and subjection to Obey and Trust and Love him and joyfully to hope for everlasting happiness in his Love 4. To give up our selves to Christ as our Saviour by his Sacrifice Merits Teaching Government and Intercession to bring us home to God by Justifying Sanctifying and finally Glorifying us 5. To obey the motions of his Spirit to that end which are but to bring us to a Conformity to his Word 6. To Love God in his Saints and Creatures and do all the good to one another that we can and cherish a holy Unity and Peace and to do wrong to none 7. To watch against and resist all the Temptations of the Flesh the World and the Devil which would draw us from any of this duty 8. To bear our Medicinal corrections patiently and profitably and pray seek and wait for blessed Immortality 9. To pray long and labour for the publick good the Churches welfare and the Conversion of the dark unbelieving World 10. To do all this for the glorifying of God and our Redeemer and the pleasing of his holy Will as the End and only Rest of Souls This is the service which Christ requireth and is there any thing in all this which is not safe delightful honorable profitable and exceeding desirable to every one that knoweth what it is to hope for happiness and to live like a Christian or a Man II. And what is it that is meant by following Christ Disciples then were wont to dwell with their Master that they might be always at hand to do what he bid them To follow Christ includeth 1. The absolute taking him for the Guide and Saviour to whom we Trust our Bodies and Souls 2. The obedient following of his Instruction and Commands 3. The following of his Example in all the imitable parts of his Life 4. The submissive following him through all the sufferings wherewith God trieth us and by what death he chuseth for us into the heavenly mansions whether he is ascended This is the following of Christ which the streights of this hour allow me but to name Use. Before we proceed let us consider how to improve what is said and open the two promises after in our application I. And first it is hence evident what it is to be indeed a Christian It is to serve and follow Christ in Trust as the Procurer the Captain the Giver of Salvation Our relation to him by a sacred Covenant and Vow is the thing from which we are named Christians Deceitful Covenanting may give us the name among Men that cannot see the Heart and may deceive our selves and others But if the Soul consent not God doth not consent to justifie or save us O Sirs try quickly try faithfully before death say It is row too late whether you are such as God as well as Men will judge to be Christians indeed O be not self-deceivers for God will not be mocked with names and shaddows and heartless words and the false pretenses of a worldly fleshly unsanctified mind You will find one day that Christ came not to be a shadow nor a stepping stone to worldly ends nor a patron of pride and fleshly lusts you will find ear long that to be a Christian is a great and serious business on which lieth the everlasting saving of our Souls Greater than Life or Death Crowns and Kingdoms or any concerns of this corruptible flesh A business which will not be done a sleep nor with a careless mind nor with a slothful unresolved Soul nor with the thoughts and hours which pride and vanity can spare and which are the leavings of fleshly lusts and pleasures To be a Christian is to turn our backs on all these deceitful vanities and sinful pleasures and to place our absolute Trust in Christ and serve and follow him to the death in hope of everlasting glory obtained by his manifold Grace Have you no careful thoughts of another Life And no fear what will become of your departing Souls at death If not your reason is asleep If you have what is it that quieteth and comforteth you Is it only a careless venture because God is merciful As if his mercy saved all God forbid that your Souls should go out of your bodies without a better preparation than this But if finding your selves undone by sin and liable to Gods destroying justice and believing that Christ is the only sufficient and faithful Saviour you give up Soul and Body in Trust to him resolvedly consenting to serve and follow him who hath purchas'd and promis'd you blessedness with himself This is true Christianity and this is a Trust which will not deceive Sirs You send for us in sickness and perhaps we cannot come or we find men overwhelmed with pain and fear and with a feeble Body and fainting Spirits unfit to try and judge themselves and to do so great a work as is here described if not unable to hear much discourse of it O what a sad time is that for a Minister to give you that instruction which a long time of strength was too little to improve What a dreadful thing is it for a Soul then to have all the work that you lived for to begin and do and for to have but a sick and fainting hour or day to do that which you could not do in all your Lives and which turneth the Key for Heaven or Hell The Lord give you awakened reason and wisdom before it be too late The name of Christians is not to be used to deceive fleshly men into damning presumption but to signifie a Soul that trusteth in Christ and followeth him in obedience and patience to Salvation O that you all feelingly knew how much it concerneth you presently to set home and resolve this question Do I trust serve and follow Christ Let us now a little look to his footsteps that we may know 1. Christ lived in the World to do his Fathers work and will to glorifie and please him See Ioh. 4. 