is capable of this Work whence again we may conclude that God made Man for his peculiar Service and Glory unless we can imagine that God would make a World and place no Creature in it whose proper Business it should be to know and worship his Wise Maker and Bountiful Lord. Man is the Priest of Nature who offers up the Praises and Thanksgivings of the whole Creation to God Thus you see that Religious Worship is a natural Debt which we owe to God and that God does expect and exact the Paiment of it from us We may certainly conclude from hence that he expects we should live according to the most perfect Constitution of our Natures This is the natural Rule of our Actions to serve the Ends for which we were made for God did not make such and such Natures for nothing either to be unimployed or imployed to other or to less and meaner purposes than they were designed for And besides this we have frequent and express Commands to worship God in that Revelation he hath made to us of his Will The Scripture is so full of Precepts Exhortations and Reproofs about this Matter that I need not spend time to prove so acknowledged a Truth But from the whole of what I have now discoursed we may safely conclude the great Evil of Irreligion as being the highest injustice to our Maker and Soveraign Lord. Thirdly The great Evil of Irreligion of denying or neglecting the Worship of God appears in this That it is the most sordid Ingratitude Now Ingratitude is Injustice too but it is Injustice to a Benefactor that is it consists in violating all those Obligations which Goodness and Kindness has laid upon us as Injustice properly so called consists in breaking the Rules of Natural or Civil Right For Mankind generally accounts the Obligation to return a kindness as strong and necessary as to pay a Debt and nothing is more infamous among Men than an ungrateful Person for as Goodness is a greater Perfection than strict Justice so Ingratitude must needs be a more hateful Vice than bare Injustice because it is opposite to the greatest Good As Goodness is the greatest Glory and Perfection of Humane Nature so Ingratitude must needs be the greatest Infamy and Reproach because it is at the greatest distance from Goodness Now among Men Injustice and Ingratitude may be separated Men may be unjust but not ungrateful and they may be ungrateful and not unjust according to the strict Notion of Injustice for Men may wrong and injure those who never did them any kindness and that is Injustice without Ingratitude and they may neglect to make decent Acknowledgments and Returns of Kindness without injuring their Friends in any of their Natural or Civil Rights and that is Ingratitude without Injustice But now it is impossible to be unjust to God without being ungrateful too because he is not only our Natural Lord but our great Benefactor and those very things which give him a natural Right to our Worship and Obedience do not only lay on us the Obligations of Justice but of Gratitude to worship him He made us and this gives him a natural Right to our Worship because he is our Natural Lord we are intirely his and owe our selves and all we have and all we can do to him and this makes it very unjust to deny or neglect his Worship But then we must consider that if we love our Selves and our Being and those Advantages of Happiness which Being makes us capable of then much more we are obliged in gratitude to praise and adore that God who gave us our Being for though possibly some will not allow it proper to say that God was good to us before we had a Being yet he was very good in making us and therefore it is high ingratitude as well as injustice in Creatures not to praise and glorify their Maker Thus that Divine and Heaven-born Mind and those noble and excellent Faculties of Soul which God hath bestowed on us as they may make us capable of knowing and worshipping God so make Religious Worship a natural piece of Justice and if we value the excellency of our Natures and think it any advantage to be made so noble an Order of Beings Gratitude as well as Justice obliges us to employ all the Faculties of our Souls for that high and noble End for which they were made that is to know and love and admire and worship God the greatest and the best Being and the most perfect Object of our Minds It is Ingratitude as well as Injustice to our Maker to debase our Natures to make them stoop to low mean and vile Things to inherit the Curse of the Serpent to crawl upon their Bellies and lick up the Dust of the Earth when they were made to aspire towards Heaven to unite themselves to God the Fountain of Life and Being and to live in the Love and Contemplation of him The like may be said with reference to that good Providence of God which maintains and upholds us in Being and provides all Necessaries for us and defends us from all unseen Mischiefs both Justice and Gratitude require us to praise and adore so great and constant a Benefactor These are all Expressions both of the Natural Justice and Bounty of our Wise Maker and therefore lay a mixed Obligation on us of Justice and Gratitude God was under no Antecedent Obligation but his own Will and Goodness to make a World but if he did resolve to make one he was under the Obligations of his own Wisdom and Justice and Goodness to make every Creature perfect in its kind and fitted to attain the end of its Nature and to make some Creatures for great and noble Ends and consequently to bestow very noble and excellent Natures on them and therefore