flaming fire rendering vengance to them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glery of his power mark the tendencie and full scope of the words you may take them at large thus O all you stubborn and rebellious sinners who are refusers of Gospel-mercy and have long continued neglecters of that great Salvation remember that the Lord Jesus was revealed from Heaven as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the World and came down from his Fathers Throne to his foot-stool to take our nature upon him to humble himself and become obedient to death even the death of the Cross to be made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sons and he sent abroad his Apostles to propagate to all Nations the knowledge of this Salvation and to perswade the sinfull World that lay under condemnation unto faith and obedience believingly to accept of this Saviour and Salvation and in all thankfulness to return obedience and to take him for their soveraign Lord Redeemer and Saviour Oh know and be it known unto you and to all the World that he shall once more be revealed as a roaring Lyon to tear in pieces such as know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ but this is to argue the greatness of the sin from the greatness of the punishment and the improvement of it may be referred unto the third doctrine as to its most proper place The same course that we took to illustrate the greatness of Gospel-Salvation we may take here to aggravate the sin of Gospel-neglecting or refusing We hinted there that Gospel-Salvation was called 1. Salvation 2. Great Salvation 3. So great Salvation Which we further amplified by alluding to the three degrees of comparison shewing 1. That it was positively great 2. That it was comparativly greater than other 3. That it was superlatively the greatest Conceive in like manner of the sin of setting light by this Salvation 1. That it is positively great 2. That it is comparatively greater than others 3. That it is superlatively the greatest of all except the excepted sin And we may call it 1. Sin 2. Great sin 3. So great sin 1. To discover it to be positively great we need but name it and a little open the nature of it to make men cry shame of it as the unwrapping of a plague sore and opening it to be seen is enough to make the sound to loath it and the stink of an open sepulchre is enough to make the living to abhor it Gospel-refusing O monstrous sin it hath a face more ugly than Belzebub the Prince of devils though it be a sin that is proper to men and so common to all degrees and estates of men that it fills Hell with souls yet it is such a sin that the devils have no temptation to commit they being left without hope of a Redeemer and doamed from their very fall to perish without remedy Salvation is a term that is comprehensive of all that is good and excellent and desirable yea of the highest good of the highest God for they are convertible the Trinity of persons agreeing in one unity of love as well as essence to further our Salvation yea the great God turned all into one great love to affect it God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. Joh. 3.16 Christ in the fullnes of time manifesting the fullness of love Gal. 4.4 And the spirit coming down upon Christs Ascention as another Comforter to abide with us to the end of the World and all in order to the bringing about of this great Salvation and if this be not a sin with a witness tell me what is Gospel-refusing is called in Scripture a God refusing a Christ-despising a spirit-resisting and inconsiderate sinners in refusing and setting light by the word and ministery of this Salvation do all this Christ said of the contemners of his messengers he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luke 10.16 and Stephen said unto his and the Gospels persecutors ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and eares ye do allwaies resist the holy Ghost as your father did so do ye Acts 7.51 When Gods Embassadors shall go out into the world and doe as the Prophet was commanded lift up their voices like trumpets to tell men and women of their sinns and transgressions when they with Iohn Baptist shall cry prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths streight when they shall make proclamation Ho every one that thirsteth come come come Isay 55.12 And with the spirit and bride and him that heareth shall say come come come Rev. 22.17 And let whosoever will come and take of the water of life freely When men are so obdurate that like Pharoah they remaine hard and hardned in the midst of meanes neither miracles nor ministry nor misery nor mercy can do them good when all Gods and Christs and the Spirits and the messengers intreaties and beseechings shall be like breath scattered in the aire and like water spilt upon the ground and a labour in vain shall make Gods tired ministers ready in a heart-breaking despondency to turne their backs upon their labours let such as have understandings of the longest reach and witts exercised to to distinguish betwixt good and evill speak whether this must not be concluded to be a great sin for such only are fit to take the dimensions of a sin that is so circumstantiated I le give you but one rule more to help you to conceive of the greatness of this sin in the positive description and then pass to the comparative The Apostle prayed for his Ephesians Eph. 3.16 17 18 19. That God would grant them according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith that they being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that they might be filled with the fullness of God This is the well-spring of our Salvation the love of God in Christ which is here measured out unto us by the word and spirit of God in those dimensions of breadth and length and depth and height and said to pass knowledge and to comprehend all the fullness of God must not this have the length and breadth and depth and height of sin in it must it not be a sin passing knowledge must not this be to be filled with all the fullness and sinfullness of sin Those that are eaten up most of the love of God and know most of that love which passeth knowledge will be
business that I have with you I came not hither to take tythes but to winn Soules The malevolent adversaries of the standing Ministry of England call us hirelings and it s a miracle of providence that we have our lives for a prey in the midst of such a blood-thirsty generation of unreasonable men but we so much more desire you than yours that if you would make this our hire to give up your selves to God by our Ministry that by taking heed unto our selves and to the doctrine we may save both our selves and them that hear us let them call us Divells and it should but adde unto our Crown while we all study to be what I desire to approve my selfe A Servant of Christ for the furtherance of your Salvation Richard Eedes To the Reader Reader BEhold I bring unto thee glad tidings of great joy That whatever thy life hath been for the time past and whatever thy sinnes unrepented of are for the present If God shall render thee teachable and willing to be counselled thou maist yet die happily if thou wilt but be perswaded to live holily for the short remainder of thy few and evill daies I desire to approve my selfe a true friend unto thy Soul in my indeavour to bring this to pass and nothing can hinder it if the Tempter do not still prevaile to make thee continue thine own greatest enemy If thou be young thou canst not set out upon such work too soon which is of everlasting concernment to thy Soul and tends to the sure-making of thy Salvation If thou be old and hast spent much time already in the service of sin it is more than time that thou shouldst awake out of that dead sleep least the sleep of death surprize thee and if thou should'st be taken out of the world by death before thou be taken out of the World by grace which God forbid it had been better that thou hadst never been born or hadst been created a Toade or Viper than a Man or Woman Deferr not a day not an houer not a moment longer to