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A65821
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Mr. Thomas Wadsworth's Last warning to secure sinners being his two last sermons concerning the certainty and dreadfulness of the future misery of all impenitent ungodly sinners : to which is prefixed an epistle of Mr. Richard Baxter's.
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Wadsworth, Thomas, 1630-1676.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing W187; ESTC R27049
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46,023
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162
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perfection And he hath appointed the Ministerial Office that men might be his messengers to men to acquaint them with his Grace and with the Glory which he prepareth for them that they may truly believe it soberly think of it duly value it heartily chuse it and diligently seek it and live and die in the joyful expectation of it And as our Souls converse not with our neighbours immediately but in and by our bodies in which they work so the Spirit of Christ doth not ordinarily work on mens Souls without any means but by his Word and Works which his Ministers must declare Man is not now put upon satisfying Gods Justice or purchasing his Salvation by a price Christ hath done these and made a free gift of Grace and Glory to all that will but penitently and believingly accept it Under Gods Grace mens everlasting Salvation now lieth on their own wills no men or devils can damn or undo any one soul but by his own consent to the cause of his damnation No men or devils can keep our souls from the Heavenly Glory but by tempting him to refuse it undervalue and neglect it and prefer the pleasures of sin before it and by keeping him from loving desiring and seeking it For every one shall certainly have it who had rather be a holy Christian on earth and live in perfect love and joy with God in Heaven for ever than for his filthly pleasure to enjoy the prosperity of this world To acquaint men with this is our Ministerial Office we are charged to set before them the great Salvation which Christ hath procured and importunately to beseech them to mind it believe it and accept it that it may be theirs for ever we believe God and therefore we speak to men as he hath commanded us We intreat them in his Name to turn from sinful enmity and folly and to be reconciled to God and be wise for their Salvation We tell them but what Gods word sent from heaven telleth us and them That holiness is the love of God and goodness and the hatred of sin that the pure in heart are blessed for they shall see God But without holiness none can see him We tell them from God That heaven is won or lost on earth and that none shall have it but such as hence learn to love a holy and heavenly life and that the dislike of holiness is the forfeiture of happiness and the beginning or forerunner of Hell We assure them That God will never say Depart from me ye workers of iniquity if they do not first by iniquity depart from God and that God will not damn them except they damn themselves by the obstinate final refusing and resisting of his mercy We intreat men therefore but to live as men should do that love themselves and that are not indifferent whether they live in Heaven or Hell for ever We intreat them not to be worse to themselves than the Devil and all their enemies are who cannot make them commit one sin against their wills And yet after all this warning intreaty and importunity there are thousands and ten thousands that will not be perswaded nor regard the warning given them from God some will not believe but that a man dies like a Dog and what wonder if such live like Dogs And some will not believe but that they may be saved without regenerating-grace and holiness though Christs own mouth hath protested the contrary and told us verily that it cannot be John 3.3 5 18 19. Mat. 18.3 Heb. 12.14 Rom. 8.6 7 8 9 13 c. Multitudes will not be brought to understand what we say but when we talk of Redemption Sanctification and Salvation they hear us as if we spake Greek or Hebrew to them and under teaching grow old in sottish grossest ignorance multitudes are taken up with the love of prosperity the love of this deceiving world multitudes are carried away with aspiring ambition and foolish pride and more with the love of fleshly pleasures and satisfying their appetites and lusts Many poor people who every where are the most are so opprest with want and wearied with their daily labour and taken up with cares to pay their Rents and Debts and maintain their Families that they think it excusable in them if they little mind the pleasing of God and saving of their souls supposing that they have no leisure for it and God requireth it not at their hands And the same most servants think who have time little enough for their Masters work Multitudes have such dead and hardened hearts that when we tell them that they must shortly be in Heaven or Hell as they are here prepared we speak almost as to blocks or men asleep they feel not what we say as if they did not hear us We are bid cry aloud and tell them of their sin and danger Isa 58.1 2. and yet we cannot get them to regard and feel God saith Awake thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee light and yet we cannot get them to awake nor hear us like men that have the use of reason and love themselves Alas how many thousands are there whom we could never perswade to consider with deep and serious thoughts what will become of their Souls when they are dead nor to seek to be resolved of it from the infallible Word of God! that never set a part one hour in their lives to consider seriously Whether they have any title to Salvation which they can make good by the Word of God by which they must be judged Sirs This this is the case of multitudes of our neighbours and what would you have a Minister to do in such a case should we flatter and smooth them up in an unholy life what thanks would they give us for this ere long when they find themselves in hell Would you have us stand by in silence and look on while Satan thus leadeth thousands to perdition Would you have us let them quietly go to hell for fear of displeasing them or others or seeming to be unmannerly or uncivil with them Would you have us whisper to men that must be awakened or undone for ever whom thunder and lightening will not awake Alas we see men dying daily and we are dying our selves and daily look when we speak our last and when they hear their last even all that ever they shall hear more for their Salvation We see how Time doth pass away much is lost already the rest is short and utterly uncertainâ— and the ignorance unbelief hard-heartedness fleshliness worldliness pride malignity and unholiness of sinners are deep-rooted strong and damnable evils We see men when they are convinced that they must repent or perish Luk. 13.3 5 putting it off from day to day when they are certainly to be gone ere long and never certain of one more hour And alas a long life is little enough for a willing awakened serious Christian to work out his Salvation and make