34. 17. 4. 9. 4. 8. 29. 12. 27 28. 17. 4. Is it Gods work that you live for and his will that you chiefly study to please in your inferior degree and place 2. Christ was the greatest lover of Souls his business on Earth was to seek and save them and he is still about that work in Heaven He thought not his strange condiscending Incarnation his sufferings and Heart Blood his Labour and Life too dear to save them Are your own and others Souls thus precious in your Eyes Do you think no labour loss no cost or suffering too dear to save your selves and others Do your prayers and your practices prove this to be true 3. Christs great work was to gather a Church on Earth which should be his peculiar Kingdom Spouse and Body to glorifie God and be glorified with him Eph. 4. to 17. 5. 25. to 32. 3. 21. Act. 20. 28. If you are Christians indeed Christs Church is to you as your Body to
that made the world or our own or others Souls and it is not our right to determine of their time and events It is one prime Agent Supreme Ruler and Ultimate End One that is Infinite in Power Wisdom and Goodness who is Omnipresent Immutable and every way perfect that must actuate order and bless a world of such imperfect and differing individuals and not such ignorant understandings such partial and ill guided wills and such impotent powers as ours are He that maketh the Watch determineth how many hours it shall go The giver of Life and Time must give us the measures of it It is our part to spend it well It is because the Creator having left us to some liberty and trust about our selves we are the misusers of it that there are so many disorders and consequently calamities in the world and on our selves and ours as there are and if the God of Love did not keep the over ruling determination in his hand and bring good out of all our evil and harmony out of our discords and confusions what a Chaos or Hell would the World become Let us therefore humbly and willingly leave Gods own work to himself he will do all well and at last we shall understand it and let us mind our own He hath taken up our Brothers soul from earth it is our part to think how to improve this our own are following Our hour is at hand Our oyl is wasting apace Our glass is almost run every pulse every breath every word leaveth us one less of the number appointed us It is our great concern to look inwards and look upwards and with our utmost diligence to study how to spend the short time that remaineth that we may die in safety peace and hope and follow the departed Saints to Glory To instruct my self and you herein I have chosen this Text as giving us both sure directions and such great and comfortable promises as in life and at death we may boldy trust They are spoken by no doubtful Messenger but by the Mouth of Christ himself and that to men who were under our temptations and earnestly desired to see Christ glorified on earth and to partake of outward greatness here to see that famous man who had wrought so many miracles and lately raised the Dead But he tells them that both he and they must die before they can be glorified and that they must overcome the inordinate love of this life if ever they would attain a life of Blessedness vers 23 24 25. And that they might not by uncertainty of the end or way say as Philip We know not whither thou goest and how shall we know the way he Summarily tells them both The way is to Serve him and follow him The end that 's promised is To be where he is and to be honoured of his Father As if he should say I know that your weakness and remaining Carnality is such that you would fain see me Reign as an universal King on Earth that you might be advanced by me in the flesh and it is a hard Lesson to you to learn to lay down this life which is so dear to you and to pass into a World which you never saw and know so little of But have I not by my Doctrine Life and frequent Miracles and newly by raising Lazarus from the dead convinced you that I am the true Messiah sent of God to whom you may boldly trust the conduct and disposal of your Lives and Souls If so then see that you absolutely trust me Learn of me Serve me and follow me and let this satisfie you living and dying that you shall speed as I my self do and be with me where I am though the place and state be yet unseen to you and there you shall by my