you were sure of it 4. As you have him for life so make use of him for life not for Notions for Talk for Shews for worldly Advantages Interest in Parties and Hypocritical Ends but for Life to live to God and to live with God for ever Consider I beseech you what encouragements you have to have Life that great thing that one thing needful Life Life Life Eternal For 1. As Great as Glorious as Holy as the Son is yet you who are poor and humble may have him you that are so poor that you know not how to live except he will relieve you and keep you alive may have him I counsel thee to buy of me that is to have of me at the lowest rate yea nothing of worth Gold tried in the Fire that thou mayest be rich c. Rev. 3.18 2. And this you will believe if you believe as you may and ought what his gracious and merciful Design and End was in becoming our Mediator and Redeemer and what the Fathers gracious End and Purpose was in giving and sending him John 3.16 God so loved the World with a love of Benevolence and Compassion that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life 1 John 4.9 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because he sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him 3. If you consider his nearness to us in Nature and Blood tho he be the Son of God God over all blessed for evermore yet he is the Son in our Nature and he loveth our Nature tho he hate our Sin and the hatefulness of our Sins and Corruption doth not hinder his Love nor his Compassions Heb. 2.14 15 16 17. 4. If you consider the nearness of his Relation Mediator and Redeemer include and comprehend all Relations and those Relations are for Union and that Union is for Life and Communion He is as near as a Brother Heb. 2.11 For which cause he is not asham'd to call them Brethren c. yea as a Father Vers 13. And again Behold I and the Children which God hath given me Yea he is a Beloved and a Husband a Bridegroom always in the Fervors of his wonderful pure Love Christ so loved his Church as to give himself for it Ephes 5.25.32 2 Cor. 11.2 O! then take encouragement and come directly to him O have him before you go to Bed this Night And now let me direct my Speech to you who are the occasion of this Assembly in this place I have opened the Case plainly to you that you may know where to find Life and Salvation before you die I am under some Discouragement and Temptation because you have lived so long without Christ and know so little of him and have no time to live to express your Thankfulness by holy walking for that unspeakable Gift Christ and Life by him But as late as it is I know what God can do and what you must have before the End or Noon of another Day or you must die in your Sins in those for which you are condemned to die and more than the Hairs of your Head beside even your Thoughts Words Deeds your Omissions and Commissions besides those you know how earnestly you beg'd for life and that for God's sake for Chists sake and that but for an uncertain short beggarly kind of Life with Shame and many other Evils How welcom would the hopes of Life be if I had any to give you Would you not receive the King's Pardon if I brought it to you Would you not have it and never ask one hour to deliberate or demur upon it O that you would have what I have to offer to you upon this one condition of having it and that if you had a longer Life to shew it you would manifest that you have it I come to you in the Name of God and his Son Jesus the Prince of Life and make you a free Offer of everlasting life the life of Justification and Pardon a discharge from Condemnation O! the Patience of God that hath let you live so long O! the Mercy of God that hath let you live to this hour to hear of life of this life and that upon this condition of having his Son Jesus Christ Had you now had him you had never have come to that place in that Condition VVill you have him before you die that you may not die ternally There is but this one way left you need not make Friends and Interests nor make Sums of Mony for this Pardon and Life Have the Son and have life this hour and life for ever O what an Act of Grace is Justification and the pardon of Sin Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his Grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ That which cost Christ his Blood is free to all that are justified Here a free Offer upon acceptance and methinks one of you should acknowledge the difference between this free Offer which will be made good Three were imprisoned for Murder and 200 l. was promised to one to procure a Pardon 100 l. was paid and the other was to be paid whenever the Pardon should come The two Men were executed this Woman's Husband and his Brother-in-law who both agreed that the whole Sum should be paid if her Pardon could be obtained if you have Christ and that costly Pardon which was mightily laboured for and could not be obtained Have you not told us that to use your own words Tenscore Pound was promised to obtain your Pardon and two died without it and you alone was to have the benefit