all Understanding It is because God's Love is set upon them and it is such a Love What a Love 1. I answer it is an Everlasting Love The Lord appeared of old unto me saying Yea I have loved thee with an Everlasting Love c. It is a Love from Everlasting therefore it must be a first Love an early Love and because he loved them from Eternity he elected them from Eternity 2. It is a firm Love a strong Love an endeared Love nay an inconceivable Love I in them and thou in me and that the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me A Love of the same Nature of the same Quality O! what is the Nature of that Love the Father hath to Jesus Christ Who can conceive of it much less express it It is impossible for us to comprehend how firm strong and endearing it is but thus he loves all his Elect Ones Christ as Mediator is the Object of the Father's Love so are all his Members The same Love that is let out to the Head as to the Nature of it is let out to his Mystical Body and to every particular Member thereof 3. The Father's Love is a Love of Delight He is said to love others with a Love of Pity but he loves his Saints with a Love of Complacency He will rejoice over thee with joy he will rest in his Love he will rejoice over thee with singing He takes delight and satisfaction in his Love not in our Love to him but in his Love to us Again it is said As the Bridegroom rejoiceth over the Bride so shall thy God rejoice over thee 4. The Love of the Father is an inseparable Love nothing can separate his Love from his Elect like as nothing could separate his Love from his own Son so nothing can separate his Love from his Saints For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I am fully assured as some read it not by any special Revelation but by the same Spirit of Faith which is common to all Believers neither fear of Death nor hope of Life nor shall the Devils be able or evil Angels though they are Principalities or Powers though of that Rank or according to others who by Principalities understand the wicked Potentates of the Earth nor shall cruel Persecutors be able nor shall Things present whatever Temptations Miseries or Afflictions which you now lie under or may hereafter meet with neither height of Honour or Spiritual or Civil Advancement nor depth of worldly Disgrace or Abasement or the deepest of Spiritual Desertion that can befal them nor any other Creature or Thing shall be able to separate us who believe or are united to Christ from the Love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Arg. That which no Power of Earth or Hell no Potentate no Enemy no Friend or no thing whatsoever is or shall be able to do or effect cannot be done or it is impossible it should be done But no Power of Earth or Hell no Potentate no Enemy no Friend or nothing whatsoever is able or shall be able to separate true Believers from the Love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord Therefore it is impossible any such should fall so away as eternally to perish Object But stay say some your Argument is not good for Sin may separate them from the Love of God We grant indeed from what the Apostle says that nothing else can do it but Sin may for your Iniquities have separated between you and your God Answ I answer It is a mistake Sin cannot separate them who are his beloved Ones from his Love the Scripture mentioned proves not that such who are true Believers may be separated from God's Love or that Sin can finally separate them from their God therefore consider 1. That I deny not but Sin may separate such from God who are his People only by visible Profession or only his in an externally legal Covenant as the whole House of Israel at that Time was when the Prophet uttered those Expressions and it hath separated them and the greatest part of them I mean for ever for the Jews for the Sin of Unbelief and rejecting of Christ were utterly cast off 2. Sin may also separate God's Elect Ones from his sensible sweet and comfortable Presence for a time God may hide his Face from his dearest Children or bring them into great Afflictions 3. Israel when in the Babylonian Captivity was said to be separated from God because they were separated from his Temple and visible Worship where he promised them his Presence But it doth not follow from hence Sin can ever finally separate God and his Love which is eternal and abiding from those he hath chosen in Jesus Christ To make it appear yet more fully that Sin cannot separate them from the Love of God for ever consider First That though it is true as I have before shewed that God's Beloved Ones may grievously sin against him yet they cannot sin away his Love and Affection And to make this appear hear what God himself saith If his Children for sake my Law and walk not in my Judgments If they break my Statutes and keep not my Commandments What then will he take away his loving-Kindness from them and cast them off for ever O no Then will I visit their Transgression with the Rod and their Iniquities with Stripes nevertheless my loving Kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my Faithfulness to fail my Covenant I will not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my Mouth Object This is spoken of Christ My loving-Kindness I will not utterly take from him c. Answ 1. I grant that it is spoken of Christ but not of Christ personally but Christ mystically considered Did Christ personally ever forsake God's Law Besides doth not God say his Children 2. Christ and Believers are considered as one in regard of their mystical Union with him 3. Doth the Covenant of Grace made with Christ respect his Person only Or doth it not refer to all that are in him or given to him or all his true spiritual Seed But to put it out of doubt read the next Words and tremble whoever you be that assert that the Elect may perish for ever Once have I sworn by my Holiness that I will not lie to David Well what is that which God hath sworn by his Holiness and will not lie to do for David the true David that is his own beloved Son pray read the 36 th verse His Seed shall endure for ever and his Throne as the Sun before me His Seed that is all those that are given to him or
for thou hast spoken of thy Servant's House for a great while to come and hast regarded me according to the Estate of a Man of high Degree O Lord. Thus may every Believer say The Love of Christ will have the like Effect on our Souls as the Knowledg of David's Love to Abigail when he sent Messengers to her to make her his Wife and raise her to his Throne Let me saith she be a Servant to wash the Feet of the Servants of my Lord. 4. The Knowledg of Christ's Love will beget greater and stronger Love in our Souls to him Love begetteth Love but not till it is known O taste Sinners of this Love had you but a Taste how would your Hearts be enflamed in Love to Jesus Christ And as to you Saints 5. The more you know of Christ's Love the more your Hearts will die and your Love cool to all earthly things 6. The more you know of Christ's Love the more firmly you will be fixed and setled in his Truth and be delivered from Fears and Doubts about your standing Alas it is not Sin nor Satan nor Hell nor Death that can deprive your Souls of Christ's Love if you are his If Satan says Thou art a vile Sinner and lays before thee the Baseness of thy Heart tell him Christ's Love passeth Knowledg Does he say that thou wilt fall one time or another Tell him Christ loved thee not for thy Righteousness and his Love that is so infinite will never suffer thee to fall and rise no more 7. The Knowledg of Christ's Love will make us to speak well of God and Christ and his Ways at all times still we shall say the Love of God and Jesus Christ is the same all is in Love whom I love I rebuke and chasten Christ's Love known and experienced will be a Cordial to bear thee up to the end of thy Days 8. This will set your Souls at liberty and bring you out of the Spirit of Bondage and make you to run after him But it is not the knowing of Christ's Love in any degree but to that degree that passeth Knowledg a Love that can't fail which will do this 9. The Knowledg of Christ's Love will make you cling and cleave to him Christ is the Loadstone and our Soul the Needle and now our Soul having touched him it makes to the Center and though you may like the Needle tremble for a Time yet you are hastening to him and never will rest till you come to him whom your Souls love 10. The more you know of him and of his Love the more will be your inward Joy and Peace For this is the Way to be filled with all the Fulness of God and to know the Love of Christ which passeth Knowledg that you may be filled with all the Fulness of God Secondly This may reprehend and sharply reprove such Christians that doubt of the Love of Christ especially those who affirm that justified and sanctified Persons may for ever lose his Love and perish for this renders his Love mutable and changeable according as the Love of Mortals change one towards another Thirdly and lastly What Comfort and Consolation doth this afford to all true Christians But I must proceed to the next Argument to prove That Saints shall not cannot finally fall so as to perish Fourthly Christ's Sheep his Saints shall never so fall as finally and eternally to perish I shall in the next place prove and that from the Nature of the Covenant of Grace First Because it is a Covenant of Grace We do not stand in this Covenant as Adam stood in the first Covenant And now that it is a Covenant of Grace will appear if we consider with whom this Covenant was primarily made and that was with Jesus Christ it was made between God in the Person of the Father and Man in the Person of Christ Our Lord Jesus was constituted in this Covenant the great Head Representative and blessed Surety for and in behalf of all the Father gave unto him Adam had no Surety that undertook for him in the first Covenant as a Covenanting Hand but was entrusted with all his Riches all being put into his own Hand which he soon by his Sin lost and undid himself and all his Posterity whom he was set up as the common Head and Representative of God foresecing this he would not enter into a Covenant any more with Man his Credit being for ever lost And since he lost all when he had Power to stand there was no likelihood or possibility of his standing after he had deprived himself of his Power of doing good being depraved in all the Faculties of his Soul Therefore Christ was set up set up from Everlasting by the Holy God who foresaw all things before they came to pass as the Head and Surety of the New Covenant called the New Covenant in respect had to the time of the Revelation of it to Mankind it being not known until Man had broke the first Covenant now Christ undertook in the Covenant of Grace for all the Elect he personating them when the Father and he entred into that glorious Compact or Covenant-Transactions we having not then an actual Being he represented all that were given to him out of the lost Lump of fallen Man and undertook as Mediator to make up that Breach that was between God and Man and by his perfect Obedience to merit for them Everlasting Life and to bring them all to Glory This being so nothing can more fully demonstrate the Certainty of their Salvation and the Impossibility of any of their perishing for they for whom Jesus Christ did undertake this great and glorious Work even all the Elect Seed were put into his Hand by the Tenour of this Covenant to work out Life and Salvation for them and to die in the room and stead of them thereby to bear that Wrath and Curse that they otherwise must have suffered born and endured for ever Now in this Covenant Eternal Life comes to us primarily by God's Free Grace in his finding out parting with and accepting of his own Son to be our Saviour and Surety And secondly by virtue of what Christ hath done and did undertake to do and suffer for all that should be saved they cannot perish I have found David my Servant with my Holy Spirit have I anointed him My Mercy will I keep with him for evermore and my Covenant shall stand fast in him His Seed also will I make to endure for ever His Seed that is all that are the Product of his Spirit or are quickned and renewed by him This is the Nature of the Covenant of Grace Christ is their Root and Head their Spirit of Life is in him and it is derived from him in Regeneration in a spiritual way as our natural Life was in and derived to us from the first Adam by Generation in a natural way My Brethren pray do not mistake about
said of the Wrath of God as some other things or of Death it self i. e. that the fear is worse than the thing No no acording to the fear so is the the Wrath and Vengeance of an angry God The fears of a dreadful Deity are not vain Bugbares and the effects of ignorance or of a crasie head of Folly Melancholly or Superstition as some Atheistical Wretches are ready to say No no but it is grounded and built upon solid Foundations as it is in part made manifest sometimes by the terrible effects upon mankind as I have hinted Wrath bears proportion unto the greatest fear of it nay doth far exceed the fear thereof and what prepared Plagues infinite pains intollerable anguish have some self-accused and self-condemned mortals seared and looked for what is the nature of that certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery indignation why now according to the fear of it so will the thing it self be Some have felt much Sorrow but have feared much more Mans thoughts and fears exceed all that can be expressed c. Thirdly The Wrath of God will be intollerable in Hell and the extremity of the damned amazing if we compare that misery and anguish with all or any nay the worst of Plagues and Punishments that can be undergone in this World I mean of all temporal Miseries as Pestilence Famine War or any tormenting Disease as the Stone Gout c. 1. These may be but the Fatherly Rebukes and Chastenings of the Almighty not from a Sin-revenging hand but a Sin-correcting hand of God not in Wrath but in Love but if his Anger be so terrible when he chastizes as a compassionate Father what is his fury when he punishes as a severe Judge if he deals thus sharply with those he loves what will their portion be whom he hates if his Wisdom leadeth him forth thus to corect in mercy what will be the strokes of his Justice and incensed Wrath and Fury 2. The Miseries of this present Life are abated or mitigated with the mixture of some Sweet None are so universally afflicted so deplorable but some thing remains to ease their sufferings and tormenting pains Judgments are tempered with Mercys No man as one observes is tortured with all Diseases nor forsaken of all Friends besides if the Malady be incurable and remediless yet their grief is a little allayed by the Sympathy of Friends and Neighbours But in Hell the damned are tortured and surrounded with pain and horror and incompass'd with flames without any mixture nothing to refresh their distressed Souls and Bodies no not one drop of water to cool their Tongue The rich Man desired but so much water that Lazarus could bring upon the tip of his finger and it was denyed him Fourthly The State of the Damned is void of the least degree of Comfort Ease and Refreshment The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the Cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of his holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb They shall have Judgment without Mercy Sorrow without Joy Pain without Ease Darkness without Light all felicity is totally withdrawn Pitty is the cheap and smallest relief any here can meet withal in misery not denyed to the most guilty notorious Criminal but yet this is not afforded to the damned all their bitter Crys cannot move the Compassion of God nor the Blessed Angels or Saints in Heaven toward them for they are not Objects of Compassion their Miseries being the just punishments of an offended God whom they wilfully and of their own choice contemned thro' love to Sin and this present World besides in Hell all humane affections are extinguished for ever Ah this is the quintisence and perfection of Misery the excess of Anguish and Sorrow to be deprived of all good things pleasing to our desires and to suffer all evils from which we have the deepest aversation and abhorrence for as in Heaven all Good all Felicity all Joy is inconceivable so in Hell all evil is felt and endured to the highest degree and nothing but what is evil Some of the greatest miseries that Mortals have met with here in this World have been inflicted upon them by the hand of Man whose power is but little and oft-times restrained and mittigated by the Lord as in the case of the poor Martyrs But in Hell the pain and punishment the of damned will be from the immediate hand of Almighty God whose power is Infinite nay and it shall be according to his glorious Power or the greatness of his Power Who knows the power of thine anger When infinite power is exerted in punishing the offending Sinner who can conceive of that what are the Lashes of a small Whip to that with Scorpions or the stroaks of a Child to the blows of a Giant but alas this will not reach it because the Stroaks of Gods Wrath are incomprehensible in Hell he lets out the perfection of his Wrath as in Heaven the perfection of his Love c. The Sorrows and Miseries we endure here from the hand of God may by Repentance by Cryes and Tears through Christs Blood be taken off God hath promised to ease such who fly unto him and look up to his Son of their burthen as he did those that were stung with fiery Serpents in the Wilderness who looked up to the brazen Serpent but no Tears no Cries no Repentance will do in Hell there 's no Gospel preached no means of Grace afforded no Christ held forth Fourthly The Torments of the damned will be dismal intolerable and amazing because they shall be cast into a lake of fire or be tormented with fire O how amazing is it to be thrown into a fierce fire look into a Glass-house behold their burning Furnaces or into a hot Oven can you bear the thoughts of being thrown into one of them whether the fire of Hell be material or metaphorical Fire however the reality and extensiveness of the Torment is signified by it held forth by it and as in other tropes in the Scripture the things signified or held forth by those Metaphors far exceed what they are borrowed from so no doubt it is here our ordinary fire is not an adequate Representation of the fire of Gods Wrath tho' it may seem to set it forth to our Capacities in some measure what is the fire that man kindles to the fire that God kindles nay to that Divine Wrath doth kindle The breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it It is mingled with the most tormenting Ingredients and not a little of it but a River this serves so Illustriously to set it forth that as one hints as some of the Ancient Fathers expressed it if one of the damned might pass out of Hell flames into the fiercest fires here it were to exchange a
the sands on the Sea-shoar were removed tho' it would be a long time first yet they would be all removed at last And had the Damned but so much hope that after so long a time as that would amount to their Torments would have an end it would revive their Spirits O this word Eternity Eternity is most amazing to wicked men besides as in Pleasures Joy and Delights time seems to slide away in a silent and insensible manner so in horrid Pain and Misery the days seem long and tedious every minute is accounted so that the Consideration of this must needs make their Eternity if it were possible a double Eternity nay many Eternities for one hour under the greatest Extremities of Misery seems ten times nay an hundred times longer than an hours time in the Enjoyment of the sweetest Delight and Pleasure An Eternity of Joy is long in respect of Duration but seems short saith a worthy Divine in respect of Apprehension So on the other hand say I an Eternity of Pain Torment and Misery is long in respect of Duration but seems much longer in respect of Apprehension Quest But shall there not be an end of the Torments of the Damned will infinite Goodness be so severe with his offending Creatures can this stand consistent with the Sweetness of his Nature and infinite mercy Answ I Answer there is a Perfection in every one of Gods divine Attributes as his Love is infinite to such who are his Elect ones who do believe in him honour and obey him so is his Hatred infinite to all those who despise hate and dishonour him 2. God will be sure glorifie his Veracity or the Truth of his Threatning He that hath said the righteous shall be saved with an everlasting Salvation or shall have eternal Life hath said that the wicked shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power They are tormented day and night for ever and ever Now since God hath Decreed and denounced eternal punpishment to obstinate sinners it is sufficient to satisfie all Doubts about the Justice of it Let God be true and every man a Liar for divine Justice and Wrath is the Correspondence of his Will Actions and Holiness of his Nature to the damned ' As divine Love and Goodness is to such who are saved we may therefore saith one as easily conceive there is no God as that God is unjust because absolute Rectitude is an inseparable perfection of his Nature ' is God unrighteous who taketh Vengance God forbid 3. Sin deserveth no less than an infinite and an eternal punishment therefore unless the Damned could give an infinite Satisfaction by suffering they must suffer eternally for they must lye in Prison until they have paid the uttermost farthing But alas how should they make full payment to Gods Justice who run continually into Debt more and more for the Damned in Hell do not cease sinning they will sin to Eternity and therefore must suffer to Eternity 4. Nay they will sin with the greatest Fury and Madness against God when they come to be under the greatest sence of Despair imaginable they will sin then like as the Devils do now and will for ever when they see they are deprived of all good and only possess what is evil O how will they hate God blaspheme his holy Name for evermore the blessed God is the Object of their Curses and eternal Aversation in Hell is weeping and gnashing of Teeth ' Extream Sorrow and extream Fury Despair and Rage saith one are proper Passions of lost Souls their Enmity against God is direct and explicit the Feaver is heightned into a Frenzy If their Rage could extend to him and their Power equal to their desire they would dethrone the most High Hatred takes pleasure in Revenge ' 'T is said of the Worshippers of the Beast that they gnawed their Tongues for pain and Blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pain These Torments and Blasphemies of the Damned are clearly represented by these cursed impenitent Idolaters ' If a Criminal were justly condemned to a severe Punishment and should contumeliously with the greatest Fury reproach the Prince by whose Authority he was condemned could it be expected there should be a mitigation of the severity of the Sentence ' How then should the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth reverse or mitigate the Sentence against the Damned who blaspheme his holy Majesty and if they were able to effect as they are malicious to desire would destroy his very being and execute that on him which he in Justice inflicts on them 5. To hast to the Application The infinite Guilt that cleaves to sin and the Consideration that they continually add more Guilt upon their own Heads requires a proportion in punishment as the Evil of sin exceeds our Thoughts The Majesty of God being infinite consequently the punishment of it will be infinite and beyond our Conceptions it will be a letting out of his infinite Wrath and utter extent of his power therefore unto the Wicked is reserved the blackness of Darkness for ever APPLICATION From hence we may inferr how great Evil there is in sin O sin is the Plague of all Plagues who can conceive how detestable a thing is sin in the sight of God since He who is so gracious merciful and compassionate a God should throw millions of Men and Women in his Wrath into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone 2. This also shews the woful Depravation of Mankind what Darkness Ignorance and Folly is in their Minds and Hearts that choose Sin when told not only how hateful it is to God but what intolerable and durable Torments it doth expose them unto One would think that a person that hears these things should never indulge his vicious Appetite any more nor lay his Reins loose on the neck of his Lust but it is more marvelous to see or hear that he who believes the Scripture and doubteth not of the Truth of Hell Torments should yet notwithstanding lead an ungodly Life what believe there is such Torments prepared for all impenitent Persons and yet not turn to God by Jesus Christ 3. From hence also we may inferr how necessary it is that Ministers open the Torments of Hell seeing Jesus Christ so often in the Gospel threatens all Hypocrites and Vnbelievers therewith They that say it is legal Preaching to preach such a Doctrine as this know not what they say will they magnifie their Wisdom above the Wisdom of Jesus Christ and the first and great Preachers of the Gospel of Peace who said we knowing therefore the Terror of God perswade Men that is to beleive in Christ and to live godly Lives that so they may never feel Gods eternal Wrath the Hearts of Men can more easily conceive of the Torments of Hell than of the Joys of Heaven And as it may be of use by way of
this Bread it feeds and strengthens our Faith and also our Love to the Lord Jesus Who can forbear to love that Christ who poured forth his precious Blood for us He was made a Curse for us by hanging on the Tree and bearing our Sins When you take this Bread and this Cup you declare you take and accept of Christ as the only Food of your Souls and that way of Salvation God hath been graciously pleased to find out and when you eat the Bread and drink of the Cup you shew that you feed alone upon him and that he is your Saviour Indeed Christ doth in effect say to you Soul take all this in token that I have satisfied the Justice of God for thy Sins I have made thy Peace take this Bread and this Cup as a Pledg of it and of my Eternal Love to thee and as a Token that all thy Sins are forgiven and that thou art mine also 1. By this Ordinance we learn and clearly see the horible Evil of Sin the cursed Nature of Sin in that nothing could atone for it nor satisfy the Law and Justice of God but the precious Blood of the Son of God himself 2. Here likewise we see that infinite Love of the Father in giving of Christ to die for us He spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all 3 Here also we perceive the wonderful Love of Jesus Christ who willingly laid down his Life for us 4. Moreover here we see how we come to be saved or the Way of Life and that it is only by a Sacrifice and that by the Sacrifice of Christ himself alone 5. Here we see our near Union with Christ and blessed Union one with another as the Bread and Wine is turned into Nourishment the first is held forth and as many Corns of Wheat do make one Loas so we being many Members are but one Body and therein the latter Union is held forth also I mean our Union one with another Thirdly The Ordinance of Prayer is also as a Pasture for Christ's Sheep to feed in If we pray in Faith we receive what we desire and stand in need of That Soul that goes to God in Christ's Name believingly never comes away empty handed We have not because we ask not or else ask amiss that we may consume it on our Lusts to please the Flesh and gratify our Carnal Appetites and so an evil End spoils good Means So long said a good Woman in distress as I have a praying Heart God will have a helping Hand It argues we have not hungry Souls if we have not praying Souls You may as well live without eating as spiritually live without praying and as it is a sign you are not well when you cannot eat so it is a sign your Souls are not well when you cannot pray And as it is a sign the Body is faint when the Breath is short or breaths not freely so it is a sign of a faint and languishing Christian when his Prayers are short or prays not freely He that believes savingly will pray servently He that thrives not in this Pasture will thrive in none As be cannot live naturally that breaths not no more can that Soul live spiritually that prays not He that casts off Prayer casts off God No wonder God withholds Mercies from us when we restrain Prayer from him Pure Prayer is only pleasing to a pure God our Prayers must be directed to the right Object O thou that hearest Prayer to thee shall all Men come We must always direct our Prayers to God but must not forget to come unto him by Jesus Christ and we must see to the Matter of it as well as the Object If we ask not that which is lawful our Prayers must needs be unlawful as it is a Sin to do any thing God commands not so it is a Sin to ask any thing God allows not We must also be right in the Manner as well as in the Matter of our Prayer When our Spirit prays not our Hand receives not And we must if we would thrive in this Pasture also see that our End be right Our great End should be that our Prayer may be accepted and God may be glorified The first thing we should ask in Prayer is that the Name of God may be hallowed O Soul haste into this Pasture Whatsoever ye ask saith Christ in my Name I will do it that the Father may be glorified To pray in Christ's Name 1. Is to know we come to have this Privilege to draw near to God only by Christ i. e. through the Vail that is to say his Flesh he hath purchased us this Liberty 2. 'T is to pray in his Strength i. e. by the Spirit which he hath procured for us and given to us 3. 'T is to pray in the Virtue of Christ's Mediation Whatsoever we ask on Earth Christ obtains for us in Heaven 4. To ask in Christ's Name is to ask for his Sake for his Worthiness 'T is not what our Deservings are but what Christ's Merits are Fourthly The Promises of God are another Pasture where the Sheep of Christ do daily feed The Promises of God are of a Soul-fastening and Soul-strengthning Nature But there is no feeding here without believing A Sheep may as well feed on Grass without Teeth as a Christian can feed on the Promises without Faith The Reason why the Soul cannot get into this rich Common or rather fat Medow is because he cannot get over the Slough of Unbelief Man lives not by Bread alone but by every Word that proceeds out of the Mouth of God He can feed his People and support them by a Word of Promise when their Bread faileth Nor must we take unlawful Means to supply our Necessities nor distrust the Care and Providence of God tho we do not see which way we shall subsist Trust in the Lord and do good so thou shalt dwell in the Land and verily thou shalt be fed We must depend upon the Providence and Promise of God for Supplies both of Body and Soul The young Lions lack and suffer Hunger yet they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing We must let God judg and chuse for us 't is better for us sometimes to want than to abound There are Promises as I have sometimes shewed you that answer every Condition we can be in Fifthly The Providences of God and the Saints Experience are another Pasture for Christ's Sheep How oft have they been fed this way I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the Righteous forsaken nor his Seed begging Bread This was more especially David's Experience and under that Dispensation when the Promises of God were of temporal Blessings ours under the Gospel are better Or else take it thus Not begging in vain If they are such Children that walk in the Steps of their godly Parents or not so begging
Sins and Iniquities I will remember no more Though they will be sick none can live and sin not yet they have a Physician that can and will heal them The Covenant hath a healing Antidote in it for every spiritual Malady of the Soul of a poor dejected Believer And because God hath promised to give Repentance to his Israel Sin not being actually forgiven without Repentance or before Repentance therefore God will give Repentance to all his Children he will look upon them as Christ look'd upon Peter and then they shall and do weep as he did bitterly Nay Brethren Jesus Christ is exalted on high to this very End Him hath God exalted with his right Hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of Sins That is to cover to conquer and subdue all their Corruptions and to supply their Wants and to protect and defend them from all Enemies and eternally to save their Souls For which End he had his Name given him And thou shalt call his Name Jesus for he shall save his People from their Sins from the Guilt of them the Power of them and the Punishment of them Also therefore Sin cannot separate them from God's Love and ruin their precious Souls Sixthly No Sin can destroy the Soul nor separate it from God but such Sins only that have dominion that rule and reign in Men and Women such that the Sinner loves and allows in himself Nay all unrenewed Persons are Servants of Sin but no Sin reigns in a true Believer he loves no Sin allows of no Sin therefore cannot commit Sin Sin shall not cannot reign in them for Sin shall not have Dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace Grace will prevent it the Covenant of Grace and the Influences of Grace and the Promises of Grace The Law commands but gives no Power to obey but Power to subdue Sin goes along with the Gospel the Law is the Strength of Sin but the Gospel is the Death of it Object But for all this good Men may be overcome and backslide from God and God may leave them and love them no more Answ 1. I answer They may be overcome for a Time or worsted in the Conflict but they shall not finally be overcome though they fall they shall rise again And as it is said A Troop shall overcome Gad but Gad shall overcome at last so it may be said of every Believer Hence the Apostle says We are more than Conquerors through him that loveth us Rejoice not over me O mine Enemy when I fall I shall rise 2. Though they backslide from God for a time yet he will recover them again I will heal their Back-slidings and will love them freely See here that God's People by their Backslidings do not lose his choice Love and Affections No no he will love them still and that freely too and will not rest till he heals them of that Sickness which is the worst they can relapse into 3. The Elect are another sort they are not of them that backslide so that God's Soul takes no pleasure in them But we are not of them who draw back unto Perdition but of them that believe to the Salvation of the Soul There are some that so draw back after they have made a high Profession of the Gospel but Christ's Sheep are not Sons of Perdition but Sons of Faith or true and sincere Believers they cannot so sin so apostatize because the Seed remains in them they cannot commit Sin they cannot sin as others do not so as to lose God's Love or not sin unto Death therefore cannot perish They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us c. They were not such that had real Union with Christ the true Anointing was not in them they were not of Christ's Sheep not sincere Believers not Elect Ones From hence let me draw this Argument Arg. 2. All those that sin cannot separate from the Love of God in Christ nor eternally destroy nothing can but they shall be certainly saved but Sin cannot separate true Believers or the Sheep of Christ from the Love of God in Christ nor eternally destroy them therefore nothing can but they shall certainly be saved Object But doth not this give encouragement to Believers to sin and so a Licentious Doctrine Answ 1. The Apostle answers this very Objection to anticipate such a sort of Men that were in his Days which we meet with in these of ours What shall we say then shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid He having largely in the foregoing Chapters proved the Doctrine I am upon viz. That Salvation is alone by Christ by the Free Grace of God in him that our Justification is by the Righteousness of Christ imputed and no other way And that Everlasting Life is sure and certain to all the Seed to all in Christ or to all who do believe in him and he shews that where Sin abounded Grace hath much more abounded Particularly in the precedent Verse he asserts That as Sin hath reigned unto Death even so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. From hence he raises this Objection to anticipate carnal and blind Mortals who see no further and answers it with God forbid how shall we that are dead to Sin live any longer therein 2. Let me tell you that they who leave Sin refrain from Sin upon no higher better or more noble Principles than the fear of Wrath or eternal perishing or only act from slavish Fear have doubtless not one Dram of true Grace in them Brethren to abstain from Sin to strive against Sin to resist Temptations and to be found in all Duties of Obedience and Holiness lies in high sublime and evangelical Principles and from such Motives that have greater Force and Power on the Soul than the fear of Wrath or Hell can have As 1. Saith a Believer Is Sin hateful to God doth God's Soul loath it is it abominable to him and shall it not be so to me but shall I sin God forbid 2. Hath Sin pierced my dear Redeemer Was it the Spear that let out his Heart's Blood that wounded and tore him to pieces that made him sweat great Drops of Blood that let out Divine Wrath upon him and made him a Curse for me and shall I sin and wound him again God forbid 3. Did Christ die for me to redeem me did he stand in my stead and bear mine Iniquities and shall I sin God forbid 4. Hath God bestowed such Grace upon me as to love me from Everlasting to chuse me to redeem me to renew me and all to this End that I should be to the Praise of his Glory and bring forth the Fruits of Holiness and not sin against him and shall
loved his Sheep his People his Spouse as himself above himself Mary loved him so as to wash his Feet with her Tears but he loved Mary so and all his Elect Ones as to wash their Souls in his own most precious Blood Jacob loved Benjamin David loved Absalom but David said Jonathan's Love to him was wonderful passing the Love of Women But what is a Bubble to the Ocean a Spark of Fire to a Furnace or a finite Love to an infinite Love What is all Love to Christ's Love 5. Christ's Love to his Sheep to his Elect is wonderful because it passeth knowledg That ye may know the Love of Christ that passeth Knowledg 1. It passeth the Knowledg of the Natural Man What can he with all his natural and acquired Parts find out as to the greatness and wonderfulness of Christ's Love 2. It passeth the Knowledg of the Moral Man What can the Natural or the Moral Philosopher do as to the comprehending finding out or demonstrating the Nature of Christ's Love Can he sound the Depth of the Sea Can he measure the Breadth of the Heavens Can he account the Length of Eternity Besides here is a Height that their Art discovers not the Mathematicks teacheth not this Mystery That ye may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the Breadth and Length the Depth and Height and to know the Love of Christ that passeth Knowledg 3. It passeth the Knowledg of the Spiritual Man he cannot arrive to a full and perfect understanding of it 4. Nay it passeth the Knowledg of the Holy Angels their Wisdom and Understanding no doubt is wonderful but here they are at a loss they stand in amaze looking into and admiring with astonishment this Love to see him that is God become Man to save such a Vile and Sinful Creature to love and delight in him that was so great an Enemy 5. It is wonderful because a whole Eternity will be but little enough to let out to Believers the Love of Christ It will never be fully known it cannot be comprehended all above and all below are at a loss they are all at a nonpluss and astonished at it Thirdly Christ's Love therefore to his Sheep to his Saints is an immense incomprehensible or an infinite Love as the Wrath and Anger of God and the Lamb when kindled and let out is inconceivable so is his precious Love to his People this Breadth Length Depth and Height doubtless refers to the unsearchable Greatness and Immensity of God Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection Canst thou come to the uttermost of what God is Canst thou find out the inmost Recesles or Secrets of God's Heart of Christ's Heart Hast thou seen what is laid up in the inner Chambers of his Spirit then thou mayst know his Love for it is like himself God is Love Love is his very Nature It is as high as Heaven what canst thou do deeper than Hell what canst thou know longer than the Earth broader than the Sea Many Wits as one notes run Riot in Geometrical Notions about Moral Dimensions and whereas Naturalists give us but three Dimensions of a Body Longitude Latitude and Profundity the Love of Christ Brethren hath Altitude added which is a Fourth Doubtless all these Dimensions are mentioned only to set forth the Immensity of Christ's Love 1. Christ's Love is broad enough to spread over and cover like a Mantle all the Sins of his Elect and also to hide them from Satan's Rage and Fury His Love is long enough to reach us with his Arm of Affections where-ever we are or whatever our Wants be Christ's Love is deep enough to find us out and relieve us under all depths of Afflictions Despondency or Distress of what sort soever Christ's Love has a Height in it enough to defend us like a high Wall against all the Assaults of those Enemies that are in high Places and above us we cannot see them As-Satan is a Spirit he has the Advantage of us such is his Nature he is said to be in high Places he is the Prince of the Power of the Air. But God is above him Christ is in a higher Sphere his Love hath a Height in it so that neither Height nor Depth can separate us from his Love as well as it cannot separate us from the Love of the Father 2. Christ's Love is an infinite or an immense Love as appears because it is without beginning it is from Eternity before ever the Earth was That which was before the World was is without beginning but the Love of Christ to his Elect was before the World was even from Everlasting Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting Love 3. Christ's Love to his Sheep to his Saints is an infinite or immense Love doth appear because his Love to them is as that Love the Father hath to him As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you Though as may not be a Note of Comparison in every Sense yet it doth signify the Truth Firmness and Greatnese of Christ's Love The Father loveth Christ with an eternal immense immutable constant free full and perfect Love so doth Jesus Christ love every one of his Elect Ones Again saith Christ to his Father that the World may know that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me He would have all know how he loves his People or such that were given to him 4. It appears to be an infinite Love because it cannot be found out defined or comprehended it passing all Understanding as also by the glorious and amazing Effects thereof which are apparent to all 5. Because it is without ending all those that Jesus Christ doth love or hath set his special Affections upon he loveth to the End his Love is not only from Everlasting but also to Everlasting he abides in his Love notwithstanding all the Weakness Frailties or Decays of Love in his People towards him He heals and with a Nevertheless will heal their Back slidings and love them freely Fourthly The Love of Jesus Christ to his Saints is a Conjugal Love it is an Espousal Love Though I purpose to speak to the Nature of that blessed and mystical Union which is betwixt Christ and every Believer under a distinct Argument yet let it be considered here that the consideration that Christ's Love is such as that he doth espouse every Godly Soul and marry it to himself this must needs be one of the highest Arguments that can be produced to prove their final Perseverance because Espousal Love is the Sweetest the Firmest and most abiding Love especially the Love of Christ's Espousal I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in Righteousness and in Judgment and in loving Kindness and in Mercy I will even betroth thee unto me in Faithfulness and thou shalt know the Lord. What words can more fully express the Firmness of