consider thy waies and to turne to God hearken to this call of God while it is called to day least deferring till to morrow it should be to late whiles the breath is yet in thy body and the Lord yet offers to breathe the breath of life into thy Soul let not the Divel World and Flesh so bewitch thee as to obstruct thy seasonable and serious closing with God upon a Covenant-accompt and with Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour So shalt thou breake off that Great Sin of Gospel-refusing and escape that Great Damnation that is due to it and attaine unto that Great Salvation which is here faithfully commended and heartily wished to thee by him who is Thy Soule Friend Richard Eedes To the Reader Reader IT is the glory and happiness of the Age and country in which thou livest to have the plaine and plentifull teachings of the Lord that while we see not God or the life to come with open face by immediate intuition to our full satisfaction we may yet see him in a glass by reason sanctifyed and guided and elevated by faith so far as to quicken our desires after more and to cheer and strengthen us as a fore-tast and earnest of the everlasting inheritance Though the invisible things of God may be so farr seen in the things that are made as to leave all those without excuse that know not God or glorify him not as God Rom. 1.20 21. yet is the Gospel the much clearer glass though not as to the sensible manner of Revelation yet as to the fullness and cleerness of Discovery In this glass thou maist certainly see on earth the things that will be done in Heaven and Hell to all Eternity Thou maist know if thou canst but know thy heart both where and in what case thou must live for ever Whether with God or Divells whether in joy or torments whether in the end I less sence of the love of God and in his Soul-ravishing vision and fruition and highest returnes of Love and praise with Christ and all the Heavenly Host or in the endless feeling of his confounding to wrath and pangs of conscience for thy former willfullness and folly and comfortless despairing lamentations of thy misery This certaine glass that from God foretelleth all these things is contained in the Holy Scriptures and daily held before thee by thy teachers who are commanded to call upon thee to try and know thy selfe hereby and to prevent the eternall misery fore-seen and set thy heart on the revealed glory and make out after it with the greatest care and desire of thy Soul that it may be thine for ever This glass is here held out unto thee by this faithfull Reverend Minister of Christ a member of our Association in these united Churches who hath judiciously and concisely yet seriously and pathetically told thee how great a Price is in thy hand if thou have but a heart to the blessedness to be procured by it and the improvement of it for that blessedness He hath told thee also what a sin and desperate folly it is to slight â—nd neglect this great Salvation and turne of that God that Heaven with a triâ—le or with the leaving of this contemptable World who is thy All and should have All and will have thy First and Best or nothing He hath told thee of that great Damnation that will certainely be thy Portion if thou go on to neglect this great Salvation Bless God for this seasonable call and admonition and harden not thy heart but hear if thou have but eares to hear Abuse not a God of Love that deserves not to be abused Turne not away from him that speaketh unto thee from Heaven Deny not thy Redeemer thy first and deepest thoughts and cares thy strongest love and most resolved labours that denyed thee not his blood his doctrine and his example Away with sin Man tread downe the World or use it for the World to come Crucify the flesh that hitherto thou hast served Heaven is before thee thou art made and redeemed to be equall with the Angels Dally not about so great a matter as everlasting joy or torment is God is not mocked and therefore do not mock thy selfe by preferring the tâ—yes of the World before him What needs all this adoe for thy daily bread Having food and rayment be therewith content Get well to Heaven and all is done and thou shalt never want lose that and lose all and thou wilt certainly lose it if thou seth it not first and give it not the chiefest roome in thy heart How thinkest thou to escape if thou neglect this Salvation Will a despised or neglected Christ be thy Saviour or a neglected Heaven be thine Inheritance Dost thou think to come back from the dead into this World to mend that which now thou dost amiss or canst thou escape against Gods will and word Reader
God told the Israelites that they did not pray unto him when they howled upon their beds Hos 7.14 Ther 's a vast difference betwixt saying a prayer praying a prayer the words of prayer are but the carcase of the duty the longing desites of the soul after God and his mercies after gifts and giver are the soul of it and that only that makes the prayer effective Therefore I say that such sinners as Gospel-refusers may find mercy there must be deepest humiliations suitable repentance and most tervent prayers Old weather-beaten sinners â—hat have long setled on their lees and have been frozen in their dregs and have lain soaking in their lusts that have long frustrated meanes fair and foul and all that have been spent in vaine upon them such Blackmores will not be washed white with a little nitre nor such Leopards purged from their spots with a finger No if after long humbling and praying and fasting and waiting they may have a glimps of Gods pleased countenance at last they have cause to wonder at such mercy if at their latter end they may have their pardon sealed though their grey hairs are brought downe with sorrow to the grave yet they have reason more than enough to die admiring the Lords mercy But here I must enter a caveat against a mistake let all thought of meriting be banisht from our severest and most mortifying humiliations Though we should macerate our selves with fasting into very Skelitons and be like so many pale corpses or wandring shadows though we could sigh our selves into very aire and dissolve into very teares our heads being fountaines and our eyes rivers Yet when all were done we must cry out unprofitable and we must fly from our best performances to the Lords mercy and to Christs merit for succour and Salvation 4 There must be great changes of heart from stone to flesh is a great change and when God pours out his cleane water of sanctification he takes away the heart of stone and gives the heart of flesh Ezek. 36.26 From worse than nothing to the new creature is a greater change and this is wrought in regeneration From darkness to light is a change most remarkable and this saving conversion brings to pass Acts. 26.18 For a Man to hate his flesh his unregenerate part his lust and body of death which in the time of his vanity he loved so deerly and was as loath to part with the members of it right eye foot or hand this is a great change and such a change is wrought in selfe-denyall It was a great change that was wrought on Saul upon a sudden when from persecuting he fell to praying and preaching this well deserved an ecce as a note of admiration behold he prayes Acts. 9.11 For one that was so mad upon taking away the lives of others for professing Christ to be more ready to lay downe his own upon the same account was so notable a change that all that hear of it may say this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes The grace of God which brings Salvation brings such changes and where great changes of heart are wrought there great changes of life will accompany them Gospel-sliting and neglecting will be turned into Gospel-prizing and advancing those that made no reckoning of Gods Law before will after this change say with David I love thy commandements above gold and the Lawof thy mouth is deerer unto me than thousands of gold and silver and they that thus prize it in their hearts will practise it in their lives knowing that the true sayings of God are verba vivenda non legenda and they ought to live Gospel