things continue as they were before And for the manner and Apparatus of his coming Our God shall come saith the Psalmist and shall not keep silence there shall go before him a devouring fire and a mighty Tempest shall be stirred up round about him Behold the Lord will come with fire saith the Prophet and with his Chariots like a Whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebukes with flames of fire The streams of Zion shall be turned into Pitch and the dust thereof into Brimstone the Earth thereof shall be burning Pitch the smoke thereof shall ascend day and night and shall not be quenched compare Revel 6. with Esai 34. The Kings of the Earth shall tremble the Captains and the mighty shall be horribly asraid the great men and the rich men shall hide themselves all the bond-men and all the freemen shall fly to the Rocks of the Mountains And soon after all this The Heavens shall be rivel'd as a scrowl the Earth and the Elements shall melt away for God shall arise to judge terribly the Earth Have not all these things come upon us the men of this Generation Is it weakness is it a vain and superstitious scrupulosity to call these things to our remembrance Have we no reason at all to apprehend the approach of a General Judgment either upon the World or upon our sinful Nation Do we not now envy those despised souls which have made their accounts ready We thought it madness to see them pine away with poenitential exercises and macerate themselves with mourning We thought it folly which they called Conscience for which they denyed themselves the pleasures and enjoyments of the World We fools counted their life madness and their latter end to be without honour But the time is coming when they shall be comforted and we shall be tormented Because he hath called and we have refused he hath stretched out his hand and we have not regarded He will laugh at our calamity and mock when our fear cometh When our destruction cometh as a Whirlwind when distress and anguish comes upon us May we not therefore give up our selves to the torments of our hearts and surrender up our souls unto Despair so Israel said there is no hope we will follow every one the devices of his heart after 20 30 or 40 years continuance in our courses 't is in vain to think of turning from them Our arrears are so far gone that there is no hope to discharge them and why should we trouble our selves with the thoughts of our Account Nay that which must come let it come and what is a few days respite to Eternity Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall dye Let us go forth as at other times and shake our selves and scatter these troublesom apprehensions of future Judgment What if we should drink a little to drive away Melancholy Yes and fall perhaps and spew and rise no more Nay but I beseech you stay a little and consider consider at least in this your day the things which belong to your peace It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Who among us can dwell with a devouring fire Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings Such careless and desperate resolutions are the advantages which the Devil aims at that he may sear our Consciences and seal us up in a final obduration But there is another kind of advantage which God and our Lord Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Gospel and the Ministers aim at That advantage which I told you of in the beginning of my Discourse That knowing the terror of the Lord they may perswade men And now what is it that they would perswade us that we will be contented to part with the tormenting fears of Judgment that we will condescend not to be miserable to all Eternity That we will accept of deliverance from the wrath to come that we will not neglect so great salvation nor trample on the bloud of the everlasting Covenant Behold God calls upon us Turn you turn you at my reproof why will you dye O House of Israel As I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of sinners Our Lord Christ calls upon us Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you In the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles he stood and cried Saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink The Spirit sayes come and whoever will let him come and take of the water of life freely The Gospel assures us That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Behold I set before you this day life and death blessing and cursing and as an unworthy Ambassadour in Christ's stead I pray you be reconciled to God take his yoke upon you his yoke is easie and his burden light embrace now the tender of the Gospel only repent and believe in the Lord Jesus accept him for your Saviour and your Lord. Your Prophet to instruct you your King to govern you your Priest to save you and you shall be saved Saved from the fears and horrours of a Guilty Conscience condemned by it s own witness Saved from the wrath of God and of the Lamb. You shall meet the Lord with Confidence We shall be able to stand with boldness in the Judgment to lift up our heads with joy because our redemption draweth near This is the way of save our own souls from perishing which is the General design of all our Preaching And this is the way to appease the wrath which is gone out against us and to preserve our Nation from destruction which is the particular and more immediate end of our present Humiliation whereof I am yet to speak THe hand indeed of the Lord hath been heavy upon us his wrath hath been kindled it hath waxed hot against the Sheep of his pasture and he hath plagued our Nation very sore His Judgments have been multiplied his strokes have been redoubled and for all this his anger 〈◊〉 not turned away but his hand is stretched out still Wars and Pestilences and those other fore-runners of Christ's coming to Judgment have been seen and felt amongst us and now when these have not been able to prevail To awaken a drowsie people to rowse up a Lethargic Nation to ferment a people setled upon their Lees God has made a new thing in the midst of us he hath wrought a work in our dayes which makes the ears of all that hear it to tingle A work not to be parallel'd perhaps in all the circumstances since the Creation of the World How hath the Lord covered the Daughter of our Zion with a cloud in his anger and hath cast down from Heaven to Earth the beauty of Israel and remembred not his footstool in the Day of his Anger he hath swallowed
