better Master say as Peter Wither shall we go Lord thou hast the words of eternal life And when thou knowest once where to be better then go thy way part with Christ and spare not If thy merry company or thy honour or thy wealth or all thy friends and delights in the world will do that for thee which Christ hath done and which at last he will do if thou stick to him then take them for thy Gods and let Christ go In the meane time let me prevaile with thee as thou are a man of reason sell not thy Saviour till thou know for what sell not thy soul till thou know why sell not thy hopes of Heaven for nothing God forbid that thy wilfull folly should bring thee to Hell and there thou shouldst lie roaring and crying out for ever This is the reward of my neglecting Christ he would have led me to Glory and I would not follow him I sold heaven for a few merry hours for a little honour and ease and delight to my flesh here I lie in torment because I would not be ruled by Christ but chose my lusts and pleasure be fore him Sinner do not think I speak harshly or uncharitably to call this neglect of Christ thy folly As true as thou livest and hearest me this day except thy timely submission do prevent it which God grant it may thou wilt one of these dayes befool thy self a thousand times more then I now befool thee and call thy self mad and a thousand times mad when thou thinkest how fair thou wast for heaven and how ready Christ was to have been thy Saviour and thy Lord and how light thou madest of all his offers Either this will prove true to thy cost or else am I a fals Prophet and a cursed deceiver Be wise therefore be learned and kiss the Son The former Considerations were drawn from Aggravations of the sinne the following are drawn from the Aggravations of the punishment and that fom the words of the Text too 1. God will be angry if you kiss not the Son His wrath is as fire and this neglect of Christ is the way to kindle it If thou art not a Believer thou art condemned already but this will bring upon thee a double condemnation Believe it for a truth All thy sinnes as they are the Covenant of Works even the most hainous of them are not so provoking destroying as thy slighting of Christ Oh what will the Father say to such an unworthy wrecth Must I send my Son from my bosome to suffer for thee must he groan when thou shouldst groan and bleed when thou shouldst bleed and dye when thou shouldst dye And canst thou not now be perswaded to embrace him and obey him must the world be courted while he stands by must he have the naked title of thy Lord and Saviour while thy fleshly pleasures and profits have thy heart what wrath can be too great what hell too hot for such an ungrateful unworthy wretch Must I prepare thee a portion of the blood of my Son and wilt not thou be perswaded now to drink it must I be at so much cost to save thee and wilt thou not obey that thou maist be saved Go seize upon him justice let my wrath consume thee let hell devour thee let thy own Conscience for ever torment thee seeing thou hast chosen death thou shalt have it and as thou hast rejected Heaven thou shalt never see it but my wrath shall abide upon thee for ever Joh. 3. 36. Woe to the sinner if this be once thy sentence thou wert better have all the world angry with theeâ— and bound in an oath against thee as the Jews against Paul then that one drop of his anger should light upon thee thou wert better have Heaven and Earth to fall upon thee then one degree of Gods displeasure 2. As this wrath is Fire so is it a consuming fire and causeth the sinner utterly to perish All this is plain in the Text not that the Being of the soul will cease such a perishing the sinner would be glad oâ— A happy man would he think himself if he might dye as the bruits and be no more but such wishes are vain It is but a glimpse of his own condition which he shall see in the great combustion of the world when he seeth the heaven and earth on fire he see 's but the picture of his approaching wo. But alas it is he that must feel the devouring fire The world will be but refined or consumed by its fire but there must he burn and burn for ever and yet be neither consumed nor refined The Earth will not feel the flames that burn it but his soul and body must feel it with a witness Little know his friends that are honourably interring his Corps what his miserable sonl is seeing and feeling Here endeth the story of his prosperity and delights and now begins the Tragedy that will never have end Oh how his merry days are vanished as a dream and his jovial life as a Tale that is told His witty jests his pleasant sports his Cards and Dice his merry company and wanton dalliance his Cups and Queans yea his hopes of heaven and confident concerts of escaping this wrath are all perished with him in the way As the wax melteth before the fire as the chaff is scattered before the wind as the stubble consumeth before the flames as the flowers do wither before the scorching Sun so are all his sinful pleasures withered consumed scattered and melted And is not the hearty embracing of Christ and subjection to him a cheap prevention of all this Oh who among you can dwell with the devouring fire Who can dwell with the everlasting burnings Isai 33. 14. This God hath said he will surely do if you are able to gain-sâ—y and resist him try your strength read his ehal enge Isai 27. 4. Who would set the briars and thorns agaist me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together 3. This perishing will be sudden and unexpected in the way of their sin and resistance of Christ in the way of their fleshly delights and hopes They shall perish in the way l Thes 5. 3. Mat. 24. 37 As fire doth utterly break out in the night when men are sleeping and consumeth the fruit of their long labours so will this fire break forth upon their souls and how neer may it be when you little think on it A hundred to one but some of us present shall within a few moneths be in another world and what world will it be you may easily conceive if you do not embrace and obey the Son How many have been smitten with Herod in the midst of their vain glory How many like Ahab have been wounded in fight and dunged the Earth with their flesh and blood who left the Lords people to be fed with bread and water of affliction in confidence of their own return