Mr. Thomas Wadsworth's LAST WARNING TO SECURE SINNERS Being his Two Last SERMONS Concerning the Certainty and Dreadfulness OF THE Future Misery of all Impenitent ungodly Sinners To which is Prefixed an Epistle of Mr. RICHARD BAXTER's LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside and at the Bible on London-bridg 1677. TO THE READER IT is not so much for the sake of the departed Author of these Sermons as for thy self that this Preface doth recommend them to thy acceptance and perusal Though in order hereunto it is meet that thou have some account both of the Author and of the reasons of their publication The Author was a person with whom I had long much communication by Letters before I ever saw his face By many of which and by the full testimony of his flock I can assuredly give thee this true account of him When he was placed for the exercise of the Sacred Ministry at Newington-Butts near Southwark he addicted himself entirely to the winning and edifying of Souls believing the great things of the unseen world and life to come the obtaining of that happiness by faith and holiness was the end and work of his Ministry and Life He took heed to himself and to Doctrine and continued therein that he might save himself and those that heard him 2 Tim. 4.16 Unnecessary Questions and Controversies he avoided In those that he was constrained to meddle with he much lookt at the end and adhered to the Doctrine which is according to Godliness carefully shunning contentions and extreams and that manner of disputing or conversing which destroyeth Christian love In the common Controversies about Predestination Grace and Free-will he held to the middle way of Augustine Prosper c. contenting himself to prove and teach That all evil is of our selves and all good is of God that God is no author of Sin but yet is the Governour of all the World whose absolute Will cannot be frustrate and that Christ hath procured that universal conditional gift of pardon and life which is found in the Gospel and commanded his Ministers to preach and offer it to all and so of the rest But the Errors which subvert Faith Hope or Obedience he would not make light of and therefore lately wrote that very considerable Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul especially for the use of such as reject not Scripture-proof leaving out most of the Philosophical Reasons which Infidels expect but adding some few of them which are of weight though not a large performance of that part of the work He was happily too young to be engaged in the military or uncivil quarrels of this Age. He knew that Christs Ministers have work enough of their own in preaching promoting and practising the Christian Faith and hope of Glory and keeping themselves and others in obedience love and peace When the Changes had occasioned great contentions about Church-Worship Admiministrations Communion and Discipline the City of London where he lived attempting to set up the Presbyterian Government but finding it very difficult because of the number of Episcopal and Independent Dissenters and because the Parliament would give Presbytery no more than a Toleration and Recommendation he resolved to join with no party in the Division but to look simply to Gods Word and to do that which there he found past Controversie an unquestionable duty At that time the Ministers of Worcestershire had entred into an Association 1. In their Worship Administration and Discipline unanimously to practice so much as the then parties Episcopal Presbyterian and Independents are agreed in believing that the faithful practice of so much would better reconcile them than strangeness and disputes 2. To set up a regular course of Personal Conference by Catechising loving-instructions and exhortations to prepare them for death and eternity with all the Families in our Parishes in order who would voluntarily submit to it In the practice of these two we had great experience of Gods blessing And Mr. Wadsworth desiring as many Counties did to do the like sent to me for the draught of our Agreement And because he would avoid temerity and needless singularity he addrest himself to the Classes of the London Ministers and asked their Advice who told him to this purpose That they were under many hinderances from doing it themselves but they would not disswade nor discourage him from attempting it Which hereupon he presently did To his constant Publick Preaching he added this work of Personal and Family Instruction not only to visit the Sick but to Teach and Exhort his Flock in health to prepare for death and work out their Salvation To Catechize them and help them to understand the words and to get down the sweetness and power of the matter upon their hearts Behaving himself with convincing Light with melting Love and quickning seriousness to those that he conversed with that none might be left as dark disaffected or dead as they were found He also gave Catechisms and Testaments and some other Books most suited to their state to the poor people of his Parish engaging them to read them and taking an account of their performance and proficiency If you ask where he had Money to do all this he lived frugally himself He took nothing to be so much his own as to be laid out on himself any further than it maintained him in his Masters work The rest he took himself to be but a steward of to distribute it prudently to others What was not necessary to his personal maintenance and work he gave to others in the way and on the terms which might best further their Salvation And what he was unable to do himself he beg'd from such as were more able And as to the aforesaid manner of exercising his Administrations and Church-discipline he and the Church chose many Deacons and certain of the ancientest and most prudent members who should not be Officers as unordained Elders but only the Churches Delegates to take such cognizance of the action and give such assistance as the Laity may do himself with these Deacons and Delegates of the people met once a Month to hear what causes required their open admonitions when private reproofs had been rejected when offenders were to be humbly and compassionately admonished and by moving-arguments perswaded to repent And if they yet were obstinate more earnestly perswaded by them all and by clearest reasons convinced of the evil of their sin and the great necessity of true repentance And if yet they remained obstinate with us they were summoned to hear the convincing reasons of an Assembly of Pastors that shortly after met and their humble Exhortations and Prayers for their Repentance but Mr. Wadsworth had not so much of that assistance the order was next to publish the crime and impenitence to the Assembly and there publickly beseech the Sinner to repent and the Congregation to join in prayer for his Repentance and this usually three