that it was the Will of God that you should mind your Bodies more than your Souls and this Life more than that to come Why he hath bid you strive and run and fight and labour and care and seek and use Violence and all Diligence for the safety of your Souls and for the Life to come But where hath he bid you do so for your Bodies No he knew that you were prone to do too much for them and therefore he hath bid you Care not and labour not that is Do it as if you did it not and let your Care and Labour for earthly Things be none in comparison of that for heavenly Things You know God can as well maintain your Lives without your Care and Labour as save your Souls without it And yet you see he will not he doth not You must plough and sow and reap and thresh for all God's Love and Care of you and not say I will let all alone and trust God And must you not much more use diligence in much greater Things If you will trust God you must trust him in his own Way and in the use of his own Means The fourth Excuse I was never brought up to Learning I cannot so much as read nor did my Parents ever teach me any of these things but only set me about my worldly Business and provide Food and Raiment for me but never once told me that I had a Soul to save or lose and an everlasting Life to provide and prepare for and therefore I could not come to the Knowledg of them Answ The greater is their Sin who thus neglected you But this is no sufficient Excuse for you Heaven is not prepared for the Learned only nor will Christ ask you at Judgment whether you are good Scholars or not no nor so much as whether you could write or read But consider well Was not God's Word so plainly written that the Unlearned might understand it Did he not put it into the most familiar Stile though he knew it would be offensive to the proud Scholars of the World of purpose that he might fit it to the Capacities of the Ignorant And if you could not read yet tell me could not you have learned to read at 20 or 30 Years of Age if you had been but willing to bestow now and then an Hour to that end Or at least did you not live near some that could read and could you not have procured them to read to you or to help you and did you not hear these things read to you in the Congregation by the Minister or might have done if you would and if your Parents did neglect you in your Youth yet when you came to a fuller use of Reason and heard of the Matters of Salvation from God's Word did it not concern you to have looked to your selves and to have redeemed that time which you lost in your Youth by doubling your Diligence when you came to riper Years The Apostles gathered Churches among Heathens that never heard of Christ before and converted many thousand Souls that were never once told of a Saviour or the Way to Salvation till they had past a great part of their Lives If you loitered till the latter part of the Day it behoved you then to have bestirred your selves the more and not to say Through the Fault of my Parents I lost the beginning of my Life and therefore I will lose all they taught me not then and therefore I will not learn now Have you not seen some of your Neighbours who were as ill educated as your selves attain to much Knowledg afterwards by their Industry and why might not you have done so if you had been as industrious as they May not God and Conscience witness that it was because you cared not for Knowledg and would not be at pains to get it that you knew no more Speak truth Man in the Presence of thy Judg was thy Heart and Mind set upon it Didst thou pray daily for it to God Didst thou use all the means thou couldst to get it Didst thou attend diligently on the Word in publick and think of what thou heardst when thou camest home Didst thou go to the Minister or to others that could teach thee and intreat them to tell thee the Way to Salvation Or didst thou not rather carelesly neglect these Matters and hear a Sermon as a common tale even when the Minister was speaking of Heaven or of Hell It was not then thine unavoidable Ignorance but thy Negligence Yea further answer as in the Presence of God Didst tou obey so far as thou didst know Or didst thou not rather sin against that Knowledg which thou hadst Thou knewest that the Soul was better than the Body and everlasting Life more to be regarded than this transitory Life but didst thou regard it accordingly Thou sure knewest that God was better than the World and Heaven than Earth at least thou wast told of it but didst thou accordingly value him and love him more Thou knewest sure that there was no Salvation without Faith and Repentance and newness of Life and yet they were neglected In a word many a thousand Sins which were committed and Duties that were omitted against thy own Knowledg and Conscience will marr this Excuse The fifth Excuse I lived not under a powerful Minister to tell me of these things but where there was no preaching at all Answ And might you not have gone where a powâ—â—ful Minister was with a little pains Yea did not the very plain Word that you heard read tell you of these things and might you not have had a Bible your selves and found them there The sixth Excuse I was a Servant and had no time from my Labour to mind these matters I lived with an hard Master that required all his own Work of me but would allow me no time for the Service of God Or else I was a poor Man and had a great Charge to look after and with my hard Labour had much ado to live so that I had no time for heavenly things Answ 1. Who should be first served God or Man What should be first sought after Heaven or Earth Did not Christ tell thee One thing is necessary Luke 10. 41 42. Was it not as needful to see that you escape Damnation and get safe to Heaven when this Life is ended as to see that you had Food and Raiment for your selves and yours 2. Did you spend no time in Recreation nor Idleness nor vain talking why might not that at least have been spent about heavenly things 3. Could you have taken no time from your rest or eating or at other Intermissions Man's Body will not endure so great Labours as have no Intermission And why then might not Godliness have been your Ease and Recreation 4. Or might you not have minded these things ever when you were about your Labour if you had but a Heart to them 5. At least you might have