Death the Sun was eclipsed the Moon being at the Full. To indicate the place of his Nativity at the time of his Birth a new Star was made on purpose Health and Sickness Life and Death and Hades gave in their testimonies by their obedience to his word Yet once more he shook the Heavens and sent down the Holy Spirit upon his followers he shook the Earth also he tore the Rocks and opened the Graves and at his powerfull voice the bodies of the Saints arose And lest it should be said He raised others but himself he could not raise As he finished the Great Mystery of Christianity by his Death so also he proved the truth of it by his Resurrection As he died for our Sins so he rose again for our Justification for our Justification is in the Belief of that and all other the Mysteries of Christianity These and many more are heads of Arguments which whoever duly considers and understands will certainly believe the Gospel propter veritatis Evidentiam 2. It remains only to shew that whosoever doth truly believe the Gospel shall infallibly be saved Propter Bonitatis or Virtutis Excellentiam Because it is the Power of God to salvation to every one that believeth In speaking of which Argument I need not go about to prove that the Power of the Gospel is the Power of God in which respect it is called the Hand or Arm of the Lord the Sword of the Spirit the Grace of God bringing Salvation and the like Neither shall I stand upon a Comparison of the Gospel with the Grecanical or Judaical Institutions a man may believe all that ever was written by Philosophers and yet doubt whether there is or can be such a thing as Salvation yea or no. A man may believe whatever is explicitcly and expresly delivered in the Law of Moses and yet not be saved But my intention is barely and nakedly this By a short Reflexion upon the Way and Method of the Actions of Mankinde and the Discoveries and Contents of the Gospel well known to those that hear me to manifest the truth of this Proposition That every man that believeth the Gospel i. e. that truly and actually abideth in that belief shall infallibly be saved Because whosoever frames his Actions according to the Rules and Principles the Precepts and Prescriptions of the Gospel shall infallibly be saved And because it is of the nature of man to frame his Actions according to his Actual and persevering Judgement and Belief The Nature and Essence of man consists in his Understanding and for a man not to follow the stedfast and constant the actual and final dictate of his Understanding is impossible in Nature and indeed implies a Contradiction He that believes that there is neither God nor Devil Heaven nor Hell Salvation nor Damnation And that he hath not an Immortal Soul i. e. a Soul to save such a man If at least he hath attained to those great accomplishments of Rudeness and Incivility will make it his business to fill up his measure of Debaucheries and Impieties will think it Brave perhaps and Witty to Blaspheme God and scoff at Religion will make it a matter of Gallantry and noble Courage and Resolution to challenge God to damn him or bid the Devil take him Body and Soul will spend his time in Revelling and Drunkenness in Chambering and Wantonness Expecting and hoping to die like a beast he will be sure to live like one And in conclusion will finde himself disappointed of this glorious hope this goodly noble manly expectation and that his Miscreancy and the errour of his Judgement hath betrayed him into eternal misery Whilest on the other side he that believes the Declarations and Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel will have his fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life He that firmly and stedfastly believes that the Soul which Actuates his body is an Immortal Being a subsistence which shall and must endure to all eternity That after Death he must appear before the Tribunal of God and Christ to answer for the things done in the body That from thence he shall be transmitted to a state either of Eternal Happiness or Eternal Misery either to be entertained in the Vision of God in the fellowship of Saints and Angels with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Or secluded from the sight of God and treated with the Devil and his Angels with torment unconceivable unexpressible and that to all Eternity This man if he might gain all the Profits and Honours and Pleasures if he might decline all the afflictions of this world will not lose his own Soul Frustra blanditiae venitis ad hunc frustra nequitiae venitis ad hunc Considering that light and momentany things bear no proportion to the exceeding weight and moment of those which are Eternal he will forthwith endeavour to lay hold upon Eternal Life and make haste to escape the Wrath to come And to that end he will devour all difficulties and neglect no means or opportunities He that believes that the only way to Happiness is the way to Holiness That without holiness no man shall see God That no unclean thing shall enter there That the Impious the Unjust the Intemperate the Lascivious continuing so shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven This man will endeavour to purifie himself to mortifie all his carnal lusts and affections to cleanse himself from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God Again he that believes and considers the Corruption and Impotence of his natural Condition and the design of Christs coming into the world what he hath already done and what he is still in doing for him How that himself and every man is by nature a childe of wrath that Sin reigns in his mortal body that he lies under a bondage from which he cannot redeem a Guilt from which he cannot acquit himself That no flesh is justified in the sight of God Whosoever I say doth believe this concerning himself and on the other side concerning Christ that to this end was he born and for this cause came he into the world that he might save sinners That the world through him might be saved That to this end and this end only he descended from Heaven This was the end of his Conversation upon Earth his Life and Doctrine his Preaching and Example This was the end of his Crucifixion Resurrection Ascension and Session at the Right hand of God That by the sufferings of his Life and the inestimable value of his Blood the world might be Justified and Redeemed from the Guilt of their sins rescued from the miseries of the world to come And that by the operation of his Doctrine and Example and the power of his Intercession the world might be sanctified Delivered from the Dominion of sin purified and prepared to be admitted to the