Father be advanced to far greater dignity and honour than in this sinful life and world you are capable of And of all this I give here my promise which you must believe and trust if you will be saved by me This is the plain Exposition of the Text But let us more distinctly inquire I. What is here meant by Serving Christ II. What it is to Follow him And afterwards III. What it is to be where he is IV. And what to be Honoured by his Father I. Some that by false and narrow notions have received a wrong opinion of Saving Faith may be puzzled at this that Serving Christ and following him are made the necessary terms or conditions of being where he is And some say that Iustifying faith and â—â—â—ing Faith are two different things And some say that Christ himself did not clearly preach the doctrine of Justification by Faith but left it for Saint Paul But the plain truth is that in the Gospel it is all one To be a Believer a Christian and a Disciple of Christ in Covenant with him as the true Messiah And in those times the Disciples of any great and famous Teachers were taken into their Families and were their Servants Not in a Worldly common work but in order to the ends of their Office and Instructions It is the same word which we often translate Deacons And as it was then usual with Iews and Heathens at their great feasts for the Servitours to give every Guest his part by the appointment of the ruler of the Feast so the Spirit by the Apostles did institute Church Deacons to be servants to distribute the provisions made at their love Feasts and the proportions allowed for each ones relief to look to the poor and to execute such Church Orders as the present Bishop or Elders did appoint By which you may see how big the Bishops Church then was And so Christ calleth all Christians his Deacons Ministers or Servants and some above others peculiarly in office as those that were to serve him as the Saviour of the World for their own and other mens salvation As his Relation to us partaketh by Analogie of many so is our service to him It is as the service of a Scholar in obedient and diligent humble learning As the obedience of a Patient to his Physician As the obedience of a Beggar in asking and thankfully accepting As the obedience of a Malefactor who thankfully taketh a pardon and if a Rebel promiseth to lay down Armes and live in true subjection to his Prince As the service of a Child that liveth dependently in dutiful gratitude and love It is not to give Christ any thing that he needeth but to be readier to Hear him than to offer him the sacrifice of fools who by thinking to oblige him by their gifts do but offend him The matter of our required service is 1. To confess with grief our sin our misery and our need of him his grace and mercy 2. To learn understand and believe his Word 3. There by to know God from whom we were revolted and to return to him in the hand of our Mediator by absolute resignation devotion
the Members that are all ready to serve it abhorring abscission and separation from it and every painful perilous Disease You love you long you pray for the true Enlargement Concord and Holy prosperity of the Church That Gods Name may be Hallowed his Kingdom come and his Will done on Earth as it is in Heaven is the first and and chief of your desires See 1 Cor. 12. Col. 1. 18. 24. Are you thus followers of Christ 4. Love to God and Man was the very Nature and Life and Work of Christ manifested in constant doing Good and Praying for his Persecutors and reconciling Enemies to God Rom. 5. 8 9 10. 2 Cor. 5 19 20. Ioh. 15 13. Mark 10. 21. Ioh. 15. 9. Gal. 2. 20. Eph. 2. 4. And if you follow Christ Love will be your Nature Life and Work and you will walk in Love as Christ loved us Eph. 5. 2. 1 Ioh. 4. 11. Even as he hath loved us he requireth that we love one another Ioh. 13. 34. 15. 9. 12. which is not with a barren unprofitable Love Iam. 2. 14. c. Ioh. 13. 35. 5. In order to these ends Christ lived quite above all the pomps and vanities of the World and above the Love of Worldly dominion and fleshly pleasure and Life it self and refused not to dye a shameful Death as reputed a Malefactor to redeem us Making himself of no reputation enduring the Cross and despising the shame Phil. 2. 7. 10. 1 Pet. 3. 18. 4. 1. And if you follow Christ though you must not be Cross makers you must be Cross bearers and above the Love of worldly Vanity and Life it self in comparison of eternal Life For Christ suffered for us leaving us an example 1 Pet. 2. 21. and will have us take up our Cross and follow him forsaking all that stands against him Luke 14. 29. 32 33. and submit to be in our flesh partakers of his sufferings 1 Pet. 4. 13. we cannot equal him in patience but we must so far imitate him as not to sin and forsake the Truth for fear of suffering nor to account our Lives dear that we may finish our course with joy Matth. 5. 11 12. Act. 20. 24. 