be transacted by Words as we do now but by clear Discoveries by the infinite Light and that if God should not discover to them their Sins he would not discover the Riches of his Grace in the Pardon of all these Sins even then they must be humbled in themselves that they may be glorified and for ever cry Not unto us Lord but unto thy Name be the Glory IV. For the fourth Particular Who will be the Accuser Answ 1. Satan is called in Scripture the Accuser of the Prethren Revel 12. 10. and we find in Joh 1. and other Places that now he doth practise it even before God and therefore we judg it probable that he will do so then But we would determine of nothing that Scripture hath not clearly determined 2. Conscience will be an Accuser though especially of the Wicked yet in some sense of the Righteâ—us for it will tell the Truth to all and therefore so far as Men are faulty it will tell them of their Faults The Wicked it will accuse of unpardoned Sin and of Sin unrepented of the Godly only of Sin repented of and pardoned It will be a Glass wherein every Man may see the Face of his Heart and former Life Rom. 1. 15. 3. The Judg himself will be the principal Accuser for it is he that is wronged and he that prosecutes the Cause and will do Justice on the Wicked God judgeth even the Righteous themselves to be Sinners or else they could not be pardoned Sinners But he judgeth the Wicked to be impenitent unbelieving unconverted Sinners Remember what I said before that it is not a verbal Accusation but an opening of the Truth of the Cause to the view of our selves and others that God will then perform Nor can any think it unworthy of God to be Mens Accuser by such a Disclosure it being no Dishonour to the purest Light to reveal a Dunghil or to the greatest Prince to accuse a Traitor Nor is it unmeet that God should be both Accuser and Judg seeing he is both absolute Lord and perfectly Just and so far beyond all suspition of Injustice His Law also doth virtually accuse Joh. 5. 45. but of this by it self V. For the fifth Particular How will the Sinners be called to the Bar Answ God will not stand to send them a Citation nor require them to make their voluntary Appearance but willing or unwilling he will bring them in 1. Before each Man's particular Judgment he sendeth Death to call away his Soul a surly Serjeant that will have no Nay How dear soever this World may be to Men and how loth soever they are to depart away they must and come before the Lord that made them Death will not be bribed Every Man that was set in the Vineyard in the Morning of their Lives must be called out at Evening to receive according to what he hath done then must the naked Soul alone appear before its Judg and be accountable for all that was done in the Body and be sent before till the final Judgment to remain in Happiness or Misery till the Body be raised again and joined to it In this Appearance of the Soul before God it seemeth by Scripture that there is some Ministry of Angels for Luke 16. 22. it is said that the Angels carried Lazarus that is his Soul into Abraham's Bosom What local Motion there is or Situation of Souls is no fit Matter for the Enquiry of Mortals and what it is in this that the Angels will do we cannot clearly understand as yet but most certain it is that as soon as ever the Soul is out of the Body it comes to its account before the God of Spirits 2. At the end of the World the Bodies of all Men shall be raised from the Earth and joined again to their Souls and the Soul and Body shall be judged to their endless State and this is the great and general Judgment where all Men shall at once appear The same Power of God that made Men of nothing will as easily then new-make them by a Resurrection by which he will add much more Perfection even to the Wicked in their Naturals which will make them capable of the greater Misery even they shall have immortal and incorruptible Bodies which may be the Subjects of immortal Wo 1 Cor. 15. 53. John 5. 28 29. Of this Resurrection and our Appearance at Judgment the Angels will be someway the Ministers as they shall come with Christ to Judgment so they shall sound his Trumpet 1 Thess 4. 16. and they shall gather the Wicked out of God's Kingdom and they shall gather the Tares to burn them Matth. 13. 39 40 41. in the End of the World the Angels shall come forth and sever the Wicked from among the Just and shall cast them into the Furnace of Fire Matth. 17. 