of it and missed of it Now here is Life offered again and that Life indeed more worth than the World yea than a World of Worlds O do not refuse but have it And what I say to you I say to all present before God for you must all die tho not as these Persons are condemned to die and die eternally if you have not Christ but if you have him your Souls shall live for ever and though after your Skin Worms destroy these Bodies yet in your Flesh shall you see God O have the Son and you shall have Life but if not you shall not have Life And so I come to the Second Doctrin or Proposition He that hath not the Son of God hath not Life These Words carry in them a clear and full Determination of the final Case of all And every man that hath not the Son of God As the Word declares so it shall be with every one that hath not the Son Unbelief makes Sinners unfit for and uncapable of everlasting Life The words are clear and decisive there is no darkness nor ambiguity in them Men may think they have many things which make them presume and hope that they shall not die but live But had they all that ever Pretenders had and have not Christ this is a ruled
case in the Book of God They are all lost and dead Men they shall never see Life Not to have the Son of God is a Negative of having him and not to have Life is a Privative of having Life The Reasons and Truth of this Sentence doth spring from the former He that hath the Son hath Life which implies these Propositions or Doctrins 1. The Son of God hath Life in him and is the Saviour of all them that believe and he alone excluding all other ways or means or persons neither is there Salvation in any other 2. He whoever he be that would have Life must have the Son 3. He that hath the Son of God hath Life and none but he Therefore he who hath not the Son hath not Life because he alone hath Life who hath the Son of God And as God did for his great Love give his Son made this Law abstract in the first Sentence so in Justice he hath added this other The words are so plain and certain that they need no Proof but only a laying open of the case that all Men may see into themselves And the desire of my Soul is that by seeing how it is as long as you have not Christ and how it shall be for ever if you will not have him you may be prevailed upon to believe in Christ to close with him and cleave to him for Life Beside what was proved in the former Doctrin from John 3.36 Acts 4.12 Open your Eyes and see open your Ears and hear and conclude with the Text upon full Proof and Evidence both in Jews and Gentiles 1. The Jews had Moses and the Prophets Priviledges Ordinances Types and Shadows and Promises of Christ but if they had not Christ they were lost and undone for they had not Life For God declared and enacted this Law or Rule to be followed in giving Life John 5.24 Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my Word and believeth on him or him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from Death to Life And again John 6.40 And this is the Will of him that sent me that every one who seeeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting Life and I will raise him up at the last day vers 36. But I say unto you ye have seen me and believe not How could they then have everlasting Life or escape that Sentence v. 53. Except ye eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man ye have no Life in ye It is not your eating Bread and following me for Loaves that can give you Life but you must by Faith eat of Christ and live 2. All they who believed not are severely threatned with dying in their sins I said therefore unto you that ye that die in your Sins for if ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your Sins 3. All that were sensible of Sin and Death that were stung in Conscience were to look to him for Cure John 3.14 15. and were invited to come to him Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden c. Mat. 11.28 But they who would not come unto him would not come that they might have Life John 5.40 4. They who put away the Word of God from them judged themselves unworthy of Eternal Life Acts 13.46 and were cut off for their Unbelief Rom. 11.20 23. 2. Thus God determined concerning the Jews Let us pass from them to the Gentiles Could they have Life who had not Christ If Life and Immortality were brought to Light by the Gospel as they were 2 Tim. 1.10 then they were in Darkness before that was brought to Light and their state before the Gospel-light did shine and the Gospel-call did sound in their Ears is every where described to be miserable and doleful as Dead in Sin as Children of Wrath Slaves of the Devil Ephes 2.1 3. Out of the way Rom. 3.10 11 12. And without hope Ephes 2.12 2. After the Gospel was preached it was still certain He that believed not and had not the Son had not Life To open this observe there was and is but one way one streight Gate for all Flesh to enter into Life For observe 1. When the Apostles were to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel to every Creature capable as the Jews