there being a mixture of Justice and Goodness in God's making and governing the World no wonder that it lays a mixt Obligation on us too of Justice and Gratitude But there is another manifestation of God's Goodness in the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ which is a Work of such pure and unmixt Grace and Goodness that it is all Goodness and nothing but Goodness Innocent Creatures may challenge a natural Right in the Care and Protection and Bounty of their Maker but a Traitor a Rebel against the Majesty of Heaven an Apostate Wretch who has abused the Bounty and Goodness of his Creator can challenge no right to those common Blessings which God bestows upon his Creatures so that he should cause the Sun to shine and the Rain to fall on them and therefore since Sin entred into the World even those External and Temporal good Things which Sinners enjoy are wholly owing to the Goodness and Mercy of God and accordingly our Obligations to Gratitude and Thankfulness are so much the stronger and our Ingratitude in neglecting the Worship of God the more heinous and provoking But much less can such
escape better at the last Judgment than Capernaum and Capernaum I doubt will escape much better than the Infidels and Atheists and profane despisers of Religion in our days because they laboured under old and inveterate Prejudices which could not easily be removed but required time and patience and the exercise of free and impartial Reason to wear them off But now when the Gospel has prevailed in the World for so many Ages when Men are educated in the Christian Religion and have all the Prejudices of their first and early Instructions on the right side when it is so difficult a thing to cast off their reverence for God and to silence and stupify their clamorous Consciences for Men to use so much Art and Industry to turn Atheists or Infidels or profane Scoffers at Religion will admit of no excuse but is the highest Affront to God and will receive the sorest Punishment and a Sentence as amazing and astonishing as the Sin is Thus I have represented the evil and heinous Nature of this Sin and if these Men do believe that there is a God as they profess to do would they give themselves time seriously to consider these things I cannot imagine but it must have some good effect upon them For can any Man who believes a God if he ever consider such Matters endure the least thought of putting such a scorn and contempt upon God as the neglect of Religious Worship does naturally signify He knows what a sharp resentment he himself has of a slight or neglect how ill he takes it if Men industriously avoid his Company if they do but talk and seem to mind something else when he is telling a Story if his Friends neglect to visit him and turn their heads another way when they pass by his Door and he knows how sensible Superiors especially are of such neglects from their Inferiors For a Prince to be slighted by his Subjects or a Father by his Children or a Master by his Servants is thought so unsufferable a rudeness as cannot be too severely punished And therefore considering that infinite distance which is between God and Creatures he may easily conclude how ill God takes the neglect of his Worship which is the greatest slight that can be put upon him and argues very mean and contemptible Thoughts of him if such Men did think of him at all And when he considers also how many Obligations he lies under to worship God he cannot but blush to be guilty of so great injustice not to praise and magnify him who deserves to be praised and to be had in reverence by all those who are about him He thinks it great injustice to detract from the Praises of worthy and deserving Men or to conceal them what is it then not to ascribe to God the Glory and Perfection of his Nature and Works which are proclaimed by all the World Not to adore and worship our Maker who made us for this end that we might see and speak of his Glory Did God give me Eyes may such a Man say to see the Glory of this World and an Understanding to search out the first Cause to whom the Praise of all is due that when I have found him I should take no notice of him neither confess his Power nor admire his Wisdom nor praise his Goodness Did he give me a Tongue to talk of every Trifle and never to be silent but where it ought to be most vocal in the Praises of my Maker How ill should I take it could I make any Being that could understand or speak should it refuse to acknowledg from whence it was and to whom it owes its Being Consider my Soul how thou shouldest resent the neglect of a Son of a Client of a redeemed Captive or of any one whom thou hast obliged and by thy Bounty raised from a low to a splendid Fortune who owes his Being his Fortune his Liberty and all the Comforts and Blessings of Life to thee And is it nothing then to neglect the Worship of that God who is the Universal Parent Lord and Benefactor of the World who has redeemed thee with the Blood of his Son and designed a more glorious Happiness for thee if thy unjust and ungrateful neglects of him do not render thee uncapable of his Favour But how unpardonable is it for a Man to be false to his Oaths and Covenants Such Persons are not thought fit for Humane Conversation who break the most Sacred Ties and therefore can never be trusted but yet no Man ever broke his Word much less an Oath or Covenant but when he expected to make some advantage of it And shall I break the Covenant of my God a Covenant to which I owe all my