49 50. VI. For the sixth Particular What Law is it that Men shall be judged by Answ That which was given them to live by God's Law is but the Sign of his Will to teach us what shall be due from us and to us before we fell he gave us such a Law as was sutable to our Perfection when we had sinned and turned from him as we ceased not to be his Creatures nor he to be our Lord so he destroyed not his Law nor discharged or absolved us from the Duty of our Obedience But because we stood condemned by that Law and could not be justified by it having once transgressed it he was pleased to make a Law of Grace even a new a remedying Law by which we might be saved from the deserved Punishment of the Old So we shall be tried at Judgment upon both these Laws but ultimately upon the last The first Law commanded perfect Obedience and threatned Death to us if ever we disobeyed the second Law finding us under the Guilt of Sin against the first doth command us to repent and believe in Christ and so return to God by him and promiseth us pardon of all our Sins upon that Condition and also if we persevere everlasting Glory So that in Judgment though it must be first evinced that we are Sinners and have deserved Death according to the Law of pure Nature yet that is not the Upshot of the Judgment For the Enquiry will be next whether we have accepted the Remedy and so obeyed the Law of Grace and performed its Condition for Pardon and Salvation and upon this our Life or Death will depend It is both these Laws that condemn the Wicked but it is only the Law of Grace that justifieth the Righteous Obj. But how shall Heathens be judged by the Law of Grace that never did receive it Answ The express Gospel some of them had not and therefore shall not directly be judged by it but much of the Redeemer's Mercy they did enjoy which should have led them to repent and seek out after Recovery from their Misery and to come nearer Christ and for the
spent the Lord 's own Day in hearing reading and pondering of these Matters when you were forced to forbear your worldly Labours even by the wholesom Law of the Land These therefore are all but vain Excuses and God will shortly make thee speak out and plainly confess it wâ— not so much for want of Time or Helps or warning as for want of a Heart to use them well I should have found some time though it had been when I should have slept if my Heart had been but set upon it The seventh Excuse Little did I think to have senâ— this Day I did not believe that ever God would be so severe I thought his Threatnings had been but to keep Men in aweâ— and I suspected either that the Scripture was not his Word 〈◊〉 else I thought he would be better than his Word I thought all that I heard of another Life had been uncertain and therefore was loth to let go a Certainty for an Vncertainty and lose my present Pleasures which I had in hand for the Hopes oâ— that which I never did see Answ He that will not know his Misery by believing to prevent it shall know it by feeling to endure it You were told and told again what your Unbelief would bring you to Did God's Word make Heaven and Earth doth it support them and secure them and 〈◊〉 not his Word sufficient Security for you to have â—usted your Souls upon did you know where was â—y better Security to be had and where was any â—rer Ground for your Confidence And did you think 〈◊〉 basely and blasphemously of God that he would â—sify his Word lest such as you should suffer and â—at he was fain to rule the World by a Lie Did God â—ake the World so easily and can he not govern it by â—â—e and righteous Means what need God to say that â—hich he will not do to awe Sinners can he not awe â—em by Truth is it not just that those should eterâ—lly perish that will entertain such desperate Thoughts â—f God and then by such wicked Imaginations encouâ—ge themselves in Sin against him And for the Truth of Scripture God did not bid â—ou believe it without Evidence He stamped on it â—e Image of his own Purity and Perfection that you â—ight know it by that Image and Superscription if â—ou had Eyes to see them He sealed it by uncontrouled Multitudes of Miracles He delivered it down to your â—ands by infallible Witnesses so that he left you no â—oom for rational Doubting And you knew that the Matters of this World were â—ot only uncertain but certainly vain and transitory â—nd would shortly come to nothing and leave you in â—istress If it had then been uncertain whether there â—ere a Glory and Misery hereafter as it was not â—hould not Reason have taught you to prefer the least Probabilities of an everlasting unspeakable Happiness â—efore that which is certainly perishing and vain These vain Excuses will but condemn you The eighth Excuse I was so enticed and perswaded by â—inners to do as they did that I could not deny them they would never let me rest Answ And were you not as earnestly perswaded by God to forsake Sin and serve him and yet that would not prevail with you You could not deny the Devils and Fools but you could deny God and all his Messengers Were not Ministers as earnest with you even Week to repent and amend What did Men entice you with with a little deluding fleshly Pleasure for a few Days And what did God entice you with with the Promise of endless unconceivable Felicity And if this were a smaller Matter in your Eyes than the other then you have had your choice be content with it and thank your selves In your Life-time you had the good things which you chose and preferred before Heaven and therefore cannot expect to have Heaven besides The ninth Excuse I lived among ungodly Persons that derided all that feared God so that if I had not done as they did but had made any more ado to be saved I should have been the very Scorn of the Place where I lived Answ And was not Heaven worth the enduring of a Scorn Is not he worthy to go without it that thinks so basely of it Did not Christ tell you that if you were ashamed of him before Men he would be ashamed of you before his Father and the Angels of Heaven Mark 8. 