as well as know it David approves himselfe to God in the sincerity of his own heart in saying Lord what love have I unto thy Law all the day long is my study in it and desires God to sift and try and prove and search him over and over that there may be no leaven of hypocrisy left behind Psal 139.23 24. And he makes it the Character of a blessed man that he exterciseth himselfe in Gods Law day and night Psal 1.2 We should make it our meat and drinke our food and Phisick and recreation And for an answerable conversation the Apostles exhortation is exceeding pregnant wherein he gives them one precept that may include totum homnis the whole duty of man Phil. 1.27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Jesus Christ As Solomon saith Fear God and keep his Law for this is the whole duty of man Ecles 12.13 So the Apostle there love Christ and love his Gospel for this is the whole duty of Christians 3 USE Shall lay before you and leave with you two breife incouraging considerations by way of comsolation for those that have formerly been such but now have resolved to breake off that and all other sins by unfained repentance 1 Let such consider it is not every Sermon that is slighted or every tender of mercy and offer of Jesus Christ that is made to the Soul and set light by that is the great damning and impardonable sin of Gospel-refusing though these are too bad and exceeding heynous and being objectively against the Gospel are much to be bewailed but it s the finall refusing of mercy and slighting of Jesus Christ to the death that is most properly and in strict sense the great sin of Gospel-refusing and such as live and die in that sin do render themselves by so doing uncapable of pardon and cast themselves unavoidably upon everlasting damnation Gods word saith as much either exprefly or by direct consequence in a thousand places every Minister that you hear tells you so or else he tells you not the truth every Chapter that you read gives you some hint or other of it many a time have your bretheren and Christian freinds told you that except you close which God and lay hold upon Christ you cannot be saved if they have dealt faithfully with your Soules yea many a time have your own consciences if they are not blind and dumbe and seared told you so and is it not the extremity of madness to venter your Salvation upon such termes that either the Scriptures must be false and God a Liar or you cannot be saved If you live and die in this sin you must as sure be damned as the Divel himselfe as sure as the Heaven is over your heads and the earth under your feet Hell will be your portion and everlasting damnation will be the wages of refusing Gospel-Salvation But if you may yet be prevailed with before your breath be stopt and the pitt shut her mouth upon you to embrace Christ whom you have long slighted and accept of that mercy which you have unworthily refused and receive the Gospel which you have neglected there is yet hope in Israel concerning this O for the Lords sake and for your Soules sake stand out no longer refuse not mercy that
Apostle Peter to say 1 Pet. 1.18 Ye were not redeamed with corruptible things as gold and silver but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemlish and without spot now if we look back upon the great righteousness and sufferings of God the Son which were ingredient into our Salvation we need not doubt to call it great Salvation 3 In the third place we come to the third person and to shew what proceeds from that person that proceeds from the Father and the Son towards this great Salvation and that is 1 The Revelation of the spirit It is the spirit of God that hath brought Salvation to light through the Gospel The word is but the letter the spirit is the inditer and penman of it all Scripture being given by divine inspiration 2. Tim. 3.16 And therefore as it is called the sword of the spirit so it may be called the word of the spirit It s true that men were the penmen of Scripture or rather the penns in the hand of a ready writer as the Apostle said he was Gods pen to write Gods Epistle in the fleshly tables of the hearts of the Corinthians 2. Cor. 3.2 3. And therefore it s said that no prophesy of Scripture is of any private interpretation but holy men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1.21 And in the beginning of this Epistle to the Hebrews The writer of it saith God at sundry times and in diverse manners spake to our fathers by his servants the prophets c. but especially take notice of the verse that follows my text How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that hear him God also bearing them witness both with signes and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will it was the Holy Ghost that sealed up the truth of the Gospel by diverse miracles The Apostle therefore calleth the spirit the great Teacher 1 Ioh. 2.27 Ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things 1. Ioh. 2.27 And the spirit is said to reveale that in the word to the spirituall man which the word without the spirit cannot make the naturall man to understand 1 Cor 2.9 10. Eye hath not seen nor care heard neither hath entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit for the spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God And the Apostle prayes that God would come in with the spirit of wisedome upon the word of wisedome and with the spirit of revelation upon the word of revelation to his Ephesians Eph. 1 17. 2 The Application of the spirit As this Salvation is from the spirits revelation so hath it its efficacy from the spirits application It s the spirit that must bring our hearts to the word as well as the word to our hearts that must speak us through and say to our blind eyes deafe eares and dead hearts be opened see and hear and understand and be converted and he healed It s the spirit that must perswade us to recieve entertaine and embrace Christ that must say to our understandings and wills and hearts lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye opened ye everlasting dores that the King of glory may enter in when the dead letter of the word and a dead heart meet there can be but dead worke till the spirit of life that free wind that blowes where it lists do blow through that word upon the Soul that spirit that indited the word can make it the savour of life and that spirit that formed the heart and searcheth the heart can say unto dead hearts live In this respect it is that we are said to be drawne to Christ Iohn 6.44 and to be made beleevers by the exceeding greatness of his power and according to the working of his mighty power Eph. 1.19 Now in that the Gospel needed so glorious a revelation and so powerfull an application and both by the spirit our Salvation wrought by it must be confessed to be great Salvation 3. Next we come to things in subordination that do subserve under God in Trinity towards this great Salvation and here I might enter upon a large field of matter but for brevites sake I shall only point out the hid treasures that so knowing where they lie you may digg after them And the things whose instrumentality the great God of our Salvation uses towards the effecting of this great Salvation may be laid before us in two paires 1. The First pair is 1. graces 2. duties 2. The Second pair is 1. ordinances 2. providences I thus joyne them together because God joyneth them together 1. Grace and duty grace being the principle of duty and duty being but the acting of grace 2. Ordinances and providences which usually go hand in hand for our conversion aedification and Salvation 1. We begin with grace The word saith Titus 2.12 The grace of God which bringeth Salvation teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live holily justly and soberly in this present World where the Apostle teacheth us that it is grace that makes us to abound in duty and therefore to that end that we may abound in the worke of the Lord which the Apostle presses 1. Cor. 15. ult we are taught by the Apostle Peter to abound in grace 2. Pet. 1.5 6 7 8. giving all dilligence adde unto your faith c. and then it follows If these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ Note the graces of faith vertue knowledge temperance patience godliness brotherly kindness love must not only be in us but they must abound in us in order to this great Salvation And the fruits of the spirit that the heyres of Salvation must indeavour to abound in are laid downe in another cluster Gal. 5.22 23. The fruits of the spirit are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance these and all the rest of the traine of heavenly graces do accompany Salvation and it must needes be great Salvation that is so greatly graced 2. Dutie is the next wherein as you heard before they must no less abound than they must in grace The Apostles exhortation is 1. Cor. 15. ult My bretheren be ye stedfast and unmovable alwayes abounding in the worke of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord. And it was not only his precept but his practise to he did not like the Scribes and Pharises bind heavy burdens to lay upon others shoulders but he taught them by his own example to bear them too Phil. 3.13 14. This one thing I