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 Gods 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 therefore I will not learn now hav you not seen som of your neighbours who were as ill educated as your selves attain to much knowledge 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 knowledge and would not be at pains to get it that you knew no more Speak truth man in the presence of thy Judge 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 publike and think of what thou heardest 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 thou obey so far as thou didst know Or didst thou not rather sin against that knowledge which thou hadst Thou knewest that the soul was better then the body and everlasting life more to be regarded then this transitory life But didst thou regard it accordingly Thou sure knewest that God was better then the world and Heaven then earth at least thou was 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 Knowledge and Conscience will marr this Excuse The fifth Excuse I lived not under a powerfull Minister to tell me of these things but where there was no Preaching at all Answ And might you not have gone where a powerfull 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 a 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 adoe 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 cell thee One thing is necessary Luke 10. 41 42 Was it not as needfull 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 Mans 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 even when you were about your labour if you had but a heart to them 5. At least you might have spent the Lords own Day in hearing reading and pondering of these matters when you were forced to forbear your worldly labours even by the wholsom Law of the Land These therefore are all but vain Excuses and God will shortly make thee speak out and plainly confess It was 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 â—o have seen this day I did not Believe that ever God would be so severe I thought his Threatnings had been but to keep men in awe and I suspected either that the Scripture was not his word or else I thought he would be better then 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 uncertainty and lose my present pleasures which I had in hand for the hopes of 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 Gods Word make Heaven and Earth doth it support them and secure them and is not his Word sufficient security for you to have trusted your souls upon did you know where was any better security to be had and where was any surer ground for your confidence And did you think so basely and blasphemously of God that he would falsifie his Word lest such as you should suffer and that he was fain to rule the world by a Lye Did God make the world so easily and can he not govern it by true and righteous means what need God to say that which he will not do to awe sinners can he not awe them by Truth is it not just that those should eternally perish that will entertain such desperate thoughts of God and then by such wicked imaginations encourage themselves in sin against him And for the Truth of Scripture God did not bid you believe it without Evidence He stamped on it the Image of his own Purity and Perfection that you might know it by that Image and superscription if you had eyes to see them He sealed it by uncontrouled multitudes of Miracles He delivered it down to your hands by infallible witnesses so that he left you no room for rational Doubting And you knew that the matters
THREE TREATISES Tending to awaken Secure Sinners viz. 1. The terror of the day of Judgment 2 COR. 5. 10. 2. The danger of slighting Christ and his Gospel MATT. 22. 5. 3. True Christianity or Christs absolute Dominion 1 COR. 6. 19 20. And Mans necessary Self-Resignation and Subjection unto Christ PSA 2. 10 11 12. By Richard Baxter To be sold by John Rothwell at the Fountain in Goldsmiths-row in Cheapside 1656. TRUE Christianity OR Christs absolute Dominion and Mans necessary Self-resignation and subjection In two Assize Sermons preached at WORCESTER By RICH. BAXTER LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons bookseller in Kidderminster 1656. A Sermon OF The absolute Dominion of God-Redeemer and the necessity of being devoted and living to him Preached before the Honorable Judge of Assize at Worcester Aug. 2. 1654. By Rich. Baxter Rom. 14. 9. For to this end Christ both dyed and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and Living London Printed for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kidderminster 1656. To the Right Honourable Serjeant Glyn Now Judge of Assise in this Circuit My Lord COuld my excuse have satisfyed you this Sermon had been confined to the Auditory it was prepared for I cannot expect that is should find that Candor and favour with every Reader as it did with the Hearers When it must speak to All the guilty will hear and then it will gall Innocency is patient in hearing a reproof and charitable in the interpretation but Guilt will smart and quarrel and usually make a fault in him that findeth one in them Yet I confest this is but a poor justification of his silence that hath a Call to speak Both my Calling and this Sermon would condemn me if on such grounds I should draw back But my Backwardness was caused by the reason which I then tendred your Lord-ship as my excuse viz. Because here is nothing but what is common and that it is in as common and homely a dress And I hope we need not fear that our labours are dead unless the Press shall give them life We bring not Sermons to Church as we do a Corps for a burial If there be life in them and life in the Hearers the connaturality will cause such an amicable closure that through the Reception Retention and operation of the soul they will be the immortal seed of a life everlasting But yet seeing the press hath a louder voice then mine and the matter in hand is of such exceeding necessity I shall not refuse upon such an invitation to be a rememberancer to the the world of a Doctrine and duty of such high concernment thongh they have heard it never so oft before Seeing therefore I must present that now to your eyes which I lately presented to your ears I shall take the boldness to add one word of Application in this Epistle which I thought not seasonable to mention in the first delivery and that shall be to your Lordship and all others in your present case that are elected members of this expected Parliament Be sure to remember the interest of your soveraign the great Lord Protector of Heaven and Earth And as ever you will make him a comfortable accompt of your Power Abilities and Opportunities of serving him see that you prefer his interest before your own or any mans on earth If you go not thither as sent by Him with a firm resolution to serve him first you were better sit at home forget not that he hath laid claim to you and to all that you have and all that you can have and all that you can do I am bold with all possible earnestness to entreat you yea as Christs Minister to require you in his Name to study and remember his business and interest