rather that godly Christians might the better understand how to deal with these vain Excuses when they meet with them which will be daily if they deal with Men in this sad Condition X. We have done with that part of the Judgment which consisteth in the Exploration or Trial of the Cause we now come to that which is the Conclusion and Consummation of all and that is to shew you what the Sentence will be and on whom And for this we must go strait to the Word of God for our Light it being impossible for any Man to have any particular Knowledg of it if Christ had not there revealed it unto us Indeed almost all the World do acknowledg a Life after this where it shall go well with the Good and ill with the bad But who shall be then accounted righteous and who unrighteous and on what Terms and Grounds by whom they shall be judged and to what Condition they know not The Sentence in Judgment will be 1. Either on those that never had Means to know Christ 2. Or on those that had 1. For the former as it less concerneth us to enquire of their Case so it is more obscurely revealed to us in the Scripture It is certain that they shall be judged according to their Use of the Means which they had Rom. 2. 11 12 13 14 15 16. and the Talents which they received Mat. 25. But that it ever falleth out that he that hath but the one Talent of natural Helps doth improve it to Salvation or that ever they who knew not Christ are justified and saved without that Knowledg being at Age and Use of Reason I find not in the Scriptures I find indeed that as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law Rom. 2. 12. but not that any are justified by the Works of Nature such as are here said to be without Law I find also that They have the Work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their Thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another in the Day when God shall jude the Secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel Rom. 2. 15 16. And I believe it is a just Excuse and not an unjust which is here meant But it will be but an Excuse so far as they were guiltless and that will be but in tanto and not in toto in part only and so not a full Justification A Heathen's Conscience may excuse him from those Sins which he was never guilty of but not from all But no more of them 2. The Case of those that have had the Gospel is more plainly opened to us in God's Word Their Sentence is opened in many Places of Scripture but most fully in Matth. 25. whence we will now collect it There we find that Jesus Christ the Redeemer as King of the World shall sit in Judgment on all Men at the last and shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth the Sheep from the Goats and so shall pass the final Sentence This Sentence is twofold according to the different Condition of them that are judged To them on the right Hand there is a Sentence of Justification and Adjudication to everlasting Glory To them on the left Hand there is a Sentence of Condemnation to everlasting Punishment The Sentence on each of these containeth both the State which they are judged to and the Reason or Cause of the Judgment to that State For as God will not judg any to Life or Death without just Cause so he will publish this Cause in his Sentence as it is the manner of Judges to do If you say Christ will not use a Voice let it satisfy that though we know not the manner yet if he do it but by mental Discovery as he shews Men what shall everlastingly befal them so he will shew them why it shall so befal them 1. The Sentence on them on the right Hand will contain 1. Their Justification and Adjudication to Blessedness and that both as generally denominated and as particularly determined and described 2. And the Cause of this Judgment 1. In general they shall be pronounced Blessed Satan would have had them cursed and miserable the Law did curse them to Misery many a fearful Though hath possessed their own Breasts lest they should prove at last accursed and miserable but now they hear the contrary from their Judg. All the Promises in the Gospel could not perfectly overcome those their Fears all the comfortable Words of the Ministers of the Gospel could not perfectly subdue them all the tender Mercies of God in Christ did not perfectly subdue them but now they are vanquished all for ever He that once had heard his Redeemer in Judgment call him blessed will never fear being cursed more For he that Christ blesseth shall be blessed indeed The Description of their Blessedness followeth Come inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World And also they are called Blessed of the Father Here is the Fountain of their Blessedness the Father and the State of their Blessedness in being the Father's for I suppose they are called the Blessed of are Father both because the Father blesseth them that is makes them Happy and because these blessed Ones are the Father 's own And so Christ will publish it to the World in Judgment that he came to glorify the Father and will proclaim him the principal Efficient and ultimate End of his Work of Redemption and the Blessedness of his Saints and that himself is as Mediator but the Way to the Father It is the Father that prepared the Kingdom for them and from the Foundation of the World prepared it both for them as chosen ones and for them as future Believers and righteous Ones It is called a Kingdom partly in respect to God the King in whose Glory we shall partake in our Places and partly metapherically from the Dignity of our Condition For so it is that our selves are said to be made Kings Rev. 1. 