do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto the things that are before I press towards the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus whereupon one of the Fathers call'd him insatiabilis dei cultor an unsatisfied greedy worshipper of the Lord Jesus Gods workmen should be the best and good workmen can never want worke did not our God lay enough upon them in the duties of holiness righteousness and sobriety which is the Epitome of the morall Law Did not Christ lay enough upon them in charging them to keep his Commandemeuts out of love and that their faith work by love which is the Epitome both of Law and Gospel Their own deceitfull hearts will find them enough The alluring world the enticing flesh and suggesting devill will afford them but a little breathing redit labor actus in Orbem their worke is never at an end till death give them a quietus est blessed are the dead which die in the Lord even so saith the Spirit that they rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 What betwixt reading and hearing and studying and meditating and praying and mourning and searching and watching and praising and all those laborious and painfull duties that are of absolute necessity in order to the attainment of this great Salvation it is plentifully attested to be great Salvation 3. Next for Ordinances what tendency have all these but the furtherance of this Salvation The word that Converting and edifying ordinance is it not the word of life and Salvation May I not say unto you Men and brethren children of the generation of Abraham and whosoever among you feareth God to you is the word of this Salvation sent Is not the gospell our Law of life and the law our rule of life leading to this Salvation doth not Evangelicall grace fit us for legall duty Consult that Scripture Tit. 2.12 and you shall find it so And for the sealing ordinances of Baptisme and the Supper their tendency can be no other but as seales to a deed to the sure-making of this Salvation The Ministry we may say of it as the word doth of the Sabboth that it was made for man and therefore it s reckoned to the Churches charter 1 Cor. 3.22 All things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephus c. And the Apostle to the Ephes speaking of the extraordinary Ministry of Prophets Evangelists and Apostles and the ordinary of pastors teachers tells us that it was for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of faith and of the knowledg of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ Eph. 4.12 13. Wherefore hath God given us his Sabboth but that we should make it our delight if Salvation be our delight wherefore hath he appointed the ordinance of prayer as a Catholicon as universall food and Phisick for our Soules as necessary as our daily bread and daily pardon as the fourth and fift Petition of the Lords prayer note yea the very discipline of the Church Christian reprooses and rebukes and excommunication it selfe aimes at the reformation of the unruly at the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 4. Lastly for Providences how strangely doth God worke for the heires of Salvation though the word be the ordinary means for the conversion of a sinner yet how ordinarily is some afflictive providence singled out to set it home to weane unbelevers and such as stick at a halfe conversion like a child in the birth and to make them more then all-most Christians when souls do hang in aequilibrio and do as it were halt betwixt God and the world or flesh it s usually some pinching affliction that turnes the scales and causes the sinner to turne his heart and feet unto Gods testimonies Those that keep Catalogues of providences can draw out choice of experiences out of their full quivers They can tell you with David who delivered them out of the paw of the Lion and Bear 1 Sam. 17.37 and can with Paul record unto Gods glory he hath delivered and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will also yet deliver 2 Cor. 2.10 Cannot Gods people tell you when they were dead and he put life into them as the prodigalls Father said of his Son so can they say of their soules this my soul was dead and is alive againe he was lost and is found Cannot they tell when they were asleep and he awaked them when they were in deepes and he succoured them when they were rushing upon sin like a horse into the battle and he withheld them as he did David from hurting Nabal by the providence of Abigal yea they can record thankfully the very ordinances and providences wherein God appeared to them It were endless to enumerate all let experient Christians supply the rest out of their own store while weaker Christians do make use of those weake helpes to further their understandings in comprehending this truth And now being come to the uttermost of their reason let us look back and gather up the severall branches into one bundle which we need not doubt to call the bundle of life in which all saved soules are bound up 1 The wisedome and love of God the Father who is the God of our Salvation 2 The sufferings and righteousness of God the Son who is the Author and finisher of our Salvation 3 The revelation and application of the spirit who is the furtherer of our Salvation 4 Graces and duties which bear the name of saving graces and saving duties 5 Ordinances and Providences which are all things that do accompany Salvation And none of these can be left out but our Salvation will miscarry they are all of absolute necessity and for all these gospel Salvation must be confessed to be great Salvation and a mighty engine that is carried with so many and mighty wheels 1 USE Shall be of Consideration wherein I shall commend unto your serious consideration this Salvation with its dimensions as great and so great Salvation so that you are to hear 1 What it is 2 How great it is What it is take in this short account which containes the substance of all that goes before It s the dear purchase of our Soveraigne Lord Redeemer freely bestowed upon Gods elect whereby they are by a strong hand and mighty meanes freed from sin and eternall misery and advanced to grace and everlasting happiness You may read a breviary of it Iohn 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only bogotten Son that whosoever beleiveth in him might not perish but have everlasting life It s this Salvation that denominates the Gospel to be glad tidings for can there be gladder tidings then life from the dead then eternall life from eternall death judge how