and see that it have the chief place in all your consultations Watch against the incroachments of your own carnal interests consult not with flesh and blood nor give it the hearing when it shall offer you its advice How subtilly will it insinuate how importunately will it urge you how certainly will it marr all if you do not constantly and resolvedly watch O how hard but now happy is it to conquer this carnal self Remember still that you are not your own that you have an unseen Master that must be pleased whoever be displeased and an unseen Kingdom to be obtained and an invisible soul that must be saved though all the world be lost Fix your eye still on him that made and redeemed you and upon the ultimate end of your Christian race and do nothing wilfully unworthy such a Master and such an end Often renew your self-resignation and devote your self to him sit close at his work and be sure that it be His both in the Matter and in your Intent If Conscience should at any time ask Whose work are you now doing or a man should pluck you by the sleeve and say Sir Whose Cause are you now pleading See that you have the answer of a Christian at hand delay not Gods work till you have done your own or any ones else You 'l best secure the Common-wealth and your own interest by looking first to His. By neglecting this and being carnally wise we have wheel'd about so long in the Wilderness and lost those advantages against the Powers of Darkness which we know not whether we shall ever recover again It is the great astonishment of sober men and not the least reproach that ever was cast on our holy Profession to think with what a zeal for the work of Christ men seemed to be animated in the beginning of our disagreements and how deeply they did engage themselves to him in solemn Vows Protestations and Covenants what advantages carnal self hath since got and turned the stream another way so that the same men have since been the instruments of our calamity in breaking in pieces and dishonouring the Churches of Christ yea and gone so neer to the taking down as much as in them lay the whole Ministry that stand approved in the Land O do not by trifling give advantage to the Temper to destroy your work and you together Take warning by the sad experiences of what is past bestir you speedily and vigoruosly for Christ as knowing your opposition and the shortness of your time Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he commeth shall find so doing If you ask me wherein his interest of Christ doth consist I shall tell you but in a few unquestionable particulars 1. In the main that truth godliness and honesty be countenanced and encouraged and their contraries by all fit means suppressed 2. In order to this that unworthy men be removed from Magistracy and Ministry and the places supplyed with the fittest that can be had 3. That a competent maintenance may be procured where it is wanting especially for Cities and great Towns where more Teachers are so necessary in some proportion to the number of souls and on which the
to his dispose and service If custom bid thee curse and swear and Christ forbid thee which dost thou obey If thy Appetite bid thee take thy cups and fare deliciously every day If thy company bid thee play the good-fellow or scorn the Godly If thy covetousness bid thee love the world and Christ forbid thee which dost thou obey If Christ bid thee be Holy and walk precisely and be violent for Heaven and strive to enter in and the world and the flesh be enemies to all this and cry it down as tedious folly which dost thou obey Dost thou daily and spiritually worship him in private and in thy Family and teach thy Children and Servants to fear the Lord I intreat you Sirs deal truly in answering these Questions never man was saved by the bare title of a Christian If you are not subject to Christ you are not Christians no more then a Picture or a Carcase is a man and your salvation will be such as your Christianity is subjection is an essential part of thy Faith and obedience is its fruit In short then dost thou make him thy fear and tremble at his word Darest thou run upon fire or water sword or canon rather then wilfully run upon his displeasure wouldst thou rather displease thy dearest friend the greatest Prince or thine own flesh then wittingly provoke him When Christ speaks against thy sweetest sin thy nature or custom or credit or life against thy rooted opinions or thy corrupt traditions Art thou willing to submit to all that he revealeth Dost thou say Speak Lord for thy Servant heareth Lord what wouldst thou have me to do I am ready to do thy will O God Beloved Hearers This is the frame of every Servant of Christ and this is the acknowledging and accepting him for your Lord. I beseech you cozen not your souls with shews and formalities if ever you be saved without this subjection it must be without Christs merits or mercy It must be in a way that Scripture revealeth not â—nay it must be in despite of God his truth must be falsified his power must be mastered before the disobedient can be saved from his wrath 2 Examine also your Dependence on Christ whether you kiss his Hands as well as his Feet Do you understand that you are all by nature Condemned men and lyable to the everlasting wrath of God that Christ hath interposed and paid this Debt and bought us as his own by the satisfaction of that justice that all things are now delivered into his hands John 1â— â— and he is made Head over all things to his Church Ephes 1. 21 22. Dost thou take him for thy onely Saviour and believe the History of his Life and Passion the truth of his divine and humane nature his Resurrection his Office and his approaching Judgement Dost thou see that all thy supposed Righteousness is but vanity and sin and that thy self art unable to make the least satisfaction to the Law by thy Works or Sufferings and if his blood do not wash thee and his righteousness justifie thee thou must certainly be damned yet and perish for ever Dost thou therefore cast thy self into his arms and venture thy everlasting state upon him and trust him with thy soul and fetch all thy help and healing from him When sin is remembred and thy Conscience troubled and the fore-thoughts of judgement do amaze thy soul dost thou then fetch thy comfort from the view of his blood and the thoughts of the Freeness and Fulness of his Satisfaction his Love and Gospel-offers and promises Dost thou so build upon his promise of a Happiness hereafter that thou canst let goe all thy happiness here and drink of his Cup and be baptized with his Baptism and lose thy life upon his promise that thou shalt save it Canst thou part with goods and friends and all that thou hast in hope of a promised Glory which thou never sawest