hopes of Happiness all the Good I now enjoy and all that I expect If I forfeit my Interest in this Covenant I must be miserable and perish like a Fool and since I cannot forfeit my Interest without breaking my Covenant I must perish like an Apostate a Runnagate a Traitor or like one who deserves to suffer the worst things but deserves no Pity and is it so grievous a thing to worship God that I should chuse rather to be unjust to be ungrateful to be perfidious to God to forfeit his Love and Favour and to incur his hottest Displeasure than acknowledg that I owe all to him that I have and that I expect all from him SECT III. Concerning the Danger of Irreligion both with respect to this World and the next and the folly of it with a serious Exhortation to these Men to take care of their Souls SEcondly I shall now consider the Danger of Irreligion in neglecting or contemning the Worship of God For those who will not be wrought on by a sense of Justice or Gratitude may yet be governed by the more brutish Principle of Fear Now the Danger of this respects both this World and the next 1. The Danger of Irreligion with respect to this World Now whoever believes there is a God who governs all Humane Affairs in whom we live move and have our Being who disposes of our several Fortunes and Conditions of Life must needs apprehend himself in great danger of being miserable here while he neglects to adore and reverence the soveraign and unaccountable Lord of the World We find throughout the Scripture that the Promise even of Temporal Blessings and Deliverance is made only to those who beg it of God by their servent and importunate Prayers This is the course all good Men in all Ages have taken and found the blessed success of it Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in Mercy unto all them that call upon thee Give ear O Lord unto my Prayer and attend unto the Voice of my Supplications In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee for thou wilt answer me He shall
name of Godliness as the Apostle divides the several Duties of Religion into three parts living soberly righteously and godlily in this present World And the proper Notion of worshipping God is to honour him all the several Acts of Worship honour God as they signify our great sense and devout acknowledgment of his Being Power and Providence of the Excellencies and Perfections of his Nature our dependence on him submission to him trust and affiance in him such as are great and venerable apprehensions of God Prayers Praises Thanksgivings and the like Now every Man must acknowledg that Honour is always the greater the more publick it is That he who has great and admiring Thoughts of God and publishes this to the World in the most solemn manner honours God a great deal more than he who keeps these Thoughts to himself and praises God so privately that no Man knows it but himself The Prophet David resolves to make his Praises of God as publick as he could I will declare thy Name unto my Brethren in the midst of the Congregation will I praise thee And exhorts others to exalt him in the Congregation of the People and praise him in the Assemblies of the Elders Praise ye the Lord I will praise the Lord with my whole Heart in the Assembly of the Upright and in the Congregation And besides this we may consider that there are two parts of Worship the Worship of the Mind which consists in honouring God with devout and pious Affections in bowing our Souls before him and the external and visible expressions and significations of this Honour which is external and visible Worship such as praying and praising God with an audible Voice falling down on the ground kneeling uncovering the Head and those other outward Expressions of Devotion which signify the humble and devout Affections of the mind now tho these external signs of Honour may and ought to be used in Private and Closet Devotions so it be with due caution not to make them publick which is a piece of Pharisaical Hypocrisy yet the proper use of them is in publick Acts of Worship to testify our concurrence and agreement with other devout Persons in the same Acts of Worship for God knows our Thoughts and Affections and therefore needs not to be acquainted with our Desires by cloathing them with words he hears the most silent breathings of our Souls and therefore needs not that we should speak to him in an audible Voice he sees the bending of our Souls and the most humble submission and prostration of our Minds and needs not be informed of this by bending or bowing our Bodies to him but Men cannot see this but by external signs nor join in the same Petitions and Praises without words so audibly pronounced that all present may hear them and therefore those Scriptures which require these external Signs of Worship suppose that this Worship must be publick too that we must meet together to offer up our united Prayers and Thanksgivings to God And accordingly we find that all the Psalms of David were penned for publick Worship for the use of the Temple and delivered to the Master of Musick to be sung as publick Hymns of Prayer or Thanksgiving And if we enquire into the fundamental Reasons of Worship we shall find our Obligations much more strong to publick than to private Worship tho that be our Duty also especially when we want such publick Opportunities The natural Reason of worshipping God is that he is the most excellent and perfect Being the great and universal Parent and Benefactor and the Soveraign Lord and Judg of