called the Gentiles by way of Contempt they were to keep to this Rule He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 And Paul was sent to the Gentiles to open blind Eyes to turn them from darkness to light that they might receive an Inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith that is in me Acts 26.18.2 When the Gospel brought forth Fruit this was the Fruit they were translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son Col. 1.13 And as many as were ordained to eternal Life believed Acts 13.48 See 1 Thess 1.9 10. and 1 Cor. 15.11 So we preach vers 3. c. and so ye believed 3. Consider what was the principal Subject-matter of the preaching and writing Was it not Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 5. Was it not Christ Jesus the Lord 2 Cor. 4.5 Was it not Faith in Christ the Benefits and Fruits of Faith Yes certainly 1. They shewed the necessity of Faith and the Righteousness of God by Faith Rom. 3.22 28. 2. The great Blessing the Justification of Life by Faith Rom. 3.25 26 30. Chap. 5.1 Being therefore justified by Faith we have Peace with God c. and Salvation which is the Consummation of all Blessedness and Life in Perfection Ephes 2.8 By Grace ye are saved and that through Faith Receiving the End of your Faith the Salvation of your Souls 1 Pet. 1.9 3. They forewarned all of the danger of Unbelief Heb. 3.18 19. c. 4.2 3. See the Heads of Doctrin preached by Paul to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 15.3 4 5. 4. How many Arguments are spent in perswading to Perseverance and how many flaming Threatnings are drawn to deter from everlasting Deaths from the 23d Verse of the 10th to the Hebrews to the end of the 12th Chapter All this serves to convince every considering Person that as Life and Power to save all Men is in Christ and that they who would live must have him so they who have him not shall certainly perish Application I hope I have cleared and laid open the Case of every Man that hath not Christ not to leave any Soul that shall read this in that horrid state of Death but to perswade them to a timely Flight from the Wrath to come upon all that believe not and trust not to God through Jesus Christ alone for Mercy I beseech you receive the Love of the Truth that you may be saved 1. If all who have not Christ have not Life then he convinced of the miserable and necessitous condition of all them who are under
It will be more tolerable in Hell for Devils than for any of you if you die in Unbelief for Christ died not to save them nor was he ever offer'd to them as he is to you Will you chuse Sin and Death rather than Christ and the Life of Pardon Grace and Glory because the Devil would have you do so What Evil have you heard of the Son of God that rather than have him you would be tied to a stake yea dragged in pieces yea lose Life rather than have it if you must have him for it Oh! the Prejudices Strangeness and Enmity of the World against Christ and his ways of Salvation But will you live and die without a Saviour And walk in that Faction of Men against God which hath the Devil in the Head of them You should turn out of all the Paths of the Devil for he brought in Sin and Death by Sin into the World If you come to Christ and have him with his Merits and Benefits with his Fathers Love and Spirits Grace and Comfort you shall have a Christian's Life in Heaven but if not you must take what Follows the Life of a Sinner which is a Slave's Life upon Earth and a Devil's Life in Hell Precious and Beloved Soul whoever seriously reads and is moved with any of these things take these Advices and Directions following and the Lord give you a Heart to follow them 1. Do not carelesly lay by the Book and the Thoughts of what is written together If one Eye be opened to see somewhat of your Case close it not up to sleep upon it but open both to see the true state of your Soul as to Life and Death If you are prickt in the Heart receive more Pricks and fear not to be wounded for sin for Christ can heal thee and give thee Life 2. Do not receive the Word upon my Credit and do not reject it for any Prejudice against me but go to the Word of God it self Read the Text and recieve it as it is the Word of God for so it becomes effectual 1 Thess 2.13 3. Dread a slight Work upon thy Heart The Son of God finished his Work and left nothing undone that was to be done It lay heavy upon him yet he did it till all was finished Be faithful to thine own Soul to thine own Life in working out thine own Salvation with fear and trembling with a wise care and diligence fearing to fail and miscarry And when you are heartily and seriously engaged to work out your Salvation Take these Directions 1. Study well with reading hearing praying the Word of Grace and Salvation As you shall pass from Death to Life in your Justification so you must have a new Principle of Life and be changed from Death to Life in Regeneration and Sanctification How was the Apostle changed The Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus Christ hath made me free from the Law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 The Gospel is the Ministration of Life 2 Cor. 3.6 and by it we are changed while we behold the Glory of the Lord the Son Jesus Christ with open face as in a glass v. 18. 