If thou canst drink with him of the Brook in the way thou shalt also with him lift up the head Psal 110 v. last Dost thou perceive a Mediator as well as a God in all thy mercies both special and common and tast his blood in all that thou receivest and wait upon his hand for thy future supplies Why this is kissing the hand of Christ and depending upon him O how contrary is the Case of the World whose confidence is like the Samaritans worship they trust God and their Wits and Labours Christ and their supposed Merits I would I might not say Christ and deceit and wicked contrivances Oh blasphemous joyning of heaven and hell to make up one foundation of their trust 3. Examine a little also your love to Christ Do you thus kiss the Son do your souls cleave to him and embrace him with the strongest of your affections Sirs though there is nothing that the blind world is more confident in then this that they love Christ with all their hearts yet is there nothing wherein they are more false and faulty I beseech you therefore deal truly in answering here Are your hearts set upon the Lord Jesus do you love him above all things in this World do you stick at your answer do you not know sure then at best you love him but little or else you could not choose but know it Love is a stirring and sensible Affection you know what it is to love a Friend Feel by this Pulse whether you live or dye Doth it beat more strongly toward Christ then to any thing else Never question man the necessity of this he hath concluded If thou love any thing more then him thou art unworthy of him nor canst be his Disciple Are thy thoughts of Christ thy freest and thy sweetest thoughts are thy speeches of him thy sweetest speeches when thou awakest art thou still with him and is he next thy heart when thou walkest abroad dost thou take him in thy thoughts canst thou say and lye not that thou wert ever deeply in love with him that thou dost love him but as heartily as thou lovest thy friend and art as loth to displease him and as glad of his presence and art as much troubled at his strangeness or absence Hath thy Minister or godly Acquaintance ever heard thee bemoaning thy soul for want of Christ or inquiring what thou shouldst do to attain him or thy Family heard thee commending his excellency and labouring to kindle their affections towards him why love will not be hid when it hath its desire it will be rejoycing and when it wants it will be Complaining Or at least Can thy Conscience witness thy longings thy groans thy prayers for a Christ Wilt thou stand to the Testimony of these Witnesses Do you love his weak his poor despised Members Do you visit them cloath them feed them to your power not only in a Common Natural Compassion to them as they are your Neighbors but do you love or relieve a Prophet in the name of a
in peace How many have been swallowed up like Pharaoh and his Host in their rash and malicious persuit of the godly Little thinks many an ignorant careless soul what a change of his condition he shall shortly find Those thousands of souls that are now in misery did as little think of that doleful state while they were merily pleasing the flesh on earth and forgetting Christ and their eternal state as you do now they could as contemptuously jeer the Preacher as you and verily believe that all this talk was but words and wind and empty threats and ventured their souls as boldy upon their carnal hopes Little thought Sodom of the devouring fire when they were fnriously assaulting the door of their righteous reprover As little do the raging enemies of godliness among us think of the deplorable state which they are hasting to They will cry out themselves then Little did I think to see this day or feel these torments Why thou wouldst not thâ—nk of it or else thou mightest God told thee in Scripture and Ministers in their preaching but thou wouldst not believe till it was too late A little of Gods wrath will bring down all this upon those that embrace not and obey not the Son If his wrath be kindled yea but a little c. As his mercy being the mercy of an infinite God a little of it will sweeten a world of crosses so therefore will a little of his wrath consume a world of pleasures one spark fell among the Bethshemites and consumed fifty thousand and seventy men but for looking into the Ark till the people cry out Who can stand before this Holy Lord God 1 Sam. 6. 19 20. How then will the neglecters of Christ stand before him Sirs me thinks we should not hear of this as strangers or unbelievers There did but one spark fall upon England and what a combustion hath it cast this Kingdom into how many Houses and Towns hath it consumed How many thousand of people hath it impoverished how many children hath it left fatherless and how many thousand bodies hath it bereaved of their souls And though there are as many hearty prayers and tears poured forth to quench it as most Kingdoms on earth have had yet is the fire kindled afresh and threatneth a more terrible desolation then before as if it would turn us all to ashes One spark fell upon Germany another upon Ireland and what it hath done there I need not tell you If a little of this wrath do but seize upon thy body what cryes and groans and lamentations doth it raise If it be on one member yea but a tooth how dost thou roar with intolerable pain and wouldst not take the world to live for ever in that condition If it seize upon the Conscience what torments doth it cause as if the man were already in the suburbs of Hell He thinketh every thing he seeth is against him he feareth every bit he eateth should be his bane If he sleep he dreams of death and judgement when he awaketh his Conscience and horror awake with him he is weary of living and fearful of dying even the thoughts of heaven are terrible to him because he thinks it is not for him Oh what a pittiful sight is it to see a man under the wrath of God! And are these little little sparks so intolerable hot What then do you think are the Everlasting flames Beloved Hearers if God had not spoke this I durst not have spoke it The desire of my soul is that you may never feel it or else I should never have chosen so unpleasing a subject but that I hope the foreknowing may help you to prevent it But let me tell you from God that as sure as the heaven is over your head and the earth under your feet except the Son of God be nearer thy heart and dearer to thy heart then friends or goods or pleasures or life or any thing in this world this burning wrath will never be prevented Mat. 10. 37. Luke 14. 26. 