the World for it becomes us to acknowledg and adore him who is our Maker in whom we live move and have our being who feeds and cloaths us who defends us from Evil who encompasseth us with his loving kindness and tender mercies and therefore these are the Subjects of most of those Forms of Worship Prayer and Thanksgiving which we find recorded in Scripture especially in the Writings of the Old Testament Now all this is a more cogent Reason for publick than for private Worship for though we are bound to acknowledg those particular Favours and Blessings which God hath bestowed on us which is the foundation of private Worship yet God is not so much to be considered a private as a publick Benefactor as an universal Parent and soveraign Lord and therefore must be worshipped as a publick Benefactor that is with publick Worship for there is no visible Worship of God as the Supream Lord of the World unless it be publick And since all Mankind are God's Creatures and the Subjects of his Care and Providence and are every one of them bound to worship the same God natural Reason will inform us that we ought all to join in the same acts of Worship which gives a greater awe and solemnity to it for we cannot think that Man was made a sociable Creature for every thing else but only for Acts of Worship which is his highest End and greatest Perfection and therefore if Men unite themselves into Societies for Civil Order and Government it is as highly reasonable that they should unite for Religious Worship unless we think that Bodies Politick Kingdoms and Common-wealths are not bound to worship God as every particular Person is tho it be an old Maxim of Government That Religion is the surest Bond and Cement of Civil Societies Especially when we consider that the greatest Blessings we are to praise God for are such as are bestowed on us in common with others or all Mankind such as the influences of Heaven and the fruitfulness of the Earth the blessing of Peace and Plenty deliverance from Enemies the advantages of good Government and all other National Mercies and above all the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ so that God is defrauded of his Glory if our Acknowledgments be not as publick as his Blessings are For private Praises are not just Returns nor due Acknowledgment of publick Mercies And therefore when the Psalmist celebrates the publick Mercies of God he invites all Israel to join in his Praises Praise ye the Lord sing unto the Lord a new Song and his praise in the Congregation of Saints Let Israel rejoice in him that made him let the Children of Zion be joyful in their King And all this is confirmed by the universal practice of Mankind who tho they differed in the Objects and Nature of their Worship yet all agreed in making their Worship publick and solemn and such an universal Consent is no less than the Voice of Nature Secondly Let us now consider what that Worship is which God himself instituted and ordained and I shall at present instance in the Jewish Worship which was typical also of the Christian. Now it is so evident that every part of the Jewish Worship which God commanded by Moses was of a publick Nature and to be performed in a publick manner
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you may become Christians and enter into our Society and truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ. And therefore the Sacrament of Baptism is our admission into the Christian Church that is gives a right to all the Priviledges of Christian Communion for we are baptized into one Body and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is expresly called the Communion it is that common Table which all Christians have a right to The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread It is essential to the nature of the Lord's Supper that it is a common Feast of which all Christians partake for it signifies not only our Union to Christ but our Union to one another in the same Body for which Reason the Reformed Churches universally condemn the private Masses of the Church of Rome where the Priest receives by himself and truly private Devotions when they thrust out publick Worship are much of the same nature So that the very Institution of a Church the Example of the Primitive Christians and those Sacraments of our Religion which our Saviour has instituted as the Badges of Christianity and the Conveyances of Spiritual Life and Grace may convince us how necessary Christian Communion and Publick Worship is if we will be the Disciples of Christ and we are expresly commanded by the Writer to the Hebrews Not to forsake the assembling of our selves together But we may consider farther that Christ has instituted an Evangelical Priesthood the publick Ministers of Religion whom he has commanded to instruct his Church to feed his Flock to pray for his People and to bless in his Name to whom he has committed the Power of the Keys to let in or to shut out of the Church Now what use could there be for publick Ministers unless publick Worship were a great and necessary Duty If it were so indifferent a thing whether Christians frequent the Religious Assemblies and continue in their Doctrine and Fellowship breaking Bread and Prayers it does not seem worth the while to have invested Men with such Power and Authority which is of so little use especially since Christianity is so much known and so far spread in the World whereas our Saviour promises to be with his Apostles unto the end of the World which could