38. He suffered more than Scorns for you and could not you suffer a Scorn for him and yourselves seeing you chose rather to endure everlasting Torment than a little derision from ignorant Men take that which you made choice of And seeing so small a Matter would drive you from Heaven and part God and you as a Mock as the Wind of a Man's Mouth no wonder if you be commanded to Depart from him into everlasting Fire The tenth Excuse I had ungodly Persons to my Parents or Masters or Landlord or Governours who threatned to undo me if I had addicted my self to so strict a Life and if I would not believe and do as they did Answ What if they threatned you with present Death Did not God also threaten you with everlasting Death if you were not ruled by him And whose threatning should you have chiefly feared Is Man more dreadful than God Is Death more terrible than Hell Did not Christ bid you fear not them that can kill the Body and after that can do no more but fear him that is able to â—estroy both Body and Soul in Hell-fire yea I say unto you fear him Mat. 10. 28. Luke 12. 4 5. and Isa 51. 7. Fear ye not the Reproach of Men neither be afraid of their Revilings For the Moth shall eat them up like a Garment and the Worm shall eat them like Wool but my Righteousness shall be for ever and my Salvation from Generation to Geneâ—tion Seeing therefore you have chosen rather to suffer from God for ever for your Sin than to suffer small Matters for well-doing for a Moment you must ever bear your own Choice Christ told you before-and that if you could not forsake all the World and your own Lives for him you could not be his Disciples Mat. 10. 37 38 39. And seeing you thought his Terms too hard and would needs seek you out a better Service even take what you have chosen and found The eleventh Excuse I saw so many follow their pleasure and their worldly Business and never look after these higher things and so few go the other way that I thought sure God would not damn so great a Part of the World and therefore I ventured to do as the most did Answ God will make good his Word upon many or few Did you doubt of his Will or of his Power For his Will he hath told it you in his Word For his Power he is as able to punish many as one Man What is all the World to him but as the Drop of a
〈◊〉 Governour When it tendeth to Infidelity the evil will teach you to debase Man even lower than 〈◊〉 would do The two and thirtieth Excuse Sin is no Being and â—ll Men be damned for that which is nothing Answ 1. It is such a Mode as deformeth God's Create It is a moral Being It is a Relation of our â—â—tions and Hearts to God's Will and Law 2. They that say Sin is nothing say Pain and Loss 〈◊〉 nothing too You shall therefore be paid with one â—â—thing for another Make light of your Misery and 〈◊〉 it is nothing as you did of your Sin 3. Will you take this for a good Excuse from your â—hildren or Servants if they abuse you or from a â—hief or a Murderer shall he escape by telling the â—dg that his Sin was nothing Or rather have Death â—ich is nothing as the iust Reward of it The three and thirtieth Excuse But Sin is a transtâ— Thing At least it doth God no harm and therefore why â—uld he do us so much harm for it Answ 1. It hurts not God because he is above â—rt No thanks to you if he be out of your reach You may wrong him when you cannot hurt him â—nd the Wrong deserves as much as you can bear If a â—aitor endeavour the Death of the Prince in vain 〈◊〉 Endeavour deserves Death though he never hurt him You despise God's Law and Authority you cause the Blaspheming of his Name Rom. 2. 24. He calls it a Pressing him as a Cart is pressed with Sheaves â—â—os 2. 13. and a Grieving of him 3. And you wrong his Image his Church the pubâ—â—ck Good and the Souls of others The four and thirtieth Excuse But God's Nature is so â—â—od and merciful that sure he will not damn his own Creaâ—â—re Answ 1. A merciful Judg will hang a Man for a Fault against Man By proportion then what is due for Sin against God 2. All the Death and Calamity which you see in the World comes from the Anger of this merciful God why then may not future Misery come from it 3. God knoweth his own Mercy better than you do and he hath told you how far it shall extend 4. He is infinitely merciful but it is to the Heirs of Mercy not to the final Rejecters of his Mercy 5. Hath not God been merciful to thee in bearing with thee so long and offering thee Grace in the Blood of Christ till thou didst wilfully reject it Thou wiâ—â— confess to thy everlasting Wo that God was merciful had he not been so merciful thou wouldst not have been so miserable for rejecting it The five and thirtieth Excuse I would not so torment mine Enemy my self Answ No reason you should Is it all one to wrong you and to wrong the God of Heaven God is the only Judg of his own Wrongs The sixth and thirtieth Excuse All Men are Sinners and I was but a Sinner Answ All were not impenitent unbelieving rebelious Sinners and therefore all are not unpardoned condemned Sinners All did not live after the Flesh and refuse to the last to be converted as you did God will teach you better to difference between Sinners and Sinners The seven and thirtieth Excuse But if Christ have satisfied for my Sins and died for me then how can I justly suffer for the same Sins will God punish one Sin twice Answ 1. Christ suffered for Man in the Christ of Man but not in your Person nor you in him It was not you that provided the Price but God himself Christ was not Man's Delegate in satisfying and therefore