6. Christ though he were the Lord of all the World did condescend to a humbled low condition and chose not a Princes Court for converse but the poor and men of low degree And he hath commanded us to learn of him to be meek and lowly Matth. 11. 29. and to be the servants of all as that which is above worldly greatness Mar. 9. 35. 10. 44. And he blesseth the meek and the poor in Spirit Matth. 5. Do we follow him in this And condescend to Men of low estate Rom. 12. 16. remembring that not many great and noble are called 1 Cor 1. 26. and that God hath chosen the poor of the World that are rich in Faith to be heirs of his Kingdom Iam. 2. 5. 1 Cor. 1. 27 28. or do you not as those reproved Iam. 4. shew a worldly carnal mind by too much valuing the high and rich and too much vilifying the poor Our flesh and health is nearer us far than our cloths and riches And yet how far is flesh and strength from making a bad Man more valuable and amiable than a weak and sickly Saint 7. Though Christ was the greatest lover of Souls yet was he the greatest hater of Sin so great that he came into the World to destroy it as the Devils work and would rather die than Sin should not be condemned and die 1 Ioh. 3. 7 8. Matth. 1. 21. and to save Men from it was his Office And for all his meekness he forbeareth not to call Herod Fox and sharply reprove the Scribes and Pharises Matth. 23. yea and to give Peter the rebuke which he gave the Devil when he did his work by disswading him from his sufferings Get thee behind me Satan Matth. 16. And if we look on Sin as a harmless thing and the profit honour or pleasures reconcileth us to it and we are indifferent towards it on pretense of moderation and avoiding rash zeal and indiscretion this is not to be followers but enemies of Christ reproaching his Office and Cross as if he had needlesly been born and died 8. A heavenly mind and life is the chief imitation of Christ His Kingdom was not of this World His Glory is at the right Hand of the Father And our glory must be in seeing his Glory Iohn 17. 22 24. It is in Heaven that he promiseth his followers a reward Matth. 5. 12. Hebr. 11. 16. 12. 22. Luke 16. 9. 23. 43. And it is in heaven that our Treasure must be laid up and our hearts affections and hopes must be set and our conversation must be Matth. 6. 19 20 21. Col. 3. 1 3 4. Phil. 3. 19 20. You see now what it is to be followers of Christ Is this your case I mean not in degree but in sincere imitation O trie and judge Use. 2. Whatever it hath been shall it be so for the time to come O that this might be a day of effectual resolution and engagement to us all Do I need to tell you that it is not Christ that leadeth men to gluttony or drunkenness or chambering and wantonness to idleness and pride and worldly vanity and fleshly lust Rom. 13. 13. Gal. 5. 21 22. Rom. 8. 1 c. It is not Christ that teacheth men to doubt of the immortality of the Soul and of the life to come and of the truth of the Gospel Nor is it Christ that teacheth them to play the hypocrites and scorn and hate and persecute the serious practice of that Religion which their tongues profess These are the works of the Devil which Christ came to destroy O bethink you whom you follow and whether you go before you come to your journeys end The World Flesh and Devil have undone all that ever followed them to the end But if you will serve Christ and follow him I 'le tell you what encouragements you have 1. You have the greatest and most honourable Master in all the World that is able to make good all his undertakings 2. You have the surest infallible Leader that never was deceived nor did deceive nor hath he need of deceit to govern us 3. You have Love it self to lead you one that hath done more than all the world besides can do to shew you that he loveth you and therefore doth all for your good 4. You have a humbled condescending Leader God in flesh that hath spoken face to face with man and came near us to bring us up to God 5. You have a plain familiar Teacher who hath not set your wits on Artificial Logical tricks like the undoing of a pair of Tarrying irons but hath brought light and immortality to light and taught us to know God and our everlasting hopes and a safe and joyful way thereto 6. And yet you have a
