who cured you? In misery, who succoured you? Was it not the Lord? And how can you forget him, who forget not you in your low estate? Will you reward the Lord thus? What shall I say of you? Hear, O heavens, and hearken O earth! The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; and will you not acknowledge God's kindness and goodness to you? Look into your houses, go to your tables and beds, and say, who gives these, and continues them to us? Doth not the Lord? and yet ye sin against this God. Certainly, my friends, serious meditation on this must break the heart, and cause sorrow for sin! But,
II. If the mercy, goodness, and long patience of God, will not move nor melt you, consider that God is just too, if mercy cannot prevail, you will have justice enough. Take heed, O hard hearted and undaunted sinners, the just law contemned, and these righteous statutes that have been broken, and that God that hath been provoked by you will be revenged of you. Where's Nimrod and Nebuchadnezzar, Pharoah and Herod, and all these proud persons that set their mouths against God, and their hearts against heaven; what is now become of them! they are now in the bottomless pit of hell.
As the apostle saith, our God is a consuming fire, Heb. xiii. 20. And if my fire be kindled it shall burn to the bottom of hell. Meditate then on the justice of God provoked! lest thou art called to the bar too soon to answer for thy sins; and certainly a serious meditation here must needs provoke an unfeigned contrition.
III. Meditate on the cost and punishment of sin. Consider, O stubborn sinner, what will sin cost you! namely, those torments that cannot be conceived. Hath not the God of heaven and earth, with all his attributes, passed before you, viz. his long-suffering; hath not all these come to your hearts and whispered in your ears, and said, "Bounty hath kept you, patience hath borne with you, long-suffering hath endured you, mercy hath relieved you, the goodness of God hath been gracious to you." All these will bid you all adieu, and then you will be sentenced to the bottomless pit, where thy companions will be devils, horror the language, brimstone and fire the torture, and eternal death the soul's eternal life. Certainly, my friends, serious meditation on this must break the heart, and cause sorrow for sin.
What a terrible day shall this be, when thou shalt leave this mansion and enter into an unknown region! Who can defend thee from those hellish monsters? God is incensed, hell prepared, justice threatened, only mercy must prevent, or the soul is damned. O miserable news, the soul committed sin. But to give you some reasons why there must be this piercing wounding of souls for sin.
1 Reason. Because sin is the greatest evil of the soul, and the greatest burden also that is most grievous which is most heavy. Now, as there is no evil so properly and directly evil to the soul as the evil of sin is, so there is nothing that can properly do the soul good but God. Now, while a sinner cannot see his sin, he cannot sorrow for his sin. Now it is a godly sorrow that causeth repentance unto life, as yon may see in 2 Cor. vii. 10. And assuredly the soul that sees not the evil of sin, shall fall by the evil of punishment.
2 Reason, 'Why unfeigned sorrow and contrition of heart for sin is necessary to salvation.' Because, by sound sorrow, the soul is truly prepared and fitted for Jesus Christ, as you may see in the Prophet Jer. xi. 3. Plow up the fallen ground of your hearts, and sow not among thorns. What is it else, hut to have the heart pierced with the terrors of the Lord, by a sound saying, sorrow for sin. 'Plow up the corruptions which are the thorns and thistles in your hearts,' as the Prophet David saith, Psalm li. 27. 'Tis a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. The heart must be broken all to pieces, beaten to powder, and must be content to be weaned from all sin, which is the way to be fitted for Jesus Christ.
3. Reason. The soul cannot part with its sins and lusts, which is its god, until he find himself wearied with them, and as gall and wormwood to him; and now this weariedness and burden of sin, must needs cause in the soul a sound sorrow for it, before the soul sees the venomous and ugly nature of it, he is not willing to part with it. Go to pull away the adulterer's whore, and the drunkard's pot, you had as good go to kill them; the reason is because they find sweetness in those base courses, and they are all their delight. But now, when the Lord comes to lay a heavier weight on this man's shoulders than those wicked sins, which were so sweet before, he finds them now as bitter as gall and wormwood; and now he lies down in sorrow, and cries out, "Oh is sin such a deadly killing evil, as it will certainly destroy body and soul in hell. And is there no entering into heaven with the guilt of these upon my soul. Oh, good Lord, do what thou wilt with me, only take my soul and save me, and take away my lusts and corruption from me."
Thus have you briefly the reasons of the print, that this is the way of God's working; that sorrow and contrition of heart for sin, is the way to conversion from sin, and a turning to God. I now proceed to the application.
The first shall be for instruction.
The second for reproof and complaint.
The third for exhortation.