this Marriage-Contract or Espousal Love of Christ to his true Israel This Conjugal Love of Christ is that never-exhausted Fountain of all our spiritual and eternal Comforts all Mercies like Streams which never fail flow to all Believers from hence Can a Man shew greater Love to a Woman than to espouse her to be his Wife This is beyond the Love of Parents to Children Christ bestows himself on us and all he hath nay and that he might do this he bought or purchases us Christ bought his Spouse none ever gave such a vast Sum for a Wife as Jesus Christ hath done and shall any think he will lose her after all this if he is able to help it How can that enter into any Man's Thoughts Will a faithful Husband a tender Husband suffer his most dear and beloved Wife that he hath such Affection to to be torn from him and be abused and pulled into pieces and he look on If he hath Power in his Hand will he not rescue her nay die upon the Spot before he will see this done But alas ala what is the Love of any mortal Man to his Spouse to his Wife when compared with the Love of Christ to his Saints who loved his Church and gave himself for her and whose Love is as you have heard so wonderful infinite and inconceivable Moreover I hope none doubt of his Power Others may see their Wives ravished and torn in pieces before their Eyes and cannot help it they are not able to help and save them but Christ wants no Power as he wants no Wisdom Care or Affections Now what are the Enemies the most dangerous Enemies of the Spouse of Christ Is not Sin the chief Sin the World the Devil c. Will he then think you let Sin prevail Satan prevail so far as to deflour murder and destroy that precious Soul he thus loves and hath espoused to himself Those who assert final falling from a State of true Grace must say he doth thus viz. He suffers Sin to destroy his Spouse even to put out the Eyes deflour strip wound and murder the Soul he has espoused whilst he stands by and looks on and can but will not help nor deliver her because the Soul is bliaded by some Lusts or drawn away by an Enemy therefore they say he will not He that can believe such a Doctrine let him But Fifthly Christ Love hath an attracting and a retaining Quality in it It draws the Soul to Christ and it keeps it close with Christ when it hath received and imbraced him it draws nay constrains the Soul to love Christ We love him because he first loved us And no Man or Woman that loves Christ sincerely but they hate Sin it constrains the Soul to return Love for Love Christ's Love is like Elijah's Garment that he cast upon Elisha who immediately run after Elijah and said Let me I pray thee kiss my Father and Mother and then I will follow thee And be said Go back what have I done unto thee Thus doth Christ's Love to the Soul in all that feel its Influences they follow him cleave to him and also keep with him for like as the Fear of God so the Love of God is put into our Hearts if we are sincere Christians and we shall not cannot finally depart from him Sixthly Christ's Love is a free Love as nothing did purchase it so nothing can nor shall lose or forfeit it I will love them freely From the whole I infer If the Love of Jesus Christ is an early Love a Love of Complacency if it be a wonderful and amazing Love if it be an immense infinite and incomprehensible Love if it is a conjugal Love an attracting and retaining Love a free and abiding Love which he hath to every Believer then he will not ever let go that hold he hath of every one of them so as to suffer them to fall from him as eternally to perish But such is the Nature of the Love of Jesus Christ therefore he will never so let go that hold he hath of every Believer as to suffer them to fall so as eternally to perish Brethren such is the Love of Christ to his Saints as that he gives them special Tokens and Assurance of his Eternal Favour Some of them are these following 1. He calls them with an effectual and special Calling 2. He renews them and stamps his own Image upon them 3. He puts his Holy Spirit into them 4. He justifies them freely by his own Grace giving them his own Robe of Righteousness which is beyond a Garment of Cloth of Gold 5. He sanctifies them and endows them with Power to mortify Sin and when they fall he helps them up again by his right Hand 6. He seals his Love to them with the Kisses of his Mouth or by his most sure and precious Promises 7. He commands his Holy Angels to attend them and to administer to them and keep them in all his Ways 8. He leads feeds and preserves them under all Trouble Temptation and Afflictions and sympathizes with them 9. He sets them as a Seal upon his Heart as a Seal upon his Arm they are engraven on the Palms of his Hands he hath sworn that his loving Kindness shall never be taken away from them As I have sworn that the Waters of Noah should no more go over the Earth so have I sworn that I will not be wroth with thee For the Mountains shall depart and the Hills be removed but my Kindness shall not depart from thee c. 10. He puts his Law into their Hearts that none of their Feet should slide APPLICATION First To close with this O see you that are Believers that you strive after the Knowledg of Christ's Love Motives 1. It is the highest Ingratitude not to desire after the Knowledg of such Love Shall a Beggar be beloved by a Prince and she not be affected with it nor inquire after it 2. Because you are the Objects of this Love of this Affection doth it not seem an amazing Consideration to you May be you can't soon believe it because you see no worth in your selves Ah saith the Soul Christ loves me thus What such a poor sorry and filthy Wretch Wonder O Heavens be astonished O Earth The more you know it the more you will love your Blessed Saviour He loved me not a righteous Person but me a Sinner a loathsom Sinner when in my Blood and Filth 3. This will make you little in your own Eyes the more we know of God and of Christ and of his Love the more we shall loath and abhor our selves O that ever I should grieve him as I have done How did the sense of God's Love and Goodness to David humble him Who am I O Lord and what is mine House that thou hast brought me hitherto And yet is this a small thing in thine Eyes O God
Grace as I may say is the Off-spring of Heaven And what doth God love on Earth above his own Grace in the Souls of his People 'T is God's Gift though it be Christ's Merit And as Reverend Charnock notes Grace hath great Allies the greatest Power that ever yet acted upon the Stage of the World had a Hand in the birth of it Should we see all the States of the World engaged in bringing a Person to a Kingdom and maintaining therein his Right we could not rationally think that there were any likelihood they should be baffled in it The Trinity saith he sat in Consultation about Grace For if there were such a Solemn Convention held about the first creating of Man much more about the new and better creating of him and raising him somewhat above the State of Man the Father decrees it the Son purchaseth it the Spirit infuseth it The Father appoints the Garison what Grace should be in every Soul Christ raiseth this Force and the Spirit conducts it the Trinity hath a hand in maintaining it and all this is but the carrying on the New Creature The Father is said to beget us John 1. 13. and we are said to be the Seed of Christ Isa 53. 10. and born of the Spirit John 3. 6. therefore that which hath so strong a Relation and Allies cannot be lost Thus Charnock 2. The Father is the Root and Foundation of Grace as it is the Effect of his free Love and Favour and every Grace is part of the Divine Nature in it there is an imitation of one or other of the Divine Attributes and it exemplifies the Divine Perfections in its Operations The Design of God in infusing of his Grace into our Souls is to shew forth his Vertues or his Praise and Glory in all the Parts of it and doth glorify one or another Attribute of God 3. What is Grace and the Work of Grace in the Soul but God's Workmanship which as you have heard he hath shewed much Skill and heavenly Wisdom about and also hath been at more Cost to effect in us than in making the World he will not therefore suffer that Work to be marr'd and brought to nought We are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good Works Did he give his Son purchase Grace and will not the same Love engage his Power to preserve and perfect it in us 4. And since God's Power is concerned in preserving Grace in us and us in a State of Grace can it be thought that Satan that strong Man armed when he had full possession of the Soul and also had so strong a Party in us on his Side and yet could not prevent an overthrow he being vanquished and turned out should ever get possession again especially since now the Soul is so well armed and hath the strongest Party on its Side against him besides such wonderful Allies to stand by it to oppose its Enemies and to aid and assist it against him and all his Abetters If Grace when a Babe gave Satan such a fatal Defeat and Overthrow certainly now it hath got such strength in the Soul it will never be overcome by him We are kept by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation And Christ hath prayed that our Faith fail not and was heard therein Brethren is the Power of the Omnipotent God limited to a Faith of the Creature 's getting and to his Care in securing If so it is as much as to say the Nurse will keep the Child in her Hand if it doth not get out of it and stray away from her We say God keeps us by his Power through Faith because he hath ordained Faith and Holiness to be the Means which he by his Power will maintain in us as well as Happiness or the Salvation of our Souls to be the End 5. God hath promised to help us to uphold us to strengthen us and to preserve us unto the End The Steps of a good Man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his Way Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his Hand If he falls into Sin into Temptation or Affliction the Lord will not leave him but help him up and bring him out of all his Distresses He hath promised never to leave us nor forsake us He hath also promised to be our God and our Guide even unto Death and hath assured us That the Righteous shall hold on their Ways and he that hath clean Hands shall grow stronger and stronger and to put his Fear into our Hearts that we shall not depart from him Again the Apostle asserts That he that hath begun aâ— good Work in us will perform it to the Day of Christ 6. In a word it cannot stand consistent with the Wisdom Love Faithfulness Holiness nor the Glory of God to suffer any of his own Children and redeemed Ones to be pulled away from him by Sin Satan the Flesh or this World or any Enemy whatsoever and Grace to come to nothing in them 1. Can it stand consistent with his Wisdom to suffer his own Eternal Counsel to be frustrated Or hath any Man the true Grace of God and yet not as the Result of God's Purpose from Eternity If so how comes it to pass that Paul tells the Saints That they were saved and called with an holy Calling not according to our Works but according to his own Purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ before the World began Can it stand consistent with Divine Wisdom to let Satan insult over God himself and boast after this manner Thou hast sent thy Son to die for these Persons thou hast renewed them by thy Grace and made them thy own Children and espoused them to thy own Son and this according to the greatness of thy Love and thy Purpose before all Worlds and didst it also to destroy and bring to nought my Design and laborious Work in seeking to devour them but see how thou art defeated and frustrated in all thou hast done I have tempted them to Sin I have again deceived their Souls and set thee against them and thy Design in saving of these is by me made of none effect I have turned those Saints into Swine and robbed them of all that Grace and rich Treasure thou gavest to them notwithstanding thou hadst put them into the Hand of thy own Son to preserve and keep 2. Can it stand consistent with his tender Love to leave his Saints in the midst of so many cruel Enemies who are unable to save themselves as poor Babes of two or ten Days old out of their Hands and yet suffer them by Sin and Satan to be torn to pieces whilst he stands by and looks on and yet they are such that are his own Children begotten and born of him by his Spirit Or shall his Love be so great in begetting Grace or in infusing
Spirit without a real Work of Faith and Regeneration Rest on nothing short of Christ neither on Reformation Duties nor inherent Grace for it is dangerous so to do Quest But why is it impossible for these to be renewed unto Repentance Answ 1. It is because the Decree is gone out against them God will not renew them and none else can 2. More directly and immediately it is because the Holy Ghost hath utterly forsaken them and withdrawn all his Operations from them for ever whose work it is alone to renew and work Repentance in the Hearts of Sinners Men cannot repent when the Holy Spirit hath utterly left them no nor have any desire to repent think of this you that magnify the Will of Man O Sinners love the Holy Spirit cherish the Motions thereof and do not grieve him nor resist his Motions and Operations Secondly By way of Consolation to Believers 1. Here is still comfort for you that are the Children of God born of God you cannot sin this Sin you cannot sin unto Death the Seed remains in you you mourn that you cannot repent as you would do your Hearts are tender you need not fear your Condition Do you fear to offend God to grieve the Spirit O that is a blessed Sign Do you love God love his People do you minister as you have ministred to the poor Saints 2. O remember you are in Christ's Hand We are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany Salvation though we thus speak Quest What things are they that accompany Salvation I answer Union with Christ Regeneration Justification Adoption Sanctification inherent Holiness and Perseverance in Grace O see that you endeavour to make your Calling and Election sure by adding to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledg and unto Knowledg Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness brotherly Kindness and to brotherly Kindness Charity And if you do those things and these things you shall do if you are true Believers you shall never fall For so an Entrance shall be ministred to you abundantly into the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and Holy Ghost be Glory Honour and Praise for ever Amen HYMNS of PRAISE A New Song sing unto the Lord For mighty Wonders done His right Hand and his glorious Arm Hath our Salvation won Let all poor Sinners taste and try That thou O Lord art good Nay let them feed Lord Christ on thee And wash them in thy Blood That they with Saints with one accord May joy with Holy Mirth Before the Great and Glorious Lord And shew his Praises forth Come Sinners come and feed on Christ Before that you do die Come to the Wedding-Dinner come See here 's Variety All Good is in the Lord ye need Let not a Taste suffice But search to find where the Sweetness Of Gospel-Dainties lies Truly enlightned Souls may sing Who special Grace receive True cause of Joy to such does spring Who savingly believe Such Souls shall never fall away But ever happy be Such shall be fed with Christ's own Lambs And sing eternally BReak forth and sing now all ye Saints Lift up God's Name on high In sacred Songs to celebrate His Praise continually Exalt the living God above Your standing is most sure Thy Mercy Lord and tender Love Will keep our Souls secure When we do fall Lord we shall rise By thy own Blessed Hand Thou set'st our Feet upon a Rock Where we most safely stand With Saints of old we 'l sing therefore And say Spring up O Well And send thy Waters forth for to Refresh thy Israel The Pleasures of the World to come Let 's taste of every Day And long when Jesus on the Throne Shall the bless'd Scepter sway What shall we hear what shall we see When raptured in Bliss When we with Blessed Jesus be What Happiness like this We therefore sing the Lamb's sweet Song And Him we will adore The Day is near when Saints shall be With him for ever more The Great Salvation OR The Salvation of the Gospel Great and Glorious Delivered in several SERMONS By BENJ. KEACH HEB. II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that heard him IN the precedent Chapter the Apostle sets forth the Excellency Glory and Dignity of the Person of Jesus Christ 1. Above Moses and the Prophets ver 1 2 3. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets Ver. 2. Hath in these last Days spoken to us by his Son whom he hath appointed Heir of all Things Ver. 3. Who being the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person and upholding all things by the Word of his Power when he had by himself purged our Sins sate down on the right Hand of the Majesty on High 2. Above the Holy Angels ver 4. Being made so much better than the Angels as he hath by Inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they Christ doth not only surpass Moses and the Prophets but also all the Angels of God 1. In respect of his being God of the Substance of the Father and the express Image of his Person the Essential Glory of God shining forth in him 2. In that he as God created and also doth uphold the World and all things in it by the Word of his Power 3. In that he hath obtained a more excellent Name than they verse 4. 4. In that Angels are required to worship him ver 5 6. 5. In that Angels are but his Servants ver 7 14. 6. In respect of his Scepter and Kingdom ver 8. 7. In respect of his glorious Exaltations at the Father's right Hand ver 13. The Apostle having laid down these things so fully and clearly to illustrate and confirm the great Doctrine of the Gospel he in the beginning of this second Chapter proceeds to make the necessary Improvement of it Therefore we ought to give the more earnest Heed to the Things which we have heard lest at any Time we let them slip ver 1. For if the Word spoken by Angels was stedfast c. and from hence he brings the Words in our Text How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation c. The Words contain an Interrogation which doth imply a strong and most vehement Negation How shall we escape if we c. That is we cannot escape or it is impossible we or any Persons whatsoever should escape if we or they neglect so great Salvation Escape what That is implied here which is not expressed namely the Wrath of God How shall we escape the dreadful Judgment and Indignation of God or Eternal Damnation in Hell if we neglect or slight despise or reject the Means of this Salvation He confirms what he asserts or aggravates
Heaven whereby we must be saved He that receives Christ believes in Christ shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned 3. If Life be more worth than all the World certainly the Soul is more worth than ten thousand Worlds O do not part with it on any Terms for it cost Christ dear the Price of his own Blood his Heart-Blood was let out to save our Souls Alas there are some nevertheless that are like the false Prophets of old who sold the Souls of the People for a handful of Barley and for a piece of Bread 4. How near may some of you be to Death and if you have not got an Interest in Christ before then what will become of your precious Souls 5. Will you consider what Means of Grace God is pleased to afford you for the good of your Souls and know it is by the preaching of the Gospel that God commonly saves the Souls of Men I mean that it is the Means he uses for the begetting of Faith Shall the Word have some good Effect upon your Souls this Day 6. Consider all your Prayers Tears Alms-deeds all Reformation of Life Services Duties and inherent Holiness cannot save your Souls no none but Christ nothing but the Merits of Christ it is his Blood alone that made your Peace and must wash away all the Guilt and Filth of your Sins Your Souls your precious Souls O Sinners are wounded polluted naked what will you do Nothing but Christ's Blood I tell you can heal them nothing but his Flesh his Blood can feed them and nothing but his Righteousness can clothe them and nothing but the Graces of Christ's Spirit can inrich can deck and adorn your Souls and without Faith you cannot obtain any of those Blessings O what shall I say to you if going down upon my Knees could move you to lay to Heart what a sad State you are in who have not received by Faith this Salvation and incline you now to believe I would readily do it but alas it is God's Gift O look up to him do what you can pray and attend on the Word What do you say do you believe that this is a Great Salvation Will you esteem it and look after it above all things in the World It is Sirs that one thing needful chuse with Mary that good Part that shall never be taken from you Shall there be Joy in Heaven this Day how can you slight such a precious Soul and such a precious Saviour who spilt his Blood to save the worst of Sinners Will you tread his Blood under your Feet If so what will you do at the Day of Death and in the Day of Judgment Should your Souls be lost there is no repairing that Loss no redemption of the Soul out of Hell no other Price no other Saviour no other way if this be slighted you must perish HEB. II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation I AM upon the Proof and Demonstration of the greatness of the Salvation of the Gospel I closed with the ninth Reason of the Point the last time Tenthly Gospel-Salvation is a great and glorious Salvation if we consider what such who have interest in it are raised up unto or do and shall partake of I mean what great Blessings and wonderful Privileges they are invested with by it First Pardon of Sin This Blessing have all they that receive it 1. Consider the Blood of Christ is the way of Gospel-Remission no Remission of Sin without the shedding of Blood there is remission of Sin but no Blood could procure this Remission but the Blood of Christ he paid our Debts in whom we have redemption through his Blood even the Forgiveness of Sins It was by his offering himself an Expiatory Sacrifice to God there 's no Salvation without Pardon of Sin and no Pardon of Sin without a Compensation be made by Jesus Christ to the Law and Justice of God 2. Consider who are pardoned even all that believe though they were never such great Rebels against God such were Traitors and Enemies once who are now forgiven Here is a Pardon for the vilest Sinner that sees his horrid Evil and Rebellion and takes hold of Jesus Christ or looks up to him by Faith 3. Consider the Nature of this Pardon and Gospel-Remission Such are pardoned for ever I will remember their Sins no more they are blotted out for ever God promises to all penitent and believing Sinners to throw their Sins into the Depth of the Sea 4. Consider the Terms of Pardon it is a free Forgiveness we having nothing to pay God of his meer Grace and Goodness doth forgive us through the Atonement of Christ's Blood freely Even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgression for my own sake and will not remember thy Sins This is spoke to a People that had wearied the Lord with their Iniquities O what a glorious Salvation is this that here is Remission and free Pardon for rebellious Sinners such that deserve nothing but Wrath and Hell 5. It is a Pardon of all Sins great and small Sins of Omission and Sins of Commission Sins of all sorts and sizes 6. 'T is God that blotteth out our Sins he that can forgive he whose right it is to pardon he against whom we have sinned and he who when he gives a Pardon none can supersede it nor revoke it let them do what they can Secondly Reconciliation with God is another Blessing of this Salvation God doth not only forgive us but he takes us into his Bosom he is fully reconciled to us in Jesus Christ he cries Fury is not in me Again he says This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased When we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son And none can make God our Enemy again for ever if we are Believers none can separate us from his Love in Jesus Christ our Lord as something agâ— I shewed you no not Sin nor Satan Thirdly By this Salvation we come to have Union with God and to be made one Spirit with Jesus Christ and how great and glorious is this saâ—red Union but having formerly spoken to it I shall not say more to it nâ—w Moreover we are not only brought into a State of Union but are also admitted to have Communion with the Father and the Son Brethren it is one thing for a Traitor to be pardoned and another thing for him to be admitted into the King's Presence and to become one of his great Favourites Truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Fourthly By this Salvation also we are justified Justification is a high Privilege By him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Let me shew you what it is to be justfied that so this Salvation may appear the more
Fire opened in eight Particulars 31 33 33 9. Doctrines raised 33 34 35 The Application 36 37 38 39 Second Sermon Doct. God's Wrath is like to Fire it is intolerable 1. Demonstrated in 2. External and Internal Wrath opened 41 42 43 3. The Nature of Eternal Wrath shewed in Spira and Child 44 to 51 4. Eternal Wrath or Hell-Torments and the Nature thereof opened largely 52 c. Second Text John 10. 27 28. First Sermon 1. The Text opened and Terms explained 75 76 2. The Doctrine propounded viz. All true Believers are the Sheep of Christ 76 The Doctrine opened 1. How they may be called Christ's Sheep shewed in seven Particulars 77 to 80 2. What meant by Christ's Voice shewed in 4 respects 1. The Voice of his Word 2. Of his Spirit 3. Of his Doctrine 4. Of his Rod 80 The Nature of the Voice of Christ's Spirit opened in eight Particulars 81 82 83 3. The chief Essentials of Christianity what shewed in seven Particulars 85 86 Second Sermon 1. How Christ's Sheep hear his Voice shewed in nine Particulars 87 88 89 2. Why False Teachers are called Strangers shewed in five Particulars Pag. 90 3. The Application 91 Distinct Persons in the Godhead proved by five Arguments Christ God and Man 92 93 Third Sermon 1. In what respect Christ knows his Sheep shewed in five respects 98 99 2. What a kind of Knowledge the Knowledg of Christ is shewed in ten Particulars 100 101 All further opened in 13 Parts 101 102 3. The Application 104 105 Fourth Sermon 1. The Characters of Christ's Sheep shewed in 15 Particulars 107 to 11◠2. Christ's Sheep do follow him how in 8 Parts 3. Christ's Sheep have his Mark 118 4. They follow the Footsteps of the Flock 119 The Application 121 Fifth Sermon 1. What kind of Shepherd Christ is 122 to 130 2. What Pastures Christ feeds his Sheep in 130 1. The Word 130 2. The Ordinances 131 3. The Promises 135 4. His Providences 136 3. What the Nature of Spiritual Food is shewed in seven Particulars 137 4. The Application 139 140 Sixth Sermon I give them Eternal Life c. 1. The Text further opened 141 2. How Believers are in Christ's Hand in seven Particulars 142 3. What being in Christ's Hand denotes shewed 〈◊〉 three Particulars 142 143 4. What meant by Eternal Life A threefold Life of Man 143 5. How Christ is our Life in four respects 144 6. Man naturally dead opened and Free-will detected 144 146 147 7. Salvation or Eternal Life wholly of Grace proved 147 to 152 8. Why Salvation is wholly of Grace 152 153 154 9. Why Christ will give Eternal Life to his 〈◊〉 shewed in seven Parts 155 156 10. The Application Seventh Sermon Third Doctrine raised viz. None of Christ's Sheep can so fall away as to perish eternally 1. Something first premised before the Doctrine is proved 2. Believers may fall foully how far shewed pag. 162 163 3. The Causes of the Saints falling opened 164 169 4. The Doctrine confirmed That the Saints cannot fall finally First Argument taken from Election 169 1. The Doctrine of Personal Election proved 170 171 172 173 2. The Objection I am not elected a ninefold Answer 175 176 Eighth Sermon 1. How Election tends to prove the Saints final Perseverance shewed in seven Particulars from 177 to 183 Second Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from the Nature of the Love of God the Father in four Particulars 184 3. Sin cannot separate a Believer from God's eternal Love demonstrated and many Objections answered from 185 to 190 4. From what Principle Believers do oppose and resist Sin shewed in 10 Particulars 191 192 193 Ninth Sermon Third Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from the Nature of Christ's Love 193 1. What kind of Love Christ's Love is shewed in many Particulars 193 194 195 Application The excellent Nature of the Knowledg of Christ's Love 200 201 202 Fourth Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance 1. Taken from the Nature of the Covenant of Grace 2. Which is opened in ten Particulars from 202 to 210. 3. This general Argument summed up 210 211 Tenth Sermon Fifth Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from their bring the Children of God demonstrated in seven Particulars 212 213 214 215 How they that are born again cannot sin shewed in six Particulars 216 217 The general Argument summed up pag. 218 219 The Application 220 Eleventh Sermon Sixth Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from their Union with Christ 221 The Nature of that Mystical Union opened in five or six Particulars 222 229 Ten Arguments taken from thence 230 231 The Application Twelfth Sermon Seventh Argment to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from the Death of Christ 235 Christ died not only for the good of his Elect but also in their stead proved by nine Arguments 236 248 Four Arguments further from thence 241 242 243 Arminian Errors about universal Redemption confuted by 19. or 20 Arguments 249 to 256 Thirteenth Sermon Eighth Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from the Effects of Christ's Death 257 What the Effects of Christ's Death are largely opened 257 to 266 The Application 267 268 Fourteenth Sermon Ninth Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from their being in the Father's Hand 269 What is meant by the Father's Hand shewed in three Particulars 270 271 2. From their being in Christ's Hand what it imports or meant thereby 274 275 276 278 279 In what respects the Saints are said to be in Christ's Hand opened in thirteen Particulars 280 281 282 283 The general Argument summed up 284 Fifteenth Sermon Tenth Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance taken from the nature of true Grace What a Principle of trut Grace is shewed in six Particulars 287 288 289 Weak Grace shall be victorious 290 to 295 Sixteenth Sermon The grand Objection against final Perseverance answered 297 298 1. Christ's Birth matter of Joy to all People answered 2. If none saved but such that are elected what need any look after Salvation answered 3. Doctrine of Election tends to make the Saints loose and remiss in God's Service answered page 299 4. Take beed watch c. answered 5. Some Branches in Christ wither and are cut off answered 226 301 6. If Christ died not for all how can I know he died for me answered 301 302 7. Work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling what intended by it and the Objection from thence answered 302 303 304 8. If you abide in me answered 9. Some have made Shipwrack of Faith c. answered 306 10. A righteous Man may turn from his Righteousness answered 307 11. God would have all Men be saved c. answered 12. What need preaching c. if all are absolutely elected to Salvation that shall be saved answered 309 13. Those in every Nation that 〈…〉 are accepted of him answered 383 384
dreadful of all What can be a greater Token of Gods Divine Wrath it is the begining of that Future Vengeance that shall be poured forth upon them to Eternity Thus the Almighty dealt by the Jews for their Sin in rejecting of Jesus Christ and putting him to death by wicked hands for this he gave them up to an hard unbelieving and an impenitent heart and then let in the Romans upon them who utterly destroyed their City and Temple and so scattered them on all the face of the Earth and hence the Apostle saith that Wrath was come upon them to the uttermost 7. The Wrath of God like Fire sometimes also seizeth on the Consciences of men by which means they are fearfully tormented for their horrid Blasphemy Prophaness Atheism Apostacy c. We have had two Examples of this sort viz. Mr. Francis Spira in the last Century and Mr. John Child in this It is enough to make all who read those Naratives to Tremble at the very thoughts of the incensed Wrath and Anger of an offended God Who can stand before his indignation when his wrath is poured out like fire on the Souls and Consciences of Men O how doth he seem to Tear them into peices even to such a degree as they seem to be in the very torments of Hell while in the Body And not knowing but that a faithful reciting of some Passages concerning the inward Horror of the said Spira and Child may be of some use to Caution all to take heed of such like sins which they fell under I shall tho' more briefly than I intended compare their States Circumstances inward Anguish and Horror of their Spirits together SOME PASSAGES Of the Fearful Estate of Francis Spira SPira having received the Light of the Gospel became a Teacher of the Blessed Truths thereof amongst his Friends and familiar Acquaintance and says the Narrative in comparison seemed to neglect all other Affairs much pressing this main point of Doctrine viz. That we must wholly and only depend on the free and unchangable Love of God in the Death of Christ as the only way to Salvation As to his natural and corrupt Inclination ' I was saith he excessively Covetous of Money and accordinly applyed my self to get it by Injustice corrupting Justice by doing it ' c. As touching Spira's Sin and his grand fall it was thus viz. The Popes Legate Resident at Venice was stirred by the malice of the Papists to accuse Spira to him and by the Craft and Policy of the Legate and through slavish Fear Spira first fled and afterwards renounced his Testimony to the Truth before which it appears he reasoned thus within himself thro' the Suggestion of the Devil viz. ' Be well advised fond Man consider Reasons on both sides and then judge how canst thou thus overwean thine own sufficiency as thou neither regardest the Examples of thy Progenitors nor the Judgment of the whole Church dost thou not consider what misery this thy Rashness will bring thee into thou shalt lose thy Substance gotten with so great Care and Travel thou shalt undergo the most exquisite Torments that Malice 〈…〉 devise thou shalt be 〈…〉 an Heretick of all 〈…〉 to close up all thou shalt die shamefully What thinkest thou of the lothsom stinking Dungeon the Bloudy Ax the Burning Faggot are they delightful be wise at length and keep thy Life and Honour Go to the Legate Weak Man and freely Confess thy Fault ' c. And upon these thoughts he goes to the Legate and salutes him with this News viz. Having for these divers years entertained an Opinion concerning some Articles of Faith contrary to the Orthodox and received Judgment of the Church and uttered many things against the Authority of the Church of Rome and the universal Bishop I humbly acknowledge my Fault and Error and my Folly in my misleading others I therefore yeild my self in all Obedience to the supream Bishop of Rome into the Bosom of the Church of Rome never to depart again from the Traditions and Decrees of the Holy See I am heartily sorry for what is past and I humbly beg Pardon for so great an Offence The Legate at this commanded him to return to his own Town and there to confess and acknowledge the whole Doctrine of the Church of Rome to be holy and true and to abjure the Opinions of Luther c. After this he signed an Instrument of Abjuration and then fell under horrid Despairation ' And he thought he heard a direful Voice ' saying Thou wicked Wretch thou hast renounced the Covenant of thy Obedience thou hast broke thy Vow henc Apostate bear with thee the Sentene of thy Eternal Damnation He trembling in Body and Mind fellinto a Swound Now began some of his Friends to repent too late of their Rash Council not looking so high as to the Judgment of God laid all the blame on his Melancholly Constitution that over-shaddowing his Judgment wrought in him a kind of Madness and directed him to the use of Physicians c. To which Spira replyed Alas poor men how far wide are you do you think that this Disease is to be Cured by Potions believe me there must be another manner of Medicine it is neither Plaister nor Drugs that can help a fainting Soul cast down with the sence of sin and the Wrath of God 't is only Christ that must be the Pysician and the Gospel the Souls Antidote Amongst others that come to visit him was Panlus Vergerius and Mattheus Gribauldus principal Labourers for his Comfort they sound him about 50 Years of Age. Neither affected with Doteage nor with the unconstant head-strong Passion of Youth but in the strength of his Experience and Judgment in a burning heat calling for drink yet his Understanding active quick or Apprehension Witty in Discourse above his ordinary manner they forcibly infused some liquid Sustenance into his Mouth most of which he spit out again and in a fretting mood said As it is true that all things work for the better to those that Love God so to the wicked all to the contrary for whereas a plentiful Off-spring is the Blessing of God and his Reward being a stay to the weak Estate of their Aged Parents to me they are a cause of bitterness and vexation they do strive to make me tire out this misery I would fain be at an end I deserve not this dealing at their hands Oh that I were gone from hence that some body would let out this weary Soul My sin said Spira is greater than the Mercy of God nay answered his Visitors the Mercy of God is above all sin God would have all men to be saved it is true said he God would have all the Elect to be saved he would not have damn'd Reprobates to be saved I am one of that Number I know it for I willingly denyed Christ and I feel that he hardens me and will not suffer me to hope Being