durable profits and lasting pleasures and everlasting honours are made no account of The body and lust and sinne shall be satisfied when the soul and grace and glory are laid aside as not worth the minding we are ready to condemne Adam of monstrous madness that would looss Paradise for an apple and to cry out upon Esau as the foole of all fooles that would exchange his birthright for a mess of pottage and the very name of Judas the traitor in graine stinkes like rotteness that would sell his master for thirty pence but surely the World is full of such fooles and madmen and monsters Those that will please their appetite with Adam though they lose an Heavenly Paradise for so doing Those that will satisfy their craving flesh with Esau though they lose the glorious I berty of Gods Sonns and forfeit all the priviledges of the new birth-right Those that will have Balaams wages the wages of iniquity with curied Judas though they lose Soul and Saviour and Salvation and all If we do but look abroad in the World and take a view of the lives and behaviour of men and women old and young high and low rich and poor one with another We shall see that the multitude is like that heard of Swine possessed of the Legion running headlong to their own damnation Ambition carries away thousands voluptuousness ten thousands worldly-mindedness hundreds of thousands so that Millions are visibly in a perishing condition wickedness recting the wicked man to his teeth 〈◊〉 as Daved saith that there is no fear of God before his eyes and the abounding of iniquity makes proclamation that notwithstanding such great Salvation be brought to light yet there are but few that shall be saved Hell hath enlarged herselfe without measure and all the pompe and all multitude of secure and careless and senseless sinners shall fall into it This oh this is the condemnation that is come into the world that light is come into the world and men love darkness more than light that a Saviour is come into the world and men will not come unto this Saviour that there should be a proclamation of so great Salvation and men will not leave their sinns and close with God through Christ that they may be saved yet let us take a further survey for as yet we have but stirr'd in the stinke of common sinners those that give up themselves to serve the Divell by a sensuall serving the flesh and worldly mindedness these do turne their backs upon God and do in their actions profess against the dominion of Christ that they will not have him â—o reigne over them let us look towards them that seeme to look towards Heaven and observe diligently what we can find there 1 Are not many of them meerly civiliz'd and no more though they will not wallow like Swine in the mire yet they are not carefull to keep clean their garments nor to keep themselves unspotted from the world though they will not tear Gods Name by Ruffian-like oathes yet they will pawae their faith and troth for small matters 2 Some that advance higher than meere Civility yet make a stand at formality and take up with a forme of Godliness short of the power of it knowledge and grace they would have and duty they will do but it is but some knowledge and some grace and some duty that its an easy conclusion that they desire it rather to save their credit than their Soules that they may be in esteem with men rather than in favour with God but our Saviour hath said enough to dash all this Matt. 5.20 Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes who had but a forme of knowledge and Pharises who had but a forme of Godliness ye cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven and Luke 8.18 From him thah hath not from him shall be taken away even all that he seemeth to have 3 Many do stick in halfe coversions like a child in the birth and there is not strength to bring forth like that man in the Gospel that started aside like a broken bow at a forsake all and chose rather to forsake Christ then to forgo his wealth Herod heard John Baptist gladly in many things but would not part with his Herodias and all such as these are but like Agrippa allmost perswaded to become Christians but if they come not up to Pauls measure alltogether such as he true Israelites indeed such in whom there is no guile they are but Godless and Christless and Spiritless and graceless Soules and will be reckoned in the number of the neglecters of this great Salvation How should the servants of the Lord that have his spirit dwelling in their hearts and have the fear of the Lord before their eyes knowing the terror of the Lord against all such as are out of Christ and out of Covenant how should they pitty these poor Soules and intreat and beseech them to pitty their own Soules and to come in and be reconciled to God and to be willing to embrace the things that belong to their Salvation before they shall he hidden from their eyes And if they continue refusers still how should we ply the throne of grace with our earnest intreaties that God would forgive them who know not what they do that he would take away their hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh That he would deliver them up unto Satan for their Salvation not for their damnations I meane that he would cast them into an Hell of conscience and plead with them there and cause them to see and feel themselves to be the vessells of sin and bondslaves of Satan that they may spend the remainder of their few and evill dayes in mourning that their flesh and body of sin may be destryed and their Spirits may be saved in the day of the Lord. And to help forward this work if God will before I pass from this use afford your attention while I expostulate the case with stubborne sinners on their Soules behalfe that they may be snatcht as brands out of the fire and pull'd out of the paw of the Lion rampant that seekes to devour them if they be not such deafe Adders as refuse to hear the voice of the Charmer charme he never so wisely I will not aske them whether grace and glory be of no reckoning with them which Salvation doth advance unto as you have heard in the second reason I will not ask them if the wisdome and love of God the Father the sufferings and righteousness of God the Son the grace and communion of the spirit be of no account If graces and duties ordinances and providences are nothing set by it s a common thing with those whose eyes the God of this World hath blinded and with such as are wedded to world and enslaved to the flesh to overlook all these as if they were not worth the looking after But can they dwell with the devouring fire
or can they indure everlasting burnings Can the conflict with the wrath of God which is a devouring fire burning to the bottome of Hell dare they provoke the Lord to jealousy oh foolish people and unwise Ah t is a fearfull thing to fall into the sin revenging hands of the living God Can they undergo the curse of that fiery Law that was given with thunder and lightning and the sound of the trumpet or indure the appearing of the Lord Jesus when he shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angells and in flaming fire to render vengeance to them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power Can they grapple with the strong man armed without a stronger then he to their second How will they withstand their sinns when they shall be gathered together in a generall muster and set in battle arey in a most formidable army and armed with the teeth of Dragons and stings of Scorpions to kill their Bodies and Souls in Hell When the numberless number of their notorious provocations shall breake in furiously like a Sea of Billows to drive away the wicked in his wickedness and another sea of wrath shall be tumbling in after it When evills unrepented of like a kennel of Hell-hounds shall hunt the wicked persons to destruction When God shall be so severe to observe euery thing that is done amisse and shall set in order before us the things that we have done how shall we then answer to one of a Thousand Can you give battle to the King of feares or secure yourselves from a heart-quake when death hangs out his black colours and gives you an alarme will not your hearts then die like a stone or fall asunder in your brests like drops or water when your consciences are clamorous and speak bitter things against you will not Belshazzers palsy seize upon your joints and when you think of that judgement that follows death that fire and brimstone which is the second death will not this make you with Foelix to quake and tremple Oh do but forethinke with