received not his Instructions from us nor did on our Terms but his own It was not the same thing which the Law threatned that Christ underwent for that was the Damnation of the Sinner himself and not the Suffering of another for him it cannot therefore be yours but on Christ's own Terms He died for thy Sin but with this intent that for all that if thou refuse him thou shalt die thy self It is therefore no wrong to thee to die for it was not thou that diedst before and Christ will take it for no wrong to him for he will judg thee to that Death It is for refusing a Christ that died for thee that thou must perish for ever The eight and thirtieth Excuse But I did not refuse Christ I believed and trusted in him to the last and repented of my Sins though I sometime was overtaken with them Answ Had this been true thy Sin would not have condemned thee But there is no mocking God He will shew thee then thy naked Heart and convince thousands that thought they believed and repented that indeed they did not By thy Works also will this be discovered that is by the main bent and scope of thy Life as Mat. 25. throughout and Jam. 2. The nine and thirtieth Excuse I did many good Works and I hope God will set those against my evil Works Answ Thy good Works were thy Sins because indeed they were not good being not done in sincerity of Heart for God The best Man's Works have some Infirmity which nothing can cleanse but the Blood of Christ which thou hast made light of and therefore hast no part in If all thy Life had been spent in perfect Works except one day they would not make satisfaction for the Sins of that Day For they are but part of thy Duty Wo to him that hath no better a Saviour at Judgment than his own good Works The fortieth Excuse I lived in Poverty and Misery on Earth and therefore I hope I have had my Suffering here and shall not suffer in this World and another too 1. By that Rule all poor Men and Murderers and Thieves that are tormented and hanged should be saved But as Godliness hath the Promise of this Life and that to come so Impenitency and Wickedness hath the Threatning of this Life and that to come 2. The Devils and the damned have suffered much more than you already and yet they are never the nearer a Deliverance When thou hast suffered ten thousand Years thy Pain will be never the nearer an end How then can a little Misery on Earth prevent it Alas poor Soul these are but the Foretasts and Beginnings of thy Sorrow Nothing but Pardon through the Blood of Christ could have prevented thy Condemnation and that thou rejectedst by Infidelity and Impenitency His Sufferings would have saved thee if thou hadst not refused him but all thy own Sufferings will yield thee no Relief So much for the answering of the vain Excuses which poor Sinners are ready to make for themselves wherein I have been so large as that this part I confess is disproportionable to the rest but it was for these two Reasons 1. That poor careless Souls might see the Vanity of such Defences and consider if such a Worm as I can easily confute them how easily and how terribly will they be all answered by their Judg 2. I did it the
Repentance when they have Consciences seared with an hot Iroâ— as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 4. 2. no wonder then 〈◊〉 they be past feeling and working all Uncleanness wiâ— greediness do make light of Christ and everlasting Glâ—â—ry O that this were not the Case of too many of 〈◊〉 Hearers Had we but living Souls to speak to theâ— would hear and feel and not make light of what 〈◊〉 saâ— I know they are naturally alive but they 〈◊〉 spiritually dead as the Scripture witnesseth Ephes 2â— O if there were but one spark of the Life of Grace them the Doctrine of Salvation by Jesus Christ woâ— appear to them to be the weightiest Business in 〈◊〉 World O how confident should I be methinks to prevail with Men and to take them off this World and bring them to mind the Matter of another World if I spake but to Men that had Life and Sense and Reason but when we speak to Blocks and dead Men how should we be regarded O how sad a Case are these Souls in that are fallen under this fearful Judgment of sâ—iritual Madness and Deadness To have a blind 〈◊〉 and an hard Heart to be sottish and sensless 〈◊〉 â—4 12. John 12. 40. lest they should be converted and their Sins should be forgiven them 6. Christ and Salvation are made light of â—y the World because they are wholly enslaved to their Sense and taken up with lower things the Matters of another World are out of sight and so far from their Senses that they cannot regard them but present things are nearer them in their Eyes and in their Hands there must be a living Faith to prevail over Sense before Men can be so taken with things that are not seen though they have the Word of God for their Security as to neglect and let go things that are still before their Eyes Sense works with great Advantage and therefore doth much in resisting Faith where it is No wonder then if it carry all before it where there is no true and lively Faith to resist and to lead the Soul to higher things this Cause of making light of Christ and Salâ—ation is expressed here in my Text One went to his â—arm and another to his Merchandize Men have Houâ—es and Lands to look after they have Wife and Children to mind they have their Body and outward Estate â—o regard therefore they forget that they have a God 〈◊〉 Redeemer a Soul to mind these Matters of the World are still with them They see these but they 〈◊〉 not God nor Christ nor their Souls nor everlasting Glory These things are near at