6. and 5. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 9. and not that we are properly Kings for then we must have Subjects who must be governed by us Thus we see their Blessedness in the Fountain End and State of Dignity As to the receptive Act on their Part it is expressed by two Words one signifying their first Entrance on it Come the other their Possession Inherit That is possess it as given by the Father and Redeemed by the Son and hold it in this Tenure for ever The true Believer was convinced in this Life that indeed there was no true Blessedness but this Enjoyment of God in the Kingdom of Heaven The Lord revealed this to his Heart by his Word and Spirit And therefore he contemned the seeming Happiness on Earth and laid up for himself a Treasure in Heaven and made him Friends
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
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
For Mat. 7. 22 23. Christ telleth us that Many will say to me in that Day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devils and in thy Name have â—lone many wonderful Works And then will I profess to them I never knew you Depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity And in Mat. 25. 11. the foolish Virgins cry Lord Lord open to us And ver 44. Then shall they also answer him saying Lord when â—aw we thee an hungred or thirst or a Stranger or Naked or Sick or in Prison and did not minister unto thee And vers 24 25. they fear not to cast some of the Causes of their neglect on God himself Then he which had received the one Talent came and said Lord I knew thou art an hard Man reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strawed and I was afraid and went and hid thy Talent in the Earth lo there thou hast that is thine It is clear then that Excuses they will be ready to make and their full Conviction will be in order after these Excuses at least as in their Minds if not in Words but what the particular Excuses will be we may partly know by these Scriptures which recite them and partly by hearing what the Ungodly do now say for themselves And because it is for their present Benefit that I now make mention of them that they may see the Vanity of all such Excuses I will mention them as I now meet with them in the Mouths of Sinners in our ordinary Discourse and these Excuses are of several sorts some by which they would justify their Estate some Excuses of particular Actions and that either in whole or in part some by which they would put by the Penalty though they confess the Sin some by which they lay the blame on other Men and in â—ome they would cast it upon God himself I must touch but some of them very briefly The first Excuse I am not guilty of these things which I am accused of I did love God above all and my Neighbour as my self I did use the World but for Necessity but God had my Heart Answ The All-seeing Judg doth know the contrary and he will make thy Conscience know it Look back Man upon thy Heart and Life How seldom and how neglectfully didst thou think of God how coldly didst thou worship him or make any mention of him how carelesly didst thou serve him and think much of all that thou didst therein Thou rather thoughtest that his Service was making more ado than needs and didst grudg at those that were more diligent than thy self but for the World how heartily and how constantly didst thou seek and serve it and yet wouldst thou now perswade the Judg that thou didst love God above all He will shew thee thy naked Heart and the Course of thy former Life which shall convince thee of the contrary The Second Excuse I lived not in any gross Sin but only in small Infirmities I was no Murderer or Adulterer or Fornicator or Thief nor did I deceive or wrong any or take any thing by violence Answ Was it not a gross Sin to love the World above God and to neglect Christ that died for thee and never to do him one Hour's hearty Service but meerly to seek thy carnal self and to live to thy Flesh God will open thine Eyes then and shew thee a thousand gross Sins which thou now forgettest or makest light of and it is not only gross Sin but all Sin great or small that deserveth the Wrath of God and will certainly bring thee under it for ever if thou have not part in Christ to relieve thee Wo to the Man that ever he was born that must answer in his own Name for his smallest Offences The third Excuse I did it ignorantly I knew not that there was so much required to my Salvation I thought less ado might have served the turn and that if I look'd to my Body God would take care of my Soul and that it was better to trust him what would become of me hereafter than to trouble my Mind so much about it Had I known better I would have done better Answ If you knew not better who was it long of but your self Did God hide these things from you Did he not tell them you in his Word as plainly as the Tongue of Man can speak That except you were regenerate and born again you should not enter into the Kingdom of God John 3. 