yourselves that you shall be as unable to stand in the day of the Lords wrath as chaff to stand before a whirlewinde or stubble before a consuming fire O consider this you that forget God least ye be torn in peices and there be none to deliver you 4 USE Is of Consolation to all such as have cordially closed with this great Salvation As the refusers of it deserve to be stigmatiz'd for notorious fooles for so wise Solomon declaims against them Prov. 1.22 How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fooles hate knowledge So such as thankfully accept and embrace this great Salvation deserve the reputation of the wisest of men no foole to the willfull sinner and no wisedome comparable to that that makes wise unto Salvation How was Timothy renowned and his fame rings as far as the Gospel is preached for searching the scripture which were able to make him wise unto Salvation 2 Tim 3.15 To be wise unto Salvation is to be wise indeed all wisedome that comes short of this leaves the possessors of it short of the beginning of wisedome To be wise for the world and wise after the flesh is in Gods esteem to be but fooles and rather a barr to keep men out of Heaven than a door to let them in and therefore our first lesson is selfe-deniall which consists in a denyall of our witts as well as a denyall of our wills and of our worth which the Apostle hints when he saith If any man will be wise let him become a foole that he may be wise As the wisedome of God is foolishesness with the world and God saves men by the foolishness of preaching 1 Cor. 1.21 So the wisedome of the world is foolishness with God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.7 The wisedome of the flesh is enmity with God To be wise to do wickedly is the most foolish of all wisedome are not they without understanding that worke wickedness Ps 14.4 This wisedome is not from above but carnall sensuall and divelish To be wise according to art in Phisicks Ethicks Politicks Oeconomicks c. and to want the wisedome from above which Gods word and spirit do teach is but umbra sapientiae the shaddow of wisedome and can make men no better than learned fooles all amounting to no more than erudita ignorantia a finer sort of ignorance but to be wise for God for Heaven for our Soules for Salvation this is to be wise indeed A true Israelite indeed a true Christian indeed and true wisedome indeed are much worth when such as are so in shew are but like cyphers in Arithmetick joyne as many together as will fill a volume and they will signifie nothing O consider that when you have layd out your money for that that is not bread and have spent time and strength for that which cannot profit you will be the first that shall befoole your selves as soon as God shall anoint your eyes with eye salve from above then you will say with David so foolish was I and ignorant even as a very bruit before thee Psal 73.22 And my wounds stinke and are corrupt through my foolishness Psal 38.5 Yea the time is coming when those that thought the children of God to be fooles because they set their hearts upon a wisdome that was above the world shall condemne their own wretched folly and magnify the others wisedome as Wisd 5.4 5. We fooles thought his life madnesse and his end without honour how is he counted among the Children of God and his portion is among the Saints To draw towards a conclusion of this use they shall not only gaine the reputation of wisedome but as Solomon when he desired an understanding and religions heart in the first place had riches and honour given in ex abundanti as more than measure so shall these And therefore they are called heyres of Salvation Heb. 1.14 a title next in dignity and riches unto his who is called in the second verse of that chapter the heir of all things All Gods Sonns are heyres and fellow-heyres with Jesus Christ Rom 8.17 and being received into the glorious liberty of Gods adopted Sonns by their union with Christ they communicate in all the priviledges of Justification reconciliation adoption sanctification and glory They have a right to all the priviledges of the Sonns of God The love of the Father the grace of the Son The Communion of the holy Spirit The protection of the Trinity The guardianship of Angells The comforts of an appeased conscience The comfortable enjoyment of the things of this life and the beleiving expectation of the good things of the life to come We looke upon him as honourably and richly provided for that is a Kings
enquiry then what Sodoms sin was that we may judge the more clearly of this Comparison Moses saith Gen. 13.13 The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly that is they were a most notorious sort of sinners and greater than ordinary Though many of Sodoms sins are enumerated in that black catalogue that stands upon record as an aggravation of the sins of Israel whose sister shee is called Ezek. 16.49 Pride fullness of bread i.e. gluttony and drunkenness and abundance of idleness and uncharitableness Yet there is one sin that is hang'd upon the file that takes its denomination from that place and is called the sin of Sodomy e. i. burning in strange unnaturall lusts not fit to be named without trembling this was that that caused them to be burnt with strange fire even with fire and brimstone from Heaven as they had abused their land and turn'd it into a Hell of sin so God raines down from Heaven upon them a Hell of punishment somewhat may be yet added towards the aggravation of their sin which was monstrous enough without circumstances of guilt from Isay 3.9 They declare their sin as Sodom they hide it not the meaning is they were shameless sinners they did adde a brazen forhead to their stony hearts and added to the extremity of lust the extremity of impudence And if the sin we are speaking of be more monstrous than the sin of Sodom what shall we say to this Surely as the Prophet thundring against the sins of Israel saith hear the word of the Lord ye Princes of Sodom hearken to the Law of our God ye people of Gomorrah Isay 1.10 The Gospel Boanerges may cry lowder against the sins of England and all such Lands as have lived under the sun-shine of the Gospel Hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ ye that are greater sinners than the Princes of Sodom give eare unto the Salvation of our God ye that are greater sinners than the people of Gomorrah 3. It is superlatively the greatest sin except that excepted sin the sin unto death called in Scripture the sin against the holy Gost That it is against the love of God and grace of Christ and revelation and wrastling of the spirit you have allready heard a trinity of aggravations bigg enough to make three superlatives and evidencing it to be a sin against the Holy Ghost of an high nature though not the sin against the Holy Ghost yet it is not to pass thus we have further evidence against it which will prove it to be more than superlatively abominable but we shall modell that which is behind into a few arguments or Reasons which shall make up a convincing and pregnant proofe of this truth that the sin of Gospel-refusing is superlatively great and a most sinfull sin 1. Reason proving it to be exceeding great is because it is an accumulated sin To refuse Gospel-Salvation is to heap sin upon sin we do all by nature through Adams disobedience ly under the Condemnation of the Covenant of workes the wrath of God abiding on us Now Gospel-Salvation is a plaister of Christs blood to heal that wound and a mercifull indulgence provided by our wise and gratious God as a suitable remedy against that malady God gave his only son that whosoeuer beleiveth in him might not perish c. John 3.16 Now they that refuse this mercy do expose themselves to judgements without mercy and they that are regardless of this remedy must be left to perish without remedy and all because they adde to their transgessions of the Law their owne and their forefathers this sin above all that they set light by the Gospel The mercies of Heaven are meted out unto men in Heavens measure that is heaped up pressed downe and running over though