2. As you are dead and can never be saved but by Christ the Saviour so you can never be quickned nor believe nor have Christ but by the Holy Spirit We are changed from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 It is the real effectual Work of the Spirit of the Lord and it is so done as to demonstrate the Finger of God to be in it 3. Rest not in outward Performances and Acts of Devotion but wait upon God in all his Ordinances as appointed means for Salvation Pray for the Spirit of the Lord to work in you a sincere Separation from sin Satan and Self and to implant you in Jesus Christ to work your Hearts to believe and joyn you to him in love that you may have him for all those kinds of Life that have been spoken of 4. Rest not in Wishes that you had Christ but by humble Applications with great earnestness of Soul by the quickning Assistance of the Holy Spirit come to Jesus Christ himself for Himself and Life You must have Christ himself therefore come to him directly and see that no overloved Creature or Sin whatever lie in the Heart like a Stone between the Grass and the Tree to hinder a closure Idols and Harlots must be shaken off or there will be no Marriage-Union between the Son and you And now the God of all Grace supply what I am wanting in and give Life with his Son to whom be Glory for ever A Narrative of the Occasion of Preaching and Printing this Discourse and of the Behaviour of those two condemned Criminals from their Condemnation to their Death submitted to the charitable Judgment of Pious Readers THE last day of the Assizes at Even which ordinarily was in Lent but then put off I received a Message at my House to desire me to visit a Woman a meer Stranger to me as was her Father also condemned for the Murder of a Child Next Morning I waited on the Lord Chief Justice Pollixfen on the Road towards Rutland being but two Mile from my House to desire the favour of a Reprieve for some convenient Time for me to use my endeavours with her His Lordship told me he had reprieved her not being satisfied in the Proof that the Child was born alive He entertained me with very Divine Discourse and proper for me and the Woman and obliged me to give him an account of her at his return from the Circuit that if there were good hopes of her leading a Life answerable to Repentance he might procure her Pardon and his last Words to me deserve my remembrance Pray Sir do it sincerely Her Name was put into the Pardon by his Lordship and expected to come the next Assizes but came not then as was expected The next Assizes I waited upon his Lordship and staying there giving what Assistance I could to the most afflicted good Father of the Woman Mr. Samuel Dudley my kind Friend came to me and told me He was shortly to come and settle in Town and was resolved to make it his business to visit the Prisoners and desired my Assistance which I promised when desired and had opportunity The Afternoon after the Woman was ordered to be Executed being condemned two years before and the Man received his Sentence Mr. D. sent for me into the Prison where he was performing his Visit to these poor condemned Criminals After we had privately discoursed them as fully as time would give us leave the Honoured Thomas Catesby Esq the High Sheriff was desired to give us leave to preach to them before Execution which was readily granted with Thanks for our willingness to take pains with them They had but about a Week to live we agreed That one of us should preach the Wednesday following
the Reign of Darkness and Unbelief whatever their outward Condition is in the World high or low rich or poor young or old they lie under the heaviest and most intolerable necessity in the VVorld 1. They want Life and are under Death and what Pleasure can they take in Pleasures Riches Honours or the Glory and Enjoyment of all the Delights of the Sons of Men if they had them all as long as they have not Life VVhat ungrateful things should Musick and Songs and Revellings Banquettings Masks Dancings wanton Fashions the Fooleries of vain Minds be to a condemned Man VVhat Pleasure could you take in fulfilling any sinful Desire gratifying any Lush tho in the most secret retirement if you thought the Devil the Executioner of God's Sentence of Death stood at the Door or Stairs-foot to have you away You are condemn'd already and have no Pardon no Life 2. They need Jesus Christ for Life 3. They need Faith for having Christ Here 's nothing but want and misery 2. VVhat should be the first and chief endeavour and purpose of every one of our Souls but to be first out of the Danger of the greatest Loss and in the way of supplying the greatest want Therefore apply your selves to free Grace without delay pray and cry mightily to God for Life The Life is more than Meat and the Body than Raiment but this Life is more than Meat Raiment