3 5. That without Holiness none should see God Heb. 12. 14. That you must strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many shall seek to enter and shall not be able Luke 13. 24. That if you lived after the Flesh you should die and if by the Spirit you mortified the Deeds of the Body you should live Rom. 8. 13. That if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. And to be carnally minded is Death but to be spiritually minded is Life and Peace Rom. 8. 9. That you must not lay up for your selves a Treasure on Earth where Rust and Moths do corrupt and Thieves break through and steal but must lay up for your selves a Treasure in Heaven where Rust and Moths do not corrupt nor Thieves break through and steal Mat. 6. 19 20. That you must seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof Mat. 6. 23. and not labour for the Food that perisheth but for the Food that endureth to everlasting Life which Christ would have given you John 6. 27. That if you be risen with Christ you must seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and not the things that are on Earth Col. 3. 1 2 3. Yea your very Conversation should be in Heaven Phil. 3. 19 20 21. What say you Did not God tell you all this and much more and plainly tell it you Turn to your Bibles and see the Words and let them witness against you 2. And could you think with any Reason that your Souls being so much more precious than your Bodies you should yet do so much more for your Bodies than your Souls could you think all the Labour of your Lives little enough for a frail Body that must lie shortly in the Dirt and that your Immortal Souls should be no more regarded Could you think with any Reason that your Souls should do so much for a Life of a few Years continuance and do no more for a Life that shall have no end 3. And whereas you talk of trusting God with your Souls you did not trust him You did but on that Pretence carelesly disregard them If you trust God shew any Word of Promise that ever he gave you to trust upon that ever an impenitent carnal careless Person shall be saved No he hath told you enough to the contrary And could you think
Ability or I can have none and if he had given it me I had not been an Vnbeliever or Impenitent I can no more believe of my self than I can fulfil the Law of my self Answ 1. These are the vain Cavils of learned Folly which God will easily answer in a Word The Word Power is taken in several Senses Sometime and most commonly and fitly for a Faculty or a Strength by which a Man can do his Duty if he will This physical Power you have and the worst of Sinners have while they are Men on Earth Were they actually willing they might acceptably perform sincere Obedience and were they dispositively willing they might actually believe and will And thus the Ungodly have Power to believe Sometime the word Power is taken for Authority or Leave for legal or civil Power And thus you have all not only Power or Liberty to believe but also a Command which makes it your Duty and a Threatning adjoined which will condemn you if you do not Sometime the Word Power is taken ethically and less properly for a Disposition Inclination Habit or Freedom from the contrary Habit or Disposition And in this Sense it 's true that none but the effectually called have a Power to believe But then observe 1. That this is but a Moral less proper and not a Physical proper Impotency And therefore Austin chuseth rather to say that all Men have power to believe but all have not a Will or Faith it self because we use to difference Power from Willingness and Willingness actuateth the Power which we had before And therefore our Divines choose rather to call Grace a Habit when they speak exactly than a Power and Dr. Twiss derides the Arminians for talking of a Power subjected in a Power 2. Note that this Impotency is but the same thing with your Unwillingness and wilful Blindness in another Word 3. Note that this Impotency is long of your selves as to the Original and much more as to the not curing and removing of it Hath God given you â—o means towards the Cure of this Disability which you have neglected 4. Note that this Impotency is not a just Excuse but an Aggravation of your Sin If you were willing to be the Servant of Christ and yet were not able either because he would not accept you or because of a want of natural Faculties or because of some other natural Difficulty which the willingest Mind could not overcome this were some Excuse But to be habitually wilful in refusing Grace is worse than to be meerly actually unwilling If a Man have so accustomed himself to Murder Drunkenness Stealing or the like Wickedness so far that he cannot leave it will you therefore forgive him or will any Judg or Jury hold him excused Or rather think him the more unfit for Mercy 5. Note also that the want of a supernatural Habit no nor the Presence of the contrary Habit do not efficiently determine the Will to particular Acts much less take away its natural Freedom 6. And that till Habits attain an utter Predominancy at least there is a Power remaining in the Will to resist them and use Means against them Though eventually the perverse Inclination may hinder the use of it The three and twentieth Excuse I have heard from learned Men that God doth determine all Actions natural and