hand and therefore work â—aturally and so work forcibly but the other are thought â—n as a great way off and therefore too distant to work â—n their Affections or be at the present so much regarded by them Their Body hath Life and Sense and therefore if they want Meat or Drink or Clothes will feel their Want and tell them of it and give them no rest till their Wants be supplied and therefore they cannot make light of their bodily Necessities but their Souls in spiritual Respects are dead and therefore â—eel not their Wants but will let them alone in their greatest Necessities and be as quiet when they are starved and languishing to Destruction as if all were well and nothing ailed them And hereupon poor People are wholly taken up in providing for the Body as if they had nothing else to mind They have their Trades and Callings to follow and so much to do from Morning to Night that they can find no time for Matters of Salvation Christ would teach them but they have no leisure to hear him the Bible is before them but they cannot have while to read it A Minister is in the Town with them but they cannot have while to go to enquire of him what they should do to be saved And when they do hear their Hearts are so full of the World and carried away with these lower Matters that they cannot mind the things which they hear They are so full of the Thoughts and Desires and Cares of this World that there is no room to pour into them the Water of Life The Cares of the World do choak the Word and make it become unfruitful Matth. 13. 22. Men cannot serve two Masters God and Mammon but they will lean to the one and despise the other Matth. 6. 24. He that loveth the World the Love of the Father is not in him 1 Jeâ—â— 2. 15 16. Men cannot choose but set light by Christ and Salvation while they set so much by any thing on Earth It is that which is highly esteemed among Men is abominable in the Sight of God Luke 16. 15. O this is the Ruine of many thousand Souls It would grieve the Heart of any honest Christian to see how eagerly this vain World is followed everywhere and how little Men set by Christ and the World to come 〈◊〉 compare the Care that Men have for the World â—ith the Care of their Souls and the time that they â—y out on the World with that time they lay out â—r their Salvation To see how the World fills their â—ouths their Hands their Houses their Hearts â—â—d Christ hath little more than a bare Title to come 〈◊〉 their Company and hear no Discourse but of the â—orld to come into their Houses and hear and see noâ—â—ing but for the World as if this World would last â—r ever or would purchase them another When I â—k sometime the Ministers of the Gospel how their â—â—bours succeed they tell me People continue still the 〈◊〉 and give up themselves wholly to the World so that 〈◊〉 mind not what Ministers say to them nor will give any 〈◊〉 Entertainment to the Word and all because of the deludâ—g World And O that too many Ministers themselves â—d not make light of that Christ whom they preach â—eing drawn away with the Love of this World In a â—ord Men of a worldly Disposition do judg of things â—cording to worldly Advantages therefore Christ 〈◊〉 slighted Isa 53. 3. He is despised and rejected of Men 〈◊〉 hide their faces from him and esteem him not as seeâ—g no Beauty or Comeliness in him that they should desire â—n 7. Christ and Salvation are made light of because â—en do not soberly consider of the Truth and Weight of â—ese necessary things They suffer not their Minds 〈◊〉 long to dwell upon them till they procure a due â—steem and deeply affect their Heart did they beâ—â—eve them and not consider of them how should they â—ork O when Men have Reason given them to think â—nd consider of the things that most concern them â—nd yet they will not use it this causeth their Conâ—â—mpt 8. Christ and Salvation are made light of because â—en were never sensible of their Sin and Misery and exâ—â—am Necessity of Christ and his Salvation Their Eyes â—ere never opened to see themselves as they are nor their
Hearts soundly humbled in the Sense of their Condition if this were done they would soon be broughâ— to value a Saviour A truly broken Heart can no moâ— make light of Christ and Salvation than a hungrâ— Man of his Food or a sick Man of the Means thâ— would give him case but till then our Woâ—â— cannot have Access to their Hearts While 〈◊〉 and Misery is made light of Christ and Salvatiâ—â— will be made light of but when these are perceivâ— an intolerable Burden then nothing will serve the 〈◊〉 but Christ Till Men be truly humbled they 〈◊〉 venture Christ and Salvation for a Lust for a litâ— worldly Gain even for less than nothing but whâ— God hath illuminated them and broken their Heaâ— then they would give a World for a Christ then thâ— must have Christ or they die all things then are Loss 〈◊〉 Dung to them in regard of the excellent Knowledg of 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. 8. When they are once pricked in their Hearâ— for Sin and Misery then they cry out Men and Brethâ— what shall we do Acts 2. 37. When they are awakeâ—â—ed by God's Judgments as the poor Jaylor 〈◊〉 16. 