5. When this wrath of God is throughly kindled the world will discern the blessed from the wretched Then blessed are they that trust in him It is the property of the wicked to be wise too late Those that now they esteem but precise fools will then be acknowledged blessed men Bear with their scorns Christians in the mean time they will very shortly wish themselves in your stead and would give all that ever they were masters of that they had sought and loved Christ as earnestly as you and had a little of your oyl when they find their lamps are out Mat. 25. 8. And now Hearers what is your resolution perhaps you have been enemies to Christ under the name of Christians Will you be so still Have you not loathed this busie diligent serving of him and hated them that most carefully seek him more then the vilest drunkard or blaspemer Have not his word and service and sabbaths been a burthen to you Have not multitudes ventured their lives against his Ordinances and Government Nay is it not almost the common voice of the Nation in effect Give us our sports and liberty of sinning give us our Readers and singing-men and drunken Preachers give us our Holy-daies and Ceremonies and the Customes of our fore-fathers Away with these precise fellows they are an eye-sore to us these precise Preachers shall noâ— controll us this precise Scripture shall be no Law to us and consequently this Christ shall not Rule over us How long hath England rebelled against his Government Mr. Vdal told them in the days of Queen Elizabeth that if they would not set up the Discipline of Christ in the Church Christ would set it up himself in a way that would make their hearts to ake I think their hearts have aked by this time and as they judged him to the Gallowes for his Prediction so hath Christ executed them by thousands for their Rebellion against him and yet they are as unwilling of his Government as ever The Kings of the Earth are afraid lest Christs Government should un-king them The Rulers are jealous lest it will depose them from their Dignities even the Reformers that have adventured all to set it up are jealous lest it will incroach upon their power and priviledges Kings are afraid of it and think themselves but half kings where Christ doth set up his Word and Discipline Parliaments are afraid of it lest it should usurp their Authority Lawyers are afraid of it lest it should take away their gains and the Laws of Christ should over-top the Laws of the Land The people are afraid of it lest it will compel them to subjection to that Law and way which their souls abhor Indeed if men may be their own judges then Christ hath no enemies in England at all we are his friends and all good Christians It is Precisians and Rebels that men hate and not Christ It is not the Government of Christ that
may be to men and how loth so ever 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 vinyard 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 Judge and be accomptible for all that was done in the body and be sent before till the final judgement to remain in happiness or misery till the body be raised again and joyned 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 Abrahams 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 joyned again to their souls and the soul and body shall be judged to their endless state and this is the great and generall Iudgement where all men shal 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 woe 1 Cor. 15. 53. Iohn 5. 28 29. Of this Resurrection and our Appearance at Iudgement the Angels will be some way the Ministers As they shall come with Christ to Iudgement so they shall sound his Trumpet 1 Thes 4. 16. and they shall gather the wicked out of Gods Kingdom and they shall gather the Tares to burn them Mat. 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 Mat. 17. 49 50. FOR the sixth particular What Law is it that men shall be Judged by Answ That which was given them to live by Gods 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 suitable 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 flood condemned by that Law and could not be Iustified 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 tryed at Judgement 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 to 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 Judgement though it must first be evinced that we are sinners and have deserved Death according to the Law of pure nature yet that is not the upshot of the Judgement 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 bejudged 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 Redeemers mercy they did enjoy which should have led them to repent and seek out after Recovery from their misery and to come neerer Christ and for the neglect and abuse of this they shall be judged and not meerly for sinning against the Law that was given us in pure innocency So that Christ as Redeemer shall judge them as well as others though they had but one Talent yet must they give an account of that to the Redeemer from whom they received it But if any be unsatisfied in this let them remember that as God hath left the state of such more dark to us and the terms on which he will Iudge them so doth it much more concern us to look to the terms of our own Iudgement Obj. But how shall infants be judged by the Gospel that were uncapable of it Answ For ought I find in Scripture they stand or fall with their parents and on the same terms but I leave each to their own thoughts VII FOR the seventh head What will be the cause of the day to be enquired after what the Accusation and what the Defence Answ This may be gathered from what was last said The great Cause of the day will be to enquire and determine who shall dye and who shall live who ought to go to heaven and who to hell for ever according to the Law by which they must then be Judged 1. As there is a twofold Law by which they must be Judged so will there then be a twofold Accusation The first will be that they were sinners and so having violated the Law of God they Deserve Everlasting Death accordding to that Law If no defence could be made this one Accusation would condemn all the world for it is most certain that all are sinners and as certain that all sin deserveth Death The only defence against this Accusation lyeth in this Plea Confessing the charge we must plead that Christ hath satisfied for sins and upon that consideration God hath forgiven us and therefore being forgiven we ought not to be punished To prove this we must shew the pardon under Gods hand in the Gospel But because this pardoning Act of the Gospel doth forgive none but those that Repent and Believe and so return to God and to sincere Obedience for the time to come therefore the next Accusation will be that we did not perform these Conditions of forgiveness and therefore being Vnbelievers Impenitent and Rebels against the Redeemer we have no right to pardon but by the sentence of the Gospel are lyable to a greater punishment for this contempt of Christ and Grace This Accusation is either true or false where it is true God and Conscience who speak the truth may well be