Body or the present Life pray and labour for it 3. If this be the sad case of Unbelievers then let us learn what should be the great study and work of Ministers Oh! Is our state any better than other Mens No not at all yea we are in danger of being further from Salvation than other Men because we are more apt to conceive and hold Errors concerning Spiritual Death Adam's Guilt and our own concerning Christ and Faith in Christ than other Men. The greater Men's Parts are without true Light and Grace the more apt to err and to flourish out their Errors and Sophistically to defend them How should we study for our own Life and for the Life of as many Souls as we are to watch over O! how should we labour to save our selves and them that hear us To have Christ for our own Life and Salvation and then to preach Christ and to draw others to have him for their Life There are three great Points to be studied by us 1. Christ the Son of God and what is written of him How necessary profitable and delightful is the study of Christ who is all in all See that excellent Sermon of the great Preacher Bp. Reynolds at an Ordination call'd the Preaching of Christ Printed at the request of those who were ordained 2. The only true way of having him for Life the Benefits of Christ and the way of partaking of them his Communication of himself and Benefits and our Reception of them and Duties towards him How offensive and troublesom should all those Notions and Books be to us which detract from the Glory of Free Grace in Christ and bring in another Gospel and speak vain Words of Spiritual Union and Communion the Nature and Office of Faith and work of the Holy Ghost upon the Hearts of Men 3. The state and condition of Souls what they need what way they must be saved what loseth and what saveth Sinners As they have or have not Christ so it must be with them for ever I cannot pass by this use when I consider how faithfully and plainly Moses dealt with Israel Behold this day I have set Life and Death Life and Good Death and Evil before you Deut. 30.15 And when I see the same Spirit of Light and plain-dealing in the Divine John How can we honour Christ It had been sufficient to say that all should seek to Christ for Life but lest any should turn aside out of the way he shuts out all from the hope of Life that seek it not in Christ Calvin on the Eph. and be faithful to Souls that do not preach as he wrote How can we deal faithfully with Souls if we have not some spiritual insight into that by which precious Souls are saved or lost O how faithful and plain should we be who have so great Arguments to treat upon as Christ and the Life and Death of Souls And hence will also follow under this Head that no Man should be ignorant of but all desirous to learn the way of Eternal Life and Death and to see in what way they are whether in the narrow way to Life and Salvation or in the broad way of Ignorance Carelesness Impenitence and Ungodliness which leadeth to Destruction But still remember when we speak of the Terror of the Lord and say to the wicked that they shall die if they turn not and receive Christ for Salvation that it may be to perswade Men to be willing to pass from Death to Life 2 Cor. 5.11 4. If he who hath not the Son hath not Life then in what case are all they that are ignorant and without Spiritual Sense of their Spiritual Death Unrighteousness Guilt and Condemnation by the Law for transgressing it and that are ignorant of Christ save by the Sound or Letters of his Name they know him not as the Son of God or how he is so nor as he is Mediator between God and Man to bring us to God as well as to make Reconciliation and procure forgiveness of sin nor how he came to be Mediator nor to what end nor how he performeth the Part and Office of a Mediator nor what it is to believe in him so as to have him for their Life Many will sometimes say that he died for them and hope he will be so good as to save them But do they know indeed the Nature Efficacy and Office of Faith which they should know for if they have him not they shall die in their Iniquities 2. In what case are they who neglect him and make light of him Mat. 22.5 They neglect their own Lives that neglect him Heb. 2.3 3. What will become of all them that refuse him John 5.40 And ye will not come unto me that ye may have Life How shall we escape if we refuse him who speaketh from Heaven See Heb. 12.25 5. Seeing God himself hath already determined this great Point and answered this Question Who shall and who shall not be saved it is every Man's Wisdom and should be his great business to submit to this Sentence of God concerning every Mans final state and as many as have any desire and knowledge of eternal Life or Apprehensions of eternal Death should apply themselves to the means of Grace that they may be drawn and brought to Christ When Men are sure that there are other things more worthy of their Care and Pains than the Life of their Souls let them lay aside the Care of their Souls till they are filled with their Vanities which will never be But Man hast