we are ready to stand upon niggardly tearmes with God â—e deales not so with us and when God requires of us a proportionable measure of thankfullness and obedience even that we should be abundant in the worke of the Lord who thus abounds to us in mercy and loving kindness for us to make such a wretched retribution unto the Lord for all his mercies as to returne a full measure of our iniquities sinns heaped up and pressed downe and running over this must needs be exceeding provoking to the eyes of his glory Our Righteousness indeed should be a righteousness running over as our Saviour taught his disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except your righteousness exceed i. e. run over the righteousness of the Scibes and Pharises ye cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Mat. 5.20 Mistake me not I do not hold that the righteousness of the Saints can run over in the sense of Rome by works of supererrogation for being sanctified but in part we must crave pardon dayly for the iniquities of our holy things and say when all is done that we are unprofitable servants but in respect of such as come short and take up with the name and forme and easy part of Religion as the Scribes and Pharises did so it must exceed and run over Now when insteed of a righteousness running over our sin shall run over as it doth when we are guilty of Gospel-refusing where shall such ungodly ones and sinners appear The people of Israel when they had committed that sin of thunder in asking them a King when God was their King when they were awakened and convinc'd by a storme and Son of thunder they made this confession we have added unto all our sinns this evil to aske us a King 1 Sam. 12.19 But those that refuse the Gospel may take up this confession that they have added this to all their other sinns that they have refused them a King yea the King of Kings the Royall King Jesus yea that that more than superlatively aggravates their sin they refuse Jesus Christ in all his offices who offers himselfe in the Gospel as their compleat Mediator in his propheticall preistly and kingly Office and of God is made unto us wisedome and righteousness and sanctification redemption 1. Cor. 1. â—0 And because we are now declaring against this sin as an accumulated sin we shall take a little liberty more than ordinary to make good these 3 charges against the sin of setting light by the Gospel that it is against Christ in his threefold office and this will do the office of a magnifying glass and present that sin which to purblind sinners seemes no bigger than a molehâ—ll in his full propoâ—â—on swelling to a mountaine I know many will be ready to startâ—â— at such a charge and â—he most guilty will be ready to kick first as Judas was ready with his Mâ—steâ— is it I what we Refusers of Jesus Christ no we scorne it we defy them that shall tell us so It is not fit they should live that refuse Jesus Christ do you make doggs or Divells of us that we should do so and thus men are ready to cry peace and plead not
as Saints upon a charitable account I meane how few do walk exactly according to the Gospel-rule that their conversation may be an ornament to the Gospel and a Gospel becoming conversation their light shining before men that others seeing their good works may be stirred up to glorify our Father which is in Heaven Though they will not be the Children of gross darkness by tumbling and wallowing in notoriousness yet they walke but as it were by moon-shine and star-light that it may be well doubted whether the day-starr from on high hath visited them or whether their Sun be risen to make them Children of the light and of the day They will not be perswaded to shine like lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation nor so farr as visible Christianity requires deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live holily justly and soberly in this present word 3 And among these professors at large that are not so properly of as in the Church how many revolters and backsliders do go out from us dayly of such the Apostle saith They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us 1 Iohn 2.19 Mistake me not I do not go about to shake the certainly of the Saints perseverance nor assure the falling away of any of the called according to Gods purpose Because Christians secundùm dici such as have but a name to live may loose their seeming It will not thereupon follow that Christians sâ—cundùm esse true Israelites indeed can he pluckt out of Christs and the Fathers hand There are principia cognoscendi and essendi Christianity affords us principles of knowing and being and though titular Christians may fall from their Principles of knowing yet such as are really possest of invisible Christianity cannot fall from their being Principles The gifts and calling of God being without repentance Rom. 11.29 And whom he loveth he loveth to the end Iohn 13.1 But the heart of man being deceitfull and wicked above all things Jer. 17.9 Men may think that they are standing when it is no such thing 1 Cor. 10.12 And this evill heart of unbeleife will cause men to depart from the ever living God Heb. 3.12 Therefore I speake of revolters and Apostles some going out unto one sect and some unto another railing against the Church and like bastard children calling their Mother whore reproaching their Bretheren with whom they formerly walked in the house of God as freinds looking asquint upon them as unbaptized Heathens and branding them to be limbs of Antichrist and the Divel vilifying the Ordinances as if they were meere arbitrary things or might be used or refused at pleasure forsaking the publick assemblies of Gods people and preferring their own Conventicles before them which the Apostle makes the rod to that grand Apostacy of despighting the Spirit of grace and sinning the sin unto death Heb. 10.25 And reviling the Ministry wherein they act the parts of such sick patients as are frantick that abuse their Phisitian that comes in love to cure them And as those devouring gulphs of Schism and Heresy do swallow thousands so those other two of world and selfe do murder ten thousands How many serve the Gospel as Demas did Paul forsake the Gospel to Embrace the world and the Gospel must give them leave to make provisions for the flesh or else it is no Gospel for them This is an argument that they did never love God and Christ with the prevailing degree of their love nor preferre their interests above the interests of the world and flesh this shews that the number of such is very few whose hearts are whole with God and which behave themselves stedfastly in his Covenant and all this will appear to be but Gospel-refusing when we come to application To draw towards a conclusion of the Reasons we need not wonder that it pulls down States and unchurches Churches for it was the great Sin that drowned the old world and its the firebrand that shall set this on a flame The old was drowned because iniquity did abound and the flames of lust aid wax hot and the new shall be burned because iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold The old was destroyd because Noah a preachers of righteousness could not worke upon them and the new shall be destroyed because Gods messengers cannot winne upon them The words of the Gospel are plaine As it was in the dayes of Noah so shall it be in the dayes when the Son of man shall come for as in the dayes of Noah they were eating and drinking and marrying so in the last dayes the same sinns of gluttony and drunkeness and lust shall abound Mat. 24.37 38 39. So that this is the condemnation all along of States and Churches of Jews and Gentiles of the old World and new that light is come into the World and men love darkness more than light because their deeds are evil Joh. 3.19 In the 51. Psalme where David laments his twin-sin of adultery and bloud-guiltiness its worth our notice that towards the close of it he puts up this petition O be favourable and gracious unto Sion build up the walls of Jerusalem Sion signifying the Church and Jerusalem the state of Israel as some