not be meant of the Persons of the Apostles for they are long since dead but of their Successors who retain their Office and Power as far as is necessary to the present state of the Church And the force of this Argument from the Apostolical Office will be better understood if we consider wherein the Power of the Keys consists which Christ committed to St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles or what is the true ancient Discipline of the Christian Church Now the Power of the Church which is truly Spiritual consists only in letting into the Church or shutting out The admission into the Church is by administring Baptism which they are made the external Judges of who are fit to be received into the Church by Baptism and who not shutting out of the Church is by exercising Censures upon Offenders which consists only in this in removing such Men from Christian Communion either in part or wholly for a time or for ever according to the severity of the ancient Discipline Some were not permitted to come into the Christian Assemblies but lay at the door lamenting their wickedness and begging their Prayers Others were admitted to publick Instructions but not to the Communion of Prayers or at least if they were admitted to the Prayers of the Catechumens those who were publickly instructed and catechised but not yet baptized were not allowed to be present at the Prayers of the Faithful Others were admitted to Prayers but not to the Supper of the Lord. Now all this supposes that Christian Communion is not only a necessary Duty but a great Priviledg since they had no other way of punishing Offenders but by denying them the liberty of Worship in their Assemblies but what would those Men value Church-Censures who make so slight of publick Worship as daily to excommunicate themselves Certainly these Men are greatly mistaken or else the very Office and Authority of an Apostle is a very inconsiderable thing and that dreadful Sentence of Excommunication which was so formidable in the Ancient Church is a very innocent and harmless thing since Men may as well worship God alone as in Christian Assemblies and that they might do when excommunicated or shut out of Christian Assemblies And I observe farther That our Saviour requires of us the publick profession of his Name and Worship which necessarily includes publick Worship Whosoever therefore shall confess me before Men him will I confess before my Father which is in Heaven but whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven To confess Christ is to own him for our Lord and Saviour not only in words tho too many such there are whom our Saviour will not own will not confess before his Father which is in Heaven but by paying him such publick Homage and Worship as is a visible demonstration that we do own him for our Lord. For thus to confess Christ signifies With the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation for whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved The Christian Church was to be a Visible Society like a City that is set on a Hill or like a Candle placed in a Candlestick to give light to all that are in the House But the Church can never be visibly distinguished from the rest of the World without the publick and visible exercise of Religion and therefore our Saviour exhorts his Disciples Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven which must refer to all parts of Religion and therefore includes Acts of Worship as well as Acts of Mercy and Charity To conclude this Argument It is the acknowledged Duty of a Christian Prince to take care to encourage and propagate true Religion in his Dominions which can never be done without encouraging publick Worship correcting publick Abuses and punishing the neglect or profanation of it for if Mens Religion be confined to their Closets no Man can possibly tell what Religion they are of they may be Pagans Mahometans Papists or Infidels and no Man the wiser if they can but keep their own counsel And therefore if it be the Duty of Magistrates to encourage and reform Religion and yet nothing can fall within his cognizance or under his care but what is publick it is easy to conclude That publick Worship which is the Care of
Sinners reasonably expect from God and much less challenge it as a right that he should redeem them from that state of Misery into which they had brought themselves by such an amazing stupendious and incomprehensible expression of his Love as the Incarnation and Death and Sufferings of his own Eternal only begotten and well-beloved Son Here is such a height and depth and length and breadth of the Love of God as passeth all Understanding this is Grace free Grace the Riches of Grace the abundant Riches of Grace And therefore this brings us under such Obligations of Love and Gratitude as infinitely excel all the Obligations of Natural Justice Now we are not our own but are bought with a price and therefore must glorify God both with our Bodies and Spirits which are God's We are now redeemed not with corruptible Things as Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as a Lamb without blemish and without spot who gave himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity and to purify to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works As the whole Oeconomy of Man's Salvation by Christ is the effect of meer Grace and Love so Gratitude is the only true Principle of Gospel-Obedience to serve God out of a prevailing sense of his Goodness to feel that