the Effects of it who have been under Desparation in this World 2. Shame also will torment them some shall rise to Shame and everlasting Contempt O what Shame and Confusion of Face shall the Damned be cloathed with should a King lose his Crown and Kingdom to get a few Cockle-shells would it not bring Shame upon him O how will the Damned Soul cry I have for meer Toys and Trifles lost that God that made me that Christ that is worth ten thousand Worlds even he that is the Pearl of great Price I have been that Judas that did not value him above thirty pence no not above the sinful Profits of this World not above the Pleasure of Sin and the filthy Lusts of the Flesh thus will the unclean Person be ashamed Shame will torment him I must saith he now lye in Hell for ever and pay dear for my Folly 2. The Drunkard will be also tormented with Shame I was such a Fool he then may say that for the sake of my Cups and Love to my cursed Companions and merry Bouts have lost God the Perfection of Happiness I rather chose to go to the Ale-house or Tavern to Drink and carouse with these Damned Wretches than to go to hear Gods Word I derided them that feared to sin against God and accounted them Fools but I must lye in Hell for ever and pay dear for my wickedness 3. Shame also will torment the Proud and Ambitious Person Ah what a Fool was I he will say to love the Praise of Men more than the Praise of God! I sought vain Honour and pleased my self with a Name all my Design was to be great and had in Esteem among Men I was proud of my Estate and despised he Poor I was of a Haughty Spirit and gloried in my Titles of Honour I sought the Favour of my Prince but regarded not the Favour of God I was proud of my Parts I gloryed in my Gifts in my Beauty in my Strength I delighted my self in Antick Dresses and in Decking of my Vile Body that now is here burning in Hell I was so Graceless that I would not leave off Idle and Foolish Fashions though Godly Ministers were grieved at me and told me my Doom and tho' God bore Witness against my High Head and Haughty Heart by strange Prodigies in Nature seen in divers poor Animals yet I still vaunted my self in Pride and Wantouness and laught at Christs Ministers when they reproved me O what shame torments me now here must I lye in Hell under Gods Wrath for ever and pay dear for my Folly 4. The prophane Swearer and Blasphemer will be also tormented with Shame O saith he I looked upon my self to be no small Person but one of the Hero's of my Day and fit to keep Company with great Men because I could swear and curse with any of them how often did I call upon God to Damn me I have but that which I desired he hath now damn'd me indeed I acted like a fearless Brute Beast O what Shame do I find my Soul covered with that I should cast away my self for that filthy Vice that was no Profit to me any manner of way 5. Shame also will terrisie and bring Confusion upon the carnal Worldling or Covetuous Person who made this World his God I had he will say store of Gold and Silver in my Bags and Chests where it lay to rust but I refused to feed the Poor and to cloath the Naked I regarded no distressed Members of Christ I set my Heart upon my Earthly Treasure valuing it above God and Jesus Christ O what a Fool was I in that I could not foresee how soon I must leave all that which I had gathered I to get the World slighted nay despised my own Soul now if I had ten thousand Worlds I would give them for the Favour of God nay for one drop of Water to cool my Tongue 6. The Lyar moreover will be tormented with Shame Ah! saith he how often did I read that those that did love and make Lies should burn in this Lake but I would not believe it I damn'd my own Soul by telling Lies to please my graceless Companions even to cause them to laugh and be merry or to excuse my self and free me from shame when on Earth or for a little worldly Profit Gain or for popular Applause I made no Conscience oftelling Lyes O what Shame doth these things now bring upon my Spirit 7. The Seducer and Heretical person likewise will be filled and tormented with shame who preached false Doctrine or sucked in detestable Errors laying aside the chief Corner-stone and magnifying Morality or the Light of natural Conscience above Christ I seemed saith he to be a strict and zealous Person and deceived multitudes of People but for trusting in my own Righteousness for hugging a few base filthy Raggs I am damned I was ignorant of Gods Righteousness and of the Mysteries of the Gospel yet gave out that none were true Christians but such as my self I denyed that Christ that bought me and did not believe the Resurrection of my Body but now I find how the Devil blinded my Eyes and now here tormented with Shame I must lie in these flames Body and Soul for ever O! and what a multitude of poor deluded Creatures have I been an Instrument to bring into this place Wo is me that ever I was born 8. The Hypocritical Professor will be tormented with Shame also I rested he will say upon a bare Name of being Religious pleased my self with the Shell withan empty Cabinet without the Jewel a Lamp of Profession with a Form of Godliness my Business was to keep up my Credit amongst Gods People that they might take me to be one of them yet my own Conscience often told me I was not sincere I loved not the Life and Power of Godliness I did all to be seen of men had base ends I appeared abroad to be what I was not at home O what Shame now torments my Soul I had a darling Lust which I would not forego my heart was never really changed Thus I might go on to the rest c. O what Shame will seize upon the Sinner when all his vain Excuses are laid open and all his Extenuations of his Guilt are discovered when his secret Deeds of Darkness are published as it were on the House-top when his Breast shall be transparent to all Eyes when his inward Thoughts cursed Lusts cruel Malice Murthers and Deceits are made manifest and all his beastly Sensualities shall be laid open before God Angels and Saints when the Vails and Covers of Shame shall be taken off how will he be confounded for ever 9. The Devil also no doubt will reproach them for their Folly though he be in Misery with them Ah thou Wretch may not he say wast thou not a Fool to believe me whom thou wast often told was a Liar from the Beginning and wouldst not believe
know now the things that belong to your peace before they are hid from your Eyes Behold now is the accepted time c. 3. Close with Christ whilst the Spirit strives with thee and before Conscience is feared or let out against thee to tear thee into pieces 4. Attend carefully upon the means of Grace and know assuredly that the Wages of Sin is eternal Death even everlasting burnings therefore renounce it with the greatest abhorrence know all the Pleasures and Honours of this Life are but the Elements of carnal felicity and according to the Judgment of Reason and sense would any one chuse the enjoyment of the greatest Pleasures for a day and afterwards be satisfied to suffer the most exquisite Torments for a year much more folly and madness it is for momentary brutish delights to incurr the fiery Indignation of God for ever 1. One word to you that are Believers and I have done O bless God for Jesus Christ who has born the wrath of God for you and in your stead that you might never seel the bitterness of it even Jesus who delivered us from wrath to come 2. Admire the distinguishing Grace and special Love of God We love him because he first loved us It was his Love that overcame you The meer fear of Hell is not sufficient to Convert the Souls of men tho' it may stop them in their way and prevent great Abominations in the gross acts thereof yet does not cannot renew their Nature regenerate and make holy their hearts and lives that Religion that is the meer effect of fear will be according to the nature of its principle even legal wavering and inconstant yet the fear of Hell may awaken the sinner and in some sence prepare for Grace When the Soul is stormed by the terror of Wrath and the fear of Hell has made a breach Divine Grace enters but it is the Love of God and hopes of Heaven that works spiritual affections as the Obedience that flows therefrom is Evangelical free and voluntary from the entire consent of the Soul and are abiding 3. Be content with your Condition tho' poor in this World remember Lazarus how much better was his state than the Rich Glutton's O do not envy the wicked that are Rich they will pay dear for their Wealth when they come to Hell which they with greedy covetous minds heap up I remember a Passage which is related in History A General with an Army passing through another Princes Countrey gave strict Order that no Person should offer to touch the least thing which belong'd to the Inhabitants but nevertheless one Souldier as they were upon their March stole a Bunch of Grapes which the General being informed of gave Order that he should immediately be put to Death as he was going to Execution he fell a eating his Grapes and some Persons looking greedily on him he observing them said Do not envy me my Grapes for they cost me dear they cost me my Life 4. Let it appear to all that you do love Jesus Christ and preferr the honour of God and his interest above all things in this World let the main end and design of your Souls in desiring Grace Gifts Knowledge c. and in all you act and do in his Service be that you may advance his Glory Sirs the time is near when it will be known who are Christs Wheat true Christians and who are not but let all that are but Chaff tremble for Hell is prepared for them He will gather the Wheat into his garner but the Chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire FINIS THE BLESSEDNESS OF Christ's Sheep OR No final Falling from a State of true Grace DEMONSTRATED In Several SERMONS lately Preached and now for general Good Published Wherein all the grand Objections usually brought against the Saints final Perseverance are fully answered By BENJAMIN KEACH Heb. 10. 39. But we are not of them who draw back unto Perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the Soul London Printed in the Year 1694. THE BLESSEDNESS OF Christ's Sheep c. JOHN X. 27 28. My Sheep hear my Voice and I know them and they follow me And I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand BELOVED these Words are the Words of our Blessed Saviour and they contain no small Comfort to all true Believers who are the Sheep and Lambs of Jesus Christ My main Purpose or Intention is to speak to the 28 th Verse and to defend the sweet and comfortable Doctrine of the Saints final Perseverance but shall begin with the 27 th Verse viz. My Sheep hear my Voice and I know them and they follow me In our Text are two Parts 1. Something Implied viz. Christ is a Shepherd and that he hath a People that are his Sheep 2. Something that is Expressed viz. That all such who are his Sheep hear his Voice and do follow him You have in the Words 1. The Property of Christ's Sheep 2. Their Security and happy State and Condition 1. Their Character or Property viz. They hear his Voice and do follow him 2. Their Security and happy State and Condition 1. He knows them that is he approves of them 2. He gives to them Eternal Life 3. They are in his Hand and shall never perish Our Saviour in this Chapter calls himself the Shepherd of the Sheep yea the Good Shepherd Ver. 11. I am the Good Shepherd the Good Shepherd giveth his Life for the Sheep Now if it be demanded who are the Sheep of Christ I answer All that the Father hath given to him and that believe in him Christ's Sheep may be considered as his two manner of ways 1. Decretively See Ver. 16. And other Sheep I have which are not of this Fold them also I must bring and they shall hear my Voice The Lord Jesus meaneth the Gentiles these he calls his Sheep by virtue of God's Eternal Election Them also I must bring They are given unto me and all that the Father hath given me shall come unto me I lay down my Life for them or in their stead that they might not perish I therefore as if he should so say must bring them call them renew or regenerate them The Covenant I have made with my Father is such that it cannot be broken the Purpose Counsel and Promises of God shall stand This agrees with that Word of the Holy God to St. Paul Be not afraid but speak and hold not thy peace For I am with thee and no Man shall set on thee to hurt thee for I have much People in this City They are called the Lord's People though then in a state of Darkness and Unbelief decretively or according to his Eternal Purpose they were his 2. Actually or such who are already brought in or who do believe and are visibly of his Fold The Doctrine I shall prosecute shall be
precious Blood to drink knowing that except he doth this they must perish for ever This was that strange Doctrine in the Eyes of the Jews which they could not receive nor understand 8. Also by his healing of his Sheep with his own Stripes But he was wounded for our Transgressions he was bruised for our Iniquities the Chastisement of our Peace was upon him and by his Stripes we are healed What Shepherd ever thus loved his Sheep even to be wounded and bruised for them to heal them of their Wounds with his own Stripes But this Jesus Christ doth 9. By this washing them also in the same precious Blood Nothing could purge away the Filth and Guilt of our polluted Souls but Christ's Blood and if he wash us not we have no part with him He hath loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own Blood This Love is wonderful Love amazing Love exceeding all Love O in what a Stream in what a Fountain are the Sheep of Christ washed Think upon it our Pollution was great but Christ hath washed us God sent his Son to take away our Sin and it must be done this way It is the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son that cleanses us from all Sin Fourthly Jesus Christ is the good Shepherd I am the good Shepherd the good Shepherd giveth his Life for the Sheep Our Lord Jesus shews in this that he excels all Shepherds Some Shepherds have ventured their Lives hazarded their Lives for their Sheep yet it was more than was required of them for the Life of a Man is much more valuable than the Life of a Beast But no doubt our Saviour refers to his great Work and Office as Mediator and as the Messiah that was to come who was to be cut off not for himself for his own Sins but for the Sins of the Elect or die for his Sheep It was required of him the Father gave him commandment to lay down his Life and he did it actually freely willingly nay he came on purpose into this World to do it and therefore he is the good Shepherd Fifthly Jesus Christ is a Wise Shepherd a knowing Shepherd I know my Sheep this I have already spoken to 1. He knows and sees all his Sheep at once with one look of his Eye in all the Nations of the Earth let them dwell where they will though never so far asunder or remote 2. He is so wise that he knows in what Condition they are and what Condition is best for them whether Poverty or Riches Sickness or Health Liberty or Bonds Peace or Trouble Honour or Disgrace Strength or Weakness either a fat or a lean Pasture Loss or Gain Cold or Heat whether a North or a South Wind. 3. He is wise to protect us wise to conduct us to feed us wise to fold us wise to heal us and wise to save us Sixthly Christ is the chief and great Shepherd of the Sheep And when the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory And again the Holy Ghost calls him in another place the great Shepherd Now the God of Peace that brought from the Dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great Shepherd of the Sheep c. Jesus Christ may be called the chief and great Shepherd 1. Because he entered into Covenant with the Father as the great Surety of all the Sheep by which he came under a legal Obligation to pay the just Debts and to answer for the Defaults of all his Elect And then and thereby he undertook to bring in and gather all the Sheep to God by the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant by which Transaction he made our Peace and reconciled us unto the Father 2. Because he actually bought all the Sheep in pursuit of the said glorious Covenant-Transactions by the Price of his own Blood that so he might unite them all unto himself in one Body 3. He may be called the chief and great Shepherd because all the Sheep or Elect of God are given into his Hand to keep take care of feed heel protect and preserve to Eternal Life And this great Work and Office he hath undertaken and doth and will perform with all Faithfulness being every ways fitted endeared and qualified as Mediator and universal Shepherd and Head to discharge it 4. Because 't is he that calls them that justifies them that sanctifies them and presents them all faultless and without Spot before the Father 5. Because he is exalted in Glory and Dignity not only as the Head Lord and Sovereign of all the Sheep but also as the Prince of all Pastors and subordinate Shepherds that ever were are or shall be from whom they all receive their Power and Authority as his Deputies to take care of and watch over each part and parcel of his Flock committed to their respective Charge Jesus Christ is not only above all Shepherds all Ministers but they do all in his Name and must at the last Day be accountable to him for their Administrations 6. He is the great Shepherd of the Sheep a mighty Shepherd if we consider the greatness of the Flock which he hath not only received the Care and Charge of but they are all his own Sheep If a Shepherd had under his Care 100000 Sheep and all his own would not every body call him a great Shepherd Now though Christ's Flock is called a little Flock comparatively yet the Number of all his Sheep all his Elect is very great we read of ten thousands of his Saints and a Number that no Man can number they are all his and therefore a great Shepherd 7. He is great in Riches having a multitude of rich and choice Pastors enough to feed Millions of Sheep here on Earth And though his Flock will encrease e're long when the Fulness of the Gentiles shall come in and his antient Flock I mean the Seed of Abraham now scattered be gathered and all brought into one Fold yet he hath Pastures for them all Moreover he hath prepared a glorious and rich Fold for them Above which is Heaven it self that is the Fold into which all his Flock shall be put for ever and ever 8. Lastly He is great in Power No Shepherd hath such Power to defend protect preserve and save his Flock like to him None are able to pluck one Sheep out of his Hand as I shall prove and demonstrate when I come to speak to the next part of my Text. Another Shepherd for want of Power may lose his Sheep the Wolf or Lion may come and tear them in pieces and rob him of them But no Enemy neither Sin nor Satan nor the World can rend his Sheep from him he hath Power over all Adversaries and can subdue them with much case at his Pleasure therefore he is the great Shepherd Seventhly Jesus Christ is a watchful Shepherd This is one Property of a good Shepherd And there were Shepherds in the
Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us that is in our Head Surety and Representative for though we in our Persons were utterly unable to do it yet Christ having done it in our Behalf and Nature it is accepted as if we had done it our selves Christ's Righteousness and Obedience being imputed to us who do believe so that what he did and suffered is accounted unto us as if we had done and suffered it yet it was Christ that purchased Life not we he purchased and we possess he is the Redeemer we are the Redeemed he merited all and we have all freely of Grace through his Merits or through that Redemption that is in his Blood 5. Life and Salvation is a free Gift or of Grace only doth appear yet further because the Foundation thereof laid from before all Worlds in God's eternal Election was the Spring of it and this was alone of God's own free Grace There is a Remnant according to the Election of Grace And if it be of Grace then it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace But if it be of Works then it is no more of Grace otherwise Works are no more Works This Opposition or Contrariety is not only between Grace and legal Works but between Grace and all manner of Works whatsoever because it lies betwixt the Nature of Grace and Works they are repugnant or contrary the one to the other they can no more be the Causes or Motive of any one Action than one individual thing can be White and Black in the same part as a worthy Writer notes Men are not elected partly of Grace and partly of Works foreseen but wholly of Grace nothing but an Act of God's Sovereign Grace was the Cause and Motive of it 6. Life and Salvation is a free Gift or by Grace only because the Glorious Covenant between the Father and the Son made and entred into before the World began was alone of God's Grace of his infinite Grace and Favour God was at liberty who foreseeing Man's Fall and horrible Transgression he having forfeited all those Blessings bestowed originally upon him whether he would or would not afford him any Help or Relief but might have justly and utterly rejected the whole Race of Mankind as he rejected all the Angels that sinned or kept not their first Estate Did Man fallen Man deserve this Love this Favour who was become an Enemy to God Was there any thing in Man that could be a Motive to move the Almighty to enter into this Covenant to save so vile a Creature such a poor and despicable a Creature as Man became by his Sins the Visage of his very Soul being now loathsom deformed and abominable in the sight of God God's holy Image being utterly defaced and all his Beauty gone being besmeared and covered all over with noisom Filthiness and Pollution filled with Enmity and Hatred against God dethroning his blessed Creator and setting up the Devil in his Place subjecting himself to that implacable Enemy of his and casting off his most holy and gracious Sovereign from whence he received his Breath and Being Nay and in respect of God himself it must needs appear to be wholly of Grace could Redemption of Man add any thing to the essential Glory of God Did he stand in need of Man to make him more happy or glorious in himself who being an independent Being had been eternally happy in the Injoyment of himself had Man never been made or had he left him under Wrath and Misery Or was he obliged to save us and that he might do it to send his own Son to die and be made a Curse for us Or could he not have created other Creatures to have shewed forth his glorious Perfections Or why might he not have sent his Son to have taken hold of the Nature of Angels to have redeemed them who were his Creatures as well as fallen Man and more glorious too than Man before they fell and let Man have perished for ever and not have entred into such a Covenant of Grace with his own Son on his Behalf 7. Life and Salvation therefore is a free Gift it is wholly of Grace because we could not have obtained it unless God sent his Son out of his own Bosom to effect it The giving of Christ and the Father's sending of him into the World is nothing but an Act of his own free Grace God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. 8. Because Everlasting Life is by Christ alone nor could we have had it except he died I am 〈…〉 the Truth and the Life no Man can come unto the Father but by 〈…〉 is by Faith that it might be by Grace But after that the 〈◊〉 and Love of God our Saviour appeared Not by Works of Righteousness that we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ That being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs according to the Hope of Eternal Life Thus if we consider the Rise the Spring the Motive and the Author of Everlasting Life all appears fully to be of God's Grace alone but should we proceed a little further as to the Means and Application of the Remedy in order to interest in this Salvation that is all of Free Grace also 1. We are called and quickened by God's special Grace according to his Eternal Purpose in Jesus Christ No Man could quicken himself All rational Arguments without Divine Influence or an Almighty Power will not bring our Souls into a State of Life See how Paul ascribes his Conversion and special Vocation to God's Grace But when it pleased God who separated me from the Womb and called me by his Grace to reveal his Son in me c. Special Vocation is of God's Free Grace who hath saved us and called us with an Holy Calling not according to our Works but according to his own Purpose and Grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the World begun We are quickened renewed or regenerated by Grace through the Operations of the Holy Ghost 2. Adoption is of Grace Having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace As the Purpose was free so is the Execution free also That the Purpose of God according to election might stand not of Works but of him that calleth To them gave he Power to become the Sons of God c. The Privilege of being Sons and Daughters of God is freely given to us through Jesus Christ 'T is through Christ for that we might become Sons he became a Servant and died the cursed Death of the Cross for us to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons 3. Justification is wholly of Grace Being justified freely by
our Duty to love God with all our Heart and Soul What Advantage brings Christ's Death to abrogate one perfect Law and establish another here is little Gospel A second Difficulty is we must either say Christ has purchased to us Pardon for Sins against the Gospel-Law or none at all but that one Sin of Adam's if the Moral Law be abrogated after the Fall we never sinned against any Law but the Gospel for we were under no other Law according to him c. The Sum of that I drive at is this viz. There is a necessity we must be justified and saved by Grace only because we cannot be saved by a Law of Obedience but by Christ and Grace alone If we sly not to Christ by trusting believing and depending on him and the Grace of God in him who hath satisfied the Justice and Law of God for us and brought in Everlasting Righteousness the Law of God will cut us down and throw us into Hell for ever 2. It is by Grace alone that we are saved because all boasting is excluded and cause of boasting And this is the Design of God in the Gospel viz. That Man might not have whereof to glory but in the Lord alone Nor could this be done any other way but by his contriving our Salvation to be wholly by his own free Grace Where is boasting then it is excluded by what Law of Works nay but by the Law of Faith not of Works lest any Man should boast 3. It is only by Grace that we are saved or Eternal Life is the free Gift of God and Gift of Christ because he will have all the Glory of it God will not give the Glory of our Salvation unto others Having predestinated us to the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ according to the good Pleasure of his Will to the Praise of the Glory of his Grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved 4. It is by Grace only because God would magnify his Son by whose Righteousness and Obedience imputed to us we are justified and saved and it is to this end I say that God might exalt Jesus Christ his Design was to magnify Christ in our Salvation and to abase Man Thou hast given him Power over all Flesh that he should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him 5. And lastly It is by Grace because God would have Salvation sure to all Believers Therefore it is of Faith that it might be by Grace to the end the Promise might be sure to all the Seed c. If Salvation were by our Works and Obedience it might be very uncertain or if the whole of our Happiness and Eternal Life be not in Christ's Hand but that it dependeth on the Will of Man or on the condition of our Faith and Holiness or in the improvement of our Abilities and it is possible that we may or may not answer the Condition thereof it might so fall out that not one Soul might be saved Besides should it be so those that are saved would then have something to glory in or boast of in the Great Day They in effect may thank themselves and admire their own Wisdom Care and Industry that brought them to Heaven Fourthly Why doth and will Christ give Eternal Life to all his Sheep to all his Saints Answ 1. Because Eternal Life was purchased for them by his Death But by his own Blood he entred once into the Holy Place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us 2. Because all that are given unto Christ are ordained unto Everlasting Life 3. Because Christ was sent into the World to this End to give Life unto them I am come that ye might have Life and that ye might have it much more abundantly It was that he might give his People the Knowledg of Salvation and save them from their Sins 4. Because Life is given to Christ to this End viz. to communicate it to all his Elect he is made a quickning Spirit that he might quicken all his As in Adam all die so all that are in Christ shall live Spiritually here and Eternally hereafter Because I live ye shall live also 5. Because all his Elect were quickned together with him virtually when he rose from the Dead yea and also virtually they entred into Heaven with him for he ascended as their Head and blessed Representative 6. Because Eternal Life was promised to them in Christ before the World began and they have many firm and sure Promises made of it to them since also 7. Because they are united to him and Christ hath prayed That they may all be made perfect in one and he hath prayed that they may have Eternal Life Now Union with Christ gives right to Glory a whole Christ shall be glorified and not a part only Quest What doth Eternal Life import Answ I answer It doth import a Deliverance from all Evil present and to come and a full and perfect possession and injoyment of all true spiritual and everlasting Good and Glory above Quest But doth not this seem to diminish or lessen the Glory of God the Father to assert That it is Christ that gives Eternal Life c. Answ No not in the least for all things are of God and through Jesus Christ All things are of God who hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ It is God that hath reconciled us unto himself 't is by Christ we are reconciled his Blood being the Price of our Reconciliation God the Father gave Christ for us and also gives him to us And this is the Will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him may have Everlasting Life and I will raise him up at the last Day And thou hast given him Power over all Flesh that he should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him It is the Father that gave Christ the Power as Mediator to give Eternal Life unto his Sheep APPLICATION First This may serve to reprehend those that would not have Salvation to be wholly of Grace it clearly condemns Free-Will for if it be only by God's Grace it is not at all of Man's Will They 't is true do acknowledg the Contrivance of our Salvation to be of God's Grace alone or the Effects of his great Love and his sending of Christ into the World to be an Act of Infinite Grace but withal deny Regeneration and effectual Vocation to be wholly the Effects of God's special and distinguishing Love but do affirm that Grace which those Men have who perish at last would have been sufficient to have renewed them had they improved it They assert that all Men have Power to believe and that that Grace which God affords to Men to save them 't is in the preaching of the Word or consisteth in no more than Moral Swasions Arguments or Excitements in a rational way But
Divine Majesty of God as so to charge the Doctrine of particular Election of lost Sinners Brethren Though Christ is not a Redeemer of Angels the Elect Angels needing none yet he is the Head of Angels and a Confirmer of them He is the Head of Principalities and Powers by him and for him were all things created that are in Heaven that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him Christ is God and he is the preserver of the Elect Angels they are committed to him and under his Power and he upholds them though he never died for them and shall we think he will not preserve his Elect Saints or that their Election should not as absolutely secure them for whom he as their blessed Lord and Head died and to whom he is a Redeemer as the Elect Angels to whom he is only a Confirmer And ye are compleat in him who is the Head of Principalities and Powers Ye are compleat fully compleat ye stand in him in his Righteousness compleat who is your Head and shall be preserved in him in whom you are elected to everlasting Life 6 thly Because they are chosen to Salvation that is to enjoy and possess Salvation if they have it not the Decree of God is frustrated but his Eternal Decrees are as firm as Mountains of Brass If the Decree of God in appointing his Elect to Salvation be frustrated or made void either it is done by himself or by others Now it cannot be made void by himself because it is an absolute Decree his Mind alters not and none else are able to do it And as to the Slips and Miscarriages of the Elect themselves God foresaw all their Evils from Everlasting and as that hindered not their Election so besure it shall neeer turn them out of it But we are bound to give Thanks always to God for you Brethren because God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvation c. From the beginning that is from before the World began or from Eternity for the absolute Decrees of God according to his Eternal Counsel are from Everlasting After the Apostle had shewed these Saints that there would come a falling away from the Faith and that many would be deceived and damned for ever to comfort and encourage them against the fear of final Apostacy he brings this in the 13 th Verse But we are bound to give Thanks for you Brethren beloved of the Lord c. You need not fear as if he should say of being deceived or of perishing by dangerous Errors or otherwise 1. Because you are beloved of the Lord. 2. And also are elected to Salvation and because beloved therefore elected Whomsoever God doth absolutely appoint to this or that End he will assist or enable to do whatsoever Means is necessary in order to that End Now the Elect are chosen to Salvation to inherit Eternal Life if therefore any of them miss of it his Decree and Purpose is frustrated which cannot be We have another Text of the like Nature with this For God hath not appointed us to Wrath but to obtain Salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ From hence the Apostle argues that they needed not to doubt of their Salvation and by what preceeds it appears that Election is a great Motive to Holiness as when a Man that is sure of the Victory will fight couragiously Let us who are of the Day or Children of Light not of Night nor of Darkness be sober putting on the Breast-plate of Faith and Love for God hath not appointed us to Wrath c. Children of the Night shall perish but none of the Children of the Light ever shall The Apostle ascends to the original Cause of it which is God's absolute Decree of Election Salvation would wholly else depend upon the uncertainty of Man's Will and not upon the immutable and unchangeable Will and Purpose of God Thâ—â— is more than appointing the Means it is an appointing the Persons not appointed to Salvation upon the foresight of Man's Faith because Faith is the Gift of God and proceeds from his Counsel that 's appointed too else a Man may say that I might be saved I must thank God but that I am saved I must thank my self because it was left to the liberty of my own Will whether I would believe and be saved or no. Two things are necessary in our Salvation 1. The Merits of Christ's Blood 2. Faith to apply it by which God's Image is restored to us and preserved in us and both these we have by his own free Grace through Christ Jesus as the Fruit of his electing Love 7 thly It doth further plainly appear that Election does eternally secure all Christ's Sheep all true Believers from final Falling or everlasting Ruin from the words of our Blessed Lord himself For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great Signs and Wonders insomuch that if it were possible they should deceive the very Elect. Now is it not easy for any Man from hence to draw an Argument that the Elect cannot fall finally away so as to perish for if it is so that they cannot be deceived i. e. finally or take in damnable Errors so as to perish of which our Saviour speaks for the Elect have otherwise in a great measure and in many things I mean some of them been deceived but it is impossible they should be so deceived as to be damned And if this be granted then Election secures them they cannot finally fall If they might perish eternally they might be deceived with damnable Heresies and bring upon themselves swift and utter Destruction but they cannot be so deceived because they are the Elect therefore they caÌ„nnot fall away so as to perish Arg. If the Election of Grace be absolute as the Decree of Day and Night or as that of Christ dying for our Sins If we are elected in Christ as the Head we being all Members given to him to make up his Mystical Body if those that are elected shall be called justified and glorified if the Means as well as the End be under God's absolute Decree and Purpose if our Election doth as absolutely secure us from final Apostacy as the Election of the Holy Angels does secure them if we are elected to Salvation if it be impossible for any of the Elect to be finally deceived then none of them none of the Elect or no Sheep or Lambs of Jesus Christ can so fall away as to perish eternally but all this is true therefore none of them can so perish So much shall suffice as to the first Argument to prove the Saints final Perseverance Secondly My next Argument shall be taken from the Nature of God's Infinite Love to all his Saints The Love of the Father and Love of the Son doth secure them from perishing it is wonderful it passeth