that his Service was making more adoe then needs and didst grudge at those that were more diligent then thy self but for the World how heartily and how constantly didst thou seek and serve it and yet wouldst thou now perswade the Judge that thou didst love God above all He will shew thee thy naked heat and the course of thy former life which shail 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 dyed for thee and never to do him one hours 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 sins 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 adoe might have served the turn and that if I lookt to my body God would take caâ—e of my soul and that it was better to trust him what would become of me hereafter then 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. 3â— 5. That without holiness none should see God Heb. 12. 14. That you mist 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 dye 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 and 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 aud 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 move precious then your bodies you should yet do so much more for your bodies then 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 reâ—arded 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 yon enough to the contrary And could you think that it was the will of God that you should mind your bodies more then your souls and this life more then that to come Why he hath bid you strive and run and sight 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 comparision 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 Gods 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 rayment for me but never once told me that I had a soul to save or lose and and an everlasting life to provide and prepare for And therefore I could not come to the knowledge 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 Judgement whether you are good Scholars or not no nor so much as whether you could write or read But consider well was not Gods 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
all agreed they are all agreed in the Fundamental Articles of Christianity and in all things absolutely necessary to a holy Life and to salvation that all known sin is to be forsaken and all known duty to be done Why did you not so far then agree with them Alas the imperfections of the godly and the false Accusations of the malicious world will prove but a poor cover for your wilful ungodliness and Christ will convince you of the vanity of these Excuses The thirteenth Excuse The Scriptures were so dark that I could not understand them And I saw the wisest men differ so much in the exposition of them that I thought it was in vain for me to trouble my self about them If God would have had us live according to the Sriptures he would sure have written them plainly that men might understand them Answ 1. It is all plainly written according to the nature of the subject But a prejudiced disaffected yea or but untaught disused soul cannot at first understand the plainest Teaching The plainest Greek or Hebrew Gramer that can be written will be utterly obscure to him that is but newly entred the English School yea after many years time that he spends in learning Did you study hard and pray for Gods teaching and enquire of others and wait patiently in Christs School that you might come to further knowledge by Degrees and were you willing to know even those Truths that called you out to self-denyal and that did put you on the â—ardest flesh displeasing duties Had you done thus you would have admired the Light of the Holy Scripture and now have rejoyced that ever you saw them and not have quarrelled at its seeming Darkness This word might have made you wise to salvation as it hath done others Act. 20. 32. 2. Tim. 3. 15 16 17. This Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple The statutes of the Lord are Right Rejoycing the heart the Commandment of Lord is pure enligtning the eyes Psal 19. 7 8. 2. So much as is of Necessity to salvation is as plain as you could desire Yet if you be Judged by these you will be condemned For you did not obey that which was most plain What darkness is in such words as these Except ye Repent ye shall All perish Luk. 13. 3. 5. Love not the world nor the things in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2. 15 He that will come after me let him deny himself c. Matth. 16. 24. 3. If there had been nothing that seemed difficult to you would you not have despised its simplicity and have thought your selves wise enough at the first Reading and needed no more The fourteenth Excuse There were so many seeming Contradictions in the Scripture and so many strange improbable things that I could not believe it Answ The contradictions were in your fancy that did not understand the word which you read Must the raw unexperienced Learner despise his book or Teacher a oft as in his ignorance he thinks he meets with contradictions Did you think God was no wiser then you and understood not himself because you understood him not Nor could reconcile his own words because you could not reconcile them You would needs be a Judge of the Law instead of obeying it and speak evil of it rather then do it Jam. 4. 11. 2. And those things which you called improbable in the word were the wonders of God of purpose to confirm it If it had not been confirmed by wonders you would have thought it unproved and yet now it is so confirmed you will not believe the Doctrine because the witness seems incredible And that is because they are matters above the power of man As if they were therefoe above the power of God! You shall at last have your eyes so far opened as to see those seeming contradictions reconciled and to certainty of those things which you accounted Improbable that you may be forced to confess the folly of your Arrogancy and Unbelief and then God will â—udge you in Righteousness who presumed unrighteously to Judge him and his word The fifteenth Excuse It seemed so unlikely a thing to me that the merciful God should damn most of the world to everlasting fire that I could not believe it Answ 1. And did it not seem as unlikely to you that his word should be false 2. Should it not have seemed as unlikely that the Governor of the world should be unjust and suffer his Law to be unexecuted and â—he worst to speed as well as the best and to suffer vile sinful dust to despise his mercy and abuse his patience and turn all his Creatures against him without due punishment 3. Did you not feel pain and misery begin in this life 4. You