joyfully trusted him rejoyced in his love and hoped for his Kingdom But without any overvaluing of his own worth or works having much in his mouth those words of St. Paul I have nothing to glory of and I am nothing XXI The last part of his example which I have to commend to you and specially to my self is his marvellous Patience as through all his life so specially in his last and sharp affliction It was a providence which posed many of us that God should so smartly handle such a man as this till Gods Oracles told our Faith enough to silence all murmuring thoughts of God For God had given him before the blessings of Iob a healthful body and constant prosperity and shall Sinners taste no correction and receive nothing of God but pleasant things All Gods graces must have their exercise and tryal And Faith and Patience are most tried and exercised in a suffering state God loveth not Martyrs less than others 2. And he had served God before by Action and usually our last service is by Patience And Lazarus in sores and wants was in a safer way to Abrahams bosom than Dives in his silks and sumptuous fare 3. And we are naturally so loth to leave this world and flesh that God seeth it meet to help our willingness by making us weary of it And affliction though grievous for the present tendeth to the quiet fruit of righteousness And making us partakers of Gods holiness certainly tendeth to make us partakers of his Glory Cross-bearing and partaking of the sufferings of Christ is an indispenable Christian duty We must be conformed to him in his sufferings if we will reign with him and be partakers of our Masters joy And in heaven all tears are wiped away and there are no groans nor moans no sorrows nor repining or accusing God for any of our former sufferings What need have I yea what need have you all to remember this Flesh will feel and Faith will not avoid pain and present torment no more than death but it fortified our dear Brothers Soul that it should not too much suffer with his Body Several years he was molested most with some cloudy trouble of his head which Tunbridge waters eased for a time And next with Acrimony of Urine And next it too painfully appeared to be the Stone in the Bladder He long resolved to endure it to the death but at last extremity of torment despair of any other ease did suddenly cause him to choose to be cut Two stones were found and one of them in the operation was broken into pieces many of which were taken out by very terrible search about thirty pieces after came away through the wound Physicians and all present admired at his patience No word no action signified any distressing sense And though he was about 65 years old God did recover him and heal the wound But we were too unthankful and his pains returned Gently at first but afterwards as terribly as before And after that a strong Fever of which unexpectedly he recovered And then oft inflammations and at last a dangerous one And finally so great torment that a French Lithotomist being here he was over-perswaded to be searcht and cut again a third stone was taken away with competent speed and ease and divers big fragments of it which had been broken off in the first operation Thus was he cut twiee in about a years space and the wound seemed marvellously to heal for divers months and when we had prayed hard for him we turned it to thanksgiving and thought the danger of death was past But after his strength failed and he died in peace God gave him those months of ease and calmness the better to bear his approaching change In all this none heard him express any querulous impatience Most of his words were telling men how tolerable his pain was and how good God was and thankfully acknowledging his mercy The last words which I had from him were of the goodness of God concluding O that we could love God more And when he thought he should recover he was very solicitous in his enquiry what God would have him do in gratitude And one of the chief things which he resolved on to one of his old friends was that he would set upon as many Parliament-men as he could speak with to repeal all the Laws which hinder good men from preaching Christs Gospel Adding moreover And Countrey man saith he you and I will take care for Lancashire that the Gospel may be more preached among them It being their Native Countrey and abounding with Papists and many parts have scarcity of Preachers But suddenly he past from the Exercise of Faith and Patience unto sight and rest His last words save his farewel and Come Lord Iesus were to an old friend Mr. Nathaniel Hulton to walk in the way of God will be comfort at death being not of their mind who for fear of fetching too much comfort from our own duty which they call works do think Christs merits injured by such thoughts and words as these as if the Cure were a disgrace to our Physician or Christ Matth. 25. had misdescribed the last judgment or God were no rewarder of them that diligently seek him and laying up our treasure and hearts in heaven were no means to be received into the everlasting habitation And thus passed this faithful Soul to Christ. And now Reader have I not shewed thee a true Copy of the first part of my Text One that indeed served Christ and followed him Is not this his Image and Imitation And is it not sure then that he is where Christ is and that God that maketh it our duty to honour his memory on earth hath given him another kind of honour in the heavens And to what other end have I said all this of him In General Go and do thou likewise I. I do it much for the use of the Magistrates and People of this City I commend this example to them all O what an honourable and happy City