that are the Children of the Promise such who are renewed by his Grace or born of him by his Spirit these are his Seed and all these shall endure for ever And to make it good God hath sworn to Christ as Mediator by his Holiness they shall endure that is remain his Children for ever or abide in his Covenant to Eternity and therefore they can't be separated from his Love by Sin Now dare any go about through their great Ignorance to charge God with Perjury O let them dread the Consequents of their evil Opinion Object Those of the Seed of Christ or Believers who sin and afterwards do humble themselves we grant shall endure or be restored and they are such that the Spirit of God speaks of in that Psalm you mentioned Answ In answer to this Brethren pray consider that God hath promised Grace to all his Children that fall into Sin to humble them Repentance is in the Covenant of Grace a broken and tender Heart he will give them not only at first when they believe but afterwards when through Temptations and humane Frailties they are overtaken and sin against him 't is not a Repentance of their own getting whereby to oblige God to return again to them But pray see what he says to his beloved Ones For I will not contend for ever neither will I be always wroth for the Spirit shall fail before me and the Souls that I have made For the Iniquity of his Covetousness was I wroth and smote him and he went on frowardly in the Way of his Heart Well and what will God do with him now he hath sinned and that grievously too and God hath afflicted him as sorely smote him in his Wrath or as a Father seems to do when his Child that hath grievously offended him but he is not humbled he repents not but goes on frowardly under the Rod shall he perish stay a little see what God says verse 18. I have seen his Ways and will heal him although I might justly destroy him as if God should say and leave him to perish yet of my meer Mercy and for my own Name sake I will pity him I will give him Repentance I will heal him he shall mourn for his Sins and I will restore Comfort to him and to his Mourners Alas till God turn us we turn not therefore a godly Man says with poor Ephraim Turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote on my Thigh After God hath graciously touched our Hearts convinced us of our Sins or changed our Minds we repent and alter our Practices and God will give Grace thus to do He remembers his Covenant and his Oath to our David c. I create the Fruits of the Lips Peace Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near saith the Lord I will heal him I will in a wonderful manner and by my own Grace and Almighty Power do all and have all the Praise to my self Object But may be the Persons you speak of were a praying People they were found in their pious Duties and so their Sins were forgiven and they healed Answ How fain would some Men eclipse the Free Grace of God and find something in the Creature to oblige God to give the Mercy promised 1. I deny not but God will be sought unto for all the good Things promised to Believers But who is it that puts it into our Hearts to seek him or helps and influences our Spirits to pray unto him We know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit maketh intercession for us with Groanings that cannot be uttered 2. Yet nevertheless see what God saith of the People before mentioned But thou hast not called upon me O Jacob but thou hast been weary of me O Israel ver 22. Thou hast not brought me the small Cattel of thy Burnt-offerings neither hast thou honoured me with thy Sacrifices I have not caused thee to serve with an Offering nor wearied thee with Incense ver 23. Thou hast bought me no sweet Cane with Money neither hast thou filled me with the Fat of thy Sacrifices but thou hast made me to serve with thy Sins and wearied me with thine Iniquities ver 24. See now what a People these were they had not so much as done the least things commanded had not brought the small Cattel for a Sacrifice nor did they pray nor seek the Face of God Yet that God may magnify his Grace see what he speaks in the next Words I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgression for mine own sake and will not remember thy Sins Nothing you see can take off God's Love from his Covenant-Children nothing is done by our own Merits or for the sake or worth of our Duty but all wholly of his own Mercy and Goodness Secondly To make it further manifest that the Sins of Believers cannot separate them from the Love of God is evident because Jesus Christ hath fully satisfied his Justice for all their Sins he hath paid all their Debts Wrath and Divine Vengeance cannot hurt the Elect of God in whose stead Christ died Should their Sins work their Ruin and destroy their Souls it would follow that Christ made no perfect Compensation for them if he hath it would be injustice in God should he let out his vindictive Wrath against them for their Sins Surely he hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows c. All we like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the Iniquities of us all Thirdly Because they have an Advocate with the Father Christ pleads the Merits of his own Blood the Satisfaction he hath made for their Sins My little Children these things write I unto you that you sin not O take heed you sin not do not grieve your Father offend your God you know how hateful Sin is to him as if he should so say But if any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous Saints should neither presume to sin nor despair if overtaken thereby Fourthly Because Christ prayed in the Days of his Flesh that the Father would keep them that he had given him in the World from the Evil thereof though not from every Evil. I dare not say that because whatever Christ prayed for it was granted and yet we see the best of Saints do sin But he prayed that they might not fall so sin so as to perish in their sin or sin unto Death therefore their Sins shall never damn them Fifthly Their Sins cannot separate them so from the Love of God as that he should cast them off for ever because a broken Heart and pardon of Sin is contained in the Covenant of Grace I will be merciful unto their Vnrighteousness and their
I sin God forbid 5. Hath God raised me from the lowest Hell and set me on High made me his own Child and espoused me to his Blessed Son Hath he set a Crown upon my Head and put Chains better than those of Gold about my Neck Has he clothed me with a Robe that shines like the Light and sparkles beyond all precious Stones Has he given the Flesh of his Son to me for Food and his precious Blood to me to drink and shall I sin against him God forbid 6. Hath God given me himself given me a Taste how good he is Hath he allowed me to have free access to the Throne of Grace and to have Communion with himself and with his Son and shall I sin against him God forbid 7. Hath God given me his Holy Spirit to destroy the Body of Sin and do I confess my self dead to Sin and as being dead have I been buried with Christ in Baptism and shall I live in Sin God forbid 8. Have I seen and do know the detestable Nature of Sin how evil a thing Sin is and am by the Graces of the Spirit compleatly armed to oppose resist and overcome Sin and all the Enemies of my Soul and shall I commit Sin and cowardly yield to the Temptations of Satan and acquit the Field to the Reproach and Disgrace of my Blessed Lord and Captain of my Salvation and destroy mine own Soul that Christ hath done so much to save and shall I sin God forbid 9. Am I an Heir of Heaven an Heir of Glory and have the blessed Angels to minister to me and to wait upon and to protect me who also observe how I behave my self and shall I sin God forbid 10. If I sin live in Sin make a trade of Sin it will appear I hate God resist his Will contemn his Authority cast Dung in his Face grieve his good Spirit and put the Devil into the very Throne of God and shall I live in Sin God forbid Brethren here is the principal and the grand Motive to keep you from Sin it is from these and such-like Grounds that we should not sin against God But I cannot further now enlarge I should have spoken of the Nature of Christ's Love and have shewn how that keeps the Saints from Sin and falling so as not to perish but I 'le proceed no further at this time JOHN X. 28. And I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand BRETHREN the last Day I was upon the second Argument to prove That all true Believers shall certainly be saved and none of them shall ever so fall away as eternally to perish Which was taken from the Nature of the infinite and unchangeable Love of God the Father Thirdly I shall now proceed to the third Argument taken from the Nature of the Love of Jesus Christ the Son and shew you that his Love secures the standing of all his Sheep or all the Elect Ones of God unto Everlasting Life First The Love of Christ is an early Love He loved us from everlasting I was set up from Everlasting from the Beginning or ever the Earth was Then I was with him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoicing in the habitable Part of his Earth and my delights were with the Sons of Men. It appears it was not only an early Love but a Love also of Complacency a Love of Delight Secondly Christ's Love to his Elect is a wonderful Love 1. If we consider the Person loving viz. the Son of God the Prince of the Kings of the Earth 2. If we consider the Persons beloved in their natural and fallen State for when such he set his Heart upon them When they lay in their Blood it was then he passed by and loved us Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee behold thy Time was the Time of Love and I spread my Skirt over thee and covered thy Nakedness c. We were his Enemies traiterous Enemies vile Rebels to him having abominable Enmity against him in our Hearts 3. Consider the wonderful Atchievements his Love put upon him to undertake and the wonderful Effects thereof 1. Even to become a wonderful Surety for us and to pay a wonderful Debt 2. To leave wonderful Glory even to come from Heaven where he lay in the Bosom of the Father and to come to the Earth to dunghil Earth 3. If we consider his wonderful Condescension and Abasement he became Man who thought it not robbery to be equal with God yet made himself of no reputation and took unto him the Form of a Servant He became wonderful Poor who was wonderful Rich yea amazingly Rich Heaven and Earth and all things in it being his own yet was born of a Poor Virgin who doubtless had little or no Money to accommodate her or to defray the Charges of a Lying-In at the Inn and therefore they turn'd her into the Stable where she was delivered of our Blessed Saviour and laid him in a Manger O what wonderful Abasement was this Moreover he also had no Money to pay the Tax that was laid upon him therefore sends Peter to the Sea to take a piece of Money out of the Mouth of a certain Fish He had no House of his own to dwell in no not a poor Cottage The Foxes of the Earth said he have Holes and the Birds of the Air have Nests but the Son of Man hath no where to lay his Head Also when in his greatest Pomp on Earth he rode but on an Ass and that not his own neither but he borrowed it Moreover the good Women ministred Relief to him he had not to supply his own Necessities he was poor in his Life poor in his Death standing charged with the Debts of many thousands the least not owing less than ten thousand Talents which could he not have paid and satisfied for he must have lain in Prison for ever O what a Charge of Guilt was laid upon him Does Sin render a Man miserable doth one Sin charged on a Person render him poor How poor then was he for a Time that stood charged with all the Sins of his Elect He was for saken of all his Friends on Earth in his greatest Distress and by his Father in Heaven he was Poor and Miserable in the Sight of all that saw him they pulled off his Hair spit in his Face crown'd him with Thorns strip'd off his Garment and all this for the sake of his Sheep or for his Elect. 4. If we consider the wonderful and amazing Wrath he bore what a Curse he was made for us the wonderful Horror Pain and Anguish he felt the wonderful Sweat he sustained which were great Drops of Blood the wonderful Passion and Sufferings on the Cross he endured He loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own Blood He
this the Apostle shews and affirms Therefore it is impossible such should fall away or suffer a Spiritual Death here or an Eternal Death in Hell hereafter 2 dly My second Argument from hence is this Because the Child of a natural Parent cannot cease to be his Child whilst he liveth or Life abideth in him this every Man must grant True he may prove a Rebellious and a Disobedient Child but still he is his Child and the Man that begat him is his Father that Relation cannot be lost nay and that Nature which the Child derived from his Father continues and must continue he is of his Flesh and Blood still Even so it is here and impossible it is that it should be otherwise that Man or Woman whose Soul is begotten and born of God cannot cease to be a Child of God though he may prove disobedient to his Heavenly Father and grieve and dishonour him but yet nevertheless he is a Child of God still and God who by his Spirit in a spiritual manner begot him is his Father and that blessed Relation continues and that holy Nature or Seed of Grace which he derived from God continues and must abide also in him as long as that Life he hath in him as a Child of God doth remain and that Life is as I have proved by the former Argument Eternal or Immortal 3 dly Besides I have made it most evident by my former Arguments that God in the Covenant of Grace and through the Suretiship of Jesus Christ hath provided that his Children shall never so rebel against him as finally to depart I will put my Fear into their Hearts and they shall not depart from me Though they may be backsliding Children yet God saith he is married to them which denotes that intimate Union there is between the Lord Jesus and them according to another Metaphor 4 thly None of those who were truly Regenerate or indeed the Children of God as being begotten and born of him though some of them grievously sinned against him were ever cast out so as to cease to be God's Children Where is he that can contradict this by shewing some that were indeed Children begotten of God who have by their Disobedience ceased from being his Children or never were restored after they sinned and fell Who fell worse than David and Peter I have before clearly proved though they may sin and fall yet they shall rise again Arg. 2. If all those that were the Children of God who sinned were restored and not one Instance can be given of any one of this sort i. e. that were truly regenerated that sinned fell and rose no more then none of the true Children of God can so sin so fall as eternally to perish But all those that were the Children of God who sinned were restored and not one Instance can be given of any one of this sort i. e. that were truly regenerated that sinned and fell and rose no more therefore none of the true Children of God can so sin so fall as eternally to perish 5 thly Those that are the Children of God begotten by him cannot sin so as eternally to perish and lose Eternal Life because all that are his Children are Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ This I grant is not always true of the Children of earthly Parents or earthly Princes for they are oft-times disinherited but it is otherwise here they are all born Heirs their being regenerated and united to Christ gives them a sure and undoubted Right and Title to Eternal Life The Holy Ghost positively asserts this very thing And if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ 6 thly It is because the Children of God are the Seed of Christ which the Father said Christ should see He shall see his Seed Nay the Father assured him that his Seed should indure for ever And they are all given to him and Christ will say at the last Day Lo here am I and the Children that thou hast given me none of them are lost 7 thly I argue yet further upon this Argument from that blessed Text in the first Epistle of John Whosoever is born of God doth not commit Sin for the Seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God I am very much mistaken if I have not my Argument here in express Terms Evident it is the Apostle means not that they do not sin at all that 's evident because he elsewhere says If we say we have no Sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us James also says in many things we offend all neither is there as Solomon declares a just Man upon the Earth that doth Good and sinneth not Therefore that is not the sense of the Text I will give you my understanding of it 1. So far as he is born of God he doth not commit Sin or so he sins not that is the New Creature doth not sin that never yields to Sin but evermore wars against it and resisteth it This is that which Paul calls the Law of his Mind it is the renewed or regenerated Part or 't is that which is born of God that lusteth against the Flesh or wars against it 2. He doth not nay he cannot sin as others do this appears by that I mentioned last because of that new Nature or blessed Seed he hath received 3. He cannot live in a Course of Sin or make a Trade of Sins He cannot live in a custom of Sinning because all evil Habits are broken by Divine Grace in him That Man that lives in any way of Sin the old Habit of Lying Pride Lusts Drunkenness Covetousness or any other Sin being not broken is not born of God for it is impossible a Child of God should so sin i. e. live in a course and practice of committing of known Sins or in a constant and continual omission of known Duties Though he may fall into gross Sins as David and other Children of God did yet they continue not in a Course of such Sins that once possibly they were overcome by nay be sure they set a greater Watch against such Sins and hate them rather more than all other Sins because thereby they greatly dishonoured God and wounded their own Souls 4. Therefore Sin is not his Way or Walk he doth not commit Sin as to walk after it he walks not after the Flesh but after the Spirit He may step into the Way of Sin but he soon steps out of it again whereas others walk in that Way every Day it is the high Way the common Road of the Ungodly 5. He doth not commit Sin with Liking Allowance and Love Though the fleshly Part may like love and allow of it yet he finds another Part in him that hates it What I hate that do I. And hence it is the Apostle saith It is not I that doth it but Sin that dwells in
me I am against it Grace hath the upper Hand in my Soul I am for the Law of God I give my Voice for Christ I that is my renewed part that 's the I he speaks of 6. He cannot sin unto Death sin so as to fall finally fall and perish for ever 'T is evident that this is intended here though there may be a Truth in the other respects If any Man see his Brother sin a Sin which is not unto Death he shall ask and he shall give him Life for them that sin not unto Death There is a Sin unto Death I do not say he shall pray for it The Elect sin but not unto Death there is Pardon for all their Sins if they ask their Sins shall be forgiven them but there is a Sin unto Death a falling into Heresy or Debauchery or such an Apostacy that shall never be forgiven but thus they cannot commit Sin that are born of God so as to perish Which indeed the Apostle in the same Chapter shews to be his meaning All Vnrighteousness is Sin and there is a Sin not unto Death Mind his next words We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not He clearly shews us what he intendeth by sinning not namely he sinneth not unto Death but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself that the Wicked one toucheth him not This is the great Happiness and Advantage of the Children of God who partake of his Holy Nature they are furnished with a self-preserving Principle the Seed remains they shall never lose their New Nature therefore cannot sin unto Death For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World the World in all its Snares Sins Allurements and Temptations whatsoever that is they shall at last overcome Because he that is in them is stronger than he that is in the World 6 thly The very Relation of Children secures them and fully shews they cannot shall not sin fall and perish for ever for what Father a dear and tender Father will suffer any one of his Children to be torn into Pieces and cruelly devoured before his Face if he be able to preserve and deliver it Or should he suffer it would not all say that he was a cruel and unmerciful Father one that had no Love no natural Affections to his poor Child If therefore any one Child of God falls into the Enemy's Hand I mean into Sin 's Hand or Satan's Hand and is torn into pieces or is destroyed and ruined for ever it must be 1. Either for want of Love in God to that poor Child of his 2. Or else for want of Power and Ability in God he being not strong or able enough to save his distressed Child out of the Hands of those cruel Enemies Or 3. For want of Care and Watchfulness in God from whence the Enemy took an Advantage and destroyed his Child that was begotten and born of him Now it cannot be that God wants Love to all or any one of his Children we have shewed you that he loves them with an everlasting infinite and inconceivable Love such a Love as nothing can separate his Children from it and to say he either wants Power to save them or Care and Faithfulness is Blasphemy O what is the Love the Care and Faithfulness of God Besides he has committed them into Christ's Hand to keep and preserve them as my Text holds forth And can any think that Christ has not received a Charge to keep them from the Danger of Sin that they be not finally lost thereby as well as from any other Enemy Or do you think Christ will fail in his Care and Faithfulness who is their great Shepherd Sponsor Surety or Trustee Moreover if he should as I shall hereafter shew you lose one Child he loses one of the Members of his own Mystical Body Now from the whole let me draw this general Argument and so conclude with this 1. If every true Believer is begotten and born of God 2. If they partake of his Holy and Divine Nature 3. If Children cannot cease being Children or that Relation continues as long as Life continues however disobedient the Child may be and if it be thus with the Children of God who are begot and born of him or by his Spirit that they cannot cease being his Children nor lose that Divine Nature they derived from him in Regeneration 4. If God hath provided so well for his own Children in the Covenant that they shall not depart from him 5. If no Child that was born of God did ever perish that we read of 6. If they are the Children of God or Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ 7. If they cannot sin unto Death Then no true Believer can so sin and fall away as eternally to perish But all these things affirmed are true certainly true therefore no true Believer can so sin and fall away as eternally to perish Brethren I shall apply this and pass to the sixth Argument APPLICATION Infer 1. From hence we infer that those Men who affirm that such who are the Children of God begotten and born of the Spirit may perish are strangely beclouded for they must suppose that a Child may utterly lose the Nature and Relation of a Child and degenerate so far as to become a Dog a Swine c. which is impossible in Nature and much more in Grace for as none but the Almighty Power of the Infinite God could change the Soul so it is impossible for any Diabolical Power to turn or change that Holy Nature again and that not only because the Divine Nature and Image of God is such in self but also by reason of the Design and Purpose of God in and by Jesus Christ in our Restauration that being such that it cannot be lost any more without the highest dishonour to God and a frustration of his Eternal Purpose and Counsel which was to destroy the Works of the Devil If any should object that Adam had the Image of God in him before he fell and lost it I answer He was the Son of God by Creation only not by Grace he was not begotten by the Holy Spirit nor did he stand as we do in Christ Infer 2. This may also therefore inform all Believers that they are in a most happy and safe Condition because they are born of God and brought by Grace and Regeneration into an unchangeble State Exhort O see that you are the Children of God begotten of God for if so though you are but Babes yet you are out of Eternal Danger Let me give you Brethren here a few Marks or Characters of Babes in Christ or of a Child of God 1. Babes have all the Parts and Lineaments of a Man if it be a perfect Birth So a Babe in Christ hath all the Essentials of a true Christian he hath all the Parts and Lineaments of the New Creature There is a Formation of God's Image or a gracious Work of
nothing it is not such eating as the Idolatrous Papists dream of it is by the Holy Spirit by the indwelling of the quickning Spirit whereby we have a real participation of Christ He is in us by his Spirit as a Vital Principle changing our Hearts and working in us his own Holy Image infusing Gracious Dispositions and Sacred Habits in the Soul and we are in him by Faith in a gracious hidden and mystical manner and this Union cannot be dissolved Secondly This Union must needs be most intimate near and strong if we consider by what Metaphors it is set forth in God's Word 1. It is a Marriage-Union like as a Man and his Wife are said to be one Flesh so he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit No Man ever hated his own Flesh but nourished and cherished it as the Lord the Church He that loveth his Wife loveth himself a Man and his Wife is but one Mystical Self and what is in Nature as to the Perfection of it is much more eminently in Christ Now since God hath fitted to our Nature a Care of our Body this Care be sure is much more in Christ when the Apostle shews what the Love of the Husband should be unto the Wife and that a Man leaves both Father and Mother and cleaveth to his Wife and they two shall be one Flesh Saith he This is a great Mystery but I speak concerning Christ and his Church or of Christ and every believing Soul The Union between Husband and Wife is near ay but Death dissolves this Union because they can be united or be one no longer than both live But Christ lives for ever and the Soul of a Believer lives for ever Nay Believers have Eternal Life in them and they shall never die therefore it follows this Union abides for ever He hath betrothed his Saints his Spouse unto himself for ever And can any then dissolve this Marriage-Contract and Conjugal Union Is Christ able to preserve his Souse or the Soul that is united unto him Is it in the Power of his Hands Pray Brethren consider it well Will any of you that have a Spouse a Wife that you dearly love suffer her to be torn into pieces and basely murdered before your Eyes if you could prevent it And do any think that Christ who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth Power over Sin the World the Devil yea over Hell and Death will he I say ever suffer his Spouse to be destroyed and murdered by Sin World or Devil Strange did he die for her and has he married her and made her one Spirit with himself and will he leave her to conflict to fight and war with an Enemy that he knows is too strong and mighty for her and not come in rush in to her assistance to save and rescue her from such bloody cruel and barbarous Enemies No doubt but he will rise up with Indignation and Jealousy to save every Soul that is so related and united to him Thirdly This Spiritual Union between Christ and every believing Soul is set forth by that near and intimate Union which there is between the Natural Body and every Member thereof The Head and Members make but one Body even so Christ is the Head of his Saints and they being many are all Members of that one Body Christ and all Believers make but one Mystical Christ Even as the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body so is Christ that is Christ Mystical Now this Relation of Head and Members I say holds forth this Spiritual Union between Christ and every Believer We are Members of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bone And it is from their Head Jesus Christ that every Member receives Divine and Saving Influences of Life Strength Government and Guidance as the Apostle shews From whom the whole Body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every Joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh encrease of the Body unto the edifying of it self in Love Our Union with Christ brings us into a fixed Settlement and secures us from all Fears or danger of miscarrying let all Enemies do what they can Can the Members be lost that have such a Head Our Union with Christ cannot consist in the communication of any thing unto us as Members from him the Head But it must be in that which constitutes him and us in this Relation saith a Reverend Minister he is our Head antecedently in order of Nature to any communication of Grace from him as a Head yet not antecedent to our Union it self Herein then consists the Union of Head and Members that tho they are many and have many Offices Places and Dependencies yet there is but one living quickning Soul in Head and Members The same Life that is in the Head is in the Body and in every Member thereof in particular and he that offers Violence to one Member offers Violence to the Body and the Head also And as one living Soul makes the natural Head and Members to be but one Man one Body so one quickning Spirit dwelling in Christ and in his Members gives them their Mystical Union and makes them but one Body As the first Man Adam was made a living Soul so the last Man Adam was made a quickning Spirit It is he that quickens by his Spirit or conveys a vital Principle to all his by which they live spiritually as from Adam all his live naturally Because I live ye shall live also So long as there is Life in Christ the Head there shall be Life in the Members because that Life that is communicated to the Head without measure as Mediator was to this very End that it might be communicated to every believing Soul that is united to him Now then if it be thus if this be the Nature of the Soul's Union with Jesus Christ that it is set out and opened to us by the Union that there is between the Body natural and its Members then I infer 1. That by the Life that is in the Head the Members live and because of that Life that is in him they cannot die it was by that Spirit that is in him that we were first quickned and Life is in us and shall be continued to us 2. I also infer That if Christ be able or can do it he will prevent his losing of any one of his Members And for any one to say it is not in his Power is Blasphemy and to say he can and will not is a like Evil to assert because it renders Christ less tender and careful of his Spiritual Members than we are of the Members of our Natural Body Which of us would suffer his Hand or Foot to be torn from us nay a Toe or Finger if we could prevent it 3. Furthermore I infer That all the Members of Christ's Mystical Body
doubt of that And if you can make it appear that he so died for us as you affirm namely in the room or stead of all his Elect then your Argument is not to be answered Answ I answer That Jesus Christ did not suffer Death for our Good only but in our room or stead also I shall prove and make clearly to appear 1. This Notion if you will so call it of Christ dying for us must denote his dying in our stead because it is so always generally taken when one Person is said to die for another one is condemned and another dies for him that is in his Room to save the guilty Person from Death And should not this be granted we should be all confounded and not know either what Men or the Scripture means when they say such a Man such a Person died for another or for others when the Person for whom that great Love and Favour was shewed to was as a Criminal and condemned to die which moved his Friend or Surety to step in and suffer the Penalty for him or in his stead Now it was so here we were all Criminals guilty of the highest Treason against the God of Heaven and were by the holy Law of our offended Soveraign condemned to die and to bear Eternal Wrath and our Blessed Saviour was chosen in our room and given up as an Act of the Father's Infinite Love and Favour and as an Act of no less Love Favour and Compassion in Christ to die for us and to satisfy Divine Justice for us or to bear the Punishment we were to have born and must had not he born it for us for ever 2. Is it not plainly foretold that the Messiah should be cut off but not for himself Now since he had no Sin of his own and yet was cut off for Sin it follows he was put in our Place and stood charged with our Guilt or Debt and so was penally cut off he was cut off for us to save us from Divine Wrath and Vengeance It was not for himself it was not for the fallen Angels it was therefore for us that we might not die but live eternally 3. Pray Brethren see what our Saviour saith upon this Account Greater Love hath no Man than this that a Man lay down his Life for his Friends Can this Expression intend any thing more or less than in the room or stead of his Friend or die for them Thus Christ died Even the Just for the Vnjust the Just in the place or stead of the Unjust or us the guilty Persons Hereby perceive we the Love of God Because he laid down his Life for us we ought to lay down our Life for the Brethren These Texts fully prove the Notion He that lays down his Life for his Brother or dies for the Brethren dies in their stead to save them from Death as some have done For scarcely for a righteous Man will one die yet peradventure for a good Man some would even dare to die But God commendeth his Love towards 〈◊〉 in that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us Now then seeing Christ underwent Death and bore that Punishment that was due for Sins and there being no Cause in himself why he should suffer that Pain and Penalty it unavoidably follows that it was because he stood in our Place charged with our Offences 4. Again it must be thus taken and understood because it is said The Lord laid on him the Iniquity of us all Our Sins were made to meet in him He was wounded for our Transgressions he was bruised for our Iniquities It was not by Christ's praying and interceding to the Father for us to forgive us our Iniquities No no that was not enough it was his dying for them He bore our Sins in his own Body on the Tree He prayed again and again but that Cup could not pass by if we are delivered and saved from our Sins he must die nay his Soul must be made an Offering for Sin 5. That Christ died in our stead will further appear because he was made Sin for us that knew no Sin He bore the Sins of many that is the Punishment of them Our Sins were charged upon him though he had no Sin of his own in a moral Sense but was pure from all Iniquity yet in a judicial Sense he was made Sin as he was constituted and put in the Sinner's Place dying and making Satisfaction in our stead as our blessed Head and Surety And how frivolous is the Cavil of the Socinians who would have it be understood where it is said Christ was made Sin that he was accounted a Sinner by wicked Men. This cannot be the meaning of the Place because as he was made Sin for us that knew no Sin so it was that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him Do wicked Men account Believers to be made the Righteousness of God in him Or does not God look upon us or count us in him so to be 6. But why is it said by the Holy Ghost But when the fulness of Time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law c. Had he not stood in our Law-place why is it thus expressed Certainly God saw it necessary to substitute him and to accept of him in our stead and therefore he was made under the Law i. e. he was obliged to keep the Law perfectly for us God requiring that of us in order to Justification which we being fallen were not able to do therefore he did it for us and in our Nature being made of a Woman he took our Nature upon him and suffered Death making a full and compleat Satisfaction for our Breach thereof whose Sufferings and Obedience upon the account of his being God as well as Man had an infinite Worth and Merit in them And if this which the Apostle saith in this place doth not prove that he suffered in our room I must confess I know nothing of this great Gospel-Mystery 7. That he suffered not only for our Good or Profit but also in our room and stead doth further appear because it is said He died for our Sins Who was delivered for our Offences and rose again for our Justification This Particle saith a Learned Man joined with an Accusative doth generally signify the impulsive Cause and not final Mat. 10. 22. 13. 5. 14. 9. John 20. 19. 2 Cor. 4. 11. And particularly when it is used in reference to Sufferings it hath that signification and no other see Levit. 26. 18 28. Deut. 28. 11. 2 Kings 23. 26. Jer. 13. 22. John 10. 32. In all these Places it necessarily signifies the Meritorious and Impulsive Cause and nowise the Final for our Offences must needs be understood that our Offences were the Meritorious and Impulsive Cause of Christ's Sufferings Another Particle the Holy
Divine Wrath hath made so sweet a Calm that God declares in him i. e. in his Son he is well-pleased and that Fury is not in him now no more for ever towards Believers who can or shall then condemn them Jesus Christ hath turned away God's Anger by impairing of his Right and Soveraignty without derogation from his Perfections So that now he can and doth receive us who believe into his Eternal Love and Favour through the Death of his own Son it being the Judgment of God that they who sin are worthy of Death But that Death which Sin incurred and the Sinner deserved Christ hath endured for his Elect and delivered them for ever from the Pain and Punishment thereof and stand acquitted of and justified from for ever Thirdly It is because Jesus Christ who was the Antitype of the Scape-Goat hath carried away all our Sins who do believe The kill'd Goat made the Atonement for the Sins of all God's Israel and because one Goat could not prefigure the whole of Christ's Undertaking therefore there were two Goats appointed And Aaron shall lay both his Hands upon the Head of the live Goat and confess over him all the Iniquities of the Children of Israel and all their Transgressions in all their Sins putting them upon the Head of the Goat and shall send him away by the Hand of a fit Person into the Wilderness And the Goat shall bear upon him all their Iniquities unto a Land not inhabited c. Brethren pray observe here is mention four times of all the Sins of the Children of Israel all their Iniquities all their Transgressions all their Sins And again the Goat shall bear upon him all their Iniquities The Goat was a Type of Christ to shew that not one Sin of a Child of God shall ever be laid upon him charged upon him because Christ had them all laid upon him and he hath carried them all away all their Sins great Sins as well as smaller Sins Sins before Grace and after Grace were all laid upon Jesus Christ yea Sins of all sorts Sins of Commission and Sins of Omission no Sin could be expiated without the Death and Blood of Christ Also a full and free Confession was to be made upon the Head of the Scape-Goat of all Sins Brethren as the smallest Sins needed such a Sacrifice such an Atonement namely the Death of Christ so the greatest Sins were not excluded from that Atonement and blessed Benefit of his Death Moreover the Scape-Goat carried all their Sins away into the Wilderness or into an unknown Land or into a Land of Forgetfulness never to be remembred any more this hath our Lord Jesus done Christ hath put away Sin and put it away for ever and that by the Sacrifice of himself once for all He hath laid on him the Iniquities of us all and also all our Iniquities He could not be supposed to have suffered for our Sins if our Sins respecting the Guilt of them were not laid upon him or charged upon him and imputed to him his Sufferings otherwise would have been Arbitrary and Unjust had he not been substituted by the Father and called forth as our Surety nor could his Death been accepted the Law no where condemning or punishing any one who in a Law-sense is an innocent Person He was made Sin without knowing Sin He knew the Guilt by Imputation but he knew not Sin any otherwise neither Original nor Actual He was born without Sin and lived without Sin in his Mouth was found no Guile yet he had our Sins upon him and carried them away he being the Antitype of the slain Goat satisfied for all our Sins and as he is the Antitype of the live Goat he hath born them away for ever Arg. 4. If any one Sin of the Children of God shall ever be charged upon them as to that Vindictive Wrath that is due to Sin so that they may come under Eternal Condemnation of it then hath not Christ born all their Sins nor carried them away into the Land of Forgetfulness But Christ hath born all their Sins and carried away all their Iniquities as he is the Antitype of the slain and living Goat therefore their Sins shall never be charged upon them as to the Vindictive Wrath that is due to them so that they can never come under Eternal Condemnation Fourthly None of Christ's Sheep or no Believer can fall so as eternally to perish upon the Consideration of the Death of Christ 1. Because Christ hath by his Death delivered them from the Curse of the Law as well as from the Guilt of Sin the Law is the Strength of Sin it is by that Sin condemneth the Sinner The Law lays every Man under the Wrath and Curse of God and unless it be answered God might be said to change his Will should he justify any Man nay it would seem to reflect upon his Holiness the Precepts must perfectly be kept by Man or his Surety the Breach we had made of it by Sin must be satisfied for both these Jesus Christ hath done not for himself he needed not to have come to keep the Law to justify himself for as God he is infinite Holy but as Mediator he did this for us he obtained a perfect Robe or Righteousness to give away and put on us He hath brought in everlasting Righteousness and made an end of Sin How made an end of Sin Not that there shall be no Sin any more in the World No but he has made an end of the condemning Power of it the strength it had to kill and damn the Soul is took away for ever from all that believe from all that he hath put his Righteousness upon God's justice being satisfied we are furnished with an exact and compleat Righteousness that shall last for ever 't is an Everlasting Righteousness that every Believer hath in Christ Who therefore shall condemn Christ hath delivered us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Sin is our Sickness Sin is that by which we stand charged and the Law condemns us pronounces a Curse against us but Christ hath cured us of this Sickness and delivered us from this Curse As it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them Till we believed we lay under that fearful Curse but from this we are discharged and Christ hath undergone that great Curse for us and there is no other Curse can come on Believers all separation from God and Wrath is by the Curse of Law but this is ended and gone for ever to every one that believeth Nothing therefore now can separate them from God the Curse is taken away and the Blessing is put on us 2. From hence it appears that the Veracity of God is ingaged to acquit all them that believe in Christ as his Justice is obliged to leave Sinners under the Curse of