Use 1. It is so that this sorrow, under the burden and weight of sin, will pierce a man's soul to the quick, and grinds him as it were to powder; being run through by the arrows of the Almighty, and that it is of so great necessity to be humbled, and greatly sorrowful for sin. Then let this teach us now to carry ourselves one towards another, and to such as God hath dealt thus with, having their souls pierced. O do you pity them. They lie down in sorrow, eat the bread of adversity; and drink the water of affliction; have compassion on them. See what the Lord says, Deut. xxii. 1. Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox, nor his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them; thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother.
And henceforth the Lord commanded mercy to be shewn to the unreasonable creature that is wearied with the weight he carries. Hath the Lord care of oxen, and O wilt thou help to ease the herd of thy brother, that is thus tried with the wrath of the Almighty! Do you see, and cannot mourn for them. pray for them, and speak in the behalf of distressed souls. See what Job saith, Chap. xix. 11. 22. 23. Oh, saith he, that my sorrows were all weighed, they would prove heavier than the sands. As if he had said, O my friends have pity upon me? What, have you no regard for a man in misery? Have you no pity, though he cry in bitterness of his soul? Help, help, for the Lord's sake? O, pray for, and pity those wounds and vexations of spirit, which no man feels but he that is thus wounded. The poor man lies crying under the burden of sin, sighing and saying, Oh, when will. God revive his drooping soul! Certainly it would make one's heart bleed to hear the sounding away of such a man, that the sword of the Almighty hath pierced his heart, and he lying breathing out his sorrow, as though he was going down to hell. It is a sign that soul is marked for destruction of himself, who harboureth such a desperate design against poor wounded souls. Oh! could you see Job all smitten with boils, he lying miserably forlorn in the eye of men; and would you not lend him a hand nor a mouth to help him. Can you endure to see them pricked to the heart, roaring and staring under the heavy yoke and burden of their sins, crying out, What shall we do to be saved? O what shall we do to escape hell and damnation, and those unsupportable and unquenchable flames of the wrath of God? Canst thou stand still, and say or do nothing; or rather, canst thou upbraid them. O soul, assuredly the Lord will remember thee in the day of thy death, and as thou hast shewn no mercy, so shalt thou receive no mercy in that day; such willing and violent opposers of God's grace, the Lord will bring them one day on a bed of languishing, and make them roar by force, under the violence of his wrath; 'O friends, be troubled at others troubles, and mourn in secret for all them that mourn under the terrible burden of their sin.'
Use 2. And here let me make a lamentation, in the nature of reproof, against the secure souls in this generation wherein we live; the Lord be merciful unto a world of men, that live within the bosom of the church. O that we had a fountain of tears to bewail this age, in this respect; as Diogenes went about Athens, with a lanthorn and candles, at noon day, seeking honest men; so should a minister go from country to country, and from shire to shire. O how few would he find mourning for sin. Sin is so far from being a burden to them, that it is their sport and pastime, just like Esau. What did he when he had ate and drank? He rose up to play, Gen. xxv. How few are there like Ephraim, who smite upon their thigh, and cry out, What have I done. Men upon their ale-benches, can swear, drink, rail against God, and defy the Holy One of Israel. O! how few rail against their sins, and wish the death and destruction of them. How few cry out, Men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved: but or the contrary. O that it were soundly lamented for and reproved. Many do despight to the spirit of grace, and glory in these things for which they have cause to be ashamed. Says the vile swearer, I have swore such a man out of his house. Saith the drunkard, I have drank such a man under the table dead.
O sinners! pray read that place of the apostle, and there you may see your doom. I speak to impudent and incorrigible sinners, 2 Thes. ii. 12. That all will be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. These words should shake one's heart to think on them, and the Lord in mercy look upon you, and make sin as loathsome and bitter to you as ever it hath been sweet and pleasant. Oh, sport not with sin. Consider that Dives, for a drunken feast here had a dry feast in hell, and could not get one drop of water to cool his tongue. So will it be with you; you must either repent and mourn for sin, or else burn for ever. What wilt thou do, O man, when God shall come to tear thee in pieces, and there be none to help; when God shall grant the devil leave to take thee into his accursed mansions, and there shalt thou lie, weeping and gnashing of thy teeth for ever; there shalt thou lie blaspheming, with God's wrath, like a pile of fire upon thy soul, burning with floods and seas of tears, which thou mayest shed, but shall never quench it. Which way soever thou lookest, thou shalt see matter and cause of everlasting grief. Look up to heaven, and there thou shalt see, O! that God is good for ever. Look about thee, and thou shalt see devils quaking and cursing God, and thousands, nay millions, of sinful damned creatures, crying, and roaring out with doleful shrieks! "O the day that ever I was born." Look within thee, there is a guilty conscience continually gnawing thee. Look on the time past; O! those golden days of grace, and sweet seasons of mercy are gone. Look to the time to come, and there shalt thou behold devils, troops and swarms of sorrows and woes, and raging waves, and billows of wrath coming roaring on thee. Fly from it, О fools, before you feel it, bewail yourselves, be sorry, grieve and mourn, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, be pricked to the heart: go tell God you cannot bear your sins, they are too heavy for you, much more the punishment; complain to him who is able to ease you. O vex not the righteous soul of the godly from day to day, neither grieve the holy spirit of God, but be converted, that we may live. Cry mightily to the Lord, per-adventure he may hear, and forget, and forgive all your provocations; weep that you have not lamented more; and grieve that you have not grieved more for sin.