saw Toads and Serpents which had never sinned And you would rather live in any tolerable suffering then to be a Toad And is it not Reason that it should go worse with contemptuous sinners then with those creatures that never sinned 5. Could you expect that those should come to heaven that would not believe there was such a state but refused it and preferred the world before it And to be out of heaven is to be out of all Happiness and he that is so out of all happiness and knows that he lost it by his own folly must needs Torment himself with such considerations were there no other Torments And as man is capable of greater felicity then bruits so must he needs be capable of more misery The sixteenth Excuse The things which God promised in heaven and threatned in Hell were all out of my sight and therefore I could not heartily believe them Had I but once seen them or spoke with one that had seen them I should have been satisfied and have contemned the things of the world Answ Will you not believe till you see or feel was not Gods word sufficient Evidence would you have beleived one from the dead that had told you he had seen such things and would you not believe Stephen that saw them Act. 7. 56. Or Paul that heard and saw them 2 Cor. 12. 3 4. Nor Christ that came purposely from heaven to reveal them why flesh and blood cannot see them You see not God will you not therefore Believe that there is a God indeed whatever you imagine if you would not Believe Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles neither would you have believed though one had risen from the dead For Gods word is more credible then a dead mans and Christ did rise from the dead to attest it Blessed are they that have not seen and yet believed Noah saw no rain when he was preparing the Ark but because he believed he made ready and escaped Heb. 11. 7. when the world that would not Believe did perish But seeing Gods word was of no more
not Believe aâ—d he alâ—o shall be there The godly that waited in hope for that day as the day of their â—ull Dâ—lâ—verance Coronation â—hey shall be there Those that have lain in the dust these 5000. years shall rise again and all stand there Hearer whoever thou art believe it thou maist better think to live without meat to see without light to escape death and abide for ever on earth then to keep away from that Appearance Willing or unwilling thou shalt be there And should not a matter then that so concerneth thy self go neer to thy heart and awake thee from thy security 3. That it is a matter of unquestionable certainty I have partly shewed you already and more would do if I were preaching to known Infidels If the careless world had any just reason to think it were uncertain their carelesness were more excusable Methinks a man should be affected with that which he is certain shall come to pass in a manner as if it were now in doing â— Thes 5. 2. Ye perfectly know that the day of the Lord so cometh c. saith the Apostle 4. This day is not only certain but it is neâ—r and therefore should affect you the more I confess if it were never so far off yet seeing it will come at last It should be carefully regarded But when the Judge is at the door Jam. 5. 9. and we are almost at the barr and it is so short a time to this assize what soul that is not dead will be secure Alas Sirs what is a little time when it is gone how quickly shall you and I be all in another world and our souls recieve their particular Judgement and so wait till the body be raised and judged to same Condition It is not a 100. years in all likelyhood till every soul of us shall be in heaven or hell and its like not half or a quarter of that time but it will be so with the greater part of us and what is a year or two or a 100 how speedily is it come how many a soul that is now in heaven or hell within a 1000 years dwelt in the places that you now dwel in and sate in the seats you now sit in And now their time is past what is it Alas how quickly will it be so with us You know not when you go to bed but you may be Judged by the next morning or when you rise but you may be Judged before night but certainly you know that shortly it will be and should not this then be laid to heart Yea the General Judgement wil lt no be long For certainly we live in the end of world Qu. 4. MY next Question is Whether are you ready for this dreadful Judgement when it comes or not Seeing it is your selves then must be tried I think it concerns you to see that you be prepared How often hath Christ warned us in the Gospel that we be alwaies ready because we know not the day or hour of his coming Mat. 24. 44. 42. and 25. 13. 1 Thes 5. 6. and told us how sad a time it will be to those that are unready Mat. 25. 11 12. Did men but well know what a meeting and greeting there will be between Christ and an unready soul it would sure startle them and make them look about them What say you Beloved Hearers are you ready for Judgement or are you not Me thinks a man that knoweth he shall be Judged should ask himself the Question every day of his life Am I ready to give up my Account to God! Do not you use to ask this of your own hearts unless you be careless whether you be saved or damned me thinks you should and ask it seriously Qu. But who be they that are ready how shall I know whether I be ready or not Answ There is a twofold readiness 1. When you are in a safe case 2. When you are in a comfortable case in regard of that day The latter is very desirable but the first is of absolute necessity this therefore is it that you must principally enquire after In General all those and only those are ready for Judgement who shall be justified and saved and not condemned when Judgement comes They that have a good cause in a Gospel sense It may be known before hand who these are for Christ Judgeth as I told you by his Law And therefore find out whom it is that the Law of grace doth justifie or condemn and you may certainly know whom the Judge will Justifie or condemn for he Judgeth righteously If you further ask me who these are remember that I told you before that every man that is personally righteous by fulfilling the Conditions of Salvation in the Gospel shall be saved and he that is found unrighteous as having not fulfilled them shall perish at that day Qu. Who are those Answ I will tell you them in a few words lest you should forget because it it a matter that your Salvation or Damnation dependeth upon 1. The soul that unfeignedly repenteth of his former sinful course and turneth from it in heart and life and loveth the way of godliness which he hateâ— and hateth the way of sin which he loved and is become thoroughly a New Creature being born again and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ shall be Justified but all others shall certainly be condemned Good news to repenting converted sinners but sad to Impenitent and him that knows not what this means 2. That soul that feeling his misery under sin and the power of Satan and the wrath of God doth believe what Christ hath done and suffered for mans restauration Salvation and thankfully accepteth him as his only Saviour and Lord on the terms that he is offered in the Gospel and to those ends even to Justifie him and sanctifie and guide him and bring him at last to everlasting glory that soul shall be Justified at Judgement and he that doth not shall be condemned Or in short in Scripture phrase He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be condemned Mar. 16. 