have noted his meaning amounts to this Lord do well unto Church and State though I by my double sin have done enough to undo both and all such as have been guilty of this sin of setting light by the Gospel had need to turn from it with all speed and to turn to God with the like petition Lord be mercifull to the State and Church whereof we are members for we have done enough to ruine both 1. USE Shall be for Information Is setting light by the Gospel so notorious a sin Is it a setting light by God the greatest good An undervaluing of the length and bredth and height and depth of his love Is it a setting light by Christ in all his offices of King Priest and Prophet Is it a resisting of the Spirit of God that strives with man in the Ministry of the Gospel Is it 1. An Accumulated Sin 2. an Aggravated Sin 3. a State destroying Sin 4. a Church confounding Sin Then it behoves all such as live within the Call of the Gospel and within reach of the beams of this Sun to make diligent enquiry what this sin is and our use of Information shall be framed of purpose to give satisfaction to such an enquiry Besides what may be gathered by intent and meditational Readers from the handling of the Doctrine concerning the nature of this sin I shall further inform you in three particulars wherein this sin of neglecting so great Salvation doth mostly consist 1. In taking no care about it 2. In taking but little care conjunct with greater cares 3. In not making it our greatest care 1. In taking no care about it To live as if to mind
Divel perswaded our first parents to know it to know the excellency of good by the misery of evill by a wofull experimentall knowledge as light is known by darkness or sweetness by bitterness Then they shall be fully convinc'd in their judgements of that which no art of ours no evidence of the spirit could prevaile with them to believe that Gods justice is as infinite as his mercy and his mercy no larger than his truth That Christ is only a refuse for humble penitent believing sinners and none else that Hell is as hot and eternity full as long as Gods word and Ministers have told them 2 They shall be plagued in their consciences The conscience is taken to be a part of the practicall understanding Scientia cum scientia a reflex knowledge joyn'd with a direct knowledge and most of the rationall torments of the damned are discharged upon conscience and therefore the worme of conscience as instar omnium is synechdochically put for for all If a wounded conscience were an intolerable burden upon earth surely a damned conscience will be much more intolerable in Hell Some do cut this worme of conscience into three peices but cut it into an hundred and it will never die 1. Memoria praeteritorum 2. Sensus praesentium 3. Metus futurorum 1. The remembrance of things past 2. The sense of present misery 3. The fear of wrath to come But I may not enlarge upon these particulars least it swell this part of our discourse that it will not hold proportion with the rest While they lived here though the mighty word mannaged by Sons of thunder did often grate upon conscience that their sins were hardly the pleasures of sin for a season yet the spirit of slumber did often fall upon them and they might perhaps fall into some pleasing dream while that sleep lasted or they might be sear'd with an hot iron and made past feeling but when the pit shuts her mouth upon the sinner the conscience opens hers and opens it wide opens it so as it shall never be shut more the conscience is all feeling the sinner can never hope for any flattering anodine from his bribed conscience but must indure conscience as Judge Jury Witnes Executioner for ever ever When a sinner in hell shall look back upon his time upon earth and consider that God made him a reasonable creature fit to perform unto him reasonable service and reveal'd his righteous will in his law and Gospel both for matter and manner of his service and gâ—ve him his lot of being not onely in the bosome of his Church and in Gospel times but in reforming times when the Sun was broken out of a cloud and shined in strength and did strive with him by his Spirit in ordinances and providences making many gracious offers of Christ and with Christ himself and Spirit and all things belonging to their peace saying and swearing that he takes no delight in the death of sinners intreating and beseeching them to be reconciled to return and live expostulating with them why they will dye why they will not be gathered waiting with invincible patience and a very miracle of long-suffering when it will once be yet after all this after Christ and mercy and grace have been offered and refused after sin hath been reproved and yet continued in Faith and other graces have been pressed of as absolute necessity to Salvation and never heeded duty hath been taught and never performed seasons opportunitys have been offered and all neglected and frustrated and now to consider that there shall never be one call more one offer of grace more one opportunity to be saved more they are all lost and lost for ever this makes the heart to sinke and dye and this is the worm of consciencâ— that never dyes Sinners believe it though you can now slight Christ at your pleasure and wilfully neglect this great Salvation and deipise the riches of Gods patience and long-suffering and will not be brought to repentance all the cords of Love cannot draw you to it and neither scourges nor scorpions can drive you when this shal be lookt back upon in hell and the time is near it will prove the most torturing torment in the bottomless pit the most tormenting torture that the damned can meet with through all eternity Then let the stundiest sinner refuse to submit to the sentence of Damnation if he can let him turn away his ear from the clamours of his conscience if he can let him break prison get out of hell if he can or if he cannot as it is more than infinitely impossible then let men set themselves sericusly and seasonably to the preventing of it and make use of Gods gracious warnings that they never come into those torments 3. They shal be plagued in their Wills with stubborness and wilfulness God would and they would not here they would and God would not when they were departing hence but neither they nor God will when they come to hell the sinner that could not be wrought upon to be made willing in the time of Love shal be of obdurate that he shal be wilfull in the day of his wrath sins of the damned do partake much of that wilfulness that is in the sinners against the Holy Ghost here as here they sin willingly so there they sin wilfully As by Adam's sin mankind was bound up to good let loose to evil and that is all the moral freewil they have till through regeneration the Son hath made them free indeed so after judgement is past upon them the damned are utterly disabled from all good and their hearts are set in them to do wickedly so that they are sinning and yet suffering suffering and yet sinning for ever and ever The damned could well enough away with a hell of sin but they cannot indure a hell of suffering if that might but be abated it were the haven where they would be Objection But if sin be their delight is this wilfulness in sinning their plague and punishment Answer yea and as great as any for as Pharoah's hard heart was the biggest plague in Egypt that pull'd down all the rest so this sining frame of Spirit this sinning wilfully and with a hard heart is one of the greatest plagues of hell for if the sins of a sinners life were not more than enough this would find fuel to supply the fire for ever and ever 4. I shall but touch upon some of the passions and pass over to the next Love Joy Hope Desire being bereft of their objects the damned are bereft of them they would not love God nor what God loves here and there they cannot they would not joy in believing here with joy unspeakable and glorious the joy of grace and Salvation would not relish with them and now they have nothing to rejoyce in while they lived they made a kind of a mock-consolation of the pleasures of sin of the Profits