Use 3, Is of exhortation, to exhort and beseech poor unconverted sinners that are under the command of the prince of the power of the air, who are strangers to God and aliens to the covenant of promise, who have lived all this while without God in the world, to come in hither, and take the right way to bring your hearts to a right pitch of sorrow. Let me tell you it will never repent you at the last day, that you have had your heart humbled; it will never repent you that you have wept, when our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ comes to wipe away all tears from your eyes. Hear what our blessed Saviour saith, Matt. v. 4. Blessed are all they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Is it not better to endure a little torment here for a small time, than to be tormented in hell fire for ever? O, therefore, if you desire ever to see the face of God with comfort, and to have Christ speak for you, break your hearts with sorrow for sin. For the Lord's sake do not cozen yourselves. It is not only the tears of the eye, but the blood of the heart, your sins must cost; and till you come to this, never think your sorrow is good. This sorrow consists, not in a bare rending of garments, or change of apparel, or denying themselves those outward ornaments, as some people of late days do foolishly conceive, who had been filled with desperate hypocrisy, having left off here, and gone no further; but you must break off your hearts, wound yourselves here, and be driven into amazement for sin, or else it will live with you here and in hell too. O! therefore, when God begins to work, follow the blow, and say with the Prophet David, Psalm xxiii. 2. Our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us. Get your consciences wounded, and resolve not to hear the counsel of carnal friends. Go thou and lie at God's footstool, and confess thy sins before him, for it is he that confesseth and forsaketh all, shall find mercy; and where there is this true and hearty confession, there must needs be a godly sorrow for sin.
To provoke you to it, let me leave you two or three motives.
1. Consider it is not a vain thing that you are exhorted to, but that upon which the life of your souls, depends; for without a thorough sense and pricking at the heart for sin, there is no salvation from sin. He that would be Christ's disciple, must leave all he hath, father, mother, wife, children, all that's near and dear to him, and take up the cross and follow Christ. He that would be a true covenant must both confess and grieve for sin, as the Prophet Ezekiel saith, They shall remember their ways that were not good, and shall be ashamed. O then be persuaded, poor careless and unregenerate sinners, to mind the check of your conscience within you, and the clear perspicuous light of the gospel without you, and come among the number of mourners to mourn for sin. You may mourn your eyes out hereafter, and answer no purpose. Better weep here a while, than for ever in hell; for our Lord Jesus hath said, Blessed are the mourners, for they shall be comforted. O souls, these are no trivial things; press you to; the Lord make you serious in your sorrow for sin, that it may be such godly sorrow as worketh life and peace.
2. Consider deep and hearty sorrow for, and true confession of sin, is a very honourable thing in the eyes of God and good men. O souls, it will tend to your everlasting honour and renown. In the great day, when God shall acquit you before all the world, both angels, men, and devils; and say, 'Here behold the ingenious confessor, and the true godly mourner, who was not ashamed to say, in sin I was conceived, and in iniquity brought forth.' This weeping soul have comforted with my spirits, and he stands justified by my son's merits. I'll honour him with a mantle that is better than that of all the daughters. Come then, Oh soul, see among the mourners in Zion, as every one desires to be comforted, and as every one would be so highly honoured.
3. Consider then that godly sorrow and confession of sin is a safe thing; it is the best and safest way to heaven and glory. Is it safe to contend with God! Can briars and thorns contend with God in battle? Is it safe to fall into the hands of the living God with the guilt of all your sins on you? No, therefore consider what I have said, and the way I have fixed on, viz. Godly sorrow, and true heart-breaking for sin; and the Lord give you understanding in all things.
Now to God the Father God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost three persons and one God, be given (as is most due,) all honour, glory, and praise, now and for ever. Amen.
Importance of Sobriety
ILLUSTTATED BY
THE EVILS OF INTEMPERANCE.
CYRUS, when quite a youth, at the court of his grandfather, Astyages, undertook one day to perform the office of cup-bearer. He delivered the cup very gracefully, but omitted the usual custom of first tasting it himself. The king reminded him of it, supposing he had forgotten:
"No, Sir," replied Cyrus; "but I was afraid there might be poison in it; for I have observed that the lords of your court, after drinking, become noisy, quarrelsome, and frantic; and that even you, Sir, seem to have forgotten that you were a king."—"Does not the same thing," replied Astyages, "happen to your father?"— "Never," answered Cyrus.—"How then?—"Why, when he has taken what wine he chooses, he is no longer thirsty—that is all."