his Law into the World yet he was pleased to resolve as it were his own Authority into the Divine Authority of the Old Testament and to make use of those other manifestations of himself in a co-ordination with that principle And therefore we find him still pressing the Jews with this that if they did believe the Writings of Moses and their other Scriptures they must of necessity believe him also Moses wrote of me saith he wherefore did ye believe Moses ye would believe me The Scriptures testifie of me therefore search them diligently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the attaining of everlasting life he refers the Lawyer to the Law What is written in the Law how readest thou For the avoiding of the place of torments he makes Abraham refer the Relations of Dives to Moses and the Prophets In all his disputations with the Pharisees and Sadduces the Lawyers and the Scribes he makes his appeal to the Scriptures of the Old Testament And lest any one should think that in all this he did only argue ad homines that disputing with the Jews he only proceeded upon their own Hypothesis we find him in the course of his Ministration positively afferting that the Scriptures must be fulfilled that they cannot be broken that he came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil them and that Heaven and Earth shall pass away before one jot or title of these should perish until all was fulfilled Thus he asserted the Authority of the Old Testament before his death And after his Resurrection he made a real demonstration that the Old Testament was given by inspiration of God for on the day of his Resurrection falling into company of two of his Disciples going to Emmaus He began at Moses and all the Prophets and expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself And afterward when the Eleven were come together as a recapitulation of this his method and that he might instruct his Disciples in it he said unto them These were the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psams in the Volume of the Old Testament concerning me He opened their understandings and said thus it is written and thus it behoved And as a short Idea of what they were to do he tells them and ye are Witnesses of these things 2. In pursuance of this method we find the Evangelists very curious and very frequent in observing the accomplishment of the predictions of the Old Testament reciting sometimes the speeches of Christ saying that he did such or such a thing to the end that the Scriptures might be fulfilled I will not eat of the fruit of the Vine till all things be fulfilled Sometimes in their own Persons observing the accomplishment of particulars and noting either particular portions of Scriptures which were fulfilled or the fulfilling of the Scriptures cited at large without any particular Quotation Thus the Evangelists writing of the Conception Nativity Name of Christ of his coming out of Egypt dwelling at Nazareth migration to Capernaum riding to Jerusalem Say that these things were done that the Scriptures or the saying of the Prophet at large might be fulfilled So likewise for the circumstances of his Passion the flight of his Disciples casting lots upon his Garments Vinegar given him to drink piercing his side bones remaining unbroken c. Other times they note the particular Prophet Christ healed Diseases spoke in Parables that the saying of Isaiah the Prophet might be fulfilled When Herod slew the Children then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet Rachel weeping for her Children c. and once we find a quotation of the second Psalm and the like This for the Evangelists 3. Lastly the Divine Authority of the Old Testament is asserted by the Apostles Whom we find every where in their Writings citing the Testimonies of the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms appealing to them what saith the Scripture the Scripture hath concluded so or so Arguing out of them oft times directly thus not only the Apostles but Apollos mightily convinced the Jews sometimes ab absurdo do ye think the Scripture speaks in vain In a word the Apostles followed the way and method which their Master taught them they asserted that the Gospel was promised by the Prophets witnessed by the Law and the Prophets by all the Prophets Affirming of themselves that they believed all things written in the Law and in the Prophets and that they continued testifying and saying no other things than the Prophets and Moses did say should come Finally lest any place should be left for doubting concerning any part of the Old Testament the Apostles have expresly asserted concerning the Law that it is holy just and good that the Prophets are holy and the Scriptures holy that they are the Oracles of God lively Oracles that God spake by the Prophets that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Lastly in the Text that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein Timothy had been instituted by his Mother were gived by inspiration of God This is the sense of the New Testament concerning the Old Testament supposing therefore the Truth of the New Testament the Divine Authority of the Old Testament is to be acknowledged contrary to the first Opinion of the Antiscripturists II. The Second Antiscriptural Opinion is of those who pretend to believe the Truth but they deny or doubt the Divine Authority of the New Testament either of the whole body of the New Testament or at least of that part which delivers the Speeches and Writings of the Apostles Of this sort there are said to be many who by the power and influence of their Education are restrained from denying or dis-believing the Truth of the New Testament and yet through the infelicity of corrupt conversation are fallen from that Veneration which is due to writings supposed to be of Divine Authority For the History of the New Testament they have the same respect which they have for Tacitus or Sallust or some such other History for the Mystery of the Gospel the same which they have for some part of Plato or remnants of Pythagoras for the practical parts the same which they have for some parts of Cicero or Seneca or Epictetus All which writings they believe to be true but no man believes them to be Divine And some there are who pretend a great veneration for the speeches of Christ but have a meaner esteem for the words and writings of the Apostles In opposition to these opinions I shall shew that supposing the words of Christ and the Apostles to be True it will follow that they are to be esteemed to be of Divine