29. then they cry out Sirs what shall I do to 〈◊〉 saved This is the Reason why God will bring Men 〈◊〉 low by Humiliation before he bring them to Salvatâ—â—â— 9. Men take occasion to make light of Christ 〈◊〉 the Commonness of the Gospel because they do hear 〈◊〉 it every Day the frequency is an Occasion to dull thâ— Affections I say an Occasion for it is no just Cauâ— Were it a Rarity it might take more with them 〈◊〉 now if they hear a Minister preach nothing but thâ— saving Truths they say We have these every Day the make not light of their Bread or Drink their Heaâ— or Life because they possess them every day they maâ— not light of the Sun because it shineth every day least they should not for the Mercy is the greater 〈◊〉 Christ and Salvation are made light of because thâ— heaâ— of them often This is say they a good plain 〈◊〉 Seâ—mon Peaâ—ls are trod in the dirt where they are 〈◊〉 they loath this dry Manna Prov. 27. 7. The â—ull Soul loaths the Hony-comb but to the Hungry Soul â—very bitter thing is sweet 10. Christ and Salvation are made light of because of this disjunctive Presumption either that he is sure enough theirs already and God that is so merciful and â—hrist that hath suffâ—red so much for them is surely resolved to save them or else it may easily be obtained at â—ny time if it be not yet so A conceited Facility to â—ave a part in Christ and Salvation at any time doth occasion Men to make light of them It is true that Grace is free and the Offer is universal according to â—he extent of the preaching of the Gospel and it is â—rue that Men may have Christ when they will that is when they are willing to have him on his Terms but he that hath promised thee Christ if thou be willing hath not promised to make thee willing and if thou art not willing now how canst thou think thou shalt be willing hereafter If thou canst make thine own Heart willing why is it not done now Can you do it better when Sin hath more hardned it and God may have given thee over to thy felf O Sinners you might do much though you are not able of your selves to come in if you would now subject your selves to the working of the Spirit and set in while the Gales of Grace continue But did you know what a hard and impossible thing it is to be so much as willing to have Christ and Grace when the Heart is given over to it self and the Spirit hath withdrawn its former Invitations you would not be so confident of your own Strength to believe and repent nor would you make light of Christ upon such foolish Confidence If indeed it be so easy a Matter as you imagine for a Sinner to believe and repent at any time how comes it to pass that it is done by so few but most of the World do perish in their Impenitency when they have all the Helps and Means that we can afford them It is true the thing is very reasonable and easy in it self to a pure Nature but while Man is blind and dead these things are in a sort impossible to him which are never so easy to others It is the easiest and sweetest Life in the World to a gracious Soul to live in the Love of God and the delightful Thoughts of the Life to come where all their Hope and Happiness lieth But to worldly carnal Hearts it is as easy to remove a Mountain as to bring them to this However these Men are their own Condemners for 〈◊〉 they think it so easy a Matter to repent and believe and so to have Christ and Right to Salvation then have they no excuse for neglecting this which they thought so easy O wretched impenitent Soul what mean you to say when God shall ask you Why did you not repent and love your Redeemer above the World when you thought it 〈◊〉 easy that you could do it at any time IV. Vse 1. We come now to the Application And hence you may be informed of the Blindness and Folly of all carnal Men how contemptible are their Judgments that think Christ and Salvation contemptible and how littlâ— Reason there is why any should be moved by them or discouraged by any of their Scorns or Contradictions How shall we sooner know a Man to be a Fool than if he knows no difference between Dung and Gold Is there such a thing as madness in the Word if that Man be not mad that sets light by Christ and his own Salvation while he daily toils for the Dung of the Earth And yet what pity is it to see that a Company of poor ignorant Souls will be ashamed of Godliness if such Men as these do but deride them Or will think hardly of a holy Life if such as these do speak against it Hearers if you see any set light by Christ and Salvation do you set light by that Man's Wit and by his Words and hear the Reproaches of a holy Life as you would hear the Words of a Mad-man not with regard but with a Compassion of his Misery Vse 2. What wonder if we and our preaching be despised and the best Ministers complain of ill success when the Ministry of the Apostles themselves did succeed no better What wonder if for all that we can say or do our Hearers still set light by Christ and their own Salvation when the Apostles Hearers did the same They that did second their Doctrines by Miracles If any Men could have shaken and torn in pieces the Hearts of Sinners they could have done it If any could have laid them at their Feet and made them all cry out as some What shall we do it would have been they You may