Happy the man who shall live in those days in which the practice of excessive drinking shall be universally laid aside, and detested! At present, we can scarcely name a vice more common, or that is carried to a more alarming height. It prevails in the city, in the town, in the village, in the hamlet, among gentlemen, who ought to blush for its vulgarity, and among labourers, who can ill bear the expense. Are there not intemperate young men, intemperate old, men, intemperate parents, intemperate magistrates, intemperate professors of religion, intemperate preachers of the Gospel! Oh! could we view the scenes which intemperance creates in the ale-house, the tavern, and the festive parlour; what grief, what indignation, within us! There is woe, there is sorrow, there is contention, there is babbling, there is redness of eyes, there are wounds without cause.
To mark exactly the line which separates sobriety from excess, is not easy. While a man preserves his eye and his understanding clear, while he speaks without faultering, while his passions are undisturbed, and his step firm; who shall accuse him? Yet, with all these favourable appearances, he may be guilty.
There may be excess, where there is no discovery of it; it is well for those who abhor the former as much as they would dread the latter. To them conscience is a better guide than a thousand rules. Every one knows when he has quenched his thirst, diluted his food, refreshed his spirits; what does a man want more? "He claims a cheerful glass in addition." We are jealous of that cheerful glass; we fear it will prove one too many; and such assuredly it is, when it becomes questionable to a man's own mind, whether he is intoxicated or still sober.
Let him that would guard against all approaches of this habit, consider the evils which attend it.
Excessive Drinking is imprudent. It brings dimness and decay over the faculties of the soul; it has made the rich poor, and the condition of the poor intolerable; it robs a man of his real friends, and gathers round him designing knaves, and empty fools; it destroys the taste for innocent and solid pleasure; it arms reflection with a sting; it sows the seed of innumerable disorders; it has brought millions to a premature grave.
Excessive Drinking is sinful. Usually it suspends the exercise of sound reason, and thus levels the noblest distinction between men and brutes; it is an ungrateful waste of the Creator's bounty; it is disobedience: our Lord having expressly commanded his disciples to take heed, lest at any times their hearts should be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness: it is a practice of which the natural effect is to stupify conscience; then vice rushes in like a flood, confidence is betrayed, anger storms, the defiled heart meditates fornication and adultery, the robber is wrought up to the ruffian pitch, duty and danger are equally despised.—Go to the drunkard's residence: what injustice, what barbarity, what, wretchedness, are exemplified there! Imagine the offender to be poor, and you complete the picture. He who should be the counsellor, the comfort, the ornament, of that family, is its tempter, its trouble, its reproach. His wife and children, when alone, enjoy a respite, and begin to brighten up; he returns, they tremble, and are again distracted. He has spent their money, he has quarrelled, he has met with mischief: sometimes he forgets it—and then he only disgusts them with buffoonery and nonsense; more frequently he remembers it—and then he wreaks upon then the spite and fury collected and inflamed amidst a drunken stew; and they must bear it; they must be stunned by his stupid roar; they must weather the tempest of blasphemy; they must be sickened by the approach of his loathsome person; they, for his prodigacy, must appear half-naked, and live half-starved.
Excessive Drinking is a habit soon formed, stupid in its growth, and hard to root up. At first a man drinks for refreshment, he then takes a larger draught for pleasure, he still adds a little and a little, till he can never have his cups without taking a little too much. His appetite increases as it is indulged; the quantity, which once intoxicated, now does but just cheer him; he feels a craving, he removes it by excess; he craves again, and becomes miserable if he does not again receive an extravagant supply. Thus he degenerates into the finished sot; and then, whatever intervals of remorse disturb him, whatever tears flow, whatever promises and vows are shattered, he generally relapses, grows worse and worse, and—dies. It may be easy, O young man, to refrain in these thy sober days; but intemperance, when perfected into a habit, defies the powers of a warning voice, and would in every instance lead us to withdraw our counsels in despair, but that we recollect, a dying thief has been converted, God is able of stone to raise up children unto Abraham, with God all things are possible!
We shall be well rewarded, if, by means of this paper, one person, hitherto ignorant and insensible, be led to the Saviour. He will blush and mourn for the past; but his prospects will open into a glorious immortality. Disgusted with the pollution of the world, and with the excess of riot to which he himself may have run, he will henceforth keep under his body, and bring it into subjection, he will abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; in one word, he will live under the influence of this apostolic and most important exhortation:
"Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."
FINIS.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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