the Law that believe not because nothing but a perfect Righteousness can deliver from the Curse thereof 3. Moreover God is obliged upon the account of his Covenant with his Son for us to discharge us for ever because Christ hath fully performed all things as the federal Conditions of our Restoration and Deliverance from Sin and the Curse of the Law which he covenanted to do Arg. 5. All that are delivered from the Curse of the Law and to whom there remains no more any legal and just Cause in God of Wrath and Separation from him unto their Eternal Condemnation cannot eternally perish But all that believe in Christ are delivered from the Curse of the Law and to them there remains no more any legal and just Cause in God of Wrath and Separation from him unto their eternal Condemnation therefore no Believer shall eternally perish Fifthly Christ dying for our Sins was a full and compleat Paiment of all our Debts which bound us over to Death and Condemnation we owed ten thousand Talents and Christ our Surety was charged with it even with all we owed to Justice and by his Death he paid the uttermost Farthing Now the Principal and the Surety are legally and judicially one Person so that in Christ we paid all though it was God and not we that found out the Surety and paid himself with his own Money and therefore we are acquitted in a way of Sovereign Grace we have it in a way of Mercy though in a way of Righteousness also That God might be Just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus From whence I argue Arg. 6. All those for whom Christ hath paid all their Debts or made a full Compensation for shall never perish But Christ hath paid all the Debts of Believers or made a full Compensation for them therefore they shall never perish Would it not be look'd upon as an Act of Injustice in a Creditor to arrest and throw a poor Debtor into Prison for those Debts his Surety paid for him and laid down every Farthing of his Money Now then say I either some of the Sins of Believers or some of their Debts Jesus Christ did not die for pay or satisfy for or else all must conclude it is impossible because God is Just any one of them should perish Now who is it that dares to affirm that Christ did not die and satisfy for all the Sins of Believers or for his Elect Ones If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all Vnrighteousness He will not exact from us the Satisfaction which he hath accepted in the Atonement of his own Son our Surety and in his own way applied God will not require double Payment Sixthly From the Death of Christ I further argue No Believer can eternally perish because his Death was the highest and greatest Expression and Demonstration of Divine Love both in the Father and Son Now say I as I hinted once before He that gave the great Gift will not deny the lesser Sure if God gave his Son to die for our Sins he will give us Grace to resist Sin to mortify Sin and will also pardon all our Sins And if Christ died for us spilt his Blood for us he will pray for us he will not refuse to intercede for us that our Faith may not fail or we lose the Benefit and Blessings purchased for us by his Death He that would not pray for his Friend or for his Neighbour will not die for him But on the other Hand if he yields himself up to die for him he will pray for him Christ died for his Sheep he will therefore both feed them heal their Diseases and preserve them that they may not be devoured by any Enemy whatsoever neither by Sin nor the Devil c. See Rom. 5. 10. Rom. 8. 32. Seventhly Jesus Christ by his Death purchased Grace and all things his Saints need or shall need in order to make them meet for Glory therefore they shall not perish Do they need Faith need Patience need Power against Sin need Pardon need Purging c. all these things and whatsoever else they stand in need of they shall have My God shall supply all your need according to his Riches in Glory by Jesus Christ All Grace is in Christ as the Fruit of his purchase And of his Fulness all we receive and Grace for Grace And this is to shew forth the Riches of God's Glory Will he lose his Glory Shall Satan insult over the Majesty of Heaven after this manner viz. Lo here is one of them for whom thou gavest thy Son to die whom thou hast left to me and I have destroyed him for ever Will God think you suffer this since his main Design in the Gift of Christ is the Glory of his own Rich and Sovereign Grace Nay and after he has with such large Expence of rich Treasure and such Pains restored his lost Image to a poor Believer will he suffer Sin and Satan utterly to deface it again whilst he looks on Our Opposites are Men for Natural Reason Now Sirs what think you of this is there any reason for you to believe God will suffer either of these things to be done Eighthly The Death of Christ preserves all Believers to Everlasting Life because he hath by one Offering perfected for ever them that are sanctified Christ as the Effects of his Death before he hath done will bring all for whom he was a Sacrifice to Heaven Justification in the Perfection of it shall be continued Sanctification shall be compleated our Interest in him shall not be lost Can any think that Christ will not maintain Life in that Soul which he made alive by his own Death Arg. 7. If therefore Christ's Blood was not shed for none in vain but that he shall have his whole Purchase then none of his Sheep or Elect Ones shall ever perish But Christ's Blood was shed for none in vain therefore he shall have his full Purchase none of his Elect shall perish No Man would lay down a Sum more in value than a whole Kingdom but would first see himself sure of it upon laying down that Price the Father's Covenant and Promise also made all the Elect certain of Eternal Life upon Christ's dying for them Besides Beloved the Sacrifice of Christ unites all the Holy Attributes together to secure a Believer's Interest Justice and Mercy are both agreed in Christ they meet together and kiss each other yea and join Hands to help and save every Believer The Flood-gates of Mercy are opened and the Fire of Divine Wrath confin'd in its Flames or rather quenched by the Streams of Christ's Blood that Mercy might flow down to us abundantly Christ's Blood hath eternal Virtue in it it is called the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant therefore extendeth to the Expiation of Sins to come as well as what are already
Sin Thrust a Sword into a dead Man's Bowels and he will not stir nor cry out Sin is in wicked Men like a Sword in the Sides of such as are dead but as soon as Life is infused there will be Sense and a crying out Now when they heard this they were pricked in the Heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles What shall we do Some of these had been the Murderers of the Lord of Life and Glory yet they found Mercy 2 dly Another Effect is this viz. You will perceive a mighty Famine in your Soul as it was with the Prodigal Son all your old Hopes of Heaven will be gone Poverty of Spirit will overtake you An awakned wounded Sinner despairs of all Supplies or Help in himself he is distressed with pinching Hunger and so flies home to his Father 1. Yet may not get Power over Sin presently 2. But O he trembles at the Thoughts of God's Justice by beholding the Spear in Christ's Side 3. He throws down his Weapons as being conquered and overcome and resolves to do as the four Lepers did 2 Kings 7. 3 4 8 9. 4. He sees nothing but Death if he abides where he is and believes not And if he returns to his old Course he sees he must die and therefore ventures to throw his Soul upon Christ or ventures himself on Christ and lies at the Feet of Christ and says If I perish I perish I can but die and if he will pardon me heal me and have compassion on me I shall live O Sinners that you could but do thus Secondly We may infer from hence that it is in vain for any Person to talk of Christ's Death or to say Christ died for Sinners nay for the whole World and therefore for me unless they come to feel the Virtue and blessed Effects of his Death on their own Souls O see you rest not without finding the Power of the Death of Christ Sirs though the Sacrifice is over yet the Virtue and excellent Causality of it remains and not only to justify and absolve a believing Sinner but also to quicken regenerate and to sanctify and make him Holy also Therefore labour to know and experience the Power of Christ's Death Thirdly From hence also we may infer that this is the only Way to know Christ died for us namely when we find the Effects of his Death that we die to Sin that the Body of Sin is crucified in us with him Hath the Life of your Sins been let out O see to this you that prosess the Gospel Fourthly This shews us also what a dangerous thing it is for any to build their Faith upon the general Love of God to Mankind What say some I believe Christ died for me because he died for all and because for all therefore for me Brethren I am afraid this is the ruin of many Souls because it may be but a false Faith that those poor Creatures have they may not experience the Effects of Christ's Death may be it is not prest upon their Consciences but this of Christ dying for all they think is enough Now pray consider and O that all such mistaken Persons would consider it also 1. That a general Faith viz. to believe that Christ died for all gives no Man any particular saving Interest in Christ's Death for if it did then every Man that so believeth hath a saving Interest in his Death But thousands perhaps so believe and yet are as vile and ungodly People as any in the World Therefore to build on that general Faith without a particular Application of the Promise or Promises of God and experiencing the Effects of Christ's Death is a false Faith and deceives the Soul 2. That that Faith which a Man may have that may leave such that have it and trust in it under the Power of Sin is a false Faith and will deceive the Soul but Men may have that Faith namely believe Christ died for all and therefore for them and yet be under the Power of Sin therefore that may be a false Faith 3. That Faith that doth not change the Heart purify the Heart is a false Faith But many that believe Christ died for all and therefore for them have that Faith and yet it doth not change their Hearts purify their Hearts therefore it is a false Faith 4. From hence I argue that it follows undeniably that all those People that believe Christ died for all must come to a particular Application of Christ's Blood and not trust to that general Application they must feel the Effects of Christ's Death upon their own Souls or else they are undone nor do I doubt in the least but many of them of that Judgment do so divers of them being as gracious Christians as any others and have Experiences that clearly contradict their own Principles Fifthly and Lastly Here is Comfort for Believers O see what the Death of Christ hath and will effect for you and in you 1. God's Wrath is appeased in him towards you 2. Justice is satisfied in him towards you 3. The Law is silenced 4. Peace and Pardon procured 5. Life is infused 6. The Guilt Power Pollution and Punishment of Sin removed and gone for ever 7. You are justified 8. Satan is conquered 9. The World is overcome you are and shall be sanctified and Heaven is opened you are in Christ's Hand and shall not perish but have Everlasting Life JOHN X. 28. And I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my Hand BRETHREN there are but two Arguments more that I intend to insist upon for the farther Proof and Demonstration of the Saints final Perseverance or to prove That none of the Saints or Sheep of Christ can so sin and fall away as eternally to perish I spoke the last Day to the Effects of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ I might proceed to speak to the Intercession of Christ also but I shall take that in the Arguments I shall next enter upon Ninthly The Saints are in the Hand of the Father and in the Hand of the Son considered as Mediator And from hence I shall prove That it is impossible they should so fall away as eternally to perish First I shall shew you in what respect they may be said to be in the Hand of the Father and what is meant by his Hand and how that doth secure them Secondly Shew you what is meant by their being in the Hand of the Son and shew you how that may be said also to secure their firm standing and tends to their final Perseverance Thirdly Shew you in what respect they may be said to be in Christ's Hand First By the Hand of the Father doth intend his Power Behold the Lord's Hand is not shortned that he cannot save As if God should say I am not grown weaker than formerly I am God Almighty still and as Omnipotent
I argue If Grace though never so weak shall be victorious if Grace be such a Blessed Principle such a Spark that Sin nor Satan can't quench such a Seed that no Enemy can get out of the Ground of our Hearts if Grace through the Spirit is Life Eternal Life in the Soul if Grace be the Darling of Heaven hath such great and Almighty Allies if the whole Trinity sate in Council about the Birth of Grace or the Way of its infusion into the Soul if it be the Gift of the Father's Free Love and a part of his Holy Nature if it be wrought in us to shew forth his Praise if Grace be God's great and glorious Workmanship if the Power of God be engaged to preserve it in us if God hath promised to maintain its Life in us if it cannot stand consistent with God's Wisdom Love Faithfulness and Holiness to let it be totally overcome and vanquished in the Souls of his Elect if Christ purchased Grace for us if he was manifest to take away Sin if Christ be the Author and Finisher of Grace in the Soul if the Life of Grace tends so much to the Honour of Christ if Christ's Work now in Heaven is to interceed for the continuation of Grace in us that it may never fail in the Seed or Habit of it Then no true Believer can fall so from Grace as eternally to perish But all this is true therefore no Believer can so fall from Grace as eternally to perish APPLICATION First Of Information 1. First from the whole we may learn that the State of Believers through the Redemption by Jesus Christ is far better than Adam's was by Creation for though we have no natural and inherent Power of our own yet we have a supernatural Power ingaged to help and uphold us we are kept by the Power of God He stood by the Strength of Nature and Power of Free-Will before the Fall We by the Strength of Grace and Power of the Mediator who hath a Charge to uphold us in a State of Grace which was not allowed to Adam nor the Angels we have not only the Word of Grace to encourage us but also the Power of Grace to establish us Adam stood by his own Original Righteousness our standing is by the Suretiship Righteousness and Undertakings of Jesus Christ Who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Adam's Life was in himself our Life is hid in Christ and so out of the Power of our worst Enemies to come at it or deprive us of it and as Adam and all his were condemned so Christ and all his are justified 2. It may inform us that such who make a Profession of Religion without attaining to a State of true Grace and real Union with Christ are in danger of eternal Ruin notwithstanding whatsoever their Knowledg Gifts and common Improvements may be and their Hopes thereupon and that they are of this sort that frequently fall away and perish in their Sins which if well weighed may put every Professor into serious Thoughts and upon a thorow Work of Self-examination about their present Condition and therefore in this respect there is need enough of those Cautions and Take-heeds in the Scripture Let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall How many are there who do but think they stand or that their State is safe and good when in truth they are in no better Condition than the Foolish Virgins or the thorny and stony-ground Professors 3. It also may inform us that all those that shall be saved are such who take care to make their Calling and Election sure It is a palpable Demonstration that they are under strong Delusion who suppose Election only refers to the End and not to the Means or that Men that are elected shall be saved let them live how they please No no the Case is quite otherwise we are elected to be Holy as well as to be Happy the whole Design of God herein being to make us Holy and also to preserve us in a Way and State of Holiness Therefore if thou dost begin well hast obtained true Grace and dost continue in a Way of well-doing or dost bring forth good Fruit and dost not waver nor faint in thy Mind it may be an Evidence that thy State is Good and that thou art one of Christ's Sheep who follow him constantly and wilt so follow him unto the End Secondly This may be Matter of great Comfort to weak Believers and such who may be under spiritual Deadness and feel Corruption too strong for them O do not be discouraged the weakest Grace gives a deadly wound to Sin and a good ground of Hope thy State is safe your Names are written in Heaven which is as our Saviour notes the greatest Cause of Joy which it could not be if their Names might be blotted out again 'T is no wonder Sin is in thee and makes thee mourn when it made Paul to cry out O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Sin and Death 'T is one thing to have the Law of Sin in our Members and to have Sin in our Conversations and another thing to have it reign in us or to have it in our Affections Soul remember that weak Grace weak Faith shall become victorious Thou hast Grace enough in thy Head though thou hast but little in thy Hand O cry to God be much in Prayer that God would give thee more Grace and supply thy Wants and quicken and revive thy Soul as he hath promised A weak Faith renders the Soul as perfectly justified in Christ as the strongest Faith any Man hath whosoever he be and gives a Title to Eternal Life he that had but a weak or a dim Eye that look'd up unto the Brazen Serpent was as well healed as he that had a strong Sight or good Eyes 2. This Doctrine yields much Comfort to the strongest Saint also for if he that hath never so strong and lively Faith might fall finally away and perish what would Regeneration Justification Adoption c. signify to him Would not his Spirits droop and his Fears torment him But here by virtue of the Doctrine of final Perseverance is Comfort both for the Weak and Strong both have equal Interest in Christ in God's Love in the Covenant both are elected both are in Christ's Hand Such who have now a strong Faith had once but a weak Faith it was but a little Seed once and Christ's Charge extends to those that are weak He carries the Lambs in his Arms and the Stock in Christ's Hand is sure and his Promise of supply shall not fail and the Strong cannot stand of themselves Thirdly Caution Judg not of the Truth of thy Grace by the weakness of it a little Gold a Dram is Gold as well as a great Wedg 2. Let not this encourage thee to be negligent or remiss in Duty God
said and so finish with this Text. 1. Inform. This may serve to inform and convince all Persons concerning the absolute Soveraignty of God He may save Man if he please and not Angels or may send a Saviour for some of the lost Sons of Adam and not for all Who shall say to him What dost thou If he had vouchsafed a Saviour for none of Adam's Posterity had he been unjust any more than he is in casting off for ever all the fallen Angels He called Abraham out of his own Country and revealed himself to him and let others remain then under the Power of Sin Ignorance and Idolatry calling them not He revealed himself to Isaac and rejected Ishmael he chose Jacob and refused Esau he afterwards chose the Children of Israel to be a peculiar People for himself and let all other Nations of the Earth abide in Darkness And in the Gospel-Days Christ chose a few poor Fisher-Men and refused the Learned and Wise Men after the Flesh nay and hid the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven from the Wise and Prudent and all this as an Act alone of his Soveraignty And in these days what Reason can be alledged why we and a few Nations more have the Knowledg of the Gospel when the greatest part of the Earth lie in Popish Mahometan and Pagan Darkness but that it is his good pleasure so to do He hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardeneth 2. Praise God for the Knowledg you have of the Mysteries of Christ and the Gospel of Free-Grace Brethren next unto the Grace of God in my Conversion I have often said I do look upon my self bound to admire the Riches of God's Love and Goodness to me in opening my Eyes to see those Arminian Errors which when I was Young I had from some Men of corrupt Principles sucked in nay and when I was about 23 Years Old I wrote a little Book for Children in which some of those Errors were vindicated which after my Eyes were inlightned and the Book with Alterations being again Reprinted I left out and now do declare my dislike of the first Impressions and do disown what I there asserted When I was a Child I thought as a Child I understood as a Child as the Apostle speaks And let me intreat you to study the Nature of the Covenant of Grace for until I had that opened unto me I was ignorant of the Mysteries of the Gospel 3. O do not forget that the Design of God in contriving our Salvation in his Eternal Wisdom by Jesus Christ was wholly to advance his own Glory and the Freeness and Riches of his Grace and to abase and humble Man unto the Dust therefore be sure never err on that Hand And I think it is not easy for Men well to err on the other I mean in exalting God alone Christ alone though I deny not but that some good Men who in seeking to advance Free-Grace perhaps have erred and taken up some unsound Notions as that of Actual or Personal Justification before Faith and Actual Union with Jesus Christ O what need have we to ponder well the Paths of our Feet and not with Pride to magnify our selves or strive to promote any corrupt Notion under any Pretence whatsoever Our Days are Evil many dangerous Errors abound and it is cause of greatest Grief to see what a Generation of Men are risen up of late who strive to mix God's pure Gold with their Dross and his Wine with their Water Though on the other Hand let us bless and praise the Lord for raising up so many brave Champions in the mean time of our Brethren of the Congregational Way to defend the Gospel of God's Grace and the Truth as it is in Jesus Yet I could wish there was not so much Gall in some of them against us their Brethren who in all the great Truths of Christianity are of one Mind and Judgment and yet are exposed to Reproach for witnessing to a Truth of Christ that lies as plain in the Gospel as any one Truth or positive Precept of Christ whatsoever I mean that of Believers Baptism Why should we be censured for maintaining that Truth which the Holy Ghost so fully bears witness unto I long to see more of the Spirit of Love and Charity would to God that Chapter 1 Cor. 13. was more read and considered 4. This may also serve to reprehend such who strive to cast Reproach upon this Holy Doctrine and such that maintain it as if it tended to incourage People in Sin or open a Door to Licentiousness Let all for ever forbear such Reflections Is not this the Purport of that Doctrine which we vindicate 1. That there is wrought and preserved in the Minds and Souls of all Believers by the Holy Spirit a Supernatural Principle of Grace and Holiness whereby they are made meet and enabled to live unto God and discharge all Duties of Obedience which he requireth of them and accepteth through Christ which Principle or Habit of Grace is essentiaily distinct from all Natural Habits Intellectual and Moral however and by what Means so ever acquired or improved 2. That the Holy Spirit by his effectual Operations doth enable us according as we are required by his immediate Influences in all Acts of Obedience whether internal only in Faith and Love c. or External also even so that all the Powers of our Souls and Members of our Bodies are or ought to be in a spiritual manner governed and influenced thereby and unto all Duties of Holiness in our daily walking with God and that all this is the Effect of God's Free-Grace to us in Jesus Christ who hath communicated of the Spirit without measure to our Blessed Head and Mediator that he may give it forth to all his Saints that have Union with him and believe in him Brethren God hath circumcised the Hearts of his People to love him with all their Souls and with all their Strength He writes his Law in our Hearts as he promised I will put my Law in their inward Parts and write it in their Hearts This gracious Habit or Principle in the Soul is nothing but a Transcript of the Holy Law of God implanted and abiding in our Hearts whereby we are enabled with Chearfulness and ready Inclination of our Spirits to act in the Duties of Obedience and Holiness unto God as he requireth of us and also our Likeness and Conformity unto God doth consist herein I say it doth consist in this Divine and Sacred Principle or Spiritual Habit that is infused into the Soul it is our Spiritual Life whereby we live unto God it is the Foundation and Sum of all Internal Excellencies no Works no Duties are accepted where this Principle is not It is a Vital Principle of Holiness and it makes Religion co-natural to us Moreover it is a certain a permanent and an abiding Principle it is that Seed
were like the Ground which the Rain falls oft upon that nevertheless brings forth Briars and Thorns and no good Fruit. 8 thly There is one thing particularly noted by the Apostle concerning these Hebrew Christians which they had and which the other had not therefore not gracious Persons See ver 10. For God is not unrighteous to forget your Work of Faith and Labour of Love which ye have shewed toward his Name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and do minister 1. This he mentions as a Reason of his good Opinion of them and why he was so perswaded of them and which was better than all those high Attainments of which he speaks concerning such that are in danger of Final Apostacy Love to the poor Saints in ministring to them for the sake of Christ or because they are the Members of his Body is more than all those five Attainments mentioned in the 4 th 5 th and 6 th Verses Now also let it be considered that if this Fruit of true and saving Grace I mean Charity or Love to the poor Saints as such had been in the Persons he speaks of who were in danger of falling finally how then could this be an Argument of such Confidence in Paul concerning them or of Comfort to those Saints he wrote unto Alas what are common Illuminations What is it to have some transit taste of the Heavenly Gift or to be made Partakers of the common Operations of the Spirit in Convictions of Sin or of Duty to the Inhabitation of the Spirit or unfeigned Love to Christ and to the Children of God Or what is it to have some taste of the good Word of God to a spiritual feeding and digesting it or to be affected with the powerful Doctrine of the Gospel in respect of the World to come or with the Resurrection of the Dead and last Judgment to the gracious Experience of the Power of Christ's Resurrection and so feel in our Souls a Discharge from the Judgment of the Great Day through Faith in Jesus Christ 2. The Apostle was perswaded concerning these Hebrew Christians that they had such things in them that did accompany Salvation that is such things that are inseparable from Salvation i. e. such who have them shall certainly be saved He describes such who are sincere Christians by the Fruits and Effects of true Grace namely the Work of Faith and Labour of Love by which their Obedience unto God did appear 1. He notes the Principle from whence they acted in their Duty to God 2. The Constancy of their Obedience they continued in bringing forth of that good Fruit they had ministred to the Saints and still did minister to them 3. He takes notice of the Principle from whence they acted or did what they did viz. they ministred to the Saints in Love to God and to Jesus Christ it was Love shewed to his Name 4. He adds that in their Preservation in their happy State the Faithfulness of God God is not unrighteous to forget your Work of Faith c. which comprehends his Covenant and Promise to them which for their farther Comfort he enlargeth upon ver 13 to ver 19. to which he subjoins the Promise and Oath of God made to all that are sincere Believers or Heirs of the Promise But to proceed to speak to those five Qualifications or Attainments of the Perso she speaks of in our Text who may fall away and finally perish for ever First The first is their being once enlightned They might be instructed in the Doctrine of the Gospel beyond many or be illuminated not only by learning the literal Knowledg of the Gospel as Men learn Philosophy but also may attain to some supernatural Light by the common Illuminations of the Spirit and may understand many profound Mysteries of the Gospel yet remember Knowledg puffeth up they might have knowing Heads but graceless Hearts Note from hence Doct. 2. That it is a high Privilege and an Attainment for Men to be enlightned with the Knowledg of the Gospel yet nevertheless Men may attain to much Light therein and yet not be savingly enlightned but may finally fall away and perish notwithstanding at last First I shall shew you what the common Illuminations of the Spirit are that Men may fall from Secondly Shall shew you what the saving and special Illuminations of the Spirit are and how they differ 1 st Common Enlightnings of the Word and Spirit may tend to convince the Conscience of a Sinner of Sin 1. As to the horrid Guilt thereof as it exposeth the Soul to God's Wrath Thus was Judas enlightned his Conscience was convinced that he had betrayed the Innocent Blood Thus also Felix was enlightned under Paul's preaching 2. From these Convictions they may also with much horror confess their Sins Cain Judas and many others did this 3. From these Illuminations and Convictions they may reform their Lives and do many things like as Herod did upon his hearing John the Baptist 4. Nay common Illuminations may discover to the Sinner much of that Evil that there is in Sin that God abhorreth it and that it is contrary to his Nature as well as a violation of his Holy Law and this Light they may receive from what God declares concerning Sin and of his abhorrence of it in his Word as also by those fearful Judgments which he inflicteth upon and pronounceth against such that sin live in Sin and make a Trade of it Likewise by the Knowledg they may attain concerning Christ's suffering for Sin and by the Punishment of the Damned in Hell and no doubt but the Devils know the great Evil of Sin in all these respects But pray observe that although these Persons may know that Sin is against God contrary to his Holy Nature and that he doth abhor it yet this Light and Knowledg they have never brings them to loath and abhor it in themselves because of the evil Nature of it and as it is against God 2 dly They also by these common Illuminations may come to know that God is Man's chiefest Good The Heathen found this out by the Light of Nature considering in themselves that nothing in this World could satisfy the Soul c. But these Persons attain unto a farther Sight and Knowledg of it by the Word in a supernatural manner but yet remember that the Light they have never leadeth them to make choice of God as their chiefest Good and only Happiness 3 dly They may attain unto the Knowledg of all the great and essential Principles of the Christian Religion and be able to dispute and contend for them also against Opposers nay may be able Preachers of that Holy Doctrine Have we not prophesied in thy Name c. No doubt but Judas was a great Preacher as well as Peter Yet observe and note it well they may be utter Strangers to that Grace Faith Love and Regeneration which they may open explain and press upon others
their Bodies to be burned and yet be destitute of saving Grace or of true Love to God and therefore not self-condemned Hypocrites whose Hearts condemn them and yet be far from the State of sincere and renewed Christians APPLICATION 1. O see what Light what Spiritual Light you have received and what Convictions you have had the experience of 2. Which do you account the greatest Evil Sin or Suffering the Torture or Pain you feel or the Sin you have committed Do you groan most under the sense of Sin and want of Holiness or under the presages and fear of Hell and Damnation May be you cry out your State is sad but what think you of your Sin which is the Cause of it 3. Be exhorted to labour after true Spiritual Illuminations and thorow Convictions of Sin Motives 1. Sin will be your Pain and Sorrow first or last either here or hereafter 2. Consider what a good and gracious God you have offended 3. Without effectual Convictions there will be no true Conversion and where the first is indeed wrought the last will follow those that God kills in this respect he will make alive 4. Remember the Word never comes with Power until Convictions come with Power and also abide on the Soul and Conscience of the Sinner 5. Consider that it is better to be broken in Mercy than in Judgment better here than in Hell 6. Remember that true and thorow Convictions tend to let out the Life or Power of your Sin and consider also what Means of Convictions God is pleased to afford you 7. Sinner Christ was wounded for thy Sin look up to him nothing breaks the Soul rightly you have heard but a sight of a broken and crucified Christ HEB. VI. 4 5. For it is impossible for those c. I Have closed with the first Qualification or Attainment of these Persons spoken of in my Text I shall now proceed to the Second And have tasted of the Heavenly Gift 1. By the Heavenly Gift some understand the Heavenly Doctrine In that sense it may be true for Herod had some kind of Taste of the Heavenly Doctrine which John the Baptist preached he heard him gladly or with Joy As the Baptism of John is said to be from Heaven so all the Truths and Ordinances of the Gospel may be said to be but one intire Heavenly Gift 2. Others by the Heavenly Gift understand the Holy Ghost according to that in Acts 8. 20. Thou hast thought the Gift of God may be purchased with Money So Acts 10. 45. That on the Gentiles also was poured the Gift of the Holy Ghost Quest But what Gift of the Holy Ghost is it which these Persons are said to have a taste of Answ 1. The miraculous Operations of the Holy Ghost in the Times of the Gospel in the extraordinary Gifts thereof which are said to come down from Heaven in a way of Eminency as Acts 1. 4 5. and of those Gifts these Persons might have some taste either by their receiving those Gifts themselves for that unsound Persons may do And in thy Name we have cast out Devils so 1 Cor. 13. 1 2. And though I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have not Charity I am nothing or else they may be said to have a taste of those Gifts by being wonderfully affected by beholding the miraculous Operations of this Heavenly Gift wrought by others 2. By tasting of the Heavenly Gift it may refer to the Doctrine of the Gospel it may denote their making some trial by Hearing and diligently attending on the Doctrine of Salvation there is a tasting for trial either to receive or refuse as we commonly do Meats or other things Every tasting is not a digesting Men taste before they eat and digest food These Persons may taste of the Doctrine of Justification taste of the Heavenly Gift or Doctrine of God's Free Grace taste of the Ordinance of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and seem also to like the Heavenly Gift well in all these and in other respects yet may feed all the while on some one Lust or another on the Love of this World or on their carnal and sensual Pleasures and because they were never savingly renewed having no new Nature they could not feed on spiritual Things so as to digest them No doubt it was or is such a tasting as the full Stomach takes sometimes of Food a full Stomach will taste yet refuse to eat they have no Appetite these being glutted with the Love of other things the Heavenly Gift is not so sweet to them as Food is to an hungry Man The Sum then is this these Persons had or may have some Experience of the Holy Ghost in the miraculous Gifts either in themselves or in others their Understandings being enlightned for it is evident that 't is a Taste by Illuminations by what we before shewed and they also might taste the Heavenly Doctrine or Ministration of the Gospel and might find the Truths the Institutions and Worship thereof to be good they making a trial of it so far as their carnal and unsanctified Hearts were capable to do yea they might find the Ways of God better than once they thought before they were inlightned and from thence imbraced them to appearance owned and walked therein for a time Doct. 2. That there is a Goodness and an Excellency in the Heavenly Gift and Heavenly Doctrine of the Gospel which such may taste of that never receive the Truth in the Power and Love thereof Doct. 3. That the rejecting and utter casting off the Gospel and the Ordinance and Worship thereof after some Tastes and Experience of it is an high Offence to God and a fearful Aggravation of Sin and a certain Presage of Damnation So much as to their second Attainment 3dly And were made Partakers of the Holy Ghost This seems to be more than a bare tasting Object Doth not this seem to interfere with your Exposition of the Attainment you mentioned last Answ 1. To this take Dr. Owen's Answer It is saith he ordinary to have the same thing twice expressed in various words to quicken the Sense of them 2. The Holy Ghost is mentioned before as he hints as the great Gift of the Gospel-Times as coming down from Heaven not absolutely not as unto his Person but with respect unto an especial Work namely the changing of the whole State of Religious Worship in the Church of God 3. But here in these words when it is said They were made Partakers of the Holy Ghost it is spoken chiefly in respect unto external actual Operations 1. They partake of the Holy Spirit in the common Operations of it themselves they tasted the Heavenly Doctrine as it was administred by others as it is hinted before but here is a Reception or a partaking of the Holy Spirit whereby it had some great and visible Operations upon their Hearts and Lives though not saving Operations not such
to full satisfaction all the Pleasures of this present World are but a Shadow of the Pleasures of Heaven and of the World to come and though these satisfy not yet those will satisfy the Soul 3. They are Pleasures for evermore we shall swim in Pleasures in that World Thou wilt shew me the Way of Life in thy Presence is fulness of Joy and at thy right Hand are Pleasures for ever more 4. The Joys and Pleasures of the World to come will be so sweet that as Mr. Caryl saith a whole Eternity will seem to be but as a Moment 5. They will be Pleasures without Pain without a Sting O what a Sting have some Men found to be in or to attend their carnal Pleasures Here are Sorrows cleaving to Men as well as Joy Pain and Misery as well as Delights and Pleasure but in the World to come there will be all Sweet and no Bitter all Pleasure and no Pain all Joy and no Sorrow 6. Is God able think you to delight to rejoice and to fill the Souls of his Saints with Joy and Pleasure Be sure then he will do it God's Love is such so infinite so inconceivable to his Children that he will fill them with the fullest Joys imaginable Will not earthly Parents make the Lives of their Children as sweet and happy as they can They are called Joys unspeakable and full of Glory All the lawful Pleasures of this World are Brethren but a Figure or Shadow of them The Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive the things that God hath prepared for those that love him The Eye hath seen much and the Ear hath heard of more than the Eye ever saw and the Heart conceives of more than ever the Ear heard but the Heart cannot conceive how sweet the Joys of Christ's Kingdom will be or comprehend how transcendent the Joys of Heaven are 7. The Pleasures of the World to come are the Effects of God's infinite Love and Goodness according to the Perfection thereof And as none know the Power of God's Anger and Wrath in Hell that is let out against ungodly Sinners that hate him so none know the Power of his Infinite Love Grace and Goodness let out in Heaven to delight and ravish the Hearts of all them that love and serve him 8. The Pleasures of the World to come never will cease indeed no shorter a Time than an endless Eternity can serve to let out the infinite Goodness of the Eternal Deity and those varieties of Joys and Delights that flow and will flow like Rivers from him as none can imagine what the Nature of that personal Communion which the Saints shall have with Christ will be so also they will be Eternal Eternal Joys saith one are the longest and yet the shortest Longest in respect of Duration yet the shortest in respect of Apprehension An Eternity of Joy will seem to us no more tedious than one Minute or small Moment ' twis be so full of Joy and Pleasure 't is such Satisfaction that breed no wearisomness it doth not â—loy nor glut the Soul we living at the Fountain-head of Joy and Comfort in immediate Communion with Christ our Delights will renew as much as continue They are certainly blind or unthinking Persons that do not see how the Deity or Holy God delights in Varieties it may easily be discerned by beholding the different Varieties of Creatures Faces Colours or varieties of things to delight all our Senses here in this World O no doubt the Joys and Varieties of the World to come will be Wonderful and take up a whole Eternity for God to let out Joys will be as it were every day fresh and renewed upon us From hence saith a beloved Writer fresh Appetite and fulness of Satisfaction are perpetually interchangeable the Joys are so many the Years seem so few Eternity of Joys makes Eternity but as a Moment as eternal Pain and Torment makes every Moment seem an Eternity These things being so O who would not desire an Interest in Christ O happy happy Believer what a Choice hast thou made Exhortation Sinner what sayst thou come seek a Portion a Part in the World to come you are very busy to get a Part or Portion in this present evil World Alas alas what good can all these thing do you and how long can you keep them Come be perswaded to seek this better Country Christ hath redeemed us from this present evil World and hath purchased for us another World even this World to come Will you seek it You may have a share and part in the World to come Quest You will say which Way or how may we get a part in it Answ I answer You must marry the Prince and Heir of that World and so you shall have a Portion in it and a true Title to it you must by Faith espouse Jesus Christ there is no other way to have an Interest in the World to come Sinners you may gain the World to come and save your Souls but whilst you seek to gain this present evil World you may lose your Souls What will it profit a Man to gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Also you may have an Assurance of the World to come O strive to make it your own peculiar Inheritance take hold of the Foretop of Time Now I may say Time is hereafter it may be said Time was and then Time is past and lost for ever Remember that in this World while you are here the World to come in the Glory of it will be got or lost for ever if you obtain Grace you shall have Glory but if you have no Grace in this World no Glory you are like to have in the World to come Lastly Remember this World is near at an End 't is ready to pass away and the World to come in the Glory of it is just about to begin it is not far off He that testifieth these things saith Surely I come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus HEB. VI. 4 5. And of the Powers of the World to come THE last time I spoke of the World to come and of the Powers of it especially of the Powers Glory and Pleasures of the World to come respecting the State of the Saints therein I shall now proceed to shew you what a kind of taste of the Powers of the World to come the Persons mentioned in our Text may be said to have which is the next thing propounded to be done under this Head Secondly The Persons here meant I have proved are not true and sincere Believers though such who come very near unto such being almost Christians Now the last Qualification or Attainment they are said to arrive unto is this Of tasting of the Powers of the World to come First I shall shew you what may be meant by the Powers of the World to come Secondly Shew what a