would this be if you were all such as our deceased Brother was We joyfully thank God for so much goodness as flourished among you The Lord make London still the glory of the Cities on earth But were all Families used as his Family was and all men here lived as this man lived we should suspect we had the new earth wherein dwelt righteousness And were Princes and Nobles such the World such or but the Christian Church such what a taste of Heaven should we have on earth But should we not then be too loth to die and too little difference earth from heaven But O that London who know that I do not over-praise this holy man would but imitate his example II. I do it much for his Childrens use Their Honour their Comfort but especially their everlasting good Will they ever forget the instructions the Love and the life of such a Father III. I do it partly for the use of the Clergy and their Agents that have judged such men as this to be worthy of all the reproach and sufferings which some Canons and late Laws have laid on such I write not to cast reproach back upon them But Reverend Fathers and brethren as you believe a God a Christ a Judgment and a Life to come be think you whether such men as this should be sined or Excommunicated ipso sacto as your Canon doth it And when Christ hath promised that if they serve him they shall be where he is and his Father will honour them dare you make your Church-doors too narrow to receive them when Dr. Heylin tells us how far Bishop Laud would have had it widened to receive the Papists if they would come in Do not such men as this serve and follow Christ And are they yet excommunicate Schismaticks if they will not serve and follow you in the things that neither Christ nor his Apostles commanded or practised yea which they forbid as I have proved in my first Plea and my Treat of Episcopacy I am in great hope that if you knew but the tenth part of the now silenced Ministers and prosecuted People that I do your consciences would constrain you to publish your repentance and petition King and Parliament for better terms of Unity and Peace For I will hope that most silencers and afflicters do it more through ignorance and unacquantedness with the men than in Diabolical malignity IV. And I have done this for my own use To discharge my duty To set before me this pattern of Sincerity Love and Patience for my reproof and imitation We were of the same year for age and of the same judgment and desire and aim But I have not attained to his degree of goodness and patience Being not unlikely to be exercised with some like afflictions after a life of wonderful mercy and quickly to follow my departed Friend I beg of God that he will not trie me beyond the strength which he will give me but so increase my faith and patience that I may finish my course with joy V. Lastly I have written this for the comfort of all serious suffering Believers Christians let us not think that we serve Christ for nought or that our labour for Holiness and Heaven is in vain Nor let us faint when we are tried and chastised Labour and Sorrow will quickly have an end Angels are ready to convoy us home How low soever you are here in your Bodies Estates Employment or Reputation you have Christs promise that his Father will honour you Look then to Iesus the Author and Perfecter of your Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame lest you be weary and faint in your minds And comfort one one another with these words that we shall be ever with the Lord. Amen FINIS
misery as not to make it his chiefest care For I see that if a man have but a Law-Suit on which all his estate depends or a tryal on which his life depends he cannot forget it or make light of it He will not drink 〈…〉 or play away the little time in which his buâ—â—â—â— must be done And can any one soundly believe that his Soul at death shall go to Christ in glory and not set more by such a hope than by all the riches and sport and pleasure and vain-glory of so short a life as this or can any man soundly believe that the wicked and unholy shall go to everlasting punishment and yet not make it his chief care to escape it sure as mad and bad as mans corrupted mind is this will scarce stand with Humane nature I judge of others by my self If I had never had at the worst a secret uncertainty whether the Gospel be true and Souls immortal I might have been surprized indeed to a sudden temptation to some sin but I could never have thought that a man in his wits should choose any life but resolved holiness Nor could I have chosen any other If I see a man a careless neglecter of his soul that maketh no great matter of sin or duty or maketh not God Christ and Heaven the subject of his most serious ruling thoughts his greatest business in the World but sheweth us that his health and wealth and honour and pleasure are better loved and more earnestly sought and faster held I will not believe that this man taketh the Gospel and the Souls future state therein described to be a cettain truth let him say what he will he doubteth of it at his heart And such men use to say when they speak out I know what I have here but I know not what I shall have hereafter Could I keep what I have I would let others take what is promised in Heaven But O man thou knowest thou canst not keep what thou hast shortly thy Soul must be required and called away and then whose are the things which thou hast loved Luke 12. 