16. 3. The soul that hath had so much knowledge of the goodness of God and his love to man in Creation Redemption and the following mercies and hath had so much conviction of the vanity of all creatures as thereupon to Love God more then all things below so that he hath the cheifest room in the heart and is preferred before all creatures ordinarily in a time of tryal that soul shall be Justified at Judgement and all others shall be condemned 4. That soul that is so apprehensive of the absolute Soveraignty of God as Creator and Redeemer and of the Righteousness of his Law and the Goodness of his holy way as that he is firmly Resolved to obey him before all others and doth accordingly give up himself to study his will of purpose that he may obey it and doth walk in these holy waies and hath so
that all shall go well with you and that the bitterness of death is past and in a forbearance of some disgraceful sins and being much in the Exercise of your Gifts and in external wayes of Duty and giving God a Cheap and plausible obedience in those things only which the Flesh can spare you are then faln into that deceitful hypocrisie which will as surely condemn you as open prophaness if you get not out of it You must live as in a fight or you cannot overcome You must live loose from all things in this world if you will be ready for another You must not live after the flesh but mortifie it by the Spirit if you would not dye but live for ever Rom. 8. 13. These things are not indifferent but of flat necessity THE tenth Direction Do all your works as men that must be judged for them It is not enough at least in point of Duty and Comfort that you Judge this preparation in General to be the main business of your liveâ— but you should also order your particular Actions by these Thoughts and measure them by their Respects to this approaching Day Before you venture on them enquire whether they will bear weight in Judgement and be sweet or bitter when they are brought to tryal Both for matter and manner this must be observed Oh that you would Remember this when Temptations are upon you When you are Tempted to give up your minds to the world and drown your selves in earthly cares will you bethink you soberly whether you would hear of this at Judgement and whether the world will be then as sweet as now and whether this be the best preparation for your Tryal When you are Tempted to be Drunk or to spend your precious time in Alehouses or vain unprofitable company or at Cards or Dice or any sinful or needless sports bethink you then Whether this will be comfortable at the Reckoning and whether time be no more worth to one that is so neer eternity and must make so strict an account of his Hours and whether there be not many better works before you in which you might spend your time to your greater advantage and to your greater comfort when it comes to a Review When you are tempted to wantonnese fornication or any other fleshly intemperance bethink you soberly with what face these Actions will appear at Judgement and whether they will be then pleasant or displeasant to you So when you are tempted to neglect the daily worshipping of God in your families and the Catechizing and Teaching of your children or servants especially on the Lords Day bethink your selves then what account you will give of this to Christ when he that entrusted you with the care of your children and servants shall call you to a reckoning for the performance of that trust The like must be Remembred in the very manner of our Duties How diligently should a Minister study how earnestly should he perswade how unwearyedly should he bear all oppositions and ungrateful returns and how carefully should he watch over each particular soul of his charge as far as is possible when he Remembers that he must shortly be Accountable for all in Judgement And how importunate should we all be with sinners for their Conversion when we consider that themselves also must shortly be Judgâ—d Can a man be cold and dead in prayer that hath any true apprehension of that Judgement upon his mind where he must be accountable for all his prayers and performances O Remember and seriously Remember when you stand before the Minister to hear the word and when you are on your knees to God in prayer in what a manner that same person even your selves must shortly stand at the Barr of the dreadful God! Did these thoughts get throughly to mens hearts they would waken them out of their sleepy Devotions and acquaint them that it is a serious business to be a Christian How careful should we be of our thoughts and words if we believingly remembred that we must be accountable for them all How carefully should we consider what we do with our Riches and with all that God giveth us and how much more largely should we expend it for his service in works of Piety and Charity if we believingly remembred that we must be Judged according to what we have done and give account of every Talent that we receive Certainly the believing consideration of Iudgement might make us all better Christians then we are and keep our lives in a more innocent and profitable frame THE eleventh Direction As you will certainly renew your failings in this life so be sure that you daily renew your Repentance and fly daily to Christ for a renewed pardon that no sin may leave its sting in your souls It is not your first pardon that 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 Christs 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 oâ— 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 Cheerfully hold on in the work that you have begun and as you serve a better matter 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 rejoyce 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 cheerfully and faithfully praised and honoured and where is the greatest visible similitude of heaven upon earth especially in the celebration of the Sacrament of Christs 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 Iudgement to come where the ungodly shall