kind of taste they may have of those Powers c. 1. By the Powers of the World to come of which they are said to have a taste I understand are meant the Glorious Effects of God's mighty Power that was and shall be further exerted in bringing in the Kingdom of the Messiah first in those miraculous Operations which being to assure us of the certainty of the new World were wrought before these Mens Eyes 2. The Powers of the World to come do doubtless consist also in the dissolving of this present World and all the States and Kingdoms of the Earth Thou hast of old laid the Foundation of the Earth and though the Heavens are the Work of thy Hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a Garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed compared with 2 Pet. 3. 10 11 12 13. The mighty Power of God shall be put forth in dissolving this old World 3. And not only so but also that God by his Almighty Power will bring in and establish the Kingdom of the Messiah in the Glory of it for as the dissolving of the old World appertains to the Power of the great God so doth also his bringing in according to his mighty Power the new Heavens and the new Earth The Heavens shall pass away with a great Noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent Heat and the Earth and the Things therein shall be burned up And all this is but to make way for the World to come or for the new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness 4. The Resurrection of the Dead also appertains to the Powers of the World to come and in it lies no small part of God's mighty Power neither Who shall change our vile Body that it may fashioned like unto his own glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself 5. The Power of the last Judgment and definitive Sentence together with the eternal Punishment of wicked Men and Devils may also be here intended Who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and the Glory of his Power 6. Moreover the exerting of God's mighty Power the Power of his Grace Divine Love and Goodness in his glorifying of the Saints may be meant also here by the Powers of the World to come When he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe For as the letting out of the Power of his Wrath and Vengeance in the World to come upon the Wicked as was hinted before may hereby be comprehended so likewise the letting out of the Power of his Love and Goodness on the Godly Secondly I shall shew you now what a kind of taste the Persons in our Text may be said to have had of the Powers of the World to come 1. They had or might have a taste of the Truth and Certainty of the World to come which they clearly saw confirmed by those miraculous Operations in the extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit and wonderful Works that were wrought by the Apostles nay which perhaps some of them had Power to do themselves for many shall say at the last Day Have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful Works To whom Christ will say I profess I never knew you depart from me ye that work Iniquity No doubt but as Saul and Balaam prophesied so Judas might as well as the other Apostles cast out Devils and do other wonderful Works 2. And as by those miraculous Operations they might have a taste of the Powers of Christ's Kingdom as it began then so this might cause them stedfastly to believe the Truth of the Powers of the World to come in the future State and Glory thereof Many Persons do not firmly believe this and therefore regard not how they live here in this present World but say let us eat and drink for to Morrow we shall die So also in another Place by the same Prophet it is said Come say they I will fetch Wine and we will fill our selves with strong Drink and to Morrow shall be as this Day and much more abundant These ungodly Wretches fear nothing of those Judgments that are come but lay their Hearts loose upon the Neck of their Lusts But the enlightned Persons in our Text did believe or give stedfast Credit to the Truth of that future State both of the Resurrection and Judgment-Day even of that Day of Reckoning when Sinners shall be punished for all their abominable Wickedness they believed God's Word and the Revelation thereof touching what will come upon the Ungodly in the World to come and so are said to taste of the Powers of it and this Persons may do and yet perish 3. They might not only have a taste of the World to come by a common Faith or by giving stedfast Credence to the Truth and Certainty of it but might also be under great Convictions of the Evil of Sin knowing that all the Sweet thereof will be turned into Bitter and that Sin in the World to come will be punished and the Sinner condemned to Everlasting Burning and that God will reward every Man according to his Deeds and might know also that some shall find greater Condemnation or a hotter Hell than others more intolerable Pain in that Day As 1. All such who draw others into Sin whether it be Drunkenness Pride Theft Uncleanness c. 2. All such who sin after strong Convictions and great Illuminations or that sin against Light and Knowledg 3. Such who have been often reproved and yet live in their wicked Practices and harden their Hearts let Ministers and godly Parents say what they will they regard it not 4. Such who have greater Means of Grace than others or who live under an awakening and powerful Ministry and yet go on in their Sins in Pride Swearing Drunkenness Uncleanness c. 5. Such who sin under Judgments or when God's Hand is lifted up and his Wrath poured out upon Men for their Abominations and greater Wrath denounced and ready to break forth 6. Such who sin boldly impudently in the Face of the Sun Shew their Sin as Sodom and hide it not 7. Such who expose the Holy Name of God which they profess to Reproach and harden the wicked World in their Sins and open the Mouths of many to blaspheme God and speak evil of his Ways and People 8. Such who delight in Sin or take pleasure in their Wickedness do boast and glory in that which is their shame 9. Such who despise and contemn Jesus Christ and his Ministers in their Hearts and wilfully cast off all Counsel 10. All thâ—se who abuse God's Patience Goodness and Long-suffering and make that an encouragement to them to continue in their evil Ways which should
the Power to change the Heart is not in the Creature it is God's Work on the Soul 't is he that stamps his own Image upon us and if he withdraws the Influences of his Holy Spirit from Men or refuses to give Grace to them in order to bring them to Repentance and to believe in Christ they must perish Now God will not afford these Persons that so fall away the Assistance of his Spirit in order to the working the great Work of Faith in them therefore it is impossible for them to be renewed He saith not saith one it is impossible they should be saved but that it is impossible they should be renewed unto Repentance these Apostates Salvation is impossible because their Repentance is impossible He that never repenteth can never be saved for he that repenteth not shall not have Remission of Sin and if the Holy Spirit be utterly withdrawn from Men it is impossible they should ever be renewed to Repentance 2. The Persons therefore here intended do not repent cannot repent Repentance is hid from their Eyes they never endeavour after Repentance they are left to hardness of Heart and to final Impenitency by the Lord as a just Judgment for their horrid Evil and cursed Apostacy possibly they may fall under Terror and Despair yet never desire or look after Repentance on God's Terms Brethren it is not impossible for the greatest Sinner in the World to be renewed that hath not sinned against the Holy Ghost or whom God hath not wholly given up to blindness of Mind and to hardness of Heart All manner of Sins and Blasphemy against the Father and the Sun shall be forgiven unto Men but the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto Men. And all Vnrighteousness is Sin and there is a Sin unto Death 3. God leaves these Persons for ever he utterly casts them off And wo unto them saith he when I depart And may say unto them and much more as he said once unto Ephraim Ephraim is joined unto Idols let him alone He commands his Ministers to let them alone and not striâ—e with them reprove not exhort them any more He saith unto Conscience Let them alone check curb reitrain nor rebuke them any more He saith unto his Spirit Let them alone move them or excite them to perform Religious Duties no more strive with them no more for ever No Doctrine no Word no Rod no Affliction or Judgment shall do them good any more for ever This Spiritual Judgment is the worst of all Judgments and so makes it impossible for them ever to be renewed unto Repentance for there remains no more Sacrifice for Sin but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversaries 4. God puts an end unto all expectation concerning them he looks for no more Good from them he exercises no more Care about them no more Labour Pains nor Patience towards them God affords no more Means of Grace for their Conversion Repentance is hid from their Eyes he says Let this Ground lie barren for ever it shall never be plowed sowed nor watered any more for ever He looks for no more Fruit he will not dress it nor dung it any more his Sun shall shine upon it no more nor shall the Rain fall upon it from Heaven any more wo unto such Souls God saith to them as Christ said when he cursed the barren Fig-tree Never Fruit grow on you any more 5. God in Judgment and Wrath gives these up to a reprobate Sense to hardness of Heart to blindness of Mind and to a seared Conscience and they become notoriously Wicked being filled with Rage and Madness full of Envy and Malice against God and against Christ and against all that fear God 6. And usually they are left in severity to their sensual Lusts and become notoriously Wicked and Prophane nay rather worse than the worst of Carnal Persons that never were enlightned at all And so he gave them up to their own Hearts Lusts and they walked in their own Counsel They are left or given up unto Satan to be led acted and influenced by him and are commonly also carried away into pernicious Errors and Delusions even to believe a Lie that so they may be damned because they received not the Truth in the Love of it that they might be saved And many times they become Persecutors of God's People reproaching vilifying and contemning all Religion Quest What a kind of Sin is the Sin against the Holy Ghost And what sort of Persons are they who may sin this Sin Answ 1. I shall shew you first in the Negative what a Sin it is not Namely all Sin or Sins whatsoever that any carnal Person who to this Day abode under the Power of Natural Ignorance and never was inlightned by any Operations of the Spirit commits for such cannot commit the Sin against the Holy Ghost it being positively said That they are such who were once enlightned 2. It is not every Sin which is against Light and Knowledg for no doubt but David and Peter sinned against Knowledg and the Light of their own Consciences and after they had been enlightned yet were recovered and renewed unto Repentance 3. The Sin against the Holy Ghost is not every Sin that is committed against the Holy Ghost for he that grieves the Holy Spirit and that quencheth the Holy Spirit sins against the Holy Spirit nay all wicked Men who sit under the Preaching of the Gospel no doubt sin against the Spirit whilst they resist the Strivings and Motions thereof 4. It is not any hainous and abominable Sin as Whoredom Perjury Murder no not Self-Murder not the murdering of the Saints of God nor putting Christ himself to Death by wicked Hands or the murdering of the Lord of Life and Glory Paul was guilty of the Blood of Stephen and many of the Jews were pardoned who might have a Hand in the barbarous Murder of the Son of God 5. It is not every wilful and presumptuous Sin for multitudes of wicked ignorant Persons so sin daily for whom there is Mercy and Pardon upon Repentance though they have a Whore's Forehead and refuse to be ashamed 6. It is not every degree of Apostacy or Backsliding from God A true Child of God may be guilty of a partial Apostacy for thus Israel sinned and fell from God nay backslid so far as to turn to cursed Idolatry yet God offered them Pardon Return backsliding Israel saith the Lord and I will not cause mine Anger to fall upon you for I am merciful saith the Lord c. 7. Nay I will not say that every malicious Sin against God's People is the Sin against the Holy Ghost when Men hate the Saints for their Religion and Goodness though it be one of the highest Degrees of Wickedness because therein their hatred against God himself is manifested But what may not a Man do that
is acted and influenced by the Devil in the Times of his Ignorance 8. It is not the Sin of Unbelief though that be a damning Sin yea the damning Sin as it is a Sin against the Remedy God hath provided and against the highest manifestation of God's Goodness and against the highest Testimony and Witness yet many that thus sin nay continue at present in and under the Power of Unbelief may come to see their horrid Evil and by the Grace of God may believe and be forgiven this as well as other Sins Lastly I have shewed you that no true Believer can commit this Sin He that is born of God cannot commit Sin viz. he cannot sin unto Death So much in the Negative what Sin the Sin against the Holy Ghost is not Secondly I shall shew you in the Affirmative according to that Light I have what Sin this Sin is or open the Nature thereof and what sort of Persons they are who do or may commit it 1. The Persons that may commit the Sin against the Holy Ghost our Text informs us are such who have been once enlightned and that have attained to the Knowledg of the Truth or true way of Salvation by Jesus Christ and have had such a kind of Taste of the Heavenly Gift and of the good Word of God and Powers of the World to come more or less of which I have shewed they have received the Gifts and common Graces of the Spirit 2. And also have escaped the Corruptions of the World through the Knowledg of Jesus Christ or attained to a great Reformation of Life in so much that they were look'd upon as Saints and eminent Christians many of them being Professors of the Gospel and might be great Preachers thereof Tho it seems that others who never professed the Gospel were and may be guilty of committing of this Sin as those Jews no doubt were who said our Blessed Saviour did cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils 3. It is a sinning wilfully after a Person hath received the Knowledg of the Truth or Gospel of Christ For if we sin wilfully after we have received the Knowledg of the Truth there remains no more Sacrifice for Sin Though every wilful sinning is not this Sin yet every one that is guilty thereof doth sin wilfully and that in the highest degree Pray note it 't is a wilful casting off and forsaking the Truth of God and an utter deserting the Church and People of God nay a wilful rejecting the Truth which they before had embraced and tasted some sweetness in opposing and contradicting that which the Holy Spirit testifies to their Consciences is the Truth of Christ therefore they wilfully reject the Motions of the Holy Ghost nay contemn the Operations thereof 4. And as it is a rejecting of the Motions and Operations of the Holy Spirit after those Illuminations they had received so also it is done maliciously or from Spite and Malice And hath done Despite unto the Spirit of Grace They wilfully desert the Assemblies of God's Church and People and esteem the Blood of Christ whereby he was consecrated a Sacrifice unto God or as some whereby they thought once they had been sanctified an unholy Thing and accounting the Motions of the Holy Spirit and his Operations a meer Delusion of the Devil And thus some of the Pharisees sinned Christ healed one possessed of an unclean Spirit a Work wrought by the Power of the Holy Ghost they imputed it to the Devil saying This Fellow casteth out Devils by the Prince of Devils This was a wilful Sin and done no doubt in Malice and against the Convictions of their own Consciences for they could not certainly but know that he was the Son of God by the wonderful Works he did See ver 31 32. Upon this our Saviour doth intimate that they were guilty of sinning the Sin against the Holy Ghost that shall never be forgiven unto Men. 5. It is a treading under Foot the Son of God contemning and vilifying him as these Pharisies seem'd to do and which as it is thought by many Julian the Apostate was guilty of who in difdain when he was wounded threw his Blood up towards Heaven crying Thou Galilean thou hast overcome me or to that purpose he in reproach and hatred seemed to call Christ a Galilean would not call him by any one of his own proper Names 6. And lastly It doth consist in a fatal and utter renunciation of the Christian Religion and all the Institutions Doctrines and Principles thereof and a turning to Judaism or Idolatry or else to perfect Atheism and all this as Dr. Owen signifies with an avowed and professed Enmity to Christ and Christianity and therefore not without the highest Reproach and Contempt imaginable against the Person of Christ as well as against the Gospel imbracing the Love of Sin or of the Riches and Honours of this present evil World valuing their Lusts above the Comfort of the Holy Ghost We have as if they should say tasted of the Spirit and of heavenly Things and do disclaim him and them and witness against him and by that Experience we have had do disown all that pretended Good that some boast of 〈◊〉 be in their Divine Things and contemn that Spirit they glory in and are led by APPLICATION First Take heed of those Sins that tend or lead to this unpardonable Sin 1. Take heed of a malicious Thought against the Holy Ghost don't think it is the Devil that disquiets and disturbs you about Sin Wrath and Hell you convicted Sinners look to it that you charge not these Convictions you have of the Evil of your Sin upon Satan He you may be sure will not trouble you for your Sins but let you go on peaceably in your wicked Ways though when you are awakened he may perswade you that there is no Mercy for you Doubts and desparing Thoughts commonly rise from Satan but not Sorrow and Grief for Sin No no that is from your Conscience a it is influenced by the Holy Ghost 2. Beware of harbouring a malicious Thought of Religion or of praying by the Holy Spirit as I heard lately or a wicked Man who hearing a Minister pray in a most excellent manner that said How doth the Devil help him or to that effect O this is dangerous 3. Take heed of blasphemous Words against the Holy Spirit Will any dare to say that the Devil is in God's People that they are so resolute in their Ways and will not conform to the National Church 4. Beware you that make a Profession of Religion and that have been enlightned how you fall away and turn again to Folly and to your sinful Practices for this is the high Way to the unpardonable Sin or Sin unto Death you know not but that a partial Apostacy may end in a total one at last 5. Above all things look to it that you rest not on a common Work of the
satisfy the Law and Justice for you Friend you are acquitted Brethren thus it is here Christ offered himself and the Father accepted him in our stead to die for us and to bear that Wrath that was due to us for our Sins and this he did then even when we first sinned in Adam So that we may say in due time Christ died for the Ungodly just as the Stroke of Wrath and Divine Justice was falling on us for it was all one as if he had then actually suffered And also his Blood was as efficacious to save and absolve Adam and all that did believe and apply the Virtue thereof before it was shed as it is to us who believe in these latter Times of the World after it has been shed more than sixteen hundred Years Would not such a guilty Malefactor I mentioned say O this is a great Salvation indeed nay stand and admire at it he expecting nothing but Death and had none to help him or afford any hope or relief to him in the least APPLICATION 1. We may from hence infer God's Love to Mankind is inconceivable nay his Love to sinful Man to lost Man rebellious Man What is Man that thou art mindful him such a vile Creature a Worm a filthy and loathsom Worm a cursed Rebel and Traitor against God that God should let out his Thoughts from Eternity upon him when the Sentence was past against him and he ready to go down to the Pit of Everlasting Wrath and Misery that he should say Deliver him from going down into the Pit I have found a Ransom 'T is not he that is Man himself hath found a Ransom No no I have saith God found a Ransom the Just for the Vnjust or in the room and place of the guilty Sinner It is not I have found Man's good Works Man's reformed Life his Repentance his Faith his Tears his sincere Obedience no but it is the Obedience of Christ the Blood of Christ the Sacrifice of Christ the Merits and Righteousness of Christ this God hath found to be our Ransom God hath found a full Ransom a perfect Ransom God accepted of Christ's Sacrifice for a Compleat Satisfaction it is more satisfactory than if we had lain in Hell for ever for we must always have been paying but never could have made Satisfaction O who could have thought of such a Ransom of such a way of Salvation in this lies the Depth of Divine Wisdom and the Great Mystery of the Gospel How should we adore and admire the Grace of God in Jesus Christ 2. To you poor Sinners let me speak one word by way of Exhortation Did God so early contrive our Salvation O then do you set your Hearts on work to seek this Salvation I mean an Interest in it be early at it do not defer it You young Men think upon it in the morning of your Days this Salvation calls for your utmost diligence to understand and find out the Gospel is a Mystery 't is not easily understood The Preaching of a Crucified Christ is to some Men Foolishness but to them that are saved it is the Power of God Many stumble at the Stumbling-stone God hath laid in Sion Christ is to some a Stumbling-stone and a Rock of Offence but take heed he is not so to you 3. Was there a Council held in Eternity about our Salvation O then consult with all Wisdom the grand Design of God herein It is to exalt his own Glory his own Name his own Free Grace and this being so let it be all your care to advance the Riches of his Grace and let God be wholly exalted and do you lie low at his Feet O close in with God's Counsel accept of this way of Life do not think there is any other way 4. And lastly Consider that the Greatness of God's Mercy and Divine Goodness to us was also one grand End and Design in finding out this Salvation It doth display his unspeakable Love and Bowels towards his poor Creature Man True he had the like regard to his Justice but his Justice had been magnified in our Destruction if his Mercy had never appeared But that his Mercy might be manifested what hath he done his own Son hath born our Sins he hath laid the Hand of his Justice and let out that Wrath that must have lain upon us for ever upon his own Son that Mercy might flow forth to us This should teach us to study Acts of Mercy and contrive that way to be like unto the Holy and Merciful God This is that which he requires of us even to do justly love Mercy and to walk humbly with our God HEB. II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation I AM upon the Proof and Demonstration of the first Point of Doctrine raised from our Text viz. That Gospel-Salvation is a Great and Glorious Salvation I have spoken to this already under five Considerations Sixthly The Salvation of the Gospel is Great and Glorious if we consider the Glory and Greatness of those Persons who sat in Counsel about bringing of it in and working of it out for sinful Man We commonly judg of the Greatness of the Undertaking and the Glory of the Work by considering the Dignity Glory Wisdom Power and Greatness of the Persons concerned in it Now if this Work I mean the Salvation of sinful Man had been put into the Hands of the mighty Angels and they had called a Council about it and shewed their uttermost Skill Wisdom and Power in order to the actual accomplishment thereof would not all say this must needs be some great and wonderful Work or a great Salvation But alas they could neither have sound out a way of Salvation for us much less have wrought it out Could they any way have thought how the Glory of every Attribute of God might have been raised and have shone forth in equal Lustre could they have secured the Glory of God's Justice and Holiness and have made up the Wrong we had done to God by our Sin and so have opened a Way for Mercy and Goodness to run down like a mighty Stream and secured the Sanction of the Law and yet have delivered Man from the Curse thereof God must not will not lose the Glory of any one of his Attributes let what will become of the Rebellious Sinner Alas they could never have found out a way whereby the Attributes of Mercy and Justice might meet together and Righteousness and Truth kiss each other the Persons then who found and wrought out this Salvation were not the Holy Angels of God No no none but God himself could do it The Salvation of Israel is of the Lord He is our Saviour How often is this expressed in the Psalms and in other places of the Holy Scripture Salvation is ascribed to the Lord to him only yea to his own Arm to the greatness of his Power Therefore my own Arm brought Salvation
Brethren each Person in the Trinity hath a part in it the Father hath his Part the Son hath his Part and the Holy Ghost hath his Part also Remember that these three are one though three Persons or Subsistences yet but one and the same God one in Essence though distinguished as to their distinct Personalities the Person of the Father is not the Person of the Son the Father took not upon him Flesh and died for our Sins but the Son the Son sent not the Father but the Father sent the Son The Father and the Son do not proceed from the Holy Ghost but the Holy Ghost doth proceed from them But a little to open and insist upon the distinct Parts which each Person hath and how concerned in the accomplishing of this great Salvation 1. The Father is held forth in the Scripture as the Contriver or first Author of this Salvation All Things are of God who hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ All Things in and about our Salvation are of God the Father as he is the Fountain and Spring of it He hath devised means that his banished might not for ever be expelled from him I have found a Ransom Where did God find it saith Reverend Caryl Certainly in his own Bosom in his own Heart Jesus Christ came out of the Bosom of the Father there he was and God found him in and with himself he did not find the Ransom by chance but he found it in his own Wisdom Love and Goodness 2. The Father was injured his Glory seemed to be eclipsed by Sin therefore must be righted and his Honour repaired and he sought out the proper way to do it I know as if God should say how to do the poor Sinner good I know how to save him and do my own Honour my Justice Truth and Holiness no wrong my Honour is secured my Justice is satisfied and yet the Sinner whom my Heart is set upon shall be saved 3. The Father could only appoint the Terms and Way of our Salvation Who but God could tell or did know what would comport with his Truth and Justice and with the Sanction of his Righteous Law and Infinite Holiness And he saw it did not comport with his Truth Justice Holiness and Blessed Law to save Man meerly as an Act of Sovereign Mercy but it did agree in his Infinite Wisdom to transfer the Punishment of the Sinner to another namely to his own Son he taking our Nature on him who from the Union of the two Natures in one Person procured an Infinite Satisfaction or made a Plenary Compensation for our Sins 4. God the Father is therefore held forth as the Person who substituted his own Son as Mediator and Surety in our stead and room to work out our Redemption or this great and glorious Salvation and to this end prepared him a Body A Body hast thou prepared me And the Father is said also to send his Son How many times doth our Blessed Saviour ascribe this unto the Father in the Gospel recorded by John I am perswaded not less than forty times The Father that sent me is with me God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World This is the Will of him that sent me 5. All the Blessings of our Salvation are ascribed to the free Bounty Mercy Love and Goodness of God the Father Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his People and hath raised up an Horn of Salvation c. And therefore he is stiled The Father of Mercies and God of all Comfort Now this being so what an abominable thing is it for the Socinians to say That the Doctrine of Satisfaction renders the Son more merciful and kind than the Father see Penn's Sandy Foundation shaken No this is very unjustly and unrighteously thrown upon this great Gospel-Truth Certainly it exalts the Goodness and Mercy of God the Father far more than their idle and absurd Notion of God's pardoning Sin in a way of meer Mercy without a Satisfaction to his offended Justice seeing God in a way of Mercy and Divine Goodness is so set upon this Work of our Salvation that though it cost him the Life of his own Son yet it shall be done he will not spare him He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all The Father did not spare him as an Act of his own Love and Goodness to us God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son Certainly that Person shews greater Love and Pity to another who to save him gives a Million than he that gives but a Pound Must God by these Men be deemed to have no Mercy at all because he seeks the Honour of his Justice equally with the Glory of his Mercy Is he not Merciful because he is Just as well as Gracious 6. Brethren it was the Father that loved us and chose us in Jesus Christ before the Foundation of the World which is the Spring of all Spiritual Blessings even of Redemption and Salvation it self 7. Moreover the Father is said to raise Jesus Christ from the Dead Though the Son being God could raise himself yet as Mediator the Power to quicken whomsoever he will is said to be given to him by the Father Besides it is the meer Grace and good Pleasure of God the Father to accept of Christ and his Obedience for us and to accept of us in Jesus Christ Also it is the Father that blesseth us with all Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus Nay no Man Christ says can come unto him unless it be given by the Father that is Power must be given to him to come And again he saith No Man can come unto me except my Father that sent me draw him We ought therefore to see we do not lessen the Glory of God the Father in our Salvation who is the Efficient the Original and moving Cause thereof My Father saith Christ hitherto worketh and I work Brethren we are not to attribute the Works of Creation and Providence to God the Father only for he hath a great and glorious Hand in the Work of Redemption I may say to accomplish this Work even the Salvation of his Elect he worketh hitherto and Christ also worketh which brings me to consider of the next Person in the Trinity concerned herein Secondly As the Father hath as you have heard his part in bringing in the great Salvation of the Gospel so Jesus Christ the Son of God hath his part in working of it out the Father fix'd on him as the great Agent actually to perfect it he is in such a peculiar manner concerned in it that his Name is Saviour his Name shall be called Jesus Jesus signifies a Saviour certainly this must needs be a great Salvation if we consider the Greatness Dignity and Glory of his Person whom God hath sent to save us
the Crown of our Heads to the Soles of our Feet it is more filthy than the filthiest thing in the World in God's sight And as all the Faculties of our Souls were poisoned thereby so all the Members of our Bodies are defiled and polluted with it also Nay and it is such a kind of Pollution that renders the Sinner loathsom to God God is said to be grieved with Sin nay grieved that he made Man grieved at his Heart because every Imagination of the Thought of his Heart was evil continually God is said upon this to repent that he made Man not that God properly can repent it signifies an alienation of God's Heart and Affections from Man for his Sin and Wickedness whereby he carries himself towards him as we do when we repent we have done a thing 2. It was therefore hereby that we lost God's Love and Favour and is not that a dismal and most bitter thing Man's only Happiness lies in his Likeness to God and in the enjoyment of his Love and the Light of his sweet Countenance But this the whole Race of Mankind lost by Original Sin and instead of his Love we were brought under his Wrath. Sin incurr'd the Wrath and Anger of God God is angry with the Wicked every Day And as we by Sin became Enemies to God so also hereby God became an Enemy to us And if we consider what it cost God and cost Jesus Christ to make our Peace or to make up this Breach sure we must say this is a great and wonderful Salvation 3. Sin is the worst of Evils it is the Plague of Plagues it is worse than any Affliction Afflictions oft-times bring us nearer unto God but Sin drives us further from him Sin is a departing from God a leaving and forsaking of God a casting of God off the more we are afflicted the more we are made conformable to Jesus Christ He was afflicted and a Man of Sorrows but the more we sin the more like we are unto the Devil Nay and by Afflictions we are purged and are said to partake of the Holiness of God therefore there is much Good in Affliction but Sin hath nothing but Evil in it hurtful Evil Soul-defiling and Soul-damning Evil. Sin is the Spring and Cause of all other Evils it is the Cause of all Sickness and of all Sorrow and Misery nay and 't is the Cause of Death it self The Wages of Sin is Death nay the Sting of Death is Sin that which makes Death so terrible to a wicked Man 4. Sin hath put Mankind into Satan's Hand who hath laid him in cruel Chains Consider what a thing it is to be taken Captive by a grand and merciless Tyrant Satan took all Mankind Captive and holds them still who are under the Power of it in Captivity they are his Bondmen his Slaves he takes them Captive at his Will Every vicious Habit is a strong Bond or Chain in which Satan binds his Vassals All Men naturally are bound down under the Bond of Ignorance Unbelief and Hardness of Heart such is the Nature of Sin Christ came to set at liberty such that were bound I perceive saith Peter that thou art in the Gall of Bitterness and in the Bond of Iniquity And O what is the Strength of these Bonds Who can break them but the Arm of the Omnipotent God Moreover these Bonds bind the Soul unto and under the Wrath of God O what a kind of Salvation is it that delivers us from Sin and out of the Power of Satan 5. Sin hath put out the Eyes of all Mankind and stripp'd them naked and wounded them unto Death All Men are born blind the Eyes of our Understanding naturally are darkened the State of Mâ—n by Nature is most miserable it is set out by a wretched Infant cast out in the open Fiâ—la in its Blood in the Day of its Nativity having none to pity it to wash it nor swade it at all We are all naturally most loathsom full of filthy Sâ—abs and running Sores and yet such iâ— the Ignorance and Blindness of the Sinner's Eyes and unsensibleness of his State that he sees it not feels it not but thinks all is well with him and is ready to fly into that Man's Face that shall tell him such iâ— his Condition 6. Moreover Sin feeds Men poorly How do they feed What is their Table spread with Are they served with the Best They are fed as it were with Mallows and Janiper-roots That saith Caryl is the Chear Sin make â—â— them yea Wickedness will be as Gravel in their Teeth and as Poison in their Bowels True some of them feed their Bodies deliciously every Day they are full fed they have liberal large and plentiful Tables But alas what have their Souls to eat What did the Soul of the Prodigal find Did he not feed on the Husks which the Swine did eat Their Food is and will be Gall and Wormwood he feedeth on Ashes saith the Prophet all his Hopes will deceive him and prove vain like the Spider's Web the Pleasures Honours Riches and Comforts of this Life are the Food wicked Men live upon they never tasted in a Spiritual manner of God they know not how good he is nor do they desire to eat that which is Good but the Time is coming in which they will desire to taste of Christ's Supper and shall not be admitted because they refused to come to the Wedding O what is Sin and how miserable is the Condition of Sinners And doth not this sâ—t forth and tend to demonstrate the greatness of this Salvation which delivers us from so great an Evil He shall save his People from their Sins He that understands no Evil in Sin as Man is fallen from God hath lost God the first Cause and chiefest Good and last End and being under the Power of a constant Enmity against him and in this deplorable Condition as I have hinted will have as one observes other apprehension of thâ—se things when at last he misses of a Part in this Great Salvation and when the Means of it shall not be afforded any more to him for ever And on the other Hand he that comes to see this to be his State and obtains an Interest in this Salvation will say it is a Great and Glorious Salvation Secondly By this Salvation we are delivered from that which is destructive to our whole Souls and Bodies 1. The Sinner by Sin is as you heard a Slave a Captive and under Satan's Power bound in strong Chains c. And now let me add he is for his Sin cursed by the Lord and condemned to die by his Righteous Law nay the Law le ts fly or denounces most bitter Curses against Sin even against every Sin and every Sinner that takes not hold of this Salvation Cursed is he that continues not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them From this