free as the first efficient physical immediate Cause or else nothing could act And then it was not long of me that I chose forbidden Objects but of him that irresistibly moved me thereto and whose Instrument I was Answ This is a trick of that Wisdom which is Foolishness with God and to be deceived by vain Philosophy 1. The very Principle it self is most likely to be false and those that tell you this do err Much more I think may be said against it than for it 2. I am sure it is either false or irreconcileable with God's Holiness and Man's Liberty and Culpability so that its a mad thing to deceive your selves with such philosophical Uncertainties when the Truth which you oppose by it is infallibly certain That God is not the Author of Sin but Man himself who is justly condemned for it is undoubtedly true and would you obscure so clear a Truth by searching into Points beyond humane Reach if not unsound as you conclude them The four and twentieth Excuse But at least those learned Divines among us that doubt of this do yet say that the Will is necessarily and infallibly determined by the practical Vnderstanding and that is as much unresistibly necessitated by Objects and therefore whatever act was done by my Vnderstanding or Will was this necessitated and I could not help it They say Liberty is but the Acting of the Faculty agreeably to its Nature And it was God as Creator that gave Adam his Faculties and God by providential Dispose that presented all Objects to him by which his Vnderstanding and so his Will were unavoidably necessitated Answ This is of the same Nature with the former uncertain if not certainly false Were this true for ought we can see it would lay all the Sin and Misery of this World on God as the unresistible necessitating Cause which because we know infallibly to be false we have no reason to take such Principles to be true which infer it The Understanding doth not by a necessary Efficiency determine the Will but morally or rather is regularly a Condition or necessary Antecedent without which it may not determine it self Yea the Will by commanding the Sense and Phantasy doth much to determine the Understanding As the Eye is not necessary to my going but to my going right so is not the Understanding's Guidance necessary to my willing there the simple Apprehension may suffice but to my right willing There are other ways of determining the Will Or if the Understanding did determine the Will efficiently and necessarily it is not every act of the Understanding that must do it If it be so when it saith This must be done and saith it importunately yet not when it only saith This may be done or you may venture on it which is the common part which it hath in Sin I am not pleased that these curious Objections fall in the Way nor do I delight to put them into vulgar Heads but finding many young Scholars and others that have conversed with them assaulted with these Temptations I thought meet to give a Touch and but a Touch to take them out of their Way As Mr. Fenner hath done more fully in the Preface to his Hidden Manna on this last point to which I refer you I only add this The Will of Man in its very Dominion doth bear God's Image It is a self-determining Power though it be biassed by Habits and needs a Guide As the Heart and Vital Spirits by which it acteth are to the rest of the Body so is it to the Soul The Light of Nature hath taught all the World to carry the Guilt
time of Repentance for a Sermon of Mercy which once they slept under or made no account of How is the Case altered now with them Who would think that these are the same Men that made light of all this on Earth that so stoutly scorned the Reproofs of the Word that would be worldly and fleshly and drunk and proud let Preachers say what they would and perhaps hated those that did give them warning Now they are of another Mind but all too late O were there any Place for Resistance now would they draw back and lay hold of any thing before they would be dragged away into those Flames But there is no resisting Satan's Temptations might have been resisted but his Executions cannot God's Judgments might have been prevented by Faith and Prayer Repentance and a holy Life but they cannot be resisted when they are not prevented Glad would the miserable Sinner be if he might but turn to nothing and cease to be or that he might be any thing rather than a reasonable Creature but these Wishes are all in vain There is one Time and one Way of a Sinner's Deliverance if he fail in that one he perishth for ever all the World cannot help him after that 2 Cor. 6. 2. I have heard thee in a time accepted and in the Day of Salvation have I succoured thee Behold now is the accepted Time behold now is the Day of Salvation Now he saith Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the Door and knock if any Man hear my Voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me But for the time to come hereafter hear what he saith Prov. 1. 24 25 26. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no Man regarded but ye have set at nought all my Counsels and would none of my Reproof I also will laugh at your Calamity I will mock when your fear cometh when your fear cometh as a Desolation and your Dâ—struction comueth as a Whirlwind when Distress and Anguish cometh upon you then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me for that they hated Knowledg and did not choose the Fear of the Lord they would none of my Counsels they despised all my Reproofs therefore shall they eat of the Fruit of their own way and be filled with their own Devices for the turning away of the Simple shall slay them and the Prosperity of Fools shall destroy them but whoso hearkneth to me shall dwell safth and shall be quiet from fear of Evil. I have recited all these Words that you may see and consider whether I have spoke any other thing than God himself had plainly told you of Having said this much of the Certainty of the Execution I should next have spoke somewhat of the Manner and the Instruments and have shewed how God will be for ever the principal Cause and Satan and their own Consciences the Instruments in part and in what manner Conscience will do its part and how impossible it will be to quiet or resist it But having spoke so much of all this already elsewhere as is said before I will forbear here to repeat it leaving the Reader that desireth it there to peruse it The Vses Vse 1. Beloved Hearers it was not to fill your Fancies with News that God sent me hither this Day nor to tell you of Matters that nothing concern you nor by some terrible Words to bring you to an Hour's Amazement and no more But it is to tell you of things that your Eyes shall see and to foretel you of your Danger while it may be prevented that your precious Souls may be saved at the last and you may stand before God with Comfort at that Day But because this will not be every Man's Case no nor the Case of most I must in the Name of Christ desire you to make this day an Enquiry into your own Souls and as in the Presence of God let your Hearts make answer to these few Questions which I shall propound and deâ—te with you Qu. 1. Do you soundly believe this Doctrine which I have â—ached to you What say you Sirs Do you verily beâ—ve it as a most certain Truth that you and I and 〈◊〉 the World must stand at God's Bar and be judged to everlasting Joy or Torment I hope you do all in some 〈◊〉 believe this but blame me not if I be jealous whether you soundly believe it while we see in the World so little of the Effect of such a Belief I confess I am forced to think that there is more Infidelity than â—ith among us when I see more Ungodliness than Godâ—ess among us And I can hardly believe that Man â—at will say or swear that he believeth these things â—d yet liveth as carelesly and carnally as an Infidel I â—ow that no Man can love to be damned yea I â—ow that every Man that hath a reasonable Soul hath â—turally some love to himself and a fear of a Danger â—hich he verily apprehendeth he therefore that liveth â—thout all fear I must think liveth without all appreâ—nsion of his Danger Custom hath taught Men to hold these things as the Opinion of the Country but if Men soundly believed them surely we should see strangeâ— Effects of such a Faith than in the most we do see Doth the sleepy Soul that liveth in Security aâ— followeth this World as eagerly as if he had no greater Matters to mind that never once trembled at the Thoughts of this great Day nor once asked his own Soul in good Sadness My Soul How dost thou think then to escape I say doth this Man believe that he is going to this Judgment Well Sirs whether you believe it or not you will find it true and believe it you must before you can be safe For if you do not believe it you will never make ready Let me therefore perswade you in the Fear of God to consider that it is a Matter of undoubted Truth 1. Consider that it is the express Word of the God of Truth revealed in Scripture as plainly as you can desire So that you cannot be unbelieving without denying God's Word or giving him the Lie Mat. 13. 38 39 40 41 42 43 49 50. Mat. 25. throughout Rom. 2. 5 6 7 9 10 16. and 1. 32. John 5. 28 29. The Hour is coming in which all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of Damnation Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed to all Men once to die and after this the Judgment Rom. 14. 9 12. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God Rev. 20. 12. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which
will serve the turn for your latter Sins Not that you must purpose to sin and purpose to repent when you have done as a Remedy for that is an hypocritical and wicked Purpose of Repenting which is made a Means to maintain us in our Sins but Sin must be avoided as far as we can and Repentance and Faith in the Blood of Christ must remedy that which we could not avoid The Righteousness of Pardon in Christ's Blood is useful to us only so far as we are Sinners and cometh in where our imperfect inherent Righteousness doth come short but must not be purposely chosen before Innocency I mean we must rather choose as far as we can to obey and be innocent than to sin and be pardoned if we were sure of Pardon The twelfth Direction In this vigilant obedient penitent Course with Confidence upon God as a Father rest upon the Promise of Acceptance and Remission through the Merits and Intercession of him that redeemed you Look up in hope to the Glory that is before you and believe that God will make good his Word and the patient Expectation of the Righteous shall not be in vain Chearfully hold on in the Work that you have begun and as you serve a better Master than you did before your Change so serve him with more Willingness Gladness and Delight Do not entertain hard Thoughts of him or of his Service but rejoice in your unspeakable Happiness of being admitted into his Family and Favour through Christ Do not serve him in drooping Dejection and Discouragement but with Love and Ioy and filial Fear Keep in the Communion of his Saints where he is chearfully and faithfully praised and honoured and where is the greatest visible Similitude of Heaven upon Earth especially in the Celebration of the Sacrament of Christ's Supper where he seals up a renewed Pardon in his Blood and where unanimously we keep the Remembrance of his Death until he come Do not cast your selves out of the Communion of the Saints from whom to be cast out by just Censure and Exclusion is a dreadful Emblem and Fore-runner of the Judgment to come where the Ungodly shall be cast out of the Presence of Christ and his Saints for ever I have now finished the Directions which I tender to you for your Preparation for the Day of the Lord and withal my whole Discourse on this weighty Point What Effect all this shall have upon your Hearts the Lord knows it is not in my Power to determine If you are so far blinded and hardned by Sin and Satan as to make light of all this or coldly to commend the Doctrine while you go on to the End in your carnal worldly Condition as before I can say no more but tell thee again that Judgment is near when thou wilt bitterly bewail all this too late And among all the rest of the Evidence that comes in against thee this Book will be one which shall testify to thy Face before Angels and Men that thou wast told of that Day and intreated to prepare But if the Lord shall shew thee so much Mercy as to open thy Eyes and break in upon thy Heart and by sober Consideration turn it to himself and cause thee faithfully to take the Warning that hath been give thee and to obey these Directions I dare assure thee from the Word of the Lord that this judgment which will be so dreadful to the Ungodly and the Beginning of their endless Terrour and Misery will be as joyful to thee and the Beginning of thy Glory The Saviour that thou hast believed in and sincerely obeyed will not condemn thee Psal 1. 5 6. Rom. 8. 1. John 3. 16. It is part of his Business to justify thee before the World and to glorify his Merits his Kingly Power his Holiness and his rewarding Justice in thy Absolution and Salvation He will account it a righteous thing to recompense Tribulation to thy Troublers and Rest to thy self when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his Mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking Vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power Even then shall he come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe in that Day even because his Servants Testimony and his Spirits among them was believed 2 Thess 1. 6 7 8 9 10. That Day will be the great Marriage of the Lamb and the Reception of thee and all the Saints into the Glory of thy Beloved to which they had a Right at their first Consent and Contract upon Earth And when the Bridegroom comes thou who art ready shalt go into the Marriage when the Door shall be shut against the sleepy negligent World and though they cry Lord Lord open to us they shall be repulsed with a Verily I know you not Mat. 25. 10 11 12 13. For this Day which others fear mayest thou long and hope and pray and wait and comfort thy self in all Troubles with the Remembrance of it 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57 58. 1 Thess 4. 17 18. If thou wert ready to be offered to Death for Christ or when the time of thy Departing is at hand thou mayest look back on the good Fight which thou hast fought and on the Course which thou hast finished and on the Faith which then hast kept and mayest confidently conclude that henceforth there is laid up for thee a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judg shall give thee at that Day and not to thee only but unto all them also that love his Appearing 2 Tim. 4. 6 7 8. Even so come Lord Jesus Rev. 22. 20. FINIS The Danger of slighting Christ and his Gospel Mat. 22. 5. But they made light of it THE blessed Son of God that thought not enough to die for the World but himself also be the Preacher of Grace and Salvation doth comprize in this Parable the Sum of his Gospel By the King that is here said to make the Marriage is meant God the Father that sent his Son into the World to cleanse them from their Sins and espouse them to himself By his Son for whom the Marriage is made is meant the Lord Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God who took to his God-head the Nature of Man that he might be capable of being their Redeemer when they had lost themselves in Sin By the Marriage is meant the Conjunction of Christ to the Soul of Sinners when he giveth up himself to them to be their Saviour and they give up themselves to him as his redeemed Ones to be saved and ruled by him the Perfection of which Marriage will be at the Day of Judgment when the Conjunction between the whole Church and Christ shall be solemnized The Word here translated Marriage rather signifieth the Marriage-Feast