19 20. I will therefore say more Though men had no certainty of dwelling with Christ and doubted whether his word be true yet it were worse than madness not to prefer the bare probability that I say not possibility of a future endless glory when endless misery is probable to the refusers before all here that can be set against it O what is this transitory dream of worldly fleshly pleasure to everlasting joy or misery Verily every man at his best estate in worldy respects is altogether Vanity Psalm 39. 5. O mark how Emphatical every word is Verily it is no doubt every man high and low good and bad in bodily and worldly respects only at his best or setled estate not only in pain and poverty and age but in his strength and wit and wealth and honour on the throne as well as on the dunghill is vanity that is an untrusty lie and shadow that seemeth something and is next to nothing and this altogether in meer worldly corporal respects in all that he hath to glory or take pleasure in What need we more to prove all this than to foresee how the Dream and Tragedy endeth A little while we run up and down and eat and drink and talke and sport and sometime laugh and sometime weep and then change our pomp and pride for a Shroud and Coffin and are laid to rot in a grave of earth where these idol pampered bodies be turned themselves into the quality of their darksome habitation And if these were our best were not every man at his best estate altogether vanity And if a meer probability of the life to come in reason should resolve all men for serious holiness how can we think that a certain or firm belief would not do it By this then it is past doubt that Hypocrisie reigneth in all meer nominal Christians and in all that live not a holy life and indeed in most men in the world They are false in professing to believe that Christ is true and his Gospel certain truth and that at death they must go to Heaven or Hell if their lives shew not that Heaven and Hell are greater and more prevailing matters with them than all the fleshly provisions pleasures and glory of this world Hypocrites are distinguished from professed Infidels but if they were not unbelievers at the heart they were not Hypocrites in professing Faith The Scripture giveth these titles or attributes therefore to saving Faith 1 Tim. 1. 5. It is called Faith unfeigned or not hypocritical or dissembled and Philem. 6. it is called Effectual and Gal. 5. 6. Faith that works by Love and Iam. 2. Faith that is not dead but working to perfection it is not unseigned if it be not effectual You cannot make a Man believe that a Bear pursueth him or his House is on Fire or his Life in danger but he will accordingly bestir him You cannot draw a Man to other business from the care of his Life if he believe that it lieth on his present care O Sirs the Hypocrites belief of another World and his lifeless opinion conquered by secret unbelief will shortly fall as an house built on the sand Matth. 7. 23. and no Heart can now fully conceive how terrible to him the fall will be When you see that there is no more tarrying here and that death and an endless life are come a dead profession and secret unbelief will leave you then to dispair and horror It is not the name of a Christian that will then serve to comfort or to save your Souls I do do not say that no Man shall be saved that hath any doubting even of the Gospel and the life to come But I say you cannot be saved if your belief of it prevail not to engage you in a holy Life and conquer not the Flesh the World and the Devil It must be a prevailing Faith But I suppose you are convinced that a sound and firm belief of the passage of departing Souls to Christ or unto misery would certainly resolve Men for a holy Life But some say If we be uncertain how can we help it we are out of sight and we have not the command of our own understandings we would be sure what becomes of Souls with all our Hearts but we cannot attain it Ans. Christ came into the World to teach it us such knowledge is too high and precious to be attained with a slothful wish or to be had without the use of the means which Christ hath appointed us Have you learned of Christ with a humble and teachable willing mind Have you not been diverted and blinded by the things which you knew were but deceitful vanity Have you set your understandings awork with such serious consideration and so long as the trial of so great a matter doth require Have you sought to able and faithful