and being fallen into the Hands of Justice it self but meeting with a Friend who paid all he owed he cannot but cry out O great Love and Compassion that would be a Deliverance indeed But it is nothing to this we in a spiritual Sense being delivered from Hell by Jesus Christ who payed our Debts for us each of us owing not less than ten thousand Talents I mean so many Sins and every Sin a greater Debt than ten thousand Pounds And this brings me to the next Demonstration Eighthly The Salvation of the Gospel is a Great and Glorious Salvation if we consider the Way and Means by which this Salvation is wrought out and accomplished for us It could not be effected except the Son of God became Man or without the Incarnation Mediation and bloody Passion of Jesus Christ The precious Blood of Christ must be poured forth or there was no Salvation no Deliverance for our Souls Gold nor Silver could not purchase it nor the best of all earthly things For as much as ye know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold from a vain Conversation received by Tradition from your Fathers but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spâ—t No such Price would be accepted of God so precious is the Redemption of the Soul Quest But may be some may say Could not the Law effect it Could not the keeping the Precepts the Law of the Ten Commandments do it nor the Sacrifices of the Law procure Salvation for us Answ No it was impossible the Law requires perfect Righteousness sinless Obedience besides we have broke it and thereby the whole World is become guilty before God And could the Blood of Beasts the Blood of Bulls and Goats take away Sin or satisfy Divine Justice and so make an Atonement for our Iniquities No no For it is not possible that the Blood of Bulls and Goats should take away Sin Sin cannot be done away without an infinite Price What Influence could the Blood of Beasts have to take away Sin being in their own Nature corporal things they could not deliver us from the spiritual Evil of the Soul nor were they ordained of God to that End and Purpose but to point out the great Sacrifice Besides saith the Text Sacrifice and Offerings for Sin thou wouldst not but a Body hast thou prepared me It must be the Blood of Christ whose Sufferings had a satisfactory and inconceivable Worth in them For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh Compare this with that Passage of the Holy Ghost in Heb. 1. 3. Who being the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person and upholding all things by the Word of his Power when he had by himself purged our Sins sat down on the right Hand of the Majesty on High He being God as well as Man or his Humanity being hypostatically united to his Divine Nature offered up himself by the Eternal Spirit a Propitiatory Sacrifice unto God by which Satisfaction and Merits he purged or took away the Guilt and Pollution of Sin and delivered us from that just and deserved Wrath that was due unto it by bearing of it himself in our Nature and stead so that God who was injured and whose Holy Law was violated might be just or that his Justice might appear for he could as soon cease to be God as cease to be just and yet hereby he magnifies his Mercy also What can we desire more than to be delivered from Sin and purged from Sin This was the Way and no other which the Wisdom of God found out in Christ both those Attributes are united so that Justice as well as Mercy says Whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ or lays hold of his Righteousness by Faith shall be justified and eternally saved The Apostle adds his being sat down on the right Hand of God to intimate he hath made our Peace obtained Redemption for us and brought in by his Obedience Everlasting Righteousness and made an end of Sin and as a mighty Conqueror has triumphed and is gone to Heaven and there appears at the Father's right Hand to plead the Merits of his own Blessed Sacrifice and that Atonement he hath made for us by his own Blood on the Tree O consider what our Salvation cost him what did he do to work about this Salvation Why he 1. Became Incarnate or was made Flesh And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us and we behold his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth Though he was equal with God as you lately heard yet he took on him the form of a Servant 2. He became poor Sirs Jesus Christ who was rich that he might accomplish the Salvation of our Souls became poor May not this affect our Hearts We must be miserable for ever or Christ must become poor and seem to be miserable for a Time No Salvation for us useless our Blessed Saviour doth abase himself and take our Nature upon him For verily he took not on him the Nature of Angels but took on him the Seed of Abraham All this was Brethren to bring this Blessed Salvation to his chosen Ones 3. He in his humane Nature must be made under the Law and so become obnoxious or liable to the Obedience the Law required yea he was obliged to keep it exactly in every part thereof When the Fulness of time was come God sent forth his own Son made of a Woman made under the Law The Apostle adds the Reason of this to redeem them that were under the Law He thus became not only bound to do what the Law required but to suffer what the Law threatned and 〈◊〉 on us who had broke and violated it and this in our Nature or in the same Nature that had sinned in which 〈◊〉 the Justice of God required a Satisfaction for the wrong Sin had do 〈◊〉 unto him Which being impossible for sinful Man 〈…〉 and that we might not be exposed for ever unto th◠〈…〉 Wrath and Punishment in Hell which was due to 〈…〉 for us or in our place that we through 〈…〉 Obedience and painful Death and Suffering both in 〈…〉 Body might obtain a gracious Discharge from Siâ— or free Justification unto Life and a full deliverance from Wrath and Eternâ—â— Death 4. Nay and as he must diâ— if he procures Salvation for us so by this means he also was made a Curse for us for we having broken the Law 〈◊〉 under the Curse of it the Law le ts fly its bitter Curses against very 〈◊〉 thereof For as many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse and therefore impossible for us to be 〈◊〉 and saved by it Whosoever keepeth not the
and Pleasure O what a great Salvation is Gospel-Salvation How soon doth eternal Misery or Torment seize upon the Ungodly even no sooner do they die but their Souls are in Hell and no sooner do Believers die but their Souls are in Paradise and had not Christ came and wrought out our Salvation our Souls must have lain under Wrath and Misery for ever in an eternal separation from God and all true Joy and Happiness O what a fearful and an amazing Loss is the loss of the Soul Sirs pray remember this Salvation is the Salvation of your precious Souls thy Soul O Sinner is dearly concerned in it Our Soul is our All what have we more A Man is never utterly undone till his Soul is utterly lost if the Soul is saved all is saved but if the Soul is lost for ever lost all is lost But 2 dly The loss or losing of the Soul is the loss of the Body too that must have perished for ever with the Body of Beasts whilst our Souls must have lain in Torments had not Christ came to redeem us Moreover The Salvation of the Soul is the Salvation of the Body Christ came to save both the Soul and Body too And hence the Apostle saith Even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body that is for the farther Effects of our Adoption Now are we the Sons of God but it doth not appear what we shall be that is it doth not appear what we shall be when our Bodies shall be raised He shall change our vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his own glorious Body This Salvation saves not our Souls only from Wrath but our Bodies also they shall rise to Life and Immortality the Bodies of the Wicked as well as their Souls shall be cast into Hell but the Bodies and the Souls of the Godly shall be glorified in Heaven for ever O what a grievous thing it is to think of the loss of the Body to have the Soul taken away from the Body But how sweet is it to think of that Day when those two old Friends shall meet together again and when both shall be delivered from all Evil from all Deformity and Pollution and be glorified and also shall never part more or be separated from each other to the Days of Eternity APPLICATION 1. Reproof to such who despise their own precious Souls What Fools are they who to save their Hutts lose their Heads or who to save their Goods in a fearful Fire lose their dear Child in the Cradle As I once told you of a Woman that did thus her House was on Fire and she bestirred her self to get out her best Goods and at last when she could go in no more she rejoiced that she had saved her Goods but said one to her Woman where is your Child O my Child my Child then she cried her Child when it was too late for that was burned to Death in the Cradle Just thus some to get and save their Goods to get the World lose their Souls We read of some who to save their Lives or their Bodies from being burned to Ashes for Christ denied Christ they could not burn for him What saith our Saviour He that seeks to save his Life shall lose it What Fools are they then who think that way to save their Bodies for as they lose their Souls so they lose their Bodies also And it is not worse to have the Body to â—e in Hell-Fire for ever than to be burned in Martyrdom and be consumed to Ashes in Corporal Fire 2. Consider that all such who neglect this great Salvation slight and neglect their own precious and immortal Souls What is the Hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his Soul He makes a bad Market that puts off his Soul at any Price What shall a Man give in exchange of his Soul Jesus Christ who knew the great worth of it laid down a Price of infinite Value to redeem and purchase it Witches they say sell their Souls to the Devil out of Malice to be revenged on some that have offended them What a dismal thing is that how fearful is their State But pray Brethren what do they lose who sell their Souls to the Devil as it were for the sake of their brutish Lusts or out of love to Sin Thus the Whoremongers and unclean Persons sell their Souls and Drunkards who will have their merry Bouts their Cups and Pots and silthy Companions and may be their Whores too let what will become of their immortal Souls others will have their Pride and haughty Hearts gay Clothes and their detestable Dresses though their Souls are clothed with Rags and a crawling Worm knaws on them and to Hell must be thrown at last where the Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched Moreover the carnal Worldling will be rich he will lay up Gold and Silver he will gain the World though he lose thereby his own Soul But remember Sinners Christ died for the Soul this Salvation is the Salvation of the Soul and does any wretched Sinner despise his Soul or is it think you not worth his Pains to part with his Cups with his sinful Companions with his or her Pride unlawful Gain or the love of this World to save it for ever 3. How does this tend to reprove such who do expose their precious Souls to eternal Wrath for the unjust Gain of Six-pence or a Shilling Are there not too many such in the World who will cheat lie and defraud their Neighbours for a small matter of profit O how dear will they one Day pay for that Gain 4. How does this reprove likewise such Parents that think they can never do enough for to enrich their Children or get them great Portions and care not what they eat drink wear or how richly their Bodies are deck'd and adorned but take no care of their immortal Souls but rather indulge them in their Sins and vain and wicked Practices and set also Soul damning Examples continually before their Eyes 5. We may also infer from hence what a mighty Charge an amazing Charge Parents have committed to them as also the Ministers of the Gospel who are to take care and watch over the Souls of such who are committed to them as such that must one Day give an Account of them 6. Moreover wo be to such who deceive and blindly lead the Souls of Men to destruction that are so exceeding precious If the Blind lead the Blind they will both fall into the Ditch 7. Shall I exhort you Sinners to look to Christ for the Salvation of your Souls 1. He bids you look to him Look unto me and be ye saved all ye Ends of the Earth 2. Consider that there is no other way to save your Souls there is but one Saviour and one way of Salvation There is no other Name given under
e. believe in Christ receive by Faith this Salvation and God is thy Portion Christ is thy Portion 5. God is a present Portion and also a future Portion you may feed on this Portion and the more you live on this Portion the more you have 6. God is an infinite Portion an inconceivable Portion whatsoever is in God so far as it is communicable or God seeth good to impart of himself to us so much of God we shall have what God iâ— and what God has is a Believer's 7. Sinner a Portion thou must have and God too to be thy Portion or thou must perish for ever The loss of God at first was the undoing of all Mankind that was our ruin nor can that Loss be ever repaired until we have God again an eternall loss of God will be the Torment and Misery of the Damned 8. The Reason why the Father sent Jesus Christ to work out this Salvation was that we might have God to be our God Brethren God saith to every one of you that are Believers as he said to Abraham Fear not Abraham I am thy Shield and thy exceeding great Reward Such may say with David My Flesh and Heart faileth but God is the strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever And with the Church in the Lamentations The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul therefore will I hope in him 9. Brethren God in this Salvation breaks up as I may say the Fountain of the great Depths of his Divine Grace Love and Goodness The Passage was stop'd by our Sin till Christ opened it by shedding his Blood there was no other way whereby God might let out of himself in his Eternal Goodness to us but this Way only to the Glory of all his Divine Attributes 10. Hereby we have not only God to be our God our Portion but he is so restored to all that believe that they shall never lose him again for ever 11. Did we want a Surety not only to pay our Debts but also to secure us in a State of Grace and to preserve all our Riches for us this Salvation provides such a glorious Surety for us Alas we are like poor Orphans under Age whilst in this World and are not able nor fit to be intrusted with what is our own I mean to have it in our own Hands therefore we and all our Riches are put into the Hand of Christ to keep and improve our Riches for us and to give of it forth to us as he in his Wisdom sees best for us They that slight this Salvation slight this Portion this God and all true Happiness in him in this Salvation this Portion is offered to you Sinners God is willing to be your God your Friend your Father and Portion for ever Here is God in this Salvation Christ in this Salvation the Holy Spirit in this Salvation God and all the Fulness of God Christ and all the Riches of Christ the Holy Spirit and all the Graces and Blessings of the Spirit the Pearl of great Price is thine if thou hast a Part and Interest in this Salvation Here is the Spirit to quicken thee to renew thee to sanctify thee to strengthen thee to comfort thee here is Grace to deck and adorn thee rich Robes to cover thee the Promises to chear thee feed and support thee the Ordinances to feast thee and Angels to guard protect and preserve thee O what a full compleat and comprehensible Salvation Brethren is the Salvation of the Gospel 23. And lastly here is Heaven in this Salvation Heaven and all the Glory of it here is a Kingdom in this Salvation a Kingdom of Glory of Light of Joy and Pleasure here is a Crown that fadeth not away in this Salvation a Crown and Kingdom for every Christian therefore this Salvation is great and glorious HEB. II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation BRETHREN the last time I shewed you that Gospel-Salvation is a great and glorious Salvation because it is a full a perfect and compleat Salvation it is not a piece or part of our Salvation that Christ worked and doth work out for us but it is the whole of it in every part thereof Twelfthly 'T is a Great Salvation in respect of the first and principal Minister Preacher and Publisher of it this is one of the Apostle's Arguments and Demonstrations in our Text which at first began to be spoken by the Lord c. Jesus Christ was not only the Saviour that God sent and the Author and Finisher of this Salvation but the Revealer the Minister or Preacher of it God who in times past spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets they were his Ministers Hath in these last Days spoken to us by his Son that is his Son personally as he was manifest in the Flesh 1. His own Son his only Son his only begotten Son he hath no other Son begotten by an eternal Generation but Christ alone 2. The Father's Heir The Heir of all things by whom also he made the World who is the express Image of the Father's Person and the Brightness of his Glory 3. He that hath the absolute Lordship and Dominion over all Creatures in Heaven and Earth 4. Nay and God the Father also speaks himself in him in such a sort and manner as he never before spoke in any Instrument He hath spoken unto us that is the Father in and by the Son who is in personal Union with himself O what a kind of Salvation is this what a Gospel is this that is thus revealed made known and published unto us What Mortal can think to escape that neglects so great Salvation What were the Holy Angels who delivered the Law or what were the Prophets to this glorious Person I mean the Son of God But at last of all he sent unto them his Son saying They will reverence my Son sure they will attend upon his Word Can they forbear honouring and reverencing such a Person Now I will try them as if God should say they may know the Matter is of great Moment and I am in good Earnest and look for Fruit from them Sirs Jesus Christ by Calling or Office when he was upon the Earth was a Minister a Preacher O what great Condescension was this in him who is the true and eternal God! and what an honourable Employment is this What a high and sublime Office is the Office of a Gospel-Minister With what Trembling and Fear ought it to be undertaken I come not to be ministered to but to minister that is to preach the Gospel to communicate heavenly Treasure to the Souls of Men and Women The Priests under the Law were God's Ministers Jesus Christ is God's High Priest and therefore his chief Minister we must receive the Law at his Mouth at this Priest's Mouth We have such an High Priest who is set down on the right Hand of the Throne of the
he cannot see the Kingdom of God and that But he that believeth not the Wrath of God abideth on him and this in my Text touching the Impossibility there is for any Man to escape that neglects this so great Salvation and whatsoever else is contained in the New-Testament 3. It was also ratified and confirmed by the Blood of Christ by his Death and by his glorious Resurrection and by the rending the Vail of the Temple and by that great Darkness that was at the time when our Lord gave up the Ghost over all the Earth and by the rising of many of the dead Bodies of the Saints after his Resurrection Look to it Sirs this Salvation must needs be very great that was thus confirmed Fourteenthly The Gospel-Salvation is great if we consider with what amazement the Holy Angels behold it they are said to look into it 1 Pet. 1. 10 11 12. Of which Salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the Grace that should come unto you Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified before-hand the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow Vnto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven which things the Angels desire to look into They look into it with the greatest diligence do as it were bow down to pry into it they stand as it were astonished to see the Son of God in Flesh or having taken Man's Nature upon him he that is their mighty Lord and Soveraign to abase himself to such a degree and to die the shameful Death of the Cross to work out Salvation for such vile and rebellious Creatures as Mankind are 'T is said He was seen of Angels The Angels knew of Christ's coming no doubt long before he was manifest in the Flesh The Angel told Daniel of the seventy Weeks and of the cutting off of the Messiah and the Angels also brought the first News of his Incarnation and Nativity but nevertheless with what Wonderment was he seen of the Angels The natural Knowledg of the Angels which we understand not no doubt is great but they have also an experimental Knowledg they learn of the Church the manifold Wisdom of God They were likewise Witnesses of our Saviour's Resurrection and ministred to him in his bloody Agony Lo the Salvation of our Souls doth not a little affect the Holy Angels they see God's Love is more to Mankind than it was to those Creatures of their own Nature that fell I mean the Evil Angels O my Brethren shall the Angels look into this Salvation whom it concerned not as it doth us they did not need a Saviour to redeem them and shall not we look into it pry into it and be affected therewithal Shall all in Heaven contemplate it and not we Is it so great so glorious and shall we not mind it above all things Fifteenthly It is great Salvation because it is a free Salvation it is all of Grace You may have it Sinners without Money and without Price Isa 55. 1. True some things you must part with whoever you are that will have a part in this Salvation But what is that Nothing of any Worth nothing that will do you any good You must part with your Sins with your filthy Lusts with the Love of this World Christ came to save his People from their Sins not in their Sins no no. They that will not part with their Iniquities with their carnal and sinful Pleasures Profits and Honours are never like to have any Part or Lot in this Matter Nay and they must part with all their own Righteousness too I mean in point of Trust and Dependance and must see that they have nothing which can recommend them to God nothing that can justify them in the sight of God unless a Man denies himself in all these Respects he cannot be Christ's Disciple But notwithstanding this yet the Salvation of the Gospel is free the worst of Sinners have an Offer of it they whose Sins are as red as Scarlet or as red as Crimson here is Wine and Milk without Money or any thing the Creature hath to purchase it or to give for it it is not to be had for the sake of any thing done by us or can be done by us or wrought in us Sinners the Water of Life is freely tendred to every one that thirsteth nay to every one that will that has a Will inclined to accept it if it could not be had unless we first cleansed our selves from our Sins or made us a new Heart it would not be free or alone of Grace nor to be had on easy Terms nay not at all But you have heard that a new Heart is one part of this Salvation 't is contained in it and those that would be washed must come to the Fountain of Salvation they must come to Christ believe in Christ or by Faith apply his Blood to wash and cleanse their polluted Souls Brethren if there was a Salvation for rich Men only what would become of the Poor But this Salvation is offered unto the Poor as well as unto the Rich nay and they chiefly indeed do receive it as our Saviour testifies And if it was a Salvation for Righteous Men only what would become of ungodly Sinners But remember this Salvation is only for Sinners I mean such that see their Sin and know the want of a Saviour Christ came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to Repentance Sixteenthly In the last place Gospel-Salvation is a great Salvation because it is an eternal Salvation And being made perfect he became the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him Heb. 5. 9. As Christ brought in an Everlasting Righteousness so he wrought out an Everlasting Salvation Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an Everlasting Salvation once saved and for ever saved For as the Damnation of all that refuse or neglect this Salvation shall be Eternal so the Salvation of all that receive it shall be also Eternal The Earth shall wax old like a Garment and they that dwell therein shall die but my Salvation shall be for ever and my Righteousness shall not be abolished Thus I have done with the Demonstration of the first Doctrine which I shall improve in applying the next Proposition HEB. II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Doct. II. THE great Salvation of the Gospel may be neglected This is implied in my Text. How shall we that preached it escape if we neglect it Or how shall you that hear it preached escape if you neglect it First I shall shew you what is intended by neglecting this Salvation Secondly Shew you who they
wretched and naked and for Rebellion condemned to die nay to be burned for ever Unbelief was the Cause of Man's Fall at first he would not believe God who told him In the Day he eat of the forbidden Fruit he should surely die No he rather adhered to the Devil and gave credit to the Father of Lies This also was the grand Cause of the Israelites falling in the Wilderness And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his Rest but to them that believed not So we see they could not enter in because of Vnbelief Let us therefore fear saith the Apostle Brethren there is a notional and practical Unbelief Some believe there is a God but they deny him by their Works and deny Christ the only Saviour by cleaving to and trusting in other things for Salvation They perhaps think that their good Deeds their Prayers their just Dealings and sober and moral Lives will save them Some are like a poor ignorant Wretch that I heard of who being lately sick and a Christian Neighbour being sent for to come to him he asked him some Questions about his Soul who replied that he had been a Sinner but if God spared him he hop'd to make God amends for all Some sin and commit horrid Evils in the Day and then pray at Night and confess their Sins and may be drop a few Tears and that they think cures all and makes them as sound again as a Fish and so go on the next Day in their old trade of sinning as briskly as before Some have a humane Faith an historical Faith and from thence do many things though they do not live up to that Faith neither nor improve what Knowledg and Light they have received to that degree they ought and so shall be condemned like as was the Man that improved not his one Talent I call it a humane Faith because it is the Act of the Creature by virtue of his natural Powers and Capacity the Spring and Motive of their Faith is Humane therefore their Faith cannot be Divine I shall sum up the whole of this Head and come to the Application 1. It appears that the Salvation of the Gospel is neglected by many through Ignorance and natural Blindness their Understandings are darkned And Light shines in the Darkness but the Darkness comprehendeth it not Men love Darkness rather than Light Error rather than Truth If another come in his own Name him you will receive 2. There is a Perverseness and Rebellion in the Will and hardness in the Heart Ye will not come to me that ye might have Life The carnal Mind is Enmity against God it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be 3. Men are ignorant and unsensible of their States and Conditions Are we blind also We are Abraham 's Seed was the Plea of old We are Christians the Off-spring of Christian People and good Protestants is the Plea now They are 4. Ignorant of God's Holiness and Justice and so trust in his Mercy not regarding of his Law and Justice They are ignorant and unsensible of that insufficiency there is in themselves or in any thing they can do to save their own Souls 5. 'T is through the Ignorance of some of their Teachers who preach not the Gospel truly to them 6. 'T is through an inordinate Love to the things of this World their Affections are corrupted and set upon the Creature upon their Riches Honours and Pleasures 7. 'T is through that Love many have to their Sins and sinful Practices and sinful Companions 8. 'T is through the deceitfulness and treachery of their own evil Hearts 9. Through slavish Fear or pretended Modesty they dare not be so bold to venture themselves on Christ being such great Sinners and having nothing to present unto him for acceptance 10. It is from Idleness and spiritual Sloth 11. From Unbelief not giving Credit to the Revelation of God's Word in many respects but think to be saved some other ways than by Jesus Christ alone or not by him and nothing else and conclude something is to be joined to Christ's Merits and Righteousness or they cannot be justified nor saved and thus this Salvation is neglected it is upon these or such-like Considerations as these are APPLICATION 1. Tremble you that slight or neglect the great Salvation of the Gospel Will you say that Jesus Christ cannot save you or is not willing to save you Certainly those who give way to such Thoughts and Temptations are sharply to be reproved 2. Your Sins and Unbelief is the Cause of your Misery and if you perish it will be the Cause of your Damnation for ever 3. And to you that are Believers let me speak one Word Have a care of Unbelief beware of unbelieving and desponding Thoughts Why do you hang down your Heads Object O the deadness of my Heart This I know is the Voice and Complaint of your Souls Answ How came you to know that you are dead Certainly this is a sign that there is Life in you Did ever any Person that was naturally dead say he was dead cold or unsensible that is impossible 't is only such who are alive that thus complain Object O the abundance of Sin that is in me that afflicts and distresses my Soul Answ Say you so is Sin your Sickness is Sin your Sorrow Is Sin that which afflicts wounds and grieves your Spirit Then rejoice this is a good sign Would you live and sin not Do you see a loveliness in Holiness this is no doubt an Evidence of the Goodness of your Condition provided you hate it and allow not of Sin in you Object But alas how little do I mind and am affected with this great Salvation Answ Canst thou be contented without it or give over minding it and trouble thy self no more about it Nay art thou willing to part with that Interest thou hast in Christ and in this Salvation I am perswaded you will say No not for ten thousand Worlds 4. Moreover from hence we may see the Madness and Folly of the generality of Men who live under the preaching of the Gospel and yet neglect Day by Day the Means of this so great Salvation they regard not their chief and main Business What Blindness is naturally in Mankind But because I shall have occasion to open more particularly the great Evil of neglecting the Salvation of the Gospel the next time I shall say no more to it now HEB. II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation I AM upon the Prosecution of the second Proposition I raised from this Text viz. Doct. 2. That the Means of the great Salvation of the Gospel may be neglected This is implied in the Words 1. I shewed you the last Day what the neglecting of Gospel-Salvation doth import 2. I also shewed you who they are that may be said to neglect it 3. And likewise from whence it cometh to pass
the other refers to convinced and awakened Sinners who seem to despair and yet go on in their Sins 1. Isa 57. 10. Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy Way yet sayest thou not There is no Hope Thou goest on in thy unjust and sinful Ways till thou hast even wearied thy self as if the Lord should say and yet thinkest thy State good wilt not say there is no Hope but contrariwise thou hast Hope and dost conclude all is well these are bold presumptuous Sinners Compare this Text with that in Jer. 2. 25. But thou sayest There is no Hope No for I have loved Strangers and after them I will go We are very vile our Consciences reprove us convince us of our abominable Evils but there is no Hope God will not pardon us nor take us into his Favour therefore we will go on in our own Ways and take our swing These were ashamed of their doings as the next Verse shews and yet not so ashamed as to leave their Sins and Doings and to return to the Lord but doubted of his pardoning Grace We see say some there 's no ground of Hope there is no help for such as we our Hearts are so hard Corruptions are so strong in us there is no Salvation for us we will therefore take our Course cleave to our Sins and Lovers and to our old Companions we will even follow our Trades and pursue the World and satisfy our Lusts with Pleasures Despair sometimes makes Persons desperate others of this sort grow melancholy and ready through Satan's Temptations to lay violent Hands on themselves when it prevails far upon them Now these I say do cast great Reproach upon the Power of God and his pardoning Grace in Jesus Christ 4. Such who believe not but neglect the Salvation of the Gospel cast contempt and dishonour on the Truth of God they do not give credit to what God says in his Word about Salvation by Jesus Christ and of that necessity there is of Faith in him and Union with him and of being born again if ever they are saved If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your Sins But the Jews would not believe this Hence it is said He that believeth not maketh God a Liar because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son As such do who do not believe the Testimony of any Person though never so true And is it not a horrid Evil to render God a Liar He saith Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish and except a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God But this is not believed by many Persons they hope to be saved though not regenerated 5. Such who believe not but neglect the Salvation of the Gospel yet think to be saved go about to cross and contradict the settled Will and Purpose of God it is in effect to shew a dislike of God's way of Salvation The Jews are said not to submit themselves to the Righteousness of God they magnified their Wills above the Will of God liked not of that way of Salvation that he in his Eternal Counsel fixed upon they will be saved by their own Righteousness that which God accounts but as filthy Rags they esteem as a choice Robe Suppose Brethren there was some other Way to be saved than by Christ yet is it not meet that the Creature comply with the Will of his Creator Shall he rebel against his Soveraign Were there two ways to such or such a City one by Sea and the other by Land and a Prince commands his Servant to go by Sea and not by Land shall he attempt to go by Land and so cross his Master's Will and violate his express Command But it is not so here there is but one Way of Salvation There is no other Name given under Heaven therefore such must needs be more inexcusable who neglect this Way and their Condition dangerous for let them think what they will damned they will be at last whoever they are that neglect this Salvation But more of that hereafter 2 dly Those that neglect the Salvation of the Gospel do slight and cast Contempt on Jesus Christ they seem to undervalue all that he has done certainly that was not worth his coming from Heaven to Earth to effect that you do not think worth your while to go a Mile or two to attend upon the Means of nor worth setting your Thoughts seriously upon Was our Salvation so great that he parted with his Life to procure it and is it not worth your parting with your Sins to have an Interest in it What is the Voice of the Hearts and Ways of such Sinners Do not they reproach the Son of God after this manner Why wast thou so unwise to shed thy Blood to purchase Salvation for us We do not value it above the Pleasures of the World we esteem our carnal Delights and earthly Profits more than that Salvation which thou hast wrought 2. Nay they slight the Person of Christ who says Behold me behold me look unto me Can you see me stand knocking at the Door of your Hearts and refuse to let me in Should one cry out Pity me pity me you will break my Heart if you do this thing suppose it be a dear Father or Mother that thus speaks to a Child that takes evil Courses and the Child regards not the Cry nor Tears of its Parent would not all say that such a Child contemn'd his Father Thus Sinners you will be found contemners and slighters of Jesus Christ one Day if you neglect this so great Salvation he stands ready to imbrace you in his Arms to espouse your Souls but you slight and despise him and his precious Love in your Hearts 3. Nay such who neglect this Great Salvation slight the Voice of Christ's Blood Sirs the Blood of Christ cries his Death has a Voice in it Hath Christ's Blood been shed to redeem you to cleanse you from Sin to save and sanctify your Souls and will you not hear the loud Cry thereof Nay doth not Christ himself cry to you after this manner Wilt thou continue in thy Sin and neglect the Salvation I have purchased What greater Ingratitude what worse Indignity canst thou cast upon me and upon that Sacrifice which I have offered up to make thy Peace and reconcile thee unto God After this manner Christ seems to speak 4. To neglect this Salvation is to cross or contradict the grand Design of God in sending his Son into the World was it not to exalt Jesus Christ to magnify him Last of all he sent unto them his Son saying They will reverence my Son God requires and commands all to honour his Son believe in his Son receive and imbrace his Son subject to his Authority to this End he sent him into the World But how do such seek to cross the Design of God herein who prefer their earthly Profits and
Pleasures nay their sinful Ways and wicked Practices above Jesus Christ and that Salvation he hath purchased O how great is the Sin of such who neglect this Salvation 5. Hereby also they abuse the matchless Love the unspeakable Love and Favour of Jesus Christ they do not only slight his Person contemn his Blood and cross the Design of the Father but they also abuse and disdain his precious Love which caused him to take upon him the Form of a Servant and to yield himself up to the cursed Death of the Cross Greater Love hath no Man than this that a Man lay down his Life for his Friend But Jesus Christ laid down his Life for his Enemies Whilst we were yet Enemies we were reconciled unto God by the Death of his Son And shall Sinners after the manifestation of such Love slight him and the Salvation wrought by him at such a dear Rate Nay shall Christ's repeated Calls Wooings and Intreaties be not regarded who spreadeth forth his Hands all the Day long Shall any be so ungrateful so blind so rebellious as to let Christ stand all Night at the Door of their Hearts even till his Head is wet with Dew and his Locks with the Drops of the Night This shews the great Evil and Wickedness of those who neglect this great Salvation Doth not this tend to expose the Son of God to shame to be thus slighted as if not worth the least regard Should a Prince come a thousand Miles to court or offer his Love to a low a contemptible and base-born Damsel and she should nevertheless slight him and give him no entertainment would not this be deemed an abominable Abuse of his Love as well as great Contempt cast upon his Person Sinners are ready to say there is no comeliness in him that we should desire him but alas 't is because they do not know him they are blind and see him not 't is the carnal Eye that can see no Beauty in Christ were the Eyes of their Understandings opened they would be of another Opinion concerning him 6. The Evil in neglecting of this is so great that it is as it were a piercing of Christ again nay and when a poor Sinner is convinced of this great Iniquity he cries out What have I done Have I not grieved nay wounded afresh my dear Saviour by not believing in him and not receiving the great Salvation offered by him Though I never saw the Person of Christ yet I have offered Violence to him in resisting his Authority despising his Love and slighting his Salvation As a Man is guilty of Treason by abasing the Statue or Image of a King so are Men guilty of the Blood of Christ and of trampling upon it when they count it as a Trifle or unprofitable to their Salvation seeking Life and Salvation some other ways or are wholly regardless about it it is as a Stab at his very Heart a tearing out as it were his Bowels he suffered willingly all those great Torments which were inflicted upon him to remove from us a necessity of Suffering had he not stept in to bear our Sins we had been lost for ever O why then is not he imbraced by Faith that works by Love It implies a Sinner has no Love to him no not so much as to his Sins and Folly it is a denying the Excellences of Christ the Preciousness of Christ for as Faith accounts all things but Dung in comparison of Christ so as one observes Unbelief counts Christ but Dung Union and Communion with him but Dung in comparison of this World and the Pleasures of Sin 7. Those that neglect the Salvation of the Gospel thinking to be saved some other way do seem to reflect upon if not despise the Wisdom of Jesus Christ Do they not charge him with Folly and Inconsiderateness in undertaking such a Task such a Work on such hard Terms when it might be had some other way What suffer such Pain Sweat great Drops of Blood and be nailed to the Cross to procure Salvation for us which might be obtained by a sober Life or by doing to all as they would be done unto or by following the Dictates of the Light of natural Conscience or by our own Inherent Holiness What did Jesus Christ aim at by shedding of his Blood but the appeasing of God's Wrath and the bringing in of an Everlasting Righteousness and to purchase Grace to sanctify Mens Souls and to open the Gates of Heaven which Divine Justice had shut and barr'd up against us Now certainly those who neglect this Salvation do either fancy these Blessings are not worth regard or looking after or else they may be procured by some other Way and on easier Terms than by Faith in the Blood of Christ And is not this to charge our Lord Jesus with Folly and with the Greeks of old to account the Preaching of the Cross Foolishness 8. They render it is evident the shedding of Christ's Blood to be in vain who neglect the Means of this Salvation and so thereby slight the Blessings which he hath purchased it must be an undervaluing of the price of Redemption for that which a Person regards not though procured at never so dear a rate he declares was in vain purchased this is with a Witness therefore lightly to esteem of the Rock of their Salvation it is to stop their Ears to the Cry of Christ's Blood His Blood as you heard cries to Sinners to apply it to their perishing Souls and to leave their sinful Ways but they regard it not though it seems afresh to stream forth from his Heart in the Virtue of it and flows through the Pipes of the Gospel in the Offers of it Did not they who refused to come to the Marriage-Supper declare that the King had in vain prepared all those costly Dainties for let who will come and eat thereof they will not And thus many render the bloody Sacrifice to be offered up in vain by neglecting the Salvation offered in the Gospel 9. Such also who believe not but reject and turn their Backs upon the Gospel-Salvation put Jesus Christ to Grief again It is said He was grieved because of the hardness of their Hearts So God said he was grieved forty Years with those who believed not in the Wilderness O how many Years have some of you grieved both the Father and the Son to speak after the manner of Men and is not this a great Evil Will you grieve and weary out the Heart of God and the Heart of Jesus Christ 10. It also gives occasion to Satan to vaunt boast and triumph over the Son of God See says he how little these Men and Women for whom thou gavest thy self to die the Death of the Cross do mind the Salvation thou hast purchased for them they like and approve of my Ways and Motions my Offers better than any thing thou hast procured for them and dost offer to them May