everlasting Glory and everlasting Torments are would they then hear us as they do would they read and think of these things as they do I profess I have been ready to wonder when I have heard such weighty things delivered how People can forbear crying out in the Congregation much more how they can rest till they have gone to their Ministers and learned what they should do to be saved that this great Business might be put out of doubt O that Heaven and Hell should work no more on Men O that Everlastingness should work no more O how can you forbear when you are alone to think with your selves what it is to be everlastingly in Joy or in Torment I wonder that such Thoughts do not break your Sleep and that they come not in your mind when you are about your Labour I wonder how you can almost do any thing else How you can have any Quietness in your Minds How you can eat or drink or rest till you have got some Ground of everlasting Consolations Is that a Man or a Corps that is not affected with Matters of this Moment that can be readier to sleep than to tremble when he heareth how he must stand at the Bar of God! Is that a Man or a Clod of Clay that can rise and lie down without being deeply affected with his everlasting Estate that can follow his worldly Business and make nothing of the great Business of Salvation or Damnation and that when they know it is hard at hand Truly Sirs when I think of the Weight of the Matter I wonder at the very best of God's Saints upon Earth that they are no better and do no more in so weighty a Case I wonder at those whom the World accounteth more holy than needs and scorns for making too much ado that they can put off Christ and their Souls with so little that they pour not out their Souls in every Supplication that they are not more taken up with God that their Thoughts be not more serious in preparation for their Account I wonder that they be not an hundred times more strict in their Lives and more laborious and unwearied in striving for the Crown than they are And for my self as I am ashamed of my dull and careless Heart and of my slow and unprofitable Course of Life so the Lord knows I am ashamed of every Sermon that I preach when I think what I have been speaking of and who sent me and that Mens Salvation or Damnation is so much concerned in it I am ready to tremble lest God should judg me as a Slighter of his Truth and the Souls of Men and lest in the best Sermon I should be guilty of their Blood Methinks we should not speak a Word to Men in Matters of such Consequence without Tears or the greatest Earnestness that possibly we can were not we too much guilty of the Sin which we reprove it would be so Whether we are alone or in Company methinks our End and such an End should still be in our Mind and as before our Eyes and we should sooner forget any thing and set light by any thing or by all things than by this Consider 4. Who is it that sends this weighty Message to you Is it not God himself Shall the God of Heaven speak and Men make light of it You would not slight the Voice of an Angel or a Prince 5. Whose Salvation is it that you make light of Is it not your own Are you no more near or dear to your selves than to make light of your own Happiness or Misery Why Sirs do you not care whether you be saved or damned Is Self-love lost Are you turned your own Enemies As he that slighteth his Meat doth slight his Life so if you slight Christ whatsoever you may think you will find it was your own Salvation that you slighted Hear what he saith Prov. 8. 36. All they that hate me love Death 6. Your Sin is greater in that you profess to believe the Gospel which you make so light of For a professed Infidel to do it that believes not that ever Christ died or rose again or doth not believe that there is an Heaven or Hell this were no such marvel but for you that make it your Creed and your very Religion and call your selves Christians and have been baptized into this Faith and seemed to stand to it this is the Wonder and hath no Excuse What! believe that you shall live in endless Joy or Torment and yet make no more of it to escape Torment and obtain that Joy What! believe that God will shortly judg you and yet make no more Preparation for it Either say plainly I am no Christian I do not believe these wonderful things I will believe nothing but what I see or else let your Hearts be affected with your Belief and live as you say you do believe What do you think when you repeat the Creed and mention Christ's Judgment and everlasting Life 7. What are these things you set so much by as to prefer them before Christ and the saving of your Souls Have you found a better Friend a greater and surer Happiness than this Good Lord what Dung is it that Men make so much of while they set so light by everlasting Glory What Toys are they that they are daily taken up with while Matters of Life and Death are neglected Why Sirs if you had every one a Kingdom in your Hopes what were it in comparison of the everlasting Kingdom I cannot but look upon all the Glory and Dignity of this World Lands and Lordships Crowns and Kingdoms even as on some brainsick beggarly Fellow that borroweth fine Clothes and plays the Part of a King or a Lord for an Hour on a Stage and then comes down and the Sport is ended and they are Beggars again Were it not for God's Interest in the Authority of Magistrates or for the Service they might do him I should judg no better of them For as to their own Glory it is but a Smoak what matter is it whether you live poor or rich unless it were a greater Matter to die rich than it is You know well enough that Death levels all what Matter is it at Judgment whether you be to answer for the Life of a rich Man or a poor Man Is Dives then any better than Lazarus O that Men knew what a poor deceiving Shadow they grasp at while they let go the everlasting Substance The strongest and richest and most volupâ—uous Sinners do but lay in fuel for their Sorrows while they think they are gathering together a Treasure Alas they are asleep and dream that they are happy but when they awake what a Change will they find Their Crown is made of Thorns their Pleasure hath such a Sting as will stick in the Heart through all Eternity except unfeigned Repentance do prevent it O how sadly will these Wretches be convinced ere long what a foolish