constraining Love and Power of Christ's Love engaging us to live to him who died for us For those Men greatly mistake the Nature and Obligations of Gratitude who think that Gratitude leaves them at liberty to do or not to do it as they please whereas the Obligations of Gratitude especially in our present Case are infinitely more strong and forcible than those of Justice and the punishment of Ingratitude proportionably great For how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation if we refuse to hear him who spake from Heaven to us if we have troden under-foot the Son of God and counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith we were sanctified an unholy Thing and have done despite unto the Spirit of Grace Since then we are now under such powerful Obligations as the Love and Grace of God declared to us in the Gospel of his Son to love serve and worship him we should consider how unkind and ungrateful it is especially in those who call themselves Christians to slight or neglect the Worship of their God and Saviour certainly such Men cannot expect to be saved by Christ after all he has done and suffered for them when they will not thank him for it when they will not go to God in his Name As nothing is more infamous among Men so nothing does more provoke God than such rude Affronts of his Goodness to sin against the Grace of the Gospel and those surprising Discoveries and Manifestations of the Divine Goodness argue so brutish so diabolical a temper of mind such a perfect contrariety and contradiction to the Nature of God that such Men must naturally sink into the lowest Hell for those who have no sense of the Gospel-Grace who cannot be conquered nor affected with all the Charms of so powerful a Love are as incurable as Apostate Spirits Fourthly Another Aggravation of the Guilt of this Sin is That those who are baptized and professed Christians and I suppose I write to none else are under the Obligation of their Baptismal Vow to worship God and therefore to neglect his Worship is Perjury and breach of Covenant it is an Apostacy from Christianity though they still retain the Name of Christians And dost thou know what this is thou profane Wretch who thinkest it lost time to serve God who canst not spare so much time from worldly Cares or from thy Sports and Pleasure as to attend the Worship of God in the Assemblies of Christians Wast thou ever Baptized and dost thou know what the signification of Baptism is That thou art taken into Covenant with God and hast obliged thy self to serve and worship him that thou art incorporated into the Christian Church and therefore obliged to live in the Communion of the Church that is to frequent Christian Assemblies and to join in all the Parts and Offices of Religious Worship and art not thou afraid to deal falsely and treacherously with thy God For Vengeance is mine saith God I will repay it It is a dreadful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God To have our Portion with Hypocrites and Unbelievers signifies in the New Testament the greatest miseries of the next World Now as Unbelievers signifies such Infidels as obstinately refuse to believe the Gospel when it is fairly proposed to them So Hypocrites does not only signify as some Men mistake the word those who counterfeit Religion who make a fine external shew and appearance of Piety and Devotion when they are rotten at the Heart but it signifies those also who live contrary to their Profession who are suppose nominal and titular Christians who have been baptized in the Name of Christ and own his Religion as the Religion of their Country but live lewd and profligate lives make no Conscience of worshipping God nor ever think of saving their Souls These are the Men who are proposed as the Patterns and Examples of the severity of God's Judgments to deter any Man from imitating their wickedness lest they be punished with Hypocrites and Unbelievers Those who are baptized into the Christian Church into the Faith and Worship of Christ do not only forfeit all the Blessings of the Covenant by renouncing or contradicting their Baptismal Vow in an habitual course of a wicked and licentious Life but become obnoxious to all the Threatnings of the Gospel in their utmost severity which is a much worse state than the poor Heathens are in who never heard of Christ for they shall not be judged by the Gospel which was never preached to them and therefore shall not be condemned by the Gospel neither as St. Paul tells us That as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law and as many as sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law And by the same Reason we may add As many as have sinned in the Gospel shall be judged by the Gospel Now to perish without the Law signifies a much easier punishment than to be judged by the Law and to be judged by the Gospel signifies a great deal more than that for as God hath increased his Grace to Man-kind so he has always annexed severer Punishments to the abuse of it Thus our Saviour tells us It shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorah in the day of Iudgment than for Capernaum Sodom and Gomorah were as vile infamous Places as were in the World and God destroyed them by very memorable Judgments by raining Fire and Brimstone on them from Heaven but yet they never enjoyed those means of Grace which Capernaum did where our Saviour himself preached in Person and confirmed the Truth of his Doctrine by many mighty Works and therefore they should