not Satan insult after this manner over the Lord of Life and Glory whilst Sinners close in with his Temptations and cleave to their Lusts earthly Profits and Pleasures and neglect the great Salvation of the Gospel 3 dly Such who neglect this so great Salvation offer Violence to the Holy Ghost 1. They do resist the Holy Spirit whom God hath sent as his great Messenger to influence enlighten and convince their Hearts and Consciences about the Worth and Weightiness of this Concern He will reprove the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment Of Sin because they believe not on me Because they neglect attending upon the Means of this Salvation believe not the Necessity there is of this Saviour nor of Faith in him and seek it not above all things Is it a small Matter to resist the Holy Ghost O lay it to Heart 2. They grieve the Holy Spirit also yea and hereby tire him out so that he at last withdraws his Influences from the Sinner and will strive with him no more like as he did by the World and if so the ruin of the Soul will be unavoidable for without the Holy Spirit no Man can repent believe or be renewed be regenerated and so come to have Interest in this so great Salvation 3. Such quench the Spirit who neglect this Salvation and do not believe it is to cast Water on that Divine Spark which the Holy Ghost strives to kindle in the Soul of a poor Sinner or to blow out the Candle of the Lord so far as the Sinner is able to do it whereby Spiritual Light and Knowledg comes to be let into the Heart 4. Nay to neglect this Salvation in the Means of it is as much as may be to hinder the Work and Office of the Holy Spirit in and about this Salvation The Holy Spirit hath more immediately to do with Sinners his special Work is to enlighten to convince of Sin to work Faith in the Soul and to renew and sanctify the polluted Heart and all that neglect this Salvation or that slight those Convictions they have of the Evil of Sin or Sense of their woful Condition do seek to obstruct the King's great Officer and Messenger in the discharge of his Office Look to it Sinners for if it be deemed a dangerous thing to resist a Constable in the exercise of his Office because he is the King's Servant what Danger do you expose your selves to that oppose withstand and strive to hinder the Spirit in the discharge of his great Work and Office It is to contemn the King's Ambassador the Holy Spirit is sent to treat with Sinners in Christ's Name it is hereby Christ himself speaks to them from Heaven and they that adhere to the Motions of the Spirit do adhere to Jesus Christ and they that oppose or resist his Motions do oppose and resist Christ also The Holy Spirit is the great Gospel-Blessing promised to infuse Grace in the Soul all Grace is from the Spirit Sinners cannot believe without the Holy Spirit nor love God The Love of God is shed abroad in the Hearts of Believers by the Holy Ghost There is no Regeneration without the Spirit Those that are born again are born of the Spirit no Union with Christ without the Spirit no broken Heart no Cries no Tears that will prevail with God without the help of the Spirit Such that will not adhere to his Motions and Influences say in their Hearts that they will not be changed will not believe nor repent nor have Christ to be their Prince and Saviour The Spirit awakens the Conscience and stirs up Fears in the Soul and sets before the Sinner's Eyes his great Evil Guilt and horrid Pollution therefore if they refuse the Wooings Intreaties and Influences of the Spirit they must perish for ever APPLICATION 1. O let us lament and mourn over all that neglect this so great Salvation All Unbelievers and Neglecters of the Means of Salvation are horridly guilty before the Lord 't is hereby all their Sins are bound upon their Consciences and cleave to them and are charged upon them not only Original but all actual Sin whatsoever 2. O infinite Love and Patience May we not stand amazed and wonder at the long-suffering and forbearance of God O House of David saith the Prophet is it a small thing for you to weary Men but will you weary my God also What greater Wickedness and Ingratitude can there be than this Will you contemn and resist your Saviour and the Holy Ghost How long shall God wait upon you Will he always wait to be gracious O know that his Mercy will at last be turned into Fury 3. Unworthy are such to live to be fed to be clothed to be protected and preserved that thus despise God's Mercy and sovereign Goodness Would a Man feed clothe and bestow great Favours on such that despise slight and contemn him 4. What do you think of your selves Sinners to you I speak that neglect this so great Salvation O this is your Sin you refuse the only Remedy God hath found out to heal and save your Souls therefore your Damnation will be just and deserved with a witness You love Darkness rather than Light you contemn the highest Good the best of Beings and the highest Expressions of his Love and Favour that God that made you that Christ that spilt his Blood to redeem the worst of Sinners those Bowels that pitied you you refuse and resist that Spirit that would renew you sanctify you and make you meet for Heaven and all this out of love to your base Lusts your cruel Enemies that seek to destroy and murder your precious Souls Abhor your selves Alas Men do not see what Monsters of Wickedness they are whilst they neglect this so great Salvation You sin I say against the Remedy the costly Remedy the only Remedy against the Remedy that Infinite Wisdom hath found out and Infinite Goodness hath vouchsafed Yet if you return to God there is Mercy for you say O Lord now we see our Sin O that you could but say so in truth and fall down at the feet of God and say Thou hast overcome us with thy Love 5. Lastly Here is Comfort for Believers who have received this so great Salvation O bless God for Faith cherish the Motions of the Holy Spirit that hath broken your Bonds you prefer Christ and the Salvation by Christ before all things live worthy of a Part and Interest in this Salvation you have Salvation and shall not lose it O walk so that you may never lose the Joy of it for that you may do God may hide his Face Christ may withdraw himself if he hath done it enquire when you had him and consider what you have done that he hides his Face from you let the Cause if it be Sin be bewailed and let the loss of him be more grievous to you than the loss of Comfort from him and be willing to
Wrath it is inconceivable Wrath as God's Love and Goodness is inconceivable infinite incomprehensible which all that love him shall partake of to Eternity so on the other hand his Wrath and vindictive Vengeance is unexpressible nay inconceivable which will be let out upon the Ungodly Who shall be punished with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power Mark it from the Glory of his Power from the Greatness of God's Power exalted Power O it appears to be amazing Wrath were this considered well and laid to Heart 4. It will be unmixt Wrath or Wrath without Mixture the Wrath of God that is let out here in this World is full of Mixture nay that which hath been let out upon the Spirits and Consciences of Men hath had some mixture in it some Ease mixt with Anguish some mitigation of Pain and Horror some Mercy mixt with Misery but in Hell the Wrath of God is unmixed Wrath it is all pure Wrath nothing but Wrath. The same shall drink of the Wine of God's Wrath which is poured out without mixture into the Cup of his Indignation and he shall be tormented with Fire and Brimstone c. 5. It is fierce Wrath it is called the fierce Wrath of the Lord a Metaphor taken from a fierce and amazing devouring Fire Sinners are commanded to seek the Lord before the Decree bring forth before the Day pass as the Chaff before the fierce Anger of the Lord come upon them I he Heat of Anger inraged Anger and Fury Behold the Day of the Lord cometh cruel both with Wrath and fierce Anger 6. It is irresistable Wrath no withstanding it no making Head against it Wrath breaks forth against the Sinner like a Giant or mighty Army that none can resist nor stand before Who can stand before his Indignation and who can abide the fierceness of his Anger his Fury is poured out like Fire c. 7. It is just and deserved VVrath Wrath that is due to such who slight and neglect so great Salvation it is the Wages of Sin of such Sin it is their just Due and Desert as Wages are due to a Servant Every one says With-hold not from the Hireling his Wages A Servant when he hath done his Work must be paid his Wages it is right and just that he should have it so it is Right and Justice in God thus to reward all those who abuse his Mercy and neglect his Salvation so great Salvation God will proportionate every Man's Reward according to the nature and degree of his Sin 8. It is heavy Wrath David complained of the Heaviness of his Sin Alas it was no doubt as Mr. Caryl notes from the Apprehension of the Anger and Wrath of God Mine Iniquities are gone over my Head as a heavy Burden they are too heavy for me I have offended thee I fear thy Displeasure my Sin deserves thy Wrath but tho there are Mountains of Iniquity upon unconverted Sinners they feel no Weight they make light of it they sport at it but when Wrath comes once to be laid upon them they will feel how heavy that is who can bear this Burden or stand under this Weight When Wrath was laid upon our Blessed Saviour how heavy did he find it it made him sweat great drops of Blood it almost crushed him down unto the Earth one Sin is heavy and if God lay the Weight I mean the Guilt of it upon the Soul it will crush it down to Hell O then what a Weight will that be which will lie upon Sinners when the Burden or Weight of all their Sins are laid upon them and none to take that Weight off of them for ever how low will it sink them 9. It is eternal Wrath everlasting Wrath Wrath that will never cease They shall be punished with everlasting Destruction He shall be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of his holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the Sincke of their Torment ascendeth up for ever and ever O what a wosul Condition will all those be in that God lets out such Wrath upon How lamentable is and will be their State who neglect this so great Salvation Can you think of these things you that slight the Offers of God's Grace in Jesus Christ and not tremble APPLICATION 1. O what a Mercy have they obtained that are delivered from such Wrath such heavy Wrath As no Man is able to bear the Wrath of God so no Man is able to get away from it when it hath took hold of him he cannot escape from that which he cannot endure Alas the Devils themselves shall be tormented with all Unbelievers and they cannot escape with all their Powers of Darkness and indeed this will add to the Torment of the Wicked I mean to be yoked in Hell-Torments with such Companions to be forced to abide for ever with Devils who perhaps will add then to their Misery and aggravate their 〈◊〉 by upbraiding them with their Folly in believing him who was 〈◊〉 Father of Lies and to contemn so great Salvation for the sake oâ— very Vanity for the love to Sin or love to the transitory Pleasures and Riches of this evil World 2. We may also from hence see cause to admire the Love of Jesus Christ who bore the Wrath of God for us Certainly had not he had the Power of the Deity to uphold him he could not have born that Wrath that was so heavy upon him O love and honour this blessed Saviour who hath saved you that believe from such Wrath His Blood hath quenched this flaming Fire so that you shall never feel what the Wrath of God is Brethren remember we could not be delivered from the Wrath of God unless Jesus Christ did bear it in our stead even Jesus who delivered us from Wrath to come our Jonas was thrown into the Sea of Wrath to save us from sinking down to the bottom of eternal Wrath. 3. And may not this stir you up that are ungodly Persons to flee from Wrath to come Why do you stand making a Pause as it were O haste to Jesus Christ come to him for that is the way and the only way as you have heard to be delivered from Wrath. You know not how near you are to fall under the Wrath of God and then it will be too late God gives you space to repent and to take hold of his Salvation you will Sinners have no Excuse no Plea in the great Day if you neglect the Day of your Visiâ—ation and slight the Offers of God's Infinite Grace and Favour Can you bear the Wrath of God Are you willing to try how heavy it is We read of an eternal Weight of Glory that will be a good Weight not a burdensome Weight not an oppressing Weight it is called a Weight of Glory because of the Greatness of it the Excellency of it But know as there
is a blessed Weight or a Weight of Blessedness so there is a Weight of Misery or a miserable Weight yea it is such a Weight as will crush the strongest Giant like a Mâ—th and break the Bones of the Mighty HEB. II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Fourthly THE last thing I proposed to do was To shew you why the Gospel is attended with dreadful Threatnings as well as gracious Promises And this I shall God assisting speak unto at this time 1. It may be in regard of him whose Word it is Where the Word of a King is saith Solomon there is Power Shall not the Majesty of God the great Law-giver be feared If I am a Master where is my Fear Brethren awful Threatnings become the Quality and Dignity of Christ's Person True in the Days of his Humiliation as touching those Personal Injuries and Wrongs done unto him he suffered and threatned not yet nevertheless for the Contempt of his Grace Salvation and infinite Goodness in the Gospel it is otherwise he doth now pronounce dreadful Threats Bring out those mine Enemies that would not have me to reign over them and slay them before me 2. Too great Lenity and Mercy we see among Men causes Contempt of the Person of a Prince it makes impudent Rebels ready to insult over him And now Brethren because it seems not to please the Wisdom of God or not to be good in his sight who is the great Soveraign of Heaven and Earth commonly to inflict Temporal Punishment on Gospel-Slighters and Gospel-Neglecters but to reserve their Punishment to another World shall not he therefore tell them what they must expect to meet with and undergo hereafter if they rebel against him contemn his Goodness Clemency and Mercy Is it meet that the Holy God should strike before he threatens or not shoot off his Warning-Piece before he lets fly his Murdering-Piece Can that stand consistent with his Infinite Goodness and Wisdom Shall he come secretly on his Enemies before he tells them of their danger Shall he condemn that in his Creatures which he allows in himself Therefore thus will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do thus unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel It is God's good Pleasure as well as it is the Property of his merciful Nature to discover the future Misery of Rebellious Sinners to them before he brings that Misery and Ruin upon them 3. Shall the Laws of the Servant be clothed with fearful Combinations and Threatnings against the Transgressors thereof and shall the Law of the great Soveraign or Gospel of Jesus Christ himself have none at all that might seem strange indeed especially considering those that disobey or believe not the Gospel shall meet with far greater Punishment If the Word spoken by Angels were stedfast and every Transgression and Disobedience received a just Recompence of Reward How shall we escape c. This being so there is reason that the Gospel should be accompanied with awful Threats 4. Because of the greatness of the Sins of such who do refuse reject or neglect the Grace and Mercy of God offered by Jesus Christ Certainly the Abuse of the greatest Goodness calls for the severest Denunciation of Divine Wrath and Vengeance Man himself being Judg Of how much sorer Punishment suppose you shall he be thought worthy Do you judg to whom I appeal what sore what bitter what grievous and unexpressable Wrath and Judgments they deserve who contenâ—n Jesus Christ or prove Apostates Revolters and Backsliders from the Gospel and slight his precious Blood â—â—ead under 〈◊〉 the Son of God Sure such deserve worse Punishment than those who 〈◊〉 against Moses's Law Now the greatness of their Sin who sâ—iâ—ht and neglect the Salvation of the Gospel I have already opened O call to mind what you have heard and you that are secure Sinners tremble What Wisdom do such despise what Goodness do they disregard what infinite Love and Patience do they abuse that neglect this Salvation Shall the Sinner cast Diâ—t in the Face of God and not be told of it Shall he slight an Interest in Christ and not know it will be his ruin in another World 5. Threatnings are contained in the Gospel to shew that God is Just as well as Gracious Nay Brethren the Justice of God never appeared to that degree to the Sons of Men by Moses's Law or any other way as it doth in the Gospel in that Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God is not spared when he stands as our Surety in our Law-place to bear our Iniquities God spared not his own Son c. He did not spare him as an Act of Love and Mercy but substituted and appointed him to be a Sacrifice for us and he did not spare him as an Act of his Justice when he was so substituted but he put him to Grief and made his Soul an Offering for Sin the Just for the Vnjust He was made Sin for us i. e. a Sacrifice for our Sin It pleased the Lord to bruise him This shews that God is just with a witness there was no other way found out to put away Sin to pacify Divine Wrath and shall the Sinner slight and trample upon the Mercy and Justice of God and not be told he shall not escape Divine Vengeance O Sinner think of it if God spared not his own Son who had Sin upon him only by Imputation our Sins laid upon him and none of his own Canst thou think to escape his dreadful Wrath who for not accepting of this Atonement this Salvation hast all they Sins charged upon thy own Head and must bear that vindictive Wrath that was due to thee for them You that think God is only a God of Mercy and Christ only a Lamb will find your selves at last greatly deceived for you will find that God is a just a severe and Sin-revengeful Majesty and especially he will appear so when he pleads with Sinners for the abuse of his Mercy and they will find Jesus Christ like a Lion who will at length tear in pieces his Enemies I have trodden the Wine-press alone and of the People there was none with me for I will tread them in mine Anger and trample them in my Fury and their Blood shall be sprinkled upon my Garments and I will stain all my Raiment O remember that the great Day of the Lamb's Wrath will come he is a King and has a Sword as well as a Scepter a Rod as well as a Crown he is Just as well as Good and therefore it is that the Gospel is clothed with such Threatnings of Wrath and Divine Vengeance All the Perfections of the Deity appear and shall appear in our Lord Jesus Christ he being the express Image of the Father's Person 2 dly The Gospel hath its Threats as well as its Promises I might shew you in regard of Sinners 1. To awe
think Repentance a harsh Doctrine no no it is sweet and blessed Tidings to hear that there is Repentance vouchsafed to poor Sinners yea for the worst of Sinners Besides was not Repentance the very first Doctrine Jesus Christ preached when he entered upon his Ministry He calls upon Men to repent and believe the Gospel he declares there is a Way found out for Pardon and Remission of Sin And what can so kindly and sweetly excite or stir up Sinners to Repentance as the sight of the infinite Mercy and pardoning Grace of God through the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ His Mercy only melts and breaks the hard Heart of guilty Criminals 3. To preach the Combinations and Threatnings of God's Wrath and Vengeance against all ungodly and impenitent Sinners who slight and neglect the Salvation of the Gospel can be no Legal Doctrine 1. Because the Gospel abounds with them yea and more fearful Threatnings than those were under the Law for the one were Threats of Temporal Punishment but the other are Eternal even the Denunciation of God's Wrath in Hell for ever 2. Because of the greatness of that Mercy and Divine Grace and Goodness which such who sin under the Gospel do abuse and tread under their Feet 3. To shew the Justice Headship and Authority of Jesus Christ who is God as well as Man that so all Men may stand in awe of him and dread and fear him because of his great Love and Goodness extended through his suffering for Sin and enduring the heavy Wrath of God for us and for many other Reasons which you have heard 4. Because the Threatnings of the Gospel do not only render God as a just Revenger but also as a merciful Redeemer not only as a Judg to pass Sentence but as a gracious Soveraign ready to give forth Pardon to all convicted broken and self-condemned Rebels The Law threatens Death but affords no Offers of Life on any Terms that can be attained to therefore no Encouragement given by it to Sinners to humble themselves it commands perfect Obedience but affords no Strength to perform it pronounces the Sentence against us but produces no Pardon for us it commands us to trust in God but reveals not a Mediator who is the immediate Object of Faith and Trust 5. The Threatnings of the Gospel are a Manifestation of God's Goodness As a Father threatens his Child from that Love and Bowels he hath to it that so it might not feel the Lashes of his Rod and Anger And O how are Gospel-Threatnings mixt with alluring Motives and endearing Arguments and Perswasions intimating how ready God is to pass by our Offences if we submit our selves to him and accept of the Offers of his Grace and Favour If such preaching of Wrath therefore be Legal I must acknowledg my great Ignorance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ Besides how long are the Threatnings of the Gospel deferred before executed The Contemners of the Law died presently as well as it discovered no Remedy But so it is not here God seems to be ready to forgive and slow to Wrath he waits long before he strikes and brings Wrath and Judgment upon Offenders as well as he directs them to a way to escape Secondly I shall shew you what is a Legal Doctrine or Legal Preaching 1. The Doctrine or Preaching of such Persons is legal that say that all who will be eternally saved must arrive to a perfect and sinless Righteousness in themselves i. e. keep the Law perfectly and sin not in their own Persons or they cannot be justified William Penn speaking of that Text Rom. 2. 13. Not the Hearers of the Law are just before God but the Doers of the Law shall be justified saith From whence how unanswerably may I observe that unless we become Doers of that Law which Christ came not to destroy but as our Example to fulfil we can never be justified before God nor let any fancy that Christ hath so fulfilled it for them as to exclude their Obedience from being requisite to their Acceptance but only as their Pattern Now this is a Legal Doctrine with a witness these Men would be look'd upon as true Preachers of the Gospel but let all Men be aware of them Is any Man able perfectly to keep the Law if so why doth the Apostle say What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his Son c. Besides if there had been a Law that could have given Life verily saith Paul Righteousness should have been by the Law And again he saith By the Works of the Law no Man is justified and if Righteousness come by the Law then is Christ dead in vain Christ it seems by what this Man saith came only to fulfil the Law as our Example that we might conform to him therein and so be justified by it But he forgot that we and all Mankind have broke the Law and stand charged and condemned thereby unto eternal Condemnation and who shall make Atonement for that Breach and deliver us from the Curse thereby incurred No Doctrine can cast higher Contempt upon Christ and invalidate his Suffering and Justification by Faith alone in him than this Doctrine doth 2. Such preach a Legal Doctrine who preach up Obedience by us to the Law or Gospel either as the procuring or moving Cause and Condition of our Justification and Eternal Life 3. Such also preach a Legal Doctrine who preach up Wrath and Divine Vengeance to scare or frighten Men out of their Sins and as if by the bare leaving and forsaking of Sin Men might escape Death and Wrath. Such a Doctrine as Reverend Dr. Owen notes may fill an unregenerate Man with Horror and servile Fear whereby as Bond-Servants or Slaves by the Whip of this Doctrine they may be forced to break off from some gross Acts of Sin and perform some outward Duties of Religion which otherwise they are unwilling to do for as it is not from Love to God nor from Faith in Christ so they find no Delight nor Sweetness in it but being often remiss and seeing cause to doubt of the Sincerity of their Obedience they fall under Terror and slavish Fear they only acting from an enlightned Conscience and not from Faith or renewing Grace These Men neither love the Law nor Gospel tho they are forced to keep up in some degree of Obedience to it 4. Such preach a Legal Doctrine that affirm Man 's own Faith and inherent Righteousness for the sake of Christ's Merits is part of our Righteousness to Justification in the sight of God and that Christ hath procured or merited a mild Law of Grace of Faith and sincere Obedience in the room of the Law of perfect Obedience Which Law of sinless Obedience Christ having given to God a full Recompence for our Breach of he hath taken that Law-away and that so far as we faithfully live up to this new Law of Grace we are justified in
When People hear the Cry of Fire in the Night how do they cry out Where Where Alas this Fire seizes not on your Houses nor Goods no nor on your Bodies only but on your Souls it has already kindled even the Wrath of God which no Sinner can escape that neglects this Salvation God's Wrath is compared to Fire and it has perhaps already taken hold of some of your Consciences but if it be not kindled there yet it is kindled in God's Anger For a Fire is kindled in my Anger and shall burn unto the lowest Hell O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter End 2. Is the Wrath of God so terrible and can no Unbeliever or impenitent Sinner escape it what cause is here for them all to tremble Suppose you should be told that this Night you shall certainly not escape Death neither you nor your Wife nor Children but that your House shall be burned down your Goods Self Wife and Children shall all be burned to Ashes and that this Judgment you shall not escape would it not be startling and terrifying Tidings if you should believe it But alas what would that be to this doleful Tidings viz. that your precious Soul and Body as well as your Wife and Children and all belonging to you if you and they do neglect the Means of this Salvation and not believe in Christ and become new Creatures shall in a short time be in everlasting Flames and undergo intolerable Pain and Punishment from the Presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his Power which you shall not escape for the Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it Nay and it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for you or for that Soul who refuses the Offers of Christ Pardon of Sin and Salvation through him Fifthly It may be for a Lamentation to see how few understand the Nature of this Salvation and study the Mysteries of it or desire an Interest in it and also to see how many make light of it whilst others by dangerous Errors seek ways to eclipse the Glory of God's Free Grace therein Remember those Demonstrations you have heard to open the Greatness of the Salvation the Gospel Sixthly This reprehends such who are more affected with Temporal Salvation than with the Spiritual and Eternal Salvation of the Soul and also all such that defer looking after and striving to get an Interest in it Seventhly By way of Exhortation 1. Let me exhort you to praise God for Jesus Christ who is the Author and Finisher of this Salvation Christ is all and in all in our Salvation God hath sent us an Almighty Saviour O how miserable should we have been for ever had not God sent us Jesus Christ 2. Let me exhort you to admire the Love of Christ in coming to work out this Salvation What hath he born and undergon to save our Souls O love and exalt this Saviour and eclipse none of his Glory 3. Be exhorted to praise God for affording you the Knowledg of Gospel-Salvation O how few are they who have heard of this joyful Tidings But few Nations of the World have this News sounding in their Ears viz. the Gospel preached to them they have no declaration of it God shews his Soveraignty herein he reveals himself and the Knowledg of Salvation to whom he pleases And indeed many dark Parts of this Nation have but little of the Mysteries of the Gospel made known to them What People in the World have greater cause to admire God's distinguishing Grace and Favour than we that live in and about this City London is exalted to Heaven in respect of the Means of Grace O that it may never be brought down to Hell as our Saviour threatned Capernaum 4. From hence also I might exhort you to bless God for faithful Ministers who publish the Salvation of the Gospel to you How beautiful upon the Mountains are the Feet of him that bringeth good Tidings that publisheth Peace that bringeth good Tidings of Good that publisheth Salvation Let it appear you highly value and honour your faithful Ministers by your diligent attention on the Word and Doctrine they preach For Motives consider 1. God has ordained Preaching as the ordinary Way and Means to work Faith Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God And to increase and strengthen Faith also 2. God is gradiously pleased to assord Men a Day or a Time of Visitation in which he offers Terms of Peace unto them Take heed you do not like Jerusalem lose your Day and neglect the Means God affords you 3. You know not how short your Day may be and if you lose your Day you will lose your Souls also The Harvest will end with some and they not saved And that you may not lose the Day of your Visitation take a few Directions 1. Seriously think on the sad and woful Condition which naturally you are in being dead in Sin and Children of Wrath and if you die in that Estate you are lost for ever 2. Let your Thoughts now be let out on your latter End for when the Night comes no Man can work This is great Wisdom and every Man's Duty we none of us know how soon our great Change may come And what will you do if you live in the neglect of the Means of Salvatio even until God cuts you off 3. Pray that the Wind of the Spirit would blow upon your Souls The Wind bloweth where it listeth it bloweth at God's Command when on whom and how he pleaseth The Spirit is that great and only Agent that must work Faith in you quicken you and regenerate your Souls 4. Therefore see that you do not quench the Spirit but improve all the Convictions thereof 5. If you would have an Interest in this great Salvation you must have an Interest in Jesus Christ the great Saviour If you do not receive Christ by Faith but refuse him sad will your Condition be for no Christ no Salvation Quest How may I know that I have Christ or an Interest in him Answ 1. If thou hast Christ thou hast Life thou art spiritually quickned And as thou hast Spiritual Life so also thou hast Light thy Eyes are opened I mean the Eyes of thy Understanding 2. Thou canst remember the time when thou hadst no God no Christ or wast without Christ and it is much if thou art not able to tell how when or after what manner thou didst meet with him whether it was by the Word preached or by reading or by some Affliction c. 3. If Christ be thine he is very precious to thee Canst thou say with David Whom have I in Heaven but thee neither is there any on Earth that I desire beside thee And with the Spouse My Beloved is white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand Paul
and usefulness of Experiences of God's Providences 136. Q. Quench Dangerous to quench the Holy Spirit Satan cannot totally quench the Spirit in Believers 228. Quickning The Spirit the quickning Principle of the Soul 228 R. Resurrection of the Body an Essential of the Christian Religion 86 Right-Hand Christ the Father's Right-Hand 274 Righteousness What Righteousness it is a Man may turn from 307 Christ's Righteousness which is the Material Cause of our Justification is an Everlasting Righteousness and therefore cannot be lost 307 Such that trust to their own Righteousness shall perish 307 Christ's Righteousness a Garment 382 383 Rod. The Rod Christ's Voice 86. S. Salvation wholly of Grace Pag. 147 Shewed and proved in eight Particulars 147 148 149 150 Salvation a Garment the Father prepared it the Son wrought it the Holy Ghost puts it on the Soul 382 383 Salvation great 369 to 435 Who neglect the great Salvation 436 to 443 From whence Salvation is neglected 443 444 Great Evil of neglecting Salvation 452 453 c. Great Evil in respect of God the Father 452 453 In respect of Christ 457 In respect of the Holy Spirit 461 In respect of the Sinner himself 468 469 470 Salvation our greatest Business proved 441 442 443. Sheep Believers Christ's Sheep 1. By Choice 2. By the Father's Donation 3. By Purchase 4. By Renovation 5. By Covenant made with the Father 6. By Conquest 7. By their Resignation of themselves to him 77 78 79 80 Characters of Christ's Sheep 11â— to 121 Shepherd What a kind of Shepherd Christ is 122 to 129 Sin The Evil of Sin opened in many Particulars 388 389 390 391 392 393 c. Sins of the Saints of a heinous Nature on several respects 168 Sins of Believers cannot separate them from God's Love 185 186 187 188 c. Why Saints cannot dare not sin 191 192 The great Evil of the Sin in neglecting Gospel-Salvation 464 to 469 Those that are born God cannot commit Sin shewed 216 217 The odiousness of Sin shewed 470 Christ died for all the Sins of the Elect. 236 241. For their Unbelief 241 No vindictive Wrath due to Believers their Sins Pag. 243 Sin the greatest Evil. 58 Socinians what their Errors are 85 Soveraignty It is God's absolute Soveraignty to chuse and call whom he will and send the Gospel to whom he will 169 172 173 314 Soul The Soul of Man very precious proved by many Arguments 400 401 402 c. The Soul proved to be Immortal by seven Arguments 406 407 Ministers and Parents have a great Charge having the Charge of Souls No impairing the final loss of the Soul 409. Spira Francis Spira's Fall what 44 Spira's natural Disposition 44 Some Passages of his fearful State 44 45 46. Spirit The great Blessings we receive by the Holy Spirit opened 259 260 261 1. The Spirit an Earnest to us 260 2. A Seal a Witness 261. A twofold Act of the Witness of the Holy Spirit 1. A direct Act. 2. A reflex Act. 261. State The State of Sinners by Nature very miserable opened in many Particulars 393 394 395. Stead Christ died not only for our good but in our stead proved by 9 Arguments 237 238 239 240. Strangers Who are Strangers and why so called 90 How Christ's Sheep will not follow nor hear the Voice of Strangers 90 91. Supper The precious Nature of the Lord's Supper opened 133 134. T. Taste What a Taste of God's Word Hypocrites may have 337 What a Taste the Saints have 340 341. Threatnings Why there are such Threatnings contained in the Gospel 483 484 485. Torments Torments of Hell what largely opened 53 54 55 56 57 Torments of Hell eternal why 58 59. Tremble What sort of Persons have cause to tremble at the thoughts of Wrath and Hell 50 59 60. U. Vnbelief the greatest Sin shewed in many Particulars 449. Vnion Vnion with Christ opened 224 225 226 Vnion with Christ secures Believers from Final Apostacy 227 228 229 230 231. Vniversal No Vniversal Redemption from Sin and Wrath proved by many Arguments 252 253 254. Voice What meant by Christ's Voice shewed in four things 80 to 86 What a kind of Voice the Voice of Christ's Spirit is shewed in 8 Particulars 81 82 What meant by hearing Christ's Voice and how the Saints hear it shewed in many Particulars 87 88 89. W. Water The Nature of Water 138 What meant by Water of Life or Spiritual Water 139. Weigh God weighs all Men and their Spirits Graces Duties 37 38. Wheat Why the Saints are compared to Wheat shewed in nine respects 27 28 29. Will. The Will of Man determines the whole Event of Man's Redemption according to the Arminian Doctrine 15â— World There is a World to come what meant thereby 343 The World to come in its greatest Glory begins when Christ comes the second time 344 The Riches Honours and Pleasures of the World to come opened 449 450 451 452 453. The World to come will consist of a new Heaven and new Earth 344 The word World sometimes refers to the Elect 256. Wrath. The Wrath of God dreadful Pag. 41 The External Wrath of God what 42 The Internal Wrath what 43 The Eternal Wrath in Hell opened 52 1. Inconceivable 2. According to the fear of it 53 3. No Misery like Wrath in Hell 53 54 4. Wrath of God in Hell without mixture 54 55 At what time Sinners shall not escape God's Wrath. 478 479 The Nature of God's Wrath opened which they shall not escape that neglect the great Salvation of the Gospel 480 481 What kind of Sinners shall suffer and undergo God's Wrath. 487 489. Y. Yoke There is a Yoke to be taken up by all such that will be saved 447 The Yoke uneasy to the Flesh or to all unrenewed Persons 447. ERRATA â—â—ge 52 line 15 read Elementary P. 53. l. 25. r. Wretch P. 118. l. 24. for his 〈…〉 P 170. l. 29. for saith r. said P. 212. l. 27. r. whosoever hath that efficacious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transforming Soul-renewing c. P. 213. l. 26. dele sooner than Flesh P. 9. l. 10. for in self r. in it self 224. l. 4. for Thirdly r. 2. P. 236. l. 23. dele the 〈◊〉 P. 246. l. 5. for great r. 〈◊〉 l. 16. for nor r. or 〈…〉 9. dele not P. 255 〈◊〉 read it is evident that by the word All and the word 〈…〉 is only intended c. P. 302 l. 6. for thy r. the. P. 324. l. 20. read 〈…〉 things which they acted P. 368. l. 33. for only r. also P. 379. l. 38. r. Gospel-Salvation P. 381. l. 38. dele the first the. P. 405. l. 8. dele because Sermon 1. Preacht Feb. 5. 1693. Parts opened Luk. 7. 28. Mal. 3. 1 2. Terms opened What meant by Floor John 15. 1. National floor opened Pro. 6. 32. Pro. 16. 13. Mat. 4. 1. 1 Cor. 1. 18. Isa 42. 8. Jer. 10. 11. 1 Joh. 3. 10. Rom. 